Evening Star Newspaper, October 13, 1923, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR, With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY.....October 13, 1923 THEODORE W. NOYES. Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office, 11th St. and Pennasivania Ave. New York Office: 110 Fast 420d St. Chicago Oftice: Tower Bullding. European Ofiice: 18 Regent St., London, England. The Brening Star, with the Sunday morning pdition, is delivered by carriers within the city at 60 cents per month: daily only, 45 cents per month; Sunday only, 20 cents per month. Or- ders may be seat by mail or telephione Main 6000. Collection is made by carriers at *nd ‘of each mouth Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. _ Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday..1yr., $8.40; 1 mo,, 70¢ Daily only 1yr., $6.00; 1 mo,, 50¢c Sunday oniy. 1yr., $2.40; 1 mo., 20¢ All Other States. Daily and Sunday.1yr., $10.00; 1 mo., 85¢ Daily only ‘1yr., $7.00:1 mo., 60c Bunday only yr., $3.00: 1 mo., 25¢ Member of the Associated Press. The Associuted Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dis- patches credited to it or not othrwise credited v this paper and also the lofal news pub- lished ‘herein. 5 All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. —_— — = Budget Bureau Hearings. The community realizes the impor- tance of the task in which the Com- missioners and school officials are en- gaged in the hearings before the budget bureau. The task is not, how- ever, one in respect to which these officials must feel in advance the dis- couragement of certain defeat. The only doubt should be as to the degree of their success. For the declared purpose of the tentative figure of budget allotment to the District is not to fix arbitrarily and unchangeably an amount which may not in view of the relation of national revenue to national needs be substan- tially exceeded. On the contrary, it is an amount which by budget bureau investigation is thought roughly to approximate as @ minimum these Dis- trict needs, and the purpose in naming this amount is not to set up an im- movable obstacle to District progress, but to compel disclosure by the Dis- trict of its really vital needs and of the relative importance and urgency of these needs in order that expendi- ture of the District’s money may ac- complish a maximum of wholesome result. The tentative allotment is pictured by the bureau not as a pro- hibition, but as a te The Commissioners are thus re- lieved from the discouragement which weakens those who feel that they at- tempt the impossible, since they are assured that if they demonstrate vital urgent needs either of municipal main- tenance or development they will zain for the Capital the necessary enlarge- ment of the estimates, Since the budget bureau intends to do justice and since justice demands substantial advances in the provision for such municipal needs as those of schools, streets, sewers, police and fire forces, public library, playgrounds, etc., etc., the District’s representati may well fight with vigor and con- fidence. The community will follow their struggle to promote the National Capital's welfare with interest and concern. Baving the President’s Strength. €. Bascom Slemp, secretary to President Coolidge, in his capacity of buffer between the President and the public, is finding his new plan of con- | and | serving the President's time strength working successfully. He limits the time given to the reception of official and unofficial callers to two and one-half hours of the forenoon, thus leaving the remainder of the working day uncrowded, so that the Chigf Executive may dispose of offi- cial busiress more leisurely. It is a wise policy, as is any plan which tends to take the strain off the executive officer of the greatest going concern in the world, the government of the United States. It has frequent- 1y been said that the pr most too great a job for one man to fill, and President Harding was quoted as finding considerable truth in that ent Harding's death the has been deeply interested in ion of this subject, there has been no indication of a let- up in pressure from interviews Secre Slemp began to put up the bars. Secretary Slemp's plan is un- derstood not to contemplate isolation of the President from the publ disc gement of unnecessary callers and more judicious grouping of the hours in which they are to be re- ceived. The people do not desire that their public officials shall be penalized in health and their lives shortened in the service they render the country. More power to Mr. Slemp, and may he find still other means to keep the head of the government fit and fine. —_——— The innocent bystander again gets the worst of it. Autos are Killing harmless toads in great numbers, while noxious mosquitoes rolic around the headlights. ———— ur Every time a Berlin official attempts @ decisive move he sees handwriting on the wall which looks like a safety- first signal. Oklahoma’s Legislature. Oklahoma, having run close to tragedy in the row between the gov- ernor and the legislature on the Ku Klux Klan issue, is now providing comedy for the entertainment of the country. The legislature, held by the governor for a time from session, when it was bent ypon meeting to im- peach him, has finally assembled, af- ter a referendum vote held under au- thority of a court decision, and when it mot into session it started out to establish the foundation for an im- peachment proceeding. But almost as soon as the gavel fell in the lower branch troubles developed between members. Charges of misconduct be- gan to fly about. Hints at corruption were dropped in broad terms. There were accusations of bartering in par- dons, grafting on road contracts, col- lestion of commissions and taking toll from payments for state printing. And the remarkable fact is that, according 10 one of the reports of the proceed- ings, not one of the representatives resented the allegations