Evening Star Newspaper, January 19, 1929, Page 6

‘t, THE EVENING STAR ‘With Sunday Morning Edition. | WASHINGTON, D. C. BATURDAY....Jenuary 19, 1920 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: “(c St. and Pennsyivania Ave. b New York Chicago Office: 110 East 43nd St i Office: Tower Bullding ; Buropean Office. 14 Regent St., London, /4 England. the City. .45¢ per raonth ar v o 60c per month Sunday Star ) #5¢ per month Sc per copy Rate by Carrier Within Star_ .. and Sun unda: d da: venin (when 4 Collection maG d of each month. Orders may be sent in by mail or telephone Main 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. 1 sr, $10.00: 1 mo., 85c 1yr, 3600 1 mo., 50c 1 ¥r, $4.00; 1 wo., 40c All Other States and Canada. aily and Sunday..l yr,$1200: 1 mo., 3100 Datly only ... 1yr, $8.00: 1 mo, T8¢ BSunday only . 1 yr, $5.00; 1 mo. 50c Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Fress is exclusively entitled | R0 the use for republication of al s dis- | atches credited to it or not otherwise cred- ted in this paper and also ‘he local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. = . Schools Need Business Manager. With a prospective budget of more | than $12,000,000 for the coming fiscal | year the public school system of the District should have a real business| fmanager o leave the educational or pedagogic force free to carry on scho- lastic work, and who would co-ordinate / the relationships of tha scheol system with the efficient business system of the District government. The schools now have an assistant superintendent of schociy, who is not strictly an educator, in charge of busi- ness affairs, but the members of Con- gress who scrutinize most closely the operations of the various branches of the District government are not sal fled that there is proper economic and efficient co-ordination of the business of the public school system with the procurement, repair and maintenance departments of the municipal business system. District officials and leaders in Dis- trict affairs in Congress have claimed that because the schools do not have a real business manager requisitions are not transmitted to the District Build- ing at the proper time so that they could be included in the program of work, and this delays the proper pro- vision of adequate accommodations and repairs for the schools. | School officials have contended that 8 business manager should be under the jurisdiction of the District Com- missioners and should act with their authority, if, as officials and members of Congress claim, the shortcomings result from & lack of co-ordination be- tween the school needs and the various supply, repair and maintenance offices of the District government. Under the new business manager plan it is proposed that specifications | for work done would be prepared in such a way as to be promptly filled without-having to have reference back and forth between school officlals and District officials with time-wasting de- lays and controversy. It is contemplated that under the new business manager, when there is any job of repair work, painting, need for a new furnace, or whatnot, the business manager would prepare his requisition or specifications in harmony with District Building forms and pro- cedure and take the requisition or specifications direct to the proper office in the District Building and get the matter settled without delay for conferences between the supply or re- pair department and other school officials. There has been considerable contro- ‘versy as to whether this business man- ager should be under the direct author- ity of the District Commissioners or of the superintendent of schools or the Board of Education. It is to be hoped that this contro- ‘versy will have been settled before the District appropriation bill is reported to the House and that provision will be made in that bill for an efficient business management. of the District sehool system, leaving the educational superintendency free to carry on peda- gogic work that will result in the schools of the National Capital holding still higher scholastic rank. i i “The Wild Man of Borneo” died in ‘The bearded lady, “Zip, the ‘What-is-it?” Jo Jo, the dog-faced man, and others of their clan, have gone their way. The dime museum is obso- lete. Its appeal to morbid curiosity \ made it a refuge for many unfortunates who were enabled by the arts of show- manship to enjoy liberal reward and appear before the public as personages of peculiar distinction. That old dime | museum served a philanthropic pur- pose. 2 Selection of a cabinet is the first re- sponsibility a new President has to | meet. There must be disappointments. In politics, as in other games, there must be a point where friendship ceases. Afghanistan’s New King. In the kaleidoscope of political af- fairs in Afghanistan appears a striking new figure, a strange product of the rev- olution which successively drove Ama- nullah and his brother Inayatullah from the realm. This is Bacha Sagao, who has been described as the Robin Hood of Afghanistan. He organized the recent revolution against Amanuliah's reform government and carried it through ef- fectively. Now he i installed at Kabul as ruler and, accorfing to latest dis- patches, is scemingly secure in his new seat. He is a good deal of a mystery. werv little being known of him. Rumor says that he was once a water carrier. Again it is reported that he was & pri- | vate soldier, and a third report is that he was a highway robber. That he is of Pumble origin, without any claim at all to royalty, seems to be established. There is some doubt as to his tribal as- sociation. By some he is said to be an Afghan Mohmand, or Pathan. By others he is placed as a Tajik, which imdicates Persian origin. One fantastic report that has circulated in the bazaars is a hint that Bacha Sagao is no other than Col. Lawrence, the hero ©of Mesopotamia. Whoever he is, wherever he comes from, whatever his tribe, the new King of Afghanistan is evidently a person of unusual parts. He has accomplished the extremely difficult task of uniting many factions, compromising tribal dif- P ¥ T g ¥ THE EVENING TAR. WASHINGTON, ATURDAY, ferences and seizing an opportunity be- tet with perils. He has yet to conciude his dealings with the Shinwaris, who are still on the road of insurgency, but Kabul reports confidence that he will effect an adjustment with them. Afghanistan’s new king will not be known as Bacha Sagao, which is not a royal designation. He has, it is stated, taken the name of Habibullah Khan Ghazi, going back in this wise to the father of Amanullah, who died by