Evening Star Newspaper, March 16, 1929, Page 8

8 THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. BATURDAY. . .March 16, 1929 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company ‘Business Office: 11th 8t. and Pennaylvan: New York Office: 20 O Ave. 110 East 42nd St. Chi fice: Lake Michigan Building. European Office: 14 Re; Englan nt St.. London. Rate by Carrier Within the City. The Evening St Sc per month The Evening and Sunday Star (when 4 Sundass) . 60¢ per month The Evening and Suni (when 5 Sunda: 65¢ per month The Sunday Star Sc per copy Collection made at'the end of each month. Orders may be sent in by mall or telephone Main 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland ai Dally and Sunday. Daily only Sunday only All Other States and Canada. Datly end 1 yr., $12.00: 1 mo., 3100 g-u $8.00: 1 mo., i8¢ inda: §5.00: 1 mo.. $0c ‘Member of the Associated Press. “The Associated Press is exclusively cntitled 1o the use for republication of all rews ais- patehes credited to it or not otherwise cred- ited in this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. Floods, a National Problem. A Winter of snow followed by a touch of early Spring and heavy rains have unloosed floods in the New England States, floods in the Mohawk Valley of New York, floods in Ohio, Wisconsin, Jowa, South Illinois; floods in Georgia. threats of floods in Northern Florida, and millions of persons are reading for the first time such names as Pea River, Murder Creek, Burnt Creek, Persimmon Creek and White Water Creek, incon- sequential, insignificant rivulets in Southeastern Alabama which almost | overnight have become raging torrents, | burying housetops and marooning thou- ‘ sands. Meanwhile the Mississippi be-, gins its majestic, seasonal rise, with no man knowing how high that rise will be ! Flood control is no longer a local; issue. Within the comparatively recent | past a Congress devoted most of its| time to a gigantic plan for controlling | the flood waters of the Mississippi. Not | long ago a President visited his native; New England to inspect the tremendous | damage wrought there by floods. And a ! month ago a President-elect toured the | south-central section of Florida by au-| tomobile to obtain first-hand knowledge | of conditions there which demand relief in the way of adequate protection against floods.” There ae few sections | of the United States that have not ex- perienced horror and loss from uncurb- ed floods. The people of New England are bound by close ties, indeed, to those of Southern Alabama and Georgia. The ! Yankee on the banks of the Connecti- | cut River has a fellow feeling for the Alabama cracker on the banks of the Pea. Flood-control measures can never arouse sectional jealousy. Flood control has become a national problem, one that must and will have universal sup- | port. There are many theories as to the | proper method to go about a national program of flood control. Reforestation is one of them, but reforestation is only one step, to be followed by others. Flood control procedure for the Mis- sissippi alone will tax the engineering genius of the country before its success | is established, and every locality pre- sents & problem of its own. But with | the establishment of the proper State ! and Federal agencies, working in co- operation and adequately financed, a national program of flood control pre- sents no greater problem than those that man has solved before. ‘While thousands of persons have been affected by the Alabama floods, the loss of life has been relatively small. There | are twelve known dead as this is writ- | ten. The flood has not reached its crest, but the rise of the waters has given most of those in their path time to escape. But when the waters recede, the real hardship will begin. An epi-| demic of measles has already broken out among the children in one com- munity. Disease, lack of food and proper housing and the desolation of a country laid waste—these are the after- math of the flood, more horrible than the onward rush of yellow, foaming water at the peak of its rise, —————— It is said that Lindbergh rather dis- likes being called “Lindy.” Yet he may regard his popularity as on the wane when he is always addressed formally as “Colonel” with no effort to recall | the affectionate nickname. | —————— | America has valuable oil fields which | have yielded a generous proportion of ‘world supply. It is considered eminently proper to call attention to the fact that there are others, T — To Trotsky was ascribed an ambition to fill Lenin’s shoes. As Lenin lies in state, Trotsky is a little afraid some- thing like this might happen. vt Radio and Accuracy. Nobody is likely to challenge Herbert Hoover’s right to the presidency because Chief Justice Taft succumbed to a slip | of tongue apd memory in administer- ing the oath of office on March 4. After all, a vow to “preserve, maintain and defend” the Constitution, which is what Mr. Taft actually said, is not very vitally different from “preserve, protect and defend,” which is what the Consti- tution says he should have said. The matter is one to intrigue hair-splitters | who dote on things academic. It is of | no practical importance. But in one very noteworthy respect 13-year-old Helen Terwilliger, Walden, N. Y., eighth grade public school pupil, has rendered a service far beyond any- thing she could have imagined in call- ing the Chief Justice to account. Helen has picturesquely and vividly drawn at- tention to the obligation incumbent upon public men to weigh well the words they waft over the illimitable wave lengths. A lapsus linguae committed before an audience of several hundred or a couple of thousand persons usually passes unnoticed. A mispronounced word or a misstatement of fact which is broadcast cannot expect so kindly a fate. Too many hear it. The error is rot confined to four insignificant walls. Its ramifications are the country at large. Now and then—for radio is still in its swaddling clothes—even the most experienced public speaker is afflicted with “microphone fright.” He may well k‘t‘mollon and confine himself to reason | the spellbinder of other days could. i There is too gigantic a jury of listeners- in out in the ethereal spaces waiting {and watching for his every misstep, for ! his every false note. No one better than Gen. Dawes has diagnosed the new conditions which | confront the broadcaster of speech. Ad- ! dressing the audience gathered for the finals of the National Oratorical Con- test in Washington three years ago, the | then Vice President said: The radio has interposed itself be- tween the orator and our largest crowds —crowds which run into millions in number. But a fact of immense sig- nificance is that each man of the larger | number listening to an orator over