davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
HONOR TO WHOM DUE

UTHER BURBANK'S spineless
cactus has been assailed by gov
\ eminent experts who are propa-
eating a spineless cactus of their own.
The government has taken the trouble
to call querulous attention to the Bur-
bank spineless in a bulletin. Burbank
is rarely provoked to controversy, but
upon this occasion, in order to prove
that he is not a spineless man, he has
arisen to the defense of the California
plant. which, he declares, has beaten
the best results of the government ex-
perimenters by five years. 1t is the
duty of all good Californians to stand
by Brother Burbank and the Califor-
MIA spineless cactus. No other state
in the Union is able to boast of a man
like Burbank and a plant like his edible
cactus.
Let us consider Burbank for a few
minutes. He is surely worth that much
time. His position with relation to
modern society is one that is not held
by any other human being. In this
age the genius of mankind has been,
to a great extent, perverted. The re-
wards of the ministers of destruction
are far greater than those of the mis-
sionaries of peace. A Maxim gun Gre
ates a huge fortune. Any American
who at this juncture would invent a
new type of warship that would ex-
tinguish the Japanese navy as easily
and as cheaply as turning off an cleo
trio light would become a multi
millionaire. The art of destruction
still wins the blue ribbon of civiliza-
ton. Burbank is a constructor, not a
destroyer.
He is not a mere experimentalist. He
is a unitarian. If he had any inspira-
ton, it was derived from an old. neg
lected, patriotic utterance about the
worth and value of human being VINO
caused two blades of grass to grow
where only one grew before. Burbank
of course has done far more than that.
He has made it possible to predict that,
even in advance of perfected irriga-
ton, the waste places of the earth
may become habitable, and that the
sheep and cattle of the thousand
hills" of poetic phraseology may be
supplemented by the sheep and cattle
of the trackless desert. Burbank has
not only made the world more beau
tiful, but more habitable. He has in
creased the chances and possibilities of
life, and added to the sum of available
human happiness. 1t ill becomes the
government to grid at natures
prime minister, or to dispute the
conclusions that he has reached or the
results that have been achieved by him
after lifetime of unremitting toll and
study Honor to whom honor is due.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
CONGRESSMEN'S HOURS

n REPRESENTATIVE EDWARDS,
II, with the zeal of the neophyte, has
disturbed congress with an in
f1ammatory proposal to require from
each member thereof a full days work
for a full days wage. Since the first
wittenagenot was convened in Saxon
times all English-speaking legislative
bodies have been conducted on go
as-you-please principle so far as at
tendance is concerned, which does not
characterize any other form of indus
try. Sometimes, over in Britain, the
lawmakers sit for twenty-four hours at
a time, but that is when they are in a
hurry to be off to the grouse shoot
ing. In the United States they work
overtime, too, and this deal is most
observable when supplies and appro-
priations are in order. But that free
born North American representative of
a free people should be required to
trammel himself with hours and with
appointed times and seasons is a sug-
gestion so reckless that none but a
novice could have dared to adventure
it. Not only has this callow lawmaker
innovated in this reckless manner, but
he is actually pursuing what he deems
to be an advantage. and asks the
country to applaud his effort to make
a congressman report for duty at 8
a. m. and work until p. m, with one
hour for luncheon.
L., AIa
by Mr. Edwards worthy of considera-
ton? Many of our citizens do not
know exactly how the business of the
country is conducted at headquarters,
which is to say Washington. There is
not an office in the land that "carries"
such a staff as Uncle Sam carries. -
There is not a business institution in the
land whose most prodigious affairs are
not lilliputian when compared with the
enterprises and responsibilities that
engage the attention and the con-
science of the government. There is
not an industry in the land that may
be compared in magnitude and impor-
lance with the central industry in the
District of Columbia. And there is not
chief of any department or any
branch of any industry or industrial
organization in the United States that
would tolerate for a day the ram
shackle, sloppy weather, dilly-dally
slothful, slatternly habits that too Otter
characterize the method of conducting
the business of the country at tbs
business heart of the country. 1t is Il
be hoped that Edwards will stick tc
his guns and that he will not allow
himself to be ridiculed or browbeater
over the most businesslike measure o.
congressional reform that has been in
troduced or suggested in many a weary
and many a wasted day.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
CLEAR, CRISP AND CLEAN
E PATENT MEDICINE
CRUSADE
THE

