Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1931, Page 37

THE. SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER 18, 1931—PART TWO. U. S. BUILDING PROGRAM NOW FOUR YEARS AHEAD Congress Must Remove Restrictions to Maintain Present Progress, Heath z Says in Radio Forum. The following speech by Maj. Ferry K. Heath, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, was delivered last night in the National Radio Forum, arranged by The Evening Star and broadcast over ® coast-to-coast network of the Columbia Broadcasting System: There have been so many untrue | statements made regarding the Federal | building program and its expedition, for the purpose of relieving unemployment, that I wellome this opportunity so generously extended by The Washing- ton Star to talk for a few minutes to you on the subje In 1926 Congre necassity for a recognized the great | omprehensive schem? | gf providing neccssary quartcrs for Fed- eral uses throughout tha country. There | had been no Fed°ral building during the war nor afterwards for this purpose, and the need was very great. It was not until 1928 that Congress appro- priated the money for embarking the Federal Government on an_extensive public works program which was to re- quire ten years for completion. Several departments and agencies have ‘been made responsible by Congress for the prosecution of this vast program. Military and naval construction is the responsibility of the respective secre- | taries of War and Navy. The road and highway construction is directed by tbe | Secretary of Agriculture; improvement of waterwars and construction of large | engineering projects, such as Boulder | Dam, are classes of public works ac- complished by the War and Interior Departments; providing adequate hos- pital facilities for war veterans is one of the chief duties of the director of the Veterans' Administration. Treasury Has Other Bullding. Oonstruction of buildings within the 1imits of the Capitol grounds at Wash- ington and approaches thereto is super- vised by the office of the architect for the Capitol. With few exceptions, all other Federal building construction has been assigned to the Secretary of the Treasury and, as the assistant directly charged with' the responsibility of e pediting this class of construction, I am | talking to you about the scope of the public building program now being car- ried out by the Treasury Department. It is well to point to that class of | buildings authorized to be constructed under the Treasury program, which in- cludes buildings for court houses, post offices, custom houses, Marine hospitals, immigration stations, border inspection stations, quarantine stations and ac- commodations for the executive depart- ments and independent establishments | located in the Nation'’s Capital | At the time the public building pro- | gram was inaugurated, there were ap- | proximately 1400 Government-owned | buildings of these classes. The act of | 1926 authorized the expenditure of | about $175.000,000 for new construc- tion to extend over a period of seven years, and directed that the Secretary | of the Treasury and the Postmaster General make recommendations to Con- gress as to where the needs were most | urgent, after a Nation-wide survey had been conducted under the terms of the | act. The report was submitted to Con- gress in 1927 and indicated that the authorization of $175.000.000 would not | be sufficient to meet the needs. On | March 5. 1928, the first instaliment of | ;he public building program became a | aw. Capital Need Brings Increase. While the housing needs throughout | raised by various chambers of com- years before actual construction in order to permit proper prosecution of the work ur;der b!.ehe !);I.!tlng laws. This eparation, begun two years ago, was z much greater than anything that had been conceived previous to the pres- ent program that it ill behooves critics of the administration to say, “Why didn’t you do more?” Obligations are now being incurred at an average rate ot $10,000,000 a month, which is many times the normal rate of contract obli- gaticns made prior to the present pro- gram Congress has placed many laws on the statute books outlining Government procedure with respect to Federal con- struction. These laws, for,the most part, were formulated for the protection of Government funds, but they do not make for speed when a vast and scat- tered program is being carried on, with every possible influence crying for speed. For instance, the laws under which we are operating require full and open’ competition in the solicitation of proposals for Government sites and contracts. This one requirement is & time-taking process and one not gen- erally followed in commercial practice, but it is protecting every citizen in his rights. Local Architects Again Used. There are many other angles to a sit- uation such as has developed in the Treasury'’s building program. There is a feeling on the part of outside archi- tects, who never before have taken much interest in Federal buildings. that the Treasury should do none of its own de- signing.” For 50 years the Supervising Architect of the Treasury has designed most, of its buildings, and I must con- fess that some of them have been pretty bad, but the buildings built 50 years ago, or 25 years ago, will compare fa- vorably with buildings built by private architects during those periods. Of course, there will never be agree- ment reached as to just how much of purely governmental business should be carried on by duly appointed govern- mental employes. It would seem to me that the Supervising Architect of the Treasury, in designing a post office for a small town in the West or a large city in the East, would not be competing with_local architects any more than the Department of Justice is competini with