TOE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX rORTI.AXD, MAT. 28, 1911.
rOBTUiXD. OBKGOX.
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THK rtnTKE. SOT TMI 1AST.
Mr. Rushlight breaks a Judicious
;ienc to mak an attack on Mayor
filmoa a a "tfomm" of former clays: but
Mr. Rushlight may t advised that tit
public Is not so mix h concerned about
the political past of Mr. Iroon as It la
about the political future of Mr.
Kushllsht. The cr-rr of Mr. Simon,
personal, professional and political, Il
a part of the familiar bl-torr of city
and state. The career of Mr. Rush
light, so far aa It la known, has been
on of constant demagogic appeal to
the restless, discontented and Irre
sponsible elements of the community,
of subservience to the corporations
and the sewer trust, and of traffic
with the suloons and the North End.
It gives no promise of firm control
and rtirtd supervision of the Immoral
element, or of discipline of the cor
porations, or of rebuke to the dom
inant political ring In the City Coun
cil, or of effective opposition to the
Urge scheme of the thrifty and ener
getic band of contractors or ho Infest
the City Hall.
Mr. Simon has lived In Oregon
practically all his life. He early man
ifested a real gentus for politics and
for adroit and successful political
manipulation. He became a bona of
tbe old atyle. operating In the old way.
He 'was a State Senator, and several
times president of the State Senate.
He opposed and crushed the long
dominant and arrogant Mitchell ring.
He set up a machine of bis own,
which in time was destroyed, after he
had been elected United States Sen
ator. Then came the new era In our
political affairs and the entrance
upon the political singe of the self
tceklng. stealthy-moving, people-fooling,
primary-working, weatber-vane-vaichlng
operator and statesman of
the Rourne-Kellaher-Kushllght type:
and the last estate of the common
people, so far as political leadership Is
concerned, is as bad as the first, and
probably worse.
Throughout his long and active hls-tm-y
In Oregon. Mr. Simon's personal
Integrity has not been Impeached. He
hits been above, graft or the suspicion
of graft. He ha been Identified In a
ronsplcloua way witn largw ' affairs,
and has manifested administrative and
executive abitltte of a high order.
T.1 . 1 .1 i n a- tratto flf Air. SlmOnS
IlinW UMluma " "
character were so well known, and the
public knowledge of his great capacity
and confidence In hi personal Integ
rity were so general, that two years ago
the was called out of his law office to
become Mayor of Portland. He con
sented rehH-tantly. and was elected by
a large vote. Now It Is again demand
ed that he become a candidate for
Mayor, and he has yielded. The kind
bf administration we have had for two
fr-ars satisfied the public, though It Is
freely acknowledged that mistakes
riave been made. Hut by and large
It has been a highly efficient adminis
tration. With two years experience
In handling problems that were, some
of them, new to him. and moat of
thrro difficult and momentous. Mr.
Flmon Is equipped to do even better Ip
ghe ensuing two sears.
It Is futile for Kushtlghl. who has
verythlng to conceal about his pres
ent dealing and future policies, to
trail at Simon, who has nothing to con.
cU about past, present, or future.
,No even Knshllght will venture to de
clare that any act of Mayor Simon has
bewn tainted by an Improper purpose
or Inspired by personal or political
ambition. He ha been th Mayor.
le has not sought to make the May
oralty an Instrumentality . of other
end cr the convenience of any group
,.f politicians. He will not In the fu
ture. Put Rushlight? What will Rush
l ichtdo? Who will be his appointees?
Who will constitute his cabinet?
What will be his aim and pollcle?
Those are question of present mo
ment. No buncombe protestation of
virtue or threadbare recital of long
f.rgten eeents will obscure the live
l-aee.of the day and the hour.
H IMXfAITIMt Ot TKAHK.
Senator Jones, of Washington, has
Introduced bill In the Senate pro
viding regulations for the Panama Ca
rat and containing a provision that
American vessels engaged tn coastwise
trade hall have the free use of the
canal. Regardless of the fact that ex
istent treaties which we ate making
no attempt to abrogate explicitly pro
vide that no favoritism In rates shall
be shown any vessels making use of
the canal, the Seattle Poat-Intelll-gencer
commends this feature of the
Jones 4ill. and makes the unwarranted
statement that "either the American
ships must have special privileges In
the canal or the benefit of the canal
will go to the foreigners at the ex
pense of the people of this country."
The Seattle paper reaches thl con
clusion In thl way: "When the canal
Is open the British Columbia lumber
manufacturers can ship their products
through to the Atlantic States precisely
a easily as can the Washington lum
bermen. But the Washington lumber
men will have to ship exclusively In
American-vessels. while the British
Columbia mlllmen can use vessels of
any country In the world." The Pan
ama Canal Is not being constructed as
a money-making enterprise, but It la
toped that a sufficient amount of
hipping will make use of It to enable
Uhe earning of operating expenses and
tat least a small Interest on the Invest
ment. Any -special privileges." such
.a exempting American ships from
t.-nnage dues, must necessarily be paid
lf r by the American people, who must
f.t the bills.
