Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 27, 1916, Page 4

i Stop! Look! Listen! Not the least anomaly of the recent election is the vigorous demand now made by the New THE OMAHA DAILY' BEE FOUNDED BY EDWARD ROSEWATER. | VICTOR ROSEWATER, EDITOR. "THE BEE PUBLISHING COMPANY, PROPRIETOR. Entered st Omaha postoftice cratic newspaper organ of the country, for im- mediate action by the president and congress to TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTIO make effective the plank in the republican na- Ry Carrier By Mail | tional platform for exclusive federal regulation per month. per year [ 7T 4 - $8.00 | of railroads. When we remember the hypocritical glil! and Sunday. .. Evening and Sunday Evening without Sunda: Sunday Bee only. Daily and Sunda Send notice of livery to Omaha effort of certain democratic candidates to make political capital here in Nebraska by holding up the republican solution of the railroad problem s a “bogie man" to producers and shippers, what the World is saying today, after the issues of di Circulation Department. REMITTANCE, Remit by drat postal order. Only 2-cent stamps .lhc clccrmu‘ 'lii\'4' passed, comes with a grim taken in payment of small accounts. Personal checks, irony, for this is what it says: except on Omaha eastern exchange, not accepted. A ? 3 . = If it is necessary in the regulation of rail- OFFICES. roads engaged in interstate commerce to Omaha—Th: Building. | sweep away the.whole fabric of state control, g::‘“:‘m_’ l‘l'um"i‘.'-m sy it should be swept away. There is no issue of state rights involved in the controversy, because the states have no rights so far as interstate commerce is concerned. They never had any rights. From the day the constitu- tion was adopted fhe interstate commerce clause meant just what it means now, and the failure of congress to exert its full authority conferred no additional authority upon the several states, Congress has proceeded slowly and cau- tiously in the exercise of its authority over in- Lineoln—5§26 X;ltth Bulldin, Chi 818 Gy fill""nl New Yok 786 Fifth svenue. 8t. Louis—508 New Bank of Commerce. Washington—726 Fourteenth strest, N. W. CORRESPONDENCE. | Addvess communications relati to news and editorial matter to Omahs Bee, Editorial ment. OCTOBER CIRCULATION 53,818 Daily—Sunday 50,262 Dwight Williams, circulation manager of The Bee 3 Publishing y, being duly sworn, says that the | terstate commerce, and so far as railroad serv- average cirenlati or the month of October, 1916, was | jce js concerned, the country is the worse off 53,818 M’b;“l‘fi!:%’”fl?l‘d‘k‘:"é Cireulation ‘Mansger. because of this delay and hesitation. The time has come for another long step forward in the exercise of these constitutional powers. That step ihvolves the emancipation of the railroads from state interference, the emancipation of in- vestors from crooked financiering, the emanci- pation of the public from strikes and lockouts, and a general reorganization of railroad traffic under the direction of the Interstate Com- merce commission, It is a stupendous undertaking, bhut it ought to be done now. When the war is ended and the United States is confronted with the new industrial problems that must inevitably grow out of it, the country ought not to be handi- capped by an antiquated system of railroad r(e)(l)ulauon which leaves the transportation of 100,000,000 people subject to the meddling of forty-cight state governments and to the re- current anarchy o? capital and labor, The absurdity of multiplex conflicting rail- road jurisdictions and the inevitableness of ex- clusive federal regulation has been pointed out time and again by The Bee. It would be the natural presumption that President Wilson's re- clection would be 2 backset for federalization, but, if the World speaks as a democratic oracle, the democrats will be voicing this demand them- selves and enacting measures leading to its ful- fillment even before the present administration yields its control of congress. Where that will leave the short-sighted defenders of the chaos of states’ rights in railroad regulation remains to be seen. It will not be long until the alter- native will be not between the present system of state control, as against federal control, but between exclusive federal regulation and the socialistic clamor for full public ownership of railroads. Subscribed in my presence and sworn to before mie this 4th day of November, 1916, C. W. CARLSON, Notary Pubne. Subseribers leaving the city temporarily should have The Bee mailed to them. Ad- dress will be changed as often as required. sibedlda haidy If not more careful, some of these egg specu- lators are soon going to be up egg-ainst it. Help! Still, the limited profits derived from rescuing autos from mudholes hardly excuses rural oppo- sition to good roads for all kinds of weather. And our water board law says that “unduc activity or participation in municipal politics shall be deemed a just cause for removal” of any water board employe. At the recent election over 35,000 