wBli SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, DECEMBER .29, 1907.
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PORTLAND, SUNDAY, DEC. !9. 1907.
HARRTMAN'S STOCK GAMBLING.
The Union Pacific report, of which
we have published summaries, was
drawn up to make fair weather with
stockholders and bondholders. The
design was to make a showing to
them that they hadn't been swindled
by the Indulgence of the management
in Its various schemes of colossal
gambling with Union Pacific funds.
Many millions have been lost. It is
admitted; but the excuse is that more
millions would have been lost had the
gambling taken other directions.
Of course the robbed and plundered
and oppressed public, forced to pay
extortionate rates for railroad service,
this public whose money formed the
basis of the whole business, is not to
be considered at all.
But what business had Mr. Harri
man to be gambling with the stocks
and bonds of distant railroads that
had no relation to the roads of which
he was in charge, using the enormous
sums extorted from the public on the
lines of the Union Pacific system, in
his profligate undertakings? He says
that if he had left the Investments in
the Hill roads there would have been
more los3 than has resulted from tak
ing them out of those roads and put
ting them in elsewhere. But what
business had he to be investing in Hill
stocks? The total, the report tells us,
was J117.866.799. A prodigious sum.
Where did it come from? From ex
tortions in Union Pacific territory, to
which the Oregon country contributed
$29,000,000. That money, instead of
being used for gambling, should have
been expended for betterments and
extensions in the territory that pro
duced it. The money drawn from
the West has gone kiting In the Balti
more & Ohio, the New York Central,
the Alton, and so on.
A law of Congress should regulate
the interstate rates; and the law of
each and every state should regulate
and control the rates within the limits
of such state. These reports of profits
so vast, invested and squandered else
where, should be a fair guide to all
Legislatures for reduction of rates and
requirement of service.' We cannot
expect these gamblers to give us any
new lines. On the money they extort
from us they would rather throw dice
in Wall street.
PREVENTION FOR BOTS.
Continual arrests of growing boys
for petty stealing and embryonic bur
glary mean something Is wrong. The
normal boy is not a thief by .nature..
He may be Hestructive out of sheer
mischief without malice, but he knows
the rights of ownership and does not
steal. When he does, however, he is
no longer normal. He breaks the law
to satisfy a want or suppress a crav
ing. If he have the cigarette habit,
as too many boys have, despite spe
cial and general laws, his temptation
is Just as great proportionally as the
morphine fiend. Then he soon be
comes a delinquent and subject to the
discipline of the Juvenile court, for he
ts eventually caught always; There is
no getting away from his crimes.
Heredity and environment stand for
nothing in his case, for it is always
the boy of good family who is up be
fore the judgeto
Right there, perhaps, lies the trou
ble. The father of the "boy of a good
family," himself reared under differ
ent circumstances and surroundings,
too busy, it may be, in providing for
the family's welfare, knows little of
the habits of his boy or leaves his
care and training to the mother; and
any lad who feels that way knows
how easy it is "to fool ma." The first
knowledge the father gets Is the ar
rest of his son, and then he is dis
posed to spend money "to clear him."
He is a little late with his finances.
Prevention of the delinquency 13
cheaper than curing It, afid he will
learn that if he had given his son a
little pocket money not much, yet a
little, as the boy finds other boys have,
his greater expense and consequent
sorrow would have been spared. The
boy of today needs the wherewithal to
hold his own with his companions. If
he 'goes' wrong after that, there, are
the woodshed and the strap. Thus
will the burden of the Juvenile court
be made light and many a mother's
heart spared a grief. Many, a good
citizen can today recall the time when
"the old man laid it on good and
heavy" and feel a pride in the telling.
AN OBJECT LESSON NEEDED.
"Thou shalt not steal" was omitted
from the rules of the Ross bank; at
least it did not prevent theft of the
state school money, nor grab and
graft of the money of trusting depos
itors. There was black rascality in
this bank. Prison is the right place
for doers of this kind of infamy.
There are laws which ordain that
such, men shall be placed there and
confined for a term commensurate
with their misdeeds.
The school moneys are an irreduci
ble fund, a trust, made such by the
constitution, the . statutes and the
courts. Persons who use those mon
eys or invest them are violators of the
law and by the law deemed criminals.
The State Land Board is the only au
thority allowed by law to lend or in
vest the school fund. The Ross bank
was intrusted with school moneys,
which it should have held in solemn
trust, as custodian. But it used the
moneys in high finance schemes,
loaned them to speculators like Pence
and Rankin, and failed in. business.
