Evening Star Newspaper, May 9, 1931, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR Wi Sunday Mornin Baion. B o WASHINGTON, D. C. BATURDAY........May 9, 1931 THEODORE W. NOYES. ... Editor The :mlng!si.? 11th 8t. Newspaper Company cs Office enmavivania Ave kel Nichivan Bl texent’ ., London, usin and Office Rate by Carrier Within the City. . vening Star._ . 45¢ per month The Evening na’ sunday Biar rders may he sent in by mail or telephone Ational 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. indas.....1 ¥r. $10.00: 1 mo. 83 Bafly ang, Sundar-: 1 7E:tiG 08 1 me 3 junday only . 1 , $4.00. 1 mo. All Other States and Canada. il and Sunday...1vr.,$17.00:1mo. $100 Em_\v only .. iy 0. 13¢ inday only "Llll1I1¥ Member of the Associated Press. (o sively Assoct s tled fng ways and means to eurd use of firearms by law e ement officers | until we can curb the uss of frearms | by law vielators. and headlines of any ghow pretty con much has been rection. G Newton D. Bak:r lie sentiment efficacy of a pr statute attempt cumstances in wh law will be fustifi With some exc have been slow to ena Jation making the p difficult. and have taken even the criminal m futility of at Innocuous ins when machine gawed-off shotguns parently as aasy to g2t as a sling-shot The picture of the London bebdy who goes unarmed and whose resort to firearms represents the final extremity is in pleasing contrast to the muddle- headed policeman or prohibition agent who draws his gun and fires away on the least provocation, with too-frequent tragedies involving innocent persons. | But such incidents are relatively few | and the use of fircarms is really a superficial part of the whole tremen- | dous problem of energetic and efficient enforcement of law. It may be true that too many of our officers are quick- er to use their guns than they are to| use their brains and that, in conee- quence, the eriminal element does not | respect, the organized forces of law and order at all, but merely their guns. Under such circumstances, the law-de- fying criminal has only to master the art of shooting quicker, shooting etraighter and shooting with better | guns, to outwit the law. ‘But when folks talk-of limiting the use of firearms by law enforcement officers through the drafting of model codes, etc., they are attempting to reach a de- sirable goal by the wrong road. The right road lies in the creation of a law- enforcing machine, from the Chief Jus- tice to the lowliest county constable, that represents independence from poli- tics, careful selection and training of personnel and that functions smoothly and efficiently. Such a machine is not visionary or impossible. If it were re- garded as important or as essential as | the Army or the Navy, it would be cre- ated quickly enough. Whenthe increasing depredations of criminals are conceived as organized warfare against society, it | will be demanded. Until then, and as long both law officer and criminal depend Upon their guns to settle the course of the law, ltt will be unwise to discuss limitations ex- | tending to one side only. While the offiéer is certain that a case involves one of the thousand and one laws he iz suppcsed to enforce and is turning | the leaves of his cede book to discover whether the use of firearms is permis- sible, the odds are that he would be shot ot the the States ate legis- chase of firearms communities that means to disarm be appalled by ther a r—— The claim is made that more poetry is being written now than ing any of the so-called golden of !literature. This may well be for’more aYe doing it, but the 15 certainly not up to previous marks. “Oh, you'll take the high road and I'1! take the low!” Sir Hubert Wilkins ean now warble to Dr. Eckener. v o "Strain on Modern Youth One of the British delegates to the mesting of the International Chamber of Commerce in this city, speaking be- fore another organization regarding the good dur- ages true, high - best | death. ‘They were maudlin, tflemdl letters, pitiful postures of stage heroum.l These poor creatures are the victims of a false concept of life that has de- veloped among the younger generation in a decade or so. Whether from lack of parental training and effective in- fluence, or from their own exposure to the seductions of immoral and criminal influences, they have just “gone wrong.” Gun-carrying was to the chief figure in the group a means of assertion of per- sonality. Jealousy is hinted as cause of the “big fellow's” murder of a woman. The other homicide, the shooting of & policeman, was without any excuse, | & wanton use of a gun in a flash of bravado. The British visitor who spoke of the “strain on the young" of modern con- ditions might have said, with perfect truth, that such things are not hap- pening in England. Certainly no such battle as that which ended with the capture of these three youngsters has ever been staged in that country, the nearest approach being the famous en- | gagement between police and a group of i barricaded anarchists, in which Winston Churchill, then home secretary. figured if not gloriously. The cle of A siege lasting several hours, ith hundreds of shots exchanged, with | thousand or more spectators as- | ‘mbled s at a show or a game, is cer- | {2iny not ene that gives Americans any | thrill of pride. spicuonsly, tel ) President Briand? Wednesday, May 13, France | & new President of the Republic. the fleld of prospective candi- | bLegan to be canvassed six | the name of Aristide twelve tmes premier and per- 1 foreign minister, was on nearly rybody's lips as the logical suc- cessor to President Doumergue. ‘Then came “Anschluss”—the new threat of Fan Germanism conjured up by the pro- posed German-Austrian customs union. French politiclans. contending that Berlin and Vienna had caught Parisian diplomacy off its guard, blamed Briand. His presidential boom seemed to be on | the verge of collapsing. It would not d> to elevate the old fox of the Quai d'or to the Elysee Palace under such tions, said the partisans of other | aspirants, In the early hours of this morn- ing. with the suddemness of a light- ning flash, Briand's fortunes under- went a dramatic change for the better. The Chamber cf Dcputies, which, to- gether with the Senate, will meet in “National Assembly” at Versailles to cheoce the next President, gave Briand a vote of confidence. It was no snap or scratch majority. By the tremen- dous vote of 430 to 52, the deputies placed the hallmark of their approval on the