The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current, January 19, 1908, SECTION THREE, Image 30

The Sunday Oregonian., January 19, 1908, SECTION THREE, Page 6, Image 30

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Newspaper Page Textc TIIE SUNDAY OUEGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JANUARY 19, 1903. SIBStRIPTION KATI.S. INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. ' iBy Mall.) TJally, Sunday Included, one year "?,. Dallv, Sunday Included, six month.... Rally, Sunday Included, three months. . -.ja Dal'y, Sunday Included, one month.. -eo Dally, without Sunday, one year ')" I'ally, without Sunday, six months..... Dally, without 4-unday, three months,, 1-w Dally, without Sunday,- one month..... H Sunday, one year ";.': Weekly, one year tissued Thursday)... loo ' Sunday and waekly. one year -ou BY CARRIER. "Dallv, Sunday Included, one year.. 9 00 Dallv. Sunday Included, one month HOW TO REMIT Send postolTlce mom, order. express order or personal check on your local bank. Slampl. coin or currency are at the sender's rik. Olve postortlce ad dress In full, Including county and state. I'OSTAGE RATE Kntered at Portland, Oregon, Postoffice as Second-l'laps Matter. 10 to 14 Pages ,1H to Paices -Vi to 44 rag's 1 cent . . v. . . I! cents .3 tnn 4 cents 4H to Rll Pa-ees Foreipn postage, double rates. IMPORTANT The postal laws are strict. Newi-pnpeis on which postage Is notiuuy prepaid are not forwarded to destination. EASTERN BUSINESS .OI HtK. The 8, V. Berkwlth Spe-ial Agem-y New folk, rooms 4-H-j') Tiibui.e building. Uy cago, rooms ,'10-01- Tribune building. KEPT ON SALE. Chicago Auditorium Annex; Postoftl-' News Co.. 17M Dearborn street. St. Paul, Minn. N. St. Marie, Commercial - Station. Colorado Springs. Colo. Pell. H. If. Denver Hamiilon and Kendriclt, ItOH-ni-Se -niee-nth street; Pratt Hook Store, 1-14 Fifteenth street: II. P. Hansen. S. P.lce, tienr-je (.'arson. Kansas City. Mo. Rlckseclter Clear Co., Ninth and Walnut: Yoma News Co. Minneapolis M. J. Cavanaugh, 30 South Third. - , Cleveland. O. James Pushaw. 307 Superior- street. Washington. 1). C Ehhltt House. Penn sylvania avenue. Philadelphia. Pa. Ryan's Theater Ticket Vftce: Penn News t'o. "Sf York 4 III. Jones & Co.. Astor Mouse: Brondwav Theater News Stand: Ar thur Hotallng Wagons: Empire Newa stand. Ogden D. L. Boyle: Lowe Bros.. 114 Twe-iitv-nfth street. , Omaha Rarkalow Bros.. Union Station; Maaeath stationery t'o. lies lnlne, la. Mose Jacobs. fcneramcnto. Cal. Sacramento News Co., 430 K street; Amos News Co. Salt Lake Moon Book Stationery Co.: Tlos-nfrld & Hansen; G. W. Jewett. P. O. corner. I.rm Angeles B. E. Amos, manager ten street ivagons. I'nsadena, t'al Amos Ne Co. e-n iiego ti V. Amos. Man Jose. Cal. St. Jainea Hotel News Stand. Dallas, Tex. Southwestern News Agent. S44 Main atreet; alto two street wagons. Amarilln, Tex. Timmons & Pope. San l-"rancisci 1'orster & Orear: Ferry News Stand; Hotel St. Kranels News Stand; I, Parent; N. Wheat ley; 1-alvmount Hotel News Stand; Amos Newa Co.; United News Agency. 141.4 Eddy street; B. E. Amos, man ager three wacon!1. . Oakland.. a!. W. II. Johnson. Fourteenth and Franklin afreets N. Wheat'.ey; Oakland News -Stand; B. K. Amos, manager Ave wagce.n. (..rkltlcUI. Set. I.oule Follln: C. h.. Eureka. Cal. Call-Chronicle Agency; Eu reka News Co. t rORTI-ANI. SIMIAV, JANI AKY 19,' 190S. OUR MEDIOCRE LITERATURE. In a speech at Harvard the other flay Owen Wister dwelt upon the mel ancholy truth that America has failed to produce either scholars or scientists of the; first rank. Wandering through the fields of physics, chemistry, bibli cal criticism and what not, he failed to find rrrore than one or two of 'our countrymen anywhere near the fore most files: in the vanguard- not a single man. Asaph Hall, who discov ered the satellites of Mars, Is dead. Simon Ngwcomb, our greatest living astronomer, labors industriously in his old age., but his contributions to sci ence bear no marks of genius. Our mathematicians are but echoes twice or thrice removed of the great Poin care and his European collaborators. We have Burbank in botany, but ho Is, like Edison In electricity, a mere artisan. He does not stand on the mountain tops among the pioneers of thought. With reflections like these Mr. Wister pursued his sad way through the kingdoms of the mind, llnding Americans everywhere play ing the part of followers and imitators, but never- leaders. With all the mil lions our captains of Industry have thrown to the mendicant sciences, they are still beggars and still lean. In literature our achievements have been more pitiful yet. Norwegian, French, Russian and German writers In the last half century have revolu tionized the literature of Europe. Aims, methods and Ideals have been transformed. The spirit of the cru cified Galilean has swept in tidal waves' upon creative thought, produc ing the iconoclasts like Ibsen and Nietsche, the humanitarian realists like Zola and Tolstoi, and literary pros ecutors like Hauptmann and Suder mann, who summon human institu tions to the bar of justice and compel them to vindicate their existence or vanish from the world. The modern revolutionary movement in European literature is nothing but Christianity throning off ecclesiastical formalism and returning to the vital truth of Jesus. . But our Christianity remains arldly formal through it all and our literature escapes the tumult of ge nius. Why have we no Hauptmann, no Ibsen, no Tolstoi? No matter why, some reader may answer, let us be'thankful that Amer ica