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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1915)
THE SIORXIXG OREGOXIAX, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1915. PORTLAND. OREGON. I f.tered at Portland, Oregon, Postorlice as furipUon Rata Invariably in mavanca. " - tBy Mail. ftatiy. Sunday incluued, tin year. ...... -fj;" Pally. Suiiday included, alx montha. . . . POy. Sunday Included. tnre monthi. - 1.4 fcaliy, Sunday Included, ena month..... . a!ly. without Sunday, ana year. ....... BHIy. without Sunday, six months Xlally. without Sunday, three montha... l.To aily. without Sunday, one month...... ,.&u Weekly, one yar. ............- .. tiinday, one year Sunday and Weekly, one year.......... a.&u i (By Carrier.) ' Prtf. Sunday included, one year anally, Sunday Included, one month - - - - h te Remit Send jxMtotflca money or. eW, express crdar or Personal check on your focal bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at tender's risk. Give pc-stocflce addrew in full, including county and state. - Peatace FtI -U to 18 pages, 1 cent; Id 32 pages, 2 cents; 84 to 48 pages, 3 cents; JW to oO pages. centa; 52 to 7 pages, a centet 78 to 92 pages. cents. Foreign ptostate, double rates. Eastern Bnalneim Offrces Verres ft Conk fin, Brunswick tmldlng. New York; Verree Conklln, Steger building, Chicago; Kan Vraaiisco representative, R. J, Bidwsll. 142 sisrket etre-t. MltfLAXD, SATURDAY. OCT. 1, 1915. HX WE 'E0 A STRONG NAVlf. 3 The United States needs a strong avy, such as President Wilson seems disposed to recommend to Congress, Jfhnarily to protect our own coast from, invasion. The present -war has Encouraged the belief that other forms of coast defense can be made so impregnable a to render a hostile fending impossible, but the circum stances of the United States are and would probably remain different from thos of the two chief naval adver saries in the present War. Britain is immune from invasion because of supremacy at sea, not because of coast defense by means of forts, mines and submarines, for her coast-line is so extensive that a Weak point in such' offenses might be found by a hostile nation commanding the Sea. Germany ii safe from Inyasion because the 36rtR Sea coast is short and there fore capable of thorough defense, hll the Baltic Coast is inaccessible except through easily blocked straits. - The United States has a long coast IJne fronting on two great dceans. "file most thorough system of forts, afilries and submarines could not Ten der it absolutely secure against a navy that Was supreme at sea. This coun try's security against invasion must rest primarily on the possession of, a fleet capable of going out to meet that df any probable enemy and to. destroy it. So long as the enemy's fleet re rflarned in being, the danger of inva sion would exist, and a great army would be necessary to guard the coast and to move to any point of invasion. Even were our fleet to be defeated in battle, the invading army could not safely venture across either oceJh an til it had been disposed of, and be fore the battle was fought much valu able time would have been gained' for the organization and equipment of Our land forces. Hence it is true that the most effective defensive is an of fensive. By going out to attack the ethemy and by destroying his fleet, our nervy could render invasion impossible and could thus save us the necessiti es organizing an army large enough to oope not only with' the enemy's first tyivading army but with all the rein forcements he might send, once he gained -command of the sea and of a Base on our shores. ' We are fond of describing ourselves i. a peaceful nation, which attends strjctly to its own affairs, but in fact we are. as Burton K. Hendricks said irt the World's Work, "the most med dlesome people in the world." In the Monroe Doctrine we have undertaken trt guard not qnly our own coasts, but the coasts o the entire Arnerlcan hemisphere from invasion. We warned Britain off from Venezuela in Cleve land's day and we warned Germany oft from the same country during the Roosevelt administration. Either we must abandon the Monroe Doctrine or t must have sufficient force to main tain it. for, as ex-Secretary of the Itavy Meyer said, it Is no stronger than the navy behind it. Britain has frankly accepted it. but other nations have studiously avoided agreement to be bound by it. Any one of them may set It at naught if in possession of a sufficient navy to defy us. , Not content with constituting our selves guardians of the whole of Amer ica, we have practically annexed the entire North Pacific Ocean. That is the effect of our possession of Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, Samoa and the Philip pines. Those islands are admirably located to become a string of naval bases for a navy controlling the Pa cific. They are convenient distances apart for coaling, supply and repair efshlps. We have irritated Japan by our anti-Oriental policy and by our protest against her aggression on China. If that country, the Germany of- the Orient in efficiency, militarism anil desire for expansion, should build a navy superior to ours, it could, in case of war, seize these Islands in suc cession and use them as naval bases for an invasion of this country. Un less we equip and fortify them and unless we provide enough warships to overpower a Japanese fleet, we might thjn be compelled, after a long and disastrous