Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1931, Page 38

Jet down & ladder and several Topes. . A few moments later the entire ship ms surrounded by these boats. About }v‘: thousand passengers were clamor- ing to be taken aboard. Two thousand w—when our vessel was too small to hold more than half that number comfort- ably. Fingers reached out, grasped the Enotted ropes. Men began to climb up, hand-over-hand. Old men and young, each was garbed in that pervading color of poverty, coolie-cloth blue. Garments patched and faded. A few of the on- pomning voyagers had wooden boxes, But ihe greater numter carried all their ‘wordly goods attached to their girdles— & cloth-wrapped parcel no larger than & muskmelon. I watched their faces as they nego- tlated that difficult ascent up the iron side of the ship. The visages were gaunt, the high, Mongol cheek-bones standing out starkly against tightly drawn skins. The lips were pressed back in a snarl that was disturbingly snimal-like. ~Gone was the usual Chinese placidity, that philosophic good nature. The efforts of these men were almost those of persons in a panic. Here and there was a cadaverous woman, her head almost bald, her tiny bound feet fumbling with the rungs of that swaying pilot’s ladder. Usually she added to the difficulty of her ascent by carrying on her back a thin baby, its head lolling on a scrawny neck. Without a single exception, the bodies of these voyagers were emaciated. Go North Every Spring. I spoke to the British captain who was leaning over the railing of the bridge, watching this assault on the shi) p. He answered: “It's the yearly migra- tion. Hundreds of thousands of them g0 north every Spring. They pack our boats like sardines.” It must be a problem, them?” “No, they must feed themselves. We charge so little per head that we oouldn't afford to furnish food.” “And do you bring them all back In the Fall?” “Not many: most of them stay up north. They've come from Shantung Province, trans-shipping at this point. I don’t blame them for migrating. Man. churia is the richest land in the world. The skipper turned back to the tele- graph: the signal bell clanged in the engine room below. Already, in the few moments that we had been talking, that huge crowd had managed to work itself aboard. Only a few lateeomers, feverishly grasping for the knotted Topes, gave squalls of fear at being left behind. I realized now why the main body had been in such haste to get_aboard. Yet, until a few years ago Manchuria was terra incognita to the Chinese. ‘They knew it to be peopled with copper-colored tribes of horsemen, fierce and primitive. They also thought that it was filled with demons and ghosts. There was the cow with two heads and no rear chassis, which would eat a valley into starvation. And there was a peculiar devil that stole one’s possessions, carrying them off slung to a pole that pierced the breast- bone—instead of being slung over the shoulders in coolie fashiin. In those northern plains great bands of fox spirits that delighted in stealing a man’s soul were thought to roam. Withdrawal or War. It was as much to keep out this host of deadly spirits as it was to check the Tartar hordes that the Chinese built that stupendous chain of masonry, the Great Wall. And now, today, China is fighting to keep her foothold in the Three North- ern Provinces. To retain a place there for that great overflow of needy mil- lions. In the streets of Chinese cities these last few weeks, students have been parading, bearing placards de- manding the withdrawal of Japan in Manchuria. Withdrawal or war! It is strange that in centuries past the Chinese did not brave the demons and explore Manchuria, for China has sent her sons to far more remote places. Economic causes—those same feeding Yet the record of the great republic north of the Rio Grande in its dealings with these aliens is not very different from that of its Mexican neighbor. In many instances it is worse. First Came In 1848. The first of the Chinese pilgrims to land in the United States arrived in San Francisco in 1848 on the brig Eagle. Two men and one woman braved thdt unknown land. Two years later a handful of Celestials worked thelr passage north to the same port from Peru. Evidently these Orientals managed to convey word to China that the United States was a land of silver streets and of jeweled trees—the gems to be had for the asking. For by the end of 1852 the Celestial population of Cali- fornia had grown to 18,000. By 1860 35,000 had either joined the gold rush or had obtained work Building the Cen- tral Pacific Railroad. Here were human beasts of burden, dependable and very willing. The West was undermanned, considering the many grandiose projects that were in the air. The Chinese continued to enter. Soon, however, storm clouds—not unlike those that are looming in Mex- ico today—began to gather. The patient Chinese were showing themselves & trifie too amenable. It was discovered that they apparently could live on nothing a year and thrive. Eventually laws were passed prohibiting Chinese immigration. In that island neighbor of California, Hawaii, two factors operated that drew the Chinese; man power was needed to work the cane flelds, and the Hawailans were lazy. These Polynesians | were hardly to be censured for their dolce far niente outlook. But the Chinese were as impervious to the | balminess of the trade wind as they | were to the rigors of the Sierra Nevada | Winters, Their economic conquest of Hawail was swift and thorough. Financed King Kalakaoa. One Chinese banker, Ah Fong, at- | tained such prosperity that he had the | pleasure of financing a Hawaiian king. The gay monarch, Kalakaua, was troubled by two vices: a love of poker |and an inability to play the game well. In return for valuable concessions, Ah Fong kept the wolf from the sovereign's door. As soon as he was financially able, Ah Fong courageously broke the cling- ing web of inherited thrift and bullt himself a pleasure palace. To the Chi- nese coming over to Honolulu this man- sion must have seemed like a trans- planted bit of the hereafter. And these immigrants began their careful saving, hopeful that what one | Chinese had done they, too, could ac- complish. But not long after the death of King Kalakaua the islands were annexed by the Uflited States. With annexation came_exclusion. After the act barring the Chinese was passed those Celes- tials already in Hawail either died or returned to their native land. Their fsons married women of other races. Their grandchildren today have become more Yankee than the Yankees, refus- ing even to learn the Chinese tongue. Head Tax Checked Horde. In the British Empire, Canada and Australia followed a historical pattern | not greatly unlike that of the United States in their treatment of their Chi- nese pilgrims of