Evening Star Newspaper, July 5, 1923, Page 6

'ITH'E EVENING STAR, Wih Sunday Morning Editler, © [Pk daiideaminin S WASHINGTON, D. €' THURSDAY........July 5, 1983 —ee— e THEODORE W. NOYES.......Editor s R TR T I The Evening Star Newspaper Company Bisiness Office, 11th St. and Peaseyivania.Ave. 5 New York Office: 110 East 42nd St. Chicago Office: Tower Buildi: European jce: 16 Regeat St.. Londor The Evening Star, with the Sunday moraing edition, is délivered by carriers within the eity 21,60 cents per month; daily only, 43 cents per wonth; Sunday only, 20 cents per month. Or- ders muy be sent by mail, or telephone Main 5000, _Collection 1s made by carriers at the end of euch month. Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. i Maryland and Virginia. 1 yr., $8.40; 1 mo:, 700 .1yr., $6.00; 1 mo., 50c “1yr., §2.40; 1 mo., 20c All Other States. Daily and Sunday..1 yr., $10.00; 1 mo,; 85¢ $7.00; 1 mo., 60c Sunday only, X Member of the Assoclated Press. The Associated Press {n exclusively entitied to- the use for republication of all mews di patches credited to it or pot otherwise credited T this paper and also the local mews pub- lided herein. All iights of publication’of syveial dispatches her wiso_reserved. e ———— High Pressure Needed Now. ‘Washington should have a high- pressure water service in the business section fer fire-fighting, regardless’ of tHe insurance rates charged here. An nouncement that the water depart- ment is not now asking for such an installation, in framing Its esti- nates for the next fiscal year, because of inability to get assurances of lower raies does not impress the capital favorably. This is not a question of insurance rates, but of protection, and protection is not a question of repay- ment after loss, or the price to be paid for repayment. g What Washington wants is security against conflagration, not economy -of premiums. It wants to be assured of sufficient water to put out big fires in the business district, and it cannot hdve that assurance until it is given @ systgm of high-pressure mains-and hydrants in the downtown section fed from the Potomac river by powerful pumps. No matter what the insurance rates are now or would be after high-pres- sure installation. the fact remains that Washington is now using filtered water from its drinking supply for the ex- tinguishment of fires. The water is impounded at Great Falls and brought by ducts to the reservoirs and put through & process of purification, not to pour upon flames, but to serve the people in their. daily needs. Yet whenever the alarm bells ringthe mains are tapped fo{ immense quan- tities of water that might just as well be drawn from the river. For purposes of successful fire-fighting, in- deed, the river water under high pres- sure would be much more effective,’ because more abundant. Let this matter be considered solely on its merits as a protection and water economy project, without any regard to the insurance rates. If when the high-pressure service is installed—and it must be. sooner or later—equities demand e réduction of rates becauee of the lowefing of risks, the rates will doubtless fall. Naturally the- in- surance underwriters are not going to promise reductions in_advance. Every year that passes without starting this instalation increases the cost, When it was first: proposed the high-pressure system could have been installed for $100.00, and. with slight annual appropriations for mainte- nance and repaire. the system then created for that price would have been effective today. Now the cost is likely 6 be ten times that-amount, owing to intreases in the cost' of materials-and in enlargement of the area which should properly be covered by”the service. The chances of getting a high-pres- stem for the protection of. the capital would doubtless be greatly in- creased if the Commissioners ask for it in strong terms. If no estimate is made for it in their budget of recom- mendation, Congress is not likely to propose it on its own initiative, There- fore this matter should be considered by the Commissioners, regardless of the failure of the water department to include . it in .the. recommendations which it s making. ——————— A very successful monologue enter- tainer accepted an engagement &8 a film star. After one look at himself in the movies he ran and hid on the first outgoing steamship and left no address. Which proves, as the late Sir Henry Irving remarked of the donkey who brayed during the scene in‘which he was spectacularly intro- duced. that he is a bit of a critic. o ——————ee _After returning from French -Lick Springs. Gov, Smith announced. his determination to enter the lists for tnhe democratic nomination. In seeking ine spot where youthful spirit and impylse are renewed Poncte de Leon made the mistake of stopping at Flor- ida instead of pushing on to Indiana. —_— -t The difference betwéen a bathing beach and’ a musical comedy is that on the beach the roughness is pro- vided by the waves. instead of by the dlalogue. 2 ————— In the average secret society the only real anxiety is caused’ by what = cardidate thinks Is going to happen to him when he gets initiated.. - Bull Run: Park. ~Progress is making in the work of converting into a battlefleld park e considerable part of the land on which the first battle. of Bull Run was fought, cn Sunday, July 21, 1861, and on which part of the second battle of Manassas was fought in_August, 1862. At pres- ent those who have the matter in charge are directing; their Jebor to raising ‘money for the purchase of the, land at the junction of the road lead- ing west from the stone bridge to Groveton and that leading: north from Manassas to Sudley spring. The hill and plateau in the southeast angle of ‘these roads was the focal point of the fighting in 1861. % Already $10,000 has been raised by the Manassas Battlefield Confederate Park Association. Prince William county, within the bounds of which the efleld lies, has appropriated §5,000; Fairfax county, adjolning on the east. has'donated $1,000; Loudoun county has ‘made a smaller contribu-. tion, and gifts from private sources have ‘been numerous. The state of Virginia will pay to the battle park association $10,000 when $15,000 hes been raised, and the members of the association have mo doubt of obtain- ing the sum needed. Thefe have. been proposals before iand.'