Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE ATLANTA SEMT-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1913. THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH POBSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class. JAMES R. GRAY, * President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months ? 5c Six months 4(}c Three months - 5c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the horn© and the farm. Agents wanted at every postotflce. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BKAD- LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan, B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough, W. W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention you old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices fo this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga. As Mexico Now Stands. Early returns from the election held yesterday in Mexico indicate that not enough ballots were cast to constitute a legal choice for the Presidency. In the capital district, where some eighty thou sand persons are eligible to vote, fewer than ten thousand, it is said, went to the polls. In other dis tricts, further removed from Huerta’s dominion, the discrepancy between citizenship and suffrage was still greater, while in the territory that is more or less under revolutionary control there was probably no pretense of holding an election. Since the Mexican constitution requires that at least a third of the eligible voters participate in an election in order that it may be valid, the result of yesterday’s balloting, whatever it may be, will doubtless be declared void. This was only to he expected. More than half the country, it is estimated, is in open and successful re volt against the Huerta regime. Naturally, an elec tion engineered by Huerta would not command re- ipect or bestir interest in these districts. However fairly It might have been conducted, it would have been considered illegal and Ineffectual in advance. Besides this, it was evident from the outset that ao constitutional election could be held under the sway of a specious government that owed Its existence to a shameful violation of the constitution. Huerta has never been the rightful President of Mexico even In * provisional sense- He gained his present station through treachery and* homicide and a wanton disre gard of the simplest principles of good government. Within the past few weeks he .ias carried his audacious policy still further by dispersing the na tional legislature, imprisoning more than a hundred of Its members and declaring himself dictator. These xcts alone would have sufficed to invalidate any or ders he issued and sought to carry out. The Con gress which he put to rout was the legally constitu ted authority to pass upon the results of the elec tion, to canvass the vote and determine its Integ rity. The dictator clearly showed that he did not Want a legal election- From his own standpoint, matters have turned out just as he desired. Hu is left in control of the de facto government at Mexico City and is still the main figure on his country’s troubled stage. It Is With him that the revolutionary leaders must reckon and that other nations must, in a measure at least, negotiate. Dispatches say that he is to issue a decree in creasing the army to one hundrd and fifty thousand men, a step which the recent Congress forbade him to take. Evidently, he is determined to make the most of his renewed legacy on power. But it is evi dent, too, that Huerta’s fortunes are fast waning. The very fact that the country refused to take seri ous part in an election conducted under his regime shows the distrust with which he is generally re garded. ao far as the United States and its policies to ward Mexico are concernud, it is well enough that Sunday’s election resulted in no choice for a Presi dent to succeed Huerta. Our Government had firmly declared that it would not recognize a Muxican President chosen in such circumstances as would nec essarily prevail when an unscrupulous dictator was in the saddle. We are now spared the difficulty of saying to a successor of Huerta what has already been said to him himself.. Our relationships with Mexico remain unchanged. Our attitude is still one of friendly conc.ern that the neighboring republic shall be really free and self- governing but of unswerving refusal to recognize any regime that is planted in murderous -defiance of law and civilization. Had Huerta withdrawn, merely to b*; succeeded by one of his puppets, our problem would have been more complex than It Is today. Huerta carries within himself the germs of his own sure destruction. His noisy babble about in creasing his army’s strength t 0 a hundred and fifty thousand men and rapidly forcing the rebellious parts of the country into submission will soon die out If reports are true, his treasury is bankrupt; he has no funds for maintaining the present army on effi- .dShi standards and little hope of holding its loyalty. The revolutionists