war. to build a new navy anil to retake them, one by one, after Japan had become strongly estab lished there. The United States has also chal lenged the world to a contest for su premacy by annexing Porto Rico, es tablishing a naval station at Guan tanarno, taking Santo Domingo and Haiti under our protection and Anally, and most of all. by building the Pan ama Canal. We have gone far to make the Caribbean Sea an American Mediterranean and have undertaken, by means of the Canul, to take away South American trade from Britain and Germany. Instead of neutralis ing the Canal, as Britain has done with the Sues Canal, we have fortified 14- and thereby challenged the world to try to take it. The Panama Canal is far.more vulnerable than the Suez, for it is a lock canal, while Suez is on sea-level. Destruction of one lock would put it out of business. IT our fleet were caught on the wrong side of the Isthmus, it would find no coal ing stations on the long voyage around Cape Horn. If the Suez Canal were blocked, a British fleet would have a chain of such stations in going around the Cape of Good Hope. Hence the safety of our, Canal is far more vital to -us than is that of Britain's canal to that country. We cannot afford to let an enemy even approach it. ?A strong navy is the first necessity tl adequate defense, because no er.e roy will dare invade our coast or chal lenge xii to uphold the Monroe Dec trine or attack our islands until It Is destroyed. If we provide against pos sible disaster to our fighting fleet by a complete system of coast defer.se submarines, monitors, gunboats, mines and aircraft we can prevent or seriously delay and obstruct the landing of an invading army, should the battle fleet be defeated. If behind that system we have an army capable of quick expansion to a field force of 500,000 trained men, amply provided with aartillery, ammunition and all auxiliaries, we need not fear that any hostile force will ever make .good a footing on our coast. This would bo our third line of defense. No navy short of one that can over power a possible enemy is adequate to our purpose. As the General Board of the Navy says, "any navy less han adequate is an expense to the Nation without being a protection." NO REAL DISTINCTION. "The ostensible issue," says Senator Chamberlain in discussing water pow ers and proposed Federal legislation concerning them, "is state . control Versus Federal control. The real issue as presented by the -resolutions passed by the (late water-power) conference was: Shall the Government grant leases for the water Sowers of the West revocable at the end of fixed periods, or shall the Government give away, practically, control over those sites?" The Senator makes a distinction without a real difference between the ostensible issue and the real issue. There is none. The Federal bureaucracy (other, wise the Interior Department) seeks through the Ferris bill, which it de vised, to regulate and control state water powers. They are not Federal water powers, but they are state water powers. But the Government assumes that they are Federal prop erty, and acts accordingly. Of such are the devices of an overshadowing scheme of .reservation, extended by the Federal hand through all the Western states. . The Government has no present right and can have none, either un der the Ferris act, or ' existing stat utes, to "grant leases of the water powers of the West." The quoted words are the Senator's. They dis close unintentionally the whole Fed eral attitude. The language of the Senator will be corrected and repudi ated by the Federal autocracy, yet it is an exact . definition of the depart mental attitude, The plan of the Government disclosed in its every ac tion, and betrayed by the very phrase ology of its propaganda, is to control the water power themselves, which are admittedly the states'. But what are the rights of the states when a Democratic Administration chooses to reverse its historic policy and feed the bureaucrats with more ppwer? AS TO RfcSPOSrSIBXIJTV. If the thoughtful citizen will hark back to the days when commission government was under consideration in Portland, he will recall that one of the sterling qualities of the proposed system then enumerated was the man ner in which it would inevitably fix responsibility on each commissioner for the conduct of his own depart ment. Commission government is no longer a matter for consideration. It has been adopted. But that inevitable re sponsibility which attaches to each commissioner causes a restlessness at the City Hall hardly consistent with the high price paid for the services of men supposed to be willing to tAckle large municipal problems and take the personal consequences, be what they may. Mr. IJaly, for example, longed for budget allowances for certain pur poses, but hesitated to assume the re sponsibility for them by putting thc-m in the estimate of his department's needs. It would be very pleasant for him, quite conducive to his peace of mind, if under possible future criti cism he could say that the Council as a whole had increased his budget es timates. It is Refreshing to learn, however, that the fixing of responsibility is ns Inevitable as it w-as represented to be. The other members of the Council re fused to share Mr. Daly's burden of responsibility. Let it be hoped that the Commission will be as stern and relentless individually and collectively in other matters. It would be diseon