Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1919)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, 1 PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 21, 1919. 8 ESTABLISHED BY HKNRT L- PITTOfK- Published by The Oresonian Publishing Co., 135 Sixth Street, Portland, Oregon. C. A. MORPEX, E. B. PIBEB. Manager. Editor. The Oreironian is a member of the Asso ciated Pre. The Associated Press is ex clusively entitled to tlie use for publica tion of all news dispatches credited to it 01 not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights of republication of special dispatches herein are also rest-rved. Subscription Rates Invariably In Advance (Bv Mail.) Taily, Sunday included, one year . . . , Iaily. Sunday included, six months Iaily, Sunday included, three months Iaiiy. Sunday included, one month ... Ial!y, without Sunday, one year .. .. , I-atly, without Sunday, six months iJaily. without Sunday, one month .. , .tH.OO . 4.25 . 2.25 .75 . e.oo 3.25 "Weekly, one year 1.00 Sunday, one year 2.50 Sunday and weekly ... 3.50 (By Carrier.) IJaily, Sunday included, one yr 39.00 Iaily. Sunday Included, one month 75 Iaily. Sunday Included, three months ... 2.25 Taliy. without Sunday, one year 7-0 Iaily, without Sunday, three months ... 1.95 lJally. without Sunday, one month 05 How to Remit Send postoffice money or der, express or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency are at own er's risk. clive postoffice address In full, in cluding county and state. Postajre Kates 12 to 16 pases, 1 cent: 18 to 32 pages. 2 cents; 34 to 4 page". 3 cents: r0 to KO pages, 4 cents; 62 to 76 pages. 5 cents: 78 to h2 pages, 6 cents. Foreign post age, double rates. Eastern Business Office Verree Conk lin. Brunswick building. New York; Verree t'onklin. Steger buiiding. Chicago; Verre & Conklin, Free Press building, Oetroit. Mich. San Francisco representative. R. J. Bidwell. HOPE FOR OPPRKSSEH PEOPLES. President Wilson's answer to the questions put to him by the San Fran cisco labor council disposes most ef fectually of the arguments against the loague covenant which were used by Senator Borah in his reply to a clergy man, and by other anti-league sena tors. In defiance of the facts it has been said that article 10 would bind the United States to aid any other nation in suppressing rebellion of op pressed peoples, though the article dis tinctly says that members of the league are only to defend each other against "external aggression." It has been said that the peace con ference refused to hear the pleas for self-determination of subject peoples, among whom Mr. Borah names Corea, Ireland and Egypt, and that the cove nant would forbid any nation to give aid to such people. Mr. Wilson shows the falsity of these objections by stat ing the obvious fact that the confer ence could act only with regard to self-determination of territories of the defeated empires, but that article 11 of the covenant provides means by which the league can act on the claims of the nations named, subject to Britain, Japan or any other power. Mr. Borah's violent prejudice against the league has blinded him to the plain purpose and effect of this article. He refers to the transfer of Ger many's rights in Shantung to Japan, but he does not mention the fact that this is preliminary to the prompt sur render of all sovereign power to China under a pledge given to the United States and the allies. The senator's letter is made up either of suppression of the truth or of half-truths, which are the worst form of deception. Under article 11 each member of the league may "bring to the at tention of the assembly or of the coun cil any circumstance whatever affect ing international relations which threatens to disturb international peace or the good understanding be tween nations upon which peace de pends." Oppression of any nation which aroused the sympathy and indignation of a large proportion of the people of this or any other great country would "threaten to disturb international peace," as did Spain's oppression of Cuba with the result that the United States made war. It would be cause for consideration by the league on the initiative of any nation. Mere discus sion by the league would focus the at tention of the world on the offending nation and incline it to reform. That statement is warranted by the action of Japan in promising home rule to Corea after the cruel suppression of the rebellion in that country had been made public. Among the English people so strong a demand has arisen for dominion home rule for Ireland that the government cannot long de lay action. The British government of its own motion has laid before parliament a bill giving a large meas ure of home rule to India and provid ing for its gradual expansion. Any nation would be far more responsive to the public opinion of the world as it would be expressed through the league than these nations have been to unorganized criticism. If the sympathy with subject peo ples which is so profusely expressed by opponents of the league is sincere, they cannot serve those peoples bet ter than by voting to ratify the treaty and thus bring the league into exist . ence. They might then induce con gress to instruct the American dele gates to bring the cases of Ireland, Egypt and Corea before the council. If this should be done, they need not be surprised if some other nation should bring up the case of the Porto Ricans, who have for several years appealed to congress for full citizen ship in the United States, but in vain. TOT THE BALKAN STATES OBJECT. Objection of Roumania and the Jugo-Slav state to the treaty with Austria arises from clauses which strike at one