Evening Star Newspaper, November 2, 1930, Page 39

Part 2—-8 Pages EDITORIAL SECTION, he Sunday Star, WASHIN 3TON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, 3 NOVEMBER 2, 1930. PROSPERITY IS DECLARED BOUND TO RETURN SOON Firestone Says Nation With Rolled Up-Is Unquestionably on Uphill Path. BY HARVEY 8. FIRESTONE. DO not know on what date national prosperity will return. I cannet even name the month in which | there will be such a substantial up- | turn in business throughout the country that there will be national rec- | ognition of the return of “good times.” | But this I do know: That we shall have in America, and beginning reason- | ably soon, an era of prosperity for the | masses of our people eclipsing anything | of the kind we have had before. i I am not saying th's with any purpose to “boom business.” I know that busi- ness cannot be artificially “boomed” for very long or very widely. When busi- ness recovery comes, it will come not | because of any widely advertised ““buy- | more-for-prosperity” campaigns, but be- | cause those who advertise have more to offer. In short, business recovery will result | from the natural workings of economic | laws—just as & broken leg knits, heals and mends from within, and not because | of any ointment or “remedy” applied by a physiclan. There are certain things that can and should be done to aid the process of recovery and to insure a per- fect, all-around healing. But essentially | the recovery must be made by dint of the working of natural forces. The fact is that when we thought our- selves most prosperous we were least secure. And the fact is also that when we are least happy in a business and economic way—as at present—we are making the most progress toward our goal. Last Winter, after a heavy snow- fall in Akron, I saw 20 or 30 boys hav- ing a perfectly glorious time coasting on their sleds down a long hill in an out- lying section. Enjoyment was written on every face as the boys sped downhill. But it was quite obvious that there was not nearly so much joy in toiling up the hill after the descent, and I have no doubt that to most of the boys the hill seemed at least ten times as long on the up journey as on the trip down. I no- ticed several of the boys attempt to ride up the hill on the sleds which their companions were pulling. They were promptly put of and rolled in the snow- drifts along the road, of course. Prob- ably this took quite a bit of the joy of the downhill coasting out of their minds. Some of them decided not to continue going uphill, quit and went home. Business Was Coasting. During a considerable part of the period which preceded the stock market crash of October, 1929, business was coasting downhill, without those in charge being aware of the fact. Busi- ness had pushed its way laboriously up- hill after the widespread depression of the years 1920 and 1921, and there was an irresistible tendency to “take it easy” and coast along after the hard work of the ascent. Nearly every big business organiza- tion—and, on a proportionate scale, smaller ones, too—added vice presidents m‘shm superintendents and other P lupgrade and who mow wanted to ‘coast.” The effort throughout busi- ness was fo increase sales, without, however, increasing the incentive to buy. New factories were planned and bullt, ‘pmd‘y \lctil;‘n ?:ulfis fll-unmum in every , without mu ht of chan that were inevitable in demand, mm‘gz of supply, in markets, in methods of manufacture and distribution. Let me give another analogy that illustrates what happened to our pros- perity. I remember as a boy co-oper- ating with several other boys in creat- | within that arrayed one section of the leeves Look back to get what might be called a “bird's-eye view” of what these things have meant in the development of America, and instantly it becomes clear why I have no hesitancy whatever in predicting a greater era of prosperity| for our people during the next 10 years than we have ever had before. In the backward view we glimpse America at the beginning, hewing homes out of the wilderness, with savages to combat and pestilence, drought and initial poverty in money or capital to overcome. The young Republic had to operate on borrowed capital; had wars to fight against powerful enemies: had inflated currency panics; had a conflict country against another in long, bloody and costly warfare; had d:-sperate struggles to maintain its truly infant industries against the long-established manufacturing plants of the Old World. Determination and Courage Won Out. These obstacles our people overcame by the sweat of their brow, by brain and by brawn, by the aid of the tre- mendous natural resources of the coun- try, and by the determination and cour- age of the people who lived within it. There were cycles of prosperity and| periods of depression all along the road from 1776 to 1929. The “down and out” periods came with almost monoto- nous regularity. Men of 45 can recall the depressions or panics of 1893, 1900, | 1907, 1914 and 1921. They were all comparatively short