Evening Star Newspaper, February 17, 1929, Page 29

Part 2—12 Pages EDITORIAL SECTION - he Sundny Sk, WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUAR PERMANENT PEACE SEEN IN RUSSIAN AGREEMENT Soviet State’s Read iness to Co-operate With Neighbors Is Triumph at Home of Great Promise. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. T would be hard to exaggerate the promise of the recent agreement between the Soviet State and its western neighbors. This agreement takes the form of a pro#ocol to put into effect at once, so far as these states are concerned, the Kellogg pact, thus an- ticipating the eventual ratification by the various countries which have signed it. Russia and her western neighbors thus at once ounce war and declare for peaceful seitlement of outstanding Quarrels. ‘The origin of the present affair is to be traced immediately to the proposal of M. Zaleskie, the foreign minister nf Poland, at the League Assembly of 1927, | a proposal which exactly foreshadowed | the later Kellogg pact and envisaged a | eneral European renunciation of war. | his _proposal was rather rudely re- Jected by the great powers. When, how- | ever, the Kellogg pact had been gen- | erally signed, Russia proposed to Poland | that it shouid immediately be put into | effect by them through a separate pro- tocol. Following Mr. Kellogg’s example in the case of the original Briand proposal, Zaleskie suggested that it should be broadened so that, instead of being in the building of vast industrial es- tablishments on Soviet soil, it is clear that there might be much smaller risk in investing in Polish establishments |near Russia, which could serve the | Russian market. Lodz, for example, was |once the Manchester of Russia and Lodz and other Polish industrial towns are in a position to supply the new Russian markets. In the exploitation of the Russian market either Poland or Germany will naturally serve as the middleman be- tween Russia and the west. In reality it comes down to a question as to whether the United States and-Great Britain will work in Russia through a Polish or a German medium. Unmis- takably Germany has been hoping and preparing to play this role, and the political friction between the Soviet state and Poland has seemed to ex- clude Poland. Advantages of Poles. vantages due to propinquity, a similar language and beyond all else to the fact that before the World War not only was Poland the industrial servant of Russia, but Poles were to a consider- able extent the bankers, engineers, as well as the skilled officials of the rail- limited to Poland and the Soviet State, it should include Esthonia, Latvia and | Rumania, that is, the western neighbors | of Russia with the exception of Finland. | After some hesitation this extension | found Russian approval. | May End Apprehension. i This agreement establishes something like a Locarno in the East of Europe. It uts an end to a long period of appre- ension and suspension on the part of both Russia and her neighbors. And since Russia is not a member of the League of Nations it creates a certain measure of security not hitherto exist- ing. Both Russia and her neighbors will find reassurance in_ this public pledge. In reality, however, the significance | is disclosed in this proof that the Soviet | State has, at least for a considerable | period, renounced all its ideas of con- | quest in the West. Proof of this purpose was first revealed in the far-reaching and preposterous proposal of the Soviet Tepresentative at Geneva last Spring that all the Euorpean powers should | bil proceed at once to complete disarma- ment. In view of its own domestic difficulties ~—economic blems, the unrest of the farmers—it is manifest that the Soviet | dictatorship no longer believes that it is | possible for it to assail capitalistic | regimes without provoking dangerous reprisals. The break with Great Britain | two years ago ed to be not only a real disaster to Soviet prestige, but it inevitably awakened fears that Britain, working with Poland, Rumania and other border states, might seek to at- tack the Soviet regime. In fact, since that time the Soviet leaders have realized 'that they were on the defensive. They have also with increasing clarity gfi, their country could not develop without the aid of foreign capital and foreign trade. But foreign tal and credits were plainly not to had while there re- mained the immediate possibility of new wars along the western frontiers. The Soviet State was, in fact, condemned by reason of its domestic dimiculties to give clear proof of its pacific purposes. And that it has done. Triumph for Poland. | For Poland the present protocol rep- | resents a very real triumph and an in- calculable advantage. Already. in the past three years the new state has made enormous strides toward domestic sta- bility; its economic and financial de- velopment been impressive. Amer- ican loans and a corres) inflow of British capital have served hflnfi about prosperity, while Pilsudsk] regime has provided a moratorium of domestic political