Evening Star Newspaper, February 17, 1931, Page 8

‘CHE EVENING STA ‘With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SUESDAY.....February 17, A e i YHEODORE W. NOYES....Editor Conan Doyle’s land of mystery was placed in the southern part of the con- tinent, back of the Argentine, from ‘which indeed actual reports have come resembling some of the titanic saurians of perhaps preglacial days. ‘This “lost world” of Venezuela lies THE license by the police, is thoroughly es- tablished. Policemen and their wives, and policemen and their mothers, have been depositing heavy sums in bank, 1081 from time to time of monster animals|far beyond their legitimate means. And they have been withdrawing them later for transfer to undetermined benefl- claries, for whose identification ref- E Evening Star Newspaper Company |over against British Guiana and justeree is now diligently seeking. Ju ness O ."and Pennsylvants Ave. Yok Ofice: 110 East 42nd st. e Bt 8., 4 et Engiand. Rate by Carrier Within the City. | B Frenine st 45¢ per month ng and (when ¢ Bundays) .. 60c per month o ing and Sunday ‘Btar 5 Sundays) .........65¢ per month day Star 5358 Der wopy liestion made a of ‘each month. jers may be sent in by mail or telephone tional 5000 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. e only . All Other States and Canada. Member of the Associated Press. ‘The Associated Press is exclusively entitled the use for republication of all news dis- tches credited (0 it or not otherwise cred- eSlished R clal ds paper and also the local news herein. All richts of publication of ispatches herein are also reserved. “To Be Rather Careful” The cost of the Municipal Center de- welopment is now estimated at $21,000,- 000, but the chances are that several millions will be added to this figure be- fore the project is completed. Discuss- #ng the Municipal Center item in the Benate yesterday, Senator King of Utah gemarked that “the people of the Dis- trict of Columbia will have to pay this enormous sum and I think we ought %0 be rather careful before we embark wpon a project to cost $21,000,000, the greater part of which will be saddled on #he backs of the tgxpayers of the Dis- #rict. They ought to have some voice, # seems to me, in the determination of #his matter.” The District of Columbia has already been embarked on this project. But #he time “to be rather careful” has not, fortunately, passed. There still re- mains opportunity for the Congress #0 exercise the care that is necessary to prevent the Municipal Center project, snd many other semi-national projects pow under way in the Capital, from im- posing the grossly unjust tax burdens that are threatened. By agreement $he two houses of Congress have poct- their discussion of fiscal rela- #lons until next year. One of the im- portant tasks facing the new Congress will be the adoption of a policy in financ- ing the Capital that wil avold the dangers mentioned by Senator King in eonnection with the Municipal Center. The Municipal Center, of course, affords one of the best examples of the meed for a change in the method now followed under the lump sum, although there are others. Here is an under- taking that has been assigned to the taxpayers of the District of Columbia without consideration of their own wishes in the matter, without consider- stion of its relative importance as a lJocal mecessity, and without censider- stion of the eventual tax burden that it will entall. It is being constructed because of the Federal Government's own housing program. It is being con- structed on a scale that is determined by the Federal Government's building program. It will cost several times more than the mere utilitarian needs of & municipality the size of Washing- ton would ordinarily justify. And it is only one of several projects, similarly conceived, to which the municipality is being eommitted because this happens to be the Capital of the United States. The point is not that the texpayers of $he District of Columbia are opposing these fine improvements in the Federal City, nor is it, as unfairly charged, that they are unwilling to contribute a large proportion of their cost. The point is that they are being committed to these expensive undertakings without any as- surance that the planning and govern- ing United States will pay its-just pro- portion and with obvious indications that the decorative embellishments of $he National Capital are to be bought &t the price of neglecting some of the less impressive, but none the less im- portant, needs of the local municipality. Senator King and others may well ask ‘whether any city ef the size and re- sources of Washington would voluntarily burden itself with a $16,000,000 park de- welopment debt and a $21,000,000 “city hall” debt when many of the children lack proper educational facilities. And #t 1s far from comforting to realize that mearly every year sees the inclusion of more Natlona! Capital undertakings to e financed through local appropriation neasures with little thought given as to Whether the local taxpayers care to or should be forced to foot the bill R Authorities in New York City are re- fninding the public that the privilege | of oonducting investigations on a large #cale i3 not limited to the U. 5. Senate e Seeking the “Lost World.” An expedition is about to be sent by sclentific societles to explore the “lost world.” To those who have been Jed to regard the activities of tr ! sand geographical researchers and ad: turers during the past fifty years or 0 s completely covering all the spaces of the planet whereon the human race | lives, it may seem anomalous to speak ©f any part of the earth’s surface as 8 “lost” area. Yet there is such a spacs, a reglon “back of beyon Bouth America, in Southeast wguela, concerning which so Ui known by civilized people that rightly to be regarded as a * Partial penetration has been effected mow and then by daring explorers, who bave brought out sgirange zoological specimens. But the entire area has mever been covered, and now it is pro- posed to go in there with a sufficient), manned and equipped expedition to map the land, to explore the mountaing and plains and to determine, if pos- sible, the ethnological character of the | fnhabitants. One of the most intriguing stories | ©f the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle told | of an isolated table-land region in Bouth America within which roamed ptrange creatures, remnants of the gigantic prehistoric animals and rep- tiles, and where strange men dwelt, and north of the high shoulder of Brazil, which runs along the range ‘forming the watershed between the Amazon and the Orinoco River systems. Mount Roraima, which is about 8,500 feet high, is the dominating elevation