Evening Star Newspaper, June 8, 1924, Page 39

v > \ EDITORIAL PAGE NATIONAL PROBLEMS SPECIAL ARTICLES Part 2—16 Pages WAR BARBS ABOUND IN EASTERN EUROPE Great Dangers in Old and New Quarrels, Frontier Problems Being Chief " Existing Ones. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS, HILE world attention has been very largely concen- trated upon the internal Political situations in Ger- many and France in recent days, the cable has continued to carry warn- Ings of danger along the southwest- crn frontier of soviet Russia and to indicate the possibility of war in this relatively little known corner of Eu- rope. Is Russia planning a new war and will she make the title to Bes- sarabia the pretext for a new attempt to disturb the peace of Europe? These are the questions which are now being asked anxiously in more than one capital. The problem of Bessarabia is at one time the simplest and one of the most vexatious of post-bellum ques tions. It is in reality, of course. only oné phase’ of the eternal eastern question, of the troubles due to the Russian aspiration to acquire Con- stantinople and thus access to the open sea. If one is to measure the froth by the minatory tone and fre- quent gestures of Moscow it is fair assume that Russia of the Bolshe- Wints is hastening to set her feet in the pathway so often trod by the Somanoffs. Character of Bessarabia. Rumania acquired Bessarabia as a result of the world war. The actual union was accomplished through the ratification of the provincial council an overwhelming majority. Actu- Bessarabla was once a portion of the province of Moldavia, the west- ern half of which was included with- in the frontiers of Rumania when that state was created in 1859, Of *its three million inhabitants between half and three-quarters are of the Rumanian race and speak the Ru- manian tongue. The minority, how- ever, represents a mixture of many races, Slavs, Turks, Tartars, Bulga- rians and even a considerable num- ber of Germans, along with a large sprinkling of Je: Kishinev, the capital, was the scene of one of the most terrible Russian pogroms early in the present century, one conse- quence of which was a large migra- tlon of the Jewish survivors to America. History, the will of the majority of the people, geographical and strate- gic considerations all combine to Justify the present possession of this Pprovince by the Rumghians. The Russian claim, by contrast, is founded upon annexation following war and at the expense of the Turk in 1812, Almost half a century later three counties, near the mouth of the Danube, were retroceded by Rus- sia in 1836, following the Crimean war. Two decades later Ru, gained these counties following her war with Turkey, which was liqui- dated at the congress of Berlin. This return of these counties was a particularly odious episode, for in the Turkish war the Russians before Plevan had been saved by the ald and devotion of the Rumanian army and in return the benefactors were plundered of Rumanian lands. In part, to compensate for this spolia- tion, half of the Dobrudja was assign- ed to Rumania. This gave her an outlet on the Black Sea, but it also led to the feud with Bulgaria, a feud which has had evil consequences for both the Bulgarians and the Ruma- wians. Bulgarin Plans Revenge. For the Bulgarians, the loss of the Dobrudja was so bitter an injury that they continued to plan revenge. Rumania, in her turn, disturbed by Bulgarian threats, took advantage of Bulgaria’s misfortunes in the second Balkan war, when Bulgaria was at war with Greece and Serbia, and also was invaded by Turkey. A Rumanian army moved south in Bulgaria and approached Sofia, while the Bul- garian armies were fighting the Gireeks and Serbs in Macedonia and Thrace. Already defeated, the Bul- garians were compelled to yield and the treaty of Bucharest deprived them not merely of more of the Dobrudja, hut also of Macedonia and Thrace, while the Turks retook Adrianople. Two years later, when Rumania was invaded by German and Austrian armies, Bulgaria had her revenge and Bulgarian armies, together With Turkish, invaded and conquered the Dobrudja, which was ceded to Bul- garia under the terms of the short- Jived treaty which followed the Ger- man occupation of Bucharest, and the Rumanian surrender, due in turn to the Russian collapse. But under this same settlement Rumania Was per- mitted, with German and Austrian consent, to take Bessarabla.' ‘When Austria collapsed and Ger- many surrendered, 2 year later, Ru- mania, backed by the allies, reoccu- pied the Dobrudja and regained both portions—that which she had ac- quired in 1878 and that taken in 1913, while she also retained Bessarabia; and this latter province presently through its local parliament gave em- phatic approval to the union with Rumanis. But meantime a novel quarrel had arisen With soviet Russia. This quarrel had its origin in the fact that, following the disastrous campaign of 1916, when the Ru- manian armies were beaten and driven out o most of their country, the gold reserves of Rumania had ‘been moved from Bucharest to Rus- sian territory and, after the Russian revolution, fell into the hands of the Bolshevists. Once she had got clear of her German and Austrian foes !