Putnam patriot., 1912-01-12
Editorial Scraps

The news that comes from China is naturally confused and contradictory China is a vast country and seethlng with revolutions; 1t is inevitable that there should be eddies and currents driving now this way and that, diihs cult for the foreigner or even the na- tive 10 understand, and showing only dimly in the ffagmentary reports which newspaper correspondents are able to secure.
 The Indianapolis Star makes the good suggestion that there k need Tor lively and attractive winter sport that does not require either ice or snow This year golf has been about the only resource, and golf Is for tue relatively few.
 Where are the snows of yesteryear2 Seven feet of them, on the level, are In the Cascade mountains.
 The wise men are again in disagree ment. The world has been informed from a New York platform within few days that the cause of most Of hu- manity's present Ills is the consump' ton of pork as food.
 The 50,000 cattle starving on the plains of the Texas panhandle, where hard crust of snow covers the forage, are being kept alive by oil cake which horsemen carry and distribute over the ranges. Unless the weather changes there will be great destruction of livestock.
 The typhoid epidemic at Ottawa last spring has set Canada to purifying It's water supplies. 1t has been back ward in this respect for the reason that it's rivers are large and its population sparse, so that the pollution from sewage has seemed negligible. Un- luckily disease germs begin to operate long before the pollution becomes ap- parent.
 It Is of course significant that James R. Garfield, former secretary of the in ierior, and Clifford Pinchot, late chief forester of the United States, ardent friends of Theodore Roosevelt, blocked the way to an indorsement of Senator La Toilette by the Ohio republican progressives The argument used was that so long as there are SO many rep ublicans who favor the nomination of Col Roosevelt, Il would be wise to leave the way open for them to go to the Chicago convention unbound.
 Ten out of the Il principal annual prizes awarded last month at the Roy al academy schools in London were won by women.
 All the aforetime private telephone lines in Great Britain are now tsinee Sunday midnight) government tele- phones. This increases the total value of the governments telephone hold ings 10 SIPS, 600 900; miles of line, 50o,- oO0: numbers of subscribers, 500 900.
 The "Atanta Constitution is happy over Dr. Powell's declaration that the northern part of it's stale is natural apple country. "Georgia has given the world the finest peach,n it says, "a,ld equal if not surpassing fame saits her in the Georgia apple. May n humble Yankee suggest that there's nothing really the matter with the Georgia watermelon2
 The "Cologne Gazette says that things cannot remain as they are. "rheS must be better or worse. We have done everything possible to avoid world war, which would do inestim- able harm. The next move is with England, but the attitude of Sir Ed ward Grey, the British Foreign Secre- tary, does not suggest that he is ready to make it.
 It k recalled that of the 26 presidents II have been renominated and nine re- elected counting the nominations Of the two chief parties.
 The total imports of potatoes into the United States in the last ten years aggregated 2a,si6,e34 bushels, valued at Sl0, ,9S5, TO, or about 4s cents per bushel, this valuation being based upon the wholesale market price in the countries from which imported and does not, therefore, include the cost of transportation or duties paid, the rate of duty being 25 cents Ter bushel of 50 pounds both under the present law and it's immedlatrspFede cessor. The exports of potatoes from the United States during the same de- cade .amounted to l0,9oo,5 ,566 bushels, valued at $, ,4l3,6T5, an average of - cents per bushel.
 Every man of course has a right to be elected president, but it looks now as though severallwere not likely 10 be. MT. Bryan's name is, of course, pro- posed for place on the presidential primary ballot in Nebraska. And in that state, also. Mir. Roosevelt's name has been brought forward in precisely the same way.