s THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAXD, DECEMBER IT, 1922 ESTABLISHED Btf 1IEXRY L. PITTOCK 135 Mxth strm. KrTiand.Orejon. C. A. MGRDEN, E. B. PIPER, Manager. Editor. The Oregonlan Is a. member of the As sociated Fress. The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use for pub-ld-callon of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited In this paper aud a.iso the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dis patches herein are also reserved. Subscription Bates-In variably In Advance. (By Mail, in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and northern California.) Daily, Sunday included, one year ....$8.00 Dally, Sunday Included, six months .. 4.25 l)ally. 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Postage Kates 1 to 16 pages, 1 cent; 18 to 3:! pages. 2 cents; 34 to 48 pages, 3 cents; SO to 64 pages. 4 cents; 68 to so pages. 5 cents; 82 to 86 pages, 6 cents. Eastern Business Offices Verrce & Conklin, 300 Madison avenue. New lork; Verree & Conklin, Steger building. Chi cago; Verree & Conklin. Free Press bul.d ms. Detroit. Mich.; Verree & Conklin, Monadnock building, San Francisco, lal. DEMOCRATIC HOPE FOR 1924. j Democrats see in the result of the recent election bright promise of their return to power, and candi dates for president spring up on all sides. Ex-President Wilson is at tracted from his retreat by an en thusiastic crowd of pro-league de votees, makes a speech reviving the league issue and is hailed as coming back to public life. Democrats of each state that has elected a demo cratic governor or senator to sup plant a republican laud the victor as the logical candidate for presi dent. The radical bloc, composed mainly of republicans. Is greeted as an ally in the discomfiture of the ., ... T- 4 Vya can. repuoncun par Ly. 11. w .' guine hope of, democrats that the recession of tie tidal wave which carried the republican into power will continue, and that a democratic tidal wave will rise in 1924. All these hopes have been raised by a republican reverse that was brought about by a fortuitous com bination of political groups which agree only in protest against what the Harding administration has done or that it has not done some thing else. Loss of many seats in congress was frankly predicted by republicans who saw that the huge majority for Mr. Harding in 1920 included many who agreed with the republican party in nothing except its protest against Wilsonism and that after two years many of these would be turned against Mr. Hard ing, no matter how wisely he might administer the government. At a time when the minds of several large elements are centered on their own troubles, when the clash of interests is unusually loud, when large bodies of men and women have beanie fanatical over differences of race and creed and over specific remedies for the na tion's ills, and when the relaxation of party ties has given wide latitude to all these elements, the opportu nity has been seized for each to vote against the administration for the predominant reason that it does not stand for what each particular element. wui.. vu ui ujcoc &muio were united only in protest against what is. In order to win in 1924, the demo crats must unite enough of these elements in favor of candidates and platform to hold not only their strength as shown in 1922 but to gain further strength from the re publicans. Whichever way they turn for a candidate or for politi cal issues, they will find that tho choice of any particular man and the issues for which he peculiarly stands would drive away a large proportion of the following of other men and of the champions of other issues. Those, parts of the radical bloc's programme that are distinctly radical are likely to be opposed by moderate democrats as well as moderate republicans and their in corporation in a national platform would be bitterly opposed and, if accomplished, would alienate prob ably as many votes as they would win. Return of Mr. Wilson to the po litical arena will doubtless prove a cause of internal contention. Though his health may continue to improve, his age is likely to be an unanswerable argument against his nomination for president, but as great figure in the background he will prove a power decidedly em barrassing. He is as unbending in his advocacy of the league of na tions as ever and his efforts to die tate will surely be fiercely resisted by the anti-league democrats led by Senator Reed of Missouri, whose ranks have certainly been swollen since 1920. His activity will revive the issue of Wilsonism, on which his party was decisively beaten in 1920, and under that head the re publicans' would find excellent cam. paign material in the books of Lane, Page and Lansing. Not that the league issue can be kept out of the campaign, but that other leaders, free from Wilson's obsession, may bring It up in new form. Ex Governor Cox has re turned from Europe so deeply im. pressed with the necessity of Amer ican aid in reconstruction of that continent that he Ignores party dis tinctions by proposing that Herbert Hoover be sent to represent the United States In allied councils, That proposal points to a new ap proach membership in the league, which -would be approved by large numbers of republicans, but would provoxe a ngm wnn tne anti league democratic forces and with the Hearst element and all racial groups which were antagonized by the Wilson foreign policy. Revival of the prohibition con troversy has brought Governor Ed wards of New Jersey to the front as a possible candidate on a wet plat form. He might command the sup. port of Governor-elect Smith of New York, of Mayor Thompson of Chicago and of wet leaders else where with their foreign-bom vot ing strength, but the drys would rally to the standard of McAdoo, and Bryan would come in hot haste from Florida to fight again the battle that he fought at the San Francisco convention. Both wets and drys evince determination to fight for indorsement of their prin ciples and, whichever win9, the loser may carry znany votes to the republican ticket or its votera will sulk at home on election day. A new political factor with which the democrats must reckon is the Ku Klux Klan. Its gre.