Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1910 — EDITORIALS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects.

BABEL COMB AGAIN. N lOWA professor has composed a letter, presumed to have been written by a newly . /jl. .ftfaduated college student, In which Are, 160 words habitually misspelled by the-young jajMMb men and women in his classes. He com--222221 pUed theui from examination papers. The word? are 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. •>” ') Bug w.hat ehcouragement have the. students to adhere tp conventional English spelling when the teachers themselves are straying after false orthographical gods? Here, fbr instance, is Prof. Otto Jesperson of the University of Copenhagen telling the studduta of Columbia University: —r“ Muchr — “Much would also he lichieved If scholars of renown, philologists, students of literature and writers of bopks in general .would indulge b some individual spellings,one in this class of words and another In some other class. These Individual spellings need not be numerous, nor should they be necessarily consistent, and tbe author need not give any other reason for his special heterodoxies than that "they Just suit his fancy. This would 7 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 to pieces on that account.” The professor’B watchword is “every man for himself; show your individuality in your spelling.” This is not spelling reform; it is anarchy. It is Babe} over again. But it is cheerful news 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. Every salaried employe *in cities is painfully consclousthat living expenses are advanced In the past five years fully 25 Ogjjgg per cent. If the advance in the cost of living has not been accompanied with a corresponding raise in salary strenuous economy has to'be practiced,/ It is a pleasant experience to be able to Increase the style of jiving, but a painful hardship to be forced to live in cheaper quarters and strenuously economize in household expenses. « ' Wheat ii 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 populate .teJMml,ng of the greater-portion-of the people‘in cities and the tendency of migration from rural districts to centers of popnHatioir are largely the-cause of increased living expenses. In iß6o’ only 10. l per cent of the people lived In cities and in 1000 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 yule 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 parket at good prices.—Goodall’a Farmer.

THE PASSING OF PORT 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, concentrating all their armies at Liao-yang, it would have been better for them. But Port ArthuT as a naval base in an exposed position 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 Port 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 Iff best tp dismantle. it.—Minneapolis Journal.

THE FARMER. OT so many years ago “farmer” was about Nas scornful a slang term as could be applied to anybody who blundered, stumbled or “got in bad.” But what would the aver fflSOTgi age man in the streets say to-day if somejgjgggjiy» body shouted to him “You farmer?” Wouldn’t he throw his chest out and spring a smile as broad as if he owned a gold mine? He certainly would. The tanner doesn’t wear his hayseed in his hair any longer. He sells It and buys an automobile. And when “doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief” point/heir fingers atblip and say, “You’re it,” he merely throws on the speed clutch and smiles back along the wind. —Chicago RecordHerald.