Evening Star Newspaper, November 30, 1930, Page 45

EDITORIAL SeECTION he Sundiy Star, Part 2—8 Pages WASHING TON, D. 0, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 30, 1930. Special Articles EXTRA CONGRESS SESSION DEPENDS UPON DEBATES Time Needed for Necessary Appropria- tion Bills May Ea With Other Questions. BY MARK SULLIVAN, ONGRESS meets Monday. In the present state of public feeling the principal curiosity about it is whether it will do anything about _prohibition. PFrom over the country there have been coming to Washington questions which t that the askers expect some- immediate—and _drastic—to be done in the direction of change in the present laws dealing with liquor. Some of the questions sent to Washington, and rumors brought here by apparently responsible and thoughtful persons, in. dicate the l:“xast,em:e ofa Wldespl;;;d feel- , especially in wet territory, that pro- hibition is on the eve of being ended or drastically modified. ‘That question can be answered very briefly. The Congress that meets on Monday will do nothing whatever about prohibition. Perhaps the broadness of that assertion ought to be qualified just| a little. It is a fact that the Wicker- sham Commission for the study of pro- hibition and allied questions is in ses- sion. It is probable the commission ‘will make some recommendations before this Oon'sr’;s! ends. It is just faintly possible t Congress may act on some of those recommendations, They will not do so as respects any recommenda- tions that may be revolutionary—if there are any such. The net of it is that as respects pro- hibition the country should understand that the Congress meeting next Monday | fe is the old Congress, the one that has been in existence and in session most of the last year. It is not the new Con- gress. Being the old Congress, it has substantially the same line-up on pro- hibition as this Congress has always had. That is to say, it is a dry Con- fu—m\msly dry. There is hardly the faintest possibility of its taking any step about prohibition. AIl the rumors about breweries getting ready to open have no substance in fact if they are based on the idea that beer is to be legalized or that anything similar is to be done about prohibition during this Congress. Has 94 Days to Live. ‘With that question out of the way, the Congress meeting on Monday can be considered with respect to the things it must do or ought to do—and the addi- tional things it may do. It is the final session of the old Co . It on Monday, and it must end automati- cally at 12 o'clock March 4. Its total life, fore, is 94 days, plus the 10 or 20 minutes grace it will take for itself through the ancient device of the clerk turning the hands of the clock back on March 4. From these 94 days must be deducted 13 Sundays, as well as a recess of about at Christmas time and two tion | €lected this month should meet in Jan- year. Since this is un- thinkable, would result, if Congress not pass the appropriation bills, that the President would be obliged to call ial session not of this Con- gress, for it dies on March 4, but of the new Congress, the one elected this After the possibility or the probabil- ity that the President may be forced, much ssion rages. One might almost say that the principal in- terest attaching to the Congress meet- ing next Monday is whether it will so eonduct itself as to make necessary or no. make necessary a special session of the new Congress. Time Ample If Delay Is Avoided. ‘The coming session has 72 days of Hfe, and that is ample for the flaasln the regular appropriation bills, pro- ir passage is not delayed. Con- gress, when it is in the mood to do 80, any 4lons, Government employes would cease to receive their salaries at the end of the flw‘l‘l should no appropriation bills at the rate| one every two or three days. Prac- tically all the work on_ appropriation is done in advance by the respec- committees. Always, however, there 4s in one or more of the appropriation bills some provision -~ other that pro- vokes discussion. The discussion is sometimes prolonged. In the naval ap- tion bill that will be presented to Congress, for example, there will & provision for new construction. Out of that provision will arise some discussion, inspired partly by those who think the United States should at once begin and as early as possible com- plete building up its Navy to the full strength fixed in the recent naval treaty with Great Britain. appropriation bills could be passed most comfortably within th. life of the session. But there are other matters; there are matters of legisla- tion. Some are indispensable; umm not indispensable, are ardently desis by factions within Congress. Both the indispensable legislation and that which 18 desired by factions will consume time. And the consumption of time may be such as leave toward the end of the D¢ session not enough time to pass the sppropriation bills. The question whether there will be necessity for a special session of the new Congress will continue to be the subject of excited discussion up to withir 24 hours of March 4. Appointments May Delay. One of the inc spensable matters— one of the matters that must Le at- tended to—is the confirmation by the %! lic ownership of mublic utllities or some approximation to that status has won , for example, says he will o] the confirmation of M;. Meyer. e it , Senator Brookhart :‘nmm:m hav little support from his fellow Senators, for most of even the more radical recognize Mr. Meyer's fitness and chmc'fi; Bu; a‘zr b;:.