Evening Star Newspaper, May 26, 1929, Page 28

MAY 26, 19 | Capital Sidelights BY WILL P. KENNEDY. ‘The, Senate row over abolishing secret THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, EVERYDAY RELIGION 2 that five years later you could not pos- | living creatures than this whirling globe! sily have done either.” BSomewhat in|upon whose surface we ourselves eke! line with this thought is the recently out our little lives, “ anmounced project of Dr. Willlam| Venus is the only otherplanetary Mather Lewis, president of Lafayette body at all likely to be the home of THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Monsing Editton. WASHINGTON, D. C. Selective Service Law Proposed BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. SUNDAY. May 26, 1929 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspa; Jiem e, LGRS, OMEe New E ork Chicago O, Buropean Of per Company Mi(!l iehif B lz;l idure. 14 er"-'z‘,. Londot. Englan Bate by Carrier Within the City. ’l’? g .ll:'.:lld F n(:?ve' ¢ ana Sund 0y 0 d Collecti Orders Main ing 5 jon ma | 47 be sent in by mail oF teledams | Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. imd and Vi £10.00; 1 mo., 85¢ | Daily oni | 3 B yr. $6.00: 1 ma., S0c Sunday only . Ir. $4.00: 1 mo.. 40c 09| 75¢ | < Datly and Sunday aily only -.. Sindas "oy ted Press. exclusively entitied T 'fon of zil rews Gis- steies ted to it otnerwise cred- Jied In ihis paper end lso the incai news oubl herein. All rights of oubiicarion of specisl dispatches Nerein are slso reserved. e e Industry and Prohibition. Liquor and industry, according to Henry Ford, not only cannot run along together but are enemies, Mr. Pord is & firm believer in prohibition. He visualizes an industrious, happy world in which the ban on liquor has been | made complate. Indeed he attributes | developments of soldiertng. Later on in!side was heated continuously to the| e and formerly the head of George | similar living organfsms. The existence Wash\ngton University here, for an edu- | of a high order of life on Mars is, at catioraa] enterprise to. be styled “The|the best, extremely doubtful. Even Alumnh College.” | with recent observations, which show The pan of this callege president is| that the red star is neither so cold nor not to haul back his alumni for an ac- |so dry as it once was thought to be, tual resumption of thetr curriculum, or | conditions still are admittedly so in- any part thereof, but it does aim at|hospitable that very few of the living keeping them in touch. with the general | creatures on earth could continue to intellectual progress of the day, with| exist there. The atmosphere is very alma mater helping them specially inlthin and between night and day there| whatever fleld their lifework or their|are violent extremes of heat and cold. interest may lie. Specifically, Dr. Lewis| But life on Venus might be very plans to keep the college in session for | pleasant, once the organism beeame their benefit for the week following the | adapted to the heavier atmosphere. Its gayeties of commencement and alumni day. Pirst they will have their good times, getting out the old pins and hat- bands, singing, the teams, and drinking near-beer; thenias many as care to do so can gather sariously in the halls or under the elms that knew them as un- dergraduates for & week's resumption of that helpful corttact with the paid brains which, after' all, are the quintes- sence of any university. The scheme is somewhat akin to that pursued with the axmy recruit in cer- tain foreign countries. He gives com- pulsory service for one or two or three|that Venus does not rotate—that it al- years actively with the colors. Then|ways turns the same face toward the for a time he is hisyown man, except| cun, just as does the planet Mercury. that he must report annually for a brlelfi If this were true it would throw out period of maneuvers ,and instruction. | immediately all possibility of life of any similar to the equatorial regions of the { earth. Unfortunately, it is impossible {to see the surface of the planet or to | photograph it any device. All that can be seen is the outer surface of the | heavy blanket of clouds which sur- rounds the planet. There are no sta- tionary objects by which can be de- termined its rate of revolution. There is no opportunity to detect on its face such markings as the alleged “canals” of Mars. There have been reazons to believe | temperate zone should be somewhat | course. This keeps him in touch with the latest | kind. It would mean that while one prohibition in the United States to the | hig career he does not have to report 50| hofling point of water. the other side tremendous growth of industry in this country during the last haif century. ' Mr, Ford has naade himself what Ameri- cans familiarly refer to as & captain of industry. He is engaged in a great | manufacturing adventure, It is his plan now to extend W&o fleld of his manufscturing to Europe and he has announced that ground has just been broken for a $30,000,000 plant on the ' Thames River in England. This plant ® to be the first unit in his expansion program. By bringing industry to Eng- land in increased form and to other countries of Burope, Mr. Ford hopes to advance the cause of world tem- perance. Machinery and booze, Mr. Ford aptly | @ays, cannot mix. The development of | @viation, he insists, is still another blow ot liquor drinking. Intoxicated pilots of aircraft cannot be tolerated. The same is true of the operation of auto- mobiles. The machine age, it seems, must have its influence upon the appe- tites of man. In Mr. Ford's plants abroad, he has announced, prohibition will be rigidly enforced, just as it is in his plants in this country. The drinking man or woman stmply will not be given work in the Ford factories. England is now confronted, as she has been for the last eight or nine years, with a tre- mendous unemployment problem. Dur- often or for so long. The avera and fitth years and every half-decade | thereafter. For the members of each class to linger on awhile after the tu- mult and the shouting die and do & Iit- tle postgraduate work might be both pleasant and profitable. Another suggestion in cormection with this “Alumni College” is made with all due modesty. Between lectures, classes and conferences, let the old grad wan- der up and down adjacent streets, go into the various shops he used to pat- ronize and ask each proprietor, ‘“Look