Evening Star Newspaper, June 2, 1929, Page 34

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. i'/'fl’N‘bAY...........JuneZ 1929 ,mODOBE ‘W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company A Bustoess Offce: in 2 °110 East 4nd rovean Ofice: 14 Reyent” Bt London: Ensiand. = Rate by Carrier Within the City. ; 480 ver month undays’ ays) ..........60¢ per month d Sunday Star ays). .85¢ per month ....5c per copy nd of each menth. ‘mail or telephone en 4 The Evening an cn made &' {he o 5qers may be sent in by Zate bv Maii—Payable in Advance. ‘Maryland and Virginia. ‘§:||y and Sunda: : 1 mo., 8%¢ aily only ... 1 mol. Soc inday only . 8¢ mo., 80¢ ‘Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled | p the use for republication of cll rews dis- | fatehe eradited to it or mot otherwise cred. ted in this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication ef special dispatches herein are also reserve bis A Home for the Guard. ‘The District National Guard does {mot deserve the treatment that it has !yeceived as a sort of red-headed orphan without a hame. The War Department, Congress and the District government !have shown no more than a passing |and a passive interest in the problem, {now become acute, of giving it perma- nent and adequate quarters. Crowded |out of the old Convention Hall. at Fifth {mnd L streets, by the march of com- merce and destined now to lose the re- modeled Government hotel buildings on |the Capitol Plaza occupled since then, |the Guard will soon be turned out into the cold again with no refuge in sight. Such a condition necessitates serious consideration by the Public Bulldings State of Rhode Island. The plans of the committee not only seek to pro- vide adequate transportation facilities and to guard for the health and recre- ation of the huge population inhabiting this area, but they also seek to de- centralize, as far as practicable, the business and financial interests therein. The committee has visualized complete systems of highways, rallways, com- muters’ rapid transit lines, parks and parkways, and aviation fields. It has contemplated new systems of bridges and tunnels. Always it hes had in mind that the central point of this area will continue to be Manhattan Island, with its millions of office and factory work- ers, its great financial institutions and its need for a marvelous system of trans- portation so that these workers may live miles from the scene of their daily labors. Ever since the development of great cities in this country there has been an insistent demand to get the city work- ers back to the land. The cities, how- ever, have continued to grow greater and greater. It has been impossible to check the tendency of modern civiliza- tion. New inventions, new industries play their part constantly in bringing together greater and greater bodies of human beings. If they ave to live in health and in & measure of comfort and happiness wise planning is neces- sary. This has been the aim of the Russcll Sage Foundation, and its mil- lion dollars for plans for a supercity has been well expended. ——— Leaving It to Uncle Sam. Wisconsin has put an end to its| State prohibition enforcement law. First, a referendum of the question to the voters resulted in a victory for the wets by a majority of nearly 150,000. Then both houses of the State Legis- lature, by large majorities, put through the repealer bill, and finally Gov. Koh- ler signed the bill. This means that hereafter prohibition enforcement in ‘Wisconsin will be carried on by the Federal Government through the co- Commission of Maj. Gen. Anton Stephan’s suggestion that the Pension ‘Bufldlng be turned over to the National |Guard as an armory. Bullt as a memo- .l’lll to the soldiers of the Civil War, the Pension Office Building now houses the offices of the controller general, the ipension force long since having been lremoved to the Interior Department. As 'an office building it is uneconomical, mnd the nature of the work there car-: \ried on is no longer representative of| the sentiment which actuated the con- ptruction of the memorial. On the other hand, the unique Brchitectural arrangement of the in- terior is excellently adapted to the |meeds of an armory, the lack of which has so long been felt here. An Independent Office Building will be erected vithin the next few years to; 'house such offices as Mr. McCarl's. No more fitting use could be found for the vacated Pension Office than that uggested by Gen. Stephan. He would not confine this use to the |National Guard, however. Gen. Stephan suggests that the building could serve, in addition, as a headquarters for the Organized Reserves and the veterans’ organizations of all wars. There would still be sufficient floor space for a War 'Department museum, and the proximity of the structure to the proposed Municipal Center would make it a con- wenient gathering place for some of \the conventions which annually as- /@emble in Washington. ‘The Pension Office hes never been praised for its beauty. But it does re- main as an interesting relic. As long @s it stands any utilitarian advantages it possesses should be capitalized. Gen. Stephan’s suggestion is not only prac- tical, but it would carry out the symbolism of the building. If it is not @ccepted, it remains for the War De- partment and the District government to combine their forces in permanently lending & house-hunting expedition for the Guard which never has established the home it deserves. —— e The laboring man in England is Jormally industrious and a particularly hard worker at an election. ——— The Supercity. The day of the supercity is at hand. fThe world views with astonishment the evelopment of Greater New York. In B county whose Constitution was for- wmally ‘adopted only 140 years ago, the growth of enormous cities has been one ©of ¥he marvels of modern times. But, agonishing as this development has en, in the last half century partic- larly, the prospects of the immediate future along these lines are even more mstounding. The Regional Planning Committee, sponsored and financed by the Russell Sage Foundation at a cost ®f a million dollars, has just submitted its recommendations for the develop- #ment of that region comprising Greater Wew York, Northern New Jersey, Long ¥:land, all of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties and Southwestern Connecticut. It is estimated that by 1965, thirty-five years hence, this area gmay have a population of twenty mil- lion souls. It is for the accommoda- ion of such a population that the Regional Planning Committee has made “#ts recommendations. Not many years ago the United States “'was considered a country of vast open Bpaces rather than