, September 3, 1923. yday- -"L__-======= Resident Harding on Alaska • tour oYlock i» v Kri^ 1 ' J 'i? Ilardingllarding made * ' rnu. 1 r '" . a group 1 , f„r!u;ii ;, i I. v ;1> ;|!l OCC!IS ... IT was the f liiiu^ 11 ' s!?1 lt ’iappearance in Lj fi rsl turn from Alaska. i-ai* 1 '• 1 ' : ' 1 ,j ■ naii"' l "ii Alaska ‘ a .-rninc At. made ' ‘' (V Alaska and • iniieli <'t the W t Alaska. jusjiiiaf ional. •P* 1,, - ' presidential ]»«**- ~-vjrg i! ; ' , through immense -j!,,. i ’resident was >f j,, niiiiisiasm. which •ireil *' r \ " i, appeared oil , _ a( iiiiin and saw ftp ill ,ll ' ' ,j,ji-i v-tiand forty vin» had been waiting #sti'i ' ... ~.ji,me t<> the chief : ' his message. .htra 11 ' under try- Hf «'>• ■ •(•i ~ ,i.; \ before at firoiirJ' luaihia. had been a , r, M ,|e..i had !»eeu re ... , otfiidal courtesy tel , ~v , rvwliere -o well i; b !k f ’ r ‘ t ,,«,l. The people of Villl i»b,,n " • Me of lhe honor * r * Vr 'l I vi'it es the Thief Kx neighbor on the rift '' ' ,~,i |jii;i a recepfion not it :p ‘ ;:ii,| enthusiasm by in the States. - He lit?** , j addresses, and every I & ;I '\ . | i;! ,| !).■< n occupied. i, ( , hiini'-.l early in the ® • ( . punrned ahoiit ten r. lie was not in first • T ri.nilitiett. when he reach flit* day there had upon* his strength. -i.iniittg while waiting to 'after having reviewed the - tin.; of hattlesliios and do-1 r . !li; ukeil to hint. “I hope you - v • ev iili'iil3 v you have ' fvaoeti iiefoiy you." His re ***-unt reassuring. It was the first 7t«i| rvi'r heard him admit that he f w»t feeing well, lie was deeply ’ Vl , ,4 till' wonderful rereption • VP( ] }, en > iiiwvever. and did not hi Di ..if to show t hi' appreciation, evident to those of U' who had f ; : [j i, :* (hiring tjie preceding Hiilsr in the delivery of this great he wa- laboring under difficulties. L Brtiwitli'tandiiig this, it was deliv v ’th an s;:niest;ie» and n vigor igt nf the oerasi- in and of the sub «.utter. Tiiis speeeh o:i Alaska | a down iii history as one of the gfft of lVesiJrtit Harding s publ : c. I While’ dealing esp-M-Ulllv A Alaskan matters there will be j uj in i; ,e;tain iutuiaiueiital priori-, bdidi ajipi.* every wliere and which,, j . i" r ' lent H miiug undoubt- i j would havi aplieii in our govern- ! »tal dealings jyvitii nan: re. 1 resources ; I ThePr-'idem made tin trip to Alaska j sv with hi' owl e\e> ih<> cotuliti »us j fc. Fmm aiinost the day he took his : rat the MH-aile.i Alaskan problem! il boa dinned into !ii> ears. Efforts iWc ai*Jr iu eatuijiit him t * this pol ad that, but with that innate cau- B fiirti'‘t(*r : stie of him lie had quiet nitni. -nitii-Dtly deciding *hat if eld be wi-e f* : r him to got first hand **iedie beh'ii. yielding r . the impor- E:r.**s >f th.Vp \\lif» were urging-wyo tianry d.ai(|e> iu the eontiuef of Alas- 1 Ida.:- • iwtb l;e! tiiteei! y.-.ns Aias'ua lias ft a stormy jieirel at Wasiungton. | ■fitat>nt:..ii wus t'ocu>od upon it as | * Agrium,; oft!„. b't great light j ?»wis».-v;pani of our natural re w* atd !>airi. In tiait particular e'lusorvarmu forces won. but r*’ w> wiiicii un>. not pleased observation policies adopted wss du|iss‘i| to i-i-eju-d rlic matter nWi,. i i --ij.il then can-.Miig on a sys . 'isiliaign to f>r»a 1< them down. W*m |trt|semi,. | naturally to vu!’i..r.i!.ie point of attack. a> ,;i|- invay■. Sta’eiiK-nts very u car. !uily could be made ■ •mol tier was directed fife-e llJ,l, Hi | i' : pnhlic affairs and j ra,u " l I’tibiic pfopert ies in j S L.y ,r - 1 . I* W;l ' teiterated inees-, f,. !| iral resources of the! up by iiuprac! ieal I | Observation; tlmt bureau- P ,„ r . Ibe young empire of j, ' “itn.l and foot ; that its ' I '* ,l ' ,t itti'l would not be de '"'''ping changes in the i* , tv . ’■' *»r .through turn- H'vrje.j '| '" UTr "' t*> some form of l* va / ' : i Htlttunistrati-'Mi. with i. I >(‘jiurtm«bts in thands off. in numerous and j fcs :l tl„. -. '' i«.' which func- ! .|| t " "bli one department j m * ,m _• n not her the min- 1 *ch :■ fisheries, and so on. •d ’Mi];.,, , it " "f the other to another's to.-s in a ati; r' jtb'isdiction. The fav-firp di ff .,!'.', ss '"n told of the pi , : . h ireaus hav affairs, and had 10 .aap aud'r:. y l ;’* ' tbirty-four li "' "idy way to do r ‘' a u,l> be. Congress to utkrrv - "’■•*‘_'l"partnieut. with full *it!,' t J t’ontrol. Jr -■: ' * u^ at sai of President P i . troubles of Alaska tne;i-*,i. 1!l< ’’' , *‘ ; tstng frequency. r *' angK '••••king t > bring . yt'trHiK.,.,!