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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1911)
THE SUNDAY OREOOXIAN, PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 20. 1911. roHTI-A.XD. oaxoox. Catered at rartlaao. Onm eatanee mm BWeaa-Oaee Matter. IiMuIium Rales Invariably it'Mf mV UAtt.1 Irr. Sndsr trx-taded. eee year.. ....la le;:r. Ivtdkr ieiud4. sis seetae... 1j;t. Sanaer laeluaed. IhrM saeataa.. s II X-'mliy. uaaf lacluded. w seenl.. -1 !. snthotit luidir, f year " lei.i. without tuadi;, si month. J J tally, arttnettt Suaday. three eaeatke... !- lj:r- wltttoet luKday, erne eeU weekly eae year. ............ TT luidft, eee year.... Iu4i ul Weekly, eee year. CBT CaKKISR.) Xefr. Saedsy laeliieed. eae veer. ..,. feat. v. luiidkf lnr tudd. eee aaeath... - e te Basalt bead Potior flee massy ars-v. expreee erder er eereoaal cheek ea year leeeJ kaak. ataman, ceia er earreaer are at tae seeder's rua. oiv aoetoftie aaaresa la full. treladta reeatr and etate. fe4a he tee 10 te 14 paces. 1 eeal; l I It Barren J cents: la te ee eeeea. ceela; 4 te eo pasta, 4 crate, ferataa aseraf eskie rata. Eastern Bee tana OfHtre Verre Ceek Da Vera, Hmaanlc sntidlas. ear4, aterer b a lid la e- Kareeeea otace Ma. R(ent street ruRTLLND, t.VDAT. SOT. ta. Ill I. TAFT THE REAL, r UXiKlSI VI. When a politician falls to And mat ter for criticism In the acts or words of n opponent and la driven to misrepre sentation In order to make a case airainst Mm. he I Indirectly giving that, orponrnt a strong Indorsement. Thl bring so. the statement of Medill Mc cormick, financial backer of the La I'ollette boom, of hl reasons for sup porting La Follette and opposing Taft constitute a strong argument for Taft. Throughout, he either misrepresent or suppresses truth favorable to Taft. The President Is condemned for signing the payne-Aldrlch tariff bill and for praising A Id rich, one of Its sponsors. H!s rrawiiu for signing It are ignored namely, that It provided the increased revenue which was at the time absolutely necessary, that It imposed the corporation tax by which a real beginning wa made at super vision of corporations, and that It cre ated a Tariff Board as the means of rusting Into limbo the old. discredited methods of tarlfT-maklng. The power of creating the Tariff Board he extort ed from Congress when the Insur gents, who had constituted themselves champion of the measure, had failed, a!-! he stretched that power to the ut most In order to throw light on the dark places of the tariff. He wa the father of the policy of revision by schedules, which breaks the phalanx of protected Interest. This policy was taken up with rapture by JnsurT geota and Itemocrat. and as quickly forsaken br them in their eagerness to score a political point on the Presi dent. Ills audacity In using the Tariff Board to the utmost and his firmness in vetoing the popgun tariff bill of the extra session show him to be a man of courage enough to maintain hla po sition. Mr. Me'Cormlck Implies that the President praised Senator Aldrich for his work on the tariff, when In fact that praise waa beetowed for the Sen ator's work for currency and banking reform. Ills National reserve plan has won him as much praise from the fair-minded men of the Nation as hi tariff bill won him condemnation. Having prepared his plan, aided by the othrr members of the Monetary Com mission. Aldrich went to Um people with it, heard their criticisms, modi- j rtea ana perrectea ii to rorrt inw t lclsm. and ha gone before the peo ple with It. HI plan has won the ap provsj of bankers, business men and economists of all parties. The Boston Transcript truly says: It u the Belief of ma who sincerely faire currency reform that regulars, pro-pr-salvee end prtnorntt alike will make the mistake of their political Uvea If they do not speedily enact the Monetary Com mission plan, or something- closely approxi mate It. into law. Kurt her delay will be at the eipenee o( the country, aot of the orteinatora ot the plan. An attempt la made to raise the ghost of the Balllnger-Plnchot contro versy In face of the fact that Ballln grr'a assailant In Congress were glad to drop It and that the exposure of the Controller Bay scandal ha turned Plnchot'a own engines of warfare on himself. As to the Administration railroad bill of 110. Mr. McCormlck makes much of the failure to invite Senator Cum mins to any but the first of the execu tive conferences at which It waa drawn and of the fact that railroad presidents were consulted. He dwells on the fact that the bill legalized pooling and con trolling ownership of one line by an other. He Ignores the repeated urg ing of that most eminent progres sive. Theodore Roosevelt, that pooling legalized. He overlooks the fact that as finally drafted the bill pleased the railroad presidents as little as it pleased the Insurgents. The Insur gents In Congress changed the bill in 'ongrc by eliminating every provi sion favorable to the railroads and making more drastic all provisions for their regulation. At the same time the Insurgents showed their narrow sec tionalism by inserting a long-and- hort-haut clause which struck a blow at the seaboard states and opened the way to long litigation. The President signed the bill a a step forward, though not embodying all the provi sions he sought, but for this lie gets no credit. In discussing the trusts. Mr. McCor. mlck accuses the President of oppos ing the legitimate demands of the people and of Inability to "understand the need of the times and the aspira tion of the American publlc.T He erroneously says the President "pro nounces the miasm Ic Sherman law adequate legislation for industrial trusts." needing no supplementary legislation. The President holds that the Sherman law should stand as the basis of all trust legislation. He has recommended that It be supplemented by a Federal Incorporation law, by which all corporation doing Interstate business should be required to secure Federal charter. Such charters, he holds, should be granted by an ad ministrative body. This body should ascertain that the organisation and purpose of each corporation conform with the law and should there after keep It within the law and Insti tute prosecutions for violation of the lam-. Mr. McCormlck thus stands con victed of a deliberate or careless mis statement of fact. As an alternative to Mr. Taft'a plan the best Senator La Follette has to offer is a law defining what a corpora tion i allowed to do. but leaving un defined, n Incapable of definition, fat is forbidden. This would be to perr-etoiite the present condition, un der which corporations are allowed to g.j ahead and take chances -of being; within the law. If they should trans gress, the only means of putting them on the right track is the slow and cumbrous machinery of the court, which la not adapted to the purpose. The L Follette plan would only a gravate the present evil of uncertainty, of which the corporation complain. The Tart plan would substitute a sys tem by which the corporation could mart on the right track under execur tlre guidance, be kept on that track by watchful official, and be punished promptly If they willfully left It. Any man of common aenae can see which la the really progressive plan. The President ha proved himself to be the real progressive by his policiea concerning- the tariff, monetary reform, conservation, railroad regulation and tfaa trusts. The self-styled profrti Ives have the name wlthouT the thine It signifies. rBWTBCTTXO TUMI HOXOf An attorney before the State Bar Association charged that another at torney had defrauded a servant girl out of her earning, driving her to suicide. Another attorney. It was charged, had defrauded a number of laborers, who had the misfortune to be his clients, out of a large aum of money. But the bar association, rep resenting tha lawyers of Oregon, took no action, preferring to leave the dis ciplining and punishing of the accused practitioners "to the courts." There are other cases of recent no toriety which the State Bar Associa tion might have Investigated. If It had been ao minded; but it wa not. It wa not worth while, perhap. They had not time. What 1 everybody's business i nobody- business. Besides, who cared T The public frequently hears from lawyers complaint at the Jeers. Jlbea and Jest that are commonly cast at the profeslon by the newspaper and other critics, designed to bring them into disrepute and to heap upon them undeserved Indignity. But If the law yers of Oregon are not themselve xealou to protect the honor of a great profession, no others will be. tWHlG niTO OCR OffX. So far as can be ascertained from tha brief report of the Interstate Commerce Commission's decision Port land and other Northwest coast cities have won an important victory In the matter of distributive rates. In a measure the reductions ordered offset the blow given the coast cltle by the commission' decision In the Bpokane and allied cases. The latter, however. Involve a precedent and In this they are perhaps the more Im portant. The distributive rate reduc tion 1 baaed solely on the unreason ableness of the rates now in effect, and It will hava a direct bearing on the ex tent of Portland's distributive field. Tha rate Involved are those which permit Portland Jobber to. or pre vent them from, supplying merchants in interior localities In competition with the Jobbers of the large Inland cltle. The Spokane case covered through r,r. frnm Kastern DOlnt and a one Important particular involved the cost of laying down in i-oriianu anu other coast cities good brought West t . k. latrthuterl riv lobber. The ab sorbing Issue In the latter decision wa the apparent attempt to recognize water competition as a basis for other rate not In the least affected by water competition. In the decision it wa sought to measure tha difference be- tuveen ratea Influenced bv water com petition and rate not ao governed, by using a Iiai ana neeer irjiui per centage. Coast cities might have a lower rate than Inland cities but only In a specified ratio. Reasonableness of rates wa not to be considered. If in times of competitive s trees caused by water carriers' activity the railroads reduced through rate. Intermediate rate must com down accordingly even though water, competition com bined with the west-to-east rail-hauj. did not tend to affect the flow of com merce In any particular. Happily this extraordinary ruling has been held up by Injunction and will go to the United State Supreme Court for final determination as to It reasonableness. In the meantime we are forearmed by the distributive rate reduction. In large part at least, against the injustice of the Spokane ruling if It be finally upheld. In short. Portland' position a a distributive center aeems to be now guaranteed and. in the event of a more favorable decision In the Spokane case, to be promised a marked growth and ad vancement. riPl"' tvtvo THE WOOLCBOWrjM. How the grower ho been flim flammed Into the belief that he I pro tected 11 cents a pound on wool; how the consumer has been deceived Into the conviction that the grower Is pro tected to that extent, and how the publlo has been inveigled into