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TIIE SUXDAT OREGOMAN. PORTLAJTD. MARCH
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10 RTX.VXD, STJXDAY, MARCH 6, 1110.
FART1T A IfECESSABX ISBTBUMEXT.
President Taft, in his recent speech
at Newark, spoke in high terms of a
distinguished citizen of New : Jersey,
the late Grover Cleveland, who, when
President, stood immovably for' pur
poses which he deemed essential to
the welfare of the country. Repub
licans, toeing his political opponents,
supported him but coldly; the great
body of his own party, especially in
the West and South, sprang: into op
position to the chief measures of his
policy. It was a very trying position
for a man who did not doubt that he
was wholly right on the main eub
jetcs under discussion, and who, more
over, was proved by the result to be
wholly right upon them. Of Mr.
Cleveland Mr. Taft said:
He was positive. He was affirmative.
He stood tor something. -He was cour
ageous. Ho believed lu parties. He be
lieved In party policies. He believed in
consistency In regard to them. He did not
feolleve in trimming; down a policy to catch
the votes of those who did not agree with It.
It has been a source of disaster to
his party ever since, that Mr. Cleve
land was unable to bring It up to ac
ceptance of his policy at that time.
' Tet ' he adhered to. his party after-
wards, with the exception of voting
for Bryan. "When President he made
a party administration, and endeav
ored both to strengthen his party and
to make it. an instrument of service
: to the country. But by its own tend
. ency to perverseness his party was
turned aside from its true course; and
it must get back to the solid ground
on which he would have placed it.
before it can accomplish: anything
ii ore..
Mr. Cleveland always stuck to it
that he was a Democrat. He would
! not act with any other party. He
found fault with some of the courses
i Into which his own party had been
led, but he never supposed that im
. portant policies oould be pursued with
success except through party agency.
The Chicago Inter-Ocean has a. valu
able (word here. "Can anybody," it
a3ks, "imagine a Tilden, or a Grant,
or a Harrison, or a Cleveland, frothed
, up to the top by a 'non-partisan
movement," or toy a 'direct primary
plurality' ? Certainly not." Further,
; "Partisanship and conviction go to
, gether. They fight side by side. They
work in season and out. They are
i not trimmers, but workers. And they
achieve the results."
To come back to President Taft's
' statement at Newark, with its applica
tion for Oregon: Republicans of this
state are not going to win by trim
ming down their policy to catch the
votes of those who will not In any
event agree with it, but certainly rwill
be against it.
DRIVING AWAY -SKTTU-- RS.
The Southern Pacific has "Pinchot
ified" 2,000,000 acres of land in West
ern Oregon for "conservation," and
five fake wagon-road companies have
"Pinchotized" other big areas likewise.
The Government has done the same
with practically all the public land of
. Western Oregon and Western Wash
ington, both inside and outside of for
est reserves, on pretext of protecting
the people's timber from thieves and
grabbers.
Loud howls against the Southern
Pacific and the wagon-road companies
have assailed the stars. These sev
eral monopolies have been called foes
-of progress and greedy enemies of the
public interest. Tet their grip is no
worse "strangle-hold" on the country
than that of Pinchotism.
"Boosters" tell of the vast tracts of
land in Western Oregon and Wash
ington that are waiting for settle
ment and use; but, when they start in
to find the land, they discover the
Government refusing to admit settlers
into the immense area of the unoccu
pied public domain. This public
land, which from earliest days of the
West, has been open to the makers of
homes and which the laws ordain shall
still be available to homesteaders, is
"Pinchotized" by the Forestry De
partment and the Land Department of
the Government.
The laws allow homestead entries
on. reserve land that is more valuable
for agriculture than for timber or
minerals. But Pinchot officials have
determination of the matter in their
own hands and they permit no would
be homesteaders to take up land in
reserves. Beyond reserves they shut
out homesteaders by denying them
homestead entry, on the pretext that
the land is more valuable for timber
than for farming, and therefore pur
chasable only on their appraisement
of the value thereof. But this ap
praisement is invariably so high that
even a timber buyer, to say nothing of
a homesteader, cannot afford, to pay
the price.
Thus lands both within and without
forest reserves are withheld by the
Pinchot system from settlement and
u!c. As things are going, the South
ern Pacific land grant is better for the
people in the grip of the railroad than
' in tliat of the Government, since the
railroad doubtless would be more
. willing to "open up," and besides, it
. may not live forever like. the Govern
ment. Must the people, after all their bit
terness, turn back to the execrated
' land grants for comfort? That would
be a strange resort, wouldn't it? Tet
. if the Pinchot government ever gets
possession, the people win never be
allowed to make homes on the land.
