Evening Star Newspaper, December 15, 1931, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 193\ . EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C TUESDAY. .. .December 15, 1931 . Editor THEODORE W. NOYES The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office : s Ofice. 110 East 420d 8t e_Michigan Bullding. Regent. K., London, and. 11th St x York Office. Rate by Carrier Within the City. ‘The Evening Star 45¢ per month The Evening and Sunday Siar (when & Sundays) The Evening and_Sunduy (when 5 Sundays) .. 65¢ per morth The Sunday Star .. 5c Ler copy Collection made at the end of each month. Orders may be sent in by mail or telephone NAtional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payabl. in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Bunday.....1yr.$1000: 1 mo., 85 Daily only -, .. 1I1yrl $6.00: 1 mo. S0c Bunday only 1yr. $400; 1 mo.. 40c 60c per month Star All Other States and Caswada. Bally and Sunday. 13r. 51200 1mo. aily only ~..U0l 1yl $8.00: 1mo. Bunday only 111110 1yrl $5.00. 1mo.l 1,00 50¢ Member of the Associated Press. - The Mapes Report. Beldom in the history of congres- slonal proceedings has there been epread upon the public records in the form of an ostensibly unbiased report, based upon an ostensibly unbiased pur- suit of the facts, such a one-sided presentation of the background, such a beclouded conception of the problem, and such a prejudiced solution as that which is presented in the report of the Sclect Commitice of the House on F Relations, the Speaker's desk today. And seldom have the ways been o thoroughly greased for the launching of hastily-considered and seriously con- tested legislative propositions as In the preparations for consideration of this report and of the bills acccmpany- ing it in the House of Representatives. The report is too long for adequate enlysis here. That will be done later through the news and editorial cclumns of The Star. A fair and full resume of the report is printed clsewhere in ‘The Star today for those to read and Judge who will. They will find a report that attempts to give a history of th> controversy over fiscal relations by the ingenious device of citing certain unrelated ex- cerpts from the findings of past com- mittees that have gone into the sub- Jject—excerpts that are for the most part irrelevant to the present inquiry and which conceal. and even distort, the full meaning, significance and spirit of those reports. There was no appar purpose served in doing tk The Mapes Comn:ittce be ashamed of ir lations 1 re- The generous Interpretation of ce’s method is to belicve ached the important sub- ject of background so listlessly that it picked at random the inacequate and misleading portions of preceding reports that it prefers to quote. Te result, how- ever, is subject to no cther interpreta- tion than the plain fact that from reac- ing these reports one would naturally conclude sclf-government by tre Dis- trict has been tried and found wanting, and that in conducting tie dangerous experiment of home rule the District financially wrecked itself, thus com- pelling an altogether unintenced rescue by Congress in the form of the fixed proportionate system of contribution. The report declares that “The fifty- | fifty law was in effect from July 1, 1878, to July, 1920, when a change was made from a fifty per cent porportion to a forty per cent proportion. * * * This * * * plan contirued until July 1, 1925, when Congress changed from the proporticnate ccntributicn to an annual contribution of $9.000.000.” ‘The report does not mention the im- portant fact that when “Congress changed” to the lump sum method of contribution, this year by year change was effected by legislative evasion of the substantive law establishing the definite proportion of s ich today remeins unchanged, though had endeavored unsuccessfully on at least two occasions to amend or repeal it; that thus legis complished by a committee of the House through the doubtful expedicnt of an- nual legislative riders propriation bills, and that the change has been perpetuated by opportunism, possicle because of the congestion that marks the procecdings of Congress, and that the Senate’s refusal to bow definitely to House dictation brought into existence the committee which made this report. In recording the finiings of its tax expert, Mr. Lord, the committee fails to mention—and the failure becomes | eloquent, so marked is it—the report of | the Burcau of Efficiency, which was | introduced in evidence before the Mapes Committee. It makes reference to cer- tain methods of computing relative tax burdens of which 1t does not approve, but it does not mention the important fact that the experts of the Bureau of Efficiency found * ington has a lower tax rate than any 1 ap of these cities (the cities compared by | the bureau), when their tax rates are | adjusted on the basis of Washington's assessed valuations per capita, Federal property holdings being incluced, as they should be, Washington's tax ratc is actually adjusted tax rate for the other cities.” Instead, it presents as fact that “the adjusted tax rate in the District of Columbia is $15.30, or $8.33 less than the average adjusted rate for all the citles (compared by the committee) and $891 less than the average adjusted Tate for the other twenty-two cities.” The committee finds reason for deep distress in the increasing and high tax- ation in other municipalities and in the rural communities, viewing with alarm as well as indignation, but fails to make any reference to the fact that it learned from the District auditor that in Wash- ington between 1920 and 1931 “the ap- propriations have increased nearly $26,- 000,000; that the District’s proportion of $9,907,000 in 1920 has mounted to $36,000,0€0 in 1931, and that the United States’ proportion of $9,700,000 in 1920 has dropped to $9,500,000 in 1931; in other wor<s, in the face of an increase of about 130 per cent during this period, the United States is paying less today ® * * by $200,000 than it did in 1920.” The committee, recommending cer- fein new tax legiclation affecting public utilities and steam railroads in the Dis- trict. suggests that bills affecting these formula for | laid on | | hat although Wash-' higher than the average | ! interests ould be considered and per- fected by the reguiar standing legisla- tive committees on the District of Columbia; that to perfect such legisla- tion would require more time and con- sideration, including the hearing of those interested and affected by the proposed changes, than this committee is jystified or warranted in taking for that purpose.” But no such hearings