Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1910 — EDITORIALS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects.

* “THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET.*’ _ Ptortgg*ee| HE old oaken bucket” shows' itself badly in a government sanitary report. The De--1 ] partment of Agriculture has been investigating the condition of some rural water ffflrjjSaSKa supplies in the State of Minnesota, not universally nor very extensively, but, we presume, In a reasonably representative manner. The report covers seventy-nine farms. Of these, fifty-nine, or nearly 76 per cent, had water supplies which were or had been polluted. In twenty-three cases, or nearly 30 per cent, there were records of typhoid fever. In eleven cases it would have been impossible to make the wells secure against contamination, or even reasonably safe, *- That is a shocking showing, but we have no doubt that it could be duplicated in almost every other State. Indeed, in many States the average condition of wells is probably worse than in Minnesota. Especially is this so in the cider and more thickly populated regions where primitive methods of water supply and it sewage disposal still prevail, ancT'where in consequents a well is often half well > and half cesspool In one. That is why typhoid fever is still a common disease, and is most common in “healthful” rural communities. All the pure air that ever blew over woods and meadows could no*. counte r act the effects of sewage in the well. —New York • Tribune. v~ £ THE GYROSCOPE RAILROAD. E ALL know how a boy’s lop will retain Wits equilibrium while spinning. A gyroscope is a large revolving wheel constructed on the same principle. Placed PgSjlQg! on a car supported on a single rail by EjlSjjSjO a single line of wheels under its center, j B gai( j the revolutions of the gyroscope will prevent it from tipping to one side or the other. This has given birth to the idea of a monorail gyroscope railroad. „ The development of this idea by experiments with models has been in progress for several years. Recent tests with a full-sized car in England are said to have proven even more successful than with the small models. A 22-ton car, 40 feet long, 13 feet high and 10 feet wide, mounted on a single rail, on four wheels, has run oh a single rail, without other support, at a speed of seven miles an hour, and*howed no tendency to leave 'the track or tip, even when the weight it carried was' suddenly shifted to one side. The equilibrium was preserved by two gyroscope wheels weighing three-quarters of a ton each, placed in a cab at the front of the car and running in a vacuum. The car ran equally well around curves as on a straight line, and remained steadier than a car running on two rails, because it was free from the side thrusts which

Jolt and Jar and sometimes.lead to the spreading of the rails. ' ( ' Without attempting to go .into any technical analysis of this idea, we may say that if it ever proves successful in active practice it will revolutionize the railway business. It is obvious that a single track railroad can be built more cheaply than, a two track. It is claimed 'that the gyroscope car can be run up to a speed of 160 miles an hour, and at this speed be steady and safe. The world nowadays doesn’t take the claims of inventors at thqlr estimated value until they “make good,” but it has seen so many wonderful innovations that it is ready to admit that almost anything is possible. Withaeroplanes under full control navigating thb air, and gyroscope cars running along the surface at a speed of 160 miles an hour, future generations will realize the annihilation of distance in travel as we realize it now in verbal and written communication.—Minneapolis Tribune. r ■ - f vr / , '■" y --i ' AMERICAN SUPERFICIALITY. UR national disease is not nervousness, but superficiality. Such is the diagnosis of a learned German observer, Prof. Hugo Muensterberg. He attributes American lack of self-controls and of the habit of thoroughness to making woman too fre- \ quently the head of the family. Hence woman has been permitted to take the lead in*social life, art and literature, culture and moral development This has entailed a “flippant superficiality and nervous restlessness” in. public life. It is true that American men are very busy. They like to prove themselves ’ equal to every opportunity and masters of many activities. If those be characteristics of a new country, then may its youth be preserved. Other foreign observers have credited' American men with alert enterprise and with courage and optimism in conquering adverse conditions. But It appears that they lack the phlegmatic reserve of older civilizations, that averts worry by' acquired selfpoise and treats the morrow as having been reduced to taking care of Itself. It may be admitted that in this country woman occupies a sphere without exact European parallel. But the attentions that she devotes to science, social reform, literature and public affairs have not impaired any element of the American home,, nor have they lessened masculine interest in the pursuit of culture. If our social order lacks a dilettante stratum of men, it is because Its entire body is wholesomely active. American men do write books, paint pictures, carve statues, and exert theroselveß In activities for public welfare. If there be too much superficiality, it is not because the men abandon to the women the higher and more serious affairs of life. —Washington Herald. - "