of the region. That mountain is the chief ob- jective of the expedition. To reach it will require a most carefully planned and fully equipped organization. It is announced that several members of the Ryrd South Polar expedition will be en- rolled in the Roraima party, and that $5¢ [a number of airplanes will be carried for survey work. The expedition will start next August and will spend about six months in the field. The expedition is jointly sponsored by the American Geographical Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Batanical Society. , ‘There are other areas in South Amer- ica that offer temptations to the scien- tific explorer, especially in the western basin of the Amazon. The region in the south, too, in North Central Argen- tina, are alluring. Eventually, wwithout doubt, these Will all be covered and from them may come some interesting if not highly mportant discoveries. —_— r————— Raskob Under Fire Again. Senator Morrison pt North Carolina, dry Democrat, is the latest of the Southern members of that party to sound a call for the political scalp of Chairman John J. Raskob of the Demo- cratic National Committee. The North Carolina Senator dubs the national chairman Alfred E. Smith’s “monu- mental mistake,” and at the same time refers to Gov. Smith as “our great can- didate for President in 1928.” It hap- pens that, despite the wetness of Gov. Smith and his declaration immediately following his nomination by the Demo- cratic Natfonal .Convention that he would do all he could to bring about some liberalization of the national pro- hibition laws, the dry Senator Morrison gave his support to the candidacy of Gov. Smith. In 1928, apparently, Sen- ator Morrison believed quite firmly that wet Democrat was preferable for President to a dry Republican. In all probability, Senator Morrison would take the same view of the matter if his party puts up a wet candidate for President in 1932. All of which tends rather to break the force of the argu- ment advanced now by Senator Mor- rison that the Democrats must turn their backs upon the wet faction in the party and eliminate Chalrman Raskob. The North Carolina Senator would be in a more consistent position now if he had, like Senator Simmons, opposed Gov. Smith, when as nominee he an- nounced his personal platform on the wet and dry issué. His attempt now to inguish between Gov. Smith and Gov. Smith’s selection for the chair- manship of the Democratic National Committee, his praise for the first and censure of the latter leave a feeling that perhaps Senator Morrison's convictions are not so strong, after all. Further- more, the wet Democrats will quite nat urally say, “If the Senator from North Carolina was able to support a wet can- didate for President in 1928, he can do so again in 1932.” ‘The argument of Senator Morrison is to the effect that the nomination of & wet Democratic candidate for President next year will spell ruin for the Demo- cratic party. It is quite true he has not gone 5o far as to say that he will bolt the party candidate if he be a wet. But while Senator Morrison and other dry Democrats from the South are shouyting from the housetops that a dry Demo- crat must be named for President next year, there are others in his party, and some of them from the South, who are asking quite pertinently how the Dem- ocratic party could hope to carry States like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Ohio, not to mention a number of others, if they put up a dry as their standard bearer. Notwithstanding the demands of some of the dry Democrats today that their party stick to the dry cause; not- withstanding their fulminations against Chairman Raskob, it does net appear probable that the dry Democrats will flock by themselves if a wet Democrat is nominated for President in 1932. The Southern Democratic leaders have sipped the cup of bitterness which was passed to those who left the party in 1928, among them Senator Simmons of North Carolina, Senator Heflin of Ala- bama and Tom Love of Texas. The Democrats, after all, are out to win the national election next year. They are figuring that if the G\ O. P. nomi- nates a dry for President the prohibi- tion issue will cut deeply into the Re- | publican ranks in New York, New Jer- s Illinois and other States which they are to elect a President. If the Democrats decline to place in the field a candidate favoring revision of the national prohibition laws, the chances are, they fear, that these big Repub- dry Repub! candidate than to go over to a dry Democrat. — e re managers are encouraged to e that Gen. Smedley Butler will interest citizens as a talker no less than he intercsted them as a fighter. L o New York's Perennial Graft. Testimony is being taken before a gralt in Grealer New York that reads strikingly like that which has been given on previous occasions when the lid was lifwed and the public was per- mitted to look into the abominable mess of metropolitan corruption.- Only the precise victims of the squeezing process are changed. The proprictors of il- legal resorts and enterprises are now the sources of illicit revenue, as they were in the other times of police collectors and “higher up” receivers. Then in alidition to the occupants of the twi- light zone of semi-legality there are now numbers of people who are en- gaged in perfectly legitimate enter- prises but who cannot afford to have the police in opposition, and who there- extraordinarily strange happenings oc- curred when a party of Englishmen penetrated the barrier and entered the forbidden zone. The “lost world” for which the projected expedition is to fore pay for “protection.” That there have been enormous col- lections from the speakeasies, the gam- bling dens, the ral establishments, and the “privileges” that are not per- ust be carried by the Republicans if | lican States will prefer to stick to the | referee on behalf of the New York| | State Supreme Court regarding police from the individual cases brought to light, the monthly collections must have been running into six figures, perhaps 'high in the hundreds of thousands. Under the old Croker system a fixed scale of division was established, so much for the patrolman who uncovered the “spot” and who in some cases made the collections, the wardman who collected from the patrolmen, the precinct captain who took over from the wardmen, the inspector who tock over from the captains—and then somebody “higher up” who took over from the inspectors. Perhaps there was a further intermediary between the in- spectors and the “higher up.” This end of the graft line was never clea:ly defined. Nor was the precise identity of the ultimate receiver, the “highest up,” established, though everybody guessed pretty