Evening Star Newspaper, January 2, 1924, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. WEDNESDAY...January 2, 1924 - «° THEODORE W. NOYES. ...Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office, 11th 8¢ and Pennsyivania Ave, 110 Bast 42ud St Tower Building. European Office: 1 Regent St., London, England, The Evening Star, with the Sunday morning edition, is deliv: by carriers within the | “ity ‘st 80 cents pec month: dally only. 45 ents per moath; only, 20 cents per month. Orders tha; by mail or phone Msin 5000, is made by Tiers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia, Daily and Sun Daily only Sunday only All Other States. Daily and Sunday.1 yr., $10. aily only. 1 $7. Sunday 85¢ H 60c » $3.00; 1 mo., 25e Member of the Associated Press. The Associnted Press is exclusively entitled e use for republication of all news dis- tehes credited to it or not otherwise credited this paper and also the local news pub. ed hercin. Al rights of publication of 1 dispatches herein are al: only District Day. Effort is to be made during the pres-| ent session of Congress to insure the District adequate time for the con- sideration of its legislative business in the House of Representatives. Repre- sentative Moore of Virginia has pro- posed to the rules committee that a rule should be adopted assuring the District two days each month, not to be taken away for other matters save upon a heavily preponderant vote, three-fourths or four-fifths. The House District committee, at its meeting Friday, will be urged to add its re- quest to that of Mr. Moore. Heretofore, for many sessions, the “District day” has been a negligible quantity. Rarely has it been regularly granted by the House. Sometimes, in- deed, the District committee had no . business to present and waived the “day.” More often, however, it was taken away by vote, while the Dis- trict calendar has been long with measures awaiting action. In conse- quence each session has closed with a lengthy list of bills left over, most of them never considered in the House. This has been possibly not alto- gether a disadvantage. It has, indeed, saved the District from some harmful legislation, proposed in haste and put through the committee without due consideration and with small regard | for the local wishes. But, again, much that has been urgenfly needed in the public welfare has been sacrificed or postponed. 1f the District committee were guar- enteed two days a month secure from interruption or postponement, it would be under obligation to present its measures in good season, to keep the calendar stocked with bills, unless it finds nothing to be done for the Dis- trict. That is inconceivable, Every session important measures are pre- sented by the Commissioners or by in- dividual members of the House repre- senting urgent requirements in the way of new or amendatory legislation. There is small likelihood that the Dis- trict calendar will ever be exhausted. The Constitution makes Congress the legislature of the District. It is only reasonable to expect that this duty will be discharged faithfully, and experience teaches that it cannot be discharged, in the House at least, with only a haphazard attention to the mat- ters that pertain to the Capital. —— False Fire Alarms. Twenty-four false alarms of fire in one night make a record in Washing- ton. Between 11 o'clock on New Year eve and 3:50 New Year morning that unprecedented number of false alarms were sounded. It is reported that so fast did these alarms come into the fire headquarters that the authorities, understanding what was being done, cut in half the usual assignment of ap- paratus answering a call, and engines went from one box to another with- out returning to the firehouses. Seven calls were sent out from fire boxes and seventeen were local calls sent in by telephone. During this riot of false alarms there were two fires, but they proved to he small ones, and, fortu- nately, they were quickly extinguished. It is a strange sense of humor which prompts a man to turn in false alarms of fire. The mind that conceives that this is fun is warped and perverted. Stiff punishment is provided by law for miscreants of that kind. The rea- son the penalty is not harsher is that the deliberate turning in of a false alarm is not a very common offense, but should a considerable number of persons conclude that calling out the engines on a false alarm is really a good joke the penalty will have to be made severer. The number of false fire calls on New Year eve and morning was one of the curious phascs of license in which so many persons of undeveldped or vitious minds seem to take delight on xreat holidays, but on previous New Year days the nambver of false alarms had never exceeded seven. The public safety cuggests that no lenity be shown criminals or fools who turn in false alarms of fire. ——————— Prosperity is predicted for the cur- rent year. Henry Ford evidently re- garded it as a good year for a business man to attend strictly to business. —t——— Suggestions as to the republican party platform are coming in from all sides, and President Coolidge is again listening attentively. No holiday i# complete. New Year has become one of the busiest days in the calendar for prohibition agents. Stable Prosperity Ahead. All reports from authoritative sources, governmental end others, forecast the continuance of the era of generally good business and industrial conditions in this country existing as the new year comes in. It is not a “boom” season; it is a ‘condition of normal, ‘“safe and sound” growth. " The Federal Reserve Board tells of & satisfactory and promising state of affairs among the banks. Secretary Mellon reports excellent conditions in government financing. Secretary Hoover says commerce and trade.are flourishing. _Now gomgs 2 roads which will be read with great interest, for the railroads are & sure index of the country’s welfare or dis- tress. The committee on public rela- tions of the eastern railroads gives a summary of the growth of their busi- ness in 1923, indicative of what may be expected in 1924, The year just closed, the summary says, was marked by the greatest traf- fic yet known; by the highest degree of operating efficiency yet achleved; the greatest increase in new facilities for_ten years;“the beginning of sub- stantial new construction after