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PORTLAND. HCNDAY, AIGIST 19, 1906.
Ol'B QUEEN CITY OF THE PACIFIC.
The Oregonlan must say, and. In say
ing. It believes U speaks for the great
body of the people of -the Pacific North
west, that It deplores the predictions,
uttered too freely, that San Francisco
can never recover from the disaster
that befel her In April last, or regain
her position as the leading city of Pa
cific America. For In fact, notwith
standing her calamity, the greatest
that has befallen any city In modern
times, San Francisco has not lost her
leading position, her superemlnence In
business, in Influence, In affaire; her
commanding place In commerce, her
faith in herself, or her Importance In
the estimation of America or of. the
world.
But It is unkind to utter gloomy pre
dictions about her future, even though
they be clothed In the colors of sym
pathy or pity; for San Francisco is
not destroyed. She has her spirit nd
her energy, she is making eignal prog-,,
ress already in rebuilding; already her
mercantile and banking transactions
have nearly recovered their former
volume. Her newspapers carry as
large volume of advertisements as be
fore the catastrophe. Her population
soon will be greater than It was before
that calamitous event. Her work of
reconstruction, during the next five
years, and of enlargement that will go
with it, will make San Francisco the
busiest city of her class in America.
Yet if it had been thought that the
greatness of San Francisco consisted
merely or chiefly In her material dis
play, and in her grandeur of appear
ance it might have been admitted that
ehe had been annihilated. Then one
might say San Francisco was, or had
been, but is not. The epitaph of San
Francisco might then have been writ
ten. But San Francisco did not nor
does exist in outward display or mag
nificence though ehe had both. Her
greatness is In her position; in the en
ergies behind her; above all, in the
spirit of her people. Her outward
trlories were destroyed, for a time, 'but
the catastrophe, great as It was, could
be only a check to her career, or cause
temporary interruption of It. This is
proved already by rapid verification of
her note, "Resurgam"' ,
San Francleco is rebuilding, and. will
be rebuilt on a greater scale than
ever; not indeed as before, but In the
ultimate, greater. For even the forces
of Nature may be modified and con
trolled,, to an extent, by the Intelli
gence of man. That is to say, man
adjusts himself through experience to
the operations of Nature, and learns
thereby, to an extent, to command
them. In the rebuilding of San Fran
cisco the possibility of earthquake will
be kept In view, and buildings and
streets' and water maths and gas and
electric conduits will toe constructed
accordingly. Selection of materials and
methods of construction will play
parts never known heretofore. Yet
San Francisco is little liable to these
disturbances, in any serious way.
Building will be studied with a view to
minimization of their consequences.
Steel frames well and strongly fas
tened will have approval, since they
did not give way under the recent
shocks, and science and prudence will
work steadily In combination to the
common end.
The work on these prineiple's is go
ing forward with constantly Increas
ing energy, though but four months
have elapsed since the disaster; and
merely to "straighten out" after such
a disaster requires time.
There must be a great city, and as
the centuries run on, always a great
er city, at San Francisco. The posi
tion, the harbor, the production and
greatness and wealth of California,
and the relation of this great port to
the commerce of the Pacific, require It.
In the development of our Pacific
states, nothing can supersede San
Francisco. It Is Impossible, therefore,
to suppose that San Francisco can be
extinguished, or even dwarfed, by this
calamity. The city of Naples, a splen
did city, greater than San Francisco
was, that has stood and grown these
eighteen hundred years. Is built upon a
sile that was the crater of a volcano.
We of the Pacific states, all of us,
have been proud of San Francisco, and
profoundly touched with her misfor
tune. She has been our metropolis of
Pacific states, and her name has stood
for. all of us. Her position, her bay,
her harbor, her relation to internal and
external commerce, her central place
In the country behind her and on the
ocean before her, the great railway
lines that converge upon her, and her
position as a focal point In the com
merce of two hemispheres make San
Francisco Indispensable on the map of
our Pacific states, of the United States
and of the world. Cheer and encour
agement and support and help then for
San Francisco! From the greatest ca
lamity of modern times she will rise,
she must rise, she must be helped to
ririe, she Is rising, above her -unexampled
misfortune!
Such . mighty fine dividends come
from the Union Pacific and Southern
Pacific and Oregon Short Line and Ore
gon Railroad systems, making stock
holders happy and throwing Wall
street Into uproar, that we may hope
and expect the extensions required in
Oregon will be made right soon. There
is money, evidently. The whole sys
tem Is prosperous. It can build these
Oregon roads, and It will build them.
It has taken Harriman a while; he..haa
had obstacles and difficulties; but he is
getting It a-going. As an agent, .man
ager and director of enormous aggre
gated capital, he is conceiving great
things and getting forward with tnem.