the iradio listens as an individual thinking man and not as one of an impression- able crowd. Radio means that the orator of the [ tuture, to hold angd impress his audi- ence, must largely abandon appeal to forcibly expressed and logically ar- ranged. It means inevitably that the oratory of the future is to be the ora- tory of condensed reasoning. as distin- guished from demagoguery with its ap- | peals to prejudice and emotion. This \fact is fraught with tremendous sig- | nificance to the future public welfare. e e Secretary Newton. Something tantamount to a new cabi- net portfolio comes into existence with | the creation of a third secretaryship to | the President. Mr. Hoover's appointment to the new post of Representative Wal- i‘“‘ H. Newton of Minnesota clothes it | with added significance. The particular | duties attached to the office will have [to do with the score or more of inde- | pendent agencies of the Government | which are directly responsible to the | President. The Newton secretaryship is |to be considered as administrative in | character and liaison between the White House and the agencies in purpose. In effect, a semi-cabinet post here springs into being. Its occupant will be expected to relieve the President of routine duties, just as heads of ex- ecutive departments do. Mr. Newton will watch over the activities of such Federal agencies as the Bureau of Pub- lic Buildings and Parks, the United!| States Shipping Board, the Veterans' Bureau, the General Accounting Office, the Bureau of the Budget, the Emer- gency Fleet Corporation, the Personnel Classification Board, the Federal Trade Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission and a host of other Federal {units. Many of these agencies are de- partmental in scope. It is President Hoover's desire and plan to keep the ‘White House in closer touch with all of | them than has hitherto been possible. Upon Secretary Newton devolves plenty of work, coupled with an oppor- tunity for peculiarly effective service. The country will not be far wrong in guessing that President Hoover will look to his young coadjutor from the North- west for yeoman help and initiative in the scheme of reorganizing overlapping and duplicating Federal machinery. To his big job Mr. Newton brings the in- valuable assct of ten years' service in Congress. ——— e Ivan C. Weld. Ivan C. Weld, president of the Wash- ington Chamber of Commerce, passed away yesterday after a very brief ill- ness, of which his friends and busi- ness associates had so little knowledge that his death causes a*grievous shock, intensified by the fact that only a few days ago he was active in his service for the community. Mr. Weld, who had lived in Washington for many years, was keenly interested in its welfare. Engaged in a work of great importance to the health of the people, he had come to the point of giving his services to the cause of the Capital’s general de- velopment. < His membership in the Chamber of Commerce led by natural course to his selection as leader of that body, and in that capacity he worked assiduously to achieve the ideals of community life. His kindly nature, his upright character, his devotion to the interests of his fellow citizens endeared him to a wide circle. He was honored for his qualities, and now, in his sud- den, shocking demise, he is deeply, sin- cerely mourned. B Infatuated Driving. “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love” and Spring is almost here so.that it would be well for Washington's swains to become acquainted with the new traffic regulation, or at least a new interpretation of a regulation, which prohibits “driving while infatuated.” The first case under this new charge was heard the other day in Traffic Court when a blushing youth faced the judge on the count of operating his automobile with his arm around the girl friend. “She was cold,” he told the judge, but inasmuch as Spring is still a few days off and this couple were rushing the season & bit, the court promptly held that it was “a clear case of driving while infatuated.” So take warning, all one-arm drivers, because regardless of the combination of inviting climate and inviting com- panion the traffic regulations do not countenance lack of emergency control for an automobile. is thy sting?” r—oes Calculations of rivers and harbors experts mean little when humanity calls for a study of the flood disasters which horrify the world. Water has not yet been well considered as a conktructive instead of a destructive force. —eaen— Danger Rampant. In connection with Wednesday's tragic ending of the American attempt to break the high-speed motor car rec- ord established a day or two before by a Briton is the sorrowful fact that not only one but two men lost their lives— the driver of the speedy monster and a news cameraman. ‘Wherever some daredevil is risking his neck at his own choice, almost al- ways & news photographer is risking his very life, and seldom at his own choice. No one ordered Lee Bible to try for this record. But when such an event is in prospect reporters and photographers must, perforce, be on hand. Reporters are often enough in grave danger, but, unhampered by any impedimenta and with powers of vision unimpaired, often can escape danger through sheer agility. Cameramen, however, are bur- dened with equipment weighing many pounds; their sense of pride and duty is such that they hesitate to abandon this until the last possible moment. be. He is facing not only the micro- phone but vast responsibility besides. He canuot “get away with murder, This may have made no difference in Ithe case of Charles Traub, who was “Oh, death, where | THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON, D. €. SATURDAY, MARCTT 16, 1929 monster, out of control, was wfld.!y' whirling. Although he attempted to get out of the way, he was struck squarely by the speeding car and instantly man- gled beyond recognition. “Do thus and so,” order city editors and heads of photographic services. The job may be exceedingly distasteful or, as in this case, exceedingly dangerous. But the fellow with the films cheerfully goes and does it. It is sad, indeed, that the danger in risky performances such as these is not confined to the man who, of his own free will and choice, elects to perform the stunt. No sane person stands or flies or sails knowingly with- in the danger zone when such a per- formance is imminent except for cause. But, with eyes and attention focused intently on his work, the man with the | tripod day after day encounters perils, | of which this latest happening is but an | instance, in order that people in up- | holstered theater seats may experlencei a vicarious thrill. If Bible may be de- | scribed as a “martyr” to a cause, how about Traub? ———— Several secretaries