8
THE MORNING OREGONIAN, TUESDAY, MAT 25, 1920
ittornmg (Stegmm
FJSTABLISHED BT 11KXBV I I'lTTOiTi-
Published by The Oregonian Publishing Co..
lo3 Sixth Street. Portland. Oregon.
C. A. MOfUJEN. E, B. PIPER,
Minarer. Editor.
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is really grave, looks otherwise
as if it might take a year of famine
to start the pendulum in the right
direction.
FOOD SITUATION MAY BE SERIOUS.
Onl u n fr w veil rs niavbe a dec
ade ago men at about the age of
forty-five yearned for the land.
There was a back-to-the-farm move
ment of considerable consequence
from this quarter alone. Having
amassed something in the city, the
business or professional man was in
clined to turn to agriculture; partly,
perhaps, for relief from the harass
ment of his profession, having found
that, however eminent, no business
man is his own boss. But nowadays
even this increment is denied to agri
culture. Nobody turns to the land
any more. The latest figures of the
department of agriculture show that
there are 12 per cent fewer farm
laborers than there were in 1919;
- there are only 72 per cent as many
men employed on all the farms of
the United States in 1920 as there
were in 1916, the year before we en
tered the world war. Many of the
boys who left the farm to enlist have
taken other employment now that
they are out of the service. The men
who used to hear the call of the land
along in middle life are hearlng.it no
longer. The tide moves one way only.
The figures are interesting. More
than that, they are tragic, and for
several reasons. They seem to tell of
complete failure of the welfare
movement for rural districts. Good
roads, telephone service, traveling
libraries, community high jinks and
the R. F. D. have not done all that it
was hoped they would do. A 12 per
cent reduction in one year is bad
enough, but not half as bad as the
calamity it betokens. There are more
yeare ahead oj us, with nothing to
indicate that they will be better than
those before them.
Urban industries appear to have
been able to bid against the farms
for labor because they could pass the
added costs along to the consumer.
with sundry additions of profits and
liberal allowance for overhead. In
practice urban industry has been op
erating on a cost-plus basis. We got
rid of the cost-plus system in govern
ment work as soon as possible after
the armistice was signed, realizing
its economic unsoundness; it persists,
nevertheless, in high degree in dis
guise in many forms of business. The
tailor, the baker, the road-builder
and a thousand others to all intents
and purposes enforce the rule.
It is not a secret that farmers do
not fix the prices or tne staples tney
produce, and that except as to a few
negligible commodities and under
unusual local conditions they are
compelled to sell in a market that is
beyond their control. It is no secret,
either, that they are unable to outbid
most of the industries for help, and
the official figures show decreased
plantings of many foodstuffs. The
weather has had less to do with re
ductions of acreage than has the
labor situation. Large numbers of
farmers have refused to "grow more
than they can produce by their own
work; others will not invest in large
quantities of high-priced seed with a
prospect that they may not be able
to engage men enough fior the har
vest. Decreased purchases of fertil
izers are a fact. Implement dealers
the country over report falling off in
demand for such machinery as they
are able o make. High costs in the
city react on the fanner in at least
two ways. Costs of town-made farm
requisites advance because ex-farmers
are getting better wages for the
making of them, and farmers cannot
afford to compete with the factories
from which they are compelled to
buy for labor to produce the things
they ought to have to sell.
Increased prices for food mean, of
course, higher costs of living for city
workers, with (also of course) more
demands for higher wages for the
latter. The help question from the
farmer's point of view is an ignus
fatuus; it is always just beyond his
grasp. We can hardly escape all of
the consequences of the law of sup
ply and demand; and with a definite I
prospect that less food will be pro
duced than is necessary to meet the
actual requirement of all the people,
a system of rationing, with all its at
tendant evils, may be nearer than
most persons Imagine.
About the only illuminated spot in
the gloom is the fact that the late
planting season has left opportunity
for those who have neglected the
planting of war gardens to do some
thing even yet. Although it is almost
June, a good deal might be done in
this direction if a large number of
people would catch the inspiration
In unison. The home lot may yet be
the salvation of many a family. It
was not hard to convince people
while there were some millions of
men in war work that -an extra effort
was needed to atone for the food de
ficiency; it does not seem as easy to
convince them that the same neces
sity exists with millions diverted to
other channels equally remote from
food production. Yet the situation.
for those who expect to continue to
eat regularly, has undergone no es
sential chamre.
Tne war garden suggestion is re
newed for what it may bo worth. We
do not suppose that the seed at this
late day will fall on fertile ground.
It may be stated in passing, however.
that nothing more significant could
come to pass than such a manlfesta
tion of realization that the situation
HOLDING THE PALSIOLIVE INDUSTRY.
Successful formation of a company
to extract vegetable oil from copra
is a sign of Portland's determination
not to abandon any industry which
has once been established here. The
merits of the business had been ex
perienced by the local men who
were interested in the Palmolive
company and. when the new man
agement of that company removed
from the city after the burning of its
plant, they resolved that this should
not mean loss of the industry to
Portland.
One of the reasons for this deci
sion is eloquent of the close relation
between industry and commerce, also
between two industries which seem
to have no relation to each other.
