PAGE TWO
ASHLAND TIDINGS
Ashland Tidings
SEMI-WEEKLY.
ESTABLISHED 1876.
Issued Mondays and Thursdays
Bert R, Greer, - Editor and Owner
B. W. Talcott, - - - City Editor
SUBSCRIPTION KATES.
One Year $2.00
Six Months 1.00
Three Months ' .60
Payable in Advance.
TELEPHONE 39
Advertising rates on application.
First-class job printing facilities.
Equipments second to none in the
Interior.
Entered at the Ashland, Oregon,
Postoffice as second-class mall matter.
Ashland, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 2, '13
SHOlU KEY1SK CHARTER.
Inasmuch as it seems the ever
Increasing policy of Ashland to bar
the saloons from our beautiful tity,
it would seem the part of good judg
ment to also bar the annual wran
gle over the matter. There is no
question that can stir up so much
ill feeling as a liquor fight, and a
fight of this character leaves a line
of cleavage among our citizens which
seems to makeun:ted action along
other lines almost, if not quite, im
possible. Why, then, would it not
be well to dispense with these con
tests if possible?' To this end some
means must be found to do away
with the annual. battle over the sub
ject. Judging from the result of the re
cent election it ought to be little
trouble to secure an amendment to
the charter in this respect. Just
what form that amendment should
be is a matter that should be dis
cussed calmly and without prejudice.
Some will advise simply making it
a longer time between the bringing
up of the question, but this would
not eliminate 'the battles, only make
them less often and render them, if
possible, harder ' fought. Others
would amend the charter so as to
render it impossible under the char
ter to license a saloon. This would
simply mean a change, in the man
ner of bringing the fight. It would
simply mean that an initiative peti
tion would probably be brought fre
quently to ask a change in the char
ter to permit the saloons.
What is known as the Iowa plan
has been suggested as a good solu
tion of the question. This would, as
appplied to Ashland, mean a change
in the charter prohibiting tire saloon
except upon ''the i petition of 65 per
cent of the voters who voted at the
last general or city election. Under
the Iowa plan the petition has to be
filed with the proper officials (the
council in a city and the county court
in a county) and made a matter of
public record. It is verified by the
officials much in the same way as
an initiative petition In Oregon is
verified, but ,no one's signature is
allowed to count unless he (or she)
voted at the preceding election.
Under the Iowa plan, if the 65 per
cent are Becured and the board sees
fit, It may grant the license, and
then only under the most strict reg
ulations no back door, no screens, !
no chairs, no cards or dice, and
strict hours.
The reason that the Tidings favors
this plan of handling the matter is
that the securing of 65 per cent of
the voters before a license can be
issued assures that a substantial ma
jority of the citizens favor a saloon
before it can be had, and the further
fact that experience has proven that
it does not arouse the animosities on
either side to nearly such an extent
as the presnet system, and divisions
which engender bitterness along one
line hurt the city in every other line.
As a rule the matter of circulating
a petition for saloons does not pro
gress far before it becomes evident
either that the city is overwhelming
ly for saloons or the circulator be
comes weary of the work and gives
it up. Another feature in favor of
the plan is that the expense of the
circulation of the petition must be
borne by those desiring the saloon?
and not by the citizens at large, and
the further reason that every man
will think well before placing his
name on a petition which is placed
on record and open to the Inspection
of any who desire.' This has a ten
dency to discourage careless signing
of the petition to accommodate the
person circulating it.
The Tidings is not patrlcular what
system is adopted to eliminate the
annual fight over the liquor ques
tion, so that it does so effectually
and also helps to- unite the citizens
eo that they will pull together on
public questions in which this is not
involved.
Philadelphians in 1912 paid $4,-
00,000 in water taxes, of which
sum $1,400,000 came from indus
tries and large consumers.
TWO YIEWS OP IT.
. Was or was not union labor on
trial at Indianapolis? Judge Ander
son, who presided at the trial of the
men charged with illegally trans
porting dynamite, says that it was
not, while Senator Kern, who defend
ed them, urges that it was. It would
Beem to depend largely upon the
stand that union labor takes in the
matter, whether or not it is or was
on trial. It certainly was not on
trial before the court, and whether
or not it is put on trial before the
bar of public opinion will depend
largely upon the attitude of union
labor in the matter. These men
were convicted after a fair trial, and
after having exhausted every art of
the technical lawyer to prevent it.
