About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1916)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL r "~ ATLAJTTA. GJL, 5 WORTH FOBSTTM ST. > Entered at the Atlanta Poetoffice as Mail Matter of the Second Class JAMES *. GKAT, President and Editor. SUBSCBIFTTOK PRICE. Twelve months 78c Six months * Oc - Three months 25c The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues day and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over the world, brought by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff of distinguished contributors, with strong depart ments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R R BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kimbrough. Chas. H. Woodliff and L. J. Farris. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above-named traveling representatives. WO TICE TO SUmSCBXBEM. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subecriptloo expires. By renewing at least two weeks be fore tbe date on this label, you insure regular service. la ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route, please give tbe route safebsr. We cannot enter subscription* to begin with back number*. Eemittauee should be sent by p os tai order or registered mail. Address all order? and notlc es for this Department to THE SEMI WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlants, Ga. Carranza's Compliance. Compared with his former robustious epistles, Carranza's latest note is a cooing plea for peace. No longer inpugning the good faith of the United States or threatening attacks on General Persh ing's force should it move otherwise than north ward. he pledges the de facto government: “To employ all efforts that may be at its • disposal to avoid the recurrence of new inci dents that may complicate and aggravate the situation.'* He admits, for the first lime, that the United States has just cause for grievance in the insecurity of the frontier. He refers to the immediate release of the Carrizal prisoners as further proof of his sin cere desire to reach an amicable settlement of present difficulties. In short. Carranza comes down from his high horse and speaks in the manner of a man who realizes at last that he is dealing with a power which is no less firm and resourceful because it is patient and just. His conversion to this sane and conciliatory mood, belated though it is, attests the wisdom of the President's policy. Whatever our ultimate course toward Mexico must be. for the present, at least, war has been averted. If our interests can be protected and maintained without sacrifice of treasure and blood, that is certainly the better way: and Mr. Wilson intendc holding to that way until it is closed irrevocably. If his policy is judged by results, rather than in passion or parti sanship. its success at this juncture is undeniable. Carranza has yielded, as far as the tone and the terms of his latest note give evidence: and he has yielded as completely as Germany did on the sub marine issue. Several influences have brought him to this compliance. Prominent amongst them, if not up permost. were the Administration’s speedy meas ures for mobilizing the National Guard. Thus con vinced that the United States was not to be trifled with, the de facto government of Mexico concluded that the better part of valor was discretion. The mobilization should continue, however, until it is complete. That is the surest means of impressing such authority as exists in Mexico with our unbend ing purpose and our ability to protect the border, and to go further still if the needs of the situation demand it. Aside from this aspect, the mustering of the National Guard for frontier duty affords a valuable test of our second line of defense. Weaknesses will be disclosed, and can be remedied. Lessons of priceless worth for the future will be learned. The men themselves will be seasoned and hardened for senice. The cause of preparedness will be set im measurably forward. It is hardly to be doubted, therefore, that the War Department will proceed with its present program as though the Mexican outlook were unchanged. t Indeed, we have no assurance that Carranza s pacific words will not be blotted out by some sud den upheaval amongst his unruly people. The Mexican problem is nothing if not treacherous. For years it has been critical; we scarcely can hope that it will be solved without further difficulties. For the present, however, the Administration s pol icy of dealing justly and patiently with a stricken land, of seeking to help it rather than conquer it, is vindicated. The President is coping with this problem one step at a time, meeting emergencies as they arise. Whatever the future may bring—and it is far from assuring—the present is again in equilibrium. A week ago war seemed inevitable but. thanks to the Administration’s firmness and vigor, combined with prudence, war has been averted. Ex-President Taft should sympathize with the Moose, for he once had dealings with Roosevelt. 