Evening Star Newspaper, August 9, 1924, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition, WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY......August 9, 1924 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. . Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company | Business Office. 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 Fast 42nd St. Chicago Office: Tower Building. European Office: 16 Regent St.,London, Eagland. ., wl(h‘ the Sunday morniag hin the cents per month: Sunday only. month. Orders may be sent by mail or t I phone Main 5000. Collection is made D3 Tiers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Dafly and Sunday..1yr, $8.49: 1 mo., 70¢ Daily only . $5.00 ; 1 mo., 50¢ Sunday only $2.40: 1 mo., 20¢ All Other States. Daily and Sunday.1 yr., $10.00 Daily only . $7.00 Sunday only $3.00 : 1 mo., 85¢ : 1 mo., 60c i1 mo., 25¢ Iy entitled ton of all news dis- tches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local mews pub: lished herein. ~All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. Curbstone Garages. Washington's motor-parking prob- lem is not confined to daytime con- ditions. The all-night parke inc difficulty. In the residential strects of the city curb lines are « from corner to continuously after dark, the driving space in the streets being reduced to barely room for the passage of two machines. It requires especially skiliful driving to negotiate some of the narrower streets at night on account of this congestion of parked cars. A slight unevenness in the surface, or the wetting of the pavement, may cause a sidewise mo- tion at a critical moment, with the result a collision. To find berth room on one of these blocks in case an evening call is intended is usually impossible, and the caller must go far away to locate his machine for the brief time required. The truth is that there are many more cars in use in this city than there are spaces for their storage. Garages are tucked away on vacant lots and on the ends of lots, some- times two, or even four, cars being accommodated in these structures. But there remain many hundreds of machines literally “without homes.” In some cases the all-night parkers are pursuing economical lines. It is cheaper to store the machine at the curb than to hire a garage. In nu- merous instances it costs not even the slight expense of electric current for signal lamps, for great numbers of machines are left out all night with- out any lights whatever, despite the fact that this is distinctly contrary to regulations. Here, then, is a city that allows the free storage of cars during the day in the downtown section and the free storage of cars during the night in the residential section. Is there an- other place in the United States, or in the world, where this is permitted? It may be doubted. The streets of the Capital have become storage spaces primarily and moving spaces second- arily. If before issuing a license to a car driver the District government were to require proof that a suitable off- street space is available for night storage, theré would perhaps be fewer licenses, which would probably not be a bad thing for Washington. For it is quite plain that today there are too many machines in use here for the accommodations for them. A tremendous protest would be raised if the owners of horses stabled their animals in the streets and stored their carriages and wagons along- side the curbs, using for this pur- pose a space of 6 feet or so of the pavement for the purpose. Nobody dreamed of doing so in former times when horses were the chief means of transportation. Allday and all-night curbstone stabling would have been decreed a public nuisance and promptly punished as such. Yet car-stabling alongside the curbs, day and night, is the common practice at present. It should be stopped. A rule against the use of the streets for free car storage, strictly enforced, would stop it. Let the remedy result from the necessity of car owners. s present an s mpletely oceupied corner ————————— When a young man says he ear- nestly desires capital punishment for the sake of the thrill there may be lurking in his unconscious mind a hope that the authorities will try to disappoint him, just for spite. TR e Several Democratic leaders may be inclined to defer to a veteran whose speeches are always heard with in- tetest and yield liberal portions of thelr time to William Jennjngs Bryan. When Gov. Al Smith takes the stump the parodists will havea chance to make it, “East Side, West Side; All Around the Map!” Russia shows a growing inclination to drop bolshevism and talk business. The Water Service. ‘The engineer in charge of the ‘Washington water system gives in. teresting figures in his annual report. The average daily consumption for the year July 1, 1283-June 30,1924, in round figures, was 65,500,000 gallons, and the maximum consumption in any day was in January, when Washing- ton used 76,600,000 gallons. The rea- son for that high consumption on a ‘Winter day is not given. If Winter consumption reached such figures as shown in the engineer's report, it is likely that the use of water in these bot August days equals the capacity qf the conduit and the reservolirs to deliver it from Great Falls. We are practicing water economies .in. the matter of sprinkling lawns and flush. ing streets, and there are fountains ‘which are not flowing. The margin ‘between income and outgo of water nrust be dangerously small. The engineer's report also deals ‘with consumption of filtered water by Gowernment plants. During the year the Navy Yard used a daily average some of | Printing Office 920,000 gallons, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing 763,000 gallons, the State, War and Navy Building 700,000 gallons, the Department of Agriculture 482,000 gallons and the Zoological Park 402,- 000 gallons. The Federal and District Government buildings in Washington used a daily average of 10,000,000 gal- lons of filtered Potomac water. Figures for private industrial plants are not at hand, but they would run high. The use of filtered water for flushing sewers and fighting fires is large. The fountains of the city should “play,” but piping fitered drinking water to them is costly There are many good arguments for an auxiliary water system serving “raw” Potomac water pumped from a nearby part of the river. There are many industrial purposes which would