The fact that two of the men were
acquitted shows that the jury decid
ed according to their belief in the
evidence before them, and there are
few outside the ranks of organized
labor who will doubt the guilt of the
accused, and many members of or
ganized labor will agree with them
While it is right and just that a
parent or friend should try to shield
one guilty of crime, organized labor
owes it to itself and to the country
at large not to stand sponsor for the
criminal acts of any of its officers.
It cannot afford to do so nor is it
right that it should. Senator Kern's
impassioned attacks upon the courts
of the government in which, unfor
tunately, he holds a high position;
his appeals to prejudice that more
money may be poured into the cof
fers of the defense, should not in-
.duce one honest laboring man to up
hold those guilty of wholesale dyna
miting in the cause of labor. The
fact that it was done in the cause
of labor should make him the more
determined to rid labor of the taint
by refusing to aid in their defense.
American jurisprudence is such that
ten guilty men escape and the tradi
tional one innocent one is not con
victed except upon perjured evidence.
Whatever we- may think of McMani
gal, his story was corroporated to
the utmost by evidence of all de
scriptions and was believed to be
true by twelve men who had heard
every word of it. Three months
spent in hearing the evidence and ar
gument is too long for passion and
prejudice to have swayed them. It
was a conviction in the minds of
every juror that these men had been
conspirators in the most damnable
plots in the history of the world,
which caused the verdict, and it is
worse than foolish for organizzed la-
bor to put itself in the position of an
apologist for such tactics.
AX AMERICAN ADVANTAGE.
An English engine-driver was dis
missed for drunkenness. He pro
tested that he'd been drunk in his
own time and it was no business of
the railroad company what he did
when off duty. His union felt the
same way about it and, the company
refusing to restore the bibbler, near
ly ten thousand of them went on
strike.
Striking over trivial things and
unreasonable is not uncommon in the
history of union labor in America.
But it is pleasant to record labor
here has not ben known to throw
down its tools In the defense of the
right to get drunk. The movement
among the employers to weed out the
dissipated has been more than
matched by the unsympathetic atti
tude of the unions toward those who
dally with alcoholics. Some of the
trades which not many years since
were notorious for the drinking hab
its of their members are now largely
made up of teetotalers. Time was
when conventions of union labor
were occasions for big drunks. Bar
rooms which look forward to profit
from this source now are rewarded
only with disappointment.
The English workingman has some
times been held up as an example
In common-sense that American
workmen would do well to follow
on the principle that something
somewhere else is bound to be bet
ter, we suppose. This strike for the
privilege of muddling one's head
with liquor suggests a geographical
transfer of the example.
A HOPEFUL SIGN.
One of the hopeful signs of the
present is the disposition on the part
of the authorities to put the "blue
sky" operators of all kinds behind
the bars. While the sale of worth
less stocks is not one of the princi
pal causes of panics, it is one of the
causes, as It first causes undue spec
ulation, and when the bubble bursts
leaves many unable to meet the
financial demands of legitimate bus
iness. Were the element of reckless
chance taken out of business there
would never need be, nor would
there be, serious panics. It is be
cause in most cases that someone has
invested in wildcat stocks and then
drags down his conservative business
connections, which causes the disas
trous failures.
OONGRESS AND TRUST DISSOLUTION'.
Having probed the steel trust to a
certain extent, the democratic house
of representatives now recommends
that the same trust be dissolved;
which, as we may take it, la a sort
of legislative encouragement to the
department of justice.
All of this sounds well, if you say
it quickly. But iu view of the re
sults of past (rust dissolutions one
wonders if there is likely to be much
to it besides sound.
Congress is not facing the trust
question squarely merely by probing
and then recommending dissolution,
or by saying to the federal depart
ment of justice: "That's a good
fellow. Sic 'em, Tige!"
The trust is largely a case of too
much water n the blood, and the
evil of it is systemic. It needs
constructive statesmanship, not for
ineffectual shaking up by process of
so-called dissolution, but by the en
actment of law that will have eco
nomic soundness; that will be in ac
cord -with the warning of the su
preme court in the Standard Oil de
cision, to the effect that the trusts
are with us to remain and that reg
ulation and not dissolution is the
proper course to contemplate.
