The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-15
KANSAS COMAENT
SAWDUST ALCOHOL


AS long ago as 1898 the president
OF the International congress of
chemists predicted that the next
discovery In chemistry will be the
manufacture of alcohol from lumber
waste. The assertion is now made
Inat TINS process has been discovered
ana perfected so that pure alcohol
can be produced from sawdust or
other scraps of wood at a cost of
cents gallon. The effect, according
to the enthusiastic patentees OF the
process, will be to drive grain alco-
mol out of the market for beverage
ana industrial purposes, dlSplace
gasoline as a motor fuel and kerosene
as an illuminant
We will soon have the Standard Oil
company begging for mercy if saw
gust alcohol does all that is pre-
will be solved to an extent that viii
reduce the cost of manufacturers
nslderably-enough, at any rate, to
Justify the raising of the prices lit
Tie more to the consumer.
But there is better way to make
alcohol than out of lumber waste, be-
cause there won't be any lumber
waste very long. The lumber supply
having been already wasted by sys-
tematlc methods, the lumber produc-
ton will be smaller as the years go
on and there will be no great amount
OF saWdust and scraps. If the chem
lists can extend this cheap method of
matter, so that it will include corn
stalks and potato Feelings and the
waste from canning factories, as well
as wood scraps, we may feel pretty
promised at various times, and will
probably come in time.-Ottawa Re-
public.
THOROUGHNESS AND READING.
Speaking of thoroughness in edu-
not fnV1 1t
would like to say a word about the
reading Of books. The hackneyed
proposition that a man can take
Shakespeare and the Bible and reach |
a high state of culture, is true. old as
the idea is. But few people read
thoroughly. Even if they cut out the
lighter fiction, and stick by standard |
works, they skim. The old-fashioned |
reader who dug into book and |
studied not only its import and came |
to know 1t not only from the things it |
set down but from the things it left |
unsaid, who sought not only the mar
rative or the philosophy, but the art
by which it was set forth, and the |
method used in presenting it. has
passed.
And yet the history of the race is
full Of men who in their reading, had |
but few books and mastered them, |
quaintance, but a friend and a coun-
sellor With thousands of the present
day youth, that thought and the line
of mental processes it inspires is in
We have ceased to be
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Eagle.
THE TAIL WAGS.
The Republican politicians
throughout the country are pro-
claiming that the Democrats have
met at Saratoga. New York, to
rejuvenate the Democratic party.
They are carrying the news in big
headings on the first page and giving
it plenty of prominence. They treat
the matter as If the whole Demo-
cratic party were there, but little
inspection of the news shows that
just New York Democrats are part
Of the disgruntled politicians that are
In session at Saratoga. New York
Democracy, be it remembered, is a
tail that has sometimes wagged the
dog. Western Democrats find 1t hard
to distinguish the dividing line be-
tween this New York Democracy and
the party of Cannon and Aldrich.
Their deliberations are not indicative
Of the wish of the party of the whole
ountry.-Hutchinson Gazette.