of omnuil . { cultural dency is al- | although | f the law—that he should be allowed to | individuals for | with the President until | , but | { rupt motiv venality, Those who spoke, it is stated, | by predecessors of Gen. Stephan as went on the assumption that corrup- tion had colored the acts of many legislators, dating back to the grant- ing of statehood. Some of the speak- ers, this report runs, “blandly re- marked that it would be wasting time to show up lawmakers against whose prosecution the statute of limitations has run.” In these circumstances the move- ment to impeach the governor is nec- essarily somewhat obscured. It is, in fact, retarded. It may, indeed, be com- pletely sidetracked. For there is dan- ger that the lower house may have to start some impeaching on its own ac- count, in order to gain a character of virtue justifying its assumption of the role of accuser of the state executive. All this, of course, is to the tempo- rary advantage of the governor. Iti may not save him from formal accusa- tion and trial. But it serves to divert attention from the primary issue, and it may prove eventually to be to the definite good of the state. If there has been such gross corruption in ‘the legislature that it is bruited without starting immediate fighting the ques- tion naturally arises why the hooded knights of the Klan have not been heretofore busy in the name of purity and justice right among the member- ship of the state lawmaking body. The Muscle Shoals Case. tary Weel is statement respecting Henry Ford's accusation of improper motives in the recent sale of the Gorgas power plant at Muscle Shoals to the Alabama Power Com- pany, exercises commendable restraint. He characterizes the motor maker’s assertions as “reckless,” whea they might well have been given a harsher term. He proceeds to set forth the situation regarding Muscle Shoals in a way that should leave the public in no doubt on the subject. Muscle Shoals case has been confused in the people’s mind, v because of the technicalities in- volved and partly because of the length of time during which it has been in controversy. Briefly stated, it stands as follows: During the war the gov- ernment developed @ great power plant at Muscle Shoals, in Alabama, at a cost of about $102,000,000, for the purpose of making war munitions. When the war ended it had no further use for this establishment. Various bidders appeared in the field, notably Henry Ford. One of the bidders for a part of the plant was the Alabama Power Company, on whose original property a steam plant had been erect- | ed by the United States, under a con- tract which required that if the gov- ernment /did not itselt take over the plant pefmanently the company could buy it at a fair valuation. It offered $3,500,000 for this ‘“‘comparatively small item of the whole equipment, as Secretary Wecks states in his r Joinder to Mr. Ford's letter. Ford charges that the sale of this steam plant greatly lessened the value of the Muscle Shoals project. Secre- tary Weeks states that it ‘does not, and points out that at the time of the sale, which was required under the terms of the original contract uniess the government wished to proceed with ownership, the administration stated to Mr. Ford that the $3,500,000 could be credited on his original offer | it he wished. He did not accept the suggestion. Henry Ford has stated, or allowed it to be understood, that if he could get possession of Muscle Shoals he would | turn the plant to the making of | nitrates for fertilizing purposes, to benefit the farmers of this countrs Experts have declared that it would | be impossible to produce sufficient nitrates at the plant, in fuilest develop. ment, to supply a single large ag county, or to affect the cost of the nitrates in the open market in | any appreciable degree. But it “listens | well” in the ears of the farmers of the | country for Mr. Ford to say that he could, if given the Muscle Shoals| plant—and it would be virtually a gift if he were to “buy” it for $5,000,000— cut the nitrate cost to the farmers making fertilizer from the air. And just now anything that appeals to the farmers has a decided political value. Henry Ford failed to persuade Con- gress—to which the matter of the sale of the plant had to be referrcd under buy it for the figure he named. Mean- while the government, through the ap- | propriate executive officer, has dis- posed of a small feature of the plant | to the original owner of the property, | under a contract which admits of no other action. Mr. Ford says that cor- induced this sale, and | that the part that has been sold ren- ders the remainder valueless, and that the government has been mulcted. | Secretary Weeks says that the trans- action has been clean and proper, that the part sold has not lessened the value of that which Mr. Ford wants to buy, and that the government has not suffered financially So there is an issue of judgment and of fact. Mr. Ford's motive in making his “reckless assertions” is perfectly plain. - If the ofl discoveries in Lower Cali- fornia hold out the rush for the Pacific coast may recall stories of the days lot *49. The old romance, however, | will be gone. The flivver cannot com- {pete in picturesqueness with the prairie schooner. ——————— Communism as it now asserts itself in several parts of the earth is cal- { culated to make the conservative citi- zen long for the old-fashioned parlor | socialist. — No German philosopher available to | Stresemann has given him reliable in- formation on “how to be happy though | a dictator.” ' —— A National Guard Armory. Need for an armory for the District National Guard is to be pressed upon the attention of the next Congress by the confmanding general. The neces- sity for an armory adequately ap- pointed and equipped is admitted by all. The argument has been goné over many times during the past fifteen or twenty years, and no opposition has developed. It is a case with but one | themselves into { November commanding general, and a number | of plans have been drawn. Such a structure, which would be desigrated as a memorial lor the sol- diers and sailors of the city who lost their lives during the wars of the United States, is strongly urged by Gen. Anton Stephan,‘who has sent let- ters to the heads of clvic and patriotic bodies to name two members each for a joint committee to discuss ways and means for obtaining the armory. In the old days of the District militia several of the organizations, notably the Washington Light Infantry and the National Rifles, erected large and handsome armories which were the property of the organizations, but since the federalization of the National | Guard the troops have been housed in | rented bulldings generally ill-adapted to military purposes. With the de- mands made upon the National Guard by the War Department, and with the great demand that may be made upon it by the nation at any time, it is en- titled to proper quarter Not Afraid of Spooks. All the world will follow with in- terest the exploration of the tomb of King Tutankhamen which is to be resumed by the Egyptologist, Howard Carter, who left London yesterday to take up the work abandoned upon the death of Earl Carnarvon. In the lonely Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, the Pharach'ggtomb has re- mained sealed since then, shunned by the superstitious who credited the legend that disaster would overtake the despoiler of the dead monarch's resting place, and found confirmation of it in the mysterious fever which carried off the British explorer, But the hardy and matter-of-fact American pooh-poohs the legend and the supposed threatened danger. “It is too much to ask me to believe that some spook is keeping watch and ward over the dead Pharaoh, ready to wreak vengeance on any one who goes too near,” saye Carter. He intends to unseal the sarcophagus and ex- amine the body in the interest of science and history, but when this is done he will let the body remain as it has lain through all the centuries. Suppose and suppose again that he should come down with an attack of something? What a to-do will be made by the psychics and the legend- mongers. Even the skeptics may then sit up and take notice, with the gooseflesh breaking out all over. ———————— The Shenandoah was christened with water, champagne having been long since dispensed with for such ceremonials. The giant of the air sets an example not only in morals but in governmental economy. —_—— Chicago repor that the largest business done by dry goods heuses is in hosiery. Fashion's long-skirt de- cree has evidently not prevented the flapper from providing for a rainy day. e ————— The boll weevil, having destroyed nearly & quarter of the cotton crop, calmly asserts itself as still another problem for the farmer statesman to struggle with. —_———— Statesmen who are protesting against the printing of a menu in French might start with the elimina- tion of the word “menu.” R N — Most of the communications Poin- care has to make to Germany resolve the simple formula, ‘Please remit.” —_——— The popularity of Mussolini in Italy s not fully reflected in all parts of Europe. It is frequently thus with a favorite son. ———— SHOOTING STARS. 1Y PHILANDER JOUNSOX. A Slogan Silenced. Now, sing as you may a lugubrious lay Of an outlook that's dreary or dire. draws near and the year drifts away Into scenes we are bound to admire. 1 We banish all grief as we tear a new leaf Frqm the calendar brightly arrayed. 'Mcnz‘sz various sorrows, we're through with the chief, ‘Which s “ninety degrees in the shade.” The fears that arise under far distant ski Are mirroret in skies of our own. A rumor of wintry discomfort now flies, Pronounced in a terrible tone. But this one littie thought with great comfort is fraught When by threats that are grim we're dismayed— The temperature has no chance to be caught Around ninety degrees in the shade. Entanglements. “Give a man rope enough and he will hang himself,” remarked the i ready-made philosopher. “True,” replied Senator Sorghum, “and in political life the same result may often be accomplished by giving him plenty of red tape to play with.” Jud Tunkins says a man who talks about himself gets as tiresome as a phonograph v:ith only one record. Not to the Ult, Consumer. Inventors 50 in deeper And they undertake anew To make production cheaper; But somehow they never do. Fully Informed. “Does your husband tell you what he does with his money?” “He doesn’t have to tell me,” re. Plied the woman with a weary expres- Sion. “He reads and talks about noth ing but horse races.” Shifting Values. “It takes an expert accountant to know how much German marks are worth.” > “It takes more than that. It takes a lightning calculator.” “An expert knocker,” said Uncle side. Congress has taken no affirma- tive action only because it has never become sufficiently interested in the matter. The proposal has been urged Eben, “kin sympathize in a way dat simply calls atténtion to de fact dat somebody is in hard luck angit serves him right.” CAPITAL KEYNOTES Uninterpreted statistics are so dry that they are extra hazardous from a fire-risk standpoint. What does it mean to say that the United States burns up, in one year, $521,861,000, and that three-fourths of-the fires are due to Inexcusable carelessness? It should mean that every year that loss equals what it would cost to build five concrete highways from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. A fooa schoolhouse can be built for 50,000, and rather than build 10,500 such schools annually we, have the “money to burn. per cent of our citizens are {lliterate. Every seven or elght yvears the fire loss would cover the soldiers’ adjust- ed compensation, with no n sales tax—but, instead, the ca “keep the home fires burning.’ That anclent villain Nero fiddled while Rome burned, yet, extenuat- ingly, it Is not proved that he set Rome afire. The American public beats Nero as an incendlary, however it may rank with a violin. Running a close second to Canada, it beats the rest of the world. * k ok The San Francisco disaster account- ed for the peak Of the natiomal fire loss in 1906, which jumped from $170,- 000,000 in 1905 to $450,000,000 in 1906. Then the loss dropped back in 1907 to only $200,000,000, and it zigzagged around $200.000,000° for the next ten years. Suddenly, during the war, {t jumped to $320,000,000 in 1918, and on up to $420,000,000 in 1922 and on —on up to $521,860,000 for the fiscal year 19 These figures are given by the National Fire Underwriters. * ok ok ok The above refers to the nation's burning. The city of Washington | could add, annually, seventy miles of asphalt streets or build forty new schools with what it burns up. If it dared discharge its able fire department and cancel its expensive insurance it could add teachers to all those forty new schools, and pay them a *living wage” or better. In the last vear, through careless ness, twenty-nire familfes of Wash- ington stored thelr live coals in wooden containers, and called out the fire department. Automobile owners neglected to keep thelr machines in order, so backfiring, wire short-cir- cuiting or gasoline ignition caused 230 fires—some with fatalities. Burn- ing trash in back yards, instead of notifying the street department to remove it, caused 547 blazes in homes; | sooty chimneys, 279 fires; boiling over of fats while cooking, 45 fires; storing matches In paper boxes, or within reach of children, 343 fires— some bables burned; carelessly aim- ing lighted cigars or clgarettes at awnings or waste paper baskets, 198 blazes; defective heating plants, 140; sparks from bonfires and chimneys. 148 fires; patriotic fireworks, al- though forbidden by law, 6 fires, on last July 4 During the year 6 victims burn- ed to death in the city; 67 not members of the fire department were injured by fires; 148 firemen injured. ~ In 1922 about 2,000 alarms, {n the fiscal year 1023 an increasé of 795 alarms. Loss in 1923, $2,074.- 096, an_increase of $894,000, which is Over 25 per cent, as compared with the fiscal year 1922. * K K X The secretary of the National Fire Protection Assoclation, Franklin H. Wentworth, says: “Our annual waste | of $5 per capita means that every | man, woman and child pays 35 a year | for fire waste. That means that a | man with the average family—a wife | and three children—pays 325 a year. | “The United States government in its It makes no particular differenc who won the war, apparently, so far as Turkey is concerned. This is con- ceded by editors near and far as they review the turning back to Turkish | domination of Constantinople and | European Turkey. As a result of the triumph over the Greeks, and the adroit diplomacy of her delegates at | Lausanne, for the first time in about | three-quarters of a century Turkey finds herself free from the control or interference of European powers. The | Star and Crescent has replaced the { flags of the allied nations where they | have flown over Turkish barracks and | government bulldings for more than three years. Constantinople and Turkey once more are in the hands of | !the Turks and they are again fully | as strong, if not even stronger, than when the great war broke out. The next move is to be the completion of | the Turkish republic to take the place | jof the absolutism which was the |vogue under the various sultans. | Whether this will mean an end, how- | {ever, of the massacre of Christians is {a matter on which there is grave | doubt expressed in the United States. | But it is accepted that only time will i tell and in the meantime Turkey con- | tinues a subject for sharp discussion everywhere. * ok K X The opposition toward Kemal Pasha, evident since the end of the Lausanne conference, is likely to have & serious effect on the Turkish economic situa- tion, as the Nashville Banner sees the future, inasmuch as that opposition i: based on failure to regain foreign trade as rapidly as the government | had hoped, although “it is an open question whether the New Turks un- der Kemal would ever show any de- cided improvement. At all events, the more troubles and dangers there are in Turkey, and from Turkey, the more culpable will become those European inations which, through inability to leave off petfy jealousies and in- trigues, made the Turk a person of importance in the world's scheme of things.” This view, however, does not have the indorsement of the Detroit ree Press, which on its part belleves the Turks are really standing at the dawn of a better day,” or of the Brooklyn Eagle, which feels “Turkey now has an excellent opportunity to | prove to the world her capacity for self-government, with foreign capi- talists and engineers already com- peting for an opportunity to develop ! her resources,” The new constitutio; is “European, rather than America as the Baltimore Sun sees it, but how it will work in practice is doubtful, the Atlanta Journal points out, inas- much as “since_the Turk emerged from Asla some 700 years ago he has contributed nothing to clvilization ex- cept trouble, and has assimilated from it little except vices. I he is to re- deem the record it behooves him to make haste, although if a new Turkey sets forth to merit mankind's good will_she certainly should receive un- stinted encouragement. “There is grim portent in ‘Turkey to the Turks,’"” as the Muskegon Chron- icle reviews the latest development, because it means “Christlan Armenia recefves abandonment to the fury of ihe’Mosiem and isolation from possi- ble succor as its reward for castineg its lot with the allles. This is Chris tendom's recompense for-the blood of Armenia's million and & half victims of Turkish butchery, a third of its population sacrificed.” In addition, the Springfield News points out, “the near_east always is a volcano, apt to break loose with menace to Eupope. As long as Turkey is foot free, bound only lightly by obligations to the world, she may be counted upon to be in the thick of the trouble when it starts.” The St. Paul Dispatch is convinced the “departure of the last of the allied troops was the final fruition of Turkish victory. The de- feat of the great war retrieved. ity last symbols out of sight and mind, recovery of | ognizes his responsibility. BY PAUL V. COLLINS reports adds to this fire waste the cost of maintaining fire departments, which is as much more. This means $50 & year to the average family.’ Even that does not include the cost which is added to every article sol It is added to the cost of clothes, food and rentals. So whether one is a direct sufferer from a fire in his own home, fire adds to his cost of living. And three-fourths of the fires could bé avolded by care and cleanliness of the premi * ok kX Of all the forest fires in 1921, camp- ers caused 19.9 per cent—7,638 fires. Railroads caused 5,515 fires—14.3 per cent. Brush burning ran away with 4,358, or 11.3 per cent. ‘We are burning up twice as much timber as we are using in lumber, and yet statisticlans tell us that we are using and destroying four times as much timber annually as nature is replacing by growth, And that prac- tically all forests will be gone in twenty-five years unless there be ac- complished & radical change in fire prevention and reforestation. * kK Ok Why are Americans so given to fires? We are the greatest fire suf- terers in the world, except our neigh- bors to the north. We always have been, and we are growl worse. In 1918 our per capita fire loss was $3.36; in 1921 it was $4.56; In 1922, $4.75; in the fiscal year 1923, over $5. Maybe Washingtonians are fairly good as compared with their neigh- bors. The per capita loss in Wash- ington in 1922 was only $2.10, but look at Delaware, with a per capita loss of $13.85—the worst in America, while the District’s per capita is the lowest except Vermont, with its $1.91. The per capita losses in Europe are as follows: France, 49 cents; Eng- land, 33; Germany, 28; Italy, 25; Aus- tria, 25} Switzerland, 13, and Hol- land, 11. * * x ¥ It is not alone the man wno starts the fires accidentally or incendiarily who has occasion to collect insurance. Fires spread and whole blocks are destroyed. The originator of the fire is then much commiserated with, for | everybody knows he feels bad about | his nelghbors’ losses on top of his own. But did anybody ever hear of the starter of the fire which swept over whole blocks sending a check to each of the losers? 1If a man with a run away automobile rams his neighbor's | car he pays for the damage. He rec- it 'a man cause a fire loss to another, whether intentionally, carelessly or unavoida- he is responsible for all such according to common law, but it has been most uncommon in America to enforce that law. In Europe the burden of defense lies upon the man | on whose premises the fire starts, if | it damage a neighbor. * * x * Prestdent Coolidge, in issuing his annual proclamation calling for the observance of Fire day October 9, the anniversary of the Chicago conflagra- tion, pointed solemnly to the annual loss of 15,000 lives, as well as more than half a billion dollars, pre- ventable fires. The United States Chamber of Com- merce is undertaking systematically to Inspire local chambers of com- merce throughout the country to n | compete against each other in lower ing the fire records of their respect! cities. Most surprising results have already been achieved, in one city re- ducing fire loss 48 per cent. (Copyright, 1923, by Paul V. Collins.) Turkey, on Losing Side in War, ' Emerges Supreme in Near East ‘omplete statehood. Turkey is for the first time in the modern era a compact state. What will Turkey do | with its freedom? Whether Turkey will become a pauper state or whether it will earn a strong position in the world depends upon the statesman- ship of Angora.” * kX x % “The dead on Gallipoli must have stirred at the salute to the crescent, and the bones of the brave must have moved as the propellors of departing entente warships churned over them over Kum Kall,” asserts the Rich- mond News-Leader, which, also com- menting on the exlsting treaty status of the Dardanelles, insists “if thel Turks wait until their old enemy is occupied elsewhere they can seize the straits again and close the narrows. This wlill not happen tomorrow, or next month, or next year, but it will come. The roadway of races, the an- cient battleground of continents, the most strategic stretch of water in the whole world, the blue thread the fates| spun on and on through the war, when they could have ended the strug- le in 1916 had they cut the thread— the Dardanelles—are to revert to the | people to whom the allies swore they never would be returned. That the deposed Sultan Mohammed VI also may prove a menace to the new Tur- key, although living quietly at San Remo at the present time, is pointed out by the Salt Lake City Deseret | News, which feels & movement to re- store him will not long be delayed. The trouble with the Mohammedan: is their explosive nature.” the New ntinues. “They have the qualifi tions and ability to create an upris- ing overnight. Hostile propagand: among them is carried on in secret. Those who kno the Mohammedans best have no restful assurances about their peaceful nature.” Inasmuch as it has been the “foreigner” who has been the backbone of Turkish trade in the past, the Cincinnati Enquirer | feels the future must be one of un- certainty unless Kemal Pasha can concilinte _the progressive element, while the Cleveland Plain Dealer won- ders what action will be taken, should the United States retain its destroy- ers in Turkish wakers in the face of the demand that thyy leave there for good. In a Few Words. It is the day of the fleeting vision. Concentration, thoroughness, the- quiet reflection that ripens the judgment, are more difficult than ever. —SECRETARY HUGHES. If Henry Ford gets the