The Sunday Oregonian., November 16, 1919, SECTION THREE, Page 8, Image 56

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THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN. FORTLAXD. NOVEMBER 16. 1919.
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Taygetus; boys at the age of seven
entered a course of training de
signed to develop qualities useful to
the state, and from which the ad
jective spartan derived its present
meaning. Marriage was viewed only
as an institution for the perpetuation
of the state. One suspects that the
bolshevists have been reading Plu
tarch without, however, pursuing
their studies far enough. Sparta is
dead, and in 2000 years the system
that it made famous has not been
able to gain a foothold among civil
ized men. Suited at best only to the
aggrandizement of a military power,
it has no adaptability for an indus
trial community.
NO LABOB OTEEtOAB.
The effort to spread vocational ed
ucation is based on the sound princi
ple that a man's earning power is in
evitably increased by skill in some
particular thing, and will not be
Dally, without Sunday, one year 7.80 fcalted by the fear expressed in some
Daily, without Sunday, one month .... .65
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Eastern Business Office Verree & Conk
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ree & Conklin, Free Press building, De
troit, Mich. San Francisco representative,
K. J. Bidweil.
A HINT TO THE POLITICIAN.
Since the expected has happened
In the. form of armed attack on the
most patriotic citizens by conspira
tors against the government, those
persons in authority who should have
taken precautions against it are busy
placing the blame on each other.
All are more or les3 to blame. All
alike have shrunk from effective ac
tion because the deeds of the reds
were done in the name of labor.
Some officials, without looking
deeply enough into the claim, as
sumed it to be true, but more were
restrained or were tempted to hit
softly by fear of antagonizing what
they call the labor vote. Others
were Impressed by the familiar howl
about free speech and the free press
from those who habitually abuse
these rights, and they emasculated
bills to prevent such abuse.
All of this goes to show how far
astray the politicians travel in their
pursuit of votes. The I. W. W. does
not speak fer labor and has few
votes, for probably three-fourths of
its "members are aliens. Real, hon
est American labor detests the I. V.
W. as much as does any man, but is
continually dragged along the road
to radicalism lest it be tainted with
being a friend of capital. If a law
to crush the I. W. W. were passed
without also hitting the unions the
steady-going working man would
gladly though silently vote for its
authors and supporters. The man
who opposes such laws lest he lose
the labor vote is barking up the
wrong tree, for the I. W. W. is the
worst enemy of the unions and their
members know it.
When the radical jawsmlths howl
about free speech and the free press
the politicians mistake their voice
for the voice of the people. The
people are quietly attending to their
own business, occasionally saying in
a conversational tome: "Why doesn't
the government shut those fellows
up?" When a Centralia massacre
comes the people say very loudly and
emphatically what they- have been
thinking all along, and the poli
ticians suddenly discover what the
people think and hurry to do what
they demand. That is what is hap
pening at Washington and in various
state capitals and prosecuting at
torneys offices.
The most successful man In pub
lic life Iff not the one who heeds the
loudest shout, but the one who reads
the thoughts of the people who do
little talking but who quietly go to
the polls, cast their ballots by the
million and decide elections. Those
people believe in the American con
stitution, they reject imported poli
tics, they refuse to heed noisy, foul
mouthed aliens, they detest the hy
phen, and they do not vote for po
litical trimmers. When the show
down comes they have the most
- votes.
quarters that if all become artisans
there will not be enough "commpn
labor" to do the necessary heavy
work.
Demand for so-called common
labor is nearly always greatly un
der the supply and so many, many
devices for supplanting it are being
invented that there is small danger
that we shall be overloaded with
workers who put their brains as well
as their hands into their task. The
national road-building programme
furnishes a ready illustration. In
the old pick-and-shovel days such a
plan would have been unthought of.
for It would have required millions
where a relatively few thousands,
mostly trained for the job, now suf
fice.
The change is observable not only
In mechanics but in agriculture.
Even farming requires knowledge of
machinery and there is hardly any
trade that is not in some way adapt
able to the farm.
bined with suitable exercise, is re
sponsible for many excellent results.
If the logic of experience is worth
anything. Dr. Meylan would seem to
have the better of the argument. Me
says less about diet, doubtless believ
ing that a normally stimulated appe
tite will be a reliable guide. But
these are recipes for - preserving
health, rather than prescriptions for
the cure of disease.
Whatever the method adopted, it is
probably true that a good deal of its
success or failure will correspond to
the amount of enthusiasm put into
it. Queer as the notion may seem
that raw grains and olive oil are
exclusively fit to carry us through
to 400, it has certain possibilities
when supported by Intense determi
nation. Fresh air and calisthenics
would hardly suffice if they were not
persisted In. The multiplicity of
panaceas illustrate the not quite in
cidental value of the hobby as a
health preservative. This is a phase
on which stress has not been laid.
but it Is probably an important fac
tor. A man might travel far, say,
on locusts and honey if he could
contrive meanwhile to preserve an
intense interest in some subject not
immediately concerned with his
everyday work.
ECHOES OF BETTER ENGLISH WEEK.
"Better English week" has its
echoes, which still re'verberate. Not
the teachers in the common schools,
who hear too much of it, but -some
of those in places higher up, where
the "open mind" has gone to seed.
have been moved to defense of slang
on the ground that it helps to give
vitality and spontaneity to the
language, or something like that.