local lawyers when its has its representatives handling the Govern- ment's legal problems in like communi- ties. There is, however, undoubtedly a twilight zone beyond which the Gov- ernment should not go. Certainly in this program the present administra- tion has shown more gympathy with the | feeling of local architects than has been shown by any administration since George Washington laid the corner- stone of the Capitol. With over 190 local architectural | firms scattered throughout the United States developing _plans for new Federal buildings. it is believed new architectural ideas will be developed which will accrue largely to the benefit of the Government in its buildings for the future. Local Materials Used Most. There has been an enormous clamor merce and other organizations in cities throughout the country that the Go ernment should use local contractors, local labor and local materials. The depressed condition of the building trades and everything allied with them has had the effect of turning every- the country were most urgent, the place where the need for relief was greatest | was Washington itself. The situation | had become s0 serious that legislation | applying to the District of Columbia | alone was passed in 1928, authorizing an_expenditure of an additional $125,- | 000,000 here in the Capital. In 1929 | and 1930 the Hoover administration | strongly recommended the enlargement of the public building program. as it | was apparent that notwithstanding its magnitude it did not nearly meet the | requirements of the situation. As a re- | sult of the recommendation of the President, Congress increased the pro- gram $330,000,000 by acts approved in March, 1930, and February, 1931. The | act of 1931 liberalized the methods of | expenditure, as well as the amounts | to be expended, in such a way that the | progress of the program could be great- y expedited, the act making possible | the completion of the enlarged program | within 10 years from the fiscal year 1928. | I am talking to you now, then, about the building of public buildings for which about $700,000,000 has been au- thorized by Congress. It is proposed | to construct under this general author- | erect new buildings in 1085 com- munites which are now without Fed- eral buildings. | When this program is completed there will be over 2,600 buildings under the control of the Treasury Depart- ment. To date we have specific author- ization of Congress to proceed with ap- proximately 800 of the recommended | projects, and the total limits of cost represent $496,000,000 of the $700,000- | 000 authorized to be expended. This | means working on approximately 70 per cent of the total building program which is to be completed at the end of the year 1937 under existing legis- lation. 125 Buildings Completed. | ‘The status of thesg 800-odd projects, | as of October 15, shows 125 buildings | completed, the total limits of cost of which are about $40,000,000; 252 proj- | ects under contract in whole or in part, | representing limits in cost of about ! $200,000,000; sites purchased within the | District of Columbia for Executive De- partment, buildings and projects, about | $26,000,000; 62 projects where drawings have been completed and work placed on the market or in the specification stage, with total limits of cost of about $17.000,000. Plans for 87 projects are now being drawn by the Office of the | Supervising Architect of the Treasury, with total limits of cost of about $15,- 000,000, and plans for 129 buildings are being prepared by private architects, the limits of cost being abcut $152,- 000,000. The aforementioned projects, repre- senting 655 of the 800 specifically au- thorized, represent $453,000,000 of the $496,000,000 now available. In other words, the Treasury Department has on | the drawing boards of its own office, | and those of private architects, or has under contract, or has completed, 91 per cent of the total amount authorized to | date. The remaing 9 p-r cents or $43,- | 000,000, concerns about 150 projects. | plans for practically all of which will | be completed or well under way by the time Congress convenes next December. Surely, this would indicate that the ‘Treasury Department has accelerated the public building program to a point where it will be necessary for Congress to remove present restrictions within the next two years if the department is to continue at its present rate of prog- Tess. Could Finish All in Six Years. In order to attain this progress, the Secretary of the Treasury has employed to date 191 architectural firms, scattered | throughout the ccuntry, to assist the Supervising Architect'’s Office in de- signing these buildings. and the out- side architects are handling over one- half of the entire amcunt of the pub- lic building progrem so for_specifically authorized. The Treasury Department is of the opinion that th= present rate of progress will permit the practical completion of the 10-vear program with- in six years from 1928, if this is desired by_Congress. It is obvious that the increased pro- , authorized by acts of 1930 and 1, Bad to ke anticipated st least two | on | ket in an orderly fashion. | pleted, are under construction now, or | Government expenditures for construc- one's attention toward Government construction. The result has been an enormous_increase in the work of the department, which is receiving now over 1,500 letters and telegrams a day having to do with the building program. __This administration has always had in mind the welfare of the local com- munity, but the law says that the Gov- ernment, when it requires any service outside personal service, must advertise | for that service and award the contract | to the lowest responsible bidder. If a | contractor in Portland. Oreg.. wants to bid on a governmental building to be