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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 1907)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND;- FEBRUARY 3, 1907, PrBSCItlPTIOX KATES. t-T 1SVAHIAULT IN ADVANCE. "CS (By Mall.) Pally, Sunday included, one year $8.00 Ijally, Sunday included, six months.... 4.25 J tly, Sunday included, three months.. 2.23 lutlly, Sunday included, one month....' .75 lmlly, without Sunday, one year G.Oo I.ally, without Sunday, six months 3.25 l'ally. 1 w Itho-ut Sunday, three months.. 1.75 Xlally. without Sunday, one month .00 Sunday, one year 2.50- Weekly, one year (Issued Thursday)... l&u Sunday and Weekly, one year 3.50 UY CARRIER. Pally, Sunday Included, one year 0-00 lJai.'y. Sunday included, one month 75 HOW TO REMIT Send postoltice money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at the Sender's risk. Give postofrlce ad dress in rull, including county and state. rOSTAUK KATES. Entered at Portland, Oregon. rostofflce as Second-Class flatter. 10 to 14 Pages , 1 cent 10 to 2S Panes 2 ccnts 011 to 41 l'asis 3 cents 41i to tiO lams ' ....4 cents Foreign Postage, double rates. I.MI'OKTANT The postal laws are strict. New .-papers on which postage is not fully prepaid are not forwarded to destination. EASItltX UfSlNKSS OFFICE. The S. C. Ueckwltb SSpwUil Agency New York, rooms 4:i-jU Tribune building. Chi cago, roums 510-512 Tribune building. KEFT ON SALE. Cliicaso Auditorium - Annex, Fostoffice Kews Co.. 17$ Dearborn street. ft. inul, -Minn. N. St. Marie, Commercial tin lion. Colorado Springs, Colo. Western. News Agency. Prnvrr Hamilton & Hendrlck. 000-012 Seventeenth street; Pratt Book Store, 1214 Fifteenth street; I. Weinstein; H." P. Han ten. Knnwis City, Mo. nickseckcr Cigar Co Ninth and Walnut. Minneapolis M. J. Kavanaugh, 50 South Third. Cleveland, O. James Pushaw, 30T Su perior street. Ajlantlo City, Jf. J. Ell Taylor New York City L. Jones & Co., Astor House; Broadway Theater News Stand. Oakland, Cal. W. II. Johnson, Four teenth and Franklin streets; N. Wheatley; Oakland News stand. Ogden ft. I- Boyle, W. O. Kind, 114 'I'-wruty-nfth street. Hot. SpriDgw, Arlt. C. N. Weaver & Co. Omaha Barkalow Bros.. 1612 Famam; Mngcath stationery Co.. 1508 Farnam: 240 Eolith Fourteenth. bacramento, Cul. Sacramento News Co., 4oft K street. Halt Lake Moon Book & Stationery Co., Roscnfcld . Hansen. 1 ..m Angeles li. E., Amos, manager seven street wagons. San Diego B. K. Amos. Iuig Beach. Cl. B. B. Amos. ranadcna, Cal. A. F. Horning. ban Francisco Foster & Orear, Ferry News Stand; Hotel St. Francis News Stand I Parent, IT. Wheatley. Fureka. Cal. Call-Chronicle Acency. Washington, 1). C. Ebbltt House, Penn sylvania avenue. Norfolk, Va. JameBtown News Co. l'lne Beach, Va. W. A. SJosgrove. l'hiladoiphiu, 1-b. Ryan's Theater Ticket o irks. J'ORTLANI). MTNB-AV. FEB. 1907, KFSfcSIANIZLVa THE AMERICAN TRESS. The postal committee of Congress, of which Senator Penrose is a member. has reported a bill which. If It pasate. will accomplish, two things, both of them novelties in American policy. Fins, tt will establish a censorship of the daily press; second, 1t will place the Government definitely In the attitude of an enemy to popular Intelligence. The committee frankly admits that the measure which It proposes Is Imitated, from the policies of European govern ments. Its obvious atni is to reduce the press to servile dependence upon. the politicians working through the Postal Department. Upon that depart ment inquisitorial powers are conferred which are plainly Intended to be used to annoy, hamper and intimidate 'the prese. A multitude of petty rules are placed at the disposal of postal officials, rules relating to form, size, material, quality of paper, number of advertise ments and' the like, which caVi be made instruments of bitter persecution to a newspaper that is offensive to the poli ticians, and may evendestroy it. Of course, the censorship which this bill would establish is not com plete. No measure of tyranny is ever accomplished at one step. It begins In sidiously. ' The first onslaughts upon liberty are invariably almost impercep tible. I,ittle by little they advance 'from small beginnings until the chain i completely forged and the victim writhes helplessly In his fetters. The censorship is to begin with the maga zine supplements to the .newspapers. These supplements, Senator Penrose thinks, are not "socially and educa tionally valuable." The opinion of such a man as he is upon such a subject is certainly both socially and educa tionally valuable, but it is as a warn ing, not an example. There is some thing ludicrous, if it were not mon strous, In setting such a man as Pen rose to decide upon the moral quality of what the people may read. Here the censorship begins, but it will not end here. From the magazine section it will proceed to the news columns. The next bill will give the Postal De-, 7artment authority to decide what news may be printed and! what is not "socially and educationally valuable." Rules will be established forbidding the newspapers to mention the railroad graft which robs the Postal Depart ment of some thirty millions a year; or to- mention the franking graft wjiieh. permits Congressmen to send their live stock and furniture free through the mails. The postal politicians will .ex clude from the malls every paper which speaks disrespectfully of Senator De pew or takes In vain the name of the saintly Aldrlch. There will be a pen alty for mentioning that Mr. Piatt is the servant, of the express trust and another for stating that Mr. Penrose is no less Iniquitous, but much less ca pable, than his predecessor, Mr. Quay. Step