Evening Star Newspaper, May 10, 1931, Page 26

N LY -~ A THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edl WASHINGTON, D. C. BUNDAY. May 10, 1931 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor ‘The Evening Star Nt per Company ity 9.' " Penniivanis Ave. ke, Michis "fl&?m’u Fhtopean un Regent £ jon, Rate by Carrier Within the City. " 45 per month Ry B S e (when ‘I “:l:;’gul;flli fi"m per month T ehen s Bubday ‘85¢ per month (when 5 Bun The Sunday Star 5c per copy ‘each month. s"aell orTetitions SR i 7 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. zarylnd and Virginia. ilv and Sunday. BERL :H All Other States and Canada. 1mo., 8], 480 80¢ Member of the Associated Press. Press 15 exclusively entitled P g uplication of all nows dis- R el o b ot o Shetat S ited n this paper and a 5 Ihis of publication o ZuRliDedubateiive ferein ave aiso Teserved: ——————— A Mouse Brought Forth. ¢ there were ever a classic example of & mountain that labored, only to bring forth s mouse, the world-wide agitation which preceded, and projected itself into, the International Chamber of Commerce Congress at Washington seems to deserve that description. For months it was mooted here and abroad that the great conclave of business which ended its sessions yesterday would come conclusively to grips with German reparations and interallled war debts. Pilloried by economists of high and low degree as one of the fundamental causes of financial chaos throughout the globe, 1t was freely predicted that the issue would be raised with vehemence and tackled with vigor. At its closing session the chamber adopted an innocuous all-embracing resolution entitled “Restoration of Inter- national Trade.” The section concerned with reparations and war debts, which are referred to under the general cap- tion of “international obligations,” reads as follows: International obligations have been made definite in amount and in terms as between nations, The integrity of such obligations is always fundamental to the maintenance of international credit and to the expansion of com- 1aerce and industry. The observance of this essential principle, however, is not Inoo&:unt th an impartial examina- tion of the effects of these obligations on international trade, if warranted by changed economic conditions, such ex- amination to be based on the principles laid down by the International Cham- ber of Commerce at its congresses. ‘This leaves matters very much where \., they were before Mother Earth's eap- , \tains of industry pooled their intelll- gehocs In conference. The Interna- tional Chamber of Commerce does not advocate reconsideration of “interna- tional obligations.” It contents itself with afirming that there is no objec- tion to & re-examination if warranted by changed eonditions, The Germans claimed in the meeting here that condi- tions have ehanged, and changed vitally. But they falled to induce the Interna- tional Chamber to go flat-footedly on record in favor of revising the Young plan. The Relch must be satisfied with s plous expression of opinion that the Teparations incident is not necessarily closed. \ On the other International Chsmber dssue that stirred controversy here —tarifts, and the American tariff in partieular—there was adopted a somewhat more pointed resolution. It sets forth that “national and interna- tional trade should be encouraged by the Temoval of every obstacle possible; tariffs should not discriminate unfairly between nations.” Then comes this thinly velled thrust at our own tariff system: “The machinery provided by some countries for the adjustment of tariff inequalities should be utilized without delay.” When the chamber thus highly resolved, it obviously had in mind the flexible tariff provisions of the new American tariff law—“machinery” ‘which so far has not yet worked in the | direction of removing “inequalities” with which even the friends of the Hawley- Bmoot act admits that it bristles. President Hoover did not induce the International Chamber of Commerce to go along with him in the theory that armaments are the root of the depres- sion evil, World business merely “com- mends the efforts being made by gov- ernments to reduce armaments to the lowest possible imit.” That is Burope's way of reaffirming its present-hour creed: “Security first, and economy afterward.” ‘When tempted to boast too briskly that he is an American, one might well pause and consider that he belongs in a country where practically every white birch tree accessible from road, path or clearing has been ringed of its beauti- 1ul bark. P Chronological development of gentle Spring in Washington: the first robin, the first cherry blossom, the first ball game, the first awning fire. D God and Country. On one day of last week the President of the United States, addressing an International sudience, deplored the fear of war that keeps five and a half million of men under arms twelve years after Abe Armistice, in spite of the fact that “we are all signatories to the Kellogg- Briand pact, by which we have re- nounced war as an instrument of na- tional policy and agreed to settle all controversies by pacific means.” On the day following, a ffty-two- year-old minister of the gospel, an im- migrant from Bcotland, who has per- sonally renounced war, and whose own faith in Ms God forbids him actively to take up arms in his own defense or in the defense of the country he would adopt, was denled admittance to citi- zenship. He was denled citizenship not . because he sought to escape the danger ) that service on s battle front would ineur, which he was willing to undergo; not because there was pressing threat of war and he refused to go where he was ordered to go; not because the safety of the Nation depends upon the willingness of fifty-two-year-old minis- ters of the gospel to shoulder rifles— but beesuse he was sincere enough in his conscientious bellef to say he would not take up arms, Otherwise, he was apparently good enough to be a citizen. Leaving aside the legal and moral i THE SUNDAY aspects of the hypothetical question demanding & categorical answer for admission to citizenship in the United States of America, is it not rather ridiculous, after all, to ask & fifty-two- year-old man whether he would take up arms in defense of his country when, as a practical matter, he would not be allowed to take up arms? Is not com- pulsory military service in time of war, universally adopted, a rather candid admission that in this day and age the physical act of bearing arms in defense of one's country has little, if anything, ‘m do with “patriotism” or whether one chooses to bear arms? The country is overrun with unde- sirable