Evening Star Newspaper, October 19, 1926, Page 8

m_——_—_: THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY......October 19, 1026 sy THEODORE W. NOXES. .. .Editor wrTEE s satelfe o At &gl The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office® h St. and Penneylvania Ave, ork' Office: 110 East 42nd St. Office: Tower Building. 14 Repent St.. London, ng) and, Noy Chi The Evening Star. with the adition. fa car city month. Orders may he sen Bleptns Seain 5000 “Coectio carrier at end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. ally and Sunday. ly only . junday only Al Other States and Canada. Mly and Sunday..1yr.. $12.00: 1 mo.. $ 13 $800:1 aily only. g 11 m Bunday only " $4.00: 1 mo’! o 35 Member of the Associated Pres The Associated Press in exclusively entitled %o the use for republication of all news dis- atches cradited 1o it or not otherwiss cred- ted in this waper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special diepatches herein are also reserved e The Market Site Paradox. If the question of immediate urgency 18 to determine the choice of a market site, only the location of a new farm- ers’ market is Involved, for that estab- lishment alone_ is to be at once re- moved from Iits present siiuation. There iz no such urgency in the case of the commission houses or the Cen- ter Market, which are on lands not yet definitély selected for public bullding purposes. But if the question of the relocation of tha commission houses s to be considered in connection with that of the farmers’ market, then quite plainly the future of the Center Market must be taken into account at once. The City Park and Planning Commission, however, divides the sit- uation into two phases as to time, re- gardless of the clear logic of a unified and immediate disposition of the whole question. It does not necessarily follow that the farmers’ market, the commission houses and the retail market should all be located on one site or in one area of the city. They are now close together, but mainly because the gen- eral market establishment simply grew in the course of many years around an initial food purveying center. They may in the new dispensation be scat- tered, but In that scattering there should be consideration primarily of the interests of the people who go to market. The farmers’ market can be located by mandate at a specified place. The new Center Market can be placed on & stipulated site. The commission houses, however, may go anywhere that the owners wish, subject, of course, to the zoning rules. It is, in- deed, impossible for the Government to dictate the location of the wholesale food establishments. When they are driven out of their present location to make room for public buildings the merchants will doubtless follow their own judgment as to the best position for their trade. Closely related, however, are the farmers’ market and the retall market. As far as the public is concerned they should be adjacent. The proposition te put the farmers’ market on the out- skirts of the city merely for the sake of access to the commission houses or a railroad line is to disregard this need of a relationship between it and the retail market center. The proposition to postpone the se- lection of a site for the retail market because there is no present need of its removal is somewhat reminiscent of the familiar story told of a municipal alderman who offered as a solution of an urgent local problem the following resolution tesolved, That the Coun- ty of Blank must have a new jail. Resolved further, That in the interest of economy the new jail should be con- structed out of the materials of the old jail. Resolved further, That forthe safekeeping of the prisoners in Blank County the old jail be not torn down until the new jail is completed.” The market paradox is somewhat akin to the Blank County jail proposi- tion. The farmers’ market should go where it will be accessible to the patrons of the rotail market. But the retail market does not require to e moved for the present. Therefore there 1s no occasion to select a site for the retail market at once, but a site for the farmers’ market is to be im- medlately chosen. And the commission houses, which need not be moved un- til the retail market is moved, are likewise to be given a site at once, leaving to the indeterminate future the emplacement of the retall market, despite the fact that its location is the key of the whole situation. Truly there is need of logic in the considera- tion of this question. ————————— The undiscovered assassin continues to assert himself in deflance of the ancient adage, “Murder will out.” An Armistice at Moscow. Tielding to irresistible pressure, Leon Trotsky and his five associates in the movement to defeat Stalin and his Soviet general staff at Moscow have publicly repudiated their actions and promised to disband the fractional groups that have been formed under their leadership. Assoclated with Trotsky in this recent movement to gain control of the policles of the Bolshevik organization are Zinoviefr, Kameneff, Pyatikoff, Sokolnikoff and Yevdokimoff. Opposed to them are Stalin, Bukharin, Rykoff, Kalinin and Temsky. The Trotsky group two weeks ago made a publie attack against the central committee in a meeting, which was denounced as jllsgal and in a manner which the central committee called “a shameless violation of party discipline.” It is evident that Trotsky and his friends were given the choice of a surrender or severe punishment. They chose the former. In their public declaration the Trot- sky half dozen announce that they centinue to hold their own views, but they thereupon surrender all the ma- chinery which they have constructed to the end of making those views effec- tive. They promise to confine their opposition of opinion “within the limits of the party constitution and ahe decisions of the central eomusrit- v ;1ar® compromising. tee,” but give up their claim to the right to defend them after the major- ity has voted them down. The prac- tical point of the matter is that this surrender insures the silence of the Trotskyites at the next session of the party conference, October 25, when, the central committee rules, there shall be no discussion of these con- troversial questions. This s a strange sort of surrender. It is a ylelding to force and not a ylelding of convictions. Evidently