Evening Star Newspaper, May 14, 1927, Page 6

{THE EVENING STAR With_Sunday Morning Edition. .' WASHINGTON, D. C. | BATURDAY. May 14, 1027 | . THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor ‘Business Office: Buropean Otice; 14 Regent St Lobd | ‘England. 7 Eventng Star, with the Sunday morn- &t 38 Seltvered by carriars’ within Sty ‘at 60 conta”per month dally” cnly. cen!| {.’ ont] nIll’l “’le‘;\'l“"’yflw C;II" Bt R e % carrier st end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. ily and Sunday....1sr. §8.00: 1 mo.. 75 36 " B0 A e ta g All Other States and Canada. ajly and Sunday..l yr. $12.00: 1 mo., $1.00 ally only . yr. §8.00:1mo. " 78c junday only Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press fs exclusively entit] 10 the use for republication of all news it or ot otherwise nis naper and also the local news . All rights of publication special dispatches herein are also reserved 1mo. 3bc Spare the City's Trees! ‘Announcement that many trees are to be cut down in order to effect the widening of certain streets of this city has aroused indignation on the _part of those Washingtonians who regard the growths of nature as the « chief charm of the Capital. Previous tree-cuttings have caused the same feeling, but protests have not availed to stop the process. The widening of {the streets has been decided upon as ® means of increasing the space for . 'the movement of traffic, and once started the operation continues re- gardless of the sacrifice of the trees. No tree should be cut without com- Pelling necessity. No street should I Dbe widened unless in no other way ‘ean the trafic be accommodated in ‘safety. The most urgent meed for lthe increase of the driving space ‘should be established before any move i3 made to strip the street of the bowering border of growths that have ‘taken many years for development to itheir present size. The promise to replant the. trees after the work of widening has been finished does not allay the feeling that ' too great a_sacrifice is being made | (to traffic needs. The new trees will mot develop into shade givers for years. They will not grow as rapidly eral election which may, indeed, be precipitated by this incident. In any casé it is expected that the raid on the Arcos offices will cause a definite break between Great Britaim and the Soviet government. The fact that the offices of Arcos, a private corporation, were in the same build- ing with those of the official Russian Trade Delegation does not in the view of the government justify a protest from Moscow. The safes which are now being opened are the property of the Arcos corporation and are in that part of the building which is oc- cupled by its establishment. There % no question of the right under British *officlal secrets” law of the government to examine the premises of any individual or business suspect- ed of subversive activity. The fact that these rooms are in a building which also shelters an official body does not grant them immunity. But Moscow, it is believed, will take a contrary view and carry its protest to the point of denial of the. right of the British government to enter the premises for any purpose. It is not to the interest of the Soviet government to break with Great Brit- ain. It may, however, be forced to do so, for its failure to withdraw from London would be tantamount to an acknowledgment ‘that the suspicion of the British ministry of subversive aperations on the part of Moscow is Justified. = ——— In the Final Stage. In its concluding stage, the Missis- sippi Valley flood continues to take heavy toll as it moves southward, making new breaks in the barriers and spreading out over fresh terri- tory. After a desperate fight of sev- eral days to save the embankments barring the waters from the great “Sugar Bowl” of Louisiana, the rich- est cane and rice fleld in the United States, the waters have won their way through and now are sweeping out to form an immense lake, esti- mated to cover, in its fullest spread, more than a million acres, 225 miles long and from 50 to 100 miles wide. This new break will add at least $10.- 000,000 to the losses in Louisiana alone and will drive fully 200,000 more peo- ple from their homes. In one respect the new breach in the levee system is likely to prove a blessing, for it will probably save New Orleans from an inundation, whizh would cause a much greater property loss than even that which will follow the escape of the waters into the “Sugar Bowl.” For this latest flood, on the western side of the Mississippi, | s did their predecessors, which were planted before the days of asphalt jpavements, when they had plenty of “yoom for rootage and abundant food. ‘The newly planted trees will have a ‘hard time to live, in the new con- . ditions that have come with the growth of the city and the adoption ‘©f modern street pavements. It is an open question whether the Bolution of the traffic problem lies in widening of the streets, or in the limiting of the number of vehicles the streets. It is likewise a _question whether that problem can be | molved so long as practically allday i 3 ng is permitted in the downtown é ctions. Theére are many who hold that the root of the evil lies in the | excessive number of machines and ‘the obstruction of the present street - spaces with standing cars, rather than n the narrowness of the streets. Those questions, however, are of . ‘point now only to the end of em- © phasizing the need of the most scrupu- Jous care in determining upon the ‘necessity of street changes that in- . volve the sacrifice of trees of long . ‘growth and present beauty and value. “Even though decision may have been . reached to proceed with certain street ‘widenings, regardless of the cost in terms of trees, reconsideration may be had, with sufficient delay to ly ‘more thoroughly the traffic require- ¢ ments before adopting an expedient, the evil result of which, once it is put into effect, cannot be remedied. A tree that is-cut.down is gone forever. The product of half a cen- | tury is destroyed. The character of the city is ghanged. Let. there be a Ppause to determine whether the need of wider streets is imperative, whether other measures cannot be found to effect the safe and effective flow of traffic, whether, the addition of