as- sassination ten years ago. This is evi- dently an appeal to the old regime of conservatives and indicates that the new monarch is not without his diplo- matic equipment for the dangerous role he has assumed. — e The New York Muddle. New York, the Empire State, with a wealth of Federal patronage in the shape of “jobs,” has no Republican Senators to make recommendations for appointment. The Republican national committeeman, Charles Dewey Hilles, | was one of the last of the Republican leaders to bow to the Hoover drive for | the presidential nomination at Kansas City. From a political point of view there is no particular reason why the President-elect should recognize the de- mands of Mr. Hilles for Federal ap- pointment in New York, no matter how | magnanimous Mr. Hoover may be. Wil- liam H. Hill, the man who led the pre- convention fight for Hoover in New York, would have the inside track, x'l might be supposed. i | The New York patronage and politi- cal situation has been carried directly to Mr. Hoover, who has conferred dur- | ing his present stay in Washington with all the New York top-liners, even getting the advice of former Secretary of State Elihu Root and of Mr. Hoover's own former colleague in the Coolidge | and Harding cabinets, Charles Evans | Hughes. Mr. Hilles was his guest at | breakfast a morning or two ago. Mr. Hilles disappeared from Washington quickly thereafter. State Chairman H. Edmund Machold. Mr. Hill and Ogden Mills, Undersecretary of the Treasury, all breakfasted with Mr. Hoover yester- day. The digestive process appears to have brought forth & new political deal in | New York. Mr. Hoover is to recognize | in patronage matters the vote of a| tribunal composed of Chairman Ma- chold, Mr. Hill and Mr. Hilles. This may be regarded as a defeat for Mr. Hilles, but not an entire elimination from the political picture in New York. He still remains national committee- man, and will hold that post until the next Republican national convention, unless he should voluntarily retire. Back of the patronage situation lies the fact that the Republican ornnlra-! tion in New York State, due to squab- | bles in its own ranks in part, has been l pretty well “shot” in recent years. It| has found it impossible to elect a Re- publican governor in the last four gubernatorial elections. The Democrats have the two United States Senators, and they have a large number of the members of the House. Yet New York votes Republican for President. The Republicans of New York themselves have been clamoring for a new deal, for & leadership which will put them on the map again. Not unnaturally the leader- ship of the Republican party nationally, which now devolves upon Mr. Hoover, is interested in the Republican situation in the State which casts more electoral votes for President than any other in the Union. The establishment of the triumvirate in New York is not merely for the purpose of disciplining Mr. Hilles, but an effort to unite the various factions and build up once more a real organization. Mr. Machold, who became State chairman last Summer after the death of the late George Morris, shows signs of becoming a real political leader in the State. T S I A Reasonable Regulation. If court records can be taken as a criterion, there are certain clauses in the traffic regulations of the District of Columbia which command little or no attention. One of these is that per- | talning to the mnotification of the traffic director in tase of change of address. ‘The rule is perfectly clear and reads as follows: “In the event of a change of address of a holder of a Dis- trict operator's permit such person shall furnish the director of traffic with the new address within a reason- able time.” Yet, in spite of this regu- lation, an average of twelve persons a day appear before the court charged with wrong addresses on their opera- tor permits. ‘The majority of these violators plead- ed ignorance of the rule, although in some cases the infraction may have been deliberate in order to prevent check-ups of driving records by the Traffic Bureau. Whatever the reason for failure to obey the regulations, whether from ignorance or a desire to deceive the authorities, Washingtonians should reform. It is a good law, clear and reasonable, and is designed to safe- guard those who drive automobiles by permitting a quick check-up by the Traffic Bureau for reckless drivers who endanger life and limb. There should be no further appearances before the courts for violation of this regulation. o ———— A life sentence for a persistent Michi- gan moonshiner is calculated to make him regret that he did not go to one of the big towns and become a regular racketeer. Sl A baffiing characteristic of the Mon- roe Doctrine is its simplicity of expres- sion. No one has to read it more than once in order to understand it thor- oughly. r——— Good News for Canaries. Slowly but surely war, once so color- ful and sentimental, is becoming more mechanized. The human element can scarcely be eliminated, but the media through which mankind indulges its belligerent propensities change from flesh and blood to iron and steel, from muscle to gasoline and electricity. The next step will undoubtedly be the elimination of those little canaries which, during the World War, through their susceptibility to various gases, gave warning to sappers and miners and tenants of trenches and dugouts of the presence of dangers near at hand Not only was their timely advice effica- cious, but their companionship was cheering. Advices from Pittsburgh state that the sacrifice of the lives of these little birds to save coal and other miners from deadly peril is no longer necessary; that the Burcau of Mines |inated along with the canaries. has perfected a tube which, through a color change of its content, unerringly Indicates the presence of gas. That science will supplant the feathered songsters in future conflicts is almost certain. Doubtless it is better so. The soldier now seldom uses horses or mules, which once played so important and so tragic & part in his operations. The late war brought into play the services of dogs, of mice and of canaries. .In that won- drous and comprehensive Scottish war memorial not long ago dedicated on Castle Rock, Edinburgh, every Scottish regiment and every branch of service in which Scots played a part is remem- bered in sculpture or in stained glass. One appealing panel shows not only the | equines, the elephants and camels, but the little white mice and the tiny yel- low birds which, petted at first, died that their masters might survive. It s probable that the mice will be elim- Dogs