The point of all which Is that be
cause nearly all public land in the
: western, part of these two states is tim
bered, no longer may settlers make
: homesteads upon it. Tet the laws say
" they, may the . same . laws under
which the older states have peopled T
tneir ianas ana grown strong ana ;
rich.
A ITtESII FREAK OF 'STATESMANSHIP.
The Oregonian publishes In the fifth
section of this issue a praiseworthy
analysis of the newest vagaries of
TJTRen statesmanship, from an address
of Speaker McArthur, of the Oregon
Legislature, who spoke last Tuesday
in Portland before the Portland Re
publican Club. The grotesque char
acter of this gone-to-seed statesman
ship of IT Ren la obvious to most
thinking citizens; but is not often por
trayed as clearly as Mr. McArthur has
done.
The new scheme provides . for ap
pointment of Sheriffs and District At
torneys by the Governor; performance
of county executive business by a
"business manager"; surveillance of
state affairs and publication of an qlfn
clal gazette by three inspectors; deter
mination of logrolling in the "Legisla
ture by a Marion County Jury, which
on it3 verdict may order, any act of
the lawmaking assembly to ; referen
dum; annual sessions of the Legisla- f
ture; six-year terms for the members;
Legislature to be subject at any time
to recall;, proportional representation
in the Legislature; special session of
the Legislature to be called by ma
jority of the members. All this and
much more are contained in this
scheme of "progressive" government
in Oregon. ' '
This newest fad for governing. Ore
gon is teeming with . possibilities of
bosslsm and machine rule and dicta
tion of affairs by a small set of parti
san or designing politicians. -Under
guise of unmaking bosses, it .would
make others worse. It would give
the official voice of the state to three
so-called inspectors and would vest in
the Governor powers that to the
American people thus far have toeen
unthinkable. It would sweep" away
the "checks and balances" of govern
ment,' which have been evolved and
gleaned in our democratic government
from centuries of strife and struggle.
Perhaps this fresh fad should not be
considered so seriously, because the
people of Oregon are too sane to adopt
such a freak scheme of government.
But government is the most serious
business of the publio and must have
candid attention. "We commend Mr.
McArthur's address for its sensible
discussion of this matter.
TOO MANY IXXTTOItS.
Henry S. Prltchett, president of the
Carnegie foundation, attributes the
superfluity of physicians in the
United States to the low-grade medi-
cal schools. That the superfluity"
exists is admitted by everybody who
has .Investigated the subject, and
that there is a large number of low
grade medical schools is also a well
known fact. "Very likely, if there
were fewer schools, there would ' not
be so many doctors. The more diffi
cult entrance to the learned and po
lite professions is made the smaller
will be the number of those who pass
tho portals and enter the promised
land of easy work and high pay. But
after all, the medical schools- with all
their sins are not the real evil. They
are merely a symptom of an un
healthy state of the public mind and
not the cause of it. If there were not
a demand for easy and accessible
medical courses, they would not be
offered. The schools would disappear
if the public did not patronize them.
The true reason why we have too
many doctors is precisely the same
as that why we have too many petti
fogging lawyers and fully enough
poorly trained preachers. The hasic
trouble is the desire to live elegantly
without work.
Dr. Pritohett passes over the fact
that the Incompetent medical schools
are a great improvement on the con
dition which preceded them. It is
much better to have a badly-educated
physician than one who is not edu
cated at all. If the medical schools
of low grade were abolished as he
desires, the consequence would be,
not a rise in the qualifications of phy
sicians as a class, but a flood of prac
titioners who' would treat the flick
without ever entering a school. The
learned head of the Carnegie Foun
dation imagines that this evil could
be prevented by legislation, but his
confidence in the power of the law
to protect mankind from their own
folly simply shows that he knows
more about some other things than
he does about human nature. There
are laws now upon the- statute books
intended to prevent fraudulent and
ignorant practice of the healing art,
and no doubt they are not wholly
ineffective. But do they protect peo
ple from the fraudulent "new
thought healer" ? Do they stop the
Imposture of the man who pretends
to cure disease by the laying on of
hands, by holy anointment, by in
cantations and magic devices of all
sorts? Not in the least. All these
trickeries flourish more luxuriantly
every day. Legislation is powerless
against them. Indeed, the public will
not tolerate any laws which tend to
deprive them of their beloved hum-
buggery in the domain of medicine.
Low-grade medical schools thrive be
cause the public prefers them to
schools of advanced grade. People in
general want the entrance to all the
polite vocations to be as easy as pos
sible so that their sons and daugh
ters may pass into them without too
much expenditure of time, mental
labor and cash.
