Evening Star Newspaper, April 18, 1930, Page 8

FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 1930. A-8 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, M THIS AND THAT THE EVENING STAR ‘With Sunday Moerning Edition. WASBHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY his chief rival in’ the racketeering fleld, ‘The amalgamation of these two law- less organizations has been effected with April 18, 1830}, pych ceremony as that which attend- ed the recently accomplished consolida- tion of great steel manufactories. The result of the merger is a crime trust that absorbs the two greatest law- breaking organizations in America. It does not completely unify all the rackets or the gangs, leaving out the O'Donnel and the Sheldon groups, which have -“"c.:::h mwlm frequently figured in Chicago enter- [ 645 oer moptn | PTiSeS. . And the next few weeks may e witness some lively doings, as these smaller competitors try to gain ".hm own places in the sun. One of the explicit purposes of the amalgamation of Capone and Moran is to put an end to gang gunnery, which has caused hundreds of deaths in Chi- cago within s few years. But if two units of organized racketeering are left out of the combination there may be some lively marksmanship. The prin- ciple of the merger is that there are to be no “fields of operation” in Chi- cago and the profitable hinterland. The - | works of the trust are to cover the entire area. All income from gambling, vice resorts and liquor distribution are to be pald into a “community chest,” Municipal Center Financing. out of which will be paid the profits and No recent development so clearly em- | Whatever protection funds may be re- phasizes the dangers to this community [ quired. The reports do not state inherent in a departure from and the | Whether the Capone or the Moran con- destruction of an equitable and fixed | tingent will have charge of the chest. concept of the partnership between the | It may, however, be in the custody of a District and the Federal Government |board, equally representative of the two in their joint task of Capital building as | heretofore rival groups. the bill for financing the Municipal [ It is, indeed, something of which Center through a Treasury loan at|America may well be proud that crime three and one-half per cent. has been brought to the basis of a big The proposal itself is sound. There | business, organized into & commanding 18 no good reason why money thus ad- | trust, managed as a syndicate. This vanced should not yleld interest. shows that the evolution of industry THEODORE W. NOYES. ...Editor The Evening Star 7} Bob i, per month Pl B g Sy k| Rate by Mafl—Payable in Advance. and Virginia. Canada. 12.00; 1 mo., § HE Member of the Associated Press. ted Press 1a exclusively entitled Tepublication of all news d credited to it or not otherwise cr iahed Heretn Al SiEhts of Bubhication ial dispatchés herein are also merger of gangs, his own and that of |cepted appointment. But there is a more ‘fundamental ) Which has brought the country to such point involved than that which lies in | & high state of prosperity is still pro- the amount of the loan or the interest | gressing. There is nothing static about %o be charged. the Ameriean civilization. This point was developed pretty well ——e— in the hearings on the appropriations Prompt Action Advisable. bill before the Senate subcommittee,| The London naval limitation treaty which became available yesterday. Sen- | will be in the hands of the President ator Bingham explained that interest | pefore May 1, if present plans are car- on the loan would be charged in the |ried out. Why, under such circum- case of the Municipal Center, when it | stances, should ratification of the treaty was not to be charged in the Cramton | be delayed until next Winter? The or the airport bills, becsuse he felt|genate is in session, it will remain that the Municipal Center was for local | certainly until June 15 and perhaps use. “The difference there” he sald, |jater. The naval treaty, fixing limita- “is that both of these measures (the |tions on all categories of naval craft Cramton and airport bills) are measures | for the three great naval powers of the which concern the National Capital as | worlq, the United States, Britain and a National Capital.” Japan, is a real accomplishment. It There was never planned for the Dis- | na)ts what has promised to be a race trict any more elaborate undertaking |y, naval construction which threatened than the proposed Municipal Center, |1, piace greater and greater burdens and from the beginning the scheme has | o the backs of the taxpayers of the been discussed and developed with one, | ynited States and the other nations and only one, point in mind, namely, | inyolved. Unless the agreement had that the Municipal Center concerns the | pee, made, suspicion and distrust “National Capital as a National Capl- | among the nations would have grown tal.” instend of being allayed. The naval ‘The very site itself has been selected | treaty is an important step in the in- with this point in mind. The monu- | terest of world peace and reduction of mental bullding layout and the designs | armaments. In the light of all the for the buildings themselves have been | facts why should the Senate hesitate discussed with the incidental purpose of | t5 act promptly on the treaty? sccommodating the municipal govern-| president Hoover is represented as ment, but with the primary purpose of | desirous of seeing the naval agreement creating & vast group of impressive| ratified and in force with the least structures that will conform in scale | possible delay. It is & reasonable de- and appearance to the Governments|gire, and one that the country will own building development on the other | applaud. The so-called “big Navy” ad- side of the Avenue. vocates, who have no desire for any In the beginning, when the present| limitation, will seek to pick flaws in the Municipal Building was erected, the cost | agreement. They will urge that the of the enterprise—about $2,518,000—was | United States has been “buncoed” or shared equally between the local tax-|duped at the conference. The Amer- payers and the Federal Government.