is free from such wicked char acters. Our literature may be medi ocre and dull, but It is thoroughly re spectable; it is pure and- it has the tone of good society. With these 'transcendent merits, what difference does It make if we have no geniuses? None whatever, perhaps; but for all that, why have we no geniuses? As an intellectual diversion it is pleasing to inquire why these singular plants do not flourish in bur soil. It might help us to the answer to remember that neither Tyre nor Carthage left a liter ature when they were destroyed. Like America, these cities, very great and powerful in their day. had formally a republican government. As with us, all social dictinctions among their people arose either from politics or wealth. And again, as with us, the main Interest of life was commerce," th principal motive for activity was what Dr. Day calls "incentive" and other people call greed, the leading purpose was the amassment of riches. Th8 Carthaginians were, as regardless of human life as are our courts and railroads. Everything and everybody were subordinated to the race for gold: and therefore when Carthage fell and Its gold went to a stronger and better people, there was nothing left of it in the world but a name. It is worth while to remark in thit con nection that no purely commercial na tion has ever been able to hold its own in the struggle for existence. Business competition may do much for a people, but It falls to supply the es sential jelement of vitality. Greed controls a great many things In this country, but not everything. It is a danger to our literature betuse it causes every first faint sign of genius to be capitalized and ruined by hasty exploitation; but there is a more lethal factor. That is our formalism. We see this formalism in our theology, which adheres to empty creeds long after they have dropped out of sight everywhere else in the . Protestant world. We see it in the way pur preachers teach the literal inspiration, the historical inerrancy, the scientific accuracy of the-Bible, although these dogmas have been utterly discredited by the scholarly religionists of Eu rope. More disastrously, still this deadly, formalism is apparent in our courts which have ceased almost to pay attention to living Justice and oc-. cupy themselves wholly with arid casuistry. Since the courts assume the power to veto legislation on the one hand and enact new laws on the oth er, the result is that we are governed by sterile scholastic formulas which bear 110 relatioa to life. Judges have ceased to be a terror to wrongdoers. They spend their days in wrangles over, the niceties of Arlstotleian logic while murder runs' riot. Whence arises this worship of dead formulas and withered conventions in America? Why is it that we stand still while all the rest of the world sweeps forward In literature, art, sci ence and humanitarian legislation? Why are we throttled by the ghost of the past while Europe rises on tree pinions to the new life of the Christian future? It is because of our inflexible written constitution which we worship as the image of unchangeable perfec tion. Before we can ever hope for that accomplishment in art and litera ture which comes only to the free we must emancipate ourselves from slavery to those formulas of the Con stitution which are alien to the spirit of the times we live in. "WHAT YE GWINK TO IK)?" Republicans of. Oregon, during the last few years, having abandoned their party, out of pique and enmity towards each other, and having elect ed Democrats to the principal offices, for the sake of personal and factional revenge, Oregon may now go Demo cratic, all along the line. ' A further provocative is the primary law. his law has intensified factional divisions. Men who fight each other for party nominations under it never will unite in support of the candidates who may win the nominations. It is not in hu man nature. Again, after an active and eager and violent congest in the primaries, the members of a. party have no spirit left for the following election. Their spirit has been exhausted in the pri mary. This will not apply, under present conditions, to the Democratic party of Oregon; because, since it has been a minority party. Its m'embers will not fight for nominations.' Demo crats do not even care to appear at the primaries. A self-named com mittee, a machine, a ring, will make their nominations, and all Democrats, and a lot of Republicans who are try ing to "make even," will vote-' this "anti-ring" ticket. Now, brethren, do you. think The Oregonian Is going to burn its fingers any more to pull chestnuts out of the fire for the Republican party, when its members behave in this way, leav ing it tt hold the bag for the snipe? It rests with you, not with The Orego nian. to determine whether Oregon is to. be a 'Democratic state. As the col ored brother asked at the campmeet lng, "What's ye gwine to do?" THE REAL' YELLOW PERIL. The following extract from Judge Harlgn's recent address to the Navy League has attracted a good deal of attention In the East: "We refer to the people of Asia an the yel low race. There arc 400.000.fNl0 Chinese, as strong physically - and mentally as we are. There la over there another nation, ,whoe people are progressive and ambitious. We may some day see a skilled army in Japan of B, 000.000 to 10.O0O.0OO. ..They .-will say: "You claim Ehirope aa your country.