strife. Economically Poland is perhaps the best_single unit among the new states resul from the war. out, because of the long political separation under three regimes of the old kingdom, much time is required for the complete reintegration of the Polish nation. Po- land needs peace beyond all else, and peace is unattainable save through some form of understanding with Russia. Such assurance is, too, prerequisite to the getting of foreign loans by Poland for her economic development. For Rumania the situation is not es- sentially different, although the po- litical differences within the Latin king- dom are today much more acute than in the Slav republic. Moreover, Ru- mania, unlike Poland, has an unsettled dispute with Russia. While Poland and Russia fought out their territorial quar- rels in 1920 and the treaty of Riga fixed their frontiers, the Soviet State and Rumania are still at odds over the | possession of Bessarabia, that vast vinee which was Russian before the | %grld ‘War and was turned over to the Rumanians by the Germans in 1917. Russia has never admitted this loss 88 permanent. The bolshevists coming to control seized the national treasure of Rumania, which had been removed to Russia after Rumanian defeat in 1916, but have refused every transaction which might balance the money seized against the province taken. The Rus- sian claim to Bessarabia, too, has com- lled the Rumanians to maintain large orces in the contested province and to support an expensive standing army. Recently political control in Rum: has passed from the old aristocratic oligarchy to a peasant group. A gen- eral and far-reaching transformation in political and economic life of the coun- try has already been undertaken. But this inevitably involves domestic quar- rels and opposition. The new protocol with Russia lifts the mortgage of Soviet invasion and, here as in Rumania, gives new appeal to the foreign investor. Latvia, Esthonia Situation. ‘The situation in respect of Latvia and Esthonia is much the same, although both these states are so small that they are practically defenseless against any Soviet attack. They, too, need a breath- ing spell, a period of calm in which to organize their political life and estab- lish their economic system. More than all else they need an escape from Soviet sntrigue and agitation within their fron- tiers. No one will undertake to maintain that the present agreement Insures eternal peace in the East or insures that the existing frontiers will endure for- ever. What it does mean, however, is that for a period which promises to be fairly long Russia and her western Reighbors will be equally insured against political adventures. Russia has, in effect, renounced any present purpose to recover all those western provinces which represent the conquest from Peter the Great to Alex- ander. Trade between the border states is likely now to develop normally and rapidly. This means much for Esthonia and Latvia, which in Riga, Libau and Reval have the natural ports of North Russia. But it means far more for Poland. § Tt is now at least possible that Poland, although an independent coun- try, may in some measure resume the ition that Russian Poland occupied Effl\e old Romanoff empire. While it ways. And Poland has in history played the role of middleman between Russia and Europe—in fact, between the east and west of Europe. Thus the agreement just made may easily mark the beginning of a long period of economic rather than political activity. No one longer expects that the Soviet regime will crash of a sudden. The slow but sure rise of the peasant to_authority, his inevitable seizure of political control from the hands of the relatively small group of city workers, seems indicated. Meantime his needs, in machinery and in goods, must im- pose upon the weakening Soviet dic- tatorship an increasing need not only for peace but for the means to satisfy | the needs. And Poland is nearby to profit first by this situation. Reverting to the political aspects, the new protocol seems to me significant in the extreme as insuring to the exist- ing order in Eastern Euro) time, which is the first and perhaps the nlnlgle prerequisite to guarantee sta- Y. The great experiment which was insured at Paris by the application of the principle of self-determination re- quired time. As a result of Locarno Western Europe settled down to busi- ness. The pacts which guaranteed the status quo in Europe, so far as the Rhine area was concerned, opened the way to the economic and financial restoration of Germany and France. If no one believed that perpetual peace was assured, most people recognized that for a very long time to come war was ruled out in this dangerous region. Thus, while for five years after the armistice both France and Ger- many went down hill financlally, since the Locarno conference both have made incredible strides toward their pre-war situation. similar development is almost in- evitable in Eastern Europe, If even ap- roximately the same sense of au- rity is provided. But all has de- pended upon