8
THE MORNING OREGONIAN. FRIDAY, lSOVE3IBER 20, 1914.
PORTLAND, OREGON.
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XOIlTLANl, RI1AY, NOV., 20, 1914.
i arm iron national defense.
General Wotherspoon's recommen
I J at ions for enlargement of the United
, States Army and creation of a reserve
' force bring before the American peo
ple once more their unpreparedness
for National defense. His proposal
that the regular army be increased to
205,000 men and that we have enough
reserves to put, 600,000 men In our
first line of defense would have been
i thought a few years ago to smack of
! extravagant militarism, but when
'.compared with the vast armies now
! In the field in Europe it seems really
modest.
Of course General Wotherspoon's
.plans will be scorned by extreme
'pacificists, for they regard armies and
'navies as temptations to war on the
'part of' nations which maintain them
rand as provocations to other nations
jto attack. They rely on treaties and
I arbitration tribunals to keep peace be
tween nations, notwithstanding the
recent definition of a treaty as a
scrap of paper'" and notwithstanding
the existence of armed nations which
refuse to settle disputes by any other
means than war. If such a nation
were to violate a treaty with us or
were to refuse arbitration as the means
of settling a dispute, we should be
compelled either to concede what the
other nation demanded or to fight. If
we chose the former alternative, we
should link to the level of China,
which, through impotence, stands by
while two other nations fight for parts
of its territory. Colonel Roosevelt, in
an article in the New York Times,
quotes a pacificist writer as having
"pointed out China as the proper
model for America." The Colonel
brings out the full significance of this
opinion by. showing that it places
I China above all the great nations,
from Athens to the present time, lu
imoral, intellectual and physical status,
and then remarks: "To my mind such
a proposition is unfit for debate out
ride certain types of asylums." Most
Americans will agree twith him.
i The alternative being to fight, we
fcbviously must be equipped to fight
With a fair prospect of winning. If
Hve do not so equip, we shall realize
the truth of Colonel Roosevelt's state
ment "that the one certain way to
Invite disaster is to be opulent, offen
sive and unarmed." We are the rich
est nation on earth and we criticise
jother nations with a greater freedom
than they tolerate with patience. Our
Miches invite and our offensiveness
tprovokes attack. Should we not arm,
;Sre should double the urgency of the
invitation.
The oft-reiterated statement that
the fact of being armed tempts a na
tion to aggressive war and that arma
ment is unnecessary to preservation of
peace does not accord with facts, us
Colonel Roosevelt well shows by citing
the example of Switzerland. That
country begins to ground boys in mili
tary training, discipline and marks
manshlp when they are at high school.
it gives them four months' training
under war conditions after graduation
and It gives each man eight days'
training in each subsequent year, be
sides frequent rifle practice. Each
man keeps his rifle and accoutrements
at home and is responsible for them.
This training does not interfere appre
ciably with the Swiss citizen's occupa
tion, hut rflnrtprd him hffttAi" n rl a tr H r
j his work. When the present war be
i gan, Switzerland mobilized her army
I and prevented either France or Ger
many from making a short cut across
her territory to attack the other. She
has kept out of the war, and has kept
the war beyond her borders. She is
a distinctly peaceful nation armed for
defense.
The United States is not as well pre
Lpared for war as Switzerland, but we
.could become so by adopting the Swiss
1 system of national military training.
Officers would need a longer period
of training, and maneuvers on a large
: Buaie wuuiu ue ueeuea to train general
officers in handling the great masses
of men which compose modern armies.
Were we thus prepared, with a rifle
for every trained man and with artil
lery proportioned to our strength in
infantry, we should not only be able
to defend ourselves, but we could pre
vent wars between other nations.
! Close study of the events leadmgr up
to the present war leads to the conclu
sion that it was Invited by the unread
iness of Great Britain. This is shown
Jy Germany's indifference to what
Britain might do about the invasion
of Belgium and by the Kaiser's scorn
for General French's "contemptible
little army." Had Germany known
that Great Britain could send 1,000,
000 trained troops into Belgium within
a month, her. rulers would have
thought more than twice about pro
voking British intervention by invad
ing Belgium or even about making
war at all. British preparedness could
have prevented war, while Colonel
Roosevelt truly says that "all the
peace congresses of the past fifteen
years have accomplished precisely and
exactly nothing so far as any great
crisis is concerned."
8 HERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.
In the middle of-November fifty
years ago Sherman set out from At
lanta on his march to the sea. Be-
-fore leaving the city he burned it to
the ground. This he did not from
wanton love of destruction, not to ter
rify a conquered population, nor be
cause he was ambitious to be ranked
with Attila and Genghiz Ehan among
the "scourges of God." Atlanta was
"an important railroad center which
had been a military manufactory for
,xhe South. It might have been used
'in the same way again had Sherman
,left It Intact. He burned the city for
definite military reasons and without
malice. None of the Inhabitants wero
murdered. No cruelty was inflicted.
