10
T1TE MOKXLXG- ORKGOXIAN, THURSDAY, JAXUARY
1913.
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rOKTlAXD. THURSDAY, JAN. 2, 1913.
JfO SECRETARY FROM THE WEST.
President-elect Wilson Is reported to
have said that he will not appoint a
Secretary of the Interior from any of
the) "public-land" states, and the re
spective candidacies of many eminent
gentlemen who live within the shad
ows of the Rocky Mountains or the
sounds of -the pellucid Pacific would
appear to tie futile. The Oregonian is
not surprised; for it has had no doubt
that the President-elect has had con
jured up for his delectation on all oc
casions the ghost of the Ballinger epl
sode; and It has no doubt also that
the theoretical conservationists of the
landless East and the treeless Middle
West have flooded him T.-ith their per.
sistent demands to save the public do
main and the free water powers from
the despoilers and grabbers of the
uncouth West. Any Secretary of the
Interior from the West would be sub
jected at once to the calumnies and
Intrigues of the Plnchots, the Garfields
and the Glavises and other champions
of unborn generations and foes of the
present generation, unless he should
at once make it known that he is in
harmony with their extreme theories
and starvation practices.
What true eon of the Westould say
or do aught, in the Cabinet, but oppose
the schemes that have turned over the
forests to their primitive solitudes
and stigmatized the honest settler
upon the reserves as a vagabond
squatter and gun-using rreeDooter?
Hoar could he, with his knowledge of
practical conditions, accept the prac
tices of sloth, neglect and incompe
tence that have marred the record of
the reclamation service and made
paupers of hundreds who have in good
faith sought to erect homes upon ir
rigated tracts? How could he stand
idly by and see the streams and the
waterfalls assigned to dreary non-use
and scenic stagnation while private
capital is discouraged and public en
terprise Is smothered? How could he
be silent when the upright motives of
a great body of worthy homesteaders
are attacked, and every frivolous tech
nicality and petty objection is inter
posed before their honest endeavor to
get honest title to public land honestly
claimed and honestly cultivated?
How could he fall in with the greedy
assumption that the states have no
greater interest in the public lands
and forests within their borders than
the other states which have squan
dered their patrimony?.
Yet the people of the West have a
right to suppose that a. President
elected on. the Baltimore platform of
1918 will understand that the public
domain is for present use and develop,
ment, not for sequestration, and that
a. practical conservation' not an ex
perimental or theoretical conserva
tion -is the true policy to be adopted.
The Democratic platform has an ex
tended discussion of the great subject,
of conservation, and it makes declara
tions hostile to the ultra-Plnchot view,
and friendly to the contentions and
deserts of the people on the land. Says
the platform:
The public domain should be administered
and disposed of with due regard to the
public welfare. Reservations should be
limited to the purposes which they purport
to serve, and not extended to include land
wholly unsulted therefor. The unnecessary
withdrawal frum sale and settlement of
enormous tracts of public land upon which
tree growth never existed and cannot oe
promoted tends only to retard development,
create discontent and bring reproach upon
the policy of conservation.
Clearly the platform intended thus
to rebuke the bureaucrats who have
tied up the public domain in a maze
of red tape and made the deserving
settler all but an outcast and a wan
derer. The cause of the homesteader
Is Indeed expressly favored by another
clause in the platform, which declares
that the "laws should be adminis
tered in a spirit of the broadest liber
ality toward the settler exhibiting a
bona fide purpose to comply there
with." Clearly, too, it was intended
that the public domain be "disposed
of and not held as a mere demesne
tor an unappreeiative posterity.
Somewhere President-elect Wilson
has expressed his sympathy with the
isolated and friendless situation of
Alaska, and has declared that the need
of legislation designed to encourage
the legitimate development of that
great territory ought to be immediate
ly recognized and fulfilled. But the
Democratic platform seems to have
spared him the necessity of formulat
ing any new or strange doctrine on
conservation for the inhabitant of the ;
great states of the West. He knows,
or he ought to know, what his party
desires; and he knows, or he ought to
know, that the way to develop the
treeless areas of the country is to en
courage their settlement and cultiva
tion; and the way to conserve the
water powers is to dedicate them to
industry; and the way to utilize the
forests is to fell their mature timber
and inaugurate a wise policy of re
forestation; and the true way to
make the public lands, the forest re
serves and the waterfalls all together
beneficial to posterity is to make them
useful to the present generation.
EXPERIMENTS IN REFORMATION.
Cincinnati has a judge who will try
a new experiment in the reformation
of women following the oldest pro
fession. Fifty denizens of the half
world were brought before him that
the majesty of the offended law might
ba vindicated. "I do not want your
money," said the judge; and he pro
posed a scheme by which the unhappy
defendants might work out their sal
vation. All were to attend church
once each Sunday for four weeks be
fors February 11, and on that date he
would determine what to do with
them. "Meantime," said the judge,
"make an honest effort to readjust
your affairs."
