Evening Star Newspaper, April 14, 1929, Page 43

" THREE LATIN-AMERICAN ' LEADERS TO BE RE-ELECTED ; ‘Venezqela,’ Cuba and Ecuador to Inau- gurate Present Incumbents as Presi- BY GASTON NERVAL, Authority on Latin American Affairs. HIS April will witness three presi- dential inaugurations in Latin America. But, strange to say, all three will be reinstallagions of the present incumbents, that is, of men who have already been in power and are now governing their re- spective countries. They are not three men just beginning their reign, but are three presidents who have for some time been at the head of their countrymen. Gen. Gomez, Gen. Machado and Dr. Ayora will shortly be inaugurated as presidents of Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador, respectively, but the three are already and have been for some time the chief executives of those nations. Gen. Gomez has ruled Venezuela for 20 years, Gen. Machado has been Presi- dent of Cuba for four years, and since 1925 Dr. Ayora has ruled Ecuador. On April 19 the present presidential terms of Gen. Juan Vicente Gomez ends in Venezuela. That is, it ends so as to begin again. Every seven years Gen. Gomez goes through the form of giving up his office and turning the presidency over to some one debignated by Con- gress. Popular elections are then called, in which the only candidate is the same Gen. Gomez, and a few days later he is again inducted into office as Presi- dent. This month Gomez will have completed 20 years as President. When he relinquishes his place to Congress in Caracas, his candidacy for the next “elections” will already be settled upon, and soon after Venezuela will see an- other presidential inauguration of the general, First Re-election for Machado. . In Cuba this procedure has not yet Teached the stage of a tradition, for this is the first time that Gen. Machado has had himself re-elected. During all last year the Cuban Congress debated the advisability of the two courses be- tween which they had to choose—to prolong for two years the present term of Gen. Machado, or to permit his re- election for another four-year term. ‘They chose the latter, and at almost the same time that Mr. Hoover was elected President of this country Gen. Machado, Cuba’s sole candidate, re- ceived the confirmation of the popular vote throughout the republic. The “sec- ond inauguration” of Gen. Machado Wwill take place shortly in Havana. Soon, also, Dr. Isidro Ayora will be installed as constitutional President of Ecuador, though this does not by any means indicate that he has not been at the head of the Ecuadorean govern- ment for nearly four years. As a mat- ter of fact, Dr. Ayora was made chief executive of that nation by a military coup in 1925. From that time until the end of last year Ecuador was under his rule as dictator, unsanctioned by the constitution, but accepted by the majority of the people. In October of last year Dr. Ayora, having decided to obtain constitutional sanction of his position, convoked a national assembiy, elected by the people. This body was to be charged with the duty of desig- nating a provisional President and call- ing presidential elections for the next term. However, the assembly merely designated Dr. Ayora as provisional President, and he himself had to call the general elections, as promised. At here was no candidate worth serious consideration other than' Dr. Ayora. Hence today he may already be considered “constitutional President” and as such will soon be installed. ‘This procedure has already been suc- cessful in Chile, where, in 1927, Gen. Ibanez, then provisional President, called elections and was chosen con- stitutional President. Seated for Third Term. ‘The first-mentioned system—that of re-clection—is also practiced in Peru. ‘This year President Leguia’s term ends, and in a few months he will be seated, {%r ‘che third term, in the presidential chair. All these are typical examples of the success attending in Latin America, the tendency toward dictatorships held by one person and “strong” governments. In part a refleetion of trends in Eu- rope, which is also giving itself over to the rescuing hands of dictators, and in part a result of the Latin American temperament, it is developing, in the republic south of the Rio Grande, a l}oflticnl phenomenon that merits study. 