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About Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 1907)
BIG GUNS ON DEFENSE. Sam Jlan Kiiormonn Rlllea ft / Gnnrcl SIore L > iiie. 7De-pite the fact tbat the United States rtas oae of the lonifst coast lines of any great power it u'ill shortly afford that -cosst line nrnple protection from one end > to the other on both the -Atlantic and ; Pacific sides. Work will soon be begun to put on the nishing touches of de- sfenscs and fortifications in the insular possessions. Altogether the outlay neces- -isary to fortify and protect the United "States proper and its outlying possessions : is ever $200,000,000 , of which amount considerably more than half has been expondcd. The scheme of national defense upon -which work was in progress between 1888 * and 1900 was based primarily upon a re port .submitted to the President by the so-called Endicott board in 1886. This .board' investigated the entire continental .coast line of the United States and rec- .OTtunonded the construction of fortifica tions which were estimated to cost about . $120,000,000. Along the lines mapped out by this board Congress has appropri ated approximately $75,000,000. In 1905 the President again appointed .a. board to revise the work done under the Endicott board and this tune Secre tary Taft was its president. After an .exhaustive investigation the new national coast defense board recommended an ad- .ditional expenditure of $51,000,000 to provide fortifications for new places and to modernize the defenses already built on the recommendation of the Endicotl iboard. As a result of the work of both boards ithe following twenty-six ports may be said to be provided with ample sea-coast defenses : Kennebec river , Me. ; Portland , Me. ; Portsmouth , N. H. ; Boston , Mass. ; New Bedford , Mass. ; Narragansett Bay , R. I. ; eastern entrance to Long Island .Bound ; New York , N. Y. ; Delaware river7 ; Baltimore , Md. ; Washington , D. C. Jj Hampton Roads , Va. ; Cape Fear river , ] N. C. ; Charleston , S. C. ; Port Royal , S J C5. ; Savannah , Ga. ; Key West , Fla.1 Tampa bay , Fla. ; Pensacola , Fla. ; Mo bile bay , Ala. ; New Orleans , La. ; Galveston - veston , Texas ; San Diego , Cal. ; San Francisco , Cal. ; Columbia river , Oregon ind Washington ; Puget sound , Wash. A glance at the list shows twenty- two of the twenty-six . " .a-coast defenses on the Atlantic coast , mounting approsi- 'mately nine-tenths of the sea-coast guna , of the United States. Outside of continental United States , -under the recommendations of the Taft 'board , sea-coast defenses and naval stations - tions are being constructed at Quanta- narno , Cuba ; Honolulu and Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands ; San Juan , Porto - -to Rico ; Subig bay , Philippine Islands ; Kiska. in the Aleutian Islands and Guam. The manning of the sea-coast defenses JLa at present in charge of the artillery ibranch of the United States army. In the estimate provided by the national defense board it was shown that when .all the sea-coast defenses were completed it would require 57,387 men to properly -manipulate them in time of war. Yet , according to the last report from -the War Department , there were only 18,9-il men in the whole artillery branch of the army , of whom 4,912 were in the field artillery. The last Congress , how -.ever , authorized the formation of thir teen full regiments of coast artillery , which , when fully recruited , will add ap proximately 13,000 men to that branch of the service. The Order of Railway Conductors has voted to hold its 1909 biennial conven- ition at Boston. More than 100,000 railway servants in "England are required to work from twelve -to fifteen hours a day. The sixty-hour-a-week schedule will be jput in force in the cotton mills of South -Carolina Jan. 1 , 1908. Average wages in Canada have in creased 27 per cent in five years , accorfc- -ing to the census report. The number ofwage earners employed in Virginia cotton mills in 1905 waa 8G19 , receiving $1,647,739 a year. Eight hundred union barbers in Chicago - -cago , have been granted a schedule of wages and working conditions by their -employers. An effort is being made to establish fl. federation of labor in Oklahoma. If it Js organized it will have about 145,000 workers under its jurisdiction. The Amalgamated Society of British Engineers will , after this year , cease at tending the Trades Union Congress , and absent itself for at least four years. A National Association of Carpet Workers of America has been organized. This will have jurisdiction of about 20- --OOO persons employed in carpet mills. The demand of the Havana -cigarmak- . .crs that they be paid