9 uKKEdVi . f BY OTO GOVERNMENT JOINT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROAD LINES Plan Submitted for Correcting All the Transporta tion Evils Now Afflicting the Country. THE SUXDAY OKEGOMAX, PORTLAND, MARCH 31, 1907. .x.wtT rafiis BY ALFRED DBLPERS. BY RJiADING the latest topics relate ing to railroads, the thought came to my mind that the Government could buy a. majority of the stock of every rail road in the country, and so control them all. I have tried .to develop this principle, and subjoined please find the results. I wish, however, to state right here that I am not very well acquainted with the sub ject, nor am I, at this time, in a con dition to be able to familiarize myself more with it. Tfts very probable, though I do not know of any instance, that competent men have- thought before of this principle, found it wanting, and rejected it. More over, it must be admitted as probable, as th latest developments of the situation would prove, that with a man at the helm of the Nation of the energetic temper of President Roosevelt, present legislation, supplemented by laws not involving changes so radical as the purchase by the Government of part of the stock, is sufficient to Rive the Government an ef ficient control, over the railroads. Nevertheless to me it seems that there Is solid merit in what T would call "Gov ernment Joint-Ownership of Railroads" merit still enhanced by the peculiar phase of industrial and social development in which we find ourselves, when the neces sity of enterprises on a grand scale as sorts itself, the multiform dangers and evils of leaving the task in the hands of private Initiative become daily more ap parent, and the notion of giving them to the social body as a whole is as yet opposed by a great number of timorous conservatives. The ndoption of a joint-ownership plan, besides tlie intrinsic merits it may have. BUILDING By J. I JONES. CERTAIN strata of society, including possibly 50 per cent of the whole population, live in an atmosphere in which the sound of profanity seldom ceases. To these the word hell has no terrors. It is a familiar term. But the word sounds harsh and evil to unac customed ears and it is not considered 'nlcp" to use it in speech. in the Apostles' Creed, which is always read over in the. services of the Episcopal Church, the statement occurs that Christ descended into hell. But above the creed. In very fine type, like a stage whisper, we are informed that this part may be omitted or a milder form of words may be substituted. The fathers of the church could not aprree on what was meant by hell. The modern church does not know where hell Is. It is ignorant of its own location and tills ignorance is an important factor in the peculiar combination of conditions that constitute hell. When a college student forgets his oration and stands in dumb discomfiture before the audi ence, that is hell for him. And hell is really a lapse of memory, a fall and a forgetting. In the fall of man the mem ory of his origin is lost and with it the knowledge of his destiny. He has drunk th. loil,ri(i lliiiMa nnil in Congres sional phraseology, lie does not "know where he is at." Hell is an old Scandinavian word for the underworld, the subjective and ob jective state of consciousness in which we exist now In this world. Christ de- The Revolutionary Possibilities of Socialism Arbitrary Power of the Killing Class, Conforming to History, Must Meet Its Waterloo. BY C. W. BARZEE. I .ate Socialist Candidate for Governor. THKRK arc none so blind as those who will not sec; or a man con vinced against his will is of the B:imc opinion still. Is probably the best answer that Is to be made to our con temporary. J. 1,. Jones, of Corvallis. Yet tiie. reading .public is entitled to a fcrreotiou of misapplied statements. Hie soul mind of any informed So cialist runs too true to humanity to deal In other than condescending pity toward straw supporters of the last stage of capitalism, for the complete overthrow of the causes of our social ills is foreign to their conception. Everything to them 'is to be measured, welglud nnil tested with this present system, with every pore of its anatomy bleeding; for a release from the galling chnin of the profit curse. I note ob jection No. 1, "When a theory is demonstrated to be wrong, we must not accept the right or converge into the law." Shall nature be denied her course of evolution? Can the impossible be done, and virtue and truth be destroyed? Objection No. 2 and 3. Portray the arbitrary power of a ruling class, which always has met and always will meet its Waterloo in an Selling Articles Short-Weight Is Downright Theft Pertinent Comment- on One Sin of Omission by the Late legislature. BY J. B. ZJEGIRR. WISH to remark on a few features of our recent Legislature from the view point of general citizenship which. I liaving no special interest, is usually si lent, and being isolated from the same of politics until it conies to paying the bills. i. as a rule, unwary, apathetic, suspi cious and sullen. The features to which J allude are important and remarkable enough to excite much more interest than hs vet been evident. . The Orcgontan's cartoon of February -7 on the general aspect of the session and Illustrating the "Glee, of the Ghouls." 