For many years in this country we
have been hearing from most of our
intellectual and spiritual guides the
doctrine that it is little short of a
disgrace to earn one's living by man
ual toil, or by any other kind of toil
so far as that goes. The ideal held
up before the young has been that of
an elegant livelihood obtained by the
wits rather than by hard work, either
physical or mental. The frankly
declared purpose of education . has
been to enable those who enjoyed its
blessings to "live without work, to
have an easier time than they could
if they remained ignorant, to escape
from the farm, to rise from the shop,
to be able to wear good clothes every
day," and so on. The purpose has
been not to Increase the efficiency
and legitimate delight of toll, but to
get rid of toil; not to produce expert
ness in useful trades and handicrafts,
but to escape altogether from the ne
cessity of using the hands, or the brains
either. The fact has been steadily
Ignored that no success in the profes
sions which is worth having can be
attained without arduous and expen
sive preparation and years of inces
sant toil after the formal preparation
is finished. The success which Is
promised without these preliminaries
is a fraud and humbug, but it Ijas been
held before the eyea of young men
and women as a lure for two genera
tions or more in the United States, and
it accounts for the superfluity of prac
titioners in the elegant callings and the
paucity of skilled artisans In other
vocations.
Last year the University of Wiscon
sin refused calls for educated farmers
to fill positions which paid some $50,
000 in salaries. The calls could. not
be met, although that admirable uni
versity has pretty well escaped from
classicism ad has begun to teach
common sense. All its graduates in
the practical vocations were snapped
up and others demanded. Facts of
this kind show the mistake our
young people are making under the
Influence of false guides In rushing
into medicine, law and theology to
the neglect of agriculture, engineer
ing and other forms of productive
Industry. The world must be fed,
clad and housed, and it Is willing to
reward richly the men and women
who prepare themselves to help do
it efficiently. There is no less honor
in feeding human "beings than in mak
ing money out of their petty quarrels.
It Is quite as noble to build houses
as it is to cure diseases. To get rid
of the plague of incompetent doc
tors, we must first get rid of false
National Ideals.
WOlvAN K-3 TERMIXAX, KATE DKMAXOS
The mysterious North Coast" Rail
road - Company, an institution which
has expended more money without
disclosing the source .. from which it
came than any other corporation
that ever began business in the Pa
cific Northwest, has filed amended
articles .of incorporation at Olympia.
According to these articles, the com
pany proposes to build a, line from
Seattle to Spokane, with numerous
branches. This would seem to indi
cate that this road had no - intention
of honoring the Spokane request that
terminal rates be granted the inland
city before a franchise to enter Spo
kane be given. Boththe Milwaukee"
and the North Coast roads have been
delayed in securing permission to
enter Spokane by reason of a foolish
demand on "the part of some of the
people that no franchise be granted
the roads until they would agree
to grant terminal freight rates to
Spokane. ' -
Despite the fact that Spokane is
located 400 miles from a seaport
where terminal rates can be forced,
the Spokane Spokesman-Review for a
long time Insisted that the new roads
should abandon any attempt to do
business west of Spokane and give
that city the same rates as were fixed
by water transportation to coast ter
minals. The impossibility of , the
railroads meeting any. such -unreasonable
: requirements seems finally to
have Impressed the business men of
the city with the seriousness of the
situation and the local columns of
the Spokesman-Review now reflect a
public sentiment very much opposed
to any attempt to force the roads to
grant terminal rates.
The largest flour manufacturer in
Spokane is quoted' as saying that
"Nothing that the City Council could
do would be more silly, in my estima
tion, than for it to demand a ter
minal rate provision of the Milwau
kee and North Coast Railroads as a
condition to granting them franchises
to enter Spokane." Another mer
chant asserts that "the demand for
terminal rates as a franchise condi
tion is unreasonable and ridiculous."
It is still quite apparent that the
only method -by which Spokane can
secure . terminal rates is to move to
a "terminal."
REAL, CHARITY. '
A work of purest charity and ten
derest humanity is that which pro-
vides for the care, until the end, of
penniless persons suffering from tu
berculosis in the Incurable stage.
Economics has no place in this work,
since for all practical purposes the
incurable consumptive has been elim
inated from the industrial world.
Hence the work of caretaking is at
this stage one of charity, and her
ready handmaiden humanity.
Than the Incurable sufferer from
consumption, who Is also penniless.
there is no more pitiable object nor
one more hopeless or helpless. For
merly, when this disease was consid
ered an inheritance and not com-
municable except through family
taint, homeless persons suffering
from it were taken into the homes
of relatives, or failing in this, were
sent to the county hospital or the
almshouse to die, and from thence
to the potter's field, for sepulture,
Bacteriology has, however, traced
this malady to its cause and discov
ered in it a disease that is not her
editary, but communicable. Follow-
ing this discovery has come natural
ly the dread of contact with those
who are suffering from it, and the
practical impossibility of getting this
class ' of ' patients ' into comfortable
quarters at health resorts, even it
they have money wherewith to pay
their , way. Of course the penniless
sufferer stands incalculably leis
chance to secure shelter and care in
his pitiful decline.
