12
TIIE 3IORMXG OREGOXIAX; FKIDAT, APKIIi 15, 1910.
Wl)t Bn$omm
POETLAAD. OKECON.
Entered at Portland. Oreaon. Postofflc. mM
Second-Class M&tt.r.
bubscription Kate Invariably In Advance-
(BY MAIL.. J
Dally. Sunday Included, on year. ... .$8.00
Xa!y, Sunday Included, six months... 4.23
rai!y, Sunday Included, three months.. 2.25
Uclly, Sunday Included, one month.... -75
IJally. without Sunday, one year..... 6.00
rjally. without Sunday, six months.... 8.25
Ublly. without Sunday, three months 1.75
Uaily, without Sunday, one month 60
Weekly, one year. ................... X.CO
Sunday, on year 2-50
Sucday and weekly, ons year. 8.&0
I By Carrlr.
Dally, Sunday Included, one year.
Daily, Sunday Included, one month.... .75
How to Remit Send Postofflce money
oruer, express order or personal check on
your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency
are at the sender's risk. Give postofflce ad
dress in full. Including; county and state.
I'ostace Kates 10 to 14 pages. 1 cent; 1
to 2d paKee, 2 cents; SO to 40 pages, S cents;
40 to 80 pases. 4 cents. Foreign pastas
double rate.
Eastern Business Office The S. C Beek
wlth special Agency New York, rooms 48
50 Tribune building. Chicago, rooms 510-513
Tribun. building.
FORTLAN'D, VKIOAV, APRIL 15, 1910.
"COXRC1ENCE" AS AX "ORACLE."
"Man's conscience 1b the oracle of
God," exclaims Byron In one of his
Impassioned moods. He was In Im
passioned mood -whenever he said any
thing worth quotation or remem
brance. The statement, however, requires
qualification. Man's conscience must
not bo Interpreted on any limited
scale. The individual or local con
science may not be the oracle of God;
probably Is not. But the conscience
of the race, in the long run. Is. Cer
tainly there is no sure revelation of
God but through the conscience of
man. So-called revelation, through
the operations of Nature, under fixed
and Inviolable physical laws, tends to
elimination of divinity, and to sugges
tion and confirmation of atheism.
These laws, in all their operations,
are rigorous and invariable. The hu
man mind is, however, a force of a dif
ferent kind. It hAs some power of
choice. Man can say yea or nay.
The individual may be greatly In er
ror; usually is. His conscience, there
fore, is not a sure guide. Still less
is it an "oracle." Here is an error
that must be rejected. Just as phil
ology was retarded for centuries by
the dogma that Hebrew was the par
ent of all human languages, so
ethical science now is hampered by the
Bssumptlon that its subject matter can
be found In the moral consciousness
of the individual alone. For that
moral consciousness is but the reflex
of particular social conditions, and
like them has a history that needs to
be traced. Nor has it, at any stage of
its development, exactly the. same
Ktatus as another moral . conscious
ness, under other skies, at other lati
tudes, in different environments, and
within different civilizations. Moral
phenomena vary as dialects vary, as
Bocial conditions vary. Polygamy once
was deemed moral, and among some
races or peoples is so deemed to this
day. Slavery was deemed moral, in
our own country, down to our own
time.
Man's conscience, after any one of
the problems of life and mind and soul
and spirit and morals, has been
fought out and brought to a land
ing place, where all accept it as final
truth, may be called the oracle of God.
Not till then. The conscience of the
individual alone, or of any particular
community, at any given time in his
tory, is a most unsure criterion, as a
moral or ethical guide, since the ten
dency of the individual or of the par
ticular community Is always to adjust
Its conscience to its interests, real or
supposed. Only the influence of a
wider world can break it down; and
this influence often can be supported
only through war and enforced with
arms. This, Indeed, is human his
tory, from the beginning till now.
Undoubtedly, In righting wrong,
great wrong, possibly greater, often
is done; but truth and right are re
sults, in the long run, of this jar of
opinions. A true moral conscience, or
consciousness, is arrived at in no
other way.
C.OOO KORTi:j"K IN A DISASTER.
The Santa Clara disaster belongs
In the same class with that of the
lucky Kentucky, which foundered on
the Atlantic Coast a few months ago
while en route to the Pacific. The
term "lucky" is used advisedly in
connection with both the Santa Clara
and the Kentucky, for it was fortu
nate indeed that there was no loss of
life in either disaster. The Santa Clara
was not (in old boat, but frequent
sinking spells and other mishaps in
northern waters had left her such a
"thing of shreds and patches" that it
is somewhat surprising that she has
kept afloat throughout the AVinter
storms. The Pacific Coast steamship
routes throughout the Winter and
Spring are favorite haunts for some
very severe storms, but rare indeed
do these gales reach a point of se
verity where a staunch, well-equipped
vessel cannot ride them out.
