The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 18, 1901, Page 6

Che* +Eodiee - Call. APRIL 18, 1901 =3 THURSDAY......... JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. ‘Adidress All Communicstions to W. 8. LEAKE, Manager. MANAGER’S OFFICE. ... ....Telephone Press 204 e S IS o, PUBLICATION OFFICE...Market and Third, S. F. Telephone Press 201. 217 to 221 Stevemson St. Press 202. EDITORIAL ROOMS. Teleph: Delivered by Carriers, 15 Cents Per Week. Single Coples, 5 Cents. Terms by Mail, Including Postage: DATLY CALL (including Sunday), one year. $8.00 DAILY CALL (including Sunday), § months. 3.00 DAILY CALL (Including Sunday), 3 monthi 14‘5: : 1.00 All postmasters are aw bseriptions. Sample coples will be forwarded when requested. MaiB subscribers in ordering change of address should be particular to give both NEW AND OLD ADDRESS in order to insure & prompt and correct compliance with their request. OAKLAND OFFICE ....1118 ‘Broadway C. GEORGE KROGNESS, Manager Foreign Advertising, Marqustte Building, Ohieago. (Long Distance Telephone “Central 261. NEW YORK REPRESENTATIVE: C. C. CA..LNH....:.............Henfl lq-l.!r NEW YORK REPRESENTATIVE: N STEPHEN B. SMITH. 30 Tribune Buildi: NEW YORK NEWS STANDS: ‘Waldorf-Astoria Hotel; A. Brentano, 31 Union Square; Murrey Hill Hotel CHICAGO NEWS STANDS: Sherman House; P. O. News Co.; Great Northern Hotel: Fremont House: Auditorinm Hotel. ———————————— AMUSEMENTS. Grand Opera-house—East Lypne.” Columbia—‘More Than Queen. The County Fais Central—*Julius -Caesar.” Tivoli—The Idol's Eye.” Orpheum—Vaudeville. Alcazar—"“Oh Susannah.” Olympla. corner Mason and Eddy streets—Specialties. Chutes, Zoo and Theater—Vaudeville every afternoon and evening. Fischer's—Vaudeville. Mechanjes' Pavilion—Art Exhibition. Recreation Park—Baseball. Tanforan Park—Races. AUCTION SALES. By G. H. Umbsen—This day, at 12 o'clock, Business Prop- erty, at 14 Montgomery street. By §. Watkins—This day, Buggles, ete, 8t 1140 Folsom street. > TO SUBSCRIBERS LEAYING TOWN FOR THE SUMMER. Call subscribers contemplating a change of residesnce during the summer months can have their paper forwarded by mail to their mew dresses by mnotifying The Call Business Office. This paper will also be on sale at all summer resorts and is represented by a local agent in all towns on the coast. at 11 o'clock, Horses, THE PRESIDENT'S VISIT. HEN the President and his party leave Cali- | W fornia they will go north, and after other steps will sojourn in Montana. The programme for their entertainment in the mountain State is sugges- tive of some omissions in the itinerary provided for them in California, 5 They are to have a restful stay in the Yellowstone Park, which is made the chicf feature of their enter-’ tainment in that part of the country. As enjoyment is heightened by contrast, they will be abundantly prepared for the pleasures of Yellow- stone natural scenery by the strenuous life they must pass in California. The numerous functions, receptiors, dedications, unveilings, anniversaries, dinners, ban- quets, presentations, launchings, speeches, addresses, | introductions, greetings, processions, pageants, pa- rades and pleasures arranged for them here will make the change to a contact with nature and imposing scenery most grateful and agreeable. Perhaps it would have been better to have had niore variety in the California programme. A chance to see the Yosemite Valley at its best has been over- looked. Around the valley "are the Government's first and greatest timber reservations, which require far more attention than they get. To have an oppor- tunity to see these forests would have pleased the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior, for they beth have official, relations to the material questions which are among the reasons for the forest reserve policy. The President has visited the Yosemite, but the members of his Cabinet have not seen that grear natural wonder. We are impressed that it would have been more agreeable to the visitors and more beneficial to the State to have given them more time to see rural and natural California. What pert of the State is artificial has features in common with the artificial everywhere, while what is natural here is not com- mon, but individual, as it is grand and charming. Seen in retrospect, back along the line followed by the existing programme, California will seem like a long line of tables spreac with food, a procession of dress suits, a medley of “Dixie” ‘and “Yankee Doodle,” a long-drawn-out speech of welcome and favewell, 21l framed in fatigue and indigestion. By contrast Montana will be a delightful perspective of waterfalls, bosky dells, meadow reaches, clear streams, brown-nosed wapiti and moose and shuffling bears made tame by protection from the hunter. *As all that man can do by art must be limited by the resources which provided by nature, perhaps a more symmetrical eption of California would Lave been made possible by giving a better chance to sce that which is natural. hern neighbors in the ambitious States of gton ard Montana scem to realize c on formalities and functions, less on the proud dis- ploy of leading citizens, and more upon making an impression by ing 2 ¢hance to their natural scenery and resources. They will have an easier time, for there is neither vanity nor vexation of spirit in nature. She has no uncertain code of etiquette arfd no disputes as to precedence and place, reither does she want an of- fice or seck to influence legislation. Therefore na- ture is such a restful person to meet on a trip like this. e Reports from Kansas are to the effect that since January 1 the sale