\ax in his on will not na an objection of even Th\: om this ] e | a special session soon after March | thus | t| question is forced to a roll call in the| - | coming session his bill will win. sily Be Taken Up do with unemployment, especially those making appropriations called for by this condition, are imperative. There must be among other bills, appropriations for additional Government construction projects which have been brought for- ward to consume labor otherwise un- employed. Progressives Unafraid of Special Session. All the subjects for congressional ac- tion so far mentioned could readily be cared for in the 72 working days that the new lon have. But other matters will be pressed forward. Some will be pressed before the routine mat- ters are attended to. They will be pressed by advocates who now shrewc'y realize that the best way to get action on the bills they desire is to urge them early and continuously, and thus bring about a condition which imperils the| appropriations. In the strategy with which this sort of thing will be done bills will be pressed with the tacit threat that unless they are passed some | appropriatio . bills will be held up and an extra session will be forced. One whole faction of the Senate—the Pro- gressive Republicans—have no fear of a special session. On the contrary, most of them want one. And the, roughly, 15 Senators who compose the Progres- sive group are enough—the rules of the Senate being what they are—to be able to talk about their bills at such length as to make a special session inevitable. The insurgent Republicans say, in ef- fect: “Permit us to have a prompt vote on | these bills we desire and there need be no special session.” Turning the charge | |of delay back against their foes, they | | will add: “If you resist these measures that we desire, then you, the resisters, will be responsible for the consump- tion of time and for the ensuing peril to appropriation bills and for the bring- ing about of a special session.” Norris Aims at “Lame Ducks.” Among the projects that will be forced to the from,:ly Progressive Re- blicans one is called in current polit- cal slang the “lame-duck” amendment to the Constitution. “Lame duck” is the word for a Congressman who has been defeated in the election this month, but who, by virtue of the Con- stitution, continues to sit in the session from Monday next until March 4. This condition has long irked Senator George ‘W. Norris of Nebraska. To state it one way, he does not think it best that a who has been rejected by his constituents in November should continue to legislate from December until March. T put the same thing the other way around, Senator Norris thinks that when the country on No- vember 4 elected a new Congress that Congress ought to take over control of the Government. To effect the change he wishes Sena- tor Norris years ago wrote a constitu- tional amendment. The effect of it, in part, would be that the new Congress uary. Senator Norris’ bill would rear- range the dates and periods of congres- sional sessions. But the net of it is| that an old Congress would expire with| the election and the newly elected one would take control of the Government. As it is, under the present system, the Congress elected on the 4th of this ‘month will not step into power for more than a year after that election, not until December 7, 1931 (unless a special ses- sion should be called earlier). Senator Norris thinks that this long period elapsing between the mandate of the people and the giving effect to that mandate in Congress is wrong, and the aim of his proposed amendment is to remedy it. About the merit of the proposed| change literally thousands of pages of | the Congressional Record are filled with argument. It is, as might be expected, largely a matter of conservative and anti-conservative, The conservatives say the present system is wise; that it would | not be well for a Congress elected, as it| must be in the heat of controversial| questions, to begin within two months | to legislate on these questions. Con- servatives, in short, are partial to the existence of a 13-month period between | an election and the stepping into power of the smen elected. Senator Norris’ amendment_has passed the Senate several times. The House| has always either rejected it or ignored it. Senator Norris says now that th e/ have been sufficlent years of argument | and that there should be a final vote| on his amendment in the preseni ses- sion. The Nebraska Senator is able to say with justice that nothing is needed except a roll call; that there need be no| | debate, because everything that can be| n‘m on either side has already been sald. Muscle Shoals Controversy Looms. On the other mattc pressed by Pro- gressive Republicans and not, so to speak, on the regular program. the most | coutroversial by far is Muscle Shoals. | Senator Norris has already pressed through the Senate last Spring a bill| for Government operation of Muscle Shoals and for preferential sale of the| electricity to municipalities. His bill is essentially a Government ownership and | Government operation bill. The House, | however, has rejected Sepator Norris’ | bill. The House has written a measure, of its own, providing that Muscle Shoals leased to a private corporation and | be operated as private business is o;m--ri ated. | ‘Thus the two bills stand as the com- ing session opens. Superficially it is a mere deadlock