THE SUNDAY OfeEGONIAY PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 21, 1920
, established by henry r. pittock. I
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PRICES OF IHE, SOW AND THE
To the multitudes who follow,
with interested intensity, the price
fluctuation in household commodi
ties, a definite opinion has dawned.
Perceiving- the downward trend,
gradual but clearly defined, in the
hundred and one items that make
for salvage or depletion in the fam
ily budget, they have been encour
aged to the belief that prices will be
even lower than they are at present.
This is a pleasant thought to those
who felt the pinch of profiteering,
and it is most devoutly to be hoped
that no rude awakening will prove
it chimerical. "Yet only an under
standing of the existing price de
cline, compassing both its cause and
probable effect, will avail to point
the course that citizens should steer
if they are hereafter to avoid the
shoals of excessive costs.
It is generally conceded that, with
the flush of an easy prosperity upon
the nation, and the effect of the
country-wide spending spree yet
noticeable in family finances, it was
the average citizen who halted prof
iteering and even legitimately high
prices by the institution of a "buy
er's boycott" or "strike." Before high
wages had waned, or the 'stress of
occasional unemployment was felt,
the individual purchaser returned to
sanity and asserted that, come what
might, expenditures were to be held
at a minimum until a price level ap
proximating that of the pre-war
period was reached. Against this
national sentiment manufacturers
and wholesalers fought adroitly for
some months, advancing . serried
ranks of argument to prove that an
Immediate recession in living costs
was economic impossibility. There
were the inflated payrolls, in many
Instances double those of four years
ago, to be taken into account, and
the stubborn stability of raw ma
terials. But In the end, as was certain to
be the case when consumers lift the
gage of battle, prices fell in the
midst of a wild melee that bore some
of the characteristics of a stampede.
Affrighted jobbers, their warehouses
stuffed with goods bought on the ris
ing market for future profit, made
haste to unload and to cancel the
further orders with the manu
facturer. The renowned Humpty
Dumptyj in his ralsfortunate descent,
may have dropped more speedily
than did war era living costs but
without creating greater consterna
tion than that which prevailed in
jobbing and manufacturing circles
when the "buyer's boycott" brought
down the bacon, so to speak. It
must not be assumed that these con
cerns were allied in a plot to main-
tain prices. The public in folly had
reared them high, and in dudgeon it
brought them low.
Retailers compute the price de
cline, since its altitude record of last
January, at a general average of 25
per cent. The dollar that goes to
market is invigorated to just that ex
tent. There are items, of common
demand, that have not decreased to
the average, of course, and there are
others that have slumped far below
it. But the rehabilitated dollar is to
the purchaser a sign and symbol of
better days to come, and he looks
with undiminished confidence to
ward a time when its present buying
power will be doubled. Therein rests
the reason why the offerings of the
present are met with an element of
indifference by the public the eter
nally sanguine and only recently
cautious consumer.
Item by item, with but few ex
ceptions, the commodity lists reveal
more than a tendency to make truce
with the purchaser. Almost it could
be called capitulation. Dress goods
that sold for 45 cents a yard ten
months ago are now offered at 25
cents; stockings that were haughtily
offered at half a dollar are now on
the bargain counter at a 50 per cenfr
reduction. Suits that sold last Jan
uary for J 45 and that was account
ed a genuine sacrifice are now
tagged with the far more moderate
price of $25, while silk shirts have
made precipitate retreat from $17 to
$S. And speaking of silk shirts, now
spurned and unregarded, they will
be well remembered as the badge of
easy money not more than a year
ago. How are the vanities fallen!
Hams the selected running gear
of prize porkers, sugar-cured and
savory were by families of modest
means regretfully passed by a brief
twelve-month ago. The price was
6! cents a pound and almost pro
hibitively epicurean. Striving against
the onslaught of economy the better
half of breakfast "ham and " has
retreated to 41 cents and is plainly
desirous of an armistice. Flour has
declined almost 33 1-3 per cent, and
everyone knows what happened to
sugar. Even such items as tooth
paste and safety razor blades held
the bridge but feebly for a time, and
left it to some more trenchant
Horatius.
The department of labor, its sta
tistical fingers upon the pulse of
prices, discovered that retail food
'costs decreased 3 per cent in the
monthly period marked by Septem
ber 15 to October 15, while wholesale
food prices during the same month
declined 8 Vi per cent. The diver
gency in decline, here evidenced, in
dicates that cost decreases reach the
public but slowly a fact that should
not awaken suspicious alarm, but
that is largely due to the higher cost
of the unexhausted stocks yet on the
market. Lower prices in the imme
diate future may be safely predicted
from this situation.
. Such is the analysis, necessarily
brief, of the retail market of the
1 present. But the economic factors
which contribute to that condition.
and which will affect for better or
worse the markets of tomorrow, are
admittedly nebulous. He Is a rare
bird among retailers who will ven
ture the prediction, even while his
sales are advertised, that the exist-
oaies cli c aueinw:u, Lii&i tiic
jng price decline will continue
or that it will not be ha
its
halted
and Reversed to another rising mar
ket. For the comparative abrupt
ness with which high-cost-of-living
was brought to a standstill and later
forced to retreat has exercised a
dubious effect upon the maufactur
ing industry
Cancelled orders closed many of
the larger mills and reduced others
to half-time production, while job
bers sought strenuously to save their
own financial, skins. The situation
so created may react against the
public welfare, for if these mills
engaged in the production of univer
sal commodities are not gradually
returned to their full stride, then a
second and higher price reversal
may be confidently forecast. There
will come a time when the stocks of
the jobbers are exhausted, and when
even the normal demands of the
country will serve to deluge the
manufacturers with such a flood of
orders as to bring about the natural
effect of largely increased prices.