lived. And after each there were years of better income and better living for the mass of our people. Each wave of prosperity suc- ceeding the trough of depression in the sea of business activity carried us a little nearer what might be termed “the golden shore.” ‘We look back over the period of na- tional existence and see the farmers of | another generation afflicted ~with| droughts, hoppers and mortgages. Yet steadily they forged ahead. Log cabins or huts dug out of dirt were succeeded by well built, attractive houses. The tallow candle and the oil lamp were displaced by electric lights. The plow pulled by a mule, or even by children, gave way to a tractor moti- vated muitiple plow. Roads that were mere trails through a wilderness, trav- ersed slow-moving, jolt-producing horses and buggies, were succeeded by | the country “boulevards” of today, over | which the farmer and his family s%eed in a smoothly operating automobile. | The farmer still has the vagaries of wind, weather, debt and insect pests to contend with, but he has vastly more in material comfort as the result of his labor. Slowly but surely the economic conditions of those engaged in agricul- ture has improved. That improvement can be seen with the eyes; it is not & matter of statistics at all. City Labor Conditions. 8o, too, has the condition of labor in the cities improved, steadily and surel; through all the years, *good and 3 There were bread and soup lines in our large cities scores of years 2go. It is probable those lines are shorter, pro- onately, now. than then. They will shorter lived, at any rate; and relief measures undertaken by Government and private business agencies will make the distress less acute now than in times past. The national conscience 'n such matters has grown none the less than the national business structure. I can well remember a time, not so many years ago, when the “ordinary| workingman,” as he was then generally designated, expected none of the real comforts or luxuries of life. He walked Well, It’s the Surplus! Blamed More and More for Depression—Economic Expert Tells How Better Times Can Be Insured. BY JULIUS H. BARNES President of the Nationsl Business Burvey Conference. —Drawn for The Sunday Star by Bobert Lawson. silver; in idle freight cars and empty ployed and other millions whose in- ships that betoken a too efficient trans- | comes have been curtailed. portation system. But whatever the | production has forged .too far ahead FOUR ELECTION RESULTS | every time the party out of power (in| | the ‘present case the Democrats) have| | the ensuing presidential election two| years subsequently the same party has) | suspicion pointed at the surplis—a Whether | changeling whose parentage is traced | js “very vuinerable. | literally, by some to the machine and mass pro- | were four additional precedents. Upon OF PRIMARY Democratic House IMPORTANCE Might Foreshadow Change in President, Tariff and Prohibition. BY MARK SULLIVAN. ROM the varied significances of the outcome of next Tuesday's election four can be detached as having primary importance. One is the historical significance—the bearing that next Tuesday's result will have on the presidential election two years later; whether in 1932 the Re- publicans will continue to keep control of the White House or will lose it to the Democrats. The seeond is the relation to the tarifl; to the probability or improb- ability of another tariffl revision follow- ing close on the heels of the one re- cently completed. The third is the relation of next Tuesday’s outcome to prohibition. The fourth has to do with the issues | that have influenced this campaign,| some of them widely proclaimed but actually unimportant, others hardly | menticned but extremely fundamental. As respects the historical significance of next Tuesday’s election, if it should happen that the newspapers on Wednes- | day should be called unon to announce Democratic control of the Lower House, such announcement would' be attended immediately by predictions that in the | next presidential election, 1932, the Democrats would elect their candidate for President. | Validity of Prediction Rests on Precedent. | ‘The validity of this prediction, if the circumstances should cause it made, rests wholly upon precedents. | Stated in the broadest way, the sum of | the precedents may be expressed thus: During the past 50 years, since 1880,/ won control of the House in an elec- | tion coming in the middle of a presi-| ential term, it has followed that in elected its President. In detail the precedents are: In 1918 the Democrats had control of | the presidency and of Congress (as the | Republicans have now). In that year the Republicans won control of the| House. Then two years later in the presidential election of 1920 the Repub- | licans won the presidency. In 1910 the Republicans were in power, with control of Congress and| with & Republican in the White House. | In that year and in that state of facts the Democrats won control of the House. Thereafter two years later, in 1912, the Democrats