Evening Star Newspaper, May 5, 1929, Page 31

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. T, MAY 5 71929—PART 9. L ONGWORTH’S SINCERITY TO AID TARIFF PROGRAM Guilelessness in Exchange of Courtesy With Garner—H Chances of BY MARK SULLIVAN. N the Lower House on the opening day of the present session the Republicans nominated Nicholas Longworth of Ohio for Speaker: the Democrats nominated John M. Qerner of Texas. Longworth, of course, was elected and became Speaker; Gar- ner, by virtue of receiving the unani- swus vote of the Democrats for Speaker, became leader of that party. Ig accord with the customary formuia of courtesy, Garner presented the suc- zessful Longworth to the House, saying, among other things: “He [Longworth] is beloved by the entire membership of the House, re- gardless of party affiliation.” Longworth thereupon made a speech (an excellent speech, by the charged through and through with common sense). Among other things, Longworth spoke of his defeated oppo- ent, Garner of Texas, the Democratic | ader. saying: “The gentleman from Texas [Gar- ner] and I entered Congress together 26 years ago.® * * During all these ears our friendship has been continu- ously abiding, and our affection, es- swem and respect the one for the other & and has been, I am proud to say, #utual.” fen Longworth turned to the tariff. e s11d there ought to be “a modifica- tion of certain tariff rates, as few in number as possible.” Having put him- self on record in favor of keeping the | riff changes down to a very mild sis, he turned to the relation of the Democrats to the proposed tarifft changes, saying: “The line of cleav- age between the two great political | parties would seem to have crumbled the last few years almost to ques- tions of detail. I apprehend that un- der the leadership of the gentleman from Texas we will hear resounding from his party no clarion call that the ‘American consumer,” etc. o Now all that was as free from guile | as anything could possibly be. Mr. Longworth was speaking as_sincerely and simply as.s man remarking that the weather is fine. All that he said was well known by every member of | Congress to be true. Mr. Longworth and the Democratic leader, Garner of | Texas, are intimate friends. And it is a fact that the Democrats came close | to the Republican point of view about the tariff in their platform last year and in the campaign utterances of their presidential candidase, Gov. Smith. 'hat Speaker Longworth did was as | unargumentative and unpolitical as & remark about the lateness of the Spring. Nevertheless it had an effect. The effect was put in words a few days | later by Frank R. Kent, of the Demo- tic Baltimore Sun: cr“‘spcaker Longworth split the minor- ity, split it without intending to split 4t, split it in a way for which he can- not be blamed, split it when it wasn't Jooking, started dissensions in the | Democratic ranks, caused one Demo- tratic leader to sling a brick at another, practically removed any chance of effec- tive opposition to his House machine. * * * It was the simplest thing in the world. He split the Democrats by | merely being sincere. All Mr. Long- worth did was to state the obvious fact, proved up to the hilt in the last cam- paign by both Democratic candidate and platform. that, in the matter of the tariff, the two parties differ now only in detail. Therefore, he sought to se- cure more equitable taxation. To this end there should not be much difficulty in getting together on a bill this time. He followed this perfectly sincere re- mark by a touching tribute to the Hon. Jack Garner, Demoratic leader, speak- ing of their long and intimate acquaint- ance, the deep affection between them. the high value he placed on the Garner friendship. * * * It was from the heart out. Yet had there been sinister purpose back of every word, they could not have been more Democratically devastating.” * k kX The following day another Democrat spoke up, Cordell Hull of Tennessee. His remarks were obviously inspired by what Speaker Longworth had said. by | the intimacy between Republican Speaker Longworth and Democratic Leader Garner. and by Speaker Long- worth'’s assumption that the Democrats ‘would “go along with” the Republicans; or, at the least, put no formidable ob- stacle in the path of the Republican way, | | structure, augment our exports * * ¢ eld as Lessening Opposition. | out, the super-highest, so to speak, tar- [ 1ff in the history of the country. | So much for the Republican side of | the fight—again one uses the qualifica- | | tion “if it is a fight.” 1f Democratic Ieader Garner does not | get all heated up with ardor to revise the tarifl downward, he but reflects the prevailing attitude of most of his Demo- | cratic_followers. He but reflects also | the attitude the Democratic platform | | makers took at Houston last Summen | and the attitude the Democratic presi- | , dential candidate, Gov. Smith, "took | during the campaign. In short, one | fails to find among the Democrats in | the Lower House any united, whole- | hearted, fighting determination to op- pose the theory or practice of protective tariff dutles. ‘The exceptions among the Democrats tare represented by Representative Hull, | who has been quoted above. What re- | mains to be seen in this session in just | how many adherents Representative Hull can command. He is an earnest man and an able one, but has not the particular kind of temperament nor the | particular technique of oratory or de- | bate that would readily amass a follow- | ing either within Congress or through- | out the country. Also, one feeis that even Represent- ative Hull is a little intimidated by the increasing _ disposition of his party | either to look with tolerance upon the | protective tariff or at the least to “duck” the function of fighting earnest- ly against it. The writer of this article has observed Representative Hull as a spokesman of lower tariffs for a good many years, and one gathers the im- | pression that even with him, time and | events have blurred the sharpness of | his position. Representative Hull still says, it is true, that “the tariff is the most in- equitable of all taxes.” But in the most recent of his statements of what he thinks should be the Democratic tariff | position he has had an effect of