Evening Star Newspaper, May 23, 1929, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON. W ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. THE EVENIN Sundsy Mornk WASBHINGTON, D C. AHURSDAY.......May 23, 1620 _ THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor e Etening S ook vhemmd ot 3 Pennay] | | Within the City. { 452 rer month 60¢ per month | ..65¢ per m & i.. 5c per made ai the end of cach ment: be sent in by mall or telepnone 1, ‘Wate by Carrier ine SIAf . fng and Biinday Star 4 Rundars) .. onth | eopy . 5c | © 40c nd Camada. \ e L et | $5.00; 1 mo., 50 | fly an ity only unday only . All Other States a Dafly and Sunday..1 yr. ily only DR unday only 1. Member of the Associated Press. » Associared Press ix exclusively entitled tn the use for rapuhlication of cll Tews Gl Atehes credited to it or net atherwise cre #d 1n thit paper and Also the l1ocal new published Rerein. All riehts of publiesrion of Becinl AIsDAtENeR herein Are Also reserved. | e Censcrship. The Senate committee on Tules yos-| terday denied to the United Press the | privilege of sending ita reporters on the floor of the Senate because that press association had copyrighted and pub- lished a roll call on the Lenroot nomi- nation taken In secret executive session. When this action of the committee was called to the attention of the Senate itaelf Senator La Follette of Wisconsin | made the point that the rules commit- | tee had neither the right to grant nor to take away floor privileges in the Senate; that only thoss persons men- | tioned in the rules of the Senate itself were entitled to go upon the floor of the Senate, The Vice President sus- tained the point raissd by Mr. La Fol- lette and the floor privileges were de- nied to all press associations. In the twinkling of an eye what the rules com- mittee had sought to impose as & pun- ishment on the United Press and its correspondents had been transferred into a hardship upon all the news- gathering press assoclations, which have been accorded the privileges of the floor by common consent through the instru- mentality of the rules committee. The Senate comfhittee on rules has eonfused what it considers a matter of courtesy with the right of newspapers to publish legitimate news. If its course is persisted in, it is & first step in cen- sorship. Its action in denying a press assoclation and its correspondents floor | privileges is in reality an effort to in- timidate; to throw the fear of the Sen- ate into the news-gathering organiza- tions and the press galleries. The Sen- ate has a rule regarding disclosures of what occurs in secret sessions of the Senate. It provides that any Senator or officer of the Senate who discloses the secret business or procedure of the Senate shall be liable, if a Senator, to expulsion, and if an officer, to dismissal from the service of the Senate and pun- ishment for contempt. The Senate rule does not undertake to punish a news- paper which publishes an account of: the secret proceedings of the Senate. Such an effort would, indeed, be a clear violation of the right of free speech and free press In this country. What the Senate rules committee is now seek- ing to @0 is to infringe upon that right through indirection. While the Senate rules committee has not undertaken to deny the United Press the right to sit in the press gallery itself, along with other correspondents, the question arises as to what step the committee may undertake in the event of the pub- lieation in the future of any of the pro- coedings in secret executive session. In an effort to enforce the rule of secrecy the rules committee of the Sen- ate has issued a subpoena for the cor- respondent of the United Press who wrote the story of the Lenroot rule. Its purpose, according to the members of the eommittee, is to demand of the eorrespondent where he obtained the information regarding the roll call. Should the correspondent decline to answer the committee may recommend to the Senate that he be punished for contempt. What the Senate would do in the matter, however, is something | else. There is & strong sentiment in the Senate itself that secrecy in con- nection with roll ealls on the confirma tion of the appointees to public office is | not justified. Nor is it justified in the public interest. Accounts of what has happenened in secret. session of the Senate have been | published, when the news value of the publication warranted, for years. The information upon which these reports were based has been obtained from members of the Senate themselves. Many reports of the proceedings other than that of the United Press, dealing with the Lenroot case, were widely pub- lished. Reports of the debate, almost in verbatim form, appeared in some of the newspapers. No effort has been | made by the rules committee to deal with the correspondents of newspapers hich published those reports. To sin- :- out the correspondent of the United seems At least unfair. If the Sen- ate committee on rules desires to get to; the bottom of the so-called “leak” it should summon all the members of the Senate, including the members of the committee, and question them under | oath. ——— ‘The office is not so very large, but with it goes an amount of fame that | Judge Lenroot probably did not antici- pate. ———— Boreh and the Stock Market. Yesterday's crash on the New York Stock Exchange—the most costly in five years—ecoincides with some pertinent suggestions from Senator Borah. The foreign relations chairman, in an edi- torial contributed to the June number of World's Work, predicts a world- wide money panic unless loans made to speculators in stocks are drastically curbed. Without specifically identifying himself with recent policies of the Fed- eral Reserve Board, Senator Borah, in effect, supports its program for curtail- ing brokers' loans. ‘The Idaho statesman calls upon the Federal Reserve Board to consider an- other scheme for arresting speculation. tar Newspaper Company | h |18 in the air.” would seem time,” writes Senator Borah, “for the board to comment on settle- ment practices abroad. A London loan on the fortnightly plan cannot be called for two wesks, and the interest rate 18 definitely fixed through that period.” ator Borah points out that “six | — ibillion dollars have been put into ‘the | call-money pot' by capitalists, manufac- | turers and business houses with surplus funds which can be loaned and with. drawn within a few hours, If necessas The result of the daily settlement plan prevalent under this system