making wool "the goat" In tariff agitation all these thing are explained by F. J. Hagenbarth. of Idaho, in an article in the National Woolgrower. We have had numerous exposures of figure-Juggling in the drafting of the wool schedule by he adept tariff makers, but these exposures have been made from the standpoint of the con sumer. We learn from Mr. Hagen barth that It Is the grower at whose expense the figure have been Juggled. We have been led to believe that the grower waa protected by a duty of 11' cent. As a matter of fact, the duty amounts to only S H cents on Ameri can wool and S V cent on Imported wooL In other word a the duty In creases the market price of the prod uct by only IH cent. It all comes out In the wash, or. In this Instance, In the scouring. The price paid by the Boston buyer Is based on scoured wool, though the wool he buys la "in the gTease." That Is. he buys wool full of grease and dirt, or Just a It Is shorn from the sheep. The average shrinkage due to scouring American Merino wool Is (9 per cent. leaving 31 per cent scoured wool. This whittle down hi actual protection to JH cents per pound, as that is the ratio of the duty applicable to scoured wool. The shrinkage of competing Australian wool 1 only it per cent. Hence the duty shrinks to B H cents. How Inadequately this duty protects the American grower can be conceived from a comparison of the cost of pro duction in this and the principal for eign woolgrowlng countries. The low est cost of producing wool In America is I.J cents per scoured pound. This is In New Mexico, but the average for this country la given by Mr. Hagen barth as 61.1 cent per scoured pound. The highest cost of production abroad is JO. cent per coured pound. The maximum is attained In New Zealand, and the figures range down to It cent for Australia, 14 cents for Uruguay and II cent for Argentina, With this great difference in cost of production, under a system where he pays pro tected tariff prices on all. he and his employes consume, tha American woolgrower is expected to compete when he has only 6 Vi cents per pound actual protection. These .fact may be brought out clearly In the forthcoming report of the Tariff Board on the wool sched ule on which President Taft will base his recommendation of revision. The board Is a non-pnrttsan body and a a unanimous report from it Is prom ised. It may safely be trusted to report all the facts Impartially and to show how the woolgrowers have been cov ered with obloquy for being given pro tection they do not get. There will be sound reason for the passage only of a revision bill which accords with the board's findings. Attempt to pass any other bill would be useless, and It would be mere political buncombe. The President stated on several occa sions In his recent tour that he would veto any tariff bill affecting Industries which had not been Investigated by the Board. The plain inference is that he will veto any bills which are not In harmony with the findings of the Board. There Is small chance that a bill could be passed over a veto. Even If the Democratic-Insurgent al liance held together it could not mus ter the votes In the Senate, once it succeeded In the House. There may be hope, then, that the woolgrowers wyi be set right In the eyes of the public and will be given the measure of protection to which they are entitled under the principles laid down in the Republican platform. AFTER AU IT IS AXCDSST. There Is nothing new under the sun. Certainly there are no new Ideas or at any rate but precious few of them. The other day The Oregonlan suggest ed that it would be a good plan for milkmen to extend the project of their Inspired brother who had undertaken to deliver fresh eras along his route. Why should they not all deliver eggs, fresh ones of course, and cabbages, potatoes and poultry as well? The Oregonlan had In mind the good old ways of the ancient stage, drivers. who used to do all the errands needed by the people along their route for insignificant fees to the great convenience of everybody, but it did not Imagine that the plan of miscellaneous deliveries by milkmen was in actual operation anywhere. But It 1. We learn from the Evening Standard, of New Bedford. Mass., that "from time immemorial the milk man of New Bedford has delivered eggs, butter, poultry and vegetables to his customers" and that he Is doing It now. This Is cheering. If It can be done In New Bedford It can be done In Portland. Of course there would be some im pediments. Some obstacle must be overoome. but what good scheme Is free from difficulties? We suppose that most of our dairies are conducted on a large scale and that those who own them have no time to spend rais ing vegetables and poultry. If they delivered these commodities along their routes they must first be ob tained from- other sources. Here Is where the necessity for co-operation becomes apparent. Were the Industry of food produc tion properly organized the groover of vegetables would combine with the dairyman to pay the expenses of de livery. Although . two independent proprietors mtght be represented there would be but a single delivery wagon and the customers who were served regularly with milk would bo served at the same time with other table neces sities produced on the farm. The Oregonlan can only reiterate its remark that our devices for distribut ing product are "absurdly expensive and futile." HAM UN GARLAND AND THE MKIHVMH. Ardent believers in the reality of "spirit phenomena" will be a little non plussed to read some remarks of Ham lin Garland's which are quoted In the