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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1905)
6 THE .SUSP AY . OREGONIA, PORTLAND, APRIL 23, 1905. Entered at the Fostofnce at Portland, Or., as second-class matter. SUBSCRIPTION KATES. INVARIABLY IX ADVANCE. (By 3Iall or Express.) Ially tnfl Sunday, per year TVHK- anA Kimdjv. sir monthfl. .... ?a.oo 6.00 Daily and Sunday, three months 2.55 Dalljr and Sunday, per month Dallr without Sunday, per year 7.00 Dally without Sunday, six months 3.P0 Dally without Sunday, three months 1.95 Dally without Sunday, per month..-. 65 Sunday per year... 2.00 Sunday, air months - 10 Sunday, three months............ o BY CARRIER. Dally without Sunday, per week .15 Dally per week, Sunday included....... .20 THE WEEKLY OREGONIAN. (Issued Every Thursday.) Weekly, per year 1-50 Weekly, six months 75 Weekly, three months .- 50 HOW TO REMIT Send postofflce money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at the sender's risk. EASTERN BUSINESS OFFICE. The S. C. Beckwlth Special Agency New York; Rooms 43-50 Tribune building. Chi cago; Rooms 610-512 Tribune building. The Oreconlan does not buy poems or atorles irom Individuals and cannot under take to return any manuscript aent to It with out solicitation. No stamps eaould be in closed ior this purpose. KEPT ON S ATYR. Chicago Auditorium, Annex, Postolflce News Co.. 178 Dearborn street. Dallas, Tex. Globo News Depot, 260 Main street. Denver Julius Black, Hamilton & Kenfl rlck, 906-012 Seventeenth street, and Frue JjuK Bros.. 605 Sixteenth street. Des Moines, la Moses Jacobs, 309 Fifth Btreet. Goldfleld, Ner. C Malone. Kansas City, Mo. Rlcksecker Ogar Co., Ninth and Walnut. Los Angeles Harry Drapkln; B. E. Amos, S14 West Seventh street. Minneapolis M. J. Kavanaugh, 50 South Third; L. Regelsburger, 217 First avenue South. New York City I. Jones & Co., Astor House. Oakland, CaL W. H. Johnston, Four teenth and Franklin streets. Ogden F. It. Godard and Meyers & Har rop; D. L. Boyle. Omaha Barkalow Bros., 1612 Farnham; Mageath, Stationery Co., 130S Farnham; McLaughlin Bros., 246 South 14th. Phoenix, Ariz. The Berryhlll News Co. Sacramento, CaL Sacramento News Co., 429 K street. Salt Lake Salt Lake News Co., 77 West Second street South. Santa Barbara, CaL S. Smith. Ban Diego, Cal. J. Dlllard. San Francisco J. K. Cooper & Co., 746 Market street; Foster & Crear, Ferry News Stand; Goldsmith Bros., 236 Sutter: L. E. Lee. Palace Hotel News Stand; F. W. Pitts, 1008 Market; Frank Scott. SO Ellis; N. Wheatley Movable News Stand, corner Mar ket and Kearney streets; Hotel St. Francis News Stand. St. Louis, Mo. E. T. Jett Book & News Company, 806 Olive street. Washington, D. C. Ebblt House News Stand. PORTLAND, SUNDAY. APRIL 2S, 1905. I GUIDANCE IN READING. The Injunction, "Read Good Books," cannot be too often or too strongly im pressed upon the minds of our youth, by those who have charge of their edu cation. Parents can see to- it and Im press it, even better than the school teacher; for the opportunity is better and the authority more sympathetic. Among the first duties of parents Is direction of the reading to be pursued by their children. The home is the place -where books and reading can best be talked about. But the parents must take Interest in it; and to this end it is necessary that they should know much of good books. For every member of the family, for every reader,- there is some well-written book which one can enjoy if he will, andWhich may serve as an antidote to ttte noxious effects of the bad novejsand other trashy pub lieatlonsof the time. One of the great est of-'outles to the young is to direct their way to a literature that will be both entertaining at the moment and permanently useful throughout their lives. It is a fact, however, that all even many of good minds cannot read Shakespeare and Milton and Bacon. Es say then may be made with Cowper, Tennyson, Longfellow and Whlttler. If there are those who cannot read George Eliot, they may be encouraged to try Thackeray, Hawthorne or Charles Reade. It is assumed that If one can read anything at all, he or she can read Scott's novels, or the greater num ber, of them; some half dozen at least of Cooper's novels, and the essays of Macaulay. For easy historical reading Prescott has no superior. The style is simple and lucid, and the narrative is excellently managed. By far the best bf all sketches of English history for easy reading is "Green's History of the English People" the longer work in four volumes, if possible; for the abridgment in one small voume Is too short. It would not be possible to say too much in praise of the usefulness of this work to the young reader. The style is a model of simplicity and the .narrative is so managed as to bring Into view the leading epochs of a his tory out of which so much of our own life has sprung. An admirable little book, to read which Is almost an educa tion in English literature, and history. Is Stopford Brooke's "Primer of Eng lish Literature" less than 200 pages, and yet a comprehensive and most en tertaining survey. These books and authors are men tioned "but as samples or examples. The object Is to point out the fact that there are excellent books in abundance that the young will read with relish and profit. If only guided to them. We have the authority of Emerson that "the best rule of reading will be a method from Nature, and not a me chanical one of hours and pages." For hls method, he continues, "holds each student to a pursuit of his native aim, instead of a desultory miscellany." Partly true, but not wholly so. It may serve for exceptional minds, but not for those which must be guided and assist ed;, and these are the vast majority. Emerson -proceeds to