Evening Star Newspaper, February 3, 1929, Page 83

THE - SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. FEBRUARY 3, 1929—PART T. Probably You Scorn Witches Yet May Have Some Superstitions Dr. White Finds That Almost Every Dayt]')e Average Person Is Influenced by Some Thought as Primitive as the Weird Rites That Resulted in Pennsylvania Crime—Faith in Odd Cures. BY WILLIAM A. WHITE, M. D, Former President American Psychiatric As- | sociation. Director St. Elizabcth’s Hospital, | Washington. | NLIKE the town of Dayton, | Tenn., which won publicity a | few years ago, the obscure city | of York, Pa, tried to remain obscure rather than win na- tional publicity as the place that be- lieves in witches. ‘The recent “witch murder” trial held in its little courthouse had the makings of one of those court spectacles, with all the paraphernalia of special corre- spondents, sob sisters, news photogra- phers and vaudeville contracts, that have become, like the gladiatorial com- bats of ancient Rome, one of the loved diversions of the American public. But York cast aside this tem'gation to bask on the front page; endeavored, as far as possible, to keep newspaper reporters away from the trial, and tried to give the impression that the poor, supersti- tious people who were the principals of the tragedy were an isolated phenome- non not at all representative of an enlightened and forward-looking com- munity. This was an_improvement on the stand taken by Dayton; but York and the rest of us can do better still. We can realize that the same processes ol‘ thinking which brought about the mur- der of Rehmeyer are found in every State in the Union and among every class of people, even the most intellec- tual. We can also see this tragedy not as an isolated thing but as a sudden spotlight on a social situation which is full of evils and crying Jor a remedy. If the tragedy helps to open our eyes and stimulate us to action, its final results will be good. John Blymyer, the chief murderer, was an ignorant countryman afflicted with various physical ills and dogged by misfortune. Seeking a reason for his troubles—he was raised in an at- mosphere of superstition—he consulted several local “powwow” doctors, all of whom told him that his visitations were the work of evil spirits, and at least assured him that those evil spirits were controlled by a neighbor, Nelson D. Rehmeyer. Suspicion seems to have fallen on Rehmeyer not only because he was himself a believer in powwowism and claimed to practice it, but because he was the possessor of a rare book, “My Long Lost Friend.” This pamphlet, written years ago by one John George Hohman, contained incantations and formulas for the cure of all kinds of diseases—incantations almost never put in print, but passed on orally from one person to the next. Blymyer believed that Rehmeyer had “hexed” him, and that the only way to break the spell was either to get possession of the book or to procure a lock of the owner’s hair and bury it eight feet in the ground. He therefore did the logical thing— he enlisted the aid of two young men who had similar imaginary grievances against the neighboring farmer, and the three went to Rehmeyer's home and demanded the book. When it was re- fused they attacked the owner and killed him in the fight that ensued. They ransacked his house and off what money they could find. ‘Though this murder was complicated by robbery, there seems little doubt that the chief force\ which instigated it were ignorance and Auperstition. Superstition i8 a primitive method of thinking. It is found chiefly among primitive peoples, among backward peo- ple in civilized communities, among chil- dren and among the mentally ill. But the same kind of mental processes that underlie superstition are also found among the most intellectual and | sophisticated individuals. | The primitive person does not differ- | entiate clearly between himself and his environment, just as a golfer is not' differentiating between himself and his | golf stick when he breaks it in anger| because he himself has made a bad play. | In the savage this takes the form of be- | lieving that a part of himself is con- | tained in everything with which he has | | been associated—in his clothes, his hair, | life, because he himself moves only the parings of his nails, pictures or | images of himself, and even his name. | Certain primitive men will not tell their | real names to their enemies, because to | do so would be to give away a part of | rjvers racing to the sea, the sun on its themselves and therefore put themselves | dafly journey, the thunderbolt that in the enemy’s power. This was the reason for Blymyer's de- sire to get a lock from the head of his supposed persecutor. Superstition con- fuses the whole man with a part of him; to bury his hair eight feet under the ground would be, from the witch doctor’s point of view, almost the same as burying the owner of the lock. Ay NOTHER illustration of this is the ancient practice of exorcising a murderer. A man who had killed an- THE POWWOW DOCTOR 1S SOUGHT B other and wished $o cleanse himself of the sin would put a caldron of water over a fire. When it