between House and Sen- ate. Fundamentally it is a_deadlock| between the principle of public opera- tion of a public utility and the con- trasting principle ~ 1t the Government should refrain from entering into busi- ness operations lx’|dl from competing with private corporations. ' { Senator Norris thinks that if this| thinking this the Nebraska Senator has fair reason. He has seen in many State elections in November the principle of public ownesship of public utilities make sensational advances. In New York, Tennessee, Nebraska, Oregon, Idaho and victorles. Senator Norris undoubtedly thinks that other Senators and mem- bers of the House have observed these f,’:"“’“‘ as cnrelu;l,y as h:“hu K‘:\ good reason himse! | that if he can force Mn to a roll | call in this session it may win. again, Senator Norris is able to argue that there need be no consum >nough to call le to say that already fter session, there has been argument—ar- gument both about Muscle Shoals spe- gfl'&&lz’ufl about the broad principle ved. ‘Would Press Debenture Plan. ‘There is one other measure the Pro- For | where Ireland’s Bark Presses On Free State Finds Itself Passing Safely Through Shoals of Depression—On Sound Financial Basis BY WILLIAM T. COSGRAVE, President of the Irish Free State. T is very difficult within the limits of a short article to deal in any- thing like an exhaustive manner with the various phases of the development of the Irish Free State since its establishment in 1922, and this review must therefore of necessity be superficial. In view of the prominence which world economic problems are receiving at the moment I should perhaps begin by a reference to the economic policy of the Irish Free State and then pass briefly on to other matters. The treaty of 1921 effected a revolu- tionary change in the position of the Irish Free Statz not only from the point of view of its international status but also from an economic standpoint. Prior to 1921 Great Britain and Ire- land constituted a fiscal entity. There were no customs barriers between the two islands; the internal distribution of imported goods and of home prod- ucts was subject to no direction other than the normal laws of supply and de- mand. Revenue went into a common pool out of which was borne the cost of state services on a scale theoretically uniform throughout. Area Naturally Agricultural. Various causes combined to make the area that now is the Irish Free State preponderatingly agricultural. The dis- tribution of natural resources, the presence of mineral wealth, geograph- ical considerations and, in the case of certain industries, climatic_conditions operated to fix in Great Britain the | large centers of manufacture and com- merce. Ireland is less favorably sup- plied with mineral resources; her soil and climate are particularly suitable for agricultural production. r industrial development in the past had been dis- couraged and retarded by legislation directed toward the subordination of the interests of Irish manufacturers to those of her richer and more powerful | neignbor. The inevitable result was that the Irish Free State, when it came into existence in 1922, found that the eco- UPPER: A REVIEW OF IRISH TROOPS. LOWER: PRESIDENT COSGRAV E. nomic balance between agriculture on the one hand and industrial produc- tion on the other was heavily weighed inst the latter. This condition of affairs, unsatisfactory as it was at any time, became a matter of serious con- cern when the state emerged as a self- contained unit and undertook complete responsibility for state service and finances. Its importance was empha- sized when, as a result of post-war con- dition, the prices of agricultural uce slumped to an alarming extent in comparison with the fall in the prices of other commodities. The tariff policy of the Irish Free State was designed with the object of establishing an eco- nomic equilibrium. Two Things Determine Tariff. The selection of the articles to be pratected by tariffs was dictated by two main considerations—first, the likeli- hood that home production of any par- ticular article could expand sufficiently in a reasonable time to supply the home market and, second, the necessity of in- terfering as little as possible, by reason of enhanced prices, with the cost of living. Every application for & tariff is now examined in detail by an inde- pendent commission which reports to the government on the merits of the case. The principal tariffs in force are on wbwe?. tlvn“ and shoes, candles; soap, confectionery, apparel, hosiery, blankets and furniture. > A comparison of the value of pro- tected goods imported during each of the five years from 1924 to 1928 shows a steady decline from £11,750,000 in 1924 to less than £8,500,000 in 1928, and the increase in employment afforded by the exzjulon of protected industries is estimated at 13,000 persons on a basis of full-time employment. Other steps taken for the encourage- ment of industrial development include the provision of credits by way of r- antee on loans for capital expenditure on plant and machinery, tance by way of subsidy to a beet sugar factory and the supply of electrical power by means’ of the Shannon hydro-electric scheme. The partial development stage of this scheme was completed year (Continued on Fourth Page.) War Danger Is Minimized Czech Foreign Minister Also Confident Europe Will Limit Arms. BY JOHN ELLIOTT. RAGUE.