Evening Star Newspaper, October 31, 1928, Page 8

8 THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. ‘WEDNESDAY. ..October 31, 1928 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newsoaper Company Business Office- 11th 8t. and Pennsyivania Ave. New York Office. 110 East 42nd St. Chicago Office’ Tower Buildine. Buropea: g4, Rerent St.. Londom. n e 1 Rate by Carrier Within the City. The Evenine . .. 45¢ per merth (when 4 Sundays) ... ... The Evening and Sunday Star y8). 85¢ per month The Sunday Star .. L..-9C per copy Collection made at the end af +ach month. Main 5000 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. . $10.00: 1 mo.. $6.00; 1 mo., $4.00: 1 ma. 40c and Canada. $12.00: 00; Sthdayony All Other States Daily and Sunda: Dally only ... Sunday only . Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is vxclusively cnutled o the use for republication of all i ews dis- atches credited to it or not otherwise cred- Reain this paper and aiso the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. - Ths Evening and y Star 60c per month (when 5 Sunda: Orders may be sent in by mail or telephone Maryland and Virginia. 1T 8sc 80c 1 mo., $1.00 No Real Assurance of Victory. However confident the candidates and ‘eampaign managers on the two sides of the great political battle now drawing to an end may appear to be regarding the outcome, everybody who has made any study at all of political history knows that beneath this outward bear- ing of assurance there is a tense anx- jety. In the first place, nobody can really know for a certainty how the forty-three million people who are now registered are going to vote, or what number of them will vote, next Tues- day. Canvassers for the two parties have gone forth and sounded sentiment in} the States, the counties, the cities and the towns. Scouts have sought to make lists of the electorate in their immediate fields. Straw votes have been taken, on large and small scales. “Drifts” of senti- ment have been disclosed. But no polls, however large, have been sufficient to reach the great mass of the “silent voters,” who refuse to be sounded, who take no part in straw votes, who wear no buttons or badges on their coats and ‘whose motor cars carry no partisan tags. ‘The theory upon which forecasts of e election are made is that these straws and pre-election polls and other tests are characteristic of the drift of gentiment. In the privacy of campaign headquarters more is known about the actual conditions than is given forth for publication. No wise campaign man- ager tells the whole story. If it is an unfavorable one, if the scouts bring or send word of adverse drifts, of course THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. €. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1928. not agree with the President on his decision to attend the Versailles con- ference.” He did not agree with the President's conception of the funda- mental principles of the League of Na- tions, the treaty of defensive alliance with France nor the admission of Jap- treaty rights at Kiaochau and Shan- tung. But his high s2nse of loyalty and his President during the hazardous days of the war and the peace negotiations made him retain his post despite his inability to find himself in accord with his chief. History's appraisal of the two men, Wilson and Lansing, will credit them both with having taken the honorable course. In Mr. Lansing's death the Nation loses a2 man who was a faithful and able public servant during some of the most trying years of its existence. ——or—e Halloween Behavior. Halloween is here again and tonight in home and street revelry will abound. Spooks and goblins and all manner of mysterious creatures are scheduled for their yearly appearance and millions of children throughout the country are eager to greet them. For weeks childish minds have concentrated on the com- ing event and appropriate costumes and amusements for the occasion have been carefully planned. It is the youngsters' night tonight and more power to them! Innocent fun, harmless pranks and a full enjoyment of the evening should be the portion of thoss who gambol to- night in the world of sprites, and every adult is more than anxious that the cup of joy shall be full and running over, but as in previous years the warn- ing must be issued, and should be heeded, that malicious mischief will not be tol- erated by either citizens or police. Ringing of doorbells, throwing of pep- per and flour, chalking the fine pol- ished finishes of automobiles on the streets or letting air out of the tires, stealing milk bottles from back porches and breaking them on the pavement, and invasion of gardens with the con- sequent ruining of flowers and contain- ers will not be accepted by the com- munity as a legitimate part of the night's fun and entertainment. Maj. Hesse has directed the police to be on the lookout to protect citizens from annoyance and insult and prop- erty from damage and destruction, and while the spirit of the occasion is to be gay and joyous the guardians of the law are to be on the alert to see that amuse- ment does not overstep the bounds into rowdyism. Every parent should heed this warn- ing so that little Willie, instead of find- ing himself in difficulties with the po- lice for scratching his initials with a anese claims to possession of German | fear of bringing criticism upon the! earth in relation to the medium througih which the planet presumably was mov- ing, the ether. Light, it was presumed, traveled through ether. Prof. Michelson himself had calculated the velocity of light with nice precision. Now it was argued that if a beam of light was shot forward in the direction |of the motion of the earth, and then reflected back to its starting point, the distance of its return journey would be less than that of the outward jour- ney because the edrth itself would have gone forward to meet it. On the other hand, it was presumed, if another beam of light was shot simultaneously at right angles to the direction of the first beam and then reflected back to its starting point, it must return along the | hypotenuse of a right triangle, the base of which would be the distance traversed by the earth. Thus there would be a distinctly measurable difference in the length of the journeys of the two beams of light traveling at a constant velocity. Such an experiment demanded, of course, extreme precision in measure- ment such as was assured at the hands of physicists like Michelson and his col- laborator. Strangely enough, the two beams of light came back to their starting point at exactly