Evening Star Newspaper, July 22, 1929, Page 8

8 THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C MONDAY..........July 22, 1929 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd 8t. Chicago Office: Lake Michigan Building. European Office: 14 Regent St., London, England. Rate by Carrier Within the City. ‘The Evening Star.. 4bc per moeth The Evening and Sunday Star days) 4 80c per month 5¢ per month Sc per ccpy each month. Y Collection made at the end or telephone Orders may be sent in by ma! NAtional 5000, Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday $10.00; 1 mo., 85c | Daily only . $6.00; 1 mo.. 80c | Sunday only 1 mo. 49 All Other States and Canada. Daily and Sunday..1 vr. $12.00: .9 Daily only .. 19r. $800: 1 Sunday only 1 yr. $5.00; 1 mo., Member of the Associated Press. aif hews i fuled | a putlished special di France Ratifies. Premier Poincare doubtless would have preferred a more impressive debt ratification majority than eight votes in | the French Chamber of Deputies, but | it is enough. In the dawn of yesterday two hundred and ninety-two members cast their ballots against unconditional approval of tlze Mellon-Berenger agree- ment and only 300 voted for it, yet the | government's program prevailed and | FPrench financial honor is vindicated. Poincere and his brilliant for ian | minister, M. Briand, acquire a fresh | claim on American appreciation. They | made a tenacious fight agains: parli 2| ment-ry and poiitical odds that seemed | contrasting the figures with those of -‘I tions and to devise system and to study causes and effects and write their epi- taphs in the dingy pages of annual re- ports. Some of them are always behind the scenes pulling the strings, while others draw the applause and make the bows, and some of them go through a long life with faithfulness and depend- ability their only bids for fame—bids that are cheap, for fame. Many of them, it might be argued, make no sacrifice, for sacrifice involves the spirit of giving up one thing for another, and they have noth'ng to give but their services for what they are worth. But, according to this logic, no soldier killed in action sacrifices him- self for his country, as he had no al- ternative. Sacrifice or no sacrifice, “Old « Patriots” must have their praise wlth: the new, though it lacks, perhaps, the! sparkle and sh'ne of new things. { P Saving Lives of Babies. During the fiscal year ended June 30 last there were 8,941 babies born in the District of Columbia and only fifty deaths of babies under one year of ege from diarrheal or gastro-intestinal com- plaints which might be traced to im- proper feeding and diet. The Bureau | of Health Education, maintained as a | private philanthropy in Washington by Emile Berliner, uses these Health | Department statistics to emphasize the | downward rate of death among infants, | relatively few years ago when one-| fourth of the bables born alive died | within a year, and of the deaths about 37 per cent were due to the causes; outlined above. Mr. Berliner helieves that the education of mothers, as car- ried out by his orga tion, is a great factor in bringing about the aecrcase in infant mortality. There exists a difference of opinicn | between Mr. Berliner and som~ of the | medical authoritics, including our lo- | cal Hralth Department, regarding the | facts and ths information on diet end | overwhelming. While they were plead- ing for action primarily and directly of | benefit to France—action designed to | brand the republic an honest debtor | and to enhance French economic pres- | tige throughout the world—the leaders | of the Paris cabinet were called upon to | defend the United States against un- | just aspersions. In their fanatical zeal | 10 overthrow the Poincare government | its enemies harped on all the ancient | anti-American chords, with “Uncle Shy- lock™ as the leitmotif. In securing rat- ification of the debt pact the French cabinet, by the same token, repelled the debt recriminations leveled at our own Government and people. France does a good stroke of business for herself in placing this tardy O. K. on an agreement negotiated in her name three years ago. In the first place, it obviates the necessity to pay the Uniied States the $400,000.000 due Au- gust 1, 1929, on the separate war stocks purchase transaction. Congress offered to lump this special debt with the whole Trench war debt sum, funded over a period of sixty-two years, provided the Mellon-Berenger pact were ratified prior to August 1. Under that agreement, France is to pay us a grand total of £4,025,000,000, of which $685,000,000 is 2ccrued interest. The first two annui- to be $30,000,000, increasing to £125,000,000 in the seventeenth year and continuing until the last payment of £117,675,000 in the sixty-second year. The French Senate has still to concur in the ratification by the Cham- ber, but the Polncare majority in the upper house is so secure that an ap- proving vote there is a mere formality. ‘This is imminent, and then a long- pending bone of Franco-American con- tention will no longer exist. The way now is paved at Paris for | ratification of the Young plan. As the | chief beneficiary of German repara- tions, French acquiescence in the ex- perts’ agreement is all-vital. M. Poin- care insisted upon Mellon-Berenger ratification, unhampered by any so-called “safeguard” reservations about a French moratorium in Washington in case Ger- many defaulted on reparation payments. He has won his point. The Young plan should now be headed for formal acdopilem on the Quai d'Orsay. That accomplished, Europe will experience a new economic birth. Mess s, Poincare and Briand deserve well of their coun- try, of this country and of the world at large for their yeoman service in bring- ing it about. siez Gre e Mussolini is said to be growing milder of manner. A true leader knows how to | adjust himself to circumstanees. = o Mayor Jimmie Walker will remain in | action. The drama of New York politics | requires comedy relief. . The “0ld Patriots.” The title of “New Patriots,” bestowed upon the distinguished gentlemen who have left lucrative and relatively peace- ful pursuits in private life to serve the Nation under President Hoover, calls for some equally distinct and worthy recognition of a host of faithful public: servants who labor year in and year out, whose public never hangs upon their words, bscause they have no public and fewer words; whose deeds are not written in the headlines, because often they are never known. When they en- ter the Government service, no trump- ets