The moral seems plainly indicated.
It is that even a "buyer's boycott"
may be carried a trifle too far, de
feating ultimately its own 1 purpose.
Sane, conservative marketing in the
present will not restore inflated
costs, nor halt the downward trend.
But a stubborn faiths in greatly de
creased costs, backed by refusal to
buy until commodities are even
lower, may disturb the economic bal
ance with disastrous results. One
would naturally dislike to feather
the shaft that brought down his own
pocket-book. '
THE t'NSHATTERED SOUTH.
The landslide engulfed some 119
members of the lower house of con
gress, including Champ Clark; and
most of them will never be heard
from again. The republicans will
have more than twice as many mem
bers as the democrats a majority
of 179 and some of these will never
be heard from again; for as soon as
the political equilibrium is restored
some old-timers who fell by the way
side will be re-elected, and some
newcomers will go back to private
life, and sit down to stay.
It is interesting to note that the
congressional delegations of such
great states as Illinois, Ohio and
Indiana are solidly republican, while
Pennsylvania has but one or two
democrats and New Jersey has but
one. Of the sixteen members from
the ordinarily democratic state of
Missouri thirteen are republican
and rock-ribbed Oklahoma gives six
republicans . and two democrats.
Michigan has one democrat among
sixteen members and Massachusetts
two democrats out of sixteen. Thus
the northern and border states are
saved from universal black repub
licanism. But the reverse of the picture is
found in the -south, though it suf
fered a slight fracture in Tennessee
and Missouri.- No republican land
slide is able to make the slightest
dent in the stark democracy of Ala
bama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louis
iana, Mississippi, North" Carolina and
South Carolina, though one repub
lican did slip -through in Texas and
another in Virginia. The Solid
South is shaken but not shattered.
It will be solid again and remain
solid, so long as It is impervious to
new ideas and impulses and so long
as it lives in apprehension of negro
domination.
It is a discouraging spectacle. It
is the last surviving- monument of
sectionalism, and a formidable and
ugly one. If it should find its coun
terpart in the north, where every
state should be and remain repub
lican, just as the south stays demo
cratic, the future of the Union would
be dubious.
THE COST OF DISEASE.
The review of the work of the
Rockefeller Foundation by its presi
dent. Dr. George E. Vincent, gives
a clear idea of the practical as well
as the humanitarian value of ' the
Foundation's efforts to stamp out
diseases of the kind that require
community co-operation for their ex
tinction. The work is broadly as
well as technically an educational
one. It is shown, for illustration,
that 800,000.000 inhabitants of the
globe live within the zone of possible
malaria, which in many regions is
attended by an exceedingly high
mortality rate. It is estimated that
in India alone there are more than
1,200,000 deaths annually from this
cause. But the mortality record
does not tell the whole story. The
proportion of victims who are seri
ously incapacitated is large. Many
are unable to earn a living; poverty"
tends to loss of ambition and ham
pers efforts to organize against the
disease; the vicious circle remains
unbroken.
The accounts of work done in
some communities in which anti
malaria campaigns have awakened
the people not to their peril, of
which they already were aware, but
to the fact that the remedy is in
their own hands give added inter
est to the report. It has been shown
to be wholly practical to exterminate
the anopheles mosquito, by which
alone malaria is communicated, from
a given locality. Stagnant pools are
drained, minnows are planted in
ponds to consume the eggs of the
mosquitos, and small pools that can
not be drained are covered with
films of crude petroleum. Screening
of houses has been widely advocated,
and help has been given to poor peoT
pie who could not afford to buy
screens. There is no mystery about
the process, but it is not surprising
to learn that there has been much
opposition to overcome. Difficulty
has been heightened by the circum
stance that it has been necessary to
rely on enlightened public opinion
almost exclusively. The states in
which malaria prevails most exten
sively are backward in enactment
and enforcement of laws regulating
health.
Fortunately there are two note
worthy object lessons ready at hand.
The work of the late General Gorgas
in the Panama canal zone made a
practically complete job of getting
rid of yellow fever and malaria, the
former like the latter being a mos
quito-borne disease. The more gener
ally it is understood that but for this
it would have been impossible to
complete the isthmian canal, and
that what has been done in the
canal zone can De oone in . any
American neighborhood, the easier
will be the task of the authorities.
Several years ago the scientists of
the Foundation expressed belief that
the day would come when the world
would be free of both these maladies.
The latest report indicates that the
time is almost here. The one factor
necessary is teamwork. Every ma
laria or fever-ridden community
holds its fate in its own hands.
The scope of the Foundation's ac
tivities has been large, covering
thirty-nine countries and many
states. Hookworm is prevalent in
thirteen southern states and in
Brazil, China and Central America.
Plainly the task of ridding the
world of communicable disease is
too large for any philanthropical
organization, however richly en
dowed, unless the people respond.
It is a fact that can be taken
at full value, however, that Peru, one
of the last to receive proof of the
efficacy of modern methods, has
adopted methods more drastically
effective than have some of. the
states in our own country.
DEATHS FROM SHEER TOLLY.
