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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 1914)
THE STINT) AY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, OCTOBER ' 4," 19t4.: POKIXAXD, OBEGON. ' Catered at Portland, Oregon, Postofflco Second-class matter. Subscription Rates Invariably In Advance. Bj Mall) Pally, Sunday Included, one year . ..... ..S8.00 laily, Sunday included, six months ......4.3 daily, Sunday included, three months tiaiiy. Sunday lncluafcd, one monta Daily, without Sunday, one year S.OU Daily, without Sunday, six monliia ...... f Iaiiy, wltnout Sunday, tnree mouths - Daily, without Sunday, one mwu ...... weekly, one year ....... lau Cunaay, one year .... fcunoay and Weekly, one year tt'A; By Carrier) Daily, Sunday Included, one year Daily, Sun'lay inciuaea, one month . - - - - How to Remit oend Postalfice money or der, express order or pereonal ceck on your local bank. Stamps, com or currency are at tenners risk. Give postufilce address in luu. Including county and state. Pontage Hates 12 to 16 pages. 1 cent: 1 to u pases, 2 cents; 84 to 43 pages, 8 cents, CO to bu pages. 4 cents; 612 to 7o pages, o cents; 78 to vi pages, o cents, foreign post age, douole rates. Eastern Business offices Verreo A Conk lia. Ne York. Brunswick building. Chi cago, stenger building. - San t-'rancisco OXiice R. J. Bldwell Co.. T4 Market su-eet. PORTLAND. KUXDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1914. THE ItATTLE OF THE Al.SXK. Day and night for three weeks one of the greatest battles tn ail history has been raging furiously in France. It is quite probable that historians will record this as the .greatest clash of arms ever known in warfare; great est in numbers engaged, in Uvea lost, in ferocity of tactics. It is a struggle in which the military force of one great nation seeks to hold its grip of invasion on another great nation, which, in its turn, seeks to expell the Intruding hosts. Conservative estimates place the total number engaged in the battle of the Aisne at 2,500,000. These men are distributed over a battle front of ap proximately 200 miles. It may be con ceded that a small superiority of num bers rests with the allied forces of France and Great Britain. While the issue continues to be uncertain, the more substantial gains have been made by the allies on their left wing. Here they have forced back the Ger man right until their line, once facing west, now fronts almost directly to the north, and the French continue pound ing away in their efforts to outflank the Germans and envelop Generals Von Kluck and Von Buelow. They now have pressed the German right wing from a point in front of Noyon, where the Germans first intrenched after the hurried retreat from before Paris, to a point between Peronne and San Quentin. The Germans' imperiled right is thus forced to defend its line of communication and supply from San Quentin to Belgium and protect the Laon-Chimay and Laon-Maubeuge lines, upon which the German right and right center must depend for sup plies. Should the allies continue to press the Germans back at this point until their lines of communication with Bel gium are broken, their "withdrawal Into Belgium would be prevented and at the same time result in their com plete envelopment should they hold their ground. While the allies are thus assuming a vigorous offensive on .their own left, the problem is of an essentially de fensive character, up to the present time, on their center and their right. The allied center in the vicinity of Rhelms and the Crayonne plateau must prevent a wedge being cut by the German center. Should the Ger mans get through at this point, they would be able to cause a lessening of the pressure on their imperiled right. Indeed, they might, by cutting the allied army in twain, shortly force a retirement upon the third line of French defense in front of Paris. By forcing the center at Rheims, the Ger mans would gain control of a valuable network of French railroads and stra tegic highways and might gradually demoralize the French campaign. Should the French, however, succeed in forcing the German center back upon Laon, the most important point In the present German system of com munications, a general German retire ment to the French first line of de fense, or the French frontier, would be necessitated and the Germans would lose the advantage of occupy ing the rim of the Champagne hills, which they now hold. Both forces are securely intrenched along the entire center and while the fighting has been of a most desperate character, neither has given very much. Both have taken the offensive by turns without getting far. Thou sands of lives have been snuffed out to no avail. The fact that the French have prevented German progress thus far in itself may be noted as a French advantage. On the allied right the offensive again falls to the Germans, strategic ally speaking, and they have made considerable progress, although it is claimed that in the face of vigorous counter strokes the French have off set much of the German advantage. It is here that the German forces, under the Crown Prince, have sought to open a short route into Northern France. Their more immediate pur pose is to turn the allied right flank. To do this they must envelop Ver dun. After desperate fighting they succeeded in making their way across the Meuse at St. Mihiel, south of Ver dun, and for a time the French flank was threatened. But during the past few days the French have held their own in this