Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 14, 1909, Page 6

THE ' AILY BEE. FOUNDED BY EDWARD ROSEWATER. VICTOR ROSEWATER, EDITOR. Entered at Omaha postofffice as second- class matter. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. Daily Bee (without Sunday), one year..$ Daily Bee and Sunday one year 6 DELIVERED BY CARRIER. Dafly Bes (Including Sunday), per week..lsc Daily (without Runday), per week.. l0c Evening Bee (without Sunday).per week § Evening Bee (with Sunday), per week 100 Bunday Bee, one yea fi»a regu s in Department. "0 0 Address all complain 4 dolivery to City Clreulation Omaha—The Bee Bullding. S 8outh Omaha—Twenty-fourth and N Councll Bluffs—16 Bcott Street. \ Lincoln—§18 Little Buflding. Chicago—1548 Marquette Ruilding. New York—Rooms 1101-1102 No. 3 W Thirty-third 8t : Washington—125 Fourteenth Street, N CORRESPONDENCE. Communications relating to news and edl- torlal_matter should be addressed: Omaha Bee, Editorial Department. REMITTANCES. Remit by draft, express or postal order, payable to The Dee Publishing Company. Only Z:cent stamps received in payment of mail accounts. Personal checks, except on Omaha or eastern exchanges, not accepted. w. STATEMENT OF CTRCULATION €tate of Nebraska, Douglas County, ss: Geo:ge B. Taschuck, surer of The Bee Publishing company, being duly #worn, says that the act number of full nnd compiete coples of The Dally, Morning, Evening and Sunday Bee printed during the month of April, 1909, was as . 41,090 a7,13%0 40,350 40,620 40,410 1 . Returned . coples Net total........... Dally averAge.....iiu.decec. . GEORGE B. TZSCHUCK, Troasu er. Subscribed {n my presence and swarn to before me this 1st day of May, 1005 M. P. WALKER, Notary Public. ey &ed as often as requested. f—— e ——————— Keep politics out of the county hos- pital. There i8 no call there for po- litical doctors or political nurse s e e A Ponca man I8 reputed to have walked nine miles to get a drink. No record of how far he walked in getting back home. It Mr. Harriman has a grip on the Chicago Great Western it is a safe guess that he will not et go if he can help it. . . A Milwaukee man has engineered a corner in pretzels. How maay steins required for a man to see & corner in a pretzel? * v A Carnegle lihrary is to be planted in Norfolk, Neb. Now for another eruption from'our amiable democratic contemporary. It is perfectly. mete and proper that the pressure for a reduced tariff on window glass should come from the hailstorm belt. The fraternal organization known as the Western Bees i8 to move its headquarters to Omaha. Welcome to our namesakes . | T — Drowning people catch at straws, but it doesn't follow that is the con- ditlon of all the people you see around the soda fountain. En‘llfl reviewers have decided that George Ade’s style lacks form. A well-selected chorus is supposed to supply !hu deficiency. Acnorqfi;- to Omaha's most emipent artist, it would be far better for us to have eheap hosiery ‘than cheap works of art. 'Why not both? Over 1,000,000 old election ballots have just béen sold to the junk men in Bogton at pound rates. What a dis- count’, from the original purchase price, A (rlnd;on of Adumiiral Perry is to | be received by the emperor of Japan. The young man will find ample proof over there that his grandfather started something. Hi lions in Africa would be nothidg as compared to the fun he would have chasing the Tammany tiger, it _Roosevelt should consent to run fof mayor of New York ¢ - = Amateur theatricals are t ing stunt in soclety in the edst. year critics "are afrald to say which puts . up the, better performance. ' em—— reign- Last Twa, thousand acres per day of for- mer range lands are belng plowed up to be put in crops fn two South Dakota countiés. That should help some to- ward wolving the world's food prob- lem. Several missionaries to the Congo country are on t_rh\l for libel. That someone has done a tremendous amount of lying about the conditions in that country is self-evident, and it is to be the present proceedings will d-nx ;)ul wet of ”Ion.nu told the o s According 7 "Geneéral Allen, chiet ot the army signal corps, who ought to know, the ballodn house at Fort Omaha s the Bnest n the world. Our people should up to an apprecia- tion of what they have right here at home which many othes would travel ecrven contliicnts to seel was monkey shows and the | THE BEE: OMAHA, | Come Along, Mr. Aldrich. Senator Aldrich has announced that sometime after adjournment of congress, probably in the fall cam- paign, he will tour the country, fol- lowing the example of Mark Hanna, Just to show the people that he is not adorned with the horns and forked tall of his satanic majesty. From the way the insurgent sena- tors are going after