Evening Star Newspaper, April 16, 1930, Page 8

A—8 {THE EVENING STAR Wik Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. WEDNESDAY.....April 16, 1830 5 st ot THEODORE W. NOYES. ... Editor P ———— The Evening Star 7 Comgany T T BE: b Rate the City. 4Sc rer month ) 60c per month 85¢ per month per © erid f cach morth, by mail or telephone Mafl—Payable in Ahl.'l!-.. ETRIat yr. 34.00: ) mo.. 40c All Other States and Canada. E!r":&n, Sund. 7. 812.00: Associated Pi excl o eeor epuntcation of -« creaited otherw! entitled Dews. cred- ted to it :“Eot in this paper and aise loea ) rights biication of “diupatches Dereih are. w0 reserved Municipal Center Plans. Representative Simmons' insistence that there be haste in closing the deal with the Federal Government for sale of the District Building, in order that financial arrangements may more easily be made in beginning work on eonstruction of the Municipal Center group, should find sympathetic response from the new Commissioners. As the term of the former Commissioners was marked by the beginnings of this great project, so will the term of the new | Commissioners witness some of its progress toward completion, taking tan- gible form in steel and stone. ‘The time for closing the deal through which the District Building will be transferred to the Federal Government n receipt of what is decided upon as & fair price will depend upon the ‘Treasury Department, for the recently enacted Keyes-Elliott bill provides for this transfer. The sooner the transfer can be made, the better. Many years will elapse before the Municipal Center group is completed, but already the municipal government needs part of the room that the new group will pro- vide. While Mr. Simmons’ suggestion that the plans and specifications for the entire group be drawn and approved before work begins on any of the new buildings is sound, it is not necessary, as Mr. Simmons further suggests, that some “outstanding architect of the country” be engaged to do this work. At least it is not necessary to go out- side of the District to secure the services of this outstanding architect. The work of planning the municipal group should represent the best views of Washington architects. The municipal group is an undertaking that, while semi-national in its broad scope, is lecal in so far as 4a uee is concerned and local in so far as the greater part of the cost is concerned. The design for the group should also be representative of local men. The municipal architect’s office, with the consultative advice of four local architects, now is engaged in pre- paring what might be considered the “rough draft” of the project as a ‘whole—in other words, preparing draw- ings to show the possible development of the avallable land, what buildings could be constructed on the site and the uses to which these buildings could be placed. After this draft is completed sand the outline as a whole approved, the design of the buildings themselves and of the group as & whole will either be worked out by the municipal archi- tect or else the contracts given to archi- tects outside his office. It these contracts go outside the municipal architect'’s office—and it is entirely possible that the size of the undertaking would make this advisable— they should be given to Washington architects. Thirty or forty of these architects have formed a body known as the Allied Architects, Inc., and this organization now has the contract for design of the new House Office Build- ing. It likewise should be given the ‘work of design for the Municipal Cen- ter, provided this work is to be taken out of the hands of the municipgl architect. Prom the practical standpoint, the work could not be placed in better hands, as far as professional ability is concerned. From the standpoint of equity the plans should represent the work of members of the Washington eommunity. The designs must, as Mr. Simmons contends, be the best that is available. But it is not necessary to leave the District to find them. —_———— liberative consideration, by education and by constructive leadership.” Popular desires, however, are some- times effective, but even so they be- come effective only because of indi- vidual leadership. It behooves the in- dividual leader, no matter in what walk of life, to determine to the best of his ability what is the just, the sane and the real need of the people. It is when the leader is actuated by selfish motives alone that the achievement of popular desires becomes a menace to the whole people as well as to the individual. Whether the popular desire comes first or the people take their cue from the individual leader may at times be a matter of doubt. The desire for freedom, for example, may be inborn, but it may not find expression in a down-trodden people until the individ- ual leader puts forth concretely the proposal for freedom. The individual who aspires to leadership, the individ- ual who is capable of leadership must bear greater responsibility than his fellows. ——ee The British Budget. Phillp Snowden, British chancellor of the exchequer, showed at The Hague last Summer that he is a man of iron courage. The budget just introduced In the House of Commons enhances his reputation as an economist of rare fortitude. To pile fresh tax burdens on the already heavily bent back of John Bull called for valor of no mean magnitude in the present demoralised state of British economics. Mr. Snowden faced the issue unflinchingly. As the chancellor pointed out in his memorable Naval Conference broadcast to this country, the British people are still groaning and toiling under the staggering costs of the World War. The gigantic sums required for war debt charges and pensions are aggravated by the doles which the treasury is dis- gorging in combat with the seemingly invincible unemployment problem. Coincident with rising expenditure, Britain is confronted by falling revenue, due in large measure to the serious decline in her export trade. Several years ago, jointly in behalf of suffering industry and of the needy treasury, Parliament scrapped ancient British traditions by imposing a series of pro- tective tariff duties. The so-called McKenna rates on; articles like automobiles, clocks, watches, films and silks not only produced sub- stantial income, but arrested for- eign competition. Later, “safeguard- ing duties,” designed to counteract “dumping” in the British market, were enacted. Mr. Snowden told the House of Commons on Monday that, much as these concessions to the tariff principle may bleed his free trade heart, treasury