Evening Star Newspaper, April 4, 1925, Page 6

THE EVENING THE EVENING STAR)]thatlife in America, instead of being | patronage from Mayor Hylan, and With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY.... April 4, 1925 THEODORE W. NOYES . .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office. 11th St. and Pennsyivania Ave. New York Office. 10 East 42nd St. Chicago Office: Tower Building. European Office: 18 Regent St.,London, England. the Sunday morning The Evening St " delivered carriers within lhn edition, s delivered city at 8 cents per month: d centa’ per month; ‘Sunday only. 20 cents’ et month. Orders may be sent by muil or tele- phone “Main 5000. - Collection is made by car- Tiers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily ana g Sunday only All Other States. Daily and Sunday....1 yr., $10.00; 1 mo., Sic Daily only -1 ¥, H Seaday only .1 5T, Member of the Associated Press. The Assoclated Press is exclusively entitled fo the use for republication of all news dis- atches ited to it or not otherwise credited and v the local news pub: All rights of publication of hes herein are also reserved. n this pape Lished herei spectal dis Showing Europe the Way. Drafting of 30 conventions for codi- flecation of Ameri inter: ional law, designed for discussion by the international comm on of jurists which is to r this year at Rio de Janeiro, may show Europe the way to solution of its problem of security, disarmament and the pacific settle- ment of disputes. Europe’s most am- bitious effort in this field was the Geneva protocol, which apparently is doomed to failure. It is doomed to fallure becau liky the Holy Al- lance and other associations of na- tions purporting to be for purposes of peace, it had in it tho seeds of oppression and of war. The main effort of the distinguished jurists who drafted the 30 American conventions has been to ecliminate these war seeds. The 30 conventions taken as a whole constitute a grand scheme for & community of tions based upon the solidarity of the American re- publis with a complete bill of the rights of natiors, an American code of international law, a pan-American court of justice for interpretation of the law and machinery for the pacific settlement of disputes through media- tion and arbitration. Wars of con- quest would be outlawed by a brief but effective convention providing that futu of territory “by means of war or under the men- ace of war or in the presence of an armed force, to the detriment of any American r ublic, shall not be law- ful,” and it is further provided that title to terr v thus obtained would be “null in fact and in law.” It would be difficult to conceive of a pro- vision better calculated to put a curb on the imperialistic designs of ambi- o acquisition one vast hustle, is one superb holiday. Mr. Buchan told e London audience that many of his preconceived ideas of the American race (it is not known in just what sense he used the word ‘“race”) had proven to be fallacious; that he had never found so many ex- ponents of elegant leisure as in the United States. Just what sort of people the emi- nent Briton visited and observed is not stated. There exist over here colonies and institutions and situa- tions wherein people have nothing to do, and do it, but, while Americans do not work quite as long or &s hard as did their ancestors, and are grad- ually learning to play, and play some- what gracefully, they are still accus- tomed to look upon themselves as fairly busy persons. This cbserver shocks transatlantic feelings in two ways; he paints his Irecent hosts as not only having lei- sure, but elegant leisure, and as being superior In this respect to the Eng- lish. The latter is what hurts most. Bang! goes another cherished ideal. Will the novel-writer of the future have to invent a hero who, brought up in the hectic, time-clock-punching, no-time-out-for-tea atmosphere of Merry England, goes to America to find himself out of place, embarrassed and faintly disgusted with its ele- gantly-leisured, graceful do-nothings? Mr. Buchan's characterization is reminiscent of the situation in which a man, coming suddenly on an unex- pected mirror, fails to recognize him- self. If the mirror is a little cracked that makes it harder. The Shipping Board Row. The most recent Shipping Board row has advanced to the point where the Federal courts have been asked to settle it. The Pacific Mail Steam- ship Co, in obtaining a temporary injunction in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia against the sale of ships now being operated by it to the Dollar Steamship Co., has made serious charges, involving the Shipping Board and the Dollar Co. The Pacific Mail, in its bill of com- plaint, declares that (1) its bid was not given consideration by the Ship- ping Board; (2) that the acceptance of the Dollar bid is not to the best in- terest of a permanent American mer- chant marine and is violative of pro- visions of the Jones merchant marine act, and (3) that a majority of the Shipping Board has been particularly partial to the Dollar Lines, not alone in this transaction, in a manner which is prejudicial to the interests of the Government. The substantiation of any of these charges—if any of them can be sub- stantiated—would be sufficient to halt the sale of the ships to the Dollar Co. On April 13 the Pacific Mail must make good its charges before the court, or else a permanent injunction will fail and the sale of the ships tious nations. Another of the conventions proposes expansion of the Monroe doctrine into an international agreement under which all the Western republics would be responsible for safeguard- ing their territories against aggres- slon by non-American powers. Such an agreement would be heartily wel- comed by the American people. When the Monroe doctrine was promulgated the Latin republi were weak and incapable of self-protection, but now that they are collectively strong there is & disposition to resent the guardian- ship of the United States and in some instances even to dislike us be- cause of it. Europe should keep a close eye on this program for peace in the West- ern world. Though Europe is the mother of American peoples and na- tions, it not infrequently happens that a mother