Evening Star Newspaper, August 10, 1930, Page 26

Threadneedle Street Boss Continued From First Page.) in the strong rooms—thanks to the re- fusal of the politiclans to protect the domestic steel market from low-cost European competition. Banks Left in Lurch. But he collapsed, and the banks were Jeft with their paper. A few weeks ago Norman partially liquidated the Hatry adventure. He merged five of the lead- ing iron and steel firms—all in the hands of the banks—into two huge new combines, one steel company and one coal company. The bank controls these combines through the power of the governor to appoint the directors. It also obtains a majority voting control by & holding of a mere $3,500,000 of B ordinary shares. These shares control the steel company, which in turn con- trols the coal company. A neat job. The money for the B shares was put up by the Securities Management Trust. Note the name; it will recur often here- after in the history of British industry and finance. Montagu Norman formed this trust a little time back to look after the industrial side of tne bank over which he presides—a break with tradition which caused much comment and will cause more. 5 For the bank is not normally “in British or any other industry. It is the repository of the national revenue and the hub around which all the com- mercial enterprise of the country re- volves. Ultimately any big demand on an English bank has to be met by the Bank of England. And as the gov- ernor and his court of directors (emi- nent business men with large interests of their own to keep them busy) have to set the money rate which holds truly the balance between the various con- flicting phases of finance and com- merce, keeping the whole delicate fabric of commercial and financial life in proper equilibrium, and as the banking interests and the industrial interests are continually at issue on the tech- nical subject of cheap or dear money and scarce or plentiful credit, it is clear that the more the great central bank which controls the rate keeps out of direct participation in industry and sommerce the better. ‘Where Traditional Notice Ends. ‘But there are times when a common nterest and a dangerous crisis demands & departure from traditional practice and even from “safety-first” principles; and this is one of those times in hard- England. yr?:edmu is worried about coal and 4t is worried about cotton: and pretty soon one of Montagu Norman’s con- venient new financial instruments, which function for the bank but under another title and as formally separate financial entities, may be called in to deal with one or the other or both. One-tenth of the entire island popu- lation is dependent directly or indirect- 1y upon the coal industry. Lancashire, the most virile and populous county in England, the hub of the industrial north, is dependent upon cotton. These two great industrries are not merely de- pressed—they are on the verge of bank- ruptcy. For political reasons the gov- ernment wants to restore them to a profit-making basis, so that they can absorb labor and pay wages. For financial Teasons the banks want to get them back to a profit-earning basis. They happen to be loaded up with their . 2y other like problems rplex British politici , baffle the | ndustrial leaders cnd make the finan- cial barons feel a perceptible shake at the knees. They have combined to bring Norman and the central bank | over which he presides out of the realm of detached finance and up to its waist in the rationalization movement. The fact is intriguing and signficant because, apart from the personal aspect of Montagu Norman, the direct participa- tion of the bank in industrial reorgan- ization of the largest scale is something new in the British financial and indus- trial history. Educated as British Gentleman. Norman is & Londoner, a year off 60. He had a conventional English gentle man’s education at Eton and Cam- bridge, but escaped the cut-to-type in- fluences of both public school and uni- versity. He was destined obviously for finance. He did not have to cut his own channels here. He entered upon old. well made ones. His father was a financier: his grand- | father, George Worde Norman, was & director of the Bank of England for half a century, while Sir Mark Coilet, governor of the bank for two years in | the latter part of last century, was his | uncle. After his college career Young Nor- man was found a place the old banking firm of Brown, Shipley & Co., which had a considerable business with America. He learned his job there and made his first American contracts. But the Bank of England was his ulti- mate ambition: and, with his family connections with the bank, it was not very difficult for him to pass on there., He was made a director of the bank in 1907, and in 1916 he gave up his partnership with Brown, Shipley. He might have made that grade earlier, but he had broken his banking career to join in the war in South Africa. He served in a cavalry regl- casions he has gone to America without England being aware of it until news of his presence broke in the American press. In 1921, when America did not know him so well, he managed to get across on a most important official mission connected with the prelimi- naries to the debts funding negotiations (in which he participated with Stanley Baldwin) and confer with the leading American bankers for some weeks with- out any newspaper man on either side of the Atlantic becoming aware of his Journey or of what was afoot. One of the newspapers published news of his return from a recent trip tc Paris with Plerpont Morgan thus: “The governar of the Bank of England was back at his desk this marning. Despite & careful watch he was not seen to enter the bank, but it is sur- mised that he gained access disguised as a Bank of England note.” In the course of the last decade he has acquired a cosmopolitan reputation. No previous governor has traveled so widely and so frequently, or has been known so well to the great bankers of the world’s capitals. The explanation | is that his mind and character are in tune with the needs of the time; the hour has found the man. Consulted by All Nations. He recognizes the universality of finance, the new interdependence created by war and post-war conditions, the necessity for bringing stability and financial health again to stricken Europe, and the necessity for taking risks to achieve the great task of re- habilitation. Practically