Evening Star Newspaper, January 25, 1931, Page 29

GERMANY THINKS PEACE RESTS IN HANDS OF U. S. Financial Interests Would Like to Join With America to Change World as Bolshevists Threaten. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ERLIN.—When is the United States going to wake up to the necessity of saving Germany? ‘This question, in varying forms, is one of the most frequent the American visitor hears in Berlin. Ac- tually, of course, it is not asked in so erude & form. Business and finance, for axample, would ask it quite as much on Yhe basis of American as German self- interest, pointing out that the present economic crisis is international. As for the mass of little people, they would base their question upon the assump- tion that peace in the world is as much an American question as a European. U. S. Thought Sole Hope. ‘Yet the fact is there that all classes of the German public, in some degree at least, regard definite action by the United States in Europe as the sole Yope of a restoration of prosperity or of progress toward permanent peace. In the matter of prosperity, business and finance, while by no means lacking in confidence, see little hope of swift recovery and none of final emergence this side of a co-operative effort on the part of all governments and peoples, be- ginning with the American. In the matter of peace, conditioned upon dis- armament, recent events in Geneva bave confirmed a pessimism which has endured for some time. German business and finance say with equal emphasis that the United States, having become a great export nation, cannot at one time seal up its own markets and maintain its debt pol- icy, and on the other expect to sell its 'own goods freely in the world mar- kets. It belleves that, on the contrary, ‘we must first join with the rest of the world in sweeping away the war debris of reparations and debts, and then as- sist in a comprehensive organization of ‘world trade. ‘Today Germany is confronted by two ilities. She must have many bil- in long-term credits if she is to Testore her working capital and get her machine to functioning in a normal fashion, These credits she can get only in Paris or New York. But if she is to get them in Paris, in addition to ordinary terms she must accept new po- litical conditions. She must, in broad terms, come into Briand's pan-Euro- pean scheme, which begins with the agreement that existing treaty condi- tions must be preserved, territorially and otherwise. And at the back of this plan lles the possibility of eventual or- ‘ganizatic the United States and Soviet Rmi'n‘hteh two dlnztrxa competitors—one e presen e other in the future. Favor Linking of Business. These conditions are unacceptable. Politically, no German government But when Berlin makes sound- ‘Washington and New York it discovers that whatever the state of mind of Wall Street, Pennsylvania ave- nue is plans for a mor- reparations, ice that in- sures the arrival of the febt issue and Wi is inclined to make it clear that administration sympathy with Ger- many would be gravely shaken by a mora But all the German government's new and mfiwuhr es, was through the Reichstag only by a nar- TOoW vote as the preface to a morato- which all Germans ee must and will come by Spring, perhaps even earlier. Not to announce it would be almost as dangerous for the %r;lemng government as to give even a e at- tention to French terms. German business and finance would like to join with the United States in & reorganization of the world sit- t|and financial aspects there is also the Bolshevist Menace Present. ‘How lcrtoualg Germans of impor- tance take the hevist peril I do not d to say, yet they are becoming icreasingly aware that success of the present Russian five-year program would strike Germany in the first line, of living, with all its attend- ant political consequences, can eventu- ally lead to grave consequences. No reasonable man believes Germany is going red overnight or in the next years. The Communist scare as a pres- ent factor is grossly exaggerated where it is pictured as an instant menace. Nevertheless, there is a Communist which polled 4,500,000 votes at the election and would pass 5,000,- 000 today. It is active, well organized and militant, and it is bound to keep t| arouse French, Polish and Little En- to retrieve the defeat of November, 1918. ‘What German business and finance more or less generally think is that the time has come whenp the exigencies of the world situation should compel some comprehensive American foreign policy, based upon the perception that the collapse of Europe would mean a dis. aster for American industry and agri- culture and measurably ‘a peril to American domestic tranquillity. And it feels that while America officially stays out, thus paralyzing comprehensive ac- tion, the possibility of European col- lapse cannot be completely ignored. Ttaly Faces Difficulties. For all present time German ob- servers believe the possibility of war can be excluded from the European cal- culation. Not even the Fascists of Ger- many_ are thinking about war now. The Italian tone has moderated, and Italy is face to face with economic and political difficulties which make any war not only impossible but suicidal. The real danger lies in the gradual spread of economic discontent growing out of the continuance of the economic decpression, the end of which is not seen here with any clarity. The United States can endure hard times for a period of years without running any great risks of social dis- crder, much