Evening Star Newspaper, November 24, 1931, Page 8

[THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. | WASHINGTON, D. C. WUESDAY. November 24, 3931 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor -— Khe Evening Star Newspaper Company u jce New York lce: 110 Ei ("hmllo Office: Lake Michi; juropean Office: 14 Regent " . Londo England. Rate by Carrier Within the City. S 45¢ per month nday Sar 80 per month | Suniday ‘Siar { ays) ..........68¢ per month e Sunday Star : Sc_per copy Collection made at the end of ‘each month. ©Orders may be sent in by mail or telephone WNAtionel 5000, ble in Advance. d Virginia. afly and Sunday.....1yr.. $10.00: 1 mo. ily only ... 1yr. 38 unday only . All Other States 17¥r.$12.00: 1 mo.. $1.00 qu ln? Sunday. i e LA AR Y S R Member of the @ssociated Press. Tre Assoclated Press is exclysively entitled #o the use for republication of all news dis- atches credited 1o it Or not otherwise ered- ted in this paper and also the local news published herein. Al rizhts of publication of @pecial cispatches herein are also reserved. —_— — = and Canada. Let Us Have the Facts! What is the reason for all this pro- found official mystery at Washington @bout the Manchurian crisis? Why have the White House and the State PDepartment become towers of impene- trable silence since war clouds began darkening the Far Eastern skies? Is ecret diplomacy again enthroned, and Bave “open covenants openly arrived Bt” been added to that collection of Bipther scraps of paper which feeble and utile statesmanship is piling up these fays? The country is asking these Ruestions with growing persistency and fmpatience. For the past fortnight the situation in PManchuria has drifted from bad to Wworse. While the powers go through Rhe ludicrous motions of ‘“preventing fwar,” war rages. League of Nations' ul- #imatums are defied. Japanese military | perations are extended. The United Btates, reluctant to burn its fingers by playing with League fire, takes its stand for peace on the nine-power treaty and the Kellogg pact. But just exactly what the stand is—in precisely what terms it was formulated and is being goaintained—remains a matter upon Which the American people are being kept in unjustifiable ignorance. From day to day the country reads ®f more or less grave American notes #nd warnings addressed to the Japan- ese government and of ‘“conciliatory” replies returned by the Tokio authori- ties. It learns of incessant goings and comings at the State Department by %he Japanese Ambassador and by the envoys of other powers. It hears that the transoceanic telephone line between Washington and Paris is sizzling with Eonversation between Secretary Stim- pon and Ambassador Dawes, our repre- {gentative at the League Council. In a flozen directions the impression is creat- fpd that matters momentous for the fate Pt nations are in hand. But what all this prodigious pother about the country kan enly guess. It told nothing. The hour has come When it is entitled to expect that an d be put to dark-lantern methods and t the American people be taken into $heir Government’s confidence as to what is happening, or likely to happen, s a result of Japan’s deflance of world #pinion. It is on the “mobilization” of orld opinion that President Hoover than once has said the United tes relies as its chief means for com- g international differences when is threatened. ‘World opinion cannot be mobilized as Bong as it is uninformed opinion. If the mdministration expects to have the Na- tion's backing for whatever policy it {fiecides to adopt in this menacing Man- fehurian business, no time is to be lost Bn letting the people have the facts— nreservedly and fully. After all, it is their hides that will have to bear the prunt of whatever eventuates. The President and his Secretary of Ptate should without further delay issue § statement setting forth completely, ! Jehronologically and clearly what this | -loving country has done to pre- t the fracas in the East from oldering into another world confla- tion. The statement will be glaringly lequate if it fails to elucidate with al clarity what the United States urposes doing about Japan’s violation the nine-power treaty and the i'§%ellogg pact. ¢ e Now they have gone and changed the kflhtlfln golf ball again, and just as hn D. Rockefeller was getting good. —t—————— f Raskob’s Qestionnaire. | . Chairman John J. Raskob of the mocratic National Committee is con- | ced that what his party needs is a “wet” cure, if not a “water cure.” His| roposal to put a “home rule” plank | the Democratic national platform is | be taken up again at a meeting of | e committee he has called for Janu- ry 9. Mr. Raskob brought up this uestion at a meeting of the National ittee here last March, and the w it vaised was heard around the ountry, with the drys assailing the | oposal in the strongest language and lormer Gov. Al Smith urging the com- ittee members to give Mr. Raskob & fehance to state his case. At that time | Raskob was convinced that it would | ‘Mot be wise to bring the matter to a Wwote in the committee. But it looks Jnow as though the chairman had his ydander up and would seek to force a | E:ciskm in the committee when it meets e first of the year. The effect of such a proceeding is| roblematical. It may merely be a urtain-raiser for intra-party strife hat will carry through the whole na- lonal campaign of 1932, or it may serve clear the atmosphere. The drys ist that if Mr. Raskob persists he is ely to ruin all chances the Democrats ve for victory at the polls next year. en some of the wet leaders in the| mocratic party have grave doubts as the advisability of making prohibition party issue at this juncture, particu- Jy when it appears that the Demo- Jerats have an excellent opportunity to Win without raising this issue. But whether the prohibition question debated and voted upon at the coming ational Committee meeting or not, it mocratic National Convention next June, when the party proceeds to its platform. To & discussion issue at the National ittee . ! meeting might only be postponing the | of the dry eause. conflict between the wet and dry groups in the Democratic party. The wets have taken advantage of the business depression in the country to ride into office in a number of con- gressional elections, electing wet Demo- crats. The Democratic party seems to be the vehicle to which the wets are looking for success in their movement to repeal or rhodify the eighteenth amendment. This is distressing the dry- Democrats of the South and the West. They will resist the effort of the wets to make their party platform wet. On the other hand, wets are busy in the Republican