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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 JTOETH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter ot
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta, Ga.
Why the Public Trusts
The Currency BUI.
In the matter of banking and currency legisla
tion, the average citizen, absorbed as he is in his
own business and favored with little time for study
ing theories of finance, must be guided largely by
the judgment of men who are recognized and trust
worthy authorities on such subjects.
This, does not mean that the average citizen
should, or does, accept random opionions, however
solemnly they may be delivered. He uses his com
mon sense in gauging each witness’ credibility. He
is naturally suspicious of a banking and currency
system devised by a veteran ally of the Interests; that
is one reason why the once famous Aldrich plan,
though cotnmendable enough in some respects, en
countered a killing frost of public distrust. On the
other hand, he is naturally well disposed in the
very outset toward a system that is sponsored by the
Wilson administration. He has confidejace in the
integrity and in the judgment of the President. He
knows furthermore that the Democratic patry owes
uo allegiance to any special interest and hopes for
no favor save that of the rank and file of the people.
This intuitive popular trust in the pending hill is
strengthened by the indorsement of expert stu’_?nts
of finance, who have no political interest whatsoever
in such legislation The opinion of the New York
Times Annalist in this regard is particularly sig
nificant:
"The country is nearer sane currency and
halting reform than it has been at any time since
the defects of the present system began to he un
derstood. The Owens-Glass hill is by no means
perfect; no currency hill possible of enactment
could be. But it is much better than when it
first appeared, every amendment having helped
it, and if it were to pass as it is most of the
• calamity predicted by its enemies would nev j -
happen. Indeed, there has been too much alk of
calamity and disaster unless this or that or Vie
other idea of banking and currency reform were
accepted, the banker's principal asset after all
is his solvency. No legislation can take that
from him, and no legislation can impart it to him.
if he has it not on his own account."
The average American may not understand all
the details of the measure now before Congress, hut
he understands at least that it is the work of sincere
statesmanship and that it has the approval of a
larger number of thoughtful, disinterested people
than any other measure of the kind ever proposed.
Wasting Good-Reads Funds.
A million dollars a day is spent for highway im
provement in the United States, a fund which wit
nesses the public’s high enthusiasm in this important
work and which, if wisely administered, would
yield marvelous results. But in this, as in every
other field of endeavor, enthusiasm must be yoked
with adequate, workmanly plans in order to achieve
its purpose; and it is just there that American road
building has betrayed a grievous weakness. Of the
liberal sum which the various States and counties
appropriate to the good roads cause, a large amount
is wasted; wasted first through a lack of scientific
methods in constructing the roads and wasted furth
ermore through the lack of an efficient system for
maintaining roads after they are built and improved.
It is an admirable thing for a community to vote
bonds for extending or bettering its highways, or
for a State to set aside liberal funds for this purpose.
But far more essential just now than money or en
ergy is a realization of the. truth that road building
is "an art based cn a science" and that experience
and skill are as necessary to the making of a good
road as to the making of a good house. There is
another truth which it is equally important to recog
nize and apply; and that is the need of ample pro
vision for the upkeep of highways. Until our roads
are built of material suited to local requirements and
are built under the supervision of competent engin
eers, the money '.pint on them will never yield due
returns; and until they are systematically repaired
aim maintained, they will be a burden upon the
community, rather than the ri«ji asset they ought
to be. <
The public roads office jf the Department of
Agriculture wisely declares in this connection that
investment of money in new roads “does not become
real economy until provision is made for keeping
these roads in condition after they are built. If a
new road is built and then allowed to fall into dis
repair, much of the original investment is simply
wasted.” Let each State and each county see to it,
first, that its highways are scientifically constructed
and then that they are regularly inspected and re
paired, and the million dollars a day the United
States contributes to this great cause will go twice as
far and produce results a hundredfold more sub
stantial.
The South’s Opportunities
For Cattle Raising.