more space for the movement of vehicles | may not only cause the addition of more cars, to niake the condition after widening quite as bad as be- [ fore, if not worse. Street ‘widening is @& palliative, not a cure. It should be . the last resort. — ) A number of Republicans are so sure President Coolidge will be renomi- nated that they apparently fear it ‘will be impossible to interest Tex Rickard in a primary election as a sporting event. B Tt has long been the custom to pic- ture Miss Democracy in pantalettes. An up-to-date political lady should by this time be entitled to her knicker- bockers. is not likely to flow back into the great stream in such volume as to add dangerously ,to the mass of water concentrating in the region im- ‘mediately above the Delta. Between the intentional crevasse below the city, at Poydras, and those made above the city under the force of the tor- rents, New Orleans apparently has been saved from devastation. As the crest slowly approaches the Gulf the gauges in the reaches above Louisiana are showing a recession of the waters. Refugees are returning to their homes in large numpers. Yes- terday more than 3,000 were released from the Yazoo, Miss, camp, and others have already gone back from more northerly points. They face the heartbreaking task of re-establish- ment. Many of them will find their farms stripped of buildings, tbeir live stock swept away, their plantings all scoured out, their season's work to be started anew. Without funds, with- out stock, without shelter in a great many cases, theirs will be a pitiable plight. But they have in most cases had such experiences before. Some of them, indeed, were reluctant to leave their homes when the water began to rise dangerously, and had to be almost foreibly removed. . i Such aid as can be furnished will be given fo the sufferers. Seeds and stock will be supplied to them out of the funds that have been collected, those of the American. Red Cross in part, and those raised by the various States. Of course, not a tithe of the loss can be thus restored. Only a start can be given. The season’s crop will be greatly shortened. It is esti- mated that sixty per cent is the best that the cotton planters of Mississippi can expect. As the flood reaches its climax the Red Cross fund for the immediate re- lief of the sufferers passes the eleven- million mark, having gone more than a million beyond the limit of the President’s second call for aid. It will keep on rising, for the country well ‘understands that the gravest work of relief remains to be done, in the res- toration of the people to their homes and farms and their new start in seif- support. It is. gratitying that Washington, called upon for a quota first of $45,000, and, on the second summons, for $90,- 000 in all, has gone far “‘over the top” and at the latest reckoning, on the conclusion of the reports of yester- day’s glving, shows a total of more than $118,000. It has more than main- tained its proportion of the national fund. This is a characteristic show- ing for the Capital. Drilling for Documents. A heavy buzzing sound is being heard just now within the building in London occupied jointly by the Rus- slan Trade Delegation and by Arcos, Ltd, a Pussian trading corporation, which has been waided by Scotland Yard in search of evidence to show subversive Soviet activity in Great Britatn. This noise is occasioned by the drills that are working on the steel and concrete safes in the Arcos offices, within which the British au- thorities hope to find certain docu- ments. As the humming of the drills and the hissing of the oxygen blow pipes continue London waits in both hope and fes The conservative ele- ment hopes that the docum@nts will be - found. The laborites and possibly the liberals hope that they will not be found. The conservatives fear that the safes may not yleld the suspecte® papers and the others fear that they will. For if these documents, whick it s sald the government knows to exist, are revealed the ministry will be justified in its extraordinary stroke of survelllance and the political labor lorganization will be seriously discredit- ed. On the other hand, if the safes yleld nothing of an incriminating character the government will have o Efforts to establish any kind of cen- sorship immediately bring up the question of who is going to censor the censors. — Long-Range Flying Pioneers. While the anxious world watches for Nungesser and Coli and awaits the tmminent hop-offs of the Bellanca and Ryan monoplanes, the fact must not be lost sight of that almost nine years ‘ago Capt. John Alcock, a British pilot, and Lieut. Arthur Whitten Brown, an American navigator, cross' »d the Atlantic in a Vickers-Vimy twin- engined bomber under as difficult cir- cumstances as any transoceanic flyer probably ‘ever will encounter. Both were later knighted by the British King for the feat. True, the distance of the Alcock- Brown expedition—1,650 nautical miles, made in 16 hours and 12 minutes—is about half the estimated route between New York and Paris, but in those days there was no aifplane in existence that could fly continuously for 51 hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds, as the WrightBellanca plane did: on April 12, 13 and 14. Alcock and Brown, however, demon:, strated that the Atlantic could be spanned. If they had had a 51-hour ship they probably would have taken gmade a grave blunder and the labor Aprty will be in a position to condiiet M Vigu..us campaign in the next gen- the route at its longest point. After the New York-to-Paris hop is accom- i plished, some enterprising aviator come forth with a mm from Chicago to. Vienna, probably, and event the airmen will seek to cireumnavigate the world in the shortest possible time. Alcock and Brown were lost to the world from thé time they hopped off from St. John's, Newfoundland, untfl they landed in a bog at Clifden, near Galway, Ireland. -They battled with snow, hail and sleet.’ High winds and combinations of . the elements tore away their wind-driven generator, on which they relled to'send out and re- ceive wireless reports. The wings were covered with. ice, & heavy additlonal burden. The fog was' impenetrable, and frequently the airmen were flying In positions anything but normal. Their altitudes ranged from 11,000 feet to the tops of the waves. Once Al- cock found the ship plunging down: ward straight for the water through a fog that thinned out just in time to prevent disaster, They were the pioneers, the first to do it, the ones to whom historians will cling for precedent, just as Lowell Smith and his Army airmen will be looked upon as the first circumnavi- gators of the globe by airplane, even though some one does come along later and cut their flying time in half or reduce it even more. There is no question about the fact that airplanes are in existence or can be built able to span the distance be- tween the two cities. The Bellanca plane proved that. But the flight must be accomplished first before the public will take up transoceanic flying in heavier-than-air craft. That day may be far away, yet it may be im- mediate, The New York-Paris flight undoubt- edly will establish a world's record for distance. Nungesser and Coli at least wou'ld have achieved that additional fame had they succeeded on their route, which is estimated to be about 3,800 miles. The present distance rec- ord is 3,313 miles, held by France, It was made by a plane that left Le Bourget airport in Paris October 28 last and landed at Djask, Persia, the following day. Although the Bellanca plane flew a distance much longer, its record is for duration only, as the plane hovered above Long Island and did not have to encounter a half dozen different varieties of weather, as the French plane did. Both American planes ready to de- part are what may be termed “stock models.” Of course, they have been stripped of all unnecessary attach- ments to make way for fuel, but they were not built for transatlantic serv- ice. Once they reach their objective, the industry then must produce a plane to carry not only fuel and crew sufficient to make the flight, but pas- sengers, express or ‘mail. When that time comes, transatlantic’ flylng will step out of the “stunt” category fnto which it now has been forced. The $25,000. prize is an incidental objective for a few of the airmen. No transatlantic plane could be built for that sum. The winner of the prize would find it almost “‘pin money” alongside of the. funds he had to gather for the undertaking. A care- full estimate of all projects in the past twelve months or so places the outlay at $400,000.. That certainly does not indicate that the various ex- peditions want the $25,000 Orteig prize. The New York-Paris pioneers want to establish a bridge between the two cl!lgl. and with a little patience on the public’s part they will bring this about. y 5 —.—— 1t is to be regretted that those who must face the perils of the ocean can- not, for the’ présent, be limited to something comparatively safe and pleasant, like swimming the English Channel. ———— Objection 1s made by Chiet Justice Taft to lawyers. who seek to obstruct the effective operation of criminal law. There are two kinds of lawyers—wise ones and shrewd ones. AT AR S Boccacclo told some questionable stories. He told them well and should not be dismissed from the library be- fore recent inelegancies in literature have been intelligently dealt with, D SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Latent Spirit of Democracy. In ancient Egypt was a tomb Wherein reposed a king, 'Mid the magnificence and gloom That only riches bring. ‘“‘Alas,” he seemed to say to me, “1 should be very proud If T a base ball game-could see And mingle with the crowd!” Overlooked. “You have been returned to Wash- ington many times.” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I've had to keep working along at Government pay. None of those big corporations seemed to fancy me.” Refrigeration. An Eskimo I'd be, indeed, Where inconvenlence is but small; And if a bit of ice I'd need, 1'd chip it from the kitchen wall. Jud Tunkins says a hip pocket is deadlicr than it used to be when it carried a gun instead of a flask. We reverently call on our ances- tors,” said Hi Ho, the sage of China- town, “ignoring the fact that if they could return they would probably be ashamed of us.” Economies. “The price of gas has gone down!” “Glad to hear it,” said Mr. Chuggins. “The old fliv might as well begin to understand that it is a necessity and not a luxury.” “Daylight Saving.” “What time have you?” “Are you asking fer information or trying to start an argument?” . Pets of the Present. T saw a picture in the-pape. Attention it could not escape. 1 said, as it came into view, “Whose little muvderer are you?" Strange pets we take, stress, To ease a life of loneliness. The photo hids us ask anew, “Whose little murderer are you?” “De man dat plays wif a marked in present | BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Prejudices are wonderful things. Life is made up of them. [ The mental ideas of the race, tend- ing toward conviction, are offset by the prejudices of mankind. 5 The daily life of a person or a na- tion is made up of prejudices. We have a blas for this or that; we hold partialities and prepossessions. Our presumption is so and so. ‘We aim at certainty, fondly hope to reach conclusions, really long for con- viction, We ask for demonstrations and call for the evidence. We speak much of “reason” and seek for the Ey ary conclusion.” n:fl.‘t.he time our life is a tissue of prejudices, mostly against, seldom for, although we may be prejudiced, as the saying is, in a certain person's favor. The very usage of the term is sig- nificant. The word ‘prejudice” is mostly used in reference to an un- favorable view, unless a qualifying word is used. A ‘“‘prepossession,” on the other hand, is always favorable. The large dictionary tells the truth seeker that a prejudice is “a judgment or opinion formed without examina- tion of the facts or reasons that are essential to a just and impartial de- termination.” The definition shows the store which men, as thinking beings, put in facts, reason, justice, impartiality, determi- nation. These qualities, as stated, are the ideals of the races in their highest and best moods, when feeling and fancy and associations aré carefully put aside. * k% % There will yet remain, despite our best pretensions, a_thousand and one prejudices, a veritable garden of blooms of the human spirit, some evil, some indifferent, some even