erected in Portland, Me., and he is a responsible man with & record that indicates he is capable of carrying on the contract, he must be awarded that contract, if he is only 5 cents below the local contractor. The same situation prevails if these two contractors wish to compete for a bullding in New York City. Having once let a contract in a lump sum, which method has been demonstrated in the long run to be the most practi- cal way of handling a contract, the Government could not insist on the| contractor using local materials, but, as a matter of fact, the specifications | speakin, enerally, local materials are used. i . Local Wages Maintained. In the payment of wages it has been the policy of this administration to see that local wages were maintained on ! Government, contracts, and the Bacon- Davis law provides in the specifications of Government contracts that the suc- cessful contractor must pay the pre- valing rate of wages in the community where the bullding is being built, and if he does not do so, his contract is cancelled, The Federal Government is carrying the largest bullding construction program ever undertaken at & time when the industrial system of the country is enduring great strains. As I have said, contracts are being let at the rate of $10,000,000 a month and 5o far there have been almost no labor difficulties and the work i proceeding all over the country with an adequate wage being paid, and without interrup- tion of work because of labor con- troversy. Not only did the administration have to foresee the necessity of increased public building because of possible un- employment, but a great amount of advanced planning was necessary to provide _he methods of getting this great number of contracts on the mar. There had to be the most careful advanced plan- ning, and I believe the Treasury De- partment is well justified in pointing with pride to the fact that of the 800 new buildings for which funds are available, 91 per cent have been com- will be within a few months time, and by December practically the entire pro- gram will be under way. Scores Critics of Policy. The breast beaters and wand wavers who for various reasons disapprove of the present administration have filled the press with complaints and criti- cism. There has been hardly a con- structive criticism made in all these months. I think there can be little said against the policy of governmental construction to care for the actual needs of the Government durin, riods when private construction is agging and when there is so much unemployment as is threatened the coming Winter. The maximum amount of useful Government _expenditure should be maintained. It has never been claimed nor believed by the administration that | tive purpcse could entirely care for an | enormous number of unemployed per- {fons. It has bcen maintained that in a town where a Federal building is needed, the construction of that build- ing during a period of unemployment | would be helpful and encouraging to the community. | _'The building of buildings under the ‘Treasury amounts to about 20 per cént of the construction program of the Federal Government. Let us see how M%‘“fi. (Continued on Page. THE BY JAMES W. BENNETT. Author of “The Manchu Cloud.” ODAY, in Manchuria, is heard the spiteful rap-rap-rap of the machine gun, the jarring boom tonation of bombs dropped from soaring airplanes. Here, if you please, is grim paradox. China, which for centuries has shunned the Three Prov- inces, now Is desperately engaged in an attempt to halt the efforts of Japan to gain control there. It may seem a thin strand, which T am holding, that connects for me the bland smile of a Peiping servant and | the great exodus of Chinese to Man- churia, an exodus which has been one of the causes of the friction today. Yet my Number One Boy spun his tenuous thread. The trouble began one morning of early Spring. The courtyard of our Peiping house was silent. The distant kitchen was still. I could not even hear the gnawing sound of the cook working to detach the faucet of the “drinkee watah” boiler—in order to purloin it for subsequent sale. Finds New Servant. After & time I decided to investigate that ominous silence. Entering the courtyard I stumbled over a lone crea- ture beginning to sweep the flagstones. He wore the grasscloth robe of the Number One Boy. On his head was - of trench mortars, the heavy de- | EFFORTS OF THESE ME! perched the white cap of my cook. His bent back was strange to me. “What thing?” I demanded. “What are you doing here?” He straightened with some difficulty and I saw that he was very old. “My blong you' new cook boy.” Oh, no, you don't,” I said briskly. | “I've got & cook and I've got a Number | One Bo, “Jus' now,” he answered patiently, You no have got boy and cook. Cook all go 'way. Boy all go 'way. Just' now, I come. I wo'k fo' you. I cookee flish, | cookee chlop, makee bed, makee fire. | Al thing’, I'd fo' you.” Catastrophe! Breakfast that morn- 'ing thoroughly confirmed my fears. I summoned the substitute cook boy. | “Have you ever cooked before?" | His eyes batted. “No,” he said re- luctantly. | “Youre fired, plenty good!"” I sald coldly. | And T set forth to the home of a foreign friend for advice. When I arrived at his house no gateman met | me. The compound door swung idly |open. As my friend saw me he said sharply: “We're in a fine mess! No servants! One small boy of 12 left after the | hegira!” “What's happened? | strike? et Communism?” “Oh, it's simple enough,” swered. “All our Peiping servants are banded together in a guild, you know. | And the guild voted to go on a pilgrim- A servants’ | he an- | Pilgrims of Necessity Migrating Hordes of Chinese Seeking Livelihood Are Met by Wall of Resistance in Manchuria -] —Drawn for The Sunday Star by Lu Kimmel. age to Tai-shan, the Holy