13 THE MORJJTJfG OREGONIAN, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1923 ESTABLISHES BY HENRY L. PITTOCK Published by The Oregonian Pub. Co., 136 Sixth Street, Portiiiand, Ore-g-on. C. A. MOitDEN. E. B. PIPER. m wa Editor The Oresoniaa is a member of the As sociated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for publi cation o all news dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published herein. Ail rights of publication ol special dis patches herein are also reserved. Subscription Eates-Invarlably in Advance. (By Mall. In Oregon, Washing-ton, Idaho and northern California.) Dally, Sunday included, one year $8.00 Daily, Sunday included, six months .. 4.25 Daily, Sunday Included, three months 2.25 Daily, Sunday Included, one month .. .75 Daily, without Sunday, one year 6.00 Dally, without Sunday. Mx months .. 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New York; Verree & Conklin, Steger building, Chi cago; Verree & Conklin, Free Press buiid ln?, Detroit, Mich.; Verree & Conklin, Monadnock building, San Francisco. Cal. A POLITICAL SURRENDER- TO CITIES. If the constitutional amendment proposed by Senator Norris should simply abolish the electoral college arid should still permit each state to vote as a unit and to cast a number of votes for president and vice-president equal to the number of its senators and representatives, there would probably be little op position. But Senator Norris sup ports his plan with arguments that indicate a desire for radical change. He speaks of "direct vote of the people," of "the right to vote di rectly for the chief magistrate." He argues that by the present system the people are prevented from vot ing for men of different parties for president and vice-president, as candidates for elector are pledged to candidates of the same party for both offices. He says that "it is practically an impossibility for any person to become an independent candidate for the office of presi dent. While he does not say that the majority of the aggregate pop ular vote of all the states should decide an election, he leaves that to be inferred, for he says nothing of counting the votes of each state separately for the candidate who receives a majority in that state. Together with an interview with Senator Norris setting forth his case the New York Times publishes an interview with Senator Walsh of Montana taking the contrary view. He recalls that the present distri bution of electoral votes accords with the system of representation in congress, which was a compro mise between the small states, which stood for representation by states as units, and the large states, which stood for representation in proportion to population. He evi dently understands Mr. Norris' in tention to be that the election shall be decided by vote of the people in the country at large, ignoring state lines, and he offers forcible objec tion to that innovation by saying: Success of the amendment proposed would doubtless be followed by an in sistent demand for a further innovation under which each state should be rep resented according to its population. Dismissing that consideration, however, It may wejl be doubted whether the in terests of the whole country would be subserved by increasing relatively the voice and influence of the great . con Eneted industrial centers and diminish ing proportionally the part played by the rural and other sections relatively sparsely populated. It is popularly be I'.eved in those regions that the great cities exercise in some manner an un . due and not salutary influence in gov ernment, and a modification of our sys tem such as is proposed could not fail - to intensify the Jealousies that already. unfortunately, have been aroused. Direct election by national pop ular vote would be revolutionary in its effect. It would be so great an advance In changing this nation from a federal republic of sovereign states info. 8, centralized republic in which all power emanated from the central government that it would fundamentally transform the gov ernment. As Mr. Walsh points out, it would aggrandize the power of the populotus states having large cities and would reduce to near- impotence the states of small, chiefly rural population. This change would come when the strong drift of the young generation from the farm to the city is recognized as a grave) economic and social danger. If Oregon should give a major ity of only 100 for a candidate, its voice would have practically no effect on the national result as op posed to an easily possible majority of a million in a big state. The pre ponderant voice in deciding the pol icy of the nation would be given to those states which have the largest unassimilated foreign-born popu lation. The combined vote of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois would swamp the vote of a score of such states as Oregon. Though the south might oppose the change through traditional devotion to state rights and through fear that a direct vote might lead to federal control of elections, it would read ily adapt itself to the new system Whereas it suppresses the negro vote and has reduced the repub lican party to a handful in a num ber of states, it might then drive the negroes to the polls, count their votes for the democratic ticket and roll up big majorities which would offset the smaller republican maj orities of many northern states. This game would be played by the south either against or in combina tion with the big eastern states, and the more sparsely peopled western states would be reduced to a con dition of intolerable subordination It is doubtless designed that en actment of a national presidential direct primary law shall accompany adoption or the proposed const! tutional amendment. The two to gether would produce a multl plicity of candidates for nomina tion by parties and of candidates for election. They would, as ex ; perience has proved, lead to forma. tion of great organizations and heavy expenditure by primary can didates, to close contests, to plural ity nominations and