that fall that dear brother went to Conference and asked the Bishop for a change; he thought I'd been there long enough. I thought so too, especially when he came to pay me in apples for his share of my sermons.

What would the world be without the knowledge of gravitation? It was a thump on the head from an apple that awakened Sir Isaac Newton to the realization of the significance of that great law. How would the world have gone on through these years without the law of gravitation? But it was the falling of an apple that told the story to the great Newton, and we must give credit to the apple. I don't know whether it was a Baldwin or not. If I were going to hit a fellow on the head with the expectation of knocking him down, I'd take a Baldwin. I am not sure whether it was a Baldwin or not, but John Newton awakened to the significance of that great and fundamental truth and the world has been guided and governed by it ever since.

We ought to recognize, therefore, the high place which the apple has in the history and life of our world. The apple is one of the most perfect examples known of the union of the useful and beautiful. It is said to be, and I am sure it is, for gentlemen in this organization have told me so, the most important fruit grown in all the world. It is the king of fruits. There was a time when the fig might have been placed in that position; that was a good while ago, but now the apple has come to a place of power and influence and is increasing. I am sure that, as the result of the agitation and education of this Association it will still more swiftly and mightily move toward its larger place.

By the way, I would like to discuss with you how to market apples. A Methodist preacher was riding on a train one day and the newsboy came through with some very mediocre looking apples. He called, "Apples, Apples," as he went along. Nobody bought an apple. The poor fellow was discouraged and distressed. The Methodist preacher, sitting up near the end of the car, said to the boy as he went out, "Come back in about ten minutes and bring your apples with you." The preacher reached down into his bag and pulled out a big, red, juicy apple. He stood up in front of the passengers and bit into it, a great, luscious preacher bite; the juice of it made music that reached to the end of the car. He bit again and again. The luscious pieces produced the musical sounds that attracted the attention of every man, woman and child in the car. Their mouths began to water for apples. He ate some more until the core of the apple was all that was left and he sucked the juice out of that with a great noise. Just then the boy came back shouting "Apples, Apples," and it was not two minutes before he sold everyone he had in his tray and there was a demand for more. Now, gentlemen, can't you put that into practice? And if you make a big sale by my little game, remember that I'd like a box of Spitzenburgs or any other sort that you may find it convenient to send to St. Luke's hospital.

Like a bouquet of summer blossoms is a plate of beautiful apples, but how valuable it is as an article of diet. It has been said that if you eat apples enough, you will never need a doctor and

your appendix will never be misplaced; it will not need to be removed. The apple, with its beauty, its charm, its odor and its color, is one of God's most precious gifts to his children. The mystery and romance of the apple appears in its humble origin, for they tell us that our beautiful apple, so unexpectedly beautiful, so surprisingly beautiful, descended from the wild crab. This is one of the marvelous things of the world. Has it ever occurred to you that God never made the Baldwin apple, that God never made a Bellflower? And you may mention all the other sorts that you think are the best. God gave to us a wild crab, then he put into us what was infinitely better than the perfected apple, he put into us the thirst and the desire to conquer and master Nature. And man, filled with genius and power, and created in the likeness of the Divine Author, is the wizard who has produced these marvelous varieties from that rough and knotted wild crab.

Now, Ladies, you may not have succeeded in finishing up your husbands to your satisfaction, but don't be discouraged with us men; don't be discouraged. If the apples of today, in all their beauty, flavor and perfection, have been evolved from the wildest of crab apples, what ought you not to expect to be able to do with your husbands, if you will only cultivate them and prune them and trim them and spray them, as they need to be, in order to bring out those possibilities of perfect grace that I am sure lurk within them?

The apple comes to its best where man reaches his highest. Where the snow flies, there is liberty. Where the snow flies, God has made the greatest men who have ever walked the earth; and where the snow flies, there the apple reaches its highest; there its perfections are wrought out. It is well for us to remember that the apple comes from the coldest climes. It is well for us to remember that there are times of trial, there are moments of chill that seem to us to depress and disturb, but let us, like the apple, do our best where the storms beat, where the snow falls and where the frosts that would destroy most other fruits only bring the apple to completion and perfection. Is it not true of us that we need that which stimulates? We need, in order to make the strongest manhood, the purest and sweetest womanhood, the difficulties, the burdens, the trials which are a part of human experience.

A traveler who believed himself to be sole survivor of a shipwreck upon a cannibal isle, hid for three days, in terror of his life. Driven out by hunger, he discovered a thin wisp of smoke rising from a clump of bushes inland, and crawled carefully to study the type of savages about it. Just as he reached the clump he heard a voice say: "Why in hell did you play that card?" He dropped on his knees and, devoutly raising his hands, cried:

"Thank God they are Christians!"-Everybody's.

