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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1921)
8 THE MOEXIXG OREGOXIAX. WEDNESDAY. JULY 27, 1921 Jftmrntucr (teptttatt KTABLlSIItD BV HENRI L. FITTOCK. Published by The Oregontan Publiahlnie Co.. 10 Sixth Street. Portland. Ortnon. C A. MORUE.V. E. B. PIPER. Manager. Editor. The Oreg-onian is a member of th Asso ciated I'ren The Associated Preua U ex clusively entitled to the use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited In this paper and also the local new published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches' herein are also reserved. Subscription Rates Invariably In Advance. (By Mail.) Dally. Sunday included, one year 8 00 Dally. Sunday Included, six months . -4.25 Ially, Sunday included, three month 2.'-- taJly. Sunday included, one month". .... .75 Iai!y. without Sunday, one year 6.0(1 Daily, without Sunday, six month. .... Daily, without Sunday, one month .60 Weekly, one year 1.00 Sunday, one year 2.D0 (By Carrier.) 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SETTLING FOR WAR'S EFFECTS, President Harding's proposal for relief of farmers and railroads is a part of the financial readjustment which the war has made obligatory. The government was left with many unsettled accounts due both to it and by it. Settlement is necessary to put its affairs in order, but still more to restore the normal flow of business within the country and with other nations. The railroads were returned to their owners with straitened finances, yet in need of large expenditures for improve ment and equipment. The farmers were hit first and hardest by the fall of prices, and some help must be given them in tiding over the period of transition to the new price level. This is in the general interest also, for depression of the farming in dustry reacts adversely on every other industry. Adjustment of the allien' debts is another branch of the same work. If made on terms with which the debtors can comply with out delay to their recovery from the war's effects and without flood ing the American market with more goods in payment than we can read ily absorb, this adjustment should contribute materially to revival of foreign trade and of industry. Liqui dation of the emergency fleet is an other branch of the same work which will unavoidably be spread over several years. I5y using the War Finance corpor ation to settle affairs with the rail roads and to help the farmers the president should be able to dispense with further drafts on the treasury. The government owes the railroads about half a billion dollars for de preciation of their property under government operation. The rail roads owe the government about an equal amount for betterments and equipment provided during govern ment operation. The public interest requires that the railroads be pro vided with funds to improve their track atid terminals and to buy equipment, therefore it is proposed to pay in cash the sum due them and to take from them securities bearing interest which would spread over a term of years payment of the sums which they owe the govern ment. The War Finance corporation would lend the railroad administra tion, which is winding up the af fairs of federal operation, the cash to pay the roads and would buy the securities which it takes from the railroads, then would sell them on the open market and reimburse it self. It is a simple case of making one hand wash the other. The farmers are in bad position to finance the crops now being har vested. They borrowed on last year's crop at high values, were forced by the decline to sell at far. lower prices and have so loaded the banks with their "frozen loans" that further loans from that source to carry this year's crop so that it can be fed to the consumer gradually are impracticable. If the farmers, in haste to realize, should rush to sell, they might drive down the price and choke the railroads to their own undoing. If they should be able to borrow on the crop, they could market it by degrees through out the season and get a good price for peace time. They would then make a good profit, for the crop was grown at low cost, measured by war standards, pay their frozen loans and a. good share of their new ones. A new source for these new loans must be found. The War Finance corporation is equipped for this purpose. Kstab lished to finance trade during the war. It has been continued for the same service in after-war readjust ment. It has resources for loans to farmers on the new crop, and its operation will be facilitated by the new warehouse act, for it can take warehouse receipts as collateral. When wheat or other produce is sold, it can take the buyers' ac ceptances and should be able to sell them to the federal reserve banks, which could issue notes against them. As the gold reserve is now 62 per cent of the federal reserve banks' demand liabilities, they have a margin sufficient to handle the marketing, of crops, the War Fi nance corporation's intervention be ing useful, mainly in carrying the crop until sold. The president's plan is much to be preferred to that of Senator Norris. for the latter would create a new corporation owned by the govern ment with $100,000,000 capital supplied by the treasury and with power to borrow $1,000,000,000 for the purpose of buying and selling farm produce. This would be an other case of the government in business, of which we want to make an end, having profited by experi ence with railroads and ships. Under the Norris bill the government would drift Into price-fixing, for It would have to set prices at which it would buy wheat and other staple Pressure would be strong to induce It to buy at high prices and, if the market weakened, temp tation would arise to hold for a rise. This would be much like cornering the supply, which would render a private -citizen liable to prosecution. The alternative would be to sell at a lost;. That plan is pernicious as Involv ing the government in business which mlsht uesenerate into specu lotion and from which it would have difficulty in withdrawing. It