the Rhode Islander it is not impossible that some folks may get to believe that he is the human incarnation of Mephistopheles. | It he has any horns we want him to bring them along when he comes out west. No No. 2 company will go out here palmed off for thetoriginal cast. We are willing to pay the price of ad- misslon and at the same time show the senator several things that are too big for him to take home to his little two by four state of Rhode Isiand. The west is generous and kindly disposed and does not yet imagine It knows it all. We are willing to live and let live and as proof are ready to guarantee that Mr. Aldrich returns home safe and sound and that he will learn as much from his trip as our people will learn from him. If he will tell us all he knows as an expert on the currency and the tariff the west will appreciate the favor and in turn convince him that a whole lot of this country lies outside of New England. If he proves to be just half as good a fellow as Mark Hanna did when the Ohioan toured the west to show off his horns, we will send him home as we did Hanna, a bigger, broader and more farseeing man than when he came. Careless Handling of Explosives. Twenty killed in a New York stone quarry is the toll paid for the careless- ness of those charged with the 'handling of high explosives. Scarcely a day passes without telegraphic re- ports of similar casualties, though the loss of life in this instance is greater than common though by no means a record. The catastrophe simply illus- trates how cheaply human life is held in this country. Explosives, particularly those of high power such as are used in large undertakings, are dangerous at Dbest, but neither the law nor, custom af- fords the protection it could or should to the people who must work in and around them. The transportation companies have been compelled to ex- ercise care in their handling and for their own protection the railroads have gone farther than the law com- pels them to do. After the dangerous compounds have been turned over to the users the restraints are too often removed. Inexperienced men are en- trusted with their handling, but more frequently the accidents occur through the carglessness or ignorance of out- siders. There appears to be no neces- sity for so large a number of men as were killed in this instance to be present or within the .danger zone when . preparations are made Xor .dis- charging such a death-dealing dose. Adequate regulation as to ' the methods of handling and the placing of work with explosives in the hands of experts would eave hundreds and possibly thousands of lives each year. For the coal mines this has been done in many states, but in other darngerous co'lings the toll of human life con- tinues to be exacted because of an in- excusable desire to avoid the extra ex- pense proper precautions would entail, Taft Redeeming Promises. One of President Taft's announced policies was to endeavor to the best of. his ability to appoint only men of the highest character and attainment to the federal bench, that these quall- ties were to be the first consideration and all others subordinate. In his appointinent to the judicial vacancy in North Carolina he has demonstrated that he meant just what he said. Owing to the peculiar, condition pre- valling there, no-republcan lawyer fill- ing all the requirements of experi- ence and character could be found in the district, and rather than make an unsatisfactory appointment Mr. -Taft has named a democrat for the place. In doing so he makes it plain, how- ever, that the nomination is not made | because the man 18 a democrat, but | in spite of the fact, and that the only purpose is to insure a fully equipped bench. Those who profess to see in this a possibility that federal places as a rule are to be given to democrats, south or north, are likely to be disappointed, but It serves notice that if southern republicans want the offices they must present candidates who possess all the needful qualifications. The president is holding out no bait to the south, but simply giving the south what it, | like all other sections of the country | are entitled to, capable officials. While Mr. Taft is not making unusual noise about it, every time he has the oppor- tunity of making good on a campaign pledge he s doing it. Mr. Straus to Constantinople. The political revolution that has taken place in Turkey gives the posi- tion of American ambassador to Con- stantinople a particular importance at this time, not exceeded by our diplo; matie representation at any“European capital and makes the selection of formerly member of Mr. Roosevelt's cabinet as head of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and likewise previously experienced as