Evening Star Newspaper, May 26, 1929, Page 27

EDITORIAL SECTION The Sunday Star, MAY Editorial Page WASHINGTON, D. SUNDAY MORNING, 26, 1929. Part 2—8 Pages ENGLISH PARTY SYSTEM BREAKDOWN SEEN AHEAD JUSTICE FOR DISTRICT SEEN IN VOTE PROPOSAL 'Constitutional Amendment Giving Resi- dents Rights Equal to Others Should Nation Is Being Reborn Economiec Revolution Working Wonders With Turkey——China Undergoes Westernization Process "Continental Bloe May Replace l’arlia-j mentary Control by Single Group. | BY FRANK H. SIMONDS ILL the representative system break down in the mother of all parliaments? This is by all odds the most interesting question which is raised at the forthcoming British election. When. | on Decoration day. John Bull, Mrs. Bull —and this time “Flapper” Bull as well =—g0 to the polls. they will have to de- cide whether the good old-fashioned | two-party system. American as well | as British, is to last. or whether! Britain is. for the moment at least. | 1o join the ranks of the continental na- tions employing the bloc. In point of fact, if you measure the situation by the voting strength of the three parties. none constitutes a ma- Jjority. Roughly. the ratio is 7-5-3, Tepresenting Tory, Labor and Liberal voting strengths, respectively Under the proportional representation system. which is employed in Germany. it would never be possible for any party to have a majority in_the House of Commons. yvet because Britain. like the United States, chooses its members by districts, the Tories were able in 1924 while polling less than half the vot to carry more than two-thirds of the seats. A it stood in the old House of Com- mons, just dissolved, the Tories num- bered just 400, the Laborites 160 and the Liberals 45. Thus while the Tories | may lose nearly a hundred seats and vet retain the 308 which constitute | a majority, the Laborites must prac- tically double their present quota, while any considerable gain of the Liberals will, of itself, make any majority im- possible. Can Be No Majority, On the basis of practically all of e forecasts so far made, the pros- ct. of a majority, whether Tory or bor, seems slight in the extreme. ‘What_is generally looked for is that the Tories and Laborites will divide 520 seats fairly evenly and the Lib- | erals will about double their repre- sentation, thus capturing nearly 100 seats. In any such situation the Liberals would obviously hold the balance of power. Oddly enough they would suc- ceed to the position of their old allie the Irish, whose votes in pre-war | Parliaments more than once enabled & Liberal cabinet to dominate a House | of Commons. But the difficulty is that &hile the Irish were in the main the natural political allies of the Liberals, the Liberals are about equally sep- | arated from the Tories and from Labor. The fact of the matter is that Present-day Britain can no longer be divided into two natural political | groups. There is unmistakably a right, ' three-party em. Vast numbers of rals have gone Labor, a fewer, bu perhaps a_more distinguished group. nas gone Tory, but there remain mil- lions of men and women for whom the Liberal party is a living reality, men and women who are unable to reconcile themselves either with Labor or Torv principles or platforms. It is perhaps | true that youth has turned its back on Liberalism. but, even as the party of the old and middle aged, it has an enor- mous voting strength’ still left to it. Are Liberals Passing? Thus the most important detail in | the present election must be the fate | of the Liberals. They have hardly more than 40 members in the present House. Unless they at least double this representation and show a correspond- ng gain in votes. their fates would | seem fo be sealed. Inevitably the party will split in the middle. one fraction. | and the larger. going to Labor. the other to the Tories. Lloyd George may con- | tinue A noisy and conspicuous leader of an insignificant minority. while the other conspicuous figures disappear. but | the historic Liberal party will have passed. | But if there is a real renaissance of | Liberalism, of a Liberal party doubled | in numbers in the House and reinforced | by an increased voting strength, then | it must be clear that Britain is in for a considerable period of political con- | fusion, of government by coalitions, of | shortlived cabinets and frequent elec- tions. Al of which must seem 1o American _eyes regrettable in view of the economic difficulties of the present | hour and the obvious need for tran- quillity in politics and coherence in economic_policy. One thing. at least. the present cam- paign discloses. and that is that Britain is unmistakably becoming more con- | tinental in its political life, drawing | nearer to France and Germany and moving away from America. The class | issue is becoming a dommating factor | in England as it is on the Continent. While rum, religion and the radio sup- | ply the issues in our elections, in Britain | the battle between capital and labor, | between classes and masses grows more