Evening Star Newspaper, July 15, 1929, Page 8

8 \‘THE EVENING STAR 1 With Sunday Morning Editien. WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY..........July 15, 1929 *¥ | ! THEODORE W. NOYES. ...Editor [ ‘The Evening Star Newspaper Company I | Even! star. | TBS Eveninr o us (when 4 Sundays) o undass Rate by Carrier Within the City. 45¢ per month 60c per month r (when 65¢ per month e Sunday 8 Collection made Orders may be sent NAtional Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginl: Daily and Sunda: Daily only - Sunday only ach month. in by mall or \elephone Daily only . wunday only Member of the Associated Press. The Assoctated Press is exclusively er.titled 1o the use for republication of all 1ews dis- atches eredited to It or not ot cred. ted in this paper and also the published herein. All rights of special dispatches herein a: Our Growing Revenues. Reports to the Commissioners for the fiscal year 1929, just ended, again show an increase in District revenue that brings in the unprecedented total of $33,484.825 exceeding by nearly a million dollars the revenues of the Dis- trict for the preceding year. Increas- ing revenues in & growing community are natural and necessary. In this case they show how the local taxpayers | continue to bear the greater burdens that accompany expansion of the Capital. Analysis of revenues to show the fources of increase to the total have not been made for 1920, but Mr.| Towers believes that higher real es- tate assessments and the record in- come from the gasoline tax will ac- count for most of 1t. For gasoline tax | Yeceipts have also shown a jump and | reaced a new total of $1336371, a gain of $183.030 over the vear preced: ing. The revenues from all sources this year represent a gain of 50 per cent since 1925, when the total was $22.- | 206.856. During this five-year period real estate assessments have jumped from $810.625.572 to $1.139,303,008. or 38 per cent, and while the District was paving taxes in 1925 at a rate of $1.40, it was paying at the rate of $1.70 Jast year and will continue to pay that rate during the current fiscal year. Tax receipts from real estate have increased drom $11.025 (without penalties), 1 1925, to $19.382.483 (without pen- Palties), in 1929, a gain of 75 per cent. The gasoline tax, proposed by the Com- missioners as a substitute for the per-| zonal tax on automobiles, but passed | by Congress as an additional tax in- | stead, has increased from $778.650 in 1925 to $1,336.371 in 1929, or a gain of 71 per cent. Assessments against prop- lerty owners for street improvements, 'such assessments being used in con- | junction with gasoline tax revenues in |street improvements, have increased |from $22.468 in 1925 to $339.913 in the !last fiscal year, a gain of more than 1,400 per cent. i During the same five-year period the | Federal contribution to the District | Ihas remained practically stationary. |Using the House committee's own fig- ures, arrived at by adding to the lump Fum of $9.000.000 certain misoellaneous revenues credited to the United States and released to the District of Colum- bia, the Federal contribution in 1925 |was $9.625,415; in 1926, $0.720.744; in | 11927, $9,654,272: in 1928, $9,790,524, and | 11n 1929, $10,082,250. H The District is raising an increasing /amount from taxation each year. That i% to be expected. The inequity lies in the failure by tje House to abide by substantive law that remains unrepealed | and to increase its contribution pro- | portionately as the District's tax-raised revenue is increased. Whether or not lone computes this proportionate con- {tribution on the basis of total revenue Iraised in the District to maintain the | {municipal government, or on the basis lof certain revenues that are proclaimed |as “divisible,” the Government's con- 'tributions since 1925 fail to show any [material increase and the proportion {has fallen far below the 40 per cent guaranteed. e A gas company is & power in merger (transactions, in spite of the assump- 'tion that electricity has given gas its farewell for purposes of both the lamp 'mnd the cook stove. o An aviator must be brave. Physical leourage does not safeguard even so /eminent an air expert' as Lindbergh 'grom shying at the camera man. ————————— Intensified weather reports confirm the impression that the famous “kiosk” lon Pennsylvania avenue is no “Poly- 'nna.” . | Enters the Federal Farm Board. | The Federal Farm Board (one man short of its quota) meets for the first Itime today at the White House. It was legislatively authorized by Congress to carry out President Hoover's pledge to place agriculture “on a basis of eco- Imomic equality with other industries.’ ‘The board will try to find a workable way to make the farmer prosperous and keep him so without disturbing the economic balance of other indus- |tries and the general social and busi- mness life of the country. i It will try to show the farmer how to help himself with the aid of $500,- 000,000 Federal appropriation.” -~ * * The first objective is to set up ma- 'chinery to cope with the oft-quoted “wheat surplus.” It is significant that the “wheat man” of the board has not yet been named. The chairman, Alex- ander H. Legge, resigned the presidency of the International Harvester Co., and represents several industries, on the board. Other members represent to- bacco, cotton, livestock, fruit growing, dairying and miscellaneous agricultural ing rather than in the everyday prob- lems of the so-called “dirt farmer.” The answer for thé administration is that every man on the board, with the single exception of the chairman, has himself been a “dirt Yarmer.” If one can judge from the individual expressiops of the members meeting to- “help the farmer to help himself.” The entire Nation is interestedly looking for such a solution of one of the Nation’s greatest problems, affect- ing the greatest basic industry. Captious criticisms must be forgotten, and the entire “opulace should give moral support to the efforts of this board—as a means toward making the whole country prosperous and happy. R Two More Failures. One more aviator whose courage ex- ceeded his discretion has paid the penalty of attemptipg the East-West Atlantic flight in a land plane. His companion, equally brave, lies at the point of death in a hospital on the Azores. Maj. Ludwik Idzikowski and Maj. Casimir Kubala, Polish flyers, started out Saturday morning