7 he World Demand for Livestock. The fact that more than six thousand persons, farmers and business men from a hundred miles around, attended the live stock conference held at Moultrie last week bears striking witness to Geor gia’s interest in animal husbandry. No field of production offers surer rewards. For the last six years the prices of cattle, sheep and hogs have moved steadily upward, and there is every indica tion that they will continue to advance. On April 15, last, according to the national De partment of Agriculture, beef cattle as sold by producers brought seventy cents per hundred pounds more than on the same date of the preced ing year; hogs brought seventy-three cents more; and sheep, a dollar and one cent more. The aver age gain in prices for these three classes of food animals was nineteen per cent for the twelve month and fourteen per cent for a six-year period. Except for fluctuations now and then, the live stock market continues firmly upward. This is quite natural when one notes that for decades past the production of food animals has failed to keep pace with the growth of population. Between 1899 and 1909 the numoer of cattle in the United States fell from fifty million to forty one million head; the number of sheep, from sixty one million to fifty-two million; and the number of hogs, from sixty-three million to fifty-eight mil lion. Throughout this period, the country’s pop ulation was increasing at the rate of more than a million a year. More recently, live stock produc- THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1916 tion has increased, notably in the South; but a long period of vigorous expansion in this industry will be needful to bring the output of food animals up to anything like the demand. In Europe as well as in America the meat sup p’y has been decreasing for many years, and it will be lower than ever in the seasons following the war. All the belligerent countries have drawn heavily on their reserves of food animals —some of them to the point of exhaustion. As to condi tions in the Central Empires, a correspondent ob serves : “Germany and Austria-Hungary killed off classes of live stock in the first year of the war to save grain, potatoes and other vegeta bles; they are now’ suffering more from a lack of fats than from any other privation. Their farms must be restocked and they cannot draw on Russia when peace is restored. Germany has drained Denmark and Holland of all the hogs and cattle they can spare, and Denmark no longer can supply her English customers with bacon.’’ It seems, too. that France will have to start from the foundation in rebuilding her live stock indus tries, and she will demand pure-bred animals. Russia will undertake a new and more efficient system of agriculture, for which purpose she will be in the market for high-grade live stock. These conditions, together with the shortage of food animals for years before the war, present extraordinary opportunities to the live stock in dustry. By preparing betimes, Georgia farmers will assure themselves and the State a new and abundant source of prosperity. The Moultrie con ference has done a great deal for the encourage ment of live stock interests in that section of Georgia. Similar conferences should be held in every part of the State. To the extent that the production of food animals and foodsuffs generally is increased, Georgia will grow’ prosperous and in dependent. Til? is a field of enterprise to which business leaders as well as farmers should lend earnest support. Just to make the thing complete, the Italians score a few successes. What Would They Have Done? Republican partisans who seek to lay the blame for the Mexican trouble on a Democratic President forget or ignore the historic background and sources of the present situation. From the day of its independence in 1821 up to the establishment of the Diaz dictatorship in 1877—a period of more than fifty years—Mexico was embroiled in some three hundred revolutions. The only regime under which the country had anything like continuous peace and order collapsed in 1911 and the welter of lawlessness set in anew. Interestingly enough the government of the United States was then in Republican charge and remained in Republican charge for two years w-hile conditions across the border grew more and more disturbing. Commenting on this record, the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, an independent newspaper, re marks that inasmuch as there was more than half a century of Mexican turmoil and war before the rise of Diaz, it is not at all surprising that there have been five years of turmoil and insurrection since his fall: •’Yet, the Republican partj’ is accusing the President of the United States of being responsible for Mexico's present condition. Mr. Taft himself, forgetting that the only stable government Mexico had had in one hundred years fell in ruins while he was presi dent of the United States and that Diaz's suc cessor, Madero, was foully murdered in the in terest of the man whose rise to power was aided by Mr. Taft's ambassador, tells the pub lic that if the United States has to intervene in Mexico, the present administration ‘will be to blame for the mess.’ In so far as the United States has been at all responsible for the gov ernment of Mexico, the distribution of blame for what has happened will ultimately leave the Taft administration and its ambassador to Mexico City with a certain share. One of the difficulties besetting the Mexican situation has been the partisan desire of the political op ponents of the president to make political cap ital out of it. The Mexican question was in politics from the moment that the assassin- . dictator, General Huerta, was given encourage ment in this country to oppose the plans of the administration to help establish the gov ernment of Mexico on the constitution of Mexico.” While the Republicans censure a Democratic President for not magically solving a problem which was Inherited from their own administration, they do not pretend to say what they would have done had they been tn power during the last three years. The probability is that Mr. Taft, or Mr. Hughes had he been President, would have pursued prac tically the same course which Mr. Wilson has fol lowed. Being conservative men, desirous of avoid ing war so long as it could be avoided with honor, either of them no doubt would have gone the limit of forbearance and watchful restraint. Short of actual war, neither could have done more than Mr. Wilson has done for bringing our troublous neigh bor to terms and for safeguarding the United States border. Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party has committed itself to intervention. Indeed, the Republican platform adopted last month at Chicago denounces what it terms “the indefensible methods of interference employed by this (the Wilson) Administration in the internal affairs of Mexico.” If that means anything, it means that the Republican party denounces the punitive expe dition which was sent to exterminate Villa’s ban dits; It means that a Republican President, if true to his party’s platform, would not have acted as vigorously as Mr. Wilson did in the same circum stances. The fact is, the Republicans simply are trying to make political capital out of a problem which existed when they were in power and for which they have no solution. It may be that eventually the United States will be constrained to take charge In Mexico and maintain a protectorate there until the country is capable of self-government; many Americans consider this inevitable. But this is in no wise an issue in the present campaign. When Mr. Hughes bewails Democratic recreance in this matter he is merely talking through his whiskers. It has been some time since the kaiser has made a dinner engagement away from home. Our soldier boys may not fight the Mexicans, but they will have done their share in preventing a flght. Quips and Quiddities An attorney, angered because of an adverse ruling by the judge, left the courtroom, remarking to an other lawyer that “the judge was an ass and shouldn t be on the bench.” Before the case ended the judge heard of the re mark and called the attorney before him. “I hear," he said, “that you called me an ass and said I ought not to be on the bench.” . “Sure," replied the quick-witted attorney. “Any body. with your profound knowledge of law is an ass to be on the bencfi. You ought to be practicing before the bar, where your tale Sits could be cashed into big money."—Puck. • • • The visitor was being shown about by the head of the up-to-date business house. "Who is that dapper youth at the glass-topped desk? ’ he asked. “That is the superintendent of the card index sys tem. He keeps an index showing where the index cases are." "Who is the young man with the gray gaiters and the efficient ears” “He keeps an index showing the length of time it takes to index the indexes.” “Who is the girl with the golden hair?" "She decides under what index an index to the index of the filing cabinets shall be placed." "And who is the gray-haired man at the disordered desk in the corner?" “Oh, that’s Old Joggs. He doesn’t fit in very well with the rest of the office, but I have to keep him around. He’s the only employe who can find important papers when I want them in a hurry." • • • A tall, angular, yellow convict was shoeing a mule under one of the many sheds when he was asked to ex plain what had brought him there and why, appearing such a quiet, unobtrusive sort of citizen, he should fall from grace. “You seem to have too much sense to be here with a chain on your leg,” commented the judge. “I is so’t ob nice, suh,” was the laconic confession. "But what brought you here?” "Too expensive lawyer, jedge." “A too expensive lawyer! How do you make that out?” "He wanted fo’teen mo’ dollars fer perjurly in my case, fo’ ter free me, jedge, dan I happened ter hab at de time." • • • “Prisoner at the bar, do you plead guilty or not guilty of this murder?” “Not guilty, judge. I can prove an alibi. I was engaged in killing another man at the time and he wasn't the same man the indictment says I killed, as I can prove by this picture of him, which I drew from memory."—Buffalo Express. • • • “Here you are, sir!” cried the hawker, extending a bouquet. "Buy some beautiful flowers for your sweet heart." “Nothing doing,” responded the young man. “I haven’t got a sweetheart." "I see,” was the prompt rejoinder of the hawker. “Buy some flowers for your wife." “Wrong again! I am not married." “Well, then, guv’nor,” exclaimed the resourceful hgwker. "bby the lot to celebrate your luck!”—Tit- Bits. The Freight Rate Menace. in joining the movement to combat the unjust advances proposed in intrastate freight rates the fertilizer industries of Georgia are serving agricul tural interests as well as their own. It is con servatively reckoned that the rates for which the carriers have asked would add eight hundred thousand dollars a year to the cost of shipping fertilizers within this State. To the consumers no less than to the producers of this farm necessity, that would be a heavy hard ship, particularly at a time when potash and other ingredients of fertilizers are difficult to ofltain even at the highest prices. If the proposed rates are allowed, farmers will have to pay more not only for fertilizers but also for farm implements and materials such as plow handles. plow beams and irons, axes, nails, woven wire netting and sundry other articles of the sort. Furthermore, the proposed rates by levying an intolerable tax on intrastate traffic in foodstuffs would discourage diversified farming. The roads have asked an increase of thirty-eight per cent on shipments of hogs and cattle from farms to packing plants and an additional increase of upwards of one hundred per cent on shipments of finished products from packing plants to local markets. This burden would penalize and even tually crush an infant industry which is of vital importance to the State's development and pros perity. The fact that the Georgia Shippers Association and the Georgia Manufacturers Association as well as the Fertilizer Mixers Association have under taken an organized campaign against the rate ad vances proposed, shows how seriously