- This is ours. Get out!" I don't think they have any such idea now. and we have no hostility toward them. But there will be a conflict between the yellow race and the white race that will shake the earth. . History "teaches us that Judge Har lan's prediction is by no means groundless. In tpast cohflict between the white and yellow races the former has managed to save itself from de struction,, but generally with extreme difficulty. We know of no - territory where whites have permanently dis placed Asiatics, while on . the other hand there are large sections of Eu rope which the latter have colonized after dispossessing Caucasian inhabi tants. But it is likely enough that Judge -Harlan overlooks 8 danger to white supremacy in the world which Is far more serious than the possibil ity of military conquest. Mr. M. J. Dee has pointed out this danger in the Pacific Era. He shows that in a peaceful strug gle for existence between Chinamen and whites the former will necessarily Burvive because they can flourish in conditions vhere the others would pecish. They relish food which the white man loathes. They keep their health in filthy lodgings, where- the white man would rot. They have no longing for expensive pleasures-which the white man. cannot live without. Briefly put, the Chinaman can live at less cost than the -white man; there fore in free competition he will sur vive. This cannot be denied. It follows, therefore, that if the white man thinks his civilization wtrth preserving he must manage to prevent an economic struggle for existence between himself and the yellow race. Let nobody hastily assume that it means cowar dice to shun such a competition. It is not cowardice to avoid a struggle with typhoid microbes, with wasps, or with the white ants of Africa, which form -an endless chain and devour the traveler by reason of numbers, no matter how many he may kill. It is not cowardice to protect oneself from a struggle where the higher qualities of manhood must be sacrificed in or der to fight on equal terms. There is nothing essentially noble or even val uable in the mere struggle for exist ence. Every advance In civilization has been an emancipation from some phase of the struggle for existence. The accumulation of capital retrieves us from the hand-to-mouth fight for breqd and -sets us free for other achievements. TWe man who sends his boy to college aims to raise him above the struggle for existence and equip him for a more generous rivalry. Houses, banks, churches, schools, all our treasures and institutions, have been invented and established to free us from he bare struggle for exist ence. Hence the exclusion laws by which the white man tries to protect himself from ruinous competition Iwith Asiatics are entirely in harmony with those measures by which the race I has advanced from savage poverty to the civilized status. It is gratuitous superstition to sup pose that the struggle for existence is elevating. In most cases it is degrad ing. It produces "fitness" indeed, but that fitness means merely adaptation to surrounding conditions. If the con ditions are vile, so is the fitness to them. Since the Chinaman can live in conditions viler,than the white, and since unchecked competition between the races will result in a victory for the one that can live at the less cost, or the more vilely, it is easy to see where unlimited Asiatic immigration would end. We should have, on this coast a servile yellow population of laborers dominated by a few aristo cratic whites for a- while; but finally the baser breed would complete their, triumph and the Western United States would become virtually a prov ince of Asia. CANDIDATES FOR THE PRESIDENCY. The New York World doubts whether the President shot wide of the mark when he predicted the nomination of Mr. Taft on the first ballot. Evidently Taf t has a growing strength. The Foraker opposition in Ohio has about faded put. In New York the active Re publican forces, inspired by the Ad ministration, have been ablo thus far to prevent any real demonstration for Hughes. In Massachusetts the Presi dent's lieutenants; Senators Lodge and Crane, and their supporters," are push ing Taft, and committing their follow ers to his cause. Delegations from the Southern States will be organized in the same behalf. It is predicted that Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois will not be too thoroughly organized for favorite sons to prevent them from yielding to Taft, perhaps even in advance of the balloting in the 'con vention.. ' But the World holds that Taft, be fore the people, will not necessarily be a strong candidate, and that there would be probability of defeating him, could Bryan be pushed out of the way. But Bryan can't be. He and his following will "stay in." It is be lieved there will he no difficulty in forcing his nomination over such op position as may appear; and yet If he were set aside and another' Parker nominated, . the Bryan voters, by tens of thousands; would fall away from the candidate. Taft, however, is handicapped in va rious ways, thus summarized by the. World: He would enter the campaign with the opposition of a large element of Republicans who are fired of Roosevelt, of Roosevelt's policies and of a Rooseveltian government. The Brownsville affair has turned the ne gro vote against him, and there are half a dozen states where, under nor mal political conditions, the negro vote all but holds the balance of pow er. There will be a strong labor op position to Taft, despite 'the skill ho shows in discussing the question of injunctions. He will have against him the business interests that are afraid of Roosevelt's policies, while a very Influential high-protection element would