Evening Star Newspaper, September 22, 1929, Page 33

Lk EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Star. o3 9 " flrt 2—-8 Pages MOVE FOR BANANA TARIFF REJECTED BY COMMITTEE Request Based on American Agricultural Starch Products by BY MARK SULLIVAN. HEN a Senator, in a jovial mood, asks another Senator in a similar jovial mood, a question which calls for an emphatically negative an- swer, the reply is quite likely to take just now the cryptic form of “Yes. We have no bananas today.” ‘That phrase is current Senate slang and persifiage for “nothing doing,” or “thumbs down,” or any other finality of negation. If the Senators were fa- miliar with current popular songs, one might imagine, let us say, the very dignified Bingham, of Connecticut, not stopping with the mere phrase. One might visualize him lifting his voice in the melody of the “Banana” ditty, with «Words that literally are to be found in the tariff debates: We have soy beans and onions, With vitamins in abundance; We have New England votatoes And California tomatoes, With calories galories. But yes! We have no bananas, We have no bananas today. Arose in Hearings. ‘The banana and the refrain of the banana song attained its place in sena- torial eircles through an incident in the tariff hearings. ‘The largest farm organization in the United States is the American Farm Bureau Federation. Its .Washington representative is Chester H. Gray. He and other representatives of farm organizations have mnvented a slogan. As used in their formal demands on the Senate for tariff protection the slogan is that “the principle of competition through substitution be recognized.” In other words, Mr. Gray asked ihat the American farmer be protected from for- eign competition through what he calls substitutes. The phrase will probably sound cryp- tic to readers of this article. It sounded cryptic to the Senators on the finance ccmmittee when they first heard it. Some of the Senators (though thete are exceptions) think it means an ex: tension of the protective tariff prin- ciple beyond anything ever suggested before. Mr. Gray insists it isn't an ex- tension of the protective principle at all. As to whether it is or is not a new thing in tariffs the reader may judge when he understands what Mr. Gray wants Gray’s Statement. Mr, Gray, appearing before the Sen- ate committee, gravely said: “We have asked for a 75-cent rate per bunch on bananas for the primary reason that bananas are a carbohyd food, very largely starch. In that ciass they compete with potatoes, wheat, corn, rice and some vegetables.” Senator Bingham of Connecticut, in obvious irony at this application of the protective tariff principle, asked, with a manner of assumed ignorance: “What county 1s it where bananas are grown?” ‘The witness thought Senator Bingham must have said “country,” but the Con- necticut Senator said no; he meant “what county or what State In the United States.” Mr. Gray was obliged to admit “they are not produced here.” Thereupon Senator Bingham, with an old-fashioned, orthodox Republican and orthodox New England notion of the theory of protection, said, “We are protecting home industries.” Senator Watson of Indiana, with in- tellectual curiosity about this extension of the protective principle, remarked, “You mean indirect or collateral pro- tection, under the theory that if & man does not eat a banana he will eat an apple or something else.” Mr. Gray eagerly responded, “‘Yes.” and Senator King of Utah unsympathetically inter- jected, “Or go hungry.” ‘Thereupon a condition arose in the room which caused the chairman, Sen- ator Smoot, to say, “Let us have order.” Senator Bingham, however, could not forego asking Mr. Gray a question ex- pressing innuendo by analogy, “Do_you not think we ought to put a tariff on French novels, so as to make people read more novels in English?” Mr. Gray refused to be moved to jocularity. With the utmost serious- ness he dwelt at length on his doctrine of protection “against competition through substitution,” as illustrated by bananas, sago, tapioca, cassava and some other tropical products. “One of the most subtle forms of substitution which confronts agriculture,” he said, «is the displacement of American fruits by the tropical banana.” He demanded a tariff of 75 cents a bunch. That, as Senator Bingham pointed out, would be about 1 cent per banana, or nearly 200 per cent on original cost. Senator King of Utah remarked forthrightly, “I will say, Mr. Gray, that I am opposed to your proposition.” Spoke for Wheat. Mr. Gray, representing all varieties of farmers, attacked the banana as an ency undermining American potatoes, wheat, corn and rice, as well as