votes were cast in Greater Omaha. Who wants to hazard a guess as to how many will be cast in the com- ing special election next Tuesday? If our suffragist friends expect to re-submit their amendment they will have to start their petitions soom, for it will require nearly 50,000 signatures this time, which means going some. ST——— Some $5,000,000 in election bets were released in New York last week. About the same time two national committee deficits were bulletined, The coincidence did not end there. Both passed the hat. A division of the wet belt in Chicago mani- fests irritation because Colonel Bryan flopped from local option in 1908 to prohibition in 1916, The wets forget that flopping is the colonel's long suit. Stage Coach in the Last Ditch. One by one the few remaining ties linking the twentieth-century west with “the pioneer days snap under the stress of modern speed and retire to the haunts of has-beens. Long ago the fa- mous and most picturesque of pioneer vehicles, the stage coach, retired from the highways of the west and gradually receded from the by- ways. Railroad expansion in every direction sounded the knell of doom. Yellowstone park remained one of the very few distriets where the stage coach maintained its old-time importance and dignity. Necessity made it so. There the government at the entrance drew deadlines against the railroads and permitted the stage coach to flourish and radiate more or less joy among sightseeing tourists. But while the rail- roads were balked in the chase the motor car mul- titude pressed for admission. Concessions have been made officially and next summer will wit- ness an invasion of gasoline power, which spells the finish of the stage coach and its prancing teams. Eventually the ballyhoo gas wagon will wake the echoes of mountain glens, and the coach, doomed to idleness and rust, become a romantic memory. —— Sex in Words. The United States government has solemnly decided that an aviator is an aviator, regardless of sex. This decision is in line with modern us- age, which is finally the controlling, influence in writing and speaking. Generally for years the tendency has been to drop the distinguishing suf- fix from words that may rightly be employed to designate cither sex, and thus the language, both written and spoken, Is being freed from awkward efforts, the origin of which lay deep in man's gal- lantry, but which have lost most, if not all, of thelr significance under modern custom. Woman herself has aided In this. Her entrance into all avenues of human activity or occupation has glven her at least a right to share in the full meaning of the word that denotes her position, and not to be set off in a separate class by the addition of a “trix" or an “ess,” intended to show that it is the “female of the species” who is pres- ent. In the case of the aviator, when arrayed for duty it is impossible for the casual observer to distinguish between man and woman. The same condition holds good in many other ways, and the change in the words is but a tribute to woman's increasing sphere. With the vanishing of sex from the language, we may renew the quest for the impersonal pronoun. —— —— The young woman who made a new aviation record in her flight from Chicago to New York is only 28. Some masculine sky skimmers, how- ever, harbor the delusion that they are the only high fliers. ‘ S— Once more the shoe men view with alarm the rising cost of short skirts. More scenery, more leather. The task of matching the prices to the decorations threatens the normal repose of the cash register. Viewed in its larger aspect the addition of a chair of gastronomy to the chair collections of state universitics would materially enhance the inward joy of college education. Spurred by the stress of the H. C L, no doubt forward-loaking educators will welcome the meaty suggestion. A modern replica of Diogenes, pursuing the ancient quest, would scarcely dare flash his glim around the headquarters of Pennsylvania's coal mine owners. A state tax of 10 cents a ton was collected by the operators from the dealers. None of it reached the state treasury, and state courts outlawed the tax, but not a whisper of a re- fund leaks out of the mine owners’ cash box. —— A variety of joyous public functions, ranging from patriotic speeches to an inaugural ball, featured the opening of the new Philippine con- gress and government last month. Scarcely had the festivities ended before the governor laid before congress a message calling for a sharp cut in salaries, or increased taxation. The feel- ing aroused by the joy-killing message may be likened to the throbbing headache of the mom- ing after. Pyramiding Prosperity Wall Street Journal There is a process in speculation not con- fined to the stock market, but common enough in grain, cotton, coffee, leather and even real estate, which is called “pyramiding” and lays the foundations for future panic. The successful speculator makes money on his first margin trans- action. But by those paper profits he adds to his commitments, and as