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4. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA„ TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1913. THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, GA., 5 NO&TH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of the Second Class. JAMES Hr. GRAY, President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 75c Six months >100 Three months 25c 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 staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents warted at 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 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 tveeks before the date on * this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention * your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with . back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga. Rural Credits. The science of American agriculture has mark edly progressed within recent years, but the business of agriculture is still at a faltering, if not chaotic, stage. Our farmers are learning the value of accu rate knowledge in the cultivation and harvesting of their crops, but they are yet without any adequate means of marketing their products or financing their great interests. Advantages of this character which have been enjoyed in the rural districts of Europe for decades are practically unknown in the Unitd States. We have neglected the question of farm credits, of agricultural finance and kindred issues until every spherj of our economic fife is begin ning to suffer as a consequence; for, after all, the needs of the farm are the beginning and the end of the country’s common, needs. Of unusual importance, therefore, is the Rural Credits Commission, which is to sail for Europe the latter part of this month for the purpose of study ing these problems as they have been worked in the prosperous countries of the Old World. This Com mission is composed of representative men from all parts of the nation. They have been appointed in part by President Wilson and in part through the Southern Commercia.1 Congress, which has been es pecially active Tn this enterprise. These delegates, representing the government and the Southern organization jointly, will visit Italy, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, England and Ireland, aqd sub-committees will go to Russia and the Balkan States. They will make a first-hand study of the co-operative systems through which the farmers of these countries are enabled to secure loans on liberal terms and to place their Interests on a businesslike basis. They will also investigate agricultural methods by which the productive power of the soil is increased and conserved. The information thus gathered will be carefully compiled and adapted, in so far as is possible, to American needs and conditions. The importance of providing an, adequate sys tem of rural credits for the United States has been recognized by each of the national parties. The Democrats considered this matter of equal impor tance with currency reform and in their platform recommended “that an investigation of agricultural credit societies in foreign countries be made, so that it may be ascertained whether a system of rural credits 'may be devised suitable to conditions in the United States.’ ; Furthermore, the party’s platform favored “legislation permitting national banks to loan a reasonable proportion of their funds on real estate security.” It is interesting to note that the first practical step toward carrying this constructive policy into effect was due largely to the efforts of two South ern senators, Senator Fletcher, of Florida, and Sen ator Hoke Smith, of Georgia. Upon their insistence, a provision was made, in the agricultural appro- praition bill, for the appointment of the Rural Credits Commission that is soon to Begin its work. There is perhaps no part of the'country which has such vital reason to be interested in this move ment as has the South. In order that the .7011- drously rich and varied resources of this section may be duly developed, its agricultural affairs must have the advantage of businesslike as well as sci entific methods. Especially do they require the aid and stimulus of an elastic system of credits. The task which the Commission has begun will doubt less be well performed and result in a larger and freer era of Southern and national prosperity. Mexico’s Fateful Presidency. If the latest reports from Mexico are true, Presi-" dent Huerta has realized the fatefulness of his office and is preparing to withdraw while he may do so with a measure of grace and security. He is said to have agreed to surrender the provisional presidency to Pedro Lascurian who shall be permitted to serve out the unexpired term of the late President Madero. Lascurain was minister of foreign relations in the Madero cabinet, a post which constitutionally entitled him to act as President after the death of both Ma dero and Vice President Suarez. This arrangement, it appears, would satisfy the rebel leaders in northern Mexico who oppose Huerta on the ground that he has usurped authority and has over ridden the constitution. Whether it would restore peace among all factions, however, is doubtful; for, there is a spirit of rebellion in Mexico that attacks any established government, regardless of who its head may be. Zapata is on the war path in the South, followed; by bands of adventurers whose chief purpose to keep the country in a state of turmoil in order that’ they 1 may drive their personal fortunes. It was the fact that he was caught between these two fires of rebellion— the Zapata forces in the south and the so-called “Con stitutionalists” in the north—that