conduct of French foreign policy under Briand. “All doors of the Elysee Palace, the French White Hruse,” says lthe Associated Press in a graphic cable, “were opened wide to Aristide Briand, when the Chamber thus in- dorsed his six years of indefatigable labor in the cause of world peace.” Briand is a commandingly eloquent statesman. Those who remember his | speeches at the Washington Arma- ment Conference can visualize the fire and fervor with which he must have charmed the Chamber last night. “Every step I have taken has been a step toward peace,” he said. “French prestige is at its zenith. Our com- patriots traveling from the ends of the earth come to me and say it has never been so great. France is considered a soldier cf peace.” As to Anschluss, Briand was able to assure the Chamber that the German- Austrian scheme has not yet been ac- complished. In its stead, he has proposed, and will shortly bring before the League of Nations at Geneva, a substitute plan which would place all | Continental Europe under one customs | umbrella. It will then be possible, | Briand contends, “¢> measure the lood‘ faith of Germany and Austria, who say | they have a right to make an economic | treaty of their own.” S0 it may be President Briand, after all. Sixty-nine years crowded with eminent service to his country sit light- ly on his leonine head. A seven-year term as Chief of the State evidently conjures up no terrors for the sage| of Nantes. — e A Dugquesne University foot ball star | will conduct a beauty parior in Pitts burgh to help pass his spare time this Summer. He will thus become ac- quainted with an entirely different sort of facial massage, not to speak of per { manent wave, from those he has in- flicted on gridiron opponents. | —r——— Mosquitoes have had a pretty good | time in recent years with the sheer silk stockings, but will be wildly en- thusiastic this Summer about the new | style mesh hosiery. This offers to! their delighted gaze an interminable sories of fascinating square landing | ficlds. | r——— - Good for Senator Reed Next elec ago, 1 general situation of the nations repre- gented at the assemblage, mentioned the “strain put upon youth” by the present- day conditions. He did not specifically mention an evidence of the tragie re- sults of that strain, which might easily have come to his lips, being the oc- casion of a conspicuous display in the pages of the metropolitan newspapers of the same day. Three young people, two men and a girl of sixteen, were captured by the police after a flerce battle in the heart of New York City, the men “wanted” for murder and the girl a companion in flight of the chief figure in a series of crimes that ended with the round-up after bombardment and charge. These three youngsters were “drama- tizing” their lives in accordance with the teachings of much of the cinema— such is the term the British speaker would have used--that forms the chief entertainment of the younger genera- tion in this-country. They were des- peradoes like the glamorous characters seen on the screen and heard, oh, zo raucously, from the loud speaker of the talkies. The principal member of the trio, only nineteen years old, was proud of his self-given title of “Two Gun Crowley.” The other was slightly older and more of the heavy villain type, the bulky bruiser. The girl was the typi- cal “gunman’s sweetheart.” These three were besieged in an apartment for sev- eral hours while bullets flew back and forth and gas bombs were hurled. In that time the girl wrote letters of fare- well, evidently in the belief that she m-mmmw-.mumhnnmmamnmum— | Senator David A. Reed, Republican, | of Pennsylvania announces, after a visit | 10 the White House, that he is prepared at the December zession of Congress to | take up the battle for the treaty Navy.| The chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee was a member of the | | American delegation which negotiated |the London naval pact of 1930. No !one is better qualified to propose and defend the substantial appropriations which are required if the United States is to build the fleet fought for at Lon- {don and pledged to us under the triy | partite agreement with Great Britain | and Japan. ‘The late Congress, for reasons which I never became entirely apparent, failed | lamentably to move in the direction of that parity with the British fieet, which ! has become the bedrock of American | naval policy. The Hoover administra- tion submitted to Congress a program of modest dimensons, calling for an initial expenditure of roundly $75,000,- 000, which would have launched us| upon the road to parity. Between the| legislative jam provoked by the drought i controversy and the underground ,muhinlflmn of anti-preparedness ele- menis the naval program fell by the weyside. On January 1, 1931, the United States Navy was about thirteen per cent below the treaty standard, as lll’ | told, | “We've found out that he's such good compared with less than two per cent for Great Britain and virtual attain- ment of its full treaty limit by Japan. The result is that the next Con- gress, if the United States is not to fall hopelessly behind treaty Navy re- THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON Winter an expenditure of $150,000,000, or two years' appropriations. Senator Reed rightly points out that the American Navy is not built up to treaty limits by 1935, at the end of which another five-power limitation conference is provided for, this country “will have no standing” at that parley. A power that goes to a naval conference without something to bargain with is not a very potent negotiator. Uncle Sam at Washington in 1921-22 was able to persunde Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy to agree to demobilize capital ships because, leading the way in that direction, America had ships that we were ready to sacrifice to ac- complish the desired end. Our delegation at London a year ago was in position to negotiate influentially because it spoke for a growing United | States Navy. Our representatives at| the conference of 1935 will carry little | weight when they ask for further limi- taton of naval armament if in the meantime we have allowed the British' and the Japanese still further to out- strip us in cruiser strength, et American breakfast foods are now | firmly intrenched in Britain, the In-| ternational Chamber of Commerce is having largely displaced the | proverbial heavy porridge. Perhaps it | is not expecting too much to hope