Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, February 01, 1916, Page 4, Image 4
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, OA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Bntered at the Atlanta Poatofrlce aa Mall Matter of the Stcond Class. JAMES *■ GRAY " President and Editor. ■UBSCRXPTIOH FRXCIL Twejve months T6 ° Six months- <Oc Three months 2&c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for ear«r aellvery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by specia< leased wires into our office- It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong d; pertinents of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal commis sion allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRADLEY, C’jFcjiAation Manager. only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. L H. .limbrough. Chas H. Woodliff and L J. Farris. We will be responsible only for money paid o the above-named traveling represent atives • IOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label usea for addre»s>< your paper «bow« 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, bo sure to mention your old. aa well as your new address. If os a route p’ease give toe intj Bimber. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back nuur Iwrs. Bamittance should be eent by postal order or registered stall. Address all orders and notice* for tills department io j THE SEMI WEEKLY JOCBXAL, Atlanta. Ga. j Hopes of a Merchant Marine. There are cheering signs that legislation for the establishment of an American merchant marine will be enacted at the present session of Congress. Democrats who opposed the original ship purchase bill have agreed to support a measure that will meet their objections to permanent government ownership. That has been the only point at seri ous issue among the majority of the House or the Senate, and when that is disposed of a satisfactory bill should pass with little delay. The plan now being considered provides for the purchase or construction of ships that shall com prise a naval auxiliary in time of war and a na tional merchant marine in time of peace. These vessels, according to Washington dispatches, are to be leased to corporations or individuals for service In oversea trade, particularly between the United States and South America. It is presumed that if private interests will not participate in the enter prise. the Government itself will operate the ships. Whatever leases are made will be on the condition that the merchant fleet shall be at the navy’s com mand in case of need. Such a measurj will contribute a vast deal to the country’s preparedness for war anu peace alike. If is needful as a measure of defense and is impera tive from the standpoint of our commercial inter ests. Inquiries made a few months ago showed that the freight then awaiting shipment in the port of New York alone would fill five or six times as many vessels as were available. So long as this condition obtains. American commerce will be at a grievous disadvantage if not in actual danger. Though our export trade is nq,w enormous, we are really no better off as regards shipping facilities than at the outbreak of the European war, when ninety per cent of our oversea trade was carried in foreign bottoms.- The fact is, we are worse off today than ever. Ocean freight rates have ad vanced until tn some cases they are prohibitive. To peaceful parts of the world, they are from three to four times higher than before the war, and to Eu ropean neutrals they are from six to nine times the normal- On some routes, for example that between the United States and Australia, the freight cost not infrequently exceeds the price of the cargo. These conditions hinder and discourage the up building of our commerce in the very regions, such as South America and the Orient, that will be most important to us after the war, when Europe will begin again to supply its own needs and to compete with us for trade supremacy. The United States never can develop its opportunities in foreign com merce nor be secure in such business as it already holds until it has a merchant marine of its own. Dependence on the ships of other nations is filled with handicaps and perils. The distress of the cot ton market in 1914 might have been prevented or, at least, alleviated had we possessed a merchant fleet of our own instead of being at the mercy of belligerent carriers. If there was ever a doubt that private interests are unable to meet this need as fully and promptly aa it ought to be met, the record of the last seven teen months gives a conclusive answer. While there has been marked activity in ship-building yards, the disparity between the number of vessels de manded and those available Is as great as ever, If BOt greater. Only the Government itself is strong enough to meet this emergency. As a matter of common justice to the country. It is to be hoped that legislation to solve this urgent problem will be agreed upon and made operative in the near future. Markets for Our Peace Products. If we are to escape an industrial reaction after the