davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
By All Means a Recount

Mayor Mitchel's quiet application for
recount of the ballots in the Republican
primary, made while his opponent was still
talking about one but had not taken the
course open to him under the law, should
effectually remove this as political ISSUE
The Mayor has gone about the affair in his
usual straightforward and manly fashion.
If the Republicans of the city nominated
somebody else, he says, he certainly doesn't
want his name to appear on the ballots as
the Republican candidate; he desires moth
ing to which he is not entitled, and he will
have no nomination to which there is
shadow of doubt attached.
With the Mitchell lead cut down as 1t
has been by the latest returns, it is good
thing to have an official inspection of the
ballots. If there was crookedness in the
primaries-for which the present system
leaves slight opportunity-or if there were
errors which would change the result, the
fact should be disclosed. If Mr.. Bennett
really won the nomination Mayor Mitchell
would be the last man to wish to obtain an
advantage through crookedness or error,
and no supporter Of his could deem sit
uation advantageous to his candidacy
which gives opportunity for reiteration Of
cry of fraud. A recount will put an end
to challenge and question of the result,
once for all.
Whatever the recount shows, the Mayors
lame will appear on the election ballots.
The victory of Mr.. Bennett could only re-
suit in extension of the aid and comfort TO
Tammany which his primary campaign af-
forded. Probably even he does not imagine
that he could win the election if he were
the Republican nominee, or could, indeed,
do anything but accomplish the defeat Of
the best Mayor the city has ever had. But
if, by any combination of circumstances,
such opportunity for mischief legally is
his, he should have his pound Of flesh.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
The Expedient of Sharp Words

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: Would some one, to use q not en-
tirely new expression, the gift give US to sec
ourselves, etc.
THE Choice" editorial in this morning s
Tribune, by the tombstone OF the Scotch
mans line of poetry, possesses unexpected in
terest for poor misguided voter
In the fourth paragraph yol say that on
rhe part of the Democrats "there was = per-
sistent campaign of misrepresentation, of
nud-slinging, OF personal abuse"
Yet in each paragraph to the end of the
editorial | find: local pride and local preju-
tice, played on by sstute politicians; "men-
aeed by the Tigers hunger for jobs and con-
tracts; turning over Of the city depart
ments . to that appetite for plumber;
"Tammany starved by years of exclusion
from power"
From which one might hastily conclude
that the expedent Of sharp words is not over
looked by either side, least of all by the
avowed impartial observer of the peoples
rights, the newspaper.
And why not make THE Choice" a fairer
and wider one by taking even the most casual
note of the activities of Mr. Bennett before
the primaries? HUMOR IN POLITICS.
New York, Sept. q, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Imperial Contempt
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: The hypocrisy of the German En-
peror has never been better illustrated than
by his phrase "The material power Of arms
must be superseded by the moral power Of
right"
II the Kaiser really believes what he has
always claimed, viz, that he rules by d.
vine right and that his armies will conquer
through divine guidance, then it must be his
belief that armies under such leadership con-
stitute the moral power ot right" By the
same reasoning the forces of the Allies,
fighting as they are against divinely led
troops, are nothing more than the material
power Of arms"
Stripped, then, of its highly moral sheep
skin, his woltish dictum reads thus: THE
material power of the Allied arms must be
superseded by the moral power Of the d.
vinely led German armies
OLIVER HEREFORD.
New York, Sept. %, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Admiration and Appreciation

To the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: TIE American newspaper which is
making the most intelligent and most help
full fight for our side in the war is The New
York Tribune.
Reading The Tribune daily, I am impressed
with the fact that you are making real
fight for our country; you are concentrating
the energies of your staff and your organ
ization to this end. The publicity you give
10 questions connected with our efforts in
the war-and to our lack Of efforts in some
very important matters, such as failure TO
censor letters and messages going to foreign
countries--is distinctly constructive. You
advocate waging the war, while it lasts, on
q 100 per cent war basis, and until the loyal
men and women Of our country realize the
necessity Of carrying out this policy we will
not accomplish what we have setVout to do.
have expressed only small part of the
admiration and appreciation which you have
earned by your consistently patriotic and
practical editorial and news policies-admira-
ton and appreciation which feel deeply.
II. S. REAVlS.
New York Sept 81 1917
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
An indispensable Diathesis