{umlnll turned to Russia and de- manded the return of her gold. But the soviet government met this de- mand by a counter demand for the re- turn of the Province of Bessarabia, and for. five years the dispute has| continued. At times it has seemed that the Russian demand for the return of the lost province was little more than a way of arriving at a final settlement based upon the surrender by Russia of her claim upon Bessarabia and a relinquishment by Rumania of her claim upon her vanished gold re- serves. But in recent weeks Russian insistence has taken on a very men- acing character and the threats of war have multiplied. The recent ex- cursion of the King and Queen of Rumania to Paris and London was generally interpreted as having been employed, if not designed, to offer the opportunity for an appeal to the two governments to support a wartime ally, threatened again. That Rumania did get the promise and perhaps the actual contribution of war material from France has been duly stated in the press, this material, of course, covered by a loan. The Rumanian army was reorganiz- ed during the war by French officers, Gen. Berthelot among them. There have, too, been rumors of an alli- ance between France and Rumania, on the lines of the Franco-Polish agreement, but this has not been an- nounced. I dwell upon this Rumanian affair now, because in its various circum~ stances it is an admirable illustra- tion of the real difficulties in the European situation. Thus, if there should be a war between Rumania and Russia now, the complications might be almost innumerable. Aside from the possibility that France might be involved, which is less likely un- der the new ministry than the out- going, such a struggle would in- stantly concern Poland, would have immediate significance for Czecho- slovakia and might have repercus- sions in both Hungary and Bulgaria. Poland would at once be concerned because she has an alliance with Rumania, based upon the possibility of a Russian attack upon either. Thus if Rumania were attacked by Russia, it would be the duty of Po- land to go to her assistance. In theory this would also be the duty of all the nations which compose the league of nations, but since the Polish experience with Russia, several years ago, neither Poland nor Rumania can hope for much from the league members with the possible exception of France. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia would not be bound to support Ru- mania against Russia, although all three are members. of the Little En- mania, or if Bulgaria assailed the Rumanians, then both these Slav states would, under the terms of the Little Entente arrangement, be bound to act against Hungary and Bul- garia. Recent dispatches have sug- gested that Yugoslavia might consent to Include Russian aggressiop among the reasons for standing by Rumania in war. Could Strike in Rear. Hungary and Bulgaria would be inclined to take advantage of a Rus- sian invasion of Bessarabia to strike Rumania in the rear, because Hun- gary is determined to recover'Transyl- vania and the Banat, just as Russia is aiming to reconquer Bessarabia, while between Rumania and Bul- garia stands the old dispute over the Dobrudja, which has already pro- voked two wars. In Transylvania and the Banat, as in Bessarabia, the vast majority of the population is Rumanian, or, more exactly, the Ru- manian element constitutes not only more than half the total population, but outnumbers the German and Magyar fractions more than three to one. In the southern half of the Dobrudja, on the other hand, the Bul- garian population is, or was before the last war, more numerous than the Rumanian. To add to the complications, Greece has every reason to fear Bulgarian designs on that portion of her terri- tory along the Aegean from the mouth of the Vardar to that of the Maritza—that is, Including Salonica, and might make a common cause with the Rumanians and the Serbs. Again, far to the north, the Lithu- anians are maintaining a paper state of war with the Poles over the mat- ter of Vilna, and if Poland were in- volved in a war with Russia as a resalt of a Russian attack upon Ru- mania, Lithuania might seek to re- gain Vilna and might support the Russians, as she did in the recent Russo-Polish war, which ended in the Russian defeat and the peace of Riga. Back of all these possibilities lies also that of Germany. She is openly planning to retake Posen, west Prus- sia and upper Silesia from Poland and put an end to the separate state of Danzig. Would she be able to re- sist the temptation to strike Poland in the rear while Russia was assail- ing her in the front and Lithuaaia in the flank? In addition, Germany looks forward to liberating some 3,000,000 of German-speaking citizens of the Czechoslovakian state and of annex- ing all of Bohemia and Moravia, along with the fragment of Czech Silesia and Teschen. And if Germany moved, what of France? ‘What of Belgium? What, for that matter, of Great Britain? There you have, them, the