Copra from the Pacific islands has
been found a very desirable cargo
for lumber vessels which cross the
ocean and which might otherwise
have to return in ballast or only half
loaded. It will help to load regular
liners running from here to the
Dutch East Indies and India or to
Australia and New Zealand. Thus
an affinity is established between
lumber and copra and between the
steamship business and the vegetable
oil business, for copra is freight ton
nage which both want. The oil cake
which comes from the copra mill
also Is very desirable cattle feed,
while manufacture of coconut 'oil
may grow into that of soap.
This linking of one industry with
another by the medium of shipping
goes to show what a great part
ocean commerce plays in enlarging
and diversifying the manufactures of
a port. This cause has made the
great cities of the American and
European coasts as important as in
dustrial centers as they are as ports
ships having distributed raw mate
rials in such a manner that the point
where they can be most economically
manufactured is finally discovered,
and a new industry is located where
all conditions most favor its perma-
nence.
self.- The inborn optimist sees the
bright side; to the gloomy all things
seem dark.
We derive nothing of especial
value from the things that alien
commentators say about us. Prob
ably our national character is noth
ing like as bad as it would seem to
be. judged by the quick lunch stand
ard. In all likelihood we are not quite
much given to idealism as one
would suppose who bases his opinion
on the audiences that attend lectures
on the immortality of the soul. But
we do obtain an entirely faithful pic
ture of the critic in each instance.
We know now precisely where to
place the Duchess of Clermont-Ton-nere
and also M.' Maeterlinck. In
each instance the critic found in
America a reflection of the motive
of the visit here. We do not get
much more out of life than we are
able to put into Jt. Criticism is
chiefly autobiographical, whether
the .critic designs it to be so or not.
COLUMBUS' NOSE FOR NEWS.
The contention made by Henry
Vignaud. former secretary of the
American embassy at Paris,, that
Christopher Columbus was not in
search of a passage to India when he
discovered America but that he had
definite information from unidenti
tied navigators of the existence in
the western seas of an island of im
mense size, is not as whimsical as it
may seem. Columbus was a far
more capable scholar than most of
the navigators of his time. He could
hardly have lacked familiarity with
the Platonic version of Atlantis, or
with the sources of information that
were open to the geographer Behaim,
wno m 143Z inscribed "AntUia on
the globe he made at Nurember;
The great island or continent .of the
west was postulated by the ancients
long before organized explorations
carried them beyond the Pillars of
Hercules. Antilia had been used as
a landmark for measuring the dis
tance between Portugal and . "Zi-
pango," the name then given to
Japan. The very etymology of "An
tilles" is eloquent of belief in the old
tradition of a great island in the
western sea.
Yet the fame of Columbus suf
fers not a particle whether he pur
sued the definite object stated or the
myth that popular history associates
him with. Whatever his convictions
were, he had the courage of them.
The story of his voyage across the
uncharted ocean is as much a
romance as it ever was. The new
theory, nevertheless, serves to revive
interest in the ancient maps and to
remiryi us that mankind may owe as
much to modern facilities for dis
seminating scientific information as
it does to the mere gathering of it.
It is impossible to estimate how far
the Platonic legends were results of
the philosophic quest of an imagin
ary elysium, and how far they were
based on actual but imperfectly re
corded discoveries. It may have
been necessary to discover the Antil
les over and over again solely be
cause early explorers had no-way of
comparing scientific notes.
Plato's description and history of
Atlantis have been commonly re
garded as pure invention. Accord
ing to Plato's account, based on the
writings of an Egyptian priest, At
lantis, which may have been Amer
ica, was( a powerrui nation nine
thousand years before the time of
Solon. Perhaps Columbus knew and
believed the story; possibly he had
confirmation of it from the expert
ences of later but "unnamed" dis
coverers. One of the thoughts that
now occurs to us is that the world
has greatly developed its nose for
news since the fifteenth ceptury. To
this, not less than the individual
spirit of adventure, a great measure
of its progress may have been due.
BtRLESOX THE PROFITEER,
The worst profiteer in the United
States is Postmaster-General Burle
son. He - persistently opposes in
crease in wages of postal employes
in proportion to the prevailing scale
of .wages for men of equal skill and
experience In other occupations.
When congress proposes an increase.
he does his worst to restrict it and
to have such discretion vested in him
that he may deny it to any men or
any class of men at his pleasure.
The present scale of wages is below
that of day laborers and is not high
enough to meet the increase in the
cost of living.
. The result Is that clerks and car
riers resign by the hundreds, and
that the postal service Is deprived
or the services of trained men. Their
places are filled by temporary, auxil
iary men (who are green at the busl
ness. The rank injustice of the
Burleson policy is proved by the
fact that he has to pay these substi
tutes 50 per cent more than the
trained men whose places they fill
Hence follow inefficiency and. dis
organization all along the line, and
the public loses through poor serv
ice. Congress investigates ..month
after month, and is influenced by
Burleson and his assistants and by
preachers of false economy against
the common-sense course on which
a business man would decide after
less than a week's deliberation.
All this is done in order that Mr.
Burleson may be able to boast- of
profit from the postal service. The
people do not want profit; they want
good service at reasonable rates, suf
ficient to'pay their employes as good
wages as could be obtained in any
occupation requiring equal skill. If
any surplus should accrue, the peo
ple would rather have it applied to
improving the service or, if prac
ticable, reducing rates, than paid
into the treasury. They certainly do
not want to make a profit by screw
ing down wages to the standard of
Mr. Burleson's Texas experience,
with the effect that the postoffice
department becomes notorious as the
worst employer in the country.
