Evening Star Newspaper, December 18, 1924, Page 6

'HE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition, WASHINGTON, D. C. THURSDAY...December 18, 1924 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor -The Evening Star Newspaper Company Busipess Office, 11th St. and Pennsylvanir Ave. New York Ofice: 110 East 42nd St. Chicago Office: Tower Bullding. Furopean Ofice : 16 Regeat St.,London, Kugland. The Evening Star, with the Sunday morning #dition, in dellvered by carrlers within the <ty ‘at 60 cents per month: dally only, 43 cents per month: Sunday only, 20 cents per month. Orders may be sent by mail or tele- Phone Mala 5000. Collection is made by car- wlers at the ‘end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday. .1 yr., $8.40; 1 mo. Daily only........1yr, $6.00; 1 mo, 50¢ Sunday only.......1yr, $2.40; 1 mo, 20c All Other States. Daily and Sunday.1 yr., $10.00; 1 mo., 85¢c Daily only. $7.00; 1 mo., 60c Sunday only.... Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press fs exclusively entitled %o the nee for republication of all news dis- fiatchies credited to it or net otherwise credited n this paper and also the local mnews pub lished ‘herein. ~All rights of publication of speclal dispatches herein are also reserved. The Five-Year Building Program. The five-year building program as adopted by the of Education vesterday proposes new buildings for McKinley s High Schools, purchase of a site for an ad- dition to the Armstrong High School, seven new junior high school build- ings and additions to others, 14 new elementary school buildings, purchase ©of sites for future buildings and ad- dition of playgrounds to the District schools. Such a program would fit out the District school system effectively and would practically catch up with the arrears up to this time. If the program is adopted promptly and work 18 started without delay and the vearly appropriations are made in ac- cordance with the plan, in about seven vears from this time this work will have been accomplished. It is always to be remembered that a construction program arranged for @ certain period is subject to delay: of authorizing legislation at the be- | ginning, of appropriation during the "period and of construction under the | execution of the law. To estimate a seven-year lapse with a five-year building program, reckoning from the | present, is therefore warrantable. | Should Congress provide the funds to year Atrictly in accordance with it, by Jan- gary 1, 1932, therefore, the District | Yould be brought up to date in i building equipment—that is to sa brought up to date as of January 1, 1925. For the buildings provided for in this present proposal are all needed ! now. 1If by the rubbing of a lamp some genii could be made to place this school outfit on the ground ready for use tod on New Year day, Washington would have a com- plete equipment, and no more than that. The school children would be adequately housed for once in the his tory of the Capital. Insanitary build- could be discarded, half-time es could be placed on full-time | the could be | abandoned and portable schools swept into the junk pile. That, il subject to the provision of teachers to man the plant. So it is necessary in considering this five-year building program to re- zard it veritably an | measure and not a provision for the future. It is not an extravagant esti- mate of the building needs. | Testimony to that effect be had from school officials and teachers, from pupils and from parent | Though this is the short session of Congress, this measure can, and| should be adopted. If it is postponed | till the next Congress the needs will have increased, for their is a steady and a large growth of the school pop- ulation year by year. The problem be- comes annually more difficult. The ar- rears increase. The District prays that this measure will be put upon its passage at this session, despite the fact that only a little over two months remain before final adjournment. There is no sub- ject that is better understood by the | District mmittees and the appropri- ation committees. The money is avail- able for a big start in the execution | of this program. The Senate has passed a bill to make available for | District uses District tax money now | held in the Treasury, due to failure to appropriate in the past, and de-| clared to belong to the District by a Joint committee of Congress. Definite allocation of this fund to execute the five-vear building program, upon the | equitable basis of the same terms as | those that prevailed when the fund was accumulated—namely, an even contribution of Federal money—would Permit the beginning of this work | next Summer. i Board the and Busine: dopt this plan and | from v a or, basis, platoon system of course, | as emergency ~hool can r———s The U. S. A’s prosperity is no doubt a comfort to European nations =who would regret to see Uncle Sam embarrassed because of difficulty in collecting money due him. —— Street Lights and Safety. In the course of his statement be- fore the joint District committee con- ference on the traffic question yester- day Col. A. B. Barber, motor expert of the Chamber of Commerce of the ‘I'nfted States, in answer to a ques- tfon, said that dimmers should be used on motor cars whenever the stréets are properly lighted. There- 2pon Benator Jones of Washington ifmmediately exclaimed: “There isn't any such place in Washington. That statement is literally correct. There is no place in Washington wwhere the streets are sufficiently illuminated.at night, and that is one 'of ‘the reasons for the large number of accidents here. Responsibility for this fact rests in the main on Con- sress, not on the District, for pleas for funds for more and better street .lights have been made for years, with wholly inadequate response. | cidents. | the illumination of the street lamps at corners does not protect him. The lamps cast a glow upon the sidewalks and for a few feet beyond the curb. Out in the middle of the street there is no illumination. In midblock a pedestrian who, in disregard of the safety rule of crossing only at the intersections, leaves the curb to traverse the street is virtually in- visible until a machine is on him. All drivers in this city know that they cannot depend upon the illa- mination of the streets to