exigencies require their maintenance in part or in whole. The chancellor reports a deficit of $210,000,000 in a budget which requires to be balanced at roundly $4,000,000,000. Thus the British and American nation- al households are run at approximately the same cost, but at fabulously greater expense per capita, as far as the Britons are concerned, with their population of & bare one-third of our own. To raise the necessary wind, Mr. Snowden boldly asks for more money from direct taxation. He would, first of all, increase the basic income tax from four shillings in the pound to four shillings six pence—roundly, in our money, from a dollar to $1.12—on every $5 of taxable income. This means 221, per cent, a rate stupendously more than the one at which the average American taxpayer contributes to Mr. Mellon’s strong box. The chancellor calls his proposals “a poor man's” budget, because it imposes fresh bur- dens on only some 50,000 persons, all of whom fall within the higher tax brackets. Whether the “poor man” will look upon Mr. Snowden's scheme to tack another tax of two cents a gallon on beer is a question. He announces that the brewers have promised not to pass the increase on to the consumer. Surtax rates and inheritance taxes are also revised upward by the relentless Labor watchdog of the British treasury. Henceforward, if Mr. Snowden has his way, on any estate of $10,000,000 or more, the “death duties” would be fifty per cent. Hitherto tirey have been forty per cent. In other words, an exact half of big estates would in future be handed over to the ravenous exchequer. In a grimly humorous allusion to diminishing revenue, the chancellor recently la- mented that Britishers have “not been dying up to expectations.” Taxation remains Britannia's crown- ing and crushing problem. An analysis of the Snowden budget turns the searchlight on the reasons why she is ready, after centuries of supremacy at sea, to yleld parity to this plutocratic giant of the Western World. The British must still pay heavy toll for armaments. As they contemplate all that lies behind A gray cap is among the clues in the most recent murder mystery. It would not be surprising if gray caps were to be eliminated from local fashions in men’s wear. Individualism. President Hoover champions the cause of individualism in a letter published todsy by the Yale Dally News. He attacks the idea that popular desires alweys are expressive of real needs of any people. Leadership, he asserts, must come from the individual. With- out such leadership, the mob acts emo- tionally and without reason. Progress in a nation is merely the sum of the progress of the individusls in the mation. Looking back over the history of the discovery and development of this country, the truth of Mr. Hoover's ob- servations on individualism and leader- ship is borne out. America is dedicated to the cause of equality of opportunity for the individual men and women who make up the people of this country. But after providing that opportunity shall be equal under the law, Americans fare left by their Government and their institutions to make their own way to Jeadership, to prosperity and to power. Their advance must be as individuals. The heights to which individuals have attained, taken collectively, after all must measure in the end the achieve- ments of the Nation. It is quite true that organization has aided masses of the people to advance. But even in these organizations, the individual must the Labor government’s budget, their anxiety for progressive curtailment of naval and military expenditure is bound to be whetted. There is no less food for reflection in this country on the same vital score. ——eate—. Interest in an ancient drug store in New Jersey as an addition to Henry Ford's Museum is reported. A Jersey drug store dating far back of days ordinarily known as ‘“pre-war” might be expected to excite so much local in- terest as to destroy possibilities of find- ing any of the wares for which it may have been famous in the past. oo Prayers for Slaughter. The Rev. Peter Ainslie, prominent Baltimore minister preaching at a Lent- en service here, declares that “there is no more excuse for a chaplain in the Army or Navy than for a chaplain in a speakeasy.” Naturally, this has aroused the wrath of those clergymen who minister pro- fessionally to soldiers and sailors—most notably the Rev. Jason Noble Pierce, Reserve chaplain and pastor of the First | Congregational Church, from whose pul- | pit the offending remarks were uttered. Mr. Ainslie bases his argument on the conviction that war is contrary to the principles of Christianity, and conse- quently that any man whose life is dedi- cated to making the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount the guiding light THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 1930. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. preached during the late war. He never heard one of them. It certainly would be difficult to maintain that they were of frequent occurrence. Assuming such sermons were delivered, the re- sponsible chapiain was rendering a poor service to the cause he represented. He disgusted soldiers instead of inspiring them. He put them in the frame of mind where they never could listen again to patriotic oratory except in & spirit of cynical questioning. The con- trast between his words and the most strained possible interpretations of the gospel of the New Testament was so obvious to every one that it reduced his own argument to a plain absurdity. But war, regardiess of the morality involved, is a reality. The Christian ideal of peace on earth still is afar off and the best ways of bringing it about are debatable. While it lasts it will continue to be the environment of great masses of human beings of all shades of character and personality. They will be there whether they will or not, their positions determined by geo- graphic accidents, caught in the cross currents of great, uncontroliable and inexplicable political and economic forces. And it is hardly debatable that, in many instances, the environment of war is destructive of morality. ‘The clergyman lives in a real and not an ideal world. He must minister to men and women where they are and not where he would like to have them. Struggle as he may, he cannot alter the environment of all men to his liking. Shall he abandon human souls when they need him most—regardless of how much he disapproves of the place in which he finds them? Shall he aban- don them, even in a speakeasy? ‘Whether the chaplain