The San Francisco call. [volume], December 05, 1913, Image 6

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

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EDITORIAL PAGE
THE CALL
F. W. KELLOGG, President and Publisher
JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Vice President and Treasurer
California's Period of Inten=
sive Farming
.Beginning Right, the Farmer Must Make the Best of His
Opportunity and Have Brain Power to Do His
" * Part of the Work
There is an organization with the promising name of the
national Soil Fertility league, which numbers among its officers
former President Taft, James J. Hill and other prominent men. Its
purpose is expressed in its name—to increase the fertility and,
r.ecessarily. the productivity, of the American farm by educating
the farmer. It is sponsor for the Lever bill, which proposes to
provide a trained farm demonstrator or "county agent" to carry to
the farmer in the field the best known methods and to show him
how to apply them. The farmer is to be taught to increase his
yieM, how to build up his soil, how to decrease the cost of produc
tion, how to increase farm profits and how to shorten his hours of
labor by an increase of brain power.
Shorten the farmers' hours of labor!
That alone would be worth a gr*it expenditure, for the most
disagreeable aspect of farm life is tne interminable hours, the day
that starts in summer at dawn and in winter in the dark and
finishes in summer at twilight and in winter after dark.
But that is but a detail of the work which the Lever bill and the
Fertility league seek to accomplish.
The American farmer, man for man, may produce twice as
much as the European farmer, but he requires four or five times
the area to do it and his methods are poorer. Of course, in Europe
there is more hand labor on a ranch and intensive farming is prac
ticed by every member of a family. This intensive culture of a
patch of ground leads to a meager culture of a patch of brains, and
brains are a more important commodity than wheat; but with
brains, the American farmer should be able to raise wheat in pro
portion to his improved gray matter.
California is entering a period of small farming, the irri
gated farm tracts which are being opened up in the Sacramento
and San Joaquin valleys showing the trend; for where once there
were wheat fields as large as counties, now there are alfalfa patches
not much .larger than city blocks. It is important for California to
get a right start in intensive farming. The lessons taught by the
National Soil Fertility league should be well considered here and
California should do its part to have the Lever bill passed; but we
have in the agriculture extension work of the state university an
excellent substitute for the county agent or farm demonstrator,
for any farmer in the state can call upon the state university for
advice, help and instruction.
Higher Reward of Labor With
Higher Cost of Living
Whenever you stop to figure how much higher the cost of
living is today than it was as far back as you remember, take
this fact into consideration:
The average pay of every person who works for a living in the
United States is much higher now than then.
This year the average wage will be close to $610; in 1900 an
average year's wages was only $479, and 30 years before that it
was only. $370. That is a gain of 65 per cent in the last 43 years,
and an increase of 27 per cent in the last 13 years.
The farmer has done even better than the wage earner. In
40 years the number of farmers has doubled, and the average in
come of each farmer has risen from $330 to $720, more than
doubled. It brings the farmer's income up from less than that of
the man who works for wages to more than that.
Do you wonder that there is a movement back to the land—
that agriculture is now regarded as inviting to men and promising
of rewards commensurate with the labor and brains which are
given to it?
Aside from the freedom enjoyed by the man who produces
from the soil, the returns from that production are now adequate
to keep him and his family in comfort, and it does not require an
immense area of land here in California to provide both competence
and independence.
Amateur and Professional
The college and amateur athletes are having their annual in
door tryout of the subject, "To what extent can a professional con
taminate us?" That is the greatest little indoor sport of the winter
season.
Heretofore the situation has resolved itself to this; An amateur
athlete can not be contaminated by playing baseball against a pro
fessional baseball team; he can face the highest salaried devotees
of the national sport and the pristine purity of his amateur standing
will remain unsullied. In other words, he can handle the pitch of
professionalism, if he wears a baseball glove, and remain undefined.
But he can not compete against a professional in what are
known as field or track sports without jeopardizing his amateur
standing.
