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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1913.
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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, QA., 5 NORTH POBSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY.
President and Editor.
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Atlanta, Ga.
It never rains but it puts crops in the grass.
The old-fashioned editor who told the farmer how
to succeed is still with us.
A Case For the Grand Jury.
Since the publication in The Journal last Friday
of a dictograph conversation alleged to have taken
place among certain •well known Atlantians, the
civic atmosphere has been tense with inquiry and
indignation, the papers have been filled with charges
and countercharges, the integrity of private citizens
and public officials has been made a grave issue and
the community’s sentiment has crystallized into a
olear-cut demand that this affair be probed through
all its windings and probed deeply until the guilt or
innocence of those involved is clearly established.
As to the truth or falsity of any of the charges
made, The Journal has expressed no opinion, and
does not now. We do say, however, that these
accusations strike at the honor and usefulness of
public officials as well as that of Individual citizens.
They cast a cloud upon the city itself and give rise
to all mapner of sordid gossip under which the good
people of Atlanta cannot, afford to rest. These
charges must be investigated, promptly, intelligently
and exhaustively.
If there Is corruption In the city detective or po
lice department, it should be laid bare and brought
to account. If there is not, then the uprightness and
worth of these officials should be duly vindicated.
If private citizens have been guilty of corrupt
practices or of crminal attempts to destroy the use
fulness of the police authorities, such citizens, who
ever they may be, should be dealt with as the offense
deserves. If unjustly accused, they likewise are en
titled to complete exoneration.
The all important' thing, however, is that the
great public of Atlanta be avenged of the monstrous
wrong against its welfare which these charges imply.
This is no individual affair. If the acts or the con
ditions alleged be true, then the good name and the
rights of this entire community have been outraged.
We are told, on the one hand, that bribery of public
officials has been attempted, that plots have been en
gineered to thwart or overthrow public servants in
the performance of their duty, that practices, con
demned alike by courts and- conscience, have been
perpetrated; and, on the other hand, we are told
that the police and detective department has sought
to foil the ends of justice and has trafficked in vice.
Charges like these, we. repeat, reach vastly fur
ther than the individuals against whom they are di
rected. They strike into the very heart of the com-'
munity’s safety and welfare; for, if such a state of
affairs as is alleged does exist, either in respect to
the private citizens or the officials concerned, then
the fair name of Atlanta is at stake and there is
sorely needed work for the courts to do.
The people of this good city will stand for no
such practices as are charged. They realize that
to pass such offenses by or to permit them to go un
punished, would compound whatever crimes have
been committed. The public, therefore, demands the
full truth and full justice not only In' the Phagan
case Itself but also with reference to the conduct
of those involved In the collateral issues that have
arisen.
Let the grand jury proceed as speedily as possible
to a rigorous investigation of this entire affair.
As a body charged with the community’s moral
well-being and with the duty of bringing evil doers
' to an accounting before the law, it cannot afford to
ignore the far-reaching charges and countercharges
that are now public.
Let the truth he established and justice com
pletely done.
The rains came in time to save the 'reputation of
congress’ garden seed.
»
A New Menace to Balkan Peace.
Should the fighting between the Greek and the
Bulgarian troops near Saloniki continue, the future
safety of the Balkans would be seriously menaced.
It was due to their steadfast alliance that the little
peninsula States won such sweeping and rapid vic
tories over the Turks. Should they now fall out
among themselves, It Is doubtful that any of them
would enjoy their due share of the fruits of their
common cause.
A general war among the Balkan States would
almost inevitably call for Intervention by the large
Powers; it might call for a re-partitloning of the
territory rcently wrested from Turkey and such a
division, once begun, would be made In the interest
of the Powers rather than In that of the several
Balkan governments.
It is possible, however, that the fighting reported
near Saloniki is simply a bit of hot sklrminshing
between army detachments and that an amicable
agreement between Bulgaria and Greece will soon
be effected. Indeed, King Constantine, of- Greece, is
eaUl to he endeavoring to arrange a neutral zone be
tween the two armies.
