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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 31, 1916)
TTTT? srT)AT OREGOXTAX, POBTXAND, DECFMTiER 31. 1916. PORTLAND, OREGON. Entered at Portland (OreKon) Postoffice as Meconrl -elats mail matter. Subscription rate Invariably in advance. (By Mail, t Dally. Sunday Included, one year JS.tx Dally. Sunday included, six munths 4.2.' Daily. Sunday Included, three months . . . :".5o Iaily, Sunday included, one month 7" rally, u-lthout Sunday, one year 6.00 Daily, without Sunday, three months . . . 1.7."j Dallv. without Sunday, one month CO Weekly, one year 1.50 Sunday, one year 2.50 Sunday and Weekly (By Carrier.) Dally, Sunday Included, one year 0.00 Dally, Sunday included, one month ..... .75 How to Kemlt Send pontoffice money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. stamps, coin or currency are at sender's risk, (live postofflce address In full. Including county and state. Pontage Rates 12 to 16 paces, 1 cent; 18 to ::2 pases. 2 cents: 34 to 48 pages. 3 cents; .( to 60 paces. 4 cents: 2 to 7 pages, 5 cents; 7S to 82 pages, B cents. Foreign post age double rates. KaMern Business Office Verree & Conk lln. Brunswick building. New York; Verree Conklln, Stenger building, Chicago. San Kranclsco representative. K. J. Bldwell. 742 Market street. roilTLAXD, SUNDAY. DKC, 31. 1916. BACK TO THE LAXD I It. C. 29. We are mistaken who think that our "back-to-the-land" movement is a new one. or that the Farmers' Congress which is to meet in Corvallis this week is attacking a problem just arisen. Nearly 2000 years ago Home found itself in a situation in which a similar propaganda was deemed desirable, as a result of which, we are told, the Emperor Augustus engaged no less a person than the poet, Vergil, for the post of what we should now call pub licity agent in a movement designed to induce city dwellers to take greater interest in rural life. Those students, even of the husbandry courses, who have not scorned the classics and who are so fortunate as to have read the "Georgics," either in Dryden's trans lation or in the original, will have been well rewarded for their pains. For Vergil was more than a poet; ho was an exceedingly practical man. There seem to have been few of the situations that a farmer meets that he did not foresee or for which he did not offer a word of counsel. Vergil knew, for example, the value of thorough and early tillage or what the farmer of today calls "fitting the soil." He urges no half-way measures in this regard, and his advice, given some 1945 years ago, is as good as it eser was. Read this in the Dryden version: Then borrow part of winter for thy corn; And early with thy team, the glebe in fur rows turn; That, (while the turf lies open and unbound. Succeeding suns may bake the mellow ground. But If the soli be barren, only scar The surface, and but lightly print the share. When cold Arcturus rises with the sun: Lest wicked weeds the course should over run In wat'ry soils; or lest the barren sand Should suck the mclsture from the thirsty land. Both these unhappy soils the swain forbears. And keeps a sabbath of alternate yearst That the spent earth may gather heart again And, bettered by cessation, bear the grain. It will be observed that there was a Careful sort of husbandry in even that ancient day, which we, except for the labor-saving devices that we employ, have not greatly improved upon. "But sweet vicissitudes of rest and toil," ob serves the poet, in a phrase that hardly is surpassed in all the litera ture on the subject, "make easy labor and renew the soil." And he goes on to add these words of good advice: Yet sprinkle sordid ashes all around. And load with fatt'ning dung thw fallow ground. Thus change of seeds for meager soils ki best; The earth manur'd, not Idle, though at rest. It is counsel that cannot be made better or put in fewer words to make it fit the conditions of much of the farming of 1917. It seems that the Romans were not inclined to hold out false promises of an easy life in agriculture. This is a mistake that is being made too often nowadays. It would be interesting to know how many city folks have been tempted to try the "delights" of farm ing by attractive pictures of sulky plows and milking machines, and have returned to their urban homes and ftictories and stores because it turned out that there is so much about farm ing that cannot be done sitting down. In this respect, also, we have not changed in 2000 years, as we note by rurther reference to what Vergil says: Nor is the profit small the peasant makes Who smooths with harrows, or who pounds with rakes The crumbling clods It was work then, as it is work now; hard and necessary labor to achieve the highest possible condition of what we call tilth, but labor not without its reward: Nor Ceres from on high Regards hie- labors with a grudging eye; Nor his, who ploughs across the furrow'd grounds, And on the back of earth inflicts new wounds; For he, with frequent exercise, commands Th" unwilling soil and tanres the stubborn lands. Those who would not be reduced to "shake for food the long-abandoned oak" while others reap the bountiful harvest of their toil are constantly re minded by the poet that farming is no business for a lazy man. His can dor Is no less fascinating than the pic ture he draws of the round of the seasons, of the element of chance in volved in all husbandry, of the pleas ures of being and doing on one's own acres, and all the rest of it. He was as weather-wise, too, as old Indian George, as is shown by this among other hints as to the probabilities