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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA„ TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, OA., 5 NORTH PORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a stafr
of distinguished contributors, with strong departments
of special value to the home and the farm.
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mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R* BRAD
LEY, Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
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Atlanta, Ga.
Cattle Raising in Georgia.
A thrifty fanner of Whitfield county, so the
story goes, is planning to convert his land into a
sheep and cattle ranch. He will naturally continue
to plant corn and kindred food products. But the
raising of livestock, which heretofore has been a
minor interest in most parts of Georgia, will be his
chief 'concern.
This is an interesting example of the new agri
cultural spirit that is astir throughout the State.
The old tyranny of the one-crop idea is crumbling.
The varied uses to which the soil can be turned are
being more and more vividly realized. The wealth
of profitable industries which a genial climate and
richly stored earth make possible is being discov
ered.
It was a comparatively few years ago when peach
growing was undertaken on an extensive scale in
Georgia; the beginning of the apple industry is still
more recent. Yet, henceforth one of the State’s most
important enterprises will lie in its orchards.
Pecan groves, which not a great while ago were
limited to a few tree lovers, are now spreading over
thousands of acres and are yielding their owners
millions of dollars. The cultivation of berries* and
other table delicacies is growing apace. Especially
marked in South Georgia is the development of
truck gardening. Farmers are organizing with busi
nesslike methods for the purchase of their supplies
and the marketing of their products. Emphasis is
placed today upon the production of food stuffs
rather than upon cotton; and though this movement
in its early stages, it is rapidly advancing
* ~ ■ • J ' ,
and winning recruits.
The Whitfield county farmer who plans to estab
lish a sheep and cattle range is following this pro
gressive path. Whilj it is not to he expected or
desired that all our farms should ever be turned
into orchards or truck gardens or ranches, it is very
heartening to know that the varied, yet hitherto neg
lected, resources of the State are at length being
exploited., A commonwealth that can become famous
in the production of practically everything needed
for man’s sustenance should not limit its energy to
a single field of agricultural endeav-r.
There is, perhaps, no part of all the Union where
natural circumstances are more favorable to cattle
raising than in Georgia. The mild and equable cli
mate makes it possible to carry cn this industry the
I'ear around at a minimum of expense. There are
no long or rigorous winters to pile up the cost of
feeding and housing. Land is abundant and thou
sands of acres that are now idle or not well suited
to ordinary crops could he turned to profitable ac
count as cattle ranges.
In addition to these fundamental advantages,
there is a home demand for meat and dairy products
which Georgia could supply easily and economically.
The people of this State will find the problems of
the high cost of living materially reduced whenever
the possibilities of cattle raising are duly realized.
Secretary Wilson, of the United States depart
ment of agriculture recently predicted that the time
is not far distant when a great portion of the na
tion’s meat supply will come from the South; and
he based his belief on the reports of experts who
had made particular inquiry into the South’s natural
opportunities for cattle raising. The trend of events
is certainly toward the fulfillment of this prophecy..
Progressive farmers are ceasing to depend upon forr
eign quarters for their livestock and not a few are
making a business of cattle breeding.
Good for North Carolina.
The Legislature "Sf North Carolina has earned
wide commendation for having virtually assured the
children of that State a six-months school term. A
bill to this effect has passed its second reading in
the House with but three dissenting votes and in all
likelihood it will soo.i become a law.
The popular interest and enthusiasm behind this
measure is shown by the fact that more petitions,
to quote the News and Observer, “have rolled into
the General Assembly for a six months school term
than for any other bill that has come before the
Legislature of North Carolina in half a century.”
The importance of an adequate school term in
rural districts as well as £a cities is being realized
more and more keenly throughout the South; and
six months is certainly the minimum period conc.;t-
ent with the pupils, needs and rights. The expense
incurred ly the State in keeping all its schools open
at least half the year is trivial when compared with
the social and civic progresb which such a system
makes possible. As the NewsJ and Observer remarks':
“We are are not too poor to educate the children of
North Carolina; we are too poor not to educate
them.”