by step the poJitlclans will pro ceed to muzzle the press completely, dooming ultimately the freedom of the editorial page. With the news columns under their control and editorial opin ion at their mercy, there will be noth ing to hinder the politicians from ex ploiting the people at their pleasure. Graft can flourish unchecked in the Postoffice and all the other depart ments. Congressmen earf'show undevl ating loyalty to predatory privilege and there will be none to expose them o t all them to account. The country will become a veritable thieves' paradise. The man who has worked longest and most ardently to bring about a censor ship of the press is Mr. Madden, Third Assistant Postmaster-General. For years he has devoted his very moderate abilities, his unquestioned integrity and an inflexible persistence, to the accom plishment of this nefarious purpose. "What interest he serves nobody knows; what Induces him thus to labor to blight the civilization of hlH country Is a matter of conjecture merely; but for these object he has labored long and industriously and now t length success seems almost within his grasp. At this success good citizens weep and thieves rt-jolec, but it Is all one to Mr. Madden; whatever Interest lie serves -will gain Its end, and he will be satisfied. It is another Imitation of European policy to make the Government the en emy Instead of the friend to -popular Intelligence. Our theory in this coun try has always been that the safety of republican institutions depends 'upon a well-informed electorate. The new theory changes all this. It adopts the Russian view that the less the people know the safer for the governing cla.se. Of course, with a governing, class made up of such men as Senator Penrose, this theory is true. Intelligence among the people leads inevitably to the selec tion of honest men to- office. The inter ests which flourish beet when dtehon est men hold office will naturally op pose popular intelligence and will nec essarily be hostile to the newspaper press. This threatened change in the policy of the Government toward edu cation, which comes largely through reading, is ominous. It seems to sig nify that the beneficiaries of predatory privilege have determined to destroy the very foundations of the Govern ment rather than give up their "power to plunder the people. Indirectly it is a blow at the President and his. policies. Mr. Roosevelt has the support of the people because they are intelligent. enough to understand hte purposes. J3e- etroy popular intelligence- and you break his hold on the Nation. The best time to kill a viper' is in the egg. The press censorship is still in the egg.- .. AMKRICA AND JAPAN. - We are not going to have war with Japan, for there te nothing to go to war about. Furthermore, the two na tions have been for many years on friendly terms, more friendly now than.- any time since the ports of Japan were opened to the world. So that it is incon ceivable that either nation should re sort to arms on any ordinary provoca tion. When there Is no provocation at. all worthy the name, war talk is silly. Such talk comes entirely from a sensa tional press, aided somewhat by the in opportune address of Senator Perkins, of California, before the National Geo graphical Society at Washington. Sen ator Perkins said only, or he meant 'to say only, that a conflict between the two nations for supremacy of the Pa cific would come some time. A Senator from California ought to have said nothing at this time. Japan would not be justified before the world in going to war because Japanese children are ex cluded from California schools on equal terms with American children. Of course Japan has no such intention and never had. It understands perfectly that the school question is local in Cali fornia. At the same time Japan is dis posed to insist, and it has the right to insist, that the children of resident Jap anese In California shall have access to the public schools, the same as other children. It is annoying and humiliat ing to the Japanese to have their chil dren sequestered, and they have pro tested against it. The incident has been used as the basis, or rather the occasion, ot an arrangement by which the President of the United States makes with Japan a treaty which will procure for the people of California and the Pacific Coast exclusion of Japanese laborers. This is the thing that Cali fornia really wants. If it shall' be ac complished, the school question will disa ppear. ' The recent reasonable attitude of the California Congressional delegation and the firm purpose of the President to do justice to Japan e.nd" to secure justice from Japan were all shown at the re cent White House conference. Califor- nians said then that they were satis fied with the Administration's propos als and undoubtedly San Francisco au thorities and School Directors will be satisfied.