Evening Star Newspaper, December 21, 1930, Page 37

EDITORIAL SECI'ION he Sunday Star. Part 2—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 21, 1930. BILLBOARDS WOULD MAR CAPITAL A Movement to Clear Highways for V S 1932 MECCA ting Thousands Demands Co-operation of Citizens Note—Washington, among the most beautiful of the worid’s national Capitals, 2oon will be the mecca of hundreds of thousands of Americans coming to show Romor to our First President during the celebration of the bicentennial of his birth. They should find the approach highways as beautiful as the city itself. BY ISABELLE FLORENCE STORY. T will not be long before Washington is the center of a Nation-wide cele- bration. Beginning on February 22, 1932, and lasting until Thanksgiving day of the same year, the people of the entire country will celebrate the birth of George Washington, 200 years earlier. At that time hundreds of thou- sands are expected to visit Washington and the surrounding country that is so laden with historic associations con- nected with our First President and with sc many events prominent in our early history. ‘These visitors will find Washington a beautiful city, one worthy to be the capital of a great nation. Unless effec- tive steps are taken soon, however, the beauty of the Capital itself will be dimmed and tarnished by tawdry ap- roaches, entirely out of keeping with le dignity that should belong Yo the seat of our National Government. Certainly there are in general two main types of view to be obtained along our rural roads—scenery and advertis- matter. The advertising matter is pretty much the same throughout the country, and for that matter cannot begin to ceme up to the standard and variety and profusion appearing con- stantly in our national magazines. On the other hand, the scenery in the vi- cinity of Washington is unique and very beautiful when nature is left untouched. There seems no reason to doubt that visitors coming here in 1932 will much prefer to see the natural scenery that George Washington enjoyed to reading signs telling them to buy gas they per- haps are already using, or to go to a hotel in which they already have reser- vations—or to which probably they would not go, no matter how many signs they read. Capital Model for Nation. Admitted, billboards and other high- way blemishes exist throughout the country around the homes from which many of our visitors are coming. All the more reason for giving them a treat in the way of delightful, unobstructed landscapes. _Also, the National Capital should set the example in roadside pro- tection for other communities t follow, instead of, as at the present, falling far behind a number of them So that the people of Washington to Succeed. with a wide grin, accompanied by the words: “Safe drivers, perpetuate this smile!” * Evidently the designer of the billboard is completely oblivious to the fact that while the motorist is reading the sign his car may be hitting some- body or going off the rcad. Distressing 2s conditions are, at times some of the signboard situations are really amusing. For instance, there is 2 board nailed to a tre> along a road coming into Washington frem ~the South on which has been crudely let- tered: “Prepare to meet thy God.” A | few feet bolow it an ambitious advertis- |ing sign reads: ‘“Long-distance mov- ing.” One wonders whether the ex- pressman intended to be facetious. In another place one of the homemade | signs reads, “Get ready for eternity,” |and below it is another sign extolling the merits of a certain oil guaranteed | to_give rolief in cascs of severe burn. | " Billboards, big and little, organized | and individual, however, are only one | | phase of the roadside problem con- | | fronting us. Gas filling stations pre- | sent_another. They nced not, for at- tractively designed stations carefully placed do not detract in any way from the highway. It is the totally un- necessary number of stations and the lack of attention in design and lapd- scaping that offends. n some cases the stations themselves are well enough designed, but their atrocious color scheme shrieks to high | heaven. Again an unobtrusive station is ruined by a battery of signs placed around it. And worst of all, some- times old buildings, hardly more than | shacks, are utilized as filling stations | and their walls covered with signs of all_descriptions. Wayside refreshment stands also are a necossity, but here again some thouzht should be given to the tyne of buflding that may be permitted, as | well as the number. Only too often | they are ugly shacks, hastily thrown | together for Summer use. | 'The voluntary action several years | ago of the Standard Oil Co. of Cali- fornia in_ destroying its signboards | along the Pacific Coast, in which more than $100.000 had been invested, brought out two points which oeople interested in roadside