Evening Star Newspaper, April 4, 1923, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR, With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. WEDNESDAY......April 4, 1923 THEODORE W. NOYES. Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Ottice. 11th St. and Penn#: - New Yurk Ofice: 150 Nasw Chicago Office: Tower Bull Furopean Oftice: 16 Regent St., London, The Evening Star, with the Sunday morning edition, Is delivered by carclers within the clty At 60 cents per month; daily only, 45 cents per mouth: Sunday oly, 20 cents per month. Or- ders may be aent by mail, or telephone Main B000. Collection is made by carrlers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Dally and Sunday..1 yr., $5.40; 1 mo., 70 Daily only. 50c Sunday onl; ng. , England. i All Other States. H Daily and Sunday mo., 85¢ | Daily onl Sunday o) Member of the The Associated Press is excl 3 to the use for republication of ail news dis. | atchies credited to it or not otherwlse credited n this paper and also the local news pub: lshed ‘herein. ALl rights of publication of special dispatches hereln are also reserved. U Germany’s industrial chiefs were &t once to utilize German gold, hidden in the new world -and the old, to make reparation payments and as se- curity for reparation loans; If France, deprived by these repara- tion payments and guarantees of her avowed reasons for the occupation of the Ruhr, were to withdraw at once Wwithin her own treaty boundaries; f Great Britain and Italy, reas- sured by French withdrawal from the Rubr and by the disavowal of im- perialistic and militaristic aims in- volved in this withdrawal, were to take their place by France's side again &s victorfous allies in the world war, bound as unselfishly as is practicable to make and enforce a just and endur- ing world peace; If Turkey, utterly defeated in the recent world war and to be driven to 28t treatment of the Christian minori- ties by the final united pressure and threat of the victorious allles, were to cease to pose @s victor, enforcing its will by ultimatums and threats of war, and were to negotiate a final peace treaty as conquered, not &s conqueror; If these suppositions became realities the jealously wrangling and avariclous but war-weary nations of the world would take the obvious steps to ex- tricate themselves from the slough of despond in which they have been strug- gling, sinking and suffering. And then the world might rejoice with a great joy, for the foundation of Just and enduring peace would be laid, The comparatively few in whose possession is concentrated German wealth should uncover their hidden gold to make national reparations. France should cleanse itself of the slur of Napoleonic imperialistic aims. Great Britain and Italy and France should, individually and collectively, purge themselves of the charge of ! self-serving treachery toward a war elly, Great Britain in Europe and France in the near east. Turkey should cease to be the onlx wanquished nation in the world war which puts on the airs of victor, mere- 1y because it has whipped a de- moralized, disunited and, in the end, isolated Greece, and because it has had the opportunity of winning by bribery from its jealous and avari- cious allied conquerors what it lost by war. The war-allies should not, as the Tesult of separate bargains with Tur- key, rooted in avarice and treachery, abandon the Christian minorities to the tender mercies of Turkey or Russia. The war-allies ought not, individual- 1y or collectively, to be guilty of & new betrayal of Christianity, in considera- tion not of pleces of silver, but of measures of Mosul oil. The United States, which has spent millions to save the lives and souls of Armenian children, ought not to see with indifference all its labors ren- dered futile, and will never volun- tarily abandon these helpless Chris- tians to the malice of she Turk, and | to slavery or death, physical and moral, in consideration of trade or oil concessions. The hope of the Christian world will be that the Angora government will remain obdurate and threatening and that no final conference agree- ment and treaty” with the allies will be made until Germany has paid rep- arations or guaranteed payment, until France has withdrawn from the Ruhr and until the allies, again loyally united, shall force upon de- feated and’ baMéd Turkey a just peace that shall fully protect the Christian minorities. Queen Lil of Hawali missed restora- tlon to her throne because she would nations, faces a formidable wall of in- herent hostility to his proposition. Perhaps the first thought in the mind of most who take cognizance of his errand will be that he comes to ad- vise, in the sense different from sug- gesting. He advises us to take the league of nations for our own good, and proceeds to point how joining will benefit us. In effect he says, “You did not know what was best for you when you elected to stay out.” All peoples are sensitive upon advice from alien sources as to the conduct of their affairs, and in this frame of mind the first reaction of the public may be one of resentment. But he should be and will be given a cordial reception and an attentive audience. He will find support and sympathy from an element of Americans not inconsidera- ble in numbers. Those hearers he will re-encourage, after the rejection of his policy in 1920. Converts to his doc- trine that he may make by his argu- ments will have exercised their right to change their minds under his per- | suasive eloquence. His presence here is likely to en- courage the prospect of the league of nations becoming an issue again in 1924, and revive discussion of the sub- ject at even this early stage of the coming campaign. ———— Slaughter of Priests. Execution by the soviet government of Mgr. Constantine Butchavitch, vicar general of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia, is notable chiefly because sentence of death was carried out in deflance of a world-wide protest. Slaughtering of priests has been a fa- vorite pastime of the godless crew which has constituted itself the gov- erning power in Russia. Hundreds of the humble “white” priests of the orthodox Russian Church have been done to death, and scores even of the “black™ priests, constituting the higher order of the orthodox hierarchy, have faced firing squads by order of this socalled “‘government” which the Tnited States is asked to recognize on terms of equality. The charge that the priests, either of the orthodox or the Roman Catholic