. It is in tho interest of this class
that Mrs. Myers, wife of Rabbi My
ers, of Los Angeles, is now on a
tour of Pacific Coast cities and is
at present in Portland. Mrs. Myers
represents the Jewish Consumptives'
Relief Society of her home city. This
society maintains a home in Denver
devoted to the care of . incurable suf
ferers from tuberculosis. In this
Tiomo the patients receive the special
care that their rapidly failing condi
tion requires. They are made as
comfortable as is compatible with
their growing weakness, and when
death comes their burial expenses are
paid. All of this is given, without
money and without price and without
distinction as to race, color or creed.
. THE PART OF JPRCDEJJCE. '
The discovery early in the week of
a few mild cases of smallpox in the
Irvington School led quite naturally
to a panic among parents whose chil
dren attend that school. Prompt
measures, known to modern sanita
tion, were taken by the health officers
of the city, and the assurance is given
that there is no special cause for
alarm. The disease is of a mild type
and it is believed that it will be easily
and promptly stamped out.
Precisely the same conditions oc
curred in the Clinton Kelly School
last year, and they were controlled
without difficulty and with only such
loss of time as was required to fumi
gate the building, books and general
paraphernalia of the school. Strict
quarantine was, of course, enforced
upon families in which the dlseaso
was carelessly or ignorantly permitted
l to develop, and. the general order for
vaccination, which Is suspended when
there Is no menace of smallpox, was
enforced.
The objection of many parents to
having their children vaccinated is
the most serious obstacle to be over
come in a condition like that which
prevails in Irvington at present. This
objection must yield, or the children
to whom it applies will not be per
mitted to remain in the school. It is
easy to sympathize with parents who
object to the inoculation of their chil
dren with a culture of smallpox, but
science holds and experience has
proven the efficacy of this treat
ment for the prevention of small
pox in its virulent form. Hence, in
this as in other instances where the
safety of the whole is paramount to
the Inconvenience of the few, the rule
as applied to the vaccination of chil
dren when smallpox has broken out
in the immediate vicinity, as a condi
tion upon which they may attend
school, the principle of the greatest
good to the greatest number must apply.-
GOOD EXAMPLE FOR, COURTS.
There is no good reason why courts
everywhere should not transact busi
ness as expeditiously as the Municipal
Court of Chicago, though there are
plenty of bad ones. Probably the
force of had habits is the most impor
tant cause of the . almost universal
procrastination which prevails in our
courts in both civil and criminal suit3.
Once let a thing be done with waste
of time, waste of money and heart
break to the suitor, and it will be.
done so forevermore. Nothing is
ever corrected, nothing bettered. The
whole force of inertia Inclines to the
side of indolence.'
We have had the example of the
English courts- before us for many
years, but it has done little good.
The British Judges manage to get
through many times as much
work as any of -ours do' in
much less time and there is no doubt
about the excellence of their deci
sions. Are they more competent for
their task than American Judges, o,r
is there something in our atmosphere
which prevents prompt judicial activ
ity? The description of the work of the
Chicago court which has appeared in
the magazines is- highly Instructive.
It shows that an American court can
accomplish its work within decent
limits of time when the will and the
authority are not lacking. A court
which habitually tries and sentences
petty criminals, and even important
ones, within a few hours of the com
mission of their crimes Is something
of a novelty in this -country, but it is
welcome and no doubt its good exam,
pie will spread. The habit of post
poning every case month after month
and year after year is simply a habic.
nothing more. It can be broken oft
like other habits and the sooner it is
conquered the better for the credit of
the judiciary and the safety of life
and property.
PROPOSAL FOR A XEW CALKVDAR,
Mr. Thomas B. Dinsmore, whose
address is Belfast, Me., has devised a
new calendar which -he offers to a re
joicing world in a little pamphlet. His
project is to shorten the week to five
days and assign to each month thirty
days. Thus there would be seventy
three complete weeks in the ordinary
year, making twelve months and one
extra week. At the end of leap year
the extra week would" have six days
This spare week, which would not fall
in any month, Mr. Dinsmore would
give over to mirth and Jollity, which
would be permissible, since it would
about' cover what we now call "holi
day week." The only radical innova
tion he would make beyond a mere
rearrangement of numbers and names
would be to begin the new year at
the Winter solstice, December 22. In
asmuch as that is the date when the
solar year does actually begin, the
lan has its merits. The week of five
days would divide each month accu
rately into six weeks and make each
begin and . end on a fixed day of the
week. To be specific, every month
would begin with Monday and end
with Sunday, while a given date would
fall on the same day of the week for
ever. This it is very far from doing
now, to the confusion of those who
either investigate the past or specu
late upon the future.
