Evening Star Newspaper, December 13, 1925, Page 59

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, DECEMBER 13, 1925—PART 2. 3 % Sees Hand of the Soviet in America MATERNITY LAW BENEFIT - | ge. IS EVIDENT IN RESULTS From Great Mass of Advice on Child- Raising Scientific Counsel Stands Out as Best. BY BEN McKELWAY. SPITE the radio, cross-word puzzle 24-25 and the rise and full of mah-jongg as a refuge for bored bridge players, the baby undoubtedly retains its lenged supremacy among pres- ent-day American favorites. The baby’s popularity can be at- tributed to one or both of two out- standing characteristies—@) it is al- ways new, and (b) it provides an un- dying source of conversation, gossip | and advice from near and distant rela- | tives on how to raise it These facts lend interest, though small at present, to the eventual re- consideration by Congress of the Shep- pard-Towner maternity law P ed as an experiment in 1921 to run for five years, Congre: mus decide whether to continue or ¢ ontinue the Federal appropriations which go to tates in spreading scientific information concerning maternity and the proper care of children. Advice Freest of All Now of all things which may be ob tained free in the United States of America, advice on maternity and the raising of children is accounted by ex pert accountants to be the frees Some statisticians maintain with con siderable heat that the supply of com pressed air obtained at service sta- tions ranks high a costless com. modity. But others reply coldly that the hot air available in all quarters concerning children and their proper care surpasses the compressed air by a generously fat margin. It is difficult, therefore, for some ob. servers to understand why the Federal Government should appropriate good money for spreading such information when all the prospective mother or the young mother has to do to ect 1t without special appropriation is to call up Aunt Eliza on the telephone and ask a pertinent question or stand on the back porch and hear Mrs O'Flaherty talk about the scandalous way Mrs. Cohen is raising little Able. The answer to this question, of course, is that many mothers survive the advice that Aunt Eliza gives over the telephone, and many of them raise their children despite the theories of Mrs. O'Flaherty, but that the num- ber is far too small compared to what it should be. There is a great deal of difference between scientific advice on motherhood and the care of chil dren, and that which is passed back and forth over the back fence. And preponderating evidence favors the former over the latter. the great panic of famil; Divided Into Groups. But this is not the easiest ment proponents of the law vance for its continuance be opposition to further tions, and it pretuy from what guarters it will come. ance: The United States is divided into three separate sroups— those who mount soap boxes, fire- plugs or discarded ash cans and de- mand to know what business the Fed- eral Government has to tell the States what they should or should not do: those who mount soap boxes, fireplugs or discarded ash cans and demand to know why the Federal Government does not do more for the States; and, ally, those who are sometimes de-. scribed as ox-eyed, and who listen with open mouths to both classes of orators argu- ust ad- There will appropria- well known ernment. Acceptance by the State is voluntary. Those accepting the plan receive $5,000 outright, and $5,000 ad- ditonal if they match this amount with an appropriation of their own and the rest of the money is appor- tioned on a population basis. The States are left to plan their own in- fancy and maternal programs and to carry them out through. State bu- reaus of child health, co-operating with the Federal agency, which act solely in an advisory capacity. Fort; three States and Hawaii have thought enough of the plan to accept i Thirty-three of the States have in- creased their appropriations for the work and are showing greater interest in maternity and infancy work since the passage of the law. Statistics Convincing. Statistics concerning the number of conferences held, the number of babies examined, the number of mothers ad- vised, the infant welfare stations es- tablished, etc., are available, but will not be cited here. Suffice it to say they are convincing as far as the scope of the work is concerned. They show that so far the work has been chiefly educational, in an effort to help ail women appreciate the importance of right methods in pre-natal and infant care. The central office in Washing- ton has acted as an advisory counsel and at the request of the States has issued many pamphlets and bulletins the result of medical research—on the care of mothers and babies and on methods of ~ work which have proved successful in other States. The program for the future is a broad one, but friends of the legisla- tion feel that much can be accom- plished if the act is extended. The program includes continued education to develop public appreciation of the value of pre-natal confinement and in- fant care; the establishment of per- manent conferences for pre-natal, post-natal, infant and pre-school con- sultations: extension of the work into areas where no work along such lines has been done, establishment and maintenance of publ health nursing services and the provision of hospitals for complicated cases and the im- proved training in medical schools for obstetrics and pediatrics. Tt is believed that some of the sus- picion with which the medical profes- sion regarded the law has been al- ieviated through the practice, followed throughout its administration, of ad- vising mothers to put themselves un- der the care of their family physicians and to go to family physicians for ad- vice concerning defects in their chil- dren discovered through examination. No attempt has been made to infringe upon the practice of private phys cians. Their co-operation, as a matter of fact, has been found necessary for the successful administration of the law. Law Constitutional. The bugaboo of infringement on State rights through this law has been rather definitely settled in the courts, for two cases reached the United States Supreme Court as_tests of its constitutionality. Massachusetts, one of the five States which has never ac- cepted the benefits of the act—al- though she has accepted the benefits of Federal aid in 