If dealers in nostrums were ever in any
way affected by the explosion of worn
out medical superstitions many Of the
most prosperous among them would be
sorely dismayed by the discoveries Of Dr..
j. B. Berkart in "The British Medical
Journal" They know their public well
enough, however, to be assured that bug
bear so ancient as uric acid, bugbear SO
well established on the authority Of so
many trustworthy accusers, cannot lightly
be exercised by any modern. and so the
best evidence in the world will not suffice
to discredit the value Of those priceless
solvents which have served so long to pro-
vide against the ever-growing series Of
evils attributed to the equity habit.
DR.. Berkart's contention is that neither
clinical data nor the results of expert
mental inquiry afford the slightest proof
of any pathogenic property in uric acid.
In no case have simultaneous injections
of the substance produced equity infamma-
ton in the joints or tendons Of animals,
and if deposits more or less resembling
equity tophi have occasionally been in
duced in this way, it was only when the
quantities used exceeded those observed in
human cases by about thirty. And even
then the identity Of the deposits with the
kind so often associated with govt was at
least questionable.
In a word, DR.. Berkart insists that uric
acid has been found guilty upon the most
ridculously inadequate evidence, and mot
only is the use of the pretended remedies
to cure the various functional derange-
ments and organic LESSONS which are
wrongly attributed to uric acid recon-
mended upon a baseless hypothesis, but it
is mischievous also, because it allures the
unwary sufferer by specious advertise
ments Of its effectiveness to have recourse
to it and continue with it until its failure
is evident"
However, it really does not matter. The
classical type of acute govt is not so COM
mon in this country that the dispensers Of
solvents need be troubled about it, and
since the equity diathesis has been ex-
tended so as to embrace an incredible
variety of possibilities, patients will not be
unduly worried by the failure of the uric
acid hypothesis. If the worst comes to the
worst the devisers of cures can change the
name, and the solvent will still be as
magical as ever. If govt itself were to be
abolished it would be another matter; but
even then the doctors themselves would be
obliged to invent some equivalent to ac-
count for conditions otherwise unaccount-
able.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Abandoned Orchards Wanted

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Has any one an abandoned orchard or
one in little commercial use, the frut OF
which he will donate to the National P!sh|
Flower and Fruit Guild. 10 Fifth Avenue
New York? We will buy the crop outrign.
just as it stands, IL payment is desired snd
IL sold cheap, and will send pickers 10 gatnes
It. If the crop can be donated we VIII give
the orchard two complete spraylngs ne's
spring and summer, and otherwise attend "
its future cultivation. As a result OF yen,
line item in The Tribune the guild ootsinea
advance orders for delivery IN October io'
nearly 1000 big bags OF apples at 81 es'a'
ard are much in need OF additional orenH''
to fill them This is an experiment IN |"
new work of conserving wasting crop,
Wherever there is a waste crop threaienea
with loss of market we will rash labor 70 F"
in consideration of its low price.
NATIONAL PLANT, FLOWER AND FkOii
GUILD. G. L. REEFS, Food Director
New York, Sept. 10, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
A Bit for the Railroads to Do

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: As nearly every one is crying 10
your Bit" don't you think that the rsisrosu'
ght do their "bit' also? There are mum
Der Of young men who have given up ou'''
ness, college and different positions ana PRIV
fessions, TO do their Bit" and who are so
toned in and about New York and VINO "''
out Of town, and when they get chance !"
get home for few hours. take the advan'As'
to see their families; but the fares on 'n'
railroads are so high that number are uH.
able to get home. Why does not some one Wy
to get the roads to either give a. pass o.
make some special rates to these young mea;
who are compelled TO wear their uniforms
You are strong paper and seem to tax
an interest in what is right, and don't yos.
think that you could do something about W.
JAMES a. JENKINS.
Mount Vernon, N. Y, Sept. %. 1911, J.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
The Choice
n the Editor OF The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: As an advocate of Mayor Mitcheps
reelection. commend strongly your leader
"The Choice" in to-day's Tribune, and with
il Mr. Hughess declaration that Mayor
Mitcheps administration is the best the city
ever had" 1t is, as you have we'll said, "a
smooth running, economically administered
business" And so it is viewed up at CO.
lumbis University, of which the Mayor is
an slumnus, and when he received, last June,
his Ii. d. from President Butler, the latter
spoke as follows: Sixth in the great series
Of mayors that Columbia has given TO the
metropolitan city it loves and serves; bring
ing to this vast and many sided community
all the resources of high intelligence and
fine character. Knowing no end but the
public good the highest type of devoted and
courageous public servant High praise
indeed, but does it not rightly belong to this
conscientious public officer and faithful mil
liant patriot? j. c. PUMPELLY.
New York, Sept q, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Theory and Practice
Can Woman's Place Be at a Peace
Meetingl