prevent ac- It they are conscientious, as most are, they drive carefully when they approach crossings for their own protection as well as that of the pedestrians. As the lights are now the pedestrian must protect himself at night by watching the traffic, which he can mark by the motor headlights. Yet he has difficulty in determining dis- tances, owing to the variation in the brightness of those lights, The best protection to him and to the motorist is a proper illumination at the crossings. The street lamps should be so shaded as to throw bright beams of light upon the cross-walks. A differ- now in use in Washington should be adopted to effect this fllumination. It will cost money, but, considering the fact that lives are at stake and that lives are being taken constantly street lighting. the should rated as the least consideration. cost be e Pistol Legislation. The House of Representatives ves terday voted to exclude from the mails pistols, revolvers and other fire arms that can be concealed on the person. This was done to reinforce the State laws against the improper sale of weapons. It is an excellent measure for the prevention of crime. But it depends for its effectivene: upon the State laws. Take, for in- stance, the law in effect here in the District of Columbia, for an amend- ment of which effort has been made for years without avail. Under the w here any person obtain a deadly weapon quickly and cheaply, without any check whatever save the giving of a name and an address The name and address do not need to be genuine and are not subject to verification. The dealer must report such sales to the police after the fact, often after the damage is done. If the District had a proper “state it would be further protected by the proposed law against “mail order pistol Such a should d along with can law” transportation. law indeed be fram proposed statute transport of deadly weapons through the mails, Tt should prescribe a sys- tem of permits for purchase, under which no dealer is permitted, under severe penalty, to sell a deadly weapon save upon the presentation nated responsible public official. The present concealed weapons law is no protection whatever to the pub- lic. Tt prohibits the carrying of gu on the person save under specific permit, but it is ravely enforced be- cause it is difficult to catch the of- fender. The “gun toter” is usually detected only when he commits some other offense and rched. The first need to prevent him from getting a weapon that he can carry upon his person. If the local shops and the mails are closed to him he will have difficulty in arming him- self for criminal purposes. He might go into another jurisdiction, where the laws are more lenient, and buy a deadly weapon: but if the District were to have the protection of a proper pistol law neighboring juris- dictions would then be subject to pressure to follow suit. At any rate, the person of criminal intent could not arm himself here at home quickly and with practically no risk of de- tection. So, while Congress is passing this bill to make pistol buying by mail impossible, it should give the District, which is directly under its legislative custody, a “State law” which will conform in principle and effect to this prohibition. ———— A great deal of criticism used to be leveled at the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In view of recent historic events, a man may under- take the office without fear that any jrate rhetorician will refer to a live statesman as a ‘“‘czar.” e ————— Chinese troops show a tendency to mutiny owing to a more or less busi nesslike impression that there is more money in banditry than in sol- diering. — e The post office workers will go ahead with Christmas deliveries with- out stopping to hear all the discussion as to a raise in pay. S A grateful public enjoys seeing “In- dian Summer” taking as many en- cores as possible. R — Borah on Peace and War. Senator Borah of Idaho, the new chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, contributes an in- teresting chapter to the discussion of plans for world peace in the address delivered by him last night to the Philadelphia Forum in the “Clty of Brotherly Love.” It comes at a time when public thought in this country is intent upon the subject. Just at the moment President Coolidge and Secretary of State Hughes are en- grossed upon plans to promote the conservation of world peace. It is in the air. By reason of his position Senator Borah's remarks are calculated to be invested with significance, and un- questionably with interest. He would create a body of international law, go- ing as far as humanly possible to reduce international relations to es- tablished rules of conduct, establish- ment of an independent tribunal with jurisdiction and power to determine all controversies involving construc- tion of international law or treaties. The core of his proposition is to de- Save in @ very few of the streets of this city a pedestrian is barely visible at an intersection until he comes within the range of the motor's headlights at & short distance, The clare by that tribunal that war is a crime and that if it comes it must be ‘without the sanction of law, but in violation of it, ds piracy or murder. vle of lamp from that which is | in this city because of lack of proper | prohibiting the | of a license to buy issued by a desig- | He caustically points out that we con- fine our love of peace to paper, while our war spirit finds its expression in deeds. “We profess friendship and practice vengeance,” he said, speak- ing of the world in general. There is no hope for peace so long as great powers will that there shall be no peace. He cited a number of inter- national incidents since the World ‘War which have involved a resort to violence and force upon the part of great and powerful nations against the uparmed and helpless. He would drop the phrase outlawry of war for substitution of law and ju- dicial tribunals in international af- fairs. Senator Borah is likely to find himself at the head of a large follow- ing in this country in sympathy with his efforts for maintaining interna- tional peace with the very simple doc- trine of “the will to peace.’ The People’s Tribute, The high esteem in which Samuel sompers was held by the people of this country has been attested by an extraordinary demonstration of sorrow in the course of the progress of his body from San Antorio, Tex., to New York, where today his funeral occurred. KFew men, indeed, have ever been so acclaimed in death, or by representatives of such widely variant groups of people. Had he been a public official of the highest rank his cortege could not have been more impressively received in mourn- ing. Exceptional honors were paid to him here at the Capital, the scene | of his activities for many years. Government itself cxpressed tribute with a military escort. Representa- tives of the Government are present at the funeral services today in New York. All this is due both to the value of Samuel Gompers’ work in behalf of the American workingman and to belief in his integrity and his patriotism. He was labor's advocate first of all, and he was always a good citizen, a stanch supporter of the principles of American govern- | ment, He fought his battles vig- jorously as partisan of the working- { men, but always fairly. His contribu- tion to the welfare of the toilers of America was measure. He rests now in death, with a monument of affection and respect rarely given to one who never held public office. o ————————— Ttaly has been able, thanks to Mus- solini, to offer an example tending to explain why communities in this country manage to be fairly con tented with a vigorous boss and a smooth-running political machine. ———— Patriotic sentiment is that announcements of & quiet in- auguration never prevent crowds from assembling in Washington in order to honor the Nation's President. a beyond several so strong s When a politician announces that he is a Socialist he conveys no ac- curate impression of his principles. There is a different kind of Socialism {to fit every phase of discontent. ———— There are apparently statesmen in the U. S. Capitol who experience a {certain satisfaction in giving the | Coolidge veto enough exercise to keep it in good form. —.— Investigations wonld make a clearer impression on public attention if ar- rangements could be made to have them conducted more rapidly and one at a time. ———ve—s. Statisticlans assert that the rapid pace of the “flapper” shortens life. It is impossible to make statistics as in- teresting and influential as the jazz orchestra. —.——s Great relief would be afforded humanity if the “next war” be fought out in diplomatic by tearing up blueprints, to could council SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, “Ease.” “Some day I'll sit and take my ease,” Said Hezekiah Bings. “When that time comes, no doubt T'll wheeze Until the doctor brings Some stuff the rheumatiz to cure, Or chase the gout away, While friends bring books to make me sure I'm better every day. “I'd rather hit the busy pace And toil with human zest Than settle back and seek to grace An armchair built for rest, Though tales of dreamy bliss may please The poet as he sings, I've small desire to take my ease'i— Sald Hezekiah Bings. Command of Language. “Your speech was very valuable to me,” remarked the friend. “In what respect?” “You happened to use exactly the word T needed to fill out a cross- word puzzle.” Said Hamlet, “Words, words, words, 1 read. In course of time I may Find just the rough stuff that I need To put into my play.” Jud Tunkins says he always sus- pected that after the first few meals the prodigal son got his nerve back and began to criticize the menu. Determination. ““He says he will be miserable un- less I marry him,” said the pensive girl. “You must decide for yourself,” answered Miss Cayenne, “whether he is a devoted lover or merely one of these people who can’t be happy un- less they are having their own way.” Comparative Costs. “There is no Santa Claus,” they sigh. I hear it with a frown. Perhaps 'twas he in days gone by ‘Who held the prices down. ' “If you's lookin’ foh trouble,” said Uncle Eben, “de quickest way to find it is to go along wif yoh eyes shet.” The | How many remember the late Lew Dockstader singing “Shovelin’ Coa at the old National? What a genial minstrel he was, to be sure! How the echoes of his voice continue to roll down the ages, and how the remembrance of his cheery personality helps to brighten our own efforts at shovelin' anthracite! This Is the open season for tossing shovels of coal into the furnace that adorns the basement as an ancient image of brass or iron might have decorated the temple of some long- ago nation. The joys of tending the furnace ought to be kept in mind at this sea- son, for, properly estimated, what might be a task becomes a rite com- parable to the bowing of some old sun worshiper in a temple dedicated to the sun. Heat and light. These two qualities we must have to continue our existence on this planet. Little bables naturall eek them. So do dogs, so do cat bby will curl up in the sunshine with huge satisfaction, never seeming to Zet too much of it, except perhaps in the warmest part of the hottest sum- mer days. . Since our very existence depends upon heat and light, the two yet be- ing inseparable by sclence, let us not approach the daily task of tending the furnace as a prosaic duty merely, but rather as a sort of pleasant offer- Ing to certain great forces of nature. Thus we i1l not only get the heat Wwhich we want, but we will receive also mental stimuli which are there w ing for us to take them by the hand and make them ours. * % ok ok After all, do not most of us make life entirely too prosaic? ‘What is the sense of going through our days in an entirely matter-of-fact way, our life devoid for the most part of interest or “pep,” lacking sunshine and “moonshine,” too, if you will, when we might as easily make every day a | thing of beauty and something of a joy forever? In childhood we are near this sense of elation, close to the fundamental under- standing that this is a joyous adven- ture on which we are engaged, that we are actually here, and that we really are going somewhere, 1t mattered not, i then, that mankind placed aboard wonderful ship, thé world, without any asking of permission or specific is- uing of directions, children, that the . or that the lines tended | to blur, or that the how. what, which | and why were poorly defined? The sky was blue, the air | the night was dotted with a | stars | The wind tossed clean hair over un- | sullied