Evening Star Newspaper, January 14, 1930, Page 8

With Sunday Mofning Edition. WABHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY.....January 14, 1930 THEODORE W. NOYES. ... Editor The Evening Star Nrg?ln Comp:ny Business Sive i fl‘:i‘:"? b *Bh.. Lo 1ith St. and Pe ':e" on) e: Lake 1lzltll’l.l Fhiorean Offce. 14 Regent Sr.. Lon Engiand. C!lrflu Within the City. ;4scLer month 60c per month oer month Sc per copy ach month. Orders may be sent in by mail or telephore NAtional . = e ST |‘ only .. y unday only Rate by v an only sy only and Canada. 12.00: 1 m 3800 1m $5.00: 1 mo. Member of the Assoclated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitied | o the use for repuolication of aiz- ‘atches credited to it or mot oth ted" i this paper and wiso the published herein. All riehts o special dispatches herein are sl t ublic; Iso reserved. The Dry Enforcement Program. A comprehensive legislative program, looking to more efficient enforcement of the prohibition laws, has been sub- mitted to Congress by President Hoover. It embodies the recommendations made to the President by the Law Enforce- ment Commission and by the heads of the Treasury and Justice Departments. If the program is written into law it may have far-reaching effect. Indeed, | it is the belief of many who have studied the recommendations and the report of the Law Enforcement Com- mission that such will be the effect. Nothing in the recommendations sub- mitted by the President or by the Law Enforcement Commission proposes modification of the present dry laws. ‘The recommendations look rather to the better enforcement of prohibition, which the wets insist can never be enforced. The Law Enforcement Commission, which was appointed to inquire into the chbservance and enforcement of the laws of the United States, including pro- hibition, has made no attempt to say whether prohibition, as a national policy, is wise or not wise. It has done what it was primarily appointed for. It has reccmmended ways and means of making the enforcement of the dry laws mote efficient. The La.; Enforce- ment Commission was not set up for the purpose of tearing down prohibition, al- though opponents of the dry laws have hoped that it would submit findings that would bring about the modification if not the destruction of the dry laws as they now stand. President Hoover, before he entered the White House, described prohibition as a “great social and economic experi- ment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose,” which “must be worked out constructively.” His present recom- | mendations to Congress are in line with that statement. He is undertaking to work out prohibition “constructively.” It has been clear for a long time that the enforcement of the prohibition law and all other laws was being hampered by congestion of cases in the courts. It has been clear, too, that the effort to build up eases of violation of the dry laws in one department of the Govern- ment and then have these cases prose- cuted by another department resulted in confusion, lost motion and in lost cases. The President, following the ad- vice of the Law Enforcement Commis- sion, is proposing the transfer of detec- tion of violations of the prohibition law to the Department of Justice. This is sound procedure. It should have been done long ago. Politics and a lack of initiative on the part of the highest officials of the Government have been responsible for the delay. The recommendations for the relief of the congestion of the courts un | plong two lines. One goes to the pro- vision of adequate court and prosecut- | ing officials. The other lcoks to the separation of minor infractions of the prohibition law from those more serious, &0 that the cases of minor violation may be heard by United States com- missioners. This would free the courts to deal with the more serious violations | of this law, as well as preventing their | calendars from becoming cluttered up with all kinds of prohibition cases, which prevent consideration of other kinds of cases. The Law Enforcement Commission and the Attorney General both hold that this can be done .con- stitutionally. Congress 1s cailed upcn. to enact & law which will specify what constitutes | major and minor violations of the pro- hibition law, affixing penalties com- mensurate with the offense. Under such a law it is proposed to put into effect the system of handling minor cases through United States commissioners, without the need of grand jury pro- ceedings. This is a very practical solu- tion offered by the Law Enforcement Commission for relieving court conges< tion. The President’s program of legislation for strengthening the enforcement of the dry laws is before Congress. In it- self it is an admission that prohibition enforcement up to date has net been satisfactory. But that is not new. The effort is to make enforcement satisfac- tory. Promises have been given by House Jeaders that the necessary bills for carry- ing the program into effect will be ex- pedited. It is to be expected, however, that these measures will lead to long and acrimonious debate, not of the merits of the bills, but of the merits of prohibition itself. The wet minority s active in both houses of Congress. Na- tional prohibition is approaching its eleventh year. The very fact that viola- tions of the dry laws are so frequent and so flagrant has given the wets cour- age to demand a modification of !.hcl existing law. o Large figures quoted by Bishop Can- non make it appear that prohibition is entering upon a bull market. ——e— Unnecessary. The cause of education everywhere 4s hurt by such unnecessary rowdylsm as occurred at a recent fraternity dance in this city, when a member of the police force and several hotel attendants were injured by trampling students at the end of the affair. Every one who has attended a public meeting or banqust at a great modern hotel will admit the necessity cf gstting like a gentleman. ‘The high spirits of youth are very well, but the higher they are the bet- ter conduct they should exemplify. Although the American educational system, in all its phases, has won the people of this country completely, there best to uphold the educational tradi- tions, The psychology of the mob was clearly exemplified in the unfortunate occurrence of the other night. It must never be forgotten that a ecrowd is a crowd, whether it s composed of literate or illiterate perscns. The psychology of all crowds is strangely alike. Young men attending high schools and col- leges ought always to bear this in mind, lest they sink themselves, in & moment of thoughtlessness, to depths in