are, strategically, in a far stronger position than he. They have wrested more than half the country from his control- Their recent capture of Monterey adds to their prestige and force, They come much nearer representing the wishes of the majority of the Mexican peopln than does Huerta. Circumstances would seem to indicate that the rev olutionists, or "Constitutionalists,” as they . style themselves, will not require many weeks more to send Huerta packing. Certain It is that their cause, chaotic though it now appear, is more entitled to recognition than is Huerta’s. There is this particularly hopeful aspect to the situation as it now is: The Powers of the world show a disposition to join with the United States in the latter’s prudent and high-minded policies toward Mexico. European governments seem to have been awaiting the outcome of Sunday’s election to agree upon some concerted course. The probability is that they will now accept the well-considered views of the United States and thus add their moral support to the plans this country has adopted. How to Increase Georgia’s \ Population and Wealth. One of the timeliest aims of the recently organ ized Georgia Chamber of Commerce is to bring the State’s resources vividly to the notice of all America and thereby attract to this commonwealth new set ters and ne w capital. The need of such enterprise has long been important; today it is imperative. As a means of protection as well as progress, Georgia must make her advantages more widely and more definitely known. The Tampa Tribune calls attention to the signifi cant fact that a Canadian railway system has estab lished in a Georgia city an industrial office devoted entirely to the purpose of securing Southern settlers for lands in the Canadian Northwest;; and similar offices are soon to be opened at twenty-nine other points. Their agents will be supplied with great quantities of literature and with all the money they need to influence prospective immigrants. To the extent that these efforts are successful from Canada’s standpoint, they will he gravely in jurious to Georgia and the South; for, the loss of a thrifty citizen means the loss of thousands of dollars and of invaluable human energy. It means loss to our merchants and manufacturers and railroads and to the whole State’s power for self-development. Something must be done to counteract this skill fully laid campaign to draw Georgia men and fam ilies from their native soil. It is but natural that enterprising Canadians should turn to this peculiarly Anglo-Saxon corner of the continent for means to up build their Dominion- We may well admire their discernment and aggressiveness but If we are in any wise mindful of our own interests, we shall not sit idle white they are preparing to capture our richest treasure; rather, we shall emulate their shrewdness and turn their methods to our own advantage. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce offers an ideal opportunity for effective co-operation among all good citizens toward offsetting movements such as we have described and also toward bringing to our own State desirable settlers from other parts of America. It is the Chamber’s purpose to launch a systematic campaign of publicity through which the agricultural and industrial resources of Georgia will he sharpfy impressed upon the entire country’s thought. The natural drift of population and of investment is now unmistakably Southward. The extraordinary devices to which our Canadian friends are resorting show that they keenly appreciate this fact. Shall Georgia en courage this drift and get her due share of its en riching influence? If so, she must avail herself of modern methods; she*mut let the prospective home- seeker and investor know the wonderful opportuni ties that await them within her hospitable borders. This can be done only through organized, business like effort such as the Georgia Chamber of Commerce can put forth. It is by joining witm the representative men who make up this splendid institution that the individual ciizen can best serve himself and his State in this very Important issue. The membersip cam paign of the Chamber is now well under way. Every commercial and civic body in Georgia should enroll In this great enterprise and so, too, should every cit izen who wants to play a progressive part in upbuild ing his commonwealth. Purer Water for Rural Districts. The need of greater care in safeguarding against pollution the water supply of rural districts is sea sonably urged in the Journal of the American Medical Association- Recent inquiries, says this authority, show that thousands of farms and villages the country over are seriously imperiled by lack of caution In regard to wells and springs. In Minnesota, for ’ In stance, the State Board of Health found that of the seventy-nine water supplies examined only twenty were sanitary. The report from Indiana is note worthy in detail for the reason that it is typical: In an examination of the rural water supplies in Indiana, it has been- found