Evening Star Newspaper, March 3, 1923, Page 6

6 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1923 CAPITAL KEYNOTES .BY PAUL V. COLLINS, THE EVE With Sunday Morning Edition. — WASHINGTON, D. C. BATURDAY......March 3, 1023 THEODORE W. NOYES.......Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Buslness Office, 11th 8t. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 130 Nassau St. Chicago Office: Tower Bullding. Ruropean Office; 18 Regent St., London, England. The Evening Star, with the Sunday morning dition, 1s delivered by carriers within the city &t 60 cents per month: daily only, 43 cents per month: Sunday only, 20 cents per month. Zsms may be sent by mail. or telephons M 8000. Collection is made by earrlers st the e2d of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday..1yT., $8.40; 1 mo., 702 Dally only Y1 3T 36.00: 1 mo., 500 Bunday only 1yr., $2.40; 1 mo., 20¢ All Other States. aily and Sunday..1 yr., $10.00; 1 mo., 8¢ ily only $7.00; 1 mo., 80c Bunday only. . $2.00; 1 mo., 25¢ Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press s exclusively entitled 2o the use for republication of all news dis- patches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news pub lished herein. ~ All ts of publ special dispatches herein are also resecved. The Presidency. Any American youth who holds close 40 his breast the tradition that he *may be President some day” might ‘well read the news reports about how President Harding is passing his time Just at present in the closing hours of Congress at the end of two years of his term. Tt will perhaps give pause | 10 even the most ambitious to learn how busy, how harried, how pressed the chief executive of the nation is in such circumstances. As the end of a session of Congress draws close the President becomes daily more taxed with trials and tribulations, more beset with requests and demands, more be- sieged with claims and petitions. And with all there comes a steady flow of legislation requiring final attention and decision, the responsibility not actually lessened by the advice of his cabinet officers. Truth is, the presidency is a hard Job, the more difficult in proportion o the earnestness and zeal with which the duties are discharged. It is a job full of complexities, and there is no assurance of approval anywhere in any course that may be chosen. There is an old saying that every appol ment means at least ten dlsappoint- ments, and even the appointee is often displeased because the job is not bigger or the term longer. And the President must bear the burden, no matter upon whose advice the selection is made. President Harding is a conscientious worker, who has during the two vears of his service in the White House kept strictly to business and devoted himself with unsparing diligence to his task. He has, as an earller Presi- dent once said, “had Congress on his hands” almost continuously during that time. Indeed, the Congress just closing holds the record for more ses- sions and for a greater number of days spent in action than any other. Not that this means trouble for the executive ily, but while the houses on the hill are under way the man in the White House is inevitably under a greater pressure than at other times. It is a short distance from the Capitol to the White House. Legislative calls “to pay respects” are easily made. President Harding, hav- ing sat for six years in the Senate, knows the legislative point of view and is sympathetic. Unlike some other Presidents, he is able to appreci- ate the necessities of the members of Congress, and this appreciation adds 10 the strain to which he is subject. It will soon be over. In a few hours | Congress will have adjourned, and the first long recess in several years will have begun. The President will short- 1y be starting south on a vacation trip, in the course of which he will, it 1s hoped, relax and enjoy a full respite from official cares. He has amply earned his “leave of absence,” if a presidential departure from Washing- ton in any circumstances can ever ‘be-called that. nec A Gentleman! “Hey, there! be a good sport and pick up my brush for me.” That is what a house painter, who had dropped his brush out of a window, called to a passer-by. The passer-by left the pave- ment, struggled up a terrace and, so goes the story, “with much difficulty stooped over and picked up the brush.” Then he passed the brush back to the painter. The passer-by was the Chief Justice of the United States, Mr. Jus- tice Taft. A portly man, but one whose good nature and good fellowship over- come greater obstacles than terraces! Good mature and good humor are among the natural endowments of this man, and they shone forth when he was the President. Nearly all men who have come into personal contact with Judge Taft have got the sense that he is a human being or a very “human” man, instead of & stiff and hard mixture of clay. ice and wood. The office of Chief Justice of the iand remedies applied promptly. Tnited States does not allow Mr. Taft 10 mix with his fellows or to mix with as many of his fellows as freely as when he was the President, but it is still in him to go out of his way, climb a terrace and pass back to a house painter a fallen brush. ———— Fake Tutankhamen relics are al- ready appearing In the market. There is at least no chance of any shrewd promoter palming off an imitation mummy. A Mean Fraud. Fakers are working around, town taking «ders for candy from house- holders on the pretense that the meoney thus obtained will go to the ald of the child welfare center of the Gospel Mission. Inasmuch as this or- ganization is conducting a campaign for funds for its development and matntenance, the appeal has resulted in & number of orders with cash, none ©of which is going to the benefit of this worthy institution. It is a great pity that deserving charities and philanthropic institutions dependent upon public subscription for support should be thus utilized by petty swindlers. Every fraudulent col- Jestor who thus *‘works” the com- minity. is injuring. not only the or- that is ectually seeking NING STAR,’“ compelled in the same way to “pass the hat.” While people will give free- ly and promptly when they are as- sured that the money is going straight to the benefit of a deserving cause, they