| committees .of Gongress for a quarter, _century that the Bull run flelds be bought by the government and held and treated @s has been done in the casg. of Antietam and other battle- fields: - Union ‘veterans and their de- scendants have generously supported the."proposal, but there has always been encountered in Congress enough indifference or opposition to block the progress of the plan. Onelof the great motor highways passes through the fields following the ancient. Warrenton = turnpike, which begins a mile west of Fairfax Court House, passes through Centerville, crosses Cub run end Bull run, along the base of Henry hill and continues on to the west. Over this road motor- ists will pass through & historic and otherwise interesting section of Vir- ginia near Washington. Considerable improvement has been made in the road in recent years, and motorists are going over it with a fair degree of comfort now. Squalls Ahead for Ford. As the country begins to take Henry Ford's presidential boom seriously and realizes that it is a political proposi- tion which will have to be reckoned with, the movement is meeting the inevitable fate of opposition encoun- tered by similar undertakings. It is well that such is the case. Discussion inw serious vein will have a sobering | effect upon the electorate, and as they ponder_the limitations and handicaps of Mr. Ford there will be bujlt up a wall of resistance against further progress of the boom. * When the Ford"boom was launched it was greeted with smiles of good- natured derision, as something fan- tastic, a political joke. After a while the political leaders, always with “‘feelers” out to touch public senti- ment, sensed that there was an un- dercurrent of sympathy for the move- ment among what might be termed the masses, th®¢ element of the public which does not concern itself very largely with politics and hardly at all with statesmanship. Soon there came ‘warnings from prominent men that the Ford boom was serious. Once the country gives the Ford movement serious attention, there can be only one result—combinations or- ganized against Mr. Ford to fight him trom many angles. The thoughtful men and women who will be called upon in November, 1924, to select @ Chief Executive for these United States cannot be imagined as letting their choice fall upon a man of such abso- lute lack of experience in statecraft as Mr. Ford His backers must have been sur- prised at the incident which occurred yesterday in the radical meeting in {Chicago. One speaker in most em- iphatic terms declared the utter im- possibility of Mr. Ford's receiving the support of the farmer-labor party. This announcement was recelved with enthusiastic applause by the 800 and odd. It had been thought he would be popular With the radicals. The speak- er denounced him as an element in the capitalist movement. Well, is not that s0? He is a manufacturer, and of what? He is a manufacturer of wealth and as such is unacceptable to extreme radicalism. Bellevue Laboratory. Another important government in. stitution has begun operations in the District. This is the naval experiment ;ant research laboratory at Bellevue. The purposes of this institution are set forth as -for laboratory and re- | search work on the subjects of gun erosion, torpedo initiative power, the gyroscope, submarine guns, aircraft, improvement in radio installations “and such other necessary work for the benefit of the government service as may be necessary.” Another feature worth noting is the appreciation which the general gove ernment shows of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers and facilities they af- ford. Government works have grown snd muitiplied along both rivers. There are the navy yard, Washington barracks, the Anacostia flying fields, the Government Hospital for the In- sane, the Arlington experiment farm, Arlington cemetery, Fort Myer, Fort ‘Washington, Fort Hunt, Indian Head, Quantieo and other national establish. ments. The government has proved ite title to the waterside of the Washing- ton channel and has turned, and i turning, river marshes and shoals into parks. ‘The Bellevue laboratory is new, but Bellevue has long been government property. Old Washingtonians remem- ber it as Bellevue naval magazine or Bellevue péwder magazine, which was a landmark aleng the river dating back to the civil war. ————————————— Marriage Licenses. Grawth and. prosperity of the Dis- trict are shown by all signs. Men give particular attention to such signs as bank deposits, bank clearings, real | estate transfers, butlding permits ana the value of new constructions, but there is another sign which points to growth. prosperity, and, it is hoped, also points to happiness. It is the steady increase in the issue of mar- riage licenses. The figures ran high in June. It was not the banner month for brides and grooms, but it was close to the top, and looking back over a period of years one can see that the monthly rate of marriage licenses is rising. g June is the traditional month of brides and roses, and sentiment rises to high poaks in that perfod, but the marriaxe industry goes on throughout the year. Now and then December excells June as a month of marriage licenses and weddings, but as a Tile June heads ‘the list. Last month 730 licenses to wed were issued in the District. June, 1921, and June, 1920, showed ‘a slightly larger output of work by the miarriage license clerk, but the 1928 figures were considerably and progressively higher than, those for June, 1919, 1918 and 1917. There was one December, tg't in 1919, which { e “EVEN excelled the reeord of last June. There were reasons for that, but’it {8 not necessary to search them out. The fact is of sufficlent’interest. It is clear that the issuance of mar- riage licenses in the District isathriv- ing industry and that it is en a sub- stantial - basis. . Marriage -licenses point to marriages, to the purchase of new houses, |to ‘the development of homes and to other important things. ——————— The only objection to having the democratic national convention in New York city would be the possibility that regular New Yorkers would mistake the delegates for out:of-town buyers and sell' them something. ' ——————— Paris fs trying to restore. hoppskirts to fashion. Usejess effort. America does not like them, and e Paris fash- ion, however lucrative to France, is no good unless America likes it well enough to buy it. —————— It is hard to enthyse the farmer by delivering a speech on farming. The farmer