&
THE SUNDAY OREGOKIAX, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 10, 1923
jlim flan 9rc oomatt 1 S
,... Tt . ,'1890!
AojiJuiL.i3nE.u ox ii n i . in kiva
Publlshed by The Oregoman Pub. Co.,
1& Sixth Stieet, PorLand, Oregon.
C A. jiokdeny K. B. PIPER,
.Manager. Editor.
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ON BURNING WOMEN'S COLLEGES.
Not without reason, the declara
tion of a millionaire elevator manu
facturer that it would be better for
the world if all women's colleges
were burned has created a hubbub
in those circles in which the opin
ions of "successful men" obtain a
certain merit from the fact that
they are uttered by one who has
"arrived," in a worldly sense. The
specifications of this man's indict
ment are that . the colleges teach
girls to "smoke cigarettes, paint
their faces, use slang, and make
themselves otherwise objection
able." Speaking more generally,
he observed that higher education
for women is "all tomfoolery." Be
ing pressed for answer to the ques
tion whether, on reflection, he
would insist, if he had his way, that
all women's colleges be consigned
to the pyre, he replied: "Oh, well,
when I wrote that letter I did not
know that it was to be made pub
lic. Perhaps I would not have
written that way if I had. But I
do say that every hour spent in
women's colleges is a waste of
time."
Quite naturally, educational au
thorities decline to take the pro
nouncement seriously. The ancient
arguments against freedom and op
portunity for women in education
began to crumble almost exactly a
century ago. We have a sense of
reading very ancient history when
we come upon those provisions of
early school law, enacted within the
lifetime of the republic, for the in
struction of girls in such periods as
could be spared best from the
major task of teaching boys. "The
committee have power," says a
town ordinance of present senti
mental interest, "to agree with the
school master to instruct the girls
two hours "a day after the boys are
dismissed." With what lofty aims
must the authorities have decreed,
as did a town meeting in 1790, that
"females" might be instructed part
of the time, "as they are a tender
and interesting branch of the com
munity, but have been much neg
lected in the public schools!"
As to women, the first quarter of
the nineteenth century may be re
garded as the academy stage; in the
second quarter higher education be
gan to develop not, we may be
sure, without misgivings on the
part of the hardshelled conserva
tives of the time. There is a par
ticular reason why Mary Lyon and
Kmma Willard were two of the
first three women to be elected to
the National hall of fame. It is
that their names are associated
with the beginning of the move
ment for the higher education of
Women throughout the world.
Perhaps the comparative novelty
of the present order accounts for
the circumstance that opposition to
it is not yet dead. Less than a cen
tury is not a long period in the
history of an important phenome
non, yet in respect to women's ad
mission to the facilities of learning
it covers virtually all that is worth
recording. Oberlin. from the first
a co-educational institution, was
not opened until 1S32 and did not
confer degrees on women students
until 1837. The first separate col
lege for women was not incorpor
ated until 1861 nor opened until
18 65. Yet the intervening period,
which had been interrupted by the
civil war, was marked by signifi
cant activity, tho fruits of which
are now apparent. The outstand
ing characteristic of the movement
was the rapidity with which it grew
and the persistence with which it
continued facts not to be frivol
ously dismissed as matters of little
moment or explained away by cava
lier allusions to customs which in
the main do not exist and which are
not in any degree representative of
the movement as a whole.
It would of course be interesting
to trace the lives of all the women
who have been graduated from in
stitutions of higher learning since
tho barriers against the sex were
broken down. The credit due them
for the spread of education as a
whole is manifest in a maxim of
education now universally accepted.
The sons of college women nearly
invariably become college men. Nor
has the tendency been mainly to
ward education of women in col
leges exclusively for the sex. The
federal commissioner of education
reminds us that whereas in the aca-
demic year 1915-16 there were
eighty-nine colleges for women, I
with 20.6SS undergraduates, there
were 69,543 undergraduate women
students in colleges for both sexes,
a total of 90,181, by comparison
with a total of 152.860 undergradu
ate men.
Expansion of the field of women's
activity is an accomplished fact.
New professions beckon. We ob
serve that degrees in agriculture
were conferred on women to the
number of 135 in U single recent
year, and forty-six in commerce,
half a dozen in architecture. 691 in
education and more than 9000 in
the arts and sciences. It Is appar
ent that women still have a hand
in the maintenance of the standards
of elementary education throughout
the country. The trend toward the
exacting utilitarian professions be
comes more marked. Results, in
derd. so far as they are capable of
being summarized from mere sta-
Ustical reports, are eloquently
icated by the census, which for
gives the number of women in i
nrnrceci'nnql aaw,rir.a 911 COO JTliii!
; . , , . , .
thad increased in 1900 to 430,576,
and in 1910 to 733,885. The fear i
QoDmi, a -nrnA i.nJ
fit women physically for domestic
concerns will seem to the observer ;
of events to belong in the same
category as the now discarded the
ory that society would be destroyed
by the admission of the sex to for
mal education of any kind.
MAKING THRIFT COMPULSORY.
There is no pretense of philan-
. 1
thropy in the scheme of compulsory
thrift which has just been put into
. . . - . ..
effect by a number of associated
public utility companies in Kansas.
