Evening Star Newspaper, November 1, 1925, Page 63

"CREDIT IS GIVEN BRITON , FOR ZIMMERMANN EXPOSE Admiral Hall Bared Secret of German Plot to Lure Mexico to Invade U. S. Territory HE mermann telegram to Mexico, in which Germany an alliance with Mexico 1917 agains States, with the ] co, Texas and Arf to Mexico, and the manner in which the British admiralty obtained Ger- many’s important correspondence dur- 5 the entire war are set forth in a final installment from the new volume Page letters by Burton J. Hendrick in_“The World's Work.” The decoded and translated dis- patches from Zimmermann, then foretzn minister of to Bern- Germ or here, ickhardt, the German Amb: sador in Mexico City, together with the message of Ambassador Page to President Wilson form a story of tremendous interest and re- veal a_state of affairs that was at once of great seriousness to Germany «nd made the Germans utterly ridicu- lous, of Aroused Whole Nation. The publication of the Zimmermann tedgram had n enormous effect in thte country und there have been meny surmises as to how it was ob- tained b th American Government. Mr. Hendrick in his illuminating nar- rative say “One day in the latter part of Feb- Page was requested to call upon Mr. Balfour at the foreign office. Mr. Balfour quietly handed the Ambassador a sheet of paper: document that, in its influence upon American policy, proved to be the most sensational that the Buropean War r brought forth. This the message that will be as the Zimmermann tele- am. It disclosed the preparation Germany was making for war with the United & It was a message from the ( n foreign office Berlin to Von Eckhardt, the German Minister in the City of Mexico. As Germany had no satisfactory method of communicating with Mexico, this tele; had been sent to Count Ber; in Washington, with in- structions to_forward it by cable to * the German Minister in the Mexican Rtepublic. This latter diplomat was cted to_enter at once into negotia- fons with Venustiano Carranza, Presi- dent of Mexico, and to make an alli- ance with Mexico for @ joint German and Mexican invasion of the United States. tmmortal r1 Carranza Willing. “In this invasion succeeded, *Mexico to obtain *Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona—territory which she had lost to the United States as & result of the War of 1846, and which was now to be treated as a kind of Mexican Alsace-Lorraine and be ‘re- deemed.” The German plan also con- templated an attempt to detach Japan from her European allies and per- suade her to join the German-Mexican alllance. President Carranza, who, as subsequent events disclosed, looked yiot unfavorably upon this ambitious proposal, was the same Carranza whom President Wilson had supported for the Mexican presidency among a iultitude Of revolutionary candidates. Carranza was President of Mexico, indeed, as the result of a succession of events that amounted almost to American intervention. “Page at once transmitted this in. tion to the State Department: case was “Page to the President. “ ‘London, “ Dated February 24, 1917. “‘Rec’d. 8:30 p.m. % ‘Secretary of State, hington. February 24 “My 5746. February 24 ‘Confidential for the President and the Secretary of State: ““Balfour has handed me the text of a cipher telegram from Zimmermann, German secretary of state for foreign airs, to the German Minister to which was sent via Wash- and relayed by Bernstorff on 19th. You can probably ob- copy the text relaved by nstorff from the cable office in shingt The first group is the iber of the telezram, one hundred and thirty, and the second thousand and forty-two. indicating the « number of the code used. The last group but two is ninety-seven thou- gand five hundred and fifty-six, which is Zimmermann's signature. I shall rend you by mail a copy of the cipher text and of the de-code into German and meanwhile I give vou the Eng- lish translation as follows: Japan Invited. exicd W is “+«We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine war- fare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of a nee on the following basis: Make war together, make peace together, wenerous financial support an’ understanding on our part o is Jnquor the lost in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President (that is, President Carranza of Mexico) of the above most secretly ms soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is cer- tain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the Presi- dent’s attention to the fact that the employment of our sub- offers the prospect of ind in a few months o re territory ruthless wrines nov pelling ¥ o make peace « “ZIMMERMANN.” int this information greatly exercised the British Government that they have lost no time in communicating it to me to transmit to you, in order that our Government may be able without de- lay to make such disposition as may be necessary in view of the threatened invasion of our territor: The following paragraph is strict- Iy confidential Had German Code. “‘Early in the war, the British Government obtained possession of a copy of the Gern 1 cipher code used in the above message and have made it their business to obtain copies of Rernstorff’s cipher telegrams to Mexi- co, amongst others, which are sent hack to London and deciphered here. This accounts for their being able to decipher this telegram from the Ger- man Government to their representa- tive in Mexico, and also for the delay from January 19th until now in their receiving the information. This sys- tem has hitherto been a jealously guarded secret and is only divulged now to you by the British Government in view of the extraordinary circum- stances and their friendly feeling to- ward the United States. They earn- estly request that vou will keep the source of vour information and the British Government's method of ob- taining it profoundly secret, but they put no prohibition on the publication of Zimmermann's telegram itself. “The copies of this and other tele- .grams were not obtained in Wash- ington, but were bought in Mexico. ‘T have thanked