section of the battle line, which has become of less consequence as affecting the final issue. It may be that for the present the Germans will content themselves with keeping the allied left too busily engaged to with draw troops for use on the allied right against the imperiled German right. The issue in the present battle must be regarded as of far-reaching conse quence as determining whether the French will be thrown back onto their third line of defenses on the Marne, In front of Paris, or whether the Ger mans will be hurled back to the fron tier. Once driven from their present positions, the Germans will find no point of resistance suitable to their purpose short of the frontier, or first French line, which they occupied early In the war. Here their position would be even stronger than at present, and provided they got their army therS Intact, there would follow the third and conclusive phase of the campaign for mastery of the French lines of defense. The issue in such a battle would be directly the matter of "whether the Germans were to be finally and conclusively beaten out of France. After having raged with such de structive severity for more than three weeks, it would appear that the strug gle over the second French line would soon reach a decision. In itself the battle of the Aisne will not be con clusive. There will be necessary an other great struggle, either on the French, defense line In front of Paris or back at the French frontier defense line. The location of that struggle, third phase of the present great clash, will depend on the Issue in the battle of the Aisne. The battle line as it appears at pres ent is, a most irregular affair, winding back and forth, whither the troops have forged ahead or have been forced back. The line may be traced roughly as extending from a point between San Quentin and Peronne, on the River Somme, south to the River Oise and Oilette to Soissons, on the Aisne; east oil the Aisne to the Vesle; south and east to Rheims, thence east across the Suippe and through the forest of Argonne and across the River Aire to the environs of Verdun, and south of Verdun to St. Mihiel. This line may be readily traced on the map in colors printed today in The Oregonian. GOOD THING FOE THE AGITATORS. The proportional representation scheme, submitted to the voters under the initiative. Is a mathematical jungle, a hit-and-miss fraud. Its al leged purpose is to give all parties equivalent representation in the lower house of the Legislature. Its prob able result will be to overthrow the majority and to substitute the rule of the minority, or a group of minorities. But, worse yet, no county in Ore gon, except possibly Multnomah, can be sure of representation in the House. The Legislators are to be voted for by districts, but the ballots are to be counted as a whole in the state at large. The highest sixty, no matter where they are from in Oregon, are to be elected to the House. The candidate from Klamath is in effect a competitor of the candidate from Multnomah and every other county. The present plan of district repre sentation is virtually abandoned. The small counties or districts are certain to suffer. Only the ITRens and their allies and sympathizers will benefit. "WHEN" THE GOVERNOR STOOD !'. PORTLAND. Or.. Oct. 3. (To the Editor.) Why don't you tell the whole story about mat mexcusaoie joo ratnerod by the Salem Hog" and engineered by the Salem State house ring to "put over" that new Supreme Court and library building? If you will look at the Oregon session laws of 1913, page ISO, you will find under the subdivision Section 2 Indubitable evidence of the brazen methods by which the job was rushed through the Legislature and sanctioned by Governor West. EX-LEGISLATOR. Gently, gently. We do not much like the opprobrious manner in which a very useful and "wholly respectable member of Oregon's political society is mentioned. There is no such ani mal. He is as extinct as the dinosaur, the diplodocus, pterodactyl and the party Progressive. But this letter, nevertheless, is in teresting for the hint it contains. Sec tion 2, page 180, is an emergency clause and is phrased in the following classic language: Inasmuch as the congested condition of the capitol building demands relief, in order that the public business may be properly and expeditiously transacted, an emergency affecting the public peace, health and safety Is hereby declared to exist and this act shall be in full force and effect from and after its approval by the Governor. Governor West and the statehouse ring in 1911 put through a $150,000 bill for -a Supreme Court library build ing, but were prohibited by law from expending a cent more than $150,000. Yet at the 1913 session they jammed through $170,000 more to complete and furnish the building. To pre vent a referendum they subscribed to the falsehood that it was required by the public peace, health and safety. No single-item veto was needed to kill this bill. No outright veto was forthcoming from West. No com plaint about gross and unwarranted abuse of the emergency act. No criti cism or outcry that the explicit pro visions of the law of 1911 had been violated. Nothing but acquiescence. The reason Is that Governor West stood in on the deal. WHY NOT HAVE COMMISSIONS? Throughout the debates In Con gress on the Federal Trade Commission bill, the amendment to the reclama tion law and on other occasions there crop out objections from members of both parties to what they call govern ment by commission. Like