Unfortunately, for years a conslder-
. able number of the vessels on these
routes have been either cast-off craft
from the Atlantic or coast-built ves
sels that have outlived their useful
ness. Tho men who handle these ves
sels, through long famiarity with the
dangers of the ocean, acquire a con
tempt for Its power and its dangers,
and naturally take chances which
would make more timid individuals
hesitate. It was this foolhardinees
that cost the lives of nearly the en
tire crew of the steamer Czarina a
few months ago. It also cost the
lives of more than 100 people when
the steamship Columbia, rushing at
full speed through a fog when she
should have been proceeding with ut
most caution, was sent to the bottom
in collision.
From the reports at, hand regard
ing the Santa Clara disaster. It would
seem that the craft, weakened by her
former accidents, was driven over a
dangerous bar into a heavy sea,
which promptly wrenched and twisted
her into a sieve-like condition that
forced her passengers to take to the
boats In ordor to save their lives. The
old wooden ' steamers at their bM
could not stand the strain which a
well-built steel vessel would stand,
and the timid traveling public which,
either by inclination or necessity,
travel by water, will rejoice when the
last of these old hulks have been re
tired. The coastwise traffic In and out of
Portland is growing so rapidly that
the public is certainly entitled to a
better service than has been supplied
by vessels of the Santa Clara type.
The new Beaver and the Bear, which
will soon be on tho route, should be
immediately supplemented by a. suffi
cient number of good vessels to render
it impossible for ancient, unseaworthy
craft to secure any business.
REFORMING CONSERVATION.
Conservation is evidently a scheme
of reform that needs to be saved from
Its foolish friends. Great works and
oratory have been wrought in its
name, yet as a panacea for the Na
tion's land ills, it is found sorely lack
ing. The public Is learning from men of
practical knowledge and of scientific
study that conservation of water
sources does not need vast wilds of
forests; that forests may even dimin
ish flow of streams and impair Inter
ests of irrigation and power; that for
ests do not prevent floods and that their
cutting does not make droughts; that
conservation has stopped the opening
of new food-producing lands In forest
areas of the West; that it has largely
nullified state control of streams: that
in its name the greatest land frauds
of the Nation have been perpetrated
those of lieu lands; that It has set
up a devouring system of officialdom,
with swarms of officials,' who in time
threaten to consume more than they
will save; that the supposed charm
of its name has been laid hold of by
one set of officials and another and
also by groups of politicians, to wreak
vengeance on one another that, in
short, much of its doctrine is mis
taken and false and needs practical,
common -sense correction.
Conservation will be an effective,
permanent policy only on rational ba
sis. The process of working it down
to that basis is now in motion. That
is what makes its radical enthusiasts,
Its noisy editors and its Pinchots rail
and roar. But they are bound eventu
ally to accept facts and common-sense.
A MODEL. FOR AMERICANS.
The question is often asked, "How
shall we celebrate the Fourth of July
if we do away with the firecrackers
and toy pistols?" It indicates the de
gree of our subjection to the force of
bad habits that we can think of no
other way to commemorate the Na
tion's birth except by making a loud
and unintelligent noise.
Those who would like to do some
thing more human may find useful
suggestions in the celebration which
the ancient city of Chester, in Eng
land, has planned for July 18. It is
arranged In eight episodes, each of
which represents an event in the his
tory of the city. Three thousand per
sons take part In the pageant. Many
beautiful costumes will be worn. The
historical characters will be pictured
with reasonable fidelity and tableaux
of great complexity and splendor will
be shown. To plan such a celebration
requires more intelligence than to shoot
off a ton or two of firecrackers, but
on the other hand, the results are not
only enjoyable, but they are educative
and free from danger.
It does not speak well for the Amer
ican people that they seem unable to
arrange celebrations of this sort.
Other nations carry them out with un
bounded enthusiasm in the presence
of vast crowds of hilarious people,
but the only thing we can think of to
commemorate the greatest event in
modern hlsfory Is to set off bunches
of Chinese fireworks. If China never
had been diJOvered doubtless we
could not have celebrated the Fourth
of July at all.
L AN IMPORTANT CONVENTION.
A significant gathering, is the Open
River and -Freight Association now in
convention at Albany. Its delegates,
four hundred all told, are prominent
business men and agriculturalists from
the thriving cities and towns .and the
rich farming sections of the Willam
ette Valley. The name of the asso
ciation Indicates the purpose that has
brought its delegates together. Its
proceedings, reciting the conditions of
traffic as they affect the business and
agricultural prosperity of the large
section represented and the remedial
measures proposed, will be of general
interest. Its rallying cry will be, "Bet
ter transportation facilities on the
Willamette River and the better
freight rates will follow."