'he Latin republics are departing from the system of parliaments and popular governments, under ‘the aegls of which they won their freedom from Spain. Every day they are losing more of their democratic character, and so-called -strong governments are rising—dictator- ships clothed in legal form—a kind of “constitutional dictatorships.” The‘y are young nations, still in the organization stage, where every cir- cumstance demands leaders, strong per- sonalities to organize and to direct, and, at the same time, to restrain and domi- nate the incessant explosions of that ardent Latin temperament which runs in the veins of their people. The Latin American ples are especially . bredisposed to dictatorships. But in Some countries democratic procedure has been definitely established. Others are peoples who only acknowledge the rule of force. Like all other states of the earth, they need to be orderly to progress, But in order to maintain order in some, force is necessary. soon as weak men come into power, political passions begin to burn, and the normal progress of the country again finds itself menaced by the danger of internal conflict. Make Great Progress. ‘Time is proving this, Under strong governments, Chile, Peru, Cuba, Vene- zucela, Ecuador are making the great- es publican life. Some of them have been saved in serious crises through dictators, and have entered at once into a period of really noteworthy prosperity and re- jorganization. Today these governments figure among the first of Latin America, and the work which they are carrying on serves as models for the improve- to her strong government of to- day, from an extremely grave economic and governmental crisis, which had reached its acutest stage when Col. Ibanez took up the reins of power. The production of nitrates, the prin- cival source of Chile's wealth, which est information, 000, hilean ,000 CI $5,000,000. e e %AM k rogress ever known in their re- | dang: dents of Respective Countries. mate the prestige and financial stand- ing which the island republic en- Jjoys. Unider Machado Cuba has gone ahead remarkably. In Ecuador 'the magnitude of the reforms begun under the dictatorships of Dr. Ayora, now Constitutional Presidente, is also re- markable. Travelers arriving from that republic aver that Ecuador under five | years of strong government has achiev- ed more progress in the preceding 15 years, And, if these examples be not suf- ficlent, there is the typical case of Mexico. While Mexico was under the iron hand of the dictator Porfirio Diaz that southern republic enjoyed peace and transquillity and made admirable progress. There was a surplus on its income over expenditures, its system of railroads was one of the three larg- est in the world. and the country in general ‘enjoyed immense credit every- where. Since Diaz disappeared from the scene Mexico has been experienc- ing the horrors of constant domestic strife, which with only short inter- vals have been exhausting her for 19 years. Just now the revolutionary fever is at the bolling point, and the country is spending millions of dollars Tnnd ‘thousands of its sons in combat- g it. Jose. Santos Chocano, today the greatest living poet of Latin America, an enthusiastic advocate of dictator- ships that work for the better organiza- tion of the country, has summarizes this political phenomenon. of the Latin republics in the statement that the fundamental formula for these nations is “Organize or perish.” And organiza- tion, according to him, cannot be car- ried out except under the rule of strong and resolute men. Blow to Democracy. ‘This policy of strong governments has, however, its unfavorable side; that is, it constitutes a blow at democratic traditions, for so many years the po- litical ideal of peoples. Personal liber- ties are canceled, restrictions are im- posed upon liberty of action and sometimes even of speech, official or- ders are imposed manu militari and written law is often set aside. Peoples governed by dictators lose in liberties what they gain in material progress. Neither in Chile, Peru, Cuba, Ecuador nor Venezuela is political opposition permitted. In reality, no opposition parties exist. Governments have not been deterred by any severity necessary when it came to a question of securing their own sta- bility and imposing their ideas on the people. Sometimes these measures reached extremes of violence. The prob- lem, therefore, is how far it is ad- visible to go in losing individual liber- ty in order to achieve material progress. Moreover, the Latin American repub- lics, in adopting the system of dictator- ships, are only following once again the political example that comes to them from European shores. The influence of Europe, in things political asewell as cultural, is- always decisive in Latin | h: American life. The war for the inde- pendence of these countries from the crown of Spain was a consequence of the lesson learned from the French Revolution, which proclaimed the rights of man and the sovereignty of the peo- ple. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 also influenced Latin America. Soon after victorious Prussia took possession of French territories by force of arms a Latin American nation proclaimed the supremacy of the law of conquest and annexed territories of its neighbors. When the World War ended in 1918 the ideals of justice and liberal principles which grew out of it echoed throughout Latin America and influ- enced the international policies of va- rious of those nations. And now that the European states are giving them- selves over, one by one, to the material advantages of dictatorships, Latin America is following in their footsteps. Latin Americans point out that, after all, it was not in any Latin American republic, but in a European capital—in Rome, the Eternal City—that the head of the government, Mussolini, set down this phrase’ for history: “In fateful hours, the decision lies with the chief, who should consult only his own con- science.” (Copyright, 1929.) Mangian Love Notes Inscribed on Bamboo Perhaps the queerest type of love letter known in the world is that in vogue among the Mangians of the hill lands and mountains of Mindoro, P. I., who still hold to the ancient alphabet of about three vowels and ten conso- nants which they group into words in- scribed on bamboo in a single vertical column, their bolos serving them as a stylus. They are an extremely 'simple and timid people and their more ag- gressive Malayan neighbors have made them hunt cover in the highlands and the primeval forests. For business, aside from the very important business of making love, tthey hardly need writing at all; and surely no bamboo ledgers to record their wealth. But love makes as ardent demands upon them as upon other folk, and their swains fallen victim to Cupid whip out their bolos, As | slash down a good-sized bamboo, and 0 to verse-writing with intense to. So that a love missive may be strung along the length of a 45-foot pole, and thie one end trailing in the forest path as the poet indites a warm postscript on the, other. Popular damsels soon have enough finely etched poles to build a hut—to burn such telitale documents would be to light a fire en- ; ler:tn:_ the tofit. E&ecxmm of the love letter poles have been acquired by scientists and translated, and the as- tounding truth discovered that a Man- gain in love is an inordinate liar! HEN e Hawaiian Japanese Lost to Native Land | % Japanese immigrants who live for an; considerable length of time in Hawai become unfitted to return to Japan and enter into business life there, it was :ne:mi medlwflu“ le by the Nippu Jiji, of Wwail's Japanese daily papers. ‘The Nippu Jiji points out that Japanese in Hawail nd_their scal Pliv SEFEcg=oas i Five-Year Drift Around Pole Capt. Bob Bartlett, Veteran of 40 Years” Hardships, Is Going Again BY FITZHUGH GREEN. HE minute I heard that Capt. Bob Bartlett was equipping for a five-year drift in the polar ice- pack I hurried out to head him off from what seemed so futile an enterprise. I just missed him at his old haunt, the storied Explorers’ Club. But by swift subway and puttering ferry I overtook him aboard his stanch two- d | masted schooner, the Morrissey, at her dock in Staten Island. He stood on her after deck, clad in oilskins, and boots, feet braced wide, | f red from the raw wind, shout- | lace ing blasphemy at a lubberly rigger in the maintop. He looked like an ani- mated Rock of Gibraltar. For Capt. Bob is several inches short of 6 feet tall and weighs 210 pounds. Yet his girth is all above his midriff and the beam of his powerful shoulders is twice that of his hips. “What's all this about your going to the polar sea?” I asked him bluntly, when I'd got him into the shelter of a tiny cabin that smelled of stale seal oil. Speaks of Friendship. “Why?” he retorted. His tone con- noted: “What the hell business is it of yours!" I vaguely spoke of friendship. (I wanted to say “affection,” but the world would have sounded maudlin in that atmosphere). *“You've done your trick, old man. Nearly 40 years in the ice— Newfoundland sealing, Peary, the Kar- Juk— He nodded. “Right, boy. Right! But there’s still work to be done up | there.” f “Let the flyers do it! Byrd, Wilkins. Nansen, in his dirigible next year. They go in safe And now you”—I hesitated at the glint in the captain’s eyes—“You want to go | up there in a little ship and just drift around for years. It's time you retired. Take it easy——" A grip like a steel vise closed on my and. “Feel that!” The captain held out a comfort, and speedily. | e half-fathom arm strung from wrist to| | shoulder with rocklike muscle. Retire!” he snored. “Sure I'd retire if I'd been | sitting at a desk these 40 years!” “Still you're past your prime.” He glanced at an advertising calendar on the bulkhead. “Prime! Do you {lmnw my father leaves in his own ves- | |sel for the Newfoundland leallng' igmunds tomorrow?” he cried. “Past 80, the old man is—and you talk of me in my prime!” Blue Prints Show Shop. He drew & set of blue prints from a typical sailor’s sea chest. I found my- I self going over detatls of the ship he COMDR. ROBERT A. BARTLETT. expected to build. He spoke of her overhand and rounded sheer, so she'd 1lift when pressure came. half an _jceberg could tumble—and bounce off. There was a well forward for seal blubber and one aft for an ex- tra two years' rations. The most won- derful ice ship ever designed. Powerful, sig-beamed, Diesel engined and schooner rigged. Fruit of a lifetime’s study of Northern vessels. From a transom beneath the bunk he produced a neat file of letters—reports from Smithsonian, American Geographi- cal and other societies which had vised his plans; accurate chartssof all pre- He pointed | out her