Sunday Time for November 19. Mr. Garland, besides his accomplishments as an author, 1 known to have been interested in the Bubject of supernat ural communications for many years, but If we may trust what he says In the Times he ha received none of any particular value. It cannot be said of him that he has been lax in looking into the matter, for, as everybody will remember, he ha enjoyed seance with all the celebrated mediums and has written many article about them. He wa Intimate with Professor WilW lam James. In fact, James told Mr. Garland of his intention to communi cate with the friends he had left be hind if It were possible. Professor Hyslop now declares that he has re ceived the promised message, but Mr. Garland Intimate that he will not be lieve It unless the evidence is excep tionally strong. To Justify his skepti cism he says that, diligently as he has sought for messages from the spirit world himself, he "never In all hi life ha received one which he was con vinced was from the dead." More dlscouraglngly still he adds that "I have never known of any one's receiving; a message from the dead of the authenticity of which I could be convinced. Somewhere In the proof advanced there 1s always a loophole that will admit the perfectly logical belief that the message Is from a liv ing mind." Mr. Garland seems In clined to explain many supposed spirit communication by telepathy or some similar process. An experience which he had with the shade of the late Ed ward Alexander McDowell, the cele brated musician, give him an oppor tunity to state hi theory lucidly. The composer was a dear friend of Gar land, and while the novelist was still mourning his death . he attended a seance where he received a few scraps of what appeared to be music purport ing to com from McDowell.. After ward he obtained two more bars of the music and was directed by the spirit to transfer from one firm to another a email work which McDowell had left unpublished. After a good . deal of trouble Garland made out part of the music which had come to htm through the medium, but It was nothing like anything; McDowell had ever written. The novelist concluded that. the me dium must have obtained it telepathic ally from hi sitter's mind. This wa made likely by the fact that Garland had been studying the weird music of some of the Indian tribes and was thinking a great deal about it at that time. The illusorlness of the whole affair waa made more Impressive when It was found that McDowell had left no manuscript with the firms to which he had sent Garland. Of course negative result of this character are far from being; decisive. Mr. Garland may have been disap pointed a thousand times in nls experi ment without proving the Impossibil ity of communications from the other world. But when a man investigates a subject with an open mind for many years and lights upon nothing but dis appointment, a Mr. Garland ha done, , we cannot complain if he grows a little less hopeful than he was at the out set. The novelist says, despondently, that he never ha found a medium who could "tell my name under test con ditions." This Is apparently a trifling fact, but to those who have fre quented medium and know their pre tensions it la significant. Another interesting experience which Mr. Garland relates was associ ated with the spirit of Walt Whitman, the poet. He had been lecturing on Whitman In California and In an hour of leisure visited a "psychic" who gave him a message purporting to come from "the good gray poet." To make the message more impressive the me dium assumed Whitman's air and manner, effecting what Garland calls "a perfect Impersonation"; but he adds In a melancholy vein that "the message might have come from the spirit of any one." Indeed, he really believes that it came from the medium herself, who obtained her materials by telepathy from Garland'a own mind, exactly as things happened in the Mc Dowell affair. Mr. Garland's extreme skepticism regarding the spirit world will give something of a shock to the thousands of people who have been In the habit of classing him among the faithful. We fear that 'many of them will call him an apostate, but for our part we admire his courage In saying what he truly thinks, even If It turns out that he is worse mistaken now than he was formerly. Shakespeare was enough of a student of human nature to have noticed that "the heresies which men do leave are hated worst of those they fdld deceive." No doubt Mr. Garland looks back with some trace of regret upon the golden hours he has wasted attending seances and wishes he had spent them contrlv'ng plots for novels, but the venerable past is past. A man can't grind with the water that has flowed out through the tall race. The best Mr. Garland can do Is to resolve that In future he will put his time to better use, if he can find a better. We do not feel perfectly ure that he can. What nobler work can a man do than to Investigate the truth? Even If his conclusions are negative he ought not to mourn. His successors In this obscure field may be more fortunate. If there are spirits It stands to reason that some way will be found to com municate with them unless the Al mighty has fixed "his canon" against it as Hamlet thought he had against self slaughter. Formerly It was assumed that all investigation into the secret of the universe waa forbidden by su pernatural fiat, but men have outgrown that belief and we cannot suppose that intelligent Investigators will per mit a mere superstition to check their labors in this field. LINCOLN'S TEMPERAMENT. The Oregonlan prints