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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1913.
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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 4 '
Twelve months - •*. •... 75#
Six months — • ••-•«••*••••• 40d
.Three months --V • * ‘ £5 °
The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
,. early delivery.
fe; it contains news from all ^ver the world, brought
L' by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
iirof distinguished contributors, with strong departments
*of special value to the home and the farm.
> Agents warted ut every postoffice. Liberal com
mission allowed. Outfit free. Write K. R- BRAD-.
LET. Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have ars
Bryan. R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. L. H. Kirn
s'trough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only
■ for money paid to the above named traveling repre-
jsentatives.
The Greatest Corn Show.
jB,. 1
fef “Livestock is at the foundation of the pros
it}- perity of the West. Cattle and hogs are its fac-
I ‘ tories. Com and bluegrass and red clover and
1*. alfalfa and the forage crops are the raw mate-
rials used to keep the factories running. They
$ turn out an enormously valuable finished product
of steaks and roasts and bacon. The West is
getting rich from the product of its live stock
factories, just os the East has already acquired
wealth from its woolen and cotton and steel
mills.'’
So rejoices the Kansas City Times,* and the com
mon country may w®ll feel cheered that this is
true, for the storehouses of the West are a pledge
of national prosperity. But what of the South, where
the natural oportunities for industrial interests are
as great as those of the East and for the raising of
grai.n and live stock a. great as those of the golden
empires beyond the Mississippi?
If .the East has grown rich from its mills and
the West is growing rich from its cattle and corn,
what an immeasurable fortune awaits the South
whose resources are adapted equally well to both
these lines of production!
The fact is the South combines ail advantages to
be found on this continent. It has that infiite va
riety which age cannot wither nor custom stale.
Most of its wealth, to be sure, has been latent, but
the spirit of development is now astir. Its farmers
are awakening to the manifold possibilities of the
soil and are diversifying their crops; cotton is fast
losing its monopoly. More corn was raised in Georgia
this year than ever before and the educational cam
paign to encourage the. raising of live stock is yield-;
ing distinct"reshlts. The" Sooth’s watdi- sites" are he-"
ing utilized for manufactures. Southward the in
vestor and the home-seeker are turning. In this sun-
showered comer of the Union, both the East and West
will see the perfection of their own specialties.
The forthcoming announcement of premiums for
the Georgia Corn Show, Which is to be held in the
capitol next December, will interest hundreds of
young farmers throughout the State. Never before
have the members of the Boys’ Clubs worked with
I such, skill and enthusiasm as during the past spring
| and summer. Their labor over, they are now looking
j forward • to its recognition and reward. The State
j Corn Show is the great court in which their trophies
! of the soil are displayed and where their achieve
ments are pubiicly honored. The boy. who wins a
prize at this exposition deserves and is sure to re
ceive the entire commonwealth’s applause.
The list of premiums for the next show is said
to be unsually liberal and inviting. It will doubtless
attract many more exhibitors than took part in the
1912 show, which was itself a record-maker in pop-
j ularity. Atlanta may expect the pleasure of enter-
j ; aining a friendly army of Corn Club boys gathered
from every cofper of the State. The committee on
arrangements is devising for the next exposition a
number of new features that will appeal to the gen
eral public as well as to people more or less directly
concerned in agricultural affairs. First of all, how
ever, is being considered the interests of the corn
growers themselves.
This is an enterprise that means much to the
common life and progress of Georgia. Merchants,
■’ ■** ■ y, •*£*■’. • . . .
bankers, manufacturers and, indeed, every household
in this State will enjoy a far richer measure of pros
perity when tlie production of corn and other food
stuffs is sufficient to supply the home demand. The
Boys’ Corn Club movement is the most effective force
now at work to attain this end. Through its organ
ized educational efforts, the yield of grain has al
ready been increased and widespread interest in the
raising of other food supplies has been bestirred.
The Corn; Show, which marks the yearly climax of
Corn Club endeavors will thus be a peculiarly im
portant event.
The Federal Game Law.
„ ,,. In his letter addressed to the game wardens in
each county, State Game Commissioner Mercer calls
timely attention to the fact that the new federal law
protecting migratory and insectivorous birds became
effective October the. first and henceforth must be
faithfully upheld in Georgia. He rightly insists that
the game department of this State should co-operate
with the national authorities to the end that all possi
ble good may result from the mbvement to conserve
this very important field of the country’s natural re
sources.
