Evening Star Newspaper, December 22, 1924, Page 6

f’HE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. IMONDAY.....December 22, 1924 THEODORE W. NOYES. . . .Editor 'The Evening Star Newspaper Company | Business Office, 11th Kt. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office st 42nd St. Chicago. Office Rulding. European Ufice : 16 Regent St.,London, Kogland. | The Breninz Star, with the Sunday morning | Mition, fu delivered by carriers within the | ity at 60 cents per month: daily only, 45 cents per month: Sundey only, 20 cents per month. Orders may be sent by or teln- Dhone Main 5000. Coliection is made by car- Tlers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance, ' Maryland and Virginia. | Daily and Sunday. . [dug out of the dictionary for cross- .1yr, $6.00; 4 -1yr., $2.40; 1 mo,, 20¢ | | Sunday only. All Other Stat Dally and Sunday.1y Dally only. Sunday only. ! 1 Assoclated Press {s exclusively entitled | use for republication of all news dis credited o it or not otherwise credited | In ‘this ‘paper aud also the local news pub- | Sished ‘herein. " All rights of publication of | special dispatches berein are also reserved. — Short-Session Business. Congress has adjourned for the Christmas holidays, with its calendar in about the usual condition at the short session. Some progress has been snade in the House on the appropria- ton bills, but the Senate has done little or nothing in the way of legi lation. Tt cannot, of course, act on the money measures until they have come over from the House. Its appropria- vion committee has been studying the bills that have actually been trans- snitted, but in the main its time has heen occupied in talking on Muscle Shoals and post office pay, with a few enactments of a general character. In a short session the work is all done practically in January and Feb- ruary. Some apprehension is now be- ing expressed lest the present session laves mome of the essential meas- ures unacted upon. That would mean ! extra session, which the admin tration apparently wishes to avoid. The District has a definite interest in the situation. Its own appropria- ion bill is vet to be framed. The ‘House committee will begin hearings on the estimates a week from today. | The bill itself is not likely to reach | the House much before the Tth or| he 10th of January and the Senate hefore the That is compara-| tively a this bill, even | with prompt by the Senate| ommittee. February 1 is likely to| be reached before the blil is put on | its passage in the upper house. In the House of Representatives the | bill to make the District surplus tax | money available for appropriation is pending, having already passed the Senate. It is the most important measure of all of a local character | now before Congress. If there is a ldemasition. in_the House to dn imestes 1o the District in this matter, the bill tan be enacted before the appropria- date for action | the total. | and probably receive a veto on the | B SRR tion bill has been considered. The trafic bill is now in process of | formation. It should have the right| of way through committees and! hrough the houses, for it affects the | word puzzling increases the vmbp-f lary, but the question arises whether an increased vocabulary is any good unless it is used. There are many kinds of collectors In the world. There are people who collect china, pictures and old playing cards, jackknives, @oor knockers and stamps, autographs, | photographs and letters—everythlug | under the sun is an object of collec- | tion. Just at present people are col- lecting words, not permanently in all cases, but for passing purposes, just as avidly as the hunter after a rare edition or an arrowhead. A word is a thing of use, whereas some of the other things that are col- lected are of no value whatever. To be sure, many of the words that are word puzzies are of little or no cur- rent value, Some of them are obsolete, many of them are Scotch, some are highly sclentific and technical. If a cross-word puzzler were to adopt them all and apply them, however correctly, in his ordinary conversation he would run the risk of question on the score of sanity. This is not to say that cross-word- | ing may not make a naturally good | talker a better talker. Bacon declared | that “reading maketh a full man.” Much reading of the dictionary cer-| tainly fills a man up, and cross-word- ing as a stimulus to dictionary read- ing may cause the measure to run over somewhat. Discrimination is the | essence of a good vocabulary, that is to say, & vocabulary of useful words, 5o that if cross-wording is to become a | fixed habit and dictionary reading a | steadfast result some judgment must | be employed to keep our spoken | speech consistent. The Government’s Urgent Need. Senator Smoot, chairman of the Public Buildings Commission, seeks the co-operation of the President to secure agreement by the House of Representatives on the pending meas- ure which provides for the expenditure of $50,000,000 in a period of five years to erect needed Government buildings in Washington. Favorable action on the bill is expected in the Senate im- mediately after the holidays. An amendment is pending there to widen the scope of the measure to include | the provision for buildings in other cittes, which would add $23,000,000 to Should that amendment carry it would be useless to send the bill to the House, where undoubtedly if 1t were brought up for consideration further amendments would be adopt- ed, increasing the total to such a pro- hibitive figure that it would challenge | ground of economy. That the Government needs urgent- | ly & large addition to its building| equipment here at the Capital is self- evident. Continuation of the present uneconomic system of renting inade- quate structures is a serious waste of public money. The Government 1s handicapped in its operations by lack of proper housing for its bureaus and departments. Its records are in danger | Confinement of this pending meas- ure to the specific needs of the Gov- ernment at the Capital does not signify that its needs elsewhere are not great. The United States could spend several hundred million dollars effectively and properly in building { prevail in other lines, | nistory. physical welfare of the