1s. perhaps, the most . adequate comment that has appca red . But 1 wish to be jnore specific. I would especially refer to the cutting out of the nonweight clause In the pure food bill, at the behest of the wholesale grocers lobby. As far back as when I became a citizen of this state, I was astonished at the assertion of dealers that they had a right to sell sliortweight butter. I was unaware that the trick of shortweight permeated the whole business of package groceries. That was a little later reme died by the State Dairy Commission. "Why 1b not the law of honesty as useful in other lines as In the dairy trade? I am acquainted with many of the wholesale grocers of -Portland. They have appeared to me to be fair and hon orable men That they -should jend a lobby to Salem for such business as the would also undoubtedly be of benefit to the public and to lawmakers, by showing more effectually than possibly can the example of foreign nations, or any Idle theorizing, the advantages, as also the dangers and evils, of government own ership of railroad, and thus lead to the most suitable ways for safely organizing it at any future time or to reject it. It is also probable, however, that in the plan I am submitting there is some inher ent defects which I cannot see, and which will render it unsafe already. A discus sion of it may reveal this. I must say, however, that in evolving this principle in its very first rudiments, I have made every effort to find the weak sides, not overlooking any criticism of which I could think. 1 have answered as well as I could all questions ethical, financial, of practical expediency, against possible corruption and otherwise which came to my mind. A Plan for Joint Ownership. 1. Financial Relations of Government to Railroads The Federal Government will buy a majority of the stock, cleared from every fictitious value it presently may contain, of every railroad in the coun try. Railroads will no longer be permit ted to issue "watered" stocks, and of every subsequent Issue of stock of every railroad, the Government will take a ma jority. 2. Railroad Representatives of Govern ment Stock The number of railroad di rectors will be fixed unlgormty to, say, nine for every railroad, and of which a ma jority if nine. five, will "represent the Htot-k kept by ithe Government. The five directors representing the Government's stock will be elected by the chief execu tive and will be responsible for their do ings to the executive himself, who may remove them. Kach of these directors can represent ithe Government with one or more railroads, receiving salary in pro portion, as long as this does not inter OF THE TEMPLE OF THE IMMORTAL BODY scended into hell when he was born into tliis world. Everyone who is born of mortal birth is born into hell, for mor tality itself is death, and death is hell. This is a physiological fact and a psych ological fact. There is a correspondence between physiology and psychology, and this correspondence ' or analogy contains the key to spiritual instruction. The head corresponds to heaven, the body to hell. This is the Interpretation of the riddle of the Sphynx a human head on an ani mal body. The germs and sperms which unite in mortal conception first descend from the brain into the body. This descent con stitutes the fall of man. It comes through desire. The word desire indi cates its own direction "de" means down. The conception of. mortal man Is in sensual or carnal desire, an affection for the flesh. The word affection carries the secondary meaning of disease or un rest. Whoever sows to the flesh must reap corruption. To sow to the flesh is to sow wild oats to beget life on the mortal plane to cast the seed down out of the brain Into the lower parts of the body the Infernal regions. Infernal means lower. In adopting words from Latin to English the sense has been transposed from a material to a spiritual one. The opposite of desire is aspiration. At least that is our nearest approach to a suitable word. Aspiration implies an up ward tendency or direction of the thought Instead of a downward. This "upward looking" is seen in the upturned eyes in pictures of the Madonna. At least' the oppressed common people, and will yet so do in Russia. We are not the ignorant sectional class that was the black chattel of the South, but we :ire the bone and sinew of this Republic. disseminated over every part and parcel of its territory, now performing every several act, and capable for all emergencies. Objection No. 4. with its because. Darius Green episode, etc., concluded with experimental Socialist colonies, under a capitalist government. Truly an unthinkable thing Socialism under a capitalist regime. I grieve with pity for my contemporary's lack of knowledge of Socialist principles, and unevoluted ideas. And were he born a twin with a modern thinking man, as was Jacob with Esau, methinks his mother, seeing his degeneracy of hairy Ideas, would relegate him to ostracism as did she Esau. However, some of the distinctly plain and evoluted social conditions, of con centration, are pictured by our friend in his honesty of expression, with tho thing effecting the congestion "profit" not uncovered or brought to view. Briefly summing up the routine of objections, would it not be as wise for a chick to remain in the shell, saying. I do not know where the water is, or where to find my food, as for society to bnlk at Its own evolution, and refuse defeat of a fullwcight law. or