aliens and undesirable citizens. How many of them are undesirable be- cause of their philosophic conceptions regarding the degrees of alleglance to country and to God? Does not the reason for denial of citizenship to the Rev. Alexander Dougal raise the ques- tion whether the Man of Nazareth could de-y become a citizen of the United States? e o The Tariff Drive. The anti-tariff guns are booming. The protective Smoot-Hawley act is under shell fire from the merchants and bankers of Europe. It is raked fore and aft by the Democrats in this country, and moré recently it has had to stand the attack of several eminent Republicans of the wusual standpat variety. It has been under attack for months by the anti-Hoover Republic- ans of the West. The upshot of the matter may be that the tariff will be- ! come a real major issue in the national campaign next year. If this should happen it will demonstrate again the virility of this grizzled veteran of many political campaigns. In 1928 the Demo- Republican conception of a tariff that the charge was made by & wing of the Democratic party that its leaders were abandoning the traditional policy of the Demccrats toward the tariff. Just what the traditional policy of the Democrats toward the tariff real- ly is, when viewed in the light of the party’s changes of position on the sub- ject, may be difficult to state specifically. Generally speaking, however, the | Democratic party stands for lower tariff duties than the Republicans. The Democratic party at one time was |for free trade. Later it went to a |tariff for revenue only, and then added ito it the taking phrase, “with inci- dental protecticn.” In 1928 the Demo- crats declared themselves for a tariff that would “permit effective competi- tion” And more recently, Chairman John J. Raskob of the Democratic party, who has no constituency, but who holds on to the reins of party government, declared himself for & “fair tariff.” No one has been able yet to determine exactly what Mr. Raskob's proposal means, although it has been denounced by some of the Democratic tariff authorities. ‘There is a great deal of loose talk about the tariff in general, and about the Smoot-Hawley tariff act in particu- lar. The effort is made in many quar- ters in this country to blame conditions on the tariff law, Yet the crash came long before the Smoot-Hawley tariff act became law. Agriculture was clamor- ing for increased protection for its products. It was obvious that a revision of the tariff would be necessary. And in the Smoot-Hawley tariff act, agri- culture received greatly added protec- tion. The antagonists of the Republican tariff act in the Middle West and the West who declaim against the present law might stop to consider with value to themselves that it is to the increases in the duties on agricultural products that many of the foreign nations are directing their opposition. ‘The G. O. P. in the end probably will welcome the tariff issue, even as a major issue in the coming campaign. ‘The opponents of the protective tariff will have their troubles when it comes to showing American workmen how they can be benefitted by taking the tariffs off the goods which they produce so0 that more such goods, made by Eu- ropean workers, can be imported and sold in this eountry. The Europeans are opposed to the American tariff not because the American tariff is & bene- fit to the Europeans but because it is & benefit to Americans, Even Ameri- cans who are sore because'of the de- pression and who know little or nothing of the details of the tariff law and its effect may come to realize that fact in the end. 2 ot There should be a Pulitzer prize or a | Nobel prize or something for the plain | citizen, 1f any, who has read every word of all the recriminations in connection with the Post Office Department lease scandal charges. ——— vt Bo the new Spanish Republic already has a monarchist party. The fear is | expressed that it will find itself in a | sort of Bpanish bull-moose fight. ————————— The Rail-Plane Competition. The announcement that the Penn- | sylvania railroad will proceed at once to establish electric service between Washington and New York, lessening the “headway” from the present mini- mum of four and a half hours to three |and & half hours, means that the com- petition of the airplane as a passenger carrier is now so serious that it must be met with an improved rail serv- ice. It has been evident for some time that in point of speed of transit be- tween the two cities the planes hdve a decided advantage, with a three-hour over-all passage, including time re- quired to go from mid-city points to the airports. This advantage has led to & steady increase in patronage until the planes are now carrying about 5,000 passengers a month, ail of whom have been taken away from the railroads. Unless the planes make faster flights the proposed electric service on the Pennsylvania will be only thirty minutes slower than the air route. It will be two years at least before this improvement is completed and the service is begun, this being the latest estimate on the basis of hurry-up de- cisions by the railroad company to meet the exigencles of the employment situ- ation. It is concelvable that within that time there may have been an im- provement in plane service, perhaps & lowering of the time, maybe a quicker transit between town and airport at each end of the line. If this is actually direct competition the planes must con- tinue to compete in speed as well as in comfort and safety. This decision by the Pennsylvania railroad at I ralses the question as crats approached to closely to the| to the Baltimore & Ohlo program. The competition is not altogether between planes and rails, but between railway lines. Electrification of one of the two systems with consequent shortening of the transit time, presumably without lessening of security and comfort, would seem to require a similar improvement on the other system. With electricity adopted as power, with rails and road- beds improved to correspond, a non- stop surface service between New York and Washington is quite easily con- ceivable, in which case even further re- ductions of time may be effected. ) Gen. Higgins. Gen. Edward J. Higgins, head of the International Salvation Army, who vis- ited Washington last week, is a special- ist in the handliing of intangible but mighty forces which work unseen in the minds and hearts of man. In an eminently practical age he has i kept & touch of color and poetry which he freely offers, not to those who know color in paintings and poetry in books, but to those alone who never knew such things, The secret of this man's work, and of the