which they do not belong. ———— The Heart of Maryland. ‘The “spirit of '76,” which burned brightly in Maryland when the Boston , Americans were making their protests against British injustice and tyranny, is again aflame in that State in sym- pathy with the demand of the Wash- ington Americans for enfranchisement. At a recent meeting of the Rockville Pike Citizens’ Association, held at Rockville, resolutions were adopted in- dorsing the principle that representa- tion must go hand.in-hand with tax- ation and arms-bearing, and that there is the same reason today “for Mary- land people to make common cause with ‘the people of the District of Columbia in their endeavor to obtain voting representation in the naticnal Government as for their co-operation with the people of Massachusetts, fol- lowing the Boston tea party.” The resolution further authorizes the ap- pointment of a committee to co-operate with the District citizens’ committee on national representation, and also to petition the Maryland Legislature to bring about the appointment of a State committee and to take such turther action as may be necessary to give full effect to the purpose of the resolution. On the 14th of June, 1774, at a public meeting held in Frederick County, Md, at a tavern located on the spot where the town of Rockville was subsequently established, a com- mittee of correspondence was formed to effect an intercolonial understand- ing. On the 21st of June, 1775, the committee decided to raise two com- panies of expert rifiemen to represent Frederick County in the contest with the mother country which the events at Concord and Lexington a few weeks before had demonstrated was to be submitted to ths arbitrament of the sword. These companies were formed and led respectively by Michael Cresap and Thomas Price. Capt. Cresap’s com- pany of 130 men left Frederick July 18, 1775, and marched 550 miles to Cambridge, arriving August 8. Those were different times and dif- ferent conditions. Distances were greater in effect. Intelligence traveled more slowly. It took weeks for thé sound of the “shot that was heard around the world” to reach the ears of the people of Maryland. Today the cry of the Washingtonian for political liberty and for representation is heard at ohce throughout the country. It ix being heeded and it is being seconded by American sentiment. - It is appro- priate that specific indorsement should come from nearby Maryland, from the State of which the District was once a part, and from which went so promptly the aid to the liberty-demand. | ing people of Massachusetts more than a century and a half ago. ——.— A Steadily Advancing Program. It is evident from the terms of the Treasury-Post Office appropriation bill reported to the House of Representatives yesterday that there is to be no slack- ening of provisions in carrying out the great public building program now un- der way in Washington. Abundant funds are being appropriated from year to year to execute this great scheme of construction. Congress, having au- thorized the creation of a group of buildings to house the departments and bureaus and having likewise au- thorized the purchase of the land neces- sary for the proper emplacement of these structures, is no longer haggling over terms or balking at sufficiently liberal appropriations to insure the ear- liest possible and the most satisfactory completion of the enterprise. It took a great many vears to get to the point of decision upon a compre- hensive bullding project for the Govern- ment. The United States lost heavily through this delay, in rents, in deteri- oration and in inefficiencies of service incident to the lack of proper quarters | for the administrative forces. It lost also through delay of decision regarding the taking of the obviously appropriate and the most sultable tract of land for building sites, the price rising with the years. | No longer is anxiety felt on the score of lagging Gevernment construction. The bulldings are being designed and | placed in effective sequence. Immense | structures are now rising and approach- |ing completion. Another group will ! soon be started and a third group is in process of preliminary planning. Mean- | while the appropriations are annually | fortheoming and with liberal additions to the original scale incident to neces- sary developments and enlargements. Now that the Government has under- | taken to equip itself completely for the | first time in American history, it is pro- | ceeding with the job in a businesslike | manner and on the right scale of wisely generous expenditure. o Persons who now find it necessary to study an income tax blank may lay |atide their cross-word puzzles for a while. o Local Enforcement Laws. President Hoover includes as one of | his six recommendations for legisiative strengthening of the enforcement laws “specific legislation for the District of Columbia.” The Attorney General, in his report yesterday, also referred to the steps that have been taken in con- nection with this specific legislation for Washington, and within a few days the necessary bills probably will be started through Congrese. The purpose of this legislation has been theroughly discussed and Attorney General Mitchell has outlined the bill that he believes will accomplish th!l HE _EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON. aration of local enforcement legisla- tion. When the bill is introduced it will provide authority under which all mem- bers of the Metropolitan Police Force may co-operate in local enforcement. It will re-enact the provisions of the Sheppard act, superseded by the Vol- stil exist enough eritica for every boy |stead act, which specifically deal with | 1 oanesd or girl in the system to do his or her|driving other vehicles than automobiles | who wantonly while drunk—"in the air or on the ground"—and it will restate penalties for drinking in public, intoxication and permitting the use of property as a common nuisance. The new legislation will also give Police Court judges the authority, now exercised by United States commissioners, to issue war- rants. It may attempt some modifica- tion in the requirements for evidence that now constitute the ‘“probable cause” upon which search warrants are based. In this latter respect Attorney Gen- eral Mitchell differed with Senator Howell, the Attorney General main- taining that search warrants ohould’ be based only on evidence of sale in houses, and that warrants should not being brought into or out of a private home. The bill shortly to be introduced will be watched with interest as to this feature. Washington, governed by the