TIIE SUNDAY OREGOMAN. PORTLAND, JUNE 17, 190C.
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rORTI-ANO, SUNDAY. JUNE 17. 1906.
IS CHRISTIANITY DECADENT?
Professor Nathaniel Schmidt, of Cor
nell University, is of the opinion that
Christianity is losing its influence over
the masses from year' to year. This
opinion he supports hy reasons to which
in his judgment this decadence in re
ligious feeling is due, and which he pre
sented in a recent address before the
Kthical Culture Society in Philadelphia.
It may be said, however, that with'
these roawins cheerful, observant per
nis, ciinnot entirely agree, since they
seem to be inspired by scholastic pes
simism. One of these reasons was that
men stay away from church in order
to dodge the collection plate; another,
that, this being- an age of amusement,
the church is forsaken in pursuitof
entertainments of more or less frivolous
type; still another was urged in the im
patience of moral restraint which re
ligion and even church-going exercise,
combined with a growing resistance to
any kind of authority.
These, however. Professor Schmidt
regarded as minor points in the indict
ment which charged the American peo
ple with having assumed an attitude at
leas't negatively hostile to Christianity.
The chief cause of this defection he
thinks is due to the influence of art,
science, philosophy and socialistic ideal
ism. .
It seems more than probable that
Professor Schmidt, studying his subject
lit long range, missed its most vital
point. The non-attendance of a multi
tude of people upon church services
docs not ptove that they are indifferent
to religion, much less hostile to it. The
fact is that more people are interested
in religion than in any other subject
not the religion of creeds or supported
by creeds, but religion that is suscepti
ble to simple explanation in the need of
the human heart for some assurance of
the truth of the declaration of the
hymnologlst that
It is not all of life to live.
Nor all of death to die.
This is shown by the increasing num
ber of books published each year deal
ing with religious questions. These are
not all written along orthodox lines.
Many of them, on the contrary, are de
voted to an expression of independent
views or of personal ideals that are al
most, if not quite, heterodox; but that
is immaterial. The religious feeling Is
strong in the writings of Elizabeth Stu
art Phelps, though she draws heavily
upon her Imagination in presenting her
idea of heaven In her vision "Beyond
the Gates." and upsets many orthodox
views in her presentment of the story
"A Singular Life." So far, indeed, are
these books from discrediting the re
ligious idea or feeling that they distil
ils very essence and apply it to the
needs of human life. It Is not too much
to say that they have proved a spir
itual uplifting to thousands who de
cline to go to church to be fed on the
husks of a dry theology.
And so with many other books that
hint at or discourse specifically upon
religious topics'. They are written,
printed and read more or less widely
according to the trick of the author in
presenting his ideas tersely, as in the
case of Elbert Hubbard, casting over
them the halo of Christianity as does
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, or clothing the
yearning hope of immortality In the
garb of fervid and reverent imagery, as
does Elizabeth Stuart Phelps or Mrs.
Olipbant. '
Once in a while a newspaper unguard
edly opens its columns to the discussion
of some religious -problem or criticism
of the claim to inspiration by someself
annointed prophet of a new belief, only
to find its space swamped by communi
cations of indorsement or protest, but
a small fraction of "which - can be
printed.
These simple facts disprove at once
the. opinion of Professor Schmidt that
elision will, before long, be displaced
by science, art, socialism, philosophy.
This opinion will not be verified while
human nature remains what it is.
Neither art, science nor philosophy can
juiswer to the deepseated instinct of
the heart of which religion is the expression.-
Science provides no consola
tion, furnishes no hope. It is power
less, when driven to the extreme, to
solve its own problems, and wisely de
clines to meddle with those that lie be
yond the realm of the demonstrable.
Philosophy has long ago said its last
word upon this point, though it babbles
now and then In repetition. It is only
in religion, the basis of which is faith
that asks no sign beyond the intuitive
indorsement of the human heart, that
men and women find present help and
future promise. Religion thus defined
is the same yesterday, today and for
ever. It is the extraneous beliefs that
assume the cloak of religion that
change and disappear.
Put if Oregon is to prohibit the
manufacture and sale-of liquors, it
should, indeed it must, prohibit also the
growth and sale of hops; for the only
use of hops as a commodity in com
merce Is the manufacture of beer, of
which hops are an indispensable ingre
dient. Of course the sincere prohibi
tionist will not continue the growing of
hops, and, since he prohibits the saloon
and sale of beer,' he must insist on de
struction of his neighbor's hop vines.
Of course he can have no hop vines of
his own.
BRYAN AS A CONSERVATIVE.
Grover Cleveland is almost the only
Democrat . of first importance who
hasn't made ridiculous haste to get on
the Bryan bandwagon. Ex-Candidate
Parker hasn't said anything; but Par
ker is a Democrat of no importance.