is said to have disposed Huerta to resign. If he does retire, his suc cessor will doubtles become the object of new enmity and conspiracies. , t' Encouraging Truck Farms. An interesting plan to encourage truck-growing and to aid the farmers in marketirtg their crops to the best advantage has been inaugurated by the Southern Railway Company and its affiliated lines. The road has employed four market agents, sta tioned respectively at Atlanta, Washington, Cincin nati and St. Louis, whose duty it is to study mar ket conditions in the East and Went and to furnish the truck growers in the Southern’s territory with the helpful information thus acquired. The agents will find, for instance, what products are in demand at particular points and what prices are current. They .vill then report to the Southern’s Farm Improvement Department which is directly in touch with the planters. The shipper is thus pro tected against many risks to which ignorance of market conditions would expose him; and further more he is instructed as to the best methods of pack ing his products. This is a broadly constructive enterprise for which the Southerr. Railway is to be commended, and in which all the railroads of this section would do well to join. In Georgia, as in other Southern States, it is of the utmost importance that a greater variety of food crops he grown. A soil and a climate that are capable of producing practically everything needed for man’s sustenance should not he monop olized by cotton. The tyranny of the one-crop idea has long been a hindrance to agricultural progress and to economic interests in general. Georgia can continue to be a great cotton-producing State with out sacrificing its other manifold and fertilfe oppor tunities. V There is cheering evidence that the truck grow ing industry is at last taking root. Within the past year or so, numbers of farmers, notably in South Georgia, have recognized the profit that lies in this new field and are devoting their land and energy to raising food products. In some counties, they have organized for greater efficiency and economy, and they are meeting with marked success. A truck farm to be profitable must be conducted with busi nesslike methods. The farmer must know the mar kets to which he snips. It is at this juncture that such an enterprise as the Southern Railway has es tablished becomes especially valuable. The road will be well repaid, for the progress of the truca industry will develop a continually larger and more lucrative volume of traffic. The railroads of this section have awakened within recent years to the importance of developing the territory they traverse. It is to be hoped that the good work they have begun will be continued and multiplied. Where the Office Seeks the Man. No feature of the Wilson administration is more distinctive than its policy of thorough independence in the filling of important federal offices. It has supplanted the old regime of patronage and devious politics with simple standards of efficiency and merit. It listens with interest to the recommenda tions of party leaders and gives due weight to them all but its final test and purposes in each instance is to secure the mai. who will render the best service to the. Government. Tills policy Is rather disconcerting to the habitual office seeker but to the public it is altogether re freshing and satisfactory. The average citizen knows little and cares less as to how federal patronage is allotted, so long as the"Government’s business is en trusted to honest and competent hands. The Presi dent and the cabinet heads could never satisfy every one who happened to be interested either directly or indirectly in a particular office; and so the wisest course they can pursue is to satisfy their own judg ment and their own sense of responsibility. When they have done that, the country will be content. A noteworthy instance of the administration’s method in this regard is the offer of the Indian com- : missionership to Mr. Fuller E. Callaway, of Georgia. Mr. Callaway was in no sense an applicant for this post nor had he the remotest idea that it would be tendeffed him. None of his friends had urged him for the office and it is said that neither of the Geor gia senators nor any of the Georgia congressmen knew that his name was being considered. Secretary of the Interior Lane was simply in quest of an able man tp head the Indian bureau and, knowing Mr. Callaway’s qualifications, he commended him to the President. And, so, without wire-pulling, without any effort or intimation on Mr. Callaway’s part, he was selected for the place; though It now seems im probable that he w.ll accept it. In the asme manner, President Wilson selected his cabinet and thus, too, the entire administration is being organized. Patronage for the sake of patron age alone receives no consideration. Fitness has been* placed above partisanship. The Democratic regime'has found a mission vastly higher than that of parceling out party spoils; it has set forth to serve the people and to that end it takes merit and capacity as its guides. China’s Constructive Program. The liberal outlook and constructive purpose of the new Chinese government are attested by the em phasis it is placing on agricultural development. The present administration proposes to gather from all parts of the world knowledge concerning the meth ods and results of farming and then to disseminate it through China’s rural districts. In addition to this agricultural schools will be established and the adoption of up-to-date means of cultivation and harvesting and marketing will be encouraged. The vice-minister of agriculture and forestry in the republic is a Chinese graduate of an American college and