mild- ness. Last month he said: “The oppos ing view” (thal Democratic vie -or | more accurately Representative Hull's view of the Democratic view) “would work in the direction of a tariff and commercial policy calculated to avoid retaliation, promote a sounder domestic | | | nd secure more equitable taxation. To his end there should at once be sub- stituted a policy by which the trend of tariff revision would be downward to a level of moderate or competitive rates * * * ‘That does not sound like a compact fighting slogan behind which masses can rally; does not look like a clear, sharp contrast, such as is necessary to make a battle. For several years events and tenden- | cies have been making it increasingly | difficult for the Democrats to stand by | the low tariff position—to offer united, | thoroughgoing opposition to the policy of protection. | First of all, in the present tariff re- vision, now under way, the farmer is | to be taken care of. It is to benefit the | farmer that the session was called, and | the common point of view is that, as respects the tariff, the farmer is to be given substantially everything that he wants or asks for in the way of pro- tection. There are plenty who believe that protection can do little for the farmer when 90 per cent of the Ameri- can acreage raises crops that are sold abroad. But this does not alter the fact that, as respects the tariff, the principal program of the present session is to give protection, or more protection, or both, to the farmer. This- fact makes it somewhat more difficult for Democrats representing ! Southern farmers — where diversified farming has come to raise miscella- neous crops—to oppose the theory of protection. Some of the most vehe-| ment demands for protection, in_the | present revision, come from Texas ' farmers raising early vegetables and’ Florida farmers raising fruits and | early vegetables, against the competi- | tion of Bermuda and the West Indies. | Furthermore, to a greater and greater | degree, manufacturing is penetrating | the South and factories arising there. With manufacturing comes zeal for protection. The most rampant protec- tive tariff periodical coming before the eyes of the writer of this article is a weekly that speaks for Southern busi- ness from Virginia all the way to Texas, the Manufacturers’ Record. Increase of manufacturing in North Carolina, with some other causes, has caused that State to pay the second highest internal | I I program on the tariff. 1f Representa- tive Hull's words seem strong, that is due to the seriousness with which the | situation is taken by him and such| Democrats as believe with him. Repre- | sentative Hull is a most mild-mannered | man. a gentleman and scholar in the liberal sense, and not at all in the| ornate sense. His kncwledge of the | tariff is not exceeded by that of five| other men in both branches of Con-| gress. Representative Hull is, in short, as far as possible from a mere heaver | of partisan bricks. In his comment on | Speaker Longworth’s address he said: “The most amazing thing in our po- ftical annals is now transpiring, and | that is the attempt of the uitra stand- | pat and embargo tariff forces in this country to unify the two leading politi- | cal parties behind a fixed and perma- | nent policy of super-protection and narrow nationalism. Speaker Long- worth possesses Pickwickian rather than | Machiavelian _traits. He bordered on | the Machiavellian in cunning, however, when on yesterday, with the boldest impudence, he practically assumed to speak for both political parties with respect to existing prohibitive tariffs | and to proclaim their complete unifi- | cation. I essure the Speaker that this undertaking is not so simple as that. * * » I denounce and challenge this proposed course as an_outrageous libel on the great historic Democratic pariy and on sound economics. I admit that, | , there are some Democrats who are undertaking to effect arrange- ments for the unconditional surrender of the Democratic party to the forces of high tariff greed and privilege, and they may think that such surrender is now assured. I predict, however, that in this they will find themselves as | badly mistaken as was Benedict Arnold when he felt cocksure that ne had arranged for the certain surrender of | West Point. * * * I prefer to hold fast to the tested economic wisdom and | philosophy of Jefferson, Jackson, Tilden, Cleveland and Wilson than to follow | supinely those who would now make | the great Democratic party subservient to the most corrupt partnership be- tween politics and vested interests in American history.” Now, all that constitutes (as repects \the Lower House, where the tariff bill now is) the staging of the tariff fight— if it can be called a fight. Here is Speaker Longworth, with substantially every Republican member of the Lower House standing by him, favoring a tariff Yevision which in the main consists of taising upward such tariff rates as are ot already high enough to suii the beneficiaries. The tariff revision favored by Speaker ZLongworth—he does not call it a “revi- Eon,” but a “modification”—must be zead, of course, in the light of the ex- isting Fordney-McCumber tariff bill of 1921, of which the pending changes will be a supplement, so to speak. That fariff bill, the existing Fordney-Mc- Cumber bill, is (I here quote Repre- sentative Cordell Hull) “by far the highest rate in the history of the coun- try, either in peace or war * * * an average rate of 55.3 per cent.” Since the main purpose of what the House ix now doing to this bill consists of ratsing some of its rates, it follows that the | revenue tax among all the States. There are, in North Carolina, business men | so confident about the growth of manu- facturing there that they say it will | become a kind of “Pennsylvania of the South.” | As_ respects Northern Democrats in | the lower House, most of them come | from States like Massachusetts, where ! textiles are a leading industry and pro- | tection is indispensable; or from scat- tered communities elsewhere, where steel or other industries demand pro- tection. All of which tends to support what Speaker Longworth said, namely, that as to the tariff the two parties differ only in detail. Nearly every Democratic member of the lower House has in his | district at