Ameri- can fruit. He was followed by C. E. Durst. Mr. Durst, representing the Na- tional Horticultural Council, “devoted himself mainly to the defense of the American people, though he generously spoke up for wheat and corn also. Mr, Durst deplored “attempts to place this banana question in the class of a joke.” Senator Barkley of Kentucky asked. “Is there any way to predict how many apples a man would eat if he could not get bananas?” As to that Mr. Durst did not know, but he avowed that the banana “is not equal to the American fruits in_heaith value or food value.” At that Senator Bingham reminded the witness he was under oath. Whereupon the witness sdmitted, “If you want to consider calory values alone, you can buy calory yalue a little cheaper in bananas than 4n some American fruits, though not in of them.” ‘“By this time the atmosphere of the ted by the rel;‘nrk" L:‘ nator David Walsh of Massachusetts: se"Cnn we not?do ‘something to expedite ese hearings?” thThe chll{'mln, harassed Senator oot, said, with a tone of despair: “I ::: doing everything I can to expedite them.” Brief on Bananas. The representative of the National Homculm‘;ll Council departed. But tie jeft behind him a brief. It was a very formidable brief. Added to other pleas ‘and briefs, it made a grand total ot more than 20,000 words on bananas and the need of a tariff thereon. That is as much as a small book. Every one ‘words was serious, exeep- WASHINGTON, D. ¢, SUNDAY MORN G, SEPTEMBER 22, 1929. Theory ‘of Aiding Substitution. your tongue longs for & banana, let your hand reach for a potato. Mr. Durst produced statistics about | relative calory value of bananas as com- | pared with dried beans or other foods that can be raised in America. He demonstrated that there are less calo- in the same qauntity of bread, cornmea! rolled oats, rice, potatoes or dried beans. He did make some concessions to the banana. He admitted the banana 1 superior in calory value to cabbages and onions. Mr. Durst avowed the extreme pro- tection theory, saying that— “Any foreign (food) product which comes into the country displaces a cer- tain acreage of American products. * * * For the proper protection of American agriculture there must be a duty on such products, no matter whether they are produced in this country or not.” For the illumination ®f this thesis Mr. Durst again took to statistics. He produced figures showing how many additional acres of corn, oats and other American crops might be raised ir America if we did not import any ba- nanas, and if we were willing to pay high prices - for exclusively American grown calories instead of low prices for calories grown with cheap tropical labor. The bananas we import, he said, are | equivalent to 435,000 acres of wi 256,000 acres of corn, 389,000 acres oats, 280,000 acres of sweet potatoes or 855,000 acres of tomatoes. | Shortridge Sympathetic. i ‘The plea for a tariff on bananas, the reader may infer, did not get very far. About the only Senator on the finance committee who seemed sympathetic to | this particular tariff demand was the tall and solemn-looking Sam Short- | ridge of California. Both the tall Sena- tor Sam and his colleague, the short and stout Senator Hiram Johnson, take | pride in assuring thefr State that “Cali- | fornia is the best protected State in the | Union.” On about every other subject | under the sun the two California Sena- | tors disagree, Shortridge being a very ! orthodox and very regular Republican and Johnson being a highly explosive Republican of the type which you call radical” if you don't like them, or “progressive” if you do. As to the tariff, however, Shortridge and Johnson are loving twins. They believe in a tariff on everything produced in fornia. Since the best way to get a tariff for your own products is to sup- port a tariff on the other fellow's prod- ucts, it follows that Senator Shortridge gives amiable attention to about every- body who wants a tariff on anything. So far as the record shows, Shortridge is the only Senator who didn't seem disposed to smile at the idea of a tariff on ban: , though there may be some others. btless the coming debate on the Senate floor may bring out some expressions of opinion, Some Tolerance Shown. There was tolerance, however, for the same principle, “Protection sgainst com- petition by sybstitution,” asapplied to some other products. Sago, taploca, arrowroot and cassava are tropical produets. On no acre of the United States could they be nor- mally grown except in a hothouse. But they produce. starch. American-grown corh also produces starch. Therefore Mr. Gray and the other farm repre- sentatives demand a protective tariff against