of the fundamental causes of dissension in the Balkan peninsula conflicts of race and re ligion. The peoples of that region have no conception of anything but extinction of all signs of a race other than that which rules the country. In Serbia the minority must become Serb, talk Serbian, wear the Serb cos tume, and so in other countries. Re ligion is so much a matter of race that one church, which is an adjunct of the government, and other creeds are merely tolerated. The same idea ruled in Austria-Hungary. As they sought liberation from such suppression of their nationality and religion only in the hope of turning the tables, the Roumanians of Tran '.sylvania do not welcome treaty clauses which secure equal rights to the Mag yars and Saxons, nor do the Serbs and Croats welcome such protection for the" Magyars, Moslem Bosnians and Bulgars who will come under their rule, nor the Greeks with regard to the Bulgars of Macedonia. They re gard these as domestic questions with which the allies should not interfere. Roumania has a large Jewish popu lation, which has won popular hatred by superior business ability and to which it denies political rights. Clauses preserving equal rights for racial, linguistic and religious minori ties are included also in the treaties establishing the independence of Po land and Czecho-Slovakia. Enforce ment of these clauses by one or a few nations would have caused friction, aroused suspicion of selfish motives and provoked enmity. For that rea son the duty will fall upon the league, which should be free from any such suspicion. It is a task for the leag-ue. for conflicts of race and religion have led to Balkan wars, which have em broiled all Europe. We may hope that in time, as minorities enjoy their rights unmolested, old enmities will die out and danger of war in that quarter will pass away. These are the facta behind those frequent references to trouble in the Balkans by those who oppose the league covenant. The United States has an interest, for Balkan troubles may again cause a war In which we should be involved, and this nation can do much to prevent it. If local war should break out in that quarter, there is small chance that American troops would be sent there, for the league would call on some neighboring- nation for aid. Talk of American troops going there Is for political ef fect. IGNORANCE AND ITS DANGERS. The Bulletin of the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen seeks to lull its readers to sleep with consoling ob servations on the stability of the coun try and the instability of the news papers. Here is the easy way In which the Bulletin disposes of the red menace: If one could judge from the daily press, the country is on the verge of a vast social upheaval . . The red gets all the pub licity. When the red explodes, verbally or otherwise, it's news. If a man works mil day on his Job and keeps his mouth shut, it's not news. Solid, conservative labor knows what it wants, and proceeds logically to get it. Hundreds parade with red car nations in their buttonholes. Thousands merely watch them, and still more thousands are home doing their chores. These thou sands are usually right on the spot when the votes are taken, however, and an. ap peal to the ballot box makes the red cool down to a pale rose color. Reds in Port land attempted to fain control of the Cen tral Lrftbor Council. Real concern was felt. But the test set them down with a dull, hard thud. The red hasn't captured anything in America except the headlines. The red hasn't captured anything in America because of the headlines. Possibly the extent of the national dis content and the upsetting designs of the radicals have been exaggerated. We hope so. But the cure for unrest and worse is not for the loyal citizen to ignore it, or to deny its existence. There is an old maxim that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It is so, quite as much now as ever. The complacent assurance that rad icalism, or sovietism, or revolution, or anarchy, or whatever form of violent change in society or government the red group proposes and foments amounts to nothing, comes, strangely fom the organ of the Four L's. The Bulletin has forgotten its own his tory; either that, or it has assumed that its own experience solved all social and industrial problems. What is the Loyal Legion but a liv ing protest against the teachings and methods of I. W. W.ism? It was formed to combat and supplant the I. W. W.'s, and it succeeded. If the I. W. W. and its schemes of sabotage, disruption and paralysis were not a fact, then there was and is no reason for the Loyal Legion. WOMAN, GOD BLESS HER. In Seattle, where it is reputed that everybody, great or small, is always bustling and active, an unnamed citi zen found himself the other day in the corridor of the postoffice with noth ing in the world to do. But trust a Seattle man to try to turn idle mo ments into profit. This one devoted his leisure to a painstaking observa tion of the women who approached the letter slot, withdrew the epistle before quite letting go of it and gave it another final scanning of front and back. This operation was performed by twenty-two out of thirty young women. Although industrious, even in incon- seuuentiaiities, this Seattleite was not much of a philosopher. In relat ing his observations in the Post-Intelligencer he derives only the conclu sion that woman does not care much about writing letters, but that when she does write she wants to be sure that the letter is all right. Now, real observer and a true philosopher would know without taking the pains to observe woman in action at the postoffice that she would do