today an en tertaining letter from a man who takes exception to our remarks about Lincoln's temperament. We said on this page the other day that Lincoln was "Judicious" rather than "Judi cial," and added a few observations which we modestly supposed might help to make the distinction between the two words clear. In the course of our remarks we happened to say that it would be praise for a Judge to say that he "had a Judicial temperament," while for a statesman it would be more like disparagement. The point we tried to make was that astatesman's credit lies in swift decision and ener getic action, while a Judge Is supposed to weigh opposing argument -without reference to the whirl of the universe and to give hi final Judgment purely on abstract considerations, regardless of consequences. A statesman, unless he Is Insane, keeps hi eye fixed on consequences. To illustrate our point we cited the decision of Judge Taney in the Dred Scott case and compared It with Lincoln's Judicious handling of the emancipation problem. Taney formed his decision purely upon ab stract arguments end paid not the slightest attention to what might flow from It, while Lincoln withheld tho Emancipation Proclamation, though he knew that it was right from the be ginning, until it was good military strategy and rood politics to publteh it. Our correspondent tries hard to give himself the appearance of differing with us about these matters, but we cannot see that he success. His lan guage varies somewhat from ours and is no doubt a great deal more elegant than our homely phrases, but, after all. It comes to about the same thing. He elaborates very much as we would the reasons why Lincoln delayed to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. Our point was that he did the very thing which our critic takes so much pains to prove that he did. Again, he em ploys a paragraph to repeat In lan guage unnecessarily bitter the very same . observation which we made about Judge Taney. No doubt there Li some rhetorical Joy obtainable from posing as the violent opponent of opinions with which one really agrees, but we think the exercise can be car ried too far for moral profit. To em phasize the difficulty which our cor respondent has In finding colorable ground for his contentiousness we will invite the patient reader to peruse this citation: "It Is the highest praise for a man of Judicial temperament, or a Judge, to' say that his mind oscillates between ,the view of opposing coun sel." Our critic Is. not satisfied with this. He amends it as follows: "The Judicial mind listen readily to reason because that is what constitutes the Judicial temperament." But he goea on to in sist that to hear the view of opposing counsel Is not listening to reason. It is listening to sophistry. "The Judi cial mind." he says, "does not oscillate like a pendulum between one sophis try and another because It Is not swayed by sophistry." We wish the latter part of this sentence were true In all cases, but we are inclined to be lieve that sometimes the Judicial mind is swayed by sophistry; but, however that may be, we cannot persuade our selves that the lawyers are quite so bad as our correspondent would make them out. Surely their opposing views are sometimes reasonable on both sides. After some reflection we have made up our mind that our critic Is afflict ed with two complaint which are fair ly common In this vain world. The first of them is opinion worship. The second is hero worship. We do not mean that he worships any and all opinions. But when he has selected one and dig nified It with hi approval he does not want anybody else to hold or defend It. From the date of its adoption It be longs to him exclusively. If other people must concern themselves with it he prefers to see them oppose It, since he can then with a good con science smite and spare not while it naturally embarrasses him a little to rebuke everybody who agrees with him. Nor do we mean that our critic worships any and every hero. But there are some whom he doe worship, and to them he ascribes all the perfec tions of which imagination can con ceive. He is not content, for example, that Lincoln should be a statesman of the first rank, a master of English prose style and an incomparable friend of humanity. He must be everything else, a great Judge, a great general and a great poet as well. It is this sort of indiscriminate adulation which makes praise a mockery and reduces all eminence to the same level. Because we ventured to contrast Lin coln's wise management of the emanci pation problem with Taney's reckless disregard of reason and Justice in the Dred Scott decision our correspondent hints that we "attempted to disparage Lincoln." What answer is worthy of such nonsense? It I not disparage ment, but the best of praise, to dis cern a man's true merits and set them forth for readers to see clearly. There is a species of laudation which rushes about like a whirlwind, mingling everything In a wild chaos and filling the eyesiwith dust. There is another kind which, like the serene sunshine, discloses facts as they are and invites admiration only where it Is due. Lin coln deserved praise on more grounds than almost any other man who ever lived, but still there were some quali ties which he did not possess and some gTeat gifts which other men have exer cised were denied to him. It Is better to praise such a man for what he was than for what he was not. There are some adjectives in the dic tionary which cannot properly be ap-. plied'even to Lincoln, and "Judicial" is one of them. We do not mean to glor