prefer a Democratic President, handicapped by a hostile Senate, to a Republican tariff revisionist who could force a reform of the Dfngley's sched ules. The Protective Tariff League is frankly against the Secretary of War. Bpth .the beet-sugar and tobacco in terests are beginning to work in the open against him. These are formidable groups of op position; . but the World holds that Bryan, in the great states where the election will be decided, cannot obtain for himself the benefits from them that would accrue to a "conservative" candidate, say Johnson of Minnesota. But the Louisville Courier-Journal an swers that while Johnson would get more votes than Bryan in certain de batable states, yet no one could be elected without Bryan; whose support ers will vote for nq one except Bryan, or, in default of Bryan, for some one heartily approved by him. THEOLOGICAL BOYCOTTS. According' to reports from Italy, the Pope has . excommunicated a cer tain monthly review published in that country. Unless the account is exag gerated, the ban is thorough-going. The subscribers of the review are for bidden to-read it, the printers to print It, the contributors to write for It, and the news-stands to sell it. The offense of the unlucky publication Is a taint of modernism. It holds advanced views upon science and the higher criticism. Of course the result of the excommu nication, were It obeyed by everybody, would be to ruin the business of the revi cw. With the religious aspect of this af fair We are not concerned. What In terests the lay mind is the legal ques tion whether or not such a bold and sweeping boycott is lawful In Italy, or in America either, for that matter. How far may the. Pope or any other religious personage go In boycotting publications which he does not like and compelling others to join him in the act? The reasons which are ad vanced for the boycott in (his case are Irrelevant so far as our point is con cerned. Every boycott, either by a la bor union or an Italian society, is sup ported by excellent reasons, excellent in the' Judgment of those who offer them.. The question is. Does Italian law permit the Pope to destroy the business of one v" v, differs from him In opinion by declaring a boycott against his goods? That an excommunication is noth ing less than a boycott under solemn forms and an ecclesiastical name .must be admitted by every fair student of the subject. In former times it was exceedingly effective. An excommu nicated person was then shunned by all his fellow-men, was deprived of food and shelter and might be slain by any one who wished. Now the sentence cannot be enforced quite so harshly, but that it may affect a per son's business disastrously is not to be denied. Does the law permit it? Of course the Pope himself is not sub ject to the laws of Italy, but his agents who have published and who will try to enforce the boycott are amenable to prosecution in that coun try. If the legal difficulties of the matter puzzle Italian jurists, they might borrow light from English his tory. The British Parliament never sought to punish the Pope himself for offenses against English polity, but it was made a felony to import or pub lish certain forbidden bulls. The spirit of the modern world will not permit theological quarrels to proceed to the extreme of outlawing men 'or ruining their business. So long as these differences are exploited by words merely, the state should not interfere, but when they fame out into breaches of the peace and lead to. boycotts it is time for the law to step in and cry halt. THE INSURRECTION OF WILLIE. Willie Hopkins, of Echo, lias been found guilty, by a jury of his country men, of the crime of thrashing his teacher. Whether the laws of Oregon make it a more heinous offense to thrash a teacher than a common citi zen we are not informed,- but we gather that It savors of sacrilege, high treason, or some such enormity, espe cially if the teacher happens to be a woman. We are left in the dark about this point also, but, judging from his . name. Willie is a boy of Anglo-Saxon lineage and it Is Incon ceivable that he would thrash a shooima'am, however extreme the provocation might be. Willie's misdemeanor Is not so com mon now as it was once. Time was when' everj' Winter term of school in the rural districts opened with a set-to between the teacher and the big boys, to see who was the best man. Those were the good old days, before the fairy-formed schoolma'am had driven her sterner competitor out of the business of education, when the hickory gad played a leading part In cultivating the intellect. Whoever won the battle between teacher and scholars nobody thought of going to law about it. If the schoolmaster was whipped he quietly retired and sought another job, where his muscle was better proportioned to his task. If victory smiled on the teacher tho boys settled down for the rest of the term' Into obedience and docility. Upon the whole, the business was not so badly managed. Human nature dearly loves a master and the boys were pardon able, perhaps, for seeking to discover by actual experiment whether ' their teacher was a genuine man or a sham. These were the charms of the coun try school, but all those charms are fled. Except in remote places like Echo there are no big boys on the benches during the Winter term. Much more are they absent in Summer. School has nothing to give them" which they think worth while, so they find a job in the city or hire out to work for a neighbor. The district school parted company with life long ago. By the