will close their pockets against appeais when there is the least sus- picion of the good faith of the solicf- tors. These experiences occur almost every time a city-wide fund-collecting campaign is undertaken. Cash con- tributions are, of course, sought by these frauds, who cannot handle checks. The best way, therefore, to pay subscriptions for the maintenance of institutions is by check drawn in the name of the organization and sent by mail to it. In the present case sev- eral such checks have been given by the persons approached directly by the solicitors, and it has been neces- sary to stop payment on them on learning that they were in the wrong hands. A fraud of this kind is about as mean as can be conceived. Much less of it is being practiced nowadays, how- ever, than in the past because of bet- ter organization, wider publicity and & keener understanding by the people. Still the fact that in this particular instance fake collectors are making their rounds shows that there is still need of a corrective. Perhaps the most effective remedy would be the capture and severe punishment of some of the perpetrators Veterans' Bureau Inquiry. As a general proposition there is growing public belief that Congress has overdone the business of “investi- gations” and “fact-finding inquiries,” but a thorough probing of the Vet- erans’ Bureau is an undertaking of which all right-thinking people will approve. If there is foundation for the numerous and serious complaints as to the treatment of disabled serv- ice men the facts should be established 1t these complaints are not well found- ed, both the public and those who have been in charge of veteran relief are entitled to have suspicions cleared away. Some allowances must be made for the natural impatience of men who were maimed or had their health im- paired in the military service and for the impatience of their friends and relatives. It was impossible that so gigantic a work as that undertaken by the Veterans' Bureau could be organized and set going without some friction and lost motion. In the be- ginning hardships and regrettable de- lays in effecting adjustments and pro- viding hospitalization and other re- lief were inevitable, but it was a rea- sonable expectation that as the work got under way there would be a re- duction in the causes for such com- plaint, with a consequent lessening of the criticisms. But the complaints have not lessened, and it now mani- festly is due the veterans and the pub- lic that it be determined whether re- movable causes for them exist. Senator Reed’s committee will not lack specific charges with which to deal. The resolution creating the com- mittee sets forth complaints of un- necessary delay in the adjustment of claims for relief, great and needless delay in the construction of hospitals, that money appropriated for the re- lief of veterans has been improperly consumed in overhead expenses, dupli- cation of duties, excessive rents and in the employment of an unnecessarily large number of agents, doctors, in-! structors and other persons, and that sales of surplus property were made improperly. All these charges should be sus- ceptible of being proved or disproved, and it is due both the Veterans’ Bu- reau and the veterans that all doubt | in the matter should be removed. It is difficult to imagine a thing more calculated to destroy the effectiveness of the bureau's work than belief in the minds of the veterans that they ‘were not getting @ square deal from the government in the service of which thev suffered. Home for Feeble-Minded. The Commissioners are advertising for offers of land in Maryland, Vir- ginia or the District as the site of the proposed home for feeble-minded per- sons. A tract of something like 1,000 acres is wanted, and the District gov- ernment has $38,000 of purchase money. After the selection of the site the erection of necessary buildings will be proceeded with, and this long- needed and long-sought-for institution will be on e running basis. Then the work of elaboration and beautification can be carried on until in time the home for feeble-minded becomes a model institution. There will be open- air occupation for all patients who can perform some kind of work, and the aim of this is not to have the work done but thet the patients shall be benefited. Many persons for whom existing institutions cannot offer fit- ting accommodation will find & happy, peaceful home there, and no doubt many cures will be made. That is one of the hopes. For years physicians of all schools, other public-spirited citi- zens and public officers of the District have urged on Congress that provision ‘be made for such an institution es that now about to come into being. There have been many disappointments, but perseverance and the justice of the cause have prevailed. There may be difficulty in obtaining the site. The sum available for so large a tract as needed e small, but this difficulty will be overcome. An American girl back from Europe says So many men proposed to her that she lost the count. May she never find him. ‘You can teach a police dog to smoke cigarettes, but he has too much sense ever to take it up himself. Monticello. ‘What degree of interest in a hi toric place entitles it to be called a shrine is a matter of opinion, and how much money can be collected to pre- serve one of these places for the pub- lic interest and public good depends upon the number of persons who can be sufficiently enthused to make con- tributions, on whether a man or men of considerable wealith can be interest- ed to the point of large giving, on the skill, orgafization and persuasive power of the associstion or commities having the matter in charge and on other factors. It is believed that the average American feels that the home of Thomas Jefferson measures up to the strict requirements of what may be called a national “shrine” or place of popular secular pilgrimage, end that the mass of the people feel that it is such a place as should be owned by them. The subject has been talked about many times, and there have been a number of suggestions for the purchase of Monticello by the govern- ment or by subscriptions from large numbers of Americans. The proposal for the purchase of Monticello by popular subscription comes to the front again, and