- Their small troubles will vanish In the larger purposes and poll cles of the Nation as they find expres eion through the action of the Admin istration. Then all war talk will be forgotten. THE STORY OF A (iREAT IXIM8TRY The extent to which the logging rail road and the donkey engine have revo lutionized the timber business of the Pacific Northwest is shown In a partic ularly striking . manner in a logging railroad directory recently issued by the Oregon Timberman. In this publi cation more than a thousand miles of logging railroads are shown in the two states. Oregon and Washington. The modern equipment for these roads, ex clusive of cars, Is 323 locomotives, Nearly 1000 logging engines are In use in connection with them. It is doubtful if there is any other industry in the country that has shown such a remark able change In such a comparatively short space of time. A generation ago the hand loggers in Oregon were much more plentiful than their more up-to date competitors who were going a lit tie farther ' back into the timber and hauling out logs with oxen. Those ' were the days of "two-bit stumpage. and the timber claim must necessarily have been- close to a water way or the timber was practically un salable. The thought of saving- the tim ber had never entered the heads of the settlers, and great trees which- would now be worth considerable money were burned on the ground to get-them out of the way. The lumber business in the racinc .Northwest first came promi nently into notice In British Columbia and on Puget Sound British ships. coming out -from England with supplies for the Hudson's Bay stores, more than half a century ago, began loading piles and rough hewn timbers up the Al berni Canal on Vancouver Island, and; at one or two points on Puget Sound. This early prestige resulted in the country north of us first entering the export lumber trade, and for mora than thirty years after Washington and Brltieh Columbia began shipping lum ber in large quantities the lumber busi ness of Oregon was of inconsequential proportions. Lack of development in that partic ular line may have retarded growth In other directions, but now, with' stump age doubling, trebling andi quadrupling, and our own magnificent timber sup ply practically untouched, Oregon ds in a position" to reap the reward of wait ing. While the Puget Sound loggers are being driven farther back into the forests for logs, the Oregon loggers, ex cept in a few localities, are still work ing pretty close to the -water's edge and. In many places, the donkey en gine, without the aid of a logging road is doing the same kind of work as the old hand logger by taking the logs dl rect from the forest and rolling them into the streams. There was something picturesque in the sight of the heavy ox teams strain ing &t the yoke as they tolled over the old skid roads Vith a. string of big logs behind them; but in this age of com merciallsm, the picturesque is at a die count so far as it affects business, anJ the advent of the logging engine ant the logging railroad has been an im portant factor, not alone in the devel- opment of the timber Industry, but In opening up for settlement a consider able area of country adjacent to these short roads. The ox team and the skid road offered poor facilities for the transportation of freight and passen gers, but the logging roads which have supplanted them not infrequently grow into regular transportation lines, and, even where they remain as logging roads, they are decidedly useful for other purposes. SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. Oliver Goldsmith belongs to the lin eage of the prophets of the simple life; he is one of the poets of the golden age. Henry James, writing of "The Vicar of Wakefield," says that it is not a great novel and wonders why its fame has been .so enduring. The reason, he con cludes, must fie sought in the .amenity of its style. This is one reason, but there are others. Goldsmith's prose is devoid of bitterness." His sentences flow in clear - and. limpid beauty; his irony is of the gentlest and he knows nothing of the cynic's keen wit. Gold smith's thought is as kindly as his style. The amenity of his language In 'The Vicar of Wakefield" expressed the inner nature f a soul singularly child like. No experience could sophisticate Goldsmith; no misfortunes could embit ter him. In school, in college, in his European wanderings and in London he was without worldly wisdom, gov erned always by the impulse of the mo ment, sometimes' in plenty, almost al ways in want, one of the least respecta ble, and at the same time among the most lovable literary men that ever "lived. ". The charm of Goldsmith's prose and poetry alike is their deep human inter est. "The Vicar of Wakefield" is loved best by those to whom kindly human nature is of most worth. It was one of the favorite books of Louisa Alcott's Little Women," for example. Dr. Johnson found the manuscript one day when Goldsmith had sent for him in distress and looking it through saw at a. glance that it was a work of genius and the: world has never differed from his judgment. It has most of the faults of plot and construction that a novel can have. The situations are improba ble, the coincidences beyond all sem blance of verisimilitude; yet the book lives and will always live because the characters are so simple, so lovable and so -true. It is all genuine. Goldsmith hime-elf was vain,. and perhaps envious of Burke, Johnson and his other friends, but in his "A'icar of Wakefield" there is no envy, no malignity, no unforgiv ing hatred. At the close of the story the good are rewarded and the wicked are pardoned. The good parpon, like Job, gets back all that he lost and more besides; the villain repents ere it is too late. The story ends in charity, for all the characters, both good anil bad The past is forgotten; the future glows with tender fortitude and patient love. Such a book has more than mere amen ity of style to commend it. It is a well-spring of faith and brotherlinets. Burke and Goldsmith were in college together in Dublin, though it is not likely that- they knew each other there. Burke was probably something of an aristocrat, while Goldsmith earned his living by service of one sort and an other. He was miserably poor, and made his poverty worse by wasting what .tyieans he had. He was gay wheneVer he had money. The rest of the time he starved. His uncle, who seems to have had