More Stringent Laws
For “Pistol Toters.’‘
The “pistol toter,” like the poor, we shall have
always with us until he is made to feel the law’s
sharpest teeth. There is, perhaps, no common of
fense against which the thought public opinion of
the day is so unitedly set as that of carrying con
cealed weapons; but in this as in other matters call
ing for reform the law has lagged behind the pop
ular will so that the available means of forging the
community’s judgment into effect ao not suffice. The
last Fulton County Grand Jury, *in urging more
stringent statutes against this evil truly declares;
"Our laws against the carrying of concealed
weapons and the enforcement thereof are alto
gether inadequate. Without warrant the arrest
of any one openly violating the law is illegal,
and under the laws of Georgia, if a person he
searched and a pistol he found on his person,
that fact, cannot be used agaiAst such 'individual
as evidence on a trial for carrying concealed
weapons. This defect should be reniedied by
legislation, even if it becomes necessary to have
a constitutional amendment. The streets of our
city are continuously occupied by men who are
walking arsenals and under the existing■ condi
tions the police arc powerless to remedy the
evil.”
The Grand Jury recommends that a person con
victed of carrying a concealed and deadly weapon
be made to serve not less than twelve months in the
county chaingang, without the option of paying a
fine; and furthermore that, if possible, a law be framed
prohibiting the sale or possession of pistols with
barrels less than sixteen inches long. If such legis
lation were enacted and enforced, the “pistol toter”
would soon pass into oblivion with other extinct
pests and foes of society.
Our courts have realized for the most part their
responsibility in coping with this menace to public
peace and safety. The judges of Georgia are exert
ing themselves with commendable vigor against vio
lators of .the existing pistol law. The chief diffi
culty lies in the weakness of the law itself. Statutes
dealing with the offense of carrying concealed
weapons can scarcely he made too drastic; and when
it is reflected that the homicide rate in several Geor
gia communities is 1 higher than that of all Great
Britain, the need of more thoroughgoing, legislation
in this regard becomes tragically evident.
The Journal’s School Boys
Off to Washington.
One hundred and twenty-five boys from the schools
and colleges of the South leave Atlanta today, as
The Journal’s guests, to attend the inauguration
of President-elect Wilson. From the hour of their
departure on a special Pullman until their return,
every possible effor': will he made for their comfort
and pleasure.
It is unnecessary to remind the hoys that they
go as representatives of the South in a great na
tional event and that they should deport themselves
in accordance with the traditions of their own
Southern firesides. The fact tha‘ they have earned
the distinction and opportunity of this trip in their
respective counties and States is evidence enough
of their worth and an ample guarantee that they
will be of credit to their native section.
It is with peculiar satisfaction that The Journal’s
party learns of Mr. Wilson’s gracious plan to re
ceive them at the White House on the day after the
inauguration. Each of them will thus have the
pleasure and honor of meeting him.
For each and every one of its young guests, The
Journal wishes a delightful and profitable sojourn
in Washington. It is peculiarly appropriate that
they, as representatives of the schools and colleges
of the South, should be present at the inauguration
of a President who himself has been a lifelong stu
dent and a brilliant leader in the country’s educa
tional interests. It is equally fitting that a com
pany of Southern boys should witness the inaugura
tion of a chief executive who was horn and reared
upon their own soil—the first Southern President
within more than half a century.
We wish them once more a safe journey and the
best of times!
Some of the Mexican leaders will have it im
pressed upon them, before very long, that this is a
civilized era. I
The average man is so suspicious that he im-
aginesyou are trying to poison his dog every time
you throw him a tone.
Illiteracy Is Decreasing.
Despite the slings of criticism it has recently
suffered, and some of them are doubtless deserved,
America’s public school system is producing sub
stantial results. Dr. P. P. Claxton, national com
missioner of education, declared in a recent address
that illiteracy in the United States has been reduced
from twenty to seven per cent; among the whites
of native birth, it has fallen from twelve to three
per cent; among negroes, from ninety-five to thirty
per cent; and among the foreign horn, from fourteen
to twelve and a half per cent.