that of the private supplies examined, 177 were deep w%lls, 411 shallow wells, five ponds, forty springs and twenty-seven cisterns. One hundred and sixteen of the deep-well waters were of a good quality, forty-five were bad and sixteen doubtful. But 159 of the 411 shallow-well waters could he used, 209 were unequivocably bad and forty-three were of doubtful quality. A large percentage of the waters used by the families in which typhoid fever occurred was unequivocably bad. Such conditions attest the urgent need of better sanitary rules and inspection for rural districts- Cities have been forced to meet and solve their prob lems of this nature but where population is scattered and the effects of a polluted water supply are not so regularly reported or observed, there is no direct, in ward pressure for reform. The need of supervision, however, is scarcely less Important than in cities. A doctor of public health in each county or an ade quate corps of inspectors under the direction of the State Board of Health, could accomplish a vast deal of practical good, largely through educational methods. The Courier-Journal aptly remarks, in commenting on these conditions, that while shallow wells are more susceptible to pollution than deep wells, "even deep wells may be affected in time, if they are not prop erly safeguarded against surface waters” and that “even a shallow well may be protected, if good judg ment Is used in locating it and in providing against seepage from the surface.” Nothing a Woman Can’t Do. From Toledo, comes the odd story that young women of that city are studying carpentry In the Manual Training school; and, Interestingly enough, cney are as apt as their boy mates In learning the craft. After a few lessons, they handle mallets and saws as dexterously as they would a rolling pin or skillet. The more advanced students show particular skill in matters of design and, with due experience, will doubtless turn out some really distinctive work- There are certaip phases of carpentry and joinery which should appeal peculiarly to women—interior work, for instance, where the decorative sense finds play. Had women been as free in an earlier age as they are today, there might have sprung from their ranks a master of furniture-making comparable to Adam or Hepplewhite or Chippendale. Is there any craft or calling of the present time, in which women have not proved their mettle? In all the professions and most of the trades, they have earned success- Not only as teachers and clerks, law yers, doctors and scientists, but also as business managers, commerical travelers, farmers, explorers and aviators, they have shown ability. All this, to be sure, is eclipsed „by woman’s supreme genius of motherhood and home-making; yet it is well for mas culine pride to observe that white there are some things a man cannot even attempt there is nothing a woman cannot do. .I t DUST BY DR. FRANK CRANF-. (Copyright, 1913, by Frank Cram Cities 1 have their peculiar plagues. They are not so picturesque as the Ten Plagues of Egypt, which were bloody water, frogs, lice, flies, mur rain, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death of the first-born, but they ar e well-nigh as deadly. Among them may be mentioned the public sale of alcohol with alcoholism, the social evil with syphilis, overcrowded housing with tuberculosis, insufficient and insanitary transportation, reckless driving of au tomobiles with numerous accidents, quarrels between employers and employed, and political parties with at tendant corruption of all civic activities. But 'perhaps the greatest plague of all is DUST. From early morning the city streets give forth par ticles of matter which form a dense atmosphere of poison. A constant cloud hovers over the main thor oughfares. This qloud is composed of minute grains of the droppings of horses, of parts of the skin of men and animals, of eggs of infusoria, of microbes some inoc- uous and some pathogenic, of flecks of stone, dirt, cloth, paper, ashes, vegetable matter, and the like. All this mix of uncleanness is raised and set in mo tion by the perpetual agitation of the feet of horses and men, and by the wheels of trucks, carriages, street cars, and motors. When one walks in the street, rides in a car, or sits by the open window these noxious air-borne particles rain incessantly upon his eyes and into his nose and mouth. Many of the poisonous germs, to be sure, are ren dered harmless by the action of the sun and air. But there is another danger: the particles irritate the eyes and the throat. They produce or prepare the way for diseases of the eye, mouth, throat and lungs. If you will take a clean towel or handkerchief, when you come home from downtown, and wipe out your nose with it, you will be able to form some idea of what the inside of your lung looks like. Dust is the mother of consumption. What are we going to do about it? We must keep our city streets as clean as our house halls. To this end horses and all domestic animals must eventually be