Evening Star Newspaper, September 19, 1925, Page 6

o R THE EVEN NG STAR, WASHINGTON, D v SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 19, 1925. THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY. .September 13, 1925 . Editor THEODORE W. NOYES. The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Oftice Bast 4°nd St Tower Butlding 103 Rerent St London G Chicaz Ofics Purooean Offce: The Evans b the Sundas mom Inredition, v within he city G 60 cents ner month- dail only. | 45 Conts “per manth: Sindss onl {enta e month. Orders may ho sent hy mail or telephone Main 5000, Collection i3 mude BY carrier at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virgini Daily and Sunday....1yr. $R40- 1 mo.. 700 Daits onlw 130 Sunday onls 1yrss All Other States. Daity and Sundas . ...1 sr.. §10.00 Daily anly . 1yrl 8700 Sunday only. 1 $3.00 Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled f0 the Ua- for renublication of all news dis- tehea credited to it or not ntherwi ited in this naper and also the local news Dublished herein. AN rizhts of publication 0f special dispatches herein are also reserved. — Sches R No Poles at All! Objection by the Commission of Fine Arts to the style and. indeed. to the emplacement of the side trolley | poles on Connecticut avenue extended. in substitution for the center poles which are regarded a menace to life in that thoroughfare, | sharply to consideration the wisdom | of clearing such important arteries of | the Capital altogether of all fl\'erhrunl} electric conductors. 1t is obvious that eventually the un Aerground method of electric conduc- tion for the operation of street cars must be extended beyond the present | limit of the overhead system, perhups to the boundaries of the District. The | suburbs of Washington are rapidly | i brings {upon {home buying has been swept up by is st know, his caution. that a great onger than likewise, They many people are unwilling to seek or to take | advice about their financial affairs. Many 2 small savings fund relied for emergencies or possible |these swindlers. Worse than that, people have mortgaged their homes Lo raise money to invest in these glit- tering frauds. leaving themselves with «a load of debt which they must bear for vears. 1t is difficult to catch these scoun- drels. They ave slick in their methods. They shrewdly keep just enough within the luaw in their pledges and promises to make prosecution difficutt of success when they are caught, Oc- casionally a fraud is exposed and pro- claimed, but the damage has | done, large sums have been squan- dered in futile investments, with no chance of recovering the capital. The suvest safeguard against such swindles is to seek advice from a re- sponsible person before investing. Of course, mistakes in judgment are constantly being made by the most honest company promoters and or- zanizers. There are misfortunes in en | business, reverses to sound concerns, which cause losses. But the fraudulent a dubious concern can be detected advance of investment by an ex- advice may or in perienced person, be sought. It all who ave solicited to buy se curities would ask the opinion of re- liable business men or bankers before purchasing the billion-dollar loss through fraud which this country now suffers annually would be duced to small change whose re- Five Miles a Minute. A racing plane built for the Govern ment to enter in the national air races at Mineola next month was ves. terday flown at the rate of 302 miles an hour. This flight was for a short distance and was siarted with a developing, have become aiready prac- tically urban in their condition. The main streets through them, now oe- cupied by car tracks, are densely filled with traffic. The few open spac on the sides are speedily being used for buildings. | To maintain an arbitrary boundary | for the underground system that lies | well within the area of close habita- | tion is to reduce the prohibition of the overhead-wire method, which is the chief characteristic of the Capi- tal's rapid transit equipment, to an absurdity. Originally that prohibition | applied to what were then styled the | ‘city limits,” which on the north coin- cided with Florida avenue. Then step | by step as the suburban movement | advanced the overhead “trolley lines" | were moved farther out, ultimately to| ~onsiderable distances. In the case of | he line which occupies Connecticut | venue bevond Rock Creek the “plow | pit,” where the change occurs from underground to overhead, remained on the “city” side of the creek. Mean- while a remarkable development oc- surred on that thoroughfare, and the truly ridiculous situation arose that a system of electric transmission that was banned within the technically ur- ban area for reasons of public safety | was allowed to remain throughout an squally urban area, where it was quite 15 serious a menace. { It will cost a large sum of money to transform this and other “sub- urban” branches of the city's track transportation system from the over- head to the underground method. Per- haps such a work cannot possibly be undertaken at once. But the time has surely come for the enactment of a | law which puts a period to the main- tenance of the overhead wires any- where within the District, five or seven years hence, for example. Merger of the two traction systems is contemplated. A survey is now in progress to determine the financial | prospect and the trend of transport, with such a merger in contemplation. Permissive legislation has already been enacted. Doubtless the most di- rect way to effect the future elimina- tion of the ugly and unsafe trolley noles, whether central or lateral, would be to amend that act to stipu- late that ecither in the event of o merger or in any case all overhead traction wires must be removed with- in a specified time. If surface-track | traction is to continue in Washington it should be on the underground-wire basis throughout the District. - The “meanest man” has again dem. onstrated by tossing heated coins to ~bildren. A fit punishment for such a wretch would be something in way of a stroll on hot plowshares. the ————— Billion-Dollar Frauds. A deputy attorney general of New | Vork State, after studying facts and evidence obtained by the Bureau of Frauds at Albany, declares that stock ' frauds in New York during the past | vear enriched swindlers by more than $600.000,000. Tt is estimated that mbout half of the losses sustained by investors throughout country heve been in that State. the total na tonal loss through the sale of worth- Tess securities thus being in one year £1.000,000,000. 