fllE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX. PORTLAND. SEPTE3IBER 18, 1910.
fOKTUND. OREGON.
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THE MHABBV DEMOCRACY.
No small Ir.grnuity. and no trifling
measure of evasion, equivocation,
falsehood. and tergiversation are
r.erded hy Orepon Democratic news
Tapers to maintain their impudent
rose of bogus "Independence." But
thf v krep at it In the hope of fooling
mrh rcuple as want nothing better
than to be fooled. These Democratic
newspapers are all engaged now in
the self-elected task of running the
Republican primary and the Demo
cratic primary at the same time.
Though there Is to be no Democratic
primary worth mentioning. There
are !n Multnomah practically no Dem
ocratic candidates for county or legis
lative offices, and only an occasional
aspirant for a mate office. Why?
Is there no Democratic party? If
there Is, where is It? If there Is not,
why should ar.y one be permitted to
pose after the primary as a Demo
cratic candidate?
But. of course, everybody knows
what has become of the Democrats.
Thfv sr.huy Interfering with Re
publican affairs. Thousands have reg
litered as Republicans and "will have
large voice in controlling Republican
nominations. There is r.o Democratic
rarty that respects itself or the pro
prieties or the law. The Democratic
party t Oregon hasn't even the grace
to be nsh.tmed of lt.elf.
( A A 1.6 .Vr RAILROADS.
Every now and then some alleged
transportation expert from the Eist
comes among us with the information
thnt the Panama Canal will be of no
benefit to the Pacific Coast so long
as railroad companies and private
firms and Individuals own docks In
the staporfs on this Coast. This
warning against private ownership of
Iot ks is sounded in the belief that
the mllrcads are antagonistic to
water traffic and especially to that
which will be handled by the Panama
Canal. There may be isolated cases
where water transportation has af
fected the business of the railroads,
but the tendency of the water carrier
is to develop new business and assist
In handling low-grr.de freight which is
ever attractive to railroads. This
phase of the matter w-as touched on
by John F. Stevens now in charge of
the Hill interests in the Pacific North
west, in a paper read at the first an
nual convention of the Atlantic
Deeper Vateras Association.
Jn explaining the relation of rall-
was to canals. Mr. Stevens said:
"The gigantic strides our internal
commerce ha made has demonatrat
q1 that while railroads serve a pur
pose which waterways never can do.
they need to be supplemented by a
cheaper. If a slower carrier. There
are immerse volumes of low-grade
tra:fic which to be moved at all re
quire very low rates. Such traffic Is
now being handled by railways to the
detriment of their other and faster
moving business, resulting In a loss
to themselves and to the public also."
That there is much more traffic of
fering than the railroads can handle
to the best advantage is apparent by
the freight congestion experienced
nearly every year, and which will be
materially relieved when the comple
tion of the canal makes It possible to
handle low-grade freight between the
tw coasts by water.
Ia the Pacific Northwest there Is
developing a vast internal trade which
on completion of the canal will ab
sorb large quantities of freight
brought from the Atlantic seaboard.
The rates on much of this freight by
water will be far below the rail rates
and the railroads terminating on the
Cosst will make more money out of
the distribution of this freight from
ti.e Pacific seaboard than they could
r.ia!re on the long haul at low rates
frcra the Kal. Regarding that phase
of the matter, Mr. Stevens In his en
tertaining paper states that the water
carriers will, beyond a doubt, "take
from the railways some part of a
certain class of traffic, but such loss
v ili be recouped by the fact that the
rM'.w&ys will be enabled better and
more economically to handle the taigh-
r-priced traffic which the waterways
cai. never satisfactorily do, and so the
n"t results will be for their benefit."
Short-sighted railroad managers of
the old days might have shown oppo
sition to canals, but the modern rail
road man with keener Insight and bet
ter knowledge of the transportation
requirements of the growing country',
la no longer an enemy of the canal.
BACK INTO HF.K OWN. .
Oregon rejoices. In deep silence or
in spoken words of gratitude to the
Great Unknown, the whole state gives
thanks for the bountiful rain. During
a period of three months, half of it
burdened with the smoke of forest
Tires and fear of greater destruction
with possible loss of life. Oregon
weather was not normal. While for
tunately the atmosphere throughout
July and August was cool as May, we
missed the ight of our mountains:
we were away from the Influence of
Nature" distant, restful green.
Perhaps it is well to go through
one such dry' season once In ten or
twenty years. The experience teaches
us the better to appreciate our cli
matic blessings and to wish there were
Iruth in the witty Callfornlan's an
swer to an inquiry concerning Oregon
weather, "the rainy season and Aug
Dst." Not since HSi has there been
the paucity of rainfall that marked
the Summer Just post. In that year
rains did not begin until the second
week in October. They came contem
poraneously with the driving of the
golden spike on, the Northern Pacific
Railroad.