these repre sentative interests regard the danger which con fronts them. The fact that leaders in every field of business are aroused on this issue proves its vital concern to the Commonwealth. The Hurricane of Steel. All accounts of the British drive dwell upon the scope and intensity of the bombardment which pre ceded the infantry attacks. A million shells a day from guns of every calibre poured upon the German defenses —a relentless hurricane of steel. It was this that made possible the Allies' substantial gains, and it is this that evidences their prepared ness after long seasons of inferior equipment and supplies. The way to Infantry attacks has been prepared heretofore, as a correspondent observes, “by shell ing a position until its defenders were presumably demoralized.” But now— “ The idea is to destroy the position itself by obliterating the whole region with high ex plosives. What was done to the tight little steel cupolas is now being done to formidable widespread field works. About Verdun the terrain has been ravaged as if by volcanic forces. There are areas where no yard of ground has been left undisturbed, where the whole surface is a hideous mass of craters like the moon seen through a telescope. Succes sive photographs from aeroplanes show the blight on the earth’s surface spreading like a loathsome skin disease that destroys all the visible features. The amazing thing is that in such areas men should still live and fight and hold on.” The fact that the British have inaugurated this offensive indicates that at last they are in readiness for a truly decisive stroke. Their failures have taught them that the German lines can not be broken until the German trench works are blown from the earth. For this purpose prodigious quan titis of guns and shells were required. If those supplies are in hand, as apparently they are, the deadlock in the West will yield. The Republican theory of government is that every four years the Republicans should have the jobs. LITTLE THINGS COUNT __ by H. ADDINGTON BRUCH. - LL over our land thousands of young men and ZX women, having said farewell to school or college, are setting out to make their way in the world. They will find many unexpected ob stales to overcome, and many hard lessons to learn in business life. , Also, many of them will find themselves seri ously handicapped by unfortunate characteristics whlct schooling has failed to correct. One sucu characteristic of common occurrence is inattention to detail. The tyro in business too often fails to appre ciate the importance of the little things that enter into every form of business activity. Detail to him is a matter of no great significance. He is too impatient—and, alas, often too care less—to systematize his work so that everything, no matter how trivial it may seem, shall be done accurately and promptly. “Any old time and any old way will do,” seems to be his motto. The other day I happened to enter the office of a New York business friend at a painful mo ment. He was taking his stenographer to task for an error she had made. I heard her half de fiant, half apologetic explanation: “I know you told me how you wanted It done. But I thought this way woffild do just as well. I’ll copy it again after lunch.” “No ” said my friend, quietly. “It has to be mailed now. There is no time to copy it again.” The stenographer started out to get her lunch eon. After her departure my friend handed me one of the sheets of paper she had been typewriting. He is the publicity manager for a large enter- “I am of a very selfish nature,’ writes a young woman, “and often make a sacrifice or perform some unselfish deed, not because I really feel like doing so naturally, but from a sense of duty, be cause I know it is right, and from what I have read and heard about how good and strong char acters act. Do you think this improves me? Will my nature change after a while if I constantly go against it?” To which answer may thus be made: Your problem is as old and as common as hu m career is a continued struggle of the two natures in us, the angel and the brute. Everybody is more or less of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There may be some rare natures, such as Charles Kingsley calls “natural kingdom-of-heav enites,” who always want to do the thing tney ought to do, but they are scarce indeed. ' The first thing to do, therefore, is to recognize that all decent life must be in terms of conflict. Because you feel this unceasing war within you is no sign that you are “bad,” or selfish, or mea than other people. You are simply human. \ou might as well complain that you do not have three hands, or that you do not possess supernatural powers of vision or hearing, as to complain that your inclination does not always agree with your duty. Having recognized- this fact, don t worry over it Don’t grow morbid. Don’t call yourself names. Don't develop self-contempt. And above all, don’t get into the mire of self-pity. It’s a fight. You have to make it. Go to it gayly, with high courage, and with gladness that vou are disposed to fight and sure to win. You can dodge the flght by yielding to your lower nature. As Oscar Wilde said “The’easiest wav to get rid of temptation is to yield. But you know the nasty side to that. It means a weak, flabby, unclean mind, a spirit that must loathe lUel But you can be just as comfortable as the sen- electrical roll calls for congress BY rB£DEKXC t. KASKIX. " " 1 ' 11 WASHINGTON. July 3.