Or f ■
-r The spirit and purpose of the federal statute are
directly in line, with the regulator s already estab
lished in Georgia lut it invi'ves certain noteworthy
- differences of detail. Under the State law, for in
stance, the open season for wild geese and brant
- has been from September the first to April the
twentieth; the federal law limits the season to less
than three months, November the twentieth to Feb
ruary the sixteenth. Another far-reaching provision
of the interstate lav- is that which prohibits the kill
ing of any migratory game and insectivorous birds
after sunset, or before sunrise. This clause, as Com
missioner Mercer says, is peculiarly forceful. Its
effect will be more marked, perhaps, than that of any
other one requirement in the new law and will call
for particular caution and restraint on the sports
man’s part.
The enactment of a measure which establishes uni
form protection for valuable species of migratory
birds throughout the United States has marked the
beginning of a new era in wild-life conservation. It
is based upon ideas as practical as they are scientific,
it is designed to serve urgent needs of the nation’s
agricultural and economic interests, to put an end to
the heedless slaughter of birds and thereby safeguard
farms and orchards against the terrible danger- that
would follow the extinction of bird life. Every State
should do its utmost to make the federal law efficient
and useful.
No Recess For Congress.
It is not only the unswerving purpose of President
* Wilson but also the earnest desire of the majority
of Senate Democrats to make the currency bill a 'aw
before Congress adjourns.
The extra session may merge with the regular
session but the legislative machinery will not pause
until this all-important task has l>een accomplished.
• Conferences held yesterday between the President
and Senate leaders disclosed a firm sentiment against
any reeess while the measure is pending.
■ Senator Stone expressed himself as thinking it
would be ‘*a political blunder equal to a crime to
r. adjourn Congress before the currency bill is put
through.” Other Senators were equally emphatic in
* -the same view.
Despite all attempts at dtelay, the bill will become
y a law sooner perhaps than its opponents expect.
v L "Hawthorne will get $10,000 job.” Awhile back
Is there was news of old Charlie Morse forming a new
* trust. This prison training seems to be a good thing.
The Conquest of Forest Fires.
The value of organized effort for the prevention,
of forest fires is strikingly attested by the fact that
this year only some sixty thousand acres of the.
national woodland were burned as against two hun
dred and thirty thousand in 1912 and seventy hun
dred and eighty thousand in 1911. The methods of
the forestry service in dealing with this problem,
which at one time was so dangerous and baffling,
nave steadily improved and What is equally impor
tant the co-operation of settlers and timberland own
ers with government officers has become continually
more cordial. The country is thus being saved thou
sands of acres of natural treasure and a fund of
potential wealth that is beyond reckoning.
The causes of forest fires this year are said to
have been, first, railroads and then lightning, while
a considerable nurqfoer have started from the burn-
ing of brush. Those due to lightning, though beyond,
the. power pf human prevention, have been rendered"'
far less disastrous' by- the system of lookouts who de
tect such fires and take prompt measures to check
them. Such service is of inestimable benefit. The
destruction or damage of nearly a million acres of
the nation’s forest within a single twelvemonth, as*
was the case three years ago, was due cause for
alarm. The significant fact is that this loss has
been reduced comparatively to a minimum by means
of organized effort.
The same methods, if adapted to the prevention
of fire waste in general,-will yield equally gratifying
■results, In the United States last year the property
loss from fires amounted to two dollars and fifty-five
cents per capita while in Germany It was only twenty
cents per capita. The. difference is mainly one of
superior regulation on the part of the Old World
country. Our Government’s successful fight against
forest fires should inspire an earnest and hopeful
campaign for the prevention of all other fires.
Mexico’s Desperado.
If there was ever a vestige of reason for sup
posing that Huerta represented constitutional gov
ernment and was. entitled to recognition, it has been
swept away by the desperate course he is now pur
suing. Even had the United States overlooked the
crimes through which he usurped the Presidency
of Mexico and had lent his treacherous regime a
measure of diplomatic support, it could not counte
nance his latest tyranny. In dispersing the Congress
and jailing more than a hundred of its members be
cause they exercised the simple right of free speech,
he virtually notifies his" countrymen that he is their
government arid that all who dare dispute his dicta
torship will suffer the consequence if they fall within
his clutch. How fortunate for the United States
that its approval was never given to this unscrupu
lous adventurer!