For example, we find a writer who
defends the much overworked "Good
night!" because it is so much better
than its definition in Bostonese:
"Good night!" is "a casual phrase taken
in a tropatlve sense Indicating by means
of auditory emphasis a somewhat peremp
tory, final and Irrevocable decision.
Or the following explanation of
that other abomination, "Some":
It is an adjectival and pronominal epi
thet applied to any Inoffending substanta
tive in order to give a convincing air of ex
treme adulatory and luperlatively apprecl
atory character to an otherwise harmless
and somewhat indefinite common particle
of speech.
Of course, if the average individ
ual who habitually employs either
"Some!" or "Good night!" to con
ceal the poverty of a vacant mind
were to give to the subject on which
he is trying to talk an infinitesimal
fraction of the thought reauired to
frame the definitions of the phrases
in Bostonese, he would be able to do
better than either. The objection to
the miscellaneous use of slang is not
that it invariably fails to hit the
mark, but that it is so much em
ployed by those who haven't even a
mark in sight. It is a sign of mental
laziness a hundred times to once that
it is aptly expressive. There Is a
sane medium between the language
of pedantry and the argot of vaude
ville and the poolroom, and it" is
this that the better English move
ment was designed to emphasize.
HIDDEN MONEY.
The Coos river rancher who kept
$2000 hidden in an old shoe, which
was thrown into the river, is only a
Variation of the fellow who puts his
money in an old stove, which some
body lights a fire in while he is away
from home. Both exhibit a distrust
in modern institutions designed to
aid thrift which is surprising in
these enlightened times. It is easy
nowadays to figure out an Investment
suitable for the most timorous man.
Postal savings banks furnish a
safe repository for part of the money
and liberty bonds continue to be gilt
edged security up to any amount that
such a man is likely to have accumu
lated. There is no longer any excuse
for hoarding any sum for fear that
it will be lost, in banks. Tet it is
safe to predict that in a hundred
years from now there will be timid
men doing the same thing. News
seems not quite to reach all of those
who would be helped by reading it.
concourse of sound over the origin
of "Jitney" hardly outlasts the word
itself, as the institution succumbs to
economic pressure. "Pass the buck"
is. certainly more than five years old.
though it is said to have obtained re
cent added significance as an army
term. "Addict" is an outgrowth of
the rise of the narcotic habit, an ex
cellent substitute for the misused
"fiend," and supported by sufficient
precedent for the making of sub
stantatives from verbs..
"Habitue," which is not included
In the list, has almost as good reason
for being there, and does as little
violence to the canons of word crea
tion. "Pacifist," one of our "new"
words, is only a shorter form, fol
lowing our custom of eliminating
superfluous syllables, of "pacificist,"
which carried its own meaning from
the beginning. "Wop" is still slang.
with not much chance of attaining
respectability. "Doughboy," to re
turn to military matters, is now the
established term of infantryman, its
paternity as must a mystery as ever,
and "gob" defies all the philologists.
"Limey," a term applied by Ameri
can soldiers to British soldiers, was
borrowed from the sea, but probably
not from the navy. "Lime Juice" was
long used as a designation of British
sailors in the merchant service be
cause of the regulation of the British
board of trade requiring the use of
lime juice on long voyages as a pre-
Yentlve of scurvy.
"Swat," one of the words on the
list, has been with us several years.
"Jazz" and "pep" are recent asquisi
tions in popular esteem, but the les
ser antiquarians probably would have
little trouble finding pedigrees for
them particularly "jazz." Roose
velt's "weasel words" and President
Wilson's "watchful waiting" hardly
belong in the category of new words'.
They are pointed phrases, which, if
we were to go into phrase-making,
would lead us to the writing of a
whole volume on that subject by it
self.
BOLSHEVISTS AND SPARTANS.
At about the same time that a
woman delegate from Argentina was
telling a Congress of Working Wom
en in Washington, D. C, that "psycho-analysis
has determined that
people do not retain after the age of
20 years much if anything that they
have learned before they are 12,"
the bolshevists of Russia were
launching an experiment in the so
cialization of children based on the
opposite theory. The Petrograd Is
vestia describes the experiment, in
furtherance of which, it says, "chil
dren from the age of three are being
taken from their parents by force
and placed in state institutions,
where they are educated on bolshe
vist lines." These Russians are less
concerned with the revelations of
psycho-analysis than with their own
notion that children are permanently
susceptible at a very early age. To
protect the little ones against the
pernicious Influence of parents with
bourgeois sympathies, parental visits
Co state nurseries are forbidden.
The movement is part of the larg
er campaign, peculiarly bolshevist in
the method of its execution, for the
'emancipation of women from the
chains of household slavery." The
words are taken from a recent bol
shevist manifesto. To encompass
the ideal of complete equality, all
domestic creches, kitchens and in
stitutions are to be abolished. It is
of course plain, to a bolshevist Rus
sian, that , inequalities are unavoid
able, for example, where the fond
parents of one child are more dutiful
than are the less affectionate par
ents of another. Confusion of equali-1
ty with dead-level mediocrity, which
Is not altogether unheard of in our
own country, would be amusing if it
were not so tragic in Its effects. Says
the Petrograd newspaper:
At Tula recently 7000- children -under
30 years of age were removed from their
homes to be used as material for the ex
periment. Many parents who protested
against having to part with their little
ones were arrested. One of the first re
tails of the measure has been that a num
ber of the children havt died owing to
want of food and care.
