OUK AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15823, 23 July 1913, Page 2

OUK AMERICAN LETTER.

(From Ofh Owx Correspondent.)

NKW YORK, June 6,

Moro war talk has been heard in this country during tho last month than since the unpleasantness with .Spain 15 years ago. This is in consequence of the Bill introduced recently in the California Legislature to prohibit aliens from owning land. The Bill having passed the law-making body has just been signed by the Governor, and the Japanese residents of that State, against whom it is aimed, are fighting mad, to say • nothing of the agitated feelings of their brothers in their native isles. Military experts aro amusing themselves comparing flu lighting strength of the United States and Japan, and every few days some unimportant movement of troops or warships on the Pacific starts a wild rumour in the newspapers which is echoed back from the Orient by tho Japanese press, and then is promptly squelched by the State Department. Yet probably not one person in 100 believes war with Japan is moro than an extremely remote poesib ; liiy. It is pointed out that the Mikado's Empire must realise that -there would bo nothing to gain and everything to lose by a war with this country, and that although the Philippines and Hawaii and even some of our home coast defences might be wrested from us for a time, our superior resources would surely win out in the end. Furthermore, the anti-Japanose sentiment is confined wholly to tho Pacific States. The rest of tho country is and always has been very friendly i.n its feeling toward the Mikado's people. However, the situation arising from the action of California ha 6 led to an illuminating discussion of our unpreparedness for war. As a matter of fact we never have been prepared for such an ordeal. It is now well known' that if England had called our hand at the time of President Cleveland's famous Venezuelan messago we should have been revealed in a humiliating position •without even enough powder to maintain our stand. Our condition was the samo at the time pressure was brought upon tho Government to declare war against Spain. It was necessary to delay the declaration of war until our army could be supplied with arms t>nd ammunition. Now comes such a high authority as former-President Taft with somewhat startling disclosures of our condition in this respect. In one of his lectures at Yale a few days ago he said: " The Americans aro a shrewd, wise people usually gifted with foresight, but they have not shown it in their attitude toward the army and navy policy. Congress continues to ba reluctant to maintain nji adequate army. It 16 easy to get money for i militia, for a militia has votes and friends, but a regular army is far different. There is a saying that the Lord looks after children and drunken men. This certainly ought to be extended to the United States. Of course,' our separation from foreign countries by oceans is cause for not assuming too heavy a burden, but wc are very much nearer Europe and Asia—many, many times nearer—than ive were in Washington's time. Occasionally we get a jar and notice our position, but luck has been with us, and wc cannot assume that it will always continue thus." In pointing out the worst defects in our military situation Mr Taft declared that our port fortifications are only designed against a 6ea attack and not on the possibility of a land force.

For a long time a suspicion has been growing that owing to the meddling of politicians our little standing anny is not even as capable as the public 3ias taken for granted. In a plea for tlio abolition of useless army posts, The Secretary of War Garrison has just pointed out that if our present active military force, apart from the troops detailed for coast defenoe, was equally d'etributed among the 157 army pests there would be 222 soldiers at each post. Our regular army consists of only 90,000 men and 5000 officers. The problem of how to keep this small force scattered all over this country and its island possessions insuch a state of efficiency as to get prompt and good service in an emergency is an extremely diffioult one. The concentration of troop 6 on the Mexican border during the recent revolution in that country has been an excellent .thing [or our army. Many defects in the system have been discovered and corrected, and the men liavo had excellent training. Trainins as good as this could only be obtained for the whole mobile continental force by concentrating the soldiers at a few well chosen pests. But this obvious fact has been urged in Congress many times, and ot no avail. Abolition of the useless posts is made impossible through the exertion of political influences. Many times it has been pointed out recently that as long us the people permit politicians to meddle with their army there is no chance of getting it on a firm foundation.