be as well served by that water as by filtered water, and it should be used for putting out fires, flushing sewers and cleaning streets. Water delivered under high pressure would | give us more protection from loss by fire than we now have. The cost of a supplementary water system for cer- tain sections of the city, and which could be extended as needed, would be repayed by the saving in the use of Great Falls filtered water and by smaller ‘losses from fire. Work on the second conduit from -at Falls is proceeding, and the construction of new r and | the new filtration plant goes on with | reasonable satisfaction, but these things do not constitute an argument against separate high pressure deliv- | ery of raw Potomac water in the large industrial sections of Washing- ton. Servoirs Psychiatric Piffle. uch talk has been emitted by peychiatrists for the defense in the| Leopold-Loeb case in Chicago about juvenile impressions, influences and tendencies affecting the mental and moral development of the two youths. Although the word insanity is being strictly avoided, it being the desire of the defense to keep away from the ne- cessity~of a jury trial, which the in- sanity plea would require, other words are being employed tantamount to that. The whole purpose of this pro- | cedure is to try to prove to Judge Caverly that these young men are not responsible for their deeds, and that they should be punished not by death but by life imprisonment. In this line of evidence runs a strain of deductions that will cause much astonishment, if | taken seriously. For instance, it ap- pears that one of thé boys has always had a way of imagining himself in a position of superiority, or advantage. He engaged in childish dreams of power and authority. Therefore, it would seem from this technical testi- mony, he is not normal, and is en- titled now to the benefit of a lighter penalty than that normally inflicted for an atroclous crime. If every boy who has “played” at power and authority and wealth and command is decadent, then may the world be pitied. Not a normal boy lives who has not “played” thus. It is the essence of juvenile development, this dramatization of possibilities. The very play games of the children are based upon the thought of command and pursuit and advantage. In sports and in the imagination games like “soldiering™ these “dreams” are por- trayed. From their earliest days chil- dren are fed with stories of prowess and superiority. There is hardly a single one of the classic juvenile tales that does not turn upon achievement. If the indulgence in juvenile dreams of power, leadership, wealth, success and adventure is a sign of degeneracy then every parent in this country may well be alarmed. But the damage is done, for these parents themselves have passed through this very phase. If the offspring are decadent they are from decadent progenitors. For this is no new thing, this practice of dramatic dreaming. It runs back through the generations beyond any historic rec- ord. The caveman's child played, such games. The Indian boy of the plains before the white men came played them. In every playground of today children ere playing in one form or another “follow the leader” and con- testing for leadership. To the average mind this talk is twaddle. Whatever may be its effect in the Chicago case, it is certainly having the effect upon the public mind of causing disgust with the modern school of psychiatry. —_———————— 1f radio goes far in censoring cam- paign speeches an immediate demand will ‘arise for government ownership; which would open opportunities for censorship even more questionable. —_———————— Ponzi is again free, and the public will wait with apprehensive interest to learn whether during his retire- ment he has thought out any new get. rich-quick schemes. —————— ‘The Dawes plan is apparently all that many Germans desired, but more than many confidently hoped for. . Baltimore. Baltimore plans to celebrate its two- hundredth birthday in 1929. The city ‘was 195 years old on August 8. Bene- dict Leonard Calvert, governor, signed on behalf of Charles Calvert, fifth Lord Baltimore, Proprietary, a bill for the erection of Baltimore Town in 1729. That was before Bladensburg, Alexandria “and Georgetown were created, but there were settlements with other names on the sites of Bladensburg and Alexandria which perhape antedated the creation of Bal. timore Town. The location of the town was “60 acres of land in and about the place whereon John Flem- ming now lives.” Thomas Scharf, his- torian, has determined that the land on which Flemming lived was owned by Charles and Deniel Carroll, and that the tenant house of Flemming stood near the intersection of Charles and Lombard streets. . Baltimore has steadily grown, and like most American citles has grown at an accelerating rate. Business draws more business, population draws ‘more population. Most cities have that sentiment which we call “civic pride” or “clvie spirit,”” and this sentiment is deep and strong in Baltimore. Per- hape it is the working of this spirit makes cllies grohls : : ; THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 1924 ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN in e city includes many things, good government, prosperous’ business, achools, hospitals, churches, charities, architecture, art, science and letters, parks, hotels, theaters, transport and all that. -Often the inclusive and quite indefinite adjective ‘great” is given to cities with a large number of in- habitants, but a city with relatively small population may be great. Baltimore is great in size and in many other ways. Under, or above, the new population is a large element, the old Baltimoreans, who are men- tors to the newer Baltimoreans, so that certain traditions of the city are carried on through generations of men, the new Baltimorean becoming an old Baltimorean and seeing things somewhat as the pre-old Baltimorean saw them. This i{s not saying that there is absence of progress. “Prog- ress” is often an abused word. Many schemes which have been tried and proved failures are brought forward in the name of progress. Many schemes at odds with human exper|- ence and which run counter to rea- sonable deduction are labeled “pro- gressiv In Baltimore progress geems to go in line with precedent or former practice, rather than striking off on experimental lines, and perhaps that is the solid