every nation in Europe has consulted him. He has | helped many. He was the chief figure | behind the reconstruction of Austria is.nd Hungary, the Greek loan, the Genoa finance conference of 1922, which recognized a shortage of gold in view of the ever-expanding require- ments of world commerce and recom- mended economizing by co-operation between the central banks of the world to insure the smooth working of the gold standard, He was elected governor by the court of directors of the bank in 1919. The term is for two years, but in the past if the governor impressed the court most unusually and times were a trifie abnormal it has been known for the governor to be re-elected for a further year of office. This extension has | always been regarded as a special com- pliment. England thought Montagu | Norman must be an exceptionally good governor when in 1921 the court met and continued him in office until April, 1923. When he got re-elected then for another year England thought either that something must be wrong or that the bank had at last found the manager of its dreams. It is now 1930, and Norman is still Governor. The business of re-election seems to have become automatic. He has broken all records and established & new tradition, and there seems to be no reason why he should not go on being re-clected until he begins to feel tired and in the mood for retiring and devoting his leisure to his garden and his books. Noted for a Tumultuous Career. A fair setting for this romantic and enigmatic personality is the bank over which he presides. It has had a pic- turesque and in spots a tumultuous past. So long as the Stuarts ruled!| England the people would not risk their money in a national bank. But when William of Orange came to take over| the throne at the end of the seven- teenth century Charles Montagu, a cele- brated chancellor of the exchequer, got a bill embodying the constitution of a national bank (founded on the prin- ciples of the Amsterdam Bank) through Parliament, and a city merchant who stood close to him, one Michael God- frey, raised a capital of $7,500,000 among his business assoclates. The condition on which King William got this $7,500,000 was the grant to the merchant group of a charter for a bank in which many people could hold a share, but could be responsible only for the amount of the share they held. So the bank came into being, and the loan to the King was secured by duties on beer and ale, then, as now, about the soundest and biggest revenue producer in the island. ‘The old one-story building (now be- ing replaced by a new building which preserves the essential lines and char- acter of the old one) was attacked by| a mob at the height of the Gordon| riots of the early eighteenth century. The clerks manned the windows and fired on the rioters, using bullets made by melting the lead inkpots from the desks. They laid out 250 of the at- tackers and the rest fled. Comes to Rescue of U. 8. Banks. It rushed to the rescue of certain of the American banks in the crisis of N England I talked with some celebrated economists who were very gloomy. They sald the fundamental trouble with the world goes deeper than war or unemployment. It is the shortage of gold. Gold is the measure of all values. When the gold dollars are few each dollar buys more wheat and copper and cotton and labor. So the price of all these commodities goes down, ruining the producers in the process. If the shortage be- comes much more acute, so land held Childs’ receipts in the amount of $3,000,000, that they were going to be presented at noon mnext day, that Childs’ had not the gold to meet them, and that if they could not produce it in eight hours they would be_ruined. The redoubtable duchess immedi- ately sat down and wrote out a check on the Bank of England for $3,500,000. At noon the agent of the bank ap- | peared in Childs’, planked a pile of | receipts on the counter and suggested | immediate payment. At the same | time Childs' agent was presenting the duchess' check at the bank. By the | time the latter arrived with the cash, | the clerks at Childs' were going | through the receipts with deliberate leisureliness. It had taken them half | an hour to check through the first hundred. It took them only 10 minutes to scrutinize the remaining 173. Then they paid out the bank’s emissary in the bank’s own coin. ‘That night the governor and court | of directors of ‘the Bank of England did not stand themselves a drink. 0Old Swedish Bath Custom Disappears | | With something approaching dismay, | the visitor returning to Stockholm after a year’s absence bent on indulging in a good old-fashioned Swedish bath with all of the frills—which must include | first and foremost a stout Swedish bath lady to'scrub one's back—discovers that the “baderskor” are rapidly falling into the same class as dinosaurs. Every Stockholm hotelkeeper seems to have | joined the movement to equip the city with modern bathtubs, and most of the bath ladies have been forced into retire- ment. It is still possible to be scrubbed by a lady at one of the large public | baths, but foreign hotel guests no longer | experience the shock of being awakened | by a husky Svenska early in the morn- ing with a summons to the hotel's one | and only tub. This is one of the prices | which Sweden has pald for its new fad —"functionalism. Coffee Puts Chinese General to Sleep | | 1837, and when three chief houses sus- pended payment it lent the Americans| a further $30,000,000 to avert big fail- | | ures which would have had disastrous results in England. | Crooks have tried to get at the bank, | and the shadows of the gallows hung| darkly over the financial fortress for a | | long period. The first man who tried! to forge one of its banknotes was exe- | cuted in 1785. The forging fraternity iure not deterred. In the one year of 1820, 30 forgers were hanged for at- ment, won the D. S. O. (Tommy Atkins | tempts against the bank. in those days translated it as Dukes’ Sons Only), and ended up as a cap- tain. His appearance belies all popular pre- conceptions of a man who, through long experience with commercial men and financial affairs, has risen to the chieftainship of a nation’s finance. One would expect such a man to be suspicious, calculating, granite-hard, cold—not necessarily because he had been born that way but because lis financial training and experience had obliged him to develop these traits. Montagu Norman is entircly without them. His Faclal Characleristics. His face is sensitve and refined and | his manner is gentle. He has almost a dreamy look. But there is nothing of | He | the dreamer in his conversation. talks easily and without emphasis, but the strength of the mind behind the words gives each the precision and hardness of & bronze casting. 