Wealth Producing Rains.
There is nothing, after all, so important to human
fortunes as those commonplace elements which make
up the most threadbare subject of our conversa
tion—the weather. There is more money in a week
of golden sunshine than in all the treasuries of the
world and a timely shower often brings more wealth
than the most cunning devices of men could produce.
The rains that have fallen In Georgia during the
past few days are worth hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Reports received by the State College of
Agriculture from its farm demonstration agents
show that only a few counties are still suffering from
drouth. Not to country folk alope hut to great num
bers of city dwellers who have young gardens, the
rains will prove a seasonable blessing. Many varie
ties of vegetables that were famishing for a good
drink have been revived and the outlook for boiled
dinners is a hundred times more cheering.
According to the State commissioner of agricul
ture the rains will prove a wonderful benefit to cot
ton that has not yet come up and, fortunately, only
a little more than fifty per cent of the crop is yet
above ground.- While spring oats are said to be
turning out rather poorly, fall oats are particularly
promising. It is a noteworthy fact that food crops
are being cultivated more extensively in Georgia this
year than ever before and also that the diversifica
tion idea is being more liberally applied.
It is a cheering omen for the State’s agricultural
progress and welfare that farmers are ceasing to
depend solely on one big crop and turning to the
development of the soil’s varied resources. We can
well afford to produce less cotton, If at the same
time ■we produce more foodstuffs.
Florida’s Great Drainage Project.
One of the interesting measures now before the
Florida legislature is a drainage bill, calling for a
bond issue of six million dollars with which It is
purposed to reclaim the famous Everglades. News
dispatches indicate that the bill is encountering stout
opposition, not, however, because of any question as
to the importance of feasibility of the enterprise it
self, but because of a doubt In the minds of some of
the legislators that the fund proposed is sufficient
for the work required. They contend that before the
amount of the bond issue is fixed, the special drainage
commission now at work on estimates should be
heard from. It is predicted that a special session of
the General Assembly will be called later in the year
to deal with this matter conclusively, and friends of
the reclamation project, prominent among whom are
Governor Trammell himself, are confident that in one
form or another it will be carrleu to completion.
Georgians have particular cause to he interested
in such undertakings; for their State, next to Flor
ida, has a larger area of swamp and overflow land
than any other commonwealth on the Atlantic coast.
Within the past few years drainage associations have
been formed in a number of counties by farmers and
business men who realize the vast amount of good
that can thus be accomplished. Lands which are
useless and which are also a menace to public health
can be converted by proper drainage methods into
productive acres that are a jlch asset not only to
their Individual owners, but to the community and
the State as well.
The fact that Florida is considering a great bond
issue to reclaim its swamp land should stimulate the
legislature of Georgia to definite and liberal action
in this regard. Our problems can be solved far more
easily and cheaply than those of our neighbor State.
It Is essential, however, that the Legislature perfect
the drainage law now existing and lend its aid to the
separate districts in carrying forward this impor
tant work.
Rural Schools and Rural Life.
The problem of keeping men on the farm is
largely one of providing for rural district school
advantages that will compare favorably with those
of the city. Secretary of Agriculture Houston well
expressed this idea when he said in a recent inter
view :
"Take a farmer with six small children, for
whom he desires to provide an education. They
uHll he sent to the country school as long as
some one can he found to take charge of it, but
at best the education received there is meager.
If he would give them an education whichn will
he of benefit to them, he must send them away
to some institution ■ of learning, entailing per
haps greater expense than he can afford. He
must either maintain his farm at the expense of
the education of his children, or move to one of
the large cities. So, education, among other
things, is driving occupants of farms to the
cities."