A few years ago, when the Lower
Columbia highway was yet in embryo,-
and its exact route had not
been determined, a controversy arose
over the location from Scappoose to
West St. Helens (Houlton), in
Columbia county. The old main road
crossed the tracks of the Astoria
railroad at Scappoose. and pursued
a somewhat winding course for seven
or eight miles to the county seat at
St. Helens. Thence again it tra
versed the rails, and got west of the
railroad, and after another divaga
tion to the other side and back this
ftme by the fortunate medium of
overhead crossings took its uninter
rupted way on the city by the sea.
Between Scappoose and St. Helens
there are five or six lateral roads,
crossing the railroad at grade to
reach the old highway and, if the
new highway had been built there.
the dangerous practice of getting
from one side of a railroad to the
other at the ground level would
have been made permanent.
Simon Benson was heard from
Few persons had supposed that any
one would dare to challenge the local
,pride and interest oC an Important
county Dy proposing to Duna a mam
road so as to avoid its official center.
Yet Mr. Benson did it; and his action
in this instance was one of the first
conspicuous demonstrations of the
far-sightedness and the courage of
that remarkable man. He insisted
that the highway should find a new
location along the west side of the
railroad, from Scappoose on, and
when he was told that it was a waste
of money, for it would cost $50,000,
he said he would pay everything out
of his own pocket above $5000. It
is interesting to recall, also, that in
this attitude, and in his financial of
fer as well, he was joined by Mr. J,
ts. leon, who has a mind and a
method of his bwn; but it has usually
been in general harmony with Mr.
Benson's.
The Benson-Yeon project, at first
strenuously opposed, finally pre
vailed, because it was sensible and
safe, and it is likely enough that
more than one life has been saved
because the highway is where is
and its feeders do not now invite the
always present risks of grade-crossings.
The mind goes back to this inci
dent when it encounters the ghastly
record of grade-crossing accidents
on the Southern Pacific road alone
Between January 1, 1918, and Sep
tember 1, 1920, one hundred and
twenty-six (126) people lost their
lives and five hundred and. thirty
eight (538) were injured in trage
dies, most, if not all, of them pre
ventable, on the Southern Pacific
system. The fault is, of course, not
primarily with the railroad, but with
the motor-driving public.
In the state of Oregon alone there
are more than 100,000 motor cars of
all kinds, and there are probably
200,000 drivers of all kinds. Only a
small percentage of them are skilled;
the great majority are amateurs to
whom the propulsion of a car is a
mere avocation or pastime. Auto
mobiling is here to stay, and thpre
can be no expectation, in an occupa
tion so universal, that there will be
a much higher average of efficiency
among automobilists. The only re
course is to provide all possible
safeguards; and one of them is ab
solute elimination of the grade cross
ing, or of gates and watchmen where
elimination is not practicable.
FOB THE "SERVICE OF THE STATE."
A curiously medieval conception
of the purpose of education is re-
ealed by Henry Arthur Jones, the
author, who made a vigorous protest
to the British minister of education
while the bill to expand the British
system of popular education was un
der consideration in parliament, and
who has elaborated his objections
into a book.' He holds that the war
has brought England - face to face
with "many iron and cruel realities,'
and that as a consequence it will be
necessary for a long time to come to
give more thought to the welfare of
the state and less" to the desires of
individuals. Wherefore "we must
not give all our children, or even the
majority of them, that education
which we would desire to give them
in their own individual interest, and
which would most thoroughly de
velop their mental powers," because,
Mr. Jones fears, this would only
foment dissatisfaction. He would.
on the contrary, furnish them only
'with just that education which will
make them most useful servants of
the state."
l, said a King or France, am
the state." It is easier to imagine an
ancient satrap holding- the belief that
interests of "state" and people are
dissimilar than a thinker in modern
times. Czars have feared that edu
cation might breed discontent fatal
to their own aspirations, but popular
education rests on a different basis.
The idea that discontent is the re
sult of education may be founded on
a wrong kind of education or on a
faulty premise of another sort. For
example, assumption that "85 per
cent of the population have to earn
their living by manual labor" and
that "we are educating about 85 per
cent in such a way that they will
hate and avoid manual labor" is
probably j. pure misreading of sta
tistics. The old habit of confounding
manual labor with labor requiring
no skill is strangely persistent. The
proportion of labor that would not
be lightened, at the same time that
it is made more efficient, by training
diminishes constantly. Only a few
jobs remain in which brain is not
desirable as well as brawn. Mr.
Jones' description of conditions in
his own country may be pertinent to
the situation there although it is
doubtful but it is hardly true of
America. He says:
.v early every. manual woricer in the king
dom is In angry rebellion against his loh
does not merely take no pride in doing it
well, but hates it. shirks it. perform It
only by the stimulus of computation or
the lure of bribery: performs it not as a
duty and a service to the community, but
as a means of taxing the community of
whom the Immense majority are his fellow
workers.
If this is true, the phenomenon
J cannot be justly ascribed to educa
tion, for unrest is world-wide; nor is
dissatisfaction with the job peculiar
to the present generation. More un
rest than is popularly supposed may
be due to lack of ability of the
worker to do his work- well. The
square peg in the round, hole is a
proverbial trouble breeder, and this
it is a part of the mission of "edu
cation to remedy. Repair of the
damage done by war will not be fa
cilitated by putting a check on com
petency. The fact that it. is more
difficult to fill joos requiring train
ing than those which call only for
undirected muscular exertion is at
tested by employers generally.