shrewdly. To all of these fingers handling the filthy money some of it clung, but only according to a per- centage scale, so long as rules were followed. If anybody held out an il- lcit fraction there was trouble. Indeed, the leaks that led to inquiry and public revelation were chiefly due to strains in the system caused by jealousies and thwarted avarice. ‘There have been at least three such researches and disclosures in New York within a third of a century. These graft revelations scem to come almost regu- larly in ten-year periods. That would appear to be about the length of time necessary to rebuild the system, once it has been smashed by exposure, to the point where again it breaks down. And meanwhile Tammary continues to rule New York without serious disturb- ance at election time, when the people fhave a chance to.clean house, but rarely accept it. ————. It is the privilege of Editor Josephus Danlels to criticize procedure in con- nection with the Butler-Mussolini inci- dent. Having been Secretary of the Navy, he naturally commands attention when he offers suggestions as to pre- cisely how a navy ought to behave. — e Communism may have some ideas of social significance to offer, but its pres- ent function in the U. S. A. appears to be limited to a street parade and a speech alluding to grievances which are not clearly defined. . School children find available in- teresting lessons in arithmetic as they study calculations relating to the amount of street car fare they ought to be charged. — e ‘The Senate demands further data concerning the Wickersham report re- gardless of & possible desire in the pres- sure of other business to consider it as a closed incident. Biographers who specialize in tearing down the reputation of a nation’s great men seldom turn their abusive atten- tions to personages who are alive and able to speak for themselves. ] Opinjons have been expressed that there is now no oratory worth mention- ing. Senator Borah crowds the gal- leries nevertheless. —_— e If Spain is tired of monarchy, Al- fonso has already intimated his will- ingness to change his title from “King"” | to “dictator.” oo v SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. History’s Page—A Cinema. ‘The public was rejoiced to see Her smile in celluloid And even shed a tear, when she By sorrow seemed annoyed. The real girl, of course, remained Far distant and unseen, Since her acquaintance we had gained By shadows on the screen. The stars that light the firmament Of history, bright and strange; Statesmen and heroes who were sent Our worldly moods to change, Tolled falthfully nor sought repose. In comfort, all serene, We gaze as Time comes to disclose ‘Their shadows on the screen. The M. D. in Congress. “Does medical training qualify a man for service in Congress?” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “Some of our best lcgislators have been doctors. They learn to be patlent and philosophical as they wait for thelr ideas to develop. A law is very much like a prescription. No matter how carefully it is written, you can never be absolutely sure it 15 going to work.” Jud Tunkins says the automobile horn is misleading. You can't help imagining that the harsh way it sounds ic givin’ notice of the way the driver feels. Ever Loguacious. ‘When Congress folk must homeward go, Life will not seem so very tame, Because we know the radio ‘Will keep on talking just the same. Ungentle Appetite. “Are you in favor of light wines?” “No,” declared Cactus Joe. “Crimson Guich took a straw vote on the subject, and decided that, from the viewpoint of efliciency, light wines was slryly time- wasters.” “He who thinks well of himself,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is to be admired if he honestly endeavors to de- serve his own opinion.” Tasks Uncompleted. The same old duty reappears And almost causes dizziness. ‘What we encounter through the years Is just unfinished business. “Tell de truth,” said Uncle Eben, “but don't git in de habit of specializin’ on de disagreeable kind.” o Reaction! From the Oakland Tribune. ‘To prove that women do not talk too much, 20 of them in Texas remained silent for a whole day. And then pro- ceeded to tell the world about the achievement! ———————— TicoksyandiDtcs Prom tht San Antonio Evening News. Plastic surgery can build a new face, but a better course is " keep the old Beagh is not precisely of that ¢haracter. mitted by law but are given unofficial “mug” and resolve to do%. EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. ‘The creation of character in a novel) the is one of the most interesting achieve- ments of man. Not alone the writer, but the reader as well, is glorified in this old but always new work. It must remain perennially amazing that so many thousands of words, quotation marks, marks of punctuation, arranged in more or less orderly para- graphs, pages and chapters, can suc- ceed at last in creating a living man or woman. ‘That astounding achlevement, how- ever, is the result of every good novel, and sometimes of a mediocre one. Some one character, mayhap, will stand out, as we say, impress the reader as being “lifelike,” lingering in his memory long after the last page is hed. How is this done? Perhaps the how of it is important only to the novelist, and must remain his secret. The fact that it may be done, and is done, is what interests the reader, ‘The most outstanding book character of recent months to the present reader is Jane Bell, heroine of A. P. Herbert's “The Water Gipsies,” published several months ago by Doubleday, Doran. Mr. Herbert is Punch's cherished “funny man,” but he seems to have lost his punch, in a comic sense, in “The ‘Water Gipsies.” J. B. Pricstley, in his “Good Com- panions” and ‘“Angel Pavement,” gives his fellow Londoner some real pointers on how to incorporate genuine humor into a modern novel. But not one of the men and women, splendid though they are, whom Mr. Priestley has put into his two fat novels, achieves the lifelike breathing stature of Jane Bell, the servant girl, in “The Water Gipsies.” * K x K Mr. Herbert undoubtedly set out create a comic spirit, but all he did| along tnls line was to achieve several mildly humorous situations and char- acters, 8 All of these are swallowed up in the unconscious achievement of his lovable Jane, weak, loving, practical, but in- tensely human, much more so than many of the real persons a reader will meet in the everyday walks of life. We imagine that no one was more surprised at the emergence of Jane from this novel than the author himself. Not that he did not have her in mind ail the time, of course, for she is there from the first page to the last, from the first word to the very last. But Jane Bell, as many a good