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The Commoner.
VOLUME 9, NUMBER 1
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SEVERAL DAYS ago ProBldont Roosevelt
caused to be sent to Son.ator Ilalo, of Maine,
u otntemont of tlio activities of the secret service.
TJiIs was in response to ft request made by tlio
sonftto. Soon after the president's communica
tion was roceivod by Mr. Halo it was rumored
that that communication contained a reflection
on a senator of a southorn stato. On January
7 a Washington correspondent for the Associated
Press gavo It out that the president's communi
cation to Mr. Halo showed that Mr. Rcosovelt
had ordorod secret service men to "shadow"
Senator Tillman on tho theory that he possibly
was interested in an "Oregon land grab." It
is clalmod that tho president's "tracking" of
Senator Tillman followed an attack made by the
senator nearly a year ago on an Oregon land
company which had usod Mr. Tillman's name
aB ono of tho persons interested in the concern.
In tlio samo dispatch tho Associated Press quoted
Senator Tillman as faying that there can bo no
development which ho would desire to have with
hold from tho public.
o
ON JANUARY 8 President Roosevelt's letter
to Senator Halo was mado public. In that
lottor tho president names Senator Tillman of
South Carolina as one member whom, in tho
prosldont's opinion, it was necessary to
"shadow." In this lottor the president charges
that Senator Tillman sought to secure nino quar
ters of cortain Oregon land, seven of theso
quarters being intended for members of tho
senator's family, one for his private secretary
and ono for his agent, William E. Lee. Tho
prosldont presents copies of letters which ho
says woro written by Senator Tillman and
others by tho senator's agent, Leo. The in
ference in tho president's letter to Senator Halo
is that Sonator Tillman worked for tho destruc
tion of a grant hold by railroads on this Oregon
land in order that ho might secure nino quar
ter soctions of that land for members of his
family. This would mean that Senator Tillman
would jeopardize his good namo for 1,440 acres
?.f m?n Inndt Tho President also charges that
Mr. Tillman used frank envelopes in which to
carry on this correspondence with the land
agents.
SOON AFTER tho delivery of the president's
message relating to tho Tennessee Coal and
Iron company In which tho president admitted
that ho consented to the absorption of that
company by tho stool trust, Senator Culberson,
of Toxas, Introduced a resolution instructing tho
judiciary commltteo to report to tho senate
whothor, in its opinion, tho president was au
thorized to permit that absorption. Senator Cul
borson said: "Tho president's position in de
nying that congress had authority to direct a
hoad of a department by a resolution of inquiry
is characteristic of tho distinguished occupant
of the "White .Houso, and it is a corollary of the
main dogma that ho is absolved from any lecal
restraint whatever." Mr. Culberson cited legal
authorities to prove that congress is empowered
to place restrictions on heads of executive de
partments to direct their acts. He read a stato-
nnf??v J? Wl!lch lh nttornoy goneral was quotod
after tho absorption of tho Tennessee Coal and
iJ?CimF,anyb? th0 Unitod States Steel corpor
S S ? n y ?lQ stntemcmt tllftt ho would proceed in
the courts against the steel corpora! on if tho
steel corporation should violate tho law in
ssraf isas of tnui- Th !e-
TN THE HOUSE on January 8, tho special
.1-committee reported with tho recomZ,!
tlon that tho president bo rebiLu bTSin
so much of his message as reflected on membG1I
of congress in connection with his recomSda
tlon regarding tho secret service detect? f and
also declaring it to be tho senso nf 5,1 5 and
that it yould decline to consider0 any ?omnn?
delivered speeches in which they denounced tho
president's attack upon the integrity of the
house. The resolution to table the presidents
messago was adopted with 212 yeas to 35 nays.
ADVERTISING church services has been tried,
spasmodically, to be sure, but for some
cause or other there seems to be a sentiment
against it. Just why this should be so is not
apparent. If advertising will attract crowds to
the theatres and to the stores, why not use tho
samo means to attract people to tho church?
In these days of business competition and stress
the business man who fails to advertise is not
usually a business man for long. And certainly
tho church should be conducted on business
lines. Wherever the experiment of church ad
vertising has been tried it has proved success
ful. One of tho latest examples is from Barre,
Vermont, where Rev. Francis A. Poole is pastor
of the First Congregational church. Rev. Mr.
Poole is a firm believer in newspaper advertis
ing and used it to good effect. When he took
charge of the church three years ago, It was a'
moribund organization. Mr. Poole started with
advertisements in tho Sunday morning papers
big ones, a page, when ho had the money, and
three or four columns at other times. Ho took
big, black type and told the people what was
going on in the church, what the sermon would
bo about and who would be there. "As a result,
says Mr. Poole, "the congregation has quadrupled
in three years and at a meeting of trustees we de
cided to enlarge the church building to twice its
present size." Some pastors and elders who are
wondering why more men do not attend church
might have their wonder set at rest by a judi
cious investment in printer's ink.