can learn from her children, ———— Schools’ Fire Hazard. Grounds for gratification exist in will proceed immediately. There are three angles, at least, to the present controversy. In the first place, the Pacific Mail Co. believes that it has not been fairly treated,and that the sale should have been made to it. In the second place, there is a minority of the board which belleves the ships should not be disposed of, certainly not unless the prices to be paid are much higher than offered now. In the third place, there is the majority of the board, which is in- sisting that the award to the Dollar Line was properly made, and that it is the business of the Shipping Board to dispose of the Government ships and to get the Government out of the shipping business as rapidly as possible. This is not the first time that an injunction has been sought against the Shipping Board to prevent sales of ships. In May, 1920, William Ran- dolph Hearst sought an injunction to prevent the sale of the Leviathan and other former German ships which became the property of the that portion of the annual report of the fire marshal's office, recently laid before the Commissioners, which an- nounces that fire-hazard conditions in the various school buildings have been found this year to be much better than on previous inspection. But the succeeding statement that there still remains room for improvement calls for action. The report points out in detail and specification the conditions demanding a remedy. One of these is the practice of stor- g surplus and discarded furniture, discarded supplies, waste paper, trash d other combustible material in the school basements. These, as had been previously recommended, should be stored in one or more central buildings. That the old Potomac Building, now being used as a storage house, could accommodate some of it is suggested. It is found that while the storing of inflammable materials under the stair- way s generally been discontinued, at some of the schools the practice is stlll persisted in. The report per- United States as result of the war, to the International Mercantile Marine, alleging that company was dominated by foreign interests. The Government did not at that time seek to continue with the sale, and the Jones mer- chant marine act became a law a month later, laying down the terms under which the vessels could be sold. —_————— Germany lost a great man when Ebert died. His position was a difficult one, and his personality was not as- sertively persuasive. Yet he did all that any man could do to stabilize conditions, and did not commit the egotistic error of attempting too much. French finance has brought up the question of the gold standard. There has been no call for William Jennings Bryan to act as a special adviser, A New York judge has said that it is legal for a man to wink at a girl. There is no use of trying to padlock an eyelash. tinently points out that while the stairways are fireproof, they are not stokeproof. Special attention was called to the handling of waste paper, and it is noted that two recent fires in the schools are attributed to unwise practices in this everyday routine. The fire marshal's office has pre- viously made recommendations on this subject, and now repeats them. With the example of the menace created as presented in two recent fires, it should not take long to reach action upon this reiterated sliggestion. The new appropriation for repairs for schools is $450,000, whereas in former years it has Been only $300,000, so there can be less complaint of lack of funds. Con- ditions should be at once adjusted to meet every recommendation of the marshal. ————— The packing industry has made many an Easter egg taste like a rem- iniscence of April 1. —_——— As Others See Us. King. Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun. He may be as right today as he was when he said it, but he would have @ hard time laughing off the dictum of James Buchan, British author and publisher, who, at the completion of a recent The Russian government apparently has not yet found & way to take itself out of the hands of the “efficigncy ex- perts.” Gov. Smith and Mayor Hylan. Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York is a busy man these days going over the large number of bills left upon his hands by the recently adjourned Legis- lature, while likewise keeping warm some political irons he has in the fire bearing upon his possible candidacy for the United States senatorship next year as a stepping stone for the presi- dential nomination. Today he is in New York City conferring with politi- cal friends and getting the attitude of ‘Tammany Hall toward Mayor Hylan's candidacy for the mayoralty of New York City next Fall. It falls out that Gov. Smith’s action upon one of the legislative bills in- volves considerations having a bearing on possible harmonious relations be- tween the governor and the mayor and the latter’s friends as to the gov- ernor’s future course in the expected senatorlal candidacy. Thus city and national politics are entangled. The drift of sentiment in Tammany Hall toward Mayor Hylan's renomina- tion is said to be favorable, due chiefly to the fact that the district leaders they are eager for more of the same kind from the same’ source. Gov. Smith finds himself confronted by a possible disagreement with the mayor over the Staten Island tunnel bill, which is one of the mayor's pet tran- sit profects, and in which he is backed by William R. Hearst, a political fac- tor in New York City. If the governor signs the bill it will be in opposition to a report of the commission appointed by him, and it is said will be regarded as a surrender to the Hylan-Hearst influence, which may militate against his election to the Senate. So it is found that both the senatorial and presidential pros- pects of Gov. Smith are at this pre- liminary stage entwined with Tam- many. All of which is deprecated by the national Democracy outside of the State of New York, and will be reflect- ed in the course of the party in the future. —_— e A Wise Curtailment. Acts in which dangerous carniv orous animals, especially the great Jjungle cats, are put through paces by trainers have been dropped by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It