char- acter has dofle before, ran away with her author. He began by believing in her and thinking he knew all about her, but he ended by loving her. That, the reader may feel sure, was why he did not let her commit suicide in one of her despondent moments. ‘The astounding fidelity of Jane, the little serving girl, to her ideal, the handsome, sophisticated, decent but somewhat snobbish George Gordon Bryan, modernistic-painter son of a peer, is the single unadulterated theme of “The Water Gipsies.” It is an old story, of course, especially in English fiction, but it is compelling here because Mr. Herbert has created Jane. Without Jane, “The Water Gipsies” would be worse than “Hamlet” without that somewhat absurd prince. And even if Jane had been in, but had not been precisely the Jane we find there, she could not have saved this story from being unconvincing and artificial. Many of its scenes are mere posturing, almost as if the author (as well he might) had in view a future “talkic” version (we would not be at all sur- prised to see it before long). One of the last episodes is the departure of the decent Bryan alone in his sailboat for a trip around the British Isles. His chorus would in a musical comedy. The reader -Jr;n‘osi h:ara them singing: * Jane, however, does not bother her pretty, although’ slightly untidy, head a bit about these things. She comes through these pages as a real girl, con- vincing, natural. She is “potty,” as she calls it, on her Mr. Bryan, and that is all there is to it. ‘When she sits for her artist friend in the nude she is as virginal and pure as she is later in the hotel room in which she waits for him in vain. George, as we have indicated, is & rather decent chap, and has no inten- tion whatever of getting himself mixed up too closely with “the pathetic little thing,” as he calls Jane. The reader will not look upon Jane in quite so pathetic a light. The fact that George, did (and the author did) is another indication of the somewhat artificlal character of the molding of this novel. But Jane emerges from it as real, because she does not lock upon life from a theoretical standpoint, but from the very solid, although sometimes sordid ene of tea and toast and dishes to be washed and floors to be scrubbed. She knows, as we all know when we are honest, that no matter how grand and fine the hotel, it must have a back entrance where the garbage and ashes are carried out at last. She knows, in the end, that dreams are one thing and life another, and that seldom the two shall meet. Her search for Love's Bliss, as she calls it, a cap- itallzed title she got from “the pic- tures,” is very human, very real, and altogether convincing. The thoughts of Jane and her sister upen this and related subjects will be discovered by many a reader to be their own naive musings upon such matters, here for the first time put down in black and white. Every one will have to read “The Water Gipsies” for him- self to see exactly why these thoughts are originals, but we belleve he will agree with us-that they are. gk Jane knew hundreds of movie titles and subtitles by heart, could sail a small boat like a veteran, could wash up dishes with the best of them and walk out._spooning with the worst, All the time, however, she was a clean-minded little thing who knew what, she wanted and couldn't. get it. She took at last what she could get. She is scarcely dramatic, even when she | pushes her husband off the boat. It is her very matter-of-factness which makes her Teal, one with all of us. No one can say what he will do in a given situation. Some persons, faced with fire, begin to scream like wild ani- mals and afterward have no recollection | whatever of having done such a thing. Others react to bad news by jumping up and down in one place, but later have no memory of it. Approached by a fast-moving motor car or onrushing, clumsy street car, one man will begin o0 swear violently and in loud tones, the while leaping for his life. Jane is never quite sure of what she vill do or say, but one thing she is sure hat is, she is “potly” about Mr. Bryan, and ne doubt about it. ‘The reader, and the author, and finally Jane, realizg that ‘class” is “class” and that Mr. Bryan did right after all in continuing down the hotel corridor. ‘This book has no illustrations of Jane, and it needs none, for she is here to the life, and just as natural. No, not_twice, just the same, the real thing. There is here, too, much Eng- ish life that Dickens never knew. Some of it he could not know—horse and greyhound racing, and barges and skit- tles, motion picture houses and modern eating palaces. They are excellently, if somewhat artificially, presented, but be- hind them all, and far higher, stands Jane Bell, servant girl and human friends line up in two .ines, just as being. Repeal of ‘“Press. G;g Law” § In Minnesota Commended Repeal of Minnesota's “press gag|ment: “There is a question that can be law,” while still pending before th Supreme Court, is hailed by the country as & victory for freedom of the pre: A measure originally intended to elim. inate scandal sheets was declared to have been made a weapon to prevent criticism of pclitical corruption. “Contributing to its viciousness,” says the Springfield (Mass.) Union, “was the fact that a judge could be the sole arbiter as to an offense, since the que: tion was not required to go to a jury The Union adds that “the Constitution guarantees the freedom cf the press. and there are few newspapers that would abuse that right. ceptions,” continues that paper, “do not justify such un-American and un- democratic restrictions as the suppres- sion of the press anywhere on the say- s0 of a single judge.” “A most malicious piece of legisla- tion has been relegated to its proper place,” declares the Walla Walla Bylle- tin, with the explanation: “The law was worded to provide for suppression by court injunction of newspapers which | were found by & court to be publishing regularly ‘maliclous, scandalous or de- famatory matter.’ On the surface such a principle may sound worthy of sup- port, but, like many measures, the title is not exactly correct. It appears that considerable leeway was lefi open in interpreting what could be termed ‘ma- | licious, scandalous or defamatory.’ and many newspapers were shadowed by the | big stick of suppression if they ex- ercised even mormal functions permit- ted in the constitutional right of a free press in this Nation.” * ke kK “It seems obvious,” declares the St. Paul Dispatch, “that there cannot be any real freedom of speech or press when a newspaper may be suspended without trial whenever a court is of the opinion that its contents are ‘malicious’ or ‘defamatory.’” The Ploneer Press of that city states that “repeal became ad- visable from the viewpoint of sound policy,” and that “the law was being condemned as unwise and dangerous, & continuing invitation to official abuse of power in the suppression of legitimate opinion.” That paper adds: “Moreover, the specific ‘scandal sheets' for which legislators were gunning in 1925 have since disappeared. Strangely enough, the two newspapers that were actually suppressed under this law were not the ones the Legislature had in mind in 1925, This is what is meant when the ‘gag’ law is said to have served its pur- pose. The righteous indignation of legislators has no more ‘scandal sheets’ | on which to feed.” 1t is agreed by the Savannah Morning News that “the law was aimed at so- called ‘scandal sheets,” which every good newspaper man abhors, but it was so0 worded that a judge could put & news- paper out of business without much trouble if he just happened to be mad at it because of its political opposition to him.” The News concludes that “it won no respect for law.” Attention is given to statements by Justice Brandeis at the time of the hear- ing of the case before the United States Supreme Court. The statement had been made by counsel that the news- paper which had been suppressed had attacked what it “termed a combinati between public officlals and criminals, as quoted by the Albany Evening News, and that paper continues: “Justice Brandeis interrupted to say that exist- ence of combinations of this sort is well known. ‘What these men did seems like an effort to expose such a combination,’ said Justice Brandeis. ‘How else can a community secure protection against that sort of thing if people are not allowed to engage in free discussion of such matters? * * * You cannot disclose evil without ni the doers of evil. 1t is difficult to see hov one can have a free press and the provection it affords in the democratic community without the privilege this act seems to limit' " The Albany paper continues in its state- The few ex- | | effects than a legislative repeal” its constitutionality Wwas |answered only in one way. A newspaper e United States |is doing its duty when it brings such things to public attention. It fails in its duty if it fails to bring them to attention when it knows about them. A ewspaper serves the public in this way and. without such service the public oftentimes might suffer grievously.” * % kK “The law opened the way for the gravest abuses of judicial authority,” says the Asbury Park Press, which be- lieves “a decision from the Supreme Court. would have more far-reaching or “what one Legislature sets aside another can restore, but a Supreme Court ruling is final.” ‘The Milwaukee Journal, also commenting on the statement by Justice Brandeis, contends that ‘“reputable newspapers have never wished to be free from responsibility for their stte- ments, but they have maintained their inherent right to make the statements and take the legal consequences.” “Libel vs protect ‘citizens, public and otherwise, against false statements printed with malicious intent,” it is pointed out by the Ann Arbor Daily News, taking the stand that “the gag law throttled the power of the press in its capacily as _a guardian of the people’s rights.” The Akron Beacon Journal calls the action of the Minne- | sota’ Legislature “a victory for the press | | of America,” and the Worcester Eve- ning Gazette lays down the rule that must be applied in the interest of the public: - “Our democracy must take its choice. It must take such statutes as the Minnesota ‘gag law’ or else keep a free press—one or the other. It cannot have both, And it will not choose the ‘gag law.’ " “The State can well be rid of such a statute,” thinks the Kansas City Times, and that paper says of the “Te- striction of freedom of the press and public discussion in that State” that “it is a dangerous infringement on Amer- ican constitutional rights.” —— e Demanding Ship Action. From the Oakland Tribune. Efforts to bring Government ship- building contracts to the Pacific Coast 50 far have been unsuccessful, though not for a moment are they to be aban- doned. According to the Long Beach Press- Telegram two lines of attack are out- lined. One secks to reveal the secret hold enjoyed by a group of Atlantic Coast men, who thus far have done all the work made possible by the Jones- White merchant marine act, and the other would amend that act to require that at least 40 per cent of the loans made from it shall be allocated to con- tracts allotted to Western firms. There is also & proposed requirement that all contracts be awarded to the lowest re- sponsible bidder, a proposal designed to meet the situation when steamship com- panies have declined to honor the low bids of California yards, but have with- drawn their projects, only to resubmit them undep conditions to assure suc- cess to Eaftern bidders. That is the outline of the fight which is under way. So far Government loans have been advanced to the amount of $55,000,000 for the building up of the merchant marine and further loans to- taling $75,000,000 have been suthorized. In no instance has a Western yard re- ceived a contract. With Cajifornia and Oregon Congressmen leading the fight and enlisting aid from Rocky Moun- tain States, there is a belief that the justice of their demands cannot, be de- nied by the national legislators. — e The Real Need. From the Fort Worth Record-Telegram. “An invention has been perfected to make music of light.” Not at all im- portant! What the country needs much more urgently is something to stop the practice of makln}noue and calling it music, "4 FEBRUARY 17 NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM 1. G M. PURITAN'S PROGRESS. Arthur Train. Charles Scribner’s Sons. By way of “Puritan’s ess” Arthur Train steps out into the past of this country. His errand, to recapture the high points of its career, to size up for J#lter or worse the quality of its pro- Lgression into the present, the promise of its already poised leap into the tuture, So, this is history. American at that and of the Puritan brand. A world chapter so new and 50 near as to in- capacitate it for any competition with the ancientr) of far regions wrapped with gorgeous interweaves of fact, tra- dition, legend, myth and plain fiction. 