Evening Star Newspaper, May 30, 1925, Page 6

6 THE EVENING STAR With Sundsy Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY.......May 30, 1925 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: _ Lith St and Pennsylvania Ave. Neg, Jork Office: 110 Eagt 43nd 8t. 0 Office: Tow 5 Buropeas Office: 18 Regent St.. Lonios, England. The Evening Star. with the Sunday morn- o6 edition. 18 delivered by carriers’ within tho clty at' 60 cents per month: dally on! 45 {;r\:ll-llwr ‘;mm(h’ Sung‘u ?‘:!11{;er$"0: oty Onders may he s phone Main 5000, Collection is made by ier at the end of each month. Rate b{ Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia All Other States. Dais ¥r..$0.00: aily SniySundey: - 17 sig.ou: nday only LI11Il1Fr. $3.00: Member of the Associated Press. o exclusively entitled fhows diy- Herptian In Memoriam. { Once again the Nation puuses to pay respect to its hero dead. It makes pil- | mage to the tombs of those who have died in its service, or who, sur- viving the country’s wars, have lived 10 resume their civilian duties and | have passed on in the fullness of years. It lays wreaths upon their graves, speaks eloquent . tribute to their | sacrifices and their examples. makes holiday in honor of its martyrs. | Of all the ceremonies of the year fixed by calendar and custom that of | Memorial day is the most significant, the most inspiring. It is not a glortfi- caton of war and exaltation of mere prowess and phys It is a recognition of the spirit of citizenship. These men, whose re bedecked with tokens of love, were all members of the great American communit gave themselves in its emer; votedly and un ed to its safety alike. Originating in paid to those who fell in war between the States, this ceremonial has broadened with time to include ail who have worn | the uniform and served under the flag. Since the custom was initiated the United States has fought twice upon forelgn fields, in 1895 in the wer with | Spain for the liberation of the people of Cuba, and in 191718 in France egainst the central powers of Europe, | which, menacing Old-World stability, { injured this country unbearably and thereby challenged it to action. Memorial day is an inspiration to the younger Americans of today. It be- speaks their devotion to the ideals of nship. It encourages them to make ready in spirit as well as in physical training for servee in case of need. It does not exalt war. It rather exalts the men who in the supreme | crises of national life are ready for duty to meet them. The spirits of those who gave them- selves to the country, who fought and suffered and died under its flag, are present now in the daily life of the Nation. This present occasion attests | to their influence and inspiration to those who remain and follow them in al sacrifice. ies de and contribut- and its development the 10rs The First Airplane. ! A proposition has been made by Orville Wright to put the first Wright airplane in the National Museum for permanent care and exhibition on cer- tain conditions. One is that the pres- ent label on the Langley plane shall be ghanged to tell “truthfully” its relation to aviation devclopment. Another is that the Wright plane shall be labeled s the first man-carrylng air machine in the world. Finally, it is stipulated | that the Smithsonian Institution pub- | Ush in its annual report both sides of the Langley-Wright controversy. The proposal will be formaily made to the Secretary of the Smithsoniun Institu- | tion. This matter should not be decided hastily or narrowly. It should be con- sidered broadly by the Smithsonian au- | thorities. The National Museum should | r0ld the pioneer airplane. It is claimed that the Wright planc is actually the | first to be flown successfully by man. It is claimed that the Langley plane now on exhibition in the National Mu. seum is not identical with the plane | that Prof. Langley built and unsuc- | cessfully attempted to fly at Wide- water on the Potomac, but that it is a reconstructed plane materially dif- ferent in design, which was successtul- 1y flown in New York State some years | after the practical development of the Wright and other planes. These arc questions of fact which | should be susceptible of demonstration. | Prejudice and personal feeling should have no part in this controversy. If| the Wright plane now tendered condi- tionally to the National Museum is the first man-carrying plane it should be accepted and placed with & proper label. If the present Langley planc is Dot identical with the original in prin- «-eiple it should be retained with a label which tells its true story. As for the Dpublication of the record in the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution, that is @ matter which lies outside of the important question of placing and preserving in the National Museum i“the actual identical first afrplane. The National Museum in this city is of all places in the world the proper place of permanent exhibition for thap chine, whichever it may be. ma- ——————— Diplomatic usage may yet require guests at a luncheon not to talk while they are eating. The Democratic Chairmanship. Chairman Shaver of the Democratic mational committee, who it was re- cently reported would soon retire from that position in favor of Representa- tive Oldfield in the interest of Demo- cratic readjustment and harmony, now says that he has no intention of resigning his post at this time. In- timation is also given that Mr. John W. Davis, the Democratic candidote d it 1 fact that the presidential nominee, even though beaten in the race, is the titular head of the party, and that the chairman of the national commit- tee is his representative. Of course, the national committee may at any time reassemble between campaigns and reorganize itself. But a meeting of that sort must be under the chair- manship of the one who has been chosen by the nominee of the party. If the nomines and his chairman-rep- resentative are unwilling tc make a change friction is engendered. Just now the purpose of the regr- ganizers is to avold