community in | Work throughout the country. But it | ‘. vital manner. The two District | cannet do that at present in the exist- committees are working together in | ing condition of the Treasury and the framing it, and presumably they will | need of economy and tax reduction to press it for action as soon as agree- | relieve the heavy burden now borne ment is had upon its provisions. by the people. It has postponed its The fivevear school building pro-| Capital building work for & number of years, chiefly on account of the war emergency. It must now proceed with | construction. Buildings of a tempo- | rary character erected during the war are literally falling to pieces. They cannot be abandoned, for there is no place in which to house the workers even with the force reduced very greatly from the war basis. The situa- tion grows worse each year. The cost will grow greater with every year of postponement. Now is the time to do this work most economically. 1f, as expected, the amendment en- larging the scope of the bill is rejected by the Senate, it may be laid before the House in season to be considered and passed at this session. Adoption of & special rule to prevent the offer- ing of enlarging amendments is pro- posed. The hope of all who work for the Government in high or low capaci- ties, of all who have business to trans- gram bill is angther item of urgency | ‘or the passage of which the District | is now hoping. It will have the sup- | port of all who realize the condition of | he public school system of the Capi- | al. It should have early considera- on in committee and in the Houses. o Unobservant Witnesses. A speeding motor car, it is related, st night struck two automobiles in succession and then hit a street car, and was crippled beyond the ability to proceed further. According to wit- nesses, the driver leaped from the seat, unscrewed the front and back license plates and sped away, This raises a question of interest. What were the witnesses doing while the driver was unscrewing the license plates? Did not some of them notice the license number? Surely there is time enough | | 1o take note of the number on a tag |8t With the Government, is that this while screws were being unfastened | bill may pass before March 4 next, and and plates removed. It is not a job of | that the work may be started without a second to take away the identifying | further delay. Dlates, especially on a cold night when e fingers are numb and clumsy. The friendship of Japan and the U. License plates are, it Is true, so|S. A. should be of value to the world fastened to machines that they can |in showing how smoothly and prompt- be quickly removed, and much mis- iy points of difference may be_intel- chief is done by the changing of license | ligently disposed of. < tags to conceal identity and confuse DX G ks pursuers. It might be well fof the| The duels and other political adven- Commissioners to consider means of a | tures he is now engaged in should more secure fastening of these identi- | enable Ibanez to surpass himself in fying plates. They need to be shifted | hig next novel or movie scenario. only once a year, unless a new car is Rl et ol g bought in midseason, apd the new| Tor several years the December plate must be placed a few months | negs relating to the thermometer and later. A semi-permanent fastening of | yhe price of coal has been monotonous- the plate would at least lessen the |y rejable. likelihood of & speedy stripping of the of its identifying marks. s i Golf Talk. ‘fnie auditors agree that La Follette| For several years past base ball campaigners had comparatively little | Players have been taking up golf. Not to spend and did not get very much | that they need the exercise, for surely for, SIREE 5. NS they get enough of that on the dia- mond. But for some subtle reason 2 g they almost to & man have gone in for Puzzling and Vocabularies. | e scotch game as a diversion from Cross-word puzzling is said to have | the American as a side line of interest. caused a falling off in the reading of | Now comes Manager George Sisler of poks. This is a point yet to be deter- | the St. Louls American League team, mined, perhaps by the records of book | himself a golfer of no mean ebility, sales. It IS a question whether those | and issues a new rule that mey cause who are. now hunting the illusive |a considerable disturbance in base ball seven-letter words or the five-letter | ranks. The men of his team, he says, words or the eleven-letter words that | may play all the golf they want in constitute the chief stumbling blocks | their off hours, but they must not talk to solution have been great book read-|it on the ball fleld or at the hotels. ers in the past. The puzzle itself con-| When golf gets hold of & man so stitutes an agreeable diversion, a|strongly that he must talk it constant- pastime, possibly even a passion of |ly, says Manager Sisler, it is time to devoted occupation. But confirmed |stop. So the base ball player ‘who readers are not likely to lose their in- | “can’t leave his clubs, drives and con- terest In literature in their excursions | versation on the links will have to into the dictionary. No matter how | give up golf.” 'many puzzles are sglved, a connected Golf enthusiasts who are not com- text retains its charm as ugainst the | pletely masters of their own time will disjointed diagramatic bunch of words | view the order of the St. Louls man- that constitutes the problem. ager with some apprehension. For if It bes become a commonplace, this idea of confining golf talk to the ——————e ployers or bosses there would be great suffering among the club swingers. Golt conversation is @ great part of the game. Golf talk is almost a for- eign language to the non-player, 50 that the golf talker must have a sym- pathetic, understanding audience. That is to say, he must talk to enother golfer, and that means that he must talk to another golf' talker. Conse- quently a golf conversation is apt to {be a sort of mixed monologuse, each talker telling his own story In sec-| tions. Of course, politeness prevails to the point of giving the other féllow a chance to complete his anecdote of the drive that went through or the bit of hard luck on the eleventh green, or the lost ball on the