A system of education under which so fruitful a
record is established cannot be the rank failure some
radicals would have us believe. That our public
schools methods are in certain respects ill-adjusted
to social and individual needs, few candid or clear
eyed observers will deny. There are anachronisms
that must he weeded out, there are new duties that
must he shouldered and fertile opportunities that
should be turned to account. But taken all in all,
the public school system of this country is render
ing vast service; and, though its progress may seem
slow at times, it is moving in the right direction.
The great need of the 6 sty is to extend the ad
vantages of public education, to vouchsafe to every
American child the rights of the school room; and
when this is done illiteracy will entirely disappear.
As Commissioner Claxton urges, more efforts should
be made to reach the children of isolated districts
and of the slums. “Children in the country and in
the factory districts of our cities,” he says, “should
be kept in school over the adolescent period. If it
is necessary for the children to work, let the prod
ucts of their vocational or industrial training be sold
and the proceeds applied to their support during the
educational period.”
One of the most obvious needs for the reduction
of illiteracy is the enactment of compulsory school
attendance laws in States where they are not al
ready in force and their more vigorous administra
tion where they do exist. Georgia^ is among the
dwindling minority of States that have not yet
passed such a law. We shall never attain our due
progress either in government or in material devel
opment until all the children of Georgia are guaran
teed their right to education. For several years past
compulsory school attendance bills have been intro
duced in the Legislature, but because of one circum
stance or another, none of them has reached the
statute hooks. The next General Assembly could
render no truer service than to forge such a law
into effect.
Vice-President and the Cabinet.
President-elect Wilson has been credited with the
opinion that the Vice-President should have a seat
in the cabinet circle and take an active part in its
counsels. He disclaims, however, any purpose to
urge this change of policy until he is established at
Washington and is familiar with the practical de
tails of the executive office,
Whatever Mr. Wilson’s ultimate View or course
in this matter may he, there is no apparent reason
why the Vice-President should not meet and confer
with the cabinet; ,on> the contrary, there are sound
and weighty reasons why he should do so.
As the second highest personage in the nation’s
government, the Vice-President holds an office of
unusual responsibility. He is not only the presid
ing officer of the Senate, that position itself being
one of great importance, but he. is also the official
who in the event of the- President’s death would
straightway become the country’s executive head.
Is it not, therefore, essential that the Vice-Presi
dent should at all times be thoroughly in touch with
the administrative affairs of the Government? He
might at any moment be Called upon to take up
executive tasks and to deal x conclusively with prob
lems of far-reaching import. 1 Certain it is that for
the country's good he. should be prepared for such
an emergency and to that end he should be con
stantly familiar with cabinet business.
The disposition to minimize the importance of
the Vice-Presidency is unwise and undesirable. The
office should be exalted and given the full measure
of its rightful responsibility. Given a seat at the
cabinet table, the Vice-President could render larger
service and be more thoroughly equipped for duties
that might devolve upon him. Such a change, we
believe, would do much to strengthen the executive
department.
WAYS OF
GETTING MONEY
By
Dr. Frank
Crane
An Outrage on Human Rights.
The story of the young Georgia mountaineer and
his seventeen-year-old bride who have been confined
in a cell of the Fulton county jail since last October,
although they arc guilty of no offense and are
charged with none, is enough to stir the indignation
of all men with any sense of justice o: humanity.
Simply because this girl-wife chanced to witness a
homicide, a case which the United States district at
torney’s office is expected to prosecute hut which, ap
parently, it has been very tardy in bringing to trial,
she and her husband, both of them innocent, are im
prisoned for month after month among felons and
murderers.
On what occasion or pretext can the district at
torney's office justify, its amazing course in this
instance?
Are these simple, guileless mountain folk thus to
be persecuted merely because they are without in
fluence or large financial means?