foreheads, and the rain fell upon | fairy flowers in the garden. The world outside. the door was a very interesting | place, and the old attic held roman | atop every trunk and box on rainy d: was fresh, thousand scious benediction, cepted although its meaning, as | ours, welded ini | days and nights clever fashion. o Kind friends, our days and nights are no whit less wonderful now than they were then, if once we stop to brush away the dross which we have allowed A blessing we ac- we did not realize all something rightfully the texture of our in an incomparably have permitted them with. We are others to living in _Washington, { ever was, and our country is a republic | Breater and better than Plato ever out- lined. | | | | | | 1 | | | { the attempt to pass the postal } Night came down, then, as an uncon- | THURSDA 2 BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. These facts are known to all of us, but not known ernough to each one of us. We do not stop to realize often eenough the glory 6f our gvery- day existence. Why, radlo alone is enough to bring back to us the entire fairyland which once was ours, You sit at a little box and pluck out of the air the very breathing of @ singer half way across the conti- nent, or turn a small dial and snare from the invisible and perhaps non- DECEMBER 18, 1924, The North Window BY LEILA MECHLIN, Sald a lady the other day, “I am tired to death of the word ‘art.’ Everything is art nowadays, from metal beds to higher education.” And she spoke the truth. The, word ary,” alas, seeris to have been so fll used that it has to a large ex- tent lost its precious meaning. Curlously e¢nough, this zalamity has not befallen the word music. No matter how bad the manifesta- tions are—and they run the gamut, from the novice pianist to the dis- cordant church cholr—the avord music always has a glamour, and existent ether the multiple sounds of | It has the power to stir the imagina- a distant orchestra, diners ishes. Yes, our everyday existence still has romance about It—even when we shovel coal into the furnace, x % % ox A furnace is such a homely cuss, standing there without praise in a corner of the basement. The recent ads of fancy furnaces, with the en- tire company, In full dress, down- | stairs admiring them, rather tickle our sense of the eternal fitness of things, for if there ever was a house- bold favorite which deserved open ad- miration now and then It is the trusty old furnace, It sits down there, all by itself, sending up warmth just as long as you feed it properly. Its defalcations seldom result from any inherent fault in its sturdy structure, but almost al- ways from some defect in the food with which it is nourished No honese furnace can give Al re- the laughs of and the rattle of silver and | sults on rations of slate and bone. | | F | That first test vote in the Senate on | esp: pay | his own cabalistic it | caught in the grate ! is a big hunk of metal or other un- Slate and bone e their proper places in the world, but certainly the inside of a furnace is not one of them The maw of a furnace, whether steam, hot water, vapor or hot alr, requires plenty of good grub in the shape of clean coal. No one can get out of more than he puts into it in the shape of honest coal. 1 heard a woman in a store the other day tell- ing_about running the furnace. “We have regular coats, and hats and gloves we wear,” she lamented. “We look just like the stokers, or stevedores, or something. You see, the furnace goes out every day, and we have to rake it all out and bulld up again. I don’t know what is the matter, but it gets all full of clinkers.” One felt very much as if he ought to chirp up and declare: “Madame, change your coal dealer.” * x o % Surely, the clinker is furnace ' tending. veur furnace perform tation? when it 1 the morning, household is! Misery reigns however, when a furnace the curse of up to expec- percolates merrily how happy the on a a real large scale clinker gets A real clinker breukable substance that gums up the works. Sometimes the coal will gether into pseudo-clinkers, masses of “stuff and nonsense” that threaten the necessity of cleaning the whole mess out and the construction of & perfectly clean fire These false clinkers usually can be broken up and removed, either through the feed door or the clinker door. Fireside tongs come in very handy. By scraping the offenders to one side, removing them, and spread- fuse to- to accumuiate upon them, or which we | ing the live coals out, many a heart- encumber | less-looking fire can be resuscitated. The true clinker is more stubborn the | that a_mule, stronger than the pow- | Capital of our great-Nation. It is a city | erful Katrinka, more obdurate than cleaner and fairer than ancient Rome |a cat. You coax, poke, plead in vain. Strategem fails miserably. The only hope lies in a strong right arm and an unbreakable grate, WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE ially for words beginning with He went in bill over the presidential veto shows | strong for words bexinning with the Woodrow group of that' Calvin Coolldge, like | Wilson, also has “a little wilful men” on_ his hands | were thirteen Republicans | them. With the exception of Cou | zens of Michigan, Johneon of C | fornia and Howell and Norris of | braska, all of them ranked as recent- ly as November 4 as “Coolidge men." | Two were re-elected to the Sneate, in addition to thefr own merits, on the Coolidge tidal wave that swept their | states—Edge of New Jersey and Mc- Nary of Oregon. The others—Cum | mins of lowa, Jones of Washington, | McKinley of Illinois, Reed of Penn- | sylvania, Shortridge of | Stanfield _of Oregon and Wadsworth of New York—do not deny Coolidge allegiance, either. In most cases | their alibi for hostility to the Presi- | dent on the postal bill is entangling | | campaign pledges. * * kk Appointment of Col. Joseph W. Me- Intosh of Illinois as controller of | the currency, calls attention to the of a mortgage on that job in our i day and generation. During the past thirty years five controllers have come from the Prairie state. James H. Eckles of Illinois was controller in 1893, during the second Cleveland administration. Charles G. Dawes succeeded him when McKinley took office in 1897. William B. Ridgely, {another Tilinoisan, was controller