Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1912)
TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JAXTAItT 21. 1912. r, Bt (Drerrtmtan fOatTLAXD. OMGOS. Entered I Portland. Orea-oa. Poatofflee as econa-ciaaa Xllt 4Moiiki JtaiM larartably im Aaeasea. CBT MAIL.) taf:v, Sana-ay Included, oaa year. It-M Ia.ly. Sunday Included, elx month 4.11 l'ajtr. Sunday Included, three moot ha. . i-ti Sunday Inrluaad. one monia . . . . . .71 l-ei;jr. wltttoul Sunday, oaa year.. ...... La.7. without Sunday, eis months.. ... S.I3 pai.y. without Sunday, three months... 1.T9 I a:.y. without Sunday, ana month. ..... Weekly, ona year. .................... fuaday, ana year i Sondajr and weekly, oaa year (BT CARRIER.) Iaffy. ffontfay' tnelndad. ana yaar....... Iai.y. Sunday Include!, ona month if Hmt to Basalt Sand Poetofflca money or. er. expreea order or personal check oa your local bank. Slampa. coin or currency are at ibe sender's nak. Olra poetafrtco addroa ta full. Inciudins; county and state. Peetafa Batea 1 to 14 paces. 1 cant: 1 to It paee. t aente; I to t pea, I casta: 4 ta 44 paaee. 4 cents. reraise aosta. aoebla rata. Eaetera tlwalaeaa Olffaea Vorro Oorik ln New Torn. BnjQJ.kk hulldlna. Cht utr Siecer SuMdlnc. . tarap omce-.Va Resent street. S. W.. iundoa. fORTLAM). ftrXDAT. J.IMI ARV SI. IIS- WOMIS AND POLITICS. With the patriotic enterprise for which It Is celebrated, the New York Time undertook, the other day. to And out whether or not "women un derstand politics." In pursuit of In formation orr the topic the reporter of the Times vUited various women of renown and propounded five questions to them. From the answers they gave every reader can decide for himself w hether those women understand poll- tlrs or not. The questions touched upon five subjects of vital and current interest the tariff, the trusts, the open and closed shop, the initiative and referendum, with the recall in the background, and finally the direct election of Senators. All the women who were Interviewed believe in a downward reduction of the tariff, though some of them would go about it more deliberately than others. The Rev. Anna Shaw wishes to cut off the plunder of the tariff barons at one fell swoop, while Mrs. Ida Husted Harper would permit them to set their houses in order before dealing- the fatal blow. Every one of these women is of the opinion that the protective tarlfT raises the cost of living, and they all argue that a reduction of the duties would be followed by a corresponding- fall of prices for the necessaries of life. Without an exception the women In terviewed believe In the direct election of United States Senators. Concern ing the trusts they exhibit minor dif ference of opinion. Miss Harriet May Mills, president of the New Tork State Suffrage Association, thinks that the trusts ought to be regulated by the Government, but she cautions us that it would be very unwise to break them up. even If It could be done, because -the trusts have taught us a great les son. They have shown us the true value of combination and they have given us an object-lesson In how cheaply things can be made by the application of that principle." Miss Mills' views on this difficult subject stand comparison with Mr. Bryan's fairly well, do they not? Mrs. Ida Husted Harper believes in Federal In corporation of the trusts, for which she quotes the example of President Tart. The Rev. Anna Shaw thinks that the trutti "as they now exist are a menace to the freedom of the peo ple and that they corrupt the Govern ment." Precisely what she would do with them she does not say, but there is every reason to believe that It would, be something thorough-going, perhaps something radical. The one subject which these discreet women shy away from Is that of the open and closed shop.. Most of them are In ardent sympathy with the labor unions for various reasons. It is the humane side, for one thing. Again, "thev fxpwt to get the union vote when suffrage Lmes to be decided upon at the .Is. Naturally, therefore, they exhibit a certain deftness in avoiding this Issue. Upon the whole, the an swers obtained by the Times show that women are at least as Intelligent in re gard to politics as men are. But the subject presents another as. pect. Suppose a person should In. quire whether men understand politics or not? The answer would be that some men understand the subject and some do not. The great majority of the male voters have no definite opin ions of their own and no ability to form any. They accept their opinions ready made from one source and an other, as they buy their coats at the department stores. And of course It Is fortunate for the countrr that they Io so. since the ordinary male can do many things better than he can decide upon great public questions. As for the women. Is not the same thing true of them? Some of them understand politics and some do not. Those who re of commanding ability will be lead ers. The rest must be followers. No doubt the capacity to grasp polit ical subjects and unravel their per plexities Is fully as common among women as among men. Very likely It is more common, for woman has by nature an analytical mind and a sense ef detail which Is often wanting to men. Toe world owes to her the first feeble beginnings of civilization. She has by her Insistence compelled reluc tant man to become decent within the walla of the dwelling. She is trying to make htm act with the same de cency In municipal affairs. By and by she will extend her purifying efforts to National politics. "The new broom which never grows old", would be an excellent symbol