back on your books and see, if I left college owing you anything?” It is pos- sible that he will be surprised. ——o——————— Our Tree Population. ‘The Bureau of Efficiency’s interest in ‘Washington's trees is commendable and while some of its recommendations are indicative of more zeal than knowledge of the facts, those that are worth while will be used by Clifford Lanham, super- intendent of trees and parking, to im- press Congress with the necessity of continuing what has proved to be a relatively generous attitude toward the €0l- | was a realm of eternal cold—the terrible | lege class holds reunionsithe first, third | cold of interplanetary space approach- | ing absolute zero. Standards described to the American Association of PFixed Star Obeervers here the other day radiation measure- ments from different areas on the sur- face of Venus which tend to show that it really is revolving, although the rate of revolution may be very siow. He de- tected changes in the temperature of the fringes between the light and dark sides which could be explained only on the basis that the dark areas were com- ing into the sunlight. 80 Venus, after all, may be the abode of life which will remain an eternal| mystery under the great banks of clouds which hide the plains, seas and mountains of our nearest neighbor. —_————— John D. Rockefeller will give his at- tention to housing problems in densely populated areas and may find an an- swer to the question when a manager of home properties ceases to be a real- tor and becomes a philanthropist. ——— ‘The system of street raillway valua- Dr. W. W. Coblenz of the Bureau of | Capital's tree population. Mr. Lanham's chief interest has been to maintain the Capital's reputation of having more trees than any city, re- tion cannot be expected to go into group psychology and figure the im- mense importance of the straphanger asset. BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, Bishop of “Stable Practices.” “The fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually, it shall not go ut” (Leviticus, vi.13). In spite of the changed and changing conditions that have marked this period we are bound to recognize that there are certain fixed conventions and prac- tices that long experience has proved to be indispensable. Each period is marked by certain changes in our methods and habita of social and industrial inter- They are also marked by changing styles and fashions, so much 80 that we come to classifv given pe- riods for what they represent in habits of dress. There are those today who like to in- sist that nothing is stable and fixed, that experience counts for little or ne and that self-expression tran- scends all else. They are somewhat like those unfortunate people who in an- other hectic period sought to do away with the beautiful frescoes and adorn- ments of the English cathedrals and to banish from these sacred buildings everything that expressed the fine things of sentiment. These extreme modern- ists would disown their obligation to the past and think only in terms of selfish desire and the satisfaction of their own fancies. We are witnessing today sweeping changes in those wholesome conventions and chivalrous practices that were once conspicuous in our domestic and social life. The above text is from an ancient book that records the precise direction given to a people concerning the main- tenance of a devotional practice. The fire on the altar was a symbol of the | abiding sence of God in the life of His people; hence it should never be ex- tinguished. Inadequate as the symbol m)’ht be, the recognition of it and the unfailing maintenance of it meant much to those who recognized its significance and value. tests everything by its practical value and who thinks of life in terms of util- ity mean little or nothing, and yet the fact remains that symbols of one kind and another, usages and practices that grow out of fine sentiment, constitute an important and indispensable element in life. The flag may be but a plece of bunting, and yet it is the symbol of a nation's power and unity. We have formed the habit, and it is a whole- some one, of lifting our hats as it passes. The very act indicates a «spirit of re- spect and reverence. The uplifted cross on a roadside in France was only & bit of wood with a carved figure of the Savior upon it, and vet who shall say Symbols to the man who | Washington that it meant little to the men going into action, who, viewing it, felt again the presence of the “White Comrade.” There is a danger in our veIy prac- tical age that we shall =0 fag don our sense of the value of symbols that we shall render our life dull and pro- salc. Even in the matter of the little courtesies of life and the chivalrous practices of polite society we have be- come singularly recreant. The court- | liness of other days and the cultivation 'of habits that contribute to refinement of expression we are too hurried to ob- serve today. Speaking of changed and changing social conditions, Bishop Pot- ter some vears ago remarked: “We have exchanged the Washingtontan dignity | for the Jeffersonian simplicity, which in | due time cante to be only another name for Jacksonian vulgarity. And what have we gotten in exchange for it? In | the older states and dynasties they had | the trappings of royalty and the splen- dor of the King's person to filll men's hearts with loyalty. We have dispensed with the old titular dignities. Let us take care that we do not part with that for which they stood. If there be no titular royalty, all the more need is there for personal royalty. If there be no nobllity of descent, all the more in- dispensable is it that there should be nobility of ascent.” The bishop was pleading for an unfailf ‘maintenance of those things that a wholesale senti- ment tes as indispensable to well balanced living. In no place is there greater need for the unfailing recogni- tion o{lg‘“ "h;chhmntflhuw to whole- some living and the proper recognition of the refining influence of time-hon- ored practices than the home. The cultivation of reverence for sacred things and sacred usages is indispens- able to our youth, if we are to main- tain order and decency in our domestic and social practices. = We are hear | much today about a lost reverence an | respect for law. It might be well to be reminded of what President Garfield once said: “It is useless to teach ple to respect the laws of the land, un- less