will enable Presi- dent Hoover to go fishing once in a while without fear that business may be interrupted through lack of an efficient office force. et As a frank, unostentatious citizen, Charles Dawes clings to a peculiar pipe | when he might easily be enjoying pub- licity in connection with a popular brand of cigarettes. B Innumerable people are mentioned as intimate friends of the Prince of Wales; which fact proves that the prince is not only an affable personage, but also a good politician. b Secretary Mellon favors bond invest- ments; and in view of his broad finan- cial experience, this must be regarded as a word from the wise ) Many a so-calied “lame duck” is| welcoming a brief opportunity to get out and catch his breath and improve his golf game. - A large element of the farm problems just at present is the question of what to plant and how to meet the hired man’s wages. ———— ‘There is nothing in the oil situation which threatens the prospect of more numerous and more beautiful gas-filling stations. | R ] SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Forward-Looking. We leave our disappointments hid. ‘We seldom tell of what we did. | ‘The world's achievement great, we find, | Proves less than what we had in mind. The Yesterday, sublime, indeed, ‘Tomorrow, claims but little heed. The question that seems ever new Is, “Friend, what are you going to do?" The Coral Creatures built the reef And said, “This is a great relief. ‘We know at last our task is done. No further glory can be won?" ‘Then came the birds and next the trees, And sails brought hither by the breeze. They who set forth with courage true Know not how much they're going to do. | Firm in Principle. “Do you somtimes change your mind?” “Never,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I am always firm in one great prin- ciple. When your public shows signs of disagreeing with you, think it over, and always agree with your public.” Jud Tunkins says he’s expecting to see a day when folks can have a good time without any law whatever. Drawing the Line. “Does your wife drive the car?” “No,” answered Mr. Chuggins. “I'm willing to be criticized. But I draw the line at becoming a back-seat driver on my own account. “He who is eager to be great in at- tention,” said Hi Ho, the sage of China- town, “cannot be sure whether he will be first in securing praise or blame.” Equipment. I might try politics, at that! Such joys—1I'd like to taste ‘em. I have a frock coat and silk hat And kind o’ hate to waste 'em! “A mean man,” said Uncle Eben, “sometimes succeeds in gettin’ hisse'f made & pet of, same as a balky mule.” MICROTORIAL Goodness. When Secretary Good had made Some slight mistakes while on parade, The soldiers rather thought it fun To see the way he held a gun, Or seemed in doubt what spot is best For medals on a hero’s breast. At least one man they now recall Who doesn't think he know’s it all, And with true admiration say, “Good'’s getting better every day.” Last Call for Income Tax. Tonight, before you seek repose, See what your conscience may disclose. Did you transmit to the last cent ‘The sum you owe the Government? You'll find that you cannot relax It you forgot your income tax, And, in your nightmares, you will say “Priday was an unlucky day.” oo A Stone Would Spoil It. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ‘The South Carolinian who sought to reform sinning neighbors by giving them cherry pies found a new way to cast the first stone. o Just Grim; No Humor. From the Savannah Morning News. No, there is no grim humor in the announcement that a funeral directors’ convention is to follow a medical meet- ing in Savannah this Spring. v—.— The Peas Appear Mammoth. From the South Bend Tribune. We see by the 1929 seed catalogs that “mammoth” can be used to describe mountains, circuses and peas. —r—e— Crime in Chicago Predicted. From the Hunlington Advertiser. A lady astrologer predicts that the year 1929 will be marked by great out- Why can't singers pronounce words | do in conversation? » Surely there is nothing in the divine art of music which calls for a singer to | say “keest” for kissed, “hawnds” for hands, or “hee-yull” for hill Diction, as the singers call it, mak?s‘ no such demands upon artists, and im- poses no such penalty upon listeners. ‘Those pale hands all the singers seem to love—especially the tenors—need not be as flat as white, but, on the olhrr; hand, they should not be too broad, as | the expression is. | A happy medium in pronunciation is evidently the best for singers, as well as_conversationalists. at ‘Whether a dog shall become “dawg must be left to the discretion of the artist, but when he insists on putting | the animal on a “hee-yull.” clamoring | thousands rise up in protest. * %k K Perhaps the unhappy science of “elo- | cution” is mainly responsible for this mutilation of our dear language. In the old days it was a parlor ac- complishment to rise in one's place and be able to recitz Poe's “Raven” in a| manner to make listeners catch each sad, uncertain rustling of the purple curtains. The terrible word “nevermore,” which Poe took such pains to explain (after- ward) in its dismal entirety, became a very sound of utter doom. But now that parlors have gone ou of style, elocutionists have been driven to plays and playlets and how best to cuss out traffic cops and get away wllhi it (if you can). * B e Can you imagine asking your best girl for her “hawnd"? Is it possible to conceive an army | marching up a “hee-yull”? s | What young lady would want to be| “keest”? No father whosoever would say «“yes” to the petition of a flip falsetto | voice asking for his daughter’s “hawnd.” | “Young man,” we can hear him say. | with two withering glances, “m: daughter has no hawnds. Her flippers. | or fins, or whatever the appendages | might be called which terminate each arm, and which are duly equipped with five fingers each, can in no sense be deemed hawnds. “As a matter of cold fact, you are| going to feel the full extent of my | hawnd, clenched, if you dare to call her pretty little hands by any such un- couth term as ‘hawnds.’” “I could stand ‘hond,’ if you insist on it, but not ‘*hawnd.’ Fie upon you, young man! Imagine Scott reciting. ‘And never shall in friendship grasp, the| hawnd of such as Marmion clasp.’ I| suppose you would want to say ‘grawsp’ and ‘clawsp,” you awss.” Ak Horace would be slapped on the| wreest if he declared his intention of | ‘keesing’ the fair Gwendolyn. His company would never be meesed: | the old man would hees him off the| front steps. | As for the thing which the tenors in-| sist on branding as a “hee-yull.” what has any innocent large hunk of earth. thrown up by Nature offhand. as it were, done to merit such an infringe-| ment of good pronunciation? THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. !r\ght to be similarly entertaining. If we were a hill, all covered with |and some sad wight should venture to| he typical American pioneer moving call us a “hee-yull,” and if our radio| set were in good working order and we | heard him so singing, we would immedi- | ately throw a small earthquake or something, in the hope that a falling tree might pin him down or an extra heavy rock smite him squarely. The mystery is why any singer would want to twist and contort a good word into something else again. * ok ok K What is wrong with “hill” anyway? | Magbe the long “I” &s in “hee” s a trifle easier to sing, but it makes the auditor mad to listen to it. | And that matter of two syllables where but one grew before. | Even if the music calls for two, pref-| | | | erably it should be an extension of onc | already there, not the creation of two! brand-new ones. | With children such inventions are ex- cusable. Once we heard a little boy | shout, “Oh, here is anuzuazeuah one!” which queer word was simply his way of pronouncing “another.” Grown-up singers, however, have no * ok K x Those who have come to manhood or womanhood ought to so sing. Lady ingers who intersperse exclamations of ha” and so on between the legitimate words, in an effort to be “cute,” should | be summarily cut off the air. 1 gers would just go on and sing, and give over the attempt to imitate children, they would be as fetching as the announcer says they are, As long as they insist on trying to act kittenish, the listener, and es- pecially the radio listener, may be forgiven for turning them out. There is a very pleasing song about a child wanting “a little yellow dog." but few sopranos seem to be able to ing it without giving their idea of how a child would sing i Only once have we ever heard this song sung properly (according to our ideas, of course), and that was by a young woman who simply sang it as it was written, without a lot of oral grimaces supposed to represent the re- actions of a small child to the pros- pect of a pet. i LW Tenors we have a particular grudge against. If they only would not hold the high notes so long, and i they only would refrain from crying “I lo-ove you,” we might be able to appreciate their respirational gymnastics, but it seems written by fate that each and every one must do just those things. And it is these very gentlemen who specialize on “keesing” their ladles. and in holding their “hawnds,” and in walk- ing with them up “hee-yulls.” Evidently the woes of tenor lovers exceed those of other young men, most of whom, if one mayv judge from the popular songs of the day, are forever lonely. Let them be lonely, if they must (and if it makes a good song). but | also let them stay away from hills. Root’s World Court Parleys Followed With Keen Interes Progress toward breaking the dead- lock between the United States and the nations now adhering to the World Court is followed with interest and gen- erally keen sympathy by the press of this country. Discussion of the sub- ject discloses widespread confidence in the ability of Elihu Root to bring about acceptance of a formula which will in- sure American membership in accord with the reservations of the Senate. “The legal experts who have been re- vising the court statutes,” the Brookiyn Daily Eagle explains “* * * will provide for various situations which are cov- ered in the five reservations of the United States. * * * A new protocol, embodying the revised statutes, will pre- sumably be submitted to all the court members. To avoid question or dis- pute, that new protocol would have to be submitted to the Senate. All the important changes it will propose are made in deference to the question raised by the United States Senate in its res- ervations. Our new Senate has fewer isolationists than the old, and there is reason to hope that a resubmission of the court question would produce quick undzuvon;m: llctlon." “Every t is of a gradual coming together on a phrasing that will work,” says the Des Moines Register. “This is probably because everybody recog- nizes that we will be the stanchest sup- | porters of the court and of its advi- sory opinions the moment we are a party to the procedure. For we have more to gain than any other group or any other two groups by getting judi- clal determination of intergroup rela- tions. ".. The Binghamton Press holds that “it is evident that Mr. Root is making progress”; that “he is doing 5‘1151‘3.;5:1 ‘:/'i‘th l}rlntcmhauoml Jurists and who have him and his ability © COondence in “Mr. Root’s powers of persuasion great,” declares the Richmond N::s’ nd if the major powers are really anxious to have America sub- scribe to the protocol there is no reason why they should not indorse the pro- posal of Mr. Root. Their O. K. would virtually assure its acceptance by the smaller powers. * * * Acceptable or not in its present terms, the Root pro- posal reflects the determination of Mr. geo&;e; :(1)1 put tmnfluence of America e machinery for - unnuofhwnr." y the preven. “If the World Court is to be affii with the dry rot of technicality,” “;‘t,;: the Philadelphia Record, “membership in it will not be essential to our national welfare. If it is himan and alive, prac- tical and a force for the peaceful ad- Jjustment of international difficulties, the great minds engaged in its tasks can find a workable solution of these difficulties. Why may not the Hoover administration promulgate a revisicn of the Monroe Doctrine to fit 1929 as the original fitted 1823—and the World Court formulate an adaptation between it and international law? Let the Mon- roe Doctrine and international law try & 50-50 method of accommodation. Neither is perfect.” ‘The Charleston Evening Post also | feels certain that this Nation is nearer to adhering to the court than it has been since that institution was set up.” “Mr. Root assumes that all concerned would be reasonable and conclliatory rather than obstinate and willful,” the Chicago Daily News sugests, with the added comment: “Unless this tacit as- sumption is adopted as a major premise, any argument in support of interna- tional peace measures is fallacious, If . the World Court is to prove itself a use- ful agency all the nations represented in it must be ready to make reasonable concessions by way of promoting its ef- fective functioning.” “Mr. Root says, in effect,” interprets the Baltimore Sun, “that he sees no reason to suppose that men sitting in Geneva will seek unfair opportunities to ask advisory opinions that would be injurious to us. He assumes the pres- ence in Geneva, not foolish or wicked men, but of men of ordinary decency and of rational understanding of the wisdom of treating justly the greatest power on earth, whose presence in in- ternational