a lapse of almost eight years; improved co- operation with shippers, and by sub- stantial improvement in earnings and in labor and public relations. After quoting figures of the earn- ings, traffic, improvement outlay and other statistics, the summary makes this very significant statement: “The treatment accorded the railroads by Congress, regulating authorities and the public will largely determine not only railroad results during 1924 but the larger question of the economic activity and prosperity of the coun- tig That is @ hint to the element in Congress which may be intent upon legislation hostile to the railroads. For, as the report points out, “Unless the railroads as a whole are prosper- ous, the people generally cannot be prosperous, as efficient transportation is the largest element of real pros- perity in this country Billions for flnild.ingl. Of the summaries of the activities and accomplishments in 1923 which have marked the close of the old year and the beginning of the new, there is none more interesting or significant than that issued by the Copper and Brass Association, giving the record | of the building construction record for the past twelve months. According to this survey the total expenditures in 1923 were $5,992,900,000, the greatest sum ever expended in construction in the history of theebuilding industry. Nearly six billion dollar: This immense sum represents a ma- terial advance over 1922, when, ac- cording to the same authority, the ex- penditure for construction was $4,910, 000,000—more than a billion ahead. This increase, however, is to be re- garded as simply a gain against the arrears of construction, estimated on the 1st of July, 1921, at $8,084,985,000. In 1 the arrearage was reduced by $1,785,000,000, and last year, in con- sequence of the enormous increase in all lines of building, the gain, it s esti- mated, was $2,617,900,000. It is interesting to note the classes of construction and the percentages. Public buildings, in 1923, were the small- est item in the list, only 4.20 per cent of the total expenditure being on that account. Next came churches, 6.77 per cent, and hospitals, 7.6 per cent. In succeeding order were office bulldings, 10.26 per cent; hotels, 10.87 per cen dwellings, 12 per cent; industrial build- ings, 12.63 per cent; apartments, 16 per cent, and finally schools, 19.67 per cent. S Residential needs, therefore, combin- irg dwellings, hotels and apartments, absorbed 38.87 per cent of the total of all constructions. It is reassuring to find that 19 per cent, or mearly one- fifth of all the money spent for new buildings, went for schools. This is doubtless due, in large part, to the fact that the educational arrears are especially heavy. Washington knows this fact. The shortage in school ac- commodations is keenly felt here. There may be meat for Congress in this statement of the country's ac- tivity when it comes to consider the reeds of the Capital. ———— At a time when Europe is supposed to be economizing the construction of immense, but perishable, airships can- not be regarded as a means of con- serving resources. ————— Investigation demands show that those who declared that the taking of the Philippines would be a source of trouble to the U. S. A. were, in some measure, right. i ———————— As a safe and conservative Presi- dent, Mr, Coolidge declined to shirk the time-honored obligation of shaking hands by the hour with New Year callers. —————— So many death-dealing devices are being developed by science that war must lose its last vestige of romance and become mere mechanical slaugh- ter. i ——————— Peace reigns. Nevertheless a great holiday celebration is followed by pub- lication of a list of the killed and in- jured. Science Is Busy. Some high spots are being touched at the meeting in Cincinnati of the American Association for the Ad-|- vancement of Science. ‘Several of the members are soaring far above the commonplace. One of them, pointing out that a loaf of bread represents only the stored-up energy of the sun which has been gathered by the wheat stalk, said that he hopes to carry his theory to the conclusion where food may be created by sunshine without waiting for the processes of plant growth. Many men have dreamed of finding new and direct means for us- ing the heat and power of the sun. They would utilize its heat for run- ning machinery on earth, and on & small scale the solar engine has been operated in parts of the world where there is a maximum of sunlight. Drawing electricity from the sun has been conceived. Motors run by action of sea waves and the tides heye been projected. Perhaps all these wonders will come to pass to make easier the life of man. If the experiments now being conducted at the Desert Labora- tory at Tucson, Ariz., succeed in com- pelling the sun to create human food “without waiting for the slow proc- esses of the plant” another marvel, and. perhape the greatest, will be add- ed to the lengthening list of wonders wrought by sclence. A rocket to the moon is suggested by one of the members of the associa- tion, who presumably is & man of serious mind and advanced learning. Surely he is not lacking in imagina- tion, He told the adsoclation that the high-altitude rocket makes reasonably certain the WCII“!\D(I new feld of THE EVENING sclentific endeavor in the inveatiga: tion of space, and that there is but one more step to be made before he could prepare a model for a flight from the earth to the moon, and he said that this step does not involve any un- known factors. The rocket that would Bo to the limit of the atmosphere and then fall to earth could bring down & meteorological record of value to sclence, but if the rocket continued to the moon the thought of common men is that it would stick there, and that we should have no reply by return rocket. We might not even know that our message to the moon had been delivered. The thought would disturb us that the rocket had taken up the habit of a comet or an asterold and had begun eternal wandering in space. But these are questions in which non- scientific men havg no right to med- dle. —————— Fire Tugses. Fire-prevention lessons, lectures and sermons may be exercising influence in keeping down loss of life and prop- erty by fire, but the figures for such losses are still staggering. In 1922, the latest vear for which statistics