you first teach them to 't the laws of God.” In the mind of this wise President the two things were closely and intimately related. A house which there nothing that sym! lizes or expresses reverence for sacred things and sacred usages comes at length, not only to lose refinement, but respect for parental authority. If there 18 nothing that corresponds to the altar upon which the fires of sacrifice burn continually, there is a loss of affection | for the refreshment and wholesome | things of home life. Senatorial “Ethics” Studied By Comparisons With Press BY WILLIAM HARD. “Ethics” is a deep study in Wash- ington at this moment. Senator Reed of Pennsylvania has expressed the view that “the so-called | ethics of the so-called profession” of | journalism would prevent a newspaper correspondent from revealing to & sena- torial committee the name of & Senator from whom he had secured intelli-| Mr. Reed could qualify as the leader of his side in a game inst the press ,luery by leading a fight on the floor ! or the expulsion of some “unethical” Senator. | 'r:xe b'prenmunry problem, however, What are the ethics of senatorial ex- istence? Equipped with the still unknown an- swer to that question, Mr. Reed of Pennsylvania would make s "ty | doiph _period or “executive” sessions, growing out of withdrawing from the press associations the privilege of the floor because one of them printed the vote taken in execu- tive session on the con! ation of former Senator Lenroot, is a reminder that since the earliest days of Congress Senators and _Representatives have verbally lambasted Washington corre- spondents, and even had them put in jall, for printing information they got from the members themselves. Members of Congress have always been as sensitive as some of them now are about what was said of them in the public print. Spasmodically some of them have stood out as rivals to Dickens’ Alderman Cute in expressing a desire to “put down" the newspaper correspond- ents. Many of those who denounce the correspondents loudest in public have secretly supplied them with such infor- mation as t! mfl!llr!d to see published. The Paul llons of today who are under senatorial fire have a historic background, for away back in 1812 Na- thaniel Ronnsavelt, correspondent of the Alexandria Herald, was brought before the bar of the House and ordered into custody for refusing to tell who had given him some information touching the secret action on the embargo. It was shown that his informant was Rep- resentative John Smilie of Pennsylvania. At another time the great John Ran. dolph was much exercised over a Wash- letter printed in the Philadel- Press, chlltln: him with having received British gold as a bribe for op- posing the war. It was ascertained that the author was Representative Willis Alston, jr., of North Carolina. John C. Calhoun stated that it was Randolph himself who, to use the argot of the profession, “leaked" the secret decision of the committee on foreign relations to propose an embargo. This word was sent to Boston by an express rider, who made the journey in the unp-ecedented time of 79 hours, thus enal scores of New England vessels to put to sea before the ts were officially closed. Mr. Randolph was an implacable foe of Washington correspondents of the elder day and often used language in referring to them that is not equaled today. it even as Senator La Follette jumped to the defense of the oor- respondents of today, those of the Ran- had as their champion Representative Matthew ‘who served first from Vermont and later from Kentucky, and who, while John President, had been impris- oned under the sedition law for pul - ing & letter which contained animad. versions on the administration. One of the most truculent among the Washington co: dents of early | days was Matthew vis, friend and biographer of Aaron Burr, who signed his articles “The Spy in Washington,” who was familiarly known as “the Old Boy in Specks” and who, in the closing years of his lon{n ne per career, 8 les in the don Times A Genevese Traveler.” It was one his letters which voked the duel be. tween Representatives Graves and Cil ley, in which the latter was killed. Nathan Ma;m ‘Wwrote spirited articles Iphia Gasette which he “Oliver Oldschool.” ta- C. vania on prin an ted expulsion from the desk assigned to him, “that the honor and ty ox_nz'm Houss might be main- 3 accept. Close on the heels of the dec]lrntlonl in Geneva that the United States will not Insist on limitation of military re- | serves, nor the elimination of conscrip- | tion, in any disarmament plan which may develop, comes the proposal from | our Secretary of War, James W. Good, that the principle of conscription be enacted into law in this country. Sec- | retary Good has had a bill to that pur- pose drafted and sent to Congress, where the chairman of the House com- | mittee on military affairs has intro- | duced ft. | 8ince the military committee is not | functioning during the special session of | | Congress, the Congress and the country | | will have plenty of time to study Becre- | tary Good's proj ft act and to | compare it with ether proposals along | the same line. It cannot be acted on | i until the regular session of Congress next Winter, unless some change takes place in the plans of the special session. | i Just Mt present the members of Con- g.- are thinking more about the com- hot weather and plans to avold sweltering in lengthy sessions through the Summer than about taking up new legislation; but Good has pre- sented his bill with an accompanying letter and it is ible that the Depart- ment of War thinks our policy on this question might well be settied before we get too far into international discus- sions. It is also possible that the De- partment of War has been waiting to present draft legislation until after the preliminary disarmament conference at Geneva, 80 that we could make our posi- tion plain there without seeming to be limited in our choice about conscription by _any domestic policy. ‘The selective service law now pro- posed by the Secretary of War should not be confused with the universal draft act, proposed the American | Legion to each session of Congress since form. universal deals with conscription of men, money and materials. including men and ma- terials for home as well as in the fleld in war time. The present P 1 of the Department of War deals essentially with conscription of manpower, a