Page 90 : ARBOR DAY — ARCH, TRIUMPHAL
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been employed in cases of international dispute, not involving national honor. (See Hague Peace Conference.) Arbitration has been successfully employed in settling railroad and labor strikes, wage controversies, lockouts and other industrial troubles. Arbitration in labor disputes took a long step forward in the appointment of the Commission on Industrial Relations by President Wilson under an Act of Congress.
The Commission is to inquire into the general conditions of labor, relations between employers and employees, the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and the like.
As one social worker, who helped to secure the Commission, put it: "What we need is more light and less heat."
Arbor Day, a day set apart for the planting of trees, generally observed throughout the United States. It has been established also in Great Britain, France, northern and southern Africa and in Japan. Observance of the day may be said to have started April 10, 1872, the state of Nebraska having the honor of the first Arbor Day, and to the Hon. J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska, belongs the credit of suggesting and establishing a tree-planting day. Kansas began tree planting in 1875, Minnesota in 1876, and gradually the other states followed suit.
Now an important feature of Arbor Day is its connection with the public schools. This connection probably began in 1882, when the school children of Cincinnati, Ohio, planted trees in a public park in memory of authors and statesmen. Soon after this, in most of the schools of West Virginia a special day was appointed for tree-planting. While the festival may be considered a national one, it is observed by the several states and territories at widely different times; in the south it may be observed in December, in the north in May. Some states have a fixed date, in others it is appointed by the governor. In addition to the planting of the trees, appropriate exercises mark the day. The various states issue Arbor Day circulars giving suggestions for the celebration. The value of the interest of the school children in Arbor Day is recognized by the United States Forest Service, which sends out circulars treating of its history and observance. It is desired that every child shall learn of the use and value of the tree in the life of the nation.
Arbutus (ar′ bu-tus or ar-bu′ tus), trailing arbutus, mayflower or ground laurel, belongs to the heath family. It is one of the loveliest of our wealth of wild blossoms. The leaf often presents a time-worn and rusty appearance, but the waxy, pink blossoms are of rare delicate beauty and exquisite fragrance. After the spring rains the new leaves come and show glossy green, the later sprays the finest specimens of both flower and foliage. It is a shy blossom, does not take kindly to transplanting in cultivated garden, prefers the distant pine woods or sandy beach by pine-wood lake. Frequently in moss, too, the arbutus grows, but in moss of sand rather than loam. It is found from the Maine woods south to Florida, abounds in the northern pine forests of the Middle West and is a familiar and beloved flower of New England. It is a brave little blossom; its buds formed the preceding fall, are all ready to come forth while yet another snow storm may be expected. The plant trails on the ground, and the sun on the sandy soil forces the bloom. A few warm days in early spring are sufficient encouragement, and often after the rosy little faces have shown themselves a snowfall will whiten the ground around them. The poet, Whittier, tells of the joy the weary Pilgrims, after their hard winter, took in this early blossom—which abounds in the vicinity of Plymouth—
"Yet God be praised!" the Pilgrim said,
Who saw the blossoms peer
Above the brown leaves, dry and dead."
The Indians say when there is most moisture the flowers are pinkest, and they do show pallid in a dry season. The stem is prostrate or trailing, some petals quite buried in the sand, no branch high above the ground—one must stoop low to pluck the posies. The flowers grow in clusters, many attached to the woody central stem; they may be gathered in graceful sprays, but by the Indian venders are cut off short and made up into compact little bunches. In gathering the arbutus greediness should be controlled, the plant not uprooted, else, as is the case near the eastern cities, the beautiful blossom will be pushed farther and farther back from town and village, and in the end become extinct.
Arca′dia, a mountainous country of ancient Greece, lies in the northwestern part of the Peloponnesus. In the northeast is the great waterfall of the Styx, which the Greeks thought the main river of the infernal regions. Arcadia seems never to have had immigration from other countries, but was always peopled by the same race, noted for their great simplicity of life. Cut off from commerce divided by the mountains into small districts that had very little to do with one another, the rustic ways of the Arcadian seemed awkward and stupid to other Greeks. Their history is made up of wars against the Spartans. They became a part of the Achæan league, and later of the Roman province of Achaia. Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia greatly praises the Arcadians.
Arch, Triumphal, was a memorial raised by the Romans to celebrate a victory or