Church, were “disloyal” is so thin a pretext that essumption that the world will accept conviction on this charge as justifying death is only another instance of the amazing affrontery of the bolshevik despotism. The truth is that the soviet government ° has planned deliberately the complete wip- ing out of religion. In this it is actu- ated by two reasons. One is that it fears the rival influence of religion and religious teachers, and the other that it covets the wealth of the churches. The only offenses it pre- tends to have established against the priests it has slaughtered are that they have persisted in their ordained task of religious teaching and have sought to protect the property in their care from the despoilers. But the so. viet government decrees that these of- fenses constitute “treason” and are punishable with death. Up to the time they passed sentence upon the Roman Catholic prelates the bolshevists had carried on their priest. killing with comparative impunity. This has been bossible because the orthodox Russian Church has been so utterly crushed by them that it is without the organized strength to re- sist or even to make its protests heard. The Roman Catholic Church, on the jother hand, is virile and strong, and if not in position fully to protect its priesthood it at least has centered ! world attention upon the outrage of their sacrifice. It is to be hoped that this will operate to soften the lot of the priests of the eastern church. It certainly will serve to enlighten civil- ized peoples as to the outrageous wrongs which have been done them, and with this accomplished the martyr- hood of Mgr. Butchavitch will not have been in vain. A Community Loss. The announcement of the resigna- tion of Col. Charles Keller as a mem- ber of the board of District Commis- sioners, to take effect in two weeks, means that Washington {8 to lose the services of one who has played with distinctive devotion and ability an im- portant part in the capital commu- nity's upbuilding. The office of Engineer Commissioner and chairman of the District Public Utilities Commission is one which calls for & man endowed with broad execu- tive ability, large professional skill, firmness of character and the courage of his convictions. These qualities are conspicuous in the nmkeup of Col. Keller, and the District of Columbia has benefited largely as a result of his sound and vigorqus administration of exacting and delicate duties. Col. Keller is to go to the Pacific coast to a position of importance and broad responsibility. He-will go carry- ing with him the whole-hearted appre- ciation of the National Capital for work well done in the public interest, not promise Uncle Sam that she would not kill her enemies when restored to power. Perhaps Kemal Pasha and the An- gora government are making a like blunder and will suffer a similar pen- ailty. ————— By insistence upon taxing supplies donated by Americans for refugee re- lief, the Turks are enlightening the present generation as to what Glad- atone meant when he termed them “unspeakable.” ——— ‘The way the peace organizations are going after Gen. Fries is an excellent proof of the fact that even they still retain the elemental fighting instinct. Lord Robert Cecil. Lord Robert Cecil, on his mission to the United States in support of a plea that this country join the league of nations, may find his undertaking at. tended with embarrassment. He is talking to a nation whose traditions have run contrary to the policy he urges upon us. In the presidential election of 1920, by e remarkable and, indeed, overwhelming majority, the voters emphasized their adherence to our policy of abstention from mingling in European politics, taintained un- deviatingly throughout the years. The precedent set by Washington was re- affirmed in no uncertain tone. So this distinguished visitor, recognized a5 the chief end most admirably squipped advecate of the league of » and every wish for his success and welfare in his new environment. —_———— ‘Whatever the practical achievement of Lord Robert Cecil's trip to the United States may be, he proves him- self—in the words of Edward Everett —*a warrlor intrepid and unselfish.” ————— That South Carolina town which is to have a blind mayor lacks much of being in a class by itself. Kansas simply could not resist con- tributing a tornado to this spring's assortment of weather. A Regatta for the Shrine! Representatives -of clubs of the Southern Rowing Association have met at the quarters of our own Poto- macs,’and the result is that there will be @ regatta on June 6 as part of the Shrine celebration. The honors that are being pald the Shrinc are im. mense. Nothing that we. can think of to give it pleasure is to go unthought.' It seems only reasonable that Col. Sherrill will amend his park signs to read: “Shriners Allowed to Walk on the Grass.” It is hinted that the Capital Traction and Washington Rallway and Electric directors have ordered that there shall be a seat for every Shriner at the rush hours, and that every conductor when a red-fez steps aboard shall say: “'Don’'t drop a token in' the box; keep it!” It is also rumored, though official verification is lacking, that in honor of the Shrine lunchroom keepers will put a piece of ham in all ham sandwiches, and that no old-time five-cent sandwich will be sold for more than 10 cents. Only persons wearing a red fez and showing that they have paid their dues will be en- titled to this concession. o How this suggestion of a regutta on the great Potomac recalls old times. What happy ‘memories ft brings to a multitude of people. Time was, and it seems to the oldsters only a few years ago, when Potomac re- gattas were national matters. Clubs in Alexandria, Richmond, Norfolk, Baltimore, Newark, Philadelphia and New York sent their crews, and our Potomacs, Analostans and Columbias sent their champions on long tours of conquest. And they conquested. They ‘would bring back trophies of gold and silver. We seemed to think more of our mighty river then than we do now. And what crowds turned out to the re- gattas. All Washington would attend. And Washington was a great city even then, a “metropolis” of 200,000 people, with omnibuses running be- tween the depots and fully half a dozen hot It was a great city, with five or six horse car lines—count them—the Belt line, Metropolitan, ‘Washington and Georgetown, Colum- bia and Anacostia. It was a city of gayety and amusement. There were Ford's Opera House, Lincoln Hall or