Is also unnecessary to the relief for which the farmers can fairly call on the government. If congress provides means for them to carry their crops until they can be marketed as de mand for consumption arises, and means for other nations to buy with payment deferred long enough to meet the necessities of poverty stricken countries, it will have done enough to meet an emergency that is strictly temporary. Farmers would thus be enabled, to dispose of this year's crops at remunerative prices, after which the government should withdraw from the field, leaving future financing to ordinary private agencies. But for the powerful bi-partisan farmers' bloc, the Norris bill would have received serious consideration. It can have no friends among the rest of the population who ' have taken to heart the lessons of the war period and whose one desire is that the government get out of business and stay out. NOT A SOLUTION. While the installation of uniform speed signs on the highways of the state is much to be desired, the pub lic cannot but feel disappointment that this suggestion was all that the recent conference of community representatives and Chamber of Commerce officials could offer, as a remedy for constantly recurring dis putes and difficulties on the lower Columbia highway. . Doubtless there always will . exist a more or less friendly feud between motorist and traffic officer., but harmony is not greatly advanced through mere ad vertisement of speed laws. What the situation on this particular highway demands, and on other state high ways as well, is uniformity of traffic regulations.. This the conference did not accomplish. In a companion resolution , it touched lightly on the cash bail abuse, so frequently invoked against responsible motorists arrested, by community officers on the lower Co lumbia highway. To "frown" upon an arbitrary practice does not always shame it into disuse. But it laid stress on the necessity for the giving of a receipt, made out in duplicate, when bail is asked and receivedand until uniformity of speed regula tions is attained perhaps no more can be done. The important and vexatious fact remaining is that the conference did not greatly simplify those very elements of discord that have created complaint in the past. The motorist is not advised as he leaves the precincts of one com munity, with its own speed limita tion, that he is entering another jurisdiction where local official opinion considers an entirely differ-, ent regulation . essential to public safety. Nor will highway speed signs, even if they are installed, effectually advise him. He bas no quarrel with the traffic officers, nor have they one with him, but the circumstances of the usual arrest are always con troversial and frequently lead to hot words and general misunderstand ing. Tolerance should be invoked by both parties, but the need for diplomatic etiquette would be en tirely removed if both officer and motorist knew precisely their priv ileges under the law. Uniformity should be tne objec tive. The communities of the1 lower Columbia highway should see to it that their speed laws are alike and reasonable; that unnecessarily re strictive ordinances be revoked, as in instances when there is no ap parent necessity for a 20-mile gait; and that necessary limitations of speed be retained. The state's own speed limit of 30 miles an hour is reasonable for the open road, and community restrictions further in voked will not be held amiss if they, too, are reasonable and uniform. But unless uniformity is attained, and the needless highway wrangles and prosecutions lessened thereby, the state itself will undoubtedly be re quired to enact and enforce it. NEW MARKET FOE MANUFACTURES. Eastern congressmen at last be gin to see the benefit which their own state would derive from west ern reclamation. The greatest dif ficulty hitherto has been to make them see that expenditure for de velopment of the west would equally benefit the east and, not seeing any thing in it for their own states, they regarded money voted for such pur poses as so much pork, in which the east did not share and which eastern congressmen should not vote. The statement made to the house com mittee by W. I). B. Dodson. execu tive manager of the Portland Cham ber of Commerce, opened their eyes. The arid land of the west is an unproductive property of the nation. Its development has not hitherto ap pealed to people outside the west, for until lato years there was land available for settlement that did not need irrigation, and the country produced not only enough food for its own people but a large surplus for export. Almost at the same time we have reached the point where there is no public land cultivable without irrigation, the need of in creased food production has been impressed on us by the war and by the subsequent world shortage, and the necessity has arisen to increase the rural as compared with the urban population. Further, the gov ernment needs all the taxable re sources it can find, and unoccupied arid land pays no taxes, but costs money to administer. These are reasons of national scope for water ing the land and putting people on it to produce food and pay taxes. There are also arguments that ap peal to the local self-interest of eastern congressmen who look out for their constituents. Productive capacity of American manufactures has grown during the war far be yond the consumptive capacity of the United States, and many minds are working on plans to sell the sur plus abroad. Irrigation offers a plan to dispose of much of that sur plus by increasing home consump tion. On the one million odd acres which the government has re claimed at a cost of $135,000,000 there was produced in 1918 over $66,000,000 in crops. Those new producers are also new consumers. On the Minidoka project In Idaho are 25,000 people who bought goods to the amount of $7,000,000 in 1919. mostly from eastern manufacturers. Their aggregate buying power is far greater than that of the eastern and middle-western farmer, for their farms yield an average of $63 an acre to the latter's $20 an acre. That is business worth going after. It is estimated that the proposed govern ment investment of $250,000,000, re volving three times in twenty years, would reclaim 10,000,000 acres of land, the settlers on which, buying ou the scale of the Idaho community mentioned, would consume $700, 000,000 worth of American goods. -By all means let us extend foreign trade, but while doing so let us ex tend the home market, for there the American . manufacturer has the first call and has customers who buy far more liberally than the people of any other country. Reclamation makes more customers than are found in other farming countries, for irrigated farms are small and population is correspondingly dense. The man who refuses to help in planting' a thriving family on every forty or eighty acres where only sagebrush and grease wood grow is blind to his own interest. CROWING TOO SOON. Those who oppose building of battleships, either through desire for disarmament or through convic tion that submarines and aircraft have put them out of date, glory in the sinking of the German battle ship Ostfriesland by aircraft as proof of their case, so far as aircraft are concerned. The event proved that a battleship without crew and undefended by its own guns or by aircraft - and,, if moving at all, not maneuvering as it would in action, could be sunk by aircraft. The only fair test would be repro duction of battle conditions. In that case the battleship would have anti aircraft guns as well as heavy artil lery, would be skilfully maneuvered and would be defended by an air fleet which would transfer the battles to the air. Bomb-dropping planes would perhaps hit their mark no more often than did submarines at the battle of Jutland. Aircraft will have to contend with other new inventions, which may put them decidedly on the defensive. The possibilities of poison gas have only begun to be developed. It may be loaded in bombs to stifle a whole ship's crew, but some genius may find a way to shoot a great cloud of it into the air and envelop a whole air squadron. Every new weapon of attack has been met by new means of defense and a new weapon of counter - attack. The battleship, vastly changed, still remains the backbone of the modern fleet. Its day will not be passed until it has been defeated in battle by other craft, on sea or in the air, unaided by other battleships. IXEXCl'SABLE OFFICIAL NEGLIGENCE Almost two weeks ago the brutal murder of Dennis Russell, a Rose burg laborer, was committed and search instituted for the suspected slayer.' Possessed of an excellent description of the man they seek, the officers have so far been unable to apprehend him. The trail has been clouded with rumor. He has been reported from a dozen different lo calities. , Subsequent investigation has disposed of most of these re ports as of little worth, or none at all. Vet it is the duty of the officers to neglect no clew to his pursuit, to count no circumstance too trivial for close inquiry. The fact that chiefly concerns the public is the continued inability of the law to apprehend its quarry, and the public patience al ready is somewhat testy. Two citizens of Roseburg. it now appears, both well acquainted with f the suspect, declare that they en countered him near the Oregon-California boundary, recognized him beyond the vestige of doubt, and made an immediate and full report to Klamath Falls officers. If, in deed, they had seen the suspect and there is no reason to doubt the identification they.made the arrest of the quarry should have been ac complished within a very few hours after the report reached Klamath Fulls. Yet the two Roseburg citizens motored back to their own city to discover that no action had been taken in the matter, and that the officers to whom they reported had disposed of their positive statement as another rumor not worth the bother of investigating. If the facts are as stated, and they so appear to be, the law' in Oregon has little to plume itself about. It is entirely likely that the fleeing suspect will in time be apprehended, and answer the terrible charge against him, but there is always the possibility that the law may be out witted and never draw near enough to serve its warrant. This possibility, owing to apparently inexcusable negligence, has been considerably enhanced. A CAMP IN MARYLAND. They were far from the capitol and the crowds, at least a long hour's ride by motor from the cark ing cares that infest the present the president, the inventor, the bishop and the manufacturer. The rude simplicity of their sylvan camp was apparent. On one hand was the crude but effective gasoline range, equipped with eight burners, an oven and a warming closet, on the other loomed the silent bulks of six shining limousines and a hulking truck. It was such a scene and such a setting as Davy Crockett's big heart would have warmed to "at a glimpse. Primitive, bnt not too much so; simple and al fresco, but fortified by prudence. "Boys," said the president, through the haze of his cigar, "this is. when all is said, the life. To me it seems the natural return to nor malcy, and these great trees are for the moment of more interest, in their eternal mystery of patient growth, .than Yap or Jap or the im pending council on disarmament. The flapjacks were golden and grati fying, the coffee a dark and fra grant amber, and I feel somewhat inclined to a nap." "That is the flesh," observed the bishop, "and I trust, my dear presi dent, that you will not mar this day's enjoyment, snatched from a useful but vexatious service, by yielding. It seems to me that the inventor here, our distinguished wizard of science, might chat in structively on those marvels he has yet in mind. "Count that day lost," as the maxim goes, "whose" low de scending sun views er no stone unturned.' " The inventor nodded gravely and turned toward the manufacturer, who was carving spirals on a willow stick. "Henry," he said, "of late I have resorted to a simple test of knowl edge, which I apply to the "young men who enter my laboratories and shops. I have some of the