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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1915)
8 THE MORNING OREGONIAN. FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 1915. " i. ft i? rOBTLAKD, OBEGOX. Entered at Portland. Orel on. postofflce ss second-class matter. Subscription ii.sie lnrarliiblr la edrance: Br Vail.) Dstly. Bnnday ineluded. out year r22 Daily. Sunday Included, six moatbi ..... ? Daily, Sunday Included, lire months ... 2.5 IaJy, Sunday Included, one month ..... . Pally, without euoda. one year ........ O-UO Daily, without Sunday, six months ...... f; Daily, without Sunday, three months ... 1-S Daly. without Sunday, one month ...... .u Weekly, one year J-jJj Sunday, one year -? Sunday and Weekly, one year .......... e-oo (By Carrier.) DaflyJSunday Included, one year ....... w.vo Daily. Sunaay included one monta .... Mow to Kemit Send PoatotXlce money or der, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at sender's risk. Give postofflce address In full, including county and state. fontase Rates 12 to Id pases. 1 cent; IS to it paxes. X cents; 84 to 48 pases, 8 cents; to to 60 paces, 4 cents; 63 to 7d pases, a cents- 73 to V4 pages, cents. Sorelsn post age, double rates. . Easter RnvliiMa MflMm Verree Si Conk- lio. Brunswick building. New York; Verree ec Conkiln, fcteger building, Chicago: San Francisco representative, ti. J. Hidwell. 4srket street. lOKTLAXD. FRIDAY, JtTNE 2S, IB 15. THE OV SECRETARY OF STATE. The general approval with which the appointment of Robert Lansing- as Secretary of State was received among men of both parties at Washington will no doubt represent the sentiment of the country at large. The occasion demanded so imperatively the ap pointment of an international lawyer, diplomat and statesman of long train ing and proved ability that many men suggested that President Wilson fol low the example of France and Brit ain by appointing such a man from among the Republicans and thus to a. degree Nationalizing his Cabinet. The names of Elihu Root and P. C. Knox were mentioned In this connec tion. This suggestion is open to the objection that our foreign relations have not reached such a. critical stage as to require the party In power to share responsibility with the opposi tion. Only actual war caused France and Britain to adopt that course. Its adoption la this country would be tantamount to a confession by Presi dent Wilson that his party was so poor In material as to be unable to supply a man capable of filling the highest place in the Cabinet. That was too humiliating a. confession to ask any President to make unless the fact was glaringly obvious and the necessity supremely urgent. In the selection of Mr. Lansing the President has proved such a confes sion unnecessary. The new Secretary Is a Democrat, but has been employed In a field which has kept him clear of partisan controversies. He has been employed in that field by Repub lican as well as Democratic Adminis trations. His appointment, therefore, Is the nearest approach possible to the non-political, short of the actual choice of a man from the opposition party. His experience In International arbitration and as counselor to the State Department, his wide acquain tance with foreign statesmen and dip lomats and his familiarity with the serious pending questions mark him out as a man admirably equipped for the place. He holds in his hands all the threads of uncompleted negotia tions and can carry them on without any of that lost motion usually con sequent on a change. The appointment of Mr. Bryan, while a political necessity to Mr. Wil son, was a misfortune to the Nation. He had condemned the foreign policy of preceding Administrations at al most every point and bad dragged it Into the forefront of political contro versy, though the greatest desidera tum is continuity of foreign policy through its removal from party poli tics. His predilection for radical in novation had extended to interna tional relations and the changes he proposed could have been brought about only by careful regard for dip-. lomatic customs, by skillful negotia tion and by employment of men well versed in international law and well trained in diplomatic practice. But Mr. Bryan showed Indifference to cus tom and filled the offices with a view to reward for past political service rather than with a view to future dip lomatic service. Mr Lansing's appointment was dic tated by considerations strongly, con trasting with those which caused the choice of Mr. Bryan. He brings tq the President no political strength of' the kind credited to Mr. Bryan. He is unknown as a politician and has no personal following. His assets are a thorough knowledge of the work he has to perform and a proved ability to perform It, and a reputation among men In his own profession for those qualifications. He now has the op-, portunity to make this purely profsjs-: sional reputation Nation-wide and to convert it into a political asset for the President exceeding in value that which was brought to the Adminis tration by Mr. Bryan. His former po sition limited him to advice on law, and facts. He can now advise the President on policy In the light of his wide knowledge and experience, and may influence the President to repair the break in continuity between his own and his predecessor's foreign policy. Since the Civil War the Democratic party has given the Nation, Mn Bay ard and Olney, two Secretaries of State who were worthy of the best traditions of that great office. Mr. Lansing has the opportunity to make his name the third on the list, and the Nation, for its own sake as well as for his, will wish him success. A HTNT TO BE CACTIOUS. Recent decisions in anti-trust suits give the Government a