National Legislature, presents the logical test tube for this great experiment in prohibition, and the laws for enforce- ment here should be at least adequate. But any departure from the guarantees under the fourth amendment are as dangerous in Washington as elsewhere, | and unwise tinkering with them may light a fire not easily extinguished. The Star repeats its former sug- gestion that the plea of the Police Department for larger personnel might well be considered concurrently with legislation designed to make every policeman a Federal prohibition officer. If the present personnel of the Police Department is inadequate, the addition- al duties and responsibilities imposed under the contemplated Howell bill will tend to diminish the number of men available for general police work. With fines provided for failure on the part of policemen to report violations of the arohibition law, it will assuredly empha- sige, above others, the duties of police- men in connection with the enforcement of merely one of scores of important local laws. R call renewed attention to the fact that, in order to be truly great, a statesman should have the sense of humoer which the French fighter displays with such unerring skill. ——— o Willlamsburg, Va., on contemplating the fine improvements inspired by his historic sentiment, is willing to sdmit that John D. Rockefeller, jr., is about the best city manager any town ever had. —_— s Suspicion that an automobile me- chanic put in his time making an in- fernal machine creates surprise that a skilled worker should devote so much effort to an unremunerative enterprise. —_——t Paris is emphatic in decreeing more covering. The announcement is timed for Winter weather, before outdoor sports, including swimming, assert their demands. —en An alien arrival is required to promise to bear arms in defense of this country if necessary. An effort is also made to prevent him from bearing arms in underworld warfare. ——————ree— TUndiscouraged by those who do not believe in science, the laboratories go en isolating germs and finding a way to cure the maladies they cauze. — e SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Standardization. A hit—is a hit! Something splendid and fit; A sensation so new, Like a bolt from the blue! A song or a jest, Fresh, and all at their best! Imitations then came. Now they all sound the same! A wonderful tune ‘Was worked into a “croon ‘The gay dark town “crows” Also eing through the nose. Even those who recite In falsettos delight As they rise unto fame— And they all sound the same! Methods of Acquirement. “That man is said to have spent mil- lions in order to keep working in politics.” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “Some people borrow trouble. Others pay for it outright.” Jud Tunkins says he has never under- stood why some of these authors who write great detective stories don't get kind-hearted once in awhile and lend & helping hand to the police. Overtalked. The conversation's mighty sound, At length the people balked. They talked things over till they found That things were overtalked. Entirely His Fault. “Their engagement is broken!” sighed the sympathetic girl. “I wonder whose fault it 1s?” “His,” answered Miss Cayenne. e seemed very kind.” “Too kind. He praised her charms so much that she thought matrimony wasn't good enough for her, and decided on a career in the movies.” “wisdom knows how to make the world smile,” sald Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown. “It requires folly to make it lsugh aloud. Walting for a Ride. The gangster's time slips on its way, With care he must employ it. He grabs a fortune in s day, But can't live to enjoy it. “De sunrise is sho’ beautiful,” said Uncle Eben, “but de trouble is dat it allus starts too early in de mornin'.” -t No Margin on Horses. Prom the Louisville Times. Mayor Jimmy Walker says he can sec no difference between a horse race and the stock market. He's 'way wrong there. When your horse drops back a one’s coat and wraps as quickly as pos- results desired. His draft has been little you don't have to put up more wible, but this necessity makes no de- turned over to Senator Howell, who has margin, ) be issued on suspicion that liquor wasdo | because by it ne harmed. Clemenceau’s published reflections | h: - P D. C, TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1930. THE EVENING STAR |mend that s gentieman should not act | been devoting seme time to the prep- THIS AND THA BY CHARLES “Dear Sir: Regarding 's Star—there would be little lence if not for foolish friends repeat what we say. Prudence would hardly be a virtue if not for fools and children. “Some day give us an article on the talebearer, not the malicious one, bu the foolish fellow who tells our friends every petty remark or criticism we may make about them. “‘Most friendships are broken up in this way. Yet 9 out of 10 people are talebearers of this kind. Verily does the Scripture say that the number of fools is infinite. Sincerely yuurs‘.‘E s The fundamental reform necessary to achleve our correspondent’s Utopia 15 8 change in the average viewpoint on the indoor sport commonly known as “talking behind one's back.” Every one knows that talking behind another's back (about him, of course) is one of the most enjoyable occul tions in life, but it is only the rare man who will admit as much. Mostly we incline to frown upon the practice, while going ahead merrily to our_share upon first_occasion that offers. “Talking behind the back” 15 what the other fellow says about us, not what we say about him. There i8 no more cogent reason why the folbles of a friend should not be discussed in his absence than the mis- deeds of a celebrated man across the seas. In this matter, as in most others, one must be discriminating. The heavy hand of dicapproval fell upon the practice primar; we believe, because of the trend of m: to stay un- true things. Surely not even the vic- tim would protest against the truth man yet has been rmed. It 15 injustice and untruth that irk the soul, that is why the prejudice has grown up against honest criticism be- hind the back. Criticism face to face, while lauded in the abstract, is to be practiced only by a master both of psychology and physiology. He will need the former sclence in order to prevent the friend from leaving him, and strong muscles if the latter takes u;mo his head to punch him in the jaw. * ok ok % The world pretends to frown, too, because of the universal prevalence of talebearers. Mankind 1is, above all, practical. Rather than face the un- pleasant situations inherent in polyg- amy, for instance, it has