—lnto the more or less dignified, at times orderly, and always slow procedure of the house of representatives of the United States is about to be injected an element of modern mechanical efficiency. Quite literally a jump spark is to be applied to the deliberations of the lower house. It will be in the form of an electrical voting device, which will be capable of recording and adding the vote of the members present in about thirty-four seconds. • • • The average time occupied in calling the roll as done at present by the house reading clerks is about forty minutes, for the name of every member must be read twice. A congressman with a head for mathe matics estimated that fifty-six days were spent calling the roll during the sessions of one congress. It seems quite within the probabilities that this machine, if installed and successful, will save the house about one month out of every year. Senator Underwood believes that it would save 350,000 a year in light, heat and telegraph service. • * ♦ As for the. machine, it is the invention of B. L. Broboff, a native of Russia, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Milwaukee, Wis. It has already been installed and successfully demonstrated in the hall of the Wisconsin state legislature at Madi son, Wis., and Mr. Broboff has also demonstrated it on a small scale in Washington. Many members of con gress have already expressed themselves as favorable to its installation. Representative Howard, of Georgia, has introduced a bill providing 3125,000 for the purpose, and Mr. Broboff has appeared before the committee on accounts and made a convincing statement about the working of his machine and the need for it. He declares that it will speedily save its own cost in time, light and heat; that it will last a couple of centuries, literally never get out of order, and that one man without any electrical training can care for and oper ate it. • • • In the last analysis, the success of thip machine in speeding up the house will depend upon the members. It can record and add a vote in thirty-four seconds, but not unless the voters are there. Os course, a vote might be taken with only one member present; but the question which remains unsettled is whether this new method will really facilitate the gathering of quorums. • • • Mr. Howard, who introduced the bill, and other members who want to see the machine installed, be lieve that it will do so. A certain time will have to be set for the taking of the vote—say five minutes—and all members who have not pressed their buttons for yea or nay and flashed a red light or a white one on the recording board will then be considered absent. It is the hope and belief of those who want the system that its speedy operation will compel members to stay on the floor of the house if they are interested in the bill, or if they want to avoid making a record for con tinual absence from roll calls. • • • And that brings to the fore the biggest problem in the present-day deliberations of the house. Gradually but very perceptibly it 13 changing from a deliberative body, where legislation is debated and formulated, to an aggregation of clerks and agents, who appoint com mittees to draft laws and leaders to tell them how they shall vote, and spend their own time attending to a multitude of details for various individuals. • • • Formerly the house was a great deal smaller: there was no house office building: the members had their offices scattered all over Washington. They nearly all attended every session of congress. • • • Now the office building is right across the street from the capitol. During the ordinary sessions of the house a few of leaders, and some others, will be found upon the floor, earnestly arguing. A vote is desired. Electrical bells are rung that resound through all the corridors of the house office building. The con gressmen whose names begin with A, B and C leap to their feet and depart for the hall of legislation. The K's and L's, however, begin dictating another letter, while the P’s and Q's and X’s merely glance at their w’atches. It will be at least half an hour before their prise. The sheet contained a statement he was mailing to the newspapers of a <3ty some distance from New York. “I knew,” he explained to me, “that this story was too long to go on a single sheet of paper if typed in double space throughout. “For psychological reasons that you will appre- i ciate, I wanted to keep it on one sizeet. Ti look shorter than if it’ ran over to &■ second sheet, and, therefore, it would have a better chance of getting into print. “So I told the girl to type the last few lines single space. You see what she haS done. She has single spaced, not the last few lines, but the lines between every paragraph. “The result is a sheet so hard to read that I m afraid a good many of the editors won’t bother to read it.” To this stenographer the mode of typing this 1 particular statement was a petty detail, too trivial to be attended to accurately. To my friend it was ' likewise a detail, but by no means a petty one. , And the more you stop to analyze any success ful business, the more you will realize that It Is built on seemingly trivial details that after all have a far-reaching significance. Neglect the little things in business and you may feel tolerably sure that you will not long have > big things to which to pay attention. Attend to the little things faithfully and ever bigger things will be demanding your attention. s These are elementary facts which the business beginner cannot too soon take to heart. (Copyright, 1916, by The Associated Newspapers.) THE MORNING STAR .. -—BY DR. FRANK CRANE sualist if you make up your mind that you will do what is right every time, no matter how you feel. That will not give you the same kind of pleasure that the self-indulgent have, .but a better kind. For there are two sorts of enjoyment: one, that of yielding; the other, that of overcoming. And it is the overcomer that gets the crown of life. His is the morning star. For instance, there