a country of large population, Huge areas of conge!u_d population were unknown. There ap- peared to be unlimited space for all. *The tremendous industrial development ©f the country, however, has resulted n the creation of great cities. Strategic points, because of their accessibility, the opportunities offered for transportation . by water or rail, have been selected as sites for huge manufacturing opera- tions. The necessary labor has flowed . to these points by the million. The concentration of great numbers ©f human beings in these strategic points, the great cities of the country, has brought about a new science, the science of civic government and im- ,provement. It was in recognition of operation of local authorities in com- munities where the dry sentiment and the sentiment for law enforcement are strong. As & matter of fact, according to the national prohibition unit, the real burden of enforcing prohibition in Wisconsin has been borne for some time by the Federal Government. There has been a State prohibition commis- sioner, who had a force consisting of thirteen deputies. Considering the size of Wisconsin, this appears more as a gesture toward prohibition enforcement by State authorities than any real in- terest in the cause. Gov. Kohler in a communication to the Legislature after he had signed the bill repealing the State prohibition en- forcement law said that the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution imposes no obligation upon the States, but leaves it optional with them as to whether or not they will exercise con- current power to enforce prohibition by appropriafe legislation, Gov. Kohler ! and President Hoover apparently take very different views of the duties of the States under the eighteenth amend- ment to the Constitution. The Presi- dent, in his inaugural address, declared it not only the duty of the people of the country to aid in enforcing the dry laws as long as the eighteenth amendment is part of the Constitution, but said pointedly that it was also the duty of the State governments to play their parts in upholding the prohibition laws. There are a number of States, however, which have flatly declined to accept the view advanced by the Presi- dent, among them New York, Maryland and now Wisconsin. Enforcement of the prohibition laws is difficult enough in States considered dry and which have State enforcement laws. Where States decline to assume any of the burden of enforcing national pro- hibition law the task becomes Hercu- lean. It is easy to see that if the majority of the States should repeal their State enforcement laws and flatly refuse to have anything to do with prohibition enforcement, prohibi- tion will become more of a byword than a real fact. Indeed, in some communi- ties that is already the case. ‘The drys built up their strength in this country over a long period of years, winning State by State until they became strong enough to dominate the National Legislature and to put through a resolution submitting the eighteenth amerdment to the forty-eight States for ratification. Doubtless the wets are playing a similar game, and, like sharpshooters, pick off the enemy here and there. Prohibition, notwithstanding the result of the national election of last Fall, is still a political issue in this country. If the drys are to main- tain their supremacy they must be always on their guard, for, they have | an active and resourceful enemy drill- ing away constantly to undermine the prohibition law. As a matter of historical interest it may be recalled that Wisconsin was one of the States that ratified the eighteenth amendment, which it is now seeking to scuttle without going through the form of repealing the amendment to the Constitution. Only three States refused to ratify the amendment. They were Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island. ———e o Chicago bootleggers are rendered especially reprehensible by the crimes of intoxication which show the liquor they handle is even worse than their morals. ———————————— Elevators for Golfers. Satisfaction of a high degree will doubtless be felt by those who still slurringly refer to golf as “an old man’s game” when they learn of the elevator THE SUNDAY STAR,” WASHINGTON, D.-C,” JUNE 2, 1929-PART 2. they are playing well simply coast around the course, and there is nothing less tiring than strutting after a well hit two-hundred-and-fifty-yarder down the middle, But—and it is a big but— when the shots are not coming off, when the impenetrable forests reach out to grab a hook or a slice, when hunting for lost balls occupies the en- tire afternoon, and when the putts rim the cup but will not drop, then the tired mind and the tired muscles seem to be only haif as bad as an aggra- vated case of inflammatory rheumatism. That is the time when any golfer will bless an elevator, bicycle, tricycle, heli- copter or tractor to help him on his weary way around the interminable eighteen holes. There is no fatigue like it, and there never will be. For this reason it is to be hoped that some of the local clubs will look favor- ably upon the elevator idea. The sev- enteenth hole at Columbia is terrible under the aforementioned conditions. 8o is the awful climb from the ninth green to the tenth tee at Washington. The eighteenth at Congressional can be a heartbreaker for the muscles of leg or arm after a bad round, and there are others too numerous to mention. In fact, it might be well to add a few improvements to the elevator plan. Well frosted glasses of lemonade might be served to each of the sufferers on the way up, while the caddies could be compelled to carry palm fans and wave them gently to cool the fevered brows. The scoffers may scoff, but only the dyed-in-the-wool golfer knows that even all of these luxuries and conven- iences would do little to hasten his re- turn to normalcy in mind and body. —————e—— Refunding Excess Taxes. ‘Tax Assessor Richards will be sup- ported to the limit in his perfection of the necessary machinery for the return of excess tax payments. The question submitted to him by one of the District auditor’s assistants, “Why should the District be burdened with the expense of correcting the mistakes of individuals?” is so foreign to the principle involved that it is hardly worth answering, other than to emphasize the fact that the Dis- trict government is an agency set up for the sole purpose of transacting the people’s business and its “burdens” are the people’s burdens. Mr. Richards is right in his contention that it is as much the duty of the municipal gov- ernment assiduously to refund excess tax payments as to collect tax payments rightfully due. As for the method to be used in