Evening Star Newspaper, July 23, 1929, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY... ...July 23, 1920 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Businesa Office: 11 a s 3 Michigan Building. event St., London, Rate by Carrier Within the City. a1 per month .60c per month de n Collection ma ch month. i sent in by mail or telephone rders may be NAtional 5000, Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday....1 yr., $10.00: 1 mo., 88c Daily only 1 $6.00: 1 mo.. Eunday only $4.00; 1 mo., 40c Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively ertitled o the use for republication of all news dis- patches credited to it or not otherwise cred- ited {n this paper and also the iocal news published herein. All rights of publication of Epecial dispatches herein are also resert Deutschland Ueber Alles. When the North German Lloyd grey- hound Bremen poked her rakish nose past the finishing mark at Ambrose Channel Light in New York Harbor yes- terday, she did more than break the transatlantic record. She hung up a symbol. That is the symbol of Ger- many’s revival as a first-class mer- cantile marine power. As such, it is also a sign of the Fatherland's return to economic prowess. To achieve the place on the high | geas, which the Germans may now claim, within ten years of the treaty | of Versailles, is an accomplishment little short of miraculous. The World War reduced Germany to complete im- potence as & naval power and to fifth- rate importance as a merchant marine power. She is barred by the terms of her defeat from rebuilding her navy, but has taken colossal advantage of the privilege of restoring herself to front | rank as an oceanic carrier of passen- | gers and freights. ‘William Hohenzollern, the discredited denizen of Doorn, in an epigram coined during his grandiloquent days, once fired the enthusiasms of the German people by proclaiming that “our future lies upon the water” In respect of #hips of war that future has become an frretrievable past, but the speedy Bremen—with a Cherbourg-New York passage of 4 days 17 hours and 42 min- utes to her credit—is an omen that the ex-Kaiser’s dictum has not lost its meaning for Germany's future afloat. The Llovd ship's conquest of Atlantic lJaurels will awaken particular poi- gnant pangs in Great Britain, for it is the Cunarder Mauretania's colors as record-holder which the Bremen has lowered. For a decade before the World ‘War, the British and German lines were in a neck-and-neck contest for Europe-to-America speed honors. They ‘were won and lost from time to time, 23 Michel matched the best that John Bull built, and vice versa. The Maure- tania’s champlonship belt was unchal- lenged for twenty-two years, but of course, war and its aftermath put the . Germans hors de combat. How long will it be before the Clydebank will turn out s ship destined to outstrip the Bremen's 700-odd miles a day record? Americans may well ask themselves why the Star and Stripes are never represented in this endless race for the Atlantic crown. We worship speed ashore. Why do we not go in for it on “the herring pond"”? Perhaps the great | liners now to be built by the corpora- tion which recently took over the Leviathan and other Government ships will succeed in making the flag that once flew from the peerless Yankee | clippers once again the pennant of the | fastest ships that sail the briny. ot Not Enough Light. The Union Station is too magnificent & structure, too much in the eye of newcomers to the National Capital, to suffer from lack of adequate lighting. Yet a visit any night to the general walting rooms and the inspiring con- course will convince any one that both | have a dingy appearance through lack of candlepower. No doubt the concourse is a particu- larly difficult place to light, with its immense high ceiling, its tremendous length and breadth, all accumulating inevitable coal dust. The very magnificence of the station, s a whole, and the concourse in par- ticular, would seem to demand a par- ticular accent on lightng. The anniversary of the electric lamp, recently celebrated, could find no more worthy exemplar than the Union Sta- tion concourse, yet tme lights in its ceiling are far apart and of too little | candlepower for the best effect. More powerful lights and more of them would add immensely to the glory of this truly magnificent station, one which does credit not only to Washing- ton, but also to the raliroad interests of the country, It is essential that visitors to the Capital have a glowlng, rather than a dismal, greeting. Certainly a “great ~ white way” effect is not desired, but there is no occaslon for dinginess. PR There is fear that restless govern- ments will not’find entire relief in simply telling their troubles to the League of Nations, r———— A chilly July puts a new complica- tion into the question of the precise date when straw hats are due. s Fact Finders. President Hoover is not the originator of the fact-finding commission, but he ” shows a disposition to make more fre- . quent use of such groups of experts than has been the caSe in any previous ad- : ministration. Already commissions are hard at ‘work on the farm relief and crime wave problems and Mr. Hoover announces that he has in mind the appointment ©of others as the need arises. This is the attitude of the sclentific mind in politics—a mind which loaths conclusions not based on accumulation, constideration and correlation of all the facts affecting any issue. Without such & background any individual's opinion | on anything is hardly worth consider- ing and any legislation is & groping in the dark. Failure to secure this essen- mercantile | tial information and to act hastily has constituted one of the great drawbacks of popular government. The Hoover method is bound to result in saner government—at least from the administrative side. If Congress would follow the same procedure it would mean an end of much of the shallow and meddlesome legislation which clut- ters the statute books. An individual has no more-right to an opinion on most problems in political economy without acquiring this background than he has to an opinion on a problem in engineer- ing or medicine. A great deal depends, of course, upon the personnel of the fact-finding com- mission. In order to render efficient service they must be composed of quali- fled experts. Otherwise this system has little value. Government is becoming more and more & matter for experts. There are few issues which are not