Evening Star Newspaper, February 9, 1929, Page 8

STHE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1999, E EVENING STAR |not from the banks. Thess corporations | of time which the law requires them to - WA Sunday Morning Edithen. WABHINGTON, D. C. BATURDAY... .February 9, 1929 | THEODORF W. NOYES. ... Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company 3nd ‘St. e Tower Bulldine. i4 Regent St.. London, Englan Rate by Carrier Within the City. e Evenine ;4 per month 60c per month r rh The Synday Star per ccpy Colléction made at’the end of each month. Orders may pe sent in by.mail or telephone Main 5600. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. , Maryland and Virginia. EP and Sunday....1 sr. $1000; 1 m day onl I1yr, $400: 1 m Al Other States and Canada. fly cnd Sunday..l yr.$12.00: 1 mo., $1.00 aily only . 1yr., 3800 1 mo., 13¢ jundsy only $500: 1 mo.s 80c Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is oxclusively entitled the use for republization of all ~ews dis- tches credited to it or not otherwise cred- ted in this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. Tariff Revision. ‘With a tariff battle in the offing, !he} Righ tariff, low tariff and free trade elements are alrendy beginning to open | their barrage on Congress and the in- coming administration. Dire forebod- ings are advanced, particularly in Dem- ocratic quarters. There it is predicted that he who tampers with the tariff courts disaster. ‘The plain truth of the matter is that the Fordney-McCumber tariff act needs | revision by the amendment route rather than a complete rewriting of the law. The present tariff law is the product of the Republican Congress which as- sembled in 1921, when the late Prul-‘ dent Hardifg took office. The new law, | which may be called the Hawley-Smoot law, in honor of the chairmen of the House and Senate committees dealing with the tariff, necessarily will be built along the same line of protection. It has been recognized for some time that any attempt at farm relief must include a revision upward of the agricultural schedule. It has been recognized, t0o, | that some of the other schedules need revision, particularly those dealing with the textile industry. Doubtless an effort will be made by certaln manufacturing interests to ob- tain materially higher rates of duty. ‘The demands in some cases will be ex- cessive. The hearings before the House ways and means committee now in progress have already shown as much. It will be the task of the President- elect and his advisers in Congress to prevent the establishment of inordi- nately high rates, while at the same time doing justice to American manu- facturers. It may be r-called that in 1809 a Republican tarifi iaw, the Payne- Aldrich act, was written by a Repub- Jican Congress, with dire results. A| veto of that law, because of excessive ! rates, by the then President Taft might have changed political history. That tariff law aroused resentment and criti- cism and contributed.to the Progressive wuprising which split the party in 1912, President-elect Hoover, if reports be correct, does mot intend to permit the demand for high protective rates to get out of hand. ‘In"his conferences with Republican leaders, among them Sen- ator Smoot, chairman of the Senate finance committee, Mr. Hoover has soft- pedaled the idea there shall be a hlanket upward revision of the tariff schedule. Pressure is being brought to bear from many angles upon members of Congress, however, for an increase in rates on all kinds of manufactures @& well as upon agricultural products. Suggestion of an impregnable tariff wall about the United States is arous- ing criticism in Europe *and Canada. Threats of retaliation are in the air. Further, 1t has been forecast by Sen- | ator Smoot and others that Democrats | in Congress will seek to embarrass the Republicans by introducing tariff amendments proposing rates higher than the Republicans are ready to go, though not higher than the demands of the producers. Such tactics are be- coming common Democratic practice. They were tried in the last tariff-re- duction fight and more recently in the Harris amendment providing $24,000,000 additional for prohibition enforcement. It is clear that the task of tariff re- wvision will require wariness, sound judg- ment and a firm hand if Mr. Hoover is not to meet a serlous check early in his administration. FERTETETTEN ‘Texas Guinan, who greets a night club customer with “Hello, sucker!” found that she had been named by promoters of perilous investment on a “sucker list.” Merry repartee cannot forever be one- sided. S Efforts to regulate speculation may discover some way to take care of money which does not know what to do with tself. Wall Street’s Spasm. Wall Street had a spasm of liquida- #lon yesterday that shook the stock market severely. Many millions of paper profits were wiped out. The tremors ran all up and down the securities column. No stoek was immune. At the end of the day prospective millionaires found themselves in reduced circumstances. Some, indeed, were actually impover- shed, because they had been playing the game on a purely speculative basis .and were unable to meet their margins, which were suddenly called on heavy percentage. The whole trouble arose from a statement issued by the Federal _Reserve Board sounding a warning to member banks that drastic action might Jbe taken unless funds going into specu- lative channels were curtailed. It was accentuated by an announcement from London that the Bank of England had Ancreased its discount rate. The stock market has for some time Jpast been overextended. It has been ex- draordinarily active, with dally transac- ‘tions of over four million shares. The mverage of prices has risen to a point considerably above that of safe invest- ment return. It has been unquestion- #bly chiefly a speculative market. Pre- dictions of a reaction have frequently been made. Now it has come, but whether for a period or for only a short turn remains to be seen. A fact of im- portance in this connection to be borne have put their spare cash, amounting to hundreds of millions in the aggregate, to work in “the Street,” using the banks, of course, as mediums of the transac- tion. The banks have been merely agents in the handling of these funds. ‘They are not responsible to the Federal Reserve Board on this score, and it is a matter now to be determined whether the board’s warning will have the effect of checking the outflow of corpoiation funds to stock-buying borrowers. If this flow continues stock buying will probably proceed, and if