Omaha-
HALFTONE SECTIOil
Pj3:s 1 to 12
1HE
UNDAY JdEE
Advortlsa In
THE OMAHA DE E
Best West
VOL. XXXVI-NO. 21.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 11, 1906.
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
J LI LJJ.
AROUND THE WORLD WITH WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
Problems of Civilization as Suggested by Observation in the Various Countries Visited, With Some Comment on Their Various Aspects and Conclusions as to Their Possiblo Solution
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INCOLN, Oct 18. t Special Correspondence of The Bee.)
Each locality has Its questions of Interest; each state has
subjects which arouse discussion; each nation has its issues
of paramount Importance, and the world has Its problems
There ai e transient questions which come and go and ques
tions which, like Tennyson's brook, "go on and on forever." Each
generation, la each country, meets the issues presented by condi
tions, but all the nations of the earth are constantly grappling with
problems universal In their scope and everlasting in duration. In
his famous oration at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln spoke of an "un
finished work," which those burled there had promoted, and to
which the living should dedicate themselves. Every generation finds
unfinished work when it enters upon life's stage and leaves the
work unfinished when It departs.
The work ef civilisation Is ever an unfinished one for the rea
son that new problems present themselves as soon as present ones
have been solved. In our trip around the world we have had an op
portunity to note some of the problems which most concern all
people at all times. The first concerns the legitimate sphere of the
government what should the government, acting for all the peo
ple, do, and what should be left to the Individual? This subject
Is under consideration In every civilized nation, and no two nations
have reached the same solution
Extremes of the Problem '
At t-fce two extremes stand the Individualist and the socialist
the former Jealously guarding the Individual and opposing any en
croachments upon his sphere of action, the latter emphasizing the
work of the state and seeking to convert the work of production and
the work of distribution Into state functions. Between these ex
tremes stand the mass of the people, governed more by the exigencies
of each Individual ease than by the theories put forward by ln-
dlvlduallst an socialist. In some directions the countries of Eu
rope and Asia have extended the sphere of government beyond any
thing known la the United States; In some respects our government
has enlarged the sphere of the state beyond anything attempted In
the- Old World, but everywhere the tendency is to extend rather -than
to diminish the sphere ef the state's activities.
In the United States the public school Is probably the best Il
lustration of extensive co-operation on the part of the public. We
regard the education of the people as a matter of public Importance
eo vital a matter, In fact, that we no longer depend upon the pri
vate school. The private school has its place, and Its establishment
is encouraged by localities and regarded with favor by the govern
ment, but the people, acting as a whole, insist that the school door
shall be open to every child born inte the country., In . the last,
quarter of a century much advance has been made, in the establish
ment by the public of technical schools, such as law schools, medi
cal colleges, dentistry schools, Industrial schools and agricultural
colleges. Probably the greatest comparative . advance has been
made In the matter ef agricultural colleges and experiment stations.
In Europe the public school system Is spreading more, rapidly la
northern than In southern Europe, but not less surely In southern
Europe. In Asia the people are' Just beginning' to recognize edaca-
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lion as a public runctlon a part of . the state's work, in Japan puD
11c Instruction has for some years been modeled after the By stems
employed In the United States and Europe. In Asia the publlo
school is of a more modern erlgin, but some Idea of. ,$ha rapidity,
with which the public school Is spreading in China may be known'
from the fact that 4,000 public schools have been established within
Ave years la the district of one of the viceroys. ,
i Municipal Ownership Phases.
Municipal ownership presents another phase of this subject. A
century ago comparatively few cities In this country or Europe
owned their own waterworks. New It is the exception that any city
of any size relies upon a private corporation foV its water supply.