ify Buchanan when we say that he acted "Judicially" at the outbreak of the war. On the contrary, It Is In this connection a word of disparagement, and so It would be for Lincoln. Would anybody bo bold enough to say that Buchanan acted Judiciously in the same emergency, or that Lincoln did not? IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. The New Tork World makes an in teresting review of the- Presidential nomination campaigns of the past fifty years, for the purpose of showing what might have happened if there had been in all the states a Presidential prefer ence primary. The conclusion of the World is that, while the conventions of the two great parties have in the main followed the popular desires of the party masses, both parties would nevertheless have lost their greatest figures. Lincoln would not have been nominated for President, but Seward. Bryan would not have been nominated In 1896, but some other better known than the comparatively obscure Ne braskan. Blaine would have been nominated by the Republicans In 1876 and probably in 1880; while Tilden, and not Hancock,- would have been the popular choice in 1880 as Tilden was in 1876. It Is Impossible to say what the course of history in the United States would have been without the mighty influence of Lincoln or the magic elo quence and powerful leadership of Bryan. What would have been the outcome of the Civil War if Seward had been President? Would he have been re-elected in 1864? If not. who? Seward, for example, was not disposed to yield to the demands of England in the Trent affair. In that incident alone Is illustrated the mighty gulf between a Lincoln Administration and a (possible) Seward Administration. Any Democrat would probably have been beaten In 1896; so that Bryan's rise In his party has been of minor im portance compared with Lincoln's in the Nation. But who will deny the vast consequences that have flowed from the teachings of Bryan? IDEALISTIC MILLIONAIRES. The sickly McLean baby which is heir to a fortune of $200,000,000 will possess more effective power when it reaches years of discretion than al most any monarch who ever lived. Of course it will not command armies like Tamerlane nor collect great armada like Philip of Spain, but it will be able to do what neither armies nor fleet have ever done. Tamerlane waa nothing but a destroyer. He left no trace of himself in the world ex cept the heaps of skulls which he piled up here and there. Philip was always hampered by the lack of money and in the end his projects came to noth ing because he could not finance them adequately. Ever since civilization be gan money has been the greatest force In the world next to intelligence. Sometimes It has even proved the mas ter of intelligence and become su preme over everything. . The late Governor Johnson of Min nesota was of the opinion that no hu man being ought to be permitted to amass more than a million dollars. He believed that the power over our des tinies which was inevitably involved in great fortunes ought to be strictly lim ited as we limit the authority of pub lic officials. There was a time in the history of the world when thoughtful men were afraid of giving power to anybody. The framers of our Consti tution were governed by this feeling and exerted themselves the best they could to hedge every official in by checks and bXlances so that however evil his intentions might be he could not do much harm. But modern thought does not concede that there is anything to dread in mere power. It has found a better remedy for the possible evil It might cause than to Impose negative restrictions. This remedy is the fixation of responsibility. No student of social questions in our day is frightened at power but the ab sence of definite responsibility always give him a nightmare. There Is some reason for thinking that our American millionaires with all their sins have felt more sense of responsibility for the last twenty-five years than our public officials. While politics has been in a large part a scramble for spoils without much at tention to principle and with a cynical disregard of ethics, the millionaires have been showing by their conduct that they looked upon their money as a trust fund for the use of which their consciences, or some other authority, was holding them responsible. Of course there have been many lamenta ble exceptions to this rule. The Mar shall Field fortune wa left for strictly private and selfish purposes. In other words It was left for the perpetuation of a dynasty and the children who are to inherit it have been educated in Europe in the conventional dynastic manner. Unless appearances are de ceptive the same might be said of the fortune which will go to the McLean baby, but the rule is far otherwise. The greater number of our-conspicuous millionaires have been devoting their money to the advancement of civilization. Rockefeller ha given enormous sums for the higher educa tion. Carnegie has done as much both for education and for International 1 peace. Even tho cause of reformed spelling ha not been forgotten by these determined idealists. The late Mr. Pulitzer showed by his will that he was as much of an idealist as either Carnegie or Rockefeller. He has tried in fact, besides all that he ' left for education, to rival the fine purposes of the founder of the Nobel fund. Mr. Pulitzer has offered a prize of 11000 annually for "the novel which shall best present the wholesome at mosphere of American life and the highest standard of American man ners and manhood." Again he has founded a prize of $1000 for the best