is bound, | in Mr. Borah's opinion, to lead to “peril- ous confusion and frantic stampedes | when anything in the nature of panic | ! Undoubtedly financial statesmanship in America must sooner or later come ‘lu grips with the situation, which is capable, overnight, as current events in | New York are demonstrating, of throw- ing the stock market into disastrous chaos. Remedial action, looking to bul- warks and safeguards for the investing public, must be predicated on the theory that stock speculation in this country is almost & sumptuary habit, like drinking. Law will not easily curb it. To gamble, with & view to getting rich quick, is | nowadays almost as human as to err | in other directions. About all that the Federal Reserve | Board, or any other man-made, or Gov- ernment-made, organism can do is to throw around stock exchange specula- tion & maximum of protective provisions designed to shield the non-professional element from rushing too madly into | realms where fools should never tread./ Perhaps salvation for the “sucker” in Wall Street will never come, as Secre- | tary Mellon suggeste, “until gentlemen prefer bonds.” B ) Fighting the Loan Shark. Enforcement of an act of Congress passed in 1013 successfully rid the Dis- | trict of the loan sharks who, conducting their operation as pawnbrokers, ex- acted exorbitant interest from smell | borrowers in need of ready cash. But! in the place of the pawnbrokers there has developed a class of loan sharks whose methods, conducted in the name | of small finance or loan companies, | make the pawnbrokers look like rank | amateurs in the art of growing two pennies where one grew before. By means of various fees and excessive service charges the legitimate rate of | interest is doubled and trebled and the law regarding legml interest 18 easily dodged. United States Attorney Rover has| decided to put the matter before the grand jury, in the hope of developing enough information to show the need of new legisiation. The loan shark statute i & purely local law, and plncesl prosecutions for its violations in the | hands of the corporation counsel. Mr. Rover believes that making the exaction of illegal interest & Federal offense would enable his office to seek indict- ments for conspiracy, where officers of | corporations are involved. ¥ While there have been plenty of com- | plaints against the various finance | charges which victimize the jgnorant borrower, the corporation counsel’s of- fice has always found difficulty in se- curing the sort of evidence that will warrant prosecution in court. The wit- nesses are not easy to find. And no matter how extortionate may be the in- terest, there are undoubtedly many bor- rowers willing to pay it as long as they can get the cash and get it quickly. ‘The result is that the loan sharks do a thriving business. They are in undis- puted possession of a profitable field, in which there is practically no legitimate competition. The banks and other rep- utable houses which loan money are not equipped to answer the small but numerous demands of needy persons who want cash but Lave no financial standing, no bank nccount and whose avallable collateral is of questionable wotth. While the loan sharks should be driven out of business, the question al- ways remains of finding & legitimate substitute for them. There should be a substitute. In New York City, par- tially as the result of & concerted crive against loan sharks, the National City Bank made the experiment of entering the small loan fieid and offering its setvices and vast resources to borrow- ers who could offer no security except good character and steady work. A year's trial has proved the success of the experiment. Millions of dollars have been loaned, the losses have been negligible and thousands of borrowers have learned, through practical experi- ence, the habit of saving money and establishing & bank account to repay their loans. ‘The National City Bank ides will no doubt sprea ‘When it does it will ac- complish more to put the loan shark out of business than all the legislation ever framed. ) At present there is no new grand opera, If there were any the threat to kidnap Anne Morrow, the aviator's bride, would make & magnificent plot. -t —— The Gardener on the Rack. Now is the time when all good home folks are taking an interest in their garden plots. An attractive flower gar- den means thought, doing things at the right time—and labor. Of course, the compensations are out of all proportion to what is exacted—the feel and smell of overturned mother earth, the health- glving exercise in fresh air and sun- shine, the joy of seeing the marvel of plant growth, delight in having had some part in producing such beautiful things as flowers. After the rainy apell the home yard gardeners have to hustle to get their flower plots in shape and planted. The man who spends his days in office or sigzagging between appointments looks forward to the all too brief hour after dinner when he can get busy with his spade or trowel. He makes a valiant start, The ardor of making a garden is upon him; he is wooing nature. And then come neighbors and others. Perhaps twenty persons in a row will ask him, some of them as they have done every year, the name of a particular rose, He will answer patiently. Others will deftly hint that they would like a few roses, and, to save his bushes from being torn to pieces or his ram- blers from being pulled from their trel- lises, he stops to cut some for his un- He would abolish the daily settlement plan now in vogue on American stock exchanges, and substitute the weekly or fortnightly system used in Eurqpe. “It commercial fertilizer. Another will lec- week. invited guests. If he is using bone meal, along will come a man wh? insists that he should get pome particular brand of ture him on how to water his gar- den. Others will talk in platitudes of the gardens when they were children. Most of those who come seeking flowers from his garden have neglected to plant | any of their own. But why prolong the tale? When you are working in your garden you have more visitors —or intruders — than at| any other time. They like to enjoy a garden they themselves have not la bored in. They can think of more | things to talk about and delay an in-| dustrious gardener cramped for time than any one can imagine. The home gardener wants to be & good neighbor. He wants to welcome heartily his guests. | He likes to have them enjoy his garden. | But at the proper time. When he has more to do than