Evening Star Newspaper, September 30, 1926, Page 8

8 ‘THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. "WASHINGTON, D. C. THURSDAY . .September 30, 1926 THEODORE W. NOYES. . ..Editor Thie Evening Star Newspager Company Business Office 11th St and Pennayivania Ave, , New York Office: 110 Fast 42nd St. Chicago Office: Tower Building. Wuropean Office. 14 Regent St.. London, England. The Fvening Star. with the Sunday morn- Ing adition, ix deliverad by carriers within 1he city & 60 senta"per month daily only. 5 conia per month: Sundays only. 20 cents r month. Orders may be sent by mail or [eiephone Main 5000, Collection is made by carrier at end of eac! month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Dafly and s ¢r.. $0.00: 1 mo.. 76¢ D:Ilz :x‘nv' \.uvnlin . }_\rvi»“ 00: 1 mo., 50c Sunday only . 111yl $3.00i 1 mo 2B¢ All Other States and Canada. Pally and Sunday..1yr.. $12.00: 1 mo.. $1.00 Dailr only 5§ R00: 1 m 78 unday only $4.00: 1 mo.. 3Bc Member of the Associated Press. The Assoc Press is exclusively entitled bl of all news d t otherwise cred patches crodi » the local news ted in this and published hes All rights_of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved From the Deeps of the Earth. Some acquaintance with the condi- tons in a deep mine is necessary to permit 2 full appreciation of the dif- ficulty and heroism of the feat that has just been accomplished at Iron wood, Mich., in the rescue of forty- three miners who had been entombed for five days seven hundred and thir- ty-seven feet below the surface. Meas: ured in terms of mine distances, par- ticularly in that region of deep work- ings, this was not very far below the surface. The rescuer-in-chief, George Fawes, climbed over two thousand feet, from ihe twentieth level of tke mine, to reach a point at which access to the imprisoned workers could be had. These fron mines go far down, with ramifying chambers. The shafts and stopes follow the lines of the ore bodies according to a well calculated plan of access to the mineral material and its dellvery to the surface. arth fs honeycombed with ps They double and turn and ero: rise and fall and join. A “mine bo: must know the map of the workings more perfectly than he knows the streets and byways of his city. The ore in the region of this dis aster is of a yielding nature as a rule. It has to be blasted, to be sure, but the charges are not heavy. The ore body is sufficlently friavle to require frequent timbering to support the roofs of tunnels and adits. These tim- bers may rot and yield under the tremendous pressure. Subterranean streams may work their way through new channels, carrying out the sup- ports. There is always peril of a col- lapse. The accident at Ironwood was caused by the dropping of a cage In a shaft, killing three men and loosening tons of rock and earth, which fm- prisoned the forty-three who survived. The space in which they were shel- tered had to be reachea by an indirect route. The way to them was perilous. There was no direct passage, and when finally Hawes found the only remaining point of &ccess, a chasm had to be bridged to reach them. This chasm had been formed by the fall of rock. These forty-three men maintained lNfe for five days on birchbark tea, made over their safety lamps. They felt confident that they would be res- cued. They sent and finally received signals were cheered by the knowledge that other men were work- ing desperately to rescue them. When at last the frail, narrow bridge was crossed by their rescuers there was no demonstration. They needed food first of all and that was given them. But they were too weak to be taken out at And o they rested in their prison, comforted by the assur- ance that within a few hours they would be back on the surface, where their familles were walting in an agony of suspense. Throughout the history of mining in this country, as elsewhere, great herotsm has been displayed in the en. tombment of workers and in their rescue. Many men have died below the ground and many have been brought safely back after harrowing experiences. Modern methods have lessened the perils, but still the remains. The deeps of the earth con- tinus to take their toll of those who seek the riches of Nature, and once. The season approaches when a Miss Alaska, decorously clad in furs, will have a ohance in a beauty contest oo A Secret Court Session. An unusual but, it is stated, a not unprecedented procedure has just oceurred in the trial now in progress fn New York of former Attorney General Daugherty and former Allen Property Custodian Miller, who are charged with bribery in connection with the return of certain properties to @ German corporation. After the completion of the prosecution’s case tn chief, attorneys for the defense entered 2 motion for dismissal, coupled with motions for the elimina- tion of certain of the testimony that had been tentatively receved. Dis- missing the juryl the judge ad- Journed the case to his chambers, where he heard the arguments of the counsel on both sides behind closed doors, with no representatives of the press present. At the conclusion of the hearing, wWhich lasted several hours, it was announced that the mo- tions made in behalf of the @efense were ‘all denied with one exception, and that the trial would proceed. Rarely does it occur that motions bearing upon the conduct of criminal trials are argued in camera. Occa- stonally, but very rarely, courtrooms are .ceared of all but judge, coun- sel, witiiess and jury for the presen- tatlon of evidence of a nature to shock public sensibilities unduly. In a recent case in New York that was the procedure. But on straight law questions that in wise involve scandalous matters there is no evi dent the procedure should not be held in open court. It has been explained that this secret sesalon of the court was held merely 1o expedite the trial, that the ground ";»uld be oovered in much ehorter . no reason why time and more satisfactorily in such circumstances. It is true that the average arguments before the court on law technicalities are of but little interest to the public. In fact, are virtually beyond the understanding of laymen. Nevertheless, it is dif- ficult to conceive that a hearing that 