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lntAOt-ntKAUJ K- W. BAKRKTT. .Editor Entered at the Birmingham. Ala., poet office as second-class matter under act of Congress March 8. 187ft. SUBSCRIPTION RATOS By mall >o United States and Canada: Dally and Sunday, year ....$18.00 Dally, without Sundty . 8.80 Dally and Sunday three months .... 8.78 Daily and Sunday, one month . 1.00 Sunday Age-Herald, per annum ...... 8.00 By Carrier in Greater Birmingham: Da/*y and Sunday. #eek.8$ Da.ly and Sunday month . 1.10 Daily and Sunday, year . 18.00 No communication will be published with out Its author's name. Rejected manu script will not be returned unless stamps are enclosed for that purpose. Remittances can be made at current rate of exchange. The Age-fc srald will not be responsible for money went through the mans. Address: . THE AGE-HERALD, Birmingham. Ala. Washington bureau. $08 Davidson build ing. European bureau. 10 King street. Co vent Ou ruei>. Condon. W. C. 2. Eastern business ofnce. World building. New fork city; western business office. Tribune building. Chicago. The b. C. Beck with Special Agency, agents for foreign advertising. Member of the Associated Press The Age-Herald la the only morning and bunday newspaper in Birmingham carrying the Associatd Press dispatches. The Associated Press is exclusively en titled to the use for publication of all news dispatches ^edited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published therein. All rights of repubtication of special dla paiuftcd Herein are also reserved. TELEPHONE Bell (private exchange connecting all (Itpurtnieeis) Main I POO. Against ill chances men are ever merry* But heaviness foreruns the good event. —Henry IV. ¥ * * A MORNING PHAYER Thon, Lord, hast not given all thy truth to me. Grant that I may seek It in the hearts of other men, for they are as clone to thee as I can ever be. Amen.—M. 8. B. * * * Wednesday at Rickwood Should Be Gala Day r? ET’S all go out to Rickwood jLji Field on Wednesday. We should carry our lung power with us so that the opening game of the Southern league baseball season will mark a new high record in enthusiastic dem onstration as well as attendance. It is good for men and women to be children now and then; to enjoy clean sport in the open as the young do. Such recreation brushes the cobwebs from tke .brain. We should go to Rickwood Wednes day because that occasion marks a good-natured rivalry between cities in the Southern league for the trophy to be awarded the city having the largest attendance on opening day. Cities should not be content with the record of their bank deposits and the production of their factories. The life that is worth living heeds an injec tion of fun and frolic between busi ness whiles. A monument should be erected to the inventor of baseball, were any one man entitled to the honor. It has evolved out of prehistoric games when children of men first began practic ing their manual and pedal dexterity. The high skill now involved and the wonderful team work that counts for the victory in the long run are the products of the evolution of the sport through the decades. Today baseball is the unrivaled king of sportdom. Nothing compares with it. Nothing draws such crowds. It is in the open and each play is clearly in the vision of each onlooker. It is the great American exhibit of fair play in sport. Let’s go to Rickwood on Wednes day and be happy while we pin an other trophy to the many on Bir mingham’s breast. * * * Pacific Coast Finds the Panama Canal’s Usefulness Birmingham cast iron pipe, pig iron and steel products have « found their way to California in quantites during the past 10 months and especially since the capstone was placed on the all-rail freight rate to ship products to the east through the canal. A cargo of oranges and lemons, coming through the canal, arrived in New York in prime shape and brought the usual price. The success of the initial movement has caused the en gagement of additional cargoes. The raisin industry, whose profits last year were $60,000,000, is looking for ward to the movement of that vast and valuable crop through the canal. Portland, Ore., flour has- come that way by the shipload to gulf ports and those of the south Atlantic for ' trans-shipment to inland points. The fruit shipment is reported to have been made at a saving in freight of 60 per cent. We are not surprised at that. Birmingham pipe goes to the Pacific coast via the canal at a saving of one-half of the all-rail rate. The latest movement to use ships to avoid the high freight rates on rails comes from copper interests of the northwest. Vindication of the inland and coastal waterways of the country has arrived. In connection with the Panama canal they have opened an entirely new vista. That prospect is