City lighting is having the same history, although municipalization
began later than with the waterworks? Now comes the question of
street car lines, and as the same principles apply, the same In
evitable trend toward municipal ownership Is noticeable. The ex
perience of all the cities has been practically the same; first, liberal
franchises to induce the establishment of water, light or street car
plants; second, efforts at regulation and restriction, made futile by
the corrupt Influence of the franchise companies; third, munic
ipal ownership as a protection to the people and as a means of
N purifying politics. In the extent to which municipal ownership haa
been carried Great Britain leads the world, although in other coun
tries some cities like Vienna have rivaled the cities of Great
Britain.
In nearly all of the countries of Europe and Asia the telegraph
lines are now owned by the government, aud in most of the cities
the telephone system Is also owned by the public. It Is hardly
necessary to say that in all countries of any standing the mall
i service Is now In the hands of the government. There la very no
ticeable growth in the government ownership of railroads. Many
' years' ago the government ownership of railroads was tested In
various European nations, and the tendency toward the extension
of government mileage and the diminution of the mileage of pri
vately owned roads has been constant. In some countries there is
still competition between the government lines and the lines owned
by private corporations, hut experience leaves no doubt thai the
lines owned by the government will ultimately supplant the roads
In private hands. Switzerland has within four years purchased the
main railroad system within its territory; Japaa has within a year
extended the government railroads by purchasing seme of the roads
la private hands, and the Indian government Is planning to absorb
more of the privately owned lines. In France a number of the rail
roads hold fifty-year charters, which have now more than half ex
pired and which provide for the 'surrender of the lines to the gov
ernment at the end of that period, the government In the meantime
guaranteeing a fixed Interest and an annual contribution to the sink
ing fund.
While local considerations and local conditions have much to
do in the determination of each case, there is one general principle
which is becoming more and more clearly outlined as the question
, of government ownership Is discussed namely, that when a monop
oly becomes necessary It must be a government monopoly and not a
monopoly U private hands. In other words, the principle now most
familiarly applied Is "competition where competition Is possible;
government monopoly where competition Is Impossible." I have not
space for the discussion of details; many different methods have been
employed In different countries for the acquiring of private plants
by the city or state and different methods have been employed in
different countries for the elimination of the political element from
public service. Those who have faith in the intelligence and capacity
of the people have confidence that they will be able to reduce to a
minimum any dangers attendant upon a course which they believe to
i be necessary to their own welfare. The fact that after more than a
quarter of a century of experience, no retrograde movement Is to be
observed, furnishes some proof that the dangers anticipated have not
la practice been shown to be insurmountable.
Woman in the World Question.
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Another world problem Is to be found In the effort to fix
woman's place In the social economy. No one can travel around the
world without noting the wide difference that exists between the
treatment of women in different countries, in the orient woman
is, until comparatively recent years, occupied a very inferior posi-
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On. in no respect oil mo lunucuio ui uig mi uyui iuo rail uofll
laore marked than In the elevation of woman. Even In Japan, where
for half a century the Ideas of America and Europe have found
vigorous growth, woman s position is not yet equal to man s. The
education of boys received attention before the education of girls,
hut the girls' schools are now multiplying In number and attendance.
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happy expression, fr surely there Is no other country In which so
high an . estimate is placed upon woman or where she moie fnlly
shares in both the Joys nnrt responsibilities of life. For the super
iority of her position v has Christianity and education to thank;
Christianity has ever nvonnieed woman's equality with man and
education has fitted her to be a real helpmate In life.
JAPANESE WOMEN IN NATIVE COSTUMa
CHILD-MOTHER OF INDIA SHE IS BUT 11 YEARS OLD,
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fiWISt WOMBN MAKAOa THI MARKETS.