less revolution. But the case is nct the same in Europe, ana while immediate revolution can be ex- cluded, particularly in the German case, two years of strain might easily have very grave consequences. If the leaders alike in politics and business in the United States cannot see this and act accordingly, then informed Germans belleve that in the end the resulting losses to America may be grave, From America I have been asked about Germany's relations with her neighbors, particularly with Italy and Russia. Ever since the Fascist revolu- tion in Italy Rome has been trying to make a political bargain with Berlin aimed against France. All of the pro- have fallen through because Ger- man statesmen do not trust Italy’s sin- cerity, German soldiers do not believe in Italy’s military force as against French, German finance is skeptical concerning Italy’s financial status and the mass of the German people have not forgotten 1915. Informed Germans of all classes are more fearful that, as Ludendorff has forecast, a Franco- Italian war would make Germany the battleground than hopeful of any bene- fits for Germany in such a conflict. And all agree that the chief German problem would be not to get into the war as an opponent of France, but to keep the war out of Germany. Business Wants Conservatism. ‘The Russlan detail is more obscure. Germany is undoubtedly exporting cer- tain material to Russia which could serve military as well as industrial pur- poses, German officers have helped to train Soviet troops and, finally, if Rus- sia attacked Poland, it would be very hard to keep Germany from joining the drive. Bu . again, as in the Italian case, the G: "mans do not believe great- ly in Russ = as a military force for some years. And while an alliance be- tween Italy «nd the Soviets, such was rumored after Litvinov went to Milan recently, might appear a counter- poise to French influence, Germany is not having any today. Big business and high finance would like to have a government in Germany which was conservative—more conserva- tive than any since 1918. It would like to be able to exploit the “Nazi” move- ment to the extent of bringing about a coalition of Conservatives which would be strong enough at home to put a limit to the soclalistic enterprises in- volving vast expenses; which could deal summarily with communism; which would be quite frankly reactionary in the economic sense and even to a degree in the political, but with all program of international conflict left out. Unless there were a United States present in European discussions, how- ever, such a German government would be powerless abroad because it would tente fears. Apart from the business popular. Germany, in her isolation, be- lieves that the possibility of orderly re- construction in Europe, of economic prosperity and of political peace turns on the attitude and the policy of the American administration. Hope Reverts to America. If it were not for the conviction that a Hitler success would terrify American finance and business and disgust public opinion, I am convinced the “Nazis" would prevail before Spring. The effect on the outside world, and particularly upon American opinion of the Septem- ber election, at least partly explains the rally to the recent Bruening cabi- net. Hope in American support has not yet been dissipated even by Sena- tor Reed’s recent speech, but just now German opinion pretty generally feels, as allied opinion did in 1917, that the American decision would be all impor- tant. In any event, German conditions again f{llustrate the familiar paradox that the more America seems to with- draw from European affairs the more on gaining votes from the more moder- ate Socialists if depression ctmunueu.’ And there is Russia always working| with and through the Communists, di- their activities with the single | purpose to bring a German revolution completely it turns out to be involved in them. For today every German | volce echoes the sentence, “The key of | the world economic situation, as of | world peace, is in the United States.” (Copyright, 1931.) Relations of U. S. and Switzerland Vividly Debated at Geneva Meeting GENEVA—A “We and America” symposium, held at Lausanne under the augpices of the New Helvetia Associ- tion, developed some pertinent observa- tions concerning Swiss-American rela- tions. ‘The principal proponent was Prof. ‘Willlam Rappard, rector of the Uni- versity of Geneva and formerly ex- change professor at Harvard. He first recalled the suggestive parallel between the Monroe Doctrine and the tenets of Bwiss neutrality. He showed that their two articles of faith tended toward political isolation and were inspired by the fear of the otherwise possible participation in the quarrels of other nations. “Swiss neutrality,” he said, “was the result of the diversity of the ethno- graphical compositoin of its population: the Monroe Doctrine developed also as the result of nationalities and mentali- ties of the early European settlers who founded the nations of North, Central and South America. One or the other had in the popular mind taken on and for like reason a certain mystical char- acter. Treatment Is Lucid. Most lucid was his treatment of the g‘ew: question of the relation of the ted States with Switzerland, demon- strating, with little effort, the circum- stance that Switzreland enjoyed an ex- traordinary prestige in the United States by reason of its ancient dem eratic traditions, a certain well recog- fized constitutional parentage and a ~class prosperity, of which the Swiss rersion in mp:mnll measure mv-flnm E‘e’l’ll aspect of a clearly defined mid- | v reminded Americans nld:helr own sondiuons aards. n e domain of materialism Prof. Rappard 1 normous im- ce ‘;rll‘gu wmn:ereclnl relations m Switzerland and the United States, 'mumh# increased grealty ince ar. :ha Uw&lhl occuples the fourth as the country of origin of B'h'- Great Britain and : The United States is third among the counties of | the world importing Swiss manufac- | tures, ranking ahead of France. A ‘well known Swiss economist, M.