least one industry or com- modity as to which he is under pressure to be a protectionist. The Democrats are very few who, like Hull of Ten- | nessee, can step out in front and take | the old Democratic low tariff position all along the line. All this is not meant to say, with finality, that there will be no tariff fight in the present session of Congress. ‘There may be one, a real one. But if it comes it will come in the Senate. It will be initiated probably less by licans. Blazing (‘.a{ Sets Fire to 400 Houses A whole village in Bengal Province, India, consisting of over 400 cottages. was recently burned down by a cat Because the cat had stolen her week’s supply of cream, an old woman tied jute o its tail and lit the inflammable appendage. Leaping away in agony the cat jumped to a thatched roof, pausing long enough to start a blaze. ~Then it hopped to adjacent roofs, gniting them in turn and, further frightened by the roar of the flames, hasiened on its in- cendiary work throughout the locality Within a quarter of an hour the whole village was reduced to ashes, fortunately without loss of life. The village granary was destroyed at a loss of several thou- sand rupees (a repee is equivalent to 361, cents). The inhabitants have appealed to the government for help. | F e ve and Ten Store Appears in Italy “Five and ten cent store merchandis- ing” has just made its first diffident appearance in Italy. The innovators have imitated the familiar red store fronts, the open counters and the i finite 'variety of small articles at re- duced prices, which American merchants have found so profitable. The idea of quick turnover at a small margin of profit is novel for the Ttalian merchant, who is accustomed to demand a big profit and hold on to his goods until some one ultimately makes a purchase regardless of the time the stock re- mains on his shelves. A syndicat operates one of these “1 to 4 lire stors in Rome and another in Milen. The tariff, as altered by the House, will be, «f the Republican program is carried inifial business has bien encourzging, the manager reports, A | munist nor Bolshevist, American Ideas in India Just How Far They Will Dent Eastern Complacency Remains to Be Seen—Scope of U. ¢ BY HENRY CABOT LODGE. MERICAN products, American men and American ideas are doing a great deal in an indi- rect but none the less influen- tial way in India today Whether they “make a dent” on a con tinent which so far has been practically proof against any Western ideas re- mains to be seen, but certainly Amer- ican activity here is one to which not enough atlention has been generally paid. It our trade activities here were merely a continuation of what we have been doing for generations, it might deservedly pass unnoticed, but the in- crease which has taken place in it and the lines along which tnis increase has developed have made some people won- der whether we might not soon be giving active aid to the British en- deavor to unify India and temper its many salient differences so that it could some day live side by side with the West without friction. American Imports Growing Fast. A few figures are sometimes more eloquent than words. Here are some which India takes from the United States. The figures are the percentage of India's total imports. In the year 1913-14 this figure stood at 2.2 per cent. Here is its increase since then: eee.5.64 .8.537 .9.94% And this year it is expected that the figure will reach 12 per cent—six times the trade of 15 years ago. ‘These imports are made up of the following products, listed in the order of their volume: Lubricating oil, kerc- sene, machinery (chiefly electrical), automobiles, tin plate, drugs, chemi- cals and motion pictures, of which last we _provide 90 per cent of India’s total. To the layman the most sighificant The Story the Week Has Told BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven dlys, ended May 4: ok Sk THE BRITISH EMPIRE—The main | points of the officially promulgated | election program of the Labor party may be summarized as follows: The party, which is neither Com- | sets its face against force, revolution and confisca- |tions as means of achieving a new so- cial order, and stands for ‘“ordered progress through democratic methods” for “peaceful but steadily urged na- tional reconstruction and development” having for its goal “a socialist, co-op- erative commonwealth as the only al- ternative to reaction or revolution.” A substantial program of public scale as the one trumpeted by Lloyd George. Maturity benefits are promised, corre- sponding almost precisely to_those re- cently promised by Premier Baldwin. Support 1s pledged to the League of Nations' international labor office. Should the party achieve the power it will at once adopt the “Washington™” eight-bour day for workers. Immediate summoning of an inter- national disarmament conference is de- manded. AP Improvement of the export trade on of the unemployment problem. A omprehensive plan of export credits” should be the most prominent feature of a grand program looking to revival of export trade Meantime, certain pallatives for unemployment are indi- cated: As extension of the compulsory term of schooling, and more generous aged workers. Adequate legislation in the above senses is promised should Labor win at the polls. Moreover, a victorious Labor party would nationalize coal and other mines works is promised, though on no_such | es the chief hope of a radical solu- | provision of retirement pensions for | CALCUTTA, ONE OF THE GREAT C | We all know the influence which the automobile has had on American life, shortened distances, broken barriers and enlarged the spheres of community life. If it once got a good start in India, the place of all places where there is no national spirit, where there is the greatest di- versity of race and language and where there are huge distances to be bridged, if th automobile really got hold here, might not the effect be overwhelming? ¥s a Land of Many Tongues. When I attended a session of the Mdian Legislature in Delhi I met a Rep- |resentative from Madras, the large | South Indian city, who could not even | make himself understood to the native waiters in the dining room. He could | not communicate with many of his na- | tive colleagues except in English. When he goes