Evening Star Newspaper, March 24, 1929, Page 29

EDITORIAL SECTION The Swundwy Star, Part 2—12 Pages WASHINGTON, P. € &y SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 24, . 1929. ) REORGANIZING PROBLEM IS FACED BY STIMSON Asking $50.000 Men to Take $10,000 and, Getting Department “Out of Spats by Christmas BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HALL the Department of State be Q reorganized? No single question | is more frequently discussed in | \_J the National Capital today. Pri- | marily this problem concerns | Stimson, the new Secretary of | It seems to be his chief )\roh-i‘ Col. State. lem. | Washington, which has its own views, | has asked the question in something like the following form: “Will Col. Stimson have the State Department out of spats | by Christmas?” The explanation of the current con- viction that the State Department should and will be reorganized is a lit- tle vague. Beyond any debate what | John Hay used to describe as “The De- partment” has reached the stage where | something must be done about it. Be- fore Col. Stimson was even identified as | the next Secretary of State, Washing- | ton was filled with the rumors of Mr. Hoover's fixed and even iron determin: tion to produce a revolution in the build- ing which lies just across the street from his new residence. | All of which naturally provokes the | question, “What is the matter with the State Department?” What is the actual | character of this major problem now confronting the new Secretary of State, | hurrying, one must suppose. from his post in the Far East to assist and even to direct a transformation of first mag- nitude? If there is anything wrong with the | State Department—and there must be. | since every one admits it. outside the department itself—it is fair to say that the first trouble arises from the fact that to enter this branch of public serv- ice one must be either rich or resigned to abject poverty, Critics Not Clear. The critics of the department are never quite clear as to what they are actually criticizing. whether it be the | character of the men we send to render the clerical and social service necessary to the administration of our embassies and legations abroad. or the intelligence of the men—far less well known and in- finitely more important—who constitute the experts and build up the informa- tion and supply the interpretation of foreign affairs, As to the former. the problem is immediate. No matter how good a man may be at the so-called diplo- matic game, no matter how much he may know about a foreign country, there are only a limited number of posts in Europe to which he can be sent to serve effectively or live possibly, unless he happens to have a fortune of his cwn. If one travels, as I do, year after year in Europe, he is bound to discover that, below the rank of ambassador or minister—appointments usually made for political reasons—the counselors and secretaries of our serv- ice may quickly be divided into two classes—the rich, . who are Dlflns largely for the privilege of serving, ant the poor, who are enduring every form of personal privation and humiliation to follow a profession to which they bring just about the same degree of enthusiasm and ambition that any earnest person brings to any form of human_activity. To jump from this to the rather general assumption that only the ‘poor are good and all the rich are incom- petent is as absurd as it is familiar. Some of the best men that I have met in foreign service have been fortunate enough to be beyond the handicap of financial , while, on the other hand, among the poor there is the very great wastage due to the fact that not a few, and those of the best, give up the struggle, refuse to subject their wives to the humiliations and their children to the hardships inevitable un- der the circumstances. Nonsense in Recent Years. A good deal of nonsense has been %alked in recent years, ever since the passage of the Rogers bill, about career men in our diplomatic service. But so far as foreign service is concerned, the financial circumstances are such that there 15 a real career for only one sort of man: and that is a man who has the money to take the posts which his service earns for him. Looking to the other branch of this diplomatic business, the part concerned with the experts, who are the ma- chine—who do not make policy, per- snps. but do most emphatically in- juence it—nothing is in my judgment more unjust than the existing legends about their incompetence and useless- ness. In point of fact there are in the State Department today a whole group of men whose knowledge and experi- ence in dealing with that field of for- eign affairs which is their particular “pigeon” is vastly bevond the deserts of a government which starves them and of a Congress which 99 times out of a hundred ignores them. Mr. Hoover is generally credited with fhe purpose to undertake the reorgani- Wation of the foreign relations of our country, to bring a new efficiency into them. = As a consequence Mr. Stimson's coming has been awaited with intense excitement in all official quarters, be- cause he is regarded as bringing with him from the Philippines a new broom. But while it would be a simple matter to sweep out of existence the unmis- takably