say, further, that "perhaps the human mind would -be a gainer If all the secondary writers were lost say in England all except Shakes peare, Milton and Bacon, through the profounder study so drawn to those wonderful minds." This seems to us a most mistaken judgment. "For there Is a vast body of mind that could not be forced upon appreciative study of these great authors do what we might to force it yet 'can well appreciate and profit by other writers "secondary" writers. Indeed, and even lower, yet very good, very entertaining and very valuable. Emerson then offers three practical rules, to-wlt: (1) Never read any book that is not a year old. (2) Never read any but a famed book. (3) Never read any but what you like. The first two of these rules may be passed without much dissent. The last one holds much error; for there are books best books lhat one -must, read, though he mayJ not -like them, at the beginning. In his tory, literature and science there are, many things that must be "grubbed out," under taskmasters. Part of the effect Is stimulation of the Indolent mind to activity; part of It the acqui sition of necessary knowledge. Un doubtedly much time Is wasted In dawdling and droning over books that one and another never can understand; but the possible gain Is worth the ef fort. As to. light and ephemeral publica tions, one thing we may be sure of, namely, that enough of them always will be read. Such publications seem destined to appear Indeed in constantly increasing numbers, and to be read more and more; for as time goes on people take more and more interest In the world they live in. They will read today's newspaper, however poor much of Its matter, because it has the breath of today's life in It. They will give their attention more readily to a clever story In the latest magazine than to Jane Austen's "Emma" or "Persua sion," because the atmosphere of those tales is not, and that of the new story is, their own atmosphere. In spite of all denunciation of the ephemeral stuff that comes from the press today, In greater quantities than ever before. It is better, we firmly believe, to read this matter if it be decent than not to read at all. But what Is wanted Is increas ing effort to direct the young mind into channels of more profitable ready ing. Such effort In the household, where It should mainly be employed, Is too "generally neglected. MISUSE OF INSURANCE FUNDS. To an onlooker there Is something grotesque in the condition of affairs in the Insurance world, now filling every newspaper in the United States. As a Illy of the field, tolling not nor spin ning, Mr. James H. Hyde, son of the founder of one of the great life Insur ance corporations, could have basked in the sunshine the livelong day. Proba bly neither policy-holders nor agents would have raised any question as to his right to enjoy unlimited dividends on his limited amount of stock to the end of his idle life. Unfortunately for him, It seems to have occurred to him that he had talents as a president, as a speculator, as an "underwriter," which It would be sinful to keep burled. ' Con sidering the atmosphere In which he was born and raised, he may be partly excused for the theory on which he has lived and operated for a few . short years. The Equitable was to him first "our." and then "my," estate. The sense of proprietorship In it all, office, agents, funds, speculations, invest ments, betrays itself In every mani festo, or rescript he has been ill-advised enough to publish. The worst of It Is that even now, when the policy holders are in arms to protect them selves against him and his following, there should be so much .fighting ground on which he can be Intrenched through the wiles of the shrewdest law yers In the land. Does the Equitable belong to the policy-holders, whose hard-earned premi ums have created the mighty volume of its assets, or to Mr. Hyde, and the rest of the stock-holders, who represent, by Inheritance or by purchase, the trivial sum Invested in the original capital on which the foundations of this greatness were laid? If It be argued by the policy-holders that the structure as it stands today is theirs to direct and con trol, may not a question be raised as to how far rights of present policy-holders may date back to a time before the en trance of each or any one of them Into contract relations with the corporation? Was It not by the surplus store of honey brought to this hive by genera tions of workers now .dead and gone, each carrying home more than he could Individually claim or use, that this vast reserve of sweetness has been accumu lated? May it not be that the stock holders will present evidence that all dead policy-holders' claims have been met, that all present policy-holders' claims In prospect are more than .am ply provided for. and that therefore the surplus of this four hundred millions we hear of Is the legitimate property of these present representatives of the founders of the last generation? "Were it possible to go back in the records of the office to past years, and, by labor unbounded and account-keeping skill unparalleled, determine how and when the surplus over each year's due de mands grew, to whose credit should such sums be carried? Such prospective pickings for the De pews and dhoates who are gathered for the fray It is to be regretted that it is not possible for some arbitration to be vested with unlimited confidence and unlimited power to cut through this tangle and lay down the principles of what should be a final decree. Some things he would surely do. Every dol lar proved to have been made by presi dent, director, manager or confidential officer, directly or Indirectly, by use of the society's funds, as either buyer or seller of securities