necessity. But such was | Canada’s need for man power that she was much slower to exclude the Ori- entals than was her neighbor to the Eouth. She attempted to stem the Chi- | nese invasion by levying a head tax of |8500. That sum—a fortune to a Chi- | nese coolie—checked the human tide | for a space. | Yet by voting such a tax Canada cre- {ated a partial monogflly for the Ori- | entals already within her borders. Wages | doubled, then trebled. In far-off Can- ton a tribe of money lenders appeared, Four Years Ahead (Continued From Third Page) factors that today are forcing the Chinese to penetrate that ghost- haunted north and to beard Japan in | the process—have operated in favor of such migrations. China has scarcely known the day when she was not dreadfully overpopulated. Men have always fought the bitter fight to keep body and soul together. made themselves beasts of inordinate burden. All over China this grim struggle is waged. In times of famine men strip the bark of trees for food, and eat even the earth ftse)f. And each year there is a famine In some portion of the land. Hardships abroad the Celestial has suffered, but these diminish sharply beside the grim struggle that has never ceased to face him at home. No Protection Abroad. The Chinese adventurers have always fared forth at their own risk. The Emperor proclaimed himself Sovereign of All Under Heaven, but he took no steps to protect his subjects abroad. In fact the law, as late as 1860, read: “All Chinese who remove to foreign fslands for any cause shall suffer deatll by being beheaded.” But in spite of this threat of decap- {tation, the Chiness migrated, some- times in small groups, sometimes in hordes, to a score of Occidental lands. They were pilgrims of necessity. The greatest Western invasion in point of numbers has been to Mexico. | This is explainable by the fact that in the past this Latin-American republic | has welcomed the Chinese. Mexico went 80 far as to sign. in 1820, a “most favored nation” treaty with China Mexico has sold many millions of her silver-dollars to the Flowery Land. Even in far Szechwan, on the Tibetan bor- der, it is a common occurrence to re. ceive change from a bank bill in large “cart wheels” bearing the stamp, “Re publica Mexico." - Many of the Chinese pilgrims have gravitated to the border Sonora and Lower California. Their massing at the boundary is due in part to the “underground railroad” which is | in operation to smuggle them into the United States. For this feat a fee of $1,000 is said to be charged. After a Chinese has made his illicit entry the sum is collected from him in install- ments. Mexican Oppose Chinese. But for the great mass of Chinese, who remain in Mexico with no thought of running the border gantlet, a new roblem has risen. A horde of Mexican aborers are out of work. Formerly employed in the United States, they have had to return to their home: south of the border, victims of the de. pression. Secing the Chinese in their midst holding down jobs that the Mexicans once spurned, the peons have | muttered. Good citizens of Mexico were starving; these Orientals plainly were not. The Chinese were literally taking the tortillas out of their mouths. The muttering grew louder. Associa- tions sprang up demanding that laws we passed to exclude the Chinese. During this year an unhappy drama has been played south of the Rio Grande. Chinese shopkeepers have found themselves dispossessed, their stores of goods dumped on hot and dusty streets, with no means of trans. porting their stock af w%iy. Others allowed to remain I sudden taxes. Ob- building laws have been invoked egainst them. In fear of death, many of the Chinese have fled across the border— even though they were aware that they would be imprisoned by the qemd States Government, 3 ( labor and They have | states of | haps this example will give you an idea of the extent of relief building activi- ties will bring. We are building in Chicago the largest Federal post office building in the country. It is to cost $16.000,000. It is probably the largest single building contract now under way anywhere. It will be of the great Winter, and next Summer, ‘Winter. Its benefits will not only | accrue to the man working on the job. but to the man in the steel plants at Gary, to the man in the mines, to the fabricators of every material that goes trglor and everybody in the town from whom supplies’ are purchased by the eople engaged on this project, and the 16,000,000 will seep in every direction. 8.000 Employed by Office. Chicago is in Cook County. The or- | dinary expenditure for building con- | struction in Cook County in a normal vear is somewhere around $500.000,000. Private building expenditure, then, in | Cook County in one normal year | amounts to as much as the total spe- | cifically authorized Federal building | | construction, which is supposed to ex- tend over a period of several years and | to apply to the entire United States. | Obviously the starting of this project | in Chicago is not going to make up for | the complete dislocation of the building | industry in Cook County. We are building all the buildings, or | planning to build all the Federal build- ings in the United States that can be justified on any business basis, or on any other theory of building public buildings, and we are building them in | an_amount, from six to ten times above normal. I submit that fair criticism cannot be based on any lack of effort on the part of this administration to be_helpful. | " To give you briefly a picture of the | supervising” architect’s office of the Treasury,- which, as I have said, has charge of most of the Federal buildings, the custodial force now numbers over 7.000 persons, and the total employes of the architect’s office number over 8,000 persons, with a pay roll for Au- gust of over $1,000,000. During the month approximately 40,000 letters and | telegrams were handled, and contract | obligations were made totaling over | $30,000,000, which involved the award- |ing of 68 formal contracts. The ex- penditures during the month were over $9,000,000, which involved the issuance of over 9,000 vouchers. Among the ac- | tivities of the month were the purchase over 50 new sites for Federal buildings, nvolving negotiations with hundreds of property owners and the appointment of many private architects as soon as the sites were decided on. Capital Built for All Time. | I do not wish to close without telling | | you something of the work going cn in | your Capital. This Summer blocks of | uildings have been razed; excavations | have been started; foundations ar: being built and the steel work soon will be rising for the Nationa] Archives, the Department of Justice, Interstate Com- merce Department, Department of Labor, Federal Auditorium and the new Post Office Department Building. The architect