the prices advance in a boom market he becomes thoroughly extended, with the consequence that a collapse finds him defenseless, although on paper he has made large gains. There is a danger that our prosperity, due to = the war, h; mnhi:l of the sene ?huneler. Deficit Still Piling Up. It is time, in fact, to offer a word of caution lest While Mr. Common People is worrying over Lis own little problem of how to make his in- come meet his expenses, Uncle Sam is calmly watching his outgo exceed his income by con- siderable above a million dollars a day. For the first twelve business days of November the ex- cess of expenditures above receipts for the fed- eral government was $18,334,012.18, and for the fiscal year, 1917, from July 1 to November 14, the total deficit is $104,800,625.42. For the same period last year the deficit was $48,157,329.91. In it prove that we have been pyramiding prosperity in the same way, A limited number of people have made large .fonu.nel. which they are rein- vesting in enterprises likely to benefit by the con- tinuance of the war in Europe. A much larger number of »eocleec have not benefited but, on the ;(onmry. have been hard hit by the advanced cost his applies more particularly to the pro- fessional and those in receipt of salaries, as, for , the clerical forces of the banks and trust campanies. These have seen their cost of li advance by leaps and bounds, while there has no corresponding increase in their re- | other words, in this year of “unexampled pros- fi_ muneration. They are not unionized, nor have perity,” the hole into which the government is [l they any friends in the White House or in plunged is more than twice as deep as it 1 * congress. A large part of our people find it harder i e p RS D i1 to make ends meet. Even meats and bread are | !t year. At this rate the deficit will be such by g ., dearer in New York than they are in London, | the end of December that the half-yearly flood where are already talking of bread tickets | of special revenue will be more than swallowed '"fll: thie n?tma“!m to f" s e s in the abyss that has been created by democratic investment abroad as a sai d ‘for o _ | mismanagement. The moral doesn’t need a head. able slump sfter the war, and 10 check A(:I:cdf:fio‘n light. n all departments down to the safety limit? We S————— | are too prone to spend extravagantly when we Montana's favorite daughter pulled through § i :". ly g&“;’l‘l’n‘“‘ M"}'.':hz“: be 0!:{ rel} her successful campaign for congress at an ex- G reserve inesital .l“'g" of w:r":rl::rll?nw:r pense of $687.70—a bargain figure beside the se- ficits of the alsorans. and i :r‘i:u and war freights? o > York World, the acknowledged leading demo- | THE_BEE: OMAHA, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1916. An Englishman’s Observations on New York ‘Sidney Brooks, in New York Times I never really feel myself in America until New York is left behind and I am rid of its at- mosphere of concentrated seli-sufficiency. I know when I land on Manhattan Island that I have left Europe. But I am not conscious of having reached the United States. The city is a little world of itself, planted round a backwater, away from the main streams of both American and European ex- istence, but in many ways more closely allied with London and Paris than with Denver and Kansas City. I know of no metropolis so intensely absorbed in its own affairs, so. coolly disdainful of everything in America that is not New York. What is its place in American life? It sets the fashions, it is the home of the leisure class, it is an accepted rendezvous of the “magnates,” it is the seat of the “money power,” it struggles hard to be the arbiter on all points of social usage, it can stamp with a more effective seal of approval or disapproval than any other American city can command an opera, a book, or a play. But, com- mercially, financially and politically its influence decreases as that of the west increases, New York, I should say, reached its greatest height of power in 1896. Since then its importance has steadily waned, and fifty years hence it will be like a firm whose branches have outgrown the main office. Everything in and around New York has changed since T first visited it twenty years ago, but not New York itself. As I look over it at this moment, from the fifteenth floor of my hotel, [ get the same impression that | received in 1896 of a city as violently antithetical to London as anything could be The differences are everywhere talline brightness of the atmosphere, a brightne heightened rather than broken by the gay w whiffs of steam from apartment house, skyscraper and factor: in the glimmering panorama of speckless, towering edifices; in the stabbing sharp ness of the noises from the strect: in a vision of a city built, one would say, by the Titans, planned by Euclid, and furnished by Edison.a chesshoard affair of right angles and squares and paraliclo grams; in the prodigality of electric light that at night makes each street a milky way and cach building a palace in