But turn now to the fields of domestic politics and see what mass pro duction has already effected there. Observe, first, our exports and im. ports. The annual excess of exports over imports in recent years runs from $375,000,000 to $981,000,000. The statistics reveal us as piling up year by year the amount due us from foreign countries, year by year growing more and more the world's great creditor nation. Suppose mass production to continue to expand and improve, tradebalances must remain substantially on our side. Whereupon will arise this sobering question: Can a great creditor nation maintain a high tariff? This has nothing to do with soapboxers or hobby-horses, theories or doctrines. It is merely a question of fact. We are accumulating great trade-balances in our favor. Ordinarily trade-balances are paid in gold, securities, or goods. These cannot be paid in gold; we have all the gold there is. If we take securities we shall only swell by the amount of the interest-charges the next year's tradebalance. Goods alone are left, and as to goods-there stands the tariff wall. Meantime standardization, prohibition, and better methods have increased the national efficiency until we have overtaken our high wagelevels and can make things demanded abroad more cheaply than any other nation can make them. Protection was devised to foster infant industries. When an infant can go out into the world and wallop all comers of all ages, some one is sure to say it no longer needs the nursing-bottle. When we can lay down cotton-duck almost anywhere abroad more cheaply than any mill in England, what is the use of 65 per cent duty on cotton-duck? When we can go to Europe and outsell German makers of electrical goods, what need of a tariff on electrical goods? Before long questions like these will be hard upon us. The tariff question is already splitting the political par ties; and it is clear enough that the next congressional and presidential elections will be fought largely on this issue. Next, in international affairs and relations, standardization promises to have historic results. That it has bound us upon a course of marvelous expansion in the world's markets i in itself alluring, but still there lurk upon it the grim fact that we wi into those markets only as we elbo some one else out of them. Elbowin is a process first of irritation, the of exasperation. Applied to marke ing it produces always internation hatreds and usually international war For years before the World War Ge many had been notoriously elbowin Great Britain from some of the choi est of all markets, and we know wh followed upon that abrasion. W have had for years an active agitatio in favor of some form of virtual al ance with Great Britain. This thre of an Anglo-Saxon or English-spea ing domination has driven the small and especially the Latin countries 1 gether into a defensive alliance, a the world has begun to present aga the spectacle of two armed and host camps. But the nation we shall chiefly bow from markets is Great Brita The mercantile marine that we sh chiefly supersede, if we resume place as a maritime power, is t British mercantile marine. If a thing has been proved by human perience it is that these commerc antagonisms take not the slight heed of sentiment. If we pursue road we are now traveling comm cially there will be an abrupt end to all talk about Anglo-Saxon fra nity, and the hands we are now ur to extend across the sea will be doubled-up fists. It is all in hist if one cares to seek it there. rapid rise of the United States a maritime power was the chief un lying and originating cause of War of 1812. The Discovery of Anesthesia Condensed from Hygeia (July '26) Hugh H. Young N comparison with surgical anes medical science are trivial. Before Canesthesia, surgery was a horror! Surgical operations were dreadful ordeals, a hell to the patients, a purgatory to the surgeons. The frightlul shrieks from the hospital operating Erooms filled those waiting their turn In the wards with terror. The awful experiences of operative surgery and the attendant high mortality caused the best minds in mediine to avoid operations. Indeed, for centuries many major operations in Europe were left to itinerant quacks, and in England the barber surgeons did the work while the medical prolession stood by and vainly tried tɔ Issuage the anguish of the patient. Since the beginning of medical hisory our records show that the never espairing hope of physicians was to Jonquer pain and thus be allowed to arry out surgical procedures with ranquil thoroughness rather than in I mad rush against pain and death. "Sacred, profane and mythological terature abound in incident, fact and ancy showing that since earliest times nan has sought to assuage pain by ome means of dulling consciousness," ays Gwathmey. "In these attempts any methods and diverse agents ave been employed. The inhalation ffumes from various substances, eird incantations, the external and iternal application of drugs and any strange concoctions, pressure on nportant nerves and blood vessels, agnetism and mesmerism, etc., have layed their part in the evolution of nesthesia.” Mandragora was used by both reeks and Romans for hundreds of ears to produce sleep, and Asiatics employed hashish to dull conscious. ness of pain. Later, opium and hem. lock were used. It was not until the early chemical discoveries of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and nitrous oxide in the latter part of the 18th century that the way was found for a scientific anesthesia. Sir Humphrey Davy said, in 1800, "Since nitrous oxide is capable of destroying pain it may be used