organization which he heads, lies in Christian giving. Love, the end- all and be-all of the Christian life, the Salvation Army offers to those who otherwise do mot know it. ‘The poetry of the Salvation Army is underwritten with solid work, even drudgery. Many s person has con- fessed to himself, perhaps with shame, that he would not care to go forth into the streets and sing and play as the Salvation Army workers do. He is too | convention-bound. The poetry of the plcturesque never flowers in many be- cause they are afraid of what others might think. ‘This unspoken fear of the conven- tional plays no part in the life of the Salvation Army, of which Gen Hig- gins is an outstanding exemplar, He and his men and women know that life is greater than rules. In the game of life which they play with souls as stakes there is only ome rule worth minding, and that is the rule of love, which, in saint or clown, wears the same divine form. e A | Here 15 retributive justice. Willlam jand Mary College students are com- pelled to scrub class numerals ebul- liently painted on the bricks of restored ‘Willlamsburg structures. Who is doing this restoring? Mr. J. D. Rockefeller, jr. What best takes off such paint? Kerosene! —————————— Hard rubber is the latest to be added to list of curious seulpture material, which includes coal, soap, macerated currency, etc. The effect given by some recent works is that the artist used “boloney.” 3 —— “Rum Ring Inquiry Involves Indus- try"—recent headline. No doubt about it; inquiring into rum rings is one of the most industrious pursuits that exist today. B A Kansas newspaper is sald to main- tain separate special columns for Re- publican and Democratic news. Pos- sibly its Progressive news may be found on the comic page. e Work starts on the widening, resur- facing, etc, of the newly christened Constitution avenue. It is fervently hoped there may be no amendments. — v Man's very efficiency is to spell his own doom, according to a noted Munich philosopher-scientist. If so, certain people seem scheduled to live on forever. SHOOTING STARS. i BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Overdoing 1t I knew a fellow who declared He never, never worried. He said that he was always spared Sensations flercely flurried. Upon the doorstep he would sit; "Twas there you always found him. He Joved to watch the sunbeams Till shadows gathered ‘round him. The old fence trembled in the breeze That set the house a-creaking. The roof is greener than the trees, Moss-grown and sadly leaking. Although we cherish sweet content, And with much envy view it, This anti-worry sentiment— Some people overdo it. Exactions. “Polities are getting more or less con- fused.” “Yes” replied Benator Borghum. “It's getting so that you've got to listen to a speech before you know whether you dare applaud it or not.” Not & Vacation Prospect. “My boy,” said the professor, “if you keep on as you have started and study hard, you may be President of the United States some day.” “Yes” replied the young man, gloomily; “and then I'll have to start in and study & whole lot harder.” Odoriferous Season. The fragrant blossoms everywhere Peep forth with smiling quaint. You miss the fragrance here and there Because of the fresh paint. Helpfulness. “Your boy Josh is still helping about the place?” “Yep,” replied Farmer Corntossel, “He goes out explorin’ nearly every day 50 he'll be able to show the Summer boarders where to find the best fishin’.” Keeping the Home Cheerful. “Who won the game?” asked the woman. “We did. thuslast?” “Not exactly. But I make it a rule to find out about the game %0 as to know whether to mention it to my hus- band when he gets home.” Are you & base ball en- Printers’ Ink People. This world ferce terror would disclose In numerous directions, If people looked and talked like those Portrayed in comic sections. “If nobody mnever talked about sumpin’ he didn’ know all about,” said Uncle Eben, “dar wouldn’ be no con- versation.” e Added Reason. Prom the Altoona Mirror, A former President of Mexico is now teaching vocal lessons. But this is no reason why he should not continue to be protected from potential ‘nuulns. STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 10, 1931—PART . TWO. THE GREATEST MOTHER BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, Washington. Bishop of Tezt: “They understood not'the saying which He spake unto them * * * put His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.”—St. Luke, 11.50-51. While no authentic portrait exists of the mother of Christ, the imagination of countless artists has been employed to give to the world a conception of her sublime person. It is an ‘interest- ing circumstance that the great artists of ‘every natfon have sought to interpret, her features in the racial character- istics of their own people. The Italian, the Spaniard, the Frenchman, the German places on canvas as the highest type of feminine loveliness the & woman of his own kin every race appropriates to itself the mother of Christ. In song and story the record of her life, coupled with the solicitude she discloses in her relations with her son, is graphically told. Even among those who lack the spirit of de- | pein votion there is reverence for the sacred intimacies that are recorded in -the Gospel narrative, restricted as the nar- yative is. Bethlehem, the lowly birth- ace; Nazareth, the homely setting of e peasant’s home in whicl reared—how imagination has played about these sacred places, and how fancy has wrought on canvas the story of the idyllic scenes! 8o utterly sacred is the story of the childhood and youth of Jesus that even the Gospels them- selves fail to present any adequate pic. ture of the home life in which He reared. On the other hand, there a incidents recorded of His relations with His mother that are of deep signifi- cance. The early scene that Hofmann has immortalized on canvas, “The Boy in the Temple,” eagerly sought for by His anxious mother, is indicative of her tender solicitude and motherly affec- tion. Greeting lrer Son, she addressed Him with anxious words, expressive of her concern for His safety. Here for the first time He discloses the sub- lime purpose of His life in language, the meaning of which must have bees obscure to her mind: “Know ye not that T must be about My Father's busi- ness?” Again, at the festive wedding feast of Cana, with a larger under- standing of the purpose and magni- tude of his mission, she says to the attendants at the feast: “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” In the days of His public ministry no one sensed more fully than she the mighty de- signs to which He was committed. One