Probably the judge believed that the
presence of these women in church
would do them good and make possi
ble associations that would lead them
into a different environment and dif
ferent lives. Much depends, on the
church. Yet, if a woman of that
stripe were well known, or if the
marks of her occupation were plain
from her appearance and demeanor, it
may be fancied that some congrega
tions would evacuate Just as soon as
she entered the door. The reforma
tion of such a woman must take place
necessarily in the closet, or out of the
public view, and not in the temples
or on the streets.
The Judge, or the benefactor, who
finds a quiet home for a scarlet wom
an, or a friend who will help her to a
clean life and a decent livelihood, and
a chance for a respectable marriage
after due probation, will do vastly
more for her benefit than one who
sentences her to serve time in a place
of public worship.
REWARDING OVR CANAL BUILDERS.
Now that the Panama Canal is
about completed, Colonel Goethals is
receiving widespread commendation
for his excellent service. Bills are be
fore Congress providing handsomely
for the guildlng genius of this greatest
of engineering feats. "It is well that
he be made a Major-General and given
other emoluments, for his compensa
tion as a Colonel has been .wholly out
of proportion to the magnificence of
his service.
But in this movement the American
people bid fair to overlook a person
ality of equal importance in the Pan
ama Canal miracle. That personality
is the chief sanitary officer, Colonel
Gorgas. Without the splendid genius
of Colonel Gorgas the Panama Canal
could not have been built. Death had
entrenched itself in a thousand insid
ious and hidden forms throughout the
Canal Zone. Before the advent of
Colonel Gorgas it was more unsafe to
venture into the district than to walk
ooldly onto the firing line in a great
modern engagement. It became the
herculean task of Colonel Gorgas to
drive out the most virulent of diseases
and do away with their most fertile
and prolific breeding places. '
The problems this' man had to face
were no less stupendous than those
of an engineering and executive order.
Further than that, they were new
problems such as required the most
fertile resources, whereas the engi
neering problems lay mostly along
trails long beaten by experience.
Colonel Gorgas did more than the
mere task assigned him. He trans
formed the very habitat of death and
tropical disease to a district of model
sanitation and wholesomeness. He
had not one foe, but a thousand foes
of mankind to vanquish. No general
on the line ever did more brilliant,
more heroic or more valuable service.
In the light of these things we
should not follow an inclination to
shower the rewards on one man.
Colonel Goethals, as the executive
head, doubtless will receive the lion's
share of the credit for a task the like
of which the world never before has
witnessed. But there is glory enough
for both and the merits of the case
demand that this glory be divided.
DR. JORDAN AND THE GENEALOGISTS.
Most men make dunces of them
selves occasionally, eminent men of
science as well as others. Eugenics
seems to have presented the learned
and able Dr. David Starr Jordan with
an opportunity to show that he is not
exempt from human frailty. Perhaps
it is the mental malady commonly
called "the bighead," perhaps it is
some other inward affliction, that has
caused him to fill his latest book with
nonsense. Whatever the reason for it
may be, the nonsense seems to be there
and its measure is so full that whoever
runs may read it. His new book.
called "The Ideal Eugenics," sets out
to prove that Just about everybody of
any consequence in the United States
is descended from a certain Isabel de
Vermandois, a lady of malodorous
memory, who lived a long time ago.
Her family includes at this date, if we
may believe Dr. Jordan, not only that
gentleman himself, as a matter of
course, but John D. Rockefeller, J. P.
Morgan, Roosevelt, Astor, Washington,
Jefferson, Lincoln and a host more.
Truly a heterogeneous assemblage.
The inclusion of so many persons of
the most various origins in a single
strain of heredity speaks more em
phatically for Dr. Jordan's imagina
tion than for his common sense. He
seems to have reached a pinnacle of
self-esteem where he thinks he may
say anything and still be taken seri
ously. Nothing whatever is known about
the genealogy of many of these per
sons a few generations back. The gene
alogists of this country have built up an
imaginary science with persevering in
dustry. It is so far reaching that, for a
suitable fee,' they can provide any
body with a family tree. If he has
no ancestors they are perfectly able
and willing to manufacture as many
as he wants. The business of pro
viding ancestors is almost as flourish.
ing as that of creating antique works
of art. Indeed, a satisfactory ancestor
is a work of art in the best sense of
the word. The wonder is that such
a man as Dr. Jordan should have been
fooled by this idiocy and should (ap
parently) have lent his authority to
fool others.
PATIENCE AND PRCDBNCE.
That President Taft has been alto
gether too patient with Mexico is a
criticism heard now- and again among
his detractors. The contention is put
forth that he should long since have
put an end to the Mexican internal
idiosyncrasies by means of armed in
tervention. To determine whether or
not the Taft patience has been too
elastic, the meaning and cost of armed
intervention might be looked into.
Suppose the United States Govern
ment should take over the City of
Portland and put every person on sal
ary of from $18 to J500 per month.