in American money lias been granted by the Cuban manu facturers , and the factories will immediately - . . diately be reopened. Garden truck bearing union labels Is the latest thing proposed in Newburgh , N. Y. , farmers in that vicinity having -organized and asked for affiliation with -he Central Labor Union. There are thousands of women and girls who are members of unions of trades in which most of the workers are men , these unions are , naturally , controll- by the male members. The printers , -telegraphers , garment workers , tobacco -workers and several other trades admit women to membership in their unions , cand their rolls show a goodly number of women members. The Council of the canton of Tessin , Switzerland , has decided by 34 against 21 votes to repeal the act prohibiting night work in bakeries. The men are < &adly organized and will probably not be . ble to resist the attempt of the masters to reintroduce night work. The Union of Sawmill Workers in the , north of Sweden has beaten one of the tiggest employers after a most bitter and prolonged fight , during which several hun dreds of families were evicted from their dwellings , the employer in question hav ing adopted for some tune the device of i&ousing .jthe men in his own cottages. OKLAHOMA QOZO DHY. Election KclTirnn from New State TndJcaie Succes.i of Prohibition. . . Oklahoma has ratified the enabling act and become ; i State so far as Oklahoma and Indian Territory are concerned. Returns - , turns from the largest cities and coun- j ties of Oklahoma and Indian Territory I up to midnight Tuesday indicated that j the constitution of the proposed new State 1ms been adopted by a large majority - ! ity ; that the prohibition clause of the constitution has been adopted and that the Democratic State ticket , headed by C. N. Haskell of Muskogce for Gov ernor , has been elected over Frank Frantz , the present territorial goveruoi of Oklahoma , who was the Republican nominee. In the enabling act Congress provided for prohibition in Indian Terri tory for twenty-one years from Jan. 1 , 390G. The prohibition clause voted on applies the , ame provision to the Okla homa side of the new State. All of the elements of a national cam paign were at hand in the canvass. Secre tary of War Taft was the chief represent ative of the Republican side and William J. Bryan was brought in to answer Sec retary Taft and to lead the Democratic fight for 'the ' constitution and the Demo cratic ticket. The election was 'held under the terms of the act of Congress granting joint statehood to Indian Territory and Okla homa Territory. The statehood bill was passed at AVashington after a strenuous fight which was carried through several sessions of Congress. President Roosevelt velt intervened on behalf of the people of the territories , and , while each terri tory was anxious for separate statehood , a compromise was affected by which the friends of statehood accepted the joint bill rather than have none at all. Imme diately after the statehood bill was sign ed by the President the battle for the po litical control of the new State opened. NEW CHARTER BEATEN. Chicago's Proposed Measure la De feated Twoto One. Chicago's proposed new charter was defeated at the polls Tuesday by a vote of more than two to one. The measure was snowed under in many strongholds of both parties alike , losing in all but four of the thirty-five wards. Fifty per cent of the registered electors turned out , and their ballots killed the act by a vote of 59,581 for to 121,479 against. ' Knowledge had hardly been obtained that the charter was dead than a move ment was on foot to secure another in strument that will contain the good fea tures of the defeated measure while hold ing none of the alleged defects that led the voters to turn it down. An analysis of the vote shows that the campaign made by the United Societies . bore much fruit in the shape of ballots against the measure. A survey of the situation indicated that the defeat of the charter was due most largely to the con tention that taxes would be raised un der the instrument , and that the Sunday closing laws would be put into force. On the North and West Sides hundreds of small property holders turned out to register an adverse vote because of the taxes argument , while in the thickly set tled foreign sections a heavy vote against the act was talled because of the "per sonal liberty' ' appeal. The ward gerrymander , too , undoubted ly played an important part in the defeat. The political aspect it gave to the char ter led many an independent voter to show his resentment by marking an adverse ballot. STANDARD OIL PROFITS. Earnings from 1S99 to 19O6 Shown to Be $490,315,934. Sensational