It is a

question if there is any other improvement of a general character that would do more to stimulate and accelerate na

1902-Waterbury, Conn., buildings destroyed not stated; loss $2,000,000.

1902-Atlantic City, N. J., buildings destroyed not stated; loss $1,500,000.

Mayor McLain, of Baltimore, when asked on Tuesday following the great fire for a statement, is said to have dictated the following:

"Baltimore will now enter undaunted into the task of resurrection. A greater and more beautiful city will arise from the ruins, and we shall make of this calamity a future blessing. We are staggered by the terrible blow, but we are not discouraged, and every energy of the city as a municipality and its citizens as private individuals will be devoted to a rehabilitation that will not only prove the stuff we are made of, but be a monument to the American spirit."

This expression has the true American ring, and the people of the entire North American continent will join in wishing the City of Baltimore and her citizens a speedy recovery from the effects of one of the greatest fires of modern history, and hope that, like Chicago, she may rise out of the ashes grander and nobler than ever before.

Good Roads.

The question of good roads-good country roads-is receiving some practical attention at this time through a bill now pending in the United States Congress, known as the Brownlow Bill. This measure provides for the appropriation of $24,000,000 as a national aid for the building of wagon roads. It is proposed to distribute this amount according to the population of each of the States, except that those States having less than 700,000 population are each to receive a minimum sum of $250,000.

The measure further provides that each State or county receiving national aid must add a like amount which would, if the bill passes, result in the expenditure of $48,000,000 in the building of wagon roads. Except in a few States where

ment of a system of wagon roads and their maintenance up to a standard equal to those of older nations, such as Great Britain and Ireland, Germany and France.

The much greater facility with which this would permit of the distribution of farm products would insure a substantial increase in their supply and consequent reduction in their cost to the consumer. The business of railroads would be increased and all concerned directly benefited. Small communities would spring up throughout country districts and the congested condition of cities be thus relieved. In fact, the benefits to be derived from good roads are far more numerous than space will permit of enumeration.

President Roosevelt warmly endorsed the "good roads" movement in his last message in Congress, and in a speech delivered before the National Good Roads Convention held at St. Louis last April, said:

"The faculty, the art, the habit of road building marks in a nation those solid, stable qualities, which tell of permanent greatness. We would

have a right to ask that this people which has tamed a continent, which has built up a nation with a continent for its base, which boasts itself with truth as the mightiest republic that the world has ever seen, and which we firmly believe, will, in the century now opening, rise to a place of leadership such as no other nation has yet attained, merely from historical analogy, I say, we should have a right to demand that such a nation build good roads.

"A few years ago it was a matter, I am tempted to say, of national humiliation, that there should be so little attention paid to our roads; that there should be a willingness, not merely to refrain from making good roads, but to let the roads that were in existence become worse. I can not too heartily congratulate our people upon the existence of a body such as this, having its connections in every State of the country, and bent upon the eminently practical work of

making the conditions of life easier and better for the people whom of all others we can least afford to see grow discontented with their lot in life the people who live in the country districts. But no one thing can do so much to offset the tendency toward an unhealthy drain from the country into the city as the making and keeping of good roads. They are needed for the sake of their effect upon the industrial conditions of the country districts, and I am almost tempted to say that they are needed more for their effect upon the social conditions of the country. If winter means to the average farmer the existence of a long line of liquid morasses through which he has to move his goods if bent on business, or to wade or swim if bent on pleasure; if an ordinary rain means that the farmer's girl and boy can not use their bicycles; if a little heavy weather means the stoppage of all communication, not only with the industrial centers, but with the neighbors, then you must expect that there will be a great many young people of both sexes who will not find farm life attractive."

A Trust That Kills.

All trusts are bad. A combination of individuals or corporations that will conspire to monopolize any of life's necessities and to control their cost and selling price is a curse to the citizen of poor and moderate circumstances, and a menace to the prosperity and wellbeing of the nation wherein they are tolerated. That this fact is thoroughly recognized is evident by the enactment long since of a United States law prohibiting the formation of such combinations.

The trust makes daily visits to the poor man's home, and in one way and another makes him and his loved ones feel the sting of its merciless scourge. The coal trust visits him and his helpless children through the breath of winter's chilling blast; the meat trust makes them feel the pangs of hunger, and all down the line each monopolizing combination contributes its share towards making his hard lot in life the more unbearable.