There is no greater duty upon the Legislature of
Georgia than that of providing adequate means and
funds for the upbuilding of our country schools. The
new education law enacted a few years ago has done
much to perfect this system and under the able
leadership of the State Superintendent of Education
our teachers and school officials are rendering earn
est and efficient service in rural districts. But there'
is much yet to be done In order that the average
country school In Georgia may stand comparison
with the city school and thereby afford the family on
the farm the advantages to which it is entitled.
For one thing, the length of the country school
term should be extended and its course of studies
elevated. For another, more high schools that will
fit boys and girls for college or for the practical
needs of life should be established. More teachers
should bo employed and all of them should be better
paid, to the end that rural school teaching may com
mand the highest talent to be found.
Special Bottles Needed
For Poisonous Drugs.
The case of the wealthy and widely beloved
Macon citizen who came to his death as the result
of having taken by mistake a tablet of bichloride
of mercury has aroused public thought the country
over to the need of surer means or devices for iden
tifying poisonous drugs. This is a matter that vi
tally concerns thousands of households. It should
be given the earnest attention of public officials and
legislators.
The suggestion has been made that bottles of
some distinctive color and touch he required for
all poisonous substances, so that they could be rec
ognized in the dark as well as the light. A bottle
of sharply pointed or roughened surface would
probably be valuable In this connection. Certain it
is that some definite steps toward preventing suoh
tragic mistakes should be taken at the next session
of the General Assembly.
“France wants a loan of $100,000;000.'’ Nothing
modest about France's little touch.
The Chief Source of
Railroad Accidents.
A bulletin recently Issued by the Interstate Com
merce Commission on railroad accidents during the
months of July, August and September, 1912, is rich
in interesting and suggestive figures. It shows, for
instance, that sixty-eight per cent of the derailments
occurring within that period were due to defective
equipment, such as broken rails or faulty wheels.
This is valuable information because it indicates
more or less precisely the course that must be taken
by the railroads themselves to prevent so large a
number of, accidents. THe operation of trains, it
would seem, is for the most part skilled and careful,
Signal systems and safety devices are apparently
yielding substantial results. The Commission’s re
port, as published in dispatches, does_ not set forth
the causes, other than defective equipment, to which
accidents are accountable but It is evident from the
figures given that unsound rails and wheels are the
great source, of danger.
It is to theinterest of the roads as well as that of
the public that the most vigorous measures possible
be taken to strengthen these weak points; for, It is
calculated that the damage to equipment and rbad-
way during the three months mentioned amounted to
three million, three hundred and sixty-six thousand,
four hundred and one dollars. That Is a staggering
price to pay for negligence, if negligence be responsi
ble, or for whatever may have been the cause of this
great destruction or property.
The consideration of highest importance, of course,
is the tragic loss of life and the immeasurable suffer
ing which these accidents entail. Two hundred and
eighty-eight persons were killed’ and four thousand,
five hundred and ninety-eight were Injured during
July, August and September, 1912, an Increase over
the corresponding period of the preceding year of
eighty-seven in the killed and three hundred and fif
teen in the injured. Such losses are beyond compen
sation or repair; and they are a loss not only to in
dividuals and families but also to the human and
economic interests of the country as a whole.
Despite the woeful record of the Commission for
the three months reviewed, there are reassuring
omens that substantial progress in preventing rail
way accidents is bfeing made. The loss of property
and life is still appalling, but it is appreciably less
than it was a decade or two ago. Travel is un
doubtedly growing securer. The public is more in
sistent that Its safety be regarded and the govern
ment Is more watchful of public interests. The rail
roads themselves are doing more to meet their respon
sibilities in this regard. While some of them are
still backward or unresponsive to the people’s de
mands, the great majoi-ity of progressive lines and
systems are giving this matter their earnest thought
and energy.
I It is well, therefore, for us to remember that,
though a vast deal remains to be done in assuring
safe travel, much good has already been accomplish
ed; that the efforts of the government In this direc
tion have not been in vain and that honest endeavors
on the part of the roads are not without gratifying
results.