re- funding tax payments, that is a matter best decided by those familiar with the mechanical steps involved. The stipu- lation that a notary executing & refund voucher must certify that the applicant is personally known to him may in some instances work a hardship upon the applicant. Every one is not blessed by personal acquaintance with a notary. But the deficiency in this respect should not be so hard to remedy, provided the applicant is equipped with reasonable means of identification. And the pro- cedure does establish a safeguard against fraudulent refunds which more than once have developed into scandal. ‘Woman is now so busily engaged in responsible business that it is difficult to understand the heroine of the old- fashioned novel, who was regarded as lacking in delicacy if she did not fre- quently look terrified and reach for the smelling salts. o While supposea to be settled for a time {n a home, the chances are that Col. Lindbergh puts in a large daily share of his time aviating, as usual. The aviation habit, once acquired, is even more irrestible than golf. ——— A political boss is not a personage to be encouraged and Bishop Cannon will no doubt content himself with being known 2s a man who speaks with great authority when there is voting to be done. e British thought is not seriously dis- turbed by the introduction of new polit- ical ideas. British government has al- ways believed in going as far as pos- sible in giving the public what it wants. ——————— ‘Thanks to an unusually long season of cool weather the annual record of canoe accidents is just beginning to be compiled and may prove shorter than usual. e SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Passing Song. Just a little bit o’ rhyme Sounding through the Summer time; Just a robin’s fleeting lay ‘When the blossoming is gay. Just a little bit o’ June— Soon we'll greet the harvest moon. So the Summer slips along— Just a little bit o’ song. Superior to the Thermom. “Do you object to remaining in Wash- ington, D. C., during warm weather?” “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I had such a close call in the recent elec- tion that I'm giad to be in Washington, D. C., under any circumstances.” Jud Tunkins says the average politi- cian knows about as much concernin’ farm relief as a city man knows when it comes to gardening. A Day’s Pleasure. ‘The motors here and there will fly— ‘With weary nerves for rest we sigh; The trip for which in hope you strive Is a Success if you survive, Genius Vindicated. recently installed at the Kirkland Golf Club of Cleveland to carry tired links- men up a steep hill between holes. “When I get to be sixty, I will be ready to take up golf” has for a long time been & frequently heard expression, and it is generally followed by “How in the world can you fellows expect to get any exercise walking after the little ball "'the need growing out of the industrial " development of the area near New York City that the Regional Planning Com- ' mittee was called into being seven years - ago and the best engineering talent put to work. The result of that work is now made public. The report of the committee contemplates a “city-state” whose area will be 5528 square miles, practically a single metropolis. It is an ‘mrea greater than the State of Con- . .pecticut and four times as great as the and hitting it, or trying to? Why not take up a man's game, tennis, water polo or lacrosse These expressions may vary in different localities, but: it seems to be the same the wide world over. That the elevator heretofore re- ferred to will develop new gibes of the same character is almost a foregone conclusion. As a matter of fact, the game of golf has a fatigue all its“own. It is both “mental and physical, Golfers, when “How is your boy Josh getting along?" “Fine!” answered Farmer Corntossel. “He is the editor of the college maga- zine and is now in a position to claim that he is funny when we thought he was only foolish.” “He who seeks riches,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “must not be surprised if he loses his own purse to those whose quest is similar.” Honeymoon. An aviator's honeymoon Is not so swiftly gone. He does not end the trip too soon, And Heavenward flies straight on. “One way to be in bad company,” said Uncle Eben, “is to git a grouch an’ pay ‘tention to yoh own thoughts,” .. EVERYDAY RELIGION - BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D., LL. D, Bishop of “He took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just man."—St. Matthew, zrvii.24. “Avoiding Responsibility.” “Crucified under Pontius Pilate"— down through the long ages the infamy of Pilate, the petty Roman governor, who condemned Jesus to crucifixion, has been expressed by the followers of the Nazarene. As the representative of the imperial Roman government Pilate, himself, constituted the last court_of resort. Cold and conscience- less, he was caught in the net of pub- lic opinion, and, notwithstanding his position as a judge, he evaded his re- sponsibility and delivered Jesus to the will of the mob. The record of the trial of Jesus before Pilate witnesses to the gross miscarriage of justice. The Roman governor made an exhaustive examination and found “no fault in Him.” His judgment was sustained by that of his wife, who admonished him to let this just man alone. Repeatedly he appealed to the mob saying that he could find nothing in the recorded acts of the Master that justified capital punishment. He would chastise Him anc let Him go. It was only when the people cried out, “If thou let this man g0, thou art not Caesar's friend,” that he hesitated in his course. The friend- ship and approval of Caesar, upon whose will he held office, was worth more to him than all else. He would sell his soul to hold the favor of the monarch. His supreme test came when he had to make choice between popular favor and the faultless victim of the people’s wrath. In his embarrassment and confusion he asked the weighty question, “What then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?” ~With his mind perfectly clear as to the in- nocency of the prisoner he, neverthe- less, condemned Him to be crucified. Pilate is a striking illustration of one who knows what is right and evades personal responsibility for doing it. On the momentous morning when Christ appeared before him he had presented to him an opportunity utterly incom- parable, but the desire for power and popular favor stilled his conscience and perverted his judgment. The infamy of his act gives him a place of obliquity and makes his name synonymous for all that is base and mean. The sin of evasion is a_conspicuous one and has its universal exemplars. The