The San Francisco call. [volume], November 07, 1913, Image 10

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
EDITORIAL D AGE
THE CALL
F. W. KELLOGG, President and Publisher
JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Vice President and Treasurer
San Francisco Must Be
In the Big Campaign
All Central California Counties Meet at Marysville This
Month to Launch an Advertising Movement for the State
California is a fine article in truth, but no matter how good j
the article is, it must be advertised. California is to be thoroughly j
advertised not only as a land of beautiful climate and sublime;
scenery, but as a land in which investments in soil pay dividends, j
This refers particularly to central and northern California—'
southern California has learned the value of advertising and
already has profited by it.
The tide of population is sweeping over California, but it
will take scores of years before the state can be inundated, yet
already lowa is talking of suing California for the alienation of
the affections of lowans. A member of the lowa legislature
wanted that state to appropriate money to advertise lowa in Cali
fornia, so that some of the lowans who have come west might
be influenced to return to the state they left behind.
No state can alienate the affections of Californians. But Cali
fornia can win the affection of any person who hears of it, and
the best way to make people hear of California is by community
advertising, which the northern and central part of California is
about to undertake. A meeting is to be held at Marysville on 1
November 20 and 21 at which will be inaugurated a big movement
for the development and exploitation of the state. *
Humboldt county may be thanked for giving the impetus to
this movement. Humboldt has raised a fund of $52,000 for a three
months' advertising campaign. Humboldt county's development
committee sent out a resounding cry to the other counties point-; (
ing out the need of an aggressive campaign to bring the resources
and opportunities of this portion of the state to the attention of
easterners and midwesterners.
Humboldt county is rich in lumber, dairying and farming
possibilities, and with the completion of the Northwestern Pacific
railroad next year it will have direct rail connection with San
Francisco and the transcontinental lines. It wants to have people
come into its valleys and make use of the railroad.
At the conference to be held in Marysville this month all of
the counties north of the Tehachapi will be represented, pledged
to join in the great campaign to make California known throughout
the other states. A fund of $110,000 will doubtless be raised.
San Francisco must take a prominent part in that conference
and in the advertising campaign that is to follow.
San Francisco should co-operate if only one other county were
in the movement, for every particle of wealth created in the interior
of California is reflected in the growing prosperity of San Fran
cisco, the market city of the state. With some 30 counties joined
in the wide campaign of boosting, San Francisco must take an
interest thirty-fold.
It must be remembered that, while the campaign of one
individual county may not benefit materially another interior
county, not a line of publicity helping any single unit of the
commonwealth of California will be without value to San Fran
cisco.
San Francisco must be in Marysville on November 20 and
21, and be there strong.
'Good Night, Rotten World,' Said
One, but the Poor Woman Said,
'I'm Glad We're in America'
On the same day and on the same page of the same news
paper are two news items, or "stories," as the craft calls them:
A poor, unhappy employe of a California railroad who com
mits suicide leaves this note behind:
"Good night, you rotten world."
A "foreign woman," whose husband was slain by bandits in a
big city, finds herself penniless, with three children to feed, clothe
and raise.
And this is what she has to say:
"So the children and I are alone. Michael didn't have any
insurance. But I'll go to work some place. I don't mind work.
I'm glad we're in America, the free land. 'There's plenty of work
over there,' they told us in the old country. 'No one ever starves
in America.' So I guess we will get along."
Two very different stories, indeed.
How "rotten" do you suppose life had been—or the world had
been—to the man who had a job on the railroad with only himself
to care for?
How much do you suppose was his personal responsibility for
making his life what it was?
Let us take a look at the widow whose husband the three
bandits killed—and at her three children, all of them quite young.
She will go to work, an unskilled workingwoman. Her eldest
girl will stay at home and mind the two younger children.
Before long an officer of the court will come around (this is in
California, where we have mothers' pensions) and arrange to give
this woman so much each month to help raise her children. This
is the ENLIGHTENED way of dealing with such cases instead
of filling homes and institutions with children taken away from
their surviving parent.
The state's aid will raise the standard of living in that family.
A representative of the board of education will come in time
and say "This elder girl ought to be in school."
That will leave the baby in charge of the next eldest girl.
By the time the second daughter is ready for school the first
will be ready to help her mother earn a living for the family.
But the great AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL will have
made her BETTER EQUIPPED than her mother. Instead of
being a janitress or laundress, the daughter can be a store clerk or
a stenographer, and in the latter position earn from $8 or $10 to
$25 a week.
Soon the second daughter is EDUCATED and eventually the
boy, too, goes to school.
This particular mother happens to be of foreign birth—a
Polish woman.
But what happens through the aid and intervention of our in
stitutions HAPPENS TO ALL KINDS OF WOMEN—native
Americans, Germans, Irish, Jews, Italians, Poles; races without
end.