for her In her polit ical activities. In the large politics of the .world history shows that women have been f illy as capable s men. Queen Eliza beth dealt successfully with difficulties which would have baffled most of her successors of the other sex. Catherine of Russia was one of the greatest poll tlrlans who ever lived. Queens have been, upon the whole, quite as able rulers as Kings, and fewer of them have lost their heads through obstinate stupidity. The model monarch of the nineteenth century was a Queen. thntgh if she had been of a humbler station in her own land she would not lave been permitted by the law to vote, v Such Is the Incongruity which we sometimes see In human" arrange ments. But we can obtain from his tory only an inadequate view of women's political understanding" be cause as a rule men have not allowed them to make much use of It. The stronger sex has assumed that females were denied bv nature the capacity to deal with political subjects and has usually kept the door shut In their fao. ThLs l on a par with the Ori ental assumption tnat women nave no souls and that it Is shameful for them to go out of doors unveiled. The world has suffered measureless loss by Its foolish contempt for woman's intelli gence. Progress will be a great deal more rapid and more stable when she Is accorded her full rights as a human being. TREAMOM IN JACKSON (LfB. Comments by Portland Demo crats at the Friday meeting of the Jackson Club recall the days when party leaders, bosses, machine men and ward heelers were abroad coun seling the rank and file to "vote r straight." We thought that, in Oregon at least, the people had got away from the idea that party platforms counted for more than the character, sincerity or faithfulness of the candidate. But one leader tells his fellow Democrats of the Jackson Club that "It does not matter who the man Is who Is run for the Presidency It s the principles he represents." Another declares that the Democrats ought to fight for the Democracy and not for the personali ties of candidates who might be se lected to represent those principles. Is this Statement No. 1 doctrine? What manner of argument Is It that urges the party voters to vote for party platforms not men In choice of President but to vote for the best man no matter whether he supports Na tional platforms or not in selecting Senators? It was not uncommon In days before the regeneration of Oregon to find Democrats who would vote for a yel low dog for office If he had been named a candidate In parry conven tion. The same party fealty, too. ex tended to Republicans. But what of our boasts of conversion from these evils to direct primaries. Presidential preference and peoples" rule? Shall we again "leave It to the ability of any man the party nominates" as one Jackson Club speaker urge. This Is rank reaction. This is treason. We are surprised nay shocked that Democratic leaders should turn against , the principles they have so strongly advocated when undeniably their party was In the minority, now that they are having visions of success. We did not look for an assault upon our most rher Ished political reforms from this dlrec tlon. MR. BRYAN'S BLINDNESS). Facts, even of such recent history as to be fresh In the mind of ever" well-informed man. are as nothing to Mr. Bryan when they run counter to his prejudices. He has assumed it as an axiom that the great majority of Republicans are standpatters on legis lation In general and that the Demo cratic is the progressive party. It matters not to him that the great pro gressive laws of the last quarter of a century measures which he himself upholds have been passed by Repub lican majorities in Congress and en forced by Republican Presidents. He still maintains, in an Interview pub lished In the Outlook, that the Re publican party is and has been a bar rier to progress on the great issues of the day. He is a strong advocate of Govern ment control of railroads, hut he Ig nores In one part of the Interview the fact that the first law making such control effective was passed by a Re publican Congress at the recommenda tion of a Republican President, only to admit a moment later that that same President had used part of his (Bryan's) platform and that' his suc cessor also has used a portion of It. The first Interstate commerce law was passed by a Democratic House and signed by a Democratic President, but it soon became a dead letter and so re mained until vitalized by President Roosevelt and a Republican Congress In 190 and strengthened by President TaTt and a Republican Congress In 1910. That Is one of the most epoch making pieces of progressive legisla tion In the history of this country'. Yet Mr. Bryan blinds himself to the fact and insists that the Republican party is controlled by Its standpat element. Mr. Brian professes to despair of any effective anti-trust legislation from the Republican party. He forgets that the Sherman law, which he so earnest ly desires to see rigidly enforced, was Introduced by a Republican Senator, passed by a Republican Senate and House and signed by a Republican President (Harrison). He forgets that the first suit under the law was begun by that President In the year of its passage, and that Harrison brought seven suits under It In the remaining two and one-half years of his term. Only eight suits were brought during the entire term of the succeeding. Dem ocratic President (Cleveland). The comparative Inaction of McKinley, who brought only three suits against small combinations, was atoned for by the beginning of forty-four suits dur ing the