are blown and no drums are beat, and when they leave the Government service some of them obtain a com- mendatory letter from the Secretary; possibly a clock or an easy chair and a reading lamp from their co-laborers; perhaps a short obituary notice in the press, which, in the light of things in general, is considered wholly suitable and entirely adequate. They might be called the “Old Patriots.” There is some difference of opinion as to the actual amount of “sacrifice” that is made by some of the “New Pa- triots” who, with records of fine achievement behind them in private life, have, in effect, volunteered their services to Uncle Sam and have swap- ped the tangible rewards of industry for the light of fame and the oppor- tunity to serve their countrymen in the solution of great problems. But there is little question of the actual amount of sacrifice among the army of “Old Patriots” who do the heavy work and keep the wheels of Government turning over and over again. Some ,of them — scientists — sacrifice them- selves in practice,as well as in theory, as witness men and women in the Pub- lic Health Service who have made themselves living laboratories for the study of the effect of disease, to find a way to protect their fellow citizens against its ravages. Some of them give nmoxnmxllvumpeflm'anvw- | may appear contradictory and possitly | today ean discuss formulas and proper | {erally express this community con- food to be given mothers of young' babies. But it is common opinion now that education in infant care is an all- important factor. Public and private agencies devoted to child welfare have selzed upon it as an cffective mnstru- ment and tons of literature are avail-! abl> to every young mother about to| undertake the absorbing task of caring | for a baby. Some of the information confusing, but the average mother of galns in weight with the facility of an | expert, a fact due to the plentitude of materlal that can be had from many | sources. Education, however, is not the cnly factor. Purity of milk supply, purity of water, enforcement of sanitary reg- ulations, the maintenance of pre-natal and infant care clinics and greater knowledge and skill on the part of the medical profession have contributed their part to lowering infant mortality rates. In the last ten years the deaths of oables under one year from what might be generally classed as “feeding trou- bles” have shown a marked decline, although there are years when the curve shows a discouraging tendency to rise. The level has been lowered from 178 deaths in the calendar year 1918 to 62 deaths in the last calendar year. There was a steady drop from 1918 to 1921, when the deaths were 91. Then an increase began which brought the number to 115 in 1923. In 1924 there was a temporary drop, but in 1925 there were 142 deaths, followed in 1926 by 114 and in 1927 by 52, the lowest yet recorded in a calendar year. Progress! in the next ten years should bring us nearer the goal of an irreducible mini- mum of preventable deaths among chil- dren, ——e——s Moral Turpitude. ‘The United States Court of Appeals In New York has ruled in a deporta- tion case that violation of the prohibi- tion law does not constitute necessarily “moral turpitude.” Most persons will find themselves in | hearty agreement with this decision. “Turpitude” hardly can be defined by a law. The only standard is the pub- lic concience. The illegality of an act is no measure of the evil of it. We easily can imagine cases where violation of a traffic regulation would constitute moral turpitude and other cases where manslaughter might not. It is beyond the power of legislators to create evil and good. These, in the final analysis, are the products of the conclence of the individual squared, as it must be, with the conscience of the community. True enough, statutes gen- sclence, bui not necessarily. After all, it probably is unwise to go very far beyond the Ten Command- ments in seeking a workable standard for the definition of “moral turpitude.” These are fundamental in the structure of the human conscience. They do not | change with acts of legislators, with passing fancies or with national boun- daries. They antedate considerably the eighteenth amendment, the Volstead act and the immigration statutes of the United States. It is well for courts to be very con- servative in declaring legal wrongs to constitute moral turpitude per se. In order to retain any significance at all the term must be restricted sharply in meaning. e —— S Photographers mno longer insist on poses by Lindbergh, and Lindbergh should be satisfied. He has made it per- fectly clear that he did not ask for the | camera spotlight in the first place, e RE— More Witches. For the past six months there has been a spreading epidemic of “witch” murders in the United States. ‘The latest incident of this nature is reported from Kalamazoo, Mich., where a taxi driver killed an elderly lady, his next door neighbor, because “she had cast an evil eye on his family.” At the police station the man stubbornly de- fended his act. 1t was, he maintained, | justified as a measure of self-defense against the powers of darkness which, operating through the slain woman, were killing his daughter, A few weeks ago there was a notably brutal “witch killing” in Detroit. The headless body of the “Messiah” of an exotic religious cult was found in front of his own weirdly decorated altar and in adjoining rooms were the mutilated corpses of his wife and children, all murdered by the fear-driven fanatics. 1t is strange to find such a revival of primitive superstition in this day of pewspapers, public schools, telephones, | country people. THE _EVENING STAR, "WASHINGTON., D. C.