that an effective lobby could bo secured for so degrading a purpose, is one of those par adoxes of human nature which I must leave to the expert moralists and alien ists to explain. In my unsophisticated view, any dealer who, when selling a pound of merchandise, uses his scoop for the purpose of withholding several ounces short of the standard pound, or by manip ulation of the scales, or who puts ur short weight packages in any way. and sells them to an unsuspecting customer for pounds, is a thief and guilty of petit larceny. It should be a technical as well as actual violation of the law against larceny. - Some four years ago I was myself a retail grocer in Portland, and all one Winter bought coal oil from one of the wagon dealers on the streets at a stated price per gallon. I finally discovered that he would put tiO gallons into my 60-gal Ion tank, when t contained ten gallons to begin with. I promptly measured his five-gallon pail with my gallon measure, and found its capacity to be just four and one-half gallons. I refused to pay him in full until I checked my measure by some registered legal measure, which I did at once at the City Hall and found it correct. I always paid this dealer cash and never looked at his receipted bills. He then threatened me with all kinds of retaliation, and showed me my bill, which, as former bills, proved to be made out by the "can" Instead of by the gallon.' But the pries was hy: the gallon. fere wltn the efficiency of their services with any of the railroads. All these bodies of five men will act as so many Government commissions with respect to the railroads to which each of them is assigned. 3. Railroad Representatives of Pri vate Stockholders Private Stock h old ers. through the directors nominated by them, will also have "a voice in the manage ment of the roads, and in so far as their demands contemplate the legitimate inter ests of the roads. ' (the Government will heed them. The number of the directors representing private stockholders will be four, which gives them a minority voice in every important matter. "Whenever these four directors wish to avert some measure which it hey think wrong, tlwy have the privilege of submitting their claims and reasons to Congress, which will give them their due weight while considering the recommendations of the five directors representing the Govern ment stock. At the- end the railroads must abide by the decision of the Govern ment. 4. Duties of Commissioner-Directors-Commissioner-Directors might be the name of the directors representing the stock of the Government. None of thi five C.-Ds. are to have any personal connection with the railroad assigned to them and possibly with any other in the country. On taking office they will swear as to the truth of this; also that they will always scrupulously observe, and look that their railroad will observe, present -laws or laws which may be enacted at any future time: that In their recom mendations to the Government and In their use of their vote when they are al lowed to act independently, of the Gov ernment they will never be prompted by their own interest, but only by the Inter est of the public as they see it, or as evinced by the public itself, and that they will always do their best to protect the interests of the railroad by harmonizing greatest painters of the world have at tempted to transfer this expression to canvas and in a slight measure have succeeded. This is how came the im maculate conception. Christ came from above not from below. Immaculate means spotless absolutely pure. The or dinary mortal Infant Is not spotless nor pure. Tt is conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity, no matter whether born in. legal wedlock or out of it: no matter whether loved or nndesircd by its par ents, for all mortal propagation is sen sual. Christ came not according to 'the lawa of sensual propagation tne descending desires of mortal flesh, but in answer to celestial hope, the age-long aspiration of the Jewish church for a Messiah. This aspiration was concentrated and brought to a climax in the "Virgin Mary, who is properly held in veneration by the Roman Catholic Church as the embodi ment of pure motherhood. She was the mother of God, for Christ was God, and she is justly entitled to all the honor and devotion she has received, for abso lute purity, chastity in woman and celib acy in man is the apex of aspiration and the way to immortality. Absolute purity is an attribute of heaven. Impurity, including sensuality and all degrees of mortal inperfection, constitutes hell. We are in hell now, literally and spiritually, all of us. The church itself is in hell. ' That is why It is called the church militant. Militant means engaged in war. War is hell. There is no war in heaven. W hen the church gets into heaven It will be the to clothe itself with a new garment, while its hideous nakedness is exposed through the filthy rags of Its worn out covering? Shall anyone be needed who is wise enough to discover to us all the fu ture? Is it not enough to know that any principle is scientifically correct, to be justified in the investigation there of? We need no stereotyped, cut-and-dried programme: we will have our courso misguided by none such. It Is enough to know our present relations are wrong and unjust, to understand ing readjust our conditions. We arc not guided by a greedy