V There Is historic ground for sup
posing that the venture will fall. The
t-'partan prototypes of the present
bolshevist leaders were Interesting
to read about, but they have not in
spired much desire to follow their
example. Sparta, as the reader who
lias not forgotten his Plutarch will
recall, decreed a system utterly de
void of sentiment. At the birth of a
child, the elders decided whether it
was strong enough to be reared.
Weaklinga were exposed on, Mount
MANY RECIPES FOR KEEPING YOUNG.
Men mindful of the inexorable law
of compensation remain skeptical of
the merits of gland transplantation
or other convenient enethods of con
serving or restoring youth. Yet the
quest of a panacea at least against
premature old age continues. The
amazing fact about the discoveries
that are announced at "the rate of
one a day, or perhaps oftener, is their
inexhaustible variety. No two bear
the slightest resemblance to each
other. We are told to chew each
morsel of food thirty-two times
once for each tooth in the completely
outfitted mouth and also to drink
a liter and a half of liquid with
each meal. Another enthusiast for
bids liquid except between meals.
Dr. Metchnikoff and his bacillus bul
garicus rose for a moment, then set
again. The world Is full of scientific
necromancers with schemes for
keeping the tap of health constantly
turned on. A fow, like Metchnikoff
and Dr. Fletcher, attain a measure
of longevity, but are not conspicu
ously successful. Their rules do not
carry them beyond the century mark.
More fail completely. As to others,
the vital statistics are incomplete.
In a single week recently a British
scientist and author of international
reputation, a healer from Highland
Park, 111., a professor of physical
education at Columbia university and
a Mexican philosopher held the pop
ular ear for a moment with their
recipes for prolonging youth. The
Mexican," who Is still young, makes
the most extravagant claims for his
method: he expects to live 400 years.
The Briton promises us only "from
90 to 105 years" if we will obey his
mandates. The others are more con
servative, but . they hold out the pros
pect of greater happiness In life
while we are living it- "Fruit and
green vegetables, not serums," is the
dictum from Highland Park; "exer
cise and fresh air" is the message
from Columbia university.
The future Methusaleh from Mexi
co restricts his food to raw rice and
oats and drinks nothing but olive oil.
He stands six feet two inches tall and
weighs 225 pounds, a veritable walk
ing demonstration of the wholesome.
ness of a restricted diet, in contrast
to the belief of the Illinoisan, who
declares that all that is the matter
with us is that we do not have var
iety enough. He adds:
I do not concede that the typhoid germ
has anything to do with typhoid fever.
Health is as much dependent on fruits
and vegetables as on protein, carbo
hydrates and fats. The late epidemic of
influenza was due to an explosion of nu
tritive -products of & poor dietary system.
The Indisputable truth is that fruits and
vegetables, rather than serums, are the
logical panacea for disease.
We turn to the London scientist, a
Dr. Josiah Oldfield, his name itself
an aptronymic, for further light:
The dally diet should Include dandelion
leaves, fowl's eggs, grapes, lettuce, milk.
watercress, noney, milk and uncooked sal
ads. Old age is caused by deposits in the
blood vessels of waste matter. So, by
adopting a fruitarian diet, an old man
may become young again.
We expected that the health of our
returning soldiers would furnish
more than one text for an old age
recipe. Dr. Meylan of Columbia Is
convinced that the life outdoors, com.
OUR NEWEST WORDS.
War" is itself a borrowed word.
as Dr. Henry Bradley has pointed out
in his "Making of English," and it is
one of many words which came into
the language as the direct conse
quence of the condition which it was
used to depict. Wars have not, per
haps, done as much to enrich our
vocabulary as have the arts of peace,
but they have customarily worked
their changes more rapidly. We
took practically our entire military
nomenclature from the French in
another time, "battle," and "siege"
and "fortress" and "banner" among
them. The designations of our army
officers were -originally French.
"Battalion" is a derivative of "bat
tle," which it Is convenient to re
member in spelling it; "regiment,"
"division," "corps" are old French
words. Professor Brander Matthews
takes the whimsical view that the
Germans might have done better if
they had borrowed more of their
military words from the French than
they did. They appropriated almost
as many as we have done, but they
"devised a native word to describe
the chieftainship of the emperor."
If they had not called him the "war
lord," Professor Matthews thinks,
but had been content to entitle him
as the "commander-in-chief," as we
do the president of the United States,
the effect of a veiled threat would
have been lost- We can only imag
ine how profoundly this would have
affected the world psychology.
Professor C. Alphonso Smith,
whose book on "New Words Self-
Defined" Is reviewed by Professor
Matthews in the New York Times,
finds that our vocabulary has re
ceived about 400 new words in only
half a decade. Acknowledging in his
preface the aid of many helpful mid
shlpmen, he tells how they showed
him, in their own expressive lan
guage, how to "wangle" his way
through all difficulties. "Wangle"
seems to explain' itself in this con
nection, but it also serves to illus
trate a class of new words which,
probably will not long survive for the
reason that they are unnecessary. It
is different with other words de
scriptive of something which we
have never before been called on to
depict, and of which "camouflage"
and "barrage" are good specimens.