ranks, striving to make the G. O. P. drink also at the trough. But unless all signs fail this effort will prove iruitless and the Republican party will g0 Into the campaign as the champion, nationally, if not in individual States, | ‘What will be the course of Chairman Raskob if his committee turns him down on his wet plank proposal on Jan- | uary 92 Will he resign in disgust, or | will he continue his grip on the party organization, hoping that by the time the national convention is held the wets will be sufficiently in strength to dom- | inate there? Tt is expected that when | the committee meets Mr. Raskob will have in hand replies to his question- naire on the liguor problem sent to about 90.000 contributors to the 1928 Democratic campaign fund, and that the preponderance of the answers will be in favor of modification or repeal of the dry laws, since most of the con- tributions were made by Democracs in wet States. Mr. Raskob's determination tc force | the fighting on the wet issue at the coming committee meeting is inter- preted in some quarters as an effort to | block the nomination of Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York for President | next year. There never has been the | slightest doubt, however, that Chairman Raskob has been devoted to repeal of the eighteenth amendment from the time he was first appointed to handle the Smith campaign in 1928. Whatever | he may think about Gov. Roosevelt as | a presidential possibility, there is every | reason to belleve that Mr. Raskob fis actuated by a firm conviction that na- tional prohibition is an evil. e e Official Vandalism. Penetrating the bewildering maze of official “buck passing” to pin down re- | sponsibility for the wanton destruction of the fine old elms on East Capitol street, one is able at least to learn from | the chief engineer of the Capitol power plant the reason for making the exca- | vation for the steam tunnel on the sidewalk instead of through the lnw'n! of the Library of Congress. The ex- planation is that if the tunnel were cut through the lawn the heat from the steam pipes would kill the grass! “There would be a broad stretch of brown through the verdant green of the lawn! 8o, to avoid that, the tun- nel was cut along the sidewalk and the roots of fifty-year-old trees that might have lived for a century were shorn off. In other words, if it comes down to a question whether to kill the grass or kill the trees—kill the trees to save the grass. Of course, it ought to be possible to cover steam pipes with asbestos, so that heat would not damage anything. It is absurd to believe that the steam pipes are not going to be so inclosed that they will not radiate damaging heat along their course. And if the heat from the pipes is enough to destroy grass, what will it do to the trees, pro- vided they survive the butchery al- ready accomplished? As s matter of fact, the botched job on East Capitol street cannot be jus- tified by any explanations and the ex- cuse cited above, the tender regard for the blades of grass, is merely absurd. It is apparent that the short-sighted action of the authorities becomes just another case of divided responsibility and faflure to give the necessary study to the problem. It is a fact that if the authorities had desired, they could have devised ways and means of con- structing the tunnel and laying the pipes without irreparable injury to the trees or to other shrubbery. To be- leve otherwise is to indict the profes- sional competence of the engineers. But the fact remains that no such methods were devised, and as far as anybody can learn, no great energy was expend- ed in trying to devise them. ‘The result becomes a real reason for alarm. Are the officials in charge of the various plans of beautifying the city so careless of the trees that they are willing to endanger one of the city's principal assets? Or is it a case of where no one person possesses the fore- sight or the authority to prevent such an act of vandalism as that committed on East Capitol street? It is plain that with so many com- mittees and commissions dabbling in the great Washington program, author- ity should be vested in some person or agency to prevent the destruction of trees and shrubbery, and to exercise supervision over the planting of trees and shrubbery—a supervision analagous to the power of approval of architectural appearance possessed by the Commis- sion of Fine Arts. The repetition of such flagrant and thoughtless acts as already have taken place on East Cap- itol street should be impossible, in the future. ————— Presiding chairmen have found that one similarity between a cactus and a caucus is that both are difficult to sit down hard on. S A Century of Service. Its work is not of a character that lends itself to spectacular portrayal, yet there are few subordinate branches of the Federal Government whose ac- tivities rival in importance the opera- tions of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- vey. Director R. S. Patton has just submitted to the Department of Com- merce, under which the survey func- tions, its one hundredth annual report, giving a backward glance descriptive of the growing duties of this scientific public service bureau. It is a history of a century which has seen unceasing examination and studies of tiie earth and of the waters, In that *distant period during the administration of Andrew Jackson, when the Coast and Geodetic Survey was launched on its mission, surveying was limited almost entirely to the de- lineation of property boundaries. With land plentiful, property owners could not afford accurate surveys, even kiad methods of making them been avatlable. The pregrem proposed by the original j\ud OF the service, Ferdinand Hassler, . THE EVENING STAR. WASHINGTON, and adopted, was for a survey of the entire coast; to be executed piecemeal, it is true, but with accuracy, continuity and fidelity, the whole fixed by a precise framework of geodetic control, every adjacent part correctly fitting. Since the World War revolutionary changes and advapces have been re- corded in the fields the survey traverses. Based on the utilization of the velocity of sound in sea water, a surveying ves- sel while traveling at full speed is now able to compile a continuous profile vf the bottom. Visibilty of land or weather conditions are non-essentials. The rate of progress is multiplied and permits the definite gompletion of proj- ects formerly expected to extend into the indefinite future. In the rcalms of tide studies, geodetic control survey and gmpplnz of new airways Director Pai’on's report also records progress- of importance. The Coast and Geodetic Syrvey maintains