in a way promising that the plan may be car- ried through. It is a good plan and should succeed. There has recently been organized in Washington the Na- tional Monticello Assoclation. The pa- triotic purpose of the organization-is clear, and it is believed that a great majority of the American people, if made acquainted with the plan, would be glad to call the home of Jefferson the property of the people. ————— Reclassification Should Not Fail. No feeling of sensitiveness on the part of the House of Representatives on the score of the delay in the Senate in considering the reclassification bill should work to the end of prevent- ing final action now that the Senate has passed the bill, with amendments, and sent it into conference. The main point is that action has been had, tardily, it is true, but none the less effectively, and in season for agree- ment if there is the spirit to put this vitally important measure g the statute books. ‘The bill as it passed the Senate isa very much better bill for the benefit of both the government and the work- ers than was at one time conceived to be possible in the circumstafices. It establishes the principle of classifica- tion for the departmental gervice, in terms that make for equity in respect to practically every class of govern- ment employe. Whatever defects or injustices may be discovered in it through operation can readily be cor- rected by future legislation. Failure to agree now, with this measure go close to enactment, would be a sad end to many months of pains- taking labor in preparation and of pa- tient waiting by the government force, sustained by the hope of an adjust- ment to insure a system of efficiency and relative values. It is not to be believed that such fallure will occur, with the objective toward which both houses of Congress have been work- ing for so long now within attainment by the exercise of a little more for- bearance and accommodation in the settlement of minor differences. ——————— There is at least one thing to be said of the session that ends tonight. | 1t d1d not pile up a lot of public anx- 'lelies on the score of the appropria- ! tions during the last few hours. —————— Postmaster Chance is going to paint his twin mail boxes different colors. No matter, the careless pedestrian will probably put his letters in the wrong box anywa: l a ! | Congress will not adjourn without { leaving at least one investigating com- mittee on the job to keep the public reminded cf the fact that there is a legislative hereafter. The bill that gets through in the last two hours may prove to be as good a law as one that required two months for enactment. Now it somebody would start whacking the officials who allow the street cars to be 8o overcrowded there might be some relfef. Undertakers’ protest against the display of Tutankhamen's mummy is possibly inspired by apprehension of the starting of a new mortuary style. These are the days when the read- ers of the Congressional Record find most interest in the small items about | the little bills that pass—or fail, | | 1 After all the excitement at his tomb recently, King Tut no -doubt will be glad for that little rest until next fall. ‘Washington's safety rules may have to be amended by prohibiting umbrel- {1as in street cars. Maybe Ambassador Harvey took one of those courses in public speaking. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. ‘Wisdom. King Solomon was very wise, He fell in love with many. And yet he did not advertise His love affairs with any. ‘Whichever charmer he preferred, He managed each transaction So that he never once incurred A breach of promise attion. Home Influences. “Are you afraid of foreign entangle- " said Senator Sorghum; “but not as much as I am of a local com- bine out in my district.” Jud Tunkins says some people ere 80 anxious to look s if they are hav- ing @ good time that they render them- selves perfectly miserable. Musings of a Motor Cop. Hortense Magee I pause to see, Her smile is so seraphio, It makes it difficult for me To regulate the traffic! Smart Boy. ““Your boy Josh is & smart kid.” “He is,” replied Farmer Corntossel. “He's 80 smart that he kin take life easy an’ leave me to do all the worryin’ ’bout whether the farm will support him.” The ideals of the world have. ex- panded. Once we had grafters. Now ‘we have profiteers. i “George Washington,” ‘said Uncle Eben, “sllus told de truth, Det's-why are the strands the fate of nations. A madman’s bullet plunges the wholes world into war. A gentle breeze, 1ift. ing a smoke screen, shifts the victory in a great naval battle. And when lovely woman missteps—remember Helen of Troy? As today's smallest incident may be- come granddaddy of tomorrow's cat- aclyem, it behooves us all to be at all times aware. Walk to the right—oh, dear me, yes—watch your step and look in every direction before you cross the street. And be especially careful to observe all the nice little civilities and ament- sies which our equals, inferiors and superiors alike expect, even if they themselves don’t observe them. We live in a veritable Pandora's box. There's no telling what moment the d will pop up, and then—good-bye world. If you are host, or hostess, at a formal dinner, or even an informal dinner, terrible, {ndeed, is your re- sponsibility. Not only must you fur- nish food, flowers and music, but ajso it is highly incumbent upon you to read, mark, learn and aptly apply the knowledge thus obtained of the vary- Ing ranks of your guests. For all are rank. Some are ranker than others. The hostess who has mastered the delicate art of divining the rankest and treating him and his wife accordingly—such hostess alonc treads with the angels. Suppose you seat Mr. Smith where Mr. Jones should be! Suppose Am- bassador Whoozls graces the table to your left and Minister Whatzizname to your right! Civilization shudders as if stricken with malaria. The day- light fades and the darkness comes. And If you prefer an admiral to a general when the general Is the ranker, they may get together in mortal combat, as any hostess know: put out the lights, ehoot up the party and precipitate civil war. ‘There comes to mind, as tllustrative of these precepts, the famous society case of Bummerall versus Simpson, which but lately rocked Washington and its outlying suburb Honolulu from center to circumference. The facts wera these: The Secretary of the Navy, accom- panled by a galaxy of handeome naval officers, regarded as so desirable at every smart cabinet function, was laz- ing back through summer seas from Japan to America last vear. They plan ned a stop at Honolulu, and the Gov ernor of Hawali, learning of the pro- gram, planned a formal dinner in their honor. Now the governor was flanked offi- clally by the respective heads of the Army. and the Navy—heads “so fur. s Hawall was concerned. The one was Rear Admiral Simpson, the other Maj. Gen. Summerall. Both, obviously and by the governor's choice ‘as well, wafe to_be preeent. & There- then “arose: the question of which one was thefranker—in other words, which should have precedence in Eolng ‘into_the banquet hall and -sittf at the table, and 80 on. . tha. im- !"".'