Evening Star Newspaper, July 21, 1929, Page 25

EDITORIAL SECTION - he Suntwy Sttt Part 2—8 Pages WASH PETAIN, HERO OF VERDUN, GETS BELATED ACCLAIM Lacking Joffre’s Personality and Foch’s Charm, He Rebuilt an Army Under- mined by Terror. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. |ona single throw. His mind traveled HE election of Marshal Petain to the scat in the French Academy made vacant by the death of Foch has served in France as the opportunity for paying a general and brilliant tribute to the de- fender of Verdun. Inevitably Petain has suffered by consequence of the fact that his greatest achievement came midway in the war. of the Marne and commander in chief of the French armies for the first three years, became an enduring figure. Foch, as the generalissimo of all the Allied armies in Europe and as the victor in the final campaign, earned the con- queror’s laurels. Petain has been during the lifetime of Foch somewhat in the background. This fact has been due, too, to the circumstance that Petain's tingu'shed services were in the east, in Champagne and Lorraine, that is, re- me Foch from 1914 onward was associated with British armies and became, even before his ultimate triumph, almost as well known in Britain as in France. On the other hand, it was Petain and not Foch who came in immediate and intimate contact with the Ameri- can armies and naturally fills a more considerable place in their recollections. ‘And, perhaps as another result of this | propinquity, the majority of our gen-| tne greatest, with Caesar, Frederick the rals have always held o the opinion | Grest and Napoleon. of perhaps even | that Petain was a greater general than his comrade who was in the end his commander. If this verdict must seem a little | | at relatively insignificant cost. And his | Now, at 72, Petrain is coming into Joffre, as the victor | something of his own. The other day | when the President of the republic and | o | | city, Petain appeared as the repre- most dis- | e from the British frontier, while | I France. o Pefeess Tt diCCeTCn: along the route of limited objectives attained after perfect preparation and | soldiers, who probably never cheered him, always trusted him. Has Glory Now. the prime minister made the pilgrimage Verdun to celebrate alike the thir- teenth anniversary of the definitive check of the German attack and the complete reconstruction of the little sentative of the army. Since Joffre is now broken and gone into permanent retirement, there is none to divide the glory with Petain. Patently they do those things better To perceive the difference, position of Foch, Petain and even of | Joffre- in France with that of Pershing | in America. We have given Pershing an | | increased pay-check and a higher rank | and sent him away, out of sight and | out of mind. Actually he remains a bigger figure in Paris or London than in Washington. Yet Pershing, too, made an army and led it to victory. That history will rank Petain with | with Poch, seems uniikely. But in the | | second rank it seems that there can be | few to equal him. Moreover, it is an odd paradox that this cold and purely extreme it is not less unmistakable that, | intellectual soldier will be remembered not merely as the defender of Verdun, | forever for one of the most stirring but as the reorganizer of the.French ang prilliant of all military achleve- army after its heavy defeat and tragic | ments. the defense of Verdun. His Moral disintegration in the Spring of | pini Wil GEETIN 0 e shan get 1917, Petain must be adjudged one of them " was alike the revelation of the the greatest commanders. not alone of man and the finest expression of the the World War, but in all military gspirit of his nation, the spirit that annals. | ultimately enabled France and not Ger- Silent and Aloof. | many to endure through the last quarter | of an hour. Unlike Joffre, Petain has nothing of the personality out of which legends o | are made. He was never Papa Petain. < | Nor had he the rough and ready manner | [taly Holds Ceremony and picturesque phrase which rendered g 9 < | Foch at once charming and one of the For Ice Cream Plant| most,_articulate of_soldiers since the | = R | reat N n. By contrast, Petain | :’u slle:{?n::e:ol. aloof. | Opening of the first ice cream fac- | Vet in the course of the defense of tory in Italy constituted an event of Verdun Petain built up a reputation | considerable importance. High gov- that enabled him to save the French | ernment and Fascist party officials par- army at a desperate moment. Although | ticipated and the Roman press devoted | under his command some 300,000 sol- columns to the ceremony. American diers perished on both banks of the | Visitors to Italy who have paid from 20 | Meuse he impressed his poilus with the | to 40 cents for portions of what was conviction that no lives were wasted in | served as ice cream will wonder what | brilliant and costly adventures. Prodigal they ate and why the noise about the in ammunition, parsimonious in blood, | new factory. Some hotels and cafes that was the verdict. In the war-time | “ave made authentic ice cream for their | phrase, he “sold” the