Would they get these advantages at home—these govern
mental benefactions?
How just is the suicide railroad employe's contention that
this is a rotten world, or a rotten country?
Do not be so free to accept the estimates of life which come as
legacies from worked out, despondent and hopeless people.
There are inequalities and injustices in life— most certainly.
But thousands of people manufacture their own inequalities.
Those who are coming to America from other lands are more
prompt to accept this country on its proper footing. More of these
aliens are making an educational and monetary success out of what
we have to give them than the natives who are already here and
whose ancestors were here before them.
To the newcomers this is a country of hope; a country of ful
filled ambitions. Only our native born look upon it and its oppor
tunities with scorn or contempt.
The two cases we have cited are typical. Which of the two do
you think formed the proper estimate of America as it is?
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL
A GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZED
Why are all the warships at Vera Cruz? There is no Portola being
held there.
* » »
The black cat that came and established itself at the White House
may be named Huerta.
* * *
It's rather curious that the people most opposed to the Hetch Hetchy
project have another project to sell to the city.
* * *
Ortie McManigal is said to be on his way to South America. It is
a safe bet that he wishes there was a route to South Mars.
* * *
The United States has the most unenviable •murder record in the
world, but it can't be charged that we are ungallant to our lady mur
deresses.
* # *
No matter what the name of its president is, the Western Pacific rail
road system can not properly be called a Bush-league of transportation
companies.
* * *
The life of a woman was saved by a side comb which deflected the
bullet intended to kill her. Yet civilized people denounce women's
ornaments.
Where No Money Is Used
The Island of Ascenclon. in the At
lantic ocean, is of a volcanic forma
tion, and has a population of only
460. It was uninhabited until the con
finement of Napoleon at St. Helena
when it was occupied by a small Brit
ish force.
Ascension is governed by a captain
appointed by the British admiralty.
There is no private property In land,
no rents, no taxes and no use for
money. The flocks and herds are pub
lic property and the meat is issued as
KICKING A GOAL
Evening Calls
rations. So are the vegetables grown
on the farms. When an island fisher
man makes a catch he brings it to the
guardroom, where It is issued by the
sergeant major. Practically the en
tire population are sailors, and they
work at most of the common trades.
The muleteer is a Jack Tar; so is the
gardener; so are the shepherds, the
stockmen, the grooms, masons, car
penters and plumbers. The climate is
almost perfect and anything can be
grown.
What will virtuous Los Angeles do now that boxing is prohibited
at Venice?
» ■» *
What ingenious poet will be able to write a patriotic war song if we
should intervene in Mexico?
* * #
The "tainted meat" which the board of health examined seems to
have contaminated some of the department employes.
* # *
The "mad king" of Bavaria has just been deposed. Why? What
difference does it make what kind of a king a country has'
* * *
Warden Hoyle is going into the hotel business in this city. He must
remember not to number his guests nor consider all life termers
* ♦ *
The Prussian government has prohibited Captain Amundsen from lec
turing in Schleswig. Good thing it didn't forbid him finding the north
west passage.
* ♦ *
Now ladies are advised to wear false aigrettes on their hats. Which
brings us to the time honored dispute, which is more wicked, deceit or
cruelty to animals?
A NELSON ANECDOTE
Nelson's left handedness was an at
tainment of which he could be legiti
mately proud, as he was. J. R. Green
tells a story of the admiral's visit to
Great Yarmouth to receive the free
dom of the borough.
"A storm met him on his landing,
but the danger failed to prevent his
appearance on the quay When the
freeman's oath was tendered to him
the town clerk noticed that the hero
placed his left hand on the book.
Shocked at the legal Impropriety, he
said:
" 'Your right hand, my lord.'
" 'That' observed Nelson, 'is at Tea*
erlffe.'"
I ONE OF THE MEN
Eleanor's best man friend had
promised her a little gift, then for
gotten all about It. Eleanor mourned
to her young lady aunt that this
should be so.
"It's so easy for men to forget,
dearie," soothed auntie. "They have
so many things to think of that it's
hard for them to remember all."
"Well, I should think that if the
good Lord expected them to act like
other people, he'd give them more
sense!" the little girl exclaimed.
NOVEMBER 7, 1913
Bringing German Litera
ture to America
The Publication of "German Classics" Will Help Relax
Existing Tension.
By DR. CHARLES H. PARKHURST.
IT will interest
both the Ger
man and Eng
lish readers of
The Call to
know something
of the splendid
exhibit of Ger-'
man literature
reproduced in
English that is
now in course
of preparation.
Three volumes
of "The Ger
man Classics of
the Nineteenth
and Twentieth
Centuries," out
of the proposed
20, have already
been delivered
to subscribers.
If we who live
in the states
understood German as well as
all educated or even half edu
cated Germans understand Eng
lish, we should not be under the
humiliating necessity of having
German thoughts dressed out for
us in our American vocabulary.