certive, indeed, to see them take shel ter behind that worthy, but wholly unresponsible citizens' advisory com mittee, if the size of the tax , levy should cause public protest. AGENCIES OF INSASilTT. A correspondent writes to challenge the suggestion that the German phil osopher Nietzsche may have cajoled his brain into breaking down by his harsh deductions and grim view of mortal existence. He cannot discern any reason why one who fails in an swering or refuting the logic and dogma of Nietzsche should take refuge in the fact of that philosopher's later madness. Without having access to the medical record of Nietzsche's men tal disturbances. The Oregonian can not enter a statement of the physio logical factors which may have con tributed to the breaking down of the vehicle of Nietzsche's virulent mind. Whether there were lesions, a destruc tion of tissues or a series of organic changes of any particular character in the brain, however, does not mate rially affect the issue in question. The causes behind physiological changes may be psychic in origin. Poisons in the blood frequently contribute to mental affliction, and whether these poisons are generated by some such agency as spirochaete pallidae or through the medium of a bitter pes simism, the result is much the same. Nietzsche's philosophy in its later stages took on an unwonteVl acridity. With so hard a view of life there must have been small room for the sustain ing cheerfulness that serves so great a part in smoothing over the hard spots in mortal existence. Constant fault-finding is first cousin of worry, and as a feult-finde with the world Nietzsche was without a peer. Un fortunately, too, he took his grim philosophy very much to heart. It was an obsession with him rather than a diversion. Had he been able to ap ply the antidote of diverting- pursuits, we suspect that the madhouse might not have claimed him. Dean Swift, Maupaussant, Miller and the whole array of those brilliant minds who have chided the world and found fault with existence have come to grief. Madness or a barren joyless old age is the recorded portion of many of those who fly in the face of Nature. Nervous disorders andlactual insan ity are common ailments among those who put their brains to queer uses. The cheerful philosopher, on the other hand, rare! comes to such unhappy end. Cheerfulness does not generate dire poisons to upset the nervous sys tem and disturb the functions of brain and body. The eminent -French neu rologist. Dubois, finds pessimism and psychic disturbances in the- relation ship of cause and effect. A hppy, j normal outlook on life he sets down as the most effective antidote. WHY MARRY? Any discussion as to whether a young man is Justified in marrying on (60 per month, on $150 per month or any other sum, may be interesting as dia Ietical contributions to the abundant literature of rnarrlike, but nothing more. There -are young men who ought not to get married on $1000 a month and there are others who will be wise to marry on nothing a month for the present, but on millions In prospect through good character, real capacity and right ambition. Marriage cannot be defined In the language of money, but it can be In terms of purpose, duty, inclination and obligation. "Marriage," says the philosopher, "may often be a stormy lake, buti celibacy is almost always a muddy horsepond." And We are told by the great Bacon that "wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity." Who does not know that the disci pline of marriage has been the savor of humanity and the balance and very foundation of civilization? - m DEMOCRACY AND CORONETS. The Proportional Representation Review, which has just come to hand. Is the organ of a league which pub lishes an Imposing list of officers, hon orary and active.. In a congratulatory spirit It is herein recorded- that on the identical page with the names of the Kt. Hon. Lord Courtney, Of Peu wlth, England, and Count Goblet d'AlViella, of Belgium, appear those of W. S. ITRen and Alfred D. Cridge, aiodest democrats, with a small d,- of Oregon. But it is not primarily to comment on . the novelty of Oregon citizens' rubbing against titles and coronets that this is written. It is a large table of imposing appearance included with the magazine which consumes our attention. To compile this table somebody has gone to the pains of figuring out what Would have happened if proportional representation had been applied n the Congressional election of 1914 in states electing three or more Repre sentatives. The computations' show that the Democrats would hav,e gained four members in the total, the Progressives eighteen, the ' Socialists ten and the Prohibitionists one. The Republicans would have lost thirty three. In other vjords, proportional repre sentation would not change the course of legislation in the next Congress in the slightest particular on the issues that divide men into political parties. The Democrats, who now have a clear majority of twenty-nine, would have a clear majority of thirty-three. The system's sole recommendation is that it divides the jobs with the nicety of exactness among the several parties, big and little. That Is all, but that one quality, equitable as it may seem, Is the outstanding defect of propor tional representation as it would be applied in this country, of easy can didacy. The Job would soon become more important than the party and an in viting field would be created for the so-called independent to form an or ganization of his own. This is now a two-party government. Proportional representation would make, of it a many-group government in the end. It would' destroy a system which has safely " carried - the country through many storms for 130 years. That is its real Intent. v ANOTHER LEADER IN LINE.