back to Madras at the close of | the session, he said in all seriousness: |“I am going back to India.” The cap- ital of India apparently conveys no idea of India to him. To use another example: Sclentists tell us that there is more racial differ- | ence between the Indian of the Punjab | which show the growth of the imports |and the Indian of the south than there |is between an Englishman and a Moor | of Northern Africa. Neither of these |men thinks of himself as an Indian. | He says: “I am a Punjabi” or “I am a | Dravidian.” If the Punjabi could drive dowrt to Southern India or go down there by bus lines would it not change his_horizon? Some persons dismiss the prospect of | selling many automobiles in India as | visionary, but that view cannot be | proved. " 'According to business men | with many years of Indian experience, | with whom T have talked, | country whose surface hasn't even been scratched, economically speaking. | has a great future, from the busines standpoint, with its natural resources. | These resources are in large part in coal and fron. It takes a long time to de- | of these items are oil and automobiles. | velop such things, but there is another 48 minutes, distance 4.130 miles. Heavy | headwinds ' retarded the machine, so that descent at Karachi was compelled by exhaustion of fuel. It had becn proposed to make Bangalore, 1,170 miles further on. ‘The distance cov- ered is 287 miles short of the non-stop record distance made by Italians. The Royal Ulster Yacht Club has is. sued a challenge for the America’s cup to the New York Yacht Club on behalf of Sir Thomas Lipton. ‘The challenger is to be named Shamrock V. and it is expected that the races wil be safled in the Autumn of 1930. It is reported that the German chal- lenge for primacy in transatlantic pas- senger shipping is to be answered by the Cunard Line, with two vessels, each of at least 75,000 tons and more than a thousand feet long. _Propelled by tur- bines, generating 150,000 horespower, twice as much as that of the Maure- tania. _Report has it also that the White Star Line plans a superliner. P GERMANY.—On May 2 Dr. Schacht, chief of the German representatives on the experts’ committee, returned to Paris from a visit of several days to Berlin. The optimists allow them- selves to think that, as the result of his conferences there, he returned in *coming” mood. and that a new repara- tions agreement is still possible. Let up_hope so. Communists of Berlin rioted violently on May day and were still at it on Fri- day night, discharging firearms on the police and hurling stones, etc., from house windows and from behind barri- cade: p to Friday night some 20 rioters (or innocent persons in the area of rioting) had been killed and scores injured by the police. It is of whatever significance that, though 36 policemen | were injured, none were killed. One | notes with interest in this connection and would vigorously develop scientific utilization of coal by-products. It is proposed that houses be built by the government, not for sale to | Democrats than by Western Repub- | workers, but for rent to them at reason- able rates. The taxation policy of the party is stated as follows: “The party stands for a system of | taxation that will distribute the burden | fairly according to ability to pay. It/ will abolish taxes on food and other | necessaries, providing what revenue is needed by death duties on large estates and by graduating the income tax and surtax, relieving the smaller and in- | creasing the contributions from the larger incomes. The party will carry still further the differentiation between | carned and unearned income.” | Strangely, Russia is not mentioned. The ideal of a socialist, co-operative | state may be discounted as recognized | by the majority of the party to be millennial, A good many Liberals and | Conservatives are not inhospitable to [ the idea of nationalization of the mines. As to taxation, it seems unlikely that Labor would make _extraordinary | changes; at any rate, except very, very | gradually. There’s a point beyond which you can't further curtail the | already “cur-tail'd cur. The which is sufficiently known to Messrs. MacDonald, Snowden, Henderson, etc. But of course an election platform, anywhere on the planet, has to be adorned with chaplets of millennial promises. The (London) lord mayor's fund for the relief of distressed mining areac has been closed with a total collection | of $4217,200. The government has pledged & like amount. About $3,250.000 has been dispensed, leaving more than | $5.000,000 still to be dispensed. | Last week I stated incorrectly that| the British budget for the new fiscal| year (began April 1), calls for a lotal| { expenditure less by about $200,000,900 | than the total estimated for the pre-| vious fiscal year. It calls for a total| expenditure greater by about 194.000,- | 1000 than that estimated for the preced- | ing fiscal yewr. A huge Fairey-Napier monoplane | (Squadron Leader Jon°s-Williams and | Flight Lieut. ), has made the! Jenkinz), | first non-stop fitzht m Greet, Britain | i b ). 10 aad! T (Cranvell Al VIR ir India higs time 50 howrs (Karac] N the autobiography of Benja- min Haydon, the painter who was the friend of Words- worth and Scott and Lamb, 1 found this entry: : “December 12, 1822, at half- past 11 in the forenoon was born Frank Haydon, whom | pray God to make a better man than his father. God bless him! And grant him life, and virtue, and dauntless energy and health, and, above all, genius At the bottom of the page, in small type, the editor of the vol- ume had added a tragic foot- note: “Frank Haydon became an official at the Public Record Office. He died by his own hand October 11, 1887.” What a world of pathos is in those two quotations. The joyous thrill of the father at the arrival of his first-born son! The dreams of both parents for the future; their willing sacrifi their own comfort and ple that this new young life might have a better start. The years of manhood. And at the end of it all, the wreck! * kX A friend of mine sat one day in a foreign hotel beside a man whom he recognized from news- paper photographs as one of America’'s great manufacturers. He introduced himself. ¥ X Xk “You must pardon me, sir, for addressing you, but every Amer- ican feels a