-'MONDAY, JULY 22, 1929. the York witchcraft trials in January there have been persistent new out- breaks in other sections of Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, Virginia, West Vir- ginia, Ohlo and Michigan. It is not confined to remote rural communities out of touch with the culture of the times, where it could be interpreted as the result of the natural fear of the malevolent, forces of nature which play | %o prominent a part in the lives of Quite to the contrary, ! the most outragwous outbreaks have been in cities in the glare of electric ' street lights, which are presumed to be ! the most potent antidotes for supersti- | tions, It is not unlikely that the underlying | cause is to b> found in the breaking ! away from old faiths and in the semi- mystical philosophies now current which inferior minds can grasp only in part. The mental outlook of thousands | of people has been upset. They are groping in the dark—and the “witch” | killings are not an unnatural result. The cure lics in a more fundamental | education in the eternal verities, r—om—s - A Potential “Death Curve.” Park road has becoms an important cast and west traffic artery between | Connecticut avenue and Sixteenth street in addition to being a favored route for entering and leaving Rock Creek Park. All day long and far into | the night the cars pass up and down the hill, and as they make the sharp | iturn onto the bridge across Piney Branch there is a shriek of skidding tires, often a squeal of brakes| and now and then a hair's-breadth es- jcape from a plunge into the wooded ravine that lies on the right of the bridge entrance to the park. The au- thorities have erected a barrier of stout timbers to stop the car that is headed | for the edge of the ravine and a tumble, | and in the past there have been several | instances of where the timbers have had to be replaced and the owners of auto- mobiles confronted with a large repair bill and possibly the attentions of the | family physician. For motorists entering the park the turn is one of the most dangerous in Washington. The road is rather narrow and the curve is not properly banked. The surface, in wet weather, becomes very slippery. One out of every three or four cars skids, and unless the road is widened and banked there will be a | tragedy there some day as disastrous as it is spectacular. Removing this hazard by proper treatment should be placed on the program of street work and un- dertaken at the first opportunity. e A Chinese resident in America used to wear a queue. Political events enabled him to patronize the Occidental barber. New signs of enslavement may now be sought, and the world may never fully realize how far fts history has been in- fluenced by the simple matter of a hair- | cut, P ——— It will take a long time to translate ! Russian Communism into Chinese di- | alects. Literary restraints are often | valuable in checking popular impetuosi- | ties. B e S — Estimates of the wealth of the former | German Kaiser favor the assumption that while he may not have been much | of an Emperor he was emphatically a good business man. Sl Washington, D. C. is the Nation's Capital. But it will need a few motion pleture studios to wrest the spotlight of | popular attention from Los Angeles, A S ma Grand opera is planned for Washing- ton, D. C. The National Capital is beau- teously vocal, but in an oratorical rather | than a musical manner, oo SHOOTING Sm— BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. 4 Vacation Day. Vacation day! Vacation day! We'll imitate the clouds that stray From here to there, or anywhere ‘With not a faint restraint of care. ‘We've theorized on the relief Of help divine from earthly grief— But real Heaven slips this way At mention of Vacation day. Superior to Influence. “Do you play golf?” “I claim to do so,” said Senator Sorghum. “But the voice of the pro- letariat is against me. The caddie thinks differently.” Jud Tunkins says a person who tells all he knows seidom tells much that is important. Conflicting Impulses. We always hope for a release From ways that don't seem right And yet when some one talks of peace Another talks of fight. Looking Ahead. “I am thinking of getting a divorce, with alimony.” “Didn’t know you were miarried.” “I'm not. But I have a proposal. “Old men,” sald Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “talk of war which will leave young men to face the fighting.” ‘Natural Historlan. Though songs so dear keep drawing near, T half suspect I'd trail A hemisphere in hope to hear The whistle of a quail! “Honesty,” sald Uncle Eben, “is de best policy. man dat robs a bank gits come up , same as one dat robs & chicken roost.” Courage of Conviction. PFrom the Philadelphia Record. The Supreme Court of the United States, it is gratifying to note, has the courage of Mr. Sinclair's convictions. In Round Figures. From the Loulsville Times. Reduction specialists are accustomed to dealing with round ! radios, automobiles and atrplanes. The | underlying cause doubtless involves ob- scure and complicated soelological and psychological phenomena which de- serve the attention of serious students of such matters. . The witch epidemic apparently started—at least it came generally to the public attention first—in the rural communities of York County, Pa., last Winter. It had been slumbering there for generations and nesded only the right combination of circumstances to fan it into flame. But there was| something “catching” about it. Since Is there any connection between an lutou::lklz," tour and the reading of Offhand there might appear to be none, but a young man convinced us the other day that there is a great deal. He took a trip, and as the result of it came home to the reading of good books, whereas before the tour he had read mostly trash. ‘The sincerity of his opinions con- vinced us that his reading reform, if one might so call it, was permanent, not just thé thing of & moment. ‘This young fellow knew good books. He simply was going back to old times when he returned to them. Time, cir- cumstances, events had managed to take him away from them for awhile. * ok R K “I got in the habit of reading light stu he sald. ‘“‘Gradually the great books of the world became only names to me. “1 read nothing that took any effort, and, of course, the good books do take some effort. You only get out of a thing what you put into it, and if you put nothing in you get little out. “I would come home, after a hard day at the office, and pick up some standard work, only to find that it bored me. “Then I would select ne, look at the pictures, and maybe read flashy story or two, and call it a night. | “Now these things have their place, but their place is not to the exclusion of the great books of past ages. “When one finds that detective fic tion, for instance, is taking all of one’s | reading attention, he may know that | he is in danger.” * K R K “But how,” we asked him, “did your automobile trip bring you back to good books?" “By the history route,” he smiled. “You see, it was this way: I decided to spend a few days of my vacation tour- ing_Virginia. “I visited historic towns, battlefields, became interested in reading about them, and this took me over a wide field of historical reading. | “In reading the books I discovered | that my old-time zest for the best writ- | ings was returning. Of course, during the trip I had the stimulus of new places and scenes, but the happy thing. I found, was that after I returnes home my whole outlook had changed. “I saw that I had been unfaithful to myself, in sliding into the easiest course of reading. 