I-et u see w h- secure the financial
.altantare of this propose! special
'ts-eivilcge. Surely not th consumer.
for he pays the freight and no reduc
tion in rates Is promised even If the
American vessels are exempt from
dues. Neither can the producer obtain
any more for the commodities . he
ships, for th special privilege, which
costs all of the people something, all
goe In the nature of a contribution
made for the purpose of making prof
itable an unprofitable business. There
are a thousand consumers and produc
ers for every shipowner, and any fa
voritism shown the latter must neces
sarily be at the expense of the former.
What the Pacific Coast producers and
their customers In th East need more
than free canal due Is the right to use
cheap ship. The canal I not being
constructed for the purpose of enhanc
ing the profit of a few wealthy ship
owners. It Is being built to facilitate
th commerce of the United biaies ana
to cheapen transportation.
To reap the fullest benefit from the
canal it U necessary that we erase this
fine line of distinction which at pres
ent prevent us from awlBff any kjnd of
an ocean carrier that la available. A
free-ship bill which would permit
Americans to buy tonnage tn the open
market and operate tt on any route
they saw fit would reduce freights be
tween the Atlantic and ( Pacific sea
boards nearly owe-half. That reduc
tion would be followed by unexampled
prosperity throughout the country.
WHKX DID tLACt Bt lCIDB BEGEXf
Between the Springfield Republican
and Professor W. F. WUlcox, of Cor
nell University, a pretty little differ
ence of opinion ha arisen over the
precise time when the lamented de
cline in our National birthrate began.
Professor Willcox sets the date as
early as ltlS. but the Republican In
clines to believe that the decline could
not have begun much before 1850.
Each of the two contestants has a
good deal to say about the predictions
of Elkanah Walker. This gentleman,
who flourished early In the last cen
tury, prophesied that the population
of the United State would continue
permanently to Increase as fast a It
had np to the year ISIS, that Is. about
one-third every ten years. His con
clusion was reached by study of the
birth rate which then prevailed. It
Is a remarkable fact that the actual
rat of Increase remained at about
the figure he forecasted until the
year I860 and then It began to fall
off. Th Republican plausibly argue
that. Inasmuch a he drew from hi
premises a conclusion which was veri
fied by the facta for many successive
years, the premise themselves must
have been accurate.
rtf eourse Rlkanah Walker's most
Important premise was the assump
tion that the birtn rate wouia not
decline during the nineteenth cen
tury. The Republican contends that
It could not have declined up to 18S0
or his predictions as to the Increase
rut th nomil&tlon would not have
come true. Professor Willcox declares
that U did decline, but that tne popu
lation continued to Increase a he had
prophesied It would because of the
falling death rate. On the other hand
It Is contended that the death rate in
.v.. TTnitoH KfafM did not chanse ner-
ceptlbly during the interval between
181S and 18&0. Professor wiucox
argue that It must have fallen, since
j..ih, w e-sree In nronoftion to
population In every otter country in
the world, ror wmcn, coru
during that time. -
Unhappily there are no accurate
statistics to confirm or contradict the
conclusions of either side In this In
...otinv Hehste Professor WUlcox
derive some figures from the various
census reports of the early decades of.
tho . lut eenturr.- but evidently they
are of no-great service to him, while
as for statistics or Dirtns ana aeauia
they simply do not exist. Our evi
d.nr. nnon'the subject of the contro
versy Is almost purely Inferential.
The subject la or practical as ncu
o theneetv-aJ ImDortance. for If our
birth rate realty began to decline a
eaxly a 181 we cannot attribute the
calamity to recent cause. It is Idle
for us to say that It come from the
high cost of living, the protective tar
iff or anything 01 tne son. n mui
have been due to something In the
natural conditions of the climate or
the soil It Is well known that, al
the Indians had dwelt In thl
..Mre rnr nur generations, they
did not Increase In numbers. No
doubt th land was aa tnimy populat
ed when the Pilgrims landed a It
was a thousand years earlier. Why
did not the natives multiply? War
reaped Its harvest, of course, but not
Mn Mftn it did among the popula
tion of Europe from the fall of Rome
to th eighteenth century, ana yet
during that whole Interval the num
belncs living In Europe
steadily Increased, while the number
of th Indian never Increased so far
as anybody can learn. It may even
have diminished from the date of
their primitive migration to this
country.
It could not have -been war which
kept th Indians from multiplying.
No more could It have been dktease.