is pleasure in lying in bed, in eating and drinking, in gratifying the various cravings of the body, in reading books'that divert you and require no mental effort, in going to the theater, in being flattered, jfralsed, complimented, loved. In all these things your pleasure is passive. There is pleasure, on the other hand, in exer cise, in going without food and drink for another’s sake, in denying the body’s demands so as to sat isfy the wants of your intelligence, of pleasing your conscience by trampling on an appetite, of in tellectual exertion, of discipline,' and the like. All these are the solider kind of joys. They are better than the soft kind, because they last longer, they strengthen your mind and body, they make youd tastes finer, your whole enjoyment of life keener, your range of delights wider, and alto gether you get a deal more fun out of living. The latter joys are just as “selfish” as the for mer. But an intelligent selfishness is unselfish. He that saveth his life shall lose it. Scientifically speaking, overcoming makes de velopment, yielding leads to decay, the destruc tion of the organism. Religiously speaking, all you have to do to go to hell is to do nothing at all. The wind blows that way. Just do as you please, don’t resist, gratify all desires, never mind conscience, and hell will be along pretty soon. Heaven is up hill all the way. But it’s keen and bracing exercise. It means a healthier body, livelier mind, and happier spirit every day. And, at the top of the hill, you get the MoffiK ing Star. (Copyright, 1916, by Frank Crane.) names are reached on the second roll call. They go right on studying pension claims, dispatching garden seeds and year books of the department of agriculture, drafting laws to donate condemned cannon for the city park in Podunk, or permitting John Jones to build a bridge across Frog creek in Summersquash county, Missouri, or appropriating >150,000 to erect a postoffice at Water tank, Nev. • • • The congressmen have to do these things in order to hold theft- jobs. The great majority of them spend the great majority of their time doing little things for Individuals and counties and towns. They give a small fraction of their time to national affairs. The leaders who really give most of their time to national legisla tion spend a great deal more than the government allows them for clerk hire; and they are veterans of many sessions' experience, whose seats are very secure, e e e There is one young congressman who says that he never misses a session of the house. He explains that he dictates all of his letters at home every night. All morning he spends in the departments prosecuting the numerous claims for which every congressman is the unwilling advocate. This leaves him from noon, when the house convenes, until evening for attendance to the business of the nation. He works about sixteen hours a day. There are few others who can do it, and still fewer who will. So congress is literally becoming a gathering of preoccupied agents, who line up well enough on party votes, but, by force of circumstance, give the country less and less of the independent thought upon national questions, which is the life of legislation. • e e The Broboff electrical voting machine may work a considerable modification of this tendency by compels Ing the congressman to be close at hand if ha is going to vote at all, and by saving a month or ao of tim* for him out of every session. • • • Two other changes have been suggested as accom paniments of the electrical device. One is the abolish ment of the electrical bells which now announce every vote, and disturb everybody on Capitol HIIL The other is the restoration of the desks, which were replaced not long ago by long benches much like those in a railway waiting room. It is argued that if the con gressman has a place in the legislative hall where he can work, he is more apt to remain there. It is cer tainly true that the benches now in use offer the con gressman little in the way of either comfort or oppor tunity for work. One somewhat revolutionary effect of the electrical voter will be the abolition of the revered filibuster. This consists in delaying business by repeatedly mak ing the point of no quorum, necessitating the calling of the roll, and delaying the business of the house forty minutes. Then, before much progress is made, the point is repeated. In this way one member can interfere with the work of the house, while a minority may even force a compromise from the majority. Notwithstanding that the filibuster is a terrible waste of time, it has generally been regarded as one of the rights of the minority. The hearing en the Howard bill brought out some side lights on the subject. The chairman of the committee re marked that “a man who makes a point of order does it out of some pique.” “A man who wants to sneak is not allowed to speak, and then he makes the house pay for it, and he can do it very readily,” he explained. That is generally the gist of a filibuster in the house. The filibusterer is like the little boy at the back lot baseball game who wants to pitch, and isn’t allowed to, so he runs off with the catcher's mitt. The Broboff device, if installed, would consist simply in a big board, or perhaps two of them, much like an electrical score board, where each congressman's name would appear, with a red bulb and a white one after it. At each congressman’s elbow would be a couple of buttons, which could be pressed only with the aid of a key in his possession. When the vote had been an nounced he would press his yea or nay button at any time within the specified period. He could also change his vote any time within that period. The machine would then automatically add the vote and show the result.