in surgi. cal operations," and 25 years later Hickman anesthetized rabbits with nitrous oxide and carried out many operations on them successfully with. out a struggle. However, these demonstrations were unheeded, and the surgical theater continued to be a torture chamber. But nitrous oxide and sulphuric ether, neglected by the medical pro fession, were seized on by the populace, who found in them a pleasant means of becoming exhilarated. Itinerant lecturers on the marvels of chemistry roamed over the country and popularized their meetings by giving young people ether to breathe, while the audiences roared with laughter over their unconscious antics on the stage. Knowledge of these drugs reached even to the distant rural hamlets. In one of these, Jefferson, Ga., many miles from a railroad, Crawford W. Long was practicing medicine. Fresh from the University of Pennsylvania, he knew of the exhilarating properties of these drugs and frequently furnished ether to young men who met at his office for an "ether frolic" in the winter of 1841-1842. But let him tell his story: "They were so much pleased with its effects that they afterwards fre quently used it and induced others to do the same, and the practice soon became quite fashionable in the county. "On numerous occasions I inhaled ether for its exhilarating properties, and would frequently, at some short time subsequent to its inhalation, dis cover bruised or painful spots on my person, which I had no recollection of causing and which I felt satisfied were received while under the influ ence of ether. I noticed that my friends, while etherized, received falls and blows that I believed were suffi cient to produce pain on a person not in a state of anesthesia. On questioning them they uniformly assured me that they did not feel the least pain from these accidents. Observing these facts, I was led to believe that anesthesia was produced by the inhalation of ether, and that its use would be applicable in surgical operations. "The first patient to whom I administered ether in a surgical operation was James M. Venable. It was given to Mr. Venable on a towel, and when fully under its influence I extirpated a tumor on his neck. The patient continued to inhale ether during the time of the operation, and, when informed that it was over, seemed in. credulous until the tumor was shown him. He gave no evidence of suffering during the operation, and assured me, after it was over, that he did not experience the least degree of pain from its performance. This operation was performed on Mar. 30, 1842." Here, then, was the first successful attempt to render a patient insensible to pain during a surgical operation! Long did not rush into print, but like a painstaking scientist quietly continued his work, removing another tumor on the same patient a few weeks later, and then amputating a toe under complete ether anesthesia in July. His meager practice furnished him only a few surgical cases each year. He continued to operate under ether, while he bided his time, waiting for a major operation before publishing his claims to a discovery that he well realized would revolutionize surgery. In 1896, I chanced to meet Mrs Fanny Long Taylor, who amazed m by saying that her father was th discoverer of surgical anesthesia. had heard only of Morton, in whos honor, as the discoverer of anesthesi a great celebration was in preparatio in Boston. I was thrilled when sh said she could put Dr. Long's doct mentary proof in my hands, and a fe days later I went through his tim stained papers, case histories, a count books, affidavits from patient attendants, physicians in his tow and elsewhere in Georgia, and fro professors of the University of Georgi all of which furnished overwhelmin proof of the originality of his dE covery. Jackson and Morton united in clair ing the discovery in 1846, Morton a mitting that he got the idea fro Jackson. Wells then came forth wit his claim of having used nitrous o ide in 1844. Morton and Jackson su sequently fell out, and Dr. Jackso hearing of Long's claims, visited him i Georgia to investigate them, and the generously wrote a long letter to th Boston Medical and Surgical Journ setting forth in detail the genuinene of Dr. Long's claims. The next years witnessed a sad spe tacle of litigation and controversy b tween the rival New England clai: ants for a bonus from Congress f the discovery of anesthesia. In th Dr. Long took no part, but a present tion of his documents by Senat Dawson of Georgia promptly kill the bill to give Morton $100,000. That the general usage of ether surgery came after the surgeons the Massachusetts General Hospi had operated on persons anesthetiz by Morton in October, 1846, no c will gainsay. But in this epo making discovery there is surely gle enough for all. No true friend Long would try to belittle the gr achievements of Morton and his s gical co-workers in Boston from wh world-wide recognition of the possi ity of surgical anesthesia came. Making a Living in France Condensed from The Saturday Evening Post (June 12, '26) Jesse Rainsford Sprague The Pharmacist methodically. To chances is bad business. The French are a nation of small proprietors, one succeeding another in endless procession, each playing his game safely until the time arrives when he has a competence, when he passes his affairs on to another. There is, for instance, the Pharmacie of the Better Health, located near the Boulevard St.