of keg beer in the State has de- creased 75 per cent, while the sale of beer by the case for home use has increased proportionately. The saloon may be closed, but the home is still happy. There is a report that Rockefeller is trying to get control of all the copper mines in the world so he czn raise the price of corper cents and make a money issve that will put fres siiver in the shade. THE SAN FEANCISCO MORE FREAK C@ANDIDATES. HE same electrical spark that carried the news Tof Tom Johnson’s election as Mayor of Cleve- land, Ohio, took along the announcement that he would be a_candidate for Seretor, for Governor and President, and the same was received with a show of enthusiasm among the Bryan Democracy. Mr. Johnson is the most interesting business and political freak now on the stage. He is a’ multi- millionaire. His enormous wealth was gained by sccuring advantageous franchises for street railways in many cities. It is in bonds; stocks and other se- curities, all gilt-edged. Some years ago he became a single taxer, and has won fame as a platform speaker in favor of releasing stocks, bonds and se- curities from taxation and putting all public burdens upon land. Since the death of Henry George he is regarded as the head of that school which hopes by making it pay all the cost of government, all inter- est on the public debt, and also all the interest upon use must then bear all the burdens, which will finally Test upon real property. Singc his interests in street railroads have largely expired he has also bscome one of the foremost ad- vocates of municipal owrership of public service in- dustries, and city governments and the corporations upon which they propose the bestowmen of franchises such as those from which he gleaned his millions have come in for his unsparing denunciation. In this propaganda he has not hesitated to quote his own case as an example, nor to declare that he tock advantage of the situation to get hold of all the valuable franchises he could operate. This holding with the hare and running with the hounds has given him a great vogue with nearly every class of fad hunters ia the country. He is intellec- tually very bright and alert, with a rather charming personality and manners, and of ready and interesting speech. He is the only enormously rich man who is held to be equipped for a Pfesidential candidacy. His advo- cacy of municipal ownership endears him to the pusn in all large cities, for that gentry look lustfully for- wzrd to the perennial picnic which will come when all public utilities are in public ownership and politi- cal control. On the other hand the theorists who think that under public cwnership street cars will back up to every man’s door like an omnibus, and that the mere transfer of control to the public will sweeten bad water and make ciean that which is muddy, and that destruction of private property in land will dress “he ragged in gorgeous raiment, hail him as the evan- gelist of the new heaven and the new earth to be. In addition to this he supported Bryan, free silver and all that was advocated by that fdllen star. why is he not \n line as heir to all the past folli of the party and representative of all its possible fol- lies to come? ; The success of such candidacies as Bryan’s and his depends upon a majority of the people seeing things darkly through the same glass. The land-owners must unite in the desire to pay all the taxes or give up their holdings to others without consideration, and others must admire Mr. Johason’s great fortune while ap- plzuding his denunciation of the means by which it was gained. While it is imposdible to conceive that a majority of all the people will combine upon the purposes of which he is the expression, it does not tax S such people to control a Democratic national con- vention and nominate him. That party refuses to see that a majority of Ameri- cans will not favor state communism. It is true that Mr. Johnson gets a large audience wherever he chooses to advocate his theofies. But so does Prince Krapotkin when he appears as the apostle of anarchy and proclaims ifs doctrine of all property for every- body. In his audiences is a percentage of believers in such a distribution, and another percentage that comes from curiosity, and still another which would stout‘ly refuse to apply his methods to political and social conditions in this country but sympathizes with anything that will smite to death the Russian policy of repression. 2 €5 it will not avail t> plant hopes of political suc- ces , in the policy of extremes. Americans are a level- headed people and belicve in the order established by cur constitution. II:ICE there has been some comment on the de- EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURES. S cline in the value of American exports of manufactured ’gg s as compared with those of last year, the Treasury Bureau of Statistics has taken | occasion to point out that the figures which on their face show a decline are misleading. When the total is made up for the year the showing may be less than that of a year ago, but when all things are taken into consideration the result will not be so bad as it seemis. The Bureau points out that there are three reasons for the apparent decline in manufactured exports. 1. The exporters engageéd in commerce with the Ha- waiian Islands are now refusing to furnish to the Bureau of Statistics the statements of their exports-as in former years, holding that their exports are no longer “foreign commerce,” and that therefore the Bureau has no authority to require the usual state- ments which the law authorizes with reference to commerce between the United States and foreign countries. 