Of course, the reason for this discrimination is plain. It is
beneficial to college baseball clubs to have contests with profes
sional baseball teams; they can learn much of the game from the
real professors of it. But a college athlete will not be benefited
greatly by competing with a professional runner or jumper or pole
vaulter—if there is a professional pole vaulter to be found.
That must be the reason. Can any one suggest another for
drawing a line between professional baseball players and profes
sional athletes of other fields and saying that the one sort will not
contaminate a college athlete and the other sort will?
Postmaster's Warning
Postmaster Fay has issued a list of mistakes which persons
make in posting mail matter, and he calls attention of the public
to these omissions in order that they may be guarded against in
preparing the Christmas mail.
The list is:
Omission of the street number.
Omission of the room number when addressed to a large
office building.
** Name of the street being omitted—only the city and the
state being mentioned.
The practice of neglecting to specify the definite corner when
address is given as the crossing of two streets.
In addition to those warnings, here is another to consider :
Mail your Christmas gifts early to insure timely delivery, re
lieve congestion and extend the spirit "of Christmas to compass
good will toward letter carriers and railway mail clerks.
Almost every resident of this city will send packages back
east for Christmas. In ordinary times a week would be time
enough to reach any destination. But in this holiday season you
can not safely predicate that a parcel posted here by the 18th will
be received in the old home town by the 25th.
So begin your shopping for out of town presents now and
conclude the purchasing not later than the 15th.
You will be sure to make everybody happier, or surer to make
Everybody happy—including yourself.
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL
In Union (street car line) there is strength (to municipal ownership).
* ♦ *
Mr. Theodore A. Bell apparently does not believe that a city
must drink.
* * *
A rare animal has been captured in Berkeley that only eats and sleeps.
Must be a blase junior at the university.
* » #
To Anxious Inquirer: No; Colonel Roosevelt did not go to Argentina
to study the tango in its native habitat.
* * *
Now is the time to be careful. It is awful to give Aunt Mamie the
stocking bag she gave you last Christmas.
» * *
The postoffice of Spoonville, Lassen county, has been abolished, but
Spoonville, Lassies' county, still flourishes. *
* ♦ #
Advice to business girls: This is a gOod time of the year to attract
the boss' attention, but don't do it by being late every morning.
* * *
Exritement is caused in the state of Washington because a man
bought a bank there with two bad checks. Nothing at all. A local grocery
recently bought a $5 piece with two bad eggs.
Footnotes of Humor
In the little village of Pershore a
woman committed suicide by hanging
herself to an apple tree. At the fun
eral a neighbor, noticing the sad ap
pearance of the husband, consoled
him by saying that he had met with
a terrible loss.
*'Yes," said the husband, heaving a
sigh. "She must have kicked like
thunder to shake off six bushels of
green apples that would have been
worth a dollar a bushel when they
got ripe." t
*■ * *
A gentleman who had been spend
ing a holiday at a Scottish seaside
village noted for Its golf links asked
one of the caddies if he got much
carrying in winter time.
"Nae, sir, nae," replied the caddie.
| There's nae carrying in the winter
time. Ye see, it's this way. If It's no
jsna' it's frost; if it's no frost its rain;
"GOOD NIGHT"
ULTIMATUM TO A DICTATOR
Evening Calls
if It's no rain its wind, an' if It's a
fine day It's the Sawbath."
* * #
A young lady who was going out to
New Zealand to get married went to a
West End dressmaker for her trous
seau. The dressmaker suggested a
warm one.
The young lady asked why, seeing
that the climate of New Zealand Is a
beautifully mild one.
"I assure you, madam, you are mis
taken, for that is where the frozen
meat comes from."
* # *
Jones—lf Mr. Oldboy makes any
such assertion I will denounce him
as a liar.
President—Mr. Jones, I call you to
order. Our bylaws do not allow you
to go that far.
Jones—Then I call Mr. Oldboy a
j liar as far as It la permitted by the
' bylaws of this association.