beautification in other portions of the country should ponder carefully. One was that it | showed that big business orzanizations | are not always the soulless things they re painted, and that their co-opera- fon often may be gained if the situa- tion. is presented to them in a dispas- | sionately effective way. The other was |the effect on the public. Realization of the good results obtained from the might know the exact conditions of the | voluntary signboard withdrawal caused Capital approaches, in order that means | such a favorable public reaction that of rectifying unsatisfactory conditions | the business of the company increased might be planned and put into effect, | to such an extent that its officials con- a survey of the main approach high- ways leading to the District of Colum- bia recentlv was made under the auspires of the American Civic Associa- tion by Mrs. W. L. Lawton, chairman of the National Council for the Protec- tion of Roadside . The report will be published by the American Na- ture Aasdociation. Mrs. Lawton. who has studied highway conditions throughout the country, amply illus- trates the need for prompt and drastic action by photographs she has taken along all the leading approach roads. The highways themselves, from_ the standpoint of safety and comfort, have been greatly improved during the past | few years and road construction and | reconstruction are going forward rap- 1dly as part of the preparations for the Bicentennizl Celebration. Their excel- | lent condition only serves to throw into | unpleasant prominence the heterogene- | ous collection of signboards, big and | little, filling stations of all kinds and sizes and colors, many of them plastered with signs, and shacks in various stages of dilapidation, which crowd their rights of way. ¢ In the course of Mrs. Lawton’s sur- vey counts were made of the number of billboards and filling stations along the | main approach roads. Those in incor- porated towns passed en route were not counted. There was nothing unusual in twenty or thirty signs to a mile being | listed, and in one important stretch | thirty-nine _appeared in one mile. | Sometimes the filling stations averaged two or three to the mile, certainly more | than necessary, even with nearly the | entire Nation on wheels. Example at Bladensburg. An outstanding_example of billboard | desecration is at Bladensburg, where at | the crossroads stands a peace monu- ment dedicated to the World War heroes. Vying with the monument for the attention of the incoming motorist is a series of great advertising signs. Totally out of place as commercial ad- vertising is at a point where the Nation uses to honor its brave soldiers. the fault is more glaring here because the signs were put up after the monument ‘was erected. In the District itself, fortunately, no mew advertising signs may ever be erected along the highways. That, however. dces nct help to remove the signs already in place when the bill- board law was passed, but these gradu- | ally will be retired as the land is used | for building. Earnest efforts are being made to se- | cure the co-operation of nearby coun- | ties and States in passing remedial | legislation to correct the billboard evil | and other disfigurements, and undoubt- edly much will ultimately be accom- hed through this means. But the Ei v necessarily moves slowly, while time waits for no man or legislature. The greatest hope for the restoration of the beauty of the highways leading into Washington in time for the great bicentennial celebration lies with the citizens of Washington and of neigh- boring communities. Public opinion, backed by public pressure, can work wonders in a short space of time. Already much effective work is being | accomplished along this line by mem- | bers of the Garden Club of America and other organizations and by State officers. In the limited time available, however, it is necessary for every good | citizen to put his or her shoulder to | the wheel to get the desired results. | And this is work in which women, and | particularly the homemakers, can do | particularly effective work. Unsightly obstructions along the road- side not only are objectionable from an esthetic and landscape point of view, but oftentimes they are a positive men- | ace to safe driving. So beautiful road- sides also mean safe roadsides. There | can be no question but that the lining of | our highways with huge signs, particu- lerly at curves, where strict attention to driving is required, presents a big hazard to drivers. This also applies to the placing of signs, large or small, at any point where warning signs are Among Mrs. Lawton’s pictures is one showing a particularly dangerous rail crossing with four warning signs or grouped around it. And around behind the warning signs, com- ly dwarfing and d'stracting atten- from them, are encrmous