Evening Star Newspaper, August 28, 1926, Page 6

' THE EVENING STAR ___With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY. ....August 28, 19026 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Office: 1 - Bustness Offce: S1lth sy : : utiding. EBuropean Oice’ 14 Hoeent St London, Fagtand. morn- within onlr, cents ne D8 Erening Star. with the Sunday carriers edition. is delivered hy 0 _rents t:.’..,"r.’:,”‘“‘im 5000 ne . 1 chrrier at the end Of each moRtD: Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday. Daily only .. ... Sunday only . All Other States and Canada. Suliy and s : 2.00: et | Sunday.: or. S1C.00: 1 mo. onl; Ayr. 1mo. 74 Sundas“onty 120035 340001 mos Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Proes 1a exclusively entitied to the use for renublication of all news die: Patches credited 1o 1t or not otherwise cred- ted In this paper and alto the local news published herein. Al rights of publication of al dispatches herein are also reserved. Market and Public Convenience. While the ideal of a consolidated market center appeals strongly, there are considerations affecting the re- adjustment of the food-dispensing equipment of the city that are to be taken into account even more definite- ly than the desirability of a concen- tration. Accessibility is one factor of primary importance. This means ac- cessibility to the buying public as well @s to the lines of shipment. What is the buying public? Who are the patrons of a food market? Whose convenience is to be most pafticularly considered? Those questions are to be weighed before decision is made. There are two elements in the mar- ket situation. One is the wholesale trade and the other is the retall trade. The wholesale trade is of two kinds, the trade in large and in lesser quan- titles. The “farmers’ market” supplies chiefly the small retailers of the city, while the commission houses supply the larger dealers as well. There is no necessary relation between the two branches of the market. In general terms it would be well to have them associated. The indoor retail market, such as that now bordering on the Mall and that at Fifth and K streets, chiefly supplies the individual buyer. It does not depend upon a wholesale supply that should be necessarily close at hand. Its trade is that of the food shopper, who carries away his pur- chases or to whom delivery is made at his home. Such a market is ver- itably a food department store, or series of stores, where the buyer can seek the best qualities or the best prices. In locating the wholesale market, which term includes the commission houses and, perhaps, the farmers’ market as well—though that relation 1s subject to question—the first con- sideration is accessibility to the source of supply. If it can be put upon or near a rallroad line the problem of hauling for storage and display is most satisfactorily solved. But the retail market need not be close to rail or water transportation. There must in any case, with a large indoor mar- ket of this character, be some trans- shipment and hauling through the streets. The factor of the greatest impor- tance in the location of the retail in- door market is the convenience of the buying public, personified by the man, or the woman, with the basket. If such a market 18 not frequented and patronized by the basket buyers or those who expect deliveries at their homes, it fails. It does not perform any useful function. It must draw in- dividual custom. And to get that cus- tom it must be convenlently located. Neighborhood markets cannot be widely distributed, certainly not be- yond the point of today. Concentra- tion is desirable. Therefore the ques- tion of moment in the planning of the wmarket center is, Where will the greatest number be accommodated? At what point will the market be of maximum service to the people, with the least expenditure of time and car- fare and motor fuel? Advocates of the various sites for a market center are swayed by their personal interests, perhaps their realty interests. Those charged with the re- sponsibility for decision on this im- portant question should be swayed only by the consideration of the pub- lic convenience. 1t may be theoreti- cally desirable to put this entire estab- lishment as a unit in a certain place, to conform to the “city planning” ideal, but there is always to be borne in mind that a market is a necessary gactor of urban life, and that the prac- tical dafly convenience of the man, or the woman, with the market basket is’ of first importance. o Wilhelm Hohenzollern intimates a willingness to resume his old position in Germany. A reckless willingness to be “the goat” is a favorite meahs of inviting personal misfortune for the sake of a place In the spotlight. The British Strike and Politics. The British coal strike continues despite desertions from the ranks of the strikers and the appmrent hope- lessness of forcing the government to act in settlement on terms satisfactory to the miners, There is a slow drift back to work in the midlands, but the big coal fields in Wales, Durham and Yorkshire have not been affected by the movement. The miners have thus far kept the pits from flooding, But now the question of withdrawing the safety men is being discussed in Wales, and three hundred of them have been withdrawn from one of the targest collieries at Doncaster. This is the final maneuver of desperation. An effort by the union to induce the government to intervene or to renew the subsidy to the mine owners has just failed, and but for the process of attrition the deadlock is as tight as ever. This long-continued strike has caused great suffering in England and has serfously affected industry through / the depletion ot the -fuel supplyy® Enormous losses have been incurred by both the workers and the opera- tives, and also the manufact: . The political effect of the strike, however, is yet to be memsured. It is ltkely not only to intensify the class partisanship of the Laborites, but to promote a union between the Liberal and the Labor parties. The Liberal Labor weekly, the Statesman, now formally accuses the government of openly de- claring a class war. It suggests that the Laborites and the Liberals will now be forced by circumstances to unite in an effort to compel