At its best war is "hell" and Sher
man knew it better than most men.
but he added nothing: to its inherent
abominations. The Civil War, it has
been well said, was waged humanely.
The old laws of chivalry bad not yet
been forgotten. Pity had not given
way entirely to "efficiency." No atro
cities were committed to terrify the
enemy and break the spirit of their
resistance. Men fought men in those
days and enmity went no farther than
the battlefield.
DOCKING THE DOOR.
One sadder-but-wiser candidate, who
was persuaded to seek a Commissioner
ship, in the recent recall election, raises
the inquiry as to the reason of all the
present fuss about forgeries of names
on the petitions, and wants to know
why no searching official scrutiny was
made when the papers were filed.
The question is natural. The candi
dates could have been spared a lot of
trouble and . the expenditure of some
money, and the public would have
been relieved of an outright nuisance,
if the fact if it is a fact that there
were extensive forgeries could have
been developed, and the illegality, ac
tual or probable, of the proposed re
call demonstrated.
As it was there seems to have been
only the most perfunctory examina
tion on the part of the City Auditor,
and an apparent vrillingness to take
the papers at their face value.
The City Commissioners assumed a
position of lofty and virtuous indiffer
ence as to whether the call for the
recall was real or bogus. They were
pained that the recalJers were willing
to spend $25,000 of the taxpayers'
money for a needless special election;
but they did nothing to stop it.
Now the City Attorney has uncov
ered a lot of forged names, and there
is a belated scandal about the whole
business.
Dr. Parish Is not quite accurate In
his simile about locking the stable
door after the horse has been stolen.
The door is being padlocked long after
the danger of stealing is past.
IX PKACk'tl'L MEXICO.
Once more Villa Is marching in bel
licose mood on Mexico City. At least
he was doing so yesterday. Carranza
had changed his mind about resigning
and was prepared to resist Villa. Just
how many other bandit chiefs and
provisional Presidents were engaged in
similar quarrels is not revealed, as the
European war has taken us out of In
timate touch with Mexican affairs.
All this just as the versatile pacific
ists of the Administration at Washing
ton had the Mexican tangle all
straightened out. The latest message
of Mr. Bryan announcing that peace
prospects in Mexico were hopeful still
reverberates; just as the order for the
American evacuation of Vera Cruz is
being prepared for execution this rude
situation interposes.
But no matter. There Is hope. Not
of permanent peace, but that the fac
tions will take a month off. Exhaus
tion may compel this. Then the inter
val can be seized upon to declare Mex
ican differences at an end; our troops
can be removed, and, provided the
cable and telegraph wires are cut and
all our border settlements moved back
from the danger zone, we shall hear
little' more of chaotic Mexico. We can
imagine no other course by which
watchful waiting can expect to find
success at this stage of the muddle.
GERMAN CAKE OF ART.
It is significant of German respect
for the public opinion of the world
that the outcry about the destruction
of Louvain and the damage done by
bombardment to cathedrals at Rheims,
Malines and Dinant should have been
followed by the sending of a German
commission to Belgium to conserve
works of art and ecclesiastical treas
ures. There is such a conflict of tes
timony as to whether the destruction
was wanton or was a necessary mili
tary measure that the exact truth
may not be known until the cooling
of the passions engendered by war
has made impartial inquiry and Judg
ment possible.
War is necessarily ruthless, for those
who conduct it must subordinate all
other considerations to military "suc
cess. Though reverence for art is not
Inconsistent with ability as a soldier,
men engaged lnf'war are prone to blot
all other thoughts from their minds.
The emergencies of war require quick
decision and quick action, and men
Inflamed by, battle commit deeds of
which they would not dream in times
of peace. This may account for much
of the destruction of which the Ger
man armies have been guilty.
The world will be loath to believe
that, because the German army has
been guilty of some small excesses, the
German nation has lost respect for art
and religion. Germany's contributions
to every branch of art forbid us to
believe that the fury of war has sud
denly sunk the nation in barbarism.
The world will regret, however, that
the Kaiser did not sooner send the
art commission to prevent his soldiers
from destroying treasures which never
can be replaced.
ROBERT J. BCRDETTE.
By the death of Robert J. Burdette
the world loses a kindly and beautiful
spirit. His career was long and varied.
Born In 1844, he began his active ca
reer as a newspaper man and as editor
of the Burlington Hawkeye he won
National reputation by his humorous
articles. He passed thence to the
Brooklyn Eagle, and from 1900 to the
time of his death he wrote for the Los
Angeles Times. Burdette was a nat
ural public speaker. His lectures
were popular from the year 1876,
when he first began to deliver them.
In 1887 he became a Baptist minister
by license and was regularly ordained
in 1903. He was greatly loved as pas
tor of a church in Los Angeles. He
held one public office, that of City
Commissioner for Pasadena, the city
where he died.