signs. Other photographs Ah\"'l0 Pinkers so arms and tel. ;.tldered it one of the best pieces of | advertising they had ever done. Essay Prizes Featured. Later the interest aroused by this action led the Standard Oil Co. to sponsor four “Seenic or Sign-ie?” con- tests for the purpose of arousing pub- lic opinion against the defacement of Pacific Coast scenery. Prizes were given for essays on how to eliminate objectioneble signs and on why they should bz removed, as well as for slogans and photographs best depicting actual defacement. In connection with the above, it is interesting to mote that four big oil companies operating in the locality of Washington do not advertise by means | of billboards placed along the high- ways. These are. Cities Service, Texaco, Sunoco, and Conoco. | Now to return to the citizen co- | operation necessary to make a success | of roadside beautification in the vicin- ity of the National Capital in the short space of a year. Perhaps the slogan might be adopted: Every good citizen a roadside beautician! The best part of it is that citizen co-operation in this really vital move- ment will involve comparatively little perscnal effort. There are a number of ways in which it may function to ad- vantage. Here are just a few sugges- tions which, if followed widely, will make a tide of favorable public opinion impossible to stem. 1. Adopt the plan of giving prefer- ence to commodities that are not ad- vertised along the roadside. To make this action most effective, tell your dealer why you are buying these pre- ferred commodities. When a number of people buy preferred products not advertised on the landscape this fact | will gradually sink into the consclous- |ness of the dealer and also of the | manufacturer, who will begin to real |ize the disadvantages of the wrong | | kind of advertising. Perhaps this is one of the most efficacious, yet simple, | | methods of handling the situation, 2. Buy your oils and gasoline from |such filling stations as do not consti- |tute an eyesore. The use of small | stickers bearing the slogan “I buy my gas only from the good-looking station™ has been suggested. It, too. would be !a weapon with a wallop. ‘' Even if the sticker is not used, passing by the lurid | or ramshackle station in favor of the orderly, well planned premises would bring “excellent results. In this con- nection it is interesting and quite sig- nificant to note in a recent English country magazine a full-page advertise- ment of an oil company showing a lovely bit of English countryside, ac- companied by a caption stating that the particular company “does not ad- vertise in places like this.” It happens, however, that the very same company is one of the worst offenders in this re- spect on this side of the Atlantic, evi- dently under the theory that Americans will countenance desecration of the landscape which our British cousins will not. This certainly seems to be a | case for the application of a little public | pressure! Food and Health Laws. 3. Reduce the number of hot-dog and | cheap refreshment stands by demand- | ing enforcement of pure food and health laws, When the outside of a place of refreshment bears a siovenly; ill-cared- for appearance it is difficult to believe that more care is devoted to the prep- aration of the food inside. Food con- taminated through exposure or lack of proper precautions to handling is a decided menace to the public health. 4. Urge the planting of trees and shrubbery along the roadside right-of- way, thus partially screening signs and diminishing whatever emrfiency they might have as trade-getters. In some cases this action necessitate the securing of wider rights-of-way. 5. Approach hotel managers with the Pproposition that they show civic pride and co-operation by giving up billboard advertising. Several of Washington's hotels already have agreed to do this, and at least one in Baltimore. At this writing arrangements are being made to get in touch with the local hotel assoclation in the hope that the idea may receive its support. Word has just come to Washington that the Massa- chusetts Hotel Association at its last meeting went on record against rural advertising. Pinehurst, N. C., has solved BY ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM. Listen, children and kiddies every- where! Thursday will be Christmas, and there is a conspiracy being organ- ized to kill Santa Claus. The dreadful plot has just recently been discovered. But if you will stand by me and do as say I am sure we can save dear Nobody Understanding Heart of I old Satna’s life. He is just as mnocenti | as can be, and hasn't the slightest | idea of the terrible harm they say | he is doing to the “growing mind of | whistles and drumsticks and rattles |right in two; and what do you think? the child” It is obviously gotten up and hobby horses and automobiles and | He stuck a bow and arrow in them be- | pusiness. incustry and finance in Po- by well meaning people wuoo either red wagons and mechanical dogs and i never were children, or, if they were, | cars and engines and wait for me at Science and Santa Claus Child Would End Life of Old Kriss Kringle. —From a Painting by J. D. Whiting. ON CHRISTMAS EVE A MAN WITH A REINDEER AND A WONDERFUL SLEIGH IS COMING OUT OF THE SKIES! ening Regim BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ERLIN.