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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA. GA, 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Catered at the Atlanta Pas tollice as Mail Matter of the
Second Class.
JAMIS B. GUAY,
President and Editor.
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V - -
Another Mexican Raid.
The Mexican raid on the Texas frontier, similar
In many respects to the massacre at Columbus,
proves the emptiness of Carranza’s claim that his
troops are now capable of dealing effectively with
the bandit gangs It proves also the woeful in
adequacy of the t nited States army, on its present
basis, to protect the border country. After what
has happened 'at Glenn Springs and Boquillas,
there can be r.o further warrant or excuse for pro
posing a withdrawal of the American expedition
at any definite -.ate; but there should be a speed
ing up of the military bill now awaiting final ac
tion in Congress-
Interestingly enough the latest forays upon
American communities were conducted from Gen
eral Carranza's native State, Coahuila, where his
power, he insisted, was virtually unchallenged.
Reports differ as to the number of brigands who
swooped over the border from that region, some
dispatches estimating them at fifty and others at
several hundred. In any case, the fact that such
outlawry could gather head at a center where the
de facto government is avowedly at its strongest,
is an ironic commentary on that government’s
claims. There, is a suspicion, moreover, that de
tachments of Carranza's own troops took part In
this incursion. Some two weeks ago the members
of the Carranza garrison at Boquillas, a Mexican
point just across the Rio Grande from the Texas
town of the same name, disappeared; and the
rumor was that they had deserted to Villa’s forces.
It is noteworthy, tn this connection, that reports
from the territory now occupied by General Per
shing refer to increasing desertions from the Con
stitutionalist troops to Vllla-
However this may be, it is manifest that Car
ranza is far from mastery of the situation even in
sections where he has professed to be most power
ful, much less in such turbulent country as that of
Chihuahua and Sonora. He cannot expect, there
fore. that the United .States will consider with
drawing fts punitive expedition until he has given
better evidence of his ability to put down outlawry
and safeguard the American border. Indeed, the
recent outrages at Glenn Springs and Boquillas
emphasize the long obvious need of the de facto
government’s giving the American forces a freer
band and more substantial co-operation. It is
commonly believed that General Pershing’s column
would have accomplished its mission weeks ago
had Carranza’s troops been sympathetic instead of
indifferent and actually hostile. Mexican railway
service was needed to keep the American outposts
in supplies, but it has been withheld or, at most,
grudgingly allowed. Mexican military assistance
was needed in cutting off the retreat of Villa’s
bands; but time and again they have slipped safe
ly through the Carranza lines- So long as these
half-hearted or obstructive tactics are employed,
the Mexican authorities cannot consistently ask,
and need not expect, a withdrawal of the American
expedition.
The conference between General Scott and
General Obregon had reached a tentative agreement
for the clearing up of these problems, when the
new border raids befell. They should convince
General Carranza beyond further question that
the United States is justified abundantly in the
steps it has taken and purposes to maintain. If
he now persists in opposing our Government’s
plans to blot out the banditry, which he himself
cannot control, or in refusing to co-operate in those
plans actively and In thorough good faith, the
Mexican affair will drift from bad to worse and the
neighborly relations of the two countries will be
broken. This aspect of the case ’ s wholly for Car
ranza and his generals to determine. It is to be
hoped that they will act wisely and in the Interest
of peace.
On the American side, it is painfully clear that
no tim* should be lost in raising the size and
strength of the army to needful standards. This
ought to be done regardless of contingencies
across the Rio Grande. Those clouds may fade,
but their warning' lessons should not .be lost. Our
present task in Mexico Is trivial beside that which
war itself would impose- The equipment and
maintenance of a merely punitive expedition has
strained our military resources severely. Scores
of communities along the imperiled frontier are
beseeching protection, but there are no troops to
spare. General Funston declares:
••J could use very easily twenty-five thou
sand troops in Arizona alone; and there
* ought to be that many in that one State.
The number that should be along the south
ern border line of Texas should be greater
still-"
Yet. lhe entire mobile army within the United
States at the time of the Columburi massacre in
cluded only about thirty-five thousand men.