that some day Britons will awake to the possibilities of a real cup of coffee as an eye-opener, and the advantages of crisp hot toast over the cold and soggy article seemingly preferred by | our cousins. However, we must admit one thing: they do have beautiful breakfast bacon &nd melting-in-the- mouth marmalade. Irak police had to handle crowds wildly excited by the rumor that Ali, son of the Prophet Mohammed, had reappeared at a mosque on his feast dayl If Ali's father were anything of & prophet he might well have advised his son that the Near East at present is & grand place to stay out of. c——— Spaniards somehow just miss being first-class sports. As Queen Victoria started into exile there was the begin- ning of a cheer for her, but it was al- most immediately hushed. Victoria thoroughly deserved a hearty one, nor would its rendition have hurt the in- fant republic in the slightest degree. ——————— The sting of a bumblebee is said to have caused the return of the faculty of speech to & Pennsylvania woman who lost her voice twenty years ago. Even the ordinary person finds his vocabulary surprisingly enlarged on similar occasions. —r———— A strict Jaw making & severe mental test as an absolute requirement for the purchase of pistols and other deadly weapons might help curb the crime wave, judging by the idiotically child- ish sayings and writings of youthful gangsters and assassins. R - Ours is a republic, always has been and always will be. Yet most of us hope that Alfonso XIII gets his throne back. r———— The absence from the District of our childhood friend, the long ton, was but & brief one. Apple blossoms can be just as un- reliable as Japanese cherry blossoms. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Speed Required. A song of Spring is always due About this time of year. The bard must thrill a tune or two ‘To show that he is here. One day the Winter's sullen gloom Brought shivering dismay. The next the flowers were in bloom, With hot waves on the way. Twixt frost and skies of sunny blue ‘The line is quickly passed. If you would sing a Spring song through, You've got to sing it fast. Dangers of Power. “So you managed to get that man his ppointment?” “Yes,” replied Senator Sorghum. “That was lucky.” “I don’t know whether it was or not. f course, he's my friend as long as he holds the position. But two cr three dozen men who gould have liked the place are liable to be my enemies for- ver.” A Selfish Constituency. “Are you going to send your Con- gressman back to Washington?” “No,” replied Farmer Corntossel. ompany that we've decided to keep him home.” . Simple Confession. I love high art. I long to be Where song and speech our plaudits claim. But now and then I'd rather see A circus or a base ball game. Useful on Occasion. “You mean to say Crimson Gulch has an anti-gambling law?” replied ‘Three-Finger Sam. “We had to have some way of breaking up the game when a tenderfoot comes along and gets to winning all the money.” Not Priceless. “I suppose some of your pictures are priceless.” “Nothing of the sort!" replied Mr. Cumrox. “In many cases I can't see that the price isn't the most remarka- ble thing about 'em.” Futile Thrift, ‘The bee exclaimed: “How can I beat ‘The game which they contrive? ‘When I pile up the store so sweet, Bomebody taps the hive!” “Maybe," said Uncle Eben, “‘dar wouldn’ be so much divorein’ if a woman took as much interest in a man's business while dey’s married as she takes when she’s tryin' to colleck alimony.” — vt So Will the Wolf. Prom the Akron Beacon-Journal. ‘Then, too, if you make a betier offer of something for nothing, the world will make & beaten path to your door. et SIS Our Petulance, Too, Prom the San Bernardino Sun. Not that professional athletes and eriminals have anything in common, but ite a curious faet that we lavish most classes. - | harmful, DI O N THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. What great roots Japanese Quince plants have! There s nothing to compare with them for length and stoutness except the roots of the Hibiscus. Any one who has ever attempted to transplant the Hibiscus, favorite flower of the South Seas, will remember the long. tapering roots, thick through and meaty. The roots of the Quince are not so heavy, but are fully as long. From | these the finer feeding rootlets are sent forth. There is a certain satisfaction to the gardener in finding such husky root systems on the plants he sets out. A matt of fine roots does not strike him as forcibly as these longer, sturdier ones, which tcll of a close contact with the earth, and a future ability to get into touch with the universal source again, | 'R About the whole matter of To0t growth there is & good deal of confusion in the public mind, and by this mind We mean the amateur gardening mind, of course. Some so-called “authorities” advoeate | root pruning when setting ont new | stock. They say that the fine, hairlike | roots are dead anywav and might as| well be cut off. The plant will make new ones, ‘Others assert that such pruning is | especially with rosebughes. i No one who has set out roses but has | been told, by some on= or other, to keep intact as many of the finer roots as| possible. | Perhaps the truth is that neither root | nor top is so all-important, but that the | proper balance betwesn the (wo 15 what will carry & plant or bush through at transplanting time. o Just what this proper balance is must remain a matter for the real horticul- turist to decide. There are such per- | sons! They have a knack with flowers, | as we say, but mostly this knack is| neither good fortune mor knowledge | alone, but a sure instinct which the | owner possesses by divine right. Those of us who are not so gifted may do a great deal, however, by using | our heads, buying the best plants we | can afford and planting them with due | consideration, as far as we are able to We have been told in most of the | garden books snd articles to spread out the roots as well as we can, and not to cram them into a small hole, but to dig the hole wide and deep | One’s common sense tells the gar- dener that there is something in these instructions. Perhaps roots—such as| the long ones on the Japanese Quince— | need not be placed pointing directly | downward, especially in times of drought, but only in the normal direc- | tion in which they seem to grow. Some English growers state that trees | should have their roots spread out flat- | wise, and not forced downward at all. | Sweh