Oregon will get the railroad develop
ment which it requires, but which has
been delayed till heads here have
grown gray. We are glad to hear of
this wonderful stir in New York, and
of its effect in circles of investment
and speculation. It means much for
Oregon. It points to attainment and
achievement of what Oregon has so
long waited for.
WHERE RAIL MEETS SHIP.
The railroads transporting freight
from the Interior to tidewater or across
the continent for trans-shipment by
water to foreign countries always drop
that freight at the first point reached
on tidewater. When the Illinois Central
and other roads which drain the Mis
sissippi Valley of its enormous traffic
reach New Orleans, the head of deep
water, navigation on the Mississippi,
the freight is there turned over to the
ship Instead of being carried on down
to the mouth of the river. On Puget
Sound the Northern Pacific, instead of
carrying Its freight nearly 150 miles
farther to Neah Bay or Clallam Bay,
unloads it at Tacoma. The same great
economic law prevails in all of the big
inland seaports of the world. That
vast traffic which floats seaward from
the sacred Ganges and the Hooghly is
not placed on 'board the ship at the
mouth of the Hooghly, but far up the
treacherous stream at Calcutta, the
point farthest Inland to which a ship
can be worked. Shirs do not stop for
cargo at the mouth of the Elbe, but
push on- up to Hamburg, receiving and
discharging cargo at the farthest point
Inland which can be reached. There
are plenty of good locations for sea
ports between Delaware breakwater
and Philadelphia, but there, es else
where throughout the world, it is
cheaper to take the ship to the cargo
than to take the cargo to the Bhlp, and
they all load and discharge at Phila
delphia. -So it goes wherever ships float and
railroad trains can meet them. Freight
can be transported so much cheaper
by water than by land that It Is an im
possibility for a railroad to meet the
competition on per-ton-per-mlle basis,
and all roads recognize this unchange
able condition and turn the freight over
at the nearest point at which a ship
can be reached. It Is this economic ad
vantage of location which has made
Portland impregnable In the field
which she serves. In the early days of
the Oregon country the small vessels
which entered-the river were not infre
quently taken as far up the river as
Oregon City, but as the impossibility of
ever improving the Upper Willamette
sufficiently to adapt it to the. require
ments of seagoing vessels was realized,
the head of navigation was established
at Portland, where It will always re
main. But Portland, aside from her
invincible location where the railroads
first strike tidewater, has other points
of vantage which are not enjoyed by
many of the big ports mentioned. This
city is the only seaport on the Pacific
Coast which can be reached by a trans
continental railroad by an easy, nat
ural grade.
Aside from the enormous business
originating in that great empire
drained by the Columbia River and its
tributaries, there is a vast and ever
Increasing stream of traffic flowing
across the Amenlcan continent en route
to and from the Far East. This traffic
In the past has not alwaj's followed
the lines of least resistance. Instead it
has been switched to the north and
south of that line and by unnatural
means forced over lofty mountains,
through tunnels and around fearful
curves, where the expense of operatilTg
and maintaining a service was tremen
dous in comparison with that of a
water-level line. When this traffic was
small and rates were high, the waste
of power which, of course, means a
waste of money was less noticeable,
but It has now swelled Into proportions
so formidable that the atomlcal sav
ings per ton, when multiplied by the
enormous number of tons handled,
show a total so vast that it can no
longer be ignored or wasted.
It Is this recognilton "of a vital ne
cessity for the elimination of all possi
ble grades and curves that Is forcing
the recognition of the water-level route
to tidewater. It explains the feverish
haste with which Mr. Hill is fighting
his way into Portland, and It also ex
plains the altitude of Mr. Harriman,
who naturally is disinclined to surren
der a single point of vantage which he
now. holds. Mr. Harriman, having a
personal knowledge of the advantages
of the water-level line, is now engaged
in preliminary work on a line down the
Snake River for the purpose of elimi
nating the Blue Mountain grades. In
the wholesale expenditures which he
has been making for betterments cal
culated to reduce operating expenses,
he has been following the old adage
"'In time of peace prepare for war,"
and when that war comes and there
will be railroad wars so long as there
are railroad men It will find the men
who are in possession of water-level
routes in a position to-dictate terms.
Mr. Hill's new line down the north
bank of the Columbia River will give
him an advantage that he has- never
before enjoyed, and the fierce fight he
is making for vast terminal facilities
at Portland is proof conclusive that he
appreciates the wonderful possibilities
of the seaport at the terminus of the
only water-level route from the Inland
Empire and from the Rocky Moun
tains. THE PEOPLE'S RESERVED TIMBER.