All, or nearly all, of the Democrats who
were driven out of the party by the
radical Bryan doctrines In 1896 and 1900
and who did not join the Republican
party outright have now gone back.
Bryan is good enough for them, for
they fear the dark menace of socialism
on one hand and the predatory aggres
sions of the plutocracy on the other.
Hearst, to their mind, represents all
that is dangerous and ruinous in the
Democracy; and everything, they think,
or profess to think, is bad about the
Republican party. Thepe are the very
same men who are saying that Roose
velt has stolen the Democratic thun
der by his war on the trusts, and is
nothing but a Democrat in practice.
Yet, somehow, he Is not a good enough
Democrat to get their votes, showing
how much of high patriotic purpose and
devotion of principle there is in their
unwavering adherence to party.
But is Bryan a conservative, as they
say? Does his latter-day Democracy
stand for a protest against the social
istic tendencies of the extreme wing of
his party? Colonel William F. Vilas is
the latest to say that Bryan is a con
servative. He eulogizes Bryan for be
ing "as safe and sane as any one now,
and perhaps more so." "Otherwise,"
he says, "the specter of socialism by
Republican party practices stands in
menace before the people." What has
Mr. Bryan done or said that would in
dicate that he is not in entire sympathy
with the socialistic trend of his party?
After the last Presidential election he
openly declared his purpose to reorgan
ize the Democratic party on a platform
of Government ownership and opera
tion of public -utilities. His plan was
for the municipalities to take over local
utilities gas and electric lighting
plants, street railways, local tele
phones, and so on; for the states to take
over the railroads and perhaps the tele
phone service not conducted by the
municipalities: and for the general Gov
ernment to take over telegraphs and
perhaps the interstate telephone ser
vice as a part of the postal service.
Railroads, of course, will come next.
If this is not the most startling and
comprehensive socialistic programme so
far outlined, what is it? But perhaps
Mr. Bryan has modified his views. We
shall be interested in hearing what he
has to say when he returns from
abroad. Whatever he says, he is bound
to be held by all classes of professional
Democrats as the great savior of the
Democracy.
I.AR;ER WARSHIPS. l.ARtiER til'XS.
General J. P. Farley, U. S. A., con
tributes to this issue of The Oregonian,
at its request, an article on the 16-inch
gun. What he has to say on the sub
ject is timely for the reason that the
size of future battleships and the char
acter of their armament is A live ques
tion in the fighting bureaus at Wash
ington. It has local application because
modern guns of large caliber will be
demanded for the mouth of the Colum
bia. As one way to avoid the necessity of
big land cannon, Captain A. T. Mahan.
the naval expert, makes the novel prop
osition that by international agreement
battleships should be restricted in point
of tonnage: otherwise in the rivalry be
tween nations, he thinks they will all
become bankrupt. If one nation build a
20.000-ton warship, there is no reason
why another nation should not build
one of 20,000 tons, and another a 40.000
ton monster, each with proportionate
armament. With such rivalry it will
not take long to reach the bottom of
the gold bag.
On, the other hand, it is argued that
as well restrict the number of vessels
as limit the fighting qualities. In this
connection it is well to note the pro
posed display of Great. Britain at the
coming maneuvers, when .323 .war ves
sels of all kinds will be assembled at
one point. General Farley. makes this
the point of 'his argument where he
suggests that guns larger than the 12
inch rifle must be made to meet future
demands for seacoast defense and for
tifies his opinion by the late determina
tion and recommendation of the Taft
board of . armament a board which
places the 16-inch gun at the entrance
to .Long Island Sound and numerous
14-inch guns at various other impor
tant points, the latter being regarded as
a mere stepping-stone to guns of larger
caliber and greater power. If there are
to be bigger foreign battleships, there
must be bigger guns on land to pre
vent their entrance into American har
bors. A WILD BEAST. BUT STILL A KIN'ti.
The divinity that doth hedge a King
makes sorry display of itself in, its at
tendance upon Otto, the insane King
of Bavaria. A weakling from his cra
dle, a madman from the time he as
cended the throne twenty years ago
upon the suicide of his insane brother,
Ludwig, King Otto lives like a beast in
his palace prison, while the kingdom
is governed by Prince Lutipold as re
gent. Utterly devoid of reason, as ut
terly unable to take care of himself,
the crazy monarch is in a pitiable state
from disease, neglect and lack of nu
tritious food; yet no one can help him
without using force, which monarchical
conditions and traditions forbid.