thinks he knows all about the beauties of a life of patiénce and ‘in- dustry. Whkt he wants to talk is politics. e The presidential: voyagers " are cheered by the fact ‘that. they are headed for -Alaska, where the weather is famously cool and the populace does not insist.on talking mostly politic: Nobody who suggests another con- gressional inquiry has the moral fortitude to explore the pigeonholes to see how many quaint quibbling queries still remain unanswered. Constructive suggestion invariably challenges opposition. More people always know how the railroad busi- ness of the country should not. be organized than how it should. Physicians who say a man oyght to live to be @ hundred end: fifty vears old tacitly admit that the uitimate con. sumer of medicines has not:been get- ting his money’s worth. The ice business is to be compliment- ed on managing to beat the coal busi- ness by compelling the consumer to worry over & supply only during a por- tion of the year. B A man who sneers at the phrase “100 per cent American” would be immediately indignant if referred to as “formerly 100 per cent, marked down to 98.” New rules of warfare will not be considered complete in sporting cir- cles until they limit the conversation before and after every prize fight. Every time a man Is mentioned as a presidential possibility the world sees another example of passive re- sistance. Mr. Lloyd George at least regards prohibition as sufficiently important to be mentioned with kindness. SHOOTING STARS. The Harmless Muse. In poetry there must be limitations, Some poets sing an unaffected la While others turn to classic imitations When Fancy would melodiously stray. But he who has the easy undertaking 1Is the jazzy bard who takes a werd or two And, every lucid interval forsaking, Sings “Wicky wocky, wibble wobble i The Muse of yore politely philosophic- Propriety’s endeavors to dispe!, gratitude and pleasure 4 el His “Wicky wocky, wibble wobble —— > . And in a state of morals catastrophic Sounds almost like & modern jazz- abel. So none should cavil at a guileless measure That now and then she struggles to pursue. < ‘We ought to hail with Each patient ear toward music has.a leaning : And ingenuity need not abound. * Nobody cares to understand the mean- ing : ‘While seeking a sufficiency of sound. | This line need not be acturately quoted Most any old inanity will do, If all significance that can.bé, noted ' Is “Wicky wocky, wibble wobble] The Hopeful Pilgrimage. “Bleggins is going west:"" .. “To grow up with the country or get a divorce?" = Watching Every Bet. “Why do you talk so much: about politics?” . . $ ““Got to do it,” replied Farmer:Corn-. tossel. “Farmin' is that precarious we can't afford to neglect anything' that maybe will help to give us a chance.” 3 B Jud Tunkins says thére ish't much chance for & man who habitually re- gards hard work merely as a form of hard Juck. - 3 Home lons, % “Do you think wémen should vote?” Indoubtedly,” sald Mr. Meekton: “Only it did seem. kind -of- tough -to/ have to lose the last hired girl simply because she and Henrietta -did nof happen to agree in politics. e Eggs. L i - “Everybody seems afrdid of- a:man: who asserts himself as hard-boilsd. “Yes,™ replied . Miss’ he “Everybody - handles him. _with - care. Any kind of an egg Is liable to be mussy when it 18 sthashed. ; No wonder that these ti allow Much worriment about-the. crops; . All farm boys want te- flourishi how Aspicture stars .or motor ¢ope. *: “Be heiptul, -t don’t count on appreciation. . A "do; learns early in life not to expect “gratitude f'um a flea.’ “|'tional government has made a start I,were reducing its debt on the hasis | | haps, but scarcely to condemn.”- The NG . BY PAUL V. COLLINS It has teken 3,700 years for.the dream of Pharaoh to be repeated in America. Rather. slow traveling, or slow penetration" into the - subcon- sclousness. of, Ameritan farmers and ecogomists. ¢ i, | Pharaoh dreamed - that he.stood-on the' bank of a rivér, ot of which came geven fat cows, which began to graze upon the. rich pasture along the bank of the river. ““Then came up seven lean, cows, which ate up'the fat ‘cows, ‘though . after . they had swillowed the fat catfle they were sthll lean. £ o] Again Pharach. dreamed: .He 'saw seven ears of corn on one sf then he saw séven ‘ears, which devoured the good His magiclans could not interpret thé dreams.. It took a Joweph to tell Pharaoh ®what they ~meant: Seven years ‘of plenty, to be followed by seven years of famine. 5000 ¥ ; There will be a billion bushels of wheat in the United’ States in the year .3708 after . Pharaoh's_ dream. An egual plenty may ctome each year for several years. Shall the abun- dance be dumped upon a satiated market? If so, the producers will get an Inadequate reward and much of the overabundance will be commer- cially wasted. ¥ x k% At the city of Calals, France, when ‘the tide comes In the gates of a great storage reservolr are opened to the fullness of the ocean and the tide is there trapped. After the ocean has receded power is produced from the fall of the trapped water. The power of this stored surplus turns great machinery. ‘The American-Farm Bureau Feder- ation, made up of the most intalligent. farmers of the middle west, like Jo- seph, have begun to grasp the valug. of trapping the abundance. *x % %3, The federation has sent a Yefegram to its distinguished fellow - merdber, Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wal- laée, who is now traveling with Pr ident Harding, asking him te .urge the President to recommend thaithe farmers avail themselves of the new \Q‘l?l@hflu!lfl! and intermediate credits act Their recommendation is that out of this year's surplus crop of wheat there be stored in government-gon- trolled warehouses 200,000,000 bushels of wheat. With that stored wheat (ownership of which would remain with the producers) the government should loan to the farmers sufficlent money enable them to finance. themselves while they hold this great storage, controlled by the govern- ment. and let it reach the markets of the world gradually * k% % % With that amount of grain held out of the available supply, the farmiers hope that the price of wheat would be controlled by themselves—hy .the actual producers—instead of by spec- ulative exchanges and middlemen: They predict that the farm.‘frice would jump from its presegt; 5. or 80 cents up to $1.50, and tNeir met profits would change from -1Q-cent an acre—or a deficit—to $10 "or.