Traveling In the country one still sees the blackened teeth, tt for
merly having been regarded as the proper thing for a woman to
make her teeth black after marriage, but among the young genera
tion the custom Is unknown. In China woman has not only lagged
behind man In education, but she has been subjected to a torture
known as foot-binding, which Is to be found nowhere else. Societies
are now being formed to discourage the pr actio, bat it is sad to
learn how slowly this reform has grown. In both Japan and China
plural marriage, or what has been equivalent to plural marriage,
has been common. The man has been allowed to take onto himself
as many wives as he could support without -asking the consent of
former wlves--e, practice which seems strange to those who have
been brought up to regard the marriage vows as mutually binding,
and to consider man and woman as standing upon an equal plane
when entering upon the relation of husband and wife.
la Iadia child marriage Is one of the worst customs that haa
afflicted these unhappy people. Girls have been given in marriage
whea only or 10 years old, and a widow of 12 or 13 is not unusual.
.Remarriage of widows Is not permitted under Hindu custom, suttee,
or the burning of the widow, formerly being regarded as the proper
thing. In both India and Arabia the women are still veiled and ex
cluded from the society of men. It is difficult to estimate the loss
that has come to society from the fall a re to recognize the mutual
stimulus which man and woman find In co-operation in the work of
Civilization.
Even In Europe woman's position Is not as good as It Is In the.
United States, although in the Christina oountrles her rights are more
respected and her good Influence more appreciated. Max O'Jtell, the
witty French lectsrer, need to say that If be was going to be born
a woman he would pray to be born in the United States. It was a
Taking
a Census for Year 1920
F IT Is a delicate job for the weather bureau experts to fore
cast the changes of atmospheric conditions a few days in
advance, or for the political experts to give good reasons for
their ante-election predictions, an obviously much more diffi
cult task It must be to forecast the amount of talking ever
the telephone wires the American people will be doing thirteen
years from new. Yet that Is a line of prediction upon which the
engineers of the Bell companies of the United States are Just now
working. As a means of discovering just how the needs of the
future can best be met, step by step, the telephone census has be
come an accepted part of modern telephone engineering. It is
probably the only one of Its kind to be taken from ten to twenty
years la advance, with absolute completeness of detail.
The plan of work Is thorough aud painstaking. Locality by
locality the engineers of a company go over their territory and fiud
out how many lines will be needed, say la 1920 where each one of
these will probably bo located; where each exchange should be
placed; bow many square feet of floor space will be required; how
many busy operators will be handling calls thirteen years from
now; what rest-room facilities these will need everything, In
fact, regarding the plant down to the minutest details Is carefully
forecasted. Guesswork It might seem to the outsider, but It must
be guesswork so remarkably good that no . serious mistakes can
be made in the new construction, year by year.
The telephone engineer has, for a starter, the carefully tabulated
statistics of the growth of his company In recent years, showing
how rabidly the number of lines and of subscribers has increased;
how the revenue has been affected by extensions of service, by
reductions In rates and other causes; how the sverage number of
messages, originating day by day at each telephone station, has
varied; bow the toll traffic has grown In relation to the local
traffic. These and an Immense number of other statistics form a
basis for mathematical calculation.
But office work alone does not satisfy the modern telephone
engineer's desire for thoroughness. The problem must be seen face
to face. Accordingly he sends his young men out into every street
of every town of his territory. These observers make notes as
they go about. Just as carefully as an assessor would cover his dis
trict, but always with an eye to the probable future us well as to the
actual present. From the data they have gathered and brought to
the office every house and every vacant lot Is plotted on a map.
Facts regarding the Improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods
are noted. Residences are divided Into three classes: The first,
those that may fairly be expected by 1920 to have an average of ono
telephone line to each house; second, those which an average of
one line to every other family may he predicted; third, those la
which an average of one line to every six families may safely be
predicted. Similarly, the places of business are classified into
single wire groups and two-party wire groups.