banished. Offal should no more be tol erated upon the street than on a house floor. The horse is already going, gasoline taking its place. Cobble stones and paving full of crevices to harbor dirt must go. The street of the future will be smooth. The wheel of the future will be tired with rubbed or its equivalent. Streets will b e constantly taken care of by sweep ers and sprinklers to insure cleanliness, and kept al ways in repair. Some coating, tarry or otherwise, will be used to prevent flying dust. Cities will learn some day, when they grow up ou£ of their present party-cursed and graft-ridden adoles cence, that a perfectly smooth and clean street is not only a thing of beauty and a joy forever, but it is an insurance of public health, a matter of life and death to the people. Birmingham News Urges Underwood For the Senat Things We Can’t Afford The black walnut which our grandparents burned as firewood is now almost too precious to be used in framing the most valued pictures—the Cleveland mil lionaire who wanted his skyscraper trimmed in that wood had hard work to find enough in the whole countray to fill his curious order. The fertilizer values which are wasted around barns with uncovered manure heaps through which rains drain will one day be so highly prized that it may be made a misdemeanor not to spread them scien tifically upon the hungry soil. It has been suggested that a time may come when the owner of a field will not be permitted to let m\iddy water run away after a storm, but will be required to filter the drainage as carefully as manufacturers will soon be required to filter the drainage from their poison vats. For we are just beginning to perceive the serious ness of this soil waste. Throughout the Uited States in one year it amounts to dumping into the sea as many team loads of earth as would make a single file of dump carts reaching seventy-six times around the globe. A few centuries ago it was reasonably certain that a pestilence would come every so often and reduce greatly the number of mouths to be fed. The “black plague,” for instance, during the twenty-year visit to Europe, swept away a fourth of all the population in the area over which it swept. Today the plagues are being tamed. Folks live longer and there are more of them. Which means, of course, greater strain upon the soil to grow humani ty’s food. But if we let much of our best soil wash away, what’s left won’t always be able to carry this growing strain. As the food supply becomes scarcer and the demand for it greater prices will go up until, as in India, famine must follow and the world be brought face to face with the possibility of starvation —such is the inevitable alternative to conserving the soil and improving its use. When enough of us see this, the danger will be met. Fortunately more are seeing it every day.— Wichita Beacon. An Interesting Peace Plan. From Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty, comes the most definite proposal yet made toward a suspension of the international war game. The naval program of Great Britain calls for the building of four new battleships next year and that of Germany, for two new battleships. Mr. Churchill, rpeaking for his own Government, says to Germany in effect that if she will postpone her navy increase for twelve months, England will do- likewise. Both nations would thus be saved mil lions of dollars and both would remain relatively as strong as they now are- It is considered improbable that the First Lord of the Admiralty would have made such an offer had he not had some assurance that It would be favorably entertained. Indeed, a similar suggestion put forth months ago was rather well re ceived in Germany; there is reason to surmise that something in the nature of a diplomatic understand ing between the two countries in this regard has been reached, or ac least is developing. Such an agreement between England and Ger many would have world-wide significance and in fluence. If these great rivals, who for years have been armoring each against the other, should sus pend naval preparations for a twelvemonth, all Eu rope would be easier in mind and, perhaps, other Powers would be drawn into the compact. Great Britain’s naval supremacy gives especial weight to her proposal. Obviously she is not impelled by any sense of weakness or alarm but entirely by her con sciousness of strength and security. The burden of the war game while heavy in all Old World countries is particularly so in Germany, and it is a burden imposed by suspicion and jealousy rather than by any clearly defined danger. The readiness of England to rest a season from the build ing of battle ships should reassure Germany and go far toward removing the cause of international sus picion. Mr. Churchill’s plan, if it materialize, will be a long step toward world peace. A SENATORIAL vacancy has arisen in Alabama at a critical time. Doubt and uncertainty exist in the state, while in the senate the Democratic party holds its own by the slenderest of margins. The