Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/864

844 of Agriculture of Vermont and of New Hampshire substantiate these accounts as regards those two States. Abandoned farms in the East and farm-mortgage foreclosures in the West, Mr. Benton tells us, are becoming distressingly common, and many farmers who still hold and work their lands are struggling along under increasing indebtedness, or at best obtain only rapidly diminishing returns.

Certain of our public men, however, deny that agriculture in the United States is suffering such a severe depression as these statements indicate. The Hon. Philetus Sawyer, Senator from Wisconsin, has said, according to the "Milwaukee Daily Journal," that he had never known of but one foreclosure of a farm mortgage in his section of the country, and the remark was used in debate in the Senate by his colleague, Hon. John C. Spooner. Our members of Congress might be expected to furnish reliable information. They are selected to make laws for the people, theoretically, because each one knows the condition and needs of his constituents, and how to provide for them. But the above assertion has been investigated by the "Journal," with the result of proving, either that a false statement had been willfully made by one of the Senators, and repeated by the other, or that both were ignorant of affairs in the State they represent that any observing man must be aware of. Foreclosures have to be advertised in the local papers, and, out of forty of the "Journal's" exchanges from within the State, foreclosure notices were found in fourteen. In these papers were thirty-two notices. The papers examined are not more than one eighth of those published in the State. The "Journal" also wrote for the records of foreclosures for the last ten years in most of the counties of eastern Wisconsin, as far north as the farming region extends. In reply, letters were received, mostly from county officials, which were published in the "Journal" of February 1st, and which showed that in nine counties of Wisconsin there have been seven hundred and eleven farm-mortgage foreclosures in ten years, involving $1,297,905.49. These counties contain about one sixth of the population of the State, and, allowing liberal margins, the "Journal" estimates that twenty-five hundred farm mortgages have been foreclosed in the whole State during the past ten years. Senator Sawyer resides at Oshkosh, in Winnebago County, which is not one of the nine counties above mentioned, but foreclosures occur in the Senator's immediate vicinity as well as in the rest of the State. The "Journal" quotes the "Oshkosh Times" as saying, "In the year 1888 ten mortgages were foreclosed on farms in Winnebago County, and in 1889 four more changed hands in the same way." And yet Politician Sawyer declared that he had never known of but one foreclosure in his section of the country. It is obviously unsafe to assume that what a politician don't know, therefore, does not exist.

Senator Sawyer's alleged ignorance reminds one of Sam Weller's behavior on the witness-stand in the great Pickwick trial, when his father had been guilty of disturbing the court. On that occasion the judge asked:

"Do you know who that was, sir?"

"I rayther suspect it was my father, my lord," replied Sam.

"Do you see him here now?" said the judge.

"No, I don't, my lord," replied Sam, staring right up into the lantern in the roof of the court.

Senator Sawyer must have been looking hard in some other direction when notices of foreclosures in his section were floating about. Politicians do not deal much in facts. Their stock in trade is mainly exaggerated assertions, off-hand denials, and buncombe, and they trust to their eloquence, their artful ways of putting things, or to the authority of their official positions to secure belief. When it suits their purposes to have the truth known, they bring it out with a grand flourish of figures; but when it seems to them more politic to keep the public in ignorance, they take refuge in general assertions. The true state of affairs in any given case can only be learned by searching out all the separate facts. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, the price of truth is thorough investigation.

Editor Popular Science Monthly:

In the article on "The Evolution of the Modern Railway Bridge," by Prof. Jameson, he says (page 478) that "it" (namely, the cantilever bridge) "can be given great rigidity and stability, which are impossible in the suspension (bridge)," to which should have been added, "as usually built," because otherwise the statement would not be correct.

Prof. Jameson himself correctly states in another place (on page 475) that "a suspension bridge is nothing else than an arch bridge turned upside down." It follows that a suspension bridge can be built just as rigid as an erect arch bridge. But it is demonstrable that a suspension bridge can be made more rigid, particularly against lateral forces, than an erect arch. A suspension arch is in stable equilibrium; an erect arch is in unstable equilibrium, and requires lateral bracing, which the suspended arch does not require. Thus, if the steel arches of the St. Louis Railway Bridge were turned upside down, with the roadway suspended from them, and if the compression tubes were replaced by steel links, the suspended arches