fun- damentally too complicated for lay opinion to be of much value. It is in this fleld that Mr. Hoover may make his most lasting contribution to the field of political economy. He is, by training and natural bent, an expert, and for the same reasons he has a wholesome respect for the opinions of other experts. He is applying the sane idea of government from the laboratory rather than government from the soap box. He is seeking earnestly to deal with facts and figures, dispassionately collected and correlated, rather than with phrases and emotions. v —or—s Higher Water Rents. ‘The Water Department is a self-sup- porting agency deriving its revenue from water rents. This fiscal year a deficit is anticipated that will be offset, however, by a surplus in 1931, so that some of the improvements and exten- slons authorized by Congress will have to be delayed. Both the deficit and the surplus arise from the recent extension of the District's service to users in Arl- ington County, the returns so far being below the estimated amount, but show- ing a tendency to rise as the use of water increases in Arlington County. ‘Water rates in the District, which are reasonably low, would not be disturbed one way or the other by the Arlington County addition to the system. But with the growing communities in the | outlying sections of the District, and| the necessity for extensions in the water | mains, the municipal authorities are considering the feasibility of planning | for the growth in advance and outlining | a five-year program of improvement which may have to be paid for by an increase in local water rents. In 1926 the water rents were in- creased, and the District, with the help of a proportion of the Federal Govern- ment’s annual nine-million-dollar lump sum, has. only recently completed pay- ing for an additional investment of $9,376,423 for much needed additions to | the water supply system, including the | new conduit to Great Falls, the new Dalecarlia filtration plant, new first, second and third high mains and im- provements to the Reno reservoir. An- other increase in the price of water is not to be viewed as trivial and unimpor- | tant, merely because the annual mini- mum rate for water in the District is | fixed at the rate of $6.36. The average water user already pays $7.54 a year, for only forty per cent of the consumers restrict their use of | water to the allowable minimum of 7,500 cubic feet a year, sixty per cent exceeding the minimum by nearly two thousand cubic feet. And only fifty- nine per cent of the water used in the District produces revenue. The remain- ing forty-one per cent is furnished free of charge to the District and Federal Governments, The District's fine water system is all the more valuable because of the rela- tively low rents. But the form of taxa- tion represented by the water revenue is an appreciable item and is not to be increased until necessity dictates it. Every increase in rates to pay for new construction should be made with the hope of a later reduction after the new construction has been financed. Pure water can never be as free as air, but 1t should always be the least costly of our essential commodities. e ‘Wool-Eating Grasshoppers. Since the days of the Pharaohs the grasshopper has been accounted one of | the world's most destructive insects. Grains of various sorts have been its favorite food. It remained for a dispatch from Vienna, however, to put grasshoppers on s new diet. It was stated that grass- hoppers invading the Schar Plateau in Southern Siberia have eaten the wool off sheeps’ backs. Although nothing was said as to ‘more normal grasshopper foods, it would seem that there must have been a de- ficlency of them to drive the orthop- terous insects to wool. Not even a grasshopper would eat | wool if it could get anything else. Hitherto the moth, never-ending target | of the housewife's campaigns, has had a monopoly on such a diet. ‘The dispatch is interesting as show- ing the extent to which this insect will 80 in its march for food. In Biblical days its inroads on humanity were called plagues, and feared accordingly. ‘The grasshopper, along with its broth- er and sister insects throughout the world, remains & menace to civiliza- tion, not only through its inroads on crops, but also through its germ-carry- ing powers. Parasitic creatures live on grasshop- pers, as on other insects, carrying out their life cycles through means of the insect’s blood. Eggs are lald on plants, and the consumption of these plants by human beings puts them at the mercy of these strange life cycles. —eee In view of reports of distress already existing among the people it is diffi- cult to understand how either Russia or China could encourage the idea of war. p/ The Policeman and the Kids. his duties best by making pals out of the boys—especially the most mis- chievous ones—rather than by raising the dread “hand of the law” menacingly against them. ‘There are numerous examples here in Washington of policemen who do not make a record of taking many cases to court because they practice the better plan of discouraging infringements of the law on their beats. At times these policemen have found that their great- est aids to preservation of order and The policeman on a beat performs | THE EVENING STAR detection as well as prevention of crime in the loyalty of “the gang.” That is the better conception of a policeman’s duty—to patrol his beat for the protection of life and property rather than running to court or the station house with petty offenses that he might have discouraged. It is a policy of prevention rather than punishment. 