the buying is resumed the prices will naturally reflect a demand. It is all a question of whether the balance favors the buyer or the seller. It is a question of whether there is a preponderant belief in the future advance or the future decline in 55 general price quotations. ———— Denby of the Marines, Edwin Denby does not leave a dis- honored name. The abnormal circum- stances under which he ‘was retired from the secretaryship of the Navy in 1924, after three years' service, tar- nished his escutcheon, but left it un- blemished from the standpoint of per- sonal integrity. At no stage of the tor- tuous naval oil reserves controversy did any one impugn Secretary Denby's hon- esty. His faults were faults of the heart, not of the head. No tainted money touched his hands. His mistakes were errors of judgment. They never bor- dered on “high crimes” or “misdemean- ors” within the meaning of the stat- utes providing for impeachment of Fed- eral officers. If Denby faltered in the administration of the Navy Department, it was due to a misplaced faith in the sincerity and efficiency of colleagues. He betrayed no trust. “Denby of the Marines” was the title of which the late Harding cabinet offi- cer was almost prouder than that of Secretary of the Navy. He was devoted to the sea service. He enlisted in the Spanish-American War as a gunner's mate aboard the U. 8. 8. Yosemite. ‘When the United States entered the World War, in 1817, Denby, though a man of forty-seven, joined the Marines as a private and underwent the rigors of the leathernecks’ training system for the ensuing year and a half. In 1919 he achieved the rank of a major in the Marine Reserve Corps. Mr. Denby was a member of the House of ' Representatives for three terms, from 1905 to 1911, and distin- guished himself on important commit- tees, especially those dealing with the military and naval establishments. He was a confrere and intimate colleague of the late John W. Weeks of Massa- chusetts, upon whose recommendation and with whom he entered the Harding administration in 1921. In the Navy the name of Edwin Denby will be gratefully remembered. He stood unflinchingly by it in recur- ring days of storm and stress on Capitol Hill. His first-hand knowledge of its needs, especially those of the enlisted man, enabled him to be a persuasive protagonist of the Navy and all its works, Though he was doomed to take leave of the service he loved under a cloud, he ministered to its wants with a degree of affectionate interest which, as Teapot Dome recedes Into history, is designed to make Edwin Denby's con- nection with it appear less and less discreditable. Free Bus Rides for Germs. Our Health Department, always dili- gent in its pursuit of germs, should find an inviting field for extensive research and possible correction in the busses which have come to play such an im- portant role in the city's system of transportation. So poor and inadequate are the ventilating devices in the ma- jority of these busses that the vehicles provide places of refuge for what must be an excellent assortment of healthy germs. Entering one of these busses on a cold or rainy day, one is almost smothered by the hot and fetid atmos- phere. Investigation reveals a sign near! the driver, put there by the Health De- partment, warning the populace that ventilators in the busses must be kept open. Search for the ventilators is re- warded by a chorus of hoarse chortles and derisive laughter from the germs, for the ventilators sre so”small that only the weak and sickly microbes can be forced through them. Some of the ventilators are carefully guarded by fine screens, so that any wide-awake germ, by planting his feet firmly on the wire mesh, easily escapes eviction. Passengers so fortunate as to have obtained seats mext the windows might | show temerity enough to open one of them. But to do so invites a blast of cold, raw air that immediately starts a barrage of protesting sneezes and coughs, which, of course, is greeted by cries of intense delight from the germs thus afforded rare opportunities for change of scenery. “There is no reason why busses should not be equipped with ventilators that ventilate. The street cars are bad enough, but compared to the busses they are regular fresh air farms on wheels. — et Steam railways are avoided by Col. Lindbergh. So are automobiles. The kind of travel to which a person is accustomed always impresses him as safest. B Tardy Judges. Several weeks ago attendants in the minor New York City courts, those presided over by “magistrates,” may or may not have observed the presence daily of well dressed women, taking notes. If they did, they doubtless wondered what particular line of study was under way. If they did not, they and their chiefs, the magistrates, are now getting a severe shock in the pub- lication of a report submitted by the Woman's City Club of New York, acting jointly with the City Club, regarding the tardiness of the judges in the munic- ipal courts. The showing these women observers make is startling. In the seven district courts of the Greater City during the period of observation, which sovered a week in November, the average lateness of the judge in opening court was fifty minutes. Notwithstanding the fact that the law requires a certain length of time daily in which the courts are open and functioning, the average of the active periods was less by two or three hours in numerous instances. The women's report says: “From the in- in mind is that a large volume of the money used in market transactions has be eitting, or that they do not give adequate consideration in the interest of justice to each one of the cases which comes before them.” This matter is now' engaging the lt.lenuan of the mayor and the presiding judge. No comeback has as yet been made except the suggestion by the latter official that in most instances the ccurts cannot begin to function earlier in the day because the detectives cannot get to court sooner, on account of being re- quired to attend the morning line-up at headquarters, when at ten o'clock daily all persons under arrest are paraded before the detective force. This would suggest that the judges, finding that|gre the detectives are not able to be in two places at once, have adjusted themselves to the headquarters schedule and made the hour of opening court contingent upon the time-table of the sleuths. This, of course, takes no account of the time of the people summoned as witnesses, who must wait around the courtroom until the detectives arrive and the judge takes his seat. Some change may be worked out, in the law or