In their original condition they do
not seem to have suffered much from
deadly maladies. They caught sev
eral from the Huropesns. but that Is
a different matter altogether. It
seems tenable to argue, therefor, that
the clhnatlc conditions of the North'
American continent are not favorable
to the multiplication of human be
ings. Thl inference la reinforced by
the fact that even th most fecund of
our foreign Immigrant tend to be
come sterile within a few years of
their landing.' The solitary exception
of the French Canadians would not
of itself Invalidate this general con
clusion. It Is therefore a matter of great
Interest to prove. If possible, that our
National birth rate did not begin to
decline until the pressure of popula
tion supplied an obvious reason for it.
This would relieve us of the disagree
able thought that our continent may
not be adapted for the permanent sur
vival of mankind. As a matter of
fact, there is hardly more than fanci
ful ground for concluding that the
birth rate began to decline early In
the last century and still less for
Imagining that this hypothetical de
cline was counterbalanced by a fall
ing death fate. The decrease of the
death rate In the modern world is
due almost entirely to scientific dis
coveries which, as the Republican
notices, are very recent. Almost all
of .them depend upon the germ theory
of disease which has made Its strik
ing advance In the last twenty or
thirty years.
Before it was established that the
most dangerous epidemics were
caused by microscopic forms of life
medical authorities worked blindly in
their efforts to protect the public
health. Very few of the measures by
which human life I now protected
and prolonged were thought of be
fore 1850 either In city or country.
Condition remained about as they
were at the beginning of the century
while the density of the population
had Increased. Bence If there had
been any change in the death rate it
probably rose instead of fell. The
conclusion i follows at once that the
birth rate could not have declined.
All this omits any reference to the
influence of Immigration, but that
factor did not become of pronounced
Importance until the latter half of
the nineteenth century.
THK FCBFCCT 8U8E.
A timely article In conjunction with
Portland's annual Rose Festival, now
but a week off. appears In the current
number of Everybody' Magazine, un
der the head. The Quest of the Per
fect Rose." Daintily Illustrated" and
written by an enthusiast In rose cul
ture, this article Is a seasonable embel
lishment of the pages which It covers
as well aa a timely presentment of the
queen of flowers, so soon to hold sway
over Portland streets.
The "perfect rose." exclaims one of
our local devotees at the shrine of the
queen of this coming carnival. "We
already have It. Look at Caroline
Teatout!"
"Nay, exclaims another, "look at
Viscountess Folkstone," and yet an
other and another claims perfection
for La France, and Rlclimond; for
Lady Battersea and Duchess De Bra
bant: for Marie Von Houtt and Cath
erine Mermet; for Maman Cochet
and Madame Alfred Carrtere. And
so on and on through a list of floral
queens arrayed In shell or silver pink;
In gorgeous crimson. In tints of sun
set and gold, or In purest white, each
and all of whom will hold court In the
hearts of clrixen of Portland during
the week beginning June 6.
To be sure, we need a few day of
sunshine; warm and bright, to bring
our roses to perfection, but we need
no new types of roses; no new variety
or "sport" of any type in order to
be able to show perfect roses by the
thousands and ten of thousands In
early June days.
We are told that the "blue rose" Is
the dream of rosebreeders and hybrid
ists. Here the question, "Why should
anybody want a "blue rose'?" Is per
tinent. "Of course." comes the an
ir, "there la nothing beautiful about
a blue rose. The effort to produce it
Is simply one of those strivings for the
arways desired for the Impossible."
With this explanation m can afford
to drop the "quest of the perfect rose."
feeling sure that It Is pursued, not be
cause we have not already perfect
roses In abundance, perfect in form,
fragrance, tints, habits of growth,
vivid coloring and profusion of bloom,
but because of the unappeasable de
sire to produce something new or
quaint or striking, that will serve to
show man's power in the domain of
Nature.
WORl J8 OKKATIMT COBOXATION.
"The boast, of heraldry, the pomp
of power." have been very much In
evidence whenever Great Britain or
any other monarchy crowned a new
ruler. The coronation ceremonies In
all times and among all peoples have
been Impressive. Interesting and ex
pensive. The affair now under re
hearsal In London, will be more Im
pressive, more Interesting and more
expensive than any that the world
ever saw. This Is made possible only
because th world Is richer and the
genius of man has provided facilities
for spending money that were never
dreamed of when William the Con
queror. Richard I. or any of the long
departed rulers of England were
crowned. There Is nothing In the an
nals of the old days that reveals any
lack of desire for the spectacular or
for the pomp and glory that are pre
dominant features of twentieth cen
tury coronations. In their respective
day and age these old-time coronations
were perhaps in degree the equal of
that for which the world Is now wait
ing. In view of the fact that London has
to such a large extent commercialised
the greatest of all attractions which
she has ever been able to offer the
tourist It Is not at all surprising to
note that even the church Is making
some concessions. Despite the pro
tests of Lord Halifax and other high
church dignitaries the nonconformists
will be permitted to participate In the
minor features of the gu-at event. The
average EnVlishman dearly loves a
lord" and Is always In readiness to
grovel at the feet of royalty-. Precedent
and tradition coming down through
centuries In which murderers and
reDrobates graced and disgraced the
throne on which King George is about
to be crowned have not taken the
keen edge from the British desire to
pay homage to royalty.