4 A notable example of how this policy works with “the kids” is shown in the case of a Haverhlll, Mass,, policeman— let his name, William H. Foren, be known to fame—who has just taken 800 boys and girls from one of the coarse-grained districts. of many nation- alities, on a picnic to a New Hampshire Inke resort. He promised the youngsters that each one who was good for a year and did not cause him any trouble would be invited. Throughout the period they followed him about report- ing how good they had been. Last Christmas he arranged & big tree for them and when he announced that he was going to keep his agreement for the Summer outing he found fellow officers, clergymen, housewives, business men and various organizations eager to help him give the youngsters the time of their lives. Three large trucks and 63 automobiles carried the crowd. The “eats” included 100 gallons of chowder, 1,500 sandwiches, 50 watermelons, 600 bottles of milk, all the tonic and ice cream they could eat, bananas, cakes, cookles and ple. 1t was Officer Foren's own tenth wed- ding anniversary. That is the “big brother” spirit in policemanship that makes the “tough™ beats models for the more “elite.” Let the “kids” come to know “the cop” as their best friend rather than one whose hand is always against them. | B ] The Death of Trees. The death of & tree is alwavs a sad thing. A good tree, like a good man, leaves its impress upon the world. Not only does its shade have a physical value, but it has a spiritual value. Living long in the land, a tree comes to take on something of character, so that its death, from any cause, is to be deplored. When such a demise comes through man's negligence it is to be deplored, indeed. ‘The National Capital may be said to be & city bullt in a park, owing to the great number of shade trees of many varieties which line its streets and_fill its beautiful parks, large and small. Sometimes these trees have been forced to give way to the march of material progress, but even then many have bewailed their loss. A more subtle loss of ti leaty glants is caused b street paving operations. In the Georgetown section, along Thirty-fifth street between S and T streets, huge lindens are today bare and unkempt-looking, in comparison‘ with their appearance four years ago | when curbings and concrete streets | were lald. Perhaps the street-paving company | which had the contract is not to be | blamed that its workmen cut off grea(f roots in order to get the curb in. For | two years apparently nothing happened, | but today the sad result shows up. | It must remain & question with those who love this great Capital whether the Office of Trees and Parking could not have sent experts along with this, as with other street-paving gangs, in order to do what might have been done in “painting” the several roots and in other ways helping to stave off what now seems the inevitable end. The average layman will wonder what is the common sense in planting | trees years in advance, getting them to & point of beauty and utility, only | to permit other interests to wreck them | at last. | ——eor—s. | European statesmen are inclining to | the opinion that it is better to gain popular esteem by signifying willingness | to pay a debt than to keep the general | imagination disturbed about it. ——e— The farmer is supposed to rejoice in a high price for wheat; until he realizes that the scarcity of his own yleld| is & factor in raising the market value. ———— Cameramen are not welcomed by | Harry Sinclair, who discreetly insists | that for the present he is formally a | prisoner and not & motion picture star. | ——————————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Sky Scrapers. The Jack the Giant Killer story made | A wonderful display, Aladdin’s Lamp, when parade, ‘Made childhood fancy gay. There is no limit to the marvelous height | Of buildings that are new. The present fillls us with a strange! delight As Fairy Tales come truel it went on Doing His Best. “Have you solved these tariff questions' “No,” answered Senator Sorghum, “But I have made a hit with my con- | stituents by asserting myself as a person who is wiling to think seriously about them.” Jud Tunkins says if & man belleved everything he reads, illiteracy would be a blessing. Sufficiency. This Good Old World still asks, “Wherefore These methods that are rough?” And says, when some one mentions war, “Have we not had enough?” Possible Winning. “Do you play golf?” “Yes,” answered Miss Cayenne. “Have you won anything?" “Not yet, but T am hopeful. The pose and the costume are very attractive.” “He who has had no debts,” said' Hi WASHINGTO! TUESDAY, D. 0, THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL, The sight of huge piles of manure waiting near Pennsylvania nurseries for the Autumn application. to the land gives the tourist with a garden complex opportunity to do a little thinking. If these horticultural-wise people, living in a commonwealth which has been one of the great agricultural States since the beginning, find it necessary to use stable manure, may not the average backyard gardener, the city garden amateur, find its use ex- pedicnt, too? In Pennsylvania, as in New Jersey, they carry on great nurseries, where are grown roses, all sorts of shrubs, bushes, plants for consumption by the people at large, ‘These plants are shipped by malil and express to all parts of the United States. At this season of the year, when the various flelds are in bl , automobile tourists find them beauti- ful and interesting mmg,m Acres upon acres of a single variety, for instance, form a picture no artist can paint, and of which a El::ton‘ph gives only a faint idea. ebushes stretch away to the horizon. Phlox plants by the hundred thousand fairly glow beneath the sun, Just now the gladioli are coming into bloom. Those who have never seen a field of them have a treat in store. Their vertical habit of growth per- mits the growing of tremendous num- bers per acre and this secures a car- peting effect almost without parallel. A visit to a fleld of flowers in bloom enables one to select just which blos- soms one likes without any of the guesswork necessary when selecting from catalogue descriptions. ‘Those traveling this Summer by all means ought to stop long enough to visit the varfous nurseries along their routes. A schedule ought not to keep one from it. Yet even enthusiastic gardeners want to push on to make a certain number of miles a day regard- less of what they miss. We know one Washingtonian who went right through the town of Goshen, Ind., without stopping to visit the Kun- derd gladioli fields. We feel that he made a mistake, * kR ok ‘The great piles of manure seen in Pennsylvania point unmistakably to the fertilizer used by these expert growers, | and so give a hint to the amateur which should not be disregarded. The tourist is likely to feel that such huge quantities of fertilizer are almost | too much, yet there it is, in piles 25 feet square and 6 or 7 feet high. There | is no escaping either the sight or the odor. If such firms use cow and horse manure, there can be little question that the home gardener ought to, if he can get it There, alas, comes the rub. Well rotted manure is difficult to secure in | a great city. Those who have made an effort to get it know that even when | supplied it is often of a very poor quality. The basic