almost superhuman patience with the ne'er do well, gave him money from time to time, which was ,for the most part squandered. though very likely it kept the youth alive. When he left College, Oliver de. cided to studj- medicine, heaven alone knows why. He had all thqualities which a doctor should not ifave, and none that he needs. The grave self confidence, the air of omnipotent power and all-embracing wisdom, which are so essential to a physician, Goldsmith could not even imitate. He was awk- wmrd, clownish in manner, and his face was deformed by the smallpox. His speech was so embarrassed that he ap peared like a simpleton in company. His friends in the famous Club, poking fun at him, said that he "wrote like an angel, but talked like poor Poll." Re plying to their gibe, Goldsmith proved that the first part of it at least was true, for his "Retaliation" contains that -famous couplet on Burke. "Who, born for humanity, narrowed his mind, and to party gave -up vhat was meant for mankind." Of course he failed as a doctor. Goldsmith first won literary eminence by his "Traveler," a stately and thoughtful poem, which perhaps re cords his own feelings while he wan dered alone, penniless and footsore, through Europe. He wrote short poems, among them "The Hermit." which are read with pleasure still. "The Hermit" contains the lines, which everybody quotes once or twice a year, "Man wants but little here below, nor wants that liUle long." But his en during poetical fame rests upon "The Deserted Village." This work used to be printed in the reading books for ad vanced scholars, with a warning that its economic philosophy was false; but of late yeara we have seen reason to believe that it is much nearer the truth than the doctrines which some of our professors, elaborate. The poem re Counts the- fortunes of the inhabitants of a village which had been destroyed by the enclosure of the lands formerly used in common. No longer able- to make a living at their old employ ments, the people must seek other homes, and the village "S weet Auburn," is left desolate. With heartrending pathos. Goldsmith describes the men and scenes which have vanished to malte room for the "man of wealth and pride," who takes -up a space ."that many poor supplied.". The parson: who ran his godly race remote from towns and was rich on forty pounds a year; the schoolmaster, , terrible to truants, whose skill in forenslcs the pastor had to admit, "For e'en though vanquished he could argue still"; and) "the poor, houseless, shivering female" who lays hei head "near her betrayer's door" and vainly -weeps the irretrievable past. He tells of the hawthorn tree "with seats beneath the shade for talking ege and whispering lovers made," and all the sweet pastimes of the Summer af ternoon forever gone. The merriment of the dancers, the lilt of the piper's tune does it not "fill the heart with tears'" to read of them? "She Stoops to Conquer" was Gold smith's second, play. His first one, "The Good-Na,tured- Man," barely missed failure. "She Stoops to Con quer" was successful from the first, and ranks among the best of eighteenth century comedies. It has all the charm of Goldsmith's style and. the situations are developed with a consummate mas tery of simple human nature. There is wit in the dialogue, with touches of satire which 'bite as shrewdly today as they did 150 years ago.-This play placed the author in easy, circumstances, but he -did not live long to enjoy them. He died in the prime of life and- the great Dr. Johnson -wrote an epitaph for him which may still be read, in Westmin- ste Abbey. Johnson himself had known sorrow. His heart was big Iwth char ity. "Nihil quod tetlgit," he wrote of the "poet whose life had been so thoughtless, "non ornavit." Was a finer tribute ever paid- by the living to the dead? AXCIEXT RECORDS. Medford. Or., Jan. 22. (To the Editor.) What ancient records are credited with beins aa old as the Biblical records, and on what authority? How docs man acquire his notion of a supreme being? Is It cor rectly said to be instinctive? What is the reference in the editorial of Sunday, en titled, "Hanclna; on the Loose Rope," to John's calling Jeeus the son of Joseph ? H ATT IE GORE. Others beside -Miss Gore, of Medford. may be interested in the answer to her question, "What ancient records are credited with being as old or older than the Bible records?" Egyptian monu ments have been found which are much older than anything in Jewish litera ture. The same may be said of the cuneiform writings on clay tablets which are found in ancient Assyria, The story of the flood, for example, is taken from an older account of a simi lar event which is preserved- on a tab let. The authority for these state ments Is the records, themselves, which are so accurately dated that scholars .entertain no doubt of their antiquity. Miss Gore also inquires how man ob tains his "notion of a supreme being; is it instinctive?" The subject is a matter of controversy. Nobody really knows. Anthropologists offer divers ex planations, of which one is perhaps as satisfactory as another. The man who said that if there were no God we should -have to invent one to keep the world from anarchy stated the case pretty well. Touching Miss Gore's third inquiry, in the 42d verse of the sixth chapter of John the text may be found to which The Oregonian referred. In this text it is spoken of as a matter ot common knowledge that Jesus was the son of Joseph. "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?" The anonymous writer in the Independent erred somewhat in refer ring to this text as if John used the language himself. John merely reports the worO