A FABLE FOR CRITICS.
Two foreigners of note have re
cently visited the United States and
gone home to express their opinions
of Americans for the benefit of
Europe. One, the Duchess' of Cler-mont-Tonnere,
says in a book writ
ten about her trip, that our cooking
is hopeless, that our butter is bad,
our cheese unfit for food, our chick
ens emaciated and scrawny. "The
necessity of eating seems to have be
come for Americans a sort of mo
notonous and obligatory annoyance,
and they are bending all efforts to
ward simplifying the performance."
So says the duchess. . '
Maurice Maeterlinck, the Belgian
poet and philosopher, on the other
hand, recalls his sojourn with more
kindly feelings. "I went to America."
he says, "with the idea held by so
many Europeans that Americans are
engrossed only in their business af
fairs. On the contrary, I found them
devoted to ideals. When I spoke of
the immortality of the soul, the audi
ences were attentive, eager and even
tormented by mental disquietude.
Above all. I esteem the courtesy and
the good humor of the Americans."
It is related of an eminent physi
cian that, being appointed a member
of a church board with authority to
pass on the eligibility of a certain
MR. TAFT AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN.
Portland on Sunday entertained a
guest in the person of ex-President
Taft whom it delights to honor. No
president has so grown in the public
esteem after his retirement from of
fice. So far was he from showing
resentment that he took his defeat
in 1912 with smiling good nature. OI
all things the American people do
like a good loser. -
Mr. Taft has been much more than
that. He has devoted himself as a
private citizen to public service of a
non-political character which nas
been of inestimable value. During
the war he aided the administration
in preventing labor disputes and in
forming public opinion on the great
principles for which we fought. His
most notable work was organization
of the league to enforce peace, which
put in affirmative 'form the vague
public sentiment in favor of a league
of nations. If he had been given an
active part in the peace conference
and in shaping the league covenant.
there might have been a very differ
ent story to tell of the last eighteen
months.
.To Mr. Taft is mainly due the edu
cation of public opinion in favor of
the league when the conduct of Pres
ident Wilson had seriously injured
its cause. He made many speeches
explaining its merits at a time when
it was subjected to little but destruc
tive criticism, and when it became
evident that ratification without
reservations was impossible, he ap
plied himself to devising such reser-
I vations as might form a basis of
compromise between republicans and
democrats without defeating its pur
pose. If any other man than Mr,
Wilson had been president, Mr.
Taft's efforts would almost certainly
have succeeded, but if American
hopes of taking part in the league
should yet be gratified, it will be in
spite of its father. For that reason
the name of Mr. Taft will be more
favorably connected with the effort
to realize the aspiration for a league
of peace than will that of the man
whose one ambition was to win that
honor.
administration and the . precedents
made by him in the case of Huerta in
Mexico and Tino In Costa Rica. But
Obregon's was plainly such a popular
movement that Mr. Wilson may de
cide to follow 'the precedent set by
his recognition of. Carranza as de
facto ruler. The regular date for
election is so near that he may de
cide to await the result and then es
tablish relations with a de jure gov
ernment. :
If Mexico should settle down under
the rule of Obregon, one of his first
acts must be to decide on settlement
of foreign, claims for damage caused
by civil war, bandits and anarchy. I
These will run Into hundreds of mil
lions of dollars from Americans
alone, for they will cover destruction
of railroads, mines, oil property.
ranches, defaulted interest on rail
road bonds, compensation to families
of the several hundred American
citizens murdered, and repayment of
forced contributions, ransoms and
thefts. Adjustment of these claims
may prove to be one of the first im
portant acts of the world court to be
established by the league. Although
neither the United States nor Mexico
is a member, the covenant provides
for settlement of disputes between
non-members, and within a year
both nations may become members.
Mexico was "not invited originally to
join the league, but may be invited
if it forms, a government which pre
sents a decent semblance of civiliza
tion and permanence.
Obregon will have good reason to
adjust or arbitrate these claims, for
if he should refuse to recognize them.
foreign investors would be disposed
to boycott Mexico. That country is
in more dire need of foreign capital
than it has been at any time since
Diaz came into power, for the de
struction wrought by the series of
revolutions is estimated to have set
it back fifty years. It must look for
capital almost entirely to the United
States, and it will not find Americans
eager to invest, as they were for
merly, for they have the whole world
as their field and the country has to
live down the evil reputation it has
made. In order to attract the money
that is necessary to its restoration,
Mexico will have to repeal the whole
system, of confiscatory laws passed
by Carranza . and to substitute just
laws, justly administered, with rea
sonable and equal taxes. These
things with suppression of banditry
are the first essentials of govern
ment, and they can revive confidence
in Mexico.
Though now in abject poverty,
Mexico has the resources to relieve
it of the burden cf debt which revo
lutkm has laid upon it. Its oil fields
alone are -a source of immense
wealth to which the whole world
will look. Vast as is the amount of
the precious metals that it has pro
aucea. rar greater stores are un
touched and await only modern
methods of mining and extraction.
Its soil is fertile, its forests extensive
and internal peace and order would
make it one of the most prosperous
countries on earth. But until its il
literate people have been educated
and molded into a nation and have
acquired the self-restraint that is the
foundation of democracy, their po
tential riches are likely to lie fallow.