Burdette . wrote both prose and
poetry, always in a more or less Jo
cose vein, though his humor tended
to deepen into pathos and philosophy
like that of all great jesters. One of
his notable early publications was
"The Rise and Fall of a Moustache,"
which embodies a sketchy philosophy
of life. "Adam and Eve," he says in
that book, "were the only people who
started out In life under the terrible
handicap of being born full grown,"
and he does not fail to Justify his point
by whimsically convincing arguments.
Among his " best essays is that on
"Favorites," in which he discourses
with gentle humor on books, texts of
the Bible, the days of youth and other
delightful subjects, all favorites of his.
His verses were seldom very serious
or very poetical. ,For the most part
they are parodies, close or remote.
"Taking Account of Stock" reminds
one of the "Ancient Mariner," though
the theme is far different.
In most of his other rhymes the
reader is constantly reminded of
things he has seen before. Of course
these Imitations were part of the
humorous game which Burdette, in
spite of ill-health and many cares,
never ceased to play. His poem of
"The Jolly Sleeping Car Porter" is one
of his happiest. It comes as near to
satire as Burdette's benign nature per.
mitted. "Old Time and Young Tom,"
which may be obtained at the Public
Library, contains much of his best
work.
CODONKD ROOSEVELT'S TRAVELS.
The Scribners have now published
Colonel Roosevelt's South American
"Travels" in book form and they will
have many readers. His lively style
and acute powers of observation
would make a dull trip interesting,
but there was nothing dull about his
experiences in Argentine, Paraguay
and Brazil. Everything he saw be
came a romantic episode. All the In
cidents of his daily routine glowed
with interest and adventure. The
flowers of the field, the birds of the
air, the fish in the rivers all enter
tained and instructed the alert
traveler.
The best part of the narrative deals
with his voyage down the "River of
Doubt" which the Colonel himself dis
covered. Here he went through dark
disasters and perils dire. His canoes
were wrecked and his men fell sick
from hardship and privation. One of
them went mad, committed a shock
ing murder and fled into the wilder
ness. Toward the end of the adven
turous Journey it began to look as If
the party would never see civilization
again. ' But the clouds finally cleared
away. Perseverance at last brought
them in sight of outlying planters
cabins and they fared safely through.
Now they rejoice to think over their
perils past and in the security of home
and the radiance of hard-won glory
enjoy the plaudits of friends and
readers.
Colonel Roosevelt is the most versa
tile of living men. Rarely does his
tory tell of anybody so highly gifted
in so many directions. To 'find a par
allel for him we must perhaps go
back to Julius Caesar, who excelled
the Colonel a little as a soldier and
lawgiver, but not as a traveler and
narrator.
LET THE STATES CONTROL.
The announcement that one of the
topics discussed In President Wilson's
next message to Congress will be the
conservation bills indicates an inten
tion to push those measures through
Congress at the approaching session.
That being the case, it is incumbent
upon the West to exert itself for the
modification of the bills in such a
manner that Western rights and West
ern interests will be guarded. The
West is ready to accept the leasing of
power sites and mineral land, many of
those who have hitherto opposed that
system having become reconciled to it
as the only means by which the East
will consent to opening Western re
sources to development. But unless
certain provisions of the leasing bills
are materially changed they will do
Injustice to the West and will do in-
Jury to the whole country.
As The Oregonian has heretofore
contended, Government land, as soon
as ' leased, should becomes subject to
state taxation. There, should also be
a decentralization of authority over
leased land, particularly power sites.
As to the latter, authority from the
state to utilize the water is as neces
sary as authority from the Govern
ment to utilize the land, the states'
Jurisdiction over water in unnavigable
streams having been affirmed by the
courts. The states' ratemaklng power
should be more extensive than is
provided In the Ferris bill. That
measure concedes to states having
utility commissions authority to regu
late intrastate rates and service, but
it reserves to the Secretary of the In
terior, or to any Federal body created
In future for the purpose, control over
interstate rates and over intrastate
rates In those states which have no
regulative body.
A great improvement in the bill
would be to permit two or more ad
Joining states having regulative bodies
to agree on Interstate rates subject to
the approval of the Secretary of the
Interior. The latter official's author
ity directly to regulate rates would
then be limited to those states which
have no utility commissions. Such
states would be apt to establish com
missions in order to obtain control of
their own water power, and thus the
Secretary would be gradually relieved
of responsibility in this regard, ex
cept as to approval of agreements be
tween states upon Interstate rates.
The states, as owners of the water,
having a joint Interest in water power
with the Government, which owns the
abutting land, they should at least, as
a matter of right, have Joint authority
in making the lease. As the bill reads,
a lessee must deal separately with the
state in obtaining a water right and
must then deal with the Government
in obtaining a lease to the land. Pub
lic policy requires that he should deal
with one party, not two, and that that
party should be the state. Congress
should lay down conditions on which
power sites are ceded to the states,
stipulating that fhey be leased on the
terms laid down in the bill, the Secre
tary of the Interior satisfying himself
that each lease complies with these
terms and approving it before it be
comes effective.