will in all likelihood prove somewhat useful for a long time to come. That | canarics, bred to give pleasure to the ear and the eye and to receive affection, will no longer have to sacrifice their merry lives is another feather in the hat of that all-powerful modern wizard, chemistry. | - A Tragedy of Senility. An occurrence so pitiful and so unusual as to be rated almost unbe- lievable was reported récently from the Jefferson Davis Soldiers’ Home at Beau- voir, Miss, when, following years of verbal wrangling, two aged inmates and roommates of that institution staged a fight with an ax which resulted in the death of one of them a few hours later. It is & sad commentary on human nature that these two near-nonagena- rians, former followers of Lee, Jackson, Beauregard or whatever fine soldier may have been their leader, should, at the very last, at a time of life when one ought to be at peace with his fellow- man, have embarked on a lethal quarrel. When the reader thinks what these ancients had undergone in their lusty vouth—fighting against heavy odds; suffering untold hardships without a murmur; gaining & military glory scarce paralleled by the survivors of any war of modern times—he is shocked, almost appalled that men on the very brink of the grave should thus revert to the manners of their remote ancestors. ‘The simple explanation is that many men of such an advanced age becomé again in temperament and in temper as little children. Their powers of reason- ing and of self-control become greatly impaired. None would think of holding a very small boy accountable for such a fit of ungovernable rage; none must think of holding aceountable feeble men of such advanced years. That one should have struck down a comrade with whom, nearly sevenscore years ago, he may have fought shoulder to shoulder in holding the thin gray line is sadden- ing from every standpoint. To have permitted two such quarrelsome veterans | to room together and to engage so long in the endless disputes which led to the tragedy is blameworthy. The survivor of the encounter is the one to be pitied. fiptee ko T ‘The admirers of Al 8mith are again pointing with pride. Ability to issue a volume of campaign speeches as a best seller is an unprecedented achievement, o It is not yet to be expected that peace agreements will assert influence over military demonstrations that deseribe themselves as revolts. —— e { It is the normal inclination of every statesman to vote for a peace proposi- tion if only to show that his heart is in the right place. It has evidently pleased President Coolidge to prove that he can catch fish without the aid of a camera. ——— ‘The office-seeker can never be quite sure whether he is looking for glory or trouble. ————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. As Customs Change. We do not laugh, as once we did, At girls who paint their faces, Nor at the knees, no longer hid From sight in public places. We do not smile at dancing pets, ‘Who made what folks called “mashes.” ‘We do not gibe at cigarettes Nor sneer at small mustaches, And so the world goes on its way, ‘Through happiness or sorrow. ‘What seemed ridiculous today Grows serious tomorrow, Service. “A politician should serve his coun- try. “There are two kinds of politiclans,” said Senator Sorghum. “One serves his country. The other manages to make his country serve him.” Jud Tunkins says one of the refine- ments of cruelty is to give a birthday party to a bald-headed man with the rheumatism, Brain Fag. In poverty must genius dwell, Nor hope to learn wealth’s golden trick, Which calculations will compel In wearisome arithmetic. How with great thoughts can he con- nect, For which the world might render thanks, While he devotes his intellect To filling out taxation blanks? Not Interested. “He looks like a Greek god!” ex- claimed the gushing girl. “I never cared for Greek gods,” re- plied Miss Cayenne. *According to all reports, they were a most unruly lot.” “Power,” said Hi Ho, the sage of | Chinatown, “loves flattery. The more undeserved a compliment, the greater its significance as a tribute of submis- mission.” Small Stake. The man who had a million came To take a chance.- He got one white chip in the game Of big finance. “You can't allus judge a man by de company he keeps,” said Uncle Eben. “Many & purty low-down citizen man- ages to git hisself a fine dog.” A THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. There is nothing like getting mad to make one forget minor ills. ‘The curative powers of anger. in not too large doses, of course, are little re- garded, yet it is safe to say that few things do more to keep the human animal in equilibrium. When everything goes too smoothly in the daily work or life, there is danger that boredom will stick up its ugly head and whisper undesired things to_the bored one. Men in particular need to get angry now and then in order to save them from the restlessness which seems to ibe_a part of the eternal male. Perhaps the motions of feminine souls are more gentle, or something or other. At any rate, they ordinarily do not seem to demand concentrated doses of anger in order to be at their | best. * * * % ‘There is something in the masecu- line nature, however. which resents & path fon strewn with roses. a bed too soft, a job too much of a sinecure, months which pass too casily. No doubt it is the conflict of the centuries calling to us, no matter how “cltified” we may have become, or how many police departments we have to protect us, or modern machinery to make us happy. What is bred into the bone and blood of humanity will not out in a few generations of synthetic living, no mat- ter how great a pow-wow is made about civilization, progress. ete. The race flared up too many times in its long journey to the present point in the vears to rest content in per- petual beds of ease. ek A little anger now and then is rel- ished by the gentlest of men ‘We know a very successful profes- sional gentleman who whispered re- cently to some of his dearest friends that he thought it might be a good thing if he were “fired” from his posi- tion. When asked the meaning of this astonishing self-proposal. he replied by stating that affairs were running too smoothly for him, that he had his work down to a science, and that he needed stimulation, Stimulation! Perhaps that is the secret after all of anger and its salutary effect—always if not carried too far, let it be under- stood—upon the frame and mind of man, Scientists tell us how certain glands, under the prodding of anger, pour se- cretions forth to aid the animal quali- tles, such as muscular action and