. In what a friendly, affectionate spirit
did last week's change come! The
northwest breeze retreated before the
rdr. r-r ord-r or personal choc oa
r local bank. Stamp, coin or rar'Tn,"I
r at Ih and.i" rl.lt. Otvo p1,".1,.
aJ.1-- In fu 1. tn-ludln county and at
I'nataKO Rate 10 t- 14 pant. wnt: i
to cum ; -nta: SO to ta. eon"-
u GO casta. 4 cent, fo.tita postal
gentle xephyrs from the southern seas.,)
which rain-laden made way in the
night and without awakening us from ,
slumber began to drop their soft, melo- I
dious drlzzle-drazzle. Low, leaden. J
clouds then for two days "let all their
moisture flow. In large effusion, o'er
the freshened orld." No more
drouth: no more smoke; no more (
hunger for communion with our genial
friend, the Chinook wind. Oregon t
has come back into her own:
THE PEOPLE'S WILL AGAIN.
What is the Imperative mandate?
The Oregonian for several days has
been trying to find out. Now the
Portland Journal has some remarks
on the subject, based on a garbled
quotation from The Oregonian. from
which It purposely and falsely as
sumes that The Oregontan's comment
was directed against the Statement
No. 1 pledge. The Democratic organ
is strong for the people's will as ex
pressed through the "imperative man
date." "The people will, and do. give
an 'imperative mandate' to men elected
to the Legislature to elect the popular
choice Tor United States Senator: per
haps about other things," says this
paper.
There arc "other things." certainly,
about which the people give, or have
given, an Imperative mandate, and
about which this paper and all
its Democratic allies, confederates and
little backroom bosses will be silent.
They Imperatively demanded In 1908
by a vote of 50.591 noes to 30,243
ayes, that the Supreme Court be not
Increased from three to five Judges.
Here, by a vote of nearly 2 to 1. the
people's will was solemnly, lawfully,
explicitly proclaimed. Was the slightest
attention paid to their Imperative
mandate by the associated reformers
masquerading as Independents or non
partisans? Have they had at any time
since the sightest criticism to make
that the people's will was deliberately
and contemptuously Ignored, derided,
overridden and despised? If they have
had. The Oregonian would be glad to
have its attention called to the place
or time or occasion. '
J.OISY BIT INCONSEQUENTIAL.
The announcement of a debate be
tween men of antagonistic religious
beliefs, though both of Christian de
nominations, upoa the question of
which day of the week, the seventh or
the first, should be observed as the
Sababth day, causes the hands on the
dial of time to fly back half a hun
dred years or more when arguments
on the method of baptism brayed ec
clesiastical discordance on the air
from many a pulpit and Winter nre
side. The phonograph of time echoes
the words of Rev. Joab Powell, the
farmer-preacher of the Santiam, as.
rising upon tiptoe and bringing his
clenched fist down with a force that
threatened to make kindling wood out
of a pioneer Baptist pulpit, he shout
ed: "Repent, believe and be baptized
and wash away your sins," following
this with a scathing denunciation of
"sprinkling" as sham baptism and
wholly Inefficacious.
Answering came the voice of Neill
Johnson, or L. D. Driver, or William
Roberts, declaring baptism by "sprink
ling" to be wholly efficacious and Jus
tified by t,he Scriptures.
Tired women with babes asleep upon
their bosoms listened wearily as doc
trine was hurled against doctrine and
creed was piled high upon creed in
this contention, and left the meeting
house with a confused sense of their
own unworthlness In that they found
neither comfort nor enlightenment in
what had been so volubly expounded
before them. Men left the scene of
ecclesiastical fulmlnation and fury,
freshly primed with words, the mean
ing of which each Interpreted to suit
himself, wherewith to confute his
neighboring Baptist or Methodist or
Cumberland Presbyterian. The elders
to whom the arguments adduced were
as "a thrlcc-told tale, vexing the dull
ears of the drowsy man." snored
audibly as the defender of this method
or that waxed hot In denunciation or
droned wearily through Irrelevant
platitudes. Little children fretted and
fumed, wondering how long It would
be until dinner, and young men and
maidens refreshed themselves with oc
casional glances at each other and
thought of the compensation that the
walk home through the deep green
woods would brings never dreaming
that they were sinners. In that the
"great truths" so vigorously present
ed did not appeal to them as essential
to human happiness.
Was anybody ever convinced, was
any vital truth ever firmly fixed, by
these ecclesiastical debates? Did It
ever really make any difference which
was right in his estimate of the man
ner of observing a beautiful symbol,
sacred or perfunctory, according to the
Individual estimate of Its significance?