"If the people residing in the vicinity
of the Colvillesforest reserve are exer
cising themselves because the Depart
ment of the Interior left out of the bor
ders of the reserve the large tracts of
timber owned by the Weyerha eusers,
they may as well save themselves the
discomfort. The forest reserve is cre
ated for the purpose of preserving tim
ber that belongs to the people. The de
sire and intention Is to prevent the
timber syndicates from grabbing all
the timber and then dictating prices to
the consumer, Just as the oil and coal
barons fix the "prices that shall be
paid to them. .There is also the pur
pose to protect the timber from de
struction by fire. The timber thus
placed in reserves belongs to the whole
people.
It is quite appropriate that the Gov
ernment should bear the expense of
fire patrol. But there is no reason why
a tract of timber owned by an enor
mously wealthy timber concern should
tie included in a reserve and given the
direct benefit of Government control.
If the Weyerhaeusers want their tim
ber guarded, they have money enough
with which to employ men to do the
work. There Is no more reason why
the Government should employ special
fire protection for private timber lands
than there is for Government protec
tion for private wheat fields.
The Government has very little tim
ber land left. That little is all that
stands between the constjner and the
oppressive prices of a monopoly. The
Government does well to create re
serves, wherever there Is public timber
land to be preserved and protected.
The evils of the forest-reserve system
have arisen from the abuses which
were perpetrated through the influence
of corporations owning worthless land
which they induced careless, ignorant
or unscrupulous officials to place inside
a forest reserve so that they could ex
change .their holdings for more valu
able lands. The Colville people will do
well to advise themselves fully as to
the facts before they take action.
CHAPTERS FIGHTING FOR ORAFT.
The temper of the people is aroused.
Its representative and fearless expo
nent' is President Roosevelt., The
causes of Its great but slow awakening
are before the world in the exposure of
the colossal abuses that have grown up
under the name of trusts and mergers
and under the sanction of business.
"Grafts," the people and the press have
come to call them, and the term covers
every type of financial' Iniquity that
has had fair sailing and carried enor
mous profits under, the name of busi
ness. Railroad managers. Standard Oil
kings, men who have amassed millions
from the packing Industry, have been
haled before committees and their
methods of conducting business ex
posed. The fleeced public, first in as
tonishment," then In wrath, has heard
the story and an accounting h-3s been
demanded.
It was because of the failure to diag
nose the symptoms of this slowly
awakening temper of the people that
these great manipulators of transpor
tation, of Industry and of business
were caught. The probe of Congress
ional inquiry opened up their methods
and the escaping odors have made a
6tench in the nostrils of decency that
it will take many winds of fair and
honorable dealing to waft away.
This storm of public Indignation did
not come unheralded. Eight years ago
a breeze from the great Western packing-houses
loaded with fetid odors and
charged with disease and death to our
soldiers In camp and afield blew over
the land. Potential forces quelled the
storm, but Its rumblings did not cease.
Had the packers been less under the
dominion of greed and more amenable
to the dictates of honesty and pru
dence, they could then have prevented
the outbreak of the storm.
The cloud has never been below the
horizon since General. Miles' report on
the "embalmed beef" that was fur
nished the Army in the Spanish-American
War was made public. The rail
roads. In fighting rate regulation, drew
upon themselves the searchlight which
disclosed the Iniquities of manipulated
transportation. The Standard Oil Com
pany took counsel of arrogance instead
of prudence,' Ignored the gathering
clouds of public Indignation, and was
caught in the storm that had been long
brewing.
Briefly, the oaptains of Industry, of
transportation; of finance. Ignored the
signs of the approaching storm, or,
seeing them, chose to fight for rather
than to abate the abuses that gave rise
to Its gathering power. The result is
before the world. The people were first
angered, and, out of the tempest of
their wrath have come education and
determination. Possessed with the
idea, as stated by the Saturday Even
ing Post, that "they could keep what
they had and grab more," the great
corporations have rushed blindly upon
the bofsy shield of public opinion, and
while deifying their own power, have
been made to acknowledge a greater.
"The prudent man," says the proverb,
"foreseeth the evil and hideth himself;
the simple pass on and are punished."
Following this estimate, what an array
of men, whose names stand for mil
lions, lacking foresight, are arrayed
among the ."simple" who elected to
fight for their abuses Instead of cor
recting them.
THE WATER PROBLEM OF CITIES.
It Is only by comparison that we are
able to assess our blessings, and then
we do not always rate them at their
full value. For example, the people
of Portland know, In a general way,
and upon occasion may be boastful of
the fact, that the water supply of the
city is the best on earth, as regards
purity, but it Is only when the story
of an epidemic of typhoid .breaks out
in another city, or statistics showing
the death rate due to this prevalent
scourge in other cities, are studied,
that they are brought to a realizing
sense of the blessing of an uncontami
nated watei supply. In quantity the
water that has come through the fau
cets In many sections of the city dur
ing the present Summer has fallen
short through wanton waste in other
sections, but its quality has been fully
up to the standard of purity. This is
something, truly, for which to be
thankful something that stands out
strongly by comparison with the water
records of cities much larger, older and
more opulent than our own.