The exhibit made by the publicity
department of the Chamber of Com
merce at the foreign .trade conven
tion was a graphic Illustration of the
commerce and industries of the port.
It showed the Columbia basin as a
demonstration of Portland's natural
position as the meeting point be
tween ocean vessels and railroads
and . inland waterways, the lower
channel, the harbor, the docks and
the Swan island project, the location
of industries and the sites for more
factories. It won commendation
from visitors from many other ports,
who are alive to the facts which de
termine the flow of commerce be
tween the interior and the seaboard.
Mike Laudenkloe, assistant chief.
Is a good man in emergency. When
succession to Dave Campbell was un
der consideration, Mike declined, be
ing satisfied to remain assistant
chief. Portland is satisfied with him
and the way he took the fireboat to
the fire Sunday, outside the city
limits as it was.
Old Webster, who makes the dic
tionaries, will observe that a Port
land woman has added to the vo
cabulary by describing the actions of
a grouchy husband as "yow-yowing.'
The next edition must have it.
MEXICO AFTER CARRANZA'S FALL.
Carranza has met the fate of most
La tin-American dictators death at
the hand of assassins and those
who escape that tragic end die in ex
ile. In ten years Mexico has disposed
of four rulers in one or other of
these ways. Diaz and Huerta dying
abroad. Madero and Carranza at th
hand of murderers.
The manner of Carranza's end
does not encourage hope that Mexico
has begun to change for the better.
but other circumstances of the new
revolution give some ground for op
timism. One is the prompt denun
ciation of the murder by Obregon,
who will doubtless be Carranza's suc
cessor. Another is the fact that al
most the whole population rose
against the dictator, that several
local revolutionary leaders who were
already in the field joined hands with
Obregon, and that in a few weeks
Carranza was put to flight after littl
fighting and apparently with none
of -. the barbarities which marked
former uprisings. Nor was there
riipIi n rlisrtlav of animnsitv ae-ninst
applicant for the vacant pulpit and t Americans and other foreigners as
was common in otner revolts.
Deing unaDie to attend a meeting in
person, he charged his colleagues to
ascertain first whether the candidate
was afflicted with dyspepsia. "If he
has it," said the doctor, "he will give
us too much hell in his sermons."
Critics no less than preachers are
apt to be influenced subjectively. The
average attempt to describe another
people usually succeeds in doing no
more than let a little light into the
kind of individual the writer is him-
All of these facts will come up for
consideration by President Wilson in
connection with his decision whether
to recognize the new de facto gov.
ernment. Carranza was elected un
der constitutional forms, and for that
reason the president should refuse
recognition to the man who has over
thrown his government by revolu
tion. if he should follow the rule laid
down by him at the beginning of his
Premier Lloyd-George has been
ordered by his doctors to take a long
rest. This has a certain familiar
sound often - emitted by politicians
just prior to retirement.
The new Mexican government has
offered 100,000 pesos for the death
or capture of Francisco Villa. Well,
anyway. Villa ought to be thankful
for the compliment.
The burglar who took 2500 cigar
ettes from an east side store may be
caught by his trail of smoke. A
"fiend" with that many free will
burn them to excess..
BY-PRO DUCTS OF THE -TIMES
- '
'Jan' of Ancient Origin but America
Tamed Melosf of Kavajtrea.
A British writer wants to rob Amer
ica of the glory of originating jazz.
He digs up a jazz poem written in
England 180 years ago and describ
ing a Bong-and-dance. the music for
which was supplied by banging a salt
box with a rolling pin. A fairly good
imitation of jazz music may be pro
duced with a rolling pin and a salt
box especially If the latter happens
to be made of tin but why stop at
180 years ago if we are in search of
the origin of jazz? Why not go back
as many thousands of years as may
be necessary to fix tne date when the
Chinese first used the tom-tom and
made explosive clashes of metal In
struments a part of their music?
And perhaps older still than the
earliest Chinese variation of jazz was
the beating of the wild war drums
made of serpents' sklne and the fear
some noises of primeval teocalis. Even
earlier may have been the origin of
the war dances of many savage tribes.
the accompaniment of which is a
tumult very much like jazz.
All that America claims is the cred
it of having so far tamed the melody
of the savage that it can be given in
a cabaret and of furnishing jazz with
a more varied orchestration. In this
sense it is a new thing and distinc
tively American, as are also modern
jazz poetry,' jazz sermons and jazz
politics. San Francisco Bulletin.
New TJlm, Minn., people have
brand of humor peculiarly their own.
They recently elected Editor Phil
Liesch of the Journal, whose red
blooded Americanism during the war
made him many enemies in that Prus
sian locality, constable. This is sup
posed to be a joke in imitation of
that played on Attorney Mueller in
the same town two years ago when
he was a candidate for mayor, but
when the votes were counted found
himself elected constable instead.
What other town in the United States
or the world, for that matter, pays
loyalty with ridicule? Minneapolis
Tribune.
In these days of extravagance the
answer propounded to the question:
"What is a piker?" by a former mem
ber of the stock exchange deserves
consideration as well as attention.
The answer .came after a moment's
deliberation and reflection and was
"A piker is a man who lives within
his income."