Was ever the heart of man turned
with greater kindliness toward his
neighbor because of these fulnilna
tlons of belief, incorporated into creed,
and by the doctrinaires proclaimed es
sential to salvation?
DECLINING ORIENTAL. TRADE.
The Department of Commerce and
Labor announces receipt of figures on
the foreign trade of China by which
"the growing commercial independ
ence of Oriental countries, as against
their former dependence on the Occi
dent." Is shown. While China has
shown liberal gains in imports from
India. Japan. Rnssla, French Indo
china and Singapore, there has been
a heavy falling oft In Importations
from Occidental countries. Among
all other countries the United States
shows the heaviest decrease In im
ports received by China. Whllo poll
tics and patriotism may have had
something to do with bringing about
this rather unpleasant situation, it Is
largely, In fact, almost exclusively, a
matter of economics. The yellow
races, particularly since the rise of
Japan, have proved very apt students:
they have learned much from the
whites and are now coining that
knowledge Into money In the shape of
increased output of nearly all kinds of
manufactured goods.
Invthe case of cotton goods, for
which China was formerly a very
large customer of the United States,
the Orientals are now buying raw
cotton In this country and manufac
turing" it at home. Many of these
manufactures are shipped back to this
country, and, after paying a duty, still
leave a profit for the Orientals. With
an advantage of this kind in their fa
vor, it Is easy to understand why
China Is not buying anything on this
I side of the Pacific that can be secured
in the Far East. Viewing the situa
tion from a local standpoint, we can
readily see the gradual disappearance
of the great flour trade which Port
land and Puget Sound formerly en
Joyed with the Far East. Manchurlan
wheat and Japanese flour mills have
cut into this trade to such an extent
that this year we have witnessed the
remarkable spectacle of Japanese
bran being sold on the Pacific Coast.
Our trade with the Orient is declin
ing and the decrease w ill continue bo
cause it cannot bo checked by any
known method except cneap kiuui.
That remedy the Caucasians are not
yet ready to apply. With a vast
amount of raw material that can be
turned out by cheap labor and plenty
of the same kind of labor to convert It
Into the manufactured product: with
.increasing skill and the Introduction
of modern machinery and modern
methods, the Orientals will shortly be
Independent of the United States as
well as of other countries. Perma
nency of our trade with the Orient
has always been questioned. With the
civilization of the unnumbered mil
lions of workers In the Far East It
may vanish into . nothing, or at the
best be confined to a few staples which
can be obtained In no other country.
CXCOJfSIDEBED RKFORMS.
The Oregonian is In receipt of this
communication from a subscriber In
Portland:
K'ndly aettla the followlns: A and B
ara stopping at a boarding-house. Tlicra
art no printed bills of fare, but tea. cof
fe and milk are served a drinks. The
milk la heavily diluted with water befor
being aervod. A contends that the land
lord of said boardlns-houaa ta liable to
prosecution under th puro food law; B
says h is not, as the milk is not adver
tised la not printed on bill of fare as puro
milk. Which ia correct?
J. A. DOWLIXO.
Three weeks ago The Oregonian
would have been brave enough to ex
press an opinion on the point involved.
Not so now. It waives Jurisdiction.
Under new conditions that have arisen
since a private American citizen be
gan a recent Journey, findings of any
high court of appeal may be nullified.
This Journal, therefore, must decline
to make a decision on a Federal stat
ute: it might be rendered nugatory
within twenty-four hours. Besides, we
have trouble enough right here at
home.
Evidently the boarding-house dispu
tants 6eek relief from a widespread
evil. They are only two among
thousands In Oregon. Let them get
busy with initiative petitions demand
ing a law which shall prohibit any
landlord, male or female, from serv
ing milk that contains less than 5.999
per cent of cream, technically known
as butter fat. At small expense every
boarder may provide himself with a
testing tube and thus bring to taw
every lawless purveyor of the lacteal.
Let the people rule. Milk is far more
Important than nine-foot sheets and
ten-Inch hatpins.
Then there Is molasses. The evil
differs from milk more In degree than
In kind. Now, at the opening of the
hotcake season, reform is necessary.
What Is this stuff, labeled syrup, that
they are serving us? Certainly not
the same sort of long sweetenln that.
In combination with sausage, conduced
In earlier days to gustatory delight
and fortified the American populace
for the day's strenuous labor. There
should be a comprehensive, sweeping
statute against "something Just as
good."
But to return to the subject matter.
If Messrs. A and B do not feel Inclined
to put the law on their landlord, they
might change their boarding-house.
' , TILE PRE-RAPHAELITES.