fellows run through tne encyclopedia and pick out a few posers at random. and the dictionary as well. Perhaps it Is up to me to confess that in proof-reading the questionnaire so compiled I have myself been the gainer. Nevertheless the questions relate to facts that any school boy should be laroiiiar with, and able to answer. It has seemed to me that their broader application as the test of general knowledge among suc cessful men, such as we are held to be, might not be amiss. Henry, answer ra this, what is a homun culus?" The manufacturer squirmed on his cushions and threw the willow stick, with considerable energy, at a friendly chipmunk. "As me some thing easy!", he objected, with sar castic inflection. "We have a few of them in the senate," remarked the president. "Of course you have," said the in ventor. "And Henry had a few of them on his peace ship. But let it pass, we'll try again. Henry, old scout, do you know what a diphthong is and can you define its function?" "That's another technical ques tion," said Henry. "My engineers could tell you. off-hand, but I'll , have to ask you what make of car has em before I commit myself." "Never mind, bishop," interposed the inventor, "this is Henry's quiz. The next one is easy. What queen was known as the 'virgin queen' 7" "O. dam!"' exclaimed the manu facturer. "You know that my hobby isn't history!" . "Why, Henry!" said the bishop. "Pardon him, your reverence," the president begged. "That's only a queer case of mental reflex. Henry, tell us, you were thinking of nitrates, of the Wilson, dam. or of dam No. 3, weren't you, when that skipped out?" "Sure I was," replied the relieved Henry. "Now, I contend that the agricultural future " "We are convinced that you were," said the bishop, smoothly. "It appears to me, Mr. Inventor, that the store of human knowledge is widely diffused, and so various that none may hope to hold it all. Without venturing an impiety, but for your soul's sake, sir, may I in quire . if you recall the Lord's prayer?" "If I recall the Lord's prayer?" repeated the inventor with rising in flection. "Are you serious? You are?" He settled himself com placently and began: "Now I lay me down to sleep " "Ah, no! no! no! no!" objected the bishop. "Gentlemen!" the president re minded them. "Let us not forget the normalcy we sought in this retreat. Let us abstain from controversy. No doubt the bishop is right, Tom. May I not suggest that we four should stand and sing together the national anthem. Thank you. All together, now " "Oh, say . . . my country, 'tis can you see . . . of thee" "Wait a minute! Wait a minute!" implored the president. There seems to be some misunderstanding. There's only one of them you rise for!" The last note died away among the leaves. Somewhere down the trail, hidden and happy, a song lifted that was like silver magic an inimitable song to put the mocking bird to shame. The four listened with rapt attention. It ceased, or seemed to blend into the twilight and was gone. "What bird was that?" they asked in eager unison. John Burroughs, had you been there, as you were wont to be, you could have told them the presi dent, the bishop, the manufacturer and the inventor. "For you a rose In- Portland grows" is not a discarded slogan, by any means. It appears that there are folk who remember it and take it for granted and act upon the same. So we realize when we read that a bride-elect compelled her Seattle young man to come to Portland 'for the ceremony, where there are plenty of roses. It had been her ambition to have a wed ding resplendent with the regal flower, and you know how women are about such things. Tacoma, too, not so long ago petitioned a Portland rose grower for the photo graph of one of his choice blooms, that they might use as an illustra tion of their favorite rose. It is true that Tacoma has a rose garden, and equally true that there are roses in Seattle but when folk really- want roses, in perfection and plenty of them, they know where to come. The judge in the case says a war rant can be served on the governor of Illinois, but that he can acknowl edge at his leisure, which gets the prosecution nowhere. Judge Bean is right. No man can get away with ten gallons in a three day Fourth of July celebration; but oh, boy! there are a million men ambitious to try. Speaking of "dingbats" in the telephone service, it wouldn't hurt to install one that would croon "Number, please," when the phone girls go to sleep. The president has formally re ceived Princess Fatima, sultana of Afghanistan. After that what chance is there for the anti-cigarette crusade? A -Portland man missing for two weeks has been around here all the time, which is one on the searchers. Perhaps Brumfield is around Rose burg. , That porter on the train out of St. Paul who took a revolver from a robber and kicked him off the. car was a regular "wildcat." i That navy captain, who has to pay $250 a month alimony to a couple of his ex-wives must pray for war and a good airplane raid. Just as well the man of 33 who never saw a woman gets his start in Omaha. Here he would get eye paralysis. - Figures show that half of San Francisco's marriages stick, not a bad average for the Bay city, con sidering. Henry Ford might run the rail roads more economically, but think how much his extras would cost. This is the one day in the year when the fly cannot get into the grocery store. July weather always is superb in Portland. August is her time to sizzle. - Seattle is having a buyers' week, but the real thing is here next week. That is not a war of the river boats. It is merely a skirmish. BY PRODUCTS OF THE PRESS All-Chinese Film Compuy Producing: Thriller for American Screen. The motion picture world is wait ing with bated breath for the release of the first all-Chinese film. "The Lotus Blossom," now being made by the Wah Ming Motion Picture com pany of Los Angeles. The delicate lady of the Chinese fan has come to life in the person of Lady Tsen Mei, star of the production. The director i3 Leung Butjung, a young Chinese, educated in a middle-western college. All of the