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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1919)
THE MORNING OREGOXIAX, SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1919 10 E9T1BLISHEB BI HZSBI h. PITTOCK. Published by Trie Orarinlan Pnbttstalnr Co, 1U Sixth Street. Portland. Ore ion. C A. HORDES. E- B. PIPER. Manafer. Editor. The Oreronlan la a member of tha Ai ... I - TV. A ..Arfmtffl PrUI 10 cluetve:r entitled to ibe iuo for republica tion of ill news dispatches credited to It or .t otberwlee eredlied In tbla paper, and a.so the loral mti oublished herein. All risnta of republication of apeclai dlapatchea herein in tlM reeerred. .60 1 00 5 50 S.50 Subscription rates Inrmrlably W advance fMlv. Bandar tnetudd. one year ' J L'allr. Sunday Incll del. i monihs - l ally. Sunday lnclud"d. three months ... Tery. un Jar .nciul-d. one monm ..... riMv withnut Sunday, one year .... sou Iai:v! vlthout undd. Ill month! ...... a.1. Ial!y. without Sunday, one month W kty. one year fcuaday. one year euniiy ind Mk!y Pally. Sunday Included, one year ? ? ral.y. Sunday incluoec, one monin ..... y;- ra! y. funday Incl i-led. three inoniba ... 2 -5 r. I, without Sunday, one year I'.ii:y. without Sunday, three montha ... 15 l)a::y. Without Sunday, one month ...... .W Haw la Ketnll Send poatottlca money or der, exprese or personal check oo your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at own er's rlalt Give poetofftre addreaa in full, U c.udit county and state. Featace Kate 12 to 1 parea. 1 cent: IS to P-c-s. 2 cents: 34 to 4 paX-s. 8 cents: nil to (to Daeea. 4 centa: 2 to "6 pages. S c-nts: 71 to M pases. centa. roreiso Poet axe. double rates. & . ...... Off l Vrre aY Conk llrt. lirunawlck bu:.dln. New Tork: Verr Omk.tn. Steaer but. din. Cnlcaso; erre Ton In. Free Preea buildln. uelroit. alien.. Ftn eraneisro representative, rt. J. pi,i--,. OCR POSITIOX I KCSMA. Who can blame the American troops In the Archangel province of Russia for their reluctance to ro to the front? They feel practically marooned In an Arctic wilderness, fighting; against tre mendous odds and against a govern ment upon which their own country hu not declared war. They were drafted Into the army for war against Germany with a well-defined and widely proclaimed purpose, of which they heartily approved. They were riven every Droof that In that war they would be abundantly reinforced and would be supported, by all the resources of the nation. They have been sent in woefully insufficient force to conduct a war which has not been proclaimed an Informal war for no formally or Informally announced pur pose. Nevertheless our little Arch angel army has fought valiantly, while denied the reinforcements which It sadly needs. It is in danger of exter mination. It is not afraid to fight: it has amply proved that. It balks only at an objectless fight, a fight which It cannot win because there is not enough or It. The administration, congress and the allies must decide without further de lay upon what they shall do in Russia. then do it. providing ample means to carry through their policy. One of two courses must be taken either go In and go ail the way or get out. So far they have done neither. They encouraged the Czechs to fight and sent weak expeditions to Siberia, which saved those brave warriors from ex termination, but which were not per mitted to engage in offensive war on the bolshevists in European . Russia. They sent an army to Murmansk and Archangel on the pretense of protect ing military supplies from capture, but they went farther and formed an alli ance with a new. antl-bolshevlst gov ernment at Archangel, which sent an army to co-operate with their meager forces. By so doing they incurred a moral obligation to protect the people of that region from the vengeance of the reds. After Turkey capitulated. the allies sent an army of 50.000 French and Greeks to Odessa in order to keep open that greatest gateway to southern Russia, but those troops have been driven to their ships by a red army six or seven times as strong. The British have driven the Turks, Ger mans and bolshevists from Transcau casia, and have freed the Armenians and Georgians to establish Independ ence. Some aid has been given by British war ships to the Letts, Estho rttans and Lithuanians who were bat tling against the reds In the Baltic provinces. To sum up, the United States and the allies have skimmed around the edges of bolshevist Rus sia, and always with inadequate force to accomplish anything effective. Far more has been done by the antl- bolshevist elements in and around Rus sia. Admiral Kolchak has set up a dictatorship In Siberia and has sent well-organized army "across the Urals which has inflicted terrible defeats on the reds. General Denikin has cleared the reds out of northern Caucasia and the Don region and is reaching out a hand to form a junction with Kol rhak's army, but there is a gap of sev. era! hundred miles. The Poles must exert their attenuated strength to re sist attacks by bolshevism from Rns sia. the Ukraine and Germany, all at he same time. The people of the Baltic provinces, aided by Finnish vol unteers, have driven bark the reds. The measure of the siicress gained by hee several elements suggests what mteht have been achieved if the allies had sent sufficient forces and supplies and had co-ordinated the efforts of the several anti-bolshevist armies. But, say some, that would be war on Russia, and we have no cause to ht Russia. It would not be war on Russia. It would be war on Germany and the Russian