Evening star., 1923-03-28
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL v. COLLINS

Notwithstanding the imminent
shortage of lumber in the United States.
| we continue heavy exports of it to
distant countries That indicates that
when our own supply is wholly ex-
| hausted, twenty years from now, 1t is
! not going to be easy to find new sup
plies elsewhere. We are shipping lum-
| Der to China and Japan, Africa and
| the United Kingdom. Half of the oak
f; which Is shipped goes to the United
! Kingdom. We send soft wood to
| Peru, Honduras. Palestine and Syria,
| and millions of feet of Douglas fir to
| China, British South Africa and Can
!, ada
! The Philippine Islands will soon be
| supplying US with wood for cigar
/ boxes, TO take the place Of Spanish
cedar.
| A furniture dealer. in a moment of
| frankness, confesses that there is no
| longer any genuine Mexican mahog-
making furniture: what is used as a
substitute Is really California red
! wood. called in the trade California
| mahogany" 1t takes a finish quite
| like that Of mahogany, but is not so
| hard.
| x y " x
| The news columns tell of a skilled
| engraver, August c. Habicht of Wash
| ington, who has engraved upon the
head of an ordinary pin a picture
| complete Of the National Capitol, and
| upon another pinhead a fine portrait
| OF President Harding, with his name
| clear and perfect. He has also in
vented method Of reproducing the
! pinhead pictures.
Such an achievement IS clever. But
since 1t is made with q powerful mi
croscope and it's beauty can be seen
| only through a microscope, the nat
ural question arises: rs IT worth the
long hours of patient work and eye
strafn?" 1t Is not useful. Because 1t
is microscopic 1t Is not "a thing Of
| beauty, and a. JOY forever?
This Is not said to detract from the
skill OF Mr.. Habicht, but in abstract
consideration. which a spaniard might
express in >Qui bono?' If reproduced
by electrotyping. SO that the engrav-
ings could sell for a small price,
would they add to the useful or the
! Perhaps they are in the class Of
curiosities referred to by Pope:
Pretty in amber to observe the forms
OF hair, or straw, or dirts, or grubs or worms
The things. We know, are neither rich nor
rare,
But wonder how the mischief they got there.
| X 4 * x
The industrial situation in America
never has been better for the skilled
mechanic. A survey by the Department
| Of Labor shows that in January 4,348
establishments employed 1881, ,1o9 hands
and in February the same establish
| ments had on the pay rolls 1,924,372. One
weeks pay roll Of those firms in Jan
uary was s46,265,4sS, and in February
s4s.61S,S24.
! Wages never were maintained for any
prolonged period at the scale now pre-
| vailing. Henry Ford. who has just
bought vast coal lands and is paying
| wages 90 per cent higher than are pa i'd
/ in any other coal mining region, pre-
! diets that in few Years the law will
| fix minimum wages at $40 day.
But wages do not measure prosperity
| unless cost OF living remains normal.
and how is the cost Of living to be kept
J down If wages-which constitute over
! 80 per cent of the values of everything
| sold-are TO remain high? Either wages
! will come down or whatever wages are
used to buy, by the worker, will go up.
The most unsatisfactory measure of
! values is money. II is not money that
creates value. 1t is labor-and only
| labor. Doubt that? Look at the wages