4 billion dollars a year lost through fraud! The pity of it is that most of this money comes from people of small means, tempted by prospects of | rapid and large profits. They are in- experienced In business, and are easy vietims for the promoters of fraudu- lent stocks. The agents of these stock schemes work in all parts of the country, with attractive “printing” to hait their gulls. In some cases the corporations exist only on paper. In <ome instances they are genuinely or- zanized, with honest dupes ostensibly in charge. Some of these companies pretend to own valuable properties the which are actually possessed by nthers. Wonderful inventions that are to revolutionize industry are rlaimed likewise. Or possibly the scheme is to exploit agricultural or mineral lands in remoie regions of the world, where vague ‘“concessions™ have been obtained. There is, indeed, no end to the wiles »nd schemes of the stock swindlers who are taking a billion dollar: Vear from the American people. The ere themselves, or they cmploy, good | the | that | work among those who are today en- swooping dive, which gave it a tre- mendous initial momentum. It was fastest speed ev attained by man in controlled movement. Whether it could be maintained b siderable distance is doubtful. But the achievement itself is extraordinary. The pace attained was at the rate of more than 5 miles a minute. If & lane could be flown at that rate con- tinuously it could. leaving New York at 9 oclock in the morning, reach San Francisco between 3 and 4 o'clock that same afternoon. At that pace transatlantic flight would be possible within a single span of davlight. That this was no mere fluke of the plane in the most favorable condition is indicated by the fact that in two trips over the fifty-kilometer trial course, one against the wind and one the opposite direction, the same pilot, in the same machine, averaged 268.2 miles an hout Yesterday's extraordinary record is unofficial, and, therefore, will nat stand as an accepted mark of fastest fiving. But it is clear that a plane has been evolved which is capable of unprecedented speed, and at the com ing meet, when official records will prevail, some new achievenients will be established. over a con- Congressional Income Taxes. Just to show that conzressmen are not immune to income tax publicity any more than they are to income tax payment, an inquisitive analyst of the records has worked out a statement of the entire congressional contribu- tion to the upkeep of the Government. It is found that their payments range in the House of Representatives from nothing. which is the case with five, to $183,413, and in the Senate from nothing, there being only one non- taxpaying Senator. to $181.164. The total of the congressional tax pav-| ments is something over a million d lars. This publication of the tax pay- ments of the individual members of the national legislature brings squarely home to the lawmakers the absurdity of giving publicity to such details. 1t does nobody any good whatever. It certainly does mot in- crease the chances of the Government making a full collection of all the taxes due. It does not enable anybody to step forward with proof of incom- plete returning by members of the na- tional community. The fact is that the tax-publicity law is merely a sop to public curiosity. It is of no practical value, and it should be repealed. Perhaps the ex- position of congressional payments will cause a change of mind on the part of some members of House and Senate who now hold that publicity is helpful and desirable. M Washington's police are to he on the alert to prevent the importation of a consignment of some of New York's choicest brand of erotic drama. e A man convicted of driving a horse while drunk gets thirty days in jail- In due proportion the intoxicated motorist should get at least a vear r———— Movie Education. A motion plcture producer the other day announced that he. would donate £5.000 a vear to found and maintain a “movie” chair in an American uni- versity. He made no choice of in- stitution but offered the endowment to the first big school to claim it. Up o date no educational institution has made a bid for the fund. Nor on the other hand has any leader in the cinema business offered co-operation in this project for the development of the movie art. 1t is stated that the would-be benefactor will wait a little while and then will specifically tender his gift to one of the big colleges. The question arises in this con- nection whether there is any need of a course of instruction in motion picture work, literary or technical. Or, rather, whether the need is felt in the educational institutions. A large part of the pubiic, however, does feel there is need of educational in writing and producing pictures Inasmuch as it is extremely doubtful whether profes- sional scenario writers and directors would “g6 to school” at Columbia, gased motion salesmen. They can make brass look Yale, Harvard, Princeton or George lln seek means of getting rich quickly |stitution or rather a sort of traveling movie college. l What the motion picture business | today really needs is a better product, a higher standard of film fiction, more Significant narratives and less of the claptrap of the screen traditions. The people are hungry for good motion victures, and will support them. But they are not getting them in the proper proportion for a balanced en- tertainment ration. The same old tale |is beirig told over and over again, with variations, with the customary so- called thrills, the hairbreadth escapes, the perilous adventures, the mob scenes, pursuits, staring close-ups, tand, s George Bernard Shaw recently said in London. “impertinent lists of everybody employed in the film from | the star actress to the press agents loftice boy.” Filln makers declare.that they are giving the public what it wants. The public, having acquired the movie habit, continues to go with little dis- crimination, but an increasing sense of boredom. The shrewder producers are realizing this state of mind on | fthe