“:"‘ question of where each ons, wis 0 3 ‘The_governor couldn’t for- the’ life ot him. decide whether the general out ranked the admiral or the admiral out- ranked ‘the generul. In his dilemma he communicated divect with. ¢he White House at Washington, asking a ruling on the point. Of course, the President of the United States was unprepared to pass offhand on so delicate & problem. He preferred not to upon it at all. So he re ferred the governor's request to the two' departments concerned, the War De- partment and the Navy Department. The War Department decided that Gen, Bummerall was the ranking officer. ‘The Navy Department decided that Ad- miral Simpson was the ranking officer. Then the fun began, though, in the meantime, the dinner was getting cold. Each department stuck to its guns. The dispute climbed up the ladder of officialdom, reaching, respectively, the Secretary of War and the acting Secre- tary of the Navy. The heads of the two departments stuck by their subor- dinates. It began to look as if there were going to be one of those old-fash- foned = knock-down-and-drag-out dis- putes so popular in the early sixtles. Then into the breach there stepped —by request of both parties—a medi- ator in the person of the Attorney General. “Tut, "tut, fellows.” the Attorney General said in substance, “this isn't cause for rocking the boat. Let me have the dispute, and in due time I shall decide it on’its merits.” They did so. and sometime after- ward the Attorney General decided that the Army had won on points. In the meantime, however, the dinner was held. T don’t know how the gov- ernor got out of the dilemma, but both the general and the admiral were present. Another stickler for the observance of rank {s Thomas R. Marshail, for- merly Vice President of the United States and now a member of the Tnited States Coal Commission. During the recent cold snap Mr. Marshall was guest at a dinner which was quite cluttered up with other notables. With a twinkle in his eye, Mr. Marshall took his hostess aside. “I know you won't think me indeli- cate,” he sald, “but I should like to suggest that you seat me at the table In accordance with my rank as for- mer Vice President and at present a coal commissioner.” “Why, of course, Mr. Marshall.” the hostess responded quite seriously: “Of course.” She wondered for a few minutes at the request. The more her wonder, the greater har perplexlty, so she re- turned presently. “I don’t quite understand your re- mark, Mr. Marshall,” said. “Whers do vou think vou should be seated?" The bitter wind howled outside. Mr. Marshall shivered in mock coldnéss. “Well,” he sald, “in_view of my rank as former Vice President and present coal commissioner 1 think I am entitled to sit next to the radia- or. EDITORIAL DIGEST Sets an Example for Simihr: Juries. The sentence imposed by Judge Cropsey in Brooklyn on Mrs. Lillian B. Raizen, convicted of the murder of Dr. Abraham Glickstein, of imprison- ment in Auburn prison for from twenty years to life is accepted by editors generally as a complete tri- umph of justice. It was the first real repudiation in many months of the so-called “unwritten law,” and, as such, is acclaimed by editors as indi- cating that at last it may be possible to eliminate the sex appeal from trials of women charged with murder. “The penalty,” the Brooklyn Eagle points out, “is severe enough to act as a deterrent upon other women who may be inclined to avenge their real or fancled wrongs by killing some- body. The conduct of this case will be long remembered as a model of what murder trials involving women ought to be. Under the admirable di- rection of Judge Cropsey there was not only expedition in taking testi- mony and carrying the trial through to an early conclusion, but there was & prompt suppression of tactics in which the defendant indulged appar- ently with the hope of arousing eym- pathy in the minds of the jurors. There was noticeable absence on the part of the defense of that slush and mush which too often exude to the detriment of justice at murder trials in which women are defendants.” “The jury did only its duty,” argues the Detroit Free Press. “The facts were admitted. Nevertheless the judge considered it necessary at the outset to give the jury & epecial ad- monition to do ite duty properly and ot be carried away by extraneous consideration; and the conviction, even under that circumstance, is al- most & sensation. An acquittal would have been a commonplace. The con- fidence the defendant and her counsel felt in the potency of the ‘unwritten law’ s indicated in that an early in- nity defense was deliberately aban- doned In favor of what was practical- ly an assertion that the murder was justified as a matter of vengeance. Even with the fortunate outcome be- fore the mind, here is something to make a person stop and think. Per- haps the outcome of the Raizen case may make some people Who belleve that killing a recreant lover or an unpleasant husband or an obnoxious Don Juan is a mere recreation stop | usual a moment and future juries ha sider. At any rate, e o good example to follow.” This verdict likewise means, the Claveland Plain Dealer insists, that “it is possible to convict & wom- {an of murdering a'man, even though she does plead the unwritten law. What happened to this particular criminal is of small importance to society is at east possible to find & jury |ready to try the defendant with mind rather than with heart. All this de- fendant's appeals to heaven, all her tears, all her fainting spells, all her insistence that the murdered man had merited the fate she dealt him failed to win her liberty. They may have helped her escape the death penalty, but for twenty years at least-—if the verdict stands—she will have unin- terrupted opportunity to ponder the error of judgment which sent her gunning for her enemy.” Inasmuch as “there was the usual appeal to the ‘higher law.' and the ex-parte case of justification made out by the woman.” the Cin- cinnati Times-Star suggests that “just why Mrs. Raizen should have been convicted when her sisters &eance ha been acquitted is not clear. However, it is a relief not to read about ‘weeping jurors and cheering crowds. Perhaps the ex- planation that the jury was ‘com- posed of persons of superintelligence.’ and, therefore, differed from more or less recent juries in Loulsville, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, should suffice. But it may be that the earller trials were greater mani- festations of justice. The acquitted sisters of vengeance were not tried by ‘jurors of superintelligence.’ They were tried by their ‘peers. The Cincinnati Enquirer in its turn points out that “the equation of sex has made a mockery of criminal pro- cedure in this country. Women as well as men should be brought to understand that the laws of the land take no cognizance of sex where crime is concerned. The man-killing woman I8 no better than the woman- killing man; all slayers with motive under the law should stand upon the same plane of responsibility. Chivalry, sympathy, pity, all have played their part in ‘this loose regarding of the law by juries trying woman criminals. But all ‘history discloses that women have a capacity for revenge and merciless cruelty, under certain con- ditions that stamps them as man's | equals in this respect. Why, then, should they go acquit when: clearly proven guilty of having violated the laws which have been erected as soclety’s only safe barrier againat the elemental chaos and primal savagery?” B — -4 i ECHOES FROM MANUAL LABOR DOES NOT DEMEAN. It is time for the American people to awaken to - the realization that something must be done promptly to point out to the rising generation that manual or physical labor does not demean or lower one in the esti- mation of the public at largé.—Repre- sentative Siegel, New York, republi- can. THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT. Government had its genesis in necessity. It exists for no other pur- pose than to afford the indlviduals who constitute it the,machinery by bich to promote the common _good. —Réepresentative Summers, Texas, democra! SALARIES OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYES. ‘Now, the salaries of all the govern- ment employes may not be too high, but if you take the average salary for the same kind and character of work throughout the United States, the pay of the government clerk and | the pay of the government employe s detter than the ave! pay in any community throughout the country.— Representative Sisson, Mississippl, democrat. 'WHEN YOU DESTROY PRIVATE COMPETITION. Every time you start the govern- ment_ into business and give it the support of tax-free money, give it un- Just and unrighteous advantage over private competitors, you destroy pri- vate competition. — Representative ce, Massachusetts, republican. BONUS VERSUS RECLASSIFICATION. - Just 50 long as you continue these bonus bills you are never going to get olassificatio: CAPITOL HILL- ADVICE TO THE AG JL- TURAL WEST mn":o'fi-fi. ‘We are furnishing it because we have inculcated in my country the doctrine of thrift. There is your remedy—not in any recourse to the public treasury for funds, not in com- ing to Congress for a law that wi compel the taxpayers to help you:{:{ of the hole—Representative Luce, Massachusetts, republican. HOW CAN ANY ONE BE STRAIGHT IN BOSTON? I have been to Boston, and when I was there I wished that your com- mon council would pass an ordinance to straighten out some of your streets. How can a man be straight on a bill and advocate good leglsgla. tion who winds his way around those streets? — Representative Ti Kansas, republican. S WATER TRANSPORTATION KEEPING DOWN FREIGHT RATES. If 1t became known that it was the policy of this.government to abandon river improvements designed for the benefit of water transportation, over night the raflroads would be peti- tioning the Interstate Commerce Com- mission for an increase in. railroad rates that are now affected by water transportation. — Senator Gooding, Idaho, republican. EUROPE MUST LAY DOWN HER ARMS, An economic conference—yes, but not until continental Europe is ready to lay down her arms and substitute frankness and candor for intrigus and ‘bluft.—Senator Edge, New Jorssy, re~ but it Is significant to find ul of ven- | itself | [“The Library Table- Fach generation needs to have its hisfoeler rewsitien. There wad e time whedl Mstorhes o “consisted chiefly of accounts” ‘of 'wars, with political evénth eecondary. The newer idea of his- torfeal writing places greater emphasis on the jntellectual, social and ecq- nomie¢ ‘factors of himaen progress. In this: pewer ‘eongeption of history sol- dlers and -statesmern ' do not occupy the entire stage;.but ample room is also found for explorers, pioneers, farmers, iryentors, teachers, finaf- ciers, labor 16sders and women. An American history written from this viewpoint will.Be found in Dr. 8. E. Forman's “Our‘Republic, a Brief His- Itory of the Américan People,” recerit- {1y published. % " et *x ok x Dr. Forman's history of the. United States is far removed from the.dry- as-dust skeleton outlines’ so- often found in single-volume Bistorfes. It I8 unusuglly well written, and is espé- clally well adapted for home reading and to supplement the drdinary text- book. It is furnished with many. il- lustrations, including cotempotary cartoons.and maps, and the narrative of each chapter is supplemented by serviceable notes and a chronology of events not covered in the text. The author glves-whole chapters to the every-day life-of the people, their occupations, religlpus affairs, educa- tional advantages, including newspa- pers, literaturs, ‘and libraries. and