the same time. In other words, two messengers traveling at the same constant rate covered different distances in the same elapsed time. It was a violation of common sense. Repe- titions of the experiment gave the same result. It was obvious that there was something in the nature of the cosmos which men did not understand. ‘ Prof. Michelson had subjected a plati- tude to objective test and found that it was not true. It was like throwing a stone in the air and seeing it fall up- ward instead of downward. He had rendered to science the inestimable service of challenging a truism and smashing it with observed fact. The re- sult set the physicists, the astronomers and the mathematicians of the world on their mettle. It was not long before a German professor named Einstein had provided an answer for the riddle, which apparently stood up under ex- tremely rigid objective tests. Einstein's answer was such as to put the brains stands as one of the truly sublime pro- ductions of the human mind. Old stand- ards of values which had obtained since man first began to think about the uni- verse in which he lived were thrown into the discard and the marvelous cos- mos became even more marvelous. But the question is still open. Prof. Michelson may be the man who will tead the world out of its confusion. —at One of the benefits derived from the campaign is the shattering of a tradi- stone on the side of some conveniently no acknowledgment is made that things are going badly. If, on the other hand, all reports are good, if the drift is fa- vorable, if the survey indicates majori- ties in the pivotal States, a nice balance between conservatism and confidence must be maintained. To claim the elec- tion as a certainty may be unwise, as it may cause & slackening of effort in the feld. The candidates themselves, if well mmmmzymtmm on election day. They should have the benefit of the most accurate informa- tion and the fullest detail of pre-election canvassing and estimating. If they are kept in the dark on the score of bad conditions in important places, changes of drift, or unfavorable reactions to speeches, they are badly served. Of course, they must keep up their own aspect of assurance. No candidacy is worth while that shows less than the face of confidence right up to the hour ‘When all is said and done, in these Jast days of the campaign the fates cannot be foretold with assurance. However the drifts may be, whatever the set of the currents, there may in the oconcluding hours come a change, & new yeaction precipitated perhaps by some chance word, some untoward happening, some trick of campaigning that cannot be checkmated in time. It is this pos- sibility that causes the tension at head- quarters, however serene may be the outward aspect and however confident the words with which the candidates through their representatives claim vic- tory as assured. —————— ‘The average citizen may find it hard to understand how the voyagers on the Zep could find it in their hearts to tear themselves away from America just ‘when an election excitement was at its height. ————— Robert Lansing. One must lay it to the fortunes of war that Robert Lansing, an able statesman and always a charming gen- tleman, will be remembered more for his dramatic resignation from the war cabinet of Wilson than for the real dis- cretion and ability which marked his occupancy of this delicate post during the dark days from 1915 to 1920. He died in the relative obscurity of the private life to which he returned after reaching that memorable parting of the ways with his President in February of 1920. He outlived the two men whose names posterity will always link with his, Woodrow Wilson and Willlam Jennings Bryan. But his death comes as a shock. Only his intimate friends were aware of his fatal iliness. Many good years still should have been his. His appointment as Secretary of State came at one of the drametic mo- ments in American history. William Jennings Bryan, his predecessor, had left the cabinet because he could not agree with President Wilson on the Lusitania notes to Germany. Lansing at the time was counselor for the State parked automobile or removing and breaking an expensive flower jar in the garden down the street, will return home saf: and sound and free from the long arm of the law, which is longer, it must be admitted, than the reach of all the spooks and goblins in the world. There is a vast difference between malicious mischief and harmless and fun-provoking mischief. The trouble is that sometimes the immature mind is unable to separate the two. Obviously, then, it is up to the parent to impress upon his offspring the necessity for de- corous behavior, as behavior of any other sort will receive no sympathy from harassed adults or the police Who have been instructed to do their duty. Let the fun begin! —_———————— Diphtheria Prevention. With complete co-operation between parents and physicians it will be possi- ble to stamp out the epidemic of diph- theria which has made its appearance in the District among the school chil- dren of one section of the city. Thanks to the development of tests and im- munizing treatments it is now possible to check the spread of this disease. But there must be a full compliance by the parents of the city with the rules of precaution. It is possible to render im- mune to the infection children who have not yet been exposed, and it is far bet- ter that this should be done than to ‘wait for exposure. Discovery of “carriers” of the disease, children in whose throats the germs are lodged and who are therefore possible spreaders of the infection, makes it ur- gently desirable that the area of im- munization should be extended widely; should, in fact, be carried throughout the District and not confined to the section in which the outbreak now pre- vails. In these days of motor transit a child who is in the first stages of diphtheria infection, and is therefore a carrier, may spread the disease over a wide area, as it 1s carried about on family visits far beyond its own neighborhood. There is, in truth, no such thing as strict lo- calization of an infectious disease. Even quarantine promptly instituted fails to concentrate cases within a narrow radius. The sure method of protection is through test and immunizing treat- ments, and if these measures are fully adopted this outbreak will quickly cease. - Election betting is not as good as golf for physical exercise. But it is fine exercise for the imagination. e ——— Prof. Michelson's Experiment. ‘The thirteenth annual meeting of the American Optical Soclety, which starts here temorrow, is