Evening Star Newspaper, August 13, 1924, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. WEDNESDAY. ..August 13, 1924 SHEODORE W. NOYES. ., .Editor ®he Evening Star Newspaper Company Swsiness Ofice. 11th St. and Peansylvania Ave. NQLQMYoII (‘)’:fl ’ll_lo h:‘l “M,G‘SL Cl ice: ywer Buildlog. Suropean Ofice: 10 Itegent St..Londo, Kagland. The Evening Star. with the Sunday morniag ®dition, is delivered by carriers within the ity af 60 cents per month: dafly ouly, 43 eents Per mouth: Sunday only. 20 cents per month. Orders may be sent by mail or tele- phone Main 5000. Collection ls made by sar- W¥iers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunda: $8.40; 1 mo., Y0¢ Daily only 1 mo., 50c Sunday only . All Other States. Daily and Sunday.1 yr., $10.00 ; 1 mo., 85¢ Daily only : 1y Sunday only 1 Member of the Associated Press. The Amsociated Press is exclnsively entitled to the use for republication of all news dis- patches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news pub- lisbed berein. ~All rights of publication ef pecial dispatches herein are also reserved. Candidate and Corporations. Two opinions are being expressed regarding Senator Walsh's references in the notification speech at Clarks- burg Mond: to Mr. Davis’ corpora- tion connections. One that the Montana Senator erred in judgment in thus calling attention pointedly to the candidate's afliliation with big in- terests. The other that he di armed criticism by meeting this ques- tion promptly and squarely. There re those who hold that it would have been better perhaps had the Senator not accompanied his absolution of Mr. Davis on this score with so positive a denunciation of the interests that he lately represented as counsel. On the other hand, it may be said that there was no use in “pussyfooting” the subject. To mention the big and great moneyed interests without denouncing them would not Le true to fundamental Democratic doctrine and might be accepted as an apology rather than a justification for the candidate. Senator Walsh squarely on the b: the duty of a law; client who a: long as he i work of of his princi is on tru put the matter sis of the right and :r to represent any s for his services. So engaged simply in the protecting the legal rights s he does not in any degree become a party to or share in the responsibility for their general public relations. He may- be a social- ist at heart and, therefore, an unbe- liever in the capitalist system, and vet, if a gifted lawyer, render valu- able and altogether proper services to representatives of that system. Of course, back of this matter lies the belief, of which, of course, Sena- tor Walsh probably cognizant, that great corporations are not likely 10 engage representatives who are un- sympathetic, who are antagonistic at heart. In other words, the references in Senator Walsh’s speech to Mr. Davis' corporation connections were probably addressed to that belief and were designed to convey tue impres- sion that the candidate is not in sym- pathy with the interests which he so lately represented as counsel. That, however, must remain a matter for development. In the minds of a great many Amer- icans such an attitude on the part of Mr. Davis, of belief in the principles of big business, is not a disqualifica- tion for the presidency or any other office of trust. It does not follow that because a man regards capital as an asset for national prosperity, the prosperity of all the people, he is hos- tile to the general welfare. Would it not have been better on the whole had Senator Walsh, feeling that this atter must be mentioned, spoken a | good word for Mr. Davis' recent cli- ents? It is possible to speak good of them sincerely. They are not to be classed with the criminals in whose defense the lawyer is in duty bound to represent and defend in court. It would seem to have been the part of greater political wisdom, so long as this question was to be mentioned at all, not to have painted these clients of such recent date as monsters men- & society. ——— The citizens of President Coolidge's present home town will be on hand to give him an enthusiastic ovation on the occasion of his speech of accept- ance, even though prevented by cir- cumstances over which they have no control from giving their sentiments practical expression at the polls. ———————— Modern facilities for “listening in" will enable voters to make it a front- porch campaign, whether candidates decide to do so or not. was —_—— All parties are in agreement on one point; that the plain, average citizen has considerable ground for reasona- ble complaint. i Hylan Will Be Straight. The “smile on the face of the tiger,” eelebrated in one of the classic lim- ericks, broadened yesterday to @& posi- tive grin when from the fastness of the mayoralty citadel was emitted a statement to the effect that after read- ing the Clarksburg speech of accept- aence Mr. Hylan had decided to sup- port the Democratic ticket. Almost immediately after the nomination was effected at Madison Square Garden Mayor Hylan went West with Mr. Hearst to visit the great open spaces and to see the humble kine ranging But the tiger is decidedly concerned over such momentous matters as the mayoralty-and the governorship. New York City first, New York State sec- fond and the United States a some- times poor third is the ratio of Tam- many values If Mr. Hylan bolted, in any direction, he might seriously af- fect the prospects of success in No- vember. He might split things up so badly that a Republican would enter city hall. He might put in jeopardy the chances of a Tammany man or & Tammany friend sitting in the chief chair at Albany. But now he says he will support the national Democratic ticket. That means that he will be regular in the main. He may be a lit tle irregular on local and State mat ters, but the tiger has reason for smil ing at this stage of the case. Meanwhile his host in the thousand hills remains silent. He has given no indication of having read the Clarks- burg speech, but presumably he has done so. Perhaps he, with Mayor Hy- lan, finds it, like the curate’s egg, ex- cellent in spots. If so he makes no avowal. One wonders whether the glamour of the open spaces has faded and the mayor has so soon forgotten the hospitality of the thousand hills. Or whether this present move that causes the tiger to smile is but part of a somewhat cryptic game that is being played by those who so lately wandered hand in hand among the gentle California kine. ' Debt Cancellation. 