would be a good thing if other circuses and the vaudeville cir- cuits would follow suit, and they probably will. There has been enough criticism by the public, declares one of the proprietor brothers, to warrant this withdrawal. Parents have objected to bringing young children to per- formances in which men or women enter the cages of dangerous jungle beasts. And, if the truth were told, the parents do not enjoy these scenes any too well, accompanied as they are by roars, snarls, whip-cracks and pistol shots. K The paying public does enjoy acts which employ animals who appear to take a playful interest in their own performances. An elephant is some- times @ dangerous animal, although it usually gives ample premonitory signs. A seal or sealion can inflict a terrible bite; an enraged simian is a mean customer, but no one expects or even desires the elimination of elephant, seal or monkey acts. The objections to the cat acts and those utilizing certain bears are sev- eral. The beasts palpably do not en- Joy their stunts; they must be forced through them. Their performances imply a course of training in which cruelty and fear have played even greater parts than in the actual public appearance. These acts are unpleas- antly reminiscent of the days when primitive man fought for his life against predatory beasts, whereas an elephant or horse act exemplifies the progress of man to the point at which his brains and his patience could bend to his will the actions and v, the element of danger in the acts In which ferocious animals appear is ever present. No trainer of these is without scars and the recollection of narrow and harrow- ing escapes. The jungle beasts will still be on display, but in the menageries, where they belong. The general public will not be far behind humane societies in welcoming the change. ———— The East Indians do not find the British government oppressive. In fact, London is the favorite scene of some of their most defiant enterprises. ————— Nothing has been left undone to convince Bobbie La Follette that the Gamma Omega Pi Soclety is a frat to which he is no longer eligible. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, The Clown, I tried to laugh, But I could not. The comic chaff I quite forgot. Too well T knew That painted clown, Whose joys were few, Despite renown. To laugh I tried— And still I thought Of injured pride With sorrow fraught. T heard the glee Which raised a cheer; But as for me— I shed a tear. Oratoric Rivalries. “Your home folks say you are the greatest orator since Cicero.” “I'm glad they selected Cicero,” an- swered Senator Sorghum, “as the standard of comparison. If they had mentioned Sam Spootles or Gus Gas- well, the folks out home might have started an embarrassing argument.” Presumption. The hen your kind applause doth beg, Though elsewhere credit goes; For every time she lays an egg The silly rooster crows. l l A friend is a man who can forget the part of the past that is disagree- able and remember the part that is pleasant. Jud Tunkins says a man who re- fuses to eat onions is generally sacri- ficing a. present possibility of enjoy- ment to a romance that never hap- pens. In the Gulch. “I understand you have made ar- rangements to build a new fire engine house.” “Yes,” answered Cactus Joe. “The boys realize there ain’t enough of Crimson Gulch to.make any differ- ence if it burned down. But an en- gine house is a mighty cozy and com- fortable place for a card game.” Always Behind the Schedule, We find no reliable scheme to con- trol The debts which display such per- sistent device. In Summer I'm paying for Winter- time coal; In Winter I'm paying for last Sum- mer’s ice. “When I hears 'bout some o’ dese realism plays,” says Uncle Eben, “I's kind o' glad de do'keeper draws de lne against admlmn‘ me to de the- tour of these Ubited States, deciared| and-thetpaesociateshave been getting | ayter.” STAR D. C, SATURDAY, BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. I have just read, with mingled joy and sorrow, Franklin P. Adams' “So Much Velvet,” published late last year by Doubleday, Page & Co. There is joy for such cleverness, such knowledge, such humanity 50 gTeat a talent gone awry. The book was loaned me by a friend who gxpected me to be as Joyously en- thusiastic as he is. When I tell you that this young man's hobbles are air- planes, Chopin, Ted Lewis and $10 pipes, you will understand the kind of a man T have to deal with. He will be terribly disappointed when he learns that I, too, am not willing to read “So Much Velvet” at least on a week, which is the ambitious plan he has undertaken. But I am afraid of airplanes, have no particular penchant for that king of jazz, Ted Lewis, and do not smoke. I do like Chopin. It seems to me that tho inimitable F. P. A. has, in a sense, wasted his talent in confining himself to poetry of this type, because in the 144 pages of this book is enough genilds to write ever- lasting things. This is no new idea about F. P. A., of course. The defense has always been— and it Is a good one—that it is just for this sort of thing that lams was cre- , and turned loose a personality New York journalism. His poetry, they say, is as much as his readers can stand. If he turned serious, and wrote Immortal Verse, his friends declare, hls finicky readers would not read him. Granted. He 1s as he is; he writes as he writes. Only on what he does must we judge him. On that work, he is great in cleverness. The troublo is, he is too clever for his own good. * ok Ok K If you would know what I mean by being too clever, take F. P. A.'s poem, “If,” in the present volume, especially that portion, “If Mr. H. W. Longfellow had written Miss Millay's verses: My candle burns at both ends, Tt will not last the night; But, ab, my foes, and, ob, my friends, It’ gives a lovely light. Here is Adams’ version, a la Long- tellow: Between the dgrk and the daylight, My bayberry candie burns: It _shines from out my window, Yor the traveler who returns. It shines with a holy radiance, And a sacred light it sends: It flames with a pure candescence, And {t burns at both its ends. Not with & blaze consumin Not with a_blisterin; Not_ with Or a beat I dare not But to blaze the path of fri