Evening Star Newspaper, January 26, 1931, Page 8

MTHE EVENING STAR With_Sunday Morni Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY.......January 26, 1831 —_— THEODORE W. NOYES. ...Editor i stk S The lunluls“::.amp-:pu Company 11th 'R‘n"é'.‘lm' Ave ; Y e Michizan Bindine. st. and York Offic opean egent St.. Londcm, te by Carrier Within the City. lm 'll\'lyl Star.. . . 45¢ per month e Eenm and Sunday Star Twhen 4 Sundave) . s0¢ per month ing and Sund: T o) Tesc per month Star ... 5S¢ per copy ade af tiie end of each month. Orders mav be sent in by mail or telephone NAtional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. B day.....1 yr.. $10.00; 1 m H’ .n'x,\?y S\.m 5 1y1., $6.00: 1 ma Binday’only . 13 §400: i m All Other States and Canada. $12.00; 1 mo., § $3.00° 1 me : 1 mo., $5.00; 1 mo.. 1.00 Daily only fid Sunday only Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dis- atches credited to it or not otherwise cred- tea 1n this caper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication ef pecial dispatches herein are also teserced _— The Third Community Chest. Officially the Community Chest cam- Ppaign in Washington begins tonight, with a rally at Constitution Hall at which the workers for the Chest will receive their final instructions before they begin their solicitations for funds. ‘Tomorrow these workers will ask Wash- ington for contributions. With the Special Gifts Commiitee making a fly- ing start with between six hundred and seven hundred thousand dollars of the million which it is hoped will be raised by this means, there will remain some- thing over a million dollars to be se- cured in the campaign. There should be no question of suc- cess. There should be no doubt on the score of Washington's response to the last dollar of the requirement of $1,- 950,154. It is a large sum, especially large in proportion to Washington's means. Byt it can be raised if every- body will realize the necessities, the urgent need, the particular emergency ©f the present season. Ordinarily the Community Chest would be filled with a smaller sum than the nearly two million dollars now re- quired. But there are extraordinary circumstances this year. First of all there is the addition of one hundred thousand dollars to meet the District’s quota of the Red Cross fund needed in its national work of relieving dis- tress incident to the drought, unem- ployment and business depression. Then Washington's own immediate necessi- ties for charity and institutional main- tenance are increased by the abnor- mal conditions that prevail throughout the country and here at the Capital. This large fund can be raised only if more people give than gave a year ago, or if thos¢ who gave last year increase their donations. It is hoped that beth the numbers and the rate of gifts will increase, that there will be a larger response from the people of ‘Washington and on a larger scale. ‘To give twenty-five per cent more this year than last, as is suggested, means to many a considerable sacrifice. It may in some cases be impossible. But when the situation is faced squarely and frankly, thoss who gave last year must realize that they as sustaining members of this corporation of charity are re- quired to bear their share of the added expense of maintenance. It is to be borne in mind that more than five per cent of the amount asked now in the name of the Community Chest is Washington's quota unde:r the Red Cross call for ten million dollars from the people of the United States for general relief work. If this call ‘were sounded alone it would be answer- ed without question and without delay. It so happens that the Red Cross need coincides with the annual Community Chest requisition and the merger of the two appeals is to the advantage of the ‘Washingtonians, who are thus spared a repeated plea for funds. Those who | wish can allocate part of their gifts '.:ll the Red Cross, or if they prefer they can make a single donation to cover both necessities without division. This one fact, however, is to be definitely borne in mind, that $100,000 of the money raised by this present popular subscription will assuredly go to the Red Cross, whatever the total figure attained in the Community Chest drive. So that those who hope for a complete meeting of the Community Chest necessities must make their donation larger oy at least the amount they would wish in other circumstances to give to the Red Cross fund. ‘This is the third Community Chest. Its predecessors have been amply filled. ‘This one must be. —_— et Assertions that prohibition is a failure do not prevent dry forecasters from assuming that for election purposes it ‘will be a decided success. P Peace in the Corridor. It would be going too far to say that | the settlement of the vexatious German minority question in the Polish corridor by the League Council has extracted the gunpowder from that inflammable situation. But that some dangerous explosive material has been eliminated is beyond doubt. It will require a major political operation by the League to deprive that breeder of war disease of all its malignancy. Regulation of the blood flow within it may promote the corridor’s continued existence, but while it Is permitted to function as a territorial organ which separates Eastern Ger- many from the rest of the Reich, it will remain a dangerously unruly member. ‘When the Allied and Associated Powers created the Free City of Dan- 2ig at Versailles, in order to give Poland a port on the Baltic, the Poles were also granted west of Danzig a “corri- dor” of land carved bodily out of Ger- man Silesia. In 1922 Danzig itself was brought within the Polish customs frontier. In the “corridor,” because it was formerly Prussian soll, many Ger- mans still reside. Their relations with their Polish neighbors and rulers have never been amicable. According to the tions in Poland, which were charged with violent acts against the German minority in the corridor. The Polish government was summoned to break off all connection with these bodies. Before the League Council meets again, next May, the Warsaw authorities are asked to veport what measures have been taken to execute the League's orders. . ‘This fs genuine peace-keeping stuff. ‘When the League of Nations moves in such force, it “acts nobly” in its ap- pointed role in Europe. The German- Polish “settlement,” as Geneva dis- patches term it, is hailed there as a development which will have a salutary effect on thé whole of troubled Europe. The question was one of the gravest to come before recent sessions of the Council. Any