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4 THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1913. i THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, OA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of the Second Class. JAUES R. GRAY, The Corn Show s Significance. The Georgia Corn Show opens today as an event of unusual importance to every sphere of the State’s practical interests. The idfca and the activity it rep resents concern the merchant, the manufacturer and President and Editor. the banker scarcely less than the farmer himself; SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months »*•••• 75c Six months 40c Three months 25c 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 home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postotfice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BKA1> 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. NO TICS TO PUBBCRXBBRS. 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. . : • The Drolleries of a Dictator. Never, perhaps, since FalstafE recruited his clown ish warriors, “Shadow,” “Bullcalf,” “Feeble,” “Mouldy,” and the others, who had but half a shirt amongst them, have there been such droll scenes of conscription as those now reported from Mexico. Driven to the brink of his resources, General Huerta has ceased to be a desperate or dangerous figure; he is merely a comic cne. He would now give his kingdom for a rocking horse. He will fight his last fight, even though he must use coat-hangers and shop window models in lieu of men. Dispatches relate that in Mexico City servant girls venture upon the streets as cautiously as mice be cause “they are aware that scores of their sister domestics have been drafted into the army as female soldiers.” What a tribute to the military genius of Dictator Huerta! Napoleon is at last eclipsed; for, did he ever conceive the glorious idea of marshaling broomsticks and frying pans into force equally strong for defense and aggression? The daughters of old Thebes gave their tresses for bow strings but it remained for Victoriano Huerta to summon house maids apd potkeelers to arms. This, however, is but one of his inspirations. Learning that seven of his generals in the north had courteously announced their willingness to surren der to the revolutionists and that others were fleeing as fast as faithful heels could carry them, to the American border, he cast about lor some ready de vice to get more commanders as well as more soldiers. Accordingly there were posted outside a motion pic ture show bills announcing a free exhibition “for mien only.” The hall was crowded long before the performance began. “A series of religious pictures was thrown upon the screen,” the story goes, "the first being, “The Virgin of Guadalupe”—patron saint of Mexico. The.spectators greeted this good natured- ly but when it was followed by two other religious pictures, the man who had looked for a different kind of entertainment started an uproar.” Instantly the police dashed in, arrested the entire house on charges of disturbing the peace and marched them off to the barracks. There, without further ado, they were enlisted in tae army and cheered lustily away to battle. Such are the heroic methods of the great ruler whom the United States was once urged to recognize as president of the Mexican republic. As a comic opera star Huerta would doubtless shine, if he could act without singing his part. He lacks even that dull part of valor which lies in discretion. What will become of his picture show recruits? The noble fellows will at least prove worthy of their chieftain. Huerta might have had either a comfortable or a spectacular end but, as it is, he will probably have only a ludicrous one. The elder Diaz, when he saw that fortune’s drift was hopelessly against him, re tired with dignity and honor, albeit with something of haste. But Huerta, as stupid a, r dogged, prolongs his opera bouffe to the last silly scene, insisting that he go dpwn with a chambermaid legion and picture 6how braves. r ► The Wilson Policy. “There cg.n be no certain prospect of peace in America until General Huerta has surren dered his usurped authority in Mexico; unitl it it understood on all hands, indeed, that such pretended government will not be countenanced or dealt with by the government of the United States. We are the friends of constitutional government in America; we are more than its friends,' we are its champions; because in no other way can our neighbors, to whom we would • wish in every way to make proof of our friend ship, work out their own development in peace and liberty." This is the most distinctive and significant pas sage in the President’s address to Congress, for, it lays down the basic principle o'n which our govern ment is to deal not only with Mexico but with all Latin America. The declaration that the United States is the steadfast friend of