sago, tapioca and the others. ey said.that 1if all four of these trop- ical products were completely excluded from the United States we could raise and sell 5,000,000 bushels more corn. In this particular demand the farm representatives were joined by two em- ployes of the Corn Products Refining Co. Senator Watson of Indiana, with & cruel suspicion that is foreign to his normally sunny nature, asked: “Are they interested in the farmer or in the Corn Products Refining Co.?" ‘The extremely acute Senator David Reed of Pennsylvania looked up some scientific data on arrowroot starch. He found that it all comes from the Island of St. Vincent, that the gquantity im- ported is very small, and that: “It is used mostly for. feeding sick babies. * - * * It seems to me it is; pretty small potatoes to take that from sick babies. Mr. Gray replied, in effect, that it's the principle of the thing. He wants to put a duty on all things from which starch might be extracted, in order that we may get our starch from home- own corn. “Our position,” he sald, s this, briefly, that any starch coming on our markets is a competitor of the starch foods that we produce here in the United States.” Mr, Gray really made progress with his_plea for protection against tapioca, as he did not in his plea for protection against bananas. The reason for the greater consideration given him on tap- joca is that tapioca starch has an in- dustrial use, in addition to its use for food. Tapioca starch is used in wood glue, in textile finish and in adhesives, For this reason largely the principle of “protection against competition by sub- stitution” was given some weight, both as -pmed to starch Nfiom the tropics and also as respects from the trop- ics, especially cacoanut ol, which is used in.the soap trade: Factories Increase : In Western Canada a wheat and cattle country. is the greatest factor in. the world’s wheat market, the importsnce of its ing. are in_the three Provinces of- Mant- toba, Saskatchewan and Alberta 2,35 investment of over $270,000,000. Mani- toba leads with 859 industrial .estab- lishments, Alberta is second with 776 and Saskatchewan third with 721. The largest capital investment is.in produc- tion of electric light and power. Other important industries are the manufac- turing of butter and cheese, and fi,h,f,',‘.f products and printing and pub- ' ‘ {Union Statistics _ Required by China Submission to the government of an annual budget -and & report. of the promulgated by Nanking. ‘This act de- fines ml‘: rights of the unions and stip- ulates thiose of public ries in 5 cents’ worth of bananas than tern Canada is no longer mereiy | impressionist wields Ve s ‘While -it | possible, . therefore, manufactures is also. steadily increas- | his impressions. without A recent return shows that_there | ranted.liberties with. 6 | demanded for those who have not ac- manufacturing concerns with a capital | tually visited the permanent building of is required of each T e aatrial uhlog Bt e T | e homORUeT TeCRE s, BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. HE London conference on na armament limitation, set ten tively for the latter part of Js uary, will bring together a group of men who have the direction in ‘large part of international relations of the world Five of the great powers will be represented at the conference table, if all accept the invitations which will be extended by Great Britain. They are, in addition to the host nation, the United States, France, Italy and Japan. These powers will take no chance of fallure, if the plans for the conference are finally put through. A failure' would leave sores and a situation far worse than that of today. The inability of the three power conference at Geneva in 1927 to reach an agregment was & serious set back for the naval| limitation program. The word (aflu'fi.{ t-is said, must be erased from the iexicon of the coming London confer- ence.. In order to assure success, it is believed the nations attending the con- ference will send as their delegates the very ablest and most friendly material which they possess. U. S. Gone More Than Half Way. The United States has been as keenly interested in the question of naval limitation as has Great Britain. It has met the British more than half way in the preliminary discussions re- lating to a naval conference. In some quarters the idea has been advanced that the President of the United States himself, vitally interested in the pro: posal for further naval limitation, ma Chief Executive. The only interna- attend the conference. But there is | tional conference in Europe which has { AMBA: | PREMIER FLEURIAN, FRENCH AMBA ITALIAN MINISTER OF FOR GN INSON. | reason