—At the moment of ar- riving in Berlin no single detail in newspaper and public dis- cussion is more striking than that which concerns the still recent Polish election. In the results of this election not cnly Europe gen- erally, but Germany in particular, sees cess of the October election in Ger- many. In this answer there is the promise, and even more, the threat, of a nationalistic campaign within Poland against the German minorily and its ally, the Ukrainian, within Polish fron- tiers. What the success of the Pilsudski ticket means here is clear. For the first time since Poland was restored there is in the Polish Legislature a coherent majority which is united under the leadership—indeed, under the dic- tatorship—of Marshal Pilsudski. At least 247 of the 444 members of the Sejm will henceforth take orders and obey orders. There is, for the time being at least, an end to the confusion and paralysis that have marked the legislative life of Poland for the first years of its independence. Between the method of Mussolini and that of Pilsudski there is a contrast that is striking. Mussolini, heading the march to Rome, not merely overthrew the existing Italian cabinet and became prime minister and master of Parlia- ment, but proceeded forthwith to abol- ish_the existing parliamentary system in Italy and substitute a new order, a new sort cf parliament, and, in fact, a c'cl}'nplete and untrammeled dictator- ship. Pilsudski’'s Method Stated. Ever since the coup d'etat of June, 1926, when Pilsudski seized power, he has been striving, by contrast, to legal- | ize his dictatorship under the existing form of government. Having seized | power by a military operation, the| marshal has been endeavoring to get a| parliamentary recognition of his rule.| Always, too, he has failed. In the elec- | tion of 1928 he could get but 140 seats| out of 444, and for nearly three years| he has been unable to get any legisla- tion through the Sejm. Polish political life has resolved it-| zelf into a never-ending battle between the marshal and Parliament. But the' marshal has steadily believed that the people were -on his side against the Parliament. Therefore, he has re- frained from any atiempt to overthrow the republic, to destroy its institutions, and has continued his battle to obtain ropular_indorsement. To obtain this indorsement he de- liberately resorted in the recent elec- |tion to many illcgal expedients. The |leaders of tge opposition parties were thrown into Jail, the tickets of hostile rarties in districts where their major- ity was assured were invalidated. In cgions where the presence of a racial minority insured a hostile majority re sort was made to tactics that aroused protests alike on the part of Ukrainian and German elements. ’ Effect of German Election. | What the outcome of this illegal |method employed to obtain a legal |siatus might have been but for the German electicn and the Fascist explo- the Polish answer to the Fascist suc-| | sicn remains a problem. On the whole, POLAND FOUND STRONGER AFTER GERMAN ELECTION Threat of Fascist Program Seen Strength- e of Marshal Pilsudski. umphed. Poland not unnaturally took alarm. The question of the frontiers and of national security entered into the campaign. As a consequence Pil- sudski won a victory which, -nno:g: doubtless due in part to illegal meth was in the main the result of this naticnal outburst of apprehension. Polish Position Clarified. | . What the Pilsudski victory means to | Europe in general and Germany in par- | ticular is plain. Poland is resolved un- der no circumstance to consent to any revision of her eastern frontiers, to any modification of the Polish Corridor, to any change in the boundaries in East- ern Silesia. All German political par- ties and leaders having publicly pro- | claimed that a revision of these fron- | tiers is the primary condition for a | peaceful Europe, Poland has replied by | establishing & government ready and [ willing to go to the length of war to | defend them. | The situation is actually illuminated (much further. It has been the Ggr- man estimate that Poland was an un- reasonaple and impermanent creation, a n state,” which could not long endure once the support of the allied | states was withdrawn. This view has | been to a degree weakened by reason |of the unmistakable progress Poland | has made economically and industrially | in the post-war years. Thanks in part to American loans, Poland has been able to stabilize its currency, organize its coal and iron industries, develop its | railways and in general get started as a national economic unit. On the other hand, the political in- | conerence has served to sus the German hope of an eventual relapse into that anarchy that was long ago the cause of the collapse of the older Pcland. Just as long as Parliament and Pilsudski were at war and the con- flict endured undecided Germans were able to hold the conviction that one day an inevitable collapse would follow, and then the question of the Polish Corridor and Upper Silesia could be regulated in accord with German de- sires and without the need of any war, local or general. Continue French Alliance. But now Poland has thrown its lot in with a dictator who is backed by the army, who is supported by all the ele- ments in the country that place na- tional security and unity, along with business and financial prosperity, above mere parochial political issues. For & certain number of years there will be & sirong centralized rule. This rule will, as it has already indicated, exert every conceivable kind of pressure to recuce the influence and abate the activity of the German and Ukrainian minorities within Poland, as it will continue to associate itself with France ijn general Eurcpean questions. Since no sensible German—and, in | fact, no German of any influence—de- sires war or believes it even possible for Germany to go to war in the next few years, the Polish election means that the German situation.in the East will continue to worsen and the Ger- man chance of enlisting sup- port for her revision policy will lessen. Year by year the German ents in the debatable lands of the Cq or and Upper Silesia is losing in numbers and influence. Thousands of Germans are flowing out of this region each year, tigers with about the house, and when have forgotten about it. It is one of | the Christmas tree. And I will get down | they saw me coming in those red top the most audacious conspiracies against childhood that the Society of Joy-Kill- ers and ‘realists” and “facers-of-the facts-of-life” have gotten up in years. But now let me tell yon what we will do. On Christmas morning I want you to get all your drums and horns and what is left of the red top boots with | boots with the bow and arrow they brass toes that I prayed so hard for | just turned tail and ran for their lives. Santa Claus to bring me on Christmas | _And that is just what we will do with fifty years ago—and you had better | those Joy-Killers. You meet me at the believe he brought them, too, for he |tree on Christmas morning, and we knew that if he didn't there was one | Will make a grand rush and drive little boy whose heart would just break (Continued on Fourth Pag BY ALBIN E. JOHNSON. ENEVA.—Wheat is being taken out of world politics. Recognizing that agriculture, which is synonymous with ‘Wheat where international trade is concerned, is the keystone to univer- sal prosperity and that, to use the Ru- manian proverb, “When peasants are buying every one is prospering,” the problem of rehabilitating the argricul- tural sections of the world is being tackled from at least three angles by financial, commercial, industrial and economic authorities of about 50 nations. ‘Wheat is an international commodity; the world price is fixed on the world market. On its rise and fall in value the prosperity of almost every commu- nity can be gauged. Because of this it has been more or less the plaything of national politics, as in the United States, where farm relief has become an inter- party foot ball. Likewise, in interna- and intrigued around wheat, and the common people of all countries have suffered. Experts Called by League. Determined to get at the heart of the economic depression, which is being felt by the farmers perhaps more than by any other class, the Economic Confer- ence called by the League, which is now in session, is firing the first gun toward blasting wheat out of politics. On De- cember 16 agricultural experts from al- most every European capital will meet at Rome, under the auspices of the In- ternational Institute of Agriculture, to study the European situation. Immedi- ately after New Year a similar confer- ence of overseas countries—Canada, Ar- gentina, Australia and the United States —will be held to review the crises in those countries. Then on January 14 the agricultural experts of the League's Economic Committee, of which Lloyd V. Steere of the United States Department of Agriculture is a member, will assem- ble in Geneva to determine upon direct action. To deny that the situation confront- ing the rural population of the world is serious would be preposterous. Yet the consensus in confidential reports to the League by government officials of 17 ay