war, our manufacturers must develop oversea markets for their products of peace. This timely advice, which has been on the tongues of far sighted observers for seasons past, was urged with particular emphasis at the recent meeting of the National Foreign Trade Council at New Orleans. It is not to be expected that our vast volume of European exports will continue when the belliger ents declare a truce. Mr. Alba B. Johnson, presi dent of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, reminded the delegates to the New Orleans convention that many of the war orders which now swell our for eign trade balance are subject to Instant cancella-» tion. A sudden stoppage of that kind, unless dis counted well In advance, would be broadly de pressing. American industry now thrives upon conditions that are extraordinary. It must be pre pared to bold its own In a normal world, if its prosperity is to remain undtminished. The readiest markets for our peace products, it appears, are in Latin America, and among the surest means of cultivating tLuse markets is the investment of capital there. “Trade follows the money.” and the New York Commercial tersely remarks. The trade achievements of Great Brit ain and Germany in Latin America have been due very largely to their service to Latin America’s financial needs. They have helped to build rail roads and to promote other developments. As a natural result. Central and South American trade flowed responsivlely to the European creditors. Now that Europe has been forced to withdraw these accommodations, and for years to come will be unable to resume them, the United States has a broad opportunity to intrench itself In the interests of its southern neighbors. If a man dnes nothing, he makes a mistake, and If he attempts to do tilings, bis mistakes are many. THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1916. England Fully Armed. Under England’s compulsory service law, which becomes effective tomorrow, some two mil lion men will be added to the nation's fighting forces. Not all these will be called to the front or kept under arms, for many will be needed at home in the war’s industrial tasks. But the moral as well as the military effect of this great muster will be none the less potent. England knows, and the world knows, that at last she is aroused and is ready to put forth her utmost strength. Apprehensions that compulsory service would encounter serious opposition have dwindled away. The bill passed on its final reading in the House of Commons by a vote of three hundred and eighty-three to thirty-six. Protests still are heard from certain groups of the labor element, but it is significant that in the trade unionists conference recently held at Bristol the delegates, represent ing two million or more organized workingmen, voted by a tremendous majority to stand stanchly by the Government in waging the war to a victori ous end. The true mind and heart of British labor was voiced by James Sexton, representative of the Dock Workers, who declared, in reply to the anti war faction: “If Germany wins, nothing else on God’s earth matters.’* 'No doubt there will be con tinued protests, and in some cases, perhaps, resist ance to conscription as a theory, but the country’s sentiment surges too strongly the other way for these eddies to matter. Lloyd-George estimates that, directly, the com pulsion measure affects hardly more than half a million men. There are nearly nine hundred thou sand married men, how’ever, who have offered their services on the condition that they be called to the colors after all the single men of eligible age and circumstance have enlisted; and besides these, there are upwards of half a million single men who have volunteered but who feel that the “slackers" should be whipped into line. Thus conscription, if such it may be termed in this instance, will be valuable chiefly In vindicating the vast patriotic majority against a recreant few. The idea that the English spirit has lagged behind its traditions is not borne out by the fact that six million men answered the call for vol unteers. Some of them were rejected because of physical disabilities, and large numbers were re quired for the munition works and railroads and mines. But today England owns the greatest army she ever produced. "We have three million soldiers,” says Lloyd-George, “and by spring we shall have four million—solid, fit and well equipped.’’ There was a woeful lack of prepared ness; there were delays and muddling, so that in the first year of the w’ar British land power count ed for only a fraction of its potential strength. But, if we may judge by the signs of the day, England at last is girded, body and soul, for the fight that she means never to give up. A Tariff Commission. Sometimes it takes more courage and certainly more intelligence to change one’s mind than it does to maintain one’s convictions. A year ago the President opposed the establishment of a tariff commission; today he favors it. He prefers to be consistent with the country’s needs as they are rather than with his own views as they were. In reality, however, he is not at all inconsist ent. The kind of tariff commission to which he objected a year ago was distinctly different from that which he now advocates. The purpose of the one w’as political, of the other it is economic. The Republicans sought a tariff commission as a means of readjusting import duties to suit special inter ests; they were looking backward to the old days of arbitrarily high protection. Mr. Wilson favors a commission as a means of acquiring exact and comprehensive knowledge in the light of which the tariff can be readjusted, as occasion requires, to the country's common Interests; he is looking for ward to the new days and new conditions that will follow the w’ar. As he expressed it in his re cent New York address: “There is going on in the world, under our eyes, an economic revolution. No man un ’derstands that revolution; no man has the ele ments of it clearly in his mind. And mem bers of Congress are too busy, their duties are too multifarious and distracting to make it possible, within a sufficiently short space of time, for them to master the change that is coming. There is so much to understand that we have not the data to comprehend that I for one would not dare to leave the Govern ment without the adequate means of inquiry." It is to meet these conditions that a non-par tisan board, working on broadly scientific lines, is needed. By that means, the tariff will be kent out of politics, and the welfare of American industry and of the American public will be protected. Beyond Imagination. The total British casualties in all fields of the war up to January 9 are reported at five hundred and forty-nine thousand, four hundred and sixty seven, of which about one hundred and twenty nine thousand represent the killed, and the re mainder the wounded and missing. The meaning of these figures becomes clearer when it is recalled that during the entire four years of the American War Between the States the number of men on the ’Northern side who were killed in battle or who died of wounds barely ex ceeded one hundred and ten thousand, while the fatalities on the Southern side were appreciably fewer. When to the. British casualties are added the estimated losses of the other belligerents, the total reaches the staggering figure of two million killed, approximately four million wounded and two million captured. In all history there is nothing to which this vast sacrifice can be compared. General Francis V. Greene observes in a recent number of the Outlook that in our war of the ’Sixties, of whicn we were wont to speak as “the greatest conflict of modern times,” the number of men actually under arms was never more than a million, three hundred thousand; and that in the Napoleonic wars from 1796 to 1815 “the largest army ever assembled was that which Napoleon led into Russia in 1812, numbering somewhat in excess of five hundred thousand.” In the present war, it. is estimated, some thirteen million men are un der arms; and. as General Greene points out, the German forces alone engaged in Russia and in the West are more than six times as great as Napoleon’s greatest army. We speak of the magnitude of this war, but the fact is we cannot grasp its huge and terrible pro portions. Not even a Miltonic imagination could picture iL Your Family Doctor • BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE. MOST people take a far too narrow view of the functions of the family doctor. They regard him simply as a man trained in the treatment of bodily disease. They call on his services only when some member of the family is man ifestly ill. Often they wait until illness is quite ad vanced before they send for him. But the family doctor should be called on to do much more tlfhn treat disease. His aid should be sought in the great work of pre venting disease and conserving the family health. Reg ularly, once or twice a year, every member of the family should be thoroughly examined by him. In this way unsuspected weaknesses, perhaps even disease in early stages, will be detected, and preventive or remedial measures may be recommended. Also the family doctor should be consulted with regard to matters of household hygiene. Many of the requirements for continued health — proper ventilation, drainage, precautions against food infection, etc. —are neglected simply because of igno rance of their real importance. The head of every family should make it a point to obtain from his physician all the information he can give regarding sanitary safeguards. Further still, the family doctor's advice should be asked in respect to mental as well as physical health. This is particularly important as concerns the younger members of the family. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that in the up bringing of the young there should always be close co-operation between parent, teacher, and family doc tor. As Dr. George W. Jacoby, in his informative book, ’•Child Training As An Exact Science," well says: "The basis of all pedagogic training must be the there exist a healthy mind, one capable of harmonious development. Protection of the body against disease bearing influences which react upon the psychic func tions, or the removal of an existing disorder, does not belong to the domain of pedagogic science, but is part of medicine and hygiene. "For this reason the teacher and educator cannot repel the co-operation of the physician. "We may go still further and maintain that in the case of healthy children as well, the science of medicine is a necessary adjunct to pedagogy. "There can be no doubt that many teachers and educators, through an inadequate understanding or knowledge of the psychology of childhood, commit grave errors which manifest themselves in overtaxa tion, excessive severity, and a disregard of the require ments of school hygiene; and which, sooner or later, result in disordered development of the child. “Then, too, there are children who, occupying a bor der line between health and disease, for the time being do not manifest any decided deficiency, and therefore give the impression that they are normally developed, but who, because of their slight neuropathic heritage, easily break down as a result of increased pedagogic treatment. “In such cases the pedagogic task of medicine is a prophylactic (preventive) one, while wherever the psychopathic inferiority is marked, it must be a ques tion of remedial influence.’’ Clearly, there is much that the family doctor can do which at present he is doing only in exceptional cases. When he will begin to do it more extensively de pends chiefly, of course, on public sentiment. The sooner this inclines to the view here set forth, the better for the public. (Copyright, 1916, by H. A. Bruce.) For the Class Room BY DR. FRANK CRANE. THE class in newspaper reading will now stand up. Your teacher today is going to give you a test on war news. Please answer promptly, but if you do not know, say so. 1. What is meant by the triple entente? The triple alliance? 2. Name the Balkan states. 3. What language do the inhabitants of Bulgaria speak? 4. What is the capital df Rumania? Os Bulgaria? Os Serbia? Os Montenegro? Os Albania? 5. Why did the allies think Greece ought to have joined them in resisting the destruction of Serbia? 6. What and where is Gallipoli? The Vosges? Salonikl? 7. Is the ruler in any other country than Russia called a czar? 8. What is the difference between an emperor and a king? 9. What relation is the king of England to the em peror of Germany? 10. Who is the king of Prussia? 11. W'hat is a dirigible? A monoplane? A peri scope? A mitrailleuse? A Zeppelin? 12. Name six neutral countries. , 13. What is the Monroe doctrine? Pan-American ism? 14. Why does our secretary of state, in his letters to foreign powers, sign his name simply "Lansing” without giving his first name or initials? 15. What is an ultimatum? 16. What reasons does Germany give for the be ginning of the war? What reasons do France and Eng land give? 17. Why do people think it is wrong for one man to kill another, and right for an army of men to kill wholesale? 18. What language do the people of Switzerland speak? The people of Belgium? 19. What other republics are there in Europe be sides France and Switzerland? 20. What is meant by the term "hyphenated Amer ican?” 21. Tell something about the following persons: Brand Whitlock, Bethmann-Hollweg, Poincare, Asquith, Grey, Joffre, Kitchener. f 22. How was the Lusitania case finally settled? 23. Where are these places: Riga, Bagdad, Warsaw, Monastir, the Marne, Louvain, Hartlepool? Te some thing concerning each plgce in connection with the present war. 24. What does “persona non grata” mean? Soixante quinze Boche? Piou-piou? Tommy Atkins? Cos sack? Hussar? 25. Why do they kill spies when they capture them, yet treat kindly the prisoners taken in battle? 26. What is meant by Italia irridenta? 27. What is a censor? A minister? A consul? A charge d’affaires? An envoy extraordinary? (Copyright, 1916, by Fran'.. Cr .ne.) Editorial Echoes. Mr. Wilson has handled the foreign affairs of this country during the most trying period since the Cival War. He alone knows of all the difficul ties and embarrassments that he. has encountered, and he alpne knows the weight of the responsi bility which he had to bear alone, for it is a responsibility that cannot be shared or shifted. He alone knows what obstacles our unpreparedness has interposed to the successful assertion and maintenance of our rights “as a consensus of civ ilized peoples has defined them.” No other man's opinion on the need of national defense is of any value whatever in comparison with his opinion, for he has been through the mill. He can speak with an authority that is denied to everybody else. We can understand why men of earnest and honest convictions might oppose the President’s program on the ground that it does not go so far as the exigencies of the situation demand, but we are un able to understand why any intelligent citizen should assert that it goes too far. When we con sider the position in which the United States is already placed through no fault of its own, when, as the President says, “we do not know what the circumstances