1 he says 20 words you remember 20 words, not 10. He is resolute, courageous, cheerful, even gay. There is a spirit of gayety even in his contests—and he had plenty of contests. Most of Engiand’s great financiers live the part, with enormous residences in the most exclusive part of Mayfair, big estates in the country, maybe a| grouse moor in Scotland, often a steam yacht. Norman possesses none of these things. He lives a secluded life in a modest house on Campden Hill, on the unfashionable edge of London. He reads and tends his garden. He likes music. He has a few other interests. His one extravagance is his library. He likes his books to please his eye, and wants his farvorites finely bound and printed on handmade paper. Kipling is his favorite author. But he reads everything. His objection to publicity amounts to an obsession. His secretiveness is one of England's standing jokes and a theme for news stories that never end. He has never been interviewed; he has never made a public speech or a pub- lic appearance. At city and bankers’ dinners and functions, which the Prince of Wales or the Prime Minister or the Chancellor of the Exchequer at- tend, he sometimes turns up, but more often is represented by the deputy gov- ernor; and in any case he never orates. Known as Constant Traveler. His name never appears on passenger lists, although he is constantly on the transatiantic liners. So quietly and secretly does he slip about that he ften makes long trips and conducts fhe most important negotiations abroad at critical times without the clubs or . the city learning of his absence and tarting gossip which would quickly L] the dinner tables and the news- fi offices. On &t least & dozen oc- In the middle of last century came George Bidwell, with his brother Aus- tin and another from the United States to try to crack the crib in Thread- needle street. They had a plan for re- | ducing the bank’s gold stocks by $5,000,- 000 by means of forged bonds. They had made quite a pile when one of the forgers slipped and was detected. The gang scattered. De- tectives grabbed George Bidwell as he was posting a letter in Edinburgh. Aus- tin was hard to find. He married a girl in the great salon of the Ameri- can embassy in Paris, posing as a young man of means, ‘They honey- | mooned in Spain and the West Indies, and finally set up house in one of the pretty villas on the slopes above Havana. ‘They were happy and en- tertained largely. One night, in_the midst of a gay party, the door flew open and a posse | burst’ in and seized the young man; He was Austin. The bank had tracked | him half around the world. He got a life sentence. The bank one way and another has gathered so formidable a reputation for | hanging on to its man and getting him | that nowadays criminals fight shy of trying conclusions with the Old Lady of Threadneedle street. Institution Once Outwitted. Only once in its long life has the bank been outwitted. It was in the | time of George II, when it was the | practice of all banks to give a receipt |in payment for all deposits, the re- | ceipts being passed from hand to hand | and serving the same purpose as a check does today. The bank’s notes at that time were at a discount of 10 per cent. The managers of the bank were worrled by the competition of Childs' Bank, & pri- vate institution, which had the backing of the wealthiest part of the English aristocracy, and which looked as if it might presently grow bigger than thy Old Lady herself. So the Old Lady | rival. | The agents of the bank bought up all receipts bearing Childs’ signature and allowed the collection to accumu- late year after year. The scheme was to walt for a gold shortage, and then present the notes in a mass. Childs’ would not able to meet them and would be ruined. ‘The gold shortage came, the notes were produced and presented. It looked as if Childs’ would blow up. But an agent of Childs' rushed up to Blenheim Palace. There resided the famous Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough, the richest woman in England and a staunch supporter of Chilas'. ‘The duchess 'Mwmk:" d"l::;. ing gown, demanding ow W] ‘The travel-stained the VAs ut. Vaent viyiaied thas the Bank of g laid deep plans for the ruin of her| “Open the gates! The general is| sick and must have medicine!” Such | was the midnight alarm raised at the gates of an American mission in | Chengchow, Honan Province, well in the interior of China. Ever ready to do a good deed, the American opened | the gates and admitted the courier. He explained that the general was | grievously in need of medicine, but did | not know what the gener: iliness was. The general was in the yamen and could not get to sleep. Did he want the missionary to call upon him? He did not. It was not at all necessary. Just supply him with the medicine and that would be sufficient. After much wplavy of concern and sympathy the courior became specific. 'The general was {1l and the medicine he requested | was coffee. Liberal doses of this and he could get in his night's sleep and all | would be well in the morning. The cof- | fee was sent, the general slept and the missionary body regained its quiet. Publisher to Print Story Of Galileo’s Private Life Because Galileo's private life is al- most undocumented despite several existing manuscripts which are all of & scientific nature and show him merely a philosopher and astronomer, & na- tional edition of his works will be pub- lished by La Barbera, Florentine pub- lisher, under the patronage of the King of Italy and Mussolini. The first edi- tion of Galileo’s works was published in 1888 under the direction of Antonio Favara, whose entire life has been dedi- cated to research connected with the Italian philosopher. Many other manu- scripts have since been discovered and these will be included in the new na- tional edition. Attempts to recover Ga- lileo's daily letters to his daughter, Suora Mario Celeste, who was a nun, have not met with much success thus far, explained Signor L: Barbera in a recent lecture on the subject in Naples. Signor Favara