Evening Star Newspaper, January 18, 1931, Page 32

- } "ROYALTY OF WORLD ' MEETING DIFFICULTIES | | Truly, Kings Have Fallen Upon Evil 3 Times—What Forbears Have Done. ‘Continued From First Page.) tremely important, find much to sup- besi port our theory. It is truly a mountain bassador, the late beloved “Aleck” | chain of genius that trends with its Moore nsed to tell of the reckless brav- | lofty summits through 10 generations 2ry ot King Alfonso. One morning, so | until it suddenly is ended by marriages . Moore related, the King inalstgd'mw weaker and less noble strains. that he drive with him to a nearby| Glancing casually over the chart we city where his majesty was to deliver | see such names as Louis II, “the Great an adaress to a large body of working- | Conde”; William the Silent, one of the | men. Mr. Moore inquired why the |greatest men of history; William III, King was so insistent on his going jone of England's greatest King: along. “Oh," laughed Alfonso, ‘“it|Maurice, “the greatest captain of his | would make such a good newspaper |age"; Wilhelm, “the Great Elector,” story for a king and an ambassador to founder of modern Prussia; Gaspard g0 up with the same bomb.” | 1L, renowned French admiral, and many But all these events force upon our | others, both men and wWomen, whose minds the fact that we are witnessing names are an ornament to the pages of the closing episodes in one of the | history. greatest dramas in all history, the final These northern families that sur- downfall of the royal families of Eu-|rounded Frederick (Hohenzollern) the rope. And few Americans realize what | Great with a coterie of geniuses that a stupendous drama it has been. It is|shine above those romantic centuries | a drama that stretches back over a|like a galaxy of stars, included the thousand years, back to those doughty | Montmorencies with half a dozen) forest barons of Germany, France, Rus- | notable generals; the Oranges, of which | sia, England and old Spain, who | Willlam the Silent (not silent in the emerged fighting, sword in hand, at|least, but one of the greatest orators the head of their peoples during the | of his time) and his son Maurice break-up of the old Roman Empire. the culminating figures; they were Heroic Figures Then, ‘They were those heroic figures who built up that marvelous economic and political structure of feudalism and threw over it all the glamour of knight- hood and the romance of chivalry. Men they were, who were ready at a mo- ment’s call to spend their last drop of blood fighting for the color of a rose the tilt of a feather in a hat, the inflec- tion of a Latin verb or the smile of a lady love. It has been a drama of blood and iron, of hate and love, of intrigue and openness, of ugliness and beauty, of duplicity and nobility, of mud and { included | also the Brunswicks with 5 great| | generals and 12 literary authors of | high rank, and the Saxe-Coburg- | Brunswick-Meiningen interrelated fami- lies, notable not so much for intellectual genius, but famous for 300 years for high moral virtues. This latter family is the best morally in all royalty and for three centuries it was made up mostly of quiet, hard- working, patriotic folk, devoted to the | service of their countrics, and during | that time it produced 18 authors and several scientists of more than ordinary distinction. Nearly all the Danish, Bel- | gian, Swedish and Norwegian royal ashes, pageantry and glory; a drama | families teday are of this blood, and played upon a continental stage in| Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince ‘which the actors have been kings and Albert, were both from this strain—all queens, princes and princesses of the being families somewhat above the blood; the supers marching armies; the average in intellect, with most of th stage properties crowns and thrones members having sound judgment and n:d ;‘ml:hces: a dmn;a where stami and ' lofty personal character. | principalities were given as love tokens; | | Where the destinies of whole peoples | Comparisons of Interests I were thrown upon the gaming tables| One thing of great interest is that and where wedding gifts were empires, | While we all know that environment is And one of the strange injustices of | vVery important, yet it is difficult to history is that, as we sit here in our |think of any reason except heredity why comfortable box seat of America and |the Saxe-Coburgs should have a taste wait for the curtain to ring down, we | 8nd real capacity for literature and a are actually asked by popular opinion | strong devotion to public service, with to believe that most of the actors and ’ no military genius to speak of in 300 actresses in this gigantic drama were | vears, while the Brunswicks, —their nincompoops and fools. Indeed, here in | neighbors living amid almost the same democratic America, where we despise | “nvironment and circumstances, should such high-sounding titles as “count,” | show strong literary talents coupled “duke,” and “king” and are content With military capacity ef a high order; with such modest, self-effacing designa- | and at the same time the Mont- tions as “grand exalted ruler” or “most | morencies, the Oranges and the Hohen- high and magnanimous potentate of the | zollerns were producing some of the ancient and honorable order of some- | greatest military captains that ever thing or other,” it is a genuine national | lived, with almost no interest in tradition that the royal families of Eu- | literature, except the interest of Fred- rope are low-browed, low-bred, run out, | erick the Great in Voltaire and that of idiotic lot, and always have been so, |his sister Amelia, who was the patroness THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 18, 1931—PART TWO. - Where Is America Going? George A. Orrok, Distinguished Engineer, Says Electric Energy’s Use May Be Tripled Through BY J. P. GLASS. 