Mr. Dinsmore makes each fifth day
a holiday, the alternate ones being
holy days or Sundays. The bare fact
that he Imposes a sermon upon his
followers only once in ten days, in
stead of once, in seven, as the custom
now is, will, though it should not,
gain him many well-wishers. The
problem of naming the five days of
his abbreviated week he has solved
fairly well, considering how difficult
it is. The pentemeric holiday seems
to be without any particular designa
tion, but all the rest are disposed of
as well perhaps as Adam himself
could have done it. They are Mon
day, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sun
day. The days dropped out of exist
ence are Wednesday and Thursday,
A stern critic might wonder at Mr.
Dinsmore's indiscretion in retaining
Friday and dropping Wednesday. Fri
day is named for the goddess Friga,
whose presence has always been a
scandal to the calendar. Knowing her
character, as he must, it Is surprising
that Mr. Dinsmore let the opportunity
to get rid of 'her objectionable name
for good and all slip by. The god
Woden, whom Wednesday Is named
after, is at least a respectable indi
vidual. There' are other objections
against Friday. It is well known to
be an unlucky day. Projects begun
within its hours are sure to fail. Mar
riages made on Friday always end in
the divorce court and children , born
on that unhappy day invariably come
to bad ends. Worse yet, strictly pious
people deem it improper to eat meat
on Friday. The advantages of drop
ping that day are so manifest that
its retention seems almost to impeach
Mr. Dinsmore's Judgment. Think of
the blessings he might have' conferred
upon mankind by simply omitting Fri
day and keeping Wednesday. All the
days of the year would then have been
lucky. .
Seriously. Mr. Dinsmore's project
is too sensible ever to be adopted. To
say that there are many strong argu
merits in its favor and none, whatever
against it is to state the undeniable
truth, and yet we are quite certain
that it never will get into practico
The human mind seems to be so fond
of disorder, irregularity and inconsist
ency that it clings with exasperating
energy to the dozens of things fully
as much in need of reform as the cal
endar. " In his youth Herbert Spencer
proposed to substitute the duodecimal
system of notation for the decimal,
which we commonly use. His argu
ments were unanswerable. Every per
son who read his essay admitted that
it ought to be done, but not a man
in England dreamed of doing It. Every
British scientist of any standing since
the metric system of weights and
measures was invented has pleaded
for its adoption and use. The advan
tages from it would be inestimable
in almost every department of life, in
commerce, in banking, in science, in
education.. Every Englishman knows
this well enough, and yet they all
cling tenaciously to the barbaric ta
bles which disfigure our schoolbooks.
The spelling reform Is another exam
ple. The arguments against phonetic
.spelling may not be sound, but they
are sufficient, they serve the purpose.
and it will probably be millions of
years before people in general will
dare to write "laf" for "laugh."
Mr. Dinsmore's cause is not always
helped by the arguments he sets forth
in his interesting little pamphlet. He
thinks, for example, that the abolish
ment of the Inconvenient and anoma
lous seven-day week will "meet with
the instant and appreciative co-opera
tion of all religious societies. He
little knows what he is talking about.
The seventh-day Sunday rests on a
direct command of the Almighty, and
it will not be so easily got rid of as
he fancies. To be sure, we obey the
command by observing the first day,
but that Is a mere trifle. We obey
most of the scriptural commands in
the same way without the slightest in-
Jury to our reverence for them. The
seven-day cycle is older than history
and deeper than almost any other hu
man institution. It is connected with
the most ancient ries of sun and
moon, worship, of. vhich Easter,
Christmas and many saints' days are
relics. The moon's monthly cycle
easily falls into four weeks of seven
days. They do not quite fill the month.
but they come pretty near it, near
enough for the priests of Adonis in
Asia Minor, who first arranged the
calendar. The Sabbath originally
marked the moon's quarters, while the
end of the month was the full moon,
as one may read In the Bible. Easter.
the great feast of Adonis, the god of
the resurrection or Spring, falls on
the first Sunday following the first
full moon after the vernal equinox.
And so on. The calendar as it stands
is so Interwoven with the deepest re
ligious inheritance of the race that
nothing short of a miracle will ever
alter it essentially.
"MINISTERS A.VO HORSES."
Under the above head Leslie's
Weekly makes a plea for a fund for
worn-out ministers of the several
Protestant churches, without regard
to sectarian lines. This fund is
placed at the modest sum of $10,-
000,000. After citing the years of
self-sacrificing labor of which the av
erage minister's life is made up, this
journal quotes from Rev. J. H. Mc-
Ilvaine, in a recent address to Epis
copal laymen at Pittsburg, Pa., say
ing: "It pays better to be a faithful
horse than a faithful minister, when
old age comes," and adding: "Many a
man makes 'better provision for an
old horse than is made by the church
for her old ministers."