the mutual recognition by Russia and her neighbors that their supreme problem was one of domestic existence, not of foreign development. As long as the Soviets were seeking to provoke a world revolution and op- erating within all the border states to promote domestic anarchy, while pre- paring a new invasion, nothing was| possible. Triumph at Home. But the Russian revolution has com- pleted its triumph at home and recog- nized its failure abroad. larger struggle, that between Bolshevism and capitalism, has ended in a draw at the Russian frontiers. And the first bene- ficiaries of the truce are the border tates. In my judgment things may move rapidly now. Recognition of Soviet state by Britain through a restoration of relations, even entrance of Russia into the League of Nations, may come soon. But what is most cer- tain is that there will be a rapid in- tensification of trade and commerce, of industrial development, both in Russia and in the border states, and along with this a gigantic struggle for primacy in the Russian market, be- tween Germany on the one hand and Britain on the other. As for the United States, it will presently have to decide whether it will make the contest in company with the British, employing Poland as a base, or in partnership with Germany, leaving the Pole and the British to work out a basis of co-operation. But in either event the map of Eastern Europe seems to have been guaranteed for a period of years, thanks to_the new promise of peace. Thus Mr. Kel- logg may have monuments in Moscow, | Warsaw and Bucharest. (Copyright, 1929.) RabbirRuns at Pace Of 35 Miles an Hour A rabbit can run at approximately 85 miles an hour and keep it up over some distance. This point, much dis- ia | cussed by hunters, was determined re- cently by Ira N. Gabrielson of the Biological Survey. Having been inform- ed by a stage driver he describes his own experience in which a rabbit ran ahead of his car, as follows: “Suddenly we remembered the stage driver's re- mark of the night before and increased our speed gradually to 35 miles an hour before we were holding our own. “On went the rabbit for perhaps half a mile, with us slowly closing up on him by running a little over 35. eral times we brought the car to 35 and each time our speeding friend held his own.” This speed is about the same as that of the best running horses, and about 5 miles an hour better than the best pacers. A man can run over short distances, a hundred yards or less, at about 20 miles an hour. - . Longest Orient Span Opened With Program Ceremonies were held on December 18 to dedicate the longest bridge in the Orient, which had just been completed yover the Yoshino River, in Tokushima Prefecture, on the Japanese Island of Shikoku. The length of the bridge is 3,511 feet and the width 20 feet. Made of steel, it has two main supports of re- enforced concrets and 16 subsidiary ones. Construction had been going on for the last three years, the total cost being approximately $500,000, most of this being borne by the central govern- ment and the balance by the prefecture. As the bridge connects three provinces in Shikoku it will be known as the Mi- kunibashi, “Three Provinces Bridge." Hitherto the longest bridge in the Orient was that of the Yalu River, connecting the Mukden-Antung Rall- | | remains doubtful whether western in- "’cm:n could safely risk their money ‘ way with the-Korean .government rail- WaY. The Poles have certain obvious nd-‘ Sev- | 1 | 1] | BY WILBUR FORREST. dE decision of a number of di tinguished Americans to recom- mend Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg for the Nobel Peace Prize on the eve of his retire- ment directs attention to Mr. Kellogg's record in office, which, aside from his negotiation of the more recent and bet- ter known treaty for the renunciation of war, represents a diplomatic achieve- ment equaled by few American Secre- taries of State. Situations “inherited” in many parts of the world by Mr. Kellogg when he was elevated from the post of Ambas- sador to the Court of St. James to be President Coolidge’s leading cabinet member in February, 1925, were diffi- cult ones for this Government and re- quired delicate diplomacy. Mr. Kellogg “bequeaths” to his suc- cessor at the State Department better relations with Mexico than have ex- isted at any time since Porfirio Diaz, an impending settlement by his efforts of the ancient dispute between Chile and Peru over Tacna and Arica, a tran- quillized Nicaragua, with both Liberals and Conservatives requesting the pre: ence of American Marines for the pres- ent; a Nationalist China, which he has assisted with treaties and recognition, as against junction with other powers seeking punitive expeditions: a new relationship - with Europe, which has placed the American point of view on record before the world with relation to arms limitation and co-operation or economic matters. | | | BY LAWRENCE SULLIVAN, MERICAN agriculture, staggered | for eight years by the world- wide economic dislocation of the | war, is coming over the hill| from