1 had once liked the best things, there was no reason why I still should not, once I put my mind to it. “When I got home, the first evening I went to the bookcase, and my eye chanced to fall on Dickens’ ‘Little Dor- rit." “I found, after 20 pages, that I was enjoying it! It came as a surprise to | me, and I must confess, as a delight and a relief. I was afrald I had for- gotten.” PR Yes, books may be forgotten as well as faces. Every one knows that there comes a period in every man's life, no matter how much of a reader he may have been in his youth, when actual| events tend to take the place held b: the great masters in the field of world | literature. Often sheer physical ennui is respon- sible. In many lines of work a close application necessitates the handling of | It can be stated on unimpeachable authority that Law Enforcement Chair- man Wickersham was completely flab- bergasted by the disclosure of his now celebrated prohibition letter to Gov. | Roosevelt. The letter was written to | the New York executive at his request | and was supposedly intended for what President Hoover, when talking to the | White House newspaper men for non- | quotation purposes, calls ‘“background stuff.” Wickersham dashed off his com- | munication to Roosevelt in long hand. never suspecting for the fragment of 8 | moment that within a few hours it would be the cause celebre of the pro- hibition universe. On equally first-hand authority this observer can say that Mr. Hoover had no more of a glimmer thai Wickersham was going to take his fountain pen in hand than the Presi- | dent has of the number of fish he'll catch next week end. Perhaps—if he hasn't already done so—the law en-| forcement chairman will take occasion | to let Gov. Roosevelt know of the sur- | prise party he sprang upon his corre- | ndent by reading the letter to the governors’ conference. * ok kK One of the New London gubernatorial conferees went home during the week | end by way of Washington, in order to | pay his respects to President Hoover. Just before leaving New London, the State executive in question—Gov. George E. Shafer, Republican, of North Da- kota—went into a telegraph office, to inform the White House by wire that | he would be happy to keep a proffered appointment. “Are you the governor's secretary?” the nymph behind the counter asked the extremely youthful- looking man who'd just handed in a | message. “Well,” responded Gov. Shafer, | “not exactly, although I'm looking after | his secretarial work up here. In fact, | I'm attending to the governor's job, | too.” Then he identified himself, to the consternation of a bobbed-h: necticut Yankee. Shafér, North Dakota attorney general, cedes about 40 years of age, looks 30. red Con- a former con- but * ok ok x The wife of a_ certain distinguished member of the Hoover administration is going to watch her social step in Washington henceforwerd, in conse- quence of a faux pas just committed. She inhabits a fashionable hotel apart- ment, at which there called the other day a well known Capital society woman, who wanted to pay her re- spects. ‘The caller was announced by telephone from the desk down below. “Let me talk to her,” said the official hostess in question. Thereupon this flashed over the wire: “I am bothered to death by women I don’t know. I don’t want my picture taken nor do I want to buy anything. If you have anything to say to me, write me a letter.” Then bang went the receiver lon its hook. The visitor recovered consciousness before leaving the desk and is now taking revenge by broad- casting her experience. L * * x % President Hoover says he expects to appoint & lot more commissions “during | the next four years.” He won't impart the nature of them or of the next commission on his list. but he has no hecitation in admitting that he con- siders the commission form of finding facts for formulation of Federal policies the best system extant. Hoover has always been partial to commissions and committees. “They grew up like mush- rooms during his Department of Com- merce days. A wag once said that the middle initial in" the Californian’s name stands for “commissions.” Dur. ing the 1928 campaign Al Smith fre- quently chided Hoover for the latter's avowed purpose to name commissions for various purposes, if elected Presi- dent. Smith himself, it is recalled, proposed to solve the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway project and co- ted wlumw:ndln‘ the prob- over to a on. £ PR Now that the blicans of the Sen- ate finance ebm‘:r“ a huddle for framing of their tariff bill, they're saying on Capitol Hill that Sen- ator Smoot, the committee chairman, has been worn almost to a. frazzle by the sugar schedule fight. In fact, they're irreverent enough to speak of the Utahan as “a broken Reed” Cer- the country's sugar-tariff rd- | | make all good things easy may solved in another world, but scarcely | | sands of their printed and hnlguvenembelmmmn rough sledding as they're suffe THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. papers all day long, or the use of the eyesight continuously. As a relief a man returns home de- siring relaxation in some other way. He likes better to take the car out for an evening’s ride, or to go to a movie, or just to dig in the garden. Perhaps a game of poker offers itself. ‘The greatest danger, however, comes in a kind of mental tiredness, which creeps over a human being after the age of 30 years. ‘Against it, there is only one sort of remedy, and that is a determination of the mind itself to resist such a thing. Perhaps some one, or something (such as our friend’s auto trip), may serve as the spark to put the mind on guard against itself. * ok ok Kk Just as a writer often finds the most difficult part of his task the beginning, 30 a reader may discover that resistance comes largely in the first 20 pages of any book. Once he is over them, the chances are that real interest will abide with him for the remainder of the work. ‘The power of will, therefore, may be necessary in overcoming the strange disinclination which will prevent even booky people from reading if they give way to it. To give in to this is somewhat on & | par with those other hostile dislikes which prevent human beings from doing what they know is right. Most good things take effort. Just why the divine dispensation did “not in_this. In the matter of books it is an