undertakings is sorely need- ed. On the other hand, Mr. Root as- sumes that administrations in Wash- ington will not be in the hands of spoiled children, who will put barriers in the League's way for no other reason than that they have power to do $0.” Certain obstacles still appear, in the r Telegram, bursts of crime in Chicago. Who would have ever thought that astrology was so " as standing on the beach over which the accurate a sclence? ) “Apparently Mr. Root believes that the United States would never object to the giving of an advisory opinion except in a case in which the vital interest of the United States was clearly involved, and that the Counci! or the Assembly would al- ways refrain from seeking an advisory | opinion against the wishes of the United States in such circumstances; and that as cases arose they could be dealt with satisfactory through exchanges of views between Washington and Geneva. Pos- sibly the Senate would accept such a solution, but it seems rather doubtful.” “We cannot agree to any sort of or- ganization for peace,” asserts the Mil- waukee Journal, “without agreeing to give up some right that we now tech- nically possess. If we are not ready to give up anything, we do not really care enough about peace. * * * Until the cause of peace means more to us than the bogies that were raised, we cannot help the world to peace. * * * Mean- while, if we cannot be peace-loving, let us be honest.” “The entire issue,” in the opinion of the Rochester Times-Union, ‘“could have been settled in 1926 if the United States had sent Mr. Root to attend the meeting of the court powers in Geneva that year. It can be settled now in the same way, but it will require more time, since the court members must also ac- cept what Mr. Root and the members of the League Council agree to do.” Americans Slipping As Meat-Eating Race From the Fort Worth Record-Telesram. ‘The American Druggist has completed a comprehensive inquiry into the menus of today as compared with those of 10 years ago. The investigation was con- ducted solely among hotels and restau- rants, it being held that a fairer general average of the American appetites can be obtained by that method. The disclosures are somewhat star- tling, the first fact obtained being par- ticularly so. We are not a rugged race of meat eaters any longer. We are only consuming 55 per cent of the meat we ate a decade ago. Second in impor- tance are the findings on pastries and salads. Of the former, we have fallen 26 per cent, while we are putting away 110 per cent more of the latter. Our other prominent decreases are: White bread, 29 per cent; coffee, 12 per cent, and potatoes, 15 per cent, the latter, parenthetically, being caused by the prevailing styles in female silhouettes. ‘We show gains as follows: Ice cream, 70 per cent; malted milk, 63 per cent; fresh fruit, 39 per cent; whole wheat bread and fresh vegetables, 5 per cent each; poultry, 25 per cent, and canned fruits and cereals, 33 per cent each. In the light of the entire table it appears that we have only lost 20 per cent of our meat diet—the difference between the loss of 45 per cent and a gain of 25 per cent in chickens and turkeys—but even at that we are sta- tistically slipping from a race of red- blooded meat eaters. It may be that the increases in salads, ice cream and malted milk will make up for the ab- sence 1n thick steaks and pink slabs of roast beef. It is to be hoped so. If the figures are accurate we are there, We wonder what has become of the once important theory that a race of people is as it eats. If that is still workable, will the world be kept safe for democracy on a diet of salad, ice cream, malted milk and chicken and dumplings? It may be important to know that, some day. o Air Mail May Get All From the Oakland Tribune. How long before all the mail is to be transported by airplane? The question is asked after the publication of figures which show that in two years the vol- ume of American air mail has multiplied fourteen times. More than half a mil- lion pounds of mail were carried by planes in December of last year. Before all the mail is carried by plane, all of the cities must have airports. Ob- viously the fast planes are not to stop at every port along the way and the next step to be expected is the establish- ment of distributing routes out of the main airports. Rail and motors, for many years, may be expected to aug- ment the airplane service by carrying first-class mails on short hauls and the second-class mails over the long dis- tances. Yet if anything like the present rate of increase continues, te bulk of the first-class mail will go all or part of the way through the air, THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover 1 In four volumes, largely blnsraphlcm.l partly fiction, Hamiin Garland has used | the experiencesof his own family through | from the East ever farther and farther westward, and then in the third genera- tion again sceking the East. The vol- umes are, in the order of the story. but not in order of publication, “The Trail Makers of the Middle Border,” “A Son ! of the Middle Border,” “A Daughter of | the Middle Border” and “Back Tagil- ers From the Middle Border.” The first | tells of the removal of Deacon Rich-| ard Garland and his family from Maine | i | life down to 1865. The chief figure of | the story is Hamlin Garland's father,| a boy at the time of the trekking. The ! second volume introduces the McClin tocks, Hamlin Garland's mother’s family, and follows them and the Garlands as | they move to Iowa, to Dakota, and then | to California. It eids with 1893, when | the Garlands have returncd to Wiscon. sin_and Hamlin Garland himself has ! settled in Chicago. The third volume records the marriage of the author with Zulime Taft, sister of Lorado Taft: the birth of his two daughters, the death of i his mother, and the death of his pioneer father, a Civil War veteran, at the age of 84. The last volume shows Hamlin Garland himself as a “back trailer,’ versing the family pioneering, uproot- | > ing his family from Chicago and transplanting them to a New York City apartment. o A The chief reason for this “back-trail- | ing” was the nced to be in a literary and | A. publishing center if Hamlin Garland | hoped to continue to support his family by writing. To a friend he stated his case: “My father’s death has broken the bond which held me to Wisconsin and I have no decp roots here in Chicago. I intend to establish a home in the vicin- ity of New York. It is not without rea- son that my sense of security increases with every mile of progress toward Fifth avenue. Theoretically La Crosse should be my home. To go into Western his- | tory properly, I should have a great log | house on Grand-Daddy Bluff with wide | ! verandas overlooking the