broad hint to temper its policy with moderation and caution. Some of the prosecutions seem to have been inspired by such excess of zeal to comply with the de mands of public opinion that the Gov ernment exposed itself to rebuke by the courts. It failed in the Cash Reg ister case because in building Up a structure of facts on which to found a charge of conspiracy it went back farther In time than the statute of limitations permits. In the Steel Cor poration case it is given to understand that the courts will base judgment on facts existing at the time the suit was begun, not at the time the corporation came into being. Whatever power as a monopoly a corporatloa might have possessed at its inception it lost or abandoned before the prosecution began. The plain inference is that the courts will not aid the Government in running amuck against big corpora tions. It must prove that they were actually monopolies in restraint of trade or were actually pursuing poli cies or doing acts tending that way at the time of prosecution. Whether the Supreme Court will go farther In the case of the Harves- ec gomnajiy and, will bold iiiaj h.e simple possession, without exercise, of monopolistic power renders a combi nation illegal we shall learn In the Fall. - Then we shall learn whether the Sherman law is to be materially weakened by court decision, and, with it, the Clayton law, which Is built upon it and would fall with it. The evidence of moderation given by the courts comes simultaneously with a similar inclination in public opinion. "Bust the trusts" has lost its vote-getting' value as a campaign cry. The people are more Interested in measures to inspire confidence in capital, to promote activity In business and thereby to Increase general pros perity. REPRISALS. The suggestion of the novelist and economist, H. G. Wells, for a fleet of 2000 aeroplanes to attack the Krupp works In Germany sounds fantastic, but it may not be. A startling feature of the war is the way In which dreams have come true the submarine, the airship, poison gases, and the like. They seemed a few years ago to be long in the realm of fiction, but sci ence has wrought its wonders, and they are among the most efficient in struments of war. The Zeppelin has not done all it was said it would do, but the aeroplane has done more. The air raids, either with airships or aeroplanes, have not wrought much damage, but their moral effect has been marked. It is a significant fact that the raids on undefended towns in Germany and England are in the nature of re prisals. An aerial invasion of Ger many is' followed by a similar venture into England. The German view is thus set forth by Dr. Alfred Sieveking, an authority on international law: Any Infraction or the law of nations de mands reprisals. As a reprisal it is, of conrse, permissible to visit undefended towns with bombs. Reprisal ls punishment, and the more it is felt the better. The question of the possibility of combining with It strategic or tactical results la quite a sec ondary matter, we should, for example, be perfectly Justified, as a punishment for Russian marauding raids, in ahowertng bombs on CttXord or Cambridge, or impos ing a high fine on French towns.- The kind and degree of retaliatory Tneasurfti axe nat urally to a great extent governed by politi cal considerations, but from the Juridlc point of view our enemies, so fsr as they are al lies, form one entity, and the Idea naturally occurs to make the "civilized nations'" Eng land and Franca (eel what kind ot creatures their brothers In arms are. War Is not a gentle business. ORECOX-9 BIO ISSUE. The railroad land grant, disposal of which now awaits act of Congress, is peculiarly ill adapted to become a part of the National forests. Much of it, perhaps one-half. Is heavily tim bered, but it is not a solid tract of land. It is divided into several large areas, each standing alone and each area is not a solid tract In itself. The grant is in alternate sections, every other section lying outside the Juris-dlettoTt-f.Congress. So long as the grant remains closed to settlement, so long will. the full use and development of the alternate sec tions not within the gran be held back. Likewise the alternate sections not included in the grant will Inter fere with administration of the re served area and if logged or cultivat ed become a constant fire menace to the reserve. ! " To throw the lands into a reserve would mean the practical inclusion therein of an equal area of alternate sections. To reserve more than 2,000. 000 acres alone In Western Oregon would be a severe detriment to Ore gon development and Oregon prosper ity; to create a new reserve to all practical - purposes of more- than 4,000,000 acres, as would be the case, would be worse. All the water powers In the area would be automatically withdrawn from use; taxes on the reserve itself would be obliterated and-.taxes on the alternate sections would not increase; road highway construction in Western Oregon would be greatly hampered; railroad building would be retarded; all lines of industry would fail to at tain their full measure. .There is no more important issue Taced by Oregon today than the need to unite on a definite programme for disposition of the grant to actual set tlers and for presenting that pro gramme to Congress. XEWSPAPEBS IK SCHOOLS. One of the New Tork high school teachers has published some startling opinions about English. He prefers newspapers and magazines to books for school reading because, as he says, "they are alive." Books are dying if not dead, while "newspaper and mag azine English is current. It Is written and spoken here and now. It Is the" only real live language that we know and use. All other is dead." "Very likely