the gov- ernment soon to appeal to the country in a general election. As long as the coal strike continues economic conditions are unstabilized. The government is in difficulties. It cannot indefinitely continue in office on the mandate of the latest election, but must uitimately, perhaps soon, ask for a new commission. At the next session of Parllam-nt the issue will 5e | probably be set. The general strike, called in sym- pathy with the coal miness, was a fail- ure. But it left bitter feelings with the government on the defensive. The ministry avoided a test of strength during the remainder of the session. Ever since the strike was ended David Lloyd George has been vigorous in his criticism. He escaped expulsion from his party chairmanship, but it is plain that the Liberals are sharply divided into two factlons, one favoring a Laborite coalition and the other min- isterial support. The question of mo- ment is whether in the new election the Liberal party will split altogether, In which case the lines will be defi- nitely formed between the conserva- tive and the radical factors of the British electorate. e wo— “Trudy” Is Home. “Trudy” Ederle is home and New York yesterday turned out to give her a royal welcome, the kind of welcome reserved exclusively for the Queen of the Waters and a welcome seldom surpassed in the history of similar celebrations in that city. Dense crowds packed the streets for eighty blocks, and ““Trudy, ner face flushed with pride, smiled her way into every heart as she rode triumphantly at the head of the special parade that had been arranged for her. When the tired conqueror of the English Channel, that wicked body of water that has been bested by only five men before her, reached her home block on Amsterdam avenue, pande- monium broke out anew. Every house, every store and everybody wore Ederle emblems, to show joy in the supreme triumph of the sturdy nine- teen-year-old daughter of the neigh- borhood butcher. The clan of Ederle, estimated to be forty-two strong, formed a special bodyguard of honor until “Trudy” tripped gracefully up the steps of the house in which she ‘was born. It has been said, many times, that Americans have a large streak of hero worship in them. Be that as it may, the greeting to Gertrude Ederle yes- terday was a spontaneous and well deserved tribute to a plucky girl, the first of her sex to swim the twenty- mile stretch between France and Eng- land. For fourteen hours and a half she battled the shifting and turbulent ‘waters under adverse circumstances, and in her remarkable crossing she bettered the time of the best male swimmer by two hours. America. is proud that one of its feminine citizens was the first to swim the Channel, and America is particu- larly proud of the plucky, unassum- ing girl, Gertrude Ederle of Amster- dam avenue, New York City., ——— American tourists find that -the American dollar is unpopular—until it is exchanged into the current coin of the country. Money speaks a univer- sal language, but the services of the money changer as an interpreter are still necessary. oo Funeral demonstrations leave Ru- dolph Valentino a distinguished yet pathetic figure of the hour. The thoughtless mob that sought to view his remains suggested more idle in- terest than honest esteem. ————ate—————— The Last of the Young Turks. Four men were executed the other night at Angora, the capital of Tur- key, for complicity in a plot against the life of Mustapha Kemal Pasha, thirteen having previously been hanged at Smyrna on the same charge. These latest executions, it is noted in the news dispatches, com- plete the elimination of the ‘Turkish party of Union and Progress, better known as the Young Turks. The four who just paid the penalty for conspiracy are Djavid Bey, Nazim Bey, Hilmi Bey and Nall Bey. The first three named were particularly prominent in the Young Turk move- ment of 1906, which overthrew Sultan Abdul Hamid and established a more liberal regime in Turkey. They were not, however, the leaders. Enver Bey, Jemal Bey and Talaat Bey were the ruling triumvirate, and Djavid, Nazim and Hilmi were in the second rank of Young Turk administrators. Enver, Jemal and Talaat made the secret treaty of alliance with Germany in 1914 that brought Turkey into the conflict on the side of the central powers. The whole story of that in- trigue has never been told. Enver, Jemal and Talaat have long since passed out of the picture, and now Djavid, Nazim and Hilmi have gone. Kemal Pasha was originally a member of the Young Turk party and was recognized for his military abili- ties. Enver, chief of the trlumvirate, it was belleved at the time, was jeal- ous of Kemal, but the latter gained prestige in 1916, when, under his di- rection, the Turkish ‘forces success- fully resisted the British Gallipoli ex* pedition at Suvla Bay. Because of Kemal's eriticism of the triumvirate in its mismanagement of Turkish af- fairs, he was not granted recognition for this service and after the armis- tice Kémal withdrew from the party of Union and Progress. When he set up the Angora government the rem- nants of the old Young Turk party formed an opposition to him. The Young Turks made the first ep in Turkey toward better govern- zenn But they were corrupt and fivence in the.competitive bidding for Turkey’s assistance in the Great War. Through their blundering the troubles of Turkey during the past twelve years are attributable, and Kemal would have nothing to do with them in his reorganization. The conspiracy to assassinate him and to-seize the reins of authority was the last move and now with the latest executions at Angora passes the old party of Union and Progress, the, Young Turks who startled the world twenty years ago by overthrowing the terrible old man of Constantinople. —— e A Gallant Flyer Is Killed. The queer twists of fate which go to make up the life of humans wag never more vividly demonstrated than in the death yesterday of that gallant aviator, Comdr. John Rodgers, assistant chiet of the bureau of aeronautics, Navy Department. Loved by all who knew him and a pioneer figure in the science of flying, Comdr. Rodgers was killed in a fall into three and one-half feet of water in the Delaware River near Philadelphia although he had waged a successful battle