Evening Star Newspaper, June 1, 1931, Page 8

) HE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY, JUNE 1. 195L THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY June 1, 1031 THEODORE W. NOYES. ...Editor 1n_Av ':nu'gfl. uilding. + London, Rate by Carrler Within the City. RO " ning lla 45¢ per month e Bvi III‘ II « 4 Sun . ..80¢ per month ,‘(w .nllgll 5 e er‘“ per month e Buhday Biar B per copy Collection made ai month. ©Orde: T. \y sent in by mail or telephone NAtional N & Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Dally lllld Sunda; 1yr., l:g gg liy S5 258000 i A 1. 400, 1 mo Bajly and sunday. aily oBlz Bunday only "l Member of the Associated Press. ‘The Associated Prej nxu?nvfly entitled to the use for republication of all news dis- patches credited (o it or not othel ited in this paper And aiso the lo n published herein. All rights of publicatiun of special dispatches herein are also reserved. - The Bus Terminal Hearings. ‘The Public Utilities Commission is to be commended for its action in calling the hearings, to be held this week, on the tangled and unsatisfactory situation in Washington resulting from the lack of a plan for any union bus terminal. ‘The hearings will provide an oppor tunity for the exchange of opinions be- tween the bus operators and establish their point of view regarding use of & union terminal should one be built. Added interest attaches to the hearings because of the report that oné of the large operators of interstaté busses has offered to build the terminal imme- diately, once fssured that crders by the Public Utilities Commission will compel its use by other lines. ‘The obvious difficulties in the regu- Iation of interstate busses running into Washington result from the absence cf any definite legislation relating to their control by the Public Utilities Commis- sion, complicated by adverse decisions in the local courts when attempts have been made to test the commission’s suthority in such fundamental matters even a8 the designation of routes. The construction of a céentral bus terminal has been delayed by the lack of any definite guarantee that, once built, all the bus lines could be forced to use it. 1t is, however, unthinkable that the manifest trafic problems now existing, as well as the unsatisfactory accommo- dations of the bus-riding public, should be permitted to grow worse and that nothing be done either by the author- ities or by the bus operators to find the solution that lies in the establishment of a central terminal, used by all the busses and convenlently located for their patrons. For many years now the Public Utilities Commission has been waiting for the bus companies to at- tend to their own business by uniting in the construction of & terminal or in agfeeing among themselves to use it, onee it 18 built. In the meantime a few interstate busses have become ‘many; their use by the public has grown from & novelty to & necessity, and two or three- curbstone stations have in- creased until room is made for them by placing benches on the public sidewalk and marking of restricted zones for the vehicles in front of public buildings. The forthcoming hearings should de- termine the extent of opposition the Publie Utilities Commission may ex- pect from the bus operators themselves to the use of & union terminal, if the offer to build one stands. But it is unreasonable to believe that the bus operators can afford not to agree on & matter which will benefit their patrons, which should benefit the companies and which 18 necessary from the viewpoint of the public good. Theé indiscriminate use of public street space by the busses as gone too far already, and it is high time that some definite action be taken to stop it. — e “Tex” Guinan's fallure to break into France must have cost a petty penny,; but it may be chargeable profitably to the advertising account. sl s Overdoses of drought relief may make 1931 such a wet year that another kind of relief will become necessary. — e The Bond Issue. The $800,000,000 Treasury bond issue at 314 per cent interest, taken in con- nection with the report on the first four months of trade in this country made by the director of the Bureau of Foreign snd Domestic Commerce, is interpreted today as an indication that brighter times are approaching for the business world and the Ameri- can public. The bond issue announced by Secretary Mellon is for & long period and at the lowest interest rate since the World War, The Government may be taking this opportunity to do this financing at A low rate of interest in an effort to get the necessary funds on the best terms before there is a real upturn in business, with money rates appreciably higher. ‘The Treasury deficit of $1,000,000,000 is to be financed primarily by short- term certificates, but the new long- term issue i8 also connected with .the deficit. It has become necessary to re- finance other short-térm securities about to mature. Indeed, $589,000,000 of certificates and about $90,000,000 in interést payments become due on June 15. The new issue, which does not ma- ture until 1949, with the privilege of retirément in 1946, is designed in part to take care of these obligations. In effect, the long-time bonds add $800.- 000,000 to the national debt, although the reduction of that debt through the sinking fund is to continue as pro- vided under the law. The new issue may meet the charge that is made in some quarters that the Government has undertaken to retire the war debt too speedily. The survey of business and trade conditions, including both production, émployment and prices, made public by the Bureau of Foreign and Do- mestic Commerce, shows that certain industries have shown a production up- ward trend in the first four months of this year, notably food products, tex- tiles, leather and shoes and automobiles. The improvement is taken as An indi- cation that demand 18 inereasing and that the heavy overproduction of goods of all kinds, which was in great meas- ure responsible for the ecrash in 1929, bas been largely wiped quty AD even more encouraging sign is found in the report that retail sales in April of this year have exceeded those of any other recent year. It is true that prices have been low, but the records of the Federal Reserve Board's index of department store sales for April now available show that in quantity the retail sales have been high, indicating that the public is buying again. Commodity prices were 25.2 per cent lower than in April of 1929, when the prices had reached their peak, and wkre lower fhan at any time since 1015. April, the report of the bureau says, showed & slight improvement in the volume of general employment, but was less than the volume reported for 1930. Nevertheless, the trend is upward, and a0t All because of seasonal employment, it is reported. Obviously, it is too early to assert with certainty that the bottom of the depression has been reached and passed, when the conditions that brought it about are world-wide and not confined to this country, Nevertheless, the signs grow more hopeful as the year 1931 advances. ——— v The Germans at Chequers. 