to disruption of parties, to formation of groups and blocks and to election of minor ity candidates as president. This change is advocated on the ground that it would give the people power to express their opinions by their votes which they do not now possess. .On the fiontrary, ft would by scattering votes among candi dates tend to so many divisions that it might easily cause the election of a candidate who was the choice of a minority and thus defeat the will of the majority. Alternate dom inance of two great parties does not pVevent minorities from influencing national policy. Minority parties constantly appear, bolts from the great parties occur or are threat ened, and by these means the great parties are led constantly to modify their policy to fit the needs of the day. The conviction is growing that a halt should be called to the gradual transfer . of governmental power from the states to the nation. As the federal government undertakes new functions, it becomes progres sively more inefficient and waste ful. This evil tendency would be encouraged by popular election of the president, if the vote at large should decide. The power of the president to shape legislation would be increased, for he could so act as to gratify the many millions of a few states without regard to the will or welfare of the other states. The practice is growing of passing laws by which congress extends federal authority into fields hith erto held by the states and ob tains the consent of the states by voting federal funds to be spent in co-operation v with each state. The sum provided is usually a small fraction of the federal revenue drawn from the 'state, but it is used to extend a rigidly uniform system to states which vary greatly in every particular to which govern ment should be adapted. One feature of the much-talked- of reconstruction of the govern ment should be restoration to the states of many functions that have been centralized at Washington. 'reservation of the identity of the states by letting the vote of each be counted separately for president is essential to that purpose. A pop ular vote at large instead of by states, would accelerate the gather ing of all power into one huge ureaucracy, under the shadow of which the governments of the states would become enervated. This is too big a country, of too diverse people, climates and products to be ruled by one central government. Each state should continue to be a distinct entity with a government that is sovereign within its borders and with a voice as a unit of the nation in the election of national officers. LET US EVEN SUPPOSE. "Even suppose," proclaims . Mr. Fatty Arbuckle, in his Christmas appeal for justice to the clergy and the rest of the American people, taking for his text "As ye judge, so shall ye be judged" "even suppose that I had not been able con clusively to establish my innocence, and I were conscientiously endeavr oring, through an orderly life, to atone for my mistakes, would I not be entitled to an appeal for for giveness according to the scrip ture?" iou would, Mr. Arbuckle, you would after certain necessary pre liminaries had been performed, in accordance with accepted Chris- tian doctrine and practice. . If you will pursue just a little farther your scriptural inquiries, and when pious meditation is more familiar to you. you will discover that confession and repentance are an absolute pre requisite to forgiveness. Mr. Hays indeed told the world that you had repented and were a good boy now. but not a word has been said by him, or by anybody for you, about confession. On the contrary there are constant assertions of abso lute innocence. Did not the jury (at the third trial) acquit you of manslaughter ? What is in the public mind, and wnat it cannot and will not forget, is that the facts of the continuous orgy in the Arbuckle rooms at a San Francisco hotel, out of which came the death of Virginia Rappe, are undenied and undeniable. The public which once enjoyed Arbuckle in the belief that his characterizations were the spon taneous and refreshing ebullitions of a wholesome nature, knows bet ter, and it cannot now be con vinced that its own mistake can be rectified. THE APPKAL OF MYSTFRY. One does not wholly get the at mosphere of "Our Mutual Friend' from the waterfront incident now engrossing the attention of the Portland police, but there is enough suggestion of murder, of dead bodies on the bosom of a murky stream, of shady living by some who prowl the river, to recall Jesse Hexam and those others of Dick ens' characters of grewsome river occupation. There is naught in the ordinary career of the "river rat" long to in trude upon the attention, and still less of an appeal to refined sensi bilities in a woman who has tasted vice to the point of physical degra dation. A son of waterfront up bringing who takes to honest means of livelihood may win passing com mendation, but even he would not ordinarily retain our daily consid eration. But give them a cloak of criminal mystery, and such as these become the leading actors on the stage built and peopled through the agency of the press, and engross the attention of the best of us as do similar characters similarly clothed engross our attention in fiction. Here is a tale by a woman whose morals are of ill repute, a tale of murder wholly unsupported by ev idence, circumstantial or direct, yet a tale so persistently clung to in minor and major details that even in the absence of official report to which may be tied the identity of the one said to have been mur dered, the police feel called upon to make arrests and conduct in vestigations. It is not essential in proving murder that the body be produced, but it is essential to prove that a crime has been committed. There has not been produced the body of a girl who may have been murdered in the lonely houseboat of Cash Weir; there was at the time of com mission of the supposed crime no report of disappearance of a girl whpse description tallied with that of the one the Leary woman says she saw murdered. Stranger