Evening Star Newspaper, April 1, 1931, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. WEDNESDAY.... April 1, 1931 THEODORE W. NOYES. The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office al ;'llfll' dMhce; 110 3 nd 8t Butldtng. London, Rate by Carrier Within the City. l'l|lnl !Id Widaay $i .45¢ per month 65¢c per month 5S¢ per copy | ihe end of eac) in by mail or telephone Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Bl _ Sunda: and Sunday. only y only | All Other States and Cana Beliy ang, Sunday...1r. 12/00° 1 mo.. $1.00 aily only .. $8.00: 1 mo. 7i5c funday only $5.00: 1 mo.. 50c Member of the Associated Press. ‘The Associated Press s exclusively ertitled to the use for republication of all news dis- tehes eredited o it or not otherwise cred- ted in this paper and also the local news published herein. All riz| e special dispatches h The President’s Appeal. President Hoover's appeal to avoid an increase in Federal tax rates really goes to the Nation at largs. Properly so, for the Nation has to pay the taxes. The President in effect pledged himself to keep the national budget to such figures as would enable the Government to bal- ance in a comparatively short time its expenditures and receipts. The Presi- dent, however, cannot do it all. Con- gress makes the appropriations and designatss by law how much money and for what it shajl be expended. Unless Congress co-operates in this move faor | economy, it will be difficult if not im- possible to carry it through success- Ty, The appeal of the President goes ‘to | the very meat of the matter. He says, speaking of the co-operation of Con- gress in keeping appropriations within | the scope of the budget, “the people must co-operate to effectively discourage ! and postpone consideration of the de- ‘mands of sectional and group interests.” ' The drive made by sectional and group ' interests upon the Federal Treasury through Congress is nothing new. It has merely become more and more pro- nounced as the years have passed and the country has become more and more | ‘wealthy. ‘The time has ccme, however, for the American people to stop and think about this matter of Federal appropria- tions. Hundreds of new projects, looking to the expenditure of m:ney out of the ' Federal Treasury, are proposed to and in | Congress every time that body meets. Many of them are worthy In them- seives. With the Government facing a | deficit of $700,000,000, however, it is becoming necessary to a greater extent than it hss been for years for Uncle Sam to count his pennies as well as his dollars. ‘The present need for economy, voiced by the President, may be a blessing in disguise. More and more it has come to be the habit of groups to look to the Tederai Government to dip into the affairs of the people; to undertake to regulate, control or to prohibit all kinds of activities. More and more, the Fed- . eral Government has been called upon ' to assume burdens of administration which should be left to the State and local governments. The centralization of Government continues to threaten the old principle that the people are to control their own immediate: affairs through their own local governments. Economy in governmental affairs is always to be desired. In times of de- pression when governmentil receipts are diminished because the earning power of the pecple is lessened, econ- | omy becomes even more desirable. The country ean help itself by getting be- hind the President in this matter of keeping down the appropriaticns made | by the next Congress. i BB Only plays approved by the Soviet are permitted to run in Russia. If the public is not pleased it will not dare say so, and if it tries to withhold patronage the box office will demand subsidy from tax money. Those who declare for a rigid censorship of the theater should study the Soviet system, which claims to have solved the ques- tion of giving the public not what it wants, but what authorities think it ought to have. A Tragic Accident. Another tragic sirplane accident has | shocked America and because of its| nature is an addiiional jolt to the grow- ing public confidence in commerciab aviation. Storm, wind, rain, snow and | fog have since the beginning of flying | been nature’s best defenses against suc- of ot |even so dreadful a situation as that off and it takes an extraordinary strain to do it. Aero - dynamically the ship was perfect, that is if the pilot had had sufficient time after the plane was in the open before the wing collapsed he could easily have come out of the spin and continued safely on his way. Until fog-flying instrumenis are per- fected there will always be danger of such seem'ngly inexplicable accidents as this one. But danger in all methords of transportation must be faced by those who live in th's present fast. traveling age and it does not follow that fiving should be abandoned beeause ‘of an occasional craxh any more than the use of treins should be curteiled after a {bad wreck. The people of the world {will travel and they will go by ship, train or plane, regardless of the dangers they must meet in al of them. SR o The Earthquake at Managua. Becouse of our intimate relationship | with the people and the government of Nic*ragua during the past fifteen years ,and more, American sympathy with them in the terrific earthquake disaster at Méanagua will be deep and widespread. Many of our own npationals have gone to their dcom along with citizens of the Nicardguan capital. Apparently the full extent of the catastrophe is not yet | known, for each arriving new dispatch | from the scene of devastation tells & |(;esh story of the earthquake's toll in life and property. ‘That the good offices of the United States will be extended without stint to do what can be done to ameliorate suffering and repair damage may be .taken for granted. President Hoover has acted promptly in putting at the stricken community's disposal the re- sources of the Army and Navy and of the American Red Cross. A considera- ble force of United States Marines is still on Nicaraguan soll. No doubt it has had casualties of its own in the earthquake. But the leathernecks, ac- customed to trouble, may be relied upon to do their yeoman share in getting | | prevalent in Managua today “well in hand.” During the past fifteen years