seven and one-half years of President Roosevelt. He began pro ceedings against the greatest of the trusts oil. tobacco, beef, railroads, salt, paper, elevators, drugs. Ire. school furniture, anthracite coal, powder, naval stores he carried a number of them to a successful conclusion, and one of them has resulted In the first Jail sentences under the law. President Taft has been In office less than three years, but he has brought thirty-seven suits to break up combi nations dealing In sugar, tobacco, growing, window glass, railroads, gro ceries, towage, butter and eggs, cot ton. bathtubs, meat, electric lamps, bricks, lumber, milk, wire rope, maga zines, wall paper, railroads, kindling wood, shoe machinery and steel. He has forced the voluntary dissolution of a number of these combinations and has won the two most notable anti trust suits In history those against the oil and tobacco trusts. Successive Republican Congresses have not stint ed the money to carry on this cam paign of a Republican President against the alleged friends of the Re publican party. If all this be evidence of friendliness to the trusts, well may they cry: "Save us from our friends:" Mr. Taft has not stopped here, but has secured the passage of a law tax ing corporations and requiring reports on their business, which Is more than any Democratic President ever did. He has also recommended strict measures for the regulation of corporations, that they may not degenerate Into trusts. Mr. Bryan not only denies him credit for this good work, but trots out his old bogey of state rights in opposition to the proposed measure. He revives his old fantastic scheme of percentage as the test of whether a corporation is monopolistic, though this was torn to tatters by the ruthless logic of Justice Hughes In Ue campaign of 190S. and though Mr. Taft has truly said that the most oppressive trusts are small local combinations, which would escape en tirely under Mr. Bryan's method of treatment. Simply because ex-Senator Aldrich had a hand In devising the National Reserve Association scheme, Mr. Bryan can see no result from It except con trol by the Interests of our National finances. In his estimation, only evil can come from anything In which Mr. Aldrich has a hand. He closes his eyes to the fact that the scheme is the Joint product of sixteen, men. taken from both parties, of whom Mr. Aid rich Is only one. He does not exam ine Into the Inherent merits or demer its of the scheme, but condemns It simply because It has been miscalled the Aldrich pl.in. He Ignores the al most unanimous spproval given the reserve plan by the business interests, big and little. "Can any good thing come from Aldrich?" he asks, and, his Democratic soul revolting at the mere mention of the hated name, he answers "No." All of which goes to show that, when Mr. Bryan Is In the humor to de nounce, he closes his eyes to the facts, sets all his prejudices to work and proceeds to denounce. SECOND ANNVAL LIVESTOCK SHOW. Direct experience Is responsible for the knowledge that the greatest in centive to Increased livestock produc tion and a deeper interest In animal husbandry generally lies in the giving of annual fat stock shows. The first of such shows was held In Fort Worth about sixteen years ago and the suc cess which followed the enterprise at that point gave Chicago the Idea for the great International. The Fort Worth show attracted the attention of the packers to that city as a mar ket center, and the International at Chicago gave back to that cjty its waning position as the first livestock market In the world. Other market center, such ss Kansas City, St. Joe, Denver. Sioux City and South St. Paul have found the fat stock show the most Important educational feature connected with the work of malntaln lrg the livestock supply, and the Port land show Is doing a work of like character. 'The show held here last year ac complished much In attracting the at tention of the people of the Pacific Northwest to the suitability of this section for animal husbandry, and since the chief Income of the farmers of the United States 1 derived from the sale of animals off the farm, it is evident that the people of the North west need encouragement along this line, especially in view of the fact that they are sending such vast sums of money to the Middle States every year for livestock and meat products. At Denver the County Commissioners gave 1500ft to their fat stock show, w hich at that point charges admission. The Portland show Is free, and does not cloud Its influence by having merry-go-rounds or other amusement features: it Is strictly what Its name signifies a livestock show. For the second annual show to be held at the stockyards on March 18, 19 and 10. 1912, the railroads have granted a one and. one-third fare, on the certificate plan, from all territory that exhibits may come from Wyoming. Utah. Nevada. Washington, Idaho, Oregon and California. Breed animals exhibited at this show can be returned free of charge. The business Interests of Portland can well afford to give this show a liberal financial support. The growth of our livestock market Is a leading prospect, and there .Is no reason apparent that will prevent this market from reaching the magnitude of that at Omaha. Tho population of Omaha Is 124.000. but because of its livestock Industry It stands fifteenth In bank clearances, being ahead of such cities as Louis ville. Milwaukee. St. Paul. Buffalo, Washington, Indianapolis and other cities, all much larger than Omaha. CHINA NEEDS FOREIGN HELP. One of the most significant facts of the