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18 THE ATLANTIAN OUR : SPRING : LINE Of French Shriner And Women’s Bostonians Oxfords Are Now Ready Lord and Taylor’s Silk Hose “NOT-A-SEME” Silk Lisle Hose. Hosiery for Men, Women and Children. FRED S.STEWART CO. FORMERLY KNOTT S AWTRYi CENTER OF POPULATION. Going West, But Always Hover ing Near Thirty-Third Parallel. The center of population In 1900 was in the state of Indiana. In 1790 the center was twenty-three miles east of Baltimore in the state of Maryland, or virtually on the Atlantic shore line. Its migration has been slow and re markably uniform both in rate and in direction. It has hovered for 110 years along the thirty-ninth parallel of lat itude, and its total variation in lati tude has been less than one-third of a degree. The westward movement has aver aged less than a degree in a decade, notwithstanding the incredibly swift occupation of a vacant continent by a movement of population westward. The easterly position of the center of •population is in part due to the fact that the eastern part of the continent was first settled and was settled from the East. The easterly position of the center of population is also due to the more evenly distributed, and more abundant resources of the eastern half of the United States. It should not be forgotten that the geographical center of the United States lies some hundreds of miles west of the Mississippi river. The eastern half of the country, therefore, embraces the Atlantic lowlands, the prairies and Great Lake plains, the Gulf lowlands and the forests and min erals of the Appalachian mountains and Appalachian plateaux. Over against these are the arid and moun tainous areas of the West. Certain areas will be reclaimed to incredible productiveness and the min eral wealth is vast, but the center of population may be expected to remain permanently, to the eastward of the geographical center of the land.—Geo graphical Journal. WHAT AN EARTHQUAKE IS “An earthquake,” writes Mr. Prank A. Perret, formerly honorary assist ant at the Royal Vesuvian Observa tory, in an article on “The Messina Earthquake" in the April Century, “is an undulating vibration of the groun resulting from some sudden movement of the underlying strata. This may be produced by a volcanic explosion, the breaking of a stratum of rock under strain, or the sudden intrusion of lava between the strata or into a fracture, the types respectively known as vol canic. My own impression in exper iencing these shocks was that of a rubbing together of masses under pressure, which throws the adjoining material into vibration. If you put a little water into a thin, wide-mouthed crystal goblet, wet the finger-tip and rub it around the rim, a sound will be produced, and the water will be set in vibration, like the ground waves of an earthquake." COTTON AND COTTON GOODS. The manufacturers who use Egyp tian cotton think a tariff of five cents per popund on it would be an outrage. They imported cotton of this kind year before last at 19.9 cents per pound, and at present prices a tariff of 5 cents per pound on it would be an outrage, per cent ad valorem. This would not come out of the pockets of the people. The manufac turers would have to pay it. Since the finished product is worth more than twice as much as the raw mate ria la tax of 25 per cent on the latter would amount to only about 12% per cent on the former. Now let’s see if the government does not give the manufacturers something that justifies it in taking 12% per cent from them for revenue or for protection. At present the cot ton manufacturers get all their cotton free of duty, and, referring to them as a class instead of simply to the man ufacturers of goods from long staple cotton, they have the advantage over European competitors who have to pay freight on their cotton across the ocean and on their cotton goods back to compete with them. In spite of the advantage of their situation and of free raw materials, the cotton manufacturers are protect ed by a tariff averaging 53.38 per cent. The lowest tariff is paid to manufac turers of coarser grades of goodB— mostly Southern manufacturers. The New England manufacturers of the finer grades are protected by duties higher than the average already sta ted, and the Payne bill proposes to make them still higher. Now the question is, is there any Injustice in requiring men who have for years been receiving the benefit of a 53 per cent duty on their finished product to pay a 25 per cent duty on a small part of their raw material? These cotton manufacturers get a protection of 63 per cent in order to enable them to pay the difference be tween wages here and in Europe. Since they pay in wages $96,205,796 for making goods worth $450,467,704, it appears that labor gets 21 per cent of the product. They pay $96,205,796 in wages to 318,874 wage workers, who turn out a product of $450,467,704. So the average wage worker turns out a product of $1,422.96 a year, or $27.36 a week, and receives in wages an av erage of $304.57 a year, or $5.86 a week. If we wish to find out how much the cotton goods would cost abroad that would need a tariff of 53.38 per cent to make them equal the value of the prod uct of our wage workers for one week —here—$27.36—we must divide that figure by 1,5338, and it would give $17.84 as the cost of the goods before paying duty. On this the duty—which of course Is only intended to cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad, for the Republicans and the mill owners say so, and will ad mit that the raw material is not taxed —is $9.62. But as the total labor cost ~3Pancing 1171-2 WHITEHALL ST. Dancing every after noon from 2 to 6 p. m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday night, spe cial attention to schol ars. ED S. HURST Instructor Doors Open 1:30 p.m. J. A. DAVIS, Proprietor \ in this country is only $5.86, it is evi dent that the average workman in Eu rope receives no wages, but pays $3.66 for the privilege of working. In fact, he does more. In addition to paying $3.66 for the privilege of working, he pays the freight on the cotton shipped from the United States to Europe and on the goods shipped back. Figures do not lie, and this state ment is true if a tariff of 53.38 per cent is necessary to enable the Ameri can manufacturer to pay the difference between American and Eupropean wa ges, for he gets a protection of $9.52 to enable him to pay $5.86 in wages. TEACHING NOTHING. Dr. Howe, president of the Case School, Cleveland, never fails to ex press his vexation when he has a stu dent call the zero of mathematics nothing, says Lipplncott’s. One of the students, Morgenthaler by name, would almost invariably read an equa tion like this, x plus y equals 0, as follows: “X plus y equals nothing.” One day Dr. Howe lost his long-endur ing patience. “See here, Morgen thaler, let me show you the difference between zero and nothing.” With this, Dr. Howe wrote a big 0 on the blackboard. “This,” he said “is zero." Then erasing the 0, he added: “And this is nothing.” A law should be passed that grass widows should marry grass-hoppers." —Billy K. Wells, at the Plaza Music Hall.