many portions of the Western Hemisphere have suffered earthquake calamities of ‘more or less extensive nature. In 1906 Ve'paraiso, Chile, was shaken by a serious tremer that cost 1,500 lives and wreaked enormous damage. A year later K'ngston, Jamaica. had an earthquake almost as disastrous. Costa Rica, Nica- rague’s neighbor, in 1910 lost 1,500 lives in one of Mother Earth’s annihilating gyrations. Twelve years ago Porto Rico wes the victim of cne of her periodical visitat'ons of Nature on the rampege, when a quake kil'ed 116 people. Mexico last January lost 106 lives in a cuake that spread over fourteen states. Even as far north on this-continent as New- foundland the earth has trembled. ‘There, two years ago, a tidal wave fol- lowing an earthquake at sea caused heavy loss cf life and property. Science has not yet evolved ways and means of coping with seismological ca- pricd. Poor man can but be prepared for the worst and let mercy do its work when calamity comes. e e Ultra-Short Wave Lengths. Radio listeners are of two classes, those who know 4 great' deal about the | technique of transmission and sending and those who know nothing. The for- mer take their apparstus spart men- tally and often physically and tinker with it and experiment with it. The latter take what comes through the afr by radio for what it is worth, with no knowledge at all as to the manner in which it is broadcast. They have heard of static and Interference and all that ' sort of thing, but = do not know the cause of these troub’ 5 or their cure, uj { | any. They become familiar with dials and memcrize numbers that represent certain stations and systems and let it €O at that. ‘To those .who know their radio inti- mately, who have technical acquaint- ance with the process of transmission 2nd reeeption, such announcements as that which has just been made from Calals, France, is of great interest and importance. To others it is only mildly Anteresting. It is to the effect that ex- periments have just been carried out successfully to demcnstrate the prac- ticability of radio communication in the new field of ulira-short lengths ranging from ten fo one hundred cen- timeters. The dispstch states that con- versations and high - spred facsimile transmissions in black and white were broadcast and received with an #erial less than one inch in length and the size of a half-watt power, and all so clearly and easily that it was evident that a revoluticn in radio transmission in all branches had been accomplished. It was further stated that officlals gave it as their opinion that the new system would make avallable many times as much space in the air channels as can now bz employed. cessful encroachment of man into the upper regions. In addition to the ele- ments, man has been forced to over- come the frailties of his own inven- tions and has had to be eternally on guard to prevent plane structural fail- ure; welor stoppsge and to overcome the hamrds o the take-off and the landing. bas successfully combated these ob- stacles Is demonsirated by the tri- That to a large degree he | The plain meaning of this, it should | be explained to the non-technical “radio | audience,” 1s that with this miniature | apparatus more lanes of air communi- | cation can be uiilized, more broadcast- |ing can be done simu:taneously, more ! stations can go on the air at the same | time. Whether that will be an unmixed { biessing is to be considered. Rum runners are suspected of using distress s gnals at sea in order o con- {mental and psychological jump ahead umphant record of aviation over the centrate the vigilance of the Coast past few years. | Guard on the possible need of rescue But here is an accident that is ap- | work while alcoholic cargoes land un- parently dificult to exp'zin and for | molested. Rescup work was the Coast that reason is the more fearsome 10| Guard's orig/nal mission. To play tricks those who read of it. The ship, con- of th's sort is shabby business, but the faining six passengers and two pilots ' rule of the rum-runner game is to be was in full flight several thousand ' as unethical as possibie feet above the ground. It was the| —— mest modern of its type, three huge | motors driving it through the skies, s K- Baclfnm any one of which was capable of keep- | There may be a gueston as to the ing it aloft. The weather was cloudy | benecial aspects of collegiate foot ball but not particularly dang:rous for fiy- | in American natlonal life. There can ing, Constant radio communication was| D¢ 1ittle question as to the importanc had with stations in the vicinity. Sud- | Place the game has gained, particularly denly the big ship entered a cloud. Ob- | 1D the last decade and a half, and there servers on the ground saw it shoot | €8N be still less as to the value of the out ip a'spin, were horrified to see a| Services to this popular pustime of wing come off and, rushing to the|Knute K. Rockne, the Noisc-bomn , found that all its occupants | Mentor of Unive sty of Notre Dame had been instantly killed. teams since 1918, who mct his death The most logical explanation of how | yesterday in an airplane catastiophe in & modern plane, flying in fairly good | Kansas. weather and over level torrain, can| “America's premier foot ball coach” crash with such frightful concequences | is a title given him by the great ma- would seem to be that the pilot, in| Jority of sports writers, if not by all of through the- cloud, unable to keep that tearing Wings praise is admitted by the fascinated who have watched more en- stin by every one of he not passing bearings, was spin and off BT the the wing. and off imed did ‘whom 50 whom he in- his_nimble ! THE spired to be better students and better citizens. The_life of American foot ball may be roughly divided into two periods— that of the late Walter Camp and that of the late Knute Rockne. In the early days, as some one writer aptly put it, the game was Camp's game and he made up the rules as he went along. As player, coach, writer, graduate ad- viser and in other capacities he left the impress of his know'edge agd his personality on the game until his death. He severed his active connection there- with about the time that the open game came into being, a time that witnessed the arrival of Rockne as a stellar player, early in the