Herzog's Museum, the Comique, Wil- lard Hadl, the National, and then, in 1884 Albaugh's Grand Opera House. | Those old regattas were great. May the coming regattas be as good es the old ones, and may the new oars- men be as tough and steady as those of years ago. Civil Service Annuities. The civil service retirement fund built up by the percentage payments of employes having reached the sum of approximately $17,000,000, it would seem practicable to increase the an- nuities of retired employes and the annuities to be pald employes when re- tired. The matter has been brought again to public attention by Senator Sterling, chairman of the Senate civil service committee, and it is the under- standing that he will introduce & bill in the next Congress to increase the maximum and minimum annuities to be paid civil service employes on re. tirement, and to increase the annui- ties now being paid retired employes. The contribution by employes of 2% per cent of their salaries since the act became operative in 1920 has built up a retirement fund considerably larger than was calculated. It was computed that the contributory sys- tem would at the end of two years re- sult in a retirement fund of between $8,000,000 and $10,000,000, and the an- nuities to be paid were based on a fund of that size. The fund has grown faster than was thought it would, and is now about $17,000,000. It is, there- fore, capable of providing higher an- nuities. The annuities are low. At present the maximum is $720 and the minimum $180. These are small fig- ures when one takes into account the range of rents and the cost of food and clothes. The plan that is being put forward by Senator Sterling would raige the maximum annuity to $960 or $1,000 and the minimum to §240. Another matter which the senator has in mind is that in future an an- nuity should bear some relation in amount to the salary paid the em- ploye before retirement, the man with | a salary of $1,800 having contributed to the retirement fund twice as much as @ man drawing a salary of $300. However, these are matters to be thrashed out at the proper time and in the proper place. Two things seem clear. The first is that the annuities are very low and should be ralsed if this can be brought about, and, sec- ond, that the fund raised by the 2% per cent salary deduction of em- ployes i large enough to provide for higher annuities. ———————— John. D. Rockefeller's Bureau of So- cial Hyglene has established the fact that & majority of girls “spoon.” Now somebody ought to make the amazing scientific discovery that a majority of ducks swim. Farmers are advised to raise less wheat. The price of sugar is likely to induce them to raise “cain” instead. —— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. A Fathers’ Congress. ‘We've had a fathers’ congress down to Pohick on the Crick. Since the mothers went an’ had one, why we thought we'd try the trick. ‘We didn’t' draw designs' fur patent scientific cribs, Nor ornamental fasteners fur holdin’ on to bibs. But we studied up the question of what people ought to do To have their boys an’ girls turn out strong men and women true. An’ OI' Zeb Somers he rose up an’ said that he'd allow That gatherin’ ‘round an’ ‘wouldn't do it, anyhow. talkin’ He says, says he, “A mother who is home, an’ home to stay, Is wuth a half a dozen out debatin’ any day. The little chicken’s chances fur sur- vival is, the best ke ‘When Mrs. Chick don’t cackle, but jes’ snuggles to the nest.” bz Zeb furthermore remarked that con- gresses is sometimes run By folks that claim they're studyin’ when they's merely havin’ fun. He made & motion to adjourn; 'twas carried purty quick. An’ they'll be no further sessions down at Pohick on the Crick. A Little Bit of April, Little bit o’ sunshine, An’ a little bit o’ breeze; Little bit o’ smilin® An’ a little bit o' sneeze. Little bit o' singin’ ‘By the robin on the limb; Little bit o’ April Hangin’ on the storm-cloud’s brim. Little bit o’ murmur’ ‘Where the wakening waters run; Little bit o' showerin” An’' e little bit'o” sun.- Little bit o' April, Like the echo of a tune That shows the world is marchin® ‘Toward the radiance of June, & D. C; WEDNESDXY, WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS Secretaries Hoover and Work are to accompany Presldent Harding to Alaska. It is mainly, but by no means exclusively, in thelr departments that Alaskan affalrs are administered. If the President wanted to take with him every cabinet officer concerned With the territory’s government, he'd have to invite the entire executive branch of the government. Alaska’'s tangled interests are spread over thirty-two separate government bu- reaus. Confusion, overlapping and Cross-purpose run rampant. That is one of the particular evils President Harding wants to eradicate as the result of his trip. The Department of Agriculture has charge of Alaska's vast forestry reserves, and Secretary Wallace may decide to make the trip, too. * ok ok K A former United States senator agreeably remembered in Washing- ton, James D. Phelan of California, is the latest American ‘statesman to Join the litterati. After his retire- ment from the Senate in March, 1921, Mr. Phelan embarked upon a journey around the world. His experiences and impressions were welded into a book, which Is just off the press, un- der the title of “Travel and Com- ment.” Mr. Phelan’s close-range ob- servation of conditions abroad impels him to deplore what he considers our hopeless preoccupation with purely domestic concerns. “The day of dis- aster,” he gays, “will teach IZE inter- dependence of nations, and nothing else shall.” * ok x Col. Clarence O. Sherrill, the Presi- dent’s military aide and superintend- ent of public buildings and grounds, is plaintiff in an action for plagiar- ism, which is causing lively com- ment in the Army. In 1910, Col. Sher- rill, who belongs to the Corps of Engineers, wrote a treatlse on “Mill- tary Topography for the Mobile Forces” Maj. L C. Grieves, infantry, is accused by Col. Sherrill of utilizing the latter's material In a work called “Milltary Sketching and Map Read- ing.” produced while Grieves was in the PRIlippines | Subsequently 1t was issued by the United States Infantry Assoclation. _Chief Justice McCoy of the District Supreme Court, ruled out Sherrill's action because the Infantry Association was not cited a8 a co- defendant. Thereupon the assoclation volunteered to accept prosecution, if Sherrill would name its executive council as “producing