Evening Star Newspaper, February 16, 1930, Page 31

DAY STAR, WASHINGTON. D. C. FEBRUARY 16. 1930—PART TW®, HUGHES TO ENTER OFFICE | FACING GREAT QUESTIONS New Chief Justice Settling Many I In the Maze of Patents to Have Share inI mportant Issues Expected Before Court. BY JOHN SNURE. - T noon on February 24, in the presence of the members of the Supreme Court of the United States, Charles Evans Hughes will take the oath as Chief Justice to succeed William Howard ‘Taft. In view of the change in this exalted office whereby Mr. Hughes be- comes the head of the national judici- ary, the time is opportune to consider e problems now before the court or tl those which in the next few years it | inevitably will confront. Also, it is opportune, as one distin- guished hesd of the Supreme Court ives way to another, to advert to the fact that in becoming Chief Justice Mr. Hughes assumes the robe of the most powerful office in the whole range of the American Government. This is per- haps not always realized, but few on reflection will dispute it. Last Word of Government. By reason of the authority which the Supreme Court of the United States has been granted, or which in the course of years it has assumed, it has unques- tionably become more potent than even the presidency or the legislative branch. It is the last word in respect of govern- mental authority in this country. In becoming Chief Justice of this court, therefore, Mr. Hughes takes upon his shoulders the burdens of the highest and most responsible governmental po- sition in the American Republic. It is the fashion in Congress and elsewhere to dilate much upon the growing power of the presidency. Time after time, not alone in recent years, but earlier, protest has gone up from Senate or House over the tendency of the Executive to take over functions and authority which the Constitution vested, or was supposed to vest, in Con- gress. Recall and Referendum Threat Made. Less has been heard in recent years about the growth in power of the judi- ciary, though at different periods in the Nation’s development that subject was one of acute interest and bitter conten- tion. At certain periods it was a fore- most theme of political controversy, and on more than one occasion threatened the existence of the Union. Just now the issue of the powers of the national judiciary, and particularly of the Supreme Court, is but rarely dis- cussed except academically, though it may be said that it has not been many years since the public was much wrought up and much was heard in Congress and in the political field about the recall of the judiciary, the referendum on judi- cial decisions and legislation to check the power of the Supreme Court to de- clare legislative acts of Congress un- constitutional. Jefterson Led Early Assault. The tremendous power of the Su- preme Court and the extraordinary na- ture of the office into which Mr. Hughes now enters, may, perhaps, be better realized by a short glance backward. Less than a century and a half has passed since John Jay was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by President Washington and be- gan his service in this capacity. At that time its power in a number of vital Tespects were obscure and uncertain. ‘When John Marshall of Virginia was appointed Chief Justice, near the close of the administration of John Adams, and when the Supreme Court was meet- ing in dingy and cramped quarters in the newly created capital, then little more than a hamlet in the midst of woods and malarial swamps, its power not only had been but little exerted but was under violent attack from the Federalist opposition, that is, from the Republican party of that day, captained by Thomas Jefferson and including some of the ablest leaders of the new Gov- ernment. Branded Abomination of Federation. Indeed, the late Albert J. Beveridge, in his invaluable “Life of Marshall,” said that one of the first decisions of Jeflerson as President was “to strike 2t the national judiciary,” and that he hated it more than any of the other “abominations” of Federalism. 1 Beveridge says, too, that the court was “impotent and little respected,” but that Jeflerson still feared it, be- cause he apprehended that Marshall “might make the high court of the Nation a mighty force in the Govern- ment, retard fundamental republican reforms and even bring to naught measures dear to the republican heart.” Jefferson’s apprehensions were, as history shows, thoroughly well founded from his point of view. Under the re- gime of Marshall as Chief Justice the great work was begun of making the Supreme Court a “mighty force in the Government.” Not only was it begun, but was carried far forward from the time of the famous decision in the case of Marbury vs. Madison through the years when Marshall handed down other epochal opinions. Court's Critics Defeated. 1t seems strange today to read of the furious and innumerable partisan as- saults on the Federal judiciary and to think back over the theories freely ad- vanced by the anti-Federalist forces little more than 100 years ago. At the time of the impeachment trials of Pickering and of Chase, it was contended by the ablest of the leaders around Jefferson that Federal judges were removable through im- peachment for comparatively minor causes. Had this doctrine been ad- hered to there can be no doubt that the FPederal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, would today be little more than an instrumentality of the legislative branch of the Government, and that in practical proceedings there would have been no such thing as the Supreme Court's declaring a law of Congress invalid and unconstitutional Marshall Exercised Right to Veto. Especially when any strong political party had cpntrol of both White House | Court and Congress, the Supreme Court would have been impotent, and justices not in accord with the party in power would have found