Evening Star Newspaper, December 18, 1931, Page 8

,THE EVENING STAR With Sundsy Morning Edition. -— WASHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY.. .December 18, 1931 .. Editor THEODORE W. NOYES The Evening Star Newspaper Company B\l.\‘.’n:!s Omlfll T 11th St. and Pennsvlvania Ave i New Ymn‘.; OM‘VE ll’\l‘) Ehn.fl Az‘é\‘dmfit“ ' Luke Michi ing. fi'r;"n‘."’u.oof‘mlxfilm gent’ S.. London; nxland. i | Rate by Carrier Within the City. oo Eonine sar 45¢ per month Evening and Sunday Siar days) 60c per month | nd Sunday Siar 7 65¢ per month | 2 S et copy | Eotlecrion made a¢ the end of ench month Orders mav be sent in by maii or telephone NAtionel 5000. Rate by Mail—Pavable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. guv and Sunday.... $1000: ' mo.. 8¢ iy oniy s unday only 1ll. $600. 1 mo.. 50¢ All Other Stat $400. 1 mo’. 40¢ and Cafada, aily and Sundayv. aflx only . $1200: 1mo. £1.00 | $800 1mo. 7T jinday only 3500 1mo’ 50c Member of the Associated Press, The Acsociated Press s exclusively ertitied fothe ise {01 Tepublication Of 11 news 5 heches edited To'Ht or ioe Sthel wite creds Rt i Thic paper SIS R R published herein. Al riehis of piblication of | Foecial ‘dispatehes herein are also 1eseived. | - — Mapes Committee Reasoning. As they have an important bearing on the state of mind of the Mapes! Committee when it approached the sub- ject of plastering new and heavier taxes | on the District of Columbia, attention is called to the following quotations from fts report | 1. It has been disclosed that in all these cities the people are groaning under the burden of taxation which they have been compelled to carry. ! That is particularly true of the taxes| Jevied upon real property. * * * A sim- flar economic condition obtains in the | rural sections of the country to a greater extent than is found in urban | districts. I 2. The rate (the tax rate in the Dis- | trict of Columbia) will depend upon | the budget, the cost of the District | government. It is laigely in the hands | of the District to determine the rate. ! It will be for the District. in asking for appropriations, largely to determine whether the general property tax will | be increased or not, aud that is as it should be. 3. Those owning property trict of Columbix should for that priviiege in equal proportion to taxes paid in other cities of comparable size and general character that now con- tribute both to the Federal Goverr ment's: support and to the District’s separate support. Practically all other | capital cities do so. What good reason exempts the District? * * * No basis for any Federal Governn District contribution can be found until | this tax is adjusted, for these other | cities now contribute toward State and Federal Government and, in addition are called upon to pay toward the upkeep of the District. (From the separate views of Representative Frear ) In reference to statement Number 1, concerning the high taxation in other cities which the people “have been compelled w carry,” who compelled them to carry it? Possessing, as they do, the American right to tax them- | selves, nobody In the world compelled them to carry such tax burdens but themseives. The Bureau of Efficiency found that most of the cities “are living beyond their means'—a state- ment that was not made nor is it here quoted as criticlsm, but as fact. Hav- ing the right to chouse what path to follow, they have chosen. Much of the high burden of taxes in other munici- palities results from the spending orgy brought about by heavy borrowing, aud the urge to burrow was, in turn, de-| veloped and nurtured by those anxious to invest in tax-free, high-interest- Paying municipal bonds. The sinking funds and interest on these bonds now | make up a relatively high proportion of tax rates in other cities, and our tax- levying Members of the House, with their eyes on their tax-laden constitu- ents, seek to hoist Washington to & level that by questionable methods of computing such relative burdens, they set as the desideratum. It is also to be remembered that these heavy self-imposed municipal and State taxes are not increased or decreased or affected in the slightest degree by the greater or smaller amount which the Nation may appropriate for the mainte- nance and development of the Nation's City. Every cent of the latter appro- priation comes from National, not municipal or State, taxes, and the bur- | den of National internal revenue tax- ation upon individual taxpayers in the States, infinitesimal in many States, is precisely the same whether the Nation meets its financial obligation toward | the Nations City on the ffty-fifty or forty-sixty ratio basis. or with & lump | sum appropriation of $12.000,000 or | 9,500,000 or $6.500.000, or nothing. In statement No. 2 the people of | the District are told that their tax rate will depend upon the cost of the Dis- trict government, and “It is largely in the hands of the District to determine the rate.” Do the taxpayers participate in the framing of the District