Evening Star Newspaper, March 31, 1929, Page 29

P Pyt | e | Part 2—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D: ¢, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 31, 1929. . TARIFF SHIFT ~ U. S. FOREIGN RELATIONS Congress May Make Undo Effects of H Tour and Also Agitate Canada. FRANK H. SIMONDS. BY HILE Anglo-American rela- tions manifestly constitute the most spectacular of the problems in foreign affairs confronting the new admin- istration, it is not less clear that the pending revision of the tariff at the ex- tra session has international implica- tions of grave importance. It is a meas- ure of the extent to which the United States has become a world power in re- cent years that the wholly domestic matter of tariff should instantly raise foreign circumstances of the first im- portance. ‘The pending tariff revision calls into immediate question our relations both with Canada and with South America The former has become the greatest of our customers abroad, the latter is the field in which President Hoover has clearly indicated his purpose to push American commerce. But while trade and commerce—business in all its in- ternational details—are primarily in- volved, it is not less apparent that our | popularity if not our prestige in the ‘Western Hemisphere will be materially” , affected by the action of Congress this Summer. ) When Mr. Hoover went to South America, frankly seeking to strengthen friendships and dissipate suspicions and resentments, there came from Canada many comments, which were summcd up in the phrase: “If it is worth whle to seek new friends in the south, is it not equally worth while to retain the old friend to the north?” And this was the clear expression of Canadian apprehension at the prospect of tarift revision calculated to raise the duties on precisely the things which Cana sends to us. To balance this Canadian comment I might recall the word of an American familiar with the conditions in Argentina. Said he: “Good will tours are fine, but if Congress raises the duty on linseed oil a few pennies, Mr. Hoover's visit to Buenos Aires had bet- ter have been avoided.” Tariff Struggle Is Sure. The pending tariff discussion marks | a clear stage in the development of | the United States. It forecasts a strug- gle between those who would have the United States go forward in the role which it has unconsciously come to fill in recent post-war years—the same role | plaved by Britain before 1914—and | those who would have us revert to narrow policy of domestic concentr: tion. Today we have come to the point| where we have replaced Britain as| the first nation, in commerce and in ! finance, in the Canadian market. , Canada buys from us nearly a billion dollars of goods & year and sells us about half as much. American money is supplying the capital for the vast | industrial and mineral expansions all | over the Dominion. While no people possess a finer or more clearly defined | national sentiment than the Canadians and any notion of political penetra- | tion would be at once absurd and harm- ful, nevertheless, within the limits pre- | scribed by & proud and conscious na- tional spirit, the Canadians have come to have a very close relation with us. No one can mistake the fact that fnany Britons have looked with regret | | and even anxiety at the development of American-Canadian associations and | to what seems, in their eyes, the gradual replacement of British by American ! goods and ideas in the great Dominion. | | Despite various British efforts, there has been no mistaking the extension | ©f the double process; on the one hand, Canada has become more and more a | nation within itself. and on the other, this Canadian nation has steadily de- ! veloped as a better market for American goods and a more favorable field for American capital. The value of the Canadian market for our goods been and remains | to a considerable degree dependent upon_the opportunities Canadians | sess for selling in our market. A tariff ) war .between the two countries would anmistakably lead to a cooling of friend- | ly feelingg. A policy of reprisal would inevitably follow a violent change in our | tariff rates. The essence of the problem is found ! in the question as to whether we arc now prepared to consider the foreign as | weil as the domestic consequences of | ) tariff legislation. While we produced | chiefly the raw materials and food- | stuffs which the world required, such as copper, cotton, wheat and beef, it was | possibie to treat tariff as a purely do- mestic matter. We could keep out for- eign goods, which we could produce ourselves, while the rest of the world | could not punish us by reprisal, because j it had to have our raw materials, More- er, as & borrowing Nation we offered | a profitable field for investments, and the surplus represented by the differ- | ence between our exports and imports was invested here by foreign nations. Now We Are Vulnerable. But we have at a single bound be- | come a. creditor nation and a great ex- porter of goods. Our manufacturers