themselves ousted | from office and tumed back to private | life. Since the days when the suave nnd; genial Marshall, whose suavity belied | his determination, began the building | up of the power of the Supreme Court, it may be said to have advanced stead- | ily in scope of authority. Today it is | in a position where it can, if it feels | called to do so. sweep aside with a few words a law of Congress without being seriously challenged and can set | at naught many of the acts of the Chief Executive. mughes Familiar With His Duties. | No one knows better than Mr. Hughes | the importance of the office he is about to fill. In the first place, he has served wp one of the associate justices of the <wirt and in the next place he has ap- peared before it since his resignation in 1916 more often probably than any other man in the country. Certainly, he has had, as the record shows. more great cases, corporation and otherwise, before the court in re- cent years than any other lawyer. He once called the Chief Justice the most important judicial officer in the world and on repeated occasions he em- phasized the Supremie Court's im- nce. ‘Though he will soon be 68 years old. a greater age than is usual in judicial appointments, and is older at the time of becoming Chief Justice than was any of his 10 predecessors at the time of um;g up his duties, he is in superb health and vigor. No reason appears why he should not be head of the court for the next 8 or 10 years, or even longer, unless he sees fit to retire. next decade and probably the @next few years will inevitably make much Supreme Court history, for a procession of great questions are crowd- ing at the doors of that tribunal and sooner or later they must be answered. ‘What are some of the great questions Mr. Hughes at its head, will be called on before any great length of time to grapple? They can be judged quite ac- curately by a consideration of the ques- tions which have confronted the court in_the past. In the early days of the Republic the new Government was fighting for its life against the jealous governments of the States. The result was to throw on the Supreme Court the decision of a series of great cases involving the prob- lem of the rights of the States and the extent to which the power of the Federal Government in general (and the Federal judiclary especially) could exercise authority. Later the slavery and anti-slavery agitation forced grave questions on the Supreme Court, as is indicated in the Dred Scott de- cision and the controversy which re- sulted from it. Trust Busting Fra Recslled. After the Civil War the reconstruc- tion era gave rise to serious questions for the courts. The era of anti-trusts agitation, which extended from about the 90s for the next quarter of a cen- tury, forced on the court issues of ex- treme importance and difficulty. It is not so long since the Sherman anti- trust law was looked on as the foremost proposition before the Supreme Court, and it gave rise to a long list of mo- mentous cases and momentous decisions. Today, though the popular expression that the Sherman law is a dead letter is not justified, it is true that in recent years there has been a vast change in public opinion as to combinations, trusts and monopolies, and this change has been reflected in the activities of th: Department of Justice since the | World War period and in the proeeed- ings before the Federal courts, includ- ing the Supreme Court. Holding Companies New Issue. ‘Today the changing fabric of the Nation's financial business and indus- trial structure is an outstanding fea- ture of American life. It is certain to force numerous new issues before the Supreme Court. In Congress just now there is uneasiness about the develorg- ment of great holding companies in the railroad field, the banking field and the ‘whole industrial and financial field. It is easy to see these are glvinf rise to conditions which will invoke litigation of the first order of importance. A recurrence of agitation against combinations and monopolies is not at all improbable. Already Senator James Couzens, chairman of the interstate commerce committee of the Senate, is taking steps to bring about a thorough inquiry into the holding company as it applies to railroads. This looks much like a prelude to legislation and to con- tention in the courts. Power Trust Under Scrutiny. ‘The Yubllc utilities, to which are closely linked the power interests, are more and_more engaging the attention of the Federal courts. The “power trust,” as it is called in Congress, is under the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission, and out of this investiga- tion legislation of far-reaching char- acter may arise. At least, it will be vigorously attempted. It is hardly necessary to say that this spells difficulty for the Supreme Court. The many issues which center about the rates which may be charged by public utilities are far from settled. They will be knocking at the portals of Lh:‘ osupleme Court for an indefinite It is quite true that in the Indianap-; olis Waterworks case and the decision in the United Railways & Electric Co. of Baltimore case and some others the court has handed down far-reaching opinions and rulings as to rates and kindred matters. “Confiscatory Rates” Defined. ‘The recent decision handed down by Justice Sutherland in the Baltimore United Railways & Electric Co. case has commanded wide attention because there it was said that on the record to enforce rates producing a less than 7.44 per cent would be confisca- tory and in violation of the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. It deserves to be noticed, however, that this decision, which allowed a 10- cent rate of street car fare in Balti- more, was by a divided court. It has stirred no little criticism in Congress, and for this and other reasons it may be fully expected that it will not be ac- cepted