defendants, ncluding Gens. nsworth, | Ely, Palmer, Malone and Drum. 1 { Sherrill is understood to be agreeable officers into court. * ok ok * It's through the spectacles of that Gen. Hines, the new director of The Drama of the “Poor Boy” Who Cleaned Up Wall Street. When Piggly Wiggly went to mar- ket—the stock market—the ourtain was rung up on one of those “poor boy who cleaned up Wall etreet” dramas tha# Americans love. And the whole country is watching with interest and amusement the perfor- mance in which Clarence Saunders of Memphis, who, the Chicago News says, was “politcly referred to in market dispatches as ‘the boob from Tennessee’,” has been making the bears dance on that gigantic little street “which begins at a river and ends at a gravevard” An apprecia- tive part of the audience is composed of editors all over the country, who, apparently with a warm sympathy for the cafeteria grocer, are enjoy- ing the spectacle of the lamb doing the shearing. From the first the career of the young Memphis grocery clerk who started the chain of self-service grocery stores with the “ridiculous” name “has been meteoric,” the Nash- ville Tennessean says. Crazy as the idea appeared when it was first put forth, “the name of the store and the manner of merchandising caught the popular fancy, amd the store wag a success from the first day. His carecr “has been somewhat sim- ilar to that of Henry Ford” the Tennessee paper goes on to sa: fact, the two men have many char- acteristics in common. Each is a business genius. FEach conceived a great business idea, worked it out successfully, and then had the finan- cial shrewdness and ability to man- age the corporation.” And each, ap- parently, other writers point out, can give Wall street a few uneasy moments. A few days ago “Piggly Wiggly stock was a moderately active issue,” the Decatur Herald ' reports, but “Ainancial reporters and journals paid no attention to it”. But, observes the Chattanooga News, “it seems to have been the purpose of somebody to take the control of the corporation out of Mr. Saunders’ hands. And in- stead of bldding for the stock the op- posite course was taken. The stock was sold ‘short,’ in the apparent hope that ‘Mr. Saunders would break in attempting to buy.” Whether or not it was a concerted drive to break the Piggly Wiggly Corporation, the Houston Chronicle considers “unim- portant,” in any event “the raid was made.” And because “it was impos- sible to suppose that a Memphis man could take up the slack when New Yorkers began to sell,” the program called for the “stock to be broken.” But, the Houston paper adds, “a cog slipped somewher Unluckily for the Wall street raiders, the Chicago Journal explains, “the boob from Ten- nessee had some ideas and a cash Call for Information. Controversy Over Army Officers’ Speeches Discussed. To the Editor of The Star: Dear Sir: I have read your edito- rial in the issue of Monday, April 3 entitled “No Gag for the Soldlers, and, the little article that preceded it in point of time by appearing on the first page of Sunday's paper, April 1. I have also seen some articles in the Army and Navy Register for March 81 referring to & “protest that had been made by the executive secretary of the Nafiérial Councll for the Pre- vention of .Wsar and others against eeches recently delivered by Army :‘an- criticizing . the. objects and activities of such organizations.” Other references of this sort have ap- peared, I am told, in the public press. As an interest citizen, I am won- dering what this movement is all ebout. If the War Department has recelved any such protest, would it A |the first spilled man who was once a buck private had ever cried—with {“comprisze a sigantic hoax.’ BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE the Veterans' Bureau, is looking at former service men’s needs. Hines, a son of Utah, enlisted in a Salt Lake City battery for the Spanish-Amari- can war. He llked soldlering so much that he remained in the Regu- lar Army and had arrived at captain’'s rank when the United States went to war with Germany. Hines is one of the exclusive group of two or three men who emerged from the war briga- dier generals and retained their rank. * ok ok x Another impending departure from the Washington diplomatic corps is that of Signor Andrea Geisser Ce- lesia de Vegllasco, secretary of the Itallan embassy. Celesia, as he is informally known, has had two perlods of service in the United States. He was an attache of the embassy when Italy entered the war #nd then returned to Europe to fight, serving with the artillery in the Dolomites campaign, in which the present ambassador, Prince Caetani, won renown. In 1916 Celesia return- ed to Washington, where he has been one of the most useful men Italy ever sent here. In 1919 he annexed a charming American wife, formerly Misy Margaret Huntington Erhart of New York. Signora elesia herself w active war duty, having been at- tached to the ambulance scrvice of the Queen of the Belgians, and later to the American Red Cross. France bestowed upon her the Reconnalssance Francaise. Signor Celesla has_been assigned to the foreign office at Rome. He leaves Washington with uncon- cealed regret. * Xk ¥ ¥ Fred C. Kelly, Washington writer who specializes in holding up a whimsical mirror to the foibles and frailties of human nature, has stirred the ire of the medical world with a frontal attack on doctors. His thesis is that the human family keeps well and gets better not because of M. D. but in spite of ‘em. Kelly denies any personal entipathy to doctors; de- poses that at least two-thirds of his best friends are pill-mixers or bone- sawers. But he is sincerely of the opinfon that while they occasionally make a patient "more comfortable, their claims of ability to cure discase A food of comment, pro and con, is inundat- ing the Kelly home in Chevy Chase. * % & Luncheon guests at the Shoreham one day this week saw a well known Washingtonian drenched with cream, the result of a head-on collision be- Well o ’ tween waiters. The famous * Sol. table” was the scene of the disaster. t the proposed arrangement, and |“It's the first time 1 was ever satl sooner or later will hale his suberior | factorily whitew shed,” was the com- of the victim, after a rescue had resuscitated him. Where- erved that it was ilk_over which he ughter. (Copyright, 1923.) ment par upon Tumulty ol EDITORIAL DIGEST balance of his own. As fast as Wall reet sold he bought; and now he insists that the street must