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Show EDITORIAL THE PANAMA CANAL Hon. L. C. Dyer of Missouri lakes ; sharp Issuo with President Wilson on the canal tolls question. Tho Presl- l dent will evidently have to show Dy- .- er. He passes tho following to the President: I The Panama Cnnal belongs to this country and Its people, and It Bhould j be used for their special benefit. Their money has made tho canal possible. pos-sible. President Woodrow Wilson , asks Congress to repeal tho free toll provision of tho canal net. In his 1 recent message to Congress on this subject ho snld, In part: I ask this of you In support of ' tho foreign policy of tho admlnls-- admlnls-- - tratlon. I shall not know how to m ! ' deal with other matters of evon greater delicacy and nearer conse- ! queue If you do not grant It to I f ' mo in ungrudging measure. a i Tho President In this message fur- 1' nlshed Congress no information as to P I Jiow free tops for American 'dMps ' I interfero with his foreign policy. I, t for one, believing our country mor- m ally and legally Justified In our pre vious action, and knowing the grpat mlnntagcs to my section of the J country In having free tolls, can not " ngreo with tho President, and can J ' not support him In this matter on his I mere request, without information ns to its necessity. It seems to me that this action of tho administration is an abject surrender W Great Britain. Brit-ain. Tho President spoko In favor (of tho action of tho last Congress as regardB free tolls on August 1G, 1913 at Washington Park, New Jersey, In these words: One of the great objects In cutting cut-ting the great ditch across the Isth-, Isth-, mus of Panama la to allow farmers who are noar tho Atlantic porta;, Ito allow all the farmers on what 1 may standing hero, call this part of tho continent to And an outlet out-let at ports of the Gulf or tho porta , of tho Atlantic seaboard and then have coastwlso steamers carry their products down nround through tho cnnal and up to tho Pacific coast or down coast of South America. Now nt present thero aro no ships to do that, and ono of the i bills pending passed, I believe, I' I yesterday by tho Senate ns it had I passed tho House provides for free II toll for Amorlcau ships thru thnt , canal nnd prohibits nny ship from passing through which is owned by (and American railroad. You see the object of that, don't you? "We don't want tho railroads to com-j com-j poto with themselves because wo ' ' understand that kind of competi tion. Wo want water carringo to I compete with laud carrluge, bo ns to bo perfectly suro that you are going to get better rates around the canal than you would across tho continent. The Democratic party platform, L. upon ll,cu io President mado his I campaigns for election, declared in favor of free tolls In tho following words: t ' ' We fnvor tho, exemption from tolls of American jjbhlpsj engaged In coastwise trade pnsslng'lth,rough the Panama Canal. We nlso favor legislation forbidding forbid-ding tho use of tho Panama Canal 'by ships owned or controlled by railroad carriers engaged In transportation trans-portation competitive with tho ca nal. This question was debated quite freely1 In tho last Congress, both in the Houso and in tho Senate, and tho action of that Congress showed thnt It wfts not only in favor of free tolls, but also that our action was Hot n violation of the treaty with Great Britain. Great Britain hns not sent any complaint to this country coun-try of tho nctlon-of Congress in thnt regard. At least Congress has been advised of no such action by Great Urltaln. H'is of immense Importance, of course., that our country should keep Inviolate Its treaty agreements and remain on friendly terms with Great Urltnln and other foreign countries, coun-tries, but I do not bellovo that tho American peoplo want this done to tho dishonor of our own Nntlon. I do not botlovo that wo should bow to Great Urltaln in this regard. I, as ono member of this Congress will not how to tho will of Great Britain when wo aro right. I think moro of tho Intelligence and patriotism of my fellow citizens nnd those whom I represent than to think that they would wish mo to. On tho contrary, I have received hundreds of telegrams tele-grams and letters asking mo to vote against repeal and not ono asking trie to voto otherwise. TTT THE COST OF IDLE OR HALF WORKED PLANTS Ono of the Btrong points made by modern systems of efficiency, is that no business plant will bo a success unless it is kept running omewhere near its top capacity. Many manufacturers, for instance, will recall how in former days they gave comparatively little thought to this idea. Thero was little effort to systematize mill production down to a regular basis. If thero was a period of weeks who nproductlon fell off, It attracted comparatively llttlo notice. Modern scientific efficiency analyzes analyz-es production costs moro carefully. It shows how -when production falls below a normal level oven for a day, thero Is a heavier burden to bo added add-ed to each article produced, as overhead over-head charge, and for nil labor costs basod on work by tho