But the Engusnman aiso nas a
strong religious vein. From the days
of the 'Roman Invasion he has fought
for his religion with the same ardor
displayed In fighting for his king.
the two objects not Infrequently ad
mitting of concurrent fighting. Hence
it is that the crowning of a king In
all ages has been regarded as a most
sacred religious rite In which the
church appears as a witness or agent
to a solemn contract entered Into be
tween the people and their ruler. In
the days soon after the Romans had
departed from England the opportu
nities for elaborating this religious
ceremony were not always of the best.
The English at times changed mon
arch so often and in such haste that
the coronation exercises may be said
to have taken place "on the run."
Even when William the Conqueror was
having the crown fitted to his head in
Westminster Abbey In 1066 his Nor
man .guards outside the Abbey mistook
the hearty responses made in the Eng
lish tongue for a signal for trouble
and began burning the town, thus at
tracting so much attention that Will
iam and the priests were obliged has
tily to finish the coronation exercises
alone.
The'rellglous ceremonies at the cor
onation of Richard the Lion-Heart ed
were also disarranged by a massacre
or the Jews, which began almost sim
ultaneously with the appearance at
Westminster of the new King. But
there will be no massacres and no dis
cordant notes at the coming corona
tion that is now drawing spectators
from every country on the globe. The
coronation proper will cost Great
Britain 125.000.000. and this Is only a
small portion of the grand total that
will be spent by the people.
According to Athenaeus, the coro
nation of Ptolemy Phlladelphus in 285
B. C from the standpoint of cost,
would have given that of King George
a close race, but the world in Ptol
emy's time was a small affair com
pared with that which is to pay hom
age to King George. Pomp and power
In an ax tra ordinary degree were also
In evidence at the coronation of
Charlemagne at Rome In 800, and
nothing more romantic is recorded in
history than the crowning of Charles
VII at Rheims, the culmination of that
wonderful movement that cost the im
mortal Joan of Arc her life. Napo
leon, wielding a power greater than
attained by any other man and always
fond of the spectacular, violated all
precedent 4y summoning the supreme
head of the Catholic Church to crown
him at Paris instead of at Rheims, the
ecclesiastical home of the nation. But
for all this, the military and theatrical
features of his coronation far outshone
those of the church.
- George V may lack the blood and
Iron qualities of some of the central
figures In the gorgeons coronation
spectacle of past ages, but no mon
arch who In earlier years followed the
path of glory to the grave was ever
called on to assume the mighty re
sponsibility symbolized by the crown
w hich will be placed on his head next
month. The far-flung possessions of
the British Empire embrace nearly
12.000.000 square miles, and nearly
400.000.000 subjects will hail him as
King. Sub-rulers of these subjects
are already pouring Into London from
all parts of the world, and the crowd
is being increased by thousands of
Americans, who are attracted by the
prospect of the greatest, spectacle of
Its kind that the world has ever seen.
Added Interest is caused from the
possibility of this being the climax of
England's greatness. iCertaln It is
that the limit of her territorial ex
pansion has been reached. With the
mutterlngs of her starring millions at
home, rebellious millions In India and
other outlying colonies, and with her
people staggering beneath the weight
of army, navy and royal family bur
dens, a change, economic and political,
may not be far in the future. Histor
ians of the future may. have occasion
to write that the British Empire
reached the xenith of its greatness
with the crowning of George V.
MATERIALISM.
Mr. Roosevelt's opinion that this
country stands in great danger frord
the spread of materialism and pagan
Ism merits serious attention. The
warning was delivered to a congrega
tion of ministers, members of the fed
eration of churches, who had assem
bled In New York and must therefore
be received as one of the Colonel's
profoundly meditated utterances and
not a mere fugitive breeze of senti
ment. It Is to be regretted that he did
not define paganism as he did mate
rialism. Had he done so the weight
of his prophecy might have been bet
ter appreciated. As the subject now
stands we know we are threatened
with one peril, materialism, which
has been clearly described for us and
another, paganism, which we are Heft
to make out for ourselves as best we
can.
We venture the modest guess that
by "paganism" Mr. Roosevelt meant
to signify that form of faith which is
sometimes called "natural religion."
It was the theory of divinity and life
which was accepted in the ancient
world up to the time when Christian
ity triumphed. Just how widely it
appeals to the populace In our day
saems rather a difficult question to
answer. Mr. Roosevelt declares that
it is undermining orthodoxy every
where and he has traveled so widely
and observed so much that he ought
to know.