incomplete machine which the last two Secretaries of State have, with difficulty and much labor, succceded in | constructing, whence will come the ma- terial for replacement? Criticism and Reasons. A great deal of ridicule is poked at| the State Department because of the| Jittle boys with spats. because of the | ritual of rank and position at dinner, because of the marvelous skill fre- quently acquired in balancing tea cups. Some of it is fair enough. Such things | are the fresh paint of this particular trade—and every trade has its solemn owls and its indescribable asses. { | it seems to me, nothing could be more | absurd than to imagine that the trouble with the State Department, conceding that there is trouble, will be remedied by calling in a new lot of spat wearers. “And what will Mr. Stimson or Mr Hoover do with a newly reorganized State Department, assum changes are made? | Foreign policy in the case of Euro- pean countries is a matter of vital im- | portance. Mistakes not only can mean war, but they inevitably involve the loss of power and prestige. So far, with us, foreign affairs have been a minor and kide issue, a provocation for congres- sional eloquence, a field for self adver- | which in any other country would have salaries and reasonable opportunity. To- But, | ing that the | ” Are Tasks. tion names and yet the present first| secretary, William R. Castle, has in »‘ long service disclosed an ability and a competence which certainly would make of him an undersecretary, qualified in the European sense. Francis White is | an authority on Sotith America, whose value would be clear to any European cabinet or parliament Mastery of Affairs, G. Howland Shaw possesses a mastery of Eastern European affairs which | would give his opinion weight even | among Europeans familiar with the problem below the Danube. Nelson T.| Johnson's knowledge and experience in | problems of the not less complicated Far | East made him an invaluable adviser in | the critical days of recent Chinese revo- lution. Hugh Gibson, now Ambassador | at Brussels, but a “career man"” in the | best sense of the word, rendered service at the Geneva Naval Conference cer- tainly harly equaled in courageous pa- triotism in’ recent years. And in mentioning names I do not mean to slight many other men who be- long to the Department of State and have rendered distinguished service received the reward bestowed for serv- ices appreciated and understood. There may be a great deal of justice in the argument that, since we have now become a world power, we need a State Department commensurate with our size and the magnitude of our for- eign relations. In such a State Depart- ment it is clear that giants would be none too big. But how to get giants at the cost of dwarfs or. perhaps more ex- actly, how to get better men when the good men are neither rewarded nor even adequately supported? That is the problem for Mr. Stimson, as well as for Mr. Hoover. We are soon to consider the question of a new farifi. The least considerable of the “spat brigade” could inform Con- gress, if it were interested, that a few cents extra duty upon linseed oil, for example. will destroy all the beneficial effects of Mr. Hoover's celebrated “good- will tour” in at least one great South American country. But does one fancy such information would count with a Senator from the Northwest who knows his duty and will perform it> How much does foreign policy count under such circumstances? Question of Sticking. Stimson can turn out the “spat boys,” who are able to afford their own spats, and bring in incipient Talleyrands shod in “sneakers.” but will they stick? He has a lot of good men. Will he get better for the same price? He has, no one will deny, an adequate supply of dead wood, but green saplings require a fair amount of nourishment. He can't go out in the market place and hire brains at the prevailing rate of wages. He can doubtless get a $50,000 man for a $10,000 job in a shining place for a brief period, but that won't much help the service or encourage the others. The two things that the State De- partment needs, if it is to be a real branch of Government. are adequate day it offers neither. It gets better men than any other business at the same price and it offers good men less opportunity for real and recognized achievement than is elsewhere discov- erable. If there ever was a ‘“sweated industry.” diplomacy, American style, is it. Today the country expects some- thing for nothing from the State De- partment and clamors for reorganiza- tion because it does not get enough— that, in a nutshell, is Col. Stimson's problem. ‘The employe of the State Department may affect the plumage of a peacock and go. through the intricate mysteries of official social life with the ease with which I get about in the woods back of my farm, but that is about-all he has to show for performing the task of a clerk at the wages of a day laborer, without union protection. His spats are his croix de guerre, earned by dining for his country nightly and financing the return dinners out of his own pocket. Mr. Hughes and Mr. Kellogg certainly achieved more than a little in bettering our State Department by im- proving the conditions under which the employes lived. But the fact is that such improvements as have come in recent years have come by improving the conditions rather than in’' changing the staff. One wonders whether Col. Stimson will endeavor to get better men for nothing or increase the attraction of the department for good men. (Copyrisht. 