progress which brings most content and prosperity to men and cities. A Base Ball Classic Climax. Base ball offe some strange se- quences and happenings. Rarely does a “home club” get such a remarkable break as that which occurred yester- day in Cleveland in the game between Tris Speaker’s “Indians” and Miller Huggins' “Yankees.” In the ninth in- ning New York scored a run which brought its total up to 8, while Cleve- land had only 7. Babe Ruth had made this run with a homer, his second of the game, and the third by a New York batter. The sky was dark with a fast-approaching rainstorm. Every minute was precious. Speaker himself went to the bat and banged the ball for two bases. Immediately followed a single by Sewell. Then came Myatt, the catcher, a good hitter, but not a chronic home-run maker. It looked as though the skies would open any min- ute. Many of the spectators had start- ed for the exits. There was a swing of the bat and out went the ball. The ball scared over the barrier. Three runs! Then, as if the sphere had punc- tured the clouds, the rain descended in torrents. But the game was over. It had been won literally in the nick of time. It is just that sort of thing that makes base ball the most attrac- tive of sports to the American people. ———————— As Mars swings closer to the earth inquiry is again stimulated as to whether it is inhabited by a race cor- responding to our own humanity, and whether, in case it is, communication can be established. Affirmative an- swers to both questions would prove a ‘great relief in introducing lecture talent whose topics could be guaran- teed absolutely novel. ——— There is reassurance in the report that President Coolidge has been at work on his letter of acceptance. Con- densation requires time, and a volu- minous flow of impromptu expression is no longer high in popular apprecia- tion. —————e The element of suspense in drama Wwas never 80 Strong as at present. Owing to disputes between the Equity and Producing Managers' Aseoclations mary attréictions are left in doubt as to when they will go on. ———————— Objection to mentioning it in a plat- form evidently stimulates the K. K. K. to make up for any publicity it missed by talking about itself. —_—— et Psychoanalysts might help out *in the evolution argument by looking the human race over for traces of the simian complex._ \ ——t——— Alienists see no reason for calling a man insane when there are so many words that mean about the same thing. —_———— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. ‘The Oracle of the Hour. The August sun sends out An unrelenting ray, And makes himself beyond & doubt The topic of the day. I care not for conclusions wise Nor what they draw them from. I only ask in sad surprise, & “What says the old thermom?” I care not for the tariff talk. I care not for finance. I care not for delays that balk The gentle peace dove's chance. I wait for some faint breeze to creep Across the sultry calm. I only sigh with feeling deep, “What says the old thermom?” Working Both Ways. “It is wrong for a candidate to try to fool the public.” “And yet,” commented Senator Sor- ghum, “election returns have often upset my most confident calculations. The public doesn’t hesitate about fool- ing a candidate.” Acceptances. ‘The letters of acgeptance now Are offered for inspection. No one expected, anyhow, A letter of rejection. Jud Tunkins says gossip isn’t what it used to be. A whole lot of it is being used for advertising purposes. Unrelentingly Reliable. ‘The weather prophet lifis his song In accents often sad. 'His guess has seldom turned out 'WrOng, Although we wish it had. Misleading Terms, “You have a private car and & pri- vate yacht.” “Yes,” answered Mr. Dustin Stax, “I'need so many people to keep ‘em going I don't know what real privacy means.” ““When a man’s courtin’ a gal,” said Uncle Eben, ‘“he tells her she’s an angel. After dey’s married, she's liable to wish she was one s0's she RUSSIA SINCE LENIN The truth about that country as it is today, in a series of uncensored articles by an observer who spent months in Russia uudyin’g conditions. BY SEYMOUR B. CONGER. ARTICLE VIL Russia’s alleged business comeback, I reported in a previous article, is largely bolshevist bunk and what lit- tle there is of it is due almost exclu- sively to private business men and private initiative. If further proof than the apprehensive refusal of the bolshevist leaders to monkey with the private captial basis of business activ- ity be required, it is only necessary to study the situation of the great key Industries—coal, iron, steel, steel products and raflways. These happen to be the ones which the bolshevists reserved for exclusive Communist operation when throwing the rest of the business fleld open to private initiative under the new eco- nomic policy and furnish the index figures on which estimates of the business activity and prosperity of a nation are commonly based. They are able to live only by “tak- Ing in each other's washing” and are operating under tremendous deficits met from the state treasury—the price paid by the peasantry and pri- vate business men to provide jobs for “the bo. in other words, for the fil\lfl"d Communist workmen, This flower of the proletariat,” which comprises the fighting nucleus of the Russian bolshevist part concentrated in th b dustry articularly in the g working and machine-building plants of Moscow, Leninegrad and other in- dustria) centers. I have gone to considerable diffi- culty in assembling the statistics and Information on which this mesgage is based, and which differ greatly from the propaganda dope usually put out for foreign consumption. They come from bolshevist experts reporting to the government, and 1 believe they err on the side of overoptimism. Dzerzhinsky, head of the extraordi- nary commission intrusted with formulating the industrial program, at any rate challenged some of the estimates on production and produe- tivity submitted to his commission as unduly favorable. The Coal Industry. Take coal mining first. This funda- mental industry is kept alive only by an order to the railways issued last December to discard wood and oil and use coal for fuel exclusively. Under this order the government railways took 62 per cent of the 1,800,000 tons of coal shipped from the Donetz dis- trict, source of most of the Russian coal, during the first half of the oper- ative year, October to March