new American play, given in New York, "which shall best present the educational value -and power of the stage by raising the standard of good morals, good taste and good man ners." Mr. Pulitzer has offered sev eral other prizes on similar terms, all designed to raise the level of civiliza tion, to retain what Is good and incite men to make Improvements. This is Idealism of the best kind. In fact the lack of Idealism which has often been made a reproach to our various gov- ernlng bodies Is in some measure com pensated by the efforts of our mil lionaires. It is said that the National Government cares little for science and nothing for art while to education it doles out a meager sum which calls for blushes rather than praise. But the educational donations from pri vate sources now clustered around Washington cannot fall far short of $100,000,000. Sordid as . our municipal govern ments have been in all parts of the country private bemefactions have often supplied their deficiencies and corrected their standards. The Mud town Council might spend its funds In varied and Intricate graft, but the eminent Mr. Plutus, who waa born in Mudtown, saw to It that tho village had a fountain, a library and at least the semblance of paved streets. All over the United States the beginnings of municipal art and honesty have come from the millionaires as much as from any other source. We do not cite these facts to excuse the danger ous amassing o property in a few hands. Thia Is an evil which society will find a way to correct, but even in Its worst estate, as we have seen it during the last quarter of a century. it has substantial compensation Members of the January graduat ing class of the Lewis and Clark High School of Spokane have come to a very sensible conclusion in regard to dresses for the occasion. They have' chosen simple white gowns, at a cost not more than $10 each, have eschewed orna ments for the occasion, and decided to wear their hair in simple, schoolgirl braids. There is a fitness in this that cannot fail to strike a chord of popu lar approval. Why should girls edu cated at the public expense array themselves elegantly and expensively for graduation? The public schools are the most democratic of all our in stitutions. Their functions from start to finish are. or should be, plainly, sim ply and economically ordered and ad ministered. The garlshness and dis play of the "finishing school" are most unseemly. Simplicity and equality in outward trappings signify common sense, and a Just appreciation of the advantages of free education. These schools are for the rich and the poor alike, and any attempt of pupils of the former class to dress those of the latter down at public graduation ex ercises should be frowned upon by those in authority. As a person standing soma distance from a great painting has a better gen eral view of it than one who stands so near that ho can only see it in detail so a foreign observer can form a bet ter estimate of a nation than can a member of that nation, who is apt to take its good points as a matter of course and to fasten his eyes only on its faults. Hence this estimate of the American people by Abbe Felix Klein, a French priest and scholar, in his book, "America of Tomorrow," is of value: To realize what the Star-Spangled Ban ner means to Americans, one must have lived with them Intimately, and. If may say so. thrilled with their emotions. Whether they boast or tne ueciaranon i muoptsi, rienne or whether directly or In tho person of their fathers they hava found In tha United States, the country of their choice, tho one that realized their ambitious dreams or which received them In their distress and raised them from the misery they had endured elsewhere however It may be, they love their 'country and Its Institutions with a passion and a pride In which reason. In stinct and will seem to have condensed their strength. California has an everywhere much- needed and exceedingly Just statute In what is known as the "lazy father" law. This law provides that a hus band or father who falls to provide for his family shall, upon conviction. be made to work 'for the county for a wage of $1.50 a day, the money to be used for the maintenance of his fam ily. This Is as it should be. It Is high time that civilized com'munlties took cognizance of irresponsible par entage as an economio evil of perni cious growth and far-reaching mag nitude. It is the part of prudence to place a check upon it by putting "lazy fathers" to work and applying their earnings to the care of their families. James J. Hill and William Hanley form an unrivaled team as boosters for Central 'and Eastern Oregon. Each is a leader In the development of the West In his own way. Their words at the Land Show will draw thousands to our virgin land. The agent of a river boat says delay causes his passengers to grumble. As an open draw means delay to forty people to one on the boat, the author ities should by all means conciliate the passenger. Gipsy Smith might consider it an improper subject of discussion toflay, nevertheless the housewife who pays more than 25 cents for Thanksgiving turkey will be paying too much. More than forty years ago Bret Harte declared "the heathen Chinee is peculiar," and local experience shows that Ah Sin's countrymen are keeping up to the standard. The bank at Bend has gone about It right in buying a carload of brood sows and selling them to farmers. Thus the gospel that D. O. Lively has been preaching goes into effect. The man who weeps on the stand when his wife is suing for divorce would wallow in brine