Whether or not tlje South realizes its natural
resources for live-stock production, shrewd observers
in other sections evidently do. A Missouri syndicate
is planning to buy ten thousand acres of land in Lou
isiana, wjhere it expects to establish a great cattle
range. Similar enterprises, financed by outside in
terests, are being promoted in other Southern States.
In divers fields of agricultural and industrial devel
opment, the efitire country’s thought is centering
upon the South’s latent treasure.
This friendly Invasion, so long as it is free from
f monopolistic designs, deserves and will receive a
hearty welcome. The South’s door is open to new
workers and new capital, if they come as true Amer
icans and in a spirit of wholesome business; for
here is a vast empire whose abundance of natural
wealth and opportunity is sufficient for all who
wouid take an honest, constructive part in its devel
opment. “We should greet the new-comers from the
West and North and Hast,” says the Charleston
News and Courier, "as valued friends, but at same
time we should not be idle ourselves.”
This latter counsel is particularly apt. If it is pos
sible for the Westerner to enter the Southern field
of stock raising, certainly it is possible and profitable
for the Southerner himself to do so. If investors from
other sections are awake to the rich advantages which
this good land affords, surely we ourselves should no
longer sleep over our opportunities. And there are
cheering omens that we shall not. The truths of
scientific and businesslike farming, as proclaimed and
demonstrated by institutions like the Georgia College
of Agriculture have fallen upon fertile ground and
are already bringing forth a plenteous harvest. In
this State, as in neighboring commonwealths, a vast
deal remains to be done in promoting live-stock indus
tries but there can be no doubt that a fruitful begin
ning has been aade; we are at least moving in the
direction and we shall arrive.
THE GENTLEMAN NATION
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
(Copyright. 1913, by Frank Crane.)
We, for one, would be will’ing for the president
to extend his vacatioh. He deserves it.
/
Oh, yes, and it’s the open circus season, too.
Most people are of a forgiving nature; at least
they are always reauy to forgive themselves.
The annual vacation bromide: “I always take
minfe when the weather is cool enough to enjoy it.”
A Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
The substantial progress of plans to organize*a
State chamber of commerce is gratifying to everyone
who realizes the opportunity and the need of united,
systematic effort for the upbuilding of Georgia. There
is a broad field of interests in which every town and
every county of this commonwealth are equally con
cerned. There are certain problems which they must
solve together or not at all and certain resources
which they must develop as joint laborers or fall to
enjoy. Competition among cities, as among individ
uals, is wholesome and productive only within rea
sonable bounds and unless It Is supplemented at vital
points with a larger spirit of co-operation it reacts
with grievous results. The time has come when the
towns of Georgia must co-operate for their common
welfare, if they are to attain their due measure of
individual growth and prosperity. ■
A State chamber of commerce will provide the
machinery needful for this purpose. It will do for
the State as a whole what boards of trade and
kindred organizations are already doing for the sep
arate community. It will unite the State’s business
intelligence in a well-planned and methodically con
ducted movement to place Georgia’s resources more
vividly before the country at large. Furthermore, it
will give force and direction to divers enterprises
that concern the welfare of commerce and industry
and agriculture, such for instance as those for good
roads, sanitation, market facilities, soil improvement
and schools.
A State chamber of commerce, in which rural dis
tricts as well aa towns will be represented, should
prove particularly valuable In establishing more
sympathetic and helpful relationships between
farmers and business men. That is one of the most
important ends now to be accomplished in Georgia.
The interests of town and country far from being
contrary or eiten distinct are so closely interwoven
that neither can prosper alone. Our cities must grow,
not at thq expense of their outlying territory, but
through the continued development of the country
about them. And likewise our farmers must look to
the cities and towns for many of the elements of
agricultural success.
Every county in Georgia should have a chamber
of commerce of its own, looking to rural as well as
urban development. To organize such bodies where
they do not already exist will be of the great pur
poses of the State chamber. Thus within the course
of a few years, ail the towns and all the country
districts will be brought into continuous and earnest
co-operation for the upbuilding of Georgia as a whole.