8 we face the future let us give a little A thought to the industrial production of power. The production and distribution of power is a great basic industry. Upon 1t depend all other industries. It is a creator of ries, since its utilization on a large scale, v and expeditiously, leads ever to more ventions of practical application. It will benefit us, then, to remember that— Our country has developed resources for pro= ducing power such as no other ever possessed. In the gigantic, but subtle, Eemcessu by which electrical energy comes into being, and is dis- tributed, we excel all others. We manufacture power more efficiently and cheaply than any one. And, as far as that part of power which is natural—water power—is concerned, while it plays only a minor part in the grand total of power production, it still is highly important, and here again the United States has a great economic asset, for its water power potentialities far exceed those of any commercially competitive country. Above and beyond these considerations, the near future will witness great expansions of power production of untold effect, socially and economically. It has been said that power is the source of modern civilization. Certainly, none will assert that modern civilization can be maintained without power. As George A. Orrok, the distinguished engineer, points out, the severing of the force, for in- stance, that keeps active the vast, complex mechanisms of New York City, would be fol- ln’-\'(“(d by the exodus of its inhabitants within a week. Mr. Orrok is a virile believer in power as an agency for good. He holds that while theorists, over the centuries, considered how to abolish poverty and relieve the “submerged tenth,” the inventive genius of man and the law of evolu- tion intervened to largely solve the problem. I went to him, however, not to get light on the relation of power to civilization, but the con- nection between the production of electrical power and industry. It is a duller subject, but one to interest every one deeply. Of Mr. Orrok it need only be said that he is one of the greatest power authorities in the world. As mechanical engineer for the huge New York Edison Co. over a long period of years, and because of far-flung operations elsewhere, he has directed many of the largest power in- stallations in the country. Also he made an exhaustive study of European power projects and processes. l1I1rduced to its simplest form, the interview follows: Q. What is the present status of -electrical power production as an industry in the United States? A. The electric light and power industry has a capital investment of more than $11,000,000,000, and this is increasing at the rate of $800,000,000 a year. Gross revenues exceed $2,000,000,000 a year. Development possibilities are on scales just as n:;megdoua. Several circumstances must be con- sidered. Vast Assets. GEORGE A. ORROK. ‘Twenty per cent of industrial establishments still do not use electricity. ‘Twenty-eight per cent of homes are not wired. ‘The 72 per cent of homes which do use elec- tricity have not, by any means, exhausted its Ppossible employment. Population increases mean larger markets. ‘The per capita use of electricity in this coun- try now is about 800 kilowatt hours annually. It is estimated that the absorbing power per capita within the next few years can well reach 3,000 kilowatt hours. A vista is opened of widespread expansion of great economic benefit. Incidentally, the effects will be like this, from the viewpoint of comfort and convenience: Un- like the ancient Spartan, who had six slaves to serve him, the average American, through mod- ern mechanical achievement, now has: the equivalent of 60 slaves serving him. If we realize our present conceptions, and he uses 3.000 kilowatt hours of electricity per annum, he will have the equivalent of at least 210 slaves serving him. Thus life will become more comfortable, more convenient and more entertaining. In the past the power industry has doubled in volume on an average of once in seven years. There is no reason to be pessimistic about its future. Q. With the development of modern produc- tive machinery the individual's productive capac- ity has been increased 50 times. Will any further increase be advisable? A. Why not? This is a mechanical age. We can continue to produce more and more things ?ecuu.se man’s capacity to use them will increase, 0. Accurate statistics of electr] household and shop appliances are not obtainable. It was esti- mated, though, in 1929, that 50,000,000 were in use, with the number increasing at the rate of 10,000,000 a year. This pace may not have been maintained in 1930—I have no data to show-—— but at any rate the situation was merely tem- porary. In the future we should assimilate even more such appliances annually, particularly costs for power service grow ever more favorabl due_to improvements in the machinery for pro: duction and distribution. It is a significant fact that during the period of rising prices for everything else, the cost of electricity dropped 30 per cent under 1914. Q 'hat about water power development? A. It has a great future, but not what many persons anticipate. Costs govern industrial de- velopment and so long as coal is cheap it will be used predominately in power production. At the present time, water power produces only 20 per cent of the total power used and the proportion grows less as the years go on. This is not intended to indicate that our water power is not a great asset. It will be more im- portant to us in the far-distant future, perhaps, than now. The potentialities of water power in our coun- try, according to the United States Geological Survey, are 35,000,000 horsepower. All of Eu- rope has 52,000,000 horsepower. mmercially competing countries like Germany, France, Eng- land, etc., have comparatively small water power assets. Norway and Switzerland are the coun- tries favorably placed in this respect. Of our 35,000,000 horsepower, we have devel- oped only 12,000,000 horsepower. Even if we should develop the remainder we would not be able, by this means, to take care of our power necessities. It might be advisable to do so in order to conserve our coal supplies. However, we have coal enough to last us for 5,000 years. Why worry? The total cost of hydroelectric power is more favorable, perhaps, than steam-electric power. Unfortunately, good water power seldom is placed where ready markets for power are found. ‘Transmission costs have to be taken into account. Q. In general, what does the increase of power production and use mean in living? A. Once, one per cent of mankind lived com- fortably and 99 per cent always “hung on the ragged edge.” Today 95 per cent live comfort- ably, 4 per cent are poor and 1 per cent still dangle on the “ragged edge.” I don't believe we will be able to get rid of that 1 per cent, but tomorrow I believe the 99 per cent will be living better than did the kings and emperors of old. It isn’t possible to give a complete picture of what will take place when 3,000 kilowatt hours of electrical energy are being used per capita. But it is safe to guess that every man’s home—with the exception of that unfortunate 1 per cent— will be heated and lighted 'by electricity. He will have all the mechanical appliances for house- hold convenience which the ingenuity of man has devised—and a good many which have not yet been devised. Lastly, he will be enjoying addi- tional facilities for recreation and culture and enjoyment. It will all be traceable to power, (Copyright, 1831.) eral Fa | | (Continued From Third Page,) Railroad orders for steel, for | coal, for ties, for ballast, for lumber, | for oil and the hundreds of other things | needed for operation keep the wheels of | many industries turning. A reliable es- timate of railroad expenditures for im- | provements during the last year is $1,000,000,000, and that meant work