Its flame my candle lends For its light is the light otern That burns at both its ends. The better you know your LongfeHow. the more you will relicsh that *‘take- oft.” It is Longfellow, the perhaps too high-minded Longfellow, strained through F. P. A. for the edification of those who shy at the elder poet. But it is more than that. It is clever with an unholy cleverness. It is so g0od it hurts, it you get what I mean. It is so darn good that the man who wrote it ought—if you listen to me— turn his hand to stuff in his own right. This {s his own right? Well, maybe. But first we have to consider the nature of cleverness. * Ok k¥ Cleverness s that quality in writ- ing which hits the unsuspiclous read- er between the eyes at the finlsh. O. Henry was clever. F. P. A. is indubltably clever. Take the ending of “The Conservative Reader”; I like to read the rhymes uafreed! e ‘em, 1 demand ‘em. Tilt Geath TV Agat For thoss’ T write 8o I can understand 'em. You will not find anything remotely resembling that in Charles Dickens novels, or in any of the great Rus. slan writers, or In any of our elder poets, or any of the English poets, or in James Whitcomb Reiley, or in Palgrave's “Golden Treasury,” or the Oxford Book of English Verse, or in Alexander Pope, or in Walt Whit- man, or in a score of great writers. They were great, but not clever. Search through Dickens &8 you please, I doubt if you can rake up a single instance of pure, unadulter- ated cleverness, such as F. P. A. dis- plays on almost every page in this book and every day in his wonderful column. Wherefore, it would seem that cley- erness has no particular place in the glifts of the great. They can Wwrite, they have the understanding heart, they combine imagination with the gift of narration, they are sincere and outspoken. The great writers have never gone in for mere cleverness, Even O. Henry's short stories will live be- cause there is more in them than cleverness. 8o, some of I". P. A, will last eternally, because there is a res- idue of humanity, just as some of H. C. Bunner live today for much the same reason. The young man who loaned me this book will say 1 take F. I A. too seriously. He will call this article nothing mora nor less than lese- majeste, rather more or less. With him I have no quarrel. Smoke your expensive pipe in peace, Freddy As for me, I mourn and lament over ., P, A. It is rather of his “Ballade of Mr. Samuel Pepys” I am thinking, and that l'envoi: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may This s the sum of his earthly And when the whole of it's done and said. “Tp, to the office and so to bed.” Greatness lies there—and serious- ness. After all, is not seriousness one of the great things in life? The writer and non-writer can well envy the thrill of oreation that ran down the spine of Adams when he conceived this ballad, taking the commonplace remarks of Pepys, re- peated ad nauseam in his diary, and turning it into that last line to sum up the whole life of man. Even F. P. A. is not entirely ashamed to be serious. Beneath his most extravagant fancles often lles a serfous intent too deep for tears. My APRIL 4, 1925. THE LIBRARY TABLE BY THE BOOKLOVER. Revisiting the scenes of youth after many years i{s not usually a very cheerful business. In one of her let- ters Jane Welsh Carlyle tells of such a visit to her girlhood home at Had- dington, on the Scotch border, after an absence of 23 years. She went “Inccgnito” in order to avold the pain of meeting former acquanitances, now grown old, who remembered her dead father and mother; but the in- gnito proved of little use. From the cross-line train which stopped at Haddington she was taken In a dusty little omnibus to the George Inn, where a sleepy landlord and waliter showed her to the best room, looking out on the Fore street. Gazing from the window, she commented that it wag “the same street, the sume houses, but so silent, dead, petrificd! It looked the old place, just as I had seen it at Chelsea In my dreams, only more dreamlike!” After hastily swallowing tea, she sent for the keeper of the keys of the church and allowed herself to be guided about the familier old churchyard, where she found her father's gravestone surrounded by mnettles and the in- scription moss-covered, then into the church, where “our pew looked to have never been new-lined since we occupled it: the green cloth was become all but white from age! 1 looked at it in the dim twilight till [ almost fancied 1 saw my beautiful mother in her old corner, and myself, a bright-looking girl, In the other!” As she was leaving her guide she asked where he lived and he told her next door to the house that was Dr. Welsh’s (her father's), and added: “Excuse me, me'm, for mention- ing it, but the minute I set exes on at the George, I Jaloosed it was he all looked after whenever sh or dou; So the incog avail. She walked alone “up the water side’ and about “The Haugh. Dodds’ Gardens and Babbie's Butts, the cus- tomary evening walk in my teens.” and looked through the sparred door of her father's old coach house and into the garden of Sunny Bank, her godmother home, all the while feellng like her own ghost. we | up | vas of 1o | * The next morning, after a restless night, she arose at half after 5, climbed the locked church yard gate, and with a pearl-handled button hook scraped the moss from her father's gravestone. Then she haunted her old home, where the occupants etill slept. Passing the vil- lage schoolhouse she observed the ¢ T * * sorrow over him comes at exactly this point. With such talent he has chosen rathep cleverness than seri- ousness. It is the serious that lasts. If you do not belleve it look back through literature and you will find that man- kind has cherished most the deep convictions, the great things greatly sald. ‘We may laugh at the serious Long- fellow in public, but in silence and at home we love him. His poems will be read and oherished when Much Velvet” is gone with the news- paper columns from which it came. Let us, then, be serious—but not too serious. Let us be clever, if we can—most of us cannot—but not too clever. As for dear old F. P. A, I'see this in store for him. The Lord will come to him in his last hours and say: “F. P. A, what hast