stringers of oak, against whick | netic variations; cstimates on_equip- ment costs; all documentary evidence of the soundness of his scheme. No Flaws Are Suggested. For two_entrancing hours I sat and listened. Yet, after I'd left, I began to wonder if it were just the man’s ex- traordinary personality that had swayed me to him; if it were not more the romance than the logic of his scheme that had gripped me. Knowing Capt. Bartlett as intimately as I do I felt free to check his facts and figures in scientific quarters. One after another I visited men who keep their fingers on the pulse of science, Not one of them suggested a flaw in the captain's reasoning. Indeed, I dis- covered that he had modestly kept back many of the sensational items that must make his expedition a splendid succzss {if he has only an even break of luck after he gets into the ice. Putting the situation briefly, scientific experts agree that there is still much to be learned from the Arctic waste; | much that tho old school of explorers, ending with Peay, had to overlook in their struggles to .each a geographical | goal: much that int-vid fiyers cannot touch because their Jving season is gr}:r and their lofty wourse forbids | delay. Detailed Knowledge Is Vital. One geodetic expert put it: “Take the case of our own country. More than half a century ago we reached the Paci- (Continued oy Fifth Page) The Story the Week Has Told BY HENRY W. BUNN. (The following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ended April‘13): GREAT BRITAIN.—Stonehenge has been saved from the despoiler, from the real estate projector and the purveyor of petty amusements. A sufficient sur- rounding tract has been bought up through a fund created by popular sub- scription and this area will be free of bungalows, gasoline stations, hot dog booths and other nuisances and dese- crations. \ But, alas, glorious Lansdowne House, one of Robert Adams’ chief creations, is to go, Lord Lansdowne having sold the estate for something over $2,500,000. The mansion, which has known so many grand functions, so many gather- ings of political big wigs, is to be de- molished. The beautiful grounds, where of old on June evenings, “just before roses and the longest day,” the minuet | grega was danced, are to be cut up into byjld- ing lots. The famous decorated ceil- ings are to be saved and sold separate- ly. Already the magnificent art ccl- lection has been largely dispersed. It will be recalled how Mr. Widener bought Rembrandt's “The Mill” several years ago for $500,000. The manuscript col- lection goes to the British Museum. Sic transit gloria. A new age, my masters. ‘GERMANY .—A singular cabinet crisis is in process in Germany, which holds somewhat sinister possibilities. On April 9, a caucus of Socialist members of the Reichstag voted by an over- whelming majority to refuse assent to appropriation of a second installment of 20,000,000 marks toward the con- struction costs " (total, 8,000,000 marks) of the famous “mystery” cruiser. This action, of course, is infinitely em- barrassing to the Socialist members of the cabinet, who constitute a majority of that body, the chancellor himself and the finance minister being Social- ists. Already Socialist pressure has compelled the whittling down of Finance Minister Hilferding’s new budget estimates by about 400,000,000 marks (reducing by so much an es- timated budget deficit of 600,000,000 through pruning of items for aviation: which pruning, of course, has caused howls of protest from certain quarters. ‘The action fof the cauciis desperately prejudices the prospect of success for the long-drawn out negotiations looking to reconstruction of the ggvernment. It will be recalled that the present government is a so-called “government of personalities,” containing members the Socialist, Populist (German Peoples’ party), Democratic and Bara- rian Populist parties. Originally it included a centrist, but his party compelled his withdrawal, It is but the shadow of a shade of a government, a purely stop-gap affair, the members holding no mandates from their respective parties. The negotia- tions referred to have looked to a genuine government of grand coalition, construc cted in the proper way, its mem- | tes, reparations business is determined. The Centrists have rallied to the govern- ment, and place has been found for several Centralists, including ex-Chan- cellor Wirth, in the cabinet; though by what displacements does not appear. It is hoped that as reconstructed, the government will have sufficient strength for dealing with the impending repara- | tions issue. Let us hope so, but the de- | velopments are very disquieting. | Yesterday, in default of a German | offer, the representatives of the allied | creditor powers on the international experts’ committee (deliberating at Paris on the problem of German repa- rations) handed to the German mem- | bers of the committee a plan of repa- rations payments, not by way of ulti- matum, but presumably the plan repre- sents the utmost by way of allied con- cessions, presumably no plan would be acceptable to the allies, whereof the present value corresponding to the ag- correspond! to the aggregate of the items of thul.