But It does not follow that pagan
ism, even if It has been adopted by
large numbers of people, is a real dan
ger to the country. Its ultimate ef
fect may be to waken the ministers
of Christianity to more fervent zeal
and thus bring about the restoration
of those happy conditions which ex
isted when every man was a church
member and orthodox. This, however.
Is nothing better than speculation. We
are more concerned with what Mr.
Roosevelt had to say about material
ism. Of this evil he offered a clear
and brief definition. He said it meant
"concrete forms of wealth and power,"
which reads a little oddly seeing that
power Is always Immaterial and
wealth often so.
It did not escape Blackstone's no
tice that many forms of wealth are
pure abstractions. The property right
represented by a bank note or a share
ol stock partakes very slightly of the
material. It resembles much more
closely those "generalized Ideas"
which Plato followed Into the empy
rean. Most great' modern fortunes
have passed Into this etherealized state.
They are not composed of goldiand sil
ver, nor of land or any other tangible
substance. What they really are is a
mere right, sustained by the law, to
lay hold of a certain proportion of
the products oflndustry from day to
day. When too much of this right or
power is accumulated in the hands of
one man we agree with Mr. Roosevelt
that It becomes a menace but we can
not concede that "materialism" Is the
name by which menace ought to be
designated. On the contrary It Is a
subtle ' form of Idealism. Wealth in
its modern and dangerous shape is not
a thing but an idea Just as the pagan
gods were. Whether it is real or not
makes no difference so far as its
power over the minds of men Is con
cerned. There was a time when the
Egyptian Isis exercised tremendous
authority over human beings. She did
not exist but her ministers did and
that was sufficient to obtain the ef
fect. Since, then, we must class wealth
among' Immaterial things, mere ab
stractions, we cannot concede that the
craving for It ought to be called "ma
terialism." The pursuit of wealth is
the quest of an Ideal in more than one
sense. By far the greater number of
those who seek it do not thirst much
for the wine it will buy nor do they
long especially for automobiles and
fine linen In themselves. These things
are valued merely as symbols. Like a
bishop's crozler they stand for spir
itual authority. The persons who pos
sess them are eminent in the modern
hierarchy which conducts the ritual of
Mammon. They value the station, the
power that goes with it and the ador
ation of their fellow men which fol
lows upon the splendid show of virtual
omnipotence. No doubt a hungry car
penter gets more enjoyment out of his
badly cooked beefsteak than the dys
peptic millionaire does from his cham
pagne and exquisite French dishes, so
far as mere eating goes, but he does
not get the awe-stricken worship from
the humble which irradiates the mil
lionaire's meal and makes it like a
religious function where he enjoys the
dignity of the god. A heathen god, to
be sure, but that does not mar the
feast. It Is Just as satisfactory to be
a heathen god as any other so long as
you are believed in.
We are afraid Mr. Roosevelt will
find himself compelled to revise his
I definition of materialism. Perhaps all
of us will. Matter grows a little vague
and elusive in the light of modern
science. It becomes harder every day
to tell precisely how It differs from
mind. President McCosh used to be
gin his lectures on metaphysics with
the oracular sentences. "What Is mat
ter? Never mind. What Is mind? No
matter." His puna have lost some
thing of their pungency to the twen
tieth century student who Inclines to
believe that If mind is no matter still
matter is mind. The two entities seem
to differ most radically in the way
they are measured. Mind cannot be
weighed or counted. Neither can
thought or memory or purpose. But
there are things which can be esti
mated in terms of quantity and in no
other way. These are material things.
Ideal entities can only be estimated
in teems of quality. They answer the
question "What kind?" while of mat
ter we can only ask, "How much?"
This enables us to define a material
ist pretty satisfactorily. He Is a man
who tries to state everything In num
bers, in quantity, ignoring quality al
together. The person who declares
that "all Is matter" may be an Ideal
ist without knowing It, but he who
thinks of the universe In tons and mil
lions of dollars alone is a materialist.
Whether he calls himself a Christian
or a pagan makes no difference.
WOMAN IN A NEW ROLE.
The announcement of the appoint
ment of Miss Mabel Albright as Dep
uty Prosecuting Attorney of Douglas
County is surprising chiefly because
the appointee is not an elector of the
county or state and therefore Is sup
posed to be without political pull or
recognition in the graver affairs of
the commonwealth. The fitness of
the appointment is, however, recog
nized in the assignment of the young
woman to the prosecution of Juvenile
offenders. The harsher Judgment of
men arways excepting Judge Ben
Lindsey, Ihe originator of the Juvenile
court in American cities is of ten. ill
suited to the case of the Juvenile of
fender, while the intuitive instinct of
woman specially qualifies her to deal
with offenders of this class. At least
this Is the ground taken by many
criminologists, who insist that not
only should Justice be tempered with
mercy in the casa of the child who
has gone wrong, whether from crimi
nal instinct or from lack of experi
ence and proper direction, but that
mercy should, and In a vast majorlty
of such cases might with ultimate
benefit to the individual and the state,
set Justice aside, or at least hold It in
check.