But it Is a question whether, as pro
fessor Matthews suggests, "barrage"
as it maintains itself in English it is
sure to become English in pronun
ciation, rhyming thereafter to "mar
riage." The much more familiar
"garage" and "massage" have shown
few signs of weakening, and seem
on the contrary to give strength to !
the probability that the foreign pro
nunciation of "barrage" will survive
at least for a long while.
It would be unprofitable to dis
cuss at length the relative newness
of the words now entering more gen
erally into our everyday speech. It
is sufficient that they have become
common only recently. Nor Is It al
together necessary, to maintain our
Interest In them, that they shrill be
proved to have consistent meanings.
A few things still are left for the
future to decide. "Blimp" is among
the undetermined ones. It looks like
a wholly manufactured article. If
memory serves us, it was used In the
beginning of the war to designate a
captive observation balloon. One
authority is quoted to this effect in
the new dictionary, but the weight
of numbers is on the side of the
dirigibles. It need only be called to
attention that it was used in the lat
ter sense during the recent trans
Atlantic voyages to remind one that
words frequently escape from the
bonds of their original meanings. Nor
is there much ground for supposing
that it will persist in any sense, for
it is another of the words which we
do not need.
The language continues fluid,
however, even without relation to the
war. We might expect that a mil
lion men returning from a foreign
country would bring some new words
with them, but we do not realize so
clearly the changes that are taking
place without this Influence. "Cub
ism" is relatively a new word In art.
though probably more than half a
decade old. and it probably will die
when cubism goes out of fashion,
Just as contraband went out after
the civil war as a designation for
negroes in general. "Flu" can hard
ly yet be regarded as having risen to
the dignity of a word, being a mere
abbreviation and an unnecessary
and too significantly flippant one
"Fifty-fifty," credited to Colonel
Roosevelt, was in vogue in sporting
circles long ago, with a meaning ths
was as self-explanatory as the col-
San Francisco flight, thirty aviators
Instead of seven would have lost
their lives.
The flying game still holds enough
danger to give it zest, but the racing
aviator certainly is a better insur
ance risk than the professional auto
mobile racer. Future developments
are likely to be all in favor of fly
ing. The United States air service
points out that the automobile course
represents perhaps the height of per
fection, with its every well-paved
inch, its banks and grades calcu
lated with precision and its per
sonnel of high-priced mechanics I
ready to meet every emergency. By
contrast the airmen were required to
make many landings on as many dif
ferent fields, no two resembling each
other and none Ideal. The entrants
were sixty-two volunteers almost
without racing experience, the air
course was practically uncharted and
they flew In all kinds of weather.
The latter event, however, derives
Its chief value from the information.
more or less technical, which has
been obtained from it, and which
ought to contribute much to making
aviation even safer in the future.
The principal lesson taught by
both air races was the need' of bet
ter landing facilities. It is this
which now handicaps development
of commercial flying, and operates
Indirectly to prevent our military
preparedness. The war department
is right In its assertion that landing
fields are as Important to aviation
progress as good roads are to the
automobile.
"monkey" is "monkeys." to accomplish
which, you will observe, it Is necessary
to. know a vowel from a consonant. Learn
ing to tell them apart, let me add. is an
attainment that wou'd not be speeded by
calling them something else e. g.. "fat
letters" and "lean letter" In the fashion
of babydom: for a child is most Interested
when learning things that adults know,
and calling those things by their adult
names. It would be easier, grotesquely
supposing that one wanted to, to teach
some five-year-old children "oxymoron"
both the word and the thing than to
do the same for many high-school stu
dents. . . . The reason why we have
not yet handed her a copy of the Concise
Oxford Dictionary Is that we are weakly
fond of seeing her run to us with her
questions about spellings.
Charles Latham Sholes himself
could not have foreseen when he per
fected the typewriter that it would
become & mighty instrument of child
education. "Learning to read is
speeded enormously when it takes
the form of reading what one's own
fingers have Just produced: the rate
of production is so slow that every
Let Us Reason Together.
By Grare E. Hall.
BY-PRODUCTS OK THE PRESS
Ella Wheeler's Faaou Poem Once
Clalmew. by Jokn A. Joyce.
The death of Ella Wheeler Wilcox
will recall to older readers a news
paper controversy which raged furi
ously In the '80s of the past century
over the authorship of a bit of verse
whose initial line read, "Laugh and
the world laughs with you, weep and
you weep alone." Published anony
mously, this poem sprang; into almost
instant popularity, and as it was float
ing about the country without credit
Colonel John A. Joyce of St. Louis
and later of Washington, D. C, took in There Is naught that a mind can de-
tne seeming orphan and included it in I vise or say
book of Doema issued under his I That hasn't been said In another way ;
name. I o song can oe suns save as utu,
tr-iio -ci-v, --i - - . v , . n . i - - 1 note
"' T. ,,- ,,m ,,. measures a master
as a W isconsin poet, immediately as- wrote
aerted authorship of the poem. In ths And the QU'cstion that pleads for an
cuiuroverey wmca toiiowea Loionei answer here
answer through
There is naught on the earth that Is
new we know,
The waves on the ocean, the winds
that blow.
The clouds on their way in the dls-
' tant space.
The wild bird's fling' In his airy race.
The seasons, the changes that nature
brings
Old as the world are these world-old
things.
ROADSIDE MARKETING.