Balfour for the service his Government has rendered us and suggest thata private-ofiiclal interception of the Zim- proposed in United complete | aper | in | s thirteen | In the event of this| message of thanks from our Govern- ment to him would be beneficial. “‘I am informed that this informa- tion has not vet been given to the Jupanese Government, but I think it not unlikely that when it reaches them they may make a public statement on it in order to clear up their position regarding the United States and prove their good falth to their allies.” “"PAGE." Sent Over Four Routes. This fateful communication was picked up by the British government almost as soon as it was sent in four |w It was “bought” in the City of Mexico. It was sent by wireless from Nauen to Sayville. It was sent by the Swedes by way of Stockholm and Buenos Aires, and it was transmitted directly by cable by the Amerlcan State Department. The British secret service had ob- tained It from some person In the Mexican capital. Mr. Hepdrick says: “The German government was 80 determined to make this Mexican al- liance that it did not depend upon a single route for transmitting the Zim- mermann message to Von Eckhardt. It dispatched it in several other ways. For one it used the wireless route from Nauen, Germany, to Sayville, Long Island. “In the early days of the war, the | American Government prohibited the use of this Sayville line except under American supervision; how little this prohibition interfered with the Ger- mans is shown by the use they made of the Long Island station for this, |the most fateful message sent to | America during the war. As Page dis- closes to the President, the British had for a considerable perfod been | reading the most secret German mes- | sages.” Information intrusted to the | wir was easily obtained by the British |and as easily deciphered. One of the most curious discoveries, and one that casts an illuminating light upon Ger- [ man simplicity, is the confident beltef |of the German government that its secret service was in fact secret. Not once did the suspicion apparently rise that its proceedings were almost as | well known to the British as though they had been published in the news papers. The ciphers and codes of other nations might be read, but not the German,; its secret methods of com- munication, like anything else Ger- man, were regarded as perfection. Berlin Hoodwinked. Not until the war was concluded did the Germans learn the truth: That the British for nearly four years had | had continual access to their most con | fidentfal information. This German confidence in their intelligence meth- ods cost them dear. Relying upon the secrecy of their codes, they developed an amazing telegraphic loquacity in the course of the war. They were constantly filling the atmosphere with the most intimate news of their navy, army and their diplomatic service, and all this information the British were quietly taking out of the ether and promptly deciphering. The result was that the British government had as accurate information about every- thing German as the Germans them- selves. The movement of every Ger- man submarine was about as well known to the British as it was to the German admiralty; every time one left a German port the British had an accurate record of that fact; they fol- lowed its voyage day by day, and even plotted it on the map. Similarly, as soon as any message Involving any department of the German govern- ment was intrusted to wireless, the British promptly seized it and reduced it to understandable English. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., NOVEMBER T, 1925—PART 2. - Sees Big Business Baffled by, the Air BY WILLIS J. BALLINGER. E have had our kings of copper, of steel, of iron, of cotton, of all that is val- uable in the eyes of man on the earth and below its surface. Are new kings to arise in the near future—kings of the ozone, locked in a grim struggle for control of the latest fleld of wealth and power—the air? Since the armistice commercial avia- tion has blossomed forth into startling reality unknown to most of us. A dally transcontinental air mail has been established and almost between sunset and sunset huge Curtis planes wing their way over 2,700 miles from San Francisco to New York. It takes five days and nights for the swiftest limited to span this distance. In 1924 throughout the civilized world 6,000,000 miles of scheduled flights for commercial purposes were completed, 85,000 passengers were transported and over 7,000,000 pounds of highly valued goods carried safely. Since the armistice over 30,000,000 miles have been reeled off by com- mercial aeroplanes and 250,000 miles of air tracks securely laid. Promoted Alr Mail. With these facts in mind I ap- proached Paul Henderson, general manager of the National Alr Trans. port, for an interview as to what was going on behind the scenes in the development of the aeroplane commercially in the United States. I had been told that big business was preparing for a titanic struggle to possess the air for profit. Mr. Henderson had been Assistant Postmaster General under Presidents Harding and Coolidge and had been one of the most enthuslastic promoters by the Government in the early part ot 1922. Prior to that, as a youth, he had been with the Olds Motor Works in the days of automobile pioneering. Having &cen the enor- mous growth of the automobile from the day when it was looked upon as a freak I expected that Mr. Hender- son would not be devoid of imagina- tion in speaking about what may prove another infant industry prodi- gy—commercial aviation. With a frankness that was convincing and encouraging he sketched in boldly his replies to my querles. Three Companies in Field. “Mr. Henderson,” 1 asked, “have velopment of commercial aviation in the United States has been carried on up to date by private capital?” A. So far as T know, there are only three companies organized. One Iof gl compeny, §itier SNat sl Pl Transport, which will start a line from Dallas, Tex., to Chicago. The other two are the