of the Capitol is letting the contract for the new Supreme urt Building. The annex to the House Office Building is well on its way. The work of altering the Senate Office Building is in progress, and the great femertal Bridge Yo Arlington will be pened in the Spring. Next year the Nation will celsbrate | the bicntennial of the birth of George | Washington. Here on the very land he | bought for the Government he he'ped to found we are carrying on building projects which are to fulfill éhe dreams Washington and the fathers of the Re- Bl St 2 P Bl est help to the city of Chicago this | and next into the building, {o the grocer, to the | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER 18, MORALITY BY BRUCE BARTON offering to loan able-bodied coolies this sum—at an appropriately high rate of interest. The risk attached to such a loan was small, owing to the industry of the average coolie and his high sense of honor where a debt was concerned. Chinese immigration suddenly took an upward spurt. Canada became alarmed. In 1913 an exclusion act was passed and the pilgrim was forced to take uj his restless flight. At first Australia also was loath to bar the Chinese. As in California, it was the lure of gold dug out of the earth that brought the Celestials to the Antipodes. But later barriers were set up. In addition to a $500 head tax, the Australians refused to allow the Chinese in their mines. The denial of this opportunity acted as a_greater de- terrent than tax. Immigration dwindled. In 1920 the Celestial popu- lation in all Australasia, including half- castes, was barely 20,000. Lords in Burma. One section of the British Empire, however, has always been open to the Chinese pilgrim. In Burma and in the Federated Malay States we find the Ce- lestials firmly ensconced and—as might be expected—doing very well for them- selves. By their frugality, industry and their adaptability to the tropics they have become lords of all they survey. Leaving the onerous tasks of govern- ment to the British, the Celestials have been content to command the agricul- ture, manuyfacture, commerce and banking of these lands. A large per- centage of the Chinese are wealthy. Many of are fabulously so. The Chinese have gone into the tin mines, living in & heat so intense that it baffles description; they have planted great tracts of rubber trees for the British, working under & blazing sun. As in Hawail, they have per- formed the labor that the native Malays were unwwm{.w do. Yet, in this one spot, where the Chinese have not been chevied from pillar to post, they today are reward- ing their rulers by promoting trouble. In Malaysia the legend of the meek colonist falls to earth. Among the lower ranks of the Celestials syndi- calism has raised its hydra head. Labor guilds, acting with the gcrecy and cruelty of the maffia, ter- rorizing British and Chinese manufac- turers alike. “ p Chinese labor” is no longer cheap. Nor is it reliable. At the seaports the foreign housewife lives in fear of her servants, who are banded wfinher in_an active and powerful gulld. In Singapore, in Penang, in Rangoon, st Evidence of sal dramas are played. tage come to light daily—sabotage often inflicted without warning. Rubber trees are gashed, fac- tories are burned. Here and there an English or Chinese plantation owner disappears, never to return—or haps, days later, to be found wif hatchet securely buried in his skull. Thwarted at Every Turn. ‘The Chinese in Malaysia have always been liberal in thought. It was in a large measure their money which financed Dr. Sun Yat-sen, bringing about the present Chinese Republic. Yet it is & trifle bewildering that the Chinese, so inheren@y tenacious of their property rights, should in Ma- laysia now be suffering from the virus of that radicalism which seeks to de- stroy all personal right to land and money. ‘The adventures of the Chinese pil- grims in Latin America are dominated by one theme, the coolie ship. Loaded to the last posstble inch, sometimes insufficiently stocked with food and, worst still, with a scarcity of water, they were floating charnel houses. ' Epidemics repeatedly swept them. At times they sailed into South American ports with but a few gaunt coolies remaining from the hundreds who had taken fimle at Canton. Yet it i5 a brave record that the Chinese pilgrim has made for him- self, a struggle against heavy odds, against prejudice and inst passion. And, ironically, he has been thwarted at every turn. Even in Mexico, the {riendly, today the barriers have risen. In Manchuria he faces a wall of Jap- anese bayonets. Is the restless Chinese pilgrim—Ilike the wandering Jew—never to be al- lowed a resting place? U. S. Building Program Can Be Done of Time, Heath Says as a Nation is intertwined with the his- tory of this city, and the plans de- veloped many years ago, revived and en- larged by some of the great characters in our national life, are being carried to completion at this time under the guidance and inspiration of the Presi- dent and the Secretary of th- Treasury. I want to urge upon you with the greatsst emphasis to gather up your fam next year and make & pil- grimage to your Capital and see here the blocming of a city. the seed of which was planted 140 vears ago, which | is to become one of the great cities of | the world and forever the Capital of | your country | American Students Total 11,347 in Canada in 1930 OTTAWA, Ontario.—Students in at- tendance at Canadian universities and colleges in 1930 numbered 73515, of whom no fewer than 1347 came from the United States. The students in- cluded 37,400 of university grade, 33,- 081 being full time. The yearly cost in fees to each stu- dent attending a university in Canada averages $116, although the total cost lof his instruction is about $494. The difference between $116 and $494 is borne by the provincial government and other agencies connected with the universities. ‘The University of Montreal had the largest enroliment of students at the end of the school year in 1930, with a total of 12,300, but only 5404 were of university grade, the remainder be- ing pre-matriculation, or preparatory, students. Laval University, Quebec City, had & total enrollment of 11,124 last year, but only 2751 students of university grade. The University of Toronto, with an enrollment of 7,178, had 6,704 stu- dents of university :rme and only 474 of preparatory grade. McGill Univer- sity, Montreal, had 3,792 students, with 2,913 of university grade. More than half of the 73,515 students in attendance at Canadian universities ke in arts and science courses in 1930. Slump Causes Depot Erection Suspension OTTAWA, Ontari>—Work on the Canadian Nationil Railway's new Mon- treal terminal is being suspended. It is clear from the statement issued by Sir Henry Thornton, president of the rail- way, that the thing could not be avoid- ed, that existing financial conditions made sucpension imper:tive. Canada is passing through a trying period, making it compulscry to cut its ccat according to its financial cloth, and dictating delay with respect to national projects of the most meritorious cha acter. As soon as the financial situa- tion improves the work on the terminal, as originally planned and authorized, will be res: Trains in Germany On Close Schedule BERLIN, Germany.