William Holman Hunt, who has
lately died In London, was almost the
last survivor of the little band of art
ists who composed the famous Pre
Raphaelite Brotherhood. Perhaps
Dante Gabriel Rossetti had more to do
with the formation of the coterie than
anybody else, but Hunt was one of the
original members. Rossetti naturally
inclined to medievalism. More of a
poet than a painter, his verse reeks
with withered superstition, while its
tone Is' thin and tinny. His best
known poem, "The Elessed. Damozel,"
makes little appeal to any Intelligence
which Is unu'ole to forget the progress
of the last 500 years. Written In the
days of Giotto, it would have been in
consonance with the times. Now Its
Imagery is grotesque and Its thought
false. Rossetti, in the middle of the
"40s of the last century, grew tired of
the routine of art studies he was pur
suing under the dull old Puritanical
British regime and sought consolation
in the works. of the Italians who paint
ed before the time of Raphael. The
fact that the oldest of them did not
know how to draw comforted him In
his disinclination to study drawing. If
Giotto knew little of perspective, why
should a modern Englishman go to the
trouble of learning it?
It would be unjust, however, to say
that Rossetti did not become a consci
entiously industrious painter. The
fault of the pre-Raphaelltes. if they
have a fault. Is more the painful mi
nuteness of their work than any tend
ency to skip difficulties. Rossetti
found encouragement in the friendship
of Ford Maddox Brown, who had been
working for years in more or less ob
scurity along pre-Raphaellte lines. He
never Joined the brotherhood, but all
the members were his sympathetic ad
mirers and found Inspiration in his
pictures. Holman Hunt. Mlllals and
Rossetti were the real founders of the
movement which had such momentous
consequences in British art. Hunt,
like a good many other artists, re
ceived no encouragement at home In
his high ambition.' His father, to
crush out the uncommercial germs In
his nature, first hired him to an auc
tioneer In London and then made him
a clerk In a store. But it was of no
use. What was bred in the bone came
out In conduct. Toung Hunt found
the means to pursuo li'is studies in
spite of hardship and unpropitious
surroundings, and became a produc
tive painter. His "Hireling Shepherd,"
"Scapegoat." "Awakened Conscience,"
for example, are well known to
everybody who cares for pictures.
They are brim full of moral power,
but some critics say they lack imag
ination. In his zeal to paint things exactly
as they were in life. Hunt forgot to put
In the vision and faculty divine. His
"Jesus In the Temple" looks like a bad
little boy who would be improved by
a scolding. The frail damsel in the
"Hireling Shepherd" must .have em
ployed some other enchantment than
her good looks to beguile the flock
keeper from his duty. Like the other
pre-Raphael! ten. Hunt paid excessive
attention to the minutiae of his pic
tures. They were rebels against the
dull conventions of the art of their
day, which had strayed a long way
from reality, and it was quite natural
for them to go too far !n the opposite
direction. Much of their technique
they obtained by way of Holland.
The ' attentive student traces Dutch
mechanical influence in most of their
worjc, but the spirit of It tries with
more or lees success to belong tofthe
age of Dante.
The rigidity of the pre-Raphaellte
painters is purely imitative. As
D'Aubigne says of the priesthood of
Luther's day that it Imitated the faults
of the disciples and forgot all about
their virtues, so RossettTs little clique
fondly took up with the defects which
the early Italian painters tried their
best to get rid of. Anything looked
good to them 'which antedated Ra
phael. Up to the period of that great
master, they held, Italian art was
sound; but with Raphael degeneracy
began insidiously to Intrude. "After
Raphael," to quote Hunt's own lan
guage, "art was scwfrequently tainted
with the canker or corruption that It
was only in the earlier work they could
find with certainty absolute health."
What they took for health waa in
some cases sheer Ignorance and de
fective technique, but Its age sancti
fied It to them and they did their best
to reproduce it. Their scorn for" the
later art of the Renaissance reminds
one of Tolstoi, who declares that it was
atheistic and degraded. The bold
Russian heretic does not hesitate to
lump even Leonardo and Michelan
gelo among the. corrupt and corrupt
ing. ,
Naturally, with their taste for me
dievalism, the pre-Raphaelltes were
filled with a sort of spurious Catholi
cism. There is nothing genuine in
their affected love. of gaunt saints and
anguished martyrs. Rossettl's "Blessed
Damozel" weeping over the battle
ments of heaven Is one of the least
convincing figures In literature. She
Is a species of melodious icicle. Genu
ine Catholicism has moved as far as
the rest of the world from the idea
that there is any essential beauty In
needless misery'. Since the zeal of the
pre-Raphaelltes was artificial, none of
them became great religious artists.
Hunt's religious pictures make but
slight appeal to faith. They leave the
heart cold while they send all their
stimulus to the head.
Hunt was at his best In working out
a moral lesson with paint. His pic
tures of this kind are full of intelli
gence, and their allegorical Import is
not too thickly veiled. A lesson
which cannot be deciphered has little
practical value. Hunt never commits
this fault.