dedicated to the honor of Prof. Albert A. Michelson of the Uni- versity of Chicago. Prof. Michelson, one of the greatest of American scientists, will come to ‘Washington in«person to present a spe- clal paper on the results of repetition of the celebrated Michelson-Morley ex- Department. Although training fitted him for the post, for he had held many commissions from the Government in arbitration cases, thereby attaining an unusual grasp of foreign affairs, he was comparatively little known. But he soon demonstrated his ability to take the helm during the critical days which followed and during the course of Amer- ica’s participation in the war. His differences with President Wilson may have begun before the declaration of war in 1917. But they never showed themselves, and were never apparent until after President Wilson's collapse on his Western trip in 1919. While the President made the series of “unofficial” cabinet meetings called by Mr. Lansing the occasion for his request for Mr. "\ ~ periment of twenty-five years ago, the strange outcome of which forced upon sclence an entirely new conception of this universe of space, time and matter. The paper which he will read on Fri- day may be another corner stone in the temple which physies and astronomy are erecting to things as they'are and not as they seem to be. Prof. Michel- son is bound to go down in history as one of the foremost figures in the great- est revolution in the thoughts of men since Copernicus and Newton. It is still in progress. On some of the points in- volved there still appears to be hopeless confusion. It all started from the Michelson-Morley experiment. This celebrated challenge to century- old conceptions was simple enough in tion that Baltimore is a cold, distant kind of town inclined to rigid standards of austere formality. The man who used to be referred to as ‘wanting the earth” is no doubt a relative of the enthusiastic Democrat who claims New York, Ohio, Massa- chusetts and even Pennsylvania. —_———————— ‘When the experts get to work on the campaign expenditures some items may perhaps be economically modified by calling in the interpretative services of Mr, McCarl. ——e———————— Balloting blanks are so voluminous that some suspicious person may in- timate that the paper manufacturers are being unduly favored. r———————— Efforts are already ‘being made to secure new radio talent. A campaign controversy is, in vaudeville parlance, “a hard act to follow.” N Enormous throngs greet public speakers. Fortunately the proverbial good nature of American crowds re- mains unmistakably in evidence. —oe—s SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Welcome Innovation. ‘Welcome, Politician, as you make your Joyous way, Amid the salutations in a wonderful display. 'You never sped a motor car with reck- less disregard Of life, where all the going has become exceeding hard. You never walked into a bank and said to the cashier, “Hand forth yon bunch of bills, or get a bullet through the ear.” You have this lesson for mankind who gives you such acclaim: “You needn’t be a burglar, boys, to reach the heights of Fame!” Welcome, Politician! As the pageant rolls along You can, with wise statistics, win the plaudits of the throng. Your portraits are displayed with gay abundance far and wide. The world repeats each genial word you add as an “Aside.” Policemen follow you about wherever you may stray, ‘To give protection ’gainst the urge to throw you a bouquet. This is the lesson that your strange example seems to frame: “You needn't be ‘a burglar, boys, to reach the heights of Fame!” ‘Unavoidable Association. “Do you believe there should be business in politics?” “There has to be,” answered Senator Sorghum; “without some reliable busi- ness sense, how are these very large campaign funds to be managed?” Jud Tunkins says many a man leads a life of long hardship because he once got the notion that speechmaking was an easy way to make a living. Confident Expectation. Concerning “Friday” or Thirteen” All fears are swept away. “November 6" just now is seen As the world’s lucky day. Rough Play. “Do you play the stock market?” “If you call being scared and sleep- less ‘playing,’ I do.” “To say history repeats itself,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is er- ror. The history of our time is no more like our ancestral annals than an airship is like a kite.” 3 “Dar ain’ no mistakes in life,” said Lansing's resignation, the two mfl'hld principle. It was calculated to deter-!Uncle Eben, “like goin’ ahead thinkin’ Wlready drifted apart, Mr. Lansing did mine the rate of forward motion of the you ain’ never goin' to any" of the scientific world in a whirl, It} THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. “D’Artagnan wondered how it was that there should in the world people who succeed in every wish, some in ambition, others in love, whilst others, either from chance, or from ill-luck, or from some natural de- fect or impediment, remain halfway upon the road toward fulfillment of their hopes and expectations.”—Dumas. ‘Thousands of men and women have wondered with the honest D'Artagnan about this very same thing. There are as many solutions of the problem as there are thinkers, and in the very nature of the question none of them can be entirely right. The greatest hope is that any guess- er may guess right for himself; and, if he does, he may or may not be able to go ahead and correct the fault, and to come out at the end of the journey, after all. What led Dumas’ famous character to his reflections was the fact that for 20 years he had remained a lieutenant in His Majesty’s mustketeers, without going ahead a rank in all that time. He had been forgotten. In less romantic times thousands upon_thousands of human beings will see themselves in exactly D'Artagnan’s circumstances. They will, at some time or other, have exactly the same thoughts that he had. In passing, it will be permissible to venture the as- sertion that this particular series of romances is popular with most readers partly because it brings us this eternal problem. The average reader of romance does not bother his head, as he reads, with the philosophical aspects of the tale or of the characters, but there can be little question that such problems as that considered by the worthy hero reg- ister in the minds of readers. Such problems, faced by all men, lend aspects of reality to a tale which glis- tens with a thousand absurdities and some impossibilities. They bring the tale down to ¢arth, and make the read- er realize, although perhaps subcon- sciously, that this is a real