1t the Furopean nations, following the London conference, want to get together and discuss among them- selves reduction or cancellation of the debts they owe, there can be no pos- sible objection on the part of the United States. We may think it would be unfortunate for the future credit of the borrowing nations, but if the lending nations are satisfled it would distinctly be none of our concern. But if they attempt to link up can- cellation of their debts to each other with the debts they owe the United States, that is very much another mat- ter. They cannot get very far by dis- cussing cancellation of their debts to this country unless the American Government participates in such dis- cussion, and the only contribution American representatives could make to the discussion would be to restate the already well known fact that au- thority to consider reduction or can- cellation of the debts does not lie with the executive branch of this Govern- ment. It would be rather a ridiculous performance to send representatives to a conference merely to’state that Congress had laid down terms for ad- justment of the debts and created a commission to conduct the necessary negotiations, It may be that some time in the fu- ture there will have to be a change in the attitude of this Government with respect to the billions of dollars owed to it by Europe, but that change will not come about until there has been a change in the sentiments of the Ameri- can people. The American people to-; day are disposed toward liberality in the matter of time and interest rates, but no considerable body of them be- lieves the debts should be canceled or substantially reduced. The European debt program laid down by Congress comes about as near representing the unanimous will of the American peo- ple as any measure ever enacted into law. It is rather unfortunate that agita- tion for conceling the debts owed the American Government should have been revived at a time when Europe is asking for huge loans from the American people. Professed inability to pay overdue obligations is not the best recommendation in the world for further loans. ————————— Burdening Congress with the ulti- mate selection of 'a President would subject the legislative Branch of the | Government to even more emphatic and long-sustained criticism from political non-sympathizers then it has already been compelled to meet. ——————————— A number of people went from America to help the sovietists, but Trotsky remains the only one who managed to make the enterprise profitable or prominent. The farmer derives more-satisfac- tion from the price of wheat than from the fact that, as usual, every political party is strongly sympathetic ‘with him. A country that feels the need of a dictator is seldom in a frame of mind to guarantee a long career of steady employment to the man accepting the situation. A'rise in the price of bread is an- nounced in England. It is hoped America will find a way to avoid fol- lowing the London fashions. The A. F. of L. declines to belong to any party, but shows signs of even- tual willingness to take charge of one, Sturgeon. News comes of the catch of a stur- geon weighing 300 pounds in the up- per Patuxent River. Many members of the Washington “I Remember Club” know that the sturgeon was a famous fish in the Potomac. She came in from the sea in April, swam up the Potomac sometimes to the head of tide and laid her eggs. The little, black, glutinous eggs were numerous. A full sized sturgeon wodid lay 2,500,- 000 of them. When we were boys stur- geon steaks and chops were common in the market from April to Septem- ber, but the fish was declining in num- ber, and as it went down in quantity upon a thousand hills. He was silent en the subject of the Democracy’s choice. His silence was pregnant of possibilities. As he came back from the western Elysium, praising it in a panageric that takes its place with the prose poetry of America, the mayor said he was “listening and iting”” for the candidate’s words. He hed given intimations that he might Jump the reservation and be a bad In- dian. Now he has heard and is con- winced that “many of the principles in the speech of acceptanee are good.” M is content. 8o the tiger is smiling. Not that the tigewr is overwhelmingly concerned ‘Wil tho success of the national Demo- Wuls Gsliet. It never ia, particularly, tis no doubt regret that it bas mearly’ it went up in price and popularity. Our grandparents in the Potomac country did not think so highly of the sturgeon es it may have deserved. It was a homely fish with a long snout and a toothless mouth. It fed on small moflusks, but it would eat dead ani- mal matter which it was said it would dig from the river mud with its snout. The charge of being a scavenger kept many of the old Potomac people from highly prizing” the fish. The time came when sturgeon’ be- came 8o scarce that it was considered a ‘“delicacy,” though our ancestors said- it was a strong or coarse. fish. There is warrant for considering stur- geon an excelient food fish, and there disappeared from our river. The Roman emperors and classic epicures thought well of it. At many of the great Roman feasts a very large fish, cooked whole and trimmed with gar- lands, was brought to the table. It was called “Acipenser,” and Cuvier, the naturalist, determined that ‘‘Acipen- ser” was sturgeon. Our British ances- stors believed in sturgeon, and it was long a royal fish. A sturgeon if caught in the Thames above London Bridge might be claimed by the lord mayor, and if caught elsewhere might be claimed for the King’s table. It is sald that King Henry I liked it so well that he forbade the eating of sturgeon at any other table than his own. Stur- geon eggs are caviare, and though caviare is sometimes “caviare to the general,” as Hamlet said, it has