Our newspapers published much move entertaining news from the White House while Mr Roosevelt was President than they have since, or than they over did before. Of all tho Presidents he was the most energetic, most talkative, and the most spectacular, with the possible exception of Andrew Jackson, and in Jackson's day the newspapers didn't publish much news _of aJiy kind. Also, of all our ex-Presidents Mr Rooaevolt has been the most in the public eye. Mr Hayes retired to a chicken farm, and was almost forgotten, and Mr Cleveland, rouuding out his days ia the peaceful shadows of Prinoerton University, seldom appeared in print. But Mr Roosevelt is still very much in the lhncli/fht, and although lie has boon growing very stout of late, 1» soems to have lost none of the vigour or the ajnbition of his youth. He has just been entertaining his felknv citizens b.v a course of sction which in the case of an ex-President is unprecedented. An obeoure little newspaper out in Michigan declared recently that Mr Roosevelt was addicted to drunkenness. The colonel promptly brought a suit for libel against the editor, a man named Newett. The former President took with him to Marquette, wheiro the suit was ;o be heard, a large array of distinguished witnesses, amort? ihem several former Cabinet- officers. Tho colonel put forward most convincing testimony that his habits as President and private citi-/.cn were those of a tempera-to m-sm. and the defence found itself in a. very weak position. As soon as the prweeu-tion had e'ckjed its ease, Mr Nowett took the witness stood and read a long statement in which he Bet forth tha/t lie had heard many stories about Colonel Roosevelt's addiction to liquor, that he was loth at first to believe tho stories, and that finally he had come to believe .-that they were true. However. he said he was convinced by tho testimony of tho reputable gentlemen who had testified in the colonel's behalf that the stories were false, therefore he desired to retract- his ulteranoes and to say that lee Tegretted having published false reports. The court directed a verdict of six cents damages, and the colonel and 1 his distinguished witnesses departed very much pleased with ihe outcome. Mr Roosevelt's course has boon very generally commended, for it has been considered high time that something was done to curb the ever-grow-ing tendency■' to slander and libol public men. A liking for glanderous gossip concerning men in high positions teems to bo one of tlic weaknesses of tho age. In this respect we have not progressed very iar bevond the ancient Romans. Public men in" this ooiwtry are more opt to be tho victims of attacks of this sort than those in England, where tho libel laws are more severe and harder to evade,

America seems to be holding its own as the country of great inventors. Edison's recent combination of the phonograph and the moving picture machine bv which the two work together simultaneously is already being used suooessfiilly in eome of the vhudevitlc theatre®, and with such fine effect that tihe picture players seem to be real living, talking persons. Now Michael I. Pupin. of Columbia University, who invented the Pupin coil system,. which has dono mudh to extend tho possibilities of the telephone, lias just made another extremely important discovery. He hiuj invented a rotating armature or indicator, which, it is predicted by specialists and engineers, will greatly increase tho practical usefulness of wireless telegraphy. Indeed, one scientist, Professor Elilm Thompson, believes that it will make it possible to send wireless messages from New York to Yokohama, or even around the world. The pro,it difficult with wireless communications has been Chat tho electric waves weaken to that it i 6 impossible to send messages many thousands of miles Atmospherio conditions and other causcs have limited wireless signalling to about 3000 miles. By Professor Pupin's new device electric current is put in inductivo relation with a rotating armature of a motor. When a signal is received it acts at once on 'the rotating armature, and tho rotating feature serves to increase vastly tho strength of t.ho current and tho magnetic power, hereby assuring greatly extended communications. The rotator serves another purpose, almost a 6 important. It suppresses confusing signals. By the use of the Pupin invention a eiiip in the English Channel, where thee is much interference in wireless communications, could receive uninterruptedly and clearly, and send with the same absence of confusion, although 100 ships and stations were signalling at the same time.

Ono of our great, captains of industry, Mr Henry M. Flagler, has just paesed away at his homo in Florida, _ at the age of 83. leaving some sixty million dollars behind

I'.ihi. I-Ia might almost be eailnl an empire builder. When 55 years of age, after serving as one of the guiding spirits In the Standard Oil Company, ho. went south for his health, and iound Florida mostly a wilderness, He built the Kast Coast llailroad to Key West., thereby bringing- Havana throe hours nearer New York, and making it possible with the railway ferry for passengers to go in through cars from Xew York to the Cuban capital. The road whose piers rest on the coral reefs under the water cost almost a million dollars a mile. Mr Flagler spent from forty to fifty million dollars in Florida, Since his arrival in the State, the value of the .taxable property in the d.strict exclusively reached by the Florida railways 'has increased more • than fifty million dollars; there are 25,000 acres under cultivation for fruit redeemed from the wilderness, and the East Coast is replete with splendid hotels and attractive homes. Hi 6 were the same romantic beginnings that are to be found in the lives of most of our men of great wealth. As a boy he trudged away from his birthplace in New York fHate with all his worldly possesions packed in a carpet-bag, and walked nine miles to the nearest canal tbwn, from which lie journeyed into Ohio, where he found work at five dollars a week in a general store. After saving enough money to go into the grain business lie made the acquaintance of Mr Jrihn D. Rockofeller, ar.d later bccame one of his partners in an oil rofinerv.