and wages for scores of thousands of persons who never worked directly for | a railroad in their lives. Then, too, of course, there is the direct interest of the whole business community, including the farmers of the Nation, who ship their products far and wide, in transportation service that satisfactorily links every part of the Nation with every other part. In addition to all of which, the great general public still relies very largely on the railroads for passenger trans- portation, even though busses and pri- vately owned automobiles daily carry scores of thousands from city to city, while the possibilities for aviation in MERGER OF RAILROADS MEANS MUCH TO ALL Would Have Effect of Stirring Business, Speed Improvements and Gen- cilities. be justified by a saving ‘© maintenancs and trar<portatisn cost. But some of the smaller roads with which it connects, hard hit by the fall- ing off of shipments in particular com- modities produced on thelr lines, can- not risk even the expense of ordering new locomotives that would haul more freight at a lower cost a ton and a mile and thus pay for themselves eventually. ! The smaller roads haven't the reser: and the credit of the larger ones; they must pursue a_conservative polic: The result is, of course, that such | roads order less steel rails, fewer tfes, less freight cars, employ fewer men in maintenance work anc generally reduce expenditures and the need for labor. It is true, perhaps, that a railroad con- solidation might affect direct railroad employment to some extent, but the economies in operation undoubtedly would result in expenditures for equip- ment, extensions and improvements that would more than counterbalance. Fur- thermore, President Hoover in announc Ing the negotiation of the Eastern con- solidation plan has stated his under- standing to be that it provides for the protection of the irterests of the em- ployes as well as the interests of the ‘ various communities. this service are not yet known. K Railroads Biggest Factors. The rallroads, then, are one of the biggest facts and factors in our national S s existence. ey are the arteries and| The strengthening and rehabilitatios velns of the Natlon through which the | of railroad credit ?grouih conmué:uo: life blood of commerce is borne. The of the weaker with the stronger lines head of one of the great railroads of | would make funds available for material the country has compiled some figures | and equipment purchases in large vol- that show not only the magnitude of ume. And such purchases gean more rallroading, but its relation to every employment in locomotive building, to one of us in some way or other. Here|cite just one probable effect. For the in the United States we have a main-| careful estimate of experts is that one- track mileage equivalent to five times third of the motive power on American the entire distance around the world, | raflroads is more than 20 years old, and representing an investment variously much of it should be and would be re- estimated at from $18,000,000,000 to placed if raflroad finances were avail- $26,000,000,000. ~The freight service able. During the five years 1925-1929 each year, says Mr. Danlel Willard, moves | there were 35 Class I railroads, exciud- Not so long ago I heard a public %flker of the oratorial type, with a “Websterian btow and Clay head,” prove to his satisfaction and that of an lfphud!u audience that 70 per cent of these notable persons were imbeciles, mental deficients and insane. Of course, this flatters our self-complacency, be- cause we all like to be made to feel we are the equals or superiors of persons who have made a great stir on the world stage. What Researches Revealed. In order to place the royal families in their true light, we must turn to the two great researches made by Dr. Fred- erick Adams Woods, formerly lecturer in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and now residing in Rome, , _entitled, Moral Heredity in Royalty” and “The Influence of Monarchs.” Dr. Woods spent years of labor and a large private | income in a vast scientific study of these interesting people. All told, he studied | exhaustively the 832 kings and queens and their brothers and sisters who have left any records at all about their per- | sonal characters and achievements, tak- | ing only those no longer living in order to secure unbiased estimates. He traced their blood relationships and summed up all the adjectives and phrases that historians have used to de- scribe them—both the good and the bad | descriptions. 1In this way he eliminated | his personal judgment. He then ranked them on the basis of these historical es- | timates in 10 separate grades for intel| nis orandmother, Joanna the Mad, an | lect and 10 separate grades for moral character. The fact came out in start- 1ling relief that those in grades nine and 10—the two highest grades—were mostly “related to each other,” while those in the lowest grades were also bound together by the invisible bond of blood. The period studied covered about five centuries in the Northern families and abou: 10 among the families of the South of Europe. What, then, are the facts with refer- ence to this immense assumption of royal mediocrity and degeneracy? Well, the simple and amazing fact is, as Woods shows, that the royal families of of the poets Goethe and Herder. But these northern families do not ex- haust the list of great royal geniuses. Down in Spain, beginning back with Sancho II in the eleventh century and extending on down to Charles V, last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and the greatest man of his time, we | find that for 21 generations all but five | of the Spanish sovereigns exhibited the virtues of intellectual genius and moral character that we think of as belonging | to a truly royal King. During this period, out of the 97 Spanish princes, princesses and Kings, 39—a perfectly astounding number compared with ordinary families—are rated by unbiased historians as high in intellect and character. Among the 41 actual sovereigns, 20 are placed by Woods’ ratings in ranks 9 and 10 for ability. They were mostly of the Castile-Arragon | a real part—his or her own inner wealth or poverty of intelligence and charac- ter.. The inspiring thing is that de- generacy and folly kept mostly to them- s ; and truly nob! think of and great. And when we 1e bright side, what a record it makes! Among these more than 800 interrelated persons were at least 25 men and 19 women whom unbiased his- torians rank among the splendid in- tellects and admirable characters of the modern world. Most of these more than 40 persons will go down in history among the truly great of all time. You can scarcely appreciate what this means until you reflect that only about one out of a million mature per- sons is considered worthy of America’ Hall of Fame, and only about one out of four thousand of the general popu- lation is selected for “Who's Who in they rarely touched the | blood, of which Isabella, patroness of | America.” Sir Francis Galton, founder Columbus, was the shining figure among | of eugenics, by careful methods, found the women. |only one in four thousand persons {could be called “eminent” and only Decline and Bad Marriages. |one in a million “iNustrious.” Granted And one of the usually overlooked | we double or quadruple the number but_most dramatic facts of all history really worthy to be admitted into “Who's is that the sad days of Spanish decline Who" and make it one in a thousand. coincide almost exactly with the bad | Yet among these more than 800 royal marriages of her Kings. It is difficult | persons there were 40 persons, that is, for us to realize that only three|one in 20, who would nearly all rank centuries ago Spain was mistress of the ffi"&rfil?