2. The exports to Porto Rico are now scparately classified and no longer included in the general statement of foreign commerce. 3. The ex- ports to China have temporarily fallen off one-half by reason of the unsettled conditions in that country. It appears from the summary given out that the total exports to the Hawaiian Islands in the fiscal year 1000 were $13,500,000, and to Porto Rico over $4,500,- ooo, making a total of more than $18,000,000. The shipments to Porto Rico this vea are known 4o have largely increased over those of last year, and it is pre- svmed there has been a similar increase in shipments to Hawaii. Neither of those shipments, however, figure any longer in onr foreign exports. It is appar- enz, then, that upward of $20,000,000 of actual ship- ments will not be included in the official statistiss this year, though sent to countries that have hitherto been classified as foreign. When to those differences in the showing made by the statistics for the two years there is added the fur- ther fact that our exports to China have been cut down about 50 per cent by the war it will be seen that the figures of exports to foreign countries do not give a fair basis of comparison or measurement of the progress of our export trade. The decline in the Chinese trade is clearly only a temporary one. As soon as peace is established in that country and trade is resumed it is probable we shall have an export trads to the Chinese market which will far exceed that of the past. months ending with February show an increase of more than $95,000,000 over those of last year. It is cnly in the export of manufactured goods that there single tax to destroy private property in land by ‘ _ | have representatives in the court, and each member private paper securities, since land in some form and | So, | 2 = | who compose it could hardly refrain from laughing anybody’s credulity to believe that there are enough | Y ¥ 4 BUSL of conquest and no further attempt should be made to The total exports of the country for the eight’ is any evidence of a decline. mind, moreover, that in addition to the causes given for the seeming decrease there is another to be found in the diminished prices of manufactured articles. Summing up the subject the Bireau says: “It is quite probable, in view of the facts above outlined, that the record of exports ‘of domestic manufactures in the fiscal year 1901 may show an apparent reduc- tion, though the fact that more than $20,000,000 worth of actual shipments from our ports which were for- merly counted as foreign commerce no longer ap- pears in these statements will account for the reduc- tion, which will thus he more apparent than real.” THE HIGH COURT OF NATIONS. S an outcome of the famous Peace Conference at The Hague there was formed an interna- tional tribunal known as the “High Court of Nations.” All the great powers of the earth is a2 man of the first rank as a statesman, diplomatist or judge. Having formed such a court it would seem to be the proper thing for the powers to now show their willingness to make noble use of ‘it. There is fio reason why a tribunal bearing such an august title should be ignored by the very authorities that created it. It happens that there is now before the world an international question of the utmost importance, and therefore one that might rightly engage the attention of the High Court.. The powers have disagreed con- | cerning the extent of the penalty to be impased upon China by reason of wrongs done during the Boxer insurrection. Six of the powers, Germany, Austria, ltaly, Spain, Belgium and Holland, are in favor of demanding an enormous indemnity. The United States and Great Britain are opposed to such a de- mand, while Russia and France have not as yet de- clared themselves. The situation presents exactly the sort of issue that the High Court could properly deal with. It is not a question between any of the powers ard China; it is a question between two parties among the powers themselves, and consequently there could be no loss of dignity' should the matter be referred to the tribunal in which all are repre- sented. Of course the question will never go to the High Court. The powers prefer to settle it out of court. Each will insist upon the right to exact what indem- nity it chooses from the Chinese and will not leave the subject to arbitraticn even though the Chinese are to have no representative on the boatd of arbitra- tion. Such being the case the High Court of Nations stands before the world as a representative of imperial hypocrisy. It can have no other signification than that. Should it ever assemble the grave dignitaries the faces of one znother. The members would dotubtless be treated with respect by the community in whose city they met, for all of,them are men of such personal merit as to command respect, but no one could have respect for them as a court. Their meet- ing would be but a banquet and a vanity, and would hardly count for more in the history of civilization than a masquerade at some imperial palace arranged | for the entertainment of a visiting monarch. That the sum of $300.000,000 demanded from China by the powers is excessive to the extent of being ex- tcrtion is known to all the world. If the demand is to be enforced it should be done frankly in the name keep up the mockery of a High Court of Nations o arbitrate international disputes. An hypoecrisy which | deceives nobody is something like an insult to intel- ligence, and as affairs are now going in the field of international politics the continued ‘existence of the tribunal called into being