- One by one the Progressive party leaders are declaring themselves in line with the Republican party. The latest is Charles Sumner Bird, of Massachusetts, who was third party candidate for Governor in 1913, and who now calls on his former sup porters to support Samuel W. McCall, Republican candidate for the same office. His letter to the Progressive party chairman seems to have been a sum mons to the Bull Aioose to commit harakiri. He realizes that its pur poses are being served by the Repub licans and thwarted by the Demo crats. Hence he calls for a union of forces to rid the country of Demo cratic rule. When we consider the broad prin ciples at stake, there are in fact but two parties of any consequence in this country the Republican and the Democratic and Mr. Bird has simply proclaimed the fact that Republicans and Progressives are all in one party because they stand for the same prin ciples. That fact is no longer denied except by those few third party men who are held back by pride or self interest. The rank and file and the men who draw yotes have abandoned the party, and nothing remains but the skeleton of an organization. TKl'TH VER5jC8 DIPLOMACY. "Never lie to your wife" Is the grave warning which has been issued to rising young husbands by an august California jurist. This judge appears to have reached the conclusion that years of service at the hopper of di vorce mills have laid bare to his per ceptive vision all the mysteries and intricacies of conjugal infelicity. Of all the. offenses against the frail little matrimonial bark this magistrate of the Superior Court, Judge W. M. Cxn ley, holds prevarication the worst. It is a regular scuttle and has no -place aboard. Only by the most rigorous course of honest,'- straightforward dealing can the course o"f harmony and' happiness be maintained. Ananias is the poorest mariner in the world and his atrocious seamanship is cer tain to lead to disaster, we ' are ad vised.. Without attempting to defend the pernicious and odious practice of de ceitful infidelity among erring ii'jK bands, it might,ke suggested that the magistrate s austere conclusion is cub ject to modification. His utterance leads to the suspicion that he Is an observer at the matrimonial game rather than an active participant. The successful husband will be prompted to enter a bill of exceptions to the findings against the wily Ananias; for absolute fidelity to the whole truth never was an accessory of successful diplomacy, and what husband caiasuc ceed fully unless a diplomat? . The species of deceit that takes the form of "business engagements" when some unholy cause really explains absence from the evening meal, is wholly with out mitigation. But how about the minor deceit of assuring the expect ant wife that an atrocious gown is truly becoming after its purchase is effected beyond recall? What husband might expect to es cape the shoals of discord If he truth fully informed his wife that her beauty was waning? Suppose after the ball he should assure her that another was far more pleasing to the esthetic eye simply because that fact impressed him as the truth T Would not such a husband be a hopeless wretch, utterly unfitted to share in the finer joys of true wedded bliss? Would it 'not be the part of discretion, kindness and devotion to lie? Truly we suspect that there is more safety to- be found in a kindly diplomacy which occa sionally Indulges in actual deception than in a course of rigorous adherence to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. RAILROADS TERN THE CORNER. That the railroads have turned the corner from depression to prosperity Is indicated by the report of the Santa Fe Railroad for the year ending June 30, 1915. Both gross and net earn ings were the largest in its history, the former having been J120.662.727 and the latter J36.916.609. A dividend of five per cent -on preferred and six per cent on common stock was paid, and after paying dividends and inter est the company put all of the Burplus except til, 421 back into the property in order to keep It In the best possible physical condition. The surplus Is now $20,581,221, accumulated during nineteen and one-half years by the present management and reserved as a fund to meet adverse conditions. This result is ascribed by President Ripley to two reasons the unprece dented wheat crop of Kansas last year and the largely increased yield Of all kinds of agricultural products In Western Texas and Western Okla homa, and the large passenger traffic developed by the San Francisco and San Diego expositions. The latter. however, says Mr. Ripley, was carried "at such low rates as to afford little, if any, profit." Although this was the best year In the road's history, the average return in bond interest, dividends and Im provements was 'only five and four tenths per cent on the capital Invest ment of $683,855, 314, and the average for the nineteen and one-half years under the present management has been only four and nine-tenths per cent. The dividends would have been lower but for the facts that the bonded debt was created when Interest