Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1910 — Editorals [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Editorals

Opinion* of Great Papers on Important Subjects.

CITY LIFE CAUSES RACE SUICIDE.

NE cause of the rapid extinction of the city population lies in the very mixture of so many races. There is a biological law that hybrids, do not tend to reproduce their kind. The fecundity of quch a mixed population is appreciably lower than that of a pure race. Lapouge found that in

those regions of France where the brachycephalic Alpine race has preserved a comparative -purity the birth rate is much higher than in the districts where the race is greatly mixed with Teutonic blood. In the latter regions the birth rate is actually decreasing. It is evident that the lower classes, living under less favorable conditions than the well-to-do, are more subject to rapid extinction. But the higher classes are not exempt from this iron law. Various causes are mentioned for this fact. Marriages are contacted much later in life among the wealthy, and, as a rule, they have fewer children; the intellectual life, seems to be unfavorable to the fecundity of women. Race suicide is more common among the higher classes. *lt is hardly necessary to mention that families of an extremely healthy stock, and living under the more favorable conditions, are able to continue their existence a much longer time. The remarkable vitality of the British aristocracy is due to their athletic habits, and to the fact that they spend the greater part of the year on their, in the country. Ammon holds that- the aristocratic classes of the Continent "have favorable prospects to,perpetuate their family names only if they live on estates and devote themselves to agriculture and the chase.” —Popular Sci-' ence Monthly. “ -v — A DISEASE THAT BAFFLES SCIENCE.

HILE science is confident of baffling cere-bro-spinal meningitis and is attacking resolutely infantile paralysis, the insidious plague of pellagra had resisted all its efforts for generations. " This is no new disease, as many have thought. It is not even new in the Übited

" States, though medicine has been slow to recognize It for' what Jt is. Though the external symptom of it is the "rough skin" described by its name in Italian, it is an obscure disease of the nervous system, lingering for years of suffering without the relief of death and causing mental disorders that are diagnosed by the general name of Insanity where the disease itself is pot understood. In Italy, where the -plague has been under observation for more than a generation, all its stages and symptoms are recognized, but it may appear in other countries and spread for many years, being called' eczema at one time and insanity at another, without any recognition of the connection. That Is now believed-to be true of the United States. Though the disease is fully developed only in some parts of the South, it is now considered certain that many cases .of mysterious insanity in asylums of 1111-

nols and other States are due to it. Within the last year or two there has been great energy in searching ouCand dealing with these scattered cases, as well as in combating it where it abounds, especially in South Carolina. The cause of it is known to be a specific poison generated, like ptomaines in animal decay, in moldy corn. That is why it has been so abundant in Italy, where the food of the poor is polenta, made out of the cheapest corn meal. But the nature and operation of the poison,, or poisons, because different effects suggest a germ infection as well as a nerve poison, are absolutely unknown, and science can do nothing but try to prevent. Italian physicians rejoice that pellagra has been recognized here, because they say that the Americans will solve the mystery. That is flattering, when their own reputation is considered. —Minneapolis ’Tribune. COLLEGES AND WOMEN.

HE head of Bryn Mawr Colllege is a profound, sincere and brilliant woman. Recently she has taken up the charge that the college-trained woman is unfitted for domestic life. Her inquiries have convinced •her that 30 per cent of college women do their own housework; that, though they

marry later in life,/they marry more wisely; that they have an average of three and six-tenths children, as against the non-college women’s three and five-tenths. Said the Spectator of 200 years ago: “As our English women excel those of all nations in beauty, they should endeavor to outshine them in all other accotoplishments-proper to the sex, and to distinguish themselves as tender mothers and faithful wives rather than as furious partisans. Female virtues are of. a domestic turn.”' Nobody doubts that the horne and the smal 1 child’s care wljl always fall to the woman. She is the mote' - directly.responsible for the succeeding generation. What Is receiving heavy blows at present is the traditional and stereotyped idea that knowledge and Intellectual training are less suitable to these high tasks'than are frivolity and Ignorance.— Weekly. ■ ■ ; FARMERS MAKE HIGH PRICES.

N OMAHA banker says that the farmers in the West are holding their corn for better prices. A Lincoln (Neb.) grain man reported that at one of his country elevators he offered two farmers 85 cents for corn, and they replied that (hey would bring in 10,000 bushels when the price got up to

sl. We do not blame the farmers; they are entitled to all they can get for their produce. But what becomes of the story in the muck-raking papers that the high prices of farm products are paused by combinations of wholesalers and retailers and that the farmers do not get any benefit? Tell that to the marines, but not to the farmers. —Leslie’s Weekly.