What will Santa Claus think when he finds himself in a cabaret?
* * #
Paul Armstrong certainly must be to write those strong arm plays
of his.
* * #
Who remembers: "What the deuce was my New Year resolution last
time?"
* » *
"Every real man wears a mustache," says the kaiser. Umph! We
thought it was a disguise.
* * *
President Wilson has a cold after delivering the message. President
Huerta probably has a sympathetic chill.
* * *
A New York pastor has refused to marry a divorced man. Never
mind, old top; come out west, where, if the preachers were that particular,
they'd all starve. 1
» * *
Ladies desiring to wear aigrettes in the United States must import
their live birds and kill them on American soil before they don the orna
ment. The theory of this custom house.ruling is that any bird will be
glad to die and give its feather to a lady if it has "seen America first."
& Curious Facts
At Whitley, Northumberland, a po
liceman laid information against him
self for having allowed the" chimney
of his house to be on fire. He proved
the case against himself successfully,
and the magistrate ordered him to
pay half a crown toward the costs.
"Tommy." a seagull which visits
Southwold every fishing season, has
been elected an honorary member of
the Southwold Sea Anglers' society,
and adopted as the society's crest.
Invited to a Cheltenham wedding,
an army officer flew to the church ln
an aeroplane, and he was accom
panied by two other officers with
aeroplanes.
During the hearing of a beer adul
teration charge ln Berlin, judge,
jurymen and counsel eacgi solemnly
drank two. pints of the suspected
liquor.
The authorities of the Berlin sub
urb of Spandau have decided to tax
Perambulators. Every citizen who
sends his child riding In one must pay
a yearly tax of 30 cents. This will
entitle him to push it along on the
footpath.
. Few crazes are more extraordinary
than the American mania of "souve
nir hunting." It is calculated that in
London hotels alone the annual dep
redations amount to $100,000, mostly
made up of articles of small Intrinsic
value, such as plates and spoons.
Snobbery is said to be responsible,
as the returning tourist loves to dis
play articles bearing the crest of
celebrated hostelrles. The worst of
the souvenir fiends are the travelers
who carry small axes to chip off
pieces of statues and fragments of
tbe masonry of cathedrals.
DECEMBER 5, 1913
Dr. Parkhurst's
♦2 Article on tSi
The New Spirit ahd the
Old in Our Prisons.
Great Meadow Devel
ops Manhood; Auburn,
Sing Sing, Daimemora
Crush It; They Are a
Disgrace to the State.
DR. C. H. PARKHURST
OUR last article contained a
plain, unexaggerated state
ment of the method of
treatment employed in the Great
Meadow state prison at Corn
stock, N. V., as I have acquaint
ed myself with it by personal
observation on the ground.
The wide divergence of that
method from the one followed in
penal institutions generally must
have been made apparent to
every one directly or indirectly
versed in the policy in vogue at
Auburn, Dannemora and Sing
Sing. It exhibits less the aspect
of a prison than of a school for
agricultural apprentices.
With all its liberality, however,
it is a place of punishment and
realized to be such by the in
mates. So keenly felt is the re
straint put upon them and the
deprivations which they suffer
that very many of them can tell
to a day how much longer their
period of confinement is to con
. tinue. Generous as is the treat
ment, it is not a retreat to which
any one would resort for the
amusement of the thing.
The distinctive feature of the
place is that the restraints are
not so applied as to work in the
"boys" bitterness of spirit, ha
tred of the institution and of its
officers, hostility against society
and deterioration of character.
The Old Prisons Disqualify
Men From Returning
to the World
The apparent intention of the
old prisons is to make the pris
oners as uncomfortable as pos
ble, to reduce them to the ex
treme point of humiliation, to
extinguish their self-respect and
to brutalize by the employment
of exasperating devices, which
chasten without purifying and
discipline without ennobling.
They destroy ambition, en
feeble the sense of humanness,
put men out of relation with the
world, and effectually disqualify
them for ever returning to it.
