Newspaper Page Text
4
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
Georgia’s Development
Shown in the Tax Digest.
The consolidation of Georgia’s tax digest for 1912
reveals a number of significant and che: ring facts.
JAMBS R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
Twelve months 75c
Six months 40e
Three months 2fio
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 wives into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, with strong departments
of special value to the home and the farm.
Agents warted ut every postoffice. Liberal com
mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD
LEY, Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim
brough and. C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only
1- for money paid to the above named traveling repre-
' sentatives.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
The label used for addressing your paper
shows the time your subscription expires. By
renewing at-least two weeks before the date on
this label, you insure regular service.
In ordering, paper changed, be sure to mention
your old, as well as ypur new address. If on a
route please give the route number.
We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with
back numbers. Remittances should he sent by
postal order or registered mail. '
Address all orders and notices for this de
partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL,
Atlanta, Ga.
Taxable property, including that of railroads and
other public service companies, shows an increase
o. more than twenty-nine million dollars over its
valuation for the preceding year; while the aggre
gate value of general property in 1912 is seven hun
dred and four million, three hundred and thirty-
seven thousand, two hundred and. twenty-eight dol
lars as against six hundred and eighty-one million,
six hundred and eight thousand, six hundred and
eight dollars in 1911—an increase of nearly: twenty-
three millions. » ,
This advance in values is not limited to any special
group of interests or to any one part of the State.
It applies to rural as well as 'urban territory and
registers ^steady and widespread development.
Town and city property was valued at two hun
dred and fifteen million, six hundred and forty-nine
thousand, four hundred and ten dollars in 1911; in
1912, it was valued at two hundred and thfrty-two
million, one hundred and seventy-seven thousand,
two hundred and eighty-five dollars. The value of
shares in banks, both State and national, increased
from thirty-four million, five hundred and ninety-
seven thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight dol
lars in 1911 to thirty-nine million, two hundred and
thirty-three thousand, one hundred and seventeen
dollars in 1912. The increase of surplus in banks
was equally marked.
Particularly interesting is the .fact that improved
farm lands increased both in acreage and in value
from 1911 to 1912 and that wild lands decreased
nearly a million acres in extent and at the same time
appreciably increased in value.
Dollar Diplomacy.
I The refusal of the Wilson administration to stand
3 eponsor for- a group of American financiers in their
proposed share of the Chinese loan frees this Gov-
* emment from the entanglement and the taint of
' what has come to he known as “Dollar Diplomacy.”
j The President declares in effect that it shall no
I longer be the policy of the United States to involve
■ itself in the meshes of European ambition and in-
1 trigue or to lend its official support and partnership
to adventurous deals in behalf of special interests,
whether at home or abroad.
A glance at the circumstances leading up to the
administration’s attitude in this matter will make
• clear the meaning of that rather hazy phrase, “Dol-
1 lar Diplomacy.” Sometime ago the Chinese govern
ment found itself in need ot large sums of money
; for domestic improvements and reforms and for the
payment of debts which the late revolution made es
pecially burdensome. Accordingly negotiations to
ward securing a loan were begun with European
bankers. What should have beer, a purely business
transaction, however, soon took a political bent when
the French and English and German governments
entered the pending deal, each with suggestions as
to the terms upon which the money should be lent
and repaid. Russia and Japan, seeing the drift of
affairs, entered their particular claims for a share in
the loan and its administratioft. Each of these Pow
ers had interests and ambitions in the far east; each
wished to take care of its "sphere of influence” and
-to be prepared, in the event of a foreclosure upon
China, to demand its share of territorial division.
The United States had-nothing to gain by* joining
this Old World coterie; but the Taft administration,
through -Secretary of State Knox, requested certain
American hankers to seek a share of the Chinese
loan, which was to aggregate something like one
hundred and twenty million dollars, and the admin
istration thereby assumed an implied obliga
tion to protect these hankers' interests.