of the sublime incidents recording this mother love is in that eloquent pas- l;’e relating to the crucifixion story: “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother.” Here in this fragmentary narrative is the incomparable record of maternal love and filial devotion and obedience. It is the unapproachable and inimitable expression of the most sacred ties of home life. Brief and in- adequate as. the story is, it furnishes the ideal for efery home throughout the world. In the rush and turmoil of our life today it may be that the supreme place which the home occupies is being in- adequately considered. “Spending and spent,” we are to forget g that the security and permanence of all | thaf that we hold dear is conditioned by the character of the homes in which our children are reared. No matter how Jesus was | be, i than that which is exercised by the mother. There is no office that more completely determines our moral character as indi- viduals, or as corporate soclety, than that which is exercised within the re- stricted confines of the home itself. Emerson declared that the: test of any nation's greatness is disclosed in the kind of men it turns out. 1t is well that at least once a year we are asked on a day of worship to give proper recognition to the supreme place which the mother occupies in the whole economy of our life. This is & theme that transcends all others; it is basic and fundamental. To exalt the place of the mother and the distinction of the home means ure to ourselves, our children and children's children that security and peace that are indispensa- ble to our highest development and most enduring satisfaation. Tariff and the World Viewpoint May Enter Into Next Presidential Campaign BY WILLIAM HARD. Foreign relations promise now to be a considerable theme in the presiden- tial esmpd!n of next year. This de- velopment has been emphasized and accelerated by the meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Atlantie City and by the meeting of the International Chamber of Com- merce here in Washington. Among the dels s to both these meetings & large stress has been placed upon the asserted importance of foreign trade as a means toward industrial recovery for the United States and for the whole world. Fresh aid has thus been given to the general point of view taken by the Democratic party. At the same time the Republican administration has ex- hibited a fresh recoil from regard- ing foreign trade as the crux and Pivut of the American business prob- lem. e The Democrats have steadily main- tained that our policles toward the foreign world have been in a high de- gree responsible for the aggravating of our own domestic economic troubles. This contention has now been strongly supj by the vigorously expressed sentiments of a large number of emi- nent and erful business charac- ters, both foreign and native, in the Atlantic City and Washington assem- blies.. It becomes obvious that the struggle waged next year by the Demo- crats will be not so much one of “the people” against “the interests” as one of certain interests and ideas against certain contrary interests and ideas. In other words, the Democrats next year would seem likely to have much more than their customary share of big business favor. gl The principle involved, as they it, has been compactly expressed one of their favorite possible presi- dential nominees, Mr. Owen D. Young, who said: “How can we market either our sgri- cultural or industrial surpluses to the world so long as we act on the prin- ciple that we are not interested in the welfare of any one but ourselves? I had hoped that the old doctrine of nafrrow and self-destroying selfishness was being supplanted in this new day by a con- sciousness that men helped themselves the most by helping others Isola- tion in our politics, exclusion’ our tariff, means that we will retain as a just penalty to our own littleness the agricultural and industrial surpluses which we might otherwise market to the peoples of the world and which, so long a5 they stay with us, destroy our own prosperity.” see by * k¥ Mr. Young then went on to defend and advocate large American invest- ments abroad and remarked: “The much maligned international bankers have done more in the last 10 years, and will do more in the next 10, for the relief of our farmer and our in- dustry than all the Government agen- cies which have been or can be em- Y]Oyed. ‘The further development of our international finance will more than anything else create actual buyers for our surpluses of wheat and of cotton and for the products of our mines and’ factories.” LI It is to be noted that Mr. Young’s ar- guments for reduced tariff duties and for enhanced investments abroad are grounded in each case on the service which he claims would thus be rendered to the expansion of our foreign trade. ‘That same position precisely is taken by the American international bankers and the foreign delegates to the meeting here of the International Chamber of Commerce in the matter of the war debts still owed to the Treasury of the United Btates by an governments. They argue that the mitigation or can- cellation of those debts would increase the gurchuln( power of Europe and would expand our foreign trade with European countries. g * % ¥ Prom all high business sources enter- such bellefs there is a large flow of potential sympathy today toward the Democratic party, which, ever since the era of Woodrow Wilson, has been peculiarly impressed with the value which a more intimate intercourse with the foreign world might hold for the United States. * ok ok ¥ Contrariwise, President Hoover, the In- dubitable nominee of the Republican | in party in 1932, is less and less disposed to make sacrifices of immediate advan- tages now held by the United States in order to arrive at the ultimate advan- fes which 1t is alleged that those sec~ Tg}e‘: wx:ll:l produce. of his attitude is be found in his estimate of foreign :‘:uh. He and his most influential advisers re- grd forelgn trade as being important deed, but as not constituting a major factor in the problem of the revival of American industrial activity, The United States, it is believed by the ad- ministration, will make a business re- covery mostly eut of forces within it- self. Administration leaders think of American business as being 90 per cent domestic and only 10 per cent foreign and they look upon the tnrelr‘vfi 10 per cent as valuable but also inherently in- secure. ‘They point to England as a classic instance of a country brought to a more perilous industrial situation than any other. country in the werl by, as they allege, an excessive depend- ence