budget? They do not. Do they fix their tax rate? They do not. Do they say what shall and what shall not go into the budget? ‘They do not. Are they able to say for themselves whether they shall spend a million dollars on new schools or on a marble palace for a “city hall” that will conform in scale and grandeur to the Federal buildings? They are not. Do they decide whether they shall invest $200,000 in public welfare or in a snake house at the Zoo? They do not. Do they decide what parks shall be laid out and purchased, what streets shall be widened or paved? They do not. Who does? The Commissioners, ap- pointed by the President, in whose elec- tion the taxpayvers of the District do not participate; the officers of the | local government, appoinfed by the Commissioners; the Board of Educa- tion, appointed by the courts; the di- rector of the Federal Budget, appointed | by the President; the member of the ! Park Commission, appointed by the President ana representing the people of the United States. And after the budget leaves the hands | of these agencies, it is translated into the form of an apropriation bill, con- sidered and enacted by the represent- atives of every city, town and hamlet in the United States except the District of Columbia. Since when have the! people of the District been permitted to fix the cost of the local government, or %0 control their own tax rate? Is the Mapes Committee merely insulting the District for the political impotency of its taxpayers, and, on the strength of the insult, seeking to injure them with ew laxes? it is in statement No. 3 that the of fact distortion are scaled by 1 the Dis- nt lot 25 ,nor indeed does there appear to have been any effort on the part of the com- | Mr. Frear of Wisconsin, who draws the amazing inference that other cuml make contributions to the Federal Government for the support of Wash- ington while the District is “exempt” from such contributions. Does not Mr. Frear know that Wash- | ingtonians contribute not only to the! District as municipal taxpayers, paying | all of the local taxes, but that they con- tribute to the Federal Government, on the same basis that all other cities and the States contribute? Does he not know that the District taxpayers pay more in P 1 taxes than any one moie than half, of the States’ That they pay only slightly less than | the combined payments of ten of the ' States? T on a per capita basis one | Washingtonian contributes more in | Federal taxes, which go into the Treas. ury, from which is taken the Federal| contribution, than the combined pay- | ments of one Arkansan, one Alabaman, | one Georglan, one ldahoun. one Missis- sipplan, one Montanan, one Nebraskan ) one New Mexican, one North Dakotan, | South Carolinian, one South Da- | kotan and one Wyomingite, who are | one represented in the tax-levylng Congress : by 24 Senators and 62 Representatives’ What city contributes a single penny toward the Federal Government “and in addition” is called upon “to pay to- ward the upkeep of the District”> Can Mr. Frear name than Washington, tional burden? other addi- a single city having this It is & tragic travesty on justice to veulize that it is on the basis of such | distorted reasoning that the District | of Columbia has been indicted for tax- dodging Premature Alarm. By the ‘mpressive vote of 21 to 4 the House Ways and Means Committee ves- terday went on record against further reduction or cancellation of intergoy- ernmental debls. Action ensued in the form of an amendment to # resolution favoring ratification of the one-year moratorium instigated by President Hoover last June. During three days of hearings on the moratorium the committee was del- uged with assertions. affirmations and accusations alleging in more or categorical form that the moratorium is the thin edge of the wedge which is to effectuate cancellation of America’s war debls. None of the congressional witnesses heard by the committee came luden with any more convincing proof on that score than their suppositions Both Sccretary of State Stimson and Undersecretary of the Treasury testified. 1f they had any cancellation | information, it was not forthcoming less i mittee to discover whether they possess it or not Mills | THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1931 THIS AND THAT the Nationalist authority has for some time been defled by the Communists, who have maintained large armed forces, against which the Nationallst leaders have been unable to make head- way. It remains now to be seen whether the Nationalis{ government, reorganized by the Cantonese secessionists, who have just caused the ouster of Chiang Kai-shek from the presidency, can do any better. v Legs Diamond Gets His at Last. ‘The impossible has happened. Legs Diamond has finally been taken for the long ride. On three other oc- casions he has been made the target of the guns of rival gangsters, and, though quite thoroughly peppered, has recovered. This time, however, his nemies were sure of alm, and ap- parently working at close