un der certain conditions: Mark weJJ the flow'ring almonds in the wood : If odorous blooms the bearing branches load. The glehe will answer to the sylvan reign; Great heats will follow, and large crops of grain. But, if a wood of leaves o'ersbade the tree. Such and so barren shall thy harvest be: In vain the hind shall vex the threshing floor. . For empty straw and chaff will be thy store. We have such seasons even yet all straw and no grain, as the farmer says. So also we have various meth ods of treating seed to "make it grow better," each farmer according to his own fancy, but no better way of in creasing productivity than by scien tific seed selection, and Vergil knew even this, in his heathen day, for he goes on to say: Some steep their seed and some in cauldrons boil. With vig'ieus nitre and with lees of oil. O'er gentle fires th" exuberant juice to drain. And swell the flatt'rUpg husks with fruitful grain. ' Vet is not the success for years assured. Though chosen Is the seed and fully cured; rnless the peasant, with his annual pain. Rene-ws his choice and culls the largest grain. The orchardist, equally with the farmer of the open field, will find it worth his while to take a short course under the tutelage of the Roman mas ter. Vergil describes the processes of layering and slipping and budding and grafting in trees: the propagation of fruit 'Tls usual now an inmate graft to see With insolence invade a foreign tree: Thus pears and quinces from tho crab-tree come. And thus the ruddy cornel bears the plum. Then let the learned gard'ner mark with care The kinds of slock and what those kinds will bear; Explore the nature of each several tree. And, known, improve with artful industry: And let no spot of idle earth be found:' BUt cultivate the genius of the ground. Which last in our day is translated into the command, "Plant a tree." And it is interesting, too, to know some thing about the methods of determin ing soils in the days before there were elaborate paraphernalia for physical and chemical analysis. We read the following counsel to farmers in doubt as to how to employ their ground: Choose first a place for such a purpose fit: There dig the solid earth and sink a pit; Next fill the pit with Its own earth again. And trample with thy feet and tread It in: Then, if it rise not to Its former height Of superflce, conclude that soil Is light, A proper ground for pasturage ai.d vines. But. if the sullen earth, so pressed, repines Within its native mansion to retire. And stays without, a heap of heavy mire, "TIh good for arable, a glebe that asks Tough teams of oxen and laborious task. Vergil explains that "salt earth and bitter are not fit to sow," and he tells how to detect these qualities, by filling with soil a wicker basket, through which water is poured, the taste of the percolating water betraying to the farmer that which he wants to know. He has other practical methods of weighing the merits of various soils, all more or less classical in present lore, and he guards cannily aga inst the too rich soil. "I.et not my land so large a promise boast! lest ttie lank ears in length of stem be lost." It is easy to distinguish some by the sight, he says, but he confesses difficulty as to cold ground, and gives this recipe for detecting it: But the cold ground Is difficult to know; Yet this, the plants that prosper there, will show Black Ivy, pitch trees and the baloful yew. There is no doubt that farming as a science has made some progress in recent years, but it is an interesting fact that in many respects we are not superior to the ancients in the general principles we observe. While as to the pains we take, if we were to follow the advice of the real originator of the back-to-the-land movement, in B. C. 29, with our improved machinery and our labor-saving devices of every kind, we would inevitably reap both pleasure and profit from the task. PERHAPS A MIRACLE. The lappings and surgings of the prohibition tidal wave have at last reached Chicago, the saloon Gibraltar. To be sure, the "wets" do not dis tinctly recognize the preliminary mur murings of the flood. They are in clined to regard it as merely a passing freshet. But there are, nevertheless, many anxious lookings around by the liquor dealers, and they have hit upon th,e ancient expedient of the model sa loon. It has not yet penetrated the epidermis of the wet metropolis that there is no such animal; or, if it has, the liquor men think the innocent public doesn't know it. The Chicago City Council recently appointed'a commission to devise ways and means to purify the saloon. The chairman was an Alderman, who is also a saloonkeeper, and it may be surmised that he did not go into the problem in the spirit of a crusader. The commission made the following familiar recommendations:. The liquor business should be absolutely divorced from pernicious politics. More care should be exercised In Issuing licenses and repeated violations of the law should bo followed by permanent revoca tion. Licenses should be revoked where saloons are not conducted by the actual owners. Display of all advertising signs, with the exception of the words ouffet." "cafe." "saloon" or "bar." and the name of the owner should be prohibited. Bartenders should be required to take out a license at a nominal fee, probably $1. Heroic treatment, indeed; just about as effective as the cruel and inhuman process of tapping on the wrists. It would be well for the short sighted Chicago authorities to make an investigation of the progress of saloon reform elsewhere. They will learn that the same old promises of