Evening Star Newspaper, January 23, 1923, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR, ‘With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D, C. WUESDAY.....January 23, ®HEODORE W. NOYES...Editor Whe Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office, 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. l}i.l' Yug Omm.“tw Nsflflg 8t - cago Office: Tower Building. (Buropean Office : 16 Regent St., London, The Evenin nt month: Sunday only, 20 cents per month. ors way be sent iy mail or telephone Maln B005. ™ oneetton 14 “made. b5 card exd of each month. | Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. § Maryland and Virginia. y and Sunday..1y ‘mo., T0¢ aily only..... mo., 50c Bindas onis o 20 All Other States. Iy and Sunday..1y: 1v only. ;y mo., 86c Member of the Associated Press. e Associated Press is exclusively entitled #o the use for republication of all news dis. tches credited to it or not otherwise credited this paper aud also the local news pubs lshed herein. Al rights of publication of ®pecial dispatches herein are also reserved. —_— | Coddling the Profiteers. Officials of the United Mine Work- ®Brs and representatives of Ohio, In- Biana and Illinois mine owners, in W York, are reported in practic: cinent as to the terms of A new wag . but, according to an Associated Press dispateh, it may be several weeks before a new wage con- tract is signed. 0 reasons are given fear of the Sherman and the other is to give producers of and dealers in “spot coal opportunity to continue to har- west big profits. It is naively admitted that removal of the threat of a strike aning of April would oper- price: the argument advanced that it would be good ¢ to delay settlement as long as anti-trust law It this New York report correctly represents the attitude of the bitu- minous operators of the tri-state com- petitive field it is an amazing exhibi- tion of inability to learn and of pr found nee of the state of mind of the American people. They profess 10 be afraid of the Sherman anti-trust Jaw, The Sherman law is a mild and innocuous thing compared to what is coming to them if they persist in & yolicy of “the public be damned.” During the rest of the winter the peo- ple will pay for “spot” coal whatever outrageous prices may be asked, be- cause the ive is to freeze, but every ton at an extortionate price adds to the bulk of grievances for which some day a reckoning will B8 demanded. . As the law now stands, there is little the federal government can do to pre- vent profitecring -in coaj, and inter- vretations of the Constitution stand in the way of effective amendment of the Jaw. The operators know this, and no doubt they feel they are secure in exacting all the traftic will bear. This §s where amazement comes in at their inability to learn from lessons of the past. If the Constitution makes it im- possible for the government to protect the people from exploitation, the Con- stitution will be changed. If anything in the future can be certain, that is a cerainty. Yet the mine owners go as disdainfully on their way as if the fundamental law of the land had been contrived amd enacted for their es- pecial benefit, not to be changed un- less they gave assent. ‘The American people are not so- clalistic and respect for private prop- erty is decply rooted in their tradi- tions, There would be little support for a proposal that the government take over ownership of the mines, just s there §s little support for the notion gnor o ly tributing points at Chicago, or on the other side to Cleveland, Erie, Con- neaut and Buffalo, where it is scooped out of the holds by crane carr? 1923 shovels and loaded into cars that y it to the mills. By means of the most expeditious methods of handling, ore that is in the mine on the Mesaba range on one Monday may be on the stock dump at Pittsburgh or Youngs- town on the following Monday. ‘When this range was “located” it ‘was wild country, The development of Star, with the Sunday morning | the mines, of course, brought settle- Mition, is dellvered by carriers within the city 90 cents per month; daily ouly, 45 cents per ments which became towns and cities. ‘Where Hibbing now stands was a few rs at the | decades ago virtually a wilderness. Now the city is to be moved bodily be- cause the mining operations require the excavation of the ore lying be- neath it, and, as the Supreme Court now by its negation affirms, the min- ing rights are paramount to the build- ing rights. The fact that this body of ore lies so near the surface is what necessitates disturbance of the settlements above. In the region of deeper mines there are no such needs. Yet in some parts of the coal region cities have been moved, though not laterally. The movement is often downward as set- tlements have occurred. At Scranton, Pa., for instance, despite the fact that by law “pillars” of coal must be left in all mining operations to support the surface, the ground gives way oc- casionally and houses are dropped bodily. On the Mesaba range it is im- possible thus to maintain “pillars,” for the ore body is not sufficiently stable. So that mining operations cannot be conducted underneath habitations. Thus Hibbing, being in the way, must move. Is Gémmy Armed? In a dispatch printed in The Star vesterday from Berlin it was noted that in some conservative circles in Germany regret was expressed for the leniency of the cabinet in dealing with the anti-republican leaders who, it ap- pears, are doing their best to stir the masses in favor of a mew war of re- venge against France. The following quotation from the Deutsche Zeitung was reproduced as an example of the openness of the campaign for a mo- archical reaction: Now is the time to get your rifles and ammunition out of hiding places and kick the French out of the Ruhr and the Rhinelands. How many rifles are there in secret hiding places in Germany? That ques- tion is really at the root of the present problem precipitated by the French move into the Ruhr, Has Germany a secret army? Is there a latent force there available on call for an attack sufficient to