by the Peace Conference at The Hague merely serves to excite derision and in- jures rather than advances the cause-of arbitration. THE MIGRATION OF FARMERS. UR Eastern excharges announce that not since the early eighties has there been such a migra- O tion of farmers and other home-seekers from tHe East as is now going on. A continuous stream of them flows through St. Paul to the Northwestern States, and almost as many are moving to the South- ern States either to engage in farming or to take part in the upbuilding of manufacturing industries whicn have recently formed so important a featurg in South- ern development. It is noted that therz is a considerable difference | between the home-seekers of the new migration and those who moved West in former times. The earlier It is to be borne in | movement was made up mainly by men in search of | Government lands, which they could obtain under the homestead laws. As & rule most of them were com- paratively moneyless. Some of them had to mott- gage their land for money to buy farm implements and stock, or for food supplies until they could raise and market a crop. The present movement is made up of people of some means. They expect to buy land and have the money for doing so. Moreover,)| many of the home-seekers of the past were inexpa- riepced men, who came West only because they couid ges land for nothing. They knew little about farming, but counted on making 2 living until their farms be- came valuable and then sclling them when there were no longer any public lands in their neighborhood. The home-seekers of to-day are men of experience. They understand their trade and are therefore likeiy tc be much more successful than their predecessors. In view of the mjgration the action of the railroads in offering low rates for excursions to California is a mwost timely one. It will help to draw to this State many home-seekers who might otherwise never have thought of coming here. We are thus put, so far as rates of transportation are concerned, on something of an equality with th: Northwest and the South, and it will be largely our cwn fault if we do not gain from the movement a desirable addition to our popu- lation. ~ The time has come for cities and counties of Cali- fornia to make known their resources and advantages. The Southern States have been doing an- extensive amount of advertising of recent years and have de- rived a benefit from every dollar spent in that way. The attractions of California are so much superior to anything the South can offer to either business men or pleasuré-seekers that if they were made known throughout the East we would profit to an even greater degree than the South has done. At any rate it will be worth while for our progressive coun- ties to take note that thousands of well-to-do Eastern people are migrating in search of new homes and to take steps to attract them to California. @ Reports that Dewet is mentally unbalanced con- tinue to come from British sources in South Africa, but it is to be noted that he has still sense enough to outwit the generals the British send to catch him. Local merchants are again pleading with the city 80"’",““,.““ to pay its ivst debts. Mayor Phelan ough: t¢. make an assignment of his authority to some per- | son expert enough to exercise it with discretion. OBSERVATIONS ON MUNICIFAL The Call dces not hold itself responsible for the “opinions published in this column, but Dpresents them for whatever value they may have as communications of general interest. To the Editor of The Call—Dear Sir: In an editorial appearing in' The Call on March 16 of this year you say “the feeling in favor of municipal ownership has long been cherished in the United States, but has never gained any impetus from ex- amples of that policy in this country. City ownership of water supply in Boston, New York and Philadciphia has existed from the early appearance of the neces- sity for a large supply in those cities. But apparently neither in the quality of the supply furnished nor in the economy of its storage, conduit and distrjbution has it afforded a quotable example. So the earnest advocates of the system resort to foreign instances of its institution."” In another editorial, on April 3, you again attack the principle of public own- ership. You say “but as in Europe every instance of municipal ownership and re- duction in rates has been accompanied by a larger reduction in wages, it is entirely Proper to inquire whether in this country there will be any exception. Before ex- periments on a large scale are undertaken it is well to know whether public owner- ship, to realize the expectations of the economists, must result in_lower wages for the labor employed. * * * People are drawn to the support of public owner- ship by the belief that it will reduce the earnings of capital. But if it reduce also the earnings of labor, as a public economy it _will be a failure.” The warning conveyed by The Call is that Fubllc ownership is ~experimental, that it has never been tried successfully on a large scale in the United States, and that when it shall have been so tried the Vases of labor will be materially reduced. The history of municipal ownership in the United States does not support the position of The Call. Municipal ownership of water works is now the rule in .the United States. Instead of being in the experimental stage it has been well sea- soned by long and successful experience. The water supplied is ¢heaper than that supplied by private corporations; the Wwages of laborers are generally higher in municipal enterprises than in those con- trolled by private capital; the price of the