of the Jews; but it is safe to assume that he accepted them, since he makes no protest whatever. Neither did Jesus in the entire course of the long speech which follows. . GIVINti RACK MONEY TO I.AM) THIKVES. Comment was recently-made in The Oregonian on the proposal of the State Land Board -thai where certificates of sale, of state land have, been can-feled for fraud In the application upon which the certificates were issued, the pur chase money should be repaid. The idea of repayment of the purchase price:! was commended, but the opinion was expressed by The Oregonian that ."ho provision should be made for the pay ment of interest to the holders of the canceled certificates. This paper opT posed any action that would in effect place a premium upon fiwud. This position taken by The Orer-onian. has aroused ex-Governor Geer and Geer ;ind lis exprel'on of hir prtler: state thai it brought forth from him thi in the editorial columns of "The admission by the has had the moriy of citizen in pay ment for land which it could no: de liver, is equivalent to acknowledging that it received money in the first place to which it was not entitled. And the purchaser was in no wise to blame." He aliio says that it is presumed that the state has profited by the un of the purchase money. He thinks the mate should pay interest for the time the state has had the money. The trouble with Mr. Geer's' conten tion is that it is based upon assump tions that are altogether false. He speaks of' sales of land to which the state cannot give- title, say. that the purchaser was not -at fault and that it is presumed that the state has had the use of the money. Not one of these as sumptions is well founded. In the first place, the .state can give title, but won't. The state ha title to the land and can convey it by good aid suffi cient deed," but will not, becuu.re the certificate of sale was procured by the practice of gross fraud. The state re fuses to carry out the illegal transac tion. t Secondly, the purchaser was. at fault, for he was guilty of perjury and deception and direct violation of the land laws. Lastly, the state has not profited by the ue-e of the money. Every one who -has' read the news paper accounts of the land-fraud dis closures knows that the- state laws re quire an applicant for state land to swear that he wants the land for his own use and benefit, and, that he has made no contract, express? or implied, to sell the same to any pen;on. Wheth er this provision is a wise one or not, is immaterial. It is. and has hn a legal provision, known to everyone that I sales can be niacTe only to those who can make affidavit to the facts speci fied. "The action of state officials in permitting violations of the law does not change the criminal character of the transactions, for the State Land Board is not a legislative body, and has no authority to set aside the plain pro visions of the law. Here, then, we have men knowingly violating the law and paying their .money to the state in an effort to pro cure title to land by fraud. How Mr. Geer can figure out that the purchasers are without fault Is a problem too in tricate to be solved by anyone who ac cepts the language of a 'statute in its ordinary significance and believes that laws were enacted to be enforced. It ie impossible that Mr. Geer is la borine under a misunderstanding of state finances when he says that it is to be presumed that the state profited by the use of the money paid to it by the land grabbers. He knows better. There has always bten a large sum of idle money in the irredticlble school fund, from which, the state received no profit Whatever. In view of all these indisputable facts, it is clear that the state should not pay interest on the purchase price of land for which certificates of sale were procured by fraud. The state has can celed the certificates. It has, there fore, retained the land, and should not also retain the portion of the purchase price paid. But it should not pay the land thieves interest on their money, thereby permitting them to profit by their own wrong. During the years when these frauds were being perpe trated, it .was difficult for honest men to get 6 per cent interest on their money wjth gilt-edge security. If the state should adopt the policy of paying In terest it would be in the position of holding out to dishonest men an oppor tunity of making a safe and profitable Investment. The land grabbers fraud ulently induced the state to take their money. They should consider them selves fortunate to get their money back, even without interest. Mr. Geer should awake to the fact that the peo ple of this state have . repudiated the state land policy, w.hich he defends, and that they will not Countenance a return to it. His assertion that the land grab bers were without fault is one that their' own paid- attorneys would not make for them while defending them in a criminal court. - A total of 9503.06 acres of land lying within the Grand Ronde Indian reser vation in Yamhill County is being of fered for sale by the Government. These lands were segregated by the Government for the use of the rem nants of Southern OregoV Indian tribes some fifty years ago. A. F. Hedges, an early pioneer of Clackamas County, was -the agent appointed by President Buchanan - to superintend the settle ment of the Indians upon this reserva tion, the construction of their houses and their instruction in the elements of civilized life. The land segregated was more than the Indians needed or could utilize, and, as their numbers have decreased since the days of "Scar-Face Charlie," "Crooked-Mouth Jim" and the rest of the rascally horde that made the