These changes would be in the in
terest not only of the West, not only
of efficient administration of the pub
lic domain, but in the interest of the
whole Nation. The rapid enlarge
ment of the functions of the Federal
Government is making it so huge that
it is unwieldy and disgracefully inef
ficient and wasteful. Duties are im
posed on heads of departments which
they cannot possibly perform and
which they must therefore delegate to
subordinates, over whom they can ex
ercise only the most cursory oversight.
Secretary Lane has the full confidence
of the West, and, if we could be sure
that he would give his personal atten
tion to the leasing and that we should
always have a Lane in his position, we
should have less objection to the' Fer
ris bill as It stands. But we know
that, with many other duties to per
form, he cannot give all his time to
this business. He must entrust it to
some subordinate, who may have his
head . stuffed with book knowledge
and theories, but may be completely
ignorant of the West, except for what
he has read or seen from a railroad
train. We also know that there will
not always be a Lane at the head of
the Interior Department and we fear
that his successor may be less famil
iar with the West and less sympa
thetic with Its needs and interests.
From the National standpoint the
bill is unwise In policy because It will
help to perpetuate offices which are
fast becoming useless, as public land
open to sale and settlement becomes
rapidly less, and will help to create
new offices. This Nation has gone
too far already in the creation of a
huge bureaucracy, or, as Senator
Borah expressed it, "a governmental
class always complaining of too much
service and too little pay." We are
wont to condole with Europe on the
burden of militarism, but we are grad
ually piling on our own shoulders a
burden of officialism which may prove
equally heavy. The effect of future
legislation should be to decrease, not
increase, the number of offices, and to
increase state control over state inter
ests, not to centralize all power in
Washington.
The generation that Is In of middle
age and Just beyond appreciates the
humor of Robert J. Burdette, who
died yesterday. He. made reputation
for the Hawkeye and for himself as
a clean writer, mixing humor and
pathos. It was clear stuff, without the
jar of machine or strain of forced
grind, ancl he "lasted" much longer
than many who followed his lead. His
best is preserved in his first book.
"The Rise and Fall of the Moustache."
There will be no new Fairybook from
Andrew Lang's hand this year. He
kept up his series of red and pink and
green books for 25 years almost, to
the Joy of young and old. Now his
pen is idle and his matchless memory
has been plundered of all its treasures
by death. Who shall succeed him as
Christmas magician for the English
speaking world?
People who enjoy originality will do
wisely to look into James Oppenheim's
"Songs for the New Age." He Is a
revolutionary thinker and his verse is
as lawless as Whitman's. Oppenheim
is a satirist 'by nature, which is the
reason, perhaps, why his poems ami
novels appear so timely. There never
was an age which Jnvlted satire more
than this.
If America had a Schumann he
would set this verse to deathless
music: "Far in the corners dim the
shadows start; near to your strength I
cling and near your heart.. Dearest,
the whole world ends, ends well, in
this night and the firelit dark, your
touch, your kiss." Helen Huntington
wrote it. The words almost sing
themselves.
W-e learn' from "The Barometer"
that the Corvallls students are trying
to "elevate their college yell." The
task would be Herculean for any col
lege, but not utterly hopeless. In -any
event we admire the boys' pluck. This
is a day of "uplift" and we do - not
see why college yells should be left to
wallow.
Lovers of Bernard Shaw can now
obtain the full text of his Pygmalion
in one of the magazines. The play, an
extravagant farce, was first produced
in Germany because, as Shaw modest
ly told the Londoners, his merits were
better understood in that country. The
modest violet is not his favorite flower.
The Turks have Invaded Roumania,
their success in entering having been
due, we take it, to the fact that the
Roumanians are disinclined to get
mixed up in the international scrim
mage and hence offered xio resistance.
The writer in the Omaha World
Herald who puts Mount Hood and the
Columbia River in "the Puget Sound
country" needs to get Into communi
cation with the flourishing Nebraska
Society of Portland.
Four more shot on the American
side of the southern border. Shooting
Americans seems to be a favorite Mex
ican pastime, since it is attended by
no dangers of reproof or punishment.
It is odd that a marital craft should
be wrecked after forty-four yeais.
Surely the contracting parties had
plenty of time to learn navigation on
the sea of matrimony.
Turkey must explain . firing on
American sailors. But what if Turkey
doesn't explain. We tremble to think
of the consequences should Mr. Bryan
grow peeved..
Why back in the Missouri Valley,
where they measure' the thickness of
the ice with yardsticks, tha first touch
of Thanksgiving weather has arrived.
Government pynprf a nrp-o tinr mat-
must be cooked thoroughly before
eating. . Just as though people could
afford to eat meat any more.
Still, even if Turkey doesn't want to
apologize, we suspect that Germany
will compel her to. American good
will is not to be sneezed at.
Troutdale has a woman candidate
for Mayor. No doubt Portland will
be able to enjoy a similar experience
a few years hence.