present state of Europe in a brief compass. The vears ago the assassination of the Austrian archduke in Serajevo touched a match to the European magazine. Serbia was instantly in- volved, Serbian danger brought Rus- sia into the dispute and the coming of Russia brought France and Ger- many in on opposite sides, then Eng- land came in and Italy retired from her partnership with the central powers to reappear as their foe a fow months later. Ultimately coun- ~ (Continued on_Thll ») tente, but if Hungary attacked Ru-| EDITORIAL SECTION The Sundwy Staf WASHINGTON, D. C, Democrats Once More Are Aroused | Over Two-Thirds Nominating Rule BY WILL P. KENNEDY. ROPOSALS to abrogate the rule that has been in opera- tion for ninety-two years re- quiring a two-thirds vote to snominate a Democratic candidate for the presidency in the national con- ventions have aroused the party management and the camps of the rivals for the nomination. This is one of the biggest pre-con- vention issues—so much so that Gov. Al Smith of New York and former Secretary William G. McAdoo, the two leading contenders, have each had representatives in Washington during the last week studying the records in the Congressional Library on the origin and history of the two- thirds rule. Cordell Hull, chairman of the Democratic -national committee, has also secured all the information available on this subject and has re- viewed all previous attempts to re- scind the rule. Representative Clarence Cannon, parliamentarian at the Democratic convention, is also fortifying himself regarding points of order with ref- erence to this subject. The first intimation that an effort might be made to nominate the Democratic candidate for the presi- dency by a majority vote of the con- vention rather than by a two-thirds vote was given by George E. Bren- nan, Democratic leader of Illinois, one of the “big three” supporters of Gov. Smith. McAdooltes Accept Challenge. Ex-Judge David Ladd Rockwell, director general of the McAdoo | forges, promptly accepted the chal- lenge, saying that the McAdoo dele- gates would offer no objection; that they propose to nominate McAdoo “under such rules as may obtain,” whether under the two-thirds rule or under a majority rule. Investigation shows that this rule has been the subject of contention during the entire life of the Demo- cratic national convention. Representative Frederick W. Dal- linger of Massachusetts, who is now a candidate for the republican nomi- nation for semator from Massachu- setts against Speaker Gillett and Louis A. Coolidge, in his book on | “Nominations for Elective Offices” | BY DREW PEARSON. Py 1ERE is not the ghost of a chance that the United | States will abandon the gold standard, despita the predictions of J. M. Keynes and other European economists.” This decisive statement came from FEdwin R. A. Seligman, professor of political economy at Columbia Uni- versity, and one of the foremost au- thorities on international finance on either side of the Atlantic. Dr. Seligman is not of the prover- bial professorial type who spends most of his life in classroom and library. Ever since President Roose- velt appointed him a member of the national committes on statistical re- organization he has given generously of his time to national, state and mu- nicipal committees on taxation and finance. As head of the department of political economy, one of the most important in the university, his du- ties are manifold and strenuous. Prof. Seligman is known as the “father” of the new and flourishing school of business. 1 went to Prof. Seligman with the contention of J. M. Keynes, English economist, that the United States must inevitably abandon the gold standard. Keynes argues that most of the world has alrpady abandoned go01d, and that since the world's gold supply, fast piling up in the United States, means a great loss to us, our federal reserve banks must abandon gold for a “managed” currency sys- tem. Opposes Keynes. Prof. Seligman gave a definite de- nial to the arguments of the English economist, and proceeded to .MF why the United States was. not likely to abandon gold as the foundation of its currency. “It is true” he pointed out, “that we have given up the use of gold in most of the United States, as, in fact, we did before the war except on the Pacific coast; but we have not relin- quished and shall not relinquish it as our standard. Anywhere in this country you can still take a gold certificate or a greenback to a bank and get gold back over the countef. ‘We are the only important country, except perhaps Japan, which still does this. No,” he concluded, “there is not the ghost of a chance of our abandoning gold. “Nor do T think it a foregone con- clusion that the European countries have definitely abandoned gold, de- spite the contentions of J. M. Keynes and other European economists. Italy is determined to deflate—that is, to return to gold. The Italians point out that fifteen years were required after the wars in 1870 to bring Ital- ian currency back to the gold stand- ard. But it was finally accomplished, and Italy believes that it can again be accomplished