are suggested for the help unrepresented tax- payers of the District, for whom tie ccmmittee rep new forms of taxation. No reference 1to cormittees of these new tax bills, 1 ful utility and railroad interests, is con- sidered necessary. - [ The Cost of Armaments. On the threshold of the Geneva Dis- |armament Conference the Foreign Pol- | icy Association performs a useful service lin issuing a comprehensive report on |the world's military and naval estab- | lishments. The report is compiled from the official figures forwarded to the League of Nations by the various gov- forthcoming effort to . beat Mother Earth's swords into pruning hooks. It is an undoubtedly expensive arsenal of weapons that she now maintains, rep- resenting a total expenditure in 1930 of | $4,500,000.000. Seven great powers— | Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Germany and the United | States—spent two-thirds of that amount, | or $2,958.000.000. The Foreign Policy Association in- dicates that the ominous feature of these fi is the fact that arma- expenditure is steadily rising. The total 1930 costs were 30 per cent spent in 1 and 37 per cent more than they were devoting to armaments {in the last pre-war year of 1913. “Ex- | cluding Germany, whose armaments were drastically reduced under the Versailles treat. the report states, “the remaining six great powers were spending 65 per cent more upon arms in 1930 than in 1913." Purcly budgetary analyses of arma- ments may be misleading in many }directions. The United States, for ex- | ample, is credited with having spent $727,700.000 in 1930, or nearly $200,- 000,000 more than the next highest | figure of $535.000,000. France's outlay But it is a matter of common knowledge that the costs of produc- tion of armaments in this country, | largely because of our wage scale, are much heavier than abroad. It is {cqually well known that Uncle Sam feeds and pays his soldiers and sailors better than those occupations are cared for and compensated elsewhere. Nor does the Foreign Policy Ass tion study of armaments, complete and { informative as it is in every other re- spect, contain any suggestion of the | rigantic interests—especially in our own case—which are safeguarded by arma- | ments. The American people look upon | their military and naval expenditure as | the premium they pay each year on na- i tional life insurance. In 1930 that pre- { mium worked out at roundly seven dol- per capita. Is that an excessive rate for the 125.000,000 men, women jand children of the United States to | pay for peace, domestic tranquillity, de- | fense of our far-flung coasts and bor- { ders from foreign invasion, protection of our possessions in the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Panama Canal Zone, | the safety of our vast sea-borne com. | merce and the assurance that the Mon- | Toe Doctrine will be kept inviolate? ! 'Nonme of these arguments militates | against the genuine desire of the Amer- ican Government and people t> go | along with the rest of the world in any rational scheme of armament curtail- | ment. resident Hoover's oft-pro- clzimed assurance of our readiness to reduce as much as any other nation, provided the reduction process is uni- versal, unquestionably commands na- tional approval. It will be the United States’ keynote at Geneva, though, in- asmuch as land armaments, rather thaa navies, arc presumably the matters chiefly to be dealt with there, it is diffi- cult to imagine just what America's contribution to further reduction can ive military establishment organized force of only 7 men, which is less than one- Ralf of one per cont of the ccuntry's on. There are only one or two countries in the whole world, in- cluding treaty-disarmed Germany, that have o few of their people under arms. Relatively speaking, the United States, feon an army standpoint, is already disarmed. ——— The tag day here, thank goodness, has gone forever to join the Spring flood, malaria, horse cars and the com- I'men drinking cup! —.— Prohibition Clashes. From New York comes a report that the State Democratic Committee has again set its face against having the Democratic National Committee, at its | meeting here Jaruary 9, attempt in any | way to put the party on record on the | prohibition issue. The New York mem- bers of the National Committes will come to Washington instructed to fight {such an attempt, if Chairman John J. Raskob undertakes to have the com- | mittee go on record in the matter of | prohibition. This appears to be the answe. of the Democratic organization of the Empire State to the demand of Alfred E. Smith, the presidential nomi- nee in 1928, against “pussyfooting.” It is the same attitude that the Stite Committee took last March when Chair- man Raskob sought to force the issue at a meeting of the National Committee, It is the attitude of Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the lexding candidate today for the Dcmocratic President. The New York State Committee is not dry, nor is Gov. Rocgevelt. Both are wet. But they take the stand that the National Com- mittee has no right to attempt to bind the party on policies, that matters of policy and of platform are exclusively the provinces of the national conven- tion, which does not meet until next June. Gov. Roosevelt's campaign for the presidential nomination—conducted by the Covernor's friends and not by himself—has sought to emphasiz> the economic issues ccnfronting the coun- try and to subordinate prohibition. It is a plan of campaign which has gone well in the South and in the West. It is is not to be changed, it appears. Chairman Raskob in & recent state- ment has declared himself against com- mitting the Democratic party as either bills to blister with | | affecting the people and not the power- | ernments invited to participate in the | Italy, Soviet | nomination for | Democratic | wet or dry. But he does want the party to pledge in its platform that Demo- cratic members of Congress will vote for the submission of a referendum to the people on the liquor question. The fight in the ccmmittee may come on |such a proposal if Mr. Raskob insists upon asking the committee to indorse it. While the Democrats are looking ahead to their National Committee mesting and the part that.a discussion j of prohibition may play, the problem . has already thrust its way into the conferences of the Republican National Committce members, now meeting in | Washington. It was brought up in a meeting of the Executive Committee of . the Republican National Committee yes- | terday afternoon by the national com- mitteeman from Vermont. Almost at the same time Representative John Q. Tilson