to doubt this. Congress will be in.session in January, for one thing, and will require the attention BY JOSEPH F. BRANYAS AND CAPT. | SIDNEY MORGAN. UCH has been written of the United States bulldings at the Seville Exposition by Ameri- cans and for American con- sumption, How the the United | States participation appears to Spanish eyes and the description thereof for the Spanish public has the merit ‘of nov-, elty i nothing more. Senor Luls Mos- | quera, writing for one of the principal | newspapers of Southern Spain (El Lib- | eral, Sevilla), visited the buildings of the participating countries and reported his impressions of each in a series of feature articles. Mr. Mosquera not only write in a language naturally romantic and rich| in flowery expression, but he uses; phrases in the modernist manmer, as an | a brush. It is im- | to recast his emti shades of meaning in the American! idiom. We have attempted to convey: taking unwar- text, illuminat- ; elights as seemed { ing it with such sit INTERIOR OF PERMANENT U. §: EXPOSITION smoothness of shadows fading into one P 5 another. Blue lights and fluid silence . Studies General Appearance. -, hang upon the arches like « clinging -~ ‘The suthor, arriving at thé group of | in blossom.” the triree United States bildings—two | V1o 17 DBssOn in the foreground, one fecessed among | (Fi¢ 100 upon the mata hall) trees and shrubbery—studies their gen-| “There is a long room with gilded eral appearance from-the perspective!caved work, with old draperies, with afforded by the boulevard, and open | gamask on the lounges and black cur- e T et greet- | tains with roses of gold at the windows. ing us with the. white star of an out- | It seems like the setting for some dra- i matic incident in history.” (At the main staircase, up which stretched hand.’ “Beyond stripes of lawn inviting doors beckon us to come in. -We enter, recall- | wall 1s, ranged the photographs of all ing ‘skyscrapers, smokestacks an parade. | the California missions.) ecqfi:fl.flc sons: of old - millionaires. Wc| “Pictures of ‘ancient missions take us envision & filing ‘past of motion plegll_i’l;e by the hand, welcoming us as we e climb.” ives for an atmos- |~ In the gallery around the patio on of gaso- | the second floor: “The tile roof inclining toward the nee halts | o410 is mantled in shadows. Overhead the United States, the Consilate, which is the main object of his article. pa “But-within the d The Men Who Must Agree Some of Those Who May Direct the Forthcoming Naval Reduction Negotiations UPPER, LEFT TO RIGHT: CHARLES G. DAWES. UNITED STATES ADOR TO CREAT BRITAIN; CHARLES EVANS HUGHES. CENTER, LEFT TO RIGHT: BARON SHIDEHARA, JAPAN TER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS; TSUNEO MATSUDAIRA. JAPANESE AM- | BASSADOR TO LONDON: ARISTIDE BRIAND, FRENCH PREMIER; A. DE ADOR TO LONDON; DINO GRANDL | AFFAIRS. | and the presence in Washington of the | War. Uncle Sam at Seville An Unusual But Complimentary View Through Spa.nish Eyes fean delegation. It is not on record, however, that this conference has been | regarded as a signal success for Ameri- | can diplomacy. The treaty of Versailles | League of Nations failed utterly of | ratification: both have been _rejected | by the United States Senate. The fight | was carried to the country by the late | President Wilson, but _illness overtook | him. 1t was continued in the national | campaign of 1920, and the Democrtic candidate for President, James Cox | of Ohio, who supported the adherence of the United States to the ‘League of Nations, was overwhelmingly defeated. |1t President Hoover takes the advice | of his party leaders he will refrain from | going to the naval conference. The late President Harding opened the Washington Conference on Naval Limi- tation and the ‘Problems of the Pacific in 1921. But he wgs not a delegate to the conference. esident _ Coolidge | journeyed to Havana for the opening of ' the Pan-American Congress there. But ) he did not remain for the conference, which was left to the American dele- gation to handle. . Stimson Logical Choice. J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, BRITISH MINIS. | for the head of the American delega- | ion. 1t may be expocted that theprime ministers and foreign ministers of other been attended by a President of the ,.iion "iaking part will represent their United States s the peace conference | countries. Certainly Rameay MacDon- at Versaills at the close of the World ald, the British premier, will be a rep. i = resentative of government at the President Wilson attended the | Iesenfative of hiy government st t0e (Continued on Fifth Page.) conference as head of the American | Indeed, he was the Amer- delegation. | reach away like the waves of the ocean, | or occupied amid the lush green prom- | ises of abundant crops. | “As we walk pensively down the nar- row corridors, ladies graze us lightly |in passing, wafting to us a bit of their |elegance and their fragrance. People | flow from all the doors in a gentle | parade.. They appear united, grouped {in the narrowness'of the corridors and | the intimacy -of -the 'rooms. In Norte | Ameried -everything seems to group. it- self together—the . State governments, the great fortunes for-further exploita- tion, the people for attendance at pub- lic spectacles: and for work. . In no { other place 4 the. world does man seem so small—lost. at the foot af skyscrapers, by the pillars’of his bridges, at the | bottom of -his workshops, surrounded | by whirling belts’ and noisy gears and !wheels. in.the. cabins of his airplanes (hundreds .of “adyertisements speeding | on the windD, and-in the vast fieets of the striped flag! Before his giant tasks he is a pigmy. the necessity for. uniting, for grouping together and 'marching shoulder to BUILDING AT IBERO-AMERICAN | shoulder—for every task & board of AT SEVILLE. Rt by her spirit. But in- this quist patio she appears to show .us her soul—un- garmented, silent, thinking. Her mighty actions are born out of the recesses of silepce that persists, odorlikz, all along the pavilion. The machines, the dol- lars, the poems of Edgar Allen l'oe, the; fantastic constructions that we h-ve('g‘s;s- considered as standing for her life, are | ione” of public hyglene, the mechaniz- only the foreground, the enormous land- | ing of the most insighificant. services, scape. In the background is th's small, | all these exhibits say nothing of t quiet center from which all movement millions they-eost nor ¢f the arraies of Starts. Out of it soars that unquench- [ Workmen - they - émploy, but only em- able desire to utilize every resource of | phasize - insurmor ble. desire to the land, the sea and the wir. This|turn pain-aside.. And mat, the wel- small and quiet center dramatizes the | fare’.of the individual,- balances (he ‘American concentration of ‘mental force. | Scales as the object worthy of a mighty Though wrestling, it gives no sign, of- | activity. The gigantic wheels turn in fers ’10 expllnluon—ubhorrlngnv‘mrd; order that man may ‘smile comfortably tive .Joses its. size.. - It .is not_possible now to take in ‘the whole view. Only a few outstanding’ detalls remain before us. " In these details cin befound the man -himself—austere, deeply concerned, almost monastic. & font P “Then the scale changes, the factors reverse.’ “The lanes and the in the showcases -look - like little gray The preventive methods used in {and its accompanying Covenant of the | e = | Secretary Stimson of the Department | LOWER, LEFT TO RIGHT: SENATORS WATSON, BORAH AND ROB- of State appears to be the logical choice | Because of this he feels “But as one gets closer the perspec-: boats fight against .disease, the "obliga- helthe main, Algeria, EUROPEAN UNITY IS SEEN AS WAY TO PROSPERITY Peace and Welfare [ Economic of Continent Hinge on Revolutionary Change in Structure. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. EYOND all question the proposal _ for a United States of Europe ! constituted the dominating cir- i cumstances of the tenth Assem- ‘ bly of “he League of Nations {and promises to supply the basis for | political sfiulnum for a long period | to come. e reason is not far to seek. ‘Whether one considers contemporary Europe from the political ‘or the eco- nomic side, it is clear that both: peace and prosperity depend upon not merely a 1apid but a revolutionary change alike in moral and material circum- stances. * | It is perfectly true that a United | States of Europe is unthinkable if one | consider it in the light of the past three | centuries of European history. But it 115 equally impossible to think of any | permanent Europe on present terms. | Europe must unite not merely to escape | individual economic disasters, but to | javoid collective suicide resulting from conflicting nationalisms. the age of Louls XIV to the French Revolution European history was characterized by a long series of dynas- tic conflicts, by the struggles. of Kings to_make. their states great and to win for themselves domination on the conti- nent. By contrast, from the French : Revolution to the World War the strug- gle was between peoples, and all the wars, including the last and greatest, had their origin, their occasion or their precipitating cause in- the: pursuit of !liberty or unity by some people. As a result of these two processes states have