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Survey c
A SANER FOURTH.
Thirteen deaths from the old-fashioned
celebration of the Fourth of July was
the total reported in the United States,
according to figures compiled by the
Chicago Tribune. The nation-wide
spread of the sane Fourth movement
brought fruit in the smallest number of
celebration casualties ever recorded. In
nearly every city where the use of explosives
by individuals was prohibited,
no accidents were reported, in otncrs,
where the discharge of explosives was
permitted under limitations, there was a
decided falling off in the number of
dead and injured, as compared with previous
years- The death list of thirteen
compares with twenty-eight reported
the first night of last years' celebration,
when the sane Fourth movement was effective
in fewer cities. The number of
injured reported is 294, as against 1,785
reported up to the same hour last year.
Tn 1909 there were forty-four killed and
2,361 wounded. Giant firecrackers took
the lead in the number of fatalities,
causing five of thirteen deaths. Revolvers
and firearms were second, with
four. Gunpowder caused two. and the
toy pistols, formerly the chief death
agents, caused two deaths.
SUGAR IN THE LIMELIGHT.
Investigation of the sugar trust, now
suspended for a few days, has not only
brought a flood of letters and requests
to representatives in Congress to revise
the sugar schedule but has brought
many inquiries from stockholders, a
large portion of whom are New England
people, and many of them women.
There are also many thousands of people
who are interested in the inquiry
because they are concerned in the raising
of sugar beets. These people are located
all the way from northern New
York to Michigan, Colorado, Utah and
California. The investigation by the
House committee has brought forth
much information which otherwise would
not have been available. The stock watering
that has taken place has amazed
the special committee. Representative
Baker of California, one of the Democratic
members of the special committee,
says: "I do not know how vigorously
the beet sugar people will oppose re-'
vision. I am not convinced that a lowering
of the duties would hurt them materially,
although any industry will resist
the loss of its tariff protection."
A FLOOD OF BUM.
No less than 63,000,000 barrels of beer
were sold in the United States during
the twelve months ending June 30 last,
or an increase over the previous twelve
months of 6.21 per cent, according to
the annual report of the beer and whiskey
sales made public by the United
niaies urewers Association. iNOiwunstanding
the increase which the report
contends indicates that the country is
prosperous, the spread of prohibition
has affected the trade considerably, it is
declared. The whiskey bill of the United
States for the year, according to the
report, is $146,973,000 an Increase of
nearly $8,000,000 or 5.66 per cent, over
the preceding twelve months.
THE MTSTEKY OF THE MAINE.
General Blxby, chief of engineers of
ai TT?*lf Qfntnu \ rm v wlin hnfl rofnin.
ifie uuiicu uu>w?
ed from inspecting the work of raising
the Maine says the loss of the battleship
Maine was caused by the explosion of
her three magazines. No such effect as
that produced upon the vessel could
have been caused by an explosion from
without. He says that a portion of the
deck over the magazine was blown upward
and backward and that there are
THE PRESBYTER1A
>/ Curren
numerous conditions which prove this.
No explosion from the outside, says the
general, could have caused the same result.
"What the primary cause of the
explosion was," said General Bixby,
"will never be learned." He does not
believe that the Navy Department will
And the bodies of sailors and officers
on the Maine. He says that thy are
probably buried 200 feet or more from
the wreck in the mud.
FORWARD OKLAHOMA.
Public buildings ana industrial institutions
in Oklahoma City, planned during
the last two weeks, will entail an
expenditure of nearly $8,000,000, while
unusual activity, involving the expenditure
of several millions more, is going
on over the rest of the state. The most
important project launched in Oklahoma
City is that of voting a bond issue of
$1,000,000 with which to erect a State
rtn^U/xl T VC n..A 1 *
v.b]/iiui. i. ui. ruuuuii, a reany owner
and broker, has practically closed a
deal with Georgia and South Carolina
capitalists for the erection of a cotton
manufacturing plant that is to be one
of the greatest in the country and to cost
$5,000,000. Mr. Putnam promises to build
a suburban city adjoining Oklahoma
City and surrounding the plant. The $3,000,000
packing plant of Sulzberger &
Son, the erection of which was begun
here a year ago, will be completed during
the summer. The board of education
of Oklahoma City has awarded a contract
for the drawing of plans and
specifications for the construction of additional
school buildings to cost $235,000.