quarters in the course of a party that was being | thrown by the Diamond gang in cele- bration of their leader's acquittal yes terday at Troy on a charge of kid- naping, they did a thorough job. Then they dblpuclred along with the other {members “of the Diamond crew, leay- ing only the gang-leader's wife, who, with the keeper of the establishment, 15 held &s & wilness, Thus passes one of the most picturesque villains of the . great American gang drama that has been in production for a number of year Diamond was never “blg tim operator like Capone. was, | nevertheless, bold and resourceful in his lawlessness and one of the luckiest men who ever bioke u stalute. That he escaped execution at the hands of the law is a sad commentary on the cffectiveness of American justice. Traflic ticket--a document contain- ing twenty-three blanks for answers to questions and made out in triplicate. This process is calculated to keep a mo- tor car misparked for a period consid- erably exceeding that of the origin | offense. 8 He e o They have stolen whole nurseries of trees and truckloads of gravel around here. 'The latest theft of the Kind re- ported is that of six entire brick houses. | Would it not be splendid 1f some one | were moved o steal the old Pension Oftice? | Six hitherto entirely unknown musi- {cal manuscripts by the famed Richard Wagner have just come to light. Every one is a piece of military music. Judg- ing by his already known output. all | should be appropriate to a modern tank s cor SRS “Modern Youth Cares Little for Mis- tletoe” s a headline based on the dec- arations of market men. Neither does it care greatly for pulse warmers, tip- pets, copper-loed boots or fifth wheels | If these responsible officlals of the Government had been asked whether | any of our European debtors have | sought cancellation, the answer would have been what every one knows to be the case—that they have not. The only possible reservation Secretary Stimson might have felt called upop to make, in this connection, is that the French government has let it be known Washington that it would not consider any reduction of German reparations unless there were a corresponding re- duction of war debts, For the present the unequivocal state- ment of President Hoover stands as the | administration’s position on Europe's obligations o the United States Treas- ury. His message to Congress on for- eign affairs, submitted on December 10, begins with & quotation of his com- munication to the foreign governments | concerned in June—a communication, | Mr. Hoover reminds Cougress, which Was Sent “with the support of a large majority of the individual members of | the Senate and House." After narrating his proposal to post- pone during one year all payments on in- lergovernmental debts, reparations and relief debts, the President declared, “I do not approve in any remote sense of the cancellation of the debts to us." He adds, “None of our debtor nations has ever suggested it.” Mr. Hoover asks for the reconstitution of the World War Foreign Debt Commission, “with au- thority to examine such problems as may arise in connection with these Gebts during the present economic | cmergency and to report to the Congress | its conclusions and recommendation: 1t takes a considerable stretch of the | imagination to read into these plain and sane words any indication that the | American Government is planning or plotting “cancellation.” Until there is | scme tangible evidence that it is, oppo- | sition to President Hoover's moratorium | program, on that score at least, is pre- mature and unjustified. in| on motor cars. .- A gigantic prehistoric lion, far than any today existing in Africa, has been discovered out West. If scientists refrain from giving it too long a title | here will be a fine new nickname for some up-and-coming foot ball team, larger ——— The forthcoming .Republican National | Convention in Chicago will be the elev- jenth held in the Windy City. The | Democrats may not, after all, have to walt the few more years necessary to bring about Number Thirteen, ~——— Still another way of summing up woman's emancipation to say that the surfbourd has replaced the wash- | board is e, Who knows? Billy Lehman of this city, aged twenty months, may grow up to be fire chief of the District. ——— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Machinery. They're sowing and they're reaping and ' they're milking by machinery. Whichever way you look, a lot of wheels obstruct the scenery. The scheme of medern life will not be viewed as quite complete Until we find a way to do without our | hands and feet. And vet the best of mechanism some- times grows unbearable. The wav it creaks and rattles and breaks down is something terrible. And then machinery gives way to stmple human skill And leaves us all dependent on the mind and on the will. So when we're theorizing upon s and connivances Let's draw the line and not depend too far on such contrivances. For well have no end of trouble, When little Gene Lauder Tunney a | few