was low and that it pays an average of only slightly over four per cent. The. Pacific Northwest having as bountiful crops this year as Kansas and neighboring states had last year, the railroads of this section should be put as firmly on their fee financially as the prosperity of its territory has put the Santa Fe road. But the very moderate average return on the In vestment, even in that road's record year, proves that the days or melon cutting in railroad finance are past and that the roads must be assured of sufficient stable earnings if they are to serve the public as the public expects to be served, and are to extend their lines to meet and to promote development of the country. The ease of the money market is an encourag ing sign to Oregon and other states which desire more railroads, but the failure Of railroad securities to ad vance In market value is an evidence that investors avoid them, while spec ulators run wild arter war stocks. New railroads will not be built unless bonds can be sold, and bonds cennot be sold unless existing roads show a fair re turn on the Investment and unless the public attitude toward railroads' is such that investors can feel that their investment is secure. ' The days Of conflict between rail roads and the public are past. Na tional and state regulations have ended them and have opened the era of com munity of interest between railroads and people. Dishonesty and misman agement will not be condoned, but the punishment due for offenses of indi vidual managers and directors will not be visited on the railroads, for the people now realize that, if it were, it w6uld fail ultimately tipon themselves. Growing the beet for sugar-making is a gamble, as witness the razing of the factory at Nampa, Idaho, that cost $1,250,000 and ran for three years at a loss. The reason given is the soil is unsatisfactory, which may be true and may not. . To grow the sugar beet on the scale required for factors' needs reauires n rln rr i.v...r that cannot be picked up everywhere. Londoners who mistake the planets for Zeppelins have excuse. Once a passenger conductor on the Union Pacific, in the days when, there was but one road across the plans and but one train a day, held his train half an hour on the prairie because he thought Venus was No. 5 running on his time. There is something of the militarist in the philanthropic nature of Judge Lindsey, which may explain his at traction for boys. The youngsters de spise a "sissy." The allies are very busy telling what they will do for Serbia. Mean while the gallant little kingdom is making a desperate stand against huge odda. Professor See says gravity is mag netic. So now, when a man falls off the roof he has the comfort of know ing he is an exhibit in electrical science. K-7 wipes out the stain put on the American navy by the sad fate of the F-4. The men are all right if given good, sound craft to navigate. A man is just dead In Wisconsin whose glory is in being the faiher of twenty-two children. How about the mother what is hers? The effectiveness of Zeppelin raids on London is a question of veracity between Britons and Germans. Portland dances In the streets and skates on real ice. Portland Is the ideal place in which to live. , The man who has to sell his hops at six cents is not in the market for a new six this year. There is a welcome return of cheer fulness among railroad men, as earn ings grow. Greece refuses to help SeVbia and has her work cut out to keep out of the 'fray. Burns wants that new Strahorn railroad and is going after it, too. California children are crying for Wilson to visit the Fair. ' But what, oh what, has become of W. Jenninzs Bryan? Only a day left for the laggards of Dress-Up week. One never gets double stamps at the PostofCice. Twenty-Five Years Ago Prom The Oreconian of Octover 16, 1690. Baltimore. Oct. la. Lieutenant Al pheus Robert French, the sole survivor of the Blackhawk war, died here today at the age of 83. Berlin, Oct. 16. Dr. Koch has ceased to make experiments in the cure of con sumption. It is presumed that his method is a failure. London, Oct. 15. Two British vessels have been ordered to Vltu, Fast Africa, to revenge the recent massacre of a colony of Germans there. Charles R. Fenton, of Yamhill Coun ty, and a graduate of the State Uni versity, now a resident of Spokane Falls, has been nominated for .Prose cuting Attorney from that judicial dis trict Jasper McDonald, a driver for Jen ning Bros., the Front-street furniture dealers, met with an accident Tuesday afternoon that came near being attend ed with fatal results. Mr. Oustat Wilson, the Russian Vice Consul here, who has been on a four months' visit to his native land, after an absence of four years, is un his way home. He left St. Paul yesterday morn ing and will be due here Saturday. He brings with him a carload of Finns who will find in Oregqn the promised land. As appears from a notice in another column, the Columbia Waterway Asso ciation meets at Oregon City next Wednesday afternoon. The meeting will be of considerable interest to ship pers and navigators generally. The George W. Elder is loading wheat for San Francisco and will sail from that port on the 21st with a car load of combustibles. PROGRESSIVES LEADER LINES IP Bird -with Republican Leaves Third Party Ke buau te Live. Boston Transcript. Mr. Bird's letter to the chairman of the Progressive State Committee clears the deck for a good square fight be