Chinese revolution has been the care taken by the revolutionists that neither the persons nor the property of foreigners should.be harmed. Here in is seen the sharp contrast between the revolutionists of 1911-12. w ho -regard foreigners as their friends, actual or potential, and the Boxers of 1D00, whose one desire was to kill or expel every foreigner. The revolutionists have repeatedly warned foreigners to keep out of tho danger zone when a battle was In progress or Impending and have escorted them to safety when curiosity led them Into danger. There are both sentiment and deep motive behind this conduct of the revolutionists. Their purpose being to bring China Into step with the prog ress of the world, they have in stinctive respect for the Western na tions which are In the van of that progress and they Instinctively feel that those nations will sympathize with them. Their motive Is to enlist the aid of the Western nations In the work of modernizing and developing China, which will be the principal task of the new government, whether it take the form of a constitutional monarchy or of a republic. However readily Chinese capitalists may devote their wealth to this task. It Is too her culeiyyfor them alone, and new China must depend mainly on foreign capi tal. Large numbers of skilled men In every field of activity will be needed to carrr out the great work. Though some hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young Chinese have acquired the nec essary education and skill through education abroad, they are a mere fraction of the number required. For eigners must be employed to direct this work and to train up the natives to carry it on. In order that this for eign aid may be secured. It is neces sary to Impress upon the foreigners' minds that under the new dispensa tion their persons and property will be safe In Chjna. China is a country one-half of whose resources Is utterly undevel oped through lack of the will and of the modern means to develop them. Of the other half, a large part has been wantonly wasted through sheer Improvidence and failure to think of anything but Immediate needs. The mineral wealth of the mountains Is almost untouched and cannot be de veloped without modern skill and machinery' and railroads to bring It to market. The mountains have been denuded of timber and the rain has washed off the soil until now torrents rush unchecked down the slopes. The earth thus washed away has choked the lower channels of the rivers, ag gravating the floods caused by the sudden rise of water at every storm. Many thousands of square miles of land are consequently converted to a watery waste every year, and flood, famine and disease sweep away tens of thousands of the population and reduce the survivors to abject misery, to the permanent weakening of the nation's physique. It will be necessary to reclaim the J valleys by replanting the forests on the mountains, dredging and embank ing the rivers and draining the flood ed land. The soil, impoverished by centuries of Intensive cultivation such as only the Chinese can practice and by the repeated leaching , of its-er-tlllty by floods, will need to be en riched by modern, scientific methods of agriculture. Parallel with these works must go the creation of a new army and navy, the construction of I docks, shipyards, arsenals, steel works i and big gun foundries and the im provement of harbors. For all these vast undertakings i the new China will need enormous trmounts of capital, far beyond her own resources. For them she must turn to the bankers of America and Kurope. In order to inspire the con fidence which is the first requisite to securing these loans, she must satisfy the foreign Investor of the stability and good faith of the new govern ment. The New World must be drawn upon for the means of rejuvenating the oldest empire of the Old World. Young China feels her need of this help and the New World will gladly enter this new field of Investment and enterprise. BRITAIN rXREADY FOR WAR. When reminded by Hobson and others how utterly unprepared we are for war and how easily a foreign army could invade the country and march conquering through It. there Is some comfort In the thought that other na tions are plagued by like fears. No less an authority than Lord Roberts, the hero of the Afghan and Boer wars. In a letter to the National Review, paints a melancholy picture of the uselessness of the British army and Its powerlessness to resist an Invader, the inexhaustible optimism of the War Minister and the supine indifference of the nation to its danger. The regular army, says Lord Rob erts, has been reduced by over 30,000 men, the territorial force Is "not of the slightest use for war purposes." and cannot be until disciplined and taught to shoot. The regular army, he says, has rifles with a range of only 600 yards against 800 yards of the French and Germans, the artillery Is not up to date, and there are only four aero planes fit to - take the field, while France has 200 and Germany proposes to spend this year 81, BOO. 000 on avia tion alone. The territorial forces have no discipline or training in marksman ship except what they acquire "from a few afternoons in the drill hall and a fortnight at the, outside camp once a year." Service also Is optional, though the great bulk of members of Parlia ment "are In their own minds persuad ed that compulsory service is essen tial." and are anly restrained by party considerations from expressing these views. The navy, "which ought to bo unfettered to strike at a hostile force In any portion of the world" and to