In justice to the nation's vital interests. Con
gress dare no' delay the remedy for this truly
appalling unpreparedness. The army bill now in
the hands of a House and Senate conference com
mittee biiuiiid be pressed into final form and en
acted without further temporizing. The United
States should be prepared at least to protect its
borders against outlaw gangs. Today it- is unable
to meet even that simple obligation It should be
prepared to deiend its shores against possible in
vasion and to uphold its sovereignty and honor
against foreign challenge. Not until legislation
providing an adequate army and navy j s in effect
Mill these high interests be secure-
The President and the Pacifists.
The committee of pacifists who called on thd
President the other day to protest against his pre
paredness program were given a lesson in common
sense and good temper which they ought to pass
on to their uneasy brethren throughout the land-
They told the President that plans for increasing
the army and navy mean militarism and would un
fit the United States for playing a worthy and in
fluential part in future efforts to guarantee the
world's peace. Though not insisting that the mil
lennium was actually at hand, they argued in ef
fect that the lamb would fare best by trying soft
persuasion on the wolf. They were silent, natur
ally, on the Mexican situation, but they were quite
sure that America was in no danger of foreign ag
gression. • They uisclaimed opposition to “reason
able” preparedness, but it was cleat*that by “rea
sonable” preparedness they meant standing satis
fied with our present mobile army of thirty-odd
thousand men.
To these well-intentioned but woefully misguid
ed pleas, the President replied that it is very im
portant to discriminate between preparation and
militarism, and that while the traditions of Ameri
ca have been those of anti-militarism they certainly
have not been those of military helplessness; that
we should not antagonize reasonable protection in
an effort to avoid Imagined ills; and finally, con
cerning the influence of the United States in future
plans for world peace:
"A nation which by the standards of other na
tions—however mistaken those standards may
be —is regarded as helpless, is likely in general
counsel to be regarded as negligible; and when
you go into a conference to establish founda
tions for the peace of the world, you must go
in on a basis intelligible to the people you are
conferring with- We have undertaken much
more than the safety of the United States; we
have undertaken to keep what we regard as
demoralizing and hurtful Influences out of this
hemisphere, and that means that if the world
undertakes, as we all hope it will, a joint ef
fort to keep the peace, It will expect us to play
our proportional part in manifesting the force
that is going to rest back of that un
dertaking- Now, let us suppose that we have
formed a family of nations and that this fam
ily of nations says, ‘The world Is not going to.
have any more wars of this sort, without- at
least going through certain processes to show
whether there is anything in the aggressor’s
case or not.’ If you say, ’We will not have
any war,’ you must have the force to make that
’will’ bite. And the rest of the world, if
America takes part in this thing, will have the
right to expect that she contribute her element
of force to the general understanding. Surely,
that Is not a militaristic ideal- That? is a very
practical ideal.”
It is hardly to be doubted that when the ter
rible sacrifice ifrith which Europe now flames is
over and the vision of men is cleared of blood there
will be a devoutly earnest effort to establish some
means for preventing such another tragedy, some
system that will give power as well as justice
to international law. There have been divers
dreams of "the parliament of man” and “the fed
eration of the world,’’ but without some form of
international force It is folly to think that the moral
and legal sense of the world can maintain itself
against outlawry among nations any more than
against outlawry In the individual State without
some form of police.
Thus the broadest considerations of the world’s
concord and well-being no less than the most inti
mate and practical concern for her own security
bld America be prepared—not for purposes of mil
itarism but for the ends and the needs of justice.
She will never escape war by being weak, though
she may discourage it by being strong. She cannot
uphold her ideals if her f6rce is negligible, but
she can make them felt for good around the world
if she Is prepared to maintain them.
The State Road to the Sea.
The ever-important question of extending the
State Road to the sea acquires new and definite
interest through a proposal submitted to the West
ern and Atlantic Commission by Mr. J. A. J- Hen
derson, a man of marked achievement in Georgia’s
industrial upbuilding. He and his associates offer
to deliver to the State, not later than December 1,
1919, a first class, standard gauge railroad reach
ing from Atlanta to St. Mary’s and thence to Jack
sonville, Fla., and to accept in payment therefor
ten million dollars of the State’s bonds, bearing in
terest at the rate of four and a half per cent per
annum and maturing in ten-year periods of equal
amounts. They offer furthermore to lease this
road from the State for fifty years 'on terms that
will enable the State to pay the interest on the
bonds, to provide a sinking fund for the retire
ment of the bonds,, and thus to acquire uncondi
tional ownership of the new road without actually
spending a dollar.