1s held behind closed doors would be any briefer than one held in open court. Possibly the discussion that took place yesterday in the judge's cham- bers was more colloquial and less for- mal than if it had occurred in the courtroom. But it is to be presumed that a full report has been kept of all that was sald in_order to com- plete the record of the case and that that report will be a public docu- ment eventually. The question in- evitably arises whether matters were disclosed before the judge at yester- day’s hearing that could not be made public in open arguments without prejudicing one side or the other. In a case of this importance it is unfortunate that so extraordinary a procedure should have been followed. e ——r———————— The President and the Campaign. “Support President Coolidge and his administration!” This battlecry of the Republicans is heard throughout the land. It is heard in Ohio, where Senator Frank B. Willis is fighting for re-election. It is heard in New York, where Wadsworth and Mills are engaged in a desperate struggle against their Democratic opponents; in Massachusetts, the President’s State, where his close friend, Senator William M. Butler, is giving his own interpretation of “Battling Butler.” This plea has its dangers for the administration as well as its advan- tages for the candidates. If the cam- paign is made principally on the issue of supporting the President and con- tinuing prosperity under Republican rule, the decision rendered at the polls November 2 must be interpreted as an indorsement or a defeat of the administration. This is a chance which the Republican leaders must take. Indeed, if the *Support the President!” slogan were not raised at all, and the Democrats should win either house of Congress or both, the administration’s opponents would de- clare the result a defeat for Coolidge. The country generally would so in- terpret it. It would appear, there- fore, that the ‘Republican leaders are making no blunder in raising the is- sue, particularly in view of the popu- larity of President Coolidge and his administration. The effort of the Republican con- gressional standard bearers in most of the States Is to get away from lo- cal issues, some of which are unfavor- able to the party. They are turning to natianal issues to save them. After all, the election of the National Legls- lature should be governed as largely by national issues as the election of a national executive. A Republican Congress is as essential to the pro- gram of the Republican party as a Republican President. If there is party difference between the Capitol and the White House, an administra- tion is hamstrung, hog-tled and gen- erally impotent. President Coolidge saved the party in 1924. A year earlier the political thunderclouds hung heavy over the Republicans. Coolidge was the issue in the 1924 campaign, and the issue swept the country for the Republi- cans. The people preferred to be safe with Coolidge to risking the uncer- tainties of control by La Follette or John W. Davis. It is only natural now that the Republicans, in danger of losing control of the Senate and to a less extent of losing the House, should cast longing eyes again to the man in the White House who today personifies Republican Government. The President has kept hands off the party primaries. He may take no active part in the campalign for the general elections. He is the Chief Executive of the entire country, and there is always a question as to the propriety and expediency of his en- tering a political campaign, even though he is the titular head of his party. President Wilson's plea for the election of & Democratic Congress in 1918, when the country was at war, proved disastrous, but largely becayse the country was then at war and Re- publicans were incensed at the im- plied taunt they had not been patri- otic in their service. Also, even had Mr. Wilson made no such plea, the chances are the Republican success would have come. But whether Pres- ident Coolidge participates in the present campaign or not, the result will be used as a measure of his popu- larity and the popularity of the ad- ministration. e e Teapot Dome is prominent in at- tention. It commands an intense in- tellectual consideration, which asso- clates it with domes of thought rather than mere financlal bumps. 3 e The Trophy From Trinil. Bit by bit the great puzzie of whence and how mankind came is in process of solution. For ages past chance has vouchsafed to humans tiny fragments in the great mosaic which some day, if not completed in detall, may be at least as comprehensive as the racial history of the horse and other forms of life. But up until vesterday, comparatively speaking, no one recognized them for what they were. The gratifying thing is that nowa- days not only are these fragments recognizable but they are coming to light with greater and greater fre- quency. Somewhere, near the earth's surface, waiting only to be uncovered by chance or by diligence, is thought to be the whole story, written in unmistakable characters. It may be that this spot i3 near Trinil in Java, whence the latest find, news of which seems to be authentic and to have sent a thrill around the entire civilized world, has been announced. A Dutch scientist competent to identify his dis- covery has there uncovered an entire skull of that “Walking Ape Man" which, while not a man nor even the predecessor of Homo Sapiens, is con- sidered a cousin and collateral of the ancestors of the humans of today. “There may be—probably are— thoueands of deposits still untouched,” ‘!l H. G. Wells, “containing count- THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. less fragments and vestiges of man and his progenitors.” It looks as if this Javanese neighborhood may be one of the richest. There, amid accu- mulations of implements intentionally chipped by some handy creature of the late Plelocene age, or, roughly, some 600,000 years ago, the first fascinating fragments of this dim creature were uncovered several dec- ades since. These consisted of but a portion ‘of a skull, distinctly not that of a man but with a brain case far larger than that of any great anthro- poid ape, of a few teeth and a thigh bone. From it the human world got