their amusements. In.his preface Dr. Forman states that the economic fac- tor fn the history of a nation, and particularly of the American nation, 15 a subject of transcendent impor: tance. His treatment of topics bear- ing on the economic development of the country is therefore unusually tull. Tn view of the recent revival of the Ku Klux Klan, readers will be especially interested in the author's treatment of the “carpet-bag” and “scalawag” state governmenis of the south and their antidote, the original Ku Klux Klan. The closing chapters treat very recent history, particular- Iy the Roosevelt administration, the progressive era and the great war and_ after, including the beginnings of the Harding administration. So up-to-date is the history that it in- cludes sections on the Kansas court of industrial relations and the Wash- ington conference on the limitation of armament. The Booklover has had long ac- qualntance with Dr. Forman, and from many conversations knows his well informed mind and progressive spirit. This book is written out of his full knowledge. and is charged with his liberal spirit. * % % Robert Keable, who has risen so rapidly to fame in fiction in the past three years, was both a brilliant stu- dent and an athlete at Cambridge. After a brief clerical training he was ordained as a clergyman and went to East Africa under the auspices of the Universities Mission. During the war he was a chaplain to the South African native labor contingent. Juat before the writing of his first novel, “Simon Called Peter,” he resigned his office and withdrew from the Church of England. H!s three books all seem to be the result of personal experi- ence, “Simon Called Peter" has for |its central figure an army chaplain jduring the war; “The Mother of All Living" is a story of missionary and pioneer life in East Africa. and “Per- adventure” is evidently a fictional rendering of his own spiritual jour- ney from orthodox clericalism “to a appy paganism x * During his many vears in Wash- | ington as British ambassador Vis- count Bryce made many friends and | admirers, all of whom will welcome a posthumous volume of his travels, called “Memoirs of Travel” The |Journeys described in the volume ir Iclude only a few of the 1iany under- taken by Lord Bryce dur.ng his long {life. The chapters cover Iceland, the |mountains of Poland and Hungary, | Suvaroff's Alpine campaign, Palestin ithe isles of the southern Paclfic, the scenery of North America and the A {tal mounta By far the most teresting chapter is that on Iceland. jwhich was visited in 1872 {n company with two Oxford frien Much of !lceland rarely seen by tourists was |covered en route across the central !desert to catch a mail steamer. Ice- {land is, according to Bryce, a land of inegatives. Among the things which it has not are towns, in roads, car- riages, poultry (except wild geese), ‘crops (except turnips and potatoes) shops. manufactures, dissenters from established Lutheranism, army, nav. criminals and snakes. * % k% The setting of Joseph Herges- helmer's recent novel, “The Bright Shaw] {s Cuba under Spanish rule! just preceding the Spanish-American war, when “every week bovs—they | {were no more for all their sounding | { pronunciamentos — were _being mur- |dered In_the fosses of Cabanas fort- {ress” and “everywhere a limitless sys- | ltem of esplonage was combating the ! | gathering of circles, tertulias, for | the planning of a Cuba liberated from | a bloody and intolerable tyranny.” “The Bright Shawl” is the shawl, or manton, of ‘“‘cruel fancy, * * * with flashes of H genta and orange and burning blue.” {worn by the Andalusian dancer, Lal | Clavel, herself a plotter in the Cuban | {cause and finally a martyr to it. The i shaw] is for the young Amerlcan,| Charles Abbott, who tells the story, a | symbol of the ‘bright future of Cuba —a_banner of Cuban independence. | I have the feeling,” he says, “that it _we lower this—this standard—it | will bring us bad luck, it will be dis- | astrous.” And when the manton is degraded, when it is worn by a anish spy, then tragedy comes with a swift stroke. This season has been unusually irich in interesting biographies, in- cluding almost all types—those of artists, literary celebrities, person ages prominent in national and | ternational politics, persons once prominent, like the ex-kaiser, and even ordinary men and women. One | {of the most absorbing of these biog- raphies is “The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page,” in two volumes, by Burton J. Hendrick. Two characters stand out'sharply in the book—Page himself and Woodrow Wilson. Fun- damentally, the ambassador and the President were at one in the belief that the United States could not stand aloof from the Eurcpean war, but Page became very what he considered Wilson's slow- ness, and criticized him honestly ana forcibly in_his “correspondence.” The | letters, personal and official, give new | lights on the war period and reveal a most vigorous personality. : * X X ¥ Stephen Leacock, the Cahadian hu- | morist—by the way, at home he is a professor of political economy—in his new book, “My Discovery of Eng- 1and,” has this to say about the Eng- lish' lterary lights who visit our shores in search of copy: “British lecturers have been known to land In New York, pass the cus- toms, drive uptown in a closed taxi, and then forward to England from the closed taxi itself ten dollars’ worth of impressions of American na- tional character. I have myself seen an English literary man—the biggest, I believe (he had at least the appear- ance of it)—sit in the corridor of a tashionable New York hotel and look | gloomily into his hat, and then from his very hat produce an estimate of | the genius of America at 20 cents a Ivord." | i i { | | i | i \ i i impatient of | e To the list of periodicals issued in ‘Washington has just been added the Nature Magazine. It is profusely fi- lustrated, and the articles are of & popular nature, many of them inter- esting to children. It is published by the American Nature Association, Percival 8 Ridadale mi {come into iplace of wood in the construction of A noted physicist tells the world that a ton of sand, properly electri- fled and sprayed in the air, would clear London of its famous fogs. How many tons would it require