still, if her story be true, no friend or relative of one who dropped from sight and may have so been slain, has come forward in response to the wide publicity given the tale and sought to confirm or alia a natural apprehension as to the fate of a wayward child. But yrefp there guc&. &S inquiry it could do no more than spur of ficials to minuter investigation. Known disappearance of one who fits the description given by Mrs. Leary would still be far from cor roborative evidence that such a one had been murdered by Cash Weir. But absence of inquiry by dis traught friends or relatives, while it may enliven the mystery, may well turn investigations into a new channel. Possibly an alienist ex amination of the Leary woman would closely determine the prob abilities in the case. Sometimes fantasy takes the form of convic- tion in the subnormal brain! Mystery palls at last. It is so lution at the psychological moment that makes the incident memorable. And it is the correct solution in such cases that counts credit marks for the perception of the police de partment, even though that solu tion discloses that no crime has been committed. LESS TAXES? OR MORE? Governor-elect Pierce declared at Lebanon : last week that he favored a state income tax "along the lines of the federal act" a pro nouncement which definitely sep arated him from any further con sideration of the recent drastic and unscientific grange plan. It is also well known that he does not ap prove the flat tax proposal of the state tax investigating committee. and long ago he made It clear that he was not for the unfathered measure recently on the ballot, which was voted down by the peo ple of Oregon with satisfying evi dences of enthusiasm. There are other embryonic ideas about an income tax, coming from a great variety of financiers and economists, professional and ama teur. Even the single taxers per sist in being heard again. ; On November 17, 1922 (ten days after the election), The Oregonian took a hand in the popular pastime of framing an income tax. A. para graph from an editorial article of that date is worth making of record again, in view of the form the agi tation is now taking. It is: The simplest form of an Income tax law would require that each person who pays income tax to the federal govern ment shall pay to the state also an amount equivalent to a certain percent age of his federal income tax. . . . The foregoing Is offered for discussion. Perhaps there Is a better simplified in come tax. . Now the governor-elect an nounces that he will recommend to the legislature that it create a state income tax, payable by the in dividual in one-half or one-third the amounts of his federal tax. The Oregonian had suggested one-fifth. The total Oregon returns for 1920 (corporate and personal) were about $15,000,000. A fifth of that sum would be $3,000,000 quite a tidy sum. . The great merit, of the percent age plan is that an elaborate and expensive bureau will not be cre ated by the state and the cost of collection will be, or should be, nominal. But it is only a single step toward the solution of the tax problem. A state income tax designed merely to provide more revenue cannot be justified. It would not lighten the present tax burden on real estate a single dollar. For the most part, it would require cor porations and individuals who now pay state taxes and federal taxes to pay more, state taxes. It will be well to know from Mr. Pierce just what compensatory and equalizing features we will add to his proposal. Less taxes, not more, is tne need or the time. BRING ALASKA TO FULL LIFE. Alaska shows the first signs of returning life under the stimulus of a complete railroad from the coast to Fairbanks, but the report of Governor Bone is another story of a treasure land bought and for gotten." Congress recalled Its ex- istence in 1913 and in an access of remorse for long neglect voted that railroad, but has done little else. It is still cramped by the strait-waistcoat held in place by a bureaucracy 6000 miles away. Conservation stores up its wealth for remote posterity by filling the law with prohibition of the very things that must be done by pioneers in a new country before it awakes to industry and civil! zation. Natural obstacles are imposing enough, but they never daunted the adventurous pioneer. Those which he cannot surmount are placed in his way by a government that seems to be haunted by a morbid fear lest he steal something, though that something can only be pro cured by such arduous labor and privation that it must of necessity be fully paid for. The millions of people who have developed the west were practically told by the government that they might have its wealth for the taking, but a jealous spirit leads the law to dog the Alaskan's steps lest he take that for which he labors.' For many decades gold, furs and fish were considered the only prod. ucts which Alaska would ever yield, and copper has been added recently, yet in the fifty-five years of American rule the territory has added a billion dollars to the na tional wealth. It has proved that its resources of the precious metals have only been scratched, that it has coal and oil of great quantity and high quality, that its forests can produce paper pulp, that its soil yields crops equal to the best in quantity and merit, that its broad stretches of tundra will feed mil lions of reindeer for meat, and that its fisheries, if wisely controlled, may be a perennial source of food. Its scenery matches any on the American hemisphere for grandeur, and its summers are so warm that tourists by "the thousands should go thither. Every settler who re mains beyond the tenderfoot stage finds its climate in summer or winter so delightfully exhilarating that he comes to "the states" pin ing to return, and he never rests from scoffing at the legend that Alaska is a forbidding land of ice, snow and darkness. Enlightened government on the ground with power' to act Is the one great need. That is plain from the appearance In Mr. Bone's report of such phrases as "divided