10
THE SUNDAY OltEGONIAN, PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 14, 1920
ESTABLISHED BY HEN BY L. I'lTTOCK.
Published by The Oresnlan Publishing Co., I
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C. A. MOHDE.V.
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PREHISTORIC RELICS.
So-called prehistoric relics are not
always precisely what they seem, as
more than one ethnologist has
pointed out, and the scientist needs
to be constantly on guard lest he be
deceived by casual appearances. The
Pacific coast, and particularly Ore
iron, has long been a fruitful field
for discovery of Indian artifacts.
The mounds in Washington and
Linn counties, the gravelly banks of
Sauvies island in the Columbia,
which must have been a place of
importance in ancient Indian his
tory, and the interesting carvings on
the rocks of Patton's valley and
elsewhere are examples of prehis
toric archives that do not always
lend themselves readily to interpre
tation. For it is a fact, as students
of those matters have shown, that a
tray filled with European arrow
heads cannot be distinguished by the
most expert from a trayful picked
up in America. Yet there is in that
very fact the material for a philos
ophy. The rudimentary necessities
of, prehistoric men were nearly the
same in every instance: materials
were apt to be much the same: "the
flints of our own ancestors," as Dr.
A. B. Tylor says, resemble the ob
sidian of the Aztecs, not because
Aztecs were like Britons, but be
cause the fracture of flint is like
that of obsidian." Resemblance
may be the result of accident,
rather than of design.
The lower valleys of the Columbia
and the "Willamette are exceedingly
rich In specimens of Indian work
manship because it "was in these
valleys that the tribes assembled to
lay in supplies of food. Rock ham
mers and adzes are found in abun
dance because an important Indian
industry was canoe-making. We
are apt to confound these products
with the so-called "age of stone,"
which was in reality an age of wood,
but undoubtedly they are far more
modern than that. There are pestles
and mortars among the uncovered
relics of. the Columbia river tribes,
but none on Puget sound, because. It
is suspected, there were on the sound
no acorns to be ground into meal,
and the aborigines of this coast, un
like the tribesmen on the opposite
shore of the continent, did not de
velop the art of agriculture. Certain
tools of stone, probably employed in
dressing hides, are found principally
east of the Cascade range, from
which we are able to frame certain
tentative deductions as to the habits
and customs of primitive men,
though these are only fragmentary.
The paths of ethnological research
cross and recross constantly. It Is
part of the romance of research that
it is a continual challenge to the
imagination.
What a tale might be woven, for
example, around the unearthing,
from beneath an eon-old covering,
of a walrus tusk implement In Mal
heur county, as was done once on
a time! With no geological .warrant
for. belief that sea mammals dis
ported themselves on these plains,
we 'are led to surmise that there
were globe-trotters in that ancient
day. It is not possible to construct
the tale of their wanderings, though
occasionally the fragments dovetail
together like a child's puzzle to make
a more or less perfect whole. There
are .in the storerooms of the Oregon
Historical society certain stone
weights, with carefully contrived
handles, evidently the work of In
dians, the larger specimens of which
might well have served as anchors
for "canoes. These, too, resemble
with" peculiar precision certain sim
ilar devices of unknown utility found
by early voyagers in the islands of
the -south Pacific. There is also a
marked resemblance between these
stones and those used in the Scotch
game called "curling," which has the
unique distinction of being the only
ancient game about which there is
no ambiguity as to its origin. Yet
doubts are set at rest only to be dis
turbed again. ' Other weights, of
bronze, unearthed by a Chinese an
tiquarian may have furnished the
pattern to our own Indians, and If
they did they revive once more the
old belief that it was the Chinese
who were the real discoverers of the
new world.
Variety of form may be due partly
to. nature and partly to accident and
necessity. The workman's desire to
produce a certain kind of implement
probably has been modified in every
period by the materials he had to
work with. "All sorts of materials
lie at . the hand of the -savage me
chanic." Dr. Tylor suggests, "none
of them being just what he wants."
Ke selects the best. Perhaps the
truth about tie shape that they
finally assumed is that the savage
"found it so, nnd let it so remain."
It takes imagination of a sort that
Is too rare among scientists to re
fraic from embellishing isolated and
unrelated discoveries. They contin
ually seek symbolism where there is
probability that it never was intend
ed. The attempt to create an eso
teric philosophy out of that which
may have been only a barbaric at
tempt at ornamentation has driven
more "than one ethnologist on the
rocks. The singular fact of the sim
tlarity of knowledge throughout the
world may, or may not, be proof of
a common origin. Culture varies,
but if any art or custom be chosen
at random, it is likely that substan
tially the same art or custom will be
found thousands of miles away,
with nothing to connect them in
the intervening areas. The fact lends
zest to relic-hunting, but it Is unsafe
. to generalize without vastly, mora
data than are now In the possession
of the museums. Broken bones in a i
prehistoric graveyard are sugges
tive of ancient cannibalism, but are
no more conclusive proof of it than
the circumstance that cliff writings
are usually found on a southern ex
posure is evidence of. a common
form of worship. We have our choice
of guesses, no more than that. Be
tween the notion that every un
earthed implement has a ceremonial
significance, and the theory that
simple-minded savages were princi
pally concerned with fashioning
utensils to make living easier, the
argument of utility is likely - to
prevail.
