Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, May 12, 1916, Page 4, Image 4
4 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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE. Twelve months "5c Six months . 40c Three months 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday •nd Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the wot Id. 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 postoftlee. Liberal commis sion allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRADLEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kimbrough, Chas. 11. Woodliff and L. J. Farris. We will t>e responsible only for money paid to the above-named traveling represent atives. / NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label uwfl fur ad-!rr««ios your paper snows the time •your subscriptlea expire*. By renewing at least two weeks be fore the date oi. tins label, you inure regular aerrtce. In ordering pap>-r changed, be sure to mention your old. as well as your new address. If on a route, please tire the route •amber. We cannot enter »vb»crlptlou* to i*e<in with back ntimbers. Remittance sbovld be sent by postal order or registered mall. Address all orders and notices for this Department to TUB SEMI-WEEKLI JOURNAL. Atlanta, tia. 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