constitutional gov ernment in the western world and that it will coun tenance no other kind is no less important or far- reaching than was the Monroe doctrine. It is a policy that will become historic and guide this na tion through long decades to come; furthermore, it will serve as no other policy could the needs of the present; it will win the confidence of all thoughtful, patriotic people in our neighboring republics and yill advance our highest interests throughout Cen tral and South America. In respect to Mexico, the Wilson policy has thus far been eminently justified. Refusal to recognize the lawless, criminal regime of Huerta has been the surest way toward peace and toward a satisfactory adjustment of Mexican problems. What may follow the fall of Huerta, which Is now foregone, cannot he .clearly discerned; that is a matter that must be left to separate treatment. It is certain, however, that so long as the usurper remains in power, no constructive step toward settling Mexican troubles can be taken. As the tested “friend” of constitutional govern ment,” the United States will he able to serve the best Interests of Its neighbors and also to conserve and promote its own highest welfare. indeed, they touch the fortunes of the entire com monwealth, cities as well as country districts and, in the broadest sense, they bear vitally upon the welfare of every household. It is conservatively reckoned that last year the people of Georgia spent more than one hundred and seventy-two million dollars in buying from other States and sections such necessaries as corn, oats and meat which could be produced easily and cheaply at home. The State lacked over thirty-seven million dollars of making enough money from its cotton crop to pay for its imported food supplies. So long as this condition continues, Georgia cannot attain her due measure of prosperity and growth. Not only will her farmers be handicapped but her industries also will fall short of what they could otherwise be come and the pace of all enterprises will be hobbled. The Boys’ Corn club movement Is the most suc cessful agency now at work to make Georgia self-sus taining. Its effort is centered upon Increasing the output of grain but the enlightenment it brings and the enthusiasm it begets do not end with one product but spread naturally into all the fields of agriculture. When the State determines to raise more Corn and lear_3 how to do so, there will soon follow increased interest and achievement in food production as a whole. The production of live stock, a matter of im measurable importance to Georgia, depends, after all, upon a larger yield of corn and forage. Iowa, whose area is approximately the same as Georgia’s, sells annually two hundred million dollars worth of an imal products and at the same time ranks among the rich grain-growing States. The question has well been asked, if Georgia is, as she has been, short forty-eight million dollars’ worth of corn, how much more shall we have to produce to supply the present demand and, besides, furnish food, as does Iowa, for two hundred millions dollars’ worth of animals? The first essential in the development of Georgia cattle raising is an increase In our store of corn and kin dred products. To that great end, the work of the Boys’ Corn Clubs is directed. Furthermore, the progressive, businesslike meth ods which the corn clubs inaugurate and foster are of unlimited results of applying science to the soil and of supplementing energy with intellect. They are educational in the richest sense. The fact that the campaign of the corn, clubs is carried on at the very door of the farm house makes it count all the more definitely. It touches thousands of people who could scarcely be reached by any other means. Most important of all, it touches the mind and ambition of the boys themselves, showing them that on their native acres there is a wondrous world of opportun ity for achievement and substantial fame. The Georgia Corn Show, which opens at the cap- itol today, is the great annual rally of corn club workers and the great exposition of corn club re sults. It brings to Atlanta some three thousand ex hibits from more than one hundred counties and, what is supremely pleasing, it brings as our guests a thousand young Georgia farmers, the boys who have done the work and who are to be the torch- bearers and leaders of the State’s agricultural progr ress. To everyone of them, The Journal offers its cordial greeting and congratulation and assures them in behalf of the Atlanta people that they are welcome and honored within our gates. Even a man who admires a sensible girl may marry the other kind. A Great Poultry Show. "Good wine needs no bush,” ran the old legend; and the Southern International Poultry Show, which opened yesterday in Atlanta needs no particular commendation to public interest. These annual exhi bitions have earned a distinctive and lasting place In