Ancient relics derive Interest from
universal desires of men to study
the steps by which the early races
rose or- fell. There is monotony in
recent discoveries . that goes far to
explain why the aborigines of this
region made no headway against the
fates that were arrayed against
them. Total lack of inventive
genius covering a period not meas
ureable in terms of years tells a
story that squares with the facts of
biology and of human history.
THE UTKE OF DISCOVERY.
Stefansson, admitting that Peary
discovered the North Pole and as
serting that explorers are too busy
to overlap one another, discloses
nevertheless the magnitude of the
task remaining before the Arctic re
gions, of which the pole constitutes
but an insignificant part, shall be
put on the map of the world.
A million square miles land, not
water is a conservative estimate of
the area still to be brought within
our knowledge, with the added pos
sibility that much of it may be defi
nitely valuable for food production
to give a fillip to discovery. For
merly it was the spices of India that
stimulated the search for new trade
routes; then it was the quest for
gold; and the hunt for furs, which
could be exchanged for the products
of the orient, was the first motive of
the voyagers who came to the north
west coast.
The settlement which . followed
was an after-consequence, which
suggests the possibility ' that even
Crockerland may yet Invite a race
of sturdy pioneers who find the
older countries too crowded for
them. The type of men who fought
Indians is not likely to be deterred
by mere cold.
ARE THE PEOPLE UNGRATEFUL ?
Defeat of a president for re-election
or of his party for continuance
in power always leads sundry per
sons to bewail the ingratitude of the
people, to dwell particularly on the
abuse to which a president is sub
ject. Such philosophy is repeated
with the result of the election as the
text, and with the slanders to which
George Washington was subject and
the assassination of Lincoln, Garfield
and McKinley as examples.
Such reflections are founded on
false premises. A man who aspires
to the presidency knowingly invites
the praise or censure of each indi
vidual in the nation. He does so in
the hope that the praise will far
overbalance the censure. He also
knows that it takes all kinds of peo
ple to make a nation, as it does to
make the world, and that the kinds
range all the way from the most just,
appreciative and tolerant to the most
unjust, censorious, intolerant, base
and depraved. He knows that for
the time the latter classes will make
the most noise and command the
most attention, but he also knows
that the opinions of the former
classes will live and form .the judg
ment of posterity.
He can have read our history
to little purpose if he does not know
that final judgment on a president
is not passed during his administra
tion, or during his lifetime: it is
passed only after the passions have
cooled, after the final consequences
of his acts and policies have become
apparent and when time places them
in true perspective". He will think
not of the scurrilities heaped upon
Washington while (he lived but of the
reverence in which he is held by
after-generations in all lands. With
hope of even approaching like fame.
he will not be perturbed by the
muckrakers, but will look for the
approval of the clean-minded, the
high-minded, the honest, sound,
clear thinkers, the men of vigorous,
straight action.
The majority, though disapprov
ing of a president's acts, does not
necessarily question the integrity of
his motives. The trite saying that
republics are ungrateful has won
vogue because often the ungrateful
acts and words of a few were taken
to be those of the whole nation.
BREEDING-PLACES OF WAR.
If Italy and Jugo-Slavia have ac
tually, as reported, settled the Fl
ume dispute by recognizing the in
dependence of Fiume, the terms are
a victory for D'Annunzlo and his
band of mutinous Italian soldiers
and sailors, who have defied the
three chief aIIies,to say nothing of
President Wilson. Seeing no hope
of outside aid, being too weak for
another war and having small pros
pect of success if it should fight.
Jugo-Slavia appears to have ac
cepted the best that it could get. This
is much more than it was given by
the secret treaty of 1915. for it now
secures all of Dalmatia except Zara.
This is the latest of a series of
cases in which decisions of the peace
conference have been set at naught
or in which decision has been taken
out of the allies' hands. A mutinous
Polish army has seized Vilna from
Lithuania after the peace conference
had awarded it to the latter country.
The Klagenfurt district no sooner
voted for union with Austria than
the Jugo-Slav forces occupied it. The
Germans of Danzig are in a fair way
to impose a constitution which
would in effect deprive Poland of its
treaty rights in that port. Though
the Turkish treaty declares Armenia
independent, the Turkish nationalists
and Russian bolshevists are meeting
over its dead body. France is with
drawing from Cilicia and leaving the
Armenians of that province to the
mercy of the fanatics who long to
exterminate them.
The plebiscites required by, the
Versailles treaty have in several in
stances reduced the fine theory of
self-determination to a mockery.
That in south Schleswig gave Ger
many the profit from having Ger
manized the territory during the
half century since it was stolen from
Denmark. The vote in East Prussia
sanctifies the results of a century
and a half of oppressive Germaniz
ing, and was taken while all able
bodied Poles were absent, defending
their country. Upper Silesia has been
in a state of jnter-racial civil war,
which has caused postponement of
the vote arid which the allied army
of occupation has been unable to
suppress, and the Germans evidently
will resist the decision if it should
go against them. The allies have
used no military force to execute the
treaty except where their own na
tional interests were at stake.
When Mr. Harding takes office. It
will be incumbent on him and the
senate to decide what settlement of
all these quarrels shall be made in
the interest of the . United States.
Seeds of. future wars are being sown
in all the localities named, and
American interest requires that they
shall never yield a crop.