the poorhouse. The year 1928 saw a continuation of the | the recovery tendency which has been | noted every year since 1920. The out- look for 1929, according to a Depart- ment of Agriculture survey, is for a better year, on the whole, than was ex- | perienced in 1928. The department’s composite survey, | embodying the estimates of crop ex- perts in each commodity division as well as of specialists in marketing and finance, forecasts firmer market de- mands both at home and abroad, a slightly better gross income for the combined producers, greater stability in price levels on both the buying and the selling side and a slight but some- what general tendency toward decreas- ing costs. The lower production costs are contingent upon a continuance of the present trend toward wider appli- cation of machinery and scientific methods to cultivation and toward more efficient business practices in marketing and financial operatjons. Based on Economic Factors. ‘The Government forecast is based en- tirely upon the purely economic {actors | on the sunrise horizon, neglecting com- | pletely those broader contributions to | agricultural rehabilitation now confi- dently expected from legislation in the prospective extra session of the new Congress in early Spring. ‘The 1929 gross income of all agri- cultural producers, from both live stock and crops, is forecast at about $12,500,- 000,000, an increase of approximately $250,000,000 over the gross for 1928. But there are fewer farms and fewer farmers this year. Thousands of un- profitable operations have been aban- doned or consolidated under large-scale production methods. The same forces | are at work in agriculture as in rail- ! roads and manufacturing plants. Well managed farms have reduced operating | personnel through the application of | machinery. The same gross income for the industry as a whole this year would rebresent a larger income for the aver- age farmer. The prospective gross for 1929, therefore, is in fact larger in the individual farmer's average than is at | once suggested by a mere comparison of | | the combined income figures for the two | vears But gross income is hardly more than the beginning of the story. The antici- | pated 1929 gross represents an increase | of approximately 33 per cent over the | gross income of all farmers in 1921, the first full crop after the post-war | deflation. And in 1921, according to the Bureau of the Census, there were approximately 600,000 more people en- gaged in the industry than at present. In 1921 the combined fruits of the harvest were barely two-thirds of the anticipated 1929 income, and in 1921 the pie had to be cut into 600,000 more pieces. Purchasing Power Contrasted. Even more impressive is the contrast between 1921 and 1929 on the basis of crop-dollar purchasing power. In 1921 the amount of farm produce which was worth a dollar in 1914 purchasing power returned the farmer but 69 cents in 1921 purchasing power. Today, on the same basis of values, the purchas- ing power of the crop dollar is only a fraction under 93 cents. I slons. ments were aroused. gan to fill in foreign ports bound for ‘This index of the relative purchasing m:r of farm products, incidentall; in perhaps its most-succinct SECRETARY OF Aside from the anti-war treaty, he has signed conciliation treaties with all Latin American nations except Argen- tina and 15 other powers. Chinese Crisis Recalled. Perhaps the greatest test of the Kel- logg diplomacy as it is known to stu- dents of international affairs came on May 30, 1925, three months after he took office. On that day, during a strike in a Japanese cotton mill at Shanghai, a man was killed. Chinese students began demonstrations and proclaimed a boycott on Japanese goods. Down the Nanking road at Shanghai came the procession of young Chinese. A clash with the police ensued, and police fired and a number of students were killed. Here started one of the most danger- ous agitations in China against for- eigners in many years. Canton, where the Nationalist govern- ment was seated after the death of Sun Yet-sen, another demonstration grew into a march on the foreign conces- The foreigners erected sandbag barricades and a general exchange of shots was fired, with Chinese casualtles. The situation was bad, with the for- elgn concessions in a state of sie Foreign capitals and foreign govern- Troop ships be- SEC the story of agriculture’s war travail. ‘The peak index was recorded in 1918, at the crest of the topheavy war ex- pansion in both industry and agricul- ture, The figure for that year was 107. It turned downward in 1919 to 105, hit the toboggan in 1920 to 85 and con- tinued to the trough of depression at 69 in 1921. The following year, 1922, brought a recovery to 74, and 1923 to 78. This rate of recovery has prevailed uite smoothly — disregarding monthly- uctuations—since 1923. The forecast for 1929 is now placed at 93. Quite naturally the individual farmer is most keenly interested in those fac- tors which affect directly his personal income. But, encouraging as these