1920.) Oslo to Eliminate Somber-Hued Streets “No more dull streets. Oslo should be bright and splashy witn gay colors.” This is the program of a new movement supported by prominent architects and painters of the Norwegian capital. Most Oslo streets are lined with four and five story buildings originally painted gray and dark yellow. But, soiled by the dirt of years, the houses appear uncomfort- ably cheerless. It is contemplated to have the entire city divided into dis- tricts, each to be painted in its own vivid color—one area pink, another a bright blue, a third white and so on. Experiments aiready conducted have produced different results—one section possessing an attractive brilliance, an- | | | BY THOMAS CARENS. HERE is an old saying, which probably originated with some envious Westerner, that Ameri- can history is all cluttered up with Adamses. that illustrious family started chiseling their names high up on the walls of Clio’s temple back in the days when the explosive Sam, who would be distinctly persona non grata to the better ele- ments of the present, was haranguing the calkers on Boston's waterfront on dour old John of Braintree, in the Con- tinental Congress, was suggesting that George Washington of Virginia might make an acceptable general of the Revolutionary armies. One hundred years, moment, from the time pointed John Quincy Adams went clat- tering out of town to avgid a meeting with the hated Andrew Jackson, his great-grandson, Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, noiselessly entered ‘Washington to take up his duties as Secretary of the Navy in the cabinet of President Hoover. The Adamses, it thus appears, have come into their own again. Charles Francis is the fifth generation from old John of Braintree, and if one selects the outstanding man of each generation the remarkable qualities of this family are apparent: Heredity Experts Defied. 1. John Adams, patriot, diplomat, Vice President and President of the United States. 2. John Quincy Adams, diplomat, gl‘blnet officer, President of the United almost to the 3. Charles Francis Adams, diplomat, candidate for Vice President and al- most a candidate for President. 4. Henry Adams, author of the cele- BY MARK SULLIVAN. ONGRESS, in the coming spe- cial session, is going to make a ‘“reapportionment,” the number of members of the lower house that each State shall have. That is important on the face of it. Fundamentally, it is more important than appears. Judged by the shifting of political power which the new ap- portionment will give effect to, it goes to the heart of the most vital changes | now and recently taking place in Amer- | ican life. | Reapportoinment was not on the original program for the special session. | It was not on the program of the re- cent regular session. Indeed, it has not | really been on the program of any ses- sion during the eight years in which reapportionment has during which, in fact. failure to reap- portion has been called a continuing scandal; during which practically every | newspaper in the country blared out at Congress with such epithets as “brazen sufferable political selfishness.” statement should be qualified: The lower house has twice been willing and twice passed the act; the Senate has never been willing. From no Senator has come so much as a single gesture toward re- apportionment until toward the close of the recent Congress.) Vandenberg Scores,Senate. in the coming session is due to the energy—and the outraged indignation— of one man, a new Senator, Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan. Senator Van- denberg is a bit of a zealot about the Constitution and a genuinely learned | student of it. In the debates one day in January he said: we | have and are and can ever hope to be tity.” Feeling this way, Mr. Vanden- bere, while in private life as editor of ;the Grand Rapids Herald, observed, other flaunting a repellent gaudiness. During the renewed activity in exterior decorating a painter named Horn dis- covered a new shade of green, which now adorns a five-story building prom- inently situated on the thoroughfare leading to the royal castle. It is humor- ously related that at a meeting of the color movement enthusiasts a suggestion was advanced to honor the invenior and at the same time name the new tint by coining the word greenhorn. Fa st Secretary | 4 i Urges New port the Fascist Party in Italy, tirelessly pro- motes sport among his fellow Facist. Himself a fencer of consideralble | distinction he has now undertaken to | create a distinctively Italian game which he hopes will mean for Italians what tisement, but never a serious matter, save in one or two crises, promptly for- gotten. When it comes down to serious matters the State Department waits on the Senate and rarely dares to drop one little bit of truth into the floods of elo- quent rubbish which issue from legis- lators and are directed at their constitu- ents without regard to the foreign con- sequences. Despite these discouragements