taken form almost im- ‘mutably and the majority of every eth- nic group is both free and united. It still remains possible to change existing | { frontlers, but all changes must be at | the expense of one race and for the profit of another. Thus no real gain for peace or permanence could possibly jresult. The double process of the lib- jeration and democratization of Europe : has attained the limit of the’ possible.” | A Hard - Alternative. In this situation Europe is faced bv | the alternative of endless war beiween dissatisfied and satisfled peoples and co- operation to an extent that will lead jto the ultimate reconciliation of the | | dissatisfied. - Moreover, it is clear that {as a consequence of the development of a modern industrial civilization the | older idea of distinct national states i :Ial:;d upon race has been gravely weak- | Wher. agriculture was the main basis | { of the life of all nations big and little, cover the expense by tariffs. The spec- tacle of Hungary, which is a purely agricultural nation by natural circum- stance, closing its frontiers to Czech manufactures and undertaking to con- struct an expensive national industry is a sample of such folly. In the larger sense the whole Euro- pean tradition of nationalism, based upon ‘ethnic circumstance, has broken down under the strain of contemporary industrial and economic facts. Europe is up against a fundamental collision between prosperity and patriotism. Peo- ples are now faced with a momentous decision between -a further development of parochial nationalism "and the achievement of something at’ least vaguely reproducing ' American stand- | ards of living. Must Be One Standard. Broadly speaking, it is now clear that there must be one standard of living if | the European tribes are to Hve extlu- sively as Germans and Poles, French- man and Ttalians, Magyars and Czechs, and quite another if they are to live collectively as Europeans. And it is Just as clear that if the continental peoples ‘insist upon adhering ‘to their traditional ethnic separatism, the pos- sibility of holding .their own against America disappears automatically. ‘You say the thing quite completely t situation “in Europe with the now almost. forgotten strife between individusl and corpora- tion production, ‘not merely between hand. labor and the machine, but be- tween the old infinitely divided steel works and, say, the United States Steel Corporation. In a word, political Eu- n;p; of today is an economic anachro- nism. Not So Easy. Of_ course, nothing is easier for an American_than o exaggerate the ex- tent to which co-bperation and feder: tion in Europe are politically possible in any immediate future and to undef- estimate the spiritual values that the various peoples attach to their nationsl cultures. The obvious common-sense view, which sweeps away the imponder- ables for the material circumstances, is at once 30 appealing and for us 50 nat- ural that we arrive at conclusions while Europe is still struggling with preiises. Yet it is profoundly true that all over Western and Central Europe the war did result in establishing the convic- tion that the old nineteenth century conceptions of nationalism were incom- patible not merely with peace but with prosperity. True, the immediate post- | the size of countries was not of eco- momic importance. - The mass of the | population in_every case lived upon itg | own .production. - International trade | :l:! reduced to a relatively few special- | 5. ous as Prance, and Holland better off | than either. { ‘Today, however..it is obvious that the Iarger the area of & country the broader | the home market and the greater the mflrt\lnh}' for that mass -production % means. alike cheapness. and com- he t, ort.. The United- States, whicin has never succeeded in imposing any mea: ure of its’ political ideas upon Europe, has completely upset the whole eco-| nomic thought of the older continent | by its economic example. Vaguely but with growing clarity Europe perceives that the basis of our material prosperity | lies in our geographical magnitude, | What the United States might be if | { every State or each regional group of | States were politically separate and eco- nomically competitive is- plain. The attempt of New England to conduct an tiron and steel industry in competition | with Pennsylvania, or the Eastern ! States -to compete with the’ Western™in | wheat and eattle, the division of - the | continent into well-nigh innumerable | small_economic units, would preclude | practically all the industrial achieve- | ment of recent years, which has taken Europe by surprise. and left it far | behind. Europe Has AlL ! In itself Europe has most