he 'ia:; as his assistants men who have been liberally educated abroad. This department will issue a magazine on farming and will conduct a systematic, far-reacaing campaign of education in the interest of scientific agriculture. Such enterprise indicates the breadth and fore sight of the men who are leaders in the new era that has dawned for the Chinese people. Having over thrown the tyranny of the old empire, they are now laboring to build freedom upon an enduring founda tion. They realize that the security of the republic rests in the enlightenment and progress of its citi zens. They know that there cannot be political lib erty without economic liberty, that the new govern ment must be judged by the measure of prosperity and contentment it .vouchsafes the people; that the principles on which the republic has been reared must be wrought into practical benefits. And, so, as one of its earliest tasks the adminis tration seeks to foster and develop the natural re sources of the land. The new China has many ob stacles yet to overcome, but so long as it adheres to such constructive methods its future is promising. Placing the Postal Department On a Businesslike Basis. The announcement by Postmaster General Burle son that appointees to offices of the presidential grade will hereafter be expected to give their entire business time to the duties of, their position is typical of the purpose and the methods of the Wil son administration. Public office is to.be made in •reality a public trust. The lolling days of sinecures in the postal service are at an end. Postmasters, high as well as low, are to he paid not for political favors they have done in the past or may do In the future, but for the work they perform. In short, the Government’s business is to be placed upon the same basis of efficiency and faithfulness that private business requires. It is said that if Mr. Burelson’s order had been operative under the last administration, it would have disqualified a majority of the postmasters who held office under President Taft and it will doubt- • .4 less lead many who are now applying for these posi tions to withdraw. It has not heretofore been the custom of postmasters appointed by the President to devote themselves exclusively to the duties of their of fice or to perform its tasks. They have, in many in stances, relied upon assistant^ to shoulder the major portion of the work, while they themselves enjoyed the distinction and the emoluments of the post. This, to be sure, has not been invariably the case, but It has been frequent enough to warrant the new policy that has been established. Postmaster General Burleson contends that if clerks and carriers are required by law to serve eight hours daily, the postmaster, who is the highest paid employe of the office "should give at least an equivalent in time and effort.” Hence his declara tion: “In making new appointments to offices of the presidential grade, the postoffice department will require hereafter, in addition to the qualifi cations with respect to ability, character and ex perience, an assurance from the appoir ee that his whole business time will be devoted to the duties of the position to which he is appointed." This policy will go far toward taking the postal department out of politics and toward placing it upon its logical basis of merit and efficiency. That is the purpose of the new administration with refer ence to all branches of federal service; and as sin ecures and favoritism are supplanted by thorough going tests of capacity and results in the officials appointed, the public’s business will be carried on as it should be and public interests will be duly pro tected. The Eagles and the Sparrow., There is something very droll in the spectacle of six great Powers blustering vainly about the coast of little Montenegro. It is somewhat as if a swarm of eagles were sent to overawe a belliger ent sparrow and the sparrow refused to he im pressed. Four Austrian warships, three British cruisers and a vessel each from Italy and France have blockaded the Montenegrin port of Antlvari, while a brigade of Austrian troops swagger along the northern boundary of the tiny kingdom. The purpose of this huge demonstration, is to frighten Montenegro out of its campaign to win the Trukish stronghold of Scutari, the group of great nations having agreed, chiefly in deference to Austria’s wishes, that Scutari shall be part of a neutral ter ritory. On Saturday the British admiral in command of this six-Power naval display sent word to the pre mier of Montenegro in this wise: "I have the honor to inform you that the international fleet is assem bled in Montenegrin waters as a protest of the non fulfillment of the wishes of the great Powers. Please inform me immediately that your government is ready to carry out the wishes of the great Powers.” When it is reflected that Montenegro is only about half as large as Georgia, with a population of a few hundred thousand, it seems rather remarkable that the international fleet should have to call attention to its presence after it had arrived. Any one of the nations represented, if given free action, would be capable of wiping Montenegro from the map. But the little State simply replied that it re gretted the bad taste displayed by the big Powers and would continue fighting to its heart’s content. Wherefore arises the interesting question, what will the Powers do next? What can they do, if Monte negro persists in its present attitude? It Is not improbable that if they should proceed with actual force against Montenegro, they would provoke the very crisis they are now seeking to avert. It has been thought wise for the sake of international balance that the particular