in the practice, as a result of this investigation and the report. It is a worthy work that has been accom- plished by the women of the club. Per- haps hereafter note will be carefully taken of the presence of strangers in the courtrooms, and thought given to the possibility of checking up on reforms that may be adopted in advance of embarrassing publicity. —r—o— Mr. Coolidge's Future. Gossip is busy with President Cool- ldge's future. What is he to do after March 4? Is he to become a college president? Is he to be appointed a justice of the Supreme Court? Is he to devote himself to the production of & book? All of these possibilities have been suggested, some of them with con- siderable detail, as of actual knowledge. As a matter of fact, probably nobody knows what Mr. Coolidge is going to do after March 4 besides Mr. Coolidge himself. Perhaps he does not know. He has had five and a half years of strenuous office-holding and he has devoted himself assiduously to his task. The responsibilities have been incessant and heavy. He will probably welcome a chance to rest, to be free of all cares. Maybe he will travel for a time, going where the inhibitions of office have heretofore prevented him from going. Perhaps he has decided on that course as preliminary to engaging in some specific work. Ex-Presidents have gone into all lines of endeavor. John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives and served there for many years and died in that service. Theodore Roose- velt became an editor of a national publication. Grover Cleveland took up the practice of law. Mr. Coolidge is a lawyer and may find in his own profes- sion a congenial and profitable activity. His name has-been connected with nu- merous assignments to duty, espectally educational, the latest suggestion being that he may succeed the recently re- signed president of Michigan University. Probably Mr. Coolidge derives much amusement from these well meant and sympathetic endeavors to “place” him congenially. He has made a tradition of silence and has thereby promoted guessing. Probably most, if not all, of the speculation respecting his future s merely guesswork, ———te In arrangements for his cabinet, President-elect Hoover conducts a magnificent guessing contest without the trouble of awarding prizes outside of the usual secretarial compensations. ——on—s. When a crook wants money he sets out in broad daylight and helps himself. He is making the “go-getter” idea a trifie tiresome. oo After his visit to Mr. Hoover, Mr. Smoot came promptly into enjoyment of the congressional regard always com- manded by a good listener, R Cameramen hold Al Smith up to attention as the only prominent Demo- crat who wears a perpetual and con- vincing smile. i o ' SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Swinging Along. We're swinging along in the starlight And counting the days as they go. The giant suns beam with a far light On the way this old Earth has to go. And this is what keeps us from being down-hearted; We always come back to the place where we started! The storms will ere long be abating, As :e‘re Journeying on through the sky. 'Neath the snow there's a violet ‘waiting Like the smile that displaces a sigh. From sorrows or joys we have never quite parted. We always get back to the place where we started. Relief. “Do you enjoy the theater?” “Frequently,” answered Senator Sor- ghum. “There is a curious relief in hearing a lot of violent language that I would like to use in my own business if I dared.” Jud Tunkins says & dog is a devoted friend, but in bestowing his affections he often shows he's a poor judge of character. The Line-up. ‘To few of us the skill is lent For music finely made, And some of us must be content To march in the parade. Peculiar Fascination, “Are women happy in politics?” “Some of us are,” declared Miss Cay- enne. “There is always a peculiar fas- cination in finding something new to worry about.” “A sense of humor,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “may mislead itself. There are few things more melancholy than a feeble jest.” Selfish Attitude, I have a feeling of regret When Mother lights a cigarette. T mean no sermons and no jokes— I just don't like the brand she smokes. “It don’ skeer me none to pass a graveyard,” sald Uncle Eben. “What formation so far adduced it seems clear that either the judges do not have sufi- I's afrald of 1s dat some day I won't be able to pass it, but will have to go in gome from the great corporations and cient business to demand the full quots 8t de gate.” P A THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. ‘There was a soft feel in the air the morning after the rain, something balmy and fervid, which drove a whole cityful of people to wondering if SPEiow peopls tong fof Spr low e long for Spring. It umpmt the more closely they are confined to apartment houses and office buildings the more eagerly they I%okktmnd to softer winds on the cheek. Perhaps farmers think nothing of it, except in their line of business; they eet the seasons as they come, and do not ask for more. Your average city dweller, however, would like Spring the year around, if he thought there was any chance of getting it; perhaps an amelioration of climate might not be beyond the pos- sibilities of scientific achievement! * ok kX Springlike days in February are no new thing in the District of Columbia. Several years ago we had a whole month filled with them, while word came back from Florida that disagree- able weather was being experienced down there for the time of year. ‘When balmy weather lasted the en- tire month bulbs began to sprout, and, as we recall it, many a crocus bloomed, to be torn up by thoughtless children and be cast by them on the ground. Rosebushes, too, put forth leaves, and growing things in general got ready for Spring, and some of them were literally “nipypd in the bud” at that time by the advent of Winter again. * k ok * ‘This week's interlude was a mere taste of the days to be, a harbinger prefacing in a neat and pleasant man- ner the true Spring. Every one on the street that morn- ing seemed to have a sparkle in his eyes as he strode along the wet side- walks, which had not yet dried out from the heavy rain of the night. It had poured for hours. Sleepy ones heard it beating against the north panes and dripping down spouts and swishing against trees. Then the morning had come with a warm, bright sun, hot enough to have dried up the streets in a few minutes if there had been just a little less water everywhere. ‘There was too much for that, how- ever; 8o the city went to