The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-05
FRON OTHER PENS

CANADIAN WAR ON SPARROWS.
There may be a species of disloyalty
in the Canadian declaration of war on
the English sparrow, yet 1T Is to be
doubted If anyone. English or other
wise, will have the temerity to defend
this little feathered backyard which
got into this country before immigra-
ton restrictions became as exacting as
they now are. A naturalist Of Hamil-
ton, in an address in that city recently,
declared that In the stomachs of over
500 sparrows examined by him prac-
tically no insects were found and the
few were OF kind more beneficial to
man than otherwise. These birds ap-
parently took little interest in insects,
but lived and thrived on grain and the
backdoor offerings of housewives
When 1t is considered that sparrows
not only do not aid man by the des-
truction of pests, but actually drive
away other birds which would be more
than willing to make their living off
these pests, the extreme nature of the
sparrow's offense against society is
understood. Rats and sparrows, de-
clares the Toronto Mail and Empire.
are the great enemies of Canada, and
it suggests a dominion wide war on
both.
It is the opinion Of this same Hamil-
ton naturalist that the hawk, though
much maligned and generally recog-
nized as an enemy of man. is really
less social parasite than the little
sparrow. even admitting the discrep-
ancy in numbers. In the stomach OF
a single hawk he found 500 mosquitoes.
showing that chickens and grain are
by no means the sole diet of this PROV
Ter of the night. The English sparrow
has no friends, and on the other hand
1t has few enemies interested enough
in its destruction to carry on war OF
mination.-Cleveland Plain Dealer.
THE SOCIALISTS AND OTHERS.
If the parlor socialists would tell us
Just what they wish the community to
do it would be easier for us to dis
tinguish between them and COM
munists. anarchists and miscellaneous
undesirable citizens. OF course, they
wish everyone to be perfectly COM
Portable, If not rich. They may not
go SO far as a labor member of
parliament, who predicts champagne
and turtle soup for all, but they wish
all to have plenty of food and clothes
them.
But we all wish everybody to have
this amount OF comfort, and more
also. We are all trying to reach that
now than ever before. Still, were all
dissatisfied that the community ad-
vances so slowly to a state of univer-
sal comfort. The parlor socialists are
abusive of society, the church, mod
ern civilization and the industrial sys-
tenn for not having achieved the
Qualification Of humanity, and we ask
them just what should be done in
their opinion to accelerate the COM
ing of the millennium.
Some of them advocate the public
ownership of land. The substitution
of the state for private landownfng
would substitute rent for taxes and
might do a great deal for the produc-
ing classes. But how is the land to
be acquired? BY confiscation or by
purchase? And the railroads and
| the factories and all other instru-
| ments of production-how is 1t pro-
posed that the state shall acquire
| them, and is any governmental enter
prise carried on better than private
| business is, so that we may look for
| ward to honest and efficient ad-
ministration of all the public utilities
| and instruments of production when
| the socialist programme shall have
been established? Let the socialists
give us a definite programme or con-
| fess that they are Missionaries, or ad-
NIT that they are practically indis-
| tinguishable from the communists
| and anarchists with whom they are
| often confused.-Philadelp Rec
L