strip of Turkish territory in which Scutari lies should be made into a neutral State. But this policy would be costly, indeed, if its execution called for inter national war; and it is by no means impossible that such a war would follow, If the Powers ventured upon an invasion of Montenegro. Russia is now asquiescing in the plans of her big neighbors, but the Russian people are feverishly sympathetic with their Slav kindred of Montenegro, so that the Czar’s government could scarcely support a campaign of actual force against the little mountain kingdom. If Russia withdraws from the international plan, as it is now proceeding, the other nations will hesi tate to follow Austria’s lead and the whole scheme will be ready to topple. Perhaps Montenegro’s in sight into these probabilities accounts for her pluck. The National Drainage Congress. The third annual meeting of the National Drain age Congress, which is to be held at St. Louis, April the tenth to the twelfth, should be of particular in terest to the South. There is no part of the Union to which the reclamation of, swamp and overflow lands will mean so muoh in agricultural development and public welfare. The Drainage Congress repre sents a great organized movement to carry forward this important task and to seeurfe the co-operation of the federal government. It is therefore entitled to the hearty support of every Southern State. There are thousands of acres in this section which through proper engineering methods and a comparatively small outlay of money could be con verted from worthless and disease-breeding bogs into wondrously productive farms. Georgia is awaken ing to its own possibilities in this regard. Encourag ing progress in reclaiming the State’s swamp lands has already been made, but in order that the work may continue and accomplish due results, the aid of the National Drainage Congress should be sought and utilized. It is to be hoped that Georgia will be well represented at the meeting in St. Louis, and that the State Legislature will respond to the plans which may be launched at that convention. THE BEST ROOM By Dr. Frank Crane When I was a boy in Illinois every house had its “best room.” It was where “company” sat, ladies who came to call dressed up in their best Sunday clothes, and the preacher when he made his regular visit and prayed with the family, and the lawyer when i.e came to get mother to . ign papers, and the book agent who sold : ‘‘^Mother, Home and Heaven.” The children were not allowed in there. And real ly they never wanted to go in, for the shades were al ways closely drawn at the windows, the air was stuffy, and the hair cloth sofa and chairs were most uncomfortable. • There was an album on the marble topped center table, and in it were Uncle Milt’s and Aunt Hallie’s photographs. An engraving of Lincoln and his cabi net, presented as a prize with two years’ subscription V for Godeyks Ladies Book, adorned the wall, and by its side hung glass covered hair wreath. A beautiful ingrain carpet covered the floor; twice a year it was taken up and the hired man hung it over the clothes line in the back yard and pounded it, making a tre mendous whirl of dust, and then having put new straw on the floor, relaid it. The room was the pride and (|lory of the house, and nearly useless. I remember well'the time I went over to stay all night with Ralph Matheny, and how amazed I was to see’ the whole family s.tting in the “parlor,” the father reading the newspaper and the boys playjng checkers— right in the company room! v The explanation of the best room is this: It is an expression of the desire that the world should know us, not as we are, but as what we are supposed to be. The whole struggle for ‘‘respectability’* may be summed up as an instinctive effort to cohceal our real selves. Most of what is known as “society” is but a rattle and mixture of respectabilities, a parade of masks, a game in which by a mutual understanding each plays a part. • To be genuine, frank and real is to be coarse, ill- bred or crude. The “best room” idea pervades us. What is the re ligion of moFt of us but a “best room” affair, to‘be used upon occasions and not for the daily warmth of living? With how many of your acquaintances have you ever gotten farther than their “best room?” With how few men or women do you talk with whom you feel that you are entering freely into the sitting room, dining room and kitchen of their mind! In other words, we are acquainted with many and know very few. We move about, suspicious of one another, fencing against one another, interposing conventional artificial ities between our real selves and others. And what a comfort to meet one of those persons who impress you as genuine through and through, with no dignity to defend, no fortress of respectability to guard, one who is just a real man! The Balkans and Turks are slow to anger, slow to make peace. There are two kinds of officeholders—the kind that seeks, the kind that is sought. It is being demonstrated that there is a fine opening for college professors in politics. Life is at conundrum that everybody gives up sooner or later. . .1 '• r 7 But a man isn’t necessarily self-made because his mistakes are. There is no hope for the misanthrope who would rather believe a lie than the truth. At the End of the Rainbow IN PRAISE OF LIARS. “I’d hate to have Ganderson’s reputation,” re marked the retired merchant. “‘Everybody knows that you can’t believe a word he says.” “Well, such a reputation has its** redeeming fea tures,” replied the hotel keeper. “You always know where to find Ganderson. If he says one thing, you know the other thing is true. If he came into this hotel and said it was a fine, sunny day, I’d know it was