Evening Star Newspaper, October 25, 1931, Page 31

ENGLAND’S FINANCE KING REMAINS MAN OF MYSTERY Sir George May’s Brilliant Ability, Little| Known, May Present Crisis. BY C. PATRICK THOMPSON. FTER calling him “the man from the Prudential” for two dec- ades, England has now christ- ened him “the economy king” this tall, lithe man of facts and figures, actite despite his grayness and 60 vears; trim, monocled, with a com- manding nose -and thin, long mouth buttressed on an outthrust chin, a chprming manner masking a brain which works in the realm of business, economics and finance with the chill precision of a well tempered lathe tool cutting steel. He is an insurance and investment expert. During the war he mobilized Ameri- can dollar securities in Britain to pro- tect the sterling exchange—hundreds of millions of dollars worth of securities. He was put in charge of the British Army and Navy Canteen Boards, with the rank of deputy quartermaster, in the Summer of 1917 to get that gigantic state-run business out of a Tolossal mess. The war was over, and he was & knight before he was through with one of the toughest tangles an account- ant was ever confronted with. Recognized as one of the brightest firancial geniuses in England, he was repeatedly called in by the government and the big“bankers to tackle some knotty problem which defeated the or- dinary run of men available. He was ereated a baronet and he wore himself out using the steel tool of his brain on gnarled ore. And yet, until he gave his name to @he famous report which, for the first #ime, told England that she was headed for a budget deficit of $600,000,000 (the eritics, agitating for the overthrow of the Labor-Socialist ministry on the und of extravagance, never in their rcest moments ventured above a #70,000,000 figure) and recommended Steps to meet the deficit, he was little known outside of insurance and inti- mate big business circles, and not one mén in a thousand would have recog- nized him in the street. Name Was Unknown. Even large and knowedgeable persons ‘Whose activities did not overlap into the aforesaid circles would blink when his name was mentioned and reflect : “May? George May? Ah, yes, that's the man from the Pru- dential, of course.” ‘That was how the newspapers knew him when he abruptly broke out as front p‘f‘ news days after the presen- tation of his report. Frantic editors, hunting for personal data, discovered that he had always refused to see re- porters, that he was unapproachable on'a moated estate and that he had kept so strictly to his small but ab- powerful world, except for one war-time ghm nothing had been written about him before. The war-time phase was when he was iealled upon to save the British govern- ment in a critical pericd when enormous wmenu had to be made in the United tes for purchases of war material. __That was a good story—how the ‘ehancellor of the exchequer, Reginald McKenna, the Liberal politician who is now _head of the Midland, one of the big five banks of Britain, came to May | and sald he wanted $50,000,000 »¢ once | to meet commitments across the At- hn‘lz:'r.nu May said: “Certainly. Here ‘The newspaper version was not quite Wocurate, but it was dramatic; and about the only material in newspaper when, 15 years later, May was nly hot news again in a national sense—this elusive, mysterious, unspec- tacular, but potent man. | I mention because it | ves the keynote of Sir George May h as & man and as a behind-the- scenes power in England, and because # illuminates an interesting and vital part of British psychology, both in nor- mal times and times of crisis. Pub- Mcity does not play a fraction of the| :n in British business that it plays that of America. Nine-tenths of the men who count in British economic and financial life are not even names to the British public. Help to Solve |tal machine onto the problem who provided the solution and the decision. His memory is extraordinary. It was trained in a phase which would have put most men out of action altogether, and especially action involving the study of intricate figures and the mak- ing of decisions based largely upon complex calculations. About 1922 after he had returned to the Prudential from the Navy and Army Canteens Board, he became con- scious of a dimming of his sight, which | been excellent. He consulted a specialist and discovered that he had developed cataract. First one eye was |invaded, then the other. He became [simost iotally blind and had to be led ut. | Afflicted by Blindness. But this affliction seemed only to stimulate his powers of work, and | especially his powers of memorizing | data. Before going up to a meeting of |the Pinance Committee, for instance, | he would have his assistants prime him with all the figures. In committee then, without fuurther prompting and without being able to see his fellows, let alone consult a note, he would get through all the business to be done, | | carrying the most intricate figures in | his_head | He took his blindness very philo- sophically, never expected sympathy— indeed, he charply rejected it—and was only momentarily saddened because, having taken‘up golf late in life and workad up to & handicap of two, his ambition to become a scratch player was abruptly frustrated. An operation | after 1926 “substantially restored his | sight and enabled him to get out on the golf links again. He was 17 when he took his first job |in the insurance ‘company. He grew with that concern, and subsequently he stimulated its grcwth anda went on | rising with it. Enterprising, go-ahead, confidence-inspiring, he rose rapidly from - the cashiers’ department to the actuary's office, and thence to the in- estment department. It was in the latter section that he siarted to make | his mark and name. He