man, this glorious, swashbuckling fellow, a fellow human being in a world where in- gratitude and forgetfulness play their part. * K K K D’Artagnan was in a rut. Government employes, for instance, are so used to having others speak commiseratingly of them as “in a rut” that it may come as both interesting and hopeful to them to hear that D’'Artagnan, although only a fiction character, was in a rut, too. As a matter of cold fact, there was a real D'Artagnan, much such a charac- ter as Dumas pictured. He was a real Gascon, who wrote his own memoirs in three imposing volumes, which still may be found in bookshops’ devoted to the unusual. It took the narrative ability of Alex- andre Dumas, however, to make the name D'Artagnan a household word in the mouths of fiction readers the world over. Twenty years had gone by, in the incomparable canvas which Dumas un- rolled, since the brilliant adventures which made “The Three Musketeers™ probably the world's greatest romance. In “Twenty Years After” we find our famous friend musing on a problem which at once takes him out of the swashbuckler class, which most of us have neither opportunity nor desire to join, and puts him into a class into which most persons who live in this presentday economic world fit very nicely. Who is there who does not know certain people who succeed in every wish, whether it be of ambition, love or whatnot, while there are others— and all too often himself, alas!—who remain halfway upon the road toward fulfillment of their hopes and expecta- | tions? Perhaps Dumas’ explanation is as good as any. He groups the reasons for this half failure into three divi- sions—chance, ill luck or natural defect | or impediment. . * x ok ok | The genius of Alexandre Dumas was , so large that his list of reasons for| failures takes on more than ordinary interest. Whatever such a great writer | touched was likely to have some truth | in it. Genius is not completely one- | sided. Because a man is by nature a | fine story-teller is no reason why he | cannot, upon occasion, be a philosopher | as_well. Dumas sees with unerring accuracy that in_the last analysis there are and must always be two classes of human beings in respect to complete success— those who do go all the way and those who succeed in going but halfway. The latter do not go as far as they would like to travel principally, he belleves, because chance is against them, or scme sort of ill-luck (which in some cases amounts to the same thing) or they are held back by some natural defect or impediment. It is significant that he does not state that this impediment is always confined to the victim. It may, one may well believe, lie in some one else, or in some condition or state of things over which the person may not or cannot rise. The thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts, Longfellow said; they are thoughts which fail to include many real conditions, simply because the per- son thinking them has not had enough experience to realize that they exist. Time mellows the average human being, bringing him to a realization of much which he would not have understood or even might have in- dignantly denied as a young man. Perhaps the best service which it brings to most men is to put them in possession of such a mature outlook that they realize with Dumas that only a limited number can be every- where successful, and that it is the fate of most human beings to forever re- main halfway upon the road toward fulfillment of their hopes and desires. ‘Their thoughts are tempered by the realization that many of those who have arrived at the goal are no hap- pler or better than they. They see everywhere marks of bad temper and dissatisfaction, or hear of troubles in the lives of those who have “arrived.” ‘They come to believe, with Shake- speare, in the true, abiding place of content: “My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Nor decked with diamonds or Indian stones, Nor to be seen; my crown is called content.” This thought was the consolation of the swaggering D'Artagnan, who was permitted, by reason of his natural dis- position, his inherent happiness which kings and queens might have envied, to forget the ingratitude of his betters and their unfulfilled promises. Psychologists say that the greatest sadness of poverty is not so much the lack of meney as the niggardly thought which it induces; that if a poor man can offset such thoughts, he will miss the worst evil of being poor. So, one may think, if the great ma- Jo‘rli’lay of those halfway on the road to- Wi fulfillment do not allow the thoughts of their position to injurious- ly affect them, they will be quite as well off, everything taken into consid- eration, as if they had “arrived.” Robert Louls Stevenson it was who penned that glorious truth, that conso- lation without sting, “It is better to tn}vel hopetnlll{ fl":;ln to arrive.” The only man really be pitied in this world is the man withoupt hope. Belated Honors Turn Light on His Triumphs ! A life of amazing achievements is re- viewed once more as Thomas A. Edison, after years devoted to Inventions which have revolutionized modern conditions, recelves the gold medal of Congress for his contributions to progress. Wonder is expressed at the delay in honoring the “Wizard” of the field of invention, while other nations have already be- stowed their tokens of appreciation. “He ranks as one of the five or six greatest servants to common humanity of all time,” avers the Wheeling In- telligencer, which holds that “only a very few have deserved the superlative honor that is his, and which he has happily lived to enjoy. Newton, Pasteur, Watt, Archimedes and perhaps one or two of the very greatest experimenters,” continues that paper, “can stand with him. This brain, like theirs, made an incalculable contribution to human service, comfort and happiness.” The Worcester Telegram suggests that “4t is when we try to imagine ourselves without these comforts and conveniences which we enjoy as a direct consequence of .Mr. Edison’s patient and unflagging work that we begin to have an appre- ciation of his achievements in behalf of all of us.” 1 thanks of Congress, which the medal carries with it declares the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, “are only a formal expression of the immeasurable gratitude which the electrical age in the world's history owes to its foremost figure, and which it has often acknowl- edged most sincerely and generously.” The St. Louis paper also observes that “the truth of the tribute President Cool- idge quoted, that electricity has no modern appliance