| Felix Moeschlin, recently returned from | America, said: “The United States is | | a great civilizing force, which, though | | on”certain points it may be inferior to | our own, on certain others is vastly su- | perfor in vitality. When these two| demonstrative forms of culutre come to the struggle it will be necessarily the stronger which will triumph. It is for us of the Old World to take the de- | fensive.” Editor More Pessimistic. M. Albert Oeri, editor of the Basler | Nachrichten, who recently went to the United States as one of the guests of the Carnegie Foundation delegation of European newspaper editors, took a more pessimistic view and outlined the | danger which an excessive Americani- zation might possibly have for Europe. | " In the material domain M. Oeri was | not less disquieting. He denounced the | economic imperialism of the United | States, and above all what he con- sidered its worst form—that which con- sisted of subventioning countries where the level of the life of the population was_extremely low. he claimed, created an irresistible ~competition. Such, according to the speaker, was the private financial aid given to the Rus- sia of the Soviets and the Far East. | This would lead ultimately, he feared, | 10 the political support of the American Government itself. Development of Syria Because of her development of Syria il"lance has been highly commended by the Mandate Commission of the League of Nations. An amazingly wide are: of construction work has been com pleted by France since her advent in Syria, which before she undertook the mandatoty power was and de- populated by the Turks, By France Given Praise | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JANUARY 25, 1931—PART TWO. 3 'ROCKET FLIGHT TO MOON What of Niagara Falls? Preservation of Beauties Offers Scientific Problems—Suggestions That Have Been Made. AMERICAN FALLS, SHOWING HOW CONTOUR OF FALLS HAS CHANGED. BY JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON. TARTLING as a cataclysm was the breaking of & great mass of rock from the crest of Niagara Falls last week, with a roar heard above the thunderous sound of the cataract itself. Scenic beauty and practical utility are concerned in such an occurrence, and again is raised the question as to what can be done to check such changes in the contour of the walls of rock over which rush the swift waters gathered from four of the Great Lakes on their way to the sea. Once such a project would have seemed visionary. The usual attitude of man toward seething torrents of Niagara was until recent years like that of the young Irishman who seeing it for the first time inquired, “What's to hinder?"” Something has been happening to Niagara Falls for thousands of years, for the downpour of 500,000 tons of water a minute is bound to wear away even barriers made of steel and stone. Niagara Falls Strata. ‘The wall over which Niagara plunges 165 feet is composed of layers of vary- ing strength. The hardest, which is from 60 to 80 feet thick, is of the fa- miliar Niagara limestone. Below are BY HENRY W. BUNN. E following is @ brief summary | of the most important news of | the world for seven days ended | January 24, 1931: *x ko GREAT BRITAIN.—Parliament re- assembled on January 20, for what promises to be a highly exciting ses- sion. The general elections of May, 1929, resulted in the following distribu- tion of seats in the Commons: Labor- ites, 287; Conservatives, 260; Liberals, 59; Indeperdents, 9. Labor has just held its own in the subsequent bye-elections, with gains and losses precisely balanced, but the Lib- erals have lost one seat and the Con- servatives have gained one. ‘The debate is on in the Commons over the bill proposing drastic modifica- tion of the trades disputes act, and it promises to be “some” fight. On January 19, the round-table con- | ference on India ended its nine weeks' labors with result of agreement on| formation_of an Indian federation to | embrace British India and the Indian states and on the main_ features of a constitution therefor. I propose for | the next issue some notice of that no| doubt epochal constitution. A white paper on the conference will soon be | issued, and a Parliamentary debate on | India'is promised for the near future. | On January 17, the employers of the | weaving section of the Cotton 'rexmas{ Industry of Lancashire, executed their | threat to lock out all the cotton weavers | of Lancashire (approximately 200,000), | unless by that date 25000 weavers of | the 10 Burnley Mills, who had struck | against the experiment in their mills| of the “more looms per weaver” sys-| tem (involving the substitution of auto- matic machinery for the antediluvian | looms) should have returned to work on the employers' terms. - The Burnley weavers would not yield. As I pointed | out last week, the Master Cotton Spin- ners’ Federation having pledged sup- | | port to the employers of the weavers, | | the ghastly prospect is presented of { extension of the lockout to include the | | spinners, making a total of about 500,- | 1000 idle in Lancashire. On January 17 the strike of about | | 150,000 South Wales coal miners, which | began on January 1, was ended by ne- gotiated agreement, and work in the| mines was fully resumed on the 19th. | Viscount Astor has temporarily closed his Cliveden estate at Taplow-on-the- Thames. “For every £100 sterling I re- ceive,” says he, “I have to pay £60 to the state” Of those who have in- habited the celebrated Cliveden man- sion perhaps th» famous or notorious Buckingham is the best known. ok FRANCE.