acute. An England which still shrinks | from revolution becomes daily more radical and the Labor party draws ever nearer to the Social Democrats of Ger- many and the Radical Socialists of France. { 1920 (Copyright. Primitive Religio;s Hold Ethereal Double Theory The theory that man’s physical body | A TURKISH BY COUNT CARLO SFORZA. Former Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister to China T is not the Russian rovolution that taught us that civilizations are only mortal. The Russian tragedy has accomplished but little change in thre real condi- tions of the Russians. Russia wap Asia before the revolution, and still is Asia. She was a police regime without free- dom of speech under the empire: she is a police regime without freedom of speech under the Communistic rule An aristocracy and an _exhausted dynasty have gone—a fate which both deserved. The peasants, the great real mass of Russia, now, since they have got the land in spite of Communist slogans, are probably a little less miser- | able than under the old rule: but, to keep the balance, another class, the bourgeoisie or—as they used to say in SCHOOL | OF THE DAYS BEFORE M There is one great fact. only one vio- lent revolution that has taken place |in Europe: but. as we lived through it, we did not quite perceive that it was | a revolution. This historical fact. this | revolution is, simply, the World War. Before the World War, all through | the renovating and marvelous nine- | teenth century, we witnessed trans- formations: but their rhythm was slow and safe; it was like the gradual chang- ing of a landscape viewed from a mail coach. It took Queen Victoria sixty years of Buckingham Palace life to | realize that she had begun her career ! | as a ruler with a lot of rights, and that | she vis ending it as a ruler with a| | lot of honors, but very few rights. | | Since the war, we have been look- | ing at life as we look at a landscape from the windows of an express train Hills and mountains. lakes and marshe: [ | result of this greatest among all revolu- | USTAPHA REMAL REORGANIZED | by demagogues and adventurers, and | eve in the case of Russia, by fa- natic: I feel that we witness deep and really dramatic changes in human life only when we come to consider cer- | tain metamorphoses which generally do not provoke the feverish attention of newspaper men. because they lack the tragic smell of blood and the setting of the spectacle Chance willed that I witness two of the most advertised revolutions of re- cet times—the Turkish overthrow of the old Osmanli regime in Constanti- nople and the fall of the Manchu Em- pire in China. Both took place on the eve of the great war. But since the war, and as a direct | | i EDUCATION. Republic. Mustapha Kemal, from the countrymen toward a complete transfo; mation. not only in laws and admin | the most objectionable part of his Ac-l | tion). but toward radical changes in | | I knew Mustapha Kemal in Con stantinople when I went there as high | | armistice. During that period, between | the armistice and the Lausanne treaty used to debate whether their civiliza- tion and “‘mission” ought to be Asiatic | or European. Kemal's influence de- cided for Europe, although all of |in both countries—changes that are | triumph against the West—apparently | merely scenes of the great revolution | represented by the Greeks, but by new capital, Angora, is leading his | trative reforms (these being probably | education, commissioner for Ttaly just ater the | of peace with Turkey. the Angora men —*“Turanian” was the word they used— tions, striking changes are taking place | Kemal's force had its origin in his now in progress. But, since they are | Greeks behind whom all the British !leges of the former. Be Backed by All Is Claim. BY C. S. THOMAS. Former U. S. Senator from Colorado. HE constitutional amendment proposed in their own behalf by the people of the District of Columbia should evoke the hearty and unanimous approval of those at all familiar with the con- ditions demanding its speedy considera- tion. Their status in our scheme of government is anomalous. They are neither citizens nor subjects, but clothed with some of the attributes of both. They are burdened with the obliga- tions of the latter, and denied the en- joyment of many of the essential privi- Such has been their political condition since the seat f government was established 129 years go. and such must it continue to be until the relief which they crave and to which they are entitled by every principle of justice and of free govern- ment has been vouchsafed them. Washington became the Capital the United States on June 15, 1800. At that time the population of the Dis- trict was negligible, and considered chiefly of those living in Alexandria and Georgetown. The Congress, by Section 8, Article 1 of the Constitu- tion, was vested with power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what- ever over it and this it will continue to do regardless of the fate of the pro-| vosed amendment which is entirely consistent with