by municipalities and others as the last word on the subject. Contentions with public utility con- cerns holding public franchises are not only bound to occur, but as cities de- velop and franchises become more val- uable and the importance of urban transportation grows they become more acute. Here is an unending source of litigation. May Renew Telephone Rate Case. ‘The Supreme Court not only will have to meet important aspects of such controversaries constantly, but differing conditions of wages, costs of material and volume of traffic will have to be taken into account in decisions. Not to be overlooked in this relation is the outcry from New York over the fact that the telephone rate contro- versy is to be thrown into the Federal courts and practically taken out of the hands of State authorities. ~Federal legislation is being sought to curtail this practice, which is a common enough one on the part of public service con- cerns all over the country. The New York Legislature recently memorialized Congress on the subject and besought action. Senator Robert F. Wagner lately addressed the Senate upon it and introduced a hill. Beyond reasonable doubt any such legislation will be brought before the Supreme - For that matter, there seems no doubt that the New York telephone controversy, regardless of legislation, will wind up in the Supreme Court. May Retry Interborough Case. The Interborough rate controversy, which already has been before the highest court, will, of course, find its way there again. This, however, is one of the controversies in which it is as- sumed Mr. Hughes will take no part when it does arise, since he was por eral counsel for the Interborough when the case was considered by the Supreme Court some months ago, ‘Though the Supreme Court has been passing on vexed questions relating to the railroads and the interstate carriers generally for years, it is obvious that here is a huge field, much of which is still unplowed. Because of the sweep- ing power of Congress over interstate and foreign commerce, the railroads are m'.‘l‘l’l:l or less distinct from the ordinary utilities. Reproduction Cost Theory Raised, Besides, the interstate commerce acts, intended to apply chiefly to the rail- roads, and the creation of the Inter- state Commerce Commission give a dis- tinctive aspect to this subecf. The Su- preme Court is sure to & wwiled on to pass on various phases of rajlrsad valu- ailon in the next several years, This is the more true because of vge move- ment for railroad consolidation and the tremendous public interest in ths eapi- talization of these consolidation The Supreme Court decided la% May the O'Fallon Railroad case, whigh was widely looked on as a landmark in the controversies over valuation for rate- making purposes. The court dividen. and the majority held that the Inted state Commerce Commission had not (Continued on Fauris Pame)> " | erated in his The Case of Gen. G. 0. Squier, Creator of Monophone, Mlustrates How Inventors Are Helped to Success. with which the Supreme Court, with | BY ANNE HARD. BOUT twoscore years ago a young officer of the Army En- gineers named George O. Squier was performing his assigned duty in stringing a telegraph wire along the California Desert near Espedero. He was trying to ‘“ground” his wire in the usual way of the Army in the field—by driving a spike into the ground—and he was having no luck. All about him was sand—sand and cactus bushes. Having tried the sand, the only other thing there was to try was the cactus. He drove his spike into the roots of a cactus bush—and it worked. He had found his “ground.” Seven years later, and in direct con- sequence, that Army engineer was ! granted a patent upon the fifth of the fundamental basic inventions of the great wire-and-wireless communication system of the world. The first was that of the telephone to Bell; the second was that of the telephone transmitter to Berliner; the third was that of the “cofl” to Pupin; the fourth was that of |est: the fifth was that of the often- | called “wired wireless” to Squier. | A short time ago this same officer, Inow Maj. Gen. Squier, retired, was | granted his second basic patent—al. | most, if not quite, as revolutionary as his first—what he has chistened “the monophone.” | Maze Is Illustrated. | Many an aspect of the technical and tangled matter which 1S often called “the patent maze” is illustrated in his story. Xny it you see the characteristic mind of the born inventor. swer to a question often asked—whether the private inventor has a chance or whether, with the growth of great in- dustrial laboratories, the genius of the individual gets totally lost. In it is the answer to what happens to the man who develops new things while on the Government pay roll. In it is the pic- ture of the complicated legal structure which surrounds the whole patent busi- ness and the processes by which pat- ents are achieved. Today, “on the retired list” at 64, Gen. Squier is a bundle of nervous en- ergy, uttering, as it were, on high fre- quency waves succinct sentences of pro- found philosophy in rapid alternation with pungent wit. Like most other successful inventors of today, he is a highly trained scientist. Born of educated parents, through the the electrode vacuum tube to De For- BY HENRY W. BUNN. HE following is a brief summary of the most important news of the world for the seven days ] ended February 15: * k x ok GREAT BRITAIN.