after this war. France,” continued Prof. Seligman, “ig divided on the question. Perhaps you noticed in the papers the other morning what an uproar there was in Paris against a further rise in the franc. A rise in value hurts just as much as a fall. Many Frenchmen claim that a further rise of the franc ‘will hurt their tourist trade. ; "England also is divided, Keynes discloses that the first call for & na- tional nominating convention was issued n September, 1830, by a pre- liminary conference of the, Anti- Masonlic party and resulted in the as- semblage of delegates at Baltimore September 26, 1831, This convention was followed by 2 convention of the National Repub- lican, or Whig, party which met on December 12, 1831, and on May 21, 1832, by a convention of the Demo- cratio party, all in the same city. The procedure established by these early: conventions with respect to the organization of committees, rules, and redolutions has continued with but few changes to the present day. Official records of Democratic national conventions reveals that qach convention in turn adopted the rules of the preceding convention. What the rules were originally can- not be stated with certainty, but by common consent they are understood to be the rules governing the United States House of Representatives, so far as applicable. Rale of First Convention. The Democratic convention of 1832 originated with the friends of De- mocracy in New Hampshire. In that first Democratic national convention the committee to nominate officers proposed a resolution which provided in part “that two-thirds of the whole number of the votes in the convention shall be necessary to comstitute a choice.” This Is the origin of the two- thirds rule which has been adopted by every subsequent convention of the Democratic party, to which par- ty its operation has been confined, Representative Dallinger points out. Tho two-thirds rule has been the subject of frequent debate in the convention and numerous attempts have been made to change it. In the convention of 1835 Mr. Saunders from the committes on rules proposed “that in taking a vote for the nomination of President and Vice President—two-thirds of the whole number of votes given be required for a nomination.” Mr. Saunders supported the two-thirds provision because that would have a more imposing effect; but Mr. Allen of Massachusetts declared in favor GOLD TO REMAIN BASIS OF CURRENCY SYSTEMS U. S. Never Will Abandon Standard, De- clares Finance Expert in = Answering Keynes. | having failed to convince even his own country that a return to a gold standard' is unwise. Germany, of course, can never redeem her old cur- rency. She has a new currency, to be sure, which she calls the ‘gold mark,’ but this has no more relation to the old mark than the dollars which Alexander Hamilton issued after the Revolution had to the old continental dollars. They were called dollars, but redeemed at 100 to 1. “How much of the world's gold is now in the United States?’ I asked. “About one-half. We have $4,300.- 000,000 out of the $9,000,000,000 the world possesses.” i “Is it true that this vast amount of £old on our hands means a loss to us?" *J. M. Keynes has presented some fig- ures to that effect,”” Prof. Seligman re- plied thoughtfully. “And in a way, we do lose something. He points out that the United States is the only country which continues the pre-war practice of accepting gold. And while the valne of £old has fallen by about 40 per cent we still maintain our old ratio of value. That is, our mints still accept goid for coinage at $20.67 per troy ounce. This means that the world can ship gold to us and get greater value for it than in any other country. If the South African gold miners shipped gold to France, for instance, it would be accepted and paid for in francs at the present low rate, which is about one-fourth of what gold would bring in the United States. Or, if shipped to the Scandinavian countries, it would not be accepted at all. Sweden has, or had until recently, an embargo against the import of gold.” “Why is that?™ Gold's Handicap. “Because an increase of gold means increased currency and credits and a corresponding rise in prices,” Prof. Selig- man explained. “Why does the United States not suf- fer a corresponding inflation from its great supply of gold™ I asked. “Because our Federal Reserve Board very wisely does not allow all of this £old to get into circulation. The gold re- serve of the federal reserve system is required by law to be 40 per cent. The recent unprecedented import of gold ordinarily would have permitted the banks to increase their currency circu- lation to a corresponding level, which, in turn, would have brought inflation, high prices and unhealthy business. Instead of issuing new notes for this gold, how- ever, the banks simpiy kept the goid in government vaults, 5o that the goid re- serve, instead of being 40 per cent of the note circulation, is gow 82 per cent. “Of course, there is a loss of interest upon the gold which is lying idle in ‘Washington, which J. M. Keynes esti- mates at one-half a billion dollars a