fourteenth, or the heel print on the seventh, or the birdie on the third. But all the time he is shaping his counter anecdote. His mind is chiefly busy in recalling his own experience. It is always easy to appear to listen with full sympathy because the listener is the next talker, and he will expect an equal degree of courtesy. Ban golf talk? Manager Sisler is striking at one of the fundamentals of the sport, To be sure, he has the power. The base ball manager is in supreme command. He can discipline the too-garrulous golfer by benching kim or fining him, or even forbidding further golf. This autocracy does not but still the example set by the St. Louis base leader may be contagious. Golfer: would best mind their words or the game may by spread of example soon be confined to the links. A Big Hotel Again at “01d Point.” Washington is interested in the an- nouncement that, acting under au- thority of an act of Congress approved in September, 1922, the Secretary of War has granted a permit to a private corporation for the.construction and operation of a hotel on the military reservation at Fort Monroe. Thus once more will accommodations for the public be provided at Old Point Comfort, where for many years resi- dents of the Capital found enjoyment, especially during the heated term, un- { til fire destroyed the famous buflding. No more dellghtful week end outing was possible than the boat ride down the river and the bay, with the day spent at Old Point and the return by the night boat. Since the burning of the Hotel Chamberlin, however, there has been no such accommodation save in the city of Norfolk, or in Newport News, which do not attract visitors seeking relief from the heat of the | ¥ eity. Old Point Comfort is ideally located for such an establishment, jutting out into Hampton Roads at the confluence of the James River and the Chesa- peake Bay, with the Atlantic Ocean within view beyond the Capes, with shipping at anchorage or in transit, with the naval craft lying close at hand, with old Fort Monroe immedi- ately adjacent. It is a place rich in It has been the scenc of many important events. ‘Workmen who were permitted to in- vest in Henry Ford's business draw a dtvidend of 14 per cent. A few more years of this program and there will not be a Soclalist or a radical in the entire plant. - Kerensky is glad to be back in Rus- sia, end so far from attempting any political agitation will probably con- tent himself with a fairly well paid government position, ——e———— ‘The parking problem will go up for | discussion, which gives at least the assurance that it will have more lit- erary, legal and rhetorical interest than before. ———te— One advantage of airships over old- fashioned battleships is that the for- mer can be made useful, whether there is @ war or not. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Snowflakes. Each snowflake has its exquisite de- sign Tnlike all others in the swirling throng. We differ, too, ‘mine In form and fancy, as we drift along. : ©oh, gentle friends of But none of us, of Now or Ages Past, And none in Future Ages can dis- close ‘With form and purpose analyzed at last, The perfect symmetry a shows. Persistent Preference. “Are you fond of soclety?” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “But 1 can’t get over my primitive preference for. beefsteak and potatoes as compared with ice cream and may- onnaise.” Clashes of Authority. The Cat looks at a Queen, The Queen attempts to catch ‘er. The Cat, with nerve serene, Reserves the right to scratch ‘er. Jud Tunkins says when he goes to Heaven he won't mind having a crown, but he’s afraid if he tried to play @ barp it *ud annoy the melgh- bors. snowflake Every Year. The Pessimist is somewhat queer.- His arguments are devious. For every year the Christmas cheer Surpasses the one previous. 4 Inconsiderate. “Mrs, Flimgilt has threatened. to leave her husband.” X ‘She won't,”” answerpd Miss Cay- enne. “She doesn’t .like him well encugh to do him so great a favor.” The contradictions that-arlse - Leave me perplexed and surly: One colurhn says, “‘Economize!™ . The next;one says,. “Shop Early!” . ,“If some o’ de talk dat's . goin’ around git's any mo’ popular,” said Uncle Eben, “de next thing you knows a mule skinner is g'ineter to turn up [ ! BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. | Benjamin Franklin may not have drawn the lightning from the clouds with his Kite-and-Key-Odyne recelv- |Ing set, but he certainly said a mouth- ful when he uttered those memorable Early to bed ‘and ear! i [ Makes's man healtny. wealihy and wiee. | Eight hours of sleep a night for {every man, woman and child in the | world' would go & long way toward |solving the problems that confront | society. If there could be a law enacted, and a universal happy acceptance of {1t by everybody—which there would (not and could not be!—making elght {hours of sleep compulsory upon the | community, many of the evils of thi our civilized life, would drop away from us like the last leaves of jAutumn from the trees. . | Ina few years automobile murder petting parties, bootlegging, fallure {In lessons, botches in business and |many, many other disasters, both large and small, would be things of i the past. | Most of the evils that coms from addled brains, crooked thinking, wearlness of muscle and strain of nerve fibers would slowly disappear under the beneflcent effect of thos wonderful “elght hours. To secure this effect, of course, the hours of sleep would have to be hours of real sleep, indeed, heavy, com- plete slumber, in which the nerve |ganglia were completely dissevered. | Preferably at least three hours of it would come before midnight, for “one four's sieep before midnight is worth three after,” as some ancient worthy rightly declared. There are more people fooling themselves today in regard to s'eep |than in any other single factor of {living. |, They honestly believe that they can get along,” whatever that means, on five or six hoiirs of sleep a night. They | Will argue you blue in the face on the proposition that “eight hours of s'eep gives one a headache.” So there is no use arguing with | them. They laugh at the kindly | mehtor who dares tell them that they | are doing worse than burn the candle | At both ends, that