Death would have been better mode
of separation than the divorce court
for the Marion County couple married
forty-four years.
Now a new submarine destroyer has
been perfected. After which, of course,
a submarine-destroyer destroyer will
be required.
Judge McGinn has. In the language
of the street, the initiative "skinned a
mile" in making precedents and laws
to fit them.
R.US3 and Turk both claim a naval
victory in the Black Sea. Just as
though It made any difference which
won. .
The local masher who was fined $50
for "bumping" women needed to have
his head "bumped" by a husband first.
German soldiers have received a
dollar apiece from the Belgian war
indemnity. War is a bountiful jade.
A woman given official position
should be put under bond not 'to
marry during her tenure of office.
' Mysterious signals on the American
shore have been sighted from Canada.
Aha, a German Invasion impends!
Thanksgiving turkey may be so
cheap that only wealthy people will
care to eat it.
So far,, however, we have not heard
the cry of "On to Petrograd."
Villa marching on Mexican capital.
But that was yesterday.
The Russians have again quit their
'On to Berlin" cry.
IMPROVEMENTS Awrean OB NEED
Street Grading Often Done Ten Years
la Advance, Says Victim.
PORTLAND, Nov. 15. (To the Edi
tor.) I note with satisfaction tickled
to death with even the promise that
the newly elected Legislature "promises
economy." Let's hope they fulfill such
to the letter, and while on the sub
ject of economy is there no possible
way in which our city government can
be prevailed upon to adopt a like
measure, and cut out street grading
and sidewalk building in Portland's
outskirts 10 years in advance of- the
city's needs?
As individuals we retrench and cur
tail expenditures, awaiting the return
of better monetary conditions, in an
effort to "get by" the present depres
sion. When we just begin to flatter
ourselves we see our way through we
receive a card stating, "the city proposes
to assess lots so and so, block ditto.
Just this side Columbia slough or ML
Hood, as high. sb $210 per lot and If
you have any objection to offer you
may appear at City Hall up to a cer
tain date." This being the first we
have heard of the improvement we
drive out to the lots to see what has
happened and. find the streets graded
and sidewalks laid on two sides only,
and eight lots with a real mortgage
of $622 against them, same running
ten years. But if one happens to miss
the card notice or is out of the city
over the "10 days," for bonding, one
finds, regardless of close times, a first
mortgage given without one's knowl
edge or consent immediately due and
payable. If one is fortunate enough
to be "on the job" and appears within
the "10 days," he finds the city unwill
ing to bond the corner lot with the $210
against it for that amount; and must
pay the difference in cash.
The waiter was thus compelled to
pay in cash close to $2000 on five lots
at Thirty-third and Sandy streets, the
assessments against one lot being
$1400 and the city would bond but for
$900. Why should the city have au
thority" to mortgage one's property
without one's consent, for more than
said city is willing to carry the prop
erty for after the improvement is in?
It would seem the. argument that all
street improvements are not a burden
but can be added to the value of
property affected will not hold good.
Further, if to grade and sidewalk two
sides of eight lots places a mortgage
of $622 against such lots, when the
remaining two sides are thus improved,
sewers, water and hard surface added
at what price would one have to sell
to net 4 per cent on one's original in
vestment, and how is one to know when
one is in a position to "get by, if
these unexpected and uncalled for (in
these times) so-called Improvements
are heaped upon the holder of unpro
ductive property? It simply spells con
fiscation legalized, and there are hun
dreds of poor people in this city who
have gone out side, as it were, in order
to get cheaper lots and who have been
paying Installments thereon-for years,
in some cases, to the extent of one
half and even two-thirds the pur
chase price, who have given up on ac
count of excessive assessments for
which they are not ready and are
forced to take their loss. In some in
stances that have come to the writer's
attention, property has been fully paid
for and yet lost, because of assess
ments that cover improvements five to
ten years ahead of actual requirements.
Only last week a man offered a quit
claim to a house and lot for which he
paid $3000 cash, same being valued at
$3500 and a bargain at $3000 if the
writer would assume a $1500 mortgage
and $900 street assessments. Some
time after purchasing a loan of $1500
was made on the property for three
years. Recently the city Increased this
by $900 for improvements. The loan
fell due and was demanded. The owner
did not have the money and started
out to get a $1500 loan, but met with
"Oh, no, we can't make you a loan be
cause of the city's lien of. $900."
Rather than be foreclosed he will
quit-claim and take his $1500 loss. But
for the $900 improvement ,( ?) which
he did not authorize or require, a $1500
loan could be easily secured. There
are hundreds of such cases. Two other
cases, one had paid $3000 on purchase
price, the other $3500. Both quit
claimed to the person from whom pur
chased each for two months' rent or
free occupancy. No man can success
fully conduct a business unless he
governs it. No purchaser of property
can know what his equity therein is
worth so long as the city can legally
wipe out so effectively such equity.
You will say property is not Improved
without petition from property holders.