work over very moist sidewalks beneath trees which still dripped water when the breeze shook them. * ok ko It is sald that even trees must have their exercise, as stationary as they are, through the motion imparted to them by the winds. “Men as trees walking—" Why does that odd combination of words, from whose poem we know not, come to_mind? ‘Their leafless branches hung out over the walks. None of the thousands of walkers pald the slightest attention to them; they were too busy getting to work on time. Thousands of new automobiles, shiny in their lacquers, with nobby profiles and silhou-ttes a la mode, slipped along the black, wet streets. They came to enforced stops at red and white signs; they easily glided for- ward again; they each and every one attempted to bulldoze the other fellow. The city was in motion. * ok ok ok ‘Women in furs, under which their | silk-clad legs appeared to great ad- vantage—in the majority of cases— stopped at corners to let' the automo- bilists roll forward. How luxuriant the automobilist looks as he sits back comfortably cradled in cushions! It is almost impossible for the meekest man in the world not to look arrogant in such a ition. There is something almost insolent in the attitude of many motorists, and this seems to be reflected in the ac- tions of some of them, who sound their horns at the slightest hesitancy of the car ahead and in other ways manifest a lack of respect for simple courtesy. Almost every one is a motorist upon occasion, however, so no one really re. sents what they do, only at times one becomes slightly irritated, one becomes somewhat bored at it all, since most of it is so unnecessary. * K K ¥ A tall, dark girl with a black coat wrapped tightly hesitates between two parked cars, She darts glances right and left, upon which gentlemen in those respective positions calmly take them to have been meant for themselves. Her bright glances suddenly turn stony—she was simply looking for cars, any fool could see that. None is so blind, however, as he who will not see! The young gentlemen keep trying to flirt with all their might. Spring is in the air and young ladies should be careful about looking to right and left. * ok ok K In several hours the city had dried up. Tin roofs in the downtown section showed puddles only at long intervals. From an office window one might see a black cat gingerly treading its way to a window sill, its door for the mo- ment, into which it disappeared, its tail hanging like a black streak over the edge for a moment after the rest had vanished. On this bright Spring-in-Winter morning the very air seemed to carry sounds better than usual; perhaps this was not in accord with physics, and maybe it was, but at any rate that was the effect. Office workers could hear the sounds of bpilding activity coming for blocks. The rumble of street cars smote ears vividly, and the occasional honking of an automobile horn cut through as so many accent notes might in some sym- phonic score. * K ok X ‘Talk of fishing parities was revived. One man_who lives just two blocks over the District Line was lamenting the fact that he couldn’t run his new car because he had sent to Baltimore for his license and it hadn’t come. A booky fellow happened to see an advertisement of a new book, “Dialogues and Monologues,” by Humbert Wolfe— “What a coincidence!” he exclaimed, highly pleased. “Last night I read a poem by Wolfe. It was the first time I had ever heard of him. It was a fine piece of work. And now this morning I run onto his name again.” He was as pleased as if he had made some important discovery, and maybe he had, who knows? But the would- be fishermen paid no attention to him; they kept on talking about fish and boats and bait. It was the Springlike day that did it, the soft, balmy feel in the air, which <at men dreaming, dreaming. ¢ Praise Inspired by Meeting Of Rival Standard Bearers More than the ordinary attention has been given to the meeting in Florida of the opposing candidates in the recent election—former Gov. Smith of New York and President-elect Hoover. Al- though a few newspapers hold that the incident was due to the insistence of local leaders, the sportsmanship and good will of both principals are praised as worthy of emulation by their respec- tive supporters throughout the country. “It was simply a call by one happy warrior upon another,” says the Pitts- burgh Post-Gazette, with the further estimate, “It was so' like both men noted for their bigness and radiation -of good will, that no one, on hearing that they happened to be in Miami at the same time, doubted that they would meet and that the result would be most pleasant.” The Albany Evening News asks, “Who could have a bettér time these two men of big minds and big souls, who led their parties in a presidential campaign?” The Morgan- town New Dominion remarks that “the last campaign undoubtedly left scars, but not, we think, on either Mr. Smith or Mr. Hoover.” The Pasadena Star-News states, in reviewing the visit: “When Mr. Smith left he said, ‘I congratulated him upon his election and I meant it.” This is fine American spirit. It is a species of chivalrous graciousness that survives the most strenuous political struggles.” * X ok % “The ex-Governor of New York is noted for his good sportsmanship, and the former Secretary of Commerce, though reputedly self-contained, is really a very human person,” comments the Providence Journal, while the Columbia Record, believing that “it takes a big man entirely to eliminate the defeat bitterness,” records: “Two men of today have done that. President Taft had even more smiles when he was forced to quit the White House by the verdict of the American people than he did before. Which accounts for the present high esteem in which he stands everywhere.” “The Miami meeting,” according to the Atlanta Journal, “was happily characteristic of America. On both sides there was the good humor which is the tradition of good sportsmanship and the heart of successful democracy. S Happy the republic whose opposed leaders, when the ballots have fallen and the haze of conflict cleared, can meet thus in natural friendliness and wish each other well in service to the common weal! Their example is one which lesser chieftains might profit- ably ponder, and which, if followed by the rank and file, would put new grace and new wisdom into our political life.” i * ok kX “If some members of Congress could bring themselves similarly to forego partisanship in an earnest effort to work for the welfare of the country, instead of keeping alive partisan rancor, it would be a better