■Mr. Knox’s idea seems to have been that this coun
try would derive commercial advantage in China
from the fact that a group of American financiers
participated in the Chinese loan; and furthermore,
: that these financiers were - entitled to the Govern
ment’s aid and influence in extending and upbuild
ing their own interests. He held, in short, that the
[diplomacy of the United States rests upon dollars,
'that one of its chief aims should be the gaining of
i ■
dollars for individuals and that, if need be, the Gov
ernment should stand ready to serve as bill collec
tor for the concerns thus favored. Hence he urged
a group of New York hankers to join with those of
j England, Germany, France, Russia and Japan and to
[Share one-sixth of the proposed Six-Power loan to
the Chinese republic, with the implied promise that
(the United States would guarantee them its protec
tion in their venture.
It contends furthermore that the Government of
■ the United States should not lend its patronage to
;the exploitation of any special interest, either in
.this or in -foreign lands and should certainly not as
sume responsibility for the collection of loans thus
[made. Dollar diplomacy is but another instance of
(the Republican policy which would protect and pat-
ironize ’particular industrial groups by means of a
Ihigh tariff. Democratic diplomacy, as voiced through
'President Wilson’s recent statement, would untangle
[the Government from all such private partnerships
land place it, upon the free and liberal basis of serv
ing all the people alike and of serving only the high
est ideals of this Republic.
Accordingly, the administration has refused to
become a party to this vast financial deal whereby
the financiers of six nations would have been given
a mortgage upon the rights and liberties of the
Chinese people. The President objects not only to
the general policy proposed hut also to the terms of
this particular loan, the conditions of which as he
says would “touch very nearly the administrative
independence of China.” The Government of the
United States, he declares, ought not “even by impli
cation” to be a party to those conditions; and he
adds:
“The responsibility on its part which would
hp implied in requesting the bankers to under
take the loan might conceivably go the length
in softie unhappy contingency of forcible inter
ference in the financial and even the political af
fairs of that great Oriental State just now awak
ing to a consciousness of its power and of its
obligations to its people.”
This clear-cut refusal of the new administration
to involve our diplomacy in financial deals for pri
vate gain or to involve our Government in selfish
foreign policies should lift the. United States in the
iwhole world’s moral estimation and confidence. It
[Should allay any suspicion among our Latin neigh
bors to the South that this country is disposed to
•meddle in their affairs for selfish ends and it should
lassure the Chinese people that in the United States
(they have a true and disinterested friendship.
1 "State is getting richer.” All right, we’ll take
Hour per capita.
4
North Carolina Adopts
Compulsory SchoGl Law.
* •
North Carolina has joined the ranks of progres
sive States that have -compulsory school attendance
laws. Its General Assembly has enacted a bill that
guarantees every child in the commonwealth a rea
sonable measure of education and it has passed a
companion measure which extends the minimum
school term from four months to six.
These improvements will call for an increase of
some half million dollars in the common school ap
propriations, but were the amount ten times as
great, it would he a wise investment and a vast
economy beside the neglect of the State’s educational
interests. As a result of this forward-looking legis
lation every sphere of North Carolina’s public life
and of its people’s- affairs will be quickened and en
riched. *It will move upward more rapidly, it will
develop a more contented and prosperous citizen
ship.
Georgia cannot afford to ignore the Inspiriting
example which its Southern neighbor holds aloft.
The popular demand for a compulsory school attend
ance law' which has been astir in this State for
years past should bring a definite response from the
next session of .our General Assembly. The educa
tion bill which was passed a few seasons ago has
done a great deal to reorganize our common school
system on a more efficient basis; the schools are bet
ter conducted and their work more thoroughly co
ordinated; hut there is still the vital need of a law
which will not only offer but which will also qssure
every boy and girl in this State their rights to au
education. This is a duty which the Legislature owes
the homes and the great rank and file of the people
it represents.
Nearly ninety per cent of the States of the Union
now have compulsory school attendance laws. Shall
Georgia lag in this great march of progress?
Georgia’s Vital Need of
Adequate Health Laws.
At its recent meeting in Gainesville the Ninth
District Medical Society registered a timely and
cogent plea for more adequate health laws in behalf
of the individual counties and the State as a whole.