valleys of the Umpqua and Rogue Rivers soenes of massacre and pillage in the early Indian wars, the Govern ment offers for sale this large tract of land suitable- for grazing. The slow solution of the Indian problem is wit nessed in the practical failure of this half-century-old scheme to make farm ens and stockgrowers of the roving, care-free, lazy, vindictive Indians that opposed by savage warfare the "com ing of the white man." Death, a foregone result from the first, ended the sufferings of Manford Cornelius, the 6-year-old boy who acci dentally shot himself while playing with a pistol. The lesson conveyed by this trageds' is plain. It is not only needless, since a weapon of that kind is seldom made to serve a woman in an emergency, but dangerous to keep a ptetol in the ordinary home. No matter how much care is taken to hide the weapon, a boy with plenty of time on hie hands is certain to find it with dis astrous results. Escaping thip. when suppooed necessity arises for using the pistol, the owner, man or woman, is as li'.iely as not to shoot a member of the f amily or a servant going late to bed. in the view of Professor L. C. Mar phall. of the Ohio Wesleyan Univer sity, rapid growth in population is a great National desideratum and should' be encouraged. Judged from the sta tistics of child4 labor, the suffering among the poor and improvident wheTe large families prevail, the prevalence of juvenile -rime, the crowded condition of orphan asylums," workhoues and reform schools, and the strenuous ef fort required In many instances to keep "base life afoot." there ate more people in -the country today than are here for t'ffcir own or the Nation's good. "' - "" ,fThe death of D. H. Hendee removes a familiar, figure from our streets and an upright citizen nnd enterprising pio neer from the life, past and present, of the 'jfeite. Mr. Hendee had, long been identified with the spiritualistic faiji. and was throughout his long life kind, hospitable, neighborly and charitable. During his et-rlier years he was an ac tive, energetic man in h?t vocation, that of a photographer, and. in it made a wide circle of friends and acquaint ances who will, regret to learn of his death. The claca designated by "Doeticks" a generation ago as "Younga Mcrika the Mighty" is in evidence at most col leges and all high schools. The faculty of staid old Willamette University is having a session with a number of the representatives of this class at present. Whether the faculty or the offended students will "win out" in this contest remains to be seen. The war with J4pan, which has been going on with,unabated fury for two or three days in the crimson prcs, has found an ab!e ally in Senator Perkins, who predicts war some time in tho next thousand years. The Senator must not be confused with that other distin guished romancist. Ell Perkiiv. Now that the Legislature at Olympia has got the troublesome exposition ap propriation out of the way. it might take up for discussion the official spell ing of Clark County. Washington maps and other documents make it "Clarke." Incorrect. There is no "e." After the Japs have taken the Phil ippines, the Hawaiians and Alaska, and made a demonstration before the Bay City then, and not till then, will the United 'States arise in its wrath and wipe all the gore oft the front page of the tuppenny prcf-3. Mayor Lane should remember that his policemen are only human and there is no total abstinence requirement In the civil service law. Yet in all civil ity the patrolmen should put him next to the signs. The shore-owners of the Seattle lakes of course object to the state selling the shore lands to raise a million for the fair. Weren't they there first? Seattle also has a bad case of first families. Any doubt as to the merit of a big appropriation for the State Insane Asy lum was removed by a visit of the Multnomah delegation. They seemed glad to get away on any terms. Governor Hughes Is running! the whole thing himself in New York". He even turned down a recommendation of the President. That's what Governor Roosevelt would have done. Even the old reliable West Side pas senger train was compelled at last to break its monotonous ride of 365 days in the year by a tip-over. Surely con ditions are changing. Portland's sales of stamps for Janu ary show a big increase over the month a year ago. The city's irresistible roll accumulates greatness like a ball of snow down a hillside. s Mayor Schmitz, notwithstanding that he is under indictment, proposes to hold on to his Job and take part in public affairs. Somehow that sounds. familiar. Portland Is taking its place in the class of large cities. One murder mys tery follows another rapidly. There are several hangings overdue. In the matter of Beals vs. Groundhog the next few weeks will decide. Basketball and baseball aren't in it with snowball. COMMENT ON CURRENT STATE TOPICS . . Should Legislative Committees Be Made Up From Members Directly Interested in Measures Referred to Them? Bankers, Schoolteachers and Fishermen as Expert Lawmakers-- Short-Sighted Normal Schools. Disappearance of the Emergency Clau.se. ISAPPROVAL in the State Senate last week of several bills which had been favorably reported by 1 the committee on medicine and phar macy calls attention to the fact that very frequently legislative committees are made up of men who are not in position to take an unprejudiced view of the questions that come before them. This has been particularly true of the committees on medicine and on banking. All discussion of legis lation on the subject of banking is based on the need of protection to de positors, yet bankers have almost al ways