are available, there were 15,000 deaths by fire in the United States and a property loss of half a billion dollars. Taking the average, five schoolhouses were burned down daily, one farm building went up in smoke every seven minutes, one dwelling was destroyed or badly damaged every four minutes and five churches were reduced to cinders every twenty-four hours. All other kinds of buildings were licked up by flames at an amazing rate. When the figures are compiled it seems surprising that the country can be built up faster than it burns down. ‘The statistics are eloquent, should give us pause. But will they? One, or many, point out the obvious deficiencies of our local fire depart- ment, and repeatedly point out fire hazard in certain ‘public buildings. Not much is done here and not much is done elsewhere. People inveigh against the danger of toesing away lighted cigarette and cigar butts and dumping out glowing, pipe ashes, but milllons of people are doing these things hourly. Yet there must come a time when our fire losses will decline. Wood con- struction is passing because the for- ests are passing and lumber has be- come costly. Brick, cement, tile, steel and other non-inflammable things will become the chief or only building ma- terials. Cities are tightening up their restrictions on bullding with a view to fire prevention. The coal-ofl lamp which used to overturn and set fire to the house is passing and the electric light takes its place. There is still trouble with ‘‘defective insulation,” but a way can be found to deal with that. The lace curtain blowing against the lighted gas jet is still with us, but gas jets are not increasing in the ratio of people, windows and lace cur- tains. Whether the ‘butt-flickers car be educated is a question, but perhaps some genius will invent a non-glow tobacco which will be extinguished the instant the smoker Iets it go. ——— Revolutionists in Mexico declare that the sale of arms to the Obregon forces will prolong the struggle with- out changing the result. If the revolu- tionists are as strong as they claim to be they should find little trouble in capturing the weapons shortly after delivery. —————————— Germans who think the ex-Kaiser should be brought to.trial are con- fronted by the fact that the world is no longer serfously interested in him. If his friends succeed in persuading him to seek the throne a spectacular retribution might work out naturally. —_——— A federation for the emancipation of Asia is projected, with headquarters in India. There is so much world un- rest that Asia is entitled to a share if she desires it. —— It is roughly estimated that Berlin spent half a million dollars in cele- ‘brating the New Year. It is not be- lieved that President Ebert's salary permitted him to join the revelry. ——ee—————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Scientific Apology. Said Bill the Burg, “I was surprised ‘When I got psychoanalyzed. ‘The doc explained, “Your case, T find, Ie due to your onconscious mind." “The feelin’ that my fingers get To grab the jewels of some pet An’ hock the stuff an’ make a’spiurge, Is owin’ to my psychic urge. So, if T tap you on the dome An’ with your watch an’ wallet roam, To blame me do not be inclined., Remember my onconscious mind. Dangers to Dignity. “Do you think a public man ought to have a sense of humor?” *‘Certainly,” answered Senator Sor- ghum. “Only you've got to be careful nowadays how you make people laugh for fear of getting yourself classed ‘with the motion picture comedians.” Jud Tunkins says watchin’ the old year out gave his folks the idea that the way to start the new year was by oversleeping. Often Thus. The change is but brief As in purpose you glory. You turn @ new leaf, But you write the old storys " Future Flivverists. “You go to & great deal of pains to teach: your children to be polite.” “Yes, sir,” answered Mr. Chuggins; “polite, gentle and obedient. It'll be easier to learn from me than later on from the motor cops.” s Literary' Selection. “So you made a solemn pledge to avold rum.” i “Yep,” replied Uncle ‘Bottletop; “iney got this bootleg proposition around to where & man feels obliged to take his choice between & New Year resolution and ‘n epitaph. “You'll be happier an’ mo’ prosper- ous, son,” sald Uncle Eben, “if you resclves to.put a8 much, enthusidsm in ana | \ 9 STAR, WASHINGTON, D. (i f WEDNESDAY IN TODAY’S SPOTLIGHT BY PAUL V. COLLINS Within only two years, the whole world of human touch has been re- created. When New. Year day of 1921 dawned, only sclentists and ad- vanced experimenters comprehended wireless tblephony and telegraphy. They were testing .:pplrltul which to the layman wak uncanny and “highbrow” and curlous. A few days before last Christmas, a fourteen-year-old boy said to his mother: “Mother, you won't scold if I tell you something we did last night, when Will was here, will you?" (Will was a neighbor boy of about the same age.) The two boys had been left alone in the home, where stood a wireless receiving set 000,000. I beleve the industry will 0 ‘on for the next few years in oubling its volume each year. “Two years ago I made the predic- tion that the radio industry would be equal in & few years to the phonograph industry, whi¢h in nor- mal times reaches $400,000,000 a year. Today I say that the radio industry will be worth within the next few years a half billion dollars & year, in_consumers’ prices. The sale of radio vacuum tubes in 1923 was equal to 20 per cent of the sale of electric light bulbs of the entire electric light business of America. / LR It is not from a commercial stand- point that radio is the most signifi- cant, but because of its power in which was waiting to be given to revolutionizing society—revolutioniz- almost bedridden iing all the world, civilized and bar- Will had at-|parous. the grandmother, on a Virginia farm. tached a wire to the kitchen faucet, and run another from the instru- ment to th fe, and the two Wash- ington boy istened In" to a con- cert in New York and another in Chicago. Later the instrument was installed on the Virginia farm, where the shut-in now attends concerts in Cuba and California. All this is so commonplace that the reader is wondering why it is mentioned. Two years ago it was a miracle. The miracle of today is the brevity of the span of time, within which the whole