time to do it in, and | neighbors on the way to the movles | stop to talk inanely, just time-Killing, he is on the rack. He suffers in mind | and body. Just a hint to some of the thought- | less ones: When your neighbor is at ' work in his garden, do not intrude. Or | better still—go to work in a garden of | your own. - [— Careful Consideration Time. As regards leglsiation for the Nationsl | Capital, Congress is in one of those rare periods when legislative proposals | are held in abeyance and the finger of | time and thoughtful mind are allowed to work out a program that appears most beneficial and carefully co-or- dinated. During the present extraordinary ses- sion, when House committees have not been organized, relatively few District bills have ben introduced because members know that they will not be acted upon before the first regular ses- sion in December. Some of the old hang-over measures that have been thrashed out and rethrashed out be- | fore the House for years have been re- | introduced—just to keep them alive, In the meantime, those who have the best interests of the Nation's Capital at heart are giving careful, mature con- sideration to what the real needs of the District are and how legislation can | best help the public welfare. They are | visioning the needs for years to come. They are studying how old proposals | can be worked over in the light of more : recent developments into constructive legislation. They are marveling at the wonders time has wrought here, and Are taking counsel as to what can best be done for the future, Out of this “think-it-over” perfod the most sincere friends of the District In Congress hope to bring out a conetruc- tive program of essential legisiation, forward-looking legislation, legislation | that will stand all tests. They expect to make the December session one of historic value to the National Oapital. ] As Maytime melts into June the weather man may utilize the formula | “falr and warmer” in & manner to' inspire more seasonable confidence and help to rescue a belated straw hat market, ————— Many underworldlings have been angered by Mabel Willebrandt, but none of them has had the nerve to Pick on her as a victim of a kidnaping plot. e ‘Theoretical warfare “destroys” New York. The metropolis remains serene in contemplation of the vast difference that has always existed between theory and practice, ————____ In discussing debentures, many bank- ing experts frankly express incertitude 48 to what may have to be done with & new kind of negotiable paper. -t Washington, D. C. needs airports, and as the greatest Capital of the world will demand the world’s greatest airports. o SHOOTING STARS. BY PEILANDER JOHNSON. Unself, The Martyr we must all admire, Who hoped for Goodness Great; ‘Who scorned each personal desire And feared no adverse fate. We hail Dull Toll, as forth it sets Upon the daily grind— But Heaven help the man who gets Himself upon his mind! Dearly we love to sympathize ‘With life’s unhappy elves, And learn that kindliness is wise ‘Toward others than ourselves. ‘We silence personal regrets In thought for human kind— But Heaven help the man who gets Himself upon his mind! Alibi. “Did you tell what was said in execu- tive session?” “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I can prove I was sound asleep, as usual, and did not hear a word.” Jud Tunkins says & man who tells | you what he thinks is liable to stop thinkin' an’ keep on tellin', v Nights Filled With Musie. I strive to be a radio fan. My admiration deep Is not s0 powerful that I ean Survive the loss of sleep. Cool Calculat! “Have you never had a romance?” “Never!” declared Miss Cayenne. “Have no men asked you to marry them “Several have made the suggestion. But I decided that what they wanted was not o much for me to marry them as for father to finance them.” “A wise thought,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “lives forever; though most while in obscurity.” The Wedding. ‘We say, with joyous laughter, ‘They will, this Handsome Two, Live Happy Ever After— And yet, they seldom do! “If you belleves everything you hears,” sald Uncle Eben, “you gits relief f'um & jazz band dat lets you go on listenin’ an’ don't tell you nuffin.” Ja—— Some Persons Can't! From the Ottawa (Canada) Journal. A fashion writer says mustaches will be more popular this Summer for smart men. You can always get one on the THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. John Cheyne had been walting all| s life to break a vase. Ever since childhood he had strug- gled with an intense desire to smash a china vase into bits. Never once had he succumbed. The longing had come to him at | various times and in devious places, but never had he given in to it. Some one in his early childhood had said, “Naughty, naughty!" when he had tiptoed over to the big Chinese vase which stood in the fireplace in lieu of logs. What a temptation it had been! It was higher than he, and twice as big around, especially in the mid- section, where it resembled some ge: tleman who had eaten well over a period of years. | ‘There were all sorts of traceries in | yellow, red and blue winding here and | there over the surface. The inside | did duty as a “catch-all" for papersand | other materials. EEE | It Johnny Cheyne had been per- mitted to tip that vase over, no doubt he would have gotten the thing out of his system | His life would have been free ever afterward from a mad desire to break vases, He could have looked at vases calmly. freely, seeing in them nothing but Whi they were—vases. Instead of that, a vase became to him a symbol, standing for something conclusively destructible. | Even at the so-called destructive age, however, John Cheyne never broke one. By the age of 12 years he had been thoroughly drilled In the subject of property, Articles of all sorts meant things | to conserve, to cherish, to take care of. Perhaps his ancestors were speak- ing through him. Ancestors have such habits. Young Cheyne found, for instance, | that he disliked paying out money for clothes, but not for food. He would willingly pay for a theater party but shrank from a similar expenditure on books. | wi he attempted to analyze him- | self he came to the conclusion that he | was niggardly in regard to those ne- | cessitles which his ancestors had to buy, but a free spender for such things as_his forbears knew nothing about. He hated to buy clothes because his ancestors did not have enough money to purchase them. He willingly bought a radio, there being