In addition to that the Government
to assume the care of the 250,000
people in the city, providing them
with every necessity from food to med
ical attention. Having taken this bur
den, let us imagine the Government
decided to move the populace in vari
ous directions, providing the multitude
with means of transportation for many
hundreds of miles by rail and then
many more hundreds of miles by foot,
supplying rations all the while, and
teams with which to carry the rations,
as well as impedimenta needed to sus
tain the great body of people in
comfort. For at least one sear and
perhaps three or four years the Gov
ernment carries this burden. In addi
tion to this, let us suppose the Gov
ernment bound itself to put on pen
sion those who should become sick or
halt among this -vast concourse.
That Is just the sort of burden the
Government would take -over at Mex
ican intervention. At least 250,000
troops would be required for subduing
and policing Mexico. In adBition to
that, a death rate of 5 per cent is not
too great an estimate of possible cas
ualties in such a war. In the light of
which it might seem that President
Taft were -acting with wisdom and
poise in delaying such a coup from
time to time in the hope that it might
be rendered unnecessary.
PLOWING AS AN EXERCISE.
Plowing is suggested as a substitute
for football at our colleges. Why -not?
Football is upheld as developing the
physique, but so does plowing." What
more calculated to harden the muscles
of back, arms and legs than to follow
the plow, pressing down on the han
dies, guiding the team and stepping
over the heavy clods ? Football is good
outdoor exercise, but so is plowing.
Football develops certain mental fac
ulties, but so does plowing.. Skill is
required to run a deep, straight fur
row, just as skill is required to make
an end-run, to block interference and
to kick a goal. -
Plowing has the further recom
mendation that it is useful, produc
tive exercise. One husky member of
an athletic club could probably plow.
.harrow and plant with potatoes a
whole acre with half the expenditure
of energy that goes into a practice
game. Were each of the hundreds of
members of the club to cultivate and
harvest an equal area of land, he
would be equally rich in health and
strength, he would be richer in pocket
and the whole community, would be
benefited by the increase in farm
production. 1
The lesson taught by the great
Nasby in "Eastern Fruit on Western
Dishes" is worthy of study. One of
his characters, Koab, inherits a for
tune, and, deaf to advice, squanders
it in riotous living. He is found hy
one of his relatives rolling barrels in
front of a grocery. The relative jeers
and says; "I told you :so. Koab
replies that, money bein gone and
health gone, he might have consulted
a physician, who would have recom
mended exercise and plain food. Had
he taken the exercise at a gymnasium
he would have been obliged to pay.
He was now being paid for taking
equally healthy exercise, and the
smallness of Jiis wages forbade indul
gence in any but plain food.
We do not recommend the entire
abandonment of football in favor of
plowing, but we do recommend that
those who feel the need of physical
exercise and cannot afford to pay for
it as a sport should adopt it as a
means of earning a livelihood. They
will then strengthen both body and
mind and fatten their pocketbooks at
the same time.
THE BLUE BIRD.
Maeterlinck's "Blue Bird" is sur
prisingly interesting on the stage. All
our common presuppositions are
sgainst it- As a rule we do not like
plays or novels based on abstract prin
ciples, especially if the abstract prin
ciple is the main part of the plot, as
It is in "The Blue Bird." The author
ets out to instruct us -that the active
pursuit of happiness ends in failure
and every scene in the play is contrived
to illustrate his thesis. Worse still,
the doctrine is as trite as the moral
law. With an obvious truism for its
theme the play has only the most com-
monplace machinery to carry on the
action, a little witchcraft, two children
dreaming, a troop of "elements" and
"mental qualities" not too vigorously
alive. In some of Maeterlinck's plays
the spectator may please his vanity by
unraveling a complicated symbolism,
but that refuge is not available in
"The Blue Bird," for its meaning is
everywhere as plain as the nose on
your face. Still it -is interesting, far
more so on the stage than in the book.
It is more than, interesting. It is fas
cinating. Part of its charm no doubt comes
from our pleased surprise to see little
children do so much and do it so well.
Tyltyl has a part as long as Hamlet.
He goes through it with unimpaired
energy, bright and ppontaneous to the
end. The other children have less to
do, but they are perfectly drilled, and
it all goes off as easily as life itself.
Grown people are always ready to do
more than Justice when children bid
for their applause, hut in this case
criticism might have 'been defied. What
amazing things education can accom
plish when it is gone about with a lit
tle common sense. Then there is the
exquisite scenery. It wins more ap
plause than anything else in the play.
Father Time sailing in with his engag
ingly gilded scythe is a figure to love.
He grows more charming up to the in
stant of his mystic fading in the shad,
ows. Night, the sable Queen, in her
enchanted palace, makes another alto
gether alluring picture. The beguile
ments with which she tries to keep
Tyltyl away from the Blue Bird's cave
chime well with her black robe and
raven hair where the illusory stars
hint murkily of ignorance and the de
struction it trails in its wake. Poor
Night, Queen of the besotted soul, is
resolved to keep what miserable bits
of her old secrets conquering man has
left her, but Tyltyl is undaunted and
we foresee clearly enough that her
reign will not last long even if he does
not carry off the Bluebird. In fact
Tyltyl might peep into every cavern
she guards and still not catch the elu.
sive fowl.