To the Editor OF The Tribune.
Sir: Do my eyes deceive me, or can it be
possible that the Mrs. Annie Riley Hale who
has had such prominence on the front pages
OF our dailies this week, because OF alleged
disturbance and arrest at peace meeting, is
the same Mrs. Annie Riley Hale who, for the
last two years, has written, in these same
dailies, such scornful denunciation of women
presuming TO ask for the vote?
Can it be that she vho preached so en-
phatcally the seclusion Of women in their
homes, the immodesty of their sallying forth
therefrom, should have SO far forgotten her
feminine instincts as to go to peace meet
ing with horrid men?
was further Mortified by reading her
statement that she had electioneered for Will
son last fall.
To think that a woman who declares that
women have neither the brains, emotional
qualities, fitness, time nor right to vote
should hasten out to spend time telling Other
folks, both men and women, how to vote, is
surely to realize that We are living in de-
moralized world STELLA CR0SSLEY.
Herkimer, N. Y, Sept 20, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Since Nobody Cares
iitor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Your correspondent, 81. A. c." Oh.
jects to my criticism OF the programm.
maker OF the Community Chorus, and assert.
that it was the composers Of the music, not
the authors Of the verses, 20 whom credits
were given under each printed poem. II th.
was the intention, how does IL happen that
David T. Shaw, author Of Columbia, the
Gem of the Ocean," is set down as the "com.
poser" Of that work, while the name o.
Thomas Beckett, the creator OF the music, is
omitted? Again, why has the programme
maker set the name of Augusta z. Ststson
as the composer" of the music sung 70 the
poem Loves Lullaby" Of which she hap
pens to be the author? And, yet again, why
is the music Of "Anne Laurie" credited r.
the programme to Lady Scott, who is alleged
TO have written the verses, which, by the
bye, no less an authority than the late
William Cullen Bryan; declares 10 be
anonymous?
The truth about the whole musical pro
gramme business is that anybody who
makes a setting of an old song and sticks
his name TO it is given the credit OF the
original, without regard 10 truth or justice
Many collections of old songs are filed with
errors Of this character, and even the
hymnals of the churches contain frequent
examples of objectionable deliberate musical
and literary plagiarism. But why continue.
since nobody cares, and the creators OF the
originals are dead?
As for disputed authorship, It is often
hard to prove. know it from personal eS-
perience. Forty years ago, when al Yale,
Arther Twining Hadley and wrote poem.
This is it:
81 was a rhizopod, with protoplsste cells
| had little nucleus, but I had nothing
else.
But now am a man with evoluted power
Yet, oh, my Little Nucleus, ! need thee
every hour"
Now, Hadley wrote half OF that poem and
| the other half. But sometimes - gets the
credit of the whole. and sometimes / get II.
Like the Shakespeare Bacon controversy M
matter has never been settled, and, perhaps
never can be. So We have decided that II
some one will set the verses 10 music We
will let him sign them and take the credit
and thus get the burden of our minds. Re
spectfully submitted to all music-makers.
FREDERIC ". PANGBORN
New York, Sept. p, 1917
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Naval Reserve Defended
What Il Has Done for Its Member.
and for the Country
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: There has been much talk IN Tia
NEWSPAPERS Of late concerning the org,ni,..
ton. or rather lack OF IL, Of the Naval Re-.
.erys. II, as is intimated, the Naval Reserve,
part in pushing the war has been a ne9ati,.
quantity, then perhaps public opinion is iusti.
fed in running down this branch Of Ge
service.
I question, however, the value Of nevsp,p,r
criticism of the working Of any cog in our
complicated and pitifully new war machin.
There are, I am sure. enough West Point ana
Annapolis-for which let US render thanks
men in the service to adjust matters in q com.
paratively short time. No one can question
their knowledge Of military and naval Or
ganization. Mistakes made at the beginning
are now being recthed by minds trained for
that express purpose. Criticism from them
builds up what less informed knocking De-
stroys. There is nothing more eKasperatins
than to have the futlity Of your chosen en-
terprise pointed out by one VINO knows sb-
solutely nothing about it. Let the news.
papers follow The Tribune's lead and solidify
public opinion on the nations just cour~
in this war, leaving technical matters to
technicians.
There is much about the Naval Reserve
still unsaid, both pro and con. Much Of Il
may proftably remain latent The induce.
ments offered to secure enlistments last April
were even at that time too candied 10 b.
seriously considered. Those OF US who signed
the napers knew we were swallowing q SUGAR
coated pill. The further charges Of incom.
potency in the officers are quite trite. 0ficers
Of newly formed organization should no.
be expected to be perfect at the very outset
There are some things, l imagine, even an
officer can learn.
Speaking merely as an indiyidual--snd VIA,
does the individual voice amount to these
dsys?-I can truthfully say that the Naval
Reserve has done wonders for me. II hs. put
mo in better physical shape than I hsv.
attained in years. I have learned how 10
plot q compass course; how 20 send and re-
ceive semaphore, wig-wsg, blinker light and
international flag hoists; how to write Up
a ships log. l have picked up q working
acquaintance with the drill regulations ana
the manual Of arms, an idea Of the m.ehan.
ism of q Springfield rife, a good Suggestion
Of deck seamsnship, and vague knowlets.
Of naval routine and etiquette. use vague
advisedly.
It would be altogether out OF place for m.
to say all that the Naval Reserve has don.
toward incinerating the German nuisance.
Suffice it to say, il has not been altogether
idle. GMN
New Haven, Conn, Sept 81, 1917.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
"War Food" and How to Get II