Clearly enough congress is loath
to consider this problem in its larger
aspects, because to consider it justly
and treat it properly is bound to re
sult in a squeezing process which the
business interests dread, and that
through them will affect temporar
ily, and without doubt acutely, the
interests of the millions.
The system must be rid of the
poison of overcapitalization; and
how to get rid of it and avoid the
most serious affects is the delicate
and embarrassing problem. It is a
problem, however, that statesman
ship must face sooner or later, and
it is not to be solved by any make
shift of fake dissolution.
LIMITS OF CORPORATE CONTROL
The suit brought against the New
York Central lines to prevent the
issue of certificates for equipment
involves a. highly interesting ques
tion may a "parent" company as
sess a subsidiary when the subsidiary
will enjoy only indirectly, if at all?
A few years since the one who
questioned the right of persons in
control of a corporation to do what
they wished with the corporation
was hooted. He was pushed aside
with little courtesy. "Can't I do
what I want with my own railroad?"
George Gould demanded of those
who represented minority stockhold
ers as if all the ownership were
concentrated in the control, as if all
stockholders who did not endorse
the methods of the controlling inter
ests had no claim upon consideration.
The minority stockholder is getting
recognition. He is commanding in
fluence. In the case of this suit
against the New York Central, the
minority stockholder appears to have
a grasp upon a very effective weap
on threat of prosecution by the
government with which to compel
recognition.
Out of the score or so of suits
which may develop from this one pro
test will possibly come the answer
to the question as to minority rights
and to the related question as to
what a controlling company may do
with fhe property and treasure of a
company it does not own in entirety.
THE FARMER'S REARS.
After the freight bill has been paid
and the commission man's percent
age subtracted, a Long Island farm
er received a little over 30 cents a
bushel for the lima beans he raised
this season. The farmer went to
New York within a day or two, and
feeling some curiosity as to the re
tailing of his beans, traced them to
one of the big markets. There he
found his 30-cent beans selling at 15
cents a quart, which figures out
$4.80 a bushel.
The farm produce raised in this
country last year brought the farm
ers about $6,000,000,000. The con
sumers paid $13,000,000,000 for that
produce. Somewhere between the
farmer and the ultimate purchaser
the price was doubled and a billion
dollars slapped on for good meas
ure. Doesn't $7,000,000,000 seem
rather a tough charge for transpor
tation, handling and marketing? Yet
how much worse if the prices on all
farm stuff multiplied as much and
as fast as the beans of the Long
Island farmer? The optimist will
find some grounds for thankfulness
in the marketing system, bad as it
is. It is to be hoped, though, the
conviction that the situation might
be worse will not deter the optimist
joining any movement to operate on
that $7,000,000,000 swelling.
The PORTLAND EVENING TELE.
GRAM and Ashland Tidings one year,
$5.00.
More than 900,000 persons receive
old ai;e pensions la England.
ni8ii;;iii;ii:i;iim;i;T:t;r?;t;:iiiii"!!tttt
I The Home Circle 1
U Thoughts from the Editorial Pen
Farewell, Old Year.
The old year will soon have passed
into history. We will part with it
as with an old friend. To some it
has brought much joy to others
sorrow. Yet we are reluctant to say
farewell. Like a palsied man, it tot
ters as it nears the end of life's jour
ney and goes forward toward the
vast vault wherein doth lie the forms
of dead dynasties and sheeted cen
turies swept by the remorseless hand
of time to that great graveyard at
the entrance of which rises the im
aginary tombstone upon which is in
scribed these words: THE PAST.
