Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1904-06-25

UOn has corrected these items OF n
week for the edification of his own
sex.
The announcement that the director
of the Yale commons" has been oblig.
ed to put up the price of meals to
$3.50 a week henceforth and that mt
the old price of u dollar or so less the
college has lost $4,000 year. will
doubtless fill the hearts of many pa q.
tient housekeepers with unspoken graf.
itude. For years the American house.
wife. has been suffering from the bale
ful activity of the man of statistics,
who proves conclusively in the columns
of endless periodicals that 50 a week
will feed anybody royalty. and that u
delightful dinner may he given for
$3.50. including flowers. A periodical
ostensibly devoted to the interests Of
the American home once published sta
tistics showing how a man and wife
and two children had lived comforta-
big on 500 year. The misery caused
by those statistics, over the whole
broad land. was beyond computation.
~6A
After a little less than two years of
work the Department of the Interior
has issued statement outlining the
disposition Of the fund for retaining
the arid lands Of the Western States
and Territories. Twenty seven million
dollars will be expended during the
Dext two or three years. and the work
OF construction. when finished. will
lave redeemed 1.OOO.OCO acres of land,
capable of supporting a population of
5OO.OO. This announcement closes the
preliminary stage Of the reclamat ton
project, which, being self-perpetuative
by the law which set It in motion, will
continue to operate as long as the
work of irrigation is commercially
profitable. The object Of the reclania.
ton law Is to make the government
the agent Of the people in turning over
the public domain to small land own.
ers on strictly business basis. The
settler can buy Of the government the
reclaimed land at what It costs to re.
deem 1t. In this way the fund for irri.
CATION will not be exhausted, but will
remain intact for making more land
cultivable. The Eastern farmer IL not
taxed for the benefit Of the Western
farm. as would be the case IL the gov.
eminent sold the reclaimed land ut
the old figure of $1.2o per acre. The
new lands are to be sold to actual
settlers, and their purchase limited to
100 acres. So great Is the fertility Of
irrigated land that the average farm
need not exceed forty or fifty acres to
support a family In abundance. The
population being 80 much denser than
in other farming districts west Of the
Mississippi. life on the farm can give
way to life In the village. and the Gle.
nlent Of loneliness which has hereto
fore made the vocation of farming re.
pugnant to many will he eliminated.
Great interest Is already. being aken
In the reclamation projects by pros.
rective homeseekers.
A more or less careful scrutiny Of
the references to the insOlvcnt Georgia
banker who shot himself a while ngO
In order that his life insurance money
might be used to pay his debts, show
that the general trend Of the comment
IL that his ending was rather pra ise.
worthy than otherwise. He IL shown
10 have carried something over 81 600.
600 insurance ana the idea that the
companies We're not undeservedly
"stuck" seems to prevail. There ~
nothing yet to show that his heirs have
any notion Of using the windfall to
make good his defalcatIOns and 1t mny
well he asked why their standard of
honor should he any higher than his
own. 1t Is claimed he killed himself.
with score Of probable years yet to
live and pay premiums, In order that
the money Of his fellow members In
the insurance organizations might lie
used to square his liabilities. Why
should his heirs be expected to give
up the million, thus dropped into their
laps, or any part Of II, for that pur.
pose? This whole idea that man
may make way with himself with I'm.
punlty II he only has fine line of life
insurance Is coming to be viewed with
strange tolerance. The fellow In.
surants Of the suicide, they who wOri;
right along under trials just as great
as those Of the weakllng who kiNs
himself, and whose payments must
help make up the untimely demand for
the amount Of his policies, are the real
sufferers. They continue to live. wOrl;
and contribute their premiums In order
that his heirs may thrive, and maybe
some OF his debts be paid. after he has
snuffed out his cOwardly life. To com.
mend him, directly or indirectly, by
word, thought or implication, Is dan
gerOus ana anything but moral. There
Is nothing meritOriOus In suicide even
II the perpetratOr does add the robbery
OF an insurance company to the crime
OF self-murder.
%eA
John Kennedy was starving. lie
struck New York hoping to get worl;
on the subway, and found that men
were being discharged by the hun.
dreds as that great project neared
completion. So he walked the streets