Evening Star Newspaper, July 12, 1931, Page 21

ALUE OF VIRGINIA FORUM IN WORLD PROBLEMS SEEN Annual University Round Table Gives| Opportunity for Airing Both Sides of Important Questions. BY GASTON NERVAL, ROBABLY believing in_the old popular saying that, “From dis- cussion arises the light” the officers of the University of Virginia devote two weeks every ear to & round-table discussion of,pub- c and international problems of thmely #ignificance. i ‘There still may be some doubt as to She practical benefits of international debates, but the truth remains that! nothing is of more effective aid to the promotion of understanding among natlons than these unofficial meetings | in which public men and representa- | tives from different countries gat to- gether and freely express their thoughts. Here is a chance to hear both sides ®f the ctory, and to form a judgment | far more comprehensive than th: one we get from one-sided newspaper re- | rts or from isolated and often selfishly | pired pleces of propazanda. Here i &n absolutely free discussion deprived | of all official protocols and limitations. | The international conferences which | e to time in th2| nt American re- the deliberata, They | d tricted by | rac Political considerations and diplomatic con- veniences often sidetrack. if not silence entirely. certain things which can only be said in an unoffictal meeting of inde- | pendent. speakers. Discussion Kept Open. This is just what these open forum | stitutes maintained by American uni- rsities are. Groups of free men gath- | ed to discuss freely their common | roblems. Hence their intrinsic value. pen discussion is the shortest road to nderstanding. And understanding, no atter whence it comes, is the first step 1n the promotion of good will and solid $riendship among peoples of different teristics and different points of e _ For the last five years tha Institute t Public Affairs of the University of irginia has been giving men promi- ment in political, diplomatic and edu- cational circles an opportunity to get together and exchang: the most varied opinions on the outstanding contro- W¥ersial issues of the day. One of the departments of this in- Btitute. designated “Our Latin Ameri- | ean Relations,” is devoted to study of inter-American problems, polit- | fral and economic conditions on the | other side of the Rio Grande, and the | general trend of pan-Americanism. Although the other departments, de- voted to the study of law_enforcement, | municipal administration, Southern agri- | culture, religious education, regionalism, qtc., also are concerned with present-day topics of national importancs, it is the | discussion of inter-American’ relations | that has commanded every year the greatest attention and may, in a way, be held responsible for the prestige | that the institute enjoys today, not only in this country, but in the rest of the Continent, where its sessions are| reported and commented widely upon Dby the press. Noted Speakers Heard. | to | mucn | movement ent | tie been reporting the discussions, lec- tures and open-forums which it in- cluded. Although with a cast not quite °s prominert as that of last year, the Latin American department had an equally interesting program of subjects for discussion. The topics of the round-table confer- 3 ¢ Laiin American Rela- bered six this year, t was “The Economic, Social Significance of tions in Latin America.” s of the institute were wise In s¢ this sub; No other prob- lef of pan-Americanism seems of so importance es a_clear under- tanding by American pubiic opinion of revolutionary chonges which have n place in the last twelve months in America. Heretofore, the aver- sge American has had ths name of Spanish America associated in his min with the traditional type of selfish, use: less revolt for purely rersonal pur- poses which for many years was.char- ic_of those countries. The re- cent revolutions, however, are part of Cifferent. They are not like the old-f coup d'etat in their causes, develop- and outcome. They are based on ! differcnt principles, individual lberty, { government honesty 2nd national re- | construction, not on merely personalistic ambitions. They were corried out in & peaceful way, paradoxically as it seems, imposed more by the power of public opinion itself than by the force of bay- onets. Finally, they resulted in the es- tablishment of liberal d democratic institutions, not in just & new form of despotism, with & new “boss.” U. S. Investments Studied. The significance of the growing in- vestment of capital by the United States in Latin America was the sub- ject of the second round table confer- ence of this year's forum. Dr. Max Winkler and Dr. W. W. Cumberland, prominent New York financiers, di- rected this discussicn, and aimed to ex- plain the changes in political and soclal relations that the tremendous increase of United States capital in the South- ern republics is bringing about. This is another aspect of pan-Americanism very seldom dealt with by the dally press. Newspaper correspondents are very generous in quoting figures and statistics relating to such investments, but