continue the uninterrupted arrival of food and raw material from abroad, is "hampered by constant anxiety about the safety of our shores." If It were decoyed away, as was Nelson's fleet, the British Isles would be "exposed to a descent of 700.000 of the best troops in the world," and could offer no re sistance, "for Lord Haldane can only offer the nation same 260,000 patriotic men, without skilled officers, training or cohesion." He says as a soldier might bo expected to'say: "No faith can be placed in arbitrations or Hague conferences." and he calls on the Bri tish nation to face the reality. This cry of alarm comes from no mere beginner in the art of war, no hero of one campaign. It comes from England's greatest living General, with the possible exception of Kitchener, the veteran of over 50 years of war fare tn Asia and Africa, who has risen to the highest honors by a career full of triumph. If his picture of the mili tary Impotence of England be true to the facts, what chance would she have against the carefully trained le gions of Germany, were the navy once drawn away on some real or illusory distant mission? CANAL TOLLS A BAGATELLE. The attention of those persons who are agitating for free tolls for Ameri can ships through the Panama Canal on the ground that they will be bur densome to traffic and a material benefit to the transcontinental rail roads is directed to the opinion of Emory R. Johnson, professor of trans portation and commerce at the Uni versity of Pennsylvania and an ac knowledged authority on the subject. In an article In the Journal of Com merce he says: As a matter of fact. Panama Canal tolls will be hardly burdensome to snipping- They will add possibly 5 per cent to the average freight rates between the two seaboards of the I'nlted Slates. Likewise the hope of transcontinental railroads that the canal tolls will assist them In competing against the coastwise steamship lines can hardly be realized. An addition of 5 per cent to the rates charged by coastwise carriers can be of hut slight help tn the railroads. The division of the traffic between rail and water lines will not be largely affected by such, tolls, as the I'nlted States Government wi;i probably charge for the use of the Panama Canal. While the sum realized from canal tolls will be large in the aggregate. It will make but a trifling addition to the cost of commodities carried. If the canal were made free, the money to pay Interest and cost of mainten ance would have to be paid by the whole nation in the shape of taxes. If tolls are charged, this money will be paid by those who use the canal in proportion to the extent to which they use it. In the shape of a small addition to the price of the goods they buy. A great Impetus to direct trade'be tween Europe and the Pacific Coast is predicted by Professor Johnson. As the bulk of traffic will continue to move from America to Europe, there will be a demand for cargo at low rates to come this way. This will stimulate Import of steel from Eu rope, as the tariff Is not even now high enough to exclude them, and the reduction in freight effected by the ynal will largely offset it. Thus railroad construction in the' Pacific States will be encouraged not only by the great development due to the canal, but by the lower cost of rails and bridge steel. It is estimated that the time con sumed by freight steamer.? on the voy age between New York and San Fran cisco will be from 19 to 23 days, or about the same time as freight trains require to cross the continent. In order to compete, railroads may be expected to expedite; their service, and. for this purpose, to push more vigor ously, the doubling of their tracks. If they should be able to reduce the time of transit materially the railroads may be able to hold a large proportion of their transcontinental traffic without reducing rates below a profitable ba sis, particularly as a large proportion of this freight would require a short rail haul at each end' of the journey. if grriei tv'sea and would thus have two transfers. 'This would be an objection to the canal route in minds of some shippers, particularly ln relation to perishable goods. Sav in, in iim. u-mil.t also influence ship- I pers of such goods in favor of the all I rail route. TAFT'B ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. No finer example can be found of President Taft's indifference to all po litical considerations and to his per sonal feelings, when they come In con flict with his official duty, than his treatment of the two convicts. Walsh and Morse. His action in these cases is worthy of imitation by other execu tives, whose memory of their official oath is blotted out by, and whose sense of duty to the public Is dis solved In, the Intercessory tears of a child. The President has been subjected to pressure almost unprecedented in be i half of the two convict bankers. The I age of Walsh, the restitution of mis 1 appropriated funds by Morse and the heroic fidelity of his wite. tne ni health of both men have been power ful arguments In the mouths of those who regard as seml-sacrllege the ap plication of the law's penalties to any of their class who diverge from the path of rectitude. Men of that class dare not openly deny that rich and poor, wise and foolish, are equal be fore the law. but they deny that doc trine in their hearts and by their acts. There lurks In their minds the un expressed belief that a Walsh or a Morse should enjoy immunity and, that, while in theory the law- should treat all alike, in practice it should always make exceptions of men of their