or property, would be ordered repaid with Interest. Trus tees have no business to -profit by secret and Illegitimate use of trust funds. Publicity and prompt reparation would be the lightest punishments. Next the statutes of a broken law would be en forced. Each and every one of these offenders would be evicted from the of fice he had disgraced and disqualified from future opportunities of wrong doing. "Were it urged in their defense that in spite of the sums they had gained by their unlawful trading with trust money, the corpus of their trust was Intact and the obligations to the assured provided for, would It not -be answered that such replies showed that they either evaded or were blind to the real gravamen of the charge? "Were it said in their behalf that they bore un sullied names, that they were capable and experienced managers, that the es sential Interests of the corporation they served were always deemed safe in their hands, and that public confi dence had followed and remarked their management, what then? The crushing answer would be. The worse for you. .Such conditions resulted in opportuni ties for secret and unlimited self-enrichment. In using your trusteeship and the facilities it gave you to fill your own pockets there is both the essen tial and the statutory wrong. It Is a big storm. Electricity Is vi brating and sparkling in the air. If it yet blows over, so much the worse for the Nation. In these affairs the read justment of the entire atmosphere Is of the first necessity. The laws governing these Institutions are not at fault. In the State of New York in particular investments of insurance funds are pre scribed and carefully guarded. That the directors should interpose a per sonal profit between the accumulation of these funds and their investment arid use seems not -to have "been- foreseen. If this -pernicious practice be now ended for good, and, all in cases of the Equita ble and Its rivals, tie good example will spread, it is to be hoped, to all other corporations and societies. So will one great blot on the National escutcheon be wiped out. A PARTY'S FUTURE. It is a curious manifestation of the workings of the Democratic mind that Thomas Jefferson Is the popular fountain-head of all varieties of true Demo cratic doctrine. Jefferson has been dead nearly eighty years. He never heard or dreamed of many thinss now embodied In the Incongruous Bryan and Parker philosophies. He was an indi vidualist, an expansionist, a protection ist, an anti-Federalist, a radical and a conservative, a decentralizatlonist and a sound-money advocate. Bryan Is a "radical," but nothing else that Jeffer son was. Parker is in accord with Jef ferson in some things. "Why do both the radical Democracy and the put-on-the-brakes Democracy pass over Seymour, Tilden;' Hendricks, Cleveland and other great Democrats who were successful leaders of a pow erful party, in order to canonize a saint who was consistently and vehemently opposed to most of the things the latter-day Democracy stands for, so far as It stands for anything? Mr. Bryan proceeds on the theory that, because he can find nothing in Jefferson's speeches or writings opposed to Government ownership of railroads, therefore he must have been for It Mr. Parker Is down on the trusts there were" no trusts in Jefferson's days and proposes to organize a "party of ideas." It Is in teresting to recall that in his recent speech at the New Tork Jefferson day banquet he pointed directly at the Bryan wing in tlui following: " If we are to deal effectively with these va rious Issue?, whether In opposition or in power. It will be necessary to have a real party with real followers, attached to real and recognized principles. It Is not enough that it shall have a collection of fads, many of them useless and 'some of them dangerous and opposed to the historic position of our organ ization. Wc have already had too many of these, because It la safe to assert of a policy that If -It is radical It Is not democratic; If It is democratic It Is not radical. Here is a direct blow at Bryanlsm and radicalism. The Parker Democracy wants none of It. It will never be rec onciled to the Bryan leadership, and will remain ever In avowed hostility to it. But the Parker following recog nizes, as do all others, the strong social istic tendencies of the party, and pro tests In vain against them. Bryan Is going ahead with his great scheme of reorganization, and the old-liners can follow or bolt, just as they see fit The new Democracy found Its voice In the Chicago banquet, when Bryan came out for Government ownership of railroads and municipal ownership of other pub lic utilities. The old Democracy was heard at the New York banquet when Parker and Herrlck talked about lib erty, corruption, the tariff and regula tion of railroads and monopolies. The two wings of Democracy are as far apart as the poles. They will never get together, and they do not want to unite, except on the basis of absolute surrender of one faction or the other. Bryan will not surrender and Parker cannot. The Democracy of the future the near future Is to be the Bryan De mocracy, and it is to out-Bryan the old Bryan Democracy and out-Debs the Debs Socialists. It is clear, too, that there Is full expectation on the part of Mr. Bryan that the Roosevelt policies will split the Republican party, and that the radicals there will have no haven but the Bryan camp. It Is on this theory alone that Democratic support, In and out of Congress, of this Administration's war on monopoly and the railroads can be. explained. If Bryan can recruit a large following from the Republicans, the loss from the defection of Parker and his conserva tives will be made up. Indeed, It is Bryan's only show for