a breath-taking,’ farthest-back glimpse of a branch on the family tree to which its own direct ancestors must have borne a marked resemblance. Noth- ing that we know of definitely is back of this ape-man; nothing is this side of him for a matter of 250,000 years. He is like a fixed star somewhere along the path from here to infinity, and fitself almost inconceivably dis- tant. Yet to him, one of Nature's failures, modern man is probably bound more closely in form, in in- stincts, in possibilities than to any of the great apes of today. The surface of the store of knowl- edge waiting at almost inaccessible Trinil is said to have been merely scratched. It may be that elsewhere are earthly volumes compared to which this depesit is but a primer. The chapters of the whole story are undoubtedly somewhere. What we know today is the merest scrap of what will presently be known. Some day, no one can guess how far dis- tant, the whole story will be bared to us and we can retrace the trail, with- out a gap, to its very beginnings, by means, not of surmise, but of direct, concrete, well linked evidence. In the meantime the two things to be desired on the part of all, scientist and lay- man tlike, are patience and an open mind. ) It must now be conceded that Dr. Mary Walker was a great woman. She made her mistake in adopting a silk hat and a Prince Albert coat in- stead of stepping out in knicker- bockers. —o—st ‘When a statesman retires to private life he threatens to write a book, but very few of them make good as thor- oughly as Albert Beveridge did when he wrote his life of John Marshall. R The inventor of the phrase “{/ncle Shylock” is already regretting the in- terruption of an impression that the initials “U. S.” stood for *“Unlimited Sponsorship” in financial matters. ——— e Money alleged to have been spent in the Hall-Mills case may be regard- ed as a cheerful indication that busi- ness has been pretty good in New Jersey. O In every jest there is an element of pathos. The mature gentleman who is persuaded to pose as “Neptune” in an aquatic beauty contest is “it.” e SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The Working Day. “Five days a week for six days’ hire!" It meets the general desire, As Power seeks to share its ease And Fortune's favorites strive to please, Five days per week! tour? And only three would cheer us more. Before the enterprise is done, Let's next have two, or only one. Eventually we maysfind More ways to gratify mankind And at long intervals declare For one day's work men must pre- pare. 5 It that time comes, not far away, ‘Wo may resent the holiday. Now each man loves that task for which He best is sulted, poor or rich. He longs to meet some speclal test ‘And labor better than the rest. Then, why not So, when the workless era grows Into monotonous repose; ‘When men are weary of dull greed, Of golf and tennis and high speed, They'll wait, impatient for the sound That once more bids them gather ‘round With tools of trade, with paint or pen, And seek to aid their fellow men. They will come forth in glad attire And tap the drums and touch the lyre. In accents gay they'll shout “Hooray! Welcome another Working Day!” Keeping Up With the Game. “Why have you adopted choppy style of elocution?” “I've been talking over the radio,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I'm trying to meet the musical competi- tion with a syncopated style of ora- tory." that, Necessary Element. We sing of “other days” in rhymes With which fond memory blends. How can we have the good old times ‘Without the good old friends? Jud Tunkins says & man who tries to buy popularity goes up against the worst of all gold-brick games. “There are minds great beyond dreams of worldly riches,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown. “There are men who patiently count the stars without hope of putting one of them into his purss 4 Cold Cruelty. “You are an heiress and I am only & poor young man!” sighed the devot- ed admlrer. “What is this to be?” inquired Miss Cayenne, “a sentimental interview or a compilation of statistics for Brad- streets? Unutilized Resources. Space is unlimited, we learn, Out yonder in the sky. We earthlings wonder why, When renting flats, we must discern That Space is hard to buy. “A prize fight,” said Uncle Eben, “is a safety-first proposition dat don't leave nobedy broke nor seriogsly hurt. Foh sincere recklessness, gimune dat old ragor!” Racintiiamse . THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Opinions of Thomas A. Edlson are always entitled to the deepest respect. Yet radio enthusiasts are wondering over his remarks as quoted in dis- patches sent out from West Orange last week. “Music of the radlo is very poor be- cause it is badly distorted,” he fis quoted as having said. “I quite ap- prove of radlos, but they should not be ysed for musical purposes.” Dispatches went on to declare: “Mr. Edison said distortion marked the chief difference between the radio and pho- nograph. ‘After the novelty of the radio has worn off, the phonograph will reclaim its own,’ he declared Many will be privately inclined to think that this is nothing but a case of “sour grapes” on the part of one of America’s greatest men. Others, more charitable, will believe that Mr. Fdison simply never has heard a good radio set. Personally, we incline to the latter belief. Mr. Edison is distinctly too high-callbered a man to indulge in “knocking” of an industry to which he has not contributed much. Nor would any cut into the phonograph business resulting from the popularity of radio induce him to c#st stones indiscrimi- nately. If he—or any other man—says that radio of the 1926 brand distorts tone values, he is woefully mistaken, and the only reason for his error must be that he has not heard a good set in operation. i * ok ok K A real radio set of today, with power tube and cone speaker, simply furnishes an elegtrical path for the re- ception of musidal tones. The trueness of the music the lis- tener receives is exactly in proportion to the trueness of the tones as sent out by the musicians at the broadcasting station. Absolute fidelity and musical reality may be secured now by any owner of a moderately good recelving set, while