The Washington herald., 1909-03-15
Inaugural Date.
: The Washington Herald

Editor The Washington Herald
We must look at the question Of the
weather carefully before going 10 the
trouble Of making a change in the in
augural day, On the occasion Of Mr..
Cleveland's FIRST Inauguration the writer
called attention 10 certain meteorological
conditions that usually follow the con-
centratlon OF many people upon a small
radius.
During our civil war we usually had
blizzards or rain. or some species Of bad
weather, during a battle. We old SOL
diers then attributed this TO the concus-
sion Of gunpowder But as Plutarch
mentions that same phenomena as having
taken place in battles centuries before
the invention Of gunpowder. the writer
has inferred that II must be due 10 the
abnormal collection Of multitudes upon
a small area, and that view OF the mat
ter has been very nearly borne out BY
weather conditions under such environ
ments.
I think IL can be put down as a fixed
rule in meteorological ethics that the as
semblage Of an abnormal number OF
people on a small radius will bring about
abpOrmal weather conditions. and 1 have
hardly ever seen this entirely fail
Weather forecasts are made largely By
weather conditions which environ us and
are moving toward US within a certain
radius. But abnormal conditions will
manufacture local weather. ard this
feature is hard 10 forecast. The fore
cast Of our Weather Bureau for the 4th
Of March was unquestiOnably true IN
theory; that it was not true in Iact sim
ply arose because local conditions dOmi-
mated, and created a state Of the weather
in this city that has not been studied
and not understood BY our Weather
Bureau The lesson in this is not 10
change the date OF the inaugural. for any
other day on which many people would
assemble here would create the same
weather conditions. and doubtless be at
tended by bad weather, but 20 go TO
work and endeavOr 10 take our climate
In hand and master its wild pranks and
make IL our servant.
Air navigation will never be q success
until We do this. We viii soon fird that
the land will be so encrOaChed upon by
the luX Of population that we Will be
forced 20 dwell on the seas and oceans
and farm them as we DO now the land.
We viii never do this until We have
controlled our climate.
Millions OF dollars worth Of property
IS destroyed on land and sea, 10 say
nothing Of the thousands OF lives lost by
the wild caprices Of cyclones, typhOons.
and the like, and this feature alone makes
it incumbent upon US TO take the climate
IN hand.
There is no question IN my mind but
tnat the inhabitants OF Mars control their
climate. Necessity has forced them 10 do
so. Mars has a climate more than FIVE
times colder than ours: and yet observa-
tiOn shows that the snow lines at the
poles do not extend very much beyond
those on the earth. The sO-called canals
may be nothing more than a device TO
control the climate. These lines are seen
TO move, and II there is anything more
stationary and immobile than a canal we
do not know what il can be. We would
like 70 see some one move the canal
which runs from here 10 Cumberland.
Let us take our climate IN hand as the
MaTtians have and control it, instead Of
being controlled by IT,
Let US establish experimental farms on
the ocean as we have on the land Prog
ress is the law Of nature
GEORGE c. TANNER