—Despite the storm clouds now lining the European horizon, Dr. Eduard Benes, for- eign minister of Czechoslovakia, predicted with optimism, in an interview he gave here to the corre- spondent of The Washington Star and New York Herald Tribune, that within the next two years the nations would agree at Geneva to limit their armed forces on land and sea. Although the agreement he foresees would in all likelihood represent only a success “in part” and would probably be based on a mutual pledge not to in- crease armaments, Dr. Benes declared today that it would register an “epoch- making step toward the goal of disarm- ament,” like the step taken in the Washington Naval Treaty of 1921, and would be followed by further and gradual reductions in the world’s armies and navies, with all the nations agree- ing to proportionate reductions in their armaments. Dr. Benes predicted also, and with similar confidence, the advent within 50 years of a European union built on foundations both economic and polit- ical, a union which would relegate the agitation for treaty and frontier revi- sion so violently disturbing in the Old ‘World today to that state which Grover Cleveland once described as “innocuous desuetude.” Speaks With Authority. ‘The services which Dr. Benes has rendered to the cause of disarmament during many years at Geneva entitle him to speak on the subject with an authority such as few other European statesmen can command. Foreign min- ister of his country ever since its re- vival in 1918, this Czechoslovak states- man was the author of the ill-fated Geneva protocol which was adopted by the historic 1924 Assembly of thé League of Nations with the object of bringing about speedy disarmament. Dr. Benes had taken a conspicuous part also every year in the deliberations of the Assembly’s Third Commission, which deals with the vexed problem of reducing the world’s military establish- ments. The correspondent spoke with Dr. Benes in the rooms of the foreign min- istry at the celebrated Hradcany Palace, the great seventeenth century religious conflict known as the Thirty House. The Progressive especially Senator Borah, w bring the debenture plan up in coming session. They think that, as in the case of Muscle Shoals, members who formerly opposed the debenture plan nay have been led to see a new light by the elections. The debenture plan, however, is not likely to come up. The Progressive Re- publicans, as an organized group, are confined to the Senate. There is no similcr organized group in the House, and the debenture plan, being a matter which affects revenues, in a sense & tariff matter, belongs in that class of legislation which only the House can originate. This by no means ends the contro- versial matters that ruay be introduced into the coming session. More than enough have been mentioned, however, to consume the session’s time. If Muscle Shoals bill should be pressed forward, if the “lame duck” amendment blicans, d like to .| to the Constitution should be pressed, and especially if there should be a Years' War began, when indignant Protestant nobles of Bohemia threw two tyrannical Catholic and imperial councilors from windows of the castle. When asked for his views on the present prospects of an international the | disarmament agreement being reached, now that the League's preparatory dis- armament commission is meeting at Geneva, Dr. Benes sald: ‘Wants Conference Called. “The present international situation advocates of disarmament, it must be confessed. We have always contended that moral disarmament is required, and electoral successes such as those of the Hitler movement in Germany tionalist spirit have not helped to pro- duce that atmosphere of confidence which is so essential for attainment of a disarmament pact. “Nevertheless, personally believe that a definite disarmament conference the | ought to be called either in November, 1931, or in March, 1932. “For 10 years the League of Nations with the disarma. League some pacifists have jibed at the in Europe is not quite encouraging for | bling and the growth elsewhere of ultra-na- | chi EDUARD BENES, PREMIER OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA. down on this issue. A definitive dis- armament conference should be con- voked, even if it should lead to no agreement. Failure itself would be pref- erable to further delay and procrastina- tion. For a failure would at least clear the air by, first, exposing to the world the nation or ,’roup of nations responsi- ble for lack of success in the efforts at isarmament or by showing also all those who talk about disarmament and have other intentions; and secondly, by showing us where we stand and ena- us to take the necessary counter measures. Expects Success at Last. “But I do not believe that this con- ference will fail. On the contrary, the ances are that it will lead to an agreement in part, such as sprang from Dart - agreement wil_gmoet likély_taks agreemen mosf of a pledge by the nations concerned to limit their military estab- lishments to existing standards. Such an international pact, not to increase armies and w:r equipment, will register ‘mal of comedy’ and at the hypocrisy of Euro- | general and tant factor in bringing about the limi- tation agreement. The nations of Eu- rope simply canmot afford to kee) spending more and more money on defense budgets. It will mean bank- ruptcy for them if they do so continue. But another and contributing factor is the London naval agreement of this year. “That treaty is bound to have a strong ychological