parsonallpride in your success.” he said. “What a satisfaction it must ba to have made your name stand for qual- OMMERCIAL CENTERS OF INDIA. the surface—hidden resource mearer money. Ever since the West has had any- thing to do with India this hidden money has been a puzzle. India is the | great sink where coins from all over the | world disappear. It has made the de: | pair of treasury officials and tax col lectors who have had practically nothing on which to tax the Indian. The poor farmer in India, and most of the people are poor farmers, is probably the most abstemious man who ever lived. He wears one simple cotton cloth tied |around himself, his wife another, his ‘children nothing. He has one meal a day and would charge his wife with wastefulness if he had any more, sleeps in the rudest of shacks and could walk off with all his personal property on his back. He has no in- come, hie wants nothing for his com- ort. The American is & taxable person: the Indian is not. That is why the salt tax is in force In India. one of the few ways in which the peo- ple can be forced to contribute to the government. The Indian does not care to be governed. In fact, he prob- 150 years ago with all their bloodshed and uncertainty preferable to the bore- |dom of law and order which give his | tropical imagination nothing to work on. Motor Sales Have Big Increase. | But to come back to his hidden | wealth which so far nothing but things |like funeral expenses has been able to |dislodge. The American automobile | agents in India are counting on entic- |ing that money from its hiding place. | Last year there was an increase of from }50 to 70 per cent in the sale of motor: | the exact increase not having been com- puted vet. The big automobile firms | look for still further increases. General | Motors has had a plant in operation in India for several months. | “There are 319,000,000 people in In- strikes of non-Communist workers in protest against alleged unnecessarily voilent police methods. But it is suffi- clentiy difficult for police to practice amenity under such circumstances. “"he 10,000-ton German cruiser Ersatz Preussen, popularly known as “the ystery ship,” is causing much flutter- ing in naval dovecotes all over the planet as official details emerge and rumors multiply concerning her. The following is extracted from the Bulletin of Engineering Information, issued by the engineering bureau of our navy: otection is very complete. “The main armament consists of six 11-inch guns in triple turrets, mountings permitting a high angle of elevation; eight 5.9-inch guns behind shields, four 8.4-inch anti-aircraft guns and six 19.7-inch torpedo tubes. The big guns are reported to have a loading gear of a new pattern which enables a very rapid rate of fire to be maintained. Their utmost range is 30,200 yards. “She is to be driven by internal com- bustion engines, the maximum speed to be 26 knots. They appear to represent a great advance in existing internal combustion practice. “The Ersatz Preussen is to carry suffi- clent fuel for a continuous voyage of 10,000 miles, at a speed of 20 knots. Were not these figures vouched for by the German admiralty, they would be almost increditable. It need hardly be said that no vessel now afloat, whether man-of-war or liner, is able to steam anything like that distance at the speed stated. What the extreme radins of the FErsatz Preussen may be at economical speed can only be con- jectured, but it may be as much as 18.000 miles. ““The appearance of these vessels may have far-reaching reactions on the international naval situation, for they will introduce a factor that was not contemplated when the Washington Sons BY BRUCE BARTON. ity and square dealing, not only in your own country, but throughout the world! Surely few men have so much reason to be congratulated.” * Kk The famous man made no re- ply for several minu Finally he turned, with a haggard look. * kX “Your words are very kind” he answerkd. “Under other cir- cumstanc I should probably feel exactly as you suggest. But what does it afl amount to when your son is a fool?” g e It is a disheartening thing that with all our increase in knowledge we have learned so little about the reasons for suc- cess or failure in the molding of human lives. Shall we ever nenetrate deeper into this most baffling of all nature's secrets? P Shall we some day understand why it was that the son of shift- i2ss Thomas Lincoln became the Jreatest American, while the son of the powerful Napoleon was of no account? Why two good par- ents produce a Washington and two others, seemingly also good, a Benedict Arnold? * kX Surely no area of human life is more important or less ex- plored. Who will found a lab- oratory to discover what parents can do for their children with- out doing too much? £ ¥ win the undying by teach- sons? Who will gratitude of the ra ing us how to ral | | | (Copyrisht, 1020.) He lives off his little patch of land, | It is| ebly would find the feudal times of | with | Imports . but they are poor, poor beyond be- | iief, and a lot must be done before they can be jarred out of a state of mind thousands of years old and turn their | attention to motor cars. When they do |their prosperity will increase, more | roads will be bullt, more cars sold for | use on the new roads and the flywheel of economic overturn will start moving. ‘The American automobile agents in | India are looking forward to that day and believe they will make substantial profits on motor bus lines between the | thousands of Indian villages, if roads can be buiit. That the people love to |travel is proved by the crowds in the trains, Book Awnkens Thinking Indians. No discussion of American influences would be complete if it did not men- | tion “Mother India,” which is still one |of the most talked of topics in India iOne finds the same diversity of opinion on the book in India as in the United States, but after hearing the opinions of natives and Britishers, the later be- ing men with 20 years' residence and many official honors to their credit. I think it can be said that Miss Mayo's facts are correct; that her selection of them and presentation of them may lay her open to the charge of deliber- etely seeking sensationalism and of giv- |ing a one-sided picture merely to prove | her case, and that her book has exerted and Is exerting & real influence among the English-speaking Indians—an im~ [ fluence which tends toward the sup- | pression of the conditions which seem |10 us so reprehensible. When I attended a session of the | Indian Legislature in Delhi I met M. K. Acharya, the outstanding defender of the institution of child marriage, against which Miss Mayo crusaded with uch vigor. I was shown speeches of is delivered on this subject two years ago and speeches delivered now. He no longer defends child marriage itself, but has shifted his ground, maintaining (Continued on Eighth Page) treaty was drafted. In fighting power they ‘are greatly superior to the treaty class of a 10,000-ton cruiser, they are faster .than any existing battieship; with them. Possibly, therefore, the | Ersatz Preussen may eventually neces- sitate some revision of the treaty rules governing ship design. * e ow ‘TRANSJORDAN.