of Connecticut, former Republic- "an floor leader of the House, was put- 'ting out a statement declaring for the f return of “home rule” in control of the {liquor traffic, provided the States 'which desired to permit the manufacture land sale of intoxicoting beverages | should raise a ban against the “saloon.” The truth of the matter is that | prohibition has cut across both Demo- " cratic and Republican parties. It is a | troublesome question, which many of | the leaders would like to avoid next year. Yet it persists in thrusting itself | forwary | When the northwest wind blows hard lone can almost catch the aroma of { Chicago, nor is the reference to the ! stockyaris. It seems that a women who did absolutely nothing, and who met her sponsor at a dinner party from which she could recall but one first name, was paid regularly twice |a month by the city government, while honest, patient school teachers were | instructing and disciplining | faith, hope and charity. T Memphis, Tenn,, as has been its cus- tom for many years, puts a Yuletide moratorium on garnishments. This means that no debtor's pay can be ! garnisheed during that time. Many a | man would be glad to see an indefinite | interdiction of garnishment, such as parsley and other dinner-table “shrub- e Safety zone: An imaginary sanc- ary marked by indistinguishable lines | and having at one end a trio of camou- flaged metal hummocks which are | capable of breaking an axle, but of I neither stopping nor diverting an on- | coming automobile. e The desperate convicts who kidnaped | the Leavenworth warden and wounded him gravely cannot be blamed for all of the horrible trouble. Six shotguns are a bit difficult to smuggle into a well run prison without the connivance cf fome member of the penitentiary staff. | - r——— Scientists declare that the size of the Milky Way has been overestimated | by several hundred per cent. And, jright along that line, perhaps folks | have not spilled nearly as much as they thought and it might be a good | nlan to stop crying i e | Among the tokens sent to Mrs. Cul- bertson, bridge tournament participant, were a wishbone, a rabbit's foot and a | big bunch of gardenias, which she wore during play. Perhaps she used the first two to procure the third. I e — SHOOTING STARS, BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Unreality. Wise men figure out | That we're gravely in doubt Ab things—many things. So philosophers say, Ani the poet. so gav, Likewise sings—sweetly sings. He errs who insists Something really exists, For it seems—merely seems; And the world, with its show, | And the days, as they go, Are but dreams—idle dreams. | The pleasures we nurse, | The misfortunes we curse, | Are but shades—empty shades. O'er the mind comes a thought Like a picture swift caught. ‘Then it fades—quickly fades. We stumble and grope, | And we sometimes lose hope | 'Mid these schemes—wicked schemes. | But we'll waken some day, And we'll smile as we say, “They were dreams—idle dreams.” | Thought Stimulation. | “My speech is going to set & lot of | people thinking,” remarked the orator. “Yes,” rejoined Senator you are trying to make them think they | ought to think?” Occupation. “It pays to be a good listener.” “Yes I know a good listener who | draws a salary simply by being audi- |ence while his boss tries out funny | stories on him.” Three Cheers. Three cheers for the favorite son! Three cheers for the true local pet! For he'll find when the fight has begun | They are all he is likely to get. Another Santa Claus Theory. “Why does Santa Claus bring pres- ents to all us children?” asked little | Fauntleroy Boggs. “Did you ever see a picture of Santa Claus?” rejoined the very bad urchin. “If a feller like him come lookin’ around cur block, de boys 'ud jump him in a minute, unless he acted handsome. He has to give t'ings away to square hisself for lookin® funny.” A Symptom. “I'm afraid that boy Josh is going to turn out to be a poet.” “Why, he says he’s going to be a big banker.” “Yes. That's what convinces me that he’s one of these idle dreamers.” An Annual Vow. E'en now in slow and solemn tones we hear ‘The recolution which each day sounds surlier: “T register the promise that next year I'll surely start my Christmas shop- ping earlier.” “It's g'ineter take a long time" said Uncle Eben, “to git up a style o' gov- ernment dat is pufickly satisfactcry to all ce folks dat ain't got mo prospecks of gittin’ rich es holdin’ offics. | barking at you once more. large | | classes of small children and living on | lin his earlier novels. Sorghum, | “but are they going to think the way | THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. The old pekinese growled horribly rn;m its position on the porch. we AD, ha!” it seemed to be saying. So there you are! I have been look- ing for you for several months, but you have not been by. “Grrrl Do you not know that men in caps are not permitted along our street? “Only gentlemen in felt hats are Pproper. “GIT-r-r-r! How pleasant it s to be “There has been a gentleman walking along for several months now who looked a bit like you and who glanced ll“mt as if he knew me, too. 1 at first thought he was you. Grr-r-r-r! “But he wore a felt hat, so he could not be you, could he?” * ok ok K The old peke permitted us to pass without comment the next day when we we;;! b); ll':la standard felt. oW in thrall to the prevailing mode of felt hats the world of men and ani- mals is! There has been no tyranny in dress for a thousand years quite equal to it. The proper head covering for the male being under civilization is the felt hat. E\;‘en !henr;logs Tecognize it. e cap they associate wil m swindlers and the T, | BTN * ok ox % “You do not belong here,” barks the dog 30 the man in a cap. “You look like my master, must be all rignt,” the man in a felt. It is & commonly held opinion | that men are not so much in thrall to 80 you fawns the dog to fashion as women. It is true that they do not permit fashion experts to run their clothing up and down their legs, but in the matter of felt hats they arc hopel:ssly lost. It is not so much the shape or the color with them as the material. There is magic to felt. Maybe they feel the west wind of the fields blowing on their cheeks as they don the hat made from rabbit fur. Just 50 it is a felt, it {s all right. We know a Washingtonian who pur- | chased, for $8, & very nobby hat, That | was in the year 1926. For some reason | or other he hung the hat in his closet | and there it remained until the Fall of | 1t was & hat of generous proportions, | With a brim somewhat wider than is | being worn now, and a body (or what- | ever one