re-enactment of the princi- the World War, to make this available to the following s declaration of war. ere has been general eement by every one concerned since World War that the United States ought to have a permanent law on the statutes which would expedite mobilization in case of another war. We should never again have to wait for acts of to enable the President and the mil branches of the Government to make & quick start at securing men and sup- plies. Like 80 many tI which ev- ery one agrees oug! has been able to get it done, or to write & Dbill which Congress would Taking the Profit Out of War. ‘The former soldiers, through the American Legion, have stood consistent- ly for a universal draft law, one which would draft money and material and labor, as well as nchung“mnm ‘The fu?ou of their proj been two- old, to keep the better luunren ess and to take the profit out of war. scription of everything needed in war, a pooling of all the Nation possesses in life and wealth, sounds like a fair and just idea, with profiteering elim- ini slow methods and bargaining the war, but never yet adopted in any | draft proposal | ples of selective service employed in | This ides of con- | years to study the question of con- tion in every detail and propose a bill covering the whole subject. The Congress, however, has avoided even authorising such a committee. The result is that more than ten years have clapsed since the end of the last war, and the United Sta has made no real preparation to m’et sn- other such emergency. If war were de- clared tomorrow, we could have 1o ft of any sort until Congress en- cted a cial law for the purpose. We could have no control over produc- tion or prices of materials except b individual bargain end purchase W- are, as a nation, still in the status of 1017, despite all of the lessons of the Great War. What the Last War TFaught. The experts in the Department War have made constant studi of this situation, and for a time hoped for early enactment of some form of uni- versal draft law. The military men thought it would be wise to have the President in a position to draft man- power and to command the immediate service of ’n-n,!uums for supplying the armed forces. If the Department of ‘War now asks only for an act to au- thorize tion of mm!r. 1t 1s because the subject as & Wi is so complicated that it seems easier to get. action on one part of it at a time. : general staff knows exactly, by experi- ence, how manpower should be en- rolled in an emergency. It is fairly easy to show Congress just what a man- power draft means. When the discus- sion gets into the realm of commandeer- ing factories, conscripting raw mate- rials and otherwise with the m&nely question, endless complications arise. What the Department of War has | done since 1920 has been to make @ very complete study of the raw mate- | rial supplies of the Nation and the ufacturing plants. The general. ff now knows just about what ma- terials of war can be produced per day, week of month in present factories, and ‘how other factories can be most quickly converted to war production. Thus the department is keeping itself prepared |for an emergency. If war is declared it knows where it must look for what will be needed. Whether it gets this supply quickly by some plan of draft, or more slowly by bargain and pur- chase, it knows what it wants and where to get it. ‘The American declaration at Geneva, made by Ambassador Gibson, that this Nation would be agreeable to a limita- tion of land armaments without consid- ering organized reserves or the lon of conscription, leaves us morally free of hings ht to be done, nobody | O ndid gardless of size, in the worid. He has | answerer to the problem of the l?—(;lhd .- gence regarding the transactions of a ing that period, there have been always upward of & million unemployed work- ers there and sometimes the number has approached two million. Under such + eonditions it should not be difficult for Mr. Ford to obtain workers willing to abstain from the use of Nquor, particu- larly as he has the reputation of paying fair wages. The establishment of such a plant as that projected for England by Mr. Ford is likely to bring into employment many thousands of workers directly and many other thousands indirectly. The latter will be engaged in producing coal and other raw materials required by the Pord plant. His experiment in advanc- ing the cause of prohibition in England through increased industrialism will be followed with the keenest interest. Mr. Ford is & sincere prohibitionist. He be- lieves that men and women work bet- ter, live better and are happier without intoxicating beverages. In his opinion, prohibition has come to stay in this country. and will spread throughout the ‘world, following ever in the footsteps of modern industry and machinery. This Hot Weather Talk, ‘The Chamber of Commerce is plan- ning to do something to counteract the effect of the mean storles about how hot it is in Washington in the Summer- time. One facetious suggestion was to take down the kiosk in the Pulaski tri- angle to preven' that tell-tale pen and red ink fram writing libelous facts re- garding the thermometer. But the in- tent of the chamber is to give real facts regarding the temperature here in ‘Washington, thus to show that this city is not hotter than many others, and that the average Summer temperature 18 far from unbearable. The contention 18 that wild stories about the heat in- fluence Summer tourists to go elsewhere. It the would-be tourists knew that the mean temperature during the Summer is not so mean after all, they would probably pack up the flivver and head for the Capital. Bo far, so good. But the question arises as to whether it is good advertising for Washington t0 emphasize the weather as & source of attractiveness or to defend it as something under attack. We have so much more to boast of, here in Wash- ington, than the weather. If the tour- ists are lured by promises of Summer- resort weather and arrive in the Capi- tal on a day that finds the Govern- ment departments closing on account of the heat, the tourists are going to say many things about Washington weather, If they are told that it may | get hot here, but that Washington's | natural charm is most apt to drive thoughts of heat from harried minds. the tourist 18 more Jikely to go back | home boasting that the hot weather warning was hot air—that the weather was