This is true and It is not true. Large
owners sell suburban lots cheap, but
require an improvement waiver. Long
before the property is paid for it is
improved and the payments made as
well as the property, largely, revert
to the original owners. Twenty-second
street in Irvington was hard sur
faced over the signed protest repre
senting all but about three lots. The
macadam on Twenty-second street was
not fully paid when it was again as
sessed for hard surface against the
will of property holders.
This Is a serious matter and Is filling
apartment houses and leaving vacant
what should be, If reasonable Judg
ment by the city were used, thrifty,
happy homes. The effect upon realty
sales and values will be felt for years
to come and the system cannot be
changed any too soon.
A VICTIM.
GROPING. -
Forty thousand buried In one grave,
All dead within the space
Of hours, yet we rave
Of God and heavenly grace!
O universe, if God there be.
Find Him. Where is He?
Dead bound in bales and tossed
Into furnaces of flame; .
All trace of Identity lost
In this mad dice-throw hellish
game!
And 'we are Christiana and point the
way t
To Heaven and a Judgment day?
A human bridge across the flood.
Of dead men formed, and dying;
Waters dyed in human blood.
Men smothered where they're lying.
How mighty is the power of preaching!
And our doctrine, how far-reaching!
Billions in banks, and soldiers freeze;
Lands go to. waste, and children
starve.
But, undepressed, we 'vantage seize.
And out of war our fortunes carve.
What a kind world we've grown to be!
How embracing is our charity!
Well, we must fully realize
That we are babes, groping in the
dark;
That all our boasted knowledge of the
skies
Has left untouched the vital spark
Of Truth that surely somewhere dwells
In man. Fate mocks our heavens and
hells!
. , MARY FORCE.
Hillsdale, Or.
A Woman Hakes Up Her Mind. .
Judge.
Crawford What do you do when a
woman asks your advice? Crabshaw
Find out first what she has made up
her mind to do.
.-She's Married to a Wretch.
Baltimore American.
"Here's a woman who complains her
honeymoon lasted only a week." "What
was the matter?" "His money gave
out."
How It la In Boston.
Boston Transcript.
She We women have to stand a lot.
He Not in the streetcar if you're
pretty.
I CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IS I'PBELD
Criticisms Made by Dr. Hlnaon Replied
to by Scientist.
PORTLAND, Nov. 19. (To the Edi
tor.) Within less than half a century
Christian Science has been discovered,
propounded to the world and accepted
by a large number of thinking people.
Advancing in the face of lay, legal and
clerical attack, it has in a compara
tively few years gained the esteem of
thousands. Fair play "from the press
and honest investigation from the un
prejudiced have heiped much to re
move misconception gained from care
less and malicious criticism. Most
pleasing perhaps among the signs of
increasing good feeling and respect
toward this youngest yet oldest of the
world's religions are the more fre
quent expressions of tolerance, recog
nition and good will from those of
differing faiths. , -
Occasionally, however, a critic with
little knowledge- of Christian Science,
beyond the fact that it does not ac
cord with his own belief, looking
through the lenses of ecclcsiasticisra
or dogma, holds before his hearers his
erroneous opinions of what Christian
Science teaches and batters them with
attacks as futile as they are mis
placed. Such criticisms are well Il
lustrated in an interesting sermon
pabllshed in The Sunday Oregonian.
Dr. Hlnson there discusses the sleep
of sin and the necessity for men to
awaken therefrom. Dwelling upon the
soporific Influence of what he chose to
term the "devil's opiates," he said,
"Christian Science with its denial of
sin and Calvary may have, siren-like,
sung you into deep slumber.'? In other
words, "Don't be deceived, my friends,
by Christian Science, which teaches
that sin is unreal and there Is there
fore no need to stop sinning." If any
one ever tried to be a Christian Scien
tist on that basis it must have been
because he believed it to be anything
Its opponents called it. even the devil's
opiate. His utter failure to find in It
a sweet narcotlo to still his mortal
sense could be the only consequence
of his complete misunderstanding of
its teachings.
The critic, like many others before
him, simply has failed to grasp the
difference clearly drawn by Christian
Science between what exists to mor
tal sense, or relatively, and what ex
ists to spiritual sense which cognizes
only the absolute and real. Sin as
God-created, Christian Science denies
most emphatically. Does the critic
believe God creates sin and then pun
ishes man for sinning? But this is
not the full statement of its teachings,
for it recognizes that In mortal exist
ence sin is a most odious verity. Ot
these statements one Is as necessary
as the other to a correct understand
ing of Christian Science. Sin's elimi
nation and destruction through an
understanding of good's supremacy is
being proved to be a present-day pos
sibility for each individual.
The teachings of Christian Science
in regard to sin and evil offer no at
traction or allurement to the sinfully
disposed. Rather do they teach that
"Sin makes its own hell, and goodness
its own heaven," and that "The belief
in sin is punished so long as the be
lief lasts." (Science and Health, pp.