SAVING TIME.
Justification for stunt flying, such
as cost the lives of many aviators, is
found in the announcement by air
mail service officials that the per
formances of Omer Locklear are
soon to be duplicated as a routine
feature of commercial aviation.
Locklear' finally lost his life, as
sooner or later all do who persist in
making daring experiments, but he
showed how transfer from one plane
to another could be made, and with
safety devices that he would have
scorned it is now said that the feat
will be shorn of all danger. The
proposal that express planes flying
over cities shall be met by smaller
planes which will receive the local
mails, and also replenish the fuel
supplies of the larger flyers, indi
cates the lengths to which Ameri
cans will go to save a little time.
It brings perceptibly nearer the
non-stop flight from, coast -to coast,
which is one of the few unaccom
plished feats left for aviators to per
form. WHERE
DISCORD IS
TIONAL.
UNCONSTITU-
There is now a state in Europe
where music is by fundamental law
made a religious and social institu
tion: where art is likewise given first
place in instruction in the compul
sory school system and whose con
stitution was written by a poet.
There each citizen must be enrolled
in what is called a corporation but
which is as much a fraternal order
based on vocation as it is a political
body. There he who is in minor dif
ficulties, civil or criminal, goes not
before a matter of fact justice of the
peace but to the court of the good
men. There f undamentaL law is in
terpreted by the court of reasons,
not by a court of technicalities, and
the highest legislative body is eu
phoniously known as the council of
the best. Whether this poetic jewel
which has been left upon the sands
of time by the receding tide of war
shall survive, we do not know. But
it invites, while it lasts, the consider
ation of all lovers of the good and
the true and the beautiful.
Of course Gabriele d'Annunzio
wrote the constitution of Fiume,
otherwise called the Italian Regency
of Quarnero. It is a mixture of the
practical with ' flowery sentiment.
One who prefers the literary to the
matter of fact, will, if he knows what
is in store, hasten through the Cus
tomary bill of rights with its guar
antees of equality, free speech, uni
versal suffrage, and the like, to find
that among the fundamental princi
ples of this government of the people
is the declaration that Three reli
gious beliefs are exalted above all
others:
"Life is beautiful and worthy to be
lived earnestly and magnificently by
the man re-created by liberty:
"The re-created man Is he who
every day discovers some virtue for
his own needs, and who every day
has a new gift to offer to his
brothers;
"Labor, even the most humble and
the most obscuFe, if it is well done,
tends to beautify and embellish the
world."
Naught of music herein as a re
ligious and social institution.- But
wait. Run through, hastily if you
will, the sections providing for such
dry-as-dust rights as the initiative,
the referendum," the recall, and com
pensation in office, and you will find
in immediate association with these
prosy affairs a complete section de
voted to music.
"A great race," we are informed
therein, "is not only that race which
creates its god in its own image, but
that race which also knows how to
create its own hymn for its own god."
Pressing his theme, the poet-states
man puts forth as fundamental law
the argument that "if every re-birth
of a noble race is a lyric effort, if
every unanimous and creative senti
ment is a lyric power, if every or
ganization is a lyric organization in
the dynamic and impetuous sense of
the word, music considered as a rit
ual language is the exalting motive
of any action and of any creation in
life. Thus we see what a terrible
thing a musicians' strike may .be
come. But let no one infer that the
poet-statesman contemplated so sop
did an eventuality. It is the import
ance of music as a national institu
tion that has caused him to put
music first in the compulsory school
curriculum, and provide for great
choral and orchestral groups whose
celebrations shall be as free "as the
fathers of the church say about the
grace of God." So we read:
"As the crowing of the cock in
vokes daybreak, so does music in
voke dawn, excitat aurorum. Mean
while music finds its movement and
its utterance in the Instruments of
labor, in gain and in play, and in the
roaring machinery which also fol
lows as exact a rhythm as does
poetry. From its pauses is formed
the silence of the tenth corporation.'
All, as hereinbefore .stated, fol
lowing and being a part of that por
tion of the constitution devoted to
methods of constitutional revision,
the initiative, referendum and recall.
But in the pause which follows the
poet's tuneful declamation on music
we fancy we hear some one Inquire
what in time is the tenth corpora
tion whose silence is formed by the
music's pauses. Frankly we do not
know, although it is established and
defined in the same constitution.
There are' ten corporations. or
brotherhoods in Fiume, in On . of
which every citizen must enroll.' By
the way, persons whose taxes are in
arrears and "Incorrigible parasites"
are denied the rights of citizenship.
These fraternal corporations are
created on vocational lines that is.
nine of them. Seafaring men are
found in one. inland workmen in an
other, promoters or industry in a
thind and so on. In addition to mak
ing mutual aid a sacred obligation,
each corporation has political repre
sentation in the council of provlsors,
the lesser of the two legislative
houses, the upper house being called
the council of the best. That is to
say again, nine of the corporations
have political representation. The
tenth corporation seems to have no
representation except emblematic
and In the pauses of music.