Western Alr Ex- press, operating on the West coast, and the Colonial Alr Line and Eastern Air Express, consolidated into one air corporation, and flying on the East coast. Q. Are there many big business men in your corporation? A. Yes, there are many. Swedes Willing Aides. With reference to the third way his message was intercepted, Mr. Jendrick says: ‘The fact seems to be that the Swed- ish court was openly pro-German; that popular opinion in Sweden simi. larly inclined to the German side; and by January, 1917, the Swedish forelgn office had become almost an integral part of the German organization. In many capitals German messages were | frequently put in Swedish cipher and |sent to Swedish ministers in other | countries and by them delivered to | their German colleagues. Herr Zim- | mermann, in his desire to make cer- | tain that his Mexican telegram should ach Washington, again fell back upon the assistance of his Swedish confreres. He handed his message to the Swedish Minister to Berlin; this functionary sent it to Stockholm, weden; from this point it was cabled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and from that city cabled in turn to Washing- ton. The journey was a roundabout one, covering about 10,000 miles. Yet nothing that was sent through the air or under the sea seemed to escape the watchful attention of the British | naval intelligence, and this Swedish message was captured almost,at the same moment as that one which was going by the ‘main line.’ " Finally, the Germans used the Amer- ican embassy in_ Berlin to transmit this message to Bernstorff in Wash- ington, which seems almost incred- ible. In this connection Mr. Hendrick sa; 1l E U. S. Methods Clumsy. “The transaction reflects so serious- 1y upon the methods of the State De- partment that it probably never would have seen the light had the Germans not made it public themselves. In 1919-20 the German constituent assem- bly held an elaborate {nvestigation into the responsibility for the war. In this the Zimmermann telegram played its part. Among its published documents Is a note which reveals one route by which this document found its way across the Atlantic. . It says: ‘Instructions to Minister von Eck- hardt were to be taken by letter by way of Washington by U-boat on the 15th of Januar; since the U-boat Deutschland did niot start on her out- ward trip, these instructions were at- tached on January 16th to telegram No. 157, and through the offices of the American embassy in Berlin telegraph- ed to Count Bernstorff by way of the State Department in Washington.” “What this means is that the Ger- man foreign office used the American Government as an errand boy for the transmission of a document that con. tained a plot against its own territorial {integrity. The coolness with which Bernstorff sent his financial account to the German foreign office in the American diplomatic pouch—docu- {ments that contained the details of his propaganda work at Washington —has already been set forth. The use of the American State Department in transmitting the Zimmermann tele- gram is another instance of a similar kind. Imposed on Americans. “The German government, many times in the course of the war, used the good offices of the American State Department for transmitting messages to Ambassador Bernstorff. Germany had no ‘cable communication with the United States; the wireless was unre- liable and not always available; occa- | sionally, therefore, the Germans | would request Washington to serve in this capacity. As all such messages touched England before starting across the Atlantic, the consent of the British government was necessary before the favor could be performed. That _the British graciously permitted the Germans to use their cable facil- (Continued on- Elghteenth- Pago.} BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is a brief sum- mary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended October 31: The British Empire.—Sir Willlam Joynson Hicks (“JIx”), the British home secretary, recently made & grand round-up of Communist heroes, and these gentlemen are mow being tried, while their sympathizers gath- ered in Bow street gnash their teeth, it fire and now and then heave a brick at some capitalist. The police, it is said, have found tons of Incriminating evidence show- z cahootism with Moscow. I e Hight Hon. Edward Frederick Lindley Wood has been designated to succeed the Earl of Reading as Viceroy of India, on the retirement (just announced) of the latter next April. There i3 much speculation as to the cause for Lord Reading’s re- tirement at So critical a juncture of Indtan affalrs. It will be recalled that he went to England last March to confer regarding the Indian situ- ation with the proper authorities—in chief, the Earl of Birkenhead, secre- tary of state for India. “What might be toward? The Canadlan zeneral elections on Thursday resulted as follows: Con- servatives, 118; Liberals, 102; Pro- gressives, 22; Independents, 3. It is seen that the Progressives hold the balance, and that whatever combination may result in Parlia- ment the situation 1s unsatisfactory. * ok K e.—So the “wizard” is sped. H:‘r:n'.‘lfed to come across with the magic promised, or, at any rate, ex- pected. He is en voyage up Salt Creek. The reference 1is to M. Calllaux. We have yet to learn what program was proposed by M. Caillaux to his colleagues of the cabinet for saving the fiscal and financlal situation: we only know that it did not commend itself. He was requested to resign, “solo.” He refused; wherefore the resignation of the entire cabinet was submitted in order to rid him. Pain- leve has formed another cabinet. It includes 10 members of the late cab- inet and four new men. Painleve himself takes the portfolio of finance, but a considerable part of the duties of that office are transferred to the new ministry of the budget, headed by Georges Bonnet. The ministry of finance and the budget will, of course. be closely dovetailed, the latter ministry being entative.” Two of the new minis- ters are Herriot men. Briund sue- ceeds himself in the foreign office. Prognostication would be vain: there are nuances in the situation quite too_delicate for {reatment here. No doubt there is a general feel- ing of relief that Caillaux should be discarded. He did not belong in that gallery. It was impossible that he should make good sufficiently to off- set the subtly discrediting effect of his past. The ghost would intrude. But, while admitting the poetic jus- tice of the development, one must feel a certain pity for M. Caillaux. He has fought bravely and his gen- eral attitude has been sound. His 1926 budget is a very considerable achievement. It is to be hoped that his successor, unhampered by a sin- ister past, will be as bold and tech- nically as well equipped. R Ahaggar.