we have good men in the State Dpartment, men who take their job seriously and even give $10 of service for s of salary. men who know about China and the Baikans and various other eomplicated questions in the European mess. I hesitate to men- base ball and foot ball means to Ameri- j cans. K i | The Turati game is called “volata, | which means flight. It is played by |eight mn on a side on a foot ball iground. The object of the game is to keep the ball in the air as much as | possible and goals are scored high in | the air. The resemblance to soccer and basket ball is marked. The initial game in the Rome stadlum was free of charge, but the large crowd of spectators did not seem | areatly thrilled with volata. Italians enthuse over soccer. boxing and fencing and other sports attract only limited followings. B U Agusto Turati. general secretary of | as nearly every newspaper editor and nearly everybody else observed. that | Congress has been ignoring the Consti- | tution ever since 1921. When Editor Vandenberg became ISnnntnr Vandenberg, he told his fellow | Senators what he felt about them. He | use 1 “for eigl lenge at the d frank words. He told them that ht years a fundamental chal- e very root source of con- | stitutional guarantees has been ignored {and evaded in these halls.” them that by their inaction “great States and great constituencies are out- | Yageously victimized.” He described their | eight_years' evasion and refusal as an |"|nsuflembk‘ trespass,” “contemptuous.” a “constitutional affront.” “poison at { the wellspring of the American system." { Al these epithets Senator Vanden berg flung at his fellow Senators and much more irrefutable argument. .Then he introduced his bill providing for the belated reapportionment. Threatens Filibuster. The Senate was not particularly imoved. It did not pass the bill. To- | ward (he end of the session it became apparent it was not going to pass it. ‘Thereupon, Senator Vandenberg de- vised, so to speak, a sort of reverse fili- buster. He, with such help as he could ‘The members of | the iniquities of British rule, and when ' that disap- | which | means they are going to change | been overdue— | defiance of the Constitution” and “in-| (This | That reapportionment is to be made | is dependent upon constitutional sanc- | He told | SECRETAR' brated “Educatfon.” an immortal con- tribution fo American literature. 5. Charles Francis Adams, America's foremost amateur yachtsman and now Secretary of the Na: The list absolutely defies the experts on heredity, who try fo tell us that fame in one generatlon must be offset by mediocrity in another. Selection Was Surprise. ‘When Mr. Hoover finally disclosed his | cabinet there were several surprises in | the shape of men who had not even been considered when the unofficial cab- inet pickers of the Capital went to work shortly before election. But there was no greater surprise than the selection | of this dignified Boston business man to |run America’s Navy. It must have been a surprise, first of all, to “Charlie” Adams himself. Certainly he had plenty to do as Missouri, Mississippi, Iowa, I Alabama Arizona Arkansas . California Colorado Connecticu Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho . Illinois Indiana Towa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada . . New Hampshire New Jersey . New Mexico New York ... North Carolina North Dakota Onio ... Oklahoma Oregon Penn: Rhode Island . Souih Carolina . Sonth Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia ‘Wisconsin Wyoming session. From Senator Watson, Mr.| Vandenberg got the assurance in the |shape of a formal public statement. From the leaders of the lower house also, Vandenberg got similar assurance. Consequently, and rather extraordi- reapportionment was added to strictly limited program of the spe- ession. Consequently the special | session will deal -with three subjects, and only three—reapportionment, farm relief and tariff | "By a logic not always apparent in | | the actions of Congress, it happens that | those three items of the special session | belong together. They are related to each other. They are a unit. The cause of the postponement of reappor- | tionment is the same as the cause of the Ineed for farm relief—and both causes |are related to the tariff. | | The appearance of those three meas- | | Y ADAMS. ~—Underwood Photo. | without taking on another job. Treas- |urer of Harvard University, now grown |into a $100,000,000 corporation. Officer and director in more than 50 business enterprises. Lawyer. Trustee. And | vet finding time, in the midst of all this, to build up a reputation as the best man at the wheel of & sailing vessel on the face of the seven seas. Politicians Startled. It was a surprise to “Charlie” Adams’ cronies in the yacht clubs which dot our Eastern seaboard from Bar Harbor to the Florida keys, who could never associate their friend, the ‘“Deacon.” with the messy business of politics and | who always took with considerable salt i'.he report that in his beardless youth | he had been a councilman and a mayor. And it was a surprise of a very pain. ful sort to the Republic: How States Will Win and Lose. ‘The losses are suffered mainly by States prevailingly rural, such ndiana, Kentucky, Kansas. The gains