fac- tors appear, they are not, on the whole, the most roseate elements of the 1929 outlook. While the farmer has been “coming back” his best customer, the man in the street, also has been improv- ing his economic position. This process has been going on, slowly but in deadly earnest, not only among automobile me- chanics of Detroit and steel workers of Pittsburgh and Birmingham, but as well among tiremakers in Akron and merchants of Seattle and Mobile. It 8 going on 1ot only in { In June at| ETARY JARDINE. Nippon will be the | bobh foodstutls STATE KELLOGG. | China. Foreign nationals throughout | China were ordered out of the interior | to points where they might be pro- | tected. Recognition Proposed. In the face of such a situation in China Secretary Kellogg communicated | with the powers that had been repre- sented in the Washington conference of 1921-22 to ascertain whether they were ready to carry out promises made autonomy and recognition. Foreign troops had arrived in China in suffi- clent number to protect their nation- als. Mr. Kellogg sought international agreement to give tariff autonemy to | Nationalist China. He had all but suc- | ceeded when the Nationalist govern- :n;‘ent, disappeared. China remained in | chaos | drove on Peking. On January 1, 1927, | they seized Hankow and with it the British concession. In January Mr. | Kellogg took matters into his own | hands in a courageous declaration of | American policy toward China regard- ing tariff autonomy and extraterri- toriality. On March 4, 1927, Chinese Nation- alist troops took Nanking and began outrages against foreigners. Americans and other nationals were forced to United States but in Germany as well, in France, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, China, Jaj Of all our !flre?\ trade customers, only England is in less robust economic condition today than a year ago: and even England promises, according to the Department of Agriculture, to be as good a customer for foodstuffs this year as last. The farmer faces, therefore, not only the prospects of lower produc- tion costs in general, but the simul- taneous prospects of an enlarged de- mand for his product the world over. Europe Stabilizes Currency. Indeed, some observers regard the general economic improvement abroad | as the soundest omen of the immediate future of agriculture. Every important nation of Europe has achieved stabiliza- tion of its currency, the primary preparation for the re-establishment of full-blast, even-keel national economy. In the Orient, Japan is well emes from the industrial chaos into whi she was plunged four years by her to China at that time relative to tariff | In the Fall of 1926 the Natlonalists | Y Diplomacy of Kellogg auy Things Have Been Strikingly Achieved by Secretary of State—Nobel Prize May Be Reward take refuge in the Standard Oil build- ing at Nanking. American and Brit- ish destroyers in the river drop) barrages of shells around the building and saved those who had taken refuge there. At that time all the other powers were urging the United States to join !in drastic_action against the Chinese. | Secretary Kellogg stood out against the powers, insisting that a policy of re- taliation and hostility would serve no | good purpose. It was the Secretary of | State of the Wnited States alone who prevented occurrences in China at that time which might have divided China and created grave international com plications. He’won his fight. The N tionalists captured Peking. opposition to Nationalist rule disap- peared in China. ‘The sequel to this Kellog diplomacy came in July last year. Mr. Kellogg at that time directed the American Minister at Peking to seek the first opportunity to negotiate a tariff auton- my treaty with Nationalist China. That was accomplished on July 25 and the United States was the first nation to recognize the Nationalist govern- ment and to negotiate a treaty with it. A British treaty followed in December, then came Nationalist treaties with Spain, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Prance, Holland and Japan. * There is peace in the Far East to- day. Secretary Kellogg's policy in s crisis is largely responsible for it. Nearer Washington was the Continued on Sixth Pag | Sun Rises for U. S. Farmer Agriculture, With Prospect of $12,500,000,000 Gross Income for 1929, Shows Distinct Advance 1929. And China, coming to a consoli- dated national government after vir- tually 15 years of civil war, is once more preparing to turn her 800,000,000~ odd hands to the loom, the forge, the tea hills and the rice puddles. More workers, more buyers: China will be a | better customer in 1929. Obviously this general economic re- | covery throughout the world is not all | “velvet” for the American farmer. A concomitant in each country, of course, is a degree of agricultural recovery, which must lead to larger world pro- duction of the principal crops, keener competition in foreign markets, and, in some instances, lower prices for the more highly competitive export croj Withal, the American farmer, aided