Evening Star Newspaper, November 10, 1929, Page 32

determinative investigation & special truck has been prepared, equipped with THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, NOVEMBER 10, 1929—PART TWO. o(munhebflnnmmofmo—’r he has just turned fifty-three—and a ARMISTICE DAY Capital Sidelights. THE EVENING STAR]u With Sanday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SUNDAY.....November 10, 1920 THEODOR® W. NOYES. ...Editor Sl vt The Evening Star Newspaper Company iness Office: isylvania Ave. d Pe b RN T e Carrier Within the City. Star, 45¢ per month Rate by The i Brent ) 60c per month 65¢ per month Sc per copy ind of each month. mail or Lelephone Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. and Virginia. ily and Sunda; 1 wr, 31 1 mo., 85¢ llx only . Sunday only Al Other States and Cana Ballz ang Sunday.. Di ly Sinday only . Member of the Associated Press. ‘The Associated Press s exclusively entitled to the use for republication of s df ited to it oF not otherw! the local 1 ews ts of publication of re also reser ‘Traffic nolses are louder than they need The Triangle Trafic Problem. The Board of Trade is taking an active interest' in the traffic problem to be created by the Government's con- struction of its Avenue triangle group of butldings. The solution of this prob- lem unfortunately appears to have been left for some future day. According to the points- made by the Board of Trade's committee on streets and ave- nues, some future day will be entirely too late. The plans for handling traffic should " be considered and eo-ordinated with the architectural plans for the buildings. 8o far as existing evidence shows, these architectural plans have been drawn without much regard to the obviously resulting traffic difficulties. Bome unkind soul already has likened the Government's proposed buildings to the Great Wall of China, in so far as traffic is concerned. The comparison may be unkind, but it is better to make 1t now, while the buildings exist only on paper, than at some time in the future, when the buildings will have been erect- ed and the streets cut off. Here, briefly, is the situation as pic- tured by the Board of Trade'y com- mitiee: Thirteenth street is to be blocked off at the Avenue. Thirteenth-and-a-half street will dis- appesr entirely. Twelfth street will pass between two 9c| That there is a great deal of un- sensitive apparatus for measuring the intensity of sound, and it will be sent into various parts of the city during the next three months to pick up evidence. This device of the Noise Abatement Commission, as the group is formally styled, will play an important part in the inquiry. The city will broadcast itself. The microphones will be set up in business streets, under elevated rail- road lines, in shopping districts, in resi- | dential quarters. They will probably be tuned in at different hours of the day. Without question they will pick up {great volumes of sound. The question |18 whether they will distinguish be- tween the nolses, whether they can dif- | ferentiate as to the needless and the | Inescapable. i | necessary noise in city life 5 believed generally. Certain sounds can un-| | doubtedly be lessened, through proper regulation and supervision. Some noises are unavoidable, such as the pounding of pneumatic riveting ma- | chines employed in building construc- tion. And even they are being lessened with application of improved methods. to be. Incompetent drivers of motor cars make more noise than is necessary in the starting and the braking of cars. Horns are blown more often and more loudly than is actually required for safe negotiation of the streets. In one respect rules that are properly enforced can effect & material relief. That is in the lessening of the sounds of radio loud speakers. At present there is little regulation of this noise nuisance. In business sections and in residence areas the blaring horns send forth sounds that are magnified beyond all need. Some of these nuisances are committed by merchants to draw public attention to their shops. These can be prevented if there is a will on the part of the authorities. They require no sensitive apparatus to prove their | baneful effect upon the public nerves. e Open Board Meetings. ‘The Board of Education stands to gain, rather than lose, by its decision to abolish executive committee meetings, except for the discussion of matters involving personnel, and to hold its commitiee meetings hereafter wnder the full light of publicity, So little difficulty was experienced by one wonders why it has taken so many risks in the past with the dangers in- herent in executive meetings. For the buildings: extending to the curbing on both sides of the street. In the middle of the thoroughfare, as it passes into an open court between the buildings, there will be & small circle with a monu- ment in the center, thus eliminating consideration of Twelfth street as traffic artery. Eleventh street is already cut off at C strept and later, according to the plans, will be cut off at the Avenue. Tenth street is now blocked at B by the National Museum. Ninth street yuns through. Eighth ‘street will ‘be cut off at the Avenue. Seventh street-runs through. Bixth street runs through. ‘Thé board's committee points out that ‘Washington ;- has: recently - completed streets as two maln.north.and. south “wall” of Government bulldings. A recent trafiic count taken at Thirteenth street and Pennsylvania avenue during the rush hours showed that 1,000 auto- moblles pess that point, going north and south, each hour. Another thou- | sand cars pass east and west each hour. That indicates the importance of this crossing. ‘With completion of the Government buildings' about 25,000 employes will be centered in the Avenue triangle group. FPourteenth street is now so crowded that commercial vehicles are forbidden to travel south during the morning rush hour and north during the after- | noon rush hour. ‘Thirty-six thousand vehicles enter- ing and leaving the city pass over the Highway Bridge every day. In addition to such establishments as the Department of Agriculture, Smith- sonian and the Bureau of Engraving, lo- cated in the south-central part of the city, there are the freight yards of the Pennsylvania Railroad and some of the city's large commercial plants. Com- mercial development in this section is going forward rapidly. meetings were executive, for the most part, in name only. News usually leakcd out of what transpired behind closed doors. It was apt to b® incomplete news, if not one-sided, but it leaked out all the same, for that happens to be one of the better