tide stations. Their continuous opera- tion furnishes the basic data for the intelligent execution of engineering works along the coasts. As tides are caused by the attractive force of the moon and the sun, the layman, and in- deed many engineers, thinks of the tide as a universal, unvarying world phe- nomenon. Science now makes it pos- sible to predict with certainty the future daily occurrence of the ocean tide. Re- gional differences are the result of terrestrial rather than astronomical fac- tors. In view of the rapid economic development America’s shores are un- dergoing, there is need for a proper advance realization of the probable effect of contemplated projects. This effect today is d@:finitely ascertainable. There is at present in operation an expanded geodetic control survey pro- gram, to be completed in some fifteen years. Inasmuch as all engineering operations of any magnitude require ac- curate positions, directions, distances and elevations, this Federal program of geo- detic contro: will furnish the framework for the engineer to place his surveys in their true geographie positions. ‘The Coast and Geodetic Survey is en- gaged in making a series of ninety-two sectional airway maps eventually to cover the entire United States. Thus a Government bureau originally charged with exploration only of the land and the adjacent sea has now, like the rest of the world, t!:l(en to the air. = N o The old-time bandit, like Dick Turpin, made a rural inn his headquarters, but refused to bother its proprietors, staff or guests. His work was done on lonely Toads, far away. The present -and meaner species of stick-up artist makes for such a hostelry and goes through everybody. Just another example of modern efficiency. ——— - Some one has estimated that if a customer should ask for exactly one order of everything on the menu card of a high-priced metropolitan restau- rant his check would total $11,347.75. And it is a fair bet that if any client ever did such a thing, and did it late in the evening, a search of the itemized list would reveal that old friend, “Cou- vert Charge, 33. . ‘The first vessel to circumnavigate the globe, flagship of the majestic Magellan, was aptly termed Victoria. The first airplane to cross the Pacific, soon to be- come the property of the Smithsonian Institution, rejoices in the title Winnie Mae. That would bé a rather poor name even for an oyster-smack. ——t———— Ladies and gentlemen of the great American foot ball audience, meet a favorite, thrilling old-time character! He has been away & long time and came back late this season, but it is sincerely hoped he will stick around. The refer- ence is to Mr. Field Goal. SRS T R The State of Chihuanua, Mexico, it is announced, has an average of two and vone-half governors a year. That must be the record Louisiana is striving to beat. ———————————— Both stocks and stockbrokers are dropping less frequently these days. ‘The phrase “as good as his bond” also begins to mean something again. ———r—t——————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Prospectus. A joyous world will make its way ’Neath skies forever blue, If all that the press agents say Comes absolutely true. We'll never see a show that's bad, Nor read a book that’s poor; No speculation will prove sad. Suceesses will be sure. So let us bid him persevere And ply his £kill anew, This earth may be a better sphere ‘When all he says comes true. Precocious Demonstration. “That infant next door cries con- stantly.” “And yet,” mused Senator Sorghum, | “I don't believe he actually has any-| thing on his mind. He's probably just filibustering.” Jud Tunkins says nobody does any- thing so well that somebody doesn't think he could do it better if he was to take the trouble to try. Peace With Safety. I would not shoot a fellow man Upon the land or sea, Excepting to forestall his plan For trying to shoot me. Keeping Up-to-Date. “Do you approve of hero worship?” “Not in these days of feminine su- premacy,” replied Mr. Meekton. “I ap- prove of nothing but heroine worship.” Considerations of Weight. “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look!” declaimed Caesar. “Maybe we'd better take a chance on him, at that,” interrupted Antony, in a whisper. “You know, nobody ioves a fat man.” Human Speech. The' man who talketh night and day But little will reveal. For one who hath too much to say Hath something to conceal. But he who seldom doth express His mind in public phrase— Look out for him! He's more or lesr D. C., TUESDAY. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Cleverness, which often materializes as flippancy, is at its worst in letter writing. The attempt to be clever had better be Teserved for speech, rather than a belabored epistle which rubs the reader the wrong way. Why is it that so many people_when they take their pen in hand thirk that they must be witty and gay, when all the time ‘but one thing is Tequired of them, and that is to say what they want to say as well as they can. In other words, a communication be- tween friends has byt one idea, and that is to tell what has happened which the other does not know. Integral with this idea is another, | thet of building up what has been lost through absence. Absence may make the heart grow fgnder, as the old song had it. but also | it has another effect. well known to those who have stopped to think hon- estly about it. Absence tends to tear down the elab- orate bonds of convention which may have been built up between two friends. This creation is mostly an elaboration ? the mutual likes and dislikes of the wo. Its healch depends upon a constant interchange of views and opinions. Talk, between friends, is like the health- ful rain which makes plants grow. Separation is the drought of friend- ship. The longer it lasts the smaller Tows the creation which was built up tween them. Little by little it disap- pears, so that when the two meet, years later, thy discover, often to their real surprise, that they are strangers again. * ok ok ok Except among youngsters, the con- versation of friends is not along the | lines of flippant cleverness, in most cases, but rather is simply an nonest expression of views. Genuine cleverness is the successful | achievement of wit and humor, whereas ittempted cleverness is a faflure in those media. It is unfortunate that there is not one really clever person out of ten thousand human beings. If there was a greater proportion, there would not be so_many silly letters written. The {nteresting letter-writer should remember that a sheet of paper is cold, and that ink is black or blue, as the case may be, and that between the pa- per and the ink no flashing smiles in- | tervene, nor bright eyes shine. What might be accepted in conversa- tion as bordering on the clever will fall flatter in a letter than the paper it is written upon. There is no smile between those lines, and it requires a master to put one there. Are you a master letter-writer? 