for nine days on the broad Pacific Ocean when-his plane on the now historic San Francisco-Ha- waiian flight was forced down. Saved from dangers incalculably greater on that flight over the Pacific, this flyer, in a simple inspection trip to Phila- delphia, met his death. There is truly no understanding of the ways of fate. In the death of Comdr. Rodgers the Navy loses one of its foremost avia- tion experts. He occupied a position of responsibility and was held in the highest esteem by all those who knew him. His untimely passing casts a pall over the entir: service and it is conceded by all that naval aviation has recelved a severe setback. B s S That charming personality, Rudolph Valentino, affords an example of the helplessness of talent in the hands of exploitation. Surely the demonstra- tions which turned genuine affection into boisterous clamor on the part of a curious crowd were not what a man of sensitive and artistic nature would have desired. ———————— Motlon picture sentiment suffers an Interruption when a great film artist passes away. The loss of an esteemed favorite Is serfous, but the motion picture intorests assert themselves as an industry, and the artist may be eventually expected to find -his fame subordinated to that of the artisan. ——ee In the year 1926 Gov. Al Smith shows a diffident attitude toward a presidential nomination. The year 1928 is still far off, and in the lan- guage of the old song, “It is funny what a difference just a few years make!” —— e 3 Philadelphia’s Sesquicentennial Ex- position might enjoy an additional urge of interest if Smedley Butler could be induced to return and lecture dally as one of the Nation's energetic and sincere vice destroyers. ———— ‘Willingness on the part of Germany to join the League of Nations is ac- companied by certain demands for as- surance that the Initlation will not be unduly rough. — e ‘Washington needs a midcity market. The question which arises relates im- portantly to the point where the mid- dle of a city now expanding i all directions will eventually be found. ——e— ‘The Hall-Mills case has reached a point where the fingerprint experts come to the foreground and render the idle village gossip a minor con- sideration. ————— There are many fish in President Coolidge’s present neighborhood that have not yet been caught. The vaca- tion will be prolonged. e B Discoveries of treasure in the tomb of King Tut incldentally serve to stimulate new interest in the problem of unproductive wealth. ————— The Hall-Mills case has introduced fingerprints. None of the considera- tions classiied by realtor experts as “am.i” is being neglected. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON Song Bird. The bird that sings up in the tree Sounds good to m I do not understafid the glee He sends so free. But he disdains the world's distress, So I confess I hear his message and I bless His trustfulnes: Enforced Respect. “Are you in favor of votes for women?” “Why ask 8o needless a question?” rejoined Senator Sorghum. ‘“Women have the ballot and anybody who com- mands a vote is in a position to claim highly respectful consideration.” Inexorable Finance. A friend in need ‘When coin is lent Bids you give heed To ten per cent. Jud Tunkins says enforcement of the law is Interfered with sometimes by efforts of an officia] to make non- enforcement the means of personal popularity. Neglected Opportunity. “What did you discover in that an- cient tomb?"” “Gems and precious metals,” replied the explorer. “Yet the royal inmate was forgot- ten.” “He didn't have sense enough to start a jewelry store.” Evolution of the Joke. Of flivvers once with scorn we spoke, Their manner seemed delirious. But many a thing ence deemed a joke ‘We must regard as serious. “Simple truth,” said Hi Ho, the Chi- nese philosopher, “is something we all pretend to seek, yet something we all endeavor to evade. “Sorrow,” said Uncle Eben, ‘‘comes to every man, but de chronic ghouch & " BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. “Follow through,” in golf, means to complete the stroke properly. In life, it means to do the any thing all the way, not half way, or three- quarters through, or seven-eighths of the way. We saw a large and capable citizen recently do a job about nine-tenths perfect, and we fell to wondering why he didn't complete the job. He was out mowing his lawn. His yard was not separated from his neighbors on either side by fence or hedge, but blithely mingled with it, so that no man might say, off-hand, Just where the one began and the other left off. Nine out of ten persons, on first coming into possession of one of these homes, will cut the lawn from walk to walk on either side. Thus he will have his own lawn properly trim- med, but leave his neighbors’ with half their grass cut. . In time he will realize that the best way in this, as in most matters, is to stick to his own property, and merely cut his own lawn, observing the down-pipes as marking the limits of his own. The gentleman in question wanted to be neighborly, evidently, for he cut his own grass, and then went on the other side of his neighbor's walk and cut that lawn clear across. He did not sweep off the grass that blew across his neighbor’s walk, how- ever, so that when the latter came home he had to get out and do the Job himself. Now the question that presents it- self is this: Why didn't the first man sweep off the grass, too? If he were going_to cut another man's grass, why didn’t he‘do the )2b right? * * Evety child ought to be taught to “follow through.” There is nothing that would help a boy more, in later life, than to learn to do every job right he undertakes. Every endeavor of man comprises certain actions and has certain limits. The finish of every job may dwindle into a ragged edge, or be a clean-cut affair, To make it second nature for a child to give a finished performance ‘would be to insure a successful man, insofar as any one mental habit can do that very difficult thing. Life is so complex, there are so many inherited faculties, despite all that may be said one way or the other on the subject of heredity, that no one factor may be said to be para- mount, 2 The boy who ‘follows through,” however, has a great lead in the race of life, an#, everything else being