The mists rising by the graveyard
are more real than nature herself. She
seldom achieves such colors, such por
tentous vagueness. And who ever has
such afeeling of infinity from natural
scenery as opened up when Father
Time is about to appear and choose a
new set of immigrants to the earth
from the world of the unborn? Thus
we might go on and account for one
charm after another in the play by ex
ternals, but we should mislead the
reader if we did. It is the thought of
the play that holds the spectator,
thought as old as life, but at the same
time piercingly true. As common,
place as bread and fire and water, it
continually touches strings In the soul
that vibrate with eternal longing.
Tyltyl and his timorous sister do not
catch the Bluebird after all their seek
ing, but what sources of happiness
they explore as they proceed! There is
the land of memory where the blessed
dead dwell.. As long as the children
stay the denizens are full of activity.
Sweet emotions enliven them. They
are free from the worries of life. But
when Tyltyl and his sister go to the
phantom heads droop upon the table,
the semblance of life departs. Mem
ory makes her own realm, and as long
as we live in it, what more could be
asked of heaven? But the children
must go about their "serious business."
The spell of pure joy Is broken. The
Bluebird must be sought at the cost of
a whole luminous' world. To reach the
goal they must stop for nothing that
lies by the wayside.
Perhaps Maeterlinck's ' symbolism
does grow a little difficult in the grave
yard. The ghosts are to come out at
midnight at Tyltyl's summons. He
speaks his command boldly, but there
is no response.. The heavy stones lie
unshaken. The earth sleeps on as if
no souls were prisoned down below.
Tyltyl reflects upon the disappointment
and it does not take him long to draw
his -conclusion. "There are no dead."
That is why they do not rise at his
summons, as the fairy promised.
He is a true scientist- He has just
come from seeing the dead, the happy
dead, in their own enchanted world of
memory. When they came of their
own will he forsook them. Now that
they do not come of his will he rea
sons that they "are not." He gets rid
of the phenomenon which does not
obey him by denying it. In depicting
the world of the unborn, Maeterlinck
pleases as much by his satire as he
does by tender suggestion In the.land
of memory. Here below mortals toil
and strive to write poems, make plays,
devise Inventions, reform their govern
ments. Up there it is all fixed for
thousands of ages ahead, fixed for
eternity. Nothing can happen as it
has not been planned. Everyone is
born bringing his poem with him, his
invention has been made already, his
stupendous reform has been completed
and discounted, and all the best of us
can do is to work out in pantomime
the shadowy reflection of the unalter
able, Maeterlinck and Bergson would
clash over the kingdom of the future.
To the French philosopher the drama
tists' babies waiting for Time to sum
mon them with their destinies wrapped
up in -bundles would be the worst of
humbugs. Life does not take its
goods in neat parcels ready for deliv
ery. It creates them as It goes along
Thus the sages draw us different ways.
The play ends with the homely lesson
that the Bluebird has been all the time
hanging comfortably in a cage in Tyl
tyl's own father's kitchen. All those
he had caught in the cave lost their
color in the light of day New Year
revels, for example. This one could
bear the light, but as soon as he gave
it to a little girl who sadly needed a
bluebird it flew away. "The Kingdom
of heaven is within you." It cometh
not with striving and it cannot be
given away. It must be earned.
Accidents occur now and then
which appear to be altogether unfore
seen and unavoidable, and this would
seem to be the case in the unhappy ex
perience of Frank Riggs, who, ran
down a blind man. The blind man
often walks easily and swiftly, so that
he is not readily to be distinguished
from an individual of normal eyesight.
As he cannot see vehicles and must
depend largely on sound, the blind man
throws the responsibility of his safety
on others. Which being the case he
should indicate his infirmity in some
noticeable manner or else secure as
sistance in crossing a busy street in
tersection. The open-air singing on New Tear's
eve made but feeble headway against
the hoodlums with their cowbells, but,
as a beginning of better things, it was
worth its cost in money and effort.
Our local music is too stiffly pedantic
to be very popular, but that is a trait
of youth which may be outgrown. The
way to overcome the hoodlum is to
assimilate him. Teach him and his
best girl some pretty songs and he will
renounce his beloved cowbell. Next
year there ought to be hundreds of
such youths In the choir.
Stimulated, perhaps, by the Panama
Canal there has been a great revival
of work on internal improvements in
Ecuador. It takes especially the form
of appropriations for the development
of river navigation. Ecuador has sev
eral Important tributaries of the Ama
zon by which a. great commerce might
reach the Atlantic if they were suit
ably improved. No doubt the opening
of the Canal will give a wholesome
impulse to the entire continent of
South America.