are made by States having large and fast-growing cities, such as California, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey. Number of Representatives. Under proposed Loss Now. reapportionment. or gain. 10 po —.a s SwoiusSaiomnninsSianange=duluenalda 037 il me w ~hauduenSunan whanv~n3nwan The fact that some States will lose and others gain is interesting, amd wien understood. important. The fact that Congress has postponed reappor- tionment for eight years is likewise in- teresting and important. But the rea- son, the “why" behind the fact, is fasci- nating. The “why” is the true soul of history. Historians do not always find it. In the present case a hint, though an incomplete and inaccurate hint, is in the words of Representative Willilam F. Kopp of Iowa: “It is well known that the reason a reapportionment bill was not agreed upon after the 1920 census was be- cause that census was believed to be unjust to some of the States. The 1920 census was taken just after the war, while many were still away from their homes, and before the population of the country had become stabilized. Men an wm{cyum of The Navy’s New Skipper Charles Francis Adams Has Never Run a Battleship, but Probably Conld if He Had To his home State, who could not recall that this gentleman, selected to repre- sent Massachusetts and all New Eng- land in a Republican cabinet, had ever traveled the circuit from the Cape to the Berkshires, exhorting the fisher- men and the farmers and the shoe- makers and the textile operatives to have faith in the principles of Re- publicanism. Shock Wears Off. | _The shock has worn off, however, ‘The politicians already have forgiven Mr. Hoover for vielding to the magic which lies in the name of Adams. And the Nation as a whole sees a certain appropriateness in turning over our mighty fleet to a man who has ex- perienced the thrill of salt spray in his nostrils, who can be piped over the side of a battleship and not commit | the unpardonable naval sin of saying | “up front” when he means “forard.” | A cardinal requisite for a Secretary of the Navy is that he should talk the language of the sea. He is dealing, day |in and day out, with admirals and cap- | tains and commanders, and now and then with a petty officer or a blue- jacket. They are clannish. these men who spend most of their lives gazing across a boundless waste of water, and thelr pet aversion is the landlubber who suddenly shows up with a little tempo- rary authority over them. This new Secretary, they realize, never handled the delicate mechanism of a dread- naught in a ticklish situation. But | after they have been doing business | with him for a few weeks they are go- | ing to become convinced that he could ! do_the job if he had to. | Charles Francis Adams was born in sight of the sea, in the historic town of Quincy, where two Presidents of the United States are buried. His boyhood home overlooked the waters of Quincy (Contintied on Fifth Page) Reapportionment Changes Some States Will Gain Representation in Congress, Others Will Lose, When Shake-Up Comes | justification was not correct. The | census of 1920 was not materially un- | representative. The growth of cities at ‘lhe expense of farms and villages was not a temporary condition due to the war, and did not cease with the war. It was a growing condition, already long under way, and having more momentum | right now 'than ever before. The wan- | dering of agriculture was not temporary |and was not destined to be reversed. | Tt continues, In greater force. To do | something about it, through farm relief | and tariff changes, is the purpose of | the coming extra session of Congress. | Whether the actions of Congress will ‘M‘mnlly. reverse the trend from farm | to city—whether Congress will sincerely | and intelligently and directly aim at | this specific purpose—that remains to be _seen. In the coming reapportionment 23 | mémbers will be lost mainly by farming | States; they will be gained mainly by | States having large cities. Twenty- | three members of Congress who now | speak for farming communities will in | future speak for city constituencies. What Change Will Mean. | That will mean much on questions | affecting the relative interests of farm- ers and manufacturers. It will mean much on questions within the field of ! prohibition. It will mean much on all | the questions that involve diversity of interest between rural folks and city folks. The aggregate shift in congres- sional roll calls will be, of course, twice 23, or 46. And many an important roll | call is decided by much less than 46 | votes. (The total membership of the ih‘,l’er house is 435.) | _ But the consequences go much farther. | most. important way. In presidential elections each State | has as many electoral votes as its mem- | bers in the two branches of Congress. Consequently, in future presidential | elections there will be 23 fewer electoral | more from States having great cities. | Presidential elections have been won | and lost with smaller margins than 23 | electors. ‘The election of 1916, between | Woodrow Wilson and Charles E. Hughes, was decided by 23 electoral votes, Wil- | son having 277 and Hughes 254 A i change of only 12 electoral votes would have reversed the outcome. Make-up of