calls the top part of a hat) slightly larger Its band was of cloth, in three colors, subdued, harmonizing neatly with the color of the hat. | The gentleman was somewhat hesi- tant this year about appearing in it. Surely, he thought, it would be out of style, whatever that means or doesn't mean, * ok ox % He had forgotten, however, the magic of felt When he appeared on the streets in his big hat. o one seemed to notice it. Friends even ccmplimented him on it Onc woman was astute enough to notire the band, but even she the 0od The Washingtonian then became in- terested in the subject of hats. He no- ticed t many of his friends wore rain-spotted ones, but the dogs didn't bark at them. At least seven-tenths of the hats he pit saw on the streets were soiled, but the canine population emitted no woofs or ki-yis. Some hats were large, some small, some had narrow brims, and some wide, but the dogs approved them indiscrimi- nately. Qogs haven't much sense, after all. * ok % % Men's hats in civilization are con- fined to five classes, the dominant felt, the cap. the derby, the silk hat, high hat or “topper” and the sgraw. If you want to “belong” and not have the dogs bark at you, you must wear a felt. Then you are all right. The brave defenders are slightly sus- picious of a derdy, or “iron hat,” as the irreverent sometimes call it, but usually are willing to permit its passage. The high hat of evening dress some times is barked at. The straw, in se son, will pass unnoticed. If worn in Winter, the straw will be greeted with derision even by the staidest business man, some of whom, in a spirit of juvenile jocularity, may even punch it furtively. * K % ok Special occasions permit the wearing of special hats. Such {s the law. If one is attending a convention, or something, on= may don a fez, or & turban, or a dinky felt of bright red, and even if it sports a yellow band, it is all right. If one is a member of a band, one may wear almost anything. Steel workers swathe their heads in bright bandanas, and every one ad- mires them for their nerve, Let an ordinary mortal, however, wear what he pleases in the hat line, and he will discover that he is not a steel worker ncr a member of the band. He is just a plain fool. * ok ok ok What is there about a different sort of hat to excite anything more than a glar.ce? he jov of life ought to be seized upon by mankind. A varlety of different types of hats on the streets would add to the color of otherwise drab avenues, but men appear, in 5o far as their head cover- ings are concerned, as like as peas in_pods. Their daring, In this respect, is closely held down to the startling in- novations of gray and brown. But it has always been in the little things than mankind has been the biggest fool. Humsn beings are afraid of dif- fercnces, and feel better if every one looks alike and thinks alike. The world is scared of innovation, frightened at difference. CoE Is not the world, then, contemptible? s and not business One peculiarly good thing about the French novels is that in so many ot them one gets such a perfact cross fection of life. They are particularly good on picturing the foibles of humanity. ~Even their most exag- perated traits somehow chime in with the universal mood enough minding its own In them the reader sees convention | followed scrupulously in public broken | And he or she who breaks | in private. it in public Is jeered at openly. This tendency to jeer is not con- fined to the bourgecisie. Every human being knows If a different sort of hat, on a stranger's head, strikes you as peculiar —~well, you know it. But be sure, when you note differ- ences, that you have plenty of company. Even the dogs will be on your side. Highlights on the Wide World Excerpts From L DIARIO, La Paz—Dr. Alberto de Villegas delivered an address, or read an essay, whichever you T . for there was combina- ion of both, in his lecture at the Athenaeum upon the ccntemporary French literature of Maurice Barres. Born eight vears before the Franco- German War, this writer passed through, as a child, all the experiences of what the great Victor Hugo called the “year terrible” of France. “Barres,” declared Dr. Villegas, “who published his first book in 1888. when he was 26, had fresh in his mind all the horrors and decadences of war. In this little wo Taches d’Encre’ (‘Ink Spcts’), he characterized themes of strife and human persoralities under stress, afterward developed more elabo- rately in ‘Under the Eyes of the Bar- barians,’ ‘Bernice’'s Garden’ and ‘A Free Man' “All these are studies of our vaunted civilization, but rather of a civilization degenerated by domestic strife and in- ternational war worthy of the name can retain selfish- ness and hatred within its conscious- ness! During long periods cf peace—or comparatively long, for few are the epochs unmarred by wars—the animal | seem | COMeE a vast increase in the numbers| of those who wish to know more about | nature and instincts of men merely to slumber. When aroused they are more vile and passionate than ever. No matter to what degree of refinement and intelligence we may be raised, when opportunity is offered fcr a choice we Alas, that any culture | wspapers of Other Lands given the order for fear of hitting their own men. It was shown, however, that the calalry were grouped midway on one side of the plaza, out of the gzone of fire from the batteries, and that it was not until other artillery officers obered the command that the hostile threat was immediately thwartes. The real situation was depicted at the trial with unimpeachable exactitude. * ok % % Salinas Hotels Wil Not Mulct Tourists. _El Telégrafo, Guayaquil—In a letter directed to the president of the Guaya- quil Automobile Club by one of the hoteP proprietors in Salinas, this gen- tleman declares that his establishment is one. at least, which is not operated f-r the sole purpoce of muleting tour- ists, and even goes to the length of asserting that the charges of all the hotels in Salinas are moderate and reasgnable in comparison with the comforts and service available. There has, as our readers know. been much criticism cf the rates charged at the different hostelries catering to motorist and other tourist trade. With the construction of new roads and the improvement of old ones there has their country, or wh> are merely seek- | ing recreation, and most hotels have inn', failed to take advantage of a stimulated demand for accommoda- prefer the bad to the good, and, worse | t1ons. than that, are ready to defend our | unworthy choices with our very lives. “All these unlovely traits of human- kind Barres portrayed most ruthlessly Now he has