discovered one of the lat- est manuscripts near Florence, where a butcher wrapped up a sausage in a paper which the customer luckily recog- nized as pertaining to Galileo. Hawaiian Harbors Are Expanded by U. S. Expansion of Hawalian harbors to meet the growing demands of Pacific commerce is a recognized policy of the| Federal Government, illustrated anew by recent action of the United States| Senate in voting $250.000 for Kahului harbor improvements. Kahului is the chief port of the Island | of Maui, about six hours’ steaming from Honolulu. Up to recent years it was chiefly a port for small interisland steamers and for the exportation of sugar by freighters, but more recently has been made a port of call for large ocean-going passenger liners on their way from Honolulu to Hilo, port of the Island of Hawaii. Might Get Through Shell. Prom the Janesville Dally Gasette. The; that the new Chicago lice he these wise men argued, it will overturn all wage scales and debt settlements, and result in economic chaos. As I know nothing about eco- nomics (and, between our- selves, I often wonder whether the economists know very much), this scared me. The next day I was talking with Ambassador Dwight W. Morrow, who was in London as one of the delegates to the Naval Conference. I told him what I had heard. Instead of replying directly, he took down from the man- telpiece a copy of the autobiog- raphy of Lord Comer, and turned to a passage which read something like this: “When I was a young man I proposed to keep a diary, but my wise old uncle advised against it. Instead of record- ing what had happened, he said, I could employ my time more profitably by writing down on a piece of paper what I felt sure was going to hap- pen. Then, he said, ‘Put those notes away, and a year or five years later get them out and read them over, and see how wrong you have been. This will teach you to be cautious.” (Copyright, 1930.) AMERICA IN LATIN ONE HUNDRED YEARS. INETEEN HUNDRED AND historical importance for Latin America. In June last the cen- tenary of the death of Gen. An- ica’s liberators, was observed by all over the Southern Hemisphere. On July 18 the Republic of Uruguay celebrated the first December will mark the first centenary of Simon Bolivar, the George Washing- ton of South America, who gave liberty American countries. And this month, this week, the Ecuadoreans celebrate the first centenary of the constitution August 14, 1830. This is a year of cen- tenaries for the Latin Americans. Like Uruguay, who just passed the smallest South American nations. Al- though her exact territorial extension cannot be very well determined until and Colombia are definitely settled, offi- clal United States figures credit the country with an area of approximately large as that of New Mexico in this country. About two million people live in thai territory, of which a great per- Spanish-Indian descent. And yet, strange to say, in Latin America the countries which are geo- make the greater social and political progress. Also, like Uruguay, Ecuador is, politically speaking, one of the most The last constitution approved in Ecuador, for instance, contains some political’ and social features only com- practice in Uruguay—"the political lab- oratory of the Americas”—and in the rest of the world to those being tried European States. Following the modern tendencies to- ward a more techaical and less political social ideals for the worn-out principles of unlimited democracy, the Ecua- dorean Senate was converted from a entity in which, for the first time in the continent, the various professional classes and the organizations which called to participate in directing na- tional affairs, A Instead of being made up of the by direct and popular vote in each province, the Ecuadorean Senate is now composed of members designated partly by various callings, as follows: One representative of the universities, one of school teachers, one of normal profes- academies and societies, two of farmers, two of commerce, one of industries, two of workingmen, two of the rural popula- forces. - ‘Today, not the “sovereign people,” but organized entities and professional Ecuador. In this way the control of national legislation has been shifted from the hand of politicians to those of Other outstanding social and political reforms make extremely interesting the present Ecuadorean constitution. Prop- utilities,” thus tending toward the sub- ordination of individual interests to those higher ones of a soclal character. privileges and the liberties of the “stronger sex,” with equal political and civil rights. Divorce laws are sanc- sense, provision being made for the con- sent divorce, simply upon petition of both parties and without formal pro- ‘These are only a few instances of the far-reaching steps Ecuadorean statesmen are taking in_the fleld of why Ecuador is held to be in such an advanced stage of political develop- ment. standing of the small and prosperous Latin republic that her first centenary will be observed this week with joyous the Magellan Straits, as well as in the United States, where the political ma- turity of the sister Latin republics is THIRTY is a year of unusual tonio Jose de Sucre, one of South Ameri- centenary of her independent life. Next and sovereignty to five of the ten South of Ecuador as an independent state, on hundred mark, Ecuador is one of the her boundary controversies with Peru 119,000 square miles. This is almost as centage s of Indian blood or mixed graphically smaller seem destined to advanced countries in the New World. parable in Latin America to those in out by some of the most progressive government, and substituting the new political institution into & technical constitute the national fabric were “representatives of the people” elected by the provincial councils and partly sors, one of the press, one of sclentific tion and one of the national armed groups choose the national Senators in technical and professional men. erty rights are recognized as “social Ecuadorean women are granted all the tioned in their most absolute and liberal ceedings or long, strenuous tris social legislation. They suffice to explain And it is because of this remarkable celebrations from the Rio Grande to being followed with the greatest in- | terest. Ecuador is now governed by a man of unusual energies and capacities, Dr. Isidro Ayora, a physician by profession, who was called to the government in 