nothing in his descent with which to compare radio sets, * K % X Destruction of property was one of the pet dislikes of his whole line. Conservation was the pet hobby. As firmly as the French poor cling to the family clocks, so Cheyne and | his people held onto anything which they had purchased. Friends would find their attics filled | with plles of old magazines, dating back to the early years of the Atlantic Mlnn'-h\y and the North American Re- view. Huge stacks of old St. Nicholas were | thering dust, and piles of the Youth's | mpanion went back for decades. | ‘Their living rooms and “parlors” held | queer pieces not to be found in shops | any more. There were old chairs with elaborately carved backs, and littie cages filled with chalk “birds” gayly | adorned with multi-colored feathers. ! BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. “And the truth shall make you free” —Wwas not originally addressed to news- | pers, but it was implied when the | nited States Constitution received its | first amendment, forbidding Congress | to limit the freedom of the press. Now & doughty Senator is advocating a | statute which is held by its opponents to be in defiance of that part of the‘ Constitution, since it would limit even | truthful publications, and bar them from the privilege of equality in mail | rates with their competitors, if they are owned by certain interests, viz, the In- | ternational Paper Corporation. | “A government or political censorship more sweeping than that of Mussolini!” is the cry of opposition. ‘The so-called International Paper Corporation is incorporated legally, and is assumed to be within the law. But so are the great meat packers, yet the packers have been forbidden to engage in subsidiary enterprises, lest they be. | come a food monopoly in interstate commerce. Shall we fear that the man- ufacturers of news print may seek to | monopolize editorial influence, as the | g:clern were suspected of cornering | gs and hominy, canned frult and | jelly? Packers have learned to utilize | All the hog but its squeal; maybe the champions of a free press are going them one better, and utllizing even the | editorial squeal, but it is proper to in- | vestigate the note of the squeal and | identify its source. | On _top of the original agitation in | the Senate concerning the invialous course of the paper company to _control | public sentiment by owning influential | newspapers, an incident occurs right in | the Senate, wherein some Senator, un- | identified yet, is charged with acting | as reported of confidential news of | Senate action, which is alleged to bé a | basis for the guilty Senator’s expulsion— if he is discovered. * K kX It is asserted, upon the authority of | one who has served time as president of | the National Editorial Association of | America_that any journalist who would | betray either the source or substance of | confidential information would be con- victed of violating the most sacred Journalistic traditions and ethics. It is regrettable that the Senate has not served a real apprenticeship in journal- ism and learned the sacredness of con- | fidences. The only course for the un- trained Senate is to “investigate” b; committee, which will be like Grant be. fore Vicksburg and “take all Summer." | This conviction, when and if any, cannot | implicate the newspaper man in this | particular case, for it is very evident that he did not receive the data confi- | dentially but rather for the direct pyr- | pose of publishing it. Yet it is this body which proposes to regulate invest- ment in the press, through a Govern- | ment censorship. 4 * * Reverting to the packers, revenons a | nos moutons; the proposal to establish a Government 'discrimination against one | class of owners of newspapers by bar- ring their products from second-class mall rates opens the pen to all sorts of censorship. Being barred from equal mail rates so handicaps any periodical that it puts it out of business, although that does not so seriously affect dailies delivered locally. In Italy, the Mussolini censorship centers on the editorial and news; but in the land of the free, it goes beyond the “brains behind the pen,” and it is| proposed to censor the ownership of the | stock. Yesterday, In the Senate, informa- tion was given by Senator Walsh of Montana _ showing how the Inte national Paper Co. was Investing mil- llons of dollars, buying, or seeking to | buy, control of the great dailies of the cradle of liberty—Boston itself. When | a small boy sang in school, “Sweet land | of liberty,” and the teacher asked him what that meant, he explained that “liberty” was a kind of tea they served | at a Boston tea party. Evidently the rising generation has gotten quite a distance from the ideals | of the Pllgrims, and of the original| “Injuns” of the party, and it is high them back, Boston “tea.” * | good music while others tried to stay | | trouble to attempt | trolled™ Such things were as near heirlooms . as the famity knew. Maybe some of ' them would have brought big prices | with collectors, but John Cheyne never | thought of parting with them. ‘They were part of the family, A This hero of the everyday life grew up through young manhood to early ! middle age without once giving in to the | desire to assail a vase. All those years he had felt the urge, | however, steadily boring from within | him. Sometimes he had caught himself | smiling when, upon viewing a particu- | larly fine specimen in a friend’s home, he had felt the old desire creeping | over him. Once he even dreamed of walking through a gallery filled with rows upon rows of vases. There were little vases and big vases, thin vases and fat vases, | vases of blue and red and green, vases | for every conceivable situation. He had picked up a great ax which he found there, and had gone blithely about the work which Nature had cut | him out to do. He was a Vase Destroyer. Smash, bang, crash! Fragments of china, glass, pottery rained around him, as he hewed his way from aisle to aisle, smashing with fiendish energy. When he woke up he grinned to him- self to think of the “interpretation” which the solemn Dr. Freud would have pat upon his dream. Such an interpretation would have been the veriest bunk. He wanted to smi that was all. vases, x ey One day Cheyne, in the peaceful desk | job where he was growing old, con- ceived the idea of brightening office | life with flowers. S5 he went to a store and bought a cheap vase of pleasant design and | coloring, one fit to hold roses without attracting attention to itself. Such a vase is the only Sort for roses. The next day Cheyne brought down some flowers from his fragrant gar- den. John Cheyne grew roses while the rest of the world wrestled with debentures, the Graf Zeppelin and the reparations. He read good books while troops guarded the border, and listened to aloft in the sky a few hours longer than somebody else. Mavbe in the long run John Cheyne | had the best of it, after all. However | that may be, when he filled his ross | vase with water, he discovered that it | leaked. “Too far to take it back.” he said.