our accredited representative to the sultan's government, a most wise and satisfactory choice. It is doubtiess due wholly to the de- velopments of the last few month: centering the eyes of Europe and the whole world upon the Turkish capital, that My, Straus has been persuaded to accept this assighment, which he had before filled and which, otherwise, would hardly have afforded him full scope for his high talents as a diplo- mat and public man. His return to Constantinople as qur ambassador will testify to Mr. Straud’ high idea of pub- lic duty and his willingness to serve the country in the capacity in which he can do most good. With Mr. Straus in close touch with the Turkish situation and advising him as to the requirements of our position in that highly complicated in- ternationpal tangle, President Taft will surely feel that our iInterests there are fully protected and that he has the very best man he could have in that most trying place. Progress in Dry Farming. A few years ago when an enthusias- tic Nebraskan who had made a study of the sofl conditions announced that the semi-arid regions of the middle west could be made to raise bountiful crops he was called an {mpractical dreamer, He reminded those who laughed at him that much of what was once a part of the so-called “‘Great American desert” was already raising bountiful crops and that those who first sald this was possible were similar subjects of ridicule. He was reminded that the older skepticism was born of a misconception of the character of the soil and the quantity of rainfall, all of which had behind it largely the force of fact. But, undis- couraged, he kept on insisting that one drop of water intelligently handled could do the work two had previously been doing. His insistence finally found a few converts willing to back him sufficiently to enable him to make a practical demonstration. Today there are thousands of converts to the dry farming idea and thousands of acres have been thus added tp the pro- ducing area of the country. Colorado, Wyoming and Texas in particular are taking hold of the new method and demonstrating by the un- answerable logic of successful farming on a practical scale that the remainder of the “desert” can provide' homes and a profitable occupation for many thou- sands. When crops can be success- fully raised on seven and one-half inches of annual rainfall instead of the minimum of twenty-five, as once supposed, it is time for the former “crazy’” man to smile at the expense of the ones who clung to outgrown prejudice. The dry farmer has not demon- strated that it takes less moisture to raise a crop than formerly, but he has taught the lesson of the age, the con- servation of what we have and econom- ical instead of wasteful use. Socialists in Omaha. The official canvass of the recent city election in Omaha shows that the head of the socialist ticket running for mayor received 441 votes. Three years before the socialist candidate for the same office recelved 427 votes. Last year the socialist presidential ticket received in Omaha 576 votes. Taking these figures as reflecting the normal socialist strength in Omaha would indicate that the socialists here constitute a small group firmly de- voted to the principles which that party represents, but practically sta- tionary in numbers, During the recent city campaign the soclalists were more than usually ac- tive in circulating their literature. Their candidates went before the peo- ple on & platform of distinct pledges, socialistic in their tendency, yet mot unattractive. They demanded that the city acquire and itself operate all the public service utilities, that a free public highway be erected between Omaha and Council Bluffs, that the city health department be expanded to furnish free medical service and free medicines, that all public work be done by' day labor on an eight-hour basis at union wages. And yet, not- withstanding this program, which would naturally appeal to the laboring men and the poorer classes, the social- ist vote shows no gains. It strikes us that these facts furnish most encouraging evidence that the people have not been led away in any great number by the socialist schemes for the complete reorganization of so- clety, but prefer to work for practical improvement of existing institutions through the established machinery of government. —_— Something will have to be done to prevent a recurrence of the fatality | which overcame the Fort Crook sol- dier who tried an inebriation experi- ment with a barber's supply of witch- hazel. Either the barber shops will have to take out liquor licenses or the pure food inspectors will have to en- large their jurisdiction —_— The local Bar association is to take up the question of