equal, will deliver as a man. He will grow up to be the employe who does not have to be watched, the man who does not have to be told every little thing to be-done. ‘When he starts on a thing he fin- ishes it, from so elementary a job as cutting the grass to boosting the sales of some product in a nation-wide advertising campaign. If any reader believes this to be “bromidic advice,” well, recall the anecdote given above, of the gentle- man who had not learned to follow through on the little jobs. He was an example of the necessity for often repeating old “saws.” It is easy enough to see why one should be thorough in the big affairs of life, but it is not so readily seen why the average individual ought to give more thought to the “follow through” in the small affairs. * ok ok ok Yet these same little affairs com- prise a large part of the life of a man, low alive. Life is not always ro- mantic, ever pulsating. Sometimes it flows evenly, perhaps turgidly. Dark gloomy days come, when there is Iit- tle excitement. Rain falls day after day; there is no escaping it. The lzll‘ly routine seems thrown into re- ef. It is then that one may gee more rlearly than ordinarily the necessity for doing everything that one does just a little bit better than one is likely to do it, on the average. ‘“Let us better our best” is the slogan of some moderns, and it is not a bad one, at that. No matter how well we do a thing, we may try to do it better the next time. Complacency was not made for human beings. The super- optimist i1s somewhat of a nuisance. While he is smiling to himself over the happy state of society, there re- main 10,000 underfed children and any amount of crime and. misery not included in his rosy picture. Let us try to perfect our own state, which is not so perfect, and then, in the bounty of life, go on to help those who are immediately around us. We will forget our precious solicitude for the heathen some 3,000 miles away, and devote more time to the souls of the roughnecks around the corner. * K ok % Next to learning how to follow through, a boy ought to learn how to keep on trying. “If you don’t suc- ceed the first time, try, try again,” goes the old copy book motto. In our youth we practiced so assiduously on the motto that we forgot that it meant anything. It is not until one gets older that he commonly stops to consider that the sentence which he copled so glibly into the ‘book actually is good sen: We will take another homely e ample from life. We know a gentle- man who started in to paint the as- bestos lining of his fake fireplace. It was of a nondescript gray color, and he didn’t like it. The thing did not look real. Of course, nothing more than a gas heater could be placed in it, but as it stood it did not look genuine enough even for that. Some- thing had to be done to make the as- bestos lining look capable as enduring fire. Asbestos will do it, but it does not look as though it would, whereas brick or iron or stone is fire resistant, and possesses the admirable quality of so impressing the beholder. First the idea came to paint bricks, but this would only be adding fake to fake, he thought. So he gave up that idea. Then he thought that a dull, smoky black would do the trick, mak- ing the interior look as if it had actu- ally been used. He purchased a can of black enamel, labeled “‘dull.” He should have known better, but the paint men said it was just the thing. When he got the “fireplace” painted it looked for all the world like the interfor of a camera. As an interior decorator he was distinctly a faflure, he admitted. ‘What was he to do now? As luck would have it, he had a small can of bottle-green enamel. He had a hazy idea of what he wanted to_do, but no assurance that the re- sult would be what he wished. He believed, however, in the old motto about keeping on trylng. He would try it, anyway. The dark green enamel, flowing over the black, the latter not yet completely dry, “took” in some places, and in others it did not. When finished, the gentleman had the finest appearing green and black mottled marble you ever saw, as gen- uine-appearing a fireplace as one made, of wood and asbestos could ever be. He deserved success, for he had “followed through” by keeping on. even of the busiest, most hustling fel- Virginia Dare Made Symbol Of Earliest U. Celebration of the three hundred and thirty-ninth anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare, with the dedi- cation of a tablet at the birthplace of this first white child born in America, has been accompanied by numerous tributes to the brave colonists whose ploneer settlement on Roanoke Is- land, N. C. disappeared within a short time. The name of Virginia Dare, whose family was among the members of the “lost colony,” 18 hailed as a symbol of American wom- anhood and of the pioneer spirit of the conquerors of the wilderness. “The birthplace of Virgina Dare stands as a_monument to the perse- verance of Sir Walter Raleigh,” says the Atlanta Journal, which reviews the history of the “lost colony.” Two attempts to colonize were unsuccess- ful. “On his third and last journey,” records the Journal, “Sir Walter suc ceeded in establishing a colony on Roanoke Island, July 22, 1587, under the governorship of John White. The fort then set up, on August 18 of the same year, was the birthplace of Virginia Dare, the daughter of Elea- nor and Ananias Dare. The mother was the daughter of Gov. White.” The governor returned to England, was detained there until 1590, “and upon his return,” states the Journal, “could find no trace of the colonists. “It is probably within the bounds of truth to state,” according to the Charlotte Observer, “that the imme- dlate surroundings of the spot where the child was born are, even to this day, shorn of but little of their origl- nal beauty. It has lived in a glory of sequestration, and, with civilization all around, the original woods might be recognized by any returned shade of a red man.” The suggestion of the British Ambassador, Sir Esme How- ard, who spoke at the dedication, that “a monument to thenwhllte doe should be erected as one step in con- version of Virgina Dare’s birthplace ‘into a real s of piigrimage for men of English ch from all parts of the world’ is one our people