| “It didn't cost enough. Too much to mend it. It shouldn't have leaked.” ‘Then a bright idea came to him. All these years he had been wanti to smash a vase—here was his chance! He called his mates to witness the execution. “All these years I have been wanting | to do this,” he said, and he held the | vase high in the air—and let it drop. Bang! The leaky vase hit the floor, bounced | a couple of times, and clattered to rest. | It was not even cracked. ! “I waited too long.” said John ! Cheyne, with a smile, should have | done it when I was a kid.’ And he picked up the vase and gently placed it in the waste paper basket, against is not so much who owns the paper as how the paper uses its influ- | ence. It is remindful of President ! Roosevelt’s attitude as to “Big Busi- | ness"—it mattered less how big was the | business organization than it did what “Big Business” was doing with its pow- er for good or evil. Editorial comment indicates that the monopoly control of newspapers is of little danger, if the | actual ownership is known. It 1s easy ' to camoufiage actnal ownership of stock, | especially when it is owned by a great corporation and held by individual | members of the corporation in their | personal names. * K ok X Nevertheless, a real menace to public” sentiment does exiet, not only in *‘con- | trolled” newspapers, but also in “con- | tatesmen. What is behind not | merely the printing press but also the | Senator who raves about the “controlled | press”? It may be only personal preju- dice or obsession. Yesterday a chronic orator from Dixie | announced that “with a total popula- | tion of 19,000,000 out of 120,000,000, the Roman Catholics hold 75 per cent of the Federal offices, and a_ mere tele- phone clerk in the White House (now controlled by & Quaker) is a Catholic, and has the audacity to demand what the Senator wants to talk to the Presi- dent about before he will announce the Senator to the Quaker.” That proves the Imminence of & p.‘rl invasion, for the public press ready told that the Pope is going to exit from the Vati- can in a.few days. Maybe he will be on the airship. Would “‘controlled press” be a greater menace to public security than are some uncontrolled statesmen? Who is behind statesman- ship? Is it the International Paper Corporation? Will the Government censor answer? * X ok x It should not be forgotten that early | Quakers declared that the greatest en- emies of man were lawyers and doctors, and they should be abolished. Freder- ick the Great made a personally con- ducted tour to study the action of law- yers in foreign countries, and declared that there was only one lawyer in Ger- many, and when he returned to his throne he would behead him. 8o it is not alone the press which menaces liber-tea. WIll the Senate investigate the lawyers and doctors? There is no constitutional provision against limiting their ign influence as there is re- garding & free press. Even though the Senate holds some journalists in its | memb?rshl: does it not also hold mem- bers of both those other dangerous pro- fessions? Censor ‘em! Also let's censor all bureaucrats and give the ‘“peepul liber-tea.” EE The subject of liberty of the press has been seriously considered by the League of Nations, hence, unlike the Hancock idea of the tariff, this is not merely a “local issue.” The Leaguc of Nations, however, is more concerned in protect- ing the property rights of the papers— rights to the news they gather—than | to any danger to public interests through abuse of edltorr.l propaganda. 1t is assumed that propaganda of any “‘controlled” papers will be vigorously attacked and exposed by ccmpeting pa- pers. Such controlled papers soon be- come known to be so controlled, and therefore insincere and unreliable. The influence of a paper is measured in the same manner &s that of an individual; a known liar or trickster loses his in- fluence very emphatically. “Why worry?"” In the League of Nations' aide-me- moire on this subject, is this paragraph: “The problem of the protection of press information has for a long time preoccupied press circles, which on various occasions endeavored to bring about either a national or international solution. It came before the League of Nations in Autumn of 1925, in the form of an inquiry undertaken by the secre- tary general, on the instructions of the Council, in order to ascertain the views of the press astoclations with regard to the convocation of a conference—as proposed by the Assembly to the Council —and eventually with rd to the technical questions of an international character to be studied by such a con- ference. Several replies mentioned the problem of the protection of press in- | ‘The press generally does not take the instaliment plan—a lttle Qflm each ~» scare ofwthe Senate very seriously, but argues that what is to Dbe guarded formation as being, in the opinion of the writers, one” of the most important of those to be dealt with by the con- | etety. | to scores of different formulas, includ- Chemists Learn Secret Of Chocolate Cake’s Tint BY E. E. FREE, PH. D, The rich brown color of Grand- mother's chocolate jumbles was not due to better chocolste or to any mysteri- ous lost art of cookery, but merely to collold chemistry, although that science had not much more than been invented when Grandmother learned to cook. The application of its principles by old- time cooks was accidental and uncon- sclous, but none the less effective. So it appears from a sclentific study of the color of chocolate cakes made by Miss | Emily Grewe and Dr. E. O. Whittler of the United States Department of Agri- culture and reported at the recent meeting of the American Chemical So- Noting that homemade choco- late cakes often vary in color almost as | much as do the hundreds of kinds of chocolate-flavored cakes and cookies made in factories, these chemists made experimental chocolate cakes according amounts and varieties