The autocracy which Huerta thus seeks to estab
lish will of course, rob the elections, announced to be
held on October the twenty-sixth, of all fairness and
legality. A free ballot in the territory under his con
trol would he impossible. More than half the country
is said to be in open revolution and certainly the
people in those districts wbuld not accept a President
or other officials chosen at Huerta’s behest. In truth',
there is no hope for a peaceful settlement of Mexico’s
domestic troubles so long as this desperado remains
in power at the capital. He himself is too weak to
restore orderly government and he is too vicious to
give others a chance t<p do so.
The first step in the welfare of the Mexican re
public must be the complete elimination of Huerta.
That end may be accomplished by a concert of dip
lomatic action between the United States and other
interested Powers. Sufficient pressure of this kind
might force the dictator to step down. It may he
that the revolutionary forces themselves will soon
fight their way to the capital and, once they are
within its borders, the taking-off of Huerta will
shortly follow. His present course betrays his weak
ness. His specious government ia without funds;
his remnant of the army is sullen almost to the point
of mutiny; his character is now seen in its un
masked falsity by the European Powers that once
were disposed to encourage or, at least, to tolerate
him.
Time is the old Justice that tries all such offend
ers as Huerta, and its heavy sentence is hanging
just above his head.
HUDSON BAY
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
(Copyright. 1913, by Frank Crane.)
Thee may be some doubts as to the immortality of
the soul, but there are none about the immortality of
the corporation.
The Hudson Bay company, which did business in the
north wilderness of America in the seventeenth cen^
tury, is establishing huge department stores in the
same region, now rapidly settling, in the twentieth
century.
Few tales appeal more strongly to the imagination
than the sober history of this company. It is a story
of strong men, of their wild adventures in savage
lands, where law’s abode was in the hip pocket, of
their grim purpose holding on for a quarter of a thou
sand years, of the grip of the Anglo-Saxon, set and
unloosed from generation to generation.
It was Charles II of England who, in 1670, gave to
“the governor and company of merchants-adventurers
trading into Hudson’s Bay’’ their rights to trade in
and to govern an empire of field, forest and water of
whose extent they had no conception.
It was in a tfUy when unexplored lands were given
away with a free hand and a royal largess; in a day
when the pope drew a line on the globe and gave all on
one side to Spain and all on the 9ther to Portugal.
The hardy English pioneers threaded their way
into the vast, still North, built their lonely stockades,
trapped and hunted in the unhampered freedom of the
new world, fought and traded with the Indians.
For a while this advance guard of English civiliza
tion had a hard contest with their traditional enemies,
the French, who disputed their territory, until the
treaty of Utrecht in 1713, by which France resigned
her claims.
Then followed what was perhaps a fiercer war, a
war with their competitors, fierce and bloody tis a
Kentucky feud. This closed in 1821 with a merger
with the Northwest company.
Thus through years, centuries, ehe Hudson Bay
company has hung on; and now comes a curious adap
tation of its old-time enterprise tp modern conditions.
It is establishing a chain of department stores
throughout the new*y developed Canadian territory.
Few of us realize with what tremendous rapidity
northwest Canada is being brought under cultivation.
Trainloads'of settlers during the summer come from
Minneapolis. Shiploads come from England. Vast
farms are being improved. Cities are upspringing like
muchrooms.
The Hudson Bay company has already opened in
Calgary a department store that represents a capital
of $3,000,000. Another is building in Vancouver, say
the newspapers, at a cost of $4,000,000. Still another,
at Victoria, will cost $1,250,000. Winnipeg will have
a $7,000,000 store. There will be one at Edmonton.
The value of this private enterprise in the perilous
days of frontier life is unquestioned. It remains to
be seen how it will adjust itself, and what will be the
Duple’s attitude toward it in these days of growing
distrust toward privately owned wealth units.
In Plain Figures
Why do architects insist on putting in Roman nu
merals dates on public buildings? Is it a survival of
ancient custom or a mere professional affectation?