‘»"%;}}:e‘p\'erl;e z[},‘.! our flfzflul; world. Charles V carried her to the | "Who's 0,” an e majority of pinnacle of her greatness, He was a mh%m 1Wlll ;zlw:‘yfn rank as deserving a eat genius and had also a streak of | high place in history. &mii‘y, He got his genius from the | er:’:éd:rmrft dxrnntr}rlx:rtli;; to‘;“.'u‘e:m‘ra 'Di o/ s ity from | to s o Castile-Arragons and his insanity from | fo som i s St et Sipone obscure Spanish princess. This and | You coun e firs persons you other muflumes brought the Bourbons‘:‘;?‘r}g ngn o lever fl:xli_‘udmrlxg q'x;:;ng Spanish throne and they not | among them 25 men g:{‘y? .lfx'&ea”;gm to her ruin, butyhaw who could possibly create a place for scattered degeneracy and insanity all | themselves in history even if they were e Yoern | Clothed with regal power and set upon %‘f:&‘p‘: the royal families of Southern | % 65" Or some. holiday just watch ote here also that it was | @ Parade of 800 men and women—400 mmg‘r:m-l: nu‘fiwue marriage that cach—and imagine finding among epilepsy was introduced into the Haps- ]flem< t'_mt 25 but 5 such men as Wil- burgs of Austria, and it is the combina- | liam the Silent; Gustavus Adolphus, | tions of these two families—the Haps- SWweden's hero King: Henry 1V, idol of |burgs and the Bourbons—that have | French chivalry; “The Great Turenne, | given rise to the popular impressions| %hom Napoleon Bonaparte said was | that all the royal families are cursed |, he greatest master of military sclence Europe have produced more truly great men and great women than any other series of interrelated families of which we have any exact record in the whole history of the world. There is nothing lkltlnedfl in all the known records of man- No Outstanding Geniuses. It is true that just now there are no outstanding geniuses among the 2,000 or more royal persons living. This is easily explainable. In the first place, nearly all of the members now Tivin; are descended from the mediocre branches of the family, and these mediocre branches have been mostly due to unfortunate marriages within the last 100 years. They are mostly descended gfgher from ancestors who have always been inconspicuous for genius, nuci' as the Bourbons and Hapeburgs, from small princes and the like; or €lse they have sprung from ancestors who married outside the great strains of genius that for more than five centuries and in some coun- tries for nearly ten centuries made the royal families the chief single factor in shaping the economic and political destinies, not only of Europe, but of the whole western world. It is also e that we are too close to the royal families now living to make a just esti- mute of their abilities and character. But, let us, for example, go back to the time of Frederick the Great, and from that pinnacle of royal genius look further back over the preceding cen- turies. If ever a boy was “born to the purple” it was surely that boy [Pred- erick Hohenzollern, born in the year 1712. To be a great military com- mander, autocratic and domineering, was his manifest destiny. It is difficult 10 imagine any environment that would have prevented his tremendous talents from influencing his day and time. You may say that this was due to his great opportunities. say of his brother Henry, who, torlans agree, was probably a greater military and intellectual genius than Frederick? While Henry ranks as high as Frederick, yet it is safe to say a King has a huacyea times as great op- Jortunities to distinguish himself as do hnis royal brothers and sisters. Indeed, we find that all through royalty the truly great man stands out above his own relatives, whether he sits upon the or not, and versa, mediocrities and fools find their true lxev’lven the hat also ‘we say of two sisters, Amelia, whom historians Aescribe as of *‘extrao: intellect,” and Louisa, mother of the great K/ng Gustavus III of Sweden, who, historians say, “ruled her Parliament with an iron hand"? And if we lock back into Prederick’s pedigree we, who believe heredity plays a part in human afl: - \ soyioumens f with degenerac! ver lived,” and Charles “The | The Bourbons have always been me- diocre, but the Hapsburgs have produced | two truly moble names. The first was Maria Theresa of Austria, one of the | great women of all time, but she got | her greatness not from the Hapsburgs but from one set of her grandparenis who were Brunswick-Palatines. nd Maria was the grandmother of the sec ond great Hapsburg, Archduke Charle | who although he had the family curse |of epilepsy, led Southern urope against Napoleon and is described b historians as “one of the greal | princes that ever lived” It is also in- | teresting to note that he was the great- | grandfather of Alfonso, the present Spanish King, who alt 4 he most extraordinary human being that ever walked the earth. Women Hard to Duplicate. Imagine among the 400 women find- ing even three such women as Isabella of Castile, Maria Theresa cf Austria d grandmother of Henry IV of France; and then imagine finding a dozen other women capable of conducting govern- ments and commanding armies! It staggers the imagination as to the power of heredity to build up great and noble families, and it inspires us ' ity could do were we wiling to | bon side of his family has been utterly ow the beneficent guidance of na- commonplace, does unquestionably re- | ture And after all it is not a new | peat many of the gallant qualities of g in history. It has taken place | his Austrian great-grandfather. me and again. It took place in the | eat families that ruled Babylon; in Genius and Degenera families that made “the glory that | We see thus s truly stupendous| Greece and the grandeur that was Margaret of Navarre, the gifted | h a vision and hope of what hu- | drama of genius and degeneracy | greatness and nobility, of littlene »{ | Rome”: in the Ptolemies and Pharaohs of Egypt; and in the Incas of South But, 1f so, what shall we | his- | decay. And we see both these human | America who were the real creators of | qualities almost precisely where we | that miraculous and mysterious civili- | would expect them on the grounds of on. And it seems to me idle to im- heredity, but where we would not ex- (agine it will not go on to the end of pect them on the grounds of environ- ( building Ilr of these great { ment, although every biologist and as Woods calls them, of man- psychologist, as well as our common agerial genius is plainly taking place sense emphasizes the fact that environ- | through economic, scientific and politi- ! ment is extremely important. But this | cal forces in Europe and America to- | great historic picture shows that hered- | day. and this will, in my judgment, be | ity is likewise important, and its great- | an immense factor in the rulership of est lesson for us personally is what it | the world for centuries to come. means in thc marriages of our own | But, after all, as I have families. chief lesson of this vast dra To the biologist royal blood is no dif- | our own personal lives, and touches | ferent from common blood. While | the grounds of true, intelligent patriot- | wealth, rank and opportunity aid the |ism. For this great lesson is that by ability of any man to find expression, | Unwise marriages and disobedience to yet even these cannot escape the pen- | the laws of heredity we can fill America | alty of marriage into low and degen- | ¥ith Weakness and degeneracy, just as erate blood. Medical sclence can aid, 1’ families | often cure the physical and mental [Of Southern Europe; or by wise mar- weakling, education can aid the hum- |Tiages in our own families we can peo- blest and aid even more the greatest |Ple America with healthy, intelligent, | intellect, but these wonderful environ- | ¥irtuous people, which is the only thing | mental agencies cannot create inborn |that makes a nation truly great, or health, weaith, virtue or power. guarantees its perpetuity. Yet, if we look upon the bright side —_— of this great historic drama we are in- . " . Spired with the benencent power of | Bond Financing Volume In Canada Increasing Mother Nature to bestow health, intel- 1 ce, sanity and character through a obedience to her dependable laws of heredity, and then these. gifts in thelr turn aid in creating the very en- | vironment that leads to their noblest expression. Play of a Thousand Years. Many reflections arise as we contem- plate 832 actors and actresses in | this mighty Commedie Humaine. That was all there were. They staged a play that encompasses a thousand years OTTAWA (Special) —New bond fi- nancing was larger in volume for the first nine and a half months of 1930 than it was for the corresponding pe- riod in 1929. From January 1 to Sep- tember 15, 1930, the average amount of new financing through bond issues undertaken in Canada has been at a rate slightly over $6,500,000 per month. and all their greatness and littleness | In the similar period last year the | was at all times under “the flerce light monthly average worked out at just | that doth beat upon a throne.” Each over $4,800,000 which, in furn, was an e played Lok 8D UMAGIDATY DAt BuS increase over Meak GREE., «AERa IN LATIN FOR THE SAKE OF DEMOCRACY. | ITH the popular elections which have just taken place in Bolivia, the first South American republic to start the present epidemic revolu- | tionary fever in the Western Hemisphere is also the t one to hasten the re- turn to normal and legal poiitical con- ditions. When in June last the former regime was overthrown in Bolivia and a mili- tary junta took charge of the situation the high army officers who had led the movement declared that their rule would be only a temporary one and that elec- tions would be held as soon as possible for the constitution of a pew govern- ment in accordance with the provisions of the law. Students of political phenomena did not take very seriously such statement of purposes, usually heard after the success of each new violent upheaval, not only in Latin America but the world over. shows that often these politi- cllm:m intentions are forgotten soon and another strong and arbitrary re- gime succeeds the former. In other words, that the men whom the revolu- tion has put on top get so used to the rivileges of power that later on it is ard to convince them that they are only & passing instrument in returning | the country to normal political condi- | tions. Either by using their influence | in having themselves elected as the per- manent authorities or by staying in- | definitely in power, disregarding the provisions of the constitution, they usu- |ally end by retaining themselves the| government and thus satisfy their per- | sonal ambitions. | Latin American history in particular |is full of these examples, and the of Sweden, who Voltaire said |pledges of the Bolivian junta were| with their punishment. | | therefore received with natural sus-| glcion. ‘When a few weeks after they ad been in control of the government, however, the new Bolivian authorities keen sense of responsibility in that|fers to the |actually’ called general ~elections for | January and announced the steps to | be taken in order to establish a legal civil administration in the country out- | side observers began to look with in- By GASTON NERVAL: | der cover of government positions, their AMERICA government she needs today before so| many outstanding problems of an eco- nomic, polftical and soclal character. “AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTDES."i Peruvians last week sentenced former | President Leguia and his three sons to pay to the Peruvian treasury the sum | of 25,000,000 soles, some $7,625,000, as | a compensation for illegal uses of the | national funds and private profits ac- | cumulated through the concession of privileges to foreign firms while Senor Leguia was_dictator of Peru. Charges that Leguia, his relatives and his closest political friends were profit- ing at the expense of the nation’s in- terests constituted one of the main rea- sons for the latest military coup d'etat in that country. The first act of the| revolutionary junta which succeeded | last July in overthrowing the 11-year-| old regime of President Leguia was the | establishment of a so-called tribunal of “national sanction.” This tribunal was to investigate the private fortune of Senor Leguia, sons and his political comrades and to find out how much of it had been, diverted from the public vaults. The sale announcement of such legal process | | attracted considerable attention, as it constituted quite an innovation in Latin American politics. | In general the faults and misdeeds| of the deposed authorities, whose lack | of scruples in financial matters, it is| charged, had often started revolutions in Latin America had been looked upon with indifference after these had | succeeded. The guilty ones usually| walked out elegantly to enjoy on some | distant shores the fortunes piled up