disclosures regarding the fabulous earnings of Standard Oil were brought out in New York at the hearing in the suit of the United States govern ment to dissolve the corporation. Adroit questioning drew from the reluctant lips of Clarence G. Fay , resident comptroller of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey , the admission that in seven years ] Standard Oil's total profits amounted to $490,315,934 , or something over $70,000- 000 a year. Mr. Fay was also forced to admit that in 1899 the profits were nearly $80,000- 000 instead of $34,000,000 as set forth on the books of the company. The Standard Oil managed to cover up its great earn ings in that year by deliberately failing to credit the earnings of nineteen subsi diary companies that contributed vast sums to the parent corporation. This is the first time the company's earnings have been made public. Figuring on the capital stock now out standing ? 9S,339$82 this is an annual profit of something over 70 per cent. Fig ured on the basis of the Standard OI trust , which had a capitalization of $10- 000,000 when it was dissolved and reor ganized into the present company with out any additional investment on the part of Mr. Rockefeller and his associates , the annual profit is something like 700 per cent. On the basis of the original Stand ard Oil Company , with a capitalization of $1,000,000 , the annual profit is a little more than 7,000 per cent. On the basis of the little refinery Mr. Rockefeller had when he started out , with an invested cap ital principally of nerve , the percentage of annual profit is well , the statisticians haven't figured that out yet. BLAST ON JAPANESE SHIP. .Twenty-Seven Men Killed by Ex. plosion on the Kasliima. Twenty-seven of the crew were killed and many were injured on the Japanese battleship Kashima by the explosion of powder after target practice near Kure. The Kashima , under command of Captain Koizumi , went to Kure , where the wound ed were placed in the hospital. The dead included a lieutenant , two cadets and one staff officer. Details regarding the effects of the ex plosion are lacking , but it was terrific and the ship was severely damaged. The blast followed an attempt to remove an unexploded - ploded shell from the gun. A majority of the bystanders were fearfully mutilated. The explosion is under investigation. It occurred inside of the shield of the starboard after ten-inch gun. It was not the shell which exploded , but powder , which evidently caught fire from the gas emitted from the breech when opened to reload the gun. The hull of the Kashima is cot damaged. ! i i E fte &t.m : . l > tf m 11 1402 English defeated the Scots at Homeldon Hill. 1504 Columbus took final leave of the New World and sailed for Spain. 1G09 Henry Hudson discovered the riv er which bears his name. 1G40 Lord Stirling , to whom James I. gave a large section of what is now the United States and Canada , died in London. 1C45 Covenanters defeated Montrose at Philiphaugh. 1742 Faneuil Hall completed and pre sented to the town of Boston. 1759 Wolfe lauded troops at Quebec. 1775 Gen. Washington began to commis sion war vessels. 1778 Benjamin Franklin sent to France as minister plenipotentiary. 1781 Gen. Washington arrived at Wil- liamsburg and assumed command. 1782 Congress accepted the offer of Virginia's western lanus. 17SG Connecticut deeded western land " to Congress. 17SS-7-Congress made New York the capital city of the United States. 1789 Alexander Hamilton became Sec retary of the Treasury Henry Knox of Massachusetts became Sec retary of War. 1803 Lord William Downs appointed chief justice of Ireland. 1814 Battle of Pittsburgh , N. Y British made an unsuccessful attack on Baltimore. British bombarded Fort Mcllenry , near Baltimore. . . . British abandoned their expedition against Baltimore. 1829 Treaty of Adrianople , ending war between Russia and Turkey. 1S41 Walter Forward of Pennsylvania became Secretary of the United States Treasury. 184G First Mississippi riflemen , under command of Company I , Jefferson Davis , charged the Mexicans at Fort Teneria. 1847 American army under Gen. Scott marched into the Mexican capital. . . Many lives lost in hurricane off New foundland. ISoO Jenny Lind first appeared on an American stage at Castle Garden , N. Y Alexander H. II. Stuart of Virginia became Secretary of the In terior. 1858 Steamship Austria , Southampton to New York , burned at sea ; 471 lives lost. 1861 President Lincoln revoked Gen. Fremont's emancipation order. 1802 Governors of fourteen States met at Altoona , Pa. , and approved of emancipation as a war measure. . . . Gen. McClellan appointed to com mand the defense of Washington. 