Human enlightenment has yet far to
go before its mission to the race is
accomplished. Its simplest phase ordi
nary common sense stands aghast be
fore an interdiction that , forbids the
forcible application, if necessary, of the
simple rules of sanitary caretaking to a
lunatic, because he happened to have
been born a Prince of royal blood. Con
sanguineous marriages through genera
tions, with the attendant weakness of
the moral and physical fiber of their off
spring, has presented some sad cases
of degeneracy in the reigning families
of Europe. It was to correct this evil
tendency to some extent among his own
descendants. It is said, that King Ed
ward then Prince of Wales was in
duced to favor the marriage of his eld
est daughter to the Duke of Fife. The
Hohenzollerns have been careful in
many instances to mate the scions of
the imperial house to those of alien
blood. Spain has taken a. departure in
wedding her King to the royal house
of Great Britain. But the collateral
branches of the reigning houses of Eu
rope -intermarry with such results In
progeny now and then as are seen in
i
Ludwig and Otto of Bavaria, Carlotta
and Rudolph of Austria, and innumer
able side offshoots of royalty whose
type of madness shows itself in eccen
triclty and excesses of various kinds.
The Bavarian King, who is'siniply a
wild beast in his lair, is the most con
spicuous example of madness of this
type now living, and the strangest feat
ure In connection with his case i the
fact that he is enthroned in the rever
ence of his people as a monarch whose
right to rule nominally is impaired by
madness.
CURB FOR HYSTERIA.
Attentive readers of current litera
ture have noted with grave disquietude
the prevalence in the United States of a
disease which goes by the name of
hysteria. According to the best au
thorities, such as Harper's Weekly, Dr.
Day, Mr. Aldrich, President Spencer
and Mr. Jerome, it is not a physical
disorder, but rather a disturbance of
the mental faculties which prevents
people from seeing things in the proper
light and giving them their right
nanv?s. It does not seem to be a fatal
disease. If only one or two persons In
a community were attacked by it there
would be little occasion for alarm
either on their own account or for
their influence on others. It is only ter
rifying when it becomes epidemic, as
now seems to be the case, for It then
threatens to disturb or even overthrow
the divinely appointed arrangement by
which the proceeds of the industry of
the Nation are made to flow quietly and
smoothly into the possession of those
whom the Lord has ordained to guard
and keep them.
The symptoms of hysteria are all ex
tremely unpleasant. One of the most
pronounced, and at the same time the
most disagreeable, is a disposition
which it inspires in the unfortunate pa
tient to peer and pry into the sacred
secrets of those whom Providence has
elected to shepherd and rule over him.
He becomes possessed, for example, of
a persistent, perhaps blasphemous,
mania to know what the insurance
companies are doing with his money.
He manifests an irreverent curiosity
about the way the United States Sen
ate sees fit to conduct its proceedings.
He breaks through the- veil of mystery
which covers the holy rites of the rail
road business. He even dares to cast
an audacious eye into the forbidden
darkness of the packing-houses. But
this latter deed works its own punish
ment. Having looked once, the most
rabid victim of hysteria has no longing
to look again. One glance is enough;
it satisfies any appetite for horrors,
no matter how ravenous. Again, it is
symptomatic of hysteria to expect a
gas company to make reasonable
charges; to expect a street railway
company to furnish seats for its passen
gers or provide them with convenient
transfers: to expect a railroad corpora
tion to offer to all Its patroijs the same
service for the same pay.-
Great medical authorities have enu
merated other symptoms of this lam
entable disease. The Denver Repub
lican pronounces it hysterical to object
to a public-service corporation winning
an election by bribery and stuffing the
ballot-boxes. We shall probably soon
have a Supreme Court decision from
Colorado to the same purport. The Su
preme Court of that state has done
more than any other tribunal in the
country to set forth in a clear light the
legal aspects of hysteria. According to
that exalted and impartial authority,
any resistance whatever ''by the public
to its divinely appointed guardians is
not only hysterical', but also unlawful.
Mr. Jercme has contributed to our
knowledge of the. disease by discover
ing that the wish to punish an insur
ance thief is hysterical. Mr. Landis, of
Indiana, another great scientist, puts
the wish to . revise the tariff in the
same category; while President Spen
cer, of the Southern Railway, also in
cludes the clamor for equal freight
rates which has lately been so distress
ingly prevalent. According to that emi
nent scientific investigator, Mr. Arch
bold, it is hysterical to protest against
the favors which the railroads show to
the Standard Oil Company, and doubly
hysterical to protest against that pious
corporation's practice of waylaying
competitors with a stiletto in the dark.
Mr. Archbold believes that the Stand
ard has a vested1 right in these meth
ods of doing business, and what could
be worse than an attack on vested
rights?
The latest and perhaps the most furi
ous outbreak of hysteria in this country
manifests itself in an unreasonable re
bellion against eating decayed meat.
The safe, and conservative view of this
matter is that, since the Lord has
given our food in charge to the Beef
Trust, it is our moral duty to eat what
they provide for us and ask no ques
tions. If the trust chooses to 'provide
chopped rope and call It potted ham,
we should meekly devour the potion and
be thankful that it is not arsenic.