The State Treasurer had placed $288,
000 of the school fund In the bank for
safekeeping. That money is locked
up in the bank's schemes of high
finance.
Here is an offense against all the
men and women of Oregon, and their
children, whose education Is aided by
the earnings of the Irreducible school
fund. The people of Oregon long ago
declared in their constitution that the
school fund must not be tampered
with and prescribed penalties in the
law for violators. The officers of the
Ross bank should be made to answer
before the law for their misdeeds.
Money of depositors was received by
the bank when the institution was In
solvent; there were deals and conspir
acies In the1 bank to misappropriate
funds; there was inflation and water
ing of properties turned over to the
bank to 'cover up the funds so di
verted In shprt, there was a carnival
of grab and graft such as Oregon has
never seen in a bank within its own
borders and such as would supply
abundant counts' for Indictment.
But the most lawless deed of all
was the looting of the school fund.
Oregon needs the object lesson of men
brought to Justice for misdeeds like
these. It has had Juggling enough
with public funds.
THE PESTIFEROUS HOUSE FLY.
After recording an exhaustive sci
entific report of a committee on san
itation of the New York Merchants'
Association, in which the pernicious
activity, as a filth carrier, of the com
mon house fly is set forth, one is lost
In wonder that, in days before wire
screens were employed as a defense
against flies, the, farmhouses and
country hotels were not depopulated
every year by a pestilence of typhoid
and other enteric diseases. The house
fly, as is well known, formerly held
right of way between the stables, pig
sties and other outbuildings of the
farms and villages, and the kitchens
and dining-rooms of the people, with
only the fly-brush wielded over the
dinner table at mealtime and the im
provised fly-trap of sweetened water
in a glass on the kitchen table .as
checks to its pernicious activity.
While epidemics of typhoid in the ru
ral districts were rare, it is recalled
that the enteric disorder known as
"Summer complaint," supposed to be
due to hot weather, was generally
prevalent among the children of fly
fighting, fly-conquered farmers and
villagers in those days.. This disease
was, in fact, an expected visitant In
families where there were children.
Just .as ague was expected among the
settlers along the margins of un
drained prairie lands in the Middle
AVest during the earlier years of the
last century.
The cause of these annual visita
tions was not known, but the effect
was a foregone conclusion, and this
was fought valiantly by the supposedly-wise
old doctor, who went his
rounds carrying his saddle-bags well
stocked with calomel and jalap, squills
and paregoric and all the rest of the
potions known to and compounded by
the old-fashioned pharmacist.
But somehow a portion of the
sturdy stock of the old pioneer days
survived the Invasion of the swamps,
the annual incursions of the house
fly and the doslngs of doctors, though
In the light of modern discovery in
the realm of cause, we are left to
wonder that any were left to tell the
tale of a miraculous delivery from
death.
AVe read In the report of the ' com
mittee above noted that fly traps were
placed on the piers and elsewhere in
Manhattan and Brooklyn, which, be
tween July 13 and August 31 gathered
In 110,925 flies. Dr. Jackson, the bac
teriologist of the committee, examined
a large percentage of these flies and
found them covered 'with dangerous
bacteria, principally with those caus
ing Intestinal diseases. His investiga
tions warrant him In expressing the
opinion that flies are responsible for
the Infection that results annually in
5000 deaths from typhoid fever and
other intestinal diseases In the great
city. As against this estimate, ma
laria caused 52 deaths in 1905, a com
parison that makes the mosquito an
almost negligible quantity as a carrier
of disease. Concluding his report,
after an exhaustive presentment of
the means by which he was enabled
to reach the conclusions presented.
Dr. Jackson says: ' ;
We are spending considerable time and
money in a war on mosquitoes. The cases
of malaria reported in Greater New Tork
In 1005 were but 359. and the deaths only
52. Much more to be feared la the com
mon house' fly. This so-called harmless
Insect la one of , the chief sources of in
fection which in New York causes annually
about 650 deaths from typhoid fever and
about 7000 deaths yearly from intestinal
diseases, we are in the habit of consider
ing the Fall rise in typhoid deaths as in
evitable. The Fall rise, if set back two
months from the report of deaths to the
time of the contraction of the disease, will
exactly correspond to the prevalence of flies
and to the rise In deaths from intestinal i
diseases of both children and adults. It
also correspond to the rise In temperature.
We are therefore erroneously Inclined to
view the disease as due to hot weather.