part of the cash customers and are doing better work. but many of ‘lhem are corwletely forgetting that after all it is the satisfied patron who in the end insures success. Enormous sums of money are spent [in production of motion pictures. far i too much. indeed, in proportion to the artistic value of the product. It has been remarked that the public is no wonger being beguiled by announce- ments of the millions spent in making | a single film, and that returns at the box office are often greater for the simpler film stories than for the over- elaborated spectacles that tax the re- sources of the movie treasuries. | An educational work along these ilines, among the producers, writers and actors, would be worth while, worth indeed more than the extremely modest sum which has been proposed by one who, it must be suspected, is merely buying a little publicity. | >—oe o — 1 A five at Tokio destroys several gov- | ernment buildings and valuable docu- | ments. Uncle Sam has for years been inviting a similar disaster in Wash- ington by refusing to spend a few mil- lions for proper housing for big business establishment. his e Gen faced Mulcahy of lreland. having more dangerous missiles, was not daunted by the tomatves and eggs hurled at him on a New York steam. ship pie A zain of 150.000 population by | Tokio during the two years since the great disaster of 1923 shows that the Japanese are not a timid people. A Navy airman flies at the rate of ftfive miles a minute, perhaps just as a ture of disregard for Col. Mitchell's recent comments, R “IU's hard to keep the wolf from (he Polygamy prohibited and the fez discarded! Poor old Abdul Hamid's ghost will haunt Kemal forever. e i SHOOTING STARS. | | BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. i | Not for Him. “You should have faith in human | nature,” said the men of kindly in-| stincts. | “Yes." sneered the New York of. { ficial, “and lose my job as customs | { inspector. | i I i A Suggestion, i i {door.” said the poet. “Why don't you read him some of your poetry through the keyhole?" inquired the cruel friend. “Remember, son,” said Uncle Eben, vou must have judgment as well as | enthusiasm. Good intentions is re. sponsible foh some o' de worst singin’ in de choir.” Essentials of Stage Villainy. “I'm sorry.” said the able actor, “but T'll have to refuse vour liberal offer to appear as the villain in your productions.” “What's the manage | "My doctor has absolutely forbidden |me to smoke cizarettes.”” trouble?” asked the A Censorious Observer. ‘Of course,” said the sentimentalist, “knowledge is power. But the heart more important than the head.” Very true” answered Miss Cay- enne. “If as many people died of head failure as die of heart failure the | country would lose an enormons el { ment of its population.” Blushes. The posters of the burlesque scene Upon the rural fence are spread. Straightway the leaves that were so areen Begin to turn a vivid red. Help for a Hypochondriae. ““Chuggins doesn't seem to be as sickly as he was.” “No, he has quit complaininz. His new automobile has done wonders for him.” “Fresh air, and that sort of thing?" No, his mind is so taken up with his engine and his tir that he hasn't time 1o think of his anatomical equip- ment.” The Unattainable Bill Biffins yearned to satisfy | The men who criticize. When he resclved that he would try | To make & name and rise They said he was too young as vet. A few years onward rolled And then with courteous regret They said he was too old. He once was slender as the limb That grows upon a tree: Then broad outlines came to him, Quite comforting to see. Approval still he fails to win; His friends assure him that While once he may have been too thin | At present he's too fat. | He eals too much or not enough; He's over-sad or gay. His language is a bit too rough Or too ornate, they say. No wonder that hig frame of mind Grows steadily more glum. like gold. They know that the disposi- | Washington, the thought occurs that | How can he ever hope to find tion of the comparatively poor man |perbaps the real need Is & new in-| The happy medium? ~ o> | the | unmatched total of $6 | such funds are furnished and substanti- THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. There ix one nuisance in Washing- ton that ought o be abated, through Joint action of the District Commis- sloners and parents, aided by the po- lice, If necessar: It 1s' none other than screaming children at band concerts. No matter what park one goes to in Spring or Summer to hear any one of our very fine service bands, Susie and Willle and Mary and Johnny are sure to be there, too. Now willingly we would foster the love of music in Susie and Mary, and especially in Willle and Johnnie. They need it. But the sad truth is that not a one of this delicious guartet— nor any of the hundreds of similar groups—comes to the park to hear the musle. They come, each and every one, sev- erally’ and collectively, Lo holler, to scream, to roar, to shriek, to run, to . to cavort, to roll, to tumble, to . to pummel, to amble, to trip, to tall down, to get up. They come to manifest right of the modern American child to do as he darn pleases anywhere and at any time, and out upon You for a_crank if vou dare to want to en- Joy the old music. They come to do anvthing under the softly setting sun except to listen 1o the old music. Who wants to listen to the old music, anyway? Ain't we Fot a plano player an’ a phonograph At home, and ain’t we zot “When You and I Were Seventeen and “I'll See You in My Dreams” and many other such popular pieces of music? the divine They come to have a high old time. and they proceed to have it. free from parental restrictions or interfer- | ence in any shape or form; and if | you don’t like it, vou can s home, where old fogies belong. Heaven's sake, vou didn't expect be able to hear the music when you came to listen to the band? Ex Ek Having never once, in many vears been allowed by the children 1o ex joy a band concert in a Washingtc park. civcular or square, I determined 0 put one over on the kids. 1 would “listen in" over radio to a concert! Rather pleased at limbered my one-tube tuned in-lafe the other afternoon’ on | ‘avy Band plaving at the Capitol “Now for a little genuine satisfac-| tion.” T told myself, as I cut in just| as the band was beginning a