The farm-to-table movement now
being fostered by the federal high
way council in the interest of reduc
ing the cost of living, with a special
week In November set apart for Its
observance, does well in addressing
itself to those farmers who will be
at least incidental beneficiaries of
the plan. City consumers will not
need much argument to persuade
them to give any scheme a trial that
holds out a promise of economy.
Since, as the council says, "hundreds
of thousands of motor trips are taken
each week for recreational purposes
only," there does not seem to be any
good reason why they should not
turn their trips to good account by
buying table necessities at the far
mer's gate. Yet they do so in only
a small percentage of cases, and the
council finds that one reason Is that
the farmer does not display or ad
vertise his products."
Agriculture and salesmanship
seem to be distinct arts, as will have
been observed by a good . many
travelers in the country and as is
frequently indicated even by experi
ence in buying on the public mar
kets from growers who are too en
grossed in the primary problem of
production to give much thought to
another thing the consumer de
mands, which is service. It is partly
for this "reason that middlemen con
tinue to thrive, no matter how
fiercely consumers rail at them. It is
an old business maxim that ten
times as much goods are "sold" as
are "bought." The freshest egg has
a poor chance of fetching what it is
worth If it hides its light under a
bushel. Every motorist knows that
there are times when .he would buy
if the trouble were taken to stimulate
demand, or even to jog his memory.
Yet the man who can afford to
own an automobile, or thinks he
can, is aot quite willing to go to a
great deal of trouble in making'hls
household purchases. The "sign
boards at the farmer's gate" which
the highway council suggests serves
the purpose only In part. They are
as apt to be overlooked as the scen
ery of which they become a part and
to which few automobilists give
much attention. The farmer nails an
inconspicuous placard to a gate, and
if it is seen at all the automobile is
well past it before the necessary
mental impression is conveyed. The
road is narrow, there are few con
venient turning places, the family is
out for pleasure and not for busi
ness, and a prospective customer is
lost. The few attempts that have
been made to establish "roadside
markets" have been characterized
by such omissions as these.
The simple expedient of placing
signs a hundred rods or so from the
farmer's gate in either direction does
not seem to have suggested itself
even to those producers who are try
ing to "cut out the middleman.
Which, as has been suggested, is one
reason why middlemen thrive. They
think of everything, and both pro
ducers and consumers pay them for
it. The post office department failed
to build up a worth-while parcel
post farm-to-table business largely
because this Is true. It may yet be
deemed advisable for our agrlcul
tural colleges to dnclude courses In
salesmanship and window dressing
in their curricula.
woru is tearneu Joyce declared that if she were not a Has. plead for an
therefore is acquired without teach- horsewhio her. But 's many a year.
lev tha- Alam An T O T-1T IflWt sTi T I - I . . a
the bar of publlo opinion quickly de- or each in his way must see to
elded In favor of Miss Wheeler, who I . . 1 . . ,,, ,
-,--.,-,i xi x- jvr..
"v--"' -" " . mind.
mere are lew oia-time scrapDooKS
tnat do not contain a copy of the Tha auerT is this: Since I had no
poem. It was read and recited from choice
one end of the .countrv to the other I In belnn created, not even a voice
and parodies on It were numerous and I" or in color or place or time,
are still to be found occasionally. Of
course Ella Wheeler's fame does not
rest on that poem while Colonel
Joyce's connection with It is still re
membered for Its audacity.
THE FARMERS' VIEW BROADENING.
The immense demand for Ameri
can food products In Europe has
broadened the horizon of the people
of the middle west to a degree which
would have been deemed impossible
before the war. Farmers have
learned that their principal market
is abroad as much as at home, and
that they must rely on foreign cus
tomers to maintain profitable prices.
Their banks have learned that export
trade is vitally affected by foreign
exchange, by the amount of credit
available in this country for foreign
buyers and by the supply of ships
and ocean freight rates. All of these
subjects, which were formerly be
yond the ken of the Kansas farmer,
are now known and discussed by him.
This is one of the evidences of the
breaking down of the isolation on
which we formerly plumed ourselves.
The people of the interior find their
minds turned to the seaboard, then
to the ocean and ships and finally
to the internal affairs and troubles of
European- states. Few of them ever
heard of the Ukraine, but' on learn
ing that that country is likely to pro
duce little wheat next year because
it is being ravaged by guerilla bands
this fall they will realize that those
facts will affect the price of Ameri
can wheat. The price pf German
marks Is found to have a bearing on
the price of American hogs, and is in
turn affected by the stability of the
German republic.
As such evidences that the pros
perity of America is deeply affected
by the - peace and stability of the
states of Europe penetrate the minds
of people in the middle west, men
of the type of Johnson, Borah and
Reed, who demand that we wash our
hands of the affairs of the old world
and shut ourselves In between our
two oceans, will get a less patient
hearing. Buncombe does not go
down with a man who knows.
Ing it, and the- elementary laws of
phonetics follow likewise." Another
"discovery" that Professor ollett
has made Is that it is fallacious and
inept to distinguish between "hard"
and "easy" words. "Any word is only
a word In point of difficulty." Chil
dren find reading dull perhaps be
cause they are constantly taught by
implication that they must wait
years before they can go beyond the
nauseous monosyllabic vocabulary of
the orthodox first reader. Professor
Follett is also "pretty sure that the
staring and gigantic type used in ele
mentary readers has something to do
with the strained and painful up
lifted voices in which school chil
dren read aloud."