or process for which he has not served as a pioneer, if not discoverer, was realized so fully that he was long ago called ‘the Wizard."” * Kok K either Mr. Edison nor any one else,” according to the Toledo Blade, “will ever list the wonderful things which electric lights have done for hu- manity. Lives have been saved in the operating room by improved illumina- tg Educational efficiency has been increased. Homes have been made pleasanter, The world owes a great debt to Mr. Edison, and it is in ac- knowledgment of that debt that these few lines are written. Of course, the Congressional Medal made for the in- ventor is a very inadequate symbol of America’s appreciation.” “He never has been an unhonored prophet in his native land,” states the Minneapolis Tribune. “If this great formal award has long been withheld, at least Mr. Edison has been honored over a long period of years with the re- spect, the :Eecuon and the admiration of the Nation which he has served and to which he has given a signal prestige. The man has been loved for his mod- esty, his kindliness, his untiring zeal, his gentle, good-natured outlook on life. He has been respected because he has lived above sham or pretense, because he has never been a poseur, because his brilliant career has seemed to embody the simple elements of honest work and ceaseless endeavor.” Referring to the museum which Henry Ford is building near Tl as a monument to Mr. Edison, the Belling- ham Herald says that “no doubt it will become one of the shrines of the Na. tion,” and pays the tribute: “At 81 the sflnd old man of invention still labors ay and night, and he has said he would work so long as breath remained. The world hopes that he may be spared to continue his work for many years. Meanwhile it wants him to know it it appreciates what he already has done.” * ok X % “Thomas A. Edison receives the Con- I gressional Medal for services o the Nation and to the world,” says the | for Edison New Orleans Morning Tribune. “We doubt if anybody ever deserved it more. Any country might appropriately confer upon Mr. Edison its honors. For every one benefits from his genlus. The sum of these benefits is incalculable. But, while Mr. Edison may cherish this medal, we doubt if it will mean as much to him as the less tangible but genuine blessing called down upon his head by millions whose work is easfer, whose pleasures are greater and whose gvé‘e:o are lm-g‘erbbecau.sfiu ‘Thomas Alva n used the brains Creator gav Nlln to this end.” Az n comment upon the distinguished gathering at the Edison Laboratory, the Binghamton Press remarks: “Radio brought to the laboratory a world-wide ovation. This was fitting, for, although not responsible for the development of radio, Mr. Edison is looked upon as the foremost living worker in the medium by which the whole world floats through space. Radio was made possible by Mr. Edison’s multitude of inventions and his fathering of the electric industry in America. Even for radio Mr. Edison may claim a goodly share of credit for the hook-up of the 48 stations which brought the well-wishes of two conti- nents to him and which would not have aeen possible except for his contribu- el Recognizing that “his inventions were like all other inventions, slow and plod- ding in their development, and slow to gain their way into popularization.” the New Bedford Standard adds: “Therefore we feel no surprise that Congress, so sparing of its medals, should have waited so long to give Edison his high honor. On the con- trary, we should feel great pride that Congress has recognized the value of his gifts to the country while he is still alive.” Comparing FEdison to Prometheus, “who snatched fire from heaven for use of man,” the Allentown Call views him as “not only one of the most admired, but also one of the most beloved world figures.” UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR Ten Years Ago Today. Official records of the American Army Air Service show that between 500 and 600 enemy planes have been destroyed by our forces in six months, with an average of 8 German flyers to each American airman lost. * * * Allled troops make big gains in Belgium, with British, French, Belgian and American forces all advancing on the Lys-Scheldt n v 6. hting activity on the Flanders front was revived today and there were violent engagements in Champagne, in which French troops made local gains. East of Courtrai the British 2d Army attacked this morn- ing, attained all its objectives and 81 TG day’ letin tells of the destruction by French and British of 98 German planes in yesterday's fight- ing. The British accounted for 81, a record for a single day. * * * Tur- key has capitulated on terms that are understood to be tantamount to un- conditional surrender. * * * Italian and allied forces win an important vic- wrf over the Austrians, reaching Ponte nelle Alpi, splitting the Austrian armies and taking a total of 50,000 prisoners. Masses of men are pouring through the valleys of the Venetian foothills, aban- doning guns, stores and munitions, with the allies in hot pursuit. * * * A re- public is proclaimed in Vienna as the Austrian peace mission enters Italy. Wide anarchy in Austria. Revolution- ary mobs parade in capital and cry “Down with the Hapsburgs!” * * Six hundred and fifty-three names on today's casualty list, with 74 dead from wounds and killed fon and 579 wounded, i Politics at Large By G. Gould Lincoln. If Gov. Smith is defeated at the polls next Tuesday it is likely that an acri- monious discussion will ensue as to whether he would have won had he been a Protestant. In fact, the ques- tion is not new today. Many Demo= crats are ready to proclaim it a fact. Many of them already say that if he wer> a Protestant he could not be de- feated. It is idle to tell them that other Democratic candidates have been defeated for President by Repub- licans. It is idle to point out to them that Gov. Smith has against him the prohibition issue from the dry point of view, the fact that he is connected with Tammany, an_organization which has its enemies, and the fact that he is a Democrat in a land where Repub- licans have recently ‘far outnumbered Democrats. They apparently can see it no other way. One Democratic State chairman in the West goes so far as to say that Mr. Hoover would not carry six States if Gov. Smith had been a Protestant instead of a Catholic. It is noticeable, however, that this is an argument advanced by Democrats and not by Republicans. Many of the latter assert with emphasis that Gov. Smith would have been defeated on one issue alone—the wet and dry issue. Others