un- doubted fact that often the great work is slightly dull, in some easily moving modern bit, built up for the express purpose of appealing | to those suffering from reader ennui. Perhaps the ilized world reads too much. Maybe we have taken a de- lightful thing too avidly for its good and especially for our own good. Per- haps we are in danger of running music into the ground in the same way, by too much use. * K K K Good books, however, of pleasure. They wait on their shelves for us, and we are fools if we do not | vall ourselves of them. The critical taste of the ages has been very good. Books which survive 50, 100 years, several centuries, 20 cen- turfes in the very great majority of | | instances these are good books. and hundreds of thou- lettered companions have gone the way to oblivion. . These remain. Therefore they merft our attention, in a way that cannot as vet adhere to the new books, no matter how fine they may be. : The stamp of the approval of time ‘Thousands is not yet on them, whereas it is there | solidly on those works which the world has agreed to call great or good. Good books deserve to be read. not | only by those who have never lost their taste for them, but by those who once had it but let it get away from them. Reclaim it! Take an automobile rip into historic Virginia or up through Prederick or in Pennsylvania or the New England States, and happily bring back with you not only memories, but a renewal of one of life’s choicest pleas- ures, & love for good books. WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. connection with the present unpleasant- ness. In the past, they have been a customed but to ask in order to re- ceive. be. sugar is filling the) nowadays. The Utah beet barons are thunderstruck by Senator Smoot's in- ability to get whatever he wants, dp accordance with time-honored habit. His detractors (with whom the wish may be the father to the thought) sug- | gest that the sliding scale for sugar rates may be the toboggan down which Smoot’s political prestige may coast to destruction. * % % % Cool weather and the other Midsum mer attractions of Washington are lur- ing motor tourists by the thousands to these parts, but they're in mighty hard luck at the moment if they attempt! A cotton crop consists of three or four | to navigate anywhere within two or three blocks of the White House and the Treasury. Summer street repairin operations have thrown traffic condi tions in that region into about as comparison Wwith | will stand | more abuse than almost any other sort | Sweet an issue as it ought to| m with bitterness | Bryan’s Recognition For Treaties Asked To the Editor of The Star: 2 In the interest of history, truth and justice, as well as posterity, I protest against the proposed formal celebration at the White House on July 27 of the “Kellogg” peace treaties. Back in 1913 when William Jennings Bryan was Secretary of State he initiated and ne- gotlated twenty-nine peace treaties with | foreign nations and he told the writer that Germany had accepted the prin- ciple and was about to formally sign when the World War broke out. Had Germany signed it might have pre- vented the United States from enter- ing it. I recall at that time that the newspapers of the country poked fun at the author and the treaties as an- other of his dreams. There is little or no difference, since the principle is the same, of the Bryan and Kellogg treaties. ‘The object of both was the outlawing of war and the future peace of the world. As a memento of the success of the movement Bryan presented his col- leagues in the State Department. as well as other friends, with a plowshare beaten from a naval gun, which adorned the desks of many of his friends. There is a movement afoot to celebrate the world’s greatest achievement—world peace—by the printing of a postage stamp bearing the photograph of Mr. Kellogg. I know of no better way to celebrate that great achievement and suggest that since Mr. Bryan initiated and negotiated twenty-nine of these treaties, long before Mr. Kellogg was ever dreamed of as Secretary of State, and since the latter negotiated eleven more during his incumbency of that office, that the proposed stamp contain the composite features of Bryan and | Kellogg. It might be added, too, that during the last presidential campaign when the Republicans wanted to make these treaties an issue, Mr. Kellogg, to his credit, demurred and said the credit belonged to a Democratic Secretary of State, Bryan. Since war has been outlawed by the nations of the earth and the two Eng- lish-speaking nations, Great Britain and the United States, possess the only navies of the world that amount to anything, together with Japan, which | has agreed to naval disarmament, all that_Temains for Ramsay MacDonald. the British premier, recently elected on naval disermament platform by the English people, is to agree to strip these death-dealing battleships of their guns. If there is anything more use- less than a battleship without guns my mind fails to grasp it. and I suggest that they be beaten “into plowshares” | | or sunk.” Then the peace of the world will have been achieved for posterity. W. J. DWYER. A Advocates Farm Board Funds for Education | To the Editor of The Star: Would it not be wise for the Presi- dent and the Farm Board to use some ! of the funds set aside for farm relief for | the education of the masses to an un- derstanding of problems in the various | sections of the country? To llustrate my point: As a travel- ing salesman _through Western New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, I find as | much fgnorance prevails about prob- | lems in the South as an isolated South- ern mountaineer could ever show about how to adjust _technical problems in a | steel mill. or how to finance a Pitts- | burgh alderman election. i Yet these people, many of them. hold that the Southern farmers' problems only buy the machinery and put it to | w I spent_one Sunday afternoon | trying_to convince the representative of a Philadelphia publishing firm that no cotton-picking machine had ever been invented that was considered | practical and, according to the De- | partment of Agriculture, it was hardly vented that would operate cheaper and have already been settled if they would | p ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ‘This is & 1 department devoted solely to the handling of queries. This paper puts at your disposal the services of an extensive organization in Wash- ington to serve you in any capacity that relates to information. This service is free. Failure to make use of it deprives you of benefits to which you are en- titled. Your obligation is only 2 cents in coln or stamps inclosed with your inquiry for direct reply. Address The Evening Star Infcrmation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Washing- ton, D. C. % Is it possible for an airplane to make a climb so steep that it will kill the motor?