necessity of a garden is proper fertilizer. The average home | owner finds this out in about his fifth vear at a place. Just about the time he gets the second trust paid off, he discovers that the fertility has gone out of his soil. Perhaps his ground was not very | good, to begin with, but nevertheless it | grew flowers and a few vegetables very | nicely. That first year his asters bloomed to perfection. A neighbor had | good sweet peas, a notoriously difficult | crop in Washington. ‘The following years the gardens be- | gan to go down, bit by bit. Asters had “the yellows,” and sweet peas gave blos- soms for about two weeks, after which they turned brown, despite heroic efifiMflM‘lndflM[thM spider. Other crops gave only half success. Gradually it began to dawn on the gardener that the fertility had gone out of his soil. * kX% ‘The question then was how to get it back into the land again. The study of solls and their conditions is one de- manding chemical knowledge, but aside from such knowing there is the simpler one which recognizes when crops are or are not growing well. It is true that there are other factors besides fertility and lack of fertility which spell success or failure in home garden making. A reluctance to get out, the hose when dry spells make it necessary is one of the most common. ‘The average home garden is perhaps too well drained, if anything, owing to the determination of most builders to draw the water away from the founda- tions. This gives the resident a nice dr;,-) basement, and a nice dry garden as well. Lack of the proper elements for plant growth, however, is the main reason, we are convinced, for unsatisfactory gar- dens, especially after the first few years of garden making in the same place. Just whether the plant actually util- izes the chemical elements supplied in fertilizer or merely makes use of them to gather its “food” from the air and sun makes no difference at all to the home gardener. His common sense, if not his reading, makes him realize that there can be but one real reason for the half-starved ap- pearance of his garden: His plants ac- tually need feeding. Just how to get their food to them, then, becomes the paramount question confronting the home gardener. So he begins a perfectly amateurish investiga- tion of the subject. He tries, one after the other, all the well advertised fer- tilizers. He tries those with sand as a base and those with lime as a base. He soon realizes that, no matter how effective they may be, he has not had enough experience to use them satis- factorily. One has to have a sure knowledge of plant health and disease to make the best use of what may be termed trick fertilizers. The sad part about “pepping up” a sick plant is that the worse it looks the less concentrate feeding it can stand. Bone meal is very good, but it lacks necessary elements. Certain new dis- coveries in fertilizers call for chemical elements which tend to make the soil acid in reaction. * ko % ‘The home gardener thus becomes thrown back on natural manures for the proper feeding of his garden. He sees the great piles throughout the State of Pennsylvania and reasons that if these growers, whose very living de- pends upon proper plant growth, find its use expedient, he might find it a |good thing himself. It is too late to use barnyard manure this Summer, but in the Fall, when the old plants are dug up and the ground must be got ready for next Spring, the time arrives for renewing the fertility of wornout soils. There can be little question that the average home gardener is too niggardly in his use of all types of fertilizers. He has read of the dangers of “burning” his plants and he feels that he would rather err on the side of safety. No doubt he is right—during his first few years as a gardener. After | that he finds that conservatism does not pay. in a garden sense. Let him put on’ well rotted cow manure with a generous hand, keeping in mind the pictures he saw along the Pennsylvania | roads. Poincare Triumph Declared Feature of French Loan Vote! Ratification of the agreement for pay-| ment of the war debt to the United | States, voted in the French Chamber of | Deputies, follows action which practi- cally assured this development, in which ! Premier Raymond Poincare received a | vote of confidence. That turn of events | is hailed in this country as a triumph for the statesman who upheld the pro- posed agreement, which has been pend- ing since 1926. Foreign Minister Briand, who stepped into the debate when Poincare was nearly exhausted | by his herolc efforts, shares in the vic- tory, according to Americans. “Fully as significant as this vote was the applause which greeted Poincare as | he finished his four-day speech in sup- | port of his policy,” says the New York Evening Post. “The victory he won was largely personal. Just as in 1926, when | he was fighting the battle of the franc, | he has proved to be the man of the| hour. No one else in France could have done what he has done in the face | over, and in this Poincare has won the support of a sl?bl: r‘n-?‘nmy." “Because war debts make good politi- cal arguments and offer opportunities for appeals to sentiment and the pocket- book,” remarks the Oakland Tribune, “the’ politicians over there opposed a reasonable settlement. Poincare spoke for the solid thought in his nation, for those who would not countenance a Tefusal to meet, obligations.” A contribution to good will is seen also by the Hartford Courant, which adds: “In view of the attitude which the people of France have taken toward the debts in recent years, the words of M. Briand during the debate will be deeply appreciated in the United States. Although the debts properly involve national sentiment in no way, his state- ment that ‘our gratitude remains unim- paired’ is a timely and felicitous re- minder of the friendly spirit that tra- ditionally exists between the two na- of such strong opposition to ratification. | tions. His calm, reasoned and logical presen- tation of his case, his ceaseless reitera- tion that any reservation to ratification | must be made separately, have won the | day because of the confidence he has| inspired in his countrymen. Even the | French Chamber could not contem- plate the consequences of ignoring his advice and overthrowing his govern- | ment.” “From the standpoint of eloquence and dramatic appeal,” in the opinion of the Manchester Union, “the premier's studied argument and his sharp re- buttals of the fault-findings of hi