many patrons. Short-Time Parking. The question of further restricting automoblle parking is before the Dis- trict Traffic Board, the Commissioners having asked that board for recom- mendations which might correct con- ditions which seem to be growing worse and against which there is gen- eral complaint. Widening of streets cannot be carried to the extent of pro- viding storage space for cars. It would be unwise to remodel the ground plan of the city and materially change the appearance of Washington for the accommodation of car owners. It might be necessary at some time to make substantial changes in the plan of the city to meet needs of traffic, but the conditions which are now com- plained of are not caused by traffic, but by standing cars. A time limit on parking of cars {s fixed in certain sections of the city. In those areas the regulation is ig- nored by many persons, and those ‘who find observance of the regulation a hardship park their cars outside, but as near as possible to the restricted area. They immediately build up an- other congested area. The Traffic Board is considering the question of putting a time limit on parking in all streets, or at least materially extend- ing the area in which time-limit park- ing will be allowed. One of the pro- posals is that hour parking be allowed, with police action against those park- ers who exceed the limit. That plan might be tried, and if the downtown streets and those in the business sec- tions in East, North and West Wash- ington continue to be clogged the time limit could be reduced. R A Japanese loan in the U. S. A. for 22 millions should have the effect of quieting any rumors of serious mis- understanding. Enemies do not lend and borrow among one another if they can help it. The question as to propriety in bath- ing suits will be solved as usual by the course of natural events. The katydids are already announcing only six weeks till frost. The Prince of Wales is said to like a little jazz music now and then. Americans are a little tired of it, but may be depended on to make every hospitable effort to oblige. Italy is selling all the wine a person wishes to drink for 5 cents. Even this does not completely dispose of the high cost of living. Leopold and Loeb are said to be de- ficient in a sense of humor. Yet the alienists occasionally made them smile. Henry Ford was urged to go into politics at high speed, but decided to throw into reverse. | BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, 1 The Old Quadrille. The dancin’ masters, so I hear, Have put a stop to steps so queer, The turkey trot went long ago. The fox trot's doomed, their records show. The tiger twist, the wildcat whirl Are not advised for boy or girl. 1 wish they might go further still An’ give us back the old quadrille. T'd like to hear the fiddler call, “Salute yer partners!” “Balance all Folks danced in pairs, as they do now, But first you had to make a bow. And if the fiddler seemed in doubt, We'd sing the tune to help him out. Reform won't be complete until They give us back the old quadrille. Unto this day, as I behold Steps 80 restrained, and yet so bold, I see the old friends far away In hours of frank and buoyant play. Again in fancy, there they stand, Each waiting just to touch the hand That held @ soft, mysterious thrill ‘While moving through the old quad- rille. Making an Impression. “What's the best way to appeal to audiences’ “First find out what they think about something,” answered Senator Sorghum, “and then tell ’em they're perfectly right.” Jud Tunkins says if he has-a holi- day he always needs two more days off to rest up. Contests. ‘The handsome man, I often heard, Is seldom by ambition stirred To undertake a toilsome way. The homely men work most, they say. Bach day new tributes we prepare Unto the charms of ladies fair. The plain industrious male we see Unnoted in the general -giee. ‘When beauty contests all are through Il teil you what we ought to do— Arrange some prizes now and then ‘And give them to the homeliest men. Mental Phenomena. “I regard love as & form of in- sanity.” 3 “The idea will not be popular,” re- marked Miss Cayenne. “Divorces are already sufficiently expensive with- out the need of calling in aiienists.” “A heap. of folks 'ud git along easier,” sald Uncle Eben, “if it was s hard to bocrow trouble, do loan of two bits™ Answers to Questions BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN Q. Is the public permitted to go through the Bureau of Standards?’- R. B. C. A. The Bureau of Standards says visitors are allowed in all the build- ings until 3:30. Q. Fas the mockingbird a sweeter song than the nightingale?—F. F. A. Audubon says that this bird is far superior to the nightingale. Its song s no mere imitation, but is composition and creation. The mock- ingbird has been known to change its tune 87 times in seven minutes. Q. In what ratio do hydrogen and air combined give the most powerful explosion,—W. W. T. E. A. They give the most powerful explosion in the ratio of five volumes of air and one of hydrogen. Such a mixture of hydrogen and air would expand upward of 1,000 times. Q. What foods contain potash?— C.H. M. A. The Department of Agriculture says that practically all fruits and vegetables contain a certain amount of potassium salts. It is the most im- portant mineral ingredient of the po- tato and is also found to-a large ex- tent in spinach. Q. At Thanksgiving or on other special occasions did the Pilgrims dance?—J. T. A. The Pilgrims were followers of the Puritan movement and as such abhorred dancing in all forms, may- pole and “mixt.” Q. Please give the origin of bull fighting in Spain?—J. K. L A. Bull fighting _was introduced into Spain by the Romans, who ac- quired the sport from Greece, where bull fighting was common and popu- lar, especially in Thessaly. Q. How long has it been since an eruption of Popocatepetl’—G. A. R. A. Its last eruption occurred in 1665. The crater of this volcano is 2,000 feet wide and 1,000 feet deep. It contains great quantities of sulphur, which is extracted by workers who descend Into the crater by ropes. Q. Wilf cockle burs kill hogs?