actors are Chinese or Japa nese and the picture, which has been three months in the making, is now nearly complete. The company la financed by a wealthy Chinese mer chant, Quong Foo. and is operating in a studio of its own in a converted residence. "The Lotus Blossom" is founded on Chinese legends which were old when Christ was born. The legend con cerns bad luck in the empire, with the emperor having a great bronze bell made to serve the double pur pose of calling: the people to work and prayer and warding of evil spirits. But in the . cheerful little barbaric way of the Tartar the blood of a vir gin must mingle with the material of which the bell is made. This fact and the dramatic events connected with it serve as the central dramatic punch of the story. It is thoroughly accurate in every detail and includes some interesting customs and tradij tions of the Chinese. California is on tiptoe with expec tation, for the new regulations gov erning divorce suits are to be in force August. 1. For years it has been the practice in California to have a public and a secret divorce file. At the last session the state lawmakers did away with the secret file, and after August 1 all complaints become public prop erty the moment they are placed on record, but interest centers mainly in the publication of the details con tained in a number of cases that have been rushed into court of late weeks in the hope that they would not be revealed. Kach city and county has half a dozen or more sensational suits tucked away in the secret archives of the county clerks' offices and the news-gatherers will be on the job early next Monday. It is expected that the elimination of the secret file will do away with many spicy allega tions, the parties to the suits likely contenting themselves with nominal desertion or other statutory causes for action. Herbert Hoover was talking with some of the bankers who had Just called on President Harding to argue to him that the needa of the country demanded that they be given greater profits. They had made a $50,000, 000 loan to Belgium, and Belgium had bbught Argentine wheat with it, and American wheat is rotting in eleva tors. The bankers said it could not be helped. They refused to admit that they had a patriotic duty Ln the premises. They said that money, like the Mississippi river, seeks its easy level. "Once," said Hoover, and his jaws were set like castiron, "once, gentle men, I knew a pawnbroker who held your theories. He could get 2 per cent a month and he did and he grew rich and one morning we found him in the rear of his shop with his head battered in. He had not been robbed but he had been hated. Think of that pawnbroker, gentlemen, be fore you heap another burden on your country." A friend of mine says that when they went back to .New York that night in their private car the banlters did a lot of head-shaking over Hoover. He doesn't seem quite ortho dox to them. John Pilgrim. Most of us are, unfortunately, more or less fa'miliar with the stethoscope, which the doctor uses when listening for the signs of defective action in our Jungs or heart. It is not so wildly known that the tame kind of instrument can be employed to detect abnormal noises in moving machinery. The latest development in this work shop stethoscope, due to a British engineer, lies in the use of a kind of telephone receiver in place of the stethoscope rod. The advantage of this device is that every bearing and every gear in a factory can be fitted permanently with a receiver and all the receivers can be connected by electric wires to a single board in the manager's office or any other convenient spot. By means of suitable switches the manager can examine each bearing or gear in succession without moving from the board. Since abnormal in ternal noise is often the first sign of trouble which may lead to break down, this elmple and rapid means of detection is an invaluable aid to the factory owner. Victoria Colonist. . A Manhattanite for several days had been showing New York to a boy hood friend from the west, says the Philadelphia Public Ledger. He took him in rapid succession to Bronx Zoo, Coney Island, the Aquarium and then fed his fancy with the various breeds of subways, the bridges and the free electric show in Times square. But the visitor refused to be thrilled. He finally confessed that in the back of his head was an all-consuming desire to see the New York firemen in action. Here is where the sad part begins. They say New Yorkers are cold and unresponsive. This one was any thing but that, for t,o oblige his long ago buddie he did the honors at a fire alarm box. There responded three engines, three hose carts, two hook and ladder trucks, one fire boat, one fire patrol, two battalion chiefs and 62 firemen. Friend from the west was duly impressed, but the police came along and rushed the hospitable New Yorker off to a cell, charging him with disorderly conduct for cost ing the city $400. That's what comes of trying to be nice. Sixty saxaphones are to wail as one ' in Los Angeles. An Angelano composer and director is forming a concert band which will be the larg est in the world, it is said. It will be the only one of its kind, and the music will have to be especially written for the horns. An earthly paradise, opines Sey mour Fay in re the Indianapolis News" want ad: "Beautiful five-room and sun-parlor apartment, all light and airy with invisible bed." a a "What makes a man always give a woman a diamond engagement ring?" asks a lady writer. Generally speak ing, the answer is, "The woman." London Punch. Those Who Come and Go. 3 Tales of Folk at the Hotels. "It is a wonderful system the gov ernment has of keeping an eye on the forests in the McKenzie region," says Frank Schlegel. "A woman lives in a ranger station on a moun tain peak. She can look 16 miles away to another peak, where another woman is on the lookout, and. turning in anotner direction she can see an other station far off. These stations have telephones, and once an hour the women make an observation and tele phone, and once a day an airplane comes