Such an enterprise will mean a vast deal to each
community and to each citizen. It will open new
paths of opportunity for investment. It will bring
the State new settlers and fresh capital and will
mark the beginning o the richest era in all its his
tory. At a meeting held in Atlanta last July under
the auspices of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
the initial steps toward such an organization were
taken. The plan then begun will he carried forward
and perfected at another meeting to be held at Macon
on Tuesday, September the sixteenth. It is expected
that at that time business leaders from every part
of Georgia will he present to press this important
undertaking to complete success. The Macon cham
ber of commerce is exerting itself admirably to that
end and many other organizations are heartily
responding.
Before giving advice to a woman find out what
branfi she wants, or a man, either.
The time is drawing near also for the celebration
of the annual county fair.
The wise man follows the lines of least resistance
by telling all women how well they look and all
mothers their babies are beautiful.
The nations of Blurope still labor under the error
that they are the leaders of civilization. Bound with
the senseless precedents of centuries, half-risen from
the slime of medieval ignorance
and violence, and accursed with
ail the conceit of them that are
fattened upon ancient fraud and
housed in moribund institutions,
they view America through their
monocle and regard plain, sensi
ble manhood as “extrawnry.”
There never was a more sub
tle pernicious doctrin^ intro
duced into this country than
that brought here several admin
istrations ago, about the time of
the Spanish war, to the effect'
that “we are now a World Pow
er and must assume our respon
sibilities as such.” That sounds
good, but, being translated out of its m»,, is-
ness into plain, speech, it means (that America is to
follow the example of the mad nations of Europe, arm
herself to the teeth and go about bullying her neigh
bors. It means that we are to set up here the same
insane and ruinous armaments they have in Germany,
France and England.
In his message to congress relative to Mexico Presi
dent Wilson gave one of th e noblest utterances of
modern statesmanship.
It is amusing to note the comments of the Euro
pean press. The English papers particularly, with
characteristically upturned nose, speak of our “ama
teur” diplomacy and of the absurdity of one nation’s
using “moral suasion” upon another.
We shall see. It would be difficult for us to do
worse by Mexico, by any policy, than the Powers have
done in the Balkan peninsula.
If anything more stupid, barbaric and uncivilized
has taken place in history since the days of the Duke
of Alva than the revolting scenes of the Balkan war, it
is not recorded.
The greatest “statesmen” of Europe were trying
their hand. Pompous councils sat in London. Russia,
Germany, Austria, Italy and France, with millions of
fighting men under arms, stood by and allowed the
wrestling belligerents to engage in unspeakable atroc
ities.
Military preparedness is as brainless as the giants
Fafner and Fasolt.
The Mailed Hand. policy goes with the Moral Impo
tence policy.
The program of Citizen Woodrow Wilson saves ten
thousand lives and millions ot dollars worth of the
products of human labor. That of the royal dubs of
Europe wastes men and money, sown In the battle-
ploughed field and poured into the sea.
The American congress in supporting the presi
dent’s plan has risen to a height of intelligence and
sober manhood which the English parliament and Ger
man reichstag have never dared to attain.
When this great and puissant nation, the richest and
most powerful on earth,, can with majestic self-re
straint follow a course of simple, dignified reason, and
prove itself the gentleman among nations, it is no
wonder that the war-deluded nations of the old world,
who still know no way of precedence but fire and
sword, should sneer.
Low-browed bouncers, with no arguments but fists,
ever find it difficult to understand the decent restraint
of a gentleman.
Old-Fashioned "Blinds"
Don’t you like blinds on a house? All houses used
to have them. You still see a few such in the city,
many more in the country; though, like the trolley
ears, awnings are now reaching everywhere.