But the Important thing about
Professor Follett's conclusions Is
that, although he possesses all the
zeal of the reformer, they lead him
back to, and not away from, first
principles. He Is convinced that the
whole Idea of "sugar coating knowl
edge" is wrong. Children, we may
be almost certain, "would really get
more fun, mora play, out of educa
tion if there were no attempt to
palm It off on them as play." It is
a fair Indictment of the play-subterfuge
system that tries to make every
thing as easy as possible that it ex
hibits too little faith in the child.
It is an error similar in substance
to that which leads some authors to
"write down" to their public, and to
another which rates the Rollo books
as good "juvenile" reading. The
mistake of underestimating the ca
pacity of the child 13 one that Pro
fessor Follett would not make. By
way of constructive doctrine he has
this to offer:
The way for elementary teaching to
succeed better Is to offer more, not less;
to make work more interesting by chal
lenging the attention of the child; not by
disguising It as play. Wherever we have
failed with Barbara we have always dis
covered In the end that It was because we
had asked too little to Interest her; not too
much for her to accomplish.
It Is good to be assured that Bar
bara is in no sense an J'infant prod
igy." There is a growing, and per
haps Justifiable, prejudice against
these prodigies, chiefly because peda
gogues are inclined to base educa
tional methods on their achievements
with exceptional material. But the
principle of "unutilized reserve pow
ers" in children is not new, as Pro
fessor Follett points out, though the
phrase may sound forbidding. . He
seems to think that If this fact were
better understood the sugar-coating
of an education would soon be aban
doned as worse than a futility.
This story has a strangely Tamlllar
sound. Probably it has been told
about some hundreds of young news
paper men, but it is still good enough
to be dragged out of the mothballs
from time to time and hung on some
new victim. They're telling it on J.
Hampton Moore now. Representative
Moore Is the recently nominated re
publican candidate for mayor of Phlla
delphla. He was a cub reporter In
his younger days, working on
Quaker City publication, celebrated
then as now rather for conservatism
than circulation. Young Moore was
one of thoeedetermlned cubs who al
ways got wnat he was sent after, If
it was in the wood. One day he was
sent for an interview with the arch
How then Is my destiny bailed
mine?
Each atom about that my eye may
see.
Was fashioned and .placed, here es
carefully;
Environment nature the world, we
vow.
Was God's creation; to him we bow.
The brain and Its action, with wMch
we choose.
Was simply implanted could man re
fuse?
Each influence comes from the self
same source
From cradle to grave Is the given
course:
Yet they warn of the fate that shall
befall
The erring one who ignores the call.
Forgetting, it seems, that the minds
of men
Are God's inventions. Oh, tell me
then
Shall a man be blamed for his mental
squint
bishop of the Roman Catholic church, ghall -error be charged to the creature.
ai mo aoor ne was told the prelate man,
was not at home. "Oh, well." said I Or to the power that made the plant
Moore, "let me talk to his wife." The puzzle is old yet ever new:
New York Sun.
A dastardly and Insidious plot of
northern plutocrats, having as its ob
ject the filching of the south's chame
leon supply, has been uncovered by
the New Orleans Horticultural society1.
Some claim we're free but it isn't
true;
He'd play forever 'neath eunny skies
If a man were free but he works.
and dies!
He treads the paths that his forbears
trod.
C. L. Ory, secretary of the society. And takes the trail of their faith to-
SAEER IN TTTE ATR THA2f ON THB
OROIND.
Glenn I. Martin, pioneer flyer and
airplane builder, has the figures with
him when he repeats the statement
he made seven years ago that an air
plane is safer than an automobile,
provided the automobile Is being
driven faster than thirty miles an
hour. Analysis of the recent big
racing events in both fields indicates
that this is so
The outstanding airplane events of
1919 have been the New York-To
ronto and the New York-San Fran
cisco races; the longest automobile
race was the 500-mile contest on the
Indianapolis speedway. In the first
two, sixty-two and fifty-two ma
chines started, respectively; in the last
there were thirty-three starters. The
Toronto race was over a distance of
1020 miles; the transcontinental race
covered 2701 miles (the return Jour
ney being left out of the calculation)
Only 45 per cent of the. starting auto
mobiles finished their race; " per
centages in the aerial races were 69
and 50, respectively. There were
three fatalities in the automobile
race; none and seven, respectively, in
the air events. More graphic, how
ever, is the showing that in the au
tomobile race deaths averaged one
to 4000 machine miles; in the New
York-San Francisco race, one to 17,
940 machine miles, and in the To
ronto race 42,722 machine miles
were covered without a single fatal
ity. If the Indianapolis mortality
pcel'a "fifty-fifty allegiance,' lie ' rate had prevailed in the Kew York
says the lizards must be kept at home
and that he la going to ask Commls-
ioner M. L. Alexander of ,the state
epartment of conservation to protect
them with a game law.
In the south the lizard is permitted
o spend his life happily and naturally
In the pursuit of elusive bugs, says
the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Thtf
ug eats the flowers and the chame
leon eats the bug. No lizards, plenty
bugs, no flowers; plenty lizards, no
ugs, plenty flowers. Ergo, the ex
portatlon of the chameleon must
cease.
It is claimed that lizard hunters are
di-
catchlng lizards for lounge lizards. U crumoled tnem to du8t to Bhow my
EDUCATION OR PLAT?