The average man would take .some time to puzzle out
the meaning of “MCMXIII” and some never would
discover it is “1913.” The secretary of the treasury
is eminently practical. When he found the plans for
several government buildings marked MCMXIII he
said: “That’s too hard to.rea4» Why not plain T913?*
We’ll make it plain dates hereafter;” So a Democratic
official takes away another* ^.mystic symbol that has
awed the plain people.—Baltimore Sun.
Turkey’s Diplomatic Triumph.
An official announcement from Constantinople
confirms - the earlier report that Bulgaria would give
p|> the" greater part of Ottoman ‘ territory she had
won in. Thrace and wOufcf rex^!-jhiii with Turkey in
a defensive- alliance. A .year- ago nothing seemed
more impossible that that thdse two nations should
stand together on, the turbulent, ever-shifting Balkan
stagn. Bulgaria was then leading her Christian
neighbors in a ycitorlous war against Turkish rule
and before the winter fairly ended she was mistress
of the peinsular’s affairs. Turkey was a suppliant
for protection from the larger Powers; her realm
in Europe was reduced to a spare remnant of its
former area; she was forced" to accept any terms
that her conquerors, chief of whom was Bulgaria,
might impose.
But no sooner had the Balkan allies achieved
their commoh purpose than they fell to quarreling
themselves. The war that followed between Servia
and Greece on the one hand and Bulgaria on the
other was more bitter and wasteful than that they
had waged in union against the Turk. Bulgaria, ex
hausted by hard campaigns at Adrianople, Kirk-Kil-
lisse and Tchataldja, could offer but feeble resistance
to the attack of hi- former friends. She came out
of the conflict with a broken-spirited army and a
bankrupt treasury.
While this domestic war was at its height, Turkey
reoccupied Adrianople and declared a purpose to re
main in possession, in spite of the Treaty of London
in which the city had been ceded to Bulgaria. The
Powers protested and gave Turkey to understand
that she could not hope for their good will or their
financial aid if she persisted in this flagrant viola
tion of her agreement. But the Turk stood unmoved.
Bulgaria was so beset with trouble at home that
shfe had no time or means for enforcing her rights.
Her chief desire seems to have been quietude in
which to regain a measure of her strength and to
forestall further aggressions on the part of Servia
and Greece.
She has thus agreed that Turkey shall retain not
only Adrianople but also the greater part of Thrace,
the lands that constituted Bulgaria’s richest prizes
of the war. Whether she has been prompted to this
step by deeper motives than now appear remains to
be seen. The fate of immediate interest is that
Turkey, whose case was recently considered hope
less, has emerged from the Balkan storm with prac
tically as much territory as she had in the outset.
Defeated in war, she is triumphant in diplomacy.
It seems doubtful that the Powers, who were at
no great pains to enforce compliance with the Lon
don treaty when Bulgaria still claimed Adrianople
and adjacent lands, will now take action against
Turkey when Bulgaria has renounced her claims.
There are, to be sure, other parties that Turkey and
Bulgaria has at interest and the London treaty in
volves other matters than the boundaries in Thrace.
If this agreement is set at naught in one important
particular, it can scarcely command obedience in
others; and in the latter event all the problems inci
dent to the Balkan war would have to be threshed
out on a new basis.
ThPse considerations may lead the larger Powers,
England, France, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hun
gary, to frown upon the new pact into which Bulga
ria and Turkey have entered and to insist that Tur
key measure squarely up to her original agreement.
Ah omen to that effect is seen in the recent refusal
of France to countenance a loan sought in Paris by
the Ottoman government. As conditions now are,
however, Turkey uolds the winning hand in the
Balkan game. She has recovered virtually all she
lost and has even succeeded in establishing a tenta
tive alliance with her leading foe among the Balkan
Status.
’ C (oUA)TRY r
, '"nwE.Df
topics
Comocra w.m&UHJrexTO*
THE HIGH PRICE OF DIVING AND MEAT COST.
Those of you who felt assured that the new tariff
law would reduce the price of food stuff will be obliged
to wait a while for the reduction of some food articles
or else th e people who are now prophesying are woe
fully mistaken. The meat problem is getting to be
unmanageable, when an order for a regular first-class
beef steak in New York City is scheduled at $1 per
pound!