—The world will with interest the results of the Franco-American expedition whose members started the other day in seven six-wheel automobiles from Constantine, Algeria, for the Ahag- gar region in the midst of. the Reserta. Perhaps -they-will await of the first air mail line attempted | vou any idea how extensive the de- | Patriotism, Not Profit, Bu PAUL HENDERSON Q. Will you name some of them for me? A. Well, there is Howard Coffin, vice president of the Hudson Motor Co.; Roy Chapin, chairman board of directors of the same com- pany; C. M. Keyes, president of the Curtis Aeroplane Co. and Wall street operator: Willlam Rockefeller, needs introduction; John Hays Hammond, the noted mining engineer | Lester Armour of Armour & Co.; Ear | Reynolds and John Mitchell, bankers | of Chicago. That, 1 sug of plutocrats. no is quite a list is not a man worth over two mill A. Yes, that's true. Q. And the other companies about which spoke made up of rich men like your own? A. Yes, 1 |backers are equa No Profits in Sight. Q. That's one of the main points I wish to inquire about. With big bus clearly sponsoring the ad- vent of commercial aviation, is it true we are to have a flerce fight for con | trol of the air which will resembl the giantlike struggle between early American financiers over the “iron ms. are you should say that their ly wealthy. No; frankly, I do not any such struggle, for three First, the men whom I have named are not in commercial aviation for profit. They have made their mil lions. They are enthusiasts and patri- {ots. They have gone into commer- | cial aviatlon as a hobby. The old masters of capital, if T recall correct- . were making their millions out of railroads. They wanted exorbitant rates. The men in commercial avia- tion are playing the game like sports for reasons. find there relics of the mother set- tlement of that Aurigacian (Cro- Magnon) culture of whose profound influence on Mediterranean civitiza- tion we have accumulating proofs, and for which some find an Atlan- tean provenance. My understanding is that the expedition is headed by the famous Count de Prorok, the excavator of Carthage and Utica; that the second in co is Alonzo B. Pond, the od of Beloit College. and that the expe- dition was made possible largely through the munificence of Mr. Frank Logan. founder of the Logan Museum. It is hoped to scale the loftiest mountain of the Ahaggar range, up- ward of 12,000 feet high. Onc of the memberk of the expedition is Maurice Reygasse, reputed to be the leading expert on North African anthropology. The Count de Prorok does well to take with him the best of Tuareg Interpreters, for the Tuareg tribesmen of those parts are kittle folk to deal with. The French government furnishes an escort of 100 Algerians on camels with 3 machine guns. One hopes to see soon on the screen photographs of those rumored Ahaggar cave drawings and sculptures res>mbling the Aurignacian art nce and Spain. The expedition Is “Logan-Saha Beloit.” Incldentally, it is Foped to discover the mountain of “precious stones” legendary source of the Carthaginian emeralds, and to strike oil. * ok k% Syria.—Accounts coming in of the affair in Damascus of October 17-20 compel the opinfon that the French authorities badly muffed the hand- Hng of that affair. There has long Dbeen bitter criticism in the French named the | press of Gen. Sarrail as high com- missfoner for Syria. His adminis- tration, goes the frequent charge, has been lamentably _conspicuous for lack of the tact and good judg- ment so brilliantly displayed of recent years by the French adminis- trations in Morocco and Algeria. That charge is driven home by most of the accounts of the Damascus episode. The rebellion of the Hauran Druses has aroused sympathetic excitement throughout Syria and has led to a considerable increase of the endemic brigandage. On October 17 (so dis- patches relate), a few score brigands entered Damascus and, joined by baser elements of the populace, pro- ceeded to loot and shoot and other- wise act like 24-carat brigands. The TFrench military authorities imagined a general insurrection and sent tanks to shoot up the bazaars, thereby creating a. real insurrection though a minor one. And now comes the worst feature. On the evening of the eighteenth the I'rench military, making no provisions for the security of native Christians or Armenians or any except French allens, proceeded to bombard the famous old city, causing considerable loss of life and great destruction: continuing the bombardment for 36 hours. It is to be hoped that full authentic revelation of the three days' “terror” will present the French behavior in a less discreditable light than as above. Indeed, this writer thinks it quite likely that the dispatches cited convey a good deal of exaggeration and _misconception to the prejudice lof the French. But, supposing the above to be altogether true, it does not follow that French policy re- speciing Syria is not benevolent, nor that the French administration there has not been on the whole beneficial. The - situation of the Erench in Syria has these -many of the| who | whom you have mentioned who is not | anthropologist of the Lozan Museum | ilding Commercial Aviation Last year 6,000,000 es of flights for purely commercial purposes were flown by aero- planes