Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1910 — EDITORIALS [ARTICLE]

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects.

BABEL COME AGAIN. N lOWA professor has composed a letter, presumed to have been written by a newly graduated college student, in which are 160 words habitually misspelled by the young men; and women in his classes. Hepom- ' piled them from fifty-eight examination papers. The words lure those commonly

used,' both in writing and speaking, and the professor thinks that almost any teacher could furnish a similar list We have no doubt of that. But.what encouragement have the studentg to adhere to conventional English spelling when the teachers themselves are straying after false orthographical gods? Here, for instance, is Prof. Otto Jespersen of the University of Copenhagen telling the students of Columbia University: “Much would also be achieved if scholars of renown, philologists, students of literature and writers of books in generaT*would indulge in some individual spellings, one tfi this class of words and another other class. These individual spellings need not be numerous, nor should they be necessarily consistent, and the author need not give any other reason for his special .heterodoxies than that they just suit his fancy. This would educate readers by showing them that different spellings need not always be marks of Illiteracy and that there may exist difference of opinions in this as well as in other respects without any fear of-human society falling at once tq pieces on that account." The professor’s watchword is “every man for himself; show your individuality in your spelling.” This is not spelling reform; it is anarchy. It is" Babel over again. But it is cheerful hews for the writers of those fifty-eight examination papers.—Chicago Tribune.

COST OF LIVING.

HE cost of living is increased by higher rents and advanced prices for food products. Everjr salaried employe in cities Is painfully conscious that living expenses are advanced in the past five years fully 25 per cent. If the advance in the cost of living has not beqn accompanied with

corresponding raise in salary strenuous economy has to be practiced. It is a pleasant experience to be able to Increase the style of living, but a painful hardship to be forced to live in- cheaper quarters and strenuously economize in household expenses. Wheat is averaging 20 per cent higher than the average of the past five years and $1 wheat is likely to hold firm indefinitely, as domestic consumptive demand is rapidly overtaking production. Corn is high, and as it is the foundation of meat production meat is also destined to rule high until there Is a great reduction in the expense of exploiting animal husbandry. If the population of cities forecasts the future there is but faint prospct that living expenses in cities will be cheaper in the next decade than at the present time. One cause of the high expense of living in cities is the cost of municipal

government and the tendency to exploit taxpayers, with high-salaried officials and costly public Improvements. The~problem to be solved to reduce living expenses is to have a better balanced population. The massing of the greater portion of the people in cities and the tendency of migration from rural districts to centers of population are largely the cause of increased living expenses. In 1860 only 16.1 per cent of the pebple lived in cities and in 1900 there were 31.1 per cent, a gain of around 60 per cent in forty years. Cities Increase in population, in a faster ratio than rural districts and so long as this regime prevails food products will rule high. A well-balanced population demands an exodus from cities to the country, where undeveloped agriculture awaits the hand of labor to produce bountiful harvests that will find a world’s market at good prices.—Goodall’s Farmer.

THE PASSING OF POET ARTHUR.

HE Japanese have decided-to open Port Arthur to the commerce of the world. That is to say, the fortress, which they have never rehabilitated since the siege, Is to be virtually abandoned as the Gibraltar of the Far East. The decision is set down as an effort to reconcile others to Japanese

encroachments in Manchuria. But the truth, no doubt, is that the decision is dictated by sound military reasons. * \ Port Arthur as a fortress may have been valuable to Russia, although, if the Russians had blown up the defenses and evacuated the place, cenoentrating all their armies at Llao-yang, it would have been better for them. But Port Arthur as a naval base in an exposed posittoh would Be only a weakness to Japan, who has better protected naval bases within striking distance both in Korea and in her own islands. Occupying feort Arthur as a fortified naval base would in the event of war impose upon the Japanese the initial necessity of defending it, which would hamper her offense and divide her force. Japan cannot afford to have the fortress in another’s hand; but, possessed by herself, it is best to dismantle it. —Minneapolis Journal.

THE FAHMER

OT so many yea’rs ago “farmer” was about as scornful a slang term as could be applied to anybody who blundered, stumbled ' or “got in bad.” But what would the aver age man in the streets say to-day if somebody. shouted to him “You farmer?” Wouldn’t he throw his chest out and spring

a smile as broad as if he owned gold mine? He certainly would. The farmer doesn’t wear his hayseed In his hair any longer. He sells it and buys an automobile. And when “doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief" point their "fingers at him and say, “You’re it.” he merely throws on the speed clutch and smiles back along the wind. —Chicago RecordHerald.