—The effigy of Clarence Hatry, the great promoter, is secure of a prominent glnce in the temple of infamy. British justice op-' case with its customary speed and inflexibility. It was_only September 20 last that the Hatry “scandals” burst with stul‘mln%l effect on the British public, and the other day Hatry, pleading guilty to charges of forgery of securities in trustee stocks— involving a total of over £800,000—re- ceived the maximum sentence of 14 years at penal servitude (including a period of stone-breaking), while his three only less infamous rssociates received similar sentences ranging from seven to three years. The presiding justice described the frauds as “the most ap- palling that had ever disfigured the commercial reputation of Great Brit- ain.” But for sudden pressure of other commitments, the four scoundrels would have put over their project of an amal- gamation of the British steel industry to their tremendous enrichment, and, such is the irony of affairs, such an amalgamation is generally regarded as a national desideratum of the first order. In the interests of ecenomy, the gov- ernment has decided to slash terribly the air estimates for the coming British budget. The new budget will provide for only one new air fighting squadron instead of the six called for by the pro- gram initiated in 1923. The addition of one squadron will increase the total of the Royal Air F‘or:r iqundrons to 13. * * FRANCE.—The French air ministry maintains its disapproval of attempts by French airmen to fly from Paris to New York; attempts “inadvisable at this stage of aviation.” Neverthe- less, two such attempts (in May or June) are in preparation; one by Capt. Carretier. Then, and his comrades of the Yellow Bird, who flew the Atlantic from West to East last year, are planning to fly from Seville to New York. A good deal of seditious activity is being created by secret revolutionary organizations in French Indo-China. ‘The other day there occurred a mutiny of native troops at Yen-Hai on the Red River, some 90 miles northwest of Hanol, in which three French officers and seven loyal soldiers were killed and a considerable number of mutineers were killed or wounded. Of course Moscow is credited with inspiring the movement. Verbum sap: This item aas an important bearing on the French attitude at the‘Navnl Conference. xox ix GERMANY.—On February 11 the Reichstag began debate on the sundry laws and treaties framed to give effect to the Young plan submitted to it by the Reichsrat, or federal council, and to the latter by the government. The debate was a little heated, as Dr. Hu- genberg, the Nationalist leader, cul- minated with characteristic vigor. But favorable action by the Reichstag on the measures submitted seems assured. Official report shows the visible bal- sance of German foreign trade in 1929 1 as favorably by 47,000,000 marks (about $11,200,000), reparations deliveries in kind (799,000,000 marks, or about $190,- 000,000), being reckoned among the ex- ports. Exports totaled in value about the equivalent of $3,210,000,000, where- of about $2,341,000,000 was represented by manufactured goods, a record. A petty sum to the good, to be sure, but the only favorable year’s balance since the war, except that of 1926, and though the latter was much larger, it did not represent as wholesome a situ- ation. On the whole, the experts are hopeful as to the prospects for the current year, but, as is proper, very discreetly. On February 9 Gandersheim, a small town of old Saxony and the present Brunswick, Germany, celebrated the 1,000th anniversary of_ the birth of Hrosvitha (correctly, Hrotsuit), the town’s chief glory and the first and far and away the most notable woman dramatist of Germany. Hrosvitha was 4 nun of the Benedictine Convent of Gandersheim, a very pleasant founda- tion confined to ladies of distinguished birth an¢ SNptuously patronized by Dieudonne Coste, the other by Capt. | too, Jean Assolant | widowhood of his mother he knew the }d:hl'& time and the latter's very great riend. It is possible to exaggerate the im- portance of Hrosvitha's dramas in the development of German literature, yet it may be true, as some critics allege, that “they form the visible bridge be- tween the few earlier attempts at utilizing the forms. of the classical drama for Christian purposes and the miracle plays.” However that may be, the six dramas are productions of au- thentic genius, exhibiting spirit sense for dramatic effect, touches of genuine pathos, and not infrequent felicity of expression. And, though it is quite absurd to call Hrosvitha “the German Terence,” as some have done, one of the dramas, “Dulcitius,” has an element of comedy or, at any rate, farce. The plots are all founded on legends of the saints, and the zrimjry aim is glorification of the kinds of virtue most cried up' by the hagiographers. They are written in Latin with an oc- casional admixture of rhyme. They were intended to be read aloud or re- cited by the sisters of the convent; that they were represented by those pious ladies is extremely improbable. But fantastic are the ways of fate. Somewhere Anatole France gives a de- lightful description of performances of French translations of the dramas in the theater Des Marionettes at Paris. Hrosvitha also wrote eight narrative re- ligious poems and a versified historical chronicle of the deeds of the Ottos; all in Latin. The millennial exercises included a service in the ancient minster, read- ings from the poems and the chronicle, and representations of several scenes from the “Comedies” (technically so termed), ending with medieval chorals. If just one scene of the past might be revived, might not one choose the nunnery of .Gandersheim in say, the year 970, and the good nuns reciting the grim catastrophe of “Callimachus,” or the passage in “Dulcitius” where the three holy maidens, Agape, Chionia and Irene, are by a humorous miracle saved from the nefarious designs of Dulcitius? Sy POLAND.