Conventions. And still that is not the end of the consequences. Presidential nominating | conventions are made up. roughly. on !the basis of two delegates for each | member of Congress. - Consequently, after reapportionment, in and | 23 'gates from rural States and 46 more from mainly city districts. plies to both the parties—Republican and Democratic. It will mean some- thing. Particularly will it mean some- thing as between the strength of cities, which are mainly wet, and the strength of rural districts, which are mainly dry. To paraphraze one of the most fa- iliar sayings in American history, ityward the course of empire takes its way." What T have been trying to express | was sal REAL FARM AID PROGRAM IS PROPHESIED BY CAPPER Agricultural Needs, So Far as Congress Can Be of Service, Fall Into Six Di BY SENATOR ARTHUR CAPPER. ONGRESS should be able to enact a real farm relief pro- gram during the special session. There is a fine spirit of har- mony prevailing between all the elements which will enter into_ this— the farm leaders, the President, the new Secretary of Agriculture and Congress Out of all the constructive thought t has been given to this problem. and visions. | with certain grades But here the big | effort should be to aid in the building | of more efficient marketing machinery. ‘A Federal Farm Board will be formed, with adequate capital. perhaps $300,000.- | 000, behind it to give proper support to |farmer organization already in the | field and which need only a little aid to enable them to do a much bigger job. 3. Operating largely through these marketing agencies, it will be possible {to decrease the spread greatly between which will be applied in the next two i Ms months, we should be able to get legis- H‘j{,n‘;""‘c’,‘;fi'{' s ettt Tiave lation that will be satisfactory to the | aireate Shel "ot 1o 0L PGE line with country and which will produce real|most other lines of business. They must result and can be reduced. We are especially fortunate, it seems | "4 Ejiminate the illegitimate gambling to me, in having a man of the great | i, 'tarm products. This is not so_com- organizing ability of President Hoover | ot BUCCILSe o e thought, Tt as a leader in this movement. He is | PUSAEI A% SOm€ JC, COVe oAt if | votes from mainly rural States and 23 | thereafter, there will be 46 fewer dele- | This_ap-,| regarded with profound respect by the | agricultural forces of the country and | there is every confidence in his interest in promoting rural life. His wide expe- rience in solving big problems has been of great value to the United States on many occasions in the past and I think we will presently have the best illustra- tion of all along this line in the help he | will give in_putting agricutture, the | Nation's greatest business. on a profit- | able and satisfactory basis. 1 find, too, that the appointment of Arthur M. Hyde as Secretary of Agri- | culture has encountered great favor over | the country and especially in the Middle West, where he is known the best. While governor of Missouri he was noted for his fighting, vigorous championship of the best interests of agriculture, and the folks generally believe that he will | continue that plan in the big job he now has at Washington. I forecast that he will be of tremendous service to the agricultural forces before the special session has come to an end. | Hopeful Angles in Outlook. | So far as the temporary situation goes, there are some hopeful angles to the outlook for agriculture this Spring. The | deep freezing of the soil over all of the | Middle Wesi has, of course, aided in | releasing more available plant food than usual and if we have plenty of moisture 11929 should be another crop year above the average from the standpoint of yields. While some reports of Winter killing of wheat are coming in, it is | evident that the crop got through a | difficult Winter in better condition than had been expected. In general, live stock 1also Wintered well and in most places | there is an ample supply of feed to carry the animals on to grass. And the recent increase in the prices of some farm commodities also has been | helpful. The farm price index on Feb- (ruary 15 was at 136, an advance of | 3 points in a month. At 136 the index is 1 point above February, 1928, and the highest February figure since 1926. But still these more hopeful signs should not prevent us from seeing that | agriculture is still struggling under the | burden of the surplus, from which there { will be no escape until more efficient | marketing machinery has been set up. Take wheat, for example, which is the most important crop of my home State. Kansas. The farm price did advance | some from January 15 to February 15, | but still on February 15 it was about 10 per cent below that of a year ago. ‘The price is still too low. I believe that a more efficient marketing machine can be developed which will give the pro- | ducers more for their grain and at the same time not increase the price of bread to the consumers in the cities, by | | taking up the slack in distribution. Hearings Start Soon. With a view to determining just what | the technique along that line shall be, | although it already is fairly well under- | stood, hearings will be started soon be- fore the