the very thing that so aroused the interest of this idle individual. Woman has an instinct for orderli ness and exactness. It is demonstrat ed at home, in the office, or while shopping or engaged in any sort of duty or pleasure. The condition of a business man's desk at once discloses whether he employs a woman secre tary, and, if he does, how much con fidence he places in her knowledge and discretion. If it is scattered over with miscellaneous documents and the drawers are full of Junk, he is. relying upon himself to perform duties that are never performed. If the papers are neatly arranged and ready at hand, it may be confidently assumed that he has a trusted woman secretary. Man, working alone, cannot con duct a one-horse occupation without a card index, or in the absence of one, without skirmishing through his of fice possessions one-half the time. At home his wife, without index or mem oranda, can put her hand without thinking on any of a hundred dishes, pots and pans. She does not have to paw over all the drawers in the chif fonier to find husband's socks and if Willie wants a screwdriver to fix his roller skates, why he will find one in the lower left hand drawer of the sewing machine, and please do not dis turb anything else, and be sure to give it DacK. Man, out to purchase a necktie, bursts into the first haberdashery, S'ljs irimrne tnat, and on arriving nome tmds that he has offended the esthetic sense of the entire household. Woman takes her time, examines tex ture, coloring, design and price of whatever she may be seekins. and goes home so thoroughly conscious that she has got just what she wants that it wouldn't do anybody anv eood to challenge her Judgment if anybody- were so inclined. J"' vYmdii a mina is exactlv unon what she is doing when she goes to the postoffice or the corner mail box Man's is not when he is similarly bent. To guard against his own neg lect he has all his envelopes printed with a return card. He then knows that if he forgets the stamp a kind postmaster will return the letter to him. At that he generally trusts his stenographer to start the letters on their way. If he were headed for the mall box himself he would probablv drop the letters in his pocket while he digressed to the nearest cigar store and discover his neglect a week later, When a woman starts out with letter to mail, you can bank on it that the letter will be mailed and that it will have a proper return notice on the envelope, be well sealed and well stamped. If it is to the corner mail box she goes she makes dead sure it is really a mail box, not a fire alarm dingus or a waste paper can. Tet she is no different approaching the mailing slot than when approach es the Circassian walnut dresser of her bed room. Observe, if you will, the pile of deftly folded garments. The first is all but placed away, then withdrawn, held aloft, turned fore and aft. and backward and for ward; an invisible piece of lint Is picked off here, and an equally invisi ble speck of dust is flecked off there. Then it is shaken a little, the folds examined, pressed down once more and it is laid carefully exactly in the northeast corner of the middle drawer; and the same attention is given the next garment, except that finally it roes into the southwest corner of the lower drawer. Woman's instinct for exactness and orderliness Is the salvation of what would otherwise be a topsy-turvy and sadly expensive world. The average man could not keep track of and In its place every article of the average household as she does without utiliz ing a triple-deck filing system, and employing a bookkeeper, an office manager, and a corps of assistants. MORE MOONEYANA. As to a part" of a correspondent's contribution today to Mooneyana it Is sufficient to say that the apparent conflict between the testimony of two principal witnesses in the trial of Mooney was the subject of exhaus tive argument before the jury by the best legal talent to be obtained in the United States by a defense having un limited means. It is also discussed at considerable length by the supreme court in a unanimous decision which concludes that the testimony of the two witnesses is not incompatible. But the Oxman incident in the Mooney case is a chapter in itself. That Oxman, one of the principal wit nesses against Mooney wrote the Rigall letters inviting a man who was not in California at the time of the preparedness day murder to come to California and testify, is admitted. But this also went to a jury in a trial of Oxman on a charge of attempted subornation of perjury, and Oxman was promptly acquitted. On the one hand was Oxman, a resident of good repute in Oregon for many years, and on the other was Rigall, an admitted bootlegger, ca rouser and gambler. It was Oxman' defense that on the day of the bomb explosion he noticed a man who wit nessed some of the same event he wit nessed whom he thought he identified as a man named Rigall of Grayville, Illinois, but whom he had not seen for seventeen years.