service rendered is uniformly less than in rivately controlled _corporations, and, astly, the city of New York, which is quoted by The Call as an example agalnst the policy of municfpal ownership, is the strongest and most conclusive example of the success of municipal ownership found in the United States, and perhaps in the world. Of the fifty largest cities in the United States only nine have water works under Eflvate control. These cities are San rancisco, New Orleans, Omaha, Denver, Indianapolis, New Haven, Paterson, Scranton and Memphis. Fortv-one to nine is the judgment of the American peo- ple in favor of municipal, ownership of water supplies if the expérience of the large cities is conclusive. In this regard the Merchants’ Associa- tion of New York savs: “The experieace of other municipalities in the United States as well as in cther countries shows an almost continuous tendency Lo substi- tute publicly owned water svstems for private, a tendency so versistent and so universal and of such constantly increas- ing force that the wisdom, in the public interest, of the policy of municipal owrer- ship and control of water supply would seem established by abandant experi- ence. . “In 1800 there were s:x‘een plants in op- eration in the United States, of which fif- teen were private and cne public. Since that time fourtecen cf the fifteen have become_public. he ““At the close of 189 thiere were in ths United States 3196 water works. Of these 16% were under publie control, 1489 unde: private_control, 12 wer® under joint con- trol and of 5 the ownerskLip was unknows; in other words, in 1800 6.3 per cent wera public, 93.7 per cent were private. In 1896 53.2 per cent were public, 46.8 per cent were private.’—“The Water Supply of the City of New York,” pubiished by the Mer- chants’ Association of Ivew York, page 20. The advocates of municipal ownership of water supplies rest firmly on the ex- perience of American citics. ' We who ad- “Vocate it in San Francisco point to the ex- perience of other citi>s as the justification for our position. What all other Ameri- candcities are doing is surely wise for us to_do. The next point is that water supplied by cities is cheaper.than that supplied by prove nothing, but the average of all American cities does. The merchants of New York say on this pomt: ‘“The cost to the consumer is almost aiways less under public than under private ownership. The average cost per family throughout the United States is, for public, $21 55; for pri- vate, $30 82. That is, privately supplied water costs about 40 per cent more than that supplied by municipalities.”—*“The failure, the average cost of lighting is from 10 to 15 per cent less under public than under private ownership in the United States. City Engineer Grunsky has recently filed elaborate plans for lighting the city of San Francisco with electricity. At the present time we are paying 35 and 3% cents per arc lamp per night, according to location, but if the city owned its own plant the cost would be only 24 cents per night. 'he plant would also furnish power to run the city clevators, the city sewage pumps and the Geary-street railroad. Take the experience of Chicago. City FBleetrician Elliot, in a recent interview in the Chicago News, said: “The feasibility demonstrated than in Chicago. There are larger municipal plants abroad selling preducts to citizens, but nowhere in the world_is there a street-lighting plant of such dimensions owned by a municipality. Thirteen years ago it was established to serve 1056 lights. To-day 4300 arc lights are Dbeing operated within a territory of séxty- six square miles, at a saving to the city of $40a year on each light. The glam is worth $1,350,000—a large amount when one con- siders that by the end of the year the plant will have paid for itself. ~So, yo see, Chicago leads-the world in one de- partment of municipal ownersmg," In regard to the wages of laborers in municipal enterprises, the fourteenth an- nual report of the United States Commis- sioner of Labor is authoritative. I quote from a review of this report appearing in “California Municipalities” for October, . at page 78: “Water Works—The general conclusions mag be stated to be: “Municipal plants pay smaller salaries. “Municipal plants pay higher wages. “Municipal plants produce more cheaply. “Municipal plants sell water cheaper. “Ga< Works—The conclusions on the sub- ject of gas works are similar to those on water works. “Electric Lighting — The’ conclusions from these tables are: “‘Municipal plants expend much less in salaries. ““Municipal plants expend a little less in wages. ‘‘Municipal plants charge less for lights to private users. “Municipal plants furnish their own ser- vice for less than do private plants.” . The statistics compiled by the Commis- sioner prove that the municipal ownership of water and gas works results in in- creased wages to labor. while the munici- pal ownership of electric plants results in slightly less wages to labor. u_ are therefore right in regard to the icipal ownership of electric enterprises, but that need not affect us in San Francisco, for the policy of the city government has al- ways been in favor of the workingman, and the charter provides that $2 a day shall be the minimum wages “or laborers. The last point I desire to make is that the city of New York, popularly supposed to be the worst governed city in the TUnited ‘States, is a shining example of the success of municipal ownership of water. New York is par excellence a boss-ridden city, where machine politics are the only politics known, and where vice flourishes like a green bay tree. The