year. Personally, I believe his figures are a little fantastic, but this loss cer- tainly is better than the alternative in- flation and rise in prices.” “Is there no way by which we can put our gold syplus to work?" I sug- gested. TUse for Our Gold. “I think we can best hold it as a re- serve for world reconstruction,” Prof. Seligman returned after some thought. of majority as being in accord with Democratic principles. It was adopt- d 231 to 210. The two-thirds prinaiple was prob- ably intended to affect the nomina- tion of Viee President and to keep out R. M. Johnson, many being will- ing to make no nomination rather than to accept his. In the conven- tion of 1848 in Baltimore the two- thirds rule was adopted by a vots of 176 to 78, after considerable de- bate. The two-thirds rule was again adopted “amidst vehement applause” by the convention of 1852 in Balti- more after Mr. Platt of Ohio moved its rejection, declaring it a “wrong upon WuasDemocratic party and a wrong upon the principle of equal rights and that a majority shall rule.” In Other Comvemtions. The resolution “On the ballot for President and Vice President no person shall be declared to be nominated who did not receive two-thirds of all the votes the full convention was entitled to cast,” offered by Mr. Howard of Ten- Tessee, was adopted by a vote of 141 to 112 in the convention of 1860 in Charles- ton, §. C. It will be noted that here the two-thirds rule was qualified to require two-thirds of all the votes cast in the electoral college. This occasioned lengthy debate in the New York convention in 1868, when the question of ‘adopting the rules of the preceding convention in Chicago in 1864 came up, that convention having adopt- ed the rules of the 1860 convention. After some discussion Horatio Seymour, the presiding officer, spoke at length on the construction of the two-thirds rule. He had read the decision of the con- vention in Charleston in 1360, and the assenting decision of the convention when it met again in Baltimore under another chairman after the disruption of that body. He asked that the conven- tion instruct the chair as to the right interpretation of that resolution. The ruling was that “the resolution passed at Charleston was not a change in the rule requiring a two-thirds vote to be given to nominate, but merely a direction given to the chair, by the con- vention, not to declare any one nominat- ed until he had received two-thirds of the votes of the electoral college.” SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 8, 1924. At the national democratic conven- tion in St. Louls in 1876 the following resolution was adopted : “That the states be requestsd to instruct their delegates to the Democratic national convention to be held in 1880 wiether it be de- sirable to continue the two-thirds rule longer in force in national conventions, and that the national committes insert such request in the call for the next convention. A motion to abrogate and discontinue the two-thirds rule was laid on the table by the conyention in Chicago in 1884. In the Convention of 1896 in Chi- cago, E. W. Marston of Lonislana de- clared it to be “the sense of the convention that the majority should rule, and that the precedent estab- lished by Democratic conventions heretofore upon the two-thirds rule is cowardly subterfuge.” When he was prevented from putting this motion on a point of order he de- clared: “You will hear from me later.” i Left to Ome Decislon. The chair later announced that “careful examindtion of the records heretofore made leaves open to the chair but one decision: - “It was adopted in the Ohio con- vention of 1852 and, in so far as is pertinent here, it is as follows: That two-thirds of the whole number of votes given shall be mecessary for a nomination for President or Vice President. “The rules of the House of Repre- sentatives, which have also been adopted, are clear and positive that when a quorum is ascertained, that the rule which I am now about to en- force must be held the true and proper rule of conduct, and. there- fore, in the opinion of the chair, two- thirds of the votes given will nomi- nate a candidate for President and Vice President of the United States. In the San Francisco convention in 1920 a motion by Pat Harrison of Mississippi, now senator and keynote orator of the coming convention, to suspend the rules and upon each suc- cessive ballot to eliminate the lowest candidate of the preceding ballot was defeated by a vote of 820% to 256.