allien of Germany, headed by Lenine and TroUky. When he German-controlled government of the czar fell In the revolution. Ger many sought out Lenine and sent him to Russia for the purpose of establ ishing a German-controlled revolu tionary government. lie was supplied with money by the Deutsche bank through a Stockholm bank, and every move he made was directed from Ber- m and aided by German agents. This is proved by documents published by the United States governnent. the genuineness of which has been attested by the American Historical society, a non-political, scientific body. Through he weakness cf Kerensky and the folly f the allies, these men succeeded in seizing the government of Russia by force. In defiance of the American principle of "consent of the governed." and they soon made the shameful peace of Brest-Litovsk. which was a total surrender to Germany, dellvcr- nr the resources of Russia and many f Its provinces absolutely Into the hands of Germany. Lenine has openly expressed enmity to America and the allies, has declared his determination to stir up communist revolution In their countries and has sent his agents all over the world for that purpose. An open declaration of r on the allies was made at Moscow last summer, and the American and ther ambassadors fled from Vologda to Archangel in order to escape mur der or imprisonment. Bolshevist power has been maintained by typically Prussian methods massacre, torture and starvation and a large number of the officers In the red army are Germans. That army Is the last of the forces allied with Germany which con tinues hostilities. ( So long as it re mains In the field, the war is not over and Germany is still fighting. President Wilson has pledged aid to Russia, and has plainly Intimated that he regards the bolshevik! as allies of Germany and as enemies of the Rus sian people and America. He said In a speech at New York on May 18, 1918. that he recognized German over tures for peace as insincere, for they sought "an opportunity to have a free hand, particularly In the east, to carry out purposes of conquest and exploita tion," and he continued: Every proposal with regard to accommo dation In the weat carrlea with It a reser vation with rerard to the east. Now as far aa I am concerned. I Intend to aland by Ruaala aa well aa Franca. He did not stand by Russia effec tively, and opposed efforts of the allies to do so. The only effective interven tion against the red army which served Germany in Russia would have been armed intervention on a considerable scale, but on August 2, 1918. the state department issued a statement against armed intervention and announcing that only small forces would be sent to help the Czechs, to guard military supplies and to render aid to the Rus sians in organization of self-defense. One of the objects announced was "the rendering of such aid as shall be acceptable to the Russian people them selves In their endeavors to regain control of their own affairs, their own territory and their own destiny." Those two declarations together es tablish the ground for effective Inter vention and the second convicts the president of having abandoned the policy defined in his New York speech, The German purposes which he then defined were good cause for interven tion, as they implied plainly that the bolshevik! were tools of Germany. The proposal to aid the Russian people to regain control of their own affairs was an Implied assertion 'that in making war on the bolshevists we should not be making war on the Russian people but should be their liberators. It is not too much to say that If the German grip on Russia is not broken, the allies will have lost the war in the east, though they have won In the west. Ambassador Francis has said that Germany has greater control over the economic resources of Russia un der the bolshevists than it had under the czar. Germany is animated by the same spirit now as under the kaiser Pan-Germanism has only changed its clothes. If Germany should go bol shevist, it would be the same. Prac tically one government, or one chain of governments ruled by a common purpose, would be supreme from the Rhine to the Pacific, and the organiz ing, directing genius of German) would be brought to bear on the mil lions of Russia. The young states which the allies are setting up would be swamped In an ocean of bol- shevism, and the breeding place of that disease would be extended and would send the Infection to every country. , These are valid reasons why we should make war in Russia, not on the Russian people but on those who have betrayed them and ruined the country and on their German con federates. The president and the allies should abandon half measures, declare themselves and send an army large enough to crush the bolshevists as German auxiliaries. Either that or they should withdraw the gallant but hopelessly Insufficient armies they now have In Russia, and should confess that they cannot or will not do their plain duty. would be In that position as to several commodities if the government were to own and operate the railroads. That would be so as to not only steel but lumber, coal and fuel oil. One of the arguments against trusts has been that they became price dictators as to the chief commodities which they con sumed. Railroad rebates had their origin in the immense traffic con' trolled by the Standard Oil company, loss of which by a railroad might mean no dividend. If the railroads should be returned to their owners, the rail orders would be so split that there would be no dictator, and