-test strength Is in democratic states, especially in the south, and it may be expected to attempt dictation of candidates and platform planks. The party which includes this element and that represented by Mayor Hylan of New York; Smith of New York state who is a Catholic, and Thomp son of Chicago with his polyglot constituency will have an arduous time in getting together with itself or with the radical bloc which em braces La Follette's German Luth eran constituents. The klan is a well organized and relentless dic tator, but submission to it would drive from the democratic party hosts of those whose race and re ligious creed the klan proscribes. The anti-Jewish crusade of Henry Ford, which is of the same char acter as that of the klan, will have an adverse effect on the chances of those who have him in mind for president. The nearer the conventions of 1924 approach, the rrore acute will become the strife among the dis cordant elements which the demo cratic leaders hope to gather into their party fold. The task is to make such a combination as will at tract more votes than it, expels, while leaguers and anti-leaguers, radicals and moderates, wets and drysi klan and anti-klan furiously .tend. While the democrats are thus engaged, the republicans, it may be expected, will be busy con ciliating many whom they have lost in the last two years and many whom internal dissension alienates from the democratic party. The president's address to congress in dicates an advance to the genuine progressives as opposed to the rad icals. His policy toward Turkey points to more active participation in the councils of nations, and he yet has time to evolve a plan of co operation that would satisfy all ex cept the extreme factions on e,ach side. In the next two years he will have opportunity to extend to agri culture the prosperity which other industries already enjoy, to give practical proof that his foreign pol icy is not one of isolation, and to allay discontent, which is in large part a nervous and moral reaction from the war and the disappoint ments that "followed. He has a stormy time ahead, but he may work through his worst troubles and win strength while the troubles of the democrats will be growing more acute. ECONOMY IN PREPAREDNESS. How little ground there is for the pacifist cry about the "burden" of armament is made apparent by the fact that only 13.5 cents out of every dollar of national expense is paid for national defense by both army and navy. When we con sider that defense is 'one of tho prime functions of any govern ment, this is certainly a very mod erate proportion. Those who clamor for a little army and navy would do well to turn their attention to expendi tures on pensions and the national debt, if they are really interested in economy. Pensions and other pro vision for ex-service men consume 19.2 cents and debt charges 34.4 cents, according to a graph pub lished in the Army and Navy Jour nal. In other words, we pay 53.6 cents on the dollar on account of former wars against 13.5 cents in preparation for the next war. Our latest experience should have taught us that, if we .had spent more on preparedness, we should now spend far less on the after-expenses of war, which will continue until the last service man's widow dies and the last dol lar of debt is paid. There is good round for the opinion that, if we had been ready, -Germany would not have challenged us to fight, for our unreadiness led the war lords to believe they could win against the allies before we got into action. If we had doubled our expenses for defense, we could have saved the greater part of the far larger and longer continued annual expense on debt and pensions. SEGREGATING JIVE NILE OFFEND ERS. A significant disclosure in con nection with. the arrest of the "yo kel" highwayman, a boy of thirteen, is that while serving a term in the state reformatory he came in con stant contact with youths older than he was and i-.ore experienced in crime, and that, as he is reported to have said, he learned what he thinks he knows about the under world from them. Inspired by their teachings, he set out on a career of outlawry as soon as he got his free dom. He was a dangerous young ster while he was at large and it is nothing to the credit of the present system of handling juvenile crim inals that he did not commit mur der, as he boasts that he was pre pared to do. , An institution in which boys ranging in age from 10 to 22 years are permitted to mingle at will in the routine of their living is based on a principle long ago condemned by thoughtful social workers. Pre cepts Instilled at much pains by teachers and supervisors are nega tived by the example of older and hardened offenders. It is an of fense against sound judgment and the basic principles of juvenile re form not to segregate offenders ac cording to grade, and it puts the re formatory on the plane of a peni tentiary, which it is not intended to be. There is at present no way to segregate these youngsters because there is no place to which to send the- comparatively hopeful - cases. The institution at Salem, in which all classes alike take their recrea tion In a space some 150 feet square and, as has been said, are constantly in one another's society, is in this respect a generation behind the times. The better way would be to provide a series of cottage units, each capable of housing twenty or thirty lnmat. j, and in