swinging overhead to see that all is well. At night the women, through their glasses, can see the lights of adtomobiles coming out of Bend and the motor lights in other directions. From these stations ma chines can be seen moving miles away at any time of night." Mr. Schlegel is enthusiastic over the McKenzie river country. He says that deer are so thick on the south fork that it would be an easy matter to keep supplied with venison, and as for trout well, they are unlimited. An other thing which impressed Mr. Schlegel very much was the way the government is building the new high way. It is not hard surfaced, but is being macadamized, and where the old road was steep and rather dan gerous the builders havve now estab lished easy grades. "There have been 40,000.000 copies of The Message to Garcia' .printed," announced A. Schultz, at the Perkins. "There has never been anything so widely read and distributed as this article by the late Klbert Hubbard. It was written in one hour, after dinner, during the Spanish-American war, and save for the Bible it has had the greatest circulation of any writ ten document. A railroad first used it for advertising purposes and dis tributed several thousand. Since then the 'message' has been reprinted time and again until millions have been distributed. Some 2.000.000 copies of the message were distributed by army headquarters during the world war. The 'message' has been trans lated into a score of languages. It was not until 1917 that the 'Message to Garcia' was copyrighted, nearly. IS years after it was penned." When motorists arrive at a hotel the clerks always inquire about the condition of the road, because the clerks are always being asked in turn for this sort of information. It appears that tourists fail to agree 'on the condition of the same road, even when both have traversed it within an hour of each other. Much, appar ently, depends on the kind of car that the trip is being made in and on other factors. Fo,.example. Mr. and Mrs. George Anderson and others ar rived at the Hotel Portland yester day from San Francisco and reported that the road was fine and every thing was lovely. An hour later Mr. and Mrs. Delbert F. Wells also ar rived from San Francisco and Mr. Wells complained that the road was bud, that there were too many de tours and that the trip was disagree able. A team of horses, drawing a vege table wagon, owned by a Chinese, was running away up Broadway. The thoroughfare was full of motor traf fic as the animals rushed wildly to ward the south. Joe O'Brien, one of the bellboys at the Benson, saw the runaways, and as the team dashed past the entrance of the hotel, O'Brien made a quick leap and caught the tail of the vehicle. He 'climbed Jntb the wagon and worked his way forward over the vegetables until he reached the seat and the reins and pulled the frightened animals to a standstill just when the team arrived at Washing ton street. The Chinese owner came panting up the street and informed the bellboy, "You heap strong," and then as a reward took O'Brien to a ctgar stand and bought him two two bit cigars. "And," sighed C. B. McCullough, head of the bridge department of the state highway commission, "I was arrested in St. Helens for driving 18 miles an hour." The state bridge en gineer thus contributes his plaint to the general wail of motorists wfio are' being arrested by speed cops ln Columbia county. The fines and for feited bail are used by the county of ficials to build a road from Pittsburg to St. Helens. Mr. McCullough was at the Imperial yesterday on his way to Oregon City to look after some of the preliminaries, for the construction of the proposed new bridge across the Willamette river. The contractors are trying to order steel by telegraph and hope to get the lower steel in place by October and thereby steal a march on the high water. According to C. H. Edmunds of San Francisco, who arrived at the Hotel Portland yesterday afternoon from Seattle, the Pacific highway in Wash ington isn't a bed of roses. "The road between Toledo and Castle Rook is awful rough." said Mr. Edmunds, shuddering as he recalled the jolting his car received. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards made the run 'from Puget sound to Pcrtland in eight hours, which the driver considered was entirely too fast, considering tne road. Portland is more comfortable just now than Maupm, which is in the very warm section of the Deschutes canyon. This may be why Thomas A. Connolly is remaining a day over at the Hotel Portland instead of hurry ing back to his ranch. Mr. Connolly is in the sheep business and came to town to reduce their number. Having attended to this matter he is now taking things easy. Robert Carsner, - member of the legislature and also rancher, brought a shipment of lambs to the local mar ket, and is at the Imperial. Mr. Cars r.er is no longer bothering about the post of minister to Siam, although admitting that a $10,000-a-year job in the land of the white elephant is not to be viewed with disdain. Edison I. Ballagh, his honor of St Helens, came to town to hear what indignant motorists had to say about the way they are being arrested for violating the speed law in his ham let Mayor Ballagh contends that his ambition is to make the lower Colum bia highway, in so far -as St. Helens is concerned, safe for motorists. "Business is quiet ln Seattle," re ports Francis Toomey, who returned from Puget sound. "There is more doing in Tacoma, for there is some shipbuilding going on and the SO00 troops at Camp Lewis help some. Those who remember how brisk Se attle used to be will quickly notice the difference now." Arthur 'G. Means, of Vale,' Or., is registered at the Hotel Portland. Mr. Means is a relative .of Senator Stan fleld and was one of Mr. Stanfield's representatives during the senatorial campaign last autumn. Among the out-of-town people here to attend buyers' week are W. L. Lander of Los Angeles and L F. Murch of Berkeley, Cal. They are registered at the Multnomah. W. S Brown of the Oregon Agri cultural college is registered at the Multnomah. With