saloon reform have been made and not kept; or, if kept, inadequately kept. The saloon has never been reformed, as an institution, by the men in the business. The public has done it, with a club or a hatchet. Perhaps there will be a miracle in Chicago; but the miracle-workers are not likely to be saloon-owning Alder men. JAPAN AS A PRACTICAL AI.I.Y. Japan is making the most of its situation to give practical assistance to its allies in the present war. We no longer hear rumors of large mili tary forces on their way to the one front or the other, but Japan is still far from a negligible quantity. It is probably true that Japan's participa tion as a real belligerent ceased when the venture at Tsing-tau was com pleted, except for occasional activities in ridding the sea of the menace of commerce raiders. But Japan is to day playing a highly important role. Fifty million dollars lent to the al lies, as reported the other day, repre sent hardly the proverbial drop in the bucket, by comparison with the total of other credits and munitions sup plied. Two hundred million dollars probably would not cover the amount. Just now Riuatia is the nation that is chiefly profiting by the activity of Japanese arsenals. More than a year ago. according to the estimate of the Army and Navy Journal, Russia had equipped on its own account less than a third of the men then mobilized, and Japan was arming the rest. Rifles are being made in Japan at about one half the cost of those made in the United States, and are said to be just as good. Some rifles, made after the English pattern, are believed to have been sent from Japan to the British armies in Egypt and perhaps to Sa loniki, and it is pretty well established that the French have had some help from the same source. The British navy has received numerous big guns from Japanese workshops, which shows further that the Japanese are resourceful when they set themselves about a task. But it is not alone in arms that Japan has been able to be of material assistance to the allies. An impor tant cloth-making industry is being developed, and clothing is being sup plied in enormous quantities. The same is true of boots and shoes and of practically every other essential need of the armies except medical supplies. The manufacture of sur gical instruments is in its infancy in Japan, but it is said to be a growing industry. All of the allies of the entente have pVofited by Japan's prac tical assistance except, perhaps. Italy. Every mill and factory in Nippon is working full time, and there is pros perity for the workingmen such as they never had even dreamed of be fore the war. . Meanwhile the surplus of Japanese capital is seeking an outlet. Efforts to build up a merchant marine, in which owners have the exceedingly active support of the, government, have made headway and are part of the colonization schemes by which Japan hopes to find place for the surplus population. The field of ex ploitation will not be confined to Asia. Iarge investments are said to have been made already in South America, largely in Brazil, where a friendly re ception was accorded to the Japanese, but it is said that other countries in South America are to receive their quotas of Japanese laborers if they show willingness to receive them. Japan now seems to be the only one of the entente allies that will make a real gain by the war no matter which side wins. MINCER DAY FOR THE HKN. Vse of electricity in the henhouse as a means of inducing biddy to lay more eggs is advocated by even so serious a scientific authority as the Electrical Review, which says that experiments have proved that by lengthening the poultry dayan increase of as much as 4 0er cent in production has been ob tained. The suggestion sounds fantastic, and it would seem to have been made with out due consideration of the fact that the poultry raiser has a good many bills to pay under present conditions, without adding electric lights to his burden, but the scientific authority in question has forestalled this objec tion with a discussion of the "off-peak load," which all lighting company so licitors are ever desirous of increas ing. It is pointed out that light might be furnished at a special rate for the time specified, which is a time when few others are using either light or power. As a substitute for better breeding and more careful feeding, however. the proposed method is likely not to make much headway, and electric light companies would do well not tq count any increased dividends on ac count of it before they have been hatched. WAR AND DCELING. Georg Brandes in an article in the current Vanity Fair writes in an op timistic vein of the prospect that there will come a day when war will have ceased. This, he admits, may not be in the immediate future, but he sees evidence that the world is growing better, that progress has been made as the result of thinking, and that there is promise that the time will come nevertheless when "common sense will really rule the world." He defends himself against the charge made by some of his critics that he is a defender of war. This charge grew out of an article he wrote re cently in a Norwegian magazine ex pressing doubt that the present war would prove to be the last on earth. He repudiates the view attributed to him that he considers it hopeless to struggle against war. What he really said was that human nature evolves, but only very slowly, for the better. He holds that man is by nature but a higher sort""bf beast of prey, an evolved ape. But, he says, this remark does not imply that he believes that hu manity will never be able to rid