superior machinery, more rapid and d pendable transportation and an in- comparably more elaborate scientific organization, can scarcely avoid reap- | ing a large share of the anticipated ex- pansion in agricultural foreign trade resultant of the more or less uniformly rising living mending world. Borrowed money probably will cost the farmer more in 1928, due to the higher money rates enforced by the phenomenal industrial during the last five years, but the Government survey concludes that even the respective higher rates will still_afferd the farmer opportunity for profitable investments in labor-saving machinery, fertilizer and outlays in- | cident to quality production. The general level of farm wages.is ! not likely to show any appreciable change during the year. Neither. is there proability of an increase in ma- chinery costs. The tendency here is in the other direction. Fertilizers will be a trifle higher, reflecting a steadily in- creasing application of scientific farm- productive capacity in the fertilizer industry. Do Not Give Full Picture. But even all these purely ecenomic factors: do not portray the full picture of the farmer's ‘mmediate future. Un- less all the legislative representatives of the farmer on Capiol Hill have mis- Judgéd the political outlook, the agri- cultural industry is to be further set up as a going business by a sound legisla- tive program. President-elect Hoover is pledged to deal with the bugaboo of “farm relief” in thorough fashion “be- fore the next harvest.” Virtually every leader in the long controversy which has raged in and out of Congress about the catch-phrase “equality for agricul- ture” has expressed the conviction, since Mr. Hoover's recent visit to Wash- ington, that the new administration will deal with the problem in a comprehen- sive ‘and satisfactory manner in the forthcoming extra session. Never before since Jagriculture first cried aloud to Congress in 1920 has the opinion been so universally held in Washington that a bill at once adequate and acceptable Is in the making. It 15, of course, too early to predict artificial The last | standard through the | 1929 than it did in expansion and stock market turn-over | ing in the face of a relatively rigid| Boundaries, Bloe Party Workers,” BY MARK SULLIVAN. HAT Mr. Hoover has a method of his own for selecting public servants has come to be realized by those who observe his proc- ess closely. A glimpse of the method is expressed in a dispatch sent out from Miami by the correspondent there of the Hearst newspapers. The significance of the dispatch lies in the fact that it does not rest upon anything Mr. Hoover has said, for he has said | nothing. The statement represents merely the reflection of a close observer, and as such is the more convincing. In part it reads: “President-elect Hoover has cut loose from geographical boundaries, ‘de- | serving' party workers and the ambi- tions of ‘blocs’ and factions in selecting the personnel of his administration. * * * Mr. Hoover’s sole test for each job in the complex machinery of govern- ment will be his confidence in the abil- | ity }(;‘l that man to do the task assigned to him." Does Not Exclude Politics. ‘This does not mean that Mr. Hoover excludes politics. No President can ex- | clude politics. It is not right that he should. The country in an election votes one party or the other into power. The country has a right to expect that a Republican President will give a Re- publican administration and a Demo- cratic President a Democratic adminis- tration. The two great parties are es- sential engines in the mechanism of government in the United States. Par- ties as such figure in the American scheme of government more funda- mentally than in any other country in the world. It is part of the duty of a_Republican President to maintain the Republican organization, and of a Democratic President to maintain the Democratic organization. For a Presi- dent to fail to give thought to preserv- ing the health and morale of the party he belongs to would be, under the Amer- ican system, to fall short in one of the essential functions of the presidency. Satisfactory to Leaders. In fact, Mr. Hoover, in his contact with the political leaders of his party, is exceptionally satisfactory to them. During the time when Mr. Hoover was Secretary of Commerce and Harry Daugherty was Attorney General it was common to hear Republican Congress- men say that in matters of patronage and other details they were more com- fortable with Mr. Hoover than with Mr. Daugherty. Hoover was big enough and confident enough about his posi- tion to be sure of himself. Daugherty acted like a man self-conscious and timorous because he realized his prin- cipal place in the world was merely | that of a political leader of the old- | time type. There was one principal reason for the eater satisfaction Congréssmen and Senators had in deal- ing with Mr. Hoover. Mr. Hoover was businesslike and intelligent. He under- | leaders. He took those problems into account and put his intelligence upon