class: that its penalties should be. Imposed only on the poor and friendless, not on the rich and Influ ential. Against this pernicious doctrine Mr. Taft has stood firm as a rock. Besieged by the clamor of the hosts of friends of the offenders, many of whom may be his own friends; deluged with let ters of protest, many of them Insolent in their terms: warned that the bank era' incarceration would cause their death, he has refused to yield. He has- clearly seen that the greatest se curity for the lives and property of those same rich men who thus sought to be exempt from the law's penalties was the enforcement of those penalties against men of their class who of fended. He has seen that to make an exception in favor of one rich man would be an encouragement to a score of poor men to claim exemption and to act upon the claim. He has seen that the time when professed champions of the poor have acted upon the assumption that they can only secure Justice by carrying on a secret, private war. In defiance of law. Is no time to justify such assumption, by granting immunity to the rich. He has refused credit to the Interested pleas of physicians that Incarcera tion meant early death to the prison ers, who were both suffering from In curable disease. He has listened only to the reports of those physicians who had risen to the highest offices in the Government service by long and faith ful service and who are not swerved from duty by the tears of sorowing w ives nor deceived by the wiles of the malingerer. Warm-hearted, " sympa thetic and. loyal to his frlends.the President has set at naught his own feelings, the threats and promise's of the influential, and has followed the line of strict justice. But his final disposition of the Walsh and Morse cases has shown that he has tempered justice with mercy; that he regards the penalties imposed by law as punishment, not vengeance. When convinced by the reports of men of his own choice that continued imprisonment would serve only to aggravate their final suffer ings, which must soon end in death in any case, he granted . them their liberty, but did not pardon them. In his eyes, the greater a man's oppor tunity and ability to make use of it, the greater the crime when that man misuses his opportunity and misapplies his ability. Convinced that they had knowingly defied the law. he could grant no pardon, only clemency. Mr. Taft, amiable and genial in his personal relations, staunchly standing by a wronged friend, even at the sac rifice of political prestige, stands forth as the stern champion of jus tice, tempering that Justice with mercy only when it would degenerate into cruelty. Such a man is worthy the trust of a great Nation, riven by class dissension, for' nothing equals even handed justice as a healer of such divisions. DEATH FOR LESSER CRIMES. . It is true that there Is not much profit to be obtained by submitting the present-day question of expediency of capital punishment to the test of Scriptural admonitions. Yet we will not go so far as Mr. C. A. Lewis, whose letter Is printed today. Mr. Lewis seems to believe that, inasmuch as modern enlightenment and Christian Ideals have repealed the death penalty for the Inferior crimes for which It was prescribed in the Old Testament, they have also repealed the Biblical authorization of capital punishment for murder, simply because the latter was contained In the Mosaic code of penalties. ' The penalties prescribed in the Old Testament were fixed to protect soci ety and meet conditions of that day. We can no more say that they were cruel and Inhuman under the neces sities of the times than we can assert that the law enforcement on the fron tier In pioneer days was unnecessarily cruel or the deeds of the vigilance committee in San Francisco were in human. Following recent disasters, the swift death meted out to ghouls under martial law has been univer sally commended. We approve of these things when society's welfare needs them, but we do not advocate their adoption promiscuously. - It may surprise Mr. Lewis and oth ers who look upon capital punishment as antiquated and barbarous to be told that we, need not look to pioneer times or the necessities following occasional catastrophes to find measures paral leling the severity of the Mosaic law. Probably one of the latest compre hensive reviews of penalties for crime as they exist in the several states was prepared by Frederick Howard Wines for the 1890 census report. This pa per was considered sufficiently timely to be given a place In a volume pub lished by the Sage Foundation In 1910 on prison reform and criminal law. At Mie time Mr. Wines wrote, per jury. If the witness thereby designed to effect the execution of an Innocent person, was punishable by death in Missouri: maiming in a certain form was punishable by death in Georgia; arson of an occupied dwelling by night w as punishable by death in Delaware, Virginia. North Carolina and Louisi ana; the maximum penalty for arson In the daytime, of a building not a dwelling and without the curtilage of any dwelling was death in Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia; for burg lary by night the death penalty pre vailed in North Carolina; in Louisiana It was Imposed if the burglar wa armed or made an assault; also in Delaware, if the intent iwas to commit murder, rape or arson. In the foregoing list we find arson, burglary, perjury and mayhem capita crimes "in certain states, but twenty years ago, and the Sage Foundation volume does not show that these law are even now repealed. We can Infer that in some of the cases cited