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Show THE CITIZEN 6 Sewards folly, yet' she has been of greater worth to us than the Philippines. The wisdom of acquiring Alaska is no lon- ger questioned. We have grown. Our interests are no longer what they were sixty years ago. too, we looked upon as And we have learned. The Spaniards settled the peninsula long before they occupied what is now the State of California. They found it peopled. The peninsular missions supported northern expeditions. Baja California has climate, scenery, traditions, minerals, fishes and pearls. Fine landscapes, with homes and fruit trees, would soon become a reality with a change in ownership. The departing Jesuits in the eighteenth century were prevented by their tears from seeing the beloved shores receding from their sight. We have need of Baja California. The harbor of Magdalena Bay alone would be worth any sum ' Mexico might ask. However, without Mexicos consent, freely given, we may not acquire that possession. Some day, perhaps, an ambassador at the mountain capital will build a road leading to a peaceful transfer, paving it with golden bricks of friendship. BLUE SKY LAWS. of the California Bar A Association, appointed to study the subject, has submitted a report recommending the repeal of Californias Blue Sky law, in favor of one to be modeled after the Colorado statute. In the first quarter of the present century laws of this nature were enacted far and wide by many states of this Union, all designed to protect people against their own foolishness. A cherished dream of reformers it was, sure enough, but one that is now in the process of fading away, meeting the same end as other like dreams. A fool and his money are soon parted, all laws to the contrary notwithstanding. Obtaining money without asking for it is an old,. old profession. From time out of memory laws have existed for the punishment of its members. These laws need to be enforced, not new statutes enacted directed to the same end. In their attempt to accomplish the impossible, Blue Sky laws do actually much harm, especially in the mining industry. They circumscribe the forirtation of new corporations and the sale of stock with so much red tape that initiative and enterprise are discouraged. Instead of hampering them, men should be given incentive to venture forth upon new undertakings. It is a dangerous thing to clip the wings of pioneers. Thus are the hands of the SUB-COMMITT- EE - clock set back. The country is being smothered with laws for the protection of the public. Legislators need to think more of men and women, less of that nonexisting entity, that abstraction, known as the public. CAN WE MASTER SUCCESS? THOMAS H. HUXLEY, the famed biologist, in closing his address at the opening of Johns Hopkins university at Baltimore, on the occasion of his visit to the United States, in eighteen hundred The territory covered remarked: seventy-siby these United States is as large as Europe, as diverse in climate as England and Spain, as France and Russia, and you have to see whether with the diversity of interests, mercantile and other, which arises under these circumstances, national ties will be stronger than the tendency to separation; and as you grow more people and the pressure of population makes itself manifest, the spectrq of pauperism will stalk among you, and you will be very unlike Europe if communism and socialism do not claim to be heard. I cannot imagine that anyone should envy you this great destiny for a great destiny it is to solve these problems some way or other. Great will x, be your honor, great will be your position, if you solve them righteously and honestly; great your shame and your misery, if you fail. Communism and socialism are creeping diseases that threaten every industrial nation. America, since Huxleys time, has made astounding progress, accumulated fabulous wealth, distributed the benefits of civilization quite generally among her people. So far, we have mastered our problems. But there remains the greatest of all problems for us to master the problem of success. If we fair, if we do not keep up the standard we have set for ourselves in human progress, communism and socialism will overtake us, and that will be the end. i The best antidote for this dreaded disease indeed, the only one is a return to rural life, carrying our industries with us. A NEW ERA FOR CHINA. SECRETARY KELLOGG makes another welcome announcement that America favors the fullest autonomy for China. The curse in China has been the setting up of little- governments by foreign powers to protect and regulate the affairs of their own nationals. This right of extra territoriality is a degradation to the nation that permits it, a constant source, of domestic irritation, forever a cause of open invasion. The wonder is that the slumbering Chinese giant has so long suffered the existing condition to continue. Commerce, in the main, is what brought foreigners to China, but trade is not encouraged there by force of arms. The establishment of a sphere of influence, based upon friendship and respect, serves the purpose much better. . One individual cannot be clubbed into trading with another. This is true also of nations, but it has taken the world a long time to come to a realization of it. American commerce in China would be enhanced by the surrender of every privilege inconsistent with that countrys full sovereignty. China is quite able of caring for herself. The present internal disturbance is as nothing compared to her long centuries of peace and usefulness. Potentially as strong as ever, sh.3 is likely to repeat her ancient habit of peacefully swallowing the foreign elements in her midst. A ROLLING STONE gathers no moss, but it takes on polish. WHEN THOU HAST something bad to say about another, dont say it. Rule thy tongue, if thou wouldst have peace. NOTHING IN THIS universe save change. Change is life. is permanent The country life is to be preferred; for there wTe see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. William Penn. For I dance and drink and sing, til some blind hand shall brush my wing. William Blake. So to conduct ones life as to realize oneself, this seems to me the highest attainment possible to a human being. It is the task of one and all of us, but most of us bungle it. Ibsen. Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. Henry Ford. - WAR AND SOLDIERS. THIS IS the tenth year since the decline and end of the World War. Sergeant Yorks exploits, countless other exciting incidents of that conflagration, are being told over again. War, for the most part, however, is an outburst of pent-u- p emotion, a spilling of energy in the wrong direction. It exalts only the ragged but valiant battalions, battling defensively against, great odds for sake of home and country. Well drilled legions, overpowering in men and material, do not make for lasting glory. Their martial music 'only stirs the blood till reason is dethroned, but only for a time. A lone sentry on some far outpost, in the dead of night, the enemy in front of him, the minutes tensely passing, aye, that is a picture worth painting in the rarest hues. But, alas, it is only the half of it. In the other half he is seen, forlorn, living only in the memories of bygone days. Little is known of the inner sufferings of soldiers. A good soldier does not carry his heart upon his sleeve. But he knows the awfulness of war, though, true to his faith, he may utter not a word. Culture unradiated is static. high dry climate and temperate weatner makes life worth living. Forbes. THERES a divinity that shapes our ends Rough-he- them how we will. w Shakespeare. LET US endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry Mark Twain. HABIT is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day, and at last we can not break it. Horace Mann. TO believe in immortality is one thing, but it is first needful to believe in life. Stevenson. Robert Louis IT IS no time to swap horses when you are crossing the stream. Abraham Lincoln. GOD gives all things to industry. Franklin. ORIGINALITY is simply a pair of fresh eyes. T. W. Higginson. .LOVE comes unseen; we only see it go. Austin Dobson. WHEN the state is most corrupt, then laws are most multiplied. Tacitus. I NEVER make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect. Gibbon. SNOBBERY is the pride of those who are not sure of their position. Barton Braley. LET US be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succ&d. Mark' Twain. THE BANE of all things noble is the average citizen. Confucius. NO TREE is like unto no leaf. another; no branch; The common man is a myth. THOU ART thy master? Well, thy master is a fool! WE ARE gods in the chrysalis. A FIERCE While other parts of the country are sweltering in heat, or suffering from floods, or tornados, this city is enjoying ideal summer weather. Our B. C. Hubbard. exterior suggests a weak core. Confucius. IN DEEP water the whale is quite at home. In shallow, the shrimps soon conquer him. From the Chinese. . |