How is that for high?
Can it be that we are wasting money on meats and
that the common run of folks must prepare themselves
to do without a meat diet as is common on the conti
nent of Europe? It has been recorded by traveled
writers that many youths grow to manhood in the
densely populated countries of Europe who are not
acquainted with the taste of meat and who have been
nurtured on an entirely vegetarian diet.
In this connection I am reminded that the Japs
know little or nothing about meats such as Americans
are accustomed to. During the Jap-Russo war the
virility of the Jap soldier was discussed on both hem
ispheres.
The perfect physical condition of these wiry little
brown men was a constant topic with doctors and sci
entists. Their wounds were rarely fatal, unless they
were killed outright. There were none of the scourge
diseases such as prevailed in the Boer war with Eng
land. The strong beef eating British soldier died very
frequently where the Jap seemed to be immune.
The Japs had cold weather and hot weather, dust
and drouths, mud and mire, rainy seasons, wintry sea
sons, every variety of seasons.
There was obliged to be some good reasons for their
healthful conditions aside from their regular habits of
life.
We were told that they subsisted principally on
rice, and if there was any stronger diet it was com
posed o£ fish and not th e flesh of animals. The Rus
sians are a meat eating people. And it is a fact that
these Russian soldiers had the various scourge dis
eases that armies are generally afflicted with. When
Port Arthur collapsed the garrison was stocked with
army stores such as were common with meat eaters.
This question of meat eating is going to be discussed
and tested as has never been done before in our time.
We are not financially able to indulge in meat eating
now at present prices.
• • •
ACCEPTING PRESENTS PROM ADMIRERS.
There are doubtless many excellent young women
who do not hesitate to accept handsome presents from
young men who make calls on them and show various
attentions.
Nevertheless I am going to say that I believe it is
a very unwise thing to do, and more 4 or less embar
rassment Is bound to come out of it, and in a multi
tude of cases there is a lowering of self-respect where
the obligation grows into manifest humiliation, etc., to
the girl who makes herself so common (slack a better
word in this connection). It is rather a risky business
with even engaged couples, because marriages are occa
sionally broken off or interrupted. Such catastrophes
are not infrequent, and, despite the wishes of relativqp
and friends there will be unfriendly gossip, and some
times unfriendly criticism*
I have nothing to say about the propriety of bri
dal gifts, but I mean the courting days and the days
before even the spooning begins, where yotmg men are
encouraged to waste money on girls who invite and
propitiate them for such gifts, and who expect to be
treated with candies and expensive flowers on every
available occasion, and especially when, the young
man’s resources are not capable of bearing such bur
dens; and when young men reach a place, after awhile,
where they must pull out to save their pocketbooks
as well as their' own self-respect, as toYhis continuous
extravagance and the risk of loss. How many 1 young
men, wno nave been thus decoyed along into spehd-
thrift extravagance, of course, we cannot say, but the
practice of receiving presents that cost money should
be .depreciated for the safety of young men, who must
sometimes shy away from a girl who would make him
a good wife if her greed had not thus betrayed itself,
etc., etc. Better a hundred times to decline jewelry^
and mostly treats than tb appear in such an uncompro-
ing light to her admirer. If he is sensible, he will ad
mire her excuse for obvious reasons, and in the long
time to come, after they become man and wife, he will
respect her good sense and be apt to tell her so in a
positive way.
9 m *
CIVIL SERVICE HYPOCRISY.
A good many years ago some one called it “snivel
service reform.” It means about the same thing in its
last analysis. -^Political service and public service are
two very confusing things. They are different on pa
per, but exactly alike in practice. We ail Understand
that the struggle, the war between the two great pbllt-
ical parties, centers about the effort to secure the of
fices and enjoy the salaries.
Therefore, great syndicates contribute much money
to political parties according to the chances of success.
Once upon a time Mr. Jay Gould was placed on the
witness stand during a congressional investigation. He
was asked as to his politics.
He blandly replied “he was a Democrat in the Demo
cratic states, and a Republican in Republican states.”
That is about the size of the whole business of so-
called civil service ethics.