tween the Republican and Democratic! Uckets in the state election. It leaves no chance for outside craft, for political privateers, to come Into the contest. The letter is Indeed a very remarkable document. It examines every item of the Progressive party claims, and shows that virtually all the proposed reforms have been taken up by the Republican party, except the initiative and the ref erendum, which are properly subjects for the deliberations of a constitutional convention rather than pawns in the year-to-year political game. As a mat ter or fact. Mr. Bird, the intellectual and dynamic leader of Progressivesm In Massachusetts, leaves the Progres sive party, as a separate political move ment in this state, not a leg to stand on. Xot Only does he accept the candi dacy of Mr. McCall and the Republican platform, but pe demonstrates clearly enough'to the rank and file of the Pro gressives, whose past leader he has been, that there is absolutely no oc casion for a single separate Progressive vote in this state this year. He goes further than that, and shows that Progressives would be sinning against their own light in helping to elect Walsh. Every Democratic state success this fear helps to snow under a lot more of the Progressive hopes and aspirations for the frture. Another four years of Democratic rule in the Nation, would condemn the whole coun try to a condition ot economic decline, and would necessitate a union, hard and fast, of all elements of opposition to that party. Massachusetts Demo crats have challenged a fight on straight National issues by commending the Wilson regime heartily. - It de volves on all those who do not want (as Mr. "Bird puts it) "idle shops, a large list of unemployed and cheerless homes" to rally to the support of Mc Call and the rest of the Republican ticket. Mr. Bird flays the Wilson Adminis tration, both on its economic side and "with regard to its supine Mexican pol icy, with a very sharp knife indeed. He has put forth a little proclamation which will be read and reread in every Massachusetts home. It is thus far the strongest document of the campaign. It will have a marked effect on the re sult, and ought to have. The present Is no time for side issues or guerrilla warfare. It is a patriotic fight for the safety and prosperity of the state and Nation, between the party of pros perity on one side and the party of adversity on the other. Mr. Bird ranges himseir and those who accept his lead ership with the party or prosperity. TRADE BALANCE! HAS SOPHISTRY Writer Charses There Ik Effort to Ex plain Advantages of an Absurdity. - BERKELEY, Cel.. Oct. 13. (To the Editor.) The Oregonian of October 11 contains an interesting report or the address or Senator Borah, at Boston, in which he calls tor "Industrial and com mercial preparedness" against the "dumping" ot roreign goods on our shores arter the war. , It is a timely warning under the present recently developed and possibly transient established disorder, some few hundred years old in its essential characteristics. The eminent Senator unfortunately argues, as, most or us will, from that premise as If it were an eternal cosmic law, to which all minor rules and customs must conform. We revolutionists take flat issue with that premise, but have usually been careless in the demonstration of our fundamental position. We have failed to carry our auditor or debater over with us to (he new ground upon which we stand; in which such a fan tastic and manifestly illogical thing as a tariff against other people's wealth being dumped into our laps without thought or effort on our part other than the surrender of tokens of value can have no possible place or meaning. It is the pet view of practical men to Interpret the record of our foreign trade as showing repeated "balances in our favor," annually since 1893, and now aggregating over ten billions of dollars, being our excess of exports. If you please. In this matter we have con fused the Nation with certain exporting interests witnin tne nation, who, be cause of their cash profits or a billion dollars in the last year, balanced against imports, have been enabled to demand or the American people more goods and more labor to that general amount, wherewith to keep up that "favorable balance" another year. Much sophistry has been attempted to ex plain the advantage of a manifest ab surdity, but there is no getting away from the net result, which is National depletion, unless we find that the ex port balance money has been bodily taken abroad, spent and consumed in foreign goods and service, so as not to show on the import records. - This Nation docs not engage in for eign trade or domestio, to any import ant extent. We have left such func tions to private initiative, which for all its practical purposes may not regard the welfare of any particular country in which it happens to do business; and when private business waves the Na tion's collective banner, it is well to observe in whose pocket the other hand may be. And private business must act in such ways, for other private business sets the pace. There is nothing inher ently dishonest about it, but it is a thing apart from Nationality. ARTHUR GEORGE. Ont in the Anto. Judge. Mr. Mudt Now where the duece Is that carbureter? Mrs. Mudd Why. John. I heard you swearing at it. so I threw the horrid thing In the ditch. NO RKFl'Crl IX METIliCUE'9 FATE Evidence That Ills Philosophy Caused Hia Insanity Is