eclipsed by the brilliant and unexpecte assistance rendered him at the last moment by Aristide Briand. The brief but pointed statements of the foreign minister were well suited to disarm opposition, and it is not surprising that when he finished the entire Chamber rose to its feet and cheered, and that the motion to postpone ratification until the Young plan was officially accepted | and put into operation was readily withdrawn.” * ok k¥ “Poincare and Briand did as much for international good will as for their own government and world economics,” declares the New York Times, “when they steered the American war debt debate into the channel of ratification. As he lies abed, resting from his might, parliamentary labor, the premier may feel that he has managed again one of those rare internal political campaigns which contain the essence of statesman- ship and world peace. To his eminent foreign minister, himself 11 times the head of the cabinet of the republic, M. Poincare can turn gratefully for the magnificent skill with which he played on the soundest and best emotions of an emotional Chamber and said the word which America was longing to hear. This foremost among the orators of Europe has ma many triumphs with the Deputies and in conference with the ablest men of other nations, but not often has his eloguence proved so refreshing to the public of two hemi- spheres.” On the Poincare analysis of the American - position the Terre Haute Star comments: “It is comforting to hear these plain facts told in the French Chamber by a man who must be lis- tened to as an authority and whose the happiness of meeting & friend in need.” Unintelligible Hostilities. If Russia fights China, 1t's go as you please, I cannot speak Russian And much less Chinese “Some of us thinks we works too hard,” sald Uncle Eben, “wifout givin' enough attention to whether, maybe, we talks too much.” Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “has missed | things has | There is, however, “The collection of even a just debt, especially by wealthy creditor from a less fortunate debtor,” it is suggested by the Charleston Evening Post, “is always a painful piece of business. The United States is imposing no injustice upon France in calling for fulfiliment of a settlement which involved some extremely liberal concessions from the original terms of the obligation.” The Evening Post, however, suggests that “the French premier might have been a bit more sympathetic, as he was en- tirely logical, in his acknowledgment of the American position.” g “The anxiety of the reservationists to | obtain an early acceptance of the Young agreement by Germany enabled M. | Poincare to twit them with expecting Germany to treat France as they were not willing to permit Prance to treat the United States,” observes the Detroit Press, which continues: “This he made much of, and if it had not been for the hope that he held out that something may happen in the next 60 years to enable Prance still' to wiggle out of her debt, we should be inclined to extend to him unqualified congratu- lations on his parliamentary victory.” “The irresistible force fashioning for- eign policies everywhere throughout the world fights on the side of Premier Poincare as he reasons with the French Chamber of Deputies,” is the conclusion of the Newark Evening News, as it con- cedes that “the premier does not pre- tend to like the agreement,” but assumes that “there is no way out of it,” The effect of the vote in the Chamber, how- ever, is discounted by the Indianapolis News with the statement “there are. Deputies who, while critical of the pact, believe that it is going to pass, any- how, and prefer to have the responsi- bility placed on the present cabinet.” European Federation Would Take Long Time From the Asheville Times. European statesmen continually come back to the idea of & United States of Europe as a solution for the problem of frontier tariffs, economic and racial animosities. And whenever an Ameri- can tariff bill threatens with fresh obstacles to commercial somebody proposes a federation in Eumw to oppose the great Republic of P the latest proposal of s vast P of a eco- nomic drive against the ambitions of the United Sht.fu!n the field of world ‘his | tenderly sad part, “No.» " Buch 1ma:m£‘°:psn co-oF i moump:un also eration with the United States, says French foreign Briand may bring the issue erated Europe before the next meeting of the League of Nations Assembly. Sl lor (he Babite S :n{rn‘:.!‘?! est m'"cnh- unlon. * With all the ‘conditions ‘much more favorable, required many {:Il'l' pal effort and bloodshed for e American States to work out & plan om!t will still JULY 23, 1929. NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM L G M. THE DECAMERON. Giovanni cio. Horace Liveright. Giovanni Boccacclo. Modern as the morning. Born 600 years ago and more. Dead and gone 600 years ago and less. Modern nevertheless. Stepping out-— alive and lusty—into this new day with you and me. And as he fares along snatches of song and story in his native ‘Tuscan tongue bubble out in bits of music and laughter, As for us, we are on our dusty way to office or shop or field, treading the worn rut of daily endeavor. But, just now, with this youth alongside, the usually sagging skies appear to lift a little. The usually narrowed space roundabout seems to widen out a span. The day brightens. And H capers a glad pas seul in thefm before us. Dreams, va- grant, but dear, whisper the promise to drop in for & second of enlivenment and cl now and then in the long hours of toil. And all this because there is stepping off with us a gay youth of Tus- cany whose rich throatiness of song and story gives assurance that the world is just as young as it used to be, just as beautiful, just as conquerable. % It is this persistent vitality—this cur- rently partaking vitality—that, no doubt, gave to Horace Liveright the good determinatdon to turn this Tuscan Boccaccio out properly and handsomely for & new advenlure into this passing day. So, here he is, in the most famous and most enduring of his achievements. We are instantly reminded that no small element in art is its suitability, is its effect of fitness to meet the end set for it. And here s, without question, a case in point. Here are richness, so- briety and good taste to delight all. Not carried so far as to offer a forbidding, touch-me-not exclusiveness. Instead, a happy mean between the heirloom p: sion of the collector and the imper- manent instinct of the mere trader. As a result you and I have in hand a medium of meeting this old-new genius with distinct advantage to us, and in a | gesture of true homage to Boccaccio himself. “The Decameron” needs an introduc- tion. As numbers go but few have read it. Therefore, unread, its most con- splcuous service has been confined to two groups. One, the Puritan, who odges bitter admonitions against it.