from Le Bourget on the Atlantic trail that has already cost eight valuable lives, has ended in fajlure six times without loss of life and has been accomplished only once when a German plane staggered down in the wastes of Labrador on a projected New York trip. Some eighteen hours later Maj. Idzikowski laid dead beside his exploded plane and Maj. Kubala was being rushed to the nearest hospital in an effort to save his life. Held back by head winds and a faulty motor, the two Poles had vainly sought haven on the islands, but instead of the plaudits of the crowd it was death that welcomed them. Another plane started from Paris at about the same time. It contained Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Jacques Bellonte. Tt was to be a friendly race between French and Polish planes, To- | day Czn'. Caste and his companion are back in France. They flew as far west as the gallant Polish aviators, but in- stead of trying to land turned around and headed back for the European con- tinent. Head winds of tremendous velocity had cut their speed down from | one hundred and twenty-five miles an hour to fifty, and it was evident to the Frenchmen that even though they were almost as near the American coast as they were their native land. their gaso- line supply would not hold out. It has been proven time and again that unless a miracle in weather con- ditions occurs the cast-to-west flight cannot be made in present-day plane:. The prevailing winds are for thi> most part against those 'mpting to fly from Europe to the United States end each expedition has risked the ex- treme penalty to Jeara a lesson that should have been well learned before. The French authorities have forbidden transatlantic flights of Fyench aviators from Le Bourget. Coste$ and Bellonte, in order to use the fleld announced a destination other tnin the United States, and it was only after they had be- gun their flight that those at the field realized that the Atlantic was again to be attempted by Frenchmen. Although the east-t>-west flight has never been made, unless the German plane Bremen can be said to have made it when it flew to Labrador, it should not be attempted again until an ample margin of safety can be provided for in gasoline capacity. Head winds are the rule rather than the exception and the speed of a plane can be cut down al-| most to nothing when they are en- countered in sufficient force. No present day plane can carry enough fuel to fight successfully this ob- stacle to the east-to-west trip. Many valuable lives have already been lost in attempting to disprove this in- disputable fact. The world of avia- tion should ignore the challenge of this flight until it can be made with some prospect of success. e St. Swithin's Day. Page Dr. Charles F. Marvin. Watch the weather vane. The most overworked topic of con- versation when all else fails is thrown open to & guessing contest. For this is St. Swithin's day—with day, their single-minded purpose it to | THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., MONDAY, JULY 15 1929. vanced as to the underlying causes of this pathological weariness, this dis- tinctive malady of civilization. Various minor factors were postulated—the de- layed reaction from the nervous excite- ment of the World War, the after-ef- fects of the great influenza epidemics which swept the country during the war years and have recurred spas- modically ever since, the eating of re- fined and greasy foods, and the greater concentration demanded by industry. But heading the list was a condition not generally suspected, the saturation of the atmosphere of citles at street levels with carbon monoxide gas from the exhausts of automobiles. It is well known that when this gas is inhaled at high concentrations the result is fatal. There are frequently recurring cases of deaths in closed garages. The victim begins to grow drowsy and, before he suspects his plight, lapses into unconsciousness from which there seldom is any awakening. Now in the atmosphere above busy city streets there undoubtedly are vary- ing amounts of carbon monoxide which the population is breathing all the time. A progressive sapping of energy, insid- ious and long continued, is well with- in the limits of possibility. There 5 not enough of the gas to kill anybody or to produce any easily observable physical effects, but over a long period it is not unreasonable to suppose that it is* a notable contributing factor to the “malady of civilization.” e Faulty Terraces. Hot weather shows up lawns for what they are. Grass plots which remain green and succulent looking now indi- cate a proper making and care, where- as thin and lifeless grass shows a lack of both. In no situation does grass show for | better or worse than on terraces, What- ever one may think of the terrace, as a landscape proposition, there are thou- | sands of them in and around Washing- ton. 3 It is true, too, that there are too many ugly-looking terraces to be seen | for the total effect of beauty which the Natfonal Capital claims. An individual home owner may permit his terrace to | become a mere ‘mud bank ° without danger to his immortal soul, but it is | questionable whether his city escapes. | The play of small children often is responsible for such conditions, with mud flowing down over sidewalks, not only rendering & community untidy, | giving it a run-down appearance, but to that extent hurting the beauty of the entire city. It is plain to any one who thinks of | the matter that the ill-kept terrace, being on the more or less vertical plane, | 1s more in the eye of passersby than the horizontal lawn. Mud in & lawn, while reprchensible, is much less so ! than) a terrace so disfigured. All persons harboring mud banks, | take to heart the idea contained in the phrase “Washington the Beautiful.” The beauty of Washington is not solely a governmental matter, but comes close | to the life of every citizen. To make the slogan true, every householder must do his part. —_— e Washington, D. C., is accredited with a population of over half a million. And this does not count hundreds of thousands of visitors. Those intetested in bullding hotels and apartment houses fully realize that we are “getting a big town now.” —e——— Like the race track tout, the stock market tipster causes his public to won- der why his inside information has not enabled him to amass a fortune sufficient for a retirement from the financial