inclu- ve. “The percentage is now far higher, 75 to 80 per cent, as the con- sumption, aside from railway, is de- creasing owing to the high cost of the coal. It is costing the railways millions, aside from the initial cost of converting many locomotives into coal burners, and is particularly wasteful for railways which, like the Murmansk line, are several thousand versts from the nearest coal supply, but run through vast forests or those in close proximity to the southeast- ern oil flelds. The Murmansk line, at that, could not get coal hauled in the winter and had to import a lot of English coal. The visitor to Russia, too, loses a picturesque feature of his entry into Russia—the fireworks dis- plays from the car window as the old wood burners hauled the train through the Russian night The cost of mining is wastefully high. Miners' wages are about half the pre-war level, but owing to the low productivity ' of the individual miner, the cost of workman's insur- ance and other social benefits, 60 per cent of the price of coal is labor cost. At the pithead in the Donetz coal costs $10 a ton. The railways, haul- ing it a loss, charge about $3.50 a ton to Moscow, almost double that to Leninegrad. If it goes by sea it en- counters another prohibitive charge of $1.90 per ton for loading from car to ship at Mariupol, the Black Sea port for the Doneta. Any one willing to listen to bol- shevist optimists can hear a lot of talk about a developing export trade in Donetz coal. 1 have seen dozens of reports about contracts just on_the oints of being concluded with Tur- ey, Greece, Italy, France and Eng- land. They fall through on the cost problem. The Arcos concern, the Lon- don branch of the governmental for- eign trade monopoly, negotiated one contract at $11.35 per ton f. o. b. Mariupol, but backed out when it learned ‘that the bare f. o. b. cost Mariupol, without any profit or mar- gin for safety, was $13.25. The best illustration of the emptiness of the export idea is that the Russian com- mercial fleet in the Black Sea, after careful study of the government's ap- peal, decided to have its bunkers this year shipped in again from England because fuel from the nearby Donetz would cost it $150,000 more. Iron and Steel. Iron and steel production are equally failures under bolshevist | ‘put management. The iron mines of the Krivol Rog district, among the most Important in Russia, are producing only 18,000 tons of ore a month, in- stead of 40,000, as planned, and have a deficit of 2,000,000 rubles ($1,000,- 000)-instead of an estimated profit of $350,000. The output of pig iron for the first half of the operative year was between 10 and 12 per cent of pre-war; rolling mill products 10 per cent and steel 12.4 per cent. The'only market for the iron and steel is fur- nished again by government institu- tions, which took 92 per cent of the output. Nobody else can afford it at prices two and one-third times pre- war owing to high labor and fuel costs. While coal, iron and steel produc- tion are thus unloading the burden of their existence upon the state rail- ways and the state-operated metal- working _establishments, the latter are in equally bad shape. The vast locomotive, machinery and arms plants, in which the Communist skilled workmen, “flower of the pro- letariat,” have been deliberately con- centrated, have been kept in opera- tion only because of government orders, some for armaments, but prin- cipally for locomotives, rolling stock nd rafls. The state railways used no more rolling stock for the small amount of traffic they have to handle. Nevertheless, Dzerzhinsky's extraordi- nary commission, laying out the in- dustrial program for the current r, the state railways down for 30,- 790,000 rubles worth of rolling stock. Rudzutak, minister of railways, vainly protested that the railways didn't need them, could not use them and had no money to pay for them, but the omnipotent Dzerzhinsky over- ruled this, declaring the consequences of shutting down the plants were too grave to be faced. In the end Rudsu- tak was instructed to dig up not 30,- 000,000, but 35,000,000 rubles ($18,- 000,000) for rolling stock, rails and bridge steel, quite a sum when the railroads are already running at a heavy operating loss. The program for keeping these establishments open as gardens for the flower of the proletariat entails, in addition, a straight government subsidy of 32,- 000,000 rutdes and a bank credit of 10,600,000. ~This is the kind of bol- shevist , industrial prosperity for which the peasant and business man taxpayer is paying the freight. Wages for “the flower” are only 42 to 45 per cent of pre-war. Otherwise the sub- #idy burden would be heavier. Of course, Dzerzhinsky's extraor- dinary commission, the Council of Labor and Defensé, the commlission for the sclentific study of industry, and a job lot of other boards, are trying to find a substitute for rail- road orders to keep the plants open. They have worked out on paper a regular Hog Island program of ship- building, but the ships would sink under their tremendous cost and there's no freight in sight for them. So the shipbuilding program is “manana.” The Tractor Idea. Another great fdea was to build theusands of tractors and tractorize all Russia. Listen to some more bolshevist talk and you might be- lieve that the thousands of tractors were already streaming from the factories. The government several months ago gravely adopted a resolu- tion permitting the ministry of agri- culture to import a thousand tractors only on condition that it bought similar number of Russian tractors. and laying down the same fifty-fifty rule for the co-operatives and ail other importers. What has happened is that the government has stolen the patents on four foreign makes, in- cluding Henry Ford's, but construc- tion in four big machine plants is still in an experimental stage. The Harkoft Locomotive Works, for exam- ple, after having repeatedly been re- ferred to as in the quantity produc- tion stage, turned out only recently its first experimental tractor, a heavy, pirated imitation of a forelgn tractor known as the W. D. Regarding the rallways, the num- ber of cars loaded daily has fallen oft materially compared with last year, and that is scarcely an indica- tion of reviving business prosperity. For five months of the previous oper- ating year the number of cars loaded dafly averaged 13,327, according to exact