From his large experience in deal
ing with Juvenile offenders Judge
Lindsey designates children as "neither
moral nor immoral, but simply un
moral," and holds that they should be
restrained and directed, rather than
punished. This view is shared by most
women who have given thought to
the subject. And while the entrance
of duly qualified women Into the de
partment of law that deals with
youthful offenders Is an Innovation in
our Jurisprudence it can hardly be de
cried as Inapt or unwomanly, since
surely anything that she can do
toward the uplift of the child Is strict
ly within "woman's sphere."
Miss Albright, of Douglas County, is
the only woman holding the office of
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in this
state. It may be hoped that she will
discharge the duties ond obligations
of her important office wisely, realiz
ing that she cannot afford to . make
mistakes in her new and highly re
sponsible position. It is tolerably cer
tain, indeed, that any faults or flaws
In the pursuit of her official duties
will be those that lean to virtue's side.
A WOEFCI. TTPJ3.
The Oregonlan has received an ap
peal which ought to touch the-hardest
heart. A young woman, a pupil in the
eighth grade of the public school in
an Oregon town, terrified toy the ap
proaching peril of the June examina
tions, writes for Information on two
subjects. It occurs to us that In some
occult way she has made up her mind
that these matters will -be referred to
In the examination questions, and,
with true feminine shrewdness, she
wishes to take time by the forelock.
She would set her intellectual house in
order to prepare for the day of doom.
Her letter Is printed In another col
umn of today's paper and we shall
speak of its contents by and by, but
first we wish to give utterance to an
irrepressible astonishment that the ex
aminations in the public schools
should be so much of a horror
to the pupils. What can the reason
Tt to .ertalnlv not because the
questions are difficult. Those which
we have seen ougnt to oe auswereu.
i -- v.. oni- Intuftlcont nprsnn.
easu vj 0 . .
w"hether he. ever went to school or not.
They touch upon subjects or ordinary
Interest, concerning which persons
who read the newspapers and share in
the usual routine of life can hardly
escape being Informed. And yet the
...minitiniu friehten the pupils Into
nervous prostration and more than
half of them tail to answer ine idea
tions correctly. .
Many, of the "failures" are, of
course, to be attributed directly to this
.oininv MrhL , Nobodv can use
his mind to advantage' when he Is
badly scared. Other tauures resun
from diversity of instruction. The
hM not rhA same meaning
in different textbooks. Definitions are
given In varyins" language ana oiten in
irreconcilable substance, and so on.
But the latter cause ought not to
count for much In Oregon, since here
we have the same textbooks in all
the schools. Children lately arrived
from other states might experience
some difficulty from it, but not those
who have attended Oregon schools all
tbeir lives.
There may be many causes for the
AroaA iwlth which most school
children see examination day ap
proaching, but we are convincea tnai
one of them Is far more Important
than any of the others. This is the
deep consciousness of Ignorance. A
child receiving instruction in school Is
like a traveler conveyed by an angel
from one mountain peak to another in
a country by night and kept blind
n)A.A oil diiv He is Dermitted to ex
amine the surface of the peak at his
feet by the light 01 a taiiow canaie,
he eaze upon the wide
expanse, of the intervening landscape,
nor does he learn tne roaas irom ono
mountain to another. Naturally, the
,r-A if surface at the summit
of one mountain looks very much like
the similar area on anotner. wnen
ih. on col l at last ready to bestow
his parting blessing the traveler finds
it difficult to discriminate oexween
peaks. If he Is asked to describe and
name them, be is only too likely to fall
Into confusion. Memory alone can
come to his rescue, and unfortunately j
memory has little to cling to.
The school child feels instinctively
that his mind is filled with a sort of
intellectual rubbish, unrelated frag
ments of knowledge which resemble
real education no more than a pile of
bricks resembles a house. On exam
ination day he is imperatively ordered
to search through this rubbish heap
and draw forth treasure after treasure
at a moment's notice. The command
would be inhuman If he had weeks'
notice 6t every question, for a needle
in a haystack is proverbially hard to
find. No wonder the poor child. In
his wild panic, fits any answer that
comes first to hand to any question
whatever. The only surprising thing
about it is that he ever gives a correct
answer. The fact that this occasion
ally happens goes far to convince us
that the day of miracles has not yet
passed. The paths which lead from
fact to fact are far more important
than the facts themselves. The level
country between the mountains is of
infinitely more consequence than the
snowcapped peaks.