EXPOSING SOCLE TV
Mr. Charles Van Studdiford, who
has undertaken to "expose" St. Louis
society, may make some- money but
he will gala little honor. The books
which have been written to expose
society, the church, and so on, belong,
as a rule, to the literature which nau
seates without Improving. They are
more of the nature of poison than
of medicine. We have in mind at the
moment a little book written to set
forth the enormities of one of the jre
ligious denominations. The writer
was no doubt a conscientious person,
but when one has perused his volume
nothing has been gained In charity or
understanding of life and very little
positive knowledge. Most of the man
who undertake to expose the church
simply sit down and copy the well
known facts from historians like Gib
bon, Ranke and D'Aubigne. In their
proper relation to other events these
facts - are instructive. Massed to
gether they are a mere pile of ordure.
Society has been exposed a great many
times already, as Mr.' Van Studdiford
would discover if he would cast an
investigating gaze through the St.
Louis public library, but it goes Its
way about as serenely as If its sins
never had been unveiled to a horrified
world.
There is a paper in New Tork
which devotes all its space to show
ing up the misdeeds of people in so
ciety. Exemption from its strictures
can only be obtained by cash pay
ments graduated according to one's
bank account. It is said that the
business of exposing society carried
on in this way has proved highly
lucrative to the men at the head of
the enterprise. In some other towns
there are papers of the same sort, a
kind of carrion periodicals which
feed on calumny and luxuriate in
human degradation. We do not be
lieve that exposure ever, doe's much
good unless it is accompanied by
some plan for making things better.
Evil is very rarely mitigated by
merely talking against it. It Is fought
most effectually by seeking to substi
tute good in Its place. It is for this
reason that many thoughtful people
deplore the purely negative character
of the warfare on the saloon.
(STATE FAIRS, PAST ASD PRESENT.
The state fairs or past years
were notable in their day In the
products of field and garden and dairy
and stockyard. Harking back to some
of these in memory, we recall the
mammoth squashes and pumpkins, the
bronze and golden and red apples
without spot or blemish, the great yel
low pears; the luscious purple and
white plums and grapes, the exhibits
of timothy and cornstalks and oats
and orchard grass ten feet high, the
plump balls of dairy b.utter and the
hoops of golden cheese, the pens of
Berkshires, the coops of Plymouth
Rocks and Yellow Cochins, and the
old pavilion festooned with the "fancy
work" of those times. M. Wilkins, of
Lane, and William Elliott and William
Barlow, of Clackamas, were much in
evidence in the management of the
old-time fairs, and they managed
them with spirit and understanding.
These men and others who were iden
tified with the state fairs of early
years have, like these festivals, been
relegated to the realm of memory.
They did their work, which was main
ly the work of foundation-laying, and
passed on.
Closely succeeding their day the
State Agricultural Society passed
through a period of tribulation. The
weather was unpropitious for outdoor
exhibits, for several successive State
Fair dates; the old fair buildings fell
Into decay and there was no money
with which to replace them. Hard
times fell upon the farmer folk; they
had much ado to raise money for their
taxes and keep themselves and their
families clad; hence they lost interest
In the annual festival. These, with
some mistakes that crept into the
management, brought the State Agri
cultural Society upon evil times for a
while, but with the return of pros
perity and with it the develbpment of
horticulture, of livestock interests and,
to ome extent, diversified farming,
there was a great revival of the State
Fair spirit. Legislative aid was
sought and obtained, and the old or
ganization, revised and enlarged, was
once more in the field of popular en
deavor, equipped for business.
Upon the basis then established, a
system of development has grown that
is in keeping with the growth of the
interests that are represented at the
annual fair. The social and neigh-
borly spirit that was fostered by the
early State Fairs has to a great extent
been supplanted by the commercial
spirit. Competition was mild in the
old days; it is aggressive now. The
races in those days were between
horses without pedigree, though they
were the pride of the farming section
in which they were bred; now the
speed contestants on the track are of
bluest equine blood. Then a few
common plants In pots (and fine speci
mens they were) comprised the floral
exhibit; now the queens and freaks
and wonders of floriculture occupy a
great space well adapted to the dis
play of their manifold beauties.
In the dairy section the products of
the churn and the hand cheesepress
have given place to those of the cream
ery and cheese factory; in the fruit
section, apples and other fruits, sun
dried with infinite patience and care,
have given place ,to the. evaporated
fruits of commerce, and the bottled
fruits of the kitchen have been suc
ceeded by the products of the cannery
and are shown in tempting array.
These changes are In the line of
growth that all recognize and com
mend. They show advancement all
along the line and by their present
ment they furnish the best of reasons
for the continued existence of the
State Agricultural Society and the
yearly increasing popularity of its an
nual fair.