author ity and dilatory red tape, bureau cracy, obstructive, stagnation, aca demic treatment, conservation poli. tics . . a blight, dwindling cen sus returns and steady retrogres sion, self-appointed overseers and well-meaning doctrinaires, patera, alistic spirit." Builders of the rail. road, roads and trails have encour aged the indomitable pioneer to make another effort 3 spite gf his artificial bonds. If those bonds f were cut and if the government were transferred from Washington , to Juneau, the pioneer would be multiplied by thousands who would go to work with the same energy that the argonauts displayed in California, or the immigrants that made the Willamette valley a garden spot. The pioneers would not all work with the strong arm and back; they would include capit alists who are ever Teady to go where opportunity waits, for Mr. Bone says: Capital must lead the way. Without capital, abundant capital, Alaska cannot be opened up. - , If congress would' turn from its jangles among blocs and resolve itself into an Alaska bloc, plant a government - with broad powers under direction of the interior de partment in Alaska and provide money for extension of the railroad and for building of roads, that gov ernment would soon carry out the other recommendations of the gov ernor. Then Alaska would become the home of - many thousands of just such Americans as have peopled the west during the last eighty years. . THE TIMID HIRAM. A sufficient answer to' the stric tures of Senator Johnson on Sen ator Borah's proposal for a con ference on economics and arma ment will be found in Mark Sulli van's letter in The Oregonian of Monday on the state of Europe and the American interest therein. Two sentences in that letter sum up the whole. They are: , Europe cannot continue to drag along another year without beginning a defin ite ascent or a calamitous descent. It is this lack of capacity to buy on the part of Europe that is chiefly re sponsible for the stagnation and low prices which already are present on our farms and are apprehended in our manu facturing communities. . Mr. Johnson opposes a confer ence because: If we brine the nations of the earth here to Washington to such a conference we will dump into America's lap the economio ilia of Europe and the repara tions muddle. , , . The very instant we undertake to carry out an agreement to enforce reparations, that Instant we abandon the traditional policy of Amer ica. . . . We cannot officially, with the nations of Europe, enter into agree ment for the solution of Europe's pres ent economic ills without being involved politically. Mr. Johnson sees the facts and the logical way to deal with them, but he ignores the relation of those facts to the welfare of the Ameri can people and he rejects the con ference as that logical way to mend them because we should thereby abandon the traditional policy of America." He cannot see that. whether we would or no, the facts that exist in America and Europe have profoundly modified what has been our policy. He refuses to act according to the facts of 1922 out of unreasoning reverence for a pol icy that was propounded in 1822 and earlier, yet he calls himself progressive. As to foreign policy he is a century behind the times and he stands stock still, growing more behind the times as each day passes. "Europe's economic ills" are al ready in "America's . lap." They have shrunk the farmer's foreign market and the price of farm prod ucts. They cause manufacturers to apprehend the farmer's fate for themselves. . The source of those ills is the reparation middle. 'Be hind that are political conflicts. Our diplomatic intervention can adjust reparation at an amount that Germany can pay and can re store German credit to the point where Germany can raise a loan that would start all Europe on that "definite ascent" which Mr. Sulli van offers as the alternative to a "calamitous descent." Our media tion can adjust political disputes and . can thus put Europe In the proper state of mind to disarm. No treaties are proposed, nor any military action, no grave involve ment. We are already involved against our will in a manner that we do not like. It is proposed to escape from that destructive -involvement by a constructive in volvement through use of American diplomacy and, after that has suc ceeded, of American capital to build a solid foundation for a new economic structure which shall re place that which has been de stroyed. Mr. Johnson draws back in af fright at the mere suggestion of this course, and by appeal to tra dition he tries to infect with his fear the nation that set tradition at defiance when it declared its inde pendence. All wished all a merry Christmas yesterday but one the fellow who ran down and killed the little Rockwood girl and speeded away. Nobody could wish him anything but the worst that he be in con stant dread of capture while awake and that his sleep be disturbed by phantasms of horror, to awaken in sweat and fear. He would better come in and admit his guilt and take his medicine. . Before a mother spanks her little one for running away around the block she might consider the baby born without legs and arms in Chi cago. Mother, the dear old humbug, pretended to be merry all day, but it more, was worry about the din ner and everything. The man who had to work yes terday is not tired this morning; but he who loafed hated to get up. Nobody thinks of calories and vitamines when passing his plate for "more of the dark meat, please." The traditional Christmas cup that cheers has become the Yule, tide bottle that paralyzes. Even the merry burglar helped make a merry Christmas for the police bureau. Old adage revised: When Turk meets Greek, then comes the tug of war. The ex-kaiser is becoming thrifty. He'll be commercializing his shadow next. And so the poor dog got the bones, but they mostly were naked. Begin Christmas saving today. A little makes a big start. All that turkey "and the etc." set well this morning? The best was in two stockings, as usual, . i . The Listening Post. By DeWitt