de- picted in ‘El Yo' (‘Myself’) and ‘Potocsi’ "'a series of pictures of our latter times— times even more demoralized by the debauchery of war, which carries all the best of human gualities down to a common destruction. “When_life cheap, what chance is there for a sur- | itself becomes vile and We are glad to learn that the hctels of Salinas are not to be included in this profiteering category and feel sure that this beautiful mecca of our ex- cursionists will take on a new popu- larity under such favorable conditicns. ————s Safety in Servitude. Fromthe South Bend Tribune. An Impressive argumenteagainst un- employment insurance was offered by Every legitimate way of adding to| bit | It does too much looking askance, | | these. French pesantry and | vival of the gentler arts and graces? L. F. Loree, president of the Delaware We have forgotten charity, kindness, the | & Hudson Railroad, when he testified ideals and decencies of conduct. War has need only of every antithesis of virtue—and all these vices we have em- braced. Men cherish these days profits above principles, lust above law and love, and disgrace above dignity. “Women, too, set a momentary popu- larity above the practice of true virtu- ous living, and are willing to descend to any depths of degeneracy and pleas- ure, if, in the practice, they show & modern _sophistication and exploit a | worldly fashion, whether it be in scant | covering for their bodies, or deadly doc- trines for their souls. As men and women have loosenes their grasp on the good, they have tightened it on the bad, | until today divorce, gambling, drunken- ness and indulgence in narcotics and nicotine are the principal diversions of those who through their influence and | position should be instead a helpful ex- ample for the less responsible members of the race. | “Our depression resulted not so much | from our financial and industrial re- verses as from our mental and moral bankruptcy. We preferred pleasure and | vice to diligence, sobriety and virtue, and now we are paying the price. Thus has Maurice Barres perceived our descent to poverty and grief, and thus has he typified it in his cramatic nar- ratives.” X ER ey Artillery Officers Guilty of Inciting Revolution. A B C, Madrid.—At the military coun- il which has just brought its sessions to a close at Seville four officers of the Artillery Corps stationed' in that city were acquitted of charges of sedi- tlon during the recent rigts. Twelve others were found guilty of revolution- ary incitement and insubordination and sentenced variously to from 10 to 15 years in prison. These trials were the aftermeth of the rioting on September 11, when various anti-government groups tried to take possession of the city. The defense consisted principally of the allegation that the commandant had already orcered several cavalry squadrons into the main plaza ta dis- perse the revolutionists, and when they | ative; | create | servitude.” failed in their effort, the officers of the artillery were reluctant to fire when before a New York legislative commit- tee on unemployment. “The relation between capital, management and labor in_industry,” he said, “is an entirely voluntary one. If you charge the companies with the duty of maintain- ing the men in bad times, then you should charge the men with the duty of staying with the companies in good times; and then you set up a condi- tion of involuntary servitude.” It is frequently contended that un- employment insurance ought to be- come an American institution because it is a European institution. Those making the contention, however, ignore |the great difference between American and European employment conditions. In the United States employers and employes have exercised more initi- and for that reascn American industry has advanced more rapidly than European industry. Unemployment insurance, as view by some commentators, is a form of moral enslavement. They say that it de- prives many workers of ambition be- cause they are guaranteed support if | they do not exert themselves when op- | portunities are presenied. American industry has thrived and American labor h¢ benefited because emplcyers have becn free to choose their em- ployes and because employes have been free to choose their employers. If un- employment insurance is to nullify that desirable condition it will, indeéd, condition of involuntary e A Our Own Jaw-Breakers. From the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. ‘Why should Americans make fun of names like Przemysl and Tsitsthar when they accept, as a matter of course, name like Ypsilanti, Kokome, Oshkosh and Kalamazoo? From the Charlestown, W. Va., Daily Maf “Common Colds Demand Common Sense Treatment.” — Headline. It has taken the world a long, long time to discover this kind of treatment. Now, what is 17 And can you prove it NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM I G M. MY UNITED STATES. By Frederic J. Stimson. New York: Charles Scrib- ner's Sons, “When I was a little boy out in Towa.” Not in exact words, but such the ; spirit and mood in which “My United | States” meets its readers. A quite in- | spired facing upon the theme, it is, too. Drawn straight from the writer's true | sense of the fact, desp-held in every one’s possesaion, that his own spot of soil is, in effect, his country. The lace of his individual birth and up- inging—town, hamlet, farm—this, in the heart of him, is his United States. To be sure, as time moves on and in the measure to which experience widens and deepens, the ground plot of child- hood expands to meet the quality and extent of personal growth, Town, county, State, national commonwealth, the world itself may become the field of action, the gauge of service and suc- cess. May not, too. But whether yes try is the old home soll, the early years. These the ccncrete foundation of later diffusions end substitutions, Therefore “when I wes a little boy out in Towa” becomes a most engaging start for “My United States.” Maine, Michigan, Montana, or any other part of the Federal unit, eesily takes the place of “Iowa.” Life is of & repeti- tlous pattern, fitting every place and time. Going to bed, getting up, some work, a little play, food, clothes, shel- ter, begetting and dying. That's the real sum. And so one reads this pas- toral story of young days out where the “tall corn grows” as if it were a leaf from his own story book, away back. Then come the growing years. School, i citizens of the United States. or no, the really feeling center of coun- ! ‘Thousands of Government experts are working constantly for the benefit of all ‘They will work directly for you if you will call for the fruits of their labors through our Washington Bureau. State your inquiry bLriefly, write clearly, and, inclosing 2- cent stamp for a personal letter in re- ply, address The Washington Star, In- formation Bureau, Proderic J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Q. Are talking pictures made in Aus- tralia?