objections were made to a Tariff Commission, and we may expect like opposition to Senator Newlands' proposed com mission for the development of water resources. This opposition appears to arise partly from unwillingness of Congress to surrender any of its powers to ad ministrative bodies. It may spring also from fear of enhancing the power of the executive at the expense of the legislative branch of government. A more ignoble motive may be the de sire to retain in the hands of Con gress a large amount of "pork" for distribution in the districts of its members. It must be obvious to an unpreju diced mind that Congress cannot pos sibly keep all the details of public expenditure in its own hands with any regard for prompt action and for ef ficiency. Each one of the subjects to which we have referred involves close attention to endless detail from day to day by men who give their entire time to it. It requires the service of spe- cialists In each line. Few Congress men are specialists In any line. If all were, the subjects which they have to consider are so many and diverse that it is impossible to concentrate on one to the needed extent. Questions constantly arise which require the exercise of broad discre tion and prompt action, that public interests may not suffer. For exam ple, in the execution of a reclamation project some obstacle may be encoun tered which necessitates practical sus- pension of work for a period. If the law had remained unchanged, the funds allotted to that project might have been transferred to some other and might have been kept at work Under the law recently passed, those funds would remain idle until Con gress reapportioned the money and two projects Instead of one would be tied up. The experience of Congress with the tariff, with river and harbor bills and with the trusts should have taught it the utter inefficiency of a legislative body to deal even with the larger details of such intricate sub jects. It confessed the fact by estab lishing the Interstate Commerce Com mission and by repeatedly enlarging the powers of that body. The con stantly recurrent agitation and scan dal about the tariff should convince Congress that a commission alone is able to collect the facts as to cost of production and as to the effect of certain rates of duty on home in dustry and foreign trade. If Congress would do as Senator Newlands pro poses, create a Water Resources Commission, lay down the ' general principles by which It should be guided and vote an annual lump sum to. be expended by It, scandal would be silenced and the time wasted on filibustering . would be saved. Congress should understand that it is in low repute with the people be cause it persists in devoting so much time to the petty business of grabbing things for each particular state and district, to acting as City Council for Washington and to other details which every well organized govern ment entrusts to administrative offi cers. It would grow in public esteem if it would confine itself" to the pass age of laws .on the many great sub jects which call for action and to es tablishing broad policies for the ex ecutive branch of the Government to follow. Too much of Congress work resembles killing flies with a trip hammer. DCIi. BIOGRAPHIES. Most biographies are tiresome read ing. ' A writer in an Eastern paper thinks they are dull because they are free from malice. The authors set out to paint a perfectly white picture of their unfortunate subjects. No frailties are drawn from their dread abodes. No spots are permitted to blemish the radiance of the sun. American literary biography in par ticular is a lawn bestrewn with daisies of admiration. To read the current lives of Long fellow, Whittier, Hawthorne, one would, imagine that those worthies were whitewashed angels instead of sinful human beings who Indulged in follies and committed sins. Such men as Charles Eliot Norton, who benign ly shone upon Harvard University for many a long year, are depicted with an unvarying tint of roseate splendor. Not a word of malice was ever spoken of him. His angelic qualities were perhaps more copiously admitted than those of any of his contemporaries. But Americans are not the only ones who write stupidly flattering biogra phies. Englishmen are even better at the horrid business than we are. The life of Tennyson by his son was the pattern to all eternity of ponderously dull writing. The book told nothing that anybody wanted to know about the poet and related at great length everything that was uninteresting. The newspaper writer to whom we referred above says the only way to get a gallery of literary portraits worth having is to make some genius angry with all his contemporaries and then set him at work writing their lives. No doubt his work would be readable and it would be quite as just as that of the sugary flatterer with whom we are sickly familiar. The best biography ever written, Boswell's Life of Johnson, gains much of its interest from the subtle malice of the author. He poses everywhere as his hero's blind admirer, but it takes only half an eye to see that he is acutely aware of the great man's faults and foibles and relates them with secret joy. But with all his ma lignity Boswell gave us a perfect pic ture of Johnson, and that is more than any subsequent biographer has done for any other literary man. SFRIGLE A3iD THE SPECTACTJLAR. That famous enterprise of Governor West in sending his secretary and five or six militiamen to close up two saloons in Copperfield has never