turn back the French and perhaps conduct another invasion? Much has been said during the past two years about this “secret army.” It has been asserted that the terms of the Versailles treaty in respect to the delivery of arms and munitions have not been met by the Germans, that they have withheld great stores of ammunition and vast numbers of rifles, and even quantities of larger arms; that they have tanks in hiding and airplanes in the making, and ex- plosives in storage sufficient to main- tain an aggressive campaign. On the other hand, the count of deliveries has seemed to tally fairly closely with the known military resources of Germany at the time the armistice was signed. Observers have been stationed through- out Germany to note the deliveriesand also the possibilities of secret war preparation, and according to the re- ports that have been published there is no ground to believe that it would be possible for Germany to equip & great force. In point of personnel Germany is, of course, capable of creating an army. All the ablebodied survivors of the war are available for service. The basis of a war organization is present, great numbers of officers are within call to ©f government ownership of the rall-{ command and train a force. But @n roads. But cffective regulation of the | grmy consists of more than personnel, rallroads has become a settled part of | ang without arms, ammunition and the American scheme of government, | other material the German fighting #nd regulation of the coal-mining in-| ¢;rce will be @ helpless mass. dustry can be made just as effective| 1y js known that the French at nd just as much a part of the govern-| a5t profess to believe that Germany mental echeme. TRespect for private | yag coricealed @ large quantity of war property is an American tradition, but | yunitions and that the industrial es- when tho owners of private property | yaplishments have been secretly at make it an fnstrument of public op- | work in making more. The other al- pression they cannot cxpect respect|yeq powers do mot egree with this for unwarranted private profits to en- | penothesis. The French move into the dure. Ruhr has been doubtless actuated —_———— "The cost of coal per ton is likely to omo high if all the expenses directly ®r indircetly involved in its mining are figured into the charges to the con- sumer. ——— 1n addition to the trained troops, the ¥rench may have use for some able- Pbodied and experienced strikebreskers. ——— Conditions disclosed at Bastrop, La., @re calculated to bring a blush even toa Mer Rouge. A City to Be Moved. ‘Yesterday the Supreme Court of the Uhited States, in dismissing an appeal for want of jurisdiction, in effect gave authorization for the removal of a city of 15,000 inhabitants. This is Hibbing, Minn,, located on the “Mesaba range,” from which immense quantities of iron aro have been taken in the past for use by the largest steel corporation. This body of ore extends over a wide radius. It was discovered a good many years ago, but was not then regarded ms of special value, as it was not of the kind that vielded to the methods ©f treatment then in vogue. When certain furnace improvements were effected, and a process was developed that permitted the use of this particu- lar ore, it became of great value, es- pecially as it is of a friable character and can be mined with steam shovels. The ore body lies so close to the sur- face that “stripping” half a dozen feet of the top soil and loose rock cover- Ing it permits the introduction of ina- fidnery for excavation. This great range, almost of solid bre, has been one of the marvels of ‘American industrial development, The iore is scooped out by powerful shovels, Loaded directly into ore cars which are run in long trains “down the hill” to Duyluth, ebout sixty miles distant, and there dumped into immense hopper docks, from which it descends by gravity into the holds of great steam- largely by the French fear of an early i not an immediate revival of Ger- man militarism. The fact that up to this time the German resistance has been of e purely passive nature does not in itself answer the question. Cer- tainly the indiscreet publication such as that which has been quoted will serve to strengthen the French bellef that Germany is, in fact, prepared or is now preparing for a military move whether in monarchical reaction or in direct aggressive antagonism egainst the present invaders. Germany and France ere both his- torically aware of the fact that the nation that starts & war does not nec- essarily finish with the advantage. A form of useless expenditure of energy is the prediction year after year that there will be a great and en- during drop in prices. In the democratic reorganization it is a little early to expect any leader to arise and stampede the party. The Rhine has inspired many beau- tiful poems; also & number of harsh ‘words. Street Lighting Needs. In the course of e discussion last evening by the Mid-city Citizens’ As- sociation of the question of inade- quacy of street illumination in Wash- ington suggestion was made that as a means of preventing accidents at night lamps should be placed in the middle of the street intersections to throw light upon all parts of the crossings. This suggests that perhaps better ways can be found than the present for dispelling the darkness at the points of greatest danger. During the time of foliage the lights on the sides are shadowed by the trees, whereas a center light, such as that proposed, would illumine the pavement without until they are very close upon them, This is true especially of people stand- ing or moving near the curbs in the residential portions of the city. Thelir shadows blend with the shade cast by the tree trunks, and they may sud- denly appear in the path of & machine without warning. Centered lamp posts are naturally objectionable on the score of their ob- struction to traffic. But in the present conditions they may serve as aids or guides. The traffic rule requires a full right-hand turn on the outside of the midpoint of an intersection, and in some cases “bumps” have been es- tablished to insure such turns. A post might serve as a more effective marker for this purpose by day, and afford at night better illumination than is now given by the corner lamps. This subject should be given the fullest study not merely as a matter of traffic regulation and accident pre- vention, but for the sake of a better lighted city. Washington is not up to the mark in this respect. It has sev- eral kinds of street lamps, and a va- riety of styles does not conduce to evenness of illumination. The less powerful lamps are by a peculiar mis. fortune located in the more remote parts of the city where, in fact, bet- ter illumination is requisite. ' There should be one style of lamps throughout the city, and one standard of light power, and that standard the highest possible. Economy in respect to street illumination is the poorest sort, and leads to loss, suffering, crime and even to death in the streets. —————————— Sculpture and Fuel. A suit has just been started in a ‘White Plains, N. Y., court that. may turn in its decision upon the relative values of art and fuel. A celebrated sculptor, leaving an apartment house in New York city at the beginning of last summer, stored in the basementa collection of busts, statues and models, life masks and studies. During the summer the owner of the apartment was fortunate enough to secure @& large supply of coal, which was dumped into the basement, much, the sculptor now avers, to the detriment of the art collection. In his bill of particulars in the suit for $100,000 damages—which he says is only one- fifth of the real loss—the sculptor de- clares that a bust of Lincoin was broken to bits, Thomas Jefferson lost the lower part of his face, the model for & memorial statue was reduced to the semblance of the Venus of Milo minus her head, a statue of E. H. Sothern as Hamlet was decapitated, Horace Greeley was sadly discolored, Nathan Hale lost everything but his head and two models of Pocahontas were reduced to dust. At the present state of the fuel sup- ply thers may be somewhat less of sympathy for the artist than in nor- mal times. Probably the tenants of the apartment now feel that their comfort is of higher value than the art collec- tion. The landlord declares that the collection was left in the basement at thé sculptor's risk. The latter holds that he had no expectation that the!the grand old man of the State coal supply would overflow the usual {Partment, Alva A. Adee, second a bounds. Thus a nice question is pre- sented to the court in the determina- tion of which art values and coal val- ues may be scrupulously welghed. —_———— Some enterprising community will yet find a way to gather revenue and at the same time avert discussion by charging a reasonable rental for the use of parking space. —_————————— D A'n occasional speak-easy raid may be worth something in advertising to the proprietor if mention is always made that his stock consisted of fine old liquor: —_——————— Many moons have passed without bringing any further word of the fa- mous South American plesiosaurus. Patagonia has evidently lost her press agent. —_—————————— After s pugilist reaches the age of forty there is mot much use of his telling himself that he is getting bet- ter every dayv. ——————— Festivities by Washington financiers have proved that Edmund Clarence Stedman was not to be the last of the banker poets. —_—————— — SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Mental Middle Class. 1 would not have a brow so bigh That it reached always to the sky, And left me wandering afar In realms too often nebular, ‘Which all the sense at my command ‘Would never make me understand. 1 *would not have a brow 5o low That through the mire each thought must go To study @ stagnation strange Where noxious shapes 'mid shadows range, ‘Which man may patiently attend, Yet never fully comprehend. Y'd rather take the common chance And seek to hold a level glance, Seeing the sunrise straight ahead And Duty's path before me spread. Along lifé’s way I'd rether pass, Oné of the *“mental middle class.” Static Friendship. “You have a lot of friends who will stand by you “Some of 'em stand,” replied Sena- tor Sorghum, “and others sit. What I ‘want is more friends who will get into action. Jud Tunkins says the early bird is the only one who stands a chance of finding @ place to park his flivver. Longer Days. The sun shines longer and more clear ‘With each successive winter day. A whisper murmurs through the year, “I'm getting better, every day.” Special Training. “Can your boy Josh play a tune on kis new banjo?” “I don't want him to waste his time playin’ tunes,” replied Farmer Corn- tossel. “He's bein’ educated for a jazz band. “A double-crosser,” said Uncle Eben “4s mighty likely to git confused an’ lookdike geJay-walken® | Somebody in St. Louls named D. L. Wells, who doesn't like Smith W. Brookhart, the new senator from Iowa, 1s flooding Washington with a twenty-six-page booklet entitled “The Beginning of a Record for a United States Senator.” It is a caustic analy- sis of Mr. Brookhart's campaign speech at Des Moines on Labor day, 1922, particularly of the views he ex- pressed on the transportation act and the federal reserve law. A note ac- companying the booklet and signed by Mr. Wells says: ‘ “An lowa friend has just called my attention to the quality of this new’ member of the Senate as exhibited at length in the speech that evidently pleased the voters of his state, and I am taking the liberty of sending it to you. 1Is it an indication of what the future of the Senate is to be? You ought to read it. As a combina- tton of ignorance, reckless assertion and misrepresentation, it certalnly is unique.” * %k ok % Louis F. Post, who was assistant secretary of labor throughout both Wilson administrations, is looking for a publisher, He has prepared a 450-paged manuscript called “The De- portations Delirlum of 1920, dealing with the *red” crusade carried on in that year with such vigor by Attorney General Mitchell Palmer. Mr. Post and Mr. Palmer, as all the world Will remember, did not