was boiling vigor- ously, he would lift the cover, shout his name into the caldron and slap the top n again. In this way his name was boiled and purified. Therefore, he was purified. Belief in spirits as motivating forces, rather than in natural laws, is the foundation of all primitive thinking. Aboriginal man has the idea that noth- ing can move unless it is imbued with when he is alive and ceases to move as soon as life deserts him. Hence the clouds which drift across the sky, the waves which dash against the shore, the strikes with such ferocity—all these are animated by spirits. From a belief in the power of the spirits, the next step is a search for some way to control them, and thus we have all the complicated hocus pocus of witcheraft, necromancy, astrology, numerology and fake medicines of every description. We have presumably edu- cated people changing their names so that the “numbers” of the letters will harmonize with their personalities; bridge-playing ladies walking around the Y MANY FOR MAGIC CURES. ! = | whose management was, to say the least, | broadminded. table to change their luck; Wall Street financiers crowding the waiting room of a well known astrologer to tind out if the stars are propitious for a rise in their favorite stock: the thirteenth floor omitted from nearly every large hotel. ‘These may all be described as vestigial methods of thinking, relics left over from a former age. The body is full of such vestiges, such as the appendix, and so is the mind, a fact of which the pat- ent medicine charlatan and the healer | are well aware. Just as the savage woman believed that the mother’s cloak could impart the quality of fertility, people of today think that red wine is good for those who are pale and that raw meat will give courage or strength to those who eat it. A whole race be- lieves in the healing virtues of the mandrake root because it is shaped like & human being. The thinking processes back of these manifestations are not essentially dif- ferent from those of the author of “My Long-Lost Friend,” who recom- mends that tuberculosis be cured by muttering the following formula over the afflicted person: “Consumption, I order thee out of the bones into the flesh, out of the flesh upon the skin, out of the skin into the wilds of the forest.” ERE ERE was, not long ago—and may still be—in Shanghai a hospital In it an invisible but very real dividing line separated the two halves of a large dormitory. On one side of this line were all the ad- juncts of modern medicine—European and American doctors, trained nurses, equipment for blood transfusion, X-ray, and so forth. On_the other side Chinese doctors pll:'e;med and practiced their ancient a The behavior of many of the natives who came to this hospital was charac- teristic, to a certain degree, of the re- action of all of us to disease. They first gave themselves over to the foreign physicians and their newfangled and perhaps sensible notions. If a rapid improvement followed, well and good: the white devils were smart. But if weeks dragged by and the patients felt no better, one by one they would drift to the other side of the room. 1t is easy to drop back into primitive | thinking when scientific facts learned | later in the life of the individual or in the history of the race do not seem to work. Because these ideas are the last acquired, they are the least stable and the ones often most easily sloughed off. ‘The kind of ailments which are taken to fake medical practitioners and to powwow doctors are frequently those which have been pronounced incurable by authentic physicians, or whose course of cure is slow or difficult—such afflic- tions as cancer, goiter or tuberculosis. Practically all of us, even the most world-weary, really want to live, want to live passionately; faced with death, despaired of by science, we will turn to any charlatan who will promise to cure us, feeling that he can do us no harm and may do us good. * ok ok % IN principals in the York tragedy the powwow doctor has a water-tight alibi. The regular doctor may succeed or he {may not. If he fails, it is usually be- cause of some complicated scientific condition which he does not explain to | by his faith in dealing with people such as the| THE ANCIENT RITE OF E XORCISIN& A MURDERER. not understand if he did. It seems to the patient like the physician's personal failure and the failure of the science which he practices. ‘The powwow doctor, on the other hand, bases his treatment on the simple claim that he can or cannot control evil spirits. If the patient gets well, as he often does in spite of everything done to him, the witch doctor takes the credit. If the sick man does not get well, the so-called magician simply says that the demons he is fighting are too powerful for any incantations or for- mulas, This seems reasonable to the primitive mind. Another difficulty in eradicating belief in magic and other medical fakes is that so often these “cures” really work, or appear to. The person who has had some mystic formula muttered over him and been given some noxious brew to drink, or who has paid a dollar for 25 cents’ worth of soda water and qui- nine, put