The companies .contend that it
helps them to get a better class of
employes, that it insures better
work from those who are employed
and that it lessens the cost of
"turnover," always a vexatious mat
ter where the payroll is large. So
the rule has been adopted that the
individual worker must be able to
show that he is saving 10 per cent
of his salary qr give up his job.
He may put the money in a savings
bank, or buy a home on the install
ment plan, or invest in securities.
The point insisted on is that he
must live on 10 per cent less than
he is paid.
The plan is a reminder of that
adopted by Henry Ford, described
by Dr. Marquis and otherwise well
known to students of welfare work.
It is based on good economics and
whether or not the principle of
compulsion runs counter to our
ideas of the rights of a free and in
dependent citizen, if serves to call
attention to the relation between
self-restraint in such minor affairs
as the regulation of one's budgetary
affairs and all-around efficiency in
other particulars. The man who
practices' thrift as a means of hold
ing his job may discover that he
likes it and become a voluntary
saver where formerly he was a
spendthrift. An official of one of
the companies says:
We find that in practice the theory
works. Otherwise we should have aban
doned it. We find that the man who al
ways lives from hand to mouth is not the
best employe, Forethought in one's pri
vate affairs may mean for. ,ight in deal
ing with the company's ousiness. One
man admitted to me that he had spent
$16.23 in a month for soft drinks; an
other said that he had paid $13 for
automobile hire to go to a baseball game
in a neighboring town.
If it be conceded that the man's
money was his to do with as he
pleased after he had earned it, the
arguments in favor of thrift as a
character-builder remain valid. It
is all the better for thrift to be vol
untary but it is always desirable.
Though the picturesque silk-shirt
era is passing, there is still place in
the readjustment for the thrift
movement, as the Kansas experi
ment seems to have proved.
OUB BROTHER THE INDIAN.
Too late to be of practical value
to the generations that have suf
fered, both red and white, as
the result of our early misunder
standing of the Indian Inhabitants,
renewed interest in the culture of
the American aborigines which is
symbolized by the opening of the
Museum of the American Indian
nevertheless has definite value. The
measures adopted in the process of
taking over the country by the
whites, the expedients, the cruelties
that prevailed are seen in the light
of history to have been mainly as
unnecessary as they were' unjust.
It will be profitable to consider dis
passionately the kind of people we
were then dealing with and to ap
praise the measure of our own
error, just as open confession Is
good for the soul because it en
ables us to realize and to profit by
our mistakes.
This among other things a mu
seum devoted to Indian history and
culture will aid us in doing. The
western plainsman's motto, "The
only good Indian is a dead Indian."
was largely the product of condi
tions for which neither element
was immediately to blame. Unfor
tunately for both, the first comers
of the whites took no pains to
establish the principle of equity in
their dealings with their red
brothers, who were ethnologically
savages, yet, as we now know, pos
sessed some virtues which entitled
them to respect. Our later impres
sions of the Indians have been ob
tained from history and fiction
that was far from exact.
It is probably true, as O. B. Sper
lin, a recent student of the Indians
of the northwest, has concluded,
that "almost without exception the
red men who first came in contact
with the whites were much better
than historians have generally
painted them." We think thePe
were exceptions to the rule that
they were usually hospitable until
they had reason to be otherwise,
but they may have varied in this
respect no more than an equally
numerous and varied group of Cau
casians. In any event the Indians
of our coast were in the main a
people with honor, they were indus
trious and their ideas of justice
differed in kind rather than in es
sence from our own.
Tho commonest error made by
the first traders and explorers in
the west was that which set down
all Indians as thieves. This was
due to a plain misunderstanding of
the Indian conception of property
rights. To the simple-minded native
all natural objects were the right
ful possessions in common of the
peoples who dwelt on the soil.
When therefore a shipmaster pro
ceeded to appropriate without the
permission of the Indians even as
inconsiderable a thing as stone for
ballast for his vessel, the Indians
believed that they were only acting
on white man's precedent if they
appropriated articles of a different
kind. This happened, for example.
when Captain Gray, prior to his
discovery of the Columbia river,
landed a shore party in the vicinity
of what is now Tillamook and with
out previous parley proceeded to
cut and carry off grass for animals
on board his ship. The Indian who
with equal want of ceremony ap
propriated a sailor's cutlass, pre
cipitating a fight In which one of
the ship's company was killed, must
have been greatly puzzled by the
distinction between various forms
of property then made by the
whites.
This difference was fundamental
and if it had been understood by
both sides, or respected by the
whites alone, much subsequent
bloodshed would have been saved.
