6 ' THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 3, 1916.
dill
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rORTUM), Sl'.NDAV, IKC. 3. 1916.
JAILRIRnS AS LAWGIVERS.
In the past it was not uncommon
for initiative petition shovers to re
sort to the back room of a saloon
and there copy names out of the city
directory. Once it appeared that ah
enterprising gum-shoer had canvassed
a cemetery. While these methods of
filling a petition perhaps showed origi
nality, they were by no means evidence
of genius. It remained for one of
the workers for the great cause of
single tax to develop that trait. For
the grand jury has discovered that
he solicited the prisoners in the Coun
ty Jail!
That is real genius. What jailbird,
approached by an outsider with stern
mien or menacing frown, would dare
refuse to sign anything put before
him? We hasten to say that it is not
charged that coercion was used in
this instance. Indeed, the opportuni
ties offered the morally weak by this
measure to seize others' property
without going to jail for it were so
enticing that probably a brief and
friendly explanation was all that was
required.
Invasion of the jail for lawgivers
was but one incident of the campaign
for names for single tax. The peti
tions carry in large numbers the
names of transients who at the time
of signing were lodged in hotels in the
old tenderloin district, the names of
others who could not write their ad
dresses so they could be deciphered,
the names of others to whom the pur
port of the measure was misrepre
sented, the names of others who, so
far as can be ascertained, do not exist,
and the names of still others who con
sidered their approval so lightly that
they cannot recall having signed the
petition.
By such means are intricate and
revolutionary measures forced upon
the ballot. It is so that no general
election is free from initiative scandal
or suspicion. Yet we have with us
men and newspapers that protest
vehemently against passage of any
measure to eliminate frauds from
direct legislation. One journal.
In apparent seriousness, recently
called upon "progressivism," in the
name of IjaFollette and Governor
Johnson, not to permit such an in
vasion of the people's rule as this
proposed suppression of criminality!
It is so easy to shout about the
opposition of "money lords" and
"vested interests" and "predatory
wealth" and "bossism" and "thimble
rigging," when one cannot think of
sound argument to advance in behalf
of a pernicious practice or dubious
enterprise. But can "any of these con
temptuous names be applied to the
Multnomah County grand jury, which
recommends regulation of the process
by which measures and candidates
are placed upon the ballot? Every
body knows that the grand jury speaks
the truth when it declares that there
Is a crying need for reform. The
legislature knows it, and the Legis
lature will act in the matter unless
It is afraid of the abuse that will be
heaped upon it for so acting by those
who still hope to put something over
on the people with the assistance of
forgers, jailbirds and the floating pop
ulation. SPECLVL TRAINING NEEDED.
The field for men with special train
ing broadens in proportion, it would
Feem, as the opportunity is narrowed
for the young man who has given no
particular thought to preparation for
serious work. Recently, in connection
with its efforts to expand our foreign
trade, the United States Government
has been seeking the services of a
limited number of "special agents," to
whom it offers salaries of $10 a day
or thereabouts, with transportation
expenses paid and an additional $4 a
day for subsistence, to undertake in
vestigations in special lines abroad
The impressive fact, however, is that
these men must be equipped thorough
ly for the work. Talent and deter
mination alone will not be enough,
The young nan who has wasted his
early years is extremely unlikely to
fill the bill.
Only ten of these agents are wanted
at this time, but it is regarded as
practically certain that the number
will be increased later, as the plan
develops. Although the requirements
are rigid, the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, which will con
duct examinations for the positions on
December 6, will have' the entire coun
try in which to make its choice. Men
ore wanted, for example, to invest!
gate the field for motor vehicles in
Russia and the Far East and general
investment opportunities in Russia
fancy groceries and furniture in South
America; metal-working machinery in
Russia and Brazil; jewelry and silver
ware in South America; hardware in
Africa, the Near East and India;
transportation facilities in Russia and
the Far East; and mineral resources
in the Far East. But no man who has
been educated haphazard will have a
chance. There will be required, first.
knowledge of the particular line under
investigation; next, some knowledge
of. languages in most instances.
No applicant for work in South
America will be considered eligible
who does not have an excellent knowl
edge of Spanish. Portuguese is re
garded as requisite for work in Brazil.
French is required for the investiga
tions in Russia and extra credit will
be given for Russian. Applicants will
be examined also as to their knowledge
of the trade customs of the countries
to be visited. Requirements as to
knowledge of the particular line to be
investigated are especially strict.