Is a girl who is still in her teens to be flung into-
a common jail, surrounded with women and men of
the underworld and kept there indefinitely simply
because the district attorney’s office wants her as a
witness in a case which it will take its own easy
time in calling?
This young couple had been married only a few
weeks when they were forced from their little farm-
side home in Fannin county and lodged as federal
prisoners in the Fultcn county jail. The girl was in
nowise involved in the alleged murder except as a
chance and unwilling witness. Yet, the Government
authorities, apprehensive that they might lose her
as a witness, have held her and he* husband in
wretched duress for half a year.
How much longer shall these innocent people be
outraged? The 'man is a farmer and the time has
come when he should be breaking ground and pre
paring a crop, if he is to provide for the future needs
of his home. Yet, day after day and month after
inontl*, man and .fc are kept behind bars in what
is gruesomely known as* the jail’s “death cell,” are
subjected to the repulsive and often harrowing
scenes of prison life, are locked from the liberty to
which they were reared, from the clean sky, the sun
and the freeman’s air which their hearts cry out for,
from friends and kindred and from the little hill
side cabin where they had dreamed of making their
honeymoon.
If the district attorney’s office at Atlanta cannot
or will not do something to relieve this brutal
situation forthwith, then in behalf of common hu
man rights, the Department of Justice at Washing
ton should take action.
The Passing of a War CloucL
Europe has seen many a war cloud turn forth a
silver lining; hut never, perhaps, has it experi
enced a situation that was so ominous in the be
ginning yet so happy in its consequence as that
which arose from the Balkan disturbance.
A few months ago the Old World was agog with
fears and rumors of international strife. The
Balkan problem which had so long been regarded
as a sleeping lion against peace was up and snarl
ing. The Turkish problem which generations of
diplomats had handled as gingerly as they would
dynamite was at the point of explosion. The most
prudent and hopeful among statesmen became ap
prehensive and business fell into a distinctly pes
simistic mood.
The larger Powers had refrained for decades from
interfering with the barbarous regime of the, Turks
simply because each of them feared that any aggres
sive movement on its part would be resented by its
neighbors. They were all suspicious and a forceful
step on the part of any one or group of Jhem would
Lave aroused all manner of jealousies and, as they
believed, hostilities.
Naturally, then, when the little Balkan States
flung themselves against Ottoman rule, the larger
Powers expected a fierce scramble for territorial
conquest. The tranquility of international rela
tionships was supposed to lie in the fact of Tur
key’s very weakness; the, big nations could not
figure on the consequence of a really strong and
aggressive Power being in control of Constantinople.
It was feared that the strained relations between
Germany and England would be brought to a
snapping point; that Austria and Germany would
go to war and that a general upheaval would follow.
But the very menace of the situation made for
prudence. Each of the great Powers, realizing its
responsibility, moved with unusual caution. Jingo-
ish talk was discountenanced. Statesmen reflected
the views and wishes of the masses of the people
who knew that upon them the burdens of a big war
would fall. Thus in a moment of common peril the
nations forgot their old suspicions and jealousies
and counseled together for the peace of Europe.
There are two ways of getting money; first, get
ting if from somebody to whom you have given the
money’s worth; second, getting it without giving the
money's worth. The first Way is
honest.
As to the second, some varie
ties are recognized as dishonest,
others are still respectable.
Among the ways of . getting
something for nothing may he
mentioned the following: *
Robbfery. This is the most an
cient and honorable "art, if right
ly understood. To leap out from
a. dark corner, knock a man on
the head, and go through his
poekets, is crude; it is, a prac
tice followed only , by “'low
brows,” yeggmen, gunmen, ban
dits, and the like; but for a
strong nation to 'browbeat
and loot a weak nation is
supposed to be statesmanship.
Finding. As when you pick up 50 cents in the
street, or somebody accidentally leave's a $1,000 bill in
your overcoat pocket. This, mode of acquiring wealth
is followed mostly by those who are asleep.
Gift. This includes inheritance. It will take an
other hundred years of democracy for the woria to
get to the point where, this way of getting money
will be seen to be unjust And. contrary to the public
welfare. Though wrong, it is buttressed by 4,00<J. or
5,000 years of precedent.