should identify himself with the war itself is another question. The moral issues always are obscured and confused. The eagerness with which both sides recruit God in all modern conflicts is one of the most amusing and disgusting features of war- fare—perhaps a long step forward toward reducing it to the ultimate absurdity which will be its death blow. ‘The death knell of Mars will be the world's laughter. - In order to be true to American type all Presidents of the United States have been expected to enjoy fishing and to be base ball enthusiasts, The leader- ship of public opinion asserts itself strongly in sport as well as in legis- lation. —— e It is unanimpusly agreed by anti- prohibitionists that nobody wants the return of the corner saloon. If prohi- bition should by any possibility be dis- pensed with, the corner saloon will be referred to after the manner of Kipling as “another story.” o It is the announced purpose of Philip Snowden to increase England's taxes without adding to the burdens of the poor. If he can do this, he will surely earn his title of “financial wizard of the Labor party.” —————— ‘There was great enthusiasm when President Hoover tossed the ball into play at the opening game. The score made it clear that presidential efficiency as & mascot must be demonstrated later. ———— Enormous enrollment of new member- ship from year to year proves that the D. A. R. is an organization in which earnest interest increases as time goes on. o Election prophecies are often uncer- tain, but those who predict the election of Mr. Roy in Haiti are credited with knowing positively what they are talk- ing about. ——— e ‘The U. 8. Senate in considering Judge John J. Parker’s appointment does not hesitate to remind him of the law’s de- lays. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Studying the Evidence. A shot resounded sharp and clear. Another rent the atmosphere. A motor car came rushing by. In anguish came & woman's cry. ‘Then there was silence, grim and deep. The neighbors vowed they could not sleep. And in the car quite senseless lay A form in piteous disarray. A brave policeman hurried near, With eye alert and voice severe. A stanch official of the law, Who studied all he heard and saw For clues; and then in accents grave His erudite opinion gave: “My friends, I venture to assert That some one has been badly hurt!” Keeping Close to Home. “Are you going abroad next Sum- mer?” “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “What's the use of traveling around among people who don't speak my lan- guage and who couldn't vote for me even if they did.” Jud Tunkins says he feels like a gam- bler when he pays his taxes—always hopin’ he's goin’' to win something in the way of improvements. The only trouble is that he has to keep on play- ing the game whether he likes it or not. Only the Weather Man. Perhaps fine clothes I'll have to show ‘When out upon parade I go On Easter day. Perhaps I'll be compelled to use A raincoat and my overshoes— Ah, who shall say! Concentration. “Do you think the magazines give a faithful picture of our time?” “I hope not,” answered Miss Cayenne. “Judging by the advertising pages, young men put in most of their time experimenting with new kinds of cig- arettes and shaving materials.” “Sudden wealth,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is often likely to reveal | tem. new responsibilities and cause more per- plexity than happiness.” Talk Material. Should no more problems deep and glum Disturb the Nation, of human behavior has no business pro- moting behavior exactly contrary to those doctrines. lead. There is no such thing as mass leadership. He speaks scornfully of chaplains who have urged soldiers to shoot straight ‘We pause to ask what would become Of conversation? “Dar is sech a thing” said Uncle Eben, “as bein’ too cautious. A certain “Popular desires,” Mr. Hoover says,|and kill as many of the enemy as pos- | 'quaintance of mine ’'most kilt hisself “are no criteris to the real need; they sible. Rev. Mr. Pierce finds it difficult tryin’ to swallow chicken feathers, so's @an be determined only by the de- to belleve that any such sermons were to conceal de evidenoce.” .y Underlining sentences in books is a good babit. Mostly they will be sentences a reader likes, but oceasionally they may mark disagreements. In either event the habit will do a mt deal to help the reader make the his own How many of us read blindly, with- out knowing much more when we end & book than when we began it! This state of affairs may be all right with a work of fiction, when the narra- tive flow is what we are after, in the main. ‘With more serious works, however, one finds felicitous sentences, prize Qloudhm. which he would not willingly let dle. And yet these very purple spots, If unmarked, will pass from mind quickly. perhaps never to be found again, unless the reader takes the pains to underline them as he goes along, Underlining is peculiarly valuable to the writer and to the speaker. No mat- ter how vivid a thought may be, and how well the reader promises himself to remember it, in most cases its power will fade away, and he will find him- self forgetting it. “Now where is that sentence?” he will ask himself, turning over a few ges. “I know Tight where it is——-" ut he doesn’t know where it is. He thinks it is at the bottom of a right- hand gu'e, or at the top of a left-hand alce. ut before long he finds that he not sure where it is. He may even go to the trouble of re- reading the entire work, only to have the elusive phrase, or word, or sen- tence, or fnnmph, escape him en- tirely, as if it had never been, as if he had never read it. * ok ok % ‘We know & man in this town who dis- covered & most apt sentence, one pe- culiarly applicable to a personal prob- lem, in one of the volumes of Alexandre Dumas’ “D’Artagnan” series. Not hav- ing pencil and paper handy, he decided to forego his customary habit of underlining what struck him as good. Surely he could not forget that prize sentence, he told himself. He would be able to turn to it at will. But he got interested in the ensuing adven- tures, went through the following ad- ventures, and by the time he thought of his sentence again it was gone. ‘hen the search for it. It has he at- now been years 08 tempted to retrace his mental steps in that great maze and to rediscover— for he had found it once—the sentence which so tickled his fancy. He has even gone to the extent of rereading all the volumes of the series, but the elusive sentence still evades him. He has attempted to