It is too late for- those who have
given the subject no previous thought
to qualify for this particular examina
tion, but the future is open. The first
agents of our Government will be fol
lowed by others, without doubt, but
there is still a larger field of private
enterprise. The big concerns that are
planning conquest of the markets are
not going to wait for the Government
to act, but will send men of their own.
and they will be even.more exacting
in their requirements. There Is no
doubt that we shall need to busy our
selves with this trade problem when
the European war is over, and that the
opportunities for qualified investi
gators will increase rather than di
minish as time runs on. But they
will be opportunities, as has been said,
only for men who know certain things
thoroughly, and know they know them.
We have passed the point when we
can afford to trust to guesswork.
BY THE HALF MILLION.
Five hundred thousand visitors
taxed the hotel and lodging-house
resources of New York, at the end"
of last week, and the adjacent cities
of New Jersey had to be called on to
accommodate some of the guests. An
immediate occasion of the unprece
dented rush to the metropolis was the
annual football game between An
napolis and West Point, but of course
not all of the visiting half million can
be accounted for In that way.
New York has more ample hotel
accommodations than any other
American city, or for that matter any
city anywhere: yet it is surprising to
note that the number of first-class
hotels is only twenty-five. This is
on authority of the proprietor of one
of the leading hostelrles as quoted in
a New York paper; and It is quite
possible that his conception of a high
class hotel is not in accord with the
average guest's. Reduced to figures,
he would probably say that no hotel
is entitled to high rank unless it
charges $5 per day for a room and
bath and the average dinner check is
not less than $3. Yet there are many
hotels in New York where comfort
and even elegance can be procured
for far less. Stone walls do not a
prison make, nor iron bars a cage;
and cinch prices do not make a real
hotel.
The rush to New York from all
parts of the country during the past
year has been remarkable. It is partly
a reason and wholly a symptom of
New York's great prosperity. Busi
ness takes many there and pleasure
takes many more, for New York is
both the financial and commercial
metropolis and the pleasure ground
of America. The spenders all are
drawn there by the magnet of .its
superior opportunities for gilt-edged
show and double-eagled joy.
It fhay be the destiny of New York
to be one day a grand, glittering and
whirling Coney Island. When the
financial and commercial metropolis
is moved further inland. New York
will indeed then have something left.
AX EARLY DAY STATESMAN.
The ordinary reader of American
history will have no great difficulty
in recalling the name and record of
John Adams; but not many can tell
offhand who Daniel Tompkins was.
Probably he will remember that he
saw something about somebody named
Tompkins in his school history; but
so indeed was there an accurate dis-
scription of the boundaries and loca
tion of Polynesia in everyone's boy
hood geography. But where is Poly
nesia now, in the ordinary memory?
Daniel D. Tompkins was Vice-Presi
dent of the United States, not once
but twice. He shares with Thomas R.
Marshall and John Adams the dis
tinction of being one of a very few
Vice-Presidents who were re-elected.
No Vice-President since Tompkins had
been honored by being his own suc
cessor, under the same President, un
til Marshall. Tompkins presided over
the Senate from 1817 till 1825, under
James Monroe.
Many Presidents have been re
elected; but the rule has been that
there was a change in the Vice-Presi
dency. Washington had John Adams
for two terms; but Jefferson had
Clinton and Burr; Madison had Clin
ton and Gerry; Andrew Jackson had
Calhoun and Van Buren; Lincoln had
Hamlin and Johnson: Grant had Col
fax and Wilson; Cleveland had Hen
dricks and Stevenson; McKinley had
Hobart and Roosevelt. Mr. Wilson
has again Thomas R. Marshall.
To give a little more light on Mar
shall's predecessor, it may be said
that he was a New York lawyer and
statesman. He served in Congress
and was Governor of New York (1808-
1813); declined Madison's offer to
make him Secretary of State: and was
elected Vice-President in 1S16. He
died in' 1825.
The Vice-Presidency 1s not regarded
as seriously as it should be, yet five
men elected to be Vice-President have,
through death of the President, suc
ceeded to the Nation's most exalted
position.
RAISING MORE HENS.
Champ Clark, whose experience as
a member of Congress and whose emi
nence as a politician entitle him to
speak upon every topic with authority.
tells the people of the United States
that one way to combat the high cost
of living is to "raise more hens." The
Speaker of the House hails from a
district in which the rural and small
town population predominates, and in
which the problem of raising poultry
on a small scale is relatively a simple
one. , His advice is eminently sound
and applicable to a large number so
situated that the addition to their
duties of the care of a small flock will
not be burdensome. As to the flat
and tenement dweller of the crowded
city, of course it is a wholly different
matter, but the fact is that if Champ
Clark's advice were followed by peo
ple of the smaller towns alone, there
would be a greater surplus of eggs
and poultry for city folk and prices
would adjust themselves according to
the law of supply and demand.