Under those terms the State would receive as
rental from the road the sum of $700,000 a year
for the first ten years of the lease, $750,000 a year
for the second ten, SBOO,OOO a year for the third
ten, $850,000 a year for the fourth ten. and $900,-
000 a year for the fifth ten years. In explaining
the purpose and possibilities of this rental scale,
Mr. Henderson states in his offer to‘the Western
and Atlantic Commission:
"Without any purpose to direct the use to
which the state shall apply the rent, it is prop
er to say that the sums offered as rent we-e
arrived at by computing first $450,000 per an
num, which will pay the interest on the state’s
bonds, then adding for the first ten years $150.-
000 per annum which could represent, at the
pleasure of the state, the annual taxes, and
SIOO,OOO which the state could retain as a sink
ing fund with which to pay off the principal of
the bonds. i'he increasing scale of rent add
ing $50,000 per annum for each succeeding
period of ten years added to the sinking fund
of SIOO,OOO per annum would, at the end of
the lease, pay off the entire bonded debt in
curred on account of this road and turn it
over to the state as a property of incalculable
value which would not have cost the state one
dollar from beginning to end.”
As a corollary to the establishment and opera
tion of the new line, Mr. Henderson proposes also
to lease the present Western and Atlantic 'railroad
for a period of fifty years at a monthly rental of
$35,250 for the first ten years, s37,bvo for the
second ten years, $42,500 for the third ten years,
$45,000 for the fourth ten years, and $50,000 for
the fifth ten years.
However one may regartl the particular items
of this proposition—and, as a matter of course,
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1916.
each of them calls for skilled and exhaustive in
quiry—its broad purport Is exceedingly interest
ing and suggestive. The specific terms and condi
tions of the Henderson offer may or may not be ad
visable from the standpoint*of the State. That Is
a matter for the Western and Atlantic Commis
sion to pass upon after due study, and for the Leg
islature ultimately to decide. It is none the less
gratifying, however, that in response to the Com
mission's announcement of the readiness and desire
to receive proposals of this kind, so definite and
responsible an offer has been submitted. It at
least opens a broad and fertile field of discussion
on an issue of incalculable importance to the Com
monwealth-
The legislative act of December 21, 1836, un
der which the State built the Western and Atlantic
railroad, clearly contemplated its ultimate exten
sion to the sea. Because of untoward circum
stances, that far-reaching plan was suspended, and
has remained so for more than three-quarters of
a century. But it was in the beginning and is now
the logical and necessary plan for realizing the
royal possibilities of the State Road enterprise.
And now that the question of disposing of the road
for another long period of years is pressing for an
answer, the State should rise to the vision of its
fathers and bear their shining ideal to fulfillment.
The Western and Atlantic railroad ought to
be extended to the sea in order that it be forever
proof against the schemes of any covetous and
competing system to destroy its usefulness or re
duce its value. As conditions now are, the State
road is merely a local line, dependent largely on
other railways for its more profitable traffic. The
fact that it has no outlet of its own to Atlantic
ports and no permanent guarantee of connections
with the West or the East places it at an obvious
disadvantage. The only solution to this problem
lies in carrying out the purpose on which the road
originally was built; that is, in extending it to the
sea so that it will have independent and assured
connections with the larger tides of commerce.
The establishment of such connections would
ba of measureless value to the business interests
and the civic development of the State. They
would make possible a new era of industrial growth
and- would call forth enterprises now undreamed
of. If the value of the Western and Atlantic is to
be protected, if its service is to be upbuilt, if its
worth to the taxpayers and the common interests
of Georgia is to be conserved, it must be extended
to the sea.
Mr- Henderson’s proposition, therefore, merits
earnest consideration. Its details, as we have said,
may or may not be acceptable; any proposition of
the kind demands the most cautious inquiry and
reflection. But as a definite offer toward, the con
summation of a great idea, it is entitled to the
State’s cordial interest.
The Outlook for the Army Bill.