enemy parcels of | clients, but ordinarily the ‘gelato”| French territory only when they had served in public places had nothing in Paid Ris price and the sum of his| common with American ice cream ex- strategy was the immortal phrase: |cept its property of coldness. Much of “They shall not pas: | this product was made from materials 1t followed, then, that when in 1917 and under circumstances which caused Nivelle flung the French army into the the not too finicky Italian health su- shambles of the Aisne, having fired thorities to close " the shops. Rarely their expectations with, the most bril-| Was milk or eggs employed. Pasteur- Jiant, and preposterous promises of a ized milk 1is still difficult to obtain break-through in a day and a vast for- | in most Itallan cities and of course| ward sweep, with cavalry in Laon on |in the country and smaller towns it is the second afternoon, an immense and |unheard of. The novelty of the new menacing pessimism seized the French | factory at Rome consists in its using army. In the third year of the struggle, ' modern sanitary machinery for pas- 1o have been thrown against unshaken | teurizing the milk and throughout the | German lines, to have lacked artillery | manufacture and distribution. The Preparation, fo have been held up and |manufacturers have imitated the Amer- | (Copyright, 1929.) | slaughtered in the meshes of the uncut |ican ice cream industry in the use of | advertising calling attention to the al- | leged value of ice cream as a food. Italians have long produced frozen delicacies, such as cassata Siciliana—a varicolored multifiavored sweet with fruit and nuts—but they have never consumed ices or any kind of sweets to the extent that Americans do. It remains to be seen whether the new campaign will change the national ap- petite. Owing to the high cost of sugar and milk, the price of ice cream must always remain relatively high in Italy. barbed wire of the first line, that was too much. Faets Still Unknown. Even today the facts of that period are little known by the general public. That divisions mutinied. that regiments yetired from the line and even started | for Paris, that for a certain time the | very front itself was open and vulner- | able, these were details naturally sup- | pressed at the moment and left in ob- | scurity when victory restored the mo- | mentarily shaken reputation of the| poilu. | It was at that moment that France turned to Petain. And in the Summer of 1917 he wrought a miracle. While | he had at the outset to restore discipline | by pitiless severity, to send many men | to the firing squads, to punish rigor- ously, at the same time he set to work to abolish the abuses that had under- mined the morale of his men and to| provide them the comforts and privileges | that were their due, But above all | with his arrival every soldier knew that | the next offensive would be prepared, ! that no attack planned by Petain would | fail through lack of artillery or other | preliminary. Yet throughout the Summer of 1917 | the French army had to be “nursed.” Petain had to tell Haig very frankly that for a period of months the French army would be incapable of any con- siderable offensive operation. And the | result of this was the prolonged and | terribly costly fighting before Arras and subsequently the murderous operation at Paschendaele. Haig had to keep pounding to take the weight off Petain, to give him the necessary time to re- store his army. And it was not until | Autumn, with the battle of Malmaison, one of the best prepared and most com- plete of all the smaller attacks of the war, that evidence was at hand that the. French army was itself again. With the coming of Foch, Petain's star paled slightly. If he had shown himself beyond doubt the greatest de- fensive general of modern warfare, he seemed to suffer somewhat from the effects of his virtues. He remained until nearly the end a little suspicious of Foch's strategy of attack. To be sure, he, equally with Haig, displayed su- preme self abnegation in the critical hour at Doullens, after the German break-through of March, 1918, and made possible the naming of Foch as commander in chief. But over the first great counter- offensive, that of July 18, following the German check in the last battle of the Marne, Petain was sceptical and sought to procrastinate. FHe was, ), patiently appalled by the blood tax the war had imposed upon Prance and eager to set a limit to further sacrifice. But his armies were superbly prepared, his operations were conducted not only successfully, but economically. And— the supreme test of generalship—his soldiers and his subordinates were at all times conscious of being commanded. He kept in touch not with armies alone, but with divisions. He knew and dis- closed that he knew Y;ec!xely what his soldiers were thinking. The leave trains which took soldiers on vacations were as well run as the attacks and there was an end of that shocking and shameful condition that for three years had well nigh runined the brief respite of the PFrench soldier, becouse of the lack of any organization of transport. Like Foch, Petain is a great thinker, @ student as well as a teacher of war. But far more than Foch, his attention and his knowledge are concentrated upon the material factors in war. In this respect he suggests Ludendorfl, who must be reckoned his only rival in this branch, become so much more important in combat in our time. He | show that 12,974 Japanese born in the Japanese in Hawaii | Increase Citizenship A remarkable increase is noted by the Japanese consulate in Honolulu in the number of Hawalian-born Japa- nese who are -expatriating themselves from Japanese citizenship and allegi- | ance. This is one direct result of the act of the Japanese government in 1925 in promulgating new and simpli- fied methods for such expatriation. | The action of Japan followed many | years of agitation by American-born Japanese and representations to the government both by Japanese and by Americans. These felt that good rela- tions between America and Japan would be served by doing away with such “dual citizenship.” Of course, | such children are full-fledged Ameri- can citizens. The Japanese govern- ment in 1925 issued rules under which it is easy either for parents to ex. patriate their children from Japanese citizenship or for these children them- selves to take action on reaching an age when they could initiate their own proceedings. The consulate records territory have been expatriated—12,732 of them since 1925. Most of the ex- patriations are secured by the parents, | an evidence that the elder generation is coming to realize that Hawali is their permanent home and that the future of their children lies along American | ways. - Japanese Entertain Visiting U. S. Writers ‘There are at least 12 Americans who within the last year have been con- vinced that stories of overwhelming | Japanese hospitality are not fiction. ‘These are the members of the party of newspaper men who were sent to the Far East under the auspices of the Car- negie Foundation for International | Peace. ‘While in Japan their schedule was handled by the foreign office, the South Manchuria Railway and several large travel organizations. In Tokio the visitors had 10 days, and during this time there were 36 formal social en- gagements. One evening there was a slip and a dinner had to be postponed. The Japa- nese hosts apologized and could not be- leve that their guests could possibly find any enjoyment in a free evening. Banquets given by high government officials, by official and private organi- zations, theater parties and trips to out- standing places of interest were the usual thing during the stay of the American writers in Tokio. When they left on May 19 for sight- seeing in other ‘parts of the country they faced a schedule as full as that in the capital city. All of the journalists agreed that the thing which impressed them more than an{th!n( else during their trips through Tokio and Yokohama was the great amount of reconstruction which had HE calling by President Hoover l of a national conference on child welfare serves to direct attention anew to the work which the Government has been doing toward building higher standards for the care of the children in this country. The conference will mect early in 1930, the date being set far enough ahead to permit careful and | thorough preparatory work. | 1t will be the first national review of the subject held since President Roose- velt issued a call for a similar gathering | in 1909. In those 20 years the Govern- ment, through the Children's Bureau. has been active in many fields of child | welfare work. The United States was the first coun- try to create a government bureau de- | voted entirely to the interests of chil- dren. The bureau was established in 1912, Congress gave this bureau a wide range of duties. “The said bureau” reads the act. “shall investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people and shall especially inves- | tigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanages, juvenlie courts, desertion. dangerous occupations, Linking the Americas Great Highway Uniting Capitals of All Countries Will Further Interests of All Nations BY GASTON NERVAL, Authority on Latin American Affairs. HE material progress of a people is measured +by the number of miles of railways and highways in its territory. The countries which stand first_in the world today are those which first and most wisely solved their problems of means of communication. Those which have not vet solved those problems cannot yet say they have reached the begin- ning of true progress. INGTON, D. C, MIS SUNDAY MORNING, . S. and Child Welfare Bettering Physical and Mental Health of Nation’s Youth Basis of Great Conference JULY GRACE ABBOTT. 