The annals of frontier history are
replete with instances which simi
larly indicute that the newcomers
had no apprehension of a possible
cultural foundation of tho people
in-(with whom they were, dealing and
this attitude prevailed up to and
throughout the period of the Indian
u - .j Kir V, a olnnr n n 1.. n
- . t. '
esses of which the natives were at
length reduced to subjection. It
troc n'jrtinnl.irir
of the fifties, when the treaties by j
which the Indians ceded their lands -
were enforced immediately as to
occupancy by the "whites, while
payment for them was long delayed
by red tape at Washington, the t ers from fighting. In these days
nature of which on their part the 1 we should judge men by their ac
Indians could not comprehend. Ition in the time of supreme test, not
Scientific interest in the Indian
is more than a matter of collecting
relics and housing them: it ex
tends, too, t,o study of the cultures
which those relics connote, and
finally to contemplation of past
tragic mistakes and misunderstand
ings which could have been avoided
if the spirit of inquiry had then
prevailed. All ethnological data
are valuable, but particularly thos
which are likely to direct the cur
rent of our thought into channels
by which our future conduct may
be made to conform to the truths
which they reveal.
A SUNDAY DINNER OF 52.
There were gormands in those
days. Little they recked of paying
the landlord the princely sum of $9
a week for board and room, with
the privilege of wielding toothpicks
on the piazza. At'hen they sat them
down at table it was not to pick and
choose and play the dilettante, but
manfully to brave the varied com
forts of a gargantuan card, and to
explore and exploit the menu from
its northern zone to farthest south.
They did not call it a menu then.
It was the bill of fare. Dr. Osier
was cooing in his cradle. Pap was -
the diet of Master Horace Fletcher.
Hundreds of health crusaders were
yet unborn, and the man of 40
years was yet in his gastronomic
heyday. The times were generous
arid goodly.
These and kindred reflections
must arise from the thoughtful
contemplation of a bill of fare is
sued for Sunday dinner by the long
vanished Matteson house of Chicago
in the fall of 1852, and recently re
printed by the Chicago Tribune. In
quaint old type and flamboyant
border this relic of the hardy past!
brings back a period when the high
cost of living was never dignified as
an issue, and comestibles were
casual. The host of that olden inn,
in presenting his patrons with such
a Sunday dinner served at 1
o'clock, mark you was a modest
fellow, yet mindful of his munifi
cence. He said that, if popular ap
proval greeted his humble effort,
the card would be repeated on
Thanksgiving day, and so it came
to pass.
There were five sorts of fish, in
cluding the patrician trout; nine va
rieties of boiled meats and fowl,
with turkey as one of these; seven
roasts; seven items of poultry and
rame, featuring quail, prairie
chicken, wild goose and wild duck;
fourteen entrees; eleven cold meats;
sixteen vegetables; eight relishes;
seven masterpieces of pie and pud
ding; and twenty-seven choices for
dessert. What might middlings
and cabbage have been? Who
knows today of the antelope melon,
that sounds so very good to eat?
Where, may we ask, do they yet
serve boiled salt pork as a dish for
epicures? A lost art. comrades.
And with chastened philosophy do
we remark that mine host of the
Matteson House compounded such
delights as Madeira, brandy, port
wine and rum jellies. The days
that come no more.
How brave and careless and non
chalant were those grandsires of
ours! Admiration leaps backward
over a long lifetime to yield them
.tribute well deserved. They flouted
digestive disaster as the great Blon
din mocked the mighty waterfall.
The record is silent as to pains and
penalties that may have subse
quently been imposed, but at least
they could wipe the gravy from
their beards and bold mustaches
and say, looking the world arro
gantly in the eye. "Fate cannot
harm me I have dined today."
Who was this chap Lucullus,
with his ortolans and truffles?. The
veriest tyro of the table, gleaning
an ill-deserved fame from the com
parative poverty of his contem
poraries. The penitent Barmecide
was a piker.
WHICH KIND OF LEADERS? I
The spectacle of Generals Persh
ing and Dawes speaking in Chicago !
against radical revolutionists, free
riot, sedition in wartime and against
tearing up the constitution presents
some sharp contrasts. We have the
contrast between two men - who
fought for America, and Thompson,
the pro-German mayor of the sixth
German city in the world; Small,
the governor who did nothing to
bring the Herrin murderers to jus
tice and who pardoned a batch of
reds at Thanksgiving, and Debs,
who uses the clemency of the gov
ernment to mouth sedition. We
also have the contrast between the
audience which rose to cheer the
two patriotic speakers and the
great alien population of Chieagor
which is not only un-Americanized
but much of which is anti-American.
Everybody knows where Persh
ing stands. He fought barbarism
in the west, in the Philippines and
in France, and he would have
fought it to a finish in Mexico if
Wilson would have let him. He de
clared for no armistice to Germany
without unconditional surrender.
He calls a spade a spade, a man
who would tear down the govern
ment a traitor, and he includes in
one sweeping condemnation all
those forces of destruction and dis
ruption which would "choke to
death our sacred heritage of pa
triotism and freedom." He declares
for adequate forces to defend the
country and for training of men
that they may serve in its defense.
There is no question where Dawes
stands. He was the business head of
the army in France for purchase of
supplies. He has been the presi
dent's right hand in enforcing econ
omy on tire spending bureaucrats at
Washington. He voices open con
demnation of the governor who
permitted terrorism to run rampant
at Herrin and he brands as dema
gogues and cowards the men in
congress who undermine the con
stitution to win a few votes.