see eye to eye on that acrimonious subject. To date, Mr. Post confesses, his search for a printing house willing to produce his book has outrivaled Diogenes’ cele- brated quest for an honest man. He remains _invincibly hopeful his opus will yet burst upon the reading world. It consists to a considerable extent of official but hitherto unpublished data, * kw Xk A distinguished American who was a member of our peace mission at Parie says it was a matter of au- thenticated knowledge that Germany not only intended levying stupendous indemnities on the allied and asso- clated powers, but had fixed the sums each should disgorge. The United States was down on the kalser’s little list for $35,000,000,000, or 140,000,000,- 000 gold marks. France was to pay, in addition to the transfer of one or two of her eastern provinces, $40,- 000,000,000, or _160,000,000,000 gold marks. Great Britain was to hand over her navy, mercantile marine and the pick of her oversea dominlons. In 1916, 1916 and 1917, when German war fortunes were at the zenith, Dr. Helfferich, then German finance min- ister, perfodically buoyed up Teutonic hopes b painting pictures of the “kolossal” indemnities the vanquished foes would pa % | Some of the contributors to the ex- tension fund of the Garfleld Memortal | Hospital in Washington hope ways and means may be found to perpetu- ate the memory of Adolphus S. Solo- mons. He was a great admirer of James A. Garfield and is widely cred- fted with having launched the move- ment to found a hospital in honor of the martyred President. Solomons was a Washington printer and pub- | lieher. One of his bosom friends was | lrr-l D. ¢, TUESDAY, JANUARY Washington Observations BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. : sistant secretary of stats, who is in his fifty-third consecutive year in our diplomatio service. When Charles Dickens visited Washington Solomons was his host and {mpresario. Solo- mons was a republican wheelhorse and always active in G. O. P. poli- tics. His daughter, Miss Aline Solo- mons, is a well known Washington artist. * ok K % Japanese newspapers recently ar- rived in America exhibit some excite- ment over a visit to China and Korea by Ambassador Warren of Tokio. It appears to be the first time on record that any American diplomatio repre- sentative in Japan has gone to China. Wild rumors accompanied Mr. War- ren on his travels. The most cir- cumstantial tale was, that while he was in Kwantung Province (the new bone of contention between China and Japan) he proposed that the South Manchurian railway should be internationalized and haif its share capital offered to foreign investors. Both the ambassador and the Tokio foreign office issued categorial denials of that story. The American envoy paid his respects, while at Seoul, to the Japanese governor-general of Korea, Admiral Baron Saito, and was quoted as saying that “the Koreans have never ‘been happler than at present” Harsh assertions to the contrary occasionally creep into the Congressional Record in Washington. * % %k % Canada’s new railway king, though he wears the handle of British knighthood to his name—Sir Henry W. Thotnton, K. B. E—fs an Ameri- can of the most unmistakable home- grown type. He hails from the noble town of Logansport, Ind.; went to school at St. Paul's, Concord, N. H., and was graduated from the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. Thornton had a remarkabje record during the war in Great Britain. whither he went in 1914 to become general manager of the great eastern rall- way. There was a tremendous hubbub’ when the directors of that vast enterprise hired Thoraton. All Britain rocked with indignation over their explanation that they sent to the Long Island branch of the Penn- sylvania railroad for a general man- ager because there wasn't anybody in John Bull's islands big enough for their job. Thornton became a tem- porary brigadler-general in the British army in 1917, a major-general two years later and ended up by he- ing inspector-general of transporta. tion. He's a whale of a man, stand- ing 6 fest 4 inches in his stocking feet. Canada has made him president of the new Canadian national railway system. . * x ¥ ¥ Country cousins are bitterly disil- lusioned when they visit the halls of Congress and find the floors, where statesmen are supposed ‘to congre- gate, conspicuously empty.. Take | Monday of this week, Senator Cara- way of Arkansas was addressing the Senate in the duloet cadences of his native southwest and working him- self into a fairly fine frenzy over Secretary Weeks' denunciation of the Harbord™ retirement-pay affair. FEx- actly ten senators were present. Not more than six were listening. Four were republicans; the rest, democrats. Seeing-Washington visitors, attracted apitolward by news broadcasted through the country that the Senate would open the week with an an- nihilating barrage on the adminis- trator's forelgn polic: found the chamber listiessness’ incarnate. (Coprright, 1923 EDITORIAL DIGEST The Cat—The Snake and King Melenik Lived—Free Seeds p Are Dead! Disregarding the warning of the St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press to “re- member how many times King Me- lenik died, how many lives the cat has and how, when you cut a snake's head off at sundown it is apt to snoop around and find the body by morning,” the editors of the country are acclaiming, with marked ab- sence of sentiment or regret, the passing of that “great American in- stitution,” congressional free sceds. Unwept, unhonored and unsung, the free-seed “graft” has been definitely killed for at least as long as the en- suing fiscal year, and in editorfal opinion, as the Buffalo News puts it, for a “Congress that has little to its credit” the elimination of free seed “may be counted one of its big- gest achievements. “It was a little thin cinnati Times-Star report: furnished the plot and stage setting for the great national comedy on which the curtain has now descend- ed—“just a franked envelope co: taining seed,” vet, “it had a touch of sentiment, because, as a rule, it could mean nothing else. you lived in an,_apartment ‘“never prevented your ' representative in Washington “from sending you _little bunches of crop suggestions.” It was not his concern “that the seeds were born to blush unseen, to be sown in an unsympathetic waste basket.” for the object of the seeds, after all, was to raise votes, and “you were on the list. The Wheeling Register raises a lone voice to declare that “much sport” as has been made ‘“of con- gressional seeds, a seed's a seed for a’ that” and the paper regrets their passing, because ‘“they represented all that thousands upon thousands ever got out of being good American citizens and paying their taxes for ‘government.’ Congressional seeds were appreclated and used to a greater extent than it is thought” “Of course, there was always a clamor for them,” the New York Tribune answers, “as there is for any- thing that is free, but there was no more reason for sending them out ECHOES FROM DEVASTATION OF AMERICAN FORESTS. | It is estimated that five millions| of acres of forests in the United States are cut and ten millions of acres are burned annually. * ® © Our government has done iess than any civilized country in the world to- ward conservation of our forests and the adoption of a comprehensive and wise pollcy of reforestation.—Senator Harrison, Mississippi, democrat. FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM MAKING MONEY. As I understand the purpose and object of the federal reserve system, jt was never intended to be set up as a money-making institution. That is what it has been turned into, how- ever, a money-making Institution, and an institution to provide funds for lavish expenditures in the way of building palaces in New York and other cities, in the way of paying ex- orbitant salaries, salaries which are indefensible. * * * The American peopls, who have necessarily to do banking business, have been requir- ed to contribute money to carry on these extravagant and high-handed expenditures. — Senator ~Trammell, Florida, democrat. EFFICIENCY BURFAU EFFICIENT. 1 know of no agency of the gov- ernment which, In proportion to the amount of money appropriated for it, saves to the government what this bureau d ator Smoot, Utah, republican. The fact that | THE HOU: than there would be in sendiuk free postage stamps from the bureau of engraving and printing or free pennies from the United States Treasury,” and tHe practice, according to the Peters- burg (Va) Progress and Index- Appeal, “from being mgrely ridiculous had become a scandal® The original purpose of this seed distribution was comendable enough.” the Springfield Unfon says. “It was the theory that in this way the De partment of Agriculture could intro- duce and test out new varieties, and for a time the theory was properly applied.” But “it takes old memories the New York Times replies, “to recall the time when seed distribution was really experimental; when seeds of new “varieties of useful plants. were disseminated or the purpose of testing them in various conditions of climate and soil and introducing them it they were found to be valuable” The Times agrees with the Union that ex- perimental distribution soon gave way to “the discovery that by liberal- Iy digpensing seed fo their constitu- ents members of Congress might be better regarded at clection time. ., Tpe Hudson Observer (Hoboken) finds it #worthy of comment” that the action eliminating free seeds “was taken by a Congress in which the agricultural bloc has for the first time been a domi- nant figure, and with the assistance of innumerable fame ducks' who had proved in theirrown cases the fallacy of the theory that free seed were potent vote-getters.” On the other hand, the Chicago News feels that “if the budget bureau is responsible for the ringing down of the curtain on the free-seed farce, as some representatives affirm, then ‘the bureau deservs the gratitude of all taxpayers who detest graft and humbug.” While #to an age that war expendi- tures have taught to think in terms of billions the saving of a mere third of a million in government expenses ma: not seem 1mposing.” yet the Philadel- phia Bulletin holds that “every dollar of needless expenditure that can be eliminated counts,” and “the saving of $360,000 which the dropping of lnSrea seed item from the government agricul- tural ® appropriation makes is worth while.” " Admittedly the ‘‘amount in- volved has not been large,” the St. Joseph News-Press agrees, ‘but Con- gress has rarely succeded in buying so much_disrespect for so little money”; and the Utica Press adds, “when all the other costs of this little political play are figured in"—such as clerk hire and transportation costs—‘probably a mil- lion dollars are saved to the Treasury by this elimination.” CAPITOL HILL NG CORPORATION. I believe today that the Housing Corporation is carried on by a less number of people than any project of its size in the United States. Here is $60,000,000 worth of property, and we have twenty-seven employes and only one attorney in the system.— Senator Fernald, Maine, republican. ONE GOOD THING IN LEAGUE OF NATIONS. The encouragement of the business of the private manufacturer of muni- tions of war and of engines of de- struction has in the past been the greatest cause of war among the na- tions of the world, and the one thing in the covenant of the league of na- tions in which every one believes was the provision providing that the manufacture of munitions of war should be entirely in the hands of the governments of the world and not in the hands of private interests, whose opportunity for profit depends upon the existence of war.—Representa- tive Dallinger, Massachusetts, re- publican. THE PORK BARREL AGAIN. You may have the votes now, but the reaction against such ruthless violation of the budget policy for questionable expenditure is certain to come, and to an extent which will make it difficult to secure even rea- sonable appropriations.