recognition of Jesus Christ as “the mightiest among the mighty” is undis- Washington ing, His unexampled response to a great cali—these, men generally acknowledge. They will even profess allegiance to Him where conditions are favoring; yes, they will readily and gladly accept from His hands the gifts they most covet. They would express their unqualified belief in the matchlessness of His teach- ings and accept with evident grati- tude His assurances of immortality. They will even pay Him reverence in the church that bears His name and profess faith in His sovereignty. It is only when convenience dictates the evasion of their responsibility, or where public opinion dictates that which is counter to His expressed commands, that they find themselves unwilling to recognize His authority or to acknowl- edge His supremacy. Like Pilate, they will silence conscience and be disobe- dient to their finer instincts because an issue is made between Caesar and Christ. Devotion to a great cause, fidel- ity to conviction weakens and yields to the pressure of self-interest and the clamor of public opinion. Well does Chesterton say, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been tried and found difficult.” It is where the profession of faith comes in conflict with changing customs that it has its greatest test. It is not difficult to assume all the obligations of our Christian profession where every con- dition is favorable. It is only where opposition and contention arise that it has its time of testing. Pilate disclosed his gross weakness when he washed his hands, declaring, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” He was self- indicted, he declared the innocence of the prisoner: he would wash his hands and possibly his soul in the vain hope that such an act might absolve him from the responsibility of his decision. Like Lady Macbeth, he had incarna- dined his soul, and no washing couid cleanse it of its guilt. This single act discloses his sense of shame and con- demns him as one of the most infamous characters who ever held a place of au- thority and power. Some time, somewhere, in life’s experi- ence, we are confronted with Pilate's great question, “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ>” The choice must be made between alle- giance to Caesar, with all that the namc implies, and allegiance to Christ. We will either make choice between the changing opinions of the hour, the vacillating habits and conceits of men, or we will stand with fixity of convic- tion for Him who freely offers Himsell to the world as the Savior of mankind. Presidents Whose Names Begin With an H. Unlucky in Past BY WILLIAM HARD. The latest Democratic root of hope is that the President’s name begins with an “H.” Democratic seers and seeresses in their evening gatherings and gossipings here point out that no previous President whose name began with an “H” has ever had a second term. They begin their researches and rem- iniscences by triumphantly pointing out the case of the elder Harrison. He was the first President with a name beginning with “H. He died within a month after his inauguration. ‘The next one after the elder Harri- son was Rutherford B. Hayes. He was not even renominated for a second erm. The next ensuing “H” in the White House was the younger Harrison. He was renominated, but was then de- teated for re-electiop by Cleveland. ‘The fourth “H” waé Harding. He died in office in the third Summer of his first administration. Democrats of the horoscopic school here indicated look forward to the Summer of 1931 with loyal anxiety for the health of the present President. They hope he will survive to the Fall of 1932. They are sure then, however, with his “H"” upon him, he will go down to defeat before a Democrat with a name beginning with a better letter. ‘The best letter seems to be ! There have been three Presidents with names beginning with “M"—Madison, I Monroe and McKinley—and they were all renominated and re-elected. There is, of course, therefore, a one- third chance that a Democrat with a name beginning with “M,” though elected in 1932 and re-elected in 1936, :vould be assassinated in his second erm. It is said, however, that Moody of Texas would be willing to take this chance, By this mode of arguing it would be fatal, however, for the Democrats in 1932 to nominate Cordell Hull of Ten- nessee. On_second thought, though Cordell Hull has an “H” only at the beginning of his surname and might be able to defeat Herbert Hoover, who seems to carry a double supply of “H's” in fact, Mr. Hoover might said to have tripled the supply by marrying Miss Henry. No President, it is clear, has ever carried with him such a load of alpha- betical disaster as Mr. Hoover. Yet he looks perfectly happy and serene and confident. He also looks less fatigued and harassed than when he was Secre- tary of Commerce. This is presumably because nobody yet has broken to him the news about the letter “H.” It is also presumably because he does not take his differences with the Senate as seriously as they are taken in the dis- courses of many commentators. ‘The Senate insulted George Washing- ton to his face and drove him in wrath and in profanity from the Senate cham- ber; and yet Washington was re-elected by a unanimous electoral vote, Mc- Kinley's very first experience with the Senate was that it overwhelmingly re- jected the Olney-Pauncefote arbitration treaty with Great Britain, which Mc- Kinley had specifically urged upon the favorable consideration of the Senate in his first presidential utterance. In fact, with John Hay as Secretary of State, McKinley was in continuous al- tercations with the Senate. He was not thereby deprived, however, of renomina- tion and re-election. Roosevelt fought with the Senate whenever the Senate chose, and often on his own initiative, and grew in pop- ularity as he did so. % History would seem to indicate that a so-called “defeat” for a President in the Senate is an event without any calcu- lable aftermath. It sometimes hurts the recipient of it, but sometimes helps him. Sometimes, in fact, the public seems to favor both sides of the controversy and re-elects both the President who had trouble in the Senate and the Sen- ators who troubled him. This happened recently in the case of President Cool- idge and of numerous senatorial ene- mies of his who were re-elected in States in which Coolidge was simulta- neously re-elected. The reason for such behavior on the part of the electorate was beautifully stated to this writer once by a farmer in‘dNoflhern New York. The farmer i “I am for Calvin, but I think he needs some of those Senators to check him up now and then.” ‘That farmer, speaking seriously, had