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THE ATLANTA SEM-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1913.-
THE SEMI-WEEEY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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A Cheering Outlook
For Georgia Crops.
The April reports of farm demonstration agents
to the' Georgia State College of Agriculture betoken
a plenteous and progressive year. While in some
counties crops are slightly belated because of spring
rains, conditions at large are more promising than
they were this time a twelvemonth ago. Of particu
lar interest are the bright outlook for grain, the
development of the livestock industry and the preva
lence with which up-to-date and businesslike meth
ods of farm management are being applied.
These reports, it should he noted, are not the
random opinions of persons who are given to talking
good times; they,are based upon the firsthand obser
vation of men who are in daily touch with the farm
ers of their respective districts and whose business
is to gather facts. In undertaking to keep the
public informed on crop conditions, the State Col
lege of Agriculture has entered a timely and useful
field of enterprise; for, in a State like Georgia,
where all material interests depend so largely on the
soil, the merchant and manufacturer and hanker and,
indeed, every citizen whatever his particular pursuit
may be, are concerned scarcely less than the farmer
himself in the agricultural outlook.
The diversification and rotation of crops seem to,
appeal more strongly than ever to the majority of
Georgia planters. The monopoly of cotton is steadily
giving way to a more liberal and varied use of the
soil’s resources. The folly of buying in distant mar
kets, at high prices, necessaries which can be easily
and cheaply produced at home is being more and
more widely realized.
From one county after another come reports that
oats, corn, wheat, peas, beans, potatoes and other
food commodities are being cultivated with unusual
interest and success. The agent at Americus writes,
for instance: “Oats are fine, many farmers intend to
follow with peas for hay. Farmers are also plant
ing velvet beans and peanuts between rows of corn,
for hogs and cattle.” From Camilla, comes a simi
lar report to this effect: "A big yield of oats is
promised. Several acres are being planted with vel
vet beans and there is greater interest in rotation;
more feed, more pastures and better stock; the
farmers are buying cultivators.”
So the record runs through the greater part of
the entire Staff. Improved methods of cultivation
are naturally leading to the purchase of up-to-date
farm machinery. The agent at Blakely writes that
in his county the stock of harrows , has been sold out
and the dealers are telegraphing for more.
The alarm over the boll weevil menace in south
west Georgia has not ‘only stimulated the farmers to
measures of protection against that pest, hut has also
aroused them to the value of foresighted and scien
tific methods in all their activities. By coping with
this particular enemy, they have learned that system
and preparation will'save them losses and disappoint
ments in divers other fields; and, so, the gospel of
scientific as contrasted with haphazard agriculture is
steadily advancing.
To the reports of the farm demonstration agents,
may be added the increase in truck gardening, ob
served by everyone who watches Georgia’s develop
ment. It is a fact, of far-reaching significance that
this State is turning more and more definitely to the
production of foodstuffs, that it is utilizing more and
more widely its varied resources; and this is a con
dition which makes for the progress and prosperity
of all interests and all the people.
President Wilson continues to make no undue
noise, but he still manages to show that he is in
command of the situation.
.Tragedies and Triumphs of the Air.
The week just gone by wgs remarkable both for
Its triumphs and tragedies in aviation. In France,
five persons, four of whom were army officers, were
killed by the mid-air explosion of a dirigible and near
the scene of the Balkan war two bold commanders
of aerial fleets lost their lives by falling from an
aeroplane.
These fatalities, however, were counterbalanced by
extraordinary achievements in long-distance flights.
The New York Sun tersely recounts them as follows:
“With a passenger Gustav Hamel flew in an aero
plane from Dover to Cologne, without a stop, two
hundred and forty-five miles in the fast time of two
hundred and fifty-eight minutes, on April the seven
teenth, passing through five rainstorms. Also on the
same day, four aeroplanes, piloted by French army
officers, reached Biskra after flying five hundred
miles over the Sahara desert; and at Rio de Janerio
President Da Fonseca and the minister of marine,
Admiral Franco, made flights of twenty minutes with
one MacCullough, an American aviator.”
The Sun Aptly comments that for every man
killed, hundreds, perhaps, thousands, course through
■ the air “uninjured and exhilarated.”