the problem would then be to keep alive competi tion among manufacturers in order to assure competition among sellers. HIM.V.VE WEEK. "Humane" week, which will be ob. served throughout Oregon during the seven days ending with April 27, gives us another opportunity to fortify our resolution and to gather strength for the battle of humanity. Humane week is a device adopted by various societies organized to combat cruelty to ani mals, to place emphasis upon their work In behalf of every suffering and helpless creature, but it should not be forgotten that all who enter into the spirit of the occasion are beneficiaries no less than the dumb animals they serve. "The merciful man is merciful to his beast" permits a double inter pretation. The maxim would be just as true if it were reversed. The keynote of the movement Is education, and this is the reason for setting certain days aside for special observance: thoughtful people will, of course, continue to be humane through the other fifty-one weeks of the year. The practical good which can be done through education is sufficiently dem onstrated by the improved attitude of boys toward birds, by comparison with that of a generation ago. Robbing: birds' nests Is not the sport it used to be, probably due chiefly to education in kindness which the children of a later generation have received in the public schools. Economics and ethics of the ques tion are so Interwoven that any bar barian can find a reason for doing kindness. "Protect the birds beoause they protect the crops," and "cruelty to the creature injures the meat," do not stand high as reasons for humane conduct, but for those who are dull to other appeals they probably are better than none. They constitute at least a starting point. Kindness pays in many ways. Not the least of these is its reflex action upon the Individual bestowing It. GOVERNMENT IN IXDCSTBT. The controversy between Director General Hines of the railroads and the Industrial board of the department of commerce Is an example of the evils growing out of government Interven tion in Industry. As manager of all the railroads in the United States, Mr. Hines Is the greatest individual buyer of steel, and in ordinary times could dictate his own terms. Because we are nominally at war, the Industrial board fixes prices, but has no authority to enforce their observance, and Mr. Hines refuses to pay them. They may have to call In some disinterested for eigner to arbitrate August Thyssen. the steel magnate of Germany, might be willing to serve otherwise railroad work may stop while one obstinate man waits for the other obstinate man to give in. This incident conveys a hint of what may happen if public ownership of Industry should go as far as some of our socialist 4riends wish. The gov ernment flour mills might" refuse to pay the price demanded by the gov- eminent grain agency, and we might have to revert to primitive methods of making flour until they agreed. There might be an annual row between the iron ore bureau and the steel manu facturing bureau about the price of ore. All the Butte and other copper mines might shut down because the bureau of electrical appliances wanted to knock a cent off the price of cop per. The weekly cabinet meetings might be taken up with submission of these disputes to the president and with executive decisions on them. In time of peace it is intolerable that any one purchaser should habitually consume so large a proportion of the supply of any commodity ae to be practically a dictator of prices. The head of the railroad administration THE DECLINE OF WALKING. One significant phase of the action of forty Philadelphia business men recently In pledging themselves for a five-mile "hike" is that a leading Philadelphia newspaper should have regarded it as first-page news, which undoubtedly it was. It is a mere lncl dent of the adventure that thirty-two of the forty failed to appear at the rendezvous, but sent excuses instead. It was the eight who walked who gave the item Its news flavor three-col umn spread, with photographs of the heroes, and so forth. The thirty-two did exactly what might have been ex pected of them. Are we forgetting how to walk? It is estimated that there are 3,650,000 automobiles in the United States. As- sumlng that each automobile serves an average of five persons, at least upon occasion, there are more than 17.000.000 who have access to the modern means for arriving at a desti nation. But the destination is not everything, and there is much to be said in behalf of walking purely as form of exercise. It requires no com plicated apparatus and, best of all, necessitates breathing extra quantities of pure, outdoor air. The eight Philadelphians who did keep their pledge missed one of the chief benefits of the proposed hike, if all accounts are true. They covered some five and a half miles, "between 2 P. M. and sunset." Now a mile or so an hour is nothing but a stroll, and hardly that. Three miles an hour, at least, should be the mark. It is even better to walk three miles in forty- five minutes and rest a quarter of an hour. The good of walking is derived from vigorous indulgence in it. The saunterer tastes none of the joys of accelerated circulation, of the tingling of the skin that comes when the pores begin to open, of the delightful lassi tude 'Which follows just the right amount of fatigue. Walking te an exercise not only for the legs but for the whole body. Even the automobile owner can with profit resort to it occasionally. The walking season is only just beginning. All