up under a fancy patented name, does frequently recover from his ailment. ‘The answer, of course, is either that he would have recovered from it any- way or that the origin of his trouble was psychological, and all that was needed to straighten him out was the untangling of his mental or emotional difficulty, a process made much easier the ability of anything to cure him. This is what I mean by saying that the same kind of mental processes which eventually brought Blymyer to commit murder appear in other disguises in practically all of us. T infrequently the authentic phy- sician is, censciously or uncon- Pt |N© knows that suggestion must be employed along with his other instruments of healing. He also knows that it is al- most impossible to determine the exact value of many remedies in modern med- icine, because so many as yet' unknown fatcors enter into the case. He is, there- fore, often obliged to shoot more or less blindly at a symptom, not knowing whether the treatment he is giving is the right one or as far off the mark as the witch doctor’s incantations. He knows that even if it is off the mark the patient's faith in it will frequently effect a cure, just as it would in the case of the powwow doctor’s ministra- tions. For example: A certain woman, let us say, is a battleground of conflicting emotions. This disturbance produces in her certain symptoms, such as indi- gestion and sleeplessness. She may realize the real reason for the symp- toms, but does not want to admit the fact even to herself. She prefers to ascribe them to some physical trouble. So she goes to a physician. She de- scribes and probably exaggerates her physical symptoms and in various ways sets the stage to deceive him. He diag- noses her trouble as physical and gives her medicine for it. She gets well, not because of the medicine, but because after taking it she can ascribe her cure to its effects and therefore save her face. This is not meant as a criticism of legitimate physicians or as a plea for | powwow doctors or other fakes, or even | as an implication that all physical troubles are psychological in origin. It his patient and which the patient would | sciously, a party to the deception. He|is given to illustrate the fundamental modes of thinking which lie back of all these things and to show why none of us may cast the first stone at Blymer and the other believers in “hexing.” i TRCUMSTANCES like the York murder should arouse in socicty not simply a spirit.of satirical con- demnation, but a realization of its own responsibility. Here is a social situ- ation growing out of ignorance, poverty and disease. What shall we do about it? First, we should banish from our minds the idea that our only duty is to punish. Of course, scciety must pro- tect itself from such an individual, must make some immediate arrangement to prevent him from repeating his crime; but after that is done, we should ap- proach the question in a broader senso. ‘We should, first of all, examine the man mentally as well as physically, diagnose his mental processes just as we would that individual diagnosis decide wha! should be done with him or for him. Our present criminal code and proce- dure do not give enough consideration to the individual abilities and limita. tions of the lawbreaker. The code is based on all kinds of untrue assump tions, such as the power of every adult | Who is not drunk or “legally insane” to |know the difference between right and |mined often on emotional rath-r than | intellectual grounds. A muder is com- | mitted end th: murd-rer ccmes jfor trial bofore a jurv v h reor: in goneral, ths opinion cf societ; hans his lawyer put in a pica of diagnose his body, and on the basis of | |wrong. Even “legal insanity” is deter- | w D porary insanity,” and the jury listens |to “expert” opinion for and against on this point. Which opinion they accept is almost certain to be decided by their emotional attitude toward the prisoner. If he is a wronged husband who has killed the er of his home, the jury is almost | cortain to decide that he was insane {when he did it, though now perfectly | responsible. If he is a second Hickman, who has butchered a little girl, the jury is almost certain to hold him to full responsibility for his crime. “Legal | insanity” has thus become incffective. To the distinctions which the law now makes in handling those who have commitied crimes it should add many others, differentiating more and mere until finally it has reached the int where it can prescribe individual rather than mass treatment. Such a procedure would not only be far more {just, but in the long run far more | constructive. From the angle of preventing crime, | the witch murder should teach us the need of improved methods of education, |a greater distribution of opportunity |and the elimination of poverty, with ths degradation and suffering that It thorefrom. In one of his speeches President- clect Hoover has spoken of the elim- |mation of poverty as an engineering problem, a problem in efficlency. The 1d scems to be ready for such a mweat social experiment looking to the velfare of its people, and by that same en should be ready to