* ‘C’l'ka > government fi.r j . U4 ‘* of doing s '{;,... s, ‘ nrged upon the '■ '‘"tiw „f 'b'Tet'nt directions. t y l r ' ;iv, il. r . red tape ir [/‘b'H v "C" ;UH * circulated j "'hir'j „p (i ,' * '"■ ' eiisus reports Cr- bTh i<>s « K ' r hr, „ 1 ' of the PJ as coa- H; the tei r j tu . T I,IT v <‘ry life I.’- i’ii*ra| \ . ; ' ,!s being sucked tfn ''Ntn-ti,,,. ~■ I .' !l '7' decliue [,»" 41,; 'Urn a | a "‘" and copper in til,, . " x ‘' ■:;>* • " -eneiiil failing M ' ' :! "."*ar t-,‘i"? T “j! r . v, ar Were as™ to kitij y“ ::: “fftet evidence of »&.. ;to he, ' 1 ’ policy Sai J’ UMfl u r*on ThTe ' S '' ,n ? mau ' >t to. ~^ rp made f,„ Srounds fresh m U “ V P ,II B changes Alaska, and p«- : ®° of tv d9ral e a ■■ • and the loos- (I*y HENRY C. WALLACE, Secretary of Agriculture) cuing up of the alleged burdensome re ! strict ions upon the use of her resources. It was this increasing clamor, which led President Harding to go to Alaska himself and study the situation on the ground. Before starting on this long western trip the-President took the precaution to have an analysis made of Alaska's population, trade,and commerce, and to quietly gather other information which would be helpful to him in getting at the truth. this basic statistical information, together with personal contact with the Alaskans at most of the principal set tlements in the territory, and personal observation of Alaskan conditions during the three weeks-' travel, qualified him to | speak with authority and made his Sejit j tie speech the thoughtful and deliberate I utterance of a statesman seeking to act justly and wisely, both for Alaska and j the nation of which she is a very import 2<> as indicating a process of strangulation, the President J said. "Judgments adverse to Alaska* will not be based on such adventitious condi tions. save Jjy the unintelligent or by those who would deliberately cry down the country's availability as a land of homes in the hope of getting it turned over to wholesale exploitation of a scale that would ruin it for all the future. Against a program of ruinous exploita tation we must stand firmly." rite fact is that a study of the census returns in 1010 and. 1020 lmd satisfied the President that there was little to the talk of a declining population; that even if there had been a deefine of l-"> per cent., as was indicated on the sur face. it was simply a decline in the float ing male population which moves in and out overnight according to the ebb and flow of frontier industries. He found that tlmre had in fact been a substantial increase in those elements of the popula tion which make for real development. In there were .TOO white men for each 100 white women; in 1020 this proportion had changed to 2N2 men for each 100 women. In 1010 the total fe male white- population of Alaska was ; in 1020 it was 7.207. an increase of 20 per cent. During the same period there were 1(5.(512 dwellings iu the terri tory; were 17.*07 families; in 1020, 18.87)2. In 1010 there were 70 towns, villages and settlements; in 1020, IN4. In 1010 there were 120 teachers; in 1020, 247». These statistics tell the story of<+he slow bat substantial growth t in permanent imputation. Large increases or decreas es in floating male population in a new country simply reveal a growth or de cline of the exploitation of its resources. During the period when placer mining! was at its height there was a large male j population /iu Alaska. As the placer mines payed out, this population rapid ly decreased. At Skagway we had a per fect illustration of what has happened. Skagway is the point at which the gold seekers disembarked for the rush over White Horse Pass. In 11»HI its popula tion is given as .‘5.117; in 11)10, 872; in 1020. 404. It is said that during the height of the stampede Skagway at times had a floating population of to* or fift teen thousand. We stopped tjiere for two or three hours and saw the vacant buildings, stores and Rouses. It is lo cated on an inlet and there is apparent ly little to support the town, with the playing out of the mining industfj* near about. As tin- boat was leaving the har bor a group of ns were standing at the back rail, when one of the observant newspaper men dryly remarked. ‘AN ell, 1 suiqtose that town furnishes an illus tration of how Federal red tape is strang ling Alaska.” It was the beginning of the revelation of the fairy-like character of some of the stories which had been continuously circulated, in NN ashiugton for years past. Nome, another town too far to the north\ye41; in 