Mountain Shantung Province. They hired | special train and late last night off they popped! On Monday night, full of bonhommie and beans, our servants will return to us. That's the only rift in the clouds so far as I can see.” As I rickshawed home I thought of | my servants in the past tense. My cook | had been a rare hand with a Chihli | | pheasant, but he was & dour soul. I would feel the loss of the Number One Boy more. He had a gay smile, this | combined butler-valet-housemaid in- | terpreter. And he had a way with him | of keeping the other servants toeing | the mark. This mastery of men had been taught him in a stern school; the boy had been in France during the war as sergeant-major of & Coolle corps. Yes, the niche filled by the boy would be the harder to fill. i All day the following Monday I | listened for sounds of the returned pil- | grims. But the servants quarters re- mained quiet. When the old man— | who had refused to leave—appeared with dinner I definitely resigned myself to despair. “Catch Good Job” Then I saw that the dinner was ex- cellent. With an attempt at casualness I asked. “Cook and Number One Boy back?"” ‘Cook come.” “Send him in.” The cook appeared, looking & little sheepish yet dogged. I demanded: | WERE ALMOST THOSE OF PERSONS IN A PANIC. ‘Where's the Boy?"” “He not come back, Mastah. He stop in Shantung. He catch good job. He boss many men. He find plenty coolie that he once have boss in Yerp (Europe). They #ant him to take them to Manchuria. They plenty poor, plenty starve, but each coolle give Boy little money. He hire steamer, take them to Kirin. Make him very rich man.” Standing at the rail of a steamer bound for Newchwang, Manchuria, I was later given a glimpse of this human flood pouring out of China toward that tempting land of plenty. My steamer had been slowly chugging |™ down the Pei-ho River from Tientsin. The sun was setting with a certain weird splendor, splashing the waters r;'lgl patches of citron and peacock ght. ‘The vessel nosed gingerly toward the shore and the decks vibrated with a hoarse blast of the whistle. In answer, from a village of mud and wattled huts, a fleet of sampans jostled about a long_rickety-looking wooden pier. Even in the distance and in the dim light I could see that there was tremendous confusion at the pier: boats rocking as hundreds of persons hurled themselves madly aboard. I could hear shouts, re- criminations, bargaining. ~The fleet pushed off from shore and the over- loaded sampans began a race to reach our_shij From the deck below me, (Continued on Fourth Page.) AMERICANS G IRD GLOBE Ceaseless Quest for Facts of Events Is Carried on by Writers, Elimi- nating Bias eat news_services of the How news is col and transmitted Note—The gr Press, at William and Mary College last week. It follows: BY CHARLES STEPHENSON SMITH. MERICAN ship news reporters often have as exciting & time as prospectors for gold in the days before Ireland and Nova Scotia were connected by cable. When a fast boat docked then at an American port it might conceivably bring news of another war of Napo- leon's. It surely carried the latest pa- pers from London and Paris, which summarized news from all Europe. And the officers of incoming ships were ob- liging gentlemen who talked freely with inquiring reporters and gave them the gossip of London coffee houses and Paris cafes. The perfection of the telegraph in 1848 gave the United States news of Europe when it was somewhat fresh- er, as London and Paris papers got their important news faster. But it remained for the transatlantic cable in 1858 to give American newspapers their first taste of European news while it was still hot off the griddle. Before then their news was at least 12 days old and fre- quently more. Cable Rate Was $5 per Word. It really was not till 1865 that the transatlantic cable came into general effective use. The rate was then $5 a word. The press rate today from Lon- don to New York is 5 cents a word. At the beginming 15 letters a minute was the maximum capacity of a cable. Ca- bles today have eight channels and carry 400 words a minute. And there is a multiplicity of cables, connecting North America directly with Italy, Spain, France amd Germany, as well s England. Twenty-one cables are perating in the North Atlantic alone. In all, there are now about 3,000 sub- marine cables with a mileage of 300,000. Pictur>.Queen Victoria, then a happy young bride, exchanging cablegrams with President Buchanan in celebration of the success cf the transatlantic cab'e. Britons and Americans read of this feat with ali the thrill that a modern world gets out of Lindbergh's solo flight. At times the cable worked so badly that only three words an hour were sent. But the Victorian world was not in such high gear and marveled that £ | electricity could send words across the Atlantic even at a snail’s pace. The press had little freedom in Eu- rope until 1830, and previous to tha time a general news service would have been of little use to European newspa- pers. They could not have printed it. The unshackling of newspapers, fol- lowed so closely by the inventioh of the te'egraph and the cable, opened up a field for journ:lists, which they were not slow to occupy. Reuter Agency Set Up in 1949. Julius de Reuter establ'shed the firct g:neral news agency in Paris in 1849, a year aftor the telegraph came into general use. He later moved his agency to London and it became the parent agency from whl‘ch many great pean news agencies sprang. ‘The Fuggers and the Rothschilds and ather great families of merchants and bankers were the forerunners of the |modern news agency. They gathered | information from all parts of Europe ‘nnd Asia through their agents, and by | means of speedy couriers and pigeon | post gained facts ahead of their rivals, upon which they