separation it has. gained In peaceful ness. The brain and muscle of a man are no longer needed to rule over It. But it has lost in usefulness and power. When the schools begin to offer a ' substantial education instead of shadows and chimeras the big boys will come back again for the Winter term ' and perhaps, for the Summer, too. Then there will be more inci dents like the. insurrection of Willie Hoskins and we shall have to hire men of muscle for teachers Instead of golden-haired maidens with fairy forms. The pitch of .the schoolroom will be bass instead of treble and edu cation will become a power in the land, instead of a mild form of popu lar dissipation. THE RF.TTREMKNT. OF SIR. CORTEI.YOUT. Although Mr. Cortelyou retires if he does retire from the Secretary ship of the United States Treasury un der some semblance of compulsion, he by no means bids a long farewell to all his greatness. If the reports about him are true; he may become greater than ever. Instead of falling like an exhalation, he seems likely to rise like a skyrocket to the serene realms of New York high finance. If he be comes the president of the Knicker bocker Trust Company, can we truth fully say that he has suffered an eclipse?" Ought we not rather to write of him. "Gone to" his reward"? The excellent stenographer who seems to have been unceremoniously dismissed by the President will not become an object of compassion. The kindly gentlemen of Wall street whose necessities Mr. Cortelyou has unfail ingly rememWred in' the plenitude of his power will not forget him in the day of his adversity. These gentlemen resemble Satan in many particulars perhaps; but not in all. The adver sary of souls will lead a man Into the Are, butnever show him the way out. Mr. Cortelyou's friends In Wall street have many mansions at their disposal, and there is always a vacancy when one of Mr. Roosevelt's official family is moved to flit out into the world. Whatever their sins may be, the mag nates are not guilty of ingratitude. " To sever the ties which united Mr. Cortelyou to the President must have required something of a shock. He has been of the royal household for a long time. As private secretary. Sec retary of Commerce and Labor, Post master-General and Secretary of the Treasury, to say nothing of the chair manship of the National Republican Committee, he has had a long career of official intimacy with Mr. Roosevelt. His successive promotions indicate that the intimacy was pleasing to both men; nor has Mr. Cortelyou shown in any emergency a conspicuous lack of ability. Why, then, the rift In the lute at this late day? The sweet toned flute has kept in tune with the big bassoon for these half dozen years through good report -and ill; why does a discord now suddenly make itself heard? Mr. Cortelyou is humble in origin, gentle of demeanor and mediocre of merit; but Theodore- says he is ambi tious, and Theodore .is an honorable man. As George Bruce was a skillful typewriter, Theodore loved him; as he was a supple suitor at the throne of power, he promoted him; as he was ambitious, he slew him. Not liter ally slew him; hea,ven forfend that -we should hint at such tin enormity; offi cially slew Is what we mean. 'Twas e'en at the foot of Mr. Taft's statue, which, all the while ran blood, that great Cortelyou fell.' "How like a mounting devil in the heart rules the unreined ambition." Though- but a humble slave of the palace, he dared aspire to the heirship of the throne. The caliph discovered his "treachery, the bowstring twanged and now he lies there with none so poor to do him reverence. Or he would lie there were it not that he has laid up for himself treasures of merit in Wall street to whose celestial mansions legions of mintsterrhg magnates now bear him safely home. What ever, betrayed Mr. Cortelyou into the astonishing belief that he could become President of the United States one can only conjecture. Every thing that a Presidential candidate is supposed to need he lacks. He has no popular constituency. He has accom plished nothing of striking Import ance. He is nt even known to the public except half jocularly as a suc cessful collector of campaign funds from the syndicates. Certainly no as pirant for the chief magistracy of the Nation ever set out on his quest so poorly equipped. To make a bad mat ter worse, he could not push his hope-' less campaign without practicing se cret arts which came dangerously near disloyalty to the chief who had made him almost literally out - of nothing. There was a savor of meanness in Mr. Cortelyou's clandestine campaign. His quarrel with the President for preferring Mr. Taft was pettish. Is the retiring Secretary of fhe Treasury the spoiled child of the Cabinet? Has his facile career "made him believe that he can have everything he wants merely by asking for it? Unless the signs are all deceptive. Mr. Cortelyou. thinks he is a much greater man than anybody else thinks he is. The illu sion is not an unjpmmon one wttn men of small capaEf.v Thej' advance rapidly to a certain point and are there astonished ' to find themselves unaccountably checked. Mr. Cortelyou' long residence In Washington has destroyed his politi cal Judgment. . He has lived for years In an atmosphere of flunkeyism, offi cial Insincerity, social hypocrisy, and the consequence of it all is that he has lost his sense of values. He has come to believe that the plutocratic mag nates are. everything in this country and the people nothing- Acting on that insane assumption, ho thought he could become President by secur ing