1If so and you admit it, you may do very well to wax bright and intriguing in your letters to folks. But be sure ou are clever before you | 80_ahead. If you have any doubts about it (and it 1s well to have a few doubts about most things), stick to plain, old, honest statements of fact. * % k% Do not bubble. There is nothing silller than a letter | which bubbles over with good cheer. Old-time newspaper writers some time tell cub reporters, “There is no better lead than a plain statement of fact.” A “lead,” in newspaper parlance, means the opening paragraph or paragraphs of a news story (article). There is no better letter than one which contains a series of plain state- ments of fact, following one another in logical and chronological order. Leave out the metaphors and similes and cute sayings and let the letter tell itseif simply and honestly. This does not mean, of course, that one should cut one’s self off from all attempt at ornamentation. Let this ornamentation, however, take the road of elaboration rather than |of furbelows of current catches and | bright words. | * k k¥ Elaboration is one of the least un- derstood features of the art of letter writing. It means not mere detail in |the telling of events, but the previous | searching out of all the details which |are interesting. | If any one believes this is an easy | task, he should read some of the old letters he has written, when Ie will see that he invariably left out many details | which he should have added and in- cluded a few, alas, which had no real | place in the missive. This brings us to the one point on They do not sufficiently plan their let- Iters. Although they know better than any one else the friend to whom they are writing and just what interests him when they start to write, they commenly forget his interests and stick sclely to their own. ‘This would not be so bad, since they have many interests in cosmon, if it were not for the tendency on the part of the average letter writer to forget that the material of most personal mis- sives is trivial. “Trivia,” a title given to a small book of small essays, might well be used as the descriptive of the average letter written by friend to friend. ‘There is no reason to be ashamed of this. Who is there, reading some col- lection of letters written by some fa- mous man, who has not felt that the fellow had one eye on posterity:and the other on his pocketbook all the time? In other words, such “letters” are dishonest letters, because they kept in mind the necessity for perusal by a third party, or many third parties. % B A truly good letter is so personal that |it must contain many trivial details which will be of interest only to the one who writes and the one who reads. All good “collections” tend to make the right sort of reader somewhat ashamed of himself for “listening in” on what | he realizes was meant for just two hu- min eyes, and those two assuredly not | his own. ‘Trivialities will go a long-way to make one’s letters interesting, and save one from the necessity of striving for effect. It is this sarfie striving which Tuins so much good writing. How | unnecessary it is! All one has to do, es- | pecially the letter writer, who writes | solely for friendship, not for pay, is to tell what has happened and what one thinks, and let the result go forth in_the mails. | _ There need be. in a letter, no rheto- | rical strainings, no series of questions, |in the manner of the pompous sec- | ondary school student who is trying | his best to imitate Cicero. Happily, in letter writing one may | forget all that Shakespeare ever wrote, and proceed to do nothing more serious than honestly relate what has hap- pened in the interim, with one's per- sonal reflections upon those happen- ings. Later, if one happens to become & fa- mous man, these episties, gathered by some industrious hand, may strike pos- | terity as the zenith of the art of letter writing, and not because of their clev- erness (which is ephemeral), nor for their wit (which is evanescent), but simply because they achleve what all good writing achieves: They say what the writer intended them to say. Only he who has served in some edi- torial capacity fully understands how much writing is written in which the writer fails to say what he wanted to | say. He may he is saying it—but the reader thinks otherwise. Clarity, clearness, honesty of expression—phrase it any way you like, it still remains | the same thing, one of the most desired | and least attained of all qualities of " good letter writing. Highlights on the Wide World Excerpts From Newspapers of Other Lands . L MESSAGGERO, Rome.—People who complain about the present conditions have very little concep- tion of what might have been the state of affairs had Signor Musso- I lini not developed within Italy a na- | tional, rather than an individuaal, con- test. Prior to the evolution of Fascism as & political doctrine little restraint was put upon the entertainment of dis- cordant views, and the Communists and other disaffected organizations had be- gun to disseminate theories throughout the land. Against these trends, Signor Mussolini welded loyal opinion in the Fascist party and erected a barrier to corrupt and disin- tegrating practices. Today, under the new regime, even agriculture has become more produc- tive, as if Nature herself smiled upon the better order. Transportation and other public facilities have greatly im- proved; mercantile shipping has been increased, and the sons of Italy prefer to remain within her boundaries rather than to emigrate to foreign shores. In these days Italians place the interests of their country above their private de- sires and projects. Criticism of Il Duce, even in foreign lands, is no longer hostile. EEE Ask Tighter Tax Law To Check on Tip Receivers. ‘The Daily Mail, London.—Income tax experts are suggesting that there may be a tightening up in the methods of assessing the incomes of people such as hotel porters, waiters and taxicab drivers, whose earnings mainly consist of tips. The difficulty is that in many of these cases only the persons con- cerned know the full total of their tips. At some of the leading hotels and restaurants the principal porters and walters are reputed to be in receipt of incomes, derived often solely from tips, running into four figures. It was stated at a catering trade in- quiry recently that a London hotel porter, who had returned his income at £2,000 a year, received a note from the authorities intimating that they could not accept such a low assessment of his income. * ok k% Germany to Cut Salaries Of Teachers and Judges. Cologne Gazette.