1926 by a military movement which sought to end in that country an old regime of political corruption and disorder. As a provisional chief executive, Dr. Ayora proved to have such a brilliant gift of statesmanship that in 1928 he was unanimously elected the “constitutional President” of Ecuador by a national convention assembled in Quito. ‘The Ecuadorean republic has since been through an interesting period of political as well as material develop- ment which finds her, at the close of her first 100 years, on a prosperous and most promising footing. Killing the Killers. iince the world bb.nn to be, the ner is hard-boiled, May! will know how o crack & 3sds. [ atest political problem of all ages has g:nwlrmmwwolmmun | energetically with with individual liberties. troy is nothing but & succession of at- tempts to check or to restrain that per- petual tendency toward absolutism, which has always and everywhere ex- isted under different names. Egyptian kings, Greek dictators, Ro- man emperors, monarchs of the Middle Ages, almighty sovereigns of the modern times, despots of the Revolution, “iron- handed” presidents of so-called dem- ocratic nations—no matter what their names—are but different expressions of that same, continuous trend toward autocracy, which has its prolongation in the present-day dictatorships and strong governments of Europe and Latin America. Two thousand years ago the great | philosophers of old Greece were al- ready looking for the solution of this prblem in which they thought'the hap- | piness of mankind was at stake. Some of them suggested that only the wisest men be allowed to rule and that all governments should be in the hands of intellectual rulers, who would not yield to the temptations of absolutism or des- Eotlam, Since then the ‘“philosopher- ing” has been the ideal of political philosophers everywhere. Unfortunately, philosophers are today further away from governments than ever, Usually they are in the opposi- tion. Buj even now they are still preaching loudly from the ground and fighting their old foe. From one of them, a South American philosopher, comes the latest blow against the reign of despotism. Franz_Tamyo, Bolivian author and philosopher, suggests the adoption of what he calls the “capital law” aimed to guarantee the people against the ad- vent of mnew dictatorial or despotic regimes in that part of the world. ‘The “capital law” consists in grant- ing the right of “tyrannicide” to every citizen of the state. Any man is en- titled to exercise this right and kill the tyrant in power, provided that the cap- ital law has been declared in force by the opposition leaders. This declara- tion is necessary and without it any violent act is & common and punishable crime. Once the recognized leaders of the various opposition parties have declared that the government is overstepping its powers and becoming despotic, the capital law comes in force, and all citi- zens are automatically authorized to disavow the government, oppose it, rebel against it. And every one is granted the legal privilege of eliminating the tyrant by violent means. Under the capital law, the assassination of the tyrant will not be considered a crime but an heroic act. Another clause of the project provides that a statue of the ‘‘herolc liberator” should be erected in the national parliament. In support of his idea, Senor Tamayo states that if parricide and treason are punished with the fullest penalty of the law, tyranny, “which embraces both,” should be repressed, if necessary, by the death of whomsoever exercises it. When democracy is endangered by the ex- cesses of the masses—he adds—the law has put in the hands of the authorities the instrument to save it; the state of siege (martial law, so much employed by the Latin American governmenis), but when democracy is endangered or dastroyed by the government itself, what Instrument has science or law put in the hands of the people to pro- tect democracy or to re-establish it? None so far, he answers, and he sub- mits his plan of a “capital law” which aims at suppressing despotism by the use of force and violence. That is, sup- pressing force by force. ‘The project has been received with wide attention in Latin American m- litical circles, although it decidedly be- longs more to the far-away world of Greek philosophers, who dreamed at Utopia, than to this realistic and very human world of ours. ‘Outdoor Diplomacy. Since I was a child I have been hearing people speak of the wonderful results of sporting activities in the pro- motion of good will among nations. Since I began to know the alphabet I have read of the tremendous benefits of sports in spreading mutual knowledge and bringing peoples closer, thus help- ing international friendship and human happiness. But also since I was a child I have been growing surer of precisely the contrary. In Buenos Alres, the huge capital of Argentina, I saw a crowd of many thousand people screaming wildly and shouting down their neighbors, the Uruguayans, after a foot ball game in which the Uruguayan team had won. In Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital, I saw Argentine players exchanging empty bottles and pitching stones most the spectators. In Chile I reported a boxing match in which the final bout between a Chil- jan and a foreign boxer was over- shadowed by additional exhibitions of the “self-defense art” between fellow citizens of the fighters. I also reported a South American foot ball champion- ship in Lima, Peru, and I still do not know whether it was & foot ball or a boxing tournament. Or a screaming contest, for you could hardly hear your- self whenever the Peruvian team was having the worst of it in any of the played against the visiting t & few months ago, a Central American track contest was on the verge of causing diplomatic complica- tions between two of the countries par- ticipating, because the athletes of one Human his- | What shrewd advice that is! All of us could profit by it. I know that if I had written down my own private forecast at the beginning of each year and filed it away it would have saved me from making a num- ber of costly mistakes. Also, the record would make rather encouraging reading. It would show that a consider- able amount of unanticipated good luck has come into my lite. And that many of the bad things which I had predicted for myself and the country have never actually happened. of them considered