An open river Is the Willamette
Valley farmers' dream. It Is the dream
not less of the up-country merchant
and tradesman. It means rural, sub
rural and municipal advance up and
down and all along the river from
Eugene to Portland. It means a Fed
eral appropriation large enough to
compass this object by properly di
rected dredging and by devices to turn
and confine the waters of the Willam
ette Into navigable channels, and it
means a steam equipment adequate
and dependable for carrying non
perishable freight without unneces
sary delay from one end of the val
ley to the other from the producing
section to the final shipping points
for the wide and ever-widening mar
kets in' various directions. It means
Indirectly the abolishment of the 10
cent differential freight rate by rail
from Portland to Willamette River
points on Eastern shipments the de
mand for which was the direct cause
for the call of this convention. To
all of these things the people of the
Willamette Valley feel that they are
entitled and must have.
SPELLING MATCHES.
The county spelling matches which
Superintendent Belt of Yamhill County
has inaugurated may do something to
Btay the devastating course of the
spelling reformer. Under his baleful
influence It has become rather fash
ionable to be a bad speller. One who
writes "dow" for "dough"v may ex
cuse himself by saying that he is a
disciple of the phonetic method and
his accuser will be put to shame.
There is now a large and wicked band
of people In the country who delib
erately pledge themselves to spell cer
tain words d:fferently from the dic
tionary and they glory In their In
iquity. They unblushingly declare
that it is the dictionary which ought
to be ashamed, not they. Superin
tendent Belt's spelling matches will
help to show them up in their true
light. They will inspire the young
people of Yamhill County with a laud
able ambition to spell correctly, even
if few of them ever attain to perfec
tion in that difficult art.
d'.'bd spelling does not seem to be
so much a matter of reason or even
memory as a kind of visualization.
The person sees how the word ought
to lotk and he spells it so that it
will conform to his ideal.
In phonetic languages, when one
hears the sound of a word, he knows
at once how to spell it. That is not
the case in English. With us there
is seldom much relation between the
sound and the letters we select to
represent it. Many of our written
words are little, more than arbitrary
symbols of the idea like Chinese char
acters. Of course, it is very difficult
for children to master the spelling of
these arbitrary symbols. They obey
no rules and conform to no analogies.
It is said by pedagogues that with
phonetic spelling the time consumed
by children In learning to read and
spell would be diminished fully one
half. The German schoolboy, whose
language is fairly phonetic, is aa far
advanced in his studies at seven years
as our boys at eleven. Still the dif
ficulties of English orthography, great
as they are, can be overcome with pa
tience and such efforts as Superin
tendent Belt is making are in the
right direction.
MR, BRYAN CLAIMS VINDICATION.
Mr. Bryan rises to remark that his
course in 1896 is now fully vindi
cated. Events have established, he
says, the quantitative theory of
money, which he asserts was denied
by his opponents then.
That theory or principle was not de
nied. Prices always depend, to an
extent, on the quantity or volume of
money. Prices rose greatly after dis
covery and production of gold in
larger quantities In California and
Australia. What was denied in 18 96
was that a ratio could be established
upon which silver and gold could be
coined freely, and that the coinage
of the metals could be made to circu
late on equal terms. Bryan put the
ratio at 16 to 1. What was asserted,
and established by appeal to experi
ence, was that the dearer metal would
disappear and the cheaper metal be
come the sole standard. The country
was convinced that It coul-d not afford
to shift its money basis from gold to
a silver standard. -
Moreover, it was contended that
there was gold enough, and would be
gold enough, in the world to answer
the purposes of a single gold stand
ard, and that this standard was de
sirable because of Its uniformity in the
cemmerce of the world. All this has
rroven true.
Some now think there is too much
gold, and that this is a source or cause
of high prices. Others think higher
prices have come from a multitude of
causes operating together. Moreover,
that prices are not too high.-
During the past ten years there has,
indeed, been very great Increase of the
production of gold. It has been a
cause, undoubtedly, of the great ex
pansion of industry and commerce.
There is money metal enough, without
silver, as a primary money metal. But
there is and always will be very large
use of silver as token and subsidiary
money. This was pointed out at all
times by advocates of the go'td stand
ard. t
New processes of treating ores have
brought out gold, during the past ten
years. In unusual quantities. Such
increase of gold production com
pletely vindicates the advocates of the
single gold standard. If Mr. Bryan
thinks he is vindicated, no one can
grudge him the satisfaction.
Increase of gold production, as pre
dicted in 1896, will continue. By the
new methods of working low grade
and refractory ores the world's pro
duction of gold has been Increased
even beyond expectation. It doesn't
vindicate Mr. Bryan's prediction, how
ever, nor establish his theory, but the
reverse. Prices, he insisted, would
always be low, under a single gold
standard. His party now seems to be
about to make its appeal to the coun
try, on the ground that the gold stand
ard makes prices too high. Will it
then propose free coinage of silver, so
as to dethrone gold, as a remedy for
high prices?
"rXHAPTT" AMERICANS.