too attractive and has been too firmly impressed on the minds of the people of the unitea states to be again hidden un der a bushel measure. Ships on the big waters and barges on the inland waters are here to stay. The Warror has already shown that what was done with the Rhine and the Rhone in Europe can be dupli cated here. Home Building and Soil Tilling Promise Well first note sounding the pass JI ing of the industrial crisis and the harbinger of better times was the revival of home building. On its heels the first crop report of the season is a healthful one. Building of homes is nation-wide. It is reported by the highest authori ties to be as omnipresent as the housing shortage. The best of it con sists of the building of homes of mod est character, showing that the work aday citizen loves home as much as his forefathers and that family altars are still sacred in the land. The report of the American Steel and Wire company with regard to crops is reassuring. In brief, wheat and oats are both doing well, pas tures are unusually rich and luxuriant and the season is from two to three weeks early. The south is particu larly interested in the general agree ment that cotton acreage has been reduced. This will serve to render the large surplus from last season less of a burden. * * * Dunamg nomes ana raising crops are fundamental. The crops come first, because that is where life srtarts, where life depends. We can live without the wares turned out by the mills and factories, but the soil must be cultivated if we are to exist. When the soil is being tilled and men are founding new roof-trees, a nation may call itself blessed, whether the exchange rates are right or wrong. The Sturdy Circuit Rider =aHE circuit rider was a hardy and ii picturesque type. Once a fa miliar figure in many parts of the country, he is passing away, with his saddle bags, his tracts and his Bible. The Methodist Centenary Bulletin says, “A recent study of the circuit system in rural Methodism shows that 11,000 or more charges have not more than two points to a circuit and that nearly 51 per cent of our rural churches are stations.” Conditions which made the circuit rider a powerful factor in the spirit ual life of rural America have large ly disappeared. In his day and time he was a tireless laborer in the “vineyard of the Lord." He may not have had much scholarship, but his zeal and earnestness were proverbial. Afraid of neither man nor the devil, he endured hardships that would have daunted many of his city brethren, and if it were necessary to engage in physical combat with a rowdy he was not always the first to quit. The rural' preacher who went out into the wilderness and wrestled with men for their soul’s salvation has ap pealed to many writers who have im mortalized him in their books. Like the country doctor, he lived a life of self-sacrifice and service to his fel low man. * * « Rural America Is Losing « a a It miy be possible to break up one form of peonage, but there Is no hope for the 25 a week man with a family to support * * * Max Harden deplores the hatred that exists In Europe. Nevertheless, Ger many is responsible (or about 50 per cent of It * * * The war forced agre at raspy noble men to earn their own living. Nothing ihort of a cataclysm could have done it * * * John Williams of Georgia, may event ually acknowledge that a negro farm hand is a human being. * * «k This Is a tolerant country, otherwise there would not be so many perpetra tors of "tree verse’’ running at large. * * * By not replying to Lansing's book, Mr. Wilson gives him no excuse to write a sequel. • * * If the British industrial crisis passes Lloyd George may have to look away from home (or the next one. * * * What Joe Tumulty doesn't khow about the peace conference will prob tbly fill the book he is writlhg * • * ‘ Mohammed forbade his followers to Irink. Still, that doesn’t account for the Turk's mean disposition. * * * It isn’t quite fair to Judge Mr. Hard ng’s ability as chief executive by the kind of golf he plays. « « * la the meantime General 'Pershing ss stll waiting for a grateful country to give him something to do. * * ¥ Profiteers must feel like kicking themselves for ever being afraid of the Lever act. * * * America's foreign policy no greater putsle to Vivlant than it la to Mr Harding. The opening of the baseball season will bring a temporary forgetfulness of the readjustment period. * * * A circus giraffe sneezed and a smart press agent got the story pu blished in a New York newspaper. * * * People dream of getting rich by striking oil, but Belling gasoline to tired motorists is a surer way. * * * By swatting the Greeks the Turks may be helping to restore Venizelos to power. * * * The usual bumper crop of brides is predicted for June. GRICAT CITIBS*OK TOMORROW