| | 1he other that callow youth who with | | wry and knowing smie desires to seem | waywise to erotic lore. As matter of fact this one knows nothing at all, ex- | cept that he himself has strange per- sonal imaginings. Even the recognized reader of “The Decameron” is likely to forget that modes of life change—social conventions, ways of speech and dress, | attitudes toward the various problems of daily life and behavior. Such forget- ting and such ignorance are, together, barricades against any seizure of the | vitality and the beauty of this book. So, here is an introduction to “The Decameron” by the late Sir Walter Raleigh, gifted Oxonian, beloved by a | world of students for profound learning | that is shot through and through with | human sympathy and understanding, | that is offered as well by way of a personality compact of charm and illuminating power. And Sir* Walter tells, very companionably, of this Boc- caccio. A bank clerk he would be| called today. Then, more or less of an | idle fellow set | saw around him in words that Boceac- | had | last stage was the worst. Boceacclo, led astray by his friend, | Petrarch, great poet and greater Latin- | ist, took to learning. Under its drive suchlike of enduring stuff. body read these things. Instead, they flocked to the days when Boccaccio, | loafing we'd call it today, wrote the | tales that make up “The Decameron.” These you are bound to read, much in joy, equally much in amazement that they are so vibrant with life today, as if they were no older, certainly no older than vesterday. Oh, yes, certain strange ways of doing this or that. certain odd freedoms with speech—but on the whole here is an existence tha is really completely contemporaneous, | | despite our latter-day skill in the ar's | {of concealment and make-believe. A | franker man this one, than we who have | been bred to silences and dissimula- tions, yet a man who touches human | life in the realities that genius alone | can command. We recognize this truth. We appreciate, “in part, this | genius. For long days through, in hours | . here and there, we follow the stories of Boccaccio, gathered from the Tuscan | hills, a harvest rich as that gleaned year by year from the vineyards of | those slopes. A self-renewing harvest | this one, needing only the honest and understanding human to seize the fact | that these are current tales, that they | belong in essence to us, that in the mil- lions of years of man's growth this short stretch of half a thousand years is no more than from yesterday into today. By way of Sir Walter Raleigh we ap- | proach this Boccaccio of yesterday as if he were some rare and precious friend who had been away for a week, maybe. * ok ok K | One astounding fact about Boceaccio | himself comes into the open here. He | loved a lady. He loved just one lady | and loved her for always. No doubt is | loving her at this moment. It was the | { charming Fiammetta, who, as the evi- | dence goes to show, wrought so lastingly in the heart of the great Tuscan. Bul in this uneven world Filammetta did not love him. That is, not for long. And so, by way of this brief span of ecstatic fulfillment and the long, dreary reaches of unrequitement, Boccaccio's genius ripened into its enduring pattern lof the hopes and fears and ‘promises and denials that make up the arabesque of every man's life. And here each here, & bit misshapen there, but on the whole his own story. And it is this quality of encompassing the life of every reader that has given to the tales of “The Decameron” the shoulder- touch of conceded worth and lon permanence. ERE Out of these love tales of Tuscany. | here is one of surpassing charm, of bitter-sweet reality as well. A man loved a lady, but she, provided with a perfectly good husband of her own, could not return love to this suitor, so the lorn one betook himself to the deep forests and forbidding hills, taking with him only a falcon which he prized above everything save the lady herself. The husband died, as these sometimes do. In her grief the lady, too, sought retreat—oddly enough, the very one in which the lover was mourning away his days. Not so odd, after all. What | she really wanted was the falcon, for which she, too, had formed a great at- tachment in those earlier days of woo- ing and denial. One morning word came to the recluse that the lady was in the neighborhood and that she, on that very day, would visit Her old friend. What to do for her entertainment? Nothing at hand—nothing whatever to meet the great occasion. Great uwughcz Unhappy and distressful inspiration! He would kill the besh;‘ved hlco:lh:o:‘ihe lady to sup upon. She came, = p.r%lhlv with the ;\uw that ladies deli- cately display before the unfortunate demands of hunger. The lover could not eat. Of course not, assumed the lady. He is already eaten by his love for me. ‘Then, satisfied by the fine Thospitality of her host, reassured by his manner, the lad. reads his own story—a shade fainter|sq | ports: ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. ‘There is no other agency in the world that can answer as many legitimate questions as our free information bu- reau in Washington, D. C. This highly organized institution has been built up and is under the personal direction of Frederic J. Haskin. By keeping in con- slant touch with Federal bureaus and | other educational enterprises it is in a position to pass on to you authoritative information of the highest order. Sub- mit your queries to the staff of experts whose services are put at your free dis- 1. There is no charge except 2 cents in cofn or stamps for return post- age. Address The Evening Star, In- formation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. Q. Has talkies?—T. P. A. "Our Gang” has made two talkies and will appear in talking pictures from now on. Q In used as ballast?>—A. M. H. A. In the pre-Volstead days it was not uncommon for a distillery to ship | barrels of whisky as ballast on an ocean voyage in order to age it. The Ken- tucky distillers used to have their whisky placed on board the Ohio River steamers, also as ballast. The rocking of the boat caused & chemical reaction that expedited the aging process. Q. What causes an air pocket?