Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-07-26


probable largest profit. He can save
many trips to town by ordering small
articles, that can be delivered by the
rural mail carrier, as the post office
department permits that kind of service
upon the payment of fee. His wife
can chat with people whom she may not
see once month. The farmer car
transact business with other men quickly
than otherwise would require tedious
interchange of letters, or perhaps long
journey.
The time may not come when the
telephone will be even more useful in
the country than it is in the city, but its
value as another social and business linl,
between farmhouses and towns is APP
parent.-New York Mail and Express.
900
AN EDUCATOR ON THE RACE PROBLEM.
President Booker Washington of the
Normal Institute at Tuskegee, Ala. has
made a great many pleas for the negro
race, but in none has he more effectively
and logically outlined the true solution
of the race problem than in his address
to the international convention of
Christian Eudeavorers at Cincinnati.
President Washington believes that
industrial education, which teaches the
negro how to do something, combined
with the system of ethics that is laid
down by the Christian religion, must
become the ultimate solution of the
race problem in the South. In addition
to a trade the negro must have character.
TIo hos on emotional ar IOtpusplU snirit-
ual nature that must be crystalized into
right conduct through the instrumental
ity of religion. Christianity appeals to
him as il does to no other of the inferior
races. Years of bondage left the negro
with only dimly defined notions of right
and wrong. The lash was the only
arbiter of morals with him. His stand
ard of ethics came from no apperceptiOn
of morals, but from cruelty and brute
force.
President Washington has demon
strated that the Christian religion has
power to indoctrinate the negro with
system of morals. lie yields himself
readily and absolutely to the principles
of conduct enunciated in the Sermon on
the Mount, and when the plan of atone
ment and redemption lays deep hold
upon his emotional nature the ground
work for useful citizenship has been
laid.
When the principles of right conduct
are incucated the negro is then trained
in the nobility and dignity of handcraft.
He is taught to make something with
his hands. 1t is the theory of Mr..
Washington that the negro should keep
out of politics and the profes sions.
There are already more negro clergy
man, doctors and lawyers than are
needed. The negro must become fac
tor in the industrial life of the nation.
He must produce something. There is
no longer any question about the ra-
tiOnal common sense Of Mr.. Washing
tons plan for solving the race problem
in the South.-Chicsgo Record Herald.
1000
ELECTRICITY FROM COAL.
The problem which Hugo Jone of
Chicago has tried TO solve has enlisted
the efforts of many scientific men in the
last half century. As long ago as 1850
Becquerel discovered that he could pro-
carbon. More than twenty years later
an imperfect process for doing the
same thing was patented by Jablochkof.
famous for having come so Lear to de-
wishing a practical are light. Suisse
quently Professor f. b. Crocker of
Columbia University, DR.. Borchers of
Germany, and other well known
or chemists tried to obtain
on commercial scale by the
chemical dissolution Of coal. One of
them was w. w. Jacques of the Bell
Telephone Company, in Boston. 1t is
said, TOO, that Mr.. Edison attacked the
problem at one time. None of these
experts, however, produced a battery
which it would pay to manufacture.
These facts do not prove that Mr..
Jone has not succeeded. But tie exper-
fence of so many skilled investigators
shows the task is more complicated than
was at first supposed. And it serves "a
a warning against "A too ready accept |
ance Of the claims put forward by
friends of the Chicago chemist. 1t * /
one thing to generate electricity in a
specific way, and another to do it econom-
ically. Sparks can be obtained by
stroking cats back, but nobody out !
side of an insane asylum seriously
thinks of lighting his house by that
method. The utmost that can be said for |
Mr.. Jone is that he is acting in good faith |
has made a serious attempt to improve
on the work of his predecessors, has
protected himself by taking out pat |
ent, and that he is not entirely satisfied |
with his product. Whether or not he |
has device which will replace the |
dynamo is yet to be demonstrated.
The idea of utilizing a larger percent
age of the energy which resides in coal |
than can be had by burning it under a |
steam boiler is so fascinating that one can
not wonder that so many men haye sought |
to achieve that result. 1t is appalling to
think that nine-tenths of the latent !
power of coal goes up the chimney and
only one-tenth into the cylinders of an
engine. The evil can be overcome to a
limited extent bV making GAS out oP tho