When a new administration gets in it has been said
that you can find scores and scores of government em
ployes who are willing to turn their coats as often as
their salaries are involved, and suddenly you hear a
great deal reported as to the binding quality of civil
service rules when pronounced politicians are in hourly
danger of removal. The idea or plan, as it is written,
is that well qualified, experienced employes are a ne
cessity, and public business is endangered by placing
raw ones in these already well-equipped places, etc.
But the prevailing rule in modern politics is “to
the victor belong the spoils.” That is the real thing,
the rest of it is simply pretense.
Of course you and I know exceptional cases. We
are convinced that there is danger in radical removals
of well-qualified public servants in very difficult busi- *
ness, but the country has been getting along and we
alsio see that snivel service is very often a clamor of
the ins against the outs.
A Man’s Best Years
What are* a man’s "best years” depends largely on
what his youth was—the time for laying the founda
tion. It also depends upon me nature of his work
and something of his stamina or staying powers; also,
as to whether he has mastered his environments or
allowed them to* master him. Hugo* Munsterberg
places the high-water mark at fifty years; Dr. Wiley
thinks a man’s best work should be done after he is
sixty; while Dr. Osier claims that little original and
valuable work is done after tLe age Oi. forty. As for
my own humble opinion, I am quite thoroughly con
vinced that a man does not reach his prime of intel
lectual strength and lucidity until he arrives at the
halfway house—threescore and ten.
The life problem is very much like a marathon,
and should be decided accordingly. On the on e hand,
it is not a question of years, but of condition—men
tally and physically. How did he pass the seventieth
milestone, old and decrepit or vigorously? On the oth
er hand, it is not a question as to the time he made,
but what was his condition? Diu he collapse or did
he finish strong?—^os Angeles Times.
CATTLE SUPPLY
BV FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
With Huerta troops in the chamber of deputies
in Mexico, and wild west doings in the Tennessee
legislature, one can’t say that politics is dull these
days.
While the possibility of the price of beef reaching
50 cents a pound during the coming winter is being
discussed throughout the country, many Solutions of
the problem of the American catttle shortage are be
ing advanced. Some propose a law placing an em
bargo upon veal production, and at least two bills
have been introduced in congress to that end. Others
propose a campaign of education among the farmers
to encourage them to grow more beef cattle, and It" is
said that the packers have raised a fund pf $300,POO
for such a propaganda. Still others say that the thing
to do is to educate the people to the fact that steaks
and rib roasts, are not the only parts of beef that
may be eaten with pleasure to the palate, satisfaction
to the body, and profit to the pocketbook, and in fur
therance of that idea the department of agriculture is
calling into requisition its forces of publicity, Yet
others say that tariff-free bepf from Argentina is the
solution of the problem, and so beef has gone on the
free list and Argentine beef has begun to move toward
the United States.
But it would seem as difficult a problem to keep
the farmer from selling his calves for veal as it would
be to compel him to raise his Catttle for beef, so the
first proposition may not work as well In practice as
in theory. When the farmer is brought face to face
with 76-cent of $1 corn, it will be difficult to Induce
him to feed catttle when he can get more out of his
corn unfed than he can In beef, so there arises another
difficulty. The people have been proverbially slow
to change their methods of buying meat, and all the
bulletins the government could issue would still leave
both writer and reader sticking to their steaks and
rib roasts, and the third proposition falls. Tariff-
free beef, according to the Democrats, may help toe
situation some, but there is already discussion of the
merits of Argentine beef brought into the United States,,
and some say that what has come has been found
available only for the cheaper hotels and restaurants.
* • •
There has been a proposition that the government
go to the aid of the cattle raiser just as it has gone
to the aid of the crop growers, by placing long time
deposits in national banks where the cattlemen can
borrow It with their cows and calves as security. It (
Is contended by those who lavor this Idea that It takes
so long to convert a calf into a finished steer that the
farmer needs some financial assistance while waiting
for his beef to grow.