they had been un- fairly treated by the local public. Last week, a world champlonship soccer-foot_ball tournament was fin- ished in Montevideo. After a two- week series of eliminating games, in which teams from the United States, Italy, Spain, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Paraguay and other countries participated, Argentinians and Uru- guayans qualified for the final match. In this, the Uruguayan team defeated, by a small margin, the visiting group and thus won the world title. But the last goal had scarcely been reported in Buenos Aires when public demonstrations of protest against Uru- guayan partiality were being organized, and soon the principal avenues and central streets of the Argentine capital were filled with excited manifestants. Police forces controlled the situation, though not until after some hot-headed demonstrators had stoned the Uru- guayan legation and made sarcastic re- marks to their neighbors across the Rio de la Plata. And Tl still have to hear of sports | playing the role of diplomacy in our days! ’ (Copyright, 1930.) French Using Train For Peddling Fish ‘The French State Rallroad, aided by the government merchant marine de- partment, has a train traveling about France peddling fish; that is, it sells samples of its wares, but the main object is to sell the idea of fish food to the French countryside. The train consists of six or seven cars, sometimes more. In the first car is a museum of stuffed and painted fish such as usually are coaxed out of the sea by Breton fisher- men. This is to show the Prench house- wife the difference between a langouste and a merlan, and also the food values of fish, Carefully calculated tables show what various fish have to offer in the way of oil, albumen, phosphates and such. Other cars in the fish train show methods of refrigeration, how fish are no more thrown in the vessel's hold with ice and salt, but are immediately brought to a temperature which has been found best sulted to maintaining fish in the same condition as when taken from the sea. The fish are re- moved from the fishing boat refrigera- tion, placed in the refrigerator trains and carried to all parts of France. Once at their destination the fish are deliv- ered immediately to distributors, and are not placed in cold storage, some- thing all Prenchmen are prejudiced against. One of the cars is a fish res- taurant, where for a nominal price the visitor purchases a portion of fried fish and a glass of wine with which to wash :;‘t d&zn. f'l;he fl'.zh are taken from one refrigerator cars whis - pany the train. oo . Sahara Auto Race Proves to Be Success The recent transsaharan motor race from Alglers to Gao, on the River Niger, was a great success, Forty-four cars had entered the race, which was not conducted for speed, but for en- durance and regularity. Still, points could be won in proportion to a speed superior to 20 miles an hour. They were all ordinary cars of French make, the competition tending to prove that a tourist could travel through Africa as easily as in’ the mother country, ‘The cars journeyed by groups of four or five, leaving Algiers or Tunis every other day. Ten young ladies were among the passengers. All 44 machines cov- ered the circuit without any accident, and the winning group carried off a prize of 30,000 francs ($1,200), pre- sented by the French paper Le Matin. The race may be considered as a landmark in the history of the great African desert, and as a glorious eplilogue to the long and patient efforts made by so many explorers in the last century to open Africa to civilization, Philippine Towns Reformed by Davis ___Continued From First Page.) is probable that cholera would have spread throughout the islands in epi demic proportions. ventive measures would have been hampered, cases would have been ‘hidden out’ rather than re- ported and a general campaign of inocu- ll'jlon would have been im| ble. “Today exactly the opposite condition ‘v).b}::r‘:séh lWe ;egthto remote villages V] olera had been reported in the district. Outside we found a barrier across the road and a health officer flanked by the constabulary. We had to get out of our cars and show that we had been inoculated before we could come into the town. If we had left our little blue tickets on the Apo, we would have been inoculated then and there. Every driver of a carabao cart, every passenger on a bus gets the same treat- ment. He shows his ticket or has to roll up his sleeve. “The significant fact is that the mu- nicipality is solidly in favor of this regime and community support makes it possible. Quarantines are religiousiy observed, and the populace really co- operates with the department of health. For this reason I belleve the cholera situation will remain as it has been— under control.” J tunity to get some (Continued From Third Page.) is reported to have discussed national politics intimately with the Kentuckian and to have decided that the latter would make an excellent choice to air!t'- the national committee's activi- es. Question of Means. Mr. Lucas, however, is not a wealthy man, as have been all of the chairmen of the Republican National Committee for many years. This is one of the considerations that led to the plan whereby it was determined to name some one else—probably Senator Simeon D. Fess of Ohio—as the titular head of the committee, and to elect Mr. Lucas as chairman of the Executive Committee of that body, a post which will have a good salary attached to it. In that capacity the Kentuckian will be the active man in the party’s na- tional organization and will assume charge of most of the high-powered campaign work, thereby adopting the same plan that has been followed by the Democratic National Committee. with some success, since the close of the 1928 presidential race. He will have charge of the Republican national headquarters in Washington, just as Jouett Shouse, chairman of the Execu- tive Committee of the Democratic Na- tional Committee, has been in charge of Democratic_activities and the real head, rather than John J. Raskob of the Democratig national organization. Thus two native Kentuckians, whose careers run rather parallel, will be con- fronting each other as the active heads respectively of the national organiza- tions of the two major parties. Both are comparatively young men, Mr. Lucas being only 42 years old, while Mr. Shouse is nine years his senior. Mr. Lucas was born just