re- nction, limber up the sinews and joints, give the system plenty of food easily ab- sorbed for quick muscular energy, and in other ways put the creature in fight- ing trim. From the strictly animal standpoint, man is an animal, and has never claimed to be anything else. While no one would say & word against peace and progress, against all the good things that civilization has brought, against love and kindness, and tenderness, it must be confessed that these are not elementals of human beings or their conduct. They are the fine fruit of the tree, the beautiful fruit of training and longing, the divine fruit of suffering. A plain recognition of the elementals, as they may be called, in no way mili- tates against the fine things which gentleness | | have arisen from them. They are all | the finer because of their origins, just {as a coward who performs bravely on the battlefleld is all the more brave Lfor that very reason. * ok koK Anger is one of the elementals. If_you have ever grabbed a cat by the tail, you know it. | Instantly its back stiffens, its eyes |grow big, and it gives its distinctive | hiss. If you insist on retaining your grip on Tom's tail, his anger mounts higher and higher, so that shortly—if you still insist—you find yourself confronted by | one biting mouth and four scratching paws. This is anger reduced to its lowest | denominator. Mankind has managed to lower it | beneath the animal standards by carry- | ing it much too far, by making it sub- fanimal. by injecting into it all sorts of | meannesses and nastinesses of which the animals know nothing. The simple anger of cat or dog is |clean and wholesome compared with | the nagging of a mean woman or the | nastiness of a mean man. T Utterly different from such anger as incorporates either nastiness or mean- | ne in its make-up, plain ordinary | anger is exactly like that of a harassed animal which turns to defend itself. Life is a warfare, as has often been said. and perhaps the most successful warrior is he who successfully defends himself from many assaults and there- by learns how to take the offensive. | It was Napoleon's plan to get and keep | the offensive. The basis of successful | chess play is to keep the other fellow lalways on the run, so that he will ‘have no time to build up counter of- fensives. A little anger now and then is rel- ished by the best and simplest oi men, especially if it takes the form of in- dignation over wrongs, the unfairness, | meanness of others. Thus Charles Dickens was in a perpetually indignant state of mind over the wrongs of the poor, and not only the poor but Dick- ens benefited from it. Emile Zola had an indignant frame of mind, one which worked better when provoked than it did when left to run a peaceful course. He deliberately prodded the France of his era, especlal, ly the Paris, to be angry at him, so that he in turn might be angry at it. The greatest moment in his life came when, after a tremendously successful career as a novelist, he was aroused to indignation by the Dreyfus case and pitched himself into it headlong. It did him good. Prison sentence, volun- tary banishment, came as a reward of his bravery, but they were rewards of | his own anger first of all. He had lived. He had been angry, had felt the swelling of the heart; he had been shaken out of the tiresome routine of every day, that ennul which causes many another man to do nothing more daring than take a vacation or go on a fishing trip and let his beard grow. In the end it makes little difference |how one gets mad, just so he stirs himself up a bit now and then. If he can get mad graciously so much the better. If it is A measured anger he is the gainer. It is only the anger which runs away with one which is inimical. And those who so stir us up, no matter what we may think of them, in reality are among our best friends. BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLIN The United States is not a democ- racy, but & republic. Its House of Rep- resentatives composed of members who serve as agents and representatives of the people—averaging 211,000 people per each Representative. But certain Representatives have only about 22,000 constituents (in the heart of New York City) and others have 400,000. The smaller number of citizens who are represented by their chosen agent pos- sess just as much aggregate power in the Government as that larger body of 400,000. In other words, sometimes one American individually exercises twenty times as much influence and power in Congress as some citizen in another district. Yet both are Americans, and the man with the less power is just as intelligent and patriotic as the other. ‘This condition exists even where citi- zens have the legal right to vote; it is not a reference to the disfranchised, such as the criminal who has served a term for a felony, and a poor fellow who was born and reared in the Dis- trict of Columbia. Those “two birds of & feather” (in the eyes of the blind law) may “flock together,” for they are not reckoned with the American eiti- zens who breathe the pure air of free- dom, in Rhode Island or Texas. Still, there are over 13,000,000 citizens un- represented in Congress. * ok kK According to Mr. William Tyler Page, veteran clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives and author of the “American Creed,” the slacker vote is not so scandalous as has been generally quot- ed. He declares that it is unfair to reckon aliens who have never been naturalized and so have no franchise, nor to count Negroes in certain South- ern States where they are disfranchised —whether technically or practically—as forming part of the total voters eligible to the vote. Instead, therefore, of the shameful record of only about half of the eligible voters exercising the fran- chise, that false idea is based upon an estimate of our total population, inclu- sive of the aliens who have never ac- quired the right to vote; also indigent Indians who are not taxed and the Negro of the South who has been jock- eyed out of his vote by some literacy test or the “grandfather test,” or just plain_bulldozing and terrorizing, and the felons who have forfeited their franchise and the “denatured citizen” labeled D. C. So, instead of an esti- mate of 60,000,000 or 70,000,000 adults, over 21 years of age, he estimates only 45,000,000 eligible voters; he has just completed tabulating the vote in the 1ast presidential election and finds that it numbered 36,863,533 votes actually cast. That leaves only about 8,000,000 eligible to vote, who failed to exercise their right to do so. If that 45,000,000 is the correct basis, then only 