A Competitive Tariff
And Industrial Efficiency.
“Believing, as I do, in a real, though moderate
and balanced reduction of the tariff, I believe
in it chiefly because it means the birth of a new
moral and mental life to our industries. The
tariff lias tended to destroy our belief in our
own poicers, to diminish our industrial self-
respect. 8o,. I look, when the necessary re
adjustments are over, for the blood of a new life
to be poured into the veins of American indus
try."
In this trenchant manner, Secretary of Commerce
Redfield presents one of the most important, though
least discussed aspects of the tariff situation. A
great deal has been said, and truly, concerning the
injustice of high tariff duties to the consumers and it
is the rank and file of the people who are expected
to profit most from a thoroughgoing downward re
vision. That, however, is not the only benefit which
a "competitive” tariff—to use the term happily applied
to the pending Underwood bill—will afford. In the
long run, the country's industrial interests them
selves will he among the highest beneficiaries.
The manufacturing concern whose profits are
guarded and even guaranteed by a system of govern
ment protection will inevitably lack the vigor and
alertness of one that relies upon its own worth and
. energy. There is little differefice, after all between
the industry that looks to the government for artifi
cial protection and aid and the professional mendi
cant who looks to charity rather than to his own
labor for support. That sort of charity is as de-
moraliizng to an industry as to an individual.
A tariff system such as the discarded Republican
regime has fostered protects not only unearned
profits, but also inefficiency and stagnation. It pro
tects, against rightful competition the concern that
clings to antiquated methods and outworn machinery,
it dulls the ambition and the wits of manufacturing
enterprise and, as Secretary of Commerce Redfield
declares, “tends to destroy our belief in our own
powers, to diminsh our industrial self-respect.”
There is a vast difference between protecting
an infant industry, in order that it may get firmly
upon its feet and cope with its peers, and protect
ing a giant that has become sluggardized through
over-feeding and prolonged privileges. The latter is
not protection, but patronage, patronage bestowed
at the cost of the country as a whole and to the
detriment of the true interest of industrial life.
The framers of the Democratic tariff hill now
before Congress strike the keynote of the entire dis
cussion when they declare, “To protect profits, means
necessarily to protect inefficiency.” When these
pampered industries are brought into fair competi
tion with the skill and hardihood of rival enter
prises throughout the world, they will either catch
the pace of progress or drop out of line, to be suc
ceed by others that are willing and able to be mod-'
ern and efficient. The net result will be worth as
much to the country’s industrial progress as to the
millions of consumers who now pay exorbitant
prices for mediocre products.
How Consumers and Producers
Are Helping One Another.
* Much interest has been aroused by an organiza
tion of Texas farmers who plan to ship vegetables di
rectly to consumers in Chicago. Crates or baskets
will be filled with cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, on
ions, radishes, lettuce, spinach and turnips sufficient
to supply a family of five persons for a week. Bach
basket will sell for a dollar and twenty cents, which
is said to be two or three dollars less than the same
quantity of vegetables could be bought for under the
present marketing methods. This experiment was
prompted, says the San Antonio Express, by a
group of Chicago workingmen who believe that
through such a co-operative system they can provide
their families with fresh vegetables "at the minimum
prices consistent with economic production, shipping
and distribution.”
It is commonly recognized today that if direct
relationships can be established between the producer
and thfe consumer, a vast deal will have been done to
reduce the cost of living. As conditions now are, the
farmer receives less than a fair value on his products
while the consumer pays more. The high price of
foodstuffs in general and of garden truck in partic
ular is due largely to intermediary expenses. A por
tion of this expense is natural and necessary, hut
much of it could, he avoided, if there were shorter
and simpler routes between field and pantry.
These Texas farmers and Chicago consumers have
hit upon what seems to be an admirable device. Each
group has organzed and has got into direct commun
ication with the other, the one being assured
os a steady demand and the other of a
steady supply. It has been frequently suggested since
the inauguration of the parcel post that consumers’
leagues he organized in the cities in order that the
new service might render its full measure of economic
benefit. It is upon this principle that the Chicago
workingmen have proceeded; and if their experiment
proves a success, as it probably will, similar organ
izations will doubtless be effected throughout the
country.
