The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-13
Smoke Loss 100000, 900.

At the convention of the. Interna-
tional Association for the prevention
of Smoke Friday, H. NJ. Wilson. chief
engineer of the technologic branch of
the United States geological survey,
made the principal address at the
closing session. He said. in part:
mo greater step in the conservation
movement of the United States could
be taken than the utter suppression of
the smoke nuisance in our great cities
This evil is one of the great dangers
of modern timees, insidiously taking
the health of the individual, lowering
his vitality, increasing the death rate,
and causing untold injury to property
1.-The damage which smoke inflicts
every year in the United States
amounts to more than $6OO,000,00O in
the destruction of merchandise, the
DETACHMENT of buildings, the tarnish-
ing of metals, the injury to plant life,
and the greatly increased labor ana
cost of housekeeping. In our great ana
middle-sized cities more than SO'OoO;
600 people live and these suffer all
the loss which is shown in the total
of $600,000,000.
but this is not the most serious
phase of the question. The smoke
nuisance means uncleanHness, poverty,
Nyretchedness, disease, and death the
medical men of the country are unan1-
nous in the declaration that the
breathing of coal smoke predlsposes
the lungs to tuberculosis and even
pneumonia.
"The technologic branch of the
United States geological survey is
charged with conducting 1nvestlga-
tions into the fuel resources of the
country. with the purpose of showing
the best utilization of the supply and
thus prolonging the life or the coai
fields The experiments have proved
statement is made by the govern
ment's experts that the smoke nuis-
ance of American cities IS neeoless
and should not be tolerated smoke
prevention is not only possible ouI
we stand ready to prove it by actual
demonstrating at the experiment sta
ton in Pittsburg' Syracuse dispatch
to the New York Tribune.
Hawaii's Problem.
The attempt of the Honolulu Plant
ers' Association to import efficient la
Dor from Europe through immigration
channels may not prove successful at
this time 1t is a long and expensive
tourney from Europe to Honolulu,
either by rail and by water, or by wa
ter, and pending completion of the
Panama Canal the planters will I'M
doubtedly be obliged to get along with
Oriental labor. Completion of the
canal, however. will without doubt
make q radical change in the labor
situation not alone on the Hawaiian
Islands, but along the entire Pacific
ters of the East have been built up by,
the abundance of cheap labor which
for more than half century has been
pouring into the New England States
from Europe.
To the teeming millions of the Old
World, accustomed to exist on a few
cents per day, even the low wages of
the New England states seem extrav-
agantly large, and they seek no fur
ther for employment. The predomi-
nant factor in causing the congestion
of labor along the Atlantic coast is
the very low steerage passenger rates
from Europe which enable the immi-
grants to get to New York or Boston,
even though they have insufficient
funds to travel farther inland. From
the Atlantic seaboard this tide of i'm
migration flows to the interior. but
as a rule is exhausted before It gets
as far West as Chicago; and at no
point in the Eastern states is there the
same opportunity for labor that it
would find farther West. Com pletion
of the Panama Canal will bring about
division of these incoming foreigners
between the two coasts.-Portland
Oregonian.