VIXXAGE LIFE IN DISFAVOR.
Village life does not seem to be in
favor with the American people.
While urban growth in cities having
a population of 50,000 and less , is
marked in the returns of the thir
teenth census, the village of a few
hundred or thousand people no longer
multiplies. The preference is for the
city not exceeding 50,000 in popula
tion and for the rural districts, now
so well served by postal delivery and
trolley lines.
This is not to be regretted. While
many of the best traditions ' of the
country cluster around the village
green, the village store, the vil
lage church and parsonage and
the village postofflce, village life
Is proverbially narrow, given to
scandal and productive of Idleness.
especially among men and boys. These
facts, together with petty scandals
brewed by idleness and narrowness of
view among women have Justly
brought village life Into disfavor. In
other words, the American people
have outgrown the village with its
humdrum, Its stagnation, Its lack of
Incentive to action.
The cry "back to the country" has
resounded far and wide. Its answer
has passed the village by, leaving it
to tradition and to memory. Rural
free delivery has deprived it of the
prestige of a pbstoffice; the trolley-
line passes through it, halting for a
moment, on its way, to the more at
tractive rural districts beyond. It
offers nothing to enterprise, little 4"
the way of educational opportunity or
social pleasure. It is simply humdrum
therefore distinctly un-American in
the restless, eager, progressive inter
pretation of that term.
PRISONERS' FAMILIES.
The wide range of the discussions at
the International Prison Congress
shows how eagerly the Intelligence of
the world is at work to solve tne proD
lem of dealing properly with the crim
inal and defective classes. The speak
ers . at the congress Include in their
number men of great distinction from
all civilized countries. Dr. nenry
Ralrrf Fnvlll. of Chicaeo. discusses the
care of defectives. The professor of
law at the University of Paris takes
nn the-snhiect of "Criminal Sentences
in Foreign Countries"; that is, in other
countries than France. The professor
of law in the ancient University of
Bologna offers his thoughts on "First
Offenders and Probation." In dealing
with Juvenile orrenuers, ne minus,
"victory seems won for the principle
that there should be no question of
old-fashioned penalties, but measures
of discipline and education through
)i intervention of snecial courts and
institutions of social and beneficent
character." One of the most inter
esting of all the numerous papers is
that by J. A. Roux, professor of law at
Dijon, on "The Families or prisoners.
Every' thoughtful person must have
observed how mucH harder the sen
tences of drunkards bear on their fam
iiiou than on the delinauents them
selves. The wretched sot serves out
his term of thirty days in Jail without
much Inconvenience and very little
mental pain. When it is over he re
turns to his work with no loss of pres
tige among his companions ana sew
about preparation for another com
mitment. Meanwhile his family has
really borne the burden of his punish
ment. His earnings may have been
scanty, but they were the sole sup
port of his wife and children. During
his detention they ceased altogether,
and unless the mother neglected her
home to seek employment, starvation
or charity was the only unavoidable
fate of the unhappy family. Profes
sor Roux thinks that ft would be bet
ter in many cases to compel drunkards
to pay fines instead of sending them
to Jail, but he would permit them to
pay their fines by Installments. Thus
the family would never be entirely
deprived of support, though their in
come would, of course, be diminished
for a time. In his opinion it would
also be better to defer execution of the
sentences of petty offenders in order
to give them a chance to make some
provision for their wives and children
while they were shut up. He does not
approve of punishing a husband and
wife simultaneously by imprisonment,
since this leaves their children utterly
unprovided for unless charity inter
venes. When it detains both heads of
the household at the same time, the
law may and often does effect great
harm by breaking up the family.
These views of the French professor
of law are well worth attentive study,
but they hardly seem adequate to solve
the problem he has taken up. While
reading them one cannot put aside the
question why the family of a prisoner
should ever be deprived of his earn
ings. Many writers hold that every
Jail and penitentiary ought to be pro
vided with some means of employing
the inmates profitably, and that it is
wrong for the state to confiscate their
earnings. To say that such confisca
tion robs the prisoner of what belongs
to him goes a little too far, perhaps,
but it certainly tends to make paupers
of his wife and children, and if the
man Is a calloused offender Jt shifts
the whole burden of his punishment
from the guilty to the innocent.
How to provide this profitable em
ployment for the inmates of prisons is,
of course, a very difficult question. It
is made more perplexing than it would
naturally be by the dislike of the labor
unions to submit to the competition
of convict labor. Experimenters have
found, however, that prisoners can be
set at work on farms and employed in
constructing roads without interfering
with the normal course of industry.
Prison farms are actually maintained
by a number of municipalities in the
United States, from which the reports
are highly encouraging. All penolo
gists agree, however, that it is little
short of barbarous to subject convicts
to exploitation by the contract system.