I spent a few days lately in a house that had blinds
quite Of the old-fashioned sort, except that they had
attached those newfangled iron strips with holes in
them, that came in fifty or sixty years ago, by which
you could bow the blinds out and fix them wherever
you wanted them. Before that we bowed them out
and then tied them so with a piece of string.
But despite those strips these blinds were quite of
the old-fashioned kimi. with spring catches by which
you fastened them shut or back against the house
when you threw them open; and then the familiar
slats that you could open the faintest crack to peek
out at the people going by to church! or that you
could open just enough to let the cool air in!
I quite fell in love with those old-time blinds, and
when I build my house I shall put blinds on it; not
awnings.—From a Letter to the New York Sun.
A Lesson From the
New Haven Wreck.
This disastrous rear-end collision on the New
York, New Haven and Hartford railroad, in which
twenty-one persons were killed and more than fifty
Injured, presents a tragic plea for greater safety in
general and particularly for the adoption of steel
coaches in passenger traffic. Responsibility for this
wreck has not yet been fixed. It is variously
ascribed to a crude signal system, to exces
sive speed and to careless or incompetent operation.
Be that as it may, one fact Is clear: the terrible loss
of life was due very largely to the circumstance that
the coaches of the demolished train were constructed
of wood instead of steel, as they should have been.
The first section of the White Mountain express,
bound for New York, is said to have rushed past a
danger signal, not visible at the time because of a
heavy fog. It crashed into the rear of the Bar Har
bor express which was standing some hundred feet
beyond the block i-ignal. “The White Mountain en
gine,” dispatches relate, “cleaved through the two
rear Pullman cars, both of wood, splitting them in
■two and tossing their wreckage and threescore of
mangled human beings, some alive, some dead, on
either side of the track.”
Had these cars been of steel, how much lighter
would have been the toll of death and suffering! Ex
perience has amply demonstrated the resistance power
and the relative safety of a steel car under such a
shock. Progressive railroads are rapidly abandoning
insecure wooden coaches both as a matter of duty
and of seif interest. No railroad that is alert to its
responsibility and its welfare should neglect this
vitally important subject If transportation compa
nies will not voluntarily measure up to the demands
of public safety in this respect, then they should be
compelled by the law to do so. If it is right and
essential that cities forbid the erection of wooden
buildings within fire limits, how much more impor
tant it is that wooden cars should net be used in
railway passenger traffic where thousands of lives are
daily and directly at stake!
The Interstate Commerce Commission has done
well to institute a searching probe of this latest New
Haven wreck, not only in order to determine the
particular cause of the disaster but also to collect
facts upon which to recommend, to Congress further
legislation, looking to greater safety in railway
travel.
.‘fOUNTRY
1 rJOME TOPkS
CoHvoaa w.m&'uitmTO*
SOMETHING WORTH REMEMBERING. ■'
USE OF KEROSENE.
Here are some very useful and novel ways in which
common kerosene oil may be made to serve the house
keeper who finds her battle with dirt a losing struggle:
A white flannel cloth or a piece of white knit un
derwear dampened with kerosene will clean any porce
lain or motal bathtub. Dry the tub first and then
rub tightly with the kerosene cloth. Every vestige of
foreign matter will disappear, and an instant’s brisk
rub with a dry flannel will complete the task. A por
celain tub can be kept fresh as new by this treatment.
Kerosene will cut the accumulated grease from the
drain pipe of a.sink, and will keep the sink itself per
fectly sty eet and clean. Kerosene cuts all grease and
fats generally;, axle grease disappears before it and
tar softens and fades away. It is so volatile that, if
put in dry heat, it will. quickly evaporate and leave
no stain on the fabric upon which it has been used.
As- a bleacher, kerosene stands high. Put half a
teacupful into a washtub of water and then proceed
with the washing after the usual method. The clothes
will be whiter, sweeter and hygienic, and cleaner than
they can be got without the use of the oil, for kero
sene is a disinfectant. It kills all invertebrate life,
so that many kinds of germs are utterly destroyed by
its use.