Out of the "character map" thus formed an estimate oaa bo
made of the whole number of lines which each exchange district
should have In 1920. This count Is made, not simply on the basis
of the yearly Increase of the telephone traffic, but also on studies
of the growth of each city and town In the district. While It is
assumed that a manufacturing center will continue to be a manu
facturing center, and that a place whose Importance Is determined
by Its being a main distributing point will continue to hold that
character, efforts are made to get a line on the probable standing
of each place a decade or more hence. Not all towns of equal
population are going to be alike as regards capacity for telephone
use. Data are gathered from real estate men and others specially
Interested. The quality of the population which Is moving Into
different cities Is considered One place, It la assumed, will have
In 1920 aa average of fifteen telephone lines to 100 of popula
tion. Another, perhaps, of the same size, having a different char-
Labor's Part in the Debate
A third question which one meets everywhere is the labor ques
tion. In Europe It Is a question between labor and capital and the
laborer is organizing for the advancement of his welfare. The
guild and the labor-organization have long sought to enlarge the
laborer's share' of the Joint prefit ef labor and capital and to Im
prove the conditions which form his environment. The efforts of
these societies have mainly been directed, first, toward the improve
ment of sanitary conditions; second, toward the shortening of hours,
and, third, toward an Increase in wages. It looks like a reflection
on mankind in general to say that laboring men should have to ask
legislation to protect their lives while at work. It would seem that
employers would of their ewn accord regard the safety and the
health of employes as of paramount Importance, and yet It has been
necessary even in the United States to compel the building of air
shafts In mines and to force the use of safety appliances on railroads
and street car lines and in the operation of machinery. Still more
strange is It that It should be necessary to fix a minimum age at
which children can be employed. The very sight of little boys and
girls working hi factories at the expense of their physical growth is
so revolting that one can hardly understand how such legislation
can be necessary, and yet, throughout Europe and the United States,
the laboring men, through their organizations, have been compelled
to fight for the protection ot the children of the poor. In Asia the
inauguration of factories has not yet been followed by the protec
tion of the children. '
Reforms advance In groups. It Is seldom that one real reform
Is achieved alone, so the limitation of hours of labor haa, as a rule,
accompanied legislation for the protection of children and for the
Improvement of sanitary conditions in mines and work shops.
Those who now enjoy the eight-hour day can remember the nine
hour day and the ten-hour day, but can hardly recall the days ot
twelve or fourteen hours. In the factories that are starting up In
the .orient long hours there Is attendant degradation of the toiler.
The demand for the eight-hour day is an International one and the
laboring man Is gradually winning his fight, partly by an appeal
to conscience and partly by proof that the highest efficiency Is in
consistent with long hours.
In the raising of wages two factors have been at work the la
bor organization and the higher efficiency that has como with more
universal education. The educated workman can earn more than
the Ignorant one and he soon demands a compensation commen
surate with his services.
Effect of the Machine
The labor-saving machine has played no unimportant part In
Increasing the workman's compensation. It has raised the quality
of the work done, and has brought Into use a higher grade of skill
than was formerly employed. While the labor-eavlng machine Is by
some regarded as antagonistic to the welfare of the laborer, no far
sighted observer can fall to note that It has Increased rather than
diminished the number employed at the work into which It has
been Introduced, whUe It has introduced a higher skill, which. In
turn, haB secured a higher compensation. The handUng of a loco
motive requires more skill than the handling of a freight team,
and the engineer commands higher wages than the teamster. The
railroad, by vastly increasing commerce, has multiplied the number
of persons engaged In the handling of passengers and freight, and
It has at the same time improved the character of the work done
and raised the Intellectual standard of those employed. The same
result has followed In other kinds of work. It might be stated
thus, labor-saving machinery, an It Is called although It might
more propely be called labor-multiplying machinery has created
a demand for a higher grade of labor; universal education has sup
piled this demand, and the labor organization has secured for these
higher grade laborers larger compensation and more favorable con
ditions. One thought has grown upon mo aa we traveled namely, the
dignity of labor. In no other country Is so high an estimate placed
upon the wage-earner as in this country. In the orient there was,
until the advent of western Ideals, an Impassable gulf between the
prince and his people, and there Is even now In a large part of the
orient a gulf so wide that one who toils with his hands cannot look
across it. The royal families have lived by the sword and they
have forced from those beneath them a tribute sufficient to support
themselves and their armed retainers. The maeses have been the
prey of the governing classes, no matter what tribe or family held
the throne.