until now received its possible deserts. The writer who has applied' the genuine smash-bang, swashbuckling style that raises the sordid little incident to a hair-raising episode is Ray Sprigle, and he earnestly assures the Wide World Magazine, which prints his stuff, that it is "truth in every partic ular, and that his account is "based on the official reports of the State of Oregon and the story of Miss Hobbs herself, and the Governor." Mr. Sprigle locates Copperfield quite definitely as the last fastness of the Old West in a rockwalled can yon of the Rocky Mountains, and also as a little town lost In the great Sierra Nevada Range. When a town is able to hop from California to a point in the Rockies it is not likely to surprise the editors of an Eastern magazine to learn that the Governor of Oregon, upon deciding that the time had arrived to swat the skipping village, "called out a regiment of the state militia and ordered a battery of the Coast artillery of the state to pre pare for service." The descent on the town was sen sational, though whether the infantry and artillery found it in the Rocky Mountains or the Sierra Nevadas the author leaves in perplexing un certainty. But this is from Mr. Sprigle's story which he says he got from Miss Hobbs, the Governor and the state records: They made up a special train In the capi tal, and sent it over the 450 miles that lay between the Governor's residence and rebel lious little Copperneld. In the front coach was the girl alone. She had been placed In supreme command of- the troops, and Colonol Lawson was Instructed to carry out her orders. The rear coaches were filled with troopers, horses and artillerymen and their machine guns. In due -course they reached Cop perfield. Miss Hobbs read the procla mation of martial law but the "in habitants laughed and went about their gambling and drinking as of old." Fern Hobbs heard the laughter and made up her mind. She went back to the train and issued her com mands. "At the girl's sharp orders the train suddenly spit out soldiers In brown khaki and deadly-looking machine guns. The men fell in smartly, marched to the City Hall and took possession of it. Detachments went to the saloons, seized them and shut them up," and so on with other grim particulars. It is too bad that Mr. Sprigle did not wait until the outbreak of the European war that he might gain new ideas on closing saloons in a Western village. If the Mayor had been held as hostage and there had been execu tions for sniping, his Copperfield story would stand ahead of the destruction of Louvain. Having conquered Copperfield with the aid of a regiment of militia and a battery of artillery. Miss Hobbs, ac cording to Mr. Sprigle, is probably destined for far greater though more peaceful achievements. "The women of Oregon are now talking about electing Fern Hobbs Governor of the state," says that veracious author. The story with its gross exaggera tions -and pure fabrications is humor ous in a way, and possibly the maga zine in which it appears does not amount to enough to make a protest worth while. But the article is cumu lative in the libel that has been placed on Oregon by the Governor's spectac ular Interference in a village quarrel. Moreover, to fasten more odium on Oregon, the story is accompanied by a cover illustration depicting a girl in a sombrero Issuing orders to red-shirted and cartridge-belted ruffians whose type went out of existence in Oregon about 1849. ' The Governor might do well to re pudiate his advertised complicity in this yarn. Possibly He will do. so when he reads therein that Sheriff Ed. Rand, with a, well-armed posse, had previously been run out of Copperneld and had appealed to him for help. CAN A STATE MLRD ER ? "Is It any less a crime for the state to murder a human being than for an individual to murder a human being?" It Is the old familiar argument, based on an utterly false premise. The state does not murder when it Imposes cap ital punishment. . Murder is a crime performed with felonious intent. There is no element of malice or pas sion about the punishment of a mur derer. It is a high act of sovereignty, performed by society for its own pro tection. But let us carry the murder-by-the-state argument farther. If It is murder for society to hang a murderer, then it is a crime for society to Im prison a murderer. He is deprived of his liberty. What right' has the state to deprive a citizen of his liberty? No citizen is privileged to put any other citizen in a cell and lock him up. It is a crime. Therefore, when .the state sentences any man to Jail, it commits a crime. The logical course for the anti capital punishment sentimentalists to take is to preach the inviolability of all human beings, and to deny the right of a state to punish criminals for crime. THE WOKLD PROCESS. In the October number of the Yale Review, John Burroughs publishes one of his thoughtful articles on the fun damental question of the universe. He asks himself whence the "world proc ess" arises. Does it come from the op erations of an outside power upon mat ter? Or is it Inherent In matter it self? In other words, does a God who dwells outside the material uni verse Impose his will upon it and thus cause it to go through the evo lutionary process, or. Is that process necessarily implied in the properties of the atoms, or the ether, or what ever may be the basic form of mat ter? In the article to which we refer John Burroughs takes what is com monly called "the materialistic view." He excuses