elected their can- didate for President. ‘These are the two most recent prece- dents. Going on back to 1880, there the aggregate of all these precedents over a period of 50 years rests th: as- sumption that if in the election next Tuesday the Democrats should win control of the House, they would there- after in 1932 elect their candidate for the presidency. Room for Skepticism. ‘The precedents are convincing, so far #s precedents can convince. Actually there is room for skepticism. For ex- ample, if we follow the research into | & history just two years further back, to 1878, we find that the precedent falls down. In that year the Democrats won control of the House, but that did not prevent the Republicans, under Gar- fleld, from winning the presidential election in 1880. Also the one precedent upon which the Democrats must rely, namely, 1910, Superficially and it is true that in 1910 the| | program in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Connectieut, Wis- consin, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware and the State of Washington. With so large a portion of the Demo- cratic party, speaking in terms of geog- raphy and population, committed to the wet cause, it would seem to follow that Democratic victory next Tuesday would have an effect of accelerating wet sen- timent. It would be said, whether ac- curately or not. that one reason for Democratic victory was their favoring the wet cause. To the same effect Democratic leaders would feel that their p fortunes had been furthered by going wet in so many States. There would be, in short, a strong impulse for the Democratic party to go yet farther and as rapidly as possible in the wet direction. Yet can we be sure? There remains that Gibraltar of Democracy, the Solid South, as earnestly dry as ever. Those leaders now in control of the Demo- cratic party nationally, who have deter- mined to take the party along the wet read, will encounter stiff opposition from that section of the party, the South, which in every election since the Civil War has provided most of the Democratic electoral votes—and has done it dependably, practically without interruption. If the Democrats should next Tuesday elect a majority of Congress, that Con- gress would not be wet. Far from it. Even the Democratic party of Congress would not be wet. Assume the Demo- crats gain 60 sea Assume the Demo- crats have in the Congress to be elected next Tuesday as many as 220 seats. Out of that 220 fully 120 will be from the dry solid South or from the almost equally dry border States. Several more from Western and Midwestern States would be dry. If it is difficult to estimate the effect on prohibition of a Democratic victory, it is even more difficult to visualize what effect, if any, on prohibition would ensue directly from Republican victory. We know the election, whichever way it goes, will be bound up with prohibi- tion. In three States there are refer- endums on it. In at least three States dry candidates for United States Sena- tor are running mainly on that issue against wet candidates. From the elec- tion on Tuesday deductions will be made about prohibition, but it is impossible to outline them in advance. Issues Are Numerous. The issues, or the conditions, or the motives, or the what-nots, determining the outcome of next Tuesday's election have been discussed up and down the country. They have been extraordinarily . numerous, strangely diverse, Theoret~ ically and in the true sense, this is & national election having deep national meaning, and having national conse- querices of the most formidable kind. Actually, however, ta‘hhel,e'flm I.l:l Te- spects the House, whici por- tant part of it, is the of 436 separate elections in 435 separate con- gressional districts, covering the entire country. More accurately, it 18 the ag- egate of about 90 separate elections, for the districts which are in doubt of in which there are real contests do not number more than 90. As the aggres gate of 90 separate elections, the issues or other determining factors M the va- rious districts are almost as nmumerous as_the districts. Many of the issues. have dealt with one aspect or another of prosperity. It is about prosperity that most of speech making and arguing has been done. Through it all there has been guise it may assume, to it is ascribed | or consumption has lagged too far be- | duction—its existence is very nebulous. i e ot ‘{afi,h,fg conviction | The long train of evils linked in the | hind, the economic effect on the indi- | Statistical delineation gives it Gargan: | Do N e Iy ehasied e the economic nightmare that | Vague term—depression. vidual is equally disconcerting. | tuan proportions—millions of tons of | candidate for President, Woodrow Wil is troubling the dveams of| The assurance that the world by and| To the economists consumption and 5ugar, hundreds of millions of bushels| gon Upon the analogy, alleged, be business is the surplus. It|large is confronted with an abundance | production may be distinct forces. To|Of Wheat, millions of bales