T

Ocean Carriers and Commerce

Common Sense Demands Action-Business Handicapped HE sinking of the Empress of Ireland, and the loss of nearly a thousand lives, indirectly but forcibly calls to our attention the inadequate legal obligations placed upon ocean carriers. What lessons do we need? Is there nothing that will arouse people to action? Hardly had the Titanic plunged beneath the waves, and before monuments had been erected to the dead, when another catastrophe, of equal horror, shocks all lands. Hardly had the court handed down its decision, fixing the liability for the Titanic disaster, before another hopeless loss occurs to lend emphasis to the absurdity of the law under which that decision was made. Again is it pointed out to us that in the absence of the strictest legal liability for negligence there never will be that due care in ocean transportation necessary not only to the safety of life but also to the full health and vigor of our foreign commerce.

THIS QUESTION HAS A DIRECT BEARING ON THE APPLE INDUSTRY AND WILL BE THOROUGHLY CONSIDERED AT THE BOSTON CONVENTION. In the meantime think it over.

For how much do you think the owners of the Titanic were held liable for that reckless catastrophe? Ninety Thousand Dollars, and no more, an amount representing the value of the life boats and property saved plus the passage money paid. Such is the state of the law applicable to that case. Such will be the result in the case of the Empress of Ireland.

When it comes to property or goods carried there is, under the Harter Act and the decisions of the court, practically no liability for any act, even gross negligence. All that a steamship owner is obliged to do is to furnish a seaworthy craft, properly manned. If he has done this, then all liability ceases for faults or errors in navigation and the management of the ship. The captain can get drunk and run the ship on a reef or through another craft, leave the port-holes open, flood the goods with water, fail to start the refrigerating machinery, smash your packages, damage the cargo and do pretty much as he likes, and YOU WILL STAND THE LOSS.

Read an ocean bill of lading. The carrier is responsible for nothing, not even a delivery of the goods shipped. Shippers are compelled to insure against every conceivable hazard, thereby fattening the pockets of the insurance companies and making exports difficult. Consider the handling and the stowage of apples. Nickel steel and pig iron only can stand the abuse handed out to this perishable commodity. Does any sane man pretend to say that foreign trade can exist at its best under these conditions?

A short time ago we published the latest imposition attempted by the ocean carrier, viz., the Strike Expense Clauses. They now enjoy powers, privileges and immunities unequalled by any person

outside of a military dictator. It is time to call a halt. It is time to put ocean carriers on precisely the same basis of liability as the railroads. Reasons for continued exemption no longer exist. The days of the three banked galley and the caravels of Columbus have gone. It is the age of steam, the wireless and every modern appliance, when owners can and must know what their employes are doing or pay the bill.

What think you would be the result if railroads were exempt from all liability for the negligence of their employes? Would there be the slightest incentive to care? Land transportation would become a menace to life and commerce. Someone may say that the shipowners will exercise care because they would not want to lose their ship. Not at all. They insure them for full value and if they go down, put the money in their pockets and let the shipper whistle.

Special indulgence has been granted long enough. Every man should be held liable for his own negligence or the negligence of his servants and employes. The presence of legal and strict responsibility is the only incentive to vigilance. This is the common experience of life. It is a fact. It is common sense and ordinary justice. It is a decidedly immoral and unmoral condition to compel any man to turn his property over to another to do with as he sees fit and without one iota of liability attached. It is a menace to trade prosperity.

Two bills are now pending in Congress seeking to correct these conditions. They are precisely the same as the Nelson Bill of last year which we mentioned at Cleveland. In fact, one of them is the Nelson Bill. These bills will not be reached this session, but at the next session fruit growers and dealers should get behind them and fight it out to a finish. Let us come to a show-down.

Sunshine!

I have never yet seen in Old Nature a hint
Of intention to scrimp or deny.

When men do their part she bestows without stint,
Nor passes one good worker by.

Sometimes it may seem as if sorrow is rife

Where joys and rewards should abound,

But I think every person who plays fair with life
Finds there's sunshine enough to go 'round.

There is not a great deal of which man can be sure
If he seeks his assurance from men,

But if he will turn to the things that are pure,—
To stars, trees and children, why then

He will know that this storm-ridden, trouble-swept life
Is a sea of uncertainty bound

By the shores of the certainty-spite of the strife.-
That there's sunshine enough to go 'round!