Purity Campaign and Government Costs
Beginning September 30, the American Purity Federation began a national campaign against the white slave traffic. The Woman's National Daily says editorially: "The movement is an important one because of the fact that a warning will be carried to those who have not realized their danger. We all flatter ourselves with the comforting belief that our own homes and neighborhoods are immune. It is because no community is immune that the necessity for the great activity [purity evangelization] exists. The people of the cities to be visited should extend greetings and moral support to their visitors. They will come bringing, with their message of warning, a more comforting message of hope." It is interesting to compare the cost of our Government in the administrations of John Adams and William Taft. While the average yearly cost during the term of the former was 50 cents per capita, during the first year of Mr. Taft it was $13.55, according to Representative Sherwood. The first session of Congress under President Taft spent more money than any previous session, even those in war—$1,096,275,155. In the appropriations for the last four years, 72 per cent went for military purposes. The expenditure attributed to the personal expenses of President Taft during his first year will be about $319,000; of President Lincoln in his first year, $29,980. Twenty-two soldiers of the twenty-seventh company, coast artillery corps, at the San Francisco Presidio, are suffering the effects of ptomain poisoning. A new record has recently been made with the big coast defense guns, and the soldiers have been celebrating the event with a banquet. Almost unmistakable evidences trace the result of poisoning to the eating of shrimp salad which was on the bill of fare. The victims will probably recover. A new alloy of aluminum is reported to have been discovered called duralumin. The new metal, it is declared, is as tough as steel, and can be rolled, drawn, stamped, extended, or forged at suitable temperature, and is less susceptible to corrosion than other aluminum alloys. A warning sent out in a public health bulletin states that mad dogs are often playful and do not always froth at the mouth with seeming intent to attack every human being they meet, and, according to the bulletin, they are susceptible to the malady in cold as well as in hot climates. Government officers are endeavoring to stop the use of cocain and other pernicious drugs at soda-fountains, and have seized large quantities of preparations used in popular soft drinks.15 A writer in the "Scientific American" of September 24, by elaborate comparisons contends that the great Argentine Dreadnought is superior to the American Dreadnought Wyoming in the following particulars: greater arc fire of 12-inch battery, higher level of guns on direct comparison, better protection, higher speed, greater storage capacity for fuel; and that without question the Argentine battle-ship "is the most powerful and best protected vessel designed up to the time at which she was ordered." An interesting experiment in community farming is being tried at La Porte in the Gulf Coast country of Texas. Ten families will live in one house, and the work is to be equally divided. They will eat at a common table, the domestic work being divided among the wives. The profits from the products of the farm will be divided equally. They will employ no outside labor, and expect to manufacture their own farming implements. General Wood, chief of the staff of the army, is determined to ascertain just what the American soldier knows about fighting. They have been gorged with theory, he declares, and he wants to know how much they can apply practically. Practical tests will therefore be required of the soldiers, in which they must demonstrate their ability to use army weapons. Not long hence they will meet this test in actual warfare. Cotton planting is going on apace in Imperial Valley, California. Eight gins are being erected, and 100,000 acres will probably be planted next season. The fullest information can be obtained by addressing the California Development Board, Ferry Building, San Francisco. Simultaneous with the shaking of the towns of Unalaska and Dutch Harbor by an earthquake, a new island was added to the Bogoslof group, in the Aleutian channel, rising from seventy fathoms of water. The oldest flag in existence is the flag of Denmark, a plain red banner bearing on it a white cross.