friction. Repre- sentative Oldfleld has been proposed as an emollient. He would hardly function in that capacity, however, if his selection were effected against the opposition of the present organization of the party and the committee. Con- ferences with the Smith and the Mc- Adoo people have indicated that they are agreeable to a change of chairman in the interest of party harmony. But neither Smith nor McAdoo was nom- inee of the party, and neither is now the party's leader. So it would seem that Mr. Davis has the deciding vote, as it were, on this proposition, and from present indications he is not veady to cast it. —_——————————— The Corrupt Bargain Finding. The fact that Judge McCormick, in his decision on the Elk Hills lease and the Hawalian tank contract, declared that they were void because based on fraud and collusion will be accepted the country as a judgment upon : ction between Sec- ¥ Fall and Mr. Doheny, although this, of course, is not tantamount to a conviction upon the criminal charge. The court’s decision was based upon two findings of fact—that the transfer of jurisdiction over the naval oil res- ervations by President Harding was in excess of his authority, and that the contracts were induced by a personal consideration amounting to a corrupt agreement. It does not appear whether the court would have volded the lease and contract on the strength of the lack of authority for the transfer of jurlsdiction. The deduction is that the decision was grounded upon the court’s conviction that an improper influence was exercised; that, in effect, bribery was committed. This will at least be the deduction of the public from the court’s decision. Of course, the opinion just rendered by Judge McCormick ie subject to ap- peal. The case will be carried first to the appeliate court and then to the Supreme Court, to the former in any case by the now defeated litigants, and to the latter by either the defend- ants or the Government, however the appellate court may rule. Thus these two courts of appeals will pass upon the question of corruption as the es- sence of the issue. Meanwhile ines- capably there will prevail the feeling that the former Secretary of the Inte- rior and the ofl magnate have been parties to a corrupt bargain. Tifteen months have passed since the disclosures in the oil cases were heard by a committee of the Sen- ate. The country was profoundly shocked by those disclosures. A na- tional election has taken place in which these scandals affecting the Federal administration figured. The country voted by an overwhelming majority to return to office the Presi- dent who was serving at the time the disclosures were made. As a political issue this scandal was rejected by the voters, who it would seem regarded the transaction of these leases and contracts as a fraud of personal dere- liction involving only the individuals concerned. The present ruling of the { court at Los Angeles, whatever may follow in the courts of appeal and the trial of criminal charges, will probably confirm that feeling. e A director of traffic in any city would have an easier life if the streets could have been lald out with a view to parking automobiles instead of con- templating only the facilities necedful for hitching a few horses. . The balance of political prestige is against the Darwinian theory in Ten- nessee. No champlon of evolution ap- ' | proaches the distinction which Col. | Bryan enjoys as a former Secretary of State. S An eccentric twist in modern pub- licity makes it a matter of conspicuous concern whenever Harry Thaw decides to conduct a slumming party. —————— Japan has an abundance of earth- quakes to consider, without seeking to complicate the difficulties of geology with those of political geography. —eaee France's Moroccan Policy. Apprehension lest the French min- istry would be defeated or only nar- rowly supported on the Moroccan issue by the Chamber of Deputies has been dispelled. Yesterday, by a vote of 537 to 29, the Chamber voted confidence in Premier Painleve's cabinet on the question of the war against the rebel tribesmen. The Communists alone op- posed the war policy of the govern- ment. Support of the Sociallsts, who have been wavering and divided on the subject, was won by two concessions. One was an amendment to the “‘order of the day” to emphasize the govern- ment’s opposition to a policy of im- perialism, and the other was an agree- ment that a parliamentary control mis- ston should be sent to Morocco, but without the right to interfere in mili- ary operations. This decision of the Chamber of Deputies is to be hailed with satisfac- tlon. It is an evidence of solidarity— Communist opposition being discount- ed as inspired by allen influences— which greatly strengthens the French government, not only in its African situation, but in its domestic status, A reversal of policy compelled by an ad- verse vote would have weakened France greatly. The war in Morocco is not merely between the French forces and the Rif- fian tribesmen. It is & war virtually between France and a combination of European enemies. Abd-el-Krim's army is largely officered by KEuropeans, for President last year, is not alto- gether favorable to the plan for a change in the chairmanship. Those ‘who have been reorganizing the party committee, on paper, have perhaps failed to take into considerstion the mainly Germans, Turks and Russians. These adventurers have gone to Mo- rocco probably without any official authorization from their own coun- tries, but their presence is nevertheless significant, A few days ago it was re. THE EVENING ported that a large number of young German officers had secured permis- sion to absent themselves from their country for the purpose of taking up arms with the Riffian chieftain. This would in normal times constitute an unfriendly act, against which the gov- ernment at Paris might properly pro- test to Berlin. At present the war in Africa is de- veloping slowly. France is sending re- Inforcements to Gen. Lyautey and rushing sunplies. Engagémenis have taken place in which the French forces