the penalties there prescribed grew out of a certain condition in society that de manded a severe remedy. Criminal tendencies demand strong deterrents. To be really deterrent, - penalties at times must be severer than at others. Even If they were old statutes left over undisturbed from a sterner pe riod, their existence seems to question Mr. Lewis' apparent belief that no ad vocate of capital punishment has the "brazen hardihood" to defend It for aught but murder. - The Oregonian, in citing the laws of ntli.r atntea is not advocatlne- caDttal ' punishment for lesser cjimes than . , i . . . i n WaTIm.a premeo.iia.tea nturuci. i uuw, however, that the homicide record of this country when compared with that Of- other nations calls for adequate punishment for abhorrent cases and there is no punishment that Is ade quate but death. We should retain in our laws the deterring influence of capital punishment, and. what is equally important, supplement it with certain and expeditious infliction. ECONOMY NEEDED IN THE ARMT. President Taft's policy of economy and efficiency might well be extended to the Army on the lines suggested by Secretary of War Stlmson. its distri bution In small garrisons at isolated points is a survival of the dass of In dian warfare. As those days are end ed, the only uses to which our Army is likely to be put are the repulse of for eign invaders and the suppression of Internal disorder. Its division into small units, often at small towns, nul lifies its usefulness for both these .pur poses and Injuriously affects its effi ciency. It should be concentrated in large units at or near the centers of population, which are also the great railroad termini and Junction points. It could then be well trained in large bodies, could be quickly mobilized for foreign service and would be readily avallable to suppress disturbances, which are most likely , to break out in large cities. This policy would leave garrisons at or near San Francisco, Portland and Seattle on the Pacific Coast, but would abolish many of those in the plains and mountains, where facilities for rapid transportation are limited and where any local disturbance could as easily be suppressed by detaching troops from one of the large- garri sons as by maintaining a local garri son. Not only Is the efficiency of the Army seriously affected by its present antiquated distribution, but its cost per capita is from two to five times as much as that of any European army, leaving out of consideration the high er pay and subsistence our soldiers receive. ' That Mr. Stimson is working toward the general end of economy is shown by his plan for recruiting to their full strength the regiments -stationed in the tropics, whereby he expects to increase efficiency and make a net saving of nearly 84,000.000 a year. While President Taft speaks of prac tical measures to put business on a sound foundation and practices what he preaches, that "old-fashioned, simple-minded citizen and Democrat" prates about "the faith of our fathers" and puts Bryan in the same class as Hearst. For the ex-attorney of the Standard OH Company, who has got rich by serving the trusts while he pretended to serve the people, to de nounce Bryan for getting rich out of pcflitlcs Is the acme of impudent hy pocrisy. But that Is the kind of a simple-minded citizen Bailey is. If Solicitor McCabe had not stirred up that fuss about Rusby's little 81600 salary, he might have continued to nullify all "Pure Food". Wiley's good work. Now he is ordered to keep hands off both by the President and the unanimous report of the House committee, and Wiley has a free hand. The only man who gains by the Rusby scandal Is the man whom it was de signed to throw out of office, Wriley himself. The New Tork Four Hundred is all a-flutter at the prospect of entertain ing a royal Duke, for he Is far su perior to the common, gardei variety of Duke, such as was annexed and later discarded by Consuelo Vander bllt. The young men may also indulge hopes of melting the frigid heart of "Princess Pat." who has blighted the hopes of more Kings and Princes than has any other Princess in Europe. Well, Professor Stephens is rlght the Declaratlon'of Independence was campaign document. So powerful a campaign document was it that the Americans fought for slx'years for the principles it enunciated, founded a Na tion upon it and inspired France to overturn an ancient monarchy, found another republic and set every throne in Europe rocking. Compromise between Clark and Folk may put the Missouri candidate more strongly in the running for the Democratic nomination, especially since Wilson's star Is waning. Mis souri can put forward a strong claim through having entered the list of doubtful states. Having robbed the jail at San Diego, the thief may next hold up the Chief of Police with the Chiefs own gun and lock him in one of his cells. But when one cones to think of it, a Jail is a safe place to rob, for the victims cannot escape and are all disposed tc suspect each other. Stotesbury. should not be content with one copyrighted photograph of his wife's face immediately after mar riage, but should have a series, one on each wedding anniversary, to illustrate the gradual ripening and decay of the lady's charms. There may be another reason why Miss Sylvia Pankhurst does not value her leap year privilege, but we leave It to the reader's lniaajaHiiHlJg Scraps and Jingles Leese Caaa Baea, Xo. gentle readers and lnauirers. Miss 1 Calamity Step-and-fetch-lt, the cul tured, etc., lady poet from Kansas, is not dead or wed, but she has been "en