A fair choice of leaders Is offered
to the American people. Will they
follow men of that type, who have
fought and worked for the republic
and who breathe the spirit of 1776
and 1861, or will they follow men
like Thompson, Small, Debs and
those who compose the radical bloc
in congress, almost every one of
whom opposed and obstructed .the
war? Are the men whose success
would have made Germany su
preme over America as well as Eu
rope safe leaders in restoring order
in its affairs after the war? In
every word of Pershing, Dawes and
Uhi. v. .
pose to preserve and strengthen the
republic for which they fought. No
such purpose can be assumed in
men who refused to fight and who
exerted themselves to prevent oth
by their professions after they have
failed under that test.
LEARNING TO DISPENSE WITH HELP
Great progress has been made by
farmers in taking control of . the
marketing of their own products by
means of co-operation, and in tak
ing into their hands the stock of
federal farm loan banks. Secretary
of the Treasury Mellon in his an
nual, report says that "many new
associations have been organized
and have made considerable prog
ress in developing facilities for uni
form grading and classification"
and "have also erected machinery
which will greatly facilitate grad
ual, orderly marketing." They have
received much assistance from the
war finance corporation, but have
used only a portion of the $113,
000,000 allotted to them. They
have "already demonstrated their
ability to conduct their business on
a sound basis" and "banks all over
the country have made and are
making large sums available to
them.
Indicating both revived prosper
ity of farmers and progress in dis-
! pensing with the use of government
capital is the statement that
the
sale of federal farm loan bonds has
exceeded the needs of the banks for
lending purposes, and that, out of
the total capital stock of these
banks, $30,866,995 is held by farm
loan associations and only $4,264,-.
880 by the government. As the
total of loans increases, the rest
of the stock will be. transferred
from the government to the bor
rowers, and these banks will be
come strictly co-operative institu
tions under government supervi
sion. American farmers show com-
menaame aptitude m taking the
financing and marketing of their
business under their control. There
was never reason to believe that
they would be less successful than
those of Europe. All that they
needed was convincing proof of the
necessity. As deflation gave them
this, it may prove a Blessing in the
long run.
THE REAL HENRY FORD.
What is the real Henry Ford?
That is a natural question to ask in
regard to tne man who is reputed
to be the second richest, if not the
richest, in the United States, per
haps in the world a man who has
under his personal control one of
the greatest of American industries
employing more than 100,000 per
sons a man whose acts and words
at times stir the imagination and
arouse public curiosity as to what
manner of man he really is. In
order to give the answer to this
question, The Oregonian' has been
publishing a series of articles by a
man who is well equipped for the
task. Dr. Marquis is the pastor of
Mr. Ford's church, was for several
years manager of his welfare de
partment, resigned of his own will,
was invited to return and declined,
is a keen and sympathetic student
of human character, is prompted by
no sense of wrong to render biased
judgment, is himself a man of well
developed intellect and well round
ed character, governed by high pur
pose. Such a man is well fitted to
make a just analysis of so baffling
a personality as that of Henry Ford.
He has revealed to us two Henry
Fords. One is a man of seemingly
simple character in which the
spirit of brotherly fellowship with
all men dominates. This man de
sires to draw out the loyalty of his
employes by paying them so liber
ally that all shall be able to live a
decent family life, educate their
children well, and be free from care
about sickness, debt or want. This
readiness to help is held in check
by practice of the maxim that men
must help themselves and by aver
sion for giving anything for noth
ing. It is justified 'from the view
point of the business man by the
belief that men so treated yield a
full return in higher efficiency and
fidelity and regard for the interest
of their employer. But Ford's love
of birds and the animals of the
woods bespeaks a kindly nature, for
in his care of them no motive of
selfishness can enter. He gives
liberally to churches, hospitals and
other good works, but grudges
money to be spent in costly, ornate,
artistic buildings; he prefers the
useful to the ornamental.
But there is another Henry Ford.
He is elusive, avoiding close con
tact with any man, unwilling that
any man shall know him too well.
He turns from the solicitude for the
welfare m of his workmen that has
been so widely proclaimed and that
has won him a reputation for phl
lanthrophy to the cold, hard meth
ods of the ruthless business man
who considers regard for the
health, comfort and happiness of
his workmen "all bunk," who scoffs
at the thought of loyalty on the
part of workmen to employers and
who believes that the only success
ful methods are to "treat 'em
rough." He becomes physically
transformed in a day, and this is
the sign of moral transformation.
He discharges scores of men with
out explanation and without known
reason, including men of high posi
tion, great talent and fidelity. He
shirks personal responsibility for
these sudden explosions, imposing
it on his executives. He secludes
himself behind a secretary, he
makes appointments that he does
not keep, and when he can no
longer escape responsibility for un
just discharge, he makes a prom
ise of amends but breaks it. v
There are two Henry Fords the
JekyH Ford and the Hyde Ford.
But there is no such combinations
of a good and an evil character in
the same man as forms the basis of
Conan Doyle's story. The solution
of this human mystery is found in
these words of Dr. Marquis:
The true explanation of him seems to
be this-r-his mind has never been or
ganized . . . and the moral qual
ities and impulses . . . have never
been blended into a stable, unified char
acter. ... A genius in the use of
methods for the assembly of the parts
of a machine, he has failed to appreciate
the supreme importance of the proper
assembly, adjustment and balance of the
pans of the mental and moral machine
within him. He has in him the makings
of a great man. the parts lying about in
more or lea disorder.