are ! now not only concerned with the mo- | mopoly of the domestic market, but from necessity are seeking foreign mar. i kets. As a creditor nation, whose in- vestments and credits due to war debts | must aggregate more than $15,000,000,- 000, we are in an utterly different situation from the United States of 1900 | or even of 1914. And, as a great ex- ' porter of manufactured goods, we are Do longer insured against reprisal. We | are vulnerable to any counter offensive provoked by our own tariff legislation. Broadly speaking, the question is now ! taking form in something like the fol- lowing dilemma: “Shall the adminis- | tration seek votes at home or trade and | Iriendship abroad?” Friendship we manifestly cannot expect in Europe, but | friendship we just as clearly have in Canada and have sought in Latin | America. Is the Argentine market, with all that this implies, more or less valu- able than the interests of the farmers | of the Northwest, for whom linseed oil is an important detail?- | Again, the situation seems to be de- weloping much as it did in the days be. | fore the Civil War, when the mai | turers of the North sought tariff | the .cotton planters of the South strove for free trade. Only today the issue is | between the manufacturer and the | farmer, with the former seeking or bound at no distant date to seek tariff | legislation designed to give greater op- portunities in the world markets and gxe,hrmer striving té protect himself at ome. One thing is clear, No form of farm | relief through tariff revision is conceiv- "nble which does not inflict ve grave wounds upon our American neighbors. None of ‘these neighbors will conceivably yefrain from reprisal. And inevitably exports in manufactured . manufacturer will be called upon to { y, many | benefit bestowed upon the farmer. But *The real bene “Europe—Brif | France, which in ‘wour competitors. iary is boun Rl | rival those of Britain and in whose J elist, compromises by allowing her num- these reprisals will strike at American ; most as numerous as the i ‘The | owners. ny, Italy and|when there are marucmm arated from one MAY HURT Changes That Will oover’s Good-Will probably inevitable, tariff revision can only mean that both Canada and Latin America will turn to Europe and seek by reciprocal tariff “avors to reimburse themselves for the losses resulting from | our tariff legislation. Unpopularity Stands Against Us. And just as certainly the political | will follow the economic. Resentment at injuries resulting from our domestic legislation will. not merely provoke legislative reprisal, ‘but will make all | too easy the task of our economic rivals | in Latin America in exploiting our un- | popularity to their own commercial and | political ~ advantage. ~ Whatever Mr. | Hoaver won for us in South America, he | is almost certain to see lost in. Congress. Good will trips and protective tariffs are, at least beyond a certain point, ir- reconciliable. Actually, of course, the whole tariff issue raises again the familiar fact that the United States is still—in | thought, in political mentality—in the | transition stage. We have become in | reality a nation whose exports already exports manufactures are steadily rising | to a greater and greater proportionate value. And in the same fashion we are becoming daily more and more the world’s banker, the great lending power of the planet. But while this revolution has taken place, no parallel revolution has oc- curred in political thought. Congress, called upon to legislate, acts with a mind exclusively occupied with the problem of the number of votes to be produced | in regions where the vote crop is most vital. Foreign markets may be lost and foreign friendships imperiled, but the | men who make the laws are, as yet, totally unfamiliar with the whole vast and novel character of American re- lations abroad. Beyond much debate the work of the extra session to meet next month will give Europe its first effective opportu- nity to get back at us since the World War. It will provide invaluable oppor- tunities to score in the competition in trade, which is already - becoming in- tense. For Britain in particular it will afford an opportunity Teopen & battle almost lost in the Canadian market. And no one who is even slightly familiar with™ the ruling senfiment in Canada today hesitates to | forecast that the reprisals will be far-| reaching. And for Europe in general, | South American resentment will supply | the same chance, | A Congress still dominated by the conceptions of the McKinley adminis- tration and limited by the outlook of the United States of 1899 is now going to legislate for a Hoover administration and a nation become the most consider- able world power and economically and financially on the planet. This Con- gress is going to raise the tariff in those directions best calculated to raise votes and without regard to the consequences to the foreign relations and foreign in- terests of the United States. In Europe, of course, tarift legislation is a detail in foreign policy. The