—The first Legisla- | tive Assembly of Transjordan was opened on April 2, the Emir Abdullah | and the redoubtable Col. Cox, the British resident, being present, and a letter of congratulations from Sir John Chancellor, British High Commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan, being read. Of the 22 deputies, 3 are illiterate. While the interesting and “colorful” function was in process, the Trans- jordan forces, supported by British armored cars and bombing planes, were deployed on the frontier, on the alert for an attack threatened by a consider- able force of Wahhabis, burning with zeal for Allah and for loot. Xk ox % CHINA —Feng Yu-Hslang has with- drawn into Honan Province the con- siderable forces which he had sent into | Shantung with a view to taking over | from the Japanese. Troops of the Nan- king government are said to be close | to Tsinan, ready to take over from the Japanese; and evacuation of Shantung | by the latter by May 25, the ultimate | date fixed therefore by the agreement | suspended for reasons cxplained in my | brevious summaries, seems probable, Peng is tumored to be drilling and organizing vigorously. Cheng Kai-Shek has returned to Nanking from Wuhan; we hear no more of his proposed resig- ;nntlon and retirement. Chang Tsung- | Chang, foiled in his effort to recover his aforetime Tuchunship of Shantung. seems to have taken refuge in Japan. By joint voluntary action of the treaty powers, the arms embargo agree- ment of 1919, by which those powers engaged to prevent importation into China from their respective countries of arms and munitions of war, has been terminated, our Department of State announces that _exportation of war material from this country to China will be permitted only as approved by that Department upon request of the Chinese government. It is said that over a hundred per- sons have committed suicide because of appropriation (practically without compensation), by the city government | | of Nanking of their property on the | line of a maginficent memorial highway, 8 miles long and 140 feet wide, being constructed from the city to Sun Yat- Sen’s tomb. The cost of construction ! will run into the millions, and it does em & little outrageous, in view of gen- | eral conditions in China, that so much {money should be expended not oniy unproductively, but even destructively at this time. Certainly the shade of | | that really great and humane man, Sun | Yat-Sen, does not approve. The peopie | call the highway “the Road of Death.” s UNITED STATES OF AMERICA —In | 1926, according to a report issued by the | Shipping Board, American vessels car- ried 39 per cent of the cargoes involved | {in the foreign commerce of the United | States, the which aggregated 100.000,- 1000 long tons, valued at $8,000,000,800. { Between 1910 and 1914 American ships carried less than 9 per cent. Just prior to 1914 only five American-flag vessels {of total gross tonnage of 23,000 partici- pated in our trade with South America, ias againsi 90 vessels of 550,000 gross tonnage now participating. At that | time only one American-flag vesso! {operated between the Pacific and the | Far East, as against 140 vessels of 1.- | | 000,000 gross tonnage today. At thit | time in our trade with Africa there | was no American-flag service. Today | there are 19 American-flag ships of 108,000 gross tonnage operating in serv- |ices between the United States and! Africa. The United States led the world in alrplane production in 1928, with aoout | {4600 planes, as against 1440 [for France; 4756 for Italy, and 300 for Germany. b hird-class carriages on all the Indian | and it is difficult to see how any vessel | other than a battle cruiser could deal | 38 'TWO NATIONS JOIN U. S.° IN FIGHT ON ALCOHOL ‘Policies of Mexico and Chile in Seeking Prohibition Di BY GASTON NERVAL. A n Affairs) hority on Latin Al WO Latin American republics seem inclined to follow the ex- ample of the United States in trying to suppress alcoholism. Mexico, the northernmost nation ) Spanish America. and Chile, at the other extreme of the continent, have begun to take measures to control the use of alcohol. Prohibition thus ac- -uires International standing. The United States will no longer be the only nation opposing the wet inclinations of its citizens, for Mexico and Chile have come forward to enlist With the United States for the war on Bzcchus. However, the steps taken by Mexico and Chile’ are not so radical as the prohibition policy of this countr: does their enforcement have the char- acter which the fight against alcoholism has taken on in this country. Their measures are rather experimental, a tryout of legislation directed toward a methodical decrease in the use of alco- ! holic beverages among their people. | Chile and Mexico want to get rid of alcohol, but are trying to avoid the dangers of violence entailed by sudden, In time Chile and ! absolute prohibition. Mexico may come to have a dry law, | ! but they want to achieve it gradually, step by step, without haste. | campaign against alcoholism the prin- cipal feature of his administration in Mexico. December Portes Gil has frankly em- phasized his intention to follow an anti- alcohol policy during the vear of his term as provisional president. Since December the Mexican Government has decreed a series of measures restricting the manufacture and sale of intoxi- vating