Farmers as well as consumers in the city are
awakening to the value of co-operative business meth
ods. They realize that products must he marketed
systematically, if they are to yield a due return and
that far more can be accomplished through a com
munity of interest than through individual effort.
Thus we find farmers in several Georgia counties or
ganizing truck growing' associations by means of
which they are enabled not only to produce table
commodities more cheaply but also to market them
to better advantage.
This is simply an application of business methods
to agriculture, simply placing the affairs of the farm
on the same basis as the affairs of the successful fac
tory or bank. The result will eventually be a close
and constant relationship between the producer and
the consumer, with rich benefits to them both.
Radical and Foolish.
The proposition of the ship subsidy claimants
to abrogate the treaty through which the United
States secured its right to build the Panama canal
is as foolish as it is radical.
Internationol contracts are not thus lightly to
be cast aside. In the Hay-Pauneefote and the
Clayton-Bulwer treaties, England is as much con
cerned as is the United States. Her rights and
interests are due as much respect as those of our
own nation. The United States could not repudi
ate (the obligations which it thus assumed without
proclaiming itself to the world as untrue to its word
and its honor.
The interests that want to abrogate the Hay-
Pauncefote treaty know that treaty makes the toll
exemption clause of the Panama canal act illegal;
and. so, in their zeal to serve a shipping trust they
urge a violation of national faith.
The Municipal Pawnshop
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
* Copyright, 1913, hy Frank Crane.)
There are certain kinds of business so public in
their nature that the government is compelled to take
them over. Such are the postoffice, the collection of
taxes, and the education of children, all of which
were once managed by private parties.
Little by little the conviction is forcing itself upon
the general mind that when any business reaches a
certain point in natural monopoly the state should
attend to it.
The United States has had a hundred years of ex
treme competition and individualism; our people are
yet rather suspicious* of the state's doing anything
which might be done by a person.
Gradually, however, we are growing nearer the
point where the idea of state operation of street car
lines, railways, and other common carriers seems not
so revolutionary, where the cry of city ownership of
waterworks, gas plants, electric power w r orks is not so
loudly called socialism. The postmaster general has
recently advocated government ownership of telegraph
lines.
In other words, we are slowly ‘'realizing” democ
racy, and growing into the understanding that de
mocracy is imperfect without a thorough organization
of the people to attend to their own affairs, as a peo
ple; in other words, we are learning the depth and
width of the meaning of “a government by the people.”
One thing we ought to be ready to do right now,
and that is to have in every large city a municipal
pawnshop.
There are always a certain number of persons
who have fallen in the scramble for success, and are
reduced to the necessity of pledging their watch or
their dress suit, their books or their piano, to get
money for bread and butter.
These people are too honest to steal and too self-
respecting to beg. They ought to have things made
as easy for them as possible. It is no more shameful
to raise money on your furniture than it is to raise
money on railwa bonds.
As the custom now runs, those who are forced to
pawnshops are made the prey of as conscienceless a
set of sharks, in many instances, as ever picked the
bones of the poor. Over and over again the public
press has rehearsed the story of their spoliation; how’
the unwary victims are made to pay the most exorbit
ant rates of interest, only at last too often to lose
their principal.
The remedy is plain and simple. Let the city lend
to its own poor. Establish a municipal pawnshop,
with branches throughout The city, to lend money to
those who need it at a reasonable profit upon the
pledging c"/their personal effects.
Is not this one little bit of decent helpfulness any
city might undertake without fear of graft or pater
nalism or any such accusation?
By our hit-and-miss “charity,” by our various
benevolent organizations and mission workers, we try
to hedp the neei'y. Often by these means it is the
most unworthy that are found. Those whom a little
timely aid would redeem and set again upon their
feet are hard to discover.
Why cannot the city, the great, common organi
zation of all the people, undertake to stand, at least
to the extent of a secured loan, between the unfor
tunate and the claws of ruin?
The business of lending to the poor is too vital, too
near to heartbreak and suicide, to be intrusted *to any
private concern. It is too serious a :natter for any
hands except those of the city itself.