throughout the world. , Eighty-five thousand passen- gers were transported. Seven million pounds of valu- able freight were carried. Since the armistice 250,000 miles of practicable commercial air routes have been laid out. The companies, backed by leading financiers, for comner- cial air transport are now or- ganized in America. Are more coming? industrial leaders monopolize the air? Will great be able to Paul Henderson, former As- sistant Postmaster General, now a pioneer in commercial air transport, thinks not. men and they will not stoop to the tactics that a fierce competitive strug- gle for profit develops. Secondly, they are promoting aviation for patri- otlc purposes. They don't want to see America left behind in the era of | winged achievement now before us. | It the arcoplane Is to be a necessity of war, then America will have plenty of private aeroplane resources. Last- Iy, if the truth be known, there are not going to be fabulous -profits in | commercial aviation. Only a small | part of land traffic will be diverted into the alr and the aeroplane will always have to compete with the train, Q. Do vou foresee trains of the aiv supplanting those of the land? We will have Ford coupes of the air and Rolls-Royce monoplanes. Wil even trolley lines be charted in the air? Will not Hills, Harrimans, Goulds of the air arise? A. No, the raiiroad will our chief land carrier. Only | articles of small bulk will be aero- {planed. Al that aviation will do is |to speed up transportation on a very | | small part of our traffic. Not in your | | generation or in mine will there be a | |use of the aeroplane for pleasure. | | An aeroplane is an expensive thing | besides requiring unusual skill to op- | erate it. Very few people will go jov- | riding in aeroplanes for many yearsto | and I might say probably never | | will the aeroplane play the part of |an air automobile. I do not look for any Hills and Harrimans in the development of commercial aviation. There is not enough profit at stake to encourage the growth of financial glants. Q. Do vou think that Government ald in the form of subsidies will be sought by those developing commer- clal aviation? Just as the Govern- remain costly | come, months been nerve racking. History. affords many instances of the lament- able effects of panic In the face of vague undefined dangers of humane, brave and normally sensible men. But if the above cited accounts are correct, the result of that Damascus episode will be terribly embarassing to the French; the French position with respect to the world of Islam will be sadly prejudiced. Gen. rrail has been summoned to Paris to furnish explanations. It is understood that he will be replaced as | high commissioner by a civillan. * ok ok —The spicy development of the week was the resignation of the German cabinet of its three Na- | tionalist members, on the ground that | “the result of the Locarno treaties at present available is not acceptable to the Nationalist party."” The above has the familiar junker flavor. The hidden meaning is that the Locarno instrument should be signed or ratified prior to allled compliance with certain well known Natlonalist demands; as, evacuation of the Cologng arca, allied certification of German fulfillment of the disarmament clauses of the treaty, an end to allied military control in Germany and a pledge that league military control shall not be exercised and end to restrictions on aviation, etc. The Nationalists orate about “the spirit of Locarno.” They are waiting for results of that spirit not yet “avallable.” Perhaps, they seem to hint, unwrit- ten promises were made to the Ger- man delegates at Locarpof fulfiilment of which would make possible Nation- alist adhesion to the Locarno instru- ments. It's up to the allles, they sa. to carry out “the spirit of Locarno”: that is, to hand them (the Natidnalists) all they ask for, and then everything will be quite “hunky dory.” One won- ders whether this Nationalist gesture will make a popular appeal, resulting in embarrassing pressure on the gov- ernment. And, after all, there is such 2 thing as “the spirit of Locarno,” though not in the Nationalist sense. Chancellor Luther has been heard to speak of “logical consequences” of the conference, and one would like to know just what he means. President Hindenburg, upon the resignation of the Nationalist min- isters, acted with his customary good sense. He accepted the resignation and urged Chancellor Luther to carry on for the present with & rump cab- inet, and the chancellor consented. Three of the ministers doubled their burdens by taking over the resigned portfolios.” The development of the Socialists’ attitude is awaited with in- terest. They approve the Locarno in- struments, but being violently opposed to the Luther government on internal issues they may improve the occasion to bring about general elections. With i their support & two-thirds majority in the present Reichstag for the Locarno instruments seems a strong possi- ty. * ok Kk Greece and Bulgaris.—It is scarcely worth while to go into details of the Greco-Bulgarian imbroglio. At the in- stance of the league council, military representatives of Britain, France and Italy have been sent to the Greco- Bulgarian border to collect informa- tion and report developments, and a league commission will soon repair thither for thorough investigation. ‘We shall know from them how the foolish row started, what lles have been told, and all that. The League Council met at Paris on Monday and immediately issued the following directions: “(a) Within 24 hours the council must have officlal information that the Bulgarian and Greek governments have ordered their troops to withdraw behind their respective frontiers; *(b) Within - 60 hours the - council | happter and more ment gave away a land area equal to the State of Texas to promote rail- road development, will not aeroplane promoters soon be in quest of monay and air zones from Congress? A. No. In the first place, if aero- plane promoters wanted subsidies they couldn’t get them. In