Kerosene will clean dirty windows or mirrors, giv
ing them a high luster. It will make dull brasses
shine, if not as Veil as some of the acid and brickdust
pastes uesd, still so well that a little rub frequently
given will keep them in good condition, and one’s
hands do not suffer by the process as they do if the
acids are used. After polishing brass it should be
rubbed over with sweet oil and wiped dry.
In the war with insect life kerosene is a sure weap
on of • defenes. If the kitchen table is seized upon by
roaches and used as a nest for their eggs, do not burn
it up after ineffective scrubbing and scaldings. Put
it in the yard and soak it with kerosene. Not an egg
will live. In like manner treat any insect-infected
furniture.
An odd and easy way to get rid of ants is to put
cucumber peel around those places where they appear.
The writer has yet to hear of the ant that would not
flee the spot. v
As a hair tonic kerosene is a specific. Put a little
in a jelly glass, after putting out the light at night,
and dip the tips of the fingers in the oil and rub into
the scalp. It will keep the head perfectly clean, white
and free from dandruff, and will bring in new hair
a rapid young growth.
Last and most important, kerosene figures as a
household remedy. To quote the woman from whose
experience of kerosene the .above facts have been
drawn:
"I have saved my eldest boy twice by the use of
kerosene. The first time it was out on a ranch in
Kansas. He had a fearful attack of meraibranous
croup. His father w^.s racing over the prairie for a
doctor, who could not be got in time. I watched for
the boy’s death at every convulsive struggle for breath,
when into my mind rushed a saying of my old nurse:
‘We always killed th e croup wid kerosene.’ I had a
horror of her advice in my childhood, but {hen I
blessed her, as I seized my lamp, ble\y out the flame
and succeeded in forcing some of the oil into my
child’s mouth. In ten minutes the hardness of tne
phlegm was gone and the child saved.
“Once again I used it, and with none but good ef
fect; and.. while in all cases where I could have medi
cal aid I should prefer to rely upon my doctor, still
I feel that, armed with kerosene, I am equipped to
fight croup and win.”—Rural World.
• • •
\ MORAL SUASION VS. LEGISLATION,
One of our preachers, in a friendly discussion of
the temperance question, expressed the opinion that
the present generation ar e hopeless and we must* get
relief from those who are children at this time, and
the only hope of the country for prohibition lay with
these children and their educatioif must be given by
the parents in the home. He deprecated fanatical
opinions and expressly demanded common sense in the
treatment of the temperance question. He thought we
had all the good laws we needed and it would be a
good thing if there could be no legislature in the
state for the next fifty years.
All this sounds plausible .until you dissect his state
ments carefully. “The children must be taught by
their parents,” and the parents have failed to come up
to the level of protecting their own lives and homes
from the pollution of the dram sh<fp. Poor teachers,
are they? Aren't they? How can such teaching make
good temperance people of their children when their
own principles and practices failed to make good tem
perance people of themselves?
We do have prohibition laws on the statute books.
Georgia is a dry state and our county is a dry county.
Yet the express company makes big money by bringing
in untold gallons of liquor for people who live right
here, and on holiday occasions the platforms at the ex
press office are crowded, packed and flooded with
liquor cases, and anybody that wants a drink can get
it if he cares to send a money order to the outside
liquor shops for it.
The law is all right, and the state of Georgia and
the county of Bartow are both dry enough on the law
books, but millions of dollars are expended for the
liquor and tens of thousands of people drink gallons of
the liquor allee samee!
These people are fine teachers of temperance, don’t
you say? If the children go along by the example of
their * daddies the next generation will be worse than
the present one. We have got the law all right, but
we need a different kind of a teacher.
• • *
WHY WE EAT SALT.
Our blood contains salt—must have it. Our mus
cles, our nerves, our whole bodies must have it. What
we eat, that has a salt seasoning, is contantly being
used up by processes within us.