The’ reported prospect -of an early agreement
between the House and Senate on the army reor
ganization bill is peculiarly welcome news after
so long a period of stubborn controversy. The
House conferees, acting under instructions, stood
out uncompromisingly against the Senate provis
ion for a volunteer reserve and also against a reg
u’ar army exceeding a hundred and forty thousand
men. It seems, indeed, that the policy of the House
has been to concede as little as possible to the needs
of military defense, and to grant even that little
with a grudge.
Fortunately, however, the genate members of
the conference committee have insisted on a meas
ure that would be at least fairly adequate, and by
dint of perseverance they are carrying their point.
It seems from the present outlook that an army of
one hundred and seventy-five thousand men for
normal times will be agreed upon; the Senate bill
called for two hundred and fifty thousand. This is
a sweeping reduction. It is hoped, however, that
the Senate plan for a system of expansive organiza
tion, whereby the regular army would be increased
to two hundred and twenty thousand men in time
of need, will be adopted. The Senate provision
for a volunteer reserve of some two hundred and
sixty thousand appears hopelessly lost, though there
is still a chance that the nucleus for such a re
serve may be retained by strengthening that part
of the House.bill which authorizes citizen instruc
tion camps. It is hoped also that provision for a
Government nitrate plant, to which the House orig
inally was opposed, may be included in the final
measure.
Continued delay on this all-important legisla
tion would be rank injustice and positive recreance
to the nation’s interests. The United States is now
unprepared even to protect its border against ban
dit incursions, much less to defend its territory
against a formidable invasion. The only wise and
patriotic course Congress can take is to agree on
an adequate army bill and put it promptly into
effect.
G’ossip About Money
♦
BY JOHN M. OSKISON.
NEW YORK. —How much does Henry Ford
know about the ways of Wall street?
You recall his recent page advertise
ment called “Humanity—and Sanity?” You re
member, then, that in one place he said:
“Have you seen that awful moving picture, ’The
Battle Cry of Peace?’ Did you shake with fear
uid tremble for your country’s safety? * * •
On the screen you were told that the play was
founded on the story of Hudson Maxim’s ‘Defense
less America.’ You saw Mr. Maxim in the picture.
He was holding something aloft. It was an instru
ment of warfare.
“Now, Mr- Maxim was merely advertising his
ware and playing on your fears to make a market
for his good. Mr. Maxim has something to sell—
war munitions. The following is from the stock
market report of Harvey A. Willis & Co., 32 Broad
way, New York City, November 13, 1915:
“‘The stock of the Maxim Munitions corpora
tion is the latest candidate for favor among the
curb war stocks. It made its appearance at 12 and
was actively traded in at 12 up to 14’i * * ♦’
"The book was a fine advance notice The pic
ture was a fine follow-up. Then came some swift
patriotic’ work.”
In the same advertisement Mr. Ford added other
confirming details to connect the Maxim company
with the preparedness propaganda. Also he point- [
rd out that Colonel Robert M. Thompson, president
of the Navy league, and an active worker for pre
paredness, is chairman of the board of directors of
the International Nickel company—a company that
profits largely from contracts with the navy.
Again, I ask, How much does Henry Ford know
about Wall street?
Germany at last admits that it was really the
Sussex that was torpedoed and not a Mexican gun
boat, or some other strange craft.
Turkey, the Dardanelles, Egypt and South Af
rica seem to have been eliminated from considera
tion, and the war is now on a basis of German arms
against the English navy.
WATCH YOUR CHECKS
' BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
tt y ASHINGTON, March 30. —The country seems to
VV be afflicted just now with a plague of bad
’ ’ checks. Although somewhat worse than usual,
this is nothing new. In fact, the methods are singu
larly old. The wonder is that they still work.
• • •
The president of a bank in a small middle western
town recently was interrupted in the perusal of his
morning’s mail by the sudden entrance into his office
of a tall, well-dressed man, who slapped him famil
iarly on the shoulder and called him “Bill.”
• • •
“Don’t you remember me?” he demanded. “Met you
over at Smith’s the other night.” The banker could
not remember ever having seen the man before, but
there had been several people at the Smith s that night
with bank accounts. The man went on to explain that
ha was in a hurry to catch a train and it had just
occurred to him to stop in and ask “BiH’s” bank to
cash a check for him. He cooly extracted a check-book
from his vest pocket and wrote out a check for $l5O.