—In its effort to economize in every possible direction the government has now promulgated new schedules affecting the salaries of all school teachers. Worse that, at least 10,000 teachers will be dismissed from their posts. It is claimed in ex- tenuation of this drastic action that many people are no longer able to send their children to school because of in- ability to buy for them suitable clothes or provide the books and equipment necessary for their attendance. The salaries of all teachers retained will be reduced as much as 10 or 15 per cent. Besides these reductions affecting the scholastic departments of the nation, public officers, including mayors, coun- cilmen, judges and all classes of public industrial service, will have their re- munerations reduced. These changes will be most fundamental in the smaller cities where these offices and services may be more hnm;les;fly‘fltspemed with. * Japan's Activities in Manchuria Checked. ‘The Japan Times, Tokio.—Japan's Plcll’ul enterprises in Manchuria dur- ng the last 10 or 15 years have been checked by China's persistent ignoring of our right to lease lands in South Manchuria assured to this country by the treaty of 1915. Tie Chinese au- thorities have taken a series of steps in order to ermm. the lease and pur- nds by chase of Japanese and Inclined to truthful ways, “Sotae men,” sald Uncle Eben, ‘“is born great; but dey’s liable to have a heap o' difficulty in ’tn up to de 'sponsibilitg.” 5 Koreans, thereby depriving them of the | means of livelihood. That treaty was ‘concluded between China and Japan after much wrangling, during which we showed our determination to appeal to force of m if need be, in order to have it , because their prejudicial | its contents | by |are nothing but what China had al- ‘ready given other foreign countries in Manchuria. Because of Chuna's outrageous policy | of disregarding our treaty rights in this respect, Japanese in the interior of | South Manchuria had to retreat to the leased area of the 8. M. R., where they had to carry out a cut-throat competi- tion among themselves, to the great economic loss of this nation. Not only the Japanese, but also some 800,000 Koreans in Manchuria, have been suf- fering because of this problem. They have been faced by serious economic difficulties which sent many of them back to their native land. ‘While our own people are forced to evacuat¢ the interior of South Man- churia because they are-not itted to lease land there, millions Chinese have poured into that from China proper. The South Manchuria Railway seems (o exist for the exclusive interests of Chinese citizens. . R Montevideo Paper Discontinues English Page. Imparcial, Montevideo.—We regret to announce that we have found it advis- able to discontinue, for#the present at least, our English page, due to unex- pected difficulties encountered in the composing room. le there has been no appreciable scarcity of material for these columns, it is natural that our printers would make some slight errors in mechanically setting up copy the language of which was entirely strange :fhthem.k 4 Ba'lgel,d‘ml.‘l:y of our Eng- sh-speaking friends, it appears, read the page more to ascertain what mis- takes we made than did so in appreci- ation of our efforts to regale them in their own language. Inasmuch, too, as there has been no actual necessity for the %age, due to the fact that few of our English fellow residents are unac- quainted wtih Spanish, we will omit this page until the omens presage a more propitious reception. e India’s Constitution. From the New York Sun. Fragmentary reports of the proposed constitution for India represent its pre- liminary draft as embodying the gen- eral principles which are the founda- tion of the fundamental law of the United States. A government of care- fully defined powers with three depart- ments and a bicameral legislature is projected. The hest court would be subject to the call of the executive for advice; Massachusetts lays a similar obligation on the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth. Objection frequently is made to a written constitution on the ground that it renders inelastic the governmen: which operates under it. The British Constitution 1is unwritten; Bryce de- fined it as “a mass of precedents car- ried in men’s minds or recorded in writ- ing,” and Pollard, in his “Evolution of Parliament” (1926), says that “written constitutions are, in the main, expres- slons of distrust which a people feels of its people.” Yet it is obvious that in setting up a government of India satisfactory to the Indians represented by Gandhi, codification of the “mass of precedents” is pract unavoid- able, just as it was una le whe the 13 sovereignties which u‘ners.d from -the American Revolution decided to create a new government vitalized by powers they intrusted to it. S Like They Settle Their Own? From the Omaha World-Herald. An extremely delicate international situation—that Chinese muddle. One to be handled with tongs. g Maybe He, But Not Us. From the Worcester Daily Telegram. Prof. John Princeton of says we'll be l%t« 2050. What hn L NOVEMBER which most letter-writers fall down. ! of its government or a government feels | that 24, 1931. NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM L G M. CROWDED YEARS: The Reminis- cences of Wuiliam Gibbs McAdoo. Boston: Houghton, Miffiin Co. Politics is business. Business is poli- tics. Neither, exclusively this. Both, in major bulk, just that. Any sizable situation of public concern indicates it. Any crisis of national breadth and depth demonstre‘es it. Political science is, at bottom, eco- nomics. Economics is that combination of natural resources and applied science from which dertve industry, trade, finance, each deveioping by the logic of its own inherencies to meet a world's demand for the commodities of life. ‘The whole ntluenced and in a meas- ure controlled. by legislative enactment. In essence this 1= politics, Materialism? ~Maybe. Certainly a far call from that older day when the two great political partles sallied forth in hostile “armics, each to save “a mighty and frce people” from the false and dangerous doctrines of the other. ! Days of sentiment and sound, when, roundabout election time, “principles of pure government,” “sound party pol! tics,” “‘sacred legacy of the fathers. and so on, blazed out from the periodic | imbroglio of political campaigns. Not entirely gone, even yet, those days of eloquence and oratory, It took the World War, however, to identify business with pelitics, to bring the lat- ter out of the skies for a look around upon a pressure so imminent, so mon- strous, as to silence words, as to evoke action. Then, suddenly, the business man and the statesman became one in action, as they are indutiably one in general mission and intent. The Great War movement began with the mobilization of business and its representatives. Industry, trade, finance came hurrying to form an ac- tive part of the Government, to become avowedly for the time being, political elements of th: Government itself. Ar- rived, these magnates of industrial and financial success found the President's cabinet already officered by business men. Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War; William McAdoo, Secretary of the Treasury, and su on down the line. Moving ahead tcr a minute, the plan was so successfu!, so patently the only plan holding hope, that today the Presi- dent of the United States is primarily a business man, as he should be, must be. The Secretary of the Treasury is a business man, financier, as he so clearly has to be. * Kk Mr. McAdoo's “Reminiscences” in- vite us back into the activities of war time. Further back, also, since these encompass his life, up to the time, 1919, when he left public service. In this survey two points are out- standing and impressive. The war period of course, paramount. Then there is that other time, that time when the Hudson River Tunnel moved out of this man’s mind into a great industrial reality. That is a fasci- nating story, an exciting adventure in the domain of actuality. clear refutation, that Hudson River affair, of the comm:n claim that the business man is unimag- inative, prosaic to the bone. In truth, the great industrialist projecting this or that of high usefulness—a dam, a bridge, or other such of utilitarian aim and end—is essentially the poet, the artist, merely embodying in material substance that which, perfect and ccm- plete, has lived in his own mind—the pattern of a dream. However, back to the records, back to the rememberings of a pressed and hurried business man. i An interesting book. ~Primarily, be- cause the man himself is interesting. A communicable man, with much of worthwhile to say, to tell. Aside from this indubitable triumph of personality set to words and recordings, there is here a deeply substantial quality, an element of permanence, a content of practical usefulness. At close hand, in a spirit of partaking, Mr. McAdoo re- views the presidential campaign of 1912. The captious may point out that there is too much of something like geossiping report right here—say, about the McComb quarrel and other tempo- rary makeshifts of getting a President clected. But the carper can always skip or skim over the somewhat weak spots in a really strong structure. So he can here move on to a first-hand, authentic account of the trials and Vicissitudes that waited upon the crea- tion of the Federal Reserve act, the shlgplnk bill, the administration of the railroads and other vital measures leading to a declaration of war by the United States and to subsequent activities with which this member of the Wilson cabinet was in close touch, with which he was, also, in an atti- tude of keenly intelligent analysis and appraisal. Personalities here? Plenty of them. Quite human, as well, in substance and slant. Nothing to name, however, since here is an immediate, frank, sin- cere body of fact pertaining to Amer- ica’s part in the World War. A con- tribution that is bound to grow in value when, the event moved back into a longer past, original sources of information will be in demand for historic uses. =k WASHINGTON AS A BUSINESS MAN. By Halsted L. Ritter. Illustrated. New York: Sears Publishing Co. George Washington, were he living right now, would be a business magnate of the first rank. Ever since his own day, records and rumors of the great man's capacity for practical affairs have persisted in more or less haphazard fashion. At hand, however, is docu- mented assurance that the rumors were founded upon fact—were drawn, indeed, from the somewhat fragmentary, floating truths that in time ever become part of legend itself. Mr. Halsted Rit- ter has done admirable service for read- ers generally in gathering up evidence, in embodying such evidence, to an available source of information. A most interesting book. But, you see, there was no such thing as “business” a century and a half ago or thereabout. Not proper business, not as this giant of modern day: comports himself. True, there was an inexhaust- ible supply of land. And Washington became a great landholder. There was no trade, not any much beyond the bounds of mere barter. Each house- hold was a self-contained unit, a sort of home-bound factory. Spinning its cwn cotton and wool, weaving its own cloth and dyeing it, cutting and sew- ing its own garments, shoeing its own horses, tinkering its own kitchen wares and so on in an infinite ingenuity im- posed by necessily, truly “the mother cf invention.” But such business as there was for him Washington took into 2 keepln&ol scrupulous painstaking and exactitude. An organizer by gift and practice, he ordered every department of his activities in a,mlnner to cause the modern expert efficiency man to sit up and look around a bit. Washing- ton’s diary tells of a fishing industry, of a wheat and flour business, of cattle and horse breeding from Belgian and English stock, of sheep raising. The. ciaries and document left by this clearly modern economist disclose him as & farmer, as realtor, as industrialist in many lines, as expansionist looking off far beyond the Appalachians to set- tled communities—towns, cities, farms— t some day would be vastly more real than his dreams of them could possibly be—yet. And in each of these pursuits ~and occupations George Washington was of modern scientific kidney. His library was stocked with authorities from England and other- where, bringing him up-to-date ways and means of business procedure. ‘Then came the war, his war, the Revolution. And this business man, financier, community center man, hav- ing helped to make and secure the Constitution, went to war as its head and front. With him he took the in- dustrial and political wise man that he had already proved h!m’::lé to be. hThe organizing power that wrought so successfully in land dealirigs, in live stock improvements, in financial ad- ju-unmu of means to ends—well, he took ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Readers of this newspaper are Te- minded that this department does not | | undertake to_give advice on legal, | medical or financial matters. Any | question of fact, however, will be an- | swered by personal letter, without cost to the reader save a 2-cent stamp for | !'the reply postage. Writers must give | | their full names and addresses and | state their questions clearly. all inquiries to The Star Information ) Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, | { Washington, D. C. | | Q. Are motion |ing foot ball tactics?