- He communicated his belief to the district attorney and at the latter's suggestion undertook himself to produce Rigall. It taxes ordinary credulity to be lieve that however vicious or strongly bent upon commission of bribery and subornation of perjury a sane man may be he would ever reduce his plans to writing and mail them to ah acquaintance he had not seen for seventeen years. It taxes extraord inary credulity to believe that a dis trict attorney, student as he must be of crime and its consequences, would connive at such a dangerous scheme. The testimony of Rigall and Oxman at the Oxman trial as to what conver sations passed between them at San Francisco, after Kigali's arrival, were wholly at variance. It was developed at this trial, however, that Rigall. who had returned to Grayville without ap pearing in the Mooney case, wired the district attorney, upon Mooney's con viction, that he had evidence that would get Mooney a new trial. He was promptly wired to produce it. but declined to do so on the advice of his attorney. Although recognizing the significance of the Oxman letters he thus refused to submit them during the whole period allowed the defense for application for a new "trial, and did not produce them until after' his at torney, who had advised him to con ceal them, had been - retained on Mooney's staff of lawyers.. There is a reasonable suspicion that the Rigall telegram was a "feeler" and that the letters were for sale to the highest bidder. It is an established fact that the letters were withheld until it was too late to incorporate them into the record on appeal. And because the supreme court by constitution of Call fornia is confined in its consideration to the record, it could not lawfully grant the new trial asked on the basis of discovery of the' letters. The plausibility of the Oxman de fense and argument, almost any un prejudiced, experienced criminal law yer will agree, would obtain a verdict of acquittal for Oxman before any jury in the country. But that is not to say that It absolutely confirms opin ion of his Innocence. It is only suf ficient to raise a reasonable doubt and such a doubt frees the accused. On the other hand if the Rigall story and evidence had been submitted to the Mooney jury in an effort to impeach Oxman it may be they would have raised a reasonable doubt in the minds of that jury, and caused the acquit tal of Mooney. That which we wish to make clear is not the innocence of Oxman but the perfidy of Rigall and the attitud toward him of those he betrayed Whether Oxman's testimony be true or false this conception of Rigall is not altered. If true, Rigall has perjured himself to get a man erut of the peni tentiary. If false he has withheld evi dence that might have saved a man from the penitentiary. Yet in all the lurid literature issued in defense of Mooney, Rigall is upheld as a nobl fellow, and Oxman as a particularly vicious scoundrel. The most familiar of lurid Mooney ana is the so-called "frame-up pam phlet" of which more than 1,000,000 copies are in circulation.. It bears the imprint of Robert Minor's authorship, Minor is an anarchist who left the United States under a fraudulent pass port and joined Lenine and Trotsky in Russia. To radicals like Minor, the Mooney case so long as it pends in public interest provides a theme for literature designed to derogate the most cherished institutions of this government. It helps the "revolution." It was used by him in Russia to .en gender the false belief that this is a country of capitalistic autocracy where the life and liberty of working men are not safe, and it there raised Mooney to the dignity of an interna tional figure. The theme of the Minor pamphlet is that a gigantic conspiracy was entered into in San Francisco between the chamber of commerce and a district attorney. This official had thrice been elected with the indorsement of the union labor party and h,ad chosen some of the employes and associates from men identified with union labor. That in furtherance of this con spiracy testimony was obtained or sup pressed solely by means of bribery and coercion; that this corruption extend- ! ed north to Oregon and to the south ern limits of California, and that with the same purpose the same conspira tors committed burglaries even so dis tant from California as the middle west. The object of this conspiracy of a purely business organization and a friend of organized labor was to dis credit union labor. How? By con victing of a gross murder a man who, the proceedings of the central labor council of San Francisco show, had been a thorn in the flesh of labor; a man whose occupation was the writing of anarchistic literature and the gath ering of the hard-earned money of labor to defend and free murderers; I who had written letters threatening the lives of the governors of two states; who had escaped on a sheer techni cality conviction on another dynamit ing charge; who had associated him self with a Russian anarchist who in turn had served seven years in the penitentiary for attempted murder, and that association was for the pub lication of a revolutionary paper which derided the American Federation of Labor and labor leaders; predicted as sassination of the president of the United States; called the -president a "weathercock" and the stars and stripes a "striped rag" a publication which avowed its antipathy to pre paredness and prior to the prepared ness day parade suggested violence as a means of preventing it. as it was in fact interrupted-by violence and death. All this conspiracy and bribery and burglary and corruption was for the purpose of discrediting union labor by sending such a man to gallows or penitentiary! No such pamphlet could have been written with the honest purpose of getting Mooney out of the penitentiary by pardon or new trial. It Is preposterous. It cuts across the grain of the sober intelligence of those who know the facts. Much of it is palpably false yet it has created in the minds of many honest men who do not know the facts a belief that Mooney Is a persecuted working-man. The radicals have not had such good pick ings in years. Mooney is the magnet which draws the dimes and dollars from the deceived workingman, and provides the financial means for spreading class hatred as It was never spread before. The pardon or release of