rarely bother to ascertain the con- sequences other than economic that they muy have in international rela- jons. The third and fourth topics of dis- cussion had to do with a closer devel- opment of cultural relations between the United States and the Latin Amer- ican nattons. Never will too much be sald to impress upon people the valus of cultural links in promoting inter- national good will and friendships. For the last three years I have been con- stantly expressing regret in these col- umns for the lack cf cultural relations among Saxon and Latin Americans, ind advocating cultural ties as the best panacea to cure misunderstandings, both political and economic, which, after all, have their real roots in psy- chological differences. ta THE SUNDAY STAR, - WASHINGTON, D. C., JULY 12, 1931—PART TWO. [ Keeping Doctors Up to Date Only by Continued Study Can Physicians Keep Alert of Advances in Medical Science. “THE DOCTOR,” A CONCERTION OF THE PHYSICIAN WHICH EVERY COMMLU BY EDWARD H. HUME, M. D, Director, Post-Graduate Medical School, Columbla University. RE the widespread criticisms of « the medical profession justi- fied?” This challenging ques- tion was the theme of an ad- dress by Dr. William Gerry Morgan of Washington, ex-president of the American Medical Assoctation, at the recent annual meeting of the New York State Medical Society. Dr. Morgan admitted tha validity of many of the criticisms; {he criticism, for example, that “it is very difficult and very often impossible fcr & patient to find out what has been done to him by @ surgeon”; or the criticism that Theetido-specialism and inefficient spe- cialists ate all to prevalent”; or”the criticism “that there is an enormous and constantly increasing number of | medicaments in use at the present time | by physiclans in their daily prescrib- |ing.” ~“Perhaps no other profession,” | he went on, “is so prone 1o swing to | extremes as 'is our own profession,” and added that doctors “cling too tenacious- |y to methods which the progress of medical science has found to be value- less.” Such frank statements, coming from one who has held the highest position |of honor to which the organized med- |ical profession of America can elect & | man, may well give pause to physicians |and ‘medical educators. What can be | done to restore the doctor to that po- sition of confidence in the home and |in the community which is so perfectly | pletured in Sir Luke Fildes' painting | *The Doctor,” which hangs in the Tate | Gallery in London? That portrait un- | doubtedly represents a conception of the —From the Painting by Sir Luke ruaes. | physician which every community holds | before itself as an ideal in the hope | that some such human personality may always be available for practice in iis midst. It may be impossible to provide, in this age of competition, just that sort of devoted physician in ever community. On the other hand, the medical pro- { fession can scarcely hope to be a dy- | namic force in the social crder if it is | | constantly put on the defensive. The | task of conserving and improving the natlon’s health belongs to it by right; | and yet far too frequently it falters and | follows, instead of leading. Too often | the community discovers that many of | its practitioners need to be prodded to keep up with the advance of medical science, Here, for instance, is a surgeon in a little country town, standing beside a NITY HOLDS AS AN IDEAL. patient with high fever, rapid pul excruciating pain and other signs indi cating involvement of the appendix. 4n operation is imperative, but the patient has diabetes. To cperate under such conditions would be folly. The patient could not possibly survive. Fortunately, however, the surgeon calls for counsel on the long distance tele- phone and persuades an_internist of experience in New York City to catch the 1 o'clock traln up State. The in- ternist brings with him several vials | of insulin, reaches the country hospital before dark, injects the remedy, bids the surgeon go ahead without anxiety— and the patient makes a splendid re- covery. If only such lifc-saving pro- cedures could be made universally known! Or, again, & surgeon in a Southern (Continued on Fourth Page.) Some high Government officials of | The fifth round table conference, the United States, Latin American Am- | dealing with the settlement of inter- bassadors, Ministers and diplomats, well | naticnal disputes on the South Ameri- known professors and lecturers of | can continent, with special reference to American universities and a number of | the pan-American arbitration conven- other prominent people interested in |tion, now pending in the United States the development of inter-American rela- | Senate, acquired unexpected timelin tions have been participating every | With the new crisis between Bolivia and year in these discussions. | Paraguay over their territorial feud in Last year the “round-table” confer- | the Chaco region. The same day in ences on ‘our Latin American rela- | which the discussions of the institute tions” were especially enhanced by the | on this matter were scheduled to be | prescnce of two Latin chiefs of mis- | held, Bolivia and Paraguay were re- DANISH SOCIALIST PREMIER LIKE GIANT OF VALHALLA Thorvald Stauning Poverty to Power, Rose From Life of But Retains Ideals 'CULTURE AND Says, in Noting LEARNING DECLARED UNRELATED: |Good Taste Is Chief Element, Educator Need of a Great STALIN’S WAGE POLICY STIRS SOVIET WORKERS American Engineers View Plan Recog- nizing Skill as Master Move That Will Speed Five-Year Plan. Note—Stalin's mew wage policy, recog- nizing the worker's degree of skill, viewed by American engineers in Russia as a master move that will give needed impetus to the five-year plan. Charles R. Ferlin, American correspondent, finds Russia_profoundly stirred by the new rith “the workers and tech n a_determination o speed up industrial activity. BY CHARLES R. FERLIN. OSCOW.—“Joseph Stalin has made a master move that will do more than anything else to make the five-year plan a suc- cess.” This is how one promi- nent American engineer characterizes the Soviet government's new wage policy, enunciated by Dictator Stalin last week at & conference of industrial managers. “Now for the first time,” the Amer- fcan sald, “with the prospect of re- celving pay according to his degree of skill, general worth and experience, the Soviet worker has been given an in- centive to do a good job.” Several other American engineers ex- pressed similar views, nearly all agree- ing that the workers with whom they had come in contact long had felt the necessity of such a new policy. Workers Stirred by Speech. Stalin's speech, which the newspapers all over the nation printed in full, profoundly stirred all circles. Factory workers throughout the Soviet Union | are organizing meetings to discuss the speech and adopt resolutions with the purpose of carrying Stalin’s recommen- | dations into effect. Typical action was that of the large ‘Trekhgorny textile mill in Moscow, em- ploying 15,000, where the workers passed resolutions, first to organize courses for training their wives and children to work in the mills; secondly, to make an agreement with ‘the factory mmanage- ment whereby the factory patron would train the collectivists for mill work; thirdly, to work out by July 15 a plan for replacing male labor by female in 2 number of departments, to mechanize | production still further, to work out a new wage scale and to organize a num- ber of discussions with engineers and technicians in the factory regarding their working conditions. ‘The party organization in the city of Kiev wired a resolution to Stalin congratulating him on his bold move and promising to carry out his recom- mendations throughout the city. From Axerican sources which contact with Soviet engineers it has bzen learned | that the latter are greatly cncouraged | by Stalin's recommendations to improve | their lot, hitherto none too enviable, |and which has been to some degree re- “ sponsible for comsiderable friction. It is | repcrted that many Soviet engineers | feel that the responsible authorities at | last realize that the five-year plan's | success in no small measure depends | upon_ their whole-hearted co-operation, | which cannot be expected unless their | remuneration 1s in ke=ping with their | skill and efforts and their living con- | ditions are at least on the same level | as those of the workers. Press Secs Improvement. Press comments and the opirion of Main street agre» that the new wag> policy is the most important factor con- tributing to the five-year plan's success, and it is generally believed that the | next half-ycar will witness a great im- provement all along the line of indus- | trial activity if the new policy is car- | ried out consistently. The intellectuals’ reaction to Stalin's speech and recommendations is some- what Jukewarm, as it is generally be- lieved they are not benefiting from the new policy—at least so far as getting | higher wages is concerned. It is even feared in some quarters that the new policy will have a detrimental effect on | them, as higher wages for workers and engineers and better living conditions | can only be achieved at their expense. Few people, however, fail to see that | the new policy will at least have the ef- | fect desired, namely, giving a fresh im- | petus to the five-year plan, which, after | all, is what its proponents realize is presently necessary. | (Copyright, 1931). LONDON.