Why not "war restaurants? And
"war food stores? Mr.. Hoover's exhorta-
tions TO abstain from white bread two
days week or at ono meal each day
have the approval Of all good citizens.
Many housewives have posted the Hoover
rules in their kitchens. But then the
trouble begins. Where is the housewife
going to get at reasonable price the sub
stitutes for white bread which the food
boards recommend to her?
Even before the need for saving wheat
-four arose the public was assured that
white flour was a luxury, and that 1t was
distinctly inferior to unwhitened flour in
nutritive value. White bread, we were told.
was sold on its looks, Just as white eggs
bring much higher city price than brown
eggs do.
Most sensible people are willing to eat
whole wheat bread, or even war" bread,
not only as a matter Of patriotic duty. but
on tho assurance that it has a greater food
value. But so perverse are the -purveyors
of foodstuffs That they have never been
willing to push the sale of the more
wholesome and naturally cheaper dark
breads. Whole wheat bread, instead of
being treated as a non-fashionable though
superior substitute for whitened bread, has
been sold at the same price as whitened
bread, on tho pretext that 1t must also be
considered luxury because so few people
eat It.
One way to save wheat Is to make real
war bread and sell it at cheaper price
than the bleached white bread. Another
way is to sell corn bread instead OF white
bread and cornmeal instead Of -four. Hun
dreds Of thousands Of Americans would
gladly eat corn bread if they had an OPP
portunity to do so. But outside the South
its use is rare, and has been frowned upon
by the -four dealers and bakers. Corn
bread ought to be boon to public COM
planning of high wheat bread prices. There
is no sign as yet of any real effort to In
troduce the use of corn bread in commu-
mites like ours, which are unfamiliar
with it.
The Assistant Secretary of Agriculture,
Mr.. Vrooman, is right when he says that
there is little hope of overcoming the
inertia of the bread makers and -four
handlers unless the government itself
steps in and convinces the public that it
ought now to be getting an excellent sub
stitute for white bread at much lower
rate than it is accustomed to pay for white
bread. Mr.. Vrooman advocates "war res
taurants" and "war food stores run I'M
der the guidance of the Federal Food
Board. What is needed above everything
else is a demonstration that much wheat
bread can easily be supplanted by corn
bread, to the great benefit Of the American
consumer. The public cannot work out
its own salvation in this respect. The i'm
petus must come from the government,
which has the resources to make the ex-
pertinent and the power to coerce the
millers and bakers into cooperating with
its agents.
Food conservation bulletins are all right
in their way. But the real thing is the
government-managed war food store and
restaurant.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
Backward Americans