According to the "Reference Hand
book of the Medical Sciences," the
water supply of Brooklyn is less
contaminated with sewage seeplngs
than that of any other large city
In the country. In 1885, for which
year careful data were compiled
from many cities, twentyithree
persons died of typhoid fever in
every 100.000 of Brooklyn's popu
lation. The water of New York is
guarded with great care, but it is de
rived from a more extensive area than
the Brooklyn supply and the average
annual death rate from typhoid for
the decade following the year men
tioned was twenty-6ix per 100,000; a
constant supervision Is kept over the
supply of London and the typhoid rate,
in the time covered by this data, was
twenty-eight. Notwithstanding careful
superintendence of health officers, the
water supply of Boston is subject to a
certain degree of sewage Inflow; corre
spondingly; the mortality rate there
is higher than those already given
thirty-eight for the year covered and
forty-five for the decade. Cincinnati,
supplied from the Ohio River, with
many large settlements upon its upper
waters, had higher typhoid rates
forty-four for the year specified, and
an average of sixty-three for the dec
ade, and Philadelphia, supplied from
the Schuylkill, which Is known to be
foul, recorded sixty-four deaths for
the year and sixty-six as the average
of the previous ten years.
These figures present the status of a
continued epidemic, for they mean that
during the ten years there died of
typhoid fever in Philadelphia 4400 per
sons who would not have died had
the Brooklyn rates prevailed, and that
over 60,000 persons suffered from a
dangerous and debilitating illness who
would have escaped attack had their
water supply been derived from a
source as pure as that of Brooklyn.
The ingenuity by, means of which a
water supply of relative purity can be
obtained under difficulties is cited in
the cose of New Orleans. That city -Is
low-lying and has no sewers; its liquid
filth flows sluggishly in open channels
by the sidewalks, flushed from time to
time by water pumped from the Mis
sissippi; its more solid refuse is col
lected in boxes or closets and outhouses
in confined areas, when it Is carried
off by the current of the river; the sub
soil water, which is found within a few
feet of the surface, is . so loaded with
drainage as to be unfit for use, and
the exhalations from the sluggish
drains, the outhouses and the closets
not infrequently taint the air in many
sections of the city. Yet the city of
New Orleans has a domestic water
supply that is free from sewage inflow,
otherwise it would become one of the
plague spots of the earth. The streets
and gutters are flushed . with water
from the river, the domestic supply
consists of rain water, collected and
stored in cypress-wood cisterns, which
are raised above the suspicion of sew
age contamination. As a result, the
typhoid mortality In New Orleans is as
low as the standard rates in New York
and London.
Conditions and expedients such as
these emphasize the blessing of an
abundant uncontamlnated water sup
ply. Think of depending upon cisterns
for wajer for domestic purposes dur
ing the heat of a tropical Summer; of
streets flanked by streams of sluggish
ooze and of tainted water within a few
feet of the surface of the ground, un
derlying the entire city. Let us take
our Bull Run water, be thankful and
forget to complain of low pressure in
the bathroom and pantry at an hour
when thousands of faucets are open
for lawn Irrigation, serene in the
knowledge that when the pressure le
restored after a few hours of vexa
tious shortage, every faucet will bubble
liquid abundance of standard purity.
UNDERNEATH THE BOIGH.
Orators and beggars must not be
held too strictly acountable. . They
must be permitted to lie a little with
out invoking that utter reprobation
which befalls a lawyer or a clergyman
when he forsakes the bald fact. When
the orator calls ten men a vast multi
tude In the fervor of his emotions, no
enlightened person blames him. It Is
his business to persuade, and one Im
portant branch of the art of persuasion
is to make things worse or better in
speech than they are in fact. A heart
which would not be at all moved by j
the truth can often be melted to pity !
or Bred to wrath by a wisely-plotted
He. Therefore the orator only follows
the legitimate indications of his trade
when he complots with the father of
lies.
But it is also the beggar's business to
persuade, and shall we deny to him In
his poverty the verbal license which we
grant to the orator in his abundance?
If the spellbinder may depart from
truth and luxuriate in the fairy realm
of fancy to elect his candidate, may
not the beggar make a little excursion
among the flowers of fiction to win his
bed and supper?
Walter Scott elaborated huge vol
umes of tales, without foundation, to
buy himself an estate, and we accord
him fame and his contemporaries
showered guineas upon him for doing
it; but when a tramp invents his hum
ble novel or short story, as the case
may be, to lure a reluctant apple pie
from a farmer's wife, we reprobate his
immorality and send him to Jail. Eth
ically, where is the difference between
writing a novel to pay for Abbottsford
and composing a tale of woe to pierce
the pachydermatous heart of rural av
arice? In the one case the falsifica
tion Is done upon a grand scale, with
the pomp of reputation and the glitter
of worldly success; in the other it is
the device of miserable hunger. But
morality is not concerned with the
magnitude of 'deeds. It deals only
with their inner essence; and, funda
mentally, who can point out a moral
distinction between a novel and a beg
gar's invented story?