democratic or republican nomination for Presi- dent he will elected. —SENATOR COUZENS. All social and political fabrics must in the last resort rest upon faith. —H. G. WELLS. T have been a candidate for Presi- dent five times and have been in jail five times, and I am not so anxious to be a presidential candidate next time. —EUGENE V. DEBS. To some persons drinking is mere- 1y @ matter of moral stamina. There- Tore. If the opportunities mre reducea. the consumption. will aiso be lessene —ISRAEL ZANGWILL. p 1t is a curious and melancholy fact that the result of the thinking of the small minority who continue to think is to help the large majority to do without thinking. —ELIZABETH R. PENNELL. It must pever be forgotten that all The Library Table BY THE BOOKLOVER Closely following the death of Plerre Loti (Julien Viaud) comes the English translation of one of his best novels, called in the French “Ramuntche and the translation “A Tale of the Pyrenees.” During his many years as an officer in the French navy, Plerre Lotl was at one time in command of a guardship on the boundary between France and Spain. It was then that he gathered the materlal for “Ramuntcho,” which is an {dyll of the Basque country. o * ok Kk K At about the same time as this translation appears Loti's last book, on which he was at work at the time of his death. It is called “Un Jeune Officier Pauvre,” and Is the third volume {n the autobiographical series which the author hoped to complete. The first two volumes are called “Le Roman d' un Enfant” and “Prime Jeungsse.” This third volume begins with Loti's nineteenth year, when he was a student at the naval training school at Brest, and ends with his twenty-elghth year, when he was a lieutenant in the French navy. * K K K The various cures that have, in the history of the world, helped human beings to sustain the burden of life are discussed, tolerantly but without belief, by Dr. James J. Walsh, in his book “Cures: The Story of the Cures That Fail” The doctor's thesis is a double one; that when nothing or- ganic is the matter with a person, anything he can believe in will cure him, and that in the practice of medicine only a few drugs have any therapeutic value. The various cures reviewed by Dr. Walsh, and he puts them all in the same class, include the “touch” for the “King's evil” the use of “mummy” juices, tar water, “theriac” (a mixture of all sorts of drugs), and_moss from the skulls of criminals, “tractorization,” magnet- ism, mesmerism, appliance cures, the sures of Phineas Quimby, Christiun Science, shrine cures, psychoanalysis, the Coue method, osteopathy and chiropractic. * X *x % An extravaganza-satire, equal in ingenuity to the “Voyage to the Houyhnhnms,” but better natured, is Christopher Morley's “Where the Blue Begins” Swift substituted horses for men in his invented world, and Christopher Morley substitutes dogs. Gissing, a bachelor dog of idealistic temperament, searches for a real horizon ‘where the blue be- gins.” “That soft blue light, if he could reach it, must be the beginning of what his mind required.” In an effort to solve the problem of life, Gissing adopts three puppi and then his trouble begins; but also, so Mr. Morley seems to indicate, 'his soul's salvation. He struggles along’ by himself for a time, after the in- gnant departure of h aristocratic Japanese pug butler, Fuji, trying to bring up the puppies with the aid of grade A milk and Dr. Holt's book on the care and feeding of chi dren. He is finally obliged to appeal for aid to Mrs. Spaniel,, a low grade canine with arge offspring, and in desperation invites her and all her puppies to move into his house and take charge of things. He then sees his opportunity to leave. He must earn more mouney to support his adopted family, but what he really longs for is a more extended search for his real horizon. So he goes to “the city which is maddest of all” “a city so tall that even the sk above her seems to have lifted in cautions remove, inconceivably far.” There he soon becomes the efficient manager of the large department store of Beagle & Co. Discontent attends even his most striking suc- cess, however, and he leaves his dis- consolate emplovers in order to enter the church. short ecclesiastical career is mos strous, as he scan- Qalizes congregations, fellow clergy and the great Bishop Borzoi by hi¢ blasphemous heresies. Finally, after a nautical experience, foilowing his Clerical adventure, he decides to Te- turn to his home. There, as his three adopted _childr, rapturously _ery, ‘Daddy, Daddy,” he decides that he has at the same time found his horizon and Geod. * Xk ok X Though the Booklover has never since his college days indulged in the undeniably egotistic pursuit of keeping a diary, he has still always possessed enough curTosity about the affalrs and ideas of others so that diary literature has much interest for him. He has enjoved looking over a recent book, called “English Diarfes; A Review of English Diaries from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Cen- tury,” by Arthur Ponsonby, M. P. The book is prefaced by a good in- troductory essay on diary writing by the author and editor. Extracts, long and short, from the diaries of about 120 English _men and women, from the time of Edward VI to the present day, are carefully selected and arranged. They form a remark- able exhibition of human vanity. People of all ranks, from monarch: to a linen draper, and of all inter- ests, from statesmen to idle spinsters, are represented in these selections. The first diary of the collection is that of the vouthful King Edward VI, who died when he was only sixteen. Much space is given to parts of the voluminous diary of Queen Victoria, who began writing it when she was thirteen and kept it up till the end of her life at elghty-two. Other personages whose diaries are quoted re Henry Fielding, Fanny Burney, Lord Byron, Pepys, John Wesley and Bishop Wilberforce. * k ¥ ¥ “French Literature