thou done with the talent I did give thee? (The Lord always “speaks formally, like that, according to the highest au- thorities.) “I did spend it, clever things for Adams will reply. “And hast thou done anything else?" “Yes, Lord! I did bring a bit of light into the lives of newspaper men, who read me between a cup of coffee and a hot dog. O Lord, writing subway readers,” BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. For the first time in history inter- national law will be officlally codified and accepted by an association of na- tions, if the work done by the Amer- fcan Institute of International Law, under the sanction and approval of tho Pan-American Union, be adopted by the International Commission of Jurists at its meeting next Fall in Rio Janeiro and ratified by the 1 na- tions. That commission is made up of two eminent specialists in Interna- tional law and practice from each of the 21 nations of this hemisphere. It was_appointed in accordance with resolutions adopted at the last year's meoting at Lima, Peru, of the Pan- American Conference, with the view to the codification of international laws for America. The Pan-American Unicn, which meets monthly in Wash- Ington, comprising the diplomatic rep- resentatives of the American repub- lics, asked the American Institute of International Law, headed by Dr. James Brown Scott, to formulate the projects to be covered in the codilea- tion. That work has now been ac- complished, with the approval of the Pan-American Union, and has just been published. It covers 30 “proj- ects.” * ¥ % * Thig is far more than a mere “legal- izing.” of the Monroe doctrine. That doctrine has to do only with the bar- ring of nations of the Eastern Hem- isphere from further colonization or acquisition of territory in the West- ern Hemisphere. It has no relation to disputes between two American re- publics, which have been the most frequent causes of international wars in America. The Monroe doctrine, proclaimed by a President of the United States & century ago, has never been in need of South or Cen- tral American support to insure its effectiveness, though it has always stood in defense of their rights. It will now be accepted as part of the codified law of this hemisphere, but not the most vital nor the néwest. fea- ture of the American international laws, * k k k The most outstanding statements of the American plan are its declara- tion forbidding the cesslon of .any part of its territory to a non-Ameri- can nation (Monroe doctrine) and (Project 8) *“No nation shall here- after, for any reason whatsoever, ai- rectly and indirectly, occupy, even temporarily, any portion of the terri- tory of an American republic in or- der to exercise sovereignty therein, even with the consent of the said re- public.” Also (Project 80) “The American Republics * ¢ * sol. emnly declare as a fundamental con- cept of American International law that, without criticizing territorial acquisitions effected in the past, and without reference to existing con- troversies— “In the future territorial acquisi- tions obtained by means of war or un- der the menace of war or in the pres- ence of an armed force, to the detri- ment of any American republic, shall not be lawful; and that “Consequently territorial acquisi- tions effected in the future by these means cannot be invoked as confer- ring title; and that “Those obtained in the future by such means shall be considered null in fact and in law.” * %k % * Dr. Scott points to this Project 30, forbidding conquest of “territory by means of war, as the very key to the plan to take away the main incentive for war. There is no purpose to at- tempt to prevent, by force, any hos. tilities between nations, but hostili- ties which must be fruitless in ter- ritory, he believes, will not be so at- tractive to the belligerents.' While the proposed plan cannot affect the present Tacna-Arica dispute between Chile and Peru, because that is a matter of past origin, it would make tmpossible in the future such an ac- quisition of territory. As to the possible application of Project 8 to the occupation of Haiti by United States troops, Dr. Scott ex- plains that that occupation is not an invasion by the Government of the United States, but the troops are duly appointed by the government of Haiti, to preserve order. Hence Project 8 would not restrict such “friendly co-operation.” Our intervention in Cuba, would not be affected, since that right was conceded by treaty and In- corporated in the constitution of the Cuban republic before the proposed codification. also, ook Project 28 provides for a Pan-Amer- fean Court of International Justice, consisting of one representative of each of the 21 nations, plus one meutral from Canada. The court will ocensist of two branches, sitting at all times—a court of first instance and.a court of appeal, each to con- sist of 11 members, to be selected by lot from the entire list of 22, so that half will be in each court. It is especially provided that if the lot should put the United States repre- sentative in the court of first in- stance, then the Canadian must belong to the court of appeals, or vice versa, so that never will both of these strong nations be sitting in the same court. ‘Whereas the opponents of the League of Nations Court of Justice object on the ground that such a court could not funotion judiclally 80 long as there are no codified inter- national laws, that objection would not hold against the proposed Amer- ican international court because, be- fore the court is constituted, there would be an accepted and ratified codification of pan-American {nterna- tlonal law, under which it would ren- der all its decisions. The court would have no powers not granted by the laws. * ok k¥ ‘The provision to include a Canadian on the Court of International Amer- ican Justice may not be construed as a recognition of Great Britaln as a representative of Europe. It may be noted that in building the Pan-Amer- ican Union palace in Washington, there were 22 niches in the design, each niche to be occupied by a statue of a representative histod char- acter of one of the American re- publics. But there were only 21 such independent republics. The twenty- second niche is filled by a statue