misstep in handling it was fraught with serious possibilities. A German-Polish conflict over the cor- ridor would not be a “localized” war. It would embroil the continent. Arthur Henderson, British foreign minister, who is president of the Coun- cil, correspondingly congratulated his Polish and German colleagues upon a conclusion “vital to the maintenance of peace.” He appealed to them to re- member that majority and minority owe it to themselves to co-operate loyally with the government under which they must both live. It is like asking & lion and a lamb, with ancient grudges to averge, to lie down together. The Poles’ pre-war slogan, which had to be uttered surreptitiously in Germany's easternmost province, ran, “Poland is not yet lost!” Today it is the Reich Germans who chant, “The corridor is not yet 'ast!” Its restitution as an in- tegral pirtion of her sovereign domain is bound to remain one of Germany's ing aspirations. —————r——————— Grasping at Straws. Nervously the politicians are seeking to learn how public opinion is reacting to the Wickersham report on national prokibition. Nothing has happened since national prohibition became the Nation's law which has focussed the limelight on the prohibition issue to the same extent as the commission’s report; not even the nomination of Al- fred E. Smith as a wet Democratic candidate for President in 1928. It is obvious that both Republicans and Democrats are apprehensive over the effect of the prohibition issue in the com- ing national campaign. Both fear serious splits in their party ranks due to pro- hibition, and there are political leaders cn both sides who would be greatly gratified if the whole matter cculd be shelved so that their parties would not have to take a stand on the issue. ‘These politicians, the leaders who seek to sidestep the wet and dry issue, are grasping at straws in their efforts to find & plan to remove prohibition from the field fo politics in the 1932 campaign. One of the suggestions now put forward is that there should be a national referendum, a Tesubmission of the eighteenth amendment to the people of the States, during the present calendar year. This, it is maintained by those who favor the plan, would give a clear indication of what the country really wants. It might and it might not, de- pending upon the form in which the question was put to the States. The proposal contemplates the adoptio of a resolution by Congress submitting & proposed amendment to the Constitu- tion to the States, with the understand- ing that the people of the States will elect delegates to constitutional con- ventions to vote on the suggested amendment. One difficulty facing such a submis- sion of the question to the people is the comparatively brief time in which to adopt the plan and erect the ma- chinery for carrying it into effect. An- cther is found in the reluctance of many of the dry leaders to join in the plan. Its opponents hold that they now have the constitutional amend- ment which they desire and that there is no reason why they should place it in jeopardy. Still a third objection is found among the wets, who believe that the pendulum is swinging rapidly against national prohibition, but that the time has not yet arrived to put the issue to the test. So the politicians who would like to have this indication of public opinion manifested through another vote on the constitutional amendment are not likely to have their wish. They must determine for themselves whether they are to back the dry horse or the wet in the coming national campaign. Some of the Democrats, even the wet- test of them, are fearful that their party is becoming too widely known as the champion of the wet cause, and a champion that makes the wet cause paramount to all other issues. They, too, are soft-pedaling at present the wet and dry issue. They have in the backs of their heads that the country after all is more interested in food than in drink, that it is more interested in jobs and a measure of prosperity than in the freedom to purchase alcoholic beverages. The party which paints on its standard a beer mug and adopts it as its device may at times feel rather like apologizing for it. e Presidential year is not far away. The time between great national elections is 80 short that the same arguments go on from year to year practically without interruption. ——e— Police Broadcasting. A notice to the underworld that Washington will no longer be a healthy place for its members has been given by the Police Department in the open- ing of Station WPDW which will henceforth take over the exclusive broadcasting privileges for the appre- hension of criminals, The National Capital is the forty-first city in the United States to make use of the mod- |ern miracle of radio in the perennial battle between society and the deni- | zens of gangland. And in the new | station, which is located on Park road near Georgia avenue, the National Capital presents a serious obstacle to continued criminal activity. Seventeen police cars are equipped with receiving sets. Three of them are attached to headquarters and the other fourteen, which are constantly cruising sround the city, to the various pre- cincts. The receiving sets are tuned in Germans, their lot has become cumu- latively oppressive, to the point of in- tolerability. The Reich demanded that the League take steps to end such con- ditions. On Saturday the Council at Geneva moved in the desired direction. In * effect, it wnanimously condemned the and sealed to the short-wave length of Station WPDW. The method of opera- tion is substantially as follows: A | laughs at his own jokes overdoes it. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1031 THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. ceives & “lookout” and those nearest to the scene hasten to intercept the robbers. In other cities the system hasmaterially reduced crime, and with the Washington system’s eventual extension into Mary- land and Virginis, the District should experience the same results. In Michigan the radio police broadcasting is State- wide and many captures are traced directly to it. In Detroit, for instance, three bandits were picked up within two minutes of a hold-up and as they were placed, manacled, in the police car the third “lookout” was coming through the air. At which one of them, scratching his head in perplexity, said to his buddies: “Listen to them telling on us already. This game is getting complicated for me and when I get out Il try something else.” Washingtonians are particularly gratified at this latest indication that no quarter will be given to the under- world by the police in the Capital City. Motorization of the local department was a giant stride forward and it is now matched by the equally progressive move of radio. In both respects Wash- ington had some advantage in not being the leader in that the experiences of other cities in patrol work and broad- casting could be studied and the knowledge used for the installation of the local system. Washington has no such degree of criminality to combat as have some of the larger cities, but Washington has served notice that its fight on the underworld will be both vigorous and effective. ———— Occasionally the police in Washing- ton, D. C., feel called upon to make a raid. The Nation’s Capital is un- fortunate in being compelled to leave unchallenged the assumption that it is going the pace of metropolitan wicked- ness. Its freedom from usual disorder is so exceptional that there is a natural and constant inclination to keep it pressing onward and upward until it attains an absolute state of municipal perfection. —rae— After many memorable cruises, the Mayflower burned to the water's edge. The fate is one usually reserved for craft of more responsible purpose in historic events. Kindly reminiscences will cling to the boat and cause it to be mentioned with pleasant thought when more stal- wart vessels that have had their day afloat have been forgotten. —— e An eminent soprano was presented with a silver dime by John D. Rocke- feller. Such a coin is Mr. Rockefeller's customary gift to very young pecple who visit him. The prima donna not only received an implied compliment as to her seeming years but acquired a souvenir which as time passes will have increasing interest. Bandits are becoming uncomfortably versatile. One may hold up a gas- filling station one day and the next turn up at a most exclusive club. There are no rules governing the admittance of a bandit anywhere. Determination in the direction of re- form expressed by Gifford Pinchot will probably cause Smedley Butler to watch attentively to see how he comes out with Philadelphia. —————— France has gained notably in wealth, but a cabinet that will stand wear and tear without early replacement is some- thing money cannot buy. ————— Detectives are not to blame if they begin to wonder whether homicide clues do not conceal more than they reveal. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The Final Question. 'Mongst all the prophets and the creeds That measure up our thoughts and deeds, Each will at last apply this test: “Oh, Mortal, have you done your best?” If you have missed the joy intense That comes to glorious excellence, You still will claim an honored rest If you have simply done your best! Faith Well Founded. “What makes you so sure that every- body will soon be prosperous and happy “I was reared,” answered Senator Sor- ghum, “in a country where the storms are extraordinarily rough. But I never saw or heard of a blizzard that lasted forever.” Jud Tunkins says he likes the idea of being self-sustaining, but the man who Prospects of Great Improvement. We know that times must soon improve As politics keeps on the move. Ere long, as speeches come and go, We'll hearken to the radio. Great inspirations we'll acquire From thoughts of men whom we admire, High hopes we'll gather, all aglow, While listening to the radio. Amid the rhythms sweetly set Great intellects will there be met. We'll be surprised at what we know While listening to the radio. Paths of Glory. “Have ycu never been tempted to run for office?” “No,” arswered Miss Cayenne. tics is a rough game.” “But it leads to glory.” “I'd like glory, of course. But as long as I can’t hope to play foot ball with any degree of proficiency I relinquish my aspirations to arouse the unbounded enthusiasm which really seems to count at present.” “Polie “Affection may be cruel,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown. “Even & musi- cian has to torture the tune he loves before he learns to play it.” Fiction in the Pharmacy. ‘The drug etore complicates my lot And leaves my mind distraught indeed. ‘The medicine I quite forgot And took best sellers home to read. “De trouble 'bout a hard-luck story,” sald Uncle Eben, “is dat you wastes time if you jes’ lends a listenin’ ear instead of a helpin’ hand. R Tstore is held up by bandits, an alarm is sounded and a “lookout” immedi- ately blankets the air on the police wave length within & radius of fifty miles of Washington. Each police car, whether standing stil or runniog, re- Thinking They're Thinkers. From the Rosaoke Times. “Thinking is one of the most unpop: to be interrogated, cate- chized, have questions thrown at us for immediate answer. ‘We believe that every one else hates to find himself '}; a ngnu I.l‘ml“-t‘:? especially when the questioner is plainly trying to get him in a hole. Such inquisitors work with a mali- cious gleam in their eyes, as if fully aware of the fact that you know quite as much as they do, if not more, but that by acting quickly they will, deprive you of time to think. “I knew the answer, all right,” you say afterward, “but he scared it out of me.” and nothing but the truth. A gentleman may be talking to you about trees, for instance. He has writ- ten an article about them, and one section of it is headed: “Cambium.” “Do you know what that is?” he rasps, that old gleam suddenly coming into his eyes. You have seen that gleam before. says as plain as day, or even two or three days: “‘Stop, look, listen!" ‘The exigencies of conversation, how- ever, demand that you flash right back with an answer. Cambium, cambium, cambium? Of course, you know what the damword means, but, for the life of you, you can't | think offhand. Cambium, cambium, cambijum? “Why—er—sure I know what it " you begin, miserably enough. “It’s the—it's the—" Unholy joy, conscious, complete, ef- fervescing, shines from his bright eyes. “The cambium,” he declares, with painful effort not to be impolite, “is the cellular tissue just below the bark, in which the annual growth of the tree occurs.” “Of course, of course,” you reply, hastily. But it is too late; very much too late. * ok % ¥ Any one by throwing a question at another can knock him off guard. It is one of the surest tactics in mental warfare. No, all the battles of history have not been fought on topography, as it were. The elaborate maps supposed to be stored in the bombproof cellars of the war colleges of the nations—those same cellars which are said to contain com- plete plans for monstrous air raids on cities of