fairyland; in the ascending sense, as one looks down a hundred and fifty feet to the asphalt below, of a movement, a joyous- ness, an exhilaration quicker and sharper cdged than anything we in London ever knew. London has grown; we are only just begin- ning to make it, or rather to make it over. But in New York one feels ons’s self in a metropolis that has somehow been hit off at a stroke and dumped down upon Manhattan Island by con- tract. The waywardness, the surprises, the haphaz- ard nooks and irregularities, t{:e cacsural pauses, the deep, quiet half-forgotten pools of silence and isolation, the enormous sense of a background and a past, the sheer, delightful jumble of it all —everything, in short, that makes one love Lon- don and hate it with equal fervor finds here no counterpart at all, New York seems almost at times to be less a city than a system, an amazing and triumphant essay in the art of saving time and space. Every- thing in and about it is sacrificed, and has had to be sacrificed, to the necessity of enabling ten peo- ple to live, and above all to move, in an area where three would be a crowd. Method, mechanics, the draftsman’s ruler, the engineer's daring and ingenuity have never achieved anything more wonderful than in mak- ing a_metropolis on Manhattan Island possible. They have solved the problem with steel and mar- ble; with offices, stores, apartment houses and hotels that dwarf the highest church steeple; with curveless streets slashed by clectric car lines, overarched by elevated railroads and tunneled by a four-track subway—in a word, by every device that can annihilate distance and delay. But in so solving it, in thus scaling everything down to the dull prose of business and dispatch, in treating New York as primarily a puzzle in transportation and communications, a gigantic counter to facilitate buying and selling, they have made it a city of all the material conveniences and few or none of the emotional satisfactions. Behind the whirr and radiance and stimulus of the whole vast machine there is little to make any permanent appeal. New York has had a his- tory, but it is overlaid and obliterated by the rau- cous and insistent present. Except for a small tangle of streets “down town” there is hardly any- thing to recall the past. Dutch New York, Eng- lish New York, are as though they had never been. £ One might as well write sonnets to a steam radiator as attempt to grow historically or aes- thetically sentimental over New York. The first and last note of the city is that of hard, brilliant relentless mechanism. I feel as though I were living in a power-house or had been transformed into a mere bundle of freight caught up in the grip of a universal express company, Xnd yet, with all the symmetry of its design, its enforced and rigid adhesion to plan, one gets a curious sense of impermanence, as though the city were still in the experimental, camping-out stage, as though even now it were rather a large cara- vanserai than a settled community, Obstacles That Block Direct Popular Election of President St. Louis Globe Democrat There are reasons why the agitation of the election of a president by a direct popular vote will meet with sturdy opposition. Since the de- velopment of parties the electoral college is an anachronism. Four years ago there was much confusion, owing to diverse state laws, In Cali- fornia, for example, the only way anybody could vote for Taft was by writing in the names of thirteen electors. In" Oklahoma there was one set of republican electors, and nobody knew for a certainty whether, if elected, they would sup- port Taft or Roosevelt. In most states a voter cannot support one party's state ticket and an- other’s national ticket without laboriously writ- ing in the names of all the electors. There is always a chance of a divided vote in close states, The will of the people is often defeated through the untimely death of a candidate for elector or through some legal disqualification of a candidate receiving the greatest number of votes. There is also the possibility of some corrupt or whimsical elector violating his instructions in a close con- test. Abolishment of the electoral college, as now constituted would seem to be a sensible reform. But it is when the obliteration of the state as the unit is suggested that the protests arise. The south opposes a general federal election law, for it would interfere with the disfranchisement of negroes. It would also force uniformity of- sui- frage qualifications. The south has 132 votes in the electoral college, which constitute the princi- pal asset of the democratic party. They insure its longevity. The promptness with which President Wilson dropped his proposal of a federal primary law revealed how warmly and how unanimously the south resents any plan looking to federal con- trol. A constitutional reduction of southern rep- resentation would have given Mr, Hughes the presidency. But the opposition would not be confined to the south. The states which have a small popu- lation would vigorously oppose such a change. There are ninety-six electoral votes based on sen- atorial representation. Each of sixteen states, with only two such electors each, has as much or more than the combined population of nine states with eighteen such electors. Missouri has ap- proximately as much population as the combined population of eleven states with twenty-two such electors. New York has almost three times the population of the same eleven states. It would require the approval of three-fourths of all the states to make the constitutional change. No state will be eager to surrender any of its rights i or power. in the crys- [ Thought Nugget for the Day. The barriers are not yet erected which shall say to aspiring g talent, “Thus far and no farther.”