Although the man’s signature suggested nothing to the
banker, the check was on a well-known bank, it all
seemed perfectly regular, so the banker cashed it.
Now a large number of Chicago detectives are
searching for this same tall, well-dressed stranger,
who has successfully worked this flimsy story in
nearly every state in the union, and, so far as records
show, has never been inside a police station. The
thing is ridiculously simple. The man merely trades
upon the name of the banker's most influential ac
quaintance—someone whose friend the banker would
not care to offend. The rest is easy. Os course, he
must rely a great deal on his ability as an actor, and
still more on the characteristic American carelessness
which has no patience with small suspicions. For in
stance, it would have been comparatively easy for the
banker to have called Smith on the telephone and made
a few pertinent inquiries concerning the alleged friend,
but he did not do it. What is more, if what the detec
tives say is true, forty-eight other bankers didn’t do it,
either. The American Bankers’ association figures
that this particular swindler averages about SSOO a
month from this and other ingenious stories.
It is a curious fact that the older and more uri
likely a story the more credence Is usually placed in it.
Swindles that were well known when our grandfathers
were boys still flourish and make a large annual dent
in banking profits. Americans, as a rule, are slow to
suspect people. We do not bite coins to see if they
are spurious; we do not weigh the lamb chops, and
some of us do not always count our change. But,
with a large army of crooks constantly perpetrating
bank frauds of one kind or another, a certain amount
of healthy suspicion seems permissible, even advisa
ble. The bankers are doing their best to warn their
own employes, but every once in a while some cashier
or paying teller finds he was mistaken.
Not long ago a stranger entered a bank in a new
lumber town after banking hours on Saturday after
noon He asked to see the cashier, to whom he pre
sented a letter stating that he had $3,400 on deposit
in a certain city bank about a hundred miles from
there. The letter bore the letterhead of the bank and
was signed by its cashier. The man explained that he
needed $1,500 immediately to place as an option on a
grocery store in the new town, and requested a draft
for that amount on the strength of the letter.
The cashier looked up the cashier of the city bank
In the register and found the signature to be correct,
so, after some hesitation, he gave the man a draft for
$1,500. But later in the afternoon, in the seclusion of
his own home, the cashier began to feel a trifle ner
vous. Why had he felt any hesitation at all in paying
the draft? Surely the man’s manner had been peculiar.
All the next day, which was Sunday, the cashier wor
ried about it, and by Monday morning he was in a cold
perspiration. He could hardly wait to get to the bank
to send a wire to that city cashier. An hour later his
worst fears were confirmed. The bank replied that
they never heard cf srch an individual and that their
cashier knew nothing of the letter. It was a plain
case of forgery.
In this instance, however, it was not too late to
act. The cashier immediately wired every clearing
house in the district to stop payment on the draft and
to apprehend the drawer. The same afternoon the
man was caught.
While the law holds a bank responsible for accept
ing a forged signature, on the grounds that it is its
Those Who Worry Us
BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE.
THE problem of worry has many angles. Os
this I was reminded the other day by an
lowa correspondent, who wrote, in the
course of an interesting letter:
Please write an article on those who worry us,
those who for selfish reasons take away our happi
ness and peace as far as they can.
“Os course, nothing can ever harm our real
character except our own deeds. But the constant
wrongs others do us can affect us so unhappily that
it is hard to keep one’s poise.”
In such a situation there is this to be said at
the outset: It is not simply a question of con
trolling our own reactions to the behavior of oth
ers, but of controlling their behavior by the way we
react at it.
People are prone to forget this. They forget
that when they experience constant wrongs from
others there is always a likelihood that they them
selves behave in such away as to stimulate the
hostile, injurious attitude shown by the persons who
worry them.
This, it is true, is not an invariable rule. But
again and again it will be found that the way
others behave toward us determined by
the way we behave toward them.
If they irritate and worry us, self-analysis will
often show that we take little pains to establish
in them a kinder, friendlier attitude. We forget
that the influence of “psychic contagion” is al
ways working for or against us.