country,” advises the Jackson Citizen Patriot. That the two leaders should be an example to the whole country is the judgment of the | Cha Altoona Mirror and Harrisburg Tele- graph, while the Oakland Tribune con- cludes, “Now that Herbert Hoover and Al Smith have met for a friendly review of campaign incidents, it is good form for some of their warm supporters to resume Ipelklnf terms.” “There are a few sour persons,” thinks the Richmond News Leader, “who will continue to nurse the grudges of the election, and to say spiteful things, but most Americans have the good sense and the patriotism to emulate the leaders, to shake hands, to forget the hard knocks of the campaign and to on about their business of making a living and upbuilding America.” “It sets a good example of impersonal politics,” in the opinion of the Dayton Daily News, which emphasizes the fact that as “Smith is taking a_carefree rest” and “Hoover is hounded by office- seekers,” the beaten candidate “smoked his visitorial cigar with an easier mind than his conqueror could muster.” The Scranton Times believes that “this coun- j try would be a less desirable place in which to live if all public men con- stantly carried their political differences around with them.” * %ok K “The fine thing abodt the bitterness of such a campaign as we had last Fall,” states the Columbus Ohio State Journal, “is that it soon dies out.” The Salina Journal maintains that the meeting “shows that the bitterness of a politicai campaign confines _ftself merely to issues,” and the New Castle News similarly remarks that “there was some- thing cheering and wholesome about the meeting”; that “every four years we get heated up and fight hard, but it is a battle of ballots only and the outcome is accepted by all who believe in the wisdom of our form of government.” The appropriateness of the hand- shaking by the respective heads of two parties is seen by the Savannah Morning News, which adds that *‘some folks thinl it is difficult to tell a Republican from a Democrat, nowadays.” The Rochester Times-Union feels that “it was the most natural thing in the world for them to meet and enjoy the time they spent together”; the Worcester Gazette that “it cannot fail to register favorably upon the 15,000,000 who voted for the one and the 21,000,000 who voted for the other,” and the Duluth Herald that “wishing a President-elect good luck means wishing your country good luck.” “It is curious,” thinks the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “that two Americans with such distinguished records in public service should receive the nominations of the two major parties, go through a long campaign and have their first real personal meeting months after the elec- tion. Perhaps this could not happen in any other country in the world.” Protesting about the local efforts to bring the two men together, the Hart- ford Times suggests: “Both men are entitled to the privacy which they seek. It would have been far better to leave them alone, in peace. To hound them into a situation where they had to go through the motions of a social en- counter*was indeed pitiless, and crude, publicity.” The Roanoke Times also says: “Inasmuch as both men were in Florida for a vacation, both would have preferred to be left free to follow their own devices. But, having been pushed into it, so to speak, both %cted with the'| good sense of which each possesses so abundant a quantity.” Thinks He Sees Movie Man and Commits Murder BY E. E. FREE, PH. D. A remarkable story of hallucinations that began with a vision of Lon Chaney, the motion picture actor, and led to murder in a London park, was told re- cently by the murderer arraigned in a London court. On October 28, 1928, a waitress named Julia Mangan was killed in Hyde Park by having her throa$ cut with a razor. A carpenter named Robert Willlams was arrested. In telling his story to the court, Wil- liams asserted that he has no memory of what happened. While he was talk- ing with the girl in the park, the ac- sursed carpenter said, “‘noises” came into his ears and it seemed as if steam were coming out of the sides of his head. Suddenly he thought that he saw Lon ney in a corner making faces and shouting at him and he felt as though a red-hot iron were being pushed in behind his eyes. He remembered noth- ing further, Willlams insisted, until he came to himself in the hospital, where he was in custody of the police. Urged by the prisoner’s counsel as proof of irresponsible insanity, this account of “visions” accompanying or preceding the crime was not ncce{:‘ed by judge or jury as proving legal insanity. Wil- liams was found guilty and sentenced to death, subject to later examination of his sanity by government mental ex- perts. Nevertheless, the case aroused scientific interest, as lying on the ill-defined border line between sanity and insanity where distinction between real and unreal becomes un- certain and fantasies are sometimes mistaken for truth even by persons otherwise sane. e Pride Goeth Before a Fall. From the Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader. ‘The quickest way to bring a snowfall, we have learned, is to write somef pointing with pride to its absence. ot She Makes ’em Spin, Too. From the Huntington Advertiser. You can say this in defense of the modern girl—she dearly loves the spin- a THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover Elizabeth, the vain Queen, and Essex, the spoiled courtier, dispute the sym- pathles and the disapproval of the reader in Lytton Strachey's “Elizabeth and Essex.” Mr. Strachey holds the balance in & brilliant manner. At 53 Elizabeth fell in love with Essex, who was less than 20, and a woman of that age in love with & boy is not an ad- mirable figure, even though she be a Queen. The fascination which Essex held for the capricious daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn lasted for many years, through many quarrels, until, when Elizabeth was 68 and Essex 34, she sent her favorite to the block on Tower Hill and then spent the last two years of her life in mourning for him. Mr. Strachey's characterizations are vivid, yet free from sensationalism. He sees th as a real woman, not as a triumphant heroine of a magnificent age. “Under the serried complexities of her raiment—the huge hoop, the stiff ruff, the swollen sleeves, the powdered pearls, the spreading, gilded gauzes—the form of the woman vanished and men saw instead an image — magnificent, 'pomnmus. . self- created —an image of regality, which yet, by a miracle, was actually alive.” But what was the woman apart from