nec- essary. Inasmuch as the prejudices of any individual are made up of those in one of these three classes, so will his outlook upoh life be, and so will be his influence upon others, What are vour prejudices? Are they evil, innocuous or neces- sary? Taking thought upon this matter, of course, will do little good, as far as any essential change is concerned, for prejudices are—prejudice: Yet, in an idle moment, it might be interesting as well as salutary for the average person to look over his personal assortment of prejudices, and mark them off into compartments, as it were, for ready reference. A prepossession for one’s country, of course, falls into the necessary group. The sometimes laughable “‘State pride,” even, comes under a like classification. i These are amiable prejudices which the whole world believes in, being based, as they are, upon the deepest emotions of the races of men. Every one, too, is partial to his own folks. A man is prejudiced in favor of his children, and his dog, and his motor car, and the section of town he lives in, ahd in his make of radio receiver and the brand of paint he uses upon his_house. Often prejudices, of the good kind as well as of the bad, are based upon nothing more than chance, such as when one offhand praises something, and it is attacked thereupon by some one else. Tmmediately all his intelligence is brought into play building up a stru ture of reason to uphold his. convic- tion, which was arrived at, forsooth, only by reason of a chance utter- ance! * ok ok ok How many of our daily judgments are formed without due examination of the facts only the intellectually honest man can know—or will admit! This is one of the secret reasons for schooling. It is seldlom men- tioned in public, and never by edu- cators. It is one of the secret springs of conduct, however, of nations as well as of men. Only the wise know how the rank and file of human beings aré swayed by their prejudices, gathered in every day from the age of one day onward, placed in the child, indeed, long before it is born. To “train the mind,” as the old phrase had it, is necessary in order to remove unwholesome prejudices. This was the secret reason for such training, though life work and suc- cess and other fine things were held forward to the public view. It must not be supposed for a sce- ond that this constituted or consti- tutes a form of deception. The wise men of the races have seen that too much explanation is a waste of time “Let them have their prejudices,” they said, in effect. “We will form them into good prejudices. And, at the least, we hope to teach them to attempt, at least, to examine facts and reasons, and not to go on blindly with naked prejudices alone.” * Kk ok The wise men want us to reach just and impattial determinations upon all subjeets. They would have us, if they could, select a mate upon a logical dasis! Only they. cannot. So we retain our prejudices! Many persons are utterly ignorant of their prejudices. They cannot search the good from the bad because they simply do not realize that what they think is based only upon feel- ing and fancy. ' And the problem is further compli- cated by the fact that often feeling and fancy, resulting in intuition, make for the truth. ‘What appears a prejudice in me may be, as a matter of fact, the truth and nothing but the truth; what seems to be the rankest sort of preju- dice in you may turn out to be, in the cool light of “‘due examination of facts or reasons,” the truest possible sort of truth. . It will be realized, then, that “‘un- fairness” is not a good synonym for “prejudice,” despite the dictionary. A prejudice may be essentially fair; that is the hope of mankind. If this were not so, this life of ours would, be’a seething tissue of lies, built solely upon feelings, good and bad emotions of like character, imagination, innate likes and dislikes, all grounding at last in obscure men- tations beyond éven the power of a Freud to disentangle. As long as the mind holds firmly its seat in the citadel of the brain, mankind may hope to overcome its bad prejudices, with their resulting intoleration, and substitute harmless and necessary ones, which shall, like the medicine of old, be good for ““man or beast.” Women Urged to Help Save the Capital’s Trees To the Editor of The Star: The following news ftems appeared in substance recently in two,_consecu- tive issues of The Star: 1. A District Commissioner will give an address tonight on forestry, in honor of the opening of National For- estry week, 2. “City to fell 90 trees.” These will not be replaced for lack of funds. Officer So-and-So promises that these trees shall be replaced, even if those that remain go without care. It will take 30 years to replace that which clearly should not be dis- placed. If you can reduce absurdity to lower terms than that, take a try at it Brought together as these contra- dictory items may be by virtue of their common source at the seat of the District Government, they re- semble nothing else quite so much as material for comedy in the hands of some cynicbitten amateur play-maker. The shade tree situation constitutes an emergency that calls for the most honest thinking, the heartiest general co-operation, the finest ingenuity on the part of all good citizens to avert from Washington an irremediable catastrophe. Calling upon the District Building, I was told that “it can’t be helped now. The work’s been appropriated for and it's too late.” Too late for what? Too late to right a wrong that has not yet been actually com- mitted? Too late for all public- spirited citizens to stand solidly against the vandalism that threatens this beloved eity? ‘Whose city is this? Is it the sole responsibility of an overburdened tri- umvirate or of equally burdened legis- lators? Is it the legitimate specula- tive fleld of the professional boom- creator such as, for the time being, wrecked Florida and has injured other parts of the country also under the swift and deadly infection of spe- clously inflated land values? Are our streets the natural race course of thousands of ‘motors, speeding reck- lessly through them by day and park-| ing upon them in long banked lines the nights through? Whose city is this? Unhappily it belongs in part to these of marauding instinct, but