hurly-burly. ———————— No sum as yet is mentioned in big { finance over a few billions of dollars. A time may come when mergers will require cash registers and tabulating machines to take care of even larger figures, ———————— The experts in agriculture do not venture to hope that farms will ever recefve as patient and exact atten- tion as that bestowed on golf courses. six weeks of weather hanging in the balance. According to tradition that clings like the proverbial vine a crisis in weather impends. The legend concerning St. Swithin, ninth century English ecclesiastic, pre- dicts that if it rains on July 15 it will rain every day. or part of each day, for forty days. * Weather Bureau statistics do not con- firm this prophecy. So take your choice. But what connection has St. Swithin and his ecclesiastical record to do with forty days of rain? He was first buried near his church in Winchester, Eng- 1and, where he slept regardless of rain or sunshine for a century. Then his body was exhumed and reinterred within the church: but— The legend has it that this rehurial ceremony was to have occurred on July 15, but had to be postponed on ac- count of heavy rain, which continued for forty days. Today is the date—decide- the issuz for yourself. ———— e Maturity is more or less inclined to envy and. imitate youth. It is depress- ing to see the examples some of the young' péoplé “are setting for their parents. r—o—— Weariness. * Neutasthenia probably is the most truly universal malady to which flesh is heir, with the possible exception of the common cold. 1t is that tired, listless, “washed-out” feeling which comes, sooner or later, to 90 per cent of human beings. Usual- ly it disappears in a few days. Quite often, however, it becomes chronic and the victim degenerates into one of that pathetic army which haunts the wait- ing rooms of physicians with no de- tectable organic ailments. ‘The number of neurasthenics is in- creasing. They don't know what is the matter with them, nor does anybody )interests of the Northeast. Secretary Hyde of the Department of Agriculture is the Balance wheel. ¥ else. But they are convinced, doubt- less with good reason, that something D ) Theater owners close their play- houses and place them on the market as new building* sites. They are not theater managefs, but realtors. —_— e ‘The Japanese beetle is candidly recognized as a thing of beauty; but it is no joy forever. ] Nature is still triumphant. No girl looks as weirdly lank in person as in the fashion pictures. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Fits That Are New to Print. Our gratitude was far from small As we Yeceived the hint; A journal said it offered all ‘The news that’s fit to print. And yet times go from bad to worse. ‘What once was deemed “unfit” The types in headlines now rehearse— It seems to make a hit! Tricky. “Do you fully understand the tariff?” “You can't fully understand the tariff,” sald Senator Sorghum. “It's like a trick mule. Even when you think you have it going at a safe, economic pace, it's lable to throw you politically.” Jud Tunkins says it's a big mistake in life to think so much about your enepiies that you forget your friends. Superabundant Relaxation. A little nonsense now and then Is relished by the best of men. My radio, with nerve sublime, Hands out the nonsense all the time! “Wild Party.” “Did you ever attend a ‘wild party'?” “One,” answered Miss Cayenne. “It wasn't really wild. It was only foolish.” “The wisdom of our ancestors,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is, alas, more esteemed as good literature than as good advice.” Surcease. The board as it organizes today is|is wrong. Their working efficiency and| A5 ferce July goes on its way, free of any Democrats, although several their happiness are reduced. It is quite At least it's a relief to say were urged by Democratic leaders who | possible that their lives are shortened. That for a long and restful year left their party during the campaign and supported the Hoover ticket. The only criticism heard of the board S that it has been overloaded ‘#ith \@aen of extensive schooling in market- and some interesting -theoriés were ad- shooting crap.” The problem of neurasthenia came up for discussion at the annual conven- tion of the American Medical Asso- ciation in Portland, Oreg., last week \ No further fireworks will appear! “De lazy man,” said Uncle Eben, “is lisble to turn up jerrible trious k instead of neat terraces, well covered | i with grass and kept trimmed, may well | is not a bad season for roses, declar. ing that their own bushes have done anything but satisfactorily. ‘We are not prepared to say just why it has been a poor rose season, but that it has been and is so there can be_little doubt. ‘The first blooming, in the latter part of May and in June, was very 3 an excellent start having been given by the early Spring. Even the lack of rain helped that first flush of roses, preventing the blossoms from being “bullnosed.” Subsequent weeks, however, have seen the end ‘of rose expectations, in so far as many amateurs are con- cerned. Alternate droughts and ralny spells, with hot weather in the as- cendency, have not done the bushes any good. Now is the time, therefore, to gel one's disappointments well in hand, in order that the queen of flowers may not suffer in the mind, where it is likely to be a worse “flop” than on the bushes. Every flower. in an average home garden has its inning in somebody’s mind. Did you it grew first in the earth? Nothing of the kind! Be- fore a seed is planted, or a seedling purchased, it has grown first in a hu- man mind. ‘All sorts of things lead to this happy mental creation. It may have been no more than the sight of a rose in a florist’s window, or a jar of gladiolus spikes on a pushcart at the corner. flowers at the home of a friend, a chance word overheard in conversation —anything may lead to the planting of a flower or bush in the mind. * K K K Once something is planted in the mind it may finally flower in the gar- den, but not until it goes through that first intellectual growth has it any chance of appearing in the light of day. All buildings, all books, all songs, all great creations in art, education and science, first spring into being in the mind, before they come into actual ex- istence and are seen by the world at large. In a peculiar sense. however. this is frue of flowers in the home garden, since