-§1 an acre. 2 8 2 ook k- Representative Sidney Andetson of Minnesota, chairman of ¥he committae ! on Agriculture of House, ‘and | member of the board of directors ""’I chairman of the wheat council of the United States. sa “It is by opinfon that modern agri- culture must be an organized agri- culture, and that it seems probable that the control of the situation will be found in the relatively-few states producing a surplus beyond their own requirements, and that the organi- zatior: of the relatively small propor- tion &f the production in those states wiil be sufficient to establish a cofdi- tion of stability and egutiibrium.” - ek It appears’ that the present undér- taking of the American farm bureau federation is in line with’ Mf. An- derson’s idea. The proposal to segre- gate the 200,000,000 bushels is ja “relatively small proportion.” The crop, plus the carry-over will be 1,000.- | 000,000 bushels. The people will eat | 0,000,000 bushels and need for seed 50,000,000 bushels: that leaves a sur- plus of 400,000,000. If all that be | exported this fall, it will depress the | world price, for Burope is producing | a big crop and will not need so much | from us as in the starvation years| since the war. It is estimated that 156 000 bushels | i pool shal | acresge next year. would be enough to export, and that the balancer-200,000,000 ' " bushel should ‘be stored and held against fu. ture normal nee: without dearing the world market e * x x ¥ When Joseph undertook the stor- age and holding of Egypt's bumper crops he looked to‘ the ruling power to finance the enterprise. That ruling power was Pharaoh, not the people. He 80 managed his storing that the lean years -brought immense profits to the party who had had the foresight to our-wheat” project. an years came the stored Erain was a necessity to the starv: Ing natifon and world, and the cu tomers were obliged to pay a profl- teering price. That was a great pa- ternal empire, in which the people were subjects of the king. It was not the people who stored their. wheat and asked Pharaoh to finance their rprise. The king bou tl Brain at the low price, and kept th profits. Pharaoh would have executed y subject who questis egiter g questioned his rf‘hc ok In the United States, the ruling, power s that of the whole people. The Ameriéan Farm Bureau Feder: tion doegnot prapose to follow Ph raoh’s plan of lptting the profits go to the party who finances the enterprise and its risk. The proposition is that the government of the whole people shall lend money for the aggrandize- ment of the wheat raisers, and that the wheat raisers who into the have all the profits. Some of the economists of Congre: while BPProving of the storage pl question” the sociallsm of the govern ment 10an, believing that it sets a dangerous’ precedent, and that the funds could’ be raised on bonds se-| cured against the wheat and floated uponthe public market, under gov- ernment ‘supervision, just as are the hanfllol the Yarm loan banks. These bonde, they say, might run for three or' five years, mo as to preciude any possibility of . the money power ueezing the security, and thereby defeating the object of giving the farmers full time in which to market their surplusto good advantage. _- x>k ok & I ihe United States Treasury pro- vides public money for this financing, 2 precedent: will be éstablished by which, demands for simflar- financing of other storage will follow.; Politi- cal influence will affect the financing, say the - congressional economists, whereas If the wheat bonds be tested on the investors’ money market, un- der government supervision, they| will be sold on .their merits for se- curity. Then any future expansion of the plan: to cover other forms of crops .willalso stand, according to the zéal value and safety of the security. Sound business and not socialism, then, will be the foundation of the whole enterprise, is the faith even of the statesmen who hesitate to put the government {nto business, where pri- vate initiative, backed by public su- pervision and control will suffice. They want the government to hold direct control of the keys of the warehouses and to see that thé bonds issued are based on actual wheat, Just as the currency issued by the ‘Treas- ury is based on actual gold, * ok ok x The Department of Agriculture esti- mates the wheat vield.'this vear at 817,000,080 bushels, while Jast year it was 856,311,000 byshels. “The garry- over _is' unezpectedly large—about 200,000,000 ‘bushels, for ‘the ‘world is, eating less wheat than.it does, in.ror- mal ' times. = People who ~have- no| means or limited means to buy food, do not consume the normal amount. For all the world outside the western hemisphere this is a “lean" year. Hence the market price, even in the fac> of a falling off of 40.000,000 bushels of the American crop, 85 com- pared with 1922, is unsatisfactory, and. the farmers are facing an actuai loss. This is of interest to city con- umers, for it means discouraged armers now, and reduced wheat Last year the market price ranged around §1.72, and now 1t is around $1.40: that means at the terminal markets, not on_the farms. The farm price is only about half the market price. . * X % x 1t takes the entire output of a dairy of fourteen cows to pay the dally wages of a plumber; a carpenter earns a 175-pound hog every day he works; the farmer has to feed that hog eight months. An ‘acre’s entire yield of corn-will just-about pay a bricklayer two days' wages. A paint- er gets twenty-three good fat chick- ens every eight hours. These figures are_computed by a practical farmer of Virginia. v. Collins. ). EDITORIAL DIGEST Politics Tinge Discussion of Pres-| ident's Tax Suggestions. It may be all rl_ght, but many editors rather resent the “preach-” ment” of President Harding to states | and municipalities telling them to re- | form their expenditures.. They admit that under the budget systém the na- toward needed fiscal savings. But editors generally let their Individual political beliefs sway them in analyz- Ing the savings about which the Phesident talked in @ distinctly,Taud- atory manner. On one point, how- ever, all agreed, and that was that anything which would aid in putting states and municipalities om & busi- ness basis, so' far as finamces are concerned, is & very good thing. “If the average state or municipality the federal government is it