|jcan delegation at the conference, how- ‘This division of cost was based on the or- | ever, is a delegation calculated to in- ganic law, which has since been changed | spire confidence. In its membership but never repealed. What circumstances | are included not only patriotic Amer- now have arisen that make the new (jcans who would not yield to the dis- home for the municipal government— | advantage of their country but men the Federal Government’s agent in gov- | capable of dealing intellectually with erning this community—a “local” un-|the problems presented at such a con- dertaking, distinct in character and use | ference. from the semi-national undertakings of | The opposition to the treaty doubt- parks and airports? less will seek delay. It is its purpose ‘This community, nor any community | to prevent favorable action on the of its size and resources, would never | treaty if it can. But why should the undertake the elaborate and expensive | opposition be humored in this matter? Municipal Center project merely to| It is true that a political campaign house the agencies of its local govern- | is coming on, with more than a third ment, if this were not the Federal city. | of the Senate up for re-election. But Driven out of the present Municipal | Senators seeking re-election can aid Building by the Federal Government’s | themselves by attending to their duties own building program, the local gov-|in Washington as well as by stumping ernmental agencies could easily find a | their States. site and build a building that would| Should the treaty not be sent to the answer utilitarian needs at far less cost | Senate this Spring, then it must go than the $22,500,000 or more now |over until November, at the earliest, planned for the new undertaking. To|following the election. President Hoo- encumber itself with such a debt mere- | ver could call the Senate into special ly to house its municipal offices would | session then for the consideration of be gross extravagance. The stimulating | the treaty. Or he could wait until the effect of visualizing the chief of police | Senate meets in regular session in De- in marble halls would be lost upon the { cember. The next regular session, how- taxpayer whose child attends part-time | ever, is a “short” session, closing auto- classes or sits 4ll day in a portable matically on March 4, 1931. The Sen- school. ate will have plenty to do to get ‘The Municipal Center to conform |through with the necessary appropria- with the Government's own embellish- | tion bills and other pressing legislation ments of its Capital, housing the Fed- | during the short session without hav- eral Government’s agent for govern-|ing the naval treaty to consider at the ing the Federal City, is based entirely (same time, on the fact that this is the Capital. But if our wise legislators thus seek | greatly encouraged yesterday when Sen- to differentiate between the local or |ator Borah, chairman of the foreign re- Federal benefits from projects carried | lations committee, broke his silence and in the District bill, let them go the|declared that he believed the naval The supporters of the treaty were! whole cloth; divide and divorce on that | treaty “does help the cause of disarma- basis every item from beginning to end; | ment.” recast the accounts from top to bot-| Prompt ratification of the naval treaty tom and start out on a brand-new basis | by the United States and the other sig- of financing the Capital. Give the local | natory bodles is desirable from every taxpayers the right to speak as to when | angle. The longer the treaty is allowed and how their own money will be spent; | to hang fire, to lie around in the pigeon- reserve to themselves, as now, the deci- | Hioles of the desks of cabinet ministers, sions on how Federal money will be|the less effective the blow now struck spent. for limitation of armaments and for Destroy at once the whole idea of | better feeling among the nations of the partnership, if that is possible or if that | World. Senator Borah has properly said is wise. But do not do it piecemeal, or | that if the treaty is sent to his com- in a manner that shoves the greater | Mittee this Spring he will insist upon its burden on the slent and paying partner. | disposition by the Senate before that SO i = body adjourns for the Summer. Homicides have become so frequent A VR that it is no longer necessary for any| Bids for the yacht Mayflower are re- community to go very far out of its|8arded as too low to be considered. In own city limits for a big mystery story.|the meantime ex-President Coolidge buys a comfortable home and appears The Capone-Moran Crime Trust. |perfectly content to establish himself Ever since “Scarface” Capone, Chi-| 98 & confirmed landsman. cago gang leader, got out of a Phila- delphia prison where he had been spend- some time for a pistol-carrying :vicfion, on the expiration of his|investigating committee has finally been term, it has been expected that he)completed. Three of the appointees to would take refuge in Florida from his' the committee originally selected by enemies, rival gangsters, competitors in | Vice President Curtis, Senator Hiram the game of racketeering, who had|Johnson of Califcrnia, Senator Pitt- sworn to take him for a ride. But he|man of Nevada and Senator Golds- has lingered on in Chicago, where he |borough of Maryland, asked to be re- went at first after slipping out of jail, |lieved. A fourth appointee, Senator and much mystery has sttended his|Bingham of Connecticut, declined to movements. He seemed to be challeng- [serve. In their places Senator Nye of ing reprisal, to be “daring” his enemies. | North Dakota, Senator Dill of Wash- New the myctery is solved, by an an- ington and Senator Dale of Vers Wouncement. that Gapgpe g effegied # Gont have heen DmSd SR WarS 860 A Nye Heads “Slush” Committee. Senator Nye be- comes chairman in the place of Senator Johnson. The other two members of the committee are Senators Wagner of New York and Patterson of Missourl. It is a strong committee and the Sen- ate membership is satisfied with the appointments. Senator Nye, Republican, is of the Pprogressive group on the majority side of the chamber. Senators Dale and Patterson are classed as “regular” Republicans and Senators Wagner and Dill are Democrats. None of the five is of the older group of Senators. In- deed, the