the support of Wall street and the phantom Southern delegations." Now he sees the result of such calcu lations. The. people whom he con-( temns will have nothing to do with him. They gladly relinquish him to the grateful arms of his . Wall-street friends. Nobody thinks enough of him even to rail at him. An evanes cent phenomenon of politics with no substantial hold- on the life of the people, he vanishes into nothingness as from nothingness he came, and there will be no mourning for his dis appearance. . ITAI.Y WRESTLING WITH ITS OWN. King Victor Emanuel of Italy has a job of '"home rule" on his hands. He is said by a London dispatch to be forcing a grave crisis. A factor of this disturbing situation Is found in the return, since last Fall of an im mense number of his subjects from the United States, ripe for sedition. He is confronted by the usual large army of the unemployed, recruited from the ranks of partially American ized Italians men who have learned just enough of liberty to misconstrue its meaning, .and who are clamorous in their unrest for they know not what. Unlike" Japanese who return to their native, land, they do not take an equipment of loyalty and devotion to sovereign and country back with them. Italians from America do not constitute the chief factor in the agi tation that threatens the government, but everywhere througkhout the king dom, and particularly in the southern part, the repatriated Italian Is prorar inent in the socialistic and arujirchistio movement. The press of Rome declares that some of the most dangerous of tho anarchists who beset the kingdom and cause Italian statesman the gravest concern are men who have come back from. New York and Chicago since November 1. Be this as it may, there is reason for the discontent that cov ers Italy as with a dark mantle and reaches even to the foot of the throne. Over the whole earthquake area a thickly populated region poverty and famine prevail. In. .the manufacturing towns adjacent to this region the peasantry, Ignorant, wretched, superstitious and homeless, huddle together and listen eagerly to the presentment of, their wrongs by the fiery tongues of the enemies of the government. Socialistic . and an archistic doctrines have permeated the army, and altogether Italy pre sents the most serious economic prob lem offered today by any European state. - - The people of the United States view with satisfaction the fact that these, hordes of discontent and- violence took their grievances home to air them, in stead of remaining, as the Japanese do, to voice them on American .soil and. mayhap, to brew from them in ternational broils. HOMEBUILDERS FEVER. Real estate values in this city show no sign of a general decline, "while building activity, especially in the line of moderate-priced, modern . homes, bids fair to equal and may surpass that of last year. The fact is, the "homebuilders' fever," which became epidemic a few years ago in this, city, still prevails among the masses. Its symptoms are well known. A desire to own something is expressed in the anxious scanning of real estate adver tisements and the haunting,. by women as well as- men. of real estate offices; the development of an interest in roses and shrubbery; the wistful in spection of houses under construction, and the growing dread of rent day, are among the most noticeable and the most unmistakable signs that an attack of this fever is imminent. Seeking And finding encouragement of thrift; touching hands with emula tion; moved by the spirit of competi tion, a fever heat is soon engendered which abates only when the home the very best that- the subject can af ford is evolved by desire and be comes a reality. It takes little argument to convince the sober mechanic that rentpaying is a wasteful and unnecessary drain upon his earnings; less to convince his thrifty, economical wife that the own ership of her home Is the first step toward a family competency and one of the surest element's of defense against the emergency of sickness, or industrial depression. The desire to own a home thus based soon develops into a very fever of .determination and home ownership passes quickly from the realm of possibility to certainty. Encouraged by every principle of political, social and domestic economy, it is not strange that the homebuilding fever "becomes . epidemic in a pros perous community. It literally ran riot In this city in 1907, and, in the opinion of many, well qualified to judge, its progress will be unchecked during the present year. Others even more sanguine, and perhaps with a broader outlook and keener insight into financial and Industrial cause and effect, confidently predict a further spread of the homebuilders' fever during the coming Spring months. . It. were to be wished the thought might occur to Brother Thorburn Ross that the public is little interested, or. not at all. about the manner, the time and the methods by which, or when, or where, or how. District At torney Manning collected the state ments upon which he has presented his information against Mr. Ross and associates for their mismanagement of the Title Bank. The matter in which the public is concerned is the inquiry as to the correctness and truth of the information. But Mr. Ross is unwilling this inquiry shall be prose cuted. Who, he hotly demands, told the District Attorney these things, and when and how and where? Now. the public judgment is. that these" objec tions are mere subterfuges, and wholly irrelevant. The facts are wanted, and it will be useless to try to defend by