which youths can be classified in accordance with age, mentality and probability of reclamation. It is perhaps too much to hope that the true home at mosphere can be developed in any institution where there necessarily is restraint, but it should be ap proximated as nearly as possible and this is even now being done in other states. . So situated, and under the care of considerate and compe tent instructors, a considerable pro portion of youths as experience elsewhere has proved, would be come useful members of society. This will not occur where the mor - ally deficient and hopelessly crim- inai are given tree opportunity to 1 leaven the mass. It is particularly desirable that the mentally subnormal types shall be separately guided by especially trained instructors. Actual experi ence in the Portland schools as well as elsewhere has indicated that re sults can be obtained in this as in no' other way. It is now pretty well known to educators that youngsters of this kind profit by being taught in classes by themselves, where they are not handicapped by a sense of inferiority and where the particular methods suitable to them can be employed. Classification and segregation should be practiced in the treat ment of youthful offenders for the same reason that boys are no longer committed to penitentiaries with adult criminals, as was the practice only a few years ago. THE LONG VIEW LEADS TO OPTIMISM. The long view is the true view of business prospects, and such a view inspires optimism in Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the United States Steel corporation, in writing for System on "Looking Forward byi Looking Backward 20 Years." In the past he finds dips in the line of progress of goods consumed, but "in the long swing of events the dips are purely transitory and all but negligible," and he shows that though there have been several deep dips in the line of steel pro duction, the line has risen, on the whole, parallel with the growth of population in this country. In twen ty years the capacity of the people to use steel has doubled, though the population has not doubled. The automobile has increased con sumption and by adding to the effi ciency of the individual has caused further increase. i When this is the experience of the belligerent nation that was least affected internally by the war, the prospect of increased prosperity ap pears far brighter after considera tion of the situation of those na tions whose internal economy was most profoundly disturbed. We in America enjoy our present measure of prosperity in the presence of a continent inhabited by more than 400,000,000 of the most advanced people in the world, whose consum ing capacity has been reduced to the lowest point. Each nation in Eu rope by its own effort is struggling up toward the old economic level. When they begin working together instead of separately their progress upward will be faster. At each step their trade with America will grow, and their renewed prosperity will add to ours. If we can do as well as we now do when the old world's line of progress is in a deep dip, how much more may we expect when it rises from that dip? It is this long-view optimism that has formed the basis of success for men of business genius. It led the big four of California and Villard apd Hill to build railroads through a wilderness. It led men to plan on a big scale development of the steel, oil, packing and other industries. It led the elder J. P. Morgan to say that he had always been a "bull" on the United States. When things have been at the worst, it has prompted men to say that they can change only for the better. The worst obstacle to this optimistic working of economic law is the obstructions that human law places in its way. BLAME FOR CRIME. We doubt that our esteemed con temporary, the Saturday Evening Post, will be able to make good in any large way its editorial impli cation that newspapers are chiefly responsible for the prevalence of crime by the manner in which they treat crime as news, and we have an impression that upon reflection it would not insist upon the point. The currents of human conduct are not so near the surface as that, and neither the recurrence of the spirit of outlawry nor the retarda tion of justice is so easily accounted for. But the issue of particular interest raised by the Post is not whether the printing of accounts of wrongdoing is in itself reprehen sible, but whether their effect upon the average read is, on the whole, such as would foster the sickly sen timentality, the incapacity for straight thinking and the tendency to govern verdicts by other consid erations than the law and evidence which so characterize the modern jury. Crime increases as its penal ties are increasingly relaxed, and it is a plain fact that juries do not convict defendants as they used to do. Yet it is one thing to print the news of crime even in its intimate 'and minute details and quite an other to assume that we have by doing so made crime pleasing to the public consciousness. We are invited to infer that every citizen who enters a jury box has had his mind attuned to the morbid and unreal by reading news accounts of crime and so has made himself un fit to render an unbiased judg ment. It is not assumed, we be lieve, that the juror has been warped by the news accounts of a particular case, in view of the ex travagant safeguards which the law permits in this regard. The no- tion seems to be that facts, pub lished . as news, incline to make crime less hateful, to obscure is sues and to create what the modern professors might call a "mass psy chology" generally too favorable to the prisoner at the bar. Not the truth about crime, but the painting of crime in other than realistic colors is responsible for the erroneous impressions we may have of it, and in