would be headed straight for bankruptey.” asserts the Newark News (independ- ent). “Against whatever reduction in taxes there have been through tne revenue act of 1921 must e ser off the incre: in taxes, indircct but nevertheless genuine, to which the American people are subjected under the tariff. This leaves the goverm- ment in the position fo #xhort, per- Boston Post (independent), -argues “the President does the nation a good service in bluntly placing the re sponsibility for a considerable part’ of the heavy taxation of the people ®enerally. The New York Tribune (fepublican),” dgrees., and insists his speech “is esson that comes homée because in New York state there Is Jess excuse for tolerating the over- cost of government than in any other state.” ‘While the Indianapolis News (inde- pendent) agrees the President uttered ‘m very real truth in his address, it sees no remedy unless co-operation can be | Jtarranged for and insists “the people should ally themselv with all those ‘government officers, national, state or @ity, who stand for economy and fru- gality against all of the influences that -work for the unwise spending of more For the former. are their while those so-called reform- Milwaukee Sentinel (independent) feels the application "“‘well can be -made by the people of Wisconsin, whosé bur- dens of taxation within the state have been steadily mounting and who see ‘at present no hope of relief. “That ‘sistence In the businesslike methods in- —flllu(od by the administration and the In creasing efficiency of the budget sys- | tem will still further reduce national burdens is fully to expected. If Mr. Harding had acco ished nothing else, -his. administFation would “be efi- | titled to grateful regard.” In directing attention to the neces- sity for “thrift” the President “drove home his point and proved it up to the hilt with unimpeachable figures,” the Detroit Free Press (independent repub- lican), holds. “Mr: Harding was right when he said that there is no habit so easy to form and none so hard to break s the habit of reckless spending. It is like a drug habit, and the addicts lose all their sense of proportion and a good deal of ability to be honest with themselves. - -Detroft and Michigan have fallen into the prevalent vice, and their efforts to emerge from the slough are sluggish and feeble. There is. however, no sensible reason why such a condition should continue.” The assertion of the President that “federal taxation has been reduced to half in the last two years” needs qualification in the opinion of the St. Paul Dispatoh (independent), because ‘abolishing the tax on excess profits, after such profits largely disappeared, and a slight reduction of the surtax hardly makes it possible to compute such-a reduction. He referred freely to the burden of taxation and proba- bly expected the inference that the burden would be lightened in the proportion that public expenditures are reduced—which is logical enough, it not definite enough.” “On the whole,” the Brooklyn Eagle (independent democratic) says. ‘the speech on taxation is less likely to lose supporters than most of the President’s utterances since he start- ed on his speaking trip. He has trusted Mr. Mellon and Mr. Mellon has made good. This is the common belief of intelligent observers."s The Peoria Transcript (Independent demo- cratic) inisits the address “is notable for what it_omits rather than. for what it inciudes. Radicals in the next Congress are insisting upon amendments 'to the income tax law and special treatment of earned and unearned incomes. It is to be re- gretted the President disregarded in his address the whole subject of tax distribution.” The President “spoke with legitimate pride of the econo- mies effected by his administration, the Chicago Daily News (independ. ent) says, and “economy is supposed to be a dry and uninteresting issue, but it must be made dramatic and acute. If taxes are-needlessly high laxity in public interest is responsi- ble.” " 1 New York World (demo cratic) g0 holds “Mr. Harding's facts snd figures. are impressive and very _valuable—for reference pur- poses® But the average taxpaver is from - Missouri “on the point of their lightening effect on his own pocket and he is yet to be ‘shown.’” This is not the view of the Philadelphla Bul- letin"(Indepéndent republitan). which feels “the moral is true ahd needs that the virtue of the budget si y of governmental expense and the scrutiny and econ- gmy which It facllitates is as cssen- . _ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS By Frederic J. Haskin The North Window " ‘my Lomwa *u!'.c;lu{v;’ “Why Is 1t,” said. one of an fnguir- ing mind.to a professional architect of high standing, “that there seém:to be few archifects today,,}f any, who can’.design as well. as did; those of colorldl timjes?” “There is mo rea- ‘he ‘said, “and the fact fs, they 3 “But surely,” ’exclaimed " the astonished questioner, “you " don’t mean to say that ‘our architects are producing work tpday eomparable with that of the early bjilders of the republic, for example, the Unlversity of Virginia, Tudor Place, the Octagon, in Washington, the early churches of New England “Yes, 1 do,” he pér- sisted; “there excellent design to be found tn American coun houses today, different from that ‘of 'colonial| times, but equally as good.” . Witness; for instance, the suburban homes in the vicinity of Bostan, New York and Philadelphia; or, to. take a long step. those very charming counzr‘r home, which have been and are being con. stantly built in California. - They,are not only well designed but frankly American, and pecullarly. suited to th: social and climatic requirements. of the place and time. - This. is undoubtedly true and it is ‘encouraging.’ 