condition in Washington calls for wise states manship; the condition in Alabama for the wisest of choices. In thia emergency what is the patriot to do who wishes to discharge his obligation to state and nation with the highest degree of fidelity? How can the voters of Alabama best serve themselves and their country at this time of grave responsibility? Surely these are questions of grave import. Called upon at this crisis in the aft'airs of ^ the na tion, can Alabama say to the people at large We are sending you our biggest and broadest and ablest son,’ if the choice is limited to the present field? With due appreciation of the ability and patriotism of those who aspire to the office, the News believes that this question must be answered in the negative. Alabma’s ablest son, a man whose conspicuous ability has commanded recognition from the nation, as well as from his own peopie, is not now a candidate, and he must be before the citizens of Alabama can render the highest service to themselves and to their countrymen. This editorial might be concluded without mention ing a name, and all Alabama would know to whom the News refers. Oscar W. Underwood stands out so con spicuously in the public life of Alabama and the na tion that the thoughts of the people instinctively turn to him when the greatness and the ability of states men become a theme of discussion. Mr. Underwood i_s the man Alabama should send to the senate. He is the man Alabamians must send if the are to measure up to the fullness of the opportu nity presented them; ii they are to give to the na tion their best. Yet it is manifest that the citizens of this state will be helpless to acquit themselves thus unless Mr. Underwood become a candidate for the office. This the News believes he should do, and it calls upon him, In behalf of the people of Alabama, to take this step as soon as his duties in connection with the tariff and the currency measures will permit. The entrance of Mr. Underwood in the senatorial race would serve to simplify a situation that is full of uncertainty. It would clear the atmosphere and give to the political life of the state a helpful stimu lus. Certainly it would remove all doubt as to who will represent Alabama In the senate. Mr. .Under wood’s election would he assured the moment he an nounced his purpose to become a candidate. The people of Alabama would have many com pelling reasons for centering ubon Mr. Underwood, as they most'assuredly will if he gives them the oppor tunity. Chief among these is his ability as a leader of men. Mr. Underwood achieved his position as one of the chief statesmen of his time through sheer ability. There is about him not one trick of the demagogue, not one element of the professional politician, not a single Inclination to shirk, to evade or to parade. A man of spotless character and lofty Ideals, Mr. Underwood has attained his present position of con spicuous honor without compromise or trickery. He is a man, a strong, earnest,- courageous man, and one who has no difficulty in discerning right from wrong. Next to President Woodrow Wilson, Mr. Underwood is perhaps the most honored and most generally es teemed man in the public life of America, and certain ly no man In Alabama could reflect greater credit upon the state, or render It more conspicuous service. Alabama, first on the roll call of states, has en joyed some fame for Its wisdom and ability in the selection of its senators. It gave to the nation Mor gan and Pettus, and thereby won a nation's praise. At a time when many states were sending men full of strange, fantastic vagaries to join in the deliberations of a great body that should represent the highest in telligence And highest devotion of the people, Alabama won distinction by the wisdom of its choice. And who shall say this is not a worthwhile distinction? The office of senator is tl*3 most exalted the people of a commonwealth can confer, and it is not an honor that should be lightly bestowed. He who wears it should reflect in his learning, In his ability and in his devotion to country, something of the character of the people he represents. As a senator, Mr. Underwood will be true to the best traditions of this great state He will reflect credit upon it, will serve it with the same splendid ability that has made him the dominant figure in the house Of representatives, and the News believes it voices the wish of a great majority of patriotic Ala bamians when it calls upon him to enter the race and make possible a happy solution of the present situa tion. Alabama wants Underwood in the senate. The na tion needs him there, and he should indicate his will ingness to serve as soon as the exacting duties of the present will permit. It isn t easy to write to a friend off somewhere near the North Pole a real description of the hot weather. You can tell him the mercury was around 100 for so many successive days, and that you couldn’t sleep nights, and all that sort of thing. But the account will seem mechanical to him, and he won’t get the