agricultural committees of the | Senate and the House, and it is hoped that the proposed legislation will be taking a fairly definite form before Con- | gress meets on April 15. After that the | problems will, of course, be considered in detail by the Senate and House. And I think the members will stay with the job until it is finished properly, and ! without wasting time with other mat- | ters. This special session has been | called by President Hoover to consider agriculture and its problems: I think that he will receive real co-operation | from Congress in holding down the dis- | cussion to those matters, and that the | final plan will be enacted promptly, so that in most cases at least it may apply to_the crops of 1929. While it is not, of course, possible to | outline definitely just what Congress | will do, I think there are certain broad principles which will be enacted inio the program. It will be designed to | bring about a stabilization of the agri- | cultural industry and place the control | of surplus production in the hands of | producers through more efficient co- operative marketing. I forecast that it also will stimulate the development of markets for farm products, especially those of high quality. It contemplates the co-operation of the Government with the farmers in this enterprise, not through subsidies, but through the lend- | ing of funds needed in getting the pro- {gram under way. This was done for | the Federal land banks and the inter- mediate credit banks, and it is a logical | They reach presidential clections in a |and constructive way of helping the | farmers to solve their surplus market- ing difficulties. Senator McNary’s bill introduced at the last session, elimi- | nating the equalization fee. embodies | many of the essential features of this | program. It seems to me that there are six es- sentials that Congress will consider in | working out a farm relief plan, of which |four are of such a nature that they |can be handled directly by national legislation. The aim of the whole effort, as T see it, is to make agriculture pay a fair return to the folks who do the | work; to place farming on a basis where "the producers will have an equal op- portunity with those engaged in other industries to make_their business oper- ations profitable. It is not a problem Iof passing the hat for individual farm- lers or for agriculture as a whole, |Farmers are not asking for that, and they are not entitled to it. Agricultural Needw Agricultural needs, so far as Congress ; can be of service, include: | 1. Higher tariffs on farm products ton an import or marginal import basis, which will help greatly in providing a protected home market. This is. of | |course, an involved matter, and there i doubtless will be some discussion in Con- ! gress of just the proper advances which should be made, as there has been al ready elsewhere, but I think it will be an important feature of the relief pro- gram. It seems to me that butter sup- plies an excellent illustration of a com- get, showed that he was going to talk | | ures as the program of the special ses-|in high positions, whose sincerity and sion is one of the very rare cases in| knowledge could not be questioned, | which one can see that there really is | stated that the 1920 census was not fair about his bill and otherwise keep it be- fore the Senate until he got action. That would have prevc‘ntfid the gnsa'ge of important appropriations. Senator hanges Musf 1 Vandenberg said he would stop his tac- S e e ties if he could get an understanding.| By the reapportionment about to be He got his understanding. He was made, 23 Representatives will be shifted. assured by Republican Leader Watson | To state it another way, 23 members and Presiding-officer-to-be Curtis that’ will be lost by 17 States, and the same | his bill would be passed in the special 23 will be gained by 11 other States. |a harmony of events, and that history | really has a pattern, if we can trace it. to the agricultural States.” Justification for Delay. That was the justification given for faflure to make reapportionment as the Constitution requires, and at the time it requires. It is fair to say that at the time, about 1920, the justification was believed by many. Nevertheless, that id more forecibly b: Y . | modity which needs a higher tariff, [Sive Ralph B¢ Tomeny P gepresenta- | jhe situation there being, briefly, that was talking on a different aspect of re- | frequently the tiny imports have a huj apportionment. He was arguing for an Influence on prices in the United States, increase in the total number of Con. “hen they should have nome. But it gressmen. That would partially, though | Vill do no good to increase the farm notgreatly, modify the consequences of | fAriffs and then allow a corresponding reapportionment. ‘But enlargement will | Increase with other products rural folks not. take place. It is agreed that the | Must buy. s no time for a general number of members shall remain what | "Pya%d revision of the tariff. students of the problem will remember that short selling of futures is done by but two classes: First, hedgers; second. speculators. have not found that there s any special objection to legitimate hedging transactions. The national economic value of the opera- tions of the speculators certainly is open to question. Isn't it possible for us to reduce these considerably? Two More Essentials. ‘Then there are two more essentials which enter into the relief program which will take longer to work out. But they must be considered. 