of another month or another day may bring forth,” it is the sheerest folly for any man to assume that we ought to act as if we were living on another planet, and make no provision for eventualities. —New York World. THE American people seem to be pretty generally agreed that the United States as a nation is facing a crisis and ought to prepare to meet it. There have also sprung up a large number of different ideas as to how we ought to prepare. Unless we can agree upon a method, the result will be either a com promise or nothing at all. So it is for you to care fully consider these different ways of getting ready and decide which one you are going to support. • • • In the first place, th«*re are the pacificists. These ladies and gentlemen believe that we should prepare to assume our place as an international force by abol ishing the army and navy and meeting belligerents with argument and persuasion. This method is sim ple, Inexpensive and actuated by the highest ideals. But it is purely experimental, and for this reason does not appeal to the majority of practical-minded Amer icans as a proper expedient in a crisis. • a a Those who agree that we can best insure peace by preparing to fight are very much divided as to how we should go about it. All of them state that we should increase our navy, and there is only one way to do this; namely, by building more ships and manning them. When it comes to land forces, however, it is more dif ficult to agree upon a method. • • • To strengthen the regular army, would seem the most direct and the easiest way to increase our land, forces. All advocates of preparedness are agreed that we should Increase the regular army, but to recruit all of our necessary strength In this way is impracti cable because of the tremendous expense. Half a million men are needed for the proper defense of con tinental United States in case of war. To support a regular army of this size would be an unjustifiable burden. The regular army, therefore, will be made only large enough to police our over-seas possessions and give us a mobile force in continental .America of perhaps 50,000 men—enough to take care of Internal and border troubles. • • • This leaves about 400,000 troops to be raised from among the citizens of the United States, and it is here that the great differences of opinion become manifest. There are three principal methods by which these troops might be raised; namely, by Introducing com pulsory military service, by strengthening the state militia, or by using the present volunteer army sys tem, with modifications, to raise a force of the re quired size in time of peace. Each of these methods has a strong backing. The latter is the socalled con tinental army plan, which is being advocated by the administration. • • « All military experts assert that compulsory mil itary service is the only effective way to be prepared for war, and that the United States will never be safe against attack until this plan Is adopted. The abstract argument in favor of compulsory service is practically perfect If you grant that the nation should be defended at all. For it must, then, be the duty of the citizens to defend It, and a duty is essentially compulsory. To wait until there is war and then rely upon volunteers for defense is in reality about as practicable as waiting until the country faces bank ruptcy and then calling upon volunteers to pay taxes. Compulsory service in this country would probably mean that every able-bodied American male would serve one year of his life, probably the twenty-first year, as a soldier, and would thereafter be subject to call for military service. It Is estimated that one year of compulsory service would give the United States an army of from 750,000 to a million men. Thus even six months of compulsory service, which would be enough training to make a fair soldier of a man, would probably give us the necessary force of four hundred thousand. • • • The chief practical objection against this plan is that it would take more men away from industry than were absolutely necessary for defense. This objection could probably be largely overcome by in telligent regulation. The real objection to the plan is that the American people do not want it. At least, NEW YORK, Jan. 29. —The first famous "war bride” of Wall street has demonstrated its fruitfulness. Bethlehem Steel's 30 per cent dividend on its common stock is quite a healthy product, thank you! A list of Bethlehem's largest shareholders (there are 150,000 shares of common stock outstanding) is headed by its president, Charles M. Schwab, who is reported to own 50,000 shares; then some 41,000 shares are held for a number of other officers of the company, and the next in line are two sons of Samuel Untermyer with 8,800 shares. The Untermyer shares are part of a total of 15,000, which Samuel Untermyer bought some years ago; he has said that they cost him less than S2O a share, and that he put money into them at that low price because he had faith in Mr. Schwab. It was a richly rewarded faitn; the reward came far sooner than Mr. Untermyer