the interior—fail to show the most important battles of history. These were waged in the ether, their deadly weapons no more than words, their trajectories leaving behind them more misery than any shell whatsoever. Often enough these battles are trivial affairs, utterly unworthy of chronicling, but nevertheless they result in surprise, pain, gloating, victory, loss, revenge, and all the rest of it. Among the commonest of these con- flicts is that via the question and an- swer path. ok i ‘There would be no battles, of course, if the one attacked would reply without hesitation: “I don’t know.” But it takes a hero to say that. Think back over your life and re- call the heartaches which would have WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. In addition to trying to figure out just how dry he is, Capitol Hill's favorite indoor sport nowadays is guessing when President Hoover would call a special session of Congress, and how long it would last. A diverting tale is going the rounds on that score. It credits Mr. Hoover with a Machiavellian plan for getting Congress off his hands as soon as possible, provided an extra siege of it is unavoidable. The President would not summon House and Senate back to Washington, according to the story, until early in June. During the intervening two or three weeks, with the end of the fiscal year just over the | horizon and the need for appropriations legislation desperately urgent, Hoover reckons that Congress would get a prodigicus move on. If the financial re- quirements of the Government by them- selves shouldn't suffice to produce 8] ly action, the President calculates that hot weather would. What sort of | an understandin, Chief Marvin of nobody knows. L “The three R's” don Romanism and Rebellio ‘Washington nowadays _the: “Repeal, Revision or Retention,” with ;\’:rybody wondering what H. H. stands or. * % % % Washington, D. C. and Marion, Ohio, are jointly waiting for word from Northampton, Mass., before fixing definitely the date for dedicating the Harding Memorial. When former Sen- ator “Joe” Frelinghuysen of New Jer- sey, on behalf of the memorial asso- ciation, received President Hoover's formal assurance at. the White House last week that the latter would deliver the dedicatory address, it developed that Mr. Hoover thinks Calvin Coolidge ought to be at Marion on the same occasion. If the former President has decided to participate, he hasn't sig- naled that fact publicly so far. The expectation is general that Mr. C-ol- idge will be on hand. There's said also to be some delicate discussion in Mr. Hoover has with the Weather Bureau mean “Rum, ny more. In progress as to the other dignitaries | who should be on the platform. Exalted personages are understood to be har- }mrlng certain inhibitions cn the sub- ect. el e ‘There must be something in a name, after all. Take what happened to Rep- resentative Joe J. Manlove, Republican, of Missour], the other night at a Wash- ington restaurant heavily frequented by after-theater folk and other nocturnal revelers. Mr. and Mrs. Manlove had Just put a stack of buckwheat cakes out of commission when the gentleman from Joplin noticed a soldier of the United States Army standing at the cashier’s desk, fumbling in his khaki pockets for some change that very manifestly wasn't there. Manlove strode over to the doughboy, found out what the trouble was, and vol- unteered to meet the situation. “Pard,” said the soldier, “I haven't the glim- mer of an idea who you are, but you sure do know friend. I looked through the window: of this joint, and saw they didn't have any tablecloths on the tables, so I thought it must be a cheap place. But my quarter wouldn't reach.” * Kk * Representative Henry T. Rainey, Democrat, of Illinois, has it all figured out that “Jack” Garner is going to ride in the Speaker’s automobile, all right. ‘The average rate of human mortality is the gruesome basis of the House vet- eran’s confidence that the Democrats will boss the show after March 4. Rainey appears to have taken the trouble to compute that the Republicans in the next House considerably outstrip in age the 216 (or thereabout) Demo- crats, who were elected to it—that to say, there are more Republicans of advanced age than there are Democrats. Ergo, reasons Representative Rainey, the law of probability points to the dis- appearance of more Republicans thr natural causes than Democrats. Illinoisan isn’t disturbed in his theory the fact that only two members of the Seventy-second House thus far to leave the scene were both Demo- crats—New York Tammany men. . Charles R. Crane, who has just been invited to become adviser on foreign af- fairs to Nationalist China, is an in- ternational D'Artagnan. Like the Ma- ular amusements of the human race,” asserts Dr. Nicholas rines, Crane is ready for either a fight it's far | This ancient excuse often is truth | It y stand for | when a feller needs a | been saved you at critical times ilywl had had the nerve to reply with a sim- ple negative. Most people haven't the nerve, or whatever you want to call it. (The best word is a simple, elemental one, usually regarded as uncouth but ex- pressive, terribly expressive.) They rush to the defense of their ‘elementary schooling, of their secondary education, if they have had any; of their collegiate training, if they have gone through it; of their post-graduate | work, if they have taken their master |of arts degree. Some way or other men and women of to: | perpetual | selves. | Their minds, they seem to feel, are under the constant suspicion of the| | remainder of mankind, and it is their |duty to defend the poor things from | borings from without as well as from within. They come to feel that the world rather suspects them of fraud in set- ting up to be educated men and women. It is continually seeking to find a hole |in their armor in order to pierce it with |a shaft of learning. Once pierced, their boorish souls will be dragged forth on the end of a pike, to be held up to the secret ridicule of | the mob forever. LR " you can't blame most of us, then, for refusing to permit our neat little educational veneer to be pierced in such a rude, even ribald, fashion. ‘We are a bit proud of the odds and ends of culture which we have man- ed to pick up out of the dog kennel the world. Amid the boom of heartbeats, the flow of billions of gallons of blood, the grinding of knee joints and the con- siant heaving of the chests of human- ity, it is something for each one of us if we have got away from the crass materialities for long enough to bask a few