There are salts that are also contained in the nat
ural foods which we eat that are different from com
mon salt and they make a combination with phos
phates and other things, which are more necessary and
more natural than the common salt we eat and buy at
the grocers’.
It is the verdict of medical science that the want
of salt does not produce a definite disease, but re
duces the vitality of the body and the “people who
lack the salt fall more readily as victims to prevailing
epidemics as well as endemic maladies.”
Common salt is indispensable to man as well as to
animals. It is estimated that a healthy adult needs
twenty pounds of salt per annum to keep in good or
der, and we all known, who are familiar with the care
of cows and horses, that salt starvation among animals
is almost as bad as thirst or hunger, although it does
not show up in the same way.
We must have salt if we use a meat diet. "When
the meat skinned and boned or peeled or cooked we
must have it salted or our bodies will not be bene-
fitted by the food.
I often think of the universal blessing that we en
joy in everyday drinking water. We look at it, we
handle it, we delight in it, and there can be nothing in
the universe more beautiful than sparkling, limpid
water. Next to water comes the heat that we enjoy
to keep our bodies warm in winter, and then comes
the universal use of salt, the great preservative, the
great appetizer, the great curative agent, and the
grateful factor that makes qur food healthy and pala
table. I eat salt on melons, and like p taste of It on
some kinds of fruit. Just think of what we would
miss if we had no common salt!
Huerta probably feels that the Mexican dollar is
deficient.
Our old friend the charter is coming in foi an
other battle.
“Atlanta’s Realty Gains $12,000,000.” No reduc
tion in the high cost of real estate!
American Radium Interests
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
Radium, the rarest and most valuable of earthly
substances, until recently has been produced only in
Europe, although the United States has larger supplies
of radium-producing ores than
any other country. What has
been carefully treasured and
conserved in European mines has
been thrown on dump piles as
waste in America.
* * *
Radium now is worth $2,50^,-
000 an ounce. It happens that
the total known supply in the
world today amounts to only a
little less than an ounce and a
half. The most$ minute particles
are treasured and guarded with
more zeal and care than ever
were the crown jewels of a ty
rant. And this is the sort of
stuff we have been wasting! Until last year all of the
radium-producing ores mined in this country were
shipped to Europe. An investigation by the United
States bureau of mines developed this fact, and, at the
same time, the more important one that the American
supply of ores- was the greatest in the world. Until
the present year no American radium was on the mar
ket and only one firm in this country was actually pro
ducing it. Within the post six months three other
laboratories have entered the field, but the value of
their product is as yet problematical.
• • •
In the meantime American scientists are paying.
fabulous prices in Europe for radium, which probably
hah been made from American ores. All such ores
as are not up to the high standard required by the Eu
ropean laboratories are thrown away, although much
of the rejected oTe may contain a sufficiently high
percentage of radium to be worth treating in tills
country.
...
Radium is an element. It is recovered from pitch
blende and other ores. It was discovered by Mme.
Curie in experimenting with pitchblende taken from a
mine at St. Joachimsthal, in Bohemia. Immediately
upon the announcement of the discovery the Austrian
government assumed control of the mine. It entered
into an agreement with the Academy of Science of
Vienna, under which the pitchblende ores were to be
worked up for experiment in an Austrian radium in
stitute. Radium institutes have been established by 1
the governments of Austria, England, France and Ger
many, but the United States government has mani
fested no direct interest in the subject. The exper
iments made in all of these institutes, especially In that
of Austria, were conducted with the greatest care be
cause the scantiness of the ore supply was recognized.
It is said that the st. Joachimsthal, mines already are
practically exhausted. Less than six tons of pitch
blende were mined in 1911, and none at all in 1912.
...