one of the niocest contributions made by the Federal City In entertain- | { hard to find seen the annual appropriation for trees grow from about $15,000 thirty years ago to the $90.000 available in the last two appropriation bills. For 1931 Re is asking $125,000. During the present fis- cal year forty-two hundred trees have been planted, the largest number in any fiscal year. If Congress continues to give attention to the tree needs of the District, one need have no fears as to the result. Mr. Lanham estimates that the planting of about three thousand trees & year will enable his department to keep up with the highway depart- ment, and extend the trees along new streets. The District now is beginning td feel the effects of the system of tree plant- ing and the selection of trees that ex- isted in 1878, when there was formed the nucleus of Washington's present tree population. Many of the trees planted then were silver maples, Caro- lina poplars and Lombardy poplars, quick growing, shallow rooting trees that are ill adapted to the present-day | environment, where the trees must send their roots deep into the ground to escape the effects of ofl and grease and concrete streets and sidewalks. And now, when there is a heavy windstorm, these old trees pay the penalty. There are about twenty thousand of them that ghould be replaced, but the cost of replacing them would be about twenty dollars each, & sum amounting to more than four times the annual appropria- tion now received for planting new trees, caring for the 106,825 growing trees, maintaining a tree nursery and paying for equipment and personnel. Instead of attempting to replace | them all at once, as safety might de- mand, the trees are being replaced grad- ually. Instead of planting the trees from eighteen to twenty-five feet apart, as was done originally, the distance between them varies from forty-five to one hundred feet, depending upon the territory and the kind of tree. The Gingko is being planted along narrow streets: the American elm, red oak and pin oak on wide streets; Norway maple for streets of moderate size and, in the downtown section, where it survives | when others die, the Oriental plane or sycamore tree. The tree-planting and replacement policy at the District Building is being | formulated with an eye for tomorrow. | A broad expression of that policy is to | plant a tree every where that one will {grow. If there are apparent vacancies | along the District's five-hundred-mile | Tow of street trees, there is some ex- planation for it, and one that is not e An enormous motion picture s an- | nounced that includes new effects in | perspective 85 well as in sound. The | | comment made years “The motion | | | picture 18 in its infancy,” still applies. ——— o ‘There may be some way to dispel popular hysteria as to & stock market | being a price influence, but if there is the experts in finance have not dis- covered it. N ‘There is not much hope for senatorial | suggested are thoroughly carried on. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Exercise. The doctor said it would be wise To try some daily exercise— I thought to gardening I would take, Performing with a hoe and rake; | And from the soll, so kind, yet crude, | I'd wrest some of my daily food— Yet, day by day, by hunger caught, ‘The old can opener I sought. 1t is, although unknown to fame, The means of an athletic game. My elbows, and my shoulders, too, 1 square, for leverage anew, And even risk a wound or 80, As forth unto this chase I go— The old can opener I prize— It gives me all my exercise! Thought and Speech. “Don't you belleve a statesman ought to say everything he actually thinks?” “Yes,” answered Benator Sorghum. “But he ought not to be encouraged to waste precious hours trying to say a whole lot more.” Jud Tunkins says he has listened to 80 much good advice that he feels like | he had wasted time when he should | have been working. | Wisdom and Silence. “This rule applies,” 8aid Cynics long ago. “You should be wise— But not tell all you know.” Art and Obscurity. “Why don't you go into motion pic- tures?” haven't any publicity,” sighed Miss Cayenne. “I'm not even a co-respond- ent.” “Resplendent raiment,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is the mas- | querade by which Age hopes to deceive Youth.” No Contrast. I take my radio along, When to the wilderness T roam. I listen to the jest and song— And might as well have stayed at| home. | “De crap game dat calls foh lo.d?d‘ dice.” said Uncle Eben, “is a means foh takin’ too much profit, even in sellin’ experience.” ————— It No Doubt Ie. vacation if all the investigations now | {, b t” session of the Senate. Bfil has inspired a widespread in- qutry here into the so-called ethics of the so-called legislative body of which Mr. Reed is one of the most cultivated and courteous members. One of the questions involved is: Should one of Mr. Reed's colleagues » the President on a legislative measure because of dissentment regard- a Federal appointment? tances of that sort have happened. They must be painful to any sensitive member of the so-called most august legislative body in_ the world. It is surmised that Mr. Reed will delve into them and excavate and amputate them out of current senatorial so-called canons of conduct. And, again Should one of Mr. Reed's colleagues in the so-called “Upper” House of the Federal Legislature receive retainers from private interests for speeches praising those interests on the public platform? Instances Are Recalled. Instances of that sort have happened. too. They must be extremely ing to any squeamish rnrm.loner of the so-called profession of public life. It ilx thought that possibly Mr. Reed will | extirpate them from senatorial so-called | public service in Washington. It 18 wondered also if it is ethical or unethical for a Senator to vote one way in a secret session of the Senate when he would have voted another way in an open session. The solid truth is that the one great reason for secret sessions is that there are Benators who will vote their con- sciences in a secret session. but who in an open session will vote only their fears and their ambitions. In other words, there are Senators who are cowards and demagogues. Mr. Reed i not one of them. He is a mil- lion miles away from being one of them. Mr. Reed does not fear the populace. He does not fear the administration. He does not fear anything. He does