of chocolate, flour, milk, salt, baking pow- der and other ingredients. The milk, salt and baking powder were found to have little effect on the color of the cake. Most effective in producing the desirable deep, rich brown was baking soda. Too-acid milk, on the other hand, tended to make the color dull. These facts are the collold chemist's clues, for baking soda tends, in the language of that science, to “disperse” the tiny particles of brown chocolate into still finer particles and to distribute these colored particles more uniformly through the dough. On the ether hand, acid tends to make the particles gather to- gether into groups or “flocks,” which have less coloring effect. The practical rule, therefore, is to use baking soda and no acid*when rich brown chocolate cake is wanted. e Lime Held Not Needed in Purely Grassy Lawn To the Editor of The Star: It would be fine if Mr. Gauss' let- ter in The Star Thursday could be i pressed on every lawn owner and also on the parks management. “Seed and | Feed” should be the slogan of every man who wants a good lawn. Another important fact in lawn management is that the use of lime is an illusiol f one wants a purely grassy lawn which, in the opinion of the writer, is much more beautiful than a mixed lawn of clover. grass and weeds. QGrass needs no lime. The investi- gations of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and various State depart- ments proved this to be true and they are so reported to the golf associations. Lime is supposed to sweeten the soil. | but wherever you find a lush grass nasture you also will find that the soil below is more or less sour. On the other hand, clover and weeds cannot endure sour soil. Hence, if you must have clover. you must apply lime—and you'll be sure to have plenty of weeds with the clover. Lime does another thing: it lightens the soil and only a few applications will make it sandlike in nature, ‘When the earth is light, especially on & slope, every rainstorm causes it to run. This exposes the roots of the grass, with the speedy result that the sod dies. This erosion is what has caused the nude and scarred terraces we see in front of thousands of homes in_Washington, For grass, these terraces need a heavy, non-porous soil that will not run every time a few drops of rain fall. Out in the flat Middle West, lime may be all right—except as to weeds—but in hlll{n Washington every man should strive to increase, rather than diminsh, the holding quality of éflx Tsu;-l ing varyiny —_—— s Trees in District Explained in Book Tc the Editor of The Star® ! I have ‘before me a copy of the May | 13 issue of The Star which contained a letter, signed L. W. Maynard, dis- cussing the various oak trees in nearby | Maryland. Your letter by Mr. May- nard says: “Since writing the above | I have been given a delightful and val- uable “little book, ‘Forest Trees of the District of Columbia.’ It is to be had, almost for the asking, from the For- estry Assoclation on F street.” The U. 8. Forest Service is co-operat- ing with the American Forestry Asso- ciation, the publishers of “Forest Trees | of the District of Columbia,” but we | would lke to tell the residents of ‘Washington that these booklets may be | ordered from the association's offk 1523 L street northwest. There is a nominal charge of 30 cents with a | school rate of 15 cents, I wish it were possible to put this | book into the hands of each school | child of Wachington because it is a very | careful description of the trees within the District of Columbia, how to know them and where to see them. FRED E. HORNADAY, Business Manager, American Forestry Assoclation. ——r————— Anti-Religious Drive Is Failure in Russia From the Houston Chronicle. For some years now the Communists who control Russia have been trying to find a substitute for religion. Decrees were promulgated far and wide in the land once ruled by the Czar, calling on the peasant to cease from kneeling at his village shrine, worshiping in “super- stitious idolatry,” and seek the cold, pure light of reason. Hol,; Russia they called it in the days when the Little Father ruled in St. Petersburg—the city of St. Peter, the simple fisherman who helped to change the course of human history. After Lenin had made himself dicta- tor, his followers launched a campaign to ridicule those pious millions who clung to the tenets of Christianity, see- ing nothing better offered to them by | the disciples of Communism. The campaign has falled. It was born to fail, for the instinct for religion is firmly rooted in the mind of man. ‘The Soviet leaders tried in vain to show the people the error of their ways. Per- secution failed, as it did in the days of | the French Revolution, when pseudo- scholars and sclentists evolved for themselves a doctrine which would per- mit them and their kind to gratify every pleasure. ‘The ban on religion is lifted in the land of the Slav. Lenin's successors have discovered that Russia has a soul. | ‘The Soviet Congress will soon be called | on to ratify an amendment which will grant all citizens the right of religious practice. Such tolerance from the So- viets means defeat. ference of press experts. * * * The president of the Associated Press of | America, Mr. Frank B. Noyes, and the president of the board of directors of the United Press, Mr. Roy W. Howard, also intimated that, in their opinion, the conference of press experts should deal | with this question. * '+ « “In these conditions, the question is whether it would not be better, in the first place, to persuade the greatest pos- sible number of States to introduce nto their legislation measures to secure the protection of press information. This done, the adoption of an international convention would be a simple matter. The question will be examined by the conference, though the draft is based upon the conception of protection af- forded by national law.” It is noteworthy that the whole ob- Jective of the League of Nations is pro- tection of the press, not the protection of statemen from the press. Senatorial tylers will take due notice and keep off | earth on whom no aviator woul | will be used in the next war. | Sometimes All eavesdroppers. They may be armed with a sword, but the press is mightier than the sword. (Copsright, 1929, by Paul V. Collins)) Have we had the pleasure of serving | you through our Washington Informa- tion Bureau? Can't we be of some help | to you in your problems? Our business is to furnish you with authoritative in- formation, and we invite you to ask us any question of fact in which you are Interested. Send your inquiry to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Fred- eric_J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Inclose 2 cents in coln or stamps for return postage. Q. Is the branding of cattle with a | hot iron & practice of modern origin?