8 44 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



er of Agriculture of Vermont and of New 

 Hampshire substantiate these accounts as re- 

 gards 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 suf- 

 fering 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 fore- 

 closure of a farm mortgage in his section of 

 the country, and the remark was used in de- 

 bate in the Senate by his colleague, Hon. 

 John C. Spooner. Our members of Con- 

 gress 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 in- 

 vestigated 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 repre- 

 sent 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 Wiscon- 

 sin, as far north as the farming region ex- 

 tends. In reply, letters were received, most- 

 ly 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, in- 

 volving $1,297,905.49. These counties con- 

 tain about one sixth of the population of 

 the State, and, allowing liberal margins, 

 the " Journal " estimates that twenty-five 

 hundred farm mortgages have been fore- 

 closed in the whole State during the past 

 ten years. Senator Sawyer resides at Osh- 

 kosh, in Winnebago County, which is not one 

 of the nine counties above mentioned, but 

 foreclosures occur in the Senator's immedi- 

 ate vicinity as well as in the rest of the 

 State. The " Journal " quotes the " Oshkosh 

 Times " as saying, " In the year 1888 ten mort- 

 gages were foreclosed on farms in Winneba- 

 go 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 re- 

 minds one of Sam Weller's behavior on the 

 witness-stand in the great Pickwick trial, 

 when his father had been guilty of disturb- 

 ing 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 asser- 

 tions, 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 sep- 

 arate facts. Just as truly as eternal vigi- 

 lance is the price of liberty, the price of 

 truth is thorough investigation. 

 Very truly yours, 



Frederik A. Fernald. 

 New Toek, February 22, 1S90. 



RIGIDITY OP THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 

 Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



Sir: 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 impos- 

 sible 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 sus- 

 pension 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 demon- 

 strable 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 un- 

 stable equilibrium, and requires lateral brac- 

 ing, which the suspended arch does not re- 

 quire. 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 re- 

 placed by steel links, the suspended arches 