should take hold of.” declares the Observer. PR The reference to the white doe is explained by the Roanoke ‘World News. “In the lumber camps of the Southern coast,” recalls the Roanoke paper, “they still tell of the white doe that can be shot with a sllver arrow, the fairy talk being based on the legend that Virginia Dare grew up among friendly Indians and was changed by the sorcery of 8 rejected lover into a white doe which led a charmed life. Weird as is the legend, the facts of history are even stranger. For, in sight of the spot where Virginia Dare was born, more than 300 years later Orville and Wil- bur Wright, at Kitty Hawk. made the first flight in a heavier-than-air machine. If the ghosts of Sir Walter Raleigh and old Gov. John White and of llittle blue-eyed Virginia Dare come back <40 the sand dunes of Roanoke Island, they will be aston- ished no less by man's conquest of the air than by the greatness of the Natlon they themselves did so much to found.” A coincidence that, at the same time Sir Esme Howard was predict- ing Anglo-Saxon pilgrimages to the shrine, leaders in North Carolina were advocating an effort te induce the Federal Government to deepen Ovegon_Inlet, north of Hatteras and near Roanoke Island, and at the same time to undertake construction of a breakwater to “force another outlet to the Atlantic,” near Roanoke Island, inspires the statement from the Winston-Salem Journal that “both of these enterprises will prove invaluable conveniences to the Brit- Am| r's new S. Womanhood the Journal, “undoubtedly entered North Carolina waters by an inlet long ago closed by storm and tide. Had there been no inlet near Roanoke Island, the first Anglo-Saxon child would not have been born in North Carolina.” ‘ * ok ok ok “Virginia Dare left but a nam marks the New York Times, is suggestive of the spirit of the wom- anhood of this new land. ‘What man dare, I dare,’ these mothers of Amer- fca said. It was their " patient, herolc spirit, daring to face any hard- ship, that bred in the ploneer de- scendants an individualistic quality of purpose that qualls at nothing, that is ready to make experiment of new ways and is not servile to environ- ment. The name of Virginia Dare is a generic name with which to christen American ploneer mother- hood and the spirit we call American.” The Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch adds that “these splendid American ploneers doubtless went down to death as they lived, intrepidly.” ~ . “In all these more than 300 years,"” avers the Providence Bulletin, “it has been a name to conjure with—a symbol of the earliest American wom- anhood. The distinction of Virginia Dare is not merely that she was the first white child born on American soil, but that she was the first Amer- fcan-born girl, the ploneer of a great race of American women. One may easily imagine that there was some- thing grimly in keeping with an in- scrutable destiny in her mysterious fate. The anclent Greeks would doubtless have regarded her untimely taking off as an ordained sacrifice to the gods.” While it is assumed that Virginia Dare left no descendants, the New York Sun recalls the stories that have been told. “One tradition says the colony was captured by Indians, their town destroyed and they themselves murdered. Another tradition was that the colonists, abandoning hope of white relief, reverted to savagery and became the progenitors of a gray-eyed, fair-haired Indian tribe, that at the beginning of the eighteenth century lived along the Cape Hatteras coast. If this was the case, there may be somewhere today a man or woman in whose veins flows the blood of Vir- ginia Dare.” The Watertown Times, however, while noting the existence of this legend, finds that “no family traces its lineage back to the first child to be born in America.” ‘““What became of Virginia Dare, or the colonists of whom she was one,” states the Charleston Daily Mail, “no research has been able to discover. They just simply disappeared from history. But other Englishmen came to Amerfca, at’ Jamestown and at Plymouth Rock, and to Pennsylvania and Maryland and other places, and these stayed. Also came Swedes and Dutch and French Huguenots, then Germans and others, while in other parts of America that have since been Joined with these original 13 colonles French Catholics and Spaniards, who settled South and West. These dif- ferent elements, not always without friction, have been able to live to- gether in comparative harmony and to co-operate in making a new coun- try.” Afd tl Nashville Banner re- marks that great continent has been conquered, taken over, built into a richness that the Old World, with all its grandeurs and glories of Greece and Rome, never knew.” The Easy Road. From the Omaha World-Herald. Former instructor of Prince of Wales admits he never gave him any K Yes, there lx royal road THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover. That the modern concept of history takes into account everything which is of impoftance to the average man and is not an affair merely of politics and wars, of politiclans and military leaders, is the contention of Mark Sullivan in “Our Times.” The Great ‘War, he says, would probably be set down by most formal historians as the most important event in Ameri- can history after 1900, but “it is a reasonable query whether there is not equal importance in the fact that dur- ing this period the average man's tenure of life was increased by about six years.” Carrying on his theory, he suggests some other comparisons. “Henry Ford, as the manufacturer of inexpensive automobiles, may have had a more deep-reaching effect on the lives of average Americans than ‘Warren G. Harding the dis- covery of the remedy for diabetes may have done more for human happiness than the entire 31 years of Henry Cabot Lodge in the Senate . the perfecting of the vacuum cleaner and the electric flat iron may have meant as much to the average woman as the bringing of woman suffrage.” He also suggests that the popular novels from “David Harum” and “Eben Holden” in 1900 to ‘“Main Street” and ‘“Alice Adams” in 1920 “were as interesting to as many people and as important in their in- fluence on popular thought as the same number of Congressmen,” and asks “whether there were not