outside of Louisville in Jefferson County and Mr. Shouse was born in Woodford County, a short distance from Lexington. The Democratic executive chairman, how- ever, removed to Kansas in 1911 when he was 32 years old. Both of these men have held important posts in the Treasury Department, Mr. Shouse after retiring from Congress having served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Wilson administration. Frankness, geniality and a never- failing sense of humor have been great assets to Mr. Lucas throughout his career. One of the best newspaper re- porters in Louisville remarked to me about & year ago: “There is only one politician in this city who has never, deliberately or otherwise, misled me or handed me any bunk. That man is Bob Lucas.” Most Popular Commissioner, Among the rank and file of the 15,000 clerical workers and other employes of the Revenue Bureau Mr, Lucas during the short time he has been their chief has become the most popular commis- sioner in the history of this huge tax- gathering organization. At a dinner given in his honor shortly after he took charge of the bureau he made a speech which immediately won their confi- dence and esteem. Shortly afterward the head of a clerical unit in the bureau remarked to me: “Our new commis- sioner from your State is a fine fellow. I like him particularly because he doesn’t take himself too seriously.” This man put his finger on one of the strongest attributes of his chief. He never considers his own burden so great that he is not willing to listen to the problems of his friends, associates or fellow workers, to take an interest in their difficuities and to advise them in a friendly, sincere wa: He has the knack of creating personal friendship and good will, and never misses an opportunity to use it. Shortly after he became commissioner there appeared on the cover page of the Internal Revenue News, a pamphlet published monthly by employes of the Internal Revenue Bu- reau, the following, above Mr. Lucas’ signature: “YOUR VACATION. “Many of you will be taking your annual vacation within the next 60 days. est! Go at it strenuously! Forget your work! Take advantage of the oppor- time in the great outdoors, the fresh air, sunshine, sun- burn, mosquitoes and chigres! Don't return to your desk until you have had your full of each. Then you will find the change has donc you good. “Yours for a good time, “ROBERT H. LUCAS, ““Commissioner. “P. 8.—Kill a snake or two if you get the chance, and be careful where you get your fishhooks caught. “R. H. L." ‘While a simple thing, the thought- fulness of this merry and jocular little note from the commissioner served to impress the thousands of bureau em- ployes of his interest in their welfare and to create among them the good will which nets co-operation and afficient service. It was entirely unlike any Take it and enjoy it to the full-| from previous in its lack of formality. strated to their satisfaction that their new chief was “thoroughly human®; that he was not the kind inclined to yield to sycophancy, but regarded him- self more in the light of being one of their fellow workers in the big tax collecting organization. ‘White House Attache. There is a veteran attache at the White House whom I have known for 13 years, but never until a few months ago did he ever make a remark in my presence commending any one. He is not a grouch, but a quiet fellow, not given to commenting either favorably or adversely concerning any one among the huge and changing .groups with whom his position places him in daily contact—unless extraordinarily - im- pressed. But he called me aside re- cently and said: “Your State certainly furnished a fine Commissioner of Internal Revenue in Mr. Lucas. I bel e is a real comer in national politic: Nothing could have satisfied me bet- ter than this little incident concerning Bob Lucas' faculty for making friandg In personal appearance Mr. Lucas @ attractive. Brown-haired, his featu~as are rather of the classic type; fairly high forehead, nose straight, mouth firm with a slightly perceptible down- | ward turn at the corners; a chin well rounded, that is neither projecting nor receding, and frank, brown eyes that can be penetrating on occasion. His manner is quiet and his voice gentle without being low-pitched. Fishing is the favorite sport of the new Republican executive chairman. His experience, however, has been con- fined almost entirely to inland streams and he has had little, if any, acquaint- ance with deep-sea fishing. But he is mignty pleased to pull in & six-pound bass, and already has learned the loca- tion of the best trout streams near Washington. On_his recent trip to Rapidan he pulled in three good size trout, but when asked who made the biggest catch on that occasion, he re- plied, with a smile: “The President.” During his school days in Louisville Bob Lucas was a foot ball and base ball star, He played guard and tackle on | the Louisville Male High School eleven | when, with Bill Duffy as captain, it set a high record on the gridiron, and | was a star first basemen on the dia- mond for the same institution. Member of Guard. From 1906 until 1911 Mr. Lucas was a member of the Kentucky National Guard, enlisting as a private and being discharged as a sergeant. As & Na- tional Guardsman he attended the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, being a member of the regiment commanded by the late Gen. Willam B. Halde- man. While serving as a National Guardsman he experienced his nar- rowest escape, although it was a train wreck instead of an encounter with bullets. He was on a train crowded with his fellow National Guardsmen en route to an encampment at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., in 1908, when there was a head-on collision in which many were injured. Mr. Lucas was standing in the aisle at the rear of his car and was precipitated the full length of the aisle, suffering, however, only an injured knee which struck a num- ber of seats during his rapid progress to the front of the car. “If I could | slide like that on a base ball diamond.” he said, reminiscently, “Walter -John- son's outfit would be glad to sign me uj commissioners focelyed It demon- thelr p.” His full name is Robert Hendry Lucas. He was born August 8, 1888, near An- chorage, Ky. His mother, who, before her marriage, was Miss Hattie Galey, of Scotch ancestry, died two years after | his birth. His father, Robert