Evening Star Newspaper, September 7, 1926, Page 8

] THE EVENING § With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON. D. C. SUREDAY.....September 7. 1928 THEODORE W. NOYES.. ¥he Evening Star Newspaper Company o e Ofice: I Panravivania Ave oA 2 Faat 42nd 81. icako O -.co Buropean oo The Eveninr 8ta Ing efatio Be eitv at' 80 48 cente rer m N ndays only. mer merih Orries he aent by mail or (ophane Mp.n 6000 Collection ie made by carrier at ant of each manth Rate hy Mail—Paynble in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily sud Sundav 50.00: 1 mo.. 750 anls £6.00: 1 mo . 50c Sy "onty £300: 1 mo.. 78¢ w th_the Sundar morn- ered by carriars within per month: daly enly All Other States and Canada. Naily and Sunday .1 yr. €172.07: 1 mo. $1.0 anly 1wr SR 00 1 mo.. Sc Sundey only 1T svaciimol a5 — Membher of the Associated Press Anso- atad Press ool Waa fne rennhlication of all news d'a. » 08 credited 1n 1t or 1nt athes - Bl in this naner ana a'so tha loce! . pbishan” Rerttn ™! ST 07 . -— Mr. Oldfield's New Issue. The Democratie party will not lack #n fssue in ‘he campaign for Conzress this vear or for the presidency in 1528 1t Representative Olafield, chairman of the congressional campaign com- mittse of that purty. continues his ac. Hvity. He is an indefatigable worker. He 1a an optimist of the first ran He ean see victory for hix party in the midst of the murkisst.gloom of de- feat 3nd Aisappointment. Is whv he it a 2and chairman of a cam- Palgn committes, He must kesp on smiling. Chatiman Oldfsld's latast contribu- | Hen 1o the collaction of Democratic Ysmuss is what fs known in theatrical parlance ac » which is dram Atess for » sure will adopt it and it State and dimiriet, an overturn in Party control In Congrese ix assured. and in 1978 the party will g0 ahead to complate triumph. Thix smetive from a reses ch conduetad by the cam Paign chairman somebody for him -into tha tax raturn records of the Internal Revanus Rureau. It has heen found that a group of 20,000 men. in charze of 1.200 Americun « perations. ure in control of this conn- try's much-hoasted prosperity. These cerporations, It has been ascertained Wy 8 survev of the records. stand to make profitk of more than $5,000.000.- 060 Aurinz 1978, whils the remaining 208,000 corporations of smaller dimen- alens will not altozether make quite In other words, according vinnar, prese it in aver jswue has resulted or r- an much. ta Mr. Oldfield’s caleulations, fean prosperity ie concentrated and net diffused, and so the slogan that has gone ou: from Panl Smithe that Re mublican administration means zood times is untrue There is just one little difficult about this new lssue. 11 has argued. Tt doss not strike home at frst statemant. 1t requires actuarial presentation, and there it alwavs trouhis in cetting great numbers of neople universally are in enjoyment of demonstration. There was the case of Mr. Bryan in 1896, with his sixteen to ona preposition. 11 taok fguring to preve it. If it conld be proved at all. and fzuves are poor matarial for the stump speakar. Concrata facts make wueh better spellhinding stufr. Aetuarial arguments are not te awav the public mind away the convietion that that husiness is hrisk. trade is Myely. that employment is genaral. that wages are high. and that people ganerally are in e to ba likely from that hefere. Some few of the people may have been getting more than others out of this big overturn of funds. But there was never a time when earn- ings. or winning: ferm throughout all classes of sonie and there will naver he a time of such uniformity. Net even communism aan gusrantes equslity of aarning cepacity. B ] = Selection of “properity” as a cam Paign fesue immediately brings fo ward the big considaration and sarves te retire many passing points of con treversial frritation te their proper starue of incidental vexations. ——— et o An 18,000-Mile Flight. 4 South American fight designed te cover approximately eightaen thousand miles is planned by the War Department Five amphibian plenes and ten Army Alr Corps avi- ators will take part in the expedition. whieh will rival in hardship and dif- fisulty the histeric round-the world Sight of the Army. The trip is ex- Peeted to begin some time hetwean Nevember 1§ and December 1 from San Antonle. Tex.., with here. the ohjective after the planes heve visited prec- tieally everv Beuth American coun rey. Pians are now in such an sdvanced stage that all that remains to he Aene before the srart is to secure per migsion from the ecountries to he visited. Approval is necemsary hefore the planes will be aliowed to fiv over Seuth Ameriean terrain. Costing approximately $54.000, the empedition will seek to acquaint the wsigter republies with the American planes and Ameriean pilets. Buropsan eopeerns sre sald te have gained sueh & feotheld in the South that a “feqeme-out”’ of the Tinited States is theegtoned. Another purpose of the rrip Will be to cement the friendiy relatienship berween North and Seuth Ameries. With the development of aircraft mugh in the publie mind. this under- teXing will be watched with interest. Within the last few menths atartling feats have been performed. A new ajtitu€e recerd has been aet by Ideut. Callizo, a premier French fiyer, who ascended more than 40,600 feet inte the ether: a parachute has been designed which suecesstully dreught an unoontrell plane teo earth witheut injury te the pliet, and » remarkable record was established when an sviater flaw from Philadel- phia te Washington In thirty-two minutes. Rivaling these featsin inter- sively entitter | If the party | Amer- | times are good. | the | joyment of | more of the luxuries of lite than ever | or profits ware uni. | ' AR #ton, from New Tark to Parls which ' g it scheduled to zet | short time. During this peried, however, twe the foremost fivers in the Army !2nd Xavy have loat their lives, Lieut. | tis and Comdr. John were pionesrs in the | Pacience of fivinz. especially Comdr. dgers, who had attained a world- ! wide repmiatien by his 8an Francia- {eo-Hawailun Might. Their death was | a severe xethuck to both hranches of | ihe service, The Senth American trip, admitted- | Iy hazardous, will denhtless