under President Taft, and Henry M. Dawes, brother of Gen. Dawes, was appointed to the post by President Harding in 1923. Now President Coolidge goes to the commonwealth of Lincoln and Grant for another | guardian of our paper money. Col | McIntosh was for many years an of- ficial of the Armour Packing Com- pany at Chicago. Since 1920 he has been director of finance of the Ship- ping Board and Emergency Fleet Corporation. He saw active war service in France, Ttaly and the Bal- kans in 1917 and 1918. * K K K | At the White House this week in- quirers about the state of the Navy were advised by President Coolidge to read a speech on the subject made by Senator Hale of Maine last May. Hale is chairman of the Senate com- mittee on naval affairs. Probably with the exception of people who have an incurable habit of reading the Congressional Record, the speech attracted the attention of very few persons. Members of Congress long have complained that many important utterances on Capitol Hill fail to catch the public eve and ear. When Warren G. Harding, as President- elect, visited the press gallery of the Senate in the Winter of 1919-1920, he mentioned “the best speech I ever made’—on the League of Nations, in September, 1919—and lamented that nobody dignified it with notice. * K Kk K Eugene Mever, jr., managing director of the War Finance Corporation, is a Treasury official who belleves in prac- ticing what the Treasury preaches. He loads himself down every day with a pocketful of the 1924 silver dollars which Mr. Mellon's department is try- ing to popularize, and puts them in cireulation. ,The rural northwest is absorbing wholesale lots of the glis- tening new cartwheels. A trial ship- ment of $300,000 was sent to the Fed- eral Reserve Bank at Minneapolis the other day, and two duplicate orders have meantime been sent in from there. * ok ok K Students of Calvin Coolldge's lit- erary style detect a conspicuous par- tiality on his part for alliteration, Callfornis, | fact that lliinois has had something | There | ¢ among | President | | | | | | “congestion, third lett addressed nter r of the alphabet when he cretary Hoover's traffic nce at the White House. The talked about “conditions" contemplated” when the ‘“car’” created,” and then discussed the confusion and conflict” had resulted. These, if not ombated,” Mr. Coolidge said, would end in ‘calamity” and “catastrophe. * ok ok ok A fortune rests in the hands of any not was which one who possesses an autograph of | ing: Button Gwinnett of Georgia, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- dependence. 56 fmmortal signatures. One authen-* tic Button Gwinnett recently sold at auction in Philadelphia for $14,000. The signature of Thomas Lynch, jr., of North Carolina, is also rare, and ot long ago commanded $4,750. There only 17 or 18 complete sets of igners” extant. One set this year fetched $32,500. Forty or fifty vears ago a set was worth less than $700 George Washington's autograph, though not a rarity, sells nowadays for $150 to $200. Once it was a drug on the market at $10. x ok k% Albert Halstead, chip of a famous journalistic block—Murat Halstead of Cincinnati, is' a visitor to Wash=- ington. Halstead now American consul general at Montreal and one of the distinguished figures of the United States foreign service. For many years he was a Washington newspaper correspondent, having in- herited a talent for journalism from his father. While Murat Halstead edited the Cincinnati Commerclal Ga- zette, Alfred was its representative at the National Capital. Since his first consular post in England in 1906 Halstead has seen official service in Vienna and Stockholm. He is a Princeton man &nd once edited the Springfield (Mass.) Union. * ok k¥ Latin America will have a friend, and a well posted one, in Congress in the person of Senator-elect Hiram Bingham of Connecticut. So will the air service, for Bingham was an aviator pilot during the World War. Besides having spent his early man- hood as a lecturer on South Ameri- can affairs at big Eastern universi- ties, Bingham has traveled exten- sively throughout out sister repub- lics south of the equator. He speaks Spanish fluently. In the course of several expeditions of exploration, Bingham crossed South America in half a dozen directions. He hap- pened to be born in Honolulu,. where his father was a missionary What Senator Bingham thinks about. the Monroe doctrine is indicated by one of his books, entitled “The Monroe Doctrine an Obsolete Shibboleth.” (Copyright, 1824.) ——— A New Coolidge. From the Topeka Capitel. “A new Coolidge” since the eiection some Washington correspondents re- port, “President’s meekness gone as he directs affairs with snappy vim.” The old Coolidge suited the country, judging by the vote, We don’t know about his meekness,. but if that is what it was, it inherited the earth, according to the scriptural promise. No Chance for La Follette. From the Indlanapolis News. One reason La Follette didn't do better Is that bad weather favors one old party and good weather favors another, and there's no weather left for a third party. What joy to have | There is nothing more It is the scarcest of the | have with so | in America tod las tion and quicken the heartbeat. Along comes jazz, but the glamour is not lessene is jazz, music is music —always has been, and always will be. But why? Even had some name like jazz been invented for a similar form of modernistic expression in art it would have made no difference. The word “art” in the popular mind is not associated with Joyousness, festivity, good times. Misuse and association of ideas can- not altogether explain this difference, for though we see advertised “art metal beds” today, we cannot forget that a generation or two ago we had musical stools and chairs—delight- ful pleces of furniture so constructed that when in use a music-box tinkled out familiar tunes. No, the difference goes deeper than this. We have not vet awakened to a realization of the delight-giving power of art. * ok % % Ir: his lecture last wedk on “Realism in Seven Arts” given at the C ntral High School under the auspices of the Washington Society of the Fine Arts, Stark Young suggested that part—a large part—of the trouble in all of the arts today is our demand for realism, our Suppogition that in art we must find