hours, or days, or months, or years, in the bright light of the torch forever handed on from man to man adown the vast stretch of years. It is something, we say; and no one, least of all ourself, can blame us, happy us, triumphant us, for taking pride in our precious vencer. We know who Caesar was, whereas yonder picturesque fellow astride a steel beam on the six- teenth story never heard of him—and | never wil., | Let no man, therefore, come rushing us with questions. We must have time to think. We insist on it. It is our |right. We sneer at the uncouth one who would take advantage of us by plotting in his heart and mind to over- throw us by haste. | One cannot be expected to know everything, of course; and, above all, |one must have time to think. Think- |ing is the source of knowledge. It was by thought that we learned what— well, cambium is, in the first place. It is by thcught we will retain this bit of lore. Give us time and we will answer any- thing if we have to go to the diction- ary or encyclopedia to do it: but rush us with a nasty gleam in the eye and our blood rises. Perhaps that is good for us—all of us. Our blood needs to rise, and this is as good a raiser as any. t “educated” ! live on the defensive of their mental of |to spend the rest of his life exploring | places where few humans have ever | been before. Crane knows his Russia, | China, Turkey, Palestine, Mesopotamia, | Syria, Armenia and Arabia better than |any other living American. He has homes in Chicago and Woods Hole, Mass., both crammed with the trophies |of his wanderlust in Oriental climes. |One of the Chicagoan’s dapghters is married to Jan Masaryk, son of the President of Czechoslovakia. The one- time Yankee Minister to China is 72 years old, looks like the legendary Uncle Sam and is entitled to register at hotels from the world at large. *w Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett of Canada, who is dus in Washington this week, isn't likely to | think much of the salute fired by the Coast Guard which sank another Ca- nadian rum-runner off Sandy Hook Saturday night. The I'm Alone affair is still unsettled. Like most of our own politicians, Mr. Bennett is a lawyer by profession. Ten years ago he was Do- minion minister of justice and attor- ney general. Bennett was born in the maritime province of New Brunswick, but trekked across the continent dur- ing his twenties to practice law in the then wild and woolly Province of Al- berta, where most of Canada’s wheat comes from. The Ottawa statesman is in the forefront of Canadian Red Cross activities, so he’ll be watching with professional interest the progress of our $10,000,000 drought drive. Canada has been without a Minister at Wash- ington since Mr. Massey left last year. Doubtless Premier Benn-tt will be look- ing into that before he quits the Poto- mac. He ought to leave cards on Sen- ator Smoot and Representative Hawley to whose little tariff act his Conserva- tives mainly owe their present power. ot ‘Whether by coincidence or by design the first office you reach when you go into the Department of Justice is that emblazoned “Charles P. Sisson, Assist- ant Attorney General.” Sisson is the . A. G. with whom aspirants for posts in the PFederal judiclary, or their po- litical backers, have to do business. He succeeds in that not always thankful job John Marshall of West Virginia, who functioned throughout the Cool- idge administration. It is Mr. Sisson's painful duty to scrutinize, analyze and Xeay all candidates for judgeships, district attorneyships, United States marshalships and the hundred and one other kinds of plums that grow in the Attorney General's orchard. The Presi- dent appoints, but the head of the Department of Justice generally desig- nates, Sisson is built for wear and tear —a strapping, broad-shouldered Rhode Islander just turned 40, who must have played foot ball at Brown. He sports a smile capable of turning away the wrath of the most disgruntled officeseeker, (Copyright, 1831 ———— Cheering Postal Receipts. From the Atlanta Journal. If post office receipts tell anything about business—and they have long been accepted as one of its barometers— Atlanta may well take courage. Her post office receipts for last December scored a new monthly all-time record. Exceeding half a million dollars ($515,~ 307.37 are the exact figures), they over- topped the parallel month of 1929 by some twenty-three thousand five hun- dred dollars and brought the year’s total to approximately four million seven hundred and forty-two thousand, which is itself an annual peak. This is the more significant in that five months of 1930 showed decreases as compared with the corresponding ones in 1929. Evidently as the year drew toward its is | end—in October and November, as well as in the Yule month—the forces that make for trade activity quickened and strengthened. ‘Thus 1931 begins with an impetus and a hope which were h | wanting 12 months ago. ———— Swish! From the Miami Daily News. ‘There is one broom for every woman | in the United States, indicating that the clean-up craze is sweeping the country. — e Belated Discovery. From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Now and then a community wakes discovers that it cannot X The Political Mill By G. Gould Lincoln. Changing conditions, and particular- ly changing conditions of public opin- ion, must necessarily have a tremen- dous and far-reaching effect on the policies and programs of political leaders. Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States for a second time in 1916 on the slogan “He kept us out of war.” That was in November, 1916. In April, 1917, Presi- dent Wilson recommended to Congress that it declare war. Frequently it has been said that President Wilson would have ranged this country on the side of the allles in the World War still earlier, had public opinion in this country supported the entry of the United States into the conflict. ©er- tainly in November, 1916, the pre- ponderance of opinion in many of the States was against the entry of this country into the war. The war had bcen going on for more than two years at the time, but, despite provocation, the public sentiment had n°t swung sufficiently toward war, and Wilson was clected because he had managed to keep the country out of war. There were other coniributing factors, but that was the great slogan of the Demo- cratic party. i . President Hoover, having declared national prohibition an experiment noble in purpose, was elected President in 1628. He was elected as a dry. There were wets who believed that his