On the other hand, the peaks can
be numbered and classified, while it
Is difficult to the last degree to tabu
late for recitation purposes the teem
ing cities and flowery fields that lie
between them. The latter stand for
life, with its myriad intricacies. The
former for the school, with its arid
caricature of life. We said a moment
ago that the child's . terror of exam
ination day arises from his -deep sense
of ignorance. The contents of his
mind have no handles by which he
can seize them, they have "no living
features by which he can recognize
them, and he knows it. Hence he is
appalled by the command to catch and
exhibit them In orderly array. Chil
dren are not frightened by an exam
ination in what they truly know. On
the contrary, it delights them to show
off their knowledge. It will not do to
offer the excuse that the schools have
so much to teach that they can teach
nothing well. As a matter of fact, the
entire contents of any ordinary series
of textbooks do not amount to a great
deal, and nobody thinks of trying" to
teach them all.
What is the remedy? It seems to
us that it can be formulated very sim
ply. Stop teaching for culture, which
inevitably degenerates into bald tricks
of memory, and teach for faculty, or
the power to do things. Examinations
in manual dexterity do not frighten
pupils. They can do the work and
they know they can do It. What a
contrast they present with the panic
stricken child vainly rambling through
the barren desert of his mind In pur
suit of fugitive facts.
The girl whose letter furnished us
with a text asks for the causes of the
troubles in Mexico,' whether the treaty
of peace has been signed, and so forth.
In reply we wish to ask another ques
tion: What is the reason that this
pupil has not been taught to read the
newspapers and thus keep herself In
formed upon facts of current interest?
She also inquires what per cent 10 is
of . What human being outside of
an asylum for the insane ever really
wanted to know that 10 is 2000 per
cent of something or other? This
poor girl is a type, and a woeful one.
Fancy the howl of indignation that
will go up from the crowd waiting on
every street corner when one car after
another, to the full capacity of the
street railway company's rolling stock,
whizzes by because there are no more
empty seats! Is it not clear that this
attempt to make a street-railway com
pany do an impracticable thing will
prove a boomerang to the crowd of
workingmen and women of the sub
urbs who are anxious to get home for
dinner and rest after their day's la
bor? It goes without saying that
every honest son and daughter of toil
is entitled to all that he or she can
get in the way of convenient, rapid
and comfortable transit to and from
work; to a seat if one can be had to
a strap, if there-Is no seat, to standing
room on the platform if that is all
that is available. They are Justified In
demanding all that the transit com
pany can, in reason, be required to
give. When they go beyond this it
will simply be up to them to get back
and forth between their suburban
homes and their work the best way
they can. There is such a thing as
converting a siege into a blockade.
That weird, uncatalogued and un
accountable equine ailment known as
the "walking disease," is so prevalent
in Walla Walla as to cause the great
est anxiety among horsemen. A horse
afflicted with this disease Is a piti
able and gruesome sight and danger
ous withal, as he plunges about re
gardless of owner or caretaker like the
mad creature that he is. Since neither
cause nor cure for the disease is
known, the merciful farmer shoots his
horse when the first symptoms appear,
v. v. tn nrrod infection and end , the
sufferings of the animal. It is not con
ceivable that a disease at once so pro
nounced and infectious will much
longer evade the researches of science
In the Interest of cause and cure.
Two new transcontinental trains go
into operation tomorrow to aid the
two dozen that are carrying people
each way between East and West.
Nothing can better show the growth
o'f the country, for the man is yet far
from old who remembers when two
trains a day carried all the people who
could afford the trip Nos. 8 and 4
for first-class and Pullmans, and Nos.
6 and 6 for emigrants, all. on the
TJDJon Pacific and Central Pacific.
Possibly Mr. Rushlight may have
forgotetn that Mr. Simon was among
the active Torces that helped save
Oregon for sound money In 1896. Or,
has he not foTgotten? Hence, the ac
tive hostility of forces that were
against Simon and for free silver then
are against Simon and for a free North
End now. ,
A great city the greatest in all the
land is appalled at the prospect of
being left without something to laugh
at during the coming Summer.
"Dreamland," the great pleasure point
of 'gay Coney Island has been de
stroyed by fire.
The difference between Capitalist
Ryan and Job Is a simple matter of
arithmetic. Ryan had a boil on a leg
and Job had barely room for one
more. .
The Joke In the "no-seat, no-ride"
law will be on the man In a hurry to
get to work.
An employer with the welfare of
the city at heart will grant at least a
half-holiday ejection day.
Ross to Morris:
Cooper.''
"After you.
Scraps and Jingles
Lnm I'm mm Bar.
What I want to know is where do
women carry their powder rags and
money when they wear harem skirts.
One of the really satisfying signs of
the times is the spread of technical
education. I note that an anarchist's
association has Just been discovered in
Chicago, a feature of which is the
course of instruction for members in
the use of chemicals for the manufac
ture of explosives.