21, 1929. ROOSEVELT, TRUST FOE, MAY SEEK PRESIDENCY New York Governor, Building Up Anti- Power Background, Reported Groom- ing to Lead Democrats in 1932. BY MARK SULLIVAN. | to be concealed or camouflaged. In ad- HE leading Democratic newspaper | dition. he is much too intelligent to in New York, the World, says think this kind of political move really | | which the governor made at Tammany | mittee that at least 300,000 babies less than a year old died each year in the United States and that, in her opinion, half of this number could be saved. Then the bureau launched a survey, | conducting it under an entirely new | method. Instead of starting with the | | deaths of the babies, as had previous | surveys, the bureau began with the | births, traced the babies through their | | first year and analyzed the conditions accidents and diseases of children, em- | tion with the public and private agen- Surrounding the bables that lived, as ployment and legislation affecting chil- | dren in the several States and Terri- | tories.” | ‘The constituency of the bur there- fore, is & vast one. There are about 43,000,000 children in the United States under 18 years of age, and the 1930 census may bring the number close to 50,000,000 Activities of Bureau. In the 17 years since its establish- ment the work of the bureau has fallen under four main heads—the collection and analysis of facts about children gathered by first hand investigation and | | by library research, the dissemination | | of these facts through various channels | | to the people of the country, co-opera- | tion with States and finally co-opera- | the bureau, told a congressional com- | In the boundless prosperity of the United States roads have played a most important part. Probably no other | nation has a more complete or more modern system of roads than the United | States. And to these are owed the ample facilities here for carrying on business, the enormous profits of domes- tic commerce, and the benefits accruing from tourists and interstate trade and countless other factors that go to make up material progress and prosperity. Peoples Drawn Together. But this problem of roads has a still national peoples closer. significance. Roads draw ‘They are the means and at the same time higher ties, for they shorten the material as well the spiritual distances between na. tions. Closer bonds, mutual knowledge, and mutual understanding are the three necessary stages of friendship between peoples. The three are inti- mately related, for it is impossible to attain the last, which is the high ideal sought in international policies, with- out having passed through the first two. Highways and railroads offer facilities ternational relations. If the Pan-American movement. which is the most interesting political tendency of our day, has not yet at- tained more complete success, it is because the factor of international communications between the peoples of ! the North and of the South has been neglected. There have been held many congresses, many plans have been made to solve the Pan-American ' problems by endeavoring to remove, little by little, grounds for dispute or divergences of opinion between Latins and Saxons, but little has been done to draw closer the material ties between North Amer- ica and Central and South America, by means of railways and highways which would facilitate, at the same time, both the commercial interchange and the better mutual knowledge of their peo- ple. We have stated before that to this lack of knowledge is almost entirely due the misunderstandings between the Americans of the North and, those of the South, which are more spiritual and intellectual than political. Potentialities of Air Service. It may be that aviation is bringing the solution of this problem. Air serv- ices have already been established, al- though not yet with much regularity or permanence, between the United States and Latin America, and since their es- tablishment the cause of Pan-Ameri- canism has made mol months, than during decade. It is easy to understand the great benefits which will be felt when commercial aviation is fully established throughout the hemisphere, and the air service shall have reached a stage when fhey will compete with maritime transport. Being able to carry out business negotiations in 24 or 48 hours will bs in truth great progress over present services, which require two sor three weeks between New York and the glo:‘v‘re imy t commerecial centers of ith not, like Ludendorff, however, & Gest fe gambler or one to stake all been done since the earthquake of 1923. America. However, the problem of air transportation is not yet solved, re progress, in years of the past | greater, a wider importance; an inter- | for forming practical economic bonds, | for these first stages; hence the high | importance we give to the solution of | road problems as means for closer in- | and perhaps the services we have at the present time can hardly be called more than trials. Meanwhile there is now before the leaders of the North and of the South the urgent necessity of solving the problems of land and water communi- cations if they want to see a victory for pan-American ideals. The Latin Amer- ican republics are too distant from the United_States for a true understanding to be possible with the Saxon nation. 