"The murderer's knife is a fearful
thing," sings the philosophic Tupper,
"but what w.ere it armed with a scor
pion's sting?" What indeed. One
alarming fact connected with these re
current epidemics is that each new one
is more violent than the last. Unless
some benefactor of the race soon ap
pears with a remedy, nobody can pre
dict to what extremes the Nation may
be hurried by its insane passion for
interfering with the arrangements of
Providence. Unless some effectual emol
lient should be discovered and speedily
applied, we look next for an assault on
vested rights. The vested right of the
gas companies to swindle their custom
ers; of the Standard Oil Company to
bully the railroads and rob the people;
of the Beef Trust to sell diseased meat
think what an awful thing it would
be if any of these blessed privileges
were interfered with by an infuriated
populace.
A recipe has been discovered hy an
aspiring scientist which he believes will
assuage the evils of hysteria, and if
faithfully followed will effect a positive
cure. Whether his claims are well
founded the doctors must decide. It is
offered to the individual citizen and
may be safely taken, he asserts, with
out the advice of a regular physician.
The first step in the healing process is
to fix resolutely in the mind the con
viction that all investigation into the
conduct of the upper classes by the
public is dangerous. If one can believe
that it is a sin in the eye of the Al
mighty, so much the better. Secondly,
In case the crime of making an Inves
tigation has been committed, the pa
tient should dauntlessly assert that .all
the facts discovered are falsehoods. No
matter what the evidence is, scout It.
No matter how convincing the facts,
deny them. Nothing is so good for the
soul as the habit of determined denial
of everything to the discredit of our
admired aristocracy. -If the facts are
so glaring that they cannot be denied,
then attack the person who revealed
them. Decry his motives, give him a
bad name; besmirch him in some way.
No spiritual exercise lays up treasure
in heaven faster than to revile one who
has assailed the reputation of the plu
tocracy. They are the Lord's particular
favorites, and he has no use for any
one that denigrates them. Thus the
recipe discovered by our scientific
friend has a twofold virtue; it cures
hysteria and at the same time it edifies
the spiritual graces of the inner man.
OUR EX-PRESIDENTS.
The question "What are we going to
do with our ex-Presidents?" is an im
pertinent one. A man who has proved
his ability to take care of himself,
through a period of years leading up
to the Presidency of the United States,
and who has had oversight of the Na
tion for four or eight years, coming in
touch meanwhile with every phase of
its business life, can certainly be de
pended upon to look after his own in
terests after his official life has ended.
The mistake that is behind this offi
ciousness is in the assumption that it
is derogatory to the dignity of a man
who has been President of the United
States, to accept, in an earning capa
city, any other position in the official
or industrial world and that such ac
ceptance would, in some way, reflect
.discredit upon the Nation. This is
straining honest and patriotic pride be
yond the limit of common sense.
No man wishes to retire to a life of
ignoble ease and peaceful sloth at the
age at which President Roosevelt Will
retire from the Presidency. As an en
ergetic, positive, capable man, it will
suit his purpose to order his own vo
cation. The country, speaking through
Congress, will not have "to do anything
with him"; he will -do with and for him
self. , -
Grover Cleveland, a much older man,
has ordered his own life successfully
and with credit to himself as ex-President.
He has chosen his vocation, kept
himself employed, gone duckhunting in
season, given his opinion upon political
and social questions when asked for it,
and in every way conducted himself as
beseems an intelligent, independent
American citizen.
Rutherford B. Hayes went back to
the rural pursuits from which he was
called by his election to the Presidency,
and was to the last an intelligent agri
culturist. Benjamin Harrison went
back to the practice of law and found
no difficulty in securing business and
earning fees and honor during the re
mainder of his natural life.
So it has been with others. Not a sin
gle President of the United States has
become a failure as a man, when he
became ex-President. It is true that
General Grant, through lack of busi
ness knowledge,, became the victim of
an unscrupulous partner's trickery, and.
for a time, had to' call upon his friends
for assistance, just as many another
man has. done, when overtaken by
financial loss that he could not or did
not foresee. But his condition was
neither the worse nor the better be
cause he had been President. He
worked his way out of the difficulty
like the courageous man that he was,
and left his family well provided for.
Let no member of Congress nor any
other man worry about what "we will
do" with ex-President Roosevelt when
the time comes. Roosevelt himself w ill
cast the deciding vote on that matter.
Suppose that he elects to go back to
Montana and live the life of a rancher;
or that he sees again the opportunity
for a strong man to serve the interests
of a great commonwealth by becoming
Governor and closes with it; or that
the presidency of a university or a
great railroad company' is offered him
and he decides to accept it: or that the
delights of travel allure him' and. he
goes abroad; or 'that the quiet 'life of a
private American citizen appeals to him
and he settles down contentedly in his
own home with his family and his
books? Who has the call or the right
or the privilege to decide any of these
questions for him?