founded great for- tunes. But this was secret business news and not availablé®to the press, even if there had been newspapers which were free to print it. The his- tory of Europe from the fifteenth cen- tury to the end of the Holy Roman Empire, in the early part of the nine- teenth century, is pretty well told in the archives of the Fugger family at picturesque old Augsburg, the Bavarian c:nflger from which the Fuggers oper- ated. As bankers to kings and noblemen their responsibility was to their royal clients and not to the mere commoner who happened to be able to read, but was denied news of world activities by The French Revolution and the world upheaval which followed it were neces- sary to open the way for newspapers and press agencies. Even now the coast is not clear for uninterrupted flow of news the world around. Many countries still maintain censorship even in time of peace. But jailing editors and suppressing newspa- pers have pretty well gone out of fash- jon. The idea has spread generally throughout advanced countries that of- ficials or government, which claim they are damaged by newspapers should seek redress in courts. Toplift Starts Race for News. Samuel Topliff, jr., of Boston was the father of news agencies in the United States. In 1811 he decided that news- paper men should go after news and not wait for it to come to them. He inaugurated the plan of going out by boat to meet incoming steamers before they docked at Boston. He obtained news from passengers and crew alike, got coples of foreign newspapers and hurried back to the Coffee House in Boston, where he spread his news on the records so newspapers could copy |it. Later he engaged correspondents in the leading capitals of the world and inaugurated a series of news letters which were sold to New York and Phil- adelphia papers. Topliff’s organization was copied in New York in 1829 by David Hale and Gerard Hallock of the Journal of Com- merce, who chartered a fast clipper ship and set up a semaphore on Sandy Hook, to which they could signal news, and thus outstrip rivals who also char- tered ships. Assoclations of New York papers grew out of this competition, which eventually supplied news to pa- pers in other cities. Stone Founds Associated Press. | _After the development of the tele- | graph, sact'onal news agencies sprang | up, but New York organizations kept cont-ol of Furopzan news and more or les: dictated the policy of all organiza- tions which they served. After years of news ag-ncy warfare and disorgini- zation. the Associated Press was “or- ganized by Melville E. Stone and his associates as a cc-operative in 1893. It~is the oldest of the existing news agencies in nited States and achieved success because of t governments which wished to keep him | in ignorance of international affairs. | INEW TRANSLATION OF BIBLE TO GET NEWS OF WORLD TO BE TYPICALLY AMERICAN | N_American translation of the | Bible is soon to make its ap- | pearance from the University of Chicago press. The editors | of the translation are Dr. J. M. | Powis Smith, who is in charge of the | Old_Testament books, and Dr. Edgar | 3. ‘Goodspeed, for the New Testament. | Dr. Goodspeed's translation of the New Testament, incorporated in the new American Bible, was published sepa- rately several years ago. o In defining their meaning of “an, | American translation,” the editors state that the language used “cannot be al lowed to fall to the level of the streets. The Old Testament, Dr. Smith said, is on a high literary plane and the trans- | lation is meant to be American in the | sense that the writings of Lincoln, | Roosevelt and Wilson are Americal | The new Bible reveals the vast velopment of biblical scholarship dur- ing the last quarter of a century. It is stated that biblical science has made comparable progress with physical sci- ences in that period. At the present time a new standard American revision, to replace the version of that name published in 1901, is now being prepared by American scholars. Dr. Smith, a member of the International Council of Religious Education, under whose au- spices the standard version is being| prepared, stated, however, that the new version would not be completed for sev- eral years. Changes Resented. People are still prone to Tesent changes of Bible wording, in spite of the fact that modern scholarship has discovered and translated the original meanings of the writers of the Bible far more accurately than earlier translators. This conservatism is revealed in American- standard version of 1901, when it is understood that the marginal renderings of text usually are the more accurate. is was a concession to people “who want to read the Bible the way they've always read it,” whether the renderings are accurate or not. Mauy significant changes will shock some readers of the new American Bible. For instance, instead of “In the beginning God created heaven and earth,” the reader discovers, “When God began to create the heavens and the earth the earth was a desolate waste, with darkness covering the abyss and a tempestuous wind raging over the surface of the waters.” The twenty-third psalm is discovered to hold comfort only for this life, as its phrases now read: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; In green pastures He maketh me lie wn; To refreshing waters He leads me. He gives me new life. He guides me in safe paths for His fame’s sake. Even thfiugh I walk in the darkest valley I fear no harm, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff—they comfort me. Thou layest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil; my . cup_overflows. Only grace shall follow goodness me all the days of Language on High Literary Plane, Not That of Street, Say Editors—Oppo- sition to Modern Version Seen. and da; life; And I shall dwell in the . Lord the Old