him are E. M. Harven. L. P. Wilcox and T. J. Rim boli. - D. W. Twohy, president of the Old National bank of Spokane, is regis tered at the "Multnomah. He is on his way to California. IX DEFENSE OF INDLiX NAMES Writer "Would Retain Glamor of , Legrenda of Vanifthed Race. PORTLAND, July 25. (To the Edi tor.) Interstate Commerce Commis sioner Aitchison proposes to urge the national geographic board to change the names of our western mountains. Pinnacle peak, according to the com missioner, should be named for Franklin K. Lane, and our Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and others for our former presidents. It is time that the pebole of the west should protest, and protest heartily, against such innovations. However greatly the people of the country respect the memory of its political favorites, there is a strange lack of vision and imagination in the desire to attach such names to "the eternal hills." The fact is that the names which our mountains now bear are lasting monuments to the prosaic short sightedness of the men who thus re named them; for every mountain of the Cascade range was named by the Indians whose wierd legends wove around their snow-capped peaks the very romance we should seek to pre serve. It was just such a thought as Mr. Aitchison expresses that changed the name of "the mountain that was God" for Tahoma, which means Great Snow, to Rainier. Just what did Ad miral Rainier do that this wonderful old mountain should carry his name? All these peaks will stand long after the deeds of the men whose names are proposed will have sunk into insig nificance through the perspective of history. But the glamor of the poetry which the legends of a vanished race have woven around the gorgeous scenery of the west should be kept alive so. long as the mountains stand. The desire thus to honor different leaders is ridiculous. Imagine the, name of Vesuvius changed every 50 or 100 years to- that of some passing hero or more or less popular king! How often has it been said that America has no past, and that tour ists prefer travel in Europe because of the memories its scenes recall? It is due to the lack of imagination of men who- would erase from the minds of the people the background of our history- that such statements are current. In our Indian lore and pioneer ad venture lie a wealth of historic fas cination. Let us not lose sight of it. If the national geographic board is to be urged to change the names or our glorious snow peaks at least let it be urged to change them back to the beautiful names given them by the Indians. Names that so -fitly de scribe them; names in whose musical sounds will linger the tragic poetry of a vanishing people and keep alive the unique traditions of our historic west. MRS. JOHN GRATK.E. SAM BROWNE A GALLANT HERO Popular Belt Named for Officer Who Loat Arm in Service. The origin of the Sam Browne belt is thus described in the ex-soldiers' magazine, the Home Sector: "Who was Sam Browne? "The original Sam Browne was a most gallant English officer and gen tleman who won the Victoria Cross fighting for merry England in India during the autumn of 1S58. . "Lord Roberts, field marshal and advocate of preparedness in England, who was a friend of the dashing cav alry officer, gives this account of the dead hero who received so much pub licity in the late war because he was careless enough to have his arm cut off and therefore forced to devise some means whereby he could be present at parade without his trusty saber dragging on the ground: 'This popular and gallant officer, well known to every native in upper India as "Sam Brun Sahib" and to the officers of the whole of his majesty's army as the inventor of the sword belt universally adopted on service, distinguished himself great ly in the autumn of 1858. With 230 sabers of his own regiment and 350 native infantry he attacked a party of rebels who had taken up a posi tion at Nuria, a village at the edge of the Tarai, about ten miles from Phil ibhit. Browne managed to get to the rear of the enemy without being dis covered. " 'A handi-to-hand fight then en sued, in which he got two severe wounds, one on the knee, from which he nearly bled to death, the other on the left shoulder, cutting right through the arm. The enemy were completely routed, and fled, leaving their four guns and 300 dead on the ground. Browne was deservedly re warded with the Victoria Cross.' Sam Browne died at The Wood, Ryde, Isle of Wight, on March 14, 1901. A memorial tablet has been put up for him in St. Paul's cathedral in London." PLEA FOR MACADAM STREETS Suggest They Might Be Worked Over in Interests of Economy. PORTLAND, July 25. (To the Edi tor.) A very large industry in Port land is the automobile business, finan cially and for the number of people employed in the different branches. Portland Is an automobile center; now why not let the city of Port land do something worth while to help this industry along, at the same time beautify the city, and then we can see where some of the taxpay ers' money is being spent. It is now a mystery to some of us. Now when taxes were far less than they are now the city worked over the macadam streets, making them as good as new for several years. There are some fine macadam streets here if they were only taken care of. What are they now? They are a menace to public safety and they extend in all directions. Formerly four crews did this work, taxes were lower, and now there are two crews and they do very little of this work. If short of men, put some of the boys from the city hall out and form a crew or two more. Let us have taxes and taxes, but we want a show ing for our money that is all. Let us all pull together and beau tify our city by 1925, so it will be a city beautiful in reality. If some of these death traps are not taken care of. Mayor Baker will be placing thosa traffic signs at the entrance to all our macadam streets. TAXPAYER. Cosffar, Panther and Mountain Lion. PORTLAND, July 24 (To the Edi tor.) A says the cougar, panther and mountain lion are the same animal, but in some sections may assume dif