—At last the Polish Sejm has voted the budget. The parliamen- tary sitiation has happily been purged of much of its grotesqueness since the accession to office of the new prime minister, Bartel, upon the downfall of the curious “government of colonels.” To be sure, Bartel is a Pilsudski man of sorts, but he has a personality of his own and he is a skillful parliamenta- S | rode through Central Park | noticed that two ph A ing out to plumage, went ahead; the hen, in her drab gray costum followed meekly behind It was a pertinent reminder of Mother Nature's strange di crimination against her own The gentleman peacock is pr sented with the glorious feathers; animals of not t injustice? No one knows the answer to that question. But it suggests a thought regarding the e of as reflected in ] has not been any- thing to boast about. The Bible fastens upon poor Eve the responsibility for Adam's fall. Greek mythology blames Pandora’s curiosity for letting loose upon the world its flock of mi 4 | recently came across a quaint volume published in 1652 by Sir the Saxee asty; indeed, a niece of Otto the Great was Abbess in Hros In it Is the an- | o¢ Army processes, he hardness of life on an impoverished farm in Michigan. But mother and son were equally determined that he should have a scholar’s training. He put_himself through school and found for himself where and when there would be an exam for West Point. He took it and passed almost at the top of the list and went off all alone to the great school on the Hudson. His rating as an engineer proved that he stood among the top of his class at the Point. A “shavetail” (lieutenant), stationed at Baltimore in the days of the old Army, he found idleness all too beavy on his snapping mind. Unaware betook himself one day to the office of the chief of stafl in Washington and asked to be allowed to study science at Johns Hop- kins University. Won Permission to Study. ‘The eyes of the general twinkled be- hind his glasses and he referred the young and eager lieutenant to a sym- pathetic but militarily correct official, who happened to be the now famous old warrior, Gen. Bliss. With due Army technique, the “permission” was sent to young Squier’s commanding of- ficer in Baltimore to detail him to study, and Squier's work—which was to be so valuable both to the Army and to the civilian world—got under way. If that first general had not been so untechni- cally understanding, there might have been another story. As it was, there began studies which rian. He seems to ve displaying marked address, and to be displacing fantasti- cality by common sense. The budget disposed of, the question of amendment of the constitution with a view to giving more power to the executive has to be taken up. But, though the political situation has a better look, the shade of the Liberum veto may still seem to hover o'er the political scene. On the other hand, Mr. Charles Dewey, American financial adviser to the Polish government, home on visit, is flattering upon Polish economic management and optimistic as to Polish economic pros- pects. He advises American capital to look into Polish opportunities. * % ok k RUSSIA.—The Soviet authorities deny that religious persecution exists in Russia. To be sure, by sundry de- crees rights as a juridical person are denied to any church or other religious institution, including the right of own- ership; ministers of religion are de- barred from all political rights; churches may not maintain charitable organizations nor may members of re- ligious bodies or groups render material ald to each other; the teaching of re- ligion to any person under 18 is for- bidden, etc., etc., but no doubt even the strictest execution of these decrees would not constitute religious persecu- tion, as the Soviet authorities are pleased to define that expression. The Muscovite chiefs are innovators in definition, as in all things, and ques- tionless improvers, ie., from the Mus- covite point of view. To the Muscovite ntry, as to the Weird Sisters, “fair foul and foul is fair,” and the art of equivocation takes the pas of all other arts. As a matter of fact, the clerics of the older religions (for bolshevism may not too fantastically be styled a re- ligion of sorts), are being treated more harshly than for eight years past, and churches and monasteries are being demolished or converted into clubs or community centers, while the Godless League and such like organizations are being encouraged by the Soviet au- thorities. To be quite fair, however, one must not omit to mention an argument of some plausibility advanced the latter, namely, that the support given by the orthodox rural priests to the Kulaks against the collective farm movement was civil treason making suspect all _the uuflporten of the old religions. The Kulaks being anathema WOMEN BY BRUCE BARTON Anthony Weldon, entitled “A Brief History of the Kings of England.” The book omits all sked why | omit abeth, | answer | have nothing to do with women, and | wish | never had.” felt impelled at one time or an- other to emit depreciatory com- part of the audience with an easy sense of superiority, and they are apparently not resented by the ladies, who, secure in their sense appeal to gallantry, the obvious fact is that nature ha en the feminine sex in every classifica- tion the harder d more d n discrimination— woman everywhere. (Copyright. 1930.) made of this Army officer first a doctor of philosophy of one of our leading in- stitutions of learning, a fellow of the great scientific socleties of Europe, a member of our own Academy of Sci- ences and finally contributed to make him one of our great inventors. But now notice that—sclentist or en- | that this gineer though he inventor's mind always is the experimental mind. It is a mind which can obtain facts and not be possessed by them. It is an imaginative mind. It is also a trial- and-error mind. Stringing his wire on the Espedero desert, if his had been merely a philo- sophical mind, young Squier might never have tried the apparently absurd act of driving his spike into the cac- tus bush, or, if he had lacked imagins tion, he might have ended there at finding that a spike in a cactus worked as a ground wire. But he kept on thinking about it. “A cactus is different from sand; it is a living