21 per cent of our eligible voters failed to show appreciation of their rights. The right to vote is & sacred heritage of our citi- zenship; it is not lightly esteemed. ‘The percentage who neglect their fran- chise has little bearing upon the failure of Congress to adjust the inequalities of epportionment in 1920, as required by the Constitution, but the really low percentage of vote slackers indicates the high appreciation of the privilege of the mass of citizens to participate in the government of their country, and 50 demonstrates the enormity of the wrong by Congress in failing to follow the constitutional requirement to re- apportion the representation according to the 1920 census. ERE A bill is now pending in the House, introduced by Mr. Fenn, chairman of the census committee, which provides that after each decennial census the Secretary of the Department of Com- merce shall report to Congress, on the first Monday of the second session of gress, the legal representation for each State, based on the last census, and unless Consresn makes its own ap- portionment before the close of that session, then the Secretary’s apportion- ment shall stand as the basis for the .| following election and until Congress does make its constitutionally required reapportionment. The total number in the House — 435 —is to remain as at present. * kK K The census committee’s report shows thai if the apportionment had been made in 1920, based upon the census of (unless the public favors ity _ .. hipy what fanaticism in religion leads Gay,” that {eln one Representative for each of the following States would have been lost: Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Vermont; Missoul would have lost two Representatives—a total loss of 12, This does nof indicate an actual re- duction of population in those States, but only that other regions have in- creased more than they have. On the basis of the Census Bureau's guess as to what the 1930 census will show for each State, the loss of Representatives in certain States will amount to 23, in- stead of 12, as it would if based on the 1920 census. for masses of population have so shifted in the 10 and 20 years since 1910, the last census basis of rep- resentation. The House would increase by 50 members each 10 years if the rep- resentation continued at an average of 211,000 constituents per member. ‘The 23 to be lost to the certain States by due reapportionment in 1930 will be added to the following named States if the Census Bureau's prediction proves accurate: One ecach for Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Washington. Two each for New Jersey and Texas, three for Ohio, four for Michigan and six_for California; total, 23. Of course the Representatives of the States sure to lose in the House are opposed to any provision jeopardizing that loss, and as they now hold more votes than the States booked to increase by a legitimate obedience to the Con- stitution requiring a reapportionment, the line-up is obvious in the debate. * ik & When the motion to recommit the measure to the census committee came to a vote, there were yeas, 134; nays, 227; not voting, 67. But in all the discussion nobody grew eloquent over the neglected status of the District of Columbia, where not merely 21 per cent, but 100 per cent. of the citizens are denied the franchise, except as they can deliver it surrepti- tlously or otherwise “bootleg” it by mail to some distant State. According to the original apportionment, when the Con- stitution was adopted, it was on the basis of 30,000 citizens per Representa- tive. If that were today's basis, the District of Columbia would have more than a baker's dozen Representatives in the House, where it today has not even a delegate of the rank of the “gentleman from Hawail.” (Copyright, 1929, by Paul V. Collins.) Astronomers Would Change Time System BY E. E. FREE, PH. D. A committee of the Royal Astro- nomical Society, the leading organiza- tion of astronomers in England, Has been appointed to inquire from railway men and from the public whether or not it is desirable to print railway time tables hereafter in the 24-hour system common on the Continent of Europe in- stead of in the 12-hour system now conventional in England and in the United States. Up to date no one seems enthusiastic over the reform, much as it would simplify train calculations and avoid accidents like missed trains. If ultra-conservative England rejects the idea, perhaps a home might be found for it in the United States. The essen- tial of the plan is to begin the day at midnight and count the hours right through to the following midnight, so that 1 p.m. becomes 13 o'clock, 5 p.m. becomes 17 o'clock, 11 at night is o’clock, and so on. Systems resembling this have been used by scientific men for years, and recently all the sciences. agreed upon the same midnight to midnight system. The manifest advantages in avoiding confusion, in making it unnecessary to print am. and p.m. and in other sim- plifications of timekeeping far out- weigh, advocates of the system urge, the temporary inconvenience of chuur ing the faces of clocks. The practi- cability of the system is proved, it is asserted, by its actual use by railways in Continental Europe. At present no step is contemplated execept the change for rallway time, leaving ordinary clocks unaltered. Even the railway change will not be urged by the astronomers - o ri [ hands to some lady minion. 23 | Whitridge. THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover Augustine Birrell says in his “Obiter| Dicta,” “History is a pageant and net a philosophy.” This dictum would ap- ply to current history as well as to the receding figures and events of the past. Willlam Allen White, the brilliant fight- ing editor, embodies this conception in the title of his new book,” “Masks in a Pageant,” which contains a group of estimates (not blographles) of some prominent men of the present and the recent past. The classification of his subjects in the table of contents is of itself enough to make a nibbler at new books sit down immediately for a full meal from this one. Under “The Old Kings” are placed Croker and Platt; under “The Early Stuar®,” Harrison, Grover Clevelan “Two Warwicl Mark Hanna an Bryan; under “The Great Rebellion, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft and Woodrow Wilson; under “The Restoration,”” Hard- ing and Coolidge, and under “The | Young Princes of Democracy.” Alfred |Emanuel Smith and Willlam Hale ‘Thompson. W | ‘Toward all his masks in the pageant Mr. White is both critical and sympa- thetic, as becomes one who attempts to Interpret