ferent colors from climatic or other conditions. B says that all three are of a different species and entirely different habits. Which is correct? SUBSCRIBER. Cougar, panther and mountain lion are locality names for the same ani mal. It Is additionally knpwn as puma and catamount. Coloration may vary slightly, though never to a sufficient degree to confuse identification. The huge cat is native of both American continents and was originally distrib uted from Hudson's bay to the Straits of Magellan. It has been noted that, considering its, wide distribution, its variations in form and color are sur prisingly small. All of the names given are correct, though scientific authority yields the preference to puma, the Peruvian name. More Truth Than. Poetry. By James J. Montague. THE MIRACLE. When William brushes back his hair. Which, only just last fall His sisters bitterly declared. Was never brushed at all. Acd places, in a new red tie. An imitation pearl. Which he saved up a week to buy. What ails him is a girl. He has no loathing now for spats Or coats with swallow tails; He doesn't call boys sissycats Who clean their finger nails. He doesn't strew his clothes about But folds them on a chair. And every evening he goes out He never tells us where. He seems sedate and staid, somehow. Considering his years. We never have to tell him now To wash behind the ears. And all the family rejoice This miracle to see And think the lady of his choice A wonder girl must be. But mother bravely makes believe It brings her happiness That she no longer has to' grieve Because he hates to dress. And yet she wears a troubled frown It's fine, she says. but still. She knows there's not a girl in town Half good enough for Bill. m m How to Start. ,". As we understand Lord Northcliffa. you can't disarm nations till you have disarmed suspicion. We Need More of 'Em. The man who gets busy is the man who gets business. - Not Hardened Yet. The Canadian Pacific is putting on private smoking compartments for women, which shows they're still a little ashamed of their new accomp lishment. Burroughs Nature Club. Copyright, Houghton-Mif flln Co. Can Yon Anwvrrr These Questions 1. Is there any relation between the skunk cabbage and the calla lily? 2. How long does It take gold fish eggs to hatch? 3. Will a bluebird live in captivity? How should it be housed and fed? Answers in tomorrow's nature notes. Answers to Previous Questions. 1. From what do the thorns of the locust protect the tree? Thorns serve both for protection, preventing such plants or trees as bear them from being cropped or tramped on by animals, and thus al low the tree to make upright growth; and in the tropics, as hooks by which certain plants climb tree trunks. The locusts, hawthorns, etc., get the general protection enjoyed by any thorny-grqwth type. 2. Are silkworms raised in Amer ica? They can be. for this worm Is now practically a domestic creature, under cultivation for centuries, in many places, and on different foods. Its natural food is mulberry leaves, but in America it feeds well on foliage of osage orange. It was first brought here in colonial times, and at inter vals various attempts to raise it com mercially in America have been made, but with no financial success. 3. What reading matter can I get on attracting small wild birds near the home? Among standard books are Baynes ""Wild Bird Guests" and Trafton's "Methods of Attracting Birds and Bird Friends." Good ideas also in farmers' bulletins as follows: 715, Attracting Birds to Public and Semi Public Reservations; 630, Some Com mon Birds Useful to Farmers; 506, Food of Some Well Known Birds; 760, How to Attract Birds in Northwest ern United States; 621. How to At tract Birds of Northeastern United States; 609, Bird Houses and How to Build Them. In Other Days. Twenty-five Years Ago. From The Oregonian of July 27. 1896. New . "York. Thomas F. Watson, populist leader, has decided to save his party from ruin and has accepted the nomination for vice-president. Cleveland. Labor unions are en deavoring to discredit Chairman Mark Hanna of the republican national committee by attacking his record as an employer of labor. They are also trying to connect Mr. Hanna with participation in the breaking of vari ous strikes in order to injure' the presidential chances of William Mc Kinley. The flagship Philadelphia will be closed to the public today, as the of ficers will give their farewell re ception to prominent people of Porti land and Vancouver this afternoon. New steel wheels have been placed in the Burnside street bridge draw and have been found to be a vast improvement over the old iron ones which have been in use for a long period. Fifty Years Ago. From The Oreeronlan of July 27. I8TL The business of the North Portland ferry boat has largely increased within the last month or two. There were ten wagons on one trip yester day. The filling at both ends of the South First street bridge has been completed and the teams are now crossing the bridge. P. E. Scott of Yamhill county left by steamer yesterday for eastern states to purchase fine stock cattle for his farm in Yamhill. , . A North Carolinian, who took to e. swamp nine years ago to avoid be ing drafted, has reappeared and learned the termination of the war with great surprise. Equivalents of Foreign Coins. CENTRALIA. Wash.. July 22. (To the Editor.) What are the values in United States money of the following: Ore, centavo, 3-centime. piastre, pa vas, pence, pfennig, mark, anna, pie, centesimi, farthing, peso, peseta and Franco. CHARLES THURSTON, Consult Funk & Wagnall's New Standard or Webster's New Interna tional unabridged dictionaries in your local library, bearing in mind that the equivalents ln United States money there given are based on the normal rate of exchange. Newspaper In India. PORTLAND. July 25. (To the Ed itor.) Are there any newspapers printed in English ln India1? (2) If so, how could I get in touch with one? ONE INTERESTED. (1) There are several, the Times of India, published at Calcutta, for example. (2) By writing a letter to the foregoing address.