horizon of man has been stretched from the pebbl ripple to the circumference of mu dane ‘distance, and the human voice, which had hitherto called perhaps 1,000 feet through the air, or 3,000 miles clinging to a wire, now reaches to earth’s antipodes in’ one-fifteenth part of a second. or girdles the earth before the speaker has had time to close his lips. * ok ok More than 2,000,000 American homes are already equipped with ra- dio receiving sets, costing from $10 to $400, and there are some 450 radio broadcasting stations, of which about £ty may be classed as superbroad- casters. There is no limit upon this little earth which is now “long dis- tance” for radlo communication. Frozen in the Polar night lles the ship of Explorer MacMillan—just a few hundred miles from the north pole. On Christmas eve, Capt. MacMilian's sister talked with him, from Chicago., and the whole crew spent a delightful evening listening to famillar songs sung in Chicago, and carried across the Canadian plains, mountains and the icy sea, not by an elaborate equipment of the most advanced make, but by an ama- teur outfit. provided by the American Amateur Radio Association, of which Hiram Maxim is president * % ok On last November 15 at a meeting of the Electric Supply Jobbers' Asso- ciation in Buffalo, an address was made by Mr. David Sarnoff, vice pres- ident of the Radio Corporation of America, who referred to the fact that the popularization of the radio had i all come about within the last two | years: “Today you have the background of two year's experience. * * * Yet 1 feel that the real part plaved by the radio, the real accomplishments of that industry, are yet to he made and yet to be told, although the events of the last twe years have left milestones in the road. ¥It {s estimated * * * that, meas- ured in the consumer's list price, the American public spent in 1922’ be- tween $75,000,000 and $100,000,000 on radio. That was last year. In giv- ing that figure, I have in mind not radio sets alone, or of any one manu- facturer, but of the entire industry, which includes sets, tubes, parts and accessories — headphones, batteries and the Iike. “On the same basis it is estimated that the American public will spend during the present year at least $150,000,000 on radio, although I am told that this figure is conservative. Those in business are more inclined to say between $150,000,000 and $175,- | will arise? 0 longer Wwill there be a hinterland; no longer can there be “gentiles” of civilization, or “barba- rians,” when all humanity speaks to another. The vibrating ether is go- ing to make all languages the familiar speech of all men, and the brotherhood of man will come into sympathetic communion. “Day unto day uttereth speech, and ht unto night showeth knowledge. ‘There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” * ok K K The softening of race prejudice wrought by travel has long been recognized. But few can afford to travel the world over, so national idiosyncrasies still elbow men away from heart-understanding. Wars come because men do not know each other. All men do not read the daily press, but time is coming when all will hear the volces of the ether, and, hearing, will learn the langnages they hear, as infants acquire the vocabulariés of their environment. It is still a mooted question as to what effect the radio broadcasting of chureh services, music and sermons will have on church attendance, but, on the whole, opinion seems to be that it increases the number reached manyfold, and that its decreasing of personal attendance of the habit- ual is offset by the awakening of in- terest in those who had long gotten out of touch with church influences. The popularizing of high-grade music is multiplying the effect of the phonograph in , bringing classic standards into the very slums, for while “jazz” may still be called for, the control of supply will be in the hands of central powers of distribu- tion, whose cultivated taste may be relicd upon to “elevate the masses,” through cultivation of what is pure and truly beautiful. 'k *x The most radical effect of the radio broadcasting will be developed dur- ing the 1924 presidential campaign, when it i{s certain to substitute “front porch” campaigning, in place of the traveling of candidates and orators, from point to point, to address a few thousands where radio audiences of the worth-while speakers will num- ber millions. * x % * There s no limit to the radio for propaganda, when all the ether of the world becomes the medium, with & “circulation” of a billion and a half. What abuses will develop? What in- ternational complications of control What nation or league of republics _will be “mistress of the cther?” What world-wide campaigns will be captained through wireless commands? i * ok ok x Already, the wireless makes audible the volces of microscopic creatures invisible to the naked eye, and tunes in on the music of stars. Using the immortal quotation which constituted the first words of the Atlantic cable: “What hath God Wrought!" (Copyright, 1828, by Paul ¥. Collins.) Ford Backing for Coolidge Like Bomb to Progressives When Henry Ford quietly strangled his own presidential boom \and de- clared himself as one of the soldiers of the Coolidge camp, he stirred up an old-time political discussion. First Senator Hiram Johnson took a wallop at the Detroiter predicated on the Muscle Shoals situation. Then Wil- llam Jennings Bryan, from his re- cently adopted Florida status, re- buked “Lizzfe’ father for i “desertion of the masses.”” After this came a renewed chorus from the various editors who at the outset defended or derided Henry from political motives only, but who have since decided, that, after all, there seems to be something new on the political horizon as a result of the Ford renunciation and the withdrawal of the Ford headpiece from the ring. “How can the gentle reader of un- gentle words—from Bryan and John- son—refrain from regret that these three eminent reformers have parted company?” asks the New York World (democratic). “Politics makes strange bedfellows; also it drives the unri pented sinner from its barred do into the pitiless blast. 