ricultural countries, including the United States, which will be made public soon, is that the improvement can be expected. To quote the official report from Washington to the League, for example: * * * As a matter of fact, the tional affairs statesmen have juggled | WHEAT BEING REMOVED FROM WORLD’S POLITICS between prices received and prices paid by farmers is improving, though slowly and with considerable fluctuation from year to year. Farm incomes and the returns earned on the value of farm properties in recent seasons have on the whole averaged higher than a few years back, and have become stable, ress in adjustment of production and market requirements. The movement of rural population to cities is declin- ing. Farm mortgages are still rising, but the number of farm bankruptcies s decreasing. It is probable that con- siderable improvement of short-term credit facilities will result from the growing activities of the Federal Farm Board and the Federal Intermediate Credits Bank.” Depression Causes Studied. Preliminary inquiries into the agri- cultural crisis made by experts under the supervision of the League have established many interesting facts in regard to overproduction and under- consumption, which are. the direct causes of the present depression. Overproduction.—Due to war-time stimulation and resultant high prices; increased wheat growing acreage; la- bor-saving farm machinery; efforts by various governments artificially to de- velop their agriculture through tariffs, bonuses and export bounties; the rapid recovery of peasant Russia and break- ing up of large European gstates, there- by creating thousands of new peasant agricultural units for the exploitation of hitherto unused lands. ‘Underconsumption.—Due to passing of war-time demands; closing of export markets; rapid decline in prices with- out a resultant ability to purchase; re- placement of millions of horses and mules by machinery (6,000,000 in the United States alone), thereby reducing the demand for feed; a 15 to 20 per cent in per capita consumption of flour; “dumping” on the world market by Soviet Russia and other countries of agricultural products without to production costs. All these are live factors in the uction worst is over and that steady | ulating restored; devis! ul;'ew hlndtmi u‘:e' for grains, wheat; an inter- nlflol;:l ."e':p':c of agricultural credits position of agriculture in the United States improved gradually since 1920, though as an industry agriculture obscured by signs as be almost useless. t of the nized ad- her hotel advertising roblem t- ting the various hm:l%"mn t:’u'leu (Continued on Fourth Page.) is still at a disadvantage economically, bran relatively , with other ches of um'ufiy. ‘The relationship to aid farmers as a ip; creation of | better storage fac , 50 that sur- | pluses in ly good crop y Confidential Reports of Delegates to| League Economic Conference Pre- dict Improved Situation. LUDWIG LEWISOHN WRITES TO CHAMPION INDIVIDUAL Utopian Dreamer Wields Pen to Crusade for Liberty in Personal Culture. sides for me to kill the elephants and | and their places are being taken by the |1and favored the marshal, and the same | Slavs. Any plebiscite would even now is true of the larger agrarian elements. revcal a decisive majority everywhere, | But by contrast the Socialists and the |and this condition can only intensify | peasants, who were inclined to support |in the next years under a strong Polish The rate of depreciation in farm land | glorious din. values is growing slower; there is prog- | Shrieked. usual friendly l‘:)lln be llll\':l‘efl Mm’ it dist: [ on Third Page. left the BY WILLIAM LEON SMYSER. T WAS Armistice day 12 years ago. The war had been over for a mere matter of hours. Men were just discovering that they could breathe again. From one end of Manhat- tan to the other all was one great Bells were rung. Sirens ‘Whistles blew. Strangers hugged one another in the street. whole city was mad with joy. On the subways bustle and uproar reigned . . . spontaneous conversations . . . laughter . . . shouts . . . horse play. People were letting down the barriers, loing unusual things, smiling with eager lips and sparkling eyes. On one particular uptown express it seemed to an observer that he was the only quiet man in the whole train. .He was a university professor, a writer, who per- haps was schooling himself in detach- ment. Of medium height, pallid and rather stout, he stood in his corner, swaying slightly with the motion of the car and watching those about him through heavy, half closed eyes. Only one person in the car was drunk. The quiet professor judged him to be a small tradesman. He was past middle age. His hair was graying and face was weary. For several minutes he would sit upright with a tired dig- nity. Then he would commence to droop. At the moment when his equi- librium seemed