1020 this population had decreased to LITT. Fairbanks, liowewr. differs fron4 both Nome and Skagway in that indus tries are being built up there. Farms are increasing . and the indications are that there will be a substantial growth in population. As to the population of Alaska Presi dent Harding found that exactly the same tiling has happened that lias Imp elled in all the mining sections of the Pnited States. He compared the so-call ed loss of 15 per cent, in Alaska with a loss of SO per cent, in one province iu Canada and 00 per cent, in another; al so with substantial losses in population of several of the States, and said, Alas ka is once more gaining iu everything which testifies prosperity. In these lat er days we have come to appraise popu lation by its quality rather thaii its quantity, and Alaska will loom big iu any quality test.” Referring to the falling off in gold production he said that while Alaskan production had decreased one-half since 1015, the decrease iu the United States as a whole fell off by almost the same percentage: that Australian gold produc tion had decreased about oue-fourth. He concluded, “We all know perfectly well that this has been the result of the world-wide economic conditions. Lold is worth just about one-lmlf as much in buying power as before the war. The wonder is not that Alaska s gold Produc tion has fallen off. but that it has fall en relatively so. little.", remarks on the copper industry were atoug the same line. Referring to Alaskau fisheries,, bei most important industry. the President said that if this industry should continue as it has, without more general and ef fective regulation, the fish would soon be exhausted aad the industry /would disap pear. He found almost unanimous agree ment in Alaska that regulation “must and slmll be enforced. * * More re striction is necessary and urgent. The ! conservation must be effected. * * Cou jservation of the indushtry is no blow at i vested interests. * * If there is defi j ance, it is better 'to destroy the defiant • investor than to demolish a national re j source which needs only guarding against greed to remain a permanent asset of in j calculable value.” j Coining to the discussion of American j forests and forest polices, around which j Ims centered so much misrepresentatiton land agitation. President Harding made a frank confession. Ho said : "I must con fess I journeyed to Alaska with the im pression that our forest conservation was too drastic, and that Alaska protests would be heard on every side. Frankly, I had a wrong impression. Alaska fav ors no miserly hoarding, but her people. Alaskan people, find ltftlc to grieve about in tin* restrictive policies of the Federal government. There is no unan imity bf opinion, but the vast majority is of one mind. The Alaskan people do not wish their natural wealth sacrific ed in a vain attempt to defeat the laws of economics, which are, everlasting and unchanging. I fear the chief opponents of the forest policies have never seen Alaska, and their concern, for speedy Alaskan development is not inspired by Alaskan interests. "I have alluded to the threatened de struction of the fisheries, due to admit ted lack of regulation and protection. NVe have begun on the safe plan with the for ests. even though we have erred in ex cessive restrictions. With the lesson of forest destruction painfully learned, with the nation-wide call for reforestation throughout the states, which will require generations and vast painstaking, it has been sought to provide for the utiliza tion of the Alaskan forests and at the same time provide their perpetuation through reproduction." With these general statements a£ pre liminary, President Harding entered inso a detailed discussion of the policy adopt ed by the Department of Agriculture for the development and protection of Alas ka forests, and in the most specific terms justified and defended that policy. Speak ing of the contrfu-t the Department is of fering to those who wish to establish pulp and paper mills in the territory, he said. "I venture, with some knowledge of conditions in various paper-making coun tries, to state that no better contract, in deed. none so good, can be secured in any of them.” To the objection that the contract of fered by the Department of Agriculture is not sufficiently liberal to encourage the investment of capital, lie called at tention to the fact that exactly this same type of contract lias been in force for many years, both in the States and