plan to provide a commission to study the question of prohibition was a step in the right direction, and some of the wets voted for Mr. Hoover also. There were several other important cocn- tributing factors in that election which returned Mr. Hoover a victor. But his victory was hailed as a victory for the dry cause, just as the victory of Wood- row Wilson in 1916 was hailed as a victory for the anti-war party. AR e ‘When public opinion supported him, and when conditions had changed, Woodrow Wilson led the country into war, although he had been re-elected as a peac: President. If public opinion supports a revision of the eighteenth amendment, will Herbert Hoover take the lead in urging upon the Congress a resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution for that purposc? It is an interesting question. The results in the congressional elec- tions in 1930 and now the report ou national prohibition submitted by the Presid'nt’s own commission on Law Enforcement and Observance have in- dicated a change in public opinion. The rank and file of the voters had their say in the congressional elections and r:- visionists won in many instances. In the Wickersham Commission the Presi- dent brought together trained minds and men and a woman of much force of character. They hailed from sections of the country, from New York and from the Corn Belt, from the Gulf of Mexico and from the Pacific Coast. In a measure they represented a cross s-ction of American life and thought. e A study of the commission’s report and the stat>ments of the individual members of the commission can lead to only one conclusion: that none of the col oners is satisfied conditions in this country under na- tional prohibition; that a majority of them believe a change should be made in the system of liquor control without further delay, while a minority would give the existing system a further chance. As the real significance of the reports of thes: commissioners sinks in, it can scarcely fail to have its effect on public opinion. Already the statement made by Judge William S. Kenyon of Iowa, which shows up national prohibi- tion as it is now practiced in terrible light, is the topic of wid: discussion throughout the farm belt. Judge Kenyon has been known as an ardent supporter of the dry cause. It is true that he recommends a further trial of the exist- ing system. But he adds that if great improvement in enforcement and observance of the law does not follow, then h- believes there must be a re- vision of the system, and he subscribes to the plan of liquor control worked out by Commissioner Henry W. Anderson in that event. ‘The shift in public opinion toward national prohibition as it is now prac- ticed under the law—or as, in consid- erable measure, it is not practiced— has been more and more marked. It has changed already to some extent the complexion of Congress. There are other members of Congress today who are sitting on the fence, merely waiting for additional pressure to flop to the side of revising the system of liquor control. Whether the shift of publiz opinion is strong enough to make cer- tain the election of a presidential can- didate next year who supports revision of the eighteenth amendment is agitat- ing the political leaders as they have rarely been agitated. * Kk ok Out of the report of the Wickersham Commission comes the distinct impres- sion that the gains made for the coun- try through national prohibition must not be abandoned. There must be no return to the control of politics by the liquor traffic and no return to the open caloon. While the commissioners dis- approve present conditions, they also are strongly averse to returning to the old, pre-Volstead conditions in this country. And public opinion will sup- port the commission in this view. In other words, there must be a substi- tute for the existing system which per- mits regulation ot the liquor traffic by the National Government, along with the State governments, but not a re- peal of the eighteenth amendment without a substitute. Either the Demo- cratic party or the Republican party is likely to offer such substitute. If the ultra drys have their way, the Republi- cans will stand by the present system or something still more drastic. The Democrats scem committed to some form of revision or repeal. Jouett Shouse, chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee, writing in the February is- sue of the Atlantic Monthly, ranges himself on the side of revision or re- peal, although the new Senator-elect from Colorado, Costigan, chosen as a Democrat, supports prohibition in the same issue. Ever since 1928 it has been known that Raskob, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, makes repeal of the eighteenth amend- ment, or some modification, a princi- pal issue in politics. Sooner or later the candidates for the presidency in 1932 will have to de- clare their stand on this liquor issue. It does not appear probable that any of them will be able to straddle the issue, or that if he does he can win, Mr. Shouse has said that liquor con- trol by the Government is a matter for politics to decide. This is contrary to the views expressed by some of the Republican leaders and by the leader of the Socialist Party, Thomas. But the Republicans and the Socialists have other interests. The Republican party has up to the present time been pre- ponderantly dry. It probably will have to support the dry side of the argu- ment in the 1932 campaign. The Wickersham report, however, is giving the Republican leaders cause to stop and think. * ok ok Kk It is possible that a return of better economic conditions, with business im- proved and a general employment of labor and improved farm conditions, may yet lessen the influence of the pro- hibition issue in the next campaign. If conditions improve greatly it will be to the advantage of the Republicans and of the prohibitionists. It seems, in a measure, to be a race between better business conditions in this country and the public opinion averse to national prohibition. So far the Republican leaders, including Mr. Hoover, are backing the horse carrying the colors of better business conditions in this race. o Knows Its Own Size. Prom the Hartford Daily Times. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. ‘Thousands of Government experts are working constantly for the benefit of all citizens of the United States. They will work directly for you call for the fruits of their labors through our Washington bureau. State your inquiry y, write clearly, and, in- closing 2-cent stamp for a personal let- ter in u{fly. address The Evening Star Information Bureau, Prederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Q. What are the usual clubs used by a golf player?