The Asquith government shows its
contempt for the House of Lords in
two ways. One is the creation of so
few. peerages on New Tear's day, as
though Liberals had no ambition to be
"elevated" to the Upper House- The
other is the giving of a peerage to a
Tory, a hint that peers have so little
power as to make of no consequence
an addition to the opposition party
among them.
There are respects in which Lady
Isabel de VermandoiB was a super-woman,
but they are not such as should
cause her descendants to boast of their
pedigree. There are many pedigrees
regarding which it is discreet to be
silent.
It would be Impossible to convince
the suffrage army that Governor Sul
zer is "Just plain William Sulzer." To
the travel-worn pedestrians he is the
handsomest man in New York.
Diven from France, in danger of ex
clusion from the United States and
not daring to land in Venezuela with
out an army, Castro's lot is that of the
man without a country.
Perhaps Anna Held only divorces
Ziegfeld this time that she may once
more enjoy the pleasures of being
courted and married by him all over
again.
The output of $25,000,000 the past
year at Leadville and Cripple Creek
shows something doing in' that sec
tion of the bowels of the earth.
The old pipe, cast into the dead
grass yesterday, can oe found by the
scent tomorrow, which period is the
average length of reform.
An exhibit by Holland involving ex
pense of $300,000 will cause some of
the larger nations to hunt up 'San
Francisco on the map.
Invasion of Canada by United States
Steel will be decried -by brainless anti
Yankee agitators as a step toward an
nexation. Card men will look askance at pur
chase by Cyrus K. Curtis of George W.
Childs" Public Ledger.
A chicken feed mine is the latest
discovery among the exhaustless re
sources of the Northwest.
The new leaves turned over yester
day are providentially loose bound.
Did" the postman bring you a pump
kin or bunch of carrots yesterday?
The parcel post was an ideal New
Tear's gift to the people.
McCarty won! Erin-rgo-bragh:
Stars and Starmakers
By Lerae CaM Baer.
Baker Moore, of the Baker Stock
Company, has severed his connec
tion with the organization and
will leave for New York City next Sun
day morning. Immediately on hie
arrival he will start rehearsals in one
of William Harris' (of the late Henry
B. Harris company) productions for
early Spring.
Coming to the Baker as juvenile man
b a royal favorite whose welcome back
Is assured. He is Walter B. Gilbert.
He will open in "The Virginian."
The New York Morning Telefgraph
has a tale to tell of Cathrine Coundss,
who is back in New York following her
special stock: engagement in Salt Lake
City. Under a new picture of the
smiling Miss Countiss is the headline
"A Daring Holdup," then follows this:
There was a holdup over - at the
Criterion Theater last night. Robert
Hilliard and his company, appearing
in "The Argyle Case,' were the victims.
Just after the curtain had fallen on
the final act a young woman, armed
with a hatpin, appeared on the stage,
disguised in a heavy sealskin, coat, and
ordered the players to give up their
cash.
"There was no way out of it, so they
all complied. The daring highway
woman collected a neat sum vxnd then
revealed her identity. She was a cer
tain Miss Cathrine Countiss, and she
was committing the "crime' for the
benefit of the stage children's Christ
mas tree fund. The tree celebration
will be held at the Criterion Sunday
night. When the stage folk learned
why they had been robbed they were
glad the high way woman called. But,
before the mystery was explained
"Well, there was much indignation."
A little New Year's message from
Miss Countiss' husband, E. D. Price,
sends greetings to Portland friends
and tells that on Christmas day he and
Miss Countiss were guests at tea with
Mrs. H. C. Wortman and her daughter.
Miss Helen Wortman, at the Marie
Antoinette Hotel, fci New York. Miss
Wortman is spending her vacation
from the Baldwin school at Bryn Mawr.
Robert Hilliard, in "The Argyle
Case," of which Mr. Price is business
manager, has made a tremendous suc
cess ii his New York engagement and
is booked for a lengthy run at the Cri
terion Theater.
m
Charlie Thall, a San Francisco pro
duct, and son of a famous father, Mark
Thall, who was associated with the
Belascos In early theatricals in Call
fornia, is in Portland, touting a new
musical comedy company, "A Modern
Eve," coming direct from a successful
Eastern run.
Mr. Thall was for several years a
member of the San Francisco Alcazar
stock and 12 years ago went to New
York ahead of Florence Roberts' com
pany in repertoire. Since that time he
has been identified with the business end
of the theatrical performance, "A Mod
ern Eve," of Berlin extraction, is un
der management of Martin Beck and
Mort E. Singer. In the personnel of
its company is Henrietta Tedro In the
title role. She was last seen here in
"The Girl Question," in which she car
ried off most of the honors. Miss Tedro
and Georgie Drew Mendrum are re
garded by producers as twin sisters in
the art of comedy characterization.
m m
Mabel Berra, prima donna of "The
Eternal Waltz," which headlines the
Orpheum attractions at the Baker The
ater, Is not a stranger in Portland. The
chanteuse was on the Orpheum circuit
nearly five years ago appearing here in
an act in which she changed from one
elaborate costume to another for every
song in her vaudeville repertoire. Her
own piano accompanist went from place
to place with her on the circuit. Later
Mise Berra appeared in Portland as
the prima donna of "Little Nemo.'