1In fact, the United States are nearer to Europe than to the rest of this hemis- phere, since but four or five days sep- arate them from the Old World, while to go from New York to the principal citles of South America—Buenos Afres, Rio de Janerio, Santiago, Lima, Monte- video, La Paz—is a journey from 15 to 20 days, or more, and not a very comfortable one at that. To these great distances, and to the lack of better means of communication, is due the little interest in this coun- | try in getting up tours to the Latin American republics and constitute the reason why so few itors from_the South reach the shores of Uncle Sam. ‘What Is Now Needed. At the present there does not exist, in reality, any interchange between South America; that is to say, a permanent current of inter- changz of importance sufficient to bear to those of one race a knoweldge of the nd modes of thought of the ‘There are, of course, scattering travelers, tourists, adventurers, traders, business men and a few scholars going back and forth, but they form such a small portion that they are more the exception than the rule. This is what order to.learn at first the life of the Latin nations, to learn | trates the method used. | Census had not HOW HIGHWAY WILL JOIN TWO C ‘thi th some of the other countries, rious sections cies engaged in child welfare work. The bureau has done a good deal of pioneer work in developing a scientific | method of collecting and analyzing the | basic facts. Its first comprehensi study—that of infant mortality—illus- When this survey was started the Bureau of the yet established the “birth registration area.” In only eight States was there a reasonably complete system of registration. In less than half the States were death statistics avail able. Under these conditions it was im- possible to discover how many children were born in a year in this country or how many of these died during the first year of their life. Miss Julia Lathrop, the first chief of 'TINENTS. Spanish and really know the Spanish Americans, their needs and their prob- lems. Then, when they return to the United States they can talk of pan- Americanism with real knowledge, and contribute something to the sotution of existing differences. And also a great many people from the South coming to the North, to learn Emglish, to study the opinions and modes of thought of the Saxons, to attain an understanding of the aspirations of this people, its ideals and to understand that it is not alone commercial or business interests which impel them to seek the friendship of Latin America. To this end, to achieve this interchange, of transcendant im- portance for the success of pan-Amer- jcanism, better systems of comunica- tions are the first necessity. ‘The Pan-American Union, an insti- tution founded for the purpose of pro- moting inter-American good relations, has been working for some time on the plan for a great central highway, which running through the hemisphere from North to South, would join the Latin American capitals with the im- portant cities of the United Statgs. At the last Pan-American Conferences the construction of the Continental h- way has heen the subject of much dis- cussion and the governing board of the Union has carried on negotiations with the various American nations to obtain their co-operation in this plan for the solution of the road problem. All the Governments have responded, of course, that they would te in carrying out this great work, and some of them, among others the United States, have completed that part of the highway through their territory. What is necessary now, is to go ahead with the construction of the sections lacking and then unite the va; 50 85 to form, at least, that great Highway, | well as the bables that died. | | . The survey included babies in rich | as well as poor families. It covered factors heretofore neglected, the n: tionality of the parents, the earnings | of the father, the lteracy of the mother, the housing of the family and the general sanitary conditions that prevailed in the community. The study covered 23,000 babies in 11 cities, | | One of the important conclusions | reached was that the economic condi- tion of the family is an outstanding | factor in the child’s chance to live. Of the babies of the most prosperous | families in ~Baltimore, for example, only one out of every 27 died. Among those of the poorest familles, on the | other hand. one out of every seven died (Continued on Fourth Page.) | velopment in every section of the coun- | | which will be unequaled in the world. | “In senic grandeur no other highway ever built can approach it. In miles of length it will be in a class by itself.’ says one writer, adding that this great road. in addition to increasing the eco- | nomic_ relations between the Americas. will also contribute to the creation of | “better feeling” in each of the countries it crosses. & e | g 3 will be the principal theme of { sion in the Highway Congress about to meet at Rio de Janeiro, will unite the frozen regions of the North, across the Central American tropics, with the tem- | | perate zones of the South, from the northernmost cities of the United States to the capital of Chile, almost at the | | exreme south of the southern continent | on the coast of the Pacific. From | | there, crossing the Ande, it will reach Buenos Alres on the east and then go | along the' Atlantic Coast to pass through | Brazil and Venezuela to the Gulf ol‘ Mexico. In this great circuit the high- | way