of the | things that are necessary to reproduce American prosperity: coal, iron, water i power, highly trained technical experts and a far cheaper labor supply. But no one can measure the amount of economic waste resulting from the | effort of small national units to do a!l | Switzerland could be.as prosper- | P! war years, like the Paris Peace Confer- ence- itself, were marked by an expio- sion of nationalisms which aston and disgusted both American and Brit- ish observers. But just as clearly the rogress of the League of Nations in Europe and the growing importance of the annual sessions at Geneva are due | to the spreading of a sense of solidarity. None Alive Likely to See It. No one mnow -alive is likely to - _Europe united in any American fashi in ‘the pblitical sense. ° On “the other hand, nothing is less improbable -than that within a generation questions of tariff and production may have become a matter of common and concerted ac- tion. And, obviously. co-operation in in- dustry means a measurable diminution in - political rivairy and infernational quarreling. It has become axiomatic o say that another war would .mean the. ruin of Europe, but what is really significant is the fact that it is becoming equally clearly perceived that the present kind ot peace is incompatible with European prosperity. Peace in the old pre-war sense is not enough. Europe has to get out not merely of the political but of the economic-trenches. A divided Eu- Tope is not merely unstable, but it is uneconomic. And we are today preeisely at the point at which the real experiment must begin. The war is about to be liqui- dated: reparations and occupation, a the things we have quarreled about for the past ten years are about to be dis- posed of. At last new business is to come up. And it is patent that Briand has'sénsed the inevitable approach of | new and the arris of a new problem. Nor is it less clear that he’is seeking for himself and for his nation the of leadership in the new proc- ess. Hence his ever-growing Msistence their own business at home; to many- | facture where it is most expensive and upon his scheme for European unity. (Copyright. 1929.) | Fertilize the Sahara—and Europe, if not the rest of the world, can be fed. This sounds like a fantastic dream of the future. Rt is. Perhaps it awaits the turn of a geologic cycle of fruition. But there are parts of this interminable expanse of sand, this golden-bosom of the black continent, that are amenable to feasible application of tydl‘olo'lul sclence. Man harnessed ‘Supplies of water will' be utilized for soil produc- tivity on an immense scale. This transformation, wrought by ir- rigation, is a near possibility, thanks to the genius of two American engineers who have submitted their plans to the | French_suthorities, It will be deliber- ated at the next North African con- ference early in 1930 by the governor generals and resident governors in'a discussion of many matters vital to France's colonies in Africa. One author of tne scheme is John F. Stevens, former now of New York, who in 1905-07 was chief engineer of the Panama Canal and for a time served as chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission. Stevens is winner of the. John Fritz exceptional scientific work and is active in railway and electrical undertlkmg. His colleague in the project is Dwigl Braman, Boston _engineer, formerly noted as an unofficial statesman and internationalist. Mr, Braman is ‘& dynamic executive, public utility &nd water ‘power magndte. France, mistress of & vast world em- pire including. to refer to Africa in | g e ‘Prench Kongo, part the n, Sahara and other colonies and depend- encies, foresees an :enormous granary from proper development of desert land. So she bestirring herself to vitalize part of the Northern:Sahara into s flourishing garden-and grain- field. By her tentative umpt‘:nfl of the.Stevens- until oné great day it pushes a gray .object across an official table, asks for Braman plan, she is thus in & fair way in a quiet corner, where he may take a task- involving millions the time for meditation and a spiritual 4 , but-one Rich Garden May Bloom on Bleak Sands Of Sahara Through Irrigation Project vast none the less, is stretching from Gabes far down along Tunisia’s north- south Mediterranean .coast, southward to the rich ocasis of Tozeur and then extending west and northwest over into Algeria to*the base of the Aures Moun- tains, is the region to-be converted ‘Into arable land, according te the present intentions. It measures some 25,000 square miles. 