selec-| tion from Victor Herbert's hearts.”” The score of this musica comedy is one of the best in Herbert this idea, I squaller un and last period of inventiveness. With his “Algeria,” his hearts” remains firmly in the affec-| tion of all Herbert “fans.”” among whom T am honored to place myself. | The operetta is filled with haunting melodies in such varieties that bands evervwhere delight in pl lection: | | arowninz weethearts.” The “in" in great from Herbert's radio was bringing it style. Yes, reception was grea . At every rest in the music T could hear Willie and Johnny and Mary and Susle screaming over there at the Capitol. “Hey, Jimmie!” came through as the band began the dainty “Cricket on the Hearth” number from the musical comedy. “Hoo-00!" yowled Willie from some far-distant point. “Whee-ee!"” shrieked Mary, prob- ably a block from the microphone. So the band plaved the music: but here is the way I~and thousands of other listeners—heard it: “And the cricket on the hearth “Goes chirp—" “Hey, Jim-mieee'" “Chirp—" | *Hoo0-0000, ‘Chirp!” “Ya-aa-aa: Whether or not this is an improv ment on Vietor Herbert I leave for Mary future ages to decide. At _another point, in the pla of Rubinstein's amennoi-Ost (Rocky Island, I helieve it is trans- lated). came a solemn, church-like melody, which the band plaved with rather long rests between the vari- ous phrases. allowing a clarinet or some such instrument to do a denza. To me—and to those thousands of other listeners—each cadenza was merely a slight musical accompani- ment to children’s voices, in some such recitative as the following “Whee-ow-ow-ow " “Jimmie. if you don’'t hush I will take vou home. Hush!" | “Hush, verself! “I told you, now. Jimmie—I'll take you home. now— “Aw, whee-00-00-0w-0w-ow ! The band played through the nex: phrase. the mass of instruments out the happy children 4g” hither and yon thropgh playing * the spectators. Then came another e, broken only by the winding inet, and ‘'m golnz 1o take vou home, Jim- if vou don't siop. Do vou hear Aw. how could 1 help hearin® va? Stop thal tickling me. stop il, aw, ee-ee-1h-i1h-00-00-0W-0Ww-ow!’ “All right. let’s go home. then.” “Aw. mo, Maw, I'll listen. honest I will.’ “All vight., then, we'll stay “Hoo-00, Mary! You're it} This sort of t 1t band concerts throughout Washinzton annoys not only those who o to listen, but tie ‘ing the Se- | plavers themselves The children, beinz allowed to do A5 a matter of fact. the bands of |as they please at home, with no par- the National Capital for vears have | ticular rest included Herbert in practically every | public concert. This is done not only | hecause Victor Herbert struck the | popular fancy, but also because his | melodies are so finely orchestrated that musici in_plaving them. 7 There is never anvthing about a Herbert tune, or the way is orchestrated. cent death was a great 10ss to mi cal America, had theory at the finge tips of one hand and melody at the tips of the other. T am sure that as cheap | it | the vears go by he will rank higher and higher in the musical history of ans such as compose our | place the blam bands here find real musical pleasure | ents, and s This man, whose re- | the: | by our country. | o | The band was playing 'he most Federal service in 19 by the record of more than 5.000 econ omies now being prepared for the Bu- reau of the Budget. has been purposely reserved for the last article of this series. The saving is reported from the Veterans’ Bureau. It runs to the 37.741. rep- resenting money turned back to the Treasury out of funds appropriated for the bureau. Says the report ““The 1925 appropriations were stud ied carefully and a tentative alloca tion of funds to the various activities was made prior to July 1, 1924, and, with the exception of orzanization changes which affected thi: t-up. the activities have been limited and held within the amounts allocated. “A constant study Is maintained of the expenditures of each station and funds are allocated quarterly on the basis of an estimate submitted by the station compared with previous ex- penditures. (o funds are allocated in excess of the apparent actual requirements until 2 detailed explanation and the need of spec ated by contact with the various ope: ating services in central office, which maintain, control or have knowledge of these specffic projects “As u result of this system of con- trol of the 1925 budget it will be pos- sible to return to the Treasury totals from each appropriation as follows: Salaries and expenses. 1925 $1,914.000 Medical and hospital o strative “expens adinsted Vatarans' Bureau. 1924 Printing and binding. '1925 Vocationa) rehabilitation. 1925 Military and naval compensa TR R G R 29,000,000 Total $66.087.741 Big Sum on Stamps. In other branches of the Government innovations have been made which will bear dividends of economy for many vears to come. From the Bu- reau of Engraving and Printing, the Government’s money and stamp fac- tory, where also are engraved Federal securities, comes this word, for in- stance: “The plan to print all postage stamps on Intaglio wet rolary press- es has been initiated. The reduction which it is expected to effect by this plan in the production cost of postage stamps will result in an annual sav- ing to the Post Office Department of $285,000.” And from the same bureau the following: . “The sizing of currency with a solu- tion of glue, alum and water has been re-established. Two-thirds of the number of sizing machines required have been installed, and the additional number required will have been in- stalled by the end of the first quar- ter of the fiscal year 1926 (September 30. next). 4 ‘“The extended life of sized cur- rency has been estimated to be as much as 20 per cent longer than un- sized currency and on that basis the net saving to the Government in pro- duction, including paper because of the smaller quantity of notes required, might reach $975.000 annually. Owing to the large amount of unsized cur- rvency- in cireulation . which must be replaced, the savings referred to will not, perhaps, be realized until three or four vears from the date this siz- ing operation is completely estab- lished.” Thus, while under the spur of econ- omy the dollar bill may not go further, it will last longer, at least in a physi- cal way. Architect Saves a Million. Another saving, figured at more than $1,000,000, was reported from the comes selections | during HOW UNCLE SAM SAVES BY WILLIAM P. HELM, JR. 