—According to statistics recentiy issued by the German Railroad Co., 952 fast passenger trains were operated daily on regular schedule during the Summer of 1981 and 94 other fast trains during the tourist season, mal 1,046, carried daily 1,085 which were tra: coaches, one train to an necessity of e Rangoon and Smn&o’: through nsferred from in the N Mary Roberts Rine- hart’s autoblography, “My Story,” occurs this refer- ence to petticoats: “They had to be made, two or three, very full * * * and generally a short flannel one to the knees. * * * “Not long ago a yoyng girl of my acquaintance was go- ing through an old trunk of her mother’s and came across a brief bit of embroldered flannel. “‘What on earth is this?’ she demanded. ““That? That was my flan- nel pemcoat for my wed- din “&heuupon the girl burst into shrieks of delighted laughter. I smiled when I heard the story,” says Mrs.- Rinehart. “I, too, have some- where just such a garment. 1 scalloped and embroidered it myself for my wedding, and 1 should have felt a shameless woman without it.” Julia Ward Howe, when a little girl, grew weary from a long ride in the family coach, allowed her knees to drop apart childwise. Instantly her father reproved her: “My daughter, if you cannot sit like a lady we will stop at the next tailor's and have you measured for a pair of panta- oons.” The characteristics which distinguish a “lady” and com- rise her moral code have dif- erea widely in different gen- erations. I remember the first girl I ever saw who had cut off her hair. She worked in my office. The president of the company called me on the carpet and wanted me to fire the young lady, which I declined to do. To his way of thinking, bobbed hair was a sure sign of an abandoned woman. I recall the first laay whom I ever saw lighting a cigarette. All of us who witnessed the performance were sure that she was no better than she ought to be. nly recently I ran across an old copy of the “Book of Rules” issued by a co-educa- tional college a quarter of a century ago. It consisted of 30 pages of “Thou shalt nots,” and, having prohibited almost everything, it wound up with this blanket injunction: “In addition to the fore- going rules, students are ex- pected to refrain from card playing, dancing and theater attendance, and to observe the ?tth" common rules of moral- Y. The Old Testament contains many precepts, but in the book of Micah there is one verse which is a summary of them all. It reads: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy. God?” ‘This is the basis of all morality. This is fundamental and unchanging. But whether halir-or petti- coats are long or short is nothing to worry about. (Copyright, 1931.) Americans Gird Globe to Obtain News Of World for U. S., Told Without Bias! (Continued From Third Page) its contracts for exchange of news with Reuters, Havas, Wolff and other lead- ing agencies of the world. From 63 rlgfl'& at the time of iis organization t has grown to be a co-operative asso- clation of 1,286 daily newspapers. It is one of the world’s most conspicuous co- operatives. It is not operated for profit and has no capital stock. Its organiza- tion is similar to that of a gentleman’s club and its snnual expenditure of nearly $10,000,000 is apportioned among its members according to the Pou(htll- ties of the field in which their papers are located. The United Press and International News Service came into the United States field later. They both are cper- ated on commercial lines. In other words, they sell news. The Associated Press merely exchanges news. Each member paper of the organization pledges itself to supply the news of its own locality in exchange for the news supplied by other members, The report | of the Assciated Press is controlled by its members through officers they elect. Its member papers are of all political, religious and economic beliefs and con- | sequently facts and not opinions are set forth in Associated Press dispatches. U. S. Papers Change Policy. Ths impetus given mnews collection by the telegraph and the cable was fol- lowed by the spur of telephone, radio and wireless telephone. And now nearly all ships at sea and in the aif are with- in almost instantaneous communication with news agencies. News photographs now are clicked across the Atlantic. Makers of newspaper machinery have kept pace with the sclentists who have speeded up communicati"ns, with the result that readers must wait only a few minutes for bulletin news of out- | standing importance from Europe. With the rapid improvement in trans- mission facilities and the development of equipment for speedy and extensive | newspaper production newspapers pass- ed into the realm of big business and intensive crganization became necessary all along the line. Papers of importance ceased to be mere organs of some politi- cal group and sought a broader fol- lowing. This change in the policy of American papers became noticeable about 75 years ago, but has been es- pecially marked in the last 30 years. Meantime the American public schools were creating newspaper readers by the millions and extensive {illustration and popular features attracted the attention of a public which had little interest in | newspapers devoted largely to political discussions. Papers began to record the doinss of the people of all the world, rather than the doings of rulers, presi- dents and political leaders. Today it is not unusual for the Asso- ciated Press to have 20,000 word: of cable news in & day. The annual volume of Fms news brought to the United States from Europe by one important cable company is 10,000,000 words. This flrure is probably exceeded by the com- bined file of news carried by other cable and radio companies. The volume of news between Europe and the United States is at least twice as great as the amount Europe receives from this country. With three general news agencles and scores of special cor- respondents of American newspapers pouring dispatches into the United Btates from European capitals, Ameri- can newspaper readers are offered a great varlety of dispatches on outstand- ing European news situations. Americans Eliminate Bias, American correspondents in Europe who devote their entire time to serving news to the United States for outnum- ber the European correspondents in the United States, and for the most part 1im] t European news filters