itself of war or of the passion to prey. Mr. Brandes finds most encourage ment in the fact that the duel has been abolished In isome countries in which only a relatively few years ago it seemed to be an ineradicable vice. Few institutions were so soundly en trenched, says Mr. Brandes, in the Vanity Fair article. Dueling was "founded on some of the finest in stincts in humanity, on hatred of in justice, on honor, on aristocratic tra ditions, on personal pride." There was dueling in all the Anglt-Saxon coun tries in the eighteenth century, as well as among Latins, Germans and Slavs. He says it is still ineradi cable in Germany and France, but since the article was. written a French court has decreed that two Frenchmen have no moral right to fight duels while their country needs them for a more serious purpose, which it would seem might be the entering wedge of a more permanent reform in this regard. At the same time, progress enough has been made in Germany so that the practice for some years past has bee, confined to the army, the navy and the univer sities, and there are only a few places where the civil laws permit duels. The fact that these civil laws are widely disregarded where the army is concerned does not detract from the fact that dueling has been limited, as compared with a century or so ago. in large degree. It would seem that Mr. Brandes has overstated the case as to Its "ineradicability" In both these countries. There is in France, as a matter of fact, an exceedingly influen tial organization pledged to abolish the duel, and only fifteen years ago Lieutenant-Colonel the Marquis d'El- bee refused to accept a challenge sent him by the Marquis t,e Chauvelin, and was supported in his stand by Paul de Cassagnac. previously famous as a duelist, and by a large body of public opinion. Another anti-duelist move ment in Germany under the influence of the Prince of Lowenstein in the years immediately preceding the pres ent war had attained considerable prominence and was presumed to be making real headway. These facts, however, only give added weight to the conclusions of Mr. Brandes frori the bearing of the public attitude toward dueling that there may grow up a similar senti ment toward wars between nations. "What it multitude of prejudices." he remarks, "had to be removed before the duel disappeared! Such scorn and derision as met the man who refused to challenge one who had insulted him! What a school for pourage. honor and personal dignity the duel was said to be for thousands of yearsl And yet, quietly, unobstrusive ly, it has been eliminated and forgotten by the most civilized nations of the world." He finds distinct encourage ment in the tact that dueling could die a natural death: why. he asks, cannot we predict the death of war? In Great Britain and the Fnited States, he observes, dueling is as dead as it is in the Scandinavian countries. In other respects, Mr. Brandes finds that the world has grown better. He regards these as links in a chain of evolution sustaining the conclusion that we are progressing away from, and not toward, war. Religious fa naticism was once a scourge on the earth. Mr. Brandes speaks of the burning of witches in England and America. Even in Shakespeare's day "the tortures perpetrated in the name of religion constituted a public as well as a royal spectacle, a court diversion." Incredible as it may seem, he remarks, with some sarcasm, we no longer break the knuckles of magicians, nor do we bufn heretics, Jews and witches. We no longer declare war for the sake of religion. It is inconceivable in our day that Philip II should have ravaged Flanders because its inhabitants were Protestants. And so, noting these things, it is natural to conclude that the world has advanced in the general direction that justifies the hope that some day there will be no more war. When that day will come it would be rash to predict. But Mr. Brandes has not given full credit for the speed with which sentiment against the duel has grown in the United States, as conceivably it may be growing in other countries today. It is only a few years, as time runs, since it engaged some of our most prominent men. There were Charles Lee and ohn' Iaurens, and General Mcintosh and Gwinnett in Revolutionary times: more recent ly the famous duels of Hamilton and Burr, of Jackson and Dickinson, of DeWltt Clinton and Swartout, . The last great duel on the Pacific Coast, that of Broderick and Terry, was only fifty-seven years ago. Yet it would beis inconceivable that there should be a repetition of it now as it would be that any citizen should be sentenced to torture, or a religious war break out again. The reversal of sentiment has been on this subject as complete as possible. Why not, then, some day in the centuries to come, may not there be an equal reversal upon the greater question of dueling between nations? Why not, indeed! UK ST BRAINS ONLY HALT ISEP. Death of Professor Muensterberg has started discussion of the bearing of psychology on success In life. At the outset it has brought out the fact that psychology only measures mental capacity; character is required to use It. and without character many men of high mentality achieve only mod erate success, while others of far in ferior brains achieve distinction hy exerting to the utmost the- brains they have. The professor himself recognized this truth. He pronounced Thomas J. Abernethy, a senior at Harvard, mentally perfect, but by his advice the latter will go Into the business of canning sardines with his father. Mr. Abernethy frankly gave the reason to the New York World, saying: Professor Muensterberg told me several times that I had a very good mind, but that I was lazy and should do better In my classes. The professor said that I couldn't earn my salt as a salesman, but recommended my entering the canning business. Even at that he wasn't very encouraging. He said that I would probably do as well at that as anything I might take tip. Dr. Muensterberg followed up his tests of 276 students by comparing the results with the actual work done by them. He found that with few ex ceptions the men of large natural ca pacity yielded meager returns In actual work, while the best results were shown by men of less capacity, who were slow but determined and plod ding. He found a serious warning in these results, and said in the Har vard Illustrated Magazine: The significant work of the world must, after all. be done by those with strong mentality. If tl ey form the habit of slov enly work their powers begin to deteriorate. The mere patient plodders cannot take their J.Iace. He calls on college presidents to put this question to themselves: Are we making the kind of effort which can really stimulate the men of large men tal endowment to d: their work well? The question applies to our entire system of education. In teaching a class of boys and girls of varying men tal capacity, the teacher usually works down to the lowest, or. at best, the mediocre, leaving the highest free to pass muster with much less mental effort than he is capable of. This practice encourages laziness, which deteriorates men by leaving unused that amount of ability by which they are above the average. The Nation is deprived of the full benefit of Its best brains because their owners are not taught to exercise their full mental power. The system needs revision in order that each may learn to use all his powers. The purpose of education is not simpljr to fill the heads of the students with knowledge, all being held to the same pace in acquiring it. The purpose should be to develop the full powers of the student and to encourage their full exercise. This would produce a combination of the best brains with the application shown by the plodder. It should yield many men far above the average in both mentality and character. Then such men as Mr. Abernethy would either make startling success of canning sar dines or. if that business did not give enough scope, they would find an oc cupation equal to their mental powers EFFECTS OF Til K WAR Sl'ILKE. The industrial boom started by the war has set in motion an endless chain of economic consequences, the most striking example of which is furnished by the Pittsburg district, where more freight tonnage originates than in any other equal area in the world. A busi ness circular from a Pittsburg bank defines the links of the chain. Fuel and the materials for steel manufacture form the bulk of this tonnage, and their total has been ex panded to the highest level ever reached, with prices pushed up by unprecedented advances in all mate rials, by advances in wages which have brought the cost of labor to the high est point known in the history of the industry and by a demand which has contracted for the output nine months to a year ahead. Prosperity reaching down to the laborer has encouraged retail merchants to lay in unprece dented stocks, which have added fur ther to the railroad tonnage. Hence came the car shortage, which in turn caused a. shortage of coal and coke. This caused large corporations to anticipate a positive fuel famine by buying all the free coal in sight. Scar city of cars prevented the mines from working full time, and tended to make the famine actual. As miners are paid by the ton. they did not relish work ing only two to four days a week. Any man who is handy with pick and shovel can now work six days a week at the highest wages ever paid, and miners drifted' away to other occupa tions which assure steady employ ment. While consumption of fuel ml at the maximum, production of the mines fell to 53 per cent of capacity. Fearing exhaustion of their accumu lated stocks- of coal, manufacturers proceeded to buy all in sight at two or three times normal prices, though it would not be used for many months. By so doing they aggravated the car shortage and further reduced coal production by depriving the mines of cars and the miners of work. Great as is the prosperity which has produced this chain of events, it is not general. The bank already quoted estimates that during this year possi bly 2,000,000 persons have enjoyed in creased wages and salaries, possibly another 2.000.000 have had more reg ular work and perhaps another mil lion have had increased income from dividends, or a total of 5.000,000 have shared directly in prosperity. But these are only about 25 per cent of those who are engaged In gainful occupa tions. The other 75 per cent find that their incomes have been increased only slightly, if at all, while the purchasing I power of their Incomes has been much reduced by the Increased price of al most all commodities. War prosperity, in fact, causes eco nomic dislocation second only to that which is caused by war itself. It pre sents huge fortunes and high favors to a relative few. but It forces the many to contribute to its donations without giving them adequate equiva lent. It is as unhealthy and unnatural as the exhilaration duced by an alcoholic spree. pro- TIIK JUNKMAN'S LESSON IN THRIFT. Even the American people, the most wasteful Nation in the world, are learning to use waste materials, says the president of the National Associa tion of Dealers therein. The custom has been to burn