to perform a similar clearing of the political fogs of the United States? There is nothing new under the sun nor out of it in the fogs. “Sand” has long been recognized as a great clear- ing dnfluence of the befogged mind Sand, sand! Plenty of it gives gran- ite firmness to the moral backbone, and if it be electrified sand It can move mountains. Tt is the best of ballast for the politician who finds himself up in the air, and the more he' lets it leak away the giddier he becomes. e e Why did Secretary of War Weeks feel that it was necessary to con- vince the farm paper editors of the beneficence of the War Department by arguing that it was a mistake to look upon the War Department as functioning only to wage war? The War Department, he explained to the editors, in session in Washington, s doing a great work for agriculture. This work does not consist in turn- ing the spear into a pruning hook, nor the sword into a plow, but in providing 100.000,000 pounds of TNT, which the department no longer needed after peace had come, for the use of farmers in blasting stumps and breaking up hardpan subsoil. Also the department is maintaining a “line of communication” by wire- less and airplanes which helps farm- ers. So eloquent did the Secretary grow in proving that the War De- partment is ralsing pumpkins, as well as “raising Cain,” that one won- dered why it was not headed by a dirt farmer. * ok %k And, not to be outdone by the Army, here comes our great soidier, the assistant secretary of the Navy and some time acting Secretary, Col. Theodore Roosevelt, with.an apology for the existence of the Navy. The Navy? Oh, yes, it !s very useful, for it teaches men various trades and ericourages invention (as proved by Mr. Edison?). If that is the best showing that the Army ard Navy could make for their glory, well and godd. But why nat acknowledge that they also fight? In the present unstable condition of the world, perhaps their fighting qualities are not the least important. * % x % Time smodthes the records of tried and convicted encmies of the republic In time of war. Three years ago Victor Berger and four other social- ists of Wiscousin were convicted of charges that they had conspired dur- ing the war to defeat the recruiting of military forces. The conviction was followed by a sentence of twenty years in the penitentiary. Now an- other federa]l judge finds that the trial judge erred in not permitting a change of venue, and o all the cases | are reversed and the Attorney Gen- | eral agrees to dismiss the charges. Berger will probably make the effort | o come back to Congress, from which | he was expelled by a voie of 303 to 1. | ‘A special election to fill the va-| cancy thus created resulted in Be ger's re-election, and the Hous again rejected him, s time by a vote of 302 to 8, for it refused to wel- ts membership a man un- | der sentence for disloyaity in-time of war. e & * * 7 X The motive of prosecuting crime is not vengeance; it s mot even, pri- marily, to reform the convict; it is to protect soclety by deterring others from repeating such crimes. 1f the traitors fn time of war can triumph over the courts through legal techni- calities, not affecting the real guilt of the accused, then future traitors will feel encouraged to defy loyalty and conspire to defeat the cause of their country. Then the popples that blow in Flanders field will blow in vain, The charge against Berger, by rea- son of his influence, was far more serious than the offense of Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, who is held up as the type of slackér most worthy of apprehension because of his cxam ple. “Is it not such miscarriages of Justice that the Amerfcan Institute of Law had in mind in its recert meet ing in Washington when it potnted out the growing disrespect for law’ The trial judge fn Bergers case wa Judge Landis, whose patriotism was outstanding and whose long exper! ence on the bench eminently qualified him to pass upon the equity and Jaw of a change of venue. It was a Mi! waukee jury which convicted. P The representatives who have fought the measure to adjust the pay o Washington's school teachers have overlooked one guess. They may have assumed that the teachers have no comeback at their opponents be- cause they have no vote here ! Washington. The statesmen, DI haps, forget that the cause of Wash- ington teachers for fair compensatio: is the cause of all the teacher throughout America, and that in many a school district the word wiil g0 forth that the Hon, Mr. Sorghum is @ foe to the public school system and should not again be sent to rep- resent the district. A school teacher may not be a politician, but he or gne has access to the homes and the hearts of parents which many a po!!- ticlan might well covet. The Washington schools are ths natural focal point of interest to edu- cators throughout America., They must be made the model schoois ot the country. It Is impossible for them to continue in the present sCan- dalous condition of inadequate ca- pacity to supply all children of school age with a seat and full facilities for carrylng on their normal courses of education. It is impossible also to continue to underpay the teachers and hope to retain a full teaching force. Other cities are outbidding the Natfonal Capital in salaries and accommodations. Congress cannot shift responsibility for the lack of proper support of the capital's schools, for only Congress has the authority and the means of theirsup- port. How many senators who framed and passed the “simplified income tax law" are able to make out their own tax statements without the help o the expert who has been stationed in the office of the Senate Eergeant-at- arms? It is a parliamentary privi- lege for members to rise to explain their votes. Possibly all who now appe: to the expert were paired when came to voting, but pairs don’t courn’ when it comes to sweari S0s used to mean “Send .out succor’” 1t has now come to mean ‘Save oi senators.” (Hope the proofreade: will not correct the senatorial speii- |ing> (Copyright, 1923, by P. ¥. Collins.) Master of Semphill Plays Big Part In British Aeroplane Development BY THE MARQUISE DE FONTENOY. Certain officers of the air force of the American Army have been spend- ing o few weeks in England for the| purpose of. bging made acquainted | by their British comrades with the| very latest developments that have been withheld until Dnow from pub- licity. They - are” most astonishing —almost of a revolitionary char- acter. Steel of a quite new kind. much lighter than wood, and yet of | excepttonal strength, is taking fhe the airplanes.