figures of the ministry of rafl- roads. For the same months this year the average was 11,468, a slump of about 15 per cent. The ministry of railroads had counted in its finan- clal plans on_an increase to 14,000 cars a day. The ministry of finance, which has ultimately to finance the deficit, estimated 15,000. Both fan- tastically high, as it develops. Rail- way recelpts would have been ade- quate to meet operating costs before the war, but not now, owing to tie higher cost of labor and materials. At that, the wage scale is far below pre-war, but it takes so many more men to do the work. (Copyright, 1924, by Publie Ledger Company.) Newspapers Review Progress Of World During Past Decade Looking backward to July 28, 1914, one of the darkest days in world history, the press examines the net results of the 10 years of extraordi- nary changes that war has left in its wake. “Great nations have been humbled to the dust and new ones have sprung into belng,” points out the Baltimore Sun, “for many the reasonable security of civilized life has been transformed to a grim, uncertain struggle for mere existence. In the whole span of human existence there are few in- stances where a decade has seen a greater shattering of co-operative achievement than that now closed. But 10 years after the outbreak of the war the spirit of reconstruction, which means the spirit of forgetting the past for the sake of the future, is making itself manifest.” Recalling “some of the major ac- complishments of the years since the armistice,” the Chicago Daily News maintains “the Washington disarm: ment conférence, Wwith the treaties and agreements to which it gave rise, will rank high as a direct benefit to mankind &s well as an earnest of future and more comprehensive peace and economy compacts. The organ- fzation of the world court was a notable achievement and a landmark. The League of Nations has survived various perils and has functioned usefully though cautiously,” and “the decade has made a notable contribu- tion by its negative as well as by its positive object lessons to the art and science of government and of inter- national co-operation.” “The tenth anniversary finds us, fjronically enough, in a conference of the nations endeavoring, in the face of great difficulties, actually to end the war,” contipues the Lincoln State Journal, but “out of the war is emerging & more practical peate movement, more powerfully backed, than the world had before seen, and it one listens closely he can hear across the roar of warring factions a rising note proclaiming the prin- ciple of good nature and good will as the new foundation for a bearable and decent human existence.” *x x ¥ The ten years, the Miami News Metropolis holds, “have not sbeen fruitless years, neither have they ushered in the millennium, but they have served tq stimulate a world- wide ambition for perpetual peace, and that is something worth while.’ Jibai $as gained, the Springfeld Union, however, feels “is very small compared with what it all cost. No more in victory than in peace does war pay. So plain is it that peace should be easy, easier than ever be- fore.” While '“the London confer- ence may soon restore financial, eco- nomie, social and political conditions to the stabilized status,” the Port- land Oregon Journal says “no confer- ence, no group of men, no power, can restore the wealth that was shot into thin air during the five years of war,” ror “lift the dead back to life from their graves in Flanders fleld.” “The world is not the same and never will be the same,” observes the Newark News; “ideas that were time honored and almost sanctified by general .acceptance vanished in_ the twinkling of an eye,” but “one thing the world has learned from the war— that is the interdependence of nation: fl“““" is a physical impossibility. At the end of 10 years it is plain to the New York Evening Post that “lastihg peace can be assured only by the removal of the real obstacles to peace. The injustice done France and Belgium by their war comrades and by the unrepentant German is such an obstacle.” It should be clear 0 us, the Pittsburgh Sun claims, ‘that the gains that are won by the soldier in war must be retalned by the civilian in peace. Only the fu- ture will reveal whether the resuit of the war has finally routed autocracy, and the future will be what we make it.” Since August; 1914, we have seen “whole nations straining to the ut- most to beat their enemies, and whole nations trying to make peace by hys. teria instead of by reason and it- eousness,” asserts the Hartford Times, but 10 years after the first shot was fired, nearly 6 after the final barrage was laid down, We are so far away from & Peal settlement of the war Qebts and the formation of effective agencies against war in the future that leading statesmen with dificulity conceal- their apprehension. xxxx “This great war was to be the last one, we were told,” suggests the St Louis Post-Dispatch, now, “ten years after, we Americans can contemplate only from efar the working of the only idea which remains of this high hope—this is the League of Nations, but “the most powerful and most pros- perous nation, the one which holds ‘more than half the world’s gold, stands aloof and takes no part.” And today, 'in London, “with ‘ctvilization hovering between order. and chaos,” the Duluth Herald notes_“the selfish interest of. one nation is threatening the weifare ‘of the world.” The Albany News adds /‘complete mast be he THIS ANB THAT One of the great secrets of living happily {s to accept people as they are. “Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers,” said Hans Christian Andersen in the preface to hls work. Sometimes it is hard for a man believe this, and, therefore, to willing to accept each person he meets for what he is, but until he learns t do so he will find more midery than joy in the world. On. every side one sees unhappi- ness, much of it caused by the in- ability of the abused person to he content with men and women as he finds them. He looks for the tran- scendent, and, not finding it, is ag- grieved. He has his own ideas of mankind— based upon the model he knows best, himself—to which he would conform the rest of humanity. Unfortunate- ly for him, humanity refuses to conform. to be * % % % Can it be possible, then, that these men and women of all ages, colors and conditions whom one meets every day have anything at all about