a profound perception of the genius of the American governmental system. He, accordingly, did not condemn Senators for failing to obey the President’s be- hests. and, on the other hand, he did not blame the President for issuing be- hests or “recommendations” to the Con- gress in accordance with his presiden. tial duty. The farmer’s view the genuinely constitutional view. and it seems, in truth, to be followed in ulti- mate practice by a great multitude of voters. It was propounded with admirable effect to the voters of Minnesota by Scnator Shipstead last year. The A tor was importuned to declare himself either for Hoover or for Al Smith for President. He resolutely declined to do so on the announced ground that they were running for the headship of one of the co-ordinate branches of the Gevern- ment, while he was running for mem- bership in another co-ordinate branch, and that, thercfore, it would be actually improper for him to intervene in their quarrel. He further aptly pointed out that neither of them had taken any position regarding him. He stated that he would imitate and reciprocate their neutrality. He was re-elected. Putting all these facts together, it seems possible that perhaps the letter “H" has as much bearing on Mr. Hoo- ver's prospects as his disputes with hos- tile Senators can ever have. (Copyright, 1029.) Communications Bill Hearings Stir Interest BY HARDEN COLFAX. The possibilities of radio as a utility apparently limitless, the lack of exist- ing regulatory authority over interstate power lines and the relatively minor attention thus far paid regulation of telegraph and telephone systems serve to center extraordinary interest around hearings before the Senate committee on interstate commerce on a bill to establish a commission on communica- tions. After a series of hearings devoted to consideration chiefly of the radio situa- tion and the present radio act, the committee recessed last week with the expectation that Senator Couzens, its chairman, and the sponsor of the pend- ing bill to create an agency of the Fed- eral Government to regulate all forms of interstate communication, will open 2 new phase of the problem this week. The Couzens bill would amend and re-enact the present radio law, and place its enforcement in a commission on communications with authority also over interstate telephone and telegraph systems. An amendment will be pro- posed to vest In this same agency reg- ulatory authority over interstate trans- mission of power. Regulation Subject Grows. ‘With the increasing tendency toward physical interconnection of electric power lines, which indicates that the day is not far distant when, theoreti- cally, electricity generated on the At- lantic seaboard may turn the wheels of machinery on the Pacific Coast, an the equally rapid development of hold- ing corporations through which large groups of electric utilities and construc- tion and service corporations in their field have a common financial interest, the subject of regulation in this sphere of business and industry is assuming major proportions. ‘The hearings during the last few months held by the Federal Trade | Commissfon in regard to electric util- ities have been reported most generally from the spectacular aspect of the pub- licity methods employed by such cor- porations, but that phase of the com- mission’s investigations which was or- dered by the Senate, which has to do with interlocking financial interests among utility companies, should prove enlightening along other important |lines. This commission inquiry is ex- | pected to prove helpful to Congress in drafting construction legislation and it iis unlikely that the Couzens bill, now I before the Senate committee on inter- state commerce, will deal in detail with !this subject unless it is perfected after the Federal Trade Commission has gathered much more data than now are avallable on this particular phase of electric utility operations and -organi- zations. Radio “Merely Touched.” So far as concerns radio alone, it is realized that the art has been merely touched. Much interest attaches to the possibilities of transmitted electric pow- ler by radio. What the future holds for this possibility is in the fleld of specu- lation. Television, the transmission of action and scene by radio, is making progress—it would be in practical use now were not such a wide range of the ether required to broadcast ‘“movies” that to do this would narrow the chan- nels for broadcasting of sound to prac- tically nothing; but television is yet young and its requirements may be nar- rowed by a discovery any day now. Beam broadcasting, the projection of vibrations in only one direction, is the subject of experimentation. “Wired wireless” dispatch of radio messages over telephone or electric light wires is a success and the development of radio programs may be in this di- rection in the future, so far as any one can say now. ‘Wires Long to Be Used. As matters stand, the time is far dis- tant, if, indeed, it ever arrives, when wires may be supplanted entirely by radio. Yet, many members of Congress ;eeel nllumnm of col;\.munuluon Ihfl&l’d under one regulatory agency; the fact is that the Interstate Commerce 9 puted. His sinless life, His lofty teach- | Capital Sidelights BY WILL P, KENNEDY. ‘The youth ef today, just getting out of high schools and looking forward to the great experience of self-help for a college course, have historic precedents of those who have labored hard to blaze the trail for them. Congress is full of men who earned their own way in days past when it was more difficult than now to find opportunities. President Hoover worked with a Geological Survey outfit during his college days. House Leader Tilson earned his way through Yale. Zachariah Bridgen (Harvard, 1657) is the first student on record in the | United States to attempt to earn his way through college. He entered Harvard College at_the age of 14, and graduated at 18. Charges against him on the steward's books reveal that his college bills included “commones and sizinges” (board together with food and drink ordered from the buttery), “tuition,” “study-rente and breed” (room and bed), “fyer and candell” (fire and candles), “wood, etc.,” and a charge for “bringing | corn from Charlsto Credit was 1 given him for “silver,” “sugar,” “wheatt,” | “Malte,” “Indlan” (corn), “hooge” and | “a bush of parsnapes.” 'On December |31, 1654, there was “geuen him by | ringinge 'the bell and waytinge—£1 2s. 6d."