through the hands of American citizens before it is filed to the United States, which insures to censiderable degree the elimi- nation of matter with European bias. All the bureaus of the Associated Press at important fore capitals are headed by American-trained newspaper men with American citizenship. Most of the bureau staff members as well are Americans. Associated Press dispatches concerning the League of Nations are prepared by Americans. The news this organization carries ccncerning repara. tions from Berlin or foreign debt settle- ments from Paris is prepared by Ameri- cans and freed as far as humanl; - sible from &omhu foreign prejudice. It e s my privilege to know many of correspondents of other American news agencies and of impor- tant American newspapers in the lead- ing European capitals. They are Ameri- cans for the most part, and good Ameri- cans who make an earnest effort, in my opinion, to keep their fellow-country- men accurately informed about Euro- pean affairs. ‘This large corps of trained American cbservers is of prime importance to American affairs. It would be folly to pretend th2t the news the United States gets from Europe is without flaw. Hu- man endeavor can never be free from | b error, Much of the news from Europe may seem trite to specialists who are terested only in unive - | should remember there are some 40.- | 000,000 daily newspaper subscribers in | | the United States. British foot ball is more important to many readers than the news of Threadneedle street. Many readers would rather smile at'a joke { from Lady Astor than quail before the dire predictions of Philip Snowden. News Events “Flashed” First. But how is this tremendous grist of | foreign news collected? | The news agencies of the various Eu- | ropean countries provide the basic news | reports. spondents scattered throughout their ‘ respective countries Who report to strategic centers. An earthquake in Bulgaria is flashed | to Sofia. A clash with Macedonians on | the Jugoslavian border is telephoned to | Belgrade. A landslide in the Corinth Canal is wirelessed by some ship to Atkens. There are news agencies in all these countries, with which the Associ- | ated Press nas exchange arrangements. | _ As soon as the Associated Press cor- | respondent gets a “tip” through one of | these agencies, or through his own rep- | ™=sentative in the territory where the s originated, he flashes the news to London or New York and begins an in- vestigation. If a story is of outstanding importance a staff reporter is rushed to the scene by airplane from the nearest bureau. Perha photographer also is sent. Consular and diplomatic offi- cers and the police force are appealed to for information. Telegraph, tele- phone and wireless are brought into play. News is sought from newspapers near the scene. Vienna is the best communications center in Central Euorpe. Consequently stories originating in the Balkan coun- tries are handled ordinarily through Vienna. Sometimes as many as four or five capitals will co-operate by tele- phone, telegraph and wireless in com- pleting a story. It becomes like a game | of b Correspondents in the outfleld often render invaluable service. Britain Accessible for News. News collection is much simpler in a small, highly developed country like Great Britain ghan in Turkey or China. The British {elegraph system is effi- cient, and 1n addition to the Press As- | sociation, with which the Associated | Press has an exclusive contract, there | are several lesser news agencies, such | as the Exchange Telegraph and the iCen(rAl News, which have correspond- ents all over the British Isles. The As- sociated Press also has its own corre- spondents in strategic points through- | out the islands. Distances are short in England. Telephones are good. Train | schedules are satisfactory. Highways are excellent and an efficient police service is always ready to co-operate with the press. Then there is no language difficulty after an American has tuned his ear to the provincial dialects. European countries take great pride in having direct cable service to the United States and are eager to have their news sent to New York without relay in London or Paris. Those which have no direct cable are eager to have their news wirelessed direct to New York if possible. They are anxious for communications with America which are not subject to interference on the part of any other power. War has taught them the great advantage a na- tion has which can dominate communi- cations. Unhappily, cables and wireless sys- tems and telegraph and telephone sys- tems are only as good as their physical equipment and the_efficiency of their operating staffs. Routes which look good on communications maps are often impossible. By'eonstant checking of transmission time the news agencies soon learn which cables are old and slow. They discover where wireless is better than the land lines, where telephone beats the telegraph and the wireless. Conse. quently, the chart showing how a mes- sage is routed from .some remote part of Europe would often be a puzzle to a novice. The knowledge of how the communications routes work is indis- pensable to a successful correspondent. World “Covered” in 40 Tongues. Mr. Stone once remarked that there was no mystery or magic about foreign news collection. His formula was to put efficient men in all strategic news cen- ters and keep them there as an insur- ance. It sounds simple, but its execu- tion is expensive. Strategic news cen: ters are numerous and there is often great difference of opinion as to their relative importance. 1t is not unusual for Associated Press headquarters in New York to have mes- sages from as many as 100 points out- side of the United States within 24 hours. There must always be men on duty the world around to flash the news of an earthquake in New Zealand or British Honduras, a riot in Calcutta, a battle in Manchuria, a border clash in Upper Silesia or an attack upon the "u']' of Premier Ismet Pasha in Istan- ‘While American readers sleep scores of American correspondents all over the world and thousands of for with the great. newspa- These agencies have corre- | 1931—PART TW pers which co-operate with American organizations stand guard, prepared to report an outburst of Vesuvius, the wrecking of the Flying Scot, the death of Sir Thomas Lipton or the latest statement of Gen. Chiang Kal-Shek on the clash between the Chinese and the Japanese. And when this tired crew is relieved another army of reporters and editors takes up the task and begins filing news in 40 languages to meet the needs of presses which are turning out edi- tions in some part of the world throughout the entire 24 hours. ’ Americans Miss Real Coffee. The Americans who have voluntarily expatriated themselves that you may see Europe and the rest of the world through