the inflated garments? “The lion heart, the splendid gestures—such heroic things were there, no doubt. * * * The sharp and hostile eyes of the Spanish ambassadors saw something different; in their opinion, the outstanding char- acteristic of Elizabeth was pusillanimity. They were wrong, but they perceived more of the truth than the idle on- looker. They had come into contact with those forces in the Queen’s mind which proved, incidentally, fatal to themselves, and brought her, in the end, her enormous triumph. That triumph was not the result of heroism. The very contrary was the case: the grand policy which dominated Elizabeth's life was the most unheroic conceivable, and her true history remains a standing lesson for melodramatists in statecraft. In reality, she succeeded by virtue of all the qualities which every hero should be without—dissimulation, pli- ability, indecision, procrastination, par- simony.” The Queen is described in her court, surrounded by flatterers, over whom comes a sudden hush. ‘“Looking round, she saw that Essex had come in. He went swiftly towards her; and the Queen had forgotten everything, as he knelt at her feet.” The marriage of Essex enraged her for only a fortnight. “She stormed and ramped; then re- membered that the relations between herself and her servant were unique and had nothing to do with a futile domesticity. The fascinating bride- groom pursued and cajoled her with ardours as romantic as ever; and she felt that a’Queen could ignore a wife.” * K K ok Of importance almost equal to that of the two chief characters in the story of “Elizabeth and Essex” is Francis Bacon. He might be considered the villain of the tragedy. “One wishes to turn away one’s gaze from the un- conscious ~ traitor, the lofty-minded sycophant, the exquisite intelligence entrapped and strangled in the web of its own weaving.” Essex over and over again risked his own favor with the Queen in order to secure for Francis Bacon first the attorney generalship, then the solicitor generalship; but when, after the disastrous Irish campaign of Essex, the Queen carried on confiden- tial conversations with Bacon concern- ing the earl's loyalty, Bacon seized the opportunity for his own advancement and by innuendo aided in the downfall of the man who had been to him so good a friend. “As for Bacon, he was in his element. He felt that he could thread his way through the intricacies that surrounded him with perfect propriety. To adjust the claims of per- sonal indebtedness and public duty, to combine the feelings of the statesman and the friend, to hold the balance true between honor and ambition—other men might find such problems difficult, if not insoluble; but he was not frightened by them; his intellect was capable of more than that. As he talked to Elizabeth, he played upon the com- plex theme with the Frofuund relish of a virtuoso. He had long since decided that, in all human probability, Essex was a ruined man; he owed the earl something—much; but it would be futile to spoil his own chances of for- tune by adhering to a hopeless cause; it was essential to win the good graces of Robert Cecil; and now, there was this heaven-sent opportunity—which it would be madness to miss—for acquir- ing something more important still—the confidence of the Queen. Besides—he could doubt it no longer—Essex was a mischievous person, whose activities were dangerous to the state. While he was clearly bound to give him what | help he could as a private individual, he was certainly under no obligation to forward the return of such a man to power; it was even his duty to insin- uate into the Queen's mind his own sense of the gravity of the situation. And so, with unhesitating subtlety, he spun the web of his sagacious thought.” * ok k¥ “The Turn of the Screw,” by Henry James, is one of the most horrible of ghost stories. Willlam Lyon Phelps once sald in a lecture that, after reading it, he felt distinct hesitation about going downstairs to turn off the hall light, because he would be obliged to go back | upstairs in the dark. It is a story of ghostly demoralization of children, so! that its horror is moral as well as mental and physical. A recent ghost story by Clemence Dane, though entire- ly different, suggests by its subtlety of method “The Turn of the Screw.” Clemence Dane has written a four- part novel of the history of a family, “The Babylons.” The four parts are called “Third Person Singular,” “Mid- summer Men,” “Creeping Jenny” and “Lady Babylon,” and each part is a | complete story. The first part is the ghost story mentioned. It is a story of Medealike vengeance on the part of the ghost of a jiited woman, and might possibly be explained away as a problem of psychiatry, but its haunting horror cannot be explained away. The pursuit on their wed®ing journey through Europe of the pathetic young Elr. Jamie and Menella, Sir James and Lady Babylon, by a specter of which they are at first unaware, is cumulative in its tragedy. Wherever they go they are shunned and assisted to leave as soon as possible. The climax comes at Milan, when they are almost mobbed at the opera and escape by the ald of the manager through a private exit and a back alley to their hotel. Their journey back to England in their coach (it is a Georgian tale) is attended by increas- ing gloom and morbid apprehension on Jamie’s part and uncomprehending de- spair on Menella’s. At home at Babylon Court is at first renewed, but soon the familiar symptoms recur. Servants avoid them and threaten to leave; Jamie, alternating between rages and deepest depression, seems to have changed his rmnnfl : Menella loses the last of her courfige and weakly weeps. Finally, as they are leaving in their coach for London, in a panic to escape somewhere—anywhere—from the dreadful pursuit, there is a touch of icy fingers, the horses rear, a shadowy figure appears beyond. Menella in the coach and catastrophe comes. * ok ok X Maristan Chapman, author of “The Happy Mountain,” was born in Chat- tanooga near the mountains which form the setting of her novel. Her childhood was passed in the various parishes of her clergyman father and she helped,| teach in a Blue Ridge mission school’ while she was still a girl. During the World War she had many experiences in Europe, was secretary to a member of Parliament, lectured in schools and did nursing, then married an engineer. The mountains of Ten- nessee drew her back, and in recent years she and her husband have ex- lored the South in a house car built This is a special department devoted to the hm&i’fi: of inquiries. You have at your disposal an extensive organization in Washington to serve you in any capacity that relates to in- formation. name, and your address clearly, and inclose 2 cents in coin or stamps for reply. Send to The Evening Star Infor- mation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, di- rector, Washington, D. C. Q. How can the safety of electric warming pads be assured?