the deity from considera tion and derives everything that ex ists from matter and its laws. Of course, mind and soul are not ex cluded from this sweeping generali zation. Mr. Burroughs reminds us that Walt Whitman could see no distinc tion between soul and body. Other poets and philosophers have reasoned in the same way. Is their position necessarily materialistic? To begin with, Mr. Burroughs does not believe that matter itself is "ma terialistic," at least not In the old and vulgar acceptation of that abusive epi thet. We have been taught to imag ine that it is "inert," "dead." slavishly subject to "blind laws," and so on. but all that is far from the truth. People who habitually think of mat ter as inert may correct their views, if they like, by pouring a little nitric acid on a piece of zinc. The reaction that sets up Instantly Is anything but indolent. If another experiment is desired, immerse a strip of zinc joined to one of copper by a wire in a little vinegar. The result is a current of electricity, the liveliest agent in the world. Matter is really full of energy -waiting for an opportunity to burst Into visible activity. Usually Its activ ity Is invisible, but it never ceases. All the time the electrons, which seem to be the smallest bits of material bodies, are in rapid motion, whirling round and round one another like stars in a microscopic sky. The far ther we pursue matter into its deep lairs the more like "spirit" , It grows. Shall we finally discover that it actu ally is spirit? Why should not the "one fundamen tal substance" of which ' Spinoza dreamed manifest itself now as "ma terial" atoms, now as mind? Indis putably the energy upon which the mind draws for Its work comes from matter. Is there not in that process an actual transformation of the ma terial into the spiritual? John Bur roughs sees no reason why we should look outside our own world and Its possibilities for the cause and support of evolution. To his mind there is no absurdity in the opinion that intelli gence, thought, love, hate and all the rest of the feelings and passions are latent in the atoms. These minute mysteries act astonishingly as if they had human passions. They rush into one another s arms as If they loved. They flee from one another as If they hated. The particles of quartz scattered throughout a piece of limestone win travel infallibly toward the same point and finally form themselves into a beautiful crystalline structure. If It is rot nascent passion that moves them, what is it? Of course, you may answer that it is "Immutable law," but please explain what you mean by that alluring verbal formula. Does It mean anything more than the mod est statement, "I do not know"? These imposing formulas come In with the greatest convenience now and then to cover our ignorance. But what of God? Does John Bur roughs dismiss him from the world entirely? Not at all. He only says he does not see the need of an "outside deity." Perhaps he sees very clearly the need of an inside or immanent deity. If we understand his cautipus phrases, all the activities of the atoms which look so marvelously like hu man passions may be the deity at work. It is thus that he, dwelling not outside matter, but within it as its potent soul, begins and carries on the work of creation. "Canst thou by searching find out God?" Cer tainly not by searching afar in the distant confines of space. If we could travel to the outer limits of the uni verse, we should probably find things very much as they are on the earth. God would not be there any more or any less than he is" here. The old Sunday school lesson that he is omni present seems to lose Its meaning strangely as we' grow order, and we can hardly help thinking of him seated somewhere on a throne, with a court of angels surrounding him But if he is truly omnipresent, John Burroughs is right to say that he reigns at the heart of the atoms. What is his purpose in all this ac tivity which never ceases? It may be he seeks self-expression. Self-expression is the deepest passion of human beings. Perhaps we have derived it direct from the Creator. Goethe said the world was a living garment which the deity continually wove on the loom of time. But a living garment is nothing but the externalizatioo of its wearer. If we should accept this speculation for something like the truth, we should have to divide evolu tion sharply Into two periods. In the first the creative energy works hit or miss, aiming blindly at something which it cannot, or, at least, does not formulate. In that first period evolu tion proceeds like what we now call "natural phenomena." There are nat ural phenomena in the universe and there is nothing else. But at a cer tain point of time the Creator attains to something more than mere natural phenomena. He at last brings out of his own being, or out of the properties of matter, that wonderful miracle which we call Intelligence. With the advent of Intelligence evolution changes Its nature. It no longer stum bles along through blind natural phe nomena. It acquires purpose. It be glns to aim at ends. More wonderful still, it begins t establish moral val ues, so that some acts become right and some wrong. If this is so, then moral values are just as firmly infixed in the nature of the world as physical strength and the law of gravitation. Now, through all human experience moral values have been at war with physical might and their progressive triumph gives to history all the meaning it has. What, then, becomes of the philoso