The Washington herald., 1921-01-02
~ DIR. WALTER @. MuppHY,

By DR.. WALTER @. MURPHY,
Of the wsshinsten Aesxeny Of
science. ...
These lines are about IandsIIdss.
There are two kinds: Natural and
artificial The latter may be divided
into professional, political and so
eiai. All are of great antiquity.
The records Of Babylon, Athens and
Rome have left impressions Of po-
litical slides.
As late as 1905, Goldau, a small
tcwn In Switzerland. was IN a mo-
ment oyerwhtlmed- Three churches.
one hundred and eleven dvSiinss
and many lives were lost by Z nat
ural landslide.
There is no known relation be-
tween heavenly bodies, such as full
moons, eclipses and sun spots, upon
natural landslides, but in the recent
political slide visiting our latitudes
a fixed star in the constellation
Idaho; brilliant luminsry in the
constellation California; the Jupiter
In the orbit Of Nebraska were al
most put out of sound and sight.
Fixed stars never vary in their or
bits and these luminaries will again
reappear with increased pungency
and increasing brilIiancy.
The DintinctieHA
Strange that bodies so different
in their motions would be so named.
natural landslide seeks declivity;
a political slide seeks elevation. The
FORMER falls peil-meil among the
logs. roots and stumps below; while
the latter ascends up the mountain.
where the vines grow. the grapes
ripen and where the tythes, taxes
and revenues mature.
Excepting the Cuiebra Cut, nc
landslide knows when it's activities
will begin. In a political slide, the
crowd, II it does not hear. is con-
scious Of the silent thunder. sees
the bright financial clouds rising.
the telegraph key Is touched, the
lightning flashes, the crowd looks
up and the ascension is witnessed.
A landslide does not hesitate once
started; a political slide does some
times delay tss progress. II may
decide TO go up Tuesday night and
not ascend until the following Sat
urday night, after dark, about 10
o'clock.
No pathway is provided for a
natural landslide. II falls hurly-
burly below. mixing soil and rocks
timbers and debris. destroying
everything. Extreme care Is pro-
vided for the pathway Of a political
slide. 1t saves everything. mines
and minerals. soil and timbers
water powers. II is especially So
licitous about transportation lines.
A natural landslide covers only a
given area. A political slide covers
State, sometimes forty-eight;
again an empire, as we have seen
in Persia, Egypt and India.
Effect of wstss.
Water in its different formt,
which, next to electricity. sunlight
and money, is the greatest power
on earth, exercises great influence
in producing a landslide, in that it
.seeps into the crevasses, freezes,
enlarges the cracks and undermines
the structure.
Water also exercises great infu-
ence in producing a political slice.
in that II freezes out the undesir-
able units as the railroads do, does
not undermine, but transfers the
structure.
1t is the hope. the dream, the
aspiration Of physicians, pub
licists, poets. patriots, philosophers.
phlanthropists, everybody. to see
our country filled with happy homes,
with fresides Of content, the fairest
land on the whole round globe
As becomes Americans, make it the
Garden of Eden: the land Of milk
and honey; the promised land:
Americans make it the Holy Land.
Could Moses view our garden to-
day he would behold a community
whose shores are bsthed by two Of
the longest and largest oceans ir
the world, united by riveted ste.'
bolts and whose waters mIngle In
opened canals. He would see a
landscape adorned by two of the
loftiest and longest mountain
ranges on earth, drained by the
great basin Of the Mississippi. with
NeqrO Kills Father