'ICLE VI | o . cular saving in the | Through a program of remodeling and as disclosed | enlarging public buildings, nt. naturally do as they And listening to please in the parks. music quietly is mnot natural 1o healthy children Admitted We don't biame the kids =1 all. We squarely on the par- est that they somehow manage to keep the children away from all band concerts Maybe they could tell them that can cause more annovance screaming and plaving high-spy around some hospital grounds. or up in the next block, where old Mrs Smith is seriously ill. Remember, parents, if vou do not do this your child is going to zrow up to be that greatest of all bore the man who coughs continuously a recital office of the supervising architect that office obtained an additional teet of office space in of about $400.000 “Sixty-six thousand square feet a low rental value of $1 a foot.” the report. “capitalized at 4%z cent aggrezates $1.466.666. For purpose the expenditure amoufited tc $400.000. or a consequent saving o $1.066.666. The Government 19 at savs per this Printineg Office re. ports a reduction of $19. in over time, Sunday and holiday work in 1925 as compared with 1324, By the apparently insiznificant item of using solid _tvpe instead of leaded for some of its publications the Federal Trade Commission saved $1.280 during the vear. of paper for mimeographing. instead of one as heretofore, the War De- partment reports a saving of $63 a month. By substituting cotton waste for cheesecloth for cleaning purposes the Department of Agriculture saved $684. Reduction of land offices throughout the country, Secretary Work reports, resulted in savings totaling $273,000 during the vear. Seventy-five persons ‘were discharged by the Bureau of In- dian Affairs, reducing the pay roll by $100,000. ‘A still greater decrease is antici- pated,” savs the report of this saving, ““a call having heen made upon the superintendents of the various Indian reservations to decrease their person- nel by 300 during the next few months."” The Reclamation Service reports that “a balance estimated at $985,000 out of the appropriations for Federal irrigation projects remained ‘unex pended at the close of the vear due to the curtailment of projects. The Geological Survey dispensed with the services of 23 persons, reducing Its pay roll by $41.500 annually. ’ At St. Elizabeth's Hospital. A reduction of 8 cents a day In the cost of caring for the inmates at the Government - operated St. FElizabeth Hospital (for the insane) at Washing- ton reduced operating expenses of that institution by $124,800 during the year. Expenditures at the Federal Denitentiary at Atlanta_were cat 10 per cent for the year. The immigra- tion authorities saved an estimated $58,000 by reshipping foreign one- ‘way a large number of alien seamen illegally remalning in the United States, thus avolding the expenses of deportation. Through all the departments the story is the same. Here the flame of economy has flared to a length ‘where its burning affects personnel and salaries, there it flickers low, feed- ing on the obvious fuel. High or low, the flame burns throughout the exec- utive branch of the Federal service. It has been lighted and is burning. That flame has left many a scar on men and women at one time in the Government service. Economy is a ruthless thing when it operates to divorce a man and his job. It has operated in that fashion many times —hundreds, perhaps thousands—dur- ing the fiscal year 1925. New faces there have been at the cashier's win- dow: old faces with familiar smiles have faded into memories. There have been heartburnings and sullen rebellion here and there where the acid of saving has bit deeply. Of these mutterings the President has heard the echo. That they affect him. this correspondent happens to know but too well. But there will be no swerving from his determined way- the way of further savings where pos- sible, a fact with which™ the cor- respondent likewise has heen made familiar. (The End.) (Copyright, 1925,) By usinz both sides of a sheet | THE LIBRARY TABLE ANSWERS By the Booklover. Love of the soil is one of the original human emotions, and even in times of supercivilization it lingers among more | give an Indian word for | ainbow." L. . T. ¢ of body and of character. Literature which has #s roots in the soil has also a peeuliar strength. This is lllustrated by much great poetry, drama and fic- tion. In modern fiction there are & number of writers who may be called soll-novelists—for example, Thomas Hardy, Sheila Kaye-Smith. the Nor- wegian Knrut Hamsun and the Polish Ladislas Reymont. Thomas Hardy has proguced many novels the setting of which Is “Wessex"; that is, modern Dorsetshire. Not all of Hardy's novels are equally vigorous in their portrayal of primitive characters against the background of th: land. Perhaps his best are “Far From the Madding Crowd.” “The Return of the Native." “The Woodlanders” and “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” The vast, wild waste- land of Egdon Heath in “The Return «f the Native” dominates the lives of three men and three women and is the scene of the final tragedy of two of them. Hardy thus describes its gloomy influence: “The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an hour to evenine: it could in like man | ner retard the dawn. sadden noon, an- te the frowning of storms scarce 1v generated and intensify the opacity | ¢f # moonless midnight to a cause of {shaking and dread. . . . The somber | (he congressional committee of investi- i stretch of rounds and hollow seemed | zution consisted of his log book, his |10 rise and meet the eveninz gloom in | ghservations recorded at different lati- | jpure svinpathv. the heath exhaling|tudes and other records, which, after | as applled to the Kafirs’—0. 0. D. A. It is applied to Kafirs who have come under the influence of Euro peans, and nieans taught, subdued. Q. What were the buirushes of the | time of Moses?— . B. 1 A. The bulrushes in the story of | Moses were probably papyrus. This| plant is a kind of perennial rush which grows in swampy places, has a | small triangular stem and reaches a | height of 6 to 10 feet. It was former y | found on the banks of the Nile and | still is found in Syria first used | Q. When was an alloy | with gold?