desire for gain, but a holy desire for justice. It is well said, "It is impossible to stop' the growth of Socialism." The history of humanity, which pas passed down to us from the dark ages, were tenfold more blinded in their possibil ities than Is the coming co-operative commonwealth. Our present system and regime has climaxed itself, with no. new continent to discover, or heathen wilderness to civilize. We are at the door of the new order and must enter in. Much better able are we to reconstruct so ciety than at any previous order or epoch. Esaus do receive blessings. The Dalles, Or. and the count was five gallons to th pail. I tried (to have this man prose cuted, but J. M. Long, then City Attor ney, told me that I could do nothing in this line. This man is still in the busi ness, presumably on the srae plan.1 It appears absurd to me that the public will tolerate such practices as this, or permit the wholesalers to make the argu ment that they must use short weight to meet competition from other states. That the Oregon brand is known to be a guarantee of full weight as well as quality, I think would redound to the benent of her trade in other articles as well as butter, apples and salmon. Another feature of the case is that these short-weight packages are palmed off . mostly upon careless women, do mestics and children. And when these become enlightened to ithe character of trade as the grocer conducts It, instead of going1 to the trouble of exacting honest dealing, .they accept it as the normal standard of commercial honor. There the ideal of honor Is debased at the most dangerous point 4he home. It Is making this form of vice too familiar. "When the innocents look at the deal ings of Mr. Morgan, Mr. Harriman and the other great mock jobbers and water ers, they think that these great men, with their great intellects, really made the money with which they buy railroad sys tems, and destroy competitive rates. But when they buy a 12-ounce package of coffee or raisins for a pound, or adulte rated spices, the glamor is not there. They Bee an Imp familiar and unattrac- them with thoe of the public. Any slight avidence of the breach of this oath will warrant the chief executive in dismiss ing them. 5. Power of the C.-Ds. and Their, Re lation to Government and Railroad C. Ds. represent principally the section of territory depending for transportation on the railroad with which they are identified. They will always lend a favorable hear ing to popular demands for better service and cheap rates; at the same time they will have also to look after the interests of the road. ' The nomination of the officers of the railroad Is wholly in the hands of the board of directors. Five of the directors may appoint or remove any officer at any time. The officers will not transact any business, be it a loan, Issue of stock, improvements, etc., -without first consult ing the nine directors. If fire of these latter are with the officers, they can ex ecute their project; it five are against, they cannot. Any of the directors can pro pose loans, issues of stock, improvements, etc.,-and-if at least seven directors agree on the proposition it must go through, even if against the wishes of the officers. The schedule of rates can be lowered below the maximum permitted by law, or, if lower, raised by a vote of five di rectors If the change is proposed by the railroad officers, and of seven directors if proposed by .their board. Loans or issue of new stock for improvements, extension of tracks and all other legiti mate business cannot be made without the sanction of Congress. If the five di rectors approve the loan or increase of rtock, they will draft a recommendation to . Congress, stating why this ought to be done, and this will be discussed and passed the same -as any Jaw. If the loan, issue of new stock, or anything else con tained in th recommendation of the C.-Ds. does not pass in all branches of the Government, it cannot be executed. church triumphant, not militant. The war will be over, the victory won and peace proclaimed. So long as we are in a state of war and discord, we are imhell. Heaven and hell are states of consciousness, 'but the state of consciousness internally-determines th character and conditions of localities and environments externally. Change the hearts and minds of the peo ple and presently you change the external aspect of tiie world. The hll that ob tains externally In this world now can only be changed by an internal transfor mation in the consciousness of the peo ple. This wlU be the creation of the world to come. In place of the words. "He descended into hell," in the Apostles' creed, the note above tt itt the prayer-book tells us we may substitute the words, "He went Into the place of departed spirits." It is naively explained that this means just the same thing. This world we live in is the place of departed spirits. We could not possibly get into' mortal existence without having departed or being deport ed from the abode of the gods the habi tations of eternal life. As in a state of war. the communications between hostile countries are cut off so we are cut off from communion with God. Prisoners in a hostile country cannot communicate with their friends at home. Their letters fall into the hands of the enemy. The prayers of the churches are Intercepted at the next corner. The devil answers them according to his humor and he is very full of humor. "We may remark the records of robber- tlve, but all-prevalent, corroding and cor rupting. THE NEW KIND OF A BOY Viir-paiikcd, He Seems to Very Deli cately Moulded. Philadelphia Record. I The new boy is a singularly delicate piece of mechanism. He has grown up in & period alleged to be strenuous. He puts on trousers at' an age when his father was wearing kilts. He plays foot ball, which the President says is a sure cure for mollycoddleness and poltroonery And yet be is such a delicate creature that it is hard to train him to anything. He can't stand discipline, and everybody and everything has got to be disciplined or degenerate. The present boy's father didn't have football and he didn't have Roosevelt, and he didn't have some other things that are supposed to develop hardihood. But he could he handled with Impunity and to his own great advantage. His father could take him out in the woodshed and apply the shingle pr the strap, with no result except the youngster's improvement. When he cut tip at school the schoolmas ter could flog him, and the only result was that he took more pains not to be caught. He ate everything he could get hold of: he had a bully good time, except for brief intervals of castlgatlon, and he wasn't bothered with any philosophy of life. But his son Is a very different kind of a boy. Jf the schoolmaster flogs him he pulls out his 4,gun" and shoots him. If his father sends him on an errand he de clares that he has been humiliated, and goes out in the barn and. hangs himself. If his mother scolds him for coming into the house without wiping his feet he drinks carbolic acid. Clifford Wilson, whose father is a pros perous New Yorker, with a Summer resi dence in Stamford, Conn., was upbraided by . his mother because he spent all his time reading and wouldn't take proper care of his clothes and his personal ap pearance. Of course, the boy never does until he meets the gin, but it is equally a matter of course that his mother will try to make him profit by occasional confi dential interviews with his looking-glass. Undoubtedly Clifford's grandmother scold ed Clifford's father for not washing his face and keeping his clothes clean and putting on his necktie, and no harm came of It. But Clifford Is the new kind of boy, and he couldn't stand that sort of thing, so he pinned up a farewell note in his room and went off. "I love you all truly," he wrote, but it seems we must part. There was a burden: there is none now." Where on earth did language of that sort get into his head? What does the modern boy read? Why can't he be scold ed and spanked as his father was. with out writing dessertations on life and seek ing repose by means of the stove polish, or the clothes line, or flight into the wide, wide world? While engaged in clearing out a deep bog in Somersetshire, England, a workman un earthed a canoe which probably belonged to some ancient lake dweller. The boat, which ia of oak. is in a fairly Kood state of pres ervation and measures 20 feet 6 inches In length and 2 feet 10 inches in width and in Hppearanrf ts somewhat like a modern Thames duqL Pro'isions will be- made in Congress to give precedence to the discussion of these recommendations and to vote upon them over all other matters. When three or more of the C.-Ds. think that the interest of the public require an extension of tracks, improvements or any thing ele, and that the railroad will not likely be damaged to any extent therefor, they will draft a recommendation and If it is passed by the Government all of the C.-Ds. will try to pass it at the board of directors; if this is not possible they will dismiss the responsible officers of the road and elect some other who are in accordance with their views. 6. Relations of States to the Rail roads Although the states are not per mitted to take any direct action on the management of the railroads, they, how ever, through their Congressmen can, whenever the C.-Ds. do not act in accord ance with the public demand, present their views and recommendations to the Federal - Government, which will pass upon them as upon any law. Whenever a recommendation to Congress comes from any other source than the C.-Ds. and all the branches of Government pass favorably upon it, the five C.-Ds. in volved have to abide by it or resign. Laws touching the railroads framed by the different states are valid, and officers and directors must observe them if they affect only the citizens of the particular state concerned, and if there is not al ready some National legislation covering that matter. 7. Percentage of Profits Allowed As the acceptance of this plan would secure with it an exact knowledge of the capi talization of every railroad, the greatest obstacle to the fixing by law of fairly remunerative rates on a constant scale thus disappears. 8. Consolidation of Railroads When rates may be secured by law, and persons Interested to uphold any law, be it for ies, riots, wrecks, embezzlements, scan dals and murders set forth in every daily paper. We may be touched with sorrow for the struggles of the poor against in dignity,, hunger, hardship and cold. We may keenly sympathize with the suffer ings of the rich under the grievous bur dens and responsibilities of wealth that the Lord has thrust upon them. We can behold the spectacle of a hundred sects of warring Christians expounding the word of God In as many contradictory ways and all being submerged in the ris ing tide of godlessness and infidelity. All these things are the delights of hell, not the beatitudes of heaven. But after all this hell Is' a pretty good place to live. The country is exceedingly prosperous and the people are all happy. Indeed they are instructed with most pain ful care that they ought to be happy and thankful under all circumstances that to fail in this 'duty Is to be guilty of mortal sin of ingratitude to the author of all their blessings. So they exercise to the utmost stretch their constitutional right to pursue happi ness in every possible way, some In the exercises of religion and some in the service of sin, and there is keen rivalry as to which can .boast of the greatest amount of pleasure in their respective pursuits. They all make the very best appearance possible in the various circum stances in which they find themselves. The poor rejoice greatly on their poverty, the sick thank God most devoutly for their afflictions, the godless and wanton boast of thfiir abandonment and glory In their shame, while criminals, soldiers, police Woman Who Asks for the Ballot and the Negro Sirs. Duniway Tells of an Incident Dating Back to '76 and Points a Moral. BT ABIGAIL. SCOTT DUNIWAY. A dispatch in your columns under the head of "Suffragists m Clash With Ne groes In "Wisconsin," in which, as is usual since the negro became a voter, the latter came out ahead, recalls a matter of his tory that ought to put to everlasting shame our invisible foe, the genus "anti," who, herself in hiding, parades her sex as a stumbling-block in the paths of the liberty-loving women who are advocating equal rights for the mothers of men. In the Winter of 1876-7 I was lecturing in Lincoln, III., sustained by a committee of women, penniless wives of a few promi nent men who had grown rich from the 'unearned increment" of the lands in herited by the women from the estates of their fathers. After holding a largely atr tended series of meetings in the churches, it was decided by the ladies to secure the theater or City Hail for a closing "send off" for me, there being no other avail able structure large enough to accommo date the multitude.. But the city fathers, like Messrs. Palmer and Roycroft, of "Wis consin, didn't want to be bothered with so insignificant a matter as liberty for the mothers of the Nation, and they re fused to donate the City Hall, the rental of which was $60 an evening. So we de cided to take the largest church for my The Easter Bells: Bring in the Flowers - The Great Lesson to Hnmanlty Taught by the Event, Commemorated This Day. BY B. J. HOADLEY. O person can deny sucessfully that there lived centuries ago a man whose name was Jesus. The record of his birth, life, death and resurrection is full of dramatic Interest to us all. The great stories reach the dramatic uplands and live forever, while the merely theat rical Is forgotten tomorrow. There is no mistake about the death of Jesus. A spear was plunged into his side, and water and blood flowed out of his heart. This would, have discovered a swoon, and, if not already dead, it would have caused him to expire. How careful was Pilate to know that Jesus was dead, and not until he was satisfied of this fact did he give permission for the body of Jesus to be taken down from the cross. If not dead. Jesus would not have survived the embalming of his body. Jesus was not only dead, but his .body was put Within a tomb, and there also lay the hopes of the world. The depths of darkness were brightened luridly into triumph, and nature herself stood back aghast at the spectacle of such a death. Jesus had found us at death and left us at death. But did he rise? 'The record answers, Yes. and If he did rise from the darkness and moisture of the grave death became a crouching slave. They who see the God in the man of Galilee have no difficulty with the record of resurrection. We have not failed to notice that the bidding rebates .or anything else." are on the inside, the consolidation of railroads, so as to diminish the expenses of man agement, might be encouraged. Now I will offer the few suggestions I thought of as to a way the Government may confront the immediate financial side of the Question. It is not at all improb able that through these suggestions may be found more than a technical fault, as I I am as little versed on finance as I am on railroading. This notwithstanding, to my modest judgment they seem governed by good common sense, and for this I am bold enough to submit them with the rest. (1) Valuation of the Railroads. Every railroad president in the country will have to submit to a commission named by the Government a detailed statement of the worth of hjs railroad, as learned by in ventory. This Government commission will be composed of experts who will have to investigate on the statement submitted by the railroad, and verify in the Interest of the Government If the worth given cor responds to the real worth of -the road. (2) Provisions for Subtracting the Wa tered Stock From Other Stock. As soon as the Government and the railroad have reached an understanding as to the value of the road, the difference between the real and the stock values of the road could be deducted, not by leaving out all the watered stock, but by subtracting an equal number of dollars from every share, so afl to make up for the difference. If this Is adopted, shareholders retaining part or all of their stock will give up their shares and accept the reduced ones. Ex ception to this provision will be any share that appears to have been unpaid for. Or it might follow the example set by Japan, to leave out of count all wa tered stock, but ethically I think that the first is better. (3) Forced Sales of Stock. In the event that the Government cannot secure the percentage of stock prescribed by law. Real Happiness the Greatest Blessing of Heaven, and Absolute Purity Its Attribute. and Jailers delight in the punishments and injuries they can inflict oa others. When it is thus- fashionable and even obligatory to appear to be happy it is difficult for the observer impartially to estimate how mucli real happiness there is. Real happiness is undoubtedly the greatest blessing of heaven and therefore we might naturally Infer that the coun terfeit, the falsa appearance of it would be the deepest penalty of hell. It is sure ly a harder task to assume the appear ance of happiness when one is really mis erable, than to appear to be miserable when really happy. Thus it comes that champagne is claimed by its admirers to be a. more comforting cordial to the soul than sham happiness. But it must not be supposed that we hold the pessimistic view that there is no good In this mortal world and that all Is evil. Good and evil are merely com par ac tive terms when applied, to the conditions of mortal existence. We are endeavoring to call the attention of thinkers to a high er good, a state that is beyond the com parative, a. . life that is absolute and superlative. When we say that some are good or virtuous, while others are sinful or vicious, it only means that some are a little bett-ir than others in reality or ap pearance. But in the light of absolute truth none are absolutely good, none per fect, none righteous. All are under con demnation. Therefore it follows that any reform, religion, discipline, culture, course of cor rection or scheme of morality that does not aim as its goal at ultimate perfec closing speech, and, "like honest Sancho, bid God bless the giver." , But, while negotiations for this meet ing were pending. Fred Douglas came suddenly into town, and the city fathers invited him to lecture, tendering him the free use of the City Hall they had denied to my committee of disenfranchised citi zens. They also tendered the colored ora tor free entertanment at the best hotel, free rides about the city, and a banquet. I knew my closing meeting would not be the success we desired it to be before starting to my Oregon home, if held on Fred Douglass' night, so I changed Its date, that we might all go to hear the colored orator. At the close of his ad dress, which was a very fine one, attend ed by all the prominent men of the city, who proudly occupied the platform, I lingered to he introduced to Mr. Douglass, Just as I should have lingered last night for an .introduction to Mr. Sweeny if I had been a guest of the liberty-loving women of Madison. . Mr. Douglass grasped my hand and said, alluding to the fact that women had been denied the free use of the City Hall, "Never mind mad&me! During the war I came here to Lincoln to. make a speech and they wouldn't let me speak in any hall or church in this city, and I had to speak in the streets. They wouldn't al risen Jesus appeared unrto his friends to persons who had known him before his death, and who were well able to recog nize him. These folks could not have made the story of Jesus risen out of their expectancy, for they did not believe he would rise. If Mary had expected Jesus to rise from the dead she would have seen a person other than the car penter, whom she took Jesus to be. and if Thomas had .anticipated all this, he would not have demanded seeing the print of the nails and putting his finger into the print of the nails and thrusting his hand into his side, before belief and the shout. My Lord, my God! Our message from pulpits Is not Jesus dead, but Jesus alive evermore, and our hopes rest not .upon a slain prince, but the God risen. There is no doubt about crucifixion, but many do not accept res urrection, but if we do not accept res urrection, we are no further than the cross, viz.: death. It Is resurrection that saves; crucifixion kills. The night gives way to the morning. The storms of March announce the coming sunshine.'for In the struggle between gigantic forces between cold and warmth, the victory is with the sun. Christianity, then, is not a poor, crushed, limping, melancholy thing' on its way to its own funeral, but a triumphant column marching with banners and cheers. Suppose Jesus not risen! Then we may well eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Genius would not care for a name all through time If there be no immortality, hotbeds of vulgarity would not.be broken up, nurseries of re the stockholders maybe forced to sell part of their stock. A "stockholder bavin more than one-half of the whole stork must give up preliminarily all of his hold ings in excess of one-half; and besides this, say, 50 per cent of the rest. Stock holders holding between, say. one-third and one-half, will have to sell, say, 40 per cent, and so forth. This will be per fected as the conditions of the market will suggest, the principle being, that the greater the holding, the greater the stock that wilj have to be given up. 4) How Government May Provide Nec essary Funds. This Is undoubtedly among the most delicate difficulties to overcome. I humbly suggest the following way: The transaction the Government will be going to make is not one of empty sound, but it Involves the purchase of valuable property. Therefore bills guaranteed by bonds whose security is such property, will be. if provisions for them are wisely made, as safe from depreciation as bills guaranteed by actual bullion. The fol lowing might be some of the Immediate provisions: The Government will Issue bonds bear ing interest, whose principal security are the railroad themselves, and collateral se curity the slock purchased by the Govern ment. Unless expressly stated by th stockholder, the Government will give him in change for his stock Government bonds. If, however, the Government cannot dis pose promptly of all its bonds, a part of them will be deposited In the treasury, an amount of paper bills equal to their value be issued, while the bonds themselves are to be thrown on the market as fast as they are in demand, and then the bills of whkh they are security be put out of cir culation. These bonds are to be redeemed with revenue money set apart for them, as also with the dividends which will come from the railroads themselves. tion, complete' emancipation and final ab solutism, is fictitious and futile and must end in failure because anything short of the final absolution Is a failure. An inch of a miss is a3 bad as a mile. The world is unaccustomed to thinking of anything absolute in the realm of re ligion or morals. We are fed on specu lationsv hypotheses and theories, all kinds of empiricisms or quackeries. It is sup posed that there is no. absolute truth that the origin and destiny of man is a book forever sealed. One man's opinion Is sup posed to be as good as another's and Burely Is as good if neither know any thing about the matter. The different re ligious sects all claim to be equally in spired and so they are all inspired by the spirit of fallacy the Ignorance of abso lute truth. The opposite of absolute is dissolute. The mortal humanity is in a state of dis solution, disorganization, disintegration all broken up into discordant sects, fac tions and fragments. This state of dis solution is a necessary accompaniment of mortality, for mortality implies disorgani zation and dissolution. The remedy for disorder, disease and death is not found in the diseased condition, but in the de liverance from it, in the transformation to the state of immortality or absolute life. This is the final absolution. Those who reach this are saved, no others. Those who attain to the absolute life are the only free and accepted masons. This is the supreme secret of masonry, the building of the temple of the immortal body. G'orvallis, March 25. low me to be entortained in any hotel, and I'd have had to sleep out of doors or In a barn if a colored brother hadn't taken me to "the suburbs. Never mind." he repeated," casting his eye over the slowly retreating crowd, "after a while, women will be voters, too, and you'll be ' treated just as well as If you was a nlg gah." Last night it was my good fortune to hear an important address at the Forum from Judge Eraser on "The Defective Child," in which his pathetic portrayal of the condition of hapless mothers, with deserting or drunken husbands, with lit tle, starving. Ill-clad children clinging to their gowns, drew tears from many an eye. And I could not help exclaiming to myself: "How long, O Lord, how long, will it be before the majority of men awake to their own humiliation in sight of the fact that as serf-born sons of servile mothers it is their solemn duty and should be their patriotic pride and pleasure to arise in their majority and extend to women, even without the asking, every opportunity they claim for themselves for the full equip ment In the struggle of life, liberty and happiness which is the rightful heritage of every man or woman un der a republican form of government who is amenable to its laws. finement and purity would not be made, men would be treacherous, grasping, cruel, for today is all. There would be, indeed, a heaven, but peopled with swine. But immortality disarms men carrying carnal weapons, dissuades them from mischievous intent and whips them out of dens of selfishness. It converts the humblest man into a cargo of precious worth, for there is a port to win. Cru cifixion, darkness: resurrection, bright ness. Bring on the Easter flowers, for it Is morning. Heppner, Or. Assorted Literary Food. Pilgrim. For clearness read Macaulay. For logta read Burke and Bacon. For action read Homer and Scott. For conciseness read Bacon and Pope. For sublimity of conception read Milton, For vivacity read Stevenson and Kipling. For imagination read Shakespeare and Job. For common sense read Benjamin Franklin. For elegance read Virgil, Milton ana Arnold. For smoothness read Addison and Hawthorne. For interest in common thing read Jane Austen. For simplicity read Burns, Whittier and Bunyan. For humor read Chaucer. Cervantes and Mark Twain. For the study of human nature read Shakespeare and George Eliot. For choice of Individual words read Keats. Xennyson and Emerson. For loving and patient observation of nature read Thoreau and Walton.