Evening Star Newspaper, November 4, 1928, Page 43

EPISCOPAL CHURCH SEES DIVORCE AS MAJOR EVIL Attempts Far-Reaching Study of Problem as Separations Increase Through- out the World. BY THOMAS R. HENZ#" HE Ebigze=* Church of the aemr® Ttates is in the midst of l a far-reaching study of the problem of divorce. The divorce curve is rising at #n alarming rate throughout the Chris- tian world. Occasional fears have been expressed that the whole structure of monsgamous macriage, so fundamental in Christian civilization, is crumbling at its founda- tions. This condition has a distinct s'znificance, both sociological and re- ligious, for a great deal of the social structure rests upon the sanctity of the mazriage bond, and there are express biblical commands concerning it. NOVEMBER 4. 1928—PART Ld l | Plea of N | fisld of newer psychological theories which explain much of human be-| The comr...sion is satisfi~d much can be done in the field of education to do away with prudery and mistaken ideals, of life. Yet there is sometiing beyond without curing which proba'ly little can be done to lower the divorce rate. | It is expressed thus in the report of the commission : “This brings us face to face with the | fact that what is basic in the problem of divorce, as in every other nroblem ! of human relationships, is the thing that we call characier. The word character implies certain stan-ards of | right and wrong and the ebility on the | “We-Uns Has Come--Larn Us” ountain Children Heeded and Citizens Useful to Society Are Created AUSTRALIA SEEKS STATE ' CHILD ENDOWMENT FUND Land of “Few Millionaires but No Poverty” Is Ready for Experiment in Socia BY A. D. ROTHMAN. - USTRALIA, which, more than any country in the world, has experienced broadly in social legislation, is now about to ven- ture into the est and most controversial of fields—child endow- ment. All the way from old-age pensions and maternity allowances through com- pulsory arbitration of labor disputes, a minimum wage fixed by law and a 44-hour working week. to government | granté to private individua's for the building of homes, Australia has within the past quarter of a century attempted to exemplify the slogan: | “Few millionaires. but no poverty.” The schemes for bettering its society 1 Field. in the factory. shop or field, they are assured of a certain wage for them- selves and their dependents? W1 the commission got down to determining the cost of child endow: ment it was the practical men dealing in pounds, shillings and pence that at- tempted to throw a wet blanket on the scheme. The secretary to the federal treasurer testified that it would seri- ously affect Australia’s credit. He said that to provide child endowment of 5 shillings a week for the 1,130,000 de- pendent children of wage earners only would cost £14.690,000. and it would cost £24,180,000 if the scheme were ex- tended to the 1,860,000 dependent chil- dren of all classes in Australia. Total taxation by commonwealth and states was £87,000,000 a year, and if an | part of the individual to act in accord- | Naturally the churches are 100KINg | 71 ce “with those standards. Much has{ with little favor on the drift and szek- i have gone on apace and unchecked. | though ‘many of the above-mentioned additional £14,000,000 had to be provia- ing means to check its progress. The | Episcopal Church has been concerned | over it for some years. The church| leaders came to the conclusion that any action must be based on a thorough un- derstanding of the facts as to under- Iying causes of divorce. Three years| 920 o commission of bishops and promi- nent laymen was apvointed to make a | thorcugh study of the question. This commission worked hard for three vears, and it reported back to the Gen- eral Convention here the other day that 4t was baffled. The only hope th> mem- bers of this body saw of solving the problem was for an intensive study by eo-operating social agencies for 10 vears, financed at approximatel $50,000 a year, of the whole divorce situation. ecclesiastical action without thor- been said about financial tension, but in_most cases the problem is doubtless not so much one of finances as of abil- ity to face the ordinary conditions of | life, nearly all of which involve the ex- | penditure of money. Drunkenness, cruelty and sex immorality are prob- lems of character. Many marriages are unhappy for the reason that husbands and wives in th ir relat'ons with one another frequently do not obey the laws that are basic in every normal human relationship. In many homes there fis a freedom of speech. a spirit of criti- ci 1and a failure to observe the amen- iti~s of life that are recognized as es- | sential in any ordinary friendship: and surely one cannot hope for a happy married life on terms t, ! are lower than those of friendship. Willfulness, | the insistence on one’s own way, the | faflure to show due consideration for | the wi hes and preferences of each| | other are constant causes of unhappi- | f | ness. One must always have profound | respect for the individuality of another | ur.derstanding might prove a seri- istake, the commission pointed out. Everybody Has a Theory. Now, there are, of course, hundreds of thousands of persons who know exactly | fugt ous m BY MARY FIELD PARTON. | WENTY-SIX years ago,onaSun- | I day afternoon, a star must have little log cabin in the mountains of Georgia. Here, in obscurity, a dream was born to a gentle Southern girl. Few were wise enough to foresce the significance of her visien in the lives of thousands of poor and lowly folk. Today, however, that dream has be- come the brick and stone reality of a great training school for the bovs and girls of the Appalachian Mountains: a nebulous dream has become the Berry | | Then came th» Sunday adventure and | tain bo; cut of it a dream which cut athwart socfal conventions. It 15 an old story now in the moun- hung low and luminous over a | oinc* CLTCE RS 2 foik tale by 26| years of telling and retelling—the story of the humble beginnings of the Berry Schools . . . A Summer Sunday after- noon when *artha Berry, a voung girl CHILDREN OF THE MOUNTAINS AND THEIR GRANDFATHERS STUDY TOGETHER. walking barefoot up and down | the stony trails. Their number grew. “Larn nus, Miss Berry” they said. “Larn us what you-all know.” But for each child who came, hun- dreds there were who could not make |the long journey or whose parents | thought “larnin’* a waste of time or | whose labor was nceded on the farm. | | just home from finishing school, told | Martha Berry discovered hundreds of Bible stories in thecabin on her father's such