known peculiarities of news. ‘There is more vital interest in the school system on the part of the city’s residents than in any other municipal institution. For this reason the Board of Education should foster and not dis- courage the natural desire of the eiti- sens to know what is going on. If there now exists a misunderstanding in the public mind concerning the fundamental | purposes of the proposed amendment to the rules of the board, enabling school authorities under certain conditions to withhold diplomas, the misunderstand- ing can only be attributéd to the board’s. failure to make the proposal clear. Opening ‘the doors and adopting a policy of frank and full discussion of matters affecting the community’s school system will cause less misunder-~ standing and will develop & more intelli- gent and sympathetic famillarity with the school problems, A Foolish Ordinance. It was King Canute who bade the tide to stand still; it is the municipal council of Puebla, Mexico, which has adopted an ordinance forbidding the | display of motion pictures with English subtitles and talking pictures given in English. The idea of the former is history; the measure by the council is expected to end the invasion of the English lan- guage, according to dispatches. Prob- | ably the town fathers could have taken no step which would have been worse for their purposes. It is not likely that ambitious Mexi- can boys and girls would learn English merely to understand the “pictures.” There is enough of the universal lan- guage in all movies, silent or “talkie,” to make such & turning to grammars and vocabularies unnecessary. If the tide of English threatens to overflow the countries to the South, it comes about because the international commercial life, in which all partici- ‘The widening of B street through to the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the work of developing approaches from Virginia to the bridge will bring a great tide of traffic over this thoroughfare. ‘Te reach the central part of the city it must leave B street at Fifteenth or Fourteenth unless other direct routes are provided. These facts have long been under con- sideration, The Board of Trade's un- easiness is evidently based on that very fact. They have been under considera- tion—but that is all. e In & time of considerable skepticism doubts are even expressed concerning the legal competence of a grand jury. Where alert minds are in action, it is not unusual for technicalities to arise, P — A City Sound Sampler. Science has been applied to the problem of preserving the health of the public in varlous ways. Samples of water are taken from the sources of supply and from the mains to detect noxious germs or’' components, if pate, makes it inevitable. The Spanish- speaking peoples are linguists by hered- ity, and the matter of one more lan- guage, though English, will harm mone of them. Probably no one step could have been taken by the municipal council which would have been surer to result in the | very thing which the ordinance aimed % “cure” Now young Pueblans will want to know English at all hasards— and probably will, such is the spirit of ! modern youth. —r——— A number of voters, after straying in great agitation during the Al Smith campaign, find themselves, so far as partisanship is concerned, exactly where they started. o It becomes evident that Col. Lind- bergh will never learn to enjoy a roll- top desk as much as he does an air- plane. - —— France’s New Leader. ‘Washington, which came to know him 50 well during the war, when he was any exist. Samples of air are taken from warious points of & city to deter- | more than passing interest in the | but it don't pay nufin'.” —taie mine whether disease-breeding elements are present as “dust.” The container here as high commissioner, will take progress and career of Andre Tardleu, the new premier of France, In the background of versatile experience un- common, even in governments ke those of Prance, in which many talents are frequently presgnt. M. Tardieu was trained for the diplo- matic career and entered it with a brilliant scholastic record to his credit. But journalism soon tempted him frony it and for many years, including those im- mediptely preceding the World War, he was in practical control of the foreign department of Le Temps, the great Paris newspaper which ‘immsmorially. has been the semi-official voice of “the Quai d’ Orsay. Tardieu's daily editorial on the international situation rang through the chancellories of Europe with an authority second only to that attaching to the highest oficial ut- terances. Prince von Buelow at Berlin once paid him the compliment of saying that “there are seven world powers— and Andre Tardieu.” Just before the outbreak of the war, the Chef-Redactcur of Le Temps was lured from his role as a commentator on politics into an active participant in that arena, and was elected a Deputy for the distinguished constituency of Versailles. He at once became an im- posing and influential figure in the chamber. Always uncompromisingly Nationalist in his point of view, Tardieu was invariably liberal in his outlook and tactics. He had been on duty as an of- ficer at Marshal Foch's headquarters and knew the Germans. There were times in his subsequent parliamentary career that he thought even M. Poincare and M. Briand too soft toward the beaten foe, and ever and anon Tardieu belabored them without quarter on that lssue. Yet Premier Poincare was to find him a valued cabinet co-adjutor, and now Tardieu turns to Briand as his main support in perpetuating the pesce policy on which France has so stermly embarked. The London naval conference will probably test the mettle of the new | cl Prench government, and may make or break it. There are grave points of dif- ference between the French and the Italians regarding parity in the Mediter- ranean, where both countries have vital interests. But America and Britain found it practicable and possible to bury their differences on the parity is- sue. Paris and Rome should not be less successful in accommodating themselves to their own particular situation. The premiership and personality of Andre Tardieu and his intimate asc- qQuaintance with the fundamentals and aspirations of the world at the moment of his crowning political glory are a gratifying guarantee that France will pull her full weight in the boat of peace a8 long as he is at the stroke oar. His American friends cordially wish him bon voyage. —— e In the imagination of many an en- thusiastic observer of the score, the most glittering achievement that a student at Annapolis or West Point shoald hope for is a foot ball record. It is & matter for public congratulation that students who piay bardest usually study most. ——————— ‘The Lord Mayor of London has been installed with pomp and ceremony. The powers of the Lord Mayor are cir- cumscribed, but there is no question that on occasions demanding ancient picturesqueness he is & means of greatly improving the local scenery. e Statisticians who count flasks at & benquet neglect the tremendous field for investigation offered by researches to ascertain the number of places sup- posed to be associated with illicit manu- tacture and distribution. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHICANDER JOHNBOR. The Open Fire. Into the realms of long ago Fancy will glide in the firelight glow. 'Mid shadowy castles the scarlet elves In sport fantastic reveal themselves, And here is a picture of the days When fairy folk went their accustomed ways. As wonder workers who did not dream Of radio, motors or even steam, The sparks like stars admiration claim And the log turns into cascades of flame, As into the reams of long ago Fancy glides into the firelight glow. Favorite Efforts. “What do you regard as the best speech you ever made?” “I haven't any preference,” answered Senator Sorghum, “but the ones that afforded me most satisfaction were my various speeches of acceptance.” Jud Tunkins says he tries to vote for the best man, but hes mostly proved himself & bad guesser, Ne Repose. He gained & fortune true to tell And thought in idleness to dwell. He took up golf; kept at the game, And worked and worried just the same. Varying Values. “Would you marry a man in the hope of wealth?” “I might,” answered Miss Cayenne. “But I'd be awfully careful since the recent depression in the stock market.” “Words of wisdom,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “are easy. Wise deeds are more difficult.” A Dinner Resolution, For strictness I am very strong And it, henceforth, shall be my task To take an X-ray lamp along And see just what's in every flask. “A faultfinder,” said Uncle Epen, “has discovered de easiest job on eafth, He Gains No Sympathy. bottle and the test tube have been |early hours of yesterday his coalition | prom the New York Sun. worked effectively, to the end of head- cabinet scored a handsome maiden vic- A Ol is charged by his wife ing off afictions that take heavy toll | tory, with a vote of confidence carried | in divorce proceedings with owning 13 of health and of life. Now comes the sampling of the sounds that assail the ear of the city dweller, to ascertain whether there is danger. in the din that arises in urban activity, In New York a campaign is under way ‘to lessen the clangor of | defense of the incoming government's afl business and entertainment. A group of experts has been organized to study the question, with a view to ascertain- ing, first, the origin of the sounds that arise and combine into a roar through- in the Chamber of Deputies by a ma- jority of seventy-one. It was in a large sense a personal triumph for M. Tardieu and for his foreign minister, M. Briand, for just previously both had ’:puken fervently and persuasively in program. Andre Tardieu has been described as - statesman determined to give Prance & business administration. That is automobiles and 13 sweet- rts. A man who flirts with hard luck that way deserves no sympaghy. ——— They Did Quite Well. From the Lowell Evening Leader. nti-noise campaign in New York fect the vocal activities of the various municipal candidates. ————— 0o No Place for a Snake, Prom the Woreester Dally Telesr: BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES Bishop of Tomorrow is Armistice day. We readily recall the thrill that came to the peoples of the world on that event- ful morning eleven years ago v..ien the guns were s‘!lenct‘d. Hardly in this gen- eration have the hearts of men given | such a giad response as on this notable | occasion. There was & well-nigh uni- versal determination to make this day mark the beginning of a new era in human history. We had visions of a world, not only at peace, but a world determined to abolish the horrors of war. For the whfl? we :ne:“dm:: neither by race nor language, envi.llonedy the coming J\ut day, when “Man to man the world o'er Should brothers be for a’ that. We of America, who have lived our | life quite apart from the elder world, felt that we had now come to the new day where seas could not divide, but where all human interests should be our common concern. There can be little doubt in the mind of any thoughtful citizen that these ideals occupied & foremost place in our outlook. After the tumult and the shouting had died, and we went back again to our daily tasks and self-interests, our new-found ideals suffered an impairment and once again we began to think in insular terms. In the meantime during the in- tervening years the sovereign states of the old world have been seekini work out a plan that should save m from snother great catastrophe. We of America have, with deepened interest, watched the progress of this new move- ment, we have even gone so far as to send “unofficial observers,” and the wisdom of an international court we have conceded and upon it one of our distinguished men has sat. There can be little doubt that America at heart is seeking to keep pace with every | effort that will guarantee the peace of the world. Probably the most notable evidence of this was disclosed in the recent conference between our President and the premier of Great Britaln. What is to issue from these conferences is yet to be made evident. Of one thing we are certain, namely, that '.he{ are in consonance with the mind of our time, which is expressed through the els of public opinion. We may call our leaders visionary, we may doubt the fulfillment of their high purposes, nevertheless if our statesmen are moved by prevailing public opinion, surely in E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, W ashington the present instance our leaders are moving in the right direction. t is a remarkable and striking fact that, in the new outlook upon interna- tional relations, reference is constantly being made to the teachings of the “Prince of Peace.” The Man of Naz- areth is no longer restricted to the sacred areas of the church, but He is invad the halls of legislation. His dictum that “He that loseth his life shall find it is beginning to be rec- ognized as axiomatic. ations that have the vision to recognize their world responsibility, while clinging to their national ideals, are coming to have the foremost place in those counclls where world affairs are discussed. That the teachings of the great Master bear upon human concerns is being more clearly recognized and the practical values of His mighty utterances are affecting human judgments and human policies. Christianity is not a system unrelated to vital world concerns. It has practical application to economic, social, domestic and political interests. That He en- visioned an ultimate world peace is ob- vious in all His teachings. He sought to make evident to men not only a new heaven, but a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Upon two great fundamental principles of laws He based His teaching, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all to | thy mind and with all th: “thy neighbor as thyself.’ to a universal love, to a recognition of the rights and privileges of our neigh- bors sprang from a reverence for and obedience to the eternal Father. ‘Through the long ages this law of duty to one’s neighbor has cried for expres- sion. It is fair to say that we have come nearer its approximation in the st 25 years than ever before. The | pas critic and the cynic may tell us tpat “as things have been they remain,” that human nature the world over is still dominated by selfish conceits and passions, and that any hope for better conditions is an evanescent dream. We do not believe it. We may not see the first glintings of the millennium, nor may we lay the flattering unction to our souls that we have attained reasonable perfection; on the other hand, in spite of all insular ways of thinking and liv- ing, this latest Armistice day finds us giving larger consideration to the things of world peace than we have ever known before. Defeat of Tariff BY WILLIAM HARD. ‘The fate of the tariff bill is cer- tainly veiled now in thick mists of futurity, but there are certain sur- mises and calculations current about it in Washington. In the first place, it is not thought that the President would be much dis- comfited by the bill's total defeat. Its defeat would involve the disap- pearance for a long time to come of the debenture plan for export subsidies which the bill now contains and which the President strongly disapproves. Its defeat also, and further by throwing us back uj the present existing tariff law of 1922, would preserve for the President the “flexible provisions,” un- der presidential control, which the President desires, but which the new bill destroys. On both_points, which are re‘:tfl!d by the President as major points, far excecding in importance all detalls of individual tariff duties, the defeat of the new bill would give to the President no pain or gloom. | the t in or gl Moreover, on the rates themselves, the President is in a position to be perfect- dy willing to allow the coalition between the Democrats and the insurgent Res publicans in the Senate to take the full | responsibility which it has assumed. Most members of the eoalition repre- sent agrarian constituencies. In so far as there has been any great positive demand for new tariff duties at this time, it has come from the farmers and the farmers’ organizations. The farmers produced the present new tariff desire and impulse, and then the industrial- ists came along into it, extremely largely as an afterthought and in order simply not to be left out if any new meals were going to be served at the tariff table. That is the history of the matter; and that is the psychology of the matter still; and if the new bill if taken to the rotunds between the Senate and the House of Representatives and there solemnly burned to ashes, the mass of the big industrialists of the United States will go out to golf without a pang of regret and with minds wholly | unburdened by any fears regarding the prospects of their corporations. Some small industrialists, indeed, like the merchant pig iron manufacturers on the Atlantic Coast, many of whom have been driven out of business by im- ported pig iron, have been interested in the new 'w Now, however, the meas- ure is on its way toward being thoroughly extinguished. ‘That situation is perfectly illustrated by the pig iron instance. The biggest steel companies make virtually no pig iron for sale. They consume their pig iron themselves for their own steel. Pig iron for sale is made almost exclusiveiy by so-called “small independents.”” The tariff commission reported that the dif- ference between the cost of production of pig iron at home and the cost of production abroad was several dollars. ‘The tariff duty on pig iron in the pres- ent existing law of 1922 plus a 50 per cent increase on it as recommended by the tariff commission and granted by nt Coolidge is $1.12)5;. The coalition in the Senate has put the duty back to 75 cents. Accordingly the existing law is better for the small pig iron industrialists than is the new bill in its present form. They will, therefore, nct weep at all if in its present form it is done to death. Their sentiment is increasingly shared by all the other small industrialists of the country as the coalition in the Senate continues to give to industrial item after industrial item a lower tariff duty than the statistics of their cases would seem to suggest. The moment is rapidly com- ing, and is perhaps even now here, when approximately the whole of the Ameri- can industrial community, which in general and on the average is extremely rosperous, will be completely disin- femm in the bill and when the Sen- ators from the industrial States—like Senator Moses of New Hampshire—will be actually eager to vote against it. ‘With the farmers the color of the oc- casion is different. The farmers have not been so prosperous. The leaders of their organizations have inspired them with a large hope of “tariff relief.” They have been promised “the home market” on many agricultural commodities in order to compensate them, as far as may be, for the low prices they get on many products which they export. In nu- merous agricultural communities. ac- | cordingly, the expectation of tariff bene- fits is vivid and insistent. With that fact in mind, it becomes possible for the President to sit back and let the coalition, without any out- cry from him, follow either one of the only two courses that are open to it. ‘The first course is to vote against the bill on its final passage in the Sen- ate. That will kill the bill. The per- sons who will fancy themselves worst hurt will be the producers of certain agricultural commodities such as milk, cream, butter, casin, flaxseed, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, figs, cattle, wool and so on. The members of the coali- tion will then go back to their consti- tuents and explain the outcome as best