tell the gist of it to friends, and to set them to tracking it down, but they have had no better success than he. At times he has even doubted that he ever found such a sentence, such a thought, but then he knows better, he can swear he read it, he almost knows where it is. He believes that it is in “The Three Musketeers,” but for the life of him he has never been able to find it since. He has gone through that book with a fine-tooth comb, as it were, still he finds it not. And all this labor, this searching, would have been obviated if he had simply underlined the sentence with a ncil. Then it would have been his orever. * ok ok % One of the greatest things the habit of underlining does for a reader is that it his moods of the moment. When he goes through his book again, perhaps years later, he finds there a mental photograph of himself, in the sentences which impressed him as good. “Why did I undesline that?” he will find himself asking, as he rereads what he knows once struck him as he sees nothing in it. has haj ? e chances are that he has grown mentally, and that ! what was good to him then is common- place to him now, Or he may discover that his sentiments are the same; what he underlined then is still fine. Yes, he knows a good thing when he sees it. ‘The one great service which under- lining does is to make sure that the quotable :hlnn ;r;l L) b lf.nzhb. found again, speedily and easily, thus rendrrlnu; them avallable, There is nothing more disconcerting than to try to show a friend something good in & book and not to be able to find it at all. A few little marks will save the day. it is astonishing what & different look underlining gives to & book, espe- cially a favorite book. Whereas one without marks is & vast wilderness of black marks on white paper, the prop- erly underscored work takes on a friendly, familiar appearance. These are marks of civilization. They become athways to thoughts good and great. g‘hry lift out, much as red letters do, the valuable content, and discriminate | it from the mere mass of words which necessarily go to carry the best. Every bit of writing must have its body, which serves as the vehicle of its soul, or its very best thought. No letter has pleased the writer of this column more than a recent one from a Washington woman, who wrote that while she was in Vichy, France, she had picked up a copy of The Eve- ning Star in a park and found that it was opened to the editorial page, and that various sentences in the “This and That” column had been underlined. A discriminating reader, we like to think, had selected what struck him, and had marked it he went along. He had found that part and made it his own. We salute him through time and space, * ok ok ok The reader who belleves in under- lining will do well to keep several pen- clls near him wherever he reads. There is nothing more disconcerting th: to be forced to put down a book and hunt around for & pencil. We believe that the latter implement, whether of the old or new style, is the best, and that a medium hard lead is the more success- ful for underlining. A book lover does not, care to smear his pages with a soft lead, but on the other hand he wants his marks to be legible and to stand out plainly, else he has defeated the whole pu?on of underlining. Pen and ink may suit some types of paper, but the great drawback to this medium is that it is not easily erased, and one can never be sure when he may make a mistake in underlining, for human beings can be no surer of their book markings than of any other opin- ions. One’s opinion may change be- fore the book is done, and if the under- lining has been in pencil the marks can be_erased. We have found that a long under- lining of every word is the best for a quotation, if it be no more than a sen- tence, but that if the valuable part is half a page or more in length, as it so often is, the better way is to make marks at the beginning and ending merely. To underline a page full of sentences gives the whole a too solid appearance as a rule. There are occa- sions, however, when a solid block of thoughts may strike the reader as so great that he wants to give them un- usual emphasis. In that event solid underlining is the best method. Every reader will evolve his own standard of values. He may prefer a straight line, or a crinkly line, or even two lines, one under the other. The main thing is to underline, so that what is once found and liked may not be lost in the shuffie. He who likes to read generally reads so much that no matter how good a memory he has the good things will get away from him unless he takes the trouble to mark them. Let it be admitted that under- lining is at times a bore; in the main it is & helpful, valuable habit, and one which should never be neglected by the serious reader. Py WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. If national conventions of the two great political parties didn't have to be held in halls seating upward of 10,000 persons, Constitution Hall in Washwng- ton, the magnificent auditorium of the Daughters of the American Revolution, would be ideal for the lpurwu As the lace holds comfortably 'mly 4,000 or ,000, the politicians couldn't use it. There are few finer assembly chambers in the country or in the world. The Daughters are using their “temple of patriotism” for the first time at their thirty-ninth annual congress in Wash- ington this week. Delight with its glori- ous dignity and spaciousness is uni- versal. The prediction is freely hazard- ed that the remaining indebtedn=ss on the noble pile will be wiped out befcre the next congress assembles because of the enthusiasm it generates among the members of the society. Constitution Hall is destined to be a great national forum and was more or less designed to that end. * ok k% ‘When President Hoover addressed the D. A. R. he used the perfected little jigger contrived for him by Cpl. Ed. Starling of the White House life guard. A good name for the contraption wouid be “seriptaphone,” for its object is to enable the Chief Executive to read from a manuscript with a maximum . of ease. The arrangement consists of & holder for the President’s notes, placed directly under a reading lamp, so that, at a distance of 18 inches, they are about level with his eyes. Mr. Hoover slips one sheet of his rotes from the Lolder as soon as he has finished 1ead- ing it, finding the next sheet tidily in filnee. For the purposes of the Star- ng scriptaphone, the Government Printing Office now runs off the presi- dential speeches in handy sheets 412 by 6 inches in size and in extra large type legible a ‘foot or two away. Col. Starling says that a radio engineer is a co-inventor, and the statuesque secret service man has generously of- fered to let him take out the patent. 