deliver.” Since, the Grand Rapids Press adds, “the only holder of actual stock is Saunders they must pay his price, as in the famous corners of the past, either out of court or in it. And the best of it.” the paper concludes, “is that Saunders can leave with the odor of sanctity, as onme administering a lesson.” While the Decatur Review s “by no means sure that Mr. Saun- ders will collect on his killing,” he has, at any rate, “shown up Wall stréet in a somewhat ridiculous light. Mr. Saunders, it suggests, “is the modern version of the mythical fel- who broke the bank at Monte The Waterbury Republican is’ not inclined to be friendly to Mr. Saun- ders. “From either the personal or the general point of view,” it finds the “Piggly Wiggly scandal deplor- able. Even if he succeeds in forcing the ‘shorts’ to deliver at his price, Saunders will have degenerated from a man who was on the way to build up a large and prosperous business by sound business sense into a suc- cessful stock gambler.” However, as the Atlanta Constitution interprets the affair, Saunders merely had the choice of being ruined by the drive that was started against him, or of outwitting his opponents ‘“‘with his foresight and judgment,” and the al- together unlooked-for-“ability to ac- quire the $10,000,000 {n cash necessary to arreet the precipitate bear plunge.” The public in general the Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock) thinks, “will feel that the gamblers in Wall street were walloped at their own game and will shed few tears. Gambling is gambling, whether it is craps shoot- ing or dealing in millions, and the public is not given to wasting a lot of sympathy on folks who wail when they are walloped.” The Norfolk Ledger Dispatch feels scant sympathy for the raiders who are “howling for help and yelping about the cruelty of this Tennessee brigand who came up to innocent little New York and mi treated the poor, harmless tinhorn: Saunders’ future course {s a matter of interest and speculation to a num- ber of editorial writers. “He has had his play in Wall street” the Wichita Falls (Tex.) says, “and he says he is through with stock speculation. If he can stay with this resolution he will probably come out all right, but | there are few men who can make a clean-up and stay out. The lure of | the street brings most of them back.” The Durham Sun also suggests that “i¢ Mr. Saunders is as human as we suspect he is Wall street is looking to him like his melon, and he will be back there before long.” while if, on the other hand, “he is a man of great resolution and more philosophy, he will now put his gains in tax-exempt securities and live happily ever after.” Discussing the action of the gov- ernors of the stock exchange in sus- pending dealings in Piggly Wiggly stock and granting speculators five days instead of the customary twenty- four hours in which to deliver stocks sold “short,” the Quincy (Ill) Whig Journal points out that “it is with such so-called abuses as these that Samuel Untermyer expects to deal in the Lockwood bill,” which would pre- vent “the stock exchange from mal ing rules and regulations through which in effect it makes prices. About all the public gets out of paper concludes, “is some education in the ways of the financial world,” but the Topeka Capital suspects that the incident may “revive the agitation for incorporation of the New York Stock Exchange, an _institution of vast con- cern to the whole country, yet wholly self-governed and unregulated.” — not be the natural and right thing to give this out to the public before the department, or somebody for it, begins to answer it in the public prints? ~There is—is there not?—a possibility that the organization al- leged to have made such a protest did not do any such thing as ask the War Department to “prevent Army officers from speaking publicly in re- gard to their profession” unless, by some unfortunate tendency, their “‘profession” has come to inclyde the business of misrepresenting ahd ma- ligning the character of high-minded and highly-regarded citizens. A good many people in Washington know the executive secretary of the National Council for Prevention of War. They know that he belleves both sides of this war and peace question should be candldly discussed in the most open way possible. Why were not the names of those who joined Mr. Libby in this protest given out? There are many people hereabouts who cannot believe that the Secre- tary of War approves or 18 going to approve of Army officers making per- sonal attacks upon other citizens who are not qui; in harmony with all the aotivities of certain individuals con- nected with the War Department. o+ C. WATKINS. APRID Politics at Large BY N. 0. MESSENGER. Accepting the challenge construed to the implied in the dizclosure of the plans of the ultra-progressive and radical bloe in Congr for legis- lation to be urged in the mext Con- gre conservative republicans are already rallying to resistance. Sena- tor Watson of Indlana, who will be a member of the finance committee in the next Senate, and who is in touch with administration sentiment in the House, where revenue legis- lation must originate, declares that there will be nelther tarifft amend- ment nor tax changes on the adminis- tration’s program for the next Con- gress. * Senator Watson makes it plain that the administration will oppose 81l measures likely to be a vehicle for proposed amendments of the tax and tariff laws. This would appear to be warning served on the pro- gressives in the House, some of whom are known to favor mild changes in the income tax law, ‘not to start anything.” The radicals are sald to hope that the mild progressives will Lreak with leadership of the admin- istration and stand ready to welcome them with open arms into their bloc. * K ok ok The political leadership in the re- publican party is exceedingly desir- ous of avolding legislation which will threaten to disturb business in the year 1924, when the elections are coming on. One of the main assets of the party, it has been pointed out, will'be prosperity, growing out of in- creased activity In all lines of in- dustry, production, trade and trans- portation. Anything which causes disturbance in business will militate against the success at the polls of the party in power. Tampering with the tariff or taxes is classed as containing elements of disturbance always dangerous in the midst of a campaign. This is espe- cially true when it is proposed to in- crease taxes, as the radical