final success, though at best it Is only a hope. If the proposed legislation for control of the railroads Is blocked by the United States Senate, we may look for the loudest kind of cry from Mr. Bryan for Government ownership of railroads Immediate or ultimate and owner ship of public utilities, whatever they are. Then the Democratic -party will be the true Socialist party. TIMELY BUT SURPRISING. The so-called medical press exists for the doctors, "and that Is why It af fords such admirable reading at times for the rest of us," as the Saturday Evening Post puts It. In evidence of this, the Medical News, in quoting the advantage of hospital practice for the newly graduated physician, tells some plain truths about the inadequacy of the best theoretical Instruction In therapeutics, as follows: "This instruc tion is not a completed edifice. It Is a mere assemblage of building material valuable If ultimately cemented to gether by clinical experience, but little more than useless rubbish If not sup plemented by the binding power of knowledge gained at the bedside." This expression of duly qualified opin ion is especially timely just now. Our medical colleges are turning out gradu ates whose knowledge of the power of healing is gleaned largely. If not wholly, from the text-books. Yet In the face of this fact young men, and In a lesser proportion young women, start out in great numbers with only their diplomas as -certificates of ability, to gain experi ence by experimenting upon the sick in their own homes, practically unsuper vised by physicians of experience. Examinations for hospital positions are necessarily competitive, and more than half of each year's graduates be gin a general practice upon what the oretical knowledge they have gained from medical lectures. Some, after much stumbling and many blunders disastrous to suffering humanity, over come ignorance and attain real profi ciency; others, beginning with deeply rooted misconceptions, are doomed to perpetual blunders that will cost the public dear. This is in substance the estimate or warning of the Medical News. To this the Post adds: "The worst of It all is that the old docfors also are likely to err through Ignorance of recent ad vances in a profession that Is rapidly developing new fields." From these two statements It seems that the public is likely to catch it whichever way It turns. The only,- or at least the safest, recourse is In regular habits and the observance of well-known sanitary rules, and, when sickness befalls, pa tience, rest and dependence upon the recuperative powers of the body. There are times, of course, to quote further the opinion of the Post, when the worst physician Is better than none at all. But it is not at all unlikely that many people die from too much rather than too little treatment, mechanical and me dicinal. The wiest doctors, when they talk In confidence with one another, are frank incknbwiedglngJLhe difficul ties ihVtbeset-' the "art of healing and the futility of much of what passes for remedial measures. The surprise of this criticism of "much that passes for treatment" Is -In -the publicity given it by a medical journal of accredited authority. R05IANCE AND HISTORY. Ezra Meeker, in his latest historical work, made a martyr of Leschl, the Puget Sound Indian, who, In the Inter est of the white man's civilization and by order of Governor Stevens, was hanged nearly fifty years ago. Unfor tunately for peace and harmony In his torical ranks, in placing Leschl on a pedestal Mr. Meeker felt called upon to make a few poignant thrusts at the late Governor Stevens. This attempt to shatter an Idol dear to most Washlng tonlans provoked a very spirited show of resentment from Professor Edmond S. Meany, of the Washington State University, who Is remarkably well versed in Washington history. Yet Meany's attempted climinlation of Leschl from the ranks of martyrs will prove distasteful to many who are un familiar with either side of the contro versy. In literary circles of the East, where the book trade finds Its markets, much liberty with facts can be excused if a halo of romance can be suspended over the head of some made-to-order hero. And perhaps, after all, this "poet's license" is permissible to a degree. If administered In medium-sized doses, for it has added much to the Interest if not to the value of history of the Pacific Northwest. Errors of judgment or plain, ordinary "guesswork" might form fairly good grounds on which to excuse some of our earlier historical ro mancing. For example: Apostolos "Va lerlanos, better known as Juan de Fuca, sailed into the straits which bear his nom de plume In 1592, and wandered back to "Venice four years later with a wonderful story that he had discovered the mythical "Straits of Anian," the fa bled Northwest passage, supposed to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific. Had the Greek navigator stuck to facts and reported that he sailed north to about latitude 48, and then entered a broad inlet in which he beat around for many days, he would have made a fairly accurate report of what actually happened. But Juan de Fuca gilded his gold by stating that this inlet in which he beat about for twenty days was the Pacific outlef of the Northwest passage. It made a pleasing story, but it cost Spain blood and treasure whenever In after years she attempted to verify it. Com ing down to more recent chronicles, we find the late Washington Irving draw ing the long bow In his delightful story of the early settlement of the Lower Columbia. There was nothing prosaic about the Ill-fated Astor enterprise, even had the yarn been spun without introduction of any threads of fancy and romance. Another case of roman tic garbling of history was