22 others—brought 1 suit to the United States Supreme Court which was_dismissed for want of jurisdiction. The court's opinion at the time summed up the matter as follows: and go home wondering what they are talking about and don't do any- thing to find out. That school of thought which be- comes alarmed whenever the Federal Government makes the slightest ges. ture toward infringing States' rights is prepared to allege that the Shep- pard-Towner law abdridges the free- dom of the ites as guaranteed un- der the Constitution. Others, violent in their opposition, will solemnly proclaim in voices which shake with emotion, that the law is a move toward the nationalization of children; that it smacks of the Soviet and makes of the child a creature of the State instead of blessing to the home. Have Gone Without Still_others will oppose the sion of the law on the ground their mothers, grandmothe: grandmothers and great-great-grand- mothers had from 10 to 15 children regularly during their lives, and that none of them received any advice from the State or the Federal Government on how to do it. There are other op- posers who belong to that large group sometimes known as “aginners” and who are emphatical ‘agin’ eve; thing and anything for the sake of tradition alone. The attitude of the medical profes- sion as a whole is not definitely known at present. When the original meas- ure was last being considered the n Medical Association passed lution opposing it, but no op- position has since been voiced, and those who favor the legislation agree among themselves, least, th the medical profession has little ground for complaint over the manner in which the law has been administered. None of the opposition is very alarm- ing to those who hope to see the Sheppard-Towner law extended. They have three vears' of accomplishment to look back upon, and they believe the three vears has allowed them to establish 2 good foundation upon which to build 2 solid and permanent system designed to save more mothers and to make of their children stronger and better citizens. These proponents have an una able argument in the need fo agency to accomplish what the Shep- pard-Towner legislution secks to complish, whether it be the present Jaw or some other. Chile now has "he highest maternity death rate in the world. The United States stands next to Chile. The infant mortality Bate in the United States is lower, mpared to some other countries, but t still ranks higher than Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the Irish Free State. Marked Decrease in There was a marked ¢ infant mortality during the first two vears of administration of the Shep- pard-Towner law, although its friends are careful not to attribute this de- crease positively to the workings of the act. But statistics ar most favorable. For instance, the rate of still births among mothers who were supervised through the Sheppard Towner law has been less than half that of other mothers in the same communities who wer not, for one reason of another, giv the benef] of the advice and guidance provides under the W The ne thing has been true of the death rate of babies under one month old. Mothers.who were given the pre-natal care by State nurses and doctors under the act lost only half as many babies as those who failed to receive such care. In forthcoming report of the Children’s Bureau it will be shown that a high percentage of losses among infants and mothe is due directly to pre-! ventable Advice. exten- that great- Death. n .\ The law is designed to prevent | these causes as far as possible, and | short resume of the way it works is interesting. Iive miliion dollars w appropriated for administering the law, $50.000 a vear of which goes to| the’ Children’s Bureau of the Labor Department for the actual work of administration. The remainder is available in yearly installments of $1,000,000 each for use by the States in co-operation with the Federal Gov- “Reduced to its simplest terms, it is alleged that the statute constitutes an attempt to legislate outside the powers granted to Congress by the Constitu- tion and within the field of local powers exclusively reserved to the States. “But what burden is imposed upon the States? Certainly there is none unless it be the burden of taxation, and that falls upon the inhabitants who are within the taxing powers of Congress as well s that of the States where they reside. Nor does the statute require the States to do or to vield anything. “In the last analysis the complaint of the plaintiff State is brought to the naked contention that Congress has usurped the reserve powers of the several States by the mere enactment of the statute, though nothing has Leen done and nothing is to be done without their consent.” Two cents per capita is the esti- mated expense of carrylng on the work. And many people are extrava- gant enough to believe that saving mothers and babies is as important as ridding cows of ticks. London Press, Too, Has Daily Funny “Colyum” Although the newspaper “colyum® distinctively American, English newspapers have famous columns also. “A Londoner’s Diary” in the Evening Standard s the best known, although *M ossip” in_the Graphic and the “Diary of a Man About Town" in the Daily News run it close. These columns specialize in a sort of peptonized editorial com- ment rather than in wit and in social and political gossip rather than in hu- morous verse, but they make lively reading for the English. The famous ‘agony column” on the front page of the T is of a different nature, consisting exclusively of personal ad- vertisements inserted at a good price per line. But the “agony column” is delightful reading and is as tradi- tional a part of the Times as are its thundering editorials. “Gentleman, aged 30, wishes to make acguaintance of good-looking young lady who has lost a leg: genuine. Write,” reads one agony column” item. “Wanted—Half a dozen lively black beetles or cock- roaches for slow moving-picture film. Please communicate,” reads another. But the “agony column” is more fa- mous for strictly serious matters. Little Cheating Gi;res Sultan His Winnings Mulai Hafid, former Sultan of Morocco, is a born gambler. While he was still Sultan the French resident general in Morocco gave a party in his honor and, knowing the monarch's passion for gambling, organized a bac- carat game. While Mulai Hafid was winning, a British