hour, day, or week. Ono reason why newspnper adver tising has grown very fast during recent re-cent years, Is that rotall merchants understand how this principle applloa to tholr business. In former days' a merchant nlted.out his store, hired his clerks, and sat down to wait In a passive fashion, "tor bui,n,e8' Ho was Terr apt to. find, that he did not do, an amount of trado that was normal, nor-mal, 'either for the-capital J--eate in Wu!Dmnt BtaS. or ifor? jhe poSi of his nolp .'The result .SJ the proportion of failures among re-. re-. Ull merchants used'to be abnormally largo. Thero Is rarely ,any,Jnono5r In a store that docs not havo tho np-pearnnco np-pearnnco of being busy. It is not a difficult thing to turn tho current of trade in any given direction. di-rection. It is not hard to convert an ldlo or half worked and unproflt-, nolo retail plant, Into a busy nnd I profitable ono. If the stock Is wc.l, chosen nnd offered nt fair prlrps, the public can always bo 1nter-Ud in It. It Is simply a question of taking In detail tho varloug aioartiT features feat-ures of tho stock and Ulaiae about ' them through the wv-A . A , THE MINISTERS FEE In early daja U?r?K.n depended In coasWeraW -,.. are far their living est ... '.. u (.artle. It wib custrma; . fall of tho yenr to stork ft4: ft- .ars with liberal sup-plloa sup-plloa of flr-ood, fruits, vegetables, and meat. Cash payments woro meager, infrequent, and Irrogulnr. But with a bin of potatoes nnd n , barrel of salt pork below, thero was . no danger of actual starvation. Ilellgloutf parishes long Blnco sub-stltuted sub-stltuted Bnlary payments, moro or less periodical, for tho old fashioned donation parties. But ono slnglo exception, ex-ception, tho custom of tbo wedding feo, has survived. Trinity Episcopal Church of Chicago has Just announced announc-ed a plan to have a minister on hand continuously to perform weddings at which no feo will bo accepted. , . Clorgymen are now .averse to hny if thing oven slightly suggestive of the tip you hand to a Pullman porter.' Few railroads give ministers free passes ns formerly. Tho minister's fee at the wedding has long furnlslied material for humorous paragraphs, and some would like to see the cus- , torn dono away. Tho objection to the course suggested sug-gested by Trinity church of Chicago Is that clergymen aro usually under paid. A fow metropolitan divines, who combine fascinating eloquence of speech with a gift for executive administration of large Institutional' plants, mn' draw comfortable Incomes. In-comes. But this combination of gifts Is raro. Tho ayerago country minister minis-ter thinks ho is on easy street It ho draws $1000 a year. Thousands nnd thousands of them work for $2.00 a day, less than tho average mechanic receives. Tho marriage fee is a tax . that comes onco or twice in a Hfo time, and It bears on about every one, and helps to support unselfish work for community service. When clergymen clergy-men are adequately paid, no doubt It will fall into disuse. Tho felicitous hour of marriage opens up many" parsimonious par-simonious purses, in support of agencies. agen-cies. that work for community betterment. better-ment. , THE LOCATION OF 8TYLE ' A representative of the Paris fash-ion fash-ion house of Paquin has Just returned return-ed to" Now York, after' visiting Chicago, Chi-cago, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Boston and other leading American cities, with samples of spring gowns. Asked as to whero she found the best styles she spoko particularly of Chicago. Sho was impressed by the large number num-ber of stylishly dressed women, on tho streets of that city, nnd thoir knowledge of how to wear good clothes. Admirers of dress often .contend as to where tho best styles may bo found. Such debates relato not merely mere-ly .to tho larger cities of tho country. Tho women of ono city aro often condemned wholesale by their neighbors, neigh-bors, becauso they glvo collectively no Impression of this elusive quality. To the masculine mind, however, stylo parades, such as ono sees in a metropolitan center on Easter Sun day, are seen with the customary skepticism of the uninitiated. To this view, It is moro or less of a circus 'ahovr.lf a style is manifestly unlit or undignified it conveys the Impression Impres-sion of eccentricity rather than 'boauty. . A girl who had acquired an extreme ex-treme specimen of a new type of skirt Recently, anxiously Inquired of afrleo'd .whether.it was too radical. Yes, It looks awfu)ly, "watf the- reply, but It is Just One for stylea Where tho women of a city or a given social circle, acquire the reputation repu-tation of unusual style, it Is at th expense of many normal functions. No person, man or woman, can take bis full share of tho real labor of the world, If that person's mind is very, largely bent on giving a surpassingly surpassing-ly btyllsh nppearanco. It Is a game that requires attention, thought, discussion, dis-cussion, comparison of vlows between be-tween different people, tlmo spent on tailors nnd dressmakers. All of which detracts from tho time and money ono can spend on tho higher satisfactions of life. |