The tramp lies for his Jiving; so does
the novelist. The tramp resorts to
falsehood because he dislikes other oc
cupation; so does the novelist. The
tramp declines - to become a settled
worker for day's wages, preferring to
live by the precarious exercise of his
wits; so dues the novelist. Let any
body offer Marlon Crawford or Richard
Harding Davis a Job of sawing wood
and see whafwill happen. They have
an easier way of making their living
by appealing to the credulity of the
human race and gratifying our innate
love of a story; so has the tramp. Why
should he be blamed for clinging to
the practice of his art and refusing the
sawbuck, when in Howells we praise
the same thing?
The doctrine that work is a blessing
is very modern. Carlyle was not the
first to preach it, but no one has taught
it more persistently than the dyspeptic
philosopher of Chelsea. The elder and
better doctrine Is that work Is a curse,
to be escaped by all who can and by
any means not too flagrantly sinful.
The Jewish Scriptures assert that in
his perfect estate in Paradise man did
no work at all, and we are all taught
to believe that when we finally experi
ence the beatitude of heaven we shall
sit on the banks of the sea of glass
singing and playing upon our harps
from morning to night, with no corn to
hoe and no wood to 6aw, no dishes to
wash and no beds to make.
If it is a blessed thing to be idle in
heaven, why not on earth? All the
philosophers except Carlyle, who was
not much of one after all, and the poets
with out exception, condemn work un
reservedly. The French novelists make
all manner of fun of the peasant, bent
under his dally burden r to them the
most laughable of all Images is what
they call "a poor man's back"; and in
deed a poor man's crooked spine and
bent shoulders are a most ridiculous
spectacle when you come to think of
them. Compare them with the noble
figure of the rich man, who does not
work, and decide which you would pre
fer. The poets always think of the shep
herd sitting on a grassy hillock play
ing the flute. In their eyes this is his
proper occupation and chief duty.
Omar can concelve'of nothing so desir
able as to linger underneath the bough
with a book and some desirable "thou"'
to pour out an occasional cup of wine
from the jug and sing to him between
drinks. Why not? When the eterni
ties have passed away, which will be
best remembered the poet singing and
drinking his wine in the shade, or the
money-grubber poring over his ledger
In a bank office? Which is the more
essentially useful to humanity?
But civilization means work, it may
urged. This is not true. Civilization
means some work, but it does not de
mand that life shall be all work and no
play. The finest civilizations have
been more play than work. To be
sure, the men of Greece and Rome had
slaves to bear their heaviest burdens,
but have we not machines which can
do more In a day than allthe slaves of
Rome and Greece couid do In a dec
ade? The difference is that the pien of
those days had the wisdom to play
while their slaves were at work,
whereas we do our best to outstrive our
machines. The genius of the earth has
presented us with a gift which would
make nugatory the original curse uion
mankind, but we have not been able to
find the secret of its use. The mill 'of
production grinds out Its perpetual
grist, but the best we can do with It Is
to heap it up In granaries for the glut
tony of a fewr while the maes of men
go on starving Just as they did before
science had revealed the magic of elec
tricity and steam.
Idleness plays Its part In generating
poverty, but most, .poor men are not
idle. They work- harder than the rich.
Lack of intelligence plays Its part
also, but no one who fairly compares
the intelligence of the rich and poor
can decide that the balance Is with
the latter. It is a maxim among the
rich that brains are so cheap that It Is
better to hire than to own them.
As a matter of fact, most rich men
can hire better brains than they own.
Lack of Intelligence does not account
for poverty. Vice, too, keeps some men
pi?or, but if all the world should turn
virtuous today the sum total of poverty
would not be appreciably diminished.
The secret of poverty Is now and al
ways has been Privilege, the divine
right of some men to take and enjoy
what others earn. For the last 500
years the world has been at work de
stroying privilege. Feudal privilege
died in the French Revolution. Royal
privilege got its death blow when Eng
land banished the Stuarts. Political
privilege perished in the American
Revolution.
Economic privilege, the last and
worst of all, still flourishes and fills
the world with misery. The great work
of this generation Is to slay it. For
this end no overturn of society Is need
ed. No upheaval of our Institutions Is
required. No assault need be made on
private property. One thing, and only
one, must be done. Let the unjust
laws which create and defend privilege
be .repealed and the evil monster will
perish of itself.
A FORGOTTEN PRINCIPLE.