—S. A. H. A that the safety of electrical warming pads can be secured only by the most careful and experienced operation of them. The person operating them mind all the time that they are con- nected to a source of electrical energy. When under blankets or other covers, if the thermostat connected with them falls, it is possible for them to start a fire. It is possible to receive a severe shock from heating pads if operated while wet or moist; as with other port- able electrical devices, it is possible for a person who is in contact with ground- ed metallic objects such as a water faucet or a wash bowl to receive a shock from them when defective, even though the damage is not sufficient to prevent their operation. Q. Does Great Britain provide old- age pensions?—A. N. S. A. Old-age pensions were introduced into Great Britain in 1908 and have been expanded and amplified several times. There are about 1,200,000 pen- sloners receiving a total of 29,983,000 pounds. Q. How many books for the blind are sent to readers over the country free of charge?—J. L. A. Mrs. M. G: Nichols, service for the blind, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., informs us that there are 19,000 volumes for the blind which are circu- | lated throughout the United States, going through the mails free of charge. Q. Where was Basil King born and where did he die?>—M. H. A. Basil King, the American novelist, was born at Charlottetown, Prince Ed- ward Island, Canada, and was educated there and at King's College, Windsor. Later he made his home in Cambridge, %;;B‘ The author died there June 22, Q. Is it correct to say this data or these data?—J. Z. A. Data is plural, therefore plural adjective and verb should be used. Q. Is'there a space between the water and the ice on a river that is frozen over?—R. K. A. There is no space between the ice on the surface of a river and the water beneath. Q. How deep Is the sand in the Sahara Desert?—J. McK. A. The sand in the Sahara Desert is Quoting from the Congressional Record—Senator Heflin of Alabama speaking: “I am going to tell you now, Senators, that many of you on the other side, against flying the United States flag above the Roman cross, are going to face that issue with the people of your States. It is right and proper that you should.” ‘The above, referred to the measure propose1 lmdvs by the Senator from Alabama as fol d “Section 6. That hereafter it shall be unlawful to fly any flag or pennant on the same staff or hoist, above the flag of the United States of America or colors representing the same, on any battleship, cruiser or other vessel in the naval service of the United States.” * ok k * If this were law, it would operate to bar the flagship of any fleet from dis- playing the admiral's flag above the flag of the United States, and prevent the displaying of signal flags, as at present is the cdstom. When a vessel is in port, the Stars and Stripes fly from a staff at the stern; when at sea, it flies from a yardarm about half way to the top of the mast, while, in both cases, signal flags fly from halyards above the American flag, as does also the flag of the commander of the fleet. * K kX From the early days of the Republic, the church pennant has always been flown above “Old Glory,” but it is shown only during actual church serv- ices on board—lasting about half an hour, each Sunday. And it is the same whether a Catholic or Methodist chaplain conducts the services. The significance of its flying above the Nation’s flag was explained by Sen- ator Gerry, in reply to the allegation of Senator Heflin that it represented the Roman Catholic Church. Senator Gerry sald: “Mr. President, the Navy flies during divine service, if I am corrctly in- formed, wiat is known as the church flag. This is not a denominational flag. It is flown by the Navy out of respect for divine service, and out of respect for Almighty God. It is the Navy's tribute. For that reason it has been the custom from time immemorial in the American Navy to have that flag flown over the flag of the United States, the only flag so flown. It is the recognition that God is over all.” Investigation at the Navy Department disclosed that, owing to the burning of the Capitol during the War of 1812, there is no official record as to what was the practice in regard to flying the church pennant above the Stars | and Stripes prior to that war, but there are records which show that such was the custom as far back as history shows anything about Navy practice. Consequentiy, the “Roman cross” flag is a myth, for this same church pennant was so used many decades be- fore the Navy had a single Roman Catholic chaplain. It was in a Demo-'| cratic _administration, that of Presi- dent Grover Cleveland, that the first Catholic chaplain was appointed in the Navy. Hence the Pope and all his fol- lowers may claim an alibi. * Ok ok It is less easy, today, however for the Society for the Spread of Atheism, so actively operating in all parts of the Nation, to prove an equally strong alibi to Senator Heflin’s proposal to lower the church pennant. The doughty Sen- ator denies that the Ku Klux Klan has had anything to do with the idea—he thought it out'ill‘ by himself, he says. * * So President Grover Cleveland intro- duced the nucleus of the present dis- tress of his supporter, Senator Heflin, by admitting Catholic chaplains into the Navy. But to show that this is not & question of partisan “bigotry,” it must be recalled that when the ancestors of the Society for the Spread of Atheism took off our coins the inscription “In God we trust,” President velt ordered it restored instanter, for we Americans are not ashamed of the faith of our fathers, No President, commander-in-chief of Chirch peinant, profesen; therey o ing su- fl;rupamuc love of “Your flag and * k x % As for the al “Roman cross,” it is noted that Webster's New Interna- tional Djctionary shows 20 forms of crosses and No. 1 is of the familiar form and is descrived in the dictionary as “A gibbetlike structure typically con- sisting of an upright, supporting a hor- izontal beam, anciently used in the ex- Write your question, your |S. The Bureau of Standards says | D: should be near them and have them in | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. of varled depth. Dunes are often piled up to heights of 300 and 400 feet. Q Who was the first woman ad- mlt_;.