During the Last ! Half Century,” by J. W. Cunliffe and Pierre de Bacourt, forms a valuable supplement to the older histories of French literature, which usually end with the middle of the nineteenth century, or, at most, with 1870. The authors are both professors at Co- lumbia University. The perlod treat- ed begins with Zola, his writings, teachings amd_general literary and sociological influence, and ends with s0 recent an event as the death of Pierre Loti, only a few months ago. The first part of the book discusses individual writers, especially Zola, de Maupassant, Daudet, Lotl, Anatcle France, Bourgat, Maurras, Barres, Rolland, Rostand, Brieux and Muaeter- linck; the second part discusses in four chapters modern literary move- ments, as the symbolist movement, cotemporary poetry, new novels and cotemporary drama. Each chapter of the book Is followed by a good bibliography. & Ak The methods of novelists are of in- terest to some people, of no interest whatever to others. Some enjoy knowing whether a writer first pre- pares an outline, whether he rewrites and polishes much, whether he dic- fmtes mis stories or writes them out With a fountain pen: others care not at all how the result is reached, pro- vided the finished novel is satisfac- tory. The success of Dorothy Cai field's recent book, “Raw Material will depend on whether there are more of the first class of persons or more of the second class among the reading public. The book is at any rate an experiment. It contains human activity rests on unproved and unprovable assumptions. —CANON BARNES. I well remember when & book was a luxury. T have lived to see the day When It rarely egcapes being & a 4 - sketches of characters, notes of situ- ations, fragments of philosophy and economic theory and bits of local color, all of which, the author de- lares, are far dearer to her than her nished products. Whether the pub- lic will stare her enthusiasm for this election from her scrap-book is ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN Q. Are there any schools where |says that sewing or millinery is taught free of | thus taken. charge in evening classes?’—F. R. Z. A. The McKinley Manual Training School teaches sewing and millinery on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30. If appli- cations sufficient to warrant it are received, a class will be formed at|tune of more ‘Wilson Normal, meeting Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Q. 1s Providence Hospital a cor- E)r;:tlon or is it owned by a church?— A. Providence Hospltal of this city ! 18 owned by the Daughters of Charity, | attached to the Emmitsburg, Md. Q. What was the cost of building the Navy dirigible ZR-17—W. J. M. A. The Nayy Department says the cost of the ZR-1 has not yet been finally determined. However, its cost has been approximated at $2,000,000. ZR-1 means Zeppelin Rigid No. 1, and this airship has now been chris- tened the Shenandoah. Catholic Church at It is incorporated. Q. Can twenty acres of lumber be worked profitably for the production of turpentine and resin?—J. R. K. A. The forest service says twenty acres cannot be worked with profit, but that sometimes such a smail’ plot is worked for the pro- duction of crude turpentine and this is sold to some larger operator for refining. Q. Is it correct to say, “He. differs with her” or “differs from her”?— N. F. A. In the sentence, “He differs with her,”” the thought expressed is a dif- ference of opinion. The sentenc “He differs from her,” conveys thc idea of physical or mental dissimi larity. Q. How long did it take to revise the Old Testament?—M. H. C. A. The revision of the Old Testa- ment was accomplished in 792 days, nd was compieted June 20, 1881 he revision of the New Testament was a more exhaustive task, requir- ing 407 meetings, which lasted over a perfod of ten years. The new version was completed and presented to the convocation on May 17, 1881 Q. Is it true that the daughters o {he, late caar slept on camp bed A. Mme. Debn says that this custom was observed by the four grand duchesses. It dates back to the reign of Alexander I, who de- creed that the daughters of the em- |00 4 peror were not to sleep on more comfortable beds until they married. Q. aremi How is the new di transmitted’—R. S. A. Dr. Edward Fraocis says that this is transmitted from rodents to men by the bite of an infected blood- sucking insect or by the handling and dissection. of infected rodents by marketmen or laboratory workers. ase ‘“tul- Q. How long does it take to send a letter to South Africa?P. M. H. A. The Post Office Departm that the average transit time mails from New York to Cape Town is twenty-seven days. Q. point of M. T. What is the membership lurgest club in Ireland?— Automobile Dublin, re- . of 1,400. Royal Irish Q. What percentage of our exports is taken by Europe?—J. J A. W. H. Booth, president of the International Chamber of Commer: that | | of our imports. {zave | ding i been in 1922 54 per cent was In the same year, Eu- Tope supplied practically 32 per cent Q. Who made & Lequest lately for ‘home for udeville artists M. . A. Percy William; a vaudeville producer who died rec v, provided in his wili that of his for- t should a be used “to home for those poverty or infirmi crowded out of the profes: Q. Where should I write In re; to entr: requirements of the United States Ar A. For detailed in tive to the entrance req nurses of the United you should write to the Corps, surgeon gener: ngton, D. C.; f arse . Corps, shington, D Q. om brary of Con 2 rela- ts for N Army the library was writt the other donors are chi J Hay etary to President Lincoln Q. W in the Uni A. The United It the at &t pigeon farm Edsel F He was to Miss the 1 Toseph goods merchant of D was at the and was a quie dry wed- brida of of the family affair. . What is a march pa A. This is a coined word used by English officers in lieu of our word “review.” Q. Who Gamaliel’—G. R A. There were two Bibl racters by this