Stealing. Including the arts of burglar, porch
climber, and pickpocket. If, however, you object to a
gentleman's stealing a railroad worth $40,000,000, you
ajre not considered moral, but an anarchist, or some
crazy reformer of the sort.
Swindling. Includiftg three-card monte, the shell
game, and “get-rieh-quick” stocks.
Gambling. A business where profits depend on
luck is gambling, it makes no difference whether
you play with stocks and bonds or jacks and sevens.
Making a nuisance of yourself. This embraces
the organ grinder, the poor relation, and all others to
wljom you pay money on condition that they go away.
Borrowing. This is an improvement on swindling
because you intend to give it back. Its no trouble
to keep on intending.
Th e only way-, however, of getting money so as to
havd it bring y-ou peace, self respect, and a clean con
science, is to earn it. This you can do by selling
“a dollar’s worth of apples for one dollar, or by get
ting a dollar in wages for a dollar’s worth of work.
When y-ou get money by giving its equivalent the
transaction is closed; you and the universe are quits.
When you get money in any other way at all you
pay for it, in the end, many times more than it's
worth; sometimes in money, sometimes in loss ot
character;, always you pay.
When the spirit of democracy shall have had its
perfect work, when the tainted ethics of our plunder
ing ancestors shall have been cleaned up, when big
business shall have lfarned justice, and when all an
cient frauds shall have been brov 'it' to equity, wo
snail establish the rule universal that money shall
only go -to the person that earns it.
Panama Canal Tolls
By
Frederick
J. Haskin
Aerograms From Antiquity
BY EDWARD J. COSTELLO
MEDINA, Feb. 28 (A. D. 623.)—Mohammed, the
prophet, who within the last few years has been the
talk of all Arabia, because of his rapidly growing
popularity among the masses, today granted special
Permission to his followers to go to war with-the en
emies of Islam “in the name ot- God.” While this act
ostensibly is directed against all “enemies,” It is cur
rently reported that it has particular reference to the
unbelievers in Mecca who caused the prophet’s hur
ried departure from that city about a year ago.
It will be remembered that during the flight of
Mohammed and the faithful from Mecca, it was freely
predicted that before the Hegira (Mohammedan era),
was many moons old, the prophet would return at the
head of a powerful army to force the idolafors of that
sinful city to aceepit the dogma of ‘“entire submission
to the will and precepts of God.”
The .self-styled “Apostle of God," himself made the
prophecy of the spread of the new religion among the
benighted denizens of his former home, according to
the best available information here today. It is re
lated! that during one of the long marches en route
to Medina, the son of Abdullah suddenly stopped, and
told the faithful that it had just been revealed to him
that the conquest of Mecca by him was
to be. As he spoke, those immediately behind
saw the big, black mole between his shoulders, which
he calls the “seal of prophecy,” grow blacker, and a
moment later he was in the throes of a cataleptic fit.
He soon recovered, however, and resumed his march,
moving his whole body violently.
Since the residence of the great prophet in Medina
began, nearly a year ago, he has added several chap
ters to the Koran, otherwise known as the “Book of
the Faith.” It is said he keeps an amanuensis busy
most of the time in the compilation of this work,
which he expects to be a monument to him in the his
tory of the new religion he has founded.-
It has only been a few years since Mohammed was
considered a madman, and even now his doctrines are
bitterly opposed, particularly by the Christians, who
recently have been making great headway in. this sec
tion, and the Judeans.
According to Mohammed, the Saviour of the Chris
tians was a pure prophet, and' he places Hipi with
the other prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.
He exhorts his own followers to a “pious and moral
life, and to the belief in an almighty, all-wise, ever
lasting, indivisible, all-just, but merciful God, who has
chosen him as he had chosen the prophets before
him, so to teach mankind that they should escape the
punishments of hell, and inherit everlasting life.”