The need of establishing a system of vital statistics,
of requiring records of all contagious or, infectious
diseases, of providing medical inspection fot public
schools and of devising means for the thorough en
forcement of sanitary measures in rural districts as
well as in the cities was particularly emphasized;
and physicians and citizens generally, were urged to
co-operate in securing such legislation at the next
session of the General Assembly.
These are matters that come directly home to
every man and every family in Georgia. The pub
lic’s health is as vitally important as the individ
ual’s; indeed, the latter’s can never be safe so long
as the former’s is neglected. The great, uplooming
fact in modern medical science is that it has cen
tered its interest and endeavor upon prevention rather
than upon cures. Ine public physician plays a more
and more decisive part and sanitation comes before
medicine; at least that is the progressive tendency
of the day. The prime purpose is to remove the
source of disease, whether it ues in an uncleanly
environment, in impure water or impure milk, in a
malarial pond, in tainted food, in improper sewage
disposal, in neglect of contagious maladies or in ig
norance and indifference toward the simple laws of
hygiene. To prevent and to educate—those are the
sovereign words of modern medicine.
But in order that that wise program may be car-
ride into detail and made effective, the co-operation
of the county and the State government is es
sential. There must be laws and there must
he a thoroughgoing system of administra
tion through which these principles may be ap
plied to the separate community and to the entire
commonwealth. In the larger towns and cities
where immediate circumstances have forced atten
tion to questions of public health, we have a fairly
adequate system of sanitary regulation but in the
great majority of rural districts, no such safeguards
have been established.
The people of the country should be protected as
carefully as those of the cities. The children of the
country schools should be given the priceless advan
tage of regular medical inspection. The family on
the farm should be guarded against unwholesome
surroundings and against contagious diseases. In
every county of Georgia, there should be a public
health hoard or a doctor of public health or sorqe
practical means for conserving the public’s health
interests.
Measures looking to this end have been intro
duced at previous sessions of the Legislature but so
far they failed of passage. It is earnestly to be hoped
that the incoming General Assembly will no longer
neglect this all important duty to the people. Every
progressive State in the Union is giving special heed
to this subject. Investigations are being made, far-
reaching laws are being enacted, administrative ma
chinery is being perfected and liberal funds are be
ing appropriated. Georgia cannot to afford to lag in
this vital task.
If the next Legislature will enact a well consid
ered and comprehensive law of this character, the
State’s death rate will be rapidly and greatly re-'
duced. The vigor and efficiency of its people, not
only today but through generations to come, will ~e
increased; and a tremendous saving of our money
and our life will be effected. Georgia’s material pro
gress and its most vital interests demand that such
legislation be enacted.
In the matter of the Friedmann cure, it is deci
dedly a case of where doctors disagree.
v
Delayed Balkan Peace.
The prospect of Balkan harmony is again be
clouded by thh failure of the Allies and the larger
Powers to agree upon the terms of a settlement with
Turkey. The Ottoman government has signified its
readiness to negotiate for peace with the cession of
Adrianople as a basis and has, indeed, appealed to
the Powers for mediation. .
But the Balkan states, standing stanchly together
and determined to press to the utmost the advantage
they have won through the war, are sticking to cer
tain territorial demands which the Powers are un
willing to support. This difference, though a stub
born one, is apparently a matter of detail which will
doubtless be adjusted. As one observer describes it,
“The Allies want to draw the Turkish boundary line
a little nearer to Constantinople than the Powers are
willing to concede; it is as if two parties to a real
estate deal should fall out on making an area of forty
or forty-one' acres.”
Until this detail is settled, however, there seems
little promise of peace in southeastern Europe; and
in the meantime the temper of the entire continent
is growing more and more dubious. The interna
tional war scare, which set the Old World a-tremble
in the outset of the Balkan hostilities,' but which
lulled under the influence of concerted diplomacy, is
rising again. Financial circles are becoming more
and more circumspect and the business of the con
tinent feels the pinch of uncertainty.
Germany and France are both preparing to in
crease their armies; Austria and Russia are making
ready for contingencies and conditions generally
are unsettled. Upon the Balkan situation, divers
problems hinge; it is not only tne peace of Turkey and
the Allies, but the peace of Europe that is in ques
tion. For the tranquillity of the entire continent
some means of deciding once and for all the terms
that shall be imposed upon Turkey must be found.