phers and war lords who tell us that might. Is right? WAR AT ART. The present war differs from those of former times in one particular which is extremely Interesting. From other wars certain classes have usually been exempt. Ministers of the gospel, physicians, professional men and au thors have seldom served in the ranks. Sometimes they have shared the lot of the common soldier, but not as a rule. However great the need of fight ing men may have been, these classes have managed, by hook or crook, to keep out of danger. The consequence was that when the war was over there may have been a lack of laboring men in the country, but there was com monly a profusion of literary people, teachers and professors, so that the business of writing poetry, preaching sermons and educating the young could go on as well as ever. There. might be a dearth of readers, but not or writers. Pupils might be few, but teachers were plenteous. This war treats everybody alike. There are no exemptions. All must go and take their share of actual fighting. The poet tramps side by side with the arm laborer. The professor handles his gun in the same trench with the mechanic. Even the singers have gone to the war and the great European opera-houses, we are told, will all be closed this Winter. War is expected to kill off the best of the population as far as physical qualities are concerned. For years after each peace Is concluded there is a lapse of national energy, a percep tible falling-off In the stamina of the population. This is the natural re sult of miscellaneous slaughter. Since the bravest and best of the young men always go to the shambles, there is nothing wonderful in the fact that the second best who are left to do the ordinary business of life should do it badly. But it will be something new to observe the effect of Indiscrim inate slaughter upon the intellectual classes. Who will write the books, make the poems and sing the operas of France, Germany and Russia for ten years following the war? Of course, some of the geniuses now fight ing at the front will escape destruc tion and go back home to resume their vocations. But their lives are held at no greater price than those of the unlettered boor and a sad proportion of them will be lost. We may, there fore, foresee among the consequences of this war not .only the customary lowering of the physical qualities of the various populations, but a corre sponding debasement of mental qual ities. This means that European civiliza tion itself will suffer a collapse." We are familiar with the protestations of the belligerents that they are fighting to preserve this form of civilization or that one. The Kaiser wants to save German civilization from the terrible Russian barbarians, so he says. The English and French are quite as eager to save their civilization from the German barbarians. The upshot of the business will be, to all appearances, that no civilization will be saved and barbarism will return all over Europe. It will return In a degree if not com pletely. The world cannot waste its best energies at the rate it Is now do ing without suffering the conse quences. Somebody must pay the fid dler and his fee is likely to be an in tellectual and moral depression last ing for years. While Europe is recovering from the consequences of its folly the moral and intellectual headship of the world may pass over to the United States. We have followed Europe's leadership very meekly in the things of the spirit. For art, poetry, music we have trusted little to our own capacity and gone to the Old World for what we might perhaps have done ourselves if we had possessed courage enough and ade quate initiative. In all these matters we have remained provincial, Incurably provincial, as it seemed. We have not only been inferiors, but we have re joiced in our Inferiority. Our "best people" have always felt a good deal of pride in going to Europe for their artistic and intellectual belongings. Patriotism stopped just short of the patronage of home industry in these particulars. But now that war seems likely to kill off the predominating European personages In music, and perhaps in literature and art as well, a new fu ture may be dawning for the United States. No longer overawed by the prestige of foreign geniuses, our own may take courage to assert themselves and we may find it worth while to. pat ronize them. The best intelligences that the United States has brought into the world for the last half cen tury have found employment In com mercial affairs or in engineering. Art and literature have offered compara tively small rewards in the way of money and but little renown. No American musical composer could ex pect appreciation from his country men, at least until he had lived in Europe and won approval there. American literature Is admittedly far below English in the quality of its works, upon the average. Our paint ers and sculptors follow obediently In the footsteps of their Old-World leaders, always happy when their works are rated second and third best. With the cessation of artistic produc tion in Europe for a generation or two we may lose our somewhat discredita ble contentment with the second and third places and aspire to the first. History offers many encouraging ex amples of similar results following de structive wars. For instance, during the Thirty Years' War that laid Ger many waste between 1630 and 1648 France was comparatively at peace and highly prosperous under Riche lieu's gifted leadership. Its position was