Harry. GRACE TORREY, who wrote "Cheap People," which appeared in a December issue of a national weekly, is an unassuming little woman who lives at the Mallory hotel. And her neat little tale has a particular application to her home city, though she insists that "Cheap People" could have been written in any Pacific coast city and have been just as appropos. Mrs. Torrey has been very suc cessful in writing short stories and has seen her work published in some of the leading magazines. Evi dently she is a keen character stu dent. One virtue is apparent In her story people they are not over drawn. ' ' While a talk with the author of "Cheap People" is interesting, her story is more so. Herewith a few excerpts from , the story. Maybe you can fancy some application to Portland: Anyone who had come to .... since 19M was considered an immigrant by the children of the pioneers who had cut down the fir trees and planted the wheat and developed the water that made .... -worth "coming to. The im migrants, who had not come across the plains1 in wagons, as did the pioneers, but la comfortable Pullman cars, looked about them when they arrived and be gan to criticize at once. Fresh and rested, after an agreeable trip, they criticized the station. Then they criti cized the streets. They were too nar row. Old . able to re member when there were no paved streets at all and when the first street lamps went in, said little, but opened up its old- farm on the east side of the river, sold city lots from them to the immigrants and went on living an agree able life within its own circle. A third generation of pioneer stock had ramified and interbred, established fiefs and sovereignties, banks., and businesses. He was passing the time of day with old Bob Fitch, the blind man. who sells cigars and magazines- and chewing gum in the lobby of the courthouse. These are merely random para graphs. "Cheap People," as a whole, rings true, and it is not such a bad Indictment of a community as its title might lead one to believe. Mrs. Torrey does not claim to be an analyst, but she is a fictionist of the 1923 school to the fingertips, one who demands that her people talk, act and live right when she writes them in her stories. Like most writers who know what suc cess is, she is perfectly willing to talk with anyone who is interested, She was a dressy girl and had grand, good taste in picking clothes and knew how to wear them. She sat in a department store lunch room and at a near-by table was another girl, fully as talented at grooming herself. The first girl caught the other's eye several times and finally tum bled that there might be something just a little wrong, so made a close inspection for any bits of egg salad or unbuttoned garment,, finally de ciding that she was perfection. But at that she gave a few more glances at her face and studied herself out very well before beginning to re turn the other's glances with inter est. The engagement between the two girls developed into a battle of stares, with no appreciable favor to either side. At last it came time to leave and the girl who seemed to be attract ing the attention sauntered haught ily out, returning look after look with compound interest. At the door she met a close friend who broke into a gale of laughter, exclaiming, "For heaven's sake, Maizie, what is it a new fad?" And then the girl who had been staring them all down discovered that in one dainty, ear she wore a coy little coral decoration, while the other was supporting a long, yellow, amber dangler. They delight in telling some yarns on Portland dentist fishermen, ' particularly the one about Di. Treve Jones and how disgusted he was when he landed a large and rotund catfish. Dr. Treve seized the beast firmly around the waist and began to work the hook out. Quite automatically and with his usual air of courteous firmness he spoke to the fish: "Open wide," he said. But this one can't hold a candle to the one Dr. Elof T. Hedlund tells himself and admits is true. It was about his pet dog when he first started practicing in Louisiana. The dog, a liver and white pointer, was a dainty eater and evinced a liking for fruit. He seeaied to care more for blackberries than for any other fruit and would go away into the woods on foraging trips. returning with his jowls dripping with juice and stained a lasting black. - - ' In some out-of-town newspapers advertisers , are delightfully frank. Take this want-ad from the Baker Democrat, as an illustration: ' REAL Cowboy: no city fcowboy need apply. Barber shop laid valley. And in the same issue of the same paper we find a grocery store ad vertising: - - . Klean Kut Kash it's Owned by the People." Now that copper cents are in euch demand Herb Sichel gets a great kick out of seeing iioir' the streetcar men take them. Herb re calls the -days, and Herbie isn't so old, you know, when to offer cop pers to a conductor was to offer Insult. Then you'd hand five of them to the platform man and he'd promptly throw them away in the mud and hand you a clroice lecture. Now you hand one of Bill Strand borg's boosters eight coppers, and you get a vote of thanks. . Frank Bates writes from Hood River that he misses Paul Bunyan and then proceeds to offer yet an other version of how the mighty Paul 'built some of the coast moun tains. Thanks, Batesy, but as far as It goes here, The Listening Post . has completed the Bunyan episode and Paul must now find other friends who'll epread his fame. He's about ripe for the fiction writers, for we have written the facts. They were discussing friends and she spoke of one young fellow as possessing affectionate eyes, which puzzled the other until a few days latr when the young man in ques tion, was subjected to a close ecru tiny. His eyes were affectionate, they had a slight Squint and turned In so that they seemed always to Those Who Come and Go. Tales of 'troika at the Hotels. Our neighboring state of Wash ington has its tax problems, too. Taxes there are higher than ever and property owners are hollering. To curb the voting of