1If Hen welcome warm at ghe White House, it i8 a nipping air¥into which he emerges. Senator Johnson ri marks that ‘he is a marvelous busi- ness man' He is, indeed; of that there cannot be the slightest shadow of doubt.” Incidentally, though, the New York Times (independent demo- cratic) feels “Mr. Bryan's grief, or renewed hope, as the case may be, is nothing compared with the anguish which rends the heart of Hiram John- son. He not only spells the first name of Mr. Ford ‘Ichabod,’ not only de- clares that he is politically a recre- ant, but accuses him openly of mak- ing a political bargain. As it stands Senator Johnson's charge is little short of political outrage. Such ac: cusations as those of Senator John- son fall of their own weight, just as his candidacy must fall after such ex- hibition of himself as he has now seen fit to make.” The Fort Wayne Journal-Gagette (independent), suggests, however, “Mr. Ford's - suddenness the republican party the banner of his faith, and the republican party the beneficiary of his trust, gives spu; to many doubts as touching his sin- cerity. Millions who have thought Mr. Ford promising material of which to make @ President will think over many things before making any hasty decision to follow him in his apostaty to what they soundly cherish as their ‘cause’ and when. they do that they, will hardly go along.” * kK ¥ As the Knoxville Sentinél (demo- cratic), analyzes the fleld and the various incidents that have arisen, it sees a “two-man race insured” be- tweer Coolidge and Mr. McAdoo. The Omaha World*Herald , (democratic) in its turn suggests “blood is thicker than water,” and peinits out Mr. Ford “is the richest man in the United States, Why should not he be a stand- patter? He i5, indeed, safo with Cool- idge. And if the great majority of the rican people do mnot feel like- cfl: secure and content, he is serene- Iy unable to underspand why. The City_Times-Tribiine (republican, insists “Mr. Ford has thrown a bom! into the camp of the hungry politi- » His action, llkewise, “was & dent Cool ers nt), aned &'cusmn) of the American efining his political po- indorsement.” sition.” The “politicians hate to give him up.” the Milwaukee Journal sar- casticaily suggests, “but with Mr. Ford among the conservatives the big call for him vanishes. This does not mean his approval will not lend some strength to Mr. Coolidge, for it will. But with that Indorsement Ford has spent his strength. One thing the country ought to gain. Therg must now be a very thorough aifing of the ins and outs, the rights and wrongs of the Muscle Shoals business. The whole question of how govern- ment is disposing of national assets has become important.” The Reading Tribune feels it is a misfortune that Ford will not make a run for the office, “for his entry into| the field would at least have placed the present governing group on the defensive, and the defense must, to remain insthe fray, produce better re- sults and better arguments than the offender.” To which the Nashville Banner _ (independent democratic) adds, “The {ndorsement he has given the. Coolidge candidacy cannot fail to carry great welght with the voting masses and may be sufficient to de- termine the result.” * x ok % “The party of the third party has 0 for Calvin Coolidge for suggests the Cincinnati Times-Star (republican), and “the announcement is tremendously im- portant. It touches every nerve of our national body politic. It is a thrill that never before has come in our political history. Henry Ford prob- ably could have got the democratic nomination for President. There is no question that if he had chosen to head the ticket of a so-called third party his party would not have been a bad third, and it might have belied its name by becoming the second party in mational politics. A political Titan has consented to put his shoul- ders to another man’s wheel.” The political effect “may reach far afiel the Springfield Repubiican (Independ- ent) insigts. “If Mr. Ford's support of Mr. Coolidge is to have the effect making (of making the President seem less conservative to the progressives of the country, Mr. McAdoo, ys the lead- ing democratic progressive, may turn out to be a little favored. But for the time being he sees a big picking of delegates in the middle west. He is happy_in cressing the Ford.” The Newark News (independent) seee the “Ford support frank and unquaiified,” and it is impressed with the fact that “facing a Congress especially disor- ganized, the President's hand is llnnglhened at a most critical time.” In addition, as the Philadel- phia Bulletin (independent republi- can) puts it, “the reaction of the majority of the people of the United States to Mr. Ford’s declaration is likely to be an appreciation of its common sense.” The Ford boom has “passed into history,” the Rochester Times-Union (independent) holds, and “aside from any promise °€tfi more friendly ad- ministration attftude regarding the Muscle Shoals project, upon which T4 evidently sets great stors, it is gnly reasonable o suppose that the Meilon program of uced taxation 2 led to him” But the Richmond lews-Leader (démocratic) feels the indorsement “does not. mean that Ford will not revive his candl ‘whenever he changes his mind n, while the Boston Transoript (inde- pendent republican) argues “Mr. Ford possesses business sagacity and he displays that quality as well a certain flulfi) for platn statements of his lefs and purposes in his ~ JANUARY 2, Politics at Large BY N. O. mnfiwn President Coolidge, according to all the signs recognizable to political ob- servers and from information de- rived from many sources in all quar- ters, is steadily growing in the con- fidence and esteem of the voters in his candidacy for the presidential nomination. Republicans of influence are falling in line in his support These men are confident he will be nominated. Their only anxiety is as to what Gamage may be done the party pros- pects at the elections in November by attacks on the party in the pre- conventfon campalgn. It is realized by these men that every word of disparagement ut- tered in the preconvention campaign by republican rivals for the nomina- tion is water over the wheel of the democratic party. No personal at- tacks upon President Coolidge are tenable; all criticism must be in the nature of assail of the republican party tself. * %k x * One of the handsomest tributes pald President Coolidge was that of Frank A, Munsey, owner of the New York Herald and Sun, on the front page of the Herald