happily, too, it belongs to thousands who love its beauty, who look upon it as the city of the whole country for whom it is, in a way, held in trust by the best of its citizens. The pressing shade-tree emergency goes back primarily to the automo- bile. And this fact leads immediately to traffic plans and regulations. In the present state of affairs it takes no very long vision to see the pedes- trians of Washington confined to up- lifted pathways while on the street level there are only cars, moving or stationary. Then there will be no sidewalks, no trees, no anything to impede the progress or to take up stable room for the thousands and then thousands of motor cars. We are on the way to that issue in so far as the heart of the city is con- cerned. Traffic planning and regulation is, in principle, a part of the art of housekeeping -— housekeeping and stringent enforcement of rules and regulations. I've no doubt that there are thousands of capable women in Washington, any one of whom would be of invaluable assistance in the business of traffic. A resolute and capable- woman would not stand for one lone conviction out of 75 arrests for breaking the traffic laws. And, in the meantime, on Thurs- day, there came another item in The Star running to the effect that 70 more valuable trees are to ‘be cut down. About them Mr. Lanham says, rather pathetically, it seems to me, that a few of these are worth at least $10,000, that some of them are the very finest specimens of their kind. Women of Washington, the men need your help! They often do. Why not face your clubs and assemblies and citizens' associations actively upon this matter? Why don’t you ask for a better publicity when such a plan as this one is to‘be projected? Why do, not your preachers for a memorial service tell their congrega- tions the story of the menaced trees deck,” sald Uncle Eben, “ig liable to} find hisself prosperous, but some,” of Washington, the story of the long roads of remembra: dedicated to up o their country and in whose honor miles of lovely shade trees stand, hopeful and alive, in a beautiful hom- age to them? Women of Washington, step into this calamitous situation and save it, as you so certainly can do! IDA GILBERT MYERS. Flight of 18 Planes Called Wonderful To the Editor of The Star: On Wednesday, May 11, between dawn and dusk was accomplished one of the most remarkable achievements of the century, when 18 pilots of the Army Air Corps, led by Maj. Thomas G. Lanphier, flew 18 pursuit planes from their home station at Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Mich, to Kelly Field, Tex., arriving fit and ready to do their part in the air maneuvers being held in the vicinity of San Antonio. Fourteen hundred miles between Selfridge Field and Kelly Field! Eighteen pursuit planes flying a total of 25,000 miles, or a distance equal to the distance around the world— and all -in 11 hours and 25 minutes flying time! The civilian public, uninitiated as it is in the affairs of its Army and too often disinterested. therein, may well pause in the humdrum routine of the day’s operations to consider this romantically splendid achieve- ment. Eighteen men from one Air Corps fleld fit enough, fine enough, trained enough to take their regular equipment; 18 service pursuit planes, and, without mistake ‘or mishap, per- form such a mission—one which may well be called the greatest flight of airplanes yet accomplished. In the old days when kings and generals had some hero stuff that needed doing they searched their kingdoms or their armies for one man to serve the purpose—hand- picked he was and hard to find. When Maj. Lanphier, commanding officer of the 3d Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, was assigned the job of getting these 18 planes to San Antonio in time for the maneuvers, he couldn’t pick because there were none to choose from. Instead he just detailed the 17 he had and led the flight himself. That's the way they do it in the Air Corps and it seems to work quite as well as picking from thousands did in the old days. DOROTHY POTTER BENEDICT. PRI s gy Experts and Inexperts. From the Chicago Daily News. David Belasco is attending the Sny- der murder trial “as a duty to my public,” David Wark Grifiith in the interests of his art, Will Durant for philosophical reasons. Among all the celebrities in court for esthetic rea- 8ons, there are no doubt a few humble murder fans, who don't know much about art, but know what they like. An interview with one of these honest lowbrows would be a refreshing change from the hokum of highbrow sensation seekers. UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR Ten Years Ago Today Espionage bill, with press censor- ship provision eliminated, passes in Senate by vote of 77 to 6. * * * The measure is stripped of provision restricting manufacture of grain into alcohol. * * * Former .German raider Eitel Friedrich is commissioned in the United States Navy as the De Kalb. * * ¢ Talk of a dictatorship as only solution to save Russia to the allies. * * * Congress warned to' expect heavier taxes. * ¢ * Forty nine thousand fivé hundred and sev- enty-ninb prisoners, 444 cannon and 943 machine guns have been captured by the French and British since April 9. ¢ * * President Wilson ap- proves of completed plans for the im- mediate expansion of the Regular Army to its full war strength of 203, Loy 000 men, entailing the organization of regiments, Brewers THE LIBRARY TABLE By The lquwcr The French gates of entry best known to most of us are gray Cher- bourg, inside whose granite dike, sur- mounted forts, we have come to anchor, and Le Havre, with its great system of quays, basins, tracks, steam and electric cranes. and warehouses, the premier Atlantic port of France. Hervert Adams Gibbons in his book, “Ports of France,” shows that there are many other ports, if not larger and busier, at least more interesting in atmosphere and historical associ- ation, He gives a chapter to each of these two chief Atlantic ports, as well as to Marsellles, the first of all French ports. Cherbourg, “the penisula that juts north into the English Channel, with its hinterland, is a fascinating corner of Normandy, and we can recommend without hesitation every- thing that lies in the triangle of Caen, Mont-Saint-Michel