more Americans who took their political guidance from the philosophy of Mr. Dooley and the cartoons of Homer Davenport, of John McCutcheon, of Jay Darling, than from the more di- dactic political teachings of Champ Clark.” * oK K % “The Homs Town of the Army Ants,” a chapter title of Willlam Beebe's ‘book, “Edge of the Jungle,” might be classified as a short story, 8o full of plot and characterization and dramatic interest has the author made it. In the jungle of British Guiana, Beebe and two sclentific friends, living in a bungalow, had erected a small open-faced outhouse for the storage of supplies. Without any intention on his part, it became for Beebe a most interesting labora- tory. One day, passing the entrance of the outhouse, he observed a mass of something that looked like “stringy, chocolate-colored tow, studded with hundreds of tiny ivory buttons.” He had long been wishing for an oppor- tunity to study army ants in their lair and now he realized that the op- portunity had come. “The chocolate- colored mass with its myriad fvory dots was the home, the nest, the hearth, the nursery, the bridal suite, the kitchen, the bed and board of the army ants. It was the focus of all the lines and files which ravaged the jungle for food, of the battalions which attacked every living creature in their path, of the unnumbered rank and file, which made them known to every Indian, to every inhabitant of these vast jungles.” To enter the out- house, unprotected, and stay long enough to watch the ants would have meant certain death, so Beebe devised a means of protection. He filled four cans with a tarry disinfectant and in five carefully timed rushes placed the four legs of a chair in the cans. Then he hung a bag of vials, notebook and lens on the back of the chair and made a final rush to establish him- self curled up on the chair. There, with the curious and angry ants swarming around the cans, he watch- ed through his lens all the varied ac- tivities of the community. He saw the commissary department in contin- uous battalions bringing food supplies and the street cleaning department on the floor collecting and placing in two neat piles all the debris of skins, wings, insect skeletons and shells which fell from the nest. He saw small workers giving a Turkish bath and massage to weary warrfors who arrived loaded at the nest, dropped down and extended their legs for the clean-up. He saw crippled citizens crawl off to a place by themselves, without attempting to return to the nest, and awalt death; and when one died he saw two others, both badly injured, tug the body to the edge of the board and push it over, to be picked up by the clean-up squad on the floor. The time finally came when it was necessary to get at the sup- plies the scientists had stored in the outhouse and Beebe sprayed the place with a 50 per cent solution of formaline. This caused a panic in the ant community and a hasty move began. In the process the interior of the nest was revealed and thousands of eggs and larvae, “looking like heaps of white rice grains,” came into view. Fach ant seized an egg or a larva and tried to escape by the nearest way. Great strings of ants dropped in sections to the floor and in a few hours most of the colony had sought another home; but a small swarm remained to face whatever danger might come, guided by the in- stinct of protection of the young. Some of the larvae had arrived at the critical time when they were about to be transformed to pupae and could not safely be moved, so a corps of protectors remained with them to keep them warm and see them through the change or die with them. * Kk K ruth Is stranger thau fiction,” Percival Christopher Wren tells us in a foreword to his latest romance, “Beau Sabreur,” a worthy successor to “Beau Geste.” He steals a weapon from his critics in advance by saying that his only defense against the criticism that certain of the events chronicled in “Beau Geste” were im- possible is that, though impossible, they actually happened; and that “the deeds narrated, and the scenes and personalities pictured, in this book (“Beau Sabreur”) are not the vain outpourings of a film-fed imagination, but the rearrangement of actual hap- penings and the assembling of real people who have actually lived, loved, fought and suffered.” There are two sheiks in the story, one of them an Emir, whose nationality is a matter of mystery until toward the end. Mr. ‘Wren indulges in considerable ridicule of the sheik of sensational fiction, with obvious reference to a best-seller of several years ago. His own sheiks, with their mysterles, intrigues and love affairs, do not seem much more plausible—but then we remember that they are real. Maudie Atkinson, the pretty English cockney who has fol- lowed her mistress to Africa with the hope of encountering a shelk who will carry her off on his saddlebow, has all her dreams fulfilled, and more. In fact, the stay of Maj. de Beaujolais and Miss Mary Vanbrugh and Maudie Atkinson in the Great Oasis with the Emir el Hamel el Kebir and the Sheik el Habibka.el Wazir is most eventful. Mystery, treachery, vil- lainy, polsoning, murder, Arab ven- geance, strange encounters with old friends and old enemies, and a duel to the death with Arab swords, keep the daily life at the Emir's desert court from becoming stagnant. *xox % Cynthia Stockley, who specializes in highly colored, emotional South Afri- can stories, has added another to her list, “The Dice of God.” In this her heroine i8 as beautiful as the exotic “Poppy,” but is all white and gold and rose, instead of all ivory and black and red. Anne Haviland is as wicked as she is beautiful. She uses all her wiles against her rival, Narice Vanne, who 1s also beautiful and is kindly and besides. The scene of the novel is Northern Rhodesia, near the Vi :;lg!"lfl: &h Miss Stockl;}tu ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ). HASKIN. Q. Has the College of Setille (Spain) an agrioulture department?—M. M. A. The Royal Spanish embassy says that the college has such a de- partment. Q. In the Old Testament, how often is God called a Rock?