Tuesday. Over his own signature he said: “Moreover, we have a man at the head of our government who hasthe complete confidence of the American people. In Calvin Coolidge they find the simple homespun characteristics, the rugged honesty, the clear think- ing, the genius for administration, the deflnite way of doing things, the unflinching courage and the fine com- mon sense that they want in the White House. And they will keep Calvin Coolidge there. “Holding to this conclusion, busi- ness men generally will make their plans and lay out their work pretty much as if it were not a national election year.” * ok ok ¥ That is just about what Henry Ford, himselt a type of a business man of high order, sald by way of advice to the voters. Mr. Munsey em- bellished the Ford remark by point- ing out that a national election year is mot a propitious time for a re- bound from the valley, and a boom perfod is much too artificial to keep on in full swing through the stress and misgivings of a national elec- on. It would constitute something of a new era in politics if there could be established this year the policy, of “business as usual” during the cam- paign. How often in campaigns has business been “shot to pieces” by polltie Mr. Ford and Mr. Munsey may have started something new. which s in the line of both of them. 2 x & ‘Well, we are in‘the campatgn year. No longer do the writers have to re- fer to the “campaign of next year.” They will say “the presidential cam- paign.” It is on at this hour. The meeting of the democratic na- tional committee in this city January 15 to select a site and name the day for the meeting of the democratic national convention will be attended by all of the fifty-two woman mem- bers of the national committee, ac- cording to an announcement by the rational committee. These woman members will have full voting power in the committee and cast an equal vote with the men. The statement by the committee says, “Democratic women are congratulating themselves upon having a vote on their com- mittee, inasmuch as in a recent meet- ing of the republican national com- mittee the women who attended were only ‘associate committeewomen,’ did not participate in the selection of the convention city, or otherwise vote on any policy or issue discussed. * % % % Commenting upon this, Mrs. Emily Newell Blair, vice chairman of the democratic national committee, said: “Following a caucus, in which one of their leaders told them that unless they demanded equal voting rights in their committee they ‘would wake up one day to find all of the women of the hation in the democratic party,’ as a result, the republican committee tentatively promised the republican women that the Cleveland convention would give them a vote similar to that given the democratic women by the San Francisco convention in 1920. The majority of the democratic committeewomen, it s announced, have madel reservations at the La Fayette Hotel, where the national committee will meet. Many will ar- rive January 14, and that afternoon will meet with' the vice chairman, Mrs. Blair. On Monday they will be entertained at luncheon at the Hamil- ton Hotel by the National Woman's Press Club. * ok kX Announcement by Gov. Channing H. Cox of Massachusetts that he will not be a candidate for the United States senatorship narrows the field to two other republican aspirants— Louis A. Coolidge, former assistant secretary of the Treasury, and Wil- ltam M. Butler, national committee- man for Massachusetts and at pres- ent President Coolidge's preconven- tion campaign manager. These two are good friends and the rivalry be- tween them will be on amicable lines. Mr. Coolidge is well known to the voters through addresses over a se- ries of years on public welfare and uplitt work throughout the state, and is prominent in business, too. Mr. Butler_has been active in large busi- ress affairs and has been a friend and adviser of President Coolldge through- out the President's political career. * x % ¥ It's lots of fun watching the repub- lican and democratic national com- mittees lambasting each other through thelr publicity bureaus. They don't care much what they say about each other, just so it “has a wallop” and is likely to make the other fellow “geo stars.” The other day the dem- ocratic committes charged that the republican tariff law cost the Christ- mas shoppers & billion dollars, on the theory of six billions of purchases and a billlon added by the tariff. Now _the republican _committee comes back with thejopening state- ment that the democratic allegation was the “greatest piece of fiction d in 1923 I8 ere s @ cholce bit of sarcasm In the republican statement: %Ot course, there is this to be said, even on the theory that the absurd charge were true; the American con- mer had his six billions to spend and spent it, which s more than can be said of the American consumer under any democratic administration with free trade in effect. “Christmas time is a very sad oc- casfon under democratic administra- tions, characterized . by closed fac- tories, fdle wage earners, familles in want, distress and suffering instead of Christmas cheer. Under demo- cratio free trade the most comspic- uous gift givers are charitable organi- sations and soup houses. ‘Where ifcan commit- ran Honed o uphold 1ts charge against th‘t: alleged “greatest plece of fic- fon in 1923.” - e * k¥ And the wonder of it all is that these rival committees, given a set of statistical figures, can handle them 50 as to make you believé that each one was right in absolutely tontra- ‘mu“'lrl, conclusions. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN Q. How many ex-service men'sit in the Sixty-elghth Congress?—A. G. A. The American Legion says that the ex-soldier membership of the House and Senate together will be found to be a representative cross- section of the 4,800,000 world war veterans of the country. For instance, practically one-half of the veterans in the House got across and saw service in the A. E. F. Four repre- sentatives, Jeffers of Alabama, Mo- Sweeney of Ohio, Watres of Pennsyl- vania and Reece of Tennessce, and one Senator, Reed of Pennsylvania, wear the D, S. C. Three representa- tives, Hill of Maryland, Andrew of Massachusetts and Walnwright of New York, have the D. S. M. Nine veterans in Congress put'in the major part of their service as enlisted men. Q. Who won the race that was run between a man and a horse’—C. K. K. A. In 1921 George Walsh, a movie athlete, defeated a race horse at the Aqueduct track, Long Island. Walsh was given a handicap and the race was run over the more difficult for the horse than for Walsh. The race was to settle a wager Walsh had with Jockeys Sande and Fator. Q. How fast does sound travel?