of cotton | tween 1910 and the present year, 1530, might appewr in unemployment—an | rather than a scarcity, that the priva- | the greater part of the world's popula- | countless automobiles, vast stores of pemocrats depend strongly. | practically no mention of one condition | affecting prosperity which in the judg- ment of some thoughtful ‘men is more prognant than any other. Silver and Gold Conditions Affect U. 8. ing what we conceived would be the|long distances to work, stayed at worl biggest snowball ever made. When we |10, 12 or 14 hours under back-breaking first talked over the project one or two | hazardous conditions; walked back from of us had in mind a snowball that|work to a habitation that was poorly would tower above the tall picket fence. | lighted by lamps, with rough floors un- Another of the boys wanted to roll one | carpeted, with a tin washtub and water | that would be as high as the wood-| drawn from a well as the ‘only means | overabundance of labor; in excessive industrial plant capacity; in huge shed: and I suppose some of the boys | to remove the grime of toll. His family, | stocks of agricultural products—wheat, had visions of a snowball as high as the | of course, house. culture. Mesalls Brokan Snowball. factories—and came out often with We all went to work with a will, | maimed limbs or damaged bodies. rolling small snowballs and consolidat- | Those conditions are now the excep- jng them until we had one that was £o | tion instead of the rule. Hours of work rge and heavy that we all had to join | have been reduced; working conditions in pushing it along, to gather up a | have bebn made less burdensome; the broad expanse of the snow on the | workingman's home has hardwood floors, ground that was getting scarcer and | ryugs, electric lights, a modern bath scarcer as we proceeded. We were all | room, a radio, an automobile for Sunday 80 busy pushing and stoving without | trips. any definite objective or charted course | We take these things, this general ad- that we failed to note a slight declivity |vancement, as a matter of course. We until our giant snowball had rolled | forget how the transformation, the prog- down it and distintegrated in a thou- |ress in our conditions of living came sand fragments when it crashed against ' about. lacked good clothing, the means of entertainment, education or & tree. And that's what happened to the prosperity that was created in the years, In most instances prosperity is due to the fact that people realize that they can make a living and that they can Toughly, from 1921 to 1928. The same | advance their position in the world only | thing has happened before. Probably |after they have thought out what there it will happen again. |is a need for them to do and what is But mark this: In each cycle we|the best way to do it. Then they follow create a bigger snowball and by that |up their analysis—often a subconscious 1 mean a greater measure of prosperity | one—with constant and uninterrupted for the people as a whole. And in the | hard work. The result is that they reap course of the next 10 vears we shall | the rewards of their struggles and sacri- create a greater prosperity than we | fices. They become prosperous, in a | have known before, for a greater num- | large or moderate measure, depending ber of people. We shall permanently | to some extent, of course, on the in- | lift the American standard of living to | evitable element of chance. higher levels than have existed before during the century and a half of our| Prosperity Obscures Fundamentals. national life. When a nation becomes prosperous, Is_this mere hope, or conjecture, or | however, its people tend to become self- | baseless optimism? | satisfied and to lose sight of the funda- Not at all! | mentals on which their prosperity is It is simply sound reasoning based | based. The new mode of living which on experience: on knowledge of what | this prosperity entails brings material has gone before during all the decades | comforts not before enjoved. These since our Government came into being. | comforts and conveniences incidental to | I cannot predict when “Steel com-|prosperity change the mental attitude | mon” will again sell at 200 or better. | of the people from one of striving and | 1 do not know. and I do not care, when | accomplishing to one of how best to| Wall Street will again have a succession | enjoy the luxury and wealth which they of five or six million share days on a |now possess. Instead of “hustling” rising bull market | staying with their work and maintain- T do not know when there will be a | ing their effort, people (and I am speak- shortage instead of a surplus of labor— though I fervently hope that that will | be soon | Conditions Fundamentally Sound. | But I do know, with a positive con- viction based on the indisputable facts of the past, that the present business depressiop will be comparatively shor lived in contrast with the period of na- tional prosperity to follow. It has ways been so in America. It will con- tinue to be so as long