—Representa~ tive Mondell, Wyoming, republican, ‘NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM FROM HARRISON TO HARDING Arthur Wallace Dunn. G. P. Pu nam’'s Sons. He sald 1If we would begin back with.him thirty years ago, or there- about, he would show us American politics and perzonalities as these had come under his own eyes from that back-1ying date on up to the retir ment of Woodrow Wilson. * Kk ok ¥ Arthur Wallace Dunn, veteran newspaper man of experience and standiug, sald this, offering in evi- dence of good faith, these two vol- umes of personal narrative based on years of observation that centered on the Capitol and the White House in their full political implications. * ok ok X And we said we were just as much obliged, but that, if it were all the same to him, we Would rather—taking him for waywise companfon and guide—begin with the end of his story, with Woodrow Wilson. That is the way we read history—backward. It has an advantage over the con- ventional way of beginning with Adam and Noah and coming on to- ward ourselves from that remote and alien outset. By our plan—a most unscholarly one, we concege—we get the amazing spur of a porsonal par- taking in events. We test them with our own senses and perceptions. We move out into them on individual tours of inspection, gaining critical acumen and sounder judgment by way of these familiar things. These powers, sharpened upon the present, selze the past, step by step, with ease and understanding. This plan excites the greater interest and, aft- er all, interest is the basic wherewith of any search after knowledge. Presi- dent Harrison, only thirty-three years away, is still too distant, and we choose rather to work back toward him through the stages that stand in between him and . 2k And, so, we begin with Woodrow Wilson, going back over the war, the armistice, the peace conference, the league of nations and the recoil of the peopla from the sinister poten- tialities of that pact. * * X ¥ We have seen this President, have heard him, have read him. But Mr. Dunn helps us to know him better. The newspaperman has many sur- prising ways of approach, many dif- ferent contact points, the best of modern equipment for opening up ob- scurer and subtler relationships. So. here, we draw off clearer views of Mr. Wilson—the aloof intellect, the idealism that projected the dream and denied the reality, the self-sufficiency that took the government to itself, and tried to take the world. closing the door against either official or per- sonal intrusion. For any likeness to this peculiar self-containm author points us back to the begin- ning of the story where Benjamin Harrison, another Atlas, shouldered his administration in challenge to any right of interference. . * ¥ ¥ X Mr. Dunn reminds Woodrow Wilson was a minority President, elected by Theodore Roosevelt, the great insurgent, when he divided the republican vote by splitting the republican party. And we move back a step to Mr. Taft, still on well known ground. Then, another step to Theodore Roosevelt, the big- gest political boss on earth-—save one. And, once more. the author points back, out from these nearby men and events, to the Harrison administra- tion, where the seedling of insurgency first found a scanty groundhold, a mere weed, then, of vagrant and nog- ligible sproutings. This Is the same weed that flowered so mightily in Roosevelt, the same ¢hat in Congress, today. is blooming lustily in blocs and Borahs and La Follettes and things. * % * Tt was in the Harrison administra- tion, also that Thomas Reed won the big fight which, before him, Henry Clay had started and which, behind him, Joseph Cannon held to the full fruitage of that victory. This was the fight for leadership of Congress thfough the power and prestige of the speaker of the House of Kepre- sentatives. Again, insurgency, only a handful of years ago, smashed the highly developed machine. Orgar: ization, efficiency, getting things done. for a time at least, went by the board—but we're goin' to have our rights. The government's no busi- ness, that is, no proper sort of busi- ness. The government's the way you feel and you always do feel tha: the other fellows are having too much— much too much—to say about ho: things are to go. . Time to smash the machine, Then that us * ook x From these few pickings, it is clear that no accident set the starting place of Mr. Dunn's story. "Phe Harrison administration was the matrix of much that, today, is out performing in the open. At that foint -many nebulous things began to assume CAPITAL KEYNOTES BY PAUL V. COLLINS. Congress is to be asked by the Secre- tary of the Treasury to approve and suthorize a complete reorganization of all governmental hospitals throughout the country, so as to put all under one control. That will include the hospitals of the Veterans' Bureau, all Army, avy, Public Health Service, Interior Department and other hospitals, support- ed for various purgoses by the govern- ment. The project originates with the White committée of the Treasury De- partment, which has had much to do with the plans for building new hospi- tals for the veterans of the world war under the first Langley appropriation of $18,000,000. 1t is backed by the Federal Board of Hospitalization, the official advisers of President Harding, the board headed by the President’s per- sonal physician, Dr. Sawyer. * kK Xx X The details of this plan Have rot Vet been made public, but judging from“the attitude of the American Legion in re- gard to hospital contrgl, for. the chre of the veterans of the late war, there will be considerable debatfeamong leglon-, naires before approval will be given by. that body. The general complaint of the soldiers has been againist the “red tape” already wound around the relief of the sick or wounded soldier. To fasten that system upon a still greater “organization,” say the buddies, ‘‘will only magnify the wonders.of the great system” and lessen the chances of the patient to find a bed and a doctor com- petent and interested in studving his case. The widet the’ ramifications of the great “system,’” tape and the lessof the human touch. ; R el Within the last weel Senator Ashurst grew bitter in his discussion of the red tape