Prom the New York World. Census figures nearly complete show that the population of Paris disappoints those who expected a S.000.000 total. The suburbs have grown rapidly to about 1,600,000, but Paris Itself, with 3,888.110 Inhabitants, shares the fate of London, of Manhattan and Lower Brooklyn. Business takes over resi dence areas and population is driven into the suburbs. Paris is still the third world city, but below it all is confusion caused by the war. Petrograd has dropped en tirely out of the list of great cities to a place below Detroit, below Newark, if suburbs are included. Vienna, hither to following Chioago in fifth place, must share Petrograd’s fate. Berlin, like Paris, has almost stationary num bers. Moscow. Warsaw and Prague have gained in size by their new im portance as capitals. Leaving Vienna with capital rank for the present, the great cities are New York. London—or London, New York, if suburbs are added in one case but not in the other—Paris, Chicago. Tokio, Vienna, Berlin, Philadelphia, Buenos Ayres, Osaka. Moscow, Calcutta, Rio, Glasgow. Two or three Chinese cities "WUIU UUU IUD11 W*JT 1UIU 1.1110 1191 1 L they had a census, and Detroit, Con stantinople. Hamburg, ""Warsaw, Bir mingham and Mexico City follow as rivals. The censuses of 1920-21 will reveal even greater surprises. Ancient cen ters of civilization will drop a second rank, replaced by mushroom capitals. The United States will almost certainly have more than three cities among the first fifteen. The factory is making, among other products, great cities of tomorrow. THE DEAD DO NOT DRINK From the Louisville Courier-Journal. That beer drinking in Germany has slumped; that the Germans are drink ing annually 750,000.000 gallons of beer less than their pre-war consumption, is an announcement which will cause every American reader to look twice at the news. The second look reveals a fact which sheds a good deal of light upon what would be insoluble mystery but for the illumination. The population of Germany has de creased 4,500.000 during the period in which the figures have shown a marked decline in consumption of beer. Ap ex ample in long division results it* the demonstration that where there is one German less upon German soil 166 2-3 gallons less of beer is drunk in 365 days. That diminuition of drinking seems small save when we reflect that German babies and young children haven’t a large beer-carrying capacity, and that they are included in the fig ures showing diminishment of beer drinking simultaneously with diminish ment of population. The dead do not drink beer. Germans who have gone away from Germany do not drink German beer in Germany. All mysteries when solved are amaz ingly plain. At the end of one of Dr. Doyle’s highly mystifying stories the reader feels that the remarkable thing is not that Sherlock Holmes could solve the mystery by deduction, but that he, the reader, did not solve it. "DOES PIANO PLAYING PAYF From the Argonaut. Josef Hofmann was born in Cracow and he started in concert work when he was 5 years old. When Hofmann was 8 years old he appeared in concert in New York and afterward he re turned to Europe, where he studied piano with Moszkowsky and Rubin stein. Since then Hofmann has con tinuously appeared in concert before the public—in fact he Las been before the public for 40 years. To his intimates Hofmann still is the boy, bright, witty and lovable. He has a good word to say about every one of his colleagues. People often ask, “Does piano playing pay?*’ Well, Mr. Hofmann owns 10 apartmrent houses in Berlin, Germany which—be fore the late war—cost more than $3, 000,000. Hofmann maintains a winter a* AIVar C . __ residence In Bar Harbor, Me.; a chateau in Switzerland; a hous > In Potsdam, near Berlin, and a house in New York city. He has four speed launches in Bar Harbor and a dozen motor cars. In 1>06 Mr. Hofmann married Miss Bus ton of New York. The Hofmanns have one daughter, Josefa. who is 14 years old and the apple of her father’s eye. Miss Josefa Is being brought up In the country and her father says she rides horseback like an Indian. ' LI KE VLCKE SAYS Appendicitis can happen to a man but once. But It Is different with mar riage. We have so many reformers with ua nowadays that a list of the most dis pensable men in this country would numberxabout 10.000 names. You may have noticed that the man who isn't satisfied with this world isn’t overanxious to leave it and try the next one. We may not be shapely, and we may not be handsome. But. bless Pat, we are thankful that he haven't a snake shape and a sea lion head like the lads pictured In the clothing ads. All we know about salesmanship is to let a customer alone, don't worry him. and don't hurry him. He'll buy if he looks long enough. There are exceptions to every