them, just as any engineer would put his mind upon any detail of whatever job he was engaged in. From Mr. Hoover the Congressmen and Senators got prompt and businesslike answers and decisions. The Congressman or Senator who, under some_constituent, rut up a problem to the Department of Commerce saw the constituent get a prompt and careful answer. Mr. Hoover gave to Congress: man and constituent alike a thing ex- pressed by a word now a little de- meaned through commercial - use—Mr. Hoover gave “service.” If the subject involved was within the scope of the Department of Commerce, the Con- gressman passed his problem on to Mr. Hoover’s broad shoulders and the lat- ter handled it with promptness and satisfaction. Mr. Hoover, in short, both as Secretary of Commerce and as President-elect, is exceptionally satis- factory to the leaders of his party. Wants Best Available Men. But Mr. Hoover in his seafch for ma- terial for the multitude of offices he must fill does follow the method sug- gested in the dispatch quoted above. For any job to be filled the only proper method is to comb the country for the best available man. The word “avail- able” implies that in the great majority of cases, practically all cases, the ap- pointee must be Republican. (Though it is true Republican Presidents occa- sionally appoint Democrats, and vice versa. William H. Taft's Secretary of War for a p:riod was a perfectly ortho- | dox Democrat. Two of the ablest mem- bers of Woodrow Wilson's cabinet were Democrats in little more than a nomi- nal sense, who frequently supported Republican candidates in elections. In Mr. Coolidge’s administration one of the two or three highest offices short of cabinet rank is filled by an indepen- dent Democrat.) ‘The Hoover method has as its main element a search on his own initiative for the best man to fill a given post. What the Hoover method excludes is the old-fashioned idea which, in effect, sald to party workers, all over the country, “Come on, boys, the trough is full, help yourselves.” It excludes the idea that a President should sit in his office and wait for the applicants to come in and then choose one that has the largest party backing. It ex- cludes the whole notion of pull. pres. | orderly marketing of basic crops, | through temporary governmental as- | sistance to co-operative marketing | organizations. Steps in the direction |of cheaper transportation and better | credit facilities are in more remote but scarcely less certain prospect. Equalization Fee Dead. Beyond question, the much discussed and twice voted equalization fee is dead beyond recall. But it is still quite probable that there will be established under the new administration, per- haps only temporarily, some sort of | farm board, empowered to work for closer balance between planted areas and prospective demands for the vari- ous crops. Whether this board will be authorized to handle exportable sur- pluses in pooled units, as contemplated in the McNary-Haugen bill, but with- out an equalization fee, is still prob- lematical. In any event, agriculture’s war-torn house is to be set in a tentatively high degree of economic order. A serious attempt is to be made to give agri- culture an economic digestive system both vigorous and sweet. The food for what form the Hoover program will take in detail, but there is a fixed conviction among those most keenly interested that it will be thorough, sound, based upon the stark economic realties of the situation and formulated with a view more to long-time build- ing than to haphazard or experimental palliatives. The present outlook, . ac- cording to & consensus of informed ago disastrous earthquake—which led to a national crisis of the first magnitude. a better customer for and raw materials in i opinion in the Capital, is for a compre. hensl‘\‘rle revision o‘(w z‘.‘:fl schedules on will be found also to that rehabiliated digestive system is already at hand in the crop outlook and market forecast for 1929, as re- vealed by the Department of Agriculture survey. And given a new, first-class digestive system and a somewhat tempting ar- ray of luscious economic prospects, our starved and emaciated stepchild, agri- pressure from Co HOOVER HAS OWN METHOD OF FILLING PUBLIC POSTS President-Elect Disregards Geographical s and “Deserving Writer Declares. |sure and wire pulling. The Hoover method is the only method any prop- erly trained engineer or business man could possibly follow. For a President having Mr. Hoover’s background and training to weakly accept the old method would be a sin against his con- tll;lexln:e and against his intellectual eals. His Method Is Hard Work. ‘The Hoover method is hard work. But it is hard work of the kind he has done all his life. It is the other method, the older method, that is the hardest work. Lis~ tening to long lines of politicians recom~ mending and arguing broke the health of even *he rugged Grover Cleveland. A recent President. Woodrow Wilson, told the writer that listening to talk |about patronage was his hardest task. He said that often