beverages. Carries Out Obregon’s Ideals. In this Portes Gil is carrying out one of the ideals of the late Mexican leader, Gen. Obregon, whose assassination. a few days before he was to take office, made necessary the provisional presi- dency of Portes Gil. One of the most conspicuous planks of the platform on which Obregan ran for the presidency was the repression of alcoholism, and to this plan the former chieftain devoted many important speeches in his cam- paign. The American press commented at the time on these .addresses, as showing the intentions of the next ruler of Mexico. When about a year ago the fanatic, Toral, put an end to the career of Obregon, then president- elect, the question was asked: What will become of Obregon’s plans for pro- hibition? Would they be forgottem, the usual fate of the principles of Mexican leaders who have gone from the stage? That was not the case this time. Portes Gil, on becoming chief magis- | | rying out that ideal of his old leader, and, declaring that he wants to leave anti-alcoholic legislation as the monu- ment to his short term of office, he is speeding up this reform movement. The latest step in this direction is & decree of the secretary of the treasury of Mexico again increasing the taxes al- ready imposed upon aicoholic drinks of alcohol in beer. Maguey Plant Is Menace. ‘These restrictive measures, however, will not bring about a complete solu- tion of the problem. There is a graver danger than that of imported liquors in Mexico, i. e., the existence of the maguey plant, growing wild in many sections of the country, from the fer- mented sap of which is produced the | national drink, pulque. ! Pulque has an extremely high alco- holic content and a great amount of fermentative matter, which make it highly injurious to health. To stamp out the use of this national drink is the present aim of the Mexican gov- ernment. To this end, efforts are be- ing made to establish an economic sub- | stitute for the pulque industry. in which | millions of pesos are invested and for which thousands of acres of land are | used that are worthless for anything but | maguey. The maguey will be utilized for industrial and commercial purposes, | and its products improved gradually by chemical research. ‘When the plant, now but the source of a pernicious drink, is converted to other uses pulque will cease to be com- mercially interesting. It will not be produced on a large scale, and as other alcoholic beverages become scarcer and higher priced the present national drink will cease to be popular in price and quality. and its consumption will decrease until at last it will disappear. | ‘And then, when the use of pulque is no longer one of the customs of the people, it will be easy to complete the process and put a real “dey law” into effect. In Chile the movement against alco- holism is nothing new. For many years the government has been seeking & | way to combat the sale of intoxicants. | At one time it went so far as to consider total prohibition, copying the laws of the United States, but the gov- ernment became convinced that in Chile nothing would be more out of place and more likely to defeat purpose than complete “dryne: that nation has, at present, an ex- tremely high per capita rate of liquor consumption, and its vineyards are ‘the basis of several of its most important industries. Treat Alcoholism as Disease. Instead, the Chilean authorities have | decided to begin by restricting the con- | sumption of alcoholic beverages, and | treating alcoholism as a disease, thus | avoiding doing violence to ihe deep-| rooted feelin; ple and injuring one of its most profit- able industries. It must not be fol gotten that Chile has more than 172 acres of vineyards producing about 4 372,000 gallons of wine per year. ing the month of September alone last year Chile produced 4.947.300 liters of beer, 130,500 liters of liquors. 168.000 liters of pure alcohol and 62.000 of denatured alcohol. Such an industry is 100 great a factor in the economic life of the country to be shut down sud- denly and entirely. Law 4536, just approved by the Chi- lean government, shows us how this Latin republic is treating drunkenness as a disease and a misdemeanor. Ha- bitual drunkards are given scientific treatment in a ‘“temperance asylum” established for the purpose. Temperance will be brought about by punishing the offender, not the inno- cent, nor those who drink in modera- Relatives of habitual drunkards 1 | Venezuela in 1928 totaled $38,860,000 in value, as against $28.,598,000 in 1927 About 50 per cent of our imports reprt sented petroleum shipments, coffee ac- counting for about 30 per cent. ‘The North River Bridge Co. and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, in associa- tion, contemplate construction of a rail- way and highway bridge across the Hud- son River from Fifty-seventh street to New Jersey. The cost is estimated at $180,000,000. A union passenger station would be erected at the New York end. The plans are under examination in the office of the chief of engineers of the Army. £k gy NOTES.—Discouraged with American Swedish_prohibitionists are fending to become advocates of temperance rather than prohibition. They would promote iemperance through education, backed by_moderate. legislation. i The excess of births over deaths in Our imports from Venezuela in 1928 totaled $37,820000 in value, as against $34743,000 in 1927, our exports ) France in 1928 was 70.000. The Mexican insurrection seems to be to over. - of America. President Portes Gil is making the | Ever since he took office in | trate, is devoting all his efforts to car- | and reducing the authorized percentage | and desires of the peo- 0 Dur- liters | and Pinish experiences of prohibition, | ffer From That may obtain officlal orders prohibiting saloons or other establishments from furnishing alcoholic beverages to of- fending persons. This is the most in- teresting provision of the Chilean law. ‘Those who sell liquors are prohibited from selling intoxicating beverages to individuals declared by members of their families or by a judge or other authority to be drunkards. Thus, the wife of a hard drinker may obtain from the authorities a notification to the proprietors of saloons or places where liquor is sold, denouncing her husband as a