4
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
' ITLAKTA, GA., 5 HOKTH FORSYTH ST. >
watered at the Atlanta Poetotflce as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMIS B. GBAY.
President and Editor. *
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mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD
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SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, Atlanta, Ga.
Georgia's Land Laus
and Rural Credits.
The extent to a-hich Georgia will benefit from
the federal farm loan system depends .argely on
the character of the State's land laws. One of the
primary duties of the farm loan board will be to
ascertain whether the State laws oi the conveying
and recording of land titles and on the foreclosure
of mortgages or other instruments securing loans
afford adequate protection to all the interests con
cerned. Pending such an examination in the case
of any State, says the loan act:
"The federal farm loan board may declare
first mortgages on farm lands situated within
such State ineligible as a basis for an issue of
farm loan bonds; and if said examination
shall show that the laws of any such State
afford insufficient protection to the holders of
first mortgages of the kinds provided in this
act. said federal loan board may declare said
first mortgages on land situated in such
States ineligible during the continuance of
the laws in question."
it is thus evident that Georgia should lose no
time in seeing to it that its own land laws are
adequate to the requirements of the new rural
credits system. For this purpose it has been pro
posed that the Legislature, at its present session,
order a digest of the State's land laws together
with the court decisions pertaining to them. Such
a digest would expedite the work of determining
Georgia's present status under the farm loan act,
and point the way promptly to any needed re
visions.
There is now rending in the Legislature a bill
introduced by Mr Barfield, of Bibb, and Mr. Turner,
of Brooks, providing for a thoroughly safe and
simple system of land titles. The adoption of this
measure, which is modeled after the famous Tor
rens plan, would save much time and cost in the ex
amination of titles, would establish new and invul
nerable safeguards to the rightful ownership of
land, and would make Georgia real estate a
sounder and readier basis of credit. The need of
some such legislation has long been manifest; and
now, in view of the federal farm loan system, it is
imperative. The General Assembly can render no
service more practical than prompt and thorough
going action on this important issue.
The rural credits system soon to become opera
tive offer.-, invaluable opportunities for lid aid
development in the State's agricultural interests.
But in order that Georgia farmers may -njoy a
full measure of those opportunities, it is essential
that the State s land laws meet tne requirements
of the federal act. In a matter of such great
moment and consequence, the legislature should
lose po time in taking due action.
Mr. Hughes' Misstatements.
When Mr. Hughes venturing, as he rarely does,
from generalities io particulars tries to support his
blanket indictment of the Wilson administration
he becomes ludicrously entangled. In his Detroit
speeches tbe other day he charged the administra
tion with having displaced Mr. E. Dans. Durand,
•for long years director of the census bureau, with
"a Southern politician' and with having ousted an
eminent scientist who was at the head of the coast
and geodetic survey for a Democratic “stock breeder
and veterinary surgeon.” This was his “evidence”
in a sweeping declaration that since Mr. Wilson be
came President civil service principles had been
flouted and overturned.
The facts are. as Secretary Redfield has shown
conclusively, that Mr~Durand was not removed
from office but resigned of his own accord, and that
the head of the coast survey, far from being ousted,
retired voluntarily much to the regret of the ad
ministration and despite its effort to retain his
services. The "Southern politician’” to whom Mr.
Hughes alluded is Hon. William J. Harris, of Geor
gia. who as director of the census bureau earned 4he
praise of Republicans and Democrats alike and was
promoted to membership on the federal trade com
mission because of his demonstrated ability. The
"stock* breeder and veterinary surgeon” to whom
Mr. hughes referred is Mr. Jones, who was
advanced from another branch of the department
of commerce to the head of the coast survey and
whose management in that capacity has been un
commonly efficient and productive. Mr. Hughes
stated that fifty-two appointments in this bureau
"were made in opposition to the advice of the civil
service commission.” The records show that not a
single appointment was made against the advice of
that commission.
These misstatements are typical of Mr. Hughes'
campaign utterances. Whenever he drops from
vague generalities he lands in ridiculous confusion.