committeeman who has had the longest service is Senator Dill of ‘Washington, now at the beginning of his second term of six years. Senator Dale came to the Senate soon after- ward. Senator Nye entered the Senate in 1925, Senator Wagner entered the Senate in 1927 and Senator Patterson came to Washington to take his seat in the Upper House at the beginning of the present Congress. The work of the campaign investi- gating committee is likely to be arduous and continuous. That may be one of the reasons it was found necessary to pick younger members of the Senate and those not having the additional duties of chairmanships of standing commit- tees. It is true that Senator Nye, despite his more recent entrance into the Sen- ate, is chairman of the committee on public lands. But Senator Nye is not a stranger to senatorial investigations. He became chairman of the public lands committee during an important investi- gation regarding oil leases and showed himself both a persistent investigator and level-headed. None of the members of the Senate has clamored for appointment to the campaign investigating committee. The service on the committee not only im- Poses much hard work, but it also may be necessary for the committee to go into the campaign activities of sitting members of the Senate. It is not a Pleasant duty to attack the activities of senatorial colleagues, even by inference. Senatorial investigations have in a measure become a byword. Frequently they have been criticized outside of the Senate. They have been called “inqui- sitions,” unfair and tyrannical. Never- theless, the Senate, through its in- vestigations into many matters affecting the public business, has exercised a wholesome and beneficial influence. In some instances the Senate inquiry has been the only avenue of attack, appar- ently, upon evils which have developed. Certainly the influence of the Senate, with its inquisitorial powers, stands as a deterrent. ‘The campaign investigating commit- tee has a serious duty ahead of it. No patriotic American can look with equanimity upon the use of great sums of money or of undue influence to bring about election to public office. The purchase of office, if acquiesced in, leads to other great evils. It is possible that the very existence of the present Senate committee will have the effect of pre- venting the use of money in elections this year which otherwise might be expended with comparative impunity. —————— It is estimated that billions of dol- lars’ worth of liquor was consumed prior to prohibition. It is also insinuated that liquor now consumed is not worth nearly so much, although it costs con- siderably more, —_————— Morbid interest magnifies the appar- ent importance of each homicide. Yet it must be remembered that a single murder mystery does not constitute a crime wave. Arm e TS ‘The citizen may at least congratulate nimself on the fact that making a cen- sus return is not as difficult an under- taking as filling out an income tax re- turn. ——— It is the duty of the President of the United States to toss the first ball at the opening game. What the home team will do with the ball after that is purely a matter of conjecture, ———— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, The Year's Unrest. ‘We talked of cheer sometime last year ‘When snow began to fly— ‘We'd gayly say, “An April day ‘Wil greet us by and by!’ But April cool said “April fool!” For joyousness we try. A warmer glow ere long we'll know. Some day we'll have July. And then we'll shout—"Oh, please bring out Ablizzard as of yore.” The season's change brings yearnings strange PFor what we next deplore. Unemployment. “Of course, a man like you does not have to worry about unemployment.” “On the contrary,” answered Senator Sorghum, “it keeps me busy campaign- ing to avoid losing the only occupation that I really feel able to carry on.” Jud Tunkins says he can’t see the use of discovering new planets when there are no transportation facllities to satisfy your curiosity. Request for Consideration. Old Satan said, “It would be right ‘Toward me to be somewhat polite. While precepts kind will often fail On erring mortals to prevall, I have a stouter argument; I threaten blazing punishment. ‘Monologist Appreciated. “You often buy things you don't ex- actly need.” “Yes,” answered the amiable lady. “When a capable salesman appears, whether I think much of his wares ot not, I feel as if so good a monologue ought to be worth something.” “Pavors,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “should never be forgotten The Senate's campaign expenditures|20d ingratitudes should never be re- membered.” Beauty Contest. Experience teaches that girls can make speeches, And modernly deem it a duty A contest to offer where people will proffer A prize for rhetorical beauty. “Dar is a little importance for every- body,” sald Uncle Eben. “No person is 80 no 'count dat he don’t make cn~ des’ 2s big as lagbod.vflln de census.” 3 BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. “Nothing is really finished until it is beautiful.” This sentence, out of an essay by Hamilton Wright Mable, is of the type which calls one’s thought back to it time and time again. “Nothing is really finished until it is beautiful.” Is that really true? The author was speaking of Nature and her seemingly constant effort to make the world beautiful, her great suc- cess in making the least and commonest thing lovely. The thought is one which strikes the reader as being applicable to much more than the beauties of Nature. Can it be said that nothing, anywhere, is really finished until it is beautiful? It is a subject which requires a re- view of the whole fleld of beauty, from that which lles in rocks and trees to that which somehow shines from the moral nature of man. ‘The world of books offers many keys. Beauty is a constant theme in the Biblc. Ancient Greek and Roman literature is filled with it. One has but to recall Longinus’ “Essay on the Sublime.” The most recent attempt in the world of letters to analyze beauty is contained in the major poem, “The Testamenl of Beauty,” by Robert Bridges, England’s poet laureate. Just what success the venerable au- thor achieves must be left to the judg- ment of the individual reader. It may be sald that the word “analysis” is rather