There is a sublime solemnity in the
slowly moving yet never varying tide
of years. Man has marked its course
into hours, days, weeks, months and
centuries, yet it rushes on, on, and
still on, utterly unmindful of the
puny marks raised to measure the
tide that never tires. Dynasteis have
risen, flourished ai.d decayed; cities
have sprung from fertile plains and
then sank beneath the desert's shift
ing sands; continents have reared
their lofty brows above the ocean's
trackless waste, only to return to
the coral caverns from which they
rose; races have risen to the noon
of splendor and then been lost in the
darkness of night, but Time, plod
ding, tireless Time, sweeps on with
the same regularity as when it first
issued forth from the hollow of God's
hand to the chant of the morning's
stars and the proclaimed Creation's
dawn. And yet Tinie is but the im
age of eternity, the shadow of a
shoreless sea, the type of a duration
for which all the ages past and all
the aeons to come would not make
or constitute the first faint flush of
the first streak of dawn of its sec
ond morning. "Eternity, thou pleas
ing, dreadful thought." That never
ending reign succeeding the crash of
matter and the wreck of the worlds,
suns, systems. Intelligence has
achieved triumphs. It has read the
stars of heaven and can foretell to
a second when the great fiery sun
will be hidden in partial or total
eclipse; it can read the history ot
creation on the rocks of nature and
unfold the secrets hidden by God in
the bowels of the earth; but wheu it
attempts to grasp the significance of
eternity it stands ebashed and dum-
founded at its Inability to compre
hend an infinite plan.
The New Year.
"A friend stood at the door;
In either tight-closed hand
Hiding rich gifts, three hundred and
three score;
Waiting to strew them daily o'er the
land,
Even as. the sewer.
Each drops he, treads it in, and
passes by;
It cannot be made fruitful till it die.
Friend, come thou like a friend,
And whether bright thy face,
Or dim with clouds we cannot com
prehend,
We'll hold our patient hands, each
in his place,
And trust thee to the end;
Knowing thou leadest onward to
those spheres
Where there are neither days, nor
months, nor years."
Miss Mullock in this beautiful
poem gives our ideas better ihan we
can express them. The idea of each
day being a gift, hidden from us tin
til its hour comes, is a pretty
thought. So many gifts, so much
time to use for either profit or loss,
and so many hands aro held out
eagerly for the coming days, looking
for them to bring happiness, or gain
of some kind. Tha spirit sometimes
grows faint before the unknown fu
ture, consequently it is enough to
take one day at a time and' try to
make that good. It is hard enough
even then and sometimes it is best
to go hour by hour. One day at a
time is the secret Of every noble life.
One day at a time, taken up bravely
with its duties faithfully done as
they' come, its trials patiently borne,
its temptations firmly resisted, its
cross cheerfully carried, its joys
rightly used, and Its gladness gath
ered from every hour as it passes
on. instead oi mailing many resolu
tions at the first of the year to be
quickly broken, let us strive to meet
each day bravely, and take what It
brings unquestionlngly.
"Oh, .hang some lamp like hope
Above the unknown way,
Kind year to give our spirits freer
scope,
And our hand strength to work
while it is day."
Courage for the New Year.
Have the courage to start right
and keep right.
Have the courage to turn from evil
and cling to that which 1b good.
Have the courage to prefer com
fort and propriety to fashion In all
things.
(glr
lift
i
Mmrtanoimr
GOLDEN ROD MILLING CD.
mtuao. mum
Have the courage to wear your old
clothes until you can pay for new
ones.
Have the courage to discharge a
debt while you have the money in
your pocket.
Have the courage to obey your
conscience at the risk of ridicule
from men.
Have the courage to own you are
poor and thus disarm poverty of its
sharpest sting.
Have the courage to wear thick;
boots in winter and insist on your
wife and daughter doing the same.
Have the courage to do without!
that which you do not need, however
much your eyes may covet it.
Have the courage to speak to a
friend in a "seedy" coat, even ; any other ever used by the goveru
though you are in company with a ment. The key, which is one of Ull
rich man and richly attired. , most important symbols of the seal.
Curious Hank Notes.
Youth's Companion: Occasional -
ly an imperfect of misprinted bank
note will evade the vigilance of the
inspectors of the Bureau oi Engrav -
ing and Printing. The most extra-
ordinary misprint that ever found its
way into circulation was a $50 na
tional bank note..
A clerk in a western hotel in mak
ing up his accounts found a discrep
ancy that could not be explained.
He placed the pils of bills at his left
hand and as he counted each one
turned the note over and put it on
a pile at his right. He discovered
that when he counted them from left
to right his cash balanced exactly,
but that when he counted from right
to left there was a shortage of $50.
The clerk spent more than two hours
in trying to find out what was the
matter. Finally in desperation he
called upon the cashier for assist
ance.