—the first record of an American student's earning a portion of his ex- penses in college by ringing the college bell and by waiting on table in the com- mons. As a waiter he received 12s. 6d. per quarter for three successive quar- ters, after which he was paid “on quar- ter for a schollership 18s. 9d.” and { credited “by his wages 50 shillinges and a schollership £3 15s.” Money was scarce and hard to get in colonial times. Wealth was reckoned by the number of cattle a man owned, terial property or goods which could be taken in trade in lieu of silver. The to- tal cost of a college education in 1653 ranged from £30 2s. 1.d. to £61 1ls. 8%d., or $100 to $200 paid in silver and groceries. Doubtless it would have been an inspiring sight to have witnessed the payment of term bills in the bursar's office. Seventy years ago a college student who was reducing living expenses boarded himself and made corn, which cost about 25 cents a peck, his chief ar- ticle of diet, * K ok K Not only is Washington a great edu- cational center to which the youth flock from all of the States to get col- legiate education while they work, but even in the high schools many stu- dents are earning their way. The Fed- eral Bureau of Education, in a report broadcast to the country after an en- tensive study, calls attention that a survey made at Central High School here in 1926, to determine the number of students actually employed, disclosed that, out of 3,000 students enrolled, 230 boys and 15 girls reported that they were working during spare time, Of the first-year students who were em- ployed the average age was 15 years; the majority of these students carried newspapers, and earned on an average of 42 cents per hour for 13 hours’ work per week. Of the seniors who were employed, the average age was 18 years, They worked as salesmen, clerks at soda fountains, newspaper employes, musicians, office workers, auto me- chanics, filling station attendants, mov- ing picture operators, gymnasium in- structors, collectors, pages, painters, ete., and averaged 17!, hours of em- ployment per week at 59 cents per hour, thus earning about $10.50 per week. Some of these workers were obliged to work to remain in high school, while others were saving for a college edu- cation. A And now it is proposed to take all the laughs and applause out of the Congressional Record. Representative Underhill, Republican, of Massachusetts in serving notice on his colleagues that he is going to object regularly to “e: tension of remarks,” which means in- serting in the Record speeches not de- livered on the floor, in order to pre- serve the historic integrity of the rec- ord of proceedings, said he would like to have eliminated the words “(Ap plause)” and ‘(Laughter)” which are slipped in at the end of paragraphs to give a little color to the report. —— e Leyden Surgeon Tells Of Unusual Operation BY E. E. FREE, PH. D. A woman who might have been burned, 300 years ago, for being a witch has now been cured and saved from suspicion by Dr. J. H. Zaaijer, professor of surgery at the University of Leyden, in Holland, who made a hole in her stomach fo let ous some air. His patient had the misfortune, Prof. Zaaijer explained during a recent Lon- don lecture before the Hunterian Socie- ty, to bave her stomach almest upside down. This prevented air accidentally swallowed with food from escaping quietly from the stomach, as it normal ly does. The accumulated air caused great distress, even to preventing swal- lowing. Naturally the patient developed unusual nervous symptoms. “Imagine her position,” Prof. Zaaijer said, “in the Middle Ages. She might well have had a false friend who accused her of being bewitched. Very probably she would have been put to the floating test. She would have floated, proving that she was indeed a witch and ought to be burned because the devil in her made her float. But it would not have been the devil but the bubble of air in her stomach—now- adays revealed by the X-rays.” Unable to cure the upside-down position of her stomach, Prof. Zaaijer made an arti- ficial opening into that organ, into which he inserted a flexible tube con- nected with an arrangement of valves and bottles worn invisibly underneath the patient's clothing. This apparatus permitted escape from the stomach, | when necessary, of the accumulated air. = ot sl Not Much Consolation. From the Harrisburg Telegraph. “There is this virtue in the one- way street,” writes Eph Keljoy of New- ! port: “you know what way the car is | coming that is going to run you down.” | g Persistence Rewarded. From the Muncie Star. A Bourbon prince is about to marry a woman he has loved for 22 vears. What a sensation that would be in Hollywood ! s - Or Even Personal. Prom the Boston Evening Transcript. The country is told that it has un- limited prosperity. Now will somebody explain how to make prosperity uni- Commission, which has some degree of authority over telephone and telegraph systems with an interstate business, has had little time to devote to their prob- lems owing to the major attention re- quired by the railroads. This is a huge subject tackled by the Senate committee. The investment in electric power utilities is in the billions, and is growing, as the American people demand more and more electric energy to replace manpower. And the investment in radio is huge. ‘There are 616 broadcasting stations— reduced from 732 two years ago, but representing a higher value—and if past performances are accurate as an index the American people will spend $500,000,000 for radio receiving sets this year, and still leave three-fourths of the homes without them. In 1927, according to the Census Bureau, 229,500,000 telegraphic mes- sages were transmitted, by land and ocean, in this country, an increase of 20 per cent over the number in 1925. And in 1927 there were 18,522,000 tele- phones in use in the United States, an * increase of 29 per cent in two years, » aaca o (Copyrighl, 19300 . _xi real estate, family plate and other ma- | BY FREDERIC Walking _quietly along the shaded streets of Washington of an early eve- | ning, usually with a portfolio under his arm, a slight, wiry gentleman with a gray mustache returns home from his day's work. He was for years the man of mystery, the unknown quantity in national politics, the rich banker from Pittsburgh who talked in a whisper and seldom said yes. Looking considerably 1 less than his 74 years, dressing without ostentation, never seeking the limelight for which many public men struggle so vigorously, Andrew W. Mellon, Secre- tary of the Treasury, was for long an unfathomable puzzle to political Wash- ington, and something of a puzzle to the Nation. After eight years he is coming to be better understood. In the roer of pub- lic affairs, his quiet voice has been heard. It has come to be realized that, | amid the swirl of politics and state- craft, this man is neither timid, subtle, |crafty, nor mysterious. He speaks lit- tle because that is his nature. He speaks softly because he has that sort of voice. What he does say, he literally and positively means. What he starts to do, he consistently and persistently keeps doing. but he does it without shouting of voice or shaking of fist. In a city full of talk and sound, all quiet men acquire the reputation of mystery. Mr. Mellon is very quiet, and he is very effective. In the dash for fame, many men forget the customs of simple courtesy. Mr. Mellon is extreme- ly courteous, and he has become very famous. In the struggle for power some men neglect the fundamental rule |of plain hard work at the day's tasks. 