Lucas, a Louisville merchant, who came to the United States when a 10-year-old boy from Tyrone County in Northern Ire- land, died suddenly of a heart attack last July 17, while attending a meet- ing of the board of visitors for the | Kentucky School for the Blind. He has no brothers or sisters. Mr. Lucas obtained his law degree from’ the University of Louisville in | 1909. He was married October 19, 1910, | to Miss Gertrude Lasch of Louisville. They have one child, Martha Bob, who | was president of the student body of | the Louisville Girls’ High School when | she was graduated last year, and who is now a student at Goucher College in Baltimore, The new Republican executive chair- man was head of the finance committee which arranged for the 1929 annual convention of the American Legion in Louisville. He is a Mason, Shriner and Knight Templar, a member of the Louisville lodge of Elks, Modern Wood- men of America and the Loyal Order of Moose. He belongs to the Pastime Boat and Pendennis Clubs of Louis- ville and the Congressional Country Club of Washington. He is & member of the Louisville and American Bar As- | i communication the revenue workers had sociations. of common interest will make this one ;{ ;hc outstanding conferences of its nd. One of the most encouraging politi- cal developments has been the broad- minded, fair and businesslike way in which Mr. Hoover has approached our relations with the Caribbean countries. Our policies toward Haiti have always been used as a strong talking point against the United States by certain unfriendly elements in Latin America. The prompt, officient and friendly way in wkich Mr. Hoover only a few weeks ago_settled this problem is boun produce & strong favorable reaction in our favor in many parts of Latin Amer- ica. If the Kellogg memorandum clarifying and restricting the Monroe Doctrine, recently discussed at length in the American press, is distributed officially by the United States Govern- ment it will do much to allay the fear and distrust of our policies which have been current for a number of years in many parts of Latin America. 1ot the least of recent factors in promoting better relations with Latin America is the "adio. The two princi- pal chain systems of broadcasting in the United States have on & number of recent occasions broadcast directly to Latin American countries programs that are conducive to promoting the cause of better understanding and good will. One of the broadcasting sys- tems has already completed a large part of its program of ha.ing all of the Latin American chiefs of mission at Washington address the American public on relations between their coun- tries and the United States; these pro- grams, which have been embellished by music of the countries concerned, have usually been rebroadcast to Latin America. It is belleved that the coming Winter will witness an ex- pansion in these international broad- casts between Latin America and the United States. Cultural and Social. On the cultural and social side American universitles and other agen- cles have done much within the past few years to promote @ Wetter under- standing of Latin America and to en- courage interest in its affairs. The Spanish language is being studied by hundreds of thousands of Americans and its popularity is only exceeded by French. Many books, magazines and newspaper articles have been published recently in the United States dealing with Latin America. A number of or- ganizations in the United States are actively engaged in spreading inform: tion about Latin America and in pro- moting better understanding of its problems and its relations to the United States. A number of American uni- d to| | absolute Inter-American Relations Believed In New Era, Showing Vast Changes cial relations with Latin America on an_intelligent and friendly basis. The work of the Pan-American Union is so well known as not to need any repetition here. American students and professors are being sent to Latin America and in return we are receiving | Latin American students and profes- |sors. Groups of professional, educa- | tional and business men are traveling now between the two continents on a | scale never before equaled. In July ;o( this year a group of 200 Cuban teachers made a study tour of the United States. A debating team from one of the largest universities is now in Peru, where it will engage in oratorical contests with students from Peruvian schoo's. The reasons for closer political, so- cial and commercial relations between the United States and Latin America have been stated so often in the Ameri- can press that repetition here is not necessary. Well informed authorities, acquainted with the facts listed above and similar ones, believe that we are starting a new era in interamerican relations. They are looking forward to a steady improvement of both political, social and commercial relations. They feel that an increase in import and export trade between the United States and Latin America will be of great benefit to both. While it is true that the last few months have witnessed a large falling off in our trade with Latin | America, this is only a part of the ipreunt general world depression in | foreign trade. It does not indicate | that proportionately with other nations we are losing ground in Latin America. The authorities believe that the de- pression is only a temporary one and that as soon as general world trade conditions improve our commerce with Latin America should increase ngldly. ncreased investments of American capital in Latin America are in- evitable and in no sense dangerous. In the political fleld it is believed that the Western Hemisphere should set an example for the world in friendly and | close "political co-operation, based on equality ~between the 21 :rr;al‘cl}clnn mf ublllcs and inspired by nciples of ‘equity, fair ¢ true lrxendnhlp.q i o Wife’s Maiden Name Shrouded in Mystery Do you know your own wife? Yes and no—and probably mostly the latter. In Mexico census officials have just dis- covered a man who, after living for 32 years with his wife, does not know her name. Neither does the wife know her baptismal name. The wife, it is alleged, has become s0 used to the nickname versities are devoting considerable at- tention to pre) men professionally for carrying on tical and commer- given her by her husband since they were still sweethearts that she has com-, pletely forgotten her real identity.