Mooney would cause sorrow to every bolshevist in the land. If it is in reference to this sort of propaganda that the correspondent perceives in The Oregonlah an opposition to any thing red, his observation is not wholly at fault. THE OREGON STATE FAIR. The Oregon state fair opens at Salem tomorrow morning. The weath er prospect seems to be good and all else has been arranged. Last year at this time we were at war, though nearing a triumphal end, and the state fair was molded to a martial pro gramme. This year it is a victory finish. Outside of a great display of gov ernment properties, which Includes a lot of captured stuff as well as every thing needed in war activities in themselves a wonderful educational exhibit the industrial life of Oregon will be shown in all the ramifications of a self-sustaining state. All the "cul tures" of the temperate zone are ready to be seen, with not a few native to the tropics and all the better for the transplanting. Oregon has the best cattle on earth; what it does not raise it buys. Rivalry among the breeds is intense and the best of each is on the ground, awaiting the award of merit. The speed pro gramme is one continuous charm, the best music In the northwest has been provided in fact, everything that in other years has made the Oregon state fair famous is ready and a little better to be true to form of this great s'ite. It s going to be a worth-while far. The going Is rood by rail, road and air it wouldn't be Oregon If It didn't include the latter. Weather doesn't matter, for that, too, is incidental to Oregon. All "dates" should be made for Salem this week. PERSHING THE GENERAL. Plaudits of the people of Washing ton and thanks of congress have in formed General Pershing that he has deserved well of his country. To hi ears the cheers of the throngs and the praise of the leaders in congress must have been sweet. Pride must have swelled within him as he marched at the head of his first division of un tiring, victorious fighters. These things are a large part of the reward for two years of ceaseless work and tremendous responsibility. He knows; that his fame is assured as comman der of the American army which turned the tide of battle, and struck the decisive blow in the greatest war In history. Pershing's was a task far surpass ing that of any former American gen eral since Washington. He had to take the mere nucleus of an army and build an army ten times as large around it. He had to build the whole complicated machine of war all the way from the ports of debarkation to the battle front. He had to test all the many new devices of war which were sent to him, and to make them fit or reject them, always remember ing how precious was cargo space. He had to co-operate with the com manders of an army speaking a strange language and in' whose coun try he fought, and he had to be care ful of the susceptibilities of a people different in both language and cus toms and nerve-wracked by the suf ferings of war. Unity of command re quired that he subordinate himself to a foreign general, and doubtless that he should often yield his Judgment. It is to the glory of Pershing that he did all these things, some arduous, some delicate in the extreme. His greatest glory is the self-abnegation in devotion to the ideal expressed in his salutation to the soul of Lafayette and to the cause for which he fought in common with the French and British. That virtue appeared in his placing his troops unreservedly at the disposal of Foch in the critical days of March. 1918, and in the putting his divisions in line with those of the allies until he could organize his first army. But he resented doubt of the fighting spirit of his troops and through hi Insistence they were sent forward at Bolleau wood and Chateau Thierry to hold the line. His confidence was abundantly vindicated, for wherever the Americans appeared the Huns were stopped and driven back. There never was a more clean-cut victory than that of St. Mihiel. nor such a steady, continued pressing forward against every obstacle that would be offered by nature and man than the drive through the Argonne and down the Meuse. Yet Pershing was not the spectacu lar figure which former commanders of great armies presented. Historians give us pictures of Napoleon, Welling ton. Grant, sleeping on the ground among their soldiers, wrapped in their cloaks, being in close touch with their troops. Napoleon in the thick of the fighting at the bridge of Lodi and carried away in the arms of a soldier. The war picture of Pershing is that of a man In a building far to the rear, planning and fighting battles on maps and with the telegraph and telephone, continuing the same operation as he traveled by special train all along the lines. His was rather the work of the chief engineer of a vast and intri cate machine, the outward evidences of his activity being the men and weapons which beat back the enemy. When we compare the army and the mechanical apparatus which he con trolled with those of former comman ders, who had fewer men and far sim pler implements to direct, Pershing s a greater genius, though he does not cut such a heroic figure as the traditional man on horsetck. Nor has Pershing captivated the imagination of the American people as did "Old Hickory" Jackson. "Zach" Taylor, "Grant or Sheridan. His field of operations was distant and covered with the veil of censorship; theirs was at or near home. He sprang from West Point and spent all his life in the army, therefore is of the military class, apart from the people. Grant, too, was a West Pointer, but he had spent several years in civil life. Whe.n he returned to the army, he fastened