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Survey o
PRESIDE >T THEN MS J LDICTAHLV.
Tue Panama canal bill was duly
signed by the President after having
passed both houses of Congress. In discussing
the British protest against tue
exemption of American shipping from
tne payment of tolls for the use of the
canal, Air. Taft says the irresistible conclusion
to be drawn from it is that; "although
the United States owns, controls
and has paid for the canal, it is restricted
by treaty from aiding its own
commerce in the way that all other nations
of the world may freely do. In
view of tiie fact taat tiie Panama canal
is being constructed by the United
states wholly at its own cost, upon territory
ceded to it by the republic of
Panama for that purpose, and that, unless
it has restricted itself, the United
btat.es enjoys absolute rights of ownership
and control, including the right to
allow its own commerce tne use of the
canal upon such terms as it sees ht,
tne sole question is: -Has she Unitea
States (by the terms of tne Hay-Pauncefote
treaty) deprived itself of the right
to pass its own commerce free or to remit
tolls collected for tlie use of tue
canal? The President argues that If
there is nothing in tue Hay-rauncefote
treaty preventing Great Britain and tne
other nations from extending favors to
their shipping using the canal, and ii
there is nothing that gives the United
States any supervision over or right to
complain of such action, then the British
protest leads to the ahsurb conclusion
that the government in constructing
the canal, maintaining the canal,
and defending tae canal, finds itself short
of its rights to deal with its own commerce
in its own way, while all other
nations using the canal in connection
with American commerce enjoy that
right and power unimpaired.
COST OF L1VLN6 MAY DBOF
W'iuh a presidential election in Sight
and the possible retention of the cabinet
position whioh he has long held,
for another term. Secretary Wilson
forecasts a speedy decline in the ccst
of living. He maintains that crops
throughout the United States would be
greater than for a number of years,
while, in several instances, records are
expected to go by the boards. The high
cost of living will be geratly reduced
this year because of these crops, wnile
the third greatest corn crop in the history
of the country would be harvested
next fall, he asserted. The absence this
year of the extreme heat, which worked
such havoc on the agricultural products
of the United States last year, is his explanation
of the bountiful crops to be
harvested this year. "Beef will be
cheaper next winter than it has been
for a number of years," Secretary Wilson
stated. "The high cost of beef
through last winter and at the present
time was due to the small corn crop of
last year. The best beef is fed on corn,
but with corn so scarce that the product
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many cattle-raisers did not feel that they
could feed their cattle for slaughtering
purposes on corn, and get their money
back. The result was that little good
quality beef entered Chicago, making
prices automatically higher. This
year the corn crop will reach more tban
2,800,000,000 bushels, or the third largest
in the 'history of the country. This
will lower the price of beef an appreciable
degree, and will be aided by a
splendid hay and oats crop whch will
be harvested. Of oouree the price of
beef will never be as low as it was at
one time. This is due to the fact that
the broad grazing lands have been split
into homesteads, and the space is not
available for the grazing of a sufficient
THE PSKSBYTERL
<f Currem
number of cattle to meet the demand,
'the oats crop is expected to be the
largest wnich we have ever harvested,
while tne hay crop will be tremendous,
'in fact, every product will be harvested
in great quantities, with the exception
of cotton, which will fall slightly below
the average. The wiheat crop will total
about 680,000,000 bushels, and grass, potatoes
and the smaller grains will be
harvested in abundance.
THE GREAT U. S.
A writer in Leslie's, Mr. J. A. SJucher,
is much impressed with the material de
velopment of the American republic. Ue
discourses to thiB effect: We have a
nation of nearly 100,000,000, the most remarkable
in its growth in population,
industries, railways, work and wages in
all the world. Everybody knows this.
Nobody denies it. The greatest growth
bas been since the days of the Civii
War, under one starry flag to which
every section gives cheerful allegiance.
This wonderful expansion of railroads
and industries has come within the
recollection of men who are not yet old.
The whole country has been developed.