—F. C. 8. A. It is reported that the first com- plete all-Australian talking film pro- gram has been exhibited in Melbourne. A company to Be known-as Australian and New Zealand National Films, Ltd., of formation. Q. Why is the hour of 11 observed by the Elks?—E. G. M. A. Originally the Elks were known as the Jolly Corks, & club of men composed exclusively of actors who usu- ally met in New York on Sunday nights in friendly fellowship, and they formed & club and the ci of drinking to tH® absent ones at 11 o'clock every Sunday night, and as & members became one of the principles homes and clubs and lodges, and indeed wherever a group of Elks may be gath- ered together. In many Elks homes there are automatic light controls and electric clocks and when the hour hand points to 11 o'clock every night the lights are dimmed, 11 strikes are sounded on the clocks and the members present remain standing in silent meditation during that period. | Harvard, professional life, authorship, {travel, officiz] service at home and | cbroad, associations many and rich | But, alw in this lcoking backward and zround and ahead. the focus of | | vision is the home country, the United ' |Stats. A provincial? Anythirg but | lRalhfr a widely experienced man, one, | too, who knows the true bases of com- {parisons and contrasts. A man who | recognizes the logic of differences be- | tween country and country, rather than a wayward and perverse departure of | one or the other from some God-given norm of national development. America, 5o well known both in its behaviors and in its guiding spirit, is its own ground | work of self-zpprzisal as it is also the | nucleus here for interpreting less well known nations. i Not a history, not exactly. Certainly | a long way from the formal recordings | of national growth by New England | scholars, learning and conscience their prime means of communication. And ! Just as far away, on the other hand, | from the snapshots of America which | the European offers so frecly as the ! “living image” of the great giant of materialism across the sea. Neither of Better than either. That fs, | better provided the reader has a ground plan for his country from Civil War times up to the present. In that case, | he goes along with this leisurely ad- venturer in life, gathering up much of the spirit of Ame; picture, drama walk | Leside him or stand at elbow in | ready service for the illumination of this or that fact in American affairs 1 heard a careless talker say, “Mr. |Stimson has written a lively book.” “Lively” is an odious term, flighty in | connotation. This is instead a book that is very much alive—immediate, pertinent, pressing in its own suostance, in its own weighed and balanced con- clusions. A case in point. A university man of | Harvard, where later he taught and | from which he wrote on the subject of | constitutional law and other ~allied themes. Naturally and characteristi- cally, Harvard becomes the point of de- | parture from which Mr. Stimson sur- veys the rise of State universities, from | which he appraises the value of these from the two points gf pure scholarchip and of scholarship ap}hed to the genfus ot America’s expanding economic future. According to this rule, he moves out from the familiar and intimate stand- point into a dispassicnate study of al- lied, but more remote, matters. A career of marked and varied ex- pansions from which Mr. Stimson has drawn a thousand recollections of in- teresting places and notable people— places renewed by the intimate and in- formal recalling of them to readers and & host of men and women of the tribe about which curiosity never lags and over whose most trivial words and be- haviors interest ever stands intent. An j amazing list of well known names bring {these people to life by virtue of the gencrally animate quality of “My United | States.” In foreign lands, either as official representative of his country or as mere loiterer along the vacation ways of ex- istence, or for research or study, it is ever the home ground that stands as an {llumination over alien places. (slow in final shut-up conclusions, that contributes toward the widening of our own comprehension, of our own with- {holdings of conclusive judgment. An absorbing and vseful study from hich may be gathered views of every vital aspect of the United States. Its | political ‘and economic _alliances, its | future in international relations, its so- called materialism, its commerce and industry with its inherent elements of labor and capital—all these come and 80 before the eyes and mind of this alert man, so grounded in the founda- tional spirit and outlook of his own country, so familiar with the history and current matters of many other countries. A beckoning book, complete- ly fine in its fulfillment. R LEGENDS OF VIRGINIA. By Helena Lefroy Caperton. Richmond: Gar- rett & Massie, Publishers. Only seven of them, of these legends of Virginia. The seven drawn, no doubt, {rom many hundreds. That is rich soil, down there, and with good reason for Just this fascinating sort of story. The first one, “The Honest Wine Merchant,” You read, maybe, in O'Brien’s Best Short Stories for 1930. It was there. In proof, if you are that sort, that Mrs. Caperton 1s a writer of distinction in ber line. Besides, here James Branch Cabell says things in famr praise of the book. If,”however, you like to read on your own account without interference from those who desire to do you good, literally speaking, if you are like this, Just sit down with these seven home- spun tales of Old Virginia, tales that have been told over and over again, generation by generation, without ever losing the sheen of their delight, with- :auzt over a challenge as to their clear ruth. Difficult work this, as 21l writing de- signed to appeal in any degree to chil- dren is difficult. But there is no trace of hard work with these legends. They Tun true to the spirit of their birth. No additions are built for more room, sible advantage. The storfes are let alone, a most uncommon way of treat- a genuine partaking of the particular matter in hand, each legend springs out, as buoyant as in its first years, as true as on the day when it never did bappen. I'm thinking that the Irish father of Helena Lefroy Caperton has something to do with the ready and complete belief of the daughter in things that sober folks reject as in- credible. Certain it is that confidence begets confidence and by virtue of such exchange the reader herself takes each bf these tales made up 5o long ago &s the true gospel of early folks trying to :}cflc:unt for strange and bewildering gs. Legends—well, maybe. Life, though | ironic as life can be, actual life. Sup- pose you read “The Philanthropist” and “The Wedding” and “The Chinese Lad; Suppose you read the rest of these innocent-looking revivals of legen- dary cast. Having done this make a brand-new bow to Helena Lefroy Ca- Eu:non, satirist right off the dew of his very morning. I myself was fcoled. So, naturally, I thought I'd let you be taken in, too, A chypliah impulse that And | \ever it is the understanding man, so | . How many people are killed by tigers in India’—R. R. R. A. Approximately 1100 persons are rilled by tigers every year in India Q. Please describe cable?