teach | {lassona of the air which could he | {lezrned In no other way. The per| i formance of the amphibian planes on !the long cruise will be studied. By {many It is believed that the airplane {eapahle of landing on either land or | [ water the ship of the future.! | Theratore, when the ten pilots atart Jom on their adventurous flight an {tnteraste: Nation will wish them good Il nnder way in i of "hey ! | | is and a successful trip. o —e Miss Mary Biowne Signs Up. ! Miss Mary K. Browne, famous man athiete, has joined the ranks of projessional tennix players amd will {compete with Sy Lenglen when {the wmid champion player | appear« in the Miss Browne has made her mark in Ameri- cun arhleties, having won the national | *ingles tennis champlonship for three | successive 1912, 1913 and 11914, and recently at Wimbledon won i the doubles cup with Miss Elizabeth | Ryvan. Eesides these feats she has for { vears hean an outsianding golf player, zenerally finishing high in the wom len's national tournaments. | While not a match for Mile. Leng "len woman s with the possible of Helen Willa—Missd | Browne will probably furnish as much { competition for the French star as| any other feminine tennis plarer. Su- zanne tops them all and any one whe is engazed to compete with her on j the tennis courts will come out second { best. | Although the trend of all sports | seams decidedly toward professional- | tennis up to a short time ago | withstood all the onslaughts of the commercial game. It is a matter of i regret that the citadel of this great {sport has at last been successtully | stormed. ! With the present cost of living. { however, it requires a person well | blessed with the world's goods to com- | pete in the major tournaments and | sport eventa. 1In order to be sufficient- 1y proficient at a given game 30 make outstanding marks in national compe- tition, much time must be given up to practice. This precludes, in most cases, the prosaie occupation of mak- ing a living by some means disasso- | clated with athletic endeavors. ‘This being the case there appears 10 ba no particular reason for chiding lnmn who “cash in” on their only ne- { gotixble asset, that of supremacy in {some line of sport. Amateurism, of | 1ate vears. has become a badly abused { word. Kxpenses are paid to and from i athletic meets for recognized stars !and the whole proposition has grad- { ualy worked itself afound to a point { where even strict amateurism is some- times slightly tainted - with profes- sionalism. 1t is unfortunate that this trend has { made itself so dominant in sport. The | | game tor the game's sake will always | he the ideal of all true devotees of | athletic matches. But if tennis has {at last been made a professional { game there is no apparent reason to | blume those who decide to participate, ne French United States. years, in no is axception m. | for auituble compensation, in the sport !that thay have made their life's work. | So. the first two signers of the dec- laration of professional tennis, Mile. Lenglen and Miss Browne, are wished the best of luck in their new venture which is but a continuation of their | present occupation, under slightly different circumstances. —r———— Spain apparently has political com- plications too acute to await a pre- scription as the result of a League of i Nations consultation. ———s— Ireland's Theater Fire Lesson. Irelund is the scene of the latest tragedy of the makeshift theater, with ! Atty desd and many badly hurt in a fire. The place of entertalnment was a hall over a garage in a small town. “The announcement of a film show had | brought a “‘capacity” audience. A few minutes after the picture was started » fire occurred, the film igniting per- | hapa from machine friction or pos- ! sibly from a cigarette. The proj tion apparatus was not inclosed in a hooth and the flames spread awittly, enveloping the hall and cutting off the single exit. A scene of the utmost | horror followed. | This country has experienced sev- i eral of these fires in places of public | entertainment, with heavy loss of lite. ,Only a few vears ago such a fire oc- {curred at Canonsburg, Pa., with | ghastly resuits. That, too, was an upstaira hall, reached by a single stairway. Despite the warning simi- {lar places continued to be used for public gatherings, and no doubt teday there are firetraps of this nature still in occasional service. The fire danger seems to be the last thing to be thought of when the ques- tion of public entertainment is under | consideration. The. Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago, with its frighttul death rate, caused some reforms there and elsewhere, but this process was: not thorough or complete. It was not until afrer the Knickerbocker Theater disaster in this city some yvears ago that discovery was made that certain other theaters in Washington, one of them owned by the Government, were unsefe and reconstruction was re- quired. The tragedy in Ireland Is not to be rated as characteristic of inattention to the matter of public safety, how- ever, for the conditions in that coun- try de not at present permit fullest eonsideration of and precaution against disaster. There is lack of means to provide substantial places of public assemblage and entertain- ment. Village halls are not as a rule batter than the upstairs meeting place 1ch as that which burned at Drum- collogher. There are Acuhtlass many aneh places In frequent use through- THE EVEN. vernment &t Dublin will meve tu tihe eni of securing the peaple against iwch happenings in the future. The {lesson 12arned at the cost of fifty lves | is too dear to be forgotten. | Meanwhile it hehooves American a thorities to survey their own field to | see whether any such primitive provi- | sions for public amusement are still in uce here, anc hy closing them peremp- ! torily 1o prevent such further horrors in this country. ) Railroad Manslaughter. Another rearend collision has| caused the death of eight persons. It occurred at a suburban station in | Chicago, when a following train {crashed into a standing train, the en- ginesr of the former heing blinded by the headlight of a locomotive fac- ng him so that he could not see