— J.P. S A. The velocity of sound varles with the medium through which it passes. In dry air it travels at the rate of 331.38 meters per second; through water its velocity is 1,435 méters pér second, Q. How long has mahogany been used for furniture and finishing wood? —C. M. A. It was first used in about 1724. The consumption of material passing as mahogany now amounts to about 40,000,000 feet annually, while the cut of real mahogany s’ only 18,000,000 cet. Q. Is President Obregon a native Mexican?—T. P. A. A. President Obregon of Mexico is a Mexican. He was born in the dis- trict of Alamos, Sonora. Q. Are many mah-jong sets ported from China?—C. C. A. Mah-jong sets valued at $849,833 figure in imports of merchandise into the United States from Shanghal, China, for the first nine months of last year. This shows an increase of almost 33 per cent, compared with the corresponding period of 1922. Q. Who invente descriptive geometry?—A. W. A. Gaspard Monge (1746-1818), a French physicist and mathematician, was the inventor. the method of Q. Which signer of the Mayflower compact was the last to die?—A. M A. John Alden was the last sur- vivor. He was the youngest signer. Q. Are animals ever anesthetized and operated upon?—T. W. A. Such operations are performed with increasing frequency. In the animal hospital at the University of Pennsylvania the first operating table ever built for large animals has been installed. Q. Have mayors of cities always been elected by popular vote in this country?—C. H. A. A. The first mayor to be elected by popular vote in the United States infleld with turns | was Cornelius W. Laurence, who was ghosen mayor of New York ety in Q. When was the formed?—A. G. E. A. This temporary lake § th- ern’ California was formed ir 3005 and 1906 by the overflow inland of jthe Colorado river through the chan- nel of an irrigation canal. Q. How much did George Wash- Ington welgh as a young r:fi"—l?: A. When twenty-seven ye: 3 age Washington welghed 175 pounds Q. I am a retired soldier and con- template making my residence in France. Will I still be able to draw my pay?—>M. D. ‘1\. A retired soldier may live in Europe and receive his pay there. He ‘munz apply to the adjutant general's office and comply with the regula tions as to posting address. ve seats on the New Yor. Q. H xchange always sold for thousands of dollars?—b, L. T A. The New York Stock Exchange rose to a position of prominence only after the elvil war. In 1871 a sea! sold for us low « price as $2,750. Q. What country did Lincoln's \forefathers come from?—F. E. C. A. The ancdstor of Linecoln wi brought the name to this count Was Samuel Lincoln, whé came from Norwich, England. Q. Since the sun has such terrific hoat, Why doesu’t it burn itself up?— A. The =ource of the vast amount of heat which the sun gives off can 5ot be the result of combustion, for If such were the case it would have been consumed long ago. The Hel moholtz theory is generally acoepted. It assumes that the sun's bulk is graduaily contracting, and that the energy thus produced is turned into heat.” It has been calculated that contraétion of feet a vear would be enough to account for the developed. .. Q What trade is known as ‘gentle craft"’—C, C. M. A. The trade of shoemaking has been called the ‘gentle craft,” the designation arising from the fact that in an old romance a prince of the name of Crispin is made to exercise, in honor of his namesake, St. Cris- pin, the shoemaker's trade. There is also tradition that King Edward IV, in one of his disguises, once drank with a party of shoemakers, and that thereafter bechuse they had drunk with the king they were no more to be called shoemakers, but known as members of the trade of the gentle craft. Q. Does city smoke affect and plants?—F. R. E. Saltén sea heat the led the investigator to the conclusion that the smoke and gases emitted by power and_ heating plant chimneys had a harmful effect upon tre hrubs and other vegetation. Q. What poem contains the lines “Backward, turn backward, oh, time, in your flight"?—C. C. C A. This is the opening line of “Rock Me to Sle by Elizabeth Akefs Al= len, who wrote under the pen name of Florence Perey (Readers of The' Evening Star should_send their gquestions to The Star Information Bureaw, Frederic J. Haskin, director, 1220 North Capi- tol street. The only charge for this service is 2 cents in stamps for re- turn postage.) Scottish Peers Elect Quota To British BY THE MARQUISE DE FONTENOY. England's house of lords, at West- minster, is generally assumed, not only abroad, but even in England it- self, to be composed of men who owe their seats and their votes in the up- | per house of the national legislature efther to Inheritance or to the be- stowal of peerages by the crown. It also comprises some twenty-six dio- cesan, prelates of the State Church of England, who also are indebted for their appointment to their arch- bishoprics and bishoprics by the sov- ereign. But in addition to these, there are a certain number of members of the house of lords whose presence there 1s due to election and who rep- resent at Westminster the peerage of Scotland. Their election takes place in the Royal Palace of Holyrood, at Edinburgh, on the occasion of each general parliamentary election, a royal proclamation being formally read out by royal heralds from the Market Cross, in Edinburgh, ordering them to meet for the election within ten days. The election is presided over by the lord clerk register of Scotland, the pighest judicial dignitary of Scotland, and who happens to be the Duke of Montrose. The peers present vote for their nominees, while proxies are ac- cepted from those who are absent, and then the duke makes his return to the clerk of the crown in chancery, then through him to the clerk of the house of lords. At these elections at Holyrood, the great rofl of the peers of Scotland is read out, each peer present, either in person or proxy, answering his name and recording his