'but -it " refers-for -the. most part to the homes of those who are comparatively well-to-do, not to the small house or the abode of the modest home maker. Unfortunately, 00 often such are erected without the aid or intervention of the architect,, and have few, if any, pretensions as) works of art. * % % x This is a time of year when motor- ing is one of the chlef forms of recre- ation, a time when the city dweller impFoves and increases his acquaint- afics with the suburbs. Such a tour 16-the nbith of Weshington shows an amazing ‘amount of building actlvity at the présent moment, but does not g0 far toward indorsing the statement of the éminent authority on archi- tecture > in regard to the present flourishiing state of the art. To the ontrary, jt 1s an amazement how many amall hoyses and houses priced at acon- siderable :amount are being erected 4which aré poor in design and have no artistic pretensions, even that of ex- treme simplicity, and the blunders ‘tor the most part are of such an ob- vious sort tbat it would seem as ‘though the_trouble was not lack of knpw)edg.but rather of taste on the part of the bullders. There are'.certain elements of de- sign which are %0 universal that one would suppose they would be under- stood almost initultively, yet it is the nice adjustment of proportions both in mass and detail which go to make up a gdod and a satisfying design. Window and.door opéenings must be in proportion to.the" scale of the Jfacade, atrd they m bé, of course, so placed’ that they are’in relation one to. the .othér. - Then comes the matter of ornamentation—detail—and here is. where .the .d ner fails, either applying the ornament with too lavish:a. hand so that it becomes insistent, or leaving it off where it is greatly needed. A distinguished architect once said that the greater the scale of the building the more re- fined must be the ornament, as refine- ‘ment by way of elegance counterbal- anced size. “As instances wherein this theory has been carried out to perfec- tion we may note the Lincoln Memo- rial in this city and the Woolworth building in New York. * x x % But to return to The -small house, How absurd it is to weight an en- trance down with. columns which might well support the portico_of a Greelan temple! How foolish to em- DIo§ heavy sills to a window on a small ;facade and omit to emphasize the top of a window! Such windows in a facade have the appearance of eyes without eyvebrows. And how in- teresting it is to note the expressions which various houses wear! Some have such a troubled look. others merely vexed, ;while not a few squint and scowl. it:is only the very good house, that which is well designed, 'which wears an expression of calm- ness, complacence, amiability. Happily the day of the tin stone cornice and_the coné-shaped turret seems to; be past, but as the use of concrete becomes more common, all sorts of new vagaries follow in its train. _In many instances the fronts of thé lfttle houses are much too heavy for the weight of house that is behind them,.and the detail is clum- sily handled. But again we are re- minded that the simple good things are the hardest to obtain. And yet, niel H. Burnham once said, “beaut: has always pald better than any other commodity and always will, particu- larly when beauty is allled to utility. To a greater extent the troubie with the design of the little house is that it has never had an architect for a godfather, and the builders of to- day are for the most part not trained in their craft as were those in_the early days of the colonies. Such training does not seem possible at the present.fime, with the rapid pace and under "the _pressing _conditions that life Is lived. The old colonial houses which are standing today, par- ticularly €hose in Virginia and South Carolina, _are richly ~ornamented in | detail; the roofs of the porches show fine. ng, as do the moldings in many of -the rooms. ¥Yhe doors, well | proportioned in accordance with the | extent of the walls. are finely paneled and beautifully made, as are also the solid flat shutters to the windows; and this work in many instances was done by craftsmen on the plantations. but craftsmen who were guided in the matter of design by those who tiad ‘madé a-study of it and who had excellent taste, and the times were i leisurely. One did not learn in & day, nor complete a work in a matter of so many minutes. * * K ok % It is not really necessary, however, to have present conditions continue. As In every other instance of supply and demand. if the buyer would de- .mand a better product he would get it. The great trouble is that when it comes to architecture the people are apt to give design.little thought and to feel that it does not matter. As Royal Cortissoz said in his address at the time that the American Inst tute of Architects’ gold medal w. awarded to Henry Bacon, “the man behind the building is given too little consideration.” To the public gener- ally architecture {s a mystery; the architett fs regarded fafsely as merely a business man, rather than as an artist. And vet architecture is the greatest of.al] the arts and literally their backbone. * ok k¥ It should not‘be forgotien, how- ever, that fo carfy.the art ot archi- | .tecture” to peffection it have the co-operation-of the, crafts- man. The great cathedrals of Europe could mot have been built otherwis nor couldthe fine homes of colonial days. In a recent number of the American Architect attention is called to the excellent co-operation of the archi- tects and craftsmen In the building of the Church of the Sacred Heart in this city, of ‘which Murphy & Olmsted were. the architects,- with Maginnis & Walsh agsoclate e itects. “The interibr- of . this. churéh,” writer, “shows manship.” "éame to John J. Earley and a group of men working with him. “The execu- interior.” he is quoted as saying, “was characterized by the same energy and the same interest as the designing, the craftsmen working with enthusiasm. that same enthusi- m which in’years gone by built the cathedrals of Europe for the sheer e In this iy no reason wdr:ly‘:zm o roduction, 1&%&““- an well as the great ohurch or the massive cathedral. ' Q.. The unusual size of the Levia- than {s not understandable to the lay mind * from the s horsepower and gross tonnage. me other facts that: illustrate its size—L. E. A. It -took 20,000 square yards of carpet to cover the floors of the rooms in thifs great ship: It contains 15 miles of piping for plumbing pur- poses; 500 miles of electric wiring, 15,000 electric “lamps and 600 tele. phones. Q. Is St. Elizabeth’s maintained only for the Army and Navy, or are civilians treated?—G. W. ‘A. ‘Generally speaking, it is an Army and Navy hespital for the in- sane. , Some cases are taken from the District, through the sanitary officer of the metropolitan police depart- ment. Q. kindly Tet me know..Who is the author of the book, ‘‘TherHounid of the Bas- f kervilles*—I."W. J. ? =5 A. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' is the | author.of the:book., Itwas published Q. In the District of Columbia, fs'a man cémpefled to support his wife if she is able to work?