dealing with al- leged jury bribing with a view to co- operating for its extermination. It is to be hoped the Bar association will be more persistent and successful in this than it has been in disbaring its own members guilty of questionable prac- tices. — A labor unionist asserts that Moses called the first strike in the brick yards of Egypt. It will also be re- membered that when he called his people to walk out they wandered around for forty years before they set- tled down again to a steady job. A Texas college professor wandered over into Arkansas and forgot who he was or where he came from. Arkan- sas must have reformed if he found anything there to make him forget Texas. There will be a great deal of tourist travel through Omaha this summer, with the Seattle exposition as an addi- FRIDAY, tional attraction to take eastern peo- ple west. Omaha should do some- thing to induce these tourists to break thelr journey by stopping over here. A growing city can have no advertise- ment more effective than a personal inspection. —_— Abdul Hamid is reported to have given up the money he had on deposit in foreign banks. Abdul is in much the same predicament as the man fac- ing a gun in a poker game who counld not under the circumstances be ex- pected to argue the point. Collector Loeb at the port of New York has unearthed some more cus- toms frauds due to underweighing. If he can keep up the gait he has set in preventing frauds he may be able to settle the treasury deficit without the aid of congress. An Indiana man who has reached the age of 102 confesses he has never written a book. He had better hurry up, for if he tells that story to St. Peter his veracity is likely to be ques- tioned. The Water board’s refusal to take care of the accrued hydrant rental is costing the taxpayers of Omaha ap- proximately $3,000 a month. What are we going to do abonf it? Exceeds the Contract Price. New York Sun. 1f Mr. Roosevelt has really captured allve—with his hands, no doubt—a hitherto unknown animal, half zebra giraffe, his account of it would be worth more than a dollar a word. Drawing the Distinction, Indianapolis News, As that Omaha balloon didn't explode until the landing, 1t was, of course, entirely successful ascension. On the other hand, however, if it had exploded a few moments sooner the same could hardly be sald. Some Remarks on Hides. Louisville Chburier-Journal. The skin of the black fox is worth hun- | the year of 1901, Is to be continued through- It | out the yeAr, as has been said. That jud, apnears from the way Dolliver went atter | ment is based upon what is known to be | dreds and even thousands of dollars, Aldrich In the senate that theré may be an impression that the skin of the gray wolf is worth as much as that of the black fox. Polities and Judgeships Divorced. Baltimore American. The Amencnn public generally will com- mend President Taft's decision to divorce Judgeships from politics and to obtain for the bench the best men, Irrespective of other considerations. be like Caesar's wife—above suspieon. It should be a bulwark of law and justice upon which the people can look with ab- solute trust. Extended Corn Acreage. Springfield Republican. Reports from the west indicate the plant- Ing of a greatly extended acreage to corn, the principal cereal crop of the country. Present prices are highly stimulating to this result, and not only will the abandoned winter wheat acreage be given over to corn, but further areas additional to those usually devoted to thé crop will be planted. If the season proves fairly favorable the corn crop of 1900 should break all rec- ords. ¥ Safety Devices om ‘Railroads. Boston: Herald, Out of a rallway mileage in this country amounting in 198 to more than 2M4,3%2 miles, at the close of that year there were only 53,8 miles under the block system of signalling operation of trains, the net gain for the year belng 570 miles. This tortolse-like pace in effecting adequate, rational operation of American railroads 1s due more than anything else to popular indifference to loss of life and limb. Were Americans sufficiently reverent of human- ity as such, were they even alive to the economic waste involved in destruction of property and life by collision, they would not permit rallroads, on the excuse of “hard times,” to deflect public opinion which demands the protection of the best signalling systems. A MIST OF EXPLANATION, ourl Rate Decision Wrapped Up in a Fog. St. Louls Republic, Judge McPherson’s supplemental decision MAY 14, and half | an | The judiclary should | in the 2-cent rate case, filed in the Kansas | City federal court remark that he “hated explanations; they always fogged up a thing so." It is chiefly made up of comment upon and de- fense