Trotsky and his assoclates are tem- porizing, even as Stalin and his forces The actual issue between these groups is as to the ex- tent to which the communist policy is to be carried into execution. Trotsky claims to be the heir of Lenin and the standard bearer of extreme bol- Se shevism. Stalin has been carrying on | t | in a series of readjustments from ex- treme communism to meet the eco- nomic needs of Russia in the face of the opposition of foreign powers to the radical regime of the proletariat at Moscow, ' Trotsky's promise to abstain from controversy and contention will prob- ably be trustworthy only to the de- gree that he can be kept in fear of the power of the majority. The fact that he and his friends specifically avow their belief in their own doc- trines and submit only as a matter of discipline is practically a notice that this present arrangement is merely an armistice. The civil war brewing in Russia is simply postponed. ——————— Crime-Curbing Laws Needed. Gov. Moore of New Jersey, stirred by the recent crimes of banditry com- mitted in that State, proposes to lay before the Legislature at a speclal session beginhing November 15 a message recommending three drastic changes in the laws. He will ask that life sentences be imposed on all found gullty of banditry; that all habitual criminals, even though not convicted of banditry, will be given life sen- tences, and that the Legislature pass an act to speed the trials of criminals and to lessen delays and appeals. It is probable that these recom- mendations will be adopted and that New Jersey’'s laws will be strength- ened by the means and to the extent the governor proposes. That State has been the scene of numerous crimes of late. The most recent one, an attack by a gang of highly efficient highwaymen upon a mall truck, shocked the country. The men got away, but if they had been caught at once, the procedurd of trial would have been slow and the penaltles ad- ministered, save in the case of the actual slayers, would have been merely penitentiary terms of no great length and subject to reduction for “good behavior.” Of the three recommendations which Gov. Moore proposes to make to the Leglslature that relating to speedier trials and fewer delays through appeals is the most impor- tant. It makes but little difference what the penalties provided by the law may be if the processes of trial and ultimate punishment are pro- tracted. The most urgent need in this country today is for swifter justice. In this connection should be noted an effort by an organization in New York County of grand jurors, men who have served in that capacity in the past and who take an interest in matters of public welfare, and espe- cially in crime prevention and punish- ment. A committee of this associa- tion has appealed to the State com- mission to study, with a view of find- ing remedy, the bail-bond evil preva- lent in that jurisdiction. It is esti- mated that there are 332 cr'minal bail bond agents doing business for surety companies in New York, and 237 pro- fessional bondsmen operating with cash and real estate as security. Many of these share the ‘offices’ of members of the bar specializing in criminal cases. It is believed that there is a virtual partnership between the bondsmen and the lawyers. There is also some underground connection between these professional bondsmen and the police. The result is that almost immediately after arrests are made bondsmen are on the spot, bail is offered, men are freed and lawyers are engaged prepared to fight off trial. Under a recent enactment of the New York Legislature known as the Baumes law this process of profes- sional bonding is somewhat limited, and judges are held to a stricter ac- countability for the granting of lib- erty to persons against whom there is plain evidence of guilt, and especially people with bad records. However, the old evil prevails to a great extent, and now it is proposed to investigate this business of securing the immedi- ate release of professional criminal A further enactment by the Legisla- ture is possible. The evil of easy bail prevalls in this jurisdiction as well as in New York, and should have the immediate attention of Congress in its considera- tion of means of lessening crime in Washington. ———————————— Highwaymen used to be content to rob the passengers and let the coach pass on. Thelr present system is to steal motor car and all. Pitied Rather Than Censured. The fundamentalist “Carrie Na- tion” who has been mutilating evo- lutionary books in the Kansas City, Kans, public library is a queer manifestation of a mental quirk with which many persons, present and past, are afflictel. This ardent en- emy of Darwin and all his works, and those of authors whose minds run along with his, has not only cut and torn volumes but has scribbled ap- parently contradicting quotations from Holy Writ with a bountiful hand. Without going into the pros and cons of the question which agitates the mental processes of this public nuisance this may be said: that hi; tory and scignce testify that In al- most every case wherein people act that way they eventually have been proved to be in the wrong. In fact, there would seem to be something that makes people in the wrong act that way. Inquisitors, smashers of stained- glass cathedral windows, burners of Alexandrian and Mayan books, perse- cutors“of Galileo, agitators against the dangerous and unhealthful custom of taking baths, Inveighers against anesthetics, pro-slavery _fanatics, and a thousand similar groups, all ridiculbus,, often cruel and always wrong, occur readily to mind. They never go on the principle: bring out everything possible and let us see clearly who s right; but on that of: mutilate, twist or suppress entirely the arguments and facts of one's adversary. The clipper and tearer of books is physically equal to the old lady who tried to sweep back the ocean waves. Intellectually, in his resem- blance to the ostrich, whose method of hiding is to submerge its head in sand, he gives the pro-evolution- ists a very strong argument. ———— The First Glimpse of Washington. It is stated that as Queen Marle of Rumanie stepped out of the Union Station in this city last evening for her first view of Washington she gave an exclamation of surprise and pleas- ure at the vision of the dome of the Capitol {lluminated in the