While climatic conditions, by reducing the
vitality, favor the contraction of the disease,
they are not the real cause of it. Tempera
ture does not produce the specific germ
which Invariably accompanies the disease.
The activity of the house fly is in propor
tion to the temperature; and the time at
which It Is most active and most numerous
corresponds exactly with the time of the
contraction of typhoid fever and other in
testinal diseases.
IT IS A SIMPLE STORY.
Caveat emptor. The Daughters of
the Confederacy should have known
better what they were about when
they Invited Mr. C. E. S. .Wood to ad
dress them. The Daughters knew be
forehand of his eccentricities anH wo
'cannot discern that fhpv hvA anv
substantial ground of complaint. Mr.
AVood may have permitted himself to
paint the ante-bellum conditions In
the South with a tarry brush, but we
question whether he exaggerated the
evils of slavery very much. A full re
port of his remarks is not available,
but from what is printed in The Ore
gonian, the truth does not seem to
have suffered excessive violence from
his tongue. It has become fashion
able to muse over slavery with fond
regret. One can even discover signs
of attempts here and there to envelop
the peculiar institution with an illu
sive glow of fancy, and to make It ap
pear that a great. wrong was suffered
both by the whites and negroes when
it was abolished. This moral slump
In our views of slavery since the war
may be compared to the chahgewhlch
took place In the South between the
times of- Jefferson and Buchanan.
In Jefferson's day slavery was uni
versally admitted to be an evil. No
body thought of defending it on prin
ciple, and every enlightened South
erner looked forward to a time when
it should be abolished. Jefferson,
Washington, Patrick Henry, all felt In
the same way about it, and so ex
pressed themselves. But passing to
the period between 1830 and the out
break of the slaveholders' rebellion,
we find that a complete change in
Southern sentiment has taken place.
Everybody In the South, great and
small, young and old, male and fe
male, is now Justifying slavery. In
stead of an acknowledged evil to be
abolished as soon as may be, it has
become a divine institution. Texts are
discovered In the Bible which make it
sacred. It is found to be singularly
adapted to the Southern people. It
is better for both the whites and the
negroes. AVhat brought about this
change? What transformed the
South from a community which
loathed slavery to one which was
eager to fight a bloody war for its
sake?
The reason for the change must be
sought in economic conditions. The
morality of the South, like that of an
cient Rome and of every modern com
munity, grew directly out of its means
of livelihood. By 1850 the bread and
butter, to say nothing of the silks and
diamonds, of almost every white per
son In the South had come to depend
on the unpaid labor of the negroes.
Slavery was not only the foundation
of Southern life, but It was interwoven
with its structure from top to botT
torn. Cotton could not be grown by
free white labor then any more than
now. The feudal domination of the
first families was inconsistent with
freedom. The profits of the commerce
of the South, such as it had, were
made from slave labor. The habits,
modes of thought, sympathies and
prejudices of the whites had all been
molded and frullt upon the right of
the white man to rob the negro of the
product of his toll. A word against
slavery was therefore a word against
everything that the South held dear
and sacred. To attack slavery was to
rend the fabric of its domestic and
commercial life. Naturally the South
originated a code of morals which
suited its economic conditions, just as
all men have always done.
There was a little tilt, it seems, be
tween Mr. AVood and one of his au
ditors about the reason why slavery
disappeared In the North, though
there was no genuine difference of
opinion. Mr. Wood said that Massa
chusetts gave up slavery voluntarily.
The auditor replied that Massachu
setts only gave up slavery after her
negroes . had been sold down South.
Both statements are true. Negro
slavery disappeared In the North be
cause it was unprofitable. The farms
of New England could be worked by
free whites to better economic ad
vantage than by negroes. The same
was true of the manufactories, whal
ing fleets and fisheries of the North.
It was even more emphatically true
of the fleets of common carriers which
covered the whole ocean between the
time of Jefferson and the beginning
of the Civil War. If negro slavery
had paid In the North, as it did in
the South, it would never have been
abolished, and New England would
have invented a code of morals to Jus
tify It. It Is an unfailing trait of mor
alists everywhere and always to dis
cover that whatever is profitable is or
dained of God.