recent report of the Vice Committee appointed to in- vestigate the conditions under which vice is protected in New York shows that over $3,500,000 is paid every vear by the law breakers of New York for immunity from arrest and prosecution. If municipal own- ership should fail anywhere it should faii in New York, and the fallure should pe complete and damning. at_are the facts? New York has always owned its water system. It has developed with growth of the city, but recently the pop- ulation of New York and the consump- tlon of water have increased so rapidly that a water famine is a serious and dis- tressing possibility. Foreseeing this con- dition of affairs the Ramapo Water Com- pany secured control of distant water sheds and actually had a contract aigne‘} by Willlam B. Dnlw, Commissioner of ‘Water Suvoly for the’ city of New York, own the private corporations. Individual instanzes | Water Supply of the City of New York," page 21. It is the same with electric lighting. | While there are some instances of dismal | of municipal ownership is nowhere better | PAPERS 0 N CURRENT TOPICS _OWNERSHIP| 1 oy RED By EXPERTS AND SPECIALISTS FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL Dangers That Face Rich and Poor Who Do Not Guard Against thg 4 Tendency to Intenrperance in Life e e By John W. Keller. COPYRIGHT, 1%0L psrade i g IX.—The Pace That Kills. There used to be an old and learned professor in Bellevue Hospital, New York, | who was wont to say that the two great| causes for the downtall of man were whis- ky and women. This was the Beilevue | point of view. For, mind you, Bellevue is | situated east of First avenue and runs full to the river front. Here, close by the swirling waters of the East River, are the pavilion for the insane, the alcoholic ward and the morgue. Here is the end of the pace that kills. Sometimes it is the shrieking maniac in the pavillon for the insane; sometimes the frenzied drunk- ard in the alcoholic ward, and sometimes the bloated face and the swollen body of the unknown fdead floating with the tide. But alwné;s the long and narrow compart- ment under the vaulted dome of the morgue, the city’s great safe deposit of the dead. Over In Fifth avenue they say it is wine and women. But in First avenue it is whisky and women. Some of the victims have gone both courses. They have had their wine and women in Fifth avenue and their whisky and women in First ave- nue. By no %osslhllity, however, did any jman going the pace that kills take the First avenue course and follow it with the Fifth avenue course. The descent from Delmonico’s and the Waldoré-Asto- ria to the Olive Tree Inn and the Muniel- | pal Lodging-house for Homeless Men is always easy and often quiGk. but there is no ascent in the pace that kills. Cne Who Had Gone the Pace. One day I went into the alcoholic ward in Bellevue Hospital and saw _there a woman whom I had known when men courted her as an acknowledged belle in the highest society and whom the world had subsequently accepted as an actress of talent on the metropolitan stage. She was suffering from an aggravated case what First avenue calls ‘‘the jimmies. From spatrkling wine at diplomatic din- ners in the nation’s capital to late sup- pers in Broadway in New York City, to habitual drunkenness, to consequent im- moral recklessness, to opium, to a place in the alcoholic ward, a charge upon the city’s charity, were the successive evolu- tions of her pdce that killed. There she lay, a shattered wreck; her beauty gone, her keen intellectuality eclipsed and all the charms that had brought men to her feet vanished. Just the ugly -hull of a woman whose mind was besotted and whose soul was dead. Every gffort was made to help her, and she final: 1y recovered sufficiently to go out of the | hospital. But it was only to come back | again, drunker, if possible, more depraved and more hopeless than ever. She had | gone the pace that kills. She had fallen at | the end, borne down by the inevitable re- sult. Waiting for the Inevitable Result. There is always somebody on Fifth ave- nue attracting the attention of the town by exploits in fast living. There is money | galore and feasting and frolic and the high-headed self-pride in the hallucination that the pace can be gone without the killing. The well-trained habitues of Del- monico’s, who always keep the curb on, raise their eyebrows in temporary inter- est. The motley crowd at the Waldorf- Astoria stares as at another exhibit of the | circus. The painted frequenters of the | upper Broadway restaurants chatter and | gossip over their midnight suppers about the star. But Bellevue waits in silence. It knows nothing of what is doing on Fifth avenue or Broadway. It hears noth- | ing of the feasts, the frolics or the follie | It cares nothing for the wine or the wom en or the song. It just waits, certain in the end it will get what is left after | Fifth avenue and all’ the intermediate | steps between that aristocratic thorough- | fare and First avenue have been gone over by the victim of the pace that Kills. And there is usually nothing left but a gegd body, or a dead mind in a diseased ody. The pace that kills, however, does mot always begin on Fifth avenue. It some- times starts on the Bowery and never reaches higher uptown than Twenty-sixth street and the East River. It sometimes starts on the far east side or the far west | side, and the police patrol wagon or the | Bellevue ambulance comes after its vietim | before he or she has ever reached the great backbone of the city. Nor does the pace always begin with wine. It sometimes starts with whisky, and there is a tradition in Bellevue