in Alaska, and has resulted iij the satisfac tory development of timber utilization. As a matter of fact, lie found over a doz en sawmills operating successfully in Alaska under this contract. He found that the timber from the national for ests was being largely used by the fish ing and mining industries and by settlers and prospects. He saw a large vessel at the Juneau docks loading with lumber cut from the national forests. He learn ef! of the expanding export trade in high grade Alaska lumber to the States and to foreign countries. In fact, he became not only persuaded that the policy of thhe Department of Agriculture was sound and helpful, but became an enthusiast in its support, and gave it as his deliberate judgment that intelligent and sincere people eanot regard this lxdiey as in any way hampering the development of the timber industry. He referred to the pulp mill already in operation and the other contracts on the point of being closed, and said. "NVe are, in short, on the eve of an expansion which, if not rapid, will be sound and permanent. Frankly, 1 do not look for rapid-development in Alas ka. It could only be bad at the cost of sacrificing a few immediately available resources and then abandoning, the rest. That we do not desire and will not know ingly permit.” At once, and it is to be hoped for all time. President Harding quashed the in dictment that the natural resources of Alaska are under lock and key. He found that the withholding of e*>«l and oil de posits from exploitation is all water that has passed over the dam; that the pres ent Federal laws for-developing these re sources now give every reasonable oppor tunity to capital and business foresight to develop them as rapidly as the mar-' kets of the territory and of the world can use them. In the long and imposing array of Alaskan resources the President found not one which is not freely avail able to men of energy and capital for commercial use and development. “ Coal, 'said the President, is “being mined, sold and used. It-is being mined satisfactor ily and profitably under the terms of the eomplained-against coal land leasing sys tem.” Petroleum and water power develop ments are also going forward under the Federal laws which are parts of the general conservation program. As in the case of Alaskan coal fields and the Alaskan timber, the extent of commercial development is in no wise limited by Fed eral laws or restrictions, but governed solely by the hard facts of geography and trade. Speaking of Alaskan agriculture, lie said that our policy must depend largely on the attitude adopted toward her other resources; that if we are to turn Alaska over to the exploiters, go on decimating the fisheries, turn over the forests for like exploitation and destruction ; "if. in short, we arfe to loot Alaska as the possibility of profit arises, now in one diiection, now in another, then we shall never have a state or states in Alaska; and if that was to be the policy we need not'con cern ourselves about agriculture. But if, ou the other hand, our purpose is to make a great, powerful, wealthy and per manent community of Alaska, then we should give especial attention to encour aging a type of agriculture suited to cli mate and circumstances." He spoke of the need of a liberal .pol icy toward the building of roads nud : trails as sary and to provide feeders for railroads into which the Government had put more than $56,000,000 and which it is operat ing at a loss of about a million dollars a year. . . He compared the experience of the peo ple of Alaska and hte problems they had to meet with the experience of the early f THIJ CONCORD TIHES settlers on our great eastern coast and with the problems connected with the northwestern territory and later Cali fornia and Oregon. He said. "The prob leb of Alaska lias been dinned into our ears a great deal at Washington. Some how in Alaska one doesn't bear much of it or feel acutely conscious of its exist ence. In Alaska one gets the feeling that the sturdy, vigorous and highly intelli gent people of the territory, under the leadership of our old friend. Manifest Destiny, will solve the problem. . * There has been much misunderstanding, i no little misrepresentation, and some dis position to hysteria at times about Alas ka. It long since passed beyond the wild west, mining camp stage, and is as sober, settled and normal a community ns will be found anywhere. * * I am altogether an optimist on Alaska and its future. I do not beneve Alaska can