popular favor. They have grown continually more attractive to the rank and file and more useful to breeders and fanciers. Both for entertainment and instruction, they carry their own sufficient appeal to the people of the entire South. It was to be expected, therefore, that the 1913 Show would open under especially happy omens. Profiting by the series of successful shows that have gone before, it is more skillfully planned than any of them and the public response it wins is, from the outset, more emphatic. The prediction that seventy- five thousand people will visit the Auditorium during the week is well founded and conservative. Certainly, no one who is interested in poultry raising as a mat ter of profit or pleasure and no one who Is alert to opportunities for entertainment can afford to miss this really great exhibition. The Show presents more than four thousand birds, many of which are famous the world over and, as a reporter equally ingenious and veracious has said, “have had articles written about them in fourteen languages, including Scandinavian.” There are lordly roosters that might have served as model for Rostand’s “Chanteclere” and queenly hens to which Hans Christian Andersen might have turned for new lore in his fairy tales of Partlet. Besides these there are ducks, guineas, turkeys, doves, rab bits and whatnot, all gathered from the flower and chivalry of their kind. The educational and economic value of a poultry show like this cannot he reckoned. It is a keen stimulus to the home production of food and in divers other ways tends to increase the South’s mate rial Independence. Of particular note just now, how ever, Is the fact that it Is a wonderful show which everyone should see. The morning after is an occasion long to he for gotten—if possible. The Girls’ Canning Clubs. No feature of the Georgia Corn Show now in prog ress at the capitol is more remarkable than the ex hibits of the Girl’s Canning Clubs. The achievements of these charming little women are no less significant or praiseworthy than those of the young farmers who produced a hundred or more bushels of corn to the acre. One member of the Canning Clubs, Miss Clyde Sul livan, of Lowndes county, has made a record that should go down in the State’s history. She cultivated one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes from which she put up over two thousand cans and sold them at a net profit of one hundred and thirty-one dollars. Such industry and skill are an honor to Georgia. The spirit in which this fine work was performed will do more than anything else to enrich and up build rural interests. SUBCONSCIOUS FEARS BY DR. FRANK CRANF. (Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.) A young man writes me that he is afraid of thun derstorms, and asks if there is no way for him to overcome this weakness. “I am normal in every other respect,” he adds, “but notwithstanding my endeavors to fight off this nervousness I find it to be of no avail; it appears to be a sort of subconscious fear.” This is not a matter of ridicule, but a sample of very real and acute suffering to which many persons are subject by fear-panics due to various causes. Many women scream with terror at the sight of a mouse. There is no use telling them that mice will not hurt them. So doing you are addressing their reason, while the trouble lies not in their intelligence, it is a nervous disease. They scare , just as a horse shies at a newspaper flapping in the wind. Caesar Augustus was almost convulsed at the sound ot thunder. Tycho Brahe changed color and his legs shook under him on meeting a rabbit. Dr. Samuel Johnson would never enter a room left foot first. Talleyrand trembled at the mention of the word— death. Marshal Saxe was mortally afraid of a cat. Peter the Great could never be persuaded to cross a bridge, and, though he tried to master his terror, was unable to do so. I myself have never been able to rid myself of a fear of horses, and the tamest old nag gives me the creeps. And I know a senior in Wellesley college, a young lady of strong intelligence, who could be sent almost into convulsions by showing her a spider or cater pillar. To determine the cause of these fear-obsessions is a business for the psychologist. They seem to have nothing to do with the mind or the will, but to be, as my correspondent suggests, rooted somewhere in the subconsciousness. That these weaknesses can be entirely eradicated in a grown person is doubtful. It is about as difficult to uproot an ingrained fear as to get rid of a distaste for mutton. Certain strong natures can perhaps cure themselves, but the average man has to accommo date himself to his weakness and resist it the best he can. ' But the cruel part of this whole matter is that almost all o£ these fears are TAUGHT US WHEN WE ARE CHILDREN. Many a child’s mind is deliberately poisoned by fear-suggestions that are to plague him his life