Utterly at a loss for a valid issue, he deals in
charges which are either pointless or unfounded:
and the further he gees, the more irresponsible his
methods become. For his hopeless lack of an issue,
the Republican candidate is more to be pitied than
censured, but that does not excuse him for boldly
misrepresenting facts. Such methods would not be
surprising in a commonplace political huckster, but
they are amazing in a former justice of the Supreme
Court and a would-be President of the United
States.
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1916.
Training the Country's Workers.
me Vocational Education bill which passed the
national Senate lust week and will pass the House
in December if not before the end of the present
session marks a long stride in American efficiency.
Once fairly applied, the measure will widen the
opportunity and increase the earning capacity of
unnumbered individuals and will add incalculably
to the nation's productive resources.
The great majority of American boys and girls
leave school at the ase of fourteen years or earlier
to enter the busy field of bread-winners. it is
estimated that at least two million between the
ages of fourteen and sixteen are working for
wages, and of these the rank and file are unskilled
if not incompetent for responsible tasks. One
million youths are needed each year to recruit the
great army of the country’s working population.
Farming, mining, manufacturing, transportation
and allied pursuits enlist some twenty-four million
persons of eighteen years and over. Authorities
say that of the fourteen and quarter million
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical trades
“not one per cent have had, or at the present time
have, any chance to obtain adequate industrial
training."
Evidently, then, the need of vocational instruc
tion is urgent and far-reaching—instruction that
will reach not only the fortunate few who can
attend the advanced schools of technology and
commercial agriculture, but also the millions of
young people who must labor for a living, and the
millions of adults who wish to increase their
efficiency. The bill which recently passed the Sen
ate and is certain to pass the House deals broadly
with these needs by providing federal aid for three
types of schools:
First—All-day schools in which practically
half the time shall be given to actual practice
for a vocation on a useful or productive basis.
Second —Part-time schools for young
workers over fourteen years of age, which
shall extend their vocational knowledge, or
give preparation for entrance to a vocation,
or extend the general civi: or vocational in
telligence of the pupils.
Third—Evening schools to extend the
vocational knowledge of mature workers
over sixteen years of age.
The Boston Evening Transcript, from which
the foregoing summary is taken, adds that the
term "agricultural education” as used in the bill
includes education for the farm home as well as
for the farm itself. Thus home economies will
have an impottant place in the new’ system.
Further:
“The schools to be aided by the national
Government must: (1) Schools supported and
controlled by the public; (2) the instruction
given in them must be of less than college
grade; (3) they shall be designed to prepare
boys and girls over fourteen years of age for
useful or profitable employment in agriculture,
in trades and industries and in home
economics.”
Education of this character already has been
undertaken in some States; indeed, in every pro
gressive system of public schools the importance
of vocational training is recognized. Atlanta’s
schools during the past two years have applied
this principle as far as their limited financial sup
port would allow; the teachers and the Board of
Education are ready to go a great deal further as
soon as the right sort of municipal management
makes the needful funds available. The Tech's
night school renders invaluable service to working
boys and men who wish to increase their voca
tional efficiency. The Georgia Normal and Indus
trial College and the State College of Agriculture,
together with the district agricultural schools, are
admirable examples of higher institutions for voca
tional training.
There is manifest need, however, of encourag
ing and extending this field of education in order
that it may serve in larger measure the great rank
and file of American youths. That is the purpose
and plan of the national bill, which will energize
and develop vocational training in the various
States through capable leadership as well as
financial aid. The terms on which the States can
secure federal assistance in Ihis connection are
well advised. A State must meet certain practical
responsibilities and must demonstrate its earnest
ness in the matter if it is to share in the national
grant.
Georgia is peculiarly interested in the promised
system not only because of the widened oppor
tunities and quickened progress it will bring the
State, but also because two Georgians—Senator
Hoke Smith and Congressman Dudley M. Hughes—
have played the leading part in this constructive
legislation.
Don't waste youy time hunting trouble; it will
find you soon enough.
Many an otherwise truthful man claims to get
a larger salary than he does.