discard the old a=theds of meting out punishment for crime and ignoring the public respon- 'y therefor. Washington Scientists Explore Undersea Life in the Tropics UNDERSEA PHOTOGRAPH MADE BY WATERPROOF CAMERA. BY C. MORAN. ARNEGIE INSTITUTION scien- tists, wearing undersea helmets, are exploring marine life In the Gulf of Mexico. These men spend hours strolling along the bottom of the sea, making photo- graphs of fishes and plants, peering into nooks and crannies in which tigers of the deep may be lurking, discovering new truths of biology. _ Prof. W. H. Longley, in charge of the | institution laboratory on Loggerhead | Key, 70 miles west of Key West, has | spent more than 3,000 hours under water, photographing undersea life with spectally designed waterproof cameras, and conducting research work. Wear- ing an _85-pound copper, domelike heimet, Dr. Longley frequently spends four to five hours at a time under water. The laboratory is operated by the Carnegie Institution of Washington to facilitate the work of sclentific investi- gators connected with other research organizations. The station staff under Prof. Longley explores the under-water areas for sponges, valonia, ascidian, trematode | larvae, algae and other marine life, so | that supplies of these spectmens ma be quickly obtainable by the visiting scientists. Electrical devices, microscopes and other laboratory equipment have been provided with which to make re-| search in physiology, embryology, cell structure and action, the behavior of | protoplasm, and to trace the life-cycle | | | | g | of many organisms from egg to adult. | ‘Tanks have been constructed in which marine animals may be kept in an environment closzly approaching that of nature, * k ¥ ¥ water, Prof. Longley says that, “except when the light is strongest and the water free from sediment, one is denied sight of all but the immediate surroundings, the world being resolved into a diminutive hollow hemisphere. “It is probable that long-spined sea urchins, like animated caltrops, infest the place, twiddle their spines if one approaches or make off at a surprising | mentally controlled. | diving hood, one may walk about freely | JDESCRIBING his experiences under | about their branches, where its inert- ness completely beiies its amazing power of motion. “Large spiny lobsters, torn between distrust and greed, from under mush- roomed heads of coral extend their an- tennae and wave them frantically over proffered food. Hermit crabs with heavy shells sit aloft on purple sea fans. With their spoon-shaped fingers, spider crabs, ensconced in safe retreats, grub off the incrusting growth of plants and fill themselves to repletion, Others lie safely buried, to venture abroad only under cover of darkness. But manifold as are the forms and habits of other creatures, and particularly of crustacea, the fish fauna surpass all in number of species, vivid coloration, variety of adaptations and, one might almost say, in personality. “The variety in coloration of fishes is an unfailing source of delight. Whether one looks down upon them through the glassy water or whether they float into one’s field of view through the circum- ambient haze, they provoke recurrent expressions of admiration. Particular colors are correlated with specific hab- ts. Red, for example, is almost wholly restricted to nocturnal fishes, which lie hidden by day. The greens, on the other hand, characterize such speces as live lpon the green reef-flats or swim near the surface in open water. The fishes displaying the most vivid color combinations move in the most varied environments. The colors of all appear to conform to a rational and simple system of distribution. “The coloration of many of the spe- cles is changeable and may be experi- Equipped with and thus lead carnivorous forms from | point to point by offering them food. 1t is possible under such circumstances to evoke their various color phases. at will by selecting the spot to which the creatures are led and, if desired, to ob- { serve at closest range each minute effect {of their changed environment. | “The movements of herbivorous forms are not subject to quite such definite control, but one may walk up to brows- ing schools of tangs or parrot fishes, follow them about and secure informa- tlon with little effort. All the creatures assumed by a number of specles under controlled conditions has been made.” * Kk ok THZ institution laboratory is the door leading into the tropical under- sea world, through which many noted scientists have entered in their quest for mnew scientific truths. Does De Laubenfels need living sponges of a par- ticular kind, or Blinks a fresh supply of valonia, or Grave a certain species of ascidian, or McCoy trematode larvae, or Gordon and Lewis fish of specified types, or Lewis given species or algae? Instantly Prof. Longley directs his as- sistants to the places where thess may be obtained. His intimate knowledge of his submerged garden and of the things that are living therein is of in- calculable aid to the scientists who go to Tortugas, many for but a brief period, and who could ill afford the time it would take new men to find the