Mississippi ! River: but Manhattan Island is the only | | place in which I feel sure of making a i living and there I intend to pitch my | | tent.” " But there was another reason. | | Frequent visits to New York had inocu- | lated him with the fascination of that | city and had made Chicago seem.crude | | and West Salem, Wis., provincial. “For 23 Winters, I had endured the harsh winds of Chicago, and fought against its ugliness, now I was free of it,” and “The homestead in Wisconsin was now a melancholy place and I had no inten- tion of going back to it.” The historical significance of the eastward removal ap- pealed to him. “Furthermore, in going East, I shall be joining a movement which is typical of my generation as my father’s pioneering was of his. In those days the forces of the Nation were mainly centrifugal; youth sought the horizon. Now it is centripetal. Think of the Midwestern writers and artists, educators and business men who have taken the back trail. * * * Iam now definitely one of this band.” W Once established in an apartment on i Park avenue, the Garland family rap- idly adjusted themselves to New York life. The two daughters were soon happy in a private school, conveniently located, and the parents resumed asso- ciations with old literary friends and formed many pleasant new ones. But | when the heat of Summer came they | all began to think rather regretfully | of the old Summer home in Wisconsin, with its broad verandas and spreading maples. The author-father felt a re- sponsibility to furnish another country | retreat for the daughters, who had been brought up to love green open spaces. On a visit to John Burroughs and som: other friends in the Catskills he dis- covered an empty cabin on Onteora Mountain, which he purchased and named Camp Neshonoe. “On closer study it proved to be a rude little shack, hardly more than a forest ranger’s Summer camp, but it had a delightful stone fireplace and good-sized living room. Its seclusion from the road was a virtue, and a clump of wild cherry trees, whose branches caressed its walls and shaded its roof, emphasized its privacy. All about it wild flowers and berry bushes grew, and I could see my children swinging under these trees and | wandering about these slopes.” With the acquisition of Camp Neshonoe, the | Garlands become, as their ancestors had | been, Easterners. o Catherine Breshkovsky, “The Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolu- | tion,” whose valorous life resembles that | of Leo Tolstoy in many respects, re-| cently celebrated her eighty-fifth birth- | day. As a nobleman’s daughter she so longed to help the peasants that when | she became of age she joined the revo- lutionists, for which she was rewarded by years of imprisonment and finally by her exile to Siberia. When the revolu- tion came, however, she was recalled to Russia, & heroine: was made head of the Department of Education and elected to the Constitutional Assembly. Then the Bolsheviks came into power, and she left the country, settling in Prague, and founding several boarding schools for poor children in Russian Carpathia, which _is now part of Czechoslovakia. Alice Stone Blackwell, who edited Mme. Breshkovsky's memoirs, appropriately entitled “The Little Grandmother of the Russian Revolution,” recently wrote that letters and post cards would be gratefully received by Mme. Bresh- kovsky at Charvatska No. 5, Vrsovice, | Chez Haschbauer, Prague, Czecho- slovakia. | o “Surrounded by men, down the stairs that, a few hours be- fore, she had mounted with her easy step, in her light Summer dress, free, responsible for her action, mistress of her fate. Without a thought for her personal happiness, for the dignity of a normal life, obscure yet safe in some lost | corner of her province, she had cen- tered every pulse of her being on this act for which she was about to die. She ! had nursed it secretly, draped it in the colors of her generous imagination, transfigured it into a mystic deed that only a virgin could accomplish. She had dedicated herself; a woman com- passionate, she was yet wholly herself; when she stooped over Marat, the knife in her hand, she was the avenging an- gel."—From a new biography, “Char- lotte Corday: and Certain Men of the icral | World War. she walked | in ‘There is no other agency in the world at can lnswer( as ln:‘:ny l:’gltlmnlu | S r free Information Bu- in the same way ordinary human beings | rocks and trees and nice green grass,| three generations to tell the story of "l‘l:l:liui(;ln:ll::h?:an? ety (h organized institution has been built up and is under the personal direc- tion of Frederic J. Haskin. By keeping in constant touch with Fed- bureaus and other educational enterprises, it is in a position to pass on to you authoritative in- formation of the highest order. Sub- mit your queries to the staff of experts. whose services are put at your free dis- posal. There is no charge except 2 cents, in coin or stamps, for return ., | to Wisconsin in 1850 and their pioneer | pociabe ™ Address The Evening Star In- formation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Q. Does it take more effort to make a smile or a frown?—V. H. S. A. Thirteen muscles are required to ! make a smile and fifty to make a frown: therefora the frown requires the greater cxpenditure of vitality. . Q. When will the race be run upon which the Calcutta Sweepstakes is bet? R. J. A. The Derby will be run at Epsom Downs on June 5. Q. Who decides where the time belt lines are to be placed in the United | tates?>—A. H. T. ing the standard time zones is under the direction of the Interstate Com- merce Commission. Q. Where is the Dropping Well>— A. The Dropping Well is at Knares- horough, in the West Riding of York- shire. The wa! are impregnated with lime and have action causing a curious and beautiful incrustation where the water falls aver a slight, cliff. Q. Please describe a galleon—O.K.F. A. Galleon was a name formerly given to a large kind of vessel with three masts and three or four decks, | such as these used by the Spaniards in their commerce with South America to transport precious metals. They were large, clumsy, having bulwarks three or four feet thick, all of which were so encumbered with tophamper and so overweighted in pro- portion to their draft of water that they | could bear very little canvas, even with | smooth scas and light winds. Q. How many children has Rudyard Kipling?—M. W. A. The son of Rudyard Kipling is posted as missing in action during the His fate is not known. ‘The remaining child is a daughter, who | married about two years ago the British | military attache to the court of Spain. Q. Please tell something of the ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. A “The adjtistment of the lines divid- | putrefying power, this | square-sterned vessels, | duties and powers of the Spzaker of the House of Representatives of the United States.