theyv may. They may explain it per- fectly successfully. They cannot explain it, however, in any such way as to at- tach to the President any responsibility for it. The chance that they may fol- low this course thorefore leaves the President unconcerned. ‘Their second conceivable course is after they have rewritten the bill in the Senate to vote for it in sufficient num- bers to pass it. That will send it to - i Measure Would Cause Hoover No Discomfiture the House and to conference between the House and the Senate. The result of the conference will necessarily be either the bill's demise—which the President can survey with equanimity —or a compromise. ‘The only compromise thought feasible is that the Sendte should recede from the debenture plan and from its new proposed congressionally controlled “flex- ible provision” and that the House should recede from many of the really extremely high rates which it imposed unin industrial commodities and that {#>reupon the bill would become a gen- uinely “limited” tariff revision. But & “limited” tariff revision is pre- cisely what the President has advocated from the beginning. He could there- upon sign the bill with satisfaction. Such are the reasons why, although the President is supposed in a certain theory of the matter to be overwhelm- ingly worried by the Senate's tariff per- formances lmmrluhmenn. he «does not at all, in fact, look so, (Copyright, 1929.) Renew Efforts to Solve Fires by Combustion BY HARDEN COLFAX. Nick Carters of the laboratory and of the counting room are going to put their heads together and outline plans which they hope will result in solution of the mystery surrounding a series of costly fires—a series which began at least as 1ur back as recorded history runs, It is none other than that arch enemy of mankind, spontaneous com- bustion, that is the object of wholesale detective work about to be undertaken. Not that the subject is entirely new— the literature of ancient Greece and Rome bears evidence against any such theory—but while many lairs of this destructive element are known, it strikes often in unexpected places and the whys and wherefores are more fre- quently hidden than exposed. In brief, scientists of the Government and of private employ; representatives of farm organizations and of rail and water transport companies; s en for feed and cereal and other manu- facturing interests; the sugar industry; producers of an! and vegetable olls, paint and varnish, fertilizer and various additional commodities; processors of hemp, jute, sisal and other fibers; insurance underwriters, fire chiefs and sundrysothers will meet in Washington next Thursday and Priday in a con- ference on spontaneous heating and ignition of agricultural and industrial products. The call was issued by the National Pire Protection Association in co-operation with the United States Departments of Agriculture and Com- merce, and the invitation to attend is enera.. Plan: will be made st the conference Noveml 14 and 15 to co-relate the efforts ol all those interested in this study and to bring about an orderly and intensified program of scientific research to solve the mysteries which thus far have baffled specialists almost as much as laymen. Here is a hazard which takes an annual toll of somewhere around $100,000,000 in the United States by means of flames (the exact figures are & matter of speculation), besides which there is a heavy loss from spoilage and deterioration from spontaneous heating that halts short of ignition. ‘There is romance in this subject sufficient to grip the imagination of the tired business man more firmly than the best written crime thriller. Many & tale of a phenomenon almost gl in effects can be ited about sponta- neous combustion; seaworthy ships which sailed forth on calm waters never to be heard of in, but whose fate may be inferred from mysterious fires !P"“lll‘fll forth in the cargoes of other vesse| ich finally made port safely; huge stacks of sacked raw sugar being consumed by flames together with the warehouses shelteri them; freight cars loaded with cattle feed blazing to a mass of twisted metal in rallroad yards; sisal for manufacture of binding twine afire at wharves in New Orleans after having been transported across the Gulf from Mexico. The case last Summer of 2,500 tong of natural ice “burning” up in Omaha from spontaneous combusf in the sa t in which it was packed is an oddity. Innumerable instances of snow melting on & haystack to be followed soon by destruction of the rural com- munities. Many may be traced to human agencies, but thousands of others are listed “Cause unknown,” most probably spontaneous combustion. Studles were made by officials of the chemical engineering division, Depart- ment of Agriculture, following the New England floods of 1927 of cases where hay-filled barns still standing in five or six feet of water were destroyed by fire attributable alone to spontaneous combustion. Various theories of the cause of spon- taneous combustion have been advanced. For more than 100 years efforts to study the subject sclentifically have been un- o con experiments with hay at its Beltaville, k4 ly | claimed BY WILL P, KENNEDY. ‘The facetious characterization by Senator George Moses of New Hamp- shire, President pro tem. of the Sen- ate, of Republican progressives at a dinner staged by some 50 New Eng- land manufacturing and export execti- tives, when he referred with feeling to the “sons of the wild jackass who now control legislation in the Senate™ seems to have stirred up & hornels | nest that threatens to oust him as party leader and has accentuated the developing' bitterness between the East and West that portends ibflities of a change in party control in Congress. But this remark was only a part |of & running fire of “smart” talk that enlivened the dinner. Senator Moses commented upon the “trepidation with Which Senators now -me%g an invita- tion to such a dinner in Washington.” ‘The toastmaster emphasized later that that was a New England dinner and not a Wall Stfeet dinner, The New Hampshire Senator ex- pressed his joy to be “in a company where the Heflins cease to Heflin and the Brookharts are at rest.” He also gave a demonstration, which many present took to have a very personal reference, “that some of us Yankees are still able to speak in a catarrhal tone.” House Leader Tilson, when called uj a few moments later, pointed out it “when the original Moses started out he took along with him a fellow named Aaron to do his talking for him, but when our George gets star he_needs none to speak for him.” ‘When Representative Edith N. Rogers suggested to