—On January 22 the gov- ernment of Theodore Steeg fell after a life so brief yet longer than one was justified in exnecting in view of the precarious nature of its supnort. The issue was a little curious. The minis- ter of agriculture had made a number of public announcements importing the intention to raise the price of wheat, and upon each such announcement the speculators had bustled themselves to their advantage, but not to that of the farmers. ‘The resolution did not charge that M. Boret was in cahoots with the speculators, but a bouquet of such im- plication could not be wanting and no doubt was responsible for the verse majority of 10 in the Chamber. That M. Boret was Indiscreet may scarcely be questioned. And now all is again un- certainty. That grand old man. Ravmond Poin- care, is still confined to his bed after over five weeks’ fllness. It terriblv irks him to be unable to work, to have to | susnend his weeklv articles for Tlus- tration and for the South American | press not to be able to carry on his war memolrs. el ek GERMANY.—On January 18 Berlin relebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the German Empire with the proclamation of Wilhelm I, King of Prussia, as Kaiser, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Only four Germans who were present at that cere- mony are still living—namely, President von Hindenburg, the Bavarian general, Bomhard, strata of the less firm Medina lime- stone and of the still softer Rochester shale. The rebound of the water wears away the more friable strata. As the shale contains a gcod deal of free lime— its calcareous texture is dissolved as well as subjected to the erosion. In the course of time the support of the top layer, sapped and weakened, gives way and down comes the hard crest in an avalanche of rock fragments. They re- main as a talus at the foot of the cataract, where they are beaten and rounded somewhat. The smaller cnes are spun around by the whirlpools, as are stones in a river pot hole where they help to deepen the big basin 200 feet deep or more which lies at the bése of the Canadian or Horseshoe side of the falls. The unusual feature of the break of the rock barrier was that it took place on the American side. The dislodge- ments have been most frequent in the large sector, the Canadian or Horse- shoe, because it carries fully 94 per cent of all the water, and, therefore, its downpour is more crosive. The Cana- dian cataract has been receding from 3 to 5 feet a year, climbing backward, while the American rate of recession is hardly half an inch annually. Oc- casioally large pleces cf rock drop from anniversary ceremonies the Reichstag was decorated with regimental flags, and there was a parade of an ‘“honor company” bearing 50 regimental flags which knew fire in the Franco-Prussian War. The Stahlehelm or steel helmet organization 1ssued a bellicose procla- mation on the occasion. * ok ok K THE ARCTIC.—That is a delightful news item, isn’t it, to the effect that Jean Jules Verne, grandson of the au- thor of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” (who can forget Capt. Nemo’s “Nautilus”?), is to join Sir Hubert Wilkins in his submarine ven- ture for the North Pole. M. Verne is a Rouen lawyer and was 10 years old at his grandfather’s death in 1905. He will assist at the rechristening of Sir Hubert’s boat (formerly O-12 of the United States Navy) as the “Nautilus™ at Philadelphia next month. ‘The epochal voyage (or so we hope it will prove) is planned to be between Spitsbergen and Bering Sea, about 2,100 miles, during the Arctic Summer, when the pack is broken and emergence should be fairly easy. Suppose the ice the American side, as they are seen at | the bottom of the fall. | The horseskoe was once & trim half | circle, as sketches and daguerreotypes of 75 to 100 years ago reveal. came more dislodgements, which changed the sector to the shape de- scribed in its pame. It has not re- | tained enough of that contour to justify its present title. The dent in the American side is about 150 feet across and possibly 200 feet deep, with a vast mound of broken rock at its bottom. The American side is now taking on the form of the Canadian contour. So slight have been the changes in the American falls that the only rock slide comparable with that of last Sun- day datcs back more than a century. Old inhabitants used to tell of a terrific crash which came in 1815, which shook the surrounding country like an earth- | quake, | There was a slighter descent six years ago which worried the friends of the American falls considerably. It | was one of the reasons for the appoint- ment of the Special International Board, appointed jointly by the United States and Canada to investigate conditions and suggest means for the preservation | of the cataract. |Is found thick? It is proposed to shat- ter it by driving upward a new type of | telescopic conning tower. That not suf- ficing, recourse would be had to a