This failure to assemble the parts
(of his mind and character may be
ascribed to Mr. Ford's limited edu
cation, to the concentration of his
energies on mechanical invention
and production, and to the neglect
to make good his mental deficien
cies which resulted from his ab
sorption in business. He has high,
noble impulses, but lacks the men
tal equipment for their proper di
rection. Lincoln had the same early
handicaps, but he made good, by
voracious reading and study, the
deficiencies from which Ford seems
still to suffer. The formative years
in which Lincoln acquired knowl
edge of history, philosophy and law
were devoted by Ford to the car
which fascinated his mechanical
genius. Thereafter he so quickly
became head of a great industry
that he had no time to fill the voids
in his intellectual equipment. His
lack of the knowledge and training
that Lincoln had acquired during
those early years may explain his
peace ship fiasco, but his failure to
realize his deficiencies and to make
them good evidences a defect of
character. If he had had Lincoln's
preparation for life, he could not
have sent the peace ship to Europe.
Possession of wealth and employ
ment of thousands of men endow a
man with great power, and these
came to Mr. Ford suddenly and
rapidly. His good impulses made
him long to use this power for noble
ends, but his n a t lv e business
shrewdness restrained him at the
outset. Together with conscious
ness of power must have come con
sciousness that he was not well
qualified to use it. He was depend
ent on others for information that
he should have possessed himself,
and for that sound judgment which
is matured by a well trained mind.
Hence may have arisen suspicion
that he had been led' into senti
mental folly by highbrow Idealists
or had been imposed on by para
sites a suspicion that would be
fanned by the "roughnecks" among
his executives. That may be tl.a i
key to his attacks of gloom and to
the explosions that follow.
Possession of the unassembled
parts of greatness are not sufficient
to make a great man. A man of
such unco-ordinated mind and
character is capable only of flashes
of greatness, and these are offset by
displays of destructive genius.
Greatness requires wide knowledge.
well formed character and a defi
nite purpose executed persistently
by a strong will in addition to es
pecial genius of a particular' kind.
Mr. Ford is a mechanical and busi
ness genius, but lacks those quali
ties that go to make a construc
tively great man like Charlemagne
and his contemporary Alfred the
Great, or Washington, Lincoln, or
Cecil Rhodes, or in our own time,
Roosevelt. As senator or president,
he would use his power as capri
ciously and, by fits and starts, as
ruthlessly, as he uses his power as
a manufacturer. It would bemused
far more injuriously, for he does
know how to run an automobile
factory, but he knows nothing
about running a government. That
requires a far different type of abil
ity from that of a business man, for
it requires capacity to bring into
harmonious action men and women
of many types, among which busi
ness men are only one. If he at
tempted to be a statesman, his
transitions between Jekyll and
Hyde would be apt to prove more
violent and disastrous in their ef
fects on the nation than they are on
his business, for he does understand
that, and he certainly does not un
derstand the complex science of
government.
OBSTACLES TO GOOD ENGLISH.
Those who have recently won
dered at the comparative failure of
the schools to inculcate the habit of
writing clear, succinct and express
ive English have stumbled on no
new problem. It is as old as the
profession of teaching; it has vexed
the pedagogues of many a bygone
generation and no doubt it will con
tinue to irritate schoolmasters for
centuries to come. The difficulty
lies in putting a finger on a remedy.
There already has been much
speculation as to the cause. There
is no lack of the will to do. There
are faultfinders innumerable, while
constructfve criticism is wanting.
Conditions which confront teachers
of English composition are actual,
not theoretical; nor has a-century
of experience shed much light on
the issue that was alive a century
ago.
Professor F. N. Scott of the Uni
versity of Michigan points out in
the English Journal that one of the
nearly universal drawbacks of the
present system of teaching compo
sition in schools and colleges is the
correction of themes. If it be con
ceded that the theory of emphasiz
ing faults is wrong, there is still
no alternative, as Professor Scott
points out. Are we to permit er-
rorsJo go uncorrected? To what
would the plactlce Of giving the
student unbridled rein lead ?
Whatever crimes are committed"
in the name of the practice at
theme correcting, as Professor Scott
points out, "it keeps its place In
virtue of two incontestable facts:
First, it has been, the prevailing
method for 200 years and more,
and, second, no other method has
been as yet invented that will in
practice take its place." Still the
fault is obvious, as we are justified
in concluding from results. We
fail to reach the disease of which
errors are merely the symptoms.
As a preventive the theme correc
tion seems to have failed, though
there is reason' to .fear that if it
were abandoned results might be
even worse. ' .
Teachers before Professor Scott
have detected an odd similarity in
the syntactical "howlers" of school
boys. There are the same verbal
confusions, the same fanlts of con
struction, the same violations of the
canons of good taste, as the writer
notes. "So uniform," he says, "is
the run that if a thousand papers
by a hundred students in each of
ten leading universities were put
before an impartial judge, I venture
to say that the judge, solely by
merit, could not assign any but the
smallest fraction of them to the
Institutions at which they were
written." The problem is not ge
ographical, nor is it limited to a
class. On only one point does there
appear to be agreement and that Is
that conditions are growing worse.