H1 HE crusade of the state board of
pharmacy against patent medicines
n is in line with the spirit of reform.
But it inevitably provoBes meditations
on the status of medicine, patent or 9TH
erwise, in the cult of modern civilization
Unless we are to believe that thou
sands of our fellow sinners are monu-
TT.efiitss. I!a-s-unless they lie like tomb
stones-then patent medicines have eff
fected many cures and have dragged
back many shuddering and shattered
wrecks from the brink of the grave.
When a medicine is recognized in the
pharmacopoeia it is a good medicine, a
lawful medicine and may kill or cure.
1t is permitted. But when medicine
is not recognized in the pharmacopoeia
then it is not permitted to kill and,
strictly speaking. it is unlawful to eff
feet cures with it-unlawful at least
from the point of view of the orthodox
physician But the patent medicine.
like the orthodox medicine, sometimes
cures. II one did not believe that one
would have to credit the psalmist David
in his haste when he remarked that all
men are prevaricators.
When a man who has been dosed and
drugged for years. for, let us say,
rheumatism, suddenly throws away
phiaIs and burns prescriptions and for
sakes his bed and walks, what are we
to say about the medicines he has been
using? It is obvious that their virtue
lay in their rejection Perhaps if the
same spirit of faith in the faithlessness
of the discarded medicines had pro-
voked a belief in their faithful eff
cacy the same result would have been
reached. The patient would have been
healed.
The state board undoubtedly intends
to discriminate against the merely
"patent" remedies. But if attention
should be called to the question of
drugs in its entirety the board may
cause a crusade against drugging
which will not confine itself to the COR
rection of the man with the miraculous
mixture in the much labeled bottle but
will direct some investigation toward
the orthodox phial and it's mysterious
contents, compounded from the awe
inspiring cryptogrammic scrawl in
which the prescribing doctor conceals
from the confiding patient his medicinal
intentions toward him,
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
SHARPLY REBUKES LIMOGES
BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC

became apparent in the recent echo
thereof by Justice Harlan of the United
States supreme court. Addressing the
Navy league at Washington on Satur-
day last, he proclaimed himself in favor
of an expenditure of half billion in
the construction of battleships during
the next ten years. We need a force
large enough, he thinks, to sweep every
thing off both oceans that wash our
shores. And the reason? Why, there
are 400, 900, 900 Chinese, and who knows
how many Japs? Some day they Will
have an army of 100000; and then
they will say to us: Get out!" mean
ing out of Asia. Why we should be
ordered out of n continent into which
we have not the slightest desire to pro-
ject ourselves is not explained. But
greatness as jurist evidently does not
save a man from uttering nonsense on
subjects alien to his profession.
The 400, 900 900 Chinese have been in
Asia for many centuries, and they have
not overlooked to other parts of the
world to any large extent. AS to the
Japanese, as nations are counted nova
DAVIS, they are not an excessively nu-
merous people; moreover, they are not
more than human. They cannot do
things which other nations cannot do
under like circumstances. An exhaust
ing war eXhausts them; they cannot
conjure money for fleets ana armies
by some mysterious rite, and they can
not annihilate distances. The ocean
Ia as broad for them as for anybody
else. They have not even begun to as
simulate Formosa, their conquest from
China, and the absorption of Korea
and Manchuria commercially and 9TH
erwise. will keep them occupied for
Philadelphia Record.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26

is hardened by the public expression OF
vengeance" True enough, but II you
are going to quote Tolstoy and lean on
his authority, it is as well to be honest
about it and to recognize that what
Tolstoy teaches is that these conditions
that he attacks, as in his "Resurrec-
ton" spring solely and entirely from
the fact that some men deny other men
the same opportunities as they them
selves enjoy, and without which, as
thew would confess, they could NOT
live. Tolstoy teaches, with literary
simplicity and frankness that is unex-
celled, that until we recognize this we
shall be dealing with effects, ana not
causes, and that the most rutlie oi
labors is the dealing with mere eHects;
He persists that the first step toward
fine rehabilitation of justice is the re-
storing to men their natural rights 70
the soil, and in one of his latest pup
lications he has taken occasion TO say
that it is matter of the gravest re-
proach against America that she nas
maid SO little attention to one OF ner
greatest men, Henry George AT tne
same time he expresses the opinion tnat
Henry Georges star is only just ABOUT
to rise.
notice in your Letter Box corre-
spondence on the coming of the Meet
with hopes expressed that Los Angeles
will do herself honor on that occasion.
have no doubt that the few VINO nave
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26