name. The better known was Gamaliel, s He has cailed . member of th h council, he w aving the apostles ion for ing —M. S, s the Bible character con. prince of drin right from word cried condemna~ of Christ out jor their d S| Q. Should letting it stee pou: s sty tea-leav give up the oriental Leen used over A. Carpets the pula " the of sald since century (If you have answered, send stion you want T Ha. street. for return postag Death on Train Takes Head Of Pierrepont F amily Branch BY THE MARQUISE DE FONTENOY. John Jay Pierrepont of Brook- Iyn Heights, who died suddenly the other day on a traln on his way home from Bar Harbor, was the son of Henry Evelyn Plerrepont, founder of Greenwood cemetery and of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and was the head of the senior branch of the old Anglo-Norman house of Pilerre- pont, which is represented in Eng- land by the present Earl of Manvers. Moreover, the nephew and second heir to the earldom and viscounty and barony of Lord Manvers is Capt. Ger- vaise Evelyn Plerrepont, who won a number of distinctions in the great war and who is married to an Ame fean heiress, the daughter of Mr. Mrs. Frederick Willlam Butte The latter, hailing from New York, are connections of the Koose and have for some time past been making their home in Europe, hav- ing a very hospitable London house n Curzon street, a country seat in Yorkshire known as Cliffe Castle, near Keldleigh; a house in Paris on the rue Pressbourg—that is to say, in the immediate vicinity of the Arc Triomphe—and a very charming vila at Nice. Mrs. Butterfield was a Miss Mary Roosevelt Burke of New York, daughter of Mr. H. Burke. The founder of the Pierrepont fam- fly was Sir Robert Pierrepont, one of the companions in arms of William the Conqueror at the battle of Hast- ings, and who received from that monareh the manor of Holme Pierre- pont, in Nottinghamshire. of which he was the first lord. The chief of the family In the seventeenth cen- tury, in the male line. direct. w George Plerrepont. whose gra became Earl of Kingston, Dorchester and Duke of married the famous beauty Ilizabeth Chudleigh, and died without issue, the English Pierrepon thereupon becoming extinct in the male line. x k4 Now, Sir George Plerrepont, the grandfather of the first Duke of Kingston, had a younger son of the name of William Pierrepont. whose son, James Plerrepont, came to Amer- ica and settled at Roxbury, Mass., in 1636, leaving two sons, John and Rob- ert. From these Julia Pierrepont, the mother of the late Plerpont Morg: and the other American Pierreponts, including John Jay Pierrepont of Brooklyn, who died last week, are de- scended in a direct line. But, while the Pierreponts of America may just- ly clalm to represent the only exist- ing male line of the ancient and his- toric Anglo-Norman house of Pier pont, they can put forward no pre- tensions to any of the honors of Lve iyn Pierrepont, the last Duke of Kingston, since the various pee ages which he possessed were ngston quired by his father considerably emi- after the other branches had ecm the grated to America, and, though last duke had no children, he willed the whole of his large fortune, in- cluding his ancestral home, the manor of Holme Plerrepont, in Nottingham- shire, to his wife, who figur. in English history as the only duchess Wwho has ever been tried by the house of lords on & charge of bigamy. ‘When his testamentary dispositions were made Known & Clatm to his fors TS N 2o hin cuthce were made by Bis “sivter, Lady “Frances Plerrepont, married to Philip Meadows. Together they presented claims for the annul- ment of the duke's will on the ground that the duchess was not his wife, and was described therein as such in error, consequently that the will was as invalid as her marriage. The most extraordinary “cause celebre” ensued in the house of lords. Evidence was oduced there to show that prior to Fer marriage with the last Duke of Kingston, the former Elizabeth Chud- leigh, renowned s the greatest beauty of her day, had been secretly married to Augustus Hervey, at that time a lieytenant of the royal navy, de | | | | | | 1 from whom divorce, come Earl of Br convicted bigamy by S quence there title and s! to the status of the Bristol. The penalty e will Philip ances. who w s agai mpletely 5 retired to the luring her cx- the 1 Voltaire, inherited from e of the lat- is to say, to the dows and of Lady who had deprived her of h duchess and whom she, in tu Charles question, ion of Meadows, on comin all the brothe secured nephew into the poss property _of the last Duke permission of crown to the patronymic a; the arms e Plerrepont fam and was fi ¢ raised to the pecrage, Lord Pierrepont of Holme then Viscount Newark the Karl of Manvers, &0 ent Lord Manvers, chief Pierreponts. merely the f aft of in his of the d Kingston, znd finally that_the pr of the English cent Brook! tnclud nt Pie pont and Robert Low Pierrepont, an Seth Low Pierrepont, that is to say the Americ Pierreponts the only o to represent thi clent Anglo-Norman family rect and senior male line. Abiding Faith. From the Saturday Evening Post We live best by faith, dear brethrer not what we call knowledge. We are mischiefmakers frequently with the facts we assemble. 1 suppose this the reason have been permitted to lay sure the myste ting lite. Go a and your be is why we never our hands fc ¢ of truth 1 with y 6 the short-wi men to know discove ‘Wonders of the Radio. From the Chicago. Many American families are eatin dinner to the best musi- in the land, picking it up from Chicago or Pitts- burgh or Schenectady or elsewhere. BRIET T SCaT R 2T W Rath an earlet nim B w. Colorado’s Foresight. From the Chicago News. Those 4,500,000 tourists whe visited Colorado and left §45.000,000 behind this season demonstrated Coloradg foresight in filling its w te places with picturesque mountains. Just an Empty Word. From the San Francisco Chronicle. Dictionaries are funuy. Qurs as a kind of mone, de=