anything for which one had no use, without considering whether it might have value for some other person. The only persons who troubled to sell waste to the Junkman had least to sell, for they were by na ture economical. In the houses of the rich, where there was the greatest waste, there was none to sell, for it was too much trouble. The war has taught many a lesson in thrift, to be practiced by saving and selling all sorts of junk. It has en hanced the price of old metals, rags and paper, making them more worth saving, and has called attention to the value and scarcity of them by sending up the price of all commodities from which they result. The junkman now picks up more than he ever did. a great cleanup has been made, and the sales this year total $1,000,000,000. New ways of using waste material are being developed, giving promise that prices will not decline to the ante-war level, and the American housekeeper may not unlearn "the lesson in thrift. She may finally abandon the habit of burning up riches. CARD-HOUSE PROSPERITY. The Teuton alliance no sooner pro posed a conference with a view to a definition of the terms on which It and its enemies would make peace than there was a wild scramble to unload war stocks and produce, and prices fell at an alarming pace. The unfavorable reception given to Ger many's proposal by the press of countries that are fighting against the central empires checked the stampede to sell, and the Russian Duma's decision to fight to the finish finally caused the market to rebound. President Wilson's note to the bel ligerents revived the selling stampede and caused a further slump in prices. There could not have Ween a more convincing demonstration that our boasted prosperity is a merely ephe meral structure which has grown up In a heated atmosphere of war. It trembled under a slight breath of peace from Germany. The action of those whose fortunes depend upon Its continuance indicate their belief that actual beginning of peace negotia tions would bring it tumbling about their ears like a house of cards. The shock given by Germany confirms all that was said by Dr. Pratt, chief of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, about the real source of this prosperity. It proves theabsurd Ity of claims that a Democratic Ad ministration produced the flood of wealth. If peace negotiations were to bo entered upon seriously, they would cause as violent a financial convulsion In this country as did the imminence of war in the last days of July, 1914. A definite end would be put to all contracts for supply of war material, not immediately, but as fast as un completed contracts were filled. The vast industrial plants which have been constructed to supply war ma terial would become idle in a few months, and they would become act ive again only as they were remodeled for the manufacture of goods that are needed in peace. Their owners would be driven to seek frantically both In this and foreign countries for orders, that they might prevent their capital from lying idle. For a time, perhaps for several years, the manufacturers would be able to obtain large orders in the belligerent countries, for those countries have exhausted their stocks, have carried economy to the extreme and will need to refit with every thing that is within their reduced means. But hostilities will no sooner cease than all the belligerent nations will begin exporting as well as supplying their own needs. Germany is known to have accumulated groat stocks of certain commodities with a view to keeping her civil population busy and her industries going and to having cargoes ready to load every ship as soon as the blockade Is lifted. Upon that event, ships' will go out from Germany loaded with manufactures and will carry back only so much manufactured goods as is absolutely necessary. The' Inward movement will be Increasingly of raw material lo be made into goods which will be exported to compete with us in our own and in every foreign market. In a less degree the same statement may be expected to prove true of the other belligerents. Ships by the thousand will he returned from war use to mer chant service. Munition factories will he adapted to the arts of peace and the outward flow of trade will regain its old volume. Much stress has been laid on the great loss in male population which has been caused by the war. This has Indeed been great, and the pro portion of killed among the casualties hits been greater than in any previous war of which we have reliable in formation. But the proportion of wounded who have been saved from death and returned to useful civil oc cupations is higher than has ever been known. 'Modern surgery has worked wonders. and educative science has followed up by teaching the blind and the maimed to pursue useful trades. The only total losses are the killed and the totally dis abled. Against that loss is to be set the enhanced efficiency of the sur viving ahte-bodied soldiers. Germany is reputed to have surpassed all other nations In industrial and business ef ficiency before the war. but the war has brought Its people still nearer perfection in this regard. The same Is true of Austria. France, Italy and Russia. The abolition of vodka has made the Russians a now people, full of energy, thrift and industry. The most remarkable transforma tion has been effected in the British people by military training and in tense industrial organization. Hun dreds of thousands of slum-d wellers from london. of factory hands from the great cities, of clerks from stuffy offices and warehouses have been made into new men. living