"The tenth,'.' we - are told, "has
neither art, nor number, nor title
Its coming is expected like that of
the tenth muse. It Is reserved to
the mysterious forces of the people
in toil and attainment. It is almost
i a votive figure consecrated to the
unknown genius, to the apparition of !
the new man, to the ideal transfig-
uration of labor and time, to the
complete liberation of the spirit over
pain and" agony, over blood and
sweat. It is represented in the civic
sanctuary by .a burning torch upon I
which is inscribed an old Tuscan I
word of the time of the communes, a !
remarkable allusion to a spiritualized
form of human labor: 'Fatlca senza
fatica' Toil without toil."
Only the immortal seven who un
derstand the Einstein theory of rela
tivity are probably in on the meaning
of the tenth corporation. But what
ever it Is we guess it is a good thing.
There is more of poetry in the .con
stitution of Fiume. We should like,
for one thing, to tell about the col
lege of Ediles "chosen carefully
among men of pure taste, perfect
skill and modern education," and
more about the court of the good
men. But there are studies nearer
home that demand attention. There
is the appeal for higher rates by the
gas corporation, for example.
THEY WANT THEIR SHARE.
The answer to the question, "Why
do young men leave the farm?" may
not-after all be found in the state
ment that it Is because "social life"
is so utterly lacking. Growing sus
picion that the material rewards of
agriculture, by comparison with
those in other pursuits, may come
nearer to furnishing the real reason.
For example, a writer in the Out
look, himself the son of a farmer but
now living in town, summarizes the
yield of the 160-acre farm on which
he was reared, and on which his
father and he and his brothers toiled,
and discovers that, in a favorable
season, they might expect a gross in
come of about 4000, from which
there were to be deducted $2650 in
expenses (including labor cost and
interest on investment), leaving a
profit. of $1350 for the work of the
whole season. There were years
when the profit was greater, but not
Infrequently "a dry season threatened
to take away everything we had."
The matter of compensation, this
writer and some others seem to be
lieve, is the real issue. That the
social side of farm life will largely
regulate itself. If incentives of other
sorts are not lacking, is beginning to
be suspected by a new school of in
vestigators. "There was," says one
of these, "plenty of real sociability on
the farm in the pioneer days, when
people were without good roads,
rural mail delivery, telephones or
even easily-accessible school houses."
The barn-raising, which developed
the sense of co-operation, also fos
tered the social aspect of rural life.
The husking bee was another com
munity institution. The point sought
to be made by these students of rural
sociology is that in a community of
Americans that is relatively prosper
ous, a way will be found for "socia
bility" without officious meddling
from fhe outside.
But the towns did not then afford
advantages greatly in contrast with
those of the farm. There were no
electric lights or telephones in the
city, either; streets werfe muddy and
unkempt; employment was apt 'to be
uncertain and wages were compara
tively low. Farmers were at least as
well situated as their city cousins, al
though then as now the work was
back-breaking and its rewards un
certain. .
Contentment is a' relative term.
He, was a. true epigrammatist who
said that the standard of living in
America is "more." The basis on
which the farm . problem will be
settled will not be comparison with
the hardships of the pioneers in the
wilderness, but comparison with the
lot of other workers no more neces
sary to the country's welfare than
the'farmer is.
ARE HEROES WORTH WORSHIPPING?
Judge Landis is to dignify base
ball, and make it honest, if he can.
for the handsome sum of $50,000 a
year. One's first impression is that
it is a! great deal of money to pay
anyone, even juage Lanais, wno
deals in large figures, as witness his
$29,000,000 fine (never paid) of the
Standard Oil company. Besides, It
appears that the judge intends to
hold on to his present life job, pay
ing $7500 a year. But second
thought suggests that if Judge "Lan
dis succeeds, it will be money well
invested. What the gentlemen run
ning the baseball world are doing is
to pay $50,000 a year for a reputa
tion. Being sportsmen, they under
stand the value of it. So does Judge
Landis. That is the reason he asks
$50,000 a year.
Sportsmanship comes high, but
evidently we must have it. Jack
Dempsey (not the one and only
Jack) engages to knock the block
(borrowed from the sporting de
partment) off tho nifty Frenchman
Georges Carpentier, or to have his
own block knocked off, and thus
lose the world's pugilistic champion
ship, heavyweight. It is not much
of a block, and Dempsey could
doubtless get along very well with
out it, except for a provision of na
ture that everyone must have a
block, however superfluous or quad
rilateral it may be.
Yet we may err. Somebody with
great sagacity is looking after the
physical welfare of Mr. Dempsey,
and it may be himself. It is stipu
lated that, win or lose, he is to get
$300,000 in that championship fight.
and Carpentier is to receive $200,000,
whatever happens to him. Quite a
businesslike arrangement, we'll tell
the world. The fight is for a limited
number of rounds, and the prospects
are that it will all be over in a few
minutes with no great harm done to
the beauty. or physical contour .of
either gent. It was different in the
old days, before science intervened
to spare the features and save the
knuckles of the bruiser, and make
the profession safe, respectable and
profitable.
A long time ago, promoters of
fights they did not then call them
boxing contests or pugilistic bouts
hung up a purse, and hard-fisted
bruisers smashed, away at one an
other until both were bloody and
altogether unlovely, and until one
was knocked senseless or threw up
the sponge the elevation of the said
sponge being the inelegant token of
capitulation. The great-Heenan
Sayers fight for the championship of
the world was for $1000 a side; but
mighty was the glory for the winner.