dusk of the southern sky. This is the reaction of practically every visitor to this city arriving after nightfall. It is one of the most impressive spectacles in the world. Washingtonians, though fa- miliar with it, are constantly thrilled with the sight. As the city is ap- proacheq by motor from out of town the dome glows as a jewel. It is the symbol of the Capital, the symbol of America. It must be borne in mind, however, that for those who enter Washington by train in daylight hours no such spectacle is afforded. The dome is there; the perfect lines of that re- markable creation surmounting the legislative bullding are in evidence. But the vista through which it is pre- sented is not one of churm. The im- mediate foreground, planned as a park, has been neglected, is utilized for war emergency structures, and is marred by relics of the old occupation before the Government undertook the creation of the Capitol-Station plaza. After some years of delay Congress at the last session provided for the purchase of the remaining portions of this area to be developed as a park. That work should be pressed speedily to conclusion. In the shortest possible time the land should be taken, its “temporary” occupants removed, thdl), full sweep developed on lines of beauty. Then newcomers to the city will get thelr first impressions of Washington with the same reaction of pleasure and admiration now felt when the dome shines forth in the darkness. ‘Washington’s welcome to the visitor should be just as impressive by day as by night. e The prevailing political sentiment in Europe seems unfortunately in. clined at frequent intervals to con- centrate on the idea that the U. S. A. has entirely too much money, ——— The United States Senate is com- posed of men who are in a large de- gree desirous of pleasing the admin- istration without running too much risk of offending constituents. ——oms Susanne Lenglen leaps into the air with a grace which makes it plain that she would have made a great classio dancer had she not become a tennis player. o0 The radio has recently been lim- ited to a number of stations so small that the groping listener is deprived even of the pleasures of hope. ——————————— Dempsey and Tunney want another fight. It will not be permitted to occur soon enough to interfere with vaudeville engagements. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Borrowing Trouble. ©Oh, why should I view the emotional play ‘Where husband and wife disagree? ‘What advantage to me is the comedy gay ‘Where clubs and utensils fly free? Why should I attend the orchestral refrain While tunesters their sorrows in- tone? It is Beautiful Art—but there’s noth- ing to gain. T have troubles enough of my own. Oh, why should the mimic Misfortune demand Attention and time and a price ‘While any day life brings on every hand Experience not at all nice? The billboard reveals what must surely depress ‘When the wares that it heralds are shown. My sympathies I shall restrain more or less. 1 have troubles enough of my own. Waiting. “Are you an insurgent?” “Not now,” answered Senator Sor- ghum. “T may yet cast my fortunes with those now insurging; but not until they have shown enough strength to establish themselves as the regulars.” Beauty, Fore and Aft. ‘When first Belinda bobbed her hair The mirror showed a visage fair. She could not then foresee, alack! The way her neck looks in the back! 1 Jud Tunkins says if you insist on studying the stars there’s a heap more money in motion pictures than in astronomy. “More people,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “have been pun- ished for honest mistakes than have paid the penalty for deliberate crimes. Life's Joy-Ride. ‘We laugh—until we learn the truth That brings, too late, so many a fear. The things that made us smile in youth In wiser years provoke a tear. “Everybody is talkin’ 'bout de high cost of food,” sald Uncle Eben. “Even de parrot says ‘Polly wants a cracker.’” & BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Although much that Herbert Spen- cer advocated has been adopted in modern educatfon, it remains interest- ing and instructive to read his book upon the theme in order to see how far the world has yet to go in this direction. It is distinctly fine to station nolice- men and older boys in front of school buildings, to save the little ones from being run over, in this motorized age —it is distinctly another to see to it that no child gets the idea that pleas- ure, per se, is the sole end and aim of lite. . JLast week, considering Spencer's ‘Education,” we discovered that the leading activities of life, in the order of thelr importance, are those which directly minister to self-protection; those which (by securing the necessi- ties of life) indirectly so minister; those which have for their end the rearing| and discipline of offspring; those which are involved in the maintenance of proper soclal and political relations, and those which make up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratifica- tion of the tastes and feslings. It 1s hard for a child of today, born in the midst of a prosperous, civilized nation, to accurately get the facts of life before him in proper relationship to one another. The accent is often put so far off-plumb that even his el- ders misjudge what is important and what is not so important. Spencer gets down to rock-bottom, wipes away our pretense and comes out flat-footedly for self-preservation as the most important duty. The whole world acts on that theory, as well it must, but many will arise, even at this date, to say it s not true. They are, of course, fighting a shadow, for Spencer recognized, as well as_they, the vast primary importance in life of spiritual truths. He had no argument with any one on that head. ERE Y Speaking of his five leading kinds of actlvities, Spencer succinctly said: “That these stand in something like their true order of subordination, it needs no long consideration to show. The actions and precautions by which, from moment to moment, we secure personal safety, must clearly take precedence of all others, ““Could there be a man ignorant as an infant of all surrounding objects and movements, or how to guide him- self among them, he would pretty cer- tainly lose his life the first time he went into the street; notwithstanding any amount of learning’ he might have on