1t does not appear unlikely that the! immediate economic and politicil fate of Germany may be strongly influenced, others which the rallroads crave at present, along with the rest of the country, it is & restoration of business. A recovery of manufacturing and of production of all kinds means to the railroads more and more traffic. It i1 little wonder, therefore, that the rail- road executives are divided upon the wisdom of an appeal to the Interstate Commerce Commission to raise rates at this time. ‘The railroads of the country are thor- oughly regulated. They are in effect under the control of two managerial bodies, The first are their own execu- tives and the second is the Interstate Commerce Commission set up by Con- gress to regulate interstate commerce. Their competitors of the highway, the pipe line and the waterway are far freer in their operations than the railroads. ‘The very fact that they do not have such regulation is the main complaint today of the rallroads against the high- way cartlers, ‘The rallroads are part of the great economic and industrial and financial structure of the United States. They are purchasers of vast quantities of mate- rials as well as the agencles of trans- portation. When they reduce their pur- chases, the effect on many other indus- tries, like steel, is at once apparent. Be- cause of their economies, the railroads have been compelled to reduce their it not finally determined, on British s0ll this week. At Chequers, picturesque Buckinghamshire estate of the prime minister, Chancellor Bruening and Foreign Minister Curtius are to hold their long-projected conferences with Mr, MacDonald and Foreign Secretary Henderson. They arrive in Englandata | critical hour in the Reich's tortuous fortunes. Burdened by their obligations under the Young plan, Germans vociferate their incapacity to continue these huge reparation annuities in the face of their crumbling export trade, their devastat- ing unemployment situation, insur- mountable foreign tariff, their lack of industrial capital and. perhaps, worst of all, the steadily growing popular revolt Against these conditions. Dispatches from Berlin indicate that Messrs. Bruen- ing and Curtius are bound for Chequers Wwith the intention of laying these varic- gated German woes candidly before the British government. A proposal of & moratorium, which thée Reich under the Young plan is authorized to seek in certain demonstrated circumstances, 1s in prospect. It is suggested that un- less the British government is ready to take the lead in a movement to afford the Germans economic and financial re- lief, the Bruening-Curtius regime will bluntly proclaim itself unable to answer for the conséquences of a refusal. No word coming out of Berlin exceeds in ominous importance the assertion of the Associated Press that the Hitler movement, contrary to widespread un- derstanding abroad, “is by no means receding.” As a matter of fact, the corre- spondent states, “it is gaining.” In support of that assurance he points out that the recent elections in Oldenburg | gave the Hitlerite National Socialists two-thirds of the Diet seats. Commu- nists also increased their strength in Oldenburg. Hitlerism's principal plea for the German people’s support is its condemnation of the Young plan and the demand for its obliteration, But it is not alone from the Hitler “Nagis” and the Communists that the Bruening-Curtis government finds it- 8elf under fire. The chancellor'’s main Reichstag supporters, the Cathélic Cen- trist party, are angrily demanding Young plan revision. The Social Dem- ocrats, the numerically largest political organization, is assembled in national convention at Leipzig this week, where its leaders are faced by a bitter fight to keep the party loyal to the govern- ment's economic policies, including the back-breaking reparation payments. Even the Rhenish-Westphalian indus- trialists, hitherto loyal bulwarks of the Berlin administration, are marching shoulder to shoulder with the hated Hitlerites and Communists in opposing German adherence to the reparations covenant. From all this there seems no possi- bility of blinking the gravity of the German problem. Overnight it can]| flare into the European problem. The whole world must hope for light and leading from Chequers this weck. ———— Jack Diamond managed to get to jail at Oatskill without suffering another attack of perforation of the epidermis. - The Railroads. The railroads, like other big industries in this country, have been losing money during the business depression. It would be more correct to say they have been making less money. For despite the fact that they have been hard hit because of lack of business, none, prac- tically, of the big raliroad compantes to- day shows a deficit, although the earn- ings have been cut materially. The sit- uation is serious for many of the roads, however, and the railroad executives are seeking some measure of relief, While railroad revenues have failen off very greatly in 1930 and in the first quarter of 1931, by drastic economies the railroads have been able to cut; their operating expenses to such an ex- tent that they have continued to show net earnings, although these earnings are in nearly every case materially re- duced. ‘The belt-tightening process in lean days 18 not only necessary but effective. In the end, however, there must be some readjustment if the roads are to continue to live. At present there has been agitation on the part of some of the rallroad executives for an increase in rates. There is reason to believe that the demand comes from holders of raliroad securities, who have seen dividends reduced in some cases to the vanishing point. The question, however, is whether the raiiroads, by an increase in their rates at this time, could really better themselves. The raiiroads are suffering not alone from the depres- sion but also from a constantly growing competition from highway transporta- tion, motor bus and motor truck. They have sten the