The chief rewards of successful
pugilism were then that the cham
pions had the patronage of their
social betters. There is a different
story today. In the past twenty-five
years pugilism has been retrieved
from the secret rendezvous, away
.from the eyes and arms of the 'law,
and placed in the full light of public
countenance. Here and there it is
under the ban, but, generally speak
ing, the "boxing contest" is ap
proved, though the championship
' fight has occasional difficulty in
'finding a haven. - The sate receipts
of the Dempsey-Willard fight on
July 4, 1919, are said to have been
$452,522, and of the Johnson-Jeffries
encounter in 1910, $275,755. It
pays real money nowadays to be a
world champion, or to look and act
like a champion.
Babe Ruth, the knock-'em-out
home-runner of the Brooklyn base
ball team, was purchased from Bas
ton for $100,000, or more; and his
salary is probably $15,000 or $20,000
a year. It is said that the peerless
Daisman got iuv,uuu lor playing in
the movies and he received recently
considerable pin money for appear
ing in exhibition games. The presi
dent of the United States is paid
$75,000 per year, but of course he
could not put over a home run on
any ball field. Nor would he do
well in a twenty-four-foot ring. All
the people require in a president is
that he have a capacity for political
generalship and qualities of intel
lectual, spiritual and moral leader
ship, which make him pre-emnient
in the world of affairs, in war and
in peace, and that he should be will
ing and capable, besides, to carry the
burdens of a whole people, and at
times of other peoples. Only that.
Nothing more. A congressman is
paid $7500 per year, and all but
starves to death, 'owing to the de
mands on him, unless he has other
resources. Yet "there are many peo
ple anxious to suffer the pains and
penalties of service in congress.
Could better men be had at better
pay? Or are the men we have at
$7500 good enough? They may not
be good enough, all of them, but we
doubt if the personnel of congress
would be improved by increasing
their compensation. It might be
done by lowering it.
Charlie Chaplin might be men
tioned In this connection, and Doug
las Fairbanks and Mary Pickford
and other richly-paid and more or
less justly popular motion picture
stars. Why do not the magnates of
the movie world get together on a
grand scheme to hire a Judge Landis
of their own as a censor ef morals,
an arbiter of private conduct, a pa
cificator and adjuster of domestic
difficulties? Possibly Mr. McAdoo.
who gave the picture promoters legal
advice for a year or two, at $100,000
per annum, would do it for a com
paratively modest stipend.
It is easy to say that $300,000 for
a fight Is too much for Dempsey, or
for any other who barely escaped the
slacker class in the late war, or
$1,000,000 per annum too much for
Charlie Chaplin, who cut off his
starving wife with a beggarly
$200,000. or whatever they get too
much for Doug and Mary, who
found life too intolerable for endur
ance until they got rid of their re
spective spouses and were safe and
happy in each other's arms. It is
easy to say, but not so easy to regu
late, so long as the public continues
to pay the price of admission any
price to see its heroes and heroines.
Their day of fame does not last long.
Soon there will be others. The fickle
public will have forgotten them. Let
us be grateful that the fickle public
is a fickle public. If it were stead
fast, we should have Jack and
Charlie and Doug and Mary and
Babe on our hands as long as they
live.
A QCIN'irjENNL4X PROTEST.
It was inevitable in the nature of
the question at issue that "people who
regard the decisions of the electors
of the hall of fame seriously should
be engaged in another controversy
over the merits of the electors' most
recent conclusions. There are 102
electors, and there were thirty niches
waiting to be filled. Two conditions
of election, however, were that the
successful candidate, if in a prelim
inary scrutiny by the electors of his
division he had been rated as "most
justly famous," needed to receive a
majority only of all the votes cast
by the entire electorate; otherwise a
two-thirds vote was required. The
result was that although a total of
1853 votes (of a possible 2020) were
cast for men who had been placed
In nomination, and 474 (of an eli
gible 1010) for women candidates,
only five men and one woman re
ceived the requisite majority. Elec
tors neither exercised their full
rights of suffrage nor were able to
agree in any substantial sense on
what constitutes valid claim to fame.
The storm this year-" breaks over
the heads of Samuel Langhorne
Clemens and Alice Freeman Palmer.
Mark Twain, -say the critics, was not
the true representative of lofty
American literature, and it is ob
jected that Mrs. Palmer, though she
did a good deal to raise the plane of
education for women, overcame no
fundamental obstacles such as, in
the judgment of these critics, gave a
prior right to such pioneers of femi
nine advancement as Susan B. An
thony, Lucy Stone Blackwell, Doro
thea Dix, Lucretia Mott and Mrs.
Stanton. Each of these names was
submitted to the electorate, but none
received a majority. In immediate
competition with Mrs. Freeman as
an educator, the name of Sarah
Boardman Judson appeared on the
ballot. If the former owes election
to her work as an author rather than
as a teacher, the rival claims, of as
formidable a company present them
selves. There were, for example, the
names of Louisa M. Alcott. Abigail
Adams, the Cary sisters, Margaret
Fuller, and a number of others; and
it probably will only add fuel to the
flame to disclose that Miss Alcott in
fact received four more votes than
the . successful candidate, but was
not chosen owing to technical com
plications in the mechanism of
choice. Yet much of the acrimony
already evident as the result of omis-'
sions here would have been fore
stalled if the electors had done their
full duty. The nine vacant places in
the women's hall of fame are the
true cause of many heartburnings.