—Bee- thoven. One Year Ago Today in the War. Italians made breach in Gorizia's defenses. Serbian government and the diplo- matic corps arrived at Scutari. Turks captured a considerable sec- tion of allied trenches on Gallipoli. Main Serbian army driven across into Albania, abandoning heavy ar- tillery. A Canadian government seized all high grade wheat in elevators from Fort William to Atlantic coast. In Omaha Thirty Years Ago. Miss IElla Armstrong gave a delight- ful dancing party to a few of her friends, Prof. Dworzak furnishing the musie. An excellent supper was served during the evening to which the following sat down: Misses Grace Heffley, Doe Polack, Bedford. Lynn Curtis, Lillian, Stadelman, Messrs. Herbert Cook, Drake O'Reilly, C. T. Reed, G. A. Rathbun, Harry Mec- Cormick, Howard Clark and Harry Moores. Max Meyer is trying to negotiate with Patti for a concert at the Ex- position building sometime in Decem- ber. It is the hope of all Omaha peo- ple that he may be successful. The commissioners awarded a con- tract to 8. P. Morse & Co. for the furnishing of fifty blankets for the county jail, Judge and Mrs. McC ‘lloch spent Thanksgiving day in Chariton, Ja., the guests of Rev. and Mrs. Albert Gor- don. Dr. Pinkerton, a clever physician from Bellevue hospital, is coming to locate in Omaha. Curtis Doud, a brother of Deputy Revenue Collector Doud, has arrived in Omaha and will embark in the in- surance business. Building permit was granted to the Board of Education for the construc- tion of one-story frame school house at the corner of Eighteenth and Lake streets to cost $600. This Day In History. 1747—Robert R. Livingston, who administered the oath to Washington as first president, born in New York City. Died at Clermont, N. Y., Feb- ruary 26, 1813. 1778—A British expedition against Georgia sailed from New York. 1786—Henry Wheaton, whose work on international law was translated into the Chinese language, born at Providence, R. I. Died at Dorchester, Mass,, March 11, 1848, 1809—Fanny Kemble, actress, born in London. January 16, 1893, 1812—A large part of Napoleon's army was destroyed by the Russians while attempting a passage of the Berezina river, 1820—Edwin Forrest made his final debut as an actor at the Walnut Street theater in Philadelpbia. 1870—The Germans under Baron von Manteuffel defeated the French army of the north, near Amiens, 1873—Completion of the Hoosac tunnel. 1896—Alexandre Dumas (fils.), fa- mous French dramatist and novelist, died. Born July 29, 1824. 1898—Dr. Lyman Abbott resigned the pastoraté of Plymouth church, Brooklyn. 1911—The secret consistory at the vatican created nineteen new cardi- nals, three Americans being among them. 1912—Adrianople was set on fire by aeroplane bombs. celebrated Died there, The Day We Celebrate. Clinton Brome was born November 27, 1884, at Norfolk. He graduated in law from Creighton university and has served sg assistant city attorney. Alvey A. Adee, for over thirty years assistant secretary of state at Wash- ington, born at Astoria, N. Y., seventy- four years ago today. Eugene Walter, author of “Paid in Full” and other successful plays, born f,n Cleveland, forty-two years ago to- ay. Roscoe C. McCulloch, representative in congress of the Sixteenth Ohio dis- trict, born at Mullersburg, O., thirty- six years ago today. Leslie J. Bush, pitcher of the Phila- delphia American league base ball team, born at Brainerd, Minn., twen. ty-four years ago today. Martin J. O'Toole, former National league base ball player, last year with the Omaha Western league team, born at Willlam Penn, Pa., twenty-eight years ago today. Timely Jottings and Reminders. Former Postmaster General and Mrs. James A. Gary are to celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary to- day at their home in Baltimore. William J. Bryan, former secretary of state, has intimated that he may ‘'make some comments” on his poli- tical future at a dinner to be given to- night at the City club in Boston. -~ The Civic Co-operative Grand Opera company, in which Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are co-operating, is to begin its first season tonight with a performance in Detroit. Attorneys are to confer in Washing- ton today on a plan of procedure relative to the settlement of the cen- tury-old boundary dispute between the states of New Hampshire and Ver- munht. The first of the regulations adopted by the British Board of Trade to gon- serve the food supply will come into operation- today, limiting the amounts of wheat and milk that may be used for food purposes. ——— BLOW IT. JLwou have virtues unimpressed Upon the minds of folks around you; It you have talents unconfessed Which quite, to tell the truth, astound you, If you've & hunch that little you Are great: tho' few there be that know it n't hide your {!llfl |llI an oyster can— low |it. If you have wisdom you've aequired At Harvard—or some lesser college: If you've attained that happy state Where your mind Is overstocked with knowl.