them resembling a “fairy tale”? Is yon villainous looking fellow, sitting easily on the side of the load- ed watermeion wagon at ‘T'enth and D streets in any sense a work snow- ing ought of the “fingers of C It is hard to believe, at first blus 80 gros: unkempt he appears, wide is leer and uncouth his ap- pearance. Accepting him as a watermelon man, however, he does very well. As a drawing room occupant he would be -distinctly out of place, but the most critical will have to admit that he_blends in nicely with his wagon. If we talk to him, asking the price of his _melons, perhaps he an- swers us abruptly, with a chip neat- ly balanced upon each shoulder. Cer- tainly the suave storekeeper would not_talk so. This is not a suave shop man. This is a watermelon man, just in from the country, where contact with ele- mental things teaches no particular lessons of courtesy. It would be as fair to ask him to give a taik on art as to require of him, even mentally, that he be any other man in the world except himself. * % * % Here comes a pieman. The modern city pieman is a different fellow from the folk-lore pastryman met my Sim- ple Simon on the way to the fair. A modern pieman is a taM, lean, straight fellow, with curly crisp black halr, a dejected countenance and trousers of ample cut, judging from this one. In his strong right hand he bears a portable cupboard of pies, each confection arranged on a sliding shelf. The edges of the pies, in their stack, appear through the openings, as the pieman bears them into the restaurant. There he turns them over to the counterman. The counterman, in his own right, is an_interesting chap. Do not ex- pect him to be a cabinet member. His job in this big city is to hand out cups of coffee, ham sandwiches, doughnuts, hot dogs, glasses of milk, Western sandwiches, pancakes, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, egg sand- viches, soup, beef, ice cream, pies, ke and other edibles to the hungry males that beslege his counter three times a day. If his_crude humor is not exactly to your¥liking, remember that his is a_ perfect example of just that sort| of humor. * k k * What a queer bird, that tourist, with his goggle eyes and his fat stomach! He has come to look Wash- ington over. Tomorrow night he will leave town declaring that “it is purty nice, but not so wonderful.” Do not feel put out. He is one of a type. If you are of a nervous tempera- ment, this passing small boy, crack- ing his fingers at every step, will cause you annoyance. Yet he is a perfect _American small boy, so be calm. Ppom his khaki shirt to his tan shogs he is all American. These three tall girls, now—it is not so hard to accept them for what they are! Not even the grouchiest person would wish them other than what they are. Women, as a rule, hold themselves much better than men. Their shoul- ders are carrfed better, their heads held more naturally. One seldom sees a woman poking her head forward, as hundreds of men do. *x ok % That girl over there with the mean, DIE eyes, what can be said for her? Well, she is somebody’s sister, as the saying is, and in addition is as fine a specimen of her sneering type as one will meet in a day's walk. We have met her already—how nice of her to save us a walk. Nobody pleases her, that much is evident upon casual inspection. She is the unfortunate possessor of a discontented mind, not a mind un- happy over great wrongs, but one seeing only the superficial side of every one. Her reactions to others are narrowly based, sitting easily upon a sneer. It is S0 easy to sneer. And “who can refute a sneer”? This bad habit grows upon one, until at last it has complete possession of the sneerer. But Thackery sald, “It is impossible, in our condition of clety, not to be sometimes a snob. Most - people are utterly undistin- guished in appearance, it appears from watching men and women as they pass and repass upon our streets. Yet they are no less human beings for all that. This old lady waiting for a street car is a dead ringer for William Jen- nings Bryan! Something about the face and eyes is responsible for that look of the so-called Peerless One. * * kX In offices, shops and streets one will meet disagreeable people. There is no getting away from them. This is the fate of all those who do not en- joy wealth or some other form of power. The wealthy man meets fewer greeadle people, because such per- put themselves out to be agree- able to him. Since the average man simply can- not get away from the littleness of his fellows, and must expect to bump up against the sordid, the petty and utterly unworthy and trivial all the days of his life, having no acres of his own that he can wall in to keep them out, it behooves him to culti- vate a kindly spirit. This requires that action so magic in many situations—a decentraliza- tion of the individual, the ability to take one’s mind off one's precious self, and let it look fairly at others. Add the saving grace of humor, and one is in a fair way to taking the world as he finds it. To snort at bumble bee because he has a sting is like inveighing against the lily be- cause it is not a rose. To be able to mccept people as we find them means more to & man, in the long run, than the ability to mass together a few more dollars. goal of all nations. Ten years more may make or break the world. Every nation is responsible, in large measure, for what these ten years shall bring.' The Davenport Democrat concludes “it 15 useless at this time to dwell upon the inglorious chapters in the post- war story that have to do with the failure of the United States to take its place at the council table and hasten the return of better days. The fact that our unofficial representation has included two cabinet officers and vari- ous other observers, experts and finan- ciers, indicates we are seeking, if somewhat surreptitiously, to do our rt, and ten years from now it is to hoped we can look back over a dec- ade that has seen the world progress gloriously on the way to peace and prosperitie” Q. What is the record drive at golf made under competition?—F. H. S. A. The American Golfer says that 388 yards 1 foot is the record. It is held by-W. H. Horne, professional of the Rye Country Club, Rye, N. Y. Q. Has South America any large broadcasting stations?