What we ought to do is to study our own
methods of thinking and behaving, with a view to
exerting a maximum of favorable phychic influ
ence on those with whom we are brought into
contact. The more unselfish and good-natured we
become, the better disposed others will be to
ward us.
The fundamental principle, “Like breeds like,”
holds good in the mental as in the physical realm.
To be sure, as already stated, there are excep
tions. Circumstances over which we have no con
trol may create in others an unwavering attitude
of hostility toward us.
In that case, the one consideration is for us
to rise superior to any indignity, and affront. We
must at least have peace with ourselves.
This may be hard to attain, but we can always
attain it. Various methods are open to us.
Increased enthusiasm for our life-work is one.
Another is the deliberate substitution of pleasant
thoughts for the discordant ones that crowd into
our mind.
Aaron Martin Crane, in his admirable “Right
and Wrong Thinking,” drops a hint that is in
valuable to all who are worried by the actions
of others.
“A most excellent way to turn the thoughts
from discordant channels into harmonious ones,”
he says, “is to look habitually for the good, both
in persons and in things.
“It is an accepted fact that nothing can exist
which is wholly evil or entirely separated from
good. There was never a person who did not have
some good qualities or who did not do some good
deeds; nor ever a thing, however much it might
be out of place, that did not have somew’hat of
good in it or closely connected with it.
“Then the search for the good, if diligent and
faithful, need never be in vain; and w'hen found, it
ought to be w’ell and carefully treasured.
“With this habit fully established, error
thoughts will seldom intrude. Steadfastly ‘Look
for the good in thine enemy.’ ”
Here is something all of us may w’ell take to
heart, and especially those of us who are worried
by the behavior of others.
(Copyright, 1916, by H. A. Bruce.)
business to know the signatures of its depositors, it is
not held liable for a raised check which it pays by
mistake of fact and in good faith.
An unusual case, involving both these points
law, occurred in a Missouri town not long ago. Two
firms of wholly unrelated businesses were in partner
ship with each other. One was a small mercantile
shop in the business section, managed by a woman,
and the other was a sawmill on the outskirts of the
town. Both were depositors in a certain bank. The
employes of the sawmill were in the habit of cashing
their checks for the week’s work on Saturday night at
the store of the mercantile company, which checks
were then deposited in the bank to the credit of the
mercantile shop and charged to the account of the
sawmill company.
After this arrangement had gone on for several
months the sawmill company overdrew their account
several hundred dollars. It then came out that five
different men in the employ of the company had raised
five different checks, converting such sums as $14.60
into $44.60, etc. In addition there had been two for
geries of the signature of the company—one, a check
for $250 and the other for $l5O. All had been duly
cashed by the mercantile shop and passed on to the
bank.
The matter was taken to court, because the bank
considered the circumstances peculiar and refused to
make up the deposits. In the first place, they pointed
out, it seemed a bit unusual that five different men in
the employ of one concern should suddenly be seized
with the temptation to raise checks and forge signa
tures; and it also appeared rather curious that the
mercantile shop, a co-partner of the sawmill company,
should know so little of their business that it would
cash checks for such large amounts made out to em
ployes. This evidence seemed to throw suspicion on
the woman in the case—the woman who managed the
mercantile shop, but there was no substantial proof.
The bank stated that this woman handled all the bank
ing deposits and that it would have been a simple
matter for her to have altered the checks after she had
purchased them from the employes; moreover, that
such things were usually the product of one intellect,
not five.
But the court did not agree with the bank, which
was held responsible for all seven irregularities. Later,
however, this decision was reversed, and the bank was
compelled to stand the loss of the forgeries, but not of
the raised checks, which it had paid under the signa
tures of the sawmill company and in good faith.
• • •
The banks are becoming difficult hunting grounds
for the cleverest crooks, but the merchants are daily
victims. The check protector has made check raising
exceedingly difficult, but there are many firms who-do
not consider it necessary to use these devices. They
prefer to trust to a benevolent fate to defend them
from the work of the crafty check raiser. On the con
trary, some firms have employed every possible method
to prevent check raising and forgery.
In new towns built around great industrial plants
the company check is always currency, and mercha-ts
are forced to cash them. Under these circumstances,
there is, of course, abundant chance for forgery. In
Hopewell, Va„ the new powder town built by the du
Fonts on the James river, there were repeated in
stances of forgery and of check raising for the first
few months of the town’s existence. Then the company
devised a method which stopped it once and for all.