Two of the greatest American trusts which were dissolved by the courts recently aro evidently not so dead as they were supposed to be. At the time of the dissolution of the oil and tobacco trusts it was believed by a good many persons that the action of the court would not prove effective in remedying tho evils aimed at. The independent tobacco manufacturers are now complaining bitterly that they are unablo to compete with tho large conccrn6 which formerly wero a part of the trust, and that these concerns, are as much a monopoly as over. Tho same hue and cry is being raised by tho smaller nil producers, who declare that the concerns which formerly composed the Standard Oil Company aro guilty of violating the decree of diesolution. As a result of these complaints ■ the Attorney-general intends to ask the Finance Committee of the Senate to amend the Tariff Bill so as to provide a graduated internal revenue tax on the production of the tobacco manufacturers, this tax to increase with the increased output of the factory. It is believed that by means of this change the independent majiufecturers will be able to compete with the larger Companies which were formerly joined together in tho trust. The Attorney-general holds thai as a result of the so-called friendly decree dissolving the Tobacco Trust the trust was legalised in effect, and that the evils that caused the prosecution under the Taft Admin'stration are now being continued in a different way. The independents say they can hold out only a short time unless the Government comes to the rescue. To .wait for tho courts to act, they say, would involve too much delay. The drastic proposition of the Attorney-genoral is designed to save time. It docs not fit in well with the Democratic, ideas of using tho taxing power for no other purpose than for rising revenue, but as against that objection it is argued that this is an emergency situation which calls for radical treatment, and that in no other way can 6peedv relief be obtained from the conditions resulting from the resent dissolution of tho trust. Moreover, the friends of the present Administration admit that appeal is now impossible, aml'tihat in an attack on the trusts through a new suit the Government wou'd be estopped by the decree already entered. At the same time tho Attorney-general is studying a report that has just been submitted to ;him by two of his assistants, who for the last few months have been conducting an inquiry as to whether the management of the disintegrated parts of tho Standard Oil Company and tho control of oil priccs are still directed 1 by the same interests as previously. The Attorney-general is trying to find out. whether the facte justify tho beginning of contempt or criminal proceedings,

Food prices continue to rise, and the very rapid increase in the pricos ot meat 6 is really, alarming. The Department of Agriculture has issued a bulletin declaring that the demand for beef far exceeds the supply. The shortage in the supply of beef producing animals is becoming steadily greater, and tne country i 6 warned that it is facing a period of short production of meat. In the last six years tnere has been a decline of more than 30 per cejit. in the number of beef cattle in the United States according to the Agricultural Department, and already for the first three months of this year there has been an approximate doorcase of 13 per eont. in the number of meat animals killed under Government supervision when compared with the same three months of 1912. Estimates of the department give the number of beef cattle in the United States on January 1, 1907, as 51,566,000, and at the beginning of the present year as 30,030,000. The department declares that with the diminished productiqn in the home market there no longer i 6 a surplus for export and that the time has come when we must conserve our meat supply. While prices are going higher and higner the Democrats are being warned in all sections of the country that they must keep their promise of reducing tho Co6t of living through downward revision of the tariff, and where possible must remove altogether the duties oji articles of general consumption, notably on foodstuffs. To, a certain extent the Democrats in Congrdss are showing a good deal of courage ia sticking to their platform. They have turned a very deaf ear to the loud outcricts of the Louisiana Senators protesting on behalf of their 6ugarcane-growing constituents against free sugar; they have seemed to resent the appeal of the beetsugar men protesting that free sugar would be their ruin, and they are paying littlo heed to the protests of the wool growers against free wool. In the Bill that is now being prepared they have also placed nieais, oatmeal, and flour on <he free list. On the other hand, they are allowing signs of a desire to retain the duty on cattle, I wheat, meats, and flour. As a matter of fact a large number of the Senators and Representatives find themselves between tho devil and the deep sea. On the one hand they are in fear of their farmer constituents if they declare these articles free, while on the other hand they know that if they retain the duties on t.hem they will arouse the hostility of the public at large. One thing is certain, that if the duties on food stuffs are not greatly reduccd, to say nothing of removing them altogether, the Democrats will stand but- little chance of carrying the next National election.

Tho great strike of silk-mill operatives in Paterson, N.J., is 6till dragging along, although the manufacturers declare that a large number of the strikers have returned to work. Generally it is felt that the cause of the strikers has been hurt by the lack of wisdom displayed by certain lwidens in the Industrial Workers of tho World, the organisation that has charge of tho fight. For example, one of these leaders, William D. Haywood, said in ono of his recent speeches, "We don't propose to speed up the looms and we don't proriose to do as muoh in eight hours as we formerly did in 10. We projtose to take two haul's from the 10 hours of each of 4000 men so that 5000 men ca.n go back to work. If eight hours won't give all tho idle men and women work wo> will cut the horn's down to seven or even six. We will take from the bosses what we can get to-da.y and we will hold what we can get-. Then we will take more." Of course such utterances as the foregoing make themselves apparent to thoso that buy the goods made by tilie shortened hours and enhanced in cost by deliberately reduced efficiency.