Permanent Prosperity.
Noting that war orders are now a minor con
sidetratlon, the New York Commercial thinks that
permanent prosperity is assured by the buoyant
trade in peace products and the steady increase in
domestic demand for merchandise.
“Bankers and business men are conserva
tive and trying to lay solid foundations for
the expansion of trade when peace is restored
and new- openings are offered."
This is the consensus of reliable opinion. Fears
that American business would receive a severe
shock when the war ended are no longer voiced
except for political effect. Traffic in munitions has
constituted only a small part of our towering ex
port trade, and months ago wise manufacturers
who had converted their plants into gun and shell
industries began making readjustments for the
future. Indications are that the transition from
a war to a peace basis will be accomplished in this
country without serious disturbance.
It should be remembered, moreover, that dur
ing the past two years our commerce with the
Central Empires has been virtually abolished and
has been seriously handicapped wdth a number of
European neutrals. When peace returns, this trade
will revive. Meanwhile. American exporters are
developing new and permanent markets in Latin
America and the Orient. The outlook, far from
being gloomy, is radiant with cheer.
Many a man claims to be nervous, when as a
matter of fact he 13 merely ill tempered.
To a good woman a lover’s jealousy is a hom
age, but to a good wife a husband’s jealousy is an
insult.
Gossip About Money
BY JOHN M. OSKISON. \
EW YORK, Aug. 3.—Out of the great mass of de-
Ntail just published concerning the appraised
estate of the late J. P. Morgan, one fact stands
plain: He was not a very rich man.
As the appraisers saw what the great banker left, it
was roughly divided into four parts: (1) His interest
in the banking firm of which he was head, $30,000,000;
(2) securities, not quite $19,000,000 (3) art objects,
about $20,500,000 and (4) real estate and miscellaneous
items valued at nearly $10,000,000
The total of well under $80,000,000 will indicate even
to the stranger to Wall Street how relatively unimpor
tant to Mr. Morgan was the mere piling up of money.
Probably Hetty Green actually added more to her pri
vate fortune during her lifetime than Mr. Morgan did
to his.
It was not the money, but the power that came
from the control of great industrial and railroad and
steamship projects that Mr. Morgan coveted. Worthless
stocks of his possession at death with a face value of
over seven million showed that he was decidedly human
in his judgment of investments; and the fact that he
left nearly half a million in the depreciated stock of
the New Haven railroad was evidence that he was one
to "take his loss” along with, the other Investors who
put money into the road on his advice.
There are probably twenty men in this country
richer than was Mr. Morgan when he died, and if you
could name more than five of the twenty you would
be an exceptional student of money matters.
For some six months, at the Engineers’ club, of
New York City, Walter S. Gifford, statistician of the
American Telephone and Telegraph company, has been
working under the direction of Howard E. Coffin
(chairman of the committee on industrial preparedness
of the naval consulting board) in making up a list of
30,000 manufacturing concerns in this country which
will turn over their plants to government uses if the
need arises.
What Mr. Coffin and Mr. Gifford (Gifford is a Platts
burg graduate, by the way) are trying to do Is to secure
for every manufacturing plant capable of making mu
nitions a small government order each year. This will
be given in the hope that manufacturers will become,
accustomed to making cartridges, shells, rifles and the
many other items of war equipment.
There is little of the spectacular about this phase
of preparedness, but none the less it is being conducted
with as great efficiency and enthusiasm as are the
camps upon which General Wood Is staking his hopes
of rousing the country to some realization of the need
for man preparedness.
Is It significant of anything beyond curiosity that
the National City bank’s latest publication deals with
estimates of what it is going to cost to replace de
stroyed property in Europe after the war ends?
The figures used here are from the Americas, the
bank's magazine devoted to South American and Euro
pean trade.
Five billion dollars will be the replacement cost —
and the total is taken from estimates made by Belgian,
French and’German experts.
The bank’s writer says: "It seems reasonable to ex
pect that American industries will be called on to do a
very large amount of the rebuilding of factories and
railroads. In fact, European business Interests expect
it to be so and are already making Inquiries."