their subsequent growth is carried on by natural forces of the same sort that tarry forward ideas in the brain. Perhaps the rose is the most univer- sally loved flower because it is the one most talked of, most appreciated and therefore the orie most thought of. Few people are what might be terined im- mune to roses. Everybody likes them. The first thing the average family thinks of planting at the new home is a rosebush. As we have said here be- { should think of. but the fact that they ;in]'hh(\’k of it first shows how much it s Toved. blossoms—is not this & happy thing? Yes, if it were as easy and pleasant as that there would be a thousand times world loves them enough. easy to grow, even in good seasons, and in such a one as the present they are extremely difficult. As vet the Japanese beetle is not responsibie. That may be another affiiction added to the woes of the amateur rose grower, but ;‘vzr the present we will not, worry about im. The list of rose pests and diseases is long ‘enough as it is without expecting If the Senate is in anything like the mood it was on January 16, 1928—and most authorities think it is—a tariff bill carrying skyscraper rates on industrial i products will be sunk without trace. On the date mentioned the Upper House passed by 54 to 34 the McMaster reso- lution introduced by the junior Senator from South Dakota, reading as follow: Resolved, that many of the rates in ex- isting tariff schedules are excessive, and | that the Senate favors an immediate revision downward of such schedules, establishing a closer parity hetween | agriculture and industry, believing it | will resuilt to the general benefit of all.” | Senator McMaster's proposal was ca: ried by the same kind of a Democratic- Republican Progressive combination that marched together during the farm debenture fight. There is every sign that it will be found coalescing again if the Senate finance committee brings in a bill bearing any kind of resemblance to that Mount Everest of tariff meas- ures known as the Hawley bill. No farm reliever who ever lived could have imagined the wheat situation which confronts the new Federal Farm Board, as it comes formally into exist- ence today. Mother Nature has almost solved the surplus problem which the recent act of Congress was supposed to settle. Within the past month grain- growers have cleaned up an estimated total of $340,000,000 in enhanced crop value. Wheat prices have sky-rocketed at s0 dizzy a pace that $2 wheat is now a probability of the near future. Along with wheat, corn, oats and rye have risen substantially. In addition to bonanza grlces, the certain outlook now is that there will be no surplus crops in the United States this year. In 1928 the total of all varieties of Amer- jcan wheat produced was 903,000,000 bushels. The crop this year may ag- gregate 50,000,000 bushels less, thus off- setting to a considerable extent a larger than usual domestic turnover. The -over from last year may be eliminated by a world crop some 200,- 000,000 bushels short of 1928's heavy looking to Yankee farmers this year for their grain supplies is evidenced by the fact that recent rises on the Chicago Board of Trade were largely due to buying for export. With no exportable surplus, Chairman Legge and his fel- low custodians of the $500,000,000 re- well soliloquize: ‘Whatever State Department authori- ties may think about the importance of an oath to “defend” the Constitu- tion, in connection with obtaining a passport, Chief Justice Taft wants no doubt, about it where the President of the United States is concerned. Every- body on the east front of the Capitol on March 4 last, or who was listening in on Herbert Hoover's inauguration, will remember the emphasis the Chief Justice placed on the closing phrase of thnb?]ll:;l— ‘and will wmtltle.fib‘:( r al preserve, -pro - {::d the Constitution of the United States.” When he reached the word “defend,” Mr. Taft almost raised his voice to the p}ul‘: gt s shout. The case of the Chinese opium smug- cisco revives interest in & case which attracted wide attention in the United States Navy not so many years ago. A beautiful young Western '-v:_:amt.ou &t ’?evello later, had mani get herself en arried to a naval officer who, o resently to_be tran: while in the Philippines, while llg l‘| sband service with the ‘other | mutilation or A picture in a catalogue, a vase of | fore, this should be the last thing they | as many roses in existence, because the | Good roses, however, are none too | production, That overseas markets are | To plant roses and reap a harvest of | bes THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL, Correspondents have inquired if this|more. And when to this list is added | the unaccountable something which msakes one season “good” and another “bad,” the home rose grower surely has his hands full. " A few years ago there was another bad season for them. The same reports of unthrifty growth and poor blcmmsl came from all over the country. Too much rain was the most generally ac- cepted reason. ‘The truth seems to be that the rose a tricky plant to begin with, and a dif- ficult one to handle all along. If it were not for the surpassing flowers, which have a place in legend equal to that in the heart of almost every one, we are convinced that few people ex- cept florists would bother with them. This may seem treason to the dyed- in-the-wool rosarian, but we believe it. Why should the average back-yard gar- dener worry over roses when there are any number of other plants almost as beautiful, which are a hundred times as easy (o grow and a thousand times as_“sure fire"? Even the habit of some roses bloom- ing monthly is partly fraud, as the blossoms are generally poor after the first blooming, easily the sport of the | weather. As a matter of fact, theee| popular bushes bloom about three times | from late May to October—not every month at all. The “monthly” part mostly hopes. Often the only worth- while blooming is the first and the last. This, of course, is one better than most flowers do. ‘The defects of the rose are simpiy part of the rose. They introduce an | element of sport into horticulture. The difficulties of their culture appeal to many natures. The thing becomes a sort of wager, the outcome to depend upon which has the most persistence, an inimical something in nature, or the determination of the gardener to grow good roses. ‘The Romans