of Veterans' Bureau hospitals, when ho told of his own observ: tion in a western hospital, where there was need for an immediate am- putation of a soldier's leg: ~The hos- pital was short of nurses, and it was mpossible to amputate the leg without hiring another nurse. There. were com- petent trained nurses at the hospital at that time, seeking employment, but al- though it delayed the serious surgical operation, the superintendent refused to employ a nurse without first telegraph- ing to ‘Washington for authority and the headquarters seeking that authority through the Civil Service Commission. In the meanwhile the patient continued to suffel and risks were run as to scrious complications. . If that be the tuation while the Veterans' Bureau is independent of the Army hospitals, the Navy hospitals and all the other gov- ernment_hospitals, what would be, the delays—not necessary, but probab under a more top-heavy ystem"'? * * % % Some wiseacres who have attended Coue’s demonstrations of the power of the subconscious mind over mat- ter and the wonderful cures effected through his “magic” words declare that they believe it is “just hypno tism.” Exactly! Couse said, in an- swer to one questioner, that he could not explain how electricity worked and caused light. t there was the light uppose it is “all hypnotism" —then what about it? It works, no matter what is its nomenclature. If we are to refuse to accept any truth which we cannot explain, let's begin with gravitation. at the ground and work up we explain how the apple fell in ton's sight, then let universe keeps on swinging through infinite space. This everlasting ex- plaining is what gets us nowhere— except into a fog. K x % Much ado because policemen will appear on skates upon thg Lin- coln memorial pool, if the water freezes so that there van be public skating. Why should a policeman on skates amaze? Once upon a time, in a big snowstorm, a Minnesota repre- sentative arrived at the Capitol on skis. Other representatives som times come in airplanes. Let the po- lice cut all the didoes they can if they would use roller skates the: could get over their long beats oftener. * * *x Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi says there is no better time than now for Congress to begin to study. the timber shortage of America and to recommend a wise economic policy of reforestation. The Senator is about sixty years behind the times for the ‘bette: ) " was about 186 earlijer. If there was ever an instance of lp¢king the door after the autom bile had been stolen it is related to the woeful squandering of The bureau of forestry for the estimate that standard hard timbe in ten to fifteen than forty some of all be gone nd in_less the more the red; 1t is well to start | Maybe | enough of any kind of wood for toothpick. Th United States is away behind all other countries in intel H‘gprn conservation of {ts timber European countries make it a penal offense to cut down a tree withou planting another. We have millions of acres of cutover land wh should be reforested, by joint efforts of the federal and state governments und the owne of the land. It takes from to 100 vears for such veforest; tion to become profitable, hence it i« unreasonable 1o expect an individua owner to stand the cxpense, with 5o prospect of revenue within his 11 time. Yet reforestation is profitabls eventually, but gnly a government car afford to wait for it. 1f this country had required it during the last = or seventy years its reward w now. be coming in at a good ratc interest. * % * *“Not a single democratic senatol fayors the Senator Reed propositio that we take over some of the Eng lish and French islands of the Cari bean sea and the Atlantic as part p: ment of the loans due us from Eng land and France” says Senater Kinz of Utah. He referred to the speech « Senator James Reed of Missouri “Bootleggers and utilizing the ne | foretgn nations.” Cramton (republican) “They are using them as which to attempt to smuggle liquor and narcotics and other c: 4 articles {nto this country. situation confror years ago with reference to trade. The people of t did not hesitate to sovereign rights to & lawed trafic.” The speaker charge that foreign naiions issue doubic clearance papers to ships £o as to cor ceal the presence of liquor on board 1f that charge can be sustained, he thinks this nation justified in cross ing the three-mile limit and captur- ing such ships as pirates. There s well recognizeé rule of internatior right for an army or detachment penetrate the territory of a friendl nation, if it i= upon the hot tr an offender who has fled acros: border. What {s to prevent American Navy from chasing a sm gler, upon the “hot trail” ‘across three-mile " limit. and stopping fleeing pirate with a shot across bows—or intop its hold-if it fail surrender. The scandal of Smuge {openly and hilariously defying 1 power of our government, Mr. Cramn | ton declares, should be stopped. * * The Ku Klux appear to be pretty close when they call uj doctor in Washington and attemy 1 intimidate him, threatening that less he give up a certain list o leased convicts from federal priso whom he had warned not to Ku Klux they would ‘get him doctor, who is the presic National Prisoners’ 2f Assoc | tion, referred them to Mr. Votaw i superintendent of = ¥ | who is a brothe < | Harding. Ye: i close. Th President’s brothe {lle is beginning notice. etting pr moleste w. The p up and t to sit { Childrer way 1o ¢ {hind it and pi it them to save the White after the same recipe—put suit on |flames. Take a whole sal® | neces: As if to confirm have been taught that bird is to slip u its tail on see «pproaching intendent of public ings, that the White House gerous fire risk, fire bro {roof, but fortunately. it time and the bl was wuickly tinguished by application of salt |is time that a . Hecn ‘\nf protection fro stalled in the W te blaze i the bill now \f r that purpe ways catch the toric building Poster safety upon the and women ings nor heec the dangers style, may get sion from which they v sight. presse clo i time. pictur norant persons 1. There effective as that pern granted to put 1} art is coming public ho will not but wh itsel ens action in d understood by 1 Who cannot Decided Ship’s Silver Unsuited For Souvenirs for Home Folk vague shapes, to take on certain di- | rections, to behave under the control of some eort of purpose. Through this thirty-year distance six Presi- dents and eight administrations book themselves as history. Across it spreads the common pattern of do-| mestic problem and foreign policy. | Personalities, innumerable, animate the changing scenes. And the whole of this, out of personal observation, out of an acquaintance that is alway adequate and often Intimate, Mr.