vivid impression of what the heat has really meant to you. The only accounts of hot weather that actually “get” a reader are those that convey an impression of the way the person feels under the stress of protracted heat. The references to the thermomter must be simply incidental. A piece of drool in a friend's let ter, hardly mentioning the heat, but trailing off into stillness that is obviously the result of a case of nerves, may give an extraordinarily vivid sensation or 100 degree temperature. Perhaps the best heat description In literature is Kipling’s story. “At the End of the Passage.” The most trying weather in the world is that of India where there is a combination of high temperature with high humidity that lasts for months at a time with out a let up. In the Kipling story four Englishmen are Journey ing far every Saturday night to spend Sunday together in a remote spot of this devil's country. There is an opening setting of heat: The thermometer marked for them 101 degrees of heat. The room was darkened till it was just possible to distinguish the pips of the cards and the very white faces of the players. A tattered, rotten punkah of whitewashed calico was pud dling the hot air and whining dolefully at each stroke. Outside there was neither sky, sun, nor horizon—nothing but a brown purple haze of heat. It was as though the earth were dying of apo plexy. * "Puddling the air*’ is a vivid phrase, but the im pression is really made, not by this formal descrip tion, which doesn’t particularly affect the reader, but by the account of the actions of the men. Their utter weariness is reflected in everything they do. They quarrel at cards. They fuss about the cooking. Their nerves are evidently all on edge. One of them hasn't been able to sleep for several nights. After they go to bed a doctor in the party watches the sleepless one lie rigid, unable to relax. In the middle of the sweaty, stifling night the man speaks to the doctor: There is a tom-tom outside, Isn't there? I thought it was my head at first. O, Spurstow, for pity sake give me something that will make me steep. The doctor gives him morphine, and then steals out and disables his firearms so that he can’t shoot him self. T^e three friends return to the place the next week and find their host dead, dead of nervous ex haustion from the humid heat The story is the real thing in heat horror.—Kansas City Star. RURAL CREDITS I. THE NEEDS OF THE FARMER Ba FREDERIC J. HASKIN. . Just now there Is coming to fruition a movement to assist the farmers of the United States financially. It started with the Southern Commercial Congress, and may end with a farmers’ bank in every community, where farmers can borrow money from themselves at low rates, and thus put themselves on an equal foot ing with the industrial and commercial world. * • • Of late years the American people have spent so much time listening to stories about farmers who ride around in automobiles, who send their sons and daughters to college, and who make pilgrimages to the city to attend* the opera, that they have begun to regard them as q. sort of twentieth century edition of Midas. And they have heard so much about the $9,000,000,000 worth of products the farmers annually produce that they have not stopped to consider how much that 1 means to each farmer. ... As a matter of fact, there are 12,000,000 farmers in the United States; they own $40,000,000,000 worth of farm property, and annually produce $9,500,000,000 worth of crops. Those figures sound exactly like the popular impression of the farmer—a man with a sixty- horsepower car, with a son at Harvard and a daughter at Vassar—but wait until they are analyzed. Divide the total farm wealth among those 12,000,000 farmers and you will find their average wealth is $3,333; ana then divide that annual farm yield among them, and you will find that the average farmer's gross annual Income is $791. Out of this he must feed and clothe his family, educate his children, find his pleasures, pay his Interest and his taxes, and lay by for his rainy du^. ... • It Is true that there are millions of farmers who measuieably come up to the popular picture of the automobile-buying farmer—perhaps 4,000,000 of them, but there is another 8,000,000 whose struggles are hard, and who can barely eke out an existence. To illustrate: Suppose there are 4,000,000 farmers in the United States worth an average of $7,000 each—that would make a total of $28,000,000,000, so that the oth er 8,000,000 would be worth only $1,600. And suppose the products of the farms of those 4,000,000 farmers ^mounted to $1,600 each—that would make $6,000,00o,- 000 and leave the other 8,000,000 farmers to divide gross profits of $3,000,000,000 among them—a beggarly $437.60 a year income, out of which must be paid fer tilizer bills, and the keep and education of the family, interest, taxes and the like. So it will be s^en, after all. not all is automobiles and colleges and operas with the farmer. ... It was a realization of this actual situation