that in which the Eastern worshipers of heroes and martyrs assert "Whitman saved Oregon." Whitman was a good man, and his, work with the pioneers of the Oregon territory won for him a lasting place in history. But his great ride across the continent, which formed the groundwork for the oft-repeated ro mance that he saved Oregon, was a feat in which nothing of Importance was accomplished for Oregon, and no real history was made. "How Whit man Saved Oregon" has supplied the theme for many a thrilling song and story, but there really is but little more truth In the story-than In that of "How Juan De Fuca Discovered the North west Passage." Of course, the attempt of Mr. Meeker to place Leschl In the ranks of the mar tyrs Is riot In the same class as some of these earlier historical romances, for there are still living witnesses who can testify on both slde3 of the present con troversy. For the student who will read history only If it Is sufficiently colored to make It interesting, prefer ence will be given Mr. Meeker's version. Governor Stevens was an unsenti mental patriot whose place in history is secure, but he was not a martyr, and to a certain class of readers an Indian martyr is a more Interesting character than a white patriot. Civilization has moved up well pas't the era where tradition and "hearsay" jangled and tangled our early history, and we now have the records. We may have eliminated much of the fiction, ro mance and poetry which cast a glamor over many of the happenings of the old days, and, If restrictions were placed on the operations of historical romancers, literature might suffer; but from now on history and romance must travel separate paths. With the modern news paper giving the people minute details of a battle that Is being fought ten thousand miles away and getting It be fore them while the conflict Is still rag ing, the facilities for recording history are certainly perfected to a stage where our descendants will not be bothered by any questionable points produced by mixing historical history with romantic romance. THE BABY HOME AND ITS WORK. Dedication of the new Baby Home building, In the Waverly tract, yester day, was the culmination of years of self-sacrificing endeavor on the paff of a few faithful workers, the generous benefactions of a number of friends of humanity who have .gone hence, and the timely gifts of many citizens to this most tender charity. The purpose of this organization Is briefly and simply expressed In its name. There Is no ambiguity of mean ing in the two words "Baby Home." It does not require the play of the Imagination to Interpret the purpose of an organization thus named. Through the Baby Home, in the decade and a half of Its existence, several hundred Infants have passed from the early weeks or months of human helpless ness on through sheltered babyhood and happy early childhood Into homes se cured for them by officers of the Insti tution, through the public schools, and are now on the verge of useful man hood and womanhood. The work is a beneficent one. Or phaned, or worse than orphaned, babies represent human life in its most help less and pitiful aspect. There have been under the shelter of the Baby Home, since It was first opened in nar row, unsuitable, inconvenient quarters, infants whose mothers died at their birth and whose fathers, with the help lessness of poor men thus situated, turned to that Institution as al veritable house of refuge for their motherless babes; Infants whose mothers had been cruelly deserted by the fathers of their babes, and who welcomed the Baby Home as a place In which they could leave their helpless ones while they went Ow to work; infants whose legal right tp.;be in the worldvyasl nptque tlined,:hut "both of 'whose parents 'haa passed from earth; infants worse than j orphaned, whose parents had "Jarred J Dirtnright of home and love; and, now and then, alas, an Infant has been left upon the doorstep of the Baby Home, Its abandonment thus suggesting the shadow of shame that darkened Its en trance Into life. Of these classes of homeless Infants, those of cruelly de serted mothers have been perhaps the most frequent Inmates of the Baby Home; next In number come those, one or both of whose parents have died. The last class above enumerated has been the smallest one passed through the Institution to the care of foster par ents. This briefly outlines the work of the Baby Home through many strenuous years. For obvious reasons the real work of the Institution, its manifold details, Its far-reaching influence upon the lives of Its wards ,lts usefulness to the community and the state, must for ever remain unwritten. All thoughtful, observant people must acknowledge Its value In these ways that cannot be re corded or enumerated. To such of these whose attention has been called to the matter, the long-needed equip ment for the work in hand, as presented In the new Baby Home building, will be gratifying. May wheat continued In its down ward course yesterday, making the most sensational drop of the season, the. close being an even 10 cents per bushel lower than the close on the pre vious day. There is still an opportu nity for some "fireworks" In the July option, but the time Is short for pulling the wreck of the May deal together, and there Is strong probability that the cereal will be permitted to stand on Its merits, which are based on the law of supply and demand, until some other manipulator takes hold of the market. The work of the bullish operators in Chicago was highly beneficial to the farmers of Oregon and Washington, for this season at least. Had the big crop harvested been forced to seek the usual channels to market in Europe, the price received would have been from 10 cents