Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1907 — PAPERS BY THE PEOPLE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PAPERS BY THE PEOPLE.

A GIANT COFFEE CORNER.

By A. W. Atwood.

No country or organization has ever attempted to control the price of a commodity on anything like the colossal scale that Is now being resorted to by the government of Brazil, and a group of merchants and bankers associated with It, to prevent a furthest decline in the price of coffee. On Aug. 0, / f506, ? the President of Brazil signed the so-called valorization bill, providing for a 575,000,000 bond issue

by the States of Sao Paulo, Minas and Rio, the three cof-fee-producing States of Brazil, and guaranteed by the general government. Already a large proportion of the loan has been placed, and with .the proceeds about 7,500,000 bags of coffee have been purchased by the government and set aside with the purpose of raising the price of -coffee. Enemies of the valorization scheme assert that It must ultimately fail, as anything In the nature of an attempted corner Is sure to do, since it is contrary to the laws of political economy. The friends of the scheme deny that any effort Is being made to corner coffe or to create a trust or monopoly In that commodity, and certainly in spite of the heroic efforts that are being made to support the price of that article there has been no evidence In the movement «f prices since the valorization law went Into effect to warrant the assumption that any corner Is likely.—Van Norden Magazine.

WOMEN NEED HIGHER EDUCATION.

By James Bryce.

it is true that the greatest geniuses have not been women. Perhaps they ~ make a better showing against men In the world of affairs than In the world .of pure thought, which seems odd when one considers how seldom they have had the chance of showing high statesmanship. But the argument that the greatest men have surpassed the greatest women really Is quite beside the present question. Colleges and universities are not Intended for Platos, and Newtons, and Goethes. They are Intended, for

young persons of ability and intelligence above, but not necessarily far above, the average. It Is enough for us to say that, taking all but the few leading spirits of each age. the faculties of men and women are practically equal and generally similar. Women can do a great deal In rousing and shaping public opinion. Women are quite as well qualified to master economic principles as men are, and they even are better qualified to apply those principles in the dally work of administration. They have more tact, more sympathy, more patience, more willingness to take trouble to comprehend the smallest details. Where the work to be done is for the benefit of children, and no work is more important, they plainly are the best fitted for it. America

never wll} forget what was done by the women who oamc from the North to teach the colored children after the Civil War. Every one among ns, young or old, man or woman, ought to have some kind of Interest, some line of study, or some form of practical work outside the direct and main business of bis life, something to which the mind can turn for relief from that business. It often is hard to secure this second outside interest, perhaps as hard for women as for men, because they are subject to more frequent domestic Interruptions and are apt to be entangled In a coll of so-called social duties, mostly useless. But we must all try to secure It.

AMERICAN PATENT LAWS.

By Justice David J. Brewer.

The whole system of the patent laws In this country Is quite wrong. This Is the way It operates: A man sends in an application for a patent He has to pay a certain sum to have the patent granted him. It is a comparatively small sum. This, of course, is in addition to whatever he pays his agent or commissioner for securing the patent. Now, If the government finds that he Is not entitled to a patent

bis fee Is returned to him. Now, look what happens under the present erroneous system of granting patents. The government does not want to refund the money, and in consequence the country Is deluged with a mass of useless patents. The great majority of themore not original or are not Inventions. They are only distorted applications of the real Inventor’s Idea. This reckless and wholesale Issuance of patents Is a detriment to the genius who gives the world an Invention. If his invention is of any real value there will bo a thousand other men who spring ut> with slight modifications on It and also get patents. The real inventor Is thus robbed of the proceeds of his genius, aud the United States Is afflicted with continual and ceaseless litigation on the subject

POSTOFFICE AND CRIME DETECTION.

By George B. Cortelyou.

It will be readily understood that the guarding of the malls for the purpose of keeping at the minimum the manifold abuses to which they are inherently subject Is a task of great magnitude; but It Is being better and more efficiently done every year, affording much Justification for the remark, which was made not long ago, that “the Postofllce Department of the United States Is the most “effective agency in the world for the detection and prevention of crime and the apprehension of the crim-

Inal.” —North American Review.

JAMES BRYCE.

GEO. B. CORTELYOU.