was respon- | sible for the safe and profitable invest- ment of vast sums, and in process of handling them he revoluti-nized the en- tire cutlook of the conservative British lflnzl\érlm‘e concerns in the investment jeld. When he took hold of investments the interest yield on the funds, which aggregated $456,000.000 was a fraction over 4 per cent. When he retired this year the interest yleld on trebled assets h-dt increased to a trifie over 5!; per cent. The investment department that he walked into was one rooted in the old British tradition, which thought in terms of safety and 315 per cent. Out- side of British government securities, investment enterprise did not go much beyond railroad stocks. May, with bis fresh mind 2nd free- dcm from tradition, saw the advantags of broadening the whole investment fleld. His actuarial training further en- abled him to prove ccnclusively that over a pericd of years an investment | trust which puts part of its funds into the preferred 2nd ordinary stocks of industry, does far better than the over- cauticus trust which sticks to bonds. Remained to Be Proved. He was arguing at that time a gen- eration which had not accepted what finance houses today adcept as a com- monplace of investmen; practice. Most of his arguments remained to be proved. Results have testified to his foresight and acumen. But George May, besides calculaticn and visicn, has that mysterious, in- stinctive feeling about investments which one can describe only as a flair. His right-hand man and ablest assist- ant, also an actuary, no whit less ca- E on the technical side than May 1f, would go deep into an invest- ment proposition, and think it locked solid and gocd, and say as much. His chief would purse his lips and shake his h=ad. “I don’t know. I'm not s sure. We will wait and see.” He would never go into argument and discussion cn the subject. Perhaps he could not explain his reasons any- Fall to Get Interview. Por one thing, British newspapers Bave only recently discovered anything | turn cut to be right. Years might elapse romantic about business life and enter- somet] to awaken that part of their $maginations; and for another thing, the big men won't be seen. Secretive- mess is as much of a cult among them #s it was among the same set in old Plerpont Morgan's day. Every newspaper in England sent men to “get” Sir George May after his re- port had made national history and the ont pages of the world’s press. No- y “got” him. The sleuths failed to bring back even a new photograph. He is an actuary—in the sense that President Hoover is a mining engineer. ‘There is more to that human building than its base. An actuary has to be a brilllant mathematician and also a practical man. In England you have to pass four examinations before you be- ©ome a full blown actuary and a fellow of the Institute of Actuarles. It takes #bout 10 years to get through the lot, and more fail than pass. It is the stiff- est of all professional tests. George May took these four obstacles Sike a champion hurdler. Examinations hold no terror for him. He was 40 when he thought it would be a good thing if he strengthened his capacity for deal- ing with the real estate and property aide of the investment department—of which he was then the presiding genius ~—by qualifying as a surveyor. That ex- amination is pretty stiff, too, and the course takes about four yea May however, was eating up the prelimi- paries, and would have qualified., but for a sudden failure of his eyesight (of this, more later). § But all this does not explain the Ma phenomenon completely, either in rel tion to his rise. his unique relatior with the financial and business m nates or in connection with his labors for the British government. From the first he had something more than technical abilities: an impressive pres- ence, great force of character, an un- canny judgment which at times amounts almost to intuition. Resembles Great Lawyer. In his capacity for mastering facts and rapidly sizing up a situation he Fesembles a great lawyer. He also has & brain that works more than a trifie Saster than most other men's Where other men with the same tech- work ay ma and gets there w the working and thinking. He wil eommittee with his chin on his chest slumped, apparently asleep. All around Eim argument waxes and wanes, with- ¢ any heed. At “Let us hear What is Wour opinion, May? “The tall, lissom figure straightens. ¥he commanding nose tilts, the eye- iass glints. May comes awake and a few halting, but decisive words— be s not always fluent on these occa- splons—settles the matter. He has not missed a single point. And the other i members of that committee look at one another and agree with him He early developed to a fine art the business of quickly mastering the sal- fent points of a situation and giving a Jead in committee. Called on to go up to participate in a committee discus- sion on some problem. he would say €o his assistant: “You had better come along. I don't know anything about this " On the way up his lieutenant would prime him with the main points. The Men he broke in upon would know details of the situation inside out. g:;l more often than not it would be #8¢ man who had just turned his men- he Prince of Wales has done | ber of times his lieutenant could turn way. Perhaps it was jus a hunch. But in any case, his judgment would usually | before events tested it ous, but the num- | to May and say: “You were on the | wrong tack that time,” was infinitesi- | mal compared t> the number of times | he was obliged to admit that his chief | had hit the unseen nail on the head. He had been secretary of the insur- ance company only a year when the British Treasury commandeered him to | become manager of the American Dol- |lars Securities Committee. It