bloc does. The excess profits tax was removed because Congress realized that it was an unjust burden on legitimate busi- ness. One of the most radical propositions of the radical bloc is to place a re- troactive tax on undistributed earn- ings of corporations. Such a sugges- tion, it is sald, will alarm business and upset conditions which now seem so favorable. It will be resisted even by moderate conservatives, it is de- clured. on the &round that it would do more harm in the way of disturb- ance than good it would do in bring- ing in revenue. Uncle Sam, they say, must be careful not to kill the bird that lays the golden egg when he is searching for revenue, ok ok x But there are other subjects of leg- islation, also, which are worrying some of the leading republicans in Congress, their anxiety accentuated by the probability that they cannot be avolded or action postponed. The expected efforts to amend the railroad transportation act are regarded with much forcboding by some of the lead- ers who foresee the possibility of long_ consideration without effective result, of contention and conflict of ideas without “getting anywhere.” It is pointed out that there are a number of interests desiring special amendments. They are satisfied with the act in general, and only desire to change it in some particular which they believe affects them more than any one eise, thereby giving them right to ask repeal or modification. The leaders say it iy going to be a Herculean task to attempt to com- pose all these conflicting and possi- bly irreconcilable interests. Some- body will have to be disappointed and nobody satisfied in full, it is feared. The preparation of the present law nearly killed its two authors, Sena- tor Cummins and Representative Esch. The members of the House and Senate committces wore themselves out in long and laborious study of the mass of arguments, contentions and objections made in the hearings. It took nights and davs of efforts to combine all the various ideas and plans into a measure of harmony and effectiveness. And the law, ever since its completion, has been under fire from one angle or another. * ok ¥k The railroads do not fancy the idea of the disturbing effect of the pro- posed changing of their status or regulation at a time when they hope to be in full stride with advancing prosperity and improved business conditions after the long period of harrassment and losses they have been going through. But the biggest bugaboo to politi- clans, rallroads and conservative thought of the country is recognized in the certainty that all of the con- tention in Congress over the changes in the transportation act: all of the disappointments which are Inevitable, Will add fuel to the smouldering fires of demand for government ownership of rallroads. * Xk ¥ ¥ An element of labor still clings to the hope ‘of forcing the government ownership and operation of raflroads. They find recruits in other elements of the citizenship. Theorists, forget- ful or disregardful of the lessons taught by actual experience in the war join their ranks from time to time, The approaching contest over amending the railroad transporte- tion act and over the numerous in- dependent bills expected to be intro- duced and later urged as amendments can have no other effect, it is appre- hended, than to spur the agitators for government ownership to renew- ed effort. And, if no action come their last work will be “‘We tol vou so; give us government owner- ship.” In republican party leadership cir- cles, President Harding’s coming swing around the circle is widely held to be absolutely essential to the restoration of republican morale and to his own interests in making the country acquainted with his admin- istration and its achievements. Secretary of Labor Davis is recog- nized as having hit the nail on the head when in & speech the other day in Boston he told his audience that President Harding was about the poorest self-adviser in the world; that any corner groceryman could beat him at the game of “selling” himself to the public. The President holds, said Secretary Davis, that the best politics is service to the people. That's all very true, say other politicians, but after service has been rendered it is no detraction from their value to the public to let the public know about them. L Republican politiclans insist that the Harding administration during the first half of its tenure of office has achieved many benefits to the country in administration and legis- lation. As water gone over the wheel, the country naturally will have for- gotten some, and the good work done may not be remembered in detail or in gross. What _the politiclans want the President to do is to g0 before the people with his own attractive per- sonality, with his convincing sin- cerity and high-minded purpose and tell the voters what been done and what is contempla to achieve. First-hand assurance and explanation by the President can do wonders, it is sald to dissipate the mists of mis- understanding. * k k% Secretary Davis went on to say that the President is a “plain, busi- ness-like individual with a genius for stabilizing. He is not the man to do his work with a brass band.” The attitude of the political managers is that after the work has been done there is Ro uge to put it under a bushel, where the public cannot sep it. What the managers want is that he exercise his recognized genius for stabilising on the voters of the coun- try and ilize the rrm of the republican party in 192¢. ¥ CAPITAL KEYNOTES BY PAUL V. COLLINS Secretary of War Weeks resents the attitude of certain so-called pa- cifiist societies in requesting that Army oficers be restralned from speaking out loud, in public places, regarding all themes connected with the mili- tary service. There is not the slight- est possibility of America's ever be- coming militarized, and the attitude of the pacifists in seeking to make an Army man ashamed of his service is outrageous, according to the view- point of patriotism. To what has patriotism sunk if to be a defender of the country agalnst foes of its peace—whether fnternal or exter- nal foes—is to be rated shameful? Eternal vigllance is the price of liberty, and it is a truism that the nation that Is ever ready to protect its institutions and #s liberties is least likely to be attacked. This is the attitude of Secretary Weeks, who promises a full reply in due time. Dr. Charles W. Stiles, the mnoted zoologist of Wiimington, N. C. at- tacks the position of