—J. H. A. According to a description given by the Western Union, an Atlantic cable consists of a cencral copper wire which carries the electric current, and around this are wound flexible copper tapes. This is wrapped with a permalloy tape. The metallic part of the cable is inclosed in a thick covering of gutta- percha, around which is & wrapping of Jute which cushions the pressure of sev- eral miles of sea water. Eighteen steel armor wires surround the cushion. and an Atlantic or wrapping of tarred hemp cords. +Q. Who presided over the Democratic National Convention in 1916. and where was the convention held?>—G. H. F. A. The late Scnator Ollie M. James of Kentucky was the permanent chair- man of the 1916 Democratic Convention, which was held in 8t. Louis. Q. When was the carpet in Mount Vernon presented to George Washing- ton by Louis XVI? A R.G. A, The following information was given by Mrs. Townsend Whelen of Philadelphia when she sent the rug to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in May, 1897: “This carpet was made by order of Louis XVI of France for George Washington, President of the United States, and was sent over dur- ing the first years of his administra- tion, when Philadelphia was the Na- tional Capital. As he was not allowed to receive presents from foreign pow- ers, the carpet was sold to my great- grandfather, Judge Jasper Yates, and remained in the old family mansion at when it came into my possession.” Q. What is meant by the vellow peril? H LM A. It refers to a scare. originally that the yellow races would in a very ew years have increased in popula- ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. with a capital of £250,000, is in process | om was established | result thereof remembrance of absent | of the present great Order of Elks, and | the custom is regularly observed in Elks | the whole is inclosed in an outer coating | Lancaster until about 30 years ago,!d raised in Germany in the late nineties, | territories occupied by the white Tacy The expression began to be used & American journalism in 1898 in conse> ]tlon %o such an extent as to endanger | ‘qucnce of articles on this subject, | Q. Was the “Ballad of Reading Gaoe | written wrille Oscar Wilde was ime | prisoned? N. T, A. It was not written until after jhis release, Q. used? B | “A. silver was first coined 1n the Aegean isiands. Where was silver money first T.¥. B | Q. Were many Americans privaiees in Revoluticnary times?—M. P, |, A. Channing’s History says: “Mor than 2,000 American privateers ranged the seas al one time or another. Th: swarmed in the West Indies, they crulsed along the Atlantic Coasts, they sought their prey in the British Chan- | nel and the North Sea. * * * In 1781 | the Cabots of Beverley received 600,000 | riales of vellon for their half share in five prizes, the Gardoquis getting the rest. The Derbys of Salem got over $60,000 on account of prizes that were sold at Bilbzo.” Q. When is the universal week of prayer’—J. R. A. The first week in the new has been designated as a week of prayer | for the churches. It begins on Sunday, | Fanuery 3. g Q. Do people as ting shoes?—M. M. A. There is room for improvement. In a survey of 1,000 people in Wiscon- sin in 1925 it was found that among {the men 40 per cent had well fitte shoes, 46 per cent fair fit and 14 per cent poor fit: women, 14.07 per cent good fit, 55.02 per cent fa fit and 3091 per cent poor fit. a rule wear well fit- Q. What amount of horey should be U len substituting it for sugar in a cake?—H E A. It may be substituted in any cake recipe cup for cup for sugar fourth of the liquid called for i This makes a moist cake ffesh almost indefinitely. Q. What are the names of the stars which form the Big Dipper’—A. M A. The names of the seven stars, be- |ginning at the handle, are: Alkaid, | Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phegda, Merak | and Dubhe. | tec. | keeps Q. After a criminal is electrocuted at Sing Sing, why are his brains re- moved?—O. B. C. A. The warden Prison says: “The after electrocution for scientific pur- poses. Thus far the laboratory results have not been very definite or help- ful. * * * However. the custom of re- moving the brain is being continued, more. I suppoce. as a matter of traci tion than anyth else. An autopsy | is required by la of the Sing Sing brain is removed Q. What is mea; of prunes’—I. G. F. A. On boxes of bulk prunes, it indi- cates that there are from 40 to 80 prunes to the pound in the box. Q. For what purpose was Union founded’—E. W. C. Soopec A. The institute was founded in New ols of art and - | York to pro E sclence, free reading room and a free the working classes. It has by 40-50 on boxes library for a night school of science, a day school of science, a night art department, s women’s art school and several other isions, Q“" a pers?nwb;in;shpnper money, is there any law which will pun him?