owners of the most advanced sets using high voltages in the last audio tube receive tones far beyond anything ever achieved in the phonograph in- dustry. One of the big sets of today is, in a sense, not a radio at all—it is an or- chestra, it is a band, it is a piano, it is a singer. Not only do the notes come over true in pitch, but the sense of an or- chestra, for instance, is given the hearer far better, in our humble opin- ion, than by the very latest type phonograph ~ (utilizing radio discov- erles). We were forced to listen against our will one night recently to one of these power-tube sets, with synchro- nized speaker, and while we mentally berated our good neighbor, we could not but envy him his set. Now, we are privileged to own a good set—but it is a year old, and in radio a year, particularly the last one, means a great deal. Our set is good, but the new ones are perfect. We can imagine the bright small boy of the legend listen- ing to one in company with his teach- er. “That's good,” says Teacher. “Good?"” says he. ‘——, that's per- fect!” o e ‘This is the best explanation we can glve of Mr. Edison’s musical heresy. It is true that some of the sets, and more of the speakers, tend to accen- tuate the bass notes, or rather pull the whole performance down to a lower pitch. That this, however, is not a distor- tion but a good is shown from the fact that the phonograph industry has been only too glad to adopt inventions of radio experts which make the latest phonographs do exactly the same thing—bring out and accentuate the bass notes. The crying evil in the older phono- graph days was the highness of pitch, which brought with it a certain metal- lic quality. The most successful of the phonographs during the past ten years was the one that, by its method of making records and the use of a larger tone chamber, lowered the pitch of its tonal product. The new types of phonographs put on the market recently are simply sev- eral steps forward in the same direc- tion. They bring out wonderfully well the bass notes, giving a better balance, as it were. Distortion in the phonograph is much more apparent to the sensitive ear than in radio, for the reason that the radio, in essence, from transmitter to listening ear, is simply a gigantic path for sounds. Each such path, no matter in which direction it goes or into whose ears it finally leads, is the original path, the identical one. “Spot news,” i newspaper work, means the happening of the momeht, red-hot off the grill of Time. Similarly, the term might be applied to radio by declaring that radio music is “spot music.” ‘With the phonograph this is not so. The so-called “‘master record” may be perfect, but in the process of striking off hundreds of thousands of dupli- cates thousands of chances for minute deviations, with resulting distortions, creep in. New processes of recording, so far as we can see, have not changed this situation. We have in our record li- brary several of the newer records which are as woefully “sour,” or off key, as many of our older records. These older records were selected as the best from thousands to which we listened. We were (and are) a phono- graph fan, but we were never blinded to the fact that one had to ve very, very careful in the selection of records in order to avold getting one with the accompaniment slightly “sour.” The salvation of the phonograph industry has been that most record buyers have not trained ears, or ears naturally sensitive to distortions. No one knows this better than Mr. Edison, who has made exhaustive sci- entific tests on singers and musical organizations for trueness of pitch, and has even gone so far as to say, if we recall truly, that he alone had the thing down to a real science. A person with what is known in music as “a good ear” does not have to use a measuring instrument go know when a violinist is playing off key, or when the soprano fails to “hit” the note she aims at. Trueness of pitch is his criterion, and without it music is not musie. It is precisely because radio delivers true pitch to him that the music lover prefers the radio. The matter of low- ering the whole production an octave is not consequential. The quality is the same. If the “novelty of radio wears off,” as Mr. Edison predicts, it will be be- cause the broadcasters have failed, not because the art in general, and the sets and speakers in particular, have delivered distorted music. The greatest danger facing broad- casting today, as we see it, lies in the fact that companies are forgetting the home side of radio, putting the best features too late in the evening. A silent radio, like a silent phonograph, is n}':;)u! the most useless thing in the world, BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. It has been announced—and officlally contradicted—that her majesty Queen Marie of Rumania, who {s to arrive in America next month, is not to travel incognito, but in all the glory of royalty. The incorrect announcement is based upon the fact that she will be received in Washington with a troop of cavalry, and escorted to the Ru- manian legation, after which she will dine with the President and Mrs. Cool- idge at a formal official dinner. The fact that she gines at the White House, however, it is officlally de- clared, does not change her incognito, for many a guest has dined at the White House who did not appear as queen nor king. It does mot require that a queen must parade her crown in the United States in order to re- celve what Americans characterize as a “royal welcome,”’ and Queen Marie desires to be free from the burden of officialdom, enough so that she can study American life “as is.” Rumania is a limited monarchy, with an area about equal to that of Pennsylvania and New Jersey com- bined, and a population somewhat less than Greater New York and Philadel- phia combined. * ok K * ¢ Now what is the significance of the of Queen Marie since she is to come incognito-~disguising or ignor- ing her royal status? The King and Queen of Belglum visited us after the World War, but they were not *'in dis- guise.” They came to return the visit of President and Mrs. Wilson, and to recognize the service done to their country by America in the war. They were welcome guests, and