through the spring and summer and fall the weather will be right for it and winter, too, when ' the habit Is formed. BITTXSO FARM SCPERSTITIOXS. Scientists of the department of agri culture are about to undertake an im portant job the classification of farm crop and weather lore. In an effort to separate mere superstition from that which has a sound basis of fact. For it is now beginning to be recognized that some of the maxims of our fore fathers were not as silly as we have since then been led to believe. Not all. but a few, of the rules by which grand father governed himself were good agricultural practice. Indeed, the de partment now finds that when the old system was wisely applied it was in certain particulars more comprehen sive and more reliable than the sub stitutes which have taken their places. The department explains, in a recent issue of its official News Letter, that the present Investigation was Inspired by the Hessian fly. The depredations of this insect were such that it was necessary to sow wheat so late that the fly would not ruin it, and yet early enough so that it would get a start before very cold weather set in. The department' attempted to establish a system of planting dates in every sec tion In which wheat is grown. But it could lay down only general rules. It was determined that seasons in gen eral vary about four days for each degree of latitude and each 400 feet of altitude, and It was hoped that it would be possible to ascertain a basic date and work out the others from it. But difficulty lay in the fact that no two seasons are precisely alike. The ordinary observer, for example, will realize that a planting rule for the fall of 1917 would not have been adapted to 1918. Even greater diver gencies will have been noted between the spring planting seasons of 1918 and the present year. The old - fashioned farmer who planted corn when the leaves of the oak tree in the pasture were the size of a squirrel's ear, or regulated his early garden operations by the catkins on the maple trees, or planted his beans in accordance with the blossom ing of the blackberry vines, had the germ of a great idea. Properly re cord ear and properly interpreted, says one of the department's scientists. thare is nothing perhaps to equal the records of the dates of periodica events as indices to the bioclimatic character of a local area." The reason Is plain. Such events are in direct response, not to one or. a few, but to all the complex elements of the en vironment. That is to say, not only .visible conditions are reflected therein, but also those which are not so easy to observe. Even the old moon-planting super stitions appear to have been not with out some foundation in fact. These became absurd when applied .to the planting of certain vegetables, but the United Stafes weather bureau more than a decade ago admitted the seem ing certainty that moonbeams or rays produced certain chemical results, and that fish and some kinds of meat were spoiled when exposed to the light of the moon. The old saying that hogs should be slaughtered in the' dark of the moon undoubtedly owes its origin to this fact. But in the great abbatoirs carcasses are not exposed to the moon's rays. The adage applies to primitive outdoor conditions. Farmers who fol lowed the rule blindly would have saved themselves a good deal of in convenience at times if they had un derstood its baste principle. The makers of verses and proverbs are responsible for many falso Im pressions. Sacrifice of truth- to the rounding out of an epigram or the availability of a rhyme probably is as old as time. Neither is the habit of drawing conclusions from insufficient data a new one. Thus, an early almanac-maker was moved to say: Go plant th bean when the moon Is. bright. And you will rind that thla la right; Plant the potatoea when tha moon la dark. And to tbla line you always hark; But If you vary from thla rule. You will find that you are a fool: If yon always follow thla rule to the end. You will always havo money to epend. worse phenology. They are not yet persuaded, for illustration, that there may not be some foundation for the notion that "rain on St. Barnabas' day is good for grapes," that "before St. John's day we pray for rain, after that we get It, anyhow," and "a year of grass, good for nothing else," may not be capable of classification that will make it possible to turn them to ac count. "Year of radishes, year health," was widely believed in New England not many years ago. If this is true the department scientists want to know the whys and wherefores. Orchardists of the northwest, particu larly in the prune-growing regions, will be able to appraise on their own ac count another proverb, which we ac quired from Devonshire, "In the year that plums flourish all else fails, which Is one of the many bits of lore which the department will look into. Corelatlon of the permanent phe nomena of nature with the right time for doing definite things on the farm promises to be a material advantage to farmers. The Individual farmer may have some of his natural indices wrong, although he probably has good many of them right. The pur pose of the department is to aid him in separating the grain from the chaff. Successful practice of phenology, the scientists point out, consists in in dividual application of observation and common sense to the common things around the individual. But there danger in too restricted application, fact which the government proposes to take into account. Czar Burleson's defense of the ad vance in