Representative Williams, of Missis
sippi, touched the keynote . of this
thought when he said: "We are going
to do with our ex-Presidents Just the
same as we' do with out members of
Congress, our blacksmiths, our carpen
ters, our lawyers and our doctors, by
giving them equal burdens under a free
government." In other words, we are
going to let them do for themselves
just as do other capable, intelligent,
responsible American citizens.
FUTURE OF THE SAILING SHIP.
The arrival in New York a few days
ago of the largest sailing ship ever
built has revived the old question of
the superiority of the sailer over the
steamer. as a freight-carrier. A dozen
years ago, when the modern tramp
steamer was nearing perfection in point
of construction and economy of . opera
tion, the building of sailing ships almost
ceased;' and, while the European yards
were crowded with orders for Bteamers,
there was at one time not a single new
sailing ship under construction in the
United Kingdom. With cheap fuel,
cheap crews and high freights, the
tramp steamer increased in nuninorfitt
a pace positively alarming to the owner
of the sailer. But with the decline in
freights on the long-distance routes
the sailer has succeeded in holding its
own, and the Germans have been add
ing quite a number of new sailing
ships to their merchant marine fleet.
The R. C. Rickmers. which is the name
of the giant craft that has just reached
New York on her maiden trip, has a
capacity of more than 10,000 tons, and
crossed the Atlarjtie in nearly as short
a time as that consumed by the aver
age tramp steamer in making the trip.
We cannot, of course, tell what the
future has in store in the way of econ
omy in fuel, which is now the greatest
expense in connection with operation of
steamers, but scientists have demon
strated, with a fair degree of accuracy,
that at some remote period in the fut
ure the fuel supply of the earth will
be exhausted. .If we reach that stage
before the trans-oeeauie traffic is ex
hausted, there should be in prospect a
most interesting renaissance of the
sailer. The building of clipper sailing
ships practicaly ceased in the early
'60s, although some finely-modeled and
speedy craft have appeared since that
time. As In every other line of indus
trial endeavor, we have made great
strides since that time, it is reason
able to suppose that, when the Ameri
can shipbuilder again turns his hand to
modeling a modern clipper she will be
faster than anything ever produced in
the past. It has been so long since the
American clippers were making history
on the high seas that, had their records
not been retained, some of their per
formances in comparison with. those of
the tramp steamers would seem in
credible. The famous Dreadnaught sailed from
New York to Queenstown in 9 days and
17 hours, and there are very few tramp
steamers in existence today that can
beat the performance. The Sovereign
of the Seas, in an eighty-day voyage
from San Francisco to New York in
1851, logged 3500 miles, in ten consecu
tive days, and on one day made a run
of 437 miles, equal to the work of any
express steamer on the Pacific Ocean
in this twentieth century. The Trad
Wind sailed from San Francisco to New
York in seventy-five days, and the
Northern Light covered the same course,
in seventy-six days. None of these
ships ever made slow passages; and, if
they were afloat today in the hands of
such navigators' as sailed- the seas In
their day and age, they would make It
interesting for the tramp steamers.
While these record-breakers were all
of the old clipper type of the '60s, and
have all vanished forever, there is still
afloat another type of fast-sailing ship
which, some time in the distant future,
may evolve Into a racer that, with the
increasing scarcity and cost of fuel,
may fight for supremacy in the ocean
carrying trade with the tramp steamer,
which now roams the seas in such great
numbers. One of the best-knoJi of
this type is the British ship Muskoka,
now loading at Hamburg for Portland.
This vessel made four passages from
San Francisco and Portland to Europe
in an average time of 102 days, which is
about equal to the time of the tramp
steamers. During her voyages she has
shown spurts fully equal to any made
by the old-time clippers. It will be
many years before cheap coal and
cheap oil are no longer obtainable;
but when the time comes, the builders
who have carried the ocean liners up
to their present wonderful degree of
perfection will probably bring forth a
sailer fully as wonderful for Its type as
the modern greyhound which goes rush
ing across the ocean unmindful of the
direction or force of the wind.
SHORT HOURS AND RACK SUICIDE.
A. new argument in favor, of the eight
hour law is that it tends to discourage
race suicide. The basis of this argu
ment if it has a basis is that the
shorter' day gives the laboring man a
chance to become interested in and en
Joy his family, and, ihferentially,
makes large families desirable and in
deed popular.
Against this finespun theory stands
the fact' that, when the "old-fashioned
family" was a neighborhood institu
tion, six being the minimum and from
twelve to fifteen the maximum number
of children born intb the homes of the
early settlers, there was no limit to the
hours of labor, either for men or
women. From daybreak until nightfall,
and, in the Winter season, from long
before dawn until after dark, toiled
these fathers and mothers of "large
families." Race suicide was unheard
of. The children came just as come
thecalves and colts, and they were ac
cepted as being a part of the pro
gramme of life. We are wont to "say
that the children of such parents were
well-trained children. The parents'
will was law; with them, and the law of
the parent was the word of God. If
any child in morality fell short of the
home standard, the father was more
deeply smitten by it than he would
have been by this child's death. Hard
worked, faithful, with too little recrea
tion, were these men and women of
the "old-fashioned family" era. But
they found time, without classifying It
in hours, to know and love their chil
dren and to take each child as it came,
unquestioning its right to come.