It is an idle fancy cherished by
sentimentalists that the Civil War
might have been avoided by compro
mise, disunion prevented by conces
sion, and slavery gradually abolished
by the lapse of time. All these prop
ositions are illusory. We may agree
with Lincoln that Almighty God sent
the War of the Rebellion "as a woe
upon those by whom the offense" of
slavery came, or we may not. To him
it seemed likely that Providence had
willed the war to continue until all
the wealth amassed "by the bond
man's 250 years of unrequited toil,"
had been swept away and until "every
drop of blood drawn by the lash had
been repaid by another drawn with
the sword." We may see in the Civil
War nothing more divine than an
economic struggle between free and
slave labor; but In any case it was in
evitable. No compromise was possi
ble with slavery. It was an Institu
tion which had to conquer or be con
quered. If the North had yielded, the
South would have become a militant
slave empire like ancient Rome. Her
armies would have been the best in
the world and also the largest, be
cause they would have been fed by
black labor unpaid. That the South
would have overrun the free territory
of the North little by little, partly by
military force, partly by commercial
pressure, seems indisputable; and
there is reason to believe that under
her dominion the great West would
have been divided up into vast feudal
estates worked by slaves. Looking a
little farther ahead one can see the
South emerging into history as a
world conqueror, carrying on slave
raids in remote quarters of the earth
and gathering the plunder of all na
tions In her cities. It is interesting
to try to imagine what would have
happened when the Southern slave
barons , had discovered the meek and
industrious millions of China, so
profitable to exploit, so easy to en
slave. Had the North yielded, or the
South triumphed, it is not difficult to
believe that the United States, as the
greatest slave empire that ever exist
ed, might have overrun the world and
that Christian civilization and the
Christian religion would have expired
together, leaving as the sole hope and
consolation of mankind the idolatry
of slavery. That the catastrophe was
averted we owe In a measure to the
moral " sentiment of the North, but
more to the feeling of nationality. In
his most powerful appeals, Lincoln al
ways touched that string and never
did it fail to vibrate. The North had
come to the point of deploring slavery,
and even of detesting it, but dreamed
pf nothing more than preventing its
extension. The South v destroyed
slavery by attacking the National
Union, and by trying to destroy the
nationality of the United States to se
cure the perpetuation of slavery. In
iquitous as slavery was, the North
would not have endured the sacrifices
of the Civil AVar to destroy It. But it
was ready to endure those sacrifices
for preservation of the nationality of
the United States. Herein was shown
Lincoln's greatness. He understood
the country. He continually declared,
during the first years .of the war, that
his object was neither to preserve
slavery nor to destroy it, but to main
tain the Union and the territorial in
tegrity and full sovereignty of the
United States. So, he carried the peo
ple along with him. Desire to abol
ish slavery would not, alone, have
carried them into such a war. From
their own standpoint of desire to pro
tect slavery, nothing could have been
so blind, so fatuous, as the course
taken- by the Southern people in pit
ting the maintenance of slavery
against the perpetuity of the Union.
Multitudes who never would have
fought for "freedom for niggers"
would fight and did fight for the un
divided nationality of the United
States.
MADE-TO-ORDER FORT.
The "Mersey Docks and Harbor
Board," an organization which per
forms for the great port of Liver
pool functions similar to those which
are looked after for this city by the
Port of Portland, last month cele
brated Its fiftieth anniversary. News
paper accounts of the half-century
jubilee contain some Interesting data
regarding this immense "made-to-or-der"
port, which has easily the larg
est and finest docks In the world.
During the fiscal year ending last
month, 25,635 vessels of 34,128,422
tons entered and cleared at Liverpool.
The board, when it began operations
fifty years ago, had a water area of
92 acres And today its dock holdings
embrace 1677 acres, valued at ap
proximately $150,000,000.
When the board began operations
it was impossible for vessels of even
moderate draft to enter the harbor
on account of the "limited depth of
water. Today the largest ships In the
world, the Lusitania and Mauretania,
have Liverpool for their home port,
and immense freighters of from ten
to twenty thousand tons' capacity are
plying regularly out of Liverpool on
every important trade route in the
world. Perhaps the- most Interesting
feature of the Liverpool harbor situa
tion is shown in the following extract
from the Liverpool Post and Mer
cury: The greate'st obstacle to Liverpool's pro
gress has been the accumulation of sand
banks about the approaches to the port.
This has necessitated an expenditure of
something like 50,000 per year . in
keeping the channels and river clear of sand
and silt. To cope with this evil, the board
has a .fleet of very powerful sand pump
dredgers. Besides these sand pump dredgers
of which there are six the board owns
twenty-four steam hopper barges, nine steam
dredgers and . one grab hopper, while its
whole fleet, exclusive of dredgers, numbers
some sixty vessels of all types necessary for
the carrying on of marine work for light
ing and buoying the channels; and pilotage
services are entrusted to the Mersey Board.