In greater degree than in America
the Institutions of higher learning in
Great Britain have held to the aca
demic traditions of the past. A kind
of education frankly dissociated
from so-called practical affairs has
become the mistaken symbol of edu
cation as a whole. The flaw here is
not in the principle but in its appli
cation. There is vocational as well
as cultural education, though the
latter ought not to be excluded from
the former, and the schools still have
a good deal to do to overcome ig
norance such as always has been a
bane to growth of the modern state.
There are moral values in education
which the British author seems to
Ignore; and his error is in condemn
ing the whole, rather than in en
couraging its development along
lines defined by modern experience.
A SOBEL PRIZE WINKER.
The mantle of Bjornsterne Bjorn-
son fell on the shoulders of a for
mer conductor of an American street
car when the 1919 Nobel prize for
literature was belatedly awarded the
other day to Knut Hamsun of Chrls
tlanla. Bjornson was the recipient
of the honor and its emolument in
1903. Between the two men there
exists a gap far wider than the years.
It is unlikely, judging from the
specimens of Hamsun's work that
have reached the United States, that
he will ever be recognized as so dis
tinctively a national product that, as
Brandes has said, "the mere mention
of his name in a gathering of his
countrymen is like running up the
national flag," yet the critics find in
him much to praise. Americans, to
whom a life of contrast irresistibly
appeals, will find a good deal to in- j
terest them in the street car episode
of his career.
"For those of us who worked at
night," he has written in one of his
accounts of- himself, "the line was
not at all safe, as a number of sus
picious characters were abroad. Con
ductors had wo right to shoot and
kill people, for the street railway
company would have had a heavy
fine to pay in such cases." Thus
Hamsun makes perhaps his first ap
pearance as a realist, though it was
not thus that he won the Nobel prize.
It is believed that "Growth of the
Soil," written by him in 1918, was
responsible for that. "Growth of the
Soil" is the story of a man, splendid,
plodding, indefatigable, who finds
happiness in his natural environ
ment, poor in worldly goods but feel
ing himself rich in strength of body,
the love of his wife and his faith, in
God. But his street-car experience
has been elaborated in "Hunger,"
another of his books, which brought
him success and fame before the
prize was awarded to' him. In
"Hunger" he is seen as the egotist
that he was in his earlier lire; in his
later years he is less inclined to re
gard himself as having been chosen
by fate in the working out of an evil
design.
One product of the street-car job
was a story fantastically out of har
mony with the rest of his work. It
is the tale of a young man who has
boarded his car and confided in him
that his wife's affections are becom
ing alienated. At a certain point In
the track there is a manhole and the
young man has conceived the idea
that if., he will pretend to commit
suicide, by climbing into the hole so
that only his head is visible, his wife,
who is to be on board the car, will
take compassion on him and restore
him to favor. The carmen, who are
taken into his confidence and paid
for their services, are bound by their
compact to stop the car just in the
nick of time.
All does not go well, however. The
woman boards the car and is seen to
hold -conversation with the motor
man. Later the husband's head ap
pears above the street level, but the
motorman does not stop. A year
later the conductor meets the motor
man in another city, where he is liv-
ng on the interest of a bribe paid
him by the wife to turn the tables on
the hapless man. There have been
efforts, as there always are apt to be
where celebrities are concerned, to
discover a hidden message in ,the
story, but they have failed. It prob
ably only reflects a mood or the
writer after a bitter disappointment.
For Hamsun had many disappoint
ments. Born in poverty and reared
in the land of the midnight sun, he
began striving at literary creation as
soon as he learned to write. He con
sented reluctantly to be apprenticed
to a shoemaker, but made little of
the trade. A critic supposes that it
may have been the six-months-long
nights of the region in which he was
reared that made Hamsun the
dreamer that he is, but disregards
the influence of days that were as
long. Hamsun quit being a shoe
maker to go to Chnstiama, where he
hoped to support himself by writing
while studying at the university,
Editors and publishers would not
buy his stuff and so he came to the
United States, where he worked on a
dairy farm, in logging camps, in a
coal yard and on a road. His bosses
said that he was a stupid workman
There was, as will be noted, no sys
tern of fitting- the man to the task
in that day. One either made good
or was discharged, and unsympa
thetic superintendents bad no way of
discovering that they were entertain
ing a novelist and philosopher un
awares. Matters will .be regulated
differently by the perfect state.
Still it will be said that Hamsun
triumphed over many an -obstacle.
Poverty was only one of these. After
his employment on the street car
line on which employes were not
permitted to kill people, he was
transferred to another part of the
city where the "public was better
and I had to collect the five-cent
pieces -with gloves." These people
interested him even less than the
others had done. '"There," he has
said, "I had no strong sensations to
experience, but I soon grew tired of
seeing these villa dwellers and listening-
to their conversations."
From which the discerning reader
will dednce that Hamsun's mind was
open to impressions, and also that he
hungered for the .primitively, emo
tional. Villa dwellers of the drab
sort that dwell in the better sections
of Chicago have no place in his
books. The bohemians of Christi
an ia, to whom he returned after his
American visit, at least moved him
to write a reprisal, published in 1893
as "Shallow Soil." They liked him
no better than he liked them, but he
had the advantage of the last word.