outdoors, physically fit and strong, knowing for the first time the diet which will sustain their strength and the habits which will preserve health. Probably half a million women have become competent factory workers and many of them will continue to be wage earners. Old, out-of-date plants have f been scrapped, and automatic ma chinery has taKen the place of hand work, bringing increased output at decreased cost. The war savings campaign has taught thrift to the most wasteful nation in Europe, and the much-needed lesson as to what food gives the most nutriment at the least cost has been taught by the cam paign for food saving. When the war ends Britain may rival France In thrift, Germany in efficiency. When war exports cease and when peace commerce begins to flow our huge excess of exports will shrink until the balance may turn against us. Europe, depleted of gold and deeply In our debt, will try to take away our gold and to pay its debts by selling us goods produced In its rejuvenated factories. It will strive to cut down our exports by underselling us in our new markets in South America. Asia, Africa and Oceania. V'nless we are as well prepared for economic defense as Europe Is for economic offense, our huge gold surplus will melt away like a snowdrift in Summer. If we should let this gold be used as the basis for extension of credit, the turn in the tide of trade is likely to force a contraction of credit which will depreciate securities and hamper business by depriving it of capital precisely when capital will be needed to fight for foreign markets. So far the only preparation which this Nation has made for the com mercial revolution which will follow the war is the Federal reserve bank system. This has provided us with means of expanding and contracting the volume of currency to meet the ebb and flow of trade: also of regu lating the flow of gold between this and other countries by means of the discount and exchange rates. Other wise, practically nothing has been done. A shipping bill has been passed authorizing the Government to spend $50,000,000 on merchant ships and requiring the President to appoint a shipping board, but no board has been appointed and no steps have been taken to enable our shipowners to compete on equal terms with those of other nations. We are building many ships, but largely for foreign flags, and, unless we enable them to operate at a profit, many more will drift away from our flag when peace comes. Our manufacturers still await the right to combine for foreign trade In the manner of their foreign com petitors. A tariff commission to in vestigate our commercial relations with the outside world has been authorized but not yet nppointed. and nothing effective has been done to prevent invasion of our markets by trade-hungry nations, to preserve our economic independence by protecting essential industries or to prevent our exclusion from foreign markets by hostile tariffs. We arc as unprepared for commercial as for military de fense, and the prospect is small that our economic bulwarks will be built before they are needed. In this blind confidence that the prosperity which sprang up suddenly In the wake of war will continue, the Nation resem bles an oarsman who glides swiftly over the smooth water which Is rush Ing for its leap over a pree'lplce. The experience of Worcester Poly technic, according to a recent report to the trustees of that institution, in dicates that the chief reason why young men leave college before they obtain their degrees is still that they fall in their studies. The total num br of withdrawals from this institu tion in the school year of 1916 .was 116. of which eighty were for the plain, unromantic reason that the stti dents either could not or would not put forth effort sufficient to keep up with the class. It is also disclosed that 51 per cent of all the students registered failed in one or more sub jects. More than 11 per tent of the working time of the faculty was de voted to men who did not do the work demanded of them. It would be in teresting to go behind the returns and discover, if possible, how many of those who failed did so only after do ing their best. It is probable that few. if any, of the young men ho tlropped out would have needed to do so if they had been willing to pay the price which is persistent application and perhaps foregoing of some amuse ment and entertainment for a time. Professor I.oeb at one stroke has re pealed the law of the survival of the fittest. But he should remember that there is still the initiative and refer endum to which appeal tan be taken, and who knows but that first thing we know the pesky statute may be back on the books again? Ezra Sheppard, of Tacoma. who has been married sixty years, has the true secret of domestic happiness. "Let her have her own way." he says, "and that is the way to keep harmony." No better method ever has been or ever will be found. Search of Troop A camp disclosed no liquor, ami the camp henceforth will be "stone dry." which may be taken to mean that it will be even drier than "bone-dry" Oregon. San Francisco Chinese have nomi nated a candidate for Parliament at Pekin. ami if China has an absentee voters' law he ought to stand a good chance of being elected. Now we are talking of a bond issue to meet the National deficit. It beats tho world what some fplks can get away with without, being turned out of office. Carranza is a day less than a year older than President Wilson, and it will not be denied by those who have seen his picture thnt he looks every bit of It. About the best fning that could hap pen to this