Further hope is held out, also, by
Theodore Hewes, secretary of the Chi
cago Poultry Show, who says that the
dweller in the suburban districts of
even the large cities can do his part
in reducing the cost of living not only
for himself but for others by "raising
a few hens in his back yard." He
has investigated the subject and has
found that those who are following
this course are profiting by it. The
secret of success in this particular
lies In not trying to do too much. At
the present prices of grain there is
little, if any, profit in eggs, even at
prevailing high prices, where the
poultryman is compelled to buy all
his feed at the store. But the un
avoidable waste from the table of an
average family, Mr. Hewes points out.
is sufficient to feed a small number
of fowls, and. the ration is nearly a
balanced one, although not ideal. The
cash outlay required for grit, char
coal, bone and a few other necessary
items is small where the size of the
flock Is adapted to the circumstances
of each case. It is when the number
is permitted to reach the point that
requires the purchase of expensive
feed that loss begins.
Mr. Hewes does not attempt to out
line a practical course for a profes
sional poultry raiser. He says that
ten or a dozen hens will thrive In an
enclosed space ten or fifteen feet
square if due attention is given to
cleanliness and to light and air. He
has found from his own experience
that it is even possible to keep half
a dozen hens in a box six feet by
three, by moving the box occasionally.
Little grain is necessary and exercise
is Induced by making the hens dig or
scratch for their feed. He has known
families to get a moderate number of
eggs and at least one free chicken
dinner a week from a smay number
of hens fed almost entirely on waste
from the table.
In breeding time, the cockerels
should be eaten as soon as they are
old enough for the purpose, and sur
plus pullets should be similarly dis
posed of, in the city scheme. The
essence of the plan is that it is not
a big one. But there are more than
a million families in the larger cities
and an unestimated number, in the
small towns so situated that they can
mafte themselves nearly independent
in this respect.. It is easy to guess
what the result would be if the advice
of Speaker Clark and Secretary Hewes
were followed generally.
OUR LEGAL PESSIMISTS.
The bone-dry amendment Is inef
fective without further legislation, ac
cording to competent legal opinion;
the tax-exemption amendment is in
a similar plight, say others, and now
former Attorney-General Crawford
asserts that the single-item veto
amendment is inoperative. So far, no
fond hopes have been dashed concern
ing the benefits to be derived from
the rusal credits amendment, the ship
tax exemptien or the repeal of the
blue law. But who knows? Now
that Thanksgiving is over, it would be
just our luck to have some lawyer
count us out on one or all of them.
The trouble discovered in the sin
gle-item veto amendment is its sim
plicity. It vests power in the Gov
ernor to veto single items In appro
priation bills, but provides no specific
method for the Legislature to pass
items over- the Governor's veto.
The existing section of the constitu
tion providing for submission of
vetoed bills to the Legislature is pre
served, but that is all. An item is not
a bill; so if the Governor vetoes an
item it carries down the whole bill.
Thus runs the argument.
But there are two other plausible
constructions. One is that the veto
of an item is final and conclusive;
that the Legislature may override a
veto only when it is applied to the
entire measure. The other is that
when the Governor vetoes an item but
approves the remainder of the bill the
whole bill goes to the Legislature; if
two-thirds of each house then vote
for the bill the vetoed item is re
stored; otherwise the previous major
ity vote on the bill stands and the
bill becomes a law without the vetoed
item.
The item veto, as Mr. Crawford con
strues the new amendment, has ex
isted since adoption of the constitu
tion. The Governor always has had
power to veto an entire bill because
it contained an unworthy item. So
we fancy that if it comes to a test,
the Supreme Court will find that there
was some, definite purpose in adopt
ing the amendment. In the mean
while we may hope that the tax-limitation
amendment will survive as
saults and that the Legislature will
then have to be so economical that
the Governor will find no single items
to veto.
EZRA MEEKER'S PILGRIMAGE.
One of the most valuable and most
disinterested acts of public service
which have been done for the Amer
ican people was that of Ezra Meeker
in perpetuating the Oregon Trail. This
road is the visible memorial of one
of the heroic episodes in American
history, yet it was gradually being
obliterated and was fading from mem
ory when Mr. Meeker took up his self
imposed task. In an ox-drawn prairie
schooner of the same kind as that in
which he and his family traveled west
in 1852, he retraced his steps in 1906
enlisting the aid of each community
in placing memorial stones along the
way.
This was truly, a labor of love.
service of permanent value to the Na
tion. The treatment accorded the
white-bearded old pioneer, then in his
76th year, by the people of the dif
ferent cities through which he passed
was eloquent of their temper. Almost
invariably in the West he was wel
corned and honored. The citizens re
ceived him hospitably and raised
funds to erect markers on the Trail
The children gave their dimes to the
cause, and assembled in hosts at the
dedication ceremonies. As he traveled
eastward interest grew less. At North
Platte, Neb., the business men refused
to give up any time to him, but the
W. C. T. TT. took the work in hand
and one citizen donated a handsome
monument. At Kearney the people
expressed approval of his purpose, but
the business men refused to become
interested and the president of the
Commercial Club declined to call a
special meeting.