this high school teacher is one of the sort who delight in wav ing red rags to stir up the conserva tives. He must have chuckled while he was writing his heresies to think of the rage with which the classicists would read them. We doubt if he means half he says, but there is a good deal ot truth in his wild extravagance. We never could understand, for, our part, why arid and vulgar English printed in a book must be bowed down to with awe while Jhe same poor stuff In a newspaper or magazine is to be despised and rejected. Would it not be a better rule to give proper credit to good English wherever we find it? There is much excellent writing in the current newspapers and maga zines and of course much that is as bad as possible. Schoolchildren should be taught to like the good and condemn the bad. The same 'authors who produce the books of the, day produce the magazine stories and ar ticles. There is no reason to suppose that they do worse work in one case than in the other. Most city newspa pers print quantities of matter from the pens of the best living writers. Shall we despise it merely because it is not bound in boards with gilt let tering on the back? Two-thirds of the professorial talk about the current neglect of books Is bosh. The best books never were read by any large part of the popula tion and never will be. They are for the few who are fit by nature and education to enjoy them.. In older times the common people read noth ing at all. with rare exceptions. Now they read the periodicals and their minds are the richer and healthier for it. Good books grow more popular every day because of the taste which develops out of the newspaper and magazine habit. The New Tork teacher is right when he says that "all books are dead or dying," though we must except some half dozen or so. The exclusion of periodicals from the schools tends to perpetuate that fossilized condition which Is so dear to the pedant's heart, but it does not Xosiss & aove ft great literature. The books which children are com pelled to "analyze" at school they are apt to hate for the rest of their lives. OCR EFFETE rOSTKKITY. In matters of comparatively small consequence the Forest Service seems able readily to recognize the ordinary fundamental principles that govern investments. In 1915 Congress passed an act permitting occupancy of National for est lands for Summer homes, hotels, stores and the like. The Forest Serv ice has now issued a circular respect ing the administration of the new law in which it observes that "users of National forest lands have expressed an unwillingness to make substantial improvements where they are to oc cupy lands under a permit subject to revocation at any time." Therefore revocable permits will be issued only to those who erect In expensive structures, but, continues the circular, "where prospective per mittees contemplate the erection of structures involving expenditures at a considerable amount, they should be given the right to occupy for a defi nite period under the new law if they so desire." Assured right to occupy for a defi nite period is just as strong a consid eration among investors in power plants as it is among investors in Summer homes and hotels. The ex penditure is infinitely more, yet the Forest Service makes provision for definite occupancy of a home or hotel site on forest- lands and rules that power plants may be erected only un der a revocable permit under an earlier law. Possibly, however, when the Na tional forests are turned over to fu ture generations our wiser posterity will be thankful that they may dig peacefully for relics among the ruins of our primitive bungaiows, undis turbed by the clatter and offending presence of useful industry. THE LENGTH OF LIFE. Dr. Victor C. Vaughn's assurance that the average length of life in the United States has been increased ten years since 1880 makes cheerful read ing. Coming from a man who has been president of the American Medi cal Association, the information is doubtless exact, but it may be easily misunderstood. Dr. Vaughn does not mean that ten years have been added to the ordinary man's life. On the contrary, there are plenty of figures to prove that life has been cut short rather than lengthened from the sta tion fifty years and onward. The so- called diseases of maturity have been making sad havoc among our elderly men of late, and nothing has hap pened to check the loss. The gain of ten years to which Dr. Vaughn refers has been effected by saving the lives of children who would formerly have perished of preventable diseases. Each child thus saved in-. creases the average length of life, though mature persons go on dying prematurely, just, as they did before. Statistics are sometimes very delusive. The rapid extinction of our elderly men with the rescue of young children from untimely death is filling the country with a comparatively youth ful population. The phalanx in the neighborhood of 40 years is increasing rapidly. That between 60 and 60 is diminishing in proportion to the whole number. This is not as it should be. The mature'man who has outlived the competitive struggle for success and has leisure to serve the public is per haps the most valuable figure in our National life. GRANDFATHER CLAUSE KILLED. The latest device of .the South to disfranchise the, negro legally has been foiled by a decision ' of the United States Supreme Court, which holds the "grandfather" clause of the Oklahoma constitution to be invalid, because it contravenes the fifteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution. A re markable fact about the decision Is that the opinion was prepared by Chief Justice White, a Confederate veteran. The Southern States cast about for years in search of a