—An enormous capital ex- penditure, rivaling in imagination even the most audacious projects of the Soviet five-year plan, has been made public in the report of the Lord Weir Committee, recommending the electrifi- cation of the entire railway system of Great Britain. At the present moment only 12300 miles of Britain's 51,000 miles of rail- way are electrified. It took 26 years to do it. The Weir scheme calls for the total electrification of the remaining 50,000 miles within & 20-year period. ‘The total expenditure is estimated at about $2,000,000,000, of which the rail- ways would have to spend $1,300,000,000 on their main and branch’ lines, an- other $225.000,000 on the suburban British Plans to Electrify All Rails At Cost of $2,000,000,000 Proposed | Englishman suffers in direct taxation, that during the last five years death duties alone amounted to £400,000,000 | ($2,000,000,000)—a sum sufficient to pay for the entire Weir scheme. Dur- |ing the last 10 years, largely as a measure to provide relief for unem- | ployment, they have already raised and spent over $2,500,000,000 on road de- velopment, & national expenditure on highways that is continuing at the rate of $300,000,000 & year. ‘The chief obstacle to the Lord Welr scheme will probably be political. If the railways were to complete the elec- trification of main and branch lines in 15 years, the minimum period, they | would have to borrow at the rate of 1$100,000,000 a year. The effected sav- lines, and the central electricity board | ings would not become operative soon Cultural Movement. slon—the Minister from Panama, Dr.| pcrted to be at the brink of (isrupting With Practical Force. Ricardo Alfaro, now President of that | republic, and the Minister from Guate- | their diplomatic relations. | Pan-Americanism Discussed. mala, Dr. Adrian Recinos; Dr. James | ; Brown Scott, one of the foremost au-| The open forum on inter-American thorities in this country on interna- | feations closed with the discussion on tional law; Dr. Munro, then chief of | “The Constructive Elements of a Pan- the Latin’ American division of the| American Policy.” 1In this last topic State Department, and distinguished | three outstanding exponents of three professors from the Universities of Ili- | different pcints of view put forth their ols, Texas, Virginia, Mexico City and | arguments with vigor. They were Gen. Slscanere | Palmer E. Plerce of New York, a mem. Six paramount subjects were dis- ed in last year's forum. They werc: tervention in Haiti, Cuba and the t amendment, oil legislation in Co- mbia, treaty relations with Panama, fexican immigration and the Monroe trine in reference to the League of | tions. The last two were made par- | rly interesting by the participa- of the diplomatic repressntatives in ashington from Panama and Guate- who successfully presented the tn American point of view. Yesterday the fifth annual session the Institute of Public Affairs closed the University of Virginia. For the t two weeks the newspapers have Why So Many New Novels? =2 (Continued From First Page.) w—(Continued rom o e Sersely you want to open their eyes to he truth? He would be a bold person %ho today would admit to the first of ghese causes. “Write because I want to do people good? Oh dear, how ridicu- ously old-fashioned? Art has nothing o do with morals.” Neither it has, but have never understood why it should such a shy-making notion that a number of people, after reading your book, feel happier and look upon life more hopefully. Of course, if you twist your sacred Art to point a moral, that is wicked indeed, but even, beyond this, that you have given a number of ordi- nary human beings some _agreeable hours seems on all sides to be a most ghameful confession! On the other hand, that you have Mwritten your book “to show people what Aife is really like” seems a quite honor- able motive. That you have shown them what makes them acutely uncom- fortable and unhappy is only to your credit, of course. The actual trouble of this motive, however, is that no one can be sure—not even the most dogmatic people like Mr. St. John Ervine—that they are right every time! They may say they are right. They may know just how people ought to live, the very accents, indeed, with which they ought + to speak—but just once, once in & mil- lion times, they will be wrong, and then there may be something of & catas- trophe! Telling Truth Held One Motive. 1 will admit, however, that the desire to tell the truth, to support a theory, to play with an idea—this is a motive very active behind much of the more modern fiction of the day. Very often, as in the case of Mr. Huxley himself, it Jeads to brilliant work, but very seldom, 1 think, to the novel. Mr. Huxley is as truly by nature and instinct a novelist a monkey is an assoclation foot ller. They have certain obvious re. gemblances, and the monkey—who is a od deal cleverer and more agile than me foot baller—may wear a jersey and od & foot ball with his toe, but it is ly a charade. Mr. Huxley takes the { povel's disguise because he gains more Bearing for his ideas that way. He Is beginning to use the drama, most bril- flantly, for the same purpos Now the real novelist—the novelist ®ho was born a novelist and ie t the question has nothing to do th the relative quality of the artist) only one main motive for wril ls, He ma; ber of the Committee on inter-Amer- ican Relations, which is maintained by the leading industrial and financial concerns having _interests in Latin America; Senor Luis Fellu Hurtado, consul_general of Chile, and Dr. Ray- mond Leslie Buell of the Foreign Policy Asscclation. The facility with which these three representatives of such different in- terests agreed on the really constructive | elements of a pan-American policy serves to illustrate how simple it is to bring varying views to a common con- clusion by