returned home bearing full honors and the re- spect of the American people. They had been associates with America in the struggle of war; 8o, too, was Ru- mania, though that country was ground between enemies, and forced to surrender before our armistice. Rumania had been burdened with King Carol in the beginning of the war, who, being related to the Hohen- zollerns, was in sympathy with Ger- many, but he dared not attempt to throw his countty into the German side of the struggle, and so remained neutral. King Carol died, and King Ferdinand succeeded to the throne, with Queen Marie. Soon Rumania was valiantly fighting on the side of the allies. And now we are to have the privilege of greeting Her Majesty the Queen. Vive la Refne! * k Kk * We have had other callers—such as Li Hung Chang—who liked us. Li visited Philadelphia and saw the Lib- | erty bell, and he recorded in his diary: “But they do not ring it any more, because it is cracked. Is liberty cracked, too?" He gave a new name to Philadel- phia, “The Place of a Million Smiles,” for he found great geniality there. That was poetic. Li confessed that in his youth his dream had been | that he might become the poet laure- ate of China. We seldom reach our ideals, and Li became only premier and actual ruler. * ¥ X X Another Chinaman, Wu Ting-fang, former Minister to the United States, showed great interest in our peculiar customs. For example, he thought it strange that we should be sur- prised that he should function as a matchmaker. He was at a wedding in Washington where a daughter of a Senator was bridesmaid. He had met the voung lady before, so he ked her when she would become a bride. She replied she did not know, for she had not vet had an offer. Turning to a group of young men, he remarked to one of them, “This is a beautiful young lady, would you not like to marry her? He replied, I shall be most delight- ed to!” Then Wu said to the younsg lady, “Will you accept his offer?” She answered that, as she did not know the young man, she could pot give a definite answer. A few months later they were marriéd. Chino-Amer- ican customs are rapid. * ok ok ok In the midst of the 1912 presidential campalgn former President Roose- velt, speaking intimately with cer- tain friends at luncheon, referred to his own record and candidacy for what some critics designated a “third term,” and he chuckled characteris- tically, as he remarked: “‘Some say I want to be king; they don't know kings and I do!” Perhaps he had special reference to the vexations and difficulties which majesty had to face, even before the war—difficulties which have multi- plied in the years following the ‘“war to make the world safe for democ- racy.” There remaln kings and queens more democratic in their as- pirations than is many a citizen of the United States. When a queen comes incognito to America, she comes in the guise of her democratic personality to study a democracy. Maybe she will emulate the Queen of Sheba in finding that “the half had not been told,” and maybe, too, she might find things of which she; in mercy, will not tell us half, for, with all our pride, how much frankness can we stand? * & ok We have not yet forgivén Dickens for his aspersions and sneers. Why, he even spoke disrespectfully of our Nation’s Capital! “It is sometimes called a City of Magnificent Distances, but it might with greater propriety be termed the City of Magnificent Intentions, * * * Few people would live in Washington, I take it, who were not obliged to reside there; and the tides of emigra- tion and speculation, those rapid and regardlesa currents, are little likely to flow at any time toward such slow and sluggish water.” Americans have boasted to Lafa- yette that they were “here,” but why not the same boast to Lafayette’s com- patriot, Max O'Rell, the lecturer? He astonished his mother when he told her he was going to America to lecturs “Lecture?” inquired La Mere. what language?” ““Well, mother, I will try my best in English. “Do they speak English out there?” “H'm—pretty well, I think.” ‘When his mother wrote him her farewell, she proved her femininity by leaving the important part of the let- ter for her postscript: “I shall not tell any one in the town that you have gone to America.” Maybe Queen Marie will return to Rumania with equal ‘“incognitism”— not mentioning that she has been to America. Yet news concerning queens will leak out. N L About 100 years ago, Mrs. Francis Trollope of England visited us, and wrote: “The ladies have strange ways of adding to their charms. They powder themselves immoderately, face, neck and arms, with pulverized starch; the effect is indescribably disagreeable by daylight, and not very favorable at any time. They are most unhappily partial to false hair, which they wear in surprising quantitjes; this is the more to be lamented, as they general- 1y have very fine hair of their own.” Will Queen Marie fing that our la- dies have reformed in the century, and abandoned pulverized starch and chig- nons? n * K ok ok It remains for that dear friend of America, Mr. Rudyard Kipling, to show nice discriminating appreciation, similar, perhaps, to what he expressed in his recent poem about r America v C., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1926. John Marshall Was Not the First Chief Justice To the Bditor of The Star: In reading the papers recently I have wondered how much of a®‘howl” would go up in this country if, when Valentino died, a picture of him had appeared in the papers with a nota- tion to this effect under it, ““Valentino, the great base ball player. If such an error had occurred the paper which made it would still be explaining and apologizing to the public. How strange it seems, then, that in last Saturday's Star the pic- ture of a statue of John Marshall, ac- knowledged ths greatest jurist this country has ever produced, and prob- ably one of the greatest which ever lived, had the following notation under it, “The Statue of the First Chief Jus- tice of the United States.” ° I beg to state that John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall being the third Chief Justice, and the reason for the erection of so many statues to his memory is not because he was “the first Chief