part of the country would be to have moleskins go to a price that would bring about extermination of moles. Now the Installation of typewriters for the pupils in the public schools Is advised. Of course. The taxpay ers have some money left yet. The best thing about the big drive on the Somme seems to be that both sides are satisfied It was a great vic tory. Now It is Spain that proposes to hold Germany to a-strict accountabil ity In the submarine campaign. The Ixndon Spectator editor has missed his vocation. He ought to be In the map-making business. Our gasoline supply Is sufficient to last only 13S years. Many of us will not live to see It exhausted. The Yaquis appear to be the original standpatters of tho whole Mexican country. Gleams Through the Mist. By li. in t'olllna. II7BW YMMM (iHi:i:ilM.. As tho New Year comes 'round once more. What shall I wish my fellow man? read the Old Year's record o'er To find the answer if I can. We cast anew each hope and plan. As the New Year comes "round once more And may your hopes come truer than They came in the dead year bfore. Our castles tumbled tp the floor. When Fortune flipped them with her fan : As tho New Year comes "round once more. May greater castles upward span. New visions in the skies to scan. New tasks, new strength, new wings to soar: This wish I for my fellowman. As the New Year comes 'round once more. "Sir." said the Courteous Office Boy. "I have Just whittled out an ode to the New Year, which I feel has got Alf. Lord Tennyson faded off the map." "Fire at will."' I commanded, light ing a holiday cigar in the calm re alization that no matter what the C. O. B. turned loose he couldn't make me feel worse. So the C. O. B. opened up along the entire sector. WM Bells, (Being a discussion as to the causes of their wlldness.i Ring out. wild hells, till clamor piled Makes comets wheel and planets dance! I I'ndor the present circumstance. You have good reason to be wild. The Year Is dying In tho night. And In this weary vale of sorrow A raw. New Year, upon the morrow Will have to take his Job alright. Ring out, wild bolls, his course Is run! We have no kick against his death But why give up his final breath Leaving so much good work undone! Tho busy bandit who beguiled Our statesmanship In foreign lands: The Old Year loaves him on our hands RinK out. wild bells, you're rightly wild. In Europe half tho nations riled Are wIshinK us tho worst of luck; And the Old Year has passed the buck Ring out. wild bells. It makes mo wild. Unanswered notes by hundreds filed The Old Year loaves to stir up wai ; What did he hire a typist for? King out. wild bells, and show we're wild. Tho labor problem, one time. mild. The Old Year messed with all his might And then ducked out and said "Good night!" Ring out. wild bells, wild and more wild. Tho place with cooil Intentions tiled ""Hot many a pave from this Old Year. Who now kicks out and leaves us her I with you bolls, when you get wild! The wrnth lie should have safely vlaled. Is ripe to pour on us below And then he says: "l Ruess I'll go!" Keep on the Job. bells! Act up wild! After a year's experience. lie leaves his desk all cluttered up; King out wild bells and roast the pup There's not a voice in his defense. This hefty stuff, this man-sized job. lie quits it cold and seeks the grave! And leaves It Ring, wild bells, and rave! To the Now Year, an untried slob. He leaves a poor, piufeather Year To tackle what ho should have done; King out. wild bells, another one Right In the dying piker's ear. Ring out. wild bells, expose the cuss Who. in this crisis, quits us cold. I do not like to kick or scold But h will get no wreath from us. Look at the New Year they appoint! A beardless babe in swaddling still! Ring out. wild noils, who thinks this pill Can fix tho times, all out of Joint? This callow Now Year, green and mild. Must tinker up Earth's busted works. And hold the job tho Old Year shirks Ring-, bells, you're dead right to get wild! M. It UII I'll 1YKR. h want to live upon a ranch. Where there is lots of room. 1 want a little house and wife One who tan wield a broom. 1 want my house all slick and clean. And plenty of good grub. I'd like my wife to do her share. Nor shirk the board and tub. I'll do the work that is to do Outside and in tho barn. I'll tend the cattle, feed the pigs And keep tho sheep from harm. But. oh. I want that wife of mine To bo a helper true. J-nd if she does her housework right She'll have enough to do. I could not stand to huve a t-liirk To share my homo and name. I want a chance to work and save My wife must do the same. I could not stand a doll-like wife Who'd primp and Ki all day. Lord, send my rightful mate Is what I daily pray. BACHELOR. In ( n.r of Immediate Mrlke. PORTLAND. Dee. 29. (To the Edi tor.! -H bought a round trip ticket for the holidays on December 21. Time ex pires January 3. I wish to go home on the 2d. If the railroad men were to strike on the 1st. what would tho railroads do about this and how will I get borne? A SUBSCRIBER. The railroad would doubtless either refund your return fair or extend the time limit. We can make no sugges tion as to moans of KetttnK homo as we don't know whore you live. Rrmarkablo i.eni. Exchange. One of the most remarkable gems ever found In the United States is tne Mason diamond, which a Chinese panned long aBO near Blaekfoot. Deer LodKc County. Montana, a handsome stone, which, after a long period of neglect, was shown to New York gem experts and declared beyond doubt a genuine specimen. Occasionally dia monds have since been found in the river valleys of the mountain tales.