Willlam Jen- nings Bryan, the noted evolutionary nonconformist of Florida, and de- clares that if Mr. Bryan s right about his claim that ali things were created in thelr beginning, just as they are now, then all germs must have been made when Adam was made, In the Garden of Eden. Then Adam must have harbored all the germs that our A. E. F. boys found in the trenches, and Noah was able to carry all germs through the flood without losing an elephant. How ecasy it is to anticipate Mr. Bryan's come-back, wherein he may point to the presidential bee for il- lustration. ~ There is a beast which never evolved from a gnat buzzing for a place in the village council. Like Jove or something, it came full- fledged and singing its one and only song. That alone overturns ail theories of evolution, for that never made half as many men of monkeys as it has made monkeys of men. Hooray £Ex x A Washington school official ven- tures to recommend that the schools continue the yéar round, without a summer vacation for children or teachers, This would give the chil- dren three more months a year of schooling, and eight years of grades would be covered in six years—theo- retically. The child who enters school at six years of age would graduate from high school at fifteen years, or, if he added a trade ap- prenticeship, as urged by the Becre- tary of Labor, he might come out at sixteen a full-fledged skilled me- chanic, such as & molder or jna- chinist, or even an architect or engi- neer. The proposer of the new plan has not disclosed the physical cost his plan would involve, in the way of broken constitutions and mental aber- rations. He has not counted the price of lost childhood, nor of stunted as well as weakened phy- Twelve months of study, at rmative perfod of the boy or girl—what does it mean? Nine con- tinuous years of the school routine, to take the place of twelve years broken twelve times by free sum- mers and outdoor recreation. What is education? Is it book stuff} only? Is it similar to the process by which geese are nailed to boards while their throats are crammed with corn to make their livers grow that the gourmand may feed on fat liver pie? Is that what our school evolution is coming to? Not even an adult can forego recreation continually and retain his normal condition of efficiency. P President Harding, in the midst of his own play in Florida, took occa- Playground and Recreation Associa< tion of America: “Play is the sculptor which shapes the life of the child. He confides his dreams to his play, and becomes’ what his play is. “This is also true enough of adults to make us serfously concerned for the recreational life of America. We must make the playtime of all children and the free time of ail the rest of us richer, more satisfying and more ennobling. This was written in a letter com- mending the project to make the week beginning April 21 Play week for all America. ‘The plan originatey with the association above men! tioned. “During Pla President. “I those who love children and youth and the for- ward-looking ideals of American life will co-operate with you generally Just what we are all to do dur Play week is- not yet published, bu surely the idea is going to be mo popular than “Sugarless week Americans do not, generally, take their sports =o seriously as do the English—or rather the Americana do not enter into sports so enthusiast! cally as do the British. The excep tions to this statement may cover college youths and statesmen. T former “rah, rah” over foot ball, an< the latter foot-foot it after the raw ball sent over obstacles of the golf course. Nobody can be a statesman unless he first masters golf. Economics i only an avocation, while golf is the real thing. In the face of these sol emn truths, how can an official of the | schools of Washington deliberately propose to bar children from sports of growing years, and st the boy and girl bodily and menta through nine years' uninterrupted schooling? writes the ¥ * ¥ ¥ Maybe it is because the mail ca:- rier is ubiquitous that he s now required to be, so far as human powers go, omniscient. New orders require that, in addition to his oth duties—such as delivering bees and young alligators, collecting bills for mail crder firms and ehipping eg&s for farm wives—he is now to sup- plement the policeman, the barber and the doctor, Once we were advised to ‘“tell our troubles to_a policeman.” Still fa ther back, when we were cut or had a leg broken, we looked to the b. ber to act as surgeon. That is why the barber pole is striped like |bandage of white around a bloo limb. Now every rural mail carrier automobile should carry a barber pole or some such insignia to indi- cate that if one wants a tooth pulled, a bone set or a barbed wire cut sewed up, the reliever of all human ills is on his way. Every mail ca rier will be given a course in first aid. If his surgical cases interfere with his dellvering mail he will re- turn to the office with the undeliv- ered letters, for there is another day coming. During the past winter the mail carrier in country districts was ordered to feed the birds en route, lest they perish in the snow of starvation. Now that the snow has gone, he might help turn the birds’ eggs in the nests. * ok ok ok Gen. Goethals found it harder dam up the coal and keep it from flowing into Canada this winter than it was to cut a transisthmian canal and let the oceans fiow together. In, disgust he has issued one final order canceling all other orders, shut up the New York coal cffices and quit He had just enough fuel on hand to roast the Interstate Commerce Com- sion for not “seeing America first” before looking out for the interests of the Lady of the Snows. “Never again!” declares the general. e wants no office without authority to “make the dirt fly. sion to write to the president of the kol ife) toktnl et el iU S Conmpeiiestitate v cuuiee I King George and Queen Mary of England To Pay Epoch-Making Visit to Vatican BY THE MARQUISE DE FONTENOY. Few leave this side of the Atlantic elther from North or South America without visiting Rome before their return. It is difficult, therefore, for them to realize the fact that the im- pending visit of King George and Queen Mary to the eternal city is of an epoch-making character. So much so that the ultra-Protestant element of the population of Great Britain is up in arms about the matter, and that their denominational press, their platform speakers, clergy are voicing their protests against the projected call of