be forced, or that it should be. There is no need of Government managed. Federally paid for, hot house development. There must be no reckless sacrificing of re sources which ought to be held perma nent in order to turn them into imme diate profits. There is no broad prob lem of Alaska, despite the insistence on its existence. Alaska is all right and is doing well. It has more wealth and more population, even now, than some of the states when they were admitted into the Union." However much lie may have been im pressed before coming to Alaska with the need of a general reorganization of the Federal activities there. President Hard ing came away very definitely of the opinion that such suggestions were not well considered. On this point he said with emphasis, “Where there is posibil ity of betterment in the Federal machin ery of administration. improvement should and will be effected, but there ,is no need for a sweeping reorganization. The Federal government's processes have not paralyzed, but rather have promoted the right sort of Alaskan development. The territory needs their continuance?^ President Harding did not find any justification for the charges of muddling or mismanagement of public business by the Federal agencies in Alaska. Neither did lie find that the Alaskans themselves took any stock in such stories. He found the various Departments of the Govern ment doing exactly the same kind of work in Alaska that they are doing in forty-eight states. He found that the representatives of these Departments, or at least most of then, are performing their work with a clear understapding of conditions and needs in the territory, iyul with an evident spirit of co-operation and helpfulness. His speech on Alaska is a vigorous presentation of definite opinions, based ou accurate knowledge and investigation at first hand, and it ought to put iti) end once and for all to the agitation which lias been, hurtful to Alaska. The fact is that those industries in Alaska which have had the benefit of conservation policies are the industries which are developing which the* Alaska of the future will be built, while those industries which .have been thrown open to exploitation are the van ishing industries, the looting of which has enriched not the people of Alaska hut outside explointers who took their money away with them. —The conclusions reached by President Harding are the conclusions reached by every man who studies Alaska with an open mind. They are the conclusions reached by the Alaskans themselves. NY. F. Thompson, the veteran editor at Fair banks. expresses the same general thought. but in more direct language, when he says, "There never was a min ing law. or,an agricultural law. or a tim ber law in interior Alaska which ever worked a hardship upon a miner or a farmer-or a wood-cut ter, or one of which any of them complained. All that talk about Alaska being handicapped by bu reau control is the rottenest kind of rot. NVhere such control is working hardest is where it is needed the most. Alaskans who are Alaskans pray, ‘Bless God for bureau control.' The ‘sick Alaska's prop aganda emanates from those' who expect to profit from it. It gives Alaskans a slight nausea to hear the quack doctors of the states declaring us sick and pre scribing in the newspapers for our non existent ills," As President Harding said, Alaska is destined to become one of the bright stars in the,union of states. The rapid ity of her development will be governed by economic conditions. Biic is now growing, slowly but surely, in those di rections which make for a sound, intel ligent and enduring population. MRS. VANDERBILT WILL PAY $25,000 IN COUNTY TAXES Income From Her Estate Will Pay the Salaries of All County Officers and Then Some. Asheville. Aug. 28. —Salaries of the three county commissioners; register of deeds, country treasurer, sheriff and County auditor can be paid and a mar gin left from the taxes that will be paid i to Buncombe county this year by Mrs. Edith S. Vanderbilt, county tax books disclose. Taxes, on the Vanderbilt prop- ! erty for 1028 will be $25,589. Mrs. Vanderbilt pays taxes on prop erty valued at $2,387,217. Biltmore house, one of the finest private homes in America, is on the tax books at a value of $1,500,000. in which is included 50 acres of land surrounding the man sion. In Biltmore ward is included 3,000 1-2 acres, ou which is located the Biltmore farm and dairy. Other prop erty is scattered over the county. Personal property valuation is SIOO.