was one of the few big wartime jobs carried |out in Englana which have been rec- ognized as unqualified successes. It happened this way: The Prudential had some $50,000,000 | in_American Government bonds (they carry no dollar bonds now: the Amer- ican inccme tax has killed them for British investment houses) when the war broke out. May foresaw that Brit- ain was going to need dollar securities in bulk to protect the sterling position | in view of the gold drain and the gi- gantic payments she would have to make to America against purchases of war material and supplies. Offer Later Accepted. He had the bright idea of offering the Prudential holding to the British government. The government did not seem much impressed. It said “thank you very much,” and that was all. But a little later what May had foreseen | happened. The British treasury found | itself in a jam. It could not obtain | enough dollars to meet its commit- without damaging the sterling In this crisis the British jumped around to May's of- to see if the offer still held good It did. The bonds saved a critical ex- | change situation. . Having thus been awakened to this angle of the Anglo-American exchange | situat wrought by the war, the | treasury asked May to mobilize all the | American dollar securities he could lay hands on in England i To be put in charge of this business was a_somewhat embarrassing compli- ment for George May, because he was | neither a banker nor a stockholder, and | one might naturally have expected that this position would have been given to | & prominent member of the London Stock Exchange. Friction was prophe- sted. It did not materialize. His re markable personality and charm of nanner stood May in good stead wound up ‘his job having wor friendship of all the personalities he banking and brokerage worlds with whom he came into contact i {ho provess of mobllislng eome hus.- | dreds of millions' worth of American dolinr ‘securitics . which were used. to CRable “Britain. to Anance - vast war purchases without knocking the bot- tom out of sterling | This part played by May and his Dollar Securities Committee in the war | incidentally had some interesting reper- cussions in the midst of the recent fi- | nance crisis which the May report pre- cipitated in England. May is a direc- | tor of the British Overseas Bank. In | Labor circles It was said the treasury had arranged with this bank for the mobilization of more than $500,000.000 | worth of dollar securit'es, Sir George May plaving the leading part in the mobilization. The bank was ready as soon as the word was given to cable instructions to New York placing these securities as backing for the credit needed to peg sterling in New York This news broke in the official Labor organ following the break-up of the Labor-Socialist_cabinet. Labor spokes- men, in the intervals of jinting at s {7 (Continued on Fourth Page.) of t 1—PART TWO. A — —Drawn for The Sunday Star by Harve Stein. THE BOOKS THAT CAPTURE THE IMAGINATION OF CHILDHOOD ALWAYS HAVE A BIG SALE. BY WALTER PRICHARD EATON. Carleton Coffin. Men of my generaiten, of course, will re- member him, but, alas, I fear he isn't Tead any more. His most fa- mous book was “Boys of ‘76,” though “Old Times in the Colonies” ran it a close second in my affections. ‘I shall never forget going into a tailor's shop in Boston with my father, and seeing a large man, with a somcthing more than an ample stomach, standing on a stool and being measured for a pair of pants. “Do you know who that 52" said my father.” “That is Charles Carleton Cof- fin.” Something tightened in my throat. I shrank back, as from a Presence, though ing. 1f father had said, “That I could have been no more impressed. I was, indeed, gazing upon one of my divinities. There is a peculiar satisfaction to an autihor in awakening such acmira- tion in a child, affecting a complete capture of its imagination. Joe Jeffer- son used to say that the best compli- ment he ever recelved came’ from a' small bay who, after witnessing “Rip Van Winkle,” asked the actor, “Do you remember that time your gun fell | apart?” NCE there was a famous Amer- | - s O e atha: i Oharies | fallen apart more than a thousand | “Little Women” and the rest of them | Scott titles in demand in the juvenile It seemed, said Joe, the first time for that boy, though the gun had already times. The illusion had been complete. Outsell Best Sellers. At any rate, the books which can thus capture the imagination of child- hood almost always have a bigger sale, | because they have a longer life than | at least 90 per cent of even the very best books written for adults, and though week by week the papers print lists of the best sellers offered on the counters for new publications, over in | the juvenile depamtments books which | are perhaps fifty years old or even | very much older are piling up figures | which make the sale of the novel of the hour look .pretty thin. 1 The name of Beatrix Potter certainly | is not so familiar on the literary pages | as that of Theodore Dreiser or Willa | Cather, but her sales probably have long since passed the million mark. | It may be the several million mark “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” is perhaps her most famous book. But they are all famous in the nurseries, these story- picture books of hers. Next Summer, in Concord, Mass., will be celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Louisa Alcott, who kept her family together, in spite of pap: vagaries, by writing a series of juve- niles of which the most famous is “Lit- | Scott is one of them. If it were not tle Women.” And if you don't think | for “Ivanhoe” and one or two other are still selling, go into any book store | departments, many book stores would and ask. For more than 