of this utterance from the original decision: “It being & legislative act and not a judicial one, this court cannot fix rates. It it could, 4-cent passenger rates would be fixed for the stronger roads and 3 for the others. acting itself with experts such as the state employed In these cases, or through a com- mission with like assistance.” Why this should need elucldation dees not appear. The statement Is simple and di- rect meanest intelligence. Two of the three sentences composing the quotation are al- most axiomatic in thelr force. The coms trast between the clear light of the Figinal utterance and the misty twilight of the explanation. “My statement (i. e., court cannot f{ix rates) is not comtroverted by anyone. This being of course, what 1 said.above is obiter dictum. kut because It is obiter dictum is no reason whatever for not saying It, and still less & reason for now eliminating it from my opinion.”’ The utterance as to the amount of an equitable rate having been pronounced an obiter dictum, the supplementary opinion goes on to amplify, explain and defend it. All this s very interesting as show- Ing the personal opinions of Judge Me- Pherson, but It adds nothing but con, fusion to the attempt to understand the decision of the court. And this is the matter with which the public and the rail- roads are chiefly concerned. Since there was no doubt in the mind of anyone as to the meaning of the original decision, the only possible function of a supple- mentary decision is to extend or restrict the application of the principles lald down in the original, or to wake clearer the grounds on which it was based. None of these things is done in the supplementary decision, a&s reported. Like Malvelio's prison, “it hath bay windows transparent barricadoes and the clear stories (o- ward the south-north are as lustrous as ebony."* It might be well it our jurists would oc- casionally recall to mind the prinelpl enunciated by a witty editor in returning & manuscript to H. R. Hawels: “Sir-I return your inanuscript without apology or explanatfon, for I have observed that whereas an editor 1s usually right in his decisions, he is invarisdly wrong when he attempis to give his reasons ™ 50, Its meaning should be clear to the | recalls Mark Twain's | But that is for the legislature | | that the | | | | [ | street, rounding the corner into the acci- 1909. Around New York ‘ Ripples on the Qurre of Nife A8 Seen in the Great Amerioan Metropolis from Day to Day. A divorce sult Involving several families on the social upper levels of Manhattan and Brooklyn does not differ In essentials from the average of domestic cascs aired in court, but introdiices a new element sug- gestive of the abundance of variety avail- able if the ground is properly worked. The prime cause of the trouble in the family was the wife's penchant for sentimental affinities. Limericks and affinities do not necessarily travel abreast or tandem. Both may be wholly ltnocent of relationsh'p, Somehow, In the present case, the limer- icks were built on the concealed joker plan, and as pne of these jokers exploded at an unseemly stage of the game the shock was sufficient to remove hubby's spectacles and put him next to the affinit This pair did the business: There was a young woman named Etta, Who really should have known better. Her folks did what they could To make her be good; Not succeeding, said, “Oh, let her.” There was a young man named Ed, Who always went eariy to bed. He iarried a wife, The bane of his life; He'll be far better off when he's dead. In three months' time, and that, too, at a season when there ‘were complaints of business stagnation, there were $1,000,000 of Investment, presént or prospective, in new building congtruction in Manhattan alone. Judging by the precedents, says the New York Times, this of Itself is to be accepted as irresistible evidence of the speedy return of business prosperity of all kinds. If this average be kept up during the remainder of the year—and the Indica- tions are that It will be—$230,000000 will have been converted into fixed capital in real estate investment on the island of Manhattan. It s, of course, explained in part by the fact that money is so plentiful that it can be obtained for real estate in- vestment at a rate which would make the interest charge not much more than 4 per cent. In this way funds are being diverted from the speculative markets to those of real estate Improvements. The indications are that this real estate investment, almost unparalleled, since it was exceeded but once, that time being in contemplated investments In the summer and fall. Some of them are going com- pletely to change the character of Fourth avenue, from Unlon square to Thirty- fourth