constituted the majority of the committees which pass upon the meas ures proposed upon this subject. This feature of committee formation is not so pronounced in this session as usual, but the principal banking bill now be fore the Legislature was drawn by the hankers and not by depositors, who& interests it is supposed to serve. While it does not necessarily follow that a bill drawn and approved by bankcrs will be prejudicial to depos itors, the fact that hey drew the banking bill now before the Legisla ture has created discussion of the il logical situation. THAT a man may be in error through projudlee and still be honest in the opinions he entertains was the theme of the introductory remarks addressed by W. W. Cotton to the joint railroad committee at Its first meeting at Salem last week. His remarks apply to' the attitude which doctors ; end bankers are likely to maintain 'toward measures which come before them on the subjects in which they are niost interested and to which they have given years of thought. Mr. Cotton said that he had been'or many years the attorney for a railroad com pany. He had viewed all questions of railroad law and policy chiefly from the standpoint of his client's interests. Years of study along one line had un doubtedly left a lasting impression upon his opinions, and while it was his desire and would be his effort to discuss the railroad hills without prejudice, he said that he could not feci certain of being able to do so. THERK was nothing new in this idea of unconscious prejudice, but it was unusual for a man in Mr. Cot ton's position to admit it. Ho asserted the right to be biased and honest at th" same time. It is therefore not questioning the honesty of purpose of bankers and doetors and drugis(s when attention Is called to the infln encettheir work in private life is likely to exert upon their public act. The provisions of a banking law which seems entirely reasonable to an honest banker might very easily fall short of affording adequate protertion to tho man who has no means of keeping his hard earned savings except to deposit them in a bank. Very few bankers become Ine.-lvent deliberately. A still smaller number of bankers of that class would I.nve any chance, of par ticipating in the framing of a banking law. And yet ninny a banker who con sidered ills methods sound has learned at the expense of his depositors that he had control ovT a. very unsafe in stitution. 11KN the druggists drew a bill which proposed 1n require a country storekeeper to pay 13 a year for a permit to sell common house hold remedies, they und jublndly thought the regulation a reasonable one, calculated to protect the people from all sorts of evils, but tho country storekeeper will lie awake a great many nights worrying over that $? fee before he will come around to the same view of the subject that the city druggist entertains. Tim committee on medicine anil pharmacy approved such a bill without dissent, but the lay members of the Senate could not ac quiesce in the stringent regulation the druggists proposed to establish. loc tors and druggists have always com posed the legislative committees on medicine and pharmacy, and they have always been opposed to any recogni tion or toleration of methods of heal ing other than their own. Quite like ly, if the osteopaths were in control of the legislative committees, they would take the same attitude toward the allopaths, yet they do not now think they would. And the allopaths are honest in their opinions. Notwith standing the immense numbers of peo ple who, die under their care everv yer, they think that givers of medi cine are the only healers who should be recognized by law. AND the same influences rtave quite likely been at work in regard to the fishing industries of the state, though in less degree. The fishery committees have always been composed of members from the counties direct ly interested in fishing. While the members are not themselves fisher men, their views of fishery laws are molded by the interests of the peo ple In their home counties, who depend upon catching and packing fish for a living. Experience has shown that the laws and the enforcement thereof have been such as to permit depletion of the streams to uch an extent that even the operation of hatcheries can not keep up the supply. The fishery interests will not consent to such stringent regulations as will insure ample hatching of fish in the natural way. It would be interesting, and per haps not entirely useless, to speculate upon the probable effect of giving some of the inland counties a strong representation upon the fishery com mittees, so that at least a part of the members could hear the argu ments uninfluenced by. any pre conceived notions gathered during long years of residence in a fishing commu nity. It would be interesting, too, to watch Vie effect of forming a commit tee on medicine by appointing a doctor, a druggist, a merchant, a farmer and a lumberman. IF the committee on education in the Legislature were made up of school teachers there would undoubtedly be some radical changes In the school system. A very large part of the public revenue would go Into the school fund, the greater portion of the school fund would be ap- proprialed to the payment of teachers' -salaries, and every school-room v.