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The Commoner
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 44
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LAFOLLETTE'S Magazine says: "That the
one great obstacle to the development of
our waterways Is the opposition of the railroad
companies, is the statement made by Commis
sioner of Corporations Herbert Knox Smith in
his report to the president on September 26.
Says Commissioner Knox: 'Probably the great
est single deterrent to water terminal advance
in the United States is the present adverse atti
tude of rail lines toward independent water
traffic, In their exclusive control of frontage, in
refusal or neglect to co-ordinate with general
water traffic, and in refusal to pro-rate gener
ally with water lines in through movement of
traffic' In some cities, says Mr. Knox, railroads
own almost the entire water frontage and are
able to stifle possible water competition.
Europe's rivers are busy arteries of commerce.
Europe's great natural highways are used to
carry commodities between producer and con
sumer as cheaply as possible. Europe looks up-
on her waterways as a resource to be developed
In the interest of the people. In the United
States they are allowed to lie unused and unde
veloped, because of the selfish interest of the
rail transportation monopoly."
THE AUTHOR of the "Battle Hymn of the
Republic" died at her home in Middletown,
Rhode Island. An Associated Press dispatch
from Middletown says: "Julia Ward Howe is
dead. Bowed under the weight of her ninety
one years, the noted philanthropist and author
succumbed peacefully to an attack of pneumonia
at her summer home here. The funeral was
held at the Church of the Disciples, Unitarian,
Boston, Thursday. Those who knew her said
that Mrs. Howe's unfailing optimism was the
great source and support of her manifold activi
ties. Born In a' cultured home In New York
City and educated with care, she showed early
a remarkable ability for study. She was but
twenty-two years old when she came to Boston
and met Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, the great
philanthropist, and two years later they were
married. From that time until Dr. Howe's
death In 1876 this remarkable couple showed
a. never tiring co-partnership of activity in all
things making for the uplift of mankind. After
her husband's death Mrs. Howe continued her
work by pen and mouth for many a worthy cause
up to the very end. She had shared her hus
band's labors for the Greeks in their struggle
for Independence; she had assisted him in his
anti-slavery work and fired the nation with her
'Battle Hymn of the Republic' She had joined
heartily in the crusade for woman suffrage;
then in the la3t years of her life she pleaded
the cause of the little children by participating
in a public hearing at the state house and urg
ing that action be taken to Insure pure milk for
infants. Mrs. Howe was the author of many
poems, of which she had published several vol
umes, and of many prose works. Her works In
cluded volumes recounting her travels with her
husband In Greece and Cuba. Mrs. Howe leaves
four children, Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, a promi
nent woman suffrage worker; Mrs. Laura E.
Richards, an author; Mrs. Maude Howe Elliott,
wife of John Elliott, the artist and professor,
and Marion Howe, professor of metallurgy at
Columbia University."
A BROOKLYN, N. Y., light investigation re
cently made with respect to 141 city munici
pal plants, resulted in an interesting report.
The report is described in, a New York dispatch
to the Chicago American in this way: "That
electricity can be produced and sold at a profit
by municipally owned plants for as little as four
cents per kilowatt hour, whereas the privately
owned monopoly -in this city gets as much as
twelve cents per kilowatt hour for it, has been
proved by an investigation by the Twenty-eighth
ward board of trade of Brooklyn. The members
of that organization, having suffered from ex
orbitant rates of the electric light trust of their
city the Edison Electric Illuminating company
began looking into the situation in other
cities about nine months ago. The report has
been made. It was a most striking argument
In favor of municipal ownership. It will bo pre
sented to the public service commission, and
that body will be called upon to investigate the
lighting situation in Brooklyn. One hundred
and forty-one municipal electric plants were ex
amined In all parts of the United States. One
hundred and fifteen of these sold electricity
cheaper than the Brooklyn monopoly, fifteen at
the same rate and eleven at a higher rate. Mu
nicipal ownership in every one of the cities in
vestigated had proved itself, the investigators
found, a splendid success. Owensboro, Ky., was
one of the towns investigated. A municipal
lighting plant constructed in 1901 at a cost of
$86,235, and bettered since then to the extent
of $125,573, had in eight years paid off this
$211,829 in cost out of its profits and had left
over $1,040. And at no time was more than
five cents per kilowatt hour charged. Jackson
ville, Fla., paid $171,000 for its plant. Last
year its net earnings were more than $178,000.
In fourteen years the Jacksonville plant had
paid for itself and turned over in profit to the
city nearly $400,000. Naturally, the greater
number of persons served the lower could and
should be the price of service, the board of
trade men argue. They point out, then, that
Blair, Wis., with only 461 population, Is able to
make and sell electricity from its own plant at
only six cents per kilowatt hour. Brooklyn,
with a population of. 1,539,235, if -it had a
municipal plant, should be able to sell current
at a price even less than that, they claim."
THEY ARE TRYING to revise the fine old
hymn "From Greenland's Icy Mountains,"
and there is general protest from the Atlantic
to the Pacific A writer in the New York World
says: "The revisionists take the ground that
the hymn- in question deals rather with the sub
limities of natural scenery than with the omni
potence of a Creator. Perhaps by no other plea
could they reveal more definitely the -weakness
of their case. They have submitted the hymnal
lines to the cold analysis of the study table.