the | cars on the track in front of him. Visual signals will not prevent such | accidents if the engineers cannot see | them or the condition of the track | ahead. Headway regulations will not check collisions i engineers crowd thelr engines forward regardless of the signals or the knowledge that other trains are just in front. Only an automatic stop system will prevent these smashes and these losses of life. A heavy premium upon speed in | the installation of the devicer which the Interstate Commerce Commission | has ordered for all of the larger rall- | way Iines of the country I8 furnished | by these frequent accidents. Hun- dreds of people have been slain during the period of delay and fnaction. Un- less the rallroads hasten to obey the orders of the commission and mean. | while adopt severely repressive meas- ures to prevent engineers from crowd- ing thelr schedules and ignoring their wignals, hundreds more will be slain before the trageling public ix pro- tected. It severe punitive penalties were applied by the courts in all cases of | accidents which are due to the lack | of automatic train control systems, greater speed in the installation would | probably be shown. In only the rarest cases are those responsible for these utterly needless disasters punished. It is time somebody, engineer or sig- nalman or rallroad administrator, went to prison for a long term for manslaughter. e It is not hoped by the sensation seekers that the League of Nations proceedings will be as speotacularly turbulent as those of that Madison Square Garden convention. But it Is confidently expected that they will have results of far more definite as well as of broader historio significance. 1t is unfortunate that radfo has not been so developed as to enabie listen- ers to follow the events step by step. e Many statesmen have gone abroad with the widely advertised intention of studying European conditions, Mr. Mellon has not announced any pur- pose of authoritative research, but it is widely expected that he will return with a more intimate and practical grasp of the situation than that ac- quired by most of the Americans who have taken the boat ride. S Germany has found & way of stim- ulating crops by the use of electricity, thereby showing the possibility of eclipsing as an agricultural nation the prestige she once held as a war- like autocracy. A liberal food sup- ply fs one of the great victories of peace. e It is to be regretted that Mexico could not have contented herelf with a religlous discussion which went no further than the comparatively miid contentlons of fundamentalists and moderni o There is no longer much sympathy for a defeated Channel swimmer. So many have made the trip that it fs difficult to understand why any one should try it, except for the exercis o SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Back to Repose. Vacation days were busy, Fast fades the Summer light: The pace was swift and dissy, But rest is now in sight. The rusticating rover Disdains the joys he sought. The swimming days are over And the fish have all been caught. The boardwalk blare is ended Where weary optics glanced. The waves roll unattended And the dances all are danced. The pleasure seems far greater As we view the workshop's plan, ‘With the lazy elevator And the old electrio fan. Melodio Patriotism. “Can you sing ‘The Star Spangled Banner § “I never try, Sorghum. “Then you are not patriotic.” “Yes, I am. T am afraid the way it would sound when T sing it might dis- courage others. . answered Senator Jud Tunkins says & man who lends his only umbrella is a friend in need and is likely to feel more so when the next rain comes. Rough Talk. “Do vou think actors should be per- mitted to use profanity “No,” answered Miss Cavenne. “But some of the plays undoubtedly war- rant the auditors in doing so in pri- vate comment.” Mysferious Magnificence. We hold parades with gorgeous glee, Vast and magnificent: Their pleasure would be more te me It 1 knew what they meant. The New Curfew. “I am in faver of a curfew law.” “So am 1,” declared Mr. Meekton. “There should be some regulation that will compel everybody who stays out late to get home In time for break- fast.” “It'= all right to forgive our en- * sald Uncle Fhen, “but we's ft wif de boo dat’s mw —— om overdoin’ | tonary NG STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEVELL. Sight of a hov scrambling up a|had a happy home.” clay hank atirred in us mem- |automobile, and all that o high ories of other days. There was a hoy, once (who an- | He the head of ‘hold & long s awered 1o the name at thix eolumn), who ing more than to clny hanks. On the east side of Sixteenth street, JuRt ahove 17, there were perfect hanks, perhaps 50 feet high, facing Henderson Castle, It was an adventure (for the boy we nsed 10 he) to journey In com- pany with others to the cliffs, as we called them. and tHere amble up and down. without rhyme or reason, neither being needed. Intrepid mountain climbers, as we imagined ourselv it gave us exquisite pleasure when an oc- casional team came by, for we knew we had spectators, at knowing our.perilous position was observed of men. How high the cliff seemed, how insecure our toehold Surely the world was admirin Here we were, braving the heights, under the Summer sun, unafraid! Thati wa ng, longnago. Yenterda: owever, when we saw the small boy look down at us (from tie tremendous height of 20 feet), we knew exactly how he felt about it. Mk elighted in noth- imh up and down it! There is something primal about hill-and-mountain climbing that is scarcely shared by any other sport, unless it is running, leaping or long- distance walking. In the early abllity to climb high, and often dan- gerous, hilla was necessary, If a man wanted to get anywhere In the world, for there was no other way then There were no tunnels through which & man might glide as on the wings of song, safe within the body of a steel monster on wheels. N were there any marvelous bridge spans across the chasms. If one wanted to get across the moun- tains he had to walk around them. or over them. Something in the spirit of man calied for the latter course. So they climbed over. Today, when there is no