—D. G. A. The opinion that hogs are not so susceptible to poisoning as other ani- mals is common among stockmen. However, there is an abundance of evidence to show that the number of deaths from poisoning in hogs is greater than in other animals, as shown by experiments at Purdue and other institutions. The most common vegetable or plant poisoning is that caused by eating young cockle bur plants. Investigators of the United States Department of Agriculture have found that young of but one cockle species (xanthium echinatum) were poisonous. Q. When did Lord Kitchener die?— R &G J A. Lord Kitchener was drowned at sea June 5, 1918, when the cruiser Hampshire was sunk by a mine off the west Orkney Islands. He was on his way to Russia on a military mis- sion. Q. What makes some lettuce taste bitter™—W. ¥. C. A. The Department of Agriculture says that the bitter taste in lettuce is found only in lettuce grown out of season. It is caused by chemical ac- tion resulting from long exposure to the sun. It is not harmful to the health. Q. What is the greatest single fact in the world today?—R. ¥. W. A. Opinions would differ on this, of course, but a toastmaster at a diplo- matic dinner in London, just before the war, asked this question. The French Ambassador responded by saying that the greatest single fact in the world was that fact that there existed across the Atlantic a single, homogenous people a hundred million strong, all speaking the same language. No other diplomat was able to produce a single fact that seemed to equal this one. . Q. Is the Latin cross as used by the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches the same as the Greek cross>—>M. E. G. A. There is a slight difference be- tween the Latin and Greek crosses. The lower branch of the Latin cross is con- siderably longer than the other three, while in the Greek cross all branches are of equal length. St. Andrew’s cross consists of two shafts of equal length, bisccting each other diagonally in the form of the letter X. Q. What was the relationship be- tween President John Adams and Presi- dent John Quincy Adams?—S. E. T. A. John Quincy Adame, the sixth President of the United States, was the eldest son of John Adams, second Presi- dent of the Republic. Q. Where are the hottest points in the ‘worid ?—H. H. A. The Weather Bureau says that it has no positive data on this subject, but that the following places are gen- erally referred to as having the highest temperature: Sahara Desert, Arabia; the interior of Australia and the south- western valleys of the United States. Temperature running from 120 to 125 or slightly more have been observed in those localities. Q. What is meant by the mone- tary expression “sixteen to one”?— L W. K. A. A campaign issue when Mr. Bryan first ran for President was that of the free and unlimited coin- age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The Government now buys all the gold that is presented to it at a stated price. This proposal was to coin all the silver presented at a price that was one sixteenth that of gold. Q. How many marshals did Na- poleon have and what were their names?—G. H. D. A. Napoleon had 10 marshals. They were: Ney Massena, Bernadotte, Mar- mont, Murat, Davout, Soult, Bessieres, Angereau and Lannes. Q. Who was the greatest all-round football player in the history of the game?—A. H. C. A. There are a score or more names in foot ball's Hall of Fame, and each hero has a large following among the devotees of the game. Among the outstanding figures of the game was “Jim" Thorpe, the In- dian. e Q. Why did Sir Francis Drake name his boat the Golden ‘Hind?— R M g A. His boat was originally as:the Pelican. He renam Golden Hind in memory of 1 is friend, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest bore that design. Q. What is the meaning of the letters “D. C. 1.” as used in military communications?—E. F. L. A. The War Department says that these initials stand for the division of criminal investigation which is a branch of military intelligence. Q. What territory did the United States acquire from Spain by the Paris treaty, terminating the Spanish- American War?—P. B. G.' A. The Paris treaty, .signed De- cember 10, 1898, provided for a money payment to Spain of $20,000,000 for relinquishing claim to Porto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands. These territories were thus acquired. (Let The Star Information Bureau, 18 to| S0 BOOTLEGGING IMMIGRANTS BY EDGAR MELS. ARTICLE IIL The good ship Waddle sailed into New York, docking, after inspection at Ellis Island, at one of the South Brooklyn piers. The cargo was un- loaded and the men were given shore leave. They left the vessel one by one, none of them carrying baggage of any kind. They drifted into Brook- Iyn proper, took a car for Manhattan and disappeared. “Shore leave” had been converted into desertion, and the aliens had eluded the Immigra- tion officers and were now part and parcel of the United States. This is a rather unromantic ver- sion of something which a movie di- rector could transform into a thriller. In real life it is happening daily and hourly, But instead of a few men eluding the immigration authorities, the number runs into the hundreds. This is especially true of the rum runners, whose activity in bootleg- ging immigrants will be dealt with in a separate story. Camnot Stop Shore Leave. The Government is powerless to stop shore leave for sailors, for un- der the La Follette “seamen’s act,” sallors of any race or nationality are permitted to remain ashore unmo- lested for 60 days after completing & voyage. The original intent was to give the sailor a chance to get an- other job aboard an outgoing vessel. In discussing this phase of alien smuggling, Secretary of Labor Davis sald that “one boat docked at our ports not long ago with more than 200 sailors aboard. When she left she took less than 100 of these. The rest had deserted. In fact that was the sole object of the vovage. They shipped as sailors—many of them had never been to sea before—merely as a means of dodging the immigra- tion officlals. This group included Malays, Syrians, Hindus and others from the barred zone. Not only were they the