means to do le gally that which they had long done illegally prevent the negro from vot ing. They needed a qualification which would let in practically all whites and would shut out practically all negroes, though on its face it did not discriminate between the races. They tried the literacy test, but-the spread of education among tthe ne groes soon made it leaky as a 'bar to voting. They then reached back to slavery days and, calculating that every negro of voting age must be the grandson or a slave, adopted constitu tional amendments limiting the'fran chise to those whose grandfathers had been qualified to vote. Oklahoma had the literacy test, bjit adopted the grandfather clause to catch those ne groes who passed the test. It must now rely on the literacy test alone. while illiteracy among negroes rapidly decreases. The negrp Is fast becoming so much like the white in all respects af fecting the right to vote that the South may again be compelled to- fall back on intimidation. But as the' negro ac quires education ana property he will not so readily, submit to force, and serious disturbance may result. - Thus the race problem continually evades solution. A SEW CROP OF RICH MEN. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and the war in Europe is registering its effect near home. The mining country in the Coeur d'Alenes of Idaho never was so active, we are told by T. H. Brewer, a banker oi Spokane. Four or five years ago when the copper market became stagnant and the lead and zinc supply found no adequate outlet the Coeur d'Alene country was one of the first to feel it. Mines, which had piled up fortunes closed down and hundreds of men were thrown out of work. The situa tion Impressed itself keenly on the tributary towns. Mining stock brok ers practically drew the blinds and went out to sell other commodities, and many, especially those in the In land Empire, embracing , parts of Eastern Oregon, Idaho and Washing ton, practically quit business. Yet there were a few who. were fascinated by the romance- and possibilities of mining stock. Clerks, bookkeepers, draymen and scores of men then ut terly unknown in the business world kept the mining stock exchange doors ajar by their intermittent speculations in sums from $5 up. The element of gambling was evident; but they began to collect gilded paper. The majority of them invested secretly to rscape taunts ot their credulous friemts. A few men of means also kept buying shares of stock at ridiculously low oricea ranging fxoja, a csfi-t, to. AO. ccata. Theirs was a blind faith in Fate or Fortune. Suddenly the European war was precipitated less than a year ago and the copper, lead, zinc and kindred markets awoke with a start. Mines began to operate ""and stocks to sell and soar. Today in the Inland Em pire and elsewhere, as a direct result, there is a new crop of rich men. These men were the invisible factors in busi ness a year ago. Men who . bought supposedly worthless stock at 10 cents have awakened to find their holdings worth $20 a share and the few hun dreds they Invested now counted in thousands. One who invested only a few hundred today has an Income posslbilty of $15,000 annually from his holdings. Those who bought for 40 cents refuse to sell for $8 and $10. The war did it. Here, then, is the new crop of rich men; men trained in the basic, grind ing fundamental principles of busi ness who have become the business men of tomorrow because in a night they have found themselves with means to conduct business. Men who a few months ago slept In hall rooms and walked the street for amusement, today have bulging bank accounts. As a banker Mr. Brewer should know whereof he speaks. The fallacy of mining stock as an investment has been preached long and proved often and in the aggre gate the fortunate cases no doubt are isolated ones. Yet the fact remains the war has created a new crop of rich men who will become forces to be reckoned with in the near future. At any rate they invested in some thing, although at the time it might have appeared rankest speculation. After Mr. Lloyd George has secured his volunteer army of workmen for the British munition factories, affW he has secured compulsory arbitra tion, prohibition of strikes and limi tation of profits, he will still have to deal with the men who work four days a week and drink for the other three days. It is to deal with these that he needs compulsory powers. While he is making his last trial of the volun tary system, the German armies may be again pouring westward, equipped with heavy artillery and gas bombs, to renew the effort to blast their way to the English Channel- He may be tak ing desperate chances In giving the labor leaders those seven days in which to make good. Thomas A. Edison is fairly burled under a shower of university degrees this season. No doubt he values them highly, but he has not paid so. In the days of his struggle for recogni- tion and success the universities gave him the cold shoulder. Now that he has won wealth and honor without their help, tney are eager to decorate him. He pockets the decorations and smiles enigmatically, without saying what he thinks of them. Most of the commanders in the Eu ropean war - are elderly men. The Kaiser himself is hardly a boy. Gen eral French is 62 and Admiral Jellicoe 56. General Joffre is 63. General Kluck is 69 and Hindenburg 68. Had certain well-known theorists had their way, all these men would have been chloroformed long ago. Perhaps if they had been Oslerized there would have been no war. We commend Jackson County for its determination to drive- speed ma niacs from the Pacific Hignway. Would that other counties would form the same resolution and keep it. Peo ple of quiet habits find