‘fi lan. ‘The above sounds rather complicated, but I doubf it could be stated more simply. I propose to take up this matter next week, by which time per- fectly authenticated details should be to hand. The German government has defi- nitely refused to allow Leon Trotsky to enter Germany. * Kk k% CHINA—On April 10 Chang Kai Shek issued from Hankow, where he is_presiding over the obseqiies of the rebellion, a proclamation of celestial bouquet. He announces the intention to tender, upon return to Nanking in the near future, his resignation as head of the Nationalist government. He ex- presses regret for having, through lack of political foresight, failed to prevent the Wuhan rebellion, declares glmselt unequal to the task he has assumed, and te of its items should be sub- stantially less than the present value When a Boy OMETIMES a boy does know more than his father. Ours would have been a very different history if Abe Lincoln, age 16 or so, had been guided by the wisdom of Thomas Lincoln, age 36. “Now, Abe,” we can imagine him saying, “don’t waste time readin’ them books. Readin’ never done me any good, and what was good enough for m good enough for you.” Lincoln knew more than his father. It was a divine disobed:- ence that led him to close his ears to the man who had' brought him into the world and open his heart to the vision that was to help him conquer the world. Robert Louis Stevenson knew more than his fati That father would have shac- kled him to engineering. He could not understand the obsti- nacy of the boy who refused to apply himself. That obstinacy ed a great author from misery as a mediocre engineer. Jesus Christ knew more than proj to travel abroad, recruit his health, increase his information and Knows More Than His Father i BY BRUCE BARTON. tion you can while you have the chance.” But the boy quit schoo! and went to work. N He was promoted from office boy to bookkeeper, from book- keeper to.head bookkeeper, from h bookkeeper to office man- His path looked golden and fong. And then suddenly he stopped. \ “You see that man?” said the become general business if he had had a college education. His salary might have bet Instead r that he hasn’t education enough to go on.” He ‘“knew more” than his a year. my son,” ,said the father of another boy. “You'll never regret it. And some -day you'll thank Heaven you did.” His father. R “Thy father and | have sought thee sorrowing,” said His mother to him. And neither His mother nor His father could r the voice that was calling H from them, the voice that to find fathers and mothers and broth- ers and sisters for Him among all those who should do His will. The boy who has not some firm convictions and a willing- ness to defend them, even against the | arguments of those older than himself, is not likely to amount to much, either as a boy or as a man. But there must be convictions, not mere prejudices, not selfish impulses or passions. I know two men who “knew more” than their fathers. One boy is the office manager of a large manufacturing con- ‘cern, and his salary is $40 a But the boy knew more than He knew that every young man who It must sow his wild oats. wed right merrily. the other day. He came to me about getting a job. He was pale and anemic, and his hands twitched, and he was forever rolling cigarett e could not concentrate his mind on one subject for even a couple of minutes. . 1 could not give him a job; no man could. God knows what will become of him. He would starve if it were not for the few dollars he gets from his fath Youth is the mainspring of the world. ~ oy Its insurgency, its inquisitive- ness, its eagerness to try the un- tried and do the impossible ~drives the world forward in spite of the conservatism of age. Fortunate are those of us who recognize the divine importance . of youth's cocksureness and con- ‘and yet know improve his mind, and feturning to China, end his life as a private citizen. But nobody takes him at his word; every -one’ scents a whiff as of the | African in the Woodg:]e, ‘They say he has desperately embarrassed himself, in the process of carrying on, by prom- ises to this and that person, and groups that he proposes to disembarrass him- self to watch his rivals and enemies discredit themselves, and in the -end to “come back” to the general acclama- tion, as the savior of his country. It | sounds plausible enough. It may be so; | almost anything may be so. On the other hand, the proclamation might be only a feeler. Belike Chang expects | the bickering factions to unite in press- ing him to stay on the job; with a pressure to which, as a patriot, he would be constrained to yield. It might b2 | 50; almost anything might be so. Reaily, |it's an old dodge of Chang's (if one | may use the term) this retiring; there's something of the prima-donna in | Chang’s make-up. Is Feng Yu Hsiang | to be rewarded