the delegation represen:- ing the New England Export Club that they and the New England Council, which is a trade development confer- ence, ought to establish a representa- tive at the Capital to help members of Congress and Federal officials on matters of business interest to that section, one of the prominent manu- facturers was heard to remark: “Tie Connecticut manufacturers tried thatv and see all the trouble it started.” ‘The Boy Scouts of American throughout the length and breadth of the land have come to the aid of Con- gress to keep history straight and to make the historical record complete. John Hanson of Maryland, one of the great pre-Revolutionary leaders, who was President of the Continental Con- gress and who personally spoke the thanks of Congress to George Washing- ton after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown and who was a signer of the Articles of Confederation of the United States, sleeps in an unmarked grave— where, none seems to know. Under T. L. Underwood, 332 Mary- d avenue, Washington, troopmaster of Troop 23, the Boy Scouts “dedicated themselves to the finding of the grave of John Hanson, and will search and help search until it is found.” In the course of their search they found fully a_foot underground, several old graves of historic interest near Oxon Hill, Md., a short distance out of the Capital City, Wwhere Hanson died at the residence of his nephew in 1783. They are still on the trail of Hanson'’s grave. Out of this has grown a nation-wide search by the Boy Scouts, under a plan arranged by E. 8. Martin, secretary of the editorial board of the Boy Scouts’ organization, with Ansen Wold, compil- er of the biographical directory of the American Congress, to flther missing information regarding all former mem- bers of Congress whose biographies are incomplete. Already various troops throughout the States have turned in valuable information. Mr, Martin, in calling for the assist- ance of all Boy Scouts in this work, has jtold them that they “will be doing a | same time enrviching their own knowledge of local history and be de- veloping a good objective for hikes.” * K ok ok During an intenstve search since early in 1925 to get the fullest information possible regarding = life record of each former member of Congress, Ansel ‘Wold, the sturdy and pertinacious right- hand man to Senator George Moses in compilation of the Autographical Di- rectory—which, by the way, is the most used book in some of the leading libraries of the country—has gleaned some interesting items regarding early congressional elections. In some States elections were not held until somewhere from April to November of the year fol- lowing the opening of the Congress. There is a record of some members from New York not having been elected for a full year after their term % There is a record ef vacancles on April 8, 1835, & full month after the term began. Rhode Island. Connecticut and Virginia held their elections in April; Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, North et A L ippi ay and Mary- October. * ok ok % A surprising story has just been un- earthed from old files by the Congres- sional biography researchers regarding former Representative Edward Preble Little, from Massachusetts, who served from December 13, 1852, to March 3, 1853. Coming cultured Massa- chusetts it amazed the researchers to find this record as of January 8, 1853: “Hon. Edward P. Little made his ap- pearance in Congress on Thursday and, without taking off his broad-brimmed hat, advanced to the Speaker and af- firmed to support the Constitution of the United States.” This same, Little at the age of 9 years (in 1800) was on the U. S, frigate Boston with his father, Capt. George Little, at the suggestion of Presi- dent Adams, who gave him a commis- sion as n&lfllhlpmnn. He was born in Marshfield, Plymouth County. After voluntarily quitting Congress he was collector of customs at the port of Plymouth for four years. He died at Lynn, Mass., h; 1875. * X % Augus land in Members of Congress will greatly miss Representative R. Walton Moore of Virginia “if and when” he carries out his announced intention to withdraw from the national legislative body. He has made history real to them by takin; many of them on personally conduct: visits to historic shrines in “the Old Dominion” and linking them up with achlevements affecting other parts of the coun v and the Government itself. None ali knows his Virginia better. For cx. 1aple, he has just taken some of his collcagues to Willlamsburg, which Is just saturated with history, and intro- duced them to many interesting land- marks, one of which was the old State prison, bullt in 1701, which stands to- day as-it did in Colonial times. that the notorious pirate Blackbeard was imprisoned there, but Mr. Moore refers to that as “an unveri- fled tradition.” But it is an undeniable fact that Henry Hamilton, the British governor general of the Northwest, who was captured at Vincennes by George Rogers Clark, the “ ‘Washington of the West,” was sent to Williamsburg, when he, in retaliation for his encourage- ment of Indian barbarities which had won for him the condemnatory epithet “‘Scalptaker,” was confined in that old butlding which he called his “dungeon.” — Md., farm, but these have not progressed sufficlently far to point to more than incidental conclusions. It may be a real “firebug” is re- sponsible. Dr. Charles A. Browne, chief of chemical and techn in the Bureau of Chemistry and Solls, Department of has - vanced the theory that ;"'t‘.:‘,“ T dn'fin‘m::m tures action, er ral fol- lowing oxidation of oom'::ounda pro- duced by the bacteria; in other words, ::n ‘1: is not muhen of the bodies of e “bugs,” or colony activity, that causes fire, but Chemical reactions growing out ef the presence of the bac- teria, which die at about 150 degrees F., Wwhile 600 or more degrees are necessary Ior&:lnmnm t is the sub) Lmrm-n subject that more than 150 business and m(u-l&ml:n men from all parts of the United States, and some from Canada. will 'nmr here :.nu week te discuss plans for intensive s *(Copyrizht, 1920.) | good turn for the Government and at | Lord LOST WILLS AND HEIRS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. In the Victorian Era no novel or play was quite complete without the intro- duction into the plot of missing heirs or missing wills or both. While titat theme has become less popular in ultra-modern times, wills and heirs still cause a tre- mendous amount of trouble. Banks recently have made a specialty of urging customers to write wills and trust com- panies are eager to have estates put into