a resemblance to the actual in life. Architecture, he pointed out. was free of thi& limita- tion. We do not expect to see a building re sembling a man or a tree, a horse or a dog, or even a moun- tain. It is a thing apart, and suffi- cient unto itself. To an extent, music Is free, for, as he put it; the majority know that when music begins imi- tating common sounds it is getting out of the realm of bure music. To be sure, some of the modern com- posers are making efforts in this di- rection, but they are stijl taken as occasions for mirth rather than sub. Ject for serious admiration. But in painting, and still sculpture, the miscy tiat the artist something in the imitation more in onception prevails is trying to imitate nature, and the closer the “better the art difficult to ex- plain to the average layman than that the picture painted so accurately that it deceives the eye is not the acme of fine expression. It is this neces- which in large measure has in- 4 the modernist movement in painting and sculpture. To be sur it has gone t0o far, 8o far that many of its manifestations have little or no likeness to anyvthing that one has ever seen, and, unhappily, almost no lement of beauty, without which no art can survive. But, despite all this, It has served to stress the fact that art s by no means inherently or pr marily a matter of repetition, of imi- tation. = The great artists of all times have been those who have pos sessed orizinality and found, uncon- sciously, individual and new expr sion. * ok ok ok In Ttaly and in France the word art, which is practically the same in !l languages, shares foday the dis- tinction among common people that all here give to music. In Italy and France to the boy and girl on the street or the laborer in the ditch, the shopkeeper behind his counter, art has a magic, quality, and offers in- stantly the suggestion of recreation, of a delightful means of employment Of leisure time. The problem for us is Row to inoculate ith this suggestion made at a public our own people w In an address meeting recently Mr. Frederick Kep- | pel of New York, at one time assist- ant. Secretary of War, said: every possible source time is being aved. The electric washer is quite important a factor in this time- saving as the eight-hour day, but for what is time being saved? That is the great problem.” He lamented the fact that so little of this leisure time is being devoted to the arts. “The remarkable thing,” he =aid, “is that a people like the American people have gone so far in other directions while they have succeeded in going s0 short a way in the appreciation and consideration of the opportunities in the production of the arts,” add- “L do not supp. any great civilization In the history of the world has ever gone as far as we few people drawing from that inexhaustible spring.” Re- ferring later to this spring, he con- tinued: “The peculiar quality, the peculiar value of the art side of our appeal or the appeal of the art to us, of course, is its absolute directness. You do not have to have a long prep- aration to enjoy great art. If vou have it in you you will do it the first time. And it stimulates and vitalizes ail the other things where we do have to have preparation.” He urged most strongly teamwork In the arts, community effort. “Unity of the arts,” he reminded his listeners, "is nothing new, but it is what was a commonplace in the earlier civiliza- tions. All the arts grouped around the temple or around the forum or around the cathedral; they were the great flowerings of the human spirit in the past.” If.we hope to have similar flowerings today, Mr. Keppel thought, it must come through sim- ilar effort. ¥ e Along this same line of thought Homer Saint Gaudens, in an address made at the meeting held last week at the home of Mrs. William C. Eustls, made the following contribution: “Nowadays,” he said, “we consciously think of art only In terms of painting and sculpture, vet really, when we get down to brass tacks, In all our surroundings, whether they be ele- vator grills or fin-de-siecle automo- bile bodles, or neckties, or our wife's hat, or dressing a dinner table, every single one of us is subconsciously at- tracted and interested to some extent by charm in color and form—attracted with a little taste and discrimination, I hope, but anyhow attracted. And that desire is the fine, wholesome universal appetite for art.”” It is this unsatisfled appetite which is causing, some think, not a little of the restlessness of today. The so- called amusements do not cure the hunger; it goes deeper than this. * k X *x The sense of peace and tranquillity that comes over one upon entering any of the great cathedrals in Eu- rope s the gift of art. It is akin to the feeling of joyous exaltation pro- duced by beauty in nature—a magnifi- cent view, a glorious sunset—but it is different; it is more intense and profound, ~ because subconsciously there is the knowledge which art al- ways convevs of human thought and touch and mastery. There are.very few who do not re-act to the Lincoln Memorial, to Saint Gaudens' master- plece, the Adams Memorial. Almost every one prefers beauty to ugliness and is affected by it, and the more frequent the contact the Keener the en- joyment. The -appeal of Versailles, ©of the garden of the Villa d'Este, of all the beautiful gardens and pub- lic parks the world over, is the appeal of art—they are man-made, and their beauty did not just happen, the genius of man is behind it. The fact is that the manifestations of art are so nu- merous and so disassociated that very often they are not recognised at all as in this category. Moreover, art is 80 free, even when it gets by chance “From | Q. How many Protestant and how many Catholic churches are there in the District?—M. D. T. A. According to the 1924 directory of Washington, D. C., there are 33 Roman Catholic and 342 Protestant and other churches. Q. What is the oldest Washington golf course?—W. T. O. A. The Chevy Chase Club, Chevy ase, Md., has the oldest golf course within the immediate vicinity of Washington. Q. At what degree will gasoline freeze?