It seems to be conceded that young
students of the present show less
facility in composition than their
more or less remote predecessors
did. Yet this conclusion may be
Impaired by the circumstance that
a vastly larger proportion of our
young men and young women go to
school than did so even half a cen
tury ago.
The suggestion that English com
position is influenced by spoken
languages is thought-provoking, but
putting an added burden of blame
on the melting pot does not ms-
cover the cure. More than 12.000,- j
000 of our fellow Americans, Pro- i
fessor Scott reminds us, "were born
in counties where English is not
their native language and have for
their speech an alien tongue." The
sons and daughters of these number
at least J3.000.000 more. "Thus
there are at least 25.000,000 per
sons whose speech is either un
qualifiedly foreign or at least influ
enced by the speech-of home and
country." "Translation English" is.
we think, an excellent term to de
scribe the product. It accounts for
vn,,inn ,v ,,. J
thought, and the difficulties of!"
thinking in a foreign tongue are
well known. Few foreign-born
writers of English have mastered
the vernacular as, for example, has
Joseph Conrad, or as did Professor
Munsterberg and Carl Schurz.
It is more plausible that the
breaking down of what may be
termed the "family tradition" has
made inroads on the forms of
written language. "The family in
years gone by, or the household,
was a sort of bulwark against the
forces which tend to degrade and
brutalize the vernacular." Here we
detect the familiar note of com
plaint at the. decreasing sense of
parents in matters educational.
For
The daily reading of the scriptures,
the earnest - admonition of parents,
couched frequently in conventional but
nevertheless elevated language, the com
parative isolation of thousands of homes,
the absence of the lighter forms of lit
erature, all these and other influences
tended to preserve in the family, in
spite of provincialisms and grammatical
lapses, a certain tone and choiceness and
gravity of speech that are the essential
families, whether of north or south, that
haracteristics or national id:om. in
have preserved their integrity and, for
one reason and another, limited tneir
intercourse with tho community, we may
still hear this firm, deliberate speech
the speech of a Kentucky mountaineer
or the speech of a Lincoln.
So the issue of blame reverts
to a point very distant from that
at which we started which had to
do with the inverted psychology of
theme correction and arrives at
the still more perplexing distribu
tion of responsibility between
school and liome the latter includ
ing, as we f'jel bound to, recall, those
homes in which foreign idioms and
alien constructions abound.
Deeper than all is the perpetual
combat .behind the language- of the
child, a mode of behavior as nat
ural as gesture and play, in which
"the order of words is determined
by the precedence of the feelings,"
nd the increasing complexities of
modern composition. It is unde
niable that demands on vocabulary
grow with civilization. Every new
edition of a dictionary attests it.
But so, too, there is greater em
phasis on form. Left to his own
devices the child, entering school
with the invaluable gifts of Im
pulse to communicate and a vo
cabularysuch as it is probably
would contrive to make himself
understood. But Professor Scott
comes no nearer to a solution when
he says that the teacher "now pro
ceeds to ignore, or at least under
value, the gestures, poses, cries
and modulations, and unload on
him the colossal structure of our
speech." It is not quite clear how
gestures, poses, cries and modula
tions can be transmuted Into writ
ten composition, however desirable
it were to do so. It is precisely
because of these limitations upon
written speech that its forms are
necessary, and it is because of all
the difficulties suggested that the
problem is as interesting as it is.
The Bay cities have Jjig ideas. A
short while ago they were full of a
plan to build a viaduct across San
Francisco bay; now they are talk
ing of a bridge across the' Golden
Gate. Perhaps they find support in
the declaration of an eminent en
gineer that from a technical stand
point there was nothing to prevent
the building of a bridge across the
Atlantic. But he also said that it
was possible to reach a point where
an enterprise would be so colossal
that it would not pay.
General Grant used to find com
fort in the reflection that the other
fellow was guessing just as hard aslt.iat for the poor heathen.
he was. Congress is probably won
dering just as much what the peo
ple really want as we are specu
lating on what congress is likely
to do.
The season of colds having come
again, it is appropriate to suggest
that more fresh air and a higher
degree of humidity in the living
room is one of the btst preventives,
as well as the cheapest ones, that
there is.
Score one for the weather man,
who doesn't always get the credit
for acumen that he deserves. He
predicted the coming of rain with
in a few minutes of the time that it
actually came.
Christmas strawberries are prom
ised at around $5 the quart. We
can think of no more pleasing way
to save $5 than by going without
the kind of strawberries that
Christmas usually brings out.
If only the cost of living would
drop with the price of radium.
which after declining from $180,000
to $120,000 a gram has tumbled to
a mere $70,000, all in a tew days!
If any excuse for a return game
of football were needed, it is fully
supplied by the proposal to play
one for the benefit of the Commu
nity Chest.
Queen Mary has set the example
of doing the Christmas shopping
early, with the result that she is
swamped by crowds that govern
their conduct by the queen's.
Scientists predict that they will
soon be able to predict earthquakes
with certainty. Somebody is al
ways taking the zest out of life.