years hence pulls the immemorial | boyhood threat, “Well, anyhow, my old | man can lick your old man,” he will be much nearer the truth than most vouthful braggarts, no matter to whom he is talking. Chinese Communist “Students.” Reports of rioting at Nankirg, in the course of which the headquarters of the Kuomingtang, or Nationalist party, | which has been the 1eal ruler of China | under the presidency of Chiang Kai- shek, was wrecked, state that the dis- turbers were “students.” These “stu- dents” have been the principal elements of disorder in Southern China for sev- eral years. They are not organized in the sense of having a definite avowed group cohesion, but on every occasion of friction between the factions or be. tween Chinese and foreigners they have acted in large bodies under leadership. They are mostly Communists who have taken their teachings from the agents| of Soviet Russia. When Michael Boro- din was military adviser of the Can- tonese government he organized numer- ous centers of Communism, and these have ever since, while formally affiliated with the Kuomingtang, been seeking to spread the bolshevik doctrines among the people. A dispatch from Nanking states that the recognized leaders of the students have now split and a rad- ical element has taken matters into its own hands. In other words, the Com- munists are seeking to control the gov- ernment of China at the capital. They are demanding a positive policy of war with Japan to recover the apparentl- lost territory of Manchuria. They care nothing whatever for Manchuria in fact. Their purpose is to control the though the start may seem serene, If we ever undertake to do our think- ing by machine! Repetition. “Do you believe that history repeats itself2” “Yes,” replied Senator Sorghum. “It is even possible for the same man to get elected twice to the same office.” Superior Assumption. “How is your boy Josh getting along in his studies?” “I can’t tell,” replied Farmer Corn- tossel. “He knows jes' enough more'n I do to make me feel embarrassed if I try to ask him any questions.” I have no | gress | formality. | publican, The Late Shopper. Oh, he who shops upon the run, And seems to be in such a plight, He cannot share the Christmas fun— We simply say, “It serves him right!” Large numbers of discreet youngsters are now doing their best to keep old- fashioned parents from being reminded of the theory that Santa Claus is a myth. Technically Discussed. “So there is to be a divorce,” said the woman who discusses everybody. “It seems but a little while since he asked her for her hand.” “Yes,” replied the rude man. “He got the hand all right. But it turned out to be a misdeal.” Irresistible Conclusion. A man who was accounted wise Assumed a look disdainful, Which led observers to surmise ‘That wisdom must be painful. “A man who gits mad if he can't government of China. The Nanking riots are thus in the nature of a civil war. A shart distance to the south in the provinces of Kiang-si and Fukien have his own way,” said Uncle Eben, “is liable to be jes' as mad after he gits it ’cause it didn't work oup accordin’ to his calculations.” BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. The 1uesnon was, in Templeton Jones' mind, which was the gentleman Picking up—his big felt hat or his new topcoat? . It was true enough that it was he (Jones) who received the invitation to ride downtown in the gentleman's car. And it was equally true that it was he (T. Jones) who had accepted with alacrity, the morning being cold and the way long. But it was not he who had been invited Even as he sat down in the front seat the frrepressible Jones was divided in his own mind as to just which one of his new habiliments was responsible for | the invitation, IL must be one of the two, he rea- | soned, if not bo ; for he had stood on | that puiticular spot every morning for | weeks without being offered & “Ift” | He put on a Lat and & coat and imme- | that he should dispose of it, but up A decade ago Jones' topcoat was of the hue known as Oxford, a mixed gray and black, much liked then and now by conservative men. At the end of 10 years—in 1931, to be exact—the coat was green, despite frequent cleanings at the best estab- lishments. Ten years is a long time for a cpet | to go, and Jones' garment was no ex- ception. He had been told frequently, sometimes he thought too frequently, until this Fall he resisted all tempta- tlons to get rid of his old friend. At last he compromised by hanging it In the closet for use in very in- clement weather. On nice days, he | declared. he would wear his new one, | but when it was wet and cold he pre- | ferred his old friend, ‘The felt hat, however, was the big- diately got a "It Thus was one of Jones' pet theories Struck a solid blow. ‘The theory was this: That a man ought to be liked for himself alone. irrespective of his clothes He had always prided himself on the fact that he was able to see the real man beneath his clothes, whether they { were of fine quality or the merest rags. While