inland waterway and Panama Canal traffic constantly on the increase in recent years, not to men- tion & growth in the pipe line business and a new fleld of competition from the air. An increase in railroad rates might play into the hands of the com- petitors of the railroads, thereby reduc- ing the traffic of the roads still more. An increase in raflroad rates when business in this country is struggling to “come back” might prove a serious blow to & return of business activity, also, Xt there is one thing sbove all operating exoenditures. Railroad labor costs have been cut materially, not through reductions in wage scales, but through laying off the workers or work- ing them part time. ‘The number of workers has shrunk from more than 1,600,000 in 1929 to about 1,330,000 in February of this year, contributing in large degree to unemployment. ‘The main thing for the railroads to- day, as for other industries, is a rebirth of business, with a growing demand for goods of all kinds. It is probable that here and there are freight rates which chould be increased. But the roads should consider seriously the effect upon the whole business structure if at this time a general increase in rates were made. Certainly it may be expected that the Intefstate Commerce Commis- sion, which has the final word in this matter of rates, will give the situation earnest attention. — e A bookkeeper of Elgin, Ill, boasts that he has used the same diamond- pointed pen for fifty years. It is thought that a number of post offices in this country approach Iis record, and with no jewels involved, either. —————————— ‘The feeble-minded are usually short- lived, according to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases. True, but the trouble is that too many live long enough to reproduce their kind. P And now, it 18 claimed in Paris, the ladies are wearing novel flaring “yacht- ing pajamas.” Go on! Sallors have| been wearing those for years. oo Ward Randall, twelve, went back to Illinois with the proud distinction of be- ing the boy who put the “u” in fou- lard.” ——— Mr. Mellon's $800,000,000 bond issue | at three and an eighth per cent shows that the hand that manages the Na- tion’s till has not lost its cunning. —————— It was indeed an exigent spectator | who regarded Baturday's air show as & failure because not a single plane ran into trouble, ————— Some of the two-day holiday motor- ists returning home last evening doubt- less wished that they were driving aquaplanes. —— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The Quest. A man once longed for peace complete. He sought the ocean strand, Where waves come singing soft and sweet ‘To the untrodden sand. But soon they built a little town, ‘Where bands began to play; And then a tidal wave came down And wathed ‘em all away. He sought the wooded mountain height, ‘To shun the crowd below. A big hotel soon met his sight With artificial show; And next an earthquake shook the place Until the mountain fell; The devastation left no trace ©Of mountain or hotel. Out there upon the level plain, ‘Where far his gaze might roam, He turned his quest of peace again, And gought to make a home. But savage huntsmen 'round him crept, Or raised a warrior shout; And then a cyclone came and swept The whole collection out. And when the cyclone dropped the man, He said, “Right here I'll stay. Here will I strive as best I can To use what comes my way. From toil and strife I shall not flee, Nor shirk the issue grim. No more will I seek peace,” quoth he, And, straightaway, peace sought him. Mistakes of the Amateur. “I regard myself,” said the confident statesman, “as & man of destiny.” “Well,” replied Senator Sorghum, “you want to look out. I never saw a man who tried to be his own fortune teller who didn't keep prophesying good luck till he got careless.” Jud Tunkins says the radio orator is liable to find himself in the position of & persuasive salesman and get orders for more goods than he could deliver in a lifetime. The Pesky Mule. ‘The old mule has a stubborn way That loses many a trick; For, when he doesn’t balk, they say He's almost sure to kick. A Question of Title. “After anothet season,” sald Farmés Corntossel, “I guess we'll have a chef for the Summer boarders.” “What's a chef?” asked Mrs. Corn- tossel. “A chef is a man with a big enough vocabulary to give the soup a different name every day.” “Knowin' when to quit is a mighty good tning,” said Uncle Eben, “but knowin’ when not to start somethin’ I8 still better.” ;‘lo\'mluml . e ince man firsf c-fnmeo{un e mysterious qualities moonlight have been noted and commented on. After all thcse centurles of noting and commenting, it requires only one real moonlight night in Spring to set every one talking again. It was inevitable that a great com- poser should write a “Moonlight So- nata,” and that years later a zreltl{ lesser musician, if one may g:l: it thal way, should compose & popular “inter- mezzo” based on the charm of the light of the moon, Moonshine—the real thing—always has been a favorite theme with poets d song writers. The so-called popular ng finds something lilting in t:: sub- t, and often manages to trip it off pleasingly. ok % ‘Moonlight brings up strikingly the whole subject of thadows, and the part lh;l play in the enjoyment of life. ankind could get along without shadows, They are not necessities, in other words, but they do add a great deal to the innocent pleasures of life, It is only now and then that one stops to realize just what shadows do, those shadows cast by sun and moon, and even from electric illumination. ‘They give a scarcely realized illusion of depth which 18 lacking without them. One has but to go into a community totally devold of trees to reailse this. Something is lacking, and’it is not just shade. Shade is all very well, but shado cast on lawns and houses, ‘are even more Shade is practical, shadow is theo- retical. An awning may give you the fofmer, but only a tree the latter. TR Yes, trees are the prime shadow cast- ers. in the ordinary walks of life. Perhaps a great mountain side, sil- houetted against God's sky, is a better shadow caster than a maple, but for the gard-n there is nothing like & tree, There is no time to appreciate shadow beiter than on a moonlight night, when darkness—except for the moon—covers the land, and the details of homes, trees. shrubs, streets, curbs, are lost in the darkness. Darkness—yes, but still not darkness, | for the moon s up, riding like a lighted balloon through the sky to the south, throwing its peculiar rays upon us. * ox