newspaper man named Loris, who was losing, sai You do wrong to take that mone: It's against the teachings of the Koran.” This so worried the Sultan that he was on the point of giving back his cinnings when he saw nearby the French chief justice, a recognized au- thority on Mussulman law. “Tell me, said the Sultan, “whether it s against !the Koran to take this money.” The justice remained silent a moment be- fore replying. “Your majesty, if you raight game, you can- not touch this money because it is mere hazard that made you win, and it is forbidden by the Koran to take vantage of hazard. “But if you—how shall I sa forced your luck—I mean, cheated a little—you may put the money in your pocket because you won it by vour skill and_ cleverness.” The Sultan smiled. “Thou art the greatest and most learned judge I have ever met,” and he pocketed the money, And in Near and Far Eastern Affairs BY WILLIS J. BALLINGER. USSIA is still a snake-nest of plot and intrigue for world revolution. It is still a land of Violence and terror. Subversive propa. ganda from Moscow is no myth. There are in the United States today a grow- ing body of Communists who are re- ceiving direct ald from the Soviet gov- ernment. There is a communistic men- ace in our country.” Senator W. H. King of Utah thus responded to my query. “Is revolutionary communism still busy and the Soviet government still busy in this country?" Ever since Sakatavala and Countess Karolyl had been refused admission into the United States and the liberal and radical press had sounded clarion | blasts of protest, I had been interested in probing the actuality of the so-called “Red scare” here. Has Traveled in Russia. 1 turned to Senator King for several reasons. In the first place, the Utah Senator has been constantly traveling in Russia for the last two or three years with the adjournment of each Congress. In one trip alone he trav- eled over 8,000 miles in Russia, pene- trating into the rural and Cossack reglons, surveying carefully the Indus- trial conditions in the nation, meeting and talking Intimately with all the highest czars of bolshevism, ascertain- ing the viewpoints of all types and classes of people, investigating for himself the tales of gruesome murder and assassination that have likened | Russia unto the “dark and bloody ground.” He knows actual conditions in Russia better than any other Amer- ican in public life. In the second place, I wanted Sen. ator King to talk about Russia be- cause I felt that he would be fair in what he said. The one outstanding characteristic of the Senator is his un- faillng sympathy for the under-dog. Let it be Haltians coerced by Ameri- can bayonets, a single Filipino not get- ting_a square deal in the faraway Pacific or the Red man filched by the brazen turpitude of his official guard- fans, and Senator King rises in the Senate to espouse their cause. Growing Propaganda Costs. Senator King, I continued, in 1924 1925 the Soviet government appropri ated 260,000,000 gold rubles for prop aganda work in the Balkans. In 1925- 1926 the amount allottetd leaped to 455,000,000 gold rubles. In 19241925 Soviet ‘appropriation for propaganda work In China and the Far East was 112,000,000 gold rubles. In 1925-1926 this sum was increased to 587,000,000 | gold rubles. Do these figures sustain | the charges that Soviet officials are promoting world revolutions” A. In the days of the Czar vearly appropriation for the Rus Church, which undertook great chari- | table and educational work was only | 100,000,000 rubles. The intensity of | Soviet determination to spread their subversive doctrines is graphically il- lustrated in a comparison of this fig- ure with propaganda appropriations. One has to understand the situation in Russia before the strength and po- tency of bolshevist propaganda can be understood. Russfa is today a politi- cal despotism with 500,000 militantly aggressive Communists occupying key positions ruthlessly controlling 140,- 000,000. Ruled By Inner Circle. This 500,000 select seven als who, as an executive body, are the last word in _authority and absolutism | East. Supported by a powerful espionage field force called the Cheka, autocracy is efficiently entrenched. And the mis- sfon of communistic autocracy is not only to keep itself securely in power at home, but to extend the periphery of its dominion to include the Near and the Far East and eventually the whole world. The other pillar of Soviet ‘admin- istration is the Third Internationale. This is an avowed propaganda organ- tzation. Its purpose is to spread com- munism everywhere by fair means or foul on the theory that the end justi- fies the means. It has a fine bullding in Moscow. The Third Internationale is supported by the Soviet govern- ment. The Internationale is the prop- aganda bureau of the Soviet govern- ment. In its council chambers are planned the moves of revolutionary communism. Its efficiency is insured by the maintenance at public expense of political schools in which the tech- nique of propaganda is taught and young men and women from all coun- tries are steeped in the idea that they must go forth as holy crusaders stimu lating industrial dislocation, strik sabotage, discontent that will flower into proletarian revolutions. Russia Means Busi Russia today means bu agents are afoot in the Far and Near Ammunition, T am told, is be- ing shipped to Chinese factions. Pic- tures of automobiles transporting this material have heens taken. In India Soviet agents are skillfully playing upon the superstitions of the people. One day funds and men are furnished Mustapha Kemal to fight for Con- stantinople, the next, strikes break out in heretofore contented factories Into the backward countries of the world her revolutionary supporters are being methodically converted, drilled and armed at her expense. At home the Cheka adds daily to its consclence- less record of execution and murder. The idea of terror is impressed more and more. Free speech Is a farce. Right of peaceful assembly known. Death awaits the critic ness. rer who is not | 'the United States. WORLD PEACE The two danger spots against the peace of the world today are the Balkans and China. x What is causing the trouble there? The causes are doubtless numerous. But can a guess be made as to the force which is stirring up the trouble and bringing it to a head? A list of the budget of the Soviet