found it easier pretend that man is by Nature monogamous. Women are, but men are not. We discussed this the other day with a splendid woman who said that she believed a great mistake had been made in making men and women unlike in this regard. “What would ve become of all the novels and ?tl:' then?” we asked wi some ruth. In regard to talebearers, mankind has found it more expedient to pre- tend that it is terrible to “talk behind the back” than to oust the scandal- mongers. It would be difficult to prove that our correspondent’s ratio of 9 out of 10 is too hi It is probably nearer right than wrong because humanity likes to talk and when it finds a topic 80 convenlently at hand, how can it resist? It seldom does resist the lure of talk- ing behind s back, it must be admitted, although, as stated, not every one will admit it openly. The only balm to be found in the wordy Gilead is to remem- ber that not all talk behind the back is done maliciously. Just as there are good anonymous letters and bad anony- mous letters, so there is harmless talk behind the back and harmful talk. 1f the talebearer is at fault, the per- son who receives the “tale” also de- serves some blame, if he permits the new version to upset him or induce him to give up a friend. He should learn some discrimination. If it were not for this silly jdea of the iniquity of “talking behind the back,” he would Highlights on the Wide World Excerpts From Newspapers of Other Lands ONDON CHRONICLE.—Now that women's fashions are bscoming more and more feminine every day, let us hope that the wom- en themselves will undergo a chang?, too, and lose some of the ap- palling “hardness” they acquired along with boyish figures and masculine at- tire. Wherever you go nowadays— theaters, night clubs, office or thop —you will find the place full of aggres- sive women. At a dance we went to the other night the women made far more noise than the men. that they were shrill or hysterical just spoke in loud, unmusical voices, and made themselves far more notice- able than their menfolk. Some of them smoked and drank quite as much, too. Many wore the new long-skirted gowns, but they did not look at all at ease in them, though the men seemed greatly taken with the idea. And that is just it. Men would welcome a change from the dictatorial, dominating type that has become so common in this country since the war. Not that we want a return to the fash- ifons and manner of 25 years ago, that would be impossible and absurd, but surely women can occupy their new | position in the world without being so _coarse and aggressive about it. The aggressive type, with her per- tual cigarette, her back-slapping at- itude toward the opposite sex, her complete lack of what used to be called “modesty,” is not a& lovable person. Perhaps that is the last thing she wants o be, but if you do happen to come across a girl with real feminine charm, plus intelligence, does she not outshine the other type in every way? You have only to observe the attention she re- ceives from men to find the answer to that question. Women have changed all over the earth in recent years, ex- cept in France and other European countries where it is more important to be a woman than anything else, but surely the English type of modern woman is the hardest and most ag- gressive of all. The American type is modern, but feminine, too. She is pampered, hu- mored and flattered, and generally spollt in a way that most women over here would despise, but there is some- thing to be said for her methods. * x ok % Lad Drowns After Saving Another. La Nacion, Buenos Alres.—Recently a group of students from the College of the Sacred Heart departed on a little excursion to the neighborhood of Lules, and while bathing in the river there they noticed that Ricardo Tejerizo had got beyond his depth and ‘was on the point of drowning. Without a moment's hesitation, & companion, Ricardo Ledesma, threw himself into the pool into which Tejerizo had dis- appeared, and succeeded in dragging him to a point where he eould be reached by > other boys. The ex- ertion, however, was too much for Ledesma himself, and the noble rescuer was drowned, his body being brought back on the train by his sorrowing schoolfellows. o French Troops Leaving Occupied Zones. Cologne Gazette.—Duren, near Aach- en, in the Rhein province, has just been evacuated by the last of the French troops. This was one of jhe first towns to be occupled by the al- lied troops. At nocn the red, white and blue of Franee was run down from the flag- staff, and the flag of the German Re- public holsted instead. The French commander, Maj. Pretet, called upen the mayor of the town to say good- by. The parting was upon the most friendly terms, and nearly all the in- habitants assembled to see the French soldiery in their final march-out. It was not | hey | E. TRACEWELL. L sgainst the talebearer long ago. One ought always to re- member that the talebearer’s tale—9 times out of 10—is an enlarged or dis- torted version of the real thing. Again human nature is at fault. No two men see an accident alike, few are able to describc anything they see. Even fewer are able to repeat a sen- tence as said. Every one knows that facial expression, or the very tone of an utterance, has much to do with meaning. Words are things, indeed; what one man makes of them may be entirely different from the meaning given them by another. ‘Thus the most harmless utterances, when accompanied by a certain look, can take on evil connotations; inimical ideas, spoken with kindness, may be- come good. The change of so little as a comma in writing often makes the dif- ference between “yes” and “no.” Imag- ine what happens, then, to the spoken word, when the one who repeats gets the things slightly twisted. * ok ok % ‘Then there is the matter of inference. Here, we feel certain, is the crux of the matter. Tale bearing would not be the evil it is if it were not for the in- fallible ability of most human beings to infer what is not said at all, but which somehow their minds jump to as the result of the impact of an idea. The deftness with which they can make these jumps never ceases to be amazing to those who study the matter. Great newspapers know that even the best of copy readers will at times put into his “heads” statements which are not_borne out by the story, but which he has inferred from what he has read. In everyday conversation many a man has found his ideas ridiculed and himself maligned because some hearer has taken something he has said and immediately fastened onto it a mean- ing which was not in it originally. This 15, we believe, the