they are deliberate- Iy cutting several years off the end of their lives. Off the latter end, too, that is the worst of it. Most of us cou d easily lofe a few years off the early period, when we think we know everything. but really know very little that is worth wing. But lose several whole years— 365 days of 24 hours each—off the end when we want them most, that is a tragedy which no one will rec untll he gets there. Then it will be too late. Life Is like a college cours one matriculates for prospect of four years at stitution of learning seems . stretching into the distance forever and ever. The student realizes that come to an end, some time, but the thought does not bother him very much. Work and worry, “out- side activities” and play occupy his every moment. He does not stop to consider the end. Graduatlon s a fong way off. i He prospers in his studies, he be- comes a power in sports, dramatics, debating and many of the other ac- tvities that perhaps mean more to him than the very studies he pur- sues. (They usually do.) B tells himself. June comes. He gets his pretty sheepskin, he packs his trunk., = Most of his fellow grad- uates already have left. the old town, He sticks around loath to leave it. He says good-bye to his' best girl. Then he takes the train, and that little world that was When it must kis for four years sees him no more. | Our comparison falls down with a smash here, of course, for the gradu- ate knows where he 1s going, but the his freshman | the next on such hops and fa'th as he happens to possess. * o ok ok How some folks can midnight every night, night after night, month after month, year after year, is a standing mystety to us who belleve in going to bed early. O sleep! It is & gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pol Coleridge was right when he wrote that, but no one would suspect It from the actlons of many folk. They y up to midnight or later. only a disagreeable necessity. Now, perhaps it would be a fine thing If mankind had been made so that he might have worked and play-: ed the clock around, but somehow the Creator made us up on an entirely different principle. We are like clocks that have to be wound up every night. Our winding up is accomplished by nature while It is possible to get just t by,” but In the end the big mainspring s going to_break before its appointed time. Nature is one thing you cannot get |around. Whether you like the plan | or not, there it s, and you either comply with it or pay the penalty. | As Emerson says, the river drowns the feroclous tiger and the Innocent | baby exactly the same. | “God bless the man who first in- | vented slee; said Sancho Panza. The world has agreed with that plous sentiment ever since. Sleep is an art as well &s a neces- sity. Like the other laws of our being, the best way Is to fall in with big a fuss about it. The wor that_about elght hours of slesp are ecessary for most men and women, i s o 10 required for the best healts of children. Maybe it would be a better thing it some one would invent a way to dlspense with sleep. Then H. G. Wells could turn out 200 novels in- stead of 100, and there would be twice as many fox-trot tunes on the air. But would the world be any better oft? * % %% Sleep certainly knits up the raveled sleeve of care, as Shakespeare put It. That sleeve, by the way, ought to be pretty well knit up by this time. { " Sleep 1s a great pacifier, Troubles vanish in its soothing | Pains become as if they were not, and often, happily, are no more, in | reality, when one awakes. “Heavy sleep, the cousin of death,” some one spoke of it; and certainly | sleep is about as near death as:we L\c\fll ever get until we arrive there. A sleep without dreams 1s the ideal. | Most dreams come when one is lying {on the back, so that care to sleep on | the side or stomach will obviate most {of them. Dreaming is mostly a nul: | san: and can well be dispensed with, |as it allows the vagaries of the sub- | conscious mind to break loose. | “What probing deep has ever solved the mystery of sleep?’ asked Thomas Bailey Aldrich. The animals accept the mystery more complacently than we do, and glve themselves up to its beneficial sway. Maybe that 1s one reason why they are 80 healthy. Even as sleep seems to resemble death, so it is best accomplished in a quict place. The ears are always open, it must be remembered, and although the noises may not be suffi- clent to_actually awake the sleeper, they have enough volume to vitiate the deepness of his slumber. It is the real, heavy sleep that counts. In a modern -city, with all- night trafic and noises made by the “night hawks” who think they are | 1s probable that few get all the A-1 | quality sleep they need. |in sleep, and I, for one, think it is | very well spent there. Certainly it has the very highest authorship. never even start to go to bed until | Sleep I8 to them! | Nature knows nelther pity or blame. | it peacefully and do not put up too, 1d of men has discovered tnsensibility. | putting something over on nature, it| Yes, we spend one-third of our life | VITAL THEMES MUSCLE SHOALS AND UNCLE SAM. BY K. T. MEREDITH, | Ex-Secretary of Agriculture. | _In the Muscle Shoals nitrate and Dower project the United States Gov- ment has already expended about $150.000,000. The public seems to agee that the project should be com- pleted and controlled by the Govern- ment—at least, most of the public agrees, with the exception of those whose products will come Into com- petition with the products of this im- | mense plant. That this country will need Increas- fng amount of nitrates both for fer- i tilizer and for use in the industries cannot be doubted. seen the {mmense plants {n Germany, In which nitrates are produced from the air under vastly less favorable conditions than exist at Muscle Shoals, cannot doubt the feasibility or succ ly it is sensible to stop paying im- mense sums of money to Chile for our nitrates, and it is nothing more than g00d common senss to place our- selves in position to meet our needs | for this essential material not only for fertilizer, but also for munitions in event of war. Otherwise we shall be at the mercy of a forelgn country {n both peace and war. Likewiso there {s no question that , within a comparatively few year