—M. L. K. A. An alloy has been used with gold for many centuries. Gold in the raw state was known in the later stone age. It was probably the first metal known to man. So long ago as in the day of the cities of Cyzicus and Phocaea electrum. a natural alloy of gold and silver, was used in making coins. Q. How was it known that Admiral | Peary reached the North Pole and| hat Dr. Cook did not?—J. E. C . The evidence given by Peary to the National Geographic Society and {darkness as rapidly as tha heavens pre- examination, were decided 1o be suf ¢ipitated it." In harmony with the|ficiant proof of the fact that he had | | sinister hecth are the wild characters aciually reached the itude 90 de- | of Damon Wildeve and Kustacla Ve, | grees north, or the North Pole. Dr. {and in contrast to it is the simple, {kindly character of Diggory Venn. the [ ujtudes and longitudes taken on his raddleman, whose vocation it is to|journeyv to the North Pole and other | supply farmers with radding for their | g2z "o the University of Copenhagen. | sheep. Tn reddened garments he drives! 18 jecided. however, that the evi | his lurid red van over the long, dry. | gence was not sufcient. | { white road which bisects the dark sur- | face of the heath. He is not a man of | Q. Why was Death Valley so called? lofty ideas and his ambitions are lim- - Cook sent a set of observations for —R. G | ited by his dairy farm and his raddle-| 4. Death Valley received iis name | man's cart, but wherever there is|from the fact that in 1550 a party of | trouble Diggory is there to help. gold-seekers, with their families, made | * x % 4 one-day camp in the valley and less | “Sussex Gorse.” by Sheila Kaye.|than half of them survived. the re-| | Smith. is the grim history of the life | mainder being overcome by heat and jof « man so land-hungry that he|thirst. A few escaped over the Pana- sacrifices everything to his greed— |Mmints to the bountiful Californian [ two wives ‘chilaren. all personal hap. | Plains; the others returned to the | | piness—and counts the sacrifice well | East. Ten vears later a party of i made Lecause he has conquered the | Ptospectors came across the camp | 11and. When Reuben Backifield is 86 | With its wagons and chains. vokes, | | he <tands on the crest of Bdarzeli|CAmp equipment and children’s toys even the tracks made in the sand by the little ones could still be traced Moor. from which he has just burned the last gorse and fir trees, and s exults that as far as he can see the| @ What is Mandel fur’— M. ¥ land is his and s all cultivated. “‘Out A. It is a trade name used in the of a small obscure farm of barelyfur industry. In reality it is the pelt 0 acres he had raised up this splen- | of a species of Asiatic sheep. This fur | was first put on the market by a man named Mandel, and has ined his | name. { did dominion, and he had tamed the 1!'-!1"}1!‘5(, toughest, fiercest, cruelest piece of ‘ground in’ Sussex, the beast { of Boarzell.” He lives alone in his weather-beaten farmhouse. His many | children have all deserted him. driven away by his harshness, and the only | woman he has ever loved has just died, despising him. Yet he is content. fie needs no human being. e has the Jand. He says softly to himself, as he watches the last gorse blazing on the top of the moor: ve won—and its bin worth while. . . T may live BY PAUL } Are ardent ers of the prohibition law—conceding the churches support to be a hundred, a man’of my might. | that the law is a failure, after five| But if I go next week. I shan't com- | vears’ trial> For a gquarter of 2 cen i i [ Eikin) i T e At iolae B e k| Trt e her s i Sinie o | desire. . I've lived so close {0 the |law open saloons flourished through | | earth all my davs that T reckon T|graftin many paris of the State. Car- | shan't be afraid to lie in it at jast.” [rle Nation, with her hatchet. found | R many saloons tv smash in Kansas 20 | e ots A he | Years atter Stat prohibition. Yet the | | o JSnut Hamsun's “Growth of the|pegera] law has vad only five vears Soil! is an epic of the gradual con-|iest, and the report of the research guest of the soil by primitive man|and’education deparment of the Fed- | and the parallel growth of what I |erai “Council of (hurches bas been | | calted civilization. The first sentences | Seheq upon by the “wwis” a8 a or | in the novel tell its theme: “The 10ng. | of eurrender. An anausis. of 1he { 1ong road over the moors und up Into | gnalveis. o ctuds of the revort of the the forest—who trod it into being first | council. ‘raises some questions as to | of all? Man, a human being, the first | the justification of the “wet” iNterpre. that came here There was no path | tation. although even friendly ~ities i before he came.” The peasant Isak |ave not enthusiastic over the tone of typifies primitive man. He comes|the report. i trudging over the hills, bearing & * x % sack of food and a few rude imple-| \Washington observers declare that ments. Tlere and there he stops and ligs into the soil. At night he sleeps on a bed of stacked pine. Finally he stops on a hillside and begzins clearing | a_space and building a hut of turf. There are two rooms in his hut. one for himself and one for his beasts. | S0 he goes away one day and comes wack leading three goats. He begins | ultivating the soil. Another dayv he sees some one coming over the hill— ‘and then at last came help: the woman he needed.” The but is made | larzer: children come: a home is there. Years pass by quickly. Trou- | bles come. sin and punishment. Isak {and Inger grow old. Their children | grow up and leave the parents. And always Isak has staved on the land. In his old age he is margrave in his township, but he really cares only for the soil. “'Twas rarely he knew the { day of the month—what need had he of that? . . . . But he Kknew St. the report does not properiy evaliate the operation and benefits of the law because: First. there is very “scientific.” “impartial” and | “fair” that it “leans backward” and | 50 modifies facts that it gives a wrong | version. Secons an_effort to be so| was written in | | New York City, the “wettest” environ- ment in America. and is inevitably | colored by that atmosphere. so that it | is not representative of the whole | country’s