un- | successors being more concerned with the thought of getting rid of them than The creation of the tribunal of na- tional sanction by the new government of Peru revealed the awakening of a| Southern republic. To be frank, little was at first expected of this tribunal, which was to investigate the origin of | the Leguias’ present properties - and | bank accounts. It was believed to be| S| of her ‘most dis efactor of the arts. The exhibit at the Baltimore Museum will last for six weeks, at the end of which the paint- ings will be taken to the leading cities |of the United States and then pass to | awarded for the best work of exhibitors are announced. Artists from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras are participating in this artistic exhibition, which has been initiated through the conviction that “cultured minds of the United States should know more about the work that trained minds and hands are producing in Latin America.” Almost coinciding with the announce-. ment of this Pan-American exhibition of art, the Library of CBnFun. in ‘Washington, received a valuable collec- tion of 75 books of prominent Uru- guayan writers, donated by the Na- tional Library of Montevideo, for the purpose of “furthering bibliographic in- terchange” among the Americas. Simi- lar donations of celebrated books by na- tive authors have been repeatedly re- celved during the last few months from Argentina, azil and other Latin- American countries. The Uruguayan collection includes educational texts on the history, geog- raphy and natural resources of that republic, the outstant literary works poets and philosophers, juridical and legislative codes and a series of varied books on ruguayan affairs and prob- Pan-American relations. ‘These instances, coming soon after the establishment of committees of in- tellectual co-operation — the “brain trusts,” as they have been cleverly re- ferred to in the countries of the West- ern hemisphere—give an encourmn{ assurance that the value of cultural factors is at last being realized by those intrusted with the promotion of inter- American understanding and friend- ship. Vgu.h a frequency almost tiresome, we have been repeat! here, once again, and no matf how close the political relations nor how strong the economic links uniting both Americas, the program the Pan-American cause will never be complete so long as the cultural aspect, that which re- things of the mind, is not also taken into consideration and given the outstanding place that it com- mands. After all, at the bottom of all politi- cal antagonisms and economic differ- terest upon this democratic develop-|only a moral measure, adopted to sat- | ences is always the lack of spiritual un- ment, rare in Latin American politics. ‘The Bolivian political parties, on the | other hand, contributed to lend greater importance to this move by agreeing to support a single joint candidate for the presidency of the republic. Although each party entered the electoral con- test with a different candidate for the | vice E’uidency, they all supported Senor | Daniel Salamanca, the outstanding | |leader in the country, for the presi- dential seat. Almost, as strange as the disinterested ttitude of the military junta itself, this | unanimous accord among rival parties | in " selecting the next Chief Executive | made observers of political conditions in | Bolivia more skeptical as to the final | outcome of these promises and pledges. Not until the balloting booths were | erected did they really believe in the | sincerity of those promises. | | The elections were held a few days | ago under an unusual state of' order. | For the first time in many years the |influence of the governing authorities did not interfere with the will of the | electorate, The impartiality of the junta has not been questioned, and democratic ways of popular expression | at last attained realization in Bolivia. | Senor Daniel Salamanca, with no op- position to confront, was, of course, | unanimously elected for the highest po- | | sition in_the land. This is the second | case in_Bolivian contemporary history | that a Chief Executive has received the | unanimous support of the citizenry. In | 1908 Senor Fernando Guachalla, a for- | mer Minister to the United States, had no rival candidates in the presidential | contest of that year. His sudden death, | however, only 15 days before his inau-| ration, prevented him from being the | rst “national” President of Bolivia, a | President elected and supported by all parties. Senor Salamanca has now that op- portunity. The military junta in pro- | visional control of the country has an- nounced that it will transfer the duties |and responsibilities of the government to the hands of the newly elected executive before the end of next month. In the midst of an outstanding stage in Bolivian history, at the turning point | | of what seems to be a new and more | cemocratic era in that republic, backed |by the entire Bolivian citizenry, with a long and unparalleled record of po- | litical honesty and prestige behind him Sencr Sa | of Peru, to use the vernacular, “meant manca apgears to be in a | to’ Baltimore to inaugurate this exhibi- fiucmfly fine position to give Bonvhluon, which has mmule possible by o dassrren #2d 1| 109 Renerois ¥ of % aacoyzIoU bene | S5 egainES sy the popular demand for punishment of the ousted guilty ruler until the| excitement of the moment had passed. The sentence of the tribunal indi- cates, however, that the new authorities business” when they ordered the trial of Senor Leguia and his political asso- ciates. The verdict announced last week, after several months of careful| inquiry, in which the testimony of many witnesses was heard and public docu- ments, personal letters and bank re- ceipts had been introduced as further evidence, convicts Senor Leguia and his three sons of embezzlement of public funds and condemns them to refund to the national treasury the sum of 25,- | 8¢ 000,000 soles. Other persons prominent in the Leguia administration are also convicted of “illegal acquisition of wealth.” ‘To give an idea of the charges which have brought about Leguia’s conviction, the cable report of the sentence men- tions two checks for more than 60,000 soles each, made out to former President by the wife of the conces- sionary of certain gambling houses in Lima just a few days after the presi- dential franchise for them had been granted. A well known New York firm is also mentioned as paying a high commission to one of Leguia's sons to avold the competition of other banking firms in extending a special credit to the Peruvian government. It is regrettable, as the Peruvian press points out, that a former Chief Executive of the country should be con- victed of mismanagement of public funds, but this example will serve to prevent future mandatories from fol- lowing the unfortunate path of the ald business-minded dictator of Peru. Pun- m:’msne is even harder to forget than debts. e A HIGHER PAN-AMERICANISM. A large sum of money, a liberal and cultured man and the Baltimore Mu- seu mof Art are three outstanding fac- tors in a new and important movement. Thus a press release from the Pan- American Union announces the opening in Baltimore on January 15 of the first Pan-American exhibition of contempo- rary paintings. ‘The Secretary of State, Ambassadors and Ministers from the Latin American republics and other high officials went derstanding and intellectual knowledge. To work for a better cultural acquaint- ance between the Saxon and Latin Americas is to work for a sooner reali- zation of the Pan-American ideals. (Copyright. 