—J. W. K. A. It is not possible. The motor will titude, but it will not stop. The plane merely ceases to gain altitude. Q. What kind of a horse is a plater? V. E. W. chiefly in plate races. A plate race is one in which a prize is given to the w'i‘rll‘ner, the contestants not making a stake. labor when it reaches its maximum al-| A. A plater is a horse which runs| BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. original States, but was the first State afterward admitted to the Union. .§ What are Cleopatra's Needles?— A. Cleopatra’s Needles- are two Egyp- tian obelisks which were transported from Heliopolis to Alexandria in 14 B. C., where they remained until 1877, when' they were presented to the gov- ernments of Great Britain and the United States by the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, and one now_stands on fhe Thames embankment, London, and ine other in Central Park, New York City. | @ Is there a law against bur Chinese in this country?—S. N. | “A. There is no law prohibiting the burial of Chinese in the United States, | but the Chinese prefer to be buricd in their native country Q. What cities on our Eastern coast have climates like the climate of South- ern England’—W. D. D. A. Southern portions of New Enzland. Long Island and parts of New Jersey have climates at._certain seasons of the vyear similar to the climate of Southern England. Q. Does & boy have to finish high school before beginning to study law?— 8. J. W. A. The American Bar Association, at the present time, requires, in addition to a high school education, a two-year pre-legal course and the requirements will probably be raised shortly to a col- lege degree previous to entering law school. Q. At what season is the tide highest in the Bay of Fundy?—H. A. A. The tides of the Bay of Fundy are always high, but the highest tides oc- cur in the Spring and Autumn. Q. What causes the earth's magnet- ism?—R. K. A. It is not known whether the earth’s magnetism arises chiefly from substances in the magnetized condition lodestone, and by the artificial magnet, or as a result of electric currents cir- culating approximately in the directicn from east to west within the earth. All we know is that the earth acts like a magnet and is therefore surrounded by & magnetic field whose lines of force extend far out into space. Q. Give a brief outline of the political career of Oscar De Priest before he was elected to the House of Representatives. —L. F. R. A. Mr. De Priest was born in Flor- ence, Ala. in 1871. He is engaged in real estate busines Chicago. He served for two term a commissiner of Cook County, Ill, and one term as alderman, City of Chicago. He wa representative = committeeman of th: third ward, City of Chicago: delegat 1928 from the first district of Illinois and assistant Illinois commissioner. Q. What book in the Bible recalls the Gauls?—T. J. H. A. The book in the Bible which was written primarily to a people, de- scendants of the ancient Gauls, is the Book of Galatians in the New Testa- ment. tionality of Jack Quinn, pitcher for the Philadelphia team?—J. A. C. A. His name is John Quinn Picis. He was born in Hazleton, Pa., July 5, 1885. Q How long is the moon full?—C. A. The full moon, astronomically de- fined, occurs when the longitude of the moon differs by exactly 180 degrees from that of the sun. As this condi- | tion is momentary, the moon is full for an instant o Q. Which is the right and which the M. that any machine could be in-|left bank of a stream?—D. A. The right bank of a stream is at more efficiently than the human hands. He had seen plctures showing a ma- chine that was sweeping over a cot- | ton field gathering up the cotton and | throwing it into sacks without a min- | ute’s loss. ninny, who had lived near a cotton machine that was harvesting the cot- ton so efficently was destroying at least | three-fourths of the crop that would come on later, |, The cotton plants must be nursed | tenderly in a region where the climate {is at least seven months free from frost. The cotton grower must buv cxpensive fertilizer, for which he is often in debt several vears, for no plant | impoverishes the soil as does cotton. | pickings, begun early in the Summer | and continued until late in the Fall— sometimes until December. On _the same plant are found ripe bolls, blos- | soms, buds and immature cotton in all Yet a 10-year-old picka- | patch, could have told him that the | | the right as one goes down strcam. Q. Is Vermont one of the 13 original States?—E. E. C. A. Vermont was not one of the 13 exhibited by the natural magnet, the | to Republican National Convention in Q. What is the real name and na- | | @ What is fustian writing>—M. M. A. In literature, fustian signifies a forced, bombastic style of writing. abounding with metaphors or other rhetorical figures. Q. Was the treatment of a storage battery cell given in your column meant for lead-acid type of cell or for alkaline type of battery?—M. W. A. The Loomis Radio College says | that the answer recommending a solu- tion of bicarbonate of soda referred to an alkaline type of cell only. For the usual type of lead-acid siorage bat- | teries the standard material recom- | mended battery manufacturers for coating tops is vaseline. This is efs fective’ 1o a certain extent, but ac- cumulates dust. There is nothing that will entrely prevent creeping sals and dirt from accumulating around the connecting strips without continual care and cleaning. The best way to keep them clean 3s to wipe them thor- oughly every few days with a cloth which has been dipped in a strong so- lution of bicarbonte of soda. None of | the soda should be permitte# %o get in- side of the cell, as this would neutralize the sulphuric-acid solution. Q. What is meant by point-blank renge? What is the point-blank range of a Springfield rifle>—S. G. A. The point-blank range of a rife he point at which the gullet is here it is at the same elsvaiion as when it leaves the muzzle of the rif after livm rifle been fired. The poini-blank ran the Springfield rifle is at o distance of 350 yards g}?flm the muzzle, d}'-?'m;; what word is debenture A. The word debenture is allied to a iddle England word _debantur, which means a receipt. It was &n called because such receipts formerly began with the Latin words, “debenture | mihi,” meaning “there are owing to me.” Q. Who made the report upon which the prosecution of Mrs. Florence Knapp was based?