longer any real necessity for such hazardous work, men still climb over. They leave the plain places of the earth and go to the Alps and Rockies and other great ranges, in order to satisfy something in th natures. The urge to climb hits some men much more than it does others. Al- though elemental, as stated, com- monly the instinct is allowed to re- main qulescent, or even be totally blanketed by the years. One may have climbed a steep bank of red clay, in his youth, who would not attempt the ascent of Mount Everest today. Tt 18 only by recalling the essential- lv primitive quality of the desire to olimb that suoh a one is able at all to put IMmself in the position of the Alpinists. Forgetting the early life of man- kind, he is liable to call such men foolish, to put it mildly. Hers is a man living safely and happily In America, yet who finds it necessary to make a long journey to the Alps— to lose his life. Why? * kK On the face of it, the thing seems foolish. He was living in a great city. He us, | duys of mankind the | | | and we thrilled | and | ed pwned an of thing. Yet he longed to climh mountains. wanted 10 zet Into a suit. and ff in his hand, and a guide, and start the ascent ough trails, up blank walls, To step lightly over chasms look down 2800 feet into eferniiy feel the cold pure air of the peaks 1o greet the eagle, and to feel neaver, in man'e puny way, to great stars thexe were some of the xecret am- bitlons of his heart So he bade his wife and little ones good-by. He shut up his house, and took passage on the liner. He trav- eled first.class across Europe. lle sought out his pet mountain. and hived a good guide, a rakish-looking fellow with' a mustache and a bright brown eye and legs like steel Together they started the climb. The pull on the muscles was heaven- ly. Something inside of him expand- ith the great spaces. The tanz of the air bit into his soul. "his was lving! Think not, man on the mountain. that those who stay behind do not know how You feel! Though ourselves would shrink from your foolhardy climb, as we call it, vet we realize the thrill of the thing, the cleanness of shank He tled over [ 1o nostrile, the Jjoy of living that is yours at this moment. We grow stale in the cities. ‘We become “fed up” on routina. We throng amusement places to get some taste, at least, of Something different, and we do not find what we seek. You do. ¥ It one has to go to the Alps, to really live, perhaps he had better go. Undoubtedly he had. From our motor car, from our public bus, from our nicely paved sidewalks, we hail him Go to it, old chap! But dor’t stum- ble. “I'hen, one day, we pick paper and read a small ilem, tucked into one corner, alongside an “ad” of stockings made out of woud fiber: “Bergen—J. Henry Smith, Amer ican tourlst, fell to his death today. when he slipped while climbing a nearby mountain. His guide was pulled after him, and the two fell 8.000 feet to the bottom of a ‘crevice. ‘The bodies probably never will be re- coveres ‘That is all. Washington is about feet above sea level—and poor Smith fell 8,000. We wonder how it feels to fall 8,000 feet. We did not know Smith, but we had heard of him. There was no reason why he had to go there. Tie had no business there. He would have been safe here. le would have been riding around in his sedan yet, on soft seats of mohalr, and growling at the traffic cops. Now he is free from all that, lying peacefully at the bottom of a hole, 3,000 miles from home. Mountain climbing, indeed! One is at the bottom, then he climbs to the top, and when he gets to the top he looks around, says, “Well, I'm and then starts down again. have grown fat around the stomach, and mountain climbing would be an unnecessarily severe ex- ercise. The doctor says so. He ad- vocates setting-up exercises, with a 4-mile walk every day. And - and vet—Smith really lived, befor fell—by George, he did! up the Publicity for Corporations Prof. Willlam Z. Ripley has made the financlal world turn its attention to the subject of publicity for corpo- ration accounts. His recent magazine artiole in which remedies are suggest- ed for lack of adequate information for investors receives much favorable comment. Adverss criticlsm centers ohlefly in the contention that Gov- ernment supervision of accounts would increase the power of bureau- cracy. ““There mayv be differences of opin- ion relative to the method of reform,” in the opinion of the Hartford Times, “but there must be unanimity with regard to the necessity. Prof. Ripley, by his earlier work, has fixed early doom for the late scandalously com- mon corporate policy of extravagant issue of non-voting stocks. Now he lays the ax at the roots of a worse evil.” The Utica Observer-Dispatch also belisves that as Prof. Ripley ‘says that the Federal Trade Com- mission has the power to require re. ports of corporations engaged in in- terstate commerce,” that body “ought to exeroiss the power. The people of the country,” zcontinued the Utica paper, ‘‘are rapldly becoming inv tors in a widespread way, and the practice should be encouraged for various reasons. Accurate reports by the large corporations would assist the intelligent development of the movement.” ‘Granted the authority. what conld the trade commission do”’ wonders the New York World. “To complle data from the great multitude of trad- ing and industrial concerns would quickly swamp it. But the comimssion might use discretion, and classify corporations in such a way that those oftering securities in large volume to the general public would be required to present uniform, accurate and un- derstandable balance sheets, which would give stockholders the informa- tion that theyv are entitled to receive. It might even require the appralsal to be checked from time to time by dent authority.” * % x ok On the other hand, “the encroach- ment of Government ' upon private conduct,” according to the Chicago Tribune. “is almost always on plausi- bl.d,r nds, but already it has pro- fed far, and the scrutiny by Gov- ernment agents of the affairs of private business activities, with en- forced publicity. would constitute a conalderable further advance. Moving ever forward on that path, we should