The Important thing is that these efforts should
continue unceasing until the perils that now beset
travel are reduced to a minimum; and this Is not a
hopeless or fanciful task but one that Is as practical
as it is all important.
A Needed Institution
Which Judges Indorse.
The industrial home or reformatory, established
some years ago at Milledgeville by an act of the
Legislature, was originally Intended to care for
girls as well as hoys. Indeed, the authors and
supporters of the hill In question recognized that It
was just as important, if not more so, to provide
a place of shelter and corrective training for way
ward girls as for wayward boys. But In the very
outset the demands upon the institution overswept
its facilities and, so, the, necessities of circumstances
have limited the Milledgeville reformatory to boys.
The need of a similar institution for girls is
urgent, not simply as a matter of sentiment or hu-
manitarlanism but as a matter of social justice and
security. It is expected that a hill providing for
this need will he introduced at the next session of
the Legislature. A proposal to this effect has been
indorsed by superior court judges In various parts
of the State and by practically everyone who has
come in contact with the problems which a girl’s
reformatory and training school are needed to solve.
Judge John T. Pendleton, of Fulton county, de
clares in this connection: “I think a reformatory
for girls is very much needed in Georgia. The chil
dren’s court has on several occasions had to 1 send
girls to Cincinnati for the lack of a reformatory in
Georgia.” This conviction is shared by scores of
other judges whose opinion should carry great
weight with the Legislature.
Georgia should solve her own problems of this
character and not depend upon the charity of dis
tant sections.
Think of It!
“Think of driving past ninety-nine farms that
do not raise colts before coming to one farm
that does.”
In this homely and striking manner, the Macon"
News states Georgia’s urgent need of producing more
live stock of its own. We are*told that our farmers
now spend something like twelve million dollars a
year for mules purchased in distant sections and
proportionately large sums are spent for beef and
cattle. This Is a short-sighted policy which hinders
the State’s agricultural progress; and it is the more
to be regretted in view of the fact that It is alto
gether unnecessary. A small fraction of the money
now sent to foreign quarters, if invested in the rais
ing of colts at home, would suffice the needs of
Georgia farms and at the same time lay the founda
tion of a new and ever-increasing source of wealth.
The Louisville Courier-Journal aptly remarks in this
connection:
"No State can produce everything it needs,
but some of the Southern States fail egregiously
in producing the things they need most. Scarely
a State in the South produces enough corn for
its own use. Most of the Southern States are
short in hog production. This means that mil
lions of dollars are paid out every year for corn
and meat which might just as well be kept at
home if the farmers could be induced to put
forth the proper efforts. Too many of the farms
are virtually one-crop farms.
There are cheering signs that Georgia farmers
are turning more and more numerously to the pro
duction of food crops. Cotton is losing Its old-time
tyranny over the soil. - More corn and peas and
other such products are being raised. But there Is
still a grievous need of raising more live stock.
THE OLDER SISTER
BY UR. TRANK CRANE.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
She was one of those born-motherly souls. There
are some women (for them our warmest thanks go up
to heaven) who come into this selfish world equipped
with the mothering instinct.
She was the Oldest Sister. The mother, a weak,
lovable, and entirely incompetent being, died after she
had brought six^girls into life.
The Older Sister moved naturally up into the moth
er’s place. She looked after the younger sisters,
mended their stockings, kept their frocks neat and
their bedrooms in order, their hair combed, and their
nails cleaned.
She watched the home expenditures, checked up
the grocery man, and saw to it that the cook prepared
something fit to eat.
She also attended to father, had his suits pressed,
his laundry well done, and his slippers ready.
There are two classes of human beings. ^Dne as
sumes responsibility. The other avoids it. She as
sumed it. The others unanimously let her.
She sent the children to school. SJhe got most of
their lessons for them. She was the High Wall and
the Shepherd Dog and the Rear Guard of that family.