After crossing the Missouri, the old
pioneer "had a foreboding that
might be mistaken for a faker and
looked upon either as an adventurer
or a sort of a "wandering Jew.' " He
was compelled to explain that he was
not a corn doctor or any kind of doc
tor, that he had no patent medicine
to sell and was neither soliciting nor
receiving contributions for the sup
port of the expedition. Many sua
pected graft or speculation, though
the newspapers understood and spoke
well of the enterprise, with the one
exception of William Allen White,
who wrote of his suspicions. All the
Incidents of the memorable journey
are related in Mr. Meeker's book, "A
Busy Life," which he wrote and pub
lished in his 86th year.
Ohio and Indiana were generally
hospitable, but when the pilgrim
reached Buffalo the Mayor demanded
$100 license fee, as though he were
running a traveling show. He put
the churlish official to shame by vol
untarily representing an emigrant in
a circus given for the benefit of
hospital. At Albany, says the author,
"the Mayor would not talk to me after
once taking a look at . my long hair.
The official is thus pilloried:
He was an old man and, as X was after
ward told, a broken-down politician.
At New York, though Mayor Mc
Clellan told the police not to molest
him, he was arrested for driving cattle
through the city, and, though after
wards released, got tangled in city
ordinances. He drove the length of
Broadway with his ox-team, but
thirty days of New York was enough
for him, though he stayed sixty days.
His wagon attracted such crowds as
to block traffic and he was constantly
compelled to move. His dog was
stolen, and he paid $20 ransom to the
thief. He was glad to get out of the
big city, but "did not receive much
recognition between Elizabeth City
and Washington." He says: "Wilm
ington would have none of it except
for pay," and at Baltimore "I got
cold shoulder," but Philadelphia
opened its heart to him.
At Washington, however, President
Roosevelt gave him "a royal wel
come," for the Colonel Is Western In
spirit and honors the pioneers and
their deeds. The Colonel needed no
explanations, showed a lively interest
from the start, was photographed with
Mr. Meeker standing beside the team
and supported the bill In Congress for
marking the Trail.
The varieties of reception tendered
to Mr. Meeker are illuminating as to
the people's understanding of the great
events in their own history. All should
be well enough informed to know the
great part which" the migration to
Oregon played In the expansion of
our territory to the Pacific Coast, but
many were so ignorant that they re
garded the venerable pioneer as a
wandering faker. .
The Oregon emigration in fact Bur
passed in many particulars other, his
toric migrations. It far exceeded in
distance traveled the exodus of the
Israelites from Egypt. It is com
parable to the descent of the Ger
manic tribes on the Roman Empire,
but it was a marked contrast to- that
movement. The Invaders of Rome
were barbarians coming from a wil
derness into a civilized, highly de
veloped country. The Oregon pioneers
were civilized people traversing a
trackless desert to take possession of
wild country occupied only by small
bands of savages. The European mi
gration caused a return to barbarism,
while the Oregon migration carried
forward the civilization which had al
ready peopled the East and Middle
West.
WAR-MADE PROSPERITY.
Our Rood friend The Oregonian seems
much gratified that Portland is becoming I
especially prosperous on account of the ship-
ulldlng going on within her limits, or near
hem. The balance of the state rejoices
with her In her new-found prosperity, but
t the same time hopes that Portland will
ot reject that prosperity because it Is
caused by the war rather than a tariff law.
lem Capital Journal. -
Prosperity through the present
tariff being impossible, Portland does
the next best thing. It is not furnish
ing ammunition or guns or torpedoes
to kill soldiers or non-combatants, but
hips to carry trade to the nations of
the world.
The ships will in part take the place
of other ships destroyed in the war.
So Portland's share in the "war-made
prosperity" is to build up, not to tear
down.
We would just as soon think of .de
clining to make and sell ships as to
refuse to grow and sell prunes to
belligerent or neutral. Does our Sa
lem neighbor suggest one rule for the
Oregon shipbuilder and another for
the Salem fruit grower?
After the war the question of the
tariff will be important, not 'to say
vital. The present tariff was made
by the politicians with disastrous re
sults and was signed by a President
who -publicly sneered at "experts,"
tariff and otherwise. Now we find
the same President and the same
party ardently for a non-partisan
tariff commission. We . hope they
mean it.
REFORMING THE. PATENT LAWS.