— K. F. A. The evenness of air while flying varies with the temperature. If the air is warm, or what is called thin air, it is dificult to gain altitude. In cold or dense air it is easy to gain altitude. The alr over cities is warmer than over the surrounding country. It is when a flyer approaches warmer air that the plane has a tendency to lose altitude. In some places a change from cold to warm air is very abrupt. That is known as an air pocket, or bumpy air. Q. When were public lands first H | given for education?—M. H. A. The Continental Congress, in its land ordinance of May, 1785, dedicated from the public lands which lay west of the Thirteen Colonies lot Neo. 16 of every township to “the maintenance of publie schools within the said town- ship.” The policy of giving public lands for education has been continued and Jands and scrip have been granted to & total of 117,244,519 acres, an area near- ly equivalent to that of the German Republic. Q. When did Currier & Ives go into business together?—V. McC. A. Nathanlel Currier was born in | Roxbury, Mass., in 1813. It was here that he began his business in_prints. In 1850 Merrit Ives joined Currier. When the latter retired from business Ives continued to conduct the business with his son. Q. What foods are indigenous to America? Is tobacco?—M. B. A. There has been much controversy concerning the foods originally found the old days was whisky ever | in the Americas. It is general d that in North America m“’tnhlmm. maize, & certain type of pear and s small variety of tomato. In Central America and the islands the early ex- plorers also found tobacco and toma- toes. In South America, particularly Brazil, wild potatoes were found in abundance, so much so that in about 1840 it was necessary to import thou- sands of these native plants to develop in order to save the potato crop of the world. It was originally thought that bananas were firsi found in Central and South America and the islands, but later this theory was the subject of much debate, and it is generally be- lieved today that, while bananas were originally in that section of the world, they were also found in tropical sec- tions of the Eastern Hemisphere at the same time, Q. What can be added to the water for soap bubbles so that the bubbles will attain ater size?—V. V. Z. A. Very large soap bubbles may be made by putting a little giycerin in a strong soapy solution. Q. What is Bohemian glass?—F. M. H. A. Bohemian glass is a potash-lime glass, particularly adapted for receiv- ing cut and engraved decorations. Most of the specimens of old Bohemian glass are valuable because of the beauty of their decorations. Q. Who is 1t that has given $10.000.- 000 for_child-welfare work?—D. E. E. A. Senator Couzens has recently made ‘a bequest of $10,000,000 in the interest of children. This sum is in charge of a board of trustees and must be expended in 25 years. It is designed to promote the health, welfare, happi- ness and development of children of the State of Michigan and elsewhere throughout the world. Q. Can the ocean be seen from the Boston_Post Road?—E. 8. R. A. In driving from New York'to Boston on the Boston Poet Road one has frequent glimpses of the ocean. Q. Can Tung ofl be mixed with Hn- #eed ofl for paint?—C. K. C. A. China wood or Tung ofl will mix with linseed ofl, but. unlike the latter, is seldom used raw in paints. Without paint factory facilitiex and special ex- perience in the treatment of Tung ofl you could not properly treat it. Con- sequently, the Department of Agricnl- | ture says that it would not be advisable for you to attempt to use it. Q. Who started McCall's Magazine? —H. B. A. James McCall began to make | dress patterns in the early 70s. Mrs. | George H. Bladworth, the wife of his secretary. using the name May Manton. | started "the Queen. fashion sheet. | After James McCall's death, in 1885. |George H. Bladworth took charge of the Queen and. changing its character | somewhat, eventually made it into Mc- Call's Magazjne. BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. ‘Tomorrow at the White House some 64 nations—practically all the civilized ebrate the Kellogg pact, binding them, tions. ‘Today the guns of & new outbreak, which, unless that pact can stand its | ending of the World War at Versailles, ' subordinate in are echoing in Manchuria and drown- ing the protestations of Russia that since she is a signer of that very pact to be celebrated tomorrow she could not possibly contemplate violating it upon its very first communion day. * % % % ~ #The League of Nations has made egregious fallure in _stopping _ wars. Humanity turns pitiously to the Kellogg peace pact as its only hope. Will it, too, fail? Visionaries have agitated for more than a decade for national disarma- ment, upon the theory that our help- lessness will end greed of all our ene- mies and assure safety. When a world league, pledged to turn all nations to a combined disciplining of the aggressor in any war, finds itself palsied in the face of an outlaw nation snarling at the most populous country on earth, all that is left is the honor behind the Kellogg pledge of all nations outlawing all wars except purely defense against a palpable aggressor and invader. If that fail—and if we forget prepared- ness for our own defense—what is the limit of peril? * X X % The seat of the present danger, Man- churia, is 5,000 miles from the United | States, yet there is a four-power pact between the United States, Great Brit- ain, Japan and Prance to guarantee the peace of the Orlent and of the Pa- cific Ocean. A guaranty must involve intervention to fulfill its promise. Be- sides, if Soviet Russia can browbeat China and overcome and establish communism therein. then the world rev- olution for which she has been openly and perniciously plotting for a decade will have well begun with a quarter of the world population conquered. * K Kk The present crisis has a significant background behind the event: it did | not rise suddenly, without preliminary struggle. Manchuria has been 8 bone of con- tention for many decades, over which three great powers have been jealously struggling. It has an area of 363,610 uare miles—enough to contain almost all States of the United States east of Ohio and stretching as far north and south as from the St. Lawrence River to Florida. There it stands, between China on the south, Japan