shallow planting is not best, how- | ever, for most shrubs and perennial plants. e The biggest point against shallow | planting is not so much the shallow- ness as the careless habits which it in- | duces. Unless one takes the trouble to dig the hole both wide and deep, he will skimp every process of the planting or | transplanting. The main consideration, once the digging has been done properly, is to see to it that the dirt is placed back as well as possible. This means that it must be packed in clesely without using force, and then must be made to adhere even closer to the roots by the use of water. Most amateurs are afraid of plants TRACEWELL. must not be supposed that the pro-! fessional hortieulturist treats them roughly. He only is not afraid of, them, that is all. Many a gnarled| hand sets out plants with a loving| touch, almost tender. It is a pleasure always to the discriminating amateur | to watch one of these old fellows work, | and to recognize the deftness with which he plants and transplants. Time alone, and perhaps natural bent, as we ®ay, will give a gardener this free and easy way with plants, | but the rest of us may imitate it by, d-ing the best we can. In setting out plants of any sort we may display the professional ~touch, as it were, by pouring plenty of water around the| Toots after we have packed plenty of earth around them. Usually this will settle the bare some of the roots again. earth and stlll more water remedies. Now we may g0 fill in the hole until we have ari at the surface. A final watering will settle this a bit, and a_ fresh layer of dry earth should be placed over all and permitted to remain to break up the capillary, attraction of the water in the air for the water beneath the earth, * KR N Here a word of warning is necessary. Do not succumb to the temptation to trample all down now with the feet. The underlying moist earth is too squashy to stand such treatment, which is unnecessary, since the water has mingled the particles of dirt far better than any sheer pressure can do. “No can do.” s the Chinese say. Once planted, there are few shrubs which benefit by & constant pawing of the earth sbout their roots. Nor do they seem to be hurt by grass growing | up to their main stalk or stall ‘There has been & great deal of pother- perhaps it should be spelled bother— writt>n about keeping shrubs, especial- 1y rosebushes, free from grass at close hand. We have never been abie to see, after some seven years' observa- tion, that it hurts them particularl. We are not sure that a rosebush sitting in grass is not as good a bush, and better looking, everything taken into _ccnsideration, than one which has had a neat. circle of earth kept dirt_and | More | | kow them, for.the factors of growth, | "Pen, around i, There is little to be said for bare earth in the garden from the stand- point of beauty. If one has a philoso- phizing disposition, the flower beds, and borders, and the vegetable gar- den, in their first stages, will have a | certain attraction, largely based on | anticipaticn, He who 1is interested in mnatural forces will find harmony in the naked | earth, and even some degree of beauty, perhaps, but the latter will be based mostly on a mental appreciation of | what is occurring in the ground there, and why it is occurring, as far as the human mind is given to know it. In the great scar waich bare dirt inflicts in an otherwise green scene there is and can be Dittle beauty. We | are all too glad when grass grows up | and bicts out the red clay. X ox % Roots \are among the most interest- ing provisions of Nature, vying with | buibs and the like, which'they greatly resemble in appearance, and somewhat in function. Still one cannot go into ecstasy over the loveliness of roots, except in this figurative sense. The gardener is | glad when they are put int> the| ground, where they belong. and where | they must be happy, he likes to think. | A root out of ground is like a fish | out of water. The sensitive planter will imagine the roots of his plants being transplanted are 'gasping, not for air, but for the fresh contact of earth, which is food and air to them. and handle them too gingerly. But it Alderman as Sfrong Force In Education Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, whose sud- | den death deprived the University of Virginia of a noted president, is lauded | by the country as one who served with | energy as a ploneer in modern educa- tion, and as one who achieved the re- sults which had been the aim of Jefferson. Added to his scholarship and executive talents were the qualities of a man of magnetic charm. He is re- membered as the eulogist of the late President Wilsor “Under his galvanic touch,” accord- ing to the Baltimore Sun, “the uni- versity expanded from a small college devoted to classical studies and the law into a modern institution taking cognizance of the needs of its students and of its State in all important branches of knowledge.” The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recognizes that “under his long administration Jeffer- son’s university, in the Blue Ridge foothills, has remained the liberal and forward-looking institution its great founder intended it to be.” The Chattanooga News agrees that “Dr. Alderman was a believer in universal education,” and recalls that “honors were heaped upon him by distinguished bodies of all sorts.” Quoting Dean Peabody of Yale, who had stated that Dr. Alderman was “the man_who has best translated the South to the North and the North to the South,” the Roanoke World-News re- calls ‘that later the Virginia college executive “delivered his most notable oration—the address before a joint ses- sion of Congress in the Capitol at Washington, at memorial exercises held following the death of President Wil- son,” and declares, “That speech, for keenness of thought, breadth of vision, world-wide sympathy, purity of expres- sion, and conviction of purpose, ranks among the great masterpieces of the language.” The World-News concludes: “The loss to Virginia is a loss to the South and to the Nation. For it is the loss of a truly great influence for cultural development, for liberal thought, for sound democracy, and for the cause of popular education. History will give to Edwin Anderson Alderman a high place among Virginia's im- mortals.” x x X % “He earned distinction in many fields,” says the Atlanta Journal. “He was & thinker and a man of action: an author whose pages quickened while they charmed