That the path to reform of the
patent laws is not yet a plain and open
one is pointed out by Commissioner
Thomas Ewing, of the Patent Office,
in a recent statement in which he op
poses enactment of laws requiring
either compulsory license or compul
sory working. He declares that com
pulsion, if it, operates in defiance of
economic laws, cannot be said to have
accomplished any good where it has
been tried. Briefly, the two proposals
are: Compulsory license would per
mit anyone deslfTng to do so to enter
the field as a manufacturer of an
article patented by another, being re
quired only to pay to the patentee a
royalty fixed by a court. The com
pulsory working provision would mean
that the patentee must manufacture
in the country in which the patent
is granted either a whole or part of
his products, as the law may specify.
Recently there has been general dis
cussion of the advisability of enacting
both laws.
Compulsion in each instance is be
set with domestic and international
difficulties. Germany has compulsory
laws, but the United States has not,
but by treaty Germany has waived its
requirement as to the United States.
The treaty would automatically be
come invalid upon passage of a com
pulsory law by the United States. The
present arrangement, however, is re-J
garded in normal times as a great ad
vantage to American manufacturers.
It is assumed that passage of a com
pulsory law would be followed also by
similar action on the part of other
countries, which would .be costly in
the long run to our own industries.
A substantial impediment in the
way of successful operation under
compulsory laws, it is declared, would
be the difficulty of obtaining capital
for exploitation. The successful pat
ented article, even under present con
ditions, is the only one heard from;
nothing is said about the efforts made
to put on the market the thousands
of others that have failed. The in
ventor stands in the same attitude as
the prospector. It is the bonanza that
gets into the news. The thousands of
prospectors who spend their lives
without making a strike are never
heard from. The patent that gives a
large return to the investor is perhaps
as rare as a paying gold mine; at any
rate, more than a million patents
have been issued and only a small
proportion of them have been the
basis of large fortunes.
Injustice of the compulsory license
is pointed out, in the respect that it
does not take account of unsuccessful
experiments that are a legitimate part
of the economic cost of the whole un
dertaking. The patentee and the in
ventor would take the risk involved in
establishing the success of the article
and then would be compelled to com
pete in its manufacture, with only a
royalty compensation, with others who
had held back until its entire success
was determined before entering the
field. The licensee would wait until
the patentee had made all the mis
takes, and then reap the benefit of
them. The value of the patent would
then be staked on litigation to an
even greater extent than at present,
and litigation Is now the chief burden
of patentees.
Difficulty in fixing just ' royalties
under compulsory licensing is illus
trated by the experience of a widely
known drug, which was the result of
several hundred experiments. Two of
the later experiments were successful,
one conspicuously so. If license to
manufacture were granted upon the
basis of the cost of the two successful
experiments, injustice would result.
On the other hand, effort to determine
the cost of all the steps leading to
final success would open the way to
almost unlimited possibilities for de
ception and fraud.
Demand for compulsory manufac
ture is based in part on the - feeling
that many inventions are suppressed.
Commissioner Ewing holds that this
practice is not general enough to af
fect the general principle, and that
to compel the manufacture of ma
chines that did not fit Into the gen
eral purpose of industry would be an
economic burden. Similarly, to. com
pel manufacture in this country under
reciprocal patents would lead natural
ly to similar compulsion on the part
of foreign nations and would cause
unnecessary duplication of plants by
our own manufacturers and loss of
work at home which would not be
atoned for by any gains that might
be made.
A POET OF TIIE GREAT CITY. "
It is a curious fact that Emlle Ver
haeren, the Belgian poet, who met a
tragic death the other day under a
train In the French city of Rouen, and
whose most recent noteworthy literary
work was -a savage arraignment of
the German conquest of Belgium, was
claimed tefore the beginning of the
war by German critics as "a German
poet who by accident writes in
French," to quote the words of his
English reviewer, Jethro Bithell. Ver
haeren was, as a matter of fact, a
Fleming,, with the dominant char
acteristics of his race, which compare
rather with those of the Prussian than
the Frenchman, but he was educated
in French, and he never troubled him
self with the task of mastering what
was really his native tongue. Nor did
he write in it at all, although we have
the word of his French critics that
he was not, either, a master of their
language. He was so much a Flem
ing that, as Bithell says, tils French
seemed rather a- translated Flemish
and the idea seems quite clear.
His nationalism was not aroused.
however, until after the war began.
Until that time he had been inter
national. His vogue in Germany was
general, but so was he widely read in
France and fervidly admired in Eng
land. He was essentially a lyric poet.