- edge; Don't suffer from brain-pressure—nay— The floodsute of your mind, wide throw jt— 1 other words, If you know & heup— Blow Iit, If you're descended straight and true From Carterets or Montmorencies; If your ancestors spent their days In stalking deer and taking fences; 1f you've a high bridge to your nose It won't sulfice to mutely show ft— f you would advertise the faci— Blow it. 1f you wear clothes that cost a heap, And eat the best that's in the market: If you've a car that looks just swell Beside the others when you park it. If you apend freely as you go Don't be 4 guff and fail to crow It Youll die “unhonored” and unsung—un- less you Blow it Omaha. —BAYOLL NE TRELE. ThePees e No Illegal Voting in Omaha. Omaha, Nov. 25.—To the Editor of The Bee: I will be obliged to you for giving space to this open letter ad- dressed to the Editor of the Kearney | Hub: L My attention has just been called to an editorial published by you in a re-| cent issue of your newspaper, in which | you allege that 5,000 illegal votes were | cast in Douglas county at the election ! of November 7. This is a very sweep- | ing charge against the conduct of elec- | tions in Douglas county and against me as election commissioner, upon whom is placed the duty of intercept- ing fraud. In order to make such a sweeping statement, it seems to me| that you must have, or ought to have, some specific information on which to | base your assertion. I will welcome| any information that you have which will go to prove that 5,000 or any part | of 5,000 voters cast illegal votes at the | recent election. 1 can assure you that | I will do everything in my power to| make a case against and to prosecute | illegal voters. All the election officials charged | with the duty of challenging voters and conducting the election are capable, | trustworthy men, Your sweeping charge is a reflection upon their abil- | ity and Integrity, as well as upon m self and my deputy. An hour's inves! gation on your part of the situa- tion in Douglas county, would prove | to you the absurdity of your state- ment. I think you owe it to the elec- tion officials of this county to make such an investigation and to retract| your charge of wholesale fraud | The better element of voters in Omaha, have from time to time, ex- pressed their approval of the man- agement of Douglas county elections | under the present system, and they, as well as 1, would resent the implication in your article that gross fraud was committed in this county on Novem- ber 7. HARLEY MORISHEAD, Election Commissioner. Merits of Strect Lighting Contract. Omaha, Nov. 25.—To the Fditor of The Bee: Permit a few words from one of the original improvement club members, who first advocated a re- duction of electric light rates in| Omaha. i I attended the buttermilk banquet | at the Auditorium and listened to our good friend Howell dissertate on the electric light question wherein he stated that, one arm of the city gov- ernment, meaning the “‘water board,” was tied behind its back, and was powerless to engage in the lighting business: that the proposed contract would defeat an attempt at municipal ownership either by way of purchase or the establishing of a new plant for A period of five years, and third, that the city of Omaha could not, under the present law establish a new plant or purchase the plant of the present company. In the first place, while addressing several hundred people at Fifteenth and Douglas streets, during the last city campaign, the lighting question being a live subject at that time, I was asked the question, “Suppose you are successful and your set of candidates are electéd, what rate do you propose to charge?”’” I immedi- ately replied, that if the men whose candidacy 1 advocated were elected, | we would pass an ordinance reducing the light rate to 6 cents. Two of our candidates were elected. The present city council not only adopted our label, but the goods as well, and since they have shown their good intention and are now advecating what I then be- lieved, I feel it my duty to give them my hearty support at this time. In the first place Section 4329 of the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska for the year 1913 provides, as follows: “The mayor and city council shall have power to appropriate private property for the use of the city for