Woman novel reader writes to this
department as follows, "I am reading
Lena Lee, or the Lure of a Handsome
Travelling Salesman,' and In one line
occurs the sentence. 'Lura bit her lips
till the blood came again.' Can you
tell me to what story this is a sequel,
as this is the first and only biting ref
erence in this book?"
A tramp hauled Into the local police
station was, upon Investigation, found
to be wearing a horse blanket about
his shoillliArs. threo contn fnup nnlr
of trousers, two Bhlrts, five vests and
six pairs of hose. It really seems sad
and. strange that this man should not
have realized that he could market this
ability In vaudeville.
Wife says, "Why do you sit on th
piano stool Ichabod, you know you
can't play a note?" And Ichabod says.
"Neither can any one else while I'm
here."
It is thought unlikely that all th
public officials will be installed rn the
new City Hall before next year. The
difficulty of getting- public officials to
move is notorious.
o -
A mere man writes to complain that
the fearful and wonderful edifices of
hair now worn in theaters are as, great
a nuisance as that other evil huge
hats. It is difficult to know how to
remedy the evil. I doubt, even if
women were permitted to leave thetr
curls and puffs and coronet braids with
the matron during the performance,
even If It were perfectly free of charge,
whether many of them would avail
themselves of the privilege.
Tou called. But no reply I made
To your gently breathed command, .
Tour eyes gleamed at me unafraid,
Tou held toward me your hand.
'Twas not that I played false with, you.
Or that I wished to stall,
I didn't hold a single trump.
So I couldn't heed your call.
.
As a companion volume to that new
book, "The Complete Motorist," I sug
gest that some one get busy and write
about "The Complete Pedestrian." And
do It at once or it will soon be diffi
cult to locate an entire specimen.
o
Statistics show that in France 6000
wives are deserted annually. Which
only goes to prove what, we have al
ways been told that Frenchmen are
the most considerate and thoughtful of
husbands.
o
Miss Calamity Step-and-Fetch-it, the
cultured and charming, et(j. lady-poet
of Kalama, is writing a soulful epic
called "The Castlron Pirate," a sequel
to that other pretty fancy, "The Apple
Pie-rate."
i : o o w'..-" ... '
Extract from an exchange reads, "Mr.
Roosevelt showed' his knowledge of.
history while admiring a table said to
have belonged to. Catharine II of Rus
sia by pointing out the extreme im
probability of the story that the -Peace
of Tilset was signed upon it as late
as 1907." Now that's what I call a
sweetly subtle Incident. And It would
never have appeared In print If It had
n't been connected with T. R.
o
testimonial clipped from a Jeweller's
ad In a country paper, "I am quite sat
isfied with the wedding ring I Jur
chased of you and will in future deal
always with you firm."
According to a recent scientific dis
covery an egg doesn't turn really bad
until it is at least seven years old. We
are naturally, then, led to Infer that
most of them like people are born
full of original sin.
o o
That figure of speech "launched on
the sea of matrimonial bliss." doesn't
convey much to those who get seasick
easily.
o o
Man claims to have Invented a device
by which "Summer flower may be
grown in Winter or vice versa." For
the vice versa pant anyway no device
is needed in Oregon.
It was a mean man, who, in response
to the photographer's request to "look
nl.aRnnt. lnOlf fLS If TOO WOrS abOUt tO
be married," replied grouchlly, "I am."
Half a Century Ago
From The Oresonian, May 27. 1861.
There were several severe hail
squalls in this section of the country
yesterday. We have not heard that
fruit has been injured or grain cut
down by them.
A reconnoissance was made last
week of the proposed route of a canal
round the falls at Oregon City, and a
calculation of its cost of construction.
It was estimated that a canal might be
constructed with suitable locks for
1175.000.
An enthusiastic union meeting was
held at Dalles on the night of Satur
day, the 25th inst.
The bogus confederacy has declared
war against the United States.
Where Elevator Boys - Are Otrls.
St Louis Times.
Milwaukee boasts of something new
girl elevator operators, duly licensed
by the municipal Inspector and certi
fied to be competent not only to run
lifts, but to make ordinary repairs on
them. There are two of them, and they
have solved a problem for the Toung
Women's Christian Association manag
ers, who stacked up against a com
bination of a building with elevators
and a rule against men employes. As
"the head of man" was not allowed to
"set foot" in the Toung Women's
Christian Association, the officials had
the two young women take a course In
elevator running- and repairing, and ,
now everything is lovely.
School Girl' (tnerle.
TURNER. Or., May 24. (To the Edi
tor ) I am going to take the eighth
I . I n Tun. T vniiM 11k
Ifraue Art.ui i ij ...'. ... -
for you to answer the following ques
tions: What are the chief causes of the
war in Mexico? Describe the war. Has
the treaty of peace yei Deen ngneai
What per cent of 4 is I'7
SCHOOL-GIRL, ,