rule. But hospitality is an unpleasant duty to most men. When you consider the unlimited op portunities millionaires have to make fools of themselves, millionaires are mighty decent fellows. The young fellow who Is sowing his wild oats is enough of an optimist to believe that there Is going to be a orop failure. What has become of the old-fash ioned boy who had to fight a churn for two hours before he went to school? The trouble with having your wife lose her temper is that she always manages to find it again. We hav^r often wondered what peo ple did for underwear before the mag azines started carrying 100 pages of ad vertising. All of the show girls are npt on the sUige. A lot of them work In depart ment store*. , -’Ulopyright, 1111.) IN HOTEL LOBBIES •AND ELSEWHERE AlvertUrd Birmingham **We members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce are not too modest to feel some pride in the fact that we have kept Birmingham on the map almost since our organisation four months ago" said Padli Smith, secretary. "First we made the entire country sit up and take notice when we asked for legisla tion that would cause summary removal of sheriffs allowing mobs to take pris oners from them. Then our campaign for lower restaurant prices attracted attention. “First one thing and then another seems to have given us prestige, and the result is that our organization has received requests from numbers of cities asking how we came about, how we were organized, and the like. There Are going to be junior chambers in other cities as the outcome of the Bir mingham lead. "The Bunn idea has already traveled far afield and placed Birmingham on the map in a new place." A Set of Happy Boys "There was certainly a happy bunch of boys in Birmingham Friday," said H. I* Brown, county demonstration agent and secretary of the agricultural department of the Chamber of Com merce. "When the 24 freckled-faced boys of Jefferson county each led his Jersey calf from the Donohoo barnes each wore an almost sublime expression of pride and satisfaction. It waa a fine investment on the part of the Chamber of Commerce in raising the $2,000 to purchase the calves. “It will be an inspiration to the boys to care for the calves so that the dif ference between the cost and sales price this fall will attest their ability as cattlemen. A boy is going to be busy about something; why not busy caring for a useful animal?® Save the Tree* “When Fifth avenue, north, is lighted up with a modern white way it is more than likely that new sidewalks will be put down and then the trees will prob ably be cut down,” said Arthur Green wood yesterday. “This would be a se rious loss to Birmingham, for the idea is, as I understand it, tp light up Fifth avenue so as to make it the gate way to the heart of the city. “What could be more beautiful or more impressing to a stranger than to ride into the heart of a city between two rows of beautiful trees. I would suggest, if I may, that when the white way and probably new sidewalks are placed up Fifth avenue that the people in charge be especially careful of the trees and if possible to plant a few more as they go along.” A Young Man’s Town “I have only been a resident of Bir mingham for a short time, but there is one thing that I noticed right from the start, and of which I am indeed proud,” said Lawrence Ackerman, a local insur ance man, yesterday. “And that is the large number of young men who take an active part and Interest in the ad vancement of Birmingham. “In other cities that I have visited, and more so in other cities in the south, I have noticed that the young men most always sit back and let the older men take the lead. But not so in Birming ham, and I think that you will find that most every civic organization here or any public spirited movement will have several young men holding Impor tant positions in connection with it.” Bean Bug In Evidence “If any one doubts that the bean bug is going to get in its work this season they might as well dissolve them, as the pests are already on the job,” says Jack Phillips. “I noticed that some thing was perforating my beans, and I made an investigation and found that the little insect which resembles in looks the lady bug was responsible. “I had hoped by an early start to get ahead of them, as I was. warned that it would be useless to plant late. I tried various remedies last spring, but none did any good.. I am now trying wood ashes in the hope that by an early application I may save at least a port of the crop.” VAN BITTNER From the Selma Times-Journal. One of the glories of our free in stitutions is the privilege of saying what one pleases—of “blowing off steam” whenever the occasion arises, the limitation on freedom of speech being the peace and good order of the community. We ryre