Like similar answers, it has. be
neath its light-heartedness. material
for thoughtful consideration.
Worcester Telegram.
Paul Iribe, a Frenchman visiting
in America, says: "A new art must
come from America. Europe has
about reached her limit. You have
already created enough, to indicate
the extent of your possibilities. For
one thing, you have actually created
a new city scape. The volume and
proportion of your skyscrapers are
absolutely perfect. In fact, I con
slder the silhouette of the skyscraper
as perfect in its own way as the
Parthenon. We believe too much in
the past and think it a holy duty to
know classic art. We must know It,
certainly, but only In order to for
get immediately."
One of the many experiments of the
Royal Drawing society has been to
teach people to draw by touch, say
the Manchester Guardian. The pupil
is blindfolded and feels a simple shape
like a hammer or a spade and draw
It with his eyes open. An advanced
pupil has drawn the head of a class
ical bust and the mask of Beethoven.
These experiments fired C. B. Ab
lett, the director of the society, with
the idea of drawing by the blind. He
has devised a medium which looks
like the frosted stuff on a matchbox
made liquid, by which the draughts
man can follow by touch what he has
drawn and correct or add to his work
So far there have been no expert
merits with a blind pupil.
Mr. Ablett does not claim for ii
more than that a blind man can draw
the plan or a design of something he
wishes to record and explain. A blind
gardener has been known to go into
ecstasies over the unfolding shapes of
a plant and the drawing of these
shapes, known to him by touch would
undoubtedly give him a form of
aesthetic pleasure. In any case, it
would increase his means of com
municatlng with the outside world.
A great boon. If the method Is prac
ticable, would be that It would en
able the blind to write and to read
writing.
Those Who Come and Go.
The plan to cede to the government
Malheur lake, its bottom water and
the tributary streams for a bird re
serve, doesn't meet with the approval
or James J. Donegan of Burns, who
Is at the Imperial. "If I understand
the proposed initiative measure," says
Mr. Donegan. "it will prevent the tak-
ng of water from streams feeding
Malheur lake for irrigation purposes.
Silvies river is such a tributary. We
have an irrigation district organized
which is to include 85.000 acres. Then
the 'P ranch is planning a project of
00,000 acres, to be watered from the
BUtsen. Here are two projects de
igned to develop the state and cause
many miles of land, now Idle, to be
come productive. If the bird reserve
bill should be approved by the peo
-as it may be unless local condi
tions are known it will be a direct
handicap to the state, for besides pre
venting an increase in production, it
will prevent Increasing the taxable
value of the lands.' When the Malheur
lake bill was introduced in the 1919
esslonr of the legislature, about 95
per cent of the members favored
turning the lake over to the govern
ment as a bird reserve untH condi
tions were explained, and then the bill
was defeated." Mr. and Mrs. Done
gan came to Portland to be present at
the wedding of their daughter. Miss
Mary Carmen Donegan to Nels Elf
vlng.
C. L. Grutze, one of the construction
engineers in the state highway de
partment, was a week-end visitor at
the Multnomah. He Is In charge of
tne work in the Tillamook county dis
trict- The county Itself -is preparing
for an active road development this
year and one of the projects will be
Improvement of the road, along the
beach resorts, particularly the wood
plank road between Bar View and
Salt Air. The unty is also planning;
to extend the road from Seaview north
toward Jetty, with the ultimate des
tination of Brighton.
No one is better known in Benton
county than O. V. Hurt. They call
him "Vic" for short. Years ago he
took a pretty active part in politics,
especially in the days before the di
rect primary came into being and
getting delegates to a county con
vention was a fine art. Of late years.
Mr. Hurt is more Interested in open
ing up the remote sections of Lincoln
county by means of roads than he Is
about who holds the offices. He di
vides his year between Yachots. on the
sounding sea, nd the classic campus
of Corvallis. He has been week
ending in Portland.
If there is any pool of oil under the
sands of Harney county, G. W. Howell
intends rinding It. Mr. Howell has
a rig out In that county and drilling
is now in progress. How far down
he drill has gone Is not stated, but
anyway, it hasn't gone dow:i suffi
ciently deep to tap an oil lake. There
nas been a pretty well-confirmed be
lief in Harney and Malheur counties
ror a quarter of a century that there
is oil in that general vicinity some
where and once upon a time there
was some lively prospecting on the
surface.
The president of France is a lucky
bird" to fall from a moving train
and not be injured. All the same, the
fare on French trains should be on
the windows. '
r-ortiana trainc cops will use
whistles to speed up traffic at cross
ings. They could get even better re
suits by using sawed-off shotguns.
i San Francisco does not take kindly
to Sunday closing of barber shops.
No city does, though they come to it
in the end.
HOW TO ANNIHILATE THE DEVIL,
Unit Believing In Him ma We Did as
Regards Wltckts.
YAKIMA. Wash.. May 23. (To the
Editor.) The way to kill the devil
is to quit believing in him. Thou
sands of people have been executed
in order to destroy witchcraft, but
it died only when the people came
to see that witches were not object
ive realities, but subjective concepts
of the mind, like dreams, fantasies.