• • a
Accordingly to many of those whose opinions are
usually considered worth while In such matters, the
United States must look to the Argentine for its day
of hope in beef prices. A little of this beef has been
coming into the United States by way of London, but
this has been a negligible quantity Now a’ line of
steamers brings beef to New York direct from Argen
tine packing houses. It Is sewed In cheeseclot.. and
wrapped in burlap. The Importers declare it Is chilled
beef and measures up to the standard ot beef from *
good American native steers. They point out that it
is from cattle driven to market and, therefore, freer
from bruises than the beef of American cattle hauled
to market. They assert that the cattle are gentle and
sleepy-eyed as pets, and that the beef has been han
ded under the most approved conditions.
• • •
The opponents of the Argentine beef assert that it
was frozen before shipment rather than chilled, that
it does not hold its color long, and that It is available
only for the cheap hotel and restaurant trade. They ,
say that the Importation of 8,000,000 pounds, which
was hailed with delight in some quarters, as the death
knell of high prices, Is but a drop in the bucket, and
point to the fact that New York City alone consumes
about 25,000,000 pounds of beef a week. A big ranch
man from Peru says that with the opening of the
Panama canal he oan send 10-cent beef tJ the United
States., In Uruguay one of the big Chicago packing
houses has opened tip a big plant, and here alfalfa-fed
steers that could be bought in the United States for
not less than $125 a head are bought at $70 a head.
• • •
If the United States does Import enough Soutn
American beef to control prices in its markets, the
law gives the president ample authority to guarantee
to the people that the imported beef will be up to the
American standard of wholesomeness. It must be cer
tified by the government from whose territory it
comes that it is from healthy cattle, and that It con
tains no poisonous or deleterious preservatives or dyes.
If the president finds that the stanuards of inspection
in any country are not up to our own standards he
may put a ban upon the importation of its jneats,
• • s
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Galloway say*
that the way to get beef to thg people at reasonable
prices is to provide municipal meat markets. His
suggestion is borne out by the experience at Panama,
where beef, which coBts the government Just as much
wholesale as it costs in the states, and which is of as
good a grade as is sold In the best butcher shops in
the United States, has been selling for several years
at 20 cents a pound for porterhouse, 19 cents for sir
loin and IS cents for round steak.
* • •
To offset this experience the butchers point to an
offer made by a prominent butcher of Topeka, Kan., to
turn his butcher shop over to the ladies of that town '
who were leading a crusade for lower prices. He told
them he would give them a full and fair opportunity
to see If they could make any money out of the re
tail butcher business. To date they have not ac
cepted his offer.
• • •
The obliteration of the cattle tick in fhe southern
states, after a fight that has been waged for years,
promises to be a boon to the beef growing industry,
because it will facilitate the raising of young cattle
in the south and their transportation to the farms of
the corn belt for feeding, but even this is not expected
to do much toward overcoming the national shortage
of beef cattle.
* * *
In 1910, Just three years ago, there were 30,000,000
cattle in the seventeen range states of the west, as
against only 23,000,000 in 1913. This drop of 7,000,1/v.i
cattle in seventeen states, and this remarkable falling
off in range-growing during a three-year period is
unprecedented in cattle history. Nor does the drop
affect only the cattle industry; it hits the sheep busi
ness as well. In 1910 there were 67,000,000 sheep in
the United r States; in 1913 there are only 51,000,000.
• • •
Add to this shortage in beef supply the shortage
in the corn ctop, and .the result is a combination which
is likely to produce prices that will not be, a source
of much comfort to the economical housewife.
• * •
The old times of wars between the cattlemen and
sheepmen of the western states are past. They were
times when cattlemen would drive great herds of wild
horses through a sleeping band of sheep, killing and
maiming thousands of them, and shooting up the shep
herds; when the sheepmen would counter by shooting
thousands of cattle and “working over” the brands of
others, thus getting other thousands of cattle away
from the cattlemen; and when the cattlemen; would
counter by spreading saltpetre on their salting
grounds, where it could be eaten with impunity by the
cattle, but with fatal results by sheep. But those
days of bloody wars and cruel practices have been suc
ceeded by days of fenced lands and the encroachments
of the small farmer, with the result that the range
grown feeders are decreasing in numbr and growing
higher and higher in price.
The green hat is the one touch of spring in an
expanse of Indian summer.
The war correspondent -lave had their inning;
now for the baseball writers.
He who is afraid to toe the mark is apt to remain
at the foot
We doubt very ser ously whether the administra
tion will be seriously discouraged about putting that
currency measure through. J:J