So if history in this line the undis
puted history of a time yet within the
touch of the memory of living wit
nesses counts for anything, this new
argument for an eight-hour working
day does not hold. There are reasons
that belong to this busy, strenuous,
driving age that can be and are con
vincingly urged in support of the
shorter labor day. Opportunities for
self-culture . abound, . and the laboring
man should be given time' to improve
them; the whirr of machinery creates
a din in which, to pass eight hours
daily for years, marks the limit of hu
man endurance. -The vitiated air of the
shops and packing plants, the hot
breath of the furnace-rooms and the.!
dank atmosphere of the mines place a
limit upon the worker's endurance that
may well be marked by eight hours.
These and other reasons may be
urged as legitimate defense of the
eight-hour labor demand. But to tax
up against the longer day's labor the
decline of parental affection, and pros
titution of the parental Instinct to the
abhorrent impulse ill defined by the
name of "race suicide" is to strain a
point in search of an argument under
the belief that the eight-hour Idea will
thereby find additional favor from the
President.
It is an arraignment of American
fatherhood and motherhood that will
not stand this charge that it Is neces
sary to shorten the hours of their dally
labor routine in order that parental af
fection may not decline, and, descend
ing, reach the stage called, for the sake
of brevity, "race suicide."
. SHALE INFANTS BE SAVED?
A National conference called for the
purpose of investigating the abnormal
mortality among infants in England is
in session in London. John Burns, pres
ident of the local government board,
declared in his opening address to the
conference that the lives of 100,000 in
fants are sacrificed yearly in the United
Kingdom to "neglect, ignorance and
carelessness." Drinking among women
Mr. Burns declared further to be one of
the most serious conditions that con
fronts Great Britain.
This is, indeed, alarming, whether
viewed from a physiological, moral or
mental standpoint. The drunkenness of
men has long filled the poor-houses of
the great cities of the world with puny,
wailing, short-livedV children. If to this
is to be added the drunkenness of
women, the degeneracy and decay of
the human race may well be predlctedi.
Statistics show, according to John
Burns, that there is a daily increase in
mortality of Infants under 5 years of
age. This, he adds, is a . national re
proach and demands immediate atten
tion. An effect so dire cannot be with
out a near and vital cause. Plain, stu
pid, adult ignorance is a force that can
only in a discouraging per cent of cases
be overcome by the death of the sub
ject. How, then, and by what means.
Is besotted ignorance, joined as it too
often is with viciousncss, to be over
come, even for "the children's sake"?-
There is but one way to deal with this
problem, and that way, unfortunately,
only wise public sentiment, which is
sadly in the minority, sanctions. -Men
and women, sodden in vice, of which
drunkenness is the most visible but by
ho means the most pernicious form, are
unfit to perpetuate the race. A hun
dred thousand graves not a span long,
made in Great Britain alone each year,
is Nature's .attestation to this fact.
This is remedial and represents Na
ture's way of correcting a blunder that
she has permitted. The other way is
preventive, and it lies within the prov
ince' of man, as governor of the uni
verse that he claims as his own, to
flndit.
In the meantime, the slaughter of the
innocents will go on. Infants will be
born by thousands into wretched homes
to drunken, diseased and vicious par
ents, "wail out their brief plaint of mis
ery and die.' Wise men, gathering
themselves together now and then, will
tell with, shuddering horror of the cause
of this- infantile suffering and death,
but fight shy of the remedy. '
i
The electors of School District No. 1
(property-holding- men and women of
21 years of age and upwards) will be
called upon to vote tomorrow for a
member of the Board of Education to
fill the vacancy occasioned by the ex
piration of the term, of service of Mrs.
L. W. Sitton, Mrs. Sitton Is a candi
date to succeed herself in this impor
tant office, and will run without oppo
sition. It is proper to eay that she has
given much attention to the affairs of
the district during the past five years,
and is well worthy, of continuance in
office. Electors will also be called
upon to vote for consolidation of the
district with those of Arleta, Wood
stock, Mount Tabor, South Mount Ta
bor and Montavilla. Electors of those
districts will also vote upon this ques
tion. It t hoped that a full vote will
be polled, as this question is one of con
siderable importance from an educa
tional and economic standpoint, and a
full expression of the views of property-owners
is desired.