and Cherbours. The Booklover, having spent a vaca- tion on this peninsula, entirely agrees with Mr. Gibbons. Le Havre, the terminus of the French steamship line, the Compagnie Generale Transatlan- tique, is really Le Havyre de Paris, or the especial port of Paris. Mr. Glbbons commends it, not for its beauty, but for its convenience and its commercial activity, as it is the great cotton port of France and the coffee mart of Europe. Marseilles, though ‘Occidental Algiers or Port Said,” is “unmistakably French, not less French than other great cities, not less Meridicnal than other sections of the Midi.” It “can receive 50 steam- ers a day, and is always overcrowded. You can go from sunrise to sunset of a Summer day, on foot along thg mole and quays, climbing to the flat roofs of warchouses, darting in and out of bassing in the. rowboat you have preferred to a motor boat, look- ing down on the seven dry docks, one of which takes the biggest ships of the Mediterranean, and still feel that vou have not ‘done’ the port.” * ok ok * Mr. Gibbons unstintedly and at the very beginning sings the praises of Pornic, on the marshes of Brittany, the oldest port of France, though he ventures a guess that few have ever heard of it. There it was that he wrote his book, in a kitchen trans- formed into a study, in the Villa Marie Therese, overlooking- the Baie. de Bourgneuf and the long lle de Noirmoutier, which forms a natural breakwater for the bay. Dunkirk, on the Channel, he admires spiritually be- cause it held out through the four years of the World War, “France's alert sentinel on the north, that barred the German road to the Straits of Dover * * ¢ and made it impossi- ble for the Germans to boast that their surprise attack had resulted in the capture of a single ‘port of France.” Anglicized Boulogne, only three hours from London, is the port of France through which most tourists pass. The ., “perfect approach” to France is by Dieppe, the “deep port of Normandy,” for there the chalk cliffs, the ‘falaises”, of song and story, are seen at their best. The two ports of Harfleur and Honfleur, on either side of the Seine near its mouth, both almost suburbs of Havre, were in former days strongholds of the first rank. “They stood with their backs against hills, impregnable so long as their fleets controlled the sea.” St. Malo, once the starting péint for Bre- ton privateers, is a port for only little eraft, because “the tides along the coast_of France between:the Norman and. Breton peninsulas are, the most violent . 4n_ Burope” and e the port inaccessible fot large. ers; but “no place {n France \'{bu':ier when the Newfoundland fleet is being fitted out and when it returns with the season’s catch.” Of all the French Atlantic ports, the naval port of Brest alone enjoys “the advantage of ‘ade: quate natural protection, combined] with deep water and generous space for development.” The other ports must continually spend large sums on dredging, dikes, and breakwaters. “In one year the Americans landed nearly two mililon troops at Brest, from forty to fity thousand a day, without a single accident and with virtually nc delay.” Other interesting ports of France described by Mr. Gibbons are Dives and Caen, ports of William the ¢onqueror; the tiny Breton fishing port.of Pont-Croix; Douarnenez, home of the sardine; Nantes and St. Nazaire, ports of the Loire; Sables d’Olonne, the old port of the Vendee; Rochelle and Rochefort, the latter a few miles inland from the Atlantic: Bordeaux, on an estuary about 20 miles from the sea; Bayonne and Port Vendres, in the Basses Pyrenees: Cette, on the Gulf of Lyons, and Toulon, the chief naval port of France on the Mediterranean. * ok K K One of the foremost of the clder poets of France, Jean Richepin, died in December, 1926. He was a member of the French Academy and had suc- ceeded in fiction; drama, short story writing and journalism, as well as in poetry. Born in. 1849, he had seen three-quarters of a century of chang- ing literary traditions in France and had himself always mingled romanti- cism and realism in his work. His favorite poetic subjects were the sea and vagabondia. His best known poems are the “Chansons de Gueux’ (Songs of the Beggers). Another col- lection is called “Les Blasphemes.” One of his important novels is “La Clique” and some of his dramas are ‘Nana-Sahib,” “Monsieur Scapin,” “Le Filibustier.” “Par le Glaive” and “Vers la_Joie.” Jean Richepin was such a lover of the sea that he bought an island off the Breton coast, near thefishing harbor of Douarnenez, and built himself a simple Summer home at the water's edge. The island is fisupposed to have been the scene of parts of “Tristan and Isolde” and to have been the site of the castle of the King of Corn\\';\ll* - (g Another French novelist of prom- inence, a member of the French Acad- emy, who has recently published a new mnovel, is Edouard Estaunie. Born in 1862, and by training an en- gineer, M. Estaunie has for some yeurs devoted himseli almost entirely to letters. His latest novel, “Tels qu'ils Furent” (Such as They Were), is a study of the French bourgeoisie of former times, preceding and follow- ing the Revolution, now almost a type of the past. The ideals and scruples of the bourgeois family in the story, the Doublets, seem rather unwise and Quixotic today, but are doubtless true enough to the period presented. Some of Edouard Estau- nie's earlier novels are “L’Empreinte” (The Stamp), “La Vie Secrete” (The Secret Life), “I’Appel de la Route” (The Call of the Road), and “Les Choses Voient” (Things See), a fanci- ful, mystie novel which departs somewhat from his usual method of realism. * % Kk ok Marcel Prevost has new novel, “La Retraite Ardente” (The Ardent Retreat). The scene is laid, first in a Belglun convent, then at the Italian- Swiss town of Lugano. The princely heir to a Balkan throne, his morgan- atic wife, a Beguine nun, and an Italian music hall dancer are the chief characters, Divorce, desertion, mys- tical religion and murder are mingled in the plot, which is developed with all the author's usual subtleties and dis- regard for probability. R ANSWERS Q. Will you kindly toll me where the Jennie Wren radio station i§ lo- cated?