long. Whoever threatens a child, or frightens a child by the fear of thunder or lightning or the dark or ghosts or the bad man or death or hell or a vindictive Deity, should be flogged. Many a delicate child has been more horribly tor mented by suggested fears than he could ever have been hurt by corporal punishment. The most deply •■noial lesson any mother cap instill into her child is that he be UNAFRAID—of anything in life or death. And whoso teaches a child a fear has made an incurable wound in his soul. Senator Hoke Smith’s Record (Macon News.) The termination of the extra session of congress will mark the close of Senator Hoke Smith's second year In the United States senate. We cannot recall an instance in which any man has ever in so short a time attained so forceful a position in that body of distinguished statesmen nor more completely won pub lic confidence by a clear, strong- grasp of great public questions. From the day on which Hoke Smith en tered the senate he has been one of its towering and dominating figures and his record of two years is al most unapproachable in the list of things accom plished. Without indulging in anything spectacular he has devoted himself to the most practical matters that concern the people. Believing that the greatness and welfare of the country depend on the education and development of the growing generation, his first work was to take part in the creation of the children’s bu reau for the study of those problems that relate to the growth of the child in the broad meaning of that term. His speeches early in his senatorial career helped to give wise form to the abrogation of the Russian treaty and in handling the general arbitration treaties his speeches led to amendments which so shaped the qleasure as to protect the vital rights of this country and also save the southern states from the possibility of trouble over the fraudulent bonds issued by car petbag governments ot irresponsible negroes and scal awags. His fight on the gigantic pension grab aided the defeat of the Sherwood bill, thereby helping to save the people more than $60,000,000 annually. Almost sin gle-handed he defeated the misnamed employers’ com pensation bill with its injustice to employes of rail roads, a measure which would have nullified all that the workingmen employed by railroads had gained by the employers’ liability act, which the supreme court had sustained, and which the railroads sought to de stroy. A member of the committee on postoffices and post roads, he did important work in perfecting and passing the parcel post law. The division of markets in the department of agriculture, which is to work out the problems of marketing farm products, is one of the tasks which he has accomplished. His bill appropriating $3,^00,000 annually for exten sion work of agricultural colleges and experiment sta tions will undoubtedly he passed withlh the next few months.- His efforts for government aid to post roads will be successful and greatly add to the value of the parcel post. The interest which he is taking in plans looking to the time when tenant farmers will become home owners, developers and conservators of the soil, Instead of an ever-moving and ever-changing class of our population, will accomplish much, for it is known of all men that when Hoke Smith puts his shoulder to a task there is never halting nor turning back until it is accomplished. During his first year at the capital he -ook part in the nomination and election of the second Democratic president since the war and this year was conspicu ous in the reorganization of the senate that made it truly Democratic and responsive to the progressive thought of the people. As much as any other man he shaped the tariff bill and he will have part in shaping the currency bill and other measures of national im portance. A wonderful record is behind Hoke Smith and a greater future awaits him. The thousands who fol lowed him in the campaign of 1906, before this record had beer made, have reason to be gratified over the soundness of their judgment and the vindication of their faith. He was a great governor and he is a great senator, and those who supported him in his several campaigns, as well as those who opposed him, must, as patriotic Georgians, find satisfaction in the com manding position wnich he occupies in Washington. Pointed Paragraphs Where Is the old-fashioned severe winter? • * * Welcome to the corn club boys, and may they con tinue to raise two blades where only one grew before. ♦ * * Every man has his own idea of what a good time consists of. ... Most children are dissatisfied with the behavior of their parents. * • m Many a man’s conscience lies in a state of inno cuous desuetude until his wife begins to sit up and take notice. * • • After a bride has been trotting in double harness for three weeks she begins to say of her husband: “Oh, well, he isn’t any worse than lots of other men." ^OUNTRY Aiip TlMElTY OME topics CoHwero Brjnfi&UHJrtXTDM THE TRINITY OT EVILS. In the Congressional Record of November 26 you will find a speech made by Hon. W. H. Murray at Co lumbus, Ohio, at one of the greatest temperance meet ings ever held in the United States, the same meeting where former Governor Patterson made a most re markable deliverance, considering his former attitude to the liquor question when he was chief executive of Tennessee. Mr. Murray’s speech is too long for more than a synopsis of its statements, but his exposition THE POSTAL SERVICE I.