upon capricious foreign markets. They are in essential agreement with Prof. Wallace Brett tham, dean of the Graduate School of Business Ad- ministration of Harvard University, who addressed the International Cham- ber of Commerce in Washington this last week and who had already com- pressed his views into the following sentence: “If we base our national economy on foreign trade, we base it on the least stable element in the whole interna- tional situation.” * ok x * ‘The administration thereupon is not much moved by the plea that the den;oliuo;l ofbwilflmhl.l’flfirl or_the sur- render of debt clal uronl:umyun governments or the stimulation of loans to foreigners by American investors would increase our exportation of com- modities, It is by no means hostile to such an increase, if it sheuld happen, as it were, without price, but it does not propose to buy it by the means sug- gested. It believes that those means would be costly to the wages of Ameri- can labor and to the funds of Ameri- can capital and it is convinced that the gains promised, being gains in for- eign trade, would be of dubious worth. Its policies in the campaign of next year may, thereupon, be safely fore- shadowed as follow: ' An insistence upon the maintenance of the American wage scale in opposi- tion to the wage - cutting suggestions which recently have come in e vol- ume from the New York financial dis- trict and from foreign visitors. * koK K A firm defense of the proposition that the American tariff law is the only one in the world which explicitly contains the principle that tariff duties are to be adjusted up and down to conform to the differences in wages and other costs at home and abroad, and & firm assertion to the effect that the prin- ciple in question must be upheld. A rejection of pleas for the abatement of the war debts on the ground that they constitute but a_small fraction of the sums spent by Europe op arma- ments and on the further grounds, as stated by Mr. Hoover's Department of Commerce in 1926, that the United States “cannot be impoverished by re- celving wealth.” A coolness toward the inflation of foreign trade by artificially induced for- eign loans. In sum, the Democrats will tend to embrace the doctrine that the United States is a very new part of the Old ‘World, while the Republicans will tend to embrace the doctrine that the United States is a new and different world in itself. That each thesis can be defended by able advocates is clear. All that is unhappily not clear is the verdict of the voter. (Copyright, 1931.) r——— Installment Buying Not Checked by Depression BY HARDEN COLFAX. Instaliment buying has been affected very little by unfavorable business eon- ditions, and, on the whole, the Ameri- can public has continued o buy about the same quantity of goods at retail, although at lower prices. ‘These. conclusions are drawn from final figures of the latest retail credit survey, which is conducted twice & year d | fact, the by the Department of Commerce, in co- operation with the National Retail redit Association and Credit Bureaus in some 26 = representative cities throughout the country, The final fig- ures, just made public, confirm recent preliminary estimates indicating that on the first of this year the average American family was paying an install- ment debt of some $250 rather promptly as the fi’lymen!s became due. While the proportion of goods sold on an install- ment basis to the total of all goods sold at retail showed a slight decrease, in- stallment payments, as a whole, held up very well ko ‘The general question asked the 513 re- tail establishments from whom infor- mation was obtained was: What effect has the present depression had on in- stallment, buylng ‘The firms were re- quested to give information on changes in the proportion of installment sales to retail sales, on bad debt losses on installment sales, on the percentage of collections and on “repossessions.” Seven different lines of retail trade were covered, and in the next investi- gation an_eighth, automobiles, will be cluded. Included among the retail es- tablishments were department stores, furniture, jewelry, men’s clothing, shoes, women's specialty and electrical appliance stores. e net sales of these reporting are in the neighborhood of two-thirds of a billion dollars. According to the report, the net dol- lar sales decreased during the last half of 1930 by 11.7 per cent, in comparison with those for the corresponding period of the highly prosperous year before. Statisticians say that from December, 1929, to December, 1930, retail gncu fell approximately from 10 to 12 per cent. Applying these figures to retail sales, it appears that there was vir- tually no change in the volume of goods sold. * K ok % In spite of the decreased business ac- tivity, which affected all the establish- ments questioned, the department re- ports that there was no “disturbing change in retall credit conditions.” In roportion of business done on a credit basis was same as during the This is particularly s consider that the comparisons were made between the distinctly boom year, 2 using practically, the I Capital Sidelights BY WILL P. KENNEDY. Should the electlon of Speaker at run into a deadlock and be undecided for several weeks, as now seems not improbable, following several historic ruoedenu, it may be that Willlam Ty- er Page, clerk of the House, who pre- sides until a Speaker is elected, may thus celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his coming to work as a page in the House. It was on December 19, 1881, that the youthful page, wearing a home- spun sult of clothes and with his hands still swollen from ovettime plecework in a paper bag factory in Cumberland, made his first appearance in the House. This will be the sixth time he has pmsl%.ed h:' I:h’l of a Con- gress, an and preparing fc riod of his entire career. Dut with s frms set 8o s ips, " His 5 set l”mkmtnl‘srno:mcd. s & mat o the control of the House, which is supposed :g :0 with the election of Speaker, 15 a task t also is not wanted. Just now it seems as if Representative “Jack” Gar- ner of Texas, the Democratic_ leader, f::l.l?u be“ele:;e‘g’:mkcr, but_the con- N amo; leaders is that it would x;g %dpl.n?l’- take politically for the Democrats to take control. Similarly, the Republican party managers are extremely reluc- tant ad this time to assume the re- sponsibility that goes wWith organizas oy T [ 3 wmmnkanhudaiz;ztoru.md even at that they will have much trou- ble in securing the election of & Repub- {;vl:’ln be:l‘x'\';mur' lbut that only means e of more and more trou- * ¥ ¥ “How far back does our Postal Sys- tem trace its ancestry?” With the great- est_pubiic building program in all the world’s history being worked out here in Washington to provide post offices quu‘flzn bobs up. . o= Representative Edmund F. Erk of Pennsylvanis, glves us the answer in a Ml which Shetudes” aeerpte: fomm Malls,” whic] hu ex from ‘Old Post Bags,” by Harlow. ‘80 far as we moderns know, the re- lay system of carrying messages is first mentioned in the sixth century B.C. by Herodotus, as existing during the of Darius of Persia, on a plan | Pe! Tl 131?"”