ox % Stand here in the yard, at some dis- tance from yonder oak, and enjoy its perfect shape in the moonlight. There is a tree across the road, as well as one up in the air. | you say may be true, gentlemeh, but moon can do. Not the work of the half moon or the three-quarters moon, but of the ancient sull moon of child- hood’s memory. Such was the moon for which small hands grasped, and which the legend said was made of green cheese. Even t;-‘e smallest infants know better than ‘They sense, even if they cannot say, that the mysterious moon has a com- position in nowise resembling cheese, green or otherwise. * oK ok ok The play of shadows over the lawn changes from minute to minute. Perhaps it would be better to note these changes in 15-minute mutations. After all, & minute of human tile is very little. Though life 18 short and art long, often enough time seems very slow in the passing. : A minute may be equivalent to eter- nity, rightly viewed, but with most of us on this sphere & minute is just a minute. And a minute is not very much. * X %% 80 it any one, reading here, desires to watch shadows, let him be both pa- tient and careful, without wondering t00_much about the passage of time. ‘The shadow, not the time, is the im- portant thing when one is watching shadows. Let time take care of itself. You watch the shadows, ‘The shadows come and go with every passing cloud, with every breeze through the trees. The slightest twig can blot out a whole constellation. One does not have to be Sir James Jeans to know something about stars tonight. In the presence of this vast immensity the watcher 1s inclined to applaud the question of the great Napoleon, “What Who made all that?” A branch of tree, moving in our little wind, obliterates a million mlilion stars; but the stars do not mind, in the least: the wind does not know, and the twj does not care. Who are we to asl questions in the face of the anclent mysteries” We have enough to do to watch shadows. * * ‘There goes & moving shadow, a small lump of darkness outlined against the larger masses of the lilacs. A rabbit! Now its large ears stand up, as it straing those perfect hearing instru- ments for the soft swish of Tom's crafty progress through the grass. But the cat is not around. He is elsewhere. its upstanding ears There is a tree on the ground, the shadow tree, created out of insubstan- tial moonshine and solid earth. The old mystery of shadows is here. | It is something, and yet it is less than | nothing, being but a shadow. Light, and the lack of light—this is the oldest mystery play in the world Savage man, not yet risen on his hind legs, as it were, saw the difference, and | marveled at it. | Like the children of later centuries, | no doubt he saw his own shadow. and | wondered at it, too. He made it move, | and laughed in his way at the antics | which he could make it perform. o ‘The enjoyment of moon-cast shadows is at its best in the garden. It was no wonder that Master Shakespeare placed his Jessica in a moonlit gard-n. Noth- ing less would do. Naothing different would suffice. | The sun-thrown shadow is a bit too bold, one thinks, a5 he sees what the | WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. Ordinarily, heads of governments | throughout the world take notice only of the passing of fellow rulcrs as an occasion for ‘transmitting appropriate | messages of condolence. The death of | Nicholas Longworth, late Speaker of the House, evoked an unprecedented | number of such communications from | foreign capitals. With few exceptions, the governments of the whole world | bhave taken occasion at Washington to| express their sincere regret over “Nick’s” demise. In the names of | Kings, prime ministers and foreign | secretaries, as well as in the names of | various parllamentary bodies, notes have been sent to the State Depart- ment deploring Longworth's untimely disappearance from American public life. Apparently, “Nick's” unique pop- ularity in his own country had spread across the seas. Doubtless his relation- ' ship to Theodore Roosevelt helped to enhance his fame. The lamented | Speaker himself had many friendships * ok ok x President Hoover sat only a couple of feet away from Gov. Pinchot at the Union League dinner in Philadelphia | the other nignt, but nobody saw them | fraternizing. A formal how-do-you-do before entering the banqueting hall was the extent of their hobnobbing. The | Governor continueés to be credited with the notion that he might be the next Republican nominee for the presidency | if by any chance the eonvention runs amuck and goes Progressive. Not far away from Pinchot sat another man who has no cause to love him, George ‘Wharton Pepper, whose ambition to succeed himseif in the United States Senate was thwarted by the Pinchot independent cendidacy in 1926. Senator “Jim” Davis was also at Union League, but the Republican he worsted in Penn- sylvania in 1930 was conspiguously miss- ing—"Uncle Joe” Grundy. Throughout Mr. Hoover's Philadelphia-Valley Forge junket former Pennsylvania Gov. John S. Fisher was in the presidential vi- cinity—a circumstance which strength- ened reports that Fisher is Hoover's choice for the G. O. P. national chair- manship, * * K x Part of the President's escort, as long | as he was within the city limits of | Philadelphia, consist2G of a dashing | motor cycle police detachment. On the cops’ shoulders was an emblem reading, “Motor bandit patrol,” an organization formed a couple of years ago for the special purpose of apprehending crooks who operatz in automobiles. The force consists of 250 privates and 35 officers. Its sole duty is to observe persons who behave in motor cars as if they might be engaged in criminal activities. The motor bandit patrol works in pairs. One cop stobs a car, and his part- ner “covers” it with drawn pistol while examination of the occupants is under way. “Billy” Mills, Philadelphia's statuesque superintendent of police, who invented the motor bandit patrol, reels off some significant figures about violators of the traffic laws. ‘“Not long ago,” he says, “we issued in one year 166,000 summonses against traffic violators, Six thousand took notide of our summonses, but only 3,000 were penalized.” * K oK K When a President' of the United Btates goes traveling, an intricate sched- ule of preliminary arrangements has to be evolved, even if the trip is to last only 24 hours. The job falls to the lot of “Dick” Jervis, head of the elite White Horfse Secret Service squad. Once the Chief Executive is under way, “Dick” has only to sit back and