3% S Ve Illinols and Pennsylvania aren’t the only States in which the dollars roll in senatorial primaries, though they hold the gold dust record to date. New Jer- sey is ordinarily no piker when it comes to slush funds, and the mosquito com- monwealth isn’t likely to be overlooked when Senator Nye's champaign-funds investigators swing into action. Million- alres are pitted against each other in the Jersey senatorial primary this year —Dwight W. Morrow and Joseph T. Frelinghuysen. Recently the report was spread abroad that Ambassador Morrow intends to conduct a cashless crusade for the toga—a prospect which chilled the enthusiasm of “the boys” &ll along the line. Douglas G. Thomson, Mr. Morrow’s campaign manager, has thought it well to quash this disturbing story. “It is not true,” he announces, “that Mr. Morrow wants no money nt at all. He only desires that expenditure shall be as little as possible to win the election, and wants to keep within the spirit of the election laws.” * kX % Sir Ronald Lindsay, newly accredited British Ambassador to the United States, is making his radio debut in Washing- ton week. Over the short wave cir- cuit of the Columbia Broadcasting Sys- , George's Jierculean envoy will take the air at the romantic hour of 1 a.m. in order to be heard in New Zea- land, on the other side of the globe, at 6 pm. the day before. He will talk from the old embassy on Connecticut avenue. The Ambassador's brief mes- sage to his compatriots “down under” will be part of & two-hour program of American music especially arranged for New Zealand listeners. Sir Ronald has been getting a lot of amusement out of seeing his name printed here and there in America as “Sir Roland.” If he continues to be the victim of such typographical mishaps, he fears some- bt:'d‘y may ’Ffi:d“m 3 lmb:’u-dgr:-"l utterance “The Song of Roland.” Br! ain’s spokesman tion with the legendary French hero, ‘who held the pass in the Pyrenees. “Ro- nald” is thoroughly ' Scotch, * ok ok X The Chamber of Commerce of Johns- town, Pa., which had a flood once upon a time, is going to try to get the forth- coming annual meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce at Wash- ington tu go on record in favor of na- tional daylight saving. Although from year to year more and more cities and tes are adopting daylight saving, it is still very far from being universal. The result is widespread confusion, es- pecially to the traveling public and the railroads. The Johnstown business men think Congress ought to pass a law about it ey Nelson T. Johnson, who is complet- ing his first three months of service as American Minister to China, reports that he is spending most of his time commuting between the country's two capitals. Nanking, which is on the sea, is the official seat of the Nationalist government, but Peking, the old capi- tal, now called Peiping, in the in- terior, remains the headquarters of the forelgn legations and embassies and many government departments. Even- tually, it is expected, the diplomatic corps in China will have to pitch its tent at Nanking. Meantime, ambassa- dors and ministers must more or less divide their time between that city and :‘l:en ;nc:em hlblhtmolhl:e defunct dy- at Peking, whic! a whole da; distant. b * o Herbert Hoover is beginning to get a reputation as a standpatter, at least as 1ar as his nominations for Federal office are concerned. Within the past two or three months the President has been under heavy bombardment in connec- tion with the appointments of Mr. Hughes as Chiet Justice, of Maj. Gen. Crosby as a District of Columbia Com- missioner and of Judge Parker as a Supreme Court justice. Attacks on these nominations generally carried the inference that the White House ought to withdraw them. But the Californian stuck to his guns. He's exhibiting the same kind of ramrod attitude in con- 'r::tllon '"‘f’r‘o‘h't::":) wopl'y Mr, Hus- loose from . O. P. natio chairmanship. ' - * x % % An unofficial observer just back from the London Naval Conference was asked by a Senator who was the outstanding personality in the American delegation. The top sergeant of the Marine squad,” was the reply. (Copyrisht. 1930.) ——. Census Takers’ Troubles. From the Daxton Daily News. Census enumerators are havin, troubles with so many women :mwl‘; from home playing and others thinking the man at the door is a bill collector. City Need Overlooked. From the San Bernardino Sun. An obvious truth was strangely over- looked until a bystander at a swimming pool remarked that what city traffic needs is springboards for pedestrians. s How to Stop Civil War. From the Waterloo Tribune. Chinese banks have come to the res- cue and stopped the latest civil war. All that was necessary, perhaps, was to pa; the soldiers. o O . Getting Early Training. From the Buftalo Evening News. WEy shouldn’t & boy go in debt for a ring his girl can show proudly? He might as well get part of his tr Judge Parker’s Record Is Warmly Defended ‘To the Bditor of The Star: unbiased examination in the “Red Jacket” cases (18 Fed. Rep. II, 839) convinces me that the American Federation of Labor is guilty of a grave injustice in opposing the confirmation of Judge John J. Parker to the Supreme Court. In the trial court Judge McClintic found, from voluminous evidence, that at least 5,000 union miners had con- gregated at Marmet, W. Va.; had an- nounced their intention of marching across @ County with the avowed Kuld-pou of unionizing that fleld and ad actually engaged in a pitched battle with State officers, as a result whereof martial law been declared and Federal troops had been sent into territory to preserve the ace. He held the United Mine Workers guilty of a conspiracy to restrain or interfere with Interstate commerce, in violation of the Sherman act. Accordingly, he issued an injunctive decree, restraining the defendants (United Mine Workers) as follows: (1) From interfering with the em- ployes or men seeking employment by menaces, threats, violence or injury to them, * * * from in any manner injuring or destroying the properties of the plaintiffs (the mine owners), or from counseling and advising that these laintiffs should in any way or manner injured in the conduct of their busi- ness and in the enjoyment of their property and property rights. (2) From trespassing upon the property of