—IL. A. F. . Non-support is a felony under the laws of the District of Columbia and is punishable by Criminal courts, exactly the samb as larceny or other crime “or. misdemeanor. Recently, however, such cases are usually”ad- Justed by-the Court of Domestic Rela- tions. George S. Weber of the city police ~department, detailed to the district attorney’s office, reported that in 360 cases during three months, 100 families were reunited, 180 hus- bands were induced to furnish sup- port and only 30 were 8o obdurate that they were finally fndicted In the Criminal Court 3 Q. How many aliens enter this country- surreptitiously?—C. C..H. ‘A. It is estimgsed that the number runs from 166 to 1,000 a day. Q. Wrat —E. H A. It is @ writ issued by the judge of aicourt, requiring the person in confinement to be brought into court so that just inguiry .may be made into his case Its object is to_pre- vent arbitrary and prolonged” im- prisonment. Hab means, “Thou h Q. How, fast does motion picture film run?—W. G. L. A. About sixty feet a minute. Ap- the body.” proximdtely ten words of a title re- | quire six feet of film, Grave Problems to ‘At Imperial BY THE IA}(QT!SE DE FONTENOY. In October an Imperial congress wiil take place in London which is to be attended by the prime min- isters of<all the gregt self-govern- ing dominlons and commonwealths subject to the sovereignty of the British crown, a congress at which the refieal of the South African Union and-of the Australian and New Zealand. commonwealths to consider themselves bound by any treaty of agreement which: the Dominion of | Canade may make with the United States will be taken up, discussed and setfled: - . The United States government very naturally -hesitates about signing. subject, 10, sepatorial ratification, a treaty with any self-governing de- pendericy of - the British empire which i8 not binding upon every por- tion of that empire, and until some solution is found by the English crown and its self-governing depend- oncies for this purely British em- pire issue. foreign powers, such as the United States, will be reluctant to_conclude any treaties with these individual colonies, or to accord them full diplomatio rights and privileges. * x % % At this imperial congress a num- ber of gther issues will come up for discussion, notably that in connec- tion with the pretensions of Indian natives -of the most unsatisfactory class, not only to free immigration into British Africa, but to the same rights there as the whites, the Ens- lish and the Africanders—that is, white settlers of old Dutch origin— and superfority - over - the.: African natives, even those of the best and most civilized class. These pretensions on the part of the Indian nationalists are resisted fo the utmost by Jan Smuts, the premier of the British South African Union, “the.conqueror of the former German East African territory and the most powerful figure in connec- tion with the entire African situs- tlon. His views are strongly in- dorsed by the whole white popula- tion of Africa, and especially in that eastern portion . thereof known as Kenya, where the whites have been solemnly guaranteed by the imperial government in London in time past that no legislative rights and no oquality of status with the whites should be accorded to Indian immi- grants. ~The whites get along capitally ‘with the natives, whose moral and material welfare and whose enlightenment they are stead- ily endeavoring to improve. But the Indiansg~ do not get on at.all well with the blacks. Indeed, it is only the presence of the whites which prevents a black rising against the Indians, whose disposition is to ‘de- grade, demoralize and oppress the African natives, rather than to-help them on the'road to civilization. The Indian nationalists, among them ‘that anti-English Indian demagogue, Siniv- rasi Sastri from Madras, whom the former British government in & mo- _ment_of. aberration appointed as -one of its_delezates to the armament congrese at Washington. where - he took advantage of his dresence in the United States to deliver a num- ber of most. . seditious leeches against the. rule of the British crown in India, has openly proclaimed the intention of Tndian nationalists to In order to, ’settle a dispute, ! is a writ of habeas corpus? | = corpus litterally | ———— Q. Is there an American Chamber of Commereé in Haiti?—J. J. A. One was organized at the Amer- ican consulate at Port au Prince on March 16, 1923° The president is ‘Walter F. Voorhies. Q. What is the best thing to use for cleaning an automoblile radiator? —A. G. L. A. Drain. the radiator. Dissolve one-half pound of lye in five gallons of water. Strain mixture through a cloth and pour into.the radiator, then run the engine for five minutes. Un- screw the plug from the bottom of the radiator and drain thoroughly. If there should be a petcock instead of a plug unscrew the entire petcock so that the sediment may run out free- ly. Then flush the system with fresh water and run the engine while do- ing so. Be sure that you wash all the lye from the radiator and engine ‘water jackets. Q. How many roses are sold United States’—L. J. P. A. The number of rose blooms an- nually grown for rale has been eati- mated at 100.600.000, ‘valued at about $6,000,000,-* This industry did not ex- |ist in’ 1850 and its rcal development dates from 1870. Q. What'mode of address did King George ugé in greeting the -bride of the Duke of York upon her arrival at Buckingham Palace?—H. A. D. A. His majesty greeted her v;lluh the words, “Your royal highness. | Q. How long is a young married { woman supposed to wear mourning |for a father, brother 'or child>—H. [F. G A. A .married womap wears in mourning for her cBild. brother, sister or-parent the samé =ort of dress as =he. wears in case of widowhood, with the exception of the white bonnet |ruche. Many weomen of excellent | taste simply wear black clothes, hav- | ing given up funereal crepe. in the i | Q. What was the original name of lthe Ladies’ Home Journal?