open, frank discussion of principles and facts. (Copyright, 1931.) dom for ideas and the rest—but he writes because he must. ‘That creative urge is neither pom- |pous nor false. It is simple and, so long as it lasts, the novelist is, on the whole, a happy man. A name, a scene, n idea, a group, and his imagination is fired! He knows that for months to come he will be lost in this world of his own, seeing that, missing this, choosing ~ here, rejecting there, and, above all, making the intimate acquain- tance of exciting, likable, detestable, amusing people, flnd.lni that he can know them as he never knew his neigh- bors of the real world. Yes, for while he is in that creative world the reality is absolute. He sees, of course, far more than he can tell; his ability as interpreter, revealer, is far, far less than his capacify for per- ception, and that again , far than all that is spread out tRere before him. Nevertheless, while he is doing his best to catch and hold gome little BY BEN JAMES. VIKING chief in a black broad- cloth morning coat—a bearded giant dropped out of Valhalla to make governments and lead parliaments—an ancient lord of cold seas as prime minister of a highly Integrated end finely organized modern nation. Socialist premier and minister of trade and fisheries, who will visit America this Summer, calls forth such charac- terizations. His massive size, his force and daring and his dreams tempered by stern realities give him the qualities of leadership that have endowed the great man of Norse history. And Stauning is making Danish history. As I traveled over Denmark to keep an appointment with Premier Stauning, the snow whirled in a gale through the stern arch of a castle wall. Beyond its moat, spiked towers on a fortress of Denmark’s ancient kings were slender shadows in the blizzard. The building is used as a museum, while the King resides in a less pretentious abode. I visited & white manor house where the rooms once occupied by a Danish baron are used for a folk high school at- tended by adult farmers for a three- month term each year. Big Estates Divided. Rolling beyond the house to the hori- zon, land that at one time had been a single estate was dotted by thatched- roofed farmhouses, the property of small individual farmers. For taxes upon large estates, verging upon confiscation, have shattered the huge domains of landed proprietors, and the government has aided in financing and establishing the peasantry on their own farms. Throughout the streets of Copen- hagen to a riotous beating of drums the King's guard, in tall bearskin hats and gay blue uniforms, thumped over the cobbles. But their present status may soon be gone, for Stauning's So- clalist government has proposed a startling reduction of armaments bill, which calls for the reorganization of e army and the establishment of a national police force in its place. “The spirit which effected these politi- cal and social readjustments and eco- Thorvald Stauning, Denmark’s | of that fantastic, thrilling and exasper- |y mic transitions of the post-war period ating world he is, whatever his exas- |, Denmark without lhephlood.she': nor perations and disappointments may be, | gensational demonstration that charac- t—he ‘does vlnt—fl ‘money, free- | guage, & happy man. It is when he has snatched what he can and comes up to the surface with his prize—it is then that his disap- pointments begin! What a sea-change is there! The thing that looked so lovely an hour ago. Where are its! colors, its shadows, its lovely rhythms? And even though to him it is still beau- tiful, to every one else it is disappoint- ing. “Why, you told me that your sea- shell was of a color never before seen! Why, that is an ordinary pink!” And so it is—very ordinary. There are thousands of others like it! But next time...ah! next time! You will And so, once see that next time... again, with beating heart and eyes glowing, you prepare for your dive! ‘This, and this only, is the real reason why novelists write novels. Experience Being Roasted. Prom the Toledo Blade. If the cannibals ever catch us we shall ask them to roast us. We know how that feels. e | MacDonald Being Qualified. ‘VProm the Miami Dally News. ‘The way Ramsay MacDonald refuses to resign, he has the making of a great American statesman. - Blue Atmosphere and Golf. ! Prom the Rochester Times-Union. Plccard found blue atmosphere 10 terized such changes in many European countries is embodied in Thorvald Stauning. Though personally a dra- matic figure, he accomplishes his ends without a fanfare of trumpets. Though a Socialist of deep conviction, he is no apostle of violent change. The Danes like him for this. For the Danish people, though not afraid to alter their Institutions to meet the demands of the changing world, are fundamentally too conservative, even in so-called radical circles, to subscribe to the vague experi- mentations of fanatical dreamers. So twice they have made Thorvald Stauning prime minister—the first time in 1924 for two years, and the second time in 1929, when his present regime began. Compared With MacDonald. Great Britain's