Every wife is a leading lady, as an exchange
remarks, and some of them have speaking parts.
Mexico’s Surprising
Activity in Trade.
Recent trade reports from Mexico indicate that
only a very small group of that country’s people en
gage in the desperate adventures that are contin
ually disturbing their peace. While the Orozcos and
Zapatas and other rough soldiers of fortune are on
the path of rebellion, the great mass of the popula
tion buys and' sells and tries to make a quiet living
as best it can. *
According to records qiuoted by the New York
Sun, “the latest available figures of Mexico’s total
foreign commerce for the fiscal year of 1912,” the
country’s imports have decreased less than ten per
cent since 1910, while its exports, interestingly
enough, show an increase of fifteen per cent, in
deed, this estimate shows that the exports for 1912
were the largest in Mexico’s history.
The United States, as the Sun points out, sells
Mexico about sixty per cent of the latter’s import
requirements and takes something like fifty per cent
of its exports. If these exports Lay be regarded as
“a general indication of commercial conditions
there,” the figures are more assuring than common
opinion, based upon accounts of recent Mexican
events, might infer.
It is undeniable, however, that a continuance of
political uncertainty, marked at frequent intervals
with bloody strife, will tell disastrously upon the
country’s business interests and devel-.-- So
long as life and property are left to the mercies of
swiftly changing regimes, there is no inducement
to outside investors and scant opportunity for in
ternal progress.-
The singular and deplorable fact, in the Mexican
situation is that not enough of the fifteen million
people, most of whom take no part in the petty wars,
can assert their common interests and make their
will for a stable government effective.
There never was a president more respected, and
of course less criticised, than President Wilson.
Improving the Parcel Post.
The announcement that Postmaster General Bur
leson intends to broaden and facilitate the parcel
post service as rapidly as conditions will permit is
keenly gratifying. Since the new post was estab
lished less than three months ago, it has grown be
yond the highest anticipation. The increase in th^
number of parcels handled during February was a
fourth more than -lat of the month preceding and
the records for March bid fair to loom still larger.
The public is eagerly availing itself of the opportu
nities which the parcel post offers, even in its earlier
and somewhat awkward stages. With improved and
extended facilities, this patronage will become con
tinually greater and both the Government and the
people will find it more profitable.
Among the improvements which the new postal
administration expects j introduce, two are partic
ularly interesting. It is proposed to add an imme
diate delivery service, so that the sender of parcel
by placing an ordinary immediate delivery stamp or
ten cents in regular postage on a package will enjoy
the advantage now accorded letters thus posted.
To encourage the use of the parcel post for shop
ping purposes, it is planned to establish a cash-on-
delivery service. A housewife could tnu3 place an
order with the merchant, either by phone or letter,
and then pay for the purchase when it was delivered
by the postman at her door; and the charge for this
extra service would he ten cents.
These and other practical additions will bring
the parcel post more intimately In touch with the
daily life and needs of the people. They will estab
lish closer and cheaper relationship between buyers
and sellers and between producers and consumers;
and all this, while proving a great help to the public,
will at the same time tend to make the postal serv
ice self-sustaining.
Spring is already a day old, and the annual epi
demic of spring fever hasn’t even started.
The Truth in the Looking Glass
The othe day I stood in a hotel lobby looking at a
man. I had only a side view of his face. I glanced
into a mirror In front of him, however, and was sur
prised to see how different he
appeared.
Have you never noticed how
strange and unsatisfactory those
pictures are in which one is por
trayed as he is, and as he is re
flected in a looking glass?
The fact is, when you get
around to another side of any
person, any thing, any idea, or
any emotion, it is not the same.
The truth is never all in one
mind. Each is limited by his
standpoint. Only an omnipotent
eye, which could se© all sides of
anything at once, could be called
truthful.
That is why travel, culture,
wide reading, and all forms of
experience improve the judgment,
The youth sees more clearly perhaps than the man,
but he has not moved about as much.