1931.) Airman Plans Flight To British Universities Some time next year, probably in May, a student of Hosel University will take off in a plane on an air mission to the principal universities of Europe. He will 0 as the representative of the aero- nautical department of the Tokio insti- tution, and before completing the aerial art of his journey he will probably ave flown at least 8,500 miles. Six students of aviation at Hosei have been selected as candidates for the trip, and from among their number the lucky one will be chosen. Accompanied by Ryo- taro Kumazawa, an_aviation instructor at the university, the student will fly by way of Siberia, making stops at Seoul, Korea; Harbin, Manchuria; Chita, Omsk and Moscow; Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris and Rome. The plane student and instructor will all return to Japan by ship. They will probably be gone for two and a half months. The purpose of the trip is to promote inter- national friendship and stimulate inter- est in aviation, according to Dr. Masa- nosuke Akiyama, chairman of the board of directors of Hosel University, and also of the committee in charge of proposed flight. If it proves practical, other such trips may be made in suc- ceeding years and student aviators from other countries invited to fly to Japan. Sound Films Become Czechoslovakian Issue d films have become a big politi- cal problem in Czechoslovakia. Recent riots took place in Prague because Ger- man talkies were presented in several theaters. As a result several towns, in- cluding Ormudz, have forbidden talking pictures in any language but Czech, and in Prague the nationalist papers are ur&hfi boycott of all theaters which st lare to speak in German. The Czzch distribution manager for Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer, it is sald, hag led the ———— the equivalent of 3,700 tons of freight| one mile for each man, woman and child in our population. 'And the pas- | senger service maintained by our rail- roads is the equivalent of transporting | each one of our present population 250 | miles & year. Rallroads pay taxes of | $400,000,000 a year. Their payroll is| nearly $3,000,000,000 a year. They pay| mortgage interest of $600,000,000 a year. ‘This operation demands assured rev- enues. The competition in pipe lines connecting gas and oil flelds with the East is seriously cutting into rail reve- | nues derived from the coal industry.| Truck competition is also affecting rail traffic, as will water transportation in its assured development. . 1s there any one of us who can truth- fully, say, “I haven't any concern with rallroad problems”? ‘The answer is, of course, that noth- ing is of more direct and serious con- cern to every one of us than the main- tenance of a first-class system of trans- portation over steel rails. Nothing has done more to unite our 48 States, to weld us into one great, homogeneous, compact Nation, extending from ocean to ocean, than the case of transporta- tb.g: afforded by our great railway sys- Consolidation Question. It was these considerations, as well as | others, that undoubtedly influenced President, Hoover to suggest to the East- ern railroad further conference for the purpose of bringing about consolida- tion, after negotiations virtually had been abandoned early last December. Ten years ago Congress enacted legis- lation designed -to bring about railroad | consolidation—for the ~public benefit and in the interests also of the rail-| roads. The legislation, for various rea- | sons, was not effective. It did not bring about the unification of railroad | operation contemplated. Congress in- tended that all the railroads in the country should be welded into a limited number of great competitive systems, | able to render the highest type of transportation service economically, and with such financial stability as to in- sure adequate improvement and expan- | sion as well as protection for investors. I had the duty, as a member of the | Interstate Commerce Committee of the | Senate, to report to the Senate nearly | two years ago a bill designed to speed | up railroad consolidation. Various fac- tors intervened, and Congress is still | considering _additional consolidation | legislation. Meantime, however, there remains on our statute books the ex- | pressed opinion of Congress that the Nation’s railroads should be strength- | ened and made more effective for pub- | le service by a Wise policy of con- solidation. It was to this situation that Presi- | dent Hoover applied himself when it became apparent some time ago that a substantial contribution toward busi- ness recovery could be made by a con- solidation of Eastern railroads. Work at Cross Purposes. For years the heads of the great ex- | isting railroads of the eastern part of the country had been working at cross purposes, seeking to gain advantages for their own lines in any consolida- tions that might be effected. They acquired smaller lines, by stock pur- chases and otherwise, which the Inter- state Commerce Commission held to be contrary to the public interest. They fauiht silently, and without attracting public attention, battles for trackage ‘control, for terminal facilities, for port outlets. Meantime, when business generally slumped and freight and passenger traffic fell off, the earnings of the car- riers, big and little, were materially reduced. Smaller roads, which were dependent for most of their traffic on | a limited area, and perhaps on the | business of a single industry, such as coal or steel, found their revenue re- | duced to a point where service had to | be cut down and improvements and replacements stinted so that interest | could be pald to security holders, in- cluding the insurance companies and savings banky whien had properly in- ing those haying less than 50 locomo- tives, which dld not buy a new engine. On the other hand, some of the |larger and better flnanced railroads spent large sums for new equipment, even in the unprofitable passenger serv- ice, in order to meet bus and autom bile competition. Such expenditures mean employment for men in car shops, for labor in steel mills, in uphol- stery establishments and in a dozen