expected it, for it is said that when he received his stock certificates he called his two sons to him and said: "Boys, I bought this for you. It may be that 1 shall not see any return from that stock, but some day it will pay big dividends." In raising Bethlehem Steel to a stock that pays S3O a share Mr. Schwab has placed himself at the very top of American steel masters. • • • New Orleans this week will entertain some hundreds of millionaires and foreign trade experts at the third foreign trade convention. To go over the list of dele gates is like thumbing a list of prize Income tax payers. That would be the reader's first impression after noting that the special train from New York bore such a freight of big steel, equipment powder, electrical, banking, engineering, and steamship ipagnates as James A. Farrell, president of the Steel trust; Mr. Grif fith and Mr. Coster, of the Westinghouse company; Mr. Fowler and Mr. Franklin, of the Grace Steamship Line and the International Mercantile Marine; Willard Straight, of the new American International corpora tion. A second reading of the list of delegates, however, reveals a sprinkling of professors and department of commerce students! “How is this?” a Wall street observer asks. "What have the book and theory men got to do with building up foreign trade?” It is a pertinent question. They haven't had much to do with our own industries —that is, until the last few years, during which Germany has shown how to make her professors a commercial asset. "Willie!" cried Sir. -Hotspur, while the family were at breakfast, "how many times must I teM you not to jump up from the table and walk around the room?” “I was only goin’ to —” "I don't care what you were going to do! No well bred person jumps up from the table and capers around the floor. It Is extremely impolite and to others most annoying. Take your seat this instant and remember what I have told you. “Yes, sir,” said Willie. But the next night, when Willie and his little brothers and sisters were snugly tucked in bed, Mr. and Mrs. Hotspur went out to the theater and to supper. “Qime on, Clara,” cried Mr. Hotspur, jumping up from the table in the restaurant. “If that fat coppie over there can fox trot in public I guess we can. Come on!" Moral —Consistency ends at home. —Puck. • • • The following should be appreciated by our friend, the angler, who must be weary of having his state ments doubted: At the monthly meeting of a certain homing society one of the members related an interesting experience. He had, he said, recently sold a couple of "squeakers” —very young pigeons—to a man whose cote was 200 miles away. He sent them off by train, and was HOW SHALL WE PREPARE? BY FKEDXBIC I. HASKIN GOSSIP ABOUT MONEY BY. JOHN M. OSKISON. QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES so say all of the legislators, and the secretary of war and other high officials concur. They say that the American people would regard compulsory service as an infringement upon their liberty, and that they are not convinced of the necessity of such a step for national defense. So compulsory military service, while conceded by all to be the most practicable and effective step, is not actively supported by anyone. « • • There are a good many congressmen who would like to see our land forces increased by giving eral aid to the militia, thus encouraging enlistment Mi that body. This plan is supported by congressmen, as it would make *hem popular with the local militia. All students of the situation are agreed, however, shat an effective army could not possitly be bull* up In this way. The constitution makes it impossible to put the state militia, as such, under federal control. It must remain under the control of forty-eight dif ferent states, and an army thus divided would violate the first principle of* military organization, ’which is centralized control. The United States government could not insure itself in any way as to the efficiency or strength of state militia. It could merely subsidize these organizations, and trust them to do the rest. • • • The remaining plan under consideration is that, which has been drawn by the administration and laid before the congressional committees by the secretary of war. It has been called the continental army plan, and is simply a method for raising a volunteer army in time of peace. • • • This plan, in brief, proposes to raise 400,000 volun teers in three annual increments of 133,000 men each. The country would be divided up into districts, the present congressional districts probably being used, and each of them would be requested to furnish its quota of men. If the congressional districts were used as a basis, each of them would be required to furnish 133,000 men annually. These men would enlist for three years and would be on furlough for three years. • • • During his three years of enlistment, however, this proposed volunteer would serve probably not more than two months a year. This period of annual service has been suggested by the secretary of war. He, however, states expressly that the details of the plan should be left open in the law, to be provided by regulation. The essentials of the plan are that the volunteers would enlist in time of peace and agree to serve for a few months or weeks every year until they had become competent soldiers, while for another period of years they would be subject to call. • • • T’re advocates of this plan depend upon the public sentiment in favor of national preparedness to insure a sufficient enlistment. They believe that men would enlist in this force much more readily than in the militia, because the continenUl army would be a body for federal defense only, and could not be called upon for police duty as is the militia. There are about 129.