as we have what are commonly designated as “funda- mentally sound” conditions I know that phrase has been ridden to death; that about the time some | leader calls attention to “the fund: mentally sound condition of America” the stock market executes another nose dive and derisive comments are freely flung by newspaper paragraphers at those who have expressed optimism | about the basic business condition of | the country. | Nevertheless, the fact is that the | poome of America could not possibly | avold prosperity very long, even if they made no attempt to capture it. country possesses all the natural ele- | ments that actually insure prosperity. We have ample supplies of coal, of oil, | of steel, of other useful minerals; of | tillable, fertile soil sufficient to feed a much greater population. We have a climate which favors those who want to work; and we have a racial heritage rich in tner!)a initiative, enterprise, invention determination to suc- sed. ing of those at the head as well as those at the foot of industry) become more and more intent upon Wweek end excur- sions to seashore and mountains. The new life affords more lelsure, and many people heretofore hard workers become inactive mentally as well as physically. A new state of mind settles on the people. They become satisfled with themselves and with their position. They begin to think that the prosperity | which they enjoy will continue despite | the absence of really hard work and | sound thinking on their part. In this | they are wrong, and, as in every case of following out & wrong premise, they must suffer the consequences. | In the case of the American people | the consequences have been the business | depression which began noticeably late | in 1929. Our people in general had as- sumed that good business and times were here to stay and that it was | not necessary to safeguard their present | status by constant effort. The sound | basis of our prosperity hence began al- | most imperceptibly to shift its ground, and as this shifting gradually ame | rceptible our confidence began to reak down. A feeling of doubt settled over the American people and this corresponded with the midst of our depression. An uneasiness had gained ground which had its reverberations in fewer sales and smaller profits, There was a hesitancy in the market and In trade, and this itancy had become contagiot The | (Continued on Fourth Page.) | cotton, sugar, coffee; in_ accumulated | stores of copper, tin, rubber and silk; | Children went early into the in overproduction of ofl and coal and'little solace to the millions of unem-| tion and want that hovered in the wake | tlon that must work for its living, the of the-war, when staple commodities |one is inseparable from the other. It were scanty enough to be regarded as| matters little which is the source of luxuries, have been banished might be | the stagnation that overtakes business theoretically comforting, but it brings | activity. In spite of the many fingers of | silk, rubber, copper and what mnot. | Rarely is stress ever laid on the Gar- | | gantuan world sppetite that feeds on this fare. | _Surplus. as a matter of fact, exists # (Cor ued on Fourth Page.) Inventions—Boon or Curse? Man Made Master of Universe, But Is Not Adding to His Happiness, Declares Great Scientist. BY EDOUARD BELIN Noted French Inventor, As Told to Dr. L. Aigner. OW I would like to be able to be- lisve in Mr. H. G. Well's opti- mistic visions about the future | of humanity—to feel some con- | fidence in greater happiness sulting frob technical progress—to dis- cover, when I look forward, signs of betterment. as Mr. Wells predicts—to feel satisfied that the wonders of me- | chanical development, speed in trans- | port, wireless, television, electricity and | magnetism, machines that relieve man- kind of a vast amount of tiresome and monotonous work, will add to the sum of happiness possessed by the inhabit- | ants of this globe of ours! It would | be pleasant to think that the man of the future—who will be able to tear | round the earth at a thousand miles | an hour, who will be able to hear and | see whatever goes on in the world with- | out going outside his house, who will not have to cope with the drudgery of today—will be happler than the men of today or yesterday. Unfortunately, I feel little real satis- faction in the progress that is being made, because I cannot believe that it | will bring any moral benefit to man- kind. I do not feel proud at having had my small share in it, and I feel more guilty than elated at the thought of contributing to the general and final disappointment, which will be greater than anything of the kind that has ever been known. Anything Held Possible. | Today nothing is impossible to man. | Some things may appear a long way | from accomplishment, yet in theory they cannot be ruled out. Our globe has ceased to be the endless immensity which our forefathers thought it. Our | ears can catch sounds produced 10,000 | miles away, and our eyes will soon see | what happens on distant