Then she went to Germany where she
sang in English on the stage for a
year. '
Another member of the "Eternal
Waltz" company who has a Portland
record is Edward Prince, stage carpen
ter for the production. Prince visited
this city for the first time 28 years
ago with the Sea King Opera Company
for which he was property man. Prince
also was in Portland 14 years ago with
the "Prisoner of Zen da" Company. In
28 years of theatrical service Prince
has warked under only four managers.
These were Daniel Frohman, with
whom be was associated for 11 years;
Frank Sanger, under whom he served
for four years; the New York Hippo
drome, where be was employed for
several years and Joseph Hart, who has
direction of the "Eternal Waltz."
e
David Warfield will be at the Heilig
Theater in January, and will appear in
David Belasco's latest dramatic tri
umph, "The Return of Peter Grimm."
Ethel Davis, a former Lyrlclan who
was stricken with a serious illness In
Fresno last week. Just after her first
appearance there, is resting well in a
Fresno hospital, .but it is not expected
that she will be able to appear again
for a month or more. Miss Davis is
in private life Mrs. Will Armstrong.
. Harry Burkhardt. star of "Circum
atantlal Evidence." at the Empress, is
an old friend of Harvey O'Bryan, of
this city and was a- guest of Mr. and
Mrs. O'Bryan at a New Year's dinner
party at the Multnomah Hotel. Burk
hardt and Mr. O'Bryan have been inti
mate friends for the past 12 years. The
Empress star appeared in Portland for
the first time several years ago with
Otis Skinner, under whom he played a
prominent part. Later he made a tour
of the Orpheum circuit with Elita Proc
tor Otis in "Mrs. Bunner's Bun." He
also appeared in Portland with Neil
Burgess. C. E. S. Wood was a guest of
Manager pierong, of the Empress, Tues
day night to see Burkhardt's portrayal
of the obdurate juror. Colonel Wood
attending as a representative of anti
hanging forces In Portland. Chief of
Police Slover and five friends also at
tended. Over at the Heilig last night all the
little children who do so much toward
making "The Blue Bird" such a wonder
ful production, were given a big party
on the stage immediately following the
night performance. Arthur Weld, di
rector, and Cyril Chadwick, the English
comedian, with "The Eternal Waltz" at
the Orpheum, were hosts at the party,
and loaded the little ones with candles,
fruits and toys. The big game of the
evening was musical chairs, in which
the English children fairly revel. A
similar party was given for them last
Christmas night In Seattle, at which
the hostess was Winifred Harris, the
lovely and statuesque English woman
who plays Light in "The Blue Bird."
BOSTONIAX'S STORY IS SCOUTED
Harsry Cooaty Writer Minimises Edi
tor's Hard Experience.
BURNS. Or Dec. 27. (To the Edi
tor.) I notice with regret and consid
erable chagrin the delight with which
The Oregonian copies the slanders of
one A. E. Winship, editor of an educa
tional journal in Boston, directed par
ticularly at Harney County, your paper
also taking- an editorial stand sub
stantiating Winship's assertions, while,
as a matter of fact, there is not a word
of unvarnished truth in any of tha
statements made by Winship.
When he says there is no level road
or level country between Lakeview and
Burns by way of Wagontire, he mates
an absolute untruth. 1 have been over
55 miles of the road from here to Wag
ontire myself and made the drive last
August with an ordinary light team
between 8 o'clock in the morning and
5:30 in the afternoon, stopping more
than en hour for lunch on the way,
having a heavy buggy and four good
sized passengers. On. that 65 miles
there are no hills to cause a good auto
mobile to change from the high gear
and I could see several miles of the
road farther on of a similarly level
character.
Winship tells of the dust he met
with,, while the truth is there was very
little dust anywhere at the time he
came, early in October. I made a trip
from Prairie City by auto at about the
same time and there was no dust
through Bear Valley, Silvies Valley or
Harney Valley, good places for dust
any time.
The worst thing Winship has said.
because there is personal Injustice and
spleen in it, is that with reference to
the place where he stopped for refresh
ments at Wagontire. Winship and his
crowd would have been well treated
and well fed there had it not been for
his boorish impudence and uncalled
for demands, it will be seen by his
own .admission that he arrived there
at 2:30 P. M an hour when the-midday
meal is over, the work done, the
fires out and nothing ready for trav
elers at a house which has no expecta
tion or desire for keeping any. Winship
entered with the air of a quarrelsome
puccaroo going into a Chinese restau
rant and demanding dinner. The lady,
who is a woman of culture and refine
ment and a member of one of the old,
respectable Willamette Valley families,
told him she could not serve them din
ner, but she would make a cup of cof
fee for them and then told them of a
place some miles ahead which made a
business of serving travelers, but he
became overbearing;, impudent and die
tatorial to such an extent that she left
the room and refused to wait on them
at all. Finally her husband, whose im
pulse was to kick the fellow into the
yard, made them some coffee and
served oth-er eatables and let them go.