‘ed to the bar in this country?—J. A. It i3 understood that Mrs. A. A. Mansfield of Towa was admitted to the bar in that state in 1899, and that she was the first woman to be admitted to the bar in this country. Q. How long have there been coal breakers in the anthracite region?—E. A, A. The first factory of this kind was probably one which was buflt in 1852, although breaking coal by machi was begun in 1845. For the first b: ing machine 200 tons was a good da output for a 10 or 12 hour day, wi now 5,000 tons can be turned out in an 8-hour day. Q. Please tell something of the ea: theater in England.—M. L. A. In all the early continental the- aters the construction was founded on Greek models, but in England a simpler idea served. Here the earliest dramatic performances took place in boolhs, tennis courts or in the open courtyards of inns. It was not until the end of the sixteenth century that the first per- manent building was erected for the- atrical purposes. This was The Theater, built by Burbage, in Shoreditch, in 1576, which was founded not on any classical model, but on the inn yards, in which the actors had been accus- tomed to play. The stage was literally a stage—a platform erected against one side of the building—and on three sides of this platform the spectators stood or sat in the pit (then called the ), | while all around it ran the galleries or boxes (then called rooms). There was no provision for scenery. Q. If the president of a woman’s or- ganization is unmarried, should she be addressed as Madam President or Miss President?—B. G. A. The term Madam President is always used regardless of whether the woman is married or single. Q. Where are the reports made con- cerning the co-operative fuel research work that 1s_done at the Bureau of Standards?—F. R. D. A. The Bureau of Standards says that the co-operative fuel research work at the bureau is reported at the annual meeting of the American Pe- troleum Institute and at the semi-an- nual meetings of the Society of Auto- motive Engineers. Q. Is there a demand for chemists in this country?—B. L. A. More persons are engaged in the | pursuit of chemistry than in any other | science. There are over 22,000 chem- ists and assistants in the United States. However, there is a constant demand for the thoroughly trained chemist in the numerous industrial plants, labora- tories and Federal Government depart- ments. BACKGROUND OF EVENTS - BY PAUL V. COLLINS. in all Protestant churches as well as in Catholic churches and is known as the Latin cross. It was so known before there ever was a Pope. There is one call- ed “Calvary,” the same as the Latin cross, except that there are three steps at its base. Next, is the “archiepiscopal cross” with two crossbeams, and then comes the “papal cross,” with three crossbeams. No naval vessel ever dis- played the “para! cross.” The “church pennant” fh:rp long. h:;hited!tru‘zt;x;un’; ning to a and on a blsxe “Latin m::" identical with what is found in Protestant churches—the simplest form of cross. * ok ok k¥ ‘The first flag used by our “rebellious i " came into existence in 1776. tl @ resolution of the Massachu- setts i “Resolved that the unifcrm of the of- ficers (of the six ‘Washington cruis- ers’) be. themselves. colors be a white pine tree, and an fon: ‘An ap- peal to Heaven.'” Today's church pen- nant is also an appeal to Heaven. It might be sald that the cross, like that used on our church pennant, was the emblem under which Columbus dis- covered the Western Hemisphere; Co- lumbys’ personal flag bore a blue cross on a white fleld, but the flag was notched at its end in “swallow-tail” form instead of running to one point like the church pennant. With all of Senator Heflin's new zeal for the glory of “Old Glory,” it is re- grettable that his own State does not { have any law requiring the National | flag to be displayed rtgularly on any State building or any schoolhouse, un- less the governor especially so directs. No Southern State protects the National .%he State of South Carolina has a law against the desecration of its own State flag. but no law protecting the National flag. In Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Vir- ginia, State laws require the display of State flags on the Capitol and public school buildings, but there is no law as to the National flag, except the condi- tional one in Alahama, based, as above stated, upon a special dispensation of the governor. nd with a green * ok k% While the earliest actual official rec- | ord of a church pennant in the Amer- ican Navy dates back only to 1861, it is assumed to have been derived from the British practice ~{ over a century ago, and to date back to the beginning of our Revolution. A book, “Naval Routine,” | published in England in 1837, refers to it, and another entitled “Naval Sketch Book,” published also in England in 1826, says: “The first of the articles of war directs that the public worship of feAlmighty God according to the estab- lished forms of the Church of England shall take place every Sabbath.” # ¢ * “the pennant flying at the peak.” * K ok ok Nevertheless a more modern classic, possibly written by a Senate page, bears | upon the recent discussion in “the greatest deliberative body in the world,” although it is not officially indorsed by the Alabama delegation. A Modern Barberie Fritchie. Up in the Senate few adorn Such furious eloquence, tattered and torn— Strong aa the force of a battering ram— As the rotund statesman from Alabam. Round him the Senators sweetly dream of lmun and cruisers and battle's gleam. “Halt!"—the gavel of Dawes bangs hard. “Fire!"—outblazed the hero on guard. “The l;ope, with the Pascists all sub- dued, Next plans to invade our neighborhood! “Look to your altars, ye feeble s. t's I who will save you—'m. your thanks.” He leaned o'er his desk and banged with The. gallerles. laughed, appiti e gal ughed, applauded and hissed. oo “Shoot if you must, this a But spare me my country’s boys! i3 “That Roman cross, that Papal sign, O lower before this loud voice of mine! “Who Lfmu:hm a button of this white vest Dies like a Ku Klux fire! I'm blest Ii I know who started this “But 1t T will settle, right “Though Popes hold the k Tow, and now. to that ecution of malefactors, specifically the structure of this kind on which Jesus Christ was crucified.” 1 1s identical as recognized and used o ; 2 venly gate, 3 !’l!n:t::k_ the time lock and enter in (Copyright, 1929, b Pawb V, Gollinsd -