not allowed to in dulge in inflammatory utterances that counsel violence, or provoke breaches of the peace. It is this barrier which Van Bittner. tho incendiary leader of the United Mine Workers of America, wantonly trampled down in his speech at West Blocton Tuesday. He told his hearers to go and get their jobs back any way they could, and to band to gether to drive the “scabs” out of Alabama. He declared he had no pa-" tience with any red-blooded miner who would sit supinely down and allow another to fill his job while his wife and children were threatened witlj Starvation. tIn the light of such an utterance the only thing that saves Van Bittner is the forbearance of the authorities, the quality of taking punishment without striking back, that prudence which is! sometimes called the better part of valor. There can be no difference of opinion on Van Bittner’s amenaV ility to the law. He is a flagrav.; con elor of violence, a defier of author ana his seditious advice to fhe n;, to use any meansain their power get rid of those who filled rheir , fces ought to end his diabol. ti oare*« in this state, if it does not land him be hind the baVs. What adds to his .moral turpitude and brands his conduct with the stigma of perfidy and dlshe-nor Is his wanton repudiation of the. settle ment of the strike by the governor of the state, after having given his un conditional assent to the proposal that the troublesome situation b- adjusted in this way. Van Bittner’s retention of leadership in this state, ha foothold! as a director of industrial dtsou'e** in Alabama can be understood *n?y an act of tolerance and lenity on part of those who sit in spats of »»irJborUy. MEN, WOMEN AND THINGS John Burroughs, though dead, yet lives in the hearts of thousands of men and women and children throughout the j world, because of the simple, unselfish life which he lived while on earth. I had a story about A1 G. Field, fea turing the fact that to the last he had the heart of a child, and now I am to write about another man whose death j was close upon that of the great min- I strel who was known far and wide be- | cause of the same* trait. * • • It would hard to find two men whose careers were so different in outward as [ pects, but w'hose inward thoughts were ! more attuned. A1 Field wan a man of the streets, for in his day he tramped 1 through the great thoroughfares of this (country as the premier minstrel of his time, w'hile the stage was the breath of his nostrils. j Yet deep down beneath his fondness I for the excitement of the parades and | tbe footlights in his subconsciousness was always the thought of the farm, not | as the passing fancy of a city man, but ! the love of the man to whom the soil was in the largest sense Mother Earth, out of whose bosom came the good things of the great God of providence, who sends the rain and the sunshine to make the crops grow. j uat because these two men, whose deaths came so close together, are occu pying the "front page," I wish to talk about John Burroughs from the stand point from which I featured my friend, A1 Meld, for verily he has what Bjorn | son called "the child in the heart." It is this, and, in a way, the "child" in his books, that accounts for his wide ap peal, for "if all the world loves a lover,” it is equally true that everybody is In | sympathy with the man who keeps the spirit of the boy alive. One of his admirers reports that he often says he can never think of his books as works, because so much play j went into the making of them. He has j | gone out of doors in a holiday spirit, has \ \ had a good time, has never lost the boy’s j j relish for his outings. This is why the jman behind the book makes the widest ! appeal, for I believe that if a census could be taken it would show that he is the most lovable man-character in the literature of life, not even excepting Charles Lamb. • Those who had the priceless privilege pf coming into hia presence bear witness that he was absolutely human in all that he did and said, a born comrade, a de [ lightful acquaintance as well as a philos | opher and poet and naturalist. I think one of the pictures I like best of him is the one which shows him after win ter's snow had whitened his locks riding with a lot of young people on a billowy load of hay; going to a ball game, at which no boy there enjoyed the game more, or knew the fine points better. This is enough to show why flocks of youths and maidens from many schools ajid colleges for a score of years climbed the hill to the rustic cabin in all the gayety and enthusiasm of their young lives to get in touch with one whose heart beat in sympathy with their every desire. One exhuberant western youth wrote: "He is my great good teacher and friend. He is more to me than Harvard or Yale. He is the