Imaginary goblins and ghosts. A
long as people could account for
their peculiarities by believing they
were possessed of witches that rode
through the air on broomsticks or
rode them over the country at night
as men ride horses, worked magic
spells and visited them with evil the
world was full of witches. As long
as diseases were supposed to be the
result of demoniacal possession the
world was full of devils. I have seen
them too and they have frightened
me almost Into spasms. But I did
not then know that they existed only
as mental images or fantasies or
those who believed in them and that
they had no objective existence and
could not have in a universe where
all things have come from a God of
infinite wisdom, power, goodness and
love.
To me witches and devils were as
real as horses, cows or men. Why
not? For the child mind does not
distinguish between physical and
mental visions; between percepts and
concepts; the outer and the Inner:
the objective and the subjective.
Before the days of telescopes, micro
scopes, the spectrometer ror the
More Truth Than Poetry.
By Jamea J. Hulsim.
THEY'RE ALL, ALIKE.
The lure of brown eyes, and a cute
little curl.
Never drew from Bill Jenkins a
look;
Bill hunted around till he landed a
girl
Who knew how to housekeep and
cook.
Her life had been spent in an old
fashioned house.
And though she knew nothing of
style.
Bill thought she would make him a
wonderful spouse, -And
the future he faced with a
smile.
But the lady developed, as soon as sua
- wed, . i
A loathing for old-fashioned ways;
She'd not be a slave to a cookstove,
she said.
Or a slattern the rest of her days.
She wore party, dresses, and took to
high heels.
flaying havoc with Jenkins' pelf.
And Bill, when he yearns for good,
old-fashioned meals.
Is invited to cook them himself.
Johnnie McGann was a wolf for the
mode.
He married a girl, for her looks.
Who knew not a line of the house
keeper's code
And never read cookery books.
He never looked forward to eating at
home.
He knew she was fond of display.
measuremen
ments for the measurement of Bound,
heat, energy, etc., it could not be
known that the universe is con
trolled by laws, that, however com
plex they may. seem to the unedu
cated, nevertheless are working in
one harmonious order for the build
ing of worlds and their habitation by
progressive forms of life.
Before the discovery of the laws of
"causes and effects" it could not be
known that the undesirable things
that occur in life were the conse
quences of our own errors. It was
perfectly natural then that our
calamities should be ascribed to evil
spirits. Now we know that every
event is a result of some cause and
is Itself a cause of something that
must follow. We believe that the
universe is governed by laws and
that these laws are God's modes of
action. If we believe this we can
not believe in witches, goblins or
devils. Since these imaginary beings
have no existence except for those
who believe in them, we may con
sign them all to an imaginary lake
of fire and brimstone and let them
die ae did the imaginary satyrs that
danced among the ruins of ancient
Babylon. GRANVILLE LOWTHER.
END WAR AND RETURN TO WORK
Cool now, but it will be hot enough
by and by, never fear. This is Ore
gon weather, and who would com
plain? ,
Census figures will stick, but
there's no limit to the amount of
Portland "ginger,"' and that counts.
Jay Stevens, who got his standing
start In Portland, is climbing In fire
protection nationally.
If this were December one might
say it feels like snow.
"Majorities rule" is a pleasant-fiction,
but pluralities "kop". the bacon
here. .
This is baseball week. Mr. Weath
erman. Can the showers.
These are terrible days for states
men with, whiskers.
One of the leading bankers of Phila.
delphia Is quoted in the Philadelphia
Public Ledger as telling this story
"Mrs. Hoover, whom I know and
greatly admire, was the only child ol
a mining operator In California. She
was very fond of going off on -shooting
and fishing trips with her father.
She Is an excellent horsewoman and a
good camp cook. She drives a motor
car. A thoroughly good sport, she
is a woman of remarkable versatility,
and with all her practical ability she
retains the feminine graces of typical
American womanhood. At a recent
meeting in Baltimore it was conceded
that she made the best speech of the
evening.
"When Mr. Hoover .was confronted
with the decision as to taking charge
of the relief work in Belgium he put
the problem, of course, before his
wife. He eald: 'It is a momentous
question. I shall have to forfeit all
that I have given years to build.' She
answered at once: 'Our children are
boys. We don't owe them the duty of
accumulating money for them, as we
should If they were girls. I'd rath
er have you accept the responsibility
for feeding the Belgians.'
...
Chemists inform us that if we
would disseminate chlorine gas
through the atmosphere on the ap
proach of Influenza nobody would
have the "flu." Chlorine gas is not
a pleasant inhalation, but It can be
so reduced in density that ' it can
knock out influenza without knock
ing out people. It is probably no
more disagreeable than taking quin
ine and almost everybody has been
more or less accustomed to that.
The facilities for fumigating whole
communities with chlorine gas are not
perfected, but we learned a good deal
about wholesale gassing in the late
war. Take a calm, still night, when
the murk and the ordinary coal gas
,descends on the town, so that It can
almost be bitten off. and we should
think several square railes could be
chlorined without difficulty. Then
let everybody turn .out and fill his
lungs with the new prophylactic and
Hprv the "flu." F. H. Collier in Sr.
I Louis Globe-Democrat.
One of the out-of-town visitors
who was well pleased with the re
sult of the. primaries is Clarence L.