ob- serve his plans work out with clock- like precision. The day after the Franco-Prussian War began, tradition has it that Field Marshal von Moltke was seen in a Berlin raflway station with his fishing tackle, bound for a vacation ‘in the country. He explained that his work was done and he could now enjoy himself. “Dick” Jervis en- joys himself aboard a presidential spe- cial train solving cross-word pu: though ly need ever run away with the idea that he doesn't know what's happening all along the line. ‘The rabbit dmrs slightly, and falls to on a couple of choice delphinium plants, If you had not seen him cross the lawn and seck the succulents, you might imagine him nothing but a slightly darker shadow in the gross output of shadow matertal. He is very much alive, Rowever, as you presently note, when, for some obscure, elemental reason, he bounds Al like an elongated streak, and is swallowed up completely by the obliter- ating shadows. * ok x x ‘This. is that feeding time of which the psalmist spoke, when lions do roar for their meat. Helpful shadows of the moons, save and protect the little things abroad tonight. Let their softness merge into the velvet of shadow masses, so that larger, stronger things, going by with gleaming eyes, may not tell one from the other. Keep what Thou hast created, Lord, safe in Thy shadows. today to take up novel writing. Per« haps he's destined to produce the long- awaited “great American novel” dealing with the romance, tragedy and comedy of national life at Washington. He might call it “Fever and Tumult” (the President’s description of his first two years in the White House), or “Hail Columbia, Scrappy Land!" Not in a long time has the dome of the Capitol rung with such fervent ora- tory, Dixie brand, as will reverberate beneath it tomorrow afternoon, when Mississippi unveils its memorials to Jeflerson Davis and James Z. George in Statuary Hall. The President of the Confederacy is not the first great Southern leader to be so honored. Statues of Robert E. Lee, Gen. “Joe” Wheeler, Zebulon B. Vance. Alexander H. Stephens, John 'C. Galhoun and Wade Hampton are among the revered sons of the South already immortal- ized in the Nation's Valhalla. Seven speeches will _echo through Statuary Hall before Mississippi has told the story of Davis and George. Gov. Bilbo will present the statues, then come ad- dresses by Senators Harrison and Stephens, and finally a cluster of ora- tions by other silver-tongued Magnoli- ans. The United States Marine Band will play “Dixie” and a pair of Mississippl belles, respectively granddaughters of Davis and George, will pull the strings which will release the statues to public gaze. The whole Southland will listen in to the ceremonies over Columbia’s “Dixie network.” Col. Hodges, Presi- dent Hoover's military aide, will attend in his capacity as president of the Loulsiana State Society of Washington. ) Herr Priedrich Wilhelm von Prittwits, German Ambassador, this week leads off the annual exodus of Washington diplomats to home shores. He'll sail for Trieste on an Itallan liner, in order to pliot his own motor car through the Tyrol and into Germany, at the outset of a Summer in Berlin. M. Bostrom, Swedish Minister to the United States, is also off for a leave of absence in his own country. He once was Swedish national tennis champlon and still shoots a wicked serve across the het. (Copyright, 1931.) oo The Dreamer. From the Baltimore Sun. She meanders across the crowded street, looking neither to right nor to left. It dces not seem to miatter thai she is walking against the red light. A motorist honks his horn and clamps on his brakes so Suddenz that he stalls his engine. The edge of the bumper touches her skirt, but she does not even alter her pace. She procéeds calmly to the next corner. | A trolley car is about to round the curve. The mctorman sounds his bell. The crowd hears him and scut- tles to the sidewalk. But she continues smilingly on her way, directly in the path of the car. It misses her by inches. The motorman catches the eye of a bystander, tsansfixed by the tregedy which he expected to see occur immediately before his face, and shakes his head despairingly. as if to say, “Well, can you beat that?” She, ap- parently, is all unconscious of the ex- citement she has created. Another crcssing is reached. A grea lumbering truck thunders on the left, warning of its approach with a shriek- ing siren. Mere men fly to safety on the curb. Still she saunters quietly along, her mind absorbed no doubt in the contemplation of some vital matter such as whether to take the light blue at 49 cents a yard or wait for the anncuncement of a sale. The truck rushes onward. It is too late now to apply the brakes in time. The crowd stands in awed expectancy. But no; fate again is kind. Men shake their heads in wonder. Within half an hour she has braved street cars, trucks, bicycles, delivery wagons and other engines of destruc- tion and a dozen times escaped death by inches without being aware of it. Calmly and smilingly she goes her way. She is but one of many. And, as like as not, they will return home at night; The Political Mill By G. Gould Lincoln. ‘The governors, particularly those who are presidential possibilities, are t» be “on parace” at French Lick Springs, Ind., for the next few days, oitending the Governors’ Conference. Already the dispatches from Indiana indicate that QGov. Franklin D. Roosevelt has been warmly recelved by leading Democrats of the Hoozier State. If the reports are correct, these Democrats are perfectly willing 1o accept R:osevelt as they Democtatic nominee for President next year, nolwlthaundl.n{ the fact that Indiana has & reputation for being one of the dryest of the dry of all the States and Rocsevelt has declared against a continuance of national prohibition as it is now carried on. The truth of the matter appears to be that the Demo- |Plzne may also turn to the left and crats in dry as well as in wet States have for the most part come to the|An conclusion that the next nominee of their party is to be for revision if not repeal of the national dry laws, in- cluding the eighteenth wmendment. They aré casting about fcr the man whom they belleve will be the strong- est candidate throughout the country against the prospective candidaté of thé G. O. P.