not fear even the members of the so-called “Fourth Estate,” the gatherers and pur- veyors of so-called news, the gentlemen | —the alleged gentlemen—of the pre- dacious press, In fact, in undeniable fact, Mr. Reed is brave and bold. How sad, then, that he should turn from the rich field of | adventure of reform which is offered to him by the floor of the Senate in order to seek the moral improvement of the bare and contracted gallery from which the newspaper correspondents look down upon the greatness beneath them! It is true that they often look down upon it in both senses. It is true that it 18 often in both senses beneath them. It is true that they are often as eager to advance the ethical 6nward and up- ward march by the Senate ator could be to advance theirs. On Comparative Ethies. A few queries in the scholarly arena of comparative ethics might be in order. What ‘newspaper correspondent vi- tuperates the honest business of this country as certain numerous Senators vituperate it. without any adequate correction from their sane but listless colleagues? What newspaper correspondent dis- seminates libel and slander as certain numerous Senators disseminate them, without any effective protest by their colleagues against that misuse of the immunities of the Senate floor? What newspaper _correspondent “‘erooks the pregnant hinges of the knee” to the eighteenth amendment and then almost simultaneously ‘“‘crooks the ant hinges” of the elbow to the flowing bowl with the audacity and impudence of certaln numerous Sena- tors? What newspaper correspondent assails | existence of editors and reporters. | (Cepyright. 1929.) e \Fragile Freight Loss Reduction Is Sought s BY HARDEN COLFAX. Realizing that all the king's horses | and all his men can not repair a broken | egg_shell, railroad executive are en- | in a tremendous effort to prevent, |eggs and other similarly fragile freight from being broken, damaged, spoiled, lost or stolen during transit. The illustration i not extreme. In 11928 railroads of the United States | paid $443,000 in claims for loss and | damage to egg shipments, and this was | & reduction of nearly $100.000 under | the total for the year immediately pre- | ceding. With the railroads rapidly moving | to the forefront of the elimination of he waste campaign which, under rying subtitles, is reconstructing in- dustrial methods, members of the freight claim division of the American Railway Association met in Washin, ton this week to take stock of s in their work and exchange i for future efforts. The just settlement of claims for losses suffered by freight shipments has been ?eoaea up to the greater satisfaction of shippers and is & matter of routine. What concerns the claim agents chiefly is prevention of claims. Claims paid b{ railroads last year on account of loss and fllm;g; to shipments aggregated $31.146.000. =a tidy te, rej to this conven- tion disclosed, but the strides made by the carriers in reducing this element of wasteful cost may be realized by com- rison with the $119,833,000 paid in 920 for similar claims. The sum in 1928 was 5.6 per cent below that of | 1927, the lowest since 1917, and, despite | almost double the trafic and consid- erably higher commodity values, only $2,000,000 greater than in 1914. Efficiency of operation accounts for an important rt of the savings in freight claims, loss and damage result- ing from delay in shipments being re- duced last year 20 per cent under ]nzv. lm?mmpt‘ movement 2 pert fcu- | larly importan shipmenta of frutis, melons and tables. While these perishables constitute less than 2 per cent of total railroad freight tonni they aoccount for 28 per cent of loss and damage total. Turning attention again to eggs, the studies of the claim ts have disclosed that im T PAC] of cars has taken a heavy toll, for three-fourths of the egg damage occurred in one- fourth of the total carloads. Improved packing brought about the heavy re- duction in this loss last year. ‘The raflroad men have learned that better loading of freight cars not only helps greatly in reducing damage in transit, but that it lowers operating and invesment charges as well. The car- | riers today have in service 75,000 fewer | freight cars than they had six years ago. but the total now in use includes 727,000 new or rebuilt in that period | which have greater capacity and sta- | cause of more prompt loading and un- Joading and movement on the line and at terminals these cars are performing the funetion of the greater number, and {doing it better. The prediction was | made at the convention this week that | b~ 1032 the rail carriers will be tra growing freight traffic with 150,000 to 175000 fewer freight cars than they had at the high point of ownership. Not only from the humanitarian ground. e | | bility than their predecessors, and be- | porting their share of the country’s; +in made a notabl gran show of injured innocence, some of the guilty-conscienced members talked of ireating Simonton “as & terrier treats a T Following an investigation, the gullty members resigned to avold ex- pulsion, and those who remained en- deavored to punish Mr. Simonton by holding him in custody during the re- mainder of the session because he would not disclose the name of his informant. There have been more than a dozen other attempts, which proved unsuccess- ful, to force Washington correspond- |ents to divulge the sources from which they obtained information by imprison- m-_?}tl for “contempt.” e disclosure of what has been don in the ostensibly confidential sessions of the gen ive becy e e ate has always bee especially distasteful to those Sennbvearl: Wwho have thought that their words an actions would never be made public. *ox ok % Washington, which always has been a great umnr{. center, and where have lived and labored some of those, like Louise M. Alcott, whose writings have appealed for scores of years es- | pecially to the children, is e: to take leadership in most fttingly me- .mnodn:mmm (;:.:hooe ‘whose . uple style appealed str to the heart of childhood by wmeml‘.l! cial child welfare activily. as is being mem = ll.!: writers. sty pecialists in the Children's Bureau call attention that Lord Rothermere | has offered in the neighborhood of $500.000 toward the purchase for a children’s park of the former site of the London Foundling Hospital, which was made famous the world over by Charles Dickens in his novel, “Little Dorrit.” This