From this it appears that Liverpool
has taken full charge of everything
in connection with shipping entering
the port. Dredging, pilotage and
dockage are all attended to by port
officials, whose positions depend on
the results achieved. Liverpool, in
the beginning, had no such admirable
volume of water at low tide as sweeps
out of the Columbia, and the work of
building a harbor there has of course
been vastly more expensive than a
similar undertaking would be on the
Columbia. The comparative ease with
which Portland has secured a twenty-six-foot
channel in the river has al
layed any possible fears regarding
the maintenance of a depth in the
river proportionate with that on the
bar, but it is highly essential that the
work of the jetty, even when com
pleted, should be supplemented by
that of a good bar dredge.
There is so much water sweeping
out of the river that there will never
be such deposits of sand as obstruct
the entrance to Liverpool harbor, but
a dredge should be stationed there
for use when needed. Liverpool has
more than held her own in the face
of tremendous competition by ports
which in the beginning had far su
perior natural advantages. Her fight
with the forces of nature has been a
winning- one and the success of the
Mersey Dock Board stands as an ex
ample for all other . ports similarly
situated.
"THE TREATING HABIT."
The abuse of liquor drinking would
be reduced to the minimum if the
"treating" habit were abolished. This
is a fact known and acknowledged by
all men, hence the effort now being
made in this city and In some other
localities to bring this about is worthy
of encouragement and commendation.
At Kelso, Wash., the sentiment
against this mistaken form of hospi
tality has taken definite shape by the
organization of an anti-treating soci
ety, the members of which sign an
agreement to forswear the habit of
treating as it applies not only to
liquors, but to cigars, tobacco and soft
drinks. The membership card bears
this inscription:
I . am a member of the Kelso Anti-Treat-ing
Society. I believe that every man should
drink his own whisky and smoke his own
cigars, and should neither treat nor permit
himself to be treated. And I am so obligated.
It is hoped that the men entering
Into this compact are In earnest and
that its letter and spirit will be by
them strictly observed. The question
is not only one of temperance: it Is
one of economy and of personal re
sponsibility. "Woe unto him," saith
the wise man, "who glveth his neigh
bor drink; who putteth the bottle to
him and maketh him drunken also."
A . long-suffering woman, wrestling
bitterly with drunkenness In her
home, was wont to designate "him"
thus condemned to woe as the "fiend
with the flask," but for whose entice
ment the demon might be exorcised
and her husband become a temperate
man. The designation was perhaps
harsh, but the presumption upon
which it is based is, in the light of
common experience, a logical one.
NOT MUCH OF A BUGABOO.
The Postmaster-General's parcels
post project which has made such a
stir seems to have been pretty gener
ally misunderstood. It is by no means
so extensive as most people have sup
posed. He wishes to give the privi
lege of a parcels post to people living
along rural delivery ljnes, and not to
anybody else. This is shown by the
report of. the Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General.
Articles to be sent
by the parcels post could be mailed
only at the distributing offices tor
rural routes or at postoffices along
such routes. This would cut off the
department stores and mail-order
houses from the benefits of the inno
vation and it ought to quiet the oppo
sition of the country merchants once
and ' for all. The only dealers who
could possibly benefit from it would
be the country merchants themselves.
As matters now stand, the rural
population has no delivery system at
all.. The express companies will not
send parcels even one mile from their
country offices. Country storekeepers
never dream of maintaining a delivery
system outside of the villages where
they do business. The carriage of
parcels by the old star route, "stage
drivers," which was formerly such a
convenience to farmers, is now to all
intents forbidden by law along rural
routes. Thus things are made .as in
convenient for country people as they
possibly could be. If they want a par
cel, no matter how big or little, they
must leave everything and go after it.
The absurd injustice of such a state
of things Is evident. It injures the
country storekeeper as much as it does
the farmers, since they necessarily lose
a great deal of trade by it When pur
chases can only be made at serious in
convenience people will get along with
as few as they can. It is' amazing that
there should be any rural tradesmen
who do not see this. If thew knew
their own clear interest they would be
a unit for Mr. Meyers' proposal. This
proposal would permit rural carriers
to deliver parcels by mall up to eleven
pounds weight at 5 cents for the first
pound and 2 for each additional pound
or fraction.