undesirable typgs, but they represented some of the most unde- sirable specimens of undesirable groups. We found one bunch of 98 such men working inside a stockade in an Eastern State as strike-break- ers. The sanitary conditions were terrible. A pigpen is clean beside what we found in their living quar- ters. They didn't know what a bath was. Fifteen of them had loathsome contagious diseases of tho eves. One was insane. They would not hesitate to kill. In fact, when our agents were questioning them, one man whipped out a long knife and would have killed the interpreter if our men had not thrown themselves upon the attacker and disarmed him.” Shipping Back Costly. ‘The whole bunch was shipped back at an expense of from $150 to $200 each. There are approximately 100,000 Orientals in this country who should be excluded, aside from the undesir- ables from other countries. But the rich United States has appropriated only $280,000 for such purposes and the deportation of alien criminals just completing their entrances takes up a big share of the fund. While New York, being the largest port of entry, ranks first as a haven for deserting sailors, there are Bos- ton, Norfolk, New Orleans, Seattle, Frisco and other ports. The process is the same in each case. A salilor is signed up in a foreign port for the voyage across. The captain pockets the sailor's wages and gets a bonus of from $50 to §100 to boot. The embroyo sailor knows nothing of, the sea. His food is miserable and the work hard. Kind words are non-existent. The ship arrives at an American port and the pseudo-sailor is left to shift for himself. He may have friends and relatives in the port; he may not. But he is on Amer- ican soil and safe for 60 days, under the law. During that time he can put many miles between himself and the port of entry. He can lose him- self completely. So far as Chinese sailors are con- cerned, and as a matter of fact, sail- ors of all other barred nations, the immigration authorities have estab- lished a rule requiring ship owners to furnish bond of $500 for each man allowed to go on shore. The fact that more than $90,000 in forfeited bonds was collected at San Francisco alone last year indicates the number of desertions at all our ports. There is little doubt that ship owners are reimbursed for these losses by some one. Hidden Under Canvas. A concrete case was that Susie B., sel captured off of the a rum-running sailing ves w York. The ves- sel, a schooner, captained by Tony Comrado, was boarded by the New York City marine police seeking liquor. The captain assured the po- lice there was no rum aboard, but the police decided to institute a search. In the glare of the flashlights they went into the hold. There was re- vealed a huge canvas, beneath which lumps wriggled suspiciously. In re- sponse to the houts of the police, one head after another popped into view until 31 men, ranging from 16 to 71 years jn age, had been marshaled on deck. None of them, investigation revealed, had ever been here before. They were well provided with Italian money. Two of the men declared that they had sailed on June 18 from Palermo, Italy, the price for the voy- age ranging from 1,000 to 3,500 lire. The captain, when. questioned, al- leged that he had been forced to take the men aboard at the point of a gun, from another schooner, off Long Beach, Long Island, but his mate de- clared that a price of $75 had been paid to take the men into New York from a rum-running schooner. Im- migration Commissioner Curran is preparing to deport the entire lot, with, as he puts it, “great enthu- siasm.”" Alien smuggling by rum runners will be told in detail in a subsequent article. The next article will deal with bootlegging immigrants into Florida and the gulf ports. (Copyright, 1924, by Current News Features, incorporated.) RUSSIA SINCE LENIN The truth about that country as it is today, in a series of uncensored articles by an observer who $pent months in Russia studying conditions. BY SEYMOUR B. CONGER. ARTICLE X. Sheer ignorance of farm life and peasant psychology, together with the inapplicability of Marxian and Leninist industrial socialism to agri- cultural conditions are responsible for defeating and discrediting bol- ghevism with the Russian peasantry. The bolshevist chieftains, like the robber barons of the Middle Ages, nesting with their Communist retain- ers in their city strongholds, still are able to dominate the country and levy tribute upon peasants and pri- vate traders, but their influence with the peasantry is broken. No violent uprising to overthrow them is in sight at present. In- stead, they probably will be steadily crowded back out of the country districts by the awakening political activity of the peasants and isolated in their industrial strongholds until their reign perishes of economic star- vation or they fall easy victims to some short, sharp movement of re- volt. The bolshevists themselves admit rural Russia menaces the security of their regime. “Pooh!" they boast; “We can smash the new bourgeoisie of the cities by turning over our hand as easily as we did before. What if private initiative is besting soclalism everywhere in business? Surely a government controlling the key industries—transportation, banks and credit, foreign trade and taxa- tion—can keep private capital in check, even though it has regained such a foothold that we don't quite know what to do about it. But what can we do against this peasant men- ace, particularly when we don’t know the A B C's of the peasant problem?” The bourgeois capitalist forces which chiefly threaten the existence of the bolshevist state, it was assert- ed at the recent Communist Congress, are growing up, not so much In the cities as in the country. The Stalins, Kamenevs and Vinovievs admitted the impotence of the party and gov- ernment to subdue the new peasant bourgeoisie, whose political con- sciousness now is awakening in ques- tions of owning their own individual farms and possessions, running their own affairs without interference from bolshevist carpetbaggers from town and saving enough from the grasp of the tax collector for a comfortable prosperity. Only