Labor Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, and Thorvald Stauning have twice served as heads of socfalist governments at approximately the same time. And between them run threads of both similarity and contrast. Both men have been ardent socialists since youth, and both married women who were vitally interested in the same cause and took active part in it. Both wives died before their husbands came into power. Through the ranks of their respective parties Stauning and Mac- Donald both worked their way to the top. Each has a limited snd uncertain majority in Parliament and both have faced crises, to win by very narrow But here the similarities end. Mac- Donald, the idealist and dreamer, ad- hered to an intellectual ‘n%onmdnn first B e e s septed ‘ poet with the politician. Stauning’s po- litical creed came out of sterner stuff. | | Not academic, logic nor cultural pur- suits, but a hard environment gave him | the precepts of his faith. So his ap- proach to life and work is different. Poverty, injustice and illness beat | down: upon his boyhood. His early life in Copenhagen drama- | tized for him the difficulties of existence and developed in his youth & class con- | sclousness that now directs his politics |and at the same time furnishes him | | with the tools of expediency. His boy- | hood was clouded by the 1llness of his mother, and as a child he kmew the moral and physical degredation of un- | employment. At the age of 10 he lived in a small back flat overlooking & | squalid stone courtyard. The terrors of penury were enhanced by an alert child’s imagination. Never Thought of Defeat. The home was of two cramped rooms —one without a_ window. An iron- |barred slit in the roof let in the meager light and air. In this " (Continued on Fourth Page. cided to open & New England branch. Look- ing through his organization, {u; selected a prudent, indus- rious young man. “I am thinking of appoint- HE head of a large Phil- I adelphia company de- ing you our New England manager, with headqyarters in Boston,” he said. ‘The young man received the news gravely. a1 bg;anev yit will be.a wise move, m'k" !;:“:‘n:;e'x:ed. 1 never make “Never make mistakes?” the boss repeated incredulously. “My, mpy, then I coul.’d::z think of appoin! you. imagine !]z’aw flould feel, having a man in Boston who never makes mistakes, when I am down here in Philadel- phia making them every day.’ The young man was not sent to Boston. He lived out his business days in an ob- scure ition, minus errors and minus hits. One of the most interesting men of my acquaintance has been wrong about 40 per cent of the time. . o et out &, dogen Teer an out different mp&u where he took one stand and subsequently had to revise it. BY DR. CHARLES GRAY SHAW, | Professor of Philosophy. | ATIONAL culture is a noble ex- periment. The people are not definitely opposed to it, the gov- ernment has not prohibited it | and we can import it as some- But the American is a queer bird. The original American was a Yan- | kee Doodle, who had the spirit of a | cock-a-doodle; he crowed about every- thing peculiar to the land of the free. He was brought up on an anti-Tory diet and became Intoxicated with “The Spirit of 76" It was quite proper | then to say nasty things about Eng- land, but not so smart to say ridicu- lous things about Europe generally. | thing on the free list of the new tariff. | paramount, and when he pointed out that castles were lacking in modern improvements it sounded loud and funny. The basis of criticism was largely that of the plumber. Even Emersan let the eagle scream & little. He boasted that he was as ready to write “Boston and New York” as “Rome and Paris.” After his survey of European art galleries, he | concluded that he could see just as wonderful things in his vard, and he compared frescoes of Angelo to a drawing of a dog with a litter of puppies. Now it comes as a sort of shock when an American turns around and begins to throw the mud at his own land. We'd rather have a writer plaster foreign lands. Sinclair Lewis is not the only minor some $400,000,000 to provide the re- quired motive power. | The committee appointed by the Labor government to investigate such possibilities arrived at the conclusion that the scheme is both feasible and desirable and that the capital spent would yleld a handsome revenue. The economies effected by the change-over alone, it is estimated, would yield the | railways 7 per cent on their capital, while the suburban electrification is ex- pected to Teturn 13 per cent. These calculations ignore the increased traf- enough to enable the railways to meet the charges on these loans for the first few years. Underwriting might be called for; $100,000,000 in lump sums is a big' problem for any private house to handle—perhaps the government might be called in again, as it was to under- write the insurance on the new Cu- narders. Loan Aid Hints Public Control. Assistance by the government in the raising of loans would naturally en- title them to a certain measure of public | control to insure that such help was fic likely to be secured, other substan- | for the public