They are animated by the
spirit of retaliation, and use the
prison as a means of damaging
the inmates as much as the in
mates have damaged society. So
administered, prisons become big
man crushing machines worked
by the state in the interests of
no one knows exactly what. The
mere statement of the case is
sufficient to condemn it as a
diabolic device for the propaga
tion of depravity.
All the boys at Great Meadow
came from institutions just de
scribed and they all tell the same
story, the story that Mr. Os
borne told after he had been in
the men's prison at Auburn, and
that Miss Doty told after she
had been four days in the Au
burn women's prison. So there
can be no doubt about it.
They are a general disgrace to
the state that maintains them,
and a particular disgrace to the
men that officer them, and be
fore many years they will be
looked back upon with horror
and as a relic survived from bar
baric days.
Now, so far as the entire ani
mating spirit of the institution
at Comstock is concerned, it is a
direct reversal of the one con
trolling the old prisons. War
den Homer and his officials do
everything in their power to en
courage ambition instead of
ACTA DIURNA
CONSTANCE CLARKE
WE learn in Sociology
By clear elucidation
That everything we have today
We gain through imitation.
The things we write are not our own,
We owe an obligation
To those who wrote before we came,
Much to our consternation.
We may not plan a hat or gown,
Expecting commendation,
For our ideas are not our own,
We learn through observation.
We may not gaze upon the stars
In quiet contemplation,
It is not given us to find
A brand new constellation.
There's nothing new within the world
That needs an explanation.
This rhyming scheme I've seen before,
It's only imitation.
thwarting it. They avail of'no
irritating contrivances, whose
only effect is to exasperate and
madden and to breed in the suf-'
ferer the impulse of murder.
They have the respect, the ad
miration and the love of
they call their "boys." Thei;
policy is to develop manhood*
not to crush it.
The door of hope is not locked.
It is not even shut. The men
are dealt with on the basis of
what is best in them, not on the
basis of what is worst. The
first is Christian; the other is
pagan.
Respect is shown them by
those in authority, and that be
gets self-respect. I saw neither
a sulky nor a hangdog face
among them.
The Inmates Are Dealt
With in a Spirit of
Courtesy
The prison is not advertised to
the inmates as being a kennel
for the confinement of dogs, nor
a menagerie for the exploitation
of undomesticated and intract
able wolves. From the time of
their entrance they are dealt
with with a courtesy regularly to
be expected in the intercourse of
civilized beings.
One evening while I was at
Comstock a stringed band, com
posed of prisoners, made music
for us while we were at dinner,
and after dinner Warden and
Mrs. Homer mingled in a social
way with the performers, with
the same unrestrained and gra
cious courtesy as would have ob
tained in any social gathering
outside of prison precincts.
It is a fact of interest that th<
chief keeper, Major Chatfield,
was for 13 years an officer at
Elmira reformatory and in
charge of the discipline. In the
earlier part of his service there
he was with Brockway, farrious
the country over for the savage
ness of his penal policy. Brock
way perhaps did not know any
better than to suppose that
criminality can be crushed out of
a man as juice is expressed from
apples in a cider press.
"Great Meadow Method Is
the Only Sound One," •
Says Old Keeper
The major said to me: "1
know all about the old system.
I have worked under it for 13
years; but the Great Meadow
method is, in my judgment, the
only sound method of dealing
with the criminal." I have not
given his exact words, but have
expressed his thought.
It is undoubtedly true that the
same degree of liberty as is al
lowable in dealing with first
termers would not be practicable
in the case of old timers hard
ened in crime, but the same
spirit should be in control, and
every man, however much of a
criminal, should be treated with ■*
prime regard to his humanity
rather than to his brutality.
One thing more about the
"boys" at Great Meadow. They
are proud of the institution and
are anxious so to carry them
selves as to prove to the world
that the policy in force there is
the true policy, and thus be the
means of helping to secure its
adoption into the other penal in
stitutions of the state and coun
try.