and an orator whose ideas were remembered; an executive who, had he so chosen, could have won fortune in the business realm, and a prophet who saw into the life and needs of his time. All his gifts, all his graces, were dedi- cated to the South. * * * Through the General Education Board, of which he was a member, he exerted national in- fluence and molded policies that are making history today. Best of all, he never lost the crealive touch or the spirit of the youthful pioneer.” “He became so Identified with the University of Virginia as to seem & veritable part of this historic institution, and, after more than a quarter of & cen- tury, he was a part of it and a part of Virginia,” avers the Lynchburg News. And the Richmond News Leader voices appreciation of his services: “He one of those rare and luminous souls whose powers were of the spirit, and all the accouterments of wealth and build- ings were but the physical manifestation of the unseen, indwelling power. No man could express the beauty it was Dr. Alderman’s gift to phrase without possessli an apprehension of its un- dying value, and a sense of that value he infused into the student body for more than a quarter of & century. Such an influence is imperishable.” Pointing out that he had filled the post of executive at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina, at ‘Tulane and at Virginia, the Houston Chronicle records that “as head of three great universities, as a writer of intelligence and spirit. Dr. Alderman gained renown of a lasting order.” The Charlotte Observer pays the tributes that North Carolina “loses one Wwho Wi&ely Lauded might have beeni aptly described as her | most. brilliant scholar” and that “the | rticular field to which Dr. Alderman’s ife work was devoted has been robbed of its most distinguished figure.” * K Xk X “The institution which Jefferson founded will long feel the stimulus which he gave to it” thinks the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, with the statement that “the esteem in which he was held in the educational world was attested by the 11 honorary degrees he held, 10 of them being LL. D.'s conferred by colleges and uni- versities in the North.” The Atlanta Constitution states that “he was ac- claimed in all academic circles for his concepts of educati-n and for his in- dependence of thought and utterance upon the ethical, social and political problems of his times.” The Birming- ham News recognizes in him' “perhaps the last of that band cf .stalwarts which made the South. education-con- sclous 40 years ago.” The Providence Bulletin feels that “the South has lost one of its surest guldes and the United States a great educator and man.” ‘Fervid wpostle of higher education,” is the estimate of the Charlotte News, while the Columbia (S. C.) State be- lieves “he will be held in enduring remembrance as an uncommonly suc- cessful university administrator and as one of the really great American cra- tors of his time.” The Dayton Daily News emphasizes the “loss to his uni- ::yn.ny, to education and to the coun- " “and peints to t m;:lny |$lvvmues, he honors from uding him as “the miost gitted ai eloquent men in the Nanorfi efluc':lf tional 1ife,” the Raleigh News and Ob- server says: “Dr. Alderman under- stood, and, what is better, caused thousands Who lacked his perception and philosophy to understand, that education of all the people is a public duty and a natural right. There have been—there are—learned scholars who have sought to make universities the genter of light and rescarch for the v, cknowledging the with the little cnungy‘sch(ml e mountains or the sand dunes. Alder- man knew they were one and insepa- rable. An aristocrat in culture, he was. like Jefferson and Wilson, a democrat in champloning the right of the poor- est to equal opportunities with the children of the rich. He saw the public school and the university com- ponent parts of one system.” o Ohio’s Slow But Sure, Prom the Columbus Ohlo State Journal. Under the new law a couple can run to Kentucky and get married, then 8o on t Reno and have the preiiminarics of & divorce over within less time than they could get hitched in Ohio. — e, Hawaiian Legislators Drink. From the Milwaukee Sentinel. Pineapple juice is provided in Hawail to quench the thirst of the legislators in conclave assembled. But we sup- pose there is also a man in a green t to attend to legislators who don't care for pineapple juice. o Steak and Onions Tnspire. From the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator. Genius may thrive best in poverty, as a critic of the proposed subsidy for authors declares, but it is undeniable that inspiration' may be found in & plate of steak and onons, t00. v—ee— Kiss Has Some Benefit. | Carswell, THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover Lockhart and most of the other earlier biographers of Sir Walter Scott, using Lockhart's material or following his lead, have represented Scott as brought to an early breakdown and early death because of his heroic efforts to pay off large debts resulting from the bankruptcies of two publishing houtes in which he was involved as an inno- cent victim. Scott’s early breakaown was undoubtedly caused by overwork, his efforts in paying the debts were certainly herole, but he was an innocent victim only in the sense that he prob- ably did nothing illegal or unethical in his connection with James Ballantyne & Co. and Constable & Co. But he was gullty of so many forms of ex- travagance and such complete lack of business judgment that his burdens must, from this poiit of view, Lo con- sidered of his own creation. Donald & practitioner of the “new school” of biography. in his book, “Scott and His Circle,”” makes this responsi- bility clear and even shows that Scott's [riends, Ballantyne and Constable, suf- fered through his faults. - James Ballantyne was “an amiable nonentity” who_was a boyhood friend of Scott at the Kelso Grammar School. He owned a little printing business and printed the local Tory news sheet, the Kelso Mail. He was contented with small things and a quiet life. Scott, with romantic vision, saw himself as the maker of his friend’s fortunes through contracts for printing the books which he was beginning to pro- duce. He urged the removal of the press to Edinburgh, Ballantyne hesi- tated, as he had no capital. Scott grandly promised capital and contracts and Ballantyne went to Edinburgh. Poor James Ballantyne! It was no kindness thus to