—President Her%ert Hoover. * K ok ok ‘There are other prominent Democratic Governors at French Lick Springs, among them Gov. Albert C. Ritchie of Maryland and Gov. George White of Ohio, both of whom, and particularly the former. have been widely discussed as presidential possibilities. At the Governors' Conference the participants are expected to keep away from po- litical subjects and to discuss the va- rious problems which confront the country and the individual States in & non-partisan manner. ence degenerated into a political debate, siderably. However, with the presiden- tial campalgn only a year in the future and_with the friends of the various candidates already actively at work for them, it is impossible to put the soft pedal on politics at such a gathering. Indiana, one of the pivotal States in a national election, .in 1928 went strongly against Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic nominee, and for President Hoover. Even at the time there was strong sentiment against the Repub-| lican party within the Hoosier State, & 1 sentiment which seems to have in- creased rather than diminished. It was the culmination of & long list of scandals involving Republicans promi- neént in official life of the State and the party organization. But in 1928 this was temporarily forgotten in the residential struggle. The Democratic leaders in Indiana in 1928 did not fool themselves about what was going to hapgen there on election day. 'The fact that these leaders now look with much approval on the possible selection of Gov. Roosevelt to head the ticket of the party next year is not, therefore, with- out congiderable significance. 1f they approve him, they think they could casry indiana for nim. ‘thai, after ail, i likely to be the final test among the | Democratic leaders in all thé States. : kxR Among the Republican Governors at- | tending the conterence at French Lick Springs s Gov. Pinchot of Pennsyl- vénia, to far the Republican Governor | about whose head the presidential bee | is reporied to be buzzing. The Penn- sylvania Governor is to talk about his favorite subject, “Timber Néeds of the Future,” but it is reported that he may break ‘out about public utilitics, his campalgn issue when he ran last year for Governor of Pennsylvania, and the issue about which the progressives in both parties are all stirred up when they think of the national campaign next year. This is a subject also on which Gov. Roosevelt is laying particu- lar stress, and his stand on the water- power question has given him a great boost in the western part of the country. *Eate Out of Kansas. home of tornadoes, sunflowers, prohibition and a lot of other things, comes a suggestion that the Democratic friends of Jouett Shouse, chairman of the Democratic Exccutive Committee of the National Committee, would be a mighty fine can- didate for President for the Demo- cratic party next year. This sugges- tion does not come, it is well under- stood. with any approval of Mr. Shouse | himsélf, who has tried hard to squelch | mention of his name in‘ connection with the presidential nomination. Mr. Shouse, however, was a member of the House a number of years ago from Kansas and later he was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Wil- son administration. For two vears he has been prominently in the public eye as the director of the Democratic forces seeking to build up the party for the next national campaign. He has traveled over the country from one end to the other many ilmes and is widely known and liked by a great | many of the Democratic leaders. It is the contention of Mr. Shouse, however, that he and his organization are not interested in Democratic presidential candidacies and will not be so inter- ested until after the homination has been made in national convention next Year. His job, he insists, is to build up the Democratic party, not to take sides in any pre-convention fights for delegates, and certainly he does not in- tend to get inté the field as & candidate himself, notwithstanding the publicity which is being given to an incipient boom for him in Kansas. Kansas, however, is one of the Western States which the Democrats are looking to with keen interest. It tore loose and elected a Democratic Senator and a Democratic Governor in 1930. ‘Things have not improved politically for the G. O. P. since then. "Rather, there has been a new revolt because the Repub- licans in Congress would not put through legislation giving some relief to the independent oil producers, of whom there are a great many in Kan- 82s. MTr. Shouse may be counted upon to do all in his power to bring Kansas to vote for the next Democratic presi- dential nominee, but he has taken a firm stand against having himself boosted for the nomination. * ok ox % From every angle it is growing more And more apparent thet the big talking roint of the Democrats in the next na- tional campaign is to be the depression of business and unemplovment in this ccuntry, which started with the stock market ‘crash in 1929. obviously its purpose would suffer Con-l larly in States where there is strong opposition to the eighteenth amend- | ment. But depression is to be the main line of attack on the G. O. P. and the Hoover _administration. Today the Democratic Publicity Bureau is sending cut statement after statement, quoting Democratic leaders as saying that the Hoover administration and also that of former President Coolidge were respon- sible in large part for the economic condition which came upon the country more than a year and a hslf rgo. Rep- resentative Joscph W. Byrnes of Ten- nessee, ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Commiitee, is the latest to issue a statement. The fol- lowing excerpt gives the tenor of the whole statement, as follows: “Fate has been unkind to President Hoover and Secretary Mellon. o was ‘sold’ to the country as the best cqu:mnd man ever nominated for the presideney, whcse election would be a guarantee of continued and even greater prosperity. The other was hailed as the greatest financial genius since Alexander Hamilton. Yet, under their administration, the country sus- tains the heaviest economic shock in history; foreign trade drops 50 per cent in two years; governmental expendi- tures reach the highest point in the peace-time histery of the ecuntry, d the Federal Treasury finds itself with ' a billion doNar deficit. The only alibi is that the depression is world wide, when only a little while ago Mr. Hoover was saying that Repubiican policies had kept the ccuntry immune from such ills.” * K k% The Republican leaders themselves If the con! er-‘ Prohibition will | have its part in the campaign, particu- ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. Have we had the pleasure of serving you through our W: Informa- tion Bureau? Can't we be of some help to you in your problems? Our busimess is to furnish you wita authoritative in- formation, and we invite you to ask us any question of fact In which you are interested. Send your Inquiry to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederick J. Haskin, director, Washing- ton, D. C. Inclose two cents in coin or stamps for return Q. In aeronautics what €o the thres dimensions—longitudinal, lateral and vertical—signify?