The unpostponed triumph of Mark
Twain in the first quinquennium of
his eligibilitiy constitutes a coinci
dence of academic and popular opin
ion such as does not very often at
tend these hall of fame elections.
Twain's own whimsical pretense that
he wrote for the "masses," rather
than for the cultured, did not dis
qualify him as an interpreter of
American humor in one of America's
most solemn periods. Twain's fame
would have been secure without the
formality of election.
The hall has in the past inclined
noticeably toward literary attain
ment as the measure of celebrity,
but if this has been a fault it ap
pears that the effort to correct it
may have been responsible ffr some
of the failure to find a full quota in
other departments. . Prior to this
year, thirteen authors had been
elected, by comparison with only
eleven rulers and statesmen, and
this year only one has been added in
each classification. Mark Twain is
one, and the other is Patrick Henry,
whose "Give me liberty or give, me
death" long ago marked him as a
master interpreter of the spirit of a
rreeaom-ioving peopie. out ukioi
were others who might have been
honored also, William Penrf among
them, of the elder statesmen, and
John Hay of mort recent fame. Year
by year Samuel Adams creeps up in
the balloting ,and Grover Cleveland,
still the object of some partisan re
sentment, has at length achieved the
distinction of "most justly famoueT.
John Jay, without whose service the
administration of Washington might
have been a less glorious page in our
history, still awaits another turn,
though in the distinguished compan
ionship of others who undoubtedly
left an impress on our institutions.
In two decades since the hall was
established, only two educators (in
a nation passionately devoted to edu
cation) have been chosen, and only
four scientists, though Americans
have a wealth of scientific achieve
ment to their credit, and there is not
yet a single missionary or explorer
deemed worthy of a niche. In the
balloting .recently concluded, it is
not without significance that fewer
than half a dozen educators received
any consideration, and that only one
of these, Francis Wayland, a note
worthy reformer, received as many
as thirteen votes. Science still fails
of the recognition it deserves. Only
thirteen votes for Samuel Pierpont
Langley,.but for whose pioneer work
In aerodynamics there probably
would be a different story-to tell of
the whole science of aviation, are
eloquent of the failure of the elec
tors to see his achievements in their
true perspective. Precisely the num
ber of votes recorded' for Langley
was given for the author of "Leaves
of Grass," and nine more were cast
for Noah Webster, who compiled the
dictionary. Yet it is worth something
to discover, for the first time, in the
list of the successful the names of
an engineer and a physician. James
Buchanan Eads fairly wins his hon
ors, and Dr. Morton, though his
name revives an old controversy,
stands as the symbol of the discovery
which he was first to exploit pub
licly. Of inve Aors, none- having
been chosen in 1920, the hall still
holds only four Fulton. Whitney,
Morse and Howe. Only four jurists
have been chosen Marshall, Kent,
Story and Rufus Choate and this
year's ballot does not add to the
number. For twenty years Charles
Gilbert Stuart has stood alone in the
department devoted to music, paint
ing and sculpture, to which the name
of Augustus Saint-Gaudens has just
been added.
Few will begrudge, we think, the
laurel voted to Roger Williams. It is
an incidentally interesting fact that
no portrait of the great champion of
religious liberty has been handed
down, and that the popular notion of
how he looked is founded solely on
the idealistic conception of the artist
who In 1872 made the statue of him
which now stands in the rotunda of
the capitol at Washington.
At the speed attained by the
French aviator, De Roumanet, of
192.04 miles an hour, a man might
encircle the globe in five days. As
an Imaginative writer Jules Verne
was a piker. He thought he had ex
ceeded human probability when he
made Phineas Fogg do it in eighty
days.
According to 'Captain Amundsen,
wages of $1500 a month are prohibi
tive in Arctic exploration. Discov
ering new continents may have to
revert to the old ways, when men ex
plored for the love of the game.
In deciding on Judge Kenesaw
Mountain Landis for baseball dic
tator, the magnates may have re
called how he qualified as umpire in
connection with Standard Oil.
Although those weather prophets
are traditionally set in their opin
ions, they must admit that the
chances for that open winter are
rapidly fading away.
Russia isn't the only country
where they need vodka as an aid to
pronunciation. News comes from
Scotland that Auchtermuchty has
gone "wet."
To the problem of what shall be
done with oar ex-presldents is added
every four years the question what
the defeated candidates shall do with
themselves.
It seems that Charley Chaplin,
whose wife accuses him of cruelty. Is
solicitous for his good name chiefly
in the professional sense of the term.
After Mr. Harding has made that
speech at New Orleans Louisiana
will be sorrier than ever that she
didn't help to make it unanimous.
New Jersey democrats are more
lonesome than those in Oregon. Only
one of them was elected to the house
of representatives of that state.
The near-Thanksgiving season is a
peculiarly appropriate time to give
a thought to the starving babies of
central Europe.
Tho Pilgrim memorial half-dollar
will be sold for a dollar, and as usual
will purchase about a quarter's
worth of goods.
Declines in the market for raw
sugar will not, of course, interest
1 those who customarily take their
sugar cooked.
Of course nobody expected cheaper
turkeys this Thanksgiving, but a lot
of folks will be disappointed over not
getting them.
Still It will take a fertile imagin
ation to construe the ban on home
brew as an assault on the sanctity of
the home.