government for foreign revolutionary propaganda has just been received in t coun- try. In that list the sums ex- pended in every country are given. The sums are about the same for this year as last year —everywhere but in two places: In China and the Balkans. Russia spent 260,000,000 gold rubles for revolutionary propa- ganda_in the Balkans in 1924. In 1925 she is spending 455,000, 000 gold rubles. She spent 112000000 gold rubles in China in 1924. This year she is spending over five times as much there. What does this mean? Sena- tor King in the accompanying interview discusses this matter. Hfts a hand in protest. Law and court justice are a mockery of human experience. All is for the welfare of 500,000 Communists who obediently and unquestionably carry out star- chamber orders. The Red Trail. Q. When a few months ago a bomb exploded in the cathedral at Sofia and killed many people the charge that Communists were plotting in Bulgaria was derided by certain papers. When a Soviet plot against the life of Presi- dent Masaryk of Czechoslovakia was uncovered this, too, was denounced as preposterous. From your personal ob- servation and travel in the Balkans do you believe that communism i3 re- sponsible for any of this terror? A. I have no doubt that the plots revealed in Bulgaria and other Balkan States were hatched in Moscow. Even in England the direct connection be- tween English labor and Moscow was shown when the editor of the Herald, a labor paper, admitted having re. celved thousands of pounds from Red agents. The fallure of Rosa Luxem- burg in Germany and of Bela Kun in Hungary has not dampened the hopes of Moscow {n the slightest. And the senselessness of the whole thing lies in the fact that the system which they want adopted in other countries is a flat failure at home. Economi- ally Russia under bolshevism is a cuum, politically a despotism, relig- fously a hatchery of atheism. There is not much to tempt the thoughtful. Q. Are the Soviels operating in America today? A. There are many in our midst today who are actively in touch with the Soviet government and who are receiving financlal aid from that source. In consideration of that aid they are preaching violence and bay- onet uprisings against the bourgeoisie. While in Russia last I saw Americans attending the Soviet schools to master the technique of sclentific propaganda. The Soviet government is fostering every opportunity of penetration Into Q. Is this propaganda proving ef- fective anywhere? A. Yes, particularly in our colleges and institutions of education. There are many teachers today who are en- gaged In teaching false and dangerous doctrines to the youth of America. In China the bolshevist movement draws 1ts strength almost entirely from young China . . . from young men and women who have not had any appre- clable experience with business or with human nature. The teachers in our schools who are teaching Communism elther consclously or unconsciously are Invariably men who have had no ex- perfence with life or business beyond an academic perusal of books and treaties. The successful soclal re- former must first know a good deal about human nature and the way the present system works in detail from some practical experience. Any one who knows human nature from a practical standpoint knows instinc- tively the futility of Communism as a permanent scheme for a social order. I feel that the parlor bolshevik! in our schools should be exposed. Grounds for Apprehension. Q. Do you consider the Communist movement in America so insignificant that we need not be apprehensive about it? A. No, I don't. Iam not in favor of relaxing the immigration laws one bit to let in any more Communists While the Communists are numerically small_at present they are growing. The preaching of the revolutionary overthrow of government should be combated. Preachment of violence encourages individual assassinations The assassin who murdered McKinley admitted that his mind had been in- flamed by the flery utterances of Emma Goldman. We haven't such a high level of intelligence in America that we can trust to a_pernicious and unsound philosophy defeating itself by falling deafly on intelligent ears. A few germs in a body do no harm. But when they multiply up to a certain point serious disease results. Why walt for the multiplication? A New Problem. Q. Has viclent radicalism been a recent or long standing problem in the United States? A. The present Communist menace in our country is wholly a recent de- velopment. Its inception was the bol- shevist coup d'etat in Russia in 1917. From then on, world-wide overthrow of existing governments, including-par- ticularly our cwn, was aimed at. From time to time we have had outbreaks of violence in America, such as the Haymarket riot and the reign of the Molly McGuires in Pennsylvania. But prior to the Soviet advent into power we had no organized movement for the violent overthrow of established gov- ernment in this country. The Social ist party, while advocating doctrines not shared by any appreciable part of the American people, never identified itself with any program of violent revolution. Of course under the ban- ners of socialism stalked wild elements who were natural anarchists. But the problem that we are facing today and which we will have to face in the fu- ture owes its existence to the capture of the Russian nation by the bolshe- vists and the ald and succor that ha: come from Russfa to recrult and or. ganize on international Communist party which shall work actively for the day when the tocsin of violent revolution will sound its sinister ap- peal with success fn every country of the civilized worid. (Copyright. 1025.) The Story the Week Has Told BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is a brief sum- mary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended December 13- * Kk % United States of America.—The Sixty-ninth Congress began its career at noon December 7. The President’s annual message was read to the two houses on December Its chief declarations and recom- mendations may be summarized as follows: 3 1. Congress is advised to exercise constraint upon its zeal for remedial legislation and not to invade the proper flelds of the States and smaller political subdivisions “It does not follow that because abuses exist it is the concern of the Federal Government to attempt their reform. The area within which the Federal authority can successfully function is very limited.” 