50 years Miss | have no Scott on their shelves. The Alcott's books have been perhaps the same, of course, is true for our own most important back log in the list of | Cooper, and also Washington Irving. a great publishing house, and their | If you set out to purchase George Eliot, sale has gone into seven figures. Al- | you can go to the juvenile department most 50 years ago Mary Mapes Dodge! and get “Silas Marner,” but you may wrote a story about a Dutch hoy, called | have to hunt some time for a new copy “Hans Brinker,” and there are sll|of her other titles. not less than four editions of it, all| I hate to think it true, but I am told selling. The publishers have their sales | by dealers that Dickens is fast ap- recorcs available only back to 1904, but | proaching a similar fate. He will, they even since then 200,000 copies have | say, be kept in print only by “David been sold. | Copperfield,” “A "Tale of Two Cities” “Tom Sawyer” Still a Leader. ©One of the tests of a_juvenile classic is whether aiher publishers issue it after the copyright expires. What a burst of “Tom Sawyers” and “Huckle- berry Finns” there are soon going to be! It is the general testimony of book stores that out of every hundred books by Mark Twain they sell, 40 of them are “Tom Sawyer” and 40 “Huckleberry Finn.” And perhaps a | goodly percentage of the remaining 20 are “A° Connecticut Yankee.” Indeed, there is more than one so- called classic writer who today is kept alive solely by the young folks. It may grieve you to hear it, but Sir Walter and the Christmas stories, in demand for school reading. It is a fact that | even Poe sells more to young people | than to adults, and of course this is true | of Defoe and Swift. | Another writer of an older day who | lives now almost entirely by virtue of | one book that is sold to children is Thomas Bail Aldrich. “The Story | of a Bad Boy”:is always in print, and |always in demand. It will keep his name green, apparently, long, long after all the rest of his vork is quite for- | gotten—as most of it already is. So will Kingsley's “‘Water Bables” keep his name alive, and perhaps Sidney Lanier | will be known for his “The Boys' King J (Continued on Sixth Page.) DEPRESSION BARES NEED FOR WORLD CO-OPERATION Spirit Seen in Western Europe Recently Also Manifested Pan-American BY GASTON NERVAL. UT of this severe economic de- | pression which ccnfounds | statesmen and financial ex- perts throughout the world, | one thing. at_least, emerges | O clear—the recognition by the leading | nations on earth that economic inter- | dependence is the predominating law | today. And the conclusion, therefore, | that’ international co-operation is the | only way left out of these embarrassing | and trying times. ‘This is the only virtue of the 1930 de- pression—it has opened the eyes of the | world’s statesmen and taught them the | value of co-operative efforts. Perhaps | this is a lesson worthwhile the rigors and bitterness of the crisis. The ccmbined action of the United | States, Great Britain and France to save Germany from collapse, the as- sistance given by the United States and France to help Great Britain; the con- ferences of European and United States | government, officials in London, s, | Berlin, Rome, and now the visits of | Premier Laval of France, and Minister of Forelgn Affairs Grandi of Italy, and the forthcoming one of Chancelior Bruening of Germany are outstanding examples of that spirit of co-operation which, in the last few months, seems to | bave opened a new era in international | relations. Felt in Latin America. In Latin America too,. although eco- | nomic interests are nct so interwoven emong the varicus countries as they are urope, the movement for co-opera- in these times of distress is rapidly | paining the support of governments and, particularly, of commercial ele- | nts throughout the continent. Officially. only one formal move was recorded. when the minister of foreign affairs of Chile suggested an interna- | tional conference to discuss the possi- | bility ; Lnk the | Latin American nations. , un- | fortunately, did not materialize due to | political complications in Chile, where | the government sponsoring the idea | as overthrown. E | But unofficially, in banking, industrial | nd commercial circles, the Latin Amer- | 2ns, also, are more and more turning peration as the only cure for economie 1lls. Two recent happenings come to cor- rcborate this impression. One is the lling of a conference of bankers to in Lima, the capital of Peru. At fra) the suggestlon of the Bollvian Con Bank, representatives from the central | banks of Chile, Peru. Ecuador and Bolivia, will_discuss the financial dim- culties of those South American states and try to devise the means to relieve them through co-ordinated action. The other instance is the resolution, unanimously approved by the American Commercial Conference which gathered in Washington three weeks | £go, to organize immediately a conti- | nental chamber of commerce or fed- | cration of commercial associations—the | name does not matter—representing the cconomic interests of all the American countries. Held Most Important. | In coxrmenting upon the conclusions arriied at by the Pan-American Con- ference 1 said, & few days ago, that this was the most far reaching and im- ortant. Because it calls for the estab- lishment of a permanent technical or- ganization, deprived of any official character, which shall endeator to har- mcnize and unify the efforts of all the | by Proposal for Trade Body. chambers of commerce or private in- | dustrial interests in tbe Western Hemi- sphere. With two ends in view: The promotion of inter-American trade and the solution of numerous financial and economic problems which confront to- day every one of