the sec- ond place, there is no need for sub- sidles. The rallroads were a neces- sity; they were a prime need. Com- mercial aviation, while it looks impos- ing, is not an absolute necessity for transportation. It will never trans- port the bulk, or anywhere near the bulk, of our annual commodity traf- fic. Since it is not a public necessity Congress has no good reason for sub- sldizing. Commercial aviation may be a benefit to a degree, but not a necessity. s Q. If we are to have great trans- continental air lines in the near fu- ture, will we not very probably have an interstate commerce commission of the air with power to fix rates and earnings on air lines? Unless we do, will we not have all the evils of rail- road development repeated—extor- tionate rates and discrimination? A. Yes, within 10 years I think that we will have such a commission, but T don’t think that it will have to be given power to set rates. In this respect acroplane development will not resemble railroad growth. Afr aviation will always have to compete with land carriers and very few peo- ple would pay a great deal to beat a train by a day or so. Only in the direst emergency would extortionate rates be submitted to. Aero rates are bound to be self-regulatory from this fact. Old Days Best. Then I hazarded one more question. For some time I had been wanting to ask it of some man well out in the van of material progress. Mr. Henderson, I said, do vou big busjness men ever take a proper per- spective of the civilization which you have in some cases actually forced upon the world> We enjoy the auto- mobile, but who thinks of the warn- ings of experts who tell us how dan gerously the alr is being polluted by its escaping gases; of those who have perished from inhaling carbon mon- oxide; of the thousands who are killed every year? The railroads take thousands of human lives more each vear. Every vear we bridge distance a little faster, but what about the cost? WiIl not the aeroplane simply be another Frankenstein, whose de- structiveness we will never notice? A. I agree with you. T am happy to say that the age of the horse and buggy was good enough for me. In my honest opinion, if the hydro-car- bon motor had never been invented, T belleve that we would be able to live contented lfv There is no doubt but that our me- chanical progress s exacting a fright ful toll in shattered nerves and actual loss of life. But how can we stop? There's the rub. We cannot let an other natfon outinvent us, for it would mean our defeat In war. Wa must bear the increasing burdens of our mechanical age because we dare not quit for safety's sake. (Copyright. 1925.) The Story the Week Has Told must have official information that the troops have so withdrawn, that all hostilities have ceased, and that ade. quate measures have been taken to prevent resumption thereof.” The Bulgarian government has vig- orously asserted that there has been no Bulgarian invasion of Greek soil— an interesting point. The council's directions were com- plied with. 1t is understood that the council has resolved on realization in the near future of that project of a Balkan security pact which Greece has for some time been advocating. Should it turn out that the aggressor in the episnde now b way of liquidation, it would be jus: another instance of man's- invincible inconsistency and “orneriness.” Thi general Balkan situation, of (‘oursj: cries out for such-a pact. * % % * China.—The Conference of Chinese Customs opened on Monday in the Winter Palace of the Forbidden city Outside the palace inclosure 2,000 students rioted, demanding entrance. This refused, they fell on the police, and in the mix-up one policeman was killed and a good many police and students were badly hurt, the police finally prevalling. 2 Marshall Tuan Chi Jui, provincial chief executive of China, opened the conference. In the replies by repre. sentatives of the treaty powers the word “generosity” (Le) to China was of frequent occurrence. The Chinese, though the most humorous, are the most courteous people in the world, None of the Chinamen present cracked a smi Mr. 'C. T. Wang, the very dis- tinguished jurist, one time premier of China, presented certain proposals contemplating in chief complete Chinese tariff autonomy, commencing January 1, 1929; in the interval a substantial increase of the existing tariff rates. * %k Xk *k United States of America.—On Mon- day Lieut. James H. Doolittle of the United States Army won the Schneider cup race for seaplanes at the un- precedented average speed for the 217-mile course of 2321, miles per hour, more than 55 miles faster than the best previous record in the event. Capt. Broad, the only English com- petitor, was second, and an Italian third. ‘It is a great pity the “English mystery” craft, the “super-marine Napler,” was smashed to bits in the gale of last week. She should have furnished a glorlous race. Lieut. Doolittle handled his craft with superb address. 157 Italian Papers Published in U. S. One hundred and fifty-seven daily and perlodical publications in the Italian language flourish in the United States of America out of 280 in the world outside of Italy, according to statistics published by the Italian de- partment of emigration. In the United States there are nine Italian newspapers, of which three in New York City have a total circulation of 240,000. Itallan dailles are published in Philadelphia, San_Francisco, Chi- cago, Boston and Providence. In South America there are 16 Italian daily newspapers, some of which have circulations as high as 20,000. The oldest Italian newspaper outside of Italy is Messagero Egiziano of Alex- andria, now nearly 50 years old. Tunis has an Itallan daily and various Ital- ian periodicals. Private schools of Britain are filled to capacity and application to enter some must-be several years in r reece was | U. S. NEWS Saves Depariments BY BEN McKELWAY. HITHER," asked the Old Editor as he dipped his shears into the paste- pot and paused for em- phasis, “are we head- ing?” Recelving no answer, but encourag- ed by the