2. The present policy of proceeding with reasonable rapidity to retire the Federal debt is commended. The Bu- reau of the Budget and the office of the controller general are functioning admirably in restraining appropria- tions and_expenditures. Government post-war deflation is nearly completed. 3. The ways and means committee of the House is praised for its gnon- partisan revenue bill just submitted; except for one or two minor details this bill Is entirely satisfactory to the President. 4. The new immigration act has proved, on the whole, successful in its operation. Perhaps some amendment may be found desirable so as to add to the categories of relatives admitted outside the quotas, and some tighten- ing legislation to prevent violation of the immigration restrictions, as by way of registration of all aliens, may be found necessary. 5. The Muscle Shoals problem should be “liquidated” without further delay. Says the President, very acutely: “If anything were needed to demonstrate the almost utter incapacity of the Na- tional Government to deal directly with an industrial and commercial problem, it has been provided by our experience with this property. We have expended vast sums, we have taxed everybody, but we are unable to secure results which benefit any- body. This property ought to be trans- ferred to private management under conditions which will dedicate it to the public purposes (defensive, agri- cultural and industrial) for Which it was conceived. (The chief purpose is the production of nitrates, an incidental purpose the production and distribution of power.) 6. The Federal reclamation policy should be overhauled in the light 0(' experience, which seems to “Indicate” considersble retrenchment and cau- tion. The report of a survey provid- ed for by Congress will soon pe sub- mitted. Future action by the National Government in this connection should be strictly of a Federal character. 7. The importance of the merchant marine is duly emphasized. Salutary action on this head by Congress is to be expected. The Congress will have before it for information and guidance the report of the investigations made, at the President’s instance, by Henry G. Dalton; the report of a special com- mittee of the House, and the results of studies made under the direction of the United States Chamber of Com- merce. All the investigations enforce the conclusion that the fleet should be under the direct control of a single executive head, while the Shipping Board should exercise judicial and regulatory functions in accordance with the original conception thereof.” 8. The report of the Air Board should be “satisfactory to Congress.” (The President, I take it, means to recommend legislation to give effect to all its main recommendations.) “It is thoroughly complete and repre- sents the mature thought of the best talent of the country.” 9. A most delicate matter is most delicately glanced at in the following: “Legislation should be considered to provide for leasing the unappropriated public _domain for grazing purposes and adopting a uniform policy rela- tive to grazing on the public lands and in the national forests.” 10. “Inability to manage and con- trol our great resource of coal for the benefit of all concerned is ver) close to a national economic failure. The President recommends as follows: “Authority should be lodged tith the President and the Departments of Comerce and Labor, giving them power to deal with an emergenc They should be empowered to appoint temporary boards with authority to call for witnesses and documents, conciliate differences, encourage arbi- triation, and in case of threatened scarcity exercise control over distri- bution. Making the facts public un- der these circumstances through a statement from an authoritative source would be of great public bene fit. The report of the Coal Commis sion, ‘headed by Mr. Hammond,' should be brought forward, reconsider- ed and acted upon.” 11. The President seems to approach the subject of railroad consolidations very gingerly, and studiously to avoid the adjective “compulsory.” “I rec- ommend,"” vs he, “that the Congress authorize such consolidations under :he supervision of the Interstate Com- merce Commission, with power to ap- prove or disapprove,” concerning ex- clusions or additions. 12. Concerning agriculaural the President expresses himself very briefly. His views in this connection were fully expressed in his address on Monday to the Farm Bureau Confed- eration at Chicago. A bill embodying his program (whereof the chief item is promotion of co-operative market- ing) will soon be introduced in Con- gress. 13. Adhesion of our Government to the protocol establishing the Court of International Justice, with the reserva- tions contrived by Mr. Hughes to keep un clear of league taint, is once more urged. 14. Except for his observations on the World Court, the President has not much to say concerning our for- eign relations. The question of land disarmament is, he “observes, peculi- arly European. When (or if) it has been satisfactorily settled (with our “approbation and encouragement,” but the President seems to intimate, entirely without our direct participa- tion) “we may more easily consider further reduction and limitation of naval armaments. For that purpose our country has constantly, through its executive and through repeated acts of Congress, indicated its willing- ness to call such a conference. Under congressional sanction it would seem to be wise to participate in any con- ference of the great powers for limi- tation of naval armaments proposed upon such conditions that it would hold a fair promise of being effective. The general policy of our country b= for disarmament and it ought not to hesitate to adopt any practical plan that might reasonably be expected to succeed. But it would not care to at- tend a conference which, from its lo- cation or constitution, would in all probability prove futile.” The precise drift of the above is not guite clear. The -ax revision bill introduced in the House on Monday contemplates for the calendar year 1925 a total tax- reductlon of $325,736,000, . relief ‘The features of greatest gemeral in- terest are as follows: Personal exemptions—$1,500 for a single man and $3,600 for the head of a family, as against $1,000 and $2,600 