>—C. M. A P _A. There is no penalty for destroy- ing paper currency if the individual does not try to put fragments back into | circulation. Communists who supported the so- called “hunger march” to the National Capital are subjected to strong con- demnation by the press becayse of the generally expressed opinion that they were engaged in publicity for them- selves at the expense of those genuinely in need, without benefit to any one, “None is in sympathy with the dem- onstration except the radically in- clined.” in the opinion of the St. Joseph Gazette, which finds it a fact that “even though the marchers are contemptuous of the capitalistic system, that same system enables them to travel in motor cars and trucks.” The Rochester Times- Union holds that “all sympathy §s due the unfortunate unemployed every- | where,” and that “an able-bodied man, | unemployed through no fault of his own, is mournful evidence of faulty functioning of our industrial system,” | but that “to stand in large numbers be- | fore the doors of the Capitol ot the right approach to the solutio; | _“The hunger cry is but an excuse for the spectacularity upon which com- | munism feeds,” asserts the Charlotte | Observer, with the contention that * demonstrations are simply imitations of the famous Coxey exploit, but there is less reason back of them.” The Charles- ton (W, Va.) Daily Malil offers the ap- praisal of the incident: “Just what the marchers expect to accomplish would be hard to-fathom. The country knows that many persons are hungry because many persons are out of jobs. The marchers add nothing to the general information on this point.” “The leaders in this pathetic per- formance,” as viewed by the New York | Herald Tribune, “represent no spon- |taneous American movement. Their banners, slogans and songs do not ex- press the feelings of any class of the American people, and such demonstra- Futility of Agitators Seen In Hunger March on Capital Denying that the organizers are “in- terested in the problem of unemploy= ment as that problem appears to ordi- jary Americans,” the Cincinnatl Times-Star states that “for them, the ‘hunger march’ is simply an advertising stunt put on by Moscow.” The Colum- |bia (S. C.) State gives indorsement to the position taken by President Wil- liam Green of the American Federation of Labor, and accepts as “fully ware ranted” his statement that “the lead- ers who inspired the march are not in= terested in helping the working people or solving their economic probiams. but “want to overthrow the Govern ment and substitute the Soviet U “The jobless nomad—the home! SS, often so by choice,” thinks the Janes= ville Gazette, “is someth of a human being to deal with entirely different from the jobless man who out of work in his home town because some factory in which he may long have been employed is closed or is working on short time. Legislation of a relief character cannot deal with both these nomad laborers who most frequently make up the communist marchers, with nothing to lose, and the jobless home owner or tenant. who is a good citizen in a fixed locality with family and in- terests in that place of residence, in the same manner or on the same terms, | The problem of labor is first of all ‘:u’u;ldlhedhsrme -;Iwener. He is to be | considere st of all and wit] - | sized attention. it entir Says Trusties Smuggled Guns to Seven Convicts To the Editor of The Star. “Where Did They Get Their Guns?* tions as this are not meant to serve the | O the editorlal page of The Star De- no_alterations are set for some pos- ! ment. With insight and delicacy, with | interest of any -American class—least were beguiled into participation in it. This pligrimage to Washington is, in its inception, a hostile alien enterprise into which 1,500 American men and women were recruited so thet they might be led into conflict and disasters edifying to the organizers' employers.” “If each were to be handed $150 with the compliments of the Government,” argues the Glendale News-Press,: “the process would be endless. With the money gone each beneficiary would be unemployed still and eligible for another cash gratuity. This item is cited to show the utter folly and futility of the whole plan. Meantime there is keen sympathy for the unemployed and a concerted endeavor to find work for them, and in the meantime to provide for their needs. There is a growing feel- ing that the task belongs to each of the several States and that each must look out for the unfortunate within its own borders. To urge them on into the next commonwealth is not fair play. If they themselves burdens and nuisanc.s to strangers, they do not merit considera- tion.” “It should be noted,” comments,the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, “tha Coxey's army, although comprising some Populists (radicals of the 90s). launched no attack upon the capitalist system as such. But today, the ‘National Hun- ger March’ stands freely charged with being a Communist gesture, aimed pri- m; at creating tisfaction with the present erder rather than with aid- ing the nnemplo{ed And while its or- ganizers deny these allegations and claim to be supported by some American Federation of Labor units, it is not de- nied that there is & considerable pro- portion of Communists among those in support of the project.” — e I threw away almost at once. You may not have the surprise that, other- wise, might have come your way. But vou will, you certainly will, have a keen pleasure over these “legends” of Vir- ginia and of anywhere that harbors hu- man nature. ~ of all that of the unfortunates who | move on of their own volition, making | cember 13. cogae{‘ zot_rht‘l;em through the trusty victs. answers your questio in a nutshell. ? o At Leavenworth they have some 300 it.rusty convicts, some of whom g0 in | and out of the prison a dozen times a | day. Some come and go in trucks. | Railroad engines come in the prison | With carloads of freight. There are many ways by which trusty convicts can fool the best guard in the world. | I have talked with two released con- ‘V!cts since the kidnaping of Warden | White, and they express the belief that | trusty prisoners smuggled in the guns— | perhaps weeks before the break. ’ I know Mr. White and many of his assistants, and it would be mighty hard to find a better prison official. Pred G. Zirbst, his chief deputy, is the best prison manager in the world today, I think. Both men are honest to a fault, Zirbst has been in prison service some 35 vears and has never been publicly criticized. Both White and Zirbst are, as a rule, well liked by the convicts. We have had a man on the job at | Levaenworth every day since the es- cape, and his conclusions are that the trusty convicts smuggled in the arms, I should say that the guard force at | Leavenworth should be doubled. As it | Is now the prison officials have to de- | pend on trusty convicts to do much | work that should be done a guard. E. E. DUDDING. ———te Shrinking. From the Milwaukse Sentinel. Another historical adventure has been |debunked by a research-minded in- dividual who announces that Sheridan’s ;rnmous ride covered only 14 miles in- | stead of 20. So we suppose the fame of the great cavalryman must suffer a 6- | mile deflation. e Fiction Department? From the Savannah Morning News. A California university has intro- | duced a eourse in fishing. It guaran- tees results, “tut not fish.” Now it is up to some reliable institution to begin & course in fish stories, 3