to 20 cents per bushel less than was realized on the stock that was shipped East by rail. Taking one year with an other, however, nothing is gained by the unnatural forcing of the market up or down, and a return to legitimate conditions will not be unwelcome. The late Democratic victory in Chi cago acted as a tonic to the drooping spirits of William J. Bryan. The ef fect was to loosen the long-bounden tongue of the quadrennial Presidential candidate and make It give forth gleeful sounds. Its effects were so exhilarat ing that the Democratic statesman even went beyond himself and declared President Roosevelt entitled to the moral and substantial support of the people. He, however, sagely remarked that it is too far ahead to tell anything about the men or issues of 130S. He is wise at least In keeping his hopes in abeyance and his thoughts to himself In regard to the next Presidential cam paign. The present Is not a good time to air them. Joseph Jefferson, beloved of thou sands. Is on the farther verge of life. Family and friends hope that the shadow o death now hovering over the aged actor may pass for a time, but nothing farther than this is in the line of human expectation. The world out side the home where he lies, feebly bat tling for a brief tenure of life, or quietly waiting the approach of kind Nature's messenger of release, can only wait reverently the announcement that sooner or later must tell of his passing. The Hamburg-American Steamship Company has christened Its new liner "America." If there's anything in a name, she ought to make the marvelous Deutschland look like a canal-boat when the speed contest is considered. The dimensions of the America indicate that "big steamers are still popular in the Atlantic trade. The vessel Is of 22,500 tons register, with a cargo ca pacity of 16,000 tons and accommoda tions for 4000 passengers and crew. Nearly 10,000 foreigners came into New York on four steamers Friday, and the record for the month to that date was well In excess of 60,000. If this business is maintained at its present proportions, the increasing demand for labor will be Insufficient to take care of the supply. History repeats, and some of the men who are now striking for higher wages may be striking for work in the not far distant future. "Where has the money gone?" asks an investor who Is suing Thomas W. Lawson. The question is as old as horsetrading, but it has echoed down the ages without. eliciting a satisfactory answer. As well ask where Spring goes, or youth, or the old moons, or pins, or much-needed collar buttons. They all go, just go, no man knows where. They say at Chicago that the politi cians who are forcing "municipal own ership" are of the same gang that gave away, corruptly "granted." all the franchises. Now they are engineering the scheme to buy everything back, at enormous cost to the city profiting themselves by the transactions both ways. Let not the brother who got pinched on the great wheat deal at Chicago "squeal." Nobody will sympathize with him. "Ay, 'tis just the fashion; where fore do you look upon the poor and broken bankrupt there?" So many liquor saloons ought not to have-been licensed near the entrance of the Exposition. .Indeed, none at alL It is no pleasant Impression that visitors will have from running the gauntlet of the liquor shops. Roosevelt has been already suggested as a candidate for the Mayoralty of New York in 1910, so that it looks as If he will soon have few dates vacant between this and the end of the cen tury. It is obviously one thing for France to Issue orders for the Russian fleet to leave French territorial waters, and an other for the Russians to leave. Public opinion is a failure as umpire in the RojestvenskyrTogo game. . The Igorrotes wear the original peek-a-boo costumes. , The wheat seems to haves' cornered Mr. Jofih .Wi Gates. " . . NOTE ANDCOMMENf. Young Mr. -Hyde, of the Equitable, can write letters about as well as Thomas W. Lawson. Neutrality Is something that a big na tion may, and a small nation must keep. Colonel Bill Greene is going hunting In Old Mexico. His quarry -will not be Law son this time. She was a fat little girl, and she went Into a local store to get a pair of shoes. "You're a fat girl, aren't you?" said the salesman. "You shouldn't eat so much." "What difference does that make?" re plied the little girl. "The food doesn't go Into my legs." In Their Easter Egffs. Rojestvensky: Togo. Roosevelt: Grizzlies, coyotes, rabbits, bobcats, etc. Taft: Anti-fat. , The Czar: A bomb. ' ." The moujlk: A yolk. James H. Hyde: Alexander. McCredle: Angelic scalps. Inside or an esrjz: is the yolk. And In this is a bit of a jolk. For If yolk were spelled yoke Some would laugh till they'd cholk. And their-pals the poor punster would sotk. Some women are so distinguished- that they needn't wear a new hat today; oth ers are so broke they can't. The grand jury in Chicago is investi gating the manufacture of sausages. Here, Fldo! Dear old Tommy Lawson, of Bosting, is not dead yet. On the contrary, he Is very much alive, and waits anxiously for Pan ic that will smash up most everyinlng or ganic and Morganlc. It Is strange that some enterprising cor respondent does not hover over President Roosevelt's hunting grounds in a balloon. Hiram Cronk. the last survivor of the War of 1S12. was 105 last Wednesday, but he refuses to die, although the New York Aldermen have voted him a public funeral when he will accept. With such an in ducement one would expect a rush for the tomb. A Chicago girl, who worked In a drug store, has sued her employer for $15,000 damages because he hugged her. It seems grasping to ask money from a man who merely took an obvious way of express ing appreciation of his clerk's