196, 497.) "The evil-doer." writes Mrs.
Eddy In one of her messages to the
mother church, "receives no encour
agement from my declaration that evil
Is unreal, when I declare that he must
awake from his belief in this awful
unreality, repent and forsake it, in or
der to understand and demonstrate its
unreality."
The ill logic with which orthodoxy
holds so tenaciously to the reality of
evil while trying to destroy It may
well cause the questionaire to ask if
orthodoxy really knaws what the na
ture of evil is. Indeed, it more than
hints that the failure of the church
to make the greater progress toward
evil's final destruction is because the
church has failed to learn the nature
and the tactics of Its opponent. Man,
shackled with the ball and chain of a
belief in evil's ultimata and present
reality, finds It a hopeless task to gain
his moral freedom.
Christian Science teaches tat sin
and suffering are not of God, the one
and only creator, and that they can
therefore have no place in his creation.
Their temporal existence must then
be found only in mistaken belief and
can be overcome and destroyed as
proved by Jesus when man attains the
mind of Christ. Then man cognizes
good as the real and indestructible
and its opposite, evil, as temporal and
destructible, having neither power nor
dominion over God's man, when op
posed by Truth.
The works and teachings of Jesus,
his crucifixion, resurrection and ascen
sion beyond material sense exemplify
to the Christian Scientist the inev
itable destruction of sin and mortal
ity that follows the acquisition of that
demonstrable understanding of God
possessed by the Nazarene. This In
deed is Christ's way, "the only one by
which mortals are radically saved
from sin and sickness." (Science and
Health, p. 458.)
PAUL STARK SEELEY.
LITTLE, SO, IT AT, SECRETIVE JOFFRE
Slight Resemblance to Napoleon Op
erates Along- Anglo-Saxon Llnea.
Samuel G. Blythe in Saturday Even
ing Post.
The greatest general of all time
Napoleon was a little, squat, fat man,
and a Frenchman; and I have the
honor to report that the present French
general Joffre is also a little, squat,
fat man. That means what It may
mean, as the event will show; but, so
far as paunch and squatness are con
cerned, there Is the resemblance. Tres
bien! as the French would say.
After the army maneuvers last year
in France, Joffre came to his head
quarters and, calling for his secretay,
lssud an order of about 30 words fn
which he dismissed, without recourse,
five of the gaudiest leading generals
of France. He fired them gave them
the sack, as the English put it. He
watched their work and it did not suit
him.
"Boys," he said, in a manner of
speaking, "you wear your epaulets with
exceeding grace, and you look well on
horseback: but as soldiers you are
back In the days when they fought
with the rapier and the rondeau. You
are herewith discharged. Do you
get me?"
They got him and they got out.
When ho gives an order he wants
the order executed exaotly as he gives
it; and when he does not give an order
he wants that not executed in the
same manner. There is none of the
Mon cher camarade! business about
him. His comrades are dear enough,
mayhap; but if they do not do their
work they need not come round.
Ordinarily French generals put up
16-sheet stands of bills on the bill
boards, alluding to themselves as Bon
magnifique! In the Franco-Prussian
War there was no news of the soldiers;
all the news was about the generals.
So far as being a public Idol, which
usually is more to be desired by the
French general than anything else,
Joffre is- practically unknown to the
ebullient populace. Take Pau, for
example. All France knows him with
his massive head and his empty sleeve;
but lr Joffre should visit the boulevards
when not in uniform he could nit for
hours unnoticed in any cafe.
He is a Frenchman who operates
along harsh Anglo-Saxon lines. So It
has come about that the French sol
diers, having been for years extremely
communicative, have now reversed
themselves under the direction of this
thoughtful, taciturn, almost meditative
man, and are fighting without any
flummery and without any fireworks;
for Joffre is no political soldier no
warrior of the boulevards. He is a
real fighter; and believe me, he has
some real fighting to do, as Weber and
Fields might say.
Twenty-Five Years Ago
l"Tom The Orejronlan. November IS, 1SS9.
Olympia, Nov. 17 'Bomorrow the
territory of Washington will pass into
history and the state of Washington
will enter upon its governmental
career. An auspicious programme has
been arranged.
San Francisco E. M. Andrews, who
was supposed to have been dead for
some time and whose widow had put
on mourning and collected some $3000
Masonic lodgo insurance, has suddenly
turned up. His mind is a blank. Since
1886 he has been missing, and in ail
that time he has not collected any of
the pension or other moneys rightfully
his. One of the first acts of Andrews
was to repay the $3000 Masonic lodge
money which his "widow" had col
lected. The latest reports from Rio Janetro
say that a Republic has been created
in Brazil as the resultvof the revolu
tion. With $100,000 subscribed by the pub
lic Frithjof Kanaen, the Norwegian ex
plorer, is fitting up his expedition and
will leave soon for the Arctic region.
Work has been begun on the brick
foundry and pattern shop, for the Wil
lamette Iron Company at H and North
Third streets.