Reames of Seattle. Mr. Reames, once
or -ied ford, later a member of the
legislature, then United k States at
torney, and afterward In charge of
the government espionage department
n Seattle auring the war. Is a regu
lar democrat. When he heard that
an attempt was being made to put
the skids under Senator Chamberlain,
Mr. Reames caught the night train
for Portland and began doing some
missionary worn.
iaMonte, with a DODulatlon of
about two dozen people, found a place
on me imperial register yesterday
when J. R. Hadley acknowledged that
town as nis Headquarters. It is so
small that 't isn't even a postoffice.
uiaonn is the way Mr. Hadlev
spells it, but when It can be found
on a map it is SDelled Lamonta.
It is about half a dozen miles from
Grissly and the same distance to the
netter-known town of Culver, in Jef-
ierson county. It is in a good stock
raising country.
J. T. West would like to eee the
Mount Hood loop completed and
spur road built to Wapinltia. It
all part of the general plan of road
construction, out otner and more
pressing highways have been recelv
ing iirst consideration. When the
road from Wapinltia taps the loop.
ii win snorten tne automobile dis
tance from central Oregon by many
score of miles. Mr. West of Wapi
nltia. is sojourning at the Imperial
Frederic T. Boles of Chicago, who
is actively engaged In the lumber In
austry. Is an arrival at the Hotel
Portland. Every so often Mr. Boles
comes to Oregon to see how his tim
ber Interests are getting: on. He is
one of the many absentee owners of
Oregon timber, for although this state
is blessed with great timber wealth,
most of it is held by non-residents.
It is quite important to know the
result of the primaries when you are
a candidate for president of the
state senate, so Roy W. Rltner, sen
ator ror Umatilla county, has been
at the Imperial to watch the state
returns. He lost a couple of pros
pective Multnomah county votes when
his tentative supporters were de
feated Friday.
Afifi temple of Tacoma, Wash., in
tends being very much in the lime
light when the Shriners are in Port-
and. To look after some of the
details E. B. King. J. G. Manning
and G. F. Lamoreaux have arrived
at the Hotel Oregon. During the
parade Afifl proposes to spring a few
astonlshers on the spectators.
Until all the timber In the Siletz
is cut, lumbering will be the leading
industry. One of the men who is
turning good Lincoln county trees
Into lumber and sawdust is Emil T.
Raddant, whose plant is at Orton.
He is at the Hotel Oregon for a few
days.
C O. Curl, who gets his mail at
Beaver, is at the Hotel Oregon while
attending to business affairs. Beaver
Is an atractive little cross-roads set
tlement in Tillamook county in the
heart of a good fishing .and hunting
region.
they would roam.
From jazz shop to gilded cafe.
And Mrs. McGann, who was reared
from a child.
To think about social success.
And always had said she was perfect
ly wild
Over parties and dancing and dress.
Bought even more clothes than she
formerly wtre, . .
Not to mention a limousine car. '
And Johnnie said nothing and settled
the score.
For that is the way women are.
.Unfair Competition.
The old law that forbade a bar-room
to be located within a block of a
church ought to be applied. In these
dry times, to movie houses.
Merely Business.
When su-.ar, at 28 cents a pound,
can be made into candy that sells for
$1.25 a pound. It is not surprising that
there is a shortage.
A Good Slogan, Too.
All that we ask of the democratic
party this year Is to keep us out of
Bryan.
Knox Argument OM Perce Resolution
Is Unassailable.
PORTLAND, May 23. (To the Edl
Unsatisfied.
By Grin E. HalL
In orchards that were brown and bare
Unnumbered trees with foliacre fair
tor.) I rather respect than admire j R6ach towards the bending blue;
Senator Knox. Am scarcely more In I Their buds are forming full and sweet.
The season's mission to complete.
in springtime lashtontng true.
sympathy with his attitude towards
the late proposed treaty as a whole
than with that of Messrs. Johnson,
Borah, et al. But I regard his posi
tion and sustaining argument on the
peace resolution as not successfully
assailable, and The Oregonian's edi
torial summary and explanation of it
and of the existing situation (person
alities aside), given us today, as sig
nally able in scope, treatment and
grasp of essentials. The senator s
speech will take rank among those
epochal; your column on the subject
is worthy to be kept for lasting refer
ence one of those leaders In The
Oregon'an which readers have learned
to be on the watch ror, that nave a
quality - of statesmanship not com
monly found or expected in a news
DaDer utterance.
In a letter to The Oregonian, some I A plaintive murmur in the breeze.
time back. I took a similar stand upon A signing or the vine.
the underlying principle, and as
firmly believe now as then in the
soundness of it. and that the only
Issues for debate on its adoption are
exigencies and policy, of state. The
senate hung on the San Domingo pro
tocol for two years. For heaven's
sake, must war clouds overhang our
normal peace atmosphere another
year or more? The treaty-making
branches of our government will some
day come to agreement: in the mean
time, let us make an end of what is
Then chasing petals to and fro
Across the sod free winds shall blow.
When fading blossoms fall;
Each tree yields up its fruit and
leaves.
Then through the winter sadly grieves.
Whispering Its loss to alL
So we in turn tako up life's game.
Calling the harvest "wealth" or
"fame,"
Yield of our best,
"Till mellowed in the sun of years
And purified by wash of tears.
We sink at last to rest.
Yet ever In the echoes cast
From out the caverns of the past
There is a whine
A loneln whisper in the trees.
In Other Days.
Twenty-five Yean Ago.
From The Oregonian of May 25. 1895.