attention to duty. The Garden of Eden from the top of the apple tree wasn't a marker to the garden of millinery as seen from the pulpit. Lawson has boiled over again. Now that there is a fashion of painting telegraph poles, and so forth, some one might put a coat of paint on the two Igorrote chiefs who are In Portland. Almost time for the "Is-it-hot-cnough-for-you" man. Probably the artful plan of having the heavy character see the hero's little col lection of books and thereby judge his character will never be abandoned. In two or three recent magazine stories the sood old scheme Is freely used. Up In the mountain cabin one finds a tattered Keats, a well-thumbed Shelley and a dog's-eared Milton, mixed up with a Complete Taxi dermist, a Manual of Poker and Lara broso on Depraved Noses. , The President is even stopping to say "Bully 1" . What Is wanted at Kamranh Bay Is a cop to sing. out "Step lively" to Rojest vensky. Perhaps if the lilies toiled and span they might hope to compete with the hats. The Igorrotes we're having their suits pressed when they were photographed. France Is being as neutral as she can be without being neutral. Philadelphia wants to be the reatirig placo of John Paul Jones. Very proper. Rider Haggard discovered that this is a big country, and that's something. WEX. J. Municipal Ownership. Astoria Dally News. By electing Judge Dunne Mayor of Chicago that city declared In favor of making the biggest experiment as yet made in the United States of municipal ownership of "public utilities." by pur chasing and operating the street rail ways. Should the experiment be a suc cess there will be a tremendous Increase In the demand for Governmnt owner ship of railroads. Should It fail Social ism will receive a deathblow In this country. Because municipal ownership of rail roads works well In Glasgow and Man chester,. England, Is not a sufficient rea son for predicting it will work well In Chicago or other American cities. A gen tleman who has great reputation as a careful Investigator of things he writes about, recently wrote: "Glasgow Is said to be the best gov erned city in the world. The same Is claimed for Manchester, England. They are well governed, these cities of the old world, because there is no 'graft' in their municipal government. The town of Glasgow is run on the same basic principle that the Bank of Glas gow is run. Over there a hobo has no more voice in the city government than he has in the deliberations of the board of directors of the biggest shipyard on the Clyde. Hero the vote of the most miserable wharf rat of the East Sido weighs as much as the vote of Astor, who pays taxes on 10,000 or more houses. As long as our city fathers are chosen by universal suffrage, mu nicipal ownership will be worse than lunacy; it will be idiocy. Municipal ownership will succeed when our af fairs are run exactly like a bank by the men who own the city. Municipal ownership will be a failure as long as there Is polities In a city election, no matter how radically you circumscribe the electorate. There is no more legiti mate place for politics In a city eloction than there Is in a church government." Ditoo, Ditto, Ditto. Seattle Daily Times. A few weekly publications In the Pa cific Northwest, and a very few dally publications without news service, are quite disgusted because the publishers of the Seattle Dally and Sunday Times do not furnish them with copies of the Dally and Sunday Times gratuitously and do tifot fall to whine about the mat ter about so often an insignificant pub lication up at Blaine being the last. If these fellows can give a logical reason for a contribution of $7.80 per annum respectively by the publishers of the Times, then such publishers will con sider with earn and fairness whether these small publishers shall be put upon the Times' charity list. Butuntll some reason is shown why such contribution should be made the present method will be continued and for the simple reason that these publications depend upon the great dailies for nine-tenths of their outside information for which said dailies pay; very heavy toll THE TR0UBLES0F A TRUST. "I'll have the law on ye," shouts the outraged yeoman at the retreating form of the trespassing hunter who has torn down the pasture fence or left the gate open. 'Til have the law on ye," is the final threat of the small operator when he has been fenced in, locked In or frozen out by his stronger neighbors. Since memory runneth there have been laws made and provided for redress of the former, and just now there is a more or less concerted effort to back up the latter In his violent threat. , No less puis sant authority than' the United States Supreme Court once upon a time, some years since, placed a ban upon what it was pleased to term "unlawful com binations in x-estraint of trade." Since then the wisdom of many magistrates has been invoked to the end that the meaning of this sounding phrase might be made clear and such "combinations in restraint of trade" be brought to book. It has been a Herculean task and only recently has the effort begun to touch upon the edges of success. An intangible something, convenient ly known as a trust," variously In oil or beef or railroads, has met the un happy fortune of microscopic scrutiny by courts and Legislatures. Bacon and kerosene and freight rates touch most of us Intimately, and it was but natural that they should come first to the at tention of those who seek to "right real or fancied commercial wrongs; but a commodity which has an important mar ket Interest to the majority of Ameri cans is theatrical entertainment; and this, too, has apparently attracted the cupidity of the dealers to the extent of combination in restraint of trade. The Oregonian