continents. | Television is sure to_become an every- | day fact sooner or later, and wireless | is overcoming all resistance from the | elements. I have not the slightest | doubt that our children, or perhaps our grandchildren, will go about with tele. vision cameras in their pockets. They | will not have to read newspapers or go | to motion picture theaters to know what is taking place in any part of the ‘ earth. They will dominate the uni- verse and its phenomena. Nothing will | be beyond thelr réach or invisible to m. The trouble is that the faster they fly and the farther they see and hear the more their wants will increase. Human ami‘tion knows no limit, and every the' sooner we triumph over the ele- ‘There are, however, some defects in If the interruption to prosperity in ments; the more completely we conquer | the outside of our sphere, the less at- tention we pay to the inner life of our fellbw creatures. We are in such a hurry to cover thousands of miles that | | the analogy. One is that the Demo-|he United States had been confined to | crats were enabled to elect their candi-| what happened within the borders of | date for President in 1912 chiefly for|the United States, we should have been the reason that the Republican party| oyt of the hollow and upward bound was split into two by the deepest cleav- | soveral ‘months ago. What was ob- age that ever occurred in any American | serveq pelatedly—and by many not even political party. The Republicans in 1912 | vet"*C ST tition 'tn Europe and were divided into the regular Republl-|sia_indeed, a world-wide condition— can party, which nominated William H.|{nviived us in its waves. Tha condi- | Taft to succeed himself, and the much| tion had to do with silver and gold. | larger Progressive party that nominated | “Tne price of silver went down from | Theodore Roosevelt. ut for that split| something like 80 cents an ounce to 30. In the Republicans one feels justified That almost destroyed the purchasing in saying the Democrats would not have | power of countries having silver cur- elected their candidate for President in|rency in Asia and elsewhere. Along 1912, | with cheapness and abundance of silver Nevertheless, if the Democrats should | rarie g condition affecting gold. There win control of the House next Tuesday. | hag been a decrease in the annual incre= there will be deep discussion, much of |y PO B AT " inee © Drought of it justified, about electing a Democratic | goiq from mines in its immediate effect President in 1932. on prices. and on volume of business is If we turn now to the bearing of next | o5 certain and of the same kind as “ie Tuesday’s election upon the tariff, the | gfyoct of drought of rain on crops. common saying, supported by precedent| "'y giscuss this age-old economic phe- and quite probably correct, is that if the | nomenon is not within the scope of the Democrats should win control of the | prectli™ ricle” “There are many signs, House on Tuesday they would proceed | however, which suggest that the. Con- | An Inventor of the Days When Science Was Young.—From an old engraving. reached 1,000 miles an hour, and, after having listened in London or Paris to events taking place at Los Angeles, he sees nothing remarkable in being en- abled to hear a concert ", dcast from some place a couple of uundred miles The faster we move about the world, step forward makes it more darin more insatiable and more dissatisfied. It was not very long ago that the man in the street shook his head incredu- lously when he heard that certain in- ventors were reckoning on attaining a speed of 100 miles an ‘The same man now wonders why We have not yet we cannot find time to attend to what lies nearest to us—our wives, our chil- dren and our friends. Family life be- comes less and less important to us, and man becomes more and more for- eign to his neighbor. I cannot help thinking that to influence the minds of others in the right direction is an en terprise worthy of quite as much at- tention as technical progress and over- coming the resistance of matter. One of these days—when we are able to photograph the mind, our feelings and ideas (the mental functions being composed of vibrations, this theoretic- ally is no impossibility). when we know with scientific exactitude what is going on in our neighbor's mind—man, I fear, will not use his knowledge to increase happiness, to calm. passions, to learn the secrets of the soul and bring them into harmony;, he will try to find out secrets to provide himself with some new instrument of warfare. I do not believe that the inventor fs | of very great service to his fellow | creatures, The public is inclined to re- gard him as a benefactor of humanity, | but this is because, like a prophet, he has to go on fighting for his ideas. Out of every 1,000 inventors, 999 are re- | garded " as’ lunatics, and when the 1,000th at last succeeds and proves the possibility of doing something which every one else has looked upon as im- | possible, he becomes established in the public estimation as a kind of prophet. This is why Edison is held in such great honor. Inventors Use Intuition, As a rule, an inventor is not a sa- vant. The Marconi type of inventor, who knows exactly what he wants, who starts from a principle scientifically es- tablished and devotes himself to elab- ovating that principle, is very rare. Most inventors simply follow their in- tuition, and if you ask them why they did this, that or the other thing they cannot tell you. I am not a good en- gineer, and yet I can sometimes solve | problems that are beyond the reach of other workers who are more highly trained than myself. I never imagined in my youth that I would become an inventor. 