learn it at his mothers knee. The sug-
gestion is absurd"
Surely, then. something was left un-
learned at his mothers knee-some-
thing that might have corrected the
qualities that make this man offen-
sive. Mothers who complain of the In
creasing ungallantry of men, of the
passing of chivalry, of the death of
good manners, forget that during the
period of his life in which his character
is being formed almost every boy is
under the rule of his mother; that her
word is law; that if he should in any
respect become lawless it is because
she has permitted the lapse, and boor-
ishness is merely a form of lawless-
ness.
Women are not yet permitted to vote.
But they have now, and they always
have had, the privilege of training the
voter.
The motto of one of the famous old
English public schools is Manners
makyth We manne." A man is known by
his manners as well as by his customs.
Public spitters, public crowders, and
all others who indulge in minor public
forms of rowdylsm have either fallen
away from grace and from the training
that their mothers gave them, or they
have never had any training in man
ners.
Society itself has the power of rem
edying all social ailments and evils,
and even in the matter of manners
society has the remedy for disorderli-
ness, but that remedy is in the home life
and the motherly influence. Manners
makyth We name" and the molders
of manners in men are their mothers.
If all the mothers will do their duty
and will teach their boys the first prin-
ciples of gentlemanliness along with
the first principles of religion and the
first principles of Americanism, the
tobacco splitting seat hog will soon be
only a malodorous memory, and gem
tleman will be as much Of a gentleman
in a crowded car as in a drawing room.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
THE CAR HOG

II EFT us indulge in a little bit of So
cial analysis. Who is responsible
Ia for the street car hog. the man
who occupies more than his share Of
room, who sits while the tired, wan
shopgirl stands. who elbows his neigh
bors and who crowns his iniquities by
squirting tobacco juice on the floor and
perhaps besprinkling a fellow passen-
gers clothing? Who turned loose upon
suffering society this untrammeled, un-
couth, unrestrained specimen of TWEEN
tieth century boordom that we call the
street car hog? Does the street car hog
In his behavior show the slightest trace
OF that gracious power called home
influence? At what mothers knee did
this man learn to be seat hog? 1t is
a rough and rude question. The indig-
nant answer is. "Of course he didn't
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
PRESIDENTIAL PROGRAM

THE industrial education program
of President Roosevelt of the United
n States, President Eliot of Harvard
University, President Van Cleave Of the
National Manufacturers association
and President Pritchett Of the Carnegie
fund contains a paragraph that will
arouse comment and that may indeed
place the entire question of American
ism squarely before the American peo-
pie as a debatable issue. A system
must be established, says the program
of the presidents, by which elementary
school teachers shall sort children
according to their destination, and the
idea of absolute democracy in the pub
lie schools must be abolished.
If this is not an honest acknowledg-
ment of the fact that the class system
has been substituted for the mass sys-
tenn in the United States, then Ian
guage is meaningless. 1t has been obvi-
Gus for a long time that the liberty
and equality and fraternity ideas have
not been able to cope with the condi-
lions that have arisen from the COM
lnercial and industrial growth and
expansion of the country. Men who
love to be precise will tell you that the
United States form republic, but not
a democracy, and that Az Drew Carnegie
used a misleading title when he pub
lished his we'll remembered work, "Tri-
unphant Democracy" The constitu-
ton of the United States said originally
that it guaranteed to every state in the
Union a republican form OF govern
ment. But various amendments to the
constitution have democratized it be-
vond it's first scope. Not only has a
new variety of racial citizenship been
provided for in the southern states,
but congress has been forbidden to
make laws respecting the establish
ment of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; to abridging the free
dom of speech or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assem-
BILE and to petition the government for
a redress of grievances Moreover, 1t is
stated that the enumeration in the con-
stitution of certain rights shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people. This reserva-
ton of power in the people as the
source of power would seem to indi-
cate that democracy, if not triumphant
in the United States, was intended so
to be. The proposals to assert children
in the schools according to their des-
tination and to suppress or abolish the
idea of absolute democracy in the pub
lie schools, and the teaching of that
idea, are all rankly unconstitutional
and absolutely unamerican. OF course,
If our government and our higher edu-
Gators intend to remodel the country,
or to mend it as the celebrated High
landman said he mended his old gun,
lock, stock and barrel" it is useless
to waste time in expostulation. But
can the people, will the people, listen
with indifference to these proposals ia
substitute in the United States of Amer
lea caste and a graded plutocracy fol-
life, liberty and happiness for as many
as possible, and all, if possible, of the
citizens of the United States?
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
A JUDICIOUS ORDER

