The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-17

as you prefer. Only the transaction is not
made known to the
"Our milk tests" resumed the cher OF
division.
.sYes.'' commented Mr.. Rusk. Now that
mothers have gone out of the business OF
giving their own milk to their chlluren tne
cow is gaming in Importance"
mot only have we shown people that
the quality OF milk may be READILY deter
mined, but also that the price of milk should
be gagged by quality, not quantity. IN
short, whatever we do here either adds d.
rectly to the wealth of the country, or IN,
directly by pointing out what things should
be avoided. And yet the amount of money
given us by congress is so ludicrously small
in itself, and SO out of proportion with the
grants to other appropriations, that we are
unable to accomplish a 1.-THE OF the work IN
sight. 1t actually looked last year as If we
would not nave money to enough to publish
and circulate some of the most important
results of our Investigations; so that the
money and labor spent in making the IN
vestigations would have been thrown away.
To-day, we cannot get an appropriation to
send men abroad to study agricultural con-
ditions and processes there, and determine
wherein we might advantage by them. Often
valuable men do things for us merely
for the love of science, and pay their ex-
penses out of their OWE pockets. At the
time of the Paris exposition a gentleman
was appointed to go out there to arrange
and take charge of a part OF our agricul-
tural exhibit, and he was offered $125 a
month to do it. He declined. The matter
of salaries is arranged in a fashion wholly
haphazard. You will see q woman stenog-
rapher, for example, who would receive
5000 a year if she were employed by a BUSH
ness house in the city. given a salary of
S1,400; while a man whose scientific attain
ments are of national value, is paid $1,000.
Such a man was recently offered u salary of
$1,000 by an institution outside. OF course
ne had to accept it. There ls no private
firm, corporation or institution In this
country, employing the services of scientific
mon and specialists. that treats them in the
matter of pay SO shabbily as our men are
treated by congress. The chiefs of divis-
ions i'll this department get the salaries Of
boy clerks in Il dry goods store.
"To call them chiefs of division is q mis-
nsmer, if We understand by that that their
division i'll the other departments" re-
marked Secretary itugk. "Our mon are not
su~bordinates pr employees; they are indie
pendent Observation-Disclosures do
their own work in their way, and only
cooperate with me towards the general re-
suit at which We are all aiming"
Has there been an additional approprla-
ton for the silk exgerinents?" asked |.
The secretary shook his head. ''lhe first
thing to do" he said, would be to put a
duty on raw imported silks, to give our
folks here a nance to get started. There
is no question that we could produce silk
| here equal to che best in the world. We
can select our climate, start our mulberry
trees and grow our cocoons, with the best
sort of silk on them. The thing we lack lin
the absence OF q protective tariff is people
to wind off the silk from the cocoon. In
Europe the work is done by people who
not only have done nothing else all their
lives, but whose ancestors for 300 years
have followed the same trade. They are
satisfied with small wages and are content
to stick to the one employment. People of
that sort are not easily found on this side.
Possibly, though, negro girls might be
tHained to do it. It so, it would partly
solve the problem of how to employ that
race
What are tina prospects of the linen in
dustry?"
"We can make n first class material.
There IL no reason why we shouldn't make
all our own linen goods, and as good as any
we import now. We are tolerably we'll pro-
teCted. and we hould go ahead and build
big factories. If they'd only put n duty on
hides, SO as to make it worth our while to
carve them-yon can imagine, if you know
what our cattle industry is, what Il mine of
wealth would be THEREOF
And how is sugar doing?'
Sugar is, comparatively speaking, all
right was the cheerful reply. Our ex-
periments have shown that sorghum can be
treated as as TO make it pay we'll, and we
have determined tho region where it can
beat be grown. The beet industry looks
we'll, too; we hava found ous some points