have been victogious. The chief men- ace to the French situation is the treachery of tribes within the zone of French occupation, lured into activity by Abd-el-Krim's promises of the res- toration of native rule, which, it is well assured, would mean merely the estab- lishment of a tyrannical tribal rule. e High-Pressure Fire Protection. It is In prospect that the Commis- sioners will ask for & small appropria- tion for a careful study of the need for high-pressure fire protection. Probably less than $3,000 will be required for this purpose, to meet the expense of a visit by a committee of inquiry to cities that have such a system in order that a report may be made to the Commis sioners and to Congress on the subject. If this course is followed the appro- priation for the purpose cannot be made until the enactment of the next | District bill, possibly @ year hence. It | would be two yes before iany approj n would be made fo | starting the installation in the report and the congressional response are both favorable. The question aris whether this is not too long a delay in view of the possibility of a disaster by fire in this city. Recommendations have heen made from time to time in the past that the District be given this protection. It has been pointed out with ample data in support that dependence upon the normal water supply, which of late years is all filtered at large expense, involves a grave risk of depletion in case of a conflagration within the | business area, with its high concentra. tion of values. liad the high-p re system been established when first broached hearly 20 years ago it would have cost only about $100,000. The cost today would be many times that amount. Meanwhile the value of the property exposed to destruction with- in the area of the high-pressure sys- tem has greatly increased. It requires no elaborate survey of what other cities have done to demon- strate the practical advantage of @ sys- tem of special mains taking water trom the river and sending it by high- powered pumps to the point of possible use. It needs no investigation to prove the wastefulness of using the water impounded and filtered for general public use for the purpose of quench- ing fires. It is therefore to be hoped that the Commissioners will not refer this matter to a committee possibly to be provided for in the next appropria- tion bill, its recommendations possibly to be accepted by Congress in the ap- propriation bill following, thus involv- ing a delay of at least two years. A direct recommendation now that an ap- propriation be made in the next budget for this purpose would, if accepted by Congress, save at least one vear and bring the District that much nearer to adequate protection against disaster. case The King and Queen attend the great horse-racing events in England. As time goes on they may be found taking an interest in base ball, which for some inexplicable cause has failed to make its way in Europe. There is a spirit of fsolation in sports as well as in politics. . There is apparently some kind of | mysterious and reverential signifi- cance for the old German soldier in the goose-step which in the mind of the ordinary outside observer implies only a lack of a sense of humor. — e Any losses France may sustain in Morocco will be cdhtemplated in Ber- { in with entire equanimity. ——om—s SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSOX. Voiceless Service. The Gift of Speech is something fine, In life's display. And yet it makes us stand in line, In sad dismay. The Corn and Beans, in spite of cold ‘Will bring content, Because they didn't stop to hold An argument. The Discipline of Sport. “Do you think there are too many laws “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “We'd be getting on quite comfortably if everybody took the statutes as seri- ously as we all take the rules of a base ball game.” Those Uncontrollable Impulses. The Motormaniac with glee In speeding will persist, * Till every Traffic Cop must be A Psycho-analyst. Jud Tunkins says he's thankful for the cold spell which postponed the bathing costumes. A Proper Paternalism. through confusion mistily grope, A little glimpse of glee We still diskivver! When Henry Ford owns everything, I hope He'll save a place for me To park my flivver. As we A Patriotic Tourist. ‘““Are you going to Europe next Sum- “Yes,” answered Miss Cayenne. “I feel it desirable to go abroad in order to come back and appreciate the ad- vantages of my own country.” A Condescension. The Monkey likes to climb a tree And claim relationship with me, Although I never could compete ‘With him as an adept athlete. “'Speakin’ of evolution,” said Uncle Eben, “I's positive my great grand- father never carried on like a monkey, but I ain’ 8o sure 'bout my great- grandson,” & lin MEMORIAL STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, DAY, 1925 To the Unknown Soldier. T. Each day I pass the gardens of the Dead, Where straight white tombstones mark the ordered rows, And, stooping softly, that old ‘Who saw Time born; who smoothed the For the first Son, young Abel, Each little life, each clustered Gardener goes nal bed when he bled. group of woes He garners in its withering, but he knows Also the fallow hills where love is sped. There is one Tomb upon this honored crest, The loveliest, the youngest, the most pure, The sunlight’s fingers on it soonest pressed, The moon’s reflection coolest and most sure. Here Gardener lingers and forgets to plan, Before the quiet Unknown, Son to Man. IT. No one may know your lineage, none may share The secret of your days upon the earth, Nor who was father; what womb gave you birth; Who guided your small footsteps up a stair. Your morning waking are a dream of air ; .Your evening silence and your sudden mirth— The thought of them must haunt us round the hearth When we kneel down and shut our hands for prayer. You are scarce human, who are honored so, Yet were most like us in your shortened day; There must have heen some urgence made you go. Past that of us And y and who, falterin, . saw the way. et, 1 wonder, did you know. Crying, “The Cup must pass”! when you would pray 111 O Wanderer beyond the seas of pain. Who first took And leaned to watch the Hom hip one morning bright with May, cland slide away Wondering how you would come back again ; Did voices of the millions elder slain Fcho about you—whispering, whispering plas Until your warm flesh shrunkened to cold clay, (As drenched earth slimes and chills in constant rain) Or did you. shouting, push the terror down, And st We'll pai O Boy who laughed, we could Our tears are quenched, your utting, like a hero, mock and sing, g “Bye-bye, Old Lady, watch your town— t you red again some day next Spring! not let you stay— laughter was so gay! —ALICE ROGERS HAGER. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES L. TRACEWELL. A colony fanc ) of miner bees, tak a flower border, invaded our yards recently. They came, not 4 swarm, as their more gregarious bretheren of the hive do, but singly, each one for himself. They dug their Holes so quietly and disappeared in them so completely that we did not realize they were our guests until we happened to dig one up accidentally in a_trowel. “Why, there was a bee In that dirt!” ‘we exclaimed. “How do you suppose it got down there?" This discovery set us to investi- gating, with the result that we found what we had taken to be ant hills to be bee burrows. Closer examina- tion revealed much wider openings than in any domestic ant hill, and pretty soon we saw the bees flying in and out It is interesting to watch one of these so-called “solitary bees” alight on its own hill, fold its wings close and disappear, head first, adown the neat, glazed pussageway it has made for {tself. Filling the hole with earth only de- lays the bee in getting out again. 1f you dig down with a trowel you will find that the passageway ordinaril remains intact, despite your destruc- tion. That is, you can take awaj section after section, but the re mainder stays firm and true. So carefully works the miner bee, That he—or should it be she—is a real miner will be revealed to the gardener by degrees as he watches ng a {the bees come and go. The earth they throw up behind them is réduced al- most to sand, having a grainy texture, even from red clay. * % ¥ * The bees came as a pleasant, though somewhat disconcerting, interruption in the everyday quiet of our garden. They were Interesting, but one won- dered if they could sting? Would they finally resent the dig- ging around the flowers? Would thes carry lice to deposit on the roots of our plants? We recalled alarming tales we had read about ants using the aphids, or plant lice, as their cows, milking the creatures of their pule green secre- tions herding them into flocks, treat- ing them as domestic animals. We hoped that the bees had no such curious habits. We feared, however, that they might take a bundle of lic | down into their hives. or burrows, or what-ever-they-called-'em, for their lit- tle ones to feed on We pictured the bees greedily eating away at the roots of our aster plants or digging their tunnels over beneath the thriving gladioli, and we saw, as in a fearful vision, the bright green, sword-shaped leaves of the ‘“glad turning yellow before the blooms had come. Perhaps bees were responsible for the only disease the gladlolus is said to be susceptible to, a strange bac- terial blight, which science has found no way to combat as yet. It might not be bevond the ‘bounds of possibility that these very bees were hauling huge quantities of bac- down into the soil on their dirty Yet when we looked at the straight green lance-like leaves, waving gently in the wind, each arising out of its sheath and that out of a firmer and broader sheath there just out of the ground, we realized that it all was an unpleasant dreani. a nightmare of the . if you will. * ok ok ok Sunshine and happiness! These are the watchwords of the garden. Miner bees, plant lice, rose bugs, black-spot and mildew, these and other blights may cast their shadow for a time, but the intelligence of nature, helped a bit by the intelligence of man, will oust them all. ‘When the sun shines in our garden, it cleanses not only the grass blades, and the broad new leaves of the holly- hocks and the hibiscus and the little, new leaves of the Kochia, sticking out. of a crack there in the baked soil. ‘When the sun shines in Our Garden it cleans, too, the spirit and the heart, and dispels the black clouds of doubts and fears, It brings, from out the un- wearied skies, quite new sources of healing. I do not wonder that an ancient race made an entire cult out of wor- ship of the sun, nor that one of the oldest and grandest hymns in the lit- erature of the world is dedicated to the great orb of the day. We, America, are sun worshipers, too, although in a better, newer way. Every golf course, lying fair on the hills and in the little valleys, is a temple of this greater worship of sun- shine. Every modern home, with plenty of windows, is a testimony to our love of sunbeams, one of the best medi- cines in the world, as it is one of the best antiseptics. Every tanned boy or girl is a living testimony to the value of sunshine. It was so_once before in ancient Greece, when they regarded the man or wom- an with @ white body with something Dbordering on contempt. There is a feeling alive again today that the healthy, clean person is the sunburned, tanned person, whether man, woman or child. This good cult of the sun has effects far wider, cer- tainly, than {ts mere physical benefits. The outdoor man or woman, other things being equal, is mare likely to have an equitable disposition, to be more tolerant, more kindly, to have a larger understanding of life,. hope and death. * o ox * Another pleasant effect of this love of sunshine is that the person o ad- dicted does not mind the Summer hest so much. He is conscious all the time, though he may not put it in s0 many words, that he is being bene- fited. So the sun adds much to the happi- ness of the garden. A garden in which the sun never shone would be a |strange place! Few flowers