But in "Hunger" he shows a differ
ent spirit. With no thought of tak
ing revenge on the world, he at
tempts to set down the feelings of a
man who has not eaten for three
days, and who is compelled to un
dergo the same privation at brief in
tervals. "When I considered the
matter over," he says, "it grew more
and more incomprehensible to me
that I of all others should be selected j
as an experiment : for a Creator's
whims. ... I found the most
weighty arguments against the Cre
ator's arbitrariness in letting me pay
for all the others' sins." But this,
he makes clear, was but the vagary
of a hungry man. In another sketch
he shows, however, that he is much
given to introspection; as for ex
ample in his description of his life
as one of the . crew of a fishing
schooner:
Month after month we remained on' the
pcean catching fish. We were not sailors
but fishermen. A sailor Is always bound
for some port, some haven where he can
rest after his long voyage. But we re
mained In the same spot, always fishing
In silence. We could scarcely even -remember
how the land looked. We were no
longer sentient human beings, but brain
less fishings machines. Finally we were
ourselves metamorphosed into strange,
ugly S3a-creatures. creeping over the ship
In silence, or conversing in a language in
telligible only to us.
Hamsun is a dramatist as well as
novelist. He Is also a writer of
travel stories, among them "Under
the Crescent Moon," giving his im
pressions of Turkey, and "In Fairy
land," a description of his' travels in
the Caucasus. The Nobel prize con
sists of the yield of a fund of $9,
000,000 left by the inventor of dyna
mite to be distributed annually
among those distinguished for work
in physics, chemistry, medicine,
idealistic literature and promotion
of peace. It amounts in each In
stance to about $40,000. Americans
have won only four prizes Dr. A. A.
Michelson in physics, Alexis Carrel
in medicine, and Theodore Roose
velt and Elihu Root for peace.
HAVE WE A NATIONAL TREE?
The American Forestry associa
tion's attempt to "elect" a national
tree evokes thoughts of the difficul
ties attending the task. Yet if it ful
fills no other purpose than to in
spire study of the value of trees and
the part they play in our natural
economics, it may be worth while.
To choose a tree that will represent
all parts of America would be a
practically impossible task. If, to be
representative, it is to be required
that it shall grow In some portion of
every state, nearly every tree pos
sessing dignity or distinction will be
excluded. The maple is said to be
in high favor because of its wide dis
tribution and its undoubted utility,
but it is necessary to include many
of its seventy varieties under one
heading in order to obtain the uni-
ersality that some electors desire.
The obstacles are at least as numer
ous as those which have prevented
selection of a national flower. For
a long time we tried this, but never
were able to agree. Toward the close
of the contest the goldenrod and the
daisy were leading in favor, but the
choice was put off and the question
has been forgotten.
It may not be necessary, as has
been suggested, to insist that our na
tional tree shall possess both beauty
and utility, since we have none that
are devoid of the former virtue. But
in utility, if not in habitat, it ought
to be widely varied, and there is
merit in the proposal that it shall be
chosen also because It possesses
some quality representative of the
American people as a whole. The
field of choice is not perceptibly
narrowed by the most exacting re
strictions. It i3 possible with a little
imagination to construct a symbol
ism for any tree that is likely to be
named. The oak is sturdy and long-
lived; the hickory has a claim to
residence running back to the era
prior to the ice age and is probably
the veteran of them all; the elm re
sides where our population is dens
est; the cedar is highly durable and
useful: the birch is pre-eminently the
tree of the American boy; and the
fir is destined to. enter into construc
tion of American homes more largely
than any of its companions.
If the northwest presents a candi
date, we may take it for gTanted that
it will be the Douglas fir. Yet if we
were bent on honoring David Doug
las, the botanist and explorer, whose
amazing labors In the second decade
of the nineteenth century did so
much to enlighten the world as to
the riches of this section, it would
be necessary to remember that it was
not Douglas' own favorite. That
scientist had another predeliction, as
Professor F. G. Young pointed out
when he said:
It will be remembered that It is this
Dou-glas for whom the Douglas spruce ( Pseu-
dotsuga Douglasii) was named. While i
is quite fitting that the tree that is
the- monarch of the forest of the Pacific
northwest the largest and most impor
tant ttmDer tree should bear the name oi
this indefatgable explorer of the flora
and fauna of the region, yet the reader
of his journals and letters will be struck
with the fact that it is the sugar pine
tr-inus iamoertiana; . mat impressed mm
mo9t. He was virtually a worshipper of
it. There was no limit to the sacrifice he
was willing to make to secure specimens
of its cones ana twigs. Having found it,
he went into raptures over it. -
Douglas himself said in a letter
to Dr. Hooker, of the society under
whose direction his scientific obser
vations were conducted:
I rejoice to tell you of a new species
of pinus, the most princely of the genus,
perhaps even tne grandest specimen
vegetation. It attains the enormous heigh
of 170 to -- leet, wltn a circumrerenc
of 50 feet and cones from 12 to IS inches
long. This pinus is found abundantly tw
degrees south of the Columbia river, in
the country of the umpqua tribe of In
dians, who collect its seeds In autumn and
grind them in to a kind of cake.