believed in good and bad elements in nature. They called such “numen,” and perhaps credited the evil spirit with the most power. Thus wor- =hip became propitiation, to a certain degree. * ok % % Tn rose culture many a gardener be- comes & kind of heathen, willing to believe, at least in the secrecy of his own mind, that there are certain un- known elements in Nature which almost seem to delight in tearing down. Not every rose grower is pure sclen- | tist. Often a gardener is of a romantic disposition, inclined to feel that certain unknown elements may still exist, de- spite all that science can do. He feels that insecticides, fungicides, chemical “feedings” and all may not be enough. Even fickle weather may not account for poor rosebush growth. The present season is an instance. Despite the rapid changes in weather, there would scem to be no good reason why growth should be as poor as it has | en. The point is that few rosebushes | have done as well as they ought. We | have made particular notice of them throughout Washington and found that there is a general unthrifty look to legves and such flowers as show. Many bushes seem half starved, or in need of moisture, yet we are reasonably sure that it is neither of these. Nor | is it “black spot” or the less inimical | at is it, then? Not being a scien- :}sl at all, we ldo got know, and wonder any one else does. The only sure lrhxnz is that this is a bad uui’m for | oses. BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE Col. "Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of State, and Brig. Gen. Frank R. McCoy, U. A., are convinced their stars are set in the same course. When Stimson was Secretary of War in the Taft cabi- net 17 years ago McCoy was his chief aide. Two years ago, as soon as Col. Stimson had pacified Nicaragua, Gen. McCoy was selected to become director- in-chief of the presidential election, the result of which has given the banana republic about the first siege of politi. cal tranquillity it's known in a genera on. Now Stimson and McCoy find eral—in charge of the Bolivian-Para- guayan boundary arbitration—occupies offices which are part of Secretary Stimson’s headquarters. & * ko % With a view to showing that !wné the father of the Democratic party himself—none other than the immortal tertain a Negro, a New Yorker writes to a newspaper in his home town that Julius Melbourn, a colored man, gnce dined with President Jefferson at'the ‘White House. The correspondent cites a book by a Gotham historian, Jabez D. Hammond, “The Life and Opinions of Julius Melbourn,” as authority for the statement. Inquiry at Howard Men and Affairs BY WILLIAM HARD. ‘The two members of the new Federal Farm Board, Mr. Alexander Legge and Mr. Carl Williams, who were to e gone out with President Hoover at the fishing camp on the Rapidan River in Virginia_on Sunday but did not, would perhaps have gotten a good introduction into the toils of public office. The President has a passion for piling up boulders in streams to make cdams, the dams produce pools. The pools look pretty and also_provide the comforts of home for fishers. Some people think that the President’s thought in this matter is a far-sighted one and is directed toward the fishes and to- ward ultimately catching them with hooks. Other people think that his purpose is primarily the engineering purpose of simply shifting the boulders around so that instead of being s tered around and looking useless they will be brought together and will jointly hold the water back and will look as if they were earning their living. It is known that the President likes everything to look as if it was earning its Jiving and it is known that he has always maintained that streams can usually be improved in their appearance by the arts of the engineer. It is known further that he has already begun to apply this process to the Rapidan River, which flows with a loud humming song through his fishing camp in the Virginian Blue Ridge. When Mr. Legge and Mr. Williams do go out with Mr. Hoover and have waded into the Rapidan River in high boots, and have pried boulders out of the primeval resting spots with crow- bars and have heaped them up into new collective structures with ropes and with hands, they will be good guests of the President’s and will realize that in joining his administration they have gone to work. The Rapidan River has a lot of pools in it anyway. It is a marvelous stream for its willingness to be as broad as it is and as deep as it is and to have as much volume as it has at so great an altitude above sea level. At 2,500 feet of altitude in the Blue Ridge it is often possible for streams to be mere trickles. The Rapidan, however, even on its way through the high ground of the President’s mountainous week end refuge, iz already worthy to be called at least a stream. Its supreme merit, nevertheless, is in its misplaced boylders. ntimate friends of the President say that even when he was Secretary of Commerce and had no official refuge and: official stream in the Blue Ridge or anywhere else, he would go out motoring through the countryside about ‘Washington and if he saw a neglected stream with nobody guarding it from improvement ‘he would alight and im- mediately make & boulder dam in it. His approval of the Boulder Dam in the Colorado River, according to these friends, was absolutely automatic. The present happiness of the Presi- ! dent may therefore be surmised when it is reflected that in the Rapidan River. which flows through the whole length of his country White House retreat, he has mile after mile of boulders to move about into better positions. The directing of the moving he can himself professionally supply and he can also himself supply—since he is extremely sturdy—a part of the labor. The rest of the labor he can find in the easiest thing for any President to acquire. That is guests. Mr. Legge and Mr. Williams may imagine that they would like to spend their time walking the trail that leads up enticingly to the top of Fork Moun- tain, which is 4,000 feet up and which used to be used by the Confederates as a lookout from which to detect and to circumvent the repeated efforts of the Federals to march triumphantly south- ward through the Shenandoah Valley. Mr. Legge and Mr. Willlams may imagine that they would like to mount the Marine Corps’ horses which the President’s Marine guards persistently tame with brutal leatherneck lumps of