good—and not merely tial advantages such as speed and com- fort, helping the railweys to win back the substantial passenger traffic they are now losing to the motor busses— and the fact that the proposal would greatly alleviate the unemployment situation by providing work for 60,000 men over the 20-year period. It also would provide cheaper power for in- to improve the price of railway shares. | And here the more extreme conserva- | tives in Great Britain might descry the cloven hoof of nationalization. But so welcome is any scheme, no | matter of what magnitude, that prom- ises to boost British business activity that even Lord Beaverbrook's news- | paper, the Evening Staxdard, an avow- dustry. | ed enemy of the present Labor govern- own back | But this was done on a large literary ; prophet who has pointed out our na- scale by innocents both when at home | tional sins against taste, although he or abroad. | | than others. He has made fame and Writers Scoffed at Europe. | fortune with his kind of literature at One hundred per cent American | @ time when people were going in for may have done this more profitably | He Never Made Mistakes BY BRUCE BARTON. Twain, wrote smugly about our own land and_snickered about things in Europe. In Twaln's case it was, of course, the idea that the laugh is| ‘Why then has he stayed on s t, I think, because he is absolutely truthful. What he sometimes imagines to be the truth turns out later to be an error, but he never con- sciously hedges for anything or _anybody. Second, he is always trying. Roll him in the dust, and he is up in a minute and start- ing forward again. Lay some- th!nE before him which you think is pretty good, and he instinctively reaches for a ncil and begins to try to prove it. Let him accom- plish an objective, and im- mediately he has set his eyes on another point further ahead. Finally, he never wastes any time in regretting the put. “Regret,” said some one, ‘takes as much out of you as a prolonged drunk.” This man has been an en- couragement to me. So have the words of Stevenson, who exclaimed, “God give us young men who have the courage to make fools of themselves.” I figure that I am entitled to one major mistake a week. This is my quota. As lone as I keep within it I feel all right. And frequently I run over. (Gopyright. 1081) the fango mud bath treatment. The American Mercury has done this, too, and “with an ever-increasing circula- tion. Then there is Theodore Dreiser, with his native repugnance to style, to say nothing of the revolving satellites of these planets. New National Exhibit. Our national exhibit No. 2 is & dif- ferent sort of bird from the old one that did the crowing. This one fouls its own nest and, incidentally, feathers it. Evidently it pays to say nasty things about one's own Nation, for peo- ple want that sort of thing. The mar- ket in mud has not suffered from the slump in Wall Street. We owe a debt of gratitude to these minds and we pay in coin of the realm. They have given us their new cures for old ills and we pay the bill with the enthusiasm we feel when we meet the bills of doctor, dentist or chiropodist. ‘We know that we should not keep beat- ing the drum of national importance, although we do not relish the idea of harping on our national unimportance. Why not get rid of both rooster and buzzard? Then we may be able to hatch out something in the form of American culture. Creative Power Expressed. An intellectual inventory of America Includes a certain amount of cuitural material in the form of literature, painting and sculpture dating as far back as the “Moby Dick” era in our Natlon's history. Today we have gi- gantic architecture, or engineering, which in the form of the setback sky- scraper gives a tremendous impression of culture if only in a crude, commer- cial form. Our creative power as people shows itself in this ancient Asi- atic and African form, for we have our pyramids and Taj Mahals. There is no question about the size or strength of our work, although one might ques- tion whether it has the spirit of the Middle orme et delicat. It sounds a bit pretentious the American with the ancient sense of enlightenment and are inclined to heed the command of the Delphic oracle—“Know thyself.” Our main trouble is that we have been led to believe we should see & psycho- analyist about this business of self- knowledgt do the same thing on a small scale if we will only be sensible. Colossal Idealism in Art. ‘We have in its robust creativeness, We are fol- the primitive Grecian spirit s Press Attracted to Scheme. 