LEECHES BLEED UNCLE SAM.
Investigation of the trusts, while admitted
to be necessary, has cost the government
about $1,000,000 in fees paid to
special counsel alone under the present
administration according to a report
hmitted by Attorney General Wickersham
to the public committee on expenditures
in the department of justice.
Thp Rtntemont ^oMoi>q?i +V,?i- f
5, 1909, to May 31, 1911, a total of $845,H8t.56
was thus disbursed to "special
-slstants to the attorney general or to
district attorneys. "All this is aside from
the regular expenses of maintaining the
lepartment. There is an attorney general,
a solicitor general, a corps of assistant
attorneys general and an especial
assistant to the attorney general.
There are numerous law clerks who are
really lawyers working for the department.
Henry L?. Stimson, now secretary
of war, leads with $83,320 paid to him
for prosecution of the sugar frauds at
New York. Mr. Stimson resigned as district
attorney and was appointed a special
assistant to prosecute the sugar
cases. Added to the $83,320 is $25,025
that was paid to Winfred P. Denison in
these same sugar fraud cases, making a
total of $108,345.87 paid to the two lawyers
in two years in that one case.
CANAL PROFITS.
Relative to current conjectures as to
whether the Panama Canal will prove to
be a paying Investment, the prosperous
condition of the Suez Canal Company
may furnish light.
According to the returns published,
the total expenditure of the Suez Canal
Company for 1910 was ?1,275,344 C$6,376,720);
the total revenue from shipping
dues was ?5,216,248 ($26,081,240),
as against ?4,827,623 ($24,138,115) for
the previous year. This favorable position
will allow of a further reduction in
the tariff, the actual amount being about
7 per cent, the reduction to come Into
force on Jan. 1, 1912. The number of
ships which passed through the canal
in 1910 was 4,533, an Increase of 294,
N OF THE SOUTH
it Events
with a total tonnage of 16,581,898, an
increase of 1,174,371 tons. It has been
found possible to reduce the duration of
the transit by 19 minutes to 16 hours, 54
minutes. This shortening of the time of
transit has been achieved by means of
the extensive works which are being
systematically executed in connection
with the upkeep of the canal. Among
the works which it is proposed to fur
ther carry out is the lengthening of
about 2,760 yards of the western jetty at
Port Said.
CALORIC INFELICITIES.
With the Fourth of July as a center
and a margin of several days in both directions,
the country experienced the
most torrid of modern weather exploits.
Greater New York had more than two
hundred deaths attributed to heat prostrations
in 4 days. In Chicago there
were thirty-nine deaths in one day; in
Philadelphia twenty-nine deaths on the
same day and a total for four days of
sixty-seven. Baltimore had thirty deaths
in four days and many other cities a
like proportion from the excessive heat.
At Des Moines, Iowa the thermometer
registered 105; Kansas City 104; Muskogee,
Okla., 107, and Junction City, Kansas,
113. More than 500 deaths were reported
the first five days of July and
thousands of prostrations from the heat.
GREATER THAN THE GREATEST.
William T. Stead, journalist and author
and special correspondent of the
International News Service, called
"Washington "the greatest Englishman
of the eighteenth century" at the Fourth
of July meeting in Brownng Hall, London,
at which he presided. He said
WflflhlntrtftTl llQ/1 +QiiorV?f Hr/%0 4- D.tUt.
. ? tautjub uicai jJiiiam
how to extend and to maintain the British
empire and his service left a debt
greater than Great Britain owes to any
other man. He expressed the hope that
the signing of the Anglo-American
treaty will be the signal for raising a
subscription throughout the British Empire
for the erection of a noble statue
to George Washington In Westminster.
SOUTHERN MEN VOTE RIGHT.