San Francisco. The mail service of
Wells, Fargo & Co., one of the old
established institutions of the Pacific
coast, was abolished today. At one
time 12,000 letters were handled daily
by this service.
endable and get down to business.
The world is weary of the past:
O. micht It die or rest at last
THROUGH THE DESERT
(The Snake-Columbia Route.)
Miles of brown carpet spread in the
sun.
That blazes and burns till the day Is
done;
Stretches of plain that carry the eye
Where the earth reaches up and
touches the sky.
London. The 76th birthday of Queen
Victoria was observed today at all
R. I naval and military stations. Among
the honors distributed on the occasion
the Earl of Aberdeen, governor-general
of Canada, and had his rank
raised to the first class.
New York. Bradstreet's report to
morrow will say that few. believe the
sharp advance in wheat has reached
the highest point, though it Is 25
cents per bushel above the lowest
level since the panic. The advance
WA3 rAUBPrl nrim.i t-i 1 v hv fi-r,tt an. I
Sagebrush and sand away and away! reports of severe damage to cereal
And a trail that must leau to mo crni crops.
Mrs. James Rice of Madras, in the
Deschutes country, arrived yesterday.
Her mission is to take home her hus
band, who has been in a Portland
hospital for a month. Mr. Rice Is I
well-to-do rancher.
A pair of Boots came to the Mult
nomah yesterday. Mr. and Mrs. F. W.
Boot of Denver are looking over the
country. Mr. Boot Is an official of
the Cattlemen & Drovers' State bank.
His Initials do not mean "more
security," but-M. S. Woodcock, who
Is registered at the. Imperial, is a
banker at Corvallis.
August H-ilderbrand, who has a
large furniture store In Astoria, is
at the Multnomah while here on a
business trip.
of the day.
Oh, where would it take me and what
would it leacn;
To kingdoms of silence? The hind
rance of speecn .'
David Campbell has assumed his
new duties as fire chief. He has
changed his residence from the home
of engine company No. 2 to the head
quarters at Fourth and Yamhill
Out into the sunset and into the west. 1 streets.
Could I ride to some Canaan, land of I
the blest?
Or would It but lure me to kill me at
last
Anrl flinir roe as food to the wild
things that passed?
Here the lark cannot dwell and I see
not a bird
But the buzzard afar, seeking stray
from the herd;
And yet there is music and joy in the
air,
And life in this desert, life every
Now the scene changes. Here the
gods played.
What marvelous things in their sport
they have made!
Or were they like sculptors, each
seeking to say
A beautiful thing with his handful of
clay?
Great domes and cupolas, columns and
frets.
Balconies, porticos, tall minarets;
Tables and terraces, arches and spires.
Nooks, aisles and doorways, choir
lofts with choirs.
Mystical pyramids, sphinxes cloud-1
high,
Liftine parched faces up to the sky;
Stairways no- mortal ever shall tread.
Fifty Years Ago.
From The Oregonian of May 25, 1ST0.
Washington. A bill passed the
house exempting vessels engaged In
internal and coastwise navigation and
fisheries from paying tonnage dues.
The side wheel steamer California
sailed from San Francisco yesterday
for this port with a list of 125 cabin
and 175 steerage passengers and a
considerable quantity of freight-
The 23d infantry band is playing
concert programmes in the Plaza
every evening at 6:30 o'clock.
We are Informed that Jay Cooke
& Co., of Philadelphia, have purchased
Castle Rock, on the Colum .a river
above Vancouver.
Law on MorrlaKei,
PORTLAND. May 24. (To the Edi
tor.) 1. Is a marriage under an as
sumed name legal In Oregon. 2. Is
it in Washington. 3. Is -a marriage
license good in any other county than
the one issued in, in this state?
SUBSCRIBER.
1.
2.
3.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes,
but it must be issued In
Leading below to the cool river-bed. the COunty of the bride's residence.
A river, like silver, that quivers and
srleams.
As It flows calmly on through this re
gion of dreams:
And ever the glorious, conquering sun.
That biases and burns till the day Is
done.
to
Cook Bosses Hla Bosisess.
Philadelphia Inquirer.
Mrs. Jones "The cook refuses
get up earlier than 7:30 o'clock."
Mr. Jones "Ask her If she won't
do it for a couple of days until I can
arrange my business."
O why do you call, land of cactus and
sage?
And whence comes your magic, age
after age?
Does Original Substance dwell in your
air.
Where all to the eye seems lifeless
and bare?
Perhaps your pure ethers all good
things enfold.
To drop at man's feet, like manna of
old.
If he will but seek them in faith 'mid
the sands, ., . . .
Where naught can be seen T of the
work of his hands.
MARY HESTER FORCE.
Health Certificate Not Required.
' PORTLAND, May 24. (To the Edi
tor.) Please state in your paper if
there is a state law requiring a health
certificate for a woman before mar
riage? 2. Can on obtain a certifi
cate If they desire without a law for
same? E. R.
1. A woman Is not required to have
a health certificate before marriage.
2. She can employ a physician to
make an examination and report.
Soldier Hurt In Accident.
GRESHAM. Or., May 23. (To the
Editor.) Please tell me what button
a soldier Is entitled to who was crip
pled back of the lines through acci
dent whether silver or bronze.
EX-SERVICE MAN.
Bronze. The silver button Is given
only to men wounded in action