LacsklnK. DALLAS, Or, Oct 14. (To the Ed itor.) Nothing In The Oregonian's editorial writings interest me more than Its discuasslons of scientific and philosophical subjects, but I am not always able to see the logic of its in ferences and sometimes 1 cannot agree with Its conclusions. In a recent is sue the philosophy or the noted Ger man thinker. Nietzsche, was discussed and animadverted upon in quite a what shall I say? Oh. "a Huxleyan spirit." Now. I am not one of Nietzsche's apologists, for I do not in the least admire his "harsh philosophy" or con sider that It would be well for men generally to acccept his ethical and philosophical precepts. On the con trary, I abhor them, for they are as stern and inexorable as the laws of the cosmos. Nature's mere physical laws have nothing to do with human ideals, only so far as bodily health may affect the mind. The ideal is a vision of trie souL It is the soul's passionate search for the beautltul and true, for happiness. Or course to have rational ideals one Bhould possess rair physical health, but there are exceptions. I am far more in sympathy witli idealism than I am with any other school of philosophy, yet I cannot go to the extreme of as serting there is nothing in the uni verse but mind. I am quite incapa ble of arguing a hurtling cannon ball out of existence, for if it should hap pen to hit me my exalted ego would at once become far more contused than the mind of a country poet with "flue frenzy flowing." The point I raise is this: Why should "those who fall in answering his (Nietzsche's) arguments and repulsing his dogma find refuge In the fact that In his old age he was an inmate of a madhouse, a hopeless, driveling ma niac? Who can say how far his harsh philosophy of life contributed to that tragic end." To be exact, you used the qualifying phrase "may find refuge," but the difference is immaterial so far as the point I raise is concerned. I think I am safe in saying there are many clear-thinking people nowa days who can neither answer nor re pulse the harBh theological dogmas and philosophical theories of a Hugh Miller or a Sir Isaac Newton, but who ever thinks of finding "refuge in the fact" that the former In his old age went stark mad or that the wonderful mind which conceived the "Prlncipia" and. solved the great problem of gravi tation became "sicklied o'er with the pale caat of thought," and went down to the grave "lamenting its .noble life had been scent like that of "a child playing wit pebbles on the seashore," because It had neglected to turn its luminous Bearchllght upon the pro phetic books of the Bible? Hugh Miller was one of the world's geological geniuses and some carping critics in the past went so far as to insinuate that his Inability to recon cile the facts of geology with the ac cepted interpretations of the first and second chapters of Genesis may have had something to do with the tragic ending ot his useful life. This al ways seemed to me a fr-fetohed and illogical conclusion. There were un questionably natural and physical and psychological causes for the dementia of both these remarkable men. of whom the world Is and always should be proud. J. T, FORD. Where Poem WH Publlahed. PORTLAND. Oct. 15. (To the Kditor.) The poem "Subscriber" asked for in a letter to The Oregonian yesterday, entitled "Fifty Years Ago." appeared in a book entitled "New Klocution and IVocal Culture." Robert Kidd. A. M.. tuDiisnea ny tne American hook t-oni-pany In 1S83. This book used to serve as b reader in the uchonls. A. M. K. STOCK GAMBLING HAS COUNTRY IN ITS GRIP Says Writer in The Sunday Oregonian Ever since it became known that several prominent industrial corporations are making immense profits out of war orders the demand for the stock of those corporations has been steady and consistent. The price of the aflected shares accordingly has gone up, up, up. Some stocks have pained 500 points in the last six months. - People are flocking: to New York from all parts of the ; country determined to make a fortune "over nijrht." A writer familiar with the situation on Wall street has written an interesting story describing present conditions. His tale with illustrations will be presented in The Sunday Oregonian. TAGORE'S PRIZE-WINNING TALE The story that won the Nobel prize for literature will be printed in The Oregonian tomorrow. It was written by Rabindranath Tagore in the Bengali 'language and translated into English after the Ncbel commins'sion had rec ognized the merit of his work. The story bears the spirit of the Orient but is one that appeals to persons of every land. GERMAN WOMEN AS MESSENGERS The present war has brought to light the resourcefulness of the German people in more ways than one. The scarcity of men and young men have driven the German women into a new field of activity. They now are serv ing as messenger boys for the telegraph companies. Tomorrow's paper will present a story of how they do their work. THE NOSE AS AN INDEX TO CHARACTER Lillian Russell, the well-known authority on love and beauty, who has been giving advice to the women readers of The Oregonian for the last several weeks, will tell in tomorrow's paper the secrets of the feminine nose. She says the nose is a true index of character and tells the kind of character that each particular kind of nose typifies. LOVE STORY BACK OF GREAT WAR And now comes an author ity on international intrigue and lays bare what he says is the real