—A. E. C. A. The Bureau of Standards says that gasoline has no definite freezing point. It stiffens up slowly like melted wax at temperatures far be- low those ordinarily encountered even in the Arctic. Q. What is done to the wood of which pipes are made =o it does not J. G, A. Smoking pipes are usually made of special kinds of wood which are very tough and close grained, which do not crack or burn easily. Many pipe bowls do become charred. Q. Where were Christmas trees first used?—C. E. R A. The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian era. The palm tree is known to put forth a branch every month, and a spray of this tree, with 12 shoots on it, was used in Egypt at the time of the Winter solstice, as a symbol of the year completed. Q. Is it true that in sewe coun time, then are disinterred and put 1n a bone yard?—N. G. L. A. The American Funeral Director says that in regard to temporary burials, the custom of dumping bones of dead human bodies after they have practiced today in Cuba, and, indeed. in nearly all countries. They do not belleve it is practiced in any other countries than those of Spanish origin. Q. Can borax be made too strong? Have heard that water only dissolves s0 much.—M. P. A. The Bureau of Chemistry says that the saturation point of a solu- tion depends upon temperature. At an ordinary temperature you can make about a 4 per cent solution of borax. to make a 35 per cent solution. Q. What is the meaning of the ex- pression “hallmark”?—D. L. V. A. A hallmark is the official mark of the Goldsmith Co. of England stamped on gold and silver articles at Goldsmith’s Hall, in London, to attest their purity. Hence the term came to imply any mark used for the same purpose by assay officers in the United Kingdom. Q. What is the origin of th Penn Yan, a town ¥ NG A. Some of the first settlers of the village Penn Yan were from Penn- sylvania, while others were known as New England Yankees. A discus- sion arose as to the name of the vil- lage, and both parties were satisfied by the adoption of the present name, Penn Yan, made up from the first syllables of Pennsylvania and Yan- kee. name Q. How many foreigners there in the United States in and about how mary become ralized vearly?—J. B. S. A. According to the 1920 census report, there were 13,712,754 for- eigners in the United States. The |number of citizens naturalized in the {United States for five v | 1918, 63,993: 1919, 11921, 17,636; 1 | Q. What is the origin of the phrase, 0 let the cat out of the bag"’—S. A. The Danes claim to have originated were 1920, natu | Like the dancing mania of the mid- idle ages, the cross-word puzzle has | swept over the lard, and, as Whistler said of art, “no hovel is safe from it.” Wall street has prescribed, un- der penalty of dismissal, any of its employes from “working” during of- fice hours any of the hypnotic check- {ered squares. A large syndicate held off for months before it capitulated to the rising demand from its clients for a daily puaazle. |Now it is selling 58 different ones jeach day and reports that some of the editors are clamoring for two or three a day. 1In the opinion of the New York World. “it may be better than ping-pong or mah-jong in that it compels its devotees to add to their voeabularies. It may keep and wife from domestic bickering. ner saloon, where the tired citizen, hoisting his foot onto the brass rail, may say to the white-jacketed dis- penser, ‘Let's have a cross-word puz- zle and a pencil, Jack. I've had a hard day.’” Referring to the statement of an English professor that the average business man in this country has & vocabulary of but 3,000 words, the San Francisco Bulletini declares: “That is a pity, but it is going to be remedied. When he goes home to dinner his wife greets him with: ‘Oh, James can think of a word of five letters that means the same as French fried potatoes? Little James calls from his corner: ‘Ma, what's a word that has elght letters and means egg- plant? And ma replies: ‘Ask your father, he knows everything, and I'm busy.’ And, in a short while father catches it himself trving to answer all those questions as if he knew. He goes off in his golf, can’t think of a funny story any more, carries a book of synonyms in his pocket. mutters to himself, and when he reads the ticker, absently looks for words, words, words. The cross of the cross- word puzzle is on him. In time his epeech will that nobody but another cross-word hound will be able to converse with him.” * ok k¥ No cause, remarks the Buffalo News, “may be regarded as wall on its way until it has had its martyrs. By that token cross-word puzzle addicts have something to hearten them in the fact that a man has gone to prison in New York rather than submit to a fine for refusing to vacate a restaurant table at which he had been working for hours to find ‘a five-letter word for microscopic hairs’” ‘The cross-word puzzle, the Springfield (Mass.) Union declares has become more than a fashion, “It is a movement, a sweep- ing, staggering, compelling move- ment. We should not hesitate to call it the greatest movement in modern times were it not that no one, as yet, has attempted to incor- porate . compulsory puzzle-solving into the Federal Constitution. That may be a mere oversight. One Into museums, that we are apt to take it as a matter of course. All this goes to lessen its value among those who do not know, for it is the costly which is accounted valuable. Let it be remembered, however, that ert is never cheaply brought forth; it has its price and it is more than that of a king's ransom. But those who pay are they who produce—artists to ‘whom art Is life, and even more. tries people are buried only for e} lain in an above-ground “grave” is| the Latin American | At boiling point it is possible | in New York?—| newspaper | nhusband | It may bring to life once more the cor- | be so rich in synonyms | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J]. MASKIN this expression. In Denmark there is a choice confection made in the form of a cat. Children delight in placing a nuiber of the confections In a bag which s then tied almost out of reach They then attempt to bite holes in the paper—thereby ‘“letting the cat out of the bag. Q. How can stamps which are stuck together be taken apart without los- Ing the mucilage?’—W. F. P. A. Lay a thin sheet over them and fron with a hot iron. Q. Is the lifting of ofl from the wells to storage tanks an expensive pro- cedure?