other matters. And as entire ignorance in all other directions would be less promptly fatal than entire ig- norance in this direction, it must be admitted that knowledge immediately conducive to self-preservation is of primary importance.” This knowledge is so fundamental that commonly we tend to forget it, scarcely realizing that we possess it. It is salutary, now and then, to de- liberately stop and realize its prime necessity. One often sees persons, especially since the automobile came into its present place of importance in the social and industrial world, who seem utterly lacking in the instinct of self- preservation. The thrill of power un- der their hands seems to make them insensible to the fact that men are made of flesh and bone. We give but one more of Spencer’s arguments in favor of his placing the kinds of knowledge in the order in hich he did place them. He says: 'hat next after direct self-preserva- Uncle Sam has proved to be a good animal breeder, so far as Alaskan seals demonstrate, for starting in 1911, with a remnant of only 132,000 sealé, where a decade or so previous there had been from 2,000,000 to 4,000,000, he has caused the herd to 80 increase and multiply that now there are 761,201 domiciled on the little Pribilof Islands, the number doubling in the last decade. Japan is complaining that they break bounds and eat up her fish. So Japan wants to revise the international treaty of 1911, which stopped pelagic sealing, as agreed to by the United States, Great Britain, Russia and Japan. * % ¥ X Under the terms of the 1911 treaty, ail pelagic sealing—Xkilling of seals while they were in the ocean, away from their breeding haunts on the Pribilof Islands—was forbidden, and the United States, in compensation, agreed to pay to Japan and to Great Britain, each, 15 per cent of all skins taken on the islands during the term of the treaty. It has been hinted, more or less of- ficially, that Japan may be more in- terested in an increase of that per- centage than in réviving the pelagic butchery of seals, which had come 80 near their extermination while no effective control had been exercised. Oceanographers are decidedly skep- tical of the charge that Alaskan seals are poaghing upon Japanese fish, for our seals, as a rule, do not cross the ocean, but upon leaving the Pribilof Islands in August swing around a great circle toward Lower California, thence up the coastal waters during the Winter, arriving back on the Pribllof Islands in May. In fable, the wolf complained that the flerce lamb, downstream, was muddying the waters, so that he—the wolf—could not dl'l&l Seals are almost Buman in many of their traits and habits. Ninety per cent of the seals of the world live and breed upon the Pribilof Islands—St. Paul and St. George and two smaller islands—Ilocated just north of Alaska Peninsula. They feed in the ocean, and each individual returns each year to its identical spot on the islands, About May 1, the seal bulls arrive upon the islands, and take up their strategic positions, where they await the later arrival of the females. Each bull has there pre-empted a particular rock or residence, and as the “‘cows’ arrive, there is a great scramble to capture them for their respective harems. The strongest bulls accumu- late harems of from 20 to 100 cows, and from that time the bulls never leave their positions of vantage, lest some rival steal their families. bulls live three to four months upon those barren rocks, without eating or drinking, because of their jealousies over their respective harems. They subsist upon their own blubber, until, toward the end of the season, a husky bull becomes greatly emaciated and comparatively feeble. Each cow gives birth to one “pup,” which she nurtures and feeds throughout the Summer. There way be 40,000 or 50,000 such pups upon one promontory, but the mothers swim out 200 or 300 miles for their own feed, and, upon returning, each mother finds her own “pup” and suckles it. No mistake as to the identification of her pup has ever been known. * % x ¥ . Seals also inhabit islands in the sub- antarctic, and in the Southern Pacific region, including Juan Fernandez, where Robinson Crusoe lived, though his biographer never discovered what a prize island he had, for Robinson Crusoe never wore a sealskin over- coat—which proves that the whole story was fiction. A company of hunters found seal so abundant upon a little island south of Cape Horn that they slaughtered in one season 250,000 of t| . The next year they found that tHey had killed the source of the ‘“gollen egs,” -for they then found only 13000 seais In BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. The D. 0., TUESDAY, OCTOBER_ 19, 1926.° NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM LG M. tion comes the indirect self,preserva- tion which consists in acquiring the means of living, none will question. That a man’ industrial functions must be considered before his parental oneg, {s manifest from the fact that, np&klng generally, the discharge of the parental functions is made pos: sible only by the previous discharge of the industrial ones.” In making these divisions, Spencer dld In no way speak against those higher instincts, such as that of heroism, which makes a man gladly give up his life that another may live. He was speaking for ordinary, every- day living, such as most of us live today, such as most persons lived half a century ago in America and Eng- land. He tried to put things in their places, just as they ought to be, if a man wants to get the most out of life. The fact is that every human being acts in just this way, until the excitement of pleasure in later life tends to make him lose his mental balance. Reading Spencer helps us to remember, * ok kX “Such, then, is something like the rational order of subordination: That education which prepares for direct self-preservation; that which prepares for indirect self-preservation; that which prepares for parenthood; that which prepares for citizenship; that which prepares for the miscellaneous refinements of life. * * ¢ After making «all qualifications, there still remain these broadly marked divi- sions; and it still continues substan- tially true that these divisions subor- dinate one another in the foregoing order, because the corresponding divi- slons of life make one another possible in that order.” The