Luckily There Are Those
Who Can Interpret
Them to Us
It is occasion for gratitude,
however, that there are those
who are to such degree masters
of both languages that they can
interpret to us, in terms of our
speech, the product of Teutonic
minds that have been doing
their thinking on the other side
of the water.
Prior to this undertaking,
scarcely 10 per cent of the more
prominent German authors had
had their writings translated
into English. This is the more
lamentable, as much of ,the fin
est and most sterling writing
ever produced, both prose and
poetry, has been done on Ger
man ground.
It is time for the American
mind to come out from its seclu
sion and appreciate the privilege
of membership in the universal
republic of letters. We have
reached that stage of our na
tional development along ma
terial lines when it becomes us
to bethink ourselves of matters
and interests lying off front the
level of manufactures and com
merce and general financial ag
grandizement. Railroads and
canals, mines and immense har
vests sustain a certain relation
to national greatness, but the
mind of a man has a significance
not attaching either to his stom
ach or to his purse; and what is
true of a man, considered as an
individual, is peculiarly true of
man considered collectively and
nationally.
The United States has shown
rather a frenzied ambition to
extend its landed domain, but
the opening up to us of the
treasures of a foreign literature
means a finer expansion than the
acquisition of new acres and
miles of tillage and pasturage.
Our country, if it is going to
count as a great universal asset,
has got to learn to cultivate it
self more and more on the finer
side of its nature and in the
more superb reach of its possi
bilities.
Another result to which the
publication of this great work
may be expected to contribute
will be the relaxing of that in
ternational tension which exists
between us and Germany.
UNREST
WILLIAM F. KIRK
WHERE is no rest save sleep and death
For us whom Destiny is driving;
Until the last and feeblest breath
Some part of every man is striving.
The tireless muscles of the strong,
The mental workings of the clever,
Unite, as we are swept along,
In one grand purpose of endeavor.
The idle day and idle dream
Are for the dotard an dthe fool;
The salmon flashes up the stream;
The coarse carp fattens in the pool.
Striving we live, and. striving, shun
The dull content that would enslave us;
And glory, ere the day is done,
Is that unrest the Master gave us.
SIROCCO
CONSTANCE CLARKE
A SCORCHING wind that sweeps acros sthe desert,
A swirl of sand caught up against a sky
Grown fiercely red like burning molten copper,
That spills its glory as the dust whirls by.
A swirl of golden hair, with glints of copper,
Cruel scarlet lips of smiling evil lure,
A scorching breath that speaks its demon purpose.
The spirit of the desert, swift and sure.
That does not
mean that there
are on the side
of either party
any sentiments
of actual en
mity, but there
exists among
all peoples suf
ficient of orig
inal barbarism
to make every
nation regard
every other na
tion with a de
gree of sus
picion and dis
favor, and to
hold it in a
state of con
tinual wonder
ment as to how
long it will be
before there is
a resumption
of hostilities.
This feeling is fostered by all
the unfortunate talk we are
obliged to listen to about add
ing to our army and navy and
strengthening our defenses.
International cordiality will
have to be achieved by other
means more pacific and less
jingoistic. Our ambassadorial
relations do something toward
accomplishing this. So does the
social interchange effected by
international travel. To this
should be added such reciprocity
between the universities of two
nations, like that which is being
maintained between us and Ger
many, by which each gives to
the other the temporary loan of
its more distinguished profes
sors. This enables the two peo
ples to think more and more in
each other's thoughts, encourag
ing thus a sympathy certain to
result when minds flow along
side by side in the same chan
nel.
Still more effective in the
same direction will be this new
literary enterprise, conceived by
Dr. Isidor Singer, the originator
of the Jewish encyclopedia,
worked out under the editorial
management of Prof. Kuno
Francke, chief of the German
department of Harvard univer
sity, and having behind it the
push and financial experience of
Messrs. Huntley and Peale, pub
lishers of Warner's Library and
the "Encyclopedia Americana"
The work is issued under the
distinguished patronage, among
others, of President Wilson, for
mer Ambassador Bryce, Hon.
Joseph H. Choate, President
Butler of Columbia and Cardinal
Gibbons.
Eighty Per Cent of Them
Have Never Appeared
in English
Fully 80 per cent of the au
thors whose writings appear in
"The German Classics" have
never appeared in English, and
thus have been held beyond the
reach of Americans, except the
limited few who have some un
derstanding of German, and the
majority of those, probably,
would get more from a good
translation than by reading the
original.
The publication of this work
is thus the opening of a new
continent to the intellectual oc
cupancy of Americans, whose
possession by us will widen and
enrich our treasury of thought
and create a new sense of fra
ternal relation with a people of
the same stock as ourselves and
one with us in all that is best in
our national life.