telephone rates does not jibe with his action regarding telegraph rates. In the latter case he raised operators' wages 10 per cent, then raised rates 20 per cent. If a corpora tion had done that while he was play ing politics In Texas, he would have tnrown a political lit. OI course everybody knows that it costs more to operate the wires under the govern ment, but the remedy is not to raise rates, but to hand the property back to the companies which can operate more cheaply. The small attendance at the meet ing of the central labor council which voted for recall of the city commis sioners is an example of the manner in which radical proposals are often carried, not only in labor unions but in other organizations. The conserva tives, who would vote down such schemes, are too conservative to at tend and let things go by default. Then they have to stand by the action of the majority, which is really minority. If peace is not soon made with Germany, so that censorship may be abolished, another conference may be needed to make peace among the allies and neutrals. Whether it be true or not that censorship is used to cover theft or trade secrets, the suspicion that It is true generates Ill-feeling which does not promote peace. What beats the tower of Babel for confusion of tongues? The Paris peace conference. There are fourteen na tions with as many languages repre sented there, and if each delegation could understand what the other dele gation says about it in the other's own language, there would be at least seven fights a day. The Red Cross drive for old clothing seems to be a failure locally, results not meeting expectations. Perhaps the reason is that many used their old clothing In the past year to their own advantage. That is matter of record during democratic administra tions. Have you any old clothes? They do no good hanging in the closet. They would do much good in the war zone of Europe. The least you can do is to turn them over to the Red Cross, which will put them where they will do much good. Reforestation is in progress In the national forests of Oregon, and the assertion is made the timber will be available in 150 years. That may be true, but those of us. stickln around A. D. 2169 will find wood a curiosity. The dime novelist of the future will take his plots from the exploits of the Cossacks and the bolsheviki, but he will have to Americanize the names in order to make his books attractive to the boys. Frosts have ruined the apricots and peaches of the upper Yakima, yet later in the year there will be "cots" and peaches in plenty. A late frost often benefits by thinning the buds. Agricultural scientists are convinced that this v is not only bad verse but The Shetland ponies at Yakima that diedof "a disease resembling the flu' had what was called the epizootic nearly half a century ago, when horses had it bad and people lightly. High-up Germans assert Germany will not sign the peace treaty for one reason and another, but she will sign. A well-meant threat of a real "licking will change her mind. If this country had suffered as had France, all would be yelling for com pensation louder than does that coun try for the reason we have a louder yell. The ex-kaiser is said to have bought a large estate in Holland which he calls "Klein England." . "Klein" means "little," and England will feel honored. A Prussian junker says 80 per cent of German people are monarchists at heart. Old stuff! Anything bred In cannot be kicked off by one defeat. California backs down on the Orien tal immigration proposition at request of Lansing at Paris. Backing and filling come easy to California. Chicago packers say meat products will not be cheaper until Europe is restored, which means high prices for this generation. Thousands of aliens, enriched by war work, are going home with the money, but what of it? They did the work. Those Who Come and Go. Bavaria changes governments about as often as some men change wives and as some women change husbands. The average increase to the railroad man is about 88 a week, not big but worth while. The center of attraction this after noon is at St. Johns. Everybody go. All is done at the peace conference but to agree on the agreement. American soldiers do not threaten mutiny without good reasons. "An artillery school for South Da kota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Alaska and Oregon will be located at the Oregon Agricultural college if the papers are signed at Washington, as I understand they will be," announced Jefferson Myers, member of the board of regents. "The government plans buying 200 acres for a range and will have about 200 horses and 150 mules. The government will invest about $300. 000 in the school and the college will have to stand an expense of about J3500. As I gather it, the government wants officers who know something about farming, who can take care of crops when the condition arises, and the artillery training will be part of the course at the agricultural college. Similar schools, as I gather the infor mation, are to be located here and there throughout the country at agri cultural colleges." Next to the Rose Festival, with Its electric parade, ranks the Priest of Pallas parades of Kansas City. George M. Myers, who was head of the Kan sas City show for years, was registered at the Benson yesterday. Much of the fame of the Priest of Pallae parades was due to the hustling and executive ability of the visitor, according to peo ple In Portland who knew what Mr. Myers was staging in Kansas City. The Pallas parade has been