1SG1 Gen. Sherman entered Atlanta , ending the four weeks' siege. . . .Gen. Sherman ordered all civilians to leave Atlanta. 1809 National Prohibition party organ ized at a convention in Chicago. 1871 Henry Irving first appeared in "Fanchette" at the London Lyceum. Mont Cenis tunnel opened. 1872 Alabama claims against England decided in favor of the United States. 1886 Canadian Pacific railway tele graph line opened for business. 1893 Gov. William McKinley of Ohio opened his campaign for re-election with a speech at Akron. 1894 Hinckley and other Minnesota towns swept by forest fires. 1898 British forces defeated the Der vishes at Omdurman. . . .Admiral Cervera and other captured Spanish officers sailed for Spain. 1906 Emperor of China issued an edict promising constitutional government. Xew Ijife-Restorinsr Apparatus. E. C. Hall , writing in the August Tech nical World Magazine , asserts that Prof. George Poe of South Norfolk , Va. , is able to restore life to apparently dead animals , his treatment being based upon the well- known method of forcing oxygen into the lungs. For this purpose he has devised an artificial res-pirator , modeled in all respects after nature. It embraces two small cylinders , each having an inlet and an outlet , with which plunders work sim ultaneously , and from which tubes are conducted to the nostrils or mouth of the patient. One cylinder is supplied with oxygen , and the outlet of the other dis charges directly into the atmosphere. The plungers are worked by hand and timed according to normal respiration. Thus in one movement noxious gases from the lungs are drawn into one cylinder , while the next movement forces oxygen from the other cylinder into the lungs. This device has been patented and will soon be the market. Photographing Thoughts. Dr. Hippolyte Baraduc , a noted French physician , has recently published a series of photographs purporting to represent different thoughts or prayers , thus offering - ing some confirmation to the theories of the Theosophists. Dr. Baraduc , on the assumption that the human being is com posed of fluid or gaseous bodies as well as that of flesh and blood , exposed vari- DUS sensitized plates in the dark near to persons in varying states of mind and got- differing results. He sometimes uses a A BATTLE ON KANSAS PLAINS. American Artillery to Reproduce the Great Mukden Conflict. Out on a wide stretch of Kansas plain the savage battle of Mukden is to be fought again a mimic struggle which for ten smoke-blown days is to stagger over 50,000 acres of government reservation. There will be the crash of heavy siege guns and the stench of picric as the dis rupting shells hurl earthworks and their du imy defenders in the air. The infantry , with its siege guns and field artillery , will throw its strength against the redoubts which the engineers have constructed a fortification which duplicates as far as possible the one be hind which Kuropatkin intrenched his Russians at Mukden and over which the little brown men swarmed after their Shimose shells had blown great breaches in the works. It is chiefly for the purpose of seeing what American artillery can do under identical circumstances that this mimic battle is to be fought. Dunnite is the ex plosive with which our shells are to be charged , a picric compound which takes its name from Major Beverly W. Dunn of the United States Ordnance Corps. The works which are to be attacked by this shell were constructed by the Third battalion of engineers , now station ed at Fort Leavenworth. The redoubt is 30 feet through at the base and 12 feet at the top. It is rivetted with fa- cines , hurdles , brush and sod and is made as strong as the nature of the soil and subsoils of the region will allow. On the inner face a banquette tread , about four and a half feet below the top , has been constructed , and on this will be placed a large number of dummy figures represent ing men , to test shrapnel fire. The work of making this redoubt has occupied the engineers all summer and they believe that it will put the artliKery to a stubborn test. It is practically the strongest fortification that modern mili tary science could construct. In all about 5,000 men will be engaged in the maneuvers at Fort Riley. WORSE THAN BLACK PLAGUE. Greatest Catastrophe World Ever Knew IVow in Progress. The greatest catastrophe the jvorld has ever known is in progress at this present moment and the world recks little or nothing of it. This is the plague epidemic in India , which has now been raging for more than eleven years , nad which , so far from showing any tendency to die out , keeps steadily increasing in intensity. Thus , during the six weeks ending May 11 last , 481,892 persons perished from it , or at the