hrust greatness upon him. The position of a country printer and newspaper editor had peen ad- mirably suited to his powers ‘and pre- dilections, which were chiefly in the way of eating heartily and idling about with an air of importance.” Scott pro- duced the contracts, as he had prom- ised, but before long Ballantyne came to him for more and more money, in order to avert failure. “In his inno- cence he (Scott) had imagined that if he provided for the expenses of Ballan- tyne’s removal to Edinburgh and then w that he had plenty of work to do, all would be well. Neither he nor Bal- lantyne had grasped the elementary truth that large orders cannot be exe- cuted without commensurate capital, and that if business increases faster than reserves are built up, one must get financial support or go bankrupt.” So Scott made a decision which was fatal to his financial welfare and his health. He paid over 5,000 pounds and took a one-third interest in the firm. The partnership was kept a secret, but the publishers noticed that all contracts for Scott's writings provided that the print- ing should be done by James Ballantyne & Co. Later, as part of an offensive against Constable, with whom Scott was not on good terms at the time, John Ballantyne, brother of James, was brought on the scene and a new firm emerged, John Ballantyne & Co., pub- lishers and booksellers. Of this firm Scott was a partner and found all the money. So, from the start, Scott was himself practically both of the Ballan- tyne firms, and when they failed, the failure was his personal bankruptcy and the debts were naturally his obligations. His honesty and heroism appeared in his not hiding behind bankruptcy ex- cuses but in his acceptance of the bur- den and the tremendous work it en- tailed. 0 N Close on the failure of Ballantyne came the failure of Constable. The two houses were intimately connected in their high financing. Scot. had been responsible for much of it, fhrough his repeated borrowings by means of “bills drawn by James Bal- lantyne & Co. on Constable & Co. and | discounted in the usual way. These bills, amounting to 27.000 pounds, were never retired. Constable’s credit being gocd, the banks were always willing to renew, but naturally every renewal meant an addition to the floating debt.” The cause of these borrowings was Scott’s inordinate craving to be a landed proprietor, which resulted first in the purchase of the estate which b:came Abbotsford, then the building of the extensive mansion, then the pur- chase of more and more land, whenever. an adjoining parce] was for sale, even at a price obviously intended to take advantage of Scott's weakness. “The bulk of James Ballantyne & Co.'s lla- bilities were due to Scott’s reckless bor- rowings during the fatal period of his sole partnership. Yet in the hour of calamity there was not a word or even a thought of reproach for the man whose infatuated selfishness had brought disaster upon them both. James' mind was still as it had been 40 years before in Kelso Grammar School, when the big lame boy from Edinburgh had used to smile across at him and whisper, ‘Come ower here, Jamie, and I'll tell ye a story.’ After all, but for Wattie Scott there never would have been a James Ballantyne & Co. Wattie Scott had given and Wattie Scott had taken away. Blessed be the name of Wattie Scott.” The Constable failure did not leave such happy personal relations. Scott had never really liked Constable. He had called him “the czar” and “the crafty,” and though business relations with him had been profitable, personal friendship with him had never been wholehearted on Scott’s part. So when the crash came Scott considered Con- stable the arch villain. “To the end of his life he cherished the fixed delusion that it was Constable who had ruined him and brought him to scorn. That he could hims:lf have been the chief contriver of his misfortunes never once occurred to him.” * kK % Arthur Train in his “Puritan’s Prog- ress” tells in detail how the youth of the 1850s behaved. He quotes from the English periodical, the Saturday Re- view, which declared: “The English girl of today is & creature who dyes, paints and enamels, studies the arts of vice, Is immodest in dress, behavior and onversation, and whose whole object in ife is to marry the man who, of all she knows, has the largest fortunes and the least brains.” Mr. Train then quotes from “Godey's Lady's Book," which was of the opinion that Ameri- can girls were that way, too. * o % X Ten novels have received the unani- mous vote of 75 representative librari- ans as among the 200 outstanding books of the past T, according to the American Library Association. These titles appear in “Booklist Books 1930,” a selection made annually on the basis of usefulness in public libra- ries, Those stories for which only af- firmative voles were cast are of Grace,” “The Deepening Stream,” Serocold,” * Pavement, ‘The Young and All Qur Yester- “The Son Avenger” and “Rogue erries.” Only one negative vote was recorded for “The Great Meadow” and “Miss Mole. The list includes non- fiction, grouped according to subject, and a separate list of children's books. Descriptive notes are given for all entries. ~Familiar names, appearing frequently among the 1930 selections, include Jane Addams, Duffus, Henry Adams, De La Mare, Maugham, Colum, ‘Tomlinson, Masefield, Frost, Mencken and Maurols. Among the important books of the year by new authors to which the preface calls attention are Calkin’s “Some Folks Won't Work,” Allen's “The Book of Bird Brown's “Upstage,” Edith Ham- ilton's “The Greek Way" and Yeats- Brown's “Lives of a Bengal Lancer.” A special list of technical books on subjects such as aviation, radio, etc., and & list of books on public health and hygiene are special features of the Prom the Springfield (Mass) Union. A kiss may not actually shorten life by three minutes, as some one claims, but lack of a kiss sometimes makes it seem longer, e _" e current _edition. The pamphlet, which is issusd as a reading list and as A buying guide for small libraries, may be consulted at publie libraries throughout the country, B ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKI. This bureau does not give advice, but | it gives free information on any sub-| ject. Often, to be accurately informed | is fo be beyond the need of advice,! and information is always valuable, whereas advice may not be. this service be sure to write clearly,| state your inquiry briefly and inclose 2-cent stamp for reply postage. Ad- dress The Evening Star Informaticn Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Q How many people use airplanes | for traveling in the United States?