of Samuel de Champlain, who discovered the lake which bears his name, and also discovered Canada. It was with a vision of the future that the edifice ‘was planned with 22 niches, and. it is held as especially appropriate that Canada in the meanwhile be reco nized with membership as a “neutral” on the “Court of Amerfoan Inter- national Justice.” * ok ¥ % In case of disagreement between the republics, one or both disputants may appeal to the Pan-American Union, which will act as conciliator, and in case that fails, then the dispute may be appealed for arbitration by any chief executive of one of the re- publics. If the dispute hinges upon any of the accepted pan-American in- ternational laws, it will be referred to the Pan-American Court of Justice— the lower court—from whose decision of law, appeal may be taken to the Pan-American Court of Appeals. These courts cannot -arbitraté—they merely apply the law. If the arbitra- tion of the chief executive of a dis- interested American republic be not agreed to (in advance) appeal for ar- bitration may be made to the Perma- ment Court of Justice at The Hague,! jar, walked in and sat in her old seat, o the manifest astonishment of a de- cent woman who was sweeping the floor,” and recalled the time when at 7 in the morning her teacher found her asleep at her desk over a great atlas after she had been there for two hours She commented on the dej the present time, when or ing woman had arrived af Finally, on her way back to the § became courageous enough to enter the garden gate of Sunny Bank and to in- quire at the back door for the health of her godmother and her two sisters. She had hoped that only the servants would be about so early, but she found that “Miss Jess” and “Miss Catherine” were downstairs, and that her godmother was 1ll. So, moved by an uncontrollable de- sire to see these old friends, she flung. “the responsibllity on Providence” and went around to the front of the house, where she was admitted by the same maid servant whom she had interviewed at the back door. Then the incognito was finally abandoned, and at her meet- ing with the three old sisters came all the sad recollections and the tears which she had dreaded when she had first planned to visit Haddington. The story of this visit is told in “Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle” pre- pared for pubjication after her death by her husband, Thomas Carlyle. This is, of course, not & new book. . PR A #odern combination of “Guill- yer’s Travels” and “Rabinson Crusoe” is «Rose Macaulay's novel, ‘“Orphan Island.”* Charlotte Smith, a mid-Vie- torian maiden lady of philanthropic tendencies, collects a number of or- phans and with a doctor, & nurse and a crew sails around Cape Horn, bound for San Francisco, for what reason is not quite clear. But that does not matter, for the ship never reaches San Francisco. It is wrecked and all on board are cast away on the con- ventional troplcal island, in the South Seas. There are the usual tropical fruits, shellfish and game, which sup- ply the table bountifully and deli- cately and, of course, the climate is so balmy as to make clothing and shelter immaterial. Miss Smith is not, like Gulliver and Robinson Cru- soe, anxious to get away, and no ship happens along soon to take her. She remains and founds a community. As a first step she marries O'Malley, the ship’s doctor, and has 10 children. These cilldren and their offspring (later) become the aristocracy of the island; the orphans and their off- spring are the common people. After the birth of the 10 children O'Malley reveals to Miss Smith that he was al- ready married before leaving Eng- land, so her children are illegitimate. He is shortly afterward eaten by a shark. A situation thus arises in which there is an aristocracy based on illegitimacy; compare Willlam the Conqueror and his descendants. Not at all crushed by either O'Malley’s perfidy or his death, Miss Smith con- tinues to develop her commonwealth, in which she becomes a sort of Queen Victoria, vigorously upholding all the Victorian ideals. All the machinery of government is established—a par- liament, a state church, law courts and, of course, laws, police, prisons and capital punishment. Then there is a rebellion and the rebels migrate to another island called Hibernia. The shipwreck has taken place in 1855. In 1923, after considerable de- lay, it would seem, which is, how- ever, plausibly explained, a rescue party comes from England to the island. The shock which occurs to both sides when the moderns of 1923 and the Victorians of Orphan Island come in contact is the climax of Miss Macaulay’s clever satire. She Inti- mates also that the shock would be equally great if three-quarters of a century later the people of the year 2000/ should come in contact with those of 1923. * & % ok “The Letters of James Boswell, collected and edited by Chauncey B. Tinker, have recently been published in two volumes. That Boswell never doubted the greatness of his ‘“Life of Johnson™ is shown by this extract from one of his letters: “I am abso- lutely certain that my mode of bi« ography, which gives not only a his. tory of Johnson's visible progress through the world and of his publi cations, but & view of his mind, in his letters and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived and will be more of a ‘life’ than any work that has yet appeared.” The world has indorsed this view, and Boswell remains the world's greatest biographer. e subject to all limitations of the Mon- roe doctrine and other American laws: Measures short of war for the s tlement of disputes include pacific and coercitive. Pacific, severance of diplomatic relations; pacific embargo and non-intercourse. Coercitive, re- torsion—defined as “action taken by a country to compensate it for dam-: ages suffered through the action of another nation taking the law into its own hands.” (This may include a. di play of armed force). Also reprisals, hostile embargo and pacific blockade, subject to the consideration of the Pan-American Union. In no case will the Pan-American Union or the court undertake to go beyond the above means to discourage war, though no war shall result in acquisition of ter- ritory. m ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN Q. What are the French, Itallan and Spanish equivalents of the word Easter”?