streets, alleys, avenues, parks, parkways, boulevards, sewers, public squares, market places, gas works, power plants, electric light plants or water works, etc. The right and power to appropriate private property for such purpose shall extend for a dis- tance of seventy-five miles from the corporate limits of the city.” The contract in question provides as follows: “It is further agreed that if the city should, at any time during the life of this contract acquire all of the property of the company then future profits, if any, which otherwise may have been realized from the perform- ance of this contract by the company, shall not be considered and allowed as an item having any value to the company. It is further agreed that this contract shall be and remain in full force and effect for a period of five years from the date of the execu- tion and delivery thereof.” From the foregoing, it is quite clear that since 1905 the city of Omaha could have taken steps to have pur- chased the present light plant or con- structed another. Mr. Howell could have taken steps to have brought this about at any time since 1905, placed the matter be- fore the people with the same degree of alacrity he exhibited in the present referendum. It would appear that while the city had the power to condemn and take over the present plant and has had that power for more than ten years, Mr. Howell being a resident of Omaha during all that period, that it is not a question of the right of the city to condemn, but in Mr. Howell's mind, which department of the city govern- ment shall handle the situation. Were he in favor of the city council, he would favor the contract, but, desir- ing that the water board shall be in control, naturally he would be against any other method, as the water com- pany itself has not the right to en- gage in the lighting business at this time. I favor the present contract be- cause, under it, we will havesinstalled the uniform lighting system, giving practically twice as much light, sup- plying practically twice as much terri- tory and accommodating twice as many people as are now supplied, so far as street lighting is concerned. Also it means a present saving be- ginning with the first of January to the consumers of some $8,000 to $9,000 per month, and this, while a new plant is being prepared. M. O. CUNNINGHAM. Letter Box Inspiration. ©Omaha, Nov. 25.—To the Editor of The Bee: There is getting to be some clags to Ncbraska, to judge by the Letter Box, and a man would have to Ko some to keep up with the van- guard. Kirst, there is Dr. Merriam, who &peaks learnedly of “right living" and “wrong living"” and ‘poisoned blood streams” and a lot of other meaning- Jess things, and to this he charges all our diseases and ills, and speaks of the ‘“‘germ theory” of disease, which last is——in the twentieth century— ahout as sensible as speaking of the seed “theory” of raising grain. The doctor fails to explain why no amount of “wrong living” or “poisoned blood stream” will give yellow fever to a resident of Nebraska or to any- one else who stays away from the habitat of the stigamya mosquito, or the sleeping sickness to anyone not exposed to the bite of the one fly who carries it; or why “wrong living” and ‘“poisoned blood stream” will not give a second attack of such contagious diseases as mumps, measles, small- pox, typhoid fever, ete.; in fact, prac- tically the whole list of contagious diseases. He is also the same doctor who can cure scarlet fever in two or three days and typhoid in a week, and who bobs up serenely on every occasion and dis- séminates a bunch of hot air that means nothing, but does harm, be- cause a lot of ignorant pecople are misled by it. Lately a new star has risen above the horizon, but as star in the west this time, an embryo scientist who has made the wonderful discovery that the sun is cold and that its enor-~ mous radiated heat comes from noth- ing through the medium of “elec- tricity,” regardless of the fact that— like motion—electricity is not heat and neither of them even produce heat. e also fails to explain where the energy originates that produces the electricity and does not even seem to know that it requires as much power to generate electricity as heat. I do not know what action the scientific bodies of the world will take on this “discovery,” but one of the class of this, which has escaped the notice of all the astronomers since the dawn of history, should merit some acknowledgment. Comes now one A. B. Mi who is by his own showing about the meanest man on the western hemis- phere, who claims that his family “lives” on $1.96 per week. He is in error here, they do not live, they only stay. I have looked in vain for a rejoinder from A. B. to the letters of some of his critics, but he is evidently too busy di- viding the cheese and herding weevils to spend the necessary time to write; or, perhaps, he has not been able to mooch a copy of The Bee and does not know what others think of him. DEACON SMITH. == ‘Washington is change. 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