he was the last one who would have said anything against the power of clothing to impress, he cherished the belief that the astute man bothered little about them. The peculiarly astute man, he | thought. permitted “the glad rags” to influence upon his judgment of the man bimself He was able to see the real man and | abide by his decision, whether the fol- | low wore high hat and frock-tail coat or appeared nthe roughest or oldest clothing xox o o Templeton Jones had an excellent opportunity to try this theory of his out when he refused to get rid of his old topeoat and his cap No one knew better than Jones, be- Ing what is commonly called a phi- losopher, that caps are not the thing except for chautfeurs and the like. The civilized world is “sold” on felt hats. The biggest fool in Christendon: is sccepted 85 a man it he wears the orthodox felt hat Jones, cherishing a childish desire to be loved for himself wlone and not for his felt hats and his new topcoats, refused to win any one’s approbation by the display of 50 many yards of new loth and u fragment of felt on top of his hew.! In fuct, If Jones had not experienced pueumonia three times in his life, and thercfore possessed & healthy respe for germs in whatever form, he would have gene without s hat Summer and Winter The Summer end of it he managed excellently, but when the cold breezes of Autumn began to blow he went back to & hat—er. cap. His insistence him man But there Templeton could crase would ot As for the old topcoat, Jones loved it oh the cap had cost a friendstip, he well knew bborn streak in one which nobody except himself, and he | with the mighty affection of some old farmer who prides himself worn the sume garment for 30 years Templeton Jones 10 vears for h noble garment It had seen two mcre Jones' famous tweed suit had worn for eight vears, or until the law farbade it, or would have done so if Jones had insisted. on baving nigh onto could count topcoat, but it only was a years than which he gest reform in the outward appearance of Templeton Jones. Because some of his friends didn’t want him to wear a | cap. Jones insisted on doing so. It had | been hinted that he might be taken for a Senalor if he would wear & silk hal or @ very successtul physician if he wore a felt, To all these blandishments Templeton | Jones turned a deaf ear, smiling Lhe' while, however, at the thought of an | anecdote told him years ago by a friend. This friend was a very small and very solemn man who was ad- dicted to caps. It was in the days of Tip Top Weekly, carrying the adventures of Frank Merri- well “The gentleman entered & newstand and fumbled over the magazines. “Tip Top?” asked the newsdealer tlantic Monthly,” replied Jones' friend without cracking a smile. X oK K K Behold Jones now, new felt hat on ! head. new topcoat around him, se- cately walking along the streets where | no dogs bark. Dogs do not bark at | felt hets, as is well known. Why Durglars Wear caps.) Templeton Jones, having got as far | as a new hat and coat, thought that he | might as well go & bit farther. So he stopped in at his favorite shoe dealer and possessed himsell of & neat new alr in brown. P Jonles” friends would beseech him to wear low shoes if they knew that he steadfastly wears high ones Summer and Winter His trouser legs. their beseechments the sort of shoes he prefers good.” s the little boy said to | wentleman with & Newfoundland | when the gentleman assured him it was | not a bear | Jones ok to high shoes for steady. | not periodic, wear when he was 16 years old, for the good and simple reason, as Petirod says, that low shoes cut his gentlemen in | (That is | however. save him He is free to wear “That's the | dug He has been told since that low | shoes are made nowadays so that they | cut 1o heels, however formed. This is probably so. Jones agrees. but he ha got used to high shoes bi this time and | likes thear best Aud what difference does it make anyway? ! Templeton Jones feels much the | same about felt bats and topcoats. In old clothes or new, he is precisely the same fellow It the g man with the big car fails to stop for him when he wears a cap. the gentleman with the big car is missing good company, that is all If he stops when Jones appears on the horizon in new hat and coat, then he is mightily impressed by a coat or a hat. or both Joues is 1ot a bit grateful to him WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. “Woodrow Wilson's Revenge” would be a good name for the tragi-comedy now in progress on Captiol Hill in con- nection with the debt moratorium Twelve years ago a United States Con- coutrolled by the Republicans played ducks and drakes with a solemn international agreement negotiated by & Democratic President. Now a Congress dommated by Democrats snd Progres- sives 15 holding up an equally solemn international covenant to which a Re- publican President pledged the coun- try's name and honor. Herbert H is” going through the bitter experience of discovering that there is nothing nder the sun. He's