—A. H. D. | A. 1t was called the Ladies' Jour- nal. A picture of a house was print- ed under the words and the word “home” beneath the picture. It was not intended to usé the word as part of the title, but subscriptions made out to the Ladies’ Home Journal be- gan to come in. The name was then adopted. . Q. Why does a reflection in the {bow! of a spoon appear upeide down? 4 7 A. It is the property of all concave | mirrors, of which the bowl of a &poon {is an example. that an object placed | beyond the center of curvature of the | mirror will give a real, inverted and | reduced image. (There is no charge for angwering | questions, except return postage.) Be Considered Congress in London the new government does not see exe | to eye with Lord Reading. His rela- | tions with.some of the present min- | isters, notably Lord Curzon, have | long been very strained. Indeed. his differences have been so notorious that his resignation of the vicerovalty has been frequently annotmced and usually denied. But his viceroyalts is manifestly drawing to a close. For if he comes home in Qctober to at- tend the imperial congress as the ad- vocate of the cause of the Indian nationalists in India, in Africa, in Australia and the Dominion of ada, it cannot be in the role of vice- roy, since he will forfeit that offl by statute the moment that he quits India. Faris ; To belong to the Prussian Order of St. John reguifes tNe Tproduction of documentary. proof that three gen- erations of one's forbears, alike on the father's side of the house as well as on that of-the mother, have been of. wholly noble birth, free from any bourgeois strain. It eannot be said, i therefore, that Prince Eitel Fried- rich, in Investing recently a num- ber ‘of Germian rovalists with this ipurely Lutheran order, of which he is the grand master, has created any new nobles or conferred any new titles, He has merely secured the accession of a number of men who were already nobles by birth to this Prussian Ordér of St. John, whose members, a8 part of their oath of Initiation, have, since 1708, when the' Hohenzollerns proclaimed’ them- selves Kings of Prussia, sworn serv- ice to the rulers of that nation. Since the former kaiser abdicated in November, 1918, after hig eraven fight from Spa to Doorn, both his dignity of Gérman emperor as well as of King of Prussis, some 250 Teuton nobles have been investcd with the order by Eitel Friedrich, the most gross and unsavory of all the now living princes of his house. But as the former kaiser has officially ab- dicated his Prussian -throne, and Prussia has been a republic for the last five years, it may be asked whether the oath of feaity to a king of Prussia who no longer exists offi- cially,- exacted by ' Eitel Friedrich from the 250 new knights upon whom he has bestowed the accolade can really be considered as binding. AT M * Many of the new knights are land owners. -But, no matter whether their estates be large or small, they would think twice. aye, indeed, a number of times, before risking the confiscation of their lands, imprisonment or exile, by lending any hand to a monarchical restoration of the Hohenzollerns, un- less convinced beforehand of the ab- soluté¥uccess of ‘the enterprise. The have lost €00 much through this dy- nasty to be djsposed to risk what they have been able to save from the wreckage. -Meanwhile, they are quite glad.to wear the small button or ‘badge of the' order. a'white Mal- tese cross on a black background, as the public evidence of the possession of patriclan birth, which their ethics. their manners, and appearance might not always lead one to suspect, Let me add that this comparatively mod- ern Prussian Order of St John has nothing in commdn with the ultre- Catholic and -ancient - Sovepeign Order of Malta, and also that of the Deulsche Orden, to which ¥6 many of i empty all of their surnlus population ; the old aristocracy of the Rhine prov- into Africa, ‘and to make “Africa b¥'linces of.the %outhern: German states sheer weight of numbers a colony of India and subject to the short-sight- ed, uneducated despotism of ked Indian demagogues, Trstead of white man's_self-governing Brit- dependenc: v ok It is to be teared that Lord Reading smecessary . e it ? the I et the et o spamnts . Ly il (ndorseltn Vlewa ot e, Indian nationalists on the subject of Indian indiscriminate immigration to Africa, the Kenya colony problem and the question of increased Indianization of the British civil,and military admin- istratign of the Indian empire. For it has been officially announced that he is to_attend the-fmperial confer- ence in London in October in-order to represent the views of thé Indiah sts, ‘both as regards Africa and the ‘Indfagization of the .British services in India. Now Lord- - Reading, . whose elo- quence and persuasiveness are un- denfable and who is a most powerful advocate of any cause that he un- ‘dertakes, has only been two-years in India as viceroy. ed in 1921 for theusual term of five years'and ha is precluded-by statute from léaving India during his term under the pain.of forfeiting his office —a-statute enacted by parliament at Westminster in the times when Brit- ish governors and colonial admin- rators and officlals were wont to spend rost of-sheir: terns ot offiee at home Wwhile: drawing there the lucra- tive emoluments of thelr oversea offices. It haslong been known that He wua appoint- | and of the former flual empire belong. They give their ailegiance.to no sov- ereJgn, least of all to, the King of Prussia. The Order of Malta, dating from the crusades, is in iteelf a sov- ereign order, the higher grade of its membérs -being - pledged to celibacy, and the genealogical qualifications demanded for udmission are four times as severe as the comparatively mild requirements of the infinitely more modern Lutheran Prussian Or- der of St John, now being used by ith- fat' grand master, Price Bitel Friedrich of Prussia, for purposes of more .or less abortive Hohenzollern propaganda. More’ Time for Movie Texts. To the Editor of The Star: Permit me space in your paper to protest against a practice prevalent in some of "the movie theaters of the hasty flashing on and off the screen of the accompanying text. In some in- stances this is quite lengthy and so worded that it requires a little tine ito mesd it and thoroughly grasp its meaning. ' It is annoying, after hav- ing Tead half of,it,~to, haye it sud- denly flashed off. the _screen, espe- cially ‘so if one happens to be wit- nessing an unuspally fine subjects Most of us have vur favorites among the players-and we" like to have a moment to note their names and the roles they are playing. The writer suggests t Ihe movie managers consider the “ihterésts of their pa- trons and give this feature of their programes more attention. RICHARD F. O'DONOGHUE.