biggest, simplest and serenest man I have met in all the east.” Nothing shows the nature of the man more than the letters which came pour ing into the mail pouches for him from at home and abroad. Take, for instance, a little girl, who .wanting to learn his attitude toward snakes, after writing a pretty letter, was thoughtful enough to end thus: "Inclosed you will find a stamp, for I know It must be fearful ' expensive to be a celebrity.” She might 1 have added, and rather a trial to have to answer the many questions propound ed to him. A physician of 30 years’ prac- ‘ tice asked him in all seriousness how , often the lions bring forth their young, and whether it is true that there is a relation between the years in which they breed, and the increased productivity of 1 human beings. It’s going some to be ex- ^ pected to be an authoftty on snakes for 1 a little girl and on lions for a doctor. 1 • • • ( In his seventy-fourth year he wrote to ] some children who were planning to cele- , brate his seventy-fourth birthday: "Let j me hope that when you have reached j m V afro 1,011 nr 111 _11 ---,»»N5 | as [ am. I am still a boy at heart, and | enjoy almost everythin?; that hoys do. except making a racket. Youth and age have not much to do with years. You ' are young so long as you keep your in- ' terest in things and relish your daily 1 bread. The world is 'full of a number ’ of things, and they are all very inter esting.” 1 • • • 1 X hope those who have passed three ] score years and ten who may read this , will take a new grip on life if they have i lost interest in living. But hear him , apain: "As the years pass I think my interest in this huge globe upon which 1 we live, and in the life which it holds, deepens. An active interest in life keeps i the currents going and keeps them clear. Mountain streams are young streams; they sing and sparkle as they go, and our iibes mav be the same. With me, the ! secret of my youth in age is the simple life, simple food, sound sleep, the open air, daily work, kind thoughts, love of ' nature and joy and contentment in the 1 world in which I live." i I reckon if I had stopped here that ! nearly all of my readers would have been 1 ready to utter a hearty amen! But I i must finish the paragraph or falsify the ] testimony of him who had found the se cret of keeping young, so listen: "No ex- ; cesses, no alcoholic drinks, no tobacco, 1 no tea or coffee, no stimulants stronger than water and food." Is it any wonder i that after having lived up to such a ■ programme that there was summer in his heart long after the time when win ter is expected to have full sway, and 1 that he could close by saying: "J have had a happy life. I have gathered my grapes with the bloom upon them. May you all do the same.” 1 Wait till he is dead, and four or five - decades of daisies have bloomed over 1 him'" says the world; “then, If there la any virtue In his works, we will tag and i label' them and confer immortality upon him." But John Burroughs need not wait till the daisies cover him to be appreci ated, for since "John" means "the 1 gracious gift of Qod," wo will praise him now, and leave to later generations the task of a fuller appreciation of the man with "the child In the heart.” * THE RAILROAD CRISIS I From th« Mining: Congress Journal, t/nplHE railroads are unable to obtain J| adequate capital. Never in the history of the country has it been so difficult to secure new funds, without which the entire system must become seriously impaired. Primarily, this is due to the unprofitable condi tion 9f the industry, with its deficiency of earnings to meet operating expenses. The 36 per cent rate increase allowed the railroads was calculated to insure earnings on the present capital Invest ment which would attract new capital to the Industry. Under the pressure to which all industry has been subjected in this period of deflation, the last rate increase has proved to be more than the traffic can bear. Approximately 58 per cent of the tonnage is supplied by raw mine products, which are derived from operations on a large tonnage scale, but usually with a very narrow margin of profit. An extensive con traction of the tonnage movement has consequently been recorded, i with 400, 900 freight car* idle. The high cost of freight transportation has probably di verted more tonnage to the motor truck In the short-haul districts of the east. Freight emanating on the Pacific coast for eastern delivery has also been di verted from rail to boat via the Panama =anaL What was calculated in the rate ncraase to be an asset to the railroads lias under existing circumstances be som* a liability. On account of the op srating deficit sustained by the roads luring the first two months in the year, it must be evident that not only s the present rate