the countries on this side of the Atlantic. The idea is not entirely new. It was recommended before by the convention of the International Chamber of Com- merce which met in Washington sev- eral months ago. In that case, how- ever, it was not the creation of a new organization but the extension of ihe activities of the International Chamber of Commerce to Latin America what was heartily indorsed. Speaking before the International Chamber, Senor Cohen of Chile stated at that time: “Co-ordination and co- operation appear to be utterly indis pensable to weather out the present depression_and to insure greater sta- | bility for the future, both through the elimination of wasteful trade methods |and the enactment of legislation to protect the domestic and international development, of business.” And then he pointed out that this| was the task of private commercc, stressing the danger that some govern- | ments, due to non-existence of com- mercial bodies, may be reluctantly forced to enter the field of business in an attempt to carry out a constructive policy of reorganization in times of crisis. To this the International Chamber of Commerce answered by recommend- ing the establishment of national branches of the chamber in the Latin American capitals. Already Emphasized. | But even before the International before the Pan-American Commercial Conference, advised co-operation as the medicine for stricken inter-. trade, another group of busin ers from North, Central and South America had already emphasized the importance of unified action and made provisions for the establishment of an organization very much along the lines | which those two conferences later rec- ommended. In September of last year a non- official conference of business men gathered in Sacramento, Calif. under the name of “First Pan-American Re- ciprocal Trade Conference.” The pro- moters of this conference stressed its Unomcial charazter, TS Was (o be but a friendly meeting of producers, fruit growers, representatives of trade bodies fnd commercial associations and -all others interested in the development of markets for the products of the Amer- | ican countries, with no official charac- | ter whatsoever.” | As 1 pointed out at the time, this was a gathering of business men who| were not interested in finding out who started the Mexican-American war or who sent the Marines to Nicaragua. Out of their open frank deliberations, something Teally constructive was ex- pected so long as political obstacles were not in their way as they had been in that of previous official conferences At the close of the conference the creation of a “Pan-American Institute of Reciprocal Trade” was announced The purposes of this new organization were thus summarized: To prepare later conferences; to further the carry- ing out of resolutions and recommenda- tions of said conferences; to establish | rican | | active, permanent relations with all || " (Continued on Fourth Page) 17 NATIONS SHOW GAIN International Bureau to Consider Pro- posals for Co-ope ration of Nations to Relieve Depression. BY ALBIN E. JOHNSON. ENEVA, Switzerland.—An offi- cial resume of the industrial situation in 17 countries, just completed by the International pressing fact that unempioyment, in- stead of decre:sing or becoming stabil- ized, is rapidly increasing, and despite heroic remedies that are being applied everywhere, the coming Winter will be the worst through which Europe has passed since the war. “There is no sign as yet” says the official report to the governing body, which will meet shortly to consider various proposals for international co- operation in dealing with unemploy- ment,” cf the end of the depression Labor Bureau, reveals the de- | which is throwing tens of millions out | of work throughout the world. On the contrary information to hand shows the evil, which scarcely imprcved at all during the Summer, is tending to be- come worse. It is, as a rule, only in September that in most countries sea- sonal influences which tend to increase unemployment during the Winter make themselies felt. This jear, however, from July onward, the situation has become worse frcm month to month.” An indication of the actual situation | can be gained from the statistics gathered from various governments. These show that in Germany the num- ber officially registered as out. of work was 4,104,000 at the beginning <f Sep- tember, as compared with 2,882,500 on the same date of 1930. Increases in Italy. In Italy the officially registered un- employed have increased nearly 50 per | cent the past 12 months, while there has been a gain of 20 per cent in the | partially unemployed. At the moment | Chamber of Commerce, and certainly | government relief is being extended to 693,273 registered workers by the Fas- cists. Inesmuch zs only tically ac- ceptable persons are inscribed in_the is estimated at twice that number. The situation in Britain is becoming alarming. Riots are prevalent in in- dustrial centers and the reduction of the dole has put thousands of workers on starvation rations. cut in government relief has brought the margin from “barely enough” down to_*not enough" , and the in line each week to (it amounts to about $5.70 per week for a family of man, wife and four children) i¢ ecoming desperete. Even the KD\}" ernment clerks who pass out the dole receive practically the same amount as Ppay which they give to the workless. The official figures show that there are 2,142,821 insured workers wholly unemployed and 670,342 insured work- ers on the job 2t odd moments who do not earn enough to supply their daily needs. A year ago the figure was 1,500,990 wholly unemployed and 618« 658 partially employed on the same date. Winter Prospects Gloomy. Vith 1,221,500 more idle in Germany today than