too severe in application to “Tie T:stament.” The poet is in love with beauty In lif: and inanimate Nature (if such a thing exists, which modern chemistry and physics combine to show does not) He 1S 50 in love that he wants (o write a& poem about Beauty. If the result is not a dissection, as some had hoped, at least it is very'plainly a love song. Perhaps that is the best poetry can do, after all. i * kX % One will not get very far, therefore, in his search for the secret of beauty, by sticking to books, for the written word is thought, after all, and thought forms only a portion of the essential whole. Beauty riay be in the same category as sound, which would not exist, so the physicists tell us, unless there were ears to hear it. A favorite question in college classes is to ask the students, “If a shot were fired on the moon, and there was no one there with ears, would there be any sound?” Nine out of ten students, thinking themselves very smart, will cry, “Yes,” but they should say, “No.” Beauty, like love, demands a human being to appreciate it. The term, “the love of God,” is only understandable in terms of humanity. If God is there, we must be here, else the equation does not hold. Beauty, in the abstract, is a scarcely possible concept, except in the mazes of theory, which after all do little good in the world, and only serve to permit hard, practical men of affairs to brand poets indiscriminately as “visionary.” True poets, whether they work with prose or poetry, are the guardians of beauty in the lives of men, because they are not afraid of the word itself. The danger they run is that of too much prating of . their magic word, “Beauty.” Beauty, to be true to itself, must meet practical ends in human life, else it runs as wild as the bit of interior decoration which serves no human purpose. e Do If nothing is really finished until it is beautiful, it is because there is something better in life than the hard- and-fast fellows will admit. They will not admit it because they demand facts, as they say, ahd sometimes facts are very hard to label such. All of life’s difficult facts are given | names, such as God, soul, spirit, and these words come to carry vast trains of meaning with them, gathered out of the depths of centuries. The eternal disputes “about them and about” are mere prattle of grammarians, intent on finding errors in each other's speech. ‘The wise man leaves the prattlers to their prattle, and goes about his busi- ness, secure in his understanding of the beauty which lies at the heart of each word-fact. If this be not beauty, then there is no beauty, for the physical glory of living things is but a mere sheen, which every man that ever lived knew was put on in a short time and shuffled off even quicker, The beauty without which nothing is really finished is the highest and best that mankind has ever achieved and dreamed. In this light an individual life may be said to be incomplete, and this is why mankind has felt the long- ing and need for a future life in order that beauty may prevail. Tolerance is the nearest that most human be can come to being actu- ally beautiful. Seldom is beauty con- sidered in terms of tolerance, but in relation to the higher things of life of which the best men and women dream there is no other-measure. = Only by attempting to understand what others lack, in the way of beauty, truth, light, and giving them credit for such approaches as they may have made to them, is it at all possible for the average human being to clothe himself with these qualities himself. =W ‘The person whose life ends in failure or worse cannot be denied, in all hu- manity, some portion of that eternal loveliness which bedecks the lily of the field. They are both striving toward something strange and forelgn to us, but which we somehow recognize as belonging to us, sometime if not now. Nothing is really finished until it is beautiful: we may say that the life is not finished, although it seems to have ended, for something more is required, beauty, which is akin to eternity. This is the hope and faith of mankind. On this are built the religions of the world. If at any time in the history of man- kind religion arose out of the desire of crafty men to dominate their fellows, as some declare, it long since has thrown over those beginnings and has for many years devoted its better part to pointing mankind steadily toward the beauty which lies equally in a rose leaf, a baby’s smile and a lofty mountain peak. War Veteran Praises the Service of Chaplains To the Editor of The Star: In The Star the other evening an article headed “Rap at Chaplains Arouses Ministers” caused me to think | back 12 years, when my outfit, the 117th Infantry, entered the front line near Ypres, Belgium. Those were the days, when every min- ute we looked forward to a concentrated push by the Germans that would take Calais from the British and leave the allies in & bad situation in the north. It was d\lrln( these days that the “Army chaplain” first made his strong- est impression on me. It happened that the chaplain attached to our bat- talion was a Catholic priest back home, but “over there” he was just a “little fellow” with a big heart, who, under the most adverse and trying cir- cumstances, desired to administer the Christian faith and do any act of good that presented itself. I never shall forget our first Sunday at the front. We were in reserve posi- tion, ready to move forward at any moment. Our chaplain was holding services in a -dilapidated old stable that had only too recently been deserted by the live stock. On this day, men of every creed stood and listened to a talk, delivered from the heart of a little man, which brought and a continued faith in the hereafter. This “little fellow” did not cease to spread good after Sunday was ended. ‘When we moved up, he moved up with us. He was a frlend and a “buddy.” Our first killed were given Christian burial, and a record kept of the loca- tion of their graves. Later I remem- ber seeing him administering to a lad of my own platoon, who was glsping% out his last breath and talking of mother and home. His eyes at that time were a bit moist, as were my own, but I know that the kid “went west with a better feeling by having the “little fellow” with him to the last. These deeds