5. Lowering of transportation eests (a) through a readjustment of freight rates; (b) through developing inland waterways, including the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes projects. The d!v’WR ment of water transportation for the Great Lakes is, of course, a program that will take years to put into effect. Thus it is all the more important that it should be started promptly and pushed vigorously. It is right in line with sound economics. which require that the Nation should make the best possible use of the material resources that it has. An adequate development of the waterways of the Middle West will be of vast service to the industrial life of that region, and as it grows, thus requiring more workers, it will tend to make a better local market for farm products. 6. We must shift the unfair share of the taxation burden now borne by land, and especially farm land. This is & problem to be solved by the State and local taxing units, but it has a most important relationship to the future welfare of agriculture. The gen- eral property tax is obsolete: taxation in the future must be based on ability to pay. Adequate attention to the six points I have outlined will, I believe. give a working program for agricultural relief that will put the business on a paying basis. I believe this will be done. And then, after all the travail through which farming has gone, it will at last return the maximum rewards as a way of life. And when that time comes our American Nation will take that position of physical and mental well- rbeln ‘m— all the people that is reserved for P Huts Built to Aid 1908 Quake Victims Yet Used ‘The Messina earthquake of 1908, in which 90,000 people lost their lives, is probably a hazy memory to those Amer- icans who donated shiploads of food. clothing and medicine, as well as large sums of money. It may therefore be interesting news to them that their philanthropy lives on after two decades. A new Messina has grown up on the ruins of the old. There are numerous costly public and private buildings, fine apartment houses and private residences in the new Mes- sina, Sicily’s third largest city and a thriving port and railroad center. One whole quarter, however, of Messina is still made up exclusively of wooden houses donated by Americans for tem- porary shelter. ‘Thousands of Messinians have remain- ed all these years in the “American houses,” as they are still called. Most of the houses are whitewashed and have been divided into several rooms. They show signs of age, but appear to be warm and dry. Most of the streets in this quarter are unpaved. The dirt roads. the uniformly laid out streets and the houses on stilts all tend to re- mind one of the poorer quarter of some backward city in the United States. ‘The Messina program calls for per- manent houses replacing these shacks and a number already have been re- moved. It would seem that many will remain for at least several years, how- ever. There was no lava flow here, so reconstruction was simpler than in Mascali, overflowed by lava from Aetna in November, 1928. Tribute Is Accorded Japanese Phone Girl A tribute to the heroism of a Japa- nese telephone operator who ‘stuck to her post in the face of death was re- | cently brought to Japan from Ameri- can operators. Although the honored one died & few months ago, every one | was touched by this instance of inter- national good will. Four years ago s | conflagration wiped out a large section of the town of Numazu, south of Tokio. Mrs. Tomi Watanabe, the telephone operator in the railway station, staved at her post after all of the others had fled, the railway exchange being the only one by which communication could be kept with the outside world. Only when the entire building was in flames did she leave, and less than five min- utes later it collapsed. News of the heroism was published in magazines of American telephone companies, and the president of one of the New York com- panies started a movement to collect & sum to be given to Mrs. Watanabe as a token from her sisters across the sea. Dr. Kuniichi Tani. an honorary professor in Cornell Universfy, was given a leave of absence to return for & visit to Japan, and was intrusted with the gift. He went to Numazu on Janu- ary 2 to present Mrs. Watanabe with the money and found that she had died. He then presented it to her husband, also an employe of the raflway station. Three-Mile Funicuiar Railway Being Built The world's longest suspension cable railway is being built In the Bavarian Alps. According to report, it will be fin- ished in April. Cars with 25 seats each will carry passengers for a distance of more than three miles to the top of the Nebelhorn, 7,300 feet above ses level. it now is—435. Evervthing that Re 2. Even with crops on an export _Bverything that Rep-!pasie, as with wheat, tariff protection " (Continued on Fifth Page.) sometimes is of some value, especially ~ The longest span of cable between the supporting pillars is about 3,200 faet. 1