—E. G. |, A The duties of th> Spcaker of the House of Representatives are those of any presiding officer. It is not neces- }sury for_the Speaker to bc a member |of the House of Representatives. In | the past he always has been a member. ! He preserves order and decorum and | decides questions of order. He may not censure or punish a member and he does not decide on the constitution- | al powers of the House. He appoints | the select and conference committees. Formerly he appointed all of the com- mittees, but now he appoints none of the standing committees. They are elected by the House. Q. Who started dating events from the birth of Christ?—H. J. W. A. The custom of dating events from the birth of Jesus Christ origi- | nated with a learned monk of Rome, | Dionysius Exiguus, who complied and | computed the paschal cycle. Diony- | slus lived in the fifth and sixth cen- 5! | turies, dying about | @ What is the Partens treatment? —A. M. H 5. A. It is a specific for the prevention of hydrophobia. . Who plays the bells in the sing- ing tower built by Mr. Bok?—H. T. | A, The bells in the tower at Moun- ! tain Lake, Fla., are played by Anton | Brees, the famous bellmaster. Brees |15 a Belgian and learned his art in the carillon school at Malines under the instruction of Jef Denyn, dean of the carillon school and the most skilled of all living bellmasters. It was Mr. | Denyn who passed on the Mountain Lake bells and approved them before | they were shipped from England. Q. Who is called the “Christian gen- eral” in China?—S. N. | A. Gen. Feng is popularly known as the “Christian general.” Q. What causes glaciers to move? Please give rate of motion of some glaciers.—J. I. F. | A, It is believed that the weight of the ice itsclf causes the motion of | glaciers. Some of the swiftest and | largest of the Alpine glaciers move | from about 1 to 3 feet a day: the Aletsch 20 inches a day. The lower part of the Muir glacier in Alaska moves about | 10 feet a day. Some of those in Green- {land are said to move much faster, | from 59 to 100 feet having been re- corded for 24 hours. The movement | of a glacier is not constant. It varies | periodically. Q. Were Colonial days? A. There seems to be no record of their use in this country before the ! middle of the ninctcenth century. | baby carriages used in D. H. BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. Nobody knows what President Hoover has in mind for farm relief, nor even whether it means relief of agriculture in general as a problem in economics or relief of the individual farmer who finds it hard to keep pace with modern com- petition in food production. If the Government is to come to the aid of all good men, instead of all good men coming to the aid of good govern- ment, there are others besides farmers who are already chattering to come in out of a cold and cruel world. Some commercial “bear” on statistics has de- clared that nine business firms out of every ten go into bankruptcy. Shall there not be socialistic relief for bank- rupt merchants and manufacturers? The small dealer is driven out by chain stores, the village blacksmith is not only cooling off under the spread- ing chestnut tree—he’s the living chest- nut, for great machine manufacturers are turning out thousands of automo- biles daily, to monopolize the road, where he supplied a few wagons a year. The woman who spun cloth at home is out of employment, or else has taken up stenography instead. It used to take many months to carry a message from coast to coast; now | one speaks into a “Mike” as big as an alarm clock, and “the shot heard round i the world” has “nothing on” the radio. e ‘There are farmers, as well as David Harum's horse, who persist in standing without hitching, while the world speeds down the highways of modern progress. Shall they be “relieved” or given a job, away from land which they fail to cultivate progressively? The land may not be fertile, or the equipment of the farm may be inadequate. Authorities on agriculture are not united as to methods, but are fairly well agreed that it is not political farm rellef that is most needed, outside of polling places. * k ok x Nevertheless, there are seasonal gluts of the markets for farm staples, and occasional overproduction can never be controlled, for crops depend upon weather. and that can never be fore- seen. Hence, it is hoped by the leaders that some kind of marketing methods will be fathered by the Government to regulate abnormal gluts, because the farmers themsclves cannot organize sufficlently to control the surpluses. Whether some modified form of a Mc- Nary-Haugen bill will yet find favor is problematical, except that it is certain that the new basis will never revive the “equalization fee"—a tax compulsory upon all producers of a particular com- modity crop to make up losses in dump- g surpluses abroad. ‘The plan involves a Government cap- italization of $250,000.000 or more. with which to buy up and hold out of the homeg market certain surplus crops, until they'can be sold abroad at world mar- ket prices, even at a loss, in order to maintain by “supply and demand” a fair price at home. Opponents contend that this is a So- cialistic plan to boost costs to the American consumers, while dumping surpluses upon foreign markets, there- by cheapening the cost of living abroad and increasing it at home. e ‘There is another cause tending to support prices of farm products, more naturally. Just as isostasy teaches that whenever one segment of the world is Revolutionary Torment,” by Marie Cher. * K ok “Portage, Wisconsin” is a collection of essays by Zona Gale, in which the title essay is named from the town where Miss Gale was born. In this first essay the material facts and the mental atmosphere of the town on the Wisconsin River are given with the de- tail attendant on childhood memories. “I have looked out on the Wisconsin River,” Miss Gale says, “flowing at the foot of our lawn, at the Caledonia Hills carving the skyline, and have wondered if these are as beautiful as I believe them to be.” Most of us have wonder- ed this about some of the places we love for sentimental reasons, with a secret suspicion that they are neither 50 beautiful nor so unusual as we like to think. And how some of the spa- clous places of our childhood have shrunk when we revisit them in adult years! * ok ¥ X The Lincoln memorial services held this year at Springfield, Ill., were mark- ed by an address on “Lincoln and Douglas” by Claude G. Bowers. “There has been a foolish tendency sald Bowers, “to assume that theré is some- thing of disrespect to Lincoln in doing Justice to the rival who finally, in a crisis, became his