a year ago, and with nearly 800,000 more now wcrkless in Britain than 12 months ago, the pros °ts are not bright for a peaceful Winter. Even France is beginning to feel the effects of the depression. There were ex- actly five times more French workers on the live unemployment register this | September as compared with last year. Holland officially reports that unem- loyment has doubled since September f last year, the insurance societies paying benefits to 65,952, as against The 10 per cent | 132,755 last year. The uninsured work- | ers, of course, are far more numerous, | but only official figures are accepted by the Labor Bureau in tabulating sta- tistics. The Scandinavian countries likewise way, Denmark and Sweden followed | Great Britain off the gold standard. Unemployment in Sweden has in- creased, according to Trade Union fig- ures, about 70 per cent in the past year; Norway's workless have increased by 45 per cent and Denmarks by 25 per_cent. Down in the Balkans, where the agrarian crisis is acute, the report shows Austria on the verge of complete dis- order, and despite of radical curtail- ments enforced by the League's Finan- cial Committee as the price of League assistance, Vienna was disbursing fed- | eral aid fo nearly 200,000 workers on August 15. Among organized workers in | Hungary unemployment has increased | about 30 per cent over last year, when 11t was considered that the absolute | saturation point had been reached. | Three Nations Unreported. No accurate statistics are available | from Bulgaria, Jugoslavia and Rumania | —three agricultural states—at the mo- | ment, but unofficial reports indicate | that unless immediate farm credits are | forthcoming the rural population will be faced with disaster the coming | Spring. There is no market for this year's crops, even within their own | frontiers, while Russia is preparing to | dump millions of bushels of wheat this Winter. Poland and Czechoslovakia, semi-in- dustrial countries, have felt the depres- sion even more than their more power- | ful neighbors, Britain and Germany. | Likewise with Belgium, where wholly | unemployed in receipt of government | benefit have more than doubled in a | year. c intermittently employed in lead- | lists, the actual number of idle in Italy Belgium grew from 48,580 to 113,823 | in the last 12 months. Czechoslovakia’s reports show the startling fact that there were three times as many workers being supported by the state this September as against September, 1930. Poland reports 251,608 registered as wholly out of work on September 1 this year as against 173,627 a year 2go. The increase in partially employed has been at about the same ratio. " In Switzerland, which felt the world depression severely a year ago, the situation also is becoming critical. In & population of only a few mjllion there were 18,506 registered unemployed in August. The huge drop in tourists, a result of the collapse of many con- nental currencies, which now are at | a great disadvantage when changed into Swiss francs, will mean that many of the famous resorts will all but close | their doors this Winter. Two British dominions have submitted reports to the labor office. 50 per cent increase in unemployed trade unionists, while New Zealand re- | A year| | ago there were but 5371 trade union- | ports a gain of 900 per cent. ists unemployed. In August this yea: the number had leaped to 48,670. | “The figures which the labor office Las to hand,” says the report, “do not | enable comparison to b: made as be- | tween countries. Some states give the | number of unemployed in receipt of | benefit, others the number of workless | registered. As in several countries, many unemployed persons are neither in receipt of benefit nor registered, the statistics often underestimate the real figures. Subject to these reservations the data are submisted.” are hard hit, which explains why Nor- Canada shows nearly | IWAR SCIENCE IN RECENT Show at Aberdeen Over Yorktown GREAT crowd silently watched the slow rising squadrcn of bombing planes coming out of the South, almost _invisible against the grayish sky. For all their ease of motion, they might have been large passengsr planes on a regular run. terrible agents of destruction. At a height of 10,000 feet, the in- visible pilots increased the rate cf speed while observers with eyes pressed to the bomb sights were calculating the diminishing distance to the targets below. All at once two black specks were seen to detach themselves from the huge bombers, falling rapidly be- hind a distant line of trees. Silence, smoke rising rapidly above the tree- tops. Eight seconds later, a rumble of thunder as the 2,000-pound bomb ex- plosions wrenched the ground under- lines, watching the recent Ordnance day demonstrations at the Army's pro ing grounds In Aberdeen, Md. They marveled at the 16-inch guns, at the rapid fire anti-craft defens®, and at the 70-miles-per-hcur tank. A Military Contrast. They were witnessing an aspect of the war of today. Tomorrow, there henc>, we may be warring with robots. Could any greater contrast be fur- nished than the military activities at Ycrktown. when the famous battle of the Revolution was fully re-enicted in celebration of its sesquicentennial an- niversary? With the Army’s pctivities at Aberdeen, barely oitside u&unshob as we measure such things today, the spectacle of besieging Yorktown with the military equipment cf the time must have been enlightening indeed. Discussing the “Surrender cere- monies,” some of the participating sol- diers from Fort Eustis were contrast- ing ‘past nad presént, the other night. down near Yorktown's beach. “No wonder the war lasted seven years!” |one of them exclaimed. “We take 128 steps to the minute in regular march time to their 75; and