children when she rode on horee- estate to three dusty mountain lads| back through the highways and byways she chanced upon as she drove home |Of the mountains, coming upon weather- from church. Perched on a soap box, | beaten shacks filled to the door and with the children squatting on shuck | Window sills with ragged children. So in return for the opportunity to| learn there was wood to cut, land to clear, & cow to milk, crops to sow and harvest. Gradually the plan and type of school most needed for the mountain | children _took f in the mind of | Martha Berry. Edueation. she decided, | must be like the mystic Trinity, three- | fold yet one—of the hand, of the mind and of the heart. Education must teach these raw minds and untrained hands to think, to do and to feel. Essen- tially it must be agricultural, fitting lads to return to the soil from which they sprang. With the coming of Spring six more | | persists, and today as the controversy enterprises dropped into the red ink from the very beginning and were ul- timately written off the hooks by a disillusioned people as dismal failures. The vital urge for an ideal, however. over chilq endowment in Australia rages even more heatedly after two years of active agitation, the persistence | and breadth of the discussion of this | many-sided question is little short of | amazing. ‘V Begun by Women. In 1926, while a Labor government | was in control in New South Wales, the women with outstanding unanimity | hegan a movement for the endowment | of children of the state. They drew up a “Children’s Chart which con- | tained an irreducible minimum of lh’,“ physical, educative and moral needs of the child. It was a detailed document and overiooked nothing—in fact, it even provided that “1s 6d for rabbit, brains | and fish” should be spent each week | ed from the earnings of the people the government wouid be able to raise prac- tically no loan money in Australia Higher taxation would absorb all thc capital now available for investment The only thing left to do in such an event would be to increase interest rato: or to go abroad for loans. So seriou might the position become that it migh be found impossible to convert wa Ioans as they matured and Australi- would have to go overseas to redeer loans. Thus credit would be affecte seriously. Foes Point to United States Scheme Perhaps the most unusual argumen propounded 2gainst child endowmen pail from the public revenues was on¢ based on an American experience—th so-called “company union. - tleman who advanced th: . W Gepp, chairman of the development and migration commission (one of the most important of the federal bureaus), never used the expression ‘“company union.” In a land where labor is so o verson even when that individuality | g p why the divorce rate is increasing and [ mats at her feet, listening breathlessly Conditions She Found. Do e coming of Spring it more ] fob every. youngater' diet. ready to tell all about it. Every judge, every minister and avery amateur | ‘philosopher has a theory of his own— theories that range all the way from faflure of the churches to too many automobiles. The commission took | some of these theories and looked into | them. None of them stands up very | well under scientific examination. Some s for instance, that the divorce rate is going up because of the rapid urbanization of the population. Feople are drifting away from the | eountry with its healthy moral influ- ences into the great cities with their multitudes of temptations, and with th2 | close proximity of great numbers of | both sexes. A man has more women | to pick from and finds somebody he likes better than his wife, and vicc| versa. But, says the commission, th> actual figures “do not by any means indicate that the cass is so much worse in the city than the country, because the cities are largely recruited | by people from the rural communities. | end the people who are likely to be | discontented with the more rigid moral standards of the country are the | v ones that are most likely to go, 10 cities and recruit the ranks of those who are divorced there.” In other words, the divorce bug isn't put into | the heads of men and women after they move to the city. It is there already | end is what forces them to move from the country. Another rails against the apartment houze. How can a satisfactory home, he asks. be built up in one room, kitch- enette and bath? True enough, an- gwers the Episcopalian commission, “there are many places where families | ere huddled into a space so congested that it seems well nigh impossible to | cevelop there the right sort of family life. A real home means much more freedom for the right sort of family life, which involves development of a sense of personal responsibility for the welfare of the community. It is well that children should have yards in which they can play. Yet the solu- | tion of the problem of divorce is not 1o be found in owning one’s own home. In mnay continental countries apart- ment house life has long been a general | practice.” Doubtless it is true, the commission concludes, that there are many more divorces in the kitchenette-and-bath apartment? than in the suburban cot- tages, but 1t also is true that the kind eof people who live in clothes-closet homes are the sort of people who are most likely to treat the marriage bond lightly. The apartment isn't to blame. ‘They are that way before they move in. Birth Figures Not Conclusive. | Another reformer declars that lack | of children is responsible for the| rpounting divorce wave. The birth rate | # declining. Statistics indicate that | approximately three couples without children seek the divorce courts to | every two couples with children. “Gen- | eral experience.” the commission Te- | ports. “proves that children are often | the tie that keeps the family together. | It is a simple law of life that any | vital object of interest outside of them- selves tends to bind people together. For husband and wife there can be no interest so compelling as that of their own children.” It admits, however, that the figures are not conclusive. The sort of people who have large families are th> sort of people constitutionally fitted to stick together, and the sort of people who don't have children are not. Lack of | children is the symptom rather than | the disease. Moreover, too many chil- | dren freguently results in a condition that is as bad as divorce—desertion. The husband supports his increasing | family until tne financial burden be- comes too heavy for him. Then he| takes the “poor man’s divorce”—runs | away. The harder the civil