What is the Inference? That the business men of
Europe see the end of war within a short time? That
seems obvious. The question remains, How reliable
are they as prophets? One remembers that they were
almost united in 1913 and 1914 in saying that the war
would not come.
Promoters are studying with diligence the figures
showing how the 2,445,664 automobiles owned in the
United States are distributed.
Look for unusual activity of stock salesmen in lowa,
where there is one automobile to every sixteen inhabi
tants. and if you want to get away from the lure of
the promoter, go to Alabama, where only one person in
200 owns a car.
Do a kind act with good grace or don’t do it.
Conceit may puff a man up. but it doesn't boost
him up.
For Georgia's Honor and Right.
By passing the bill tor a constitutional amend
ment to exempt college endowments from taxation,
the House of Representatives will free this Com
monwealth from a foolish and shameful wrong, and
open the way to a new era of educational growth.
Georgia is one of the only two States which
penalize institutions of learnng by a tax upon
their incomes. All the others, together with the
federal Government, exempt endowments of this
character, on the ground that education is a neces
sity so vital to a democracy's well-being that it
should be encouraged by every proper means. Prior
to 1«77 Georgia also maintained this just and en
lightened policy; but ii, the constitution adopted
that year a verbal change, evidently unnoticed or
misunderstood by the convention delegates, com
mitted the State to the churlish and miserly
course of taxing institutions which are devoted
pre-eminently to the public good. The time has
come to blot out that folly and shame, and toplace
Georgia before the nation in her true light, as a
State which honors and encourages educational
service.
Under the existing law, men of large means and
philanthropic purpose are disposed, in many in
stances, not to donate money to Georgia colleges
and universities because they are rightly unwilling
that their gifts to education should be diverted
to irrelevant ends. Other States invite such be
quests by leaving them tax free; and as a result,
the colleges and universities of other States find
it easier to raise endowments and to move pros
perously forward. Thus in continuing the present
tax, Georgia hinders and disheartens a field of en
deavor which is supremely important to her people.
This State spends millions a year for educa
tional service, and no sounder Investment of public
funds could be made. But how inconsistent and
unreasonable it is to tax institutions which are
rendering this same service without a
penny’s cost to the State! It is painfully manifest
that the State is financially unable to meet its own
responsibilities in this respect. It is not paying its
own teachers promptly or fairly. It is stinting its
own colleges of the bare necessities of subsistence.
The young men and women of Georgia are entitled
to all the educational opportunities that can be de
veloped for them, whether by the State or by
philanthropy. If Oglethorpe and Emory and Wes
leyan and Mercer and Agnes Scott and other insti
tutions of the kind are serving the youth of Georgia
and helping to build the Commonwealth noble and
strong without cost to the public treasury, surely
they are entitled to the State’s good will and en
couragement! Surely, they ought not to be taxed
for their benign and generous mission.
That the people of Georgia, once given the op
portunity, will ratify a constitutional amendment
removing this unjust tax is foregone. It remains
only for the Legislature to pass the bill submitting
such an amendment to the voters. The Senate has
acted favorably. The House should do likewise
without delay. Who that cherishes the good name
and the best interests of Georgia can hesitate for a
moment to support this splendid measure of intel
lectual and moral emancipation?
He is a successful manufacturer who never
makes mistakes.
TO judges, jail officials, social reformers and
the public in general I recommend careful
consideration of the results of a recent inves
tigation into the problem of chronic alcoholism.
These results controvert strikingly the preva
lent belief that persistent or repeated drunkenness
is usually nothing more than a bad habit.
They go to show that It is a question not so
much of habit a,s of disease.
The investigation was made by a Massachu
setts physician, Dr. V. V. Anderson, and reported
by him in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.
The subjects of the investigation were one hundred
alcohol “repeaters,” who had frequently been in
the grasp of the law.
On an average each of these repeaters had been
arrested about eighteen times. Arrest and pun
ishment had all too clearly failed to cure them of
the “habtt” of drinking to excess. Dr. Anderson
undertook to find out why this was the case.