ultimately threatened, when at the next lurch of the car he must inevitably tumble into the aisle, he would: right himself with an effort, the expression would become severe and the gradual collapse would begin again. Eventually the bursts of laughter and conversation all about inspired him, too, to speech. He was argumentative, s if repeating a theme which for him had no end. “Me an American?” imaginary companion. “Sure I am. Lost a son in the war. In Flanders Fields. Just as good American as any- body else. Hundred per cent American. Sure I am.” But with that the car gave a lurch, the speaker swayed forward and crum- pled down into the aisle, and simulta- neously his horizons and his ideas changed. On the floor he ceased ex- mn his Americanism and leaned ’k_quite simply against his old place. Slowly, in a broken cadence and quav- ering voice, he began to intone: Die Bliemlein auf dem Felde . Die blichen . . , so scheen . . . so scheen . . . It was an old folksong of the German peasants, in dialect. Some one leaned forward and silenced the singer with a onition. The wildered man wuflr:elped to his feet, and finally he asked an The | “I guess I am American,” the last words floated back. | war. Hundred per center . . . bgier ¢ Professor Deeply Moved. The doors closed after him and he was gone. Before the next halt most |of the holiday makers in the car had forgotten his existence. But the quiet professor was deeply moved. Here was an individual whose childhood memo- ries and sentiments were now, at the beginning of old age, clashing with a new allegiance. Small wonder he had taken a drink. This person on the day of victory had to mourn a son killed in battle, killed by the very folk among whom he, the father, had grown to manhood. In loyalty to his son he must reject this folk. Twice bereaved, he was not only a victim of war's evitable toll of life, but also of its categorical rejection of a whole national culture. The quiet professor tried to get rid of this unpleasant incident by telling it to the first friend he met. He talked about it end he wrote about it. But he could not shake it off. It remained to weave itself into the very tissue of his thought and action. During the war he had written two books about the poets of modern Ger- many and the poets of modern France at a moment when probably very few persons were thinking of either. Al- though his books had not reached be- yond the academic and critical circles to which he was accustomed, it had been his quixotic desire to stress for every one the poetic side of these two national cultures just when only the chauvinistic _elements of both were in evidence. Now—under the sting of the drunken man in the subway—he began to write tracts and autobiographies and novels—fiery things to hit the public eye. Long before a majority of the people was ready to accept the opinion that there lay in every folk and in every individual something of value, he was flaunting it in the public eye. He wrote of the Germans, he wrote of the Jews, he wrote of cities and med whom he considered misunderstood. He wrote of himself. He became a man with a mission. Does Not Look Combative. Ludwig Lewisohn—for that is the quiet professor's name—does not look like a man with a mission. There is nothing about him to proclaim com- bativeness or & consuming ideal. I re- member once seeing him come slanting across the Boulevard Montparnasse, his overcoat blown out like a sail by the moist autumnal breeze of Paris, both his arms filled with books and prints and music, and his round face beaming. (Continued on Fourth Page.) * that's “Lost a son in the | the marshal in 1928, were this year |fore the German election even the | marshal's friends viewed the contest with anxiety. The anxiety was shared by all friends of Poland, because it was perceived that the marshal's chief reliance was upon the army, and there seemed very real possibility that if he were defeated |in the election the old soldier would at last be driven to adopt the system of a military dictatorship enforced by the bayonets of the army, which is devoted | to him. Such a division of the country could only spell confusion and eventual | disaster. All this situation changed almost overnight when the German election ister, Treviranus, speaking for the mod- erates, proclaimed the need of a revision of the eastern frontiers of Germany, and, secondly, the Fascists, with their more violent program to this end, tri- solidly arrayed against him. And be-| campaign began. First, a cabinet min- | government. Time works against the German, | then, not only in the lands surrendered | to Poland but also in Danzig and East Prussia, where insecurity is tending to promote German emigration and Polish | infiltration is beginning. ~ Moreover, | this condition is further intensified by | the rapidly declining German birth rate in the face of a Polish rate that | is now at least the double of the Ger- man. Thus for all the Germans the | issue of the Polish Corridor is not any | longer the mere question of recovering lost territory and thus restoring terri- torial unity, but it is even more the question of avoiding the eventual loss of East Prussia and of preserving the contemporary German majority in the Danzig Free State. | Thus the Polish election, following | the Fascist triumph in Germany, opens a new and still more acute phase in the whole Eastern question. (Copyright. 