it. Regarded as Unimportant. ‘The framers of the Constitution were evidently too much concerned with their graver duties to give heed to the local political needs of a community not then even in embryo. It merely provided for such a community whose site it did not establish, but fixed no period of time in which it should be selected. It would be ceded by the ratifying States or some of them and accepted y Congress. Sometime in the near or remoter future jurisdiction over it would be exercised “when. as and if” these events transpired. The details of Mr. Madison's journal of the sessions of the convention give scant space to discussion of the subject. doubtless be- | cause it was regarded as a comparatively ! unimportant detail. Mr. Pinckney offered an instruction to the committee for the establishment of a national government “to receive a clause or clauses for preventing the seat of the national government being lo- cated in the same city or town with the seat of government of any State longer than until the necessary public build- f| antithesis of | _Its people have never been remiss in | the recognition of their obligations and the discharge of their duties as citi- |zens. They have supplied the Army |and Navy with more than their quota {of men in times of stress, whose serv- |ice has measured up to the highest | standards of devotion. Its annual con- | tribution to the public revenues ex- ceeds respectively those of half the States. IIt has paid the taxes which were levied upon it by others, albeit the unheeded protest against taxation without representation underlaid and justified the revolt which culminated in the political independence of the ‘Amnnran colonies. ~ This wrong they | have endured for more than a cen- | tury. They justly protest against its | endurance any longer and rightly af- | firm that it is contrary to the principles of self-government, to the policy of | universal suffirage which rightly or | wrongly has long been the accepted | basis of representative government. and to the genius of American institutions. | Who challenges the justice of their de- | mand? | The political status of the District |is unique. It has no prototype either |at home or abroad. It is the perfect self-government. Her | people are of full political stature, but | are only citizens in emb They are { without the franchise. they can neither | sue mor be sued in the courts of the United States outside of the District. and they are ineligible to any elective | position.” The Congress, composed of | an upper and Lower House, consists of units selected from every nook and | cranny of a continent-covering repub- | lic, exclusive of the District itself. is lipso facto the common council of the city. It possesses exclusive dominion over all corporate and municipal af- fairs down to their lowest detail. The President, chosen by the electorate, ex- clusive of the District, is ipso facto the mayor of Washington. All of them are non-residents to the last man. They cannot be otherwise: for residence which in all other political communities is the prime essential to official status is here an incurable disqualification. Ninety per cent of this council know little about and care less for the needs. the requirements or the inhabitants of the community they dominate. More- over, they are not immediately con- cerned about the city's future. morally, economically or otherwise. They select District committees from their own members to look after those matters with due regard to their wider Na- | tional responsibilities, and let it go at | that. This type of government may be better than that enjoyed by other mu- | nicipalities, but it is exceptional. un- | American and indefensible. It is im- iposed upon the community without | their consent and by forces wholly ex- | bloodless scenes, and since they are not | power had vainly stood. hE\'en more remarkable was the fact that time ternal. The people, chafing under these conditions, naturally and justly protest against their continuance. Russia—the intelligenisia, now suffers | running by, make us feel that we a the hardest treatment. | moving so fast we will soon leave be- | spectacular, they are given only & per- | Are the other political changes of | hind us the skies and the lands to | functory attention left and center, just as there is in | has a species of ethereal double, which | continental countries. Between the Tory | coincides with it during the hours of | ings can be erected.” the Republic did not waste any |y Mason on July 26 favored the and the Liberal the gulf. which has| existed for more than haif a century, | has widened rather than narrowed, but between the hourgeois Liberal party | “and the Socialist Labor camp the di- |} vergence is equally broad. On questions of foreign policy, the desire for closer relations with the League of Nations and better re- lations with the United States. Lib- eral and Labor policy is identical. And both parties are more friendly to Ger- many than to France. Both repudiate the Chamberlain policy. which