1f indifference chance to be vour tack toward this adventure, befter turn around and start again. For the true concern of the enterprise in hand is | directly with you and your family and the neighbors roundabout, with today and tomorrow. Mr. Train has simply taken a long running start to reach you by way of those greatly influential Puri- tans, your forbears and his. A 'personal story wins where the im- personal account falls away into slack places of the mind. This is a personal story of the author’s father and grand- father, 'with scveral ‘“greats” of the tribe thrown in. The story of your folks, too. Puritans, many of them, dyed in the wool over in England, where the trouble began. Another account for the clear seduc- tion of this enterprise is that it begins with the moment, this moment. Just a live incident to project the dizzying present of motor cars, airships, music all over the place from daybreak till another dawn, business on the air shouting its wares, pelitics and soclety screaming over the radio. The werld a-wing. The air we breathe blatant with money and competition and excite- ment and confusion. And here we are going along. Now if Mr. Train had been the real thing in erudition and proper method he would have set out from Plymouth Rock, or beyond, coming on in staid and orderly fashion up to this period of miracles. If he had done this his listeners would, more than likely, have fallen asleep even with him, or would have turned on'the radio for something alive and doing. A count for readers, and for him, hat he has more of drama n his make-up than of pedagogical pugpf:,sr]md plan. e rderly as order itself, the story, once this author’s individuality of zpbm:ch and procedure has been established. The general history of the United States 15 recorded, in the main, by way of its wars. The story in hand does not depart greatly from the rule. Its poin of stress give to it the good measure of originality and fresh vision that it, so cle ossesses. Such emphasis fol- lows the trail of the Puritan through the growth of the United States, makes clear his influence, indubitably strong and as a rule beneficent, upon all vital concerns within the expanding Repub- lic. Hating war—or so he says—the Puritan goes to w v n, 1812, Mexican, Civil, Spanish-American and the World War, fighting the battles of righteousness with the Lord of Hosts— 50 he says Arthur Train comes to us he ing a vitalizing richness of -new fact about the life and influence ef the Puriten, these dug from innumerable neglected and hidden corners, The high point of disclosure, however, is that the Puritan is right now on the job doing his duty in a most dismaying of license ‘as rigorously as he did three centuries ago. Ever the supersleuth in discovering sinners, ever the honest ad- vocate of a real Satan whose home fires the Puritan kept burning, ever the greatest foe of wrongdoing, ever dis- trustful of pleasure as a wile of the Adversary—the Puritan is not only very much alive today, as Arthur Train makes positively and dramatically clear, but never before has he had quite so Herculean a job on his hands as he has right now in’battling the new freedom, which, truly, is calculated to make even looser and laxer monitors stand dazed and distraught. Gathering, in effect, that this is still a Puritanical world in most of its im- portant_phases, sharing in a measure the problems that the Puriten sees to- day—chiefly * those rising, from _the licenses and latitudes of Youth, from the loose family bond, from the devo- tion to pleasure rather than to duty— nevertheless this good optimist and finely tried humanitarian refuses to see gloom alone as the only medium of progress. On the other hand, out of an ex- perience second to none in the shadier regions of current life, Arthur Train, happiiy and hopefully and most com- municably, transmits to readers a_good {and promising outlook that is based upon his own wide and deep iptercourse with man in- every possibié circum- stance Absorbing throughout, stirring upon every page, is this outlook upon Amer- ica, past and present, by way of the continuing vigor of the Puritan in every considerable aspect of our national ad- vance. A brilliant thing that, nevertheless, is packed with the good substanca of fact and with the keen perception of a pro- fessional in human nature. Not the best of the Arthur Train stories gives, as entertainment alone, more of dra- matic power than does this serious out- look. so smilingly presented, upon the Puritan in America. * % Kk ok INTERNATIONAL CITY OF NGIER. Graham H. Stuart. Stanford University Press. One of tht “Stanford Books, in World Politics,” a series of immediale interest and usefulness, sourced in live scholar- ship and projected in keen recognition of modern political conditions, with the prablems that these so oft:n include. Dr. Stuart’s study of Tangier consti- tutes a single chapter in the growth of internationalism—that somewhat recent outgrowth of the increasing contiguity of nations. The distinct usefuln:ss of the book lies in the simplicity of pre- senting a single item, complete and seizable, out of the infinite pomplexity and obscurity of internationalism in its full scope of action and effect. Under this consideration, Tangier the Interna- tional stands out as a growth, as an eventuality root=d in certain conditions. It could, finally, have been nothing else than a center of joined national interests, than an_international admin- istrative field. = ‘The approach to this final status of that particular point on th: earth's surface reads like any other vital concern of the human tribe. Po- sition alone in the beginning settled the destiny of this town. European trade met there in rivalry. European hunger for larger domains of control counted upon this corner of Africa as one of individual possession. There are a few such points on the earth. Not many of them. 'And all of th-m, simply out of the riyalries of nations, must become just that which Tangier already is. The first chapter of this study gives the his- toric setting of this ancient African site. Here alien tribes and religions, rival nations of_explofers and discoverers, came together.. And the story goes on with the makeshift accommoddtions that werz enforced, only to give way to other temporary and dangerous expedients. This early work, definite in fact and picturesque in circumstance, serves the purpose of settling the reader and stu- dent deep in the essential drama of this crowded quarter. From that point the passage into the more modern in- ternztional idea is made comparatively simple. The transit from familiar human -Teactions to the intricacies of national accommodations .and finally into the abstractions of world politics itself simplified and humanized, so to speak, by the concrete and vivid study of this gradually advancing importance of that North African town in the af- fairs of all nations combined, Step by step is the status of Tangier set down in full explication, particularly since the World War. International government and ddministration are instituted. The re bring- | THE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Expert researchers, who can get you any information on any subject, are at your command, without charge to you. A 2-cent stamp will bring you a person- al answer to any inquiry of fact you | may make. Thousands of newspaper| readers use this great scrvice. Try it| today. Make your inquiry easily read | and easily understood, and address The | Evening Star Information Bureau, Fred- | eric_J. Haskin, director, Washington, D.C. | Q. Where is the largest steel curtain | in the country?