— T B A. More than 1200 persons Day fares and travel on the regular airlines each day. Their average flight is 250 miles. ! Q. Are there no other service men ! except Gen. Smedley Butler who have two Congressional Medals of Honor?. H . M. A. It is called t> our attention that there are three more. They are Sergl. Dan Daly, U. S. M. C.; Capt. luulzv; Cukela, U. S. M. C.,, and Lieut. John | W. McCloy, U. 8. N. . How many subjects has the King | of Siam?—W. B. | A. Siam has a population of 11,500,- 000. Q. Of what kind of stone is the Hotel Ponce de Leon in St. Augustine built?—A. F. ! A. Coquina was used. Thousands of carloads of this native rock were | brought to the spot, crushed and mixed | with cement, forming an indestructible composite. To be exact. this hotel was not built, but rather cast. for there is not & joint in the building. The mate- rial was made as needed, poured in while soft and rammed down 3 inches | at & time, It is, therefore, & huge mon- olith. 'Q. 1Is there a railroad in the United States which operates trains in only one direction?—H. D. In using l was nearly 900,000 tons of shipping & month, the total allied and neutral tonnage then being about 34,000,000 tons and the rate of new construction | only about 177,000 tons per month. Q. Where did Willle Pogany receive his training in art>—P. A. R. A. Willis Pogany was educated st the University of Budapest and at the Art_School. Budapest. He also studied \in Paris and Munich. Q. Was Caruso, the tenor, ever in the movies® —8. J. | A This great tenor %“hyfid in two pictures, “The Splendid mance” gnd “My Cousin,” both made in 1918. Q. Is interstellar space about ‘the same as a vacuum?—B. A. B. A. There is far less matter per unit volume in space than in the best vacuum that can be produced in the laboratory. E Q. What became of the assassin who fired the shot which precipitated the World Wi S. B. W. A. Gavrielo Princip, the assassin of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, died in prison. Q. Does Miss Helen Keller speak any language except English?—8. P. B. A. This remarkable deaf and blind woman not only speaks , but other languages. Her German aceent is sald to be even better than her English, Q. Who was the Countess Potocka, of whom there is such a charming por- trait?>—N. G. A. Soplie Potocka was born in Con- tautinople about 1766 and died in Ber- in in 1822. She was the wife of & Polish count, Stanislaw Felix Potocki, Her parents were Greek, and as & child sold her for 1,500 piasters, or $375, to the French Ambassador st Constanti- nople, who adopted her. She married the Count de Witt, who three years | later divorced her at the request of A. The statement that such is the | Potocki and on the receipt of 2,000,000 case has sometimes been made with reference to the Winston-Salem South- | bound Railway because gf its unique | name. As a matter of fd€t, the trains come back. Q. Is the title of duke the highest in the British peerage and is it always hereditary?—H. C. C. A. The duke js the most elevated dignity among British titles. There have been 10 men other than sons of | sovereigns who, having inherited no | title, attained dukedoms. Q. How did cartridge paper get its name?—C. M. E. A. The original use for this strong paper was for soldiers’ cartridges. Q. Where was Horatio Alger edu- cated? How many books did he write? - H. A. He was a graduate of Harvard, and also of Harvard Divinity School. He became pastor of the Unitarian Church at Brewster, Mass. in 1864; | but two years later he went to New York, where he labored for the im- provement of the condition of street | boys. He wrote much for newspapers | and periodicals and published about 70 | books, of which nearly 800,000 copies have been sold. guiden. In 1790 she married Potocki and became famous for her beauty and cleverness throughout Russia Ger- many. Q. How old is Al Capone?—C. K. A. He is said to be 31. . In our first flags were the 13 lueu in a circle on the blue fleld, or were there 12 stars in the circle with the thirteenth in the center>—J. U. A. Sometimes the stars were &r- ranged in a circle, sometimes scattered and sometimes in a circle of twelve with one in the center. Q. Please give a biography of Par- son Weems, who first told the story of George Washington and the cherry tree—T. K. A. Mason Locke Weems was born in Maryland about 1760 and died in South Carolina in 1825. He began the study of medicine but gave it up and went to London to study for the ministry. Upon his return he preached at different places, apparently not having a regular charge. His “Life of Washington.” by which he is best known, first a| red in 1800 and during the nineteenth cen= tury ran into more than 70 editions. Q. How may miles is the average automobile driven in a year?>—A. C Q. How many tons of shipping, both allied and neutral, were being de- stroyed by Germany at the time of our entrance into the war?>—S. C. T. A. The rate of sinking at that time A. It is estimated that 27,000,000 automotive vehicles in the United Statez were driven a total of 162.000.- | 000,000 miles last year. This would be | an average of 6,000 miles per vehicle. Highlights on the Wide World Excerpts From Newspapers of Other Lands ERLINER .TAGEBLATT—It ‘is an indisputable though little acknowledged fact that most of the difficulties experienced in telephoning are not so much the fault of malicious telephone girls as of our own ignorance. en we do not know how to give the right number or to find it in the book. nor how to express ourselves intelligently to those with whom we would com- municate, unsatisfactory results from the use of tg;duleplk;one are our own fault and nobody's else. To obviate such defects in a factor of human service potentially so help- ful and so advantageous is the object of & new course in the public schools of Switzerland, This is a course which it would profit our country to inaugu- rate, too, in the interests of social, po- litical and economic welfare. ~Two “telephone” clasces have already been established in the Swiss Republic for the smaller children, one at Lucerne and the other at Aarau. The children in these cities are instructed first re- garding the general plan of the tele- phone system, in so far as their ages will permit. Then they are taught how to use the telephone bock, the correct statement of the number de- sired and the clarity of speech resuit- ing from careful pronunciation, and | right proximity of the lips to_the transmitter. Each child has a little telephone set to practice With, and it is certain that this generation will not grow up in the ignorance of telephonic communication and courtesy which has | handicapped its predecessors, for all children will learn how to use the ap- paratus, though 70 per cent of the children in Aarau and 45 per cent of the children in Lucerne have no op- portunity to learn telephoning in their ywn homes. o 'Kx'l‘hlfl departure in education is a laudable one and most effective in teaching the children to pronounce their words correctly; not to converse in vulgar whispers mor in facetious shrieks, and to be sure they have not made & mistake in the number them- selves before they blame the operator. It is quite certain many of us older people would get better "".