thers will be remarkable develop. ments in the use of hydro-electric power in this country. Power at low | cost {s essential to efficiency in our manufacturing and _transportation, and already the keenness of competi- tlon is forcing attention to cost of production, in which cost power is an important factor. How shall Muscle Shoals be com- pleted and operated? This is the | problem and the point of the whole | matter. In general there are two | methods offered—first, the Government, and second, by pri- vate interests under a contract with the Government. It is urged that Government meth- ods will not furnish the initiative and drive that are required to make a success of an immense enterprise of this nature. Thers is undoubtedly some basis for this bellef, but even though the Government might not operate it with maximum efficiency, it would be much better than to per- mit the vast expenditure which has already been made to be wasted and to deprive the country of the benefits { that will result. | The project is so great that but tew privvate companies con possibly handle it. Because of the size, these | compantes may feel that they m { be unreasonably safeguarded against loss. In that event the Govvernment i should itself certainly operate the |plant. Manifestly a contract under which the Government shoulders | losses while privats interests get profits is not fair. If the Government operates the plant, a company should be formed with responsible management, which should not be obliged to wait upon the action of Congress on detalls, nor | should Congress, after laying down principles, inject ftself on every provocation. | Either private management on a fair basis, assuring a supply of ni- trat or Govvernment operation on {a plan eliminating the interference | of Congress in detalls should work | to the satisfaction both of the people | and of the Nation. (Copyright, 1924.) Defends Hospital. Writer Takes Issue With Charge Rates Are Too High. To the Editor of The Star: H. Y. Dawkins, in a letter to the ' | ber 6, asks why rooms in hospitals tn Washington cost patients so Any one who has | of such methods. Certain- | operation by | st | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN | Q Does the Federal Government finance the building of schoolhouses in ' | Wastington®—E. C. B. A. The schoolhouses financed 60 | per cent by the District %nd 40 per cent by the Federal Government. Q. _Who gave the painting “Diane of the Tides" to thie Government?—L. T. A. This painting by Elliott, son-in- law of Julla Ward Howe, Is the gift of Larz and Isabel Anderson. Q. How many boundary stones were there in the Federal District of Colum- | bia and when were they located?— LT W A. There were originally 40 boundary stones of the District all located and erected between 1791 and 1792. They were made of freestons from Aquia Creek, Va. Each stone was 4 feet long, 2 feet below the ground, 2 feet high, with beveled top forming the fustrum of a four-sided pyramid. The face fronting Matyland or Virginla bears ‘“Virginia" or “Maryland,” respectively. On every monument was carved the magnetic deciinations. Q. Some people say La Folletts re- celved 5,000,000 votes, others that he re- celyed 4,000,000. Please give the cor- rect figures?—J. A. D. T. A. The official figures are in for 24 Stafes. These added to the unofficial figures for the other 24 give the La Follette vote as 4,569,200. Official re- turns will soon be completed. Q. Does veneered furniture last as Ilgnfc-s furniture made of solid wood?— A. Vencered furniture, if properly cared for, will last as long as solid fu niture. The glued joints when correctly | made are as strong as the wood under ordinary service conditions. Long e posure to very damp air or direct con- | tact. with water, of course, will decrease the joint strength even when a very water-resistant glue is used. But such service conditlons would be almost as detrimental to solid furniture, because even in solid furniture the members are Joiried together by glue. Q. How can electric lights b col- | ored and the color afterward re- moved?—H. C. E. A. If it i{s desired to color the bulbs temporarily they may be coated with collodion in which aniline dye | has been dissolved. Such coloring I soon bakes and peels off and is there- | fore more readlly removed. ! Q. What time is it in Mex | when 1t is noon in New | A It is 11 o'clock i by wtandard time, as central time division. Q. When two bodies c tact, as a bird fiying agalnst a build- { Ing, is the building jarred in asmall| degree?>—E. L S. | A Yes. The kinetic energy is ab- | sorbed by the building, and if this | were free to move it would do so until stopped. Q. What percentage of the boys between 20 and 24 are in college?—L. R. N. A. Out i of 3,594,834 men between the ages of 20 and 24 there are ap- proximately 358,000 in colleges. This is approximately 10 per cent of the male population that are in colleges at that age. i Q. When was the survey of the District of Columbia commenced and at what point?—W. W. § A. The survey of the District was commenced April 15, 1791, at the spot where the lighthouse on Jones Point, near Alexandria, now stands. 4 Q. Everywhere I go I see copies of the “Blue Boy.” Why is it so won- | derful?—J. A. S. A. The “Blue Boy most important paintings IN TODAY’S is one of the by Gains- editor of The Star, published Decem- | . He goes on to say that a room in a hotel with service can be | had for $4 per day, while hospital man who leaves this life must take| “He giveth His beloved sleep.” “America will miss Gompers.” Thus the Peoria Journal epitomizes | the opinion upon which the American | press 13 in universal acocord. “If Samuel Gompers had been the iruler of a nation” declareg the | Akron Beacon Journal, “instead of the head of a great organization, his | death would have claimed no greater attention from every class of citizen- | ship in America.” Fulsome praise for | Mr. Gompers {s heard and also there is calumny, says the Worcester Poat, | which adds: “There is call for noither. !