rate of over 80,000 deaths a week. Nothing approaching the appalling horror ror represented by these figures has ever been recorded before. The nearest to it was in 1905 , when , during the last week in March , the epidemic was responsible for 57,702 deaths. No pestilence of ancient or modern times , of which we have any knowledge , has slain so many millions of people as has this one and the end of which , mind , is not yet. The "Great Plague" of London , for example , about which everybody has heard , killed at the outside some 80,000 people in seven months , or about as many as are dying weekly in India from a dis ease which is identical with it in every respect. The "Black Death" is said to have slain one-third of the then population of England say 1,500,000 persons ; but this is doubtful. Even admitting the correct ness of the estimate , however , the mor tality of the present epidemic in India has already more than doubled this huge total. total.What What will be the end no man can foresee or venture to forecast. It may be that all that has gone before , and all that is happening now , inexpressibly aw ful though it is , is but the prelude of worse to follow. HIGH PRICES FOR COAL. Car Scarcity May Make Cost o Fuel Highest in Years. j The Pittsburg Coal Company , the Mo nongahela River Consolidated Coal ana Coke Company and the Pittsburg and Buffalo Coal Company have refused to accept an order from the Italian gov ernment for 500,000 tons of coal , to be shipped to Italy. | For some time past a representative of the Italian government has been in this j country trying to obtain coal , first in the J anthracite field and afterward in Pitts burg. In both places he has been un successful. The Pittsburg operators have decided that it would be impossible to fill the order because of the great home demand for coal. There is a shortage of miners at the present time , and the car shortage is so serious that it would be impossible to get the coal to tidewater. Besides , there are no boats available on which t ] coal could be shipped. According to the operators , there is every reason to believe that the price of coal will be higher this winter than ever before , mainly through the car shortage. The railroads entering Pittsburg have served notice on the operators that here after no cars will be allowed to be sent off the lines owning them. This action will prevent the shipment of thousands of tons of coal until the order is rescinded , which is not expected to happen until af ter the crop movement is completed. The situation was never more serious than at present. Brief Kewa Items- Chicago banks send millions of dollars West to aid in crop movement. Mayor Becker of Milwaukee intimates that he will in a short time be a full- fledged candidate for Governor. A strong sentiment favoring Roosevelt velt for a third term as President is seen by Secretary Straus during a trip. During a reception at the Eagle Club rooms in McKeesport , Pa. , Louis Dele , a well-known athlete , attempted to kill him self by shooting. His condition is crit ical. ical.The The Panama canal cost the American government $84,449,000 up to Dec. 31 , 1906 , according to a statement of the audited expenditures made as of that date and just published. Sherman Long , a carpenter , was shot and killed at his home in Columbus , Ohio , by Frank Miller , his brother-in-law , who has had trouble with his wife , and went to Long's house in search of her. f KIDNAPED BY GYPSIES. Child Slave Ecape From Band After Four Year * ' Captivity. The flam6s of the great South Chicago steel mills -were the beacons which a few : nights ago lighted a kidnaped boy to his . home. After four years spent as a child j slave of the wandering gypsies 10-year- old Walter Cutler found a safe haven under their glare. The boy was kidnaped four years ago from South Bend. Intl. , where his mother and his stepfather , Frank Cullen , lived , j Some time before his father. J. II. Cutler , i a South Chicago shipyard superintendent. I died , leaving a widow and two children , Walter and Flora. A year later the mother married Cullen and went with her husband and family to South Bend. The couple had just settled on the outskirts of the Indiana city when 0-year-old Wal ter was stolen by a band of gypsies. No attempt to secure a ransom was made , and for a year the captive was only a charge to his kidnapers. Then he was taught to care for the horses and children of the gipsies. Thp band subsisted by horse trading and fortune telling and was commanded by Chief Joseph Casmir. The captive was abused by the gypsy children , who regarded him as a slave , and any attempt to resent their cruelty led to more severe beatings by the chief and