their hands, all in legal order, in ad- vance of decease. Lawyers are not so enthusiastic concerning this Pruclmt nicety as they thrive upon the litigation which springs from the solid fact that there is no pocket in a shroud. How uncertainty as to the existence or non-existence of pmgerty on the one hand or of heirs on the other affects the lives of people has recently been somewhat dramatically demonstrated in the case of Urban F. Diteman, the Mon- tana cowboy, who attempted to fly the Atlantic alone. After his departure it came to light that, while the idea of achieving the Atlantic flight was his uppermonst purpose, also he wanted to go to England to Erem a claim to the estate of Sir Francis Drake, Queen Eliz- abeth’s admiral, who defeated the Span- ish Armada and whose ships ploughed American waters in the early days. The fyer's wife, who lives at Billings, Mont., let it be known that Diteman believed himself an heir to the Drake estates in England and felt that, with material he had already gathered on this side of the water, he could continue his researches in England and bring his claim to & suc- cessful isue. The fame which would attach to him if he succeeded in flying the ocean would aid him, he thought, in getting prompt assistance in his re- searches and attention to his claim. 1 The Drake estate and its missing heirs !is a myth of old standing. In fact, the American State Department has been called upon repeatedly to lay claims of Americans before the British authorities. This was done so frequently that as recently as 1922 the British government issued & formal communication to the United States explaining that there are no missing_ heirs and that Buckland Abbey, the home of Sir Francis Drake, has been continuously in possession of his descendants since his death. The Blrllu.ah courts have turned down several claims. A Few Claims Are Substantiated. But in other cases it has not been so easy. Americans are especially dicted to the conviction or hallucina- tion that they are heirs to titles or landed estates. Every little while one of these dreams comes true. The news- papers will print reports of street car conductors or plumbers’ helpers or some one who has received the well known dream letter from the lawyers saying, in effect, that the addressee been identified as the heir of title or estates or both of some for- eigner. Perhaps the benefactor has just died; perhaps he has been dead two centuries and the line only now traced. These things do happen, but the per- centage in proportion to the number of persons who hope for such good for- tune is almost infinitesimal. ‘There are some persons living in this country who know that they are heirs to titles. In fact, if all Europe be in- cluded, there are a_great many such rsons. Heirs to English titles who t them go begging are few. Although the Fairfax family of Maryland lived their lives calmly for several genera- tions as American citizens, utterly ig- noring the renu which awaited any eldest son of any generation who want- ed to claim it, it finally was claimed about 25 years ago and the present Fairfax is a former land farmer. ‘The difficulties of the claimants of estates here and elsewhere lie very largely "lth missing wills. The d the matter of holding to the letter of the last expressed wishes of a dead man. But the will must probated. ‘Then there bellef amounting to con lead | Truth in it cases concerning the exi wills. The latest will, of course, et §23%8 -3 little pocll’t';u Not a little proj d inistered State because a will remains m even though there is T)od think one existed. But, like & a murder case, a will must be uced. Many Difficulties Exist. On the other side of the picture may be found the difficulties in respect to heirs. A strange case only re- cently came to light in New Jersey. Thirty-three years ago & couple were legally married, but, for reasons best known to themselves, gave their infant son to another woman to rear. She il 4 Th child's mother died in 1926 bequeathing $325,000 to the unknown son, then & grown man. Still the woman who had reared him said nothing. The large estate was held by trustees. necen‘v!y the man’'s father died. That released the promise and the woman came to the trustees and established the missing heir’s identity. Children leave home and, in intervals between communication with parents, the latter die, leaving fortunes, some small, some large. Chance has arranged it so that in the very interval of non- communication there have been re. movals and all trace has been lost. Millions of dollars are held by the State authori awaiting the appearance of missin, irs. In New York State, it is offictally estimated, not more than 1 per cent of the missing heirs for whom estates are held, is ever found. State laws vary, but, after a certain period, such sums revert ta the State, si where charitable trusts or the like have been set up., Then the urm.l are car- ried out. Charitable trusts are causing much difficulty. The law provides that the terms of the deceased benefactor’s will may not be altered, even although all need for the charity is past. There is the famous Mullanphy trust, for in- stance. Mullanphy, seeing the destitu- tion of forty-niners who failed to find gold in the California rush, set up a trust for their relief. But there are no .. has grown to $1,000.000, "u nothing which can be done Randall, on_the advice of.:. | Alexander Hamilton, left $25,000 to pro- - vide a snug harbor in the form of a.. . has | home for aged, disabled, and indigent: ‘The home acquired was a farm. now covered by a part of New York's .. financial district. The estate is worth. $50,000,000. The income is more than $1,000,000 & year, but only a handf of eligible sallors has been found uiring help. Yet nothing else can be--- 3@» with the money. - “ Perhaps the most interesting and, in.. one way, the most respected will, is the. .. nuncupative or nuncupatory will. It is.. a will of a brief or fragmentary or irreg-. .. wlar nature and may even be an P will heard by Witnesses. Usually these .. are the wills of men dying on the battle. there is a shred of evidence - port them, courts enforce - In the World War an English . soldier fell, earrying on his person the. . photograph of a girl. Across the back.. was scrawled: “I give all to her.” There Wwas not even & name. Yet the girl was - identified and received the man's prop+ erty, which was le. R The most faromus nuncupatory will - in literature is that of Mr. Valiant-For« - 's Progress, About to cross over, he said: “My sword I give to- him that'shall succeed in my pil- - and my courage and skill to’ Fim that can g o o sailors. Fifty Years Ago In The Star A very brief letter from a reader, signed “Justice,” in The Star of No- I vember 6, 1879, throws a Telephone &.E;h upon the cost .;nt one service Charges. ythington ~fifty years ago: “The Fire Board met last night and the committee on telephones re- ported propositions from both companies offering instruments at $10 per annum. Please permit us to inquire why these companies will not furnish the instru- ments at that price to subscribers who now pay $12.50 per quarter, in advance. Search of the columns of following issues does not disclose any suggested | solution of this puzzle. B * In The Star of November 8, 1879, is the following discussion of the real es- caae tate situation in Building Boom the Caplial, which, 3 N incidental re- in Washington. 