thing,” he sald to himself. “The acid circulation of the living plant forms a conductor.” The mind of the scientist saw in that statement the inkling of new concep- tions, called today “physical botany.” But_Squier, being by nature inventor as well as scientist, went on. He began the trial-and-error method. “T simply,” he said, “moved my spike a little higher up in a living tree. And (Continued on Fourth Page.) maranatha, their aiders and abettors are at the lau: -:mt:ne?a, GENEVA—The international confer- ence pursuant to a resolution of the late League Assembly, with the immed- iate avowed aim of ‘a “tariff holiday, but. ely aimed at a larger inter- national economic co-operation, opens at Geneva tomorrow, February 17. We are told that there is in contemplation “a program of subsequent negotiations for facilatating economic rellllnlrlll llz y sentation in the presence as “obse: at the conference of Edwin C. Wilson, first secretary of the American em- bassy at Paris. 1In reply to an invi- tation to participate in the conference, our Government expressed itself cor- dially as follows: “The American Government views with approbation any endeavor to facil- itate world-wide economic relations and remove discriminatory economic measures, and has with this object signed- and ratified the convention for the abolition of export prohibitions and restrictions and has co-operated with other international activities looking to the betterment of economic conditions throughout the world.” Fifteen ministers of commerce, three former finance ministers and one for- eign minister will attend the conference. Every European country, except Albania, is to be represented. Of peculiar sig- nificance is the emphatically hostile attitude of the British dominions, which refused plrtlclpltlon;.' . * % NOTES.—Since the beginning of the year nine European central banks (in- cluding the Bank of England, the Bank of Prance and the Reichsbank) and one South American bank of issue have lowered their discount rates, this movement being in no small degree due to the little affair in Wall Street toward the late year's end. Reports arrive of labor demonstrations and food riots in Madrid, Barcelona and other cities of Spain; grocery stores broken into; some stoning of police; order restored by police and civil guards; some injuries, no fatalities. “King Alfonso, all of the cabinet and several foreign diplomats have left the capital for a hunting trip,” indicating, | ja) of course, that all's well. Pirates in the river system near Can- ton, China, seize 12 vessels chartered by the Standord Oil Co. of New York, Chinese junks carrying oil worth $50,000; the climax of a series of like performances. The Natfonalist govern- ment has ord;)red five gunboats ?rg- ing troops proceed e picaroons. Bandit forces roam through the Provinces of Hunan, Kiangsi, Hupeh, Szechwan, Anhwei and Kiangsu, mak- ing life hideous. Five persons were killed and several wounded in a shooting affair at a political meeting at Victoria, State of Espirito Santo, Brazil, on February 14, Apparently Conservative reprisals for shooting by Liberals on a Conservative electioneering party last week, which killed 5 and wounded 14. It seems to be an earnest presidential campaign. On February 8 the Williamson bill, providing for transfer of prohibition enforcement from the Treasury Depart- ment to the Department of .Justice (pursuant to the recommendation of the Law Enforcement Commission), was passed by the House without im- poll:lum. amendment and without a roll call. . Norwegian IQ Given Doyle Drama Rights | fiood lish spiritualist, recelved an unusual visit during a recent lecture engage- ment in Oslo. Georg Broc! 15t Tld of drama, e o approac] author-spiritualist with an English dramatization of one of Sir Arthur's novels in which the souls of a profes- sor and an luate exchange \nieresting, was the ‘desodersen: , was men as developed by the Norwegian that Sir Arthur was immensely amused and be- fore his departure allowed Brochmann the world producing lay. Brochmann is negotiating with a al theater to present the ethereal drama. CHINA HOPES TO IMPRESS WORLD THROUGH ENGLAND Cancellation of Extraterritoriality Is Seen as Reaction Due to British Action of 1926. HANGHAI—At the end of the old year, without negotiation, the Nanking government denounced the extraterritorial rights of the powers, being careful to declare ronunciamento, which vitally affects half a million Europeans, Amer- icans and Japanese and one thousand million sterling of vested interests, was | issued mainly as a notification that the | interests of the Chinese are today so en- | twined with foreign right that the re- form of the one implies the reform of the other. We must go back to 1840 and a dis- | patch by Palmerston to understand pre- | cisely the nature of the issue. Palmer- ston had been angry for some years about opium and the way British subjects were treated in the Canton factories, where the foreign trade of the country was confined. The British crown in dispatching a military and naval force to China had in view the cession of convenlent islands | along the coast as trade depots. or, al- | ternately, the winning of a treaty from | the Emperor in Peking guaranteeing safety of residence and legitimate taxa- tion in Chinese ports. Admiral Blundered. Warlike operations soon ensued, and | as a result Hongkong became a British possession, the question of other trade | entreports becoming merged in the mat- ter of the commercial treaty. To be recise, the British expeditionary force, aving fought its way up the coast to the mouth of the Yangtsze, occupled various other islands, captured Shang- hai and anchored off Nanking. stopped | its threatened assault at the eleventh hour because China ostensibly surren- dered and assented to a treaty. Properly analyzed, this meant that | Palmerston’s instructions had not been correctly