Hope Is Class War. Unless, as Zinoviev hopefully sug- gested, we could stir up_ the poorer peasants against their prosperous neighbors and start a new class war in the country. But bolshevists, he added in summing up the debates at the end of the congress, know little or nothing about the peasants; the congress had only touched the fringes of the problem, and it behooved the party to study the rudiments of rural life before adopting any half-baked policy. He was right for once. The satraps of bolshevism, almost without exception, are city theoreti- cians, with only & book knowledge of rural life and problems. Lenin's only contact with the farm during his twenty years' leadership of the party was when he lay out under & hay- stack to avoid arrest by the Keren- sky government in 1517. There is not a single peasant among the “Big Seven” of the political bureau who run bolshevism and the Soviet gov- ernment. Kalinin, the' “Peasant President” of the Soviet republic' and the party's star expert on peasant problems, is a peasant in the same sense that Presi- dent Coolidge is a farmer. Both were born and reared on the farm, but left it when they grew up. Kalinin be- came a factory workman, then a pro- ‘fessional party leader and bolshevist officials, and for many years his con nection with the land has beén an occasional visit to his birthplace to see his mother. notes to the capitalistic powers, is a sham. as none knows better than the Russian peasantry ‘Workmen Lack Representation. The workmen of the towns have almost no place in the government. Only 11 per cent of the delegates to the bolshevist congress, as I men- tioned in an earlier message, could show the callouses of toil and only two of the “Big Seven,” Rykov and Tomsky, are workmeu, with five in- tellectuals as colleagues. But the peasants have not the slightest rep- resentation or influence in the gov- ernment and are considered as s ond-grade material, if at all, party membership. In proof I need only mention the rule which closed the doors of the party for six months this year against &Ny new peasant members while the Lenin drive for factory members was on. After the party congress, it was asserted, the rule against the admis- sion of peasants might be relaxed, but only slightly, because the peas- ants were not really proletarians. Close restrictive regulations were to be applied to prevent such undesir- able classes ever becoming more than a small minority in the party. This in a country of which the population is 90 per cent peasant! Not only are the leaders of bolshe- vism densely ignorant on the peasant problem, but their work in getting their case before the peasants has been completely ineffectual. They have tried to reach the peasants through newspapers supposedly adapt- ed to the peasant mentality, but the peasants do not read them. A _typical provincial farm paper, the Krasnaya Znamya, whieh came to my attention, claimed a circulation of more than 2,000, but I found it had only 286 actual peasant subscribers. All the rest went to bolshevist offi- clals and emissaries or to exchanges. The same percentage, and I believe it is fairly representative, applied to the total circulation of 376,000 claim- ed for all the peasant papers. That would indicate that bolshevist news- paper propaganda is reaching only an utterly insignificant part of the peasantry. Truth About the Drought. ‘The “Gosisdat,” the euphonious ti- tle applied to the state publishing house, also tried to reach the peas- ants through a series of books and pamphlets written specially for their consumption. A brutally critical re- port to the party authorities on the scheme asserted it had been a com- plete waste of time and money, as the publications were written way over the heads and understandings of their intended readers and had not reached the peasants at all. The newspapers are full of contra- dictory reports about the prospects of another ‘great crop failure this year, owing to extreme and protract- ed spells of hot, dry weather. If the drought, as Premier Ryko says, has only burned out the crops in three or four provinces of the Ukraine (among the most important of the grain belt, he failed to add) it is going to make the collection of the 400,000,000 ruble grain tax, which the ministry of finance insists it must have as the extreme minimum to keep the budget deficit within uncalamitous limits, more than ever oppressive to the other provinces. “If, as other reports intimate, the crops are also a failure in several Volga provinces, including the Ger- man Colonist Republic and elsewhere, an attempt to spread this huge bur- den of taxation, amounting to 30 per cent of the value of the marketable surplus of an estimated good crop, may precipitate an agrarian explo- sion in the regions unaffected by the crop failure. Not in the famine dis- trict. One of the first lessons I learn- ed in Russia before the war was that the starving t 18 not the source of agrarian He submits in apathy to his fate. for NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM NOW THAT son Terhune. Company. Only a man of pluck can do it— can, for the sake of a clear view into his own particular kingdom of the world, climb up into the high place that a half century of living has bullt for his use. It takes nerve for this enterprise. For about all that fneetu the eye from this outlook point is either unwelcome or wholly hate- ful. To the front, graying space: To the rear, a litter of broken lov linesses—youth, hope romance, il- lusion. Now and then some philoso- pher or some optimist does make the grade for the sake of this prospect. Albert Terhune does it here, waving a friendly hand for us to join him, Let's go. The 50-year summit gained, Ter- hune, practical man that he proves to be, promptly sets about taking stock of himself—liabilities on this slde, assets over there. Shock and protest follow his immediate action of sinking the whole of himself, ex- cept the top of his head, into the liability basket, declaring as he does this that, apart from the brain, there isn’'t one fraction of an inch of the body that is anywhere near as good as it was 25 years ago or even 10 “Where