relatively much like our own to day with all Europe at war. At the close of the Thirty Years' War Ger many had lost Its spiritual and intel lectual headship, while France en tered -upon perhaps the most brilliant Intellectual period in its history. That long and terrible war resembled the one now raging in the fact that it exempted no class of the population. The slaughter was indiscriminate and unsparing, Just as we now see it in Belgium and the eastern confines of the German and Austrian empires. What happened in France at the close of the Thirty Years' War may very well happen in America at the close of this war and people now living may see-this country leading the world in art, literature and music. The Oregonian today publishes the first Installment of responses to Its invitation to readers to express their opinions on the Initiated measures presented for consideration of the voters. Several contributions offered for this symposium were received too late to be given place, but will be preserved and printed later. One thirig lacking in the group of letters is variety in the matter of subjects. There are twenty-nine measures on the ballot but apparently only a few of them have as yet aroused interest among the voters. The Oregonian would like to get individual views on the proposed abolishment of the State Senate, on any of the numerous tax measures, on the proposal to make the judiciary non-partisan, on the water front bills, on abolishment of the death penalty. The invitation to write is still open. The contention being made throughout the state by different papers that Senator Cham berlain haa allied himself with the "wets" for support In the present Senatorial cam paign is significant la one respect only, and that Is as a matter of comparison where R. A Booth is considered. There has been absolutely no effort to connect Mr. Booth In any way with the "wet" interests. This is a remarkable tribute to the respect with which Mr. Booth is held by the entire state. Eugene Guard. Yet the latest story is that Cham berlain is to be allied with the drys. The facta, however, will be found to be that he has made the usual ante election promises to both, and that he will then do nothing for either. While the principal feature of the Oregon State Fair lies in the horse racing it must take the date as ar ranged by the managers of the North Pacific circuit and take chances on the weather, although good weather for fair week any time .after the first of September is a chance proposition. The proper course is to look pleasant and hope for a better deal next year. A little child was seen one of these bright mornings hugging a doll on the front porch in the blessed sunshine. The doll was made of an old paint can wrapped ic a gunnysack, but the child hugged it lovingly and kissed it with rapture. Imagination had made It beautiful. Not much is required for happiness. The soul can make Jewels out of rubbish if we only let it. The British soldiers are short of field supplies. It is characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon fighting man to be short of badly needed material when he takes the field. Americans are worse than Britons In this respect. Frenchmen who have been sen tenced to prison for failing to re spond for military duty have had their sentences -commuted so they can Join the troops on the firing line. But who can suspect that such men wanted their sentences commuted ? Great Britain is puzzling over the problem of w-hat disposition to make of German colonies. Too much sleep should not be lost over this problem until It is determined whether they must be given back to Germany. Germany will make an exhibit at the 1915 Fair in spite of the war Just how she will get the exhibit over here is not revealed. Still, the German Zeppelin fleet retains its freedom of movement. An eminent Japanese says Japan feels no enmity toward the Germans. Then the only other motive strong enough to promote war must be greed. Paris is described as manless. The few male specimens remaining there being of a wholly undesirable quality, while the real men are at the front. The men In the trenches are suf fering greatly from the cold. No won der they fight almost continually. It's the only way to keep warm. We'll all feel relieved to have a chief executive in the state who pos sesses the requisite dignity and men tal poise for the place. So far no military genius has won the sobriquet of "the butcher,'.' al though, no doubt,- the title has been well earned. Says a Petrograd dispatch: "Nicho las has left for the theater of war." Where he will occupy a rear seat in the gallery. It is said the Czar was hoodwinked into war by shrewd grand dukes. Such are often the fruits of imperial in trigues. No doubt Rustem Bey will tell his government that he had to leave to escape lynching or the water cure. Villa has ordered the execution of Felix. Diaz' adherents. That is one way of disposing of political rivals. It Is a wise old nheasant that tatn refuge among his enemies in the heart oi tno city tnese aays. Weather bulletin: The recall has been nipped by the severest frost ever known in these parts. Since ' Dutch bakers are making bread of tulips, one need not sneer at alfalfa pancakes. Sir Lionel Carden is now in- London. Where, let us hope, he will be con tent to remain. We know of no further reason why the rain man shouldn't go as far as he pleases. The allies' stories of gains are not always consistent with their own "lat er reports." What a nice, warm, tender recep