Is it true, as declared by Professor
Albion W. Small, of Chicago University,
that "modern Americans are the most
unhappy people who have ever lived
upon the face of the earth"? Is it
further true that this is because "we
are the most prosperous people, the
freest people and the most highly ed
ucated"? Memory running back three
score years and more seems, at a
cursory glance, to Justify this pre
sentment. "The good old days." as
we are wont to call them, stalked by
the ghost of lost youth, stand out in
the glamour of their far-away sim
plicity as care free and happy, by con
trast with the heavy responsibility of
prosperity which wearies and makes
unhappy the modern American, seek
ing to keep up a modern home and
acquire wealth through modern busi
ness methods. Irking at these ac
companiments of prosperity we are
at times prone to Join In the refrain:
Backward, turn backward, oh Time, In
your night.
unmindful for the moment of the
Slough of Despond into which rank
and file would be plunged to the neck,
were the wish expressed in the doleful
words of our plaint granted.
Backward? - Let us see. In the
foreground of the picture, if the scene
Is laid in the Middle West) is a log
cabin; if in New England, an un
painted, weather-beaten frame build
ing with small-paned windows and low
dark walls. The thud of the hand
loom and the subdued buzz of the
spinning wheel Join with voices of
children in confined space, quarreling
or at play, are the sounds borne down
across the years. The fare is frugal
and coarse: the children flock to the
"second table," having waited, 111 con
tent and clamorous, while their elders
consumed the best of everything in
sight. Flickering tallow candles,
weeping great, greasy tears that co
agulated on one side of the iron
candlestick because of the draft that
came in through the cracks about the
loosely-fitting door or the bleak wind
ward side of the house, served to liglft
the breakfast and supper table in
Winter.
There was literally no provision
made for the comfort of the house
hold beyond the barest needs of
shelter, warmth and food; none was
possible under . the hard conditions
that prevailed. Would a return to
these conditions, and the thousand and
one details of everyday life of which
they were a part, insure ease and tran
quillity, the loss of which is so
plaintively and universally deplored?
Of course, everybody knows that it
would not. Nor is It true that the
American people are less happy today
than were their forebears, or that
their responsibilities are greater than
those of the men and women who
toiled from daylight until dark that
they might compass the necessities of
life for themselves and their families.
"My mother was the most hard
worked person that I ever knew," said
a gray-haired woman, speaking of the
"good old times," recently. After a
moment's reflection she added: "ex
cept my father, and he was much bet
ter able to work than she was, and his
strength was not so heavily taxed.
She died at 40, the mother of twelve
children, without having abated a
single year the heavy labors that fell
to her lot: he, in that the man's part
In the programme of life as played
upon the stage of the 'good old days'
was not so heavy, lived to be 75,
though his later years were full of
suffering from rheumatism, due to ex
posure to the weather in his early
battle for a livelihood and from dys
pepsia due to the hog and hominy
diet of his early years."
"Then," she continued In remlnls
cent strain, "there were the little
graves in the' pasture lot, the sick
nesses and the doctor's bills, which to
do their best toward paying always
hung over the family and were a
weight upon the poor resources of our
parents. Good old days? Would I re
turn to them? Oh, no Indeed, these
days are good enough for me."
This Is not a statement of fancy.
It Is that of bare and bitter fact as
worke'd out In the dawn of American
civilization in hundreds of hpmes and
In thousands of lives. To assume that
Intelligent people were happier in
those days than they are now is to
libel the common sense or to fall ut
terly to appreciate the self-denying ef
forts of those who laid in the wilder
ness the foundation of our prosperity
as a people and a Nation. Americans
the most unhappy people in the
world? . Then, indeed.' they are the
most unappreciative and ungrateful.
The magical call of "wireless" has
again saved a shipload of people. So
important a feature of modern naviga
tion has this new agency for summon
ing help become that its efficiency and
value are demonstrated on all kinds
of craft from the magnificent liners
like the Republic to dilapidated hulks
like the Santa Clara. No other form
of death fills and thrills the people
with horror and causes more poig
nant, life-long grief, than death by
shipwreck. Measured from this stand
ard, the name of Marconi, the original
inventor of wireless telegraphy, will
live through all history as one of the
greatest benefactors of mankind. It is
impossible to estimate the vast number
of lives that might have been saved
In shipwreck had wireless telegraphy
appeared a century earller.1 It Is
equally Impossible to estimate the
number that will be saved by its uni
versal use on shls of the present and
the future. '
A substantial increase is announced
in the wages of 225,000 employes of
the subsidiary companies of the Steel
Trust. The advance will recome ef
fective May 1 and will amount to
about 9, 000, 000 per year. Before we
offer up, for their generosity to the
workfngman, any thanks to the Car
negles, Coreys, Schwabs and other dis
tributors of largesse to libraries and
chorus ladies, it will be well to note
that even the Steel Trust expects the
consuming public to continue the prac
tice of keeping the dividends fat. With
this billion-dollar trust paying greater
profits than any other organized In
dustry that the world ever saw, there
is not much danger .of any serious in
convenience by distributing a few mil
lions of dollars among the employes
especially as the consumer -will be
called on to make up the slight in
crease several times over.