second decade of the pres- ent century. As player, as substitute coach and shortly thereafter as head coach the sturdy Norweglan took every sdvantage cf the recently revivified and opened game, cal'ing on apparently in- exhaustible resources of strategy and inspiration, with the result that year after year his “Fighting Irish” gained |appearance, ¢ lother, will show widely different con- whole groups of victories any cne o which would have been a classic for the ordinary college team. years Notre Dame has been deemed practically invincible, and justly so, and without doubt Rockne was, in the final analysis the deciding factor. A curlous mixture was this native of Norway, who came to this country as | & small boy and who entered college a penniless youth. He was highly cul- tured, yet habitually hid the fact. He disproved the idea that Scandinavians are slow of wit and lacking in sense of humor. Few ever engaged him in verbal combat without regretting it. Many of his innovations In the gridircn game later became almost universal. He had the faculty of staying one of his keenest competitors, and the still more remarkable faculty of imparting this ability to carefully selected ma- terial of varied nationalities and tem- peraments season after season. Rockne’s dcath will be mourned for years tofome by all lovers of foot bail and by all Americans who love a con- sistent winner and a graceful loser. There is no doubt that, had he lived his allotted span, he would have made further nctable contributions to Amer- ican sport. His femily, his college and his many personel friends have the cor- dial sympathy of a Nation wher¢in his peculiar genius found fertile soil. R The fact that regions of this U. 8. A.| have serious and widespread troubles of | their own will not prevent Uncle Sam’s public from be'ng ready to extend all possible rescue means to the earth- quake sufferers at Managua. Human distress means human responsibility which cannot be 1)mited by g=ographical boundaries. ! A e Straw votes are already being taken and the interest manifested is a guar- antee that there will be no apathy in the next presidential campalgn. D' nity on the part of aspirants to can- didacy is deemed desirable, but “wise- cracking” will not be barred. —— et — The new generation in the world of sport will not find it easy to replace such men as Knute Rockne and others who have recently passed on. High ideals have been established and the public will not be content with any deterioration in quality of performance or standards of principle. A rather high sounding designation EVENING STAR, D. C., WEDNPESDAY, ‘BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Nature, as made manifest in grow- o lf-hln(l. is at opce amazing and ickle. Perennials which the gardener thought would have died as the result of the drought of Summer and Autumn are alive and well. Plants which he believed sturdy enough to survive have been Winter- killed, as the expression has it. Winter-killing means much or little, Just as one chooses to take it. If drought and other inimical condi- tions are to be considered, in addition to the effects of freezing weather itself, the term may mean something. If Winter alone is to be, blamed for the end of some planted things, the ex- pression means little or nothing. x g There is among plants, as among human beings, & varying degree of re- sistance. Often two shrubs of identical one no better than the ditions of growth. One will be sturdy and healthy, Of late | whereas the other will develop in a spindly manner with a pale green | foliage. There seems to be no easy way to account for these variations, nor any sure way to avoid their development. One has but to look at the hundreds and thousands of poor évergreens seen in front of countless homes to realize thet there is no certain method of picking winners. Inherent traits, of course, are not the | only characteristics which account for | 0od and bad shrubbery. It is too little realized that lack of water is one of the chief factors in 50 | much of the poor shrubbery one sees | throughout the city. Poor or improper planting is another. Sometimes plants which demand sun are total shade. placed in almost | | * % | Let no gardener, amateur or other- | w.se, go into his yaid at this scason ex- | pecting to find no Winter casualties. He will discover many. For Nature, though she is amazing, is also fickle. She secms to do nothing in what might be termed a 100 per c:nt manner, Although in some moods perfection seems to be her aim, she is very old, and evidently knows in her ancient heart that it will be reached seldom, if ever, Therefore, as a prudent one, she is satisfied with far less than 100 per cent. The gardener may expect to bring through the Winter th> full 24 rose- bushes which he set out last Fall. Autumn planting, he had read some- where, is by far the enabling the roots to get a firm growth by the tim: Winter comes. Nature knows there is no magic in Nsture. | She is satisfled to bring through 20 | or b> 22 of the bushes. | Sh> whispers in the car of the la- | menting gardener: “Do not worry, but | go out and buy some more to make up for these. That is my way.” * * | | * | to stand such abstinence, and can o his ability, to learn a bit of Nature's ruthless outlook. It is well for him if he keep his hu- manizing efforts away from plan Let him not endow them with human- ity, as he does his dogs and cats and ;xonel. and perhaps even his cows and ens, Let him sce plants as merely so much bark, sap, vegetable substance, curi- ously wrought chemical factories, going | through certain reactions at the touch of sun and rain. oK oK% 5 S0 he will be saved sorrow over them, when certain favorites fail to come up. Not that there will not be, regrets. There will be. It is. inevitable. Take these two fine rosebushes, these favor- {ites of seven years, which have given | him hundreds of blooms. | A series of moves and transplantings | was too much for them. Their service | in this world is at an end. Other bushes will_bloom, but these no more. The gardener digs them up, and finds their roots withered away. Nothing further can be done with them. Yes, he_has regrets, but scarcely sorrow. Even if he is of a sentimental nature, given to endowing inanimate things with a sort of personality