institution has recently moved to the country, leaving available A considerable pjece of ground in a | section of London greatly in need of park The only condition at- for a camping This proposed gift brings to mind & mmrkgle bequest which the Found- ling Hospital received nearly two cen- turies ago by the will of Handel, the German com T of the ‘Messiah,” who left it the atest of oratorios. Even during his lifetime the hospital funds had been enriched by about $50,000 through his rendition of his masterp! great organ which the composer him- self presented to the Children's Asylum. “Peter Pan" also is a gold mine for a childre: hospital. hasn't seen “Peter Pan” either on the stage or in the “movies”? And now every time any child, fymml or old. pays for the delight of seeing thi whimsical play of Sir James Barrie's, some of the money will go to help little sick children in London to get well again. For that beloved author has given over unconditionally to the Hos- pital for Sick Children, on Great Or- mond street, all his rights to royalties from “Peter Pan,” a gift which, it is estimated, will add something like $10,000 & vear to the hospital income. ‘This generous action already has born fruit. for “the first pirate” has anony- mously given a pound note (nearly $5) to the hospital, hoping that others | might follow his example. | e 289 | 45 involved thal d | use for them. aone i% ‘nw:m. and evmhlnr:’% ice Among men Al busl.nm It is an ideal. but one of which the sccomplishment in detail is has so far been unable to see y enact any universal draft law. clear to In the or 80 even the has clear to be safely law, and has agreed with many bers of Congress that a committee ought d given one, two or more This and That By Charles E. Tracewell. Jack Bpratt hates cats. He has a real affection for mankind, {he tolerates dogs, and he can stand horses and cows, but when it comes to | members of his own tribe he has no | Just whence this jealousy comes s difficult to trace, for a cat never talks. Its meows may be interpreted in vari- ous ways, but never positively. Jack has never once. in the five he has en; on this sphere, indicat- ed that he the slightest rd another cat. He g‘uyed constantly with the first Little Nipper, but “took it out” on his human friends by growling at them. His growls were an indication of his | dislike for another cat in 3 that was all the | ing’ the nature and extent of the evil | were 80 conclusive that the school board took the matter up promptly and ap- pointed an efficient committee of in- vestigaion. It is proper to say that the present school board is not respon- sible for the system of study, which was adopted some years ago. and was in- tended originally only as an experi- ment, to-be revised as experience should show its defects. The committee have entered upon their work with an e nestness that promises good results. As & foundation for their action they have very properly sought the views of the teachers and supervising principals a8 10 the practical defects of the pres- ent course of study and the best mode of remedying them. In another part of the glper & summary of the opinions of the principals and nearly all the teachers is give: It will be seen that they fully sustain the views expressed heretofore by The Star as to the op- ressively burdensome extent of text ks and tasks piled upon the puplls, parents and teachers by the prescribed course of study. Not only are the studies too many, but the text books in several instances are beyond the com- prehension of the grade of the children using them. It is com , too, that the teachers are obliged to take pupils in a grade of classes for which they are totally unfitted and are held respon- sible for their standing, and the whole class is unjustly marked for their fail- ure. Other defects are pointed out and remedies suggested. and no doubt the committee will be able from these rec- ommendations and their own observa- tions to make s satisfactory revision of L?\:d present objectionable course of B ok ok ‘The second Nipper was not in the house 8o much, and Jack was corre-, spondingly easier in his mind. It cannot be that - fears his food supply will dimini e he has| never missed a m . has re- | ceived too much food. After three months of growing im- Yn'.lence with Mrs. Blackie and her amily of five lively kittens, Jack Spratt | is less inclined to like the group than | ever. He sces positively nothing of interest | in the kittens, and intensely dislikes their mother. Her, he almost invari- ts with a choice spitting and growl The ‘lmm are similarly saluted if they dare to come within a few feet f of him. He sits watching them with resentful . Their antics, their cute capers leave him cold. He eyes us with the mute question, | “Mister, what good are they?” [ * ok ox x Beside the B8-week-old kittens the 5-year-old Spratt seems huge. He long ago learned the art of keeping himself clean, whereas the kittens have yet much to learn. Jack’s white chest and face fairly gleam with a silvery light which comes only from the snowiest white. Alexandre Dumas. sometimes called Chicot the Jester, is clean one day, dirty the next, depending upon whether his mother gets arouna to him. Five children are a trial, indeed, with | their gambolings and general friskiness. | Sometimes Blackie will hold Alexandre down with a paw, and wash his face | with intense vigor, the while the n(heri four are making dashes at her long black tail. She is never mean to them, but pa- | tiently tolerates them, offering in this: respect a striking contrast to Jack | Spratt, who sees no good in them at all. | | irs | the victims of the s Staff, but getting any by action of has always been a very difficult under our form of government. The efforts to get a draft act of any sort into law have e on for 10 years and remain without definite results. Fifty Years Ago In The Star “The allotment of tasks to puplils of jour public schools,” says The Star of May 20, 1879, “to bs "fif’fid at home, and which requires the Teachersand parents to assume ;'"‘.2 luties of teachers, Pupils. been a subject of com+ plaint for some time, and lately some vigorous ts m in The Star against the practice elicited representa- tions from the teachers of their side of the case, from which it appeared that parents, children and teachers were all tem of overtask- ing prescribed by the rules of study. ‘The number of studies required is so