drill, | possibly an explosive. It is expected | that a considerable part of the voyage will be on the surface, maybe for as, many as eight hours per day on the average. Anyway, emergence from time to time would be essential for renewing | air, discharging engine exhausts, re- |charging batteries. Searchlights | illuminate the underseascape, the while | radio conveys to the world the descrip- | tion thereof. Leaving by s trapdoor | forward at the bottom of the craft, | divers will walk about on the sea’s bot- tom, using electric lamps. Among the | devices is & “sled deck,” a kind of in- | verted sled with runners turned up to | make contact with overhead ice. Simon Lake, whose company built the 0-12 for our Navy, has directed her | changes and adaptations, as redesigned. | She is said to have a cruising radius of 7,500 miles at 10 knots. Sir Hubert's two great assoclates will be Lieut. | Comdr. Sloan Dannenhower, U. 8. N., retired, who will command the Nauttlus, GREED BY BRUCE BARTON F any writer were big enough to gather up all the thousands of stories of the stock market crash, would have material for l he the Great American Novel. For the bull market, and the catastrophe which ended it, represented all that is best and worst in the American character: our optimism, which is at once our strength and our weakness; our rest- less desire to better our con- dition by any available means; our worthy ambition and our unworthy greed. One of the best of the mar- ket stories was told me by a celebrated surgeon whose name I cannot reveal. “I work hard for my money,” he said, “and have never spec- ulated. However, the fever got me finally, like everybody else. There was one particu- lar stock which was a favorite in my city. Bank presidents and bootblacks were in it to- gether; it went up by leaps and bounds. “Against all my traditions, I bcught several hundred shares. It continued to climb; I had profit of many thousand dollars. “One night my wife saw me making penciled calculations on the margin of the news- gaper. She said I ought not 0 be worrying about stocks, and she urged me to sell out and never think about the market again, ‘Theodor von and two mem- bers of the Guard of Honor. the. “I argued that by holding on for another 10 points we could pay for the wing which she wanted to build on the house. “While we were still talking, my little girl came in to ask my help on her Latin lesson for the next day. It was the translation of Aesop’s fable of the dog and the bone. The dog, you remember, saw his reflection in the water, and, thinking it was another dog whose bone he would steal, reached down with open jaws and lost his own bone. “The moral of the fable was, ‘Greed usually results in the loss of everything.’ “That night when I went to bed I could not sleep. The fable kept running through my mind. First thing next morning I telephoned my broker to sell me out. It hap- pened that the stock went up a few more points, but a couple of weeks later it dropped like a shot. I was very lucky, and had sense enough not to think I had been smart. You can bet that I am done with speculating forever.” I hope that when this edi- torial is printed we may be in the midst ¢f good times. with increasing business and a rising market. In that case, some young man may see it and appreciate the re- minder that “greed usually results in the loss of every- thing.” (Copyright, 1931.) Then | The commission or board had well in mind that from two to three million tourists visited the falls every year, thus making business for railroads and hotels on both sides of the border. About 35 per cent of the waters of Niagara are diverted for the generation of electric power for the use of local industries and for distribution as light and power. The volume of water was falling off, owing to the Drainage Canal of Chicago, the Welland Canal and other projects. Might Have Spared Mar. Had the commission, which made its final report in 1928, been able to see come of its plans go into effect, per- haps the latest ugly gash would not have marred the brim of the American falls. By means of weirs and other works hidden beneath the water above the falls it was proposed to alter the force of the currents and redistribute the waters. The result, if such plans were carried out, would bz a more or less synthetic Niagara. It was proposed to shunt enough water from the Ho: fill up gaps alongside the Am This was objected to on the ground that !i\_a_rseshoe would lose its chief (Continued on Fourth Page.) and Dr. H. Sverdrup, who will head the | sclentific_staff. Possibly the redoubted | Lincoln Ellsworth will be of the party, which will include six scientists and 112 expert submarine sailors, most of | whom have had experience in our Navy. Already Sir Hubert looks forward to a | similar venture in the Antarctic. e r UNITED STATES—On January 19, | about 20 months after its appointment, |the Law Enforcement Commission, | headed by Mr. Wickersham, submitted | to President Hoover a document of some 80,000 words, conveying the results of its study of the prohibition question. | The President at once transmitted it to the Congress and it has been published, The commission is now addressing itself to_other aspects of its problem. Presumably, all are familiar, through the press coples or digests, with the substance of the report, and I shall| content myself with noting the follow- ing features: Two of the 11 commis- sloners (namely, Newton D. Baker and Monte M. Lemann), are for out- right repeal of the eighteenth