George C. Watts, a wealthy Chicago
bachelor, lately died at San Diego. The
extreme poverty of the man's life, not
I withstanding the fact that he died pos
sessed of a large fortune, was disclosed
when, upon opening - his will, it was
found that the income on $20,000 was
devised for the care of his dog "Bill"
and his riding horse "King." These
were faithful servants of the selfish
man, no doubt, and well worthy of the
shelter of kennel and stable; but the
man who so lives that oniy a dog will
mourn and a horse miss htm and need
the continuance of his care can hardly
be said to have got out of life the
pleasure and profit that it holds for
every intelligent man who has the or
dering of his own destiny.
The death in an Ohio almshouse of
James Sage, a cousin of Russel Sage,
has brought to light unexpected gener
osity on the part of the New York mil
lionaire. It has developed that for the
past few "years Cousin Russel has been
sending this unfortunate relative $50
per year. As the wealth of Russel Sage
amounts to only about $80,000,000. it can
easily be understood that the strain on
him was severe. It is also apparent
that, if Cousin James had been as sav
ing In his habits as Cousin Russel, he
could have kept out of an almshouse
and still had something left to spend
out of that $50 per year.
Judge Frazer is very properly dis
posed to hold a grossly negligent father
responsible for the vicious and proba
bly murderous act of his 16-year-old
son, a husky lad whose moral deprav
ity has made him the terror of his
neighborhood.. The case is that of
young Espy, who threw a hammer at
David Bradshaw. a carpenter, striking
him with such force as to fracture his
skull. The lad and his father should,
as far as the law will permit, be held
jointly responsible for this assault,
since the case Is clearly one of divided
responsibility.
"Fool, dunce, idiot," exclaimed Don
Quixote to Sancho. when the squire had
made one of his characteristic blunders
and received a sound beating for it,
"fool, dunce, idiot, where did you learn
to name a halter in the house of a man
who had been hanged?" As stupid is
the blunder of the plutocratic organ in
making allusions to the liquor trade,
by way of casting reproach on others.
The editor of the organ will probably
be summoned to Ladd house to receive
the sort of reprimand that Sancho got
from his master.
There are those who think Roosevelt
is sowing for Bryan to rear. That is,
that Roosevelt will not be able to out
Bryan Bryan. That is. again, that the
Republican party can succeed only by
reasonable appeal to the conservative
sentiment of the country, as against ex
tremes that Bryan will represent.
These suggestions belong to the specu
lative philosophy of politics. We shall
see later.
A so-called newspaper let us call it
the Chronicle says: "The Chronicle's
rate is 5 cents per Inch for composition
and 5 cents per inch for space the ad
vertisement occupies." Doubtless that
is more than enough for a "newspaper"
that doesn't spend a dollar for news,
in the course of a whole' month or year,
and prints only a few copies the fewer
the more profitable.
The Oregonian does not wish to be
needlessly inquisitive; but it would like
to know something about the progress
of that coast railroad w hich Mr. Joseph
Teal and others were so sanguine about
last February, but which then was in
visible to ordinary optics. Also, about
the St. Louis millionaires who were in
the field to put it through.
Since Oregon is on the roadi to prohi
bition, ought not the Legislature to en
act that every inmate of the Soldiers'
Home who takes a drink of alcoholic
liquor should be expelled from that asy
lum of valor, desert and virtue?
There Is no telling what might hap
pen in the next Republican National
Convention if Hon. Nick Longworth
should continue his trip on around the
world and return opportunely in the
Spring of 1908.
The Kentucky Home-Comers are also
doing the handsome thing by Lincoln's
memory. It will surprise a great many
people to learn for the first time that
Lincoln was born in Kentucky; but he
was.
We are disposed to pass over without
comment the fact that the crisis be
tween the Czar and his alleged Parlia
ment reached its latest acute stage the
day after Mr. Bryan left.
The favorite idea of a lock canal pos
sessed by some Senators is of a tranquil
and Innocuous -waterway at Panama
with a large padlock at each end of it.
In California they are now calling the
fire insurance companies that propose
to cut their losses "six-bit" concerns.
It sounds like a name that will stick.
What has become of the old-fashioned
notion that any man has a right to run
his business to suit himself? The pack
ers painfully await a reply.
Governor Chamberlain and his coad
jutors will start their non-partisan
Bryan campaign with a meeting; July 2.
Jesse James. Jr., has become a law
yer." Blood will tell.
Where has the Big Stick been all
this time?
THE TESSIMIST.
A lawyer in Kansas objected to the
testimony of a small boy because the
boy did not known what God would do
to him if he lied. Answering a question
from the Judge the attorney said that
he couldn't say what God would do to
him If he lied.. It is not probable that
the Lord pays much attention to law
yers when they lie. If he did, he would
have to employ an assistant to run the
universe.