—N. O. K. A. The Bureau of Mines says that from 20 to §0 per cent of the tota! cost of producing petroleum may be charged to lifting the oil. Although the lifting cost ranges from less than 3 cents & barrel at flowing wells, producing sev- eral hundred barrels a day, to $3 a bar rel, at wells producing less than a fth of a barrel a day. the lifting cost per well may i+ f-oo more than $1000 at large flowing wells of the type Te cently developed in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and California, to less thar $10 at many of the old wells pumged only a few hours a week, as in_mwt of the oil fields of New York and Penn- sylvania, where the average dally pro duction per well per day is less thar one-fourth of a barrel. Q. How can tarnish be removed fror silver metal cloth slippers’—L. K. S A. Silver and gold slippers may b cleaned by brushing with alcohol o gasoline. There are commercial preps rations on the market for this pur pose which seem quite satisfactory Q. Does a country's proximity the wea make it more liable to earth quakes?—O. C. W. A. It has been thought by somr that the center of earthquakes and volcanic disturbances is always near the sea or other large supplies o water, and that the disturbances are directly caused by the filtration the water down to igneous matter and the consequent generation of vas quantities of steam, which frees itself by explosion. Others have sought to explain earthquakes as part of the phenomena of a planet cooling at the surface or to the vielding of strata so as to slip down- ward upon each other. Q A. Thrown pottery Is shaped on 2 rapidly revolving disk. The prepara- tion of the clay is a scientific process The ingredients—ball clay, flint pow- der. feldspar and kaolix care- fully selected and weighed in certain proportions, %0 that they will fuse properly and become sufficiently hard when shaped and fired. The mixture is left to stand until thor oughly soaked and then is lawned through fine linen and dumped into plaster box which absorbs the water and leaves the clay in condi- {tion to be beaten. All the air bub- bles must be driven out of the ball of clay before it is placed on the throwing wheel. Workers in pottery delight in the touch of the plastic clay as it spins upon the disk. The thumbs make the inside of the object while the extended fingers shape the walls. After the work of art is prop- erly shaped it is put into a plaster Lox to hecome “leather hard” and is then finished or turned. The plain objects finally are ornamented and placed in the fire oven, and a still later baking process puts on the de- sired glaze. Q. Kindly inform me how I put celluloid in liquid form?—J. C. A. Cellulofd can be dissolved denatured alcohol What is thrown P potters F —are can in (Readers of The Evening Star should send their questions to The Star In- formation Bureau. Frederic J. Haskin, | director, Twenty-first and C streets northwest. The only charge for this service is 2 vents in stamps for return postage.) Cross-Word ' Puzzle Craze Held Beneficial by Editors expects it to be remedied speedily.” rly everything In this country is investigated sooner or later, adds the Indianapolis News, and “since the cross-word puzzle creze has become epidemic a State or Federal inquiry may be expected. People who have not yet become cross-word puzzle fans, but who are plagued by other members of the family who are, wish to know what is back of the move- ment.” The Roston Traveler fears the worst and adds: “The cross-word puz- zle mania is bad enough now, good- ness knows, with formerly sane folks awing the air, pawing the diction- |aries and clawing the minds of friends and enemies for missing words. There is no peace in the land Reviewing the history of American fads, including the ouija, mah-jong and the cross-word puzzle, the Mil- waukee Journal contends, “what these succeeding ‘crazes’ tell us is that as a nation with a good deal of leisur. we haven't learned how to use it The Journal suggests that if each individual used his spare time to de- velop his own individuallty—"used it in whatever way he felt would give him the most pleasure and the most eturns, that would be a ‘craze’ worth while.” On the other hand, the Cleve- land Plain Dealer believes the cross- | word puzzle ought to have some ele- |ment of permanency, because “it is {not silly. Considered from several viewpoints it beneficial mental exercise. Incidental¥, it is good fun.’ e ¥ By comparison, continues the Nash- ville Banner, “the cross-word phase of American desire for fads is to be preferred to anything which has re- cently come along. It is eminently better than repeating phrases about every day in every way and wonder- ing what it is all about. It is more |enlivening and instructive, too, than indulging in endless bouts at Chinese dominoes, otherwise known as mah- jong. It is bound to teach the enthu- siast more about his own language and facilitate his use of it. It is also calculated to impress quite a good many interesting and useful facts about history, mythology, science, business and sport.” The Lansing State Journal thinks “the cross-wus puzzle will compel a lot of peopis o increase their knowledge of words In that it will serve a useful purpose. Is it too much to hope that they use them when they get acquainted with them?’ If one acquires a new word by wrestling it out of a cross-word puzzle, and it finds resting place in the mind, the El Paso Herald believes that “sooner or later, in the proper connection, it pops out. A fragment of the newly acquired vocabulary has been put to use. Another thought begs expression, and like as not an- other new word enters into it. And so it goes.” Says the Wichita Eagle “We do not doubt that the cross-word puzzle has concealed in it a great American flareback and is good for the Nation. Basically, America re mains deadly serious on one thing i particular—education. The cross- word puzzle fits in. It doesn't merely deal with words; it deals with the se- lective qualities of the mind. It doesn't call so much upon knowledge as upon skill. And mental skill isat the bot- tom of American education.” The Sa- vannah Press decides he sport which demands a little thinking is not utterly despised. It is an unselfish game, any number can join in, and the family need not preserve a stony silence, as is necessary where bridge or radio enters the home." | |