The Warriors of the
Black Mountain.
Whether the capture of Scutari by the doughty
Montenegrins will- simplify of further'.entangle the
Balkan situation remains to be seen- The fact of
immediate and compelling interest is that a moun
tain locked gnome of aiiatiofa has defied an array
of giant Powers and, relying solely upon its, own
mettle, has won the shining prize of its seven-
months’ siege.
The one object of Montenegro in entering the
campaign of the Allies against Turkey has been to
get Scutari in order that thence it might secure an
advantageous outlet to the Adriatic and thus
strengthen its commercial and political life. Scutari,
the principal city of Albania, has been under Turk
ish rule more thaa four huni.red years. Tradition
marks it as the capital of ancient Illyria, the roman
tic region on whose shpres Shakespeare’s “Viola”
was cast.
"What country, friends, is this?
This is Illyria, Lady."
The Montenegrins began their campaign for
Scutari last October and they have continued it un
swervingly and, for the most part, unaidec.- During
the latter stages of the siege they were reinforced
by detachments of Servian troops, but since the Pow
ers issued their warning, Servia Las remained prac
tically passive. The final and successful sortie
which ended in the city’s capitulation was almost en
tirely the work of Montenegrin soldiers.
No chapter of the Balkan war, a war filled with
stirring episodes, is more memorable than that which
this little kingdom of the Black Mountain has writ
ten in i its heart’s best blood. With a population
scarcely exceeding three hundred thousand arid with
revenues proportionately scant, it has pressed for
ward in an adventure which was as hazardous as
costly and on which the the great nation’s of Europe
continually frowned. All the winter long, it kept
hammering at the Turkish outposts, despite the
threats of Austria. Its efforts which at first appear
ed futile became more and more effective until in
the early spring, the Powers realized that only thc.r
intervention could save Scutari from surrender. It
was - then that the true pluck and hardihood of
Montenegro was evidenced.
Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, England,
France and Russia had agreed that Albania, in which
Scutari is situated, should be made an autonomous
State and should not be subject to division among
the Balkan Allies. Austria seems to have been
chiefly responsible for this plan and her motive, it
is suspected, was far from unselmsh. Indeed, it is
said that she herself had ambitions to possess the
Albanian territory and that she looked forward to
.. time when, on a pretext of quieting the disorder
which would probably arise in the new State, she
would first take it under her protection and even
tually annex it. However that may be, the Powers
united in a program to prevent Albanian territory
from falling into tne hands of Montenegro.
But their admonitions and demands have had no
effect upon the little nation. At the very hour when
the commander of the international fleet that had
been sent to overawe Montenegro was delivering the
Powers’ ultimatum, Montenegrin troops were making
their final desperate assault on the beleagured city.
And now’ that they are in actual possession of Scu
tari, what are the Powers to do? It is scarcely con
ceivable that they w’ill allow Austria to send an ex-
Pedition to recapture the city or to invade Montene
gro; for, that might lead to complications far more
serious than those which the nations have conspired
to avert. Nor is it likely that all the Powers will
unite in a plan of coercing Montenegro into giving
up the prize she has so valiantly won. The situation
is the hardest riddle of the entire Balkan affair, un
less the direct and simple solution of .letting Monte
negro keep its trophy is adopted.
;r^OME topkS
Cowocrtst Bf iTKS. Vi HJTELTO/l
MR. J. FIERFONT MORGAN’S WILL.
I listened to an excellent sermon at church on Sun
day morning, but good as it was, there was a better
one printed in all sections of the United States, and
yet the printed one covered only a few lines in our
daily papers.
I allude to the published will of the deceased banker,
J. P. Morgan, and the first clause therein. Before he
entered upon the legal disposition of his many millions,
he gave a touching manifestation of his humble de
pendence on- the Great Father in Heaven.
I asked myself, “Can this be the man against whom
thousands upon thousands have declaimed in pulpit
.and in print and who has been used as a text to show
the tyranny of Mammon, and its corrupting effect on
legislators and its devastating effect on the happiness
of the people of this country? Are these the ‘robber
baron’s own words? Is there not some mistake? Can
it be possible that he has been maliciously maligned,
to point a moral or adorn a tale?”