same hands which shape policy make and modify duties. Friendly nations ex- change favorable schedules, a political alliance insures an economic associ- ation. Even old enemles signalize their present, if temporary, truces by eco- nomic adjustments. After Locarno, France and Germany promptly framed the great steel cartel and the smaller potash arrangement. And, conversely, nations which quarrel, even when they do not fight with arms, fight with tariffs, as Germany and Poland are struggling today. ‘To the European mind the tariff is as much—perhaps more—a question of foreign policy as of domestic concern. ostile tariffs and friendly relations are rarely discoverable. As a consequence of our isolation we have thought of tariff exclusively in terms of domestic politics, in terms of votes to be won at home and without thought of markets and friendships to be lost abroad. Now, for the first time since we became in a real sense a world power, we are undertaking a tariff re- vision, Perhaps—inevitably, too—we are undertaking it preeisely in the same spirit and fashion as in the long past. But unless every sign and all the ac- cumulated experience of the past prove mistaken, we are destined to discover that in the United States of 1929 the question of domestic tariff is one which involves every conceivable issue of for- eign relations, political quite as much as economic. (Copyright, 1929.) s London Seeks to Bar Secret Phone Numbers Efforts are being made to abolish secret telephone numbers—numbers which, at the express wish of sub- scribers, do not appear in the telephone directory. In London alone there are several thousand subscribers who, by this means, seek immunity from the in- cessant tinkle of the phone bell and from the flood of circulars and ap- rells which frequently follow the pul lication of a telephone address. One solution under consideration is that the owners of secret telephone numbers pay a higher rate. To facili- tate general abandonmen: of the prac- tice the Prince of Wales and other members of the royal family have de- cided to have their telephone numbers appear in the directory. Among _distinguished owners of secret numbers are Prime Mi T and Mrs. Stanley Baldwin, Bernatd Shaw | and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Among | those who allow their private numbers | to appear are Sir William Joynson- Hicks, Sir Austen Chamberlain, Neville Chamberlain and Sir Laming Worth- ington-Evans. Rebecca West, the nov- ber, but not her address, to appear In the directory. Norwegians Evade Radio License Laws| Radio fans without the required license are proving vexatious to the Norwemx; :::hnmus. zcuoe, at the | request of broadcasting company, | have been attempting to ferret out the “thieving listeners-in.” but with no en- couraging results. In all Norway there are 62,832 licensed owners of receiving sets. But, as the records of the broad- casters show, 27,000 more who pos- :e’md" licenses did not renew them in Furthermore, it fs estimated that over 20,000 fans never took the trouble to v " Lure of the Arctic Ice Twenty Years Ago This Week Robert E. Peary Reached Goal of His Life Work—the North Pole AS HE LEFT THE SHIP, THE GOING WAS ROUGH AND THE WEATHER INCREDIBLY HARSH. BY FITZHUGH GREEN. Y a strange and quite unpremed- itated coincidence the first sen- tence of this article was written at 10 o'clock on the morning of February 22, 1929, just 20 years exactly to the day and hour from the moment when the fur-clad Peary at the age of 53 left his ice-bound | ship, the Roosevelt, bound for his long, hard march to the North Pole. On this historic morning, Washing- ton’s birthday, 1909, the weather was| thick, the temperature 31 degres be- low zero, and a light snow was falling. The sun had been gone since Octo- ber. By 10 am. just enough faint light showed over the southern horizon for the Eskimos and dogs to travel. Outwardly the picture was a scene of gray-white desolation; the chaotic ice- pack clutching at the little ship; dark moving ‘spots of teams and sledges against the polar gloom; ghost-like little snow-whorls flung up by stabbing wind. Inwardly—for Peary, at least—it was ' voted to this one terrific task. He was Stone—A Great Journalist BY SALVATORE CORTESL MERICA must raise a monument to Melville E. Stone as the last but one of the noblest heroes of her complete independence. The seat of whatever memorial is considered appropriate ought to be | New York, the metropolis of the New World, where he spent most of his life | and where triumphed his lofty ideal of emancipating his country from the re- maining, though certainly the most dangerous, vestiges of subjection. That | memorial will recall to future genera- tions the last link in that luminous chain which, from George Washington i0 Melville E. Stone, transformed the United States from the neglected col- onies of far-distant Euroepan countries | into one of the greatest, most powerful and prosperous nations in the world. When I first visited Amerjca, some 40 years ago, and lived there for a cou- ple