more than the traf fic can bear, but that the wage scale itself is more than the traffic can bear. Under government control, a deficit was created by making the wage in crease retroactive. The rate increase could not be made retroactive, and when made was not sufficient even with the heavier tonnage movement to produce adequate revenue. The diffi culty has been due largely to the con lideration pf the labor constituent in dependently from that of the welfare I of the properties as a whole. The fact | has been overlooked that the broad in terests of labor are served beat by the ! adoption of policies which will insure j the railroad investment and Improve J the railtoad system. Conversely, what ever impairs the system is harmful to the interests of labor. Since the rate increase has proved an embarrassment to traffic, railroad rates should be re duced at the earliest moment. The in terstate commerce commission no doubt will be reluctant to exercise its au thority to reduce the rate before a re duction in the wage scale is madg, on account of the fact that it is also charged with the responsibility under the transportation act of insuring 5 per cent return on railroad investments. Tn the common interests of the rail roads. the public and railroad labor, it becomes prerequisite that the wage scale be first reduced, with the un derstanding that the interstate com merce commission will immediately re- { duce the rate in like proportion. This adjustment in the wage scale will make it possible for the railroads to main tain a normal volume of tonnage, op erating efficiency will be improved, upon which the interests of labor can best be served. No doubt the railroad labor board realizes the acute situa tlon confronting the roads and the ne cessity for an early decision from the national adjustment boards, in order that the wage cases may be taken up. Senator Cummins has suggested that the railroad problem should be re-sub mitited for investigation. The subject needs no further investigation. Both the interstate commerce commission and the labor board have had the sub ject under continuous investigation and are apprized of the facts upon which to make all necessary adjust ments. Delay is the most serious men ace in the railroad crisis. Prompt and decisive action by the labor board, fol lowed by that of the interstate com merce commission, is required to pre- f vent further disintegration of the rail road system. SAMOANS NEED NO RENO “ rom, “The White Judge in Tutuila,” by Alexander Stronach, in Asia Mag azine. DIVORCE cases, which come up often in Tutuila. especially put to the test my powers of recon ciling old and new; for, though deser tion for one year is sufficient reason or divorce under th^ Samoan code, ac ual divorce without legal divorce ie a custom of the country. Samoan men igain and again sent their legal wives lome and took younger women into heir huts. Under such conditions the nan and his new mate were brought nto court. Occasionally the court per suaded the man to send for his old vife, and the girl in the case returned o her family. She was usually soon veil married to some one else and suf rered no disgrace. Oftener, perhaps, the summoned couple refused to be separated, paid their fine, went back :o their old ways and were summoned igaln and paid another fine. I remember a case that amusingly 11 ustrates the importance of the eco lomic factor when divorce is the issue, rhe man was a strapping chief with skin like a polished kava bowl—a hand some fellow, distinguished in the slands for one of his special treasures, HEART-BREAK from the New Orleans Times-Pieayune. '•!ARTBREAK is a reality. After centuries during which that term “* “ has been employed merely as a netapnor and has become one of the its pies of sentimental poetry and naudlin romance, it has been established >y science that heartbreak exists and s a danger we should all beware of ust as of measles or mumps—only we >elieve ft is not catching, however often t passes from hero to heroine or heroine o hero in erotic literature. But now we come to the surprising act that heartbreak, the true emo icnal heartbreak, is rarely if ever due o sorrow. All those yarns you have ead about the maiden who pined and lied of a broken heart when her sweet leart proved false, or the sentimental okel who passed out by that convenient Iction when the beloved one vamped a cllow who owned an automobile and eft him in the lurch, are without atfMt iflc basis of fact. On the other hand the real danger Is n joy. The man who dies of a broken leart is the fellow who wins the capital irize in the lottery, who breaks the bank .t Monte Carlo or who is suddenly topped on the street and paid the $10, wing for a year, that he has given up or lost. These and innumerable other Measurable sensations