obstructing or concealing them. It grieves Brother Ross, no doubt, to find that he must encounter such sin ners on his Journey from the City of I Destruction to Mount .Zion; but he himself, of his own choice. loitered a long time In Vanity Fair, and han no just right to complain. The Brooklyn tunnel, which was opened to traffic on the evening of January 9, carried approximately 27.000 persons home from their work between 5:09 and. 6:30 P. M.. the "rush" period of afternoon traffic. The public that has taxed Brooklyn ' bridge to Its' utmost capacity twice a day for. years; the police who have had to wrestle with the vast crowds, nightly, and the transportation men, who have striven Inlghtlly with the problem of getting the homeward bound thousands across the bridge In safety, experienced long-needed relief. There Is no other force so insistent, none so relentless in purpose, as that represented by a great mass of human beings, each one of whom is pressing toward a common goal and each seek ing to be first in line.' The -distribution of this force caused a -relief to all concerned which was celebrated by a great demonstration of joy In Brook lyn, accompanied by the music of brass bands, the explosion of bombs and the hoarse shouts of the multi tude. It signalized the delight of the public over the beginning of the end of the nighty bridge crush that for years has been the wonder of all who have seen It. Evelyn Thaw's testimony this time will be kept from the public. It should have been so withheld in the first instance. It is enough for the jury to hear it. But It will very sure ly prevent the conviction of Thaw. It would be mighty hard to assemble twelve- jurymen anywhere who would agree on the penalty1 of murder against any man who should kill a lecherous scoundrel like White, if any chance brought the one in contact with the other. Insanity is but a plea. Of course, murder is murder; yet there are extremely few .persons, and their suffrages not the most con siderate, who do not agree that White got what was due him, and long over due. The worthlessuess of Thaw and wife makes little difference. Fire losses in December, 1007, in the United States and Canada aggregated $17,976,125. Contributing to this ag gregate were a total of 2480 fires. Of these, 341- caused individual losses of $10,000 or more, these latter aggre gating a loss of 1125,368,835. "- This record closes that of a year of average rather than excessive waste of prop erty, and a minimum loss of life from fire. The first half of theflrst month of the new year beheld In the theater fire at Boyertown, Pa., a loss of -life that appalled the country and caused lamentation and mourning throughout a populous community. It may be hoped that the casualty record in this line will end as it began, with this shocking entry in the year-book of 190&. The members of thirteen women's clubs of Chicago have compromised j with the Audubon Society on the mat- i.-i- ui canng Liie piumage 01 oiras on their hats, by agreeing to confine the feathered decorations of their headgear to the quills and wings of the crow. Abandoned even by the society that stands for humanity to birds, this predaceous, garrulous and now utterly friendless bird faces for the first time the danger of extermi nation, since women must and will wean feathers on their hats. Flyhigh. old fellow, ' and be wary of snares! The milliners' agents those ruthless destroyers of bird life will be after you in force, providing; Chicago club women are able to set the fashion In this matter. Dun's report for 1907 schedules the commercial failures of the year at 11, 725, and the amount of defaulted lia bilities at $197,SS5,225. As compare! with the record for 1906, there was an increase of 1043 failures and of more than S78.000.000 in the amount de faulted. The comparison is not alto gether fair, however, since 1906 was an exceptionally prosperous year, and failures and losses were below the normal. Comparison . of last year with other years of financial stress and commercial disturbances 1878, 1884, 1893, black years of our financial and industrial history reveals plainly the fact that our trouble in the closing months of 1907 was only a bad and more or less unreasoning fright. An interesting contribution to the history of horticulture in Oregon was the paper, read by Dr. J. R. Cardwell before the State Hortleultural Society In this city last Tuesday. The paper Is of unusual value, since its data will serve In later years to rescue from ob livion many of the details of the subject-matter which would otherwise be lost in the mists of the years. Ownership or no ownership, the Oregon Electric will be a feeder to the North Bank road; not directly, per haps, but in the same way that every Oregon transportaton line except 'the O. R. & N. will furnish traffic. Even the Southern Pacific cannot escape helping to fee.d. Candidates for local as well as dis trict offices will save time by writing to the various Oregon newspapers for their schedule of advertising rates. Sweet words don't go in payment of publicity; no, not this year. What an admirable exhibition of the brotherhood of man we should see if Bryan volunteered his services as peacemaker between Taft and For aker. But there's going to be no depres sion' of business and of industry this year however helpful such a condi tion might.be to the Democratic party. There's a good chance for some live man to establish in Oregon a candi dates' advertising agency. 