amend- ment, Mr. Lemann refusing to sign the report; five are for revision of the amendment so as to authorize Congress to determine whether or no there shall be legalized sale of intoxi- cating beverages; four, including the chairman, are for continuance in force of the amendment without change, though two of this group indicate that should further trial with better en- forcement methods prove unsatisfactory, they would favor amendment; all the signers are opposed to “restoration in any manner of the legalized saloon”; all the signers are of opinion that “there is not yet an adequate ob- servance of prohibition or enforce- ment” and that “the present organi- zation for enforcement is still in- adequate.” Apparently Mr. Baker, though favor- ing outright repeal, would, that failing, support modification of the amend- ment. Apparently several of the com- missioners have in favorable view “formation of a national corporation to sell liquor under Government regu- lation, a modified form of the Swedish system.” Interesting is the apparent agree- ment of the signers that the existing liquor legislation should be modified 50 as to “remove the causes of irrita- tion and resentment on the part of the medical profession”; physicians to be no longer restricted in respect of the amount of liquor they may prescribe and no longer be required to specify lheb::llmsnt for which liquor is pre- scribed. The President's attitude is made clear by the following paragraph of his message transmitting the report to Congress: “I see serlous objections to, and therefore must not be understood as recommending, the commission’s pro- posed revision of the eighteenth amendment which is suggested by them for possible consideration at some future time if the continued effort at enforcement should not prove success- ful. My own duty and that of all executive officials is clear—to enforce the law with all the means at our disposal without equivocation or res- ervation.” January 17 was the two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, whom the French in general and some others regard as the greatest American. o LEAGUE OF NATIONS.—The League of Nations Commission, including repre- sentatives of twenty-seven European governments, appointed to consider Briand’s project of European federation or at any rate close co-operation, which met at Geneva on January 16, began with brisk debate of a motion by Dr. Julius Curtius, the German foreign minister, that Russia and Turkey be| invited to “sit in” though not members of the League. The matter was after an entire day's palaver referred to a subcommittee. Then the commission addressed itself to the hideous economic IS GOAL IN 25 YEARS French Expert Hopes to Manage Paris- to-New York Journey by New Type of Gas Before That Time. Note—The arrival in this country of Dr. Robert Esnault-Pelterie, the noted French_atrplane and rocket erpert. and the announcement that he will lecture before the American Interplanetary So- clety at the Museum of Natural History on January 28, has served to stimulate n rockets, which has at mo since the successful experi- few vears ago, by Max Vallier. *ely the victim of one of his American interest has the support that has recently been given to our omly rocket expert. Dr. Robert Goddard, by the Gug- oenheim Foundation and others. The proposed rocket test by the amateur scientist, Dr. Darwin Lyon, who plans to siown by lounch a rocket skyward some time dur- ing the next two weeks from a mountain top in Northern Italy, serves also to heighten' the interest which the arrival of "Dr. Pelterie in this country has aroused. BY H. H. SHELDON, Professor of Physics, New York University. HERE are still those who look upon any kind of rocket flight as an absurdity. Perhaps we have to thank Jules Verne for this, for, because of his fictional flight to the moon, it seems to be im. possible for some people to think of a rocket as being used for any other pur- pose. One has only to mention rockets and he is immediately suspected by his friends of having ambitions to reach this satellite. So much is this tife case that if some pioneer were to traverse the Atlantic by rocket power he would still be likely to be regarded as a failure unless he were subsequently to make a successful trip to the moon and return. When so many of Verne's fantasies have been realized in practice it is a bit sur- prising that this particular one has been singled out as evidence of insanity, however much it may savor of lunacy— the word being used in a somewhat dif- ferent sense from the usus However, conditions changing rapidly, and it is already possible for engineers to seriously discuss this new science, which has come to be called astronautics, without danger of im- pairing their credit at the bank or their reputations as men of science. In talk- ing with Dr. Pelterie at dinner recently the author asked him if he were not frequently regarded as some kind of a “nut.” The answer was, “Not so much s0 as when I attempted my first air- plane flight in 1903.” You will see that Dr. Pelterie is no novice at things aero- nautical. A Personality Sketch. Perhaps it would be of interest, be- fore discussing Dr. Pelterie’s ideas on rockets, to describe briefly the manner of man that he is. Passing Dr. Pelterie on the street one would unquestionably place him in the class of American business men. He appears not over 45, an age which necessitates that his first attempt at flying a heavier-than-alr machine in 1903 must have been made at a very early age. Possibly he is more