—B. F. W. A. The words requested are respec- tively, paques, pasqua and pascuu. Q. How long s Broadway, New York City?—E. §. A. The president of the Borough of Manhattan of the City of New York cays that the length of Broadway within the city limits of Greater New York is approximately 163 miles. Q. From what year does the so- called “factory system” date in this country?—P. G. A. The Bureau of Census says: “Tt seems probable that until about the year 1850 the bulk of general manu- facturing In the United States was carried on in the shop and in the household by the labor of the family or individual proprietors, with ap- prentice assistants, as contrasted with the present system of factory labors compensated by wages and assisted by power.” However, the factory sys- tem was {ntroduced into this country in the latter part of the elghteenth century. In 1789 Samuel Slater, who has been called “the father of Amer- ican manufactures,” set up in Paw- tucket, R. L, the first complete cot- ton machinery to operate in this country. —— Q. Are railroad houses actually round’—A. G. A. Roundhousi plete circle. rarely form a com- was the first elevated built in New York?— Q. When street railway G V. E \ was a single track line from Bat- tery place to Thirtieth street, opened to travel July 2, 1867 Q. What is the meaning of ‘ex- dividend” in the stock list?—H. E. P. A. It is the same as “dividend off.” The sale of a stock with the agree- ment that the dividend about to be paid shall not go to the buyer, or that the buyer of a stock is not en- titled to the next dividend pald. Q. How many theaters of various kinds are there in New York City? How many are in the so-called Times Square district, the “roaring fortles”? —W. 0. J. T. The number of legitimate the- aters is 180, and motion picture the- aters 377. In the streets from about Thirty-elghth to Fiftieth, with the avenues and, Broadway, the number of legitimate theaters is about 60. Q. Which city was first to have a city manager?—M. P. L. A. The city manager plan was first tried in Staunton, Va., in 1808. Q. How long was Halley’s Comet? —M. P H. A. Size would depend upon its near- The first elevated in New York | ness to the earth at the time it is seen. On May 5, 1910, the length .of the comet’s tall was 37,000,000 miles. Q. What kind of stone was used in the Pyramids’—G. C. A. The stone used in the construc- tion of the Egyptian pyramids was from the Turah quarries. It is estab- lished that it took 100,000 men worlk- ing-for 10 years to make a cause- way 3,000 feet long to facilitate the transfer of the stone, and 20 yea more to complete the pyramid of the Cheops. This pyramid contalns 2,300,~ 000 blocks of stone averaging some 40 cubic feet. The biocks came from the Mokattan Hills as well as the Turah, both of which were on the op- posite side of the Nile. Q. Why aren’t stars vigible in tke da. me?—B. B. C. A._Stars are not visible during the day because the superior light of the sun and its ‘reflected rays from ob= jects on the earth is 60 strong as to obliterate the tiny rays from stars so that they make no impression on tho retina of the eye. At the hottom of & shaft or very tall chimney whera no light enters and the direct rays of sunlight are cut off, the retina registers the rays from the stars and hence they become visible, < Q. Where is Enkhuisen® A. Enkuisen is a sea Netherlande on the Zuider seventeenth. century it had a popula- tion of more than 40,000 and sent a fleet of 400 vessels to the herring fisheries. The herring trade has now died away and the population is only 7,748, Q. Are the bi x and sl different breeds?—W, P. A. The black fox and the silver fox are the same, the only difference being in the terms that are applied to those having color variations. Q. Can mu from the Govern A. There are = by the Govern time Q. Why are the dark photograph film light when ture is printed?—T. 8 A. The Bureau of Standards eave the ordinary process of printing re- verses the dense and light portions of the negative. This is caused by ths light rays passing more readily through the light portions of the negative, thus producing dark por- tions on the paper. us airplanes be bought nt?2—W. W. > airplanes fo: rent at the prese parts of & @ P Q. Who appoints national bank examiners?—J. J. Lo A. They are appointed by the con~ troller of the currenc erican of - Q. Who was the first A o late war? ficer to lose his life in th A FI Lie William T. zimons of the Army Medlcal was the first officer in the A to be killed in the World War. Q. the income tax—DM A. Proceeds of life insurance pol- icies paid upon the death of the in- sured are exempt from the payment of Federal income tax. Amounts re- ceived by insured as return of premiums paid for life insurance, en- dowment or annuity contracts are exempt from Federal income tax. Fit- Corps Is life insurance exempt from S (Readers of The Evening Stor showld send their questions to The Star In- formation Bureau. Frederic J. Haskin, director, Twenty-first and C streets northwest. The only charge for this serv- ice is £ cents in stamps for return post- age. Bryan, as “Millionaire,” Rouses Irony and Tributes of Editors ‘The modern romance of the Com- moner who became a millionaire has been given many chapters in the newspaper editorial columns since the country heard recent reports of the value of Willilam Jennings Bryan property in Florida and of his receiv- ing $100 a day for speeches booming real estate in that State. “If Brother Bryan wasn't a predes- tined millionaire,” suggests the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “the copy-book maxims are worse than empty twad- dle; they are sinister deceptions, of a plece with Mother Goose. The man has been thrift incarnate. He has never sown so much as one solitary, little wild oat. The primrose path has never borne the imprint of his solid, pragmatic sole. - In keeping what he got he has been and is a keeperissimo. And he has been no slouch of a getter. As a professional mourner for the woes of the common people he has been a wonder. So here he is, arrived at the place charted in his stars. Vale, Commoner; Hail Caesar! The