One of the mos tcomforting statements that I find
in the Holy. Scrip-ures is that of Our Savior, when He
said, “He that loveth me, loveth My Father,” and,
again, “Whosoever will confess me before men, the
same will My Fath r confess in Heaven.”
This very rich man hastened his own demise by at
tending chapel exercises on Easter Sunday in a for
eign country.
His health was extremely precarious, as his doctors
warned him, but his aged heart longed for the house
of worship, and he ’ raved disease to go and the end
came soon. He was glad to go into the house of the
Lord and confess Christ before he met Death, his last
enemy. His will has been printed far and wide ar.d
the rushing tide of humanity has paused to read!
And it will stand as the greatest monument to Mr.
Morgan's memory, no matter hew lofty those monu
ments may be, in marble or brass, erected by grateful
survivors to evidence their respect for his worthy
character.
His careful preparation for the comfort of his “be
loved wife” touched my heart. Coming first after his
testimony or Christ, he showed himself a faithful hus
band as well as Christian gentleman in honoring her
with the choicest of his possessions and relieving her
of any of the usual burdens and havassmeats of grea-
wealth. in the enjoyment of his bequest.
There was goodness a£ well as greatness in the
terms of Mr. Morgan's will. No man can be truly
great who is not also really good, and when the flash
light of public curiosity /as turned on the greatest
master of finance in America, the public was given an
insight into his plans and purposes. The people of
this country now say, “Well done, thju good and faith
ful servant.”
Some of us feel humiliated that we were misled by
the ciaquers of s-jticnul and political animosity into a
feeling of distrust and suspicion against Mr. Morgan.
We were not just to him in har.boring suspicion and.
hatred, because he has been held up as a very anti-
Christian in his so-called oppression and trampling
down of the poo:- and we were unwise enough to echo
this dislike and nourish this bad opinion of him, and
simply because he could make money and argood many
of us lacked that enterprising gift or faculty for
money accumulation.
He has been generous n many ways and when he
averted a great financial panic years ago a good many
people cried out, “Crucify him!”
Eternity alone can tell the motives and purposes of
those who are Entrusted with, great wealth-, but banker
Morgan in preparing for death, certainly did honor
the Almighty Master, who had entrusted him with the
use of his man$' millions! *It was emphatically a fine
exhibition of manly and robust Christianity. *
THE LUXURY OF DOING GOOD.
“Blest be -the, spot, where cheerful guests retire,
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair;
Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown’d,
Where all the ruddy family around,
Laugh at the jest of pranks that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale,
Or press the bashful stranger to his food.
And learn the luxury of doing good.”
—Goldsmith.
There are many people who sigh for the old times,
because they are almost run over by the rushing herd
that has grown rabid for display, money and luxury;
but the fault lies in the almost total abstaining from
the old-time manners and hospitality which were cul
tivated by the forefathers. The “luxury of doing good”
is as much within our every day reach as it was in
Goldsmith’s time; but there will perhaps never, come
again the fireside freedom and frankness that ob
tained a half century or more ago. There was slow
travel, for one thing, and visitors felt compelled to
stay awhile, after a slow and toilsome journey. The
host and hostess expected them to be inmates of the
household, free to its privileges and welcome to its
food and shelter; and even the stranger in his “ready
chair,” could linger if he so inclined. The “simple
plenty” prevented the entertainment from becoming
oppressively burdensome to the h-omefolks and the
everyday affairs went on in outdoor work without in
terruption or hindrance. Those were great times to
cultivate friendships and talk over former happenings.
If the weather was warm the children played out-
of-doors, while the womenfolks chatted and sewed, or
knitted on “he piazzas during the daytime. When’ the
daylight wan’d all the chaps had their faces, feet and
hands bathed and were dismissed to their friendly
pallets. The eldets lounged around in the moonshine
or made themselves easy on chairs or benches, or
maybe the floor and doorsteps until early bed time.