1 was a student of philosophy and my bent of mind was toward questions of a gen- eral kind. In 1896, when the motion | cance of the outcome of next Tuesday's | on proaibition. | tion, wnliike the tariff, is only 10 years plcture was invented by Lumiere, I had (Conllx\ued on Page.) at their earliest opportunity to -~svise the tariff. True, their “earliest oppor- | | tunity” would be considerably delayed. | They would not be able to 'step into | power for 13 months—in December, 1931, Even at that time they would | have control of the Lower House only They would be obliged to wait until after electing their candidate for Presi- | dent (assuming they should do so) and | until after his taking office in 1933. | " But that the Democrats would in due | course revise the tariff is very probable. | One of their outstanding leaders, ex- Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio, their can- | didate for President in 1920, has fo | mally announced revision of the tariff | | as a consequence of Democratic victory | | next Tuesday. This idea that the Democrats, if suc- cessful in carrying the Lower House on Tuesday, would thereafter revise the tariff is borne out by precedent as re-| spects both parties. In 1918 the Repub-| | licans won control of the House, and in 1922 they revised the tariff in ‘e Re- publican direction. In 1910 the Demo- | crats won control of the House, and in 1913 they revised the tariff in the Dem ocratic direction. In 1894 the Republi-| cans won control of the House, and in 1897 they revised the tariff in the Re-| publican direction. In 1890 the Demo- | crats won control of the House, and in | 1894 they revised the tariff in the Dem- | ocratic direction. Prohibition Question Lacks Precedent. About the third important signifi- election we have no precedent to guide | us. The outcome will have a bearing But_national prohibi- old and has never before figured in a congressional election or in politics at| all in the way in which it now figures. About all that can be sald is that during the past few months in both parties the cause of repeal of the pro- hibition amendment has made remark- able progress. The progress has been | greater in the Demccratic party than in | the Republican. The Democratic party organization has gone formally and officially “wet” in 11 States, most of them large States with large delegations in Congress and | large nal conventions for | the momination ol idential candi- dates. The Democratic 'y organiza- is committed to of the pro- hil amendment or to gome varia- tiom of repeal or to some $art of wet ¥ ‘ 3 . ess to be elected next Tuesday will before it ends do a good deal of talkin, about gold and silver. True, this is not now primarily an American problem, as it was in the early 1890's. when it pro= vided the major part of our political discussion. As a world problem, how- t affect America. Paradox- possible it may affect us favorably. In any event the writer of this article has been interested to ob- serve the reappearance in Washington and elsewhere of elderly gentlemen who wish to talk about silver and pold— men whose early emergence into polif dates back to 1906 and the earlier perg of the great controversies about sil and gold. i Fast Advance Is Made By Radio In Canada R. R Bennett, Conservative leader, recently opened his Dominion campaign at Winnipeg, speaking over the great- est national radio hookup that had ever carried a political speech in that country. This, likely to be duplicated later on by Premier Mackenzie King, Liberal chieftain, makes the present general election the most unique in Canada’s history. The broadcasting of the speech was heard by some 423,- 567 Canadians who secured licenses from the federal authorities to have a radio receiving set. In fact, radio continues to advance in popularity Canada, the number of radios in use this year being 125,000 more than last Vicar Bars Women In Men’s Clothing St. Joseph, a church newly erected in Grenoble, France, a great center for mountain ciimbing, seems to have favor of tourists who come in great numbers to attend mass or pray on their way to or from an expedition. The women naturally wear their alpinist costumes, with breeches and woolen stockings, but the vicar of St. Joseph has placed a notice in the church u{; ing that “Women are not allowed attend holy mass in men’s costumes.” This is rather hard on the pious lady mountaineers.