This letter was written on March
24, 1826. But Douglas was not un
mindful of the grandeur of the tree
that now. bears his name. In the
elaborate'appendix to his journal, he
records that it is "one of the most
striking and truly graceful objects in
nature, and that particularly Is
this true of those interspersed In
groups or standing solitary," while
in forest conditions they arrive at a
magnitude exceeded by few if any
trees in the world." He Records a
stump behind old Fort George which
measured forty-eight feet in circum
ference, without bark, three feet
from the ground. The tree, he adds,
had been burned "to give place to a
more useful vegetable, namely,, po
tatoes." Though the botanist prob
ably did not foresee the immense
utility that this variety would at
tain, be did not underrate its im
portance in other respects, and ex
pressed hope that it would prove a
beautiful acquisition to English sylva,
"if not an important addition to our
useful timbers." He noted its oc
currence from the latitude of Cape
Blanco to the Straits of Juan de
Fuca, & range of some six degrees,
and found a few stragglers as far
south as Cape Mendocino. Douglas'
largest recorded fir was 227 feet tall.
with a circumference of seven and
a half feet 159 feet from the ground.
Lewis and Clark in their journal re
cord that they found trees (probably
of this species) that "measured forty
two feet in circumference at a point
beyond the reach of an ordinary
man," and calculated their height at
300 feet. Thirty years after Douglas,
Lieutenant Henry L. Abbott, of the
corps of topographical engineers en
gaged in exploration for a route for
railroad from the Sacramento to
the Columbia, paid a higher tribute
or appreciation. "The size of Abies
Douglasii," he wrote, "has not been
overstated. It Is indeed the grand
est of the group of giants that com
bine to form- the forests of the far
west." He called it Douglas spruce
and declared that it was "common
south to the Mexican boundary,"
a statement with which other ex
plorers would not agree, and made
official record of this description of
its occurrence:
The trees stand relatively as near each
other and the trees are a long and
Blender as the canes In a canebrake. The
amount of timber on an acre very much
exceeds that of a similar area In the
tropics, or in any part of the world I
have visited. Were It not that vegetable
tissue will burn readily, the immense mass
of It which encumbers the surface of an
ordinary farm on the banks of the Co
lumbia would "bid-'deftance to any- efforts
that one man could make for its removal
during the term of his natural life.
The tallest Douglas fir of record
exceeds considerably the measure
ments of Douglas himself. Reqords
of the American Forestry associa
tion contain an allusion to one spec
imen with a height of 380 feet, and
to single trees which scaled 60,000
feet, board measure. Visitors to
the forestry building during the
Lewis and Clark exposition in Port
land were as deeply impressed with
the specimens of western fir as was
Douglas himself with the Pinus
Lambertiana which was to him the
outstanding memory of his American
expedition. .
Deeds that conveyed to the state
of Louisiana last week a tract of
500 square miles acquired by private
subscription for use as a perpetual
bird refuge settled a question that
has vexed that state and also aroused
the interest of bird lovers in other
parts of the country. It is said to
be the most extensive effort at game
preservation ever made by private
enterprise. A local citizen set the
ball rolling by setting aside 60,000
acres of marsh land, to which the
Russell Sage and Rockefeller Foun
dations subsequently added about
60,000 acres, and other large tracts
were presented by their owners. In
exchange for title to the property.
the state has covenanted to main
tain it forever as an asylum for
wild life. Most 8f the land is unfit
for agricultural purposes, and in the
use to which it is now to be put it
will serve not only Louisiana but
other states north . and south by
furnishing migratory birds a safe
refuge during the winter season.
Perhaps it is because of the
stormy weather that the Red Cross
rollcatl lags, but it is a better guess
that it is for the reason that a few
people are unmindful of past serv
ices and others are unaware that
the work begun by the Red Cross
during the war is not yet com
pleted. Work of the home service
branch as a matter of fact is still
exacting, and rehabilitation of sick
and wounded service men, in which
the organization is active, will not
be finished until the fast soldier
has been cared for. Due allowance
can be made for abatement of en
thusiasm with the nominal end of
the war, but the number thus far
enrolled in Portland, slightly In ex
cess of 11,000, Is farther than it
ought to be below reasonable ex
pectations. There is more work for
the Red Cross to do, and Portland
has a reputatipn to sustain.
Enormous growth of the caribou
industry in Alaska, reflected in es
tablishment of refrigerating plants
for the storage of reindeer meat.
suggests that Stefansson s predic
tion that the tundras of the far
north would some day furnish meat
for the world may have been some
thing more than a dream.
In .Buffalo. N. Y., a physician's
certificate of necessity Is required
in order to get a ton of coal. In
Chicago the same certificate is de
manded for a "hootch" prescrip
tion. What would we do without
the medical profession?
A French politician has declined
to fight his twelfth duel on the
ground that dueling is a foolish
practice, which shows that he has
learned something, though it took
time.
Judging from the country-wide
comment that has been aroused by
election of the all-woman city ticket
at Yoncalla, there must be other
communities ripe to try the scheme.
Would-be train robbers seem to
be suffering the consequences of not
keeping up with the news. Only
a little reading ought to convince
them that crime doesn't pay. -
Perhaps when those wall writings
are deciphered, it will be discovered
that they relate to 'tae occurrence
of a higher flood than the cele
brated freshet of 1894.
That storekeeper in the Grays
Harbor country knows the way to
foil a robber. Keeping cash out of
harm's way is sure to make the in
dustry unpopular.
Parley P. Christehson says in a
post-election statement that he
planning the future of the farmer
labor party. So there is such
party, is there?
The organization that was power
ful enough to force repeal of day
light-saving has also given State
Grand Master Bouck something- to
think aroout.