on the east and Siberia-Russia on the north and west, coveted by all three, but possessed by China without ever having been con- quered by that nation. Japan needs its resources of raw ma- terials and minerals; Russia needs its warm-water ports that her commerce uvon the Pacific may not be icebound half the year, as it is at all Siberian China needs its land for her overflowing population, that they may cultivate its crops and feed the hungry millions. Since the Chinese Republic was founded, in 1911, more than 15,- 000,000 Chinese have migrated into * kK X Instead of China’s ever having con- quered Manchuria, she herself was overcome by the Manchus in 1644, and her conquerors required that all Chi- nese men wear “pigtails” as symbols of submission to the rule of the Manchu. Only in 1911 was China able to throw off the Manchurian rule, depose the last Manchurian from the Chinese throne and set up a republic which included the territory of the former conquerors— Manchuria—as a province. This development was so inevitable under existing conditions that neither Japan nor Russia protest openly. The power of Russia and Japan so nearly neutralized each other's claims that China was able to assert control of the province, with international rec- ognition, although some decades or more prior to that coup Russia had reached th Siberia and, | Manchuria. dream the wisdom of ages and its folly, too—all of these meet and blend here in the immortal pattern of human life, in all places and. in all times. And the sh to of the tel 1 touches ‘when of ing these stories of Tuscany and of the great world itself. among’_thém | and official right from the Manchu Emperor to build a Russian railroad across Man- ting down things that he | pations of the world—will meet to cel- | churia to Vladivostok and branches | down to Harbin and to Port Arthur. wings and tunes to them. Then, final- | each and severally, to abandon war as Russia later set up a claim of right to ly, a man of deep learning. And this|, national policy in the settlement of | police and protect her railroad across Within it | any disputes or furthering any ambi- | Manchuria and was gradually getting | a military foothold in that province | through her railroad ownership—in | fact, it is now claimed that the military he wrote volumes of geography and firsi christening test, must inevitably |control was the paramount objective, to But no-|jead into the greatest war since the | which the railroad was incidental and importance. * x % x All of this encroachment led to the jealous intervention of Japan, and | eventually to the Russo-Japanese War, | resulting” in forcing Russla to recede ifrom asserting political power in M: churia, though she retained her treaty rights with China over the raiiroad. | When the World War came Japan set | up’ her claims to all that Russia had | formerly claimed, and Japan submitted | her famous “Twenty-one Demands” in 11915, which would have given all of | Manchuria over to Japan, but for the | intervention of the allies, protecting | China’s rights. An American engineer, ‘Col. Stevens, then exercised manage- ment of the Chinese Eastern Railroad— the one built by Russia across Man- churia—and only through his ability | and loyalty to his Chinese employers | were the Japanese thwarted in their schemes to seize the railroad and step into the same power formerly held there by Russia. The new Chinese Republic was pow- erless to fight for its rights against its powerful neighbors, and when for awhile the Soviets seemed to gain paramount control even of the Chinese national government, a treaty was made where- | by the Soviets professed to be surrender- ing all encroachments of the former Czarist government over Chinese rights, except that they retained—as alleged through great bribery of Chinese of- ficials—the right to “joint control” of the Chinese Eastern Railroad, and then | proceeded to interpret “joint control” into control exclusivety by Russian rail- road officials. * ok ox * Now the Chinese National Republic finds itself in undisputed power in its own country and undertakes to assert its equality among the independent powers and to abolish extraterritoriality | in all forms. It charges that although | Soviet communism has been driven out of China, the Russians have persisted in distributing communistic propa- ganda, contrary to promises to desist, and that Russia has monopolized con- trol of the railroad, even to refusing to transport Chinese troops over it. Hence the Chinese Nationalist government, de- termined to regain sovereignty within its own territory, arrested the Russian manager of the railroad and seized con- trol. China claims that that act is not invasion of Russian territory: Russia asserts that it is equivalent to such ag- gressive invasion, and that it justifies Russian “defensive” fighting. There- upon, shots are fired and airplanes have soared threateningly, and yesterd: Russian troops captured some 25 Chi- nese river boats. * ok ok ok So far as control of the raflr concerned, it is purely an zl.‘onn.:m:: question, which can be submitted to ar- bitration without loss of honor by either party. But Russia bluntly declines France's offer to arbitrate. China claims that she is her natfonal soverelgnty. that is a matter non-justiciable. It is not :"J;nnfl,er that can be left to arbitra- If. for example, Mexico, backe 2 coalition of Central and South Ag\el:‘vfl. were to decide.that she would regain all the United States territory that she had ceded as a result of the war of the 40s, the United States could not turn the decision over to arbitration at The Hague, but all the Nation would |rise to defend its sovereignty over its territory. It is “non-justiciable”—can- not be left to any outside arbitrator. * ok ok % The Chinese are the oldest civiliza- tion in%the world. Are they an inferior race compared with the Russians, or even with us proud Americans or An- glo-Saxons? 'The question ap] strange to us, for don’t we all know that “we are ruiged by the heathen e ‘W years ago Prof. Ross of the Wisconsin University traveled extensively through China, and he submitted a fl“m to 43 educators whom he found Bl T low race of the white race?” ] All but five answered one university ident adviser to the erican legation replied: “Most of us who have spent 25 years or more out here come to feel that the yellow race is the nor- mal human type, while the white race is a ‘sport.’” (Copyright, 1929, by Paul V. Collins.) | | fighting for It