also finding politics at Washington is poli- s, no matter what the party affili- ation of a President who has ‘a Con- gress on his hands. White House dis appointment over developments in the House and Senate is deep. It is justifi- able disappointment. Mr. Hoover had every reason to expect, after the care- ful advance soundings he made last June, that ratification of the mora- torium this month would be the merest Apparently the temptation to play politics proved irresistible Historians, it is . ready certain, will brand this session ¢ Congress the most nationalistic. anti-foreign session held in many a moon. Something resembling the Chinese Boxer cult, with its antip- athy to foreign devils, seems to pre vail at the legislative end of Penn: vania avenue. Even a world-minded statesman like Scnator Dave Reed, Re- of Pennsylva has cumbed to it. The big Navy par sitting back and smiling with satisfac- tion over the amazing turn of events. Its leaders feel that it will be far easier in such an atmosphere to secure the enactment of the treaty Navy than if Congress were in a more hospitable frame of mind toward “abroad.” On- slaughts against “Hoover international- ism" in the House. such as emanated from the Huddlestons. the McFaddens and their conferees. are probably mere zephyrs in the congressional wind com- pared to what will blow when the | Borahs, the Johnsons et al. clear for action in the Senat x ok x % Senator Claude A. Swanson's selec- tion as one of the United States' dele- gates to the Geneva Disarmament Con- ference is warmly applauded. The Vir- ginia Democrat is one of the shrewdest political hands in the Senate. He is a | negotiator par excellence. One of his| admirers says that Swanson is able to accomplish*more with a whispered word to a colleague on ither side of the{ aisle than the noici sp-echmaker can | achieve in i hov - . .ngue. Therell be ir Lo .nity for that kind of LuTkanug co acity at Geneva, With nothing to ask for itself except a suc- cessful _outcome for the conference, and little to give away in the shape of further reduction of her | own armaments, America’s role is | likely sooner or later to become that essayed by Bismarck in the historic Congress of Berlin—the honest broker. Swanson has played it times without | number in the Senate. * X % x ‘Who are the Four Horsemen of Con- gress? Judged by the unfailing regu- with which they are seen in the | saddle in Rock Creck Park and o other Capital riding paths, they are Senators Borah of Idaho, Oddie of Ne- | braska and Glenn of Illinois and Rep- resentative Davenport of New York. Each and all of them contend that| horseback riding knows no peer as a means of keeping men fit. Senator Oddie finds it back. He rides to reduce, but says he always comes in hungry and eats more afterward than he should. P Vice President Curtis, who ought to be addicted to riding if anybody should, having once been a jocker, has for- saken it for walking, and claims that his daily constitutional of 25 blocks from his hotel to the Capitol is what does the trick of maintaining him at par. He doubts if he could continue to dine out for his country night after mgl’k‘;u it weren't for his long daily wa * The Ways and ok Means Committee of \ |ing more symbolical of Northwestern has only one draw-| the House of Representatives has a new clerk, who rejoices in the name of Fly - | Eugene Fly.” He hails from Jackson, | Miss.. s 48 yeas old. and, it goes with- | out saying. is a Democrat of Demo- cruls. For 16 years he was associated in u secretarial capacity with Senator Pat Harrison. Before coming to Wash- | inglon. he was i newspaper work in | Mississippi. ~ Mr. Fly succeeds one of Washington's foremost tariff experts Clayton F. Moore of Philadelphia, who was wppointed assistant clerk of the committee by Representative Joe Ford- ney in 1919, and since 1922 has been clerk. Mr. Moore weathered two tarif bill sieges (Fordney-McCumber and Hawley-Smoot) and four tariff re- visions. He served as Senate aid in| two tariff-bill contests. and remains at | Ways and Means headquarters as clerk | to the minority * oxox One of the world's greatest photog- raphers is busy at the Capitol “shoot- ing important men and events in House, Senate and committee sessions. | He is Erich Salomon of Berlin, who has achieved international celebrity with his unique apparatus for taking pictur | in indoor or electric light without the use of & flash. Salomon came back to America a second time this Fall, to im- mortalize the Laval and Grandi visits by camera, and photographed those statesmen in numerous intimate Scenes at the White House, State Department and their respective embassies. This week Herr Salomon, soft-footed and un- | obtrusive, set up his trim tripod and | lens in the Ways and Means Committee room of the House Office Building and snapped Undersecretary Mills, Chair- man_ Collier and Representatives Ran- kin and McFadden in action there. The German photographer extraordinary is ihe author of a book entitled “Cele ties in Unobserved Moments.” cont: ing remarkable pictures taken by him in Europe this year. He caught Hinden- burg, Mussolini. MacDonald, Henderson, | Bruening, Laval, Briand, Grandi, Cur- | tius, Viscount Cecil, and a host of other notables in a variety of charatteristic, unposed poses. IEEE Senator Dill, Democrat, of Washing- ton, who continues to be favorably poken of as a Western running mate for Franklin D. Roosevelt, thinks noth- presidential sentiment has been forth- | coming than the late poll of a Seattle newspaper. Its straw vote, covering 10 days preceding December 8, showed the following results: Roosevelt, 5,561; Smith, 1,985. Murray, 1914; Borah, 641; Johnson, 452: Norris, 449; Dill, 344: Hoover, 283: Couzens. 