The height of optimism would
seem to have been reached by those
who expect to marry happily by
the mail order route.
KUbany is said to be looking for
a clarinet player. Wouldn't, a flute
player with a bad cold fill the bill?
Now Chile and Sweden, having
arranged for arbitration in the
event of trouble, can sleep in peace.
The disturbances in Europe may
be the stamp collectors' gain, but
they are the map makers' loss.
Government has all concerned In
the loot of the fast mail near Council
Bluffs and It was quick work.
The week of November 22 is to
be our national "rough on rats"
week.
BY - PRODUCTS OF" THE TIMES 1
Whem Does Hospitality Cease to
Be a Virtue t
A man invited three friends to
spend a week on his yacht. The
boat caught fire and, although all
hands escaped, their valuables were
lost. The three guests are now
suing their host for amounts aggre
gating; more than $50,000 to recom
pense them for the loss of clothing,
pet dogs, gold cigarette cases and
the like. It is charged in the com
plaint that the host, in violation of
the law. had Intoxicating beverages
aboard the yacht and that, partaking
thereof, he neglected precautions
against fire.
So what was once the embodiment
of hospitality now becomes the basis
of gravamen. But the question which
will be asked by many who are in
terested in yachts, bottles and gold
cigarette cases, is this: Is it clubby
to complain under such circum
stances? Are there not thousands of
persons who would willingly risk all
their clothing. Pomeranians and gold
cigarette cases for a trip on a yacht
wetly provisioned? We fear so.
If the bountiful yachtsman has to
pay, what of the future? If John
Doe fall down stairs after sampling
Richard Roe's home brew, does an
action lie? If a guest burn his
fingers while investigating his host's
private still is he to collect damages?
New York Herald.
Propaganda, like surgery, has made
some remarkable - advances during
the war. A correspondent in Berlin
sends us a curious example of one
development. It consists of two one
mark notes both of which have been
torn through the center as a result
of being folded too often. They
have been joined together by strips
of adhesive paper, and each strip
bears a legend printed in red ink.
The translation of one runs: "Why
is the mark worth only 10 pfennig?
Ask Ludendorff and JSbert!" The i
other inquires. "Why is the mark so
tattered? Because the state finances
are tattered."
No private person is likely to have
taken the trouble to equip himself
with plasters that are at once ad
hesive and controversial. Presum
ably they are a government issue of
the banks, so that worn-out paper
money may be put on its legs again
for further circulation and at ' the
same time a blow be dealt to the
government's old enemies. Manches
ter Guardian.
see
Butter tasters" is the name chil
dren give to the violet-tinted, worn
fragments of clam shells that are to
be found on most beaches. These
"butter tasters" were an important
medium of exchange . among, the In
dian tribes living along the shore in
their trading with other natives
farther Inland.
It can readily be understood that
Indians sufficiently adept in the art
of. chipping arrowheads and other
implements of hard flint could easily
manufacture rude "money" out of the
more attractively colored pieces of
these water-worn shells; and this
they did, giving to this medium of
exchange the name luckahauk, some
what after the style of wampum.
It may be surprising to many,
especially to craft workers, to know
what really beautiful "stones" these
same so-called luckahauks will pro
duce when cut and polished. into sym
metrical form from pieces of suffi
cient thickness and showing the rich
and beautiful violet colorings that
many of them possess.
Such as are found on the beach are
necessarily dull, with no polish, due.
of course, to the wear of the sea and
sand, but by proper treatment on the
laps are brought to a very high
polish and look very rich, indeed, be
ing entirely unlike any other "gem."
Having considerable hardness, they
will wear almost indefinitely when
once polished. The colors blend
beautifully , with silver, either in
bright or antique finish, while their
beauty Is heightened by treatment
or embellishment- with small bar
oque, or seed pearls, small amethysts
or other harmonizing stones. New
York Sun.
Two editions of "The Poems of
Henry Van Dyke" have just been
issued by the Scribners, In one and
two volumes. The double volume set
forms volumes nine and ten of the
elegant Avalon edition of Dr. Van
Dyke's works, sold by subscription
only. The single volume is printed
from the same plates but on lighter
paper, so that the book of nearly 600
pages Is not at all unwieldly. The
collection is strictly up to date, in
cluding a number of late poems not
before published in book form. It is
quite possible that Henry Van Dyke's
essays and stories have overshad
owed his merit as a poet, for his
prose volumes came first and estab
lished his reputation for facile and
graceful writing. Now and then a
Van Dyke poem flashed upon us. How
many flashes there were in the dark
while we slept we can only realize In
viewing this large amount of poetry.
The .same charm exists here which
marks his prose. It is too early to
assign the genial preacher, professor,
diplomat and author his ultimate
rank' among Ameirca's poets but
It -is certain that some of his
work will go singing down the ages.
and for present purposes there is a
large amount of pleasure, of thrill, of
uplift In these pages. Springfield
Republican.
Maurice Dekobra, the widely known
Parisian humorist, who wrote "Rat
de Cave; or Burglary Considered As
a Fine Art," and "Sammy, the Amer
ican Volunteer," his reminiscences of
the time he was attached to the
A. E.-F. as liaison officer, has arrived
in this country, where he is going
to deliver in English a series of lec
tures on' the Parlsiennes. He will
talk on the character of French
humor, on his ' bohemian days in
Montmartre, and on other equally
entertaining topics. M. Dekobra will
be the first French author to deliver
lectures in English. The Argonaut.