ma- terial they require. The working season at the station is short—only the four Summer months. For the most part, the men who accept invitations to Tortugas occupy positions of responsibility in established institu- tions. They can leave their offices only in the vacation period. Again, weather conditions at Tortugas are not pro- pitious except during Spring and Sum- mer, for the islands lie in the zone of tropical hurricanes. Two days from Washington on the Havana Special and one is at Key West. Eight hours directly to the west, aboard the Anton Dohrn—past the Marquesas atoll, uninhabited and mangrove cov- ered; past Half Moon Shoal, on which the 1919 hurricane hurled the ill-fated Val Bonera and her 360 passengers; past Rebecca Shoal Lighthouse, holding sleepless and lonely vigil; past Fort rate of speed to shady places if dis- turbed. Yellow, brown or purple gor- gonlans, heavy with expanded polyps, stand on every side, with an occasional eoiled basket star close wrapped may be photographed amid perfectly natural and typical surroundings with much less difficulty than might be ex- pected. Hence encouraging progress in securing pictorial record oX‘\he phases Jefferson, the _astonishing structure completed by Jefferson Davis when Sec- retary of War—and Loggerhead Key is reached. It is here that Carnegie Institution of Washington has set up a laboratory for the study of marine life. A thrilling experience is in store for the visitor who essays a trip from this laboratory through nature’s fairyland of the sea. The Darwin, equipped with air pump and coils of rubber hose pipe, is an- chored over a spot not too deep and known to be particularly interesting. A short ladder is hung over the side. As one reaches the last rung, before step- ping out into water-filled space, the hosz is attached to an 85-pound cop- per, dome-like helmet, in the front of which a square of plate glass is securely Mitted. John Mills, the engineer, lowers the helment over one's head until its weight rests securely upon the shoulders. An assistant takes stand at the air pump. The visitor is told to let go. In response to anxious questions for final instructions, Engineer Mills says, nonchalantly: “Go where you please and do what you please. When your breath clouds the glass, tip your head, letting the water run inside the helmet, and the glass will clear. Follow the hose back to the boat when you wish to return.” * X k¥ ENTLY as a feather the visitor comes to rest on the ocean floor, 50 nearly balanced is he between de- pressing weight and supporting buoy- .. Quickly the realization comes in a moment of time he has en- tered a world where his sense of values must be reconstructed. He strains his ears, but hears no sound. He looks upward, but sees no sky. He gazes outward, but even under the most fa- vorable conditions, 50 feet mark the limit of his horizon. No sharp con- trasts of light and shade are to be cbserved, for the all-pervading illum- ination, diffused as it is, softens every outline and angularity and shrouds every object in a peculiar, mysterious haze. The water, transparent and con- stantly moving, as seen from above, seems no longer to be water, but a queer, encompassing medium without motion. One isn't conscious even that it is wet. He stretches his hand to- ward a great coral-head towering be- side him. It is beyond the sweep of his arm. He attempts to place his foot on & bit of jutting coral, but miss- es it entirely. Gorgonians (a coral like form) and other growths, ankle- high when viewed from the boat, strike him at waist or shoulder or overtop him altogether. Declivities which seemed slight to him before are often seen run off into huge depressions, sometimes even into veritable gorges. One's own movements, as he walks about, as he turns, as he stoops to ex- amine an oObject at his feet, as he probes under overhanging ledge, cause him to laugh—they are so like the slow-motion pictures at the movies. fishes does he realize that, in sharp contrast with conditions in his own world, these finny creatures can prac- tically disregard gravity. Lightly sus- pended in their investing fluid, a quiver of fin or tail propels them with equal ease in_any direction whether up or down. Earth-bound man, on the other hand, rises above the ground upon which he treads only with the great- est _difficulty. Perhaps, however, one is most sur- THE ANTON DOHRN OF WASHINGTON. A FLOATING l.