~ UPERINTENDENT MULHOL-
LAND of the water department
~ has issued instructions to foremen
to investigate carefully the forces now
under their charge in order to elimini-
nate las far as possible, the men whose
domestic circumstances do not prevent
them from seeking employment else
where, and to replace them by others
who have a greater right to employ
ment in the city's service.
Greater right, in this instance. means
the right of the family man. After all,
the man who has agreed to divide his
earnings with a wife and with children
whom he is educating to fear God and
honor the state must in pinch be pre-
ferred over the man without domestic
ties or responsibilities, who lives for
himself alone.
When a bachelor is out of employ
nient, 'he'' may suffer, to some extent
But when family man is deprived OF
the means of earning a livelihood
they" suffer. Since the privilege OF
wage earning must be curtailed, it is
as well that the hardship should fall
upon those most able to endure it. And
If they endure it unfiinchingly and pa
tiently, like good fellows. their turn t.
earn will doubtless soon come again
and in the meanwhile by refrainint
from grumbling they will show tina
courage is still a characteristic Of thu
rank and file Of our noble American
citizenship,
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26

Jack Londor's arrival at San Fran
cisco yesterday sets at rest all the wild
rumors about the brilliant young au-
thors tragic finish in Southern seas
Eastern papers have had much to say
about the foolhardy adventure Of put
ting to sea in a "cockelshell boat"
The Shark is d seagoing ship of a type
hat will withstand storms which might
wreck larger ships. A cranky or
broken gas engine in an auxiliary
cruiser would be serious handicap on
a voyage such as London has planned.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26

1t is the duty of every minister to
preach an American sermon occasion
ally. He should choose for his text
THE First Principles of Americanism."
After he has consulted his library for
material for his discourse he will be
surprised at the resemblance of the
first principles of Americanism to the
first principles of Christianity. If
Americanism were practiced and
preached and Christianity were prac-
ticed as we'll as preached the United
States would begin to make effective
realities of the localities of the fathers
and founders of the republic.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
APPROVES OF WATTERSONS
VIEWS ON RACE QUESTION

ton. He admits the truth, potency and
possibilities of the Booker 7. Washing
ton plan of development, and takes his
stand on the ground that the negro
cannot be exported. cannot be isolated,
hut must be accepted as component
part of society. ,.
such an utterance and the thought
approval and new purposes 1t may IN
SHIRE. will help, along with other re-
suits' to remove the race question
locally and nationally, from the realm
Of notifies. Being a distinguished man
Of The south, as we'll as a great per
sonalitv in the Democratic party, Mr.
Watterson's address ought to call at
tention once more to the fact that MI.
Watterson is now and for a long time
has been the Wisest counselor In MS
Marty. He is right on every great ques-
lion he discusses. He is not only right,
hut he is courageously, aggresslvely
riaht. He is far sighted. When others
are groping their way, he has arrived
81 the correct conclusion. And his pres
ent conclusions ought to have add
tionaI weight In view of the Vinolca-
lion of those of the past.-Kansas CITY
Star,
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
1NHUMAN PUNISHMENT