for his “illness” during the civil war now practically ended by having the Province of Shantung added to the great area already under his gov- ernorship (which includes Honan, Shensi and Kansu)? Such a develop- ment would immensely increase the dublousness of an already sufficiently dublous political situation. Yet Hsi Shan’s arsenal near Tai Yuan in Shansi Province employs, we are told, more than 5,00 workmen day and night, under the direction of Germans form- erly with Krupps. It is turning out field-pieces closely modeled: after the French 75 at the rate of 600 a year, and 2,000 rifles weekly; also a automatic rifie. The arsenal buildings, of reinforced coricrete are surrounded by mighty walls. * k k¥ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.— All the auspices are favorable for a mighty accomplishment by the new ad- ministration. = The Republican major- ity in the late House, at its passing, was 41; in the new House it will be 82. At the demise of the Seventieth Congress the line-up of the Senate showed 50 Repunlicans, 45 Democrats and Farmer-Laborite, but the Republican total included Mr. Vare, who had not been allowed to take his seat, and Sen- ator Norris of Nebraska and Senator Blaine of Wisconsin, both of whom sup- ported the Smith-Robinson ticket. As against that exceedingly precarious ma- Jority, as the Seventy-first opens, on April 15, in extra session, the Republicans will boast a magnificent majority in the Senate, 56 (including the still unseated Vare and the dubious- tine Blaine and Norris), as against 39 Democrats and 1 Farm Laborite (Mr. Shipstead of Minnesota). ‘The Senate'is to have a new Repub- E. Garner of Texas, ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means. succeeds Finis J. Garrett as Mr. pular qualities of his hhq; from Texas, is said to ‘has the = ‘comes his attitude on the tariff 1927, is11,121 in vious polar expeditions; tables of mag- 1 ‘Wall Street, New York City, SCIENCE TO MAKE DRIVE ON CURSE Specialists Plan 100 OF DEAFNESS Lines of Study and i ' Treatment, With Particular Reference to Child BY THOMAS R. IENRY. LL the resources of science are to be directed against the age- old curse of deafness. A committee of the National Research Council has been autharized to carry out during the next few years an extensive program to find out what can be done to lift some of the burden from the shoulders of the deaf and hard-of-hearing. It will be supported by psychologists, anthropolo- gists, physicians, child specialists and physicists throughout the United States. Much of the activity of the campaign will be centered in Washington. Approximately 100 lines of research have been lald down. These will be taken up progressively as financial support is obtained. The program will be under the direction of Knight Dun- lap, professor of psychology at Johns | Hopkins University .and head of the | department of psychology and anthro- pology of the National Research Coun- lell. The basic plans were adopted at |a meeting of approximately 100 spe- clalists here last week. | Beyond the physiological causes sci- | ence knows very little about deafness. But it recognizes that the world of cternal silence in which the deaf per- son lives is a strange and terrible place—even more strange and terrible ’m some respects than a world of eternal darkness. It is this weird re- | glon of silence which will be explored : by the investigators. Some are born deaf. Few come into. | the world with a harder road to travel |than these unfortunates. Some ac- | quire deafness and the extent of the misfortune is determined largely by its delay. In addition, the investigators | must consider the varying degrees of | deafness, each making its own contri- bution to misery. Attention to Child. The greatest attention will be de-| voted to the deaf child, whose lot is | the hardest of all. He is born into| {an_inhospitable and incomprehensible | | world, deprived not only of hearing, | tbut of speech, because, although the speech apparatus is intact, it has no | | basis for language symbols. What sort | does such a child live? It {must be strikingly different from ordi- | |nary childhoods. What are its com- ! plexes, its fears, its phantasies, its as- | pirations, its play and its troubles? | The deaf child, the committee re- ! ports, at present is a closed book from | birth' to the seventh year. the minimum | 7 |age at which most existing schools for the deaf will take children. In recent ars early childhood has come to have a_ new significance to psychologists, | whose experiments indicate strongly ¢ that character, personality and, to a| i large extent, intelligence itself does not come into the world with the new-| born, but is molded in the years be-; | tween the cradle and the kindergarten. | ! Parents and teachers can mold the environment of the normal child, but the problem of the deaf child is strik-| ingly different. There is not even a ! reliable way to determine if it really | | is deaf. This much is known, however, | jaccording to