little pleasure in motoring when there is constant peril lurking- around the next corner in the form of a fool driving- a big car or riding a motorcycle. The largest item in the living ex penses of an ordinary family Is the cost of meat, which might be omit ted without ill consequences. Many other kinds of food are cheaper5, than meat and more nutritious, but they are not so appetizing. Here lies -the dif ficulty with all vegetarian ""reforms. People like meat and they do not like the substitutes for it. - . Perhaps the reason Pacific Univer sity -students come, to the front is tneirectj-my. in turning, up some thing . t. do '.rather than await the turning.' A number of the athletes are bound for Alaska, to work in canner ies during Summer." ew ' That -a motorcyclist Is lying in a hospital 'with "a omshed skull as ' re sult of eolllsion-'is ; not. held to be strange by people who see the motor cyclists "hit., her up" : on the outside streets.' '" . ' ' .1 - ' ' i i If the recollection. of that big lunch at Hermiston lives in the memories of Congressmen till' Congress meets, Ore gon will surely get a square deal when the irrigation pie is cut. ' Mexican military chiefs are defiant, while the Mexican people cry for food. Which is more entitled to American consideration the plunderers or the plundered? Mr. Shoemaker wanted to be game warden and he is. With Mr. Brown as chief deputy, the game business seems to be spoiling' some good news paper men. - s With an active volcano in the north, an exposition in the center and an earthquake In the south, California is surely a busy state. Lloyd George will put fear into the hearts of workers in England's muni tions factories, and it is time. German-Americans are barred from France; yet there no longer are hy phenated Americans. Southern California is ready to for get it until that section of the earth has another shake. Montenegrins are marching on Scu tari. Look It up on the map and pose as well posted. Customs have changed in -London Tower and the ax is rusty. Now they shoot 'em. Hon. Milt Miller can ; indulge in pleasant dreams. Bryan is coming to the Coast. Perhaps the boy is sad this last day of school, but his Badness is not visible. Kxasner acted as his own attorney and got the customary result. Even the Bryan men wore flags for Wilson yesterday. . The Pioneers had it all their own was. European War Primer By National Geographical Society. Lemberg. for whose possession the mightiest trial of strength of the war has resulted in an Austro-German vic tory, has under Austrian overlordshlp been a stronghold of Polish national consciousness. Almost unhampered by the Imperial authorities, it has admin istered, as Galicia's capital, the last remnant of Polish Poland.' When the Galician Diet was formed in 1861 Lem berg had fallen from her brave posi tion of the days of the Polish king dom. The city was poverty-crushed, unimproved, undrained and hence un healthy, with no schools and generally upon the verge of ruin. Today, aroused by the constitution of 1866, after 50 years of hopeful effort, the tide of in-, vasion swept over a beautiful, intense ly modern city, full of fine, substantial buildings, of lovely, well-planned parks, of up-to-date, richly-stocked shops, of excellent schools and colleges, of great monuments and expensive public works. The destructive tide of battle rolled over careful work of two generations. Before the outbreak of the .present war there was no city of Lembcrgr's size in Europe upon whose streets one might find more alert, vivacious life. The city had enjoyed a typically Ameri can "boom" for more than a genera tion, and its people had more of an air of bouyant confidence than any other Polish community. Industries were growing, and the commission and tran sit trade of the city was attaining the importance of this trade under the old kingdom. From a small, bitterly poor community Lemberg had progressed to the position of a wealthy metropolis of 200.000 inhabitants. The Galician capital lies in a sharply cut valley, embroidered on every hand by well-wooded hills. The parks and promenades of the city reach out into the hills, where some of the finest walks and garden spots have been laid out. Byond the suburbs of the capi tal little Polish villages straggle over the country roads, and, before great armies passed this way, flocks of thou sands upon thousands of ducks and geese, for Which Galicia enjoyed no small measure of fame, met the trav eler's eyes everywhere. The insignifi cant little -stream, Peltew, an affluent of tlrt Bug, flows by-the city. Lemberg lies 468 miles northeast of Vienna by rail and 212 miles east southeast of Cracow. It is about 50 miles from the Russian border. The capital is a main station upon trunk lines to Odessa, Czernowitz, capital of Bukowina, Breslau, in Germany., and Budapest, in Hungary. It is the fourth city in size in the Austrian empire, coming after Vienna, Prague and Triest. Commercially and industrially, as well as politically and educationally. It is the most important city in Galicia. Its factories turn out machinery. Iron wares, matches, stearin, candles and naptha. ' Besides being the seat of the chief economic organizations and of the gov ernment of the crownland, Lemberg is an important religious center, the seat of three archbishops, of the Roman Catholic, the United Greek and the United Armenian churches. The Uni versity of Lemberg was founded by Emperor Joseph II in 1784, and since 1871 its language of instruction has been Polish. There are a number of important museum collections in the city, among them collections all im portant to the student of the early life and customs of the country. Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, the name of the south German city successfully attacked by a squadron of French aeroplanes, might be anglicised as "Charles' , peace of mind." It was founded by Karl Wil helm, -margrave of Baden, who built himself a hunting, lodge here In 1715, where he might escape the grumblings and disputes of the people of his resi dence at Durlach. Consistent with the ideals of its foundation, the calm peace of Karlsruhe has never been broken. It is the most unruffled, temperate, and composed of all German cities. Push, alertness, nervous ambition, business energy, all these qualities that have come to mark the life of the striving, rapidly-progressing cities of the father land are mellowed and softened in the atmosphere of the town of "Karl's rest." a The sky-bombarded city is the capi tal of the Grand Duchy of Baden, com mercially, educationally and socially of high rank among the cities of the em pire. It is situated to the east or ine Rhine, on the Frankf ort-on-the-Maln Basel Railway, about 39 miles north west of Stuttgart and 33 miles Bouth west of Heidelberg. It is about 70 miles from the French border and some 4 6 miles northwest of Strassburg. Karlsruhe contains many fine build ings, private and public, bordering the broad avenues, which radiate in the form of an expanded fan from the Pal ace place. The city is surrounded by beautiful parks and gardens, under whose tree-covered walks the people enjoy the contented, mild philosophy of their traditions. Since the establishment of the empire in 1871 the commerce and industries of Karlsruhe have gone steadily ahead, and the city has rapidly multiplied its wealth and population. It numbers now about 115,000, not including a con siderable peace time's military sta tioned there. It is the headquarters of the XIV German army corps.-. Lxtenslve railway shops and a large arms fac tory are two of the most important in dustrial branches. FlauKbter !" Overdrawn. PORTLAND, June 24. (To the Edi tor.) -A statement has recently been published, said to have been made by a prominent educator and peace propa gandist of this city, who has recently visited Europe, that "the average life of a horse on the battlefield now is five days; of a man, 21 days." I am not a very rapid or accurate calculator, but it would appear to me that if the average life of a man in the contending armies is only 21 days, and the conflict and loss of life averages about the same each day, then the en tire armies or an equal number of men must be killed off every 42 days. It must be evident to any one who stops to reason that the quoted state ment is very erroneous, and the ques tion that very naturally comes to my mind is, what proportion of similar statements have the same foundation in fact? Perhaps the "higher mathematics" discovered since I went to school can explain this rule of averages. AN INQUISITIVE MALE. Questions In Civil Government. PORTLAND, June 23. (To the Ed itor.) Will you please answer through The Oregonian: 1. What are the amendments to the Constitution? 2. State the steps necessary In mak inar a treaty between this country and another. 3. How is the President elected? 4. What institutions are the elee mosynary institutions of the state? CLUBWOMAN. It would be far more profitable to a person desiring the Information indi cated in the foregoing to spend an hour or two of study in the public Library, where a reference department Is maintained for that, purpose. The Oregonian cannot devote space to or dinary textbook and public record in formation. Jack London's Addreaa. INDEPENDENCE. Or., June 83. (To the Editor.) Please give the address of .Jack London. B. G. G; Glen Ellen galifoxnia, : : MILITARY PREPARATION IS WISE Mrs, Dnnlirar Advocates Means to De fend Country's Beacoasta. PORTLAND, June 24. (To the Edi tor.) I am being importuned, almost daily, by women from many parts of the Union, urging me to inaugurate, or at least head, a peace movement among the enfranchised women of my baili wick of the Pacific Northwest, for whose power to vote I am accorded pr.aise or blame, according to the view point of the writers, who are, quite naturally, seeking such advice as they desire. Many of these friends are plan ning for a movement demanding "peace at any price," but many more are demanding adequate preparation for possible war as a preparation for defense in case. of attack from outside foes. While personally denouncing all the horrors of war, and while according all due deference to the motherless wives and maiden ladies who are demanding "peace at any price," I respectfully ask The Oregonian for space to state my views ' of the situation in the interest of the many of your readers whom I am not able to reach by private corre spondence. Man is naturally a fighting animal, and woman, unless at bay, is naturally an advocate of peace. But, as hundreds of thousands of bereaved wives and mothers are now at bay in the wake of foreign battle fields, and the menace of war is confronting us in Mexico, the time has come for the mothers of men to lay emotional sentiment aside and look dispassionately at the situation as it exists. First let us consider the fate of defenseless Belgium. We can see what terrible devastation came to her when overtaken by hostile forces. Think what might, and doubtless would, hap pen to Washington If our capital city should be shelled by marauders from the ocean and in the air. Would it not be our duty, as a Nation, to be pre pared for such a calamity? Suppose the- allied powers should secretly combine to attack our shores, on both sides of our United States. Are we now in a condition to repel them? Would it not, rather, be to our benefit to prepare beforehand for such a contingency? We are informed that defenses are planned