“Well done, good and faithful ser- |vant, applies to him as citizen and leader during an epochal period in |the industrial life of this country. The wisdom of the man made Its fm- press on this country to such a de- [Eeeiie s servios to humanity s difficult to measure, just as was that of Benjamin Franklin.” he oontribution which Samuel Gompers made to the cause that led him on for 50 years is soarcely to be understood by fitting the man into observes the New York World. Tt must be re- membered that his first connection with the American labor movement actually dates from- 1864, from a day beforethe Civil War had ended. * ® * It {s given to few men to encompass with their own lives so complete the development of any purpose, Whether it is the"business of making steel from the first rude furpaces or the business of organizing labor. Samuel Gompers dled, possibly, with his mind as little changed on any point of im- portance to him as any outstanding figure in this generation. He be- lieved in labor's right to organize; he belleved in a living wage. His methods of working for those objec- tives, his theories of - capital, of politics, of .strikes, of government, were substantlally the same in 1924 as they were in. 1900 or iIn 1880, Samuel Gompers did not live and learn. He lived and fought for con- victions that life had given him in its first chapters.” * * % ® “Samuel Gompers was more than & labor leader,” says the Baltimore Evening Sun. “He was an epach. The little cigar maker, who came to New York from Whitechapel road, London's Ghetto, sat in at the birth of the organized labor movement in this country. His career ends al- most cofncidentally with the first formal venture of American labor into the political fleld. The biog- raphers who seek to set down his career in words will have to retell the whole history of organized labor in this country. ®* ¢ ¢ They will find him = at one time - bringing down on his head the attacks of the employers, Who saw hini as the ex- ronent of red revolution, &narchy and chaos. They will find him bring- ing down later the attacks of men of his own kind, who saw him not as. revolutionary but. as. reactionary.” ‘With him, in the obinion of the Al bany News, “goes a great force in American life, & force for good, & force that stood between two ex- tremes and insisted always-on mod- eration and common sense. A great stabilizer was Samuel Gompers. Per- haps the best epitaph -that could be writter of hini s a questlon: ‘Who s there to take his place? " ‘No history of the United States,” Portland (Ore.) Tel Saroring che st 30 Fecs S8 tie X Press Rates Samuel Gompers As “More Than Labor Leader” j nineteenth century and the first 20 years of the twentieth could be complete if it did not give a conspicu- ous place to the venerable man whom i organized labor and the whole nation | mourn.” The life of Gompers, the De- | troit News believes, “is an epitome |of a soclal era. Labor picked itselt | out of the gutter, exchanged its rags | fr the garments of self-respect and advanced with steady stride toward the councll chamber. Gompers was the agent of history; he it was to whom came the mandate and the tofl and the reward of just fame.” | “In appraising the career of Mr. | Gompers,” says the San Franclsco | Bulletin, “there must be considered what.anight have followed if the hard. | ship of the labor movement of recent | years had been in hands less wise in | judgment, less . aiscreet in action. | Moved by this reflection, labor and . | capital today may meet In common entiment of respect over -the bier of Samuel Gompers.” ~ It was.character: | lstie .6f Mr. Gompers. thinks 'the Seattle Tfmes, “that with almost his | last breath he invoked a blessing on | Ameriga’s Institutions.” The president of the American Federatlon of Labor, in the opinion of the New Orleans Item, “like many very active meén of affairs who live long, lived to be out- run’ by tendencies he heiped to set.” He was really a conservative when he died, continues the Item, “when meas- ured by our present standards, and was fighting against the extremism that he once personified himself, for the capitalism and industrialism that once berated him for it.” * ok k % *“Samuel Gompers was oalled hard names in .his time” reflects the Columbus Ohio State Journal, “he went to extremes sometimes In his class consclousness, as in his advocacy of the principle of the closed shop and his deflance of the courts. But so, too, have the capitalistic leaders and their partisans In places of power in the governmental system gone to extremes. There are warped vi on both sides of the old controvers; The Richmond News Leader oalls Gompers an opportunist. It says: ‘Samuel Gompers' place in labor his- tory depends entirely on the answer to the question whether opportunism was or was not the best policy organ- ized American workers could have followed during his long presidency.” But, the News Leader conclud “Juares’ monument is to be in the Pantheon; Gompers' is In the pay en- velope of every American worker.” Former Gov. Henry Allen’s Wichita Beacon tells of the debate between GV, Allen and Gompers in New York m'!no. Ly e (Gompers) fajled to answer the crucial question that was put to him. The guestion was as to whether the public has any rights when labor and capital are at war. In fact, Mr. Gompers never.did angwer. the question. Within. the grooves of his philosophy. the. ques- tion - wae aunanswerable. It was a product of a new age which he did not fully understand.” But, the Bea- con ¢oncludes, “Whatever one may think of the rightness or wrongness ‘of Samuel -Gompers' industrial phi- losophy, one must grant him the un- reserved tribute that he was a re- markable leader of men—a man who retained the affection and respect of his followers in a duration that was to men who are versed in the :fluxqfl- of grg; n.” e b 4 mads | rooms “without service cost around | $10 | Mr. Dawkins is, of course, mistaken | in his statement. For when the charge { for hospital rooms is $8 per day or | higher (and they can be had for $8) | not only is service supplied in many times the amount that goes with a hotel room, and without tips, but also meals. To make the comparison more nearly fair, Mr. Dawkins should fig- ure what it would cost for a hotel room with three meals served in the room, plus tips. The hospitals of Washington are \not without flaws or faults, but they certainly are not excessive in their charges by any reasonable compari- son, uor are they