Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.