The items of religious belief are often much more
clean-cut in a narrow, provincial, uneducated • mind
than in the mind of the cultured person; but it does
not follow that the narrower vision is‘ the truer.
As the -world is deepening in wisdom, accumulat
ing the facts of science, tasking all forms of litera
ture and art, developing by travel the cosmopolitan
spirit, and altogether growing out of provincialism
into universality, it is losing the sharpness of its
former sectarianism. That does not imply that it is
losing its faith.
One reason why people in medieval times had such
clean, distinct beliefs is that they read little and trav
eled less. They lived their lives out in the town
where they were born. They never saw the truth
except from one angle, and naturally supposed that
they who saw it from another angle were heretics
and accursed.
Nowadays all nations and tribes are being woven
together in .a mighty world loom, of which the rail
way trains and ocean* liters and telegraph messages
are the shuttles. t 4
It takes the whole of humanity to reflect correctly
the truth ^ of* heaven. No one sect nor cult can see
that truth as it is.
I should like to live a hundred years from now to
see what the world view of destiny and morals will
be, when China, India and Japan have thoroughly
mixed their ideas with ours, and when out of the
welter the fittest shall survive.
“In the Pitti Palace at Florence,” says a writer
upon art, “there is a statue, standing alone in its
naked beauty, in the center of a many-sided salon,
paneled with mirrors, in which it is reflected at once
in every different aspect, and in each, though differ
ently, yet truly, as long as the mirror be clear and
unwarped. And such is truth.”
Literature is such a many-sided mirror. Slowly
by the ^million flashes of truth emerges the yet vague
conception of The Truth, never to be grasped by one
mind, comprehensible only by the vast universal mind
of man.
Not a man, but mankind, can see God as He is.
Square Dealing in Georgia
(From the Macon News.)
“New actions are the only apologies and explana
tions of old ones, ’ says Emerson, and Senator B. R.
Tillman has proved this by his manly, unequivocal
apology to Senator Hoke Smith.
The last word in the Bacon-Holc© Smith-Tillman
affair would have been said long ago but for the un
necessary prolongation of the one-sided discussion of
the matter-L-&, discussion founded on nothing in the
beginning and resumed and continued on less.
Senator Smith’s undisputed statement concerning
Senator Bacon’s^defeat, coupled with Senator Bacon’s
attitude, knocked the props from ‘under the abusive
arguments directed at the junior senator from Geor
gia, and the publication * in full of Senator Tillman’s
speech to the caucus now demolishes the whole struc
ture—a structure which was built in Chinese fashion
by starting at the top and going down. Now that the
bed rock has been reached by the builders, by those
who “perceive without seeing,” a vein of pure truth
has been uncovered.
Pointer dogs may see, and collie dogs may not, but
the “nigger in the wood pile” in this present affair is
so apparent to all that there is no need .to call out
bloodhounds to strike a trail. The old familiar odor
is so strong that even the “people” who “can smell
things they cannot see” have recognized it.
But, reverting to Senator Tillman’s apology—it
marks th e finish of this interest!ngr'and badly misrep
resented affair for even those who have blindly fol
lowed a false guide. Ben Tillman proved his man
hood in this. He did not mince words, nor quibble,
nor hide behind subterfuges. Here is what he said,
pertaining to Hoke Smith:
“X do not feel that those senators who brought
about Bacon's defeat were conspirators. They
merely expressed their preference, as between two
men, as they had a right to do. X know if they
saw this interview,” referring to the one which he
gwve the Atlanta Constitution, and which was not
published as he gave it, “they must have become
angry, because it was unjust. X recognize that
now, and desire to apologize to them for using the
word in the Interview. I also desire to apologize
to Senator Hoke Smith for the way X have treated
him. My regret is more keen, because X have
learned that he was my friend on the steering com
mittee and battled manfully to keep the rest from
demoting me by giving Mr. Martin the chairman
ship of appropriations.”
There’s no “alleged apology’ about that. It is plain
enough for even a child to understand. If it does not
settle the discussion for once and forever, then there
are none so blind as those who will not see. And they,
in this instance, are like the ostiich who pokes his
head in th e sand, believing that because it cannot see
it, it in turn is hidden from the sight of others.