A writer In the current number of
the North American Review points out
pessimistically how little all the efforts
of enthusiasts for the betterment of
social conditions have accomplished
during the last hundred years. The
writer, a woman, recalls the failure of
the French Revolution; the disastrous
termination of such enterprises as the
Brook Form experiment, and the gen
eral ill success of attempts at co-operation
on this continent. Finally, like
most writers of her way of thinking,
she takes refuge in a general denial of
the facts, contending that, after all,
most of the evils we hear so much
about are Imaginary; of course she
has no difficulty in quoting statistics
to fortify her opinion.
The opinion that the French Revolu
tion failed to accomplish anything Is
one of those errors which persist among
Intelligent and moderately thoughtful
persons, in spite of manifest facts
which ought to warn them of their
folly. That it was followed by a reac
tion is true, but its effects upon the
history of the world were deep and
lasting.. Putting it crudely, the French
Revolution destroyed feudalism and
made the middle class the dominant
power in Europe. In America the mid
dle class began as the dominant social
power, but in recent decades it has
been succeeded by a renascent feudal
ism which we call the plutocracy. Our
social evolution,, since the close of the
War of the Rebellion, has moved di
rectly contrary to. that of Europe, for
there the marked feature has been the
struggle of the proletariat to dethrone
the middle class, while here the middle
class has had to fight the plutocracy.
The last quarter of the nineteenth cen
tury with us will be known in history
as the period when the oligarchy of
wealth consolidated Its power and ob
tained a fairly complete control of the
law-m-aklng and law-interpreting bod
ies all over the country.
But, admitting that for a hundred
years efforts at social betterment have
largely resulted in failure, what does
this mean? Efforts to better the con
dition of mankind consist almost en
tirely in the attempted applications of
the doctrines of religion to human rela
tions. They proceed on the theory that
the world is governed by a Just God,
who aids the right and puts down
wrong; that there Is a power in the
world making for righteousness, as
Matthew Arnold puts it. If all such ef
forts for. a hundred years have been
nugatory, It would seem to indicate
that, for this period at any pate, the
higher power working for righteous
ness has been absent from the earth,
possibly occupied with some more
hopeful race on another planet. In
fact, the continued failure of social re
form almost forces one to ask the ques
tion whether formal religion is, after
all, the power which is to be looked to
for the future promotion of equality
and Justice.
Among the sayings of Jesus which
have been preserved there is not one
which explicitly recognizes the exist
ence of what we call a public. He
seems to have had no conception of
the rights of the people in contradis
tinction to those of rulers. He thinks
much about the poor; he has anathe
mas for the rich. He speaks of the
duty of the subject to pay tribute to his
ruler, but of the rights of man he
never speaks. Jesus thought only of
the individual. His. solution of the
problem of evil lay In the transforma
tion of every person through the new
birth from a vessel of wrath to a ves
sel of mercy. He held that if each man
in the world could be made good the
world itself would become good and
evil would be abolished. This Is the
common rendering of his doctrine.
Whether Jesus had this thought In
mind or not Is, one must admit, pure
speculation; but if he had. it may be
the secret of the failure of his teach
ings to transform mankind as he hoped
they would. We may lay It down as a
principle, which no sociologist would
dispute that every person might be up
right, in all his thought and conduct
and yet the world be an unhappy place
to live In. Righteousness for a man
considered solely as an Individual is a
very different thing from righteousness
as a member of society. The mere
forsaking of one's sins does not make
one a good citizen. Some of the worst
citizens have no sins at all so far as
we can discern. Some of the best are
altogether reprobate from the theolog
ical standpoint.
But it is by no means certain that,
if we fully understood what Jesus
meant by "love," we should not, after
all, have the key to the solution of so
cial evils, which some have thought his
teachings do not contain. Does he not
mean by love the recognition of mutual
obligation to helpfulness, forbearance
and sacrifice? And may not the failure
of reform be caused by our too great
reliance upon enlightened selfishness
and too little upon this comparatively
forgotten element in the teaching of
the maeiter? Suppose all Christians
sihould begin today the thorough-going
practice of the golden rule; the world
would Instuntly become a different
place, and, we may believe, a better
one. The stronger our faith in the po
tency of Jesus' teachings the firmer
our belief that here lies the real secret
of all lasting reform.
The reproach of the writer In the
North American Review Is therefore
really directed at modern Christianity,
which seems to have forsaken the fun
damental precept of its founder and
turned to speculations upon abstract
dogmas. Theological discussion about
the resurrection and the virgin birth
may lacerate the feelings of plutocratic
pewholuers lees than the plain words
of Jesus, but are they as effectual for
the salvation of the world?
"Two drinks of that stuff would
make a Jackrabibt walk up and slap
a bulldog In th face," said the Yankee
Consul, as he tasted the red liquor In
the play which bore his title. A sim
ilar effect might be expected from the
Inward application of the China gin
which Food Commissioner Bailey has
found In the. Second-street grogshops.