has previously spoken of the efforts of David Belasco. an In dependent theatrical manager, to "have the law on" the so-called theatrical trust. In view of the disclosures brought about by the suit of Mr. Be lasco against the firm of Klaw &. Er langer It seems pertinent to stiy more in this connection. Tnere was a period in the history of the modern drama when theatrical en tertainments were given in the public highway, the inn courtyard, or the vil lage green. Gradually established play houses developed, crude enough in the beginning, but making possible our pres ent theaters and an organized busi ness of catering to the demand for theatrical entertainment. The story of the trend toward the present theatrical trust reads very much as the romance which begins with the smith's little shop under the spreading tree, and ends with the steel trust and Its mighty mills. The giving of plays and the welding of steel and the selling of oil became profitable. Those men who en gaged themselves In the employment waxed prosperous and became greedy. They sought to restrict tile profit sharing to a few of the best of them and they were not over particular as to the methods of such restriction. They succeeded so well that we' have the Standard Oil. United States Steel " and Klaw & Erlnnger. Individual effort was . discouraged and thosn who had the temerity to at tempt the manufacture of steel, the re fining of oil or the production of plays independently of these trusts were marked for destruction. Llttlfr more than a decade ago Marc Klaw and Abe Erlunger were penniless and unknown. They raked together a few hundreds of dollars and started an obscure theatri cal booking agency. Their business was to supply "provincial" managers with attractions at a certain ' commission to themselves. They proved thrifts, for it was In the golden days of theatrical profits' In America. Gradually the lim its of their activity were extended. They bought, leased or built theaters, a lew. They made play productions, a few. They employed playwrights and actors in considerable numbers, but mostly they relied on their "five per cent" to fill their coffers. They incorporated in syndicate and took such "representative managena and pro ducers as Hayman and the Frohmans into the concern. They needed their frlondlv offices and ass-eta. There were others." notably David Belasco and Harri son Grey P'teke, who did not become a part of "the system" cither through choice or lack of opportunity, and these outlanders proceeded to transact their business in their own way and without the aid or consent of the trust. This was foreign to all trtift plans, and a consistent effort on the Klaw-Erlanger part was commenced to punish the "independents." The trust magnates publicly announced on one occasion that they would "crush Be lasco and drive him out of business in 90 duys." They came near doing It. Other Independent managers were starved out or forced to enter the service of the syn dicate in minor capacities. One by one they failed or fell Inside the trust breast works, until David Belasco and Fiske stood practically alone. Then the fight was- centered entirely on them, partlcular lv Belasco. and he has been holding hi3 own against terrific odds. It is more than two years since the doom of Belasco was pronounced, and he is still In the theatri cal business: in fact, is said to be enjoy ing the greatest degree of prosperity in the history of his career. After being driven almost to the wall, he has turned upon the "system" and Is making life something of a burden for the smug gen tlemen who have fattened for many full years on the "5 per cent." The past season has been a profitable one for Belasco and Fiske and a disas trous one for Klaw & Erlanger. To crown the sorrows of the latter, they have been forced Into court by the Indomitable Be lasco, and are daily being asked unpleas ant questions about their methods. They have even been subjected to the humilia tion of showing their books to the curi ous, and, as the case proceeds, mattera seem growing worse. The present cause of action against them is some $50,000 al leged to have been wrongfully taken by them out of the profits of one of Mr. Be lasco's productions, tho $50,000 having been, their "per cent" for permitting Mr. Belasco to present his play to the Amer ican public. To make matters worsa for Messrs. Klaw & Erlanger they are threatened with dimensions within the syndicate. Charles Frohman, who anon was wont to figure in large type on the "three sheets" as "presenting" most of the luorative New York successes, docs not relish being over shadowed, bottled up and stowed away within the syndicate while his theaters and plays suffer from the common disas ter which seems to have overtaken all trust enterprises. He is becoming restless and having earned the title of "Napoleon of the Theater," Is likely to make trouble for the heads of the house. Under his leadership the thousands of other man agers who now suffer the trust's dicta tion, may shortly revolt and crush Klaw & Erlanger much more effectively than David Belasco and all the "independents" could hope to do. The anti-trust tide is rising around the theatrical syndicate. The public Is against it almost with the same unanimity as it is against Standard Oil. The Equitable has Its Hyde, and It looks as If very shortly the theatrical syn dicate were to have its Klaw & Erlanger. What with dissension on the inside and Belasco on the outside "having the law on them," the "system" seems to be lrtkp hard lines. The weather forecast for tho RIalto Is for squalls and thunder storms. Belasco may not, be able to bust the trust, but all. signs indicate that It will shortly go to pieces through the mutiny of its crew.