respectively under present law. Normal taxes—One and one-half per cent on the first $4,000 of taxable in- come, 3 per cent on the mnext $4,000 and 5 per cent on everything above | $8,000. The present percentages are 2- 4 and 6. Earned income—-The first $5,000 of income is automatically regarded as earned, and $15,000 additional may be so proven. From the tax due on earned income a deduction of 25 per cent is allowed. Surtaxes—New rates, commencing with 1 per cent on incomes from $10,000 to $14,000 and mounting to 20 per cent on incomes above $100,000. The present maximum is 46 per cent on incomes above $400,000. Estate taxes—A tremendous slash (see text of bill). Exclse taxes—The nuisance taxes al- most eliminated. Many other elimina- tions, and many heavy cuts. Amusement taxes—The tax on tick- ets to “legitimates” repealed, the other taxes retained. Income tax publicity—Abolished. The Presldent’s annual budget mes- sage, embodying the budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927, went to Congress on Wednesday. Total re- ceipts are estimated at approximately $3,824,222,000; showing a surplus of approximately $330,308,000, as against approximately $250,000,000 for the fis- cal year 1925, and $262,000,000 (esti- mated) for the fiscal year 1926. * ok k% The British Emplre. — Rudyard Kipling, down with bronchial pneu- monia, is doing fairly well. This is fifteenth day. The Westminster and Ulster Parlia- ments and the Dall Eireann have ratified the agreement signed the other day in London by representatives of Great Britain, the Irish Free State and Ulster respecting the boundary between the Free State and Ulster. Ratification at London and Belfast was almost unanimous; the vote in the Dail was 71 to 20. De Valera agitated violently against ratification. * ok ok k France.—Finance Minister Loucheur has presented to the Chamber two bills, one providing for a sinking fund (to care for maturing government obligations; the other providing for additional revenue by taxation to feed the sinking fund. The dispatches are not very clear as to the details of these bills. Apparently one of them authorizes a natlonal lottery, the revenues from which should make the sinking fund operative at once. More detailed information is much to be desired. Senator Henri Berenger has been appointed French Ambassador to the United States to succeed M. Daesch- ner. The chief reason for the change is that M. Berenger is a notable finan- clal expert, a _qualification much to be desired in the French Ambassador now that the French-American debt negotiations are to be resumed. He was, next to M. Caillaux, the most prominent member of the French debt commission which the other day came and saw and did not conquer. The Greater Lebanon (Syria) has been freed of Druse insurgents. * x % % China.—The situation in and about Peking defles analysis. Apparently Feng Yu Hsiang would fain assert himself supreme, but can’t uite screw his courage to the sticking point. That confounded weather cock, Gen. Li Ching Ling, governor of the metro- politan province " of Chili, embar- rasses him. This fellow Li, an ap- pointes of Chang Two-Lin,* imagiping Chang’s star set, declared himself for Feng, then, upon reflection, he con- ceived neutrality to be the ticket, and so declared himself neutral, and now one hears that he has an understand- ing with Wu Pel Fu. Therefore the Tuchun of Honon, who is an out- and-out Feng man, has moved into Chili and threatens Li's army, the maln strength of which is at Jenkiu, southwest of Tientsin. No doubt Feng Yu Hsiang's inde- cision is to be explained by feir or uncertainty concerning Wu Pei Fu, about whose recent movements have heard nothing, except for a vague report that he was moving northward from the Yangtse region. The conference on Chinese customs moves slowly, because the Chinese representatives are preoccupied with the exciting developments outside. ‘Chang Tso Lin is done for, over- thrown by his aforetime chief lieu- tenant, and Gen. Kuo Sung Lien.” “Chang’s position is not hopeless by any means. He holds the line of the Liao River and is organizing fresh levies. The chances are at least even that he will dispose of Kuo." You take your choice of the conflicting di patches. Against the persistent reports that Chang is recelving important Japa- nese help, at least financial help, it | should be sufficient to quote the foi- lowing statement issued by the Jap- anese government: “Abiding by the letter and spirit of the Washington treaties, Japan has in recent years consistently followed the policy of ab- solute non-interference in the domes affairs of China.” Viewed from more than one angle, the Manchurian situation is exceed- ingly interesting. * ok ok ok CHILE AND PERU. The Tacna-Arica plebiscite commis- sfon has by a majority vote (the Chilean delegation opposing) approved the motion of its chalrman, Gen. Pershing, naming April 15, as the date for the plebiscité. The motion is sald to charge that “Chile has not fulfilled the requirements of a free plebiscite, has unlawfully administeréd the ter- ritory, and has refused to carry out the rulings of the commission.” The Chiiean government denies these al- legations and desires that the plebi- scite be held on February 1. It will, it is understood, appeal to the a: bitrator, President Coolidge. L \*NOTES—On December 5 the Ger- man cabinet, headed by Chancellor Lu- ther, resigned. The resignation was accepted to take effect on the instal- lation of & new cabinet. The thirty-seventh session of the Council of the League of Nations be- gan at Geneva on December 6. Its very important proceedings will call for motice later. The Mosul question continued in a phase of super-deli- cacy. Dogs in Church Parade. Owners of pedigreed dogs in London are using the famous Sunday morn- ing church parade in Hyde Park for the purpose of showing them off. For every bona fide churchgoer who strolls . through the park on Sunday morning there are scores of dog own- ers anxious to have their pets seen and. admired. Many dog fanclers motor in from remote towns merely to stroll through the park in order that the thousands of curlous may see the product of their kennels and per- haps make inquiry regaMing the ownership‘and sale price.of the dogs. r 'VAST, TRAGIC MIGRATIONS OF JEWISH PEOPLE SHOWN A gripping odyssey of hundreds of thousands of heroically enduring men, women