is, after all, the traditional British continental poliey of balance of power. Thus a “Lib-Lab” coalition in foreign affairs would be natural, simple and consistent with the tradition of both parties. Liberals Fear Socialism. But the Liberals share the Tory | distrust of the Socialist taint in Labor. | Economically the Liberals are at one| with the Tories in resisting all pro- | grams of nationalization, but con- | comitantly they share with Labor a| dominating determination to resist any | shift from free trade to protection, even | | | | to the disguised protectionism of the} . safeguarding system. This confusion is increased by the| patent fact that within the three parties there are profound differences. The| ‘Tories are manifestly divided between | the old “Die Hard" faction and the more progressive elements. The Liberals are torn by two forces, one of which is moving toward the Tories, the other toward Labor. Finally Labor is split between the men who, like MacDonald, are old Liberals, and the extreme social- ist school, the “wild men” of the Clyde- side. As a consequence. while it would be an easy matter for the Liberals to join Labor in turning the Tories out, if ihe Baldwin government failed to gain a majority in the new house. it would| be excessively difficult for the Liberals and Laborites to work together for ! any long period. Labor is sure to have more seats than the Liberals, and Mac- Donald has announced in advance that he will make no combination, leaving the Liberals to follow him without re- ward or precipitate a new election, as they may choose. In France no such difficulty would| arise, because in that country there are not three but nearly a dozen parties.| If the election resulted in a sweeping victory for Labor, which carried many new seats although not a majority. a government would be formed by Labor d the more radical liberals. But in ritain no such adjustment is likely because party lines and discipline are too rigid. After election, as befors, Liberals would remain Liberals, all of them. In Germany, in a similar situa- tion, if the Nationalists had made la gains, the Center, the People's Part and possibly even the Democrats would turn to_the right and make a coalition while if it were the Social Democrat who had prospered. to the left and the new coalition would center about them More Like Continent. like sty in On the conti- of These In Great Britain Btates, an election is a parties, between two States, three in Britain nent, the battle is hetween twn als, radical and conservative e ¢he political programs of a | number of partics stretching from the extremists at each end to the moderates in the center. When the vote ha the will of the people, when it is that the majority of the nation is either a Progressive or a reactionary mood, combinations quickly form to ex- press this will. Thus, while there is a vast amount of immediate conf and cabinets tend to be shor alitions are a familiar detail We and the British have been accus- tomed to think in simple terms, Liberal | and Tory, Democrat and Republicar. Occasionally we have had a temporar break to a third party. Rooseveit's Bull Moose movement Was nple, but the movement is short] , the party habit is too strong. Nor are we able to | think politically in shades and degrees The subtle distinction between Repub- lican of the left, Republican-£ Mst, Radical Socialist, etc.. are beyond us, 8s they have been hitherto beyond the Britieh. patent that -ever Nevertheless it is @ce the war Britain has tended to a full consciousness, but may be uncon- sciously or consciously projected from it, though still connected by an elastic ink, is implied in most primitive re- ligions. . ‘This theory forms the subject of a re- cently published book written by Stew- art J. Muldoon and Hereward Carring- ton, entitled, “The Projection of the Astral Body.” What occultists now call the “astral body” is the “Ka" of the early Egyptian writings and is also de- scribed in detail in the “Tibet Book of the Dead.” The “Silver Cord” of Eccle- siastes is held to refer to the connecting link, and such phrases as “giving up the ghost” have an obvious connection with the theory, which is used by students of the occult to explain many phenom- ena of subconsciousness, the illusion of levitation, the appearance of ghosts and | so forth. | Two Dutch investigators, Malta and Von Zelst, claimed that they actually weighed the materfal of which this astral body is composed by means of an instrument called the “dynamistograph.” f their experiments are accepted as | scientifically valid, the ghost of a man, | far from having “no more weight | than 2 flea’s whiskers” (as a speaker declared at the international conven- tion of spiritualists in Paris a few years ago). weighs about two and one- quarter ounces. This agrees with the | results arrived at by an American in- | vestigator, Dr. Dunean McDougall, who | weighed a number of patients dying | from consumption. When. they “gave up the ghost” the weight suddenly lost | was found, in four out of