Setting aside the obvious fact that few composi
tions in the book of song would pass unscathed
through this "form of censorship, we may remark
that the committee has by its methodof criti
cism lifted itself entirely out of the congrega
tional spirit. True believers do not worship
by construing the lines in gospel minstrelsy;
they do not dissect while they sing. Left to
themselves, we believe they would have sung
of icy mountains and coral strands to the end
of time without discovering the worldly point
made by the revisionists. It is a question, in
deed, whether the mere words of hymns have
not lost place in the congregational mind to the
tunes with which they have long been associted.
Melodies can inspire without words. They also
can repeat inspirations absorbed from words
grown familiar. The 'Old Hundred' on the organ
is impressive without the chorused 'Doxology.'
We do not beliete any revision committee can
keep the churches from singing 'From Green
land's Icy Mountains' to the old tune, or could
lead them to sing it to a new tune."
pEFERRING TO THE famous old hymn a
XL Lock Haven (Pa.) reader of the Philadel
phia Public Ledger says: "In connection with
the current talk relative to the famous hymn,
From Greenland's Icy Mountains by Bishop
Reginald Heber, which a' certain Episcopal
bishop proposes omitting from a proposed new
hymnal, and which has created a very great
deal of adverse comment, permit me to give you
the origin of said hymn, as found in the Rev.
Edwin M. Long's 'Hymns and Their Authors
page 208: 'Of the fifty-nine elegant hymns
written by Bishop Heber, none are so widely
known or so frequently sung as his missionary
hymn. In 1819 a royal letter authorized col
lections to be taken in every church and chapel
in England connected with the establishment.
In furtherance of the society for propagating
the gospel. On the evening of Whit Sunday,
which was the day appointed for this purpose,
Heber had engaged to deliver the first of a
series of Sunday evening lectures in the church
at Wrexham, which was In charge of his father-in-law,
the Rev. Dr. Shipley. On the Saturday
previous, as they were seated aTound the table
in the parsonage, the dean requested his son-in-law
to write something for them to sing in the
morning that would be suitable to the mission
ary service. Heber at once retired from the
circle of friends to a corner of the room. After
a while his father-in-law Inquired, 'What have
you written?' Heber then read the first three
verses, which he had already produced. 'There,
that will do very well said the dean. 'No, no,'
said Heber, 'the sense is not complete Accord
ingly he added the fourth verse, commencing,
'Waft, waft, ye winds, His story Next morn
ing it was sung in the church at Wrexham, and
soon after caught up as the grand missionary
hymn of the church universal, reaching 'from
pole to pole The Rev. Dr. Raffles was in pos
session of the original manuscript, from which
it Is seen that so accurately was it written at
first that he had occasion to alter but one
word. It would seem from the above that our
modern bishop has set his opinion over against
that of a very much greater man in his own
communion."
THE "POISON bugaboo" is treated in an in
teresting way by Samuel Hopkins Adams,
writing in Everybody's Magazine. ' A synopsis
of Mr. Adams' article is printed in the Chicago
.Ttecord-Herald and is as follows: "Mr. Adams
1s full of scorn for some of our most cherished
illusions as he considers them concerning the
poisonous quality of snake bites. He tells us
that 'pseudo science to the contrary notwith
standing, there is no living thing within the
boundaries of the United States of America
whose bite or sting Is sure death or (with one
possible exception) even probable death.' On
the basis of actual evidence, Mr. Adams says,
only about eighty persons ever have died from
snake bites in the United States. Nowhere in
the civil war records does a death from this
cause appear, though hundreds of thousands of
men were living out of door lives in regions
abounding with snakes. Discussing the ratio
of mortality he shatters another popular belief
by declaring that the large amount of whisky
poured into many persons bitten probably has
been responsible for many deaths, and that it
is an error to suppose that whisky will counter
act the poison of a rattlesnake's bite. On this
point he says: 'Be it remembered always that
death following snake bite is not necessarily the
same thing as death from snake bite. Error
In treatment plays no small part in vitiating
the statistics. For 'error' read 'whisky.' Who
ever is primarily responsible for the hoary su
perstition that liquor in huge doses is useful in
snake poisoning has many a life to answer for."
MR. ADAMS asserts that the terror of coun
try folk of the puff adder or sand viper
is unwarranted. "There's no such thing as an
adder or viper in the western hemisphere," he
cheerfully tells, "and never has been one, unless
it came, carefully pickled, in a jar. What
passes for the supposed deadly reptile is the
common hog-nosed or bull snake. It is about
as dangerous as an infuriated rabbit." But the
elaps, "a pretty little red and black banded ser
pent about as thick as your thumb," Mr. Adams
advises the reader to "shun as you would a
rabid dog." Mr. Adams opines that the Gila
monster, over which such controversy has raged,
probably is not poisonous to man except under
unfavorable conditions, though the evidence on
the matter is not conclusive. Passing to discus
sion of insect bites, he again assails tradition by
telling us that there Is but slight foundation for
the belief that the bite of the scorpion, centi
pede, tarantula and common spider often bring
death. The kissing bug, which caused so much
popular dread a few years ago, is discussed by
Mr. Adams, and he concludes that under certain
conditions it may produce a painful but not
dangerous wound. But our greatest insect foe,
he points out, is the anopheles mosquito. On
this subject he says forcibly, his words having
sound foundation in the discoveries of science:
"One venomous creature there is in this country
"which may justly be termed a public peril, in
the widest sense. Proportionately to popula-