would bloom there: it would be damp, cheer- less, cojorless: strange bugs would creep there; it would be. in Shake- speare’s words, fit for treason, strata- gems and spoils. Sunshine and happiness, then, go to- gether: and they meet to no better ad- vantage than in a garden. In a gar- den the sun is neceseary and useful, and, like most reaily uséful things, is |therefore beautiful. | To watch the sunshine playing upon |one of the climbing rose bushes, say the dainty Thousand Beautfes, 1s a |pleasant recreation. Roseate |flood the newer blooms, deeper in the |center, each rose looking for all*the |world "like the carved and stained |ones of ivory one sometimes finds in | stores. | As the blossoms age somewhat, the |sun takes some of that pink tint out |of them, hence the same bush will hold, at any itme, scores of roses, ranging from practically white to a deep old rose shade. Each plant in the garden takes the sunshine into itself, and transmutes its golden warmth into all the colors of the rainbow as each flower blooms. The gladiolus family alone ranges the whole rainbow. With the aid of food in the air and the soil, and much water, the sweet peas will break into a thousand waved |petals of all tints under the magic wand of that wonderworker, the sun. Here will be lavendar and rose, pink |and blue, white and red, and all the tints between. ILlach seed, before it {went into the soil months ago, had {wrapped in it somehow the possibiti- ties of all this beauty. i How? As well ask how the miner bees know to bore so fine and true! Jackson’s Birthplace. Was North Carolinian and Not Born in Tennessee. To the Editor of The Star: In your editorial, “Andrew Jack- May 27, . you say, in regard to the biography of this distinguished North Carolinian, that “Andrew Jack- son was born, reared and entéred law, politics and soldiering in Tennessee when it was a frontier country.” The fact is: Andrew Jackson was born in Union_County, North Carolina, at or le, setting forth the facts in this matter, not so very long ago. In this connection allow me to call vour attention to a few other histori- cal facts for your consideration when you are “rehashing old stuff.” Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln’s mother, was born in the mountains of North Carolina, not far from where the town of Hickory is located, “grew up” and went away with some traders to Ken- tucky. The first battle of the Ameri- can Revolution (consult Lossing, Ellis | and other histerians) was fought May 16, 1771, near Alamance Creek in North Carolina, by the British Gov- ernor, William' Tryon, appointed .by the King of England to rule the Col- ony of North Carolina, and his con- federates (about 1,100), on the one side, and on the other side by the Regula: tors (about 2,000), who refused to pay unfair and unjust taxes, one of the real causes of the American Revolu- tion, to the point of shedding thelr blood. While Tryon and his clique succeea: ed in repulsing the Regulators (for the reason the Regulators were not prepared for war—take warningl), some of these sturdy yeomen moved fo the Watauga settiement across the Blue Ridge and set up a government of their own, over which the British flag never waved. The latter part of May, 1775, more than a year before the 'Declaration of American Inde. pendence, at Philadelphia, the Scotche Irish of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, resolved, that “The Pro- vincial Congress of each Province, under the direction of the Great Con- tinental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers with- in their respective Provinces, and that no other legislative or executive power ddes or can exist in any of these Provinces.” Consult George Bancroft, and others. 3 G. W. KERNODLE, M.D. o 2 * The Care That Saves. he Des Mois Register. TP may be trus that care has killed a lot of people, but care in auto driv- ing has also saved a lot. In declaring that women are the real cause of war Admiral Fiske dem- onstrates a tll_:gree of brl.veg nlubcl: to_an admiral, ‘anyway.—Providen ‘Bulletin, tints | MAY 30, 1925. THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover. The everyday and altogether petty life of a small Norweglan coast town is described in Knut Hamsun's last novel, “Segelfoss Town,” a sequel to “Children of the Age.” The struggle for existence is a hard one, each man and each woman thinks only of self and holds the philosophy of “the devil take the hindmpst.” Willatz Holmsen, lord of the manor, but with- out any money to-keep.up his estate, lives abroad and studies music, with only short Summer visits to-Segel- foss, when he makes Jukewarm love to Mariane, the half-reed West In- dian daughter of Herr Holmengraa, the mill owner. Herr Holmengraa himself is a derelict. Once the pros- perous financial dictator of the town. he now goes about in baggy old clothes covered with flour from his mill, struggles ineffectively with dis- contented workmen and has difficulty in gathering a half dozen friends for A supper at his house, presided over by the excellent housekeeper and cook, Fru Irgens. Solicitor Rasch has risen to prosperity as Herr Holmen- graa has fallen. He attempts to set- tle all the legal disputes of the town, which are many, and grows rich thereby; but his wife weeps at home because she has not married the man she loved. District Dr. Muus, a degenerate in appearance, with low skull and big misshapen ears, is “a man of no particular ability, and so cold-blooded besides.” Nevertheless, he continually gives out his views on men and the world, on life and death, and at one time aspires to marry Froken Mariane Holmengraa, who discourages her elderly admirer by an impish trick. These four men, Willatz Holmsen, Herr Holmengraa, Solicitor Rasch and Dr. Muus, consti- { tute the aristocracy of Segelfoss. | €£% % % The lower ranks of Segelfoss Society have no exaggerated respect for their betters and ruthlessly measure them by the money standard. Theodore of Bua keeps the village store and quar- rels about its management with his old father, who lies bedridden in