public attention on him by his early victories in subordinate command and he was acclaimed the man of the hour by popular verdict. That was prep aration for a degree of hero-worship of which no other can be the object. But it may be with Pershing as it has been with other generals that the full merit of his achievements will not be appreciated in his own day. The story remains to be told of how the plans were made which brought the Germans to downfall in four months from the day when they attempted the final drive for Paris to the day of sur render, but some facts have leaked which point to him as the man who made victory possible. If that be true, he will be acclaimed one of the world's greatest strategists. Senator Johnson says: "As a mat ter of fact, the league will breed wars. How can a thing be a matter of fact" which is still in the future and Is contingent on all the varied possibilities of the future? It is not a matter of fact but a matter of John son's prophecy. As a matter of fact the league covenant provides several highly effective means of settling dis putes before resort can be had to war. Of such reckless statements as the senator's is the case against the league covenant made up. Its opponents either have not read it or do not un derstand it or wilfully misrepresent it. Tanks may prove to be the deciding weapon in the Russian civil war as the Germans admit them to have been in France. A large number of them were supplied by the British to Gen eral Denikin. and they have been one of the main causes of his almost un interrupted series of victories In the south. They have given the Russian army on the Baltic front Its latest suc cess. For lack of material and skilled workmen it is not likely that the reds can duplicate them. As the Seattle longshoremen are so enamored of bolshevlsm, it might be advisable to give them free passage on the ship on which they refuse to load rifles, transport them across Si beria and through Kolchak'a lines and hand them over to the bolshevists. Then they would become acquainted with bolshevlsm and would learn how they like it. They would learn how difterent it is from what its votaries say it is. The report that Lenine has made peace proposals to the British govern ment should be received with a grain of salt, for they come from the Lon don Herald, which is the bolshevist organ in England, though posing as a labor paper. The Herald would like to put Uoyd George In the position of having rejected such proposals, to which purpose the making of them is necessary. The American Legion has much work ahead to purge the schools and colleges of bolshevlsm and socialism. The young men should learn what these things are in order to reject them in favor of Americanism, but re cently many have been taught that they are there is of social economics. The trouble of preventing German spies from digging their way out of thj prison at Fort Douglas should be avoided by loading all of them on board ship and dumping them on the coast of Germany. That would be one way to reduce the expenses of govern ment. Rebukes to the unruly gallery of the senate are without effect, for visi tors know that senators" speeches are addressed chiefly to them and that for that reason they are safe from ex pulsion. There is much "bunk" in the senate's rules. The odorous skunk has a value dead collectively, for more than a quarter million skins brought almost a million dollars in the London fur sale. These were American grown, for one seldom hears of the four-legged kind abroad. At Yakima a horsethief pleaded guilty and was given 15 years but held for examination as to sanity. No wonder. A man who steals a horse when hundreds of automobiles are handy is "crazy In the head." First-Assistant Postmaster - General Koons defended Postmaster-General Burleson Friday at a committee hear ing. Loyalty to the boss always is to be praised, even if occasionally to be damned. The Chicago building strike, on for two months, is off Just In time. The carpenters get their demand of a dollar an hour and will be able to help the street workers when they call for aid. Frozen meats from the army sur plus may be sold here; but why buy the stuff when the best can be bought fresh? And who enjoys embalmed chickens? Russian sable pelts brought an av erage of $1000 at the St. Iotils sale, but there were only 700 of them, so some of us must wear something near. The big strike to begin tomorrow will have one usual result the wives and children will be sufferers. A Tangent man, expects to hatch 80,000 chickens next season, not daunted by the old proverb. The Round-Up had a touch of the realistic when John Spain, former champion rider, was shot. OPIMOX CUANGEU AS TO MOO.E Contributor Invetl-ate and Pro nounces Evidence Contradictory. PORTLAND, Sept. 16. (To the Ed itor.) The Oregonian's editorial, Mooneyana," reflects the desire of a conservative paper to preserve its rep utation for opposition to anything red, or even family pink. Occasionally, however, the radical Is right, and a "blanket" altitude becomes unjust- Several months ago, stung by the remarks of a Mooney sympathizer to the effect that before I condemned Mooney I had better study the ques tion, i set out to do just that. When I had finished I had completely changed my point of view, this time holding one based on careful investigation. It was either more careful or more ex tensive than your editorial writer's, for 1 can see what he apparently cannot, since ha frankly leans to Mr. olin's position, and that is that Mr. Olin Is deliberately prejudiced or else a re markably poor investigator. I will take space for no more than a few points. A list of