Testament, Isaiah, 1.18, changes from a promise to a question mark. “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow,” becomes in | the new translation: If your sins be like scarlet Can they be as white as snow? 1f they be red like crimson, Can they become as wool? “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” in Ecclesiastes VII, becomes: Remember your Creator in the days of your vigor. Before the evil days come And the years approach of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them"”; Before the sun becomes dark, And the light, and the moon, stars; Anc the clouds return after the rain; In the day when the guardians of the house tremble, And the strong men are bent, And the grinding maids cease because they are few, And the ladies peering though the win- dows be darkened, And the doors into the street are closed; When the sound of the mill is low, And one rises at the voice of tie bird, And all songs sound low even when in high tones; They fear and terrors are on the road; And the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper is burdensome, And the caper berry becomes inef- fectual; Because man goes to the final home, And the mourners go around the street; ‘While the silver cord ‘e not severed, Nor the jar shattered at the spring, Nor the wheel broken at the cistern; Nor the dust return to the earth as it was, Nor’ the spirit return to God Who gave “Futility of futilities,” says Kohelelth, “all is futility.” While the new translation probably will receive much adverse criticism, it is not likely that the bones of Dr. Smith and Dr. Goodspeed will be disinterred and publicly burned 100 years after their deaths, as was the fate of Wycliffe, a fourteenth century English translalto: The translators, however, in_their prel ace, ofier the same apology for the new translation as was offered by the trans- lators of the King James version of 1611. The 300-year-old document reads: “We are so farre off from condemn- ing any of their labours that traulled before vs in this kind . . . and that they dserue to be h of posterities in everlasting remem- brance. Therefore blessed be they, and most honoured be their name, that breaks the yce and give the onset vpor that which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can bee more auailable thereto, than to deliuer God's books vnto God's people in a tongue which they vnderstand? . . .” Clothed in Miracle. When the Old Testament was first translated® from many years before Christ, it was necessary to clothe its appearance with a miracle in order to gain its acceptance. The mxryn{uutmhdauth::'mhu and the 3 GOOD WILL AND TRADE PROMOTED BY AMERICAS Wide Scope Covered in Resolutions Adopted at Sessions Here—Agrcements on Arms and Debts Reached. BY GASTON NERVAL. FTER listening to the farewell speech by ti Vice President of the United States, the dele- fm of 21 American repub- ics, ghthered here for the Fourth Pan-American Commercial Con- ference, adjourned last Tuesday in the Hall of the Americas. In that same place they had pre- viously heard President Hoover, Secre- tary of State Stimson, Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, Secretary of Commerce Lamont, the President of the United States Chamber of Com- merce, Prof. Kemmerer, Mr. Chadbourne and other men of prominence in the economic activitles of this country tell them of the gocd will and spirit of co- operation with which the United States was ready to assist Latin America dur- these times of distress. They had heard their own colleagues tell of the critical economic and finan- cial conditions their countries were go- ing through as a consequence of the world-wide depression. And they had heard the proposals submitted by the various delegations in order to promote greater trade relations between the Americas and the return to better times that this should bring about. For a whole w: ok this conference was in session, earnestly trying to devise the best means of accomplishing that pur- Too earnestly, perhaps, because an excess of oratory may be said to have been one of the main obstacles in arriving at more practical results. In spite of this deluge of oratorical competition — which is unavoidNle wherever more than two Latin Ameri- cans gather—the conference managed to pass upon a number of resolutions and recommendations. A few of these alone are sufficiently important to call the conference a success. Personal Contacts Beneficial. Before going into a brief outline of the more outstanding conclusions of the conference, it might be proper to repeat here what I sald at the begin- ning of this and all previous Conti- nental Congresses which have been gathering in the last few years. The major benefit of these inter-American meetings is in the personal contacts—in the frank, unofficial talks outside the session hours, in the friendly exchange of views between the representatives of | countries of diverse and often antago- nistic interests. ‘This, it seems to me, is still the one | indisputable benefit which makes these conferences really worth while. From all indications, the tariff prob- lem was expected to be the major topic of discussion at the conference. The passage of highly protective tariffs by the United States Congress had pro- voked widespread criticism in Latin America, where exports to this country constitute the largest percentage of their foreign trade<and this in turn is the :naln source of revenue for govern- ents. This cpposition to the American tariff had been made more acute by the eco- nomic depression, which Latin America has probably felt more than any other region of the world. From this point of view this seemed to be a most timely moment to discuss the possibilities of a reduction in tariffs, of tremendous significance for certain of the Latin American nations. Thus it