There was no stiffness* no dressing up, unless to go
to town or to church, or to a neighborly dinner. The
guests were cheerful and were linked to their friends
as by steel clasps, and for the time being, it was one
family, larger than usual, but all of one mind as to
kind words and tender thoughts of each other. It
created friendships that were handed down to children’s
children, and cemented church relations as well as
fireside friendships. To those who enjoyed these good
old times, there is sadnesS; they cannot come again,
there is, however, still the luxury of doing good!
ELABORATE SHOE MAXING.
I chanced into a shoemaker’s store in our town a
few days ago and saw him put iron pegs into some
repaired shoes, and also saw him sew on new soles,
every lick done by elaborate machinery. Very different
it was from the long-ago time when the laborious
shoemaker, with awl and waxed thread, conducted the
same processes.
I once read of a shoe-making contest in Lynn, Mass.,
where ladies shoes were being manufactured, shortly
after the machines r/ere being introduced generally.
It required fifty-seven different operations and the
use of forty-two machines—and one hundred pieces to
set up the pair. But all these parts were assembled
and the pair of shoes completed in thirteen minutes. A
new somebody took hold when each little thing had
been done,-and the work flew down the line *until the
pair was complete.
I can recall the wearing of a pair of red morocco
shoes in my childhood; it is rather a dim recollection,
but I remember well the face of the shoemaker who
made my first pair of common leather shoes, and they
were so well made that it was easy to outgrow them
they lasted so long. I was required to stand on a
clean, smooth, white pine board, while the good man
“took my measure.” I. can yet see in memory my
lately washed little foot as I planked it down and
waited for him to put a mark against my heel and
then again in front of my chubby toes; and there was
no such thing as numbers to his inanufactured articles
from shoe leather. [ j
But children in “ye olden time,” went barefoot in
the summer, and had to doctor their stumped tees in
the late fall before they could year the shoes that
the family ; heemaker set up for them. Of the stumped
THE MODERN WOMAN
U.-WOMEN IN SCIENCE.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
The time within which it has been easy for women
to secure advanced scientific education is compara
tively short, but the work they have accomplished
already has been of practical
value to the world. As yet few
have attempted solitary re
search, but their efforts have
given assistance to men who
have had long experience, and,
therefore, a greater amount of
self-confidence. Madame Marie
Curie, the celebrated discoverer
Of radium, possessed the ability
o lead the world in scientific
•esearch, although this ability
loubtless would have remained
lorman.t had not her sympa-
.liies with her husband led her
:o devote her own energies to
vork for which, it developed,
she was even better qualified
than he*. Madame Curie has
been refused admittance to the
French Academy of “Immor
tals” because of her sex, but
her scientific ability was so well recognized that
the University of Paris is glad to give .its
students the advantage of wisdom, so she holds the
chair of professor ef physics and has received every
honor the scientists of the world can bestow upon her.
As a young Polish girl, Madame Curie’s educational
opportunities were limited, but her discovery has paved
the way for the later woman scientist to achieve a
more liberal recongition.
* * *
Before the days of Madame Curie, an American
woman had won greater honor in astronomical science
than any other woman in the world. Maria Mitchell,
the first professor of astronomy in Vassal* college, had
little but an undaunted will to help her in making her
studies of the skies. Miss Mitchell discovered a new
comet and by so doing won the gold medal offered by
the king of Denmark for the discovery of a new tele
scopic comet. This disovery was made while she was
eking out her living by acting as librarian in the
Pawtucket library at the salary of one hundred dollars
a year. But the position gave her time and opportunity
to study, and thus made possible her greater work.
Miss Mitchell visited Europe and received the homage
of all the distinguished scientists of the day. Since
her death many women astronomers have exhibited un
usual skill in computation and are filling positions in
scientific institutions, but as yet no one has won from
her the credit for original discovery.
* * *
The standards in astronomy founded in Vassar col
lege by Professor Mitchell still give that institution
the lead as regards that particular science among the
other colleges for women, and continual research work
is going on in connection with that observatory. An
interesting work which lately has been carried on in
the astronomical department of Vassar college is a
“Catalogue of the Stars Within Two Degrees of the
North Pole Deduced by Photographic Measures,” which
has been prepared by Prof. Caroline E. Furness, the
head of the department, and published last year
through 'the Carnegie institution of Washington. A
number of expert women mathematicians are employed
in the comp tation departments of the leading ob
servatories. The great solar observatory of the Car
negie institution, located on Mount Wilson, • California,
employs seven women upon its investigatory staff, be
sides others in less important positions.