ideal of education, according to our author, is complete preparation in all these divisions. “But failing this ideal, as in our phase of civilization every one must do more or less, the aim should be to maintain a due pro- portion between the degrees of prepa- ration in each.” Spencer did not have much use for history, for instance, that consists only of “a mere tissue of names and dates.” Such “history,” he said, has not the remotest bearing upon any of our actions, “and is of use only for the avoidance of those unpleasant criticlsms which current opinion passes upon its,absence.” The educational world is steadily getting around to this view of history, as such. Biography, too, as witness many recent books, is becoming life- like, as interesting as life itself. It is simply the difference between the “mental slant” of the authors of today and those who bored the world with the old-time blographies, beginning, “In the year 1842 the subject of this sketch was born in Posey County, Ind, of proud but humble par- ents—"" Says Spencer, somewhat heatedly: “That which our school courses leave almost entirely out, we thus find to be that which most nearly concerns the business of life. All our industries would cease were it not for that inférmation which men begin to acquire as they best may after their education is said to be finished.” There is a world of truth in that vet, despite the fact that our schools of today have gone far in the good GALAHAD. By John Erskine. The Bobbs-Merrill Co. He'd been at it a hundred years, or 80 it seemed to him., And he was tired—tired of the hopeless task of firing succeeding classes of young students at plles of dead ashes, burmed out so long ago as to cast doubts upon their having glowed ever with warmth and life. He was tired of the endless business of parading hosts of words, so chosen and strung together and measured as to make harmonies and symphonies—except to young hearts already filled with glamourous tunes of their own, little songs of the many-colored life right at hand. Plainly, too, he was tire of skirting the real substance of most things accepted by education as parts of its proper program. Take as a single instance, he was saying to himself, that familiar and honored school theme of literature, “The Idyls of the King,” How long and fgithfully he had striven with that court of Camelot, with its king and queen and gallant knights! How he had furbished up the dimmed glit- ter of tournament and joust, the cere- monial of knighthood won, the long outfarings of gorgeous cavalcades in quest of evil to be conquered—the fiery dragon, the frightful monsters; indeed, every other pattern and de- sign of wickedness! How flat it had all fallen! How unconvinced were his voung students, how uninterested! He knew the reason. It was just because neither he nor any one else had had the gumption to move those people of Camelot up into the present, translat- ing them into the eternal human stuff that would have made them recogniz- able, companionable, welcome. so this bered schoolman set himself to the wholly enjoyable job of a genu« ine recrudescence of Camelot. And we were permitted to tune in on this exciting experiment. In no time at all the queen, Guine- vere, emerges as the focus of concern here. Not because of her sins, which have always been made so conspicu- ous under an elaborate gesture of con- cealment. Rather is she the center by virtue of the fact that she was the political brains of Camelot. Handi- capped by her sex in any personal achievement of glory for the kingdom, Guinevere adopted man-making as her career. She made Arthur; she made Lancelot; in 8o far as he was made at all, she made Galahad—that is, she made King Arthur to the limit of his powers. This limit was soon reached, for the King's ambition for conquest did not equal that of the Queen. And Arthur grew tired of being continually stretched beyond his uttermost. He wanted to sit down now and then. So, not the fool he is commonly made out to be, he proba- bly gave way willingly to Lancelot. Lancelot was a happy release for himself. He was the new lump of clay in the hands of this female builder of men. In the course of time Lancelot himself began to edge away from the insistent urge of the Queen toward greater and greater heroisms. Then came Galahad—young, beauti- ful, plastic. And Guinevere, fired afresh, set to work with ardor to directis d by Herbert Spencer.|make her greatest man of all. But, Inr;é:ed(:nw‘?ll‘;fiz Wo‘\'.lld most otpus be | the fatal truth is, that the queen if it were not for this precious infor- | herself was getting older. And love, her great fashioning tool, changed right in her hands. It became pro- tective, cautious, admonitory. In a word, it became mother love, timid for {its beloved effeminizing, frus- trating. The boy loved her beau- ty, he adored his conception of her purity, he listened to her warnings and dreamed her dreams. But these were the timid dreams of an aging and overfond woman, and they diluted the n-stuff in the boy. That's what’s thd matter with Gala- had—with all the Galahads. Out of an altogether plausible situa- tion John Erskine creates in “Gala- had” a charming comedy—a_ comedy of surprise that such old and romas tic materfal could come alive at all: that it could as well turn squarely upon modern life in full revelation of a not uncommon cause of youth’s frustration through oversolicitous sen- timentalism. Not that one accuses John Erskine of deliberately teaching a_lesson here or of pointing a moral. He is clearly tired of lessons. He is taking a rest from his labors, as he explains the reputation of Galahad, and shows why he is, 1, a rather uninteresting chap. A capti- vating story, as joyously acceptable after its own fashion as was “The Private Life of Helen of Troy” in its peculiarly inimitable way. * x %% GABRIELLE. B . B. Maxwell. Dodd, Mead & Co. W. B. Maxwell takes keen inter- est in the woman who has over- stepped the safety zome of virtu- ous behavior laid down for her in neat inclosures of white paint by the hu- man male. “Spinster of This Parish” is evidence of that interest. 