Did you notice the little item telling Of
Harold Levensalor, of Sebec, Me-, twenty
three years old, one of our conscripts? On
the trip to his camp at Aver, Mass, he had
his first ride on a railway. Also, he rode
in his first automobile Also, he saw
lis first electric lights and first motion
pictures.
Now, Sebec is not in the North Woods.
1t is only thirty-seven miles northwest Of
Bangor, about half way between Bangor
and Moosehead Lake. The Bangor &
. Aroostook line passes near by, and the Ca
radian Pacific only little further off to
| the north. The township has $40 inhabi-
/ tants and the whole county, Piscataquis,
is very sparsely settled. 1t is not to be
compared with prosperous Aroostook,
where the potatoes come from. Yet, how
could anybody live twenty-three years so
close to everything that is new and inter
esting in modern life and know nothing
about it? An abe-bodied man could walk
to Bangor in a couple of days if he wanted
to. How are such isolation and insularity
possible in the Eastern States Of short
distances and many railroads?
The answer is that isolation and back
wardness depend far more upon the COM
munity than upon its accessibility. How
do city slums come into being, for ex-
ample? They may be, often are, around
the corner from all the resources of civil
ization as we know them. So with our
rural slums. Every state has them. Their
character ranges from a povertystricken
crossroads in Maine, farms pitched on
thin, worthless soil, families still coura-
eeous, sef-respecting and struggling, but
hopelessly beaten in the fight for decent
living, to such weakened, degenerate stock
as the Pineys, of New Jersey, or the
Jackson Whites, of Rockland County, New
York. Somewhere in between and Of vary
ing fibre and possibilities are the noun
taineers of Tennessee and that whole
strange race Of fine old Americans gone to
seed in the Appalachian highlands.
There is yarn of another Maine dis
trict, a rocky spine projecting into Casco
Bay, somewhere north of Portland. On it
live a small group of farmer-fshermen
who have intermarried for generations. 1t
is perhaps twenty miles to Bangor, the
nearest town. On a certain Sunday father
set out afoot with his twenty-fve-year-old
son to give him his first sight of a city
Come to Bangor, father started to take
son across the Boston & Maine tracks
which cut the main street at grade. Just
then a Bar Harbor express came whoop-
ing down from the north. 1t was too much
for son. He fed with yell, father calling
Babe! Babe" after him in vain. Ac-
cording to tradition, son was only con-
veyed to the far side of the metropolis by
being led up the track to street that
crossed on a bridge. No colt could have
been shyer.
There may be spots in the West 10 cor
respond with these Eastern islands. But
they are not frequent. Provinciality is
the product not of remoteness, but pri-
marily of plain economic failure. Almost
without exception the downhearted, I'M
ambitious. degenerating community has
cast its lot upon a poor, hopeless soil. The
West is still scratching its golden surface
and the chance for backward tendencies
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25

il still to come. How cure ourselves OF
these rural slums7 BY realizing that there
IL an economic deadline for country dis
tricts, precisely as for factory workers, for
the chief thing. Meantime, let us not over
look the good work that CONSUMPTION does
in quickening spirits from Sebec to Santa
Barbara.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25

You can purchase n.ohsndse advertised IN ihA
TRIBUNY with absolute ,afsyior disssuSa1on results
IN any case THE TRIBUNE guarantees To Fay you, "e'
back upoa request No red tape No alooihS' We NN
god PROMPTLY u the advertiser does not.
New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER IS. 1917

Owned and published daily By The Tribune Assccsh'n
New York ccrpcraton Ogden Reid. President o. Neno
rosers vice Presidents r. suer, Treasurer Address
tribune BUILDING is4 Nassau STREET. New York Toeph0ne
i,scknan 5000