a room above, and when he is not given his own way bellows loudly so that the customers may hear. Old Lars Man- uelsen “does not work with his hands any more, because he is father to L. Lassen, the great pastor away in the South—the scholar with the makings of a bishop.” Julius, “who runs Lar- sen’s hotel down there by the quay.” is another son of old Lars. “Daverdana, too, is one of his children; she that is married to the assistant at the wharf and looks as warm of blood as her hair red.” Baardsen, the telegraph- superintendent, plays the cello well and performs secret acts of charity; but he is drunk much of the time, and this accounts for the cash shortage in the telegraph office, which is likely to cause the loss of his job. Pastor Land- marck takes no pleasure i s clerical office, which he considers “a foolish and a tiresome way of making a living for a man that could use his hands.” So he puts up a smithy and a_work- shop at the parsonage and spends “his happiest hours in the midst of sha ings and the smell of the forge,” doing jodd jobs for the townspeople. to the chagrin of his wife, who, when she married, “had never dreamed of ha ing to lead such a life.” These and many others appear in the pages of this chronicle of smalitown life. T wiy “The Sociology of Revolution.” by a victim of the Russian revolution, Piti- rim A. Sorokin, is singularly lacking n bitterness or even personal feeling. rof. Sorokin, the author “Leaves From a Russian Di I8 one of the Russian mtellectuals who have suffered so much privation and hardship at the hands of the revolu- tionists. “The Sociology of Reval tion” is a scientific study, based on e: tensive research of the phenomena of revolutions and the reasons and emotions which cause them. The book is not historical, but, of course, makes use of historical illustrations. It shows that psychology cannot be sep- arated from sociology. Prof. Sorokin says that a revolution is “a change in the behavior of the people on the one hand and in their psychology. ideology, beliefs and valuations on the other.” At the end revolution is “the change of fundamental social proc- esses.” He gives the different phases of revolution: First, a period of initial disorder; second, anarchy leading to a struggle between “Reds" and ““Whites” for supremacy and the establishment fof a dictatorship, and, finally. an era of terrorism and the end of the revo- lution.. Some of the important reac- tions discussed as the accompaniments of revolution are the reaction of speech, the reaction of ownership, sexual reactions and religious and ethical reactions. o The genealogical novel, with family tree appended, was given the effect of a real chronicle by Galsworthy in “The Forsyte Saga.” He is now honored by imitators. In G. B. Stern’s novel, Matriarch,” the Rakonitz family Austrian Jews rival the Fors philoprogenitiveness and longevity, if not in interesting personalities. In 1806 Simon Rakonitz and 16-vear-old Babette Weinburg of Pressburg were married. They became the ancestors of a long line of Rakonitzes, who, in time, migrated from Vienna, some to Budapest, some to San Remo, some to Paris, some to London. The more prosperous of the men were in the early generations wine merchants, in the later dealers in precious stones, making fortunes in Burmese and S amese rubies and sapphires. They lost the fortunes, too, o that at the end the prosperity and glory of the London branch of the Rakonitz fam. ily departed, and most of thém de- of ytes in terrace to small houses or lodgings in Ealing. Anastasia, granddaughter of Simon and Babette. married her first cousin, Paul Rakenits,and to this fact the members of her family alwaysat- tributed the delicacy of four of her five children, for Truda alone was ro- bust. Anastasia herself lived to be 89 and was called by all the family “the matriarch.” Her huge home, in which her sons and daughters and their families lived with her, was also the center for family conclaves of all the London Rakonitzes and the stopping place for all visiting relatives from abroad. When her bachelor brothers, called “the’Uncles” by all her children and grandchildren, entertained in their mansions she acted as hostess. She was the family dictator, usually be- nevolent, and the conserver of family traditions. = She preserved the Vien- nese recipes of the family and herself made, in her own kitched, and taught her daughters and successive cooks to make, goulash, goose liver sausage, Buecklinge, or specially smoked her- rings, and Elernoeckerl. “Living in the matriarch’s house was like living in the midst of an eastern bazaar and a dog fight—the dog fight represented by that tribe of Rakonitz, Czelovar and Bettelhelm, who either lived affection- ately in the same road, or round the corner, or in Paris, Vienna and Con- stantinople; from all these places using the matyiarch’s house as head- quarters,” where their quarrels were brought and decided; where births, deaths, marriages, engagements, bank- ruptcies, artistic trilumphs and—yes, herein ' lies the amazement—and Christmas, were still celebrated with the same rollicking fervor and clatter of tongues as in the old days under Babette's supervision.” By the time old Anastasia came to die the young members of the family all recognized that she was leaving a successor, a “new matriarch,” in her granddaugh- ter Ton;y W::'lpommflh 'thhe same power of managing people, the same Oriental imagination, the same love of the game of life X also of | The | scended ‘from mansions in Holland | Q. TIs it true that if a person finds an article on a street car and turns it in to the Capital Traction Co., in event it is not claimed by the owner the finder cannot have it for a yeari— G. C. R. A. The charter granted by act of Congress to this company contaias such a provision. The loser of the article must claim it within a year, or it may be turned over to the finder. Q. Of what significance are the pan- els'on the Hahnemann statue, at Scott Clrcle?