—A. P. A. An eirplene can turn to the left and to the right (longitudinal). A right in a curving dircction (lateral). | rplane can go up And down (ver- Q. In what country is gasol cheapest?—N. P. v e e A. In the United States. Even across | the borders in Canada and Mexico the prices are higher. Q. It is oftén sisted that Robert E. s seécond in his class at West Point. Who stood first?>—V. C. A. Charles Mason of New York was at the head of the class of 1829 in which Robert E. Lee was second. Q. Whilé the record weight for a boy of 17 may be 600 pounds, isn't it true that some adults have weighed more? | ~K. W. P, A. David_Maguire, who died at the| Carmelite Home in Kenosha, Wis., is said to have weighed 770 pounds. At one time in his lifé he had weighed | over 800 pounds, He was normal in size, although 6 fect 4 inches tall, until he was 50 years old. when he was af- flicted with & glandular disease and put on weight rapidly. He was 76 years old at the time of his death. JQ. ;{o:‘ do Eskimos bury their dead? A. Methods of burial among Eski- ‘ros vary with the locality, but, in gen- eral, it may be said that where tnere is any stons or rock to be had the body is placed in as secluded a spot as pos- sible and then covered with rocks to prévent depredation by wild animals | and for protection from the elements. In somé districts along the coast the| body is placéd in & wooden box and :2.:“ érécted on piles for the same rea- 5. Q. How was such a large statue as the Statue of Liberty made>—C. G. A. The sculptor, Bartholdi, has left a record abcut the execution of the Statue of Liberty. He says that first & statue which measured from head to foot 2.8 metres and in its entirety, 2.85 metres, was executzd. It was done with rigid precision and then reproduced four times as large by thé ordinary process. The model which was the result of this work measured about 11 metres in total height. It was divided into a large number of sections de: tined to be reprodficed separately at four times their sizé. The sections were packed and shipped to New York, wheré they were assembled. Q. Which is the r spelling — Tokyo or Tokior—d. H. o T 8 The spelling of the name of the Japanese capital is a matter largely of usage. The Japenese characters must be translated into English characters and both spellings Tokyo and Tokio are given the same sound. The speliing now most. {requently seen’ in ofcial usage is Tokyo. x A Y g8l tender notes for use in constructing good roads. This in turn would make empioyment for men who were out of work. - Two years later a second and more complicated measure was intro- ! duced providing for non-interest bear- | ing bonds. { the unems ployed marched to Washington “as & |living petition in favor of Coxey's scheme to provide flat money, good roads and work for the workers. Q. What five jockeys led in races wow last year?—D. R. W. A.'H. R. Riley, R. Workman, K. Rus- sell, A. Robertson and E. Goodrich led in the order named Q. Do blue eyes or brown predomie nate in the United States? Is the aver- age American woman tall, short, or of medium hefght?—M. K. A. The Public Health Service that blue eyes predominate in .g: United States, and that the average American woman is of medium height. Q. How long did Ambassador Her- rick survive his friend Marshal Foch? —R. L. But 11 days elapsed. Marshal A Foch died on March 20 and Ambas- sador Herrick on March 31, 1929. el ST B an lon for aj T —0. W. D. o A. The year 1838 was distinguished by the first opeération for disease of the appendix as such. The first decisive step in the direction of modern methods was taken by a London physician named Handock. The first operation on the appendix performed in the United States was done by R. J. Hall of New York on M: 886. Q. Who invented the machine for -tt;cl;jn_gr soles to shoes automatically? A. John Ernest Matzeliger, a Negro, who was born in Dutch Guiana in 1 2 and who died in Lynn, Mass., 1889, in- vented the first machine that performed automatically all the volved in attaching soles to shoes. Q. How many coloreé regiments gurse in the United sme':mmmy?: "A. There are four. Q What is the average ! “T"A”Sr%mi - ek i . Ac g to éstimates made Anna Rochester, the average "eekz earnings of some 16,000,000 wage earn- ers are less than $25 a weel Only in construction do average wages rise above $30 a week, although within every one of the industrial groups vari- ous skilled trades have gained through themselves or through organization & considerably higher status. The union members who run our trains, build our. skyscrapors, repair our plumbing, make our sults and dresses, and others —a very few groups in ali—who with strong organizations havée forced wi scales far above the average. include among them possibly an eighth of the steel workers, even a smaller number of the automobile workers, & consider- |#ble number of non-union building trades and clothing trades and the small number of the army of sténog. raphers and bookkeepers. Q. How many cigarettes were con- sumed in the United States last year? A In 1930 the consumption was about 119,944.475,000. Q. Please name some of the hardest tenor solos.—A. L. A. Among the most difficult are “Ce- leste Aida,” by Giuseppe Verdi, from Q. Why did_Coxey's army march to Washington.