of their own, he will not permit himsclf to grieve | over these happenings, * * These are the innocent deaths of the | garden, in which there is little of sor- row or faflure. The cruelty which hangs like an evil fate over all other death is happily absent here. So many plants each season will be doomed. It cannot be helped, and the experienced gardener expects it, and even looks forward to it. He will not be in the least put out by, the happening, but will order more | plants, that is all, or be content to let the lack exist. This is & sort of natural pruning, or cutting out of dead wood, which Nature does in the garden, and no one can say that she does not do well with her own children. She knows, better than any, how long each plant shall exist, and how jong it will survive. When it begins to show signs of failure she is the last one to coddle it. The gardener may keep it alive with water, but Nature, being in the mood of a drought, does nothing for it: on the contrary, she does the one thing which will hasten its end—she sends no water at all. *E In such a case many a plant will show amazing powers toward plant righteousness, which has its beginning and ending in staying alive. The flower and fruit occupy a midposition. Often a plant will have weathered the drought in a fashion' which draws only admiration from the gardener who bends over it. In the desert many a plant is equip] i ve by withdrawing into itself, as it were, reducing its flow of vital sap to a mere thread, the remainder acting as insu- lation. Other plants harbor their essential d | the least, ridiculous, although, of course, x WA | molsture in curious drops on the sur- Nature shows no regret over the face, and dole them out to th> entire things which have pePished. | structure of the plant as needed. She has no tears. | It may be that these devices are Sorrow she leaves to man, who in- | handed down, in part, to all plants, and ventod it, or at least does 50 much him- | that each gne of them, in time of self to keep it alive. | drought, goes through the motions -of Man will never learn the mute ability | constructire them. of Nature to be both performer and| Whether they do or not, whether witness at his own show. | they live or die, they are a part of serves to call attention to assertions that the Sugar Institute is neither edu- | but only because the ticket was. fore- Too much ' docmed to Gefeat and the vice presi- cational nor philanthropic. assumption in the way of title is likely to defeat its own purpose. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Ti-Natured Beauty. Miss April Day, we used to say You were as fair, almost, as May. When boisterous March had had his| with Levm. Morton cf New York, as fling, You brought us song and blossoming. This beauty contest like a dream, Pilled with mysterious grace, will seem. | Vice President ‘Garret A. Hobart of New And yet Miss Junetime will at last The winner prove, as in the past. Miss April Day, perhaps we may, A stmple truth make bold to say; You are but fickle, as & rule, As breezes murmur, “April Fool!” ’ Clowniny “When 1 was a boy, Sorghum, “I wanted to run away and | be a clown in a circus.” i “That vould have pointed your parents.” “They felt that way about it at first. Later on they wished I had succeeded is being & regular high-salaried clown, instead of making myself amateurishly ridiculous in politics.” greatly disap- Jud Tunkins says many a feller who tells jokes, tryin’ to help us forget our troubles, is merely addin’ to them, Politics As a Duty. “I'm going Into politics,” Said Hezekiah Bings. “I know 1 cannot hope to fix A lot of things; But every citizen should try To lend his heart and hand To aid events as they pass by In this beloved land. 1 have no eloquence sublime, But I at Jeast can note The questions of the present time, And how I ought to vote. ‘Though I won't claim we're due to mix With angels wearing wings, I'm going into politics,” Said Hezekiah Bings. Out on the Day's Transactions. ! “Ever have any luck betting on horses?” “No,” answered Mr. Chuggins. “I once won forty dollars at the track. But while I was inside watching 'em run, some one stole my flivver which was worth at least fifty. ‘A successful man,” sald Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is one who ean merit Lonest praise so plainly that he is never tempted to purchase flattery.” | First Page Terrors. A cyclone here! An earthquake there! ‘This world is sadly shook, them. That he deserved this meed of pach day brings forward some new scare— T'm 'most afraid to look! “I likes filendly Interest,’ said Uncle Eben, “bjt I objects to : 98 O | on the Senate floor, but the perquisites ' was on hand to see that the right kind | Hoover's passion for commissions, Prime 1t is to his credit that he caonot. Sorrow is as much a part of his na- ture as_happiness. But he might do well, in proportion amazing, fickle Nature, and are no less interesting to the gardener, when he them up and throws them aside, than when y live and thrive. WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. Well, if the Republicans do_renomi- | nate Charley Curtis for Vice President in 1932, they'll turn their backs on a 70-year preczdent of giving a renomi- nated President s new running-mate. ‘There has been just cne exception to that rule—in 1912, when “Sunny Jim" Sherman was renominited with Taft, dential nom.nation lacked its customary trading value. The precedent Sherman broke is as old as the G. O. P. itself, having begun_ with Abrahim Lincoln. The Great Emancipator's first vice presidential partner was Hannibal Ham- lin cf Maine, but Lincoln was re-elected in 1865 with Andrew Johnson of Ten- nessce in second place. Grant was elected in 1 with Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, as vice presidential nominee, and re-elected in 1872 with Henry Wil son of Massachusetts. Benjamin Harri- son ents the White House in 1889 Vice President, and was renominated and defeated with Whitelaw Reid of New York. McKinley's campaign for reXlection fought with a new part- ner, Theod Roosevelt of New Ycrk, Jersey having died in midterm. W Vice President Curtls says it's too early to discuss what he’s going to do next year—whether hell go gunning for another siege on the Senate ros- trum or try to redeem Kansas