than 45, but he looks even younger. He has black hair, no evidence of grayness, a small black mustache and very dark brown eyes. His facial expression is that of & man of affairs; his jaw is determined. He is a little more than average height. When interviewed he wore a quiet brown suit with a brown tie in harmony with it. When reading he wears glasses of the horn-rimmed variety. Dr. Pelterie speaks English fluently and with very little accent. When conversing in Eng- lish he finds it necessary to give rather strict attention, however, which makes him appear a bit more serious than he would obviously be if the conversation were in his own language. An Aviation Pioneer. His rocket research has the suj of many of the members of the French Academy of Sclence, including the en- thusiastic support of the noted French physicist Perrin, now a very old man. Dr. Pelterie is at his best when telling anecdotes of such people. His gradual winning over of such minds to the sup- port of his beliefs holds many interest- ing and frequently amusing stories. Dr. Pelterie is the inventor of the Joy-stick, the device which is now uni- versally used for the guidance of air- planes. He tells an interesting stexy of the translation of his early papers by a young lady, translator. ~Every piece of wood mentioned in the text which could be moved was translated as “joy-stick.” When the text was completed the plane described found to have more than 100 joy- sticks in its make-up; it fairly bristled with them. Pelterie’s Rocket Plans. It would have sufficed merely to have said that there was nothing unusual about M. Pelterie than to have gone on with a description of his plans for de- veloping rocket power. Let us do so now. First of all Dr. Pelterie plans to make a thorough study of fuels. Every one who has given any attention to the study of rockets realizes that, as yet, we have no fuel that is satisfactory for this purpose. Ordinary explosives have far too much weight in proportion to their energy content to be even re- motely feasible. Gasoline, benzine and the like are also far too insufficient. Fuels like liquid oxygen, while being very desirable in some respects, are at the same time far too dangerous. —Liauld oxygen has been used in some reminded his colleagues how at the famous Geneva Economic Conference of 1927 representatives of twenty-nine nations promised to seek reductions of customs duties. He pointed out that these promises were still unredeemed, in consequence of which Great Britain was under heavy pressure to adopt protectionism, pressure to which she might be constrained to yield should the barriers stay up. The subcommittee recommended that Russia and Turkey be invited to send representatives to participate in the discussions of the commission on economic questions and the commission approved. On the 21st the commission adjourned after appointing subcommittees to con- sider the disposition of the European wheat crop (exclusive of the Russian); agricultural credits; the Cgrn]ect of a European tariff truce, which hangs; un- empldyment, etc., and, of course, a com- mittee (the “Organization Committee,” most impertant of all) is to consider how the projected federation, or union, or society, or co-operative association, or whatever name may approve itself, should be organized. The session ended with adoption, not without some show of emotion, of a “manifesto” to the effect that the war rumors hurtling 2bout are to be heavily discounted. “We, as foreign ministers or responsible rep- resentatives of European states, declare that we are more resolutely determined than ever to use the machinry of the League of Nations to prevent any re- sort to violence.” ‘The League of Nations’ Council con- vened at Geneva on January 19 for its sixty-second session, the chief matte; before it being the question of Poland’s treatment of the German minority in Upper Silesia and the fixis of the place and date of meeting of the In- ternational Disarmament ~Conference. The Council authorized Sir Arthur Sal- ter, chief of the transit section of the League secretariat, to visit China and advise the Chinese government respect- ing its reconstruction program. The date of meeting of the Disarma- ment Conference has been definitely fixed for February 2, 1932. Geneva has been provisionally desgnated as the place, depending on whether or not per- fectly satisfactory assurances can be situation, and discussed tariffs, the ap- plication of the Balto-Balkan group of countries for preferential rates for their agriculture from the industrial countries of Europe; this and that. With respect to tariffs Mr. Arthur Henderson, the British foreign minister, given of F!ovislon by the city of ade- quate fac! m.u..’ NOTES. truce #8 eaded. Al Pavlova, the dance She indeed, a great ar naval is dead. recent Tocket tests. In order to keep it in the liquid form one must main- tain a temperature of about 315 de- grees below zero, Fahrenheit. A flame will cause it to explode with terrific violence. True it is manufactured commercially in great quantities all the time. Oxygen that comes in oxygen tanks, such as are used in oxyacetylene welding, has first been liquefied. But liquid oxygen plants, like dynamite fac- tories, are especially equipped to hands the product with which they deal. They are able to build up safeguards which would be quite impossible in the case of the rocket, where the material was being burned with evplosive violence a few feet away from its point cf storage. New Gas Suggested. As a possible gas for study Dr. Pel- teria suggested nitrogen peroxide NO.. This material liquefies easily. It be- comes a light yellow liquid at the tem- perature of ice. This makes it a very convenient liquid to store. At 50 de- grees centigrade oxygen is released. 