were not isolated occur- rences, but daily affairs. Dr. Ainslie states that “there is no more justification for being a chaplain in the Army or Navy than there is for being a chaplain in a speakeasy.” ‘These are bitter words, and difficult to swallow. I wonder if Dr. Ainslie speaks knowingly? My opinion is that he does not. A few months ago I was a patient in the Walter Reed General Hospital— there I came in contact with the peace- time chaplain, Chaplain Oliver. That esteemed gentleman works at his busi- ness 365 days a year spreading the Gos- pel and good fellowship among sick veterans and men and officers of the peace-time Army. It might do some of the fellows on the outside some good to meet and talk with Chaplain Oliver. In the world where the mystery of life eventuates always in the play of good and evil, beauty against ugliness, this steady pointing toward the best we know is essential if anything may be called essential. If beauty and good- ness, as abstractions, were all we had, religion would not be necessary. But life, queer manifestation, has somehow found it necessary to give every beauty an ugliness as a foll, every goodness an evil to offset it. And, worst of all, this same queer fellow Life has seen fit to make evil, to some extent, fasci- nating and to permit the human intel- ligence to find many and great argu- ments to extenuate it. Hence, religion, the relation of God and man, stands as the anchor to windward against the billows of passion, the rocks of ugli- ness, the winds of evil. Despite the storms of life, the sun of hope rises every morning, but it wn again in the evening as if it knew that noth- ing is really finished until it is beau- tiful, that it is not quite beautiful enough, that it must try it again by coming up tomorrow morning. Noth- ing is really finished here. WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. It is nmow certain that the Senate)ish on May 20, finds two dyed-in-the- t against the confirmation of Judge ?g},’,, J. Parker of North Carolina for the Supreme Court'will be as hot as the onslaught against Chief Justice Hughes. Mr. Hughes' foes, with far less am- munition than Mr. Parker’s antagonists possess, mobilized 26 votes against the New Yorker. 1Vith the labor and racial issues aggravating the North Carolinian’s case, and the opposition against him fomented by two important national or- ganizations—the American Federation of Labor and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People —Parker is decidedly in more precarious position than Hughes was. e purely political twist is more directly involved, too. In & whole tier of Northern States, the Negro vote has come to be a con- siderable factor. Senators up for re- nomination or re-election this year in such communities must watch their steps. They are expected to do so when they have to go on record for or against Judge Parker's confirmatign. * k% % One of the visiting Daughters re- marked during the week's strenuous festivities that members of the D. A.R. must have marvelous constitutions, to be able to weather the six days and nights of congress activities annually imposed upon them. Quoth another fair descendant of the fighting fathers: “Sure, they have! That's why they call their new bullding ‘Constitution Hall.'” * x X x Policemen on duty adjacent to Capitol Hill have just discovered a new dodge for bootlegging of parking space. A couple of men de ted their car one day this week at a forbidden spot near the House Office Bullding. ‘“Hey, hey!” remonstrated a vigilant “What's the big idea one of the twain spoke up and said: “Oh, we won't be here long. We've got an important appointment with Speaker Longworth, and can't keep him waiting.” ‘The cop reminded him that Nick’s office was in the Capitol, several blocks away, and that the parking alibi, therefore, wasn't so . The policeman proved hard-boiled, and the couple, its bluff called, reluctantly resumed its cruise for a niche on the curb. * ok ok % Four Senators in succession—Johnson, Pittman, Goldsborough and Bingham— have declined to serve on the campaign funds investigating committee. Their coyness has inspired a waggish col- league to paraphrase “Three Little Maids From School” and burst forth in ti up-to-date version of that famous ditty from “The Mikado”: Four Senators, who all unwary May some day face a primary, Now, you see, are very chary. Four Senators are we. From four Senators take one away. Three Senators remain, and they Won't have to wait very long, they say. Four Senators are we. i How long will it be before Nationalist India crashes the congressional gate at ‘Washington and seeks to commit the Congress of the United States to its in- dependence aspirations? Ireland and t before her courted the favor of Capitol Hill. So did the Jewish National Home in Palestine. The All-India Na-| g tionalist Congress, spearhead of the Gandhi movement, has an American branch. Its president is Mr. Sailen- dranath Ghose, who is now actively en- gaged in propaganda activities in this country. He is talking “independent India” in terms of the American Revo- lution. *“No longer shall my people suf- fer British oppression,” said Mr. Ghose in a recent speech at New York. “Al- ready Britain is sending her mercenary soldlers to cow them down, as they sent hired Hessians and drunken savages to subdue the American colonies in 1776.” * ¥ ¥ % Probably never in the long fight be- tween fi‘thl and labor in America has svlvania Renublican senatorial nomina - | busts scattered over this isle of mystery wool representatives of their respective elements pitted against each other. Grundy is the nvln&tnclrmuon of big business. Davis is the breathing exem- plification of the working class—though the Secretary of Labor long since passed from the horny-handed wage-earning group into the higher brackets of the income tax list. Pennsylvania Repub- licans, at any rate, have an ideal oppor- tunity to make a choice between an in- dustrial plutocrat and a tin worker still known as "Jlm'the Puddler.” * ¥ x Ransford S. Miller, one of the vet- erans of the American foreign service and now United States consul general at Seoul, Korea, since 1919, is on leave in Washington with Mrs. Miller. They have been stationed in the Far East since 1895, when Mr. Miller became