on her grave and get another in three months. English suffragettes purpose to show how they can cook and raise babies to silence male ridicule. Watch Russia get into the game when Italy blockade the Dardanelles. Scraps and Jingles Leone Caaa Baer. ' Read where the Sultan ot Turkey Is called "The Shadow." I bet there are loads of little Turks who don't want to be called "The Valley' of the Shad ow." Directions Some folks pronouaoe valet valley. e Fortunately we don't all have to be equlped with thanks before Thursday. - What Is "drunk and disorderly" at Third and Burnside is "artistic dis temper" on Portland Heights. e- The period In the average woman's life when she thinks most of dress, la from the cradle to the grave. e Line in marine story suggests that the hero must have been somewhat of an acrobat: "Having lighted his pipe he sat down on his chest." e Apropos of the recent Horse Shew, one of the entries, "Jack Coffman on Chooolate Chips.'" suggests these alsot Governor West on "Never-dle," Mayor Rushlight on "Flumb Blossom." John F. Logan on "Habeas Corpus." D. O. Live ly on "Hambone," Sig Sichel on "Bulf Durham." George Bsker on the Mayor, "Council the First." C. C. Chapman on "Welcome," Theodore Kruse on "Skip away," B. Neustadter on "Boss of the Road," B. S. Josselyn on "All's Fare." e Woman asked the clerk If he had Invisible face powder and then asked to see some. e Anyway, when these big buttons are no longer the style they may'be used satisfactorily for saucepan covers. Portland lad told the barber hi wanted his hair cut Just like pa's, and not to forget to leave a little round hole up at the top where the head comes through. Being fashionable Is a terrible strain. I've got a brand new this season's hat, but can't afford this season's hair to go with it. see In New Haven, Conn, a riot broke out In a theater and the stagehands turned the hose on the stampeding au dience. Bet they would have quieted down quicker if the chorus had come out with the hose. eae Miss Calamity Step-and-Fetch-It, the cultured, etc, lady writer from Kansas, Is a born poet, andrfust can't keep from bursting- forth in sons. She has sent us a copy of 'a cute little thing she wrote as a "testimonial," to be printed beneath her photograph In a patent medicine circular. She calls It, "The Cat Out of the Bag. or the Hair Out of the Net:" Dear Friends Aches for years had racked me And a hard cold convulsed my chest. Some days my head swum awful. And at nights I couldn't get no rest. Had stitches in my sides and dys pepsia. What I endured 'is really unknown, And the rheumatism in my feet Often made me pause and groan. I bought all the things I ever heard of. Newspaper prescriptions I tried in vain. When maw read In "The Heart and Hand" Of a grand remedy that cured all pain, So I sent and got eight dozen bottlei at once. They enclosed a- guarantee to banish ills. And all the aches my body was heiress to. 'Twas called "Professor Bilkem's Sky Blue Pills." Now my pulse is on time, my face Is clean As you would ever care to perceive, And my appetite is like a epicure's. I can eat all that's set before me. And all the functions of my body or frame - Is in a more than normal plight. So that is why I send this message to thee. Of how and why I am allright. - e Some folk talk as if the nose were the only part of speech. a -Paper say "James Spud trips light fantastic at age of 96." Must have been some potatoes when he was say 21. a e Men artists, it seems from the divorce records, never have model wives. eee Ever notice that vegetarians never wear mutton-chop whiskers? Half a Century Ago ivnm Tho nrea-onlan. Nov. 26. 1861. The Overland Press, published at Olympla, is advocating the division of Washington Territory at the Cascade Range. We understand that a paper, closing business In this city on Thanksgiving day, has been signed by some 60 of our principal business men. General Tllton, or Olympla, In the Overland Press, challenges Murphy, of the Standard, to a "juol." Murphy won't fight because, he says, he might kill the General, which is bad, or get killed himself, which Is worse. The General threatens to use a horsewhip. This is a game which two can play at. The Vancouver Chronicle says that some eight members of the territorial Legislature will go no farther than Vancouver to perform their legislative duties the coming Winter. We shall see. Lls-Btnlnic's Effect on Concrete. Indianapolis News. The effect of liehtnin on concrete. which has long been a matter of dis pute, has been observed by a leading rnAmhAc if the American Society of Civil Engineers, who has a reinforced concrete water tank on his country es tate. This was struck by lightning, which caused no Injury, but changed the texture of the concrete In places from granular , to. vitreous. The tank was heavily reinforced. World's Lareest Birds' Nests. Forest Life. Tr. Australia are found the largest birds' nests in the world. They are built by the jungle iowi in great mounds, and their height averages 15 Thev are formed of twins and sticks like other nests, but they weigh, tons in extreme cases. Colored Photo Work in Woods. Philadelphia Record. Mrs- Howard A. Colby, of Plainfleld, N. J., Is one of the hrst women to use. colored photography In the Maine woods. She has photographed a pair of wild moose. They are fine pictures showing the cow and bull moose and one of the bull alone. A Name and n Catch. Harper's Weekly. "You will excuse me. madam," said little Binks to the fair lady at the re ception, "but really I didn't catch your name. "How funny," said the lady. "It's Fish."