—W. l-l.y Y - A. Mr. Coxey's good roads bill was | uced in Congress in 1892. intry Under | OChange of opinion in this country as to the Advisability of keeping juris- diction over the Philippine Islands i§ matched by similar reversal on the part of leaders among the Filipinos, who now lack enthusiasm for immedi- ate independerice. Comment charges that the new American position is based on economic considerations, since | a free archipelago would offer less competition with American materials. The statement issued by the Filipinos through “the chief organ of the inde- ;End!nce movement” is quoted by the | hiladelphia Evening Bulletin: “The demand for absolute and immediate liberty becomes one for independence following a reasonable period of politi- cal and economic readjustment.” The Bulletin adds the comment: “The rea- son for the switch is frankly given: that when there was no prospect of any early American concession of independ- encé the Filipino leaders logically ‘pegged their démands high.’ but now t"nt there is 50 much sentimént in the United States itself for the grant of independence those same leaders are beginning to come out with their honest expectations. ‘There is ho inconsist=ncy.’ says their organ, ‘but simply native trading ability. It has always been suspected, or rather known in this country that the Filipinos, when it came to the choice, would be most un- willing to swap the United States mar- ket for their products that they now enjoy and the international security that this country gives them for the doubtful blessings of independence. That is at last admitted in the islands.” “While Manuel Quezon and other na- tive leaders insist that the Filipinos still want to be free,” says the Balt more Sun, “this change in the chai acter of the independence movement in this country would afford a sound and reasonable basis for a reversal of the native position. It would be entirely logical for the Filipinos to object to independence with a kick where they would have been glad to accept inde- pendence with a blessing and with promises of co-operation. It would be | equally logical for the American advo- | cates ~of independence on abstract | grounds to reconsiier their position in he light of recent developments. With- | out such reconsideration they may find themselves participating in a piece of economic vandalism in the mistaken name of ldnllzm.; . “We find the Filipinos most inter- this bill the Treasury was to issue le- | c the opera “Aida”: “Vest! 1a Giubba,” from the opera “Pagliacc!” by Leone cavallo; “Cielo e Mar,” from “La Gloe nda” by Ponchielli. Philippine Change of Mind Matches American Opinion pect of the question, for it is upon this the whole question depends.” “The question ought to be decided finally on the desires of the Filipinos themselves,” in the judgment of the Hartford Times, while Charleston ‘W. Va) Daily Mail points out that “more has been done for their advance- ment than they would have been able to do for themselves,” and adds that “the indications are that the Filipinos themselves are beginning to realize this.” The Providence Journal voices the thought: “There is a body of opin- | ion in the United States which appre- ciates the fact that the Philippines transcend the economic motive in im- portance—that they are a basis of our Pacific policy. It is an ironical twist that the Filipinos must now look to the forces they once considered enemies to protect them from the liberty-loving farmers of the West and the South. The Boston Transcript concludes: “As a matter of fact. there has never been any real evidence that the people there want independence. The agitation has been a‘thing for the ‘politicos’ to thrive upon.” %ok Citing efforts by Representative Knutson of Minnesota. the St. Paul Pioneer Press says of his advocacy of independence for the islandt “Mr. Knutson’s position is frankly based on the interest of the American dairy in- dustry, as well as that of the beet suf and cotton growers. Congress is bei asked from this source to set the Philip- ines {1 so that the tariff may levied inst sugar and cocoanut ofl from the islands, which at present come into this country duty-free. A similar sentiment exists on the Pacific Coast, grounded on a desire to apply immi~ gration _restriction ainst Pilipino labcr. To set the Philippines free for such Teasons as these would be to pro= claim that the United States 30 years ago took over the islands for what it could get out of them and, finding their possession an encumbrance, wishes to wash its hands of a venture in eco- nomic imperialism that failed. This is a matter to be settled in the light of naiional honor and moral obligation. To free the islands because they are unprafitable would be as great a blot as to hold them for the contrary rea- son. America acquired the islands to make them capable of standing free | ested in freedom willing to wait a score | of years more, while Amefican pro- | ducérs, interested in increased prices for their wares, are the principal advo- | cates of independence,” declares the | Schenectady Gagette, holding that it does not appear that “either group has he hope for freedom ulti- ‘Ths Cleveland Nev's believes t “the United States will scarcely abandon its guardianship for reasons of economy,” although the News quotes figures to show the cost of military civil representation in the islands, in addi- tion to the profit from fres trade in favor of the Philippines. The Worces- Evel Gazette advises: “Since about our love for the islanders and to focus attention upon the ecohomic as- — campaign that if the Republicans were retained in power there would be good times. It is an argument that always went well with the great majority of the voters. They are hoping against | hope that business and employment will take & jump forward in the next few months. They feel that if things are on the upgrade they will be able to go to the people and say, “Conditions are improving: this is no time to rock the boat. Re-elect the Republican admin- istration and do not take a ¢hance with and comment upon thé utter lack of know they are in a terrible jam over ! the Democrats.” It is the kind of argu~ excuse for husbands who do not pay attention and have to be told the same French Strother, since 19290 Hoover Tesearch assistant, lays that post thing over again, this de argument. They realize as well as the ocrats that they have been telling the voters in each ment that may work, if the G. O. P. can ak” in the matter of h"fi Just a from Philippines if cast adrift at once upon the troubled seas of political independ- ence would precipitate an _economic collapse in that nation has not as yet been challenged at Manila. On the contrary, his point of view been endorsed by the sober and sound com non sense of the native Filipino lead- . _The Philippines may ultimately Stellar Size. From the Rutlgnd Dally Herald It's a _small world but a lafge uni- verse, what with stars 250,000,000 miles in diameter being visible to the naked eye. — . e Wouldn't Know Dishwater. Fiom the Jackson Citicen Patriot. A modern girl wants to know what will take cigerette stains from the fin- gertips. Might try immersing them in dishwater three times a day. —————— He Wouldnt Have Thrown It. Prom the Milwaukee Sentinl. A Canadian fan threw & bottle of o6 an_umpire. H . I nited States he would have deea oAlled crasy, i | -~