effect. For, now that the leading naval powers have agreed among themselves to restrict the size of their navies, the land powers will have no excuse for not limiting the size of their armies. I do not anticipate that the London naval agreement will be nulli- fled by the workings of the ‘safeguard- ing clause,’ for I am confident that both PFrance and Italy eventually also will sign the entire treaty.” At this point the correspondent re- marked that certain elements in Ger- many are declaring that if the allies of the World War did not redeem their “promise” to disarm, the Reich would be entitled to arm up to the level of its former enemies. Explains German Rights. “That is not so,” Dr. Benes replied. “Article 8 of the League Covenant obli- gates the member states to disarm to the lowest point compatible with their national safety. But each sovereign state is left to decide what constitutes this lowest point. Juridically speaking, Germany, in the event of a breakdown of the disarmament negotiations, would have no legal right to raise its own military establishment beyond the size set by the treaty of Versailles. But a political conflict could, of course, be provoked because of it. Nevertheless, the Covenant of the League imposes upon the former allles a moral obliga- tion to reduce their own armaments, and in carrying out the present disarm- ament pourparlers, through the League, we are seeking to fulfill this moral obligation.” Dr. Benes expressed the view that an; probably not affect trained reserves. Natlons like the United States, with its amicable neighbors, Canada and Mexico, might, he said, safely forego universal mi g, whereas in the case of countries like Czechoslovakia, Jugo- slavia, Poland, Belgium and Rumania some “I’Y!?Am of conscription was un- avoidable. ‘The attention of Dr. Benes was then called to the alarmist utterances re- ten, Republican, of of the House Naval Comm! by | changed Early War Doubted. “I do not belleve in the imminence of a great conflict in Euzope,” Dr. Benes . “In the first place, another eat war would plunge Europe into bol- on | prestige BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. HE obvious failure of the imperial conference is clearly an event of worid importance. Already it is manifest that Europe sees in it the proof that the post- war effort of Britain to escape European entanglements and substitute imperial for Continental interests has broken down. And as a consequence there is the feeling that the prospects| of Briand's Pan-European scheme are looking up again after a recent fright- ful decline. This impression is likely to spread even more generally if the Indian round table goes the way of the imperial conference. Economic Rejection Causes Break. ‘What is odd about the imperial con- ference is that the issue which proved fatal was not raised by any demand of & dominion for a recognition of its right to secede, to have its own diplo- matic staff or to get rid of a mass of surviving laws which belong to the | Stone Age, when dominions were still colonizs. All the political questions raised |:Jroved quite lacking in dynamite. e T rejection of a dominion proposal in the economic sphere. At the basis of the new British con- ception of a commonwealth made up of all the dominions and the mother country has been the idea of some form wall inclosing the common- wealth. This has ranged from the ex- treme idea of imperial free trade, which is the Beaverbrook-Rothemere slogan, to imperial preference, which to a de- gree exists at the present moment, but only on the dominion side; that is, the | dominions give but do not receive pref- erential favors. Concerns Are Different. But the dominions are not in the least prepared to agree to any imperial free trade system, permitting British manu- factures to compete on equal terms with their own, which would spell ruin for the dominion industries. And the pres- ent British Government—and Labor in this is backed by the Liberals—is not ready to put a duty on foreign food- stuffs, amounting to a tax on British fatally handicap Subjected to the acid test of an im- perial conference, the whole empire conception has broken down on the economic side. And this is a fact of very far-reaching significance. For if the political interests of the several dominions and the mother country are divergent—as has been made clear in such episodes as the Turkish crisis— and the economie concerns are different, then what remains is obviously only the sentimental circumstance. British Influence Has Suffered. Today it is simple to underestimate this sentimental factor. It is very real. It might avail to bring dominion sup- to Britain in a new hour of peril, that of 1014. But, nevertheless, ble than that it mcmmmflmmmhfi ab- sorbed in their American, A’ lems. the Biitish pean commitments, an antipathy cal with that of the United States. a consequence British influence and in have suffered. And at_the present moment not only is this influence at its lowest point since 1914, but the European situation itself is more menacing than at any moment, at least since the occupation of the . Britain Must Consider Europe. Clearly, if it were possible to con- struct some imperial edifice including all the British dominions, bound to- gether by both economic and political ties and economically self-contained, this would be for Great Britain a far more attractive and safer assoclation than any to be found in Europe. And the empire thus fused would