six cases, to Je between two ounces and two and ‘one-quarter ounces. Long Idl(:iroinr Mifies ‘\ Taken Over by Labor| In the boldest social experiment ever attempted in Norway, unemployed are taking over control, with the sole liabil- ity of a $3 annual rental, of the large |iron mines at Evenes which have been | inactive for six years. Because of the | 1 regime in Europe really worth mention- ing? It is so evident that simply trifiing episodes in the life of a nation . . . A Modern Ben Franklin Created Good Will for America in France That Remains as Tribute to His Genius BY WILLIAM LEON SMYSER. N every century there are some few figures who so stand out in diplo- macy that they personify rare in- ternational friendships. France and the United States are especially happy in this. Benjamin Franklin, a “Poor Richard,” received in the elegan’ salons of the doomed St. Germain aris- tocracy; Jusserand, writing magnificent French criticism of Anglo-Saxon life during his residence in Washington, and Myron T. Herrick, an Ohio farmer boy. organizing the war relief in France, arc all from the same mold. Of the three figures, Herrick is the most immediate. His is a true record that of having served as American Am- bassador to France, with but one break, under five Presidents — Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. No American will soon forget how he turned the superlative flight of Lind- bergh from an event of sportsmanship and grit into a coup d'adresse diplo- | matique. The slump of the franc, the debt question, Washington's refusal to enter the League and the State Department's ban on loans to France had added ac- tual injury to the humiliation of Yankec speculation in French currency and tourist caravanseries without taste or reserve. In Paris, when the Spirit of St. Louis arrived, Ambassador Herrick's they are | immense operating costs, the mines |great personal popularity was unchak- were closed down after the Beer Sont- | en, but that of his Government was be- heimer & Co. of Frankfort-on-Main, | ing sorely tested. Fortunately, he was Germany, invested more than $3,000,000 | an adept in the art of exploiting the in the undertaking, and now, to avoid | ynexpected. He demanded and received - | ceive only $1.50 a day, they are satis- the turn wbuld bei | }thc heavy expense of maintenance | against deterioration, the company has jturned the fields over to its former em- ployes. With a first mortgage loan of $47.000 as working capital, the men | contemplate a production of 4,000 tons a month, which the company has guar- {anteed to purchase in entirety at mar- | | ket price. “Though the miners will re- | { fied, declaring, “even if we must work {for less, we are only too glad because | anything is better than unemployment | oles.” Virtually all Evenes, which is | jin the northern district of Ofoten, is | dependent on the mines, and their revival with new machinery doubling the previous output will restore pros- | perity to the 3,000 inhabitants im- | poverished by the long period of un- employment. !Japanese Legislators Who Drink Are Flayed The forces of prohibition which are lowly ~centralizing in Japan have| tarted an attack against the citadel f he Diet itself in an effort to set an example for the whole nation. The drys in this case do not main- tain that it is improper to drink, but they do think that members of the| |1o..er house should not imbibe too freely { when they are supposed to be tending | to_important national maiters There is a restaurant in the Die | building which sells alcoholic drinks, and many of the legislators are wont to | !stop in and have a few drinks at the ng of every session. It is (his former profes Waseda_University |and now head of th: Sccial Democratic iparty in the lower heuse. He is known | Now th an invitation to address the chamber. “Gentlemen,” he said in introducing Lindbergh to the deputies, “Gentlemen I have the honor to present to you the present American Ambassador to France.” Excellent Teamwork. It was a gesture typical of the excecl- lent teamwork between diplomat and airman throughout that crucial month Herrick was able to appreciate the qual- ity of Landbergh because the Western boy shared with him so many traits, the same dry humor, the same self- reliance and the same rare faculty for developing every opportunity. “What made you offer hospitality {c Lindbergh?” T asked the Ambassador after his sponsor flying diplomacy Pure chance,” he confessed with a smile. “Pure chance, good luck and Lindy's wit. The Frenchmen at the hangar were making up a cot for him on the spot, and after I had found him they kept urging us to he seated. He said, ‘No, thank you. I have been sit- ting" I was <o captured by his sensc of humor, his smile and his general appearance that the thought then firs* occurred to me to ask him to become my guest at the embassy. After that, the French flag flying over the American embassy, the visit to the mother of Nungesser and the Me- morial day spcech on bolshevism were all brillantly conceived elements in a