But of all the trusts that have yet been formed there is none which for sheer calloused indifference to human suffering, for sordid cupidity and for murderous avarice has attained to the diabolical standard of the Antitoxin Trust. Antitoxin is an indispensable remedy for diphtheria and scarlet fever, but must be used immediate

ly after the symptoms of the disease develop to be effective in saving the patient. The use of this most valuable drug or serum has reduced the death rate due to these terrible diseases from 40 per cent. to 10 per cent. It has come to be regarded as essential in their treatment. Three firms credited with forming the Antitoxin Trust, and who exclusively control the manufacture of that valuable commodity, are said to be as follows: H. H. Mulford & Co., of Philadelphia, Pa., Park, Davis & Co., of Detroit, Mich., and Stearns & Co., of Detroit, Mich. This combination was not satisfied with a substantial profit, or with increasing the cost of this life-saving remedy gradually, but, believing its power in the premises to be absolute, it advanced the price 100 per cent., as shown by the following, which is quoted from the statement of Secretary Pritchard of the Chicago, Ill., Health Department:

"This is only the second chapter of the attempt to establish a monopoly of antitoxin at the expense of persons suffering with diphtheria. They deny that they have formed a trust and raised the price, but here are the figures given our purchasing agent, Mr. Brandecker:

"H. K. Mulford & Co., Philadelphia: "No. 1 antitoxin, 1,000 units, $1.33; old price, 65 cents.

"No. 2 antitoxin, 2,000 units, $2.33; old price, $1.25.

"No. 3 antitoxin, 3,000 units, $3.33; old price, $1.95.

"The old prices of Stearns & Co. were 57 cents, $1.14 and $1.71, and all firms have adopted the same new scale."

Such are the words of Secretary Pritchard, and their reliability, coming from such a source, can not be questioned. At the increased price it is estimated that it will cost seven dollars ($7) for enough antitoxin to save a child's life when in the first stages of diphtheria, and thirty dollars ($30) to carry the child past the critical point if the disease has progressed, a price that is prohibitive to hundreds of thousands of citizens.

If parents whose children are afflicted with this terrible disease have not the money to pay the price for this life-saving drug their children can die, so far as the Antitoxin Trust is concerned, and society can be exposed to epidemics too horrible to contemplate. The trust has no children and no conscience, and, consequently, no sympathetic appeal can reach it. To what limit will human selfishness not go in gratifying its lust for

(From Saturday Blade)

tinue to retain a high place in society and are looked up to as gentlemen and respected citizens. Public criticism has no effect on such institutions as trusts, and realizing that legislation alone can stay their marauding operations against humanity, they seek through the medium of legislative lobbying to prevent its enactment, or failing in this to dictate the ap

the fiendish design of this coterie of human vultures. When will our governments, national, State and municipal, take similar steps to protect humanity in general against baneful operations of all other trusts? Their principle and aim is the same and such a movement can start none too soon.

A Suggestion.

Special attention is directed to a letter appearing in the "Forum" department under the headline "Method of Paying

Dues." In view of the fact that about every lodge in our Brotherhood keeps its funds on deposit in a bank, it would seem as though much trouble would be saved to both Collectors and members by the adoption of this system of paying dues.

Many temporary expulsions occur through the failure of the Collector to meet a member, or a member to reach the Collector at a time when it is agreeable or possible for the payment of dues, and, as a result, many good members and their families are left for a time without that financial protection which the Brotherhood insures them in the event of injury or death, when its constitutional requirements are fulfilled.

Some question may be raised as to the propriety of having a bank act as Deputy Collector, but there is practically no difference in principle between having a bank clerk, who may not be a member of the Order, accept the dues and hand out a receipt already filled out and signed, and having a member who is away from his lodge send a postoffice order to the Collector through the mail, with the Postoffice Department acting as intermediary to convey the money to the Collector and the receipt back to the member.

Again, there is much trouble saved in handling and rehandling the funds. The Collector simply draws his check in favor of the Treasurer, and by this simple transaction the funds are placed to the credit of the latter, the necessity for the Collector seeing him personally being thus obviated. The adoption of such a method would bring all members who are inclined to depend too much on the Collector's

prompting to a full realization of the fact that the responsibility for the payment of their dues rests entirely with themselves. Anyhow, it is often easier for many firemen to reach some centrally located bank during banking hours than to see the Collector in person. A discussion of this subject is respectfully invited.

Sparks.

The father and mother of Bro. Leslie A. Heim desire to extend their gratitude for courtesies extended them during their to the members of Lodge 252 B. of L. F. recent bereavement, as well as their best wishes for the welfare of the Brotherhood, and to acknowledge the prompt payment of claim.

Mrs. W. H. Morne, wife of our late brother, W. H. Morne, of Lodge 174 B. of L. F., Harrisburg, Pa., writes to express her great appreciation to the lodge and to the Brotherhood for kindnesses and courtesies extended to her during her great bereavement, and says that the Brotherhood has no superior.

The Elgin Watch Factory, whose advertisement appears in each month's issue of the Magazine, is stated as being the largest watch factory in the world. The output of this concern is 2,000 finished watches per day. One hundred and two distinct patterns of watch are manufactured, and they are sold in all parts of the world. Great skill has been called forth for the development of a watch that will stand the rigorous requirements of railroad service, and the Elgin Watch has established for itself a most excellent reputation throughout the railroad world.