Daily capital journal., November 21, 1914, Home and Farm Magazine Section, Page 3, Image 17

HOME AKD FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Home and Farm Magazine Section Editorial Page
Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News; Suggestions of Interest to Headers;
Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought.
.
TO ADVERTISERS
Advertisers in this locality who wish
to fully cover all sections of Oregon and
Washington and a portion of Idaho will
apply to local publishers for rates.
General advertisers may address C. ti.
Burton, Advertising Manager of Farm
Magazine Co., Publishers Oregon-Washington-Idaho
Farmer, 4U Panama Uuild
uig, Portland, Oregon, for rates and Information.
0
TO READERS.
Readers aro requested to send letters
nd articles for publication to The Kdl
tor, Oregon-Washington-ldalio Farmer,
411 Panama Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions and prob
lems that bear directly on the agricul
tural, livo stock and poultry interests of
tho Northwest, and on the uplift and
comfort of the farm home always are
welcomed. No letters treating of rcli
gion, politics or the European war are
solicited, for the Farm Magazine pro
claims neutrality on these three matters.
Comparatively brief contributions are
preferred to long ones. Send lis also
photographs of your livo stock and farm
scenes that you think would bo of gen
eral interest. Wo wish to make this
nuigazine of value to you. licit) us to
do It,
SSJ-.:j$3$,J.SS
GIVE THANKS.
IT IS TRULY TOO BAD that, in spite of
large crops, the market is restricted aud
that you are finding it difficult to make
both ends meet. Of course, the prospects
within the next few months look good, and
next year should bo a hummer, but right
now money is a "woo bit light." It is truo
that you aro probably doing without quite
a few of tho necessities that about five years
ago you thought were luxuries. Yes, jobs
aro scarce and thero is not niuch money to
bo had anywhere, but instead of whining
about this it is up to you to feel enormous
ly grateful that things are no worse.
When you feel a bit down in the mouth
and the world and life scorns tinged with
blue, take a little time off aud think. You
know the financial depression, psychological
or otherwise, is a fact now, but it is but tem
porary, and you also know, what is of far
greater importance, that you livo ia America.
Do you realize what it means to live in
America today? In a vague manner you
havo doubtless felt thankful that you were
not called to war for a trifling causo last
August aud that you are not in danger of
facing death on the battlo line. Have you
thought all it 'means to you? Havo you re
membered that while a hard winter may
pinch you a trifle, it means absolute poverty
and starvation for millions in Europe? Have
you stopped to think that you are able to
eat three meals a day, while it is a lucky
person in war-torn Belgium that can cat
pneo a day? Have you thought that while
you havo warm clothes to wear during the
winter's chill, that hundreds of thousands
on tho old continent will face the snows
thinly clad and that hundreds, if not thou
sands, of thoso who are not at war will prob
ably die of exposure?
' Tho condition of affairs in Europe can
not be fully realized in America. It is hard
for us to imagine even dimly what it means
to give up home and a living and flee for
life. We cannot picturo but vaguely tho
plight of the women of Europe who are
thrown largely on their own resources to
care for themselves and their families while
tho men are fencing with death. If tho win
ter now here is a severe one the privations
and sufferings in Europe will be beyond the
imagination of any in placid America.
' And it is not only tho countries through
which the armies are pouring that will
suffer. Eugland will be hard put to supply
her large population with the necessities of
life. Germany and Franco are, of course,
in tho sumo position. Business in all the
warring countries is at au absolute standstill-
Canada, with plenty to feed her own
population, faces financial depression which
will not lift until the war is over, Australia
Now Zealand and other territorial govern- .
monts subservient to England are suffering
in the saino manner. They are drained of
juany fixating men and their resources will
suffer from lack of men to develop them.
"With the unsettled valuation of currency in
the lands at war it is natural that financial
enterprises must halt until the war neara
an end. No business thinks of planning
for future growth in these countries; each
finds it difficult to hold its own.
"' So related by commercial ties are the
countries of the world that the earthquake
.which has shaken to the foundations all
business enterprises in the rich nations at
war cannot but affect the neutral nations.
America is marking time today, but when
a favorable opportunity presents itself will
plunge into the marts of the .world with her
wealth of produce of every kind and reap
prosperity. America is not seeking to profit
ly the distress of her brother nations, hut
America is the potential land of vast re
sources which, if the war lasts long enough,
must feed the world.
Yes, it is true things may be rather dull
with you and the immediate outlook blue,
but are you in danger of your life, is your
property about to be confiscated by your
government's enemies, is your business irre
parably ruined, are you ill-prepared to face
the rigors of winter, and, again, is your
physical and your financial life threatened?
Well, then, give thanks.
THE CHILD IN POLITICS.
AN ATTENDANT FEATURE of the re
cent elections, which muy have been
generally overlooked, was tho im
portance of the child as an appeal. Candi
dates curried favor not by kissing the chil
dren of tho voters, as in former times, but
by promising to work for better schools,
better sanitary conditions, everything pos
sible to make surroundings more favorable
to the raising of children.