The cashier had no better success.
Again and again lu counted the bills
with the same resultJone time the
cash would balance and the next
time it would show a shortage. Fi
nally he examined each bill both face
and back, whereupon the mystery
was explained. One of the bills bore
the design of $50. on the face and
that of $100 on the back. The clerk
had taken the bill for $100.
Upon corresponding with the treas
ury department they found that the
department had a record of the bill.
In 1890 one sheet of bank notes for
a national bank in Kansas City had
been reversed in the press. One
plate bore the obverse of a $50 bill
at the top and the obverse of a $100
bill at the bottom. The other plate
bore the reverse of the two notes.
As each sheet was printed it had
been laid aside to dry before being
Om Special Offetf
the Ashland Tidings and
LaFollette's Weekly Magazine
ROTH A FULL YEAR FOR ONLY
can read every week what Senator Robert M. La FoIIette,
the fearless champion of the people's rights, the leader of the pro
gressive Republicans, thinks and says for v
ONLY 50 CENTS MORE THANaTHE
PRICE OF THE TIDINGS ALONE
A stirring and momentous campaign is opening. You will want
to be posted. You will want the record of your congressman Doe
he represent YOU? You will want information Xut the great
issues that you and friends are talking about. Senator La FoIIette
knows what is going on at Washington. He is on the ground- be
hind the scenes. He tells you all about it in LA FOLLFttf-q
WEEKLY MAGAZINE. 1 1 3
Sixteen pages of crisp editorials and interesting special arti
cles each week. " "
LaFollette's One Year, $1.00) Our Offer:
The Tidings One Year, $2.00) $2.50
To new or old subscribers who pay in advance.
Address all orders to the Tidings.
13SEB3
A rare Combination:
Something really good to eat
and at the same time beneficial.
Golden Rod Oats!
AT ALL GROCERS
SPECIAL NOTtCF Alphabetical Mtn In wj pack
age nf "(iuhlt-n Hcxl" prudwta. haf thru till you it, a
apt-ll "Ciulden Boil" auil get a flu 42-pleue Uluuer Set.
run through for the reverse printing.
Inadvertently the pressman had
turned out one shee upside down,
with the result that two misprinted
bills came forth one with a $5i
I face and $100 back and the other
with a $100 face and a $50 back.
The cashier of the bank had been
the first to become aware of the er
ror. He found that something was
; wrong, after he had paid out the
note with the $50 lace and the $lmi
back, by coming across one with the
j $100 face and the $50 back. This
; note was returned to the treasury
and destroyed and a perfect one U-
sued in its stead.
i On the 18S0 notes is found a
treasury seal entirely different from
shows a handle at the left haui side
'instead of at the right, as on all
' others' The Bnield is ot differem
bna')e ana u,e Sla,s are ,arfcer- Ule
two ends of tlle land surrounding
i symbols are tastened with
buckle which in no other instance
i fon:,s a ',art of the design of a trea;i-
ury seal. This is the only issue of
notes on which the peculiar seal was
used and collectois of paper money
include them among the "freaks."
Another curiosity is a $1 note of
the Second National Bank of Ra
venna, Ohio. It lacks the signature
of the president and the cashier, al
though it was ciiculated without
challenge.
A $1 national bank note of the
' FfrBt -N'ational Bak f Fall River
Mass., also lacks both signatures.
but passed freely lor some time be
fore the blunder was observed. Still
another $1 note that of the First
National Bank of Indianapolis
lacks the signature of the president.
A certain legal tender note of
1860. has jDne very curious feature.
Its face bears a pcrtrait of Webster
and a representation of Rolfe pre
senting Pocahontaa to Queen Eliza
beth. At the bottom of the center is
a small eagle. Upon turning this
bill upside down the eagle presents a
faithful likeness of a donkey's head.
Whether this was intended by the
engraver as a joke is not known, but
the resemblance is so close that it
seems to Indicate premeditation ou
his part.
Notice.
The annual meeting of the Ash
land Fruit and Produce Association
will be held in the city hall at 2
o' lock p. m. Saturday, January 4,
1913. All members are requested to
attend this meeting, without fail.
C. H. GILLETTE,
60-4t President.
i