consigned to oblivion since the war. Getting acquainted with ' the wool men in Portland. C. J. Nichols of Bos ton, Mass., is in the city and registered at the Benson. Mr. Nichols was a fed eral wool administrator up to about a month ago, when the government abol ished the administratorship. While here Mr. Nichols visited the local wool warehouses where the bulk of the Ore gon wool crop Is shipped. Jordan valley, which is geographic ally in Oregon, but otherwise very far away, is the home of Frank Davis and daughters, who were among the Benson arrivals yesterday. The nearest rail road point is 66 miles away, and that is at Caldwell, Idaho. The altitude of the valley is more than four times as high as Council Crest, About 30 reDresentatives of the J. C. Penny company stores throughout Ore gon towns and adjacent states are mobilizing at the Benson. They are here to look over the complete line which the house has and to make selec tions of such merchandise as appeals to the people of their particular sections. One of the ships built in Portland yards was taken to the Mediterranean from here by Captain E. M Conradi, who arrived at the Perkins yesterday. The vessel, after visiting the war zone, was returned to New York . and the captain came overland to Portland to take out another ship. Sixty veterans from overseas were being lunched at the Hotel Portland yesterday. Someone suggested that Cecil Fanning, the singer, might ac commodate Mr. Fanning was phoned to and replied that he would gladly sing for the soldier boys. 3ut he didn't appear. Harry Wlsenstein, a "greeter" who used to greet in Eugene, is to go to Aberdeen, S. D., to work in. a hotel where he was employed before coming to Oregon. The newly-acquired Mrs. Wlsenstein. will accompany him. The couple are registered at the Multno mah hotel. "When I first came out this way all the merchandise in the northwest could have been displayed in the lobby of this hotel," said G. W. Lathrop of Woon socket. R. I. The visitor is 76 years- old and looks about half that age. He is at the Multnomah. Sisters, which hopes to have an im proved road to Bend and Redmond some day and which hopes for the com oletion of the McKenzie road across the Cascades, is the place Mr. and Mrs. B. L. Tone registered from at the Port land yesterday. Having been transferred to the east from Fort Stevens, Lieutenant-Colonel W. S. Dowd, wife and four children arrived at the Hotel Portland yesterday on their way back to Fort Stevens, where the colonel has been ordered once more. To meet her husband, a captain who has been overseas for a year, Mrs. K. ,M. C. Neill of Grants Pass arrived at the Imperial yesterday irom jamornia, where she has been for the past few weeks. Captain Neill is due in Port land Tuesday. Prominent orchardist of Parkdale, TL W. Steinhauser, is at the Benson. Park dale it may be explained, is at the end of the Mount Hood railroad and has an 'erevation of 1700 feet and a popula tion of about 100 people. Owner of a string of shoe stores up and down the coast, C H Baker was at the Benson yesterday from Los An-l geles. Mr. Baker is making a tour or inspection of his various esiaDiisn- ments in the northwest. Another member of the port of As toria commission is in town. Is. I1. Stone registered at the Hotel Portland yesterday and the day before his fel low commissioner, R. C. Kinney, was here. Lumber broker from San Francisco, R. Stevens is at the Benson to talk over the lumber situation with a num ber of local concerns. A. P. Allen, connected with the emer gency fleet corporation, arrived from Washington, D. C, yesterday and Is at the Multnomah. Manager of one of the grain ware house-in the fertile Heppner section. Phil Cohn is at the Imperial on a busi ness trip. Member of the state pharmacy board, Ross A. Farr of Astoria was in the city yesterday and was at the Imperial. James T. Shaw, attorney for the Bell Telephone company, is at the Hotel Portland from San Francisco. Harvey Beckwith, member of the state industrial commission. Is at the Multnomah on a trip from Salem. Andy Rood Jr., a young rancher from Heppner, is looking around Portland and is at the Imperial. H. W. Harmen, accompanied by his wife, is at the Perkins from Bend, where he is a merchant. . F. B. Dodds of Cle Blum, Wash., was . the Perkins yesterday inquiring about tractors. Among the Astorlans In the city yes terday was F. N. Whitman of the Wein hard, Astoria. Son of the colonel, Knslgn L. F. Hofer of Salem is at the Hotel Portland. T. R. Maxwell, a grain man of La Grande, is at the Perkins for a few days. Companionship. By Grace K. Hall, Have yon ever been In a wonderful mood. With myriad glad thoughts winging Across the space to a dreamy place Where fairy songs seem ringing? Where you glimpse a gleam on a wind ing stream 'Neath overhanging larches, As you glide along to a crooning song Through light-and-shadow arches? Oh, the magical spell that you cannot tell The warmth and the subtle thrill! The moon's round face in an azure space And the thoughts you cannot still! Then the longing to share this rapture rare , Which comes from the wonderland What a joy if you find a unified mind A eoul that can understand! In Other Days. COREA IS REALITY AN ISLAND of Other Strange Circumstances Told Land Now In Public Eye. Corea, erstwhile, "hermit nation," scene of extensive riots, and petitioner to the Paris peace conference for inde pendent sovereignty, is the subject of a bulletin from the National Geographic society. The bulletin, which is based on a communication to the society from