The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-25
kansans VIII Find What They
Really Are.
Are as Complicated as a Legal
Statute.
SPEAKER HAS EXPERT
Man to Inform Him of Intricate
Points.
Items of Interest From the Ma
tons Capital.
'EAKER HAS EXPERT

Washington, Feb. 25.-A cry for
copies of the rules of the house of rep
resentatives comes out of Kansas. 1t is
an indication, if one were needed. that
Speaker Cannon and the rules will be
the issue in the Kansas congressional
elections of next fall Hundreds of re-
quests are coming in from Kansas peo-
pie for the rules document, and the
states delegation is becoming hard
pressed for copies over and above their
small quota.
They seem to think" said a Kansas
member of the regular organization,
that they have talked long enough on
the rules without knowing anything
about them"
With tbs yeomanry of Kansas deep
in the study of the rules there are peril
GUS days ahead for congressional can
didates. 1t is a fact that the house
rules are as complicated as is the
statute law. and that not more than 20
per cent of the membership of the
house are familiar with them. A citi-
zen who studied the book could load up
with questions that would puzzle
Uncle Joe" himself.
In fact, the speaker has an expert at
his elbow when he presides, to post him
regarding knotty questions. A speaker,
like judge, places great weight on the
decisions of his predecessors. Rulings
made by speakers of the house of rep
resentatives since the first congress
have been preserved in a set of large
volumes and quotations might be use
full in confusing speakers because the
ample volumes contain decisions on all
questions.
Kansas may become technical. but in
the rest of the country, where Cannon
ism becomes an issue, the fight will be
waged on the general question whether
the rules confer too much power on the
xrr11a ae- 10
of that power.
According to the experts in the
Biological survey. the smaller mammals,
for the most part rodents, cost the
farmers of the country something like
$50 0O0, 900 a year. And that's a pretty
big board bill! But it pales into insig-
nificance beside the tribute exacted
from the same farmer by the insect
pests. According to Prof. Charles L.
Marlatt, of Manhattan, Kan, who is as
sistant chief of the bureau Of en-
tomology, injurious insects cost the
farmer about 10 per cent of his produce.
Enormous as is the total value of
farm products in this country says
Mr.. Marlatt, st would be very much
greater were it not for the insect dam
age. In years when this damage is ex-
cessive it may amount to so per cent or
even more of the important staples of
the farm. An annual shrinkage of 10
per cent is a low estimate. which. is
more often exceeded than fallen below"
According to the last agricultural de-
partment report, the value of farm pro-
ducts for 190S-9, was estimated at ST.,
$50. 100000 as against 1881 .000,000 for the
previous year. And if the insects laid
upon the farmer the minimum of their
yearly tax they would cost him $685.
O00, 900, which would, as already pointed
out, be quite a stable drop in the
enormous bucket OF Uncle Sans ex-
penses.
And Mr.. Marlatt's figures apply only
to the losses suffered by growing and
maturing crops, and by live stock. They
do not include two very legitimate
items, namely, the loss occasiOned by
insect to farm products, chiefly cereals
natural forests and forest products"
To each of these at least $100,000,00o
more must be assigned. making the to-
tai tax chargeable to insects last year,
$1.o76, 900. 900.
at strikes me that it is better to
have boy whipped than to let him go
straight to the devil" said United
States Commissioner of Education
Brown todav in discussing the ques-
ton of corporal punishment as dis
ciplinary measure in schools. He add
ed. however that the doubt of the ac-
compIishment of the desired end in
checking downward career by this
means in any particular case and
many evils accompanying this form of
punishment seemed to be causing its
gradual elimination.
When his attention. was called to the
fact that the Baltimore school author
tiles had under consideration the ques-
tion of reviving this corrective means
in the schools of that city. Mr.. Brown
expressed the belief that it is prefer
S.ble to whip a boy if it will turn his
course from evil. Continuing, he said:
There are cases undoubtedly where
a loving sort of whipping has shunted
q boy or the downward track, but it
Is pretty hard to tell in any given
case whether It will have the effect
or not. and there are so many evils
attending that form of punishment
that it seems to be slowly dying out in
this country"
The cruelties which accompanied
In the past were disappearing. he said,
and resort to that means of punish
ment was gradually being diminished.
According to a document recently
submitted to congress by the quarter
master general of the army, there are
the following interments made in the
two national cemeteries in Kansas: In
the Fort LeavenWorth cemetery there
are a total of 490 interments-I9 41
known and 1,549 unknown. In the
cemetery at Fort Scott there are a
total Of 759 interments-6S4 known
and 1875 unknown.
The following presidential postmas-
ter appointments for Kansas have been
confirmed bv the senate: Alexande
Snecia1 for SATURDAY. 0nIvi