sugar; and they may imagine that they would like to ride those happy and gentled beasts into the lofty pastures that spread themselves out on almost all the neighboring hills. They may imagine themselves engaged in those useless methods of spending the time that God has given them on earth: but also, on the other hand, they may find themselves putting God's boulders where God | them if His agents, instead of being iglaclers and earthquakes, had been engineers from Stanford University. (Copyright, 1929.) | Traces Hislo.r_v of Lost Hesselius Painting | To the Tditor of The Star: Thomas Jefferson—did not scorn to en. | The valuable article in The Sunday Star of July 7, magazine supplement, by John T. Goolrick of Fredericksburg, Va., relative to the lost painting by Gustavus Hesselius, brings to mind }!Pvfl'fll things in conmection with this historic painting. In the first place it is one of the earliest works of art made |in North America, and it was bought University, in Washington, by this ob- |and paid for by St. Barnabas Church, server develops that no authentic rec- ords of American Negroes contain any reference to such a person as Julius Melbourn. R Gen. John J. Pershing is suggested as an ideal American Ambu's'wor to Japan. The Tokio authorities are known to want as our next envoy to Nippon an outstanding personage. They | frankly intimate that their pride would | be flattered if President Hoover were to | send them as eminent an Amerjean as he has dispatched to Great Britain. The Japanese also want a man of years, Pershing measures up to all these qualifications, in addition to which he once zerved as military attache in Tokio, 80 he's not a stranger there, * ok ok ok Somebody has sent Assistant Secre- tary of the Treasury Lowman, prohibi- tion sleuth-in-chief, an indecorous sug- gestion that a new national anthem to be called “Bottle Hymn of the Repub- lic” ought to be written to the tune of “Coming Through the Rye.” (Copyright, 1929.) Electric Device Is Used To Make Chinese Talk BY E. E. FREE, PH. D. v Torture by electricity is reported to be the latest crime-detecting device of the new government palice. in, China, Chinese courts have long recognized torture as a legitimate means of.induc- | ing reluctant witnesses to speak, as European courts'also recognized it untdl | a few centuries ago. . Knives, pincers, hot irons .on. the soles of the prisoner’s feet—these have been the conventional met! . . Ac~ cording to British reports from Shang- hai, such time-honored devices have now been discarded in favor of an im- proved electric torturer. ‘The victim is stretched out full length on a frame of bamboo and tied there, with his hands crossed on his chest and fastened to the terminals of the elec- tric_machine. ‘The current then is turned on and produces, it is reported, such unbearable :fony that the partially electrocuted ictim instantly prom! anything whatsoever or confesses any secret tha he knows. The treatment is claimed by the Chinese electricians not to be gerous to life and not to produce the permanent injury result- mmmrwn ‘methods less benefited science. About whether con- | dows ———e——— Satisfied With Even Break. From the News Sentinel. We're getting to the point where we 1e all ‘when O.I;.:I puffed up pride tin the Queen Anne’s Parish, Prince Georges | County, M nd the title to the paint- ing has n left the vestry of that church. For many years after 1722 the painting occupied a niche behind the | altar, and all efforts have failed to prove that the newly constructed church of 1774 does not contain suffi- clent wall space to hold this painting. The painting was sold at auction in Georgetown in 1848 and_purchased by Mr. O. Z. Muncaster of Rockville, Md and the painting is now in the posses- sion of one of his descendants, Mrs. John Gassaway of the same place. Temporarily the painting is with Mr. John R. Henderson of Fredericksburg, Va., and is for fter a long and patient investigation by myself and Rev. William J. Williams, a former rector of St. Barnabas Church, there is not the slightest doubt in the world that the painting was removed from St. Barnabas Church during the ‘War of 1812, by the then rector, Re ‘Walter Dulaney Addison. The British Army passed the church door in 1814 on its way to Washington. Dr. Addison spent the rest of his life in Washington, dying there in 1848. The painting was sold in_the same year. An interesting life of Dr. Addison was published some years ago by Mrs. Elizabeth Hesselius Murray, entitled “One Hundred Years Ago,” ‘which is the standard work on both Addison and Hesselius. The discovery of this painting is due to Rev. William J. Williams and not ‘to Mr, Charles Henry Hart, the famous -art - critic of Philadelphis Not until 1907 when the two hundredth anniver- sary' of St. Barnabas Church was cele- brated at Leeland, the celebration having been delayed from 1904 for various causes, was the existence of the painting brought to light, and it came out in the anniversary sermon delivered by- the late Rev. Willlam C. Butler, & former rector of the church. As Dr. Butler spoke without notes, it fell to the writer to prepare this historical sermon for publication, which he did in the using as a basis a former sermon of Dr. Butler on the same sub- Ject delivered and printed in 1879, and the work to Dr. Butler. Then at all hands commenced to look valuable painting of “The Last by Hesselius, and shortly there- after it was located by Dr. Williams at Rockville. Those were very active days of St. Barnabas Church, dan- | in Washington. a '3 QP g §§§Ea§§%%a§ himself would have put! Did you ever write a letter to Fred- eric J. Haskin? You can ask him any | question of fact and get the answer in a personsbdetter. Here is a great educa- tional idea introduced into the lives of the most intelligent people in the world —American newspaper readers. It is a part of that best purpose of a news- per—service. There is no charge ex- cept 2 cents in coin or stamps for re- urn postage. Address Frederic J. Has- kin, director, The Star Information Bu- reau, Washington, D. C. i incf ’uJocler,y in the United States?— | A Tfie ‘Templars of Honor and Tem- | perance is the oldest secret temperance lorgunlznuon in this country. It was es- i tablished in 1845. Q. What did Graham McNamee do | before he became a radio announcer?— | W. F. V. A. ‘He was a professional singer. Q. What are the Mosaic laws of the | Hebrews called?