Recent dispatches disclose the fact
that John D. Rockefeller is not the
miserable, aged dyspeptic that many of
us have supposed him to be, but that
he is happy and frolicsome, and has an
appetite like a laboring man. A great
number of people will be bitterly dis
appointed to know it. A feeling of this
character, however. Is wrong. No one
should begrudge John the happiness
which he is enjoying, even if he did
raise the price of gasoline 1 cent a gal
lon before he started for Europe.
Here's to John. Long may he live! First
in oil: first in grease, and first In the
pocketbooks of his countrymen.
.'
A traveler in China writes:
At Yung,iungfu, in Chlhli. the Chinese
buv Bibles, tear out the leaves and use
them to roll up coins, the paper used in
printing the Scriptures being cheaper and
better for this purpose than any that can
be purchased in China. An attempt is
being: made to stop this desecration of the
Bible by raising the price of the copies
offered lor sale.
A better way to get even would be to
buy all the available copies of the
writings of Confucius, grind them up
into breakfast food, and export them to
China.
e
Everyone who has reviled the Empe
ror of Germany on account of the
harshness of the punishment mctcd out
to those who say aught against his
dignity has a chance to revise his opin
ion. Fourteen years ago August Her
man, then a resident of Germany, was
convicted of lesc majeste. He was
sentenced to four years' imprisonment,
fined $5000, and his property confiscat
ed to pay the fine. That was a Ions
time ago; and Willie has had time to
recover from the blow to his feelings.
Like all sensitive persons, he U known
to have a soft spot In his head I mean
in his heart; and now he has a repre
sentative searching for Herman, so
that he can make amends.
Following -this method of spelling tn
its legitimate conclusion, if "phth" has
the sound of "t," phbh would have the
sound of "b," and "phdh" that of "d,"
and so on down the alphabet. What
fearful thing it would be if the poets
should go in for that form of spelling
and wc should be confronted by such a
thing as this:
In a sc hool there was a young phlholo
gnjrrh, A girl, but a clever diphzholognyrrh.
Each time she was bad, J
The teacher got mad:
And then with a ruler would phbholo
gnyrrh. Or one like this:
"The name of this bad girl," said Fhth-
olognyrrh,
"Was Annabel Washington Phwholo
gnyrrh. On the family tomb
There was not enough romb
For her name, so they had to phbholo
gnyrrh." A writer in the Washington Star hai
been dissatisfied for a long time with
the way that novelists have caused
their heroes to make impassioned love
and proposals of marriage to the sweet
creations of their fertile brains. He in
stituted some quiet Inquiries among his
married friends, and found that not
one of tnem flopped to his knees,
tousled his hair, flapped his arms, or
clawed the air while persuading his
own dear sweet thing to be one with
him forever.
I am Inclined to suspect the writer
is in love himself, and that the quiet
'investigation to which he alludes whs
merely a miserable subterfuge adopted
in order to find out the approved meth
od, so that he could annex one unto
himself. Be that as It may, I can bear
him out In his contention that the dear
sweet things are ready to jump when a
man says the word, io matter how h
says it.
A friend of mine, who Is franker
about some things than most men are,
told me that his cume to him at a
card party when the refreshments were
being served. The thing happened a
long time ago, and as a consequence
he Is able to discuss the matter quite
calmly.
"You know my wife," he began.
"You wouldn't think, to look at her
now, that she was a coy, winsome
young thing. Well, she wasn't; al
though I thought she was. She was
winsome, nil right enough, but 'coy'
isn't the word I would use if I were
speaking of any other girl but my wife.
Perhaps you have noticed, too, the
brilliant silence she keeps up when the
others are talking about popping the
question and the way that most men
do it.
"You see, it was this way: I met her
at college and she came to town to
visit my sister who was her dearest
friend. I felt quite confident that she
liked me. in fact, I was certain of it.
She told my sister all about It; and "Sis'
told the young man she was engaged
to; and he told me. Y'ou $ee that I was
not worrying very much about my
chances. Nevertheless, I was willing to
do the proper thing, even to get down
on my knees, because I thought Rhe
would like it, and wouldn't be satis
fied unless I did. That Is where I mis
judged her. It was at a party when
the eud came. Sho had won the high
prize, while I had got the booby. Per
haps she was feeling sorry for me, and
thought that I should have better.
Anyway, when I look back on those
happy days, I almost believe that I
would take another chance. Those gray
eyes that are stern and forbidding now
were full of love light then. Of course,
you will understand that I think every
thing in the -world of my wife but as
I was saying any man would have been
willing to have her for his very own.
"Someone had passed around the cof
fee, and the cream and sugar came
later. I was in the act of pouring some
cream in her cup, when I Inadvertently
used that familiar expression: 'Say
when.' To my great surprise and sub
sequent delight, she murmured gently,
but clearly: 'Oh, George. You'll have to
ask papa.' I asked papa, but Is wasn't
so' easy. Now don't you let on that I
ever told you."
M. B. WELLS.