sena- torlally for the Republican party. The Cornflower statesman is torn between conflicting emoticns. He loved his life of the vice presidency have taken | something resembling a stranglehold | on him. Some of Curtis' friends say dynamite can't pry him ‘loose from them. Others believe if it's sepresented to 5o good a Republican Indian that 1932 and after will be the time for ail good men to come to the aid of | the_party, Curtis will rise above per- sonal predilections and run for the Senate again in Kansas. That he would give Democratic young Mr. | McGill a drubbing is commonly be- lieved. National conventions, barring stampedes, traditionally hand over the | vice presidential ‘nomination to the region where the bosses think it will | do the most good in November. The | presidential niminee generally does the | deciding. iz & » His work as speclal ambassador to | Japan during the 1930 Naval Confer- ence had much to do with William R. | Castle jr’s appoiatment as Undersecre- tary of State. There were tickiish times in Tokio while Secretary Stimson and his | confreres in London were threshing | things out with the Japanese delega- | tion. “Bill” Castle, as everybody in the State Department calls him, rendered | yeoman service in presenting our view- point to the Japanese government. Next | to diplomacy, Castle’s grand passion is Harvard. He got his A. B. there in 1900, was an instructor at the univer- | sity from 1904 to 1908 and assistant | dean for the five ensuing years. For thres years afterward Mr. Castle edited the Harvard Graduates' Magazine, to which he' continues to contribute. He was born in Honolulu, where his vener- able father still lives. The new Under- secretary joined the Foreign Service in 1919. At Kansas City, in 1928, “Bill” of a foreign plank was put into the | G. O. P. platform. | *xx e Canada has succumbed to President Minister Bennett's government has just appcinted a commission to tigate the Dominion's grain problem and named as its head an Englishman, Sir Josiah £tamp, one of Ambassador Dawes’ cronies in London. Stamp was a mem- ber of the German Reparations Com- mission, which formulated the Dawes He has functioned on many Brit- royal eommissions. The trio to sur’ vey Canada’s grain troubles, which are not unlike those perturbing American ture, will consist of Sir Josiah nt’ uprnnhuvendd the Cana- dian in euhn.l al & spokesman of Dominion farmers. * k2 % minor post in the State service, instead of one of the various eminent places at which he's aimed since his theatrical exp-rience in the Washington limelight. Magnus Vox's principal leaving the Senate was an unsuccessful campaign for the Gopher governorship in 1926. Johnson has just gone to work as & district appraiser for the State Rural Credits Burcau, which lends funds on farm lands. His bailiwick is Southern Minnesota and his salary $3,600. Another one-time member ol Congress, Knud Wefald, Farmer-Labor, who was in the House of Representa- tives from 1923 to 1927, has just b come executive secretary of the State Finance Commission at $4,000 a year. * ok % By the irony of fate it's the one State in the Union named aftr the Father of His Country—Washingion— that comes forth with the sad state- ment that it can’t aflord to-take part sortie s.nee | APRIL 1, 1931, How the Car Service Could Be Improved To the Editor of The Star: The statement recently issued by the Capital Traction Co. was most inter- viewpeoint, reyealing, as it did, the raillway’s attitude upon cer- tain matters of vital importance to ‘Washingtcnians. ‘The revenue loss of the United Rall- ways & Electric Co. of Baltimore dur- 3.47 per cent but 11.6 per cent. Now, in its statement regarding the revenue loss of Baltimore and the 20.6 per cent loss of Detroit the Capital Traction Co. neglected to add that, despite these losses (partly attributable to the busi- ness depression), the Baltimore street railways last year purchased 150 brand- new cars, modernized 180 old ones and constructed 40 new articulated car units, while in the same period the City of Detroit ordered at least 40 new cars. Besides all this, extensive programs for the Detterment of service were con- ducted in both citles. On the other hand, the revenue loss of the Capital Traction Co. during 1930 was 8.6 per cent and that of the Wash- ington Railway & Electric 10.5 per cent, panies above, ' Yet name, if you can, & single improvement, even & minor one, that has taken place in Washington street rallway service during the ral. year, with the exception of the school children’s fare, which was compulsory. It is possible that the local com- panies think that they are saving money by keeping their old cars in use. A committee appointed by the electric rallway industry last year made a study of 41 companies purchasing new cars and 40 retaining the old, to report at the conclusion of their investigation a definite saving in maintenance costs appreciable gains in passenger revenues, better schedules and more sal patrons for those companies purchasing new_ equipment. e money spent by the local companies in dolling up their old rattietraps in a foolish attempt to delude the public could be more profit- ably used in buying modern trolleys. It seems strange that depreciation re- serves have not replaced such hideous wrecks as numbers 1 to 20 on the Chevy Chase route. The car companies here must extend this expense over quite a long period. ‘Whether or not Washington street railways are aware of the fact, there are means other than the purchase of new cars by which service can be im- proved. I refer specifically to the elim- ination of time points, relocation of car stops, shunting of motors, installa- tion of multiple point controllers and the application of motors to four in- stzad of Yo two axles in order to secure greater adhesiveness and acceleration. None of these principles is in its ex- perimental stage, since all are, and have been for some time, in successful operation in St. is, Cincinnati, Bal- timore and numerous other cities. The Capital Traction's contention that its service is now as good as that furnished any other city is, to say | it may have been inserted merely for ts effect upon the public. But if the Capital Traction Co. actually holds this belief, then it is, in my opinion, suffer- ing from.a