The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-12
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FRON OTHER PENS
MERITS OF THE CITY.


Nearly all civilization is the product
of the city, where mind meets mind and
each becomes brighter from contact.
Masses Of population may engender
great vices, but they also engender
great virtues, and il they do not pro-
duce they certainly develop the finest
and keenest intelligences tina. we have.
The little town-state of Greece created
most of the ancient civilization that is
worth having, and after they fell and
the dark Sges came in it was the little
city-republicS of Italy that brought
light, learning and mercy back to the
world.
Some of the blacklist crimes are COM
mitted in the country. Conan Doyle has
Sherlock Holmes, in one of his best
stories, point out this fact. 1t was a
clever touch and it is true. The coun-
try man is not more honest than the
city man, although he may lack the OPP
portunities Flaubert and Balzac have
drawn grim pictures of Sordid mean
ness in the rural life of France; Tolstoi
has done as much for Russia, and
Sudermann, Ibsen and Hardy have told
similar black stories of their own coun-
tries. The recent report of the COM
mission on country life showed condi-
tons which left very much to be de-
sired in the way of Improvement
York World.
PORTUGUESE WILL NOT WORK.
The experiment that the Hawaiian
planters have been making in the i'm
portation of Portuguese labor for the
plantations appears to have failed alb
solutely. 1t is stated that of 874 men
landed by the last steamer only a very
few consented to go to work. The
rest were advised not to do so by other
Portuguese who are small shopkeepers
or laborers near Honolulu. Coercion
under labor contract is pretty diff
ffcult in fact, almost impossible under
the territorial law. 1t follows that the
planters have had the worst of the
bargain.
1t is understood that the Siberian
labor which has been imported is
more satisfactory in Hawaii. Whether
enough of It can be secured or not is
not certain yet So the problem as
to the cultivation of sugar cane is not
be doubted that the bitterness felt by
the Kanakas toward the sugar in
terests has caused much of the diff
ficulty. Whether that can be removed,
in time, is hard to tell. The planters
probably believe that the Kanakas are
more anxious for an excuse to avoid
work than they are for employment.
The planters have come to know the
Kanakas pretty well.-Brooklyn Eagle.
49, THE LOSS BY FIRE.
Statistics ordinarily are not con-
vincing but the statement of William
H. Tolman, director of the New York
Museum of Safety Appliances, that
the per capita fire loss of the United
States in 1907 was $2.5S, ought to
make an impression. Averaging the
fire loss of the nation is not merely a
theoretical process. There is an ac-
tual distribution of that loss. Proper
ty burned is destroyed. The insur-
ance companies may indemnify the
nominal owner for its loss, but they
must take other property for that in
Identification. They cannot restore
the property which is lost And the
indemnity fund is collected from
business and property all over the
country, to the income of which ev-
cry person pays a part. Destruction
by fire is a loss to the common wealth
of the nation and in the final analysis
that loss falls on every person. Due
care and the use of proper preven-
tives would save $3.50. 0G0. 600 a year
in the general property fund of the
nation.-Boston Herald.