the motives and feelings of men as well as their acts. Only toward Roosevelt does he find it hard to be critical. In a footnote he admits: “The reader should be warned that Theodore Roosevelt was my friend, and probably I cannot be fair in estimating his weak- nesses. This article was edited and somewhat rewritten more than nine year after his death. Yet he seems as vital now as he ever was in my life. Still, his own justification of incidents in his life—as, say, his cruise in Pan- ama, or his quarrel with Wilson—seem to me reasonable and on the whole inevitable, being what he was, and on the whole tolerable. So what I tried to make an honest estimate is scarcely {better than a eulogy.” Of President Coolidge Mr. White writes in the past, as if he had already stepped into the pages of a post-war history. “He was the man of the hour, the one who alone could have functioned in the ‘White House in the years of his ascen- dancy. He represented the spirit of the times, the aspirations of his people. Mr. White considers the President’ cryptie “I do not choose to run” state- ment as one of the most strategic acts of his administration, and offers an analysis of its significance. * K K X “The last section of “Masks in a Pageant,” that on Alfred E. Smith and William Hale Thompson, is the one in which Mr. White's satire seems most to enjoy itself. In one sentence he places Gov. Smith in the American political scene, “Al Smith must rise or fall in our national life, if ever he should enter it, as our first urbanite.” And, says Mr. White, “the back alley from which Al Smith sprang * * * was in the seventies as clean and wholesome & place as the backwoods from which Andrew Jackson sprang in Revolution- ary time.” One gathers that Mr. White, if prejudiced in Roosevelt's favor, certainly has no fondness which inter- feres with his critical faculties in the case of the mayor of Chicago. His comment on the third election of Ma Thompson is “Cheap calleth unto at the noise of his water spouts!” and “Man turns away from moron leader- ship in politics only in extreme unc- tlon, in times of profound crisis, when he longs for the day of deliverance.” The description of Mayor Thompson’s arrival at the Chicago City Hall April 13, 1927, after his last election, is like a one-act plav. “He was due to appear at the City Hall at 10:30, but no one expected him. He was punctiliously un- punctual.” He really arrived between 12 and 1, and “down the aisle through the lords of the realm slouched a large man, circling lezily a soft, wide-brimmed black hat, waving his free hand, gayly topping to bow here, to extend a casual hand there, pausing again to give both He was babbling the while in a heavy, beery voice. He hulked briskly across the hall and disappeared into the inner office. * * * There, in the holy of holies, surrounded by the bower of flowers which had heralded his com- ing, he stood for a moment, and, grin- ning at the retainers, pleased as little Jack Horner with a plum on his thumb, sald, ‘Well, we are here officially.’” Then followed the reception of the throngs waiting to congratulate him, iand for an hour “he stood seesawing away at the multitude, while his thick voice purred a slow, beery, diaphonic monotone of greeting over and over: ‘I thank you! You're so kind. I thank you, I thank you!' as he disposed of callers, supporters, office hunters, idlers.” * K ok X ‘The delightful combination of pathos and humor found in all the romances of Donn Byrne is illustrated by ne in one of the stories of “Destiny Bay,” the “Tale of My Aunt Jenepher's Woo- ing.” Aunt Jenepher is young and tiny Bay man, has departed for the East, but, stopping on the way at Monte Carlo, has been killed in a duel. Her brother, Valentine, and her nephew, Kerry, thinking that life has already dealt too hardly with her without this additional blow, resolve to keep her in ignorance of her lover's death. They compose letters, which they read to her at stated intervals—Iletters which are a ‘wonderful compilation of information about the Orient, copied from the Ency: clopaedia Britannica, and amorous sen- timents, copied from old family love letters. Kerry tells about it: “‘My dear Jenepher’ my Uncle Valentine would read aloud. ‘This is trusting you are in the excellent health which I en- joy and for which God be thanked.' And then would follow & dissertation on the simoon or on rubber, which we had bodily taken from the excellent ency- clopedia of Mr. Britannica. ‘Tonigit, when the stars are in full glory in Coa's Heaven and when I should be revelling in the jewellery of the universe, my thoughts are with you and my Ulster home. O head of dark locks!” We had changed ‘auburn’ to ‘dark.’ And con- cluded, ‘Yours very sincerely, Digory Pasc Damned good: we thought it. ‘“Thank you, Valentine, and thank you, dear Kerry, for reading it my Aunt Jenepher would say.” The reader of the story knows immediately that the sensitive, humorous blind woman is not | deceived, that she has penetrated the kindly hoax from the beginning. and is herself considerately deceiving the two childlike men, * koK ok Tamerlane, or Timur Beg, Sultan of Samarkand in the fourteenth century, has always been a favorite subject for romantic treatment. A soldier at the age of 12 and conqueror of Turkestan, Persia, Georgla, Armenia and parts of { India, China and Siberia before he fin- ished his career, he had all the quali- ties of a romantic hero. Christopher Marlowe made him the titanic hero of his drama, “Tamburlaine.” writer, Harold Lamb, has recently writ- ten a biography of the Tartar con- queror, “Tamerlane, the Earth Shaker.” * X % % A more enthusiastic study of Arnold of Rugby than that of Lytton Strachey in_his “Eminent Victorians” is the book “Dr. Arnold of Rugby,” Arnold He shows the famous schoolmaster, who was only 47 at the time of his death, as a man vigorous physically and mentally, for his time a radical in religion and politics, an in- novator in education and the father of the student government movement. The impression made by Dr. Arnold on the boys of his school has been immortal- ized by one of them. Thomas Hughes. in “Tom Brown's School Days.” Arnold ‘Whitridge is a great-grandson of Arnold of Rugby. * ok ok The father of Michel de Montaigne had an odd way of teaching his son re- ligious tolerance. He took the future essayist and philosopher when only a lad to witness the burning of a large number of heretics and pointed out to | and McKinley; under | |—E. beautiful, but blind. Her lover, a Des-! A lesser || ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS Stop_a minute and think about this fact: You can ask our Information Bureau any question of fact and get the answer back in a personal letter. It is a great educational idea, introduced into the lives of the most intelligent people in the world—American news- paper readers. It is a part of that best purpose of a newspaper—service. There is no charge except 2 cents in coin or stamps for return postage. Get the | habit of asking questions. Address your letter to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederick J. Haskin, director, ‘Washington, D. C. Q. Why does Hoot Gibson alway: wear gloves in his pictures?