will not only unite the capitals of the republics of the Americas, but will | extend its influence to the lesser cities | and communities in each country which | it crosses. | Hence, aside from contributing to the common ' cause of pan-Americanism, and facilitating commercial interchange be- tween the nations, it will also be of in- calculable benefit in the private develop- ment of each country, furnishing means | of transportation for its natural prod- ucts, and making accessible regions | which now are existing in isolation. All this is in reference to the Latin republics. As to the United States, the | immediate and practical benefits of the | construction of the highway will be enormous. The vast network of high- ways constructed and planned require thousands of tons of machinery, cement and steel for bridges, materials produced in the United States, and the employ- ment of many American engineers. It | will also increase the exports of thou- | sands of American automobiles and de- velop innumerable commercial opportu- nities in the modernization of cities. ‘The use of American products will in- crease indefinitely and the export field for them will be widened in proportion. In addition to the United States, which has already finished the construc- tion of its part of the Interamerican Highway as far as Laredo, Tex., other nations, such as Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Pan- ama, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, tina, Uruguay and Brazil, have already worked on parts of the road in their territory. The total mile- age constructed, under construction, or authorized by the governments of the countries mentioned, is now 6,000 miles. The sections which have not yet been surveyed, and on which there is no con- struction as yet, total about 2,175 miles. These form the sections most difficult to build, on account of the terrain and of lack of resources. This total, how- ever, applies only to the direct line from Laredo to Puerto Montt, in Chile, and does not take into consideration the road south of that point, nor the sec- tion to Buenos Aires, nor that along the Atlantic between Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. '{he Congress of the Hné::d States not long ago passed a resolution appro- priating the sum of $50,000 to furnish the co-operation of American road engi- neers to other American governments in surveying routes for the Interamerican Highway. Commenting on this congres- sional action, President Portes Gil of Mexico declared, “I want to see 100,000 g the fron- American better, and so cordial und may my that there may be a more between the two | rest about public utilities in general | hold the interest of every citizen of the | United States, for if it is adopted it will thai the Democratic governor of | smart, Its very obviousness would de- I that State, Franklin D. Roose- | Velt, it in procees of being put | feat its purpose. Those who know Mr. Young best have no idea he will adopt forward for the Democratic presi- dential nomination, now a little less | this course or any other designed to promote himself. None the less, they than three years ahead of us. It says that “Gov. Roosevelt’s hat today is in agree if power and public utilities be- come a rea! political issue in 1932 Mr. the national political ring.” Tt cites as Young’s chances will not be enhanced. steps in the process of calling Gov. | Roosevelt to the attention of the coun- | He is hardly in a position to inveigh against the threat of ‘giant mergers,’ try: First, the “trust-busting” speech | against which Mr. Roosevelt inveighs so freely, and against which any Demo- cratic candidate who takes up the issue would naturally have to inveigh. Mr. Young would probably be better equipped as President to deal with the power problem from the public point of view than any other. but as a candi- date the General Electric connection would not be helpful. Perhaps this ought not to be so, but it would be." Clearly the emergence of the “power trust” issue eliminates Mr. Young. It may be a pity, but it is a fact. With ‘power” an issue, Gov. Roosevelt has. practieally a clear field. Protests “New Feudalism.” Mr. Roosevelt as governor of the largest State in the Union has the opportunity to achieve leadership on the power question. He has similar op- portunity to achieve leadership on the trust quesiion. Gov. Roosevelt's July 4 speech was in the spirit and in substantially the identical terms of the anti-trust po- litical crusade of 20 years ago. He | protested against a “new feudalism” of | industrial control. He issued a call for a “new declaration of independence— independence in America from big busi- ness domination of Government. * * * Are we endangered.” he said, “of the creation in these United States of such a highly centralized industrial control that we may have to bring forth a new declaration of independence?” It is commonly assumed that “trusts,” mergers and the like are solely a na- tional question, that they can only be prevented by national legislation, and only dissolved by the Federal courts. ‘This assumption is incorrect. Mr. Roosevelt, through his office