American eyes are an inter- esting crew. They wander endlessly in search of news and features. Nearly every steamer on the Baltic or the Mediterranean carries at least one American newspaper man. They cruise the Volga, the Danube and Rhine. In the Pyrenees and the Alps one is sure to meet erican newspaper men. Geneva is overrun by them when the League of Nations has a meeting. Hitlerites cannot stage a demonstration anywhere in Germany that an Ameri- can journalist does not see it. Inter- national conferences in London and Paris attract scores of American writ- ing men from all over Europe. And wherever they are their universal com- plaint is that they cannot get real American apple pie and American coffee with real cream. Also that European cooks do not know how to fry ham and eggs. Europe fails to win American jour- nalists away from their homeland. I can assure you that the seasoned Amer- ican newspaper men who are en- deavoring to interpret European affairs for the United States press are patriots 'h?’ will not intentionally mislead their readers. PUBLIC LIBRARY Reading With a Purpose. HY rot read with a purpose this Winter and turn to in- tellectual prcfit the time that you spend among books? ‘The Public Library has courses in rea which are prepared for the American Library Association by scientists, economists, historians and others who are prominent in their field of endeavor. Ask about the “Reading With a Purpose” series at the informa- tion desk at the central building, or at any of the branches. The library has readers’ advisers who will be glad to help you follow through with any course or courses you may select. A complete list of the reading courses, grouped ac- cording to subject, follows: Art. “It is the glory and good of Art, That Art remains the one way possible Of speaking the truth.” —Browning—The Ring and the Book. 7. Ears to Hear: a Guide for Music Lovers, Daniel Gregory Mason. %p}:recinuon of Sculpture, Lorado ‘aft. Pleasure From Pictures, Henry Tur- ner Bailey. Architecture, Lewis Mumford. Biography. “My advice is to consult the lives of | other men as we would a looking glass, and from thence to fetch examples for our own imitation.”—Terence. 3. Ten Pivotal Figures of History, Am- brose W. Vernon. | 15. Life of Christ, Rufus M. Jones. 25. Americans From broad, John Palmer Gavit. . Practice of Politics, Raymond Moley. 31. Founders of the Republic, Claude G. Bowers. 41. Pivotal Pigures of Science, Arthur E. Bostwick. 42. 63. 1. 21. 23. George Washington, Albert Bushnell Hart. Representative Twentieth Century Americans, M. A. De Wolfe Howe, Fiction. “Those who relish the study of char- acter may profit by the reading of good works of fiction, the product of well es- tablished authcrs."—Whately. 26. French Revolution in Fiction, Wil- liam Stearns Davis. 29. Westward March of American Set- tlement, Hamlin Garland. 33. Twentieth Century American Novels, William Lyon Phelps. History. “A cultivated reader of history is do- mesticated in all families: he dines with Pericles, and sups with Titian.’ —Willmott. 3. of History, 18. 20. 26. 29. 31 45. ‘Ten Pivotal Figures Ambrose W. Vernon. Europe of Our Day, Herbert Adams Gibbons. United States in Recent Times, Frederic L. Paxson. French Revolution in Fiction, Wil- liam Stearns Davis. Westward March of American Set- tlement, Hamlin Garland. Founders of the Republic, Claude G. Bowers. English History, George H. Locke. Language and Literature. “The history of literature is the his- tory of the human mind.” —William H. Prescott. English Literature, W. N. C. Carlton. . Some Great American Books, Dallas Lore Sharp. . Poetry of Our Own Times, Mar- guerite Wilkinson. . Modern Essay, Samuel MecChord Crothers. . Modern Drama, Barrett H. Clarl. . Twentieth Century American Novels, William Lyon Phelps. . English Drama on the Stage, Walter Prichard Eaton . Good English, Virginia C. Bacon. . French Literature, Irving Babbitt. . Scandinavian Literature, Hanna A. Larsen. . Shakespeare, Felix E. Schelling. . Russian Literature, Avrahm Yarmo- linsky. Short Story Writing, Blanche Col- ton Williams. Philosophy and Religion. “A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philos- ophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”—Bacon. 6. Frontiers of Knowledge, Jesse Lee Bennett. 11. Psychology, Everett Dean Martin. 12. Philosophy, Alexander Meiklejohn. 14, Religion in Everyday Life, Wilfred T. Grenfell. 15. Life of Christ, Rufus M. Jones. Science. “Science is organized knowledge.” —Spencer—Education. 1. Biology, Vernon Kellogg. 9. Physical Sciences, E. E. Slosson. 30. The Stars, Harlow Shapley. 40. Geography, J. Russell Smith. 41. Pivotal Figures of Science, Arthur F. Bostwick. 43. Drehistoric Man, George Grant Mc- Curdy. 47. Human Body and Its Care, Morris Fishbei) I n. 56. Invention and Society, Waldemar Kaempffert, Social and Political Science. “Society is, indeed, a contract. * * * It is a partnership in all:science, a partnership in all art, a partnership in every virtue and in all perfection.” —Burke. Economics, Walton H. Hamilton. Sociology ~ and _Social Problems, Howard W. Odum. Conflicts in American Public Opin- ion, William Allen White. Our Children, M. V. G'Shea. Mental Hygiene, Frankwood E. Wil- 16. liams, 22. American Education, William F. Russell. 27. Practice of Politics, 10. 13. World Trade and the Pound (Continued From First Page.) safely take a London credit or accept- ance payable in gold of a definite, cer- tain amount and fineness. That pound or credit could be used to pay for rub- ber coming to America from the East Indies, and, in turn, the plantation owner of Ceylon could use the same pound or credit to pay for cotton cloth coming from England. The English pound was practically universal money; it kept the wheels going throughout the world. Its lack of fixed, stable value means that new ways must be found to finance international trade, to settle international accounts. The immediate result is uncertainty and confusion throughout the commercial world. Bar to Rapid Progress. ‘That, of course, is an impediment to rapid progress toward world-wide eco-, nomic improvement. But it does not spell collapse, chaos, ruin, destruction and various other unpleasant things pre- dicted by the prophets of gloom. Some- how, through many centuries and many ages, men have managed to overcome great obstacles and constantly to im- prove their standards of living. Look- ing back only 15 or 16 years, one recalls predictions of the total obliteration of all Western civilization within the space of three or four years. Yet despite tragic losses we are still here, and looking broadly over the world we can see that immeasurable progress has been made toward healing the wounds of the war. In our own nation the healing process after the Civil War was not completed for a generation at .