other lines. And the public benefits as well. The passenger who a few years ago rode in an uncomfortable, crowded, often dirty, poorly ventilated day coach now is afforded an individual seat that pivots, is cushioned, has arm rests and has individual window ventilators. Modern equipment is improved in many other ways on_the large, well financed roads. But off the “main line” trunk roads transportation facilities have not e l:’ln:n o Tt lon ea - cial ability and stability. £ Protection of Public. ‘The public is not ly entitled to benefits from consolidat but expects protection from ion monop- oly. No monopoly could be gerous than that of railroad facilities. But the purpose of Congress in its en- actment of consolidation legislation has been to preserve a healthy competition in the public interest. That competi- tion need not take the form of a e struggle for trafic among hundreds of railroads in a given territory. It can and should take the form of a healthy competition among four or five great railroad systems, engaged in legitimate rivalry, rendering a competitive service on a safe and sane basis. If the plan of the Eastern railroads, now under consideration by the Interstate Com- merce Commission, should be approved, there would continue to be competition among the Pennsylvania, New York Central and Baltimore & Ohio systems, for example, between St. Louis and Chicago and the East. ‘Whether sufficient competition will be assured, whether the public interest will be properly protected, whether the “;u;.h“u ‘gfl lmbtzmrlty lltockholdzrl and of others properly protected un- der the plans that have been formu- lated are not questions nec to discuss here. They are not decided by President Hoover. ith ad- mirable fairness and good judgment, he stated in his announcement of the re- sult of the negotiations: “The plan must be submitted to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which has the independent duty to determine if it meets with every requirement of public interest.” Some Financiers Against Merger. I know that those who are to the present plan 1!])! Eastern il consolidation, as well as practically other plans in all other territ are likely to charge that railroad da- tion is in the interest of and by and for financiers. They very conveniently forget that less than a year ago the largest of the so-called “Wall street” investment and banking firms, with a jon-wide security business, spent & very large sum of money distributing & ~>-hure against railroad consolida- tion. Those who are opposed to any and all consolidation plans also seldom, ever, mention the record of public pro tection the Interstate Commerce Com- mission already has made. 1 after proposal for consolidation or uni- fication has been presented to the com- mission and has been rejected because it was deemed contrary to a public in- terest or the legitimate interests of minority holders of securities. Prob- ably no cther tribunal in America, even including the Supreme Court of the United . has a firmer hold on the corfdence of the people than the Interstat> Commerce mmission. Its 11 members are experts who are famil- iar with every phase of the transporta- tion business. They are men appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the approval of the United States Sena ind no appointments vested billions of the public's funds. | have been more rigorously and vigilant- The effect of this readily can be|ly scrutinized by the S=nate than those ‘the | €xpenditure. realized. The larger roads, with a great variety of graffic and ample | banking and credit resources, could | finance improvement, programs even in | time of general business stress. And they did so, in response to President | Hoover's appeal to industry generally to maintain and speed up construction. | But even the very largest railroads, with | the uncertainty as to the form of final | consolidations, could not undertake | certain big projects involving expend: ture of hundreds of millions of do'lars ;!nd the employment of thousands of en, One of the larger Eastern railroads, for instance, long has contemplated the building of a new freight and passenger terminal, the cost of which would be approximately $50,000,000. In addition, | another terminal project, involving the building of a gigantic bridge and ap- proaches, would result in a $180,000,000 Delay of Electrification. Likewise, there have been delays, be- cause of uncertainty as to consolida- tions with and by other railrcads, in bringing about the electrification of | whole raflroad divisions; in relaying tracks, in constructing “short cut” con- nections with other roads, in putting down new tracks to handle increased traffic that would result from new routes. The smaller and weaker lines, as sug- gested, have been obliged to follow: a still more conservative program. One of the big Eastern railroads even now is constmcung @& _new bridge costing about $800,000. rescnts the equivalent of all the revenye received from carrying 80,000,000 tons%f freight ~ mile, or transporting 26.00000 pas- sengera the same distan ] he big | lrou&u dertakes the expenditi e o g 0 T e be- | | over | of accounting. to the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion. The Senate has not hesitated to question or reject appointments. And so the problem of railroad con- solidation is one that is left—and safely co—wit's mer-bers of an impartial, dis- interester. triunzl of experts, acting in judicial cavacity. They have the information an- facilities to examine every detail of an intricatc, involved problem, which holds important possi- bilities of benefit to the public. Cemmission As Safeguard. For yeers the commission has been the constant safeguard of the public. It I'as exercised authority over rates. service, over equipment, over safety appliances, hours of labor, capi- talization, valuation, rates of return on investments, the expenditures of the carriers, their purchaces, their methods It s this tribunal, se- cur> in the public confidence, which in the words of Président Hoover has “the independent duty to determine” if the proposed Eastern railroad censolidation is in ihe interest of the people. And the “pecple” include those who ride upon the trains, who ship their goods by rail, who work for the railroads, who have their money invested in rafiroed stocks or bonds, directly or indirectly, and those who are engaged in indus- tries partly dependent on railroad pur- chases for their prosperity. cerAt"i"z 10 yeu: of failure and un- ainty a great pre im of rail consolidation has bpee‘:x‘rworked nut,rol.ld- fecting the territorv between the Mi:- sissippl River and the Atlantic Ocean—- under the leaders'~— of the Presideat of the United S.acus striving for ine dustrial rehabilitatic The plan has in it possibilities fc; public benefit of vast scope. It is ent ‘ed to fair public consideration, devold W ke - Soad s it v