of years the press had practically no foreign news service. Only scanty, poor, imperfect reports about European | events reached the United States, and even these usually had been manipulated in the country of their origin in such a way as to create an atmosphere favorable to foreign interests, which had everything to gain by preventing the formation and development of a free, independent and national mentality in America. Such a state of things was helped by single individuals and by groups of men in America, who availed themselves of the situation to exploit to their advantage that condition of sub- Jection of the most precious of all lib- erties—spiritual and mental freedom. Only Bennett’s old New York Herald had a meager European service, and Charles A< Dana, editor of the New York Sun, under whose enlightened leadership I first worked in American journalism, attempted to create a news agency of his own. Sees Gravity of Crisis. Melville E. Stone gras the gravity of the erisis and determired to rally all the healthy forces of journalism in the United States to defeat the men ahd or- ganizations responsible for keeping the country in this state of. intellectual slavery. The struggle was long and hard, but at last his Napoleonic genius, coupled with a most elevated sense of patriotism, annihilated all opposition, and he was able to create and firmly establish the Associa Press, a unique_t of newsgathering associa- tion, which has si in magnitude, reliability and power all' -other news agencies in the world. . Many Americans, although reading and appreciating every day the service of the Associated Press, have not an exact idea of what it is. Most of them do not realize that its fundamental basis is a co-operative non-profit-earn- mutual society of newsrtper pub- lishers, belonfllxl:z to all po\l&cll parties, al an ‘pression of impartiality. Assisted by Distinguished Men. ‘This colossal work was accomplished l;{ Mel:me la.!sume wm: ";fs ass| ce a few e mos tinguished Jjournalists of his time, one of whom, 8 tunning: programs, Hence the “thieving tuners-in” are al- | nsed radio ‘These evaders, scatiered over . for the small|country, are not easily reached by the|because what I witnessed =5 i e o o gy | s the thi does not stop ' there. | of H sparsely sef g'obe.emmuanmn iles - apart, and authorities, mi an many are sep- by and forests, mountains | my writing of Melville E. Stone if to - recall dd som ; 8 s i _E | | | a scheme pregnant with drama. For nearly @ quarter of a century he had been waitiing for this day. Since 1896 he had flung himself in a series of Napoleonic campaigns upon the north- ern sepulcher of our globe's last great geographical secret. He had struggled, weak with starvation, across the lofty Greenland ice-cap; a triumph because he had proved for the first time that Greenland was an island, but a failure because it ended his dream of a dry-| land highway to the Pole, Now, as he plodded head-down through the heavy snow, he thought grimly of the second stage of his long slege, the years when he based west of Greenland and tried to reach the Pole by crawling up the rugged coast of Ellesmere Land. Indeed, a slight limp as he walked was a tragic heritage of those days. It came from having lost all the toes of both feet during the Ellesmere struggle. > And now, in 1909, he had reached the third and final stage of a lifetime de- engaged on a plan of action that was founded on many bitter failures. The {plan was to force a ship through the ice to the farthest possible northern land base; to huat throughout the Fall and Winter so that fresh meat might keep the dreaded scurvy from his men: to start at polar dawn (February) with a large party of Eskimos, dogs and 8 few white assistants; and with sup- porting parties to put a small picked unit within striking distance of the Pole itself. On that biting cold morning of 1909 Peary knew that to date he had suc- ceeded. His ship was frozen in about 500 miles from the Pole. Only 90 miles west,”at Cape Columbia, 7 white men, 19 Eskimos, 146 dogs and 20 sledges awaited him. Pemmican, fuel, fur clothing and personnel were adequate. The route from Columbia lay due north. And while the going was to be rough and the weather incredily harsh, Peary felt in his heart that he must succeed. MELVILLE Helped Free America From Intellectual Slavery—Knew Secrets of Nations and Men. E. STONE. . Long Associated With Melville E. Stone Salvatore Cortesi, who has been correspondent of The Associated Press in Rome for 27 years, has writen a tribute to the memory of Mel- ville E. Stone, in which he shows something of Mr. Stone’s ability and ideals as he observed them. Mr. Cortesi is one of the most distinguished newspaper men in in- ternational journalism. His first contact with the United States and the relations of this country with Europe came in 1891. As a representative of the Tribuna of Rome, he came to America to report the unhappy sit- uation created by the lynching in New Orleans of 11 Italians charged with blackhand murders. President Harrison