- 802. The tax inventory includes 32 horses, valued at $4,020; 12 mules, $1,380 ; 227 milk cattle, $1(5.180; and (51 head of other cattle, $4,135; and nine dogs, SOO. The only assessment here against~Miss Cornelia Venderbilt, heiress to the Van derbilt millions, is ou 20 acres of land valued for tax purposes at $60,00. The Road to Success. A dimple in the right place, half inch long eyelashes, pair of glad knees, a bit of devil in both eyes, and a figure which lends itself well to the severities of a one-piece bathing suit, will a girl far along the reel road to fame and fortune.—From “The Glad Eyes of a ivoman,” by Jane Doe. Mark of Highest Genius- The highest genius never flowers in satire, fbut culminates in sympathy with that which is best in human na ture, and appeals to it.—^Chapin. EOF RIBUTION EDISON MAI^HALL *■ £> LITTLE. BROWN 8 COMPANy, 1<»23 rp= BEGIN HERE TODAY Ned Cornel, eon of wealthy God frey Cornet, celebrates with his Vfriend. Rodney Coburn, the return 'of the latter from Canada. Ned leaves the Totem Club In a happy frame of mind and drives homeward in the drizzling rain. Ned’s car goes into a perilous skid, knocking down Besr Gilbert, a shopgirl, on her way home. A po’- liceman tells Cornet to report to Judge Rnssnian in the morning and advises Ned to settle for damage done to a passing jitney. Ned is allowed to continue on his way when the girl is found to be uninjured. He asks her to ride to her home in his car. Ned returns home to te]] his father of the acci dent. NOW GO ON WITH THE STORY Godfrey hod fought upward from utter poverty to the presidency and ownership of one of the greatest fur houses of his country, partly through th® exercise of the principle of abso lute business integrity, mostly through the sheer dynamic force of the man. His competitors knew him as a fair but remorseless fighter; but his fame carried fax beyond the con fines of his resident city. Bearded trappers, running their lines through the desolate wastes of tne North, were used to seeing him come ven turing up their gray rivers in the spring, fur-clad and wind-tanned — finding his relaxation and keeping fit by personally attending to the buying of some of his furs. Thus It was hard for a soft man to feel easy in his presence. Ned Comet was somewhat down cast and sullen as he entered the cheerfully lighted hallway of his father’s house. In the soft light it was immediate ly evident that he was his father’s son, yet there were certain marked differtqices between them. tyarrior blood had some way failed to come down to Ned. For all his stalwart body, he gave no particular image of strength. He took his place at the stately table mo gravely and quietly that his parent’s interest was at once wak ened. His father smiled quietly at him across the board. “Well, Ned,” he asked at last. “NVhat is it today?” “Nothing very much. A very close call, though, to real tragedy. I might as well tell you about it. as likely enough it'll be in the papers tomorrow. I went into a bad skid at Fourth and Madison, hit a jitney, and before we got quite stopped managed to knock a girl over on the pave ment. Didn’t hurt her a particle. But there’s a hundred dollars' dam age to the jit—and a pretty severe scare for your young son.” As he tallied, his eves met those of his father, almost as if he were afraid to look away. The plder man made little comment. He went on with his dessert, and soon the talk veered to other matters. The older man finished his coffee, slowly lighted a'long, sleek cigar, and for a moment rested with elbows on the table. “Well, Ned, 1 suppose I might as well get this off my chest,” he began at last. “Now is as auspicious a time as any. You say you got a good scare today. I’m hoping that it put you in a mood so that at least you can give me a good hearing.” The man spoke rather humbly. The air was electric when he paused. Ned leaned forward. “You’ve been a very attentive son.” Godfrey Cornet paused again. “The trouble, I’m afraid, is that I haven’t been a very attentive father; I’ve attended to my business—and little else—and now I’m paying the piper. “Please bear with me. It was only a little accident, as you say. The trouble of it is that Jt points the way that things are going. It could very easily have been a terrible accident —a dead girl under your speeding JURORS TO GET MORE PAY IN MECKLENBURG COUNTY Regular and Grand Jurors to Receive $4 a Day and Talesmen to Receive $2 to $4. Charlotte Observer. The pay of superior court jurors, grand, regu’nr