—W. D. A. Variety says that the one used at Convention Hall, Atlantic City, is. It is 108 feet in width, and 1s a steel frame | covered with asbestos cloth. Next is the one at the Alamac Temple in Los| Angeles, covering 104 feet. Solid steel| curtains are not generally used or re- | quired except in Chicago, where there is one 73 feet in width at the Granada Theater, | | v | . At golt, are “Winter rules” played | only in _the Witner>—J. B. C A. The expression “Winter rules” is in a sense a.misnomer, for a greens| committe: may post the sign, “Play | Winter Rules,” at any time when in the gudgment of the committee it is advisable to require the improving of lies through the fairways in order to| protect the course as much as possible | from damage. Usuallyy however, playr ing Winter rules comes in the Winter or early Spring when ground conditions are at their worst. Q. What is the name given to the upper left-hand corner of the editorial page of a newspaper or other similar | publication, where the * subscription rates appear?—A. S. A. It is known as the masthead. Q. Should a flag be used as a table or desk cover for a speaker?—O. C. C. A. it is not considered respectful to | use the Amcrican flag as a table cover. Q. Whers in England is the church | known as the “Round Church”?—E. P.! A. You probably refer to Saint| Sepulchre, a church in Cambridge, | England, commonly called the Round | Church. Tt is & Norman building dat- ing from 1101. Q. When was the Playground and Recreation Soclety of America formed M. L. A It was organiz’d in 1906 by Ja- cob Rils, Luther Halsey Gulick and others. Theodore Roosevelt was hon- orary president. Q. When did the practice of vaccina- tion azainst smallpox begin?—F. R, A. It began about 1796. Before this tim:= many people were inoculated with | the disease. 3 @. When was the first life insurance | policy issued?—N. G. A. The earliest policy of which any- thing definite is known, was issued in 1583 in’ London, ms::ixg the life of William Gybbons for b _twelvemonth. This policy was underwritten by 13 persons acting individually “and the premium was $80 & thousand. Q. What is meant by the term “lim- ing” as generally used in refercnce to the improvement of soil?—aM. L. A. The term “liming” as generally used means the application to the soil of th: element known to chemists as known as carbonate of lime, or ealcium oxide, the ordinary burned lime of commerce. Carbonate of magnesium mixed with carbonate of lime, as in dolomitic or magnesian limestone, and the mixed oxides resulting from burn- ing such limestoncs are included also under the term “lime. Q. What does the abbreviation “p.q." following a lawyer’s name in & legal no- tice mean?—H. D, N. A. It signifies “per quod” and means whereby. In this case it means lawyer attaches his ature and the Teason whin:by it is official is the fact that he is& notary appointed at a cer- tairi time, giving the expiration of his term of office. Q. When was the New York Stock Exchange formed?—J. E. N. A. The present Stock Exchange traces its origin to a group of men who held daily meetings under a button- wood tree which stood at what is now 68 Wall street, New York City. It was in 1792 that a formal organization was effected. Q. How many white men and women out cf 1,000 born live to be 50 years old>—F. E. T. A. According to the 1920 census, out of 1,000 white males born 674 lived to be 50. Out of each 1,000 white females born 698 lived to the age of 50, Ac- cording to an estimate made in 1928, the rate had risen to 736 for men and 74 for women. The 1930 census fig- ures for these percentages are not yet completed. Q. What is the farthest known star | from the earth?—J. D. 8. A. Dr. Shapley of Harvard College Observatory says that recent research indicates that the greatest dlat“::e l"ls Coma-Virgo Supergalaxy — 17 light years. This is, of course, & far greater distance than that of Arcturus Q. When was the City of Philadel- phia planned?—M. Y. H. A. The town of Philadelphia was planned before William Penn left Eng- land, in 1682. Before 1683 Philadel- phia had more than 500 inhabitants. Q. What is the “Mississippi heart hand”?—J. H. T. A. Milton C. Work says that #t is & hand supposed to have been used by gamblers on the Mississippl steamers | and is apparently a very strong hand, but in reality is badly beaten by the adversaries. It is the type of hand that people who take chances on playing cards with steamer or train pick-ups may expect to have run in on them. . What does the term “payable to bearer” signify?—T. D. A. The term is used in drawing ne- gotiable instruments, generally checks, which makes them good in hands of any bona fide holders and does away with the requirement of indorsement in negotiation of thesinstrument. Q. What temperature should the water in & goldfish aquarium be?—S. §. A. A temperature between 50 and 80 degrees is best for goldfish. Avoid any sudden change in ture. 1t water is above 85 degrees in Summ watch the fish and if they seem dis- tressed reduce the number of fish in each aquarium and be sure the water is aerated. Do not put ice in the water. Cooled water may be fed in calcium in one of two forms—either calcium carbonate, more commonly THE AMERICAN “1787 an Note: This is one of a series cf articles dealing with the mcking and expansion of the Constitution and designed to aid participunts in securing a background for their work in the National Oratorical Contest. The Constitution as Ratified. The task of putting the Constitution into its final shape after the compro- mise on State representation had been arrived at was comparatively simple. However, it required weeks of discussion and revision. Finally, on September 17, 1787, the Constitution was signed by 39 Delegates from 12 States, Rhpde Island having steadfastly refused to have any- thing to do with Constitutional Conventton. The Constitution, as signed by the Delegates, was a document of approximately 4,000 words- and con- tained seven articles or divisions. Of these divisions, the first three deal with the manner of selection of the officers of the three major departments of the Government and their powers and limi- tations. The fourth, fifth-and sixth articles contain miscellaneous provi- sions, including those for amending the Constitution. The