for the Columbia River at its mouth, but what ot such bays as Grays Harbor, Shoalwater, Tillamook, or even Alsea, Yaquina or Coos? What is to prevent a hostile fleet from anchoring outside and pouring their hordes of warriors among our un protected people, leaving devastation ana death in their wake? war prepare for peace," reasoning and reflecting these days of devastation "In time ot says every mother, in and butch- ery occurring across the seas. l-teplying to my friends, and rear friends, who have induced me to write this letter, previous to preparing to visit the Panama-Pacific Exposition in July as an honor guest of our beloved state, permit me to say that I sincerely hope the mothers of men will unite in urging the sons of women to prepare for the adequate defense of our prac tically unguarded sea coast on both sides of the Union. Women can or ganize to create a public sentiment that will hasten our Nation in creating an alliance with the seven greatest na tionalities of the world by framing a compact, or federation, for the future preservation of peace. If the present war shall lead to such a consumma tion, it will not have been wholly in vain. In the meantime, let women de mand that wars, created by the heads of the nations who make them, shall be fought to a finish by the heads of the nations who alone are responsible for them. Then the wholesale butchery of their victims will cease. To my mind there is no speedier way to bring about this desideratum so devoutly to be wished than to charter one or more of our gneat warships for mobilizing an nually many hundreds of the very flower of our young men and maidens, collected proportionately from every state, and send them out on a mission of good fellowship to visit all the monarchs and monarchies of the world not forgetting British Columbia, South' America and our own islands of the Pacific seas. ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIWAY. WOMEJPS MILITAWCY INEXCUSABLE It la Indefensible In United States, Avert Correspondent. PORTLAND. June 24. (To the Ed itor.) You are to be congratulated for having the moral courage to tell the plain truth about some of our female suffragists, as you do in your editorial on "Brazen Feminism." For a long time the level-headed, thinking men and women of Oregon have been too much under the hypnotic Influence of certain catch phrases that the votes-for-women advocates have been pro jecting into the minds of millions of people. We are beginning to come out of the spell and to face realities. It is one of the compensations of the present war that doctrinaires of all sorts are having their pompous and vainglorious pretensions completely punctured. If there Is a country in the world where the tactics of myitant suffragists are totally indefensible, that country is the United States. Nowhere else do women enjoy as with us the freedom, security, special privileges and immu nities that our men have given them. The United States oomes nearer to realizing not only, female equality, but female domination, than any other na tion on earth. Is it not time the militants under stood this? If they wish to render a civic service, why not agitate among their own sex for a realization of the greater responsibility that their free dom Imposes? Nowhere else is woman as much of a consumer and as little of a forced producer of economic and- so cial values as in America. Is this right? Is this Just? It is passing strange how any sane, reasonable woman could harbor the whimsy that she is being systematical ly discriminated against, when in fact in almost every state men have volun tarily discriminated in favor of women and against their own sex. Let a woman kill a man even If it happens to be her own husband and the jury invnriably acquits her if she makes a tearful appearance and pleads temporary insanity and sobs out her "wrongs"' cn the witness stand. Such cases are not at all rare. Two of them occurred in Oregon within the past 13 months. In one case there was no attempt to deny the killing of the man. In the other the evidence was overwhelmingly against the husband-killer, even to the extent of Im plicating a paramour. Yet acquittal followed In bcth cases. Jurymen are evidently t.nder the complete sway of the fixed Idea that women are inherent ly quite incapable of wrongdoing. So firm seems to be this notion in the mind of the average man put there by the persistent agitation of at least two generations of feminists that every District Attorney in the country understands It is practically impossi ble to get a conviction of a woman accused of murdering a man, be he her husband or not. In the second case cited, if the hus band had been killed by the paramour, the latter would no doubt have been found guilty. But where the wife herself takes the trouble to get rid of an inconvenient nusDand, acquittal is practically certain from the start. I beg to suggest that the militants devote their energies to conducting a campaign of education among their own sex as to duties and obligations to be discharged to society in return for rights and favorable discrimina tions already bestowed upon them They will thus promote a better under-' standing between the sexes rather than conflict and discord. I dare say in the course of a decade they will have dis covered that they can make more progress by the indirect method thn by dragoonjus tactics, JEe-S, H, Twenty-Five Years Ago From The Oresonlan, June 25, 1S90. Every member of the Chamber of Commerce should attend the meeting tonight and register his protest against the imperfect census enumera tion. It seems certain the census popu lation of this city will be under estimated from 8000 to 12,000. Every business man should be interested. New