enormous that it is necessary not only to Allot home tasks for the pupils, but the time of the teachers is occuplied outside of school hours to the detriment of their health in the supervision of the muliti- tudinous exercises, papers, compositions, | Overworking | ate., of the children. The facts show- ] And Some Not So Average. From the Louisville Times. The average man would much rather have his hands than his face on a five- ing the visiters. Let us tell them to come on—in spite of the fact it may be hot! It is not the heat we mind, anyhow. It is that standpoint, but from that of economics. | One Way of Demand Creation. dollar bill. the railroads l:'n::‘“‘:{:g Mo ot | From the Charleston (8. C.) Evenine Post. | oot WIVYE RGP g BOC O nea the accident, rec o, Millions' of) “in “cthier: words, the - Tntemational | SR e ] TNE RSt TeR TN SO dollars are being expen 'y 10 paper Co. means to sell its paper even | e improve the safety factor at high | are black with white edges. Life on Venus. Does the planet Venus revolve on its axis? | A religion as a Senator assails it with- out let or hindrance from the so-called rules of his so-called high station? What newspaper correspondent tells a secret to a Senator and then if the From the Fort Worth Record-Telegram. “Two Texas Senators Clash'—head- line. But when we read it we found that one merely shook his finger at the other. We ask to hear a clash of two A. Dumas is a roguish looking fellow . with white chest, and bottom half It Seems Possible. 'rom the Butte Daily Post. plagued humidity! ————— A good newspaper man knows not only how to get information, but when o keep a secret. Pierian Spring Water for Reunions. Once the secretary of a class some years out in the world from one of the larger universities had occasion to give in writing to every one of his class- mates the following thought: “Al remember that when you entered col- This is an important academic prob- | lem for astronomers. The answer is, full of interest for the layman because of implications which the professional star observers are loath to discuss. It is the threshold question in any consider- ation of the possibility of life on the neighbor planet comparable to life on earth. Venus is the earth's nearest neighbor, with the exception of the moon. In most respects it is quite similar to our |own planet. It has about the same index fingers, some time. It must be deafening. e This Is Nothing New. From the St. Louis Times. very little difference between the man who is sane and the one who is insane. As in other cases, the big difference 1 in getting found out. i Quite a Cutting Idea! Fio Indtar lege you could not possibly have been cquipped to graduate; that the day you greduated you could not possibly have gassed the entrance reguiregents, and an even more abundant atmosphere. checks on dentists was e From these gonsiderations one might|he started an amputation Swindle on judge it to be even more hospitable for surgeonsy size, density and temperature. It has l i, his terih pulied in order A mental expert says that there is Senator divulges it allows the press gallery to start a hue and cry against the Senator? Above all, if you took all the speeches in the Senate for one session and then | took all the newspaper dispatches for that session, which set of narrations of fact and of deployments of argument would excel the other for accuracy and honesty or for mendacity and unscrupu- lousness? It may be that in the course of any such comparison there would be times | when both sides would be sorry that they started it. Each side contains some unworthy members. Mr. Reed, however, would be well and fully op- posed in getting his side ready for the ercounter. The press gallery recently expelled a member for “unethical” con- duct. He was & popular member, t00. way | Srossings. In 1928 2,568 persons )mi“ it has to buy all of it ftself. their lives in grade crossing accidents = 3 and 6,667 were injured. Crossing acci- Punning Again. ut at the same ve »s in | o Use increased 7 per cent, and it is the | The price of whest is going decidedly automobils which most frequently fig- “8——u 3 ures in such accidents. Realizing that every penny must be ginge 1920, by more careful use of fuel, saved if a proper financial showing 18 10| the class 1 raliroads of the country be made, rallroad executives are stress | have reduced their fuel bill by $100,- ingefficiency in all lines. Larger 1ocomo- | 000 000 a vear which is ome factor in tives nrs being built and are operated | (no"irounics of the coal industry. | on longer subjects, with larzer and mote | Byt with passenger wraffic the lowest | completely loaded cars. The daily aver- | in"20 years, mounting taxes and other | age movement of freight cars last year lems, railrond management is aim- | was 31.3 miles, an increase of one mile | jng toward further economies and effi- We say black, but as a matter of truth Alexandre Dumas is really a choc. olate-and-white cat, his darker portio: being of an intensely dark brown, al- most black. His dark saddle, across his back, is shot here and there with white hairs, spre and these appear throughout his dark tail. ‘We predict that Alexandre Dumas, sometimes called Chicot the Jester, is going to be one of the finest looking tomcats in Washington. Jack Spratt looks his disapproval of our praise. Why, Mister, it im dent cat is an lb'urfl-loohnf Look at those ungainly hind legs, and | over 1927. A’ further improvement in ciencies to increass the 4.71 per cent { fuel consumption was recorded, estab-|retyrn on property investment which lithing a new Jaw record—127 pounds’ ine ciass 1 carriers reported last year. of fuel to haur 1,000 tons one mile, (Copyright, 1929.) for heaven's those big ears! How can & kfig‘lfi: that ever W into & real cat? Take my advice, and get rid of him and his brother and Some wag has said that the five-day week is odlure to come—when ;m force can produce mare goods in five days than the salesman can sell in six. r———————— | It Isn't Worry. | Prom the Worcester Evening Ganette. H encouraging to learn that Presi- ‘dent Hoover's loss of 15 pounds in | weight is attributed to his strenuous en- | counters with the medicine ball, and | not to his encounters with Congress. | fellow! : { his sisters before they tear your nice overstuffed chair to pieces. They have no looks and less breins. If you to see & nice cat. look at your best friend Jack Sprat!