—A. R. L. A. The Department of Commerce says that at the present time South America has six large broadcasting stations, while a short time ago there was none in that country. The in- terest in radio is increasing rapidly. Q. How young do girls start out as hairdressers and manicurists?— N. M. S, A. The 1920 census lists 5 girls “between the ages of 10 and 13" who are thus engaged, 15 who are 14 and 48 of the age of 15. Q. Will laughing gas produce in- stant unconsciousness?—R. J. F. A. Laughing gas (nitrous oxids), N20, is a colorless, sweet-tasting gas, condensable into a colorless liquid. Laughing gas i8 an anesthetic used for operations of short duration. It will not produce instant unconscious- ness. Q. Is an’electric locomotive more expensive than a steam locomotive?— L B. 5. A. An electric locomotive costs more than a steam locomotive and in practically all instances has more power. Q. What is the highest mountain in Virginia?—C. G. P. A. The Geological Survey Mount Rogers is the highest peak in Virginia. The altitude is 5719 feet. Tt is in the southwestern part of Virginia on a line between Gray- son and Smith Counties. Q. In what vear was the James- town Exposition?—M. B. A. It opened on April closed Novenfber 30, 1907. says 26 and Q. What does “rataplan” mean?— A.B. R A. This, like rub-a-dub, is an_imi- tation sound for the drum. ‘“Tan- ta-ta” is for that of the trumpet; “tootle-tootle” for the flute. Q. What Indian tribes composed the “Five Nations” —>. D. A. The North American Indian tribes which composed the “Five Na- tions” were five tribes of the Iroquois, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Senecas. The Tuscaroras were later admitted to form the “Six Nations.” Q. Does the hippopotamus sweat blood?—L. M. A. The skin of the hippopotamus contains a great quantity of an olily IN TODAY’S substance which exudes from the pores, and under excitement this flows out copiously and is tinctured with blood, producing the ‘*blose sweat” for which the beast is famous. Q. What should be applied to mos- quito bites>—W. R, B. A. The bites and stings of mos- Quitos are best treated by applying a few drops of househcld amm:nia or bicarbonate of soda. If there is much irritation it may be relieved by aoply- Ing oold cluths or a solution of boric actd. Q. Who invented the differential used on the rear axle of automobiles? —P. D. W. A. The Society of Automotive En- gineers says that M. Pecquer, chief of shop at the Conservatory of Arts and Trades in Paris, took out a pat- ent in France November 5, 1827, on a differential which was installed on a steam wagon in 1828. This differen- tial had a planet gearing, which was substantially the origin of the dif- ferential used on the rear axle of an automobile today. Q. What are call ducks?—0. C. F. A. Call ducks are the bantams of the duck family and are kept for hibition purposes and for use as de- coys in wild duck shooting. They are especially suitable for the latter purpose when crossed with the wild Mallard or some other “puddle” duck. There are two varieties of call duck. the gray and the white. Q. What Jo L A of a longer size Is a chamois?—A. The chamois is about the siz large goat, but the neck proportion and the bod shorter. The flesh of the chamois is highly esteemed and its skin is made into leather, the original “shammy- skin” being obtained from this ani- mal. Q. How large can a sheet of plate glass be made?—D. D. L. A. The largest plate glass sheets are 21 feet by 12 feet. Q. What is the population of the British Empire?—>M. M. A. The total population of the British Empire is about 445,000,000. (The Star Information Bureau wall av- swer all of your questions. Thia offer ap- plies strictly to information. The burean cannot give advice on legal, medical and financial matters. It does not aitempt to scttle domestic troubies, nor to under- take exhaustive research om any sub- ject. Write your question plainly and briefly. Give full name and address and inclose 2 cents in stamps for return postage.” AU replies are sent direct to the inquirer. Address Frederic J. Haskin Director, The Star Information Burea: Twenty-first and C strects northwest.) SPOTLIGHT BY PAUL V. COLLINS. The Mexican government has cap- tured the assassins of the English subject, Mrs. Evans, and will prompt- ]y make all amends in its power. There is no thought that the leaders of the party in power had any part in the attack. It was only their political doctrines which fired the hopes, the jealous passions and the purposes of ignorant extremists, in- spiring them in the belief that mur- der was justifiable, from the stand- point of the Agrarians, who are un- dertaking to expropriate land for distribution amongst the people. . * x x x Mrs. Evans was the widow of an English engineer who had acquired large holdings. For some months the land commission has threatened to take over several thousand acres of her estate, under authority of the 1917 constitution and the federal laws, compensating her with bonds quoted as having no market value. She had sought to protect her prop- erty by appealing to_the British gov- ernment, through the charge d'af- faires, and that official had so_ firm- ly championed her rights that Presi- dent Obregon had declared him no longer persona grata, and had re- quested his recall. This request Great Britain retused. The murder of Mrs. Evans involves the United States, since Great Bri- tain recognizes our rights and obli- gation to maintain international in- tegrity in this hemisphere, as we, under the Monroe doctrine, bar Eu- rope from applying force against any American nation. In former days, when the Monroe doctrine had not been &o broadly intarpreted as now, the ordinary course of procedure, under present circumstances, would have been for Great Britain to seize certain ports or territory and hold the seized property or territory as security against proper amends—per- haps as in China setting up a perma- nent claim in lieu of other indemnity. * x x % ‘What are the conditions in Mexico which have developed such extreme agrarianism? What are the Agrari- ans demanding, and on what are their demands based? Americans have been taught that former President Porfirio Diaz, who “reigned” over Mexico as absolute dictator through eight terms, was a “benevolent dictator,” a true patriot and father of the republic. Prior to Diaz, the country had been in trequent revolution and anarchy, but during his eight terms no revolution got farther than a quick capture of the leaders and _their ruthless execution. Hence Diaz