was indi- cated by the statements prior to the conference, made by the delegates of Cuba and Mexico, two of the most in- terested countries in the matter. But the question had other angles. | All the countries south of the Rio Grande have heavy financial obligations pending with Uncle S8am. Some of them have.lately been @inable to fulfill them and nearly all of them are experiencing difficulty in doing it. Their whole economic structure affected by the ex- traordinary decrease in prices, their finances upset, numberless economic problems endangering their own sta- bility, the Latin-American governments were certainly not in a position to en- gage now in a tariff controversy with the United States, where their only hope of recovery and assistance lies, They Just could not afford to do it. Cause of Cuban Stand. ‘This is, undoubtedly, why the Cuban delegation did not find much support when it proposed a two-year truce in tariffs and adoption of a more or less radical declaration of principles con- demning the policy of protectionistic customs duties. Besides, it is well to remember that several of the Latin- American countries have been recently | resorting to high tariffs as a means of helping out their own financial diffi- culties. Instead of the Cuban proposal, the conference passed a resolution in which it “submits for the consideration of the American Government the hope of the delegates that the American republics should grant each other, as soon as con- ditions of their domestic economy may permit, the greatest tariff advantages and the reduction of domestio taxss on tion. In due course the 70 were re- leased and all 70 translations agreed down to the last dot. This miraculous agreement proved the translation from the sacred Hebrew to be God's will and preserved the peculiar inspiration of the sacred books. ‘The first attempt to translate both| Old and New Testaments in the *‘com- mon language” of the day was made | during the last years of the fourth cen- tury and the beginning of the fifth, when Pope Damasus asked St. Jerome to undertake the task. St. Jerome re- luctantly set about the work, and after 14 years the “Vulgate,” or Latin Bible, was completed. This Bible, as have practically all others, met great hos- tility, for St. Jerome, a great Hebrew scholar, had gone to Hebrew texts in- stead of the miraculous Greek text of the seventieth. Gradually it was ac- cepted and has remained ever since the accepted text of the Roman Catholic Church. 01d Bibles Recalled. When English texts are considered Bibles representing almost every stage in the development of that language can be found. There were, for instance, the “Wicked Bible” and the “Breeches Bible.” The latter was published in 1579 and was distinguished by the verse in Genesis describing Adam and Eve's dress as follows: “ . . . they sewed digge tree leaves together and made themselves breeches.” But Wycliffe's version—for which that scholar paid the penalty of having his| bones disinterred 100 years after his death and publicly burned—also refer- red to “breeches.” When language changes, word mean- ings become obsolete and are lost. To this fact Prof. Smith refers in his pref- ace to the Old Testament. He points out many words in the King James ver- sion whose meaning have been com- pletely lost. ““To ear,’” Prof. Smith says, “in the senge of ‘to plow’ or ‘to till,’ is obsolete; as are ‘marish’ for ‘marsh,’ ‘scrabble’ for ‘scratch,’ ‘in the audience of’ for ‘in the hearing of,’ ‘all to' for ‘alto- gether” Time has wrought changes in the usage of words. The word ‘prevent’ once meant ‘to anticipate’ but is now used in the sense of ‘to hinder. Facts like these make Bible reading a scholar- ly rather than a religious exercise and clearly point toward the need of a new translation.” Another argument offered by the translators of the American Bible is that every character in the King James version sounds like every other. They int_out that Peter is made to speak ike Paul, and James like John. The only distinction made is in the content of what t};e"vlfllzu'z chlrut:‘t‘en hl:y. ‘The pre: anslators say they have o rhveal tried the personality of each writer or speaker as indicated by the writes in addition to natural products * * * either through multilateral conventions or special treaties.” Which is, of course, quite a different thing from that which Cubans and Mexicans, and perhaps Argentines, may have expected. Of all tne resolutions adopted by the Pan-American Commercial Conference, the last one, that relating to co-opera- tion between chambers of commerce, seems to me the most far-reaching and important. Because it embraces all the others, and provides for the constitution of a permanent and technical organiza- tion, deprived of any official character, which shall endeavor to soive prechely the same problems that the conferenes itself had to deal with. ‘The plan was made up out of itnve different projects submitted by the delegations of Bolivia, Mexico and the United States. The conflicting points in these projects were ironed out and & final proposal submitted to the confer- ence, which gave it its unanimous ap- proval. For Private Organization. The text of the resolution suffices to explain the importance of this step, which might be the only one to have an immediate practical effect. It calls for “the immediate creation of a private or- ganization representing the economic interests of all the American countries.” Then it recommends to the chambers of commerce and analogous associations existing in each country that, as first step in that direction, they constitute a central body for the co-ordination of their national activity. Furthermore, it indicates that the national institutions already in existence, and those of a lo- cal character which are situated in the capital cities