plain- tiffs, from inciting, inducing or T suading the employes to break their contract of employment with the plain- tiffs. (3) Prom aiding any germn to occupy without right any house or other property of plaintiffs. Upon_appeal, Federal Circuit Court Judge Parker held that the decree was sustained by the evidence, and af- firmed it. In answer to William Green's contention that such decision reduces workers to & condition ap- rlmchln( industrial servitude, the fol lowing quotation from Judge Parke opinion is a complete and scholarly refutation: “It is said, however, that the effect of the decree, which, of course, operates indefinitely, in future, is to restrain de- fendants from attempting to extend their membership among the employes of complainants, who are under con- tract not to join the union while re- maining in complainants’ service, and to forbid the publishing and circulat- ing of lawful arguments and m: of lawful and proper speeches advocating such union membership. They say that the effect of the decree, there- fore, is that, because complainants’ em ployes have agreed to work on the non- union basis, defendants are forbidden for an indefinite time in the future to lay before them any lawful and proper argument in favor of union member- shi] "gt we so_understood the decree, we would not hesitate to modify it. As we said in the Bittner case (15 Fed. Rep. II, 652) there can be no doubt of the right of defendants to use all lawful propaganda to increase their membership. On the other hand, how- ever, this right must be exercised with due regard to the rights of the com- lainants. ‘To make a speech or circu- rut.e an argument under ordinary eir. cumstances dwelling uj the advan- tages of union membership is one thing. To approach a company's employes, working under a contract not to the union while remaining in the com- ny's service, and induce them, in vio- ation of their contracts, to join the union and go on strike for the purpose of forcing the company to recognize the union or of impairing its power of roduction, is another and different hing.” Axgn former union labor member, I am sincerely in accord with all lawful methods to advance its noble cause. However, I do not condone methods of force, or violation of the legal rights of employers, union or non-union. It is su- rfluous for me to add my contempt for he ‘“yellow dog” cofitracts, but all friends of organized labor must realize at, in the absence of congressional or gislative enactment to the contrary, binding. However, Judge Parker was not_called upon to express any opinion as to the legality of these contracts. My study of the case clearly indicates that Judge Parker is in reality a stal- wart defender of labor unions in the r enjoyment of their legal rights. ons ; HERBERT W. G!e}s‘IMAN. “Adequate Lighting™ Is A Menace to the Eyes To the Editor of The Star: May I have a little space in your es- teemed paper to discuss a subject which, though of importance to every- one, has apparently received little at- tention? I refer to the present fad called “adequate lighting.” For _years engineers have known that the efficiency of the incandescent lamp could only be increased by raising the filament temperature and have devoted extensive research to that end. Of late they seem to be in a fair way to suc-'| ceed, but unless some sense and mod- eration are used the result will be more of a curse than a blessing! Prior to the jubilee of the electric llghl and the invention of the catch phrase “adequate lighting” the writer of this letter never experienced any in- convenience from electric light, but now he frequently comes home from the city :and lies a from a headache caused by the glare of nitrogen and other high-powered bulbs in cars, store win- dows, filling stations, etc., etc. Many store windows are such a blind- ing glare of light they have to be “passed up” by all but those with the strongest eyes. In some cases the colors of the merchandise can scarcely be dis- tinguished. Some filling stations are surrounded by rows of unshaded nitro- gen bulbs, which add unnecessary fa- to the often tired eyes motorist and dazzle him as he drives pest, Enough is said about glaring eadlights. How about glaring lights along the street? Please permit me to say right here that there are a few fllling stations in town that are really artistic—no glaring lights—and really tend to beautfy the street. The present unmitigated outburst of electric light seems to rest upon the which as nearly as possible approaches that of daylight, but I think it can be shown that this is not true. At night conditions are entirely dif- ferent. For instance, there is the mat- ter of contrast. By day everything is evenly illuminated, but at night cer- tain areas are dark, and the sensitive- ness of the retina automatically in- creases in an effort to see objects in the darker places, and with the in- crease in sensitiveness bright, concen- trated points of light become painful, which would not be noticed in the daytime. , Also, after the glare and fatigue of the day, the eye expects a rest after sunset. ‘When one objects to excessive light- ing he is confronted with such drivel as “Man evolved in the daylight.” Well, as far as that when man was evolving the sun oS stins ot night. Of that we can be certain. The eyes of gll;’lrtu line of ancestors had a rest at ght. Where eye discomfort results electric light it will usually be foufid .Ihigh filament temperature causes the trouble, as certain types of eyes are sensitive to the short wave lengths. I submit that the nitrogen-filled bulb is wholly unfit for indoor lighting and cite the following instance to show that the effects are not entirely due to any unique susceptibility on the part of the writer: I recently attended a church, accompanied by two friends who are noted for having the best of eyes. We sat facing three lanterns, directly in front and about 30 feet away. Eye dis- comfort was noticeable. Fortunately I had an eyeshade with me and experi- enced no il effect, but both friends were laid up with headaches next day. The lanterns in question had und glass, but were very bright lnsmpre- sumably fitted with high-powered nitro- gen bulbs. The 0o protection, as it did not such contracts are probably legal and ! idea that the best artificial light is one | ground glass afforded including E alter the ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN, g in, director of our Wash- ington Information Bureau. He is em- ployed to help you. Address your in- guiry to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C., and inclose 2 cents in coin or stamps for return postage. Q. Does much time have to be given to the ration of a radio pro- gram?