was ‘“the strong man of Mexico.” Now it is known that he and his oligarchy were also the instigators of whole- sale nation-wide confiscation and en- slavement. £k x % For centuries, under Spanish rule, the Indians had been enslaved; yet even in their peonage every native community held in common great land areas, used for pasturage or leased for small individual farms. These commons were known as ejidos. The story of how these and other lands were taken from the Indians by the Dias government f told in a book, “Barbarous Mexico, by John Kenneth Turner (1911). Prof. Starr of the Chicago University, in his own book, “Mexico and the United States,” says: “Mr. Turner’s articies were actually a voice in the wildnerness. They contain many true things well and foreibly said; they were written with a keen sense of the wrongs which the people of Mexico were suffering. Out of the many things which he dis- cusses we shall consider five only— the confiscation of land, the drifting of the Indians into slavery, the drift- ing of the Mexicans into forced serv- ice, the iniquitous railroad deal and the American partnership. “Under the Diaz regime, brilliant and splendid, thousands of Mexicans —Indians and Mestizos—who had been little landholders were abso- lutely robbed of their small holdings. This was done, of course, under cover of law. It affected whole tribes of Indians; it blotted out entire villages of simpie and relatively happy, indu trious people, In this matter ‘Turn speaks as follows: “*In a previous chapter I showed how the lands of the Yaquis were taken from them and glven to politi- cal favorites of the ruler. The lands of the Mayas of Yucatan, now slaved by the henequen planters, wor: taken from them in almost the same manner. “The final act of this confiscation was accomplished in 1904, when the national government set aside the last of their lands into a territory, called Quintana Roo. This territory contained 43,000 square kilometers, or 27,000 square miles. It is larger than the present state of Yucatan by 8,000 square kilometers, an moreover, is nost promising h:lo& peninsula. It was turned over in practical possession to eight Mexican politicia * * * In like man the Mayas of Sonora, the Papag the Tomasachics—in fact, practically all the native peoples of Mexico- have been reduced to peonage, if nc to slavery. ® "¢ "¢ This is why th typical Mexican farm is a milliona. farm, why it has been so easy i such Americans as * * % “each to have obtained possession’ of mil- lions of Mexican acres, o ® ¢ ° “As to the method, Turner says ‘Chief among the methods used getting the land away from the p ple in general was a land registratio law which Diez fathered. This law permitted any person to go out and claim any land to which the pos- sessor could not prove a recorded title. Since, up to the time the law was enacted, it was not the custom to record titles, this meant all the lands of Mexico. When a man pos- sessed a home which his father had possessed before him; which his grandfather had possessed; which his great-grandfather had possessed, and which had been in the family as far back as history knew, he considered that he owned that home, all his neighbors considered that he owned it, and all governments up to that of Diaz recognized his right to that home.” * i In such a way, whole areas were taken over by political allies of Diaz, and their former owners were mad: peons of the new possessors. A peon is really a sigve to debt. Prof. E. A Ross of the Wisconsin Univers said in 1923 that the peon is paid : cents a day for his labor, and given a certain portion of corn and beans as his ration. He is permitted and encouraged to draw ahead of his earnings, because so long as he is in- debted to the hacendado (proprietor) he is held by law to remain and labor for his creditor. He is never per- mitted to balance his budget and get out of his debt. Peonage had existed for centuries prior to Diaz's regime, but in his term came tke gigantic confiscation of iand and enslavement of the millions. It finally led to Diaz's downfall, the Ma- dero rebellion, and the uprising of the native Mexicans, who had been so wronged by the oligarchy in pewer. ok The restoring of the lands to the reople was crystallized in the new constitution adopted in 1917, which provides for the legal breaking up of large landholdings. Some of the holdings exceed 15,000,000 acres each. Not more than 4,000 acres of each es- tate may be seized and payment therefor be made in 20-year federal bonds bearing 5 per cent; all land in excess of 4,000 acres taken from en estate must be paid for in cash. Upon taking over the land, the gov- ernment proposes to assign it to the villages, as ejidos of old, and the vil- lages may then sell or lease it to in- dividual small farmers, in tracts of 12 or more acres each, the proceeds to be paid into the national treasury. Prof. E. A. Ross, economist of the University of Wisconsin, suggests that giving over such farms to per- sons who have never possessed initi- ative, and who now hold no tools nor credit, is a doubtful experiment, though in that experiment lie the dreams of the millions of freed peons. * ok K * Not all the great estates will lose their land, nor will all the land be taken belonging to any one estate. It becomes the duty of foreign countries to protect the property of their cit- izens. In a treaty made by Secretary Hughes last January, as & “condition precedent” to recognition of the Obregon government, it is agreed that the Mexican government shall pro- tect its land bonds by applying all the proceeds of the sale of the ejidos to retirement of the bonds, and shall ne- gotiate a loan to provide funds to pay cash for all land in excess of 4,000 acres taken from any one estate. Other stipulations for the protection of Americans are agreed to in the treaty. It is probable that the Amer- ican Government will insist on apply- ing these same protective provisions to the case of Mrs. Evans' estate, and to the protection of other: aliens, as well as of Americans. President-Elect Calles, who recently won his election on the agrarian is- sue, and who will take office Decem- ber’ 1, has given assurance that the land distribution will go on, to Te- store justice to the people robbed by the Diaz oligarchy. He also assures Mexico's creditors that all foreign ob- ligations will be sacredly kept, and that the age of revolution is past.