this particular we think that the skirts of the newspapers of the better class, which is to say a large proportion of newspapers, are clear. We do not recall in our recent reading of a news account of a crime of violence or an of fense against good morals having been impressed with the notion that the prisoner was " more sinned against than Binning or that society and not the defendant himself was responsible for his plight We have not seen a murderer extolled, by inference or otherwise, or a burglar painted as a hero or a' drug peddler held up to anything but the scorn he deserves. The "frail little women" at present occupying cells in jails are apparently more nu merous than ever, but the fashion of depicting them as heroines., if it ever was a fashion, has gone out of date. Facts, "sordid," "turgid, "grimy," "grisly" ail that and then some concerning everyday 4 happenings emphatically do not make crime appear' roseate, and they never have. We suspect that if the reader will hark back to the first real thrill he ever obtained from an ac count of crime, to his first herp who was a lawbreaker and his first heroine who was less' than she ought to have been, he will dis cover that it and he and she were assembled in a magazine or book a publication ajassified as fiction and in every respect deserving the designation. We incline to believe that fiction and not fact is at the bottom of our twisted perspective. If the Idea prevails that poor men are constantly being sentenced to long terms in prison for stealing paltry loaves of bread to feed their starving babies (which as a matter of fact they are not), while the rich may murder with entire im punity, we think that it is due to the fiction and not the fact on which we are fed. The suave swindler, the easy-going, get-rich-quick man, the gentleman burglar always well-clothed and well-fed the smooth and polished mur derer and their ilk, the Jean.Val jeans and the Robin Hoods we know them as we know our books, but they are not real and they never were news. We have frequently taken occa sion to indorse the sentiment that "court reform will be futile if we do not find some means of injecting a little iron into our jurors." It would indeed "be a grand thing for the cause of justice if twelve individuals could be assembled with enough backbone to send a murderess to the gallows and to refuse precedence to the unwritten law over all the well-tried laws on the statute books." But we do not see how it would materially speed th& day for us to stop recording the facts about crime and criminals even the most horrid and sordid de tails of it and them. Would it, we inquire, subserve the cause of jus tice to abandon the task of creating atmosphere and background to the fiction writers for the magazines? "YES" OR "NO." It is only fair to the advocates of the so-called "true-false" or "yes no" system of conducting school examinations to say that they do not contend that it is perfect. It is nevertheless interesting as an ex ample of the search for a better method of testing the fitness of stu dents than has heretofore been found. It remains to be seen whether the new movement is going to prove profitable for all con cerned. Obviously it is the out growth of interest created by the adoption of the so-called army in telligence tests at the time of our recent mobilization for the world war and it derives added import ance from the overcrowding of in stitutions of higher learning, which has stimulated desire to restrict their advantages to those who de serve them most. Profejsor John E. Anderson of the department of psychology of Yale points out, as is known to ex aminers generally, that present methods lack uniformity. They per mit a wide variation, due to the individual factor in both instructor and student. They do not invite comparison as between different in. stitutions and between different classes in the same institution be cause of the personal equation in volved. It is said that they do not cover the material of a course thor oughly in the time ordinarily avail able, though it would seem that the new methods have offsetting disad vantages, also, in the matter of thoroughness. It reminds us of the Inordinate emphasis put on time in modern affairs. We suspect that if Aristotle had been as much con cerned over the flight of the min utes as is the twentieth-century teacher he would not have done much effective thinking. But we are reminded, also, that "tempus fugit" was not written by moderns. Whatever may be said of our prob. lems, they are not new. The gist of the proposed method is that the student is required to set down his answer to the ques tion in a word. In a truly up-to-date examination a mere check mark suffices. Thus: "John Mar shall was the first president of tho United States. Yes. No. Under score the appropriate word." "Cyrus was a famous Roman general." "A pound of feathers is heavier than a pound of lead." "Old Scrooge is a character in Vanity Fair." And so on. -As a time-saver it has merit. We can easily visualize the student romping down the list. We are ready to believe that he might "an swer a hundred questions in thirty minutes, covering every phase of the work, whereas in the custom ary form of examination he would answer only three." We are bound to concede that the inventors of the system have fore stalled at least one objection that will by this time have occurred to most readers. This is that a stu dent by the law of chance ought to score about 50 per cent without any knowledge of his subject But the ingenuity with which this obstacle has been overcome fortifies our confidence in college examiners. Professor Anderson says: If a man without any knowledge of his subject simply underlined answers hit or miss fashion he would get ap proximately, in a test, say, of 40 items, 20 