sec- retary of the Japanese Young Men's Christian Association. He speaks Japa- nese like a native of Nippon, and for years was the vernacular language sec- retary-interpreter at our embassy in Toklo. The consul general's daughter, Lillian May, is an accomplished artist wood-block color printing, and is now in the midst of an American lecture tour, explaining -and exhibiting the fa- mous Japanese ;eproducuve art. * % % The United States National Museum in Washington is taking more than passing interest in the forthcoming ex- pedition to Easter Island, in the South Pacific, by a group of 20 University of Pennsylvania seientists. Easter Island, a mysterious triangular pinpoint of vol- canic land more than 2,000 miles off the Chilean coast, got its name because of its discovery on Easter Sunday, 1722. One of the hundreds of colossal stone was brought to this country by the United States Navy many years ago and is now in the National Museum. Dr. Walter Hough, one of the museum’s anthropologists, likes to tell visitors that the sailors transported the huge, gro- tesque and solemn-visaged figure under protest that U. 8. 8. Mohican wasn't “a freight boat.” Paymaster William J. Thomson, U. 8. N., visited Easter Island in 1888 and deciphered some of the hieroglyphics on its ancient ruins for the Smithsonian Institution. (Copyright, 1930.) Newspaper Man Made President of College From the New York Times. It cannot often have happened that a newspaper man has been made presi- dent of a university. Recently it was announced that after the troubles at the University of Missouri, leading to the retirement of Dr. Brooks, the dean of the School of . Journalism, Walter Williams, was made acting president, with the promise that he would re- ceive the permanent appointment later. This is an event worth notice as re- spects both the press and higher edu- cation. Mr. Willlams was for a long time a practical newspaper man, having been editor and part owner of several publications in Missouri. He is per- fectly familiar with all of the usiness. In 1908 he became nected with the university at Columbia, and has since had the widest ble contacts with the press and with press assoclations in all parts of the world. At many foreign congresses of journal- ists he has been the chosen representa- tive of American newspaperdom. Certainly the career of such a nfan, with, such antecedents, at the head of a great university, will be followed with peculiar interest. From the very be- ginning it is evident that he enjoys, as he enters upon his new dutles, what In closing would state that I am not a chaplain and not overly religious, but I like a square deal and that is what prompted this letter. V. WILSON, w. Ex First Lieut. 117th Infantry. —_— e Cherry Blossoms In Washington From the New York World. As a rule, the real weakness in the position of the town booster is that he has nothing to boost. He regards it as his civic duty to proclaim that his town is the best in the United States; but when you press him for proof of this, he usually has none, or if he has, it turns out to be some foolish reason. Furthermore, he has usually done noth- ing to supply the lack. The town may actually be an appalling place; ugly, dirty, churlish in its treatment of stran- gers, utterly uninteresting. But it rarely occurs to the booster to do any- thing about this, his belief, apparently, being that if he only boosts enough, everything eventually will come to him. As an object lesson in what even the simplest attraction can do for a town, it seems to us that he ought to ponder what happened in Washington, last Sunday. There, countless Japanese cherry trees are now in blossom. And to look at them came automobile par- ties to an estimated number of 75,000, causing “what police officials called the greatest congestion in the history of ‘Washington for the season.” This, too, in spite of a rainstorm. And not only did automobile parties come, but other parties as well. Ten excursion trains carried them to the city, and “other trains were forced to attach extra cars to take care of the passenger traffic.” And this whole throng came merely to look at cherry blossoms, flowers that cost nothing, save the pay of a few gardeners to keep them pruned: that toil not, neither do they spin; that lie far outside the ordinary booster’s thinking, and have nothing to commend them save that they are beautiful. Why can't our American towns learn this simple point? That they will thrive best by becoming charming, pleasant, worth visiting, worth living in? It is, of course, by no means as easy as it sounds, but it certainly is worth striv- ing for. o Steamboat Invention Controversy Renewed From the Seattle Daily Times. Although 30 years have passed since the electors of the Hall of Fame gave a place to Robert FPulton among America’s famous men and women, a movement has been started to remove his name or to give equal rank to Lieut. John Fitch, gunsmith in the Colonial Army, as the inventor of the steamboat. ‘The campaign to perpetuate the name of Fitch is sponsored by the Fitch Fam- ily Association of America. That or- ganization contends that Lieut. Fitch used steam to propel a boat more than 20 years before Fulton proved the ef- fectiveness of the Clermont on the Hud- son River. It is well known that Pitch made a successful trial of a small steamboat in the Delaware River at Philadelphia in 1785. However, nothing came of the invention. His supporters fell away, and various misfortunes befell the in- ventor. In 1793 he went to France to construct a steamboat, but his plans were frustrated by the revolution. Dis- couraged by his bad luck, he later took his own life. ‘The trial of Fulton’s Clermont in 1807 was followed by practical achievements. ‘The use of the steamboat as a convey- ance for passengers and freight spread rapidly. If Pulton did not invent the steamboat, it cannot be denied that he proved its efficiency. The controversy over the honor of inventing the steamboat recalls that over the discovery of ether as an anes- thetic. The records show that Dr. Crawford W. Long used ether in a sur- The achievement was not reported in a public way. In 1846 Dr. W. T. G. Morton used ether in an operation per- formed in a Boston hospital. The re- sults were given to the world, and Dr. Morton