raining outdoors. There is some pleasure in con versing with such a man. He admits that he hates to tell the truth except on such special occasions as Washington’s birthday, and so you never expect to find him anything but a fountain of falsehood and he doesn’t fool you. “If Ganderson went into a grocery and Said he wanted a bushel of potatoes or a few yards of New Orleans molasses and that he would pay for them on the first of the month, the grocer would laugh him to scorn. Then th© grocer would give credit to some majestic citizen of severely moral aspect, and when the time cam e for payment the majestic citizen would be invisible. Half the bad bills in- this country are run up by men who look as though they simply couldn't tell a lie and who have worked up a reputa tion for uncompromising integrity. Mighty few of the bad bills are run up by men who ;*rc generally known as liars for obvious reasons. “I get stuck every now and then and generally by men who pride themselves on their reputation for veracity. One evening Tom Gasaway was in here telling stories about fish he had caught and wild ani mals he ^had killed. Tom had a wide reputation as an expert extemporaneous liar. It is said that he told th© truth once several years ago and suffered from nervous prostration. Well, a stranger of saintly ap pearance sat here for a while listening to Tom’s in teresting and instructive anecdotes and then that stranger rose, with a look of intense scorn upon his face, and said he co.uldn’t stand it to hear such false hoods. They made his blood run cold. “Then the stranger got his key and went upstairs to his room and Tom was so abashed and humiliated that he went away, probably with a determination to reform. Next morning that virtuous stranger didn’t loom up for breakkfast and when an investigation was made it was fo\md that he had departed by way of the fire escape, and he owed for three days’ board and lodging, doggone him. “The man who has a reputation for plain and fan cy prevarication is a safe citizen. The man you have to look out for is the individual who seems shocked at the sound of a fish story. The one who is known to be . related to Ananias by marriage can’t sell you any mining stock or patent rights. When you see him coming you tell him at once that there’s nothing doing. But the eminently respectable gentleman who wears ministerial whiskers and who refers to truth as though he had a first mortgage on it is the one who will sell you $5,000 worth of stock in an aperture in the ground and then leave town between two days. “I have quite a local reputation as a liar. I never was ambitious to do any fancy stunts in falsehood, but I always let my imagination have free rein and I can’t see that it has injured me any. I have noticed that the people of this town always seem to enjoy my conversation and spend hours in this hotel listen ing to me, and I sometimes have trouble in getting rid of them. The man who runs the opposition hotel has a fanatical fondness for the truth and never tells a funny story or encourages anybody else to do so, and th© result is that he has no loafers in his lobby and his hotel is patronized only by colporteurs and people with side whiskers. “When a man gets a reputation for being truthful he surrounds himself with a cold, clammy atmosphere that repels warm blooded people.” WALT MASON. i The Capital of Capitals By Erederic j. Haskin * . v. ’■ The sixty-third congress was distinguished for the steps it took to add to the beauty of Washington, al ready the most beautiful of the world's capitals. It made an appropriation for the connection of Rock Creek park, a large Wildwood driving park, with Potomac park, which lies along the western end of the city’s river front. This will give a continuous parkway, ex tending from the capitol, past the Washington monu ment, to Rock creek which separates the city proper from old Georgetown. The lower end of this creek runs through a region once famous for its beauty, but now desolate in its sordid ugliness, being used as a dumping -round. The upper end, which is included in the National Zoological park, lias had its natural beauty conserved. With the completion of the beauti fication of lower Rock creek it will then be possible for one to travel through a park that extends from the very northernmost confines of the city to the river front on the south, and thence to the capitol, which will give to Washington a park system without a su perior in any quarter of the world. ... • Congress also voted an appropriation to erect to the memory of Abraham Lincoln in Potomac park a monument which will represent the world's most cost ly pile to the memory of any man. It will be situated at one end of the Mall, with the capitol at the other, while between them towers the shaft that commemo rates the life and work of Washington, and also the heroic military monument which bespeaks the na tion's veneration of Grant. ... Furthermore, congress made the initial apppropria- tion for the construction of a bridge, which will span the Potomac from the vicinity of the Lincoln monu ment to a point below the gates of Arlington, the home of Robert E. Lee, apd now the country’s most his toric and famous national cemetery. This bridge will be memorial in its character, typifying the reunion of the north and the south, and promises to be the great est of its kind in the world. ... Still another step in the realization of the cream of the ultimate Washington was taken in the author ization of a magnificent new department building west of the new National museum, to be a fit companion to that structure and of .he new department of agri culture. When these plans and others previously laid out are completed there