of Governor of New York. has sdequate | leverage with .which to break trusts, to make the trust question a political issue and to make himself a national figure. The trusts were a State question long before they were a national one. All the early prosecutions against the Standard Oil trust, and the early po- litical agitation about it. were begun by the attorney general of Ohio and by officials of other States many years be- fore the Federal Government took notice of the question. The late Senator La Follette kept the trust question anc the railroad question to the front in Wisconsin long enough to make him- self governor and United States Sen- ator—before ever the Federal Govern- ment began the energetic prosecution of trusts and the energetic regulation of railroads. Mr. Rocsevelt as Governor of New York. has the power to initiate the breaking of trusts, the “busting” of mer- gers. And he has the mergers right there in New York to break. As it hap- pens, some of the largest mergers that have been made recently have been Hall on July 4; second, another utter-| ance by the governor denouncing “trusts, mergers and combines”; third, Gov. Roosevelt’s official inquiry into the re- cent merger of New York State power corporations—and various related steps taken by him which have a tendency 1o set up issues for a national presidential campaign. First of all, one assumes the state- | ment that Gov. Roosevelt's hat is in the ring to be correct; it sounds most prob- | able, and there is no reason to doubt it. One assumes also that local political conditions within the Democratic party in New York City and State are such as | give Gov. Roosevelt the support of hi: State for the presidential nomination. | As to that, an outsider can know little; | here also one can merely say that it| seems most probable—much depencs on the attitude ex-Gov. Smith may take. Finally, one assumes Gov. Roosevelt ex- pects to be re-elected as governor. That he should get the approval of the people of his State, in the form of a re-election as governor, is an important—though not necessarily indispensable—step in his progress toward the presidential nomination. Path Is Apparently Clear. From the point of view of Washing- ton, from the standpoint of national politics, Gov. Roosevelt, as the potential presidential nominee ' of his par:y. sounds even more than probable. Few aspirants for the presidential nomina- tion of either party in recent vears h: had a path so apparently clear. G Roosevelt has few obstacles and al- most no formal rivals—quite possibly no riral at all. And Gov. Roosevelt is ex- traordinarily favored with respect to his opportunity to put forward national issues, to identify himself with these issues in the national mind. and to be- | come the spokesman of them on a nation-wide scale. One can begin the list of Gov. Roose- velt's political assets with his relation to what he—and many others as well— | call the power trust: his relation to the whole broad field of public utilities and the regulation of them. { Gov. Roosevelt has a plan about pow- er. The plan has to do with the de- | velopment of the water-power resources of New York State. As such the plan, | and the problem, is local. But in almost every one of the 48 States there is a similar problem. attended by similar un- Consequently the partisan of Gov. Roosevelt is right who says: “The plan of Gov. Roosevelt should serve as a_model for water-power de- | try. It is likely to change the whole theory of the regulation of public utilities. If successful it will have a direct bearing on the Federal Govern- ment's_development of the Colorado River basin_and the future of Muscle Shoals. It is being fought not only by made in New York State—mergers of the powerful public utility corporations | banks, of institutions associated with in New York, but by every power com- | banks. of industrial corporations. One pany in the countr of the great mergers recently effected The plan in detail is not material| in New York was of public utility cor- here. It is sufficient that if Gov. Roose- | porations. These two questions—mer- velt, with the fulerum of his position gers and power—are related. and the as governor of the largest State, makes | two combine to compose a remarkable himself the champion of a new relation | political issue. Rarely has there been between the State and the power com- | such a fortuitous condition for any panies: if he makes himself the exponent | Presidential aspirant as the one that of a new theory of regulation of public | favors Gov. Roosevelt. Has Effected Farm Relief. It isn't necessary to say Gov. Roose- velt is exploiting “‘power” and “mergers” in order to get the Democratic presi- dential nomination. To say so would be untrue and unjust. The issues are there and it happens that Gov. Roosevelt has an extraordinarily fortuitous relation to_them. Nor do these two complete the list of Gov. Roosevelt’s assets. He of his per- sonal initiative has brought about re- lief of the farmers of New York State from much of their unjust burden of taxation. That kind of farm relief ought to be brought about in nearly every State in the Union. It