* * *
In botanical science, women have been doing im
portant work for years. A .ine of work of much prac
tical value lately has been devolped by Miss Edith
Mosher, formerly a teacher in the Grand Rapids public
schools. Miss Masher felt that there was need for a;
broader general knowledge of the ordinary trees with
their habits, growth and general appearance and there
Was a lack of adequite literature. A course of tree
study was planned in the Grand Rapids schools and
Miss Mosher undertook the necessary studies to pre
pare for it. She had the hearty co-operation c’ Gifford
Pinchot, and other leaders in forestry, and special
permission was given her to attend the Yale university
summer school in forestry, although this is not a co
educational school. As a result of her specialization
in tree botany, Miss. Mosher has been able to produce a
number of books more practical in their* scope than
any which had previously been available. They in
clude “Fruit and Nut-Bearing Trees,” “Our Oaks and
Maples,” “Our Cone-Bearing Trees,” “Studies in Ever*
greens,” and others.
* • • •
The subject of tropical botany Is receiving the at
tention of a large number of women. Some of them
are interested from an amateur’s standpoint, although
their superficial interest sometimes has brought about
real scientific research. Mrs. D. D. Gaillaird. wife of
one of the officers of tile Panama canal commission,
developed an absorbing interest in orchids and other
tropical vegetation to enliven the tedium of her stay
upon the isthmus. She sent many specimens to the
Smithsonian institution for analysis and examination.
As a result of the interest thus -created the institu
tion last year sent down a party of botanists to study
the resources of the canal zone and adjoining territory. |
The research accomplished by this party which owed
its origin to the amateur efforts of a woman, have add
ed greatly to the knowledge of tropical botany which,
until recently, has been a much neglected branch of
the science.
• * •
The department of bontanieal research of the Car.
negie institution is at present confining its efforts
chiefly to the study of the plants of the desert. Its
laboratories a,re located principally in Arizona. Two
women are conducting research under this department.
Mrs. Forrest Shreve and Mrs. Effie S. Spalding. Mrs.
Shreve has been especially interested in the different
varieties of the cactus, and also in the compilation of
vital statistics of the plants of the deserts aftd con
ditions which affect their length of life. Mrs. Spalding
it interested in their biological formation.
* *
A number of women scientists, particularly botan
ists, are connected with the department of agriculture
under the bureau of plant industry. Mrs. Flora Pat
terson, who now is in charge of the mushroom division,
formerly was an assistant at the Gray Herbarium con
nected with Harvard university. She is a recognized
authority upon all kinds of fungi growth throughout
the world,- having been a prolific writer for scientific
journals upon the subject.
* * *
Among the women pioneers in botanical work must
be numbered Mrs. Elvira Lincoln Phelps, who shared
with Dr. Maria f MitchelI the honor of being one of the
two women members admitted to the American Society
for the Advancement of Science. At a time when but
little was known regarding biological formations as
compared with the present, she was an earnest student.
She possessed the unusual talent of being able to
place her discoveries and those of others in a form to
be readily assimilated by students. Her books upon
botany, chemistry, and other natural sciences are
still in active circulation and i. generation ago were
regarded as among the most practical for use In sec
ondary schools.
toes, I have a vivid recollection, because the old
wounds wouldn't stay healed as the new breaks were
so frequent.
Sometimes the shoemaker made a misfit and the
cold weather pinched. It then happened that heels
were soaped and the foot had to go in—willy-nilly.
A great many children scuffled along without shoes
until Christmas time, especially if the visiting shoe
maker was late in coming or slow at his work.
Speaking of aforetime contributions to the preacher
—one member offered to give him leather for the up
pers, while another gave him the leather for the soles
and the preacher a -d congregation made no protest,
as all were satisfied. One of those old-fashioned,
home-made shoes would be as great a curiosity today
as the ruffled shirts that men wore with them on all
state occasions.