He had failed to exhibit early in life
any adaptability to succeed to the
management of an oil works owned by
a wealthy uncle, and when he was
apprenticed to the law he was told
with all kindness that this was obvi
ously not the career for him. He
was for a time a student at Louvain,
where he formed a close friendship
with Maeterlinck. But he was des
tined from the first to be a man of
letters, and nothing else. He has left
in his poems a series of pictures of
the everyday life of his people such
as seldom have been produced in
verse. In a different sense, yet with
similar fidelity to detail, he pictured
the life of his own people as Henryk
Sienkiewifz, who died only a few days
before him, portrayed the life of the
Poles. But Sienkiewicz wrote novels
of action and feeling; Verhaeren was
a poet of the life of a people who were
at peace and who hoped only to con
tinue in the pursuit of domestic joys.
Verhaeren represented in his later
poems the antithesis of the "back-to-the-farm"
movement of which lately
we in America have begun to hear so
much. He pictured the city as the
necessary, absorbing element in hu
man progress; he held that however
wanton and cruel the city might be.
it was swallowing up the country by
virtue of its abnormal manifestation
of the "spirit of efficiency." The
country, as he viewed it, was doomed
to exist ultimately only by sufferance
of the town. He was prone to deify
the energy incarnate in the machine
shop and the factory. He has much
to say, first and last, of the beauties
of Nature, and he sings them well,
but to him there is poetry in the
belching chimneys and roaring of
many wheels, where other, poets have
seen only smoke and grime and hate
fulness. The idyllic countryside is
being ravaged to make the cities
great: the best blood oj the farms is
being drained into the marts of trade;
but Verhaeren sees only that it is
in the nature of events that it should
be so, for Energy created the world
and Energy must find expression al
ways and everywhere. It was, as
Bithell expresses it, that the beauty of
a thing does not lie in its outward
form, but in the power it expresses.
"The panting in multiplied effort of
the machinery has the rhythms of stu
pendous poetry." It was a daring con
ception that gave the poet a picture
such as this, in his "Les Campagnes
Hallucinees": .
A river of pitch and naptha. rolls
By wooden bridges and mortared moles:
And the taw whistles of the ships
Howl with fright In the fog that grips;
With a red signal light they peer
Toward the sea to which they steer.
Quays with clashing buffers groan;
Carts grate o'er the cobble stone;
Bridges, opening, lift a vast
Gibbet till the ships have passed.
letters of bras inscribe the world, 1
On roofs, and walls, and shop fronts curled.
Face to face in battle massed.
There is more description of the
city's "crowd inextricably twined,"
and "whose eyes are filled with hate
and whose teeth snatch at the time
they cannot catch," and yet, after the
day is done
Such is the day and when the eves
With ebony hammers carve the skies.
Over the plain the city heaves
Her shimmer of colossal lies;
Her haunting, gilt desires arise;
Her radiance to. the stars Is cast.
She gathers her' gas in golden sheaves;
Her tail are highways flying fast
To the mirage of happtnes
That strength and fortune seem to bless;
Like a great army swell her walls;
And till the smoke she still sends down
Reaches the- field In radiant calls.
It is not altogether a lovely picture,
as Verhaeren draws it, but it is strong
and not deficient as to truthfulness.
It is intended as a picture of the city
as it exists in all its unloveliness to
the poet's eye yet a stern necessity.
Just the same. Nevertheless, lie writes
much of the country and its joys and
sorrows, and always faithfully to life.
Purely as a descriptive poet, he stands
high. His metaphor is simple and
vivid. He pictures the rain as "with
its nails of grey, athwart the dull
grey day" raking the green window
pane, and after a time
The long, long rain.
lta.ln and Its threads identical.
And Its nails systematical.
Weaving the garment, mesh by mesh amain,
Ot destitution for each house and wall.
Ana xences tnat enrold
The villages, neglected, grey and old.
It rains in Flanders.' It is raining
there now, and with modifications to
suit conditions of life in the trenches,
it is now probably just such a day or
series of days as the poet depicted In
"Les Villages Illusoires" years ago.
Of all the work he has done, how
ever, critics give first place to that
in which he has given his conception
of the titanic contest between City
and Country. No other poet has used
this as a principal theme. The poetic
side of the struggle, a struggle essen
tially of modern times, has escaped
the observation of others. If he had
written nothing else, Verhaeren would,
by his "Les Campagnes Hallucinees"
and "Les Villes Tentaculaires," have
written himself an exceptional man.
M. Diaghileff, who is a Russian and
a ballet master, says that Americans
are snobs,, and he specifies. .It:. is
because. In spite of the many things
we have in our country to admire,
we are constantly aping foreign things.
It is refreshing to hear him talk, be
cause, after all, he is so compli
mentary. He says we have splendid
women, magnificent architecture
wonderful orchestras, and he mentions
our cocktails evidently not having
been in the country long enough to
observe the tendency of the times
and our rhythmic motion as we hurry
along the streets on our way to and
from our work. For a man who can
discover so many virtues in us, even
after having called us by the unpleas
ant name of snob, we can have only
feelings of friendship. For In at least
that one respect, we are international.