additional taxes and to cut down existing levies is the purpose of the State Federation of Taxpayers' associa tions, with headquarters In Seattle This organization is constructive in' purpose and does much more than just to cry "Wolf, wolf!" It en deavors to back its arguments to law-makers and voters with exact data proving in detail just where taxes are excessive and may be lopped off without crippling any worthy institutions. At present it is. engaged in a survey, of the state school system, including the Univer sity of Washington and Washington State college. It fought the recent 30-10 school tax bill, which would have added greatly to school tax levies, and had much to do with beating . it. Frank M. Dallam Jr., former secretary to Governor Mead, is secretary of the State Association of Taxpayers' associations. With his father,- Frank M. Dallam Sr., editor of the Oroville Gazette and founder of the old Spokane Review, out of which grew the present Spokesman-Review, he is an over Christmas visitor in Portland. Think of having a daily expense of $300 or more and no prospect of an income for several months. That is the conditions of large sheep op erators. The expense to the smaller operators is in proportion. "A sheep," explained a wool grower yesterday, "eats about three pounds a day. A band of sheep say 2000 head consumes three tons of hay a day, and. hay, in the stack, is $10. There are many men who have 20,000 sheep, which means that they will feed $300 worth of hay daily. In addition it casts $1.50 a ton to cut the hay and about another dol lar a ton to feed it. This repre sents approximately $12.6-0 a ton, or $375 a day. Now consider that the sheep have to be fed, according to the season,- anywhere from 90 to 120 days, meaning from $33,000 to $45,000. This will give some idea of the expense to which a sheep op erator is subjected. A sheep man cannot .carry himself, so he has to have credit and lots of it. The coun try banks, even the large ones, can not provide the accommodation, so the sheep men must do business with the big banks of the cities or with loan companies." "There was a warm wind when, I left Heppner," reports H. A. Dun can, who arrived at the Imperial from Morrow county yesterday. "The sheep are on the hills and everyone feels good. We had 13 Inches of enow recently, but it was accompanied by a wind and the snow drifted, so that it did not do the wheat land as much good as it otherwise would. . However, the ground was damp and much of the snow melted into the ground. The streams are not swollen. Willow creek, which runs through Heppner, is gradually being deepened. Along in July and August, when there is only a couple of feet of water, the center of the creek bed is plowed and thus the creek is being deepened and straightened." Mr. Duncan is a merchant. He says that there has been a good holiday business in Heppner and, in fact, business has been very satisfactory for many months past. . Judging from the appearance of the hotel registers yesterday, one might suspect that all in-coming trains had been annulled. The ar rivals yesterday were almost at the zero point and the registers had a decidedly blank appearance. There was a heavy travel on Sunday, how ever, on account of people in the hotels checking out and heading for home. .The Benson and Multnomah hotels displayed Christmas trees in the lobby and the Hotel Portland had one erected in the grill. The somewhat morose and de pressed looking individuals who were visible ln'hotel lobbies yester day were not traveling men far from home on Christmas day, but professional bootleggers, regretting that their stock was exhausted. Business had been so good and the federal prohibition operatives had been so active in the past two weeks, that the supply of "hootch in -fortuana was practically ex hausted. The bootleggers were de pressed because of the business that was getting away from them. Instead of registering at the Im perial from Zumwalt, near Cape Blanco, G. P. Zumwalt gives Port Orford as his postoffice address. At Zumwalt there is one of the largest barns to be found in southeastern Oregon. It looks, from a distance, as large as the municipal auditorium at Portland. That section of the state, such as is used at all. is de voted to dairying and wool raising. The miiK is trucked into Bandon, where there is a condensory, over a section of the Roosevelt coast high way. James Clifford of Prairie City is among the Imperial arrivals. Here tofore the only way to get freight into the John Day valley was over the narrow gauge railroad into Prairie from Baker. With the open ing of the John Day highway, how ever, .there is an Increasing volum of freight coming in by way of uonaon wnicn is expected seriously to effect the revenues of the little railroad which doubles back and forth in making its climb over the Blue mountains. F. W. DeFord of Central . Point. Or., has been visiting Portland in connection with the sheep situation in his section. Not all of the sheep in Oregon are on the ranges of cen tral and eastern Oregon, for there are thousands of these animals on the farms of the Willamette. Umj qua and Rogue river valleys. Cen tral Point has at least one distinc tion: From it was built the first hard-surface pavement and this piece of concrete is now a link of the Pacific highway. Every Monday Ed Coles is in town from Haines, Or., to sell "fattened cattle in the market. Even such an event as Christmas could not inter fere with his habit. However, in stead of arriving Sunday night for the Monday market, Mr. Coles ar rived Saturday to be on hand fo the Tuesday market. He is an ex tensive feeder and specializes in bringing fat stock to Portland. Formerly H. A. Murphy lived at Monument, Or., and one of his friends was Albert Hinch of Canyon City. Yesterday the two men met in the lobby of the Imperial and began comparing notes. Mr. Murphy is now a resideat of Anchors Alaska, and Mr. Hinch is at Nyssa, Or., where he is in the jewelry bus! ness. Dr. J. C. Exllne. In charge of th tuberculosis eradication In animals