conditions. Wayne B. Wheeler, general counsel of the Anti-Saloon League, is | authority for the statement that prior o the Volstead law 25,000,000 people n the United States used alcoholic liquor in some form. This estimate is based on three investigations, includ- ing an elaborate questionnaire by a leading magazine. Now he estimates that no more than 5,000,000 continue | Olaf’s day in the Autumn, that by |the use, owing to increased difficulty | | then his hay must be in: and he knew in obtaining supplies, the absence of | { Candlemas in Spring, and that three [the saloon temptation with its treat- | | weeks after then the bears came out | ing customs, and the knowledge that the report | of their Winter quarters: all seed |most of the bootlegger stuff is danger- | must ~be in the earth then. He |©Uus to life or health. Yesterday's news Fiies wlhat with nesara contained the statement that even dry il ln’gems. \}:ho are retl{ulred‘ 1o taste the ST e quor “they seize in order to make e oliah salknoyel compa sure it is contraband. are suffering | Peasant by Ladislas Revmont. | severe attacks upon their evesight To the Polish peasants only the ey essentials of life matter—food, shel-| The Department of Commerce re. ter. sex. The earth is their re.|cently published a report showing that | ligion. In the Spring they sow, in the | there had been an increase of 33 per cent in 1924 over 1923 i the amount of smuggled liquor coming in from Canada and Great Britain. It stated that the amount in 1923 w $30.000,- 000, and for the succeeding year $10.- 000,000 increase was added. But in- vestigation at the department brings the statement from the authority for the figures that the flgures are mot based upon tangible data for either year. On the other hand. according to officials, the Coast Guard has been to time the women would recommend | operating with such vigor in recent her a new remedy for the sick animal. [ months _that the smuggling has Now they would pour brine down its | greatly decreased. throat, now milk into which wax from | = Last years releases a consecrated taper had been dropped. |alcohol and the tracinz of One advised soap dissolved in whey |actual industrial uses betraved a and another suggested bleeding.” [leakage of some 6,000,000 sallon From the land comes all the liveli- | which leakage is atiributed to diver- hood of the peasants: so mearly all|sion to bootleg liquor. Within the last | their emotions are concerned with the |30 days a change of method of land and its products—quarrels of | handling releases of alcohol for in- neighbors over fields, pasturage and |dustry has been inaugurated. Hith. cattle, jealousies among brothers and |erto such matters have been handled | gisters over land inheritance, greed for | only by revenue agents: now the re- | land dowrles on the part of marrying | leases must be indorsed by prohibition men, and eager struggling for advan- | enforcement officers before being tage at the annual cattle and grain|acted upon by revenue agents, so that fair in the town. B the enforcement officials will have a &k Xk record of every gallon so released, The schoolgirls of this and other |and will trace it to its use in industry. countries, who for some weeks car- e h ried “The Sheik” around with them| The leakage of 6,000,000 gallons of Summer and Autumn they gather in their crops, and in the Winter they hoard and wait for the Spring. The animals are members of the family, cared for as solicitously (and as unin: {telligently) as are the children. Boryna's large red and white cow is ill, “wallowing on a heap of manure just before the byre.” His daughter- in-law, Hanka. is weeping and stroking the cow’s head. The neighbors stand about sympathetically. “From time of industrial such to Stic |in domesticated, |} many | wooden chest BACKGROUND OF EVENTS . COLLINS. | will than by “mere majorities.’ on trains and to classes, defying dis-| relsased alcohol was known during the gusted parents and teachers. can now | last session of Congress, as it was renew their infatuation, for E. M. Hull | brought out in the hearings on the has written another novel of the same | Crampton bill to tighten its control. highly colored type, “The Sons of the | The bill was passed by the House, but Sheik.” The same lure of the desert{ was lost in the Senate. Most of its is in this novel, the same dominating | provisions were subsequently embodied heroes, the same thrills—all seeming |in rules and regulations and put into somewhat threadbare from repetition, | force just before Commissioner Haynes but this will make no difference to | was succeeded by Gen. Andrews. devotees of the former novel. E. M. A L et afhing Federal Council of Churches. in ithat peya erice can’be madé to pay nneepon, cites the supposed hostile o attitude of labor throughout the coun- i S try, but bases its conclusions upon For the first time D. H. Lawrence | casual interviews with 149 persons in has turned to America for material [a city of 41,000 and with 171 from a for a novel. “St. Mawr” takes its title | city of 94,270 population. The ultra- from the chief character. a handsome | cautious report characterizes such in- bay stallion, which has killed two men | terviews as favored the law as “due to and injured others. There are human | certain aggressive elements in the la- characters_also, Mrs. Witt and her|bor movement,” while such as were daughter Louise, who come from a|opposed to prohibition came from per- Texas ranch. The scene of the story | sons “convinced and apparently sin: shifts from Texas to England. back to | cere.” The recent referendum election Texas. and then to the mountains of [ of all voters in Massachusetis approv Arizons. ing of the law is dismissed by the A TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Q. Why i& an, electric_ironing m | chine called a mangle?