witnesses is given whose occupations imply respectability. But the really Important witnesses, the ones on whose testimony the decision hung, are not mentioned. Moreover, names of Important witnesses whose records would dirty the prosecution's list, are not included. It is stated that two witnesses saw the bomb placed. These two were Mc Donald and Oxman. McDonald is i degenerate and dope fiend according to the testimony of Salvation Army peo pie who knew him, and these same witnesses seriously challenge the hon esty of his testimony. Your writer triumphantly quotes Olin in producing proof that McDonald is not a dope fiend. This proof is the statement of the editor of the Sunset magaslne. It is enough to say that the Sunset magazine has published a series of articles so flagrantly and rabidly anti Mooney. that It even attempts to prove Oxman's letters the letters of an honest man. In these letters Ox man asks Rigall to come as an "expert witness." In his trial for subornation of perjury Oxman said he had added a postscript, on an extra sheet not pro duced, saying that if he had not been in San Francisco on that day not to come. (It was proved that Rigall was in Niagara Falls, N. Y.. on the day ot the disaster.) Now what possible ground could Oxman have had for sup posing Kigali had been in San Fran cisco on that day and for further sup posing that he would be an expert witness? Oxman also told Rigall's mother that he might be able to use her aa a witness. She had never been in San Francisco In her life. Oxman said in one of these letters: "All you have to do is to answer a few que tions, and 1 will post you on those." Anyone who can read the letters, which Oxman admits he wrote, and still bo lleve him an honest man, is a person to whom one could prove that Penrose is the greatest American. These are the two direct witnesses, the only two who actually saw the de fendants place the bomb. But each told a different story. McDonald's story, which convicted Billings, was dis proved by some photographs published after that trial, so Oxman was pro duced with a story to fit the pictures and McDonald changed his to (It Ox mans. But it was not only in the time element with which the pictures concerned themselves that their stories difTer. They differ In the way the de fendants planted the bomb and in the number of defendants who were there. Oxman said they came In a Jitney bus, all of them, whereas McDonald saw them come on foot, two of them. Since McDonald's story was changed to fit Oxman's, evidently the latter was considered the best witness. But the Rigall letters discredit him. So that the two, the only actual witnesses, are thoroughly discredited. The question Is often asked: "Why was Mooney convicted by a Jury If he was innocent, if the evidence was so flimsy?" Every juror testified after the trial that the testimony of Oxman had decided him. The evidence dis crediting Oxman wis discovered after the verdict against Mooney. There has been no trial without this perjured evidence. In short, the Jury declared that Tom Mooney was Innocent in their minds until Oxman testified. The con clusion is that If they had known the truth about Oxman Mooney would have been acquitted. Finally. I went to hear Mrs. Mooney when she came to town. I came alert to see If she distorted farts. If she brought in lurid but insignificant de tails, but she did not. Instead, she confined herself entirely to the funda mentals of the trial. What she said was singularly free from venom and important evidence on which she might have based an appeal to passion was not used for that purpose. It was sim ple, just and clear analysis. D. I. HARRIS. 1208 East Madison street. Soldiers Insurance Policies. PORTLAND. Sept. 19. (To the EdU tor.) Please answer through your columns the following questions: (1) Does the soldier boy who carries a government insurance policy have to pay on It all his life or is it paid up in 20 years? (Z) Can the soldier draw monthly payments of this insurance during his later years A SOLDIER'S MOTHER. The term or temporary insurance policy issued during the war may be kept alive for only five years after the termination of the war. Within that five years, however, the soldier may convert his policy into any one of six permanent forms of government life insurance, the premium rates on which vary. No medical examination Is neces sary to make the conversion. In other words, by surrendering his term policy and taking out a new one within five years the soldier at. his option may ob tain a policy which requires monthly payments so long as he lives and on which no benefits are paid until his death; or a policy which requires no fur ther payments after it has been in force 20 years but remains In force until his death; or a policy requiring no further payment after 30 years: or a policy oa which he can colKct the benefits at the end of 20 years; or one on which he can collect after paying for 30 years; or one on which he can collect at the age of 61. For further information apply . to bureau of war rlbk Insurance, Wash ington. D. C. Rla-bta la Ladendorfa Book. PORTLAND, Sept, 19. (To the Edi tor.) Please inform this writer tiow it is possible to obtain General von Lude.ndorf's recent book. If it is not for publication or sale In this country to whom do the English rights vest? A. E. M. Ludendorfs book. "My Thoughts and Actions." is copyrighted in America by Harper &. Bros., New York, who have disposed of certain rights to the Mc Clure Newspaper Syndicate. New York. We assume that it will not be distrib uted in book form until the extracts now running serially in several news papers have been completed. The book