is certain to come in many States. Gov. Roosevelt's plan. already achieved and in effect, will provide the model. There is also the natural asset in- herent in the fact that Mr. Roosevelt is Governor of New York. He will come up for re-election as governor before the presidential vear 1932. It is rather necessary that he win his gubernatorial relelection. Probably the Democrats, not only of New York. but of the whole Nation, will see the desirability of doing their best to bring about approval of | utilities—in that event he is certain to| impress himself on the country. That | there is a potential political national proportions in the group of | questions called the “power problem” there can be no doubt whatever. Eliminates Young as Rival. Incidentally, Gov. Roosevelt, by identi- fying himself with the people’s side of a movement against the power com-| panies, eliminates the man who is al- most_his only potential rival for the Democratic _presidential nomination. The potential rival is Owen D. Young.| Mr. Young, by his recent association | with the settlement of the reparations | problem in Europe, merely took one | more of the many steps which have | commended him to the country as| being “presidential timber.” One can | speak of Mr. Young as a “great man,” | and the facts bear out the phrase. But Mr. Young, as a business man in private life, is a director of several of the largest public utility corporations in the country, as well as the General Electric Co. It is understood that in his role of director of public_utilities, Mr. Young has a liberal and enlightened lttll’t‘ude l:ou;; the relation between thle' ublic and the power corporations. It Roosev oW B ven tnders 1;0 hat T Youns > ;4':‘!. evelt by the people of his own sympathetic to the plan of public con-| Rarely has any presidential possi- g:u:::l't power put forward by GoV-} bility at a period so far ahead of the But as a matter of practical politics ' 51:?:‘1:'1%;]1-53::;“:’a'dhsssom:g?s';er'glfl i:e twmlld ll}; hgpossible to dli‘g:rcnfiaf;‘ dential nomination. Of course, no pru- ween Mr. Young as ral and | - public-spirited Den{'acrn -und. orlx the | 5’;.“.%".‘,.'.‘3%:3&1 ‘g:flft::?kteh;gep;glr? other hand, Mr. Young as a director of | As of today, it would seem that Gov- power corporations. If Mr. Young were | Roosevelt needs hardly no more than a candidate for the Il.)re,ndency. the | avold mistakes and be timely in taking tglflh'lfl - "":'"x’z" 'Wfllgld“be flullg | the more or less routine steps that are lls uui‘x‘:‘é = beu.sn. Is‘u‘zmuln smwwn el;\ pc:lulued“!ousé the ":xioms of national the Democrats are to make the power ' to make a re:'mk:y :rpefiii:’e? ahtepnoim- question an issue, then Mr. Young is| wisely selected throughout the Nation, e ene. pr s TOrWARE. ot 10 | it T o e Sops-ome fazlies fscue. Goy. Roosevelt, in a_ perfectly | it sl legitimate way, eliminates almost his only rival. Indeed, one does not need to put it in a way so ungracious to Gov. Roose- velt. Without any initiative from the governor, Mr.. Young is eliminated by the facts. While a large section of the country feels as it does about power corporations- and public utilities, it is not expedient for the Democratic party to give its presidential nomination to a man who, however able ani high- minded, is an official of several of the very largest power corporations. “Power” Would Be Popular Issue. It is reported that some of Mr. Young’s friends want him to rid him- self of his corporation connections, so as to make him available for the Demo - cratic presidential nomination. As it is put by Mr. Frank Kent, in the Demo- cratic Baltimore Sun: “It is interesting that some of Mr. Young's warmest friends should be now urging & severance of his corporate con- nections and identification for the next three years with some sort of semi- public service calculated to improve his political position. One trouble about this suggestion would be to get Mr. Young to act on it. He isn't the sort ‘who could be induced to do a thing not wholly natural to him, or a thing with the slightest savor of self-advancement, ora with any purpose that had Retailers in England Fight Vending Boxes Retail tobasco dealers are worrled about the gn;:mg practice of install- ing automatic cigarette mackives ont- doors where fo rent or rates are re- quired. Its unfa'sness was discussed at a meeting o the Tobacco Trades' Fed- eration. in London recently. Under present regulations there are many legal sites for a slot machine, the only expense being the cost of the license of about $1. So seriously is ¢he question considered that cigar store g:nedn Il:{ove dec:aem leave the matter r decision un annual meeting in_June. whnm they are nos the only merchants 0 are concerned. Dealers in other mmuc capable of belnl:o sold in auto- ma es are al itating some method of “equal tre:!?nem.s o At first clerks protested that the de- mand for tobacco, candies and other “leisure-time” wares forced them to long hours. ‘The “automats” seemed to solve the problem, as they entailed no work for any one and the public could be served at any time, But the retailers suffer, 80 that the fssue has become vital,