essential dan- ger in repeating the words of others. The wise man, therefore, makes it a rule to retall only such utterances as are kindly, complimentary, laudatory. Beau- tiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring tidings of peace. Since so many people, however, are neither wise nor kindly (this is too bad, of course, but unfortunately so), repeti- tions of remarks to persons about whom they were made commonly cause trou- ble. It is difficult to conceive how the idea ever grew uf that our friends were not going to talk about us, for every last one of us knows that we, in our turn, make a few remarks now and then about the people we know. Yet, in- stead of readily admitting that we are as big a fool he called us, while talk- ing to another, we feel hurt, depressed, downcast, angry. is perhaps just that the real resent- ment falls upon the talebearer. Let the dyed-in-the-wool talebearer keep this in mind. He becomes an object of dis~ like and suspicion. He is held to be the troublemaker which he really is, and even the most forgiving natures cannot help comparing him with the provoca- tive agents whom the Romans kept in their legions to discover such soldiers as dared to speak against Caesar. The ma- licious talebearer, the merely foolish talebearer, each is a troublemaker, and the sad thing is that the latter is often given credit for being the former. The modern man or woman has little time for such analysis as we are attempting to make here. He leaves discrimination for.the easier and speedier task of judgment. If his judgment is wrong, it is just too bad. It is the price one must Pny for the vice of repeating tales out of school. The satisfaction is not worth the price, in any instance. Re- member the ancient injunction, “Thy secret will not hurt thee; it will not | burst thee.” Yet those words, written 13,000 years ago, did little good; these, | fresh from the press, will do less. The i ml;ld ‘moves, but human nature changes e. ‘The French tricolor will be pulled down at Ehrenbreitstein shortly at noon' and at the same time the Belgian flag will descend at Aachen. In honor of this complete withdrawal of foreign soldlers from the second occupation zone the authorities of towns in this sector are arranging for public demon- strations of joy and thanksgiving. The celebration will be impressive and spectacular, but eomplete satisfaction and more extensive festivities will await the departure of the last of the allied troops from the third occupied zone. e e French Police Solve Murder Speedily. Le Matin, Paris—The murder of M. Nicolai, a wealthy tradesman of Mar- sellle, was speedily solved by the Paris police upon receipt of the information from the aerodrome at the former city. ‘The body of the victim was found near the road about 50 miles north of Mar- seille. He was last seen alive in com- pany with a man who had applied for employment at the military flying field in Marseille, and who had two small shrunken fingers on his left hand. This man was seen to get to M. Nicolai's car and leave the grounds in company with that gentleman. The Paris police as soon as the radio message was received sent out men to stop every car coming from the direc- tion of Marseille on the highways leading into the city. It is estimated that at least three or four hundred cars dis) these had defective or mutilated fin- gers, but none in the manner described by the wireless until the car of a prom- inent Paris manufacturer was stop- Ipezt In it were the owner and a | man whom he had picked up in the | Forest of Fontainebleau. This man | had two warped and atrophi-d fingers |on his left hand, and upon being | further examined there were found on | his person papers and property which | had belonged to M. Nicolal. He was | immediately taken to Villeneuve-le-Rof, and thence to Paris in a police car under heavy guard. . Error of Dr. Butler In Grammar Excusable From the Worcester Telegram | Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president |of Columbia University, perhaps the | most reactionary liberal or the most liberal reactionary in the country, sim- ply cannot keep out of trouble. The other day, on a notable occasion, he sald in an address, “Neutrality don't involve breaking your obligation, or law- ibflakmg." His wrong use of “don’t”| |instead of “doesn't” went all over the | land and across the sea to Europ: by ! the radio. A New York newspaper reporter called | Dr. Butler's attention to the error made by one who presumably takes pride in his excellent English and his splendid diction. The doctor frowned. “It is all quite silly,” he said. “This is the sort of thing that makes newspapers so | ridiculous at times.” | It's too bad that Dr. Butler had to | get sore about it. He made a mistake. | To be sure, there skould be no over- |emphasis of his slip. There's no dis- gr e in an error of that kind. Abra- ham Lincoln in an address once used the words “he don't.” As a matter of fact, neither Dr. | Butler or nobody else don't need to get NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM I G. M. your article in | have trained himself in the art of | OLD LOUISIANA. Lyle Saxon. Tllus- teeling himself trated by E. H. Suydam. The Cen- tury Co. Lucky, all around, that the Lyle- Saxons did not come over in the May- | flower, Had they, this history-bent craftsman of their nth generation would now be engrossed in sharpening his words to the sting of witch fires and original sin, or rolling them to the thunders of an angry Jehovah, or lifting them to the chili beauty of northern mountains, or dragging them to the slow responses of a thin reluctant sofl and to dull monotone of unrelieved labor. ‘Again, happily, the Lyle-Saxons came by another through a more hos- pitable door tI opened upon a land of tropical sunshine, where the soil was warm and deep. A land of spreading tree and swinging vine, busy in a perpetual rivalry of beauty and lui And to this wide beckoning there already been eager response out of the Old World. French refugee and ad- venturer, Spanish explorer and dis- coverer and priest, white Americans from up North, Creole, )\X;fim and Indian—a population of as It variety and richness as the climate and the soil had achieved in natural resources and pictured landscape. Strange things ‘were bound to happen out of so much incentive. Strange things did happen. Jt was in such a setting that the Lyle Saxon of the adventure in hand had his start and his growth. As just a little lad “Ole Man River” was his pal and playfellow. Nightly, the songs of the bayou put him to sleep. At day- break a thousand bird-calis sounded— “time