The report shows that star route
carriers used to deliver parcels of all
sorts at something like this rate and
made money by it. AVhy, then, should
it not pay the Government? Of course
It would. The plea that parcels de
livery by mail would prove a losing
undertaking is due sometimes to ig
norance, sometimes to willful misrep
resentation. The project is a matter
of simple justice to the rural popula
tion and its execution has already been
too long delayed.
victim: of environment.
The wild and wooly AVestern cow
boy who shoots up a town and does
other equally ridiculous things has
disappeared forever, except from the
stages of the Bowery theaters. He
was from the beginning a creature of
environment, and as the environment
improved the cowboy changed with it.
Not only has the cowboy changed,
but his picturesque companion on the
frontier, the wild-eyed, long-horned
range steer, has also fallen a victim
to somewhat the same influences as
were responsible for transformation
of the cowboy. The small farmer has
been increasing his scope of invasion
throughout the AA'est and Southwest,
bringing with him his Shorthorns and
Herefords. The era in which the cal
ico steer and the cowboy flourished
was productive of romance and much
material which the novelists and play
wrights, who . came later, sought to
turn into money; but the returns of
beef per animal were woefully small
in comparison with those of the pres
ent day.
Longfellow, in that sadly beautiful
story of Evangeline, relates that in
response to the blast from the horn
of Basil, the blacksmith, "Suddenly
out of the grass the long white horns
of the cattle rose like flakes of foam
on adverse currents of ocean." But
today there is no sudden move, and
but few white horns, and those are
short ones on the short-legged; broad
beamed cattle which lazily and lum
beringly browse on the alfalfa as an
appetizer for the oil meal and corn
which awaits them after they waddle
to shelter. The Kansas City Star, in
commenting on the fact that the last
big supply of range cattle has been
marketed,, explains that "this does
not' mean that the West and South
west have gone short on cattle, but
that these sections have been forced
to change their system of handling
them on account of the small farm
ers and cattle-breeders who are
breaking up the ranges." "
The old-time steer ran to horns and
legs, and picked up a living on ranges
where his successor would famish:
but his development into anything
like a good beef product was slow,
and he had generally reached the age
of eight to ten years before being
rounded up for market. Today the
modern cattleman is turning off two-year-olds
which produce more beef
than the old long horns, and not a
few yearlings find their way to' mar
ket at goodly profit to their owners.
The range steeri like the buffalo and
the American Indian, played a pic
turesque part in the wild Western
drama, but the encroachments of civ
ilization and the small farmer, have
placed him with the other stage set
tings that are useless In portrayal of
twentieth century life.
With scientific breeding,.; shorten
ing the legs, decreasing the bone and
increasing the beef on the animal, and
with Burbank making beef-producing
food out of cactus and other desert
bric-a-brac, when the slaughtered
beef steer of the next generation
meets the shades of some of his early
ancestors there can hardly be a rec
ognition. The parental vigilance that saves a
foolish young girl from the direct
effects of her own folly, by taking her
from a deserting soldier and forger
within an hour after her marriage to
him and returning her to her home,
may be commended as being of the
"better late than never" type. While
properly exercised parental vigilance
might, and doubtless would, have pre
vented this foolish elopement and
marriage, or going farther back, have
kept this young girl the daughter of
a prominent citizen of Vancouver
from making the acquaintance of a
common soldier, the lapse in vigilance
that permitted this was to a certain
extent made good by the father's sud
den awakening to his duty and his
prompt pursuit and rescue of his
young daughter. Having had her
romance, it may be hoped that this
young girl will be satisfied with the
commonplace role of a dutiful daughter.
At the annual meeting of the Verte
brate paleontologists of America at
Yale University a resolution was
passed asking Congress to establish
game laws for the protection of
whales and green turtles. This is an
excellent suggestion, and if it is car
ried out on the same broad, humane
policy as characterized our fur seal
protection, it will give employment to
quite a fleet of revenue cutters be
tween the Straits of Magellan and the
Arctic circle. As the service would be
fully as effective as that of the soal
ing cutters, the turtle would continue
to get in the soup and the whales
would still find their way Into the
merchantable product of bone an3 oil.
The Oregon State Journal has been
published at Eugene by Harrison R.
Klncaid forty-four years. He started
the paper and during this whole
period has been proprietor and edi
tor. And he has done conscientious
work. On certain economic matters
of high importance The Oregorilan
ha3 not been able to agree with him,
and it has regretted that he has not
been in accord with It. But The Ore
gonian most willingly bears testimony
to the character of sincerity and earn
estness which has always been mani
fest In the work and bearing of Mr.