She saw them all married. Then she herself was
married. She was beautiful, with a demure kind of
beauty. Her husband adored her.
ne took her away and loaded her with attentions.
He surrounded her with servants. Luxuries were at
her hand.
She pined away. She was not happy. Some women
are by nature wives and some are by nature mothers.
She ought to have had children, but had none.
One day her husband was brought hem© a cripple.
He had been in a railway accident. He would never
THE INCOME TAX
VI.—Taxation at the Source.
BY FREDERIC J. HA SKIN.
The principal objection to the income tax in the
United States is the one stated in 1894 by William L.
Wilson before Benton McMillin stole a march on him
and forced his amendment to
th e Wilson bill through the !
house—that it Is a tax upon
conscience. As will be told in |
a subsequent article, the house
leaders were not in favor of an !
income tax, and William L. Wil- ,
son declared that he favored a
corporation tax because the gov- ,
ernment had means to assess
corporations properly, but that I
he thought it would be diffi
cult to collect income' t^axes '
from Individuals. He declared ’
that he believed in the equity
of such a tax, 'but not in its
practicability.
What Mr. Wilson sought was j
’ .beans of imposing a tax that ,
would make taxation at its
source a possibility. • Such a
method of collecting the bulk
of their income taxes has been found to be success
ful by a number of governments. In some of the
countries which have national Income tax laws as
much as four-fifths of the total possible revenues’
from these laws are gathered into the public trees- )
ury before the incomes .upon which they are a tax i
reach the bank accounts of their owners. •
be well again.
They said he should be taken to the hospital. There
she stood firm, insisting that she would care for him
herself. So she nursed him. And began to pick up.
To be coddled did not agree wlti. her; coddling some
one she loved gave her health and happiness.
After her husband died she began taking care of her
sisters’ children. Her sisters handed them over to her
as a matter of course. She mothered them all,
planned, worked and dreamed for them.
Her whole life was spent In an unending sacrifice
for others, perhaps she "deserved no credit” for this,
because she liked to do it.
Once, when she was fifteen, her father brought
home six large, red apples. She gave each of her sis
ters one, laying her own on the kitchen shelf. They
devoured theirs, then the two smallest came and stood
about looking at the apple on the shelf. She cut It In
two and gave each one-half. They ate joyfully.
Their explanation of this was that sister DID NOT
LIKE APPLES!
Perhaps the Oldest Sister was deficient in some
way, and possibly there was truth In the remarks of
some neighbors, that she lacked spirit, that she never
amounted to much, and that she would have done bet
ter to have asserted her rights.
Perhaps.
But, please, Lord, don't stop making such as she!
Captain Barnacle’s Log.
BY JOHN H. WISKAR
"I've been on the water wagon ever since my Tim
Maloney’s thirst cost us both a kingdom,” declared
Captain Barnacle, reminiscently. "Tim was first
mate for me on the old whaler Belvedere, and when we
got back, after a three years’ cruise in the Arctic Tim
and me had about $3,000 between us.
” ’Captain,’ says he, ‘let’s quit the sea and be
come millionaires,’ he says. I sure am agreeable If
h e can show me how,
“ ■We’ll buy an auto and take It down to Dahomey,
where they haven’t anything like that and then we’ll
soon be appointed rulers of the land.’
“Well, sir, this sounds pretty good to me, so we
purchases a big car and has it shipped to Africa. We
started Inland from Tunis and kept going on through
the desert for the farther end of Dahomey, where
they are still wild and uncivilized. Tim was a good
companion, but he was given to drinking. He was
always thirsty. We had a good supply of drinkables
along and also had a large tank of gasoline.
“We kept' journeying for a month and finally
reached the valley of the El-Tabre river, where the
natives are rich and are ruled by a beautiful queen,
who was almost white. Here It was that we stopped.