take the view that present pros- perous conditions in the country made it certain that the Republicans would be retained in power. It seems, how- ever, that only one way exists by whicl a discussion of what might have been may be avoided. That is to elect Gov. Smith President. The Democratic nominee for Presi- dent himself, in his final speeches of the campaign, is bringing the religious issue to the fore, attacking bigotry, at- tributing it both to Protestants and drys. He must have been aware that his election would be fought biiterly by the drys and even the Anti-Saloon League after the Democratic national convention in Madison Square Garden in 1924 and after his own pre-conven- tion campaign this year. Judging from his speeches in Philadelphia and Balti- more and the reports of his probabls themes in his final addresses this week, Gov. Smith has determined to make his last appeal on anti-prohibition and religious tolerance grounds. * oK koK A week from today the cabinet makers will be in full swing—whether it be a Democratic cabinet or a Re- publican. The election will be over and the prognosticators will be shaping the cabinet either for Gov. Smith or for Mr. Hoover. All the most prominent Democrats, or Republicans, as the case may be, will be trotted out and put through their paces for Secretary of State on down the line. Incidentally, there is a considerable belief among Pennsylvania Republicans that if Mr. Hoover is elected Secretary Mellon will continue to handle the pursestrings of the Nation as Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Mellon has been hailed as the greatest Secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton's time. Further- more, those who know Mr. Mellon say that he likes official life In Washing- ton and that he would be at a loss how to employ himself if he should surrender his present position. Mr. Hoover, if he be elected, will have to decide how many of his old companions around the cabinet table he will invite to retain their jobs. There are some of them who may desire to retire in any event. Secretary Kellogg, it is said, is already making his plans for a re- turn to his old home in Minnesota. Incidentally, there is some speculation as to whether Mr. Hoover, as President, would offer Senator Borah of Idaho the office of Secretary of State and whether Senator Borah would accept. Certainly it would appear that Senator Borah might well expect anything he desired at the hands of a Hoover administra- tion. He has led the forefront of the Republican attack in this campaign, and his speeches, delivered in all parts of the country, have been very effective. For the first time the Idaho Senator has entered vigorously into a presiden- tial cam] and has used his great abilitles as an orator to win for the blican nominee. Not that he has failed to make addresses for other pres- idential candidates, but that he has never before taken so active a part in a presidential campaign. Doubt is ex- ressed that Mr. Borah would be willing 81 relinquish his seat in the Senate to take a cabinet office. He has become an institution in the Senate and his withdrawal would leave a big hole in that body. He is chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and has wielded as much power over foreign relations of this country as a Secre- tary of State might do. ‘Here and there is talk of the possi- bility of a woman in the cabinet if Mr. Hoover is elected. If all the reports can be believed, it is the woman vote which will put him in the White House and the women may expect some signal recognition. The suggestion is_some- times made that Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, now Assstant Attorney General, might like to be the first woman to serve in a President’s cabinet as Attorney General. She, too, has played her part in this cam?lu!gn, How- ever, William J. Donovan, the assistant to the Attorney General, is refgsrded as a more likely appointment as chief legal officer of the Government if the Repub- licans are successful. He has been a consistent supporter of Mr. Hoover's candidacy, and was so during the pre- convention campaign, when Republican leaders in New York, Col. Donovan's own State, were lukewarm to the then Secretary of Commerce. * kK K No one has yet claimed that this election is being bought. That is another way the campaign has differed from others. In 1920 and in 1924 sen- atorial committees were working vigor- ously investigating campaign expendi- tures by the two parties. But this year, although there is a special Senate com- mittee and a special House committee all provided to keep tabs on campaign expenditures, neither has had a meet- ing since the Republican and Demo- cratic national conventions made their nominations. This may be due in part to the fact that the Republican and Democratic national campaign commit- tees themselves have been making pub- lic full reports of contributions and ex- penditures at regular intervals during the campaign. Senator Borah, by the way, is not a little responsible for the adoption of this plan of making public the fiscal affairs of the national com- mittees in the campaign. He insisted at the Republican national convention that the Republican platform should contain provision for such reports. The Democrats followed suit when it'came their turn. Perhaps after the election is over there will a shout that one side or the other “bought” the elec- tion. But at present both Democrats and Republicans are apparently con- tent, possibly because each side this year has as much money as it can well expect to spend. Both national com- mittees expect to expend between three and four millions of dollars before the close of the campaign. Yet political leaders in some of the States are com- plaining today that they do not have enough money. * K Kk Former Mayor J. Hampton Moore of Philadelphia, who has been campaign- ing for the Republican ticket in Massa- chusetts, does not take the pessimistic view of Hoover's chances in the old Bav State that some other Republicans have. He maintains that the Hoover- Curtis ticket has the advantage there. Never before, he says, has he seen the two parties so actively at work in Mas- sachusetts as they are today. * K Kk The wet mmwum in New York and elsewhere have formed a ‘“Hoover- Curtis Liberal Le.sue with headquar- ters in New York City. The Democrats ridicule the league, saying that they should support Gov. Smith if they are really opposed to prohibition. How- ever, the Republicans come back at them with the sugges! that Demo- * | crats like Josephus Daniels of North Carolina, Senator Pat Harrison of Mis- sissippt and others who are strongly for the dry laws should be in the Hoover camp. ' These are just cases where the ‘This is a special department devoted | to the handling of inquiries. You have | at your disposal an extensive organiza- tion in Washington to serve you in any capacity that relates to information. Write your question, your name and your address clearly and inclose 2 cents in coin or stamps for reply. Send to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J, Haskin, director, Washing- ton, D. C. Q. In which States is rice grown?