| IN HE city Jail has been visited and
| inspected by responsible officials.
IL They have seen for themselves
that the conditions attending imprison-
ment in the Black Hole of Los Angeles
| have not been described with too much
fervor. The fact is that a realistic &C
count of the Jail would make such I'M
pleasant reading that it is advisable
in the interests of decency to forbear
from filing in every line and shadow
of revolving picture. But the citizen
of mature years who has heard and per-
haps read of similar outrages upon
morals and hygiene in other cities OF
the United States and in other parts
of the world and has perhaps thanked
his stars that beautiful Los Angeles
was not as other cities were, and that
here humanitarianism flourished with
the flowers. may apply his knowledge
of conditions that have been remedied
elsewhere by vigorous public action and
may realize with shame that similar
conditions exist in the City of Sunshine
and that public opinion lags.
Article of the amendments to the
constitution of the United States reads
as follows: Excessive bail shall not
be required, nor excessive fines i'm
posed, NOR CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
PUNISHMENT INFLICTED"
What constitutes a cruel and unusual
punishment? Any punishment that is
in the nature of physical or mental
torture, or that in its results would be-
come permanent and would send the
prisoner back into the world MANNED,
crippled, disfigured or diseased. In
view of the express declarations, the
specific language of the eighth amend
ment and the absolute impossibility of
misconstruing it or misinterpreting it
there does not appear to be room for
reasonable doubt as to the nature of
the punishment that is now being in
f1icted on the men and women who are
the inmates of Los Angeles city jail.
The innocent agents of this cruel and
unusual punishment, the Jail officials,
cannot be blamed. They deplore exist
ing conditions and are doing what they
can to ameliorate a state of affairs
that is an affront to decency and a
satire upon civilization.
From plague and from pestilence may
we always be delivered. There is not
much danger of them in Los Angeles,
where as a rule the fragrant, fresh ali
has free scope and sweep. But, if the
unexpected should happen and disease
should find a Judgment in Los Angeles
where could it find a better breeding
ground than in the city jail?, Nothing
could stay the ravages of a plague il
it were allowed to fasten itself upon
the poisoned population of our prison.
Poisoned? Yes; poisoned by foul air.
Poisoned air killed the British prisoners
at Calcutta. Poisoned air will destroy
the working force of a coal mine.
Poisoned air is not any less noxious in
an overcrowded jail in Los Angeles
than it was in the Hindoo den of horror
or than IT is. from time IN time, i'm the
coal pits of Pennsylvania.
1t is to be hoped that remedial
measures suggested by experience, COM
mon sense and humanity will be
adopted quickly, and that the city will
forego unnecessary luxuries and ex-
travagant purchases until it's poor Jail
birds are no longer Gagged and cooped
no better than If they were so many
captive hawks and buzzards.
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26

French journalism took another tack.
Would that like effective methods for
stopping the clack of foolish tongues
were available here! But it is not to
be expected that yellow and other jour-
nails should submit to voluntary cen
sorsbin. and omit far fetched, evidently
false. but nevertheless disturbing re-
norts. when high standing officials set
them no better example. One of the
greatest Offenders against international
tact is the general board of the navy;
and the carnations from that body
because of the eminence of the profess
sional men composing 1t, nave the
Tyeipht of authority despite their mani
fset absurdity. Lately the garrulous
gentlemen of the board have been
directing attention to the rising power
in the far east which is preparing to
dispute the command Of the Pacific"
The bad influence of this sort of talk
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26

A New York bank has forbidden it's
employees to drink intoxicants with
meals in restaurants, to enter any sa-
loon, to enter any gambling house, to
track, to enter any bucket shop, to
speculate, to attend prizefights, to fire.
quent Broadway resorts. But, mercy
on us, were New York bank clerks in
the habit of doing all these things be-
fore the order was issued?
Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-26
REouIEscAT

There was a young lady from Gaum
Who said, while the ocean Is ealm'
I'll plunge in for larkF
But she met with shark. -,
We Will now sing the twenty-eightn Ps sst
There was an old Miss from Antrim,
Who looked for the leak with ghm'
Alack and alasl
The cause was the gas. -
Columbus sun
There was also a fairy from FIX
Who loved to compose limerloAs'
They said: How she tries
TO connect with a prize
- New York Mail.
A Yonkers girl. partial to serge.
Found herself on hysteras verge
she laughed at this Joke
'TIIl her sides nearly broke
WIN the band please play any old dirssY
-yonkers Statesman,