The people had never heard of an auto, much less
seen one, and they thought we were supernatural be
ings. They immediately fell down and started to
worship the auto, and when I honked the horn they
knew we were some kind of spirits direct from the
sky."
"The highest officials came out to escort us to the
town, and we were immediately taken before the
queen. I started to make love to her at once, and she
also took a fancy to me. The first thing I did was
to take her out for an auto ride. Say, she was crazy
over it. Talk about' the lure of joy riding! That
queen wanted to ride all the time. She also showered
presents on both me and Tim. She made me Bort of a
prime minister, and pretty soon our engagement was
announced by the court chamberlain. Everything was
fine. I saw years of peace as king of this wealthy
people, with an occasional trip to Europe or America
for a little change from the cares of being a king,
Tim was also happy, although he seemed to be about
half drunk all the time. I kept wondering how he had
managed to make his booz e last so long. Strange, but
this race of people didn’t know what liquor was, and
I knew Tim couldn't have found any in the city. But
I didn’t- care what he did as long as no one was In
jured except himself.
“Well, the wedding day was set for one week off,
and I was just about as contented as a mortal man
can be, when the queen sent me word she wanted a
long moonlight ride that night. This Just suited me
also. We Etarted out and drove over beautiful roads,
and everywhere we went the people cheered us. Fi
nally we wanted to be more alone, so we drove well up
in the mountains. When we finally started homeward
I thought the auto was acting funny, and suddenly It
stopped. I Investigated. To my horror I discovered
that the gasoline tank was empty. And there was no
more gasoline wltliin at least 2,000 miles. The queen
raged and ordered me to start the car. I tried to ex
plain, but she wouldn’t listen. We had to hike about
ten miles before we could get a wagon. The next day
Tim and I were banished from the kingdom.
“How did It happen? Why, that animal Tim had
kept drunk on my gasoline, and he had emptied a
fifty-gallon tank. The*’s all. But that’s how his
thirst lost me a. crown.”
Of course' one has to look to England for the best
example of a successful policy of taxation at the
source. There the government does* not depend upon
personal returns made up by the taxpayers, but re
quires payment to be made and an accounting rendered
to the government by the corporations and other en
terprises -jnon such Incomes as are taxable. It is
generally agreed that where there Is a fixed rate, j
without graduation or differentiation, the stoppage ,
at the source system is by far the best method. Even
in the case of a distinction or differentiation between
earned and unearned income there is nd serious diffi
culty, but how to harmonize stoppage at the source . .
with graduation ls^ a most intricate problem. For
instance, if a man’s income is made up of many items
—of salary, of Interest on bonds, of dividends on 1
stocks, of rents from houses, and profits from a farm
—how Is the government, under a graduated Income
tax, to tell how much to deduct as tax on each Item,
until It knows his whole Income? This Is one of the
many puzzles of harmonizing th. two propositions
that England is experiencing today. How to stop the |
tax at its source, and at the same time not to take too
much or too little has proved a difficult problem.
• • •
The idea of stopping the Income tax at Its point
of origin Is more than a century old, and to England
belongs the credit of originating It. At first there
was a general practice of giving In Incomes In a lump!
sum; a mart simply reported that he had an income
of so many pounds sterling, and he was taxed accord
ingly. Then it came to pass that men so persistently
estimated their incomes far below their actual amount,
and In order to get a better line on what the incomes
of taxpayers really were, Incomes were divided up into I
schedules. It was no longer "How much Is your in-
come?” but rather "How much do you get from your
bank stock, how much from your company dividends,!
how much from your rent?” In other words, It be-
camo a matter of an Itemized account of Income
rather than a statement of the total.
• • t
The advantage of the system of stopping the tax
at Its source never was more clearly Illustrated than I
when England first adopted It In 1803. Before that j
time the tax rate had been 10 per cent. The law that|
provided for collecting the major portion of the tax
at its source also contained a provision cutting the
rate in half and making it 6 per cent. And yet the
lower rate, with stoppage at the source as a substi
tute for the lump sum tax, produced practically the
same amount of revenue as the higher rate without it.