street. That avenue is to reflect or supplement the business impulse which has converted Fifth avenue from Centval park to Fourteenth street into the world's most brilliant shopping thoroughtare. Merchants who do not feel justified in ‘en- tailing the enormous expense which build- ing construction on Fifth avenue involves are venturing upon Fourth avenue to the ecast and upon the cross streets as well, Two new hotels on Forty-second street, cast of Fifth avenue, are among the con- templated real estate improvements of this spring. One Is to be twenty-four stories in height, and another, flanking it at Mad- ison avenue and Forty-second street, is to be thirty-one stories in helght. And these two ventures alone will represent new in- vestment in hotel properties In New York not far from $5,000,000. It fs in part due to this real estate actlvity in New York that steel and iron manufacturing, at least o its etructural side, and that the m-num,{ ture of machinery and tools have been considerably stimulated since the first of the year. To prevent as far as possible the num- bor of robberles In New York getting into the newspapers, only six of the largest vawnshops are now trusted with the daily list of stolen articles as printed at police headquarters. These fists show, however, that since January 1 more than 81,000,000 worth of goods has been stolen from the residents of New York City. The lists left at the blg pawnshops dally are printed on green paper, and are divided under the various headings—watches stolen, diamonds, jewelry, silverware, clothing ete. They are marked confidential and are signed by Commissioner Bingham, The remalning loan shop proprietors, numbering about 1% on the east and west sides_of the city, havé no lists sent to them, and for the last six weeks the de- tectives have ceased to make their dafly rounds to inquire after stolen property. As a result the majority of the pawnbrokers do not know whether goods have been stolen oF not, and the public suffers in the end, as it makes things easy for the burglars to get rid of their loot. Nine-months-old Evans Killeen, of 5 Avenue A, swallowed a “jack,” one of the little elght-pronged metal toys used by children in playing marbles, The little fellow had snatched the “‘jack’ from one of several children playing in the hallway of the house. He gasped, clawed at his throat and sank into semiconseious- ness. His mother happened to come in the door and the other children excitedly toid her what had happened. The woman slapped the baby's back violently, but could not dislodge the plece of metal Her screams attracted a policeman, who sum- moned Dr. Peaxson from Bellevue. The surgeon arrived quickly in the new auto- mobfle ambulance and decided to operate at once. But he did not have the tube used in such cases, so he bundled the boy into the ma- chine and told the chauffeur to put on full speed. With the siren sounding for blocks ahead, the car raced along at about fifty miles an hour. At Twentieth street wnd Becond avenue the surgeon saw the boy had hardly a minute to live. . “8top!" he yelled to the driver. When the car halted the doctor picked up the baby by the heels, leaned over the back of \the ambulance and for fully a minute swung the boy in a circle, now and n, when the head was toward the street, giving the hody a jerk. Suddenly there was a metallic ring on the street, The “jack” had been dislodged, and th doctor, panting from his exertions, placed the child on the couch again, and once more the chaffeur put on full speed and went whizzing like mad to Twenty-sixth | dent ward with a dizzy skid The life of the baby was saved by Dr. Pearson's remarkable “‘operation." There were about 20 persons In the crowd that watched the surgeon swinging and shaking the baby. They did not inter- fere, although the treatment was violent, | for they knew the doctor was well aware of what he was doing. When the “jack" dropped the doctor, mopping his brow, sat down on the bench of the ambulance ex- hausted, the crowd cheered him. What s Really Needed. San Francisco Chronicle. There is a growing bellef that an asylum is hardly the proper place to send & per- son afflicted with homicidal mania. Most of the conspicuous patients of this class appear to need the adentions of the hang- man more than those of a nurse, and would be subjected to the noose treatment If there was a healthy sense of account- ability on the part of the juries l:‘.m‘l Thomas H. Benton into fact. e e Dy, Pierce’s Favorite Prescription MAKES WEAK WOMEN STRONG, SICK WOMEN WELL. For over 40 years this celebrated remedy has been making wemen’s lives happier—health- ier—safer. Many thousands of women have testified to its wonderful effect. The “Favorite E feminine