The universal recognition of the wonderful proper
ties of radium, which followed close upon Its discov
ery, caused the worldwide quest for ores that would
yield it. Small deposits wire found in Cornwall, Eng
land, and Australia. Both were promptly placed un
der government control. Little attention was paid
to the mattter in the United Sates. However, a. few
weeks ago he bureau 'of mines announced that the
United States led all the countries of the world In its
resources of radium-producing ores. This announce
ment created no little surprise in the scientific world,
and a movement is now on foot to bring about the
conservation of theae resources for the benefit of tha
world at large and of American scientists, partic
ularly.
• • •
Pitchblende has been found in Connecticut and in
the" feldspar fields of North Carolina, but the largesti
and richest deposits known anywhere are located in’*
Quartz Hill, Gilpin county, Col. This body of ore> was
discovered in 1899 by two Frenchmen, who were pros
pecting for gold. American pitchblende has beea'
found carrying as high as 80 per cent "of u rani uni, al
though the average is not so rich.
• • • »
In addition to .pitchblende, a recently discovered
American ore called carnotlte, yields radium. Carpo-
tite resembles fine sandstone, and is bright yellow In
hue. It occurs in pockets and is easily mined. It
averages about 2 per cent in uranium content, and is
marketed in New York for shipment abroad for about
$75 per ton. A ton of carnotite will yield a speck of
radium about the size of a pin point.
... ,
The story of radium is a romance. It began with
the love of a young Polish girl for a French scientist.
She loved also his science and married him that she
might help him in his work. He aided her studies and
researches, and they lived together in a laboratory,
seeking the_ undiscovered secrets of nature. In the
opinion of many scientists L was only the gallantry,
of a loving husband that accorded to Mme. Curie tin,
credit for" discovering radium, thus giving her the ti
tle of the greatest woman scientist in the world.
Those who take this view insist that it was Prof.
Curie who discovered the new element, although they
admit that he was aided in the laboratory by his wil*
and by an assistant, a young scientist named Beau
mont. •
...
When radium was first discovered its wonders werq
exploited In the press as were never those of any
other scientific accomplishment. No limit save that!
of imagination restricted the prophesies concerning it.
It was to cure all diseases, make the blind to see and
the de"af to hear. It was to solve the future problem
of the world’s heat and light, and even to produce
perpetual motion. The scientists. It is true, would
not substantiate these wild statements, although they
were quite willing to admit that the wonderful powers
of radium as yet are beyond the grasp of knowledge.
The extremely small available Supply, they believe,
is the only thing that deters a series of wonderful
discoveries.
• t «
Physicians, particularly, hoped for much. Already
cases of cancer have been successfully treated with
radium, but the supply is too small to make experi
ments on a sufficiently large scale to determine def
initely the full curative powers of the substance. Thq
price of radium is about $70,000 per gram. Conse
quently, only a very few of the largest hospitals in
this country have been able to make any radium tests.
In London it is possible to rent a small supply of ra
dium from the radium institute, to be used in the
treatment of a special case. The establishment of
such an institute is being discussed in New York,
l * • •
Conservative physicians are extremely loath to pub
lish their experiments in the use of radium, although
they are being made continually. At the meeting of
the American Medical association, in Minneapolis last
month, much consideration was given to the treatment
of skin diseases by radium. In Berlin 'interest hatf
centered in eperiments looking to the cure of rheu
matism and gout by the use of radium. Some testsl
have been made in the treatment of tuberculosis, but
the supply is too small to give much aid in overcom
ing the “white plague.”
• • •
Radium bromide, the form in which it is usually?
sold, contains 58.5 per cent of pur e radium, and this
bromide is several million times stronger than the
mineral ore from which it is derived. Millions of
roses are required to make a single drop of the price
less attar of roses. In the same way thousands of
tons of ore are required for a single grain of the ra/-
dium, w r hich may impart to a large quantity of inac
tive salts a part of its o'wri peculiar qualities. One
of these qualities is the property of glowing in the
dark. Weak radium preparations shine more strongly
in the dark than does the pure radium, even though
they contain but a small particle of the elements.
The melancholy days are upon us whten we take
the first look at last winter’s overcoat and see it
will not do.