carried out, 1. e., the altern: tives he had given had been thrown to- gether, and instead of several British ade depots, one island and a very sketchy commercial instrument, opening five ports from Canton to Shanghai, had been won. Sir Henry Pottinger, the commander- in-chief, had he been mors clear-sighted, would have learned a little more about Chinese history and hoisted his flag where it would have instantly brought a changed situation, at the mouth of the Yangtsze. Barriers Not Broken Down. As it was, the barriers to the extension of Western civilization had not been thrown down, and the Emperor of China could still treat these incursions on his coast as barbarian forays to be rigidly circumscribed. That is precisely what he did; and we catch an echo of the perturbation that remained in a dispatch of another foreign secretary, Clarendon, who, 14 years later, wrote that “it was not to be expected that the notions of superiority over the governments which the isolated position of China had served to foster should at once give way, but that we have now arrived at a stage in our in- urse in which we may hope to turn to account the experience which during the last few years we have acquired.” ‘This hope proved futile. In 1858 the | second stage commences with the ar- | rival of a British plenipotentiary in com- | pany with the representatives of France, | the United States and Russia, off the | Taku forts at Tientsin with force be- hind their backs. Intepreter Had Vision. The issue they had to attack was much wider and more subtle than that which had engaged Palmerston and his generation. At the maritime gateway to the capital they had to bargain frankly about the emperor’s right of eminent. domain, not as they under- stood it, but as he construed it after a hoary tradition which made the Celes- tial kingdom the center of the world. Of the four nations represented Eng- land counted most because her col 2 resenting the 11 powers brought troops to Peking the protocol of 1901 whereby practical purposes they disposed of the effective revenues of the customs and the railwavs. The solidarity. which might have re- created something permanent and srest, was succeeded by a great commercial and industrial expansion. What with leased territories, treaty ports (they had risen to 50 now), railways and ship- ping on inland waters the face of the country was being changed, and some- thing not dissimilar to India and Egypt was arising. But the revolution of 1911, which brought the pseudo-republic, interrupted this orderly process of substituting a new civilization for something which was no longer valld. Moreover, it was followed with 42 months by the World ‘War, comprehensible to China only in the war cries which vaunted the claims of oppressed nationalities and the rights of peoples to self-determination. Sun Yat-Sen’s Action No Surprise. Thus, with the progressive collapse | pearance of its symbol, there had come an interim government, without ideals or permanent head, de- pending on the backfire of the World War for its propuision. That modern world was no longer the dim and intangible thing thousands of miles away it had been in Palmerston's days; something of it had been trans- ported to China and lay like a vast en- | trenchment along river and coast in the shape of European iowns and rallways and swift steamers and great factories and immense oil installations, not to speak of the telegraphs and posts which had been developed as concomitants. ‘That the feeling of impotence these gave to a population still immersed in the fourteenth century should have culminated in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's rap- prochement with Soviet Russia is per- haps only natural. China was hunger- ing for a technique of government which no one else would supply. Powers Had No Plan Ready. For, although the group of 8 that remained of the 11 protocol W ers (uermnny.peAdumh u'\:’. !gl;aah vfi ing been dropped) were y enoug] to do as they pleased in China, no one had a plan, and there were only the vel- leities of the Washington conference to fall back upon. And when the mom.ns provided for by that conference to with tariff and extraterritoriality was convened in Peking (1925) the bolshevik storm already had broken and the at- mosgherc was unpropitious. ‘The discussions which ensued soon became conspicuous for one thing only— and undignified and uninterrupted quar- rel between British and Japanese dele- gates on the subject of customs duties and unsecured debts every whit as bitter as the reparations struggle in luloae and a fitting prelude to the Nationalist outrages on the Yangtsze. The point was ignored that the for- eign-controlled customs provided all the machinery necessary not only to make a government, but to sustain a govern- ment, as Nanking has since shown. Quarreling over utterly unim nt points when there was a revenue i sight which would have settlad every one of them, the two leading rers in Asia presented a sorry ?e le, and the meeting broke up in disorder with noth- ing done. Memorandum Heartened China. | In December, 1936, the so-called Brit- | ish memorandum was issued not 0 | a bolshevized China, but to a di | diplomatic body—a last-minute attempt | to prove to the world that so far as |England had been concerned she must not be held responsible for all that had occurred. » ’!;h; m;imon'ml!um pr;)c‘l:elmed & won- erful policy of laissez faire; cvggmlnx was_to be abandoned to the Chinese, merce still represented the lion’s share and because in Lord Elgin's suite was an irascible man who knew his subject. le governments thought that everything hinged on reducing contest- ed points to writing, this man, Lay, the interpreter, knew that the chief thing was to break the pretensions of the throne by asserting the ascendency of Western civilization and its concepts over those of quite another type. Ac- cordingly