Their work should be controlled en
tirely by the city or state, and what
ever profit results from it should go to
their families or be laid up for the
benefit of the prisoner himself when
his term expires.
Professor Roux' plea for the fam
ilies of prisoners marks the approach
ing termination of a revolution which
It has taken thousands of years to
bring about. Originally tho wife and
children of an offender were made to
share his guilt and his punishment.
If he was mutilated, so were they. If
he was put to death, they also must
perish. Often the entire village in
which the prisoner dwelt was punished
for. his offense. It Is said that this
principle holds in China to the pres
ent day. Slowly the idea that guily
was a personal thing invaded society
and fought its way into the adminis
tration of the law, but its victory is
not yet complete by any means. We
still believe with the ancient barbari
ans that a corporation is guilty of the
misdeeds of its officials and fine the
stockholders for crimes they could not
prevent. Just as savage judges former
ly decapitated a man's wife when he
had committed murder. But, even
though guilt is admitted to be per
sonal, it seems to be the most difficult
task in the world to make punishment
personal. ' Nobody quite understands
how to make a criminal suffer for his
misdeeds without making his Innocent
family suffer still more than he does.
The St. Helens Mist has made an
entirely original discovery", to be com
pared only with the great achieve
ment of the late Dr. Cook with the
North Pole. "Lafferty" says the
Mist "is The Oregonian's dummy can
didate (for Congress) and a man from
The Oregonian is managing his cam
paign." The word "ftom" is used
correctly. A man "from" The Orego
nian Is also managing the campaign
of another eminent insurgent, who
thinks he is a candidate for Congress.
The Oregonian, it would seem, must
have two dummies. We shall look
now for the Mist to withdraw the kind
words it has had to say of Dummy
No. 2. Though we really hope not.
They are the first he has heard dur
ing the campaign.
Ten years ago there was no Amer
ican city in the 400,000 class. The
nearest to this figure was Cleveland,
O., with 3S1.768. That city in ten
years bounded over the 400,000 mark
and is now in the-first class, with a
population, announced the other day,
of 560,663. This gives us two new cities
of first rank, Pittsburg with 53,903
being the other. Cleveland's percent
age of gain in ten years, 46.9 per cent,
is larger than any other large city so
far reported, except Detroit, which
showed 69 per cent in the same period.
It seems suddenly to have dawned
on several American statesmen, in and
out of office, that something must be
done. Precisely what that something
is, neither Tart, Hill, Roosevelt nor
several more or less distinguished Gov
ernors appears to know. Ours is so
great a land that we need stronger
central government; also the states
should have more power, and, most
important of all, the individual citizen
has got to get busy, else somehow or
other .we shall go to the demnition
bow-wows. And there you are.
There is demand for some new word
to displace "masher," as applied to
the disreputable creature masquerad
ing as a man who lies in wait and in
sults working girls as they enter or
depart from factories. He has no
shame, therefore the new word
couldn't make him blush. It ought
to be sharp enough In its denunciation
to rip the hide off.
It seems a little late to inquire into
the Colonel's campaign receipts in
1904. The New York World is ami
nated, of course, by the most immacu
lately unselfish devotion to morality
in stirring up the matter, and yet it
is more interesting to consider how
campaign funds are to be obtained in
the future than to inquire where they
came from in the' past.
According to the returns, from elec
tions held in November 1908, it will
hardly be worth Roosevelt's while to
tour Texas next March as it is an
nounced that he will do. Besides,
the Lone Star State is committed to
Bailey.
Eight clubs or six in next year's
league. Portland doesn't care. What
the town wants is the same quality
In the home team that we have now,
or better. '
If in an oft year the political sea is
lashed into foam, what may we not
expect in the way of stormy weather
two years from now?
If these arrests of the rich continue,
Collector . Loeb will make smuggling,
that universal sport, unpopular in
New York harbor.
That Mr. Yeon will have the high
est building in the city is easy of un
derstanding, for Mr, Yeon is a prod
uct of tall timber.'
A headline over a paragraph about
local sports reads: "Jeffersons Talk
Football." That's no way to win.
Play the game.
From this date until the middle of
next July, the effective fighting of
forest fires will be purely an academic
question.
Score one for freedom of action
under the Socialistic regime of Mil
waukee. Mayor Seidel permits prize
fights. An Eastern exchange says it is hard
to fight La Follette. No, it is hard
to beat him; indeed, impossible.
From Baker to Clatsop, Multnomah
to Jackson, it has developed into a
purely personal campaign.
As an extinguisher of forest fires,
one genuine Oregon rain beats the en
tire United States Army.
Further to add to the high cost of
living, the pack of Alaska salmon is
short this season. -
You don't hear of much evidence of
insurgency south of Mason and Dix
on's line.