8o is “Gabrielle.” And, indeed, no other subject can make a greater pull upon the true explorer of & woman’s heart than that of the girl who, having tossed her cap over the moon of heaven-high convention walls, must needs make her lone way thereafter in a stormy and pitiless world. Se- crecy is the first refuge of such en one, and this she searches out with the instinct for safety that possesses all little defenseless things in a world of fangs and claws. Secrecy denied her, then indeed do her unavailing powers struggle and fight for some corner of safety, for some little bar- rier against the contempt of all nice people. To get into the mind and heart of such a girl is to enter a land of unspeakable horror and darkness, just because good people have cre- ated that sort of land for her and have confined her within it. But to get back to Gabrielle. Tt was the war. It was the parting days of overwrought maid and youth that dowered Gabrielle with Lance, man- child, destitute of a father. Not an uncommon theme for war time, but a tragic theme in any time. This fact, however, remains the long-sustained secret of this story—a secret that gives shadowy background to the run of the romance itself, or that advances in mysterious menace from time to time. Gabrielle is beautiful and fine— a quiet gir], intelligent, making her own way and that of Lance. A some- what impossible family surrounds her —a stepfather who is a rogue in sharp black and white; almost too sharp to be believable. The mother is a fool, the sister a slangy, good- natured plece of commonplace. Ga- brielle and little Lance are hothouse compared with this vegetable garden stuff. A situation that stamps the story as romance, in part at least, tak- ing away a measure of the realism that it might otherwise legitimately claim. Gabrielle herself i{s, however, real. Here is the record of a fine girl overcoming by her own essential hon- esty and independence that which is the one thing in a woman's life whose eftects cannot be overcome. It is in this respect that ‘‘Gabrielle” stands out in strong and plausible protest against the practice of soclety in re- spect to the unforgivable sin. It is a well developed story that ought in its essentials to have innumerable counterparts in life itself. It runs along the lines of pure romance—the manly lover of good station, the girl's unlmtnco against herself and the 00, mation we have acquired since our ‘“education” was said to have been completed! & similar butchery, the pelagic sealing was exterminating the Pribilof Island seals, prior to the 1911 treaty. The seals swim upon the surface of the ocean, and even sleep on the surface, visible from aH boats. Pelagic seal hunters, therefore, were able to slaughter thousands as they ap- proached their breeding grounds in compact masses of millions, and the ‘wastefulness was indicated by the fact that they killed cows as well as bulls, and recovered only one carcass in five of their slaughter. If that had not been stopped, all seals would have been exterminated long ago. * k ¥ % Under our Government manage- ment, no cows are killed. Al killing 18 limited to bulls under 3 years of age. A bull weighs about 500 pounds, a cow 90 pounds, so that it is easy to distinguish them apart. No private hunter is now permitted to kill at all, except that the aborigines of the is- lands may kill what they need for food, provided they hunt with only the aboriginal weapons. For 40 years after ‘our purchase of Alaska, the right to hunt seals was leased, but since 1911 no such leases have been granted. The control is in the Depart- ment of Commerce. Ten thousand bulls are marked and protected each year; all killing is of the surplus bulls above the 10,000. A young bull's fur 18 soft, but upon maturity it becomes coarse and useless as fur. A cow be- gins breeding at 2 years of age, but a bull not until it is 5 or 6 years, when it becomes strong enough to fight the old bulls and achieve its own em. It is by thus protecting all cows and killing only surplus bulls that the number of the herd has been in- creased. It is expected to bring up the total, in another decade, to the original millions, * K k% ‘ Until 1921, all sealskins had to be sent to London to be dressed and dyed by a secret process. It was contended that even when Leondon dyers, who were believed to know the secrets, were imported into America, there was “‘something in the water or atmosphere here which made it im- possible to dye seal with equal quality as that produced in London.” Tt has now been demonstrated by the Gov- ernment and a single firm in St. Louis that that pretense was false, for today the St. Louls firm excels the London dyers in skill and_excellence of product. It takes 180 distinct op- erations to dress, tan and dye a sealskin. London has lost its mo- nopoly, and, since 90 per cent of the seals of the world belong to the United States, our development of the processes of dressing and dyeing the skins is of great importance. Our Government monopoly has built up & world market for fine sealskins ::x s:é Lg\llu. vzhalfllre lbll'e skins aPe auc- oned off ann: , bringing from $50 to $150 a skin. ¥ s ¢ From 1911 until 1916, no seal was killed; since then only the surplus bulls. This reduction of seal car- casses had a serous effect upon a by- product of the Pribilof Islands—blue foxes, which are permitted to feed upon the seal bodies after the skins are taken. With the reduction of such feed, the foxes have been de- creasing. * X ¥ % After 1926, any party to the 1911 treaty has a right to ask for revision with 'one year’s notice. Japan ap- pears to be taking advantage of that proviso, with the intimation that she wants the right to prey upon seals in her waters and in the open ocean. Russia has, in the Commander Is- lands, off of Saghalien, some 18,000 seals, and agrees to pay us 15 per cent of all skins she takes from them. Japan has some 7,000 or 8,000 seals .on Robben Island, and, by the 1911 treaty, paid us and Canada, each, 10 per cent of all she slaughtered dur- ing the first five years of that treaty and 6 per cent since 1016. o Colitned —. t man, on account of the truth about herself; the mischievous family forces that urge her against herself, the fine quality of the lover's family— these are ‘would blend .u Mr. Maxwell are carried to- \ Q. How is it possible to tell time with a rope?—A. H. H. A. One of the earliest methods of telling time was that of burning a piece of rope in which knots had been made at Intervals. When the rope burned to one knot it was 1 o'clock. ‘When it reached the second knot it was 2 o'clock, etc. Q. Where is the statue of “The Com- ing of the White Man"?