Kincaid. In all his work he has
shown himself a high-minded man.
The attack on the Roosevelt Administra
tion for pursuing lawbreaking trusts and rail
road rebaters, for convicting peon-drivers and
land-thieves, are manifestations .of sympathy
with crime. Where it Is really open to crit
icism is that, in spite of all Mr. Roosevelt's
denunciation of malefactors of great wealth,
not one really responsible man of that de
scription has been sent to Jail by any of his
various Attorneys-General. New York World.
But should the Administration be
blamed? These people, when con
victed, all take appeal to the higher
courts, under law, usage and practice.
Should the President arbitrarily order
every one of them to prison? If he
Bhould, what would the New -York
World say?
Vice-President Mahoney, of the
Western Federation of Miners,"' says
that Injunctions have come to be a
mere joke to the American people.
To a great extent what he says is true.
And yet when courts exercise an un
warranted power it is too serious a
matter to be considered a joke. The
authority of a court to issue and en
force an injunction is a proper and
necessary one, and yet many courts
have gone to unnecessary extremes in
the exercise of this power.
The Willamette River may be relied
upon at least once a year to restore
the falls at Oregon City to something
of their former wild grandeur. Last
year this feat was not accomplished
until February. The present freshet
therefore makes the second spectacu
lar display of waters at the falls dur
ing the year. The sight, when the
volume of water tumbling over the
falls is the .greatest, is worth going
far to see.
Colorado mining promoters who
swindled the public by publishing
false advertisements regarding their
mines at Silver City, N. M., were given
light jail sentences, though the judge
remarked that their offenses merited
terms in the penitentiary. Fortunate
for them that they committed gentle
manly crimes.
The postofflce is the business bar
ometer of a city. AVhen, therefore,
it shows for 1907 an increase of 15
per cent over that of December, 1906,
in this city, there is no need to seek
farther proof of the substantial growth
in population, in homes and In busi
ness of Portland during the year.
AVhy should any one. In this era of
universal good feeling, look further
than Mr. SchuebrI for a man to be ap
pointed as a Republican to the office
of United States District Attorney?
His qualifications are that he has been
a fiery Populist and free-silver man.
Mayor Green, pf Topeka, Kan., as
sesses "newspapers, medicine and
milk" as necessities of life. If he
would only substitute "fruit" for
"medicine," the intelligent American
public would agree with him.
Maybe those spying 'japs merely
wanted to duplicate Portland's' in
comparably fine water supply for To
kio and hadn't sense enough to ask
for something that would have been
cheerfully furnished them.
Should the state succeed in holding
the $14,000- capturecf in a Second
street lottery rr.id, there will be com
pensation for the interest on state
funds that the Title Guarantee &
Trust Company didn't pay.
All honest bankers should lend
their moral support to the prosecution
of the crooks in their line of business.
In that mariner they could give con
vincing evidence of their disapproval
of dishonest practices.
If Manchurlan authorities want to
preserve their jails they should be
careful not to lock up Oregon ' land
thieves. Horace McKinley gave them
an object-lesson.
Now that the money stringency is
relieved and the "day after" feelirig
has vanished, Portland may take up
once more the discussion of a crema
tory site.
One effective way for historical and
social organizations to avoid offensive
addresses Is to refrain from inviting
Mr, AVood to make the addresses.
Only a few days more and then the
political combat will begin. No one
can get up interest In politics until
after the holidays.
The mistake those Chinese made
with that $14,000 was In not going on
a clearing-house basis when the rjollce
appeared. .
. We're Btill an Inch short on our
annual average rainfall. But we're
making a first-class finish.
Fairy Lore From
espeare
The Fairies' Lullaby.
From "Midsummer Night's Dream."
Enter Titania. with her train.
Titania
Come, now a roundel, and a fairy song;
Then., for the third , part of a minute,
hence
Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;
Some, war with rear-mice for their leathern
wings.
To make my small elves coats; and some,
keep back
Keep back the clamorous owl, that nightly '
hoots, and wonders
At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
Then to jour otrices and let me rest.
SONG.
First Fairy
You spotted snakes, with double tongue.
Thorny hedRehogs. be not oeen;
Newts, and blind-worms, do no wrong:
Come not near our fairy queen
Chorus PhUomel. with melody.
Sing in our sweet lullabv;
Lulla. lulla, lullaby; lulla. lulla.
Never liarni.
lullaby;
Nor spe nor charm.
Come our lovely lady nigh; '
So.' good-night, with lullaby.