— E.z A. A little delving into history con-| vinces one that the branding of live| stock with hot irons is probably as old | as the industry itself. For instance, British histories make direct references to the branding of cattle and horses as | early as the eighth century. Q. Why are ships and trains spoken of as “she”?—C. H. A. In some of the older languages, stuch as Latin and Old German, from which modern languages have been de- rived, all inanimate objects were given masculine or feminine gender. In this way the moon was feminine and the sun masculine, and among other mmF ships and other vehicles were generally spoken of in the feminine gender. Mod- ern languages have adopted this same idea. Therefore, the reason for speak- ing of a ship and train as “she.” Q. How large are the cables used for telephoning and telegraphing?—P. J. G. A. Electric cables used in telephon- ing have a diameter of .040 inch; in telegraphing, .080 inch. The cables for electric light and power purposes range from !5 inch to 1 inch and over. The outside diameter of the deep-sea cable is about 1 inch. a, ;lhlt is a Sabbath day's journey? A A Sabbath day's journey, accord- ing to old Puritan law, in a case of | necessity, was 10 miles, that being one- half of an ordinary day's journey under old custom, which placed the length of & day's journey at 20 miles. Q. Do vines hurt the house upon which they grow?—E. R. K. A. Where the house is carefully con- structed, heavy vines not only injure, but will be a protection. Where the work is not done well in the be- ginning, the vines will probably aid in the deterioration. Q. Who paid for the bust of Coolidge | which has been placed in the Senate wing of the Capitol?—M. D. A. The bust was made for the col- lection of Presidents of the Senate, and was paid for out of the funds of the Senate. Q. Who now owns George Mason's home, Gunston Hall>—D. I". B. A. Mr. and Mrs. Louls Hertle own Gunston Hall. Q. When was the Infernational Iee- berg Patrol established?—R. P. A. The International Ice Patrol was organized on an international basis as a result of the International Conference for the Safety of Life at Sea, in Lon- don, 1913. It resulted from & universal demand for a protection of steamships against jcebergs in the North Atlantic area after the loss of the Titanic, in April, 1912. The United States was asked to undertake the management of this service, and agreed to send two vessels to patrol the danger area dur- ing iceberg season, March 1 to July 1. Each of the contracting parties con- sented to bear a share of the cost in proportion to its shipping tonnage. Q. In speaking of the law, why is the term “bar” used?—T. K. A. The word “bar” was originally applied to the rail which separated the | court officials from t?e sultors in court, presented anied by the court. themselves at the bar, thelr advooates, who from that position. Q. What may be used to remove dye om the halr?—G. R. A. To remove the old dye, olive oil end kerosene, mixed in equal portions, may be applied to the hair from roots to ends. is 1s done at head 18 in a towel. fr will not | shnmg:o the hair next morning. It may necessary to repeat this treat- ment & number of times. Q. Do the Chinese worship their an- cestors?>—A. B. S. A. They do not consider them as &:mr! to be worshiped; they reverence em. Q. What kind of mineral is a spar?— J. C. R. A "Sblr" is a general name in miner- alogy for a crystal mineral which is not an ore easily cleavable. Q. How does a fish breathe?—O. O. A. In the throat of fishes, behind the mouth cavity, there are four riblike bones on each side, above the begin- ning of the gullet. These are the gill arches, and on each one of them there is a palr of rows of red fringes called (runs a blood vessel. As the water | passes over it the oxygen it contains is | absorbed _through the skin of the gill comes purified. In the same manner | the mpurities of the blood pass out {into the water and go out through the | @ Who owns the Mojave Desert?— J.R. M. A. The Btate Land Office of Cali- ty-sixth sections in each township in ‘lhe Mojave Desert were granted to the State by an act of Congress approved | tions in each township are under the Jurisdiction of the Federal Government. ‘How many Canadian soldiers were | " 'A. Canada lost between 55000 and ; 60,000 men. | Q@ How many national banks are A. There are 7.506. Q. How can birds fly without moving their wings?>—E. C. D. use the wind, due to the fact that the |tips of their wings and the feathers along behind the border of the wings part of the force of the wind current into an upward push, thus being sup- ported by the wind. visit the Christ Child fArst?— |R. A E. A. The shepherds came first. The Wise Men did not appear until three Q. What the origin of the name “Adirondack” as applied to the moun- tain group in New York State?—L. H. 8. the “gills.”” Into each of these fringes fringe into the blood, which thus be- | gill openings behind. fornia says that the sixteenth and thir- {March 3, 1853. The remaining 34 sec- I Q. killed in the World War?—A. O. H. Q. there in the United States?—E. F. S. A. All soaring birds are enabled to are flexible, £0 that they can convert . Did the shepherds or the Wise Men days later, according to thp Bible. A. Tt is said to be from the Mohawk Tndian word “bark-eaters.” Q If a permn'lsTl years 2 months old, is he in his twenty-first or twenty- second year?—A. L. A. He is in his twenty-second year. Q. When was the Government Print- | ing Office established—8. W. 8. | A, In 1860. Q. When - was the Oxford Press | started?>—M. B. W. | “A. The first book printed at Oxford is the very rare “Commentary on the Apostels Creed.” attributed to St. Je- rome, and bearing the date 1468. This was_coeval with the first book printed by Caxton in England. Q. What relation to John Quincy Adems is the present Secretary of the Navy?—M, 8. A Secretary Adams is the great- great-grandson of John Quincy Adams. Q. Please give the measurcments of the Sphinx.