>—R. W. C. A. A conventional set of clubs in- cludes a driver, brassie, midiron, mashie, niblick and putter. Additional clubs which some players use are driving iron, cleek, spoon, jigger, mashie-niblick and putting cleck. There tions of the implemenis used in | game. Q. Why does the salmon float or swim downstrerm tail foremost after spawning?—L. G. practically all fish swim or drift down- stream tail first. They face the current in order to hold their position. Q. How many counties formed the Irish Free State?>—N. G. . The 26 southern counties were erect:d into the Irish Free State and the six northern counties were consti- ]tut%d the government of Northern Ire- and. Q. How many miles & day did Peary cover in his final successful dash for the Pole?—T. T. A. The entire distance from the mainland to the Pole was 475 statute miles, and was covered at the average rate of 131, miles a day. Coming back, +due to favorable weather conditions, an average rate was maintained of 295 miles a day. Q. When did the American flag fly on a fortress of the Old World for the first time?—S. H. T. A. In 1803, when the Marines hauled down the Tripolitan flag at Derne and raised the Stars and Stripes. Q. Is there an artist by the name of Charles Chaplin? I do not refer to the movie actor—J. R. W. A. Charles Chaj & painter ‘and engraver, of Engl parentage, was born June 8, 1825, at Les Andelys, Eure, France. He became a naturalized citi- zen of France, and died in Paris in 1891. One of his best pictures, “Sou- venirs,” is in the Luxembourg, and an- other, “Haidee,” is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City. Q. Do all uncivilized tribes in tropi- cal countries wear loin cloths?—F. C. . Practically every primitive tribe dwelling in the tropics that has been studied by scientific observers has been 11 | found to wear some form of bodily cov- ering of the loin region, either in the form of paints of various colors, tattoo marks, sirands of beads of various ma- terials, beaten bast or bark cloth, or of woven girdles or aprons of cotton or other vegetable or animal fibers. The inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands and of Central East Africa are apparently of all tribes the most free from loin coverings of all sorts. Reasons given th for the wearing of loin coverings vary. Native modesty is usually present in some form, even apart from any influ- ence that may be attributed to the whites. Tribal and ceremonial paint- ing or tattooing is often a causative factor, and may supplement a woven girdle worn for entirely different pur- poses, namely, for the insertion of the it you will | aj A. The Bureau of Fisheries says that | hilt of a knife and as a place of at- tachment for burdens. Most primitive les are burden carriers. Protection ”:&.z insect pests is often attempted through the agency of breech clouts. ‘Tradition and native styles usually dic- tate the use of certain forms loin covering, even to the minutest detail. % gfig do stars seem to be pointed? A. The apparent points of stars when seen by the naked eye are merely due to scintillation, which arises from in. equalities of the earth’s atmosphere. Q. Please tell something of Schlatter, | the faith healer.—D. C. A. Francis Scl ter, faith healer, | was born of German parents in Elser, Alsace (now France), 1856. In 1884 he came to the United Siates and worked at his trade until 1892, when he re- ported that a voice ordered him to sell his business, giving money to the poor and healing the sick. He was at this time in Denver, and traveled on foot to Albuquerque, N. Mex., conducting faith healing clinics or missions on the way. He became famous, and returned to Denver, Colo. He is said to have re- fused all rewards except the simplest living expenses. On November €. 1922, he disappeared, leaving a note -aying his mission was ended. His precls on is not known. 1In 1927 a faith heu... assuming to be Schlatter was reported, but this was considered fraudulent. Q. Why is bread cheaper by the pound_than crackers are?—D. G. A. Bread is made in large quantities and sold with a single wrapper. Crack- ers are made on a much smaller scale. It is necessary to protect them carefully from moisture, which involves a more expensive method of wrapping and box- ing. This increases the cost to the consumer. L What s Meredith's epitaph?— “A." A line of his novel, “Vittoria,” is carved on his tombstone—“Life is but ln bléttlu holding, lent to do a mighty abor.” Q. What is meant by free wheeling? —G. R. M. A. It means the disconnection of the engine and rear wheels so that the car runs as though the engine had been thrown out of gear. Q. What is the strength of the Brit- ish Army in India?—M. M. G. A. In 1929 the strength of the Brit- ish Army in India was 59,987 and of the Indian Army, 172,175, Q. Why 15 absentee voting desirable? A. Many persons have business which takes them away from home at voting time. Since their interests are iden- tified with their homes, many States provide for their voting by mall. Q. Are there railroads in Hawali?— H T 8. A. Hawail has 374 miles of steam railroads, besides 625 miles on the sugar plantations. Q. Are live toads really found bedded in rock?—J. C. i g A. Dr. Leonhard Stejneger of Smithsonian Institution says that the facts are: Toads for the purposes of hibernation dig holes in the ground or crawl into fissures of rocks. Occasione ally such specimens are found after a Rast Braay that e soad: oo pen y drawn living inside the solid rock. Inauguration of Willilam H. (Alfalfa Bill) Murray as Governor of Oklahoma arouses national interest because of his attack on college athletics, his desire to guard legislators against lobbyists, an effort to cut taxation, and expression of a belief that practice by legislators before the departments is against pub- lic policy. symplthg is expressed, but there is little thought that he will be able to effect reforms. The picturesque character of his induction fnw office, coupled with his challenge to his ene- mies who might want to impeach him, gives color to the scene reproduced in general comment. Commenting on the Governor’s ob- Jection to the item of $52,000 a year for the sports “faculty” at the State uni- versity, his belief that the faculty members should “teach eight hours a day if they expect to draw full pay,” the Cleveland News says: “The pictur- esque Mr. Murray, two-fisted, hale