The record-union., 1899-09-02
VOICE OF The PRESS.
EXTRACTS FROM EDITORIAL
EXPRESSIONS.
State and Coast Opinions on Sub-
jects OF Living News
Interest.


Interest.
Los Angeles Times: There is a pros
pect of a shortage in the amount of
money available for the maintenance
of our army in the field. While Con-
gress authorized an increase of the
army, on a war footing, TO 100000
men, a sufficient amount was not ap-
propriated to meet the expenses of such
increase and the maintenance of so
large an army. But Congress will
meet in December and the deficit can
soon be provided for.
WATER STORAGE.
Riverside Enterprise: If there is less
precipitation during one or two years
than is necessary to sustain our crops,
| there are plenty of other years IN
which there is too much rain, and In
deed, when considerable damage is done
by the floods of waste water. We some
times accept the Almighty'S omnlScl-
ence with certain reservations when we
observe that He proceeds on a feast or
a famine schedule, but the distress that
results is generally attributable to our
selves. The rational solution Of the
problem of guarding against the alter
nate disaster from flood and desolat1on
from drouth-from too much and too
little-is to devise some means of stor-
ing the water in years of super
abundance and distributing it in the
years of scarcity The problem of stor
age reservoirs has been considered by
engineers and declared to be feasible.
| tt hoc
point of business, and the verdict has
been that the only practicable way of
undertaking the enterprise is by the
Federal Government. Then the answer
| comes as an axiom that the cure for
our tired feeling in years of extra
ordinary drouth is to give every energy
in support of the agitation for Fed
eral storage reservoirs.
OLD PROSPERITY.
Contra Costa Gazette: The country is
getting so used to the return of the
old prosperity that it seems to take it
entirely as a matter of course. Every
body knows it as the simple truth that
business is better than ever before at
this season; men are at work, wages
are generally higher, foreign trade is
| immense and crops are good, factory
| shutdoWns are unheard of, strikes are
only for increased wages and not
against reduction in wages business
failures are wonderfully few-in fact,
the country is on the crest of wave
of prosperity as high as was deep the
trough of adversely in 1896 That that
trough was a genuine one will be at
| tested by men of all classes-bankers,
manufacturers, merchants, employees
| and workingmen. And if the silver
theorists could not secure the adop-
ton of their proposition in 1896 with
the country's vitality at its lowest ebb
and the people looking for a savior
can they now really entertain the in
sane idea of being able to convert to
their fallacy these millions of men who
have seen Republican and sound d-money
prophesies fulfilled and Democratic and
silver prophesies falsified?
POETRY OF THE BIBLE.
Los Angeles Herald: When one fails
to see the poetic harmony in the themes
of the Old Testament, the charm and
beauty Of them is lost 1t may be
that the beautiful imagery and poetic
diction are overlooked because the
stories are not told in rhyme still,
while the verse is not rhyme, there is
a rythmical movement which at times
wakes thrilling, and he is cold, indeed
whose memory fails to retain some i'm
press of the sublime metaphors and fig
ures. The reason that SO many can
quote from the Bible is because they
have caught the deeper significance of
the themes, although they may not
know it. They wind the threads of the
thought and feeling about their hearts
without knowing it. Upon almost every
page the Bible is graced with exquisite
verse, and lovers of true poetry enjoy
the graphic and bold word painting,
the pathos, the thunder and the still
small voice of love as it pleads with
God to lead humanity in the ways OF
peace and Righteousness. But, to ap,
preciate Bible poetry, the mind must
be divested of the idea that rhyme is
necessarily poetry, or that poetry is
necessarily rhyme.
STANDARDS OF SCHOLARSHIP.
San Jose Herald: The present talk
about putting muscle ahead of mind in
our universities is partly due to the
fact that the newspapers make more
noise about sports than scholarship,
and the public sees more Of that side Of
the question. 1t is believed that schol-
arship is rising, although it's direction
has been somewhat changed. Once the
crying need of American life was
physical training. Now a few are get
ting too much of it, but the many are
coming nearer to "mens sana in cor
pore sano." Undoubtedly there is a
reaction still in evidence against the
lack of athletics. Pretty soon that will
correct itself and we shall get on an
even keel.
EXPANSION NOT POLITICAL
Ukiah Republican Press: The expan-
sion proposition is not a political one,
as our Democratic contemporary seems
to imagine. It is an issue between the
great and the small Americans. Those
who believe in the ultimate greatness
of the United States are of the opin-
ion that nation of 5000 600 should
be factor in the world; that it should
secure and maintain an influence com
mensurate with it's wealth and popula-
tion. They are the great Americans.
Those who advocate the surrender of
the territory we have acquired by the
incident of war and the blood of brave
American soldiers are the small Amer
leans. The Press believes that the
Government of the United States is
the best on earth, and it thinks that
when its principles are extended to the