for the state of Washington, is on an official visit to Portland from Olympia. He also has charge of the sheep quarantine for Oregon and Washington., F. L. Wishard checked out of the Multnomah yesterday, headed for California. He announced before his departure that it is his firm determination to play a game on Burroughs Nature Club. Copyright, Houghton-Mifflin Ce. CAN TOtT ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS? 1. Am enclosing part of a frond from my Boston fern. ' Can you tell me what are the little brown, shell like things on the stem and what to do to get rid of them? The plant seems healthy and is growing well except for this. 2. What is a dormouse? - 3. How can I tell a shoebe from pewee? f Answers in tomorrow's nature notes. Answers to. Previous Questions. - 1. I enclose a specimen of a bug that has bothered me all summer. Twenty-five pounds of . arsenate of lead only kept them lively. They ate everything that came their way. What is it? One of the meloidae or blister beetles, epicauta cinerea, long, slen der, ashy-black, wings bordered light gray. Common, attacks many crops, particularly potatoes, also beans, peas, cabbage, etc Spraying must be done very promptly to get ahead of the swarms. Paris green can be used, but arsenate of lead is usually recommended. Sometimes windrows of straw are placed just beyond a field infested by the beetle and the fiolrt nnmhfwl over bv workers to drive the beetles ' into the straw, which is then set afire. These beetles lay eggs in the ground and a thor ough harrowing and pulverizing will destroy many eggs, but is useless 1 Unless done deep, as the eggs are laid pretty well under. See Farmers' Bulletin No. 868., Is there a squirrel called the 'Stars and Stripes"? Yes, this is not a joke, but a local name for spermophilus tridecem li neatus, a small ground squirrel whose dark, reddish-brown coat is marked with alternating dark and light stripes, the dark ones being en livened with little U-shaped light spots; the stripes make 13 lines and the spots make the "stars." 3. What sort of nest does the chickadee build and what is it made of? The chickadee uses a hole aban doned by other birds, its bill being rather small for excavating, it lur nishes the borrowed hole with a soft mat of bits of plant down, eta, felted together, for the eggs to rest on. ONLY ONE PARDON FOR MURDER It Is Divine and Comes Only After True Repentance. SALEM, Or., Dec. 24. (To the Editor. 1 Kindlv let me regis ter my objections to the use oi the pardoning power by Acting (gov ernor Ritner, on the recommenda tion of the prosecuting attorney, the judge and the parole board. It is possible that I might overrule my objections if I knew all of the facts relative to these pardons. Not know ing personally the men thus par doned I must necessarily Judge by 1 the newspaper reports of each case. Take, for instance, the pardon of Webb, the murderer. Should a mur derer be turned on society; iou say that he will not commit another murder. How do you know ne won't? Have you any assurance ex cept Webb's own words that he will not commit another such oliense.' You say that that is all anyone could give under the circumstances. I deny that such Is the case, or that a pardon should De granted on the word of a murderer. From all one can gather, Webb would go to exactly the same place should he die a natural death or be hanged for the murder he committed. The life he led before the murder was much easier for him than the life he must now of necessity lead, and, if he could not then of his own strength live it without committing murder, how, then, can he live with out taking the desperate chance of committing another such deed? I have lots of faith fn Judge Mor row as a man and as a judge. Acting Governor Ritner I do not know personally, but I am sure that he and the pardoning board are ail good men. who bend their efforts toward helping those who, in their estimation, are (worthy. But don't you realize that Webb could have gone out of that prison a new crea ture, in Christ Jesus, were he worthy, and not as a murderer? Don't you know that If he had been set free by Christ he would have been free indeed that he would then have had the strength to com bat all evil, to keep him clean and good? Then, and then only, might he be freed without the danger of bringing reproach upon the men who are responsible for his freedom. No man is worthy to be pardoned while in the same spirit that prompted the transgression of the divine laws. For murder is a sin that cannot be forgiven by the pow ers of this world, unless it be in conjunction with God almighty. WILL E. PURDY. JAIL FOR DRY LAW VIOLATORS Five Years for Bootleggers, Hang ing for Dope Vendors, Advocated. WOOD BURN. Or., Dec 4. (To the Editor.) In an editorial Friday you fail to give the reason why prohi bition is in a measure failing. One reason is, that we have too many judges with an appetite for liquor and who do not want the law enforced. We have too many politicians afraid of their jobs. But the paramount reason of the apparent breakdown of the law is that there is no penalty to speak of. A bootlegger is allowed to make thousands of dollars, and when brought before the law is fined a few dollars or given a light Jail sentence and paroled, so that he can go immediately back to his ne farious business. The penalty inflicted is so Insig nificant in comparison to the of fense that the moonshiner comes from a court of law thinking he is a hero, instead of the contemptible lawbreaker that he really is. There should be a commensurate penalty. A bootlegger or moon shiner should get not less than five years in prison, and his property should be confiscated besides. Also, the philanthropist should be made to take a back seat so that the honest judges could have a chance to administer the law in doses that would take effect. And when a man goes to jail, let him stay out his full time. The parole nuisance as it Is car ried on is one great curse not only to the present generation, but to posterity, and the sooner that law is