and ecclesi- estical laws make divorce, the report | says, the greater is the tendency to de- | sertion. | The commission did find in a great | many divorce cases a history of finan- cial troubles. Despite the old adage, | two persons can't live as cheaply as one, and marriage on a moderate salary makes necessary certain sacrifices which g0 against the grain of modern youth. | It is hard for a girl who has been | earning as much as her husband to give | up the fur coats and theater tickets she | could buy with this money and settle | down contentedlv to live on less than | half as much. Naturally she gets dis- satisfied—end if she hasn't a strong character is likely to rebel against laws | which bind her to this condition. This, of course, is a_comparatively recent de. Cetopment. The working irl is a new | happens to belong to one's husband or wife. Moreover, every wise human re- lationship involves the spirit of co-on- | eration, which in turn requires sacrifice and_self-denial. “Character may be briefly defined as 1~ abilitv of the individual to adapt himeelf to the various conditions and crises of life as they arise. Clearly it is impossible in anv education to an- ticipate the various problems which rise in his life, but the right sort of training should give him the reasonable ability to face them sq.arely. This is peculiarly the case in marriage. Its experiences cannot be anticipated, but if men and women have character they will have the power to adiust them- selves to one another even under most trying circumstances. Hard to Change. “As the years go by it becomes in- creasingly difficult to modify the char- acter that has heen formed in early life. While it is not impossible to change it, the difficulties often seem insurmountable. §5 many of the plans for producir: hapny homes seem positively :’diculous to those who have any real knowlecge of human nature. To expect that a little homily or good advice will make impure men and women faithful in the marital relationship, slovenly women into good housekeepers, a willful man into a considerate husband, or the Ja frugal people, and quarrelsome men and women into affectionate hucbands and wives, is »~ reasonable as it was fc- the ancient king to expect that the tides of the acean would retire at his commend. When the ideals, emotions and habits are once fixed the effort to chanze them involves a desperate struegle. “It is impossible to overemphasize in the emotional life and in character. For this reason careful thinkers look for the causes of family disintegration and divorce in changes in the ideals of life which have'taken place in the last few centuries. First, there was the economic revolution which displaced the family as an economic unit. It is only within a comparatively short pe- | riod that there has been the great de- | velopment of city life as compared with rural life. In rural life the family was the producing unit and every member other member. Wherever this condi- tion has prevailed the rate of divorce seems to have been comparatively low. But the modern industrial development has brought people by the thousands from the country to the city. Not only men. but women have become'econom- ically independent of their familios, and no longer look to them for sup- rt. As a consequence the whole ideal por | of the family has changed. Moreover, | there has been an increasing emphasis on the importance of the individual, en on an equality with men, politically, socially and morallv. Along with the development of individualism has also come the general growth of the ro- mantic view of life which is character- istic of modern civilization and espe- cially of America. This pictures the ideal life as a paradise in which every- Its attitude toward marriage is well ex- pressed in the familiar ending of the stories of childhood, ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ From the stand- point of marriage, romanticism implies not only freedom of choice in marriage, but also freedom to live one's married romantic attitude is characterized by the conviction, especially among wom- en, that marriage should be an eternal honeymoon. with constant demonstra- tions of affection. Where these are lacking married life is considered a failure. The development of individual- ism, or the right of every human being the romantic view of marriage, largely explains the striking tendency in mod- ern life to look on happiness and pleas- ure as the obvious goals of life. “It is clear, therefore, that the solu- tion of the problem of divorce requires a_knowledge of intimate sex relations, of the emotional life, of character, and of life's ideals. These in turn involve carly home training and its ideals, later religious training and religious associa- tions, and such subjects as sex educ: tion. It is easv. therefore, to appre- ciate the difficulties that inhere in any real study of the divorce problem.” Marriage “Courses” Suggested. One serious stumbling block in the way of determining the underlying fac- tors of divorce, the commission found, figure. It is not many years since the woman was glad to take what she could | {ain a meal ticket, and she guarded that meal ticket jealously. Now she may either kick over the traces altogether or nag her husband to the point where | he can endure it no longer, and one day takes the train out of town, to be seen | no_more in his accustomed haunts. Yieves. it is_far from the root of the problem. Divorce is prevalent among couples with no finaneial troubles what- gnever—where the wife who wants a }fr lack of knowledge of normal family : There ar= thousands of couples who | get. Marriage was her only way to ob- | have made a success of marriage. They | are living tezether in apparent hap Somehow or other they have | —colleges, normafl to | and professional | ave the conditions leading | how they Naturall ! to obtain. freely. | are lying. Yet without a clear understanding of This is what makes| and the shiftless into hard working, the fact that idea’s are absolutely basic | of the family was dependent on every | which was bound in time to place wom- | one has a God-given right to be happy. | life according to one's own wishes, The | to live his own life and attain the | greatest self-expression, coupled with | It “r;uld be well to find out | it. such information is hard People don't falk about the But even here, the commission be- | most intimate affairs of their lives | parishes to the extent If they do the chances are they | Schools $or the “poor whites” who live their starved, proud iives on remote up- land farms in ignorance and