for the double quick we're going along at a slow trot 120 It 1is perceptible that the entire world was operating less energetically. If artillery was smaller: explosives ‘were less violent; shells sped less rap- fastest means of transportation or com- | munication was a galloping horse. Slowness of Transportation. If company movements were slowy let us see the progress of a large force without facilities of rapid transporta- tion. It will be remembered that the first movement of the allied forces | around New York was a feint demon- stration toward Staten Island. It was on the 19th of August that Washing- ton crossed the Hudson and by con- tinuous marching had reached Tren- ton by the 1st of September. | On the 5th ke had reached the head |of the Chesapeake, having covered a distance of less than 150 miles in 17 days. From the beginning of the trans- | fer of the allied forces by boat to the York peninsula and to the final en- campment around the doomed English position nearly a month elapsed: it was on the night of October 6 that the first parallel or advancing in- trenchments were opened up, but it was not until the 9th that the first | battery of siege guns was in a position to_commence firing, It is doubtful that any fault can be found with Earl Cornwallis in his de- fense of the village. The loss of his access to sea communications through the superior pressure of the ships of De Grasse, the advantage held by the allles on land with artillery and finally the storm which cut off escape to Gloucester Point, a half mile away across the York River, brought a cul- mination to the most interesting siege operations in early American Fistory. The Yorktown Defense. Roughly speaking, the area of the Yorktown defense was some 1,200 yards long, in width about 500 yards. Ap- proaches to the two principal roads were controlled by outlying redoubts and the main line defenses consisted of a series of small redoubts connected with stockade breastworks. ‘The entry of the Hampton road from the south was covered by a projection which, following the Vauban nomen- clature, was designated as the Horn- work. During the Civil War Confed- erate engineers followed the same idea to some extent and today, at the site of the Hornwork, can be found Confed- erate ramparts, 15 feet in height, sur- rounded with a wide ditch and the identity of the bastions clearly defined by the marl pathway placed by the present Yorktown authorities. ‘The British had 14 batteries in posi- tion. The frigate Charon, anchored nearby, had been stripped of its guns to provide heavier caliber, but there was only one gun larger than an 18-pounder. Prior to his surrender Cornwallis was faced by 100 heavy guns, howitzers and mortars, with the prospect of addi- at Sesquicentenn But these crafts were awe, then a billowing cloud of black | The crowd was safe, far behind the | may be other methods, and 150 years | of 180 steps to the minute to their | idly; ships relied upon the wind: the | 3. CONTRASTED EXHIBITIONS Portrays Advances ege as Re-enacted ial Celebration. tional artillery yet to be mounted. Then, as now, the superior weight of metal. barring adequate shelter. forced a decision. It is possible that the marl | cliffs facing the river afforded some re- lief from the allies’ fire, but there was no protection from sickness. Heavy Continental Artillery. At that time it is probable that the American forces experienced some of the improvements in artillery resom- mended by the French officer Gribeau- val, who did much toward organising that arm for the French armies. Twelve-pounders were the heaviest of fleld pleces and 12 horses broke no speed records in pulling them. Leaping 150 years, as exhibited at the Aberdeen demonstration, the 155-mm. gun provides, in its ease of mobility and serticeability, a startling contrast. Its range of 14 miles and attainable speed on its carriage of A0 miles an hour makes the 12-pounder, with its maximum range of 3,000 (with solid shct) something of a Foarth of July demonstration. in, contrasting 16-pounders or thos2 of a little higher caliber capable of casting a large sheel nearly 1,000 | yards, let us ccnsider Maj. Gen, John W. Gulick’s report pert:ining to one of the new 14-inch railway guns: “The gun can be fired at the rate of one round a minute; the maximum range is 40,000 yards; the normal rate of movement from 15 to 20 miies an hour.” | Two such guns are assigned to a bat- tery and the operating personnel con- [ sists cf 6 officers and 190 enlisted men. Were such guns to exist contempo- | raneously with the Yorktown event it | is at once apparent that the defenders | would have been annihilated in the | fpace of a few minutes without having | a single enemy within sight to fire baick i at. On the other hand, had Cornwallis ‘ponie.ued such a battery, it is certain | that his comparative isolation would | have been free from any molestation from the ships of De Grasse. With the additional aid of airplanes he would | have had ample time to have ascer- | tained the movement of the allied armies | against him with the assurance of fu- |ture junction with the forces of Sir | Henry Clinton. | A Civil War Feat. | It is of interest to note that 81 years after the surrender of Yorktown the | ability of Federal batteries to throw | 700 pounds of shot and shell into the Confederate works from a distance of L 20-inch gun, made in 1864, mounted at For: Hamil- ten, was the monster of its time. Al- though never in active use against the South, it had proved ability to hurl & projectile to a distance of 8,001 yards! |, In 1866 it was held by many that | the handling of ordnance we | tons was the limit fixed by the :stre}:x.m (:( m-n.m'me idea of such “as 16-inch type discharged at Aberdeen, firing a shell in excess of @ ton in weight, would have been dis- missed as an absurd speculation. Again the mommf of troop move- ments and the velocity of heavy shells involved L] P defenders of today will be extremely | reluctant to establish themselves within wallis_at Yorktown. The vity of the French at Belfort in the Pranco- Prussian War, or again at Verdun, more recently, point em) to the necessity of maintaining elasticit$ in defense. Where attack may come primarily from the sea the present theory of the United States Coast Defense Engineers tends to favor the mounting of the heavy guns en barbette and in open gun emplacements. In the Aberdeen exhibition the l4-inch gun mounted on a disappearing umw Teveals, with all of its ingenious ability to utilise the recoil to throw it back into “battery” behind the a r-l“ type of ordnance. 