—E. S. & A. In the Coos dialect it is “coyvu.” A ‘The name ‘“‘mangle” is derived vigorous human beings. A life led | from the Greek “manganon,” meantnz 1 close to the soll seems to give strength| Q. What does the term “mak’ mean @ Wwar engine, which was originall used for throwing stones in defendinz fortifications. The primitive type of mangle resembled this engine of war many respects, hence its nam: mangles consisted of or table weighed witi stones which pressed it down on tw. cylinders. It was operated by hand I+ means of a wheel and pinion. Q. and How fast must a person recei e send to get a radio opevato license”—E. G. A To pa the Government exam inations for a first.class commerc; radio operator's license it ix necessar to qualify in both tramsmitting and receiving the international Mor < code at a speed of 20 words per mir ute. An amateur is required to send at a speed of 12 words per minute. Q. How do hunters of seals in Alas- kan waters know what seals the may kill and what ones they may not ki?—F. B. L. A. Under the law passed by Con- &ress in 1912 a reserve of 5,000 3-vear old maie seals is required, but this number 1s not now required adequate 10 supply the future needs of the herd in the Pribilof Islands. Duri the season of 1925, therefore. 93in vear-old seals were reserved from killing. They are marked by shearinz the fur from the tops of the heads Q. About how fast shou lose weight while reducing”—D. Kk A. The Public Health Service < that in effecting reduction of weizhi care snould be taken that such reduc tions are not effected too rapidly. A loss of trom 1 10 11, pounds per week is satistactory and from 4 to § month should be taken for a reduction of 25 pounds. This gives the tissues an opportunity to readjust themselvas | property Q. What is sea coal and for what purpose 1s it used’—<. D. B A. Sea coal is merelv coal dug from the earth: formerly so-c to di tinguish it from charcoa was brought to London by (The Government is spendinag you money to find out how to do 1hings The Star, through its Washington in formation burcan, is ready 1o te hat the Government has There is information acailable practically every subject affecting the daily life of the American citizen. Ex perts of the highest order are devor ing their entire and this _great work promoting public weljare. What do you want know? What questions can the hu reau answer for you? This service Just inclose a 2-cent stamp to the return postage. Address The Star Information Burcau. Freo eric J. Haskin, director. Tuwenty-rirst and € streets morthuwest.) time energy to free cover Church Council with the commer Mere majorities in the case of so hot v contested an issue as prohibition presents ar= of little permanent sizmr cance, because of the stress laid upor moral issues.” Yet a republic has 1 clearer way of expressing its sovereizn times even a plurality is accept controlling laws. P cites the increase of ar- rests for misdemeanors since prohibi tion was enactad. overlooking the in- crease in automobiles and the “crimi nal” (?) tendency of citizens to forget traffic rules and park overtime or in the wrong block. Prior to 1320 scarce Iv any city was suffering from acute “automobilitis,” as all citles do toda: That trend. it is claimed, is not fairly att able to the Volstead law. yet it The report wsed as proof that prohibition i< a ailurs On the other hand. the report dis | closes that even in “wet New York there ar> fewer cases of alcoholic in sanity. In Bellevue Hospital in 1914 the rate was 120 cases per 100.000. population; in 1915. 102; in 1916. 124, an average of 115 cases. The last five vears, under prohibition, the average has been 70 cases. Industrial insurance companies agres in showing a great improvement in health, but the Church Federation re- port minimizes the inference by say ing: “The tendency is toward a higher | standard of living and thus naturally toward improved health and increas- ing longevity.” The allegation that there is gen- erally a higher standard of living to- day,” when all living costs are mora than double what they were befora the war. is not supported by any evi- dence bevond assertion. Army statistics are quoted in fha report, although they show that prior to the war the admission ratio to Army hospitals on account of alcohol ism averaged 13 per 1.000, and since the war, during the five vears of pro hibition. the average has been R.0% The period of actual war showed only an average of 2, but that is explainel by “Army discipline during the war rmy discipline” itself is nothing | more or less than Army prohibition and that was applied in the \er | “wet” France. hefore the passage of the Volstead law, and bevond its jurisdiction * o o% % A summary of the contyasts he tween conditions toda fter five vears of prohibition. with condi tions preceding the Volstead law #p pears in the North American Review Among many points of improve ment cited are: Prior to prohibition there were 177,799 saloons and 100.000 “speak-easies’: now. no saloons, hut some “speak-easies,” just as obnox fous. Then. 1.247 breweries producing 2,000,000,000_gallons of beer; now no breweries. Then. alcoholic death rate of 5.8 per 100,000 annually: now, a alcoholic death rate from 1.1 1o & annually, in spite of the poisonous character of bootleg liquor. Then. 275 drunk cures all busy; now, °7 drunk cures. most of which handle alcoholic cases as a_ side line. Then, crowded county Jjails; now, 200,000 fewer jail commitments in spite of bootlegging and including automobile cases. In some communities traffic cases constitute 90 per cent of arrests. In several States the total arrests scarcely exceed half of what the were before prohibition—Indiana, Con necticut and New Hampshire are thus indicated. New York and Massachu- setts, although rated ‘wet,” show marked decrease in _arrests. In Chicago United States District Attor ney Olsen a‘tributes the crime increace there, not to prohibition, but to the breakdown in its enforcement. State Attorney Crowe denies the statement attributed to him that there is 20 per cent more crime in the country than five years ago. * ¥ * % In his message to Congress Decen ber, 1923, President Coolidge said “There 'is an_ inescapable responsi bility for the development character of industry, of thrift and self-control. These do not come from the Govern wment, but from the people themselves But the Government can and should always be expressive of the steadfnsi determination, always vigilant 1 maintain conditions under hich these virtues are most likely 1o de. velop, and secure recognition and re. ward. This is the American policy t is in accordance with this prin- ciple that we have enacied laws for the protection of public health and have adopted prohibition in narcotic drugs and intoxicating liquors.” (Coprright. 1925, by Paul V. Collins / ]