achievement of a million is looked upon as a proof of Mr. Bryan's greatness by the Nashville Banner, which commends him for turning so many defeats into such vast profits. “No one wishes him anything but good fortun declares the Banmer, “yet those of us in their prime who recall his philippics against money in bulk, possessed by single indlvid- uals, will wonder how he feels to be one of them. Of course, he continues to protest against indignities to the masses, against crowns of thorns upon labor's brow, against crucifixion of the proletariat upon gold crosses and such like. We credit him with sincerity. No one can doubt that his heart and soul are one and both overwhelmingly for those who must earn by toil.” A protest against those who have pursued Mr. Bryan since the Platte first came to public notice is uttered by the Memphis News-Scimitar, which remarks: “There is an element in this country that Mr. Bryan has never been able to please. The crowd that criticizes him for earning $100 a day for a speech extolling the beauty of Florida, the climate and all that Florida s, has always been critical of him. They used to criticize him for saying prohibition was practical, and now they criticize him for changing the subject when prohibition is men- tioned. They ought to give him a rest now that he is giving them one.” * k kX “We do not intend to speak dis- paragingly of Bro. Bryan because of his wealth,” observes the Little Rock Arkansas Democrat. “He made that money ~ in chautauqua work, politics, reporting prize fights for mewspapers and investing in real es- tate. But we wonder if he could de- liver his famous ‘Thou Shalt Not' lecturs today and feel in his heart that bitterness toward capital which rankled thers when he was a poor boy a quarter of & century ago.” The Des Moines Capital aleo believes that *“he cannot, with good grace, continue to talk about the curse of gold. His old place is vacant and we shall-have to logk for a new Commoner.” . The Greenville Piedmont says: “It seems unusual that the great tribune of the people, whose voice has been 80 often uplifted against the power of vast accumulations of wealth, should have become a millionaire, but he has come by it honestly. He has ‘werked hard and saved, invested care- tully and wisely, and, as the years have rolled by, has developed into & first-rate business man. Probably no other person in the world’s annals has made so much money through public speaking.” An attack upon the enforcement of prohibition in Florida is made by the Chicago Tribune, in a discussion of Mr. Bryan's position. “As reason for an advancing real estate market,” states the Tribune, “of which Mr. Bryan speaks sympathetically and op- timistically, none is better than Vol- stead. ¥ilorida is the wettest Stas table housgholders ask of the rums runners is to keep off their lawns and out of thelr flower beds When they land at night.” The Asheville Times thinks Mr. Bryan can with good grace accept the fees of Florida land promoters to make daily talks, because he has proved his sincers belief in Mlami land by buying it and lh’ Reno Gazette declare bought the property for a perma residence, and “is still the last in the country to be suspected speculating.” ———— Corrects Statement: Minister of Ecuador Tells of Con- ditions in Guayaquil. To the Editor of The Star: Interested as I am sure you are in keeping up the well merited prestigs of your trustworthy publication, I be- lieve you would not like that paper should publish anything that might not be exactly the truth; there- fore, as the diplomatic representative of Ecuador, I wish to call your at- tention to the story published in the magazine section of The Sunday Star of March 29, part entitled “Prospectors Are Crazed by Lack of Water on a Plain of Pitch,” in which some unfavorable reference is made of the principal port of my country By the context of that article, read- ers might be inclinéd to belleve that the port of Guayaquil, w part of the story takes place, present greatly affected by the low fever and the bubonic plague, when that is not the case ve the wife of our American That unfortunate incident happened nearly seven Yeirs ag on June 8, 1918, and was due to yellow fever, and since that time the sani- tary conditions of Guayaquil have completely changed Stnoe 1918 a series of improvements in Guayaquil's streets and parks, the installation of a water svstem and ful efforts in the eradication of yellow fever and other contagious diseases have made of that port one of the most healthful of the Pacific coast of South America, and no case of vellow fever has occurred since 1919, The sanitation work was carried on by the local authorities with the co- operatiorr of the Rockefeller Founda- tion_and the effective fighting meth- ods became so pronounced in Guays- quil’ that yellow fever was com=- pletely eradicated. Guayaquil is to« day free from the feared calamity, and one only has to read the reports of the visits made in 1920 by Dr. S. B Grubbs, then chief quarantine officer of the Panama Canal, and of the later ones made by Drs. IL R. Carter, head of the Rockefeller Yellow Fever Commission, ‘and J. L White, assist- ant surgeon general of the United States Publio Health Service, to vert: the healtbful conditions that have prevailed in Guayaquil since 1919, that is §lx years previous to the puublica- tion of the above mentioned story. Th regard to the last paragraph of the artidle, in which the author me! tions that 75-members of his expedi~ tion fell wictims to the head hunters, 1 might say that only an eagerness of broadoasting novel publicity could ao- count as the motive for that State ment, for there is no record in Ecua~ dor and nothing has been published by the papers telling that the Indian head hunters have ever killed any explorers who have gone to the in- terior -of the Amazonic forests. On the ‘eontrary, the Indlans inhabiting those reglons glve every kind of as- sistanoe te.the explorers and serve them as guldes in exchange for small trinkets. I would appreciate it very much if you will kindly publish this letter in justice to my country and in falr- ness to the thousands of readers of the reliable Sunday Star. FRANCISCO OCHOA ORTIZ, _ Minister of. Ecuadar,