1 Mr. Mellon is a very hard worker, and he wields great power. | President Harding appointed Seere- tary Mellon to the Treasury portfolio without knowing him personally. Sen- ator Philander C. Knox is said to have been chiefly responsible for the selec- tion. When Mr. Mellon reached Wash- ington the public, represented by the ‘Washington newspaper correspondents, soon discovered that this man would not talk for publication on any sub- ject which was not directly the public business of the Treasury Department. He would not talk on public affairs generally, and he would not talk on private affairs. With infinite courtesy he would meet the gentlemen of the press. The public business of his de- partment he would accurately, pains- takingly explain. But he had no desire for personal publicity. He enjoyed be- ing a public servant, but he did not care to be a public character. Members of Congress and public of- ficlals found Mr. Mellon difficult. He had never been in politics, He had never run for office, and never expected to. He saw no occasion for doing the public business in a different manner than he had done private business. Ap- peals to give jobs to political hench- men found him cold. He would not even do the public's business with the customary political gestures. He never pointed with pride, nor viewed with alarm. He never spoke about the dear Ppeople, nor did he denounce the powers of Wall Street. Attends Quietly to Public’'s Business. On various occasions when he has found those powers in disagreement with the public interest on financial policies, he has seen to it that the pub- lic interest prevailed, but he has never bothered to tell the public that he had beaten the powers of money into sub- mission. The man simply did not think in terms of votes or of popularity. Tak- ing hold of the big tasks of post-war Government finance, he had no. time to remodel himself into a public man. He remalned a quiet business man, doing the public business. * Mellon was born March 24, 1855, the son of Judg ‘Thomas Mellon, who had come to this country from County Ty- rone, Ireland, at the age of 5 and set- tled ‘with his ploneer parents in & log The Personality of Secretary Mellon J. HASKIN cabin near Pittsburgh. Judge Mellon was a self-made lawyer and then a Ju After the Civil War he opened |2 banking house, and through the era of industrial development around Pitts- burgh the firm of T. Mellon & Sons waxed extremely prosperous. The sons have stuck together. In banking and business, and in late yvears to some ex- tent in politics, the Mellons rank first in Pittsburgh. One hears always of them as a group—a family clan—the Mellons. Andrew W. Mellon is rated today the third richest man in America. which may or may not be exactly ac- curate. It is not Important. ~ For years he has handled business, big business. His father initiated him into business by getting him a job as a rail- road brakeman. He worked up to be a conductor. He also worked as a me- chanic in a wheel factory befcrs he went into his father’s business. Ti» Mellon sons were not spoiled chiiaren of wealth, although their father died a millionaire. Besides early experience at hard work, young Andrew Mellon had a good education at what is now the University of Pittsburgh. In an autoblography written in the 80s, Judge Mellon commented on the ability of his sons. “Andrew manages my banking business with eminent ability and succe: he wrote. There was more than 40 years of this busl- ness success back of the soft-spoken man who came to Washington in 1921 to be Secretary of the Treasury. Judge Mellon also made a pertinent comment in his own life story: “It is more diffi- cult to keep wealth, when you have it, . than to accumulate it.” Andrew Mel- lon is not given to talking about the problems of wealth as a personal mat- ter. It is doubtful whether he ever thinks much of it. Money has lonz been to him a medium for doing busi- ness, developing industry, expanding the prosperity of his business interests, of his city and State, of his country. On himself the Secretary of the Treasury probably spends very little. He is a man of regular habits, smokes sparingly of very small cigars, gets his exercise chiefly by walking. d likes to be at work. His chief extravagance is collecting works of art, and he has, doubtless, spent large sums at this. His collection of Gainshoroughs is cele- brated. He is a student of early Amer- ican painting, and knows all about Gil- bert Stuart and Rembrandt Peale. His collections of Hawthorne ware and Chi- nese porcelain are also extensive. As a collector his taste is limited to things which he has studied and understands. Policies Are Fiscal—Not Political. Almost the only thing Mr. Mellon has ever said about himself for publication was said late in the term of President Coolidge, when he stated that he liked to be Secretary of the Treasury. This implied a willingness to continue in that position under President Hoover. He did not explain just why he liked his job. In one journal he was quoted as saying that he “might as well be here as any- where,” but that was not exactly ac- curate. If he said the words they were a poor effort at self-e: ssion, and one imagines that Mr. Mellon has had very little experience talking about himself, and could not do it very well if he ed. It is probable that he likes his. job because it is a _big and important task and he has had to fight his_way through each step of it. He fights without shouting or declaiming. but he fights. He fought for the Mellon plan of tax reduction, and at the start he seemed to lose more than he gained, because so many politiclans thought they must “tax the rich” and relieve only the poor from income rates. Mel- lon kept right on fighting, and year by year had his way with Congress, a little at a time. He fought for his plan of collecting the war debts from our allles, and step by step he has won, with two nations yet to make settlements. Per- haps he wants to stay in the Treasury until that job