and hearty, would hardly seem the type to favor the raising of a race of molly- coddles. he , every true son and daughter of Oklahoma should, by the time he or she goes to college, have attained sufficient physi- cal development to make gymnasiums and stadiums unne . Or, per- schoolmaster he is determined to make the mills of knowledge grind in Okla- | homa as they never ground before. The |item of $52,000 a year for coaches and athletic instructors may or may not be too high for the State school of Okla- danger of belittling the importance of geh.v:!lcnl training the lives of stu- nts.” “If he fails in his effort to minimize expenditures for foot ball and other athletics at the homa,” suggests the Lincoln State Jour- nal, “it may be because the sports will fet him. There is a fair foot ball fol- owing in that State, and they went a bit wild and acted in an unseemly man- ner last Fall when they trimmed Nebraska. Therefore, there will be few tears wasted in this part of the country if Gov. Murray kayoes the Oklahoma team and gives it a chance to feel the depression that follows getting on the short end of the financial score. ® * ¢ What we are wondering is just what Gov. Murray will say next Fall in the last few minutes of the last gul.ner when Oklahoma holds the line, yards away from fts own goal, until the gun cracks. A moving picture of the Governor’s facial contortions dur- ing two minutes at such a crisis mighf answer all he has said, and more, t00.” * ok x % “Indicated radical changes at the State’s institutions of learning” in the opinion of the Kansas City Times, “will create serious misgiving in educational circles. Foot ball might be subordi- nated, or even dispensed with, but it | might be assumed that reduction of teaching forces by one-half and other changes of like nature belong in a slightly different category. Okla- homa's experience with governors has not been entirely free from turbulence. The present executive of the State seems to anticipate an element of strife in his tration. It should be hoped that nothing detrimental to the State's best interests will be a result. The Governor faces his opportunii Oklahoma awaits the issu 1 “His ideas about colleges,” states the Indianapolis Star, “may not please the rah-rah boys on the bleachers, but they are such as one would expect from a man whose bleached rs _and ed face have known the burning heat of the desert and the biting gales from the Northwest. He can see no reason why a plumber or a urmrm should work eight hours a day while & professor may escape with seven. He also believes that a ‘1 be established in which legislators would live, secure from the advances of nefa- rious lobbyists. ‘The Governor would guard the lawmakers as carefully as a murder jury. That suggestion is likely to be vigorously opposed by the hotel men, who would be n number of lovely little dinner partie®¥ ernor says that lobbyists liquor, wemen and even mon bribery.’ That charge will . a frontier | B0Ing homa, but Mr. Murray seems to be in |get! Alfalfa Bill’s Reforms Stir Interest But Not Conviction Gov. Murray’s objections to “depart- mental practice on the part of legisla~ tors,” according to the Oklahoma City Oklahoman, “will receive hearty ap= proval.” That paper continues: “The people who deplore and condemn an un- wholesome practice will do well to follow the course of their representatives in this matter. They may possibly see a wise and patriotic body of lawmakers answering the call of duty and putting an end to a practice which has wrought real injury to the State. Or they may see a truculent body of dej ental fee-seekers holding fast to ‘promise of a miserable mass of Statehouse tage. If the evil is one-half as as the Governor intimates and the people believe, it wlil be extremely difficult to pass the measure the Governor recom- mends. For legislators brazen enough to convert their offices into a profession 80 pitiful will be brazen enough to fight to the death to save their malodorous per tes. On the other hand, the and easy enactment of the law the Governcr asks for will be a fair mll no:flmw:g:!f. the evié aompluned of 50 pread and deep-seated as '.hereo‘?le beltleve “He has left no doubt,” according to the Walla Walla Bulletin, “that he is to cut taxes in Oklahoma, and Which plople ate Rolding ok sha sepinss e hol al expense of the State. Every now and then fel- get elected to high ching argument is to he bunch in office is untg fat at the expense of ux?ayen. and the only way to remedy matters is Wwith a new deal. The more color such a candidate can put into his speeches the more votes he is likely to get. It's & great vo'e-getter, but it doesn’t count for é‘nuch n&lore," “Comparing such colorful personali- ties with more humdrum ex:cp:uvea of the big industrial States,” says the New York World, “we can be thankful for the picturesqueness of the Alfalfa Bills. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette advises that “sometimes picturesque in- dividuals fool those who look to them only for bizarre performances.” The Worcester Evening Gazette predicts that if it comes to a showdown and Alfalfa Bill should be remoyed by impeach- ment, he may be relied upon to make things lvely before he goes.” The New York Evening Post fcels that “there is no doubt he knows fully as much about :J!ney gcmq&ohat! the G}:zvernor‘s Job as ight men who X ey preceded him Quoting the Governor’s remark “all he has to do is to whistl o army of 100,000 citizens will side,” the Charleston (S, 2 as r-triggerish - clally accusing their zu‘gv‘zmou hn‘sfie young State of Oklahoma is, they would be sending many ‘first citizens to rest cures” Alfalfa Bill is probably sound- Ing off for the purpose of alarming the enemy. He does nct suggest the grounds for an effort at impeachment. The distant oglooker does not understand ;:;fl l.hrel Go\l';mcr should be scenting T. lowever, the an Oklahoma Commonph:e.'?uu“'hn . s How. One Governor Dines From the Columbus Ohlo State Journal. The simple life Gov. “Alfalfa Bill homa in ordering the served in the executive mansion. bread, boiled turnips and hog jowl was the food he sought after a day of hard Work on a new job. He had submitted his plan for a 50 per cent tax cut to the Legislature, and had it approved. For t he was entitled to any good meal his appetite demanded. Hog jowl was food for led edible roots of the are lar here, recommended :fi:&"&'m their abundance of coarse ler. If “Alfalfa Bill" sticks to plain food and simple justice, that is enough to make him a f ublic in numerous States wher: session.