—W. O. H. A. It s situated in Washington Park, at Vista and Park avenues, Portland, Oreg. The status was unvelled on October 6, 1904. Q. Why are the “horse latitudes” so called?—L. R. L. A. Authorities differ in regard to the origin of the name “horse lati- tudes,” some claiming that it was de- rived from the fact that vessels with a cargo of horses were often so de- layed on account of the calms that the animals perished from lack of water, Q. Are there countries where ba- nanas are a staple food?—C. 8. A. The pulp of the banana is nu- tritious and constitutes an important food. In some of the Pacific islands it forms almost the staple diet of the natives. Q. What kind of dogs are prairie dogs?—D. V. A. They are not really dogs, but a kind of squirrel called a “marmot.” Q. Please give details of the last Pikes Peak race. & 4 A. The latest race up Pikes Peak was won by Glen Schultz, in a Stutz Special, in 18 minutes and 19.2 sec- onds. The other contestants were as follows: Second, Joe Unser, Lexington Special, 19 minutes 1.4 seconds: third, Humphrey Bollman, Oakland Special, 21 minuces 38.4 seconds. The length of this road is 12 miles, Q. Should a formal acceptance of an_ invitation be dated>—T. D. A. It should not be dated. Be care- ful to include in the reply the time given in the invitation. Q. What is the new method of wind- row harvesting?—R. P. A. The wheat is cut with a header, after which it is dropped into the windrows. The wheat is then picked up and threshed with a combine. Q. Have aerial photographs proved of assistance in making hydrographic chart: . I 6. A. The United States Navy con- siders the airplane an fmportant fac- THE EVENTNG STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ) = — ANSWERS‘ TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. tor in the survey of both land and sea areas. The value of using aerial photographs - in chart making has been proved after several years of effort and experiment. Q. How fast our solar system moving through space”—C. B. A. It is moving toward the constels lation Lyra at the rate of 12 miles a second. . Q. Is dry cleaning really “dry" R. E. M. i A. The term “dry” is applled to cleaning with gasoline, or related agents, because such solvents are free from moisture even though they are liquids. The Bureau of Standards says these liquids are highly explosive and should be handled by experienced cleaners. Carbon tetrachloride is, perhaps, the safest and most efficlent solvent for use in home dry-cleaning. Q. Does the Army operate motion picture theaters at the various posts? A. The Army Motion Picture Serv- ice operates 98 theaters in the United States and 11 in the Panama Canal Zone. During the last fiscal year there were shown 17,618 complete pro- grams, composed of features, comedies, novelties and news reels. The attend- ance was approximately 4,500,000, Q. Where is the Leaning Tower of Chi . D. A 'he Tiger Hill of Soochow” fs so called. It was built 1,300 years ago. near the tomb of the founder of this ancient city. Q. What is the most flammable f’ubfltl;znce in general domestic use?— . E. R. A. Gasoline is said to be perhaps the most flammable material used for domestic purpnses. The vapor from a pint of gasoline, mixed with the proper amount of air, has a destruc- tive power equal to that of a pound of dynamite. You want to know something. You wish to_ be positive before you go ehead. Weil, The Evening Star will tell you what you want to know end give you assurance before you pro- ceed. Our Washington Bureau can answer any question of fact pro- pounded to it. Here is the university of information—a great, free educa- tional institution established solely to serve you. Send in your question and get the right answer. Inclose 2 cents in stamps to cover the return postage. Address The Evening Star Informa- tion Bureaw, Frederic J. Haskin, Di- rector, Washington, D. ¢4 Nation’s Interest Is Risi In Indiana Political Charges Indiana’s turmoil over a grand jury investigation of alleged corruption in the State Republics organization— an inquiry forced by a group of In- diana Republican editors—has be- come an affair of extraordinary na- tional interest. The country awaits developments which may clear up the long-whispered reports that D. C. Stephenson, former Klan leader who now is serving a life term for murder, might make gensational disclosures if he decided to talk. “Considering the long time that ugly rumors have been in circulation in the Hoosier State, and the openness with which they have been directed against men high in public life,” ac- cording to the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (independent Republican), “the order for a grand jury investiga- tion in Indianapolis comes from the statehouse rather Dbelatedly and with ill grace. Investigation is some- what overdue. The whole tempest was brewed by Thomas A. Adams of Vincennes, chairman of the executive committee of the State Republican Editorial Association. The statement of Atty. Gen. Gilliom is so worded as to justify apprehension lest that official’s sudden grand jury proceeding may be intended to squelch the tem- pest, rather than to give the facts full publicity. Fortunately, the backing of Albert R. Erskine of South Bend seems likely to enable Mr. Adams to get at the bottom of the matter, re- gardless of what the Marion County grand jury may do.” “If the Republican party’s organiza- tion in Indiana has been prostituted by unserupulous persons f their own gain or aggrandizement,” urges the South Bend Tribune (independent Republican), “the only way to save the party in the State is to let the people know the truth. The Tribune is glad to see a corporation head like A. R. Erskine calling for a public dis- closure of facts. We urge no State officer to stand on technicalities for the purpose of propping a structure of which he may be skeptical. The only way for a Republican officer or leader to be ‘right’ in 1926 is to be for the right.” . * K ok ok The Chicago Tribune (independent Republican) takes a similar position: “Mr. Adams and his committee, of course, are after & full disclosure. It is thelr duty to fight for that to the finish. They know enough already to be convinced that evils of the ut- most gravity have flourished under the pretense of morality