wil! be a group of magnifi cent government buildings south of Pennsylvania ave nue and east of Fifteenth street that will be among the most imposing in the world. There is a narrow strip of land south of Pennsylvania avenue and extend ing to the. world famous Mall that connects the capi tol and the Washington monument. This strip of land, for the most part, is covered with cheap hotels, restaurants, rooming houses, ti e city’s leading market, the wholesale provision and lumber districts, and the red light district. It is th- plan of the government to remove all of this, and to make it the site of new fed eral buildings the expansion of the government makes necessary. ... In addition to all these things, congress has pro vided for the creation of a small park on what is known as Meridian Hill, which marks the horizon from the north front of the White House. There the peo- ' pie may come to get a glimpse of the city second only to that which may be enjoyed from the dome of the capitol or from the top of the Washington monument. ... But even when all these things have been done the ultimate Washington still will lie in the future. Those who want to see it a capital commensurate with the wealth and dignity of the nation; representative of the national ideals of beauty and symmetry; embody ing the national aspirations in landscape gardening, in architecture, in conservation of natural beauty, would go even further, between Rock Creek park and Soldiers' Home park, both situated on the north ern side o-‘ the city, there is now no park connection. It has been proposed that they shall be joined together in the years to come. Plans have been perfected for a park between the Union station and the capitol. The completion of these two projects -..’ould mean a park system around the four sides of the main part of the city, with only one comparatively short break. It would start at the Union station and extend nearly a half mile through the capitol grounds. Then it would turn at right angles and extend due west until it reached the water front, and along that to the conflu ence of Hock creek with the Potomac—a total dis tance of two and a half miles. From here it would run north a distance of six miles along Rock creek; in the event that a connecting link between Rock Creek park and Soldiers' Home park is established, this would leave Rock creek at right angles at a point about four miles above the conflqcAce with the Pot«- mac, and then would extend eastward for a mile and a half to ,-cldiers’ home. This, in turn, with the mu nicipal filtration plant, gives a parkway nearly two miles long and a half mile or more wide. The only break" in the great parallelogram,, then, would be the residence section between the Soldiers' Home park and the Union station, which is about a mile and a half long. In other words, in a great line around H Uie best part of the city some sixteen miles long, all but about two miles would be a line of green. * « ... Very few of the world’s great capitals lend them selves so well to the builder of the City Beautiful as the capital of the United States. With the picturesque Potomac and its Virginian palisades; with Rock Creek valley filled with beautiful glens and fine drives; with a gently undulating downtown section; and with high residential sections, the general conformation of the' site of the city is more beautiful than that of Rome, more attractive than that of Paris, far to be preferred over that cf Berlin, not to be compared with that of London, Madrid, St. Petersburg or Mexico City. * • • Berlin was built on a perfectly flat sandy wast~ and whatever beauty there is in the German capital has been put there by the hand of the landscape gard ener and the architect. The trees planted there par tially atone for what nat re failed to do, but nothing can remedy the unkindness of nature in omitting hills and valleys. St. Petersburg is situated on the splen did river Neva, and has a wonderful water front. The Neva rushes through it, covered with snow and ice in winter, but the country upon which it is built is flat and swampy and, therefore, th ; site is damp and inhos pitable, resisting the best efforts of an empire’s treas ury to remedy it. * * * It has been suggested that nowhere else could a national forest be created to better advantage than be tween Washington and Baltimore and along the Poto mac. west of "Washington. Here is a great stretch of counry, worth but little for farming or lumbering, where a national forest could be established at no un reasonable cost. The west has its Yellowstone Park, its Glacier Park, and other ‘ great national reserves, but the east has none. Why not have one between Washington and Baltimore, within eight hours’ ride of perhaps a fourth of the country’s population? This is the question of the dreamer of today, but there are those who believe that in a decade congress will come to give it that same attention which, after years of ef fort, it gave to the proposed Appalachian National for ests. ♦ * * Paris is famed throughout the world for its beau ty, and it has a share of pleasing landscapes, but non* of them compares with the river bluffs which enclosf downtown "Washington and afford the home sites foi the residential districts and the sites for some of the capital’s most beautiful parks. The Seine, with all the treatment that the art of landscape gardening can give it, yet will lack that beauty which is the Potomac’s by right of heritage. London is rich in history and the Thames arouses memories of centuries, but even that patriot of patriots, Ambassador Bryce, declares that London is situated ir. a very uninteresting country and that the Thames cannot be compared in beauty with the Potomac. T