— P. M. A. The rice-growing States are Ne- vada. South Carolina, Georgia, Missis- sippl, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and California. Louistana is the largest rice-growing State. In 1927 its pro- duction amounted to 17,316,000 bushels. Q. Do bears have tails?—F. N. A. They have rudimentary tails. Q. Is there a shrine to Charles Dar- win in England?—F. U. A. “Down House,” in the county of Kent. where Darwin wrote the “Origin of Species,” has recently been given to the British Association for the Ad- vancement of Science for this purpose. The house will become a library of works on evelution and on Darwin. Students will have the opportunity of consulting original manuscripts and documents concerning Darwin and his writings. Q._Have the Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution more members than the Sons of the American Revolution?— Y. B. 8. A. A comparison between the two organizations shows that the former has 169,000 members in 2,200 chapters, while the latter has 20,000 members in 188 chapters. Q. What is the favorite vehicle in Holland>—P. W. A. The bicycle. There is one bicycle to every two and a half persons. Q. How long are the longest days at the equator?—J. T. A. The Naval Observatory says the length of the day at the equator varies less than one minute throughout the year, being slightly longer at the sol- stices than at the equinoxes. The in- terval from rising to setting of the sun’s upper limb at the equator is about 12 hours 7 minutes. Q. What percentage of the total re- tail grocery business in the United States is done by chain stores?—S. R. A. It is estimated that of the total grocery business in the United States 10 per cent is done by chain stores. Q. Please give me some information regarding the origin of the parcel post. —E J. A. Parcel post as now conducted in the United States by the Post Office Department was established by law Au- gust 24, 1912, redefining fourth-class mail matter and the rates of postage at which it is to be carried. It was introduced to reduce the cost of mailing small packages short distances. Dif- ferent rates were made for packages of different weights going different dis- tances. For the purposz of parcel post the country was divided into eight zones, to be measured from each point of mailing as the radial center. Q. What is meant by the term “heaviside layer"?—E. W. A. The heaviside layer is the layer of ionized air in the supper atmosphere. It was first described by Arthur W. Heaviside, a British sclentist, who was experimenting with Sir William Preece in 1892 with parallel telegraph lines. Q. Please give a brief and compre- hensive definition of education.—E. S. A. One of the prize winning defini- tions of education, published in the Forum, is as follows: “Education is the knowledge, acquired through the sys- tematic and harmonious cultivation of one's natural powers, which gives one the ability to adjust himself satisfac- torily to his physical and intellectual environment. {&NSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. by Abraham Lincoln of the Emancipa- tion Proclamation?—T. E. R. A. 1t was burned in the Chicago fire of 1871, Q. What American statesman was the grandson of a king?—D. C. A._Charles Bonaparte, who was in the Roosevelt cabinet. Q. Please inform me whether the roots of weeping willow trees will clog up sewers from 5 feet to 7 feet in clay soil—H. W. F. A. Willow roots have a reputation for going after water and it is quite possible that they may clog up the .;ewer pipes even if the pipes are § feet eep. Q. Would the divorced wife of & dis« abled veteran be entitled to hospi treatment because of her husband’s service in the Navy?—T. C. A. The divorced wife of a disabled veteran of the United States would not be entitled to hospital treatment in a naval hospital. Q. What is the meaning of the ex- pression “Poor white trash”?—P. O. A. This term is applied in the South to poor and worthless white people. ©. Which nations engaged in the World War had compulsory military | training during that period?—C. R. Q. A. All the nations engaged in World War adopted compul tary training. Those which did not have it before the war adopted it as a war measure. Q. When did Billy Sunday become an evangelist?>—L. Y. B. A. He became an evangelist in 1896. He was a professional base ball player from 1883 to 1890 and assistant secre- tary of the Chicago Y. M. C. A. from 1891 to 1895. Q. Must a return address be printed on all window envelopes?>—E. M. E. A. It is a requirement that the cor- ner card of the sender be printed on all window envelopes. Q. How many newspapers are dis- tributed each day in the United States? —F. H. A. The Editor and Publisher Year Book for 1928 says that average dally circulation of newspapers throughout the United States is: Mo , 14,145, 834: evening, 23,820933; Sunday, 25,469,037, Q. What was the longest forward pass ever made?—A. L. K. A. The record for a forward pass is 70 yards, made in a game between the University of California and Ohio State. The ball was thrown by Harold P. Muller to Howard W. Stephens and the score was: California, 28; Ohio State, V. Q. When did we begin coining money for the Philippine Islands?—T. P. By A. Money coined for the Philippine Islands first arrived in the Philippines from the Philadelphia and San Fran- cisco mints in June, 1903, and was placed in circulation in July, 1 was done in accordance with the pro- visions of a tentative law passed in 1902. On June 23, 1906, an act when requested to do so has money for the Philippines. For past few years the United States has not struck coins for the - Philippines. The old dies are still in use. . Q. How old is De Wolf H 12— De Wolf Hopper was barn in New City, March 30, 1858. He has been led six times. 'S, Does cocon contain ealfeintr— 'A.’ Cocoa contains a slight t of caffeine. The most eminds 3 however, is theobromine, which is re- lated to caffeine. Cocoa also contains A. York marri Q. What happened to the original Herbert Hoover quits his “front porch” at Washington confident that his fight is won. He reveals a natural nervous- ness as the hour of decision nears, but it is not tinctured with anxiety. The necessary business of politics is distaste- ful to Hoover, and he is heartily glad the campaign is over. He weathered its exigencies much better than he ever thought he could or would. Probably no presidential contest in our time was ever waged with so few of the stereo- typed trappings as have accompanied the Hoover candidacy. When it can safely be written, one thing will stand out as clear as crystal—namely, that the Republican national committee, as such, was relatively little in the picture. In former times national committeemen were the moguls of the campaign. They were real bosses. They carried weight, and their names struck terror far be- yond the confines of their own States. There’s been nothing of that sort in the G. O. P. this time. Hoover's organizing and administrative hand touched and ran everything. When there were orders to give, he gave them, and hardly any- thing of consequence was done without such orders. * * * % One of the unfathomable mysteries of 1928 will be the why and wherefore of Calvin Coolidge’s abstention from the campaign. Had the President been in opposition to Hoover he could hardly have done less in the Californian’s be- half. Few Republicans expected that the Vermonter. would openly espouse his Secretary of Commerce’s bre-convention ambitions. But none thought Mr. Cool- idge would refrain from publicly advo- cating the election of the party standard bearer. The best guess is that the Presi- dent holds it to be unbecoming the dig- nity of his office to stoop down from his high estate into the hurly-burly of a campaign which has been “rough™ now and then. Massachusetts politicians say that Coolidge has never taken an active part in political contests in which he was not personally and directly in- terested. * k¥ % Even old-timers can't remember a presidential duel which has ruffied peo- ples's feelings or set nerves on edge The twin issues of religion and prohi-} bition did the trick, The corner gro- ceries of the land have not rocked with recriminations like those of 1928 since the McKinley-Bryan free silver campaign. Bitter as was that contro- versy, it was not marked by the per- ! fat, protein, starch, water, crude fiber, ash, gum and tannin. WASHINGTON ‘OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. l Democratic congressional _campaign leaders have made valiant, but vain, ef- forts to induce Ruth Bryan Owen, daughter of “the Commoner,” to es- pouse Smith in her campaign for a Florida seat in the House of Represent- atives. She resolutely refused to do so, on the ground that it would seriously injure her chances to become the first lady from Miami at Washingtcn. It was represented that the son of Grover Cleveland and the daughters of Wood- row Wilson and Champ Clark weve all an the firing-line for Smith, but Ruth Bryan Owen, evidently holding that personal safety comes first, has no’ joined them. * x % Miss Bettie Powell, 20-year-olt daughter of Col. E. Alexander Powell, famous American war - correspondent traveler and author—now A resident of Washington—is abou: to embarx upon a career unique for a person of her age and sex. She will take the lecture platform and talk on interna- tional affairs. Springfield, Mass, will be the scene of her debut in November. Miss Powell was cradled in woild poli- tics, her father having once been an sfficial in the American foreign setvice and later a scribe on many a far-flung journalistic field, in peace and in war. The young lady is a graduate of the celebrated Ecole Libre de Sciences Politiques at Paris, whence many a rising young European and American displomat has emanated. She has been all - over Europe, Asia, Africa and America with her parents. Bettie does not wear horn-rimmed glasses or in- dulge in other high-browed manner- isms. She will discuss foreign affairs with the verve of a typical, breezy— and pretty—American girl. £ x ¥ ‘When Field Marshal Viscount Allenby visited Washington this week he re- newed his acquaintance with a couple of young Americans whom--as chil- dren—he took into his confidefice on a historic occasion in Egypt. They are the daughter and son of Hampson Gary, who was American Minister at Cairo during the World War. Gen.: Allenby, as commander-in-chief of the British Army’s Egyptian expeditionary - forc was & guest at the United States leg: more than the Hoover-Smith imbroglio, » tion one evening just prior to the cam- paign for the conquest of Palestine. The two young Gary hopefuls asked Allenby how he purposed going about that job. Thereupon he produced a pencil and a pad and sketched out for the children a graphic map which disclosed the whole strategic plan. The sonalities of the contest now whirl- winding to its finish. Historians need | not wait for the campaign to end be- fore naming the paramount issue. It was religion. Newspaper colleagues, who have crossed the country in ail directions since mid-September, assure this obesrver that it is preponderant almost everywhere, including regions whelred its existence is most vociferously denied. prohibition issue is not strong enough to shake party allegiance. * K ok Kk Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democratic nominee for Governor of New York, who sought earnestly to be permitted not to run for governor on account of his apparently is thriving on the cam paign. He has campaigned vigorously for both Gov. Smith and for himself and looks the picture of health despite his diffi- culty in walking. He is very popular in the State and his nomination is-con- sidered as not a little strength to the I et In that State, Turks and the Germans would have given a good deal for that particular scrap of paper. * KX X Most radio speakers in this campaign have been recognized by their voices, even if listeners tuned in after an- nouncements were made and speeches b;gfig‘.ndxut lt|hex;e‘s at least one air B ler who is recognized his particular choice of words. He Igy none other than Charles Evans Hughes. The other night when the former Secre- tary of State opened his campaign for nge}x;elmm St. Joseph, Mo., & listener oug! was “getting” Hughes, but didn't think the voice was familiar. “Wait and see if he uses the word ‘exigency’,” sald the listener to a com- rade at the receiving set. “If he does, it’s Hughes.” A bare minute and a half passed and then, sure as to the, Hoaver booster were re- moved. r* ranks as the fa- vorite idiom in the Hughes lexicon. (Copyilaht, 19280 tity. of