diplomatic stratagem which placed American prestige higher than it had zen for a decade Sentiment is the lcaven of dem> ‘racy The interplay of opportunity preparednes opportunity the i ck’s 1 When ady,” they called he retorted cars preparing tunists. L'L’ ky |as the father of ha:e ball in J | cause of his ef .3t introduct | sport at Waser lof the Japan:s up team whict 'played last year in the Unitgd States. hat, when it came, he the of all lungers” whose luck them beyond all lucky sticks | s¢ somehow hip had been called | oppor- | fiyer | think of Herrlek | that h “hose | the v | which we accustomed in our private life. T am skeptical about the results of stage revolutions—the movements led | were, MYRON mathematical probabilit:. Goethe says that those who pile thcir fagois high may be sure of firc from heaten to aid them Listened (o Anyhody. Herrick piled hiz fagots while in France teok his tips where he found them. He listened to anybods Indeec!. from the first, he was a gond mixer, a democ | prejudices and no snobhery. There a story which illustrates how much of {his opportunism was sheer luck and aiways He is , how much was careful observation and | { foresight. Back in his ante-ambassadorial days {he had bought shares in a dam and irrigation project and he decided to go idown to the site and look things over. I didn't know anything he said to me much Ia !even if T had T wouldn't have be to find anything wrong with thi She_was a real beauty and T was proud as Puach to think’ I'd been r 1eh to gel in. as they say 2 A little old dark, bobbed ‘what do you ours?” 1. ‘T thi s underne “And the long and th ek me down ey and shovood .\li'\'r was trickling thr thin little streams, * ‘Hell ncle, T said h in several . HERRICK. ic American with few | Yet these and these alone of all the changes taking place among humans, are the changes that matter. The present President of the Turkish n complaining about its terri- torial losses. With firm and rare | realism it made no pretense of claim- | "~ (Continued on Eighth Page.) i delphia bun, he found himself the | president of a farmers’ bank. He pos- sessed at the same time a madcap dar- ing and a compendious grasp of finance, but he won the respect of the conserva- | tive bankers with whom he associated. Twenty years more and he was gov- ernor. He made a record for leaving the State budget balanced for the first time in decades, yet he also studied his own particular hobby—credits for the farmer. When his term expired he sailed for Germany, where such credits had been perfected. Back of his pas- sion for the subject was a childhood scene, the sort which could have hap- pened nowhere but in America: “I used to straddle father's horse and guide along furrows while he plowed. From time to time we'd put in by the side of the road and rest, sit- ting on the split-rail fence, This morn- ing we were taking a tyrn there when what should come driving up but a real side-car buggy. the last word in buggy construction at that time and as smart, with its spanking pair of horses. as a Rolls-Royce on a country road would be today. “I was astonished to find that it pulled up when it came alongside of us. Out stepped a man in a linen duster, a real top hat and all the trimmings. He called my father ‘Timothy, as if they | had known each other for an age, and he introduced himself as Professor Munroe of Oberlin College * * * and a candidate for Congress. “I didn't think father was nearly cor- | dial enough. I nudged his elbow and , whispered to him to please ask the | professor to dinner, but he didn’t. After a lot of pallavering the professor said ;(’K\dvb}', and then I asked father about | | him. | Father's Prediction *“The professor's a nice man,’ said my father, ‘and Il vote for him, but he's not the man we need. The trouble | with the farmers. my boy, is that they | are just plain fools.” They let the vil- lages take all their political importance | away. The professor will represent the ' | townsmen who take our products and scll them at a big profit, while we | sometimes can't scrape together enough 1to pay for new stock and tools. day the farmer will wake up. You'l| ee it. Youll fight for it. You must make the people we send to Congress | realize that the farmer has got to ! have a closer fouch with capital.’ i More than 30 vears later Myron T. Herrick kept faith with his father and published “Rural Credits,” the first ex- | haustive book upon the subject which \ the two had discussed over their plow on the Ohio farm. Since then he had traveled through most of Europe searching for evidence. He had been the president of farmers’ banks. He had been the author of the rural credits plank in the Republican platform of 1912. It is significant that he accepted his first appointment as Ambassador to | France only after President Taft had | assured him that he would guarantee the aid of the whole diplomatic corps in gathering material upon foreign farm relief. “It's funny. I was so active as a business man I wasn't keen for diplo- macy. Often in those days business men owed so much money that they didn't dare leave home. I thought I could afford to take that risk espeeially because the appointment was onl; a short time, an unexpired term. 1 took the job. “‘Besides, there was something about France that fascinated me. and this job appealed to_me personally in a way (Contiffued on Fifth Page.) “‘When a nen dam docs that said, ‘look out." " Herrick “looked out” and sold his shares. Years later the Negro' came true. and all the men who, without investigating, had gonc into the project “‘bec: e it was an opportunity” saw their money swirled away in dirt and debris. Herrick be- | gan to get a reputation for knowing when an opportunity was going to be good or bad. because he mf: mon sense and study with h tunism. ne Some | Always Had Faith There is yet another element in Her- rick's success: the element of faith. Like Coolidge, who urged, “Have faith in Massachusetts,” the young Herrick had faith in Ohio and the West. He grew up with the country. He went | out to Kansas and beyond. In the bad times during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, after the dis- astrous panics which brought about a mad depreciation of all securities, Her- | rick was one of the few men who had the courage and the acumen to buy farm mortzages, “I was a farmer boy “and T have absolu farmer.” Even after he Herrick maintained clo:- touch the problems of the sofl. Te: after he had come to Cleveland with a | law diploma tucked under his elbow, ! like Benjamin FPranklin's famous Phila- he often said, faith in the | i became a diplomat h { for it. motion as necessary to the avoidance o disputes concerning jurisdiction and an intermixture of the two legislatures Gouverneur Morris approved the idea but feared that such a clause would make enemies of New York and Phila- delphia, which desired the seat of gov- ernment, and Mr. Williamson feared the idea might stir the passions of men against the system. Mr. Butler advo- cated fixing by the Constitution of a central place for the seat of govern- ment. On August 11, Mr. King criti- cizing a proposed resolution authoriz- ing the two houses to adjourn to a new place, said that mutability of place had dishonored the Federal Government and would require as strong a cure as could be devised. Madison concurred. Mor- ris proposed an amendment which Mr. Spaight said would fix the seat of gov- ernment permanently at New York, es- pecially if the President should b~ a Northern man. This covers all debate concerning the subject. and on Sep- { tember 5 the committee reported the section as it appears in the Constitu- tion. States Jealous. It was. of course, obvious to the members of the convention that the States were extremely jealous each of its own sovereignty. The smaller States were openly distrustful of the larger ones, and these of each other. All of them grudgingly and reluctantly sur- rendered to the general government the powers essential to its maintenance. Therefore, it was apprehended that in whatever State the National Capital might be located. conflicts with its gov- ernment and possibly with the munici- pality housing it were apprehended, to say nothing of complications which might involve the relations of that State with other Commonwealths. The national seat of government must, therefore, be politically external to ali the States. wherever located But no time was wasted by the framers of the Constitution upon the political status of residents of the District. Its locus was mot of im- mediate importance, although States and sections were in early competition ‘When finally sclected the site was sparsely inhabited. These were doubiless long unconcerned as to Dis- tict affairs present or prospective. The growth of the population was sluggish for many years. In 1860 it numbered 75.000 people. Prior to the Civil War the District possessed no particular at- traction for permanent residents. It was the Nation's political center and nothing more. Its population was chieflv identified with the Government in some capacity and most of it re- garded Washington as its transient home. Not until the Civil War was ended and the work of civic improve- ment under way did the community begin to display that spirit of progress which has transformed it into the splendid metropolis of today. The founding fathers visioned no such expansion of a seat of Government not then located. Nor could they foresee other mightv changes in our many-sided activities through whose agencies the | Nation now covers a continent. with a population of 125,000,000, linked to- gether more closely than the peoples of their day numbering less than 3 per ceni of its present volume and scat- tered along the Atlantic seaboard. The flexibility of the Charter which they framed has enabled their posteritv to adapt its spirit to these new conditions as they have arisen, and we will con- front only problems of detail in adapt- ing our methods of government to the crying needs of the people of the Capital City, whose boundaries have become coterminous