—E. B. L. A. Dr. Hahnemann is shown first @s a youthful student; next as a sci- entist working in his laboratory; third, as a lecturer, explaining the tenets of his new school of medicine, and fourth, as the practicing physician. Q. Is not Ontarlo, Canada, a “dry” province?—D. A. N A. A recent act of the Legislature of Ontarfo reversed the Ontario temper- ance act to the extent of permitting the sale of beer at hotels with an alco. holic content of 4.4 per cent, under a government tax of 10 cents a gallon. Q. How can I find the positive and negative posts on a storage battery if the posts are not marked?—E. 0. W. A. The Bureau of Standards says: Dip the wires in a dilute solution of salt in water. Bubbles will form more coplously on the wire attached to the negative terminal of the battery. Q. Are there any States in which W0 post offices hiave the same name? A. The Post Office Department sa; that at the present time there are no two post offices in the same State by the same name. A number of years ago such instances occurred, but be- cause of the difficulty in delivering mail it was found necessary to change the name of one of the offices. Q. Why are some companies “rail- ways” and some “railroads?"—F. P. D, | A. The words are used interchange- | ably. Some companies prefer one, | some the other. | Q. Was the Queen Elizabeth sunk ¥ the Turks?—L. M. K. A. The Queen Elizabeth is a British battleship. The vessel was not sunk during the World War and is still ir commission. Q. T read that only two white men {ever reached the top of El Volcano, an extinct voleano in the Republic of Panama. 1Is this correct?—S. T. A. During the past 20 years many | employes of the Panama Canal have visited the town of Boquete, near 1 Volcano. Many of them climbed El Volcano, for, as mountains go, it is an easy climb. Q. 1Is it true that the closed car production is increasing?—G. S. | A. In 1923 there were 1,239,877 closed cars produced and in 1924 1,35 482. This is a 10 per cent ix Q. Has any President of the United States maintained an unbroken cabi- | net_throughout his administration?— | | _A. The only President of the United [States whose administration had no cabinet changes was Zachary Taylor. The cabinet officials were ce Pr dent, Millard Fillmore; Secretary of State, John M. Clayton; Secretary of | The conference on weights and measyres which has been in session at the Bureau of Standards this week has not attracted the public interest among laymen. It may seem to be a dry and technical subject—perhaps hackneyed. Why should men spend hours talking about the length of a vardstick, the size of a quart, the su- periority of @ meter over a yard meas- ure or the ‘“‘tolerance” of inaccuracy in algrocer's pound? Is not a “‘pound & pound the world ‘Tound”? Or,is it a pint? A sclentific magazine published, last month, a humorous contribution by a learned professor, setting forth a method by which a corpulent person might reduce his weight without a course of painful exercising or even dieting. While the method was not dis- cussed at the Burcau of Standards conference it is accepted there as strictly scientific. If the subject is liv- ing with Explorer North Pole and has been dleting on whale and seal so that he weighs 200 pounds, all he needs to do is to hurry to the Equator, where the spring scales will demonstrate that he weighs only about 199 pounds. That is because the old adage, “a pound's a pound the world 'round,” is false. The North Pole is 13 miles closer to the center of the earth than is a_point on the Equator, hence at the North Pole, gravitation, due to the mass of the earth, is greater than at the quator. Besides, the centrifugal force at the Pole, due to the whirling of the globe more than 1,000 miles an hour, tending to throw the body out into space is nil, while at the Equator it is maximum, and so tends to offset the pull of gravity. The United States Constitution gives to Congress the right to regu- {late standards of weights and meas- ures, but Congress has neglected to do it. The individual States have each established its own -set of weights and measures, and, naturally, jthe 48 sets do not accurately agree. It is the effort now of the Depart- ment of Commerce, of which the Bu- reau of Standards is a part, to standardize the diverging em; and evenfually have them established by Federal law. Such agreement will in different States, for the measures of the State from which orders come for goods manufactured in another law suits. It not, however, the far-off in- tricacies of commerce which the re- cent conference has been most con- cerned in discussion. How heavy should a loaf of bread be when sold to the ultimate con- sumer? If it is marked as a half- pound loaf, perhaps the baker has failed to make it weigh exactly half a pound; it may weight 10 or 12 ounces—a good bulky loaf. Should that baker be arrested for giving more than full weight? Is he not overgenerous, or reckless of his own interests? No, because the customer does not weigh the loaf, nor pay at- tention to its nominal weight; he sees a bulky loaf and confuses it with a pound loaf, by reason of its approach to the pound size, or bulk. So, in practice, the overweight “half pound” is as tricky as the short welght “full pound” loaf. * k% % The greatest problem at the con- ference had to do with selling ice cream by weight instead of by meas- ure, because no measure of ice cream is_accurate. ‘When an ice-cream manufacturer freezes 1,000 gallons of cream he seizes from 800 to 1,200 gallons of air, and the product is from 1,800 to 2,200 gal- lons of ice cream. He can put as much air into his cream as he de-‘ sires, or as he thinks the “traffic will bear.” Homemade ice cream contains only about 60 per cent of air, but that is because the home stirrer of the freezer is not an adept in air. When the professional knows that he can sell air at the price of good rich cream, the temptation needs some influence to protect weak human nature. With wicked bond salesmen, “the sky's the Hmit,” and so we have what is known Amundsen at the | do much for commerce between the | manufacturers and merchants living | State often lead to disagreements and | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN the Treasury, William M. Meredith; Secretary of War, G. W. Crawford: Secretary of the Navy, William B. Preston; Secretary of the Interior, Thomas Ewing; Postmaster Genera! Jacob Collamer; Attorney General, Reverdy Johnson. Q. Which industry in the State of New Hampshire had the great number of accidents last y W. L 1 A. For fiscal year 1923-24 the paper and pulp industry had the greatest number of accidents, with and 308 accidents for one week or ove: Q. Which races are furnishing the , greatest numbers of immigrants at ' present’—W. R. . A. The principal races furnis immigrant aliens in January were English, 4.090; German, 3. 