poverty. Moreover, today Martha Berry. the founder of the schools, is the recipient of the annual achievement award of $5.000 given by one of America’s larz- est magazines to that American woman who within the last 10 years has made the most distinguished contribution to our national life in ietters, art, science or social welfare. During these many years lanky boys and girls in ever-increasing numbers have been coming down from the up- lands. trudging weary miles, hungry for “larnin’.” Ragged, dirty, barefooted, they come, all they possess on their backs and in a shoulder bundl “I come to git me larnin’ h: sy simply, dropping their burden at the entrance to the grounds of the| school, whose wide gates swing open | onto the paved, elm-archsd “Road of Opportunity. | “We-u as come, ma'am. Larn us,” they say with the dignity of old little children, a tragic dignity which offsets their rags, their untutored speech. Martha Berry. the founder of ths unique Berry School at Rome, Ga., was born to far more cultured associa- | tions than those of the simple moun- tain folk of her country. For her was planfied a more romantic future than | that which she elected. Behind her lay all the gracious Southern traditions of storv and picture: a great plantation, | a white pillared house with broad bal- conies and overhanging wistaria: ser- | vants to fetch and carry: the polished education given to the girls of wealthy families. Her days were to be those of | the aristocratic Southern belle . of a laughinz. joyous girlhood: a brilliant marria an assured social position. | | | HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended November 3. * o ok K Great Britain—Lloyd George appears | to be playing politics in charging that | !the British government, in formally | acquiescing in the French positions that trained reserves should not be con- sidered in any scheme of limitation of {land forces, betrayed the cause of dis- armament. As a matter of fact Lord Cecil himself, the grand champion of | disarmament, in a speech before the | preparatory disarmament commission in | April, 1927, recognizing that France and most of the other continental countries | would not renounce conseript armies, | gave up the fight along that line. The British government utilized formal recognition of the futility of | such opposition in the supposed interest of naval limitation. The British gov- ernment would like to see conscriot armies aholished, but perceives that the | thing is out of the question for some time yet. Being realists, why “kick against the pricks?” the government asks. It was a vivid statement—that Britain, like France, is a nation in the grip of | fear—fear of starvation from the sea, as France is in fear of invasion by land. Hence the Franco-British agreement. | A new type of locomotive steam engine | {has been invented by an Englishman which is claimed to represent the great- est single advance in steam engine con- | struction since Stephenson. % e Germany.—It is now understood that the invitations to a confersnce to con- sider revision—or, what is more likely, supersession—of the Dawes plan are to | fssue from Berlin. Of course, prior to | such issue of invitations agreement will | have been reached as to the composi- | tin of the international comm'ssion, | the general character of the agenda, ete. | " "The Graf Zepprlin made the return | trip from Lakehurst to Friedrichshafen | without mishap in about 69 hours. Distance, over an approximation to the Great Circle course, about 4,500 mile: as against 6,300 miles over the south- ern course {aken on the westward flight. Ths receipts (passengers, mail and | freight) scem to have approximated | $250,000. hayyp married life, compared with 'h; vast mass of information which awail discovery. But it is essen that little, Consequently, it recomme that al' higher institutions school schools nds seriously of learning universities ncorporate in their curriculums courses “in human relationships. especially on the subject of marriage.” It also recommends that ' RV take this work in their e gyinen yhdsrls Mof thetr abbity. Tall in love. But one y in love. Some ledge intuitively. Some never Any one can must know how to sta: seem to have this know! Martha Berry realized the hunger of these starved children knowledge. “Pa ez got him a Bible, on'y he cain’ read it,” sighed a lad. The next Sund poignant for t There's white trash chil'uns waitin' to see you,” an-| nounced the old family cook “We brang us some sisters,” boys. Martha Berry looked at their hands and_faces, eaked with grime and soil; at their matted. unkempt hair: at the rags they wore. She saw with quick sym- pathy that their neglected bodies needed training and care as well as their darkened little souls. To the telling of Bible stories were added les- sons in washing. Begins a Life Work. Every Sunday that Summer brought more children, walking miles to he: the wonderful things the “Sunday Lady told them: stories about Adam and Ev about germs, about George Washington. But it was not until Fall that Martha Berry discovered that she had begun a life work, started a career that she could not stop: that she had lighted the said the candle of hope in darkened lives around | whose flickering flame she must cup soft, white hands lest it blow out. Parents began to come down from the | mountains, begging for “larnin’ " along | Bverywhere on these journeys she | found ~dirt, illiteracy, illness. Every- | where she found weary, worked-out men | unintelligently endeavoring to wrest a | bare_existence out of the poor soil of the mountain side with the most primi- tive tools: everywhere tired women, bent lover wash barrels or cracking corn be- | tween fiat stones or doing the work of | the beasts of the field. And everywhere, | too, she found tall, gaunt, blue-eyed men {and women of her own proud Nordic |stock who fiercely rejccted even the | “larnin’ " they craved hecause - they were too poor to pay for it. | * “Thy people shall be my people.” said Martha Berry as she consecrated her young life to the “poor whites” of the mountains. ‘ Her next step was to open at her own expense schools nearer to the remote settlements of the people, but it was not long before she realized that her | efforts on behalf of the children were defeated by the home environment. Of what use to talk about cleanliness and godliness to children whose parents were too poor to buy soap and combs? It wasn't Sunday schools, it wasn't week-day schools that these children needed. It was a_boarding school, a| | complete change of environment that | was essential. So Martha Berry deeded