secret of the present great conflagration that is destroying all Europe. It wasn't a coitest for commercial supremacy, nor the in satiable ambition of a mighty monarch for more power, nor even the struggles of a downtrodden populace for greater freedom. No, in deed! According to the story that will bo presented in The Orego nian tomorrow the root of the evil conflict is imbedded in even more subtle ground. In short, it is the' old, old story of love, marriage, jealousy but that is telling the story. Read it in tomorrow's big issue. ANOTHER PAGE OF MOVIE NEWS The latest gossip from the film world will be included in the big weekly array of news and in formation presented in tomorrow's Oregonian. Answers to in quiries, comment from moving picture patrons and a sketch and portrait of one of the best known film stars will be among the principal features. PORTLAND WOMEN IN WAR WORK So great is the demand for surgical supplies for the wounded soldiers of all the European coun tries now engaged in the war that a lar.Ice group of prominent Portland women has undertaken the altruistic task of preparing btidages for use in the old-world hospitals. Some of these women are at work every day at the headquarters of the organization at the Multnomah Hotel. The Oregonian photographer caught them in the act the other day. A series of pictures will be printed tomorrow. JAY COOKE'S FINANCIAL STRATEGY The story of how Jay Cooke, the eminent banker of the Civil War period, saved the credit of the Nation is familiar, in substance, to almost every schoolboy. But the details of his financial maneuvers never have been open to the reacting world at large. In view of the efforts made by the. Anglo-French governments to finance themselves to carry on the present war the story of Mr. Cooke's notable achievement will prove interesting. It will be printed in tomorrow's Oregonian in full with a portrait of Mr. Cooke. PICTURE OF MRS. GALT Everyone in the country is interested now in the White House romance. .Realizing this, The Oregonian has secured a late photograph of Mrs. Norman Gait, President Wilson's fiancee, and will print this picture on the front page of the magazine section tomorrow. OTHER SUNDAY FEATURES In addition to all this The Oregonian will offer its regular Sunday departmental news real estate, auto mobiles, sports, dramatic, moving pictures, society, women's activ- " fties, comics, items of interest to the children, etc. Half a. Century Ago From The. Oregonian itr r.. . New York. Oct. 12. The Tribune's pedal dispatch says that it is esti mated that the WirVz trial will cost the Government 9100.000. Colonel Moore, late Burgeon-General of the rebel army, has arrived and will appear be fore the Wlrta military commission. Philadelphia. Oct. 11. The official returns from counties show a Union gain of 20.000. The 33 counties to hear from probably will Increase the gains so as to make the actual gain about 25,000. San Francisco. Oct. 15. General McDowell has issued a general order to the officers commanding the district of Arizona and Southern California to suffer no armed parties or munitions of war to pass over the frontier into Mexico. New York. Oct. 13. Marshall Good loe. just from South Carolina, says, that two-thirds of the reports of cruelty to colored people in that state are false The Albany Evening Journal says that now that General McClellan is sell-exiled. Governor Seymour hope lessly sunk into obllviou and General Sherman declines to be entrapped, the ghost of Mrs. Surratt is the only rec ognised leader of the Democratic party. The races over the Portland track commence today. The race will be running, mile heats, best two in three, of whlcn Arthur Rifleman's colt. Port land, and William Davidson's bay horse, known as Timber Legs, are en tered. HOW MAY SENSIBLE FOLK JIEETI o Lack of Maldx Willing: to Marry Good Men on S KM) Per Month. PORTLAND, ct." 15. (To the Ed itor.) Mr. L. N.. writing In The Ore gonian October 12, hit the nail on the head when he said the problem ot meeting the right kind of women is a serious one, and It is just as hard for the young women to meet the right kind of men the kind that are earning $90 per month and have sense enough to know that a couple can live com fortably on it. The prevalent idea that the women of today are spendthrifts Is unjust. The majority of the men that spend their $100 per month on themselves and save nothing, after marriage buy little homes, rurnish them comfortably and then have enough left for Insur ance. .Which did the saving? There are thousands of women In our cit-y .who are willing to marry good, honest men earning $90 or $100 month- '.' " - - ..... J . wu.iu.iomo, happy homes, but raise a "kiddle" op two as well. This is especially true of the busi ness girl, for in earning a dollar she has learned its value and will spend it carefully. The question is: How are these sen- sible young people to meet? The one who solves tills problem will do the Nation a permanent good. FRANCES BALL. - Identity of Poem. PORTLAND. Oct. 15. (To the Kdl-- tor.) Answering "Subscriber" as- to the poem "Fifty Years Ago." I beg to state It was written by W. D. Ualla-fr-hei. mtiiI nrtnenred in Saunders' New Fourth Reader, published in ls4 by lvison. Phinnt-y. niakeman & Co.. of New York. If subscriber will give me his ad dross 1 will send him the poem from memory as we committed it in our schoul days.- M. J. MacMAHOX. jr, Worcester Hunting.