presently have the Government in complete control of private enterprise. We do not say Prof. Ripley’s plan is not the best. There is need for the in. formation proposes to make avail- ble. Thers' und policy in pro- ecting the investor, especially the small investor. But we ought first to try if some private agency such as the stock exchange cannot provide this service. Furthermore, financial and business assoclations may do much to effect a change in the ethics of corporate publicity. Agreeing with critics of Prof. Rip- ley's plan, the Philadeiphia Public Ledger belleve: “it 1s doubtful whether or not this newest Ripley proposal would help the mass of in vastors. Money invested by the average man.” the Public Ledger con- tinues, joes into a corporation be- cause it is making money or because | the investor has faith in the heads of the business. Balance sheets, col prehensive reports and complete statements have less to do with it than personalities and sale pressure. The ugliest feature of Ripleyism'’s newest phase is its further centrali- sation of power in Washington and its exaltation of the bureaucrat.” ‘Recognizing that “the professor will probably be censured for advocating further centralization in regulating corporations, not banks or common earriers.” the Springfleld Republican contends that ‘‘the Federal Commission is under conservative Trade | posed a real danger to the investing public, his proposed safeguard, which falls far short of Federal incorpora- tion, as once advocated by President Taft, need alarm no one.” The Baltimore Evening Sun feels that “it is eloquent of the state of nerves of Wall Street that advance proofs of Prof. Ripley’s article should have depressed prices all up and down the line. The traders of Wall Street are tealists.” the Evening Sun adds, “and when they begin to jump at shadows it is evident that some- thing is wrong with them.” “If the States, by enforcing ade quate publicity, could prevent the flooding of the country with watered stocks and bonds by glant corpora- tions, there would be no need for President Coolldge to suggest that it is a State and not a National prob- lem,” suggests the Raleigh News and Observer, with the added comment that “to incorporate is little more than a form in many States, if the applicants have the price.” he St. Louls Post-Dispatch, con- demning “rubber-stamp financial statements,” points out that pro- apective buyers of stock may learn to demand adequate descriptions of the properties in which they are being asked to invest.” THINK IT OVER Right or Wrong. By William Mather Leuwis, President George Washington University. Humorists and critics dwell upon the frequency with which wrong numbers are given by telephone oper- ators. If the figures wera available it would probably be demonstrated that a surprisingly small proportion of mistakes are made by those in charge of switchboards. Certain it is that they rank high in accuracy when compared with peeple in gen- eral. Post offices have 1o employ experts to correct wrong addresses on letters and to decipher words which are prao- tically illegible. T.ast year merchan- dise inspectors of the Western Rail- way Welght and 1nspection Bureau, in a certain section of the country, rejected 284,830 packages becausa they were improperly addressed. The total number rejected for this reason throughout the entire Nation undoubt- edly ran into the mlllions. All institutions of learning should have courses whose purpose.is the de- velopment of accuracy. And the pass- ing grade in such courses would be 100 rather than 60 or 70. The bank employe who is only 70 per cent cor- rect in his computations will not hold his position very long. The train dis- patcher who attains a like record will soon be looking for another job. The successful construction engineer must deal with fractions of inches. There are many fields in which it is not enough to be ‘“about right.” There are many subjects on which one must be all right or all wrong; where one either has a perfect mark or a zero. Mathematics and forelgn lan- guages are among the subjects which will continue to be recognized as having high educational value be- cause the element of accuracy enters 80 greatly into their mastery. A strong argument against a purely elective system of studies lies in the fact that under such a system many students will not take those subjects which promote accuracy. And the person who neglects accuracy length- ens his road to success. (Copyrixbt. 1926.) o Brittle Literature. From the Philadelphia Record Renator Glass is writing aboyt Col. Hou A hook |and limb, the smell of the air in your | { blind to such despoliation | promptly ! conntryside is being leveed to meet | And other citles are afflicted likewise. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1926, NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM 1. G. M. wd el mpany Geor: conti dr. ‘t disease m An enterprisin Al taken into the sys tem may meet there, on the one hand, inadequate resistan on the other ctive cooperation. In either unhealth ensues in the muni body as, in like conditions, it does in } the human body. And just now many of the older cities are in the | grip of a peculiarly insidions and ruthless malady. foothold in the name of “healthy growth” and progress, it ks destruction of many priceless things that cannot be replaced. Under its ravages old auarters, rich in association, give way to a blatant unbeautiful pros- perity of towering shops and offices, of flamhoyant hotels and blinking theaters, Narrow picturesque streets, echeing with strangely begulling footstepg out of an interesting past, | must be made straight and broad Inde treet widening” marks a | specially virulent stage of this epi demic among cities. thousands of trees give way us brutality of destruction. ny of these have gone the sun and | n and soil-juice of a man's life. And these are pure beauty, our most precious possession. whose complete violation is a deadly sin. Nothing else in a clty can take the place of treelined streets. But these are giving way to bare sun-baked stretches of stabling for millions of Henry Fords. The city fathers are The com- deaf, too, there who scorching to a