"Revival of the desire to spend"
is noted in a review of business con
ditions. Only the wherewithal Is
needed to make the act complete.
The "bigger and better" Astoria
movement as a matter of course is
already under way.
-Are you putting a little seal on
the back of every letter and pack
age? II not, begin today.
The Listening Post.
By DeWItt Harry.
jTHE family pet, a handsome old I
i Tom cat. had died. He passea i
away from old age and ease. His j
final hours were peaceful. But, with
his cold remains In the house, a
problem arose. How to carry out the
last sad rites? -
After a lecethv discussion in
vhich disposal In the garbage can.
burial in the back yard and leaving
on the neighborhood pest's front
porch were considered, it was de
cided that a watery grave would
be the best. So when the man of the
house left for his office the next
morning he carried a neat paper par
cel that contained old Tom's re-
mains. The plan was for the parcel
"e thrown frOm the street car
into the center of the river, , as the
car crossed the bridge.
But, as It happened, the custodian
of the corpse became engaged in one
of those hot, back-platform debates
and forgot the cat until his arrival
at his office. So the poor old cat
reposed on the ledge outside the
window all that day.
Evening came and the poor old
fat begin another journey towards
his former happy home. It happened
that this night the- cars were
jammed as never before and the
owner of the white parcel was
wedged in so tightly that there was
i,o chance to cast the cat Into the
cold river water. But, as he neared
bis destination, he got an Inspira
tion. Why not forget the cat?
So, as he got off the car, the con
ductor called to him and handed
down a white paper parcel, and he
arrived back Home, after earning
around the parcel all day long, with
the cat yet undisposed of.
After another council it was de
cided to write "finis" to the cat ca
reer by burial. A bag of lime was
purchased at the corner drug store
and, after the grave was prepared.
the white paper parcel was brought
from the house and untied, i
Inside were two big, juicy sirloin
sieaks.
Treachery lurks In the wild. Self
preservation forces birds and beasts
to subterfuge and betrayal. Last
wtek a doe Jumped from a cliff to
her death on the lower Columbia
river highway. Friar- Tuck refuses
t.- admit that she committed suicide. !
Friar Tuck knows as much about
the woods' lore as any of Rooin
Hood's brave rascals. He tells of one
place, near the Oregon coast, where
a perpendicular bluuff, several hun
dred feet in height, is masked by
dense forest. Approaching through
the trees there is no inkling of
danger until beast or man stands
on the brink.
The first time Friar Tuck traveled
this way he recoiled from the edge
just in time to save himself. As he
threw himself back he heard the
whir of wings and a big buzzard
swept by within a few feet, scaly
head almost within reach, loathsome
talons outstretched. It gave Friar
Tuck such a start that lie muttered
several paeternosters or something
ot the kind he said with fervor un
der his breath. When his nerves
were quieter he once again ap
proached the edge and looked over.
There, hundreds of 'feet below,
were piles of bones. As he stood,
fet braced, firm hold on a tree,
asain came the whir of wings and
this time half a dozen of the vul
tures swept past. They came on a
level flight until even with the edge
and with a shriek and clatter dipped
and dived below.
Friar Tuck says they were trying
to lure unsuspecting animals to de
struction. They were vandals who
preyed on the corpses of those they
sent to ruin. So he Insists that the
doe on the highway did not kill her
self, that some dogs drove her over
the edge or that she became con
fused. Not many of us squander more
than a passing thought on the ap
proach of the .new year. So the
civilized Christian it seldom means
more than another 365 days' strug
gle. Some few make resolutions, and
small proportion keep them. In
the main however we don't think of
scarfing anew, of wiping the .slate
clean and doing better. We leave
Down in Chinatown, with "their
New Year more than two months
away, they are already getting
ready for the season. With the Chi
nese each year is something done
and gone and at its end they square
their accounts and start anew. A
relic of their heathen ways if you
like, but a very enobling manner
f thinking "even for a poor for
eigner.
So the Chinese are casting up their
accounts and preparing for the new
ytar as reckoned by their calendar
that is centuries older than the one
the Christians use. On Chinese New
Year's day they will pay every bill
they owe and settle all their obliga
tions so that each and every one of
tnem can face the world afresh,
ready to do his best during the next
i.2 months. . '
What is news? Ah, there you are.
Almost anyone but a news writer
knows, it might" be possible that
newspapers overlook a great deal
of real interest to the community.
This forcibly was brought to our
mind a few days ago when we looked
at the waste paper on the floor and
ietrieved the following little bit:
"Mrs. Abigal O Deah la at the St. Johns
general hospital having a badly bruised
leg taken care ot. Report! are that she
is resting easily, it having occurred in a
fall."
So why not a page or mote in the
daily papers every issue so that we
could be regaled with items of this
nature. Such as:
Jessie Blunders dislocated the second
Joint of the third finger of her left hand
while typing yesterday. While painful
the lniury will not Iteep her from work.
A sad accident caused consternation
at the Waverly mission sewing bee last
Tuesday, iirs. Charles Dwlgbt Stephens
forgot her thimble and. in an Interested
conversation, tried to shove her needle
through six thicknesses of unfinished
linen with her bare finger. The needle
penetrated at least one-tenth of an inch
and the result was that a fine pair of
pajamas for the African Gongo settle
ment, was plentifully sprinkled with
blood. Mrs. Stephens, at last reports,
was wearing the finger of an old kid
glove on her own sore finger.