Mary Ellen had just arrived at
grandmother's house and announced
herself as Deing iniraiy. aon i arms:
water, honey," said grandmother.
"Here's a nice glass of milk you can
have."
Little Mary Ellen demurred but
grandmother Insisted that she drink
the glass of milk. Finally Mary
Ellen looked at grandmother suspi
ciously. "Why, has it had a fly in
it?" she asked. Indianapolis News.
Achievement.
By Grace 12. Hall.
Achievement Is a most elastic word.
And fitted toy each mind to Its own
thought:
For what to one may seem the most
absurd.
Another nolds as most divinely
wrought.
One may enthuse o'er household
duties done.
And these within their sphere have
much of worth.
But to an artist, just a medal won
Is vast achievement, circling the
earth.
The music master views his opus
rare,
. Counts o'er his treasure like a ros
ary;
The artisan, excelling, will compare
"aimiworn witn all that he may
see;
The poet, of all laborers least pitied.
Will scan his lines with deeply
furrowed brow.
Convinced that he by some stranger
power is fitted
To lift the race to new ideals some
how. Yea, 'tis a most clastic word achieve!
And who shall saw what labor
counts the most?
The world must from each laborer
receive
Its mead of toil; there is small
cause to boast.
And he who does his best has done
his all.
Comparison can never change the
facts.
And since a million tasks forever
call.
Who then shall rate men's victories
or his lacks?
There are great triumphs never.
never told.
The world in haste sees only things
made plain;
And narrowed spheres have held
true conquerors bold.
Who died yet rose supreme o'er self
through pain;
To die in truth is but the common
lot,
But when o'er self a man shall rule
complete.
That is achievement O! deny it not!
.ute uies cnoicest laurels at
his feet.
DAYCLOSE,
Thou art gone, lovely day.
. iiu my kiss on your brow.
And something I hid
in tne gold of your hair
Your hair, which gleamed so
With the mist anH th. .
f the tears and the ache
Ana tne longing and care,
Which came to your sisters
Forever and aye.
The gold of your hair
And the dreams in your eyes.
Too sober for mirth
And too chaste for despair.
Half born of the ocean.
The earth and the skies.
Like mountains in motion
Or lakes of soft dyes.
Birthed strongly and surely
Of hope and surprise.
Where my heart cast a shadow
As great as my soul,
In that enchanted gloom
We were one for awhile:
And the smell of your garments
Like gardens in bloom.
Which wax and which wane
O'er some exquisite isle.
Where the dirges of ocean
Unceasingly roll.
Ah, keep, lovely day.
In a casket divine.
Close hid in the gold
Of your wonderful hair.
The things which I told you.
Those secrets of mine.
As I hold never spoken
All the trust that was thine;
How destiny watched
At the end of the way
With black steeds and music
And mingling of wine.
To claim you and name you.
And bear you away.
GUY FITCH PHELPS.
BROTHERHOOD.
"Ye of one faith, one hope, one creed,
are brothers and in oil
This truth should govern everv rtv
and prove a strengthening
wall":
One morning thus the man of God In
sanctuary said;
To prove this truth occasion came and
soon my footsteps led.
From gray-haired man of learning;. I
claimed it for a son
(A trusting younger brother who
the right to it had won.l
Though of one faith the elder man In
careless haste replied.
'It matters not in business," and thus
the claim denied.
Unto a wise man of the law in further
quest 1 turned;
Allegiance that I could prove? by him
aiiKe was spurned.
And when I spoke of brotherhood, he
witn evasive smile.
Debated that a sum of cold was
greatly more worth while.
He sought to prove the good man's
words were but a fallacy
A brotherhood for Sunday, yes, but
all the weekdays free.
I asked the skies in mute appeal, are
there no ties that hold?
Shall every claim be measured with
and cast aside for gold?
L' Envoy
And mutely answering I beheld the
chaos of the world;
Not loyalty and brotherhood, but
greed and mammon ruled.
JANETTE MARTIN.
FORGET IT.
The tumult and the shouting dies.
Defeated candidates depart.
And once again we're swatting- flics
. Or paying coin to see Bill Hart.
It's over now, the noise, the fret.
And politics we can forget.
Far called, the beaten ones today
No longer stump It with blue fire.
And from our thoughts are far away
As Is old Nineveh and Tyre.
We're glad to see them go, you bet.
We don't care how far off they get..
If drunk with crude illicit booze
The losers rage and paw the air.
Such language as poor losers use
Who weep and wail and tear their
hair.
It does not touch us. We can let
Our minds the seething pot forget.
And yet it almost seems we must
Strum at our lyre like any bard,
While swatted flies fall in the dust.
Or at friend "Doug" we stare so
hard. x
Harding's the man! Whoopee! You
bet!
That's all we don't need to forget.
EVERETT EARLE STANAJID.
MYSTERIES.
The sunlight fell on fallow ground
And lo! a wondrous flower I found
With more of beauty than the wit
Of artist ever painted it.
Came time of frost and time of snow
And it was gone: I did not know
The place of it; but spring came then
And lo! it lived and bloomed again.
God breathed Into the dust of earth
A soul that grew to wondrous worth
And wrought with ingenuity.
Then passed into Death's mystery,
A thing of life I cannot tell
The manner of nor where doth dwell
Till suns are dark and worlds are not
And eons gone and time forgot.
CLAUDE WELMER. '
i
4