-Germain in Paris. Monsieur Etienne Rigaud, the present proprietor, cannot himself say how many fortunes have been made in it since it first opened its doors years before the Grand Revolution. When he was 15 years of age, Monsieur Rigaud apprenticed himself to the owner of the Pharmacie of the Better Health. According to law, he was obliged to have a high-school diploma before he could enter upon his apprenticeship. He worked one year as apprentice, putting in full time. During the following four years the law compelled his master to allow him time from his duties to attend the courses of the pharmacy school. While apprentice and part-time worker he received pay equal to $2.50 a week. After gaining his diploma he was advanced from time to time until he attained the top pay for registered pharmacists in France-$45 a month. A hard road, one thinks, to lead only to such pay? One must remember that in France few salaried men of any sort receive more than that sum, and many receive less. Also, Etienne Rigaud was not thinking alone of the pay. He knew that according to French custom his employer would have his competence and wish to retire. And who would be a more logical purchaser of the pharmacy than the employe who was on cordial terms with all the clients? In the bank was a full thousand dollars to Monsieur Etienne's credit, the economies of his $45-a-month pay. To accumulate this sum had not been easy, but he knew all the time his credit as a business man would be judged by his ability to save while an employe. How had he managed it? Well, his wife looked after the family finances. Their apartment of two rooms and a kitchen was on the sixth floor of a building that had no elevator. It seemed hard to climb all those stairs, but one was consoled by the cheaper rent-only $7 a month. Madame R1gaud walked each day with a basket to the public market, where one bought things cheaper than at the shops. On his weekly day of leisure they went to the Garden of the Tuileries to hear the band play, or did window shopping on the Boulevard St.-Germain. Once or twice a month they attended the neighborhood cinema. Not an exciting life, surely, but pleasant in its way; and always there was the bank account that grew larger as the months went by. So Monsieur Etienne bought the Pharmacie of the Better Health with $1000 as first payment and signed notes for the balance. One is glad to state that his affairs go well and that in another year he will be free from debt. To be the owner of a pharmacy in France means much, for it is of all retail lines the most solid. During three whole years there have been but two bankruptcies among the pharmacists in the entire country. There is good reason for this. The government itself prevents undue competition, limiting the number of pharmacies according to population. The government believes that too much competition might result in a lowering of the standard of goods sold to the public. The Striker At present Jean Gendreau, of Marseilles, is out of work because of a strike declared by the Metal Workers' Union, of which he is a member. Each morning he attends a meeting of strikers and listens to earnest orators denouncing capital. The trouble France is that the cost of living is five times what it was before the war. One must pay ten francs for a dozen eggs. Two francs for a loaf of bread. Eight francs for a pound of coffee. As for clothing, it is hardly worth while to discuss the prices because everything is so far beyond the reach of the ordinary workman! ing, who cannot intelligently advise a client in the choice of a meal and whose manners altogether lack diplo macy. Louis Potin blames the hard times in France for these conditions. Since the war, food is terribly high in price; therefore all sorts of men try to be waiters, because they are boarded free. Restaurant owners em ploy them, because such men are willing to work extra long hours and even give up a percentage of their tips, although such arrangements are strict ly forbidden by French law. Happily there are some men wise enough to know the value of fine training. Of late years in France many companies have been organized that operate little shops selling canned goods, oils, condiments, and the like These companies have found tha the waiters of the old school, with their fine manners and their ability to please people, make splendid man agers of their shops. Louis Potin ha made his application for such a posi One hopes with Jean Gendreau that the strike may be won, for the demands of the metal workers do not seem unreasonable, considering that the actual costs of necessities of life are not far below those current in the United States. that the union pay be raised from 22 to 25 francs a day. If the workers attain their aim their wages will be increased, in terms of American money, from 75 cents to 85 cents for a day's work. tion. The strikers ask The business-investigation bu reau has reported favorably on hi steadiness and his freedom fron sporting instincts. There remain only the money; and unless affairs g badly he will have the necessar amount in the bank within the yea! The Stenographer Mademoiselle Yvonne Duflos jokin ly alludes to herself as a war casua ty, and in a way her allusion quite appropriate. At present she is stenographer in a Paris firm th manufactures toilet preparation Much of the firm's business is wi the United States; Mademoiselle D flos therefore is obliged to take dict tion in both French and English, ar her ability to do so accounts for h splendid pay of $35 a month, fully third more than the average earni of the Paris stenographer who know but one language. Mademoiselle Duflos was really i tended for a career in society rath than that of business. Her fam comes from one of the conservati old towns in Brittany, where h father for many years practiced t |