The not wholly fortunate experi
ence in later life of the youthful
prodigy, William James Sidis, who at
12 or thereabouts delivered a lecture
before an audience of savants, tak
ing as his subject the fourth dimen
sion, will only intensify the interest
with which fond parents will read
the account, by Wilson Follett in
Harper's, of his "rather notable suc
cess" In the training of a child with
results in most respects not less re
markable than those which attended
the rearing of Master Sidls. Profes
sor Follett was formerly instructor
of English in Brown university. The
name of the real heroine of the story
is Barbara, and Barbara is now 5
years old. Her father says that In
holding that "we have achieved suc
cess with the first steps of her edu
cation," he means that the results so
far produced, unlike those often pro
duced by the public schools, are of
the general sort that one would
choose in advance if one could only
choose results. He Is not at all dog
matic. He confesses that he has al
ways doubted the basic wisdom of
pouring yourself into .your child as
we have djne" and that there may
have been something in the theory
of
Samuel Butler, a humane soul and
man more Interested in the well-being of
the young than In any other one social
problem, who frankly lamented that par
ents could not go off into the woods, lay
eggs to be - hatched posthumously and
forthwith die.
Yet it will be conceded at the out
set that a purely biological theory
of education does not stand much
chance in these times, that the best
parents will not be content that only
the fittest shall survive, and that the
tendency of the day is toward the
paternalism which would better be
called maternalism that considers
not only the geniuses of the family,
but the lame ducks as well.
It Is Impossible, of course, to de
termine how much of Barbara's
present accomplishments (Barbara
being now 5 years old) is due to in
herent capacity, and how much she
owes to the parental eagerness to
pour one's self into one's child. At
Just under 8 years old Barbaras
equipment consisted of the alphabet
(which we refrain from teaching in
most schools nowadays) plus a- few
words and numbers, and about fifty
tunes which she had learned to rec
ognize through simple repetition. She
was always seeing A's in the gables
of houses and H's in football goal
posts." and she had a normal child's
curiosity and acquisitiveness. The
real beginning of her education was
when she discovered a typewriter
and Insisted on being 'told about it.
In two days she knew the names ol
all the characters on the keyboard,
on the third she wrote a note on the
machine (receiving, however, each
letter by dictation), three months
later she was taking many simple
words by dictation, but taking them
as words and not as letters, and "a?
the age of 3 years and 3 months had
learned a perceptible amount of
reading by the strange process of
reading her own typescript." Lit-
erally, she had learned a form of
writing before she knew anything at
all about reading.
At 4 years and 7 months she wrote
notes, with a little help in spelling
such words as "interesting" and
"particularly." At 5 years and
months
She understood plurals and how they are
formed from singulars; aiso that the plural
o "baby' is "babies," whereas that p
The man who spoke in St. Louis
Wednesday night advising importa
tion of Chinese labor because it
would be cheap does not know his
subject. He can do better with labor
from the other way. The Chinaman
is an original labor unionist who
makes his scale and "no pay, no
workee."
They are either made Into necklaces
to adorn the neck of some northern
belle or kept about the person as a
ct and worn on the end of a chain
like a monocle.
O. O. Mclntyre. a New York corre
pondent. writes: "I happened to be
in one of the huge buildings that dot
the heavens in the financial district
the other day. The man at the gate
the point of contact for the visito
was a man near 60. He seemed above
an office boy's job and yet there was
Can there be any argument what
ever against imposing the death pen-
nltv on murderers like those Cen
tralia reds? Yet In Oregon Alurderer
Johnson, who ferociously killed his
benefactress, is saved his craven life
by state law and permitted openly to
plot other murders and to mourn his
failure to kill another woman.
But as I flung the dust unto the
wind
It caught it in its hands with roar
something skillful about his handling And flung the crumpled sands into
my eyes;
An appliance has been Invented by
which over-corpulent persons can
massage themselves by machinery,
thus removing the last incentive for
them to do any work and permitting
them to get fatter than ever.
If it Is true that Belgians have
been selling arms to the Mexicans
with which to fight the United
States, a mere note calling attention
to the fact will doubtless be suf
ficient to stop the practice.
The strike in England sseemjajto be
resulting In some altogether iinei
pected additions to' the "working
classes," and no doubt will revise the
ideas of some persons as to money
that is made in "trade." ' y
If housewives decide to revive the
almost-lost art of breadmaking. It s
to be hoped that the recipe for the
salt-rising kind our grandmothers
used to make will be rediscovered
at the same time.
The shorter the work day the
more leisure, the more leisure the
more money Is needed to enjoy it
but the short day fails to produce
the goods and the circle is broken.
" Pussyfoot Johnson, who says
that he enjoyed the brack eye- he got
while being mobbed in London, ap
pears to have precisely the right kind
of sense of humor for his 'job.
A medical man says that Insanity
is Increasing 300 per cent faster than
the population, which accounts for
several things that have heretofore
seemed etrange.
Somehow, people were prepared in
advance' for the announcement that
no decrease in the price of shoes will
follow the advent of cheaper hides.
After the way Arkansas went afte
the suppression of rebellion, that
state Is not likely to be the butt of as
many jokes as she used to be.
A newspaper office that does not
need raiding never is raided. Liberty
is not license, even with the best
disposed object in view.