vote. The great roll of the peers of Scotland bears the date of 1707,°since which time no new. Scotch peerage has been created, the additions which have been made thereto_ consisting' exclusively of re- vival of peerages created previous to that date, which had become tempo- rarily Gormant through the non-ap- pearance of claimants, or which, hav- ing been attiined by parliament on charges of treason in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, had had their attainder repealed by parlia- The great roll contains 112 names. But there are not more than eighty. six peers of Scotland in existence, many honors having become extinct since the time of the union between England and Scotland at the begin- ning of the eighteenth century. Never- theless, they cannot be struck off the roll, and the names of the Marquis of Annadale, of the Earls of Hynd- ford, of Portmore, of Marchmont and Findlater, etc., will continue to_ be called at each election at Holyrood as long as the Scotch peerage lasts. * kK ok There is no one at these elections who. has authority to challenge on behalf of the crown. the right to the peerage which he claims or holds, or to question his identity. That some such check is necessary in the latter respect was shown by the case of the late Earl of Seafield, who was born and spent his entire youth in New Zea- land and who on the occasion of his first visit to Scotland was utterly unknown, even by sight, to his fel- low peers of Scotland. There W nothing whatever to have prevented some imposter from attending the election at Holyrood Palace and when the name of the late Earl of Seafield was called, from voting under thal designation. Nor has this been by any means the only instance where the question of identity had to be taken oh trust by the remainder o the Scottish peers voting. ok Nor is there anything to preven the clalmant of some Scottish peers age that figures on the great roll, but which is now dormant, from answer- ing when the name is called and from recording his vote as such. True, If two or more peers present file a pro- test against the pretensions of the claimant, the lord clerk register who report the fact to the Rouss ot lofys at Westminster, which House of Lords may order that the title be not called again until the claimant has judicial- 1y proved his right thereto.” But in meanwhile the vote which he has re- corded stands and, even with a pro- test lodged agalnst it, is counted with the others, -Only in one instance has the housa of lords at Westminster interfered in this way during the last 100 years, and in 1848 it passed a vote directing the lord clerk register not to call the title of Lord Colville of Ochiltree, which figures on the great roll, or to permit anybody to vote at Holyrood under that name. This was because in the early portion of the reign of Queen Vicforia there was an im- poster who at each election at Holy- rood insisted on responding to the name of Lord Colville o Ochiltree when the latter's name w: lled, although the peerage in question was extinct. On the matter be report- ed to the house of lords the latter enacted an order that the name and title of Lord Colville of Ochiltree should not be called at any future election at Holyrood until the claim thereto has been satisf: orily estab- lished by a court of law . kX % At the election held the other day ection with the election, fif- nber of sixteen representative peers of Scotland were elected, there heing only one change, namely, the clec of Lord Sinclair in the place of the Farl of Rothes. The list is as foll The Marquis of Queensberry, the Earls of Caith ness, f Morton, of Mar and Kellle, of Haddington, of Lindeay, of Alrlie and of Leven and Melville, ‘the Viscount Falkland and the Lord Bell- haven, half-American Lord Fair- Balfour, Lord Semphill, oul, Lord Forbes and, as mentioned above, Lord Sinelair. The presence of the name of the tenth Marquis of Queensberry at the head of the list serves to recall that his grandfather, the el th rquis, the turbulent and pugnacious father of the unsavory Lord Douglas, now serving a term of prison after criminal- Iy libeling Winston Spencer Churchill, Was denied re-eiection as a representa- poer during the last thirty years of lte following and_cousequent upon profession of atheism. If Lord Tineteenth earl of his line, has failed to secure re-election, it is because Y cently sold all of his land in the Fiteshire. His wife, Lady Rothes, was on board the White Star steamer Titanie when that ill-fated ship was by collision with an iceberg, and he one of the fortunate survivors SE'nat great maritime disaster. He en- Jovs a number of ancient prerogatives. one of which, inherited from a long line of former dukes and earls of Rothes, is The right of removing the sovereign's on his return from any royal ; indeed, to serve as a sort of glorified royal bootjack. This was a Highly honorable office. For in ancient times note but great nobles, enjoying the complete confidence of the sover- were permitted to approach him When he was changing his attire, the jdea being that when thus engaged he was in a_defenseless condition. 1t may be recalled that at the art of Versailles none but great bles and trusted dignitaries of the realm were permitted to garb the sovereign with his shirt and coat, or to lay a hand on him, and there is a historical record of the fact that on one occasion Queen Marie Antoinette caught a terrible attack of pneu- monia because of a very cold morning the Duchesse de Noaliles, the grand mistress of the robes, was not on hand at the exact moment to invest the ill-fated soverelgn with her chemise and left her for several min- utes exposed to a strong draft. ‘As for Lord Sinclair, the newly elected representative peer of Scot- land, he' is the fifteenth peer of his line and will be recalled on this side of the Atlantic as having visited the United States as the master of Sin- clair and of having spent a week at Washington in the capacity of equer- ry to Prince Arthur of Connaught on the occasion of the latter's special embassy to Japan. Lord Sinclair is the head of one of the most anclent houses of Scotland, which traces back its origin to A.D. 875, and which has in_possession of its ancestral ‘on in east Low at at Holyrood in cc general parliam teen out of t ws: o been castle of Herdma thian since A.D. 117.