right and 20 wrong. His score would be 2020, or zero. A man who knew 20 answers perfectly and guessed on the remaining 20 wojuld have 20 plus 10 right and 10 wrong, or 80 10, giving him 20. This method of scoring has given rise to reports that a man may get a minus score, which Is a possibility but not a probability. It is a sounder objection that the method "stresses recognition rather than recall," and if this is not in surmountable it would seem to be nearly so. We have too many crit ics in proportion to the number of constructive thinkers. The present system is it right or wrong? Wrong, of course; but how shall it be 'made right? Ah, that is a dif ferent matter. Was General Santa Ana to blame for the Mexican war? No. Who was? Not quite so easy, as most of us will admit The cul de sac into which the method leads may be illustrated by the experience of most students with the acquisi tion of languages. After four years of study they "read some French," but can't discuss the bill of fare understandingly with the waiter In a restaurant. "Recognition" is the right word. It is nothing more. In mathematics and in all the studies requiring reflective thinking it will seem that it is open to the same objection and to the further one that it unduly stresses information by contrast with ability to think. We doubt that It would possess much value "in the sciences, where a considerable body of information is required," since acquisition of information is nearly inseparable from capacity to assign it to its place in the scheme, and it would be worse than useless as a test, for illustration, of English composition. We hesitate to affirm without reservation that the effort to stand ardize education might profitably be checked, yet there are signs that the present trend is in a direction opposite to that which produced sound thinkers in the past. We regard as less important than some do the elimination of the "personal equation" which the proposed sys tem stresses. At the cost, even, of considerable waste, it were desirable that individuality and constructive thinking be encouraged. This, more than standardization, is the mission of the school. DOES THE PIONEER VI VET SPIRIT SUB- "Is the spirit of adventure which conquered, peopled and brought into productiveness the great west gone out of us forever?" Rhine lander Waldo, interviewed by Ed ward Marshall, asks the question and answers that he does not be lieve it has. He is puzzled never theless by the failure of Americans of the present generation to re-, spond to the call of pioneer oppor tunity. "I wonder," he says, "if the young American conceivably may, not have softened. Has he degenerated till adventure means a mask and an automatic gun, or perchance a thrilling risk of scan dal? I don't believe it. The war proved that we etill possess brave youngsters with initiative and with out superiors. Why do not they tackle these great opportunities?" - The all-pervading restlessness which we think of when we recall the era in which the pioneers settled the region west of the Rocky mountains was a complex. Mr. Waldo outlines a field which he regards as ppfesenting a present parallel with the opportunities of eighty years ago, and mentioning.! Alaska, notes that where we sup ply practically all needs, Ameri-I cans are not making definite and I earnest effort to build the country with the thought of creating resi dent business and export and im port trade." Alluding to our fail ure to take advantage of oppor tunity in the Philippines, he sees innumerable neglected chances such "as were built into the foun dations for great fortunes and fine lives by Americans of old, who were the pioneers of the United States." Conditions were different at the outset of the western movement as the annals of the period bear witness, but a fair comparison re quires that account be taken of the situation in the states from which the immigrants came as well as, of the relative opportunities offered them in the new country. The large proportion of those who reached Oregon directly from the middle west were not rooted to a particular spot in the sense that most people now are." Many were but recent arrivals from other localities. Per manent improvements and the comforts and conveniences of life had not obtained the importance they now have. "Youof the old states," wrote an Iowa pioneer on the eve of departure for Oregon in 1843, "cannot readily conceive the every-day sort of business the 'old settler" makes of selling out his 'improvements,' hitching the horses to the big wagon, and, with his wife and children, swine and cattle, pots and kettles, household goods and household gods, starting on a long journey of hundreds of miles to find and make a new home." Populations of entire localities were migrant to a degree that now characterizes small groups only. One difference between Oregon and Alaska is that the latter was peo pled by unmarried men, chiefly under the impulse of gold-seeking, while the northwest was settled by families with whom the home- building impulse was paramountj yet they had little to leave behind them, and they expected to fare better because, in so many in stances, they could not easily have fared worse. Unsettled financial conditions in the Mississippi valley in the late thirties undoubtedly contributed to the spirit of unrest a universal phenomenon at the time. "Fear lessness, hospitality and independ ent frankness," says a commenta tor, "unitedxwith enterprise and thirst for novelty and change, were the peculiar characteristics of the pioneer."