—J. C. A. In the New York census case in which Mrs. Florence Knapp was de- fendant proceedings originated in the report by H. Emerson and W. Laidlaw for the city census committee to Gov. Smith, charging Mrs. Knapp with non- feasance and malfeasance in office, October 3, 1927. Q. What is the name of the castle at the entrance of the harbor at Vera Cruz, Mexico>—T. L. A. It is San Juan de Ulua. Q. What is pelota?>—M. C. A. Pelota is a Besque, Spanish and Spanish-American game played in a ccart, in which a ball is struck with a wickerwork rack | Record of rNieal_' East: chralri>e.f‘ - Lauded as Work Nears Close i An amazingly successful work of in- | telligent philanthropy is lauded by the [y\res'o in its appreciations of the record of Near Eest Relief. “The raport | chairman, to the beard of trustees of {the Near Eas% Relief summarizes achievements in which Americans may | feel a legilimate pride.” says the Le: ington Leader, which believes that “in chaotic and exasperating a_system of | stages of ripening. Any mechanical de- | the entire record of war and post-war absurd detours as could possibly be con- | vice that has so far been used destrovs | activity there is entered no work less trived for the irritation of drivers. An- other seasonal attraction now being staged for Washington visitors is the presence in the immediate proximity of the Treasury of some mechanical street-paving apparatus with a din reminiscent of an artillery barrage on the western front. The American Capital remains the loveliest while be- coming one of the noisiest cities on this hectic earth. EE Keep your eye on young “Charlie” Taft of Cincinnati as the successor to Mabel Walker Willebrandt as Assistant Attorney General of the United States. The brilliant son of the Chief Jus- tice was recently a White House guest. He has made an outstanding record as prosecutor of Hamilton County, Ohio— the first public office his distinguished dad held. Insiders say that nothing would please President Hoover better than if the 32-year-old Charles Phelps Taft, II, could be prevailed upon to ?ck!e th: work al plrohlbltlon law_en- forcement. recently in charge of Mrs. Willebrandt. To be remembelsld is Hoo- ver’s plan to consolidate all enforcement judicial affairs in the Department ot ! Justice. It would be a striking thin, if the sons of Charles Evans Hughes :mg ‘William Howard Taft found themselves cheek by jowl in the Government's law office. (Copyright. 1929.) ———— Oil Industry Needs Straight Drill Genius To the Editor of The Star: ‘The governors of oil-producing States recently got together in an efifort to solve the econemic problem of over- production. After much debating nothing much was accomplished. Clarence E. Reed, &! engineer, and :::e writer ere gm Sing the confer- recently and during this ver- sation Mr. Reed said: o iR “The oil industry must overcome the tremendous losses due to the inability of present equipment to insure the drilling of a straight hole.” Here is sound wisdom from a man who has devoted many years to the production of oil and is known through- out the midcontinent and California oil flelds. Fundamental changes are need- ed to obtain bits which will insure straighter ofl-hole drilling and last longer. Here is opportunity staring some genius in the face, for the man who invents such equipment will surely be hailed as the savior of the oil in- dustry. Many of this country’s best inventive minds have been at work on this prob- lem and the oil producers in general are looking forward to the oil indus- try exposition at Tulsa in Qctober for the fruits of their labors. LEONARD STEWART SMITH. B e Nothing Left to" Say. From the Albany Evening News. ‘These men who swear so much never have anything left to say when they have to change a tire in the rain. ————————— This Might Help. From the Santa Barbara Daily Mews. Cavone in jail for carrving a gun, ‘Binclair for contempt. Why not rum runners for the buds and blossoms and any un- opened bolls, reducing the crop in pro- jportion to the efficiency of its one | present harvesting. My friend’s opinion had been set be- cause of one moving picture that he had seen, making a very good test for | the time g without reckoning the cost. I referred him to any standard encyclopedia and have since sent to him bulletins from the Department of Agriculture setting forth the difficul- ties of handling cotton, stating that no cotton-picking machine had ever or probably every would be invented for |its attendant destruction. He probably prefers to believe the informa- tion he received without sufficient ex- planation, ‘This is one of the prob- lems the Farm Board will be up against —trying to break down false pre- digested opinions which will hamper them in many ways. S. A. DAILEY. Mining Millioanons Of Air Gas Each Year BY E. E. FREE, PH. D. No matter how much of the air farmers may use up for fertilizer. there will be plenty of it left. Speaking a recent meeting of the British Science Guild. in London, Sir Frederick Keeble, prominent British chemical manufac- turer, stated that factories now work- ing in Europe for the extraction of air nitrogen to make fertilizers were con- suming this gas at the rate of over a milllon tons a year. Nevertheless, so vast is the amount of nitrogen gas in the air that use could continue at this rate, Sir Frederick said, for four billion years without exhausting the supply. The atmosphere contains vir- tually all the nitrogen that exists on earth. There is a little of it in the sea, small deposits of its compound are known here and there over the earth's surface and a considerable amount of the element is contained in coal. There must be a little nitrogen inside the earth also, for the gases from volca- noes often contain some of its chemical compounds. Nitrogen in food is as es- sential to animals as to plants. Were all the nitrogen locked up somewhere life on earth would cease. But no one need be alarmed by the activities of the chemists in consuming it. Not only are Sir Frederick’s calculations re- assu . but it is probable that even the million tons of nitrogen which the chemists do make into fertilizers each year gets back into the air after a few years, when the plants or animals ;'huu bodies have used it die and eeay. P It Will Soon Lift. From the Cedar Raplds Gazette and Re- "~ publican, The Lindberghs