—D. A. A. There are 26 such references. Q. What Is the difference between ale and beer’—R. E. A. Ale seems to have been the gen- eral name in England for malt liquor before the use of hops was introduced from Germany in 1524. Thereafter the Engliisn equivalent, beer, was used for German beer, made from hops. Nowadays ale signifies a kind of top fermentation beer, containing more or less hops, and a high per- centage of alcohol. Q. What writer mentioned church bells for the first time?—O. O. A, The venerable Bede, who lived from about 673 to 735. He was the | most distinguished scholar of his time, and his writings, according to his own listing, included 37 titles. Q. When was the first African church organized in the United States? —D. B. D. A. The first African Baptist church that we have any record of was or- ganized in 1774, in Aiken County, S. in George Golpin’s mill. This rch was called the Silver Bluff Baptist Church and was organized by David George, a negro Baptist preach- er. The same David George, who or- ganized the Silver Bluff Baptist Church, took 50 members from the sald church four years later, 1778, on account of the Revolutionary War, to Savannah, Ga. There he organized them Into the First Baptist Church of that place, which still exists. Q. Which State has the most pub- lic land?—G. R. A. Nevada has the largest remain- ing unbroken area of unappropriated, unreserved public lands. Out of a total State area of 70,000,000 acres, it contains more than 52,000,000 acres of Government-owned land, or 28 per cent of the total 186,000,000 acres of remaining public domaitn. Q. Have we ever had a Secretary of State killed in office?—R. A. M. By the explosion of a gun that was being demonstrated to Govern- ment officlals on the Princeton on a trip down the Potomac in February, 1848, Secretary of State Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Gilmer were killed and several other prominent persons were seriously injured. . How many people are employed in taking the census?>—H. T. S. A. The regular force of the Bureau of the Census at Washington is about 700 during intercensal periods. and, in addition, about 700 specfal agents are employed intermittently In the field. During a decennial censu« period the office force in Washington reaches a maximum of about 6,000 with more than 80,000 enumerators in the fleld. Q. Why are called?—A. P. A. The quahaug, or hard clam, ix often called little-neck to distinguish it from the soft, or long-neck, clam. Q. the Presidents of the United es bad more sons than daughter: L BT A. Presidents of the United States have fathered 64 sons and 456 daugh ters. Six Presidents were childless. Q. What does a first-class machintst and draftsman receive per day in the navy yard, Washington, D. C.7- M. R. A. A machinist, first-class. receives 84 cents an hour for an elght-hour day. A design draftsman recelves u salary ranging from $8.08 a day to $10.16. A detall draftsman receives from $5.84 to $7.60 a day. A copyist draftsman receives $4.64 and $5.04 day; chief draftsman, from $14.56 to $16.48 a day. A supervising drafts man receives from $10.58 to $13.20 . This is figured on the seven little-neck clams so Have Q. Do all Hmbs?—1L. A, A. Normally they are four in num ber, but the hind pair are suppressed in whales and sea-cows. The lmhs« assume the form of legs for terres trial progression, wings for flight and paddles for swimming. There are about 600 genera and 5,000 species of mammals extant. Q. What is the railway car’—R. A A. Probably the push car. Tt made with two pairs of wheels and a slight deck. and is used by track workers. Next comes the hand ca It is worked with a nand lever and can be operated at almost train speed by a few men. An inspection ca: having a gasoline engine for working the lever is a new form of hand car Find _out whatever you want to know. There is no room for ignorance in this busy world. The person who losgs out is the ome who guesses The person who gets on is always the one who acts wpon reliable - formation. This paper employs Fred eric J. Haskin to conduct an informa- tion bureaw in Washington for the free use of the public. There is mo charge except 2 cents in stamps for return postage. Write to him today for any facts you desire. Address The Evening Star Information Bu- reau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. mammals have four smallest type of . B. - BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. In the northwest corner of Africa, directly opposite Gibraltar, lies Tan- gier, a city and chief seaport of Morocco. It is the twin key to the Mediterranean Sea, the mate being the famous Rock of Gibraltar, 35 miles away. The nation which con- trols both Gibraltar and Tangier will hold the cork to the entire Mediter- ranean, together with the Red Sea and the seaway from Western Europe and America to Italy, Greece, all Bal- kan states, Turkey, Egypt, India, Australia and New Zealand. For 20 years Tangier, with 140 square miles of hinterland, has been governed by an international com- mission, through a treaty made at Algeciras, Spain, in 1906. Now Spain is demanding that the internationali- zation cease and Tangier be added to Spanish possessions. That demand is opposed by Great Britain, France, Italy (?) and perhaps the United States. Italy’s position is in doubt. The very fact th: Spain sent notice to Italy, as well as to the signers of the Algeciras treaty, is resented by England and France, for they as- sume that it is none of Italy’s affair if the original signers of the pact see fit to modify it or not. There is strong suspicion that the acceptance by the League of Nations of Germany's admittance to the league with a seat in the council, supported by England, is involved in the move of Spain, on the ground that Spain’s support of Germany may be held back unless she gets what she wants in Tangier. France's op- position to German ambition as to the league is checkmated, perhaps, by the introduction of Italy into the “entanglement.” The question of the policy of the United States regarding the disputed sovereignty in Africa fs not yet de- cided by President Coolidge, for it will rest upon whether it is found to be a matter merely of European politics or one of commerclal rights. It is our traditional policy to keep out of Furopean political entangle- ments, but we stand for the “open door” of commercial rights of the “most favored nation.” * Xk k * Europe’s domination over Morocco, so far as present conditions apply, be- gan in 1900, when, following a quarter of a century of rivalry between Eng- land and France for the trade of Morocco, France set up a claim to a protectorate over that country. Eng- land opposed such a protectorate which would permit France in Africa to fortify the Strait of Gibraltar. Through British influence, Spain was given a district directly opposite her own shores, while France was as- signed to that region east and south of Spanish Morocco. England favored Spain, as it was weaker than France and less to be feared opposite Gibral- tar. But even Spain was not to control the immediate territory facing the Rock—Tangler, with 140 square miles, was to be governed by the consuls or special commissioners of France, Spain and England, and the open door was guaranteed to all commerce, Italy was not consulted in this ar- rangement, and, when she protested, her acquiescence was bought by giv- ing her a free hand in Tripoll. Ger- many, ever jealous of France's power, threatened war, but her opposition was bought off by France's giving her €07,270 square miles in_the French Kongo, and the bribe to England was France's consent that England should have free rein in Egypt, Newfound- land and othér regions. Incidentally, the Sultan of Morocco was ‘“‘induced” to approve of this dividing up of his kingdom and recog- nizing the protectorate of France and Spain, because the rebelllon of the brigand, Raisuli, threatened his throne, not only by the danger of its capture by Raisuli himself, but through the rebel's brigandige—dan- ger that he would involve Morocco in war with foreign nations—as, for in- stance, his capture of an American citizen, Perdicarus, leading to Prest- dent Roosevelt’s famous ultimatum, not to the brigand but to the Sultan, “Perdicarus alive or Raisuli dead!" The region assigned to Spain was inhabited by the wild Riffs, and, with characteristically blundering govern- ment of the Spanfards, Spain became involved -in a prolonged and bloody excellent descriptions of African scen- ery and customs constitute the chief value of her rk. Her description of the Zam Gorge In this book is especially war with the mountaineers led by Abd-el-Krim. The Riffs fought year after year, and Spain poured out money and men in vain. The war began immediately after the Al geciras treaty of 1911, and reached its climax when, in 1921, the Spaniards were overwhelmed, with a loss of 7,000 dead and 20,000 captured. Continued defeats in Morocco brought a military dictatorship of Gen. Primo de Rivera in ain, in 1923, with the support of King Al fonso. Primo de Rivera has held power ever since. It is he who is now making the demand that the internationalism of Tangier shall cease, and that region be handed over to Spain on the ground that the Riff war demonstrated the impossibility of preventing arms and material be- ing smuggled through Tangier to the rebels in Spanish Morocco behind Tan gler. Recent history of the Riffian war- how Abd-el-Krim, intoxicated by his easy victo over the corrupt and inefficient Spanish armies and govern- ments, thought he could as easily win over the French, and so, without provocation, he Invaded French Morocco, and within the last few weeks has been made a prisoner of France and sent into exile—all this is fresh in the minds of all readers. Ax s Critics of Primo de Rivera’s de mands asks on what ground does he base his request for denationalization of the strategic key to the Mediterra- nean. It cannot be because the Riffflan war is at last ended, for it was not Spain but France which cap- tured the rebel. Nor can it be be- cause of any glorious record of colo- nial government in the history of Spain, for, of all the imperiallstic powers of the world, Spain has tho most ignoble record of misgovern- ment. She lost all her American pos sessions a century ago and later Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines because o misrule and tyranny. * % % % While Italy had no voice in the Algeciras treaty establishing an in ternational district around Tangler, that was before new Italy had risen out of the World War; it was before the rule of the aggressive Mussolini, it 1s assured that stands ready to panish increase of power in the Mediter: 1, unless Italy and Spain, as reported, are in close al liance—an alllance against French interests. TItaly Is aggressive in ex tending her own colonial rights in Tripoli and has recently made an a! liance with Spain, more or less secret in its terms. The world has not yet learned the terms of the secret treaty made be tween Spain and France, France took up the fight against the Riffs. If it included a doubtful agree- ment binding France to concede Tangler to Spain the disclosure can not long be postponed. But while that is conceivable as to France, in exchange for her own free hand in French Moroceo, it 18 said to be cer- tain that it will be protested by Eng- land and Italy—England for her Gibraltar and Italy for her freedom of commerce through the Atlantic- unless the recent treaty with Italy covers it. It is intimated quarters that Ital close the Adriatic Sea, through forti- fying the Island of Corfu, and that would injure the commerce of the na tions of the little entente—the allles of France in Central Europe. * ok ok ox A French newspaper published in Tangier violently opposes the project of transferring to Spaln. ‘It describes the regime of Spain in Spanish Morocco as one of persecution, and adds: “Tangler will never accept the rule of Primo de Rivera. The natives will never accept it, for they have been too sufficlently slaughtered in the Spanish zone; they will not tolerate the boot and sword of the soldiers. The Jews will never accept it, for the native pasha would beat the Jews with impunity, under Rivera's protec tion. Spaniards in Tangier will never accept it, for the most renowned scientists and authors of Spaln have had to flee their country and take refuge in France to escape the vio. lence of the dictatorship.” Then the French paper appeals to the people: “People of Tangier, pre pare resistance and defend yourselves against the great danger which ap. proaches and which will hurl to the ground all our I o (Copyright, 1926, by Psut V. Coflins.y