- These and the fact that the opportunities he had encoun tered before reaching Oregon never quite measured up to his hopes. It needs to be noted, in comparing present with past opportunities for expansion, that the pioneer was es. sentially a family man and first of all an American. We see little simi- 1 MGIVWGU UIO UULlUUlk ill I.I1BJ Philippines or in equatorial Africa and that in Oregon in the early forties because of these two factors. Alaska has had similar drawbacks from the viewpoint of the settler seeking a permanent abiding place. The "restless tide of western im migration," as the Rev. David Leslie described it in 1840, a little ahead of time, promised "to roll on and fructify the plains till met by the tidewaters of the Pacific," for two reasons that there were homes in prospect and lands to be claimed under the American flag. Peter Burnett spoke for a great number of his countrymen when he confessed that he was attracted by the land- bill of Senator Linn, which promised 640 acres of land for himself and 160 acres for each of his children. Since he had a wife and six children, the prospect Of an estate of 1600 acres was "sufficiently inviting." . Besides. Burnett was in debt, as were many others in the middle west and saw no probability of discharging his obligations if he remained where he was. No fair appraisal of the motives of the pioneer will leave national feeling out of the reckon ing. "Oregon, the future home of the power which shall rule the Pa cific," was widely advertised throughout the east. "I saw," said Burnett, again speaking the senti ments of many of his associates, "that a great American community would grow up in a few years on the distant shores of the Pacific, and I felt an ardent desire to aid in this most important enterprise." It Is Impracticable to catalogue all the motives cf those who headed the great westward movement which rolled first across the Alle ghenies and then over the Rockies, or to define with precision the proportion in which love of adven ture, desire for new scenery, of mere change, or curiosity prevailed. or how conscious the pioneers were f of their political, destiny, tames Christy Bell, in his "Opening a , Highway to the Pacific," probably : strikes nearer to the truth than do i most observers when he suggests that "in spite of the great distance to be traveled, the sentiment really developed as the next natural step j in an already habitual growtn 01 j the frontier." That is to say, a region comprising more than two thirds of the present continental United States had not passed out of the frontier stage; immigrations in volved mainly the mere exchange of one set of frontier circumstances j for another, and the human ma terial for pioneership was never exhausted while the so-called fron tier held out There is not now a spot on the globe that fairly bears comparison with the Pacific northwest in its relation to the older settlements in the period which Mr. Waldo fears may have forever passed. Nor were the purposes of the early colonists of America a criterion by which to judge Americans of today. None of the conditions existing in the seventeenth century or in the fifth and sixth decades of the nine teenth century are duplicated by opportunities now offered in lands which are alien to the hopes of the American home-builder and which hold the prospect only of tempo rary residence and commercial ex ploitation. Mr. Waldo ventures that "it will be a serious matter for the nation" if the "pioneer instinct has gone out- of the American blood." We surmise that the in stinct has not been vanquished. It is more plausible to suppose that it seeks an outlet in keeping with the wholly changed demands of a new time. Depopulation of the rural dis tricts of their feminine inhabitants, as indicated by the farm census of the United States, has a peculiarly illuminating illustration in Ver mont where although men out number women in the state as a whole, practically all the cities show a preponderance of women. Burlington, the state's metropolis, has 12,075 females to 10,705 males in Rutland the figures are 7S24 and 7130 respectively, and the propor tion holds good with modifications as to Brattleboro, St Albans, Mont- peller and St Johns. It is not the business of the census-takers to theorize as to causes but a plausible reason is easily supplied. This is mainly, as in the general movement throughout the country, that women are rising in revolution against anti-social conditions which have prevailed in the country by comparison with the town and are determined to have their share of the amenities of life. The bleak winters of New England are no doubt a contributing factor, but the phenomenon is not confined to that region. It is general, as has been heretofore stated, throughout the United States. The Bpint Or inquiry Knows no bounds. Once it has been stimu lated there is no telling to what destruction of ancient formulas it may lead. Every pioneer plains man knows, to cite a recently em phasized example, that for half a century it was accepted as fact that a horsehair rope laid in a circle about a sleeping camper was an in fallible protection against ' rattle snakes. It was as widely believed as the now-discredited notion that one could tell the age of a rattler by the numbe- of rattles on his tail. After nearly half a century of fron tier life a cowboy has put the horsehair rope theory to what the scientists would call the "labora tory test" The result was that the rope did not stop the snake, or even discourage it. Tet the old superstition had its value. Thou sands of men have'Blept in peaceful security who would have" died of insomnia if they had known the truth mercifully deferred until most of the rattlesnakes have gone, The brevity of the Georgia woman senator's tenure of office fortu nately forestalled the inevitable proposal to coin a new word to dis tinguish her. Yet it "might be well to be prepared. One can never tell when a woman will be elected to the senate for a full term. The tragedy in the news that In come tax collections have