repealed the sooner we will get back to decency and morality. All dope vendors should be placed in solitary confinement, for 30 days that they might prepare for eternity, after which they should be taken out and hanged in public. A. W. HINDMAN. . On Arbuckle "Pardon." PORTLAND, Dec. 24. (To the Editor.) I want to express my sin cere appreciation of the editorial in The Oregonian, "Mr. Hays' Job." Upon reading that the odious and disgusting Arbuckle was to be per mitted to appear before the public acain. I had thoueht that surelv I someone would raise a protest in I the name of common decency; and. I More Truth Than Poetry. By Jane J. Montague. THE ALTERED VIEWPOINT. When first we heard that radium pills, Consumed In triturated doses. Would check the worst of age's His To-wit: arteriosclerosis That they would flush the ashen cheek. Make sinking limbs grow daily stronger. And cause the failing and the weak To live a century longer. We cried: "We'll never take the stuff. For we've lived nearly long enough. "We've stalked our hour upon the stage. We've said our piece upon the rostrum: Why eke out sad and crabbed age By drink'ng any modern- nostrum? What use to linger? what the good To sink, with slow disintegration. Alone, unknown, misunderstood Amid a mocking generation? We'll exit when, we get our call, And if we die we d'e, that's all!" But now that life is in a flux, ' And has been, since the war be gan it, And what reporters call the "crux" Is raging on this mundane, planet. As on the world we gaze aghast, We find we re nursing an ambition To .know if it is going to last Or if it's destined for perdition. So,, if this radium theory's sound. We sort of think we'll stick around! The Last Straw. Laundries are not fio expensive in themselves. The trouble is that when the collars come home from them they so often require the serv ices of a dentist. The Only Way. Not so many -photoplays are being produced now. This is probably due, to Mr. Hays' determination to do something toward their betterment. . .Merely the Pedestrian. Automobiles have been greatly improved mechanically. It is not the owners one sees under them any more. (Copyright, 1022. by Bell Syndicate. Inc.) In Other Days. Twenty-five Years Ago. From The Oregonian, December 26, 180T. The "standing room only'' sign was up last night at the Marquam. "Olivette" was the opera given, and it has probably never been given to a merrier audience. At various In tervals the opera was interrupted by cries of "rah! rah! rah!" Chicago. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge is preparing a bill favoring the purchase of the three islands of St. Thomas. St. Croix and St. John, in the Danish West Indies. Senator Lodge is sanguine of se curing an appropriation. In response to a telegram from General Merriam of Vancouver. Jack Dalton, from whom the well known Dalton trail took its name, came to Portland yesterday from Seattle. He will have a conference with the general today concerning means of getting the relief expe dition to Dawson. Berlin. The Tages Zeitung at tacks Baron von Thielmann for not declaring a tariff war on the United States. Fifty Years Ago. From The Oregonian, December 28, 1872. At last accounts from the seat of the Modoc war, L. S. Dyer, the Indian agent, was surrounded by a large number of Klamath Indians, in whom he and the balance of the whites have little confidence; hence they have guards out as a protec tion to themselves and their fam ilies. It is said that misfortune never comes singly. The fire which swept away a portion of the city last Sun day was followed yesterday by a storm of snow which promises to continue for some time to come. Yesterday the burnt district o the city presented a lively appear ance. Teams and men were em ployed in gathering up and remov ing to .places of security different articles of merchandise, furniture, household effects, etc., which had been scattered about the streets and houses to avoid destruction. The central market was decorated with the usual evergreen boughs yesterday in honor of Christmas. REDEMPTION OF BURNED BILLS Treasury Experts Accomplish Won ders With Remains of Cnrreney. ASTORIA. Or, Dec, . 21. (To the Editor.) Will you please give me full particulars on the following subject? If paper money is burned until there is nothing left but the ashes, is it possible for the government to analyze and get the exact value of the money, and will they replace the burned notes? CHESLET SMITH. Burned money Is redeemable if it can be identified. Treasury experts) at Washington sometimes seem to accomplish the impossible.' They find burned money the most diffi cult to work on with the exception of that which has been gnawed by mice. A cigar box full of charred money was sent from Philadelphia for identification and redemption. Ac companying the box was an affi davit showing that it had been in side a poorly constructed safe. Some silver coins were also In the box, evidently left there with the idea that the original package should not be broken. In its passage through the mails the heavy silver was shaken through the charred bills until there was hardly a piece as large as the head of a pin. Identifi cation seemed hopeless, but by the aid of magnifying glasses and with infinite patience four $50 bills were brought out and recommended for redemption by the treasury. At the time of the great fire in San Fran cisco, where many safety vaults proved insufficient in protection, the larger part of the charred money was saved by these treasury ex perts with the aid , of magnifying glasses and with the discrimination that comes with experience. Music Honse Also Destroyed. ASTORIA, Or., Dec. 21. (To the Editor.) In the listing of business houses destroyed by the fire In As toria the Gribler Music House was not mentioned among them. Our friends throughout the state are congratulting us and are at a loss to know how we escaped. Our store was among the first destroyed and we were unable to save any thing. If you will make mention of this fact you Will confer a favor on us.