Mohammed’s star of fortune seems to have made
his acquaintance about the time he took service as a
camel driver with the wealthy widow Chadidja, a num
ber of yearn ago, after a rather bad failure as a mer
chant. He soon married the widow, but he had
reached the age of forty before he received his first
“divine" communication in the solitude of the*moun
tain Hira, near Mecca. He afterwards declared that
the Angel Gabriel had appeared to him, and in “the
name God commanded him to ‘read’ ”■—that is preach
“the true religion and to spread it abroad by com
mitting it- to writing.”
It' is rumored that Abu Beltr and Omar, close
friends of the prophet, and one or the other likely
successors to the position now held—try him, are to
lead the proposed “Holy War” against the “infidels
and unbelievers.”
A Batch of Smiles
When the butcher answered the telephone the
shrill voice of a little girl greeted him:
“Hello! Is that Wilson?
“Yes, Bessie,” he answered kindly,
“what can I do for you?”
Mr. Wilson, please tell me
where grandpa’s liver is. The folks
are out and' I’ve got to put a not
flannel on it, and I don’t know
where it is.”—The Ladies’ Horn.?
Journal.
- At a meeting, lately a fairly young woman en
tered escorted by eight children, ail
rather young. An usher approached,
and while showing them to a seat
facetiously remarked, “Are these
all yours, or is it a picnic?”
To which the woman wearily re
plied, “They are all mine, and it is
no picnic.”-:-Weekly Telegraph.
When the United States was considering the ad
visability of undertaking to build the Panama canal,
President McKinley looked the country over for the
best authority on transportation
and commerce, to save the canal
commission and to prepare an
adequate report on the industrial
and commercial value of an
isthmian canal. He finally se
lected Professor Emory R. John
son, professor of transportation
and commerce, to serve the canal
of Pennsylvania. The Johnson
report was a most comprehend
sive one, and one that Went far
toward demonstrating the pros
pective value of such a water
way.
* * *
When the time came to fix the
tolls on the canal, Professor
Johnson again was drafted into
service to bring his inquiry up
to date and to revamp it in- line
with the developments of the
decade that elapsed since the previous report was
made. Professor Johnson made an extended inquiry'
into all matters pertaining to the amount of traffic
indicated, the character of this traffic, the conditions
that might influence it by tending to drive it away. J
or to lead it to choose the Panama rout© over othci^
routes, and into the traffic history of other great
artificial waterways.
* * * j
His first line of inquiry related to distances, In
an attempt to show just what will be the natural
course of shipping after the canal is constructed. I
While realizing that other elements, including coaling j
and provisioning facilities, amount of way cargo, and j
the like, t6nd to counteract distance consideration I
when a shipowner plans the route of his ships, at
the same ( time distances are* the first consideration. j
He finds that the longer of two routes may be the
m<Jr© profitable one if there be a greater volume of
intermediate traffic. At the same time it may be the 1 *]
more profitattfc if the price of coal and the number
of coaling stations are to its advantage. Lower in- • I
surance rates may overcome distance, and toll charges
may be so high as to divert traffic. His problem was j
to assess all these matters at their true* value and I
with this assessment in mind, to try to forecast the
amount of trade that Will be available at Panama and
to fix a rat© of toll that would yield the maximum I
return and at the same time make the canal of maxi
mum benefit to the world’s shipping. |
* * *
He finds that the canal will shorten the water dis
tance from the cast coast of the United States to'
the west coast by more than half. It will place New,
York morey than five thousand miles nearer to the
great nitrdte beds of Chili, and nearly four thousand
miles nearer to Valparaiso. The distances to most
transcontinental points are approximately a thousand
miles nearer by way of the Tehauntepec routo than
by the Panama route. But, inasmuch as the handling
of cargo out of one ship and into another at Tehaun
tepec costs $1.75 a ton, and in addition thereto a land
transportation of 192 miles is involved, little serious
competition from the Tehauntepec route is feared on
through cargo business. The cost of getting a toil'
of goods' through the Panama canal actually will be
from forty-eight to sixty cents per ton, so that, al
though the Panama rout© will be the longer by a
thousand tniles, it will be cheaper in the end.