William W. Chapin, follows: "Comparatively" little was known of Corea prior to 1882, as up to that year she was a hermit nation, satisfied with her own resources and conditions, only anxious to be left undisturbed. Indeed, previous to that date, it is said to have been death, not alone to the foreigner who landed on her shore, but to the na tive who gave him shelter. a a- "Corea, although usually considered a peninsula, is in reality an island, 175 miles of its northern boundary being the river Yalu and the remainder the river Turnen, both of which are out lets of the same lake in the Northern mountains, the former flowing west and the latter east. The dimensions of Corea are about 135 by 600 miles, with an area, including its numerous small Islands, of about 100,000 square mil not far from the size of New York and Pennsylvania. The arable land com prises only about one-quarter of its surface, a range of exceedingly barren mountains and scantily-clad hills ex tending its entire length. The climate is about the same as New York and Pennsylvania, excepting a season of six weeks of the wettest kind of rain. "Raising of rice' Is the chief occupa tion of the people, although Corea is said to be the fifth largest cotton producing country In the world. In customs and looks the people resemble the Japanese in some ways, and al though they have many noticeable pe culiarities, laziness, as some writers have charged, is not one of them. Many varieties of fruit thrive, and the coun try is rich in coal and nearly a.11 min eral products. "White clothing is the emblem of mourning in Corea, as it Is in Japan and China: the mourning period is three years. On the occasion of the death of a royal personage the entire popu lation must put on white." This cus tom is said to be accountable for the people having adopted white clothing for ordinary wear, that they might be ready for the inevitable when it should come, either in their own or in the royal family. "Enterprising shop-keepers in Seoul, Corea, evinced their desire for English trade by sins, some of which were full of detail: 'Handkerchief special occupa tion,' "Copper, iron, lead and repaired store,' Broker for several kinds of manure," 'Wild silk,' "Cow meat,' 'Firm and without fade at bedyed for many colors,' are self-explanatory. "Over a drug-store was, 'Every med icine is required for small or whole sale,' followed by the assurance that 'all kinds of sickness must be examined or cured,' while hanging in the window of a vacant building was the announce ment, 'To sell apply within next door.' a a "The raincoat used by the Corean peasant and farmer is in shape a long cloak, fastened around the neck, and is made of long straw, one layer overhanging another, similar to a thatched roof, and is only effective when the wearer stands erect under the broad-brimmed hat. "The poultry peddler is a familiar object on the streets in this city, bear ing his load of cackling merchandise in a cage on his hack a method of vending, to our minds, far more reas suring to the purchaser than holds among the Chinese, where dressed fowls are offered for sale prepared by some process giving them the appearance of having fainted, so sickly white do they look," Twenty-live Years A so. From The Oreconlan of April 12. 1884. The republicans yesterday nominated the following candidates for state of fices: W. P. Lord, governor: H. R. Kin caid, secretary of state; Phil Metschan, state treasurer; C. E. Wolverton, su preme judge; C. M. Idleman, attorney general, and G. M. Irwin, superinten dent of public Instruction. Anamosa, la. A convict in the Ana mosa penitentiary says he is the gen eral Heth whd commanded Heth's di vision of A. P. Hill's corps at the bat tle of Gettysburg. He is under sen tence for cattle stealing. Seventy athletes have entered for the indoor games for which the First Regi ment Athletic association has been pre paring for two months and which will begin tomorrow night. The piers for the west span of the Burnside bridge are completed. . Fifty Years A so. Prom Tha Oregonian of April 12. 18C9. The Oddfellows' Building association has advertised for bids for the erection of a building on their lot at First and Alder streets. The new flouring mill being built by Mr. McLeran is rapidly approaching completion. Construction crews for the Central Pacific railroad will try to lay ten miles of track between sunrise and sunset today near Fort Bridger, according to a dispatch from the Gold Hill News. The effort is the result of a contest be tween the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific lines as to which shall lay most track in one day. A correspondent says that the stakes indicating town lots are set so thickly for half a mile around White Pine that the place looks as if Intended for a graveyard. CHURCH AND STATE DIFFER. Wealth and Population. HILLSDALE, Or., April 10. (To the Editor.) To settle a discussion, kindly state how much capital is figured to each individual of the United States. READER. The total amount of money in circu lation in the United States in 1918 was $5,384,797,969; the total estimated wealth 1220,000,000,000; the estimated popula tion, 105.118.467. ' I One Holds Marriage Sacred; Other Makes Continuance Optional. PORTLAND, April 11. (To the Edi tor.) The population has changed com pletely in Oregon since the days of our grandfathers when it was nearly all American. The influx of foreign ers, many with light regard for the marriage relation, has greatly reduced the average degree of respect for mar riage. We are all affected