By psychological tests he ascertained, for one
thing, that more than half of the repeaters had an
intellectual development below that of the average
child of twelve.
n.y twentv-six of them had a mentality up to
normaL All had some impairment of the nervous
system.
Thirty-seven were feebleminded, seven were
epileptic, seven were absolutely insane, thirty-two
manifested some degree of psychophatic taint.
Half of those investigated were habitual
drunkards, half were periodic drinkers. Os the
former only seven had a mental level above twelve
years. i
The periodic drinkers were of a higher intel
lectual development, but were of markedly unstable
nature, suggesting the presence of conditions lead-
The private diary of Leo Tolstoi was recently
published in Paris by his daughter, the Countess
Alexandria Ivovna. One of his views therein ex
pressed is:
"Lying to others is much less serious than
lying to yourself.”
To know this is the beginning of wisdom.
Self-deception is the starting point of moral
decay.
Lying to others may be but a harmless amuse
ment, but lying to yourself is sure to mean inward
deformity, the germ-laden fleck that spreads dis
ease throughout your whole character.
Yet it is the commonest, easiest, most subtile
of sins.
If you talk of the intimates of the pennitentiary,
with the crime-wrecksd and drug-soaked of the
slums, you will find that every one of them is living
like a spiderin a web of delusions he has woven out
of his own substance.
The profligate has told himself that the vioild
owes him a living’’ until he believes it.
The criminal lays hs downfall at the door of
society. , x , .
The prostitute can glibly prove that she is not
to blame, she is the victim of injustice.
Every down-and-outer labors to justify himself
and trace his inosfortune to the evil of others.
As a matter of fact, no person since the world
began was ever compelled to do wrong.
No rotten stone or cracked beam was ever laid
in the edifice of any man’s character that he did
not put there with his own hands.
When I say that another made me do an evil
thing I lie to myself.
Others may have cajoled, tempted, pushed,
threatened, or bribed me, but the fatal final step
was never taken except by the consent of my own
will. , ,
You may offer me a habit-forming drug, you
may argue with me that it will do me good, you
mav urge me bv ridicule, and lead me on by exam-
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 25. —When the agricul
tural appropriation bill was voted out of com
mittee this year It contained a curt and un
apologetic amendment abolishing an old and esteemed
political custom —the annual free distribution of gar
den seeds by members of congress to their constituents.
• • •
This custom, which originated in the early days of
the republic, is now asserted to have degenerated into
a mild sort of political graft unworthy of statesmen
and. in the majority of cases, unwelcome to the con
stituents. At the beginning the practice was instituted
by Benjamin Franklin, who sent back various roots and
seeds gathered in his visits to Europe, suggesting to
congress that they be distributed throughout the coun
try for experimental propagation. In this way many
valuable species of European plants were introduced
into this country. Now, however, the collection and
dissemination of rare species is carried on entirely by
the department of agriculture through its representa
tives in Europe and through its experimental farms
in this country. The seeds distributed under the con
gressional frank now include only such well established
varieties as radishes, beans, peas, onions and tobacco;
and nasturtiums, sweet peas, marigolds and sunflowers,
which may be found growing on almost every farm and
In a great many back yards all over the country.
• • •
The members of congress have nothing to do with
the seeds other than passing the appropriation for their
purchase and making out the lists of constituents to
whom they are to be sent. They are bought by the
department of agriculture upon the same system that
other government supplies are bought. At the begin
ning of the year the department sends out lists of the
varieties of seeds required for spring distribution to
large wholesale firms both in this country and abroad,
and the contract is awarded to the most satisfactory
bidder. Certain stipulations are given concerning the
standard of seeds desired, and they are supposed to
meet the tests of the department scientists, but in
handling such tremendous quantities of seeds these
specifications are necessarily largely perfunctory. As
a matter of fact a package of radishes is just as likely
to contain lettuce, and instead of being the soft suc
culent variety naturally expected from such an expert
as Uncle Sam it often turns out to be of as thick a
texture as cabbage.