1930.) VIENNA.—Vienna, which tradition- ally has long been considered a free and easy place, actually has so many little | laws curbing free and easy human ac- | tions that the policemen don't know | them all. For their benefit recently an adviser of the police department, Friedrich Adler, has compiled an entire book en- titled “Vade Mecum,” a come-with-me in which hundreds of the less-known laws are set forth revealing that it is illegal to have celluloid costumes at a masquerade party and that chauffeurs of taxicabs may not light a cigarette while driving. Vienna, however, upholds its tradi- tional reputation for “gemutlichkeit” by ignoring the majority of the little laws, and even the policemen in the preface of the book are counseled to use discretion. A visitor to the Austrian capital is early acquainted with some of these smaller laws, notably the one he most frequently breaks, that which provides a two-shilling fine, on the spot, for per- sons who throw away their street car transfers. There is hardly any reason, anyway, for any one to dirty the streets 80, since at every car stop the city pro- vides a neat little post wastepaper bas- ket at exactly arm level, into which most. persons throw their transfers. One-the-Spot Fine. Another two-shilling on-the-spot fine is imposed for jumping on or off a mov- ing street car. One may pay the po- liceman the two shillings the moment one steps into the policeman’s arms, or give one’s card and later tell it to the Jjudge. Since telling it to the judge usually costs about four shillings and a loss of time, one pays to the policeman. One of the heaviest fined small of- fenses is one which a frugal operator of a beer hall or cafe is most often tempted to commit. Some patrons, but not many in these high-priced days, leave a little beer in the bottom of their glasses when they shoulder their way out of the cafe toward home. If, how- ever, the proprietor should yield to a desire to pour all these slight sips into a single glass and serve it again as fresh beer, woe betide him. The “Vade Mecum” says that a policeman may step rightup | ul the frugal pro- the locki prietos p lentally, I left-over “Free-and-Easy” Vienna Seen as Place Where Many Laws Exist to Limit Action down-and-outers, whose soul hope of intoxicated joys lies in what somebody else leaves over.. These fellows, deni- zens of back alleys, go snooping around the back doors of beer halls, and when they spot an empty keg, waiting there for the beer truck to claim it, they sneak upon it, tilt it and from the gushing bung trickles forth a slight hansel, proving that what to some seemed empty yet contains something of the old amber and arom: Of course, “hansel-tippling” is “ver- | boten™ also, but a ghod hansel-tippler is seldom caught. He is an active fel- low, blood brother, possibly, to the “tschikarretierer,” or “butt-arrester” of the city streets, the man who gets his smokes from reaching underneath other persons’ feet. School Children Denounced. | . Policemen are required, not to arrest, but to “denounce at the schools” all school children who break the law by using big brother’s monthly street car ticket, showing the age of the big brother, as a pseudo-proof at the movies, which her children under 18, that they, the transient holders, are entitled to be let in to see the show. The policemen are also empowered to see that nobody goes to a costume ball attired in highly inflammable costumes, or in costumes which imitate priests. Persons living in community houses, which are equipped with small, tem- porary cells, are warned that it is against the law for the hilarious at wedding parties, etc., to lock up any people in such cells as a joke, said joke being likely to lead somehow or other to immorality. End of Bobbed Izir Denied by Barbers ‘The bobbed-hair problem is getting serious again. Meeting in formal as- sembly the barbers and hairdressers of Vienna have passed an indignant reso- lution denying that long hair has come into fashion. Their business has suf- fered lately, so they say, because mis- chievous emissaries from Paris and be- yond have whispered propaganda for o these sips @ire, In German, kno and_ there remains in Taters of e ety = m as hansel, of long hair among the fashionable dam- sels of Vienna. So the barbers are urge reversion to e