that First avenue whisky is far quicker and more deadly in its action than Fifth-ave- nue wihe. But wherever it may start, and | with whatever it may start, whisky and woman appear somewhere in the course. And whisky outlasts everything eise among the death-dealing agencies that roduce mental, moral and physical dis- ntegration. | A Pace Open to All Comers. ‘The weaknesses of human nature are confined to mo_class of men. Wealth is not necessary for the pace that kills and poverty is no bar to it. Knowledge is not a'preventive and ignorance is only an ac- celeration. Health sometimes prompts it and_disease is often its excuse. Gentle .birth and careful training only stimulate it in some instances, while common origin and coarse breeding are acceptgd by it as welcome variation. In the parifnce of the race track—it “plays no favorites.” The race is open to all comers, and no-ques- | tion is raised as to pedigree, age or previ- ous performance. The nominator can make his own regulations. He can go the long | course ‘or the short course, over the flat or Le hurdles, as he chooses. The only con- dition imposed is that he shall keep at it, and in the end the prize shall be his. For to every one that goes the pace that kills and keeps at it there is a prize—the prize of shame, disgrace, demoralization, death. There is no need of preaching about it. ®or centuries good men have inveighed against it from the pulpit and the ros- | 1 ntists have written Leatned B saintly womert devout prayers trum. endless books against Jt 22:&.;‘2‘:':’.".‘1“ yet it goes on and wiil go cn. There is a germ of degeneracy in man- kind that develops under all conditions, and for which no remedy has ever been found or can be found. Its development is sometimes slow and sometimes fast. But unless a check is put on it in its early stages the em;l. is always the same—ths madhouse or the morgue. @Gathering the Glnl:;ly nu-ve‘cL e The department of public charitles o the ¢:ltyn of New York is the dumping ground of the refuse humanity of the sec- ond greatest city in the world. Here ara deposited those creatures whom no other 2gency will eare for.. The sick. the pau- per, t{q inebriate, the idiot, the epileptic, the’ paralytic,, the insane. Hundreds of these come every day. The gate of the ublic charitles is always open,-and no ono e Tefused. Each day. too, Is gathered the city’s dead. From the rivers, from cluded corners of the parks, 5 from litt! rooms in obsc;xre hotfls and {mmr em? partments o r tenements are ga R o after by those to whom lite was hot worth hiving or whose end came in such poverty that their only chance of interment was the potter's fleld. It is grewsome fruit, and, lying thers one above the other in the compartments of the morgue, each corpse is the dumb witness of some life tragedy, somfe driv ing on to death from which in the end there was no escape. If one were to take from this granary of the dead individual cases and trace them through all the steps that brought them to the morgue. ono would find that directly or indirectly the end was due to the pace that kills. Ths same is true of New York city’s 10,000 in- sane people and of its countless feeble- minded idiots and epileptics. -Somewnero at some time somebody has gone the pacs that kills, and not only has plunged him- self into destruction, but has carried oth- ers with him or has left seeds of dissipa- tion that have*sprung up after him. I never go through the morgue but that I feel that aboye its door should be writ- ten: [ THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. 1 I never visit the idiots, the feeble- minded, the epileptic and the erippled children in my department but that I am reminded that the sins of the father shall be visited uvon the child. I never see decent old women come weeping to the almhouse but that I am sure there is a relertless fate that mixes up the lives of men and makes the innocent suffer with the guilty. The Hope of Petter Things. But while the germ of degeneracy may not be eradicated or even regulated, thers is no doubt in my mind that its effect can be minimized and that through the active agencies now at work it is being mini- mized. There is always the fool to be parted from his money and there is al- ways that impetuosity of temperament that must be periodically appeased whether it manifests itself in drink or gambling or any other form of dissipa- tion. . But statisties will show, I believe, that urban peoples are better to-day than at any other period in the world's history. ‘The pace that kills is a vice that comes with civilization and its accumulation ol wealth and its prevalence of poverty; fo1, as the fortunes of a few men increase the fortunes of many men decrease, and the fool without money soes the pace quite as disastrously to himself as the fool with money. Some men go it because they are rich and some because they are poor, some because they are well and some because they are sick, some because they are happy and some beeause they are unhappy. Their attitude is much the same as that of the man who drank in cold weather to keep himself warm and in warm weather to keep himself cool. As 1 said before, the germ of degen- eracy works in all kinds of people and un- der all kinds of conditions. But with the advance of civilization there has come a conviction on the part of students of municipal gévernment that in municipa’ government attention is_given rather to effect than cause. New. York City spends princely sums of money in taking care of criminals and paupers. It should pay more attentiqg to the causes of crime and pov- erty. It 18 better to remove the cause of {il- ness