The returns frcJm. the gridiron
now supersede the returns from the
polls.
L'NSUSTAINED.
He freely gave advice In accents
weighty, slow.
No matter what arose the egoist would
know, .
(Or thought he did) just how to do
or act
Could always tell another what be
lacked.
And yet, his life was lived a petty
round.
Though ready with advice he ne'er
had found .
The modTis operandi of adapting It
His inner lamp of application was
unlit.
An act (we're told) speaks louder
than a word -If
so, achievement is the thing that's
heard.
And like a message o'er .a discon
nected phone,
Advice, when unsustained, will Carry
not alone.
JANETTE MARTIN.
BY-PRODUCTS OP THE TIMES I
Lane County Rancher Floats) Lsmbfr
. . . . for Hone Miles on Sea. I
When H. P. Larsen. a rancher of
Heceta, on the coast in the western
end of Lane county, decided to erect a
new residence on his place this fall he
was in a quandary as to how to trans
port . the lumber from the nearest
sawmill to his ranch, the rains hav
ing rendered the dirt roads in the
mountains In that section of the
county impassable for heavy loads.
He finally decided upon a plan
whereby he could get his lumber on
the ground quite cheaply, although he
realized that he ran a good chance of I
losing all of it. He evolved a scheme
of building a raft of the lumber,
floating it from Waldport,' 25 miles
north of the ranch, to a point oppo
site the place and when the tide was
right to loosen the fastenings of the
raft and allow the tide to carry the
lumber ashore. He engaged two. men
of Acme ,with a gasoline launch, they
made the trip to Waldport, the raft
was built and everything was in read
iness for tha trip back when a storm
came up. The sea did not calm suffi
ciently to make the return trip for
three weeks, but finally better weath
er came and the raft was set afloat.
The trio war m n a without incident I
and when the raft reached the proper
point the lumber was loosened and
the tide carried every stick of it to
shore, landing it high and dry, and
Mr. Larsen and his neighbors gath
ered it up and had it out of the way
of the next tide. He is now at work
upon his new residence,. Cottage
Grove Sentinel.
On the Hebrides islands are thou
sands of so-called "black houses,"
having neither chimney nor window,
a single door serving for ingress and
egress, to admit light and air and to
get rid of smoke.
A peat fire is kept burning day
and night and is, in spite of the
smoke, the savior of the household.
The straw roof does not keep out the
rain and almost necessitates "box
beds," according to Dr. W. Leslie
MacKenzi-e of the Carnegie United
Kingdom Trust, who Investigated
them and who says the "bjlack houses"
are the outgrowth of needs closely
related to the welfare of the primitive
communities in which they are found.
The stones are from the moor; tim
ber is from the sea: lime mortar is
expensive; the roof must be moulted
every year and there the walls must
be low, since gales also are high.
At every point the house is adapted
to its fundamental purpose, and while
the visitor may dismiss it as un
worthy of savages, it turns out to
be a product of long labor and sacri
fice, a fundamental part of the only
system of agriculture formerly found
possible in this island of gneiss rock,
clay and peat moss. It is a part of
the price that a people of immense
ability and high character must pay
for their civilization. Detroit News
The United States fisheries bureau
is going fishing for eels, south of
Cape Hatteras, where they are numer
ously found in autumn. The object
in view is to obtain definite infor
mation in regard to their spawning
grounds.
Eels do not breed in fresh water.
All of the myriads of them found In
our streams and lakes were originally
hatched In the sea. They are by
origin marine fishes.
When very young they do not look
in the least like the eels with which
we are familiar. They are flat and
ribbon-like. This is a larval stage
of development. When they have
assumed adult form they leave the
sea and run up into the rivers.
When big enough to breed they go
back to the sea, and there the females
lay their eggs. Thus the cycle of
their lives is accomplished. One un
derstands, then, why there were no
eels in Lake Erie until they were
planted there. They could not climb
over the Niagara cataract.
Baby pels were caught in deep sea
dredges many years before they were
recognized as eels, their appearance
being so different. Even now very
little is known about their spawning
grounds, and hence the contemplated
Investigation.
m
There was much mystery about a
perpetual motion machine, set up as
a sign and advertisement over a street
in Los Angeles not long ago. It had
the form of a huge wheel that re
volved slowly all day and all night,
being driven by a number of metal
balls which ran along spokes from
the center to the circumference and
back.
Gravity was supposed to furnish the
power, and thus the machine could go
on forever without depending upon
any other source of energy. Unfor
tunately, however, there came a day
when the city's electrical plant was
shut down for repairs and the wheel
stopped turning.
m
Recognition of the serious rise in
the cost of jade is shown in the sub
stitutes that are being made for it.
The best of these is a composition in
which crystal with other minerals is
used, and a beautiful material of a
clear shade of tlons, with pendants
in the form of jade ornaments, made
of celluloid, colored a deep green.
,
Tou can tell at a glance out of the
window any day between now and
spring what countryman is going to
prosper next year. You will see him
riding on top of a load of manure.
Tile other fellow is down in front of
the court house trying to save the
nation by talking politics. Boulder
(Colo.) Camera.