is finished. This and That By Charles E. Tracewell. One by one the kittens are drifting away from the old soap box home. The pure maltese, absurdly named by us Porthos, since the name did not fit the cat nor the cat the name, was the first to go. He won for himself a fine home in Chevy Chase, Md., and went there just before Memorial day in a cardboard box, bored with breathing holes. It was a nice box; the only trouble lWlth it was that the holes were too arge. Almost the entire kitten could project through. ‘The spectacle of a solemn gentleman carrying that animated box on a crowded street car must have been worth traveling to see. No doubt Porthos made life interest- ing for other passengers as he poked his paws through the holes and then st‘uck his benign countenance there- after. ‘The maltese is just at that stage, be- ing 9 weeks old, when he feels it in- cumbent upon himself to slap at every- thing in sight. His special prey is trouser cuffs, hands, feet, cords, spools, balls, etc. ‘With these he will play all day long.in the typical kitten manner. * ok ok ok ‘The mother cat, Mrs. Blackie, Old Blackie, Big Blackie, or what you will, did not seem to miss her kitten. Nor could it be said, we discovered through _telephonic inquiry, that the little maltese missed its mother. As for the brothers and sisters, they did not know that one of their num- ber was missing. How could they? Cats cannot count; they are pure animal automatons, hearing, seeing, feeling: but one is inclined to wonder if somehow they do not understand absence. Mrs. Blackie (who is still nursing her brood) undoubtedly knows that she has a family, and will meow if barred {from its members. * ok ok ok When the ceremony of putting the maltese into its box was in progress | the other four kittens pald not the slightest bit of attention. Alexandre Dumas, with an indescrib- ably impudent look upon his white and black face, proceeded to stage a wres- tling bout with Little Nipper, while Miss D'Artagnan and Little Blackie indulg- ed in a four-legged race along the back of the davenport. Perhaps they thought it was some new kind of game. When Porthos §truck his big paw through one of the holes in his traveling box, the others left their sports and came to the box, there box- ing and slapping with their incarcerated mate. When they left, however, beneath the protecting arm, none of the four seemed to miss him, and none has to date. * ok k x Little Blackie and Miss D'Artagnan are scheduled to take similar trips soon to_another home. ‘That will leave A. Dumas and Little Nipper, brother and sister, too. These be&( ur particular favorites, not made up our mind to part e kreat, pair th ki great pair they make. play together hour after hour, making big leaps into the air, or one jumping off the sofa to land squarely on the back of the other. ‘Wrestling is a favorite diversion. The two spend hours at it, one getting the other down, the other kicking at its| face with hind paws. How they escape from getting thei: eyes put out is a mystery, but so far ! the seeming impossible has happened. In passing. it may be stated that Nip- per and Dumas have unususlly t eyes, particularly the latter, whose m-l mloam Lke stass, ‘we have with | office, !terra firma destination of the new- Fifty Years Ago In The Star An editorial appearing in the Jack- | son (Minn.) Republic on the subject of ! e a blazing meteor which | A Falling fell 50 vears ago on_the border line between Min- Meteor. nesota and Towa is reprint- ed in The Star of May 31, Pl ‘Saturday atte things “Last Saturday afternoon in the air were lively and excit- ing. Thunder, lightning, hail and rain are common and necessary in the well regulated and healthy community; whirlwinds, waterspouts and even di- minutive cyclones are quite common and comparatively innocent aerial di- versions, but when it comes to shooting 500-pound red-hot balls of iron or like metallic kind prominently through the alr, then it partakes of the nature of gnndeur and sublimity, and, if one npgem to be in range, it approaches mighty near what might be termed dan- ger. Such was actually the missile that went ricocheting through space that afternoon, and whose track was plain- 1y visible throughout this section of the country, and the explosion of which g;nde windows rattle and people trem- e. “A few of the unsuspecting under- took to palm the long, red, smoky. skyward substance off as a peculiar cloud and the explosion as peculiar thunder, but most conceded that it was a meteor. On Monday all doubt in this direction ceased when Mr. Ridley of Estherville brought to the Republic office a piece of the meteor itself, and which he saw taken from the identical spot_where it fell. It had opened the earth for a space of 10 feet across just over the line in the town of et, Iowa. One piece weighing two and one- half pounds had been dug out when he left. It threw sods about for 15 rods, and other evidences went to show that a little perseverance would exhume the strange aerial visitor that had so suddenly sought sepulture in the beau- tiful valley of the Des Moines. On Wednesday Mr. S. B. Weir came to our and who first discovered the comer, and informed us that after dig- | ging 15 feet they reached the 500-pound ! wonder, which had been driven that | distance into the ground, and 10 feet of which was in solid blue clay. The party succeeded in ralsing it by means of levers and chains, and it weighed 431 pounds. another piece 32 pounds nd, with other pieces that were found, ade the whole meteor safely 500 Its exterior is rather ragged, and its exact composition is a matter of speculation. In size it is 2 feet in length and 14 by 31 inches, hence the sublimity in contemplating the body, its course, its momentum, as well as its destination. Its starting point is a matter not easily figured, its exact orbit not positively known, but its destina- tion is not a matter of speculation, for within 12 rods of the schoolhouse near John Barber’s, about a mile east of the residence of our good friend Charles Jarvis, that burning, bursting, cannon- resounding, lightning-speed missile came in contact with the earth. “Mr. W. R. Pingrey was in our office yesterday and informed us that an- other piece that weighed about 150 pounds was afterward found on A. A. Pingrey's farm, about 2 miles from the other and which was buried 5 feet in solid clay. “The track of this meteor was ob- served for miles around and the ex- plosion heard in many places.” .- Biggest Anti-Climax. From the Detroft News. Al Capone landing in a Philadelphia jail is considered the biggest anti- climax of the kind since Jesse James was shot in a parlor while straighten- 0§ & crayon enlargement,