There is not a more generous family
in Eastern Oregon than the one re
ferred to and the hospitality of the
people of this section is proverbial.
Nobody ever appealed in vain for re
freshments at this house and it is not
a question of money with the owners.
either, for they could buy and sell the
Bostonian and his party with ease.
Winship and his crowd left Lakeview
in the morning. They were accompan
ied by State Superintendent Alderman
on his motorcycle and that gentleman
met with an accident which delayed
the party over an hour. They also
stopped at Wagontire for a time, yet
they arrived in Burns, a distance of
175 miles, in the early evening. Does
that look as though he were telling the
truth about the character of the coun
try?
If Portland and the country ad
jacent to it were treated by a traveler
in the same way relatively and with
the same injustice that Winship has
written of this section, the Portland
papers would be heard from In lively
style, and yet Harney County is part
of Oregon, part of the Portland papers
field, a part, too, that ought to be re
membered kindly by every member of
The Oregonian staff who has come
within its confines,
FRANK DAVEY.
A great many words are used in the
foregoing letter over a very trivial
matter. Mr. Winship's article was de
scriptive of a lengthy trip to which he
gave almost unlimited praise. He spoke
highly of Burns and the new school
building there. That he encountered
some bad going between Lakeview and
Burns, a distance equivalent to that
between Portland and Seattle, is un
doubtedly true. The portion of his ar
ticle to which Mr. Davey objects was
quoted by The Oregonian and com
mented on solely and clearly for the
purpose of pointing out that Mr. Win
ship had not seen all of Harney Coun
ty, all its roads or encountered the
best of its hospitality. There are some
poor roads and probably some poor
agricultural land in every county in
Oregon. It is not the duty of any
newspaper or citizen - to condemn the
visitor who mentions them. Nor are
the Portland newspapers in the habit
of doing it.
Activity In Hljrfcwny Improvement. '
Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
In 1912 over $150,000,000 were spent
to improve highways in the United
States.
THE BREWERY BENCH.
From the Blue Mountain Eagle.
He sat on the bench at noontime.
And all that afternoon.
He scattered pearls of wisdom
Down by the Brewery saloon.
He told of things that never were,
Of events that happened too soon.
As he whittled away on the old pine
bench.
And talked that afternoon.
He told of what fools others had been.
How they mined and drew no pay;
How old miner Dan once held a full
hand,
When the dealer drew the fourth
tray.
He told of the time when men never
lied.
And the church was leagues away;
When a quart of dust was regarded as
rust.
And the getting of gold was play.
He spoke of the time there was no law.
There was nothing but Justice known
And a cinch was a fact nailed down
with a tack,
And beer was more than foam.
He knew the way they found John
Day,
And the date of every lie.
He knew it all from Spring to Fall,
From soup clear through to pie.
He was here when there was no Can
yon Creek, -And
bunch grass grew on treats;
When an egg was a common thing in
town.
And the street was paved with
cheese.
The old man sits on the brewery bench
And he never bats an eye;
For he loves to talk, and talk, and talk.
And lie, and lie. and lie.
The bench Is old and whittled and cut.
And the men are wrinkled and gray;
It has been their home, the talkers'
throne.
For many and many a day.
When the census is taken for angel
men.
And they respond to the final call.
We hope St. Peter will have a bench,
That's big enough for 'em all. ,
PORTLAND'S OPPORTUNITY GREAT
City by Proper Steps) Can Be Made See-
end Greatest Port.
DAYTON, Or, Dec 31. (To the Edi
tor.) In The Oregonian December 23
was published a letter from Mr. C. C
Chapman, secretary of the Oregon De-
velopment League, the subject of which
was "Oregon to Profit by Panama."
Mr. Chapman's communication was
pertinent and to the point, especially
with reference to the. apathy of Port
land people in this direction, giving me
also the opening I sought to present
my views in the premises to the public
A great deal of matter has been fur-
nished the public by the daily press
wltn reterence to the canal; the com
merce It will create for us, the desir
able and much required immigration it
will bring to us, the numerous compan
ies that are being formed to exploit
this great tride and the ships that are
beinft built in furtherance thereof; my
reply and my emphatic statement to all
of this, and I say It advisedly and with
the utmost deliberation and without
the slightest fear of contradiction from
any authoritative source, that there is
not one single vessel throughout the
breadth and length of the United
States designed for coastwise trade
via the Panama Canal on the stocks
today, and bear in mind I am making
this deliberate statement in face of the
announcement within the last 30 days
of vessels that are named and in course
of construction and orders placed for
their duplication, and I reiterate they
are not intended for our coast to coast
trade and I know whereof I speak.