to get up.” This little lad grew bigger, as the tribe has ¢, way of doing, | and all the time there was soaking deeper and deeper into his heart the magic of the Mississippi, of New Orleans, of Louisiana. An honest fellow, obvious- 1y, not given to shirking his debts. So, upon making the discovery that he was one of the wordy Lyle-Saxons he did not run off to Timbuctoo or other un- known corner of the earth for some marvel of strangeness to practice his gift upon. Not at all. He stayed at home. He renewed—rather he e: d- ed—his acquaintance with his lifelong neighbor, the Mississippi, and then he wrote the story of that life as he dis- covered it. And we reaped the benefit by reading “Father Mississippi”—that tre- mendous fellow who through centuries has been bringing soil from mountain and hill to lowland, spreading it out beside him and setting towns and cities along his way in a clean stretch from Canada to the Gulf. “Father Mississippi” turned out to be the story of a glant— a g:nnt of usually kindly mood and useful service. But, upon occasion, the Big River became a monster of sudden rages, of wanton and cruel destriiction. A very human story, this of the Father of Waters. After it came the fairy tale of “Fabulous New Orleans.” Cena! no other city of the New World—few of any world—are so concentrated of fragrances and glamours and enchant- ments as is New Orleans—that Prench- Spanish-Creole-American-Negro- Indian kaleidoscope of romance, adventure and plain chronicle. For the book in hand, “Old Louisiana,” its author neprd back, farther away from his subject. He moved out, & lit- tle, from his warm dpenoml entangl ments with river and city. He appears to have readjusted the perspective for the sake of right placements of both fact and its implications. Records of historic content—impressive and au- thentic—are here. Official documents, old newspaper files, neglected letters, legends and tales passing from father tosson—these have been raked for the sum of life in the commonwealth of Louisiana. Politics, society, war, ernment, religion, education, tr: the complete run of historic evidence rounds here to an interesting and con- vincing state chronicle. But—all said and done, all the demands of both schulurshifl and intellectual conscience met in full—it turns out, in great good luck tor the rest of us, that when Lyle Saxon gets “good and ready” and be- gins to work, it is the story teller, the picture maker, the poet remembering things, the artist reseeing old beauties and gathering new ones—it is all of these that sit down to do the work. And that is a quite surpassing count for Lyle 8axon and his ks about his own quarter of the world. So, let us say it at once and get it out of the way, “Old Louisiana” is good history—dependable, well proportioned and all that. So were the other two books by this writer. “Plantation People,” ‘“Masters and Slavi “Leisurely Times,” ‘“Splendor and Rust"—these are views under which the story of Louisiana gathers and projects itself. A single family, “The Gay Dangerfields,” embodies the substance of plantation Ilfe in a series of personal pictures which embrace the perpetual visitings from house to house, the hunting and dancing, the eating and drinking, the reckless waste, the idleness, the consequent unrest, the slow lapse into restricted ecircumstances and into ultimate poverty. Under these superficial manifestations Mr. Saxon unfailingly sets the economic founda- tion upon which this kind of life pros- pers or fails. Indeed, the whole ac- counting here—whether it be of social institution or political practice—goes down always, but most unobtrusivel to that rock bottom of history ever: Wwhere, economic resource and conditiol “Masters and Slaves” traces the gradual rise of slavery and its entailments in the industrial problem of all slave- holding communities. Here are inci- dents to tell of the slave himself in his reaction to his place in the immediate world of his own existence. Here is the story of Temba, who murdered his master, and the strange story of Pauline, the Amazonian negress who tortured her mistress and the children through a jealous passion for the lord of the manor. Pauline was hanged—to be sure. The master? Then there comes the great era for the plantation, the years leading di- rectly to the Civil War—years of pros- perity, of more leisure and gayety, of larger land holdings, of finer mansions, of more slaves for fleld and household —each plantation, a feudal domain of greater or less extent, of corresponding | social prestige and influence. And, after the war, come the lean years—poverty, discouragement, resentment, inactivity, the falling into decay of great houses, the neglect of lands, the growing rust of disuse—the melancholy charm of splendors almost forgotten in the blurred years of deprivation and un- ambition. “The Young Man's Diary” and “An Old Woman's Letters” give vivid and illuminating vlews of those old days of care-free and generous 1nd unfore. seeing existence. Definite in even smoll detail, communicable in spirit and word, these are high-lights in a story where there is never a moment of cb- scurity, never an instant of meglect | or of scanty treatment. These are | not by W‘K of contrast to the other parts of the work. Rather co they stand as moments of special intensity and surpassing revelation. So, here it is—the story of Louisiana, in a series of fascinating pi-tures, from the beginnings of the plantation on through the war when, by way of what is called progress—and i progress— the economic structure of this com- mon Ith fell, broken into a thousand pleces. However, this is a new world, this day s a new day, and Louisiana is a part of it—but that is another story for, maybe, Lyle Saxon to record and hold alive, The book owes much to Mr. Suydam. Lyle Saxon says it does and we know it does. “Mr. Suydam went with me through the State"—Saxon talking— “a journey which with twistings and turnings stretched out for a thousand miles—making drawings of old houses. He has caught the spirit of these piaces in a remarkable way, and I consider | disturbed about making mistakes once in a while in grammar. Not one of us are free from such errors. This ain't quite correct itself, and purposely #o, but it are not much worse than som times gets by accidentally. myself fortunate in having his aid in this attempt to present the story to you" We often hear of “speaking likenesses." Here they are—likenesses which in softly reminiscent tones of melancholy suggest, faintly, the living ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERI ‘Take advantage of this free service. If you are one of the thousands who have patronized the bureau, write us If you have never used service, begin now. It is maintained for your benefit. Be sure to send your name and address with your question, and inclose 2 cents in coin or stamps for return postage. Address The Eve- ning Star Information Bureau, Prederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Q. Who won the walking race from New York to Los les?