—J. M. A. The Jennie Wrén radio station is at Lawrence, Kans. Its call let- ters are WREN, Q. What is the difference between “minister with portfolioc” and a without portfolio”?—C. a “‘minister cH. A. “Minister with portfolio” is the term given to a member of the Brit- ish cabinet who has jurisdiction over a special department. “Minister with our portfolio” is a term given to a minister of the British cabinet who has no specific department over which he has jurisdiction. Q. Give the origin of bungalow.— A. This is an Anglo-Indian word from the Hindustani bangla, belong- ing to Bengal. 1t is characterized as a one-storied house with a veranda and a projecting roof. It is the typi- cal dwelling for Europeans in India. The name 'ls also used for similar buildings which have become com- mon for seaside and Summer resi dences in America and Great Britain. Dak or dawk bungalows (from dak or dawk, a post, a relay of men for carrying the mails, etc.) are the gov- ernment resthouses established at in- tervals for the use of travelers on the high roads of India. Q. 1s there such a plant as the tape worm?—A. O. H. A. The tape worm plant is a plant of the rose family, used medicinally for treating tape worms, hence the name. Q. What is the correct pronuncia- tion of “Sabreur”?—C. E. K. * A. “‘Sabreur” pronounced Prur, the letter * rhyming with “u” in “fur.” | chilled before serving or with ice in the glasses?—B. C. B. A._ This is largely a matter of per- sonal taste. Some people prefer fresh tea poured over ice, while others feel that the tea blends with the lemon and sugar if prepared several hours hefore serving. Q. What States have the lowest percentage of illiteracy?—E. W. M. A, The States of Iowa and Ne- braska have the lowest percentage of illitergey. ‘What s the legend concerning the lotus tree of North Africa?—D. A. The ldtus tree of North Africa to which you refer is the jujube. There is a table in which it is said that this tree makes strangers forget their homes. Q. What was the date of the worst blizzard in New England, and did the Is this a country of free speech, free press and other guarantees that all men are, and- of right. cught to be, a little freer than ai ly else to do as'they please, re lless of moral, religious or political® restric- tions? Gen. Andrews, Assistant retary of the Treasury, has authoriged the executives of the Custonis .Bukeau of the United States Treasury to bar our ports, not alone farlidden uid intoxicants, but alse thé litera- uie which for centuries has beem in- ting the minds of 1n1|z ssion- able readers. No longer will e un- expurgated ‘‘Arabian Nights™ give moonshine to the American youth; never again shall Boccaccio's bad “Tales of Decameron” pass unchal- lenged the Statue of Liberty Enlight- ening the World. Congress has decreed that ‘“‘obscene” literature “shall not pass” the *“Ver-| dun” port of Americ#, The executives are not given the power to determine whether Congress has remained inside its constitutional authBrity in thus “restricting the liberty offthe press.” (See amendment I of the Constitu- tion.) “Theirs not to question why, theirs but to enforce or die.” So “The Decameron” remains in the darkness of the “Arabian Nights"—at least, such copies. thereof as are not already inside the port. Some one has said .that consistency is a weakness of the small mind, but that never troubles Uncle Sam. So both of these bad books are found in most public libraries, though probably applications for them n will be stamped ‘‘Not on the shelf,” and when present supplies arg¢ worn out—never again! * K k% By a coincidence worthy of note, the question of censoring movie pic- tures has coma in for denunciation by a Superior *Court in Illinois, where Judge David this week, addressing the lawyers in a case, said: “I wish you would raise the constitutionality of censorship. 1f we are living in an age of censorship, as we seem to be, ought we not to have a censorship of everything. and not discrimination, as there seems .to be, against the moving picture? I'd like to have a discussion of the thatter of censorship. I don’t agree with the view of the appellate court that the view of the censor is final.” If the opinion of His Highness, the Censor, is to be thus beld in contempt by the court, who will'retaliate on the court in kind? His Holiness, the Pope, has issued a decree to all bishops and priests to make a campaign_against obscene literature, and many Protes- tant preachers and reformers have also opened their batteries, regardless of the first amendment which for- bids Congress from going along and uniting state with church in the war of extermination of the pest of printed obscenity. . * x % % / Ask the next 10 men or women on the street or in club or card party whether the American Constitution does or does not guarantee freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, and the chances are that 9 of the answers will be wrong. Even in Massachusetts, where there are neither Federal nor State guarantees of a free press, a learned judge recently based a de- cision on the ‘“constitutional guaran- tee of the liberty of the press.” The idea is prevalent that the first amend- ment settles the matter for all time to come. A legalistic reading discloses that it does nothing but tie the hands of Congress in prohibiting it doing anything about yestriction: True, Congress says, “What's a Con- stitution between statesmen,” and proceeds to its own “interpretation” as excepting certain restrictions as to sedition, Dblasphemy and obscenity, but it has not cited the language au- thorizing any such *loophole: The Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law * * * abridging the free- dom of speech or the press.” No law at all? Wide open? ’ ‘What has Congress done in its tariff act of 19227 See section 305, “That all The grand prix of the French Acad- emy, carrying 15,000 francs, was cently awarded to Georges Courtelines’ as the best living French humorist. The first prize for literature, of 10, 000 tranc-,mn.u l‘o em;m ‘de Voisinm The story of the Norseman, Teif the Lucky, is the subject of & rovel Sharpe, :4"% His rly - H C s his col «lho to Chris- a tianity, his love fi land and persons are prohibited from import- ing into the United States from any foreign country any obscene book, TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ). HASKIN. | The Q. How should iced tea be served— | |’ steamer Portland go down in jt?