Joying a severe 'attack of "writer's cramp." She writes to say, and uses the same postage stamp to cover mailing me a cute little thing she dashed off about a "Visit to the Rose City" she made last year. Also she takes occa sion to ask If "the Silver Thaw The Oregonian talked so much about re cently is any relation to the crasy gen tleman who is trying to scape from Mattewan?" Here are Calamity's verses: I. The treasures of Portland's crowded city. What the Ad Club calls her fairest crown. I had viewed only in newspaper pic tures Until one day I visited in the town. I climbed clear up The Oregonian tower. And inspected the City Museum's treasures: Because I didn't take much money along, I went In for simple, inexpensive . pleasures. III. I explored all over the Hawthorns bridge. And from the top of the Teon build ing, gigantic, I observed my fellow ladies and gents Disporting below in curious antics. IV. The custom-house and the park soo. A long stroll past rich people's houses. Looked grand to me. for I have lived Where Ignorance of all but cows is. V. I rode in several streetcars being cheap And a real estate agent conveyed me In an auto out to see a five-acre tract. Neither his talk or the rain dismayed me. VI. Kind passers-by pointed out objects of interest: I Just asked people "What is that place?" Invariable they looked surprise, but told me. After one square look at my intelli gent face. a a e Probably when Mrs. Tingley said she expected to ride In the Chariot of the Sun, she referred to a light carriage, a a e Still speaking of rigs was Pegasus the first one-horse fly? a a e Life's a Journey a traveling Whether on foot or In motor we take It. And it's our own fault If we don't do aui best A fine pleasure excursion to maka It. see A new wine has Just been named Naked Port, Guess there must be some body to it. e e e Most of us prefer to cut our dla-mond-ln-the-rough friends. . a a . e Definition of the present day Tour or My Birthdaj-. a e e Folk are affected by prosperity As objects take the sun's full flood. Some ara melted Into softest wax And others hardened into mud. e e e Would you call the new China the rising generation? e a a A theosophist lady Is spreading broadcast a religion that includes bathing a dosen times daily. Dispas sionately speaking I think any phil osophy that holds bathing even an es sential will ever prove a riot with the masses. see Answer to Perplexed Farmer Wine or imported beers mixed with the food given to stubborn mules has been known to work wonders. e e Two men, an American and an Eng lishman, were scrapping over the rel ative size of the Mississippi and Thames rivers, and the American clinched the argument by saying that there wasn't enough water In the Thames to make a wash for the mouth of the Mississippi. e Could you say a dentist was an ar tist because he can paint a gum and draw the tooth? Half a Century Ago tt TV,. -,.,, o-or. I an nf .Tan 21. 1 8(52. I i u 11 1 i u l " - D de Romanoff, Lieutenant-Colonel due Genie et chef des Telegraph.es en Siberie Orlentale. has dome to the coun try to inspect the telegraph system In use with a view- to its adoption in con structing a line from Omsk, in Liberia, to Irkoutsk, and thence to the Pacific, While Russia is pushing the line east wardly. the line from St. Louis to San Francisco is nearly completed. There is now to construct but 200 miles of the line between the Rocky Mountains and the Salt Lake and it will be open within 40 days. The Russian lines across the Urals and that of the United States across the Rocky Mountains be ing completed, there remains only the intervening space on the American side from Portland, Or., to Behring Straits, about 1700 miles, and on the Asiatic side from the straits to the mouth of the Amoor, or about i200. In all say about 4000 miles to complete the circuit of the earth. N. T. Times. A covey of quails were never thrown Into greater confusion at the discharge of the sportsman's gun than the seces sionists all about Oregon on the publl- . . i . . i . .iwn.il hi- T'n inn Cation Of tile nuui ft "J men, calling a State Union convention. . . i nanocM eava that une or tne bbccobiwh . - - - the signers were deceived in puttlnr their names to the paper; another, that the call will not be seconded by the . n nrtiVi .r throws out on people, nu . L . the occasion the usual quantity of filth and blackguardism. The signers of that call are known to be among the truest and best citizens pt Oregon old set tlers well-known to the people and men who do not take a step without duly weighing its importance. The sidewalks on Morrison street in the vicinity of the public schoolhouse are In a wretched condition: one's neck is endangered in passing by that way. If our city charter is not adequate for the purpose of enforcing an ordinance to this effect, we might as well repeal the whole thing at once, and not en force the law against one portion of our citizens and not against the other. From persons who have arrived from the Interior we are sorry to learn that the farmers are sustaining great losses from the dying of their cattle by star vation. This is particularly the case all along the streams, which carried away the feed during the late flood. A sleigh express was running yester day to and from Vancouver. Quite a number of passengers went and came. Owing to the accumulation of large quantities of Ice near Rock Island, on the upper Willamette, no steamboats are now running. Mr. Panber has still a few of the celebrated Clatsop potatoes, which ara not frozen. They are for sale at Rich ards & McCraken's cellar. 1