PROFESSOR William Hallock, the dean of the
faculty of pure science, Columbia Univer
sity, has written for the New York Times an
article seeking to show the meaning from tho
scientific point of view of tho great earthquakes
of recent years. Professor Hallock says: "While
tho disaster in the south of Italy, from a human
standpoint, is appalling, probably the most awful
catastrophe in man's history of man, it can not
bo regarded as so important an indication of
the earth's scientific vagaries as the quake in
San Francisco. The disturbance on the Pacific
coast extended for an area of over 200 miles,
while tho actual place of disturbance in Italy
was very much smaller. Of course, to the minds
of the superstitious and the scientifically disin
terested, there is in an earthquake an extra
ordinary element of unknown horror, of an im
pending disaster that lies under our feet over
which we have no control, no forecast, and no
means of protection. It qoines suddenly and in
n; few seconds, perhaps, destroys hundreds of
thousands of human beings. The actual mystery
of the earthquake is only partly explained In
scientific research, that by deductive theories
only manages to pacify our awe of the un
known. There are things we know about the
interior of the earth, and many things we don't
know but would like to. We are ourselves
merely on the crust of the e'arth, which scientists
have variously estimated to be from ten mles
to fifty miles below us. From the inner edge of
this crust to the center there are, presumably
gaseous matter substances of excessive heat'
The temperature of the center of the earth
which has been sensationally declared to bo
inconceivable by Flammarion and others is
probably not so at all. Calculating a conception
of these inner temperatures of tho earth by the
increasing heat that miners find as they descend
deeper and deeper into it it mnv i ,
that the probate temper eT tne earths
about equal to that of an arc light or an electr
furnace, which is about 5 000 tniinnif Jiectrlq.
Fahrenheit The i&Tfh&'if'f
terial in the center of the earth resemhip?
vast volume of air, in a toy balloon for in
stance is not scientifically accepted The ent ?o"
earth is pressure rigid. It is subject to a?il?
ences of load caused by the shiftinc o ? fw
load. It is the incessant readjustment of bS
ances in the integral rigiditv of the S, J1""
that causes eartuakes8. lialintuTtonsn
tons that are carried from the mountains to
tho sea by the rivers! The Mississippi river
alone probably bears continuously millions of
tons from the mountains to the ocean. Neces--sarily
a pressure taken from one place and in
creased in another too suddenly causes a cave-in
or releases a pressure from below, which makes
the upheavals wo call earthquakes. It is an
accepted .theory in the scientific examination
of the earth's substance that it is as nearly
pressure solid as it can be, but not wholly so,
a conclusion that leads us to believe that the
adjustment of pressures is becoming steadier as
the years progress. The displacements shown
by the cracks in the San Francisco earthquake
were only a few feet. Geological observation of
prehistoric earthquakes shows that the earth,
made fissures and slides of 20,000 feet. Take
the evldenco in geological survey of Mount
Shasta, in . California, and the probable South :
American catastrophes of prehistoric time."
ADMITTING THAT there is no actual scien
tific assurance of the breadth and immen
sity of these gigantic upheavals and that on
the matter of earthquakes we are still "in a
state of theoretical conclusion," Professor Hal
lock adds: "Actually our knowledge is com
paratively limited; there is no possible forecast
of earthquakes. The seismograph merely regis
ters a. disturbance when it is occurring. Of
course, the human comprehension of earthquake
Phenomena is as primitive and terrifying -as
thunder and lightning was once a fearful dem
onstration to primitive races. People , con
tinue to live on the sides of volcanoes, in the
valleys of eruptive zones, with naive indifference
to the danger about them. They learn no les
son in these disasters. The region in which this
recent earthquake disaster occurred, although
well known to be in the earthquake stone, had
apparently quieted down. I do not believe there
nSiiJSLTelfiIoils?lp btween sun spots and earth
quakes; the elements and celestial influences'
pnrf? muncerned h tlle inner activities of the
2J2S' ??? temPerature of heat in the center
SSSaua?!! niretly lnVOlVed In tho
earthquake in Sicily was not higher thnn that
of the temperature of an arc light, wnich is by'
no means inconceivable. The surrounding nre
o?r??Rlmra?dia5ely contrS the heated fiquids
or eM w!ir kte,p, that liquid substance m
XL ha.rd whIch constitutes our belief that
the earth is pressure rigid. There Is no do hJ
that earthquakes are diminishing? This is easUy
fnT1 by comPai'inS the history of the woHd's
earthquakes as we know them according tn tut
rapidity of geological changes. We associate
earthquakes with eruptive neighborhood i l?
the recent upheavals of the earth Tn L, f
aft a: as-jSSS
Stl Vn'I'0"868 were fram building of
tidaT waVe n,' Causo 0l destruction waithe
heaVT'the bot oanCf0S.Pal'atlVeIy sma" "
huge and destruoti t?L ocean to ma,t a
patch printed in the World sa- f01? .dis"
Secretary Revnolds nf i V ys: Assistant
is worklngReaynforcSo o 1
frazzlo because he asked thn! n J8 0fSce to a
how much he ahouW pay esw ayS ag,
for his services during the flrK Roosevelt
run the chance of havl ?pS7.65 and
state and other department, n itor, for thQ
. r:L.MMlimuLM.-:.;