—C. L. B. A. Johnny Salo, Passaic, N. J., liceman, and Sam Richman of New ork won the 144-hour marathon on the last lap of the race from New York to Los Angeles in July, 1929. They set & new record of 749 miles and 696 2-3 yards. The former mark, 25 years old, was set at 723 miles by two French runners in New Orleans. Johnny Salo was the winner of the entire race and covered the 3,635 miles in 78 days, 6 days less than his 1928 record. Q. What name is applied to the style of architecture as exemplified by tall !lcwerllke bulldings with set-backs?— term “Recessional building” to the type. Q. Where did Thornton Wilder write “The Bridge of San Luis "?—K. P. oA novel was writ! while | Thornton Wilder was at the Mac- Dowell Colony at Peterborough, N. H. Q. When was the non-combustible characteristic of asbestos first recog- nized?>—J. D. A. The name “asbestos” is derived from the ancient Greek word meaning a fabulous stone, about which it was sald that once set on fire the fire could not be quenched. The non-combustible character and spinning quality of as- bestos fiber were undoubtedly known to the ancient world. Plutarch mentions “perpetual” lamp wicks used by the Vestal Virgins. A. The is applied . Who designed the Curtiss Tanager e that won the Guggenheim prise? hat L'fl'l the test qualifications?— 7 N. A L. A. Robert R. Osborne, ject en- ineer of the Curtiss Co., ormned the nager. Some of the things required of the plane under the terms of the Guggenheim $100,000 prize contest are: To take off and land on a plot 500 feet square surrounded by a 25-foot ob- struction; to maintain level flight at a speed of 35 miles an hour; to glide for three minutes with all power shut off at a time when the speed is not greater than 38 miles an hour; to take off within 300 feet and clear a 35-foot ob- struction within 500 feet of point; to fly for five minutes witheu control to ~demonstrate self-righting ability; to be proved foolproof and free from all tendency to nose-dive in case of accident. Q. What minerals and gases does rain water contain?—0C. W. K. . The composition of rain water varies. 8ince rain is considered water vapor it would be chemically pure if it did not gather foreign substances from the atmosphere as it falls to the earth. Rain water washes down out of the air dust, soot, pollen, spores of and similar material. It contains a percentage of dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, ammonia and carbonic acid gas. In falling through the impure atmosphere of cities it sometimes shows traces of nitric acid, sulphuric acid and other components. C J. HASKIN. ). When does the Shakespeare fes. Iv?l at Stratford-on-Avon begin?— t M. A. It opens July 7, 1930, and closes September 13, 1930. Q. Please give the locgtion of the ground that comprised the Anneke Jans estate.—S. L. A. The so-called Anneke Jans tract contained about 62 acres in New York City, extending from Warren street, along Broadway to Duane street, then northwest a mile and a half to Chris- topher street, the Hudson River form- ing the base of a sort of unequal triangle. a Q. lgow thick is the earth’s crust?— "A. The thickness of the earth's crust is variously computed to be 10, 20 or perkaps as much as 50 miles. Q. What kind of clothes do the people wear who live in the Amana Colony?— A. Persons belonging to the Amana Colony in Amana, Iowa, dress uniform: ly in simple clothes. The women wea black bonnets and the brimmed black hats. The colony known for its woolen mills and the thriftiness of its members. ’ Q. Who was secretary to Calvin Coolidge when he was Governor of Massachusetts?—M. C. . A. His secretary was Henry F. Long, who is now income tax commissioner and commissioner of corporations in Massachusetts. % :h;{n did Greeks settle in Sicily? A. Greek and Phoenician colonies ‘were established in Sicily in the eighthy century B.C. at Naxos and elsewhere. Sicily thus became divided into several states and independent cities. The tyrant Gelon a little later transferred his government to Syracuse, which be- came for the time the most important Greek city in Sicily. Meanwhile the Carthaginians had also made settle. ments in the island at Panormus, Motya and Solols. Wars between the Greeks and Carthaginians followed. In each, success favored now one side and now the other. In 383 BC. a was made_between the rivals. Sici became a Roman province in 246 B.C. Q. Are there many college men in base ball major leagues?—C. B. A. Forty-six graduates and former students of institutions of higher learn- ing were listed in the major leagues last year. Q. How old is Mme. Schumann- Heink?—O. P. D. A. She was born near Prague, Aus-d tria, e 15, 1861, which will make her 69 years old this coming June. Q. Do any Japanese live in China?— P. E B A. Japanese are resident in various parts of China. In 1928 there were 181,206 in Manchuria; 31,987 in China proper. Q. When was the disease called trench mouth discovered?—C. C. A. Vincent's infection or trench mou first noticed about 1897. It became epidemic. during the World War. Q. What was the name of the slave 1 who was sold for freedom by Henry. Beecher from ul;ait of Plym-! outh Church in Brooklyn?—K. P. A. The slave girl known as Pinky was ‘Ward Hunt. She died in Wash- ington, D. C., October 5, 1928. Good Name of However partisan feeling on the sub- ject of prohibition may affect those who comment upon the recent affair of ine rum runner Pawtucket, as good Americans most of them see fit to ex- patiate on the long and honorable record of the Coast Guard, once the Revenue Cutter Service. Many flatly blame prohibition for & situation which made the deplorable event possible. “After all, the purpose and function of this service,” as- serts the Buffalo Evening News, “is to save lives and property on the seas and lakes—something that many persons, owing to the Gua part in revent years in the spectacular enforcement of the Volstead act, are likely to forget. Their report gives adequate evidence that the Coast Guard lived up to the fine traditions of the service in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1929. * * * If the prohibition act has reqiired members of the service to do land duty that often has put