-ould he supplied with a library as closely ap proaching Carnegie proportions as possi ble. It would be made a capital offense for wrathy parents to strike a teacher for whipping a disobedient child, if such a committee on education had its way. Kxaniinations would be mato easier for those who are in the profession dnd harder for those who are out. A bill would be favorably reported declaring that all persons engaged in teaching a; the time of the passage of the act should be granted life diplomas without further examination and without payment of any fee. while the way would be made hard for those who come after. The bill might not he . passed by the legislature, hut it would certainly come from the committee on education with the recommendation that it "do pass." H OW short-sighted the normal school people have been! If thev had onlv thought of it a few years ago they might have induced some of the Legislatures which they controlled to provide for a committee on normal schools. Thm the committee would be composed of members of the Legislature from normal school counties and the .path of the normals would have been strewn with roses irt the form of liberal and never-failing ap propriations. A bill to abolish two normal schools would have no terrors for thess institutions, if the measures were to be referred to a committee composed of members from the normal school coun ties. BUT the custom of forming committees of members who represent the impr ests most directly affected does not pre vail when it comes to a committee on assessments and taxation. Of course the committees are composed ot taxpayers, but the representation on the committees Is always out of balance. The farmers pay about half of the taxes, but they get an Inconsiderable representation on the committees on assessment and taxa tion. In the present Legislature tho joint committee on assessment and taxation Has ten members and just one of them is a. farmer. City men are in control by an overwhelming majority. While there is no occasion for alarm over the fart that the class of people who pay half the taxes have only one-tenth of the representation on the committee which passes upon revenue measures, the clr-cuui.st.-iiice may not be unworthy of men tion at a time when committees are shap ing the affairs of state and are, there fore, subjects of current comment. T HOUGH Oregon has been congratulat ing herself upon the existence of a law which reouires foreign insurance companies to make a deposit to secure policy-holders, it is being acknowledged that there Is some merit in tho argument that repeal of the deposit law would bring in many new concerns and enable the large property-holders to get afl the insurance they wajit and at lowerSates. At the same time, tho principle, of re quiring foreign companies to secure their contracts In this state Is generally recog nised as a sound one. In the course of the discussion over the subject It has been suggested that an amendment might be agreed upon which would maintain the security and yet. make it easier for new companies to como into tho state. The suggestion is that a company com mencing business in the state mipht ba permitted to make a smaller deposit and increase the security as the amount of its contracts increases. EMERGENCY clauses received a great deal of attention at the last session of the Legislature, but have not been mentioned at this session. Yet there are some of them in existence, and, in soma instances, at the end ot bills the nreent necessity for which it would be difficult to show. For example, at the last ses sion a new judicial district was created, with provision for a District Attorney at a comparatively Email salary. Now a bill has been introduced raising the salary and chanKing tho time of holding terms of court. The bill closes by declaring that it Is necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety that the act take effect at once. However, emergency clauses are not so common as they were at the opening of the last session, and It will probably not be neces sary for the Governor to send In a spe cial message on the subject in order to lessen the evil. - I m-rownrd Queen. Townscnd Allen in the Woman's Trlbuim. Let others praise crowned queens, but I would spak For those who ne'fr have heard earth' plaudits sotimi; For whum nu bells peal out, no cannons boom. No sol. Hern ntand in ranks to guard thm ' roiin.l. Who have no castles grand, no cqulpace. No miles of sward, no plate, no Jewels bright; No subjects bowinjr low. no lackeya trim. No penres of servants wafting day and night. 'TIs easy to be Rood when all koc fair. . Hut tangle up the lines nnd jar tho soul With rough fnharmoiilos: taJ5 love away. And shackle one to poverty's hard dole; Add pain s grim graup and worry's wailinu power, The pang of hunger and the dehtFr'a fear. The grind of dally effort, fruitless still. Month after weary month year after year. Such .'burdened souls there are who drink the cup Of bitterness unto Its bitter end; "Whose lives flow on a leaden stream of woe. Whose trials never cease, whose back J must bend; Who ne'er will know from birth to death's cold touch One hour of Joy unmixed with grief and pain. Tet trust that God somewhere in Brace ifi I.ove. And hold their faith and count their Ills a ealn. TO surh I bow, uncrowned. unsceptered Queens. Who through the long hard years work bravely on, Deprived of all that makes life sweet and Oear. Yet hope 'gainst hope for beavrn's red'nlng dawn, The patient Hindu woman starving slow, The Boer frau desolate on arid Bands. The foredoomed victim of the city slums. The lonely pioneer in distant lands. Such hold my pity ar.d esteem. Aye, such Are watched by Uod'8 own angi-la bend ing low. Their record in the book of life is kept. Their tears are weighed and alt their hours of woe. The world's crowned queens might envy your estate. O hard tried souls, where'er your lot Is cast ; All earthly crowns must surely fade and fall. Fight nobly on, heaven's crown will come at last.