There is a future for Portland in this
evolution, the greatest ever confront
ing any city in the world, if we will
but take advantage of the opportunity.
This city can be made-the distributing
point, going as well as coming, of the
products and requirements of the whole
of that great territory to the east of
us, the Inland Empire, as well as the
entrepot of the products of that other
great empire to the north of us,
Alaska.
I am neither an enthusiast nor an
optimist when I say that Portland can
be made the second in importance sea
port of the United States if she but
grasps this opportunity.
I will state that I have made a study
of commerce and have created some for
the Pacific Northwest in the past 20
years. I have also specifically made a
study of the possibilities and benefits
that can accrue to this '.ity by an intel
ligent action of its merchants and peo
ple. I am not attempting to speak in
enigmas, but having Interviewed sev
eral prominent merchants on the sub
ject, and having promulgated In part
my ideas and plans and being invari
ably met with such a reply as "Well,
someone may come along and see mat
ters In the same light and do this for
us," I am rather loth to go further and
to use a vulgarism, make a monkey of
myself talking to empty benches.
But if a respectale number of Port
land's merchants and shippers will
give me one hour of their time at any
time or any hour of the day they will
suggest, I will explain my meaning to
their satisfaction and, I hope, to their
conviction.
RICHARD CHILCOTT.
MAN'S RIGHT OP SELF-DEFENSE.
It Is Simply Applied to Canxe of Society
in Capital Punishment.
PORTLAND. Jan. 1. (To the Editor.)
Why should the law of capital pun
ishment be eliminated from our stat
utes? In those ca'ses where a criminal
does not deserve the extreme penalty
have we not two less severe sentences
which may be imposed? On the strength
that at such a time, when the circum
stances justify the extreme penalty,
why should we abolish the law because
of the infrequency of its application?
It is true that at some Instances of
self-preservation one may be justified
in taking advantage of the unwritten
law when the punishment should be
correspondingly less severe; but ill. a .
case of premeditated, cold-blooded mur
der, should the same punishment apply
to each? Would It be fair to both?
It is said that life imprisonment is
much more a preventive of murder than
Is the execution, and that would-be
murderers dread the thought of a life
sentence much more than they do the
death penalty. Yet all under death
sentence use their last and utmost ef
forts to secure a change of sentence at
the hands of the Governor. Statistics
prove that of the number of life-term-?
ers sentenced the average term of each
is about ten years, .because, as time
goes on, the horrible circumstances of
their crime are forgotten and the later
elected Governor turns them loose upon
an unsuspecting public, a public per
haps soon to furnish a new victim to
the murderous attack of the habitual
criminal.
The opponents of capital punishment
argue that the punishment should be
reformatory. In the case of first-degree
murders the punishment should
be neither reformatory nor vindictive,
but preventive. The law of self-preservation
here applies, and society is
absolutely warranted in the use of the
only certain preventive of crime known
after countless ages of humanity. We
need only to cite the criminal record
of one of the men lately executed. The
crime fo? which he paid the just pen
alty was the fourth of a series of crimes
against the public. His prison terms
previous to the last evidently did not
swerve him from his criminal life, else
why should the second offense have
followed the first? One thing we now
are certain of, we need no longer fear
his further raids among us.
The idea is, then, not to abolish
capital punishment, but to make it cer
tain to follow cases of first-degree.
How many of the delegation that re
cently went to Salem to oppose the
death penalty would hesitate in using
means of self-defense, even to the ex
tent of taking life, if their own life
were in danger? We venture to say
were such a case a stern reality, there
would be no hesitation as to the course
pursued. As before mentioned, we
maintain that the state has the same
right of self-protection infinitely more
so, as the lives of many are concerned
as against the life of one.
OSCAR A. EFFENBERGER.
666 Lovejoy street.
Let Women Solve Social Problem.
CORVALLIS, Or.. Dec. 30. (To the
Editor.) I note what you say today
in The Oregonian on the subject of
the social evil. The last section of
your suggestions was the best, but you
did not finish it up. Better morals are
not preserved to any great extent un
less you have an honest enforcement
of the law. The one must go with the
other, or we can never hope to have
good results.
I will make the suggestion that the
City of Portland confer police powers
on the organization known as the vv.
C. T. U., and ask it to take charge of
the social evil problem. It will solve it
satisfactorily and charitably.
Make this experiment ana I am cer
tain that it will succeed beyond our
fondest hopes. This Is a woman's
problem, and it will never be solved
until the women solve it- They will
solve it and solve it right if the right
kind of women are given the power.
JAMES E. JOHNSON.
Arbitration and Self Interest.
VANCOUVER, Wash, Dec 30. (To
the Editor.) The letter In The Ore
gonian today concerning Mr. Jones and
his peaches is good. Continuing it fur
ther: Suppose Mr. Jones had been per
suaded to arbitrate the matter before
a "strictly impartial" court composed
of himself and the three neighbors In
question, how many peaches would
Jones and his relatives have gotten!
W. R. S.