—The Nation's Mail. BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. The biggest thing about the government of tho United States is not the president, nor congrooo, nor the army and navy, nor the supreme court. It la the postoffice. The postoffice is that department of the federal government tnat touches more people than any other and touches them oftener. The letter carrier in the city, the rural route carrier in the country, the postmaster in the village—they are our familiar frionds and it is through them that we see most of our gov ernment’s workings. ... The United States postoffice is the biggest business institution in the world. It employs more men than of what he termed the “Trinity of Evils” is well worth the attention of our Country Home readers. Said Mr. Murray: “There are three fundamental evils ever present and characteristic of a dense and congested population which I choose to term the Trin ity of Evils. They become the root of all evil in our American life and advanced civilization. I refer to the evils of liquor drinking, gambling and sexual de bauchery. * * * “A drunkard is fit neither for business nor a public office. He is not a successful saloon keeper. “A gambler makes of a professional man a vaga bond; of a merchant a bankrupt, and a defaulter of a public officer. A libertine, having no morals, is soon destitute of honor, veracity or integrity. “The drink habit is in the forefront, because of its own inherent evils, and because it is the cloak to cover and incubate the other two, Just as it covered the de bauchery of Alexander the Grea't, whose real downfall was that of a libertine. While a man may go to the ditch and o the gutter by drink, he may regain his will power and recover his health and become a good citizen, should he go to the ditch and the gutter by sexual excess and debauchery he is mentally, morally, physically and spiritually dead. “Gambling is a great evil, because it leads to the other two. Games of chance and gambling seem to run in the American blood. * * * The evil of gam bling in the American blood cannot be eradicated by law, nor can it create sobriety nor morality, nor that will power and self control that will enable the citi zen to throw the brakes upon his passions and appe tites. “We ought never to elect to public office a man of whom we would be ashamed to invite into our own homes. “In this connection permit me to quote from James Bryce’s work entitled ‘The American Commonwealth,’ in which he says: 'A prominent New Yorker said to me, speaking of one of the chief justices of that city, “I do not think him such a bad fellow; he has always been friendly to me, and would give me a midnight in junction or do anything else for me at a moment's notice, but, of course, he is the last person I would think of inviting to my house.” A moral reprobate!’ “What a scathing rebuke to New York’s judiciary was thus placed in print! This judge was a morai reprobate. Mr. James Bryce gave another warning when he said, ‘Will existing evils in America prove so obstinate and European immigration continue to de press the average of intelligence and patriotism among the voters?’ Here he touches the keynote of what portends the greatest evil that underlies our social fabric. America was founded upon Anglo-Saxon, Ger man and Scottish regard for integrity, morality and honesty and purity, and, above all, regard for the vir tue and purity of womanhood; but this regard is be coming weaker in most states of the union, not con fining itself to overcrowded cities. The virtue of the wife and mother, her pure character and blameless life, is the saving power of the human race.” Mr. Murray was correct. Against this “blameless life” in wives and mothers we have to contend with the drink habit, the gambling habit and the libertine habit in men. These evils, the deadly trinity of evils, are the things which menace society and Which have been the curse of our modern civilization for a hundred years. There are lewd women, but they are the exception, not the rule. There are gambling women, many of them (and they seem to be ignorant of what their ex ample is doing for their own sons), and there are drinking women, more than we imagine, but it is well understood that this trinity of evils are largely the work of men, and mainly confined to the influence of men. The legislation of