R. A. D. McWHORTER, the inventor of a street-car fender having a record of saving the lives of fifty-seven people in the four years of

its existence, refuses to take out a patent upon his invention, preferring to let humanity reap the benefit.

The fender was first adopted by the Memphis Street Railway Company after nearly every other form of fender upon the market had been tried and in most cases found wanting in certain important details. It consists of a cradle-like cradle-like arrangement underneath the car in front of its wheels. This in turn is connected to a trigger-like attachment located directly underneath the front end of the

car.

Any object eight inches or more in height and causing a pressure of five pounds upon the trigger will trip the cradle, allowing it to be dropped upon the rails and to pick up whatever is

before it. In one case two persons were picked up at the same time, without injury, except for a few bruises of no importance.

So successful has the fender proved as a life-saver that a number of other Southern cities have adopted it and it is now being tested with a view to adoption by the New York Street Railway systems.

No royalty is asked by the inventor a city desires to equip its cars with his fender. In order to protect the invention, however, from falling into unscrupulous hands the Memphis Street Railway Company have taken a patent upon the device but will cheerfully furnish plans and specifications to any other roads wishing to adopt it.

The annual death harvest of persons caught beneath the wheels of street cars is too large not to receive the most earnest attention on the part of the authorities.

THE

and getting more ready to spend at a rapid rate. Portland and Seattle are making no noise about what they intend to do but they, too, have plans-and big

ones.

Every harbor on the Pacific Coast is the largest in the world and has more miles of water frontage than any other, if the assertions of the folks in each seaport are taken at their face value.

Millions on millions of dollars have been appropriated for commercial shelters and yet these westerners are not satisfied. Now they see the Panama Canal opening and its wealth of commerce ebbing and flowing from one ocean to another and they are planning to accommodate it and incidently grab their share of the benefits. There isn't a seaport on the western coast that is not preparing to handle the shipping of the world within its harbor as soon as the big ditch is completed.

True some of these harbors need little fixing so far as natural advantages are concerned, but vast sums of money must be spent in docking and handling facilities. In all, it is estimated that at least one hundred millions of dollars will be spent on Pacific Coast harbors before the canal is ready for ships. The greater part of this amount is available already, having been voted in bond issues. So great is the western enthusiasm over the future that as soon as the money now ready is spent, other sums likely will be raised for more improvements.

enormous

İnstead of leaving the important question of water frontage to private concerns, the cities and states have taken a hand in the game and although corporations have made, and are making, extensive improvements, the majority of the undertakings are backed by the public's money and controlled by public officials. The cities have seen the folly of allowing their natural resources to fall into the hands of the corporations, and municipal docks and warehouses are the big issues in almost every political campaign.

Railroads have spent fortunes in attempting to stem this tide of western enthusiasm for municipally owned shipping facilities but without avail. You can't tell the westerner anything about

water frontage. He's an expert on this subject and the railroads are not going to have his pet schemes in their grip if he can help it. Besides the railroads are not enthusiastic over the Panama Canal opening, as it means competition and cheaper freight rates. But that's just what the westerner has been fighting for, for years, and now is his chance to get even. And he's going to do it with a vengeance. He's tired of having his cost of living boosted for the benefit of the eastern corporations. He's going to show Wall Street just how well and how thoroughly he can whip it if he tries.

The westerner sees in the Panama Canal a means by which he can throw off the yoke of railroad control and besides become a factor in the commerce of the world. In the words of one of these western enthusiasts:

"With the opening of the Panama Canal the history of man passes to its final phase. The Occidental half of the world meets in the Pacific Ocean the other, and hitherto ignored half-the

Orient. That is the supreme meaning of the event."

That's the way they talk about it out on the western coast line. The canal is expected to open new trade routes and steamers will be compelled to call at ports now enjoying little commerce. So the westerners have resolved to get their share of the Oriental trade as well as to hit the railroads a mighty swat and reduce the cost of living. The railroads, however, are not sleeping and at every Pacific Coast seaport they are making preparations to handle greatly increased business when the canal is opened.

If you haven't a harbor of your own, reach out and get one, that's the policy of these progressive westerners. The thriving city of Los Angeles found it had built up a great center of trade in spite of the fact that it was not a seaport. But not satisfied with this it cast longing eyes toward the Pacific, fourteen miles to the westward. So what does it do but annex this strip of land-includ

ing several thrifty little towns-to the sea coast. Now Los Angeles has a harbor that it claims is one of the best on the western coast, at what formerly was San Pedro.

At a conservative estimate ten millions of dollars will have been spent on this harbor when the plans now contemplated are carried out. The city itself has just voted a bond issue of $3,000,000 for municipal wharves and fills. Federal government has spent $3,000,000 more in building one of the longest breakwaters in the country to protect what is known as the outer harbor.

The

This breakwater has been the making of San Pedro harbor. It is 9,250 feet in length and on the outer end a lighthouse shows the mariner the way to refuge. Between the concrete wall and the shore is a trestle 1,800 feet long and this space will be filled for docking purposes. With this protective wall a harbor of 375 acres has been made. With the channels and the inner harbor 200