her share of | her father's eztate to the first of Ih"‘ | who, at the age of 15 or 16. could not |she is not up to the requirements of | super-Wahl | work to improve the instrument.” with their children. | Berry schools, a dormitory, which she Against the opposition of friends and | built with her own money. From the shocked relatives, Martha Berry opened | inception of the school it was decided | her first day school in the following | that in return for an education, for Spring—a one-room cabin with planks | food and lodging. the boys could work. | laid across soap boxes for the children’s | They were too poor to pay, too proud benches, a large packing box for the to accept charitv. A dozen boys came. teacher's desk. Reading, writing. cipher- “You aim to larn us?” they asked. ing, Bible stories—this was the curric- “Yes. I aim to.” ulum. From miles away came moun- “Well, we-uns has come, ma-am.” The Story the Week Has Told I said that the ship made the return|or “Palace of Justice” trip without mishap, but she did not do | Sicily. so without desperate peril. At a ban-| Two new air lines, namely, Rome- quet in his honor at Friedrichshafen | Syracuse-Tripoli and Rome-Genoa- that honest man and skillful and heroic | Marseille-Barcelona-Las Palmas (chief pilot, Dr. Eckener, admitted that the town of the Spanish Canaries). experience of the Graf Zeppelin on her | As service was being initiated on| homeward voyage demonstrated that| each of the two lines by a four-motored seaplane of 2,000-horse- regular transatlantic air navigation. power machines, previously established ‘Toward evening of the first dey she | Rome-Genoa, Rome-Naples-Palermo and encountered a storm off Newfoundland | Rome-Cagliari lines simultaneously took which Jasted all night and “threatened | the air while guns boomed salute, at times to break the ship in two.”| By order of Mussolini not a speech ‘When light came, the crew were amazed | was made that day, but at each of the | to find beneath them not open sea, but | gatherings a message from the Duce was | certain small islands off the Newfound- | read; a rather quiet message, containing | land coast. Head winds had driven | only one Mussolinism, as follows: them off course. “Let us raise our banners and weapons “I am convinced,” said the doctor,| with a single ery which has made and | “that the ship only withstood that| will always make to tremble our enemies storm because we reduced our demands | of all deseriptions and kinds—'on your on the engines to the minimum-——that | guard'—of late Mussolini has been a is, we cut her speed in two and rode | little chary of Mussolinisms. ot the gale. We know now that our o Sepredn 'S st be stronger, because we L Greece.—The population of Athens is | know that only the utmost exertion Saved 1hs Grat Zeppelin from the storm, | estimated at 642,000, as against 150,000 | a century ago, when Greece bescame | Now we know where all those airplane pilots lost their lives. It was over | independent and 300.000 in 1921. Newfoundland. We cannot stick our| A greater Athens to include Piraeus, hands in our pockets. We know we | which is practically continuous with the have a good ship. It had to be good to | modern Athens, would have over 1,000.- | live in that storm. But now we must| 000 people. Athens nceds parks and water; above all water, because nothing | can be made of parks without abundant | irrigation. The supply from Hadrian's | at Messina, | After the experience above noted the | crop surpluses, and increase of tariff tial to know ship was favored by winds. It is seen that on each trip—westward and cas ward—the Graf Zeppelin survived by a hair only: but those trips were im- mensely justified, were necessary experi- ments toward development of a type of airship suitable for regular transatlantic commercial service; a type certain ulti- mately to be achieved and the more quickly through the knowledge acquired through those trials and only thus to b2 acquired. The world is immensely indebted to Dr. Eck-ner and the associates of his enierprise, but perhaps on other trial trips he will be a little hesitant about taking mera passengers. The world now awaits with great curiosity the trial trips of the two great British airshios neating completion and service between Britein and Australia. In the course of their construction great | modifications were made in their designs in the interest of stanchness. * L 1laly.—A translation of Mussolini's | autobiography has just besn published \ by Scribners. Tt was dictated in great { haste in the intervals of business, and bears _disappointing testimony the | eircumstances of composition. Only a | Byron or, belike, a Caesar can do im- | mortal literary work at random moments {and Muscolini is neither, like Byron, a L darling of the muses, nor quite, like | Cacsar, of th» Olympian mold (which involves reticense and self-restraint). No doubt the book will add to the general curiosity concerning Mussolini, but it is unlikely to enhance his reputetion with the_judicious. | On October 28, Ttaly cclebrated the | sixth anniversary of the “march on Rome"” of the Black Shirts, the advent * int-nded for regular| | aqueduct, however well repaired. is quite | inadequate but at last a fair supply will s00n be forthcoming through completion of an artificial lake at Marathon and of a 15-mile aqueduct therefrom. No doubt in time the supply will be rein- forced by way of an aqueduct from the Stymphalian Lake, famous as the scene of one of the labors of Hercules, | Quite as important, the return of | Venizllos to power is being signalized by | antion toward realization of two of his | darling schemes of reclamation. The Gresk zovernment hes contracted with New York engincering interests for an | irrigation system for the Strymon | Valley above Saloniki and for drainage | of the Philippi marshes, the same in- terests which will within a vear or so| have brought the so-much-need=d water | from Marathon to Athens, S o W Rumania.