—L. B. McG. | _A. Height of head from bottom cf ichin to forehead, 19 feet; horironial diameter on level of ead, 28 feet: | eircumference at level forehead, feet: horisontal diameterfnear broadest part of headgear, 20 feet: neck, 5 feet; horisontal diameter, feet: circumference of mneck, 69 | total height of monument, a to Mariette Bey, 65 feet; ear, 6 feet 15 inches; nose, 5 feet 10 inthes: mouth, 7 feet 8 inches: face in widest part across the cheek, 13 feet: whole length of Irsodv 140 feet; outstretched paws, 50 eet. “Hatirontaks,” meaning Cleveland’s Hospital H—o il rror Warning Against Poison Gas Lessons from the Cleveland Hospital horror in which patients were killed and tortured by deadly gas accidentally released are died grimly by the press with ti thougnht. as_expressed by the Cincinnati Times-Star, that “out of such agonies and ordeals our methods of safety have been evolved.™ Many observers see a ghastly reminder of the possibilities of poison gas as an instrument of war. “Read in the tortured faces of the vietims of the disaster a warning that war must cease or the world will be left to the nomads of the desert, and to the scattered, backward peoples rg was! his bombs,” exclaims the Richmond News Leader. The awful possibilities also are emphasized by the Tulsa World, San Antonio Express, Oklahoma City Times and Akron Beacon Jour- nal, and the Milwaukee Journal says: | “Against such "horror as this, which would send the world of men reeling back to the standards of beasts, there is only one defense. That is to organize the world not to have war.” “And yet.” declares the Columbia State, “nations are planning to use these gases and destroyers, and they We cal be sure of but one thing—that no agree- ment or treaty or pledge will ever make a nation give up a deadly weapon 1t fancies it may need some day. or pre- vent its use, in war, of the most de- structive weapons and poisons it pos- sesses or may devise.” “The discovery that it was due to a_preventable cause,” according to the Detroit Pree Press. “will lead to addi- tional precautions for the future. The dead and dying have joined the in- numerable roll of men and women who have strewn the battleground between science and disease. The fight will go on with the Cleveland clinic & monu- ment to the fallen.” i * ok K % “Twenty-one years ago.” the Newark Evening News recalls, “Cleveland ex- gerlenred another catastrophe in the urning of the school at Collinwood, a suburb, in which 175 children suffered death, reforms in construction and mainte- nance of schoolhouses. It is certain that the explosion in the Crile clinic will ultimately have the same bene- ficlal effect. Or man will have to ad- ts | the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, “that we are yet imperfect in our mastery of chemistry and that we do not yet know to the full the potential of these gases and these wonder-working combinations and co-operations of the elements. the thoughtful wonder whether we are not harnessing powers which we dare not unloose, because if once set free we do not know how to neutralize or check them.” “It is bad enough when a great ship goes down, or a crowded theater burns, or an explosion seals doomed men in a mine,” states the Omaha World-Herald, “but it is worse when sick and sufferin people are trapped for torture an in a hospital.” The Buffalo Eve- ning News calls it “‘one of the greatest of peace-time horrors,” and the Salt Lake Deseret News sees a warning, “un- happlly too long delayed, as to render- ing harmless or secure the ofttimes demonlike power of scientific devices and agencies.” * ok It was a dreadfully costly lesson, in Out of that came sweeping | the opinion of the Worcester Evening Gazette and Louisville Times, but the | Albany Evening News advises that “this grim horror should serve | should make impossible an such.” The Chattanooga News feels sure that “the horrible, the grotesque stroke of fate will lead to further safety from poison-gas explosions.” |~ “It should arouse the whole country | to renewed efforts for safety in institu- tional buildings.” declares the Pitts- burgh Post-Gazette, and similar de- mands for ter safety methods are made by the Syracuse Herald, New York Evening Post, Youngstown Vindi- cator and Kansas City Journal-Post. The Chicago Daily News says that “sci- | entific inventions have their price and | their drawbacks, and unremitting vigi- | 1ance is the condition of the maximum | of safety and benefit in the application | of those inventions.” “The Cleveland Clinic,” states the | Cleveland News, *was the most progres- | sive and effective weapon in the battle | for prolonging mortal existence. And the News is convinced that the final | Tesult of the tragedy will be the usher- | ing into the world of a medical clinic | which will be a landmark in_civiliza= tion’s progress toward an era when sicke ness and disease shall be unknown.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer asserts thas “we may be certain that never again will a climbing cloud of red destruction write such a chapter of stupefying horror.” . “The hospital appears to have been ! in effect a powder magazine,” observes | the Ann Arbor Daily News, with the | emphatic comment: “If there is an; lace where human life should be safe, |15 18" a hospital. Such an institution may be subjected to outside dangers, like any other building, but the possi- | bility of disaster from within is not | tolcrable. The human mind will simply | not accept it.” Supreme praise for the heroism of those who brightened the grim story by | facing death to rescue others is given by the Anniston Star and Little Rock | Arkansas Democra! | . lgxs . { Hit-and-Run Autoist Given Term in Prison | From the Des Moines Tribune-Capital. A Des Moines man has just been sen- tenced to serve two years in the State | penitentiary for hitting A man with an automobile and then running instead of reporting the accident or trying to {help the victim. It seems stiff, to be sure, and it seems stiff chiefly because the hit-and-run offense is so common and the offenders |are 5o seldom caught and punished. So while the urdmm‘z person may feel a twinge of pity for the man caught and punished this time—though he had, to his sorrow, little pity for the man he | accidentaily hit—it must be said that |as a matter of public policy the court is to be congratulated for imposing the penalty. It is sometimes said that getting a banker to the penitentiary is hard, but it has been easier to get bad bankers there in the last few years than to get hit-and-run drivers there. Des Moines has produced in the last three or four years at least a dozen such offenders who should be in jail for & decade. | | |