The great stretch of territory that the
geographies of our boyhood indicated
on the map as "The American Desert"
is now teeming with prosperous settlements
and enriched by the work of
countless husbandmen tilling fertile
farms. The South, devastated by war,
stricken by disease, destitute and impoverished,
has become the richest and
and most inviting section of the land.
Populous cities have sprung up, great
industries have been developed, farming
has been diversified and an amazing
wealth of minerals, timber and oil
has been disclosed, making the garden
spot of our country its golden spot.
New England is crowded more than ever
with flourishing factories; the middle
West, no longer recognized as the West,
has become a part of the populous East.
The star of empire has crossed the Mississippi
and swept toward the Pacific
coast. On that coast we see not one,
but many cities, mertopolitan in chaacter
and growing by such prodigious
steps that they challenge the admiration
of the world.
ON SPEAKING TERMS.
Governor Wilson, (President Taft and
Colonel Roosevelt may speak from the
same pjauurm on zne oicci pier o.i
Atlantic City September 10. The annual
national encampment of the United
Spanish war veterans will be held
there from September 7 to 14, and invitations
for September 10 were extended
to the Republican, Democratic
and Progressive presidential candidates.
Governor "Wilson accepted unconditionally.
President Taft sent a
tentative acceptance, and Colonel
Roosevelt expressed a desire to meet
his war associates.
MACHINE FARMING.
Commenting on the startling strides
made in me advancement 01 agricultural
methods and appliances, the
Christian Science Monitor says: "Recently
at the experiment station of Perdue
University a machine of fifty fourteen-inch
plows, pulled by three powerful
oil-burning engines and operated
by four men, plowed a strip of land
fifty-eight feet and four inches wide at
a speed of four miles an hour, or one
acre in every four minutes and fifteen
seconds. This broke the international
plowing record, but machinery on the
farm has been doing many things quite
as remarkable during the last twentyfive
years, and quite as marvelous,
when compared with earlier agricultural
methods. Machinery is taking the
A# OF THE SOOTH
it Events
piace of meii oa the farm as fast as
ihe farmers are able to install the necessary
equipment, fcivery year the necessity
for machinery to handle the
crop becomes more urgent The government
reports for this season estimate
the principal crops as follows:
Wheat, 660,000,000 bushels; corn, 2,800,000,000;
oats, 1,200,000,000; barley,
200,000,000; cotton, 13,000,000 bales;
hay, 60,000,0000 tons; potatoes, 360.000,000
bushels. Even with machinery,
an army of men is employed in gathering
these crops; if they were gath
ereu uuaer uie old system, a legion
would be required to accomplish the
task. Upon the great farms and plantations
now, man-directed machinery
does almost everything, farming Is no
longer a haphazard calling. In one
of the youngest of the States?Oklahoma?more
than 3,000 farmers, we are
told, are raising crops in. accordance
with instructions sent out fram the
state agricultural headquarters. Practical
demonstration work has taken a
hrm hold there. The state has 1,376 cotton
demonstrators, 1,3<12 corn demonstrators.
Moreover, 9,367 boys are enrolled
in clubs for corn, cotton and
kaflr, and 3,550 girls in. girls' canning
clubs.
LEADS IN' SMELL-BLINDERS.
The manager of the Southern Clip
ping Bureau, who looks after facts and
figures is authority for the statement
that Georgia leads the American commonwealths
in the number of homeowned
automobiles. He attributes this
to its big mileage of line roads. A recent
government report shows that
Georgia leads all States of the entire
Union except .New York in road building.
A surprising feature in Georgia is
the large percentage of machines owned
in small towns and in the country itself.
One town in middle Georgia with less
than 2,000 population alone has 200
home-owned machines. Over 14,000 automobiles
are owned in the State of
Georgia, while the next Southern State
in point of number of home-owned machines
is Tennessee, where 7,000 residents
have purchased the horseless vehicle.
PRODIGAL AND VERBOSE.
Another billion dollar session of
Congress has passed Into history. Despite
promises of retrenchment in public
expenditures, the Democratic House,
in conjuncton with the Republican Senate,
managed to run up appropriations
far in excess of the -billion dollar mark.