his followers. He was compelled to sleep and eat with the dogs and was commanded to keep out of sight when visitors carne to i the camp. .The child became tanned to a hue almost as dark as that of his cap tors , and because of enforced silence he had forgotten all but a few words of his childhood tongue. During all of his wanderings the boy remembered the great sheets of flame uhich rose from the scores of stacks in South Chicago at night and which light ed up the yard in which he and his sister played. A short time ago the gypsy band in their wanderings reached the vicinity of Chicago. One night the boy looked out from his place among the dogs and saw the great stacks belching forth sheets of flame and once more the memories of his home came back to him. He crept out from among the tented wagons and stum bled out toward the great lights. When I dawn came he took refuge under a bush > and slept. When he awoke he pressed on again to where he could see the great mills. mills.When When the boy reached the city he still was lost. He could not explain his wishes , and for a day he wandered the streets without food. Blind chance led him to the place where his grandmother lived , and in an instant he recognized her. Strikes Paralyze Butte. The City of Butte , Mont. , for six weeks has been without a telephone service on account of a sympathy strike of opera tors and linemen for some striking line men in Utah. The courts have sustained mandamus writs against the Rocky Moun tain Bell Telephone Company to compel it to operate its lines , but so far as Butte is concerned the company has made no effort to resume service. The telegraphic strike almost completely isolated the city from the outside world. The strike of the mail clerks several months ago left the postoffice service in a badly crippled fnndltioti , mail delivery being almost as uncertain as the telegraph. In addition to these troubles the strike of the machin ists , who went out about a month ago to enforce a demand for increased pay , is gradually closing down the mines. Cuts In Ocean Rates. The war between the trans-Atlantic steamship lines was continued , th < j in ternational Mercantile Marine announc ing that first cabin rates from New Yoik to Liverpool on such ships as the Baltic , Cedric and Celtic would be $72.50 , a re duction from $95 , and that the eastward rates would be , from now on , $57.50 , a reduction from $80. The rate by the At lantic Transport fleet will be $50 , instead of $70 , for first cabin to London , and the big Adriatic of the White Star line will carry passengers for $77.50 , instead of $95. The Cunard followed suit with a first cabin rate of $72.50 , including Medit erranean ports , nad $57.50 on the Uinbria and Etruria. Corresponding cuts were expected from the North German LloyJ tnd Hamburg-American. , To Collect 50,000,000 Seeds. The forest service will collect 50.000- 000 seeds of forest trees in Montana , Wyoming , Colorado , Arizona and Califor nia from the Douglas fir , Englemann spruce , western larch , incense cedar and yellow pine. The seeds will be used for broadcast" sowing and for planting in for est service nurseries. The broadcast sow ing will be experimental , to test the ex tent to which this method of renewing the forest in denuded lands of the West can be used. One method of gathering the seeds is to rob squirrel.1 * ' nests. It is to be hoped that Uncle Sab will not do this without replacing the hoards of thesa bright-eyed little rodents with a gener ous amount of something "just as good to eat. " "Western Union Stands Pat. The expected conference between tin leaders of the striking telegraphers and the Western Union officers did not mate rialize , and the eexcutive committe ? of the company sustained the course of the officials in a formal resolution which re ferred to the "late strike , " as though it were a closed incident. President Small of the union and President Gompers of the American Federation were in New York , and both said that there wouid be no surrender. Small said that mo-t of the telegraphers had got jobs on the rail roads. The Western Union declared its regular quarterly dividend , as usual , but did not publish the earnings for the quar ter , as is customary. Meat Wagon Strike Settled. The strike of the meat wagon drivers of New York , against the Employers' As sociation has been settled upon the fol lowing terms : Wages are to be the same | as before the strike ; there is to be no discrimination for or against union or non-union men ; sixty-five hours is to con stitute a week's work , and all grievances and the question of overtime are to be left to arbitration. None of the competent ! tent strike breakers are to be to make room