making & profit. Wece it not for the public-spirited of the officers and trustees of ashington hospitals, who give their time and ability, as well as their money, to these institutions all of us would have to pay much more than we now do for the invaluable service they render. This service is supplied at varying rates from noth- ing at all to those who can pay noth- ing up to a substantial rate for those who can afford to and wish to pay { ully for the services they require, as they would at a hotel. It is expensive as well as unpleas- ant to be sick or Injured, but certain- |1y no intelligent person fupposes that the public hospitals of this or any ther city are organized or maintain- | ed to profit by sickness. They have | been organized and are maintained by the citizenship of the city. They re our institutions, dnd it s our fault, as well as our shame, if they are either inadequate to the needs or. inefficiently maintained. Mr. Dawkins or any one interested can, I am sure, readlly obtain the financial statements and full infor mation regarding the operating costs of any of the publio hospitals upon application. A: ASPINWALL. | Able to Retire. | Prom the Kansas City Star. | Ex-President Obregon of Mexico is | recelving telegrams of congratula- itions on his retirement, which seem | appropriate in view of the fact that | be was able to retire alive. his great mistake,” in the opinion of | the Portland (Maline) Express, “was {in taking the attitude that he.did, that labor and capital were ‘irrecon- ollable foes; that, as he expressed it, the labor movement was ‘a large body of fighters surrounded by ene- mies” In supporting this,ldea, Mr. Gompers was frequently led to adopt |a course of action that was not only | costly to Industry, but to those who depended upon industry for their Iivelihood.” Had Gompers taken a | definite stand, the New York Evening Post holds, “for the principle that labor should give a fair day's labor for a fair day’'s wage, instead of sup- porting the opposite policy of redue- ing production to the level of the least compstent worker, demanding the highest wage for all, he would occupy & far higher position in the annals of industrial relations than that In which he is likely to bs placed.” “His political excursions were & ways 11l advised and always 'dls astrous,” declares the St. Paul Dis. he departed from his theory that or. ganized labor had no business 1 pol- itfcs, and on each occasion ‘he was severely rebuked by public opinion. His support of Cox in 1920 was a flat taflure, and his most recent effort— o line up labor in hehalf of the. La Follette candidacy—also falled. -This last was probably. the worst mistake he ever made, and a kindly Nation msll, will asoribe it to the infirm- of hia advanced aga™ s S l borough, who was an eminent Epg Ush painter. Tkis portrait was psint ed when the artist was at the height of his fame and regarded as one of the greatest masters of the Englisl school of portraiture. It is sald to |have been painted to refute an argu- |ment'of Sir Joshua Reypolds that b): |was a color unsuitable for the miain light of a work. Q. What kind of wood resists ds ycay the longest underground?—W iv. o A. The Forest Products Labéra tory says that osage orange and black locust are the most durable woods which grow in commercia quantities in the United States, &nc can be expected to resist decay ir the ground longer than any other native epecies. These woods are not very plentiful, however, and are not available in sufficient quantities to be very widely used, so woods like the cedars, cypress, and redwood are very commonly used where resistance [to decav s desired. Woods of low durability can be made durable by pre servative treatment with coal tar crec sote. An effective treatment of th: kind will make quickly rotting woods last as long or longer than the most du rable woods can be expected to. las without treatment. Q. With what Turopean countries has the United States no diplomat relations?—J. V. H. A. The United States has no diplo matic relations with the following larger countries Soviet Russia Abyssinia and Riak. There are = number of smaller principalitier which the United States does not rec ognize. There is a high commissior at Con k ke under tk supery A. A tornado is usual diameter, a few is, of great height. Q. Where is Ifn1?—C.S.W. A. It s a colonial posse: | Spain, In Africa. Q. Why was the painter Joh Crome known as “Old Crome”?—J. N A. John Crome was thus known to distinguish him from his son, Johr Bernays Crome. The latter als painted. Q. How historic races computed?— few bones are found, it i mathematical problem. The humerus multiplied b. length of the femur mul 66 e s the height of of sma hundred yards, b proportional vertics ion is the probable stature of R. ! length 15.06, or ¢ the early Egyptians ghave with?—A. L. G. According to shaved the h when they were barber of the known Herodotus, the continually, and and beard grow in mourning. The anclent Egyptians was haq. He employed A razor some a small short ved handle, and shaped like a knife ¥ used. ape o chet with a recur other instrument; were most genera (The Star Information Bureau i answer your question. This offer applie. strictly to information. The bureaw ccr not give advice on legal, medical and financial matters. It does not attemp to scttle domestic troubles, nor wnde take exhaustive research on any subject Write your question plainly and briefly Give full name and address and inclos 2 cents in stamps for return postage All replies are sent direct to the inquirer Address Frederic J. Haskin, director The Star Information Bureaw, Twenty first and C streets northwest. SPOTLIGHT BY PAUL V. COLLINS: For several weeks the mews from Europe has contained references to unrest in Albania, and recently there have come frequent reports of insur- rection, with invasion by armed bands ¢rom Jugoslavia, her neighboring nation upon the north. The smallness of Albania, its sparse population of uneducated shepherds and mountaineers—almost savages in their blood feuds—might tend to an underestimate of the importance of their present unrest, but it should not be forgotten that Albania was the “bone of contention” which threaten- ! ed to bring on a great International war two