—V. G. | | A Many tcams use motion pictures | | for instruction, especially slow motion. ictures used in teach- | | @ How many gold 50-cent coins, | with a miner and gold pan on one side |and a bear on the othar, were minted | in 1925 during California’s diamond | jubilee?—L. C. | A. The coins were of silver, not of | | gold, and were issued in commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Cali- | | fornia’s admission to the Union. One | | hundred and fifty thousand of the coins | were issued. Q. How old is Seth Parker?—E. W. A. He is 29. Q. Please settle this argument. Did our Thanksgiving day originate in Great Britain or America?—K. 8. M. | A. Thanksgiving day as it is ob- | served in this country originated with | the Pilgrim fathers in New Epgland, | who set aside a day in order that they | might give expression to their sense | of gratitude for the crops and the safe | | keeping of the little colony. Q. How old are President von Hin- denburg’s children?—S. F. : | A, The President of Germany has ! one son and two daughters. The eldest, | I'mengard, is 51; Oaskar is 48, and | Annemarie is 40. . Which is correct—by me doing so | | or by my doing s0? By you coming to IWBshh\gmn or by your coming?— | B. McL. A. Nouns and pronouns which modify gerunds must be in the possessive case. 't is correct to say, “by my doing so” |and “your coming. Q. If a person can trace his ancestry directly back to an early English and Scotch King, can he use the royal coat { of arms of that King?—C. R. A. No one but the King is entitled to is true of the crest. Any member of the clan to which the King belongs is entitled to wear the plaid. Q. From what version of the Bible is the Book of Common Prayer which is used in the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country?—W. E. D. 3 A. from the Authotized Version of | 1611. Q. How long did it take Col. and Mrs. Lindbergh to fly across the country in 1930?—D. B. A. In 1930 Col. and Mrs. Lindbergh established a transcontinental speed record ci 14 hours 45 minutes 32 sec- onds. This record was later broken. Q. How many cords of wood would a tree the size of the Gen. Sherman make?—W. G. S. A. The board measure of the tree is 600,120 board feet cf lumber, equal to about 100,000 cubic feet or something over 1,200 cords. Q. Does dynamite need a spark to explode 1t?—A. L. W. A. It will explode under certain con- ditions even though no spark or flame Address | in use the royal coat of arms. The same | = perature so that, according to Elsster, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, the fall on it of a dime will explode it. Q. Was Ireland’s population notice- ably decreased by famine in the nine- teenth century?—L. S. P. A. It is prcbably not far wrong to attribute a large part of the reduction total population from 8.175.124 in 1841 to 4,390,219 in 1911 to famipes. Q. What is the range of temperature in Honolulu?>—S. W. A. The extreme range is 52 degrees to 88 degrees, with an average of 70 Cegrees. Honclulu is famed for its mild, equable climate. Q. Were any other countries except Spain represented in the fleet which constituted the Spanish Armada’— W. W. A. The Armada which safled to at- tack England consisted of 130 ships, most of which were Spanish, but some of which were Portuguese and some Italian. The flagship was El Capitana and other capital ships were the San Martin, Santa Ana, Senora de la Rosa, Raba Coronada, San Juan and San Pedro. In each ship six choir boys sang “Buenas Dias” each morning and “Ave Marfa” each evening. Q. Canr a person go from New York | to Brazil by automobile?—E. M. A. At the present time, a motor trip to South America is not feasible. Plans for a highway to link the Americas arc being formed. It is possible now to motor as far south zs Monterey, Mex- ico, over good roads, and even to Mexico City, if the “traveler is willing to use unimproved roads. Coming north, a motor car recently proceeded from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Lima, Peru, but with extreme difficulty. At various stages of the trip, the drivers experi- enced ¢gnany hardships, owing to lack of roads in certain sections. Q. Do people who believe in evolu- tion contena that man is descended from the monkey?—O. P. A. They do not. The modern theory of evolution states that man and the anthropold ape are derived from a com- mon ancestor. Q. Who i the drum major in the United States Marine Band?>—C. B. T. A. Hiram H. Florea. Q. When was cut glass invented?— R. H A. The invention of cut glass seems to be somewhat obscure. It was made in Bohemia early in the seventeenth century and introduced into England in 1719. However, some authorities be- lieve tizat cut glass was not unknown to the ancients. It was probably produced in a more primitive manner. Q. Are farmers in general making a study of the agricultural situation?— S. 8. A. The fact that about 845,000 farm- ers have attended some 12,000 agricul- tural outlook meetings this year shows their desire to profit by study of farm management and other phases of agri- cultural economics. Q. How fast does the Army travel under its own locomotion?—D. A. A. The average number of miles per hour which a regiment of Infantry, Cavalry and Field Artillery fully equipped travels is as follows: Infantry, 2% miles; Cavalry, 4 miles at walk, 8 miles at trot or 6 miles per hour aver- age; Field Artillery, 4 miles per hour. Q. In which of Emerson's essays is be present. It is sensitive to blows and this sensitivity increases with the tem- “Hitch your wagon to a star"?—G. E. H. A. In “Civilization.” Inconsistency is found by many in the report to President Hoover by the to study educational problems. The committee’s recognition of the right of the States to control their educational systems, it is pointed out by some, does not square with its advocacy of a De- partment of Education, with a post in the cabinet. Speaking of the Federal official at the head of the service, the New York Herald Tribune asks: “Is a promo- tion in rank compatible with a reduc- tion of power?” That paper ccntinu “Wouldn't a cabinet be more in- clined than a bureau head to build up the prestige and autnority of his office? Are the administrative advantages which the committee evidently fore- sees for such a_department worth the rifilfi outlined? Wad ask th:c nmmoe: with an open mind, though we balie | that the burden of proof rests with the advocates of the innovation.” “The department,” as understood by the Baltimore Sun, “in the conception of the committee’s majority, would serve primarily as an educauional clearing house, research center and repository of various educal al agencies now scattered around in Washington.” The s have at “it will be difficult for most le to see how a firm indorsement of decentralization of educational authority and the estab- lishment of a Federal Secretaryship of Education can be made to march in harmony.” 