and children, enacted in a con- tinent-wide perilous wandering in search of hope and haven, is disclosed in a report just released from the archives of the American Jewlsh joint distribution committee describing the activities of its department on refu- gees and repatriation. It reveals in its full historic sweep the polgnant physical tragedy, the grim tornado- wake of broken human life, out of which the Jews of eastern Europe, by sheer force of the will to live and the primal search for bread, are salvag- ing the spiritual structure of thel existence amid the changing social formations of new nationalities and the pressure of a new economic order. The Jjoint distribution committee was created during the war as the central disbursing agency of the great netional American Jewish relief organizations. Its overseas activites In war relief and reconstruction aid, ramifying through 42 countries, have extended through the entire 11 year since the great conflict began. Its operations have been carried through at a total cost to date of more than £60,000,000, the combined gift by voluntary * contributions of Jewish citizens of every section of the United States. The account shows the tremendous movements of people propelled from the nub of war operations in eastern Europe like great tidal inundations into the adjacent countries. It in- cludes a series of geographical charts of a significance like the geological maps which show the successive in- cursions of the ocean waters upon the earth, fixing their force for all time on the shapes of the continent These chart in terms of place and dis. tance a racial displacement of over- whelming proportions never befor graphically summed up in this way Vast Shifting of People. “The historical significance of this migratory movement,” says the re. port, which has been made public b David A. Brown, chairman of the $15 000,000 united Jewish campaign, still today not readily apparent. The world has never before seen such a vast shifting of Jewish life as has followed the events of the past 40 vears, and received such sharp re- newed impetus s a result of the war. “The care of refugees and repa. triates was a task that challenged the ski ability of every social i)-nnl} pe and America The League of Nations, the American Red . the Y. M. C. A, the Friends | were among the larger organizations operating _departments for the care of the fugitive masses. The fact that the League of Nations, representing more than' 40 countries, appointed a special comm ioner, Dr. Fridjot Nansen, for refugee and repatriate activitiés, is an indication of the gravity with which the situation was regarded, Many Lands Had Share. “Practically every European land was faced with its share of the prob- lem. To Italy, France. Belgium, Hol- land, Germany, and Danzig an arm of the wandering stream stretched out from the East, carrying with it the thousands for whom the ocean crossing meant deliverance.” The effect of this current in_its post-war phase reached to the West- ern Hemisphere in the impending mass migrations. to which the new immigration restrictions all lands rose as a defensive barrier. Con. versely, the closing of portals every- where has been an added pressure for readjustment of these people in their old homes in Europe. It is conservatively estimated that the number of Jews torn from their homes during the war and subject to repatriation in the countries from which they had fled was from 400,000 to 450,000. Of these perhaps 300,000 to 330,000 return to their homes. Army of Exiles. This army of exiles was made up of the people who during the ments of the armies evacuated from localities occupied or threatened by an enemy. a at the conclusion of hostilities found themselves in alien lands, and also the ern European Jews who had been drafted into “compulsory labor” in Germany during the war, and in the final collapse were thrown on their own resources. The refugee movement was a flight from horrors to any place that might offer physical safety and means of existence for the moment. Hounded and driven about in 2 vast never-rest- ing army of misery, when the chance of repatriation came they suffered equally in the journey back, and from the rigors and actual dangers of get- ting across the frontiers, especially where their re-ent mature, and finally reached thelr for- mer domiciles only to find themselves homeless. Those who had been evacu ated knew nothing until their re turn—sometimes after years—of the havoc wrought upon their dwellings in each advance and retreat. They found the sites of their old dwellings devastated, shell-holed and overgrown with weeds. Whole towns and vil- lages had been wiped out. Need of Assistance. When at last the turmoil of the war and the subsequent conflicts in Eastern Europe subsided, and repatri- ation efforts began under reciprocal treaties among the varlous govern- ments concerned, the conditions re- sulting from this grim_pilgrimage of peril, disorganization and suffering made plain the imperative necessity for assistance to incoming refugees and repatriates, and especially to the Jews among them. “The tasks that faced the various governments,” the report says, “‘were manifold. Housing quarters had to be provided, medical attention was urgently necessary, occupations had to be found. All this depended on a rapid return to normalcy within the countries, and this was retarded, in Poland mainly, by the fact that addi- tional hundreds of thousands of home- less and helpless individuals in tran- sit were thrown upon the shoulders of the government as a class demand ing special treatment. It is not diffi cult to understand, therefore, that the native populations were not overcor- dial to the minority elements who composed the greater part of those veturning. 