years before Serbla won that bloody distinction, and that she re- | mains the key to the Balkans, the !gate to the Adriatic Sea and the | highway perhaps to the Orient. Her territory is the object of the covetousness of Jugoslavia on the | north, of Macedonia on the east and of Greece on the south, threatening to fnflame the quarrelsome Balkan states Into a new struggle to seize territory and thereby to involve the \Breat powers, as it did Just prior to the Worla War. Albanfa is also the fleld of fanatic | fealousy between the three religions dominating her population—Moslem | Orthodox Christian and Roman | Catholic. Her people are differen- tiatad, not upon ethnic lines but by | their_religious. Moreover, for cen- | turies—as far back as history records —the - land has been held by great estates, and her people enslaved by ! feudal lords, where today there is a demand of agrarfanism for the confiscation of the land and its divi- {slon amongst the worke * % X ¥ | For decades there had been an | effort of the Albanlans to throw off Turkish dominfon. In 1812 they suc- | coeded in driving out their Turkish oppressors, only to fall into the hands of the great powers of Europe, Jealous of each other and fearful that an independent Albania would upset the balance of power in the Balkans. . and ultimately the balance of power in Europe. * Secret archives of other great powers might disclose as significant | documents ~ covering international {agreements concerning Albania, as [ala the Russian secrets which were Iumued by -the bolsheviks in 181 after the downfall of tie Czar. These |'proved that Great Britain, France and Russia, on the one hand, and Italy on the other, entered into a pact April |26, 1915, to divide Albania among Iner neighbors and thus annihilate ! hep ms a nation. Yet two years after ‘the independence of Albania, “under |the .shield and protection of the | Italian Kingdom.” | At present irregular bands (said to | be Jugoslavians) are stirring up un- {fest along the northern border and [creating anarchy. Will Italy inter- | vene. with her “shield of protection? | ““The Albanian premier, Bishop Noli, { makes a formal appeal to the League " of Nations that it request the gov- | efnment of Jugoslavia to cease per- mitting its nationals to disturb his country. patch. “On several notable occasions Sif ‘Eric Drummond, the general secretary of the League of Nation: is an Englishman, and Premier Noli appeals to him, saying that a stato | of affairs exists which “sravely men- | ac the peace of the Balkans"—not | merely the peace of Albania. Friends and . critics of the efficacy of the |league tre watching to see what ac- tion that body will take as'a world league, and whether England will nction Italy's protectorate—th belng members of the leagus, | that secret treaty Italy proclaimed | which assumes to from encroachment. What will Eng land do when the league ceases 1c act, if it fails to stop the unrest? * ok ok % It is estimated that there are more than 40,000 Albanians now fn the United States, though many immi grants returned to their fatherlanc during the struggle for independence, i in nominal success In 1912 b others returned during the World War, but thousands of refu gees arrived here during that perfod for Albania saw much fighting anc was occupled throughout the war by Italian forces. All Albanians now here have come since 1900. Most of these immigrants are in New England, there being not less thar 10,000 in Massachusetts * % % % In the early vears of the immigr tion but few Albanfans could read ev their own language, for it had bee: the policy of their Turkish rulers tc forbid schools. In 1906 a graduate of the University of Athens, who, owlng to his inability to speak English, was working as a factory hand in Massa chusetts, started a weckly newspape in Boston, printed in the Albania: language. He was Mr. Sotir Petsi, a orthodox Christian. His purpose was to crystallize patriotism among his fellow Albanians, on behalf of the fatherland. He published at his owrn expe: and distributed his paper, a first gratuito but not more than 20 out of the 5000 Albanians then ir America could read it. These literate Albanians read it to thelr neighbors who never before had seen an Albanian paper. Not long thereafter there ar rived in Jamestown, N. Y., a group of | Albanians from Rumania who were | more enlightened, and with Mr. Petsi's fpaper as inspiration, they soon formec the first Albanian soclety in America— named “Motherland.” * ok k¥ When the Greek patriarch of Con stantinople heard of this dangerous ac tivity of the Albanians in America, b threatened to excommunicate from the orthodox church all relatives of the American Albanians who were still it Albania. This threat resulted in a con vention in Boston in 1308, at which the American-Albanians proclaimed their independence from the church unde: the patriarchate of Constantinople, anc they established in Boston an finde :pendent Albanian orthodox church, un. der the headship of Rev. Fan 8. Noli ‘a native of Kyteza, near Adrianopia He was duly invested at the hanas e the Russian Bishop of New York, and i is this new American made Bishop Nol who is now the premier of Albania anc who is appealing to the League of N |tions to save his country. * kX X A most remarkable demonstratior of the artificial division of Albanians according to their religions, rather than upon lines of race, is found ir the fact that the Boston Orthodox | Christtan Church is receiving liberal contributions of support from Al- {banlan Moslems in America, who, in thelr enthsiasm over the independence ! from European or Turkish dominance have separated themselves from the Sheikh-ul-Islam. of - Constantinople and, although not accepting Chris tianity, are gid to encourage the Christian independants, for patriotic | motives. | 8o strong is the ambition of the | Atbgnlans in America to gain educa- tion that it s authoritatively stated | that, while in 1906 not more than 20 could read and write, today not less than 15,000 can do so. They support nine weekly papers, sis monthlies and one daily. Ten ure pubiished iii the Albanian language, (Including the daily of Boston) and the cthers in both Albanlan and English. 4Qeprright, 1224, by Peul V. Colltmud protect nations