severe case of “magnum P! commonly referred to as “swelled head.” The sad part is that this particular case has nothing to have | a swelled head about, because, 1 assure ' you, the street railway officials of, let | us say, , Youngstown, Des ' Moines or Baitimore most certainly | would not welcome the suggestion that their service is no better than that nli the Capital Tracticn Co. It is quite true, I admit, that Wash- ington street railways are unjustly taxed for exorbitant amounts, but if they are willing to accept these burdens without protest and without attempting to re- duce them, they should not consider said burdens as legitimate excuses for withholding better service from the public. In closing I would like to comment upon the fact that the traffic system of the District is about to undergo a drastic revision—one that affords un- usual opportunities to a street rallway. Are the Capital Traction Co. and the Wreco going t> take advantage of this change? Perhaps! WILLIAM DOYLE JOHNSON. Street Ca:s Arci;aic as Means of Rapid Transit To the Editor of The Ster: g In all this discussion of the street car problem it strikes me that neither of the interested parties, the public and the owners, h. vet struck the funda- mental note, at I st not in print. There are two iundamentals, in fact. First, from the standpoint of the public the ?tlon is solely one of rapid tran- sit. y rapld is derstood “‘without undue loss of time.” This is the motor ge, and time is measured by those who to get about in terms of speed, and no one can possibly contend that the street car of today in this city can both Jower<than either of the two com- | in the 1932 Bicentenary Celeb:ation. | furnish speed. Their handicap is too Gov. Roland H. Hartley has just an- |great. They are retarded by unneces- nounced, to the dismay of the D. A. R. |sary stops and slow-downs; they are ‘Washington, that the State treasury has | vate and public machines and trucks; no money available for commemorative purposes. “Not even enough postage tp carry letters about it,” wrot: the Gov- ernor. Mr. Hartley adde “George Washington would consider his memory ed by the economy now so According to som: of his 's attitude toward next year’s events may spring from his Brit: ish nativity—he was born in the Ca- nadian Province of New Brunswick. o ‘The intensive drive for traffic which the varlous airlines in and ouf of Washington, and elsewhere, are now making may be due to a pretty stern warning just issued by W. Irving Glover, Second Assistant Postmaster General in charge of airmail. Writing in the current issue of Aviation, Mr. Glover says: “From the Post Office’s point of view, passenger transport by air is on trial. We are prepared to continue that trial for a couple of years. If we do not then consider that it has justified itself we shall go back to the airmail as a separate under- taking, served by fast n-cockpit planes, without ught of passenger accommodation and paid for only at a rate which will cover the actual ex- penses of operating—a rate consid- erably lower than those now in force.” Glover contends that passenger lines should in many cases be able to hold thelr own without assistance in the form of airmail contracts. - At _its monthly meeting this week the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, the most powerful in the country,” will consider a progflsal for creation of a .riew Federal cabinet office. It wants an executive depart- ment, headed by a Secretary with full cabinet rank, to deal exclusively with foreign trade. Tbe argument is that the industrial development of the | United States is now at a point where | prosperity .and employment vitally de- | pend on overseas commerce. ,“A 10 to 30 per cent reduction in production and consumption of American mannu- factures,” claim the proponents of the plan, “means business depression.” Ap- parently the New Yorkers figure that Uncle Sam's sales abroad represent something like 15 per cent of our in- dustrial output. (Copyright. 1931.) Palliative. From the Toledo Biade. Scientists have found that headaches are ailments pecullar to intellectuals. Now the scientists ought to do or say something to make a stomachache com- forting. s i Snores and Saxes. From the Kalamazoo Gazette. An eminent psychologist says that snoring is a saxophone type of noise. And there are times when saxophoning snoring type of noise. e e —e—— s Not Hungry. Johnson, Senator Magn Pai i From the Aun Arbor Dijly News. they are impeded by every accident to ' one of their units and by every break- | down, great or small; they are stopped by every fire occurring on their lines they are “frozen” to their tracks with- out ability to det: they have, In short, ceased #o be a means of rapid transit. In the good old horse-and-buggy era street cars were really adequate. Theyi led the procession of traffic through the streets. Today they bring up the rear, and that is why the public rides the busses, taxis and personal cars, walks | even, to save time. ! have accepted, willy-nilly, the | and the only solution of the street car problemr is to jazz it up to the present speed level of life. As the mechanical means of accomplishing this seem unsurmountable, the system must be junked and supplanted by a modern method—motoriged—if it expects to eom‘geu successfully with a motorized world. The second fundamental is one that must be recognized by the owners. ‘They have but one line of goods to sell; they have only “rides,” as adver- tise. Their line of rides is old, anti- quated and obsolete. They cannot offer rides that are as attractive, as efficient, | as speed as those offered by the “oppo- | sition.” What would good business men do? With constantly diminishing sales, would they have us believe they do not know the cause nor the remedy? Higher fares will not solve the prob- lem, for they will not give: either the public or the owners what they want. The experience of other cities encum- bered with,street cars has proven this beyond question. So, as we, the publie, have accepted the jazz age, with its countless re justments and scrapping of obsolete systems and out-of-date methods, so must the local street car companies bow to the imevitable, ac- knowledge the passing of the street car and develop a modern, safe, pleasant, rapid, elastic and profitable successor. The public will always be willing to | pay for what it gets, if satisfactory, but ( never any price for what it does not get. It does not want reduced fares; it does want rapid transit, and it wm' | get it. tter in a “couple This is the whole ma of nutshells.” C. e ANSWERS TO QUESTION BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Few. Americans realize how much their Government does for them. Read- ers of The Evening Star can draw on all Government activities through our free information service. The world's greatest libraries, laboratories and ex- perimental stations are at their com- so mand. Ask any question of fact and it will be answered free, by mall direct to you. 1Inclose 2-cent stamp for reply postage and address The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Has- kin, director, Washington, D. C. l Q. What is the name of the theme | song of the Coga-Cola hour?