Who is there who does not enjoy be
ing praised, and who is there who
will not believe that praise of him
self is from the heart? Our women,
our architecture, our orchestras and
our cocktails are wonderful yes, M.
Diaghlleff certainly is right.
A PLAGCE OF GOLD.
The American people are in the
anomalous position of having more
gold than they know how to use in
legitimate business. The further ano
malies exist of Great Britain pouring
more gold into our hands and of
American bankers urging clients who
sell goods to Britain to take payment
in credits, without collateral, not in
gold.
The motive for Britain's policy is
selfish. So long as that country ships
gold to the United States, it increases
the volume of credit available two
and a half times the amount of gold
it ships, it makes credit cheap in this
country and thus Improves the oppor
tunity to borrow at low interest. The
advice of our bankers is in the interest
of our people. An excess of gold tempts
to speculation by making money cheap.
Those who have money are anxious
to earn interest on it, and those who
have speculative schemes are tempted
to borrow from them. An era of
speculation leads to an era of distrust
during which gold is hoarded, credit
becomes dear and speculative enter
prises crash. That means hard times.
By making gold cheap, an excess of
that metal beyond the country's proper
requirements raises the price of com
modifies and takes away " from the
workman the benefit of high wages.
It bears especially hard on the person
of fixed income by reducing "the pur
chasing power of his money.
The bankers who have advised
against taking gold in payment for
exports and in favor of extending
credit have been accused of being
actuated by a desire to assist the al
lies. Wrhether that be the motive or
not, the American people will benefit
if their advice is followed, for both
speculation and the advance of prices
will be checked.
The United States has been con
gratu'ated on having one-third of the
world's supply of gold and on the
prospect of having one-half of the
total. It is no cause for congratula
tion; It is cause for alarm. We do
not need it.. We cannot iise it. It Is
a source of danger.
The suggestion made by a Briton
that if the United States declared a
food embargo it might subject itself
to reprisals, is accompanied by a hint
that, for example, Canada could, by
a retaliatory embargo on logs and
pulp, cause a serious, paper shortage
in the United States at once. But
there are also at least two other com
modities an embargo on which, by way
of reprisal, would be even more se
rious. The United States is dependent
upon outside sources for its rubber
and its tin, not to mention other
things. It is the largest consumer of
rubber in the world, not excepting
any of the countries at war. It is
not enough to say that we could in
that event resort to still further em
bargoes, for in doing so we would, de
prive ourselves of markets that are
profitable to us and which we hope to
continue to possess. The question se
riously to be considered is whether
prices, high as they are, are more
serious than would be a war of trade
reprisal in which no one could foresee
the .end.
Tt is a poor day that does not bring
a discovery in the way of a dye guar
anteed to break the blockade and
solve the problem of the American
textile industry for all time. The
United States Consul-General at Bue
nos Aires reports on a new material
called algarrobin. obtained from the
wood of the carob tree. The materia
is said to lend itself to a wide variety
of uses, both alone and in combina
tion with extracts, such as fustic
hypernic and logwood, and so em
ployed gives a large number of fast
colors. It is also suitable as a base
for various coal-tar dyes, the advan
tage therein being that it effects an
economy of 50 to 90 per cent of the
latter and more expensive products.
Altogether, it promises as many won
derful results as any newly developed
material that has come into promt
nence recently. A factory for its
manufacture already is in , operation
In Argentina.
A stenographers' union is said to
have been organized to demand a
curb on all profanity during office
hours. Still, a moderate amount of
mild profanity would be preferable to
hearing, "Well, what do you know
about that?" all day long.
We are glad to see that the Uni
versity of Oregon students have de
cided to bar flowers and evening
clothes from the annual formal dance.
We must do something to keep down
this ever-increasing cost of living.
What we really need is $2 wheat for
our farmers and flour at about $4 a
barrel for our housewives. This of
fers a splendid chance for those
analytical chemist fellows to do
something worth talking about.
After having read of the defense
of Verdun, we confess that there is a
certain absence of thrill in the ac
counts of General Trevino's stand at
Chihuahua.
It does seem as if King Constan
tine's prediction as to the future of
Roumania is about to be fulfilled.
Judging from the November liquor
Imports, Ihe "safety first" propaganda
has not fallen on stony ground.
The hobos ape to have a college.
Doubtless the course in transportation
will be popular.
So we are not going to let San
Domingo work out her own salvation,
after all!
Anyway, the bum actors are not
complaining about the advancing price
of eggs.
Perhaps Villa Is vexed because he,
too, was not asked to sign the protocol.
Gleams Through the Mist
By Dean Collins.