d'you get that stuff about not being as good physically as you ere at 307" one 50-year-old growls. Now I'm every bit as good as I was" —but nobody listens, for it isn't true, and he knows that it is not. FIFTY. Albert Pay- George H. Doran * kK ¥ “At 50"—Mr. Terhune still pursuing the liability side of his physical ledger—"a wise man realizes that his body can no longer do the splendid things which once it could achleve with ease” No, not an age of de- creptityde. Certainly not. An age; rather, when many things which once were flercely necessary are now merely desirable. ‘Moderation must be Fifty's keynote.” Oh, yes, “Fifty can still do all the things physically that Twenty can do. But no longer can he do them to gorgeous excess. Nor is there one of them he can do as well as can Twenty.” It is round about 50 that the omi- nous signs of age begin to gather. It is here that the younger man adds “sir’” when he addresses you. This, the first bitter evidence of your aging state. Not long after you hear an unmistakable reference to “the old gentleman.” And on one fatal day the idiot of kindly intentions blithers loudly, “Why, you're the youngest man here!” " “When that third and crowning tragedy occurs, you may know past all doubt that you are an old, old man.” Along this and re- lated lines Mr. Terhune follows the most significant of Fifty's liabilities. The assets are comparatively few. Happily, they are more worth while. They have to do chiefly with the mind—with the top of the head that escapes the liability basket. At 50 the mind is at its best, according to this diagnostictan. “It may not be much of a mind, but such as it is, it is doing its strongest and most sus- tained work.” This is the truly pro- ductive period. Here mental proc- esses are most exact, concentration most complete, distractions and fears reduced to a minimum. Another asset of the 50 period is its friends—fewer friends, to be sure, but better ones. Among the compensations for the loss of youth there is, or may be, the man- and-wife friendship. “I think the man and wife who have reached or are nearing the 50 mark together, after 20-0dd years of wedded life, are more to be envied than all the world's immortal or immoral lovers from Paris and Helen to Lancelot and Guinevere.” Xtk “There are some things, to be sure”—Terhune again—*“wherein Fif- ty is near bankruptcy. Among them are love-making, dissipation and cer- tain forms of pleasure”—the silly craze for athletics, one takes it, and midnight suppers and futile gallan- tries. “In the gloriously idiotic 20s every- thing is possible and most things de- sirable. In the 20s a man holds every winning card, and with the possible— and usual—exception of the money card. He has looks and spirits and seething vitality and hope and a half-score other swiftly losable but heaven-sent assets.” ‘In the 30s and sometimes until the mid-40s he has the technique and the experience and the skill taught him by the 20s, and he has a lot of the as- sets left over from waning youth. These enable him to win—yes, often to win against the redoutable 20s themselves—by dint of his greater craft and wisdom and by that same hard-earned technique. Much to be learned from Fifty, much to be remembered, so Mr. Terhune says. That is why he has here taken his pen in hand. The single prac- tical difficulty about the matter is that those for whom the lessons are set are the very ones who appear to be disqualified for learning them. Take the quest of pleasure alone. Here the money card is the single trump that Fifty holds. He gets what he can pay for across the counter— never more, sometimes ludicrously less. ‘“There is gay romance about the penniless pleasure-seeker of 20. There is only nauseating fu- tility about the penniless pleasure- seeker of 50.” Here Mr. Terhune sketches in a few pictures—all fa- miliar pictures. This is one of thei Three Winter Garden girls, just r leased from a late rehearsal. They were waiting, possibly for a taxicab, possibly not. There passed them a fine, upstanding man of 50 or there- about in the uniform of a street cleaner. He grinned a merely com- radely greeting to them. JIndignant and triple virtue rose at once. One turned her back on the civil chap. One shrilled, “At his age, too! The old fool!” The third said, in icy re- buke, “Gran'pa, you'd ought to be ashamed of yourself!” A week later one of the trio at Shanley’s. She was leaning far across a table, her baby- blue eyes fixed in a stare that looked exactly like adoration into the face of her escort—a sleek possessor of the money trump, 60 or mone, “whose teeth were showing poor teamwork as he ate” Everybody recognizes this picture—except the aging fellow who holds the center of it. His com- mon name is “that old fool.” Around him contempt and reprobation flutter more or less openly. As a matter of fact, this is rather a pathetic picture. The Fifty-and-after-fifty-year-old is himselt pathetic, despite the fact that all that is granted him is scorn and ridicule. This Is pure camouflage, rooted in the fear and dismay of his critics. He embodies but one of the innumerable protests that everybody makes instinctively against the pas: ing of youth and joy and romance un- der the merciless march of time. He isn’t fooling himself. He isn't fool. ing the rest of us. He knows this, but ‘he is helpless under the urge of self-love. We all are. However, all this is another story. “No, at 50 one must either be rich or sedate—one of the two. Nor is this cynicism. Tt is human nature. In brief, it is wisdom.” “Looking over this maundering philisophy of mine, I wonder if I have given the impression that being 50 years old is something like being in jail or on a desert island. If so, I've written awkwardly.” Then Mr. Terhune takes a good long breath to give the following statement a round, sound, coptincing effect: “Thers are ‘sompesmationy- for ¥ slorious. BY C. E. TRACEWELL. 