and reform. They have, therefore, as loyal sons of Indiana, as loyal Americans, as loyal representatives of a free press, no other course than to fight on for the truth and all the truth. They will win at last, despite all opposition that can and will be brought to bear openly and secretly, if they will fight without fear or favor, respecting no person, however powerful or popula respecting no alleged interest, how. ever plausible; respecting only the truth. They are serving the cause of good government, not only in Indi- ana, but in all the Nation.” “One of the most spectacular bat- tles of recent history,” is the Balti- more Evening Sun's (independent) de- scription of the Adams cumpaign, and it declares he has “taken on the whole of Indiana political organiza- tion, has crowded it to the ropes, and is hammering it so unmercifully that hitherto the organization has been able to do little more than duck and cover.” The St. Louls Post-Dispatch (independent) feels that “it is a heart- ening sign that the press is still free when 19 Republican editors of Indl- ana will join in a demand that the corrupt Republican politics of the State be exposed,” and the Evansville Courier (independent) believes, that “no man of Adams' standing in the State would go as far as he has gone unless he had the goods.” The Milwaukee Journal (independ- however, nsidering definite results, 'No doubt there are thousands in Indiana who want a i fair investigation, after which they would be willing to start all over again. Will they get it? They went to sleep when the forces charged with corruption were entrenching. Now there are reputations to_protect, with an election coming on. It would be a miracle of State resurrection if In- diana got a real hearing.” “There ought to be the fullest and ward the climax that ends in the tra- dition of “happy ever after.” “Ga- brielle” lacks the finished irony of “Spinster of This Parish.” one of the cleverest and most engaging romances of many a year. It is a softer story, perhaps a lovelier one; certainly it is one that is drawn consistently from the war period and that is developed COmDet!lr;ll); from the elements chosen by its author for the projec- tion of the fine character of Gabrielle. most searching investigation by com- mittees, grand juries, or even the legis- lature,” suggests the Indianapolis News (independent). “Certainly there should be no covering up, and nothing done that might even tend to rouse a suspicion of it. A good deal of what has been given out has been known or suspected for several years. The Adams committee has done well to bring it all to a head. The case is now —in part—before the people. We merely suggest that the whole case should, and at once, be put before them.” The Louisville Times (Democratic) declares that “what may be said by Stephenson, Klansman and murderer, will be useful or worthless, according to the degree of credence placed in his assertions and the extent of corrobora- tion obtainable for what he is expected to assert concerning corruption in Hoosier politics of the Republican brand. What is really more important, if less interesting, especially to poli- ticians, is the failure of an alleged plan to keep a man incommunicado in a prison in this country when he ex- presses a wish to expose political cor- ruption.” “A mess 0 nauseous as that in In- diana, one that involves so many hun- dred figures,” according to the New York World (independent Democratic), ‘“cannot be kept covered up indefi- nitely. There may be temporary set- backs, but if decent Indianians rally behind the editors, from one quarter or another—probably from many—the truth will emerge.” The Asheville Times (independent Democratic) ob- serves that “just now Stephenson has no particular cause for shielding any one. He is serving a life sentence. He has been disowned by the Klan. His erstwhile political friends are showing no desire to rush to his aid.” “The most serious charges regard ing corruption in the history of the State” are seen by the Gary Post- Tribune (independent), while the Springfleld Union (Republican) con- cludes that “‘apparently the time has come when Republicans who were for- merly browbeaten by the Klan are anxious to uncover the whole unpleas- ant business and reveal how things were done and why. Naturally that is the only honest course.” “The dose of humbug, charlatanry, hypocrisy, exploitation and crime that has been given to the people of In- diana stands as an everlasting warn- ing for the credulous,” in the opinion of the Wichita Beacon (independent Republican), and the Topeka Capital (Republican) also condemns “imposi- tions on human credulity.” The Omaha World-Herald (independent) holds that there would haye been even greater credit “if, in the days when the Klan rode Indiana booted and spurred, they had had the courage and the sound Americanism to denounce and expose it.” THINK IT OVER The Melting Pot. By William Mather Lewis, President George Washington University. If the melting pot is to function we must keep the fire burning under it. In a small Illinois city there was a rooming house occupied by scores of Rumanian laborers. Almost every night the nelghbors summoned the police to suppress some disturbances in this home. It was the sore spot in the community. Then the leader of a progressive group of young business men came to the mayor and asked per- mission to use a ward school near the rooming house two evenings a week for the general purpose of adult edu- cation. ‘The young citlzens invited the Ru- manians to come to the school. They extended a warm welcome; they taught their guests the English lan- guage; they discussed American ideals, and from that night on the complaints of neighbors became rare. The American school is open on the average less than 200 days a year. With an Americanization problem fac- ing us, with the need which exists in many neighborhoods for soclal and discussion centers, we should have our school doors open much more than we do today. Thus would our fine school plants more and more justify the money invested in them. Thus would illiteracy be reduced, real Amer- jcanization promoted and community welfare increased. The stranger within our gates can be more quickly led into our ways by than by the styons 1f the melting pot is to funclion we must keep the fire burning under it. (Copyright, 1926.)