IV THE GARDEN,
Gone is the boom of the brown bees
bustle.
Dried are the founts of the honey
brew;
Only the wind goes rustle, rustle.
The stiff, dry vines of the sweet peas
through: Ti
Geranium leaves are seared and cros.d
By the biting kiss of the bitter frost.
A tiny bud on the rosebush lingers.
Bent like a battered coral charm:
Clenched like a baby's tiny fingers
To guard some bit of a toy from
harm:
But well though the souls of the blos
soms sleep.
The chill of the Winter bites full deep.
Open and loose the gate is swinging
Where the souls of my garden, one by
one.
Swept away to the southward singing
Their songs of the land of endless
sun.
The frost Imps shattered their shrines.
and then
Look where, the withered vines are
clinging;
Can the gods of my garden come back
again?
"Sir," said the Courteous Office Boy,
changing the wet towel on his head
and pursuing avidily the last bit of
Ice In the water pitcher, "I honor and
celebrate the Chicago Diet Squad."
'W hy so, my son?" I queried, snatch
ing the ice from him and putting it
on my own fevered brow.
"They may have missed the big show
on Thanksgiving day." said the C. O. B.,
"but they also were privileged to miss
the morning after."
And the C. O." B. belled his repent
ance by getting the calendar and be
ginning to figure how many days till
Christmas.
VILLA'S RIDING SONG.
I pome from haunts no one can learn.
I make a sudden sally.
And when Carranza's troopers turn.
I skittle up an alley.
I make myself a president
Whene'er my fancy cares to;
Then when my fortunes get a dent.
I make myself right scarce, too.
On many battlefields I die.
And when my foes cry, "Ha-ha!"
I'm resurrected by and by.
And chase them from Chihuahua!
I dart across the border line.
And when my merry run's done.
I seek the highland and haunts of mine
And shake my fist at Funston.
And notes they fly and heads they lie
Uneasy when I rally
To bid my merry bandits hie.
And bicker down the valley.
I die, I live, I croak. I blow:
No stroke my life can sever.
For men may come and raer may go
But I go on forever.
CHANT MILITANT.
(Sung by the housewives.)
The housewife to the war has gone.
Against the strange devices.
Which, through the seasons off andi on.
Have boosted tip food prices.
The carp that in the storage stall
A frozen luster shed.
Still hangs there, left upon .he wall,
And gets more dead and dead.
The turkey, chickens and the grub.
The storage men were holding
They soak them' with a boycott club
(A better plan than scolding).
In silent woe the storage quakes.
While housewives still raise hob.
And now and then the market breaks.
To prove they're on the job.
A SONG OK THE LINK.
(Such as may be sung almost any
time in the entrance of Wells-Fargo
building in these troublous times.)
Stand to the line and be strong.
Halting not in your ways.
For soon they will ring the gong
In a matter of thirty days.
Shove on the line and haste.
For soon It will be too late:
For there Isn't much time to waste
In the fringe of a bone-dry state.
DRV STIFF.
The foregoing song of the line was
sung for no especial moral purpose,
except to preface a return to our dis
cussion of last week with Orr O. Smith.
True to our promise, we allowed him
to wome into the colyum and tack
down a strip of lamentation about the
impending bone-dry state on condition
that we should hold the authority to
allow someone else to come In with
a package of poesie devoted to the other
side of the question.
"Omar Nix" is the signature given
by the second minstrel in this great
Bards' Bone-Dry Saengerfest.
"I wouldn't put my name on this for
ten dollars ($10)," he explains. "Call
it yours if you wish ahem!"
But far be it from us to take one
Jot or tittle from the glory of Omar
Nix. So we pass him the dulcimer anc
he sings as follows:
Banished Roose.
Wake! For the Sun that scattered into
Flight
The bars before him from the Field of
Night.
Drives shipments with them from the
Town, and strikes
Wells-Fargo's office with a bhaft of
Fright.
And as the Clock struck. those who
stood before
Wells-Fargo's shouted:; "Open, then, the
door!
You know how long a while we have
to wait.
And. once departed, dare return no
more."
Booze is indeed gone with all of his
crew.
And the bar's shiny glass that we all
knew
But still the Logan grows upon the
Bush,
And many a garden has the Concord
blue.
(Our next minstrel, we fear, is mor
of a free-verse singer than we could
desire, but in spite of that we shall
let him uncork his lamentation Tues
day, without let or hindrance, al
thouEh we may give some slight serv
ices In chiropody ere we allow him to
burst into song. Ed.)
An Easy Lesson, bat
From the Boston Transcript,
Teacher Robert, how is it that you
haven't your lesson? It couldn't have
been so very hard to learn.
Bobby No, please, teacher; it -wasn't
because it was so hard to learn, but
because it was so easy to forget.