fallen off by $1,400,000,000 is that this vast sum does not represent saving any where along the line. Nobody has it. It is simply that that much money doesn't exist Debs is incurable. Now he is all for the soviet system, which, were it not for our repugnance for cruel be ,ncUned to give Wan oppor. . Now they're making a liquor breath prima facie evidence of in toxication against the motorist who has an accident. Well, that's likely to give him an alibi on the spot by taking his breath away. Five hundred saloon keepers have opened drug stores in New York city, a knowledge of antidotes being appropriate to the business of selling the kind of stuff they prob ably will dispense. With the heroine of the Ante gonish ghost incident in an asylum, psychic research gets a setback from which it will not recover un til the next "inexplicable manifes tation" occurs. Two weeks have passed since Mr. A. B. See suggested that women's colleges ought to be burned and not a single college has offered him so much as the degree of A. B. "Auto bandits get Fels soap pay roll,!' says a headline. Not how ever, the fund for the propagation of the single tax, which might bet ter have been spared. If the stores had ten times as many kinds of Christmas presents as they have, it would still be im possible for the average shopper to make up his mind. Passenger rates to Europe are to be reduced, notwithstanding which the man who really wants to travel in solid comfort will plan to see America first The 'ten days between income tax paying time and Christmas will be ample,-considering what some folks will have left, to do their Christmas shopping in. - The Listening Post . By DeWlrt Harry. A minister rode in the parlor car of a Portland-Seattle train. He was I young, carefully groomed, fine appearing and evidently cultured. The trip was a tiresome one, most of the other passengers soon paired off and whiled away the time in conversation. But none seemed to care to talk to the minister. 1 That he would make an intelligent partner for a discussion was evi dent, and that he probably would be an Interesting talker was more than possible. That he wanted companionship was also apparent but all seemed to avoid him. He had an engaging smile but did not force himself on anyone. At his approach, whenever he found it-necessary to shift his seat or move about the car, conversa tions ceased as if the participants were afraid -the man of the cloth might overhear something he should not. Everyone seemed afraid of him. He was as a being set apart from he , rest of the cheerful humans of the parlor car, not of their kind The man who told this watched the actions of his fellow passengers and sympathized with the minister. But he took refuge behind his news paper and did not try to make the journey any easier for the man who was not of the usual class. lou explain this for yourseir. We are not wholly indebted to Booth Tarkington for the discovery that boys like to eat, for most adults (know that the greater part of the growing boy's time is spent in eating or longing and plotting out some way to get something to eat In fact food might be said to be the boy's besetting sin. Take the case of young Steve, leader of the neighborhood pirates one day. His gang were making both men and women walk the plank before they scuttled a ship they had Just captured when- Steve, as pirate chief, interposed with a merciful thought. He stopped the slaughter by ordering: 'Don't drown the women. Save them. 'Cause they do the cooking." The brunette waitress told this one. The man was short and bashful, his companion gay and (several inches taller. A bronze giant strode past. "What a fine looking fellow," he exclaimed. "I don't like them so big," she replied. And just at that minute he noticed that she had finished her shrimp salad. "Will you have a little shrimp?" "O Bill, you know I will. You may be small but you're a fast worker." We are reliably informed that the woman who advertised her home for sale and stated that it was "wired for gas" has just finished planting her spring bulbs. Our In formant goes on to state that ahe stuck them in upside down as she thought the tops were the root end. ' "Young Pete had accumulated a bunch of fall complaints and was taken to a specialist and thoroughly tested. The doctor handed Pete's mother a bottle, saying, "have him gurgle this" and then another bottle. "drop some of this into his eyes at night" and with the third one, "put a few drops of this into his ears 6Very day." Pete was all attention and ex pectant, but this seemed to be all that was coming. So he spoke to the doctor in an imploring voice: "Can't you give ma something for my nose. It'll be the only thing on my face left out and I don't want it to be lonesome." After a recent suspicious fire an adjuster was called in and left the premises in a few minutes. It did not seem that, he had taken time for even the most superficial examina tion. The owner did not like the quick manner of his work and ap proached him as he left and asked if he had found the cause of the fire. "Yes, a plain case of friction," re plied the adjuster. "The.ftre was un doubtedly caused by rubbing a J5O00 policy on a $3000 stock of goods." He was worried and showed it as he almost ran into the Southern Pa cific electric station at Fourth and Stark. As he approached the young lady at the counter bearing the "in formation" sign he said: "I have to go to Oswego." "Well," said the young lady as she toyed with a vagrant curl, "are you asking for information or just tell ing me your troubles?" BLACK EYE IS GIVES HIGHWAY Upper Columbia Counties Clear, But Not Multnomah. The Dalles Chronicle. Remember the big snow storm last year? Of course. Remember how Wasco county and Hood River county had the Colum bia river highway within their bounds