Practically every student of the English Income
tax laws agrees that one of the principal factors In
Its success has been the principle of stopping the tax
at its source. England has ’clung tenaciously to that
Idea from the beginning, and has coupled with It the
practice of requiring Incomes to be Itemized by sched
ules In such a way that their salient features, at
least, may be checked up. Every English tax author
ity, as was shown by the investigation of 1906, feels
that it would be an evil day for England should It
decide to give \JP these two principles of assessment
and collection. ?
In Germany the situation is a different one. There j
inquisitorial methods are taken as matter of course,*'
and the people seem to care but little if the revenue I
authorities do pry into their private affairs. They
permit such inquiry into their affairs as never would |
he tolerated by British subjects or American citizens,
and so there is not the great necessity for avoiding !
inquisitorial Investigations that there is in .England
and the United States. If a German subject reports i
his income at $3,000 and the tax authorities , think it
is too low they may ask him what he pays for his j
telephone, whether he las one in his private apart- \
ments, whether he takes a box'at the theater, what he /
does with his Income, what he did with the money he i
got from selling some furniture last year, and a hun- i
dred and one other questions, any one of which, if |
asked of the average American, would tempt him to
reply: “It Isn’t any of your business."
But Germany is about the only country where j
stoppage at the source has , not proved to be a prime i
essential to the success of the tax. Everywhere other \
systems have been tried and pronounced a failure, and l
when stoppage at the source was written into the law i
this failure generally has been followed by success, j
Of course, It is natural that If A pays B a part of B’s
income, he is rot going to perjure himself to save the
amount of that, payment from "becoming known to the !
revenue authorities. Therefore, is ra'her certain to
tell just how much income B does get through him.
That is why stoppage ct. the source succeeds where,
the old system of simply lettlhg B report his income
fails.
Pointed Paragraphs
The old-fashioned embezzler who fled to Canada
these days would sojourn in one of Uncle Sam’s In
stitutions.
What a River Can Do
Look out, or the dictograph’ll get you.
* * *
Dispatches fail to indicate how Savannah regards
the Webb bill.
• * •
The powers that be too frequently sit down on
evil as gingerly as if it were an inverted tack.
Notwithstanding that railroads now skirt both
banks, from source to mouth, the Ohio still floats
annual commerce of 10,000,000 tons, and 90 per cent
of the commerce that goes down the Mississippi to
New Orleans comes out of the Ohio. This results
from the large shipments of coal from Pennsylvania
and West Virginia, which ^.r© made in barges towed
by powerful sternwheel steamboats of which the
Sprague is the largest. The banner trip of this steamer,
made from Louisville to New Orleans, was 67,500
tons. It is not unusual for steamers to bring into
the Cincinnati market upon a freshet 250,000 tons of
coal and finished steel products within a week. To
move this quantity by rail would require 5,896 cars of
forty-five tons each, made up into 146 trains of thirty
cars each, drawn by as many locomotives. No rail
road, however well equipped, could perform this serv
ice Inside of sixty days without excluding its regular
traffic, to say nothing of its inability to assemble such
a quantity of traffic at either end of its terminal. This
illustrates the illimitable capacity of river transpor
tation.—Alfred Bettinger in National Waterways.
Listeners don’t expect to hear any good of them- i
selves; It’s the bad of others they are after.
... *
A woman can love her enemies if they will only
give her a chance to say horrid things about them.
* * *
In Europe war takes such a running start that it
continues even after peace is declared.
... ,
Some poets affect carelessness in their wardrobe
for the same reason that tramps travel in freight ,
cars.
• • •
Our favorite almanac Is authority for the predlc-
tion that hot weather may be confidently expected j
from now on.
• I •
Oyster Bay has lapsed In the obscurity of a town
which wasn't conspicuously explained In tha last \
census.