• • •
Under these circumstances, the constituents are
usually disappointed and pained, and Instead of receiv
ing the praise due a benevolent benefactor, the member
of congress is occasionally the victim of bitter vituper
ation. One congressman received a letter from a con
stituent, asking him please not to send him any more
seeds if he desired his vote. The year before, he as
serted, he had spent hours of perfectly good leisure
planting congressional seeds in his garden only to have
unexpected and undesirable plants grow. A few small
frail radishes came up where he had thought he planted
nasturiums and sweet alysum grew in his parsley bed,
while several packages of seed which he had carefully
watered and weeded never came up at all. This unpop
ularity of the seeds in many cases may have had its
influence in urging the senators to abolish the practice.
• • •
It gives the average citizen, however, a pleasing
sense of importance to receive mail, even if it be gov
ernment seeds for which he really helps to pay, under
the frank of his district This importance
grows even larger the next year the package of
seeds is addressed to his wife. He points with pride
to his bed of struggling petunias and explains with
studied carelessness that these government specimens
were presented to him by Smith or Jones of his district.
The seeds may be actually a liability, but the distinc
tion conferred upon the citizen, who knows very little
about parliamentary procedure, is usually sufficient to
bring forth a favorable vote.
• • •
This was much more so a few years ago than now.
Today, even the most remote farmer is familiar with
the congressional seed distribution »and' is aware that
it is nothing but a form. In a great many instances,
according to letters received by various members, the
seeds are Immediately thrown into the waste basket
or given to the children to play with.' One congressman
VICTIMS OF DRINK
BY H. ADDINGTON BBUCB.
LYING TO YOURSELF
NO MORE FREE SEEDS
ing to psychic explosions which might easily take
the form of an impulse to go on sprees.
These findings assuredly bear out the views of
those scientific students of alcoholism who have
long contended that a drunkard is essentially a
candidate for hospital rather than penal treatment.
Also, to be sure. Dr. Anderson’s findings indi
cate that custodial care is indispensable in most
cases. But it is hospital, not jail, care that is
required.
In hospitals the unfortunate alcoholics can re
ceive the physical and educational treatment they
need. Their cases can be studied individually, to
ascertain the presence of any special factors in
creasing the tendency to drink.
In some cases, though Dr. Anderson s report
does not recall the fact, dental irritation has been
found to be an important complicating factor.
Extracting of decayed and abscessed teeth has
rendered drunkards of long standing amenable to
moral suasion. In one case, reported by the late
Dr. Upson, of Cleveland, a man who had been
arrested many times for drunkenness completely
stopped drinking after treatment for dental abscess.
In other cases, according to Drs. Crothers,
Coriat and other specialists, anti-epileptic treat
ment has been of decided helpfulness, particularly
among periodic drinkers.
Many a drunkard, it is true, has been cured
solely by moral means. The influence of religious
conversion is especially noteworthy in this respect.
But court records and family tragedies reveal,
alas, that moral means do not constitute an unfail
ing cure.
Dr. Anderson’s investigation shows unmistak
ably why medical as well at, moral treatment usual
ly is necessary.
(Copyright, 1916, by the Associated Newspapers)
pie; and my appetite may second your efforts. I
may crave the glass, my nerves may clamor for it
and my imagination may lure me to it; but I do
not have to drink.
Whatever excuses I may give, there is one thing
I do not have to do, and I do only because I will
to do it, and that is to swallow the stuff.
And that is true of every injurious deed. If I
do an act of fraud, or uncleanness, or cruelty, there
is just one person guilty—lt is myself.
The world is full of blubbering whiners, whim
perers, and weaklings. Overfull.
That we do wrong is not so disgusting. We are
all humaßi and perhaps all a little perveted. But
having erred, let us be downright and manly and
honest about it. Let us acknowledge our guilt, ad
mit that our lusts and greeds and selfishness,
which other people or circunjstances may have
deftly plaved upon, are no valid excuse, and that
the responsibility for our evil rests absolutely upon
ourselves. We may be sinners' but at least we can
play the man.
Don’t lie to yourself. Don’t wallow in self-pity.