—R. L. A. They are called the Pentitudes. Q. How were the Indian tomshawks made?—A. L. A. The tomehawk, which is sometimes | considered a weapon peculiar to the Americen Indian, was originally a club carved into some convenient shape. It { was most commonly a stout stick about three feet in length, terminating in a large knob, wherein a projecting piece of flint was often inserted. The hatchets of the Indians that are now called tomahawks are a European device and the' stone hatchets so often found in our flelds, called by the same term, were mnot military weapons but me- chanical tools. Q. How did the United States use the money paid by Great Britain in Hquid;‘tion of the Alabama claims? A. The $15,500,000 which was paid by Great Britain to the United States on account of the Alabama claims was a ! full indemnity of all claims, the great proportion of which were made by private individuals and were assumed by the United States. The money re- | ceived from Great Britain was applied 1o the Tiquidation of these claims, and in_order to determine the claims of private owners and to distribute the fund Congress created by act of June 23. 1874, & Claims Court which dis- tributed $9,315.753. A second court was created by statute June 5, 1882, to finish the work. Q. What is the origin of the round robin?—A. D. B. A. Boswell traced it to a sailors’ cus- tom followed when they entered into a conspiracy so as not to let it be known who put his name first or last to the paper. Q. Are white cats elways deaf?—P. A. All white cats are deaf provided they have been bred from white stock. ‘This is also true of many other white animals and albinos. Q. Please cite an instance of a full- blooded Negro who had great capacity for military leadership.—J. A. G. A. We_cite the case of Dingiswayo, Chako, Dingaan and Cetawayo. Those were full-blooded Zulu chiefs who. their strategic administration of the forces, their bravery and undoubted ca: pacity for leadership, prevented for a long time the settlement by the Dutch and later the English of the territory of Zululand, now a part of the Union of South Africa. Cetawayo, particularly, caused grave concern to the British Q. What is the oldest secret temper- | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. | government, defeating a large contin- | gent of picked British troops, He was ‘lcaptured the same year. Q. Please _give some information \;hnhl;t the Kiel Canal in Germany— (LM | 'A.'The Kiel Canal connects the Bal- | tic and North Seas. It was opened in 1 189, ‘The total length is 61 miles. The | depth.s 36 feet: the width, 72 feet. The | ag:)k‘;\;ob.d cost of construction was $40.- Q. Where did the honeydew melon originate?—F. K. A. The honeydew melon that is en the market in this country is the same as the melon listed by Paris secdsmen as Antibes Winter green fleshed melon. | The original seed of the honeydew | melon is said to have been ob- tained from a melon shipped from | Africa to New York City. ‘This seed was planted.at Rocky Ford, Colo., |and John Gauger and Weaver were re- | sponsible for having put this melon on | the market in the United States. | | Q. In schools what is meant by the 6—3—3 plan?—L. M. | " A This 15 a plan of organ consisting of six grades v | kindergarten, constituting the elemen- |tary school, followed by a thr | junior high school, which in tt {to & three-year high scheol, bo junior and the senior high school be- ing considered in the field of secondary education. Completion of the high school in any one of these plans is marked by the granting of a diploma of graduation. | Q. Why are quiet, happy | ferred to as halcyon days?—A. | “A. Halcyon days is a name given by the ancients to the seven days which follow the shortest day of the vear. The reference is to a fable that during this_time, while the halevon bird or kingfisher was breeding, there always prevailed calms at sea. Ffom this the phrase, halcvon days. has come to signify times of peace and tranquillity. Q. Are there other leper colonies as large as the one on Molokai? N. B A. The colony on the Island of Molokai is the largest in t)}- world. Q. Is there a system of exchang- fellowships befween Latin America and the United States sponsored by the Guggenheim Foundation?—P. A, A. The trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation an- nounced a gift of $1.000.000 for this purpose, made in May by former Sena- tor and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim. | Q. Is there an organization or asso- ciation to which pilots belong—the ones gho_'bring vessels into harbors?—K. A. Harbor pilots in the large cities, such as New York and Norfolk. etc. |are organized into what is known as the Bar Pilots’ Association. This is an old association, whose traditions and regulations | from father to son. | . | _Q Where is the panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg?—W. J. C. AMThe panorama of the Battle of HGPttySburg is on permanent exhibit in | Gettysburg, Pa., just across the street rom the main entrance to the Na- ( tional Cemetery. ization e days re- P. | Q. How many cities have city mana- | gers? What city had one first>—R. C. B. | "A. By 1929 the total number of cities | having adopted the city manager plan |of government was 392. The city | manager system was first adopted in | Staunton, in 1908. Sympathetic interest everywhere is | reflected in newspaper comment on | President Hoover's project, financed by ! a half-million-dollar gift from private sources, to survey the needs of the children of the country and submit the findings to an unofficial conference on child welfare. | “Such a movement might well take on significance comparable to that of the commission recently created to study the problems of law enforce- ment.” says the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, has done more for children than any other country,” still feels that “with | problems touching upon childhood in this prosperous country.” A survey of American child_life ®is_in order,” thinks the Albany Evening News, since “there has been no conference on this subject since that called by President Roosevelt a score of years ago,” and this paper believes that “whoever the donors of this fund may be, they have given money in a great cause. The Nashville Banner finds both the “manner and content of President Hoover’s most recent call for a confer- ence alike interesting. In the first place,” explains the