of the small farmer that led the Southern Commercial con gress to father a movement to see if there might not be found some method of helping him to solve hie problem, to enhance his financial well being and to in9rease his contribution to the welfare of the nation. • • * That organization saw that the tendenoy of the times is away from farm ownership and toward ten ant farming. It saw In the census returns that one occupying owner out of every seven has left the farm since 1880, and recognized that there was somethin* fundamentally wrong—else such an Increase of ten ancy and such a decrease In ownership farming could not have taken place. It looked to the city and saw the number of home owners Increasing as rapidly as the number of farm owners on the land were decreas ing. It saw the city artisan able to buy t}ls house on a small cash payment and the balance as rent, while the farmer must pay a third down and the balance in a short period of years. * a e Here was a clue. A look further showed that oth er countries had solved the problem, and that there home ownership on the farm was on the increase. It showed that in Germany the farmers had solved the question of meeting their own needs by long time pay-' ments, and that co-operation In money matters had led to co-operation In buying and In selling, and that consequently the German farmer was enjoying an eco nomic independence out of all proportion to the size of his land holdings. e e e Step by step the lesson was learned that the Amer ican farmer might copy the European ideas of finan cial co-operation with great profit That was why a national commission was appointed to go to Europe under the auspices of the Southern Commercial con gress, and with the Indorsement of the government, to study rural co-operation, especially with regard to credits. e • e The American farmer today has borrowed capital of over $6,000,000,000, and, according to ex-Prealdent Taft, faces an annual interest charge of $610,000,00o on this. Counting commissions and renewal charges, he Is paying over 8 per cent Interest on the money he has borrowed, In a country where commercial Inter est rates are low; while the German farmer pays about 4 per cent, in a country where commercial Interest rates are high. The farmer must pay nearly twice as much for the money he borrows as do the railroads, the industrial corporations and the municipalities around him; in spite , of the fact that his land is the basis of all values and his products the foundation of all wealth. This is attributed to the fact that he has no financial machinery behind him for the conversion of his holdings into negotiable credit. * w • That such machinery may be provided is shown by the experience In Germany. Through all the changing conditions of a century, the soundness and practica bility of such machinery, based upon the peculiar cred it needs of the farmer, has been tried out there, and so successful has it been In operation that In times ot stress money has been taken out of the commercial banks of the empire and placed in the agricultural banks for safe keeping. e * • It Is pointed out that a proper system of rural credits not only will help the farmer, but that it will reach the consumer as well. Under such a system Germany, with an area smaller than Texas—It would take a German empire and an Alabama together to make a Texas—supports a population of nearly 70,- 000,000 people and produces all but one-twentieth of their foodstuffs. If the American farmer could do as well as the German fanner in feeding the people, Tex as and Oklahoma alone could raise all the foodstuffs needed in the United States. * * * The great necessity wljich prompted the establish ment of co-operative credit systems in Europe was that of cheoking the rapidly increasing cost of food stuffs brought about by the Inevitable increase in consumption, and the failure of the soil to meet the demand. The same reason now obtains, if in a smaller degree, in the United States. In Europe, as soon as a method of financing the farmer was found, acreage production began to rise, and in its wake came co-op eration in buying and selling, with as great benefit to the consumer as to the farmer. • • And the thing that is kept first and foremost in the European success in co-operative farm finance Is the fact that it is-not a government business. Rather, it Is the result of a sort of government supervision over the efforts of farmers to help themselves. The lesson of European experience is that all of the numer ous needs which the farmer has are met in. due time as soon as his greatest need is supplied—that of ready capital to do the things that ought to be done. Editorials in Brief The federal government has declined to add an other cubit to Mrs. Pankhurst’s stature as a martyr, and so she has been released from Ellis Island with implied permission to go where she pleases on Ameri can soil.—Syracuse Herald. Tne next record for a no-stop fight may be made by a prominent Mexican statesman.—New York Even ing Sun.