with those of the District. The community now embraces a permanent and rapidly increasing population of over 550,000. This was exceeded only by Virginia in 1790. The total population of the country in that year, including the territories of Maine, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee, was 3,932,214, or a little more than seven times that of Washington y. ‘The wealth of the District in 1928 was about $1.770,000,000, a sum in excess of the total wealth of the Union in 1787. These figures both as to wealth and numbers will probably double by 1950. Has not this mighty community, having neither voice nor vote in its own affairs, nor in those of the Nation. unique only Distinctions Artificial. This amendment, if approved and ratified, confers upon the people of the | District authority to vote for the Presi- dent, who is their mayor ex-officio, and | to choose one or two Senators and one | or more Representatives to the Congress, who become units in their council ex officio. Twelve States, each with a | smaller population than Washington, possess, this privilege and each has also its own General Assembly for its home affairs. The distinction between them and the District is artificial. It is un- natural. It is politically defensible, but | it is none the less an intolerable injustice i ana a reflection upon the common sense of the American electorate. It may be objected that the represen- tation asked for is national as well as | local and that Senators and Represent- atives from the District would possess equal authority with those from _the States. Why not? The National Con- | stitution and Code of Laws are binding | alike upon the States and the District. It is as much their Constitution and Code as it is ours. They are an integral part of the country and as such are en- titled to participate in making the laws under which they are required to live. | The amendment, if adopted, makes no change whatever in the legislative sys- | tem of the Nation. It functions precisely as it did before. The amendment mere- ly increases the units composing the two houses. It is in effect a reappor= | tionment or, if you please, an increase | of membership Iike that which ensues | with the admission of a new State. There may and probably will be some salutary changes in legislation for the | District since its representatives, equipe | ped by residence and identity of inter~ | est. with a knowledge of its require- | ments and directly concerned in its wel~ | fare, will devote themselves to the inter- | ests of their constituency with the same zeal displayed by other members.- for their own. Support Is Assured. Doubtless the city will by this means escape the burden of some of the spe- clal reform legislation with which the zeal of superficial advocates of “the gen- | eral welfare” sometimes inflict the Dis- trict. This feature of congressional ac- tion should invoke both the sympathy and support of the Public Domain States, one of which has been my home for more than half a century. We also are the testing ground for many theories { and fads finding expression in congres- | sional statutes. When they fail to | function, as they generally do, the em- | piricism which sponsored them, attrib- { uting the result either to local antago- i nisms or hostile construction, burden jus if they can with other and worse i enactments to the same end, while | others materialize and join the earlier | brood in the grand crusade of uplift. Since “a touch of nature makes the whole world kin" we sympathize because of our common experience with our fel- low martyrs of the National Capital Hence, I may in a measure give this community some assurance of the cor- dial support of the Rocky Mountain Commonwealths once they grasp its plan for limited enfranchisement. And local affairs will receive the at- tention which self-interest seldom fails { to arouse. These need not be specified. | It sufficient to say that men always give | their own concerns more consideration than do those who are alien or indiffer- ent to them. This is the underlying | fact of local self-government. If it is ignored or disregarded the citizen has only himself to reproach for the conse- quences. It may be that the work of Representatives from Maine, Georgia, Missouri and California for the District of Columbia has been above criticism. Even so, it is not the labor of the com- munity for itself. It will not be if the rroposed amendment passes, but it dentifies that community with the agency to whose jurisdiction its politi- cal destiny is committed. That is Amer- ican and that is what the District craves and should have. This political anachronism should have been adjusted long ago. It is worse than an_ anachronism; it is a monstrosity, which baffles accurate classification. It is a clumsy control of the center by the circumference— in its disfranchisement. the right of citizenship in common witly the rest of the cnumtre g _— - the doctrine of self-government in ree verse gear. The domination of the colo- (Continn~4 ~n Third Page.)