—Premier Bratianu of Ru- mania with the Rumanian regeney. reeents asked him to resign, but he has flatly declined, declaring the request to be quite un- reasonable in view of the fact that the government is negatiating an important loan and is engaged in other imvoriant operations looking to stabilization of the currency. With a change of gov- ernment all the considerable” work nc- complished t that end might, he urges, be nulllied. It ‘seems that December 1 is the tenth anniversary of the incorporation ~f Transvivania with Rumanta, end the regents want to see a grand cele- bration that day, hwt something like 70 per cent of the Transivanians abhor the Bratianu government and would beyeott the celebration should it be | | age of the company will be electrified, the normal it is impossible to decide | Some are elf teught. diamond necklace merely calls the jew- | what is abnoraml in family life and to eler on the telephone and pays the bill | deal beforchand with conditions which out of her pocket money. In the course | may lead to the divorce court. of its investigation the commission sent | The commission admits that it knows 2 questionnaire to clergymen of various | very little. After three years of study denominations throughout the country | it makes, very cautiously, only one sug- on the relative financial statvs of cou- | gestion, 5 ples who songht divorces in their com- | ~ It is hard for two people to live to- munions. The general answer was that | gether divorce 1s more prevelent amonz the ! It is so hard, in fact, that it nesds well-to-do. The commission doesn't ac- | persons especiaily trained in the art cept these reports as absolute evidence. | of Iiving together. Staying married Clergvmen are not scientific sociologists | requires ‘more skill than driving an 2nd their observations may be at fault. | automobile. People are trained to drive More study will be devoted to this mat- | automobiles. = They can't get licenses The commission fids a promising' been trained thoroughly. learn and the car of matrimony crashes on th;uflr‘sl crnsfmu;m st Traffic is getting thicker. are more complicated. The chances are that this condition will be progressive | The day of the amateur married man and the amateur married woman is coming to a clese. They must know how—how to love eac I suffer together, how to share id-als, disappointments and triumphs. They must be trained in human relationships | —in molding the character and per- | sonality of one in conformity with the personality of the other. Probably it is the most comblicated subject in the world. It involves fields The rules h other, how to | ruling on December 1. The regents do not impress as a_strong group. More- over, Bratlanu seems to have the sup- port of the army. It is a delicate situ- atien. | of the Fascists to power. Practically all jthe full fledged members of the | Faseist party, numbering about 1,500,- 1000, participated in the solemn ! ceremonies, in black shirts and decorated in full; likewise th= junior Fascist niganizations, ths Avanguardista and} the Balilla. Th~ public works completed during the previous 12 months were | Inaugurated, among which the following jare of chief imnortance: ! A motor road connecting Rome with | | Ostia (now chiefly famed as a bathing resort). He was one of the five American | Port works at famous Civita Vacchia, | peace commissioners. The others were: [ henceforth to be known as port of | Wilson, the late Henry White, Col. E. | Rome. M. House, and Gen. Tasker H. Bliss. e United States of America.—Robert | toniing, Secreiary of Stale under | President Wilson from June, 1915, to| February, 1929, during the entire period of our varticmation in the war and during that of the peace conference, s dead at 64. miles, driving a_yoke of oxen. “"Tis the fee for larnin' me, ma-am.” | he said proudly. “Theyre broke ter plowin®.” From a distant valley, leading his “fee” by a rope, came a lad with a sow, starved and dirty as the lad himself. Others came, bringing chickens, ducks to exchange for an education. More often they brought nothing but strong, willing_ hands. Tall, lanky boys came. read or write, but who in three years showed as great progress as the aver- age senior In a northern college. So the school grew. Mgrtha Berry's resources were exhausted. Still. not until she had Jiterally sold or deeded all that | entitled to the allowance, but would The women won, and on September 1, 1927, child endowment payments began. The law provided (a) for the declaration of a basic wage for a man | and wife, and (b) the payment of an | allowance of $1.25 per week in respect | of each dependent child, subject to the provision that child allowance shall only | be paid to the extent by which a| worker's total earnings fall short of the | sum represented by the basic wage plus | child allowance at the rate of $1.25 per | week for each child. Thus a worker | with three dependent children receiv- ing $25 by way of salary would not be Teceive it in respect of a fourth child. | The fund from which these payments | she had given to the poor did she. turn | to outsiders for help, did she go beyond | the disapproving circle of her friends | with the story of the mountain boys | begging for an education, willing to i work long hours with plow and axe and scythe that thoy might know something | of the world of books, might learn how | to live more intelligently. Gets Aid on Outside. She told the people of old New Eng- land, of New York and Philadelphia and Beston, about these forgotten Americans of purest colonial stock, liv- ing in isolation in the Appalachian Mounta whither they were driven by the 'slave system of labor which did not permit a white man to work with his hands without losing caste. She told the old families of New Eng- land how these “poor whites,” old fam- ilies, too, dwelt in proud isolation, ut- terly -illiterate, tilling their depleted farms with primitive methods. Prog- ress, lik» the mountain streams that (Continued on age.) is elected President, and if the Seven- tieth Congress in the short session shou'd fail to enact adequate legislation in aid of the farmer, he will summon Congress in extra session to that end. As indicated in his speeches at Palo Alto, West Branch, Iowa, and Eliza- bethton, Tenn., the program of farm relief that commends itself to Mr. Hoover are the following items in chief: Early realization of Mr. Hoover's mag- nificent _inland waterways program which should provide much cheaper freight rates than now obtained between the interior and the sea; enlargement of co-operative marketing facilities: a Gov- ernment-financed farm board to handle protection to farm products. ‘The Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation has won the competition for the con- struction of two super-Zeppelins for the Navy and a hangar to house them. The ships will b= built_at the companv's plant at Akron, Ohio: likewise ihe hangar. The hangar will cost between $2.000.000 and $3.000.000 and will be the iggest hangar in the world. The two ships will cost about $8,000.000 to be 780 feet long, and to have a helium gas capacity of 6,500,000 cubic feet, twice that of the Graf Zeppelin. In addition to the steel hangar (1.200 feet long, 360 feet wide and 200 feet high) there will be a 450-foot mooring mast. The work should be completed in about 12 months. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co. is to electrify its “entire service, passenger and freight, between New York and Wilmingten—325 miles of line, 1,300 of track. Expenditure of ahout $100,000,- 000 over seven or eight years is indi- cated. It seems probable that ulti- mately the entire 11,000 miles of track- section by section. El-ctrification is ex- pected to speed up freight service by between 20 and 30 per cent Electric traction is more economical than steam traction in areas of dense traffic. It has been decided to increase by 50 per cent the capacity of the bridge spans and approaches of Queensborough Bridge (cenneeting Manhattan and Long Island), at an estimated cost of 36,000,000, ®oE R Notes.— It appears that the Patriotic Union is the enly legal political party in Spain, like the Fascist party in Italy. oslav treaty with satis- provisions respeeting the “free zone” for Jugoslavia at Saloniki has Lteen signed by represontatives of the Athens and Belgrade governments. It is for 12 menths and automatically re- news itself continuously for equal pe- riods unless denounced ad millennium. Famine spreads fearfully to the cen- tral provinces of Hupeh and Hunan and the southern provinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, in China. Tha rice crupsl of Hunan and Hupch are reputed to| be piddling: that of Kwangtung 40 per cent, that of Kwangsi 60 per cent be- low normal. Some hundred milllon people living in an area of about 150,000 square miles are affected. List Manila Crimes In “Bloodiest Month” Here is how crime and violence run in Manila, a port and manufacturing city of 300,000 inhabitants, during Au- gust, superstitiously known as “the bloodiest month in the year,” 595 ac- cidents injuring 180 persons and killing 7, 22 street car collisions, 342 acel-| dents to horse-drawn and motor ve- hicles, 1,965 arrests, 420 for gambling, 106 for theft, 11 for robbery, 23 for assault, 7 homicide, 27 for breachss of are being made was created by a tax of | 3 per cent on the pay roll of employers, | with a rebate of 10 per cent in respect of workers whose wages are fixed under | awards of the Federal Court of Arbi- tration. The basic wage was declared at approximately $21.25 per week for adult males, $11.50 per week for adult females and at $21 for rural emv\?yes.' Modest Living Cost. | In view of the fact that the cost of living in Australia can generally be stated to be about half of what it is in the United States, the victory won in terms of dollars and cents was consid- crable. However, New South Wales shunted the problem into the domain of national affairs, for no sooner was the child endowment law passed than the cry was raised that other states would begin a competition with New South Wales in providing more liberal endowment schemes to attract popula- tion, thus adversely affecting industry that depended on a stable labor supply. Accordingly, at a conference of state premiers held in Melbourne a year ago it was decided to appoint a roval com- mission to inquire into the entire ques- tion, and the hearings before this com- mission have produced an astounding wealth of thought. This is said advis- edly, for not only has the commission ordered before it the very best brains of the commonwealth, but by carefully de- limiting the scope of its inquiry it has avoided diffusion in testimony. The feeling aroused has been so great | that the discussion is far from being | confined merely to the parquet of the commission. Private bodies are holding | public debates—and these are crowded. Recently the Australian Natives' Asso- ciation thrashed out the question “That legislation should be introduced provid- ing for a scheme of child endowment operating throughout the common- wealth.” Arguments pro were that child endow- iment would stimulate the birth rate and should make for increased virility, with a considerable reduction in mor- tality statistics. The endowment would be a recognition of the rights of the child, whith was the greatest asset of any country. Those opposing the scheme claimed that there was no need for child endowment in Australia, where the amount earned by workers was more than sufficient to provide for the wants of the home. Statistics showed that though the Federal minimum wage | provided for a family of five, the aver-| age size of Australian families was limited to two. Any scheme which robbed the worker of the incentive to better himself and provide for the re- sponsibilities of married life would not be acceptable in Australia. The scheme would have to be financed by taxation, which would increase the burden on in- dustries which were already overtaxed. Backed by Labor. Naturally, the forces of labor ap- peared before the royal commission to support the movement for child en- dowment. The striking feature of the testimony adduced by C. Crofts, secre- tary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is the insistence that endow- ment is a “natural right” of the child. He was little interested in the technical problems of application. To him it was all a matter of vital principle. He said: “Child endowment is imperative if Australia is to be assured in the future of a healthy, well educated. efficient, producing and service-giving population. ‘The project should be entirely inde- pendent of wages and should have no relation whatever to the wage system. Many children, it is considered, would | be left unprovided for if the matter were bound up with the question of wages. Wages, the council claims, are a charge upon industry and child en- dowment is a social obligation on the nation. Certain producing industries naturally would be called upon to bear the greater portion of the financial bur- den, if not all the cost, of any endow- ment proposal based on wages paid. This endowment should be applicable to all children and the necessary funds | should be drawn from general revenue.” Opposed by Employers. In direct opposition to labor was, of course, the employing class. The Vie- torjan Chamber of Manufacturers spoke for the group in a lengthy brief presented to the commission, the high lights of which were: “No matter how endowment is pro- vided, whether by one party or several parties, the fact remains that it has to come out of the national dividend. If a dole system, such as is suggested by | this question, were adopted the de- moralizing effect would mirror itself upon the national character. The effect of state aid in the rearing of one's