The stuff Is sufficiently powerful to
drive a man crazy In ten minutes. So
says Dairy and Food Commissioner
Bailey, and perhaps the only possibil
ity of refuting his charge lies In the
belief that a man that would drink the
gin which has made Chinatown famous
must have been crazy before taking it.
The London Spectator recently said
that, until it took Great Britain nearly
three years and the whole power of the
empire to subdue the Boers, English
men never could understand why It
took so many years and so many men
for the North to conquer the South,
but that now they understand. They
might have understood sooner, had
they cast a look back to the period be
tween 1773 and 1782, when the British
Empire failed to conquer the American
colonies and had to give it up. It's a
mighty hard Job to conquer a people
In their own country, and it's seldom
done. Napoleon, at the height of his
power, failed to conquer Spain. .
The Salem Statesman suggests that
the appointment of ex-Governor Geer
to the office of Collector of Customs at
Portland would get him out of the way
of Fulton for re-election to the United
States Senate. Perhaps Senator Ful
ton thinks the defeat of Geer In the
primaries for the Gubernatorial nomi
nation last April put the Tall Timothy
out of the way and further effort in
that direction would be a waste of en
ergy. Now here we have the assertion that
cooks get fat by absorbing the odors
from the cooking food, and eat much
less than ordinary persons. If propri
etors of hotels and restaurants could
only convince patrons that this is &
practicable method of getting fat, they
could Increase their profits immensely
by running odor tubes from the kitchen
to the dining tables and selling smells
on a meter basis.
Sweet Marie, who lowered the world's
record for trotting mares in New York
a few days ago, is the same mare that
Durfee was driving at the State Fair
three years ago when he was barred
from the track for holding. He was
afterward readmitted. Perhaps there
will be some future record-breakers at
the State Fair next month. At any
rate, it will be worth while to see the
races.
As our forests are cut away a vast
amount of litter is thrown down, which
the next year is inflammable as tinder.
Fire starts In it and gets such head
way that it rune on into the green tim
ber and spreads far and wide. Keep
fire out of last year's logging districts.
From them- it will spread and run
everywhere.
We are not going to say that farmers
who dislike the city-dude sportsman
are a bit Jealous of Jim Jeffries' pro
posed deer-hunting trip to Oregon; but
a lot of them would chase him off their
land, just the same.
"Don't shoot; I'll come down," the
coons learned to say whenever Davy
Crockett pointed his gun their way.
The land fraud gentry have found
Heney a sure shot, too, and might as
well come down.
It's hard enough for a land sharp
merely to be convicted, but to be fed
on $3 a week meals, ugh! Still, that's
better than before Sheriff Stevens went
in, when the grub cost $2.45 a week.
If either Governor Chamberlain or
ex-Senator Turner saw a chance to get
the Democratic nomination for Vice
President, they might not be so exces
sively polite to each other.
It might as well be understood, how
ever, that the rate law does not cut off
the passes of the patriots who will feel
themselves drawn to Salem next Win
ter. "Bank looting, after all, l. not so cruel
as one would suppose at first glance;
just think of the receivers who will
wax fat off what is left.
That's an Interesting story that
comes from Chicago, about lumpy Jaw
meat, made up -into free lunches for
the saloon trade. ,
If the use of motor bicycles by the
police prove them faster than automo
biles, more go-fast persons will proba
bly use them.
In view of all tbe mees that has been
stirred up, the Standard OH certainly
owes a grudge to the original muck
raker. If Drinkwater had, beejt true to his
name, he wouldn't have left those
checks behind him.
What can Hill now buy to match the
StPaul purchase of Harriman?
Hitchcock once more is "vindicated."
THE FESSIMIST.
According to Leslie's Weekly, there is
unusual excitement among the ladles of
the Pacific Coast. The "furor," as Iss
ue's describes it. Is caused by the anxiety
of the ladies as to which one of them
will be led, a blushlrfg bride, to the altnr
by Prince Get Low Sing, of Slam. The
Prince arrived in San Francisco, and, let
It become known, was looking for a soul
companion; hence the excitement. His
Royal Highness has been married before.
His nuptial experiences have been varied
and numerous. The latest estimate place
the number of girls' that he left behind
him at 63. To the ordinary man It would
seem that 63 wives were about enough,
and that another would bo superfluous.
However, each man to his liking.
"I'll set married again," said Sing.
"Oh, listen to the wedding bella ring!
I have sixty-three.
One more, you can eee.
Will make sixty-four knout In my string."
An ingenious way of deceiving the inno
cent and confiding public has been dis
closed by the, National Druggist.