King George and Queen Mary at the Vati- can during their sojourn at Rome this month in the most unvarnished language as an unwarranted abase- ment of the reigning house of Great Britain. to Popery, There was much the same outcry when King Edward VII visited both King Victor Emmanuel II and Pope Leo XIII a few weeks before the lat- ter's death in 1903, But he ignored the attacks made upon him. real- izing that as long as he remalned, not merely a_member, but the chief of the State Church of England, there Was nothing whatsoever either in the letter or in the spirit of the law, and of the constitution, to prevent him, while at Rome, from paying & call of courtesy and of reverence to the then nonagenarian prelate Wwho Was the spiritual head of a church | millions of \T'lfi most 1 and patriotic_subjects belonges Loyl "G eorge and Queen Mary will treat the present agitation in Great Britaln _against their projected call of the Vatican, as did Edward VII, just twenty years ago. At the time Wwhen King Edward visited Leo XIIT in 1903, near a _thousand years elapsed since_an English monarch had been in Rome. Indeed, to find a pregedent for his call, it was neces- sary to go back to the reign of King Chanute, the Danish prince, who reign- ed in England in the beginning of the eleventh century, and who came to Rome in 1027 on the occasion of the coronation of Conrad II of Germany and of his consort as emperor and empress of the Holy Roman Empire by Pops John XIX In the Ancient Baslicla of St. Peter's. But Canute was not the first king of England to come to Rome. King Ethelwulf was actually crowned in Rome as king of Engiand in A. D. 855 by Pope Leo VI, and it is of in terest to recall that he was accom- panied to the Eternal city by his Foungest son, who afterward reigned in England as King Xlfred the Great. Still earlier in A. D. 727, Ina, king of the west Saxons—not only came to Rome, but founded there, an institu- tion for the instruction of English princes and priests, which subsist to- day in the form of the present Eng- lish College. - King Ina died in Rome like his predecessors, King Cead- walla_of Wessex, Conrad of Mercia and Offa of Essex.” The tomb of King Ceadwslla in the vestibule of St. Peter's, had a long epitaph which has been preserved by Bede, narrat- ing how the king was christened and died there. But, although the monu- ment was visible at the end of the sixteenth century, and pictures thereof are still extant in the Vatican library fo fragmant of the monument r mains. to which man: *k ek Another of the pretty sisters of the Sovereign Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg has just been mar- ried off: nmamely, Princess Elizabeth, now twenty-two years of age, and whose hand has been won by Prince Louls Philip of Thurn and Taxis, third son of this former petty sover- gn houne! Germany. He is of the \ and even their) same age as his bride, and while his mother is the former Archduchess Margeurite of the Imperial House o Hapsburg, his father, Prince Albe the chief of the entire clan, is still colossally rich, and was falsely de- scribed as having been massacred at | Munich, together with Prince Wrede |and a number of other great nobles by | the communists and terrorists, w |for two or three wecks, dominated the Bavarian capital, endeavoring to kill |oft everybody of any importance. A | most circumstantial account was pub- lished at the time by all the Germ: and European papers of the plucky ! manner in which the prince met with | his fate, shot down with a number of others in the prison yard, having had ihls brains blown out by one of his executioners with a revolver by way of & coup de grace. Yet, with all that he is today alive, |and in the enjoyment of his vast reve- | nues and estates. Indeed, he may be sald to own the entire anclent im- perfal city of Ratisbonne, and all the . surrounding region. In addition to his many_other honors, some of which have been wiped out of existence by the new republican governments of central Europe, he_still retains_his principality of the Holy Roman Em- pire. and his two Bavarian Dukedom of Worth and Donaustauff, He was brought up almost entirely by his |aunt, the late Empress Elizabeth of | Austria, who lavished particular care and affection upon him by reason of the fact that he was the only son of/ her elder sister Helene, who had been jilted by Emperor Francis Joseph for | her sake, and who thereupon contracted a loveless marriage with the late Prince Maxmilian of Thurn and Taxis. As for the bride of the young Prince Louis Philip of Thurn and Taxis, her eldest sister Marie abdi- cated the throne of Luxembourg at the close of the great . and_be- came a nun of the Carmalite Con- vent at Modena in Italy, surrender- ing her throne to her next sister, harlotte, the now reigning grand duchess_and who, married to Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma, has a little son of the name of Jean, who is the, heir to her crown. Of the other sisters Princess An- | toinette 18 the wife of Prince Rupert of Bavaria, the claimant to the throne of that country and the head of the anclent dynasty of Wittelsbach, and who in the event of any monarchical restoration i Germany, is certain to become its next ruler. His first wife, with whom he spent some time in New York before the great war and who was killed by a fall from a hotel; window at Salerno in Italy, was the' sister of the queen of the Belgians. * ok ok ¥ Ernest Stowell Scott, who spent many years at the British embassy at Washingon and who is now British minister in Abbysinia, has been a consenting party to the sale by his elder brother, the earl of Eldon to the family entailed estate of Stowell Park in the Cotswolds, the estate forming almost a square of about , five miles across in every direotion. The first Lord Eldon, as a young and penniless lawyer, made & run- away marriage with his lovely wife, who_ used to be known as “the New« castle beauty.” She escaped from her father's house at midnight by way of a ladder in the most roman- tic_ style, and reached the Scottish border and Gretna Green, by post shays and four, in time to have the wedding ceremony safely performed by the famous blacksmith _before her irate father, old John Surtess, arrived on the sceme. Although) neither of them had any money, the marriage proved the making of ‘Jock Scott,” and he achieved both fame and fortune, serving a term as lord chief justice of England before his elevation to the Woolsack and to an earidom. so ,