—W. B. A 1t varles with the program. Usually much more time is given to rehearsal after the program is pre- pared than the time that will be occu- pled in broadcasting. It must be fitted with the greatest nicety to the time it is to have. Q. When was the Association of iux;:orn Leagues of America formed?— A. The nucleus of the present asso- ciation was the Junior League of the New York College settlement, organized by Miss Mary Harriman in 1900. This was followed in 1906 by the founding of a second league in Boston. Balti- more, Brooklyn and Philadelphia hav- ing meanwhile joined the ranks, the first general conference was held in 1911. ~In 1920 the 39 leagues then existing were organized by Mrs. Willard Q. Is the u?n-tm “dime novel” used in England?—L. T. A. England has its own equivalent “penny dreadful.” Q. How does the number of cattle west of the Mississippi compare with the number east of the river?—C. H. 8. A. Last year the number of cattle east of the Mississippl was approxi- mately 16,000,000 and the number west of the Mississippi was about 40,000,000. Q. Who were the “three friends” re- ferred to in Longfellow’s sonnet, “Three Friends of Mine"?—G. N. O, A. They were Cornelius Conway Fellon, president of Harvard College; Louls Agassiz and Charles Sumner, Q. Where is the largest steam shovel in the United States?>—B. S. A. A. What is saild to be the largest steam shovel is in use at Colstrip. Mont., in the Northern Pacific's surface coal mines. It lifts 15 tons of earth at a time, raises it 100 feet in the air and dumps it 300 feet distant. The giant shovel weighs 1,100 tons, has a 120-foot" boom, 90-foot dipper sticks and a 10-cubic-yard <dipper. It strips the earth from the top of the coal. Q. What is a "Kulak”?—T. 8. C. A. In Soviet Russia at present a Kulak family is one whose “means of production” is valued at $700 or more. In 1928 any farmer who raised $250 worth of foodstuffs or more, after de- Straight (Dorothy Whitney) into the resent,_association, and six years later a national headquarters was established in New York City, and in the following year an antl of Junior League poetry was publ . In the same year the Bulletin, since 1912 the offi- cial organ, was converted into the Junior League Magazine. There were 101 leagues in the United States, repre- senting 39 States, and three additional leagues in Canada in 1928. The same year a national club, with offices and exhibition rooms, was established in New York City. Q. In going from Sydney, Australia, to London, is it nearer by way of the Suez or the Panama Canal?—M. O'D. A. 1t is a little shorter through the Suez Canal. The distance is approxi- mately 12,600 miles by way of the Suez Canal and 12,800 miles through the Panama Canal. marr eorge ant ‘ash- ington?—W. W. A. The exact date was lost for near- ly & hundred years, when it was made known in a letter written by Mrs. Bache to her father, Benjamin Franklin, and dated January, 1779, part of which is as follows “We danced at Mrs. Powell's on your birthday, or night, I should say, in company together, and he (Gen. ‘Washington) told me it was the anni- versary of his marri it was just 20 years that night. " Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, by the old calendar in vogue at the date of his daughter’s letter. The discrepancy between the old and the new calendar was 11 days, which fixes Washington's wedding day as the 6th of January. Q. What are the credentials that an ambassador presents to & ruler?—S. F. A. An ambassador is sent by the head of a sovereign state as his per- sonal representative to negotiate with a foreign government and to care for the interests of his own country. The cre- dentials consist of a sealed letter ad- the one to whom he is accredited and | embody a general assurance that his | ruler will confirm whatever is done by | the ambassador in his name. dressed from his sovereign or ruler to|J. ducting $10 a head for family con- sumption, was considered a Kulak. Such farmers are to be taxed until Lh:gllr wealth is reduced to the common Q. Did the Indians in the Eastern part of the United States wear the feathered war bonnets found in the West?—M. A. H. A. The Indians of the Eastern United States did not make use of elaborate headdresses as did the Indians of the Western plains region, although a single feather, or perhaps a small number of feathers, may have been worn by some of the tribes. Q. How long does it take the Big'Di) per to make one revolution around zg; North Star?—A. M. A. The Naval Observatory says that Pole Star once in 23h. 56 m. moving in a counter-clockwise direction. Q. Who took_ the tobacco plant to Europe?—J. A. H. A. The tobacco plant was taken to Europe in 1558 by Francisco Fernandes, who had been sent by Philip the Second of Spain to investigate the producis cf Mexico. Jean Nicot, the French Am- bassador to Portugal, sent seeds of the plant to the Queen. The services ren- dered by Nicot in sp: g & knowledge of the herb have commemorated in the sclentific name of the genus Nicotiana. While the plant came to Europe through Spain, its use for smok- ing purposes spread to the Continent from England. Ralph Lane, first Gov- ernor of Virginia, and Sir Francis Drake brought it to the notice of Sir Walter Raleigh, who first used it as smoking tobacco, introducing it into England. Q. What is cretinism?—T. 8. 8. A. Cretinism is a kind of idiocy which scientists have found to be due to the inactivity of the thyroid gland. Q. Which writer has the la lngfipgbllc. Victor Hugo or A. It is said that outside of France Victor Hugo has been more widely read, while in France Balzac has had the larger following. read- alzac?