“Some,” it was stated, “will not believe their own
eyes when they do not want to believe.”
Harmony is not needed half as badly in Washington
as square-dealing in Georgia.
The Ragtime Mus2
SHORT CUTS.
I.—HER CHOICE.
They crave—two lovers, who shall blame?—
That she by token, look, or word
Straightway shall choose the one preferred
In their three-cornered lovers’ game.
She rises, smiling, but, alas! . \ *
Her lovers’ hopes are all o’erthrownl
Her beauteous lips salute her own
Reflection in the cheval glass!
II.—'HIS BEST CHANCE.
Asked one, who a singer would be,
Oi a critic, “What.think you of me?”
“Try the ocean,” he said;
“There, by heaving the lead,
Tou better would sound the high sea.”
III.—SWIFT PACE.
In olden days the girls, sweet things,
Would meekly wait;
Soon, if they shall increase the pace.
They’ll weekly mate!
IV.—WHY IS A HEN?
A hen, after laying, will vainly
Stand and cackle absurdly, insanely;
Though you wonder, no doubt,
What she’s talking about,
She's egging you cn very plainly.
Fighting Flies and Mosquitoes
By Frederic J. Haskin
I
“Flies ought to be killed now,” said Dr. L. O. How
ard, chief of the United States Bureau of Entomology, ,
last week, emphasizing the “now.” “A fly crusade
started in July can have lit.tle lasting effect. Every
fly killed now is equivalent to. killing millions of
them in the middle of the summer. The fly crusades
throughout the country last summer' accomplished a
great deal in the way of temporary relief. This
year the work should begin earlier and last longer.
The spring housecleaning should include a vigorous
anti-fly crusade which should extend to any places
outside the house where flies are likely to breed. A
mature fly of April may be the ancestor of over six
billions flies by the first ot September, according to
a careful scientific calculation. The young flies kill
ed in April have had few offspring and that is the
time when they should be annihilated. The killing
of all the winter flies would do away with the great
work required in the summer.”
...
A number of towns already have commenced the
work of destroying the winter flies. Cleveland ex
pects to be almost a flyless city this •summer, as a re
sult of the vigorous work which has been in progress
this past three months. The Normal school .of the
city acted as a committee to count flies collected by
the boys. Money has been raised to pay for the win
ter flies collected, at tjie rate of ten cents per hun
dred. . Over three hundred thousand have been paid
for at this rate and the crusade is still on. After
next month the price will be lowered to ten cents per
thousand, although the boys are firm In their belief
that this is unfair, as the number qf old flies already
collected will make it even more difficult to procure
them, even as the warm weather approaches and the
natural increase is to be expected.
...
A number of different speciqs of flies frequently are
found around the house, although only one of these
is the housefly proper. Scientifically this is known
as the musca domestica. It is medium sized and
grayish in color with its mouth part spread out at
the tip for sucking up liquids. The housefly cannot
bite because its mouth is not formed that way, al
though most people believe that it does. The fly that
does the biting is really the stable fly or stomo^ys
calcitrans v hich resembles the housefly so closely that
only an entomologist Is likely to discover the differ
ence. It is frequently found in the house and differs
from the housefly chiefly in having a mouth which
can pierce the skin in r sharp stinging little bite
which sometimes arouses a summer slumberer from
a pleasant nap.
...
Another species of fly frequently found in the house
is the cluster fly or pollenls rudis, which is especially
numerous in the spring and fall. The cluster fly is
larger than the average housefly. Its abdomen Is
smooth and dark-colored and the fly has a sprinkling
of yellow hairs. It is apt to be sluggish in its move
ment. It is subject to a fungous disease which
.causes it te die upon window panes surrounded with
• white efflorescence. Sometimes this fly becomes so*
numerous in a house Ss to become a pest, but such
cases are not frequently.