J- H. Polhemus has been left in
charge of the jetty work and other
United States engineering tasks at
Yaquina Bay, according to Captain W.
Young, who has just returned.
Friends of J. P. Randall at Alblna are
glad to learn that he can be out again
and serve up justice to law-breakers.
G. W. Heath has won the contest
with Mr. Kraeft for a seat in the Al
blna Council. It is probable that Kraeft
will appeal.
Mrs. "Stonewall" Jackson is writing
a biography of her husband.
Old record recently dug up by those
interested in such matters prove that
Abraham Lincoln's ancestors were all
well-to-do and prominent and substan
tial people. Almost all of them were
large taxpayers in their respective
townships in Massachusetts and Vir
ginia. Cicero M. Idleman returned yesterday
from the East.
Half a Century Age
. From The Oresonlan. November 10. 188-i.
Lighting a campfire around an old
stump, the drivers of two prairie
schooners camped last night at Sixth
and Clay streets. One was driving four
mules, the other six.
Colonel Charles H. Larable. of Wis
consin, and W. F. Trimble, of Kentucky,
were admitted to the bar yesterday as
attorneys and counselors at law iu the
Circuit Court.
The case of John Garrison versus the
City of Portland occupied nearly all
yesterday in the Circuit Court. The
case was submitted to the jury about
S P. M. Garrison is suing the city for
damages sustained about two years ago
when he fell in an open cistern while
running to a fire.
The attention of the public is called
to the law passed by the recent Legis
lature making itinlawful for any per
son to entice from a reservation any
Indian or half-breed who habitually re
sides there. The penalty is a $25 fine
for the first offense, and a fine of from
$50 to $100 for each subsequent offense.
After running aground in a fog at
the mouth of the Willamette River
Thursday. the oteamer George S.
Wright arrived here last night. Among
her passengers were C. Levy, A. Mayer,
J. Taylor, William Nichols and J. T.
BUyeu.
There was a good turnout at the ben
efit given at the Willamette Theater
for Miss Annette Ince last night. The
play of "Ion," or "The Founding of Ar
gos," was produced.
There is a very fine bell on Couch's
wharf awaiting shipment to Corvailis.
We presume its echoes will call the
denizens of that pleasant little burg to
church, or public meetings of some
character.
Knapp, Burrell & Co. have received a
shipment of fireproof safes. They are
of small sizes and suitable for mining
districts.
INDIANS CLAIM TITLE TO LAND
Opening Based on Wrong; Understand
ing; an to Warm Sprlnas Boundarlea.
WARM SPRINGS, Or.. Nov. 15. (To
the Editor.) I wish to write you in
regard to the Deschutes edict that you
published in The Oregonian. Sunday,
November 8.
We Indians of the Warm Springs
Reservation claim that a part of the
land listed by the Secretary of Agricul
ture as being in the Deschutes Na
tional Forest belongs to us, being a
part of our reservation.
Our boundary is that of Jefferson
Creek. The National Forest officials
are representing that our boundary la
the Two Creek line, which it is not.
This is well known, not only by our
selves but by Mr. John A. McQuin, of
Portland, who made one of our boun
dary surveys, and knows all about the
reservation, and by other surveyors
and many white people.
The Secretary of Agriculture should
withhold his edict from the land that
lies between Jefferson Creek and Two
Creek. It was given to us originally
when the reservation was set apart for
us in consideration of our relinquishing
our forefathers' lands at The Dalles.
It has been known and used as ours
ever since. Our title to it has been
acknowledged by white persons who
have leased grazing lands from us with
in the above limits.
The move to take this tract away
from us is illegal and dishonest, for it
is part of the price of our old home
lands, and it has been undertaken
solely by the unscrupulous speculators
who are robbing us Indians on every
side.
Our boundaries are being changed
without our knowledge or consent, and
without compensation to us. The set
tlers through whom the land robbers
are enriching themselves are crowding
in on us, till wo may soon have no
home at all.
As boon as we have found that we
have been defrauded we have tried to
complain to the authorities at Wash
ington and to ask for our property to
be restored and protected. But we are
beginning to fear that our complaints
have not been permitted to reach
those for whom they were Intended,
or that wjb have been misrepresented,
for the false boundaries are still in
sisted upon and the white settlers are
still crowding in upon us. And now the
Secretary of Agriculture is announcing
the opening of our best land, with our
best timber upon it, and our only, berry
patches, to white settlers. If it must
be opened to homesteaders, why can
not it bo opened to us Indians? We
have done the best wo could to protest
against our losses, but they continue.
So now we appeal to all good citizens
to help us to get justice at Washington.
The President does not wish us to be
wronged, we are sure. We are trying
to be good citizens ourselves. We are
industrious and peaceful, and do not
try to rob the white people, and we
vote on election day.
Is there no remedy for the injustice
aone to my people? If there is, help us
to find it.
JERRY HOLLIQCILLA.