THE HORSE IS NOT PASSING

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 28, 1 February 1919, Page 10

THE HORSE IS NOT PASSING

STTEL AN INVALUABLE FACTOR IN AMERICA.

A correspondent of the Sunday Journal iainkg tho bora© is in danger of disappearing1. But the faithful beast' has survived all the vicissitudes of tractoi- competitiop np to date and we can. still be hopeful for his future (says the Previdence Journal).

The correspondent says:— uJ 7\jf7 no* be duril« this generation, bat it does seem to me t£at it will not jo in the very distant future that the faithful horse will become extinct. Of course, this stage will, be reached only gradually, as the animal is still and will be for years to come popular as an important adjunct to the sporting game." Ihe horse, as a matter of fact, is a good, deal more than "an important adjunct to the sporting game." He is «om| his fuU share m the work of the world. For one tiling, he is helping to wm the war. A great host of horees and « M ™ye he&? shiPPed to the battle front, rhey are ' invaluable {or the transportation of supplies and the smaller guns They can go where it is impracticable for motor cars to penetrate. They are still in active use, moreover, in the cavalry branch of the service. The prophets who thought that, the horse-borne soHier was obsolete have been confounded by recant events. "Ej" ■ »y« the Sunday Journal correspondent, the horse is displaced with the same rapidity in the next ten years that it has been m the past ten years. I believe that I shall not be far out of the way in my theory." Let us see. From tho latest issue of the Government Statistical Abstract the followingfigures are taiien: ■ 6 NUMBER OF HORSES IN THE UNITED STATES 18S0.- 4,336,719 1900 13,538 000 1880- 6,249,174 1910 21^40000 1870.... 8,249,000 1915 21,195 000 1880.......... 11,202,000 1916.. 2^ 159 000 1390 14,214,000 1917 21^210,000 These figures speak very eloquently for themselves. There are more horaes«Jn the United States to-day than ever before—or there were in 1917. In spite of our shipments to Europe, it is safe to say that we have something like 21,000,000 left. It is plain enough that the horse is in no immediate danger of becoming extinct.' He still has his work to do. If he is a less familiar sight on our city streets, nevertheless there are abundant tasks for him elsewhere. We have an interesting light on his whereabouts in further figures from the Statistical Abstract. In 1900 there _ were 18,267,020 horses on farms, and in 1910 the number had risen to 19,333,113. ■ In spite of the introduction of the farm traotor the horse continues to be an invaluable industrial factor in America., We see him less often than formerly attached to -a buggy, surrey, _or carryall. He has been ousted from his fashionable private stable by the invading motor car. The old-time procession of hacks at funerals is giving way, it appears, to the "auto- ; mobile oortege," But the horee has » secure place in our national scheme of things. He is "sure of his job" for an indefinite time to come.

There is a lesson from tb© Bolshevist movement for Canada (states the Journal of Commerce, Montreal) which we should! take to heart—namely, not to throw open our doors indiscriminately and! allow the scum and offscouring of Continental Europe to enter our gates. Perhaps no one can be specially blamed, as we all worshipped the god of Bigness and thought that our country would become great if we peopled it with teeming millions. Wo paid little or no attention to quality—quantity being the main requisite. ..■ We have learned that it is better to have a few,loyal citizens at a time of crisis than toniave many of questionable loyalty. It is to be hoped that when the war is over, and we can. give attention to problems of immigration, we will put up the bars and make it impossible for undesirable citizens to enter the