men for the last century has been diverted into manifest disregard of official duty against this trinity of evils. The standard is so low in Georgia that a ten-year-old girl is considered to be the custodian of her own virtue! Horror of horrors! We make laws curbing this trinity of evils, and our weak officials fail to enforce them! A CHEERFUL THANKSGIVING HYMN. I find In a church hymnal the following: “Swell the anthem, raise the song; Praises to our God belong; Saints and angels join to sing Praises to the Heavenly King. Blessings from His liberal hand, Flow around thik happy land, Kept by Him, no foes annoy. Peace and freedom we enjoy “Here beneath a virtuous sway, any other business enterprise on earth. It collects and expends more money than any other single organi zation known to mankind. Other aticras are as big, and some of them, have postal systems that are more thorough, but no ether people uses the mails to the ex tent that Americans use them. Now that the postal s-vings banks are organized and the parcel post is being developed, the American postoffice soon will be as thorough as it is already extensive. ... The United States has one-eighteenth of the popu lation of the world and about the same proportion of ‘the landed area of the earth. Yet it handles one-third of all the mail matter of all the postal systems in, the world. And this, mark you, was the case before the parcel post was established in the United States, al though such systems prevailed in other countries and a great proportion of the mail of other countries con sisted of parcels. When the parcel post is fully devel oped here, It is probable that the American postoffice. will handle nearly one-half of all the mail matter of the world. • • • v The public is .1 familiar with Its mail service that it seldom pauses to think of its extent. It knows, in a general way, that it is a service that now demands one-fourth of all the annual expenditures of .the United States government, and that it annually handles soft)#_ 17,000,000,000 pieces of mail. But the real meaning of the expenditure of $250,000,000 is too difficult to grasp, and the handling of 17,000,000,000 pieces of mall too large a task to be pictured. An American dollar bill Is a little over six inches long, yet the annual expen ditures of the postoffice department would make near ly nine belts of bills around the earth. A rapid count er can count a hundred in a minute. At this rate it would take an army of 7,600 people, working twelve flours a day and 818 days a year to count the pieces of mall handled annually by the postal service. And when one recalls the number of handlings that each piece of mail requires, varying from three times to a dozen, the immensity of the task begins to appear. • • * If there Is any Individual In any part of the world who has any better method of collecting the postal revenues than through the uae of the postage stamp, that person would he received with open arms by the postoffice department. The department Is the recipient of many suggestions as to substitutes for postage stamps, but It reports that to date nothing bar been developed which embodies all of the very practical and direct advantages of the qtamp. It is admitted that there 10 a possibility that a successful substitute will ye be found, but the departmental officials add that the tendency now is to extend rather than to curtail the stamp system. It requires approximately 18,000,- 000,000 stamps and pieces ot stamped paper to accom modate the postal needs of the people of the country, and they come in 121 varieties and denominations. The 1 and 2-cent stamps Represent ton out of every thir teen Issued by the government. Including postal cards and newspaper wrappers. • • • One of the striking developments in the postal serv ice of the United States has been the increase In the salaries paid to those who handle the malls. They In creased $23,000,000 In four years, while the number of employes Increased by 12,000. The average clerk In a postoffice got a $111 raise in his salary, the average letter carrier a $71 raise, the avreage railway postal clerk a $91 raise, and the average rural carrier a $198 raise. • • • Thee are approximately 68,000 postoffices in the United States where the natlor’s mail Is received and dispatched. Of these all but about 8,000 are fourth- class postoffices, where the postmasters receive a per centage of the face value of the stamps they cancel as their compensation in lieu of salary. Where the cancellation of stamps dpes not exceed $60 per quarter the postmaster gets the full face value, and it is esti mated that nearly 21,000 postmasters make no returns of the revenues from the dispatch of mall from their offices. From this It will be seen that some 86,000 postmasters are working for the government for $200 a year or less. The average compensation of the fourth-class postmasters of the United States, of ’ whom there are nearly 60,000, in less than $21 a month, and out of this they must furnish their own quarters and equipment. It Is little wonder that one of the principal offenses against the postal laws Is that of postmasters who pad their receipts by claiming to' have cancelled stamps that they did not cancel. • • • May we cheerfully obey, Never feel oppression’s rod. Ever own and worship God. Hark! the voice of Nature sings Praises to the King of Kings! Let us join the choral song, And the grateful notes prolong.” The blessing of peace is even greater than '' blessing of prosperity. Those of us who remember the wartime of the bloody ’60s can never forget the crav ing we had for peace and the cessation of civil strife. We went to churches to engage in religious worship, and the hearts of the people went out In earnest pray er for peace, when the soldiers might return to their homes and the people might expect to sleep quietly in tneir homes free from war’s wild alarms. Oh! what can measure the blessings of peace and freedom, save the ores who drank the dregs of an overflowing bitter cup of sorrow when martial law was the recognized law in the land? “Praises to our God belong” while ’Peace and freedom we enjoy.” The Woodrow Wilson victories in Mexico continue to grow. Editorials in Brief They have called a nation-wide boycott on eggs. But how are we to get the nog?—Augusta Chronicle. The old riddle of Humpty-Dumpty will have to be revised. Eggs don’t fall any more. They go up.—Kansas City Star. Twenty Oklahoma men have refused offers of two Government jobs. Times must be good in the cotton country.—St. Louis Republic. The postal service has been going forward at a marvelous rate In recent years. In only twenty-five years the number of pieces of mall handled and the number of postoffices have Increased fivefold, while the number of stamps sold has been multiplied by six. In nine years the postal business of the nation has doubled, and we handle as much mail in twelve days now as was handled in a full year at the outbreak of the Civil yar. We spend more for mall service every day In the year now than we spent for the entire year now than we spent for the entire year when the second war with England began. ... The motto of the present postal administration is efficiency, it wants to make the service the model of the world, serving the people in every way that Is consistent with sound business policy. Ths postlffices at Bostdn, Richmond and Washington are to be stand ardized, and used as offices where every worthy sug gestion for the Improvement of the mall service will be tried out; If it proves useful it will then be ex tended to the other postoffices of the country. The same policy will be pursued In the case of second, third and fourth-class postoffices, using a small group of offices for experimentation with the purpose of proving the merit of all proposed Innovations before applying them to the country at large. ... The present administration hopes ultimately to be able to change the money order service In such a way that a postoffice money order can be paid at any post- office rather than at one office only. Its activities will be directed mainly to the development of the parcel post system, with which 1*. hopes to bring consumer and producer into direct contact; the postal savings system, out of which it hopes to develop a national school for teaching the art of saving to the improvi dent adult and the growing child; and the' money order system, which it hopes to make the poor man’s check book. • • • Oil and diplomacy do not mix—when Oil is rep resented by efforts of foreign concessionaires to ob tain rights in Latin America that run counter to the principles of the Monroe Doctrine in the new inter pretation given this article of American faith by President Woodrow Wilson.—New York Herald. Huerta’s cable to a Paris newspaper that "the economic situation has improved” probably means that the old man teas proven some trusty comrade guilty of possession \>f a few pesos and ordered that the property revert to the President.—Courier-Jour- nai, . But in the meantime it is not proposed to overlook other parts of the postal service. It will pay $1,000 to any employe who will invent or devise a labor saving device which it can use; and it has a reward ready for the outsider who will show it how to save money by curtailing: labor or by increasing efficiency. • • • With the postal savings banks taking all the small savings of the working people of the country and con verting them into interest-bearing funds in their be half and into active working funds in behalf of the business world, and with the parcel post being devel oped along lines that will permit the consumer and th« producer to clasp hands across the sea of middlemen’s profits, the postal service of the future promises to prove even a greater factor in the economic develop- n.cnt of the country. 4 1