16-inch gun, on the contrary, the a fixed area such as ‘Were the past to become present Cornwallis has conceivably again in” at Yorktown he will place less liance on gabjons—wicker containers dirt—in his intrenchments, but on outlying ith guns and & few pieces of heavier cali- ber. He may have recourse to wide ditches with vertical sides; he prob- ably will have mines ted_generously in advance of his position. To the rear will be deep shelters with supplies where men may recuperate from the ex;rllnnruol fl‘le struggle and, d take refuge from an enemy Wl soar at high altitudes above their heads and bombs. Across the Virginia flelds his eyes will ever search for another enemy never thought of in 1781; moving on wheels or odd tracks, rpitting projec- tiles, diminutive fortresses, the em- bodiment of the latest thought to as- sault intrencthed positions. PARIS.—French railroads are losing $350,000 a day and both directors and stockholders wonder how long it will last. They are turning to the legisla- ture for help. In particular they want | to increase passenger rates and they | want the government to Teduce taxa- tion on transportation. Whatever is | done, it seems certain that the con- sumer and the taxpayer—one and the same person—will bave to pay. There are six major railroads in | France, ,and each one is in parlous | condition. Among the six reporting | the largest deficits is the State Line, operated by the government after pur- | chase from private interests more than 20 years ago. In 1930 the total losses of all the French railroads amounted to $80,000,000, in which sum the State Line alone figures for $56,000,000, or about two-thirds. For the current year |the total deficit is estimated at $120, { 000,000. | The fact that the State Line is the | greatest loser is advanced as an argu- ment against any governmental inter- ference in transportation matters; it | serves also to explain in part why all | the roads show losses. For in France | rallroads age not operated by free corporatlons. 'The dlate granty inem a virtual monoply, in return for which consideration it has much to say in general management. is resumed in November the govern- ment will propose a large increase in passenger rates, together with a re- duction of the transportation tax. Simultaneously an effort will be made to reorganize railroad traffic generally. Unprofitable local lines will be abandoned, on the principle that the rallroad is for long hauls, and auto- mobile trucks on the highways for ¥ short hauls. This does not mean that there will be competition between road and rail, for the railroad companies subsidiary companies. Decentralization also is to figure prominently in the reorganization. All railroads converge on Paris, with the consequence that frequently it 1is quicker to take express trains and cross the capital in order to connect between two provincial towns which have service. This decentraliza- tion mbelun already, with long- | MADRID, Bpaln ~With hatdly 4 ey As soon as the session of Parliament | already control road trafic through | French Railroads Lose $350,000 Daily, Parliament May Devise Relief Means distance trains eliminating Paris from their itinerary. Experiments are in also for the utilization of rapid, light cars with pneumatic rubber tires on railroads for inter-city traffic. Now that Frenchmen travel more, the suggestion is made that lessons |should be learned from the United |States in the matter of general service |to passengers. As French railroad companies are bureaucratic in their essence, the passenger is beheld through buraucratic eyes as a nuisance, It would seem that everything possible is done to discourage travel. The would-be traveler must take tickets at certain places and at certain hours; he Is herded in locked waiting rooms until his train starts; numberless inspectors have for sole duty to punch tickets every half hour, and many trains are not available to second-class and third- class passengers unless they travel a !fixed number of miles. | . (Copyright, 1931.) ——e Constitution Project Near Reality in Spain in the machinery of the constituent Assembly worthy of mention, the Span- ish republic continues almost daily to find itself nearer its goal, when the constitutional project will be duly ap- proved and become an unquest reality. Two articles making up the second chapter of the constitution, d'et.ltnx wi:.: thle x:mmmv of for- eigners resident in Spain, were passed with virtually no discussion of any importance. fore a recent session adjourned the ZJeputies already wers Izt ahesd with the third chapter and the r— :gmdnf ‘:heth:xi the mntr, s to have e deaf enalty, which was beginning to enliven Ehe atmosphere of the House, was suddenly left in midair to be set- tled in subsequent 3 The religious problem, which now figures in this third m on the suggestion of Juliano of the House, has been next week, when the depl h-pressure methods all night will have to be resumeds .