TOPICAL VERSE
A New Chtiwhyard Elegy-
The village band no more assaults th
air
With tumult of the tubas and tht
drums.
It does not at the station wildly blart
The tune of "Hail, the Conquering
Hero Comes!"
The member homeward plods his wearj
way - s
No Main street cavalcade to give hire
He comes home at the closing: of tht
day
And takes the little pathways to oiu
side.
Podunktown isn't Washington, P. C:
The nap upon his hat is brusheo
awry
He knows the question first proposed
will be
That popular, unanswerable "Why?
Though Uncle Joe can "leave his fate
with God,"'
The member lets those words die in
his throat
He sighs and bows his head beneath
the rod.
For in his district rrovidenco doesn I
vote.
Full mftny a gem of purest voca'.
charm
The dark unfathomed Record paa:et
bear
But "point with pride" nor yet "view
with alarm"
The "pee-pul at this hour can sooths
r scare.
His' train comes in just at the close ol
day.
But there are neither banners, cheert
nor drums:
The member homeward plods his weary
way
Without a "Hall, the Conquering
Hero Comes!"
Harper's Weekly.
The Female Fan.
Oh, why doesn't tho pitcher pitch th
ball?
And why the basemen base?
Because they let the runner steal?
Why does he slide on his face?
How does, a fielder muff a fly?
Is the shortstop ever tall?
Would the umpire call the catcher out,
If he didn't catch the hall?
Do they ever let the batter pitch?
Is it fair to knock a foul?
Does a home run count more than a
bunt?
What makes the reople howl?
Oh, isn't a pp)-up simply grand
And a squeeze play Just divine!
But why do the men have mittens on
In the hot old Summer time?
W. B. Kerr in Smart Set.
Home and Mother.
We praise her doughnuts and her pies
Her biscuits and her cake.
But wliere's the man who sighs fot
pants
Like mother used to make?
She used to take a pair ot pa's.
When they were worn and frayed.
And decorate them with a patch
Of some contrasting shade.
And cut them off about the knees.
And take the waist in, .too.
And say that they, for very day.
Were just the thing tor you.
And then she sent you ort to school.
And when you didn't go.
She wondered what got into boys
That they played truant so.
Yes, still we praise her Jam, her jeli,
Her biscuits and her cake,
But where's the man that sighs for
pants
Like mother used to make."
Selected.
Tough.
Gee, but it's tough
When you've been away,
To have to get up
At the break of day;
To shave in a rush.
And eat in a hurry.
Then take up the grind.
And the care and worry
Of making money
And earning pay.
When you've only Just learned
How to live and play.
Gee. ' but it's tough
When you've wooed the breeze
That comes salt-fresh
From the restless seas.
When you've stretched out flat
In a shady glen,
Away from the madding
Haunts of men,
To have to come back
From Dame Nature's lap
To a crowded car
And a sticky strap.
Gee, but it's tough
When you'e loafed along,
And got into tune
With tho Summer song.
And learned the pleasures
Of plants and bees.
The speech of mountains.
The speecli of trees.
To wake in the morning
. And only hear
The call for dividends
Ringing clear.
Detroit Free Press.
When School Is Out.
All the day long I have troubles to bee
Troubles and trials together:
Somebody sits in the rickety chair
And talks of the wind and weather.
All the day long it's a quiet old town.
Minding me much of the tomb,
But after 4, when they troop In,
I have forgotten the gloom.
See them come in like a wild cavalcade.
Or a destructive tornado'
Little I care for their five-penny trade.
But how I love their bravado.
Vim overflowing and game to the core;
Sometimes I fear they will beat
The boss to submission and take his old
store
And tumble it into the street.
Why should I care how the youngsters
behave?
Whv should I care for their chalTing?
If for a moment in anger I'd rave.
Thev would go on with their laughing.
I am "a servant beneath their control-
They are my lords while they stay
Oh! it's tonic to strengthen the pouI!
Something to brighten the day!
Chicago Record-Herald.
Hobbled.
"Where are you going, my pretty maid?"
"Darned if I know, kind sir," she said
"May I go with you. my pretty maid?"
"Yes, if you'll hobble, sir," she said.
"How do you walk, my pretty maid?"
I' don't; I just hop. kind sir," she said.
"Do you enjoy it, my pretty maid?"
"It makes me dizzy, sir," she said.
"You are wise to the fashions, my pretty
maid."
"I tumble to everything now," she said.
"How can you beat this fashion, my
maid?"
"By staying abed, kind sir," she said.
"Now will you marry me, my pretty
maid?"
"How can 1 walk to church?' 'she said.
"I'll bring the minister, my. pretty maid."
"Then we'll both be hobbled, kind sir,"
she said.
New York World.
4.