seventh declares that the Government provided for by the Constitution should go into effect when ratified by nine of the States. Nothing is clearer than the fact that the Delegates believed that the charac- ter and capacity of the officers of the Government were of the highest im- portance for its successful operation. John F. Mercer of Maryland summed up the thoughts of his colleagues on| this point admirably when he said: “It | is a great mistake to suppose that the paper we are to propose will govern the United States. It is the men whom it will bring into the Government, and in- terest in maintaining it, who will gov- ern the Nation. The paper will only mark out the mode and the form. Men are the substance and must do the business.” ‘The same idea ran through all the debdtes—“the Government will succeed provided the right kind of men are chosen.” To secure that result, the| Delegates set up qualifications for of- ficeholders and for their electors. How- ever, they felt that they were extremely liberal in regard to the suffrage, which was thrown open to all adult male citi- zens. ‘There was a genuine and wide spread belief among the Delegates that the people should be the ultimate sourte of power. There was just as widespread and frank a belief on their part that the people should not be allowed to act directly and impulsively on their Gov- ernment. This determination to sift, to check, to refine the popular will by having it pass through representatives of the peo- ple, in order to select their offfcers, ex- plains the rigid regulations in the first three articles. Mathematically stated, the people were to act directly in se- lecting only one-sixth of the officers of the Government; they were to act af second hand in selecting three-sixths of them and only at third hand in selecting | the femaining (and perhaps the most important) of them—the judges. To put it another way, the people were to elect their three great departments. That half, the House of Representatives, was, perhaps, not intended to be, but ac- tually has proved to be, the least im- portant part of the Government. The other half of the legislative depart- ment was to be selected by the State Legislatures. The Executive, wWho was given enormous powers, was to elected by electors chosen by or under the supervision of the State Legisla- tures. The members of the judicial de- partment were to be appointed by the | President, subject to approval, not of both houses, but of the Senate only. The House of Representatives had the single exclusive privilege of originating revenue bills, but the Senate was ex- pressly given power to amend those bills and, in short, to have its hands on the purse strings along with the members of the popular body. Much has been made of the fact that courts and codes are revised and brought 'into order with the new outlook and practice. The economic problems of the locality are stated and the position of the United States toward the new order only the members of one-half of one of | ¢, if temperature is dangerously CONSTITUTION d Today” BY RANDOLPH LEIGH, Director National and International Oratorical Contests. the fathers created a system of checks £nd balances, me checks by the three departments on one another. It is m overlooked, oy ver, that % checking_and cf beyond that. The States were checked (“swallowed up,” Luther Martin and Patrick Henry sald), and the petg: were checked. It is the difference in manner in which these last two checks worked out that makes the comparison between the Constitution of 1787 and its actual substance and operation today (to be referred to later) so extremely e Delsgates having signed the Con e Delega - stitution, the document was sent to the languishing Congress of the Articles of Confederation. The formula according to which the signatures were attached is significant: “Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the States present,” etc. The signatures follow: George Washington. New Hampshire—John Langdon and Nicholas Gilman. Massachusetts — Nathaniel ~Gorham and Rufus King. Connecticut—William Samue] John- son and Roger Sherman. ;i New York—Alexander Hamilton. New _ Jersey — Willlam Livingston, David Brearly, William Paterson and Jonathan Dayton. Delawa Redd, Gunning Bedford, jr.; John Dickinson, Richard Bassett and Jacob Maryland—James , Daniel & Daniel Car- T 4 and James of St. Thomas Jennifer and oll. Virginia—John Blair Madison, jr. North _Carolina — William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaight and Hugh Wil- liamson. Georgia—William Few and Abraham Baldwin. Pennsylvania — Benjamin _ Franklin, ‘Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimons, Jared In- gersoll,’ James Wilson and Gouverneur Morris. South Carolina — John Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney and Pierce Butler. Commenting on the formula, Madison s “This ambiguous form had been drawn up by Mr. Gouverneur Morris, in order to gain the dissenting members.” ‘The Congress of the Confederation passed the ‘document on, without any | recommendation, to the States for the approval or rejection of their conven- tions, to be called for passing on the pro- posed, far-reaching change in govern- ment. ‘The Constitution was thoroughly de- bated in the State conventions, its adoption being in the following order and by the following votes: Delaware, December 6, 1787, unani- mous. Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787, 46 to 25. New Jersey, December 18, 1787, unani- mous. Georgia, January 2, 1788, unanimous. Connecticut, January 9, 1788, 128 11. %% Carolina, May 23, 1788, 149 riesin Hampshire, June 21, 1788, 57 Virginia, June 25, 1788, 89 to 79. New York, July 26, 788, 30 to 27. North Carolina and Rhode Island, the latter submitting the issue to town meetings, instead of a convention, re- Jected the Constitution. With 11 States sending re t- atives, the first Congres; under Con- stdtution came into being and on March 4, 1789, George Washington, having been unanimously elected President by the electors, took the oath of office in New York City. The judicial depart- ment, or at least its framework, was set_up. Congress appropriated $695,000 to cover the Government's expenses for the first year. This figure for running the frgil Government 1789 contrasts rather sharply with $4,928,822,580, ap- propriated by the Seventy- for 1930. The per capita cost was ap- proximately 20 cents per inhabitant 1789, as against about $38 per inhabit- ant teday. nelitics L Tcla- i means of exploring the lar that @ new conception of hus tiong has_already declared. North Carolina entered the Union on November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island followed suit in May, 1790, (Copyright, 1931.) )