the Guard in a bad | that has added to their responsibilities a special duty that does not properly belong to the men who serve humanity well when lives hang in the balance.” o The reply to critics made by Admiral Billard is quoted by the Chattanooga News. That official stated: “With a habit of mind developed by traditions and an honorable history of 139 years, en assigned to any task to perform, whether or not it will be a popular or an agreeable or an easy ons, the Coast Guard simply gives the sailor-man’s answer, “Aye, aye, sir!’ and car- ries on. In one year 26 officers and men of the Coast Guard were drowned while_on this law-enforcement duty.” The News adds: “The Coast Guard will have wider authority and territory. Mr. Hoover wants all anti-smuggling and border activities placed under con- trol of the Guard. We believe the country indorses his recommendation.” “Many members of the Coast Guard wear medals for bravery,” says the Danbury Evening News. “Its devotion to its ideals is notable. Those who know its officers and men are the first to feel humiliated that, in this United there can be men so lost to to decency and to patriotism as to attack members of that organiza- tien, and to mutilate and destroy its property.” The Evening News recoge- nizes the existenee of “some unworthy men who, from time to time, get into either its enlisted or commissioned per- sonnel. * * * But the Coast Guard is doing its best to purge itself of the undesirables,” concludes that paper. * ok ok ok “Grave questions of the course of the Guardsmen in recent shelling of a rum boat off the New England Coast still remain unanswered.” thinks the New Orleans Tribune, while offering the comment: “After that bloody incident several of these Guardsmen are charged with an orgy on the spoil. Some over- enthusiastic mobbists then staged a new sort of tea party in Boston, during which they tore down all the Coast men and women who fashioned these mansions, built their daily lves of mood and activity, of thought and word and spirit, into the walls and surrounding gardens and fields which | stand before us here, not pictures, r.ot lines on paper, but, instead, that in- tangible though possessive spirit which moves out of any significant past to link itself vitslly with us, as if vet to have place in the warm living world where we are—for the moment. Oh, yes, the SBuydam work is here of the most influential for the purpose of the book! And the book itself is another stage in the Lyle Saxon odyssey of the State of Louisiana—unique common- wealth, in its ate, natu- ral resources, growth, so- | cial institutions, romantic implications, | and in its reach toward the whole new | world in which we are caught now be- ing caught up and projected into an amazing future—nation, state and in- dividual. However, the point just now is that here is another book by Lyle Saxon on a subject with which he 1s | in love and to which he is rendering light, the fault lles with the system | Wi Coast Guard Subject of Heated Argument Guard recruiting posters in reach. Now comes & lone Guard off the captured rum boat, at Pawtucket, evidently over- exhilarated by something stronger than tea, and runs amuck. Prohibition has cost both local police and Federal agencies great loss of respect in such episode: “Nobody will criticize the Coas Guard,” according to the Hartford Courant, for doing its stern duty. A part of its business, which has now become ¢ a large part, is to overhaul rum run- ners who know" full well the danger that their course invites. It cannot, per! , be expected to observe the regulations laid down by the prohibition commissioner as to the use of firearms —that ‘a weapon shall never be drawn on a person except in seif-defense.’ But when a Coast Guard boat is rapid- ly everhauling a rum runner and cap- ture seems certain is it really necessary, to turn a machine gun on her and kil% three of the crew? Is that in accord th the best traditions of the Coast Guard?" TRk “‘Government authorities,” states t! Charlotte Observer, “have been stand- ing firm in their ‘contention that the Coast Guard boat was within its rights in firing on the rum boat—and so far, 80 good. But there came the develop- ment that some of the crew of the Coast Guard, after ‘shooting up’' the boat, stole the liquors for which rum runners had paid the penaity. The charge of theft of liquor was regarded as unbelievable and yet the court pro-d ceedl_nn that followed carried convic- tion.” ~ The Los Angeles Times holds, as to the shooting, that “the Coast Guard talked the only language smu glers and pirates have ever understoo adding that the incident is “a some- what dramatic answer to the Senate politicians who have been demanding ‘what is being done about prohibition :en!org.ement. but not expecting a “In consequence of this extra burden upon the Coast Guard,” re- morale of the :A:S suffered to a considerab t perso; le extent. ally among more recent recruits. * That the corrupting influences which seem to be a natural concom: tant of prohibition enforcement shou.' creep into and affect some portion of the Coast Guard is not In itself aston- ishing. The surprising thing would have been to see any division of the m::&mznz organization escape thaté nnel . “It_cannot be questioned,” concedes the BSeattle Times, “that the Coast Guard has come upon evil days. The sudden expansion of personnel has made it necessary, or seemingly so, to accept such applications as may be made at recruiting offices. Lower-grade applicants Frtss for admission. It is not the fault of the Guard as such, but of the country which imposes a dis- tasteful task upon it. that better men do not offer themselves 4 Agreeing that the Guard has “in the more than a century of its existence made & glorious record for itself,” the Worcester Evening Gazette finds a *sad situation” in the spparent facts that they are not so particular about re- cruits as they used to be,” and that they cannot be, because they need more men and the supply is small com- paratively.” 3 N Big Apples for Tell Act. From the Seattle Daily Times. Yakima gpples are popular in Swit® zerland. canny Swiss like their apples big when the: ti ie e Yy practice that Wil — eetmar Chorus Girl's Assets. From the Ottawa Journal. New York chorus girl says the great- est asset a chorus girl can have is brains. Perhaps. But we suspect that a wooden leg would be a greater hlnd&‘ cep than a wooden head. % ——on—s Mellon Entitled to Medal. From the Dallas Journal. Andrew Mellon has sustai; ined enough n;: homage of @ markedly fine literary a e political nfire to enti Bioieay entitle him to a uerre.