7.7 {e range of prices of building materials half a cen- tury ago: "rlyt has been pointed out in The Star for the past year that an activity in real estate in Washington was inevitable and ly, and all the indications now are in the line of the fulfiliment of our predic- tions. The real estate brokers without exception report the demand for houses, both to purchase and to rent, as unprecedented; that at no time since 1872 has it been so great. Rents are dvancing and _desirable are daily becoming more scarce. Landlords are vying with each other in modern- izing and otherwise improving their houses to meet the demand. It is al- most impossible to walk a square in the more desirable portions of city without encountering piles of brick, mortar and other bullding material be- ing used either in remodeling and re- p‘?fln‘ houses now built or bullding new. Bullders say that at no time for ¢ six years have they been so crowded with work as at present. “The improvéments being made are | by no means confined to residence property, as a casual survey of the prin- cipal business streets—Pennsyluania avenue, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Fif- teenth, F streets and New York avenue—will show old stores are being modernized and new ones erected that are a credit and ornament to any com- mercial city. We thi that the value of the during the past six months An@ now in course of erection is more than double that of any two years in the last seven, and we are glad to know that the char- acter of improvements now being made is much more substantial. “About a year ago we said to our readers: ‘Now is the time to make im- vements; at no time within the past Ewenty years has such an opportuni wages were at the lowest. portunity offered.” Laborers were then ‘lex;tl and Skilled me. chanics were walking our streets beg: ging for work at any e. Brick were sel at $4.50 per usand, lumber at $14 thousand all to $18 per and kinds of building materiais and plies at ndingly low prices. e then pudlcm that such a conditiop of things could not continue; there must be an advance from the then starva. tion prices of labor and material, -And we advised those contemplating build- ing and all who had the money to avail themselves of the opportunity then of- fered. “How have these predictions been ful- filled? Brick are now selling at $6.50 per thousand, lumber at from $18 to $26 per thousand. Iron has advanced per cen er; all building material has very considera- bly advanced in price. Mechanics and TS are hhorm ind tr;‘ .unl:mud warlu The w] country, espe- clally Washington, seems to have nuym‘.: from the which it has been for six years and is - to assume an ante-panic ac- " will sail for Paris early in the authorities from Engineer-Presidert In"the Strect and ‘sveryuin [ and e ere is sound to the point olmm. - Prom the Detroit News. A Mediterranean Is Base, For Pre-Parley Study ' BY DREW PEARSON. For probably the first time since their school days the American public is in ' for an extra-heavy dose of the geog- raphy, history and naval strategy of the Mediterranean. 3 The State Department has slready begun this study. It has sent out for all the books it can get on France, Italy- and the Mediterranean. It will be dis- cussing the Mediterranean from now until after the London Naval Confer- ence, and the newspaper men covering _ the conference will be cabling long dis-. patches on it. Even last week, while Ambassador: Dawes was conversing with President. Hoover and Seavetary of State Stimson, - & really much more important confer- ence was taking place in London be- tween John W. Garrett, Ambassador to Rome, and officials of the London em- bassy, in ration for the “Battle of the Mediterranean.” The reason for all this is that the Mediterranean is to the London confer- ence as the Pacific was to the Washing- ton conference.’ Who controls the Med- lnemnrerh: controls the vast resources of North Africa. Who controls the °! Mediterranean controls the regular | trade route of the British Empire to India, Australia and the Orient. . For supremacy in the Mediterranean, two countries—Prance and Italy—vie, while a third—Great Brif msiders . it essential to maintain & navy greater ;l::n the combined French and Itallan On _one important point the French and m{nlhn governments are heartily united, and the fact that they are united may contain enough dynamite to wreck the London conference. This is the question of submarines, which can cut the British trade routes. On a second important point the two governments are as wide apart as the poles, and in this case separation may wreck the conference. It is the question of naval A parity, which Italy demands with France, but France refuses to grant, The present hope of the State De- partment and the British foreign office is that Italy and France may work out most of their differences before the London conference begins, and because of this the date of opening the London mu hxl: been "fi somewhat in- . It may now tponed from the third to the !mlrthpow.-ck in Jan- uary. It was because of these preliminary Franco-Italian negotiations, also, that Au{n?ouldor Garrett ndon to become ly familia; with last Summer’s negotiations. He is returning to Rome to keep the State Department constantly informed of the Italian end of the controversies. Simultaneously, Senator Walter Edge of New Jersey, newly appointed Ambas- | sador to Prance, is about to begin & se- ries of studies’ of the Mediterranean problem at the State Department and December. (Copyrisht, 1920.) ——— Mothers-in-law Note. From the New Castle News, Another myth has been annihilated. Several of the ten lected by Mr. were mothers: greatest women se- 3 Llll.d'u for & magazine ~law. Sound or Bedlam? Prom the Asheville Times. Business is sound, according to all g Difference in Color. it .