—W. J. 8. A. Cowboys always wear gloves to protect their hands from wind and rope burns. Gloves are as much a part of | their wardrobe as hats and boots. Q. Are there more Germans in New York City than in the State of Indiana? R A. There are, In New York City there are 295.650 Germans; in Indiana there are 37,377. Q. Can a woman get an airplane me- chanic's license?>—J. D. A. The Government will issue an airplane mechanic’s license to a woman provided she meets all the requirements. One of the qualifications, however, is 500 hours in the air. | Q. Where is Chief Justice Taney | buried?>—W. M. A. He is buried in 8t. John's Cath- olic Cemetery in Frederick, Md. Q. Is any part of the Northwest Pas- | sage regularly navigable?—H. P. A. ancaster Sound. a channel con- necting Baffin Bay with Barrow Strait, between North Devon and Cockburn west Passage that is navigable every year. Q. How was the magnolia tree named?—A. J. A. It was named for Pierre Magnol, a French botanist of the early seven- teenth century. Q. Is it correct to say “The bread | has risen” or “The bread has raised”?— E.R. R A. “The bread has risen” is correct. “Ralse” suggests & power outside the ob- ject spoken of: “rise” suggests a power within the object. Q. Why is “Iyric poetry” so called?— A. The name was given by the Greeks to a kind of non-narrative poetry chanted or sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. The term has come to be used with less restriction, passing to poetry unaccompanied by music but constructed on the system of musical measure, then to any short poem of lim- ited scope of emotion without regard to musical adaptation. Q. At what time will the inaugural parade start?>—E. S. A. The President-elect takes the oath of office at noon, or very shortly thereafter. He makes a short address, thén heads the parade down Pennsyl vania avenue to the White House. When his party reaches the White House, if the usual plan is followed, there will be a short pause while a light luncheon is served to them. The party then takes its place in the re- viewing stands and the parade moves forward. Q. Can a prohibition agent search an automobile without a search warrant? A. The Prohibition Bureau says that, | provided the Federal prohibition agents | have reasonable cause to believe the car has liquor, they have the right to search such cars without a search war- rant. There has been a Supreme Court decision to this effect. Q. In what battle did the Romans lnseE practically all of their troops?— [ A. At the battle of Cannae during the Punic wars the Romans were prac- tically annihilated, and the loss of citi- zens was perhaps greater than in any other defeat that befell the republic. The field army numbered 85,000. Q. What use can be made of grape juice that has turned sour?—A. L. A. It may be used as vinegar after being clarified and filtered. Q. When was Penn's treaty made with the Indians?>—H. D. W. | A. The celebrated treaty with the Penn in the Summer or Fall of 1683. Q. Has the Chandler Medal been awarded for 1928?—L. H. A. This greatly prized award was given ih 1928 to John A. Wilson of Milwaukee. & Q. What is the average monthly salary of a public school teacher in North_Carolina?—S. H. Island, is the only part of the North- | BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. of public instruction, reports that it is $114. At the beginning of this cen- tury the average salary was $24. Q. In what year were the locusts the worst in the United States?—A. P, A. The most disastrous locust year was 1874. What was the first intoxicating drink known?—E. E. 8. A. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley says that wine is the oldest and most important of fermented beverages. He says: “It could not escape early discovery, be- cause fruits of all kinds, when crushea nd left to natural causes, undergo the alcoholic fermentation. Primitive man must, therefore, have been acquainted with the properties of the fermented juice of fruits, especially of grapes. Wine was known in the remotest his- torical times, as evidenced by refer- ences to it in the earliest preserved literature: Q. What vegetables lead in sales in a city market?—C. J. M. A. Judging by Center Market, Wash« ington, D. C. white potatoes, lettuce and cabbage lead. Q. How can a strong cement be made for mending glassware?—E. J. F. | _A. The Bureau of Standards says {that casein mixed with sodium silicate is said to make a very strong cement | for glass. One part of casein is used ; | with six or seven of silicate, Q. What is the origin of the dollar | mark?- . E. M. ; A. Authorities differ as to the origin of the dollar mark. In Notes and Queries it-is stated that the Spanish real was formerly current in the South- ern States, and that accounts in that part of North Americe were kept in dollars and reals. As a distinguish- ing mark in the books, a canceled fig- ure 8 was used, or sometimes the 8 was put between two slanting lines, thus—/ 8 /. When the United States adopted the dollar as the money unit, it was found convenient to continue the old mark. Another origin traces the dollar mark to the Mexican pillar dol- lar, on the reverse of which is the rep- resentation of two pillars or columns connected by a scroll. Another theory is that the sign is the union of the two capital letters in U. S, meaning United States. Q. L. T. D. A. Tt is not definitely recorded just who first suggested ice cream sodas in their present form. Snow-cooled beverages were known to the Jews, anclent Greeks and Romans. It is recorded that in Rome a certain Quintus Maximus Gurges, nicknamed the “Glut- ton,” wrote a recipe for a similar prep- | aration in one of his books. Q. Do more cities call their organi- zation a “Chamber of Commerce” or a “Board of Trade"?—C. T. A. The modern tendency is toward using the term “Chamber of Commerce.” Other names used are Board of Trade, Business Men's Association, Commerciai-) Club, Association of Commerce, Board of Commerce and Merchants’ Associa- tion. Q. What was the pony express?