The courier-index., 1917-10-05

and the making of the world safe for democracy.
 Another certainty is that there will De written into the constitution that which has been attained by statute the state wide prohibition of the sale of intoXicants. This, too has been so thoroughly demonstrated as an econ omic necessity, to say nothing of it's moral aspects, that the supporters of the whiskey regime are being rapidly outdistanced. The people do not want liquor traffic brought back into the state. There will be small and noisy element insisting that the con- vention shall not adopt a state wide plank, but It requires no prophet to see that they cannot expect to win their contention. The business inter- ests of the state have joined with the church workers Tn demanding the clinching heir hard-won victory. Then there is the taxation problem the revenue question for the state and municipality, the encouragement of capital, and many other things enough to keep them busy and to call out their best
 
 It has been announced that com mon negro labor will be advanced January 1 from 25 cents to 40 cents an hour. They are getting organized and high wages paid by the govern ment-much higher than they have been accustomed to. has induced them to demand more pay. It is in keeping, however, with the advance in everything else. Even the staple food products of the negro's table, fat meat. corn bread and sorghum molasses. cost him 1CJ per cent more than they used to. The cities of { Little Rock and Argenta were forced recently to recognize this in accept ing the justified demands of the po- lice and fire departments for an in- crease in their salaries. It amount ed to about $17,000 a year in Little Rock, without, however, any increase in the revenue with which to meet it. A road tax system of S6 a year for male citizens between the ages of IS and forty-fiye, is being worked out, and early in the year the occupation tax ordinance will be resubmitted with a better prospect of it's adop- tion.
 Speaking of advances in prices. it has struck even the circuses. Pop corn. peanuts, ice cream cones (half grown), and red lemonade, without which no circus is complete, now cost ten cents instead of the accus- toned jitney. Even the tickets for the after show, which are sold by the "ushers who will now pass among you" have advanced from 10 to 15 cents, and it is said by those who admit that they stayed to see the wonderful aggregation of talent" that the show is no worse than it ever was.
 The fish in McDonald's lake, Lin coin county, have been dying rapidly without apparent cause. and residents of the vicinity conjured up visions of Ieutonic frightfulness, and sur missed that all of them were due to destruction by the poison route. So they took up the question with the state commissioner of agriculture, and he sought the advice and wisdom of the government fisheries bureau at Washington Now it is all settled After devoting two typewriter pages to scientific hypotheses and expla- nation, the communication concludes with the statement that the Bureau" would be glad to receive further in- formation in the event that later de- velopments reveal the cause if the unusual mortality of the fish.
 As an evidence of sapient infor- nation, however. thoroughly eluci dating all the points at issue, the fol- lowing paragraphs are cited:
 'The strict environmental condi- tions necessary for the maintenance and development of fishes in small lakes are sometimes altered by the action of an outside or hitherto for eign agency which disturbs the whole balance in such a manner that fish are either poisoned or deprived