question in the eyes of his listeners, he stirred the paste care- fully with his shears, withdrew the shears and cleaned them on his trou- sers, locked both paste and shears into the drawer of his desk and proceeded. ““We are headed,” he said slowly, scraping the paste from his trousers with a wad of copy paper, “for the dogs. Not exactly the dogs, either, for there is nothing wrong in a good dog. But each day seems to bring us nearer to what evidently is the ulti- mate goal of the Government depart- | ments in this city. Now there was a time, and I can remember it distinctly, when folks used to talk about a Gov- ernment of the people, by the people and for the people. Such a statement today, as you well know, is generally regarded as sort of an heirloom, hand- ed down from generation to genera- tion and cherished for its sentimental value. But it is to be doubted seri- ously if it has any more intrinsic value than the average run of helr- looms, such as the brass buttons that grandfather wore when he was town constable, the lock of hair presented to Aunt Jane by her first beau and the rusty saber found by Uncle Obe- diah after the Battle of Gettysburg. The Hand-Out Is King. “The reason for this is that the Government of the people, by the peo- ple and for the people has been sup- planted by a Govenment of the hand- [13 out. ~Everybody, of course, Knows what a hand-out fs. A hand-out is what we newspaper people call any annowicement to the press, and in the case at hand, any announcement to the press from any Government department. When the Department of Agriculture, for instance, finds out that a farmer down in South Georgia volunteered to have his cattle dip- ped to rid them of ticks, it gets out a hand-out on the subject. If the Interior Department discovers that a farmer out West did not 5o into bank- |ruptey, although owning a_farm on Government reclaimed land, it pro- | duces a hand-out. If the Navy Depar {ment, well, I don’t believe the Navy | Department is getting out man rd-outs these days, but vou under- nd what I mean when I refer to d-out | W there S0 is mnothing radically | wrong with the handout as such It has its proper place, and has had for ye: 1 read the other day where Isome explorers came across a lot of hie phics in the tomb of some ancient mummy. I imagine the mum my was a government press agent, and the hieroglyphics, on tab. lets of stone, were his collection of | hand-outs. I can imagine that when the Pharaoh reached his decision about allowing the children of Israel to im- migrate, his secretary told the wait- ing newspaper men that Pharaoh would | soon get out a hand-out on that Moses controversy, and fter couriers had| been dispatched to the city editors notifying them of this fact the report ers gathered around and plaved stud | poker until the man with the chisel | through the hand-out. h a| hand-out is necessary, for on any big issue the newspapers want to have the | hand-outs to protect themselves against the charges that they mis-| quoted somebody. But there are lim- its to evervthing, and the hand-out is no exception. Hand-Out or Nothing. “It has got to be so these days when you go to a Government departmer for information to base a story on,| that if there isn't any hand-out on file, there's no information. | “Time was, and I can remember it, | when I wanted to get a_story I'd go | to the man in charge of the work I was interested’in and I'd sit down and mavbe give him a cizar, or more likely he'd give me one, and we'c matter over and I'd get my f hand. He didn't care particu what T wrote, and n i body else in the Government, because {the freedom of the pr was being talked about a lot those days and all facts gathered by the Government were open to the public, so long as they weren't diplomatic or military secrets which if printed were aimed to get us in war. “But today you go into a Govern. ment department and you say you want to find out something about such and such. They refer you to the press agent of the department, and he goes through his files to see whether he has prepared a hard-out on the sub- ject. Chances are he has, and he'll {load vou up with so many hand-outs that you'll have to call the circulation | department of your paper and ask them will they loan you a truck or something to get back to the office in. Again, the press agent may have ovel looked the story you are interested in, | and in that case there's a_world of trouble. You are referred to Mr. Spikum, who tries to refer you back to the press agent, with the assurance that he can tell you what you want to know. They're Stern, Silent Men. “After you explain to him that the press agent overlooked the story you are after, same being the reason why You are after it, Mr. Spikum says that maybe Mr. Doodle would have the facts, and you go through the same rigamarole with Mr. Doodle that you went through with Mr. Spikum. Mr. Spikum may refer you to Mr. Bump, who will refer you to the press agent, Mr. Spikum and Mr. Doodle. None of them evinces a willingness to talk, figuring that if the department want- ed to let the public in on that matter it would have got out a hand-out. In the end you either are prevented from committing suicide by a messenger who seizes the gun out of your hand, or else you'll run across a Govern- ment employe who will shut the door, bolt the windows, pull down the shades, send the stenographer on an errand to the Capitol and then whisper, ‘What was it you wanted? If he can swear you to secrecy he may tell, and again he may not. “There are, of course, evident evils in this system. In the first place I fear for the majority of newspaper men who are assigned regularly to re- port the activities of the Government departments. I do not fear for them so much as for their children, for I am afrald that thelr children will be born without feet, but with greatly enlarged hands inherited from their fathers, who have acquired this trait through sitting on a chair all day long and reaching for hand-outs. Another Pedestrian Goes. “The whole attitude of the news- paper