than to take care of a person suffer- ing from an illness as the effect of that cause. It is better to prevent a man from becoming a criminal than to lock him up after he has committed a crime. To Improve Health and Morals. Municipal government should not only remeve temptation as far as possible from the weak, but it should work for clean environment of its people. It should re- form the dwellings of its poor. It should regulate its tenements, as well as gambling houses and dens of vice. Not that the morals of the tenement are nat- urally worse than the morals of the mar- sion, but that in an overerowded tenement there are more dark places in which erima and fiith can find a foothold than In tha mansion. Give all the people lght and air and sunshine and their morals will fm- prove with their health. Crime hates tha light. . With cleaner places to live in cleaner environment for all the there would be less use for hospitals an: prisons. The pace that kills would s¢!1] continue. but to the wheels of the chariot of the fool that goes it there would be chaired fewer victims and there would also_be fewer fools to emulate his ex- a% le."l g e river must still give u on : the inebriate and the madman met ety come to Bellevue: Fifth avenue wine and First avenue whisky must still be drunk; and woman, more sinned against than sin- ning, must still have her part in l’g :n But if cities went more to the root of things than to the branch, to the causes of crime and poverty than to the effects, there would be less of human sufferins infiislm of temptation to go the pace that and approved by the corporation counsel, to sell to the city 200,000,000 gallons of water a day for forty years at $70 a mil- lion gallons. The Merchants' Association and the City Comptroller, Bird 8. Coler, demanded that time be given to show that the contract was inequitable and fraudu- lent, and that under municipal ownership the price would be far cheaper. The con- tract was set aside by a court of equity on the showing made by the Merchants" Association after a long and arduous com- pilation of the city's records for the past sixty-six years. The Merchants’ Associa- tion was able to show that the cost of water to the city of New York in 1898 was only_$20 07 per million gallons, and_that the Ramapo contract was a gigantic fraud by which the city of New York would lose §145,000,000 in forty years. In the re- cent State election in New York the Ra- mapo contract was an issue; all parties ere pledged to rescind the powers and ivileges of the Ramapo Company and to remove every restriction heretofore imposed by hostile legislation against the extension of New York’s municipal water supply. These reforms were favored by the people of New York, and it was only the other day that laws accomplishing the desired results were pa: by the New Yorfi Legislature and signed by Governor In the report of the Merchants’ Asso- ciation on the Ramapo contract they show that “from January 1, 1832, to De- cember 31, 1898, the city of New York made a capital investment of 386,359,562 09 for the construction of water works. It expended during that period for interest charges, -maintenance and operation $66,544,245 35 the aggregate earnings were $88,017,329 72. the total net profits were $21.473,084 34. “Water Supply of the City of New York, page ~ They recommend that “the policy of supplying New York City with water by contract should be opposed by all lawful means.”—“Water Supply of the City of New York, e 23. And finally they say: “The financial history of the New York water supply, well as the water supply of Brookl; alike, demonstrates that, considered mere- ly as a financial investment, city owner- ship and control is profitable and exceed- ingly advantageous. There is, therefore, no reason for reversing the policy which has been pursued for almost seventy years. * * * For New York now to re- sign in whole or’in part the control of its Wwater supply to a private eos Y 3 oratior would be to go contrary to the gt shawn in the municipal history of all im- Portant countries. and also to resign fpr Lse!‘lter Sprofilmb;e plource ot income."— = r page oy UPPIY of the City of New York, If you eonsider, Mr. Editor, Spring Valley Water Works s 0 eollects $21 per 1,000,000 galions for water—more t.‘mr} seven times the cost to the peopl N York for the same servicegan?ie!g:tm:'x every dollar levied on the peovle. of San cisco for taxes an additional half do! lar is collected for water, you will e tainly come over to our side and demand that the exorbitant charges of the Spring Valley be reduced by the only practica- ble method of doing so—that is, by the municipal ownership of our water supply. In conclusion, Mr.' Editor, permit me to thank you for your kindness in allowing me this space to express my views on mu- nicipal ownership and to subscribe myself, yours very truly. WESLEY REED. ARLES San Francisco, April 17, 1901 — Cholce candies, Townsend’s, Palace Hotel.* Cal. glace fruit 50c per Ib at Townsend's.* Special information supplled dafly to business houses and public Press Clipping xur;.fluxen':)'f 310 Monts gomery street. Telephone Main 1042, + To dream of changing a_ $1000 sure sign that you will wake up :% lfinfi yourself without the change. \ Are You a Buffalo? You cannot go to the Pan-American ki tion at Buffalo for “eleven cents,” »T‘I'n'. comfortable trains of the Nickel Plate Road, “The Buffalo Short Line,” which leave Chi- cago at convenlent hours for all Coast cor- carrying unexeelled XN f e DE Nickel Plate are oy trade-mark pirates trade om repu- Slegert’s Angostura Bitters, un- American tonic. Refuse imitation.