received Mr. Cortesi and discussed the strained relations caused by Italy’s failure to understand the luck of power of the Washington Government to compel the State of Louisiana to reim- burse the families of the dead Italians. Mr. Cortesi has met every American President since that time. For a year he edited an Italian newspaper Miss Isabella Lauder Cochrane of United States. in New York, and his marriage to Boston strengthened ties with the . During the past quarter century Mr. Cortesi was intimately-associated with Melville E. Stone. He came to Associated of some of the world events in which know the gemeral manager of The Press as few men did, and in the accompanying story he tells Mr. Stone played a little known, but highly important, part, Mr. Cortesi was with Mr. Stone at the Portsmouth, N. H., conference, in 1905, which made peace between Russia and Japan, and was instrumental in giving the world its first news of the final agree- ment_upon terms. Mr. Cortesi also was an able assistant to Mr. Stone at the Versailles conference, the second Hague conference, the Washington arms conference, the Genoa economic conference in 1922, the continuation of this confer- ,ence at The Hague a few weeks later and a score of other international conferences of importance. Mr. Cortesi’s observations and comment on Mr. Stone, therefore, come from a wealth of knowledge about him and are especially timely. My entrance into the Associated Press the methods ma; e an idea of fol- lo'{dwby Mr. Stone in enlisting his men. Investigated Thoroughly. Mgr. John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., ted my name to him, and gave him a letter of introduction to me. Mr. Stone , and, visited Rome, to repeat almost word for word what he later said, he was not with simply seeing me and discussing mat- ters with He talked about me to Marquis minister of foreign affairs, whom we met together at & luncheon given by George Meyer, the American Ambassador, and who asked us_both to lunch -at his home, at the Palazzo Ferraioll two days cordhgnt:' the founder of ated , Prinetti told him that he did not think a better choite could be Vietor, who, when my name was men- tioned, not only had no objection but later. - Ac- | cia ‘the Associ- | “It was my last chance,” he wrote. “I had to succeed.” No military attack of huge modern armies ever went forward with such precision as did the advance of the succeeding days. By March 27 the previous record of 7 degrees 6 minutes north latitude was broken. Yet-— “Even now,” his diary read, "I dare not build too much on the chances of the white and treacherous ice which | stretches 180 nautical miles northward | between me and the end.” Marvin (who was to die on the re- | turn), MacMillan, Goodsell and Borup had turned back, having done their human best. The pace was killing dogs and exhausting Eskimos, who lacked the spiritual sustenance of the white man, though their physiques were superb. Capt. Bob Bartlett, Peary's faithful skipper, turned back at 68 degrees. The world afterward criticized el"‘relry severely for not taking the captain to the Po t ett was 8 Britisher not necessary to repeat here. Mr. Stone went still further, and obtained an au- dience with Pope Leo XIII, to whom he | submitted his plan. The great pontift | also gave a favorable opinion as to my ‘nppointment but added that what he wished was that, like Protestant Ger- |many and Orthodox Russia, America 1 should have an ambassador credited to | the Holy See. All Difficulties Overcome. | At that time, owing to the acute an- | tagonism between church and state, Mr. | Stone was undecided whether to appoint | only one correspondent in Rome or two, one to deal with the news about the | Italian government and the other with | affairs referring to the Vatican. In- | deed, for the latter position he had al- ready in view a member of the Pope's | Noble Guard. He talked over this prob- |prenmmud ‘words of praise which it is | | |lem with Cardinal Rampolla, the papal | | secretary of state, who approved the | idea of my being appointed for the “Although,” he said, “I| | thin t his sympathy is with the | Quirinal, still I think he will be just in |all questions pertaining to Roman news.” | _Another difficulty remained, that of | my being then correspondent of the | New York Tribune, owned by Mr. | Whitelaw Reid, whom I had just visited in London, and who was one of the directors of the Associated Press. I could I not take over the new position without | resigning from the Tribune, nor did Mr. Stone wish me to enter his news agency without the consent of Mr. Whitelaw Reid. We both telegraphed to-him, and he nobly and kindly answered that al- though he was anxious for the success of his paper, he cared still more that the Associated Press should have a good service, Took Pride in Men. ‘Such painstaking systems were adopt- | ed by Mr. Stone in ¢hoosing all his chief | 2ollaborators, whom he considered not so much as subordinates bui as members of the same family, establishing with them ties of affection and regard by { which correspondents worked for him through a sense of duty as well as with a feeling of friendship. He reciprocated these sentiments, as could be seen when, in speaking of his men, he used to say with a migture of pride and emotion, “They are fine, clean boys.” When | form. Once, in a reproving telegram, he said: “You are fined. ‘The next time | we meet you must pay for a bottle of Marsala wine.” ,This, however, must | not be understood in the sense that he | was not . severe and inflexible when | niecessary. I once saw him summarily | dismiss a correspondent, and nothing could make him change his mind. Service Transformed. To give an idea of the transformation which the foreign service for America | went through after the establishment of the Associated Press in 1893, it will be sufficient to cite the following compari- sons. , When, on February 8, 1878, occurred the death ‘of Pope Pius IX, who | had reigned 32 , pontificate having been longer than that of St. I Peter, and had gone through wars, revo- lutions, exile and, lly, the fall of | the temporal mer American had only 10 1 aboat it. When Leo XIIT died, July 20, 1903, the Asso- from Rome suffi- cient page of closely-printed matter in the New York On the occasion of the Messina earthquake in December, 1908, one day BT e et o Teac . The - en such (Continued on Fourth Page.) i | something went wrong his reproach ; | often took a half-paternal, half-jocose | cl SUGGESTIONS - HONORING ASKED ON WASHINGTON Committee Casts About for Fitting Way to Celebrate 200th Anniversary of First President’s Birth. BY MARK SULLIVAN, HE two hundredth anniversary of George Washington's birth wiil come in a little less than three years. A committee has been formed to consider fitting ways of commemorating it. One of the com- mittee, Mr. Bernard M. Baruch of New York, looking forward, has asked the writer of this article for suggestions. The writer hereby turns the request over to the public. This anniversary is certain to stimulate the imagination of Americans in some direction or another, or in several directions. How can the event be so managed as to get the best out of it? For e le, one means of honoring ‘Washing and calling the people’s minds to him is already in existence. It i3 & monument in the city of Wash- ington, the highest in America, over 555 feet, and (I think) the highest in the world. Nothing is to be said in deroga- tion of that method. It, however, is a | concentration upon one physical object. | 1Is there a means by which, so to speak, | the coming celebration may be more diffused? By which more people can participate in it—and, by participating, share its stimulus? To do something analogous to the | ‘Washington Monument would be com- paratively easy. It would be simple to collect the money, start the building, | and let it go at thi ‘To concentrate upen one object or one event would be | | the easiest way for the memorial com- | mittee to fulfill its function. | But would not the committee do bet- | i ter if it would, to speak in apparent | | paradox, concentrate upon diffusion? | The best measure of the committee’s | success and usefulness might readily be, | not the spectacular quality of any one | | monument or event, but rather the | number of persons who are led to turn | their minds toward Washington and his { times, to find individual ways of ex-| pressing their interest, and to partici- | | pate in local celebrations by local com- | | munities, Nation in Mood. America is already in the mood for | it. There has been under way for some time 8 clearly marked and appealing trend in American life, a trend express- | | ing itself in a disposition to turn with | more " interest. and conspicuously with more affection, toward older American | heroes, institutions and ways of life.| | The tendency is only beginning to get | under way: it is certain to gain increas ing momentum by reason of the prepa- | | rations for the Washington lnnlverury; {in 1932, | " This " obvious mood of the American | | public justifies the expectation that | | we shall have a period of revived inter- | | est in America’s past, renewed affection | | for our older ways. The reasons for this renaissance of the Americanism of | twenty, fifty, a hundred or two hun-| | dred years ago are too complex for | analysis. Indeed, analysis does not matter. ‘The fact is more important | than the reasons. Doubtless one reason | has been. a flare-up of, so to speak, native Americanism accompanying li political issue, our decision to remain out of the League of Nations. Another | | cause has been a natural reaction of | | indignation against an excessive icono. ciasm about America—reaction from jeering attitude which has expressed itself during 10 or 20 years past in cynical books from a school of modern authors, authors who make a cult of iconoclasm. Doubtless another reason | has been the rather sensational success ‘ot some very recent books which have | deait with the America of the past— | | and dealt with it in a spirit of respect | | and affection. { | "Whatever the