for the strikers. WELLMAN POLAR TRIP FAILS. ' Airnhlp IM AVrecIceil and Plan to tfcclc Pole Vlmiulonctl for Tbl * Ycur. Walter Wollumo on Friday arrived at Tromsoe , Norway , on board the Frithjof from Spitzburgen on his way home. lie announced that he bad defi nitely abandoned for this year , after a disastrous trial of his airship , the pro posed attempt to reach the North Pole. World-wide interest had been excit ed in Wellinan's proposed trip. Mr. Wei I man's plans were as simple as they were spectacular and scientific. With two picked companions lie purposed to sail in his airship from Spitzbergen to the North Pole , a distance as tbe crow flies of CIS miles. The airship was a dirigible balloon , modeled on the best lines known to French balloon makers. It bore a steel car 115 feet long , which -would contain the three explorers , their outflt of me teorological and navigation Instruments and a kenneJ of twenty-nine Alaskan sledge dogs with sledges. In case of WALTEB WELLMAJT. mishap to the airship or unfavorable winds , the men purposed to abandon the America and take to the sledges for the remainder of the way. With winds in their favor and the airship standing the strain well they figured that the trip to the pole could be made in three days. With ordinary delays , but still sticking to the air ship , it might take them twenty days. Forced to abandon the America , their trip might last three months. They had provisions for 275 days. Starting from Spitzbergen , they fig ured that they would have to travel 1,23G sea miles to the pole and back to their base ; to the pole and thence to Alaska , the trip would cover 1,750 sea miles ; to the pole and thence to Northern Norway , 1,740 miles ; to the pole and thence to Northern Siberia , an average of l0p miles ; to the no&e & and thence as far < feouth as bumanyhabita- tions in Canada , 2,440 miles. The airship made an ascent Sept. 2 in a strong northeasterly wind , which drove it southeastward over the land. It was found necessary to cut the bal loon adrift from the other parts of the airship , but it was n&overed after two days' search. INCREASE FARMERS' EARNINGS. Bis : Gain for Year Due to Higher Prices of Products. According to a preliminary report on crops , published in the American Agricul turist , the American farmers' earning- ; arc $1,000,000,000 greater this year than last. This big gain will be entirely due to th * increased prices of farm products , as the production in general will be fully 10 per cent less in quantity than in 190C , which was the bumper year. "The farmer was never in so healthy a position as he is to-day financially , so cially , politically , mentally and spiritu ally , " says the report. "The increase in the value of his real estate has been pro digious. He owes less money than ever before. He has greater assets than ever , ' Again , the farmer's wants are greater. Ho Is in the market for more and better breeding stock , farm implement , , . Jiouse- bold goods and other merchandise. " r A Rate La\v Test Case. That State control of interstate rail roads has ceased by virtue of the Hep burn rate law is the broad ground of an appeal to the federal courts now made by the Missouri Pacific railroad from a writ issued by the Supreme Court of Kansas. The writ was issued In favor of the Larrabee Milling Company of Staf ford , Kan. , to compel the Missouri Pacific to continue the practice of delivering cars to the mill over Santa Fe tracks , which cross at that point , at the old rate of $ li a car. It was conceded that three-fifths of the mill's business was interstate. The defendant railroad now asserts that the State court has no jurisdiction , and that : he road is wholly under the control af ± e Interstate Commerce Commission. Possible Arizona-Xevada Union. Since the proposition for joint state hood with New Mexico has been reject ed by the people of Arizona it'has been suggested that in case Congress shows a. disposition to withhold statehood honors from Arizona separately a move might be made toward a union of that territory with Nevada. Such a measure , it is said , will be strongly supported by the very people who have opposed the union with Mexico. 4 Use of Sei.smoprraph In TVar. According to dispatches from Vienna , some important experiments were made during the recent Ostend gunnery trials by Prof. Belar , director of the Lalbach earthquake observatory , who used the seismographic apparatus to see if it was possible to calculate scientifically by the vibrations of the earth the location and direction of distant artillery fire. Th& experiments were satisfactory , and they will be continued during the coming au tumn artillery maneuvers in the Kara- ianken hills. <