- Indeed, the new steel| airplanes that are being turned out are shown to be 300 per cent lighter | than corresponding aircraft of the| wood heretofore employed. Natu- rally thfs means that their weight-| rrying power has been vastly In-| creased. Little has been heard thus| far about the matter in the press.; In fact, there seems to be an impres- | sfon among the ublic abroad, h"d: even in Great Britain, that she 18| neglecting the development of P ner | milltary and civil aviatlon ang allow- ing other nationalities to outstrip her. Quite the contrary is the case. * K ¥ ¥ “ Among those who have taken & leading part in its development have | been the Master of Semphill. He re- urned not long ago from Japan, where, at the pertonal instance of the crown prince, he had been en- gaged in organizing and in training the now admirable Japanese air serv- ce, finding its officers wonderfully wck to learn and ingenfous in devising improvements. _ Moreover, their absolute fearlessness and indif- ference to death and to bodily injury, which has been one of their most notable characteristics in war, ren- der them peculiarly fitted for service in the air, where fatalities occasion- ally occur through the sudden and unaccountable failure of the nerves. The remarkable thing about the Japanese aviators, and one of the things which struck the Master of Semphill most forcibly, was their ex- ceptional immunity from accidents, Col. the Master of Semphill, although | barely thirty years of age, is remem- | bered in America as head of a specia) technical aviation mission to the United States in the summer of the last year of the great war. Many ot the inventions In connection with the newest type of all-steel airplanes ot the British army are of his own de- vising, and it is not astontshing, un- der the circumstances, that he should be the moving spirit and the principal director of the All-Steel Alrcraft, Ltd. He has always been interested in mechanics and meteorology, and, on leaving Eton, instead of golng to the university he served an engineering apprenticeship in the principal air- plane and motor works in England, Femaining there until the outbreak of the war, when, by reason of his un- usual knowledge of everything re- lating to aircraft, he was at once commissioned a flight commander o the air service at the front in France. € x x x | | To what an extent he was an adept | in all these branches of engneesing | him | {surety and received the reply: board the Discovery, the old_ship « the ill-fated Capt. Scott. But tne outbreak of hostilitles naturally kept from any participation this undertaking, and instead of going the antarctic he hastened to the bat | tle front in France, The Master of Semphill is the oniy son and heir of Lord Seraphill, w! went through the war as colonel the famous Black Watch Regiment. being badly wounded in the battle ot Loos in 1915. Lord Semphill, a vet- eran of the Kitchener campaigns in the Sudan and in South Africa, is the eighteenth holder of a barony cre- {ated by James IV of Scotland short before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, and is able to_trace his descent from King Rob- ¢t 1L of Scotland through tho female ne. Both Lord Semphill and his son, the Master of Semphill, enjoved the he- reditary and time-honored right of entombment in the chapel. now o pic- turesquely ruined, of Holvrood Palace, the last of their family to be laid there being Maria. Baroness Semp- hill in her own right, who dicd I 1884 at the age of 100. Another prerogative of Lord Semp- hill—and one that is most curious, and, 1 believe, unique—Iis tha cording to a charter from the crown, dated in 1688, bearing tho signature of King James 1I of Great Britain and Ireland, a holder of the Semphiil peerage, In default of any lawtul male or female heir, may nominate a sucoessor of his or of her own choo: ing, even if the nominee is in no way related to the family by any ties of blood. The Semphill peerage passed through marriage in the eighteenth century into the family of Forbes, thanks to which the patronymic of Lord Semp- hill and of his son is now Forbe: Semphill. Lord Semphill is likew the holder of a Forbes baronetey, The Master of Semphill's wife is pretty woman, a daughter of Sir Jot Lavery, the Royal Academician popular painter, by his first ma riage. The second and present Lady Lavery, herself an artist of note, is the daughter of Edward Jenner Mar- tyn of Chicago and widow of Edward Livingston Trudeau of New York. Her appearance is famillar to the public on both sides of the Atlantic through the number of pictures paint- ed'of her by her Irish husband It may be of interest to add that the Master of Semphill and his futher, the present peer, are of the same family as the Earl of Granard, son- fn-law of Ogden Mills of New York The fortunes of their branches of the house of Forbes may be sald to have had their origin in a loan made by Patrick Forbes of Corse, Bishop of Aberdeen, to his brother William, who was always borrowing money from the prelate. At last, on the latter demurring to a fresh loan, William told him that & surety would be ofter- ed who could not be refused. On the t 'money being forthcoming, the bishop his brother's “God Almighty is the only security I have asked the name of am” answered the science is showm’ by the fact that inj June, 1914, he had been accepted as the officer in charge of the teorological department, of the elec- tric plant, of the motorboat and of the two airplanes of the antarctic dition of J. Foster Stackhouse, :::‘:h ‘was scheduled to sail for the polas, seas in July, 1914, on gl % me-; bishop, “as the first time that He is offered, 1 cannot refuse, and 1 hope the money will do you good. With a capital thus provided Wii- llam Forbes went into business at Dantzig, made a big fortune and let: numerous sons, one of whom Was father to the first Earl of Granard, while another acquired the KForbee ‘baronetcy now merged in the Semp: bill_peerage. :