1‘ ‘The committee’s proposal has re- jcelved an interesting reception in the | press, attracted, strangely enough. by the scheme’s very magnitude. Britons, with their war debt, staggering unem- ployment statistics and other burdens they are carrying so patiently on their | financial shoulders, are beginning to get accustomed to thinking in large figures. Assured of the technical feasibility of the scheme, its financial magnitude | does not loom insuperable. If British money were sure of a big return it would probably stay at home. It is interesting to note, aside from | being a significant example of what the i ment, comes out forthright in praise of this one. “It is audaclously imaginative as 1t is soundly practical. Nothing like it has ever been attempted by any coun- try, but that is no reason why we should not attempt to carry it to suc- cess. “Whether the government has to the same extent the qualities of audacity and imagination to translate the ree port into action remains to be seen.” ‘The Manchester Guardian says hope- fully ‘The report of the Weir Commit- tee may turn out to be one of the most impertant things that have happened since the Labor government took office.” (Copyright. 1931.) Seems to Disob A laborious two-year effort to find out why the moon, alone of all the | heavenly bodies, erratically seems to | disobey the law of gravity has been undertaken by astronomers here and | at a number of other places in the United States and other parts of the| world. Computers of the Naval Almanac Office here are engaged in calculating the occultations of stars by the moon two years in advance as they should be observed from stations in Washington, New England, Chicago and California. These calculations will provide a theo- retical time table showing when the moon “should,” on the basis of present knowledge, pass between various stars and the earth. Moon iLttle Late or Early. But, it 1s explained by Prof. James Robertson, director of the Almanac Office, for some unexplained reason the moon is always & little later or a bit early for those occultations, and never exactly where it should be in its theo- retical orbit. Astronomers can tell with precision where the stars will be from ny point on the surface of the earth at any time, for they all obey the known Jaws of gravity. If the moon were equally law abiding, they could deter- mine its position just as exactly and predict within a small fraction of a second when it would pass between the earth and a star. ‘The project undertaken here and else- where is to make the calculations well in advance and check them against as many observations of occultations as pos- sible. In this way it will be possible to determine variations between a great many observed and calculated times and try to work out some equa- tion to explain the seemingly erratic behavior of the moon. Calculations Carried Forward. ‘The American computers have calcu- lated the theoretical time table for the last six months for the four stations in the United States and are carrying it forward for the next two years. Similar calculations have been undertaken by the British Almanac Office for occulta- tions at Glasgow, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand, and ob- servatories in other countries are check- occultations with the calculated mflnfl published by their own almanac ers, ‘There is no real reason, Prof. Robert- son says, to belleve that the moon is not as obedient to the law of gravity as any other object in the universe. The Astronomers Seek to Find Why Mt;on ey Law of Gravity which affects its movements, and the evidence being assembled for compari- son with the calculations is expected to provide a clue that will go far toward explaining the mystery. About 50 stars will be hidden by the moon during the next six months as it passes over the meridian of Washington. Other stars will be similarly shut out from view at the other stations, and Prof. Robertson hopes that a great num- ber of such observations will make it possible at least to calculat: with in- creased exactness the orbit of the moon, even if they do not provide an explana- tion of the variations. Heidelberg (-)p—el:s_ New Schurman Hall BERLIN.—Former Ambassador Jacob Gould Schurman went to Heidel- berg on June 9 to be present at the dedication of the new Schurman Bulld- ing of the university, which stands on the site of the former “Kollegienhaus.” It is & white structure, which con- trasts sharply with the surrounding gray buildings of the old university and with the red sandstone library. One enters through a portal of shell limestone into a vestibule whose ceiling is supported by four marble pillars, A graceful staircase leads up to the great hall in the second story, lighted by six high windows on each side. ‘The west wing contains an audito- rlum seating 500 students. There are 15 other lecture rooms, the largest of which seats 250 students. In the first story is a marble tablet bearing the names of the American donors for the building, which include, in addition to Dr. Schurman, who was 8 student at Heldelberg in 1878 and 1879, the names of 36 other prominent Amer} , among them ing John ‘kefeller, jr.; Willlam Fox, James yer and Adolf Zukor. Signs Have Their Setbacks. From the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator. Signs are being painted in letters 15 feet long, on pavements in Tennessee, for the guidance of aviators. But ever these are mot big enough to attract the attention of motorists. A e Gangsters Pocket Change. From the Flint Daily Journal. ::onomm b{yhnn;nmdmun socount some factor, possi- L . ‘When a r was arrested rg the fiwgum $18,700 pocket money, of recent- in _his ofon