—D. W. ! . Th: National Broadeasting Co. ;says that the musical signature for the | Coca-Cola program has no name. It | was composed by Leonard Joy, the pro- | gram’s director, and is not published. Q, Has the dro t beer: broken?— A. The drought has been broken in the sense that rain has fallen in vari- | ous parts of the country. Rainfall, how- jever. is still deficient and the amount %0 far measured is considerably below the normal. Q. Where did george Washington deliver his “Farewell Address”?—H. F. A. It was delivered in Independence Hali, Philadelphia. Q. Who was the inventor of the au- tomobile electric starter’—A. K. C. A. The credit for the first practical self-starter for automobiles is largely due to Mr. Charles F. Kettering. This starter was adopted by Cadillac during the year of 1911 and proved to be the first” successful electric self-starter on the market. Q. When will the courts be held in London this year?—V. W. A. Official announcement from Lon- don 1is to the effect that court will be held on Tuesday, May 19; Wednesday, May 20; Tuesday, June 9, and Wednes- day, June 10, Q. Has the United States Lines any ships under construction?—W. P. M, 1. is slated to be put into service in June, 1932, and the other in September, 1932, Each will have a gross tonnage of 31.- 000, each will be 705 feet long and each :;lulozglt between $10,000,000 and $11,- Q. Is it sanitary to make coffee with water from the hot-water tap?—B. F. A. The Bureau of Chemi that the water from the hot-water ta :lay be used for cooking purposes with- fear of its being insanitary. Q. Why can carrier pigeons find their way home?—V. C. A. In the light of present knowl- edge the homing instinct of the pigeon should be considered as a specialized form of migration developed and ex- ited by man through training and selective breeding. Other factors con- tribute largely to the effectiveness of the instinct and these are the qualities that to systematic training. The most important is an acute coupled with a wonderful memory. Q. How many leaves are there on an apple tree?—F. L. A. The New York State College of Agriculture says that it is estimated that a full-grown apple tree has about 50,000 leaves. A. It has two under construction. One | Q. For whom or what was the slibouette named?—W. H. A. The silhovette is named for m de sumu.:}u. ‘who ;.u born French ing imperfect or incomplete. ttes were first popular in 1750. They are made now as they were for- merly, by cutting out pictures: from black paper. E How %nch does a baby elephant Q. | weigh?<P. O. A. The approximate weight of &n | elephant at birth s 160 to 200 pounds. Q. Who invented chop suey?—M. M. A. The truth seems to be that there is no such dich as chop suey known |In_China, although it is commonly | served as Chinese thrcughout the United States. This has come about Ixn a curious wa¥. It originated at a dinner that Prince Li Hung Chang gave in New York when he made his trip around the world. Prince Li car- ried his own chef with him and the menu was strictly Chinese. One of the dishes especially delighted the wife of the guest of honor and #he asked Li what it was. Prince Li called in his chef and the chef replied in Chinese, | “It is a creation of my own—a chop | suey.” ‘The words “chop suey” mean | & mixture, or hash. Prince Li said in | English, “It is a chop suey.” American woman spread the news of chop suey, the wonderful dish. The . name was taken up by the Chinese restaurants in America and today chop suey is the chief concoction that they serve. Q. How many traffic lanes will there be on the new Hudson River Bus- pension Bridge?—D. E. E. A. The bridge floor will consist of 4,780 feet of pavement laid- in two | strips, each 28 feet 9 inches Later, when traffic warrants, the foot center section of the be paved, giving a total of eight square bridge g;? i s lanes. Fourteen thousand of concrete will go into walks. Q. What was Capt. Camj ioln. south and speed going e broke the record? How many bad his car?>—T. R. B Al.dcsm. ufn'? il, who broke werld's automobile speed record, 246.575 miles an hour in the run in the southern direction. His time coming back was 244.897 miles per hour. average time for the measured 'nile both ways was 14.65 seconds. The Blue Bird has three speeds ahead and one reverse, H 10's : | goods?—E. C. 8. A. The Bureau of Home says the household methods of fabrics in salt, alum, vinegar ous other solutions as a means ting” the color are largely time and materials. Though the will not run from a dy:d fabric as it remains in a saturated solution o 1 One question which has beem raised in connection with President Hoover's Porto Rican visit i; whether better- ment of conditions on the island shall be brought about through greater at- tention to industry or improvement in agriculture. “The hat problems,” according to the San Antonio . rise | from overcrowding and & concequent labor surplus. Its industries be devel further, to give employment to many who now are idle through no fault of their own. At present | people generally depend upon a few tropical crops—sugar and ecoffee lead- |ing.” The Albany Evening News.fa- vors “industrialization practicable,” holding that “only so, it wold seem, can the workers of Porto Rico be lifted above the plight of poor peasantry.” The Rochester Times- Union agrees that “outside industries apparently offer the only