\Bfll{vr\TOR\' USED BY SCIENTISTS IN UNDERSEA EXPHORATIONS, Not until one enters the world of the | |of a station to be devoted to the in- | tensive study of marine life, .making a trip to Key West once every |tory "also has Prof. Longley, in Charge of Laboratory at Loggerhead Key for Carnegie Insti- stution, Has Spent More Than 3,000 Hours Under Water—Variety in Coloration of Fishes Revealed on Sea Bottom. prised at the calmness of the m.e}man. accorded him by the inhabitants of thel submarine world. = He is somewhat | abashed to find that instead of creating | excitement, not to say consternation, as he expects, his coming arouses only mild curiosity. ’ Nature has taught fish which live in the shallows that the enemies which are to be feared most are those, like the sea ! birds, which attack from above. Con- sequently when a person approaches them walking on the sea bottom they swim lazily about him and idly nose him over. Even a dreaded barracuda, called the “tiger of the sea,” so fierce is he reputed to be, treated the astonished | stranger with good-natured consider- ation, for after inspecting him a few moments the fish swam slowly away. * K ok ok LOGGERHEAD KEY is the largest island In a group of eight “keys" or islands, 70 miles west of Key West. Ponce de Leon, who on the occasion of their discovery captured 170 great sea turtles, named the group “the Dry Tortugas"—"“Dry,” because no fresh water is there to be had save the rain |as it is caught in falling; “tortugas,” |the Spanish word for “turtles.” These |islands, the outposts between the Gulf |of Mexico and the Straits of Florida, | are but low bars of shell and coral sand barely showing at high tide. Their combined above-water area is less than a quarter square mile. warmest and purest water of the gulf stream, itself rich in deep sea life; the extent and accessibility of the coral reefs, themselves teeming with life; the general healthfulness of the region, and the fact“that its waters are undisturbed by local fisheries, led the trustees of Carnegie Institution to authorize the establishment there and maintenance The station is equipped to care for the needs of 12 sclentists and a crew of 8 assistants. A 70-foot motor boat, two weeks, provides the necessary con- tact with the outside world. The labora- three launches—the Vellela, 27 feet long and of 10 horse- power; the glass-bottomed Darwin, 27 feet long, for inspection of the reefs, and the Bull Pup, a smaller glass-bot- tomed launch. Twenty-two volumes of research material in connection with E“fikdd this laboratory have been pub- | shed. Honoring Naturalist. TRANSPORMING of an unsightly hollow surrounding the home of the great naturalist, Audubon, at West One |Hundred and Fifty-fifth street and | Riverside drive, New York City, il purchase of the residence itself and the : | creation of the whole into a park ade- | quately honoring the memory of the! naturalist, is proposed by the Women's League for the Protection of Riverside | Park, according to an announcement of | ia division chairman, Mrs. Mamia Teas- The proximity of the Tortugas to the | PROFESSOR LONGLEY WEARING THE DIVER'S 85.POUND HELMET. NEW-OLD 'EN years of planning and work have borne fruit finally in the erection of an “ancient village” on the slopes of Montjuich, overlooking the city of Barcelona, where the Internatjonal Ex- hibition of Arts, Industry and Com- merce is to be held this Spring under the patronage of King Alfonso. For a decade architects, sculptors, builders and artists have labored to produce a little ‘“village of remem- brance.” Everything in village, i from hostelries to houses, from statues i to_monuments, has been assembled as , exact reproductions of historical accu- racy. Nothing has been invented, the builders holding to the models from which the buildings were copied. Spanish rural residences dating as far back as the tenth centur{ have been incluced in the 320 household bulldings occupying the 20,000 square yards of the village, which is surrounded by a high wall. Gates copied after the gates of dale Wheless. lies in a hollow many feet Below th> level of Riverside drive, and presen‘s n unattractive appearance. The est~" hing of the park is recommended tine with the plans of the city for great extension of the park and pl: ground system, and the beautifying « Riverside drive. Gotham’s famous water-front poulevard. A The tract, purchase of which is sought, ! l\ a provide an entrance to the vil- age. The houses are all permanent dwell- ‘3%, and with the exception of m the northern provinces, which are | rough planks, are made of stone h tile floors. The city hall, Castilian | : type and monumental in proportions, | a reproduction of the city hall of valderrobles. The Church of Irjebo has | been copled reproduction of the | VILLAGE twelfth century Romanesque monastery of San Vicent of Bages has been in- | cluded. For those who wish to spend the night in the village a hostelry of days gone by is provided. The beds, upon which are piled seven matresses, are reached by means of a ladder. Various tradesmen will live in the vil- lage and ply their trades as of old. No factor has been overlooked to make of this ancient village an attractive and historically accurate reproduction of the tme‘ of Spain back through the cen- | turles. Broom-Making Lags. 'I‘Hl broom industry of the United States declined 15.1 per cent in 1927 over 1925, according to a bulletin of the Department of Commerce, just issued. ‘The figures indicate that the fotal value of the products of broom- corn manufacture fell off from $21,- 714,194 to $17,934,413 and the number of plants manufacturing brooms from those | 421 to 394, This decline in the industry brought a reduciion of employes from 4,725 to 4,450. The figures of the reporting plants indicated 3,124,963 dozen brooms, 485,649 dozen whisk brooms and 1,584 street-sweeping machine brooms manu- Pctured during 1927,