the committee report: | | “After the average deaf child has been | |in a school for the deaf for a period | of from six to eight years he can read | no better than the average 7 or 8 year |old hearing child. It requires about '8 to 10 years of instruction in special scliogls-to bring the deaf child to the vel .which the -ordinary child reaches in one or two years of schooling. | . Blindness Lighter Affliction. “Blind children are relatively slightly | retarded in comparison with deaf chil |dren. Deafness appears to be many times as great a handicap, with refer- ence to development, than blindness. There is some indication that deafne: retards in the development of all proc- | esses. It would seem to be an easy { task for a person with vision to ‘repro- | duce’ digits from memory when such | digits are presented visually. This however, a task which is practically im- possible to the deaf child, not because of any defect in vision, but because | the failure of the associated languaj processes which make such visual me ory Victims. children. It is proposed to work ouf a method of testing hearing by condi= tioned reflexes which have been used successfully in testing sensory discrime ination in animals. It is obviously im« possible to hold a watch or any other sound instrument certain distances from a child’s ear and then ask him it he hears the sound—especially for & child under two. With the new method, the child might be given a bit of candy and a bell sounded simultaneously. After a long series of trials the child should show the same reaction to the bell sounded alone, without the candy, if he is able to hear it. “The deaf child often is thought ta be feeble-minded and actually is,” says the committee, “with respect to his functioning. If devices can be develop« ed which will discriminate between con« stitutional feeble-mindedness and audi« tory deficieny it might be possible to develop an adequate training program for the young deaf child as distinguish« ed from the feeble-minded child. Thers is no question, but that the figures with reference to the occurence of feebles mindedness among young children are vitiated in part by the inclusion of many cases who are auditorily defie cient.” Here also it is planned to use the conditioned reflex method, because some indication has been found that the deaf child and the feeble-minded child condition differently. A great deal of work will be done on the problem of actually restorin hearing to deaf children by surgk treatment, hearing devices and train« ing remnants of hearing. The commit« tee feels that a half year of hearing at the age of four may be the equiva~ lent with respect to general development of four or five years of instruction in a deaf school later on. A comparative study by anatomists and dentists is planned of the mout! jaws, teeth and throat structures of hearing and deaf children, and also of the basic motor reactions of the tongue, lips, diaphragm and throat. One of the most important studies will be the nature of the developmen{ of complex mental processes withoul language stimulation. ‘“Modern psys chology,” says the committee report, ‘attaches fundamental importance ta the linguistic processes as importani factors in development. When we real. ize that the ordinary child at the age | of 6 years has a vocabulary of between 2,000 and 3000 words and uses every lorm of senience, ev part of speech d has the clementary mechanics of the languag> pretty thoroughly worked out, and when we realize further that the child of 8 is. in comparison with the adult, viviually at the completion of his Ja > development, except for the addil of more words and a few more inv something of the handicap the deal child has Lo “The publ of 6 in a hool receives at the ags g child one who 4l ready is very far advanced in the basiq manipulation of linguistic processes The scheol for the deaf, taking a cbild at the age of 8, reccives a ch®d whe has made virtually no progress ang al th> best adds but a few words a vear to the child’s vocebulary, in comparison with the tremendous acquisition made by the normal child at the age of 2, 3 and 4. It is no wonder, then, that the whole development of complcx metital processes in the auditorily defective child are affected. Apathetic and Listless. “There scems to be a general agrees ment that the deaf child is usually t g child. The spon- t ehavior of a child plays a very important part in his genera! de- clopment. A study should be unders taken to determine the relationship bes tween auditory stimuiation and suc behavior. In connection with this wo b2 a quantitative study of the develops ment of motor reflexes. We find !ittle material available. We do not know | whether the general bodily tone of the deaf is lower than that of the normaj whether their reflexes are sluggish oa accelerated, or whether.the reflexes ap+ pear at the same time or later than in nermal children.” possible. “A third interesting point arises from comparison of the progress of deafened | in relation to the age