men has changed since my day and time. I can distinctly remember some newspaper reporters who would walk the length of a corridor several times in order to run down a story. In those days a reporter with good, strong feet was valued above one with extraordinarily heavy brain “But today it is all different. It's not the reporters’ fault. They have, upon first being assigned to a Govern: ment department, a certain ambition | the matter can ve out, by the hand-out and fothe hand- | k | department | making of matches | American trust proposes to buf P ‘HAND-OUT SYSTEM GIVES CENSORSHIP Lots of Embarrass- ment, and Reporters’ Feet No Longer Go Flat, But Has Its Evils, Too. partment is to walt for the hand.out, and T am told that a palr of shoes will last such men for vears. “‘Another evil of this system s that our Government {s gradually coming to assume a sort of censorship over the press which allows It to feed the ought to read, and carefully forget some other news which would ting some other news which would be quite as interesting, but maybe not so flattering. A good many of the Government departments now have strict orders against allowing any of their employes to talk to newspaper- men. There are two sides to this matter, of course. One is that it is close to a necessity that some type of muzzle should be placed upon the talkative Toms, Dicks and Harrys one is llable to find in any Government department. If everybody who thought he had something to say about ri ning the Government was allowed to tell it to the newspapers, there s no safe prediction of what Washington would be like inside of a week or ter days. Everybody in Congress, for in stance, would be on an investigatir committee. Hides Many Blunders. “On the other hand, there are a lot of heads of bureaus and divisions who know what they are talking about and when to talk about it, and tk is danger of getting them o scared up that they won't say anyvthing except with the Secretary’s permission—and then only to the department’s agent. This makes it so that when the department rmak & blunder as you would say it, ‘pulls a b v v be hu. vthing about are powerless everybody with ledge to talk is too scared open his mouth. So unless a ha s through on the subject ther up by not say! and the newspaper: ry it out be 15 | not much to do except sit around and hope Why, T can remember when T was covering a department as a bc porter I used to have a lot of who'd tip me off to what on. There weren't ment depart nts in those days and we used to try to get a scoop on an nnual report. An report wa ) or 30 years ago. Teda other hand-out for a re¢ Time rewrite and paste up. I was saying, whemr I use > 2 Jot of friends in a Governr 1 one day copy There porter t was, hav one of them slipped me annual r lease date’ in t printed what you got w Wel, m nual wouldn't te and made me it without the So 1 got it an tary’s office can I use ahead and u Now It's Come to This. “So I ran back to the offi printed six columns on it a else had a raise in sal York papers city editor say w annual repc p and you t s, and you ce and ng all the j and constitutes, ny mir the grave dange that I some Congress; n 1s going to wa investigate these And it is sp man to s weather th public man, get out a ‘Wouldn't su the Police I practice or a m telephone his city nderstands th on in town sor itll be , police can Swedish Match Trust Will Invade Orient Sweden's match trust, supported b American capital and by a n ber of American factories, is about to invade the Oriental market, hitherto dom nated by the Japanese match trus The Swedish trust has just procured a state monopoly of matches in Po- land. It is to pay the Polish govern- ment a fixed sum every year and a percentage of the profits, and is to recetve in addition a loan of $6,000,000 at 7 per cent. The trust receives the ght to build match factories for ex port trade and a concession of the r cently discovered Pc h potash bed: The potash will be used partly in the 1 partly for ex- Matches exported wiil go chiefly Asgia and Oceania. The edish fac- torles in Indla and gradually to ah sorb the Hindu market. Its activities are spreading in China, where the Japanese match producers have hith erto been supreme. and it has just bought three factories in Japan. port. to Artificial Cotton And Wool in Turin In Turin is offered for sale for the first time the new i al wool a cotton made by a process analogous to that which produces artificial silk in abundant quantities. The invention is the work of Italian experimenters, and Ttalian firms are ready to commercial- ize it as soon as its practicality has been proved. Apparently the fir sults are not wholly satisfacto: researches are continuing in the Rossi textile works and other factories. Should they prove successful, the re- sult might be a profound alteration in the currents of world trade. Most of the raw materials of the new in- vention can be obtained in Italy, which may thus become largely in- dependent of American and Egyptian cotton producers and of the English shepherd. 1,845,000 in Moscow. Moscow’s population as of June 1 1925, is officially announced as 1,845, 000." These are police figures and should be falrly accurate, as the regis- tration is thorough. The increase du: ing the year was 90,000, of which 25,000 was the excess of births over deaths. The death rate in 1925 was 155 per 1,000, compared with 14 in 1924, Births were 30 per 1,000, com- pared with 32 before the war. Mar- riages were 15 per 1,000, compared with 6 before the war—possibly because of the facility and low cost of civil weddings. On July 1, state, co-opera- tive and other public organizations had 257.000 employes, and private or- ganizations 75,000. Workmen in the city numbered 150,000, compared with 2,000 in 1921. which leads them to run wildly about the halls and up and down the steps in pursuit of news. But in time they get like the rest and discover that the best way to cover a Government de- -— California has the highest minimuri wage law for woman workers of any - State in the Union, o 5 =