Int blind and one here and wilts under the taunt, “Sentimentalist:” The city of Washington is in the midst of a selzure of “street widen ing.” Great trees are being up- rooted. Histor houses are being torn down. A surpassingly beautiful mon lks are save fu the speculstive madness of progres now New York is taking a hand at the famous Greenwich Vil- lage, which Is to have its crooked ways made straight for the passage of its multitudinous betters. The great majority looks on complacent, maybe a bit pharisaical. But here, too, the lone “sentimentalist” rises up, this one not so much in protest as in recollection and reminiscence. EE Floyd Dell was not, strictly speak- ing, one of the earliest of the vil-} lagers, but nevertheless he \\fl!zl sufficjently at home there to feel stir- red now over the doom about to fall upon this famous quarter. ‘“Love in Greenwich Village” stands, there- fore, in the nature of an elegy of not ' speclally “mournful number; upon the passing of Greenwich Vil- lage—an elegy that is likely to be-| come a substantial part of any me- morfal which may in the future he set up te this shrine of youth and work and freedom. In this book the author becomes, turn and turn about archaeologist, historian, poet, ro mancer, interpreter. The sto covers the Rise and Fall of Green- wich Village. And in between these great points are pages of happy and filuminating adventure embodying the general life of the place that has caused so much of comment and speculation. Dell, the archaeologist, shovel in hand digs up, the various civilizations supporting® this latest one. There, at the foundation of them all, the Indian village of Sap- pocanican. Upon this squatted a Dutch settlement, Bossen Bouwerie, and above it the village Green Wich. “I am no hand at archaeology; but I have heard tell that 200 years ago the town of New York was huddled down in the southernmost tip of Manhattan Island, fn what is now the financial district, Green Wich be- ing two miles out of town, an aris- tocratic place ‘up the Hudson.’ Like those anclent cities which Schliemann dug up in the Troad, each city rest- ing upon the dust of its forgotten predecessors, so Greenwich Village | presents the spectacle of successive | layers of ruin. Count them over— that happy Indian village, the busy Dutch settlement, the qulet Knglish hamlet, the fashlonable American suburb, and the proud Washington Square period—while the Greenwich Village of my immediate predecessors may be called the Sixth Village. And upon its ruins was built the Seventh Village, which I saw come blazing into existence.” It is upon this Seventh Village. built by a woman, “Egeria,” the place of his own abode, that the author writes in a group of adventures set down in prose, usually, but breaking into song when the prose proves inadequate. These ad- ventures are, in essence, sometimes the illuminating fairy tale, sometimes the eerie fantasy, sometimes a bit of broad comedy, no¥ this, now that, but at all times they project the apirit of fearless vouth. Kvervhody is poor as Job's turkey. But nobody is afrald of that. FEvervbody has a dream In his heart and this is all that counts. Many of these dreams could never come true, at least not till every natural law had been reversed. Rut no matter. They made fine and heady stuff to live on, and to starve on. Nobody had enough to_ eat, but everybody shared what he had with those who had less. Friendship was an open-handed, open-hearted affair, sure to be misunderstood and misin- terpreted by the timid folk outside. But the Village didn’t care. They never did begin to care about any- thing but freedom and work till make-believe Villagers began to crowd Into the place, muddying the clear stream of honest intent, of frea friendships, of as much innocence, at least, as the conventions outside the Village possessed. It was when the barbarians came in that the Village fell. And that, you sea, is the his- tory of all civilizations—growth in power and beauty and in the true wisdom of life, then a weakening from within or encroachments from without—and the round is completed. “The Village—our Village—was dead and gone. Here were voung people, as young as we once had heen, as gay and eager. They were the new Greenwich Villagers. They did not mind the changes, because they had never seen our Village. Under the aegis of our legendary gayety, they were enjoying themselves, in their fashion. Perhaps they were more robust than we had been. Doubtless they knew already things we had so painfully learned. For them the world would never suddenly go blank of meaning. They were accustomed to its not having any meaning. I saw ourselves, in retrospect, as touched with a miraculous naivete, a TLate-Victorian credulousness, a faith happy and absurd, in the beauty and goodness of this chaotic universe. These young people knew better. Well, it was their Village now: let them have it, and make of it what | they chose! I went out from the nolse and smoke into the crisp De- cember air, feeling old. Presently I felt older than that—I felt dead. A ghost, I walked about the midnight streets, meeting other ghosts—friends and comrades and sweethearts of those lost, happy yvears. Together we revisited those glimpses of the moon. A book of short stories—vet by their setting and projection and spirit they converge in a single illu- minating ray upon a community that Right & sort ef Glass- | has elicited more of the censure that | servatory says that For at this point | NSWERS TO QU STIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Q. Why Is the name freight” used in the West to designate preferred or time freight” E A. The Red Rall Transit (‘o. savs: “We do not helleve that there ix any information which we could glve you on the subject of why the shape of a ball was printed on the card used by railroads. We have incorporated and uced this name both as individuals and corporations for six vears; knew | of no other such name at that time or | any company using same. The name is copyrighted and trademarked. Q. What are the thres foremost | functions of the Naval Observatory? . B. | A. The United States Naval Ob-| there are four foremost functions of the Naval