— Announcement that the Nation’s book- sellers have undertaken the task of selecting 500 volumes as a gift to the White House for the use of presidential families arouses much interest in the country. Frank discussion of the task of selecting reading matter for this purpose discloses some skepticism as to the results. It is agreed, however, that casual selections from this miniature library might furnish relief from official reports and the Congressional Record. “Assuming that any President of the United States might wish to have his agreeable or divertin g chosen for him by a committee,” remarks the Boston Transcript, “the library of 500 books which 1 be presented is no doubt as good as any other. It is well representative of what may be called avel intelliger:t reading for enjoy- ment. Manifestly the President—any President—has ready access to the liter- ature of the whole world. The Con- Library is at his elbow. But there may well be moments in the life of an overworked Chief Magistrate when the comfort of a diverting volume should be immediate, and so purely casual that the choice of the book may rest upon no reflection at all, but on the mere reach of an arm to a neigh- boring shelf.” * ok ok ok ‘The New York Sun assumes that “it will be a very conventional home library, but suggests that ‘‘unless some pro- vision is made for keeping it up to date, obviously only a few recent titles can be included,” and raises the question, “What kind of literature will future Presidents read for recreation?” The Sun also advises, “The committee will not be confronted by the thought that 100 years hence some of their selections may aj r absurdly quaint.” “Nothing upholsters a wall so finely as shelves of well bound books," says the Cincinnati Times-Star. “They ex- ert a cultural influence even if you merely read your newspaper in their presence. In reccgnmon of the public spirit of the Nation’s booksellers, we recommend that_eve family in the land that can afford it get together a library of at least 500 volumes. What lluxod enough for the White House o‘ t to Tt be good enough for the rest e OCriticism of the scheme comes from the Adrian Daily Telegram, which points to some defects, in the statement that “it is fundamentally distasteful, because the fdea of having some one else choose our reading smacks too much of the book clubs which lay a book down at the door once a month with the sug- gestion, at least implied if not expressed, that you read it willy-nilly. If all great men,” continues that paper, “are as fond of those literary creepers as the publishers represent (the 25 mystery wave length of the light. I could cite other cases of trouble of this kind ‘Suiting Presi(iential Tééte Regarded Task for Bookmen stories), a President surely would have read most of them before he reached Washington. Roosevelt, certainly, would not conceivably have permitted 25 good backstairs murder tangles to accumu- late on him between election day and inauguration day.” On_the subject of detective stories, Baltimore Sun holds that “a real President, if we believe the advertise- ments, will finish 25 of them off in & month’s evenings, and certainly Mr. Hoover’s successor isn't going to be asked to face the same old mysteries that kept Mr. Hoover awake.” The Sun reveals no prejudice against book clubs, but asks: “Couldn't a White House Book of the Month Club be formed? ‘That would keep the President sup- plied and also would give Executive sanction to the volume, a thing publish- ers might appreciate highly.” * ko “A library must be built.” declares the Seattle Times, “not conjured out of nothingness. It must be gained a vol- ume at a time, and each must have been acquired when none but that par- ticular one would do. You must have known the feel of each as you held it in your hand thumbing through the pages, noting here and there a sentence or paragraph, ‘preparing yourself with these nibblings for the feast that is to come. Then you must have had the pleasure of finding a place for it on the open shelves, tucking it in there where later you will have to look for it, and have the fun of running across a lot of stout old companions whose presence you almost had forgotten, for half the 'charm of it is its irregularity. There will be a wide variety of subjects in the new White House library—fietion, essays, drama, poetry and all the rest, and doubtless it will be a fine thing to show the callers on a Sunday night.” “If in the nature of things,” accord- ing to the New York Evening Post, “no independent reader will find the list ex- actly to his taste, it nevertheless con- tains many books which, we feel sure, our Presidents will be glad to pick up in their quiet evenings at home as a respite from officlal reports and the Congressional Record.” ~ The Flint Daily Journal concludes that “now the Hoovers can read,” and offers the com- ment as to this new development: “At last President Hoover and Mrs. Hoover are going to be able to sit down for & guiet hour with some choice novels. It probably surprises a great many per- sons to learn that the White House has not had a personally chosen home library. At last, however, Tom Saw- f’"' Sherlock Holmes and a few other iterary notables will inhabit the White House for the permanent mental diver- sion of presidential families.” * ok ok X It is feared by the Albany Evening News that “it may even be overdone,” and the News scents the danger “that Americans, as s characteristic of them, may take to sending books to the White House, just as they send other things, including ‘Thanksgiving among normal people, and it would be interesting for persons subject to head- ache to note to what extent such head- aches follow exposure to this type of lighting. Moderation in lighting is suggested for another reason. With advancing age the eye becomes less sensitive—that is, requires more light to see by—and it may well be that persons who bave worked for years in the glare of too much light will experience a desensi- oy Tk ST S will n get & bri enough light to read by. In conclusion, I would say that no one would remove the shades from the lights in his living room and then stuff the entire ceiling with the bulbs he could find, yet that is just the condition that one now encounters in stores, on cars and boats and in all sorts of public places. I respectfully suggest that those in charge of such places strive for artistic or novel ef- fects rather than for mere glare. There is neLMnJ! particularly attractive about the mouth of a blast furnace! turkeys.” ‘The Hartford Courant is surprised “that the idea was not de- veloped before,” adding the thought: “We cannot imagine that the Presi- dent of the United States has time to ;‘a:: {f;: his &wn Hglemfi-e, but if he ) Whil use library shoul prove satisfying.” & e — Nearer But More Remote, From the Louisville Times. Europe is 18 minutes nearer Ameri as a result of the existence of ‘::: lfi Topa, but about $200 more remote, Evidence of Piano Fight. Prom the Cincinnat! Times-Star. ‘The piano is sald to be its life; the one next door %‘m some heavy blows. Air-Minded Pop Bottles, From the Oakland Tribune. Let us have moderation in all things— “adequate lighting." ‘With the opening of the base &/l sea- son Mgu“mvlflhl- Al the Big Dipper revolves around the s l