A somewht exaggerated story run
ning serially in the Saturday Evening
Post, purporting to be written by the
wife of an itinerant Methodist minis
ter, voices, through many chapters of
incident and recital, the same state
ment, the inevitable conclusion of
which is that It does not pay, in a
worldly sense, to be a minister of the
gospel to a people of the type desig
nated by Whittier as
Churchgoers, fearful of the unatfen powers.
But grumbling over pulpit tax and pew
rent;
Saving, as shrewd economists, their souls
and winter's pork.
With the least possible outlay ot salt and
sanctity.
That this estimate contains more
truth than poetry is attested by the
makeshift lives of some ministers.
still of today, and by the memory of
a silent host that has passed from the
active to the superannuated list
through pinch and poverty, into the
beyond.
- This was indeed the common lot of
the frontier preacher of a past gener
ation. It is not so common now, first
because of the restricted line of our
frontiers; and second, because the
spirit of self-abnegation, which in
practice included the wife and chil
dren, i3 not specially ripe in this age
of utilitarianism and general progress
toward making the most of the pres
ent life. The old-time minister, living
upon the voluntary offerings of a
poverty-stricken circuit, necessarily
came down to his old age in poverty.
This was a logical sequence, of his
calling and the self-sacrifice that it
imposed. A faithful servitor of his
people, he was expected to take the
dole given in a spirit of thankfulness
and give of himself without stint in
return through all the active years of
his life. Necessarily, or at least log
ically, he came down to his old age
a pauper, who was still expected to
take such grudged offering as his
church allowed, eke out an existence
upon it, and be thankful.
Of course, as the country grew and
opportunity increased, men grew also
In the grace of self-dependence and in
the divinely selfish instinct which bids
every, man to care, first of all, for his
own. This is the basis of the cry that
young men are no longer willing to
enter the ministry. There are other
reasons, of course, but none that is
more convincing to a prudent man
than that which bids him look to tho
material and educational interests of
those who compose his own house
hold, and for whoso equipment for
this life he is tlirectly responsible. No
one whose memory runs back to the
equipment of the frontier, in minis
ters; the spavined , steeds that they
drove in going the ' rounds from one
appointment to another; the self-
effaced wives at their sides, and the
troop of children, grotesquely clad in.
the cast-off garments of the parish
that were wedged Into the battered
buggies fore and aft, for tho sub
stantial reason that the cupboard in
the shabby parish-house was empty
can wonder, still less regret, that the
gospel mill that turned out this piti
ful, poverty-stricken, palpitating grist
has for the most part lost its motivo
power the fear of an angry God and
a burning abyss. .Sincere men were
these pauper preachers of the olden
time; pitifully patient and self-effac
ing were their sad-faced, thin-chested,
subjugated wives. Resentful, usually,
from their early years, were the
preachers" children, of their part in
this compact of self-abnegation.
In this latter fact, perhaps, lies the
secret of the statement that few re
cruits, relatively speaking, come to
the ministry from the homes of min
Isters. Unobservtng indeed must have
been the children of the country or
village parsonage, and impervious to
the lessons of daily life, as written in
the anxious faces of parents and the
narrow economies of the preacher's
household, who came to maturity
with a wish or purpose to follow in
the footsteps of their parents. The
spavined beast that drew the preacher
and his family from place to place on
the circuit could be mercifully shot
when he could no longer make the
rounds; but the preacher and his wife,
the tenure of whose lives far outran
that of their faithful horse, could only
wait and with what patience they
could muster (pride having long
ago been crucified) for the call of
Nature.
The horse, manifestly, had the best
of this triple alliance, since he could
at least eat his Sunday oats without
knowing that they were grudged, and
nibble the grass of a free pasture
without feeling the shame of depend
ence.
The memory of Sarah Orne Jewett,
one of the younger writers of a past
generation, whose interpretation of
New England life and character
was tender and true, is to toe
revived and perpetuated by a
scholarship in Simmons College, Bos
ton. In Miss Jewett's writings, like
those of Rose Terry Cooke and Har
riet Beecher-Stowe, there is a local
touch and color that bring the reader
close to the New England homes of
an earlier era. She wrote of that time
into which she was -born, and in nar
rating the incidents of the common
place she gave them the quaint
touch' of an autobiography. Boston
claimed Miss Jewett, though she was
born' in Maine, Just as it claimed Lou
ise M. Alcott, the major portion of
whose not-long life was spent in
Concord. The effort to honor her
memory by the proposed scholarship
will no doubt meet ready and ade
quate response from those among
whom she lived and wrote.