organism. Prescription " is Y that can be de- there is any derangement of the distinctly It purifies, heals, soothes, bullds up. %otvg Ru%vmmmwm { o most Women is rank poison) nor injurious or Dabit-forming drugs. so perfect in its composition THE ONE ?EMEDV which s \ so In its curative effects as to warrant its makers in printing its every ingredient, as they do, on lts outside wrapper, verilying the same under solemn osth. It is needed when backaches make life miserable—when a sickens ing, dr: when sicl vegetable compound, being a gl ing, bearing-down feeling makes work a weary agony— headache, nervous irritability, loss of ene tite indicate derangement of the womanly organism rfi lyceric extract from native medicinal roots and can not injurg in any condi and ‘appe- is a purely on of the female system. Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets help the effect of all other medicines by keeping open. They regulate and strengthen Stomach, Liver.and Bowels, the liver active and the e Easy to take as candy. At all dealers—get what you ask for. B World’s Dispensary Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Y. A RAILROAD ANNIVERSARYY. i in Raflroad Work in Forty Years. St. Louls Gigbe-Democrat. When, on May 10, 139, Thomas Durant and Leland Stanford drove the golden spike which completed the track laying of the Union and the Central Pacific roads, did they or anybody else dream of the ex- pansion in rallway construction which the next forty years would bring in the United States? Probably not. The meeting of the ralls on that day took place mear Ogden, in Utah. There were 45,000 miles of rail- way main track in the country at that time. little over 230,00 miles are here now. The rallway system of the United States at this moment has a capitalization of over $15,000,000,00, which represents an eighth of the $120,000,000,000 of the wealth of the entire country in 1909. The event in Utah forty years ago com- memorated the completion of the first of the transcontinental lines of raliway, and transmuted the dreams of Asa Whitney Today six lines span the continent in the United States. The Canadian Pacific extends from the Atlantic to the big western ocean. The Grand Trunk Paclfic, another road crossing through Canada, is expected to touch the Pacific in 191l. The Canadlan Northern, according to present plans, will reach there by 1914 or earlier. Probably by the time that Canada has its three transcontinental roads the United Btates will have added one or two more to its own list. Three-quarters of a century ago, when we were sending to England not only for rails and locomotives, but alse for men to run the latter, who would have Imagined that a day would come when the Ginited Btates would not only exceed England in rallway mileage, but all of Burope? That me long ago. The United States in 1908 has ten times as many miles of rail- way main track as the United Kingdom, It has 40 per cent more miles than all of Europe. It has 42 per cent of the miledge of the entire world. American bullt loco- motives may be found on every continent on the globe. The 1,500,000 employes of the raflways of the United Btates constitute large an army as were under the Rus- slan and Japanese commanders combined at the time when Presldent Roosevelt brought the truce in 1805 which led to the peace of Portmouth, PATENTS AND MONOPOLIES, Law _ Shonld Work Forfelture Unused Patents. Wall Street Journal. In 1907 the liberal government in Great Britain succeeded In passing finto law a very Important act dealing with foreign patents. In effect, it made it necessary thut an article patented in Great Britain by a foreigner should be manufactured in Great Britain. If it is not so manufac- tured anybody can apply to revoke the patent and can proceed to manufacture the article forthwith. Justice Parker, one of the strongest lawyers of the king's bench, has now handed down a decision on the first for- elgn patent holder's apreal under the terms of this law, In which he revokes the patent. In doing so he has lald down a broader principle and one which ought to be good law In this country just much as in England, while it may be called sound equity anywhere. In effect the English judge says that lotters patent create monopolies and are, therefore, tontrary to the spirit of the common law as being restraints on trade. They are only granted for the encourage- ment of trade and of inventions useful to trade and it is felt to be intolerable that they should he used exclusively to pre- vent the development of new industries or to fetter existing industries. He refers here to all patents, and not merely to those affected by the law of 107, He pro- ceeds upon the broad princiile that a pat- ent, which, In effect is