1 ODDITIES OF VERSE The Power of Short Words. Think not that atTensth lies In tbe bis round word. Or that the brief and plain znuat need ba weak. To whom can this be true who once has heard The cry for help, the- tongua thai all men peak. When want or woe or frar ia In the throat. So that each ord gapped out ia like a. hrl Pressed from the sore heart, or a strange wild note. Sunt by pome fay or fiend? There - la ' a. ' strength Which flits If stretched too far or spun too Sue. "Which has more bftlehr than breadth, more depth than length. Let but this force uf thought and speech be mine. And ha that .will may take the a:cck fat phraso "Which glows and burns not. though it gleam and e-hine Light, but no heat a ' flash, but nut a blaze ! Nor is it mere atrength that the short wold buatHs: It -serves of more than flght or storm to tell. The ruar of waves that clall on rock-bound cijasts. The crash of tall trees wcn the wild winds swell. The ror of guna, the groana of men that die on b.ood-stained tlelus. It has a voice aa . well For them that Tar off on their sick-beds lie: For thfm that wt-ep, for them that mourn the ut-ad; To Joy's quick strp, as well as brief's slow tread. The sweet, plain words we learnt al prst keep time. And though the theme be sad, or gay, or grand. With each, with all, these may be mads to , chime. In thought, or speech, or song, hi prose og rhyme. IJr. Alexander, Princeton Magazine. Revolutionary Verses. The author of the following Revolution' ary double entendre, which originally ap peared in a Philadelphia newspaper, U unknown. It may be read in three dif ferent ways. 1st. Let the whole be read in the order in which it is written. 2d. Then the lines downward on the left of each comma in every line, and 3d. In the same manner on the right of each comma. By the first reading it will be observed that the Revolutionary cause is con demned, ar.d by the others, it is encour aged'and lauded: Hark! Hark, the trunpet sounds, the din of war's alarms. O'er seas and solid grounds, doth call us all to arms; Who for King George doth stand, their hon ors soon shall shine; Their ruin la at haad, who with the Congress Join. The acts of Parliament, in them 1 much de light, I hate their cursed Intent, who for the Con gress tight. The Tories of the day. they are my dally toast. They aoon will shcak away, who Jndepend- ' ence boast; Who non-resistance hold, they have my hand and heart. May they for slaves be eold, who act a Whiggish part; On Manpheld, North and Bute, may dally blessings pour, Confusion and dispute, on Congress evermore; To North and British lord, may honors atlU be done, 1 wish & block or cord, to General Wash ington. . Chain -Verse. Long I looked Into the sky. Sky aglow with gleaming stars. Stars that stream their courses high. High and grand, those golden cars. Cars that ever keep their track. Track untiaccd by human ray. Hay that aonea the xodlae, Zodiac with" milky-way. Milky-way where worlds are sown. Sown like santia along the eea. Ec-a whose tide and tone e'er own. Own a feeling to be free. Free to itave Its lowly place. Place to prove with yonder spiiei-es. Spheres- that trace althrough all space. Space and ycars-unsjok(n ycais. Ingenious Cypher. The following was written by Professor Whewell at the request of a youns lady; IT O a 0. but I 0 U. O ' no 0. but O o me; O let not my a u go. But give 0 u I 0 U so. Thus deciphered: (You sigh for -a cypher, but I sigh for you; O sigh for no cypher, but O sigh for me: O let not my sigh for a cypher go, But give sigh for sigh, for 1 sigh 'for you so.) Knigmu "fc." The beginning of eternity. The end of time and space. The beginning of every end. The end of every place. Hexameters in the Bible. In the Psalms. God came I up with a 1 shout: our Lord with the I sound of a I trumpet. There is a river the I flowing where J of shall I gladden the city. Halle- I lujah the city of God! Je- horah hath I blest her. In the New Testament. Art thou he I that should ( come, or.j do we i look for a- nother? Husbands, love your I wives, and be not bitter a-gainat them. BleaB'd are the- poor in spirit, fof theira is the kingdom of -heaven. Wonftn. When Eve brought woe to all mankind. Old Adam called her wo-man; But when she woo'd with love so kind. He pronounced her woo-man. , But now wkb folly and with pride. Their husbands' pocket trimming, The ladles are so full of whim, The people call them whim-.ro.cn. Whiskers Versus Razor. With whlskersVhick upon my face I went my fair to see; She told mc she could never love A bear-faced chap like me. I shaved then clean, and called again. And thought my troublea o'er; She laughed outright, and . aald I was More bare-faced than before! An AddUon Kclio. Echo, te'.l me, while I wander O'er thie fairy plain to prove Mm, If my shepherd still grows fonder, OUht I In return to love him? Kcho Love him, love him. If he toves, a Is the fashion. Should I churlishly forsake him? Or, in pity to hts passion. fondly to my bosom take him? Kchc Take him, take him. Thy advice, then, I'll adhere to. Since in Cupid's chains I've led him. And withe Henry shall not fear to Marry, 'if you answer, "Wed him." Kcho Wed him. wed hint. . The Limit in Polities. Warsaw (Mo.) Times. An aspirant for office wag talki. g to an old farmer on one of the bank corners the other day. The aspirant is a chronic of ficeseeker, and was heard to ay in a subdued tone:. "The office should seek the man." The old farmer seemed a little surprised at first, but remembered that he nad heard the remark before, and said, with a wink: "Well, yes: but It sholdn't run after hint more than thirty or forty years."