|least: yet all the time, during periods of great financial stress, the Nation was growing in wealth, more and bett'r homes were being built. more acres of land were being cultivated and to better advantage, more commodities were manufactured and more real wealth was being created and retained by the mass of our people. ‘There are discouraging aspects about the present situation of world trade— and there are encouraging factors also. Before discussing either in detail it may be well to set down one or two general facts. One is that nations have always had the inclination and found the means to exchange commodities, what- ever the difficulties of transportation or means of making payment. Another is that the world managed to survive much longer periods of warfare than the so-called World War, and to make material progress afterward. And still another is that England “muddled through” the destructive Napoleonic wars, established the British Empire upon which the sun never sets, became banker for the whole world and has | maintained its national unity through many centuries. ‘World Trade Will Go On. T am one, therefore, who believes that whatever the present condition of unsettlement, ande whatever temporary set-backs may occur hereafter, world trade will go on and steady progress will be made toward complete recovery world is less likely than ever to repea To obtain a correct view of our own situation it is necessary to recall some of the world events of the last 15 years and to review the situation in which the nations with which we deal now find themselves. ¥ Here is Great Britain suddenly in financial difficulty. Yet there is really rothing sudden or inexplicable about its_troubles. It went into the war with a public debt of something over $3,000,000,000. Its public debt at the end of March this year was $36,060,000.000. Much of that money was borrowed for the use of its allies during the war. The interest on the national debt is enormous—much more than ours, for the national debt of Great Britain is twice as much as that of the United States. English taxes are correspondingly high—16 ample—$353.56 on & single man's in- come of $1,800 a year. Other nations owe Great Britain billions of dollars which she borrowed on the strength of her credit and reloaned to them. But England funded her war cebt to us at $4,600.000,000 in 1923 and has been Treasury. Our own and English authorities es- timate British investments abroad at about $20,000.000,000. In normal times that investment brought in returns suf- | ficlent to balance England's account | with the world for a surplus of Vllfl!‘ of food and other commodities imported | over goods exported. And England had hundreds of millions of income from its ships on ail the seas and from its financial services to other nations. pound, without government support, was worth only $3.18 in gold. But by 1825 the English government felt justi- fied in definitely establishing _the pound's value at $4.8665 in gold—back to the “par standard” of many years And at that point the pound was kept until the pressure of world conditions forced relinquishment of the standard. Many Commodities Overproduced. ‘Throughout the world, the war en- couraged the development of new agri- cultural areas, while after the war more efficient productive methods and the establishment of price and production controls brought about overproduction of many commodities. Prices inevitably declined, and the loans that Great Brit- ain had made to producing countries could not be repaid at the times when they were due. British funds were in- vested in our own securities, railroad and street railway bonds, industrial stocks and other shares which returned a smaller income and were worth less on the market. Germany reached a point where its credit abroad was exhausted; England joined with us and other cred- jtor natfons in granting an extension of time for huge payments of money loaned. With this added strain on British finance, with government expenditures exceed] revenues, with world trade greatly diminished: many of those in other countries who held credits of hundreds of millions of pounds began “cashing in” and converting the gold proceeds to other currencies—dollars and francs particularly. England was in the position of the merchant whose customers won't or can't pay, and whose creditors won't or can't wait. And 50 the gold standard of payment for the pound had to be dropped. In France the situation was different. The franc, which had been worth 19.3 cents in gold, had been “re-valued” and stabilized at a little less than 4 cents. This relieved the government of much financial strain. Money and goods came in as reparations from Germany. France's gold reserve was built up so that it became the largest in the world except that of the United States. England and the United States and, to a’certain extent, France, have of ne- cessity been acting as bankers to the other nations of the world. The issue of billions in paper currency during and after the war had the inevitable result of throwing national financial struc- tures out of line. The process of finan- cial rehabilitation was accompanied by a return of national currencles to a gold basis, in most instances on a gold | }um well below that prevailing be- fore war. With the recent reversal in the trend of world business, com- modity prices moved sharply downward. The severe recession in raw material pri laced a particularly heavy bur- ces p! den_upon those debtor countries whose 48. Capital and Labor, John A. Fitch. 60. g:&mflom Relations, Isaiah Bow- TUseful Arts. “The useful and the beautiful are never separated.”—Periander. 36. Adventures in Flower Gardening, Sydney B. Mitchell. 49. Journalism, Willard Grosvenor “ Bleyer. 50. Home Economics, Helen W. Atwater. Ernest ‘Raymond Moley, 32, Foreign _Relations of the umkwya 51. Ad States, Paul Scott Mowrer. 38. Young Child, Bird T. Baldwin, Sqle 4ip, Jobn Alford Steven- from a conflict the like of which the | cents on & gallon of gasoline, for ex- | In the early part of 1920 the English | national economy is almost entirely dee pendent upon the production and ex= port of such commodities, ‘The result has been a vast diminu- tion in world trade, measured in dollars or pounds or any other currency. For | instance, in 1929 the total imports of 82 countries were $34,000,000,000. The next year, 1930, there was a shrinkage | of $6,000,000,000. Our own imports be- tween the same years went down $1.