Second Kairy
Weaving spiders, come not here:
Hence, you lon-legsred Fpinners. henoel
Beetles black, approach not near;
Worm, nor snail, do no offense.
Chorus Philomel, with melody, eta
Come Vnto These Yellow Sands,
From "The Tempest."
Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands;
Curtsied when you have, and kissed
The wild waves whist.
Foot it featly here and there;
And, sweet sprites, the burden bear.
Hark, hark!
Bowgh. wowgh.
The watch-dogs bark:
Bowgh, wowgh.
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock-a-doodle-doo.
Where the Bee Sacks.
From "The Tempest."
Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In the cowslip's bell I He;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's bark I do fly
After Summer, merrily.
Merrily, merrily shall I live now.
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Maiden Meditation, Fancy Free.
From "Midsummer Night's Dream."
Oberon. My gentle Puck, come hither.
Thou remember'st
f Ince once I sat upon a promontory
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back.
Uttering such a dulcet and harmonious '
breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song. 1
And certain stars shot madly from their
spheres, , '
To hear the sea-maid's music. ;
Puck. I remember.
Obe. That very time I saw (but thou ,
couldst not).
Flying between the cold mo6n and the
earth,
Cupid all armed; a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west.
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his
bow.
As It should- pierce a hundred thousand
hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched la the chaste beams of the watery
moon.
And the imperial vot'ress passed on.
In maiden meditation, fancy free.
Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower
Before milk-white, now purple with love's
wound.
And maidens call It love-ln-ldleness.
Full Fathom Five.
From "The Tempest."
Full fathom Ave thy father lies;..
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls, that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade.
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! now 1 hear them ding-dong. belL
Over Hill, Over Dale.
From Midsummer Night's Dream."
Over hill, over dale.
1 Through bush, through brier.
Over park, over pale.
Throuch flood, through fire.
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen.
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be.
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those, he rubles, fairy favors.
In those freckles live their savors:
I must go seek some dew-drops here.
And hang a pearl In every cowslips ear.
THE HARRIMAX REPORT.
Il Apology for Itai Enormom Stock.
Gambling.
New York Evening Post.
Mr. Harriman could not well ignore
these transactions in his annual report
for the Union Pacific Railroad. Con
tinued decline in values, since his esti
mate of last May, has increased the
loss, as compared with the purchase
price, to not much less than $40,000,000.
What the report has to say , by way
of explanation or apology, is curious.
Taking the market values of last June,
it points out that, had the company
kept its original railway investments
of 1901, it would have lost more money
than it has actually lost in its "rein
vestments." The Northern Pacific and
Great Northern holdings had depreci
ated $55,527,000 since the Union Pacific
sold them; the bunch of stocks bought.
In 1906 had depreciated only $23,149,-,
000; ergo, the Union Pacific had in
creased the value of its investments
by $.1 2,378,000. This may be ingenious
argument; but it does not need much
insight to expose its fallacy. The com
pany has doubtless also lost less,'
through its Indulgence in the specula
tion of 1906, than it would have lost
had it bought Metropolitan Street Rail
way or Westinghouse Electric; but the
question is not one of relative mis
takes. Mr. Harriman's management is
properly charged with inflicting enor
mous losses on the property through
wholly unwarranted and highly specu
lative use of its surplus funds, and to
say that he might have lost $75,000,000
or $100,000,000 Instead of $40,000,000 is
an audacious begging of the question.
It is fortunate for Union Pacific that
its own financial strength is so great
that It can withstand such Impairment
of resources. When A. A. McLeod tried
exactly the same experiment with the
Reading Railroad in 1892 the result
was bankruptcy.
Fate of Genius.
Hometown (Pa.) Banner.
At the Methodist Church festival last
Wednesday evening the editor of the
Banner was voted the handsomest man
In Hometown. Next morning he had
only pickled beets and bread and but
ter for breakfast. Such is the life of a
metropolitan editor.
Preacher to Subdue Tipplers.
Baltimore News.
Rev. Dr. Maurice P. Pikes, pastor of
the Franklin First Baptist Church,
Franklin, Pa., and formerly of Baltimore,
declares that It Is his intention to drop
from the rolls of the church every man
who goes into a saloon, hotel or drug
store to buy a drink of liquor.
Conscience-Stricken Thief Relents.
Philadelphia Record.
A pickpocket who robbed Edward G.
Miller of Paulsboro, N. J., of several
hundred dollars, wrote saying he would
return the money if luck came his war.