Ob. servatory. All are correlated and of such impertance that no one can be sald to be the most important. In the order of their establishment they are (a) The continuous maintenance of observations of the heavenly bodies for improving the tables of the planets and their satellites. of the moon and of the stars, and for determining the fundamental constants used in pre- paring the American Ephemeris and autical Almanac. At the same time the department of astronomical ob- servations furnishes the observations | for determining the time. transmis- | both by () The furnishing and sion of daily time signals, radio and by telegraph. () The computing. preparing and publishing_of the American FEphem- | eris and Nautical Almanac and the | American Nautical Almanac. | (1) The development, supply, up-| keep, repair and inspection of all navi- | gational and surveying instruments used by naval vessels, whether sur- face, submarine or aircraft. struments are also furnished Coast Guard and Shipping Board vessels. | Q. What State gets most of the Im- migrants to this country?—E. W. A. New York. Last year 26 per cent of the total immigration for that period was domiciled there. Q. How many worcs has the inven- | tion of radio added ‘to the' English language?—A. H. D. A. David Saranoff says that it has | added about 5000 new words. More than 200 of the radio additions to Americanese have the prefix “radio” The others run all the way from “antodyne” to ‘‘zymodyne. | Q. Who was the first American to | the streets Some in. (M be elected to the Royal Seclety of 1on don?—T. C. B A. Cotton Mather. the well known Colonfal clergyman, had that distine tion. He was elected in 17 Q. Tn “The Innocents Abroad™ Mark Twain tells of an inscription which reads, “We are the (anaanites driven out of Canaan by the Jewish robher, Joshua.” Is the monument hearing It still standing” A. B A. Tt was deserib torjans 2,000 vears ag of Tangier known what became of this monn ment. but the people of Tangler today still point out where it stood Q. Pleasa explain how a straw ecan he blown through a piece of wood dur- ing a cyclone—W. H. R A. The energy with which a bedy strikes an obfect determines the piere- ing effect and damaging effect of the body. Energy is mensured hy the product of the mass of the hody and the square of the velocity. Thus a very small hody moving with a high velocity can possess just as much Kinetic energy as a large hody movink slowly. The straw is hurled through the a at an enormous velocity and expends its energy in gofng through the wood. This happens so quiekiy that the inertia of the straw keeps it from crumpling up before piercing. 1 by Roman his as standing in It is not Q. How much poultry s used for food in the United States”—O. P. A. The people of the ['nited States eat annually more than 2,500,000 domestic fowls, such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, pigeons and guinea fowls. Q. Why are common bricks red 8, A. Because thera ia iron in the elay. Ordinary white bricks owe their color to lime.” Lime and iron make a cream colored brick. Brown bricks are due to the presence of magnesia, and yel low bricks to & combination of mag- nesia and iron. The resources of our free tion Bureaw are at your ser: are invited to call upon it as often as you please. It is being maintained by The Evening Star solely to sere you. What question can 1we answer for you? There is mo charge at all except 2 cents in stamps for return postage. Addreas your latter fo The Evening Star Information Rurean, Frederic_J. Haskin, Director, Wash- lington, D. C. BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. In Philadelphia, today, two aero- nautical conventions begin annual sessions, the Society of Aeronautical Engineers and the National Aeronau- tical Association. These organizn- tions will face problems which are the bases of developments almost revo- lutionary in their importance affect- ing transportation of passengers and mail—and light freight. “How long will it be befors aviation will become 8o safe that every man may own his airplane flivver? asked officials of the Department of Commerce, and two replies came: “Within two years.” “It may come ‘tomérrow.’ " Within' the last fortnight, a para- chute was tested which retarded the fall of an airplane, so that, with en- gine killed at a height of 3,000 feet, the 1,000-pound machine glided gen- tly to the ground. Parachutes will soon bhe regularly required on all passenger machines, and later upon every machine, not alone for individu- al aviators but for the saving of the whole machines. L During 1925, the airplanes of France traveled 11,000,000 miles and killed only 75 victims—1 ‘to_every 146.666 miles. 1t is alleged that that beats the record of automobiles for mafety, and there seems to be no question to its superior safety over horses and mules, or even to pedestrianism. (The Bible, centuries ago, said, “A horse is a vain thing for safety.”) And all that was without the modern im- provements which have developed within the 1ast six months. Today there are machines with cabins as luxurfous as those of private yachts, and they carry 20 passengers besides crews. The passengers dine and sleep aboard, while traveling above the clouds and over mountains and lakes. The great alrplanes are equipped with three engines of 200 horsepow- er each. Imagine Phoebus racing through the skies with her six horses and a few running goddesses and suddenly meeting a flivver of man rushing by her with the power of 600 horses at a gallop of 250 miies an hour! Ye gods of Olympus! What tortoises wera they alll A joke fn travel! Ilet them get out of the cerullan pathway and let some hu- man show them how to fly On the race track of the Kquator the sun travels around the world 25,000 miles—in 24 hours. That is a little over 1,000 miles an hour. At the latitude of 45 degrees the speed is only about 500 miles an hour, for the distance to go in a day Is one-half. At the latitude for which our fathers wanted to fight Great Britain “54:40"—the sun travels at a rate of approximately 350 miles an hour. And now man can almost tread on his in flying around the world ima “Tomorrow” Old Sol will see more spots on earth