tion that so-called recall did receive! The feel of tremendous Republican victory next month is in the air. It's the vote they want back at Washington, not our George. Hurrays Botn Bides u till win ning. , J Gleams Through the Mist Br Dtsa Collins. Aloyalna at Colleae- ' Aloyslus hath packed his grip orr to college goes today, f Where learned teachers hope to slip A bit of knowledge Allies way; And he win study hefty stuff; And tackle weighty problems rough. Philosophy, psychologv. Logic and entymology, A dash of sociology. He'll try them ail and call their bluff. But cry: "Hooray, the country, safe.!" Aloyslus will study hard Will cram with ,u hi. might and main. And put new wrinkle, by the yard la convolutions of his brain; No study Is too hard or grim To worry him or baffle him; Geology, soology. Physics or ornithology A bit of lchthlology. He ll trim them with a proper trim. And so in confident T The National still will stsnd a while. ADDEXDA. Aloyslus hath written me He needs to buy a football suit; He tells, with casty hunks of glee. Of how he helped the rooters root; He tells about the Junior ball. The freshman bonfire, pennant brawl; But lpglo and philosophy. Philology, psychology. Or even sociology He doesn't mention them "at all; And In his postscript, Allle wrote; "Please ship m quick, a ten-case note. LATER EDITION". Alnysius doth write once more. About the glory he hath known; Of bleachers bursting In a roar: And how he broke his collar bone: But vainly do I wait to learn How he the midnight oil doth burn In boring at zoology. Physics or mineralogy. Anatomy, hlstoiow. yearn to know, but vainly yearn. j.nu so i rue this bitter rue; "What are our young folks coming toT" e "Sir," said the Courteous Office Bov. "I fear the growth of intemDeranre, In our country." "How so, rty son?" I encouraged. "Just now I heard a guy ask a rising young lawyer to drop down and have a glass of beer with him." said th. C. O. B. "But a little thing like that should not be alarming." I protested. "No. but the lawyer, brazen cuss, replied. 'Xot Just now. for I hav . case up at the Courthouse, and I must dispose of that before dinner.' " t.-sote. The C. O. B. Is getting more and more to the bush league In the comedy he whittles out.) Passing: It On. My eeoso of sight Is very keen. My sense of hearing weak. One time I saw a mountain pass But could not hear Its peak. Oliver Herford. Why, Ollie. that you failed la this Is not so very queer; To hear Its peak you should, you know. Have had a mountaineer. Boston Transcript. But if I saw a mountain pass. My eye I'd never drop; I'd keep It turned upon the height. And see the mountain's top. Philadelphia Public Ledger. I didn't see the mountain pass. Nor hear its seak, by George. But when It comes to storing stuff. I saw the mountain gorge. Exchange. The mountain, peaked at all of this. Frowned dark while Ollie guyed; A cloud o'erspread Its lofty brow. And then the mountain side. Transcript. If Ollie could not hear its peak. Or song of any bird. Of iambs, or cows upon Its side. Be sure the mountain herd. I M. Ordinarily we don't remember so far back, but the above was lifted from a Literary Digest of the year 1909. which we were reading because the prevailing war prices have druv us to making all our things over. In spite of its vener- ableness, it pleased us and suggested to our mind that: When Ollie saw the mountain pass. I'd Ilka to have the dope. Whether It ambled, walked or ran; For sometimes mountain slope. Forecast for October. Professor G. Pythagoras Bimelack, the prominent and well-known astrolo ger and seer, sends the following dis sertation and forecast for October: Taurus rules the middle of the month and we may look for increased activity under this sign from the West-Smlth-Chamberlain triumvirate. In view of this condition it is not sur prising that the Sign of the Crab rises I over the destinies of the voting public I at about the same time. The month opens under the Sign of I the Waterwagon and passes at once I into the Sign of the Fishes. Similarly it closes with the same signs in the I same relation. This foretokens e I lively campaign between the advocatef I of the waterwagon and the boosters oil the established order. The frost will get busy on the pun kin once more and the fodder will b observed in the shock, and bards wll uncork the annual wail about th -death of Summer. The furnace in the! basement will wake up from its Sum mer sleep with a renewed appetite am Gen. Pub. will begin to get first-hanl dope on the effect of the war on fuel prices. Experts will reaffirm their convict tion that the- present war will chang- the map of Europe and. Sherman's his j toric remark will continue to flourts in popularity. Solemn Thought. The Autumn season is at hand With Influenza, coughs and chills; Alas the war in Europe's land Has raised the price on quinine pills. Approximate Hlatory 31,284 B. C Antediluvian war ol flee reports continued successes in th campaign to expel the anthropoid ape from the cocoanut grove. 312 B. C. Macedonian war office re ports continued successes In Alexar der's campaign in Persia. 218 B. C. Carthaginian war office r ports continued successes In Hannibal Invasion of Italy. 31 A. T. A certain Nazarene begii preaching the doctrine of unlvers peace. 1914 A. D. The 33.198th anniversai of the great war between the anted luvians and the anthropoid apes for t1 possession of the cocoanut grove The 1914th year since the birth of ti preacher of the doctrine of unlvers. peace.