Two hundred faithful, but aged or
crippled policemen, -in Chicago, seek
to become beneficiaries of the police
pension fund. Applications for pen
sions have been refused by the
custodians of the fund with the no
tation "Fit for light work." If the
"light work" is assured, these men,
if possessed of the proper spirit, will
certainly prefer it to simple dole.
There is nothing else that so com
pletely takes the spirit out of a man
as to place him on the superannu
ated list, with a. cash allowance bare
ly sufficient to keep vbase life afoot
For this, if for no. other reason, such
action should be deferred as long as
possible, at least as long as a man is
"fit for light work."
Property owners along the line of
the proposed Hillside Parkway on the
eastern slope of the scenic- hills in
Southwest Portland see, or think
they. see, their chance to become rich
from their holdings at the expense of
the city. To acquire title to the lands
necessary to carry out the plans of the
Park Board at this point will involve
the expenditure of half a million dol
lars. This price makes the consum.
mation of these plans prohibitive
Thus one dream of scenic beauty has
had a rude awakening.
The tremendous volume of water
now being carried down the Columbia
minimizes the danger of a serious rise
in June. The snow in the moun
tains In which the sources of the Co
lumbia lie is said to have been unusu
ally heavy during the past Winter.
The present freshet, by draining the
foothills, will serve to divide the out
flow to the sea and be a boon to
farmers and orchardlsts on the lands
lying within the possible Inundation
limit.
The question "What shall we do
with our ex-Presidents?" becomes
daily more easy of solution. The
truth is we have but one ex-President,
and he seems to be amply able to take
care of himself. Indeed, our ex
Presidents generally have possessed
the faculty of placing themselves in
a satisfactory manner. Why seek to
deprive them of this first privilege of
American manhood?
The postal savings bank bill went
through the Senate by more than two
to one. Senator Aldrich kept his
word with the President. Now would
it have been wise for the President to
follow the advice of a lot of people
and "fight Aldrich"? Or does the
country want results in the adoption
of the Taft-Roosevelt policies?
Now the Germans, too, are after the
South Pole. When they discover it,
will they withhold all medals, decora
tions and honors from the real dis
coverer out of a sentimental feeling
toward some fraud and faker who may
say he found the Pole, but who is
known to be an impostor?
"Three Hundred Farmers. Worth
$12,000,000, Discuss Cost of Living." is
the headpiece of an article in the Chi
cago Inter-Ocean, describing an "ag
ricultural dinner" at. Joliet. 111. "We
are not getting too much for our
products," was the general sentiment
of the assembly.
Pitcher Brown has been signed by
Chicago at tho largest salary ever
paid a ballplayer. Brown has three
fingers on his pitching arm, or hand.
Figure the moral of t;his true tale
out for yourself.
That dance in which President Taft
and Speaker Cannon participated
would have reached the acme of joy
had Oregon's representative. Ellis,
added his coat tails and avoirdupois.
Where Teddy whacked the muck
rakers with tho big stick and the ugly
word, Taft uses the soft answer. That
may be the reason Taft has lost seven
pounds in weight.
And yet the admirers of Roosevelt
who score Taft have not mentioned
anybody who could have looked after
the country better during Teddy's
absence.
Although Halley's comet is a mil
lion times bigger than the earth, our
planet will sway its path. Quality,
not size, rules the universe.
When you stop to think of it, it was
named the City of Brotherly Love
long before the days of streetcars or
strikes.
Portland's air is one of its best as
sets, so that "sky boats" should con
sider themselves unusually well
favored.
This suspense interval until Jef
fries "licks the nigger" nyw i Is
awful for the white race.
A VERT JCDICIOFS STATEMBST.
Mr. Flnchot'a Effort to Make Hlmael
" Rational Issue.
Brooklyn Eagle.
The spirit in which Mr. Pinchot be
gan is to be regretted. He was hostil
to Mr. Balllnger and to Mr. Taft. till
lately his superior. He grazed as neaj
to the personal integrity of the Presi
dent as he dared, under the knowledg
that the President could not rejoin un
less he became a witness, a role the
executive cannot assume, as himself a
co-ordinate part of the Government
Mr. Pinchot is very angry and has a
grotesquely large estimate of his neces
sity to the human race and to the des
tinies of mankind.
Tho readres of the Eagle should beaor
In mind some facts In which tho Con
stitution and the acts ot Congress on
forest conservation are concerned.
President Taft is a Jurist, Mr. Bal
llnger Is an able lawyer, and Attorney-.
General Wickersham. a very able law
yer, sustains both. All of them have
given to the subject deep and long
study. Without consultation they havej
arrived at the same conclusions. All
treated Mr. Pinchot, a layman, with
great consideration, till the President
felt he had to remove him. Since then
Mr. Pinchot has raised his personality;-
to the Nth power of felt importance.
and is now "arraigning" Mr. Balllnger, :
more than reflecting on the President .
whom he is trying to "nag" into re-
Joinder, and Is ready to "unllmber" hl
guns on Attorney-General Wickersham,
with the design of bringing J. R. Gar
field, certainly, and ex-President Roose
velt, if he can, into the controversy.