Issues made the same appeal. In. Oregon
where more normal schools were wanted
an appeal to voters was headed, "For
the Sake of Our Children." In both Oregon
and Washington those interested in the
causo of Prohibition made as a strong argu
ment against liquor' traffic its ncSd for de
bauching tho child in order to grow, ''Tho
Saloon Needs Children. Have You One to
Spare?" was a widely circulated statement.
Where conditions of municipality or state
were to bo changed in any radical way, the
effect of tho change upon tho coming gen
eration was often an effective argument for
or against tho issue. The child played an
important part in polities.
And why should not tho child receive the
highest consideration of tho voters? It is he
who will be mostly affected by tho majority
of measures now going into operation. It is
he who will havo to pay for Hie mistakes
of men ekclod today. It is he who will bene
fit by tho wise legislation of sensible law
makers. .
WORK OF THE SURGEONS.
IT IS HOPED, because of tho great im
I provement in medicine, siirrerv nm!
hygiene, that tho present European war
will show a marked decrease in the number
of deaths from disease and wounds. Thero
lias been steady progress on these lines for
nearly a century, and it has been most rapid
in the last few years, during which time
mankind has mastered the science of sanita
tion and tho prevention or limitation of dis
eases. Full returns from the front havo, there
fore, been awaited with great interest. We
have littlo definite information as yet on
which to base any estimate, but scattering
figures arc encouraging. It will, of course,
not do to includo in the estimate the large
number of wounded who have been left to
die on the battlefield, becauso they have
been unable, in most cases, to receive treat
ment. Tho fighting has been so furious and
so bitter at times that in most cases armis
tices asked for to recover tho wounded have
been refused, and thousands have been al
lowed to die on the battlefield for lack of
removal or attention.' But for thoso who
have come under the care of the surgconi
and the nurses the reports are most gratify
ing and the deaths fewer than ever.
Sir William Osier reports the case of the
hospital at Oxford to which seven hundred
British wounded were moved whereof only
one died. It is probable that the more se
vere wounds were treated in France, but
even allowing for this fact the figures aw
gratifying, especially if we recall the heavy
British losses in the South African war,
when the deaths from wounds were half as
great as those on the field of battle, and
the deaths from disease nearly three time
as many.
A great improvement is recorded in tha
munitions of war, in the means of taking
lifo by arms, bombs and explosives. It will
be gratifying 'to show, if it is possible to da
so, that surgery and medicine have made as
great progress as the art of war, and thai
tho surgeons, doctors and nurses have saved
a large proportion of those struck down
during the strife.'
BLIND LEADERS.
IT IS NOT STRANGE that much misinfo.
mation concerning the war is spread by
word of mouth among thoso who are.
ablo to give only slight attention to tit
coitrso of events, in view of the astonishing
errors which are the work of newspaper
making high pretensions to accuracy ana in
telligence. In a recent issue of one such
daily paper, there were three outstanding
and gross exhibitions of ignorance in the
discussion and presentation of war nows.
Two wero in an editorial One spoke of
"Ostend, tho only real seaport of Belgium, '
thus placing a city which is noted chiefly as
a summer resort like Atlantic City and as a
landing place for steamers plying across the
English Channel ahead of Antwerp, one of
the threo ports of Europe that outrank all
tho rest. To compare Ostend with Antwerp
as a seaport is ulmost like contrasting At
lantic City with Philadelphia, or Newport
with New York.
In the Kumo editorial tho Cermans art
credited with holding "their lines across the
entire breadth of France." Take any map
of France and draw lines to the frontier,
north to Belgium and east to Clcrmany, from
a point one-third of the way from Paris to
tho Belgian boundary and it will be Rcen
at a glaneo how ludicrously far such lines
fall short of stretching across "tho entire
breadth of Franco." About 4 per cent, per
haps 5 per cent, of tho area of France is
inside tho German lines, yet they are said to
extend "across the entiro breadth of
France."
I'.liud leaders of the blind fall into many,
ditches. Newspapers assuming to give in
formation ought to avoid very gross and
obvious errors of their own.
UNIQUE WORLD EXPERIMENT.
SCHOOL HOYS of tho future will read a
strange chapter in their histories. It
will tell of one of the world's unique
experiments, 9th century militarism. Evea
barbaric history knows nothing like it.
In the face of the greatest international,
fraternizing influences the world has over
known, tho nations of Continental Europo
made a soldier of every adult man. What
might have been the immenso creative Powci
of tho modern State, backed by inventioa
and machinery, was turned to destruction.
And tho text books of tho future will re.
cord how this piling avalanche of malevolcni
energy drove irresistibly and yet how little
foreseen toward a catastrophle end. The
histories will picture the great 30CXmile
baltlo-lines of whole peoples locked motion
less in a deadly embrace till
What will be the final chapter to this
strange story t
Still, the Russian soldiers haven't notified
their friends and relatives yet to send thabj
Christmas present to Berlin.
Tossibly tho Germans rate their minw hi
the North Sea as among their most profit
ablo resources. Yot the British have played
the principal part In their development
American ambassadors aro not now growV
Ing about their places of residence, provioV
ing tho cellars are deep enough. ,
And King Cotton isn't the only Klnj
sadly in need of t loon.