be the most powerful unit on the planet. But if such a commonwealth is not to come off, if politically and econom- ically it is out of the question, then one day Britain must make up her mind to return to Europe and play her part in the continent nearest to her. And if she postpones such return too long, she may be caught in the common disaster which a new war would bring to all. Until Britain does return it is exces- sively difficult to see any hope cf & con- solidation of peace in Europe. The deadlock between France and Italy over naval strength and the ever-increasing bitterness between the two countries can only be halted when Britain is ready to declare her position in any prospective conflict. And the same is true as far as Germany is concerned. ‘While British influence in the world has been reduced as a consequence war by treaties had been altered after signature of those instruments, as other provisions of them have been, Dr. Benes explained that national prestige was here at stake, and insisted that any at- tempt to tamper with the existing boundaries would merely lead to con- fusion and conflict. for his solution of existing difficulties in Europe, Dr. Benes an- swered confidently with the two words, “European union.” He went on to say: Union Seen in Fifty Years. “It will not come tomorrow or the next day, but within 50 years it will be here. You have in your American Union 48 Statés, and you do not have any disputes or agitation about fron- tlers or boundaries, do you? “So, when Europe is federated the frontier squabbles of today will be for- gotten. Tariff walls will be broken down and goods will circulate over this continent as freely as they are now ex- within the borders of the United States. “Pan-Europe will be both a political and an economic union, although not 80 centralized. and unified, from the viewpoint of nationality and adminis- tration, as is the American U e Dr. Benes said that he did not expect at this time a German application for a moratorium on reparations obliga- . Cancellation or redunc‘t.lon of the from | 5% BRITISH PARLEY FAILURE MAY AID EUROPE’S AFFAIRS Present Discords Laying Bases for Even- tual War May Be Turned Into Forces for Harmony. alike of the rise of the United States and the economic disasters of British t-war history, British importance in rope is potentially as great as ever. If Britain has recognized the right of the United States to naval parity, she still remains mistress of waters, both in the North Sea the Mediterranean. During the last Tory government, when Chamberlain, as Secretary of state for foreign affairs, was the part- ner of Briand and Stresemann in in- Labor came to power and Strese- mann died all was changed. And as & recalt Britain has been condemned to sit helplessly by while situation worsened steadily. Able Foreign Minister Needed. ‘Today in the chaotic situation that exists it is impossible for France, Ger- many or Italy to lead in Europe, because all three countries are divided by im- passable barriers. On the other eak came through a British | i tige in would most. tuwmlnc:lely mxump:n ground. The British dominions are resolved, like the United States, never to assume any responsibility for the defense of peace in Europe. Britain, as long as she is dominated by the commonwealth conception, is condemned to sacrifice her European policy to her imperial conception. in cept United States is out of the picture. War in Ten Years Unlikely. it getting into positions and all peoples into states of mind which are in the long run incompatible system of orderly peace. Th: becoming filled with the clamor of rival nationalisms. Being Lai ‘What is disturbing is that the idating peace, of finding dur- uation is critical in present drift must be comes increasingly hard to time and national theses become . And, as I have said, the friends of peace in all coun- i s, 1, e, vt mi 8] en L. us wele the failure of the Imperial Conference as & of renewed British interest in an affairs. (Copyright, 1930.) I e g A Work in Earthquake Hindered by Custom A tradition of centuries’ standing is handicapping Italian engineers in thefr work of reconstructing the buildings destroyed by the recent earthquake in the region east of Naples. Dozens of new homes have already been con- structed to replace the loosely built old dwellings destroyed by the quake re- cently. They are pleasant structures with several rooms, far more comfort- able in every way than the buildings which they replace, and one would nat- urally expect the peasants to acclaim the work and to struggle for the hand- some new homes. On the contrary, many peasants have utterly refused to live in them, one of objections be- ing that farm animals, which generally live in the same buildings as their own- ers in the hilltop communities, are not furnished accommodations in the new structures. In many othér ways are too “new-fangled” for the medieval- minded le who inhabit the Eventually, however, they have no other habitations, the ple are expected to retreat from stubborn position and to magnanimity of the government thanks. ) the with Honolulu to Become Port for Antiques Honolulu, “crossroads of the Pacific,” will shortly be a port of entry for ane tiques, just as is New York or San Fran- cisco or various other American citles. The Treasury Department, in an order designating entry for antiques (which are m more than 100 years as works of art le | old), omitted Honolulu. an immediate protest. 1 T gfi 48