| Dunn delivers over to the reader alive. That is the first appeal of the | book—that dt is full of life, turned upon | the special interests that this politi- cal study embraces. It is a book of | large experience, and fair opinions and seasoned judgments—these to- gether compensating, to a degree, for the lack of perspective which, of ne- cesgity, marks any current study of events. It belongs, distinctly, with those books—best possible adjuncts of formal history—that set blood to circulating through the dry tissues of such studies. It reminds one, all over again, that the newspaper man has | the rarest of opportunities, a re- minder that Mr. Dunn objectifies by his use of these opportunities, so in- cidentally set out here. * ok ok ok - At the last moment Mr. Dunn opens the door just a little way upon Presi- dent Harding. Not given to prophe- cles, this is the most that he can do here. He does, however, sketch, in big lines, the political setting of the new President. Here tie most dis- tinctive and significant feature is the strong current toward centralized power. Already the federal govern- ment has absorbed many of the state functions and, more and more, are the people turning to it for a sort of personal fatherhood in business, in finance, in social adjustments. This is the big problem that is coming, for with its full fruition individualism, the pride of this country, will, to a great extent, have vanished. Of Mr. Harding himself he quotes a demo- cratic orator of the last campaign who said that Warren Harding was “like 5,000,000 other men of the coun- try” “No higher compliment could have been paid” and “that is why Although many unusual stories have been told regarding exveriences in the world war, there are plenty more to be had if the right person is approached. The right person in this ease’ proved to be Gen. Anton Stephan; who, be- tween his duties as manager of Dulin & Martin, commanding gen eral of the Di trict National Guard and presi- dent of the Wash- ington Merchants and Manufactur- ers® Association. fourd time, . to ¥eminisce for a few mihutes the other day. Gen. Stephan, as every one knows, was one of the first of the District soldiers to go overseas. To make the trip more interesting and exciting for this Washington business man, he was assigned to the maiden troop-voy- age of the Leviathan. “Exciting,” gccording to Gen. Stephan, is & mild word to charac- terize the trip. In the first place, the Germans were excedingly anxious to bag this mammoth prize, seized at the beginning of the war from the Hamburg-American line. In the sec- ond place, she was not convoyed The voyage was made via Green- land, ‘an attempt from there to be made to slip into the Irish sea. Every- thing went well, but the nervous ten- sion was “considerable.” Shortly before the conclusion of the trip an amusing incident occurred. The officers were at mess when the captain of the ship stepped in and rapped for order. The men did not know whether it was to be “abandon ship” lor “jump for your 1 » ¢ course, all you men know,” said GEN. STEPHAN. 16,138,000 men and women of the country voted for him,” Mr. Dunn adds. This is the last word of his remarkably fair-dealing study: “The change from a democratic to a repub- lican administration at Qn tlne. is.an. évent, a change from Woodrow Wil- son to Warren G. Harding was epochal.® LG M the captain in a mild voice, * the Navy is responsible for all of the sil- verware of this ship. An inventory has been made and it is found that 2,000 “knives, -forks:and spoons ‘have disappeared. T am sure that the in- ventory is wrong, but I thought I | would mention you. The next day the captain : again. “Gentlemen,” he aunounced tr umphantly, “T am glad to that the inventory was wro are only seven snd they “will right.” Gen. Stephan did not self when asked whethe: of those who wanted to send home souvenir,” but he did say, planation. “that the men thought tha it was silver that belonged t Germans and that it would fine “tokens” for the home-folks When the Leviathan fin arrived in the Irish sea. having b by a convoy of twelve i stroyers. she had passed three days of rough weather fifty and sixty feet high b the ship and no man was allow take off his clothes r nofelt that nothing rable than a night's were looking forward to it anchored Thelr distress can casily ined when the captain of the {ing tug told the captain of the viathan that “you dor’t anchor all—follow me. | Two doughb | Gen. Stephan. Now | them know th it anyway. That g The £poo probabl missin turn up a commit Lim he was or in ex ‘n joine: ish throu Waves wi in't that ha aid, “that fellar o« { we have all been thr davs and nights. “1 know why that oth vouchsafed, hiaad { most_of his life inland. “If th tub anchored we would pull whole British Isle into the oc You can’'t anchor this here ship. Hix first_experience wita an raid Gen. Stephan describes as lows: Another oflicer ana 1 had permission to go to Londor lected the Regent- the clerk informed u d lue o ght to up for o We Hotel no roc him and final on the top floor. On eminence we were surprised that no other rooms were The bell on being questione nounce at_only fools and feans were willing to sleep up h > ht there was a ra the building next to the b shattered. The gener: said that could easily. upderstand why floors in London hotels were not in demand. The bomb dropped within 200 feet of their window. reaching that find &