Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-08-18
History in the Making

effect produced by the British atti-
tude, will result in the Germans rec
ognizing that they cannot afford to
be unrepresented in San Francisco
in 1915.
State Highway Commission Building
Poor Roads.
The disclosures made during the
week that the State Highway Com
mission of California was deliber-
ately evading the promise made that
the roads to be built under the $751;
100000 bond act were to be first
class, and that instead the policy of
trying to make the money stretch
out over a great deal of territory by
building inferior roads has been
adopted, has created a sensation.
Some of the road already built has
been so poorly constructed that it is
already going to pieces. In Santa
Clara and San Mateo counties, where
the people have gone to much ex-
pense to create good roads with con-
crete beds to connect with the state
highway, there is much dissatisfac-
tion and vigorous protests are being
made against the attempt of the ad-
ministration to favor by substituting
nuantitV for nua1itv
Progress of Modern Invention.
The accident to the steering gear
of the big Atlantic liner Imperator
which caused the vessel to become
utterly helpless for a time, has di-
rected attention anew to the remark
able progress made in ocean naviga-
tion during recent years. The acci-
dent in question, while it greatly
alarmed the few passengers who hap
pened to be awake when it occurred,
caused no damage and only resulted
in the ship describing great circles
before she could be stopped The
steering gear which gave the trou-
BILE is a very delicate bit of mechan-
ism. 1t has been devised with so
exquisite nicely that the slightest
pressure of button on the bridge
effects a responsive reversal of en-
gines below, but perfect as it was
supposed to be, it has exhibited de-
fects which will probably be correct
ed. Meanwhile one may wonder at
the marvellous ingenuity displayed in
the creation of machinery which by
the simple touching of button will
control the enormous mass of $4,000
tons which is said to be the weight
of the Imperator when loaded.
Around the World in 30 Days.
Jules Verne wrote and published
his novel ga Tour of the World in
Eighty Days" in 1872. 1t was
thought at the time that he had dis
played great ingenuity in handling
his time tables in such a fashion as
to impart artistic verisimilitude to
very improbable narrative. 1t is
little over forty years since Verne's
moved was written, but marvellous
Improvements in transportation have
been effected during the interval, as
may be inferred from the fact that
the time of the imaginary voyager
has actually been more than cut in
half by a real traveller who girdled
! the globe in 35 days, 21 hours, 33
minutes and AS of a second John
! Menry Mears, a reporter of the New
plished the 2eat, and he can proba-
bly, tell a story of what he expert
enced in his hurry-up journey which
will equal in interest that related by
the ingenious Frenchman. 1t may
be said that the mad rush of Mears
did not really demonstrate that the
ordinary traveller can make the tour
in SO or even As days, and is there
fore of no value, but such a criticism
overlooks the fact that it enables us
to institute a comparison which for
all practical purposes is nearly as
valuable as though the fictitious
Phineas Fogg and the real Mears had
performed their respective feats as
if they were merely business men
bent on errands that required them
to make the best time possible.
The Wheatland Hop Fields Labor
Riots.
The labor trouble in the hop fields
of Wheatland, Yolo county, Califor-
MIA, was speedily terminated by the
militia. AS soon as the soldiers ap-
peared on the scene the I. w. WIS
who had instigated the riots made
themselves scarce. The killing OF
the four men by the rioters made a
profound impression throughout the
coast, and the opinion was freely
expressed that the trouble was in
vited by the failure to seriously re-
gard the difficulties created in San
Diego and other places by the an