- 000 men in the state militia. If a little more than three times this number enlist in the continental army, the desired force will be reached. • • • The objection to this plan is that it does not insure any force at all. There is also a drawback in the fact that it will become a aort of a rival to the state militia and that these two organizations may contend for men and money to the detriment of both. On the other hand, the provision that state and militia men may enlist in the continental army without change of rank may do much to obviate the latter difficulty. • ♦ • The advocates of the continental army plan admit its drawbacks, but say that it is the best plan whic-i can be drawn in view of the present state of public sentiment and the legal difficulties. This plan, how ever, will undoubtedly foster our growing nationalism. All sections will have a personal share.and pride in this new volunteer army, and that alone will be worth millions. Had there been a continental army raised in this way in 1860, there could never have been a Civil j war. Now the book men are to be given a chance to get in the very front of this new campaign to win world trade for the American business man. • • • Probably the only individual in our time whose fail ure could be compared in importance with that of a railway company is old Josiah V. Thompson, of Union town, Pa. Thompson failed about a year ago, with liabilities of some $40,000,000. His failure wrecked a national bank that was said to be the strongest, in ratio of surplus to capital, of any in the country. There yet remain about $25,000,000 of debts to be liquidated, but it is said that the coal lands in Thompson’s name are worth some $50,000,000, so the task of the “reorganization committee" which is in charge of the property does nor appear at all hopeless. Thompson worked alone —no corporation for him! He fought some very powerful coal and steel -interests until he could stand up no longer. Now, in the most approved modern fashion, he is to be reorganized by a committee which includes some very well-known bank ers, coke and coal magnates, a steel man, and a pub lisher of Mr. Thompson's home town. Samuel Unter myer, whose activities as a financial lawyer have in creased remarkably since he attacked the money trust in hearings before congress committees, is counsel to the committee. • • • Two New York bankers told the other day. in a hearing before a legislative committee, how the bankers saved the credit of New York City at the outbreak of the European war. You will remember that veij soon after the war broke, the city had to meet a payment of $80,000,000 due to British lenders, and that financial conditions were such that it cost the city 6 per cent to borrow money through the bankers to meet the debt. Henry P. Dawison, of J. P. Morgan & Co., and Francis L. Hine, head of the First National bank, were the bankers called before the legislative committee to criticize the city’s financial system. They did this freely. * The gist of their criticisms was that New York is a reckless borrower, and for the sake of the bankers* peace of mind they hoped the city would never again have to appeal to them in such a strait. It may seem incredible to some of us who imagine that the big Wall street bankers are constantly plotting to get everybody to mortgage the future, but the bank ers are urging upon New York the pay-as-you-go pol icy. It is a good one, by the way. astounded to find them back in the old cote*a couple of days later? There was a •P-’nful silence, broken at length by the president’s “Wonderful!” “You doubt my word?” demanded the narrator of the story. "Not a bit of it!” was the reply. "It's a strange coincidence, that’s all. I sold the very same man a setting of eggs in the middle of June. Before the end of the month those birds had hatched out and had flown back to me! Homing instinct’s a wonderful thing!” • • • A «man entered a grocery store and ordered some eggs. “That man always buys fresh eggs,” whispered a . small egg, peeping out from the depths of the basket. “Huh!” scoffed the big egg on top, “yuh can’t tel) me that. I wasn’t laid yesterday.”—Judge. • • • “So my daughter has consented to become your wife. Have you fixed the day of the wedding?” “I will leave that to her.” “Will you have a church or private wedding?" "Her mother can decide that.” "What have you to live on?” “I will leave that entirely to you, air."