now has a niche in the Hall of Fame as the discoverer of the well known anesthetic. The controversy over credit for the discovery of anes- thesia is similar in most cts to that over the honor of inventing the steamboat. ‘What Does Carnera Like? From the Dayton Daily News. Now that we've found out that Rudy Vallee likes corn beef and cabbage we expect to hear that Jack Dempsey is training on cream puffs. Must Learn New Yell. From the Indianapolis Star. Knox and Lombard Colleges have voted to consolidate, which means that ® lot of students will have to learn a French premiers are accustomed to call “a good press.” Demonstration of Filial Love. Prom the Savannah Morning News. That father who span| his son with a £2.000 violin certainly loved his tlon duel, which will be fought to & fin- | boy. * ’ new college yell. — ettt Rare Zeal for Work. Prom the San Antonio Express. An Oklahoma youth who stole chickens to buy overalls has been pa: rare zcal for work clothes docs deserve consideration. gical operation at Athens, Ga., in 1842. Many readers send in questions, signed only with initials, asking that the answers appear in the newspaper. The space is limited and would not accom- modate a fraction of such requests. The answers published are ones that may interest many readers rather than the one who asks the question only. All questions should be accompanied by the writer's name and address and 2 cents in coin or stamps for reply. Send your question to The Evening Star In- formation Bureau, Prederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Q. What causes most of the business failures?—E. A. Bradstreet's lists these reasons as the causes of failures in 1929: Incom- petence. 6,191: inexperience, 974; lack of capital, 7,325; unwise credits, 412; failures of others, 295; extravagance, 98; neglect, 172; competition, 763; specific conditions, 3,073; speculation, 68; fraud, 332. Total, 19,703. Q. Why is_there no provision for another Vice President when the office becomes vacant through death of the Vice President or because the Vice President becomes President?>—E. W. A. The Constitution does not pro- vide for the filling of the office. The duties, however, are cared for by the President pro tem of the Senate and the succession to the presidency is arrangsd for. Q. When did grapefruit first appear g_l t;}e ?nrkeu in the United States?— A. It was about 1898. It was at least 10 years before it became popular. Q. Why didn't the eclipse of the sun in 1925 occur at the time it was ex- pected?—L. S. A. At the total eclipse of the sun in 1825 the moon was one second of arc behind her predicted place, causing the eclipse to be five seconds late, Q. Where is the largest drug store in the world>—G. T. A. The largest is probably the one in 1 Geneva, Switzerland, which employs more than 400 people, has 700,000 cus- tomers from all parts of Europe and does an annual business of more than $1,000,000. ¥ Q. Who composed “Listen to the Mocking Bird"?>—B. R. C. A. The tune was composed by Rich- ard Milburn. The story is that Sep- timus Wenner induced Milburn to | Whistle this piece while Wenner wrote it down. The song was afterward pub- lished by Mr. Wenner in Philadelphia in 1855. It is interesting to know that | the 1855 edition of the song reads, “Listen to the Mocking Bird; Music written by Richard Milburn, Words by Alice Hawthorne.” Alice Hawthorne was one of the pseudonyms used by Mr. Wenner., Q. What did Diesel contribute to gwA lgurnal combustion engine?— A. During the last decade of the nineteenth century Dr. Rudolf Diesel of Leipzig brought out an internal com- bustion engine which involved in its operation a principle that had never before been applied in chanics. Dr. Diesel understood the value of high compression and conceived the idea of mixing the fuel and air at the very moment when power is needed for the working stroke. He came to ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. compressed air at the time. He enlisted the aid of man turers and after some experimentation brought out the most economical heat engine that had ever been produced. Q. How is a surf board made?— C. L O A. A surf board should be 6 feet long, 30 inches wide and 1 inch thick. 1t should be made of & light wood like white pine, white cedar or spruce. A rope for steering should be placed on the side about 18 inches from the front. Q@ Is there any way of preventing insects in window boxes?—R. N. A. Whitewashing the inside of boxes before filling them in the Spring will help to keep out insects and prevent rotting of the boxes. Q. Why was the system used to help slaves to freedom caged the Under- ground Railway?—M. Y. A. The name arose from ‘the exag- gerated use of railway terms in refer- ence to the conduct of the system. Levi Coffin and Robert Purvis were the presi- dents of the road. Various routes were known as lines, stopping places were called stations, those who aided the system were called conductors, and the ves were referred to as packages or freight. The system reached from Ken- tucky and Virginia across Ohio, and from Maryland across Pennsylvania and New York or New England. Q Into how many languages has “The Pilgrim’'s Progress” been trans- lated?—M. D. A. John Bunyan's popular allegory has been translated into 75 languages and dialects. W. Who invented the shell?—I. R. A. The streamline projectile was de- veloped and first perfected by an Eng- lishman, Sir Joseph Whitworth, in 1866. The French have used the streamline projectile since 1893. It was used by this country during the World War. Q. What portion of the immigrents who come to this country live in the cities?—J. C. A. It is estimated that nearly 60 per cent of the immigrants live at least ?‘Tgrlrfly in the citles of the United streamline Q. What s the area of the Canal Zone?—sS. B. A. The Canal Zone embraces 549 square miles. st ater or Sarlier than Beople of b or ear! to- .. peoples were busy much ear- lier in the day than we lre.y Q. What is the record for attendance at the Magnolia Gardens in Charles- o About. 35,000 3 it 35,000 people go there each séason, and the record for one day was established in 1929, when there were admissions. Q. What is the difference between a mutual insurance company and a re- ciprocal insurance company?