* * • *
Another stable fly, almost exactly like the housefly
in appearance, does not bite as does the stomozys cal
citrans. It breeds upon decaying vegetation and ma
nure and is en active agent in the distribution of filth
gnd germs. Several varieties of greenish or bluish
flies having a metallic lustre also are to be found
about the house. The most numerous is the blue-bot
tle fly, which also is called the blow-fly or meat-fly,
because it breeds in decaying animal material. There
are several smaller species of house flies, and a fruit-
fly, which frequently is found to be attracted by tfie
odor of over-ripe fruit. Each of these is capable ot
carrying thousands of disease germs, aside from the
annoyance their own presence causes. All these dlf-|
ferent species together, however, are small in num
bers in comparison with the common housefly. Out
of collections of flies found in' dining rooms in dif
ferent parts of the country over 90 per cent of the
whole number captured were the musca domestica, or
common housefly.
• • »
The favorite breeding place of the musca <^ortiestlca
Is the horse stable, although, failing that, garbage
cans, slops or any collection of fermenting vegetable
maitter will suffice. It seems to take the eggs longer
to mature in some localities than others. A scientist
experimenting in Massachusetts, reared a generation
in fourteen days. The duration of the egg state was
twenty-fdur hours, the larval state from five to seven
days, and the pupal state about the same period. An
experiment made in Washington last year, in mid
summer, indicated that the female lays at one time
about 120 eggs which hatch in eight aours. The lar
val period with these egfes lasted less than five days
and the pupal five days, making the total time for
the development of a generation of young flies about
ten days.
The greatest preventive measure for the develop
ment of the housefly is the avoidance of accumulations
of stable refuse. In the cities where proper street
Cleaning conditions prevail this may be comparatively
easy, as special regulations can be made for livery
stables. In the country the problem presents greater
difficulties. Experiments have been made as to the
possibility of treating refuse with air, slacked lime,
and other preparations as a preventive of fly breeding,
but so far the results have not been satisfactory.
In smaller towns where the provisions for street
cleaning are limited, the collection of stable refuse
has been one of the features made prominent in the
anti-fly crusades. Public spirited citizens have con
tributed money to pay for this work, and in a number
of instances it has been undertaken by school chil
dren. In New York state the Boy Scouts recently
have taken up a certain amount of street cleamo«
with a view to fly extermination.
• • •
In some localities the fight for the annihilation of
the mosquito has been taken up even more strenuously
than that of th e fly. In Atlantic City this spring, the
townspeople and the city officials are uniting In their
efforts with such vigilance as to encourage the devout
hope that the mosquito this year will be much less
prevalent at that well-known resort than formerly.
The “Jersey Skeeter” long has been recognized as the
champion of his race, and yet the measures taken to
overcome him are expected to be quite as effective
within the next few years as those which banished the
more malignant yellow fever mosquito from Panama
and Cuba. At a meeting called for this purpose in
Atlantic City last month, a number of experts gave
advice as to th e best methods of procedure to be un
dertaken for immediate results in that locality. Ap
propriations have been made for a liberal use of ger
micide and oils which will be uijed wherever any stag
nant waters are found. An improved system of
drainage is being outlined in the surrounding terri
tory and a rigid inspection will be maintained
throughout the season in quest of any collection ,.of
water in vessels or pools which might afford a breed
ing place. It is quite possible for a beer bottle,
thrown in a corner by a careless tourist, to accumu
late enough water in a summer shower to breed thou
sands of mosquitoes within a few days. A veritable
plague of mosquitoes has been traced to a case of
empty beer bottles allowed to remain uncovered In a
back yard in the summer.
• • •
The drainage of marshland, both in New Jersey
and California, has been found most effective In re
ducing the scourge and improving the sanitary condi
tions of the states. In slightly marshy grounds, tho
foot prints of horses and cattle may breed mosquitoes
and the men In charge of the public roads are spray
ing all such depressions with a germicide or low
grade of kerosene. The use of kerosene has been '
found to be one of the best remedies for the spread
of mosquitos. It Is sprayed upon the surface of
standing waters, as well as upon the swampy lands.
A thin film or scum of iridescent hue is formed by
the oil. This not only destroys larvae and pupae, but
will kill any adult mosquito which alights upon th(
surface of the water.