family is contrary to human nature. “If we desire to retain our standards and keep our people in work we must produce our goods at world's parity| value and parliaments and industrial :\ 1h'umls cannot alter this fundamental act. “Looking at the situation from a manufacturer’s point of view there is abundant evidence that no further bur- dens can be placed upon industry with- out seriously threatening its existence in many directions. .. . Is it prudent that Australian workmen should be ed- | | the birth of each child. strongly organized as in Australia the latter concept is anathema maranatha. What he did say was that child endow- ment, like all similar schemes, must b worked out privat y worker and em- ployer together: __“The organization of industry is mov- ing toward a closer partnership between | employers and employas, and that can- not be achieved by act of Parliament. “The task of giving additional bene- fits to the wage earners with de- pendents is most economically and sat- isfactorily achieved by measures of com- munity benefits undertaken by an in- dustry or an enterpriss itself. * ¢ * It is suggested, therefore, that the men on the job, the management and a co- operative council, representative of ths employes, should work together in any industrial enterprise to insure that the money available for communal henefits, as the share of labor, should be most equitably distributed.” When the eugenist appeared on the scene he gave to the discussion a broad, philosophical aspect, a groping for be- ginnings or “first principles.” Lik- Plato, who, to determine what justice ic had first to create an ideal state, ¢ Australians were invited to plan a pc fect society before providing for ch endowment. The federal director general of hea! Dr. Cumpston, told the royal comm sion: For Selection. “If the assumption be correct that it is the intenticn of the government to treat children as national assets, it is economical to consider two factors— that, so {ar as is possible, the right kind of children shall be born, and that the children who are born shall be as national assets to the state. The rules of heredity have not been clarified sufficiently to permit the enunciation of general principles on which a universal system of selective mating could be de- vised, but certain steps may be con- sidered practicable. It might be ible to require that no person with such recognizable conditions as deaf-mutism, | feeble-mindedness, etc., should be per- mitted to marry. A statutory declara- tion should be required at marriage stating that the parties are free from conditions specified. A necessary corol- lary to the proposal is that falss decla- rations should not only be punishable as an offense, but should be declared a ground for divorce. It would also be desirable to revise the pesition in regard to feeble-mindedness and the segrega- tion and control of those individuals de- clared to be feeble-minded. The im- portant aspect of conservation of the life and health of each child endowed introduces the consideration of cleanli- ness of environment. ante-natal advice for mothers, care of infants in the first year of life, etc.” That sturdy perennial—a tax on the unmarried—wasn’t long in turning up. Certain interests appeared before the commission to advocate taxation of bachelors and spinsters more than 21, with an increase every year they re- mained single. Twelve months’ notice of intention by legislation to impose the tax could be given, so as to ac- celerate marriages. Many bachelors and spinsters were now leading wasteful lives and were trending toward national sterility, if not worse. Every woman settled in life should readily bear her natural increase or be taxed. When a couple married, instead of paying two taxes, as previously, they would then have to pay one tax. which in turn would be automatically reduced with With the birth of the fifth child the mother would become entitled to a special en- dowment of 10s per week for each of her children. Thus a mother of five would be entitled to £2 10s a week, and a mother of 10 would be entitled to £5 a week. Uphill Battle. Thus the situation stands. The ponents of endowment are fighting an uphill battle, but they are of good spirit because their “Children’s Charter” bears the “Declaration of Geneva,” ratified by the League of Nations, and paraphrased for Australian purposes as follows: “The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development, both materially and spiritually. “The child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be reclaimed and the orphan or the walf must be sheltered and succored. “The child must be the first to re- ceive relief in times of distress. “The child must be put in a position to earn a livelihood, and must be g;:- tected against any form of exploitation. “The child must be b 't up in the consciousness that its talents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men.” Poland to Observe Tenth Anniversary The restored Polish State will be 10 years old next month. Among other preparations to celebrate the event Warsaw's fine old market square, whose youngest house dates from the end of the eighteenth century and whose old- est in part from the fifteenth, is being restored at least externally to its for- mer glory. Not only are the tattered facades of the patrician houses, now often slummy tenements, being put in order, but paint is being splashed over them in a truly baroque or medieval riot of color. Fukier's 300-year-old wine shop is putting on searlet and gold. The heads of Polish kings, ~ beasts, flowers and family emblems are being frescoed on the houses by young artists to reproduce the appearance the square is th%hl to have had 300 years ago. In its rich gayety of color, how- ever, it promises to make an impression as much modern as ancient. ter. 1o do <o until they prove that they have Yine of apvroach to the underlying Right here is where the commission | of knowledge Into which no human has | New buildings at Rom= for the min- | Mr. Lansing was an expert in inter- causes of divorce a physiological one.' makes its concrete recommendation. It ! penetrated. The church commission ' istries of marine and education. ( national la; . trust, 58 for breaches of the peace and 'ucated into the belief that no matter | Pilsudski is to speak on November 11, the investigation goss far into the admits that not much isgknown about proposes merels & beginning. A magnificent law courts building, Mr, Hoover has announced that if he 9 for viol§ting the opium law. what may be the result #f their efforts Poland's independence day. .