1 2,612; Scotch 2 Mexican, 1,706, Scandinavian, 1,140 Q. What historical association has tomorrow with the Nicene Creed—. S. A. Whitsunday, will be the 1,600th anniversary the Nice Creed’s being formed Q. Where is the line betweer Georgia and South Carolina”> Does the river belong to both States or to one only?—J. L. and South Carolina was s Beaufort convention in 1 3 terms t1e navigation of the 1 River was to be forever free to bott ates, but all the rest of the rive was to be the exclusive right of t State of Georgia. Q. How long before the Declarat of Independence of the Continenta Congress was the declaration of inc pendence of Mecklenburg, X. signed?’—J. E. O. A. The document denouncing policy of Great Britain and resol that all political bonds between mother_country and the ci severed was signed at Charlo May 20, 1775, on receipt of th of the shooting down of Capt Parker's men by British regulars cn Lexington Common. Q. Was gold discovered in the Klon region as early as in the Yuko: ) s 1883-1885 there w Canada Kiondike ; later, The notori region in in_ 1900, ush nag there w o t was (It is certain that you pu ver questions that we can answer for you. You are confronted by problems. grave to you, which can be answered casily by us. Our attention is directed chiefly to matters of fact. In mat- ters legal, medical and financial do mot give strictly professional ad vice, but even in these we can often smooth your way and provide the con- tact you need with technicians. Make a practice of asking us what you do not know. Address The Star Infor- mation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin director, Twenty-first and C streets northwest. Inclose £ cents in stamps for a direct reply.) BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. as “blue sky laws” to regulate selling of such bonds and stocks. But the sea of air goes even farther than the visible sky. When it costs 25 cents fo; a plate of “cream,” the ultimate con sumer is beginning to protest upor discovery that from 12 to 14 cents worth of cold air has been dished ou to him, with the 10 or 12 cents’ worth of cow's product. * ¥ Commercially, cold air weighs ing, and the conference decides that ice cream were sold by weight of by inflated bulk it would be fa Some suggestions were made t ‘would be impracticable for the retaile: to weigh out each plate of cream, bu in reply it was proposed that he should sell only bricklets, each pressed into form at the factory. He must be more careful to prevent the cream melting into a soft state, even though he th refreezes it, for the melting perm ;lhe overrun of air to ‘es and the second freezing does not recapture air without the mechanical stirring. So the cream is shrunken to half the {original bulk, and the retailer undertaking to satisfy his custome serves doubie the quantity of refroz cream that would have been requires of the original. Besides, the airles {ice cream congeals the mouths of t |ultimate consumers and is not as at | tractive as the aerated ice cream frest |from the factory. The ideal method requires that the cream come to ealer in bricks, as it is to be served and that if it begins to soften it should |be returned to the factory for its ful quota of entrapped freeze While weights and measures have nothing to do with purity of content men and maids cannot live on alone, and their other drawbacks to ice cream is the amount of g contains. Some States have stri laws limiting the percentage of gela- tin in ice cream—the substance w makes it smooth and tenacious. Geia tin weighs more than air, but cost less than cream. * X ¥ & Some of the complications questions of weights and me. | may be realized when it is known tha: t the Bureau of Standards films : | made so thin that it takes 10,000 tsheets to measure one inch in thi ness. Some temperatures are so de cate that not only the blush o cheek of a person in an adj room can measured, but the war h of an invisible star whose ray requires {hundreds of vears to rea | clearly measured and the tons in the greatest stars in the yniverse avc numbered. (Copyright. 1925, by Paul V. Collins.) r——— A Woman Mayor Resigns The mayor of Holloway, Ohio, Dora Whiston by name, has just signed from office. She found that her duties as mayor interfered Wwiih her duties as homemaker. Some of her sisters whose thought are riveted upon the emancipatio and advancement of womanhood il deplore the decision of this Of woman to withdraw from public life She will be crossed off their list as one who started along the upw: path but lacked courage to press ¢ ward. But Mrs. Whiston had undertaken the obligations of a homemaker be- fore she entered politics. These ob gations she considered sacred. Wher she discovered that the office of mayor seriously interfered with the welfare of her home, she mét tle issue squarely, braving the jeers Mrs. Whiston's warning to other women having the care of homes against entering politics will not be heeded by all of them. Some will no doubt be more successful than she has been in meeting the two-fold demands of domestic and public life. But when the two domains clash and there is no way of resolving the con- flict, home may well be given prinie consideration. Homes are more im portant than governments any day. Given an abundance of properly con- ducted homes, governments, likewise, will be well managed.—Boston Trafe