The wife of a Colorado laundryman
has discovered that she Is heiress to
an Immensely wealthy estate in the
Island of Martinique, and incidentally
a princess of royal blood. This ought
to admit of a matrimonial transaction
in which all the money could be kept
at home. So many daughters of
miners are obliged to go abroad to
purchase royal husbands, that there is
an economic waste in the proceeding.
If the wife of the laundryman is of
royal blood, the children ought to be
eligible to enough of the title to make
them attractive catches for those who
like to fawn at the feet of royalty,
even when.it Is-a little off color.
A Chicago lawyer was obliged to sue
to recover a fee of $5000 for advising
a woman that It would be legal to
marry on his death bed a man worth
$350,000. While marriageable women
are less plentiful in the West than
they are in Chicago, there are quite
a number who might be picked up
who would enter no serious objection
to paying a $8000 fee for advice which
would enable them to land a $350,000
husband, although he did not feel very
well.
Taft's Administration is making
good. There is steady economy of ex
penditure. Increasing revenues and a
general industrial prosperity. But, in
deed, what does all that come to?
We don't want contentment and satis
faction; or, if we have them, we want
something else. .
If you are "a little, round, fat man,"
you must not carry five thousand In
coin with you, for one of Mr. Burns'
hirelings might catch you and return
the money to the safety deposit vault.
This is part of a romance In real life.
California is improving in spots.
Regents of the Berkeley institution say
the panel figures at the entrance, four
men and four women, must be draped
or removed. Their nudity is too much
altogether.
Gifford Pinchot got kicked out of
office and hied to the Big Boss in
Italy to tell about It. It was supposed
the new style of politics' had put the
ban on appealing to the boss.
One fact in connection with the
much-talked-about oTl fields near Vale
is the number of Seattle men locating
there. If they do not strike oil, they
will strike something.
Prices are too high and everybody
is too prosperous. Therefore, let us
change the policy and the adminis
tration, and get back to first and sim
ple principles.
Again announcement is made that
delinquent contractors will be fined.
That is evidently a mistake In tense.
They will be found, as usual.
Miss Elklns' Duke Abruzzl called on
Roosevelt and went away smiling. T.
R. probably told him "Faint heart
ne'r won fair lady."
A fifteen-story passenger station is
to be erected in St. Louis, probably to
exchange traffic with aerial lines."
Democrats think their outlook very
bright. But they should wait until
Bryan comes home.
The census taker minds his own
business when, he asks leading questions.
POOR OLD AEW YORK'S FLAT LIFE
Slaceretjt Sympathy Offered B) y m Live
Paper of Mlaaourt.
Kansas City Post.
FOR RENT Suites of 14 rooms and five
baths to suites of 34 rooms and nine baths.
Rental S6500 to S12.000.
Have you ever seen one of those $13,000-a-year
flats?
The buildings are 13 stories high, and
the apartments are arranged so that
there are only one or two on a floor.
2ach apartment is equipped with vacu
um cleaners, dressing-rooms, millinery
closets, plate-glass shelves. Individual
wine vaults, cedar-lined closets, and every
earthly and unearthly thing ever Invent
ed to make of a woman a useless para
site and of a man a restless, discontented
Sybarite.
There is a man in livery to open the
big front door. A man in livery to run
the magnificent elevator. There are serv
ants' quarters up under the roof and
there's an individual automobile garage
in the basement for every individual flat.
What would you take to have to give up
your home your real home, with a yard
for the baby to play In, and a porch for
the dog to consider his bailiwick, and
room enough on the hearthstone for the
old gray cat, and a place up In the garret
to hang your old fishing pole, and a cor
ner in the. basement to put the littlest
boy's sled and the biggest girl's roller
skates? S
For Rent Suites of 14 rooms and five
baths. Rentals, $6300 to $12,000.
For Rent An empty heart.
For Rent Ad vacant brain.
For Rent An idle life.
Keep your $12,000-a-year flat. New York.
Build all of -them you want. Set them up
in rows along Riverside Drive as a light
hearted child sets up his blocks along the
ledge of his nursery window.
Fill up your apartment houses, your
$12,000-a-yeax flats, with $12,000-a-year peo
ple. Pack "em in, crowd 'em In, push 'em in,
60 deep if you have to, 100 deep if you
must. They're nothing but coops, those
big flats, anyway. Keep them in your
own yard, poor, little old New York.
We don't want 'em out West, where the
real people live the real people who'd
rather have a little four-room cottage
with a yard and an old walnut tree at the
corner of the house, and a rosy face at
the window, than all the $12,000-a-year
flats In the world.
PROPOSE TO TAX BILLBOARDS.
New York State Seeks Revenue From
Profitable Property.
Fourth Estate.
A measure for the assessing of bill
boards Is now before the New York
Legislature for consideration. The
father of the bill is Sanford W. Ab
bey, who claims that billboards should
be assessed and taxed just as any other
structures of the state are taxed. The
passage of the bill would mean a ma
terial Increase of the assessed valua
tion of properties of state and at the
same time, it is held, have a powerful
effect in regulating billboards and oth
er outdoor advertising-. The assess
ment would be upon t ie real property
upon which the billboards stand.