at which hearing | was lost. The rapidity of progress is | related quite directly to the length of time they had hearing. Children who are born deaf are much more handi- i capped than children who have had hearing up to the age of 3. Children | who have been deafened at 3 seem to be much more handicapped than chil- dren who have been deafened at 6.” A nursery school for deaf children will be established, where specialists jcan study their problems under con- trollable conditions. The site has not | been selected, but several members of the committee are in favor of locating it in Washington, pointing out the facilities for child research here. Fif- teen lines of research have been laid down for such a school when it is started. ‘The first would be on the | children through schools for the deaf | Do the senses of sight and touch bzcome more acute to compensate fot the deafness? This gencrally is ase med to be the case, hut experimenty with older children h&ve given little subport to the popular belief. Efforty will be made to determine whethet such a compensation occurs in early childhood. An_important field of investigation will be the effect of deafness upon personality and social relations of young children. “The ordinary pers son,” says the committee. “does nof realize that the individual begins hi social training almost at birth. an that through his relations an* In< teractions with his fellows he buildg up a whole complex series of reactiond which are of utmost importance in adjustment and later development. The effects upon the personality and social development of the child, due to his isolation from one of the primary sources of sensory stimulation: the hereditary factor in deafness. It is known that some. kinds of deafness seem to run in families, but it has been impossible to secure any very re- liable data. The nursery school also will work on adequate tests of hearing in young Augustine Washington, father of George, died 1743; also to restore the graveyard and the mansion, which was destroyed by fire in 1780. sources of the attitudes of submission, timidity and negativism which we as« sociate with deafness, and the magnis tude of the loss that the deaf child experiencgs are vital problems. ‘Anothe? intensive study will be un< dertaken on the emotlonal and social adjustment problems of the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and for this purposq it is proposed to establish another ine stitution, which might be located in ‘ashington. w’l‘he efiotmnnl reaction of deafness ‘The restoration of the mansion may be only conjectural, from certain hints (and traditions and the prevailing archi- tecture of the time, but no doubt a fairly close approximation will achieved; at any rate, the new struc- ture will embrace the site of the house where George Washington was born. The roadway will be restored (whereof indications' remain), running to the riverside, off which of old sailing ships from England anchored to exchange commodities with the proprietors. ‘Wakefield is about 65 miles below Mount Vernon. Congress has ugpro- priated the money for a_motor highwas extension to connect Wakefleld wil Washington, and it is expected that the restored mansion will be ready for dedication on the 200th anniversary of Geornzwashlngmn'a birth, February 22, 1932. It would. ‘appear that Col. John ‘Washington of Wharton, England, left his native land to escape the Com- monwealth men, the family 5eing Roy- alist to the hilt. The father of the colonel was the Rev. Lawrence Wash- ington, proctor of Oxford University. be | The Wakefleld plantation seems to have comprised about 1,800 acres. The Bank of Manhattan Building on on which j high, inst mr't'}' "fm“%vi'a“ , 88 eet for |- worth B\:mlngllnd 809 "fi,""“’,,""i Chrysler Building now_going up af -second street and Lexington ave- nue, New York. There were 399 murders in New York City in 1928, as against 372 in 1,245 suicides in 1928, as against m".o work is about to begin, be| pehavior of the hard: n the individual, says the committee, “is of a grave nature, reaching in many cases & psychopatglc llt\"‘el:." a ‘Av g;refu‘l made of e ~0y-Gay study will be e e & comparisons nnhde with :.lhe"behavlor of T ized psycho-neurotic types. e‘:!rxl‘umher of surveys will be made to determine the actual prevalence of deafness in the general population. For this pul a selected area with a populfuon of about 10,000 will be taken and a ‘house-to-house canvasy . Other surveys will attempt ta determine the prevalence of deafnesy among Negroes, among rural comy munities, among persons living unded different climatic conditions. The com also will try to find out the relationship between deafness and sex, economic condition. race, scholastic at* tainments and intelligence. Swedish Doctors Demand Modern Dress for Nurses Swedish doctors are demanding tha) the hideous dark blue ankle-long univ wms which nurses in that country have been wearing for the last half century or more must the way everything else old fashioned. reason, as gi in