—J. N, | A. “Pony express” is the name given to | the mail service between St. Joseph, |Mo., and California, inaugurated in | 1860. Eight days were allowed for the schedule. There were 80 riders and | about 400 horses. Q. If a woman who is a citizen of the United States marries a foreigner, can she get him into this country without waiting for his place in the immigra- tion quota?—H. C. C. A. She may request that he be placed in the preference quota. Q. Who is the present dictator of Russia?—J. M. A, It is I Stalin. Q. What is the length of a railroad rail? How many cross-ties are used to the mile?>—M. H. . A. The standard rail is 33 feet lm:’. The number of’ cross-ties per mile dif- fers with the various railroads and with ;nrgnions. The average number is ,168. Q. What is mishmash?—F. 8. C. A. This is & mvmcm English term for a medley, tehpotch or hetero- geneous collection of articles. Q. How much have the salaries of school teachers increased in 20 years?— V‘V)ho invented ice cream sodas? Indians was probably signed by William | 7"5% - yor A'verue annual salaries have in- creased from $485 in 1910 to $1,252 in 1928, Q. How much is a micron?>—R. E. C. A. One micron represents one one- millionth part of the usual atmospheric pressure, which is 1413 pounds per square inch. The interior of the usual incandescent lamp represents a vacuum A. Dr. A. T. Allen, superintendent down to about 150 microns. Approval of the action of the House in passing the Fenn reapportionment bill comes from spokesmen of States which would lose under the measure, as well as from those of States whose representation would be increased. Hope is expressed generally that the reappor- tionment, the first since the 1910 cgn- sus, will be completed in time to apply to the elections of 1932. “There can be found no fault.” in the opinion of the Atlanta Journal, “with the determination to maintain the House membership at 435. Admittedly, if the membership should be increased beyond this number, the House would become even more unwieldy than it is now, and its effectiveness would be all but destroyed. * * * Since the nu- merical strength of the electoral college is controlled by representation in the House and Senate, it is apparent that the reapportionment of House member- ship has a most important political sig- nificance. But politics is a secondary ssue in the present consideration of the question, for there is involved in its settlement the instinct of self-preserva- tion.” “The peril of neglect to reapportion {lay,” according to the Springfield Union, “in’ the possibility of a presidential elec~ tion so close that the electoral vote would not be constitutionally representa- tive, and therefore might involve a question more serious than misrepre- sentation in Congress, which is serious enough.” * ok K X It is agreed by the Philadelphia Eve- ning Bulletin that “unfairness in the u‘pporuonment of electoral votes is a circumstance that might make trouble in an election less one-sided than the t.” That paper feels that “the Sen- ate would invite general condemnation by again balking the action of the House.” Th t Lake Deseret News also holds th Just characterize the o] ition have become too evident to be iger tolerated.” “What states the Little Rock Arkanszs Democrat, “is the fact that Congress has awakened to the fact ! that this is a democratic Government, | and its representation in Congress | should be based upon a democratic con- | ceptiol ‘That paper records the fact that “the so-called normally Demo- cratic States would lose 6 seats and galn 5, while the Republican States would gain 18 and lose 17 seats.’ Reapportionment Vote in House Is Accorded Popular Approval has yielded to widespread popular de- mand,” and warns that “the Senate will be flying in the face of constitutional intention and public opinion if it fails to approve the measu: A point raised that the Fenn measure had an unconstitutional feature, in that it improperly delegated powers, is dis= missed by the Kansas City Journal-Post with the statement: “The Fenn bill i8 so fashioned that it does not really delegate powers. Congress fixes the representation on the basis of popula- tion. The work left to the Secretary of Commerce is purely ministerial. Any future Congress may change the basis. It it does not, the Secretary of Com: merce will merely do a simple calcula tion in arithmetic prescribed by Cone gress and announce the result. This is |not a delegation of power in any reas sonable sense of the term.” * ok ko Taking up this same question, the Hartford Courant suggests: “But why recall the Constitution at this late day, when those who remember that there is such a document have for years ig= nored its intention that reapportione ment of congressional districts be made after each decennial census?” The Oakland Tribune says “the o) foes of the bill could not longer hold clear consclences and stand out against: the Constitution.” The Tribune adds: “Cheers come from California, Michi- gan, Ohio, New Jersey, Texas and other States which would gain. On this point the Lexington Leader observe: “Kentucky will be sorry to have its representation reduced, as will other States, but the Constitution should not be ignored. * * * No argument can be advanced, however appealing. that actually justifies the delay in reappore tionment or that can in any sense ex< ‘wse further delay.” “After seven years of rough going."” comments the Newark Evening News, “the bill has been adopted in the House and now goes to the Senate. If the bill is accepted at the other end of the| Capitol, New Jersey will gain two seats. * '+ * New Jersey’s rise in industrial importance, with its attendant increase| in population, justifies the increase inj its congressional and electoral college) representation, as in the case of Michi«| gan's additional four, Reapportionment, been demanding attention for years,| and the Fenn bill method is the best of any suggested.” ‘States such as Illinois, which would T';:c Binghamton Press remarks that 3 b of dodging the House finally to. To the end of his days Montaigne never veered from an even course in regard to religion, although he lived in one of the stormiest periods of history. The whole story of his life is charm- ingly told n “Montaigne; Grave and neither gain nor lose by reapportions| ment,” avers the Chicago Journal of) Commerce, “simply do not care about| the question. Since it does not have &| effect on them, they are not con= cerned about it.” As for the other States which have pleaded for a larger House, however, that paper says, * would gain nothing at all by the pro= posed enlargement of the House."