In Europe the extremes of society have been brought nearer
together, although there Is still a gap between the aristocracy and
the masses. This gap, however, la growing more and more narrow,
education and popular government being the most influential factors
in bringing about thia result With education now more and more
withla the reach of aU, the poor boy ts forcing his way to the front
In business, and with his fortune thus acquired he Is leveling ranks.
In the political world, too, the champion of the weak and the op
pressed Is making his Influence felt and his political power is opening
before blm doors, which until recently were closed. In France dep
uties, senators and even presidents have come up from the people
and In England a labor leader, John Burns, has fought his way into
the cabinet Who will say that the European laboring man Is not
making progress whea labor's foremost represeataUva la Great Brit
ain becomes the guest ot the klngt
Opportunities in America
Tea, America leada the world In the recognition of the true
worth of the man who tolls, and yet, even In Amorloa, there la room
for still further advancement Our national life la full of lostanoea
of rise from offloe boy to merchant prince, from plowman to gov
ernor, congressman and senator. Wo have had a rall-epUtter made
presldent--and no president ever bore himself better or served amid
more trying times while another president looked back to the days
when he followed the tow-path oa a caaaL And yet, with these 11-
acter ot population, will be good for only ten lines per 100 of lustrlous examples of poverty overcome aad manual labor, there Is
population.
The number and location of exchanges has to be predetermined.
The web ot lines which may center at a single switchboard Is
now about 10,000 and it Is not thought that this number will
be greatly exceeded while the length of the operator's arm remains
as nature established It. Many new exchanges, therefore, must be
built in thirteen years, and many a city now having but a single
exchange wUl be placed upon a "multi-office basis."
'The switchboards, furthermore, must generally be so located
as to Incur a minimum of expense for wire mtlei;c Such a loca
tion cannot always be secured. Once It has been determined ap
proximately where a new exchange must be opened tone years
hence, a study of the real estate conditions of that neighborhood
is made. The land, perhaps, on the street where the exchange theo
retically should be is already so expensive that it will seem cheaper
in the end to pay a little more for the extra wire mileage and
locate the building a few blocks away. Such considerations have
constantly to be balanced fcgalnst each other.
For every sizable city a conduit study must be made, for
wherever public support ot the telephone Justifies the much more
expensive form of construction, the wires are being laid under
ground. Many cities, of course, which now have the overhead
(Continued on Page Tw o.)
ttlll much t be done before the produear of wealth will receive the
consideration which he deserves. The dignity ef labor will not be
appreciated as It ought to be until our young men are taught that
U is mere honorable to contribute by labor to the sum ot the world's
wealth thaa to spend In Idleness the money Chat others have made.
Tolstoi eoateada that people caaaet be kept la sympathy with
each other nnlou all perform some physical labor throughout their
lives. He says that contempt for those who do the drudgery of 11 fo
is natural If we put that drudgery upon others aad reeerve tor our
selves only latelloctual pursuits. Whether this be true or not, it ts
true that we cannot view labor In Its proper relation to life unless
we measure life by a standard different from that which Is now
ordinarily appUed. So long as wo measure life by its income rather
than by its outgo wo shall seek those occupations which yield the
largest pecuniary reward. When we measure life by what we put
into the world rather than what we take out of H we shall seek
those occupations which offer the largest field tor usefulness.
Enough has been said to indicate that tht world's work is
broad enough to enlist all who are willing to work, aad that the
variety Is sufficient to allow each to follow his taste aad select hia
field, provided only that he Is actuated by a purpose to render to
society a service which will be more than an equivalent for all that
society has done for Urn. W. J. BRTAN.
(Cocyrtght, IIOU,