01d Funiture Row stands ina down- twon section devoted solely to bus ness, where the currents of everyda city life contrast strangely with ths relics of home dragged forth on th pavement to stand mute and inglori ous in the public eye. . Lucky the man, in his old age, whd sits in the privacy of his own home} Lucky the chair or sofa, when its leg{ get wobbly and its stuffing packed down, that still retains its place of honor in a private house. ' Here, in Old Fruniture Row, th4 passerby sees the fate of old chairs, old sofas. old sideboards, ancieng tables, antique whatnots, that havd done their share of service. f Now thy wait here to be rescued from the ignominy of the markct place, like old horses that have seen better days and kick withered legs o the stones before they are led away to be hitched to equally decrepit wagons, There is something pathetic about the tows of old furniture. One ferls at the same time, there is somethin brave, too, as these old picces wa for one more chance to be of seryice, * ¥ % ¥ A much abused word, “service.” Men no longer sell commodities. 1t is “service” The bird who hands you a perfectly good bag of peanuts for a perfectly adequate 5-cent piece, does not regard this transaction as merely satisfactory exchange No, he is “serving” you. His motto service.” You are a tired and hungry brother, and mere barter and trade will not hit the epot at all. H is engaged in “service.” “Service,” it has been ferreted o by the “efficiency experts,” pays largely, and satisfies the soul at thes same time. Thus comes about the most perfect demonstration in mod- ern life of “killing two birds with one stone.” Not that all this “service stuff” is pure bunk. Behind all of it is a grain of truth. ervice, not if actually put into operation when no one is there to make notes on it, is a great and wonderful thing, and is so today equally as much as it was when the man, who had > place to lay his head, enunciated the golden rule. is * % % % It seems, however, that inanimat things often exemplify true servi more than most human beings. Service is the sole cause of beins of a chair, for instance. This old sofa, with its stuffing 0oz- ing out in Old Furniture Row, spells “service” from end to end. Its bat- tered covering, its arred legs, its faded pattern, mean service to man- kind already rendered. A bit of re- newal, and it will be ready for mors service. These old things speak 'service in every line, yet there is no prating about it. No chair rises on its hind legs in Old Furniture Row to deliver an address on “Service to Humanity Like old mothers, these things. carry their messa in unwritten words that are so universal the whole world may read them without trying. Who buys these things? This is the question that strikes the spectator, as he gazes at the meloncholy array of furniture stand- ing on the sidewalks. Here is a scratched ivory table. Once it graced the two-room apart- ment of some newly weds. Happy was the little table, happy was the bride, happy was the groom! The former have moved into larger quar- with the passing of the yea: they will never be any happi even if they finally inhabit a palace. As for the little table here it stands on the street, with none so poor to do it the zeverence of pur- chasing it. Some day, sooner or| later, some roughneck will buy it and take it home to be stained ma- Logany, when it will become a radio table, and round out its Lfe as a support for applied science. *x % x What is this new two-toned dresser doing here? It seems out place. Its sister may be found sev- eral blocks away, sitting snugly behind a glistening plate window. Perhaps this was a tragedy of a home begun and suddenly ended, his article was not to render the service given by the little ivo table. It stands without a scratih cr mar. It ought to bring a gecod) price. *%x % Who buys? No one, if the passing spectato can judge. Yet some one must pur-| chase these chairs, these tables, thes pictures in the faded gilt frames, these lounges (forerunners of thel davenport), these odds and ends of] household goods. Else they would not be displayed here, grouped in front of the store, with a lane for pedestrians, then| another rank of them against the curb. They are here for sale and| must be sold. Perhaps there is a certain reluc- tance about buying from the curb. There are no swarms of customers. This is not like the auction rooms, where a customer may go and walk among the pieces, much as in a store. i Here the customer must proclaim to the world that he is after some- thing cheap. This is the last resort. If he cannot get what he wants her. evidently he will have to g0 without, o Many a good piece, however, can be secured in Old Furniture Row by the man or woman who really knows what he is buying. Those with a turn for the antique may pick up real bargains, especially in old pieces that can be repainted This old chest of drawers, scrape: and refinished, will attract the ad- miration of visitors later. Curious old pictures, with now and then a gem of a print, are to be dis- covered. A man who looked for mans years for a certain print of the famous “Three Fates” found an excellent copy here. Twice a day these pleces of furni- ture are moved, once out on the side- walk, once back into the ehop, where it is difficult to see where they will be stuffed, the store already appearing| filled to overflowing. The curlous passer-by makes a men-| tal note to come around the next time] it rains. What do they do with this stuff when it rains? Cover it up, o hustle it in? There are not. But with an efficien and rather poetic self-starte: hune manages to reach, stand on a high hilltop. point he looks back to youthfu bogies that he has escaped and is no freed from forever—the sloughs o despair that yawn before the young the ‘eternal disgrace” which they al most daily skirt, the blighted life o many love fallures, the impassibl barriers to future success, and so on) and so on. But these do not rin true; that is, they do not ring trud as the happy escape of Fifty from th hardships of Twenty. He is merely whistling to keep himself from being afrald. We all whistle to hold o the fright of coming years. And w are all lying as we whistle. . Ho ever, Mr. Terhune is here justified d his work, for a lot of hard sens grounds this practical philosophy, an| plain speaking-delivers it, with W and a gental Bumor besidss 1o 86950 to & genoral acceptance.