habitual drunkard, and he will be unable to buy liquor anywhere for three months, the term of the notifica- tion or order. And also, the person making the declaration of drunkenness has the right to collect from the vender of liquors who violates the order for “the damages or injuries that he or | she may have suffered in his or her per- son, property or means of subsistence as a result of this drunkenness,” thus making the person violating one of these orders responsible for all the dam- age and injury that may result. During the time when convicted of drunkenness persons are serving prison seniences, the law provides that state charitable institutions shall undertake the care and maintenance of any per- ons depending solely upon such con- viet. Liquor Export Is Encouraged. Another interesting side of the Chil- ean law is the encouragement given to exporting liquors and the sale of fresh grapes and raisins, and also to the prep- aration of non-alcoholic products of the , vineyards. Encouragement is also given the production of alcohol for industrial purposes. There is also established an ample system of educational work on temperance. to teach the people, scien- | tifically and clearly, how and why they should stop drinking. Provision is made for the establishment of “dry | zones” in industrial and mining centers. In general, the sale of alcoholic bev- | erages is sirictly regulated in all places and at all times. Saloons are to be closed during week ends and holidays. In short. the attitude adopted in Chile is that producers may legally make all the alcoholic beverages they | please, but those who drink to excess, |or incite others to do so, are subject to punishment. This is an attitude of true temperance. There is no prohibi- tion of moderate drinking. but there is | of intoxication. “Bootlegging., the erea- tion of abnormal appetites sr cravings and other evils attending total prohibi- tion are not present,” according to an | official Chilean publication. | The most interesting part of the | Chilean law is that part providing pun- | ishment for drinking in excess. Article treating of this, follows: “Every individual over 20 years of age who is found in a manifest condition of inebriety in ' streets, roads, public squares, theaters, hotels. cafes, taverns, stores or other public ptace or places i open to the public, and who molests or scandalizes other people shall be pun- ished by from one to three days of ‘ hard labor without remuneration at such occupations as are designated by the regulations of the places of deten- tion or as are determined by the mu- nicipalities of the respective places. Under no circumstances can the de- tained person remain in jail more than 24 hours from the time of arrest with- ag fulfilling the penalty imposed | above.” | . Another provision of the law is that | “any person who is arrested in accord- ance with article 95 three times within the space of three months shall be pun- | ished by a month of labor without re- numeration, commutable to a fine of 100 pesos.” Lastly, article 98 states: “Individuals who during the period of a year have been arrested more than | four times for drunkenness may be sent | to the temperance asylum upon s medi- | cal report certifying that the case alcoholic and specifying the time during which treatment should be given.” | | Tokio Considers Paving Program | Tokio will have 85 miles of new paved avenues completed within the next 10 years if a plan drawn up by the mayor is passed by the city as- sembly. The project is one of those recently prepared to complete the more or less emergency reconstruction meas- ures rushed through following the big earthquake in 1923. The total cost is estimated at $9,700.000. Paving of | streets in Tokio has alwa been a great problem, especially because most of them were so narrow that before laying down a firm surface it was neces- sary to set back houses several feet | on “each side. So the way in which the earthquake swept away block after block was a great blessing. Most of the |roads and avenues lald out since the arthquake have been wide. Main thor= oughfares included in the new scheme will be covered with asphalt if they e 36 feet or more in width, with con- sidewalks. Narrower streets will | be given macadam surfaces. Most of the paving will be done in thickly pop- | ulated centers where business has not | taken with it the usual improvements f a modern city. ar Fishermen Barred From Naval Base After years of effort to make Paarl Harbor, Hawaii'’s big naval base, & really “closed” area, steps are now be- ing taken to abrogate a number of ancient fishing rights which have kept it “open.” Pearl Harbor is the heart of the 14th Naval District of Uncle Sam’s far-flung department, and re- garded as one of the great strategic naval points of the world. Yet the ever been able to make area to certain types of com- | mercial vessels and to certain visitors. Old Hawaiian laws that go back far | beyond the days of the white man here have preserved fishing rights to & con- | siderable number of owners. Some of these rights are leased. occasionally {one is sold, but they have been jeal- | ously held." And, under these rights, { which have been ‘scrupulously observed during all the changes of government, | fishermen can take their boats righi |into Pearl Harbor and operate in cer- | tain stretches of water. Now the Fed- | eral Government is preparing. to con- demn all the fishing rights, remun- erate the owners, and close the port | effectively. Old Picture Shows Hoover With Leaders When the French Ambassador to the Holy See was received by Pope Pius XTI recently, runs a story current in Rome, | the pontiff exhibited a picture taken in | Warsaw shortly after the war. | There are four persons in the photo- graph. His holiness identified them for the envoy. | “This is Herbert Hoover, who has just | become President of the United States. 'Thlx is Marshal Pilsudski, who became head of the Polish government. You re ize Mgr. Achille Ratti, who is head |of the Roman Catholic Church. The | fourth person is Gen. Henrys of the | French Army—the only one of us who :‘1“! not' }I‘:::n Cl:l?d to direct the des- Infes of people. Don't think our records hint that Prnsmenytm ou' had better lock out for his job?” the Pope is reported to have re;