reasons, we have had | during some two years past an increas- | ing number of books dealing with the | America of one, two, three or more gen- | erations ago. The further number of | | such books now in preparatfon is such | | as to suggest the prediction that during ‘ the three years until the 200th anni- | versary of George Washington's mm—; February 22, 1932—America will tum | more and more toward seeking out the | details of its own past, recalling them, and tc somie extent preserving them. Special American Need. | ‘The writer of this article happens to | have, among a considerable number of | convictions, one minor one about a | special American need. | It is that each American community, | especially the smaller ones, should have | | greater pride in the things that are its | own; that little towns should be less in | a hurry to accept néw ideas, standards | | of taste, styles, and the like, that come | out of New York or Washington. For | example, in little towns as small as| 13,000 people, one hears, as & local boast: | “We have a skyscraper, just like New | York.” In little villages, as'small as a 1,000 people, where every family could readily have its own house and front yard and flowers; where every family could have the attic and the cellar which are happy attributes of a house- hold life—even in such tiny little towns, one is told, with perverse civic pride: “We have a big. new apartment house. ‘The present writer, out of a consid- erable acquaintance with America, be- !lieves that one of the loveliest little {towns in all the land is Predericksburg, Va. (Not to be confused with Fred- erick, Md., which is a nice town in its | own wav and has Barbara Fritchie for |its local legend). One reason for the | loveliness of Fredericksburg, Va., is that it has preserved more of its old build- | ! ings and old institations than any other | American community. When a new building is put up in Fredericksburg, Va., the aim in mind is, not to imitate | the latest thing in New York—but to | conform, in architecture and other- | wise, to what is local and traditional in Fredericksburg’s own past. To some | extent, this fidelity to local standards {is_insisted upon by ecity regulations. (Fredericksburg, Va. incidentally, is ‘, losely associated with George Washing- ton: Washington’s mother is buried | , there). Several Possible Suggestions. If the object of the coming Washing- ton anniversary be to enlist widespread participation, and to cause each loeal community to take pride in its own past—in that case, there are several possible suggestions: Let each community seek out its own local historical figure. If there is not already a memorial to him, set one up. ‘This idea need not be confined to local heroes who have had a part in national history. It can be extended to figures purely local. Practically every com- munity, no matter how small, must have been the birthplace, or the abiding place, temporary or permanent, of som® one who had distinction, local or national, whether a teacher, a judge, a writer, an mve:twr. a Senator, a governor, a mem- | Pursuit of this notion will lead to the discovery of some depressing conditions, and the correction of them. There are some Amg , not local at all, but national and very important, whose graves are in the communities spring. Some such graves Any person who travels much in America, and makes s practice himself with the local haracters, has | of & venerated antique. been saddened occasionally to find that his' interest is not shared by the com- munity that ought to have pride in their possession. A worthy extension of the idea of celebrating local heroes is illustrated b: a search just now being made throug! two Virginia counties, Loudoun and Al- bemarle, for the birthplace of Susan Catherine Koerner Wright, the mother of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The rec- ords say she was born in Hillsboro, Va., but there are two Hillsboros, one in each of the counties named. To how many American communities has it occurred to set up local monu- ments to locally born mothers of famous men? To how many mothers of Presi- dents do appropriate monuments exist? The monument to Washington's mother was not set up until comparatively re- cently, during the administration of Benjamin Harrison. ‘Where was the mother of Grover Cleveland born and reared? Is the pres- nt resting place of the mother of Wood- row Wiison appropriately marked? Looking Back by Communities. The idea that each community should look back to its own past could usefully be expressed in a variety of ways. School teachers can start their pupils on research in local history. News- papers can send reporters to interview the oldest people in the community and thus preserve memories of events that | otherwise will soon pass from the minds of men. Local libraries can make col- lections of books dealing with, or con- taining allusions to, the community. Old newspapers can be sought out and placed in libraries where preservation will be more secure. It is a ecrime against history and