than Dr. Abbot ever found on the sun, and they will he flooks of airplanes whose riders live in Alaska, do busineas in Manchuria and dine at the alub in Sootland, then swing around the rest of the circle to the office in time to open business the following morning. Around the world in 80 days? No, around at the latitude of Sitka in 24 hours, or of Washington and Ran | Francisco in leas time than it now takes an express train to cross the continent. from Washington to San Francigco. That is not a mere dream of the undefined future, it is the fact which today’s conventions are making real for “tomorrow." * ok ok It has been two ar three years since the Government established a “Great ‘White Way"' aoross the continent, to light the path for mall planes. Every 10 miles there i{s a beacon, and at greater intervals there are landing flelds with millions of candlepower fllumination. But if a plane soars above a oloud- | bank or fog the aviator may pass out | of sight of all the lights and be lost in the sky. Now there are radlo sig- nals which talk to the fiyer constant- Iv with Morze dashes while he i» on the right. path: if he veers to the right or left of the path he hears in stead of plain dashes a dot and dash or a dash and dot until he is guided back to the plain dash. Ie does not need to see in order to know that he most places can command, more of curiosity th: most, more of praise and love than many, another more important corner of the earth. How- ever, the point here is that in a complete understanding Floyd Dell has here revitalized a Greenwich Vil- lage of youth and charm and realitv. is going along “the stralt and nar. row way." But the landing field will he still invisible if he is ahove a cloudhank ““Tomorrow,” the field will have a bal loon above the cloudbank 2000 or 3,000 feet up—carrying a star of elec trie light, attached to earth by a wire cable. No aviator will be needed in that lookout balloon. The elsctric light wil] get its current through the cable, and so the heavens, abova the clouds, will be marked out as clearly as Broadway. The flyer's own instriiments tall him the strength and direction of the wind, which will give him tha angle of that balloon cable, and so he will know the location of the landing field. “though darkness and thick clouds he round about him."” Furthermore, the radio telaphone even now enables him to talk with earth without slackening his speed. Radio will pick up the dash.and.dot suldance as tugs pick up incoming steamers and bring them safely to the docks. There are radio-directed airplanes which, with no aviator ahoard, may be navigated hundreds of miles, and by radlo control their cargoes of ex- plosives may he dropped upon the enemy. How puerile. in comparison, becomes the famous big Bertha of the German army. which fired small shells 70 miles and affrighted Paris! Today great cargoes of TNT mav ha sent from Parie “On to Rerlin.” and dropped by the touch of a kev in Paris at just the right moment. to an- nihilate a city. Such radio.controllad torpedoes have flown miles and hit within 600 meters of a small tar- got. Tomorrow's airplane will hs equip- ped with gyroscopa control. which will relleve the flyer of nervousstrain, for when the gyroscopa is set. to fol- low & certain path, due allowanca ha- ing caloulated for the drift of the wind, the aviator's troubles mav he packed in his kit and he may “smila, amile, amile,” at the danger of sirayv- ing at random, * x ko Somehow there is an impression held by tha averaga man on the streat that the United States is lagging he. hind Europe in commercial and mall aviation. Not so! We already operata 8.656 miles of afrways, of which 2.041 miles are lighted and 1.287 mora miles are now receiving their lighting equin- ment. At next sesalon of Congress ad- ditlonal appropriations will he asked for lighting the rest of tha 3,328 miles and much more of new mileage. With the exception of France, the Tnitad States has the lead in aviation mila. age. At the last session of Congress, a biil was passed to place the control of commerolal aviation in the De- partment of Commerce, and to create aseistant secretaryships for aviation for each of three departments—Com- merce, Navy and War Departments. Those assistant secretaryships have just begun to function. In due course, the Department of Commerce wili take over the handling of the air mail contracts for the Post Office Dapart- ment, and will encourage the estah. lishment of private air routes for passengers and traffic, including eon fracts to carry tha mall. simflar te present contracts with raliroads and steamship lines. The Department of Commerce, by the new law, ix authorized to make recommendations to the Dapartment of Agriculture as to nacessary mefaor. logical service of tha Weather Ru- rean, and, as the Burean of Stand ards is connected with the Depari- ment of Commerce, the Assistant Sac- retary of Aviation will have in his control all facilities for development of practical commercial aviation. The Army and Navy are indepamd- ent in their command of their own aviation, but will confer with the De- partment of Commerce as to possible {{mprovements. * % * & The greatest need at present i= the cheapening of the cost of engines. The present cost of 200-horsepower engines is $5.000 each, and the large planes requires threa engines, for safety and efficiency. A plane Illke those in mercial service today represents investment of soma $25.000. Vven with mich a cost of ontfit, the passenger pavs a rate of about 10 cents a mile. and travels 150 miles an {hour, instead of rail fare of 3'; cents avel 40 or 50 miles an hour. He may fly from New York to Chicage, overnight, in hours—saving 11 hours en route. How long will busi- ness men whose time is valuable. con- tinue to save the difference between 31 and 10 cents, & mile at a cost of a whole day out of business> When ents come—as are coming ment. aviation will come into com- A serious and competent artist. My Dell has put the hest of himself into this theme that lies close to the Beart=ot youth. mon use, not gradually. but suddenly, according to the considered views of the officiala and experts. tSopsmiahi. 1026, bx Paul V. Cefttnad