Banner, “he now proposes to assemble a representative group of leaders who are concerned in promoting child welfare with special reference to health, but not until from nine months to a year shall have bee: spent in intensive study of the situa. tion as it exists, and all data likely to be of practical use shall have been ‘col- lected. Both manner and method are altogether characteristic.” Calling attention to the fact that “President and Mrs. Hoover were well known as child-welfare workers long as a presidential candidate,” the Ashe- ville Times thinks “it is natural, there- fore, that Mr. Hoover should organize a country-wide movement for ‘rein- forcement of the equality of oppor- tunity for everv child’” and considers the project “worthy of an engineer who wishes to become a social engineer in | the leadership of the American people during his years in the presidency.” ok It is recalled by the San Francisco Chronicle that “in Belgian relief work, the work that first mad: Mr. Hoover a world figure, the children in the desti- tute areas became his especial care,” and, under his administration of the relief agencies, “child mortality was re- duced to a lower figure than had ob- tained in the pre-war period. Con- tinuing, the Chronicle registers its be- lief that ‘“under the auspices of a President whose own experience and achievements in the field of child wel- fare qualify him as an expert, the con- ference should prove of great value to one ef the highest of all public ques- tions.” “Announcement that the extra-gov- ernmental body which will direct the survey will be headed by two members of the cabinet is an apt illustration of the Hoover way of getting things done,” says the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, which is confident that “inestimable benefits cannot fail to follow a survey of present conditions.” Many papers, while approving the survey and conference, are careful to note that the latter will have no legal status. The conference “is not a gov- ernmental undertaking,” the Hartford Daily Courant, continuing: ;‘.'me faith o!“the Pmm 1d¢'xl\‘t in volun- ry co-operation rather than govern- mental regulation in the field of in- dustry is known. The effort to extend such co-operation into the realm of social activities is one to which he properly lends his influence.” * ok ok X ‘While conceding that “better - sion for child welfare in the more = tions is decidedly Idvhll)le.t | which, while it states that “‘America! all this care there remain many grave before Mr. Hoover was much spoken of | 'Hoover Child-Welfare Project Viewed With Favor by Public | of course, of placing the care of childre: | under any sort of Federal bureauc | since, in the opinion of the Press, “the country has made quite obvious its ob- jection to centralized dictation of what should be home and community | matters.” So also the Lansing State “Jaumll. which argues: “The conference ‘(hnt will meet some time early next | vear will have no power of legislation, | whatsoever. Following deliberations of | those gathered, some recommendations for legislation may be offered, but the outstanding effect of the meeting will be that it will advertise ideas. The White House is again to be used in the leadership of ideas.” e “Through care of the young, the average of human happiness can be raised in the same way that the average of human life has been made higher.” | according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which calls the work for chil- dren “more important than tariff or farm relief measures, and more fruitful for the country’s future even than inter- national peace agreements. The Detroit Free Press notes that “a nation is said to march on the feet of its children. That is merely an ap- plication to nations of the old adage | that the tree will incline as the twig is (bent, a recognition of the fact the | foundation of national welfare is laid | in the welfare of its children. Give them the proper advantages,” continues the Press, “safeguard them from harmful and anti-social temptations. and they | will develop into efficient and contented ! citizens. Anything that promises results |in that direction deserves earnest | support.” | The Geneva Daily Times quotes with | approval President Hoover's statement “It is my hope that much may be done in this administration to further the causes of child health and the better | nurture and care of children generaliv. All such efforts rightly co-ordinated will receive my cordial help.” | The Altoona Mirror characterizes the {call to the survey and conference as “one of the most important announce- | ments ever made by an American i President or by any other official whose | power equals the President’s.” i — vt |Subscribe $100,000,000 For Near East Relief From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Near East Relief, the greatest of the philanthropic agencies called into exist- ence by the World War, does not con- template cessation of its present activi- | ties in withdrawing from the fleld of | nation-wide “drives” for funds. When Near East Relief was founded, in 1915, American charity was confronted by an emergency unparalleled in-the modern world, owing to the plight of Armenians and Syridns, soon to be followed by pestilence and famine racing in the wake of war in Rumania, Bulgaria and Servia. Four years later the emergency had become aggravated, and Congress in- corporated the great philanthropy which American generosity endowed to cope with appalling conditions, Resources of the organization were still to be taxed by the expulsion of Greeks from ‘Turkey. Down to the present the feeding and clothing of 12,500,000 persons is a rec- 1ord to be considered as a phfllnmmgy of magnitude only commensurate with the World War and giving a measure of the human syffering involved in the Near East area. Probably the housing and of 132,500 orphans in uylumg is the fea- ture of the stupendous humanitarian work which will awake the greatest de- | 8ree of sympathy among American con- tributors to the funds in the past 14 years. orphans who have not yet reached the age of self-support wil continue to be wards of the Uberaitty of in responding to the calls ting | of charity is once more shown by the computation that the donations to Near d | East Reli lef in 14 years totaled $100,- 000.000, including food, medical sup- plies and clothing, the greater part of have been handed downd | N3