3,000,000 Deported From Poland. It is officially estimated that over 3,000,000 persons had been deported from Poland into Russia, of which 200,000 were Jews, mainly from the districts of Brest-Litovsk and Vilna. Few were able to secure an economic foothold in Russia, and in all of them the natural desire to return to old scenes and occupations was strong. Before the signing of the treaty of Riga, numbers of Jews began to trickle back to their home towns in Poland, crossing the borders secretly. This backflow was abruptly stopped by the outbreak of the Russo-Polish War, and resumed its swing whehn hostilities ceased. Thousands of Jewish refugees from Poland had flocked into Galicia during 1917, after the Brest-Litovsk treaty and during the German occu pation, and again into Poland and Ru mania in 1920, fleeing before the Bol- shevist advarce into Polaxd. Most of oy { them were also prisoners of war who | v was legally pre- | Records of American Committee Reveal Magnitude of Wanderings Since Great War. these people returned homeless penniless. Because of the numbers ir volved, and the conditions of the exile and repatriation, the center the Jewlsh refu problem Poland. A number of towns in (¢ been evacuated into more v parts of Austria—about 40,000 Jew refugees at the close of the v found in Hungary—and when the Rus | sans retreated from Galicia, mun | thousands of Jewish inhabitants were forced to go with the retreating into Russfa. From Latvis and h tion had been evacuated into T Most of the fugitives from Latvia turned there at the time of the Ger- man occupation of Kurland and Li land. In Kurland there remained of the pre-war Jewish population of about 12,600. The 50,000 or more who were still in Russia when Latvia became autonomous su while the retreat of the ( and the post-war difficu rmany and Latvia, made their mediate return impossible. Fin return was made prem q by the fact that in I frer war, the old Russian laws still pre valled, so that Jews who had come thither since 1851 had no legal ri of residence, and thus people born and actually resident there hefore the war could not prove their citizenship. Shared in Relief. had sha in the ge relief pro ition com it became activities ed severel rmar s Iy Before with other war sufferers eral immediate emergenc vided by the joint distri mittee. In that year, wh ssible to differentiate definite reconstructive funct the restoration of refugees and re triates became the separate task of a speclal department on refugees and repatriation. From July, 1921, to April, 1923, a total of close to 300,000 refugees 5.000 in Poland alone were assisted by the department. concern was no longer emergency relief aime gether body and these hapless wanderers to gain a foo hold again in the normal occupations and walks of life. The scope of this ac | tivity is indicated by the fact t an average of 13,000 persons a mo were given some kind of ald by the department. i Great Wave of Misery, | - For when the pushback was | plished physically, after | vear-long wanderings ir | suit, the economic 1 | tion had been m: | fundamental political cf in the | countries to which th turned. It was thus c | surgence of the |ing a final outlet found its activities cen was the chief starting final migratory thr Fy “mighty and irresistible wave of r ery” swept forth in 1920 in its wake numerous othe ously affected, but imbt same restlessness, deje bid hope—all seekir cape from polifical oppress nomic stagnation or religious perse | tion or pogrom or | of reunion with | from whom | during the | spread in |into Poland, Rum |8 . and the E and mainly i seaports, such as Constantinople. To reaching thes latter port, emigres often chose to m: overland trek from the Pale distr through southern Russia to Tiflis thence back to Batum and the longest way across the Black Sea. By a co servative estimate, 145,000 Jewish refu gees entered these countries from 1920 to 1923. From th main estuaries further smaller curren | Hungary, Czechoslovakia | many. Another 40.000 made | arate stream moving over thes 1d soctal disloca de complete by the hanges “that the ¢ less seri d wit we: ria, k L roups ke a lon move- | | persons. | Task of Department. | | This was the { which the refugee called upon to deal. In the words of the report, its task was “to combat the absolute demoralizatton of t cial, economic and physical life ¢ charges, in the face of the disas conditions in the countries in v it worked, and the posed by mnone too ments.” Effort was getically on making work toward the return and rehal of these wanderers in their former homes, as promising a more funda mental solution than emigration, which meant simply a transfe lem to other lands. Th plished to such an extent that wit three years the refugce m been reduced to the hounds of mal peace-time emigrati T and the repatriated wanderers had restored to the level of thei neighbors, where their future perma nent rehabilitation be of the reconstruction depar the joint distribution committee. From 1921 to October, 1924, & ing to the report of a commission of survey sent to Burope under the chairmanship of Dr. Lee K. Frankel | to_review the work of the joint dis | tribution committee, approxi $1.600,000 was expended in various forms of relief und reconstructive aid to refugees and repatriates in 17 countries—Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Hun’ gary man chaos with department was centered ener count litation of the prob- Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, I Poland, R Russia and the Ukraine and In Poland alone, between July, 1 . and April, 1923, over $729,000 was spent. To carry the extensive task of reconstruction still called for in any of these countries through to its final liquidation in terms of restored human_ life—to carry to completion the interrelated tasks of continuing economic reconstruction, medico-sani- tary aid, child care and the bexin- nings made in agricultural resettle- ment, a §15,000,000 overseas chest is now “being raised in this country through the United Jowish Campalgr, under the chairmanship of David A. Brown. Anti-Semitic Resurgence. “It had been hoped, even cor believed, that the solution refugee repatriation proble ‘would be accelerated in a considerable de- gree by progress in the affected coun- tries toward a gradual social nd economic recovery,” it is declared in a recent report of the commission of survey, written by David M. Bress- ler of New York, who went as a member of this body to Eastern Eu- rope. “But by the beginning of 1924 it had become perfectly clear that the economic recovery of the central and eastern European nations was a long way from being realized. Particularly was this true of Poland, where the are more than 3,000,000 Jew To complicate the situation, there r curred a resurgence of anti-Semitic outbreaks, which took form in ganized Dboycotts again: the Jew and in a system of government taxa- tion which resulted in the almost ut- ter ruin of their economic life. dently of the