With the declaration that the politics
of the country should be controlled by
the business men, Mayor Gaynor formally
welcomed the delegates to the fifteenth
annual convention of the Interstate
Cotton Seed Crushers- More than
500 delegates were in attendance, and
to them the Mayor said, "We have 100,000
votes of Southern people who now
uve ueie m luis city, una let me ten you
they are the best voters we have. They
have brought with them the pure political
sentiments of the South, and they
vote right every time in local affairs, to
put the rascals out
A GREATER TRUST.
In the capital city of little Belgium
an international association of steel
manufacturers, representing the foremost
firms in that industry in America,
Canada, England, France, Germany, and
Belgium, Austria and Spain, and having
for its purpose the elimination of competition,
control of the output of prices,
has been formed. The organization was
fathered by Judge E. H. Gary, chairman
of the executive committee of the United
States Steel Corporation, known In the
United States, as the Steel trust. One
hundred and sixty delegates were
present at the meeting and out of this
representative gathering a committee
was chosen to prepare a plan of operation
for the gigantic organization. When
this committee will report after Its appointment
Is problematical but the concensus
of opinion is that It will not be
[ July 12, 1911
long in forming its plan of operation,
most of the details it is understood
having already been worked out. It
seems a foregone conclusion that its report
will be adopted whenever returned
and by that step the world-wide trust
put in operation.
TO PUSH THE PARCELS POST.
In a letter to John M. Stahl of Chicago,
legislative agent of the Farmers
National Congress, Charles D. Hilles,
secretary to the President, says that Mr.
Taft in his next message to Congress
will recommend without qualiflcation
the establishment of a general parcels
post. Mr. Hilles declares the President's
views?have been strengthened by further
investigations by the postofllce department
since he urged in his last annual
message the adoption of the parcels post
on rural delivery routes.
: i
BULGARIAN FLOODS.
The damage done by the recent floodB
is enormous. The monetary loss is estimated
at $20,000,000. Many buildings
were washed away by the rain-swollen
streams and crops and market gardens
were ruined in wide areas. Now a water
famine threatens the cities, as the mains
have been uncovered and so torn apart
that a month will be occupied repairing
them. The inhabitants of many villages
in the south of Bulgaria have sought
refuge in the mountains.
TOGO TO GO THROUGH.
Admiral Togo, hero of the battle of
the sea of Japan, will be shown everything
he cares to see In the New York
navy yard or in any other part of the
naval establishment. Although a regu
lation prohibits the exhibition to foreign
visitors of any of the construction in the
navy yards, this will be suspended by
the navy department for the benefit of
Admiral Togo. It is expected he will
board the giant battleship Florida, now
nearing completion at New York. Details
of the program for the Admiral's entertainment
have not yet been completed,
but when he arrives in New York,
about Aug 8, he will b^) receivetTas the
guest of the nation by a number of
prominent officials and army and navy
officers.
CHINA'S MIGHTIEST CONFLICT.
The war against the rule of opium, the
maleficent "brown fairy" of the Orient,
is revealing unsuspected traits of Chinese
character. Patience, perseverance
and fortitude, the best observers have
always conceded to the Chinaman, but
the genuine sentiment against opium,
allied as it is to a sense of national
shame and a arowine national mn.
sciousness, has developed initiative resourcefulness
and a commanding show
of public opinion not expected by even
the most optimistic. Public opinion has
long ruled strongly in Chinese business
and banking circles, but it has been singularly
supine in official life. Now the
vernacular press, aided and encouraged
by E. W. Thwlng, an American representative
of the International Reform
Bureau, is publishing with marked effect
reports of the efTorts, failures and
successes of the campaign. Encouragement
is given to those viceroys who
are doing good work, and those who fall
short of their duty or connive at vice are
called to the attention of the people and
the government. The result is astonishing.
Already the use of the drug by the
younger generation Is almost unknown.
and many foreigners believe that two
years will see the end of its use by any
but confirmed slaves of the habit. At
their death the last trace of the curse
will be lifted from the land.
If you want to be capable, cultivate
the mind; If you want to be
loved, cultivate the heart