cents. This is a mere trifle, of course, compared with the expenses involved in ordinary court proceedings.

Most of the claims coming before Judge Kemper are for labor and range from twenty cents to twenty dollars. Sometimes the result to a poor working man-or, even more pathetic, a seamstress or scrub woman-is the payment of hard earned wages which would otherwise be denied, for it is a matter of common belief that the average toiler cannot enforce such claims by ordinary legal procedure; he would rather pocket his loss than bring suit against a wealthy man who might defeat him on a technicality.

When one considers what it means to a man who has no capital but his two hands or to a woman who scrubs for a living and who has nothing laid aside, to be deprived of the reward of a week's hard labor, it will be seen that much misery, or even crime, can be done away with by this beneficent institution. Not only the lack of the few dollars to provide food and shelter, but the fierce resentment that such a toiler feels when his pay is withheld, either through dishonesty or some misunderstanding, are circumstances that lead to crime. Picture a day laborer, who is counting on taking home a few dollars on Saturday night to pay the rent and feed his family. Because of the dishonesty or negligence of his employer he is forced to go home penniless. What is more natural than the impulse to steal a loaf of bread, or to "hold up" some belated citizen? Such a temptation, once yielded to, stamps as a criminal a man who is really a victim of

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injustice. With the assurance that free justice can be obtained quickly, the laborer would have no such excuse nor would the employer misuse his power by withholding such payment.

For such strong human reasons as these, and not by any means because of the amounts involved, Judge Kemper states: "I believe that this is the most intportant court provided for by Kansas law. It helps the poor man who cannot help himself."

And so it is. To the layman, more interested in seeing justice done than watching a legal chess game, it seems an object lesson to courts of far more dignity and power.

It is proposed to bring labor claims up to a maximum of fifty dollars within the jurisdiction of this court. This seems a step in the right direction. The question naturally arises: Why should only small cases of little financial importance be tried by the rules of common sense and the square deal? Why should cases involving millions of dollars and human life and liberty be tried by the antiquated rules of law of the bygone centuries?

The Small Debtors' Court of Kansas may show the way to a thorough revision of our legal methods, making for justice to rich and poor alike, without cost. If such a dream were realized it would indeed be "the most important court provided for by Kansas law" or any other law. For the fundamental reason why society is organized with its officers of the law and its Courts of Justice is in the last analysis: "To help the poor man who cannot help himself."

ᄆ

THE LAND WAS SWAMPY, COVERED WITH UNDERBRUSH AND SMALL SAPLINGS, BUT THE GIANT POWDER MADE SHORT WORK OF THE DRAINAGE TRENCH DIGGING

applied first hand would in a few minutes do the work that it formerly required an old-fashioned plow, a man, and a team of horses to do in many hours. Now the same giant force is being applied in another way which dispenses with the labor of a large force of men, greatly reduces the cost and, best of all, produces the desired result in a marvelously short time.

The greatest problem of those who are obliged to meet the question of drainage of swamp lands seems to be solved by this satisfactory method of rapidly and cheaply building the right sort of ditches for the purpose,

THE DITCH THAT DYNAMITE DUG

chiefly because of the fact that they are too swampy to farm. Genesee and Orleans Counties are especially in need of reclamation work. If the up-to-date methods proposed are generally carried into operation, it is claimed that within a very short period the six hundred thousand acres will shrink to less than eighteen thousand.

A large landowner in New York state, who was recently considering various methods of draining his swamp lands, was advised to try dynamite. It was suggested that this method would prove especially satisfactory in building the many lateral ditches that are required to bring the water out of the oozy soil down to the main ditch, where it could flow off.

In making the experiment, one ton of dynamite was used. The land selected for the purpose was heavily overgrown with saplings, underbrush, and thick grass. This was first cut along the route of the proposed ditch. Parallel holes were dug twenty inches apart to a depth of four feet, and at each one of these holes, two sticks of the high explosive were placed. The length of the strip of land treated in this manner was five hundred feet. The soil was black and heavy,

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thoroughly saturated with water, and the roots of the trees and bushes formed a heavy matting beneath the surface yet, when the dynamite was exploded, a huge gap was torn out five hundred feet in length, and in width from ten to twelve feet.

Other similar lateral ditches were excavated in like manner. The results were so satisfactory that the owner of the land ordered a second shipment of ten more tons of the magic excavator.

As no ditches have previously been dug in this soil, it is practically impossible to make a comparison as to the cost of the new method over the older methods, yet it is certain that the labor cost was greatly reduced and, of course, no machinery other than that required to make the preliminary clearing of the land was necessary in digging out the new drainage system.

T

HE newest of devices for enhancing the efficiency of the railroad is a clever electric mechanism by means of which the train dispatcher, without the assistance of any operator, towerman, switchman, or other person whatsoever, can order any train to take the siding at any meeting or passing point. By merely giving a key a quarter turn to the right, the dispatcher can display a big red disk bearing in bold white letters the words. "Take Siding" at any sidetrack on the division, regardless of the distance from his office. Moreover, the dispatcher is notified automatically that his bidding has been done. It is this "answer back" which makes the new invention absolutely safe, and thus of incalculable service in railroad operation.

The new signal is designed for use in

connection with the telephone which is now extensively employed in train dispatching on busy railroads. The telephone and the new signal permit so much more traffic to be handled that they may save the cost of an additional track. Also the new signal saves the expense of an operator at each station where it is installed.

As operators cost money, they are not employed at every station on the division, even in the daytime. At night train order stations are still fewer. Hence, train crews can obtain running orders only at certain designated stations.

Where the telephone is in use a train. at a station having an operator can be directed to proceed to a station where there is no operator and there call up the dispatcher for further orders. This is very helpful, for a telephone can be

cheaply installed on a pole at any "blind" siding. But while the conductor can call up the dispatcher, the latter cannot return the compliment-he must wait till spoken to. These conditions give more opportunities to lose valuable time than any one but a dispatcher could imagine.

A freight train might have orders allowing it to run to Lonesomehurst. So So much time is consumed in making the stop and in the conductor's journey of half a mile from the caboose to the telephone and in calling up the dispatcher, that the train may have to pull down and back in on the siding to allow another train right of way. The new signal saves all this time, for the dispatcher can let the freight proceed to Dismalburg, ten or twelve miles farther along, to meet or pass the other train. The engineer of the freight just keeps going until that big red disk stares him in the face. Without the waste of a moment, he stops at the proper distance from the switch, while the head brakeman, grumbling at the cruel fate which disturbs his repose, climbs down from his cosy seat in the

cab and heads 'em in on the passing track. After the usual interval the passenger train thunders by while the freight pulls right through and goes on about its business.

In other words, the new arrangement allows more trains to be run in a day. To illustrate, twenty trains might be all that could be passed over a given section of line in a certain length of time, using the telephone for dispatching. By installing the "Take Siding" signal in connection with the telephone, the dispatcher would have so much closer control over movements that he could pass twentyfive trains over the same line in the same time. Thus the new signal would increase the capacity of the road twentyfive per cent in the example given.

The new invention consists of a selector in the dispatcher's office and a signal at each station which looks exactly like any block signal-in fact, it uses standard block signal mechanism-except that a big red disk is substituted for the customary semaphore blade.

The selector looks like a case of pigeonholes on the operator's desk.