The bill represents a new departure
in billboard legislation. It does not
aim directly at the abatement of the
alleged nuisance, but is held to be a
perfectly fair and sensible procedure
to class billboard structures with other
buildings, and thereby make them sub
ject to assessment and taxation. The
American Civic Federation, which has
been making a National campaign from
its headquarters in Washington against
the billboard as a menace to civic art,
health and morals, has been urging the
passage of the New York State bill.
At a hearing of a delegation urging
the passage of the bill, before a com
mittee from the Assembly a few days
ago, J. Horace McFarland, of Harris
burg, Pa., president of the American
Civic Association, urged the passage
of the measure.
The bill in substance provides that
any property on which public adver
tisements are shown by billboards or
otherwise shall be assessed at $20 a
square foot of billboard In cities of
the first class, $16 in cities of the sec
ond class and $10 elsewhere, in addi
tion to the regular assessment.
Ed Howe's Philosophy.
Atchison Globe.
Credit, and not women, ruins most
men.
If you are downhearted, it's your stom
ach.
They all claim it, but no man is over
worked. Some people have Spring fever all the
year round.
The trouble Is a love affair cannot be
settled by a primary election.
It is all right to admire women, but not
to the exclusion of everything else.
Be frugal and thrifty, arid save up your
money until a good agent comes along.
A boy will get everything you promise
him, and as much more as possible.
If you expect your friends to fight your
battles, you are apt to get whipped.
A laundryman is no coward for run
ning away when he fades a woman's
shirtwaist.
When it doesn't rain on picnics In Kan
sas, times are so hard that there are no
picnics.
If the-Day After goes hard with you,
it Is a pretty good hint that you shouldn't
dissipate.
Treat your neighbors well; they can
always cause you trouble by saying you
beat your wife.
A pessimist observes that an early
Spring also means that much longer to
operate the lawn mower.
Orlsln of 'Bull Cos."
"Bull con," a slang phrase which means
to flatter, to praise with ulterior motives,
had Its origin in the West years ago.
When the gold brick game was started
the bunko men sprang a fine, high-sounding
combination of words upon the sim
ple farmers. They called it an invest
ment in "bullion consolidated." Years
after the words were cut down to "bull
con," and came to mean any graft that
depended upon the gift of gab.
Life Too Short to Forget.
Atchison Globe.
There isn't anything in the theory that
children will grow up to be grateful for
the whippings they get; this is a fairly
healthful country, but people don't live
long enough for that.
. Fiercest of Them All.
New York World.
For Columbia, the lion; for Yale, the
bulldog; for Princeton, the tiger; for
Harvard well, what s the matter with
taking Roosevelt?
About the Worst Ever.
Atlanta Journal
President Taft thinks he has a hard
job, but he ought to umpire the next
world's series games.
POLITICAL COMMENT.
Perhaps Mr. Bryan has vividly In memory
certain doings at and after tho Madison
Square meeting when tin requests that hi
home-coming this time be private. Atlanta
Constitution-
William Jennings Bryan cays he want no
ovation when he returns from South Amer
ica. Now. who do you suppose it was tipped
oft to him that a popular uprising is Im
minent ? St. Paul Pioneer Press.
It is related that when Hannibal was
at the prates of Rome a farm outside the
walls was sold at 'the usual price. The
probability is that property In Milwaukee
will undergo no diminution In value be
cause of this socialist invasion. Philadelphia
Record.
Pome of the most prominent of Baltimore
Democrats are appealing; to Governor
Crothers to withhold his assent from the
Digues bills, which provide for the dis
franchising of negroes on a basis of open
defiance of the 15th amendment. A depu
tation is to wait on the Governor to urge
upon him the objections to the bills. New
York Evening Post.
RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE IS INVIOLABLE
Supreme Court of Nebraska I' p holds Right of Convention to Nominate. In
dorse or Recommend Candidate, on the Ground That It la Their Consti
tutional Prtvtlesje Here Is a Case Directly Applicable to Orcvon.
PORTLAND, April 13. To tho Kdi- ,
tor.) It has been repeatedly charged
by- those who are opposed to the assem
bly plan that the assembly would be
Illegal and in violation of the law be
cause the law states in substance that
no person shall be nominated in any
other' way except under the operation
of the direct primary. Of course the
plain answer to this is that an indorse
ment by an assembly is not a nomina
tion, but only a recommendation to the
voters of the particular party. With
reference to the legality or illegality of
a law of this kind, however, the recent
case of Ragan versus J unit in. In tho
Supreme Court of Nebraska, reported
In 122 Northwestern Reporter, 473, Is
quite Interesting: and Instructive.