| The proceedings of other conventions than those referred to above indicate | that the two-thirds rule was adopted without debate. KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN IS NOW A BUSINESS GIRL Dark Maiden of Sorrows Passes for Progressive Bobbed-Haired Little Modern. HE portrait of spiritual Ireland for centuries has hung in the gallery of nations—a master- piece of pathos in gold and green, with smoky sunset background of lost battles, tumbledown villages and churches in ruins. Kathleen Mavourneen, teary ghost haunting churchyards of weeds and crosses, dark maiden of sorrows, sweetheart of spectral heroes, per- sonification of hopeless loves— The picture has inspired a poignant note in the literaturs and music of the world. Ireland has constituted a symbol, not of the glory of victory, but of the heroism of waiting; not of the brief exaltation of death at the stake, but of the constancy of lone- some vigil by the bedside of wounded aspirations while the candles of hope burned low. It has expressed some- thing dim and undefined in the hearts of untversal humanity—not the sort of motif for hymns that sent men into battle, but for the songs that women sing when they are alone in the house and the mystic immensity of loneli- ness oppresses them. Such has been Ireland. Thé old picture still hangs in a shadowed corner—treasured relic of an age that has gone. Sentimental sightseers gather around it and-choke back the tears it starts. Its paint has cracked in places. Dust gathers on its gilt frame.\ Here’s the Modern Picture. Across the gallery hangs another picture of Kathleen Mavourneen—a life-sized photograph of a laughing girl with bobbed hair and short green skirt, stains from carbon paper on her face, a pencil stuck behind her ear. The artist has palnted in a background of clear sunrise, with fac- tory chimneys smoking, great herds grazsing on green meadows—a scene of twentieth century prosperity, with husbandmen and tradesmen too busy to throw more than a fleeting glance at mossy gravestones under which the fathers and martyrs sleep. For Kathleen Mavourneen is a business girl now. The boss raised her pay last week. She's thinking of getting a marcel wave, for she's got a date tonight with her boy friend and they may drop into a dance after the movies. The hands of the master who paint- ed the portrait are dust. A hundred forgotten battlefields in the tragic green hills may claim his grave. The photographic firm which produced the new picture is much alive and pros- perous. It is the United States De- partment of Commerce, which has just prepared a comprehensive report on the agricultural, industrial and com- mercial resources of Ireland for the benefit of American business firms looking for overseas markets. For the first time Americans can see the green isle of sorrows in the plain blacks and grays of business statis- tics, untinted with the soft tones of romance and pathos. Just what is Ireland before the lens of a commercial camera? The report, prepared by Fred A. Christoph of the western European division, bu- reau of forelgn. and domestio cog-. merce, furnishes the answer which will prove valuable to many who have been misled in the maze of conflicting and biased statistics which have been published on this confusing subject. | About the Size of Maine. The island is about the size of the state of Maine. Its estimated popula- tion is slightly over four millions, | two-thirds of whom are in the terri- tory comprised by the Irish Free State, The chief industry today is agri- culture, as it has been since the days of St. Patrick. About one-fourth of the total land area of Ireland was un- der cultivation in 1922, a considerable increase over the year before, when the country was in the grip of devas- tating civil war. The wages of hired men at present constitute the worst problem the Irish farmer must face both in the Free State and in Ulster. On the whole they have advanced much more rap- idly than the price of farm commod- ities. This is due, in part, to the new standard of values established in all western nations by the world war. In southern Ireland it is due particularly to the fact that large numbers of the available farm hands were Kkilled off during the Sein Fein fighting and the civil disruption that followed the peace with Great Britain. Moreover, a spirit of restlessness seized upon the younger men after the years of hiding in glen and mountain in the mud and drenching rains of the four seasons—a restlessness which called them to forsake the rural communi- ties and seek their fortunes in the cities as soon as the war was over. In 1914 the wage of farm laborers was 12 shillings a week and plenty to beg for jobs. The latest scale reported was 27 shillings a week, with nobody available. Large Estates Unpreduective. This condition has tended to make the larger estated unproductive. It has established the backbone of Irish agriculture in farms of from thirty to seventy acres. of which there are more than 200,000. This amount of land can be cultivated by the farmer and his family without the help of outside labor. The most thrifty and Dprogressive farmers are included in this class. The Free State is doing its best to eliminate the large number of small, uneconomic farms—that is, those under fifteen acres. The prev- alence of these in the past has been one of the most important cpuses of Irish poverty. Even today, with the higher prices, they do not provide suf- ficient return to supply the reasonable wants of the farmer and his family, even if they are well managed, Wher- wver possible owners are encouraged to consolidate these farms. Dairying is one of the most im- portant branches of Irish agriculture. There are over a million and a half milch cows producing butter and cheese for the English market. Many of the large homestead farms mainly are utilized for grasing purposes. The ministry of agriculture of the Society News | GIVE WAY BY WHITING WILLIAMS, ANTED, 1,000 coal min- ers! Five-foot vein. Open lights. No gas. New camp. Good Ship tomorrow. Apply in- €é ‘ehuck.’ side.” That kind of sign got me into my first coal mine after the steel plant had laid me and other common la- borers off. Today such a sign is very scarce. In whole great districts in the country’s soft coal fields the bit- ter pinch of joblessness is being felt as it has not been felt in years, What's worse, coal men and engi- neers everywhere say that this pinch is only the beginning of a huge and inevitable pressure which will grow more overwhelming almost month by month. The reason? Merely that the industry which is most basic to American industry and life has sud- denly started to rid itself of an an- clent and honorable but over-used in- cumbrance—the hand shovel. As never before, new methods and new machines of undreamed of strength and skill are being perfected and put to work in our soft coal mines for giving to the public what it demands—a regular and reliable supply of fuel at a stabilized, mini- mum cost. How does it happen that this huge game of “stage-coach upset!"—with its tragic and its constructive possi- bilities in our mine towns and else- where—gets under way just now? “Over-Expansion” Ome Cause. Well, first of the causes is the tre- mendous over-expansion of our (soft) coal mines following the abnormal demands of the great war—an over- expansion of fully 4,000 of the largest out of our 8,000 big and little mines and of, easily, 200,000 out of our 800,- 000 miners. After that comes the public's ex- asperation at the stoppages and bit- terness of the warfare between coal producer and coal miner during the last few years—warfare which culmi- nated in the Herrin disaster. War- tare, also, which further expanded the industry by providing frequent and extensive periods—five months in '22 —when the “snow-birds” or middle- winter, high-cost mines could operate at a profit. Still further, there has lately come what some on both sides are calling an “economic blunder'—the signing | of an agreement by the ex-fighters in the union mines which establishes for three years the peak, war time scale of miners' wages. Today, as the result of all these, | you can walk into mines where, say, |fifty men, around a big machine, |are getting well over 1,000 tons in a day's work where formerly they would have hoped to get around 200! And if you will swear secrecy, |a good friend may show you such a Wondestul Growth. Of United States The wonderful growth of the United States a3 a nation during the past 100 years is shown forcibly in the | correspondence relative to the leg- {islation now before Congress, sup- ported by the National ociety, Daughters of the American Revolu- tion; the Portland Historical Society and the International Longfellow Soclety, providing for celebration of the centenary of Lafayette's last visit to this country. The nation of 3.000.000 people for which he fought by the side of Washington had grown to 12,000,000, and today, after 100 years, numbers 112,000,000, The Tnion of . twenty- four states has now forty-eight. Recalling the fact that no Roman ever had such a triumphal procession as that accorded Lafayette, which has scarcely a parallel in the annals of | man, as he journeyed through every one of the then twenty-four states, week after week, month after month, continuously for more than a year. it is now proposed that a national com- mission shall traverse over the same roads in the then twenty-four states of the Union on the anniversaries of his journey and that this course be designated as permanent Lafayette memorial highways. Helps Consumer Get Money’s Worth Another government employe—in the bureau of chemistry—has worked out a device to curb an unfair prac- % tice in business and to assist the con- sumer in getting what he pays for. This mechanism, officials believe, will aid materially in detecting the prac- | tice of seling brine, sirup or water in place of solid food products. 1t determines whether liquid has been substituted excessively for solid food in cans. The instrument is a perforated, circular brass plate three inches in diameter, to the center of which is screwed perpendicularly a brass rod ome-quarter of an inch square. On one side of the rod isa ‘scale- graduated in inches and six- teenths of an inch. When a can has been opened for sampling by the in- spector the measuring instrument is pressed down lightly on the solid contents, the liquid portion rising through the perforations. A straight edge is then placed across the top of the can and the reading made where it comes in contact with the brass rod. —t—————— A redwood tree cut recently in northern California scaled about a quarter of a million feet of lumber. OLD-TIME COAL MINERS TO MACHINES Lists of Unemployed Grow, Overexpan- sion Also Aiding—Output Is Increased. machine as I have seen, by which, men are multiplying