Is copyrighted In Great Britain by Huchlnson & Co. and the London Times. Too Hard to Please. Boston Transcript. Edna 'So you've broken with Jack?" Edith "Yes, he was entirely too hard to please." Edna "Gracious! how he must have changed since he proposed to you!" An Honest Man. By Grace E. Hall. He fears no law so much as that in born, which holds him in abey ance from himself. Which like a zealous guardsman meets with scorn the proffered bribe or sly reward In pelf; This law. which came he knows not whence nor cares, but follows al ways, sure and unafraid. That through Ita working it may -lead him hence into a labyrinth deep, like laws man-made. In the deep quiet of his soul he fully knows each point before the question doth arise. Sees every light that intellect e'er throws upon a matter held before man's eyee: And far away from Jury, judge or law he renders fair decisions with real awe; A sacred obligation moves his mind and ia the only force that he will find That shall impel him always to obey the law except In pliant, passive way; He follows soul-obedience to right not that command enforced by fear of might. In darkest hour of night he counts alone, nor has the least desire to keep or hold. So much as e'en one penny not his own feels not the lure for others' bonds or gold; This thing within, immovable and strong, makes all decisions quick ly, all untaught. Hurls back temptation when it breathes of wrong and claims no praise for what it may have wrought; Without his conscious will this force resents each small intrusion on another's right. - Holds quite aloof when alien voice pre sents a counter claim, however strong in might. The really honest man needs not the force of strong restraint to hold him to his course; Needs not the lynx-like eye of careful boss to guard against the chance of willful loss; For deeper far than early law can reach, or man-authority Impel or ever teach. There Is the Something that the Maker wisely placed within this mortal frame, that's ne'er defaced A tiny compass in this creature, Man. which guides him straight in ev ery place and plan; But oh! I grieve to tell that I have found there were not compasses enough to go around: RETROSPECTION. The songs we sang in childhood days To the organ's mellow tae Ring in my ears again tonight; And eyes that brightly shone Are haunting me with joy and life. Yet their Joy and life are gone! The dreams that would not wait till day Flash back on memory's screen: The hopes that coeld not turn to deeds Burn with a glow serene. And for a single moment life Seems as it might have been. Handclasp must loosen although fond; The kiss end, liowe'er sweet. What we would hold with firmest grasp Time bears with swiftest feet. Life's day, morn-lit with glorious sun. May end in storm and sleet. Alas, that flesh must turn to dust! Hopes bud, but will not blow. That those whose voices rang most sweet All silent lie below. That life burns down, but never up. Like the shortening taper's glow. RAYMOND E. BAKER. Coquille, Or. THE WHOLE IDEA. In colleges they tearh a guy to read and write and think: They t-ach him how to mark bis trail with a modicum of paint. But when examination time rolls round as it is wont. He'll find he has the whole Idea or else be ain't! When a guy becomes a Journalist, with a fire badge on his vest. He soon can tell In one brief glance the sinner from the saint. But when he starts to write a yarn to please his editor. He'll find he has the whole idea or else he ain't! And if a guy should write a book that sounds all to the good (The- kind to make the capitalist In horror throw a faint). He'll find out. when the stuff is weighed upon the Judge's scales. That he's eitner had the whole Idea or el- he ain't! HAZEL II. BUCKLIX. THE CITY OF PERFECTION. There's a city 'way off somewhere. Just where, I do not know; . But to reach this wondrous city. There's a Ions, long way to go; A million million travelers Of hish and low estate Have tried to pain this city. But have never reached the gate; And still they struggle onward. Though progress Is so slow. And the nearest way. trie people say. Is a long. long way to go. Within this wonder city The streets are paved with gold. But of Its rir-hest treasures The half has not been told; Perfection is the password That gains admission free. But not one in the wide, wide world Is perfect don't you see? But don't give up; it's better far To keep on pushing, though To the city of perfection Is a long, long way to go. I. R, WHITNEY. THE Pl'ZZLE. She pushed It on over the table. She patted it off of the chair. She rolled it straight out to the hallway And bumped it along down the stair. She raced It all over the carpet. And out through the open front door: She tossed it and caught It and spun it The length of the big porch floor. She bounced it down over the entrance. So soft and fluffy and round: It bounded out into the grasses And hid in a hole in the ground. They hunted from attic to basement. From kitchen way out to the barn; But nobody knew but the kitty What became of that ball of yarn. MARY ALICE OGDEN. SIMILAR TO TlIK -MOVIE" TROl'BLE. I have bought an electric washer. But I'm living in constant i'.red. Lest the Iaundrymvn's combination Force patronage of them instead. Or might not the wash women's union Order pickets in front of my place. Insisting 1 hire three women To wash out my linens and lace? No use to aak Officer Murphy For protection of property dear. For he, too, has Just Joined the union Is a radical member, 1 hear. Oh. where Is our oft boasted freedom? Has It thus turned to autocracy? Oh. give us more of justice and right In our once dear democracy. F. Q. W ILEA TON,