Justice of the United States,” but because to his very great legal learning and understanding the Constitution owes its strength, the decisions he rendered in its early in- terpretation making it the greatest of all written constitutions. ‘We have, indeed, reached a peculiar age in our country. Almost any one today can tell you the life history of any pugilist of note, with whom he has fought, where, when and all about it. The same is true of the motion pic- ture artists, base ball players and others who win distinction through thelr physical prowess. But the accomplishments of the mind seem no longer to be appreciated nor respected, although an old Greek adage has it “That the mind of man is mistress of the world.” As further illustrating the length to which our people have gone in for- saking the greater for the lesser and forgetting that the lesser can never 5o well serve them nor continue to preserve the country and its institu- tions, in Sunday morning's Star an account was written of Chief Justice Taft's presence in Philadelphia and that while the crowd were running wild over Tunney, Chlef Justice Taft and Mrs. Taft paced, unnoticed, up and down the station platform at the exposition grounds. Another {llustration of the length to which we have gone can be had by looking at the papers shortly after Valentino's death, which was promi- nently displayed on the first page, while the death of President Eliot of Harvard University was given a small place on the last page. While there are those among us at the present day who would have us belleve that the world is improving, and I hope it is, as I have not as yet quite lost faith in it, I don't think, nor do I believe any one can think, that the great fuss we are making over physical prowess at the expense of mental greatness can ever lead to per- manent improvement. Now, I do not wish to be misunder- stood. I am heartily in favor of diver- slons and healthful recreations and exercises of all kinds. I am not op- posed to prize fighting, base ball nor moving pictures, but I do deplore the modern tendency, which is placing the lesser things in life above the greater, and I also deplore the modern tend- ency toward lack of modesty. When I was a young man, men who went to gayety theaters and variety shows were obliged to keep it strictly to themselves, and yet at none of these performances has any one ever seen as much exposure or immodest dress- ing as is met with at the present day upon our streets. There is a law on the statute books of the District which prohibits the posting of bill posters in public places displaying bal- let dancers in tights. Does not the present-day dress which we meet with on the street put this law to shame? I am writing this letter with no de- sire to find fault, but simply to em- phasize the length to which the mod- ern tendency for the neglect of the higher_ideals has carried us, in the hope The Star may set an example which, to some extent at least, may serve to correct it. Let more space be given to events and achievements of our great men who have, by hard mental work, self-sacrifice and ex- ample, contributed something by their lives to the sum total of human hap- piness and prosperity, and less, if nec- essary, to the accomplishments of ath- letes and others not nearly so well entitled thereto. F. S. KEY-SMITH. ] “Drink Is the Source Of All the Vices” To the Editor of The Star I am in favor of total prohibition. There is a very old proverb, and a quite obviously true one, which sa: “Drink {s the source of all the vices. This saying is more than a_thousand vears old, and has never been con- tradicted. It probably originated among the Arabs, for it is quoted in the *“Arablan Nights.” Tn that im- mortal work, a grand vizie death bed, is advising his his future life. He ends his exhorta- tions by saying, “And drink no wine, my son, for wine is the source of all the vices.” I would suggest that this maxim should be adopted the motto of the prohibitionists. “Drink Is the Source of All the Vices” should be printed upon flags and paraded by the prohibitionists, and also by the various societies for the suppression of vice. I would especially recommend this action to the Salvation Army and to the Volunteers of Americ: BERTRAND SHADWELLL. Los Angeles. o After the Vote. From the New Orleans Tribune. The General Federation of Women's Clubs, the largest women's organi- zation in the United States, plans a nation-wide, concerted effort to get out the vote in the November elec- tions. The federation has no c.\mli-‘ date. The purpose of the campaign 1s not to create support for any special | candidate. But the National and| State federations, through the indi vidual clubs, will try to have every woman member vote and to persuade others to vote. |~ The effort is praiseworthy. If the campaign is anly partly effective, any increase in the vote will be welcome. Any move to encourage voting is commendable. This move, because of its scope and the number of women to be reached through it, should be a real service. entered the World War at the eleventh hour and grabbed off too much glory and booty that England should have had. In his American Notes: “The American Army is a beautiful little army. Some day when all the Indlans are happily dead dr drunk, it ought to make the finest scientific and survey corps that the world has ever seen; it does excetlent work now, but there is this defect in its nature: It is officered, as you know, from West Point.” ‘Which recalls an incident related by a Methodist bishop who had traveled from South America by the Atlantic on board a ship, which held many Kip- lings. A very vociferous one was re- galing the firstclass deck with stric- tures on America, and he wound up with an 1812 threat that if America did not behave better, England would have to whip us into line. A demure little maiden from the States looked up timidly and asked, al- | fury is spent.” most in awe: “What! Again?" All of us hope her majesty, Quéen Marie, will like America, and that she does not read all poets, who don’t. (Copyright. 1926. by Paul V. Collins.) ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Q. I have a heifer about 18 months 0ld which has large warts on her head and under her neck. Can you tell me a remedy for this?