2 “It isn't necessary,” contends the Louisville Courier-Journel, “to place 2 dummy in the President's cabinet to accomplish reform. No officer of that rank long would be content in a posi- tion inferior to Agriculture, Labor and Commerce. If the committee really op- poses the ‘centralized theory’ and ad- heres to the fundamental principlé of local control, it would be better to for- mulate a policy of Federal co-operation and commit its execution to the office of education in the Intesfor Depart- ment.” * kK K “The American taxpayer needs a Secretary of Education—the same way he needs three thumbs,” advises the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, which charges “strategy” in the committee’s report, because its plea for a Secretary of Educa- tion is prefaced by a furious flaying of the evils of the very Federal interfer~ ence in school affairs which would ac- tually be attendant upon creation of the propsed new secretaryship.” The ‘Worcester Evening Gazette is con- vinced that “the place for the trial of methods is within the States, in the iocal communities, which have always been our laboratories of democracy and shoul‘(li remain our laboratories of peda- “The perfect system of education,” thinks the Charleston (S. C.) Evening Post, “is not known, nor, perhaps, will it ever be found. In its very nature, there ties he made an army. His army. And he won the war. His war. To be sure, it was a hard and terrible war—hunger, rags, no shelter, going ahead when every impulse was to beg off, to lie down. No, no, nothing like that. The organization had no fatally weak spots in it. The War of Independence cre- ated in potential fact the great Ui States that we know. The ol War, by the way, save the last one, where a perfectly conceived organization, where @ carefully preserved ory tion, gave the complete victory that all of our other wars—except the War with Mex- ico—failed to secure. An absorbing story for any American to read, anc to read in the truly par- to command in this new sort’of asso- ‘Washington High honor must go to the author who sought out this particular Fnl.nt from which to give us a com M{ current. of the business man af his job, back a century and a half ago, national advisory committee sppointed | taking sense that Americans are able | play Cabinet Post for Education Arouses Strong Opposition be dogmatic about edu- cation, and ly it becomes so if ucracy to play of thought, and if our educational system becomes paralyzed by bureau- cratic control we shall be worse off than if we had no schools at all.” * % % % “The recommended hands-off policy, even were it adpoted for the time being just to get the Federal Government intrenched in educational affairs, would soon revert to the present policy of Federal interference,” in the opinion of the Lynchburg News, while the Lowell Evening for the furtherance of their own educa- tional ideas.” The Chicago Daily News argues that “all precedent supports the kelief that the tendency to eneroachment upon local control would be increased by the creation of such an office.” The, Hartford Times avers that “the com- mittee sets up a rather attractive and quite defensible plan; but its weakness is that it.lends itself very readily to icreased Federal control of education.” Holding that “education is emphati~ cally a problem for the local com- munity,” the Cincinnati Enquirer ad- vises that “once education is intro- duced in the cabinet, our public school system is destined to become the in- strument of Federal policy.” More favorable is the statement by the Dallas Journal that “the recom- mendations are highly constructive, de- te some observat attached to them that seem to be almost in con- flict.” That paper continues: “The most emphatic items are those which relate to extension of Federal financial aid to the States in support of 1 of education, urging limitation in this field by enacting no new Federal aid laws and by amending others to an extent that will check any tendency toward interference with the educa- tional autonomy of the States. The committee's report and views will un- doubtedly provoke more serious official consideration of the educational policy of the nation, and are well designed to assure reforms and changes that will further this most vital interest of the American people.” ——— Exulting Becomes O’Neill. From the Atlanta Journal. Eugene O'Neill has evidently, in the language of one critic, done it again. He has again demonstrated his genius for morbid and introspective character analysis. He has stripped the skin and flesh from several human souls and forced them to march exposed before the riveted eyes of his audience. He once more shown his scorn for normalcy in playeraft, producing out of his electric mind a play of 14 acts, with dinner intermission, which has become the hallmark of the latter O'Neill man- ner. All the critics were appropriately moved by “Mourning Becomés Electra,” as presented in New York by the The- ater Guild. In so far as playgoers are concerned, they are interested chietly in the fact that a new O'Neill drama is bu"!n, and that the stage is enjoying one of lits very rare “events.” The story is a “rewrite” of an ancient Greek trag- edy, and none is better fitted to elabo- rate and deepen the spell of the stark nited | Greek drama than O'Neill. We gather that the show was rather depressirfg. That is inevitable. People who go to the theater to see O'Neill do not to come away with larking spirits. 'We hear that the audience sat stunned for several moments after the final curtain fell, and then gave a 10- minute ovation to the playwright. Burns Mantle probably epitomized the when he wrote that *I ae O'Nelll's greatest tragedy is artistical the | important and physically wearing.” circumstan is a regrettable ice that near- ly all artistically important things are 3 is is cne great advantage of, say, Marx brothers, who have never been called artistically important, hut who contribute a great leaven to th: A 7 [