Evening star., 1923-07-28
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

canion to comment on the very
ridiculous situation that has develop
ca In the bread business during the
last few weeks"
Since that letter was written the
price OF wheat -four has fallen con-
siderably. but the cost OF bread has
not changed. The situation continues
Its side-splitting righteousness. 1t is
as funny as a load Of coal.
Maybe 1t Is the fun we are paying
for, since there Is only cents worth
OF bread In Scent purchase. DR.. o.
w. Holmes tells US "the true essen
tials Of feast are only fun and feed
Please pass the fun: we Will dispense
with the feed" Yet somebody, has
said: "A jokes a very serious thing"
and IL would go hard IL the Accent
fun should cause tion.
The FUN Is effervescent and inclined
10 go up as fast as the bread goes
down.
An Austrian professor who is teach
Ing during the summer in Columbia
College criticizes the American edu-
cational system by saying the pro-
fessors work too hard and the stu
dents too little. Evidently he has
seen no foot ball game
The cables bring the information
that $500 Americans are seeking di-
vorces in Paris, since the laws there
make II easier than in Reno. That is
a new form of taking French
leave."-"P p. c."
II Il
Chicagoans have offered the gov
ernment S1.000,000 as a guaranty of
good faith in connection with their
proposal to build a dam across ST.
Clair river and Niagara river for the
purpose OF raising the water level
high enough to divert some of the
now OF the lakes into the drainage
canal connecting Lake Michigan with
the Mississippi river.
1t Is assumed that such a project
would require the sanction OF Con-
gress, and just how the exploiters of
the windy city supposed the execu-
tive officials of the government could
commit the government to approval
or their project fs not clear. They
are now en- route to New England to
lay the matter before Secretary
Weeks.
The plan probably looks to making
the connection between the Missis-
sippi and the great lakes navigable
for ocean going ships. with the view
also to extensive dredging of the
river between ST. Louis and the drain
age canal.
TO fascinate men who dream of bring
Ing the ocean to the heart of the con-
ttnent. The scheme Of Chicago will
have to compete with the plan of
Duluth to make available a ship canal
around Niagara Falls. so as to anchor
Atlantic steamships in Lake Superior.
Ten years prior to our war OF 1912
with the British Thomas jefferson
proposed to Join hands with Great
Britain in a fight to possess the Mis-
sissippi river, held at New Orleans by
the French. He wrote to Livingston,
our minister to Paris:
The day that France takes pos
session OF New Orleans fixes the SEN
ever within her low-water mark 1t
seals the union OF two nations. who,
In conjunction, can maintain exclu-
sive possession OF the ocean. From
that moment we must marry our
selves to the British fleet and nation +"
A year later. when Jefferson tried
to buy from the French the right to
the port of New Orleans. Napoleon
insisted on his taking the entire
french possessions, including New
Orleans, and he took the great west
simply because he wanted to navi-
gate the Mississippi river. Something
of the same appreciation of the father
OF waters persists to this day, in
spite of the competition of the rail-
roads and the great lakes
Copyright. 1928. by p V. CollinsD