a monopoly, is granted not for the sole profit of individ- uals, but for the benefit of all Our legislatures may very properly de- vote their time in preference to risky ex- perimental legislation to extingulsh dor- mant patents and franchises. A patent which is kranted but not used, the title of which 15 retained purely to restrict fair competition Is & monopoly in restraint of trade. It confers a privilege never con- templated or intended. It s to come within Justice Parker's definition of a grant for the benefit of all. Fallure to manufacture under a patent within a rea- sonable time should be automatically followed by the cancelling of that patent, with free permissicn to everybody to util- 1ze the protected process or principle. (’[J( ()] " PERSONAL NOTES. According to the bureau of statistics we are still 2,000,000 shy of the $0,000,000 mark; but we will make it by another year it we have to import ‘em. A St. Louis wife left her husband and applied for a divorce because she couldn't eat the heavy, mour biscults he baked. It serves him right. No man who I8 a\ poor cook has any busipess marrying. George R. Hougl, for forty«two years a conductor on the Wabash in lilinojs and Iowa, died in St Paul, -Minn, from o stroke of paralysis, aged 7. He began | working upon the Wabash in 1857, at | Springtield, 1Il. : Miss E. D. Todd of New York expects to have an aeroplane ready for its trial flight carly in June. The machine is for bne pasgenger and she expects to drive It herself. It is to be propelléd by gasoline enginc and 1s planned to have a maximum speed of forty miles an hour. Mrs. C. E. Whitnal and Mrs. Meta Berger were elected school directors In Milwaukes the other day. Twenty-one men are sald to have run for the same office and only three were elected. Mrs. C. J. Evans wa elected to the school board in. Topeka, Kan. She was supported by members of the Women's Federated Clubs, many of them going to the polls in thelr carriages and bringing thelr women servants with them. Justice Clark of the New York supreme cdurt, sitting in Rochester, recently had & word or two to say for people who go about public highways on foot. Address- ing thes grand jury, he declared: ‘“The automobile s ar institution which has come to stay. But the pedestrian was here first. He has certain defined rights. One of thewe is that he must be protected in traveling on the public highways. Care- less, reckless and criminal operation of automobiles must be stopped.’ SAID (IN - FUN, “Jenks is a pushing sort of a fellow, sn't he? I should judge so by his performances with the baby carrlage and the MWR mawer. '—Baltimore American. Belle—Well, you ought to be happy. Nelle—Why'? Belle—You've married a rich husband. Nelle—No, I haven't; I've married & rich man, but he's & mighty poor husband.— Cleveoland P Dealer. n The Lawyer—Madam, what s your age? The Opposition (nterrupting — Your honor, 1 submit that my honorable oppon- ent is inciting the witness to perjury!— Jleveland Leader. “You ought to be more careful about what you say In your speeches befare your colleagues. I suppose I ought,” answered Benator Sorghum. “But to tell the truth, I didn't realize that any one was listening.—Wash- ington Star. Balesman (at' bookstore)—'Pe is what you are looklng for. at- entitled, “Housekeoping Made . you all about—"" Anxious Customer—'No; we've got that, Haven't you a book called “"Moving Made Easy?'—Chicago Tribune. “Judge,” sald the prisoner, “if you give me a severe sentence I shall never live to pay it “That being the case,” responded the Judge, gravely, "l sentence you to life im- prisonment, and 1 fail to see how suicide can have any bearing on the payment.'— Philadelphia Ledger. “He testified that the agents of the gom- any tried to bribe him, eh? What could ana been his motive in giving them uvry?" “It s erally supposed that they didn't offer him quite as much a8 be bad expected.”—Chicago Tribune. PENALTIES OF FAME. J. K. Bangs in Harper's Weekly. 1 dreamed that fame was mine, And all along the line Friends, relatives and foes—all three— Began to hammer' me, And when 1 woke ‘twas mense To find my fame marked down to thirty cents. " with relief tm~ 1L had the dream once more "Twas worse than 'twas before. I found myself perched up on high th the sky. and lonely. Oh be sure be el e Again 1t How sor A wreath of Pressed on my scorched he a DId sear me so0 that wheh [ woke anon ‘Twas bliss to find I'd but & nightcap on. And hence it is'1 say Fame need not come my way, 1 much prefer things as‘they are In byways nebular, Where public optics do not rudely m | And burning laurels do not sing fave | Qur product and reputation are the best advertisement we can offer A. L Root, Inc., 1210:1212 Howard St., Omaba 'S -