cleaned off and in condition for use within a comparatively short time after the blizzard was over? Right again. And do you remember how long the Multnomah county end of the highway remained blocked and blocked and blocked? Days swung into weeks. Cars buried at Multno mah falls remained there buried while county commissioners fn Port land haggled over who should un dertake the job of digging out the road. In the meantime, while this debate was going on, autoists from all over the northwest and from eastern points jammed the parages in The Dalles and at other points east and west of here, waiting Impatiently for the open, road or else loading their cars on boats and sending them to Portland in that manner. Portland finally wakened to the fact that the laxity of her officials was giving the highway a serious black eye, and the storm that went up finally brought results. It's the same old story this year The fairly sizable snow storm lasl week banked the highway deep in drifts. The state highway officials got out scrapers and went after the blockade in Hood River and Wasco counties, and the road as far as Cascade Locks is in fairly good con dition today. But that isn't true when you cross the Multnomah county line. The drifts down there are deep and nothing has been don ta relieve tho aituatioa, Visions. By Grace E. Hall. Lift up your eyes and look across The desert of your days. The sands have parched your weary feet, The sun shed blinding rays. But you may build white cities still. From tender thoughts and high. And stately castles, turrets tall, Against the bending sky; A gentler mood will quickly sootho And cool the burn of tears. While charity lays kindly hands Upon the scars of years. Build new white cities in your dreams. With every outline true. And sparkling fountains ' tossing spray Like iridescent dew; The deserts that are here to cross May strain all earthly powers, But even cactus on the sands Yield gorgeous, flaming flowers; And though our visions disappear Mirages great and small 'Tis better to have seen them thus Than hadio glimpse at all. BEAl'TY EVERYWHERE. Some souls there are who yearn in vain for beauty. Who go about with dull, unseeing; eyes. Feeling their lives are sacrificed to duty. Falling to see what all about them lies. Oh, souls that hunger in a land of plenty. That thirst beside a river, broad and still. Reach out and take what God has freely given; Kneel down beside the stream and drink your fill. There's beauty in the sunset's glow ing colore; In wind-blown trees; In slowly drifting cloud. There's beauty in the peaceful, sun lit meadows, And fences, lined with sturdy goldenrod. There's beauty in the falling leaves of autumn; In flash of bluebird's wing; in fresh plowed earth. There's beauty in the pearly light of sunrise; ' In rippling grain; In children's carefree mirth. There's beauty in the flower In your window. Drawing its life from Juet a bit of sod. Yet every day in each new blossom Bhowtng The wonder of a miracle of God. There's beauty In a baby's dimpled elbow. In spite of grimy hands and tear stained cheek. There's' beauty in the power of thought and motion; A chance for beauty in each word you speak. Oh, say no more your lives are void of beauty. While beauty fills the earth and sky and air; But use your eyes, the while you do your duty. And thank the, Lord that beauty's everywhere. GRACE PADDOCK EDGERTON. WIND HORSES. Crouching half-mantled in their fly ing manes I stride the withers of the roaring winds. We rush upon the sleeping town at our first breath Tall steeples shake and signs come clattering down; - We swerve across the water, and our fetlocks churn The bay to lashing silver-frenzied waves. Race with us in our sport to smaslt men's boats; Our hoofs pound through the forest, affrighted dawn Awakes to see proud tree-stems trampled down. Then, wearied of my far-spent steeds, I homeward turn For morning bread the while my earthly self has lain All safe and warm at home in bed. MAUD BRODIE. LIFE'S ECSTACIES. I have known happiness, Laughter and surprise, The holiness of love, its mystery; A sweet unrest, Like shaking leaf and bud, I have known love. Its gladdened ecstacies. I have known gray skies. Misted in gloom. Beaten and storm-swept incessantly; A surging spirit. Like leaping, crested waves, I have known longing, Its saddened melodies. I have known life, i Flaming and yielding, ; Claiming. me still, reslstlessly; I am bereft, , Alone and uncomforted, Like the shelterless wind, That blows restlessly. 1 HELEN CRAWFORD, j OREGON IN WINTER. She stands, like Chaucer's gentle nun. With eyes of limpid gray; With quivering lip and trembling tears. She quickly dries away To smile with sudden golden light Illumining her face; While tears and sighs go swiftly by To' give the rapture place. And when a sudden passion swaya The mirror of her mind. Through marble cloistered mountain ways She brings tho eastern wind. And though she have a hundred moods, We love them, everyone For smiles will follow fast the frowns Of gray-eyed Oregon. MARY ALETHEA WOODWARD. DAWN ON MOUNT HOOD. From heights 1 looked into a valley, filled with pale gray mist; It lay, impen'trable and cold as mar ble brow by mourner kissed. But high above in clearest air Oh, wondrous sight. A snow-clad peak arose, tinged coral in the morning light. At once the baffling mist became a fitting base a God-wrought scheme To rest a statue that surpassed the greatest sculptor's loftiest dream. ,' JANETTE MARTIN. LOVE. The golden thread that mankind binds And everywhere expression finds Is love. Deep underlying all the deeds That we perform, us onward leads Is love. .The greatest gift that God the Lord In our tiny hearts has stored Is love. And when your heart's deep sorrows tore, What will your happiness restore--Is love. r-RICHARD F. WOLFS.