1t is obviously a safe gas to work with: decidedly so, as compared to such rocket fuels as have generally been The study of other possible fuels Dr. Pelterie considers to be a relatively simple matter. The cost for equipment to carry out this part of the work he estimates at about $4,000. The prin- cipal part of the outlay would be for a compressor for the purpose of lique- {ying various gases 50 as to store them in minimum space. According to re- ports, the fuel to be used by Dr. Lyon, above referred to, is one of colorates. These are commonly used in the manu- fu:%re of fireworks. 2 the e second stage of the experimen- tation as outlined by Dr. Pelterie is to design and bulld a rocket to go a thou= sand miles up from the earth. This would ‘haps be constructed largely of beryllium, a metal weighing about one-sixth as much as iron and about & third as much as aluminum. estimated that the cost of building a rocket would be about $40,000. Paris-New York Flight. ‘The third stage, which he hopes to reach, is that of an actual flight from Paris to New York. This, of course, would be preceded by shorter flights. It is difficult to estimate the cost of such a venture with any great accu- racy. If the experiments -were to suc- ceed as planned, however, this would perhaps cost in the neighborhood of & it 1 ot entirely a guess. entirely a n the coct of the machine, the gas tG be used, and so on can be fairly well computed. Dr. Pelterie has already given this probe lem and that of the safety and comfort of the navigator considerable atten- tion. In this there are many details to be thought of; for example, with the enormous accelerations which might be expected to be reached at the - ning c(b'-he wyage, it would be quite It is such any one to sustain it for any length of time. Counteracting Acceleration. Dr. Pelterie has also found, from ex- perience, tbat rapid accelerations can best be endured by assuming a position such that the body is at right angles to and along the direction of travel. Thus, in a rapidly accending elevator, the best position to assume, in order to exper- ience no unpleasant sensation, would be face upward on the floor. According to this a rocket should have a minimum diameter equal to the height of the operator. The controls should be brought very close to the Pave o move agans.iha-Torce ‘sering ve to move orce act on him a minimum amount. me%:! trols could best be merely buttons to be pi Once the rocket had reached its maximum speed the opera- tor w&lg mohv‘edmm;d as "?hlj.’s as in any other vehicle as as remained constant. £ e To stop such a rocket the same prin- ciple would be used as in starting; the explesions taking place in a direction . Pelterie necessary to make frequent trips to America because of business interests. Unlike most people, he admits to being a poor saflor. Per= haps a psychologist would read into his interest in rockets a subconscious effort to avold the unpleasantness of his usual ocean voyage. Quarter Century of Research. Dr. Pelterie has no idea that a voyage to the moon .is to be accomplished in the very near future. He prophesies that it will require at least a quarter century of rocket development to bring this feat within the range of possibility. It will cost about $2,000,000. The first rocket, he thinks, will make the trip without the aid of a human navigator. It'should take about two full days to make the trip of about 240,000 miles each way, a total of four days for the return trip. Such a rocket would weigh not more than a ton, but must be capable of carrying as much as 19 times its own weight of explosive material. It would not be aimed di- rectly at the moon, but in such a man- ner that the attraction of the moon for the projectile would cause it to circle g T . n asked conc e bility of guiding such a rocket toward the light of the moon by means of a photoelectric cell, he considered this might prove practical. For his first rocket, however, he seemed to prefer to carefully compute the path that it would take and rely upon such compu- tations for the successful completion of a round trip to the moon. For Air Exploration. ‘Whatever may be the ultimate re- sults of experiments on rockets, it may be reasonably assumed that we are due for a considerable amount of experi- mentation in this fleld in the immedi- ate future. The possibility that exists for obtaining knowledge of the upper atmosphere by rocket exploration is too great to be resisted. Sucn Enow- edge becomes increasingly important year by year, not only because of the tise of aviation, but as well because of the necessity, in many other industrial undertakings, of long-range weather lictions. ngdnofiwr possibility that has not been stressed by any of the present experi- menters is the use of rockets for long- range bombardment of enemy positions during war times. It should be & simple matter to construct, at the present time, rockets that would easily exceed the range of about 25 miles reached by the largest guns used during the last war, and to do so with consid- erable accuracy of aim. It is interes! to note that 1or many years the British Army maintained a rocket division, which was only- abol- Such units every country if the fighting forces are to keep up with *be advances which are this lme But sich