The Legislature of Nebraska passed
law with reference to candidates for
judicial and educational offices that
they should not -be "nominated. In
dorsed, recommended, censured, crit
icised or referred to in any manner
by any political party or any political
convention or primary or at any pri
mary election." In other words, the
Legislature of Nebraska put into the
act the language which the opponents
of the Assembly wish to Inter or con
strue into our direct primary law. Our
law has no such language, but it is
contended it should be construed sub
stantially as If it contained similar
language. After the passage of this
act there was a Supreme Judge to be
elected, and Ragan was recommended
by an assembly or convention. The
Secretary of State (JunKin) refused to
place his name upon the official bal
lot, because it would be a violation of
the primary law above referred to. 'The
lower court held that the law was void
as being in violation of the Constitu
tion of Nebraska, and the matter was
taken to the Supreme Court. The
Court, in Its opinion, quotes from the
constitution of Nebraska, as follows:
Every person may freely speak, write and
publish on all subjects, being responsible for
the abuse of that liberty.
This is the same in substance as Sec
tion 8 of Article I of the Constitution
of Oregon. .
And again:
The right of the people peaceably to as
semble to consult for the common good and
to petition the government, or any depart
ment thereof, shall never be abridged.
This is substantially the same as
Section 26 of Article I of the Constitu
tion of Oregon, and of the first an.end
ment to the Constitution of the United
States.
The Court then adds:
The first provision quoted protects every
person in his right to speak, write and pub
lish on all subjects, and the next permits
him 'to ascsembie with others to consult for
the common good. A political meeting or
convention Is an "assemblage" within the
meaning of .the constitutional provision that
the right of the people to assemble and con
sult for the common good shall never be
abridged. The right of a citizen to speak,
write and publish on all subjects does not
terminate when he enter a political conven
tion or assembly. With good motives and
for Justifiable ends the members of such a
body may Jointly Bpeak and publish the
truth about candidates for office, and this
right extends to aspirants for judicial and
educational offices. . . . Delegates and
members of political organisations not only
BRITAIN'S FINANCIAL STRENGTH.
Never So Great as It Is Today; Biff Ad
vance In Foreign Investment.
Frederic Austin Ogg in Review of
Reviews.
If, however, the problems are big, the
resources of brain and brawn and purse
are seemingly inexhaustible. In recent
years there has been a good deal of
foolish talk, about the supposed decad
ence of Britain. Not a few Englishmen
have themselves fallen into grave
doubts on the subject. As a matter of
fact, the nation never possessed ele
ments of strength equal to those of to
day. A population of 20,000.000 in 1815
has increased to one of 44,000,000. In
1815 the nation's accumulated wealth i
was under 3,000,000,000; as late as I
1845 it was only 4,000,000,000; in 1882, .
according to Mulhall, it was 8,720,000,
000; today it is variously estimated at
from 12,000,000,000 to 15,000,000,000.
The yearly addition to this 'accumu
lated wealth in 1815 was 60,000,000;
today it Is 300,000,000, or six times as
much. 1
The total foreign investment of Brit
ish subjects, almost a negligible quan
tity a hundred years ago, is now esti
mated at 2,700.000,000, upon which j
there is an annual income or not less
than 140,000,000. During the past six
years the placement of British capital
in foreign countries, largely suspended
during the previous decade, has been
resumed on a stupendous scale, greatly
to the Improvement of foreign trade
and distinctly to the encouragement
of public and private thrift. At least
a hundred millions were invested
abroad In 1908, and approximately the
same amount in 1909. These are merely
a few of the more obvious evidences
of the financial power of 'he nation.
Of the ultimate ability of the British
people to support a government twice
as lavish as any yet on record there
can be not the remotest doubt. Assum
ing that the principles of reasonable
economy are to prevail, the vne tower
ing question is as to how the publio
burden may best be adjusted so that
the 15 per cent of the population which
receives 50 per cent of the national
income and possesses more than 90
per cent of the nation's aggregate
wealth may be made to bear its Just
share.
German Army Strength.
Century.
Germany can assemble an army of
more than 1,000.000 soldiers, ready, literal
ly speaking, to the last button, at any
point along her b&rders, in less than a
week. Not drilling, courage, patriotism,
intelligence, and military spirit alone
give the German army the formidable
strength it possesses, but also the pains
taking labor that shirks no effort, and
recognizes the value of the smallest de
tail. And in this work the general staff,
the war department, and, in fact, every
officer, is engaged year after year, rest
lessly trying to improve what- appears
perfect, always on the lookout for the
chance of saving half an hour of the
time required for the mobilization of the
army, and always following the- maxim
of the great Moltke: "Only by striving
for the impossible may we attain the pos
sible." Why She Advertised.
Atlanta Constitution.
The Belleville man who got a wife
through an advertisement and has been
"against the power of the press" ever
since, will be interested in this adver
tisement from a Missouri paper:
"Attractive woman, not a day over 30,
would be pleased to correspond with
eligible man. Not absolutely necessary
that he should be young. Would prefer
one with property, but one with a good
paying position would be satisfactory.