ad tales, was ordered in creased in Mecklenburg county Thurs day by the county commissioners, in ses sion at the courthouse. The regular and grand jurors will iu the future .receive $4 per day for their services instead of the former $3 a day while talesmen will receive $2 for the, first day and $4 for each additional - day instead of $1.50 as heretofore. This action by the commissioners was taken through a popular demand that the pay of jurors be increased. Two years ago Chairman McLaughlin had County Treasurer Stinson look up the law on the matter and found that a $4 limit was placed on the jurors’ pay. Grand juries have recommended that the rise be permitted- Said Short Ton of Coal. Indicted. Greensboro. Aug. 30. it. is generally recognized that a ton of coal weighs 2.000 pounds, it developed in Magistrate O. W. Duke’s court this morning that X. R- Lewis Ccal Com pany. dealers on Lewis street, this city, delivered a ton on August 2 that weigh ed only 1.725 pounds. Lewis, who was indicted by W. II Young, standard keeper, was found guilty of giving short weight in the case, and he was fined 840 and taxed with the cost. $2,675. after he admitted the shortage in open court. Mr. Young informed the court that this was the second offense, in that he. Mr. Young, had informed Mr. Lewis that, should he be caught giving short weight he would have him indicted- After Lewis had been found guilty, wheels, a charge of manslaughter In stead of the good joke of being ar rested for speeding, a term In the penitentiary instead of a fine. Ned, if you had killed the girl It would have been fully right and Just for you to spend a good many of the best years of your life behind prison walls. 1 ask myself whether or not I would bring my influence to bear, in that case, to keep you from going there. I’rn ashumed to say that I would. “You may wonder about that. 1 would know, in my heart, that you should go there. I can’t accuse you without also accusing myself. There fore I would try to keep you out of prison. In doing , that, I would see in myself further proof of my old weakness —a weak desire to spare you when the prison might rrgtke a man of you. ” Ned recoiled at the words, but his father threw him a quick smile. “Your mother and 1 have a lot to* answer for. Both of us were busy, I with my business, she with her household cares and social duties, and it was easier to give you what you wanted than to refuse you things for your own good. It was THEIR EYES MET bjvER THE easier to let you go soft than to pro vide hardship for you. It was pleas anter to give in than to hold out — and we loved you too much to put you through what we should have put you through. . “This thing we’ve talked over be fore. I’ve never been firm. I've let you grow to man’s years—29, 1 be lieve—and still be a child in ex perience The work you do around my business could be done by a 17- year-old boy. Ned, I want to make a man of you.” He paused again, and their eyes met over the table. All too plainly the elder Cornet saw that his appeal had foiled to go home. His son was smiling grimly, his eyes sardonic, unmistakable contempt in the curl of his lips. Ned’s bitter smile had seemingly passed to his own lips. “I suppose there’s no use of going on,” he said. “By all means go on, since you are so warmed up to your subject,” Ned answered coldly. “I wouldn’t like to deprive you of the pleasure. You had something on your mind: what is it?” “It’s simply this,” his father went on. “Today I met Leo Schaffner at lunch, and in oiir talk he gave me what I consider a real business in spiration. He tells me, in his various jobbing houses, he has several thou sand silk and velvet gowtis and coats and wraps left on his hands in the financial depression that imme diately followed the war. He was cussing his luck because he didn’t know what to do with them. Os course they were part of the surplus that helped glut the markets when he requested Mr. Young to come to his yards and weigh every load of coal Weighed at his yard, and he asked rhe standard keeper not to stop his coal wagons on the streets. However, Magistrate Duke informed the defendant that the standard keeper had a perfect right to stop coal wagons any where, any time he saw fit. Doctor; “Ah, your cough is much bet ter today.” Patient: “Yes, I have practiced it all night.” To Members of Cotton. Growers - Association - ' v We will be glad to handle without cost, your shipments of cotton to this Association. We pay you the day you ship. ../ • ' ... f .v - * i ;• ! * •-•-- . * 0 The Concord National Bank » $100,000.00 SURPLUS $100,000.00 PAGE FIVE hard times made people stop buy ing—stock that was manufactured during the booming days of the war. He told me that this finery was made of the most beautiful silks and vel velts, but all of a good three seasons out of style. He offered me the lot of two thousand for—l’m ashamed to tell you how much.’