Shall It be said that the Germans
were first to comprehend that noth
Ing but hard work will repair the
waste of war?
The more bolshevik Russia be
comes the less the advocates of bo!
shevism in this country will want to
go there.
It takes bravado rather than cou
age nowadays for a man to admit
that he ; is. wx L. W. v.
wards God,
Yet fearfully questions the love
vine
Is it less than my own for a child of
mine?
The Father shall care for the things
he's made.
Believinpr in this I am unafraid;
But freedom? Ah, that is .a phantom
sly
Unasking we came, and the same we
die!
GRACE E. HALL.
I UNDERSTAND.
I held the rocks called life between
my hands.
And laughing at what others called
their woe;
strength.
I ground to dust with mighty blow
on blow:
I cast my crumpled dust unto the
wind.
And in the face of life I laughed
out Ion?
And cried: "I'm done with all your
silly ways;
Pm done with all your walls and
mighty song."
of the visitor. He was the soul of
courtesy and . the Impression one
gained of the establishment that em
ployed blm was pleasant. But he
looked, more like a-prosperous retired
business man. The truth was that at
one time he was one of New York's
most successful merchants. He failed
and this job was the first thing pre
sented to him. But he made such an
Important job of It that he is paid
6000 a year. More 'business is lost
In New York through the imperti
nence of young office boys than will
ever be realized."
In a book which belonged to the
late James W. Beakman of New York
was found a curious letter from
Washington Irving. In it the humor
ist complained to Mr. Beakman. who
was then chairman of the senate com
mittee of literature at Washington,
that the firm of S. & C. Merrlem had
missed a bote he had written to them
oa the subject of their edition of Web
ster's dictionary. Irving had written
that while he would not recommend
the book as a "standard." be added,
In many respects I made It quite s
vade mecum.
Now hope and light and happiness
no more.
For blind I stand and curse the power
that gave
Me strength to crumble life be
neath my hand:
And yet I know as I can only
know
The power of life I see I under
stand. DORA REEVES CROFT.
THE DOTE.
I heard her singing that war is dead.
And the beautiful dove with wings a.
outspread
Encircled the earth with Joy.
She rode on the breath of morn to tell
That the heralds of truth had van
quished hell!
Then, lifting her voles above the
clouds
Of sorrow that Vhlvered in wralth-
llke shrouds.
She melted the mists of gloom away
With the warding thrill of her song
tnat aay.
"war Is not
Then I heard her crying,
dead.
For the maw of lust is underfed!"
the sorrowing dove now waits
The only part of his Wnlle little men measure their mighty
communication that the publishers Ag.alnst tne brav6 Qeeda of our vaUant
" wla ""'i hordes.
sentence. 1 sna bolshevists erln o'er their driD-
ptng swords
If ever a person was actually lifted I And the grumbling Hun stlU hates!
to stardom by a free puff in the press
It was Gaby Deslys. She owes her Till the gates of hell refuse to swing.
fame entirely to Phil Simmons, then a Till you can nest in eternal spring
Paris correspondent for a press associ
ation. Slmros was knocking about the
cafes looking for stories. He learned
that Manuel was paying attention to
Gaby, who was not even featured In
O.
beautiful dove you must, must
sing!
EMMA BENNETT MILLER.
Sandy, Or.
WHY DO WE SING?
a Paris musical ehow. The story WnT Ao j emBr Why do the poets
gained momentum after the original
cable to America and zip! Gaby be
came the star of an American musl
cal comedy.
That Shakespeare or Bacon, as the
can may be, is coming into his own
at least temporarily, is evidenced In
the fact that three prominent actors
are touring and preparing to tour and
another is planning a lecture tour.
John E. Kallard comes fresh from tri
umphs in the east and In London.
E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe are
now appearing la- New York City,
Robert Mantell opened recently in
Rochester, N. Y., preparatory to a
limited tour of the United States, and
Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson Is lec
turing throughout the east.
Applications to Adopt.
PORTLAND, Nov. 13. (To the Edi-
tor.) Please tell me where to find
orphanage for a boy about 10 years
old. - I wish to adopt one of that age.
A KtADEH.
Apply to the Children's Home, Port
land, Or.
Sloiraa for General Wood.
NEWBERG, Or.. Nov. 12. (To the
Editor.) In case Leonard Wood
should be nominated, a slogan, true
and suggestive for his supporters to
wear under his picture on a button
would be. "We kept him out of war.'
JUjlLN U. S-iLLTH.
Bing?
Why do the flowers burst up
through the dust,
Why do they etrlving reach t'ward
heav n In spring;
They burst in bloom, as I in eons'
they must!
Why should we elng who caanot hope
to elng
A higher note nor sweeter than man
sans
In ages past, when beav nly songs
took wing
From mortal lips, and through the
centuries rang?
Why should the flute in the orchestra
play
When drums and thousand-throated
organs roar.
Why should the violet presume to stay
When Easter lilies are so grandly
more?
The meanest flower that blooms or
flute that plays
Must be In God's great symphony of
days.
M A. YOTHERS.
MY SONGBIRD.
Long years ago my birdllng woke
And once essayed to sing.
One time, alas, an arrow broke
His slender silver wing.
His song Is now so still and deep
I seldom catch a word.
For nestling in the heart asleep
'Tis only felt, not heard.
EVA EMERY DTE,