At the last session of Congress with
the Republicans in control of both
branches, expenditures footed up to
$1,026,000,000. The House leaders have
not yet given out their figures, but
tbey clai-m the appropriation chargeable
to them will be just a little over a billion.
The session vab long on conversation.
The printed fecord will embrace
about 26,000,000 words, covering
13,000 pages. The Senators and Representatives,
who comprise the present
House and Senate, will go down in history
as the most verbose statesmen of
all time. The nearest competitor was
the first session of the fiftieth Congress,
wnose memoers coairauutecl millions
of words that filled 9,600 pages. The
session was also a record-breaker in
the number of bills presented. Nearly
36,000 bills of various sorts were Introduced.
Of this number the House contributed
26,000 and the Senate the remainder.
A great proportion of these
bills slumber in committee rooms and
will never be heard from again. With
the exception of the bill providing a
form of government for the Panama
[September 4, 1912
Canal Zone and prescribing regulations
tor tne conuuct of the waterway, the
session baa been devoid of constructive
legislation on a large scale. Big issues
nave oeen debuted, but without result.
Ths was due in large part to the Uct
that tuo House and the Senate are antagonistic
politically. Accordingly tue
better part of tne session since tue
day of assembling in December last
has been devoted to. jockeying for position
in the presidenaal race of 1912.
Much of tne time of the House was
devoted to the consideration of tariff
bills prepared by the Democrats. Six
such bills were put through the House,
'iney were all pasesd by tbe Sena:n
Two of them were sent to the President
and vetoed. None of them reached
the statute books. With the veto of
the wool and steel billa the Democrats
abandoned hope of tariff revision. President
Taft has set his face against reVision
where revision does not conform
with conclusions based on scientific inquiry
in advance.
TO EXPAND RUBBER PRODUCTION.
The vastly Increased demand for rubber
products in recent years has set
chemistB and inventors to experimenting
in producing artificial rubber and
other substitutes. It is announced by
one of the highest living authorities m
the department of chemistry that success
has been attained and that artificial
rubber produced on an immense
scale is about to enter the commerce of
the world. Sir William Ramsey the &u
thonty quoted, says: "Synthetic rubber
has been made for twenty years regardless
of expense. It was done by
Greville Williams from a destructive
distillation product of rubber, and by
Sir William Tilden from turpentine,
which was the first manufacture of real
rubber from a non-rubber substance.
Present researches are on cheaper lines,
the work for the last two and a half
years having been concentrated on
methods involving very cheap and plentiful
raw materials. 1 cannot divulge
thQ details at present, but the raw materials
used as a cheap cereal, such as
maize, which is the base, and salt, coal
and lime are the ultimate reagents. I
make no claim for responsibility for the
invention. My function has been that
of consultant and adviser throughout.
But the discovery itself is the work of a
group, who have freely communicated
their Ideas one to another, and the actual
important steps forward have usually
been due to. the work of several
mem. The actual operation of making
the rubber is already complete, although
no doubt improvements in the
plant on a large scale are bound to be
made. The rubber can be improved
until it Is equal to the very best; there
is nothing to prevent that." So far no
large quantity of it has been made; but
that is of no importance at all, as far
as genuineness is concerned. To make
any large quantity in a laboratory 1b
troublesome and unnecessary. It Is my
firm belief that there is nothing here
on the same scale which cannot be at
once transferred to the commercial
scale. The rubber is otf course absolutely
genuine. It should be strongly e/w~
phasized that it has nothing to do with
the various substitutes which have been
patented. It is rubber in everything e*~
cept that it has not come from a tree.
Otherwise it Is identical. It is built tip
hv th? chemista nut nf other compounds.
but ft is real." <
ARB YOXJ TIRBD ?'
WORKING FOR_J"
OR $24 A MONTH'
We can teach you in ?
few months, bo you c*
earn $16 to $26 a WOO*If
you are Interested ?n
this proposition,
us and we will show y
how you can do this.
VIRGINIA SCHOOL or
NURSING, _
FreAariekabui*. ? *