1t is a depression dotted with chotts, or salt lakes, oftentimes mere ponds or even empty hollows. Being below sea level these chotts are connected in many cases by raised isth- muses, Also, in adjacent sections, im- mediately before: the mountainous area, there are numerous rivulets and wadies flowing mostly from - the direction of Mount Aures, whi¢h ‘streak down the trickHn; countryside, g - futilely th m,wwnnmwmmmtm terranean deptl ¥ AT pths. *To blend the waters of these chdtts, creating & sert of inland sea, and to by means of huge reservoirs districts features: 3 detp'and 80 deet e, sariing. trom an eet 3 A the ‘environs of Biskra, south of the Aures highlands and extending east- ward to Gabes and the sea. This art{- ficial waterway will link ‘all the chotts in “its meandering path and afford channel’ for the feeding in of the waters of the Mediterranean. ' 2. A port at Gabes. commanding the entrance to the canal, as an economic asset and cutlet to’ the anticipated products of the reclaimed Soil, 3. Construction of powerful water works and dams similar to the gigantic California ‘systems for Irrigation of the contiguous sandy lands, whose aridity is relieved only by ‘the seasonal streams. Pierre Louis Bordes, governor general re themsel phere filled with cinders, ode line, the roaring of motor c: - o of doliars. and years of ene: which will obliterate once for all the unproductivity of & region - which for 2 couple -of - millenniums- merely baked | POSS] in’ the sun. b7 to engineering science but more 80 as A ‘corner _of the giant Sshara. but | An enrichment of the colonial resources - T French empire. He himself blonde heads. &My are not hn'uflrlt- are not even . , .their. vlle One of the 20,000 refreshening. “Sails of Legends.” { “The crowd continues to file past._ A the soft flourished ot Algeria, ardently ' ‘supports ~ the scheme, which he regards not only as-a ible conquest by man and.a credit that deprived tionally serious. At least they were all | rights, gullty of anti-revolutionary ac- | us, I, is & Soant to be serious. e ot Tdiclously declarcd. BAMK. | st 'Y Sivay e SR Mr. Durst laid down a theory about | rupt or otherwise disqualified by law | arches, like the pal a convent, sur- food: may not en{:z the right of membership | rounded by galleries of black panelings, “Appetite is simply the result of a union. The government also|an awning of blue Silence stretches demand of the.body for food nutrient: | reserves the right to dissolve unions | jtself, ‘A silence as fluid as clear water. and calory value. Taste may influence | ic which it feels are detrimental to the selection of foods, but the body i llell‘beln ..'Qmm may be establishec Time Passes Unreckoned. not greatly concerned over what food | on the ini tiative of seven shops or com- “Footsteps re-echo. = Ancient lamps furnish. these nutrients. The-body. re- | panies with ‘the sanction of local offi- | cast dark patterns omn the lime of the Qquires rather definite amounts of nutri- deials’ and may determine their own | walls. Seated in a leathern ai ents and calory value every day, and | cegulations m:ymao not- clash | in casual restfulness is the familiar with. the 1aw. Unions | white pigeons wheel and slip through the blue. As the narrow corridors opcn their small, carvel, wooden doors they | cast a bright stain on floor and wall. We jean over the balustrade to gaze at the patio. The silence waffs itself up- ward and greets us. In th sky the world. The crowd files out infected with the ! silence. ! lady -asks: ‘But how about the girls of In the illuminated models the visi- | the painted legs, and the negro prize tors see how women work in the schools, | fighters, and ‘the Chinamen in their the offices, the clinics— fine blonde , mysterious dens?’ - - women, who seemed bathed in the joy| “The reply: ‘Madam, those are sails of the morning, with plain dresses |of legends swollen from a narrow rib- which follow the soft lines of their agile ; bon of reality.’ bodles. And the work of the men in| “In the gardens hidden lamps invest 4 immense golden shfe pavilion in a garment of white. a patent and proceeds to revolullonlu. o a star trembles under its pointed cap like a crystal bell. «One would say that the United States had arrived at this exposition by the. North Congress Winter. Recently ' the governor - com= pleted ‘an extensive touir of the Algérian artesian wells and ing, They. tlllgh well their fine sl ~their excellent foot: 4t makes no difference what foods sup~ are |ure of & priest. Time passes comfc -1&“ harfl&“hm clug.ed“lglvscgv ”t:: fia‘wflfl"fli Ltr‘:' e o T e |2 ian. we d T Lo saomnid 4. b i oue JOmREED T R B -4 mehm“fl&"fi Erally by the power of her actions, not, following -the herds o emia which | e door: ‘Eres of storan-eloud gray and e, e e N