“u over ithe wires had we attended a “telephone g * k% * “Is Glasgow Deteriorating?” Asks Citizen. The Evening Times, Olm:—(A‘ letter to the editor): Sir—As a keen Sabbatarian may I inquire, while the unday cinema controversy is fresh in ?ur m};mory, whether it is legal for Jarge Testaurants to be open on Sun- days? My attention was drawn to the fact that uugll a one had been open for years in Glasgow. for yeat curlosity 1 visited it recently and, to add to my consternation, found an or;:huzr“phytnl what 1s rmed_‘“popular music.” tkls Glasgow deteflonunfi? I am, ete. % SHOCKED. * X % “Graf” Barred As Name in Germany. Neues Wiener Tagblatt, Vienna. little incident showing how greatly republican institutions and atmosphere are guining ground even in imperialistic Germany is reported from Munich. A proud father appeared at the civil registration_office to record the name of his new-born child, according to the legal requirement. He stated that the name of the infant was “Karl Otto Graf Obermaier,” but this name was not acceptable to the official on duty. The denominatfon “Graf” was par- ticularly objectionable. Having a cer- tain titular and aristocratic signifi- cance, there was no telling, said the functionary, that little Karl might not in later years be associated somehow with the old nobility and taken for & count. ‘The official desired three days to con- sider the matter before passing final| judgment. He then gave as his verdict to the disgruntled father that inasmuch as Germany, now & republic, no longer granted any patents to the peerage, with the possible exception of the rank of President, it would be improper to rec- ognize any such baptismal appellation as “Karl Otto Graf Obermaier,” lest at the very height of egotism and sufficient | to start a new privileged order. Pessioly the father intended only to memorialize “Graf Zeppelin.” as hun= dreds of other mothers and fathers have desired to name their offspring after famous men and events. Apparently there has been no embargo on “Zeppe= lina” as the name of a girl, if we can judge from the numbers running about, d there are also plenty of boys named indenburg.” ! “Such nomenclature recalls the preva- lence of “Sedanias” in 1870, as well as hosts of juvenile “Bismarcks,” ‘Molt- kes,” “Rocns,” ete. But these allusions are specific and | understood. It would never do to | loose on the world “Graf Obermalers™ when “‘Herr Obermaiers” are the ac- cepted fashion. If this concession were Jmlde. beyond all doubt. we would soon be flooded with “Baron Muellers,™ | “Freiherren von Schulzes.” “Herzog Lehe manns” and “Fuerst Schmidts"—titles | that could all be borne as simple prop= | er names. Such reminiscences, however, | whether for better or for worse, are no | longer considered appropriate in demo- cratic Germany. * ¥ ok * Bomb Outrages Spread to Croatia. Volks-Zeitung, Basel, Switzerland— It seems to be the endeavor of the Bel- grade dictatorship to “Macedonianize™ the whole of Jugoslavia. Bombing oute rages directed against representatives of the regime are now becoming popular, even in Croatia. Within a short time there have occurred the explosions of an infernal machine in the governor's house, another in the offices of the finance administration and yet another in an express train which was carrying a high police functionary. The possi- bility of a Serbo-Croatian understand- ing has now become entirely out of the question. Two fundamentally different objec- tives are in conflict. On the Croatian side there is the indomitable will to defend by all means le the na- tional political and cultural individual- h{ against the pan-Serb hegemony, while in the opposite p one per- ml\':;eth:l desire to ex and strength- en reas rivil &;b‘?‘ dy privileged position of It not necessary to speak of the terror which reigns in Illteg;‘nh. where the persecution and internment of the Croatian political leaders cannot pre- vent active propaganda among the peo- ple for a free and independent Croatia and Croatian Church, which latter finds itself in sharp conflict with the ortho- dox dictatorship in Belgrade. ——— Movie Advertising Hit As Public Imposition From the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Carl Laemmle, noted motion picture producer, says: “It's pretty raw to ask people to pay their meney to see an en- tertainment at the movies and then to use part of their time to present ad- vertising matter.” It is rather raw, at that. Even the “prevues” are some= times & little wearying. But we could stand for that without much whimper- Ing If advertising ended there. But it doesn't always. The advertising features that frequently mar current screen pro ductions are actually an imposition. And people don't like to be imposed upon. As the Kansas City Times re- cently observed in this connection, “Ad- vertisers are concerned in building good will for their products. But when they force their advertising on people who have paid for entertainment, they are building resentment instead.” Dread of Civilized People. From the Akron Beacon Journal. Civilized people are those that have conquered the wilds and have nothing to dread except each other. —en—s Pre-War Cases. Prom the Oakland Tribune. A court of criminal appeals has held that & man cannot be fined for catch- ing his own fish out of his own pond. some time the bearer of the nam= might abbreviate it to Graf Obermaier, or even interpolate & “vom,” which would be And what other cases were held up while that momentous decision was be= ing reached? -~ ... . - .-