'
One of the regular sights of the
towri is to be seen at Broadway and
Morrison. It is a bored man stand
ing on the curb, with his entranced
wife flitting from window to win
dow of a big furrier's establishment
Most married men have marked this
corner as a danger spot on their
city maps. ,
There's a Reason.
By Grace K. Hall.
Have yon tried to come op from the
vaney oeiow
To the hills where the sunshine Is
! brighter?
I Have you plumbed every depth In
your being to know
! Why the burdens you bear are not
j lighter?
You will never be more than you're
longing to be.
For all effort must have a begin
ning. And the goal that you set is the
goal you will see
Though beyond there are more,
for your winning.
There's a reason for everything
under the sun, '
And it's certain no man can as
sist you.
If you leave anything which your
strength could have done
Maybe that is Why fortune has
missed you.
THE MILKING SONG.
The farmer boy at clote of day
Is peacefully whistling & ditty gay,
The sun withdraws his pallid ray
While the farm boy is gently
milking
Whistling and milking and strip
ping away
By the dim red light of the lan
. tern.
The cows and sheep and noble bay
Are comfortably munching odorous
hay,
Nor seem to care if winter stay
While the farm boy is dreamily
' milking
Milking end stripping and humming
By the dim red light of the lantern.
He sits and thinks and strips away,
While his plans the lays as a wise
man may:
"Me for my bed, , for at break of
day
I'll be off to the city tomorrow,"
Planning and whistling and hum
ming away,
He milks by the light of the lantern.
The bins of grain and stacks of hay
Give all needed proof he can make
his way.
And indicate he is here to stay.
For content in his heart is tip
springing Gaily he's dreaming and whistling
away
While he milks by light of the
lantern.
WILLIAM CHELCIE STRIKER.
TWO CITIKS.
(Lone Fir Cemetery.)
There's a silent city yonder.
Just beyond the busy street.
Friends come oft with roses laden,
Oft they come, but none can greet.
Here they sleep, the high and lowly,
Rich and poor here equal mate.
Hushed are all their stone-built
dwellings,
Vine o'ergrow each bolted gate
Ships sail past this silent city,
But their masters quiet lie.
Heeding not the call, or signal.
Floating 'neath the glowing sky.
Here the maiden long has slum
bered, Garbed in simple -snow - white
dress,
Tresses flowing free, unheeded
None came hither to caress.
There are flowers blooming ever.
Near their marble mansions white,
And the bells of nearby city
Peal out softly through the night.
Yet they waken not, these sleepers.
They who're gathered In his fold
While the river flows between them.
These two cities growing old.
' JUNE MacMILLAN ORDWAY.
T1NKKR1N".
When father tinkers
'round
at
home
A-fixing chairs and things, .
He calls to all the family -
-To bring him nails and strings
And, "wheres the scissors Mandy
Go get the hammer, John;
Say, where'd yo-j put those washers.
Kate? -Come
hold this rivet on."
He keeps us all a-jumpln' round' .
While he nreaks into a sweat.
And it sounds like things wa$ doiiT
When fatner works, you bet!
But somehow when he's finished
And gone away downtown
And mother goes to piokin" up
The tools he s scattered round
She finds he's split the chair seat
Because the nails were big.
She goes to turn the faucet
And finds it out of rig;
And so she gets a carpenter
And calls the plumber in
But father thinks he did it all
With a little tinkerin.'
. JANETTB MARTIN.
THE simple: life FOR IK.
A rich man rides in his limousine
From Portland to the sea
A rich man rides on cushioned
wheels,
But what is that to me?
But what is that, to me
Trudging here on the pave
The farmer stares at the flashing
car
With face now fierce, now grave.
With a look now fierce, new grave
But when I chance to go
Beside his field, he welcomes' me
With a friendly, glad "Hullo!"
With a friendly, glad "Hullo!"
And the farm, boy laughs i' glee,
And the farm girl smiles beside the
wen
With sweet simplicity.
With dear simplicity
Oh, a quaff of crystal wine
She hands to me. Oh, witchery
The simple life for mine!
VERNE BRIGHT.
'THE SOIL'S VINTAGE."
Dim and gray is the face of the sky
(Now the days are red),
Like the film that spreads over the
eye
Of a man that's dead.
And the tired trees toss their tar
nished treaure
To the wind's rough tide;
Broken the spell of their day's hot
pleasure,
Ended their pride.
What was it worth all the sweet
life growing
Beneath the blue?
But that the year's gaunt form Is
showing
Where the spirit grew.
MARY ALTHEA WOODWARD.
RAIN.
Rain falls like moths of flurried
wing.
Pale, drifting, aimless
On an impression of tall buildings,
half seen
A city, vaguely recalled as ifr a
dream, "
That lifts its lights among the
moths
And casts anemic shadows.
Rain falls like moths of flurried
wing,
phosphorus upon the deed
things of summer,
flutters a faint damp lift
among the weeds.
KATHRYN EASTHAM.
Like
And