The distances saved by the Panama route to
Asiatic ports from our own gulf and south Atlantic
seaboard ranges from nearly six thousand miles down
to some two thousand when compared with the Suez]
route. The distances to Australian ports from th«:
ports of our Atlantic seaboard are brought from two;
thousand to five thousand miles nearer than by the!
natural route via the Cape of Good Hope.
With reference to European ports it is found that
Liverpool will be over fifteen hundred miles nearer
Wellington, New Zealand, through the Panama canal
than through Suez. As it costs approximately ten
cents per register ton per day to keep a freight ship
on the high seas, a five-thousand-ton freighter wouid
cost $500 a day. A thousand miles would thus cost,
if the ship sails ten knots per hour, something over'
$2,000. From this it, will be seen that a ship of this
description could sail about three thousand miles as
cheaply as it can go through the canal at th© present
rate of toll. All shipping—except where other con
ditions are unequal—would find it profitable to go
through the canal where more than three thousand
miles at sea can be overcome.
• * *
Professor Johnson presents an interesting study *
on the traffic in sight for the canal and on th© indi
cations of increased traffic, but as this will form the
basis of another article, they are merely referred to
here. One of the interesting things he brings out is
that the opening of the canal will necessarily hasten
the passing of the. sailing vessel, sine© there will bo
no facilities for handling them through the big water- 1
way. In a third of a century the world’s tonnage of ;
sailing vessels has declir^d from fourteen million to
less than seven million tons, while the steam tonnage j
has increased tenfold—from a little more than four
million to more than forty-one million tone.
* * *
With reference to the relation of the Panama,
canal to the traffic and rates on the transcontinental
railroads, Professor Johnson concluded that the rail-*
roads will be able to hold only a very small share of ,
the transcontinental traffic, ,and that they will be'
under the necessity of giving very low rates on Pacific
coastbound goods dHginating as far west as the Mis
sissippi. He estimates that about 3,500,000 tons ofj
transcontinental freight are handled a year, of which
the railroads have been getting 85 per cent. The. rail
roads have been in the habit of charging low rates
to the Pacific from the middle west, so as to en
courage industries there. Wheq, the Nevada railway
commission examined the bills of lading on shipping
coming into Reno it was found that 75 per cent of
the incoming freight originated no farther east than'
Chicago. Professor Johnson thinks that the railroads
will practically surrender without a fight that trans
continental traffic which originates in and east ofj
the Buffalo-Pittsburg district, 'a traffic which em
braces about one-third ot the total transcontinental j
traffic. Roads within five hundred miles of the At
lantic seaboard would rather get what they can by
hauling freight to its ports for water shipment than
to take a lower rate to deliver that freight to the
transcontinental railroads.
* * *
His conclusion with reference to the effect that)
the canal will have on the railroads is that it will;
hammer down their rates for freight on commodities,
originating within a thousand miles of either seaboard
and destined to points within the same range on the (
other seaboard. He thinks that the Atlantic seaboard
rates to the Pacific coast will be such that its ship
pers qan quote better rates to Pacific coast points
than can the shippers in the middle west, and that
thus the eastern part of the United States will get a
larger share of the trade west of the Rockies than
it now enjoys. He believes that the railroads east
of Cleveland and Indianapolis will bid for business
to be handled via the Atlantic seaboard and that
those as far north as St. Louis and Kansas City will
bid for it to be handled via New Orleans and Gal
veston.
i ;.
“The oldest Elk in the world,” dead in Iowa at
103, smoked and chewed for eighty-on'; years, an
interesting record. He did not smoke and chew
for his last ten years. With respect that was a mis
take. He should have been content to eschew the
cud. He “believed in the bucksaw for exercise.**
A Spartan senior, whose principles will be admired,
not followed. Whatever be thought of lo .g life few
will hold th^t it is worth lifelong exercise on the
sawhorse.—New York Sun.