An able, earnest, angry young man.
with money, leisure, forestry knowledge
and a bad case of megalomania, Mr.
Pinchot was an officeholder and be
lieves he has become "a national issue.
We do not think he has, and we await
the result of the whole inquiry with
more solicitude for him than for the
men Just as good and twice as wise
and thrice as learned in the law as he.
Self-Appointed Dictators.
Kugene Register.
Ten Oregon citizens, representing vari
ous shades of political opinions from
Populist tTRen to Socialist C. E. Sv
Wood, are out in a pamphlet dictat
ing to the people of the state how it
politics should be . run. Have they
greater rights In this ' matter than
would a thousand delegated -Republicans
meeting in assembly to formulate
a platform outlining the principles of
one specific political belief? In other
words, have 10 political wanderers- In
Oregon the right to declare themselves
appointed dictators of Oregon politics
and make melr "thou slialt not" com
mands the law of the land?
Are Oregon Republicans to be scared
into hiding by this political Tighteous
self-appointed holier than immortal ten?
Ia it better to have ten self-appointed
dictators running the slate's affairs
under the direct primary law than to
have 1000 delegated citizens direct from
the masses meeting to discuss what is
best for Oregon's political future? In
other words, shall 10 men bo permitted
to do by their own volition what they
would condemn 1000 other men in do
ing and delegated to do?
People of Oregon, think on these
.things.
Units and Ilooma in Seattle. .
(Tacoma Tribune.)
Seattle, full of "to rent" signs, with
more than 2000-room capacity of hotel
buildings vacant and no tenants In
sight, in addition to the hundreds of
vacant rooms in the hotels that are
kept open. Is awakening to the fact that
something more la required to make
a town than to build hotel buildings
and wait for the transient.
One of the trade Journals of that
city, discussing the situation, makes
the remark that "it would seem a sim
ple question of common sense to loweC
the rent for a good tenant to get a,
half loaf rather no bread at all; rathec
than to allow a building to stand va
cant, gathering mildew and taxes ano
cobwebs."
The further statement is made that,
"there are many vacant hotels in Seat-'1
tie, due to exorbitant rents, and likely
to be more after May 1. Hotels now!
running have a fourth to half their",
rooms vacant. The expected rush oS
people to Seattle to invest or to mik;
homes here has not materialized, as'
yet, and is by no means a certainty."
IJ-ourne and Divided Field.
Yamhill News-Reporter.
From every part come indications!
that the assembly proposition ia taking
well among Republicans and not at alt
among the opposition. Of course Jona
than Bourne is opposing it, for the only
chance he has at all of getting a
Tenouiination Is by a badly divided
field, allowing a small minority . to
again make him the standard-bearer.
He can't get a third of the Republican
vote, and probably not a much greater
proportion than before, even Including
the vast number of tho opposition reg
istered as Republicans; hence, unless
the desires of the majority of the Re
publicans is set aside, he must retire
from tlio United States Senate.
The Democrats, of course, want nci
assembly, being satisfied that with
Bourne as the Republican candidate
tlicy have, an excellent chance to de
feat him with a straight out Democrat,
and If they can't oh. well! Bourne will
do very well "anyway. They know his
record in the past.
Jaunty Glfford.
Tacoma Tribune.
Pinchot has one trait of character
that one cannot help but admire: He
is no respecter of persons. Because
Bill Taft Is- President it makes no dif
ference to Glfford. He comes jauntily
forward and tells Bill he is a liar with
all the smiling magnificence with whieli
his former associate, the Rig Stick
Man, conferred the degree of Fellow ot
the Ananias club on one of his sub
jects. pinchot's head sticks up so high it
is liable to get cut off. Back on tho
Pennsylvania marshes, when the mow
ing machines began to take the place
of the scythe for cutting hay, the rat
tlesnakes used to stick up their heads
and warn tho machines back but after
It had gone by their heads were wink
ing by themselves and Mr. Snake had
lost. Something like this will happen
to the gifted Gifford.
Capital Punlanme-nt.
HUBBARD, Or., March 1. (To the
Edltor. Please publish your opinion
of capital punishment.
' . r. E. TODD.
We believe in hanging, when you
hang the right man, and do It accord
ing to law.
Econoniy In Alimony.
Yonkers Statesman.
Patience What Is she doing with all tha
alimony she's getting?
Patrice Oh, she's caving it to she car
support another husband.
AK'ls "Mnry."
Boston Transcript.
That rhyme of Mary and her
Oli, may it be forgotten!
Its parodies evoko a
For most of them,