.4 for centurles afterwards by a:nye;nut;:mha nndrlove&nmnu, Here Ts were for the most part mounted on horses, foit “The they carried scratched on bronze blades or impressed into the clay tablets or tiles which were the commonest form of writing surface in Persia, Assyria and Babylonia of those di k Esther reveals ays. The Book of (8:10) that in Xerxes' time not only horses but mules, camels and drome- daries were used in the Persian post, “Many writers have given Cyrus (or Darius) credit for inventing the relay system of c intelligence; but t it was in vogue long before their hirovtnby-vemolunm het Jeremiah (51:31), who wrote not later than 530 B.C., and who, in predicting the fall of Babylan, sald, ‘One post shall run to meet another, and one me; senger to meet another,’ while the Book of Job, which might have been written anywhere between the early sixth and the eighth century B.C, says, ‘My days are swifter than a post; they flee away.’” * ok k¥ ‘That “Grand Old Man” of Massachu- setts, John Quincy Adams, whose fa- ther was the second President of the United States, and whose great-grand- son is now Secretary of the Navy; who | served in the House and Senate, was a member of the commission which ne- gotiated the treaty of Ghent and as- sisted in concluding the convention of commerce WwitH Great Britaln; who served Monroe as Secretary of State, was Minister to Russia and to England, himself President of the United States and hero of countless historic incidents in public life—is not being allowed to 1”.',?3""’ forgotten by the youth of the When John Quincy Adams was stricken in his seat in the House 83 years_ago, the House was occupying what is now Statuary Hall, and the dy- ing statesman was carried to an ante- room, where he expired. When Wil- liam Tyler Page became clerk of the House 12 years ago he chose that room for his office, not only because it is convenient for the performance of his dutles, but because in his youth he was & hero-worshiper of Adams, a marble ‘hn\ll"h of wlllxom nn?n ';fl marble tablet set e wall are poi out b; 3 'ns-l)ll vrisnom s chool groups from all parts of the country are taken to Mr. Page's office, and he invariably tells them the story of John Quincy Adams and his great and varied service to this Nation, em- bellished with scores of anecdotes. Thus is history kept alive and thus a :1‘;";":::: o; :‘l:: past is made real to ol of lay, the public the nearing futul‘!’: i SR The school children usually recite for Mr. Page ‘“The Amencany'n Creed,” which he himself compiled, and he re- sponds by telling them how it was pleced together from extracts from fun- damental documents—and oftentimes presents them with autographed copies of the creed. Mr. Page takes this spe- clal interest in school children, allow- ing them free access to his office when- ever ible, because he had scant The activity of the American and British publishing industries each year increases the hold which the English language has upon the world. Through good times and bad the business of dis- tributing the printed word in ever-in- creasing volume is carried on by the En%’i:h-spemn‘ peoples. United Kingdom as publisher and dis- tributor of books and periodicals, but the old headquarters of the mother tongue continues to pour out printed matter. British publhhlngoolndulbfi is approxi- mately $300,000, and the business gives emplyly:mt to some 200,000 per- sons. The t year is to have broken all previous pears, the leadership passed to the United States. ‘The Bureau of the Census reports that | the value of products of the American ublishing and bookbinding industry reached 32.7“.0020 ranking it as among the first half industries of the country. Althongh the value of products is so much greater than that of the British industry, less than one- third more workers are required to per- form the manufacture. The number of ‘wage earners in the American ind is given at 285,000. it 50 small a number of workers, relatively, could produce so enormous ; uu?autt s -crcountealn for by the proved types of .prini g machinery, the mass-production _sysf ‘which have been applied and the huge editions turned out at a printing. ‘There are almost as many publishing establishments in the Upited Kingdom as in the United States. No exact fig- ures are given because many of the | publishers have very small establish- ments. There the business takes on a more individual cast as compared with the great quantity production cor- poration _publishers of the United States. Here some 24,200 establish- ments are listed. . Newspapers and Magasines Lead. How important the business is in the economic life of the country may be %fldlmuflumtmtn pays a billion dollars annually in wages to its workers. This does not include the salaries of executives and editors, than as mem- materials consumed cost $648,000,000 a year, this total including fuel and electric power. The industry shows one of the percentages of value added by manufacture. the total output value of $2,736,000,000 the sum of $2,078,000,000 is added by the hand of man. In the United States the newspaper and periodical end of the business has passed all others. Books loom larger in the British picture. has papers as big as those of New York, which issue many editions, Great Brit- ain does not have anything like the :-mmbe;a ollnut clt'l;i:. lll‘no\lrlnl edi- lons hourly upon ‘waith blie. The value of the ug;:; the newspaper and ical end of the United States has passed the | ‘The annual value of the output of the | qustry Americans: Break Into Print BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. American publishing business is $1,719,« 000,000 & year, while the value of published annually is & round . Although the value of raw materials used by the newspapers and is greater, being $390.000,000 as com- pared with $266,000,000 for books and | magazines, the wages paid in the book | publishing end aggregate more. Workers in the book publishing end recelve $250,000,000 a year compared with 1$249,000,000 in the periodical end. ‘These figures have increased over the last few years, with the exception ef the cost of raw materials. The vame of the products of the publishing in- as a whole has increased 11.9 per cent since 1927, the biggest gain being made by the newspapers and magazines—13.1 per cent. Schoel Books Head Book List. The lttle sister of the publishing business—the business of manufac- turing_sheet music—has shown a de- cline, however. The value of its prod- ucts has dropped 2 per cent since 1937. Nevertheless, the industry turns out products valued at approximately $15.