he concentrated on two mat- ters—establishing permanent embassies in the capital where they could no longer be ored or flouted, and the right of foreigners to go everywhere under passport. Court Put to Flight. It required two years of struggle, in- cluding a British disaster at the Taku forts and a subsequent Anglo-French expedition of 20,000 men to Peking, which put the court to flight before this ascendency was admitted. Thereafter, the emperor having sullenly submitted, for nearly 40 years there was reasona- ble quiet and reasonable trade expan- By 1900 the Peking court dimly realized that the civilization and the theory of government on which it de- pended were disappearing. -The Japa- nese War of 1894-95 and the subsequent g;”‘“" of the powers had driven that me in a way which could no longer be disguised; and a group of native scholars had arisen who shouted it to the four winds. ‘The whole story of the Boxers hinges on that—the strange campaign in which a priestly court threw in its destinies with a savage mob, one of the most remarkable episodes in political history. It was a gesture of despair which could only end in flight and col- pse. Henceforth, in effect, the real govern- | tariff rights, foreign concessions, all the carefully guarded machinery built uj since Palmerston's days, the same fatal loquacity being evident as in the case | of India in 1917 and in 1923. |, This document rightfully enough de- | brought the whirlwind. Dlmmm clared it was an attempt dictate a policy to the world, while the Chinese thought it was a signal of fear. It brought the flag and necessitated the dispatch of the larg- est expeditionary force England has ever sent 10,000 miles across the seas— 20,000 men and costing £5,000,000. Thinks Britain Is Afraid. The latest decree of the Ni government is entirely due to 1926, If through England's folly there is an abandonment of all that Western civil- ization which lies like a vast entrench- ment along river and coast, the Kuo- mintang party can continue to rule even though the authentic China, the fourteenth century China of the in- terior provinces, rejects them. Properly speaking, the Nanking gov- ernment has no home—no mandate but that which is conceded them by the powers; for the spide: has become the guardian of the palace of the em- perors and has spun its web over the great gate, while the owl filis the royal tombs with its lugubrious song. No matter. There is on the coast fi this emblem of the modern world, so easy to tax, so satisfying to manipulate once a few signatures have been put to paper, so convincing as an attribute of sovereignty. That there must be a rude awaken- ing one day is irrelevant; the issue just now is that China believes that Eng- land is flying a signal of fear and that through her she can impose her will ment became the diplomatic body, rep- on the others. Mesopotamian Expedition May Reveal Date of Deluge Thi ‘The date of the great flood, which, according to the Bible, destroyed all living things except those which were taken aboard Noah's Ark, may soon be determined definitely as a result of findings made by the Field Museum- Oxford University joint expedition to Mesopotamia, Stephen C. Simms, di- rector of Field Muselum of Natural His- tory, announces. The expedition is in the seventh year of its excavations on the site of the ancient city of Kish. A report on current operations has just been received by Mr. Simms. ‘The latest discovery of importance, says the report of L. C. Watelin, field director of the expedition, is a number of inscribed tablets which, it is be- lieved, will indicate the year when the biblical deluge occurred. These were found far down in the lower strata of the ruins of Kish, where traces of the ,_confirming in substance much of the Bible story, year. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, famous Eng- | be deci; irdless of whether the inscrip- tions on the tablets contain an actual date, Prof. Langdon will be able to fix the date approximately by study of the form of the characters used in the writing. The expedition previously had unearthed and identified by periods several series of tablets illustrating the various forms of hieroglyphics em- myed by inhabitants of Kish under different cultures that held sway ;uc'e;llvely during the city's turbulent ry. An archeological innovation—the ap- plication of modem hydraulic engi- rough New Findings neeming methods—has been undertaken in connection with the continuance of excavations at Kish, Mr. Watelin fur- ther reports. This is the first time that hydraulic methods on a large scale have been used in this type of work, he states. A large motor-driven pump, connected with extensive gi lines in- stalled over a large area of city site lying below the present-day water level, has been put into operation. The hydraulic machinery was in- stalled to clear away large amounts of subterranean water encountered about 50 feet below the original surface of the Kish mound, which impeded the excavators from working at lower depths. After the water has been pum; away, digging in the ground will begin again and will be continued until virgin soil is reached. In one small section virgin soil was previously reached at a depth of about 60 feet, and in the lowest strata just above ev}?encumwfire Iu\lndt'l of a J::ollthl culture which apparently was the pred- ":3;':”1' olr‘ the earliest cm:nug‘ discov- e in Mesopatamia up it tme ‘This was regarded as of sufficient lng portance to justify ‘the furtner largee tl.l:::e investigation now being unders n. Plans now under way call for excavas tions to a depth exceeding any eved before reached in_ arcl in Mesopotamia. haracte! cl r water level was reached. Maybe He'll See the Joke. From the Richmond News Leader. { That visiting Englishman who says Americans are na!‘umuhr with free | | trade should hear our grocer talk about some of his accounts,