ONLY A SPOT ■
IN WIDE SEA
» #'
But Grave Questions
Surround the Little
Island of Yap.
Washington.—When it was asked,
after the world war, what tfie United
States got out of it. the cynical reply
was made that “We got the island of
Yap.’
It seems we didn't. At no time did
we claim Yap for ourselves. President
Wilson and the other American peace :
envoys at Paris insisted only that Yap ^
slu old not go to the exclusive owner- |
ship or control of any nation, but
■ , i
should be “internationalized.’' That :
is. it should be kept for the use of all
natious.
That was the general understanding
at the time. But it seems that the
American envoys reste 1 satisfied with
the general consent that appeared to
have been obtained, and did not file a
written reservation as to this island.
And now Japan claims Yap for its own,
and very stubbornly resists the claim
that the isiand is to be international
ized. *
The little island, which few people
had ever heard of before the war, has
become very important. It is the only
spot. m a wine «ea woere cauie lines
between America and Asia can be
landed. If any one nation can control
Yap, it can come pretty near control
ling the transmission of intelligence by
cable across the Pacific. Yap is, in
short, of value in time of peace, and a
vital point in case of war between an
American and an Asiatic power.
Foreseeing this, President Wilson
and the other American peace envoys
at Paris early in 1919 made a positive
stand in favor of treating Yap as inter
national property which no nation
could monopolize. This was the only
bit of territory which the United
States—the final factor in the winning
of the war—asked at the peace table:
and this it asked not for itself alone,
but for all nations. Japan demurred a
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little, but in the end there seemed to
be no opposition to the Ainet i<-i' wish.
The minutes of the proceedings at
Pam showed that there had been dis
cussion of reservations made hv Presi
dent Wilson against Japan’s claim, but
no proof could be found that our claim
bad been made in writing and by for
mal documents Bled. Japan now takes
advantage of this apparent omission to
insist that her right to the island is
absolute.
Japan’s claim, unknown to us, was
approved by the League of Nations at
its meeting in Geneva—a meeting in
which the United States was not rep
resented and had no voice!
When Japan entered the world war
it was on condition that in case of vic
t iry she should have all the German
islands in the Pacific north of the
equator. France, Great Britaiu and
i ie other countries then at war with
Germany agreed. On this the claim of
Jap in to Yap is based. The Uuited
States never consented.
Professors Wrong,
Says Voliva; Earth
Is Flat, Not Round
Zion City, 111.—“I will give $1,000 to
any of these smart professors or any
body else who cao prove to me that the
earth is round.”
Overseer Glenn Wilbur Voliva, high
priest of Zion, so declared here Sunday
from the.pulpitof his tabernacle.
“But,” he added, “don’t let anybody
send in that old chestnut About ships
disappearing at eea, or that old theory
about sailing around the ‘globe.’ You
can sail around a pie tin.”
Voliva also declared the laws of
gravitation are ‘‘the bunk.”
“The only law of gravitation is the
inevitable movement of two sweet
hearts sittiog on the opposite ends of a
park bench,” he said.,
“Can any of these wise professors
tell me why there is vegetation at the
North pole and none at the South
pole?” be added, “or why the water is
shallow’ at the North pole and deeper
at the South pole? The earth is Hat.
The British parliament passed a law
forbidding surveyors of canals to make
any allowance for the curvature of the
earth. If it were round, the Mississipi
river w’ould be running uphill.
“The laws of gravitation are the
bunk. If you throw a brickbat into the
air, physical force sends it up. If you
throw a feather it goes up because it is
lighter than air. The brickbat comes
down, but the feather stays up.
“God says the sun goes around the
earth, but he never said anything
about the earth going around . the sun.
Don’t you believe these smart profes
s >rs. On a clear day vou can stand on
the Halsted street bridge and see
across Bake Michigan. Could you do
that if the earth were round? You
could not.”
Five Indian girls were brought to
Dawson recently by Bishop Stringer,
'from their homes in the upper reaches
of the Porcupine river. They are to
be placed in the mission school at Car
cross. At Dawson the girls were treat
ed to their first sight of electric lights,
telephones, bicycles and automobiles.
The Alaska Bureau of the Seattle
Chamber of Commerce is being Hooded
with letters from all parts of the
United States, asking for information
concerning Alaska. Some of the in
quiries come from South America and
the Canal zone.
I
! CENTER OF
POPULATION
———
1920 Census Shows That !
It Is Still Moving*
Westward. <
_
Washington.—The Census Bureau
announces that the center of popula
tion, as fixed b\ the census of 1920, is
where the parallel of latitude at 39 de- ,
grees 10 minutes and 21 seconds north
crosses the meridian of 86 degrees 43
minutes and lf> seconds west.
This is a point in the southeast cor
ner of Owen county. Indiana, about
fifty miles southwest of Indianapolis.
There isn’t aoy population there to
speak of, but there is the hub of the
wheel of population—just as many peo
ple west of it. just as many north as
south. i
Ten years ago the center of popula
tion was at Bloomington, lud., and for
manv more years it has been in-that
State. It has now- moved 9.8 miles west
of that point, almost a mile a year. It
has also moved about 1100 feet Dorth.
If the westward movement continues
at its present rate Indiana will have
the center of population for half a cen
tury to come.
The westward movement of the cen
ter would not have been very notice
able this time-had it not been.for Cali
fornia’s increase bf more than 1,000,000
in population since 1910. In the last
decade a good manv of the Eastern
States have grown faster than the
Western. _
To the best of our knowledge and be
lief, Walter Stephens was the last man
to cross the Tacoma ice this season, !
which be did Tuesday evening, when
he returned to Candle.
_
A report from the Outside states
that Dutch Blaukfield, of Nenana, held
a night conference with a bandit while
in Los Angeles recently and had to.gei
help from a friend to get to ’Frisco. *'
-
J. A. Slippern, well known North : 1
erner, who is now in Los Angeles, is'
very anxious to learn the present
whereabouts of -Joban Rumahe, said to
have been located in the Koyukuk dis
trict at one time.
The Harriman National Bank, at -
Sewai d, has changed its name to the
First National Bank of Seward.
rhis Fellow Says He
Has Squared the Circle
A Wheeling architect nam«l Joseph
^einer claims thatxfter forty years of
>ff-and-on study of the problem he has
woeceded intgquaring the circle, ai.d
se wants a Nobe< pv./,e for it the news
•eports-say. He is submitting his
net.hod to some eminent matbemat'
dans for approval.
The problem of squaring the circle-,
aas been for centuries the despair of
nathematiciair^ and has generally been
jiveu up as impossible. The real fire-It
em is to find the exact relation be
tween the diameter of a circle and its
breumference. Apparently there is
10 suoh exact relation, and a circle is
'eally what an aucient Greek philoso
iher called it, “A polygon with an in
ioite number of sides.”
For any practical use the cirenmfer
;nce of a circle may be Luken ;ts
1.141,59 times its diameter. t this is
iot absolutely exact; there is---a very
small “plus” to the decimal. Matbe
naticians have carried the problem
iut to more than 700 decimal * places
places without getting rid -of a remaio
ier. Nor does any sequence occur like
1X5 or 666, or any other combination
hat would show the uselessness of car
rying the division further.
Max Simel
The Pioneer Trader
Furs Bought and
Sold!
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s_ji
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