- 000,000 a year, including everything from Bach fugues to the latest boop-a- dooperies. The value added by manu- facture is far greater in the musie Fubnlhml business. While in the pub- lishing of books and periodicals the value of products is only from four ve the value of raw ma- terials, in the music publishing busi- ness, that value is enhanced tenfold. A ximately 212,000,000 books were published in the last census year. The classification is interesting. Text books for school use led all other classes, numbering 75,000,000, and juvenile books came next with a total of nearly 37,000,000, Piction follows with 30, 000,000 and then religion and philoso- phy with over 15,000,000. There is a long gap, then, before the next class, which includes poetry and drama. Four million copies of such works were published, History follows closely and then law® Biography and science and technology each shows about 2,500,000, while medicine and travel show each about 1,600,000. It may come as a surprise, consider- ing all the publicity about the farmer which the dally newspapers and the magazines have published, to find that the subject of agriculture stands at the bottom of the list, with only & meager 685,000 copies of books published on the subject. In the United States the publishing industry is carried on in a great many large cities, although New York has the lead. In England, however, the industry is concentrating more and more at London. Edinburgh used to be a strong rival of London in the matter of book and magazine publish- ing, but the drift has been to the great metropolis. Preliminary indications are that even through .the depression the publishing industry has done well in both great English-speaking nations, the demand for something to read while waiting in bread lines possibly helping to support it. While not many new houses have sprung up, the older ones show signs of emerging from the depression stronger than when they entered it. Fifty Years Ago In The Star Many Washingtonians will remember Chiet Engineer Cronin, who headed Fire Chiet (18 Fire Department of : Dlslhlfl. of C‘o‘glumbh : or a long . He Cronin. gureq in® the news 50 years ago in an interesting manner. The Star of May 3, 1881, says: “The District Commissioners, it seems, require Chief Engineer Cronin to make ample apology to Commissioner Morgan because, when at the fire the other day, Cronin said to him rudely, ‘Maj. Morgan, I am in charge of this fire’ As the Commissioner is un- doubtedly a superior officer, it is right that Chief Cronin should apologize for his brusqueness. That done, it would be the correct thing for Maj. Morgan to apelogize to Chief Cronin for inter- fering in the management of the fire department when in active service at a fire. The President, who is com- mander in chief of the Army of the United States, might as gmperly inter- fere with the orders of the general in flfledhfie command on the field of tle. “The Right Hon. 8ir Joseph Porter, K. C. B, and first lord of the admiralty and ruler of the Queen's Na-vee, wWas undoubtedly the boss of Capt. Corcoran of her mafjesty’s ship Pinafore. But it will be remembered things got very much mixed on that renowned vessel when Sir Joseph undertook to exercise that authority and give orders over the captain's head. Too many cooks spoll the broth; one head is better than two in command on the battlefield, and it is easy to see that if our three Dis. trict Commissioners should appear at a fire and separately undertake to give orders on the occasion there would be—well, a great superfluity of bossing, to say the least.” In the issue of May 5, 1881, The Star d: “The District Commissioners have served notice on the chief engineer of the fire department ‘that his authority at fires and elsewhere is at all times subordinate to the orders of the Com- schooling in his own youth, an - :en::’u:gg'n:lé-m-de lsnl:e ull~=gug':i. led one of 1] it cull and best-read men at lhl‘%‘lpf?:,ofim.d 1929, and the depression Collection percentages in 3.?3 xl::l?e than 500 retail establishments ranged from slightly over 33 per cent for jew- elry stores to a little over 50 per cent for electrical appliance stores on open credit transact and _from approxi- mately 9%, per cent for furniture stores to 28 per cent in men's clothing es- tablishments on installment accounts. ‘The average collection percentage de- clined slightly and the average bad- debt loss made a slight increase. On the whole, however, all acounts were paid in an orderly manner, Among other g facts brought out were that ess done on open credit by the women's spe- clalty stores was I T in proj lon than that of any of the other types of stores included ti“ “uus survey, that ere Was “‘practically no changes in the propor'.a)nl of cash and ':redit sales of ent stores,” and that the decrease in the net saleg @f jew- elry stores was the greatest. * ok ok % Critics of the installment sysigm in the past have stressed the incPeased missioners, or either of them.’ This is much like having three self-appointed captains in charge of a ship during a storm, with the regularly commissioned captain subordinated for the time to the position of midshipmite. Now, sup- posing that the triumvirate should dif- fer on some important point in battli with a serious e ation, what would happen then? But the law seems to be quite conclusive as to where the authority rests. Paragraph 12 of ‘Webb's Digest, under head of ‘Fire De- partment,’ says: ‘The chief engineer shall have the sole command of fires over all other officers and members of the department, and all other persons who may be present.’ This being the Jaw, it would probably have been a betfer course for the Commissioners, instead of denying the authority of the chief engineer, to have contented them- selves with censuring him for any rude- ness of manner in asserting that au- thority.” ’ * * x The following paragraph printed in ‘The Star of May 7, llll.pwel]r the story of a legalistic vagrant Balked 8t who puzzled the authori- Stripes. ties 50 years ago: “Heretofore when par- ties charged in the Police Court with offenses against the ordinances of the costs due to interest and other items of carrying charges and have pre- dicted that the abuse of credit would have a very baneful effect during the “next” ess depression. What is happening now, however, does not hear out this rrredlcucn. as the res of the department’s survey indicate. The report says: “The facts seem to indicate that, on the whole, current obligations in the form of open credit and installment accounts were paid in an orderly man- ner and new ones assumed in the same proportion to cash sales as formerly. All the adverse cl with regard to credit seem to be small and indicate that retail credit has stood the test of business recession in a highly sat- istactory manner.” * ok ok % It would seem probable that one of the lessons of the present depression, which has not been lost on install- ment houses, is the uecescity for ex- ercising the greatest care not to over- tax the paying ability of their customers, This topic came up for some discussion at the annual ?eeunl of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States at Atlantic City in the last days of ‘April, as well as at the sixth annual session of the International Chamber of Com- merce in Washington last week. (Copyright, 1931.) District were convicted and they noted an appeal, they were committed to jail pending the trial on appeal, in the absence of bonds. Recently, however, Judge Snell, finding that the law in such cases provided for commitment to jail and not to ‘the’ jail, came to the conclusion that in corporation cases the workhouse was the proper place for the detention of such persons. A few days ago he committed a party d with vagrancy to the work- in default of bail on his appeal. 1t was not long after his arrival there before he was furnished with and made to put on a striped suit and was or- dered out to work. The prisoner at once demurred this order and in- formed the officers that they had no right to compel him to wear the suit or to work, for he was not a convict, and that he should not put on the garb of a hyena and be made to delve in the ‘ground’ He was a free white American cidzen, and before the law was as innocent as a lamb, at least for cl house [ Report Says British Trade With East Asia Menaced BY A. G. GARDINER. LONDON, May 9.—New ht upon the special causes of the depression which afflicts British industry is shed by the report today of the Economic Commission recently returned from in- vestigations in the Far East. The calam- itous fall in trade with Eastern Asia is most marked and is a sinister fact in the present outlook. Indian boycott of British goods is one of the main causes of the fall, but the purpose of the mission was to inquire into the reasons for the cata- strophic decline in trade with Japan and China. The magnitude of that decline is so alarming that the mission states that if it continues at the present rate the results must soon be evident In bsnkrutgtc In- deed, those results already are eviden! not only in the lamentable condition the textile industry, but in the reports of the shipping companies trading with the Far East, all of which indicate a most serious decline in business. * % % % The mission says the vast shrinkage in trade in manufactured goods with Japan is due to Japan’s increasing ability to supply her own needs and her change from customer to competitor. ving development of competition. But effect of the increased Japanese produetivity is not confined to Japan. Both in woglen and cotton manufactures she has_become the most formidable rival of British trade. The effect in China is gfl-!flcuhfly noticeable. Based on 1913 values, British trade with China h}:‘s declined over 30 per cent, while many—shows increases 36 to 270 per cent. * ¥ ok * Discussing the causes of the loss of the Eastern markets, the mission gives chief prominence to the high costs of production. 1t calculates that York- shire wages are two and a half times, and maybe three times, Japanese costs. Emphasis is laid upon the higher , shorter hours and heavy unuom: make British goods more expensive than the competitors’. But while stress- ing these facts, the mission points out that the United States, in which the standard of living is also high, is - creasing her trade with the Far East, while British trade is falling. ‘This leads the commission to the con- clusion that not only wages and hours are responsible for the phenomenon, but that other causes are contributory. Brit- ish industry is declared to be lament- ably backward in methods of publicity and hopelessly behind its competitors in study and knowledge of market require- ments. British manufacturers give no attention to proper advertisements, and do not use suitable catalogues, efficient packing or adequate labelling of goods. Internal reorganization of industry is declared to be imperative if the nt disastrous tendency is not to reach the proportions of a national catastrophe. * ok k¥ 1t is significant that the report, which plainly indicates the necessity for the sacrifice of trade union claims, is signed by the trade union and co-operative members of the mission as well as by the employers. But the prospects of the trade unions being influenced by these considerations is not apparent and this week the trade union council issued de- mands for increased insurance efits and the transfer of the whole insurance burden, at J)resem borne partly by workers and partly by the empm the back of the taxpayer, while the Lancashire operatives still refuse to work the multiple loom system. 3 Meanwhile, another aspect of the in- dustrial crisis was the subject of a secret conclave in the House of Cem- mons this week, where a meeting of Conservative members listened to & num- ber of former officials of Soviet tracde or- izdtlons in this country who had en dismissed from their posts and refused to return to Russia. According to the Morning Post, these officials showed that the Soviet plan directly aimed to disorganize the inter- national markets and create instability in order to destroy the capitalist system, and that 30 per eent of the foreign cred- its obtained to promote the policy came from Britain. (Copyright, 1931.) the time being, and that until his ap- peal was tried they had no right to put the stripes on him or compel him to work, but only had to keep him safe till it was determined wi r he Wwas guilty or not. If they wanted him to t on the stripes and work they would flva to force , but he would give them fair warning that as soon as he was released he would commence suit » for damages. As soon as Mr, Caswell, the commissioner of the asylum, was informed of this he ordered that the learned vagrant should be all the rights of an American citizen save liberty at least until he, Caswell, could take legal advice on the points raised.’