Don’t hunt extenuating circumstances. Don’t jus
tify yourself by comparing your own with others
wrongdoing.
The wickedness of others may bring pain or
loss to you, through no fault of yours. Each ofus
must bear a portion of the vicarious burden of ttxe
world’s evil. But mark this: you never did wrong
for any other reason than that you chose to do It.
Not to have committed the wrong deed may
have meant suffering to you or to those you love,
may have meant humiliation, or calamity, or even
death. But you didn’t have to do it. You could
have died.
You may have to suffer, to be humiliated, to en
dure trgedy, to die; nor you, nor any human being,
ever had to do wrong.
So don’t He to yourself.
Honesty toward yourself Is the key tnat will
open to you the New Life.
' (Copyright, 1916, by Frank Crane.)
The Journal Information Bureau la prepared
to furnish reliable information in answer to
almost any question that you choose to ask.
You are invited to make free use of this service.
There is no charge of any sort except a two
cent stamp for return postage. Address THE
JOURNAL INFORMATION BUREAU, FRED
ERIC J. HASKIN, DIRECTOR. WASHINGTON.
D. C.
who represented a district composed mostly of poor
people, including farmers and men who work in the
mines, placed an advertisement in every newspaper
throughout the district stating that he had several
thousand packages of garden seeds to send out and ask
ing those who desired them to write him a letter. Then
he sent to everv school teacher printed slips to be dis
tributed among the school children, requesting those
who wanted the seeds to write to their congressman.
From these two sources of widespread advertisement,
the congressman received in all 5.000 requests for seeds
in answer to which he was able to send out only 12 1-2
per cent of his total allotment.
A congressional prerogative of any kind, however,
usually dies hard, and until the bill actually leaves tho
capitol on its way to the president there is still a
chance that the amendment will be stricken off. In
the debate which preceded the final voting of the senate
many senators Insisted that the seeds were appreciated
in all parts of the country and that if only 10 per cent
of the seeds were used, anyway, the distribution was
justified.
• • •
It was then suggested that the matter be left entirely
in the hands of the department of agriculture which
would send seeds in answer to any request for them.
Since the quantity of seeds required would be greatly
reduced it might therefore be possible to buy better
ones and to take more time to give explicit directions
as to their growing. The money formerly wasted in
Inadequate radishes and lettuce could be spent for the
introduction of new and useful species. For example,
occasionally in the past when the department of agri
culture had made successful experiments with some
new specie it would send out a few packages to special
sections of the country under the congressional distri
bution system. In this way, the durum w'heat, which
was discovered growing in Siberia, was sent into various
sections of the west for experimental propagation,
where it is now flourishing vigorously. Under the. new
system the department would specialize in this sort of
distribution, sending the common varieties of seed only
when special requests were made for them.
• • •
The expense of purchasing the seeds is a minor con
sideration as compared to bother and expense of carry
ing the thousands of packages through the mail. This
year over eighty million packets of garden seeds, mak
ing sixteen million large packages, were carried by the
postal service under congressional frank, which, if
bearing postage would have amounted to $320,000. Not
only this, but every spring a large force of employes
must be hired by the bureau of seed distribution of the
department of agriculture to assort and prepare the
seeds and mail them to the lists of consituents. At this
time national legislation is forgotten while the members
of congress play Santa Claus. Letters must accompany
several of the packages and time and care must be
exercised in making out the lists of persons to whom
they are to go. Many congressmen who represent ur
ban districts where garden seeds are useless for the
reason that there is no ground in which to grow them,
endeavor to exchange their supply with rural congress
men for something else. Now after many years the
members of congress have suddenly come to realize
that their work is largely unnecessary and that their
benevolence is not appreciated. .
• • •
Thus the member of congress has turned his newly
acquired sense of ecenomy upon himself and nobly sac
rificed a time-honored perquisite. No longer is he to
be the dispenser of zinnias and beets, sunflowers and
oats. The constituent has at last reniged on planting
any more congressional seeds unless passed py an ex
pert board of censorship.