of those countries which do not yet have central institutions, or- ganize provisionally in the City of New York the Inter-American Federation of Commercial Associations. As an urgent step to put this propo- sition to work the conference recom- mends _the appointment of an Organ- izing Committee, composed of the dele- gates chosen by the national organi- zations or, where these do not exist, by the chambers of commerce of the sev- eral American countries already exist- ing in New York, and by a Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Finally, the resolution provides that the proposed Federation proceed to make, with the co-operation of the commercial organizations of America, & study of the possibility of establishing upon & permanent basis the inter- American and international co-oper- ation of mercantile interests, and that the federation present a definite report on the matter during the course of the year 1932 to the institutions which have shown themselves willing to join it. If these provisions are carried out entirely, the non-official, strictly com- mercial organization thus created will stand as the best evidence that the Fourth Pan-American Commercial Con- ference was not called in vain, Committee on Bonds. One proposition, which could have had an equally significant and imme- diate effect, was, unfortunately, not passed upon. Probably because all financial matters, and particularly those referring to government debts, were more or less side-stepped, for the same reasons mentioned in reference to the discussion of tariffs. This was the project submitted by the delegates of the Chamber of Com- merce of Costa Rica, Dr. Healy and Senor Gonzales, for the establishment in the United States of a Committee on Latin American Government Bonds. It is regrettable that the conference had not reached any conclusions on this subject, which is a paramount one at_the present moment. The projected committee had as its purposes: To improve the market for bonds of Latin American governments; to disseminate correct information as to these bonds and the real security back of them; to restore the confidence that these bonds merit; to take the proper steps to protect these bonds in the interests of the private investor, the governments concerned and the pan- American nations as a whole. The resolution on currency stabiliza- tion bears icular importance at this time, ause of the growing movement for silver rehabilitation in the world. The resolution provides that all the governments members of the Pan-American Union consider the desirability of submitting to a world conference the possibility of rehabili- tating silver and the best means to carry this into effect. Furthermore, it recommends to the American countries to adopt a monetary standard which will assure to the circulating medium the stability necessary to guarantee the normaley of commercial operations in harmony with their metallic deposits, the necessary flexibility in the circu- lating medium and the index of the cost of living. The delegations of Brazil and the United States abstained from voting on this point. Other Resolutions. In other resolutions the conference pronounced itself for the wider use of commercial arbitration in matters of international trade among the American republ; or the adoption and enact= ment of uniform legislation on bills of exchange, checks and other commercial paper in the continent; for the stand- ardization of commercial terms; for the simplification and uniformity consular procedure and port formalities; for the greater and organized protec- tion of trade marks; for the formula- tion of an inter-American commercial code, and for a closer co-operation among central banks in the Western Hemisphere. In the matter of communications, the basic factor in inter-American trade, the conference approved a series of resolutions. One of them urges the early establishment of maritime services connecting all the countries of America. Another calls for a prompt carrying out ofsthe vast projects of an Inter-Ameri- can Central Highway and a Pa American Railway, which have been two of the goal-ideals of pan-Americanism for a number of years. Another one recommends the adoption by the American republics of a series of facili- tles for commercial aviation which would be too long to enumerate here. And, last, but not least, another resolus tion urges more rapid and economic wireless and radio communications in the continent. ‘The creation of an official Pan-Amer- ican Travel Bureau in New York City for the development of tourist travel between the Americas; the acknowledg- ment as fundamental principles that sanitary police regulations must not have in their practical application the character of protective customs meas- ures (this, incidentally, was the ofiy rap that the Latins took at Uncle SaruJ; the convenience of calling a conference for the study of overproduction of faw materials, which seems to be the main tzouble with the world, and the desir- ability of a closer co-operation ameng the Latin American coffee-producing countries, are some of the other out- standing conclusions arrived at by this conference. And just to be faithful to tradition, and be no less than all the international assemblies gathered in the last few years, the conference also directed its attention to world problem number one, and stated, solemnly, in a resolution unanimously adopted: “That it is highly desirable for the interested countries to arrive in the shortest possible time at the agreements necessary to reduce as fas as possible the burden on arma- ments and public debts.” ‘Thus, another Pan-American Confer- ence came to a close, between renewed pledges of peace and co-operation and sips of Brazilian coffee, with which en- siness-like, Brazilian Delegate ited its sessions, ergetic, L