*' “Almost nothing!” his sos prompt ed him. “Yes. Almost nothing. And I took him up.” His son leaned back, keenly inter ested for the first time. “Good Lord, why? You can’t go into business selling out-of-date women’s clothes?” “Can’t, eh? Son. while he was talking to me, it occurred to me all at once that the least of those gowns, the poorest one In the lot, was worth at least a marten skin! Think of it! A marten skin, from Northern Cana da and Alaska, returned the trapper around S6O in 1920. Now let me get down to brass tacks. “It’s true I don’t intend to sell any of those hairy old white trappers any women's silk gowns. But this was what I was going to have you do: first you were to hire a good auxili ary sehooner —a strong, sturdy, sea worthy two-masted craft such as is used In northern trading, YoU*d fit that craft out with a few sup plies and fill the hold with a couple of’ thousand of those gowns. You’d need two or three men to run the launch—l believe the usual crew is a pilot, a first and second engineer, and a cook—and you’d have to have a seamstress to do fitting and make minor alterations. Then you’d start up for Bering Sea. “You may not know it, but along the coast of Alaska, and throughout the islands of Bering Sea there are hundreds of little, scattered tribes of Indians, all of them trappers of UK finest, high-priced furs. Nor do their women dress in furs and skiqp.aUp gether, either, .as . pdptilkr legend would have you believe. Through their hot, l*ng summer days they wear dresses like American women, and the fjayer and prettier the dress es, the better they like ’em. To my knowledge, no one has ever fed them silk—simply because silk was too high—but being, women, red or white, they’d simply go crazy over it. “The other factor in the combina tion is that the Intrepid, due to the unsettled fur market, failed to do any extensive buying on her last an ual trading trip tijrougli' the islands, and as a result practically all the Indians their full catch on hand.' Intrepid is the only ttmdcr'' tkrough the particular chain of islands I have in mind—the Sko pin group, north and east of the Aleutian chain—and she’s not count ing on going up again till spring. Then she’ll reap a rich harvest—un less you get there first. “The Skopin Islands are charted — any that are inhabited at ail—easy to find, easy to get to with a sea worthy launch. Every one of those Indians you’ll find there will buy a dress for bis squaw or his daughter to show off in, during the summer, and pay for it with a fine piece of fur. “This Is August. I’m already ar ranging for a license. You’d have to get going in a week. Hit as far north as you want—the farther you go the better you will do—and then work south. Making a big chain that cuts off the currents and the tides, the Skopin group is surround ed by an unbroken ice sheet in mid winter, so yon have to count on rounding the into Pacific waters some time in Novem ber. If you wait much longer you’re apt not to get out before spring. "That’s the whole story. The car go of furs you should bring out should be worth close to a hundred thousand. Expenses won’t be fifteen thousand Jn aIL It would mean work; dealing with a bunch of crafty redskins isn’t play for boys! Maybe there’d be cold and rough weather, for Bering Sea deserves no man’s trust. But It would be the ttn<«* sport in the world, an opportunity to take Alaskan bear and tundra cari bou—plenty of adventure and excite ment and tremendous profits to boot. It would be a man’s job, Ned—but you’d get a kick out of it you never got out of a booze party in your life. And we split the profits 7&-26—the lion’s share to you.” (Continued fat Our Next Issue) A tourist passing through a village* found that his watch had stopped. See ing a little boy standing outside the general store, he went up to him and said : “Can you tell me the time, sonny?” “Only 12 o’clock,” was the reply. “Only 12,” said the tourist. 1 thought it was more than that.” “It’-s never any more in .these parte, sir,” answerd the boy. “It" goes up to 12 o'clock and then commences again at 1.”