their former output by nearly ten! Cost Will Be Halved. The halving of the cost of min- ing within five vears appears defin- itely and conservatively in prospect. “Why only three ton o coal to- day, Joe?" one of my buddies called to a husky Polish miner as wa huddled low in a mine car and yelled or banged our dinner pails for mora speedsout of our galloping mule. “If take all damfool coal out to- day,” Joe answered with a Jollv gleam of his white teeth in the darkness, “no can find job tomor- row!” i Today the chances are that Joa is up in the nearby city scanning the blackboards outside the labor agencies for one of those old “min- ers wanted” signs—in vain. The fear of another strike last April made many buyers “stock up” and so kept him and his chums fairl busy last winter. That stock-pile means of itself a dull market to- day. Worse than .that, there aro those new machines—iron men that don’t know enough to save work for tomorrow! Some of these are merely troughs —steel troughs which move the coal away from the “face” of the seam out into the daylight. The shovel lift into it is shorter than into the old car, and so the cost is less—a also the need of Joe and his shoul- ders. Other machines are small team or electric shovels which fill the in a twinkling after the coal k been brought down in the usual wa by drill and powder. Then there others which pick up the black diamonds from the floor with sinuous and unceasing arms of steel. Still others minc the coal as well as load it. All of these mean less sweat and less cost—and more Joes who ‘no can find job tomorrow." “In Between” Periods. TUndoubtedly the economists are right who say that cheaper fuel will =0 increase the jobs in our factories that Joe will find a job in one of them. Oddly enough, it will take Jo: a long time to consider this new job as good as his old one—and for mors reasons than are in the pay envelope “Odp outside, one-a day sweat, onesm day freeze! No like-em,” &« foreign miner explained to me onc day. “Here no hot, no cold. Allx time goo-0-a!" “Like-em” or “no like-em,” Joe's family i& pretty sure to be happier outside the average mine town. In any event, they are sure to bring to the factory town or city a res- ular brood of amazing changes the work and life of the rest of us along with the cutting of industry fuel costs in two Thus, for instance, the moment coa is minde at half its present figur: the transportation of it may easily be more expensive than its mining That demands the shipping of coa by wire—after turning it into powe at the mine’s mouth. That spelis histors—perhaps tragedv—for our railroads; for today one-third of their traffic is coal! “New Deal” All Around. “With soft coal costimg only & dollar at the mine,” so an engine mengioned another of that brood o changes, “the ‘white coal' of wate power becomes much less profitabl. than now—and Muscle Shoals ma: become nothing worth quarrelin over!” Altogether, such a cut in indus trial fuel costs may well bring such a reduction in the selling prices of manufactured articles as could easily be equivalent to, say, a 5 per cent increase in the buying power of th wage or salary of everybody in th land—in addition to making factor. jobs everywhere easier to get. Still further, such cheap fuel can xpected to give America such a in international trade and as she has never before be position polities known. “From here” a coal operator ex- plained to me one day in West Vir ginia, “this level five-foot seam of precious fuel scarcely varies eighteen inches in thickness for a hundred miles until it reaches the Ohio River™ Conditions in France. As he spoke I recalled the n row three-foot vein in which 1 onc worked in northern France. Stand- ing as the seam did, on end, my coal fell from my pick down into the darkness seventy-five feet below while that of my fellow workers higher up struck upon the planks just above my head—or tricklea through the cracks and down neck. That difference of thickness and of regularity has already given to the American coal miner twice and three times as much tonnage per day as to his fellow miner abroad With this old disparity further multi plied by even as much as two, our old disadvantage of distance from market is wiped out and markets hitherto closed to us throughout tha seven seas are opened. So those great black, blind mon- sters, grinding and growling down below ground in the darkness as they fill their cars with unheard-of speed. may be pushing us faster than all our seagoing turbines and whirling twin- screws into the center not only -of commercial pre-eminience but of moral and political responsibility and obligation among the nations. Our coal-fown “Joes"—and perhaps some of our statesmen—may not like all this. But one who has seen the new machines handle tons as easily as Joe's shovel used to handle pounds It was seventy feet in circumference and 300 feet high, and two men % (Continwed o Third Page.). .. .. worked seven days to fell it 1s certain to assure you that it's now | 100 late to stop ‘em. \ (Copyright, 1934, United States and Casoda, hy Nerth American Newmeger Allazowe - /