—W. B. A. Warts on cattle may be re- moved by softening with ofl, then twisting off the growths or snipping them off with scissors. Palnt with tincture of fodine if they appear again. Q. Is there any monument at the grave of Ann Rutledge, Lincoln’s sweetheart?—M. S. J. A. Recently the descendants of those who were intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln when he lived at New Salem replaced the crude stone marking Ann Rutledge's grave ‘with a more elaborate one. The new monument is made of dark Quincy granite, and is inscribed with verses from Edgar Lee Masters’ “Ann Rut- ledge.” Q. Can you tell me where to send my scenarfo? It must be a producing company that will accept from the outside world—G. B. A. It is practically impossible for an amateur to sell a scenarfo. Most of the motion picture producing com- panies maintain their own staffs of writers. Q. 1Is it possible for the complete petrifaction of & tree to take place during the life of an individual?>—W. McD. A. The Forest Service says that the petrifaction of wood takes hun- dreds of years. It therefore is not possible for a complete petrifaction to take place during the lifetime of an individual. Q. Have Hungarian bonds of 1892 any value?—F. A. M. A. The Hungarian bonds dated 1892 matured in 1910. If they were not paid at that time, it is unlikely they will be paid now. Q. Can pewter be mended? A. An expert in metals s: pewter can be mended, but melting point is extremely low it re- cuires careful handling by a skilled worker. J Q. Two years ago last July I saw from the Boston-Yarmouth boat sev- eral whales about four hours or so out of Boston. Every time I mention the incident I meet with incredulity. Will you tell me if there are ever whales in that reglon?—E. N. 8. A. An authority on whales in the National Museum says that the fin- b: whale is seen frequently in the waters between Boston and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Q. What country in the world has the greatest number of telephones?— A. The “United States leads the world in the number of telephones per 100 of population. Canada comes next. The latter stands first in the number of miles of telephone and telegraph wires per 100 of population, the latest compilation showing 3.4 miles per 100. What is the meaning of “W. C. after the word ‘London"?—W. D. C “W. C. 1” after $he name Lon- don means “West Center 1.” It is used to indicate a particular section of the city. Q. Is there any law against draw- ing a check for less than §17—E.F. N. A. There is no Federal law pro- hibiting the making of & bank check for less than the sum of $1. Q. Is there an overhead heatfng system?—P. M. C. A. There is a type of heating which may be known to some as “‘over- head heating” that is as commonly used in school buildings, etc., but not in residences, the heat being intro- duced into the top of the room and the cold air drawn off at the bottom. Q. Are accidents in the United States decreasing o {ncreasing?—F. A. The National Safety Council says that with the exception of traffic accidents practically all other classes are decreasing. Q. What are the total revenus re- :t;lp'fs of the State governments?—A. A. According to a recent statement of the Bureau of the Census, the total revenue receipts in 1925 of the gov. ernments of the 48 States were $1,485,242,240. The per caplita receipts amounted to $13.19. Q. Eres A. Gene Tunney married. Is Gene Tunney married?—M. has never bheen Q. What substance or liquid, it any, will penetrate or destroy steel?— V. G. 8. A" The Bureau of that any strong acid, hydrochlorio op sulphuric, will dis. solve steel witifmore or less rapidity, depending upon the strength of acid, temperature and type of steel, Q. Please name the_ seven and the seven virtues.—M. K. A. According to tha latest diction: aries and sources of injormation, the seven deadly sins are liyed as pride, covetousness, lust, ange gluttony, envy, sloth. The seven chief virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence tenperance, chastity and fortitude. Q. Has the Government pardoned 'all deserters from the Army?—M. B. A. The War Department says that the Government has not pardoned all deserters from the Army. In times of peace they are liable to arrest for three years after the date of deser- tion. Q. How soon will it be possible for me to procure some of the Vermont Bennington commemorative half-dol- lar coins?—D. N. D. A. The Director of the Mint says that the Vermont Bennington com memorative half-dollar coins will not be ready until next year. Q. Where is the table on which Gen. Grant drew up his conditlons of surrender>—O. C. A. This table is on exhibition in the old National Museum. Standards says uch as nitric, vie The resources of our Tree Informa tion Burcau are at your service. You are invited to call upon it as often as you please. It is being maintained by The Evening Star solely to serve you. What question can we answer for you? There is mo charge at all except 2 cents in stamps for return postage. Address your letter to The Ewening Star Information Bureau, Frederic_J. Haskin, Director, Wash- ington, D. C. Tragedy of Hu Describes ature alternately smiles and frowns on man. With her malignance she can and does undo in a breath all that the beneficence of her smile encourages and makes possible. There is no rule of reason or any other rule cognizable by the human mind that governs or affects her moods. She is at once his mother, his indispen- sable friend and his fearsome, unspar- ing, reckless and indiscriminating foe.” Thus reflects the Omaha World-Herald on the disaster at Mi aml, striking the keynote of most of the newspaper comment on this trag- edy, which, the World-Herald con- tinues, is “the tragedy of humanity, a story told over and over again in every age and clime,” and yet the glory that will follow the tragedy ‘“is the glory that crowns the whole hu- man tragedy. Man cast to earth rises reinvigorated by the contact, and . upon the ruins of what has been destroyed he builds more stately man- Slons. And in the process of strife and defeat, and beginning again, he progresses from weakness to strength, from ignorance to enlightenment.” “Miami and environs, a wonderfully ful section, the pride of Flor- comments the Sarasota Daily Times, ‘has been sorely stricken by the fierce West Indian hurricane. The work of vears of effort of men has been, within a few hours, crum- pled and razed by the raging winds of the dreaded hurricane,” and “out of this mass of wreckage, out of this mass of broken and crushed brick, stone and timbers will arise that greater and more glorious Miafi and environs, for those who brought it to where it was, the pride of Florida, are buflders * * * and are still buflders ready to repair the damage.’ * koK K “Mighty windstorms seem to come like Hamlet's sorrows, ‘not as single sples, but in battalions,’ " observes the Atlanta Journal. “Nothing of the kind in recent decades i3 comparable to the misfortune of Miami and the adjacent country.” The Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph in describing the hurricane, which caused such wide- spread disaster along the southeast- ern coast of Florida, says: “It was of the distinctively tropical kind, pecul- jar to that reglon, and one of ture’s most destructive manifestations | of its power. Its marked charact istic is its duration. With an in- tensity equal to that of the cyclone which visits more Northern climes, it is even more terrible, because it may continue for hours before its The Salt Lake Deseret News de- plores the mnews that magnificent citles were leveled by hurricane and that hundreds are dead and v manity Miami Disaster of relief measures, and has met the situation with a skill born of long practice.” ‘While thoughts now center upon the task to provide for the injured and to see that the thousands of homeless are cared for, in the opinion of the Boston Transcript, “Florida may have a lesson to learn if the danger of the repetition of such a disaster is to he reduced to the minimum. 1In that con nection,” the Transcript says, “the comes to the mind the lesson learned ialveston, when it counted the st after thousands of its people ¥ perished in the hurricane of Septem- ber, 1900. The erection of a concrete sea wall, the raising of the level of the ground behind it, and thecon- struction of a giant causeway to the city,” enables Galveston to sit behind her wall “secure from the ravages of the sea. Is there not in the experi ence of Galveston a lesson for Florida?" * kK ¥ It s significant, as the Detroit News points out, that while man knows of no way by which earthquakes and tropical hurricanes can be prevented “‘he continues to build his citles within the zones of these mighty convulsions deflant of Nature, trusting in his luck. Indeed if this were not his attitude, he would scarcely have risen above the level of the beasts. The Prometheus in him still fights the s though he is beaten oc comes back stronger than before. “After a Japanese earthquake, a fire in Baltimore, an _earthquake followed by fire in San Francisco. a calamity anywhere involving widespread de- struction,” in the opinion of the New York World, “bullding experts gather to seek lessons for their calling. In Miami they are noting with satisfac tion that steelframe buildings stend the wind and floods remarkably well." However, the World points out that “Miami is suffering now some millions of loss attributable to haste in build ing. A city thrown together with such feverish precipitancy is not best cal culated to stand an emergency strain. Miami will be rebuilt. But a margin of reserve strength over and above | any expected test proves well worth while when greater eme According to the Spokane Spokes man Peview, “it Florida beach and swamp boomers were sole vietims of the disaster that has befallen their magnificent cities, built upon lov beaches and filled-in swamps, the Red Cross and other rellef agencies would not need to spring to their relief These magnificent beach cities wern erected at the cost of hundreds of mil lons of dollars, with utter disregard of warning meteorological facts well comes gency.’ the day of the thousands homeless, and say: a disaster, especially when it occurs| in our own land, killing, maiming and | torturing our own _countrymen, arouses with our sympathy for the stricken a sense of horror and dread. Florida, of course, will rebuild and, in so far as it can, repair the damage done, but no reconstruction can l:rmi:‘ back the dead, and no rebutlding will completely wipe out the vivid mem- ory of these tragic days.” * x ok K “Great,_dlsasters, such as the hurrl cane which swept southern Florida,” declares the Seattle Times, “bring out | the spirit of humanitarianism of the | American people.” The Sacramento | Union takes occasion to note that e is a highly gratifying thing that the | Natlon is organized and prepared to | aid any afflicted area in its first hour of grief. There is in this not only practice of the humane impulse, but safety to the rest of the country against plague, typhus and other dis- ease epidemic: The New York Evening Post be. lieves “the most pressing needs of the storm-stricken sections of Florlda have been met with admirable swift ness. Supplies sufficient to meet im- mediate needs are on the ground, com- munications are being restored rapid- ly, refugees are being cared for, and the‘thousands of injured are receiving attention. The i\ed Cross is in charge / known to science and the public. The great heart of the Nation will respond in generous sympathy, but grie and generosity should not conceal truths which, if they had been considered in good judgment, would have curbed the Florida folly Radio and Worship. From the Springfield T'nion The radio, according to a federatio of churches in Penneylvania. fa. por sponsible for the steadily diminishing attendance at Sunday services, and bm‘! oldtimers cun remember ‘way ack when it was the automobile that was held to blame. e Happy Harmonists. From the Des Moines Evening Tribune. Chicago orchestra players are to get $90 per man per week (not month). They are more elated over that fact = Ifl"lhl'\‘ had found “The Los rd | Two Backward Centuries. From the Louisville Times. Sometimes civillzation seems great thing, but when you consider how peaceful and safe it, was 200 years ago where Chicago mow stands ctvilization seems a great disaster.