are reported to Be in ‘l' fDB'. but it's likely they do not know yet. Forty-Four Years Later. From the Pittsbursh Post-Gazette. Maj. Gen. Bullard recently received a letter mailed to him 44 years ago. ‘There seems to be n¢ wrong with othing get ‘W“A:umn mucilage they wsed in tkose commercial use in the South because of | still | | selfish nor more worthy. nor any which, | instituted under such tremendous { handicaps, comes nearer to a complete realization of its aims.” The Spokane | Spokanesman-Review calls it “a com- | prehensive record of philanthropic | service,” and finds cause for gratitude in the estimate that “1.500.000 lives | have been saved through its timely esSistance, including 132,552 children, | mostly orphans.” Says the Charieston Daily Mail: | Near East Relief was an enormous ta: | there has never been anything like it before; it aroused a magnificent re- sponse, and Americans unquestionably have done their full and honorable share in it.” he Raleigh News and Observer say o relief in history has directly saved so many lives and put so many children on their feet, and the management has won and deserved the | thanks of humanity.” ‘That this work stands forever as a refutation of the charge that Americans are entirely materialistic is urged by the Harrisburg Telegraph. “America m he savs this paper. “It stands as a practical, undeniable repudiation of the accusation that the people of the United States are interested merely in money making and dollar snatching. In the strong. clear light of what he has done in the Near East, Uncle Sam- uel, by no stretch of the imagination. can be held to resemble Uncle Shylock of the European cartconists’ concep- tion."” * K X % Rock Island Argus sees the heart of America” as having sponsive to the needs of th icken whose husbands and fa- were slain, and who, without timely help, would have shed mis- erably in most instances,” while the Davenport Democrat declares: “It was a movement in which America could not help but lead, and which must have brought us much of the friendship and confidence of governments and people in the Near East.” “It was organized to relieve the misery and suffering _caused by the World War,” says the Williamsport Sun, explaining t work. “As a result of the geographical alignment of many countries, thousands of people -were compelled to migrate to other places and seek employment under conditions wholly new to them. As a result, mil- lions of people were plunged into a condition of hunger and disease, and thousands upon_ thousands of children were made orphans by the death of their parents or bzing separated trom ‘The “greal been war- thers them. Most of these countries were in | the Near East.” The Terre Haute Star quotes some of the statistics: “Up to the night of June 30, the American people had con- | tributed $108,655,663.93 for the doing of this great job. This is in addition to contributions of food, medical sup- plies and clothing, concessions of traus- portation companies on land and sea, and $12,800,000 worth of food from the American Relief Association.” Describing the charity of the ex- traordinary organ ture in friendship,” the Rochester Times- Union remarks, “What men saw in this efficien’, persistent, pacific charity was the +#nce on the bridge and love at the 4‘~w-wuummnm'rhuh of James L. Barton. well be proud of the Near East Re- | ol head and the warm heart; in- contributions have been Park Pre | the huge handled, the Asbury e “The Near East Relief has been a | mirably managed and it retires from the active field of operations in a blaze of public approbation. That its di- rectors have displayed the good sense to disband upon the completion of heir task, instcad of maintaining an expensive organization beyond the davs of its real usefulness. is not the least of the reasons for applauding the work of this charitable undertaking.” In the “announcement of fulfillment of the mission of Near East Relief” the Buffalo Times sees “a message of pros- | perity and peace,” bearing witness that | “the 10 years' refugee emergency in | the Near East is virtually at an end. The protracted crisis 1s over. Commu- nity and commonwealth life in that erstwhile distracted region has settled into the normal.” Gratification that the affairs of the organization are not to be too abruptly | brought to a close is expressed in many | quarters. Typical remarks are those of the Bangor Commercial, which says, “The work of the Near East Relief will not be entirely abandoned, for th>: | remain some 20,000 children to be aid= | ed. * » % These children will still ba | cared for until they are able to sus- | tain themselves or ate placed in homes, cared for by local committees.” R |Hoover Is Commended As an Administrator From the New Castle News. Herbert, Heover is a shrewd politician, but he is a still better administrator whether of public or private busfhess. So he is an administrator first and poli- tician afterward. How Jong should one have been well acquainted with the President to dis- cover that he preferred Government ef- | ficlency to politics? Dr. Hubert Work | was clo to him for years, but he rned to know the real Hoover only fter the latter's Inauguration. | " As chairman of the Republican na- tional committee Dr. Work expected to | be “chief dispenser” of patronage in | the Hoover administration. When he | awakened to the fact that the jobs by | his chief’s orders were to go to capable and efficient applicants and not to poli- ticians, he retired from the chairman- ship and public life, Early in his administration the Presi- | dent demonstrated his ability to produce | efficiency where it was never produccd before. In these little demonstratios there has been no let-up. While thev hardly boost his stock with politicians of the old school, these little miracles of Government increase his prestige with { John Smith, taxpayer. Farm relief, flood control and the other costly Federal undertakings im- posed upon the Hoover administration create more jobs and devour more tax | dollars, but Hoover efficiency will make the pill easier to swallow. —r—————— Cool Chauffeuring. From the Toledo Blade Among careful drivers list the one | who is taking home a 40-pound cake of ice on the running board. o New Twin Cities. From the Florence (Ala) Herald. When asked to name the twin cities a bright schoolboy suggested Walla ization as an “adven-| Walla Erd e s Another Trouble Solver. From the Nashville Banner. Another good way to be rid of all earthly troubles is fo assume that the water is deep enough for a bigh dive.