- 300,000,000. At the same time our ex- ports to other countries decreased $1,- 400,000,000. The same thing happened to practically all nations, the only dife ference being that we nevertheless had a favorable balance of trade amountis to $750,000,000 while Great Britain ha an unfavorable trade balance of nearly $2,000,000,000. Meantime—during and since the war —our own investments abroad have grown to approximately $15,000,000,000. Some of these investments are not par- | ticularly profitable now, just as some | that were made here in the United States have resulted in a loss. How- | ever, Americans are still drawing mil- | lions of income from these foreign in- vestments. Of about $11,000,000,000 of monetary. gold in the world, we in the United States possess nearly $5,000,000,000. Our own currency therefors i3 on a firm and stable basis. In August of this year, for the first time since 1926 (except for the one month of May, 1929), our imports ex- ceeded our exports, but the unfavorable | balance of our world trade for that month was only about $1,000,000. But from January 1 to September 1 we had sold goods abroad amounting in value |to $214,000.000 more than we had | bought abroad. Though we are a cused at home and abroad of having & prohibitive tariff, other nations were able to sell us $166,000,000 of goods in August of this year. against a total bill of goods of $165,000.000 that we sold the world. And we financed other na- tions to the extent of $905,000,000 of foreign loans publicly offered in the United States during 1930. Buy From Many Countries. We were and are buying freely and without restriction from many coun- tries, though many nations have set up barriers against our goods and those of other countries. For instance, as Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, pointed out some time ago, more than 70 per cent of our imports from Latin America are on the free list, paying no duty whatever. Billions, not | merely millions, of American dollars have gone into the upbuilding of in- dustries of Central and South America. Now, what do all these figures mean in the main, if anything, the casual | reader may ask? | ,_They mean, I should say, that world trade goes on and will continue to go on regardless of unfavorable currency and other situations. The pound has fallen; sooner or later | it no doubt will be established at & | lower level or at the old gold value. Certainly the sooner currency stabiliza- | tion throughout the world can be | achieved, the sooner shall we recover | from our present difficulties But whatever occurs, men will find | ;);‘ge mesns’ mlei(fimnge ;h; products of | of the earth for - ucts of another. S S In the first half of this year, for in- | stance, we sent abroad 1,338.000,000 \poundl of unmanufactured cotton. We ! had to sell it at a price that was too low for the well-being of our cotton growers; nevertheless, there was a mare | ket of some kind for this American | product, and money coming from abroad | to pay for our purchases in other lands, | We also exported 239,000,000 pounds of | leaf tobacco. Other nations bought our ©Opper—262,000,000 pounds in the first | six months of this year. They pur- | chased 159,000 American radio sets in the same time, large quantities of other electrical machinery, 187,000,000 square yards of American cotton cloth, lard chemicals, hams and hundreds of other Pproducts of our farms and factories. Meantime, the nation which in 1929 spent $9,000,000,000 for so-called lux- | uries in retail stores, for utomobiles, | Jewelry, radios, candy, flowers and soft | drinks, is continuing during 1931 to be one of the world's best markets for |the products of other countries—just as it will be in 1932 and the years be- making payments regularly into our yong |, Our high living standard, reflected in | the large use of automobiles, means to Great Britain that we are the largest and best market for the rubber of the East Indies. The factory selling value in 1929 of the products of our manu- l];;turu‘:x bgl’f;:g in the rubber tire and er tu lust e try was over $7704 i Coffee Imports Increase. Great Britain has important investe ments in Java and other Far Eastern coffee producing regions, and in South America, as have other European nations. Our coffee imports during the first six months of this year were 972,e 667.000 pounds, or 15 per cent larger than last year and 28 per cent above the five-year average. | The United States is in the business |of selling other nations whatever we { have that they may need or want, just |as they are in the business of selling us all of their products that we can or will absorb. Other countries, as W. L. Cooper, former director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com- merce of the Department of Commerce, has shown, are far more dependent on | their export trade than is our own land. | Yet while America’s export trade for | years has represented only about 10 | per cent of our production. it never- | theless is vitally important in such commotlities as cotton and copper. In the Department of Commerce we are leaving nothing unione that pos- sibly can be done to further the develop- ment of foreign markets for our pro- ducts. During the fiscal year 1931, for | instance, the bureau performed almost | 4,000,000 services to 25000 American firms. About 2,000 of these voluntarily | reported that during the year they had benefited in savings and increased sales | from the bureau's services to the extent |of more than $57.000,000. It will take more than failure of the | British pound to maintain its old gold | value to stifie American energy and in- |itiative in developing foreign trade. | And Great Britain, whose empire is world-wide, will find the means to con- | tinue commerce with the remotest sec- tions of the earth, just as France, Hol- land, India, China, Japan, Germany and other nations will continue to send forth their products and to buy what others have to sell. The world has better, swifter means of communication and transportation than ever before. Its people have higher standards of living, greater wants and desires. A great need now is for a better financial structure, both in domestic and inter- national commerce. Eventually a sound, stable system of international exchange again will be established, and with the restoration of confidence we shall be on the road to complete economic recovery at home and abroad. Every Eighth Canadian Owned Automobile in *°30 OTTAWA, Ontario.—One of every eight Canadians owns an automobile, according to the federal bureau of ta- tistics, which has announced that there were 1,239,886 motor vehicles registered in Canada at the end of 1930. This is an increase of 44,249 over the previous year. Revenue from motor vehicles, in< cluding registration and gas tax, to- taled $41,076,405 in 1930, an increass of §1,745,103, or 4.3 per cent over the previous year. There was a decrease during the year under review of $2,165,154, or 9.7 per cent in registration fees, due largely to the decrease of the average fee in the Province of Ontario, but this was .9 per cen receip gasoe line tax over that of 1929, owing to the larger quantity of gasoline consumed.