should be dread d, not welcomed, according to Dr. J. Strickland Goodall, an eminent heart pecialist, who has been lecturing before ctentiflc bodies in England. According to this authority the heart Ibers are pul on a terrific strain by SAFETY FIRST i'rom the New York Evening Post. A prominent New York debutante re entiy ordered "four seats on the aisle1 it the theatre. When her party ar ived at the performance they were urprlsed to find themselves arranged n a column instead of a ro„w. Nothing taunted, the debutante turned to a iored middle-aged man next to her. turely he would not mind changing ?lth her friend in front. "I beg your pardon,” she said po itely. ‘ No reply. He must be deaf. "I beg your pardon," she repeated ouder. * Still no reply. "I beg your pardon," she said, utnplng his elbow. He took out.a'pencil and wrote on is programme: "Thafs my wife on the other side of is. Safety first.” COULDN’T MEET THE TEST 'rom the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A Jersey City applicant for clttssn hlp sang "The Star-Spangled Banner” rom beginning to end. If such a ae ere test as that were to be Insisted on, he majority of us would be dlsfran* hlaed. emotions, especially pleasurable ones, and when the strain passes the narrow margin of safety nature has allowed our cardiac organ a fiber snaps and it is flowers and purple tulle on the door knob. We have not seen his explana tion as to why joy is more deadly than sorrow or mirth more snappy than anger, but we might surmise that it is nature's little way of being kind to j^nkind. If we all had heartbreak every time the coal gave out or the gas bill came in. depopulation would go on too rapidly. As it is, come to think of it, we read of remarkably few cases of lives ending in that manner—Joys of that intensity don't come around very frequently. Put, according to Dr. Goodall, the dan,J ger is not quite as great as it otherwise would have been, because nature has placed an efficacious little safety valve on our human anatomy that blows off at the proper moment to save us many minor heartbreaks. This, is what we call fainting. Often we are worried when someone we hold dear faints, whereas in many instances that is an indication that the danger has passed. Heartbreak was threatening and in or der to quickly relieve the endangered fibers nature has brought on oblivion. The heart, no longer stimulated by the brain, quits ‘‘racing” and during the’ weak spell following recovery of con sciousness there is insufficient emotional strength to do harm. IN THE! DELTA William Alexander Percy, In the North] American Review. The river country's wide and flat And blurred ash-blue with sur.. And there all work is dreams cornel trae, All dreams are work The silted river made The black and mellow soil And taught us as we conquered Courage and faith and toil. The river town that water-oaks And myrtles hide and bless Has broken every law except The law of kindliness. And north and south and east the field:! Of cotton close it round, Where golden billows of the sun Break with no shade or soung. Dear is the town, but in the A little house could be. If built with care and A heart’s felicity. O friend, who love not much Or lamp-lit, people waya. What of a field a Our residue of We'd learn of fret A patience that we mlaS' And be content content to ha Nor wish nor hope for bllaa With the Immense untramaaeled For brother in the fields And every night the stars' orusst Flashing to us th.'- shl'lds. We‘d meet, perhaps some dusk Turned home to welt-oa#ied rail, Unhurried Wisdom, tonder-ajta^ A pilgrim and our guea|§ 1 an American house somewhat preten tiously built and well furnished. He did not sleep in it or use 1t in any way, but he cherished it as a sign of no bility, very useful to him in impressing both his neighbors and visitors to Iltili. His wife had deserted him. he com plained. and he would like his divorce before another week was out. From this I gathered that he had "run his wife home,” after the custom of a na tive with his eye to a younger spouse. "Heft you,” said I; "so she has left you after many years. This is sad, hut if it be the case, then truly a divorce is in order. However, since I recall that it was your wife's family's gifts of money and cattle and fine mats that J made it possible for you to own the I American house, these things will the j law give your wife on the day she is j no longer your wife.” The eager chief became meditative.. He thought of the young girl with'' black hair flowing to her knees that he had chosen to share his thatched hut. where they both might gaze at the American house. He hesitated. He did not want the divorce that morning. He went away. And in a few weeks he sent word that—was it not fortunate? —his old wife had come back from her father.