York Isaac Murphy predicts that Salvator will defeat Tenny tomorrows- in better time than he did at the suburban i necessary. Tenny in a trial run today galloped it in 2:093. Milton has raised 13000 as a dona tion toward securing an Adventists academy. " Messrs. Wells and Steinbach have purchased the block at the north east corner of Washington and East Park streets and are having the ground cleared and excavated for a three-story building. The building will be of wood, contain seven stores on the ground floor and 88 rooms above. At a meeting of the Presbyterian Alliance -yesterday at Ladd & Tilton Bank a building committee consisting of Rev. Thomas Boyd, Rev. Warren H. Landon, J. Thorburn Ross and L M. Parrish was appointed to superintend the erection of the Presbyterian Church at Fulton. Rev. William Travis will have charge under the supervision of the committee. One of the largest sturgeons taken, from the rtver was caught yesterday by S. II. Patterson, an employe of Tatum & Bowen. Five men had to help him land it. A magnificent gold-headed cane was presented to Professor Keyes by the members of the High School Debating Society last night. George Scoggin made the presentation. Mr. Scosgln is president. C. C. Cooper, late of the Romana Hotel at San Luis Obispo, has been en gaged as -manager for the Seaside House, Clatsop. Dr. J. W. Hill, superintendent of Bishop Scott Academy, will examine ap plicants for entrance to Yale College tomorrow. The Emperor Francis Joseph refused to allow his "daughter Archduchess Valerie to accept the wedding presents which the municipal councils all over the Austrian. Empire voted her, and In stead the money is to be given to charity. The 23d annual commencement of the Portland High School was held yes terday. Miss liena Hickling, saluta torian, returned thanks to the parents, teachers and patrons in a few grace ful sentences. Miss Myrtle Dawson, Grace M. Springer, Amy J. Deas, Mollie H. Cartwright, Viola J. Manner, Viola Ortchild, Mary S. E. Connor and Miss Frances E. Warren delivered essays. WESTERX PASTOR HARD PRESSED He Is Often Unjustly Criticised for In attention to Newcomers. PORTLAND, June 24. (To the Ed itor.) In answer to the correspondent of June 8, "One Wno Stays at Home." I would like to say you certainly are fitting yourself to lose the very best in life and, worst of all, your children are being deprived by you of the proper training by missing the worship ot God. Your case is like the many who leave the settled East, with its many church members, and come to a newer country, where it taxes all the powers of all tlie church workers to keep up with the incoming migration. Keep up? No, we do not keep up the spiritual part of life here; it is im possible. The poor preacher gets the blame, when he in his wholehearted ness is trying to further God's king dom heroically. Yes, for his salary is little better than starvation wages. But under It all he must be cheerful and is so, carrying the rest on his shoulders. I had not been a member a week in the West when $5 was asked of me. I was astonished, but now thank God. How I wish I could give more for his cause. May "One Who Stays at Home" be helped with these words and hasten to begin over to do "what she can." which is all that is asked, and enjoy the blessings that come to those that do. I know many that enjoy worship who are not able to pay, but God'a promises are with that class instead of those who withdraw from his service and guidance. MRS. C. J. HOWARD. Error in Pisures. HOOD RIVER, Or., June 23. (To the Editor.) In your splendid editorial in The Oregonian, for which I have walked four miles every Sunday, save once in two Summers, on the subject of King John and the Magna Charta, I notice you say this charter was signed June 13, 1213. Now I haven't my his tories with me, but June 15, 1215, is so firmly fixed in my mind that if I am mistaken I cannot account for havint; clung to that error all these years. So sure was I that your date was a mere slip' of the memory that I should have passed it by had it not been for your comment immediately following in re gard to ill-luck. Now. as Lincoln said when he went back and took the little pig out of the mudhole. I want the pain taken out of my mind. W. J. P. The correspondent is right. The cor rect date is June 15, 1215. The Work He Did Shooting Democrats. In the July American Magazine a United States Senator writes a very in teersting article entitled "A Senator's iaiL" Among the curious letters he has received is the following from an indignant pension claimant: "Why hasn't my pension been al lowed? I spent three of the best years of my life shooting Democrats, and it 13 time something was being done for me. See the President about this with out fail." Anglers and Property Owners. COQUILLE, Or., June 22 (To the Ed itor.) Has a property owner authority to keep you from fishing out of a large stream running through his premises when same is accessible from a publio highway, and in fishing the stream is waded the entire distance through said property. -A- SUBSCRIBER. Yes. if stream is non-navigable; no if it is navigable. Datea Back. Louisville Courier-Journal. "It says here that Queen Elizabeth was attended by a hand maiden." "Hum. I thought the manicure irl was a product of recent date." We Are avii uaiju Hunters We like to pride ourselves on our shrewdness. We like to feel that we can get more for our dollar than the other fellow. It's as much a matter of pride as of necessity. Bargain hunting is no exclusively feminine trait. It's the underlying law of business. Advertising Is the index of the seeker. It is the avenue to values the signboard to right spending. That Is why newspaper advertis ing has such an appeal. i