by this low esti mate of the relation of the present pop ulace because It is reflected in the leg islatures and in the courts. "'Every body has a price." Sometimes consid erable money is made by divorce. There is great inducement to divorce by per jury. Nearly every state except Oregon has statutes requiring a spouse to be cor roborated in divorce. There seems to be a tacit requirement of this here, but there is no statute. The Oregon statute concerning divorce pleadings, although the very strongest in the union as to just what can be pleaded, etc., thereby ' giving stability to the marriage rela tion, has, seemingly, been misunder stood and frittered away until there is not much of it left. The Oregon stat ute which practically puts mar riage about on the level with no mar riage at all is the one allowing divorce for cruel and inhuman treatment and personal Indignities rendering life bur densome. This provision makes a con tinuance of the marriage relation al most optional. The construction given it. in several Instances, has rendered divorce obtainable almost at will. I don't suppose anybody has any ground for complaint at this if a ma jority of the people want it this way, as they seem to; but the church is prac ticing fraud. It teaches that marriage is a sacrament and sacred. This should stop. The church and state should get together and teacn tne plain trutn about marriaee. Then no one could complain if. domestic trouble resulted from marriage. STUDENT. PRACTICE MAY END SERIOUSLY Crowding; of Theater Foyers Against Fire Res-alatlons Elsewhere. PORTLAND, April 11. (To the Ed itor.) I was much pleased to read in The Oregonian about Mr. Mercer's suit and that at last someone had found the time and desire to correct a state of affairs that has been going on in the theaters of Portland for some time. 1 have made my home in Portland for over a year and have been greatly sur-. prised to find that a city so metropoli tan in many of its ways is so slovenly in others. One attempts to go Into a theater In Portland and must wait in line for some time to secure an admission and after having been sold a ticket expects to find a seat He must, however, stand about with half a hundred other unfor tunates in the foyer sometimes for an hour, to be pushed and jolted, in fact herded about like so many cattle. Why are the theaters of Portland al lowed to sell admissions when they are already overcrowded? In most of the larger cities this is strictly against fire regulations. To crowd passageways and exits of our theaters, if allowed to ero on. is bound to result sometime seriously and with loss of life. R. LKKLET. Pay ef Washington Legislators. CARSON, Wash., April 10. To the Editor.) Please publish the salary of the memibers of the house of representa tives at the present time in the state of Washington. MARCELINE DUPREE. Five dollars a day during the session and travel pay at 10 cents a mile for the round trip between his home and the capital. ARE WE COMING TO THE EIGHT-HOUR MAID? A QUERY IN THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN When Bridget the cook got a job in the munition factory, where she packed steel rations for the Hun, she received a new slant at the possibilities of employment for women. So did many of her sister hood. Helen Hoffmann, special contributor to The Sunday Oregonian, speculates interestingly in tomorrow's issue concerning the probability that the eight-hour may yet arise in the domestic menage. Whether one agrees with Miss Hoffmann, or whether one doesn't, the fact is that she presents her subject in a way that gives pause for thought. WITH THE HELP OF GOD AND A FEW MARINES At Chateau Thierry the German spear-point bore directly upon Paris the civic heart of the strife against Prussianism. Here was no feint, no mere threat of tactics, but the purpose to pierce France to the vitals and to rock the allied cause as with an earthquake. In the Sunday issue, where it has been an engrossing feature for several weeks, Brigadier-General Catlin, commanding the 6th marines, takes up again the gallantry of his story, which has to do with the sacrificial bravery of a few Americans. AFTER THE WAR STUFF The aftermaths of the war provide W. E. Hill with diversities of ideal material for his caustic crayon. And so, in tomorrow's offering of Among Us Mortals, you will find the , late pro-German agitator, the pseudo-patriotic hotel host, and two or three personal pests with whom all of us have more than a bowing acquaintance. AND HERE IS A PAGE BY BRIGGS Seeing as how there is never quite enough of Briggs, delightful depictor of human frailty, in a single cartoon, to satisfy the avid appetite of his admirers, the Sunday issue blooms forth with a page specially devoted to his pictorial sallies. They say, whenever they speak of him, that "that bird Briggs sure knows human nature." He does, indeed. CHURCH AND SCHOOL In every Sunday paper are two pages given wholly to those twin paladins of progress, church and school. To be well-informed the reader should turn to them, for they are the directory of progress in Portland's houses of worship and in her splendid system of public schools. IT'S ALL THERE Not an item of the world's news, of moment and importance, is missing from the columns of the Sunday issue. From every quarter of the world the happenings of the hour flash by cable and telegraph, almost directly to the waiting linotypes and presses. It's all there, and it's authoritative. All the News of All the World THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN