THE SUSUAY OKECiOMAX. PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 8, 1907. SI BSCRIPTION HATES. INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. -, , By Mall.) Ially, Siinrtay Ineludid. nm year S.O0 Ially, fumlay Included, six months.... 4.1!5 I's-ily, Sunday InrludPrt, three months.. 2.- llly, Sunday Included, one month 7"' laily. without Sunday, one year fl.OO "Dally, without Sunday, six months.... JJuily. without Sunday, three months. . 1.7T "Daily, without Sunday, one month H Sunday, one year 2..o Weekly, one year (Issued Thursday).. Sunday and "Weekly, one year 3.50 , BY CARRIER. Dally, Sunday Included, one year 9.00 Dally. Sunday included, one month 75 , HOW TO REMIT Send pontofllce money order, express order or personal cheek on your local hank. Stamps, coin or currency are at the senders risk. (Jive postofflce ad dress In full, including county and state. POSTAGE KATES. . Kntered at Portland, Oregon, Postoltlce as Second-Class Matter. 10 to 14 Pages 1 cent to 2S 1'aues 2 cents uU to 44 I'ages cents 4B to rt(i Pages cents Foreign xos(a(te. double rates. 'IMPORTANT The postal laws are strict. Newspapers on which postage Is not fully prepaid aro not forwarded to destination. EASTERN BISINESS OFFICE. rThe ri. V. H-kwilh Spevtal Agency New York, rooms 4S-ri Trihuno building. Chi cago, rooms Jlu-,'il2 Tribune building. j KEPT ON SALE. : Chicago Auditorium Annex. Postofflce News i"o., 17.S Dearborn St. 'St. Paul, Minn. N. St. Marie, Commercial Station. Denver Hamilton & Kendrlck. 906-IU2 Seventeenth street; Pratt Book Store, 1314 Fifteenth street; H. P. Hansen. S. Klce. Kansas city. Mo. Rlcksecker Cigar Co., Ninth and Walnut; Yoma. News Co. Minneapolis M. J. Cavanaugh. SO South Third. tievelnnd. O. James Pushaw, 307 Su perior street. . Washington, D. C. Ebbltt House, Penn sylvania avenue. Philadelphia, Pa, Ryan's Theater Ticket office; l'enn News Co. New York City L. Jones A Co., Astor House, Broadway Theater News Stand; Ar thur Hcitallng Wagons. Atlnntie City. '. J. Ell Taylor. Ogrieu D. U. Boyle, W. G. Kind, 114 Twenty-fifth street. Omaha Barkalow Bros., Union Station; Mageath Stationery Co. lies Moinrs, la. Moss Jacob. sarrumrnto, Cal. Sacramento News Co., 4!i! K street; Amos News Co. Salt l-uke Moon Book s Stationery Co.; Kosenfeld Ac Hansen. l,os Angeles B. E. Amos, manager seven street wagons. an Diego B. E. Amos. . Long Reach, Cal B. K. Amos. San Jose, Cal. St. James Hotel News Stand E Paso, Ten. Plaza Book and News Stand Fort Worth, Tex V. Robinson. AmariUo, Tex. Amarillo Hotel News Stand. San Francisco Foster & Crear; Ferry News Stand;. Hotel St. Francis News Stand; Jj. Parent; N. Whaatley;- Falrmount Hotel News Stand;.' Amos News Co.; L'nlted News Agents. 114 Eddy street. Oakluml, Cal. W. H. Johnson. Fourteenth and Franklin streets; N. Wheatley; Oak land News Stand; Hale News Co. (inldflleld, Ner. Louie Follin; C. E. H unter. Eureka. Cal. Call-Chronicle Agency. Norfolk. ". American News Co. pine Reach, Vs. W. A. Cosgrove. PORTLAND, SUNDAY. SEPTEMBER 8. 1901 THOSE ORIENTAL ISLANDS., What have the Philippine Islands cost us? Some say enormous sums. "What, if we retain them, will they con tinue to cost us? It Is asserted that the sums will not diminish, and that the past is the guide to the future. But what have they actually cost? It Is pj-Obably an Insoluble problem In arith metic. Yet It may be" possible to reach approximation. The conjecture of six hundred, four hundred, or even two hundred millions is wild. We mean as to total cost of the Philippines to us since we received the islands from Spain, not including the actual ex penses of the war which should not be named as part of the cost of keeping the Islands. It Is obvious that the whole military and naval cost since the treaty of peace should not be included; for we had our soldiers to maintain some where, and our war vessels, too; and neither Army or Navy is larger, as a consequence of our retention of the Philippines. But there have been ad ditional charges for transportation of troops, munitions, subsistence and gen eral supplies. Also for quarters for the troops and construction of docks and fortifications. But these sums cannot possibly have been very large. AH the expenses .of local government in the Islands are met by local revenue. So the suras in excess of what would have been necessary for. ordinary sup port of the military and naval estab lishments, cannot, as a consequence of our retention of the islands, be very large. Though the calculation is diffi cult, it Is. believed that, segregation of the Philippine account may be made, approximately; and this work Is now In progress in the department of in sular affairs at Washington. One thing Is quite certain, namely, that the amount of cost has not been great enough to make Itself felt In any se rious way as a burden upon the Treasury of the United States. Shall we sell the Islands? What have we to sell? Our sovereignty? Would It look well for us to sell that? Besides, to what nation should we sell, or could we sell? The only possible buyer at this time would be one of the great rations of Europe. It Is not probable we should wish to Install anyone of them there. Nor Japan, either; for Japan, now probably too poor to pay us any money, would, ultimately. If she had the Philippines, find her way to the front as an exceeding great power, able to threaten our Interests In the Pacific Besides, . our own people are rapidly establishing Important Interests in the Islands; and .the educational system which our people are creating there is Itself becoming bond of no mean Importance. The Filipinos can not' yet, nor for many years, be left to themselves. We must stay, or turn them over fo some other power who can govern them and keep the peace. If. left "to themselves their dissensions would speedily bring others on the scene Japan probably, or Germany. Then the Islands would become a men ace to us. It is our Interest, In high degree, to keep them out of the hands or any other great power. Should we quit them the time is most likely to cinne wht'fi We shall be sorry for It. Looking down the vista even of one hundred years, cannot any. American se the probability that we shall have a Tit of repentance over our relinquish ment of the islands, if we part with them now? .For assistance of our Pa cific commerce they hold an admirable paction; we shall always want a naval station In the Orient, and we shall need the service In the Islands and on the seas for discipline in military and naval, life, and for lessons In civil ad ministration. Our country should be prepared to meet the nations of the e irth in every sort of activity and com petition. . ,, ' That the people of the United States will ever decide to quit the Islands may be deemed highly Improbable. Equally Improbable is it that the people of. the islands, after they become settled and arrive at an appreciation of what the United States has done for them, will want us to withdraw. Free trade between them and the United, States, which must come soon, will cement the Interests of the Islands with those of the United States. Maintenance of peace, with justice, will be another bond, and the educational system which our people are so fast building up throughout the archipelago, will rapidly prepare the minds of the young for an affectionate Interest In "the mother country." Should the time ever come when the two parties will wish to separate, then the separation will be ef fected with dignity, peace and" delib eration. But the longer the sovereignty of the United States shall continue, the less likelihood that separation will be desired by either party. In. matters of this kind there is a destiny that points the way. BILLY SUNDAY. From time to time accounts appear In the newspapers and magazines of the work of a remarkable man named William Sunday. ' He Is an evangelist who preaches repentance, the remis sion of sins and judgment to come in the towns of the Middle West. Some thing of his personality may be guessed from the name "Billy Sunday" that he goes by. No machine ecclesiastic with his sanctimony, ceremonious incanta tions and Iron-clad theology was eve called "Billy." . Sunday began life as a baseball play er with the Chicago White Stockings, but he was converted young, forsook baseball and his other sins simultane ously, and began to preach what he calls the gospel. His ministry has achieved a success which can only be compared with that of St. Patrick, John Wesley, Mrs. Eddy, and other re vivalists of the first rank. It Is said that Billy Sunday has saved the souls of one hundred thousand persons by his preaching. Think how his heavenly crown will glitter with a star In it for every convert. Think also how wanly beside the effulgent glory of his halo will shine the diadem of the routine pulpiteer who rehearses, parrot-like. his hebdomadal platitudes and never converts anybody. Why cannot every preacher, In his degree, do a work like Billy Sunday's? It would be an error to say .that he Is sincere while they are not. Few preachers are hypocrites, exactly. Their discourses miss the mark widely. Their sermons might as well be pounded out on a brazen pot for all the good they do; but the trouble with them isnot so much Insincerity as lack of understanding. The ministers who understand what true worship is are rare. Most of them take It for granted that the Deity Is satisfied with threeor four prayers once a week, a little mu sic, more or less sacred, and a couple of essays on Moses or Paul. These of ferings, made regularly on Sunday, are supposed to please him so mightily that he forgets what the preacher and con gregation have been doing all the rest of the week. Truly, he must' be easy to please. That worship Is a method of living and not a matter of advent! tious sighs, ejaculations and gestures, has never dawned upon some minis terial Intellects. The pulpit has never lost its faith in magic rites. Billy Sun day has discarded ecclesiastical magic altogether. He addresses the Lord, not In the langosge' of -Incantation,' but as one man talks to another; and the Lord seems to pay a great deal more atten tion to what he says than he does to the queer stuff that is ordinarily called "prayer." The current American Mag azine gives some specimens of Sunday's prayers which most ministers might read with instruction. We should love to see them Included in the rituals of the churches, and we would almost wager that nobody would slumber while they were being offered up. Not only does the pulpit fall to understand what worship is, but it ruins lament ably the significance of Jesus' life and death. As commonly taught, his death is the all-important matter. By it he purchased forgiveness of our sins from the Almighty. We shall pass over, for the present, this "scheme of salvation," and only remark that there is no war rant for It in the New Testament. It Is an invention pure and simple of the theologians who prefer logic to right eousness. To Jesus himself the all-im portant matter was his teaching and the example of his life. His death was a mere incident. "Be ye also perfect even as I am perfect," he says; and agafh, "If ye love me keep my com mandments." Now we sing hymns and recount pa thetically the story of the crucifixion and wrangle over the precise function of the Godhead which Jesus contained but we are neither perfect as he was nor do . wc keep his commandments Not one of. his commandments do we keep either in church or out of It. The fact Is amazing, but It is undeniable. If any one of them is anywhere ob served by anybody, will some person please cite It? He forbade public pray ers, but our ministers deliver long and eloquent petitions j nevertheless. He forbade showy almsgiving, but we sound the trumpet when we aid the poor or endow a college. He con demned riches, and we are all rich, or try to be. He commanded non-reslst ance to evil and laid down the golden rule. As to the golden rule the theo logians have proved that Jesus taught a better one than Confucius and that seems to satisfy them. The thought of obeying it never enters their heads. As to non-resistance they tell us that it would destroy society, which is certainly a fine compliment either to Jesus or to society, we do not quite know which. It would be interesting to see Jesus' doctrines put In practice. Not merely praised and preached about and ex plained away, but actually put In prac- tice. We should like to see Christianity tried once on a large scale. Would it really plunge society Into anarchy, or would it fill the woild with peace and Joy? . Pioneer citizens of St. John have or ganized an association the object of which is to gather all data possible In regard to the early settlement of that growing city and of the life of Its founder, James John. The effort is a worthy one, and timely as well, since that which Is done in the matter with any degree of fullness and accuracy must be done within a few years. Mr, John left no descendants and no one has come forward with a claim to his property who has been able to main tain such a contention before the courts. Efforts In this line have diss! pated practically all of the line prop erty left by Mr. John In his will for school purposes, but his good intent Is still to be honored by his fellow-plo- neers, who purpose to raise a suitable monument over his grave, and incorpo- rate such facts of his life history as are obtainable in the archives of the city. Thrift, Integrity and 'benevolence char acterised his life qualities that it befits a community which was served and honored by them to commemorate. I JAPAN AS A COMPETITOR. The promptness with which Japan Is losing with Industrial opportunities as j presented by Western Ingenuity, and j enterprise Is noted in the establishment in the city of Kyoto, of a modern cot ton factory in which over 2000 opera tives are employed. This mill has an equipment that is equal to any of Its kind In. the world. In accordance with the exclusive policy that for centuries guarded Japan from the outside world. this factory Is Jealously guarded from the Intrusion of the inquisitive trades man or the wily competitor. The in ner workings of the plant are only known to the few; the general public is denied admission; no one except of ficials of the government has access to the Interior save, of course, the em ployes. The buildings, of which there are three under one maangement, are modern and of solid masonry. The large one covers an area of over 300, 000 square feet. That which concerns us most to know In regard to this Industry Is that It is turning out goods which are in direct competition with those manu factured In the United States for the Japanese, Chinese and Manchurian trade. The output of this cotton fac tory last year was over 300,000 pieces of 40-yard lengths. The designs and colorings of these printed cotton cloths were purely Oriental, and their quality was of, uniform excellence. In these two particulars manufacturers for the Eastern trade have fallen short of sup plying actual demand. The initial ship ments sent to the long-closed, ports of he Orient were not of goods attrac tive to the eye or suitable to the needs and habits of the people. Nor were they generally, the best of their kind. The great factory at Kyoto Is managed by men who, being born and bred to Oriental tastes and customs, cater to these with a painstaking care that opens the market at once to their products. The goods manufactured for the home trade, for example, are in semi-conspicuous stripes and quaint figures of soft browns, blues and reds. and of gray and white mixtures, while the Chinese market calls for warm col ors of solid patterns with very little of figure. The whole effect, says an American who has been a close ob server of the situation, not only In the manufacture, but In the packing and shipping of these goods, ta toward a complete understanding of competitive requirements, for every detail Is car ried out- In accordance with the pur pose of giving the purchaser what he wants, even to the extent of making the labels attractive and carefully see ing that they misrepresent nothing. The looms for this great growing and carefully guarded industry are from America; so also is the electrical ma chinery. The printing machines are from Eugland, and Germany supplies the colors. The laborers are Japanese with the single exception of the man In charge of the designing department, and he is Swiss. Of the operatives a large proportion are women and girls. than whom no more patient, dextrous and enduring laborers are to be found in the world. They receive as wage from 25 to 35 sen per day, the maxi mum figure being on the piece basis and-representing from 12Vi -to 17"& cents per day. Upon this last item the question of competition with Japan in the manu facture of cotton goods largely de pends. American manufacturers can learn, and to a considerable extent have learned, to cater to the tastes and wants of special countries and peoples of the Far East. But, the machinery once Installed, the laborer's wage is an item that enters largely into the ques tion of profit on production. In this, American manufacturers can never hope to compete with those of Japan. The latter country literally swarms with men, women and children - who earnestly desire to work, who must work and who feel that work Is a blessing to be sought after diligently, not a burden to be shirked or avoided when possible to do so. Whereas In this country the estimate of labor as a blessing and a burden, changes places. Briefly, as deduced from this show ing, Japan can import manufacturing machinery from America, printing ma chines from England, coloring matter from Germany, a designer from Switz erland and cotton from Texas and by studying the habits and catering to the tastes of Oriental peoples and turning the labor of h'er teeming millions Into the problem at from 12"& to 17 cents a day, can become our most formidable competitor in the cotton goods' markets of the Far East, and perhaps eventual ly in Western markets. The situation Is one that must be reckoned with when the question of tariff revision comes up for consideration In Con gress. SAMUEL ADAMS. The third, volume of "The Writings of Samuel Adams" has Just been pub lished. It contains his letters and mis cellaneous essays written between 1773 and 1777, when he was a factor so ac tive and Important in fomenting the Revolution. Perhaps his principal work was the organization of the "commit tees of correspondence" which kept the patriots throughout New England Informed of one another's doings and of the machinations of the British and Tories. Considering that there was at that time no National postage system and that travel was slow, difficult and expensive. It Is wonderful how thor oughly news was distributed by letter- writers. Samuel Adams was the prince of agi tators. Tireless and fearless, he in cessantly stirred up public sentiment, denouncing the British and heartening the colonists. Besides his letters, he showered the country with "incendi ary" pamphlets and wrote continuously for the Boston Gazette, exercising "a far-reaching Influence in preparing the popular mind for revolution and in has tenlng the approach of the crisis." Of the obnoxious Lord North, whose- stu pidity was an occasion, if not a cause. of the separation between England and her colonies, his criticism is unsparing. He even predicts a day when the Eng lish "absorbed In luxury and dissipa tlon shall sink into obscurity and contempt." This was written long before Macaulay's famous New Zealan der thought of weeping over London Bridge another warning that all the good things have been said before and that everybody who writes is a plagia rist In deed If not In purpose. Adams was not a man of construc tive thought. Hence,- as soon as the Revolution was actually under way, his usefulness ended and he became an obstructionist. The born-agitator Is ever a thorn in the flesh of the prac tical statesman. Samuel Adams harried Washington; the furious abolitionists gave Lincoln no peace; Patrick Henry opposed the adoption .of the Consti tution. Still, they have their place in the world. We should never progress without them, though It is very difficult to progress with them. If men like Samuel Adams could only stir up trou ble and then die, leaving others to settle It, the arrangement would be quite ideal. One could almost wish that all of them might be treated like John Brown whose timely death was advantageous both for his own glory and for the comfort of his contempora ries. The fact that so many agitators survive to become pests illustrates once more the imperfection of this un satisfactory world. WHAT IS A REASONABLE RATE? "All the traffic will bear" is quite likely a part of the policy of the rail roads in fixing the freight rate on lum ber to the East. In recent years tim ber has become scarce in the East and the market for Coast lumber in that part of the country has been growing rapidly. At the same time prices of lumber have advanced, both in the state of manufacture and In the state of sale. Since the aupplyvrfn the East is short and the West must be looked to for lumber, there is a practical cer tainty that quantities sufficient to meet a large part of the demand will be shipped even If prices be raised a little. The railroads therefore figure that the traffic will bear a little heavier freight rate and they put up the figures. This of course hurts the Western manufac turer, for an increase of $3.30 per thou sand In the freight rate either compels the consumer to pay the higher price or the producer to accept a lower price In the one case presumably- lessening the demand somewhat and in the other cutting off the profits. Confronted) by this situation, and knowing that there is no competition In rates between railroads, the lumber men of the Coast are looking to the Interstate Commerce Commission for relief, and learn, as Indicated by the communication from George M. Corn wall published yesterday, that the powers of the Commission are not ex tensive enough. That remedial legis lation Is imperative in order to protect lumbermen as well as other shippers, he asserts, and he particularly desires an amendment to the present law which will prevent a railroad company from increasing rates without approval of the Commission. At present the law permits the railroad to put a new rate Into effect and the shipper must appeal to the Commission for relief, paying the new rate in the meantime. The argument in favor of extended powers for the Interstate Commerce Commission, In this respect, is Bound. In law, the shipping of freight consti tutes a contract, by which the trans portation company and the shipper agree that the former shall carry the freight and that the latter shall pay a certain compensation for the service. As a matter of fact, the contract Is pre pared, both as to terms and compensa tion, by the transportation company. and the shipper must accept It whether he agrees or not. Government regulation of railroads is based upon the principle that the ship per has a right to be heard in the mak ing of the terms of the contract. The Commission, whether state or inter state, is neither a representative of the shipper nor of the railroad company, but an Intermediary, charged with the duty of hearing both sides of a con troversy and determining what is Just and reasonable. The transportation company has a right to a reasonable compensation and that and no more the shipper should be compelled to pay. But if the company has the power to establish a new rate and put It in force without the shipper being heard, the contract is ono-sided, notwithstanding the shipper has a right of appeal to the Commission. The transportation com pany could not be very seriously In jured by. a requirement that the old rate be maintained until a hearing could be had, while the shipper might easily be injured by the temporary en forcement of a rate that is unjust. The transportation company established the rate in the first instance and hence can reasonably be expected to show Justifi cation for a raise before the advanced rate shall be put into effect. In the case of a rate established by the Com mission it is proper that the rate be put in force Immediately, for a hearing has been had, and the aggrieved party can Justly be required to abide, by the rate pending an appeal to the courts. If the advance of 10 cents a hundred, of $3.30 per ton In the rate on lumber la reasonable, It should be established, but there should be some means of de termining the reasonableness before It goes into effect. THE LABORER AND THE ORCHARD. The man with a barrel of money who is buying sixty thousand young apple trees for a commercial orchard he is planning for his Immense acreage near Mountain Home, Idaho, Is evidently doing It without fear of the labor lord, the hired man. All other essentials are at hand. That section of Idaho Is Just right for the apple. The sun shines bright all Summer long- to put the rosy hue on the fruit; the science of the Irri gator gives the tree all the moisture it needs at the proper time; this same applied science will shut off the water that the sap may go down early and avoid Winter killing; the temperature during the Winter months is all the orchardlst can desire, for It Is oftener below than above the little round mark on the thermometer, and the pest that would hibernate cannot get far enough Into the ground to avoid freezing to death; the location on the Oregon Short Line Is just right for shipping either way and the laws prevent excessive charges. All these advantages swing the pen dulum to the optimistic side, and the single discordant note In the harmony Is labor. Right there the owner will find a bite too big to masticate. There is no floating body of workers in that or any other section of this Coast to handle the crop in picking and packing time. The men up there who have ranches of 160 or 320 acres, with a great part in alfalfa and more or less in grain, find their work altogether too little diversified to keep help employed the year round In numbers sufficient to meet the stress when it comes. The yellow man prefers to make his own garden with the help of a few cousins that somehow get past the exclusion offlcjals to the small harm of the Na tion. The brown man Is too unreliable for any dependence. There are no "farm laborers" as in the East and Europe going hither and yon In colo nies. Invention may In time, but not yet nor soon, devise machinery to do the work. So that Is where the owner will find he has "bitten off more than he can chew." Yet he will prove a benefactor. He can hold it down for the few years nec essary to cultivate the trees, and then, with uplifted hands Invoking all crea tion to witness the like It never saw before, he will in disgust turn his big apple orchard over to a Bright real es tate man to be cut up into ten-acre holdings, each with its little family finding Just enough to do tq make them ( prosper. Then the salvation or tne Mountain Home country will begin. Necessity knows no law not even an unwritten law. Here in the Pacific Northwest there is a sort of unwritten law against the employment of Chinese and Japanese at labor in which whites are -ordinarily employed. The man who employs the Orientals does so with some feeling that he has committed an undefined crime and he makes excuses to his own conscience and to his friends. The candidate for office who has ever employed Chinese laborers has a defense to make on the stump and even to charge a candidate with such an offence Is to call for an emphatic denial or a difficult explanation. But this year the unwritten law against the employment of this kind of labor has been set aside by the pressure of necessity and men who ordinarily would not consider the employment of Japs and Chinese have made contracts to have their crops gathered by the yellow and. the brown men. If any de fense or explanation should ever be called for, the plea of necessity will be sufficient We shall always have with us the man who will swindle an over-trusting friend by misrepresenting the character of land he owns and wishes to get rid of. We shall always have, also, the over-trusting people who buy farms they have never seen. Controversies between these two classes of people will therefore be presented for settle ment In the courts. In the case of a widow, such as the woman -who pre sented her story before Judge Ganteiv beln Thursday, sympathy must always be with the plaintiff, as it also will be when an Infirm old man has been im posed upon. But when a man in pos session of ordinary intelligence permits himself to be deceived in such a man ner, sympathy bestowed would be mis placed. Boys who trade jack-knives "unslght and unseen" grin and bear the result. Older boys must learn to do likewise. But there is a difference be tween folly and infirmity. Rural mallcarrlers will watch with considerable interest the experiment of the Clackamas county carrier who will run an automobile instead of driving a horse. It is altogether probable that In good weather the auto will be su perior in service and cheaper to main tain than a horse. For a few months In the Winter when roads are muddy the horse and cart will very likely be best adapted to the needs of the car rier. Farmers along the route will not be so favorably impressed with the red vehicle, for autos are plentiful enough to suit them now. There will be this compensating feature, however, that the farm horses will the sooner be come accustomed to the puff and whir of the auto if one passes down the road every day. And sooner or later the horse must make up his mind to accept the auto as a friend and not an enemy. Oregon Agricultural College fias made the enrollment of 1000 students in 1907 one of the attainments to be recorded this year. If this were the only purpose one might well wish It would fall, but It isn't. The Agricultural College not only seeks the students but gives them a good year's training after it gets them. The heavy appropriation made by the Legislature last Winter will en able the. school to care for a much larger number of students than ever before, and In a much better manner. Whatever occupation one may follow, he will find the sort of education he gets at the Agricultural College a prac tical aid to him. May the 1000-mark be passed as soon as the farmer boys get their season's work at home com pleted. The ordinance requiring owners to hitch horses that are left standing upon the streets attached to delivery Wagons and other vehicles, should be strictly enforced, of course. For what other purpose was It enacted? The same may be said of all other unre pealed ordinances upon the city's statute book. One, for example, re quires vacant lots, whereon weeds run riot and mature millions of seeds, to be cleared up by the owner. Another one .forbids the dumping of tin cans and other refuse upon vacant lots and In gulches. Such ordinances are not specially ornamental. If they are not to be made useful by enforcement, they should be repealed. Officials of the United States Navy are assured that there Is plenty of water on the bar and the battleships can safely come to the Columbia. And except on Sundays there Is plenty of something else on the bar In Columbia River ports. Come on, lads. If members of rival hack-drivers' un Ions refuse to go into the same funeral procession, what will happen when two or more combatants simultaneously reach the pearly gates where Peter keeps open shop? In view of the failure of Mrs. Eddy's next friends. It may be profitable for Mr. Bryan's closest associates to ask for a commission to examine into the question of his capacity to manage the Democratic party. When Bryan called Taft the Great Postponer, he probably forgot that he had himself but recently announced the postponement of his ideal govern ment-ownership of railroads. our reiiow-citizens wno won prizes at the Irrigation Congress will serve a good purpose by keeping Mr. Harriman Informed on the productive capacity of inaccessible Oregon. Only seven years until the Panama Canal Is done. Oregon waited a great deal longer for the first Pacific road after Its first sod was turned. Some people seem to worry over the likelihood that Walter Wellman will lose his life in the arctic. Well, he never did. The scientist who declares that Ve suvius will not soon break out again must have looked deep into the sub Ject. Loss of a million dollars on a bad loan may serve as a preventive of larg er losses at future local world's fairs. It will probably go down to history as the Jimtown fizzle. COMMENT ON SUNDRY OREGON TOPICS Disappointment In Love Kly In Hnrrimnn'n Ointment Deadly Milk Prices Love and Cookery Happy Fuel Trust Benefit of Labo Scarcity ISAPPOINTMENT in -love is a marvel, past the power of any living man to explain. It might be inferred from this text that the fol lowing discourse is to be a 20th cen tury Sunday vaudeville sermon. To en courage fearful readers, we shall enter a disclaimer, right here at the start. One might suppose, from reading the Friday news of the divorce courts, that most misery is dual. But the country newspapers everywhere reveal that a surprisingly large quantity is single. Disappointment is so rampant that the editor of the North Bend Harbor, Coos County, bursts out with: "Make the most of everything you have today; to morrow's promises are not at par." From Seattle the other day came the tale of Miss Zahlton, of Omaha, who met Mr. Patterson on the train west ward, fell in love with him and gave him a diamond ring and $300 until he should procure the license to wed. But Mr. Pattercon, Instead of procuring the license, "skipped out." We doubt Mlsa Zahlton will trust an other man for a while at least. Of course, if all women should form a union and stick to this- resolution, the men- very shortly would round up the wretches and put them out of the way presupposing there should be enough men of serious intentions to force the others into line. But if this were pos sible, It would have been resorted to by the women long ago. The best so lution, after all, is Shakespeare's ad vloe In Much Ado: Blg-h no more, ladles, sigrh no more. Men were deceivers ever; One foot In sea and. ons on (dwnj To one thing; constant never. Then sigh not so. But let them go. Ana be you blithe and bonny. Converting; all your sounds of ("! Into. Hey nonny, nonny. But the single blessedness misery Is not one-sided. From ' peaceful Athena comes a harrowing; story of perfldlty by the fair party. "Jap Marquis," says the Press, "Is having a peck of troubles. He announces that he espoused a widow In Walla Walla and that on his return trip, having business In Pendleton, his newly wedded wife passed on through, promising to return on the next train. He has met all trains, but she comes not." Disappointment is a hard master. It akes slaves of everybody but the pessimists, or rather they are the only ones -who delude themselves believing they are free. "We are again minus a typewriter," says the Merrill Record, Klamath County, "one of the hotels Is minus a waitress and Incidentally a father came near being minus a daugh ter or plus a son-in-law. The father saved the daughter, but the hotel and the paper are total shipwrecks." And a philosopher In the Cloverdale Cour ier, Tillamook County, observes: "They say that sometimes, when a fellow butts In and takes another fellow's girl to the county fair, he isnt always sure he can take her home." But some happiness remains, after all. In Coos, the Bandon Recorder says that William Panter, since the arrival of a nine-pound heir, has had a spasm of joy, but If given time, like other mem bers of the family, will recover. Up In Umatilla the Rev. George T. Ellis, of Athena, Is the happy possessor of a new lot of blank marriage certificates. And In distant Klamath, some joyous resident of Merrill amused himself "strewing rotten eggs along the side walk." So let's not despair. Deadly 3111k Prices. DOC COTTE3L said to Bailey "In milk's so big a store Of germs, that folks are dying Who never died before." To which Bro. Bailey answered "The people you soft-soap them Less folk would die If doctors Would feed them milk, not dope them.' 'Tls strange that men so learned. So far fro'm truth should wander. And, wasting breath on microbes. Milk prices fall to ponder. Fly In the Ointment. X a fertile "desert," the great rail I road monarch, tired and soiled, rubbed his Aladdin lamp. At once a railroad track stretched away toward Wall street. Again the monarch rubbed the lamp and a special car stood before him forthwith. Yet once more he rubbed and found him- self at ease In the car, his valet pulling off his shoes and a waiter serving wine But there was a big clamor outside. "Confound that infernal lamp," he ex claimed, "It won't make the public shut up," and all he could say further was "The public be d ." Wherein we again see that there is fly In every ointment. Aunt Polly's Philosophy. OUXTRY Fair A place where states , men come to meet the people and to shun each other. Wedding That which the friends and kin think a bore to attend, but from which they stay away angry if not In vited. Christmas present That which many defeated candidates for office will buy with cigar coupons, a little more than three months hence. Hard Winter That which the fuel trust was first to foresee, but said nothing about. Ox An animal, the goring of which makes a difference only to those persons who own oxen. Cold Cash A substance which causes people to warm up to its possessor. Explained. ' ,f HAT you lack, my boy," said the W father, "is initiative." "Yes." answered, the son, whose weak ness was indolence- and procrastination, "but I have plenty of referendum." Whereupon the father realized what ailed the boy; he was bred in Clackamas County. Looking Far Ahead. CHARLES I. was just mounting the scaffold to be beheaded. "Ah, ha!" he exclaimed, "I'll get even with these bloody English yet." Wherein we see that Charles prevented disdainful Britishers, for all time, from asking American tourists. In a sneering manner, about assassins or. lynchers In this country. UP IN Benton County, a Monroe news gatherer of the Corvallis Republican accuses Portland of "draining this vicinity of working hands to such an extent as to cause a labor famine here." Farther away in Crook, a Paulina correspondent of the Prineville Journal says "scarcity of hay hands made slow work this sea son." In Union County, whose chief town recently was reported overrun with hobos, the La Grande Observer cries: "Men wanted! Help wanted!" All over Oregon fruit drops from trees for lack of hands to pluck it. Yet It's an 111 wind that blows nobody good. In far-away Wallowa, two gentle men, spurning to contribute their labors In the town of Joseph, got drunk and were fined $5 and $10, and then were sent to Jail for a day for contempt of court for calling the Justice a "bird of a court." Bo much was their sum total of pleasure from prosperity. - In Coos County, A. Jamison, responding to the call of the prosperous thirsty, has opened a new saloon. And In Benton, a "dry" county, the PhllomafLi Review calls attention to Idleness, saying: "We venture to state without fear of contradiction, that there has been more drunkenness and gambling in tho City of Philomath during; the past six or eight months, than tor any similar period of our four yearo' resi dence." The labor acardty has added to plea sures of this gentry. But it has benefited others differently. It has added to the credit, for example, of one, S. A Thomas, editor of the Lexington Wheatfield, of whom It Is recorded In the Happner Gazette: ' "He certainly has all the other tows- paper boys laid on the shelf when It comes to work. Just now, during hot weather Editor Thomas is loading header boxes in the harvest field at $3.50 per, in the day time. At night he goes to Lexington, gets out bis paper, runs the electiio light plant and the creamery and employs his leasure time In the dtrtlea of town marshal. Here is our hat Brother Thomas." It la recorded in the Canyon City Hftglo that William and Charles Smith, and R. M. Lyon "have completed the cntttn of 230 cords of wood on the rewu i for residents of Canyon City.' Why la It that the strsoig-snt mtorf-ea come from farthest from home? It's Our Wood. PUEL'a high, you wish to buy l The refuse slabs at sawmills; But though you sigh and loudly cryt .Your plea no pity Instills. Tt will not pay," they curtly say, "To sell you refuse slabwood. We wish to plump It on our dump. Tor there It does us more good. "And though the cost (much -would be lost). Would come out of your pocket. We must not let you slabwood get; The trust would not allow It. "So pay the price and act real nice; Without us you would shiver; It's our biz; how much wood's Hz. We're warm; what makes yfu quiver?" Young Hopefuls. TOT, 5 years old after dreaming that a baby arrived at her house, was telling her mother about It at breakfast. "Was the baby miner" asked the mother. "No, mother," responded Tot, "It was mine." Willie had seen so many fine fish brought into the Summer hotel that he Imagined it easy to catch them. So his mother, after much importuning, fitted him up and sent him forth to a cafe fishing place. . After long and patient effort, Willie re turned, his hands empty of fish and his face full of disappointment. "The ocean is too big," he explained to his mother. "The fish couldn't find my hook." Marion, 4 years old, was one of the guests at her mother's afternoon re ception, along with very many other ladies. Several of the visitors dropped cake crumbs on the parlor carpet, to th disgust of the youngest member of the party. So she fetched the carpet sweeper and went to work gathering up the crumbs. "Wouldn't It be better," asked her mother, "to wait until the ladies have gone?" "No, mother," was the response; "they are too dirty." Love and Cookery. ((IF A man is realy In love," quotes I somebody in a comic magazine proverb, in answer to one of Aunt Polly's philosophies, "he doesn't care whether the girl can cook or not." That Isn't true. We have it on the authority of Bud Hopkins, of Molalla Forks, who is looking for a wife than he will lave every girl who can cook. We also have it on the authority of Sam Simpkins, of Tumallo Creek, that if a girl can cook, he doesn't care whether he loves or not, she will fill the bill. Now, in the caees of Bud and Sam, it is clear that "in love" Is merely a secondary emotion and- that "can cook" is the pri mary. Chances are, neither Bud nor Sam could fall in love unless the girl could cook. Everybody knows that the first woman neld her spell over the first man by feeding hin and finally got him into the devil of a lot of trouble by the magic. There is an (.Id proverb that the way to a man's heart Is through' his stomach. This proverb Is far older than comic magazine gush and more reliable. The truth is a man doesn't cai-e whether a girl can cook or not so long as he doesn't love her. "Feed the brute" is the woman's side of the case. Why Prohis So Gay' Rains come. Hops "bum," Prohis in glee. But, stay: Their gay Seems strange to me. Less hops. Than drops Water in beer Prolii Should sigh When rain falls here.