The toughest American wood is
that of the Osage orange, which is
not an orange at all, but belongs to
the nettle family. This has been
proved by a series of tests made by
the United States forest service, but
the Indians knew It before the com
ing of the white man. and it was
known to them as the bow tree, be
cause they used it for making their
finest bows. Some Idea of its strength
may be had from a report made not
long ago by the forest service, which
shows that a block 30 inches long
and two inches by two inches in
cross-section when bent breaks under
a stress of 13,660 pounds, its nearest
rival being a variety of the hickory
called the monkey-nut. When bent
by the impact of a 100-pound ham
mer, it stands a stress of" 15.520
pounds, certain sugar maples and the
honey locust being its nearest rivals.
Its only rival in hardness is the
honey locust.
Voices Three.
By Grace E. Hall..
Three, voices speatc to happy youth
When still the heart is clean.
With certainty and ring of truth.
Through many a changing scene; "
And on the record of the brain
Each leaves impressive tone.
That ever calls although in valn
On sunlit paths, or lone.
Faith whispers that this life is good.
And that all men are fair.
That they have done the best they
could
Considering their care;
It says that hearts are strong and
Kind,
And that in times of stress
A loyalty you'll surely find
To comfort and to bless.
The years, like fingers of the nurse
Who bares the bandaged eyes.
Shall lift the veil with comment terse.
And strip the thin disguise:
Then Hope shall come with pleading
face "
To ask that Faith remain.
But both shall fail to quite erase
The sting of life's first pain.
For man, no longer an ideal.
Shall shrink through plainer view.
No more endowed with fine appeal
To thrill the young heart through;
And Cynicism then shall paint
Upon the lips of youth
A bitter tracery, thoutrh faint.
! To mock th "nes of truth.
But there's a voice with accents low
That answers all life's jeers.
And on all paths that men must go
It's whisper ever cheers;
It says that hearts beneath the crust
Of coldness, hate and sin
May still respond to Hope and Trust
When human love creeps in.
There is a healing in the sound
That soothes each aching heart.
And he who speeds the word
found
A balm for his own smart;
For though Faith sicken yea,
die!
And Hope, despairing, flee.
Full may a soul will still its cry
When soothed by Charity.
has
and
BRAVE MOTHERS.
(Dedicated to the mothers of Oregon's
Soldiers.)
The mothers of men march "by today;
They've hung with Old Glory the
great highway;
And. gay is the way, like a royal
track.
They march on bravely, nor ne'er turn
back.
All honor to them as they march by.
With no heart-sadness nor tear
dimmed eye.
To be seen by those who, standing,
wait
For the mothers to pass in 'regal
state.
No army and navy need lead the way
For these staunch, brave mothers who
, march today
Over our city and over the world;
None will be found braver
Where our flag is unfurled.
They are tho mothers of men who
have gone
Into the jaws of death with smilo and
with song.
J Could you trample, brave mothers,
The world's great unrest, and find for
all peace.
Sweet peace, the world's . greatest
guest.
JUNE McMULLAN OR D WAT.
FROSTED LEAVES.
Too many gaze upon yon mount
Where truth and fancy meet
And fail to note the bubbling fount
A-sparkling at their feet;
It seems the luscious fruit hangs
high
Upon tho utmost bough.
And far away, the distant sky
Seems lovelier somehow.
I recollect when but a boy
I climbed an apple tree:
The fruit thereon was a decoy
Yet looked the best to me:
While all around upon the grass
The ruddy Pippins lay.
But I let all the prize ones pass
And scaled the tree that day.
When way up in the very top
That looked fine from the ground,
I lost my footing took a flop,
And cam down with a bound.
While lying there quite bruised and
sore
On the grass beside the fence,
I gazed up at the tree once more
With mind more dazed than dense.
And up among the branches there
Bright red leaves I could see
That swaying in the Autumn air
Appeared to apples be.
And so as on through life we go
It's often proven true
That things assume a different show
When seen from a closer view.
M. C. ARMSTRONG.
'WHERE GOD IS.
The stately fir In forests dir
A hundred feet stretch up
to Him
The mountain peak long ages old
Uplifts its head, serene and cold.
The church spire points the upward
way.
And leads men onward day by day.
Our hearts seek God in reverent love
And look, for Him in Heaven above.
But God is not so far away.
He's close beside us all the way.
I saw Him twice but yesterday.
Once in a little child at play.
Then in a mother's tender face.
For where love is, there God
has
place.
EMEROI STACY.
A PROTEST.
"Man is sometimes roaster of his
fate "
Ah, futile boast is that! In vain
Tho human puppet gambles for his
gain.
He struggles blindly in his love
and hate.
To move the universe, and baffle
destiny.
How puny is that endless round of
strife!
What gains arc worthy of such
play
Of human souls? For with each wan
ing day.
The tired world slumbers, and the
petty life
Of man is swept away or saved, at
Fate's decree.
LOIS SMITH.
IN THE OPiJ.-V.
Give me to live in the open land.
For there a deeper blue is in the sky.
And sweeter there the winds that
wander by
Than townfolk understand.
And sweeter is the merry strain
Of the wilding woodbird in the soli
tude; And sweeter laughter has the flash
ing flood.
And softer falls the silver rain.
A sweeter life, a sweeter love,
A lighter heart within the pilgrim
breast.
And when the sun has dropped into
the west
A deeper sleep within the grove.
VE&XE BRIGHT.
!