a long day of it sent | him to bed late in the afternoon liter~ ally sick. | The old method has been dying for | several years. The new method began | with Theodore Roosevelt and has been | growing ever since. | The old way really put a frightful burden on a President. To let it be known that an office is likely to be awarded on the political basis is to in- vite a deluge. Applications come from a whole army of the fit and the unfit. Each aspirant musters his Senators and Representative and everything else he can command in the shape of what politicians cal! “political backing” A spirit of competition arises ana grows tense. It comes to be felt that the man w{m hw!l} wm'will i«;e:he'anz who can get the largest nuinber of persons tc call on the President in his behalf. Old Tradition Lingers. ‘The old tradition lingers longest in the diplomatic service. That is where the system once was strongest. Nearly the classic stories in Washin about place seeking in the old ys have the diplomatic and consular serv- ice as their scene. There is the story of the man from Indiana who wanted a_ foreign consulate anywhere: who, after long weeks of begging, was ap- pointed to Bucharest; who went home {and spent the hardest day’s work of his lifetime in a minute search of the map of South America and returned to the State Department to report t he could not find the darn place. ' There is the story of the President who, plagued by a persistent applicant, asked the State Department to.give him the name of the one spot on the face of the globe that took the longest time to reach, and bestowed the ap) t there, with the comfort of fa it we take him at least six weeks to bac! There is the jest about particularly pestiferous seeker to spot on the earth's surface where yel. low fever or other deadly disease most prevalent. which is not old dent | stood the problems of the political <. ister South America. The understanding was appointment was actually made. Congress’ Act Stops Much of This. Much of this sort of thing has ceased recently because of the passage by ngress of an a measure which put the whole and consular service on a merit basis, with assurance of promotion and a career for every one who does well. By the passage of that act much of the excuse for crowding applications at the begin- ning of each administration has disap- peared. Nevertheless, already an ap- plicant for an important diplomatie post has mfie to Washington, with him. ‘i accordance with the ol method, the indorsement of an army of politicians, business men and per- sons of social importance in his home State. As it happens, the man here alluded to is well equipped and mighy perfectly well be given a post on merit. It probably will turn out to be, how- ever, one of the last examples of the use of this method, a method fast be- coming as obsolete as horse-drawn vehicles. Every President, to some degree, puts the mark of his personality on the Gove ernment and leaves it a different thing from what he found. Probably a per- sonality so vital as Mr. Hoover's will affect the traditions and even the mech- anism of the Federal Government more strongly than most Presidents. The change dealt with in this article is al- ready underway—the stiffening of the ideal of character and fitness as the requisite for office. Mechanism Modification Seen. Quite likely another effect of four ye“nln b:l Mr. Hoovel;’i:‘thg ‘White House wi A correspon modification in the mechanism of the Government. At various times he has made allusions— sometimes serious, sometimes humor~ ous—to the antiquated, haphazard, chaotic distribution of Government bu- reaus. It is easy to guess that his en- gineer's eye longs to rearrange these sprawling bureaus and Government agencies, according to the dictates of modern administrative system. The plan is not new with Mr. Hoover though the need for it must appeal to him more powerfully than to any Presi- dent of the usual type. Harding, when he entered office, meant that rearrange- ment of the Government's administra- tive framework should be the first ol his accomplishments. He appointed a commission to devise and plan. In dus course the plan was concluded and mes the approval of those who most under= stood the problem. Harding sent the plan to Congress for action, and it is in Congress yet—without action. (Copyright, 1920.) . Coat of Arms Plny; Big Role in Japan In Japan the family crest or coat of arms, dating from feudal days, plays an important part in all of the many ceremonies connected with outstanding events. Its prominence is more appar- ent than in other countries, because it is worn on dress kimono on all formal occasions, as well as placea on hg; ns its tant family sriicles and staf Mon, as it is called, still main place of importance, despits the passing of many ol ustoms. Officially, there Is the imperial crest, which now consists of a double-eightfold chrysanthemum; previous to the change last Spring the 16 petals were in one flower only. chrysanthemum design years, beg moon mmn‘il.:d been that time and were about 200