The young lady Is of medium height, has
brown hair and gray eyes; not fat, al
though most decidedly she is not skinny.
Her friends say she is a fine looking
take with them Into their party councils the
Inalienable right to speak, write and publish
on all subjects, but the full benefit of this
privilege can only be obtained by united
action. Political parties sure the great mov
ing forces In the administration of public
affairs and their influence In elections can
not be eliminated by the legislature as long
as the right to assemble and apeak the truth
remains in the charter of our liberties. Pub
lished criticisms of candidate, officers and
policies are potent factor In the struggle
for civic virtue and cannot be suppressed Toy
legislative enactment. The privilege of
speaking and publishing the truth with good
motives and for Justifiable end was not in
serted In the Bill of Rights by accident. The
doctrine that the truth as to a man's eon
duct Is no Justification for publishing It In
the press originated in the Star Chamber
and was In high favor in that tribunal when
printing became an effective means of dis
seminating what honest men said about
the abuses of official power and the conduct
and policies of public men. The hostility to
such a restriction of free speech and of a
free press resulted in the adoption of Sec
tion 5 of the Bill of Rights. The nonparti
san Judiciary set U void In so far a it de
clare that candidates for judicial and edu
cational offices shall not be nominated, in
dorsed, recommended, censured, criticised or
referred to In any manner by any political
party or any political convention or primary
or at any primary election.
The Court goes on then to hold that
this part of the act Is so closely in
terwoven with the remainder of it that
it cannot be separated and conse
quently the whole act is void.
The Supreme Court of Nebraska con
sists of seven judges. One of them
was not present and took no part in
the hearing. Four of the judges
agreed to the opinion Just, quoted.
Judge Dean dissented from the major
ity opinion upon the ground that the
constitutional question was not dis
cussed in the brief of the relator, and
upon the further ground that a part
of the act could be saved by separat
ing the part held to be unconstitu
tional from the remainder. ' Judge Let
ton also dissented upon the latter
ground, but agreed with the remainder
in holding prohibition against assem
blies to be unconstitutional.
He said:
So far as the prohibition of free speech by
citizens assembled together In conventions
Is concerned, this provision of the act la
clearly and manifestly void. Its enforcrftnent
in this respect would be an assault of the
gravest and most heinous character upon the
liberty of the citizen, and one that no free '
people would long endure. It Is opposed to
that spirit of liberty which Is our dearest
heritage, and which should be most Jealous
ly conserved and strongly defended by leg
islatures, courts and private citizen alike.
The Supreme Court of Nebraska is
made up of Judges from both political .
parties, and it- will be seen from the
foregoing that the six judges who
heard this case are practically unanim
ous In the opinion that any act which
undertakes to prevent people from as
sembling together for the purpose of
suggesting or recommending candi
dates is In violation of the constitu
tion of the state.
The direct primary law In Oregon
does not in Its language undertake to
prohibit such meetings, but it is argued
by the opponents of the Assembly that
it intended to do so. But whether It
did or did not. upon the authority of
the Supreme Court of Nebraska, would
make no difference, and the reasoning
of the Court seems to be unanswer
able. S. B. HUSTON.
woman. Object matrimony. Reason for
this advertisement, the young woman
lives in a little dinky town, where the
best catches are the boys behind the
counters in the dry goods and clothing
stores, and everyone of them Is spoken
for by the time he is out of short
'pants.
The Rest Was Silence.
Punch.
"Why do they say, 'As smart as a steel
trapr " asked the talkative boarder. "I
never could see anything particularly
intellectual about a steel trap."
"A steel trap is called smart," ex
plained the elderly person, in his sweet
est voice, "because It knows exactly the
right time to shut up."
More might have been said, but in the
circumstances it would have seemed un
fitting. His Ultimatum.
Detroit Free press.
"If you want to move, all right. But
there's one thing I want understood
right now."
"What's that?"
"That if we do move. I'm not going
to ride through the streets of this- town
on the moving van -juggling an onyx
clock and a bird cage."
In the Magazine
Section of the
Sunday
Oregonian
S TIERING DAYS WITH
OLD CHIEF JOSEPH
Early settlement of Wallowa
Valley, when the Indians, under
able leadership, fought the whites
for possession, as told by a pioneer
participant.
LAYING THE RAILS
UP DESCHUTES CANYON
One road will soon operate trains
for 32 miles, and the other only a
short -distance in the rear.
MEN WHO CONTROL
THE NATION'S MONEY
Leaders behind the 11,000 al
lied American banks, with stupen
dous assets of $14,000,000,000.
WHEN JEFFRIES RESOLVED
TO BE WORLD'S CHAMPION
The undefeated heavyweight
tells how he made up his mind to
whip Fitzsimmons and Corbett
after their fight. ,
OBADIAH OLD "WAY AT THE
SALEM HORSE SHOW
With varied comment by the
Hoaxville philosopher on its so
cial, gustatorial and religious
phases.
ORDER EARLY FROM YOUR
NEWSDEALER