Each employe is required to carry on his watch fob a
photograph of himself together with his number. When
he presents a check to be cashed, the photograph on
the jwatch fob identifies the man, and a number
stamped on the check must corresporld with that on
the picture. Thus it becomes a reasonable certainty
that James Jones, No. 2561, is an employe of the com
pany and presenting his own check to be cashed.
While it is not, perhaps, necessary for everybody to
wear photographs with numbers on their watch fobs
or coat lapels, something just as effective, if/not as
ornamental, should be used by every large concern.
When it remains possible for a well-dressed crook to
cash a bogus check in every state in the union and
escape punishment, no precaution, however ridiculous,
is superfluous. No merchant, trust company, manufac
turer or bank is infallible —even the treasurer of the
United States cashed a forged draft —but they can at
least live up to their reputations as astute business
men and suspect every check until it proves its inno
cence.
’ Munchausen
BY DR. FRANK CRANE.
One hundred and fifty years ago last April 6
| was born the great and incomparable Baron Mun
chausen. There had been liars before him, but
J their work was crude, amateurish. He made of
prevarication an art.
He was to lying what Giotto was to the plastic
arts, what Dante was to rhymed verse, and Beeth
oven was to music.
In fact, lying is very like other forms of cre
ative work; it is offensive only in its coarser forms.
When one can lie utterly and with mastery it is
entertaining. Where one bungles the job it is un
pleasant.
No known form of torture, for instance, is more
painful than fiddling when it is near-fiddling only,
and the perpetrator screws out his tune from un
happy catgut, whereas Ysaye or Elman is a delight.
So, when the music committee asks us after
church what we think of the execution of the new
soprano who has been experimentally operating
upon the congregation for the first time, the unan
imous verdict is that we are in favor of it.
A bad actress is worse than a bad woman, as
far as the pleasure of the hour goes, and while
the audience may throw eggs at a histrionic per
formance that is just about so rotten, yet when
it is as unrelievedly awful as that of the Cherry
Sisters it rises to the level of art.
If anything is bad enough it gets good. Wit
ness Charlie Chaplin.
There seems to be a point beyond which if a
vice is carried it becomes a virtue.
While Washington swore, upon one memorable
occasion, yet he did it so magnificently, the by
standers said that it sounded like poetry.
Lincoln undoubtedly told stories that would
have been censored in a female boarding school,
but he told them so w’ell that he got credit for
thousands of Rabelaisian yarns he never
dreamed of.
The community was horrified w’hen a group of
gunmen killed a New York gambler, and when a
doctor fed poison to his parents-in-law; but it
would appear not the murder but the smallness of
it is w’hat shocks us, for when the crown prince
orders up a hundred thousand yokels to be re
duced to pulp by French seventy-fives, when the
festive Zeppelin blow’s up an orphan asylum, or
when the gay little submarine torpedoes a Rus
sian hospital ship, that is grand and glorious—let
hymns of praise to God be sung in all churches,
and the iron crosses and decorations pour le merite
be passed around.
Who steals my purse steals trash, but we soak
him over the head with a billy just the same, and
send him to the workhouse for thirty days: if he
steals a thousand dollars he goes to the peniten
tiary for a year or so; but if he steals ten million
dollars he goes to the senate, and to say anything
against him is soMalism, anarchism and sans- •
culottism.
Thus it is that Baron Munchausen is the pe
culiar patron saint of the twentieth century, when
morals seem to be measured by bulk instead of
quality.
(Copyright. 1916. by Frank Crane.)
1
The Searchlight
MOLASSES FUEL.
Special furnaces have been devised in which molasses
is to be used instead of coal oil to furnish the heat
in Hawaiin sugar factories. From 70 to ?0 per cent of
the exhausted molasses was formerly thrown away.
Recently it began to be shipped to San Francisco for ex
perimental work, one result of which is the invention of
a furnace capable of consuming it in producing steam.
The ash from the molasses contains 32 per cent of
potash and a good percentage of phosphoric acid, •which
makes it of exceptional value as a fertilizer