The adulteration of coffee with peas,
beans, ground broom-handles and etreet
sweepinga i3 so common that we have
ceased to wonder at it. In fact, soma
people seem to like It. Mocha and Java,
the mixture has been called. We buy It
for the sake of the coffee there ia in It,
and mildly wish that the coffee beans
were more numerous and the other ingre
dients less frequent. Now It seems that
our humility and patience have been
wasted. The National Druggist Is re
sponsible for the statement that those
pious and health-seeking individuals who
go In for health coffees have been getting
the best of it. Their supposedly Innocu
ous mixture of buckwheat flour and bran
is composed largely of real coffee, while
the old guard, the faithful coffee-drinkers,
have been betrayed.
Alas! Let us order a package of
Roastum Serial, and weep for the oppor
tunities lost.
Types at the Reach.
Ordinarily a painful, and sometimes a
pathetic type, Is the lady bather who
thinks her stockings are coming down.
She Is rarely alone, and may be distin
guished from the rest of the group by
appeals to her companions for them to
wait for her to go back and lock up the
house, or to put out the cat, or some
thing equally unimportant. If her frleni
are firm, Bhe goes into tho surf with a
peculiar, halting gait, made necessary by
her rigid grasp on a part of her anatomy
Just above the hem of her bathing skirt.
A rarer type Is the Scandinavian who
stands In the surf with her back' to the
breakers, facing the-east. The blood of
a thousand Norsemen Is flowing in her
veins. Little does she heed the curllnu
waves as they break over her head. In
her nostrils is the scent of the sea; the
roar of the ocean Is a lullaby that soothed
her' ancestors In centuries gone by. One
can almost see In her eyes the reflection
of the midnight sun. Her penetrating
gaze, defying distance, sweeps from the
shores of the Pacific across the Cascade
Mountains, from the summit of the
Rockies to Newfoundland, on across the
broad Atlantic to the British Isles, the
North Sea and to ancient Scandinavia; In
the limpid depths of her eyes are dancing
the blue waters of the fjords of Norway.
She Is numb with cold, but she Is happy.
Rigid ehe stands until the receding tide
leaves her stranded high and dry.
A rather disagreeable character is the
individual who ha3 a fixed Idea that the
visitors to the beach are not really en
Joying themselves. He, of course. Is en
Joying himself to the limit, because of
his superior wisdom, and the simple life
which he leads. Clad In a corduroy suit,
surmounted by a decrepit hat, he saun
ters around looking for things to scorn.
He Is a most unhappy Individual, because
there are so many things that he doesn't
like. His especial abhorrence are bowl
ing alleys and blondes. The only time he
Is human Is when he sits down to eat.
see
Answers to Correspondents.
BRITON. I do not think that it would
be wise for you to remark, while bathing
In the surf, that you are "surfeited."
Punning Is a dangerous pastime In Amer
ica. Some one might seize you from be
neath and tow you out beyond the life
line. ANDREW. The latest theory regarding
the mysterious expression, "23," la that
It refers to the sad fate of the man who
attempted to got three 10-ccnt cigars for
20 cents. He put two In his pocket, and,
in a debonnaJr, Seattle-like manner, bit
the end off a third, and was about to
light it, when the dealer, who had lived
In Seattle himself, placed a Colorado
maduro ataln over the purchaser's left
eye and then kicked him so far Into the
air that he was arrested for not having
visible means of support.
e
W. S. V. No. The word "confuse"
does not properly rhyme with "booze."
If you will study the system of phonetic
spelling In the Standard Dictionary ynu
will get the - proper sound of "confuse,"
which ia given as "confluz." You ehould
have enclosed stamps with your poem.
e
COUNCILMAN. No, the Rosetta stone
is not a paving block. See Ene. Brit.
.
STRANGER. "Will you kindly tell me
where Long Beach Is, and If it Is the
same as North Beach?"
The resort you refer to Is more com
monly called North Beach. When It Is
spoken of as Long Beach, reference Is
had to the length of time that It takes to
get there. M. B. WELLS.
Old Times, Old Frlrnda, Old Love.
Eugene Field.
There are no days like the good old day.
The days when we were youthful!
When humankind were pure of mind.
And speech and deed were truthful;
Before a love of sordid gold
Became man's ruling passion.
And before each dame and maid became
Slave to the tyrant Fashion!
There are no girl like the good old glrla
Against the world ld stake 'em!
As buxom and smart and clean of heart
As the Lord knew how to make 'em!
They were rich in spirit and common sen?.
And piety all supporting
They could bake and brew, and had taught
school, too.
And they made such likely courtin'!
There are no boya like the good old boys
When we were boys together!
When the grass was sweet to the brown bare,
feet
That "dimpled the laughing heather;
When the peewce sang to the Summer dawn
Of the bee In the boilowy clover.
Or down by the mill the whip-poor-will
Echoed its night song over.
There is no love like the good old love
The love that mother gave us!
We are old. old men, yet we pine again
For that precious grace Clod gave u?!
Ro we dream and dream of the good old times.
And our hearts grow tenderer, fonder,
As those dear old dreams bring soothing grteams
UC heaven away oft yonder.