— A. What was prcbably one of th worst blizzards that ever raged ov the New England States was that bich occurred March 11-14, 18 amship Portland was not during this blizzard, but 10 years late on November 27, 1893, How does the hole get in the ). D. 1 5 The dough of macaroni is d through holes in a machine coming out in long strips with hol in the center. These strips are cut to the desired length and hung up to dry. A jear did the United _coin the dast 3- Three-cent coined in 1873, Q. Who Panama Car A. John engineer of ace was the first Panama Canal. He v John F. Stevens Goethals. The last :mme:l is best known in this connec jon, Q. How many children had Robert Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence . 8. C. A. He s the father of seven children—five boys and two gil | Q. How does a robin detect where | there is a worm in the ground?—G. H A. The Biological Survey says that a robin sees the movement of the worm in the ground. vy did the Kaiser flee from at the close of the World ¢ B. B. The former Kaiser left Germany under pressure of his emtourage and | as & result of a demand for his abdi cation by the revolutionists. To this demand he replied on November 10 1918: “To facilitate peace for the na- tion, T will go to Holland.” Q. How much does a gallon of creo- sote weigh?—J. B. B. A. Creosote is somewhat heavier than water and weighs about 8 pounds to the gallon. Stop_a minute and_think about this fact. You can ask The’ Evening Star Information Bureaw any question of fact and get the answer back in a personal letter. It is a_great educ tional idea introduced into the lives of the most intelligent people in the world—American newspaper readers. It is a part of that best purpose of a newspaper—service. There is no charge except cents in _stamps for return postage. Get the habit of asking questions. Address your letter to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. 'BACKGROUND OF EVENT BY PAUL V. COLLINS. ks all the sentiment out of the crisis, and there is no chance to get excited on one side or the other, as, for instance, one might, if we had a Mussolini decree which takes an editor by the scruff of his meck for telling the truth, whenever 1 official, upon reading it. imagines that “the greater the truth, the greater the chance of creating public unrest.” If any Italian Fascist paper were to publish” an editorial intimating that George Washington had never faid anything which would bar a President from a third tefm, the whole edition might be confiscated on the ordey of the spokesman, regardless of the con- stitutional first amendment. -~ The editor thereupon would be pilloried or imprisoned for life. Of course, Blackstone is passe among modern lawyers, but Senator Reed, in his Rord defense, alleged that here could be no libel through telling e truth. stice Blackstone set wn that “every free man has an loubted right to lay what senti- mexits he pleases before the public; to forbid this i to destroy the free- dom of the press, but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous or il- legal, he must take the consequences of his temerity.? Under this rule, it was quite com- mon, even in Massachusetts, to punish a loose talker or writer by boring a hole through his tongue with a red- hot iron; 1n England, they used to cut off ears also, * K o% x It was to prevent Congress from enacting any such law of intolerance that” the first amendment = was adopted, but a negation is not the same as a guarantee and absence of Federal legislation on the subject does not limit the States from what- ever legislation their own Constitu- tions may permit. The Federal Con- stitution does not affect liberty of the States—except as to the eighteenth amendment. * X X x \ Congress reaches its end In con- trolling the circulating of objectionable printed matter, ot only through its tariff laws, but also through its Post Office, for obscene and other objection- able matter is unma‘lable—unless in tHe discretion of the Postmaster Ger eral it is going to addressees whom it will not corrupt—as, for example, to college libraries! “The Deecameron” and the “AraLian Nights” and Byron's worst may be mailed to a college—it can’t hurt the callow youths. there, surely, according to the Post Office rulings, and when the query was put up to the authorities regarding the mailability of a well known book by Bernard Shaw, the answer was, “The department cannot undertake to state what would or would not be u: mailable in advance of the matter be- ing actually presented for tramsmi: sion in the mails,” It is contended by legalistic critics that the United States Constitution is not held to be quite so discretionary as that; hence the Post Office is out- side of its constitutional limitations. Yet the constitutional prohibition is addressed only to Congress, not to a Postmaster General. A city censor- ship- would have to follow the Post Office rather than the instrument of the first and eighteenth amendments, for a Post Office censor can now con- fiscate the entire edition of a paper without court trial, upon his individual jddgment that it is bad for the publi to read such stuff. No defense bossible while the edition retains life It is like Judge Lynch's hanging the culprit and then trying him at the court's leisure. This' is not sald in any spifit of criticism' of purifyink printed mat- ter, but as illustrating the complica- tions involved. What is or what is not objection- able speech—even to the point of ob- scenity or indecency—depends not on the words used but upon the manner and circumstances. Parts of the Bible are unreadable in mixed com- pany, yet they are never “obscene,” while the veriest purity of language in poetry or prose may be given an atmosphere which would make them ete.” That appears to be protection of Home industries—the American DEirt, bt wa it not impoct. JorciEn we nof foreign Constitution filth. is saved! Long live the free press—i. e., the linotype ’:mit l::;l‘:zl"y 'pre-—curn sy important in- obscenity, nor a question of Ii the press, nor .o intolerable. Rev. Henry Ward Beech- er said: ; ’ m.‘;":“'m a i.n the things that 2 ear; and there is w i th m:(ed‘men A hear. Free s to a R S e ‘which, waft