—J. M. H. A. A mutual insurance company is an organization owned and controlled by its policyholders. ~All profits ‘are shared among its owners, who are and can only be- policyholders. A reci - ance company is an organization work- 21; i n&g At!arn!y-mh-.(ut. to iven to N i otmmm ; power dle al the conclusion tiat cheap, low-grade oils could be uml‘ud as (‘l‘ul it intro- duced into a highly heated charge of Q. What is the Tocal name for Copen- hagen?—S. J. H. 7 o A. Kobenhavn. Future policies in dealing with the railroads are earnestly debated, as a re- sult of the recent statement by Joseph B. Eastman of the Interstate Commission that there is danger of loss of public control over these properties, through the development of holding companies. Coupled with this is the introduction into Congress by Senator and Representative Knutson of legislation to tpone projected con- solidations until such time as Congress has been able to act on this situation, Xaggeral e " says the Louisville Courier-Journal, "when’l:e de- scribes as ‘dangerous’ the threatened loss of control over railroad consolida- tions through the purchase of stocks by holding companies. Obviously it is pos- sible for such a corporation, over which Lhed Wn“x'rlnulalon a;l%u exert no ltl;aflflty under the law, y up, control and manipulate carriers which are com- petitors, and thus effectually defy the g.?xgn'l’nmvs efforts to regulate their * kK ok Considering that enactment of Sen- ator Couzens' resolution might end the commission’s work on consolidation, the Harrisburg Telegraph expresses the view that “Congress, and not a body of such limited membership and only indirectly responsible to the public for its actions, should decide such a vital subject as consolidation, affecting the prosperity of whole communities and the employment of thousands of men.” The Little Rock Arkansas Democrat points out that the transportation act of 1920 “gives the commission jurisdiction only over the actual physical merger of the railroads,” and that, “in stopping at that point in empowering the commission to protect the public’s interest, forgot, or ignored, the tremendous possibilities in stock control.” That paper concludes that “monopoly is not necessarily dan- gerous, but there never is a time when it doesn’t need close waf i “The scheme of railroad consolida- tion," according to the Baltimore Sun, “‘was evolved to assure beter service and greater economy in tion by creation of rail systems as nearly equal as practicable in mileage, financial re- sources and revenues. As the situation now stands in Eastern territory, the Pennsylvania and the Van Sweringens, if they can retain their grip upon car- riers in which they have bought control fl:g subshn:;l’ll holdings through hold- companies, will have de: wml“jon & ‘e defeated the =] c skepticism over the necessif for any general merging of the nflmg at this time” is seen by the St. Paul Plon lares further: ‘What Mr. foresees is the uni- fication of railroad ownership in hold- ing companies that cut across the mergers as arranged by the Interstate Commerce Commission. It will do the the appearance of competition amq railroads which, thraupzeh compu?l': holding stock in the various lines, are owned by the same men. Mr. Eastman is asking legislation which will give the mmmllon a b:lflner ct;:‘gt.rol over the ership as well as operati the railroads.” sl * ok k% is true that steps which wi beulenluhkenbynurudatheu\m“d- selves—steps which in such cireum- stances the commission could enjoin— Wew_ an air of legality when taken by holding companies not now to Federal authority,” Chi- cago Daily News, while the Providence Journal holds that “the fact that a consolidation movement is being fos- rce Com- mm:ion authority over the holding com- panies.” “While stock assembled in the posses- sion of the holding companies is tially a menace to control of consolidations,” sg:lm‘fleld Republican, which have used these expedients had better be given the ben unless an actual sf no It commission very little good to preserve | o, Railroad Holding Companies As Posi_il{l_e Danger Debated compel ‘the abandonment of any - tice by which other lines were ]b'e‘l;‘ Injured or routes and rates upset. The commission should assume that it has the power to control consolidations and act with determination if unsanctioned steps are taken. The commission might also better assume that its con- tion plan, as umhlkhzdly m‘xne De- unt formall red by due Dl’m.".b: l:w of the land.” * to come in under the cover of the laws relating to oper- ators; if it has come into being to pull wires which the operators cannot pull without official sanction, these wires must be cut by legislation. Otherwise the wi system of governmental reg- be in a fair way to break Spol records that “it is considered sign! that the v;l:rose of the resolution has the appro of a group within the Interstate Commerce Commission.” Conceding that “the problem will be complicated by the status of the hold- ing company charter,” . But the obvious diffi- culties should not deter Congress from turning the full light on this problem of the holding company, which is re- lllednotbngtolhenflmlds,bu! also to general public utilities.” m’lt“hel C:fl\mlblu Ohio State Journal, cal these proceedings, argues: “The Government has sought to have railway consolidations pushed ahead. With much expensive work in that line under way, it is a poor time to change the rules, unless there can be produced a very convincing reason for the changes.” The Port Huron Times-Herald, taking this same position, adds that “it is difficult to see where any ‘investigation’ t'h‘?n help the situation or clarify any- Zeppelin Stamps Held for Collectors From the Lynchburg Daily Advance. ‘The Post Office Department will issue this month three so-called Zeppelin air- mail stamps as a sort of tribute to the air achievements of Dr. Hugo Eckener, commander of the Graf Zeppelin. The lombe archives are to be used on mail mail to be car- ried from the United States to Europe on the return trip to Friedrichshafen. ‘The Post Office — e Law Forbids Drinking Ginger. From the Charlotte News. ‘They have passed drinking Jamaica law against 'tn it were dope, the commission would probably find that it had power to! which will probably mean a violent in- crease in the addicts,