most powerful ally. It has been reserved for Mr. Beveridge to do Douglas justice in his monumental biography of Lincoln, and to show that one’ need not depress the histaric stature of the one to maintain that of the other.” Beveridge’s ““Abraham Lin- coln” is regarded by critics, historians and readers as one of the most im- portant biographies issued in America since the author's earlier “Life of John Marshall,” heavier or lighter than adjoining seg- ments, one will flow into the other, raising mountains or lowering valleys, until the two areas are of equal weight, so when one industry is less profitable than other industries the producers employed in the less profitable line of work will flow away from it into the more profitable line. So long as farmers complain that they are not getting a fair share of life’s prosperity, compared with the indus- tries, there will be a flow of farmers away from the land into the cities. That is not necessarily a calamity, though millions of farmers leave the land. Agricultural production is by no means measured by the number of farmers engaged in it, for one farmer, plus modern machinery, can raise many times the crops that his forefathers could half a century ago. In China, where the farmers spade even their |the grain land, by hand, with a crude im- plement, it takes four or five days to spade one acre, and some hours more to seed it. Here, two farmers, plus a tractor, can cultivate and seed 40 or 50 acres a day. * X K K Never before the World War was farm production equal to what it is since the war. In the five-year period of 1922- 26, the per capita farm production, compared with our total population, was greater than in the five-year period 1897-1901, in spite of the decrease of millions of workers on the farms. Ma- chinery takes the place of the fleeing farmhands, and greater efficiency. with better knowledge, supplants ‘“brute force.” There is no occasion, therefore, to be pessimistic because some farmers decide that they prefer wages in indus- tries to crop raising. As these leave the " farms they will tend to decrease farm workers, but, 8o far, they have fafled to lessen the total food supply; so why | worry? 3 e In the first 20 years of this century the total increase of our population grew more rapidly than did food pro- duction, but that has not been the case since the close of the World War. By | the end of this century—70 years hence —the United States will have a popula- tion of 200,000,000, and the Department of Agriculture predicts that the increase ]of food production will keep pace with that growth to 200.000.000, “though | probably a slight change in diet will occur, involving less meat and more | dairy products and cereals.” o % % do the experts predict that we shall eat less meat and more dairy products and cereals? Is it because the | packers have slipped up in effective propagenda, and let the vegetarians and dairy folks steal a march on them? Partly so. Faddists, including medicine | men and hygienists, have been preach- | ing “Eat more fruit and more cereals | and leafy vegetables” What have the | meat people done to create an increased | demand for meat? They have largely | opposed progressive methods offered by | the expert market men of the Depart- ment of Agriculture. * k ok k ‘Three years ago, the de{pn-nmtnt': Bureau of Animal Industry introduced a novelty in its inspection service, under which, in addition to stamping meats for interstate commerce merely as healthy meat, they now stamp it accord- ing to its grade. This was opposed by the packers, because it would operate to make it difficult to sell the inferior meats. But that was exactly what it was intended to accomplish, so that the buyer who was willing to pay for quality could know what quality he was getting, according to the stamp of the Govern- ment inspector. Today, every carcass is stamped with the mark of one of seven grades and the stamp is repeated every few inches down the edge of the quar- ter-bzef or other animai. For_example, here are the grades of steer beef: Prime, or No. A-1; choice, or No. 1; good, or No. 2: medium, or No. 3: common, or No. 4; cutter, or No. 5, and low cutter, or No. 6. Certain chain stores have recently | begun to sell only the high grades of meats; small stores, dealing with the poorer classes of customers, do not like this differentiation of qualities, but mix all grades of the lower classes together. When a consumer regains confidence in his meat he will eat more of it. In the meanwhile, the faddists and flesh- reducers have taken the lead in edu- cating the public away from meats until | even the packers confess a marked re- duction in demand. -5k Prosperous Americans are in no danger of going hungry, in spite of the | farmers’ calamity wails about aban- | doned farms. In the five years ending |in 1926 our farms produced 14 per cent more food than in the five years ! from 1917 to 1921, although that period | included the World War stimulation to | food production and the inflated war | prices. Our population increased only 9 per cent, while our food increased 14 | per cent. | | | | ® 08 | In the five-year period. 1919 to 1924, | the area devoted to food production lost 13,000,000 acres, but what was left gave more food than when it included that 13,000,000 acres. The acreage devoted to feed for horses has decreased, because automo- biles have lessened the demand for horses, but that acreage today is largely | offset by increased attention to special vegetable crops and fruits. Says the Department of Agriculture: “This increase in agricultural produc- tion since the World War, despite a de- crease in crop land and in number of live stock on farms. is owing primarily to the release for other uses of fifteen to twenty millions of acres of crop land formerly required to feed horses and mules, which have been replaced by tractors and automobiles; to gm:rzulnl efficlency of production, especially in amount of milk and meat produced per unit of feed consumed, and to a shift from the less productive classes of animals, per unit of feed consumed, toward the more productive—ie., from beef cattle to dairy cattle and swine; less wheat and corn in the North; less corn and more cotton in the South, and more vegetables and fruits, espe- cially in California and Florida. * Farmers who cling to small, unprofit- able farms cannot prosper under the evolution of methods and markets and habits of modern consumers. The ulti- mate solution, according to farm econ- omists, will be in the permanent shift- ing of such small farmers into wage earning in industry and the restoration of unprofitable land into forestry, Per- manent farm -relief, therefore, is to come from realignment of farmers rather than from politicians. (Copyright, 1929, by Paul V. Collins.)