channel through which permanent relief may | come.” | “There is no gainsaying that their | progress in the last 30 years is a rich tribute to their capacities as well as to the institution under which they have lived,” ays the Atlanta Journal and that paper concludes: “With an | area " only “about one-fifteenth of | Georgia's, Porto Rico has increased in and other patriotic organizations in|crowded almost off their tracks by pri- | pspulation during the last decade near- ly 19 per cent, so that it now has 449 persons to the square mile. density is one of-its major problems, but as its wondrous resources develop it can care for more and more in- habitants and will e of ever- importance in American and in world affairs.” “Just what solution can be offered cannot be declared offhand. Possibly nothing except a rebuilding of the island’s agriculture from the ground up,” thinks the Houston Cl , with the declaration that “certainly we have no right to maintain control over these island possessions unless we are willing to give their problems all the consideration we would give those of ‘any State in the Union.” AR ““The question of what can be done for the Porto Ricans, or what they can do for themselves,” in, the opinion of the Buffalo Evening News, “Is less one of politics than of practical education end business. Their economic level probably would show more rapid im- provement by an increase in individual home ownership and food production than by attempts to develop & more or- ganized industrialism.” Pasadena Star=News finds satisfaction that Presi- dent Hoover is able to approach these “serious matters of state” wi on & restful trip and “free from the press of official Washington.” The Charleston (8. C) News and Courler records the President’s “hope that he may assist the West Indian islanders.” The Wor- cester Evening Gazette is impressed by the fact that “the President’s visit finds the islanders enthusiastic toward this country” and that “talk of independ- ence has almost subsided.” ‘The progress already made by the Porto Ricans, as shown by the “proud Em‘ntl( offered by the President, interpreted by the St. Paul Pioneer Press as “one answer to disparagement of American motives- as ‘imperialistic’ and a confirmation of sincerity and un- selfishness, as well as a tribute to Amer- ijcan administrative efficlency.” The Appleton Post Crescent advises that the President is able to “assist In restoring the faith of Uncle Sam's Caribbean children in the doctrine that American possession means more than exploita~ tion.” The San Francisco Chronicle be- Jieyes that they “are not llv'nwl:lollfi- The Spring Trainees. | Prom the Rockford Register-Republic. Opposing sides on the daylight saving issue are like the ball players in the i}.r-lnln' camps—rapidly rounding into T jorm. At and Across Knees. Prom the Fort Worth Record-Telesram. ~ Much has been said about the lessons seaf those same knees should not be denied their relative importance. - —_——— Still Chances for Display. Prom the Minneapolis Star. Everyb>dy is {rying to eat less anc ! t you still can make a the United States to some s0-cal colonies that s become rather restless under sometime ‘Washington rule.” xR Kk “Between sugar, rubber. tobacco and other natural resources” states the Newark Evening News, “‘the of attitude oar and The not o ‘Taft of as_far as is|sibly Future Needs of Porto Rico Emphasized by Hoover Visit the possibilities of Russic or the renais- sance of China and Inca; no resding of the signs that Eur-pe is pulling its: er with scted rapidity. The tionist mind il rwes.” “The Bureau of the Ccr.sus,” remarks the Birmingham News, “points out that the island ion cxceeds the figure for the combl population of Nevada, i Arizona and area of 454,758 square get these islanders vnnmmfl to_this grup of States, they would have plenty of room to breathe in; bu: that would be unpractical, since they would freeze in some of the States and would pos- perish of thirst in the others. We cannot s> easily dismue the matter. ‘They must remain where they are. But since they are what they are, we lend & hglpin'm‘hl::;d. in whatever lems may be “There is no reason to believe that Rorto Rico will not eventually emerge from its present situation stronger than ever,” in judgment of the New York Eveni) Post, while the Providence J Tecegnizes “the cssential unity of our American interests, mn the islands and on the mainland.” The Memphis Commercial Appeal concludes: “Wheth- er or not failure by the American Gov- ernment to relieve the situation in this possession will have an adverse effect on Porto Rican, sentiment remains, of course, to be seen. Many Porto Ricans want statehood, but it is doubtful that their desires will be gratified. Unless scmething more is done on the islands with respect to unemployment than has been done in the States the danger of failure is considerable. And failure along this line might provoke other for the mother Government.” e Contractors Must Pay Prevailing Wage To the Editor of The Star: I note with interest your editorial page of March 27, 1931, containing a letter signed by “G. T. McConvey.” I think it a duty to the Treasury Depart- ment as well as to myself that this upjust criticism is answered. The sign- er of this article is undoubtedly misin- formed as to the facts in the case. First, he states that the Government has called for bids to rese the three squares on Pennsylvania to Constitution avenue, Ninth and Tenth streets north- ;I’e;t.‘kna';n :o&'&w 381, 331 and , for the $1, nt Justice Building, for wmhldl'. 'en“ one o‘:e;hzomddefiw ‘This contract. was awar a Chicago company, wl Submittea. the lowest estimste. " It s also stated in this article that the law does not require the conteactor to pay a living wage. ‘The fact 1s, the Treasury Department states in its specification for the razing of this work that the contractor must pay the prevailing the outside company’s estimate to be low, there is nothing thai Treasury Department can do but award this contract to him, as our great Con- li:’t::lm is u&‘fnmed that each indi- Vi same privileges rights. If this mmompgu Soa by which he can demolish these’ cheaper than a local firm, then we will profit by his experience, 1f ne Rss the work too low, then he b- H e 2 8 5 : i !E 5 3ef £ H 1 H s