local pride to de- stroy _or permit to be lost any news- p;&cr dated, let us say, earlier than Old grist mills can be preserved; or, if already destroyed, their sites can be marked. Wherever there still remains an old schoolhouse it should be preserved, with markers giving the names of the teachers. In the rapid evolution toward consolidated schools, the one-room schoolhouse will soon have the status ‘The country church is disappearing fully as fast as the country school. Who has not seen the forlorn shabbiness of rural churches that once were the bright springs of inspiration for farming communities? Most sad of all, the country church was apt to be accompanied by a burying ground. Some of these burying grounds, with no church now left to care for them, may contain graves worthy of local celebration. How long will it be until the country blacksmith shop will have completely given way to the garage and filing station? Where could one go today to get a photograph of a real old-time blacksmith shop with a blacksmith at work in it? The typical blacksmith shop was apt to include not only horse- shoeing but wagon making and harness making. Must the old-time - covered bridge really disappear? 1Is its going really inevitable? One realizes that improved roads demand wide bridges and some- times stronger ones. But could not the road be deflected a little, to let the an- clent covered bridge remain, a senti- | mental reminder to hurrying motorists | of a more gentle and leisurely past? Preservation of Trees. In some communities are trees, or groups o ftrees, of great age. Steps can be taken to get them out of private ownership with its hazards, or other- wise to preserve them as unique land- marks. If the writer of this article had his way, no log cabin now standing in the United States would ever razed. What “log cabin"—the word and the phrase—has meant in American history and sentiment could hardly be over- stated. More than one President has been elected upon slogans that included the phrase. The log cabin, with other things, was the symbol of American in- dividualism—the chosen dwelling place of a man who liked to “be to himself,” the type of American who began to feel a little uncomfortable when neighbors came so near that he could see the smoke of their chimneys from his own cabin door. That type of man and the independent individualism he stood for have both largely passed from American life. If you are interested in log cabins and make a point of seeking them out, you will be impressed by how often you find them some distance away from the road, in the back portions of flelds, or cn the edges of strips of woods. Many local communities possess unique examples of early American carpentry. The tendency—which does not seem to the present writer to be good—is to let these specimens be car- ried off to the cities. In King George County, Va., there was, until recently, a specimen of early American paneling in a room of a house once occupied by a relative of George Washington. From New York came an agent of the Metro- politan Museum, who paid $4,000 for the privilege of tearing out the sides and ceiling of the room, to be set up in New York. As to the desirability of this change of location, there is doubt- less room for sound argument. It ma be that, in New York, more people will see this paneling. But it will be seen as a curlosity. Had it remained where it was, it might have been a source of something more than mere interest; it would have stimulated local pride, and local artisanship. Old Words and Old Ways. In some American communities, old words and old ways of speech remain in use. Mr. Coolidge’s Vermont use of “choose” was an example. The writer of this article a few weeks ago saw the word “sutler” in an advertisement of & public sale of the equipment of a farm. The word was used to descrive the man who would provide food for those assem- bled. That was in Chester County, Pa. ‘Where else is “sutler” still in common use? During the generation following the Civil War, thre word was universal, because it had become familiar to every soldier. In many American communities, old lotal place-names have partly or wnelly disappeared. Some months ago, the writer of this article sought out the farm that .had been occupied 190 years ago by the ancestors of President Hoover, in Northwestern Maryland. The farm was descr:va“ in old deeds as located on both sides i “Wolf-pit Creek.” A geological survey map as late as 1925 repeated this name for the creek. But among the people now living in that neighborhood, none knew the creek by this old name. ‘The_writer a few years ago received from London a copy of & map of the neighborhood of his own birthplace, in Eastern Pennsylvania, not far the Maryland line. The original map had been made by an engineer-officer in the British army, during the Revolution, just before the battle of Brandywine. On the old map a certain stream bore the name “Cart-saddle Creek.” In the community itself, that old name had utterly disappeared from use. In some American communities, s