221: Heflin, 136; Norman Thom: 98: Shipstead, 81, and Coolidge, 61. Of the 12226 voting, 7.212 persons indicated they voted for Hoover in 192 x ek Mrs. Larz Anderson, well known Washington diplomatic hostess, whose Massachusetts avenue mansion was | tenanted by the King and Queen of Siam last Spring. has just been revealed as an operatic librettist. The wife of the one-time American Ambassador to Japan has written the book of the opera “Marina,” which is to be pre- sented for the first time in Boston on January 11 and later in New York. The musical score of “Marina” is also by a woman, Mrs. Moses H. Gulesian. The title role will be sung by a Rockland, Me., gir. Josephine Sabino, whom Ben- jamin Gigli, great Metropolitan Opera tenor, acclaims as a “find.” Mrs. An- derson has written many books, mostly of travel and experiences during her husband’s varied diplomatic career. (Copyright. 1931.) e Meat Cost Rankles. From the South Bend Tribune. s Pork chops and ham are quoted al 1 cent & po'::nd on the hoof, but it's & long, expensive drag from the hoof to the kitchen stove. RSN | Cheered by Sad Spectacle. g!rnm the Toledo Blade. 5 b Not| is more cheering to the whoontx"len‘to smhem the earth some day, than the sad spec of & publicity hound who has lost i trall. | tages of proper child ca | dren’s Bureau Praise Is Given Work Of Children’s Bureau To the Editor of The Star: I have read the article appearing in your paper on Monday, November 16, reporting a radio address by Dr. Wil- liam Gerry Morgan, dean of ths George- town University Medical School and former president of the American Medi- cal Association, regarding the Federal Children’s Bureau. I am only & young mother with no professional education or training, except along business lines, yet I cannot refrain from expressing my extreme indignation at some of Dr. Morgan's statements. Dr. Morgan clearly shows his igno- rance and misinterpretation of the Chil- dren’s Bureau's purpose, when he says that the maternal mortality rate sta- tistics are propaganda to children,” that “it is a false and dan- gerous form of propaganda,” and “the propagandists continue their campaign to frighten American mothers into be- lieving that they would be better safe- guarded if their treatment were pre- scribed and supervised from Washing- ton by the Federal Children’s Bureau." What kind of propaganda is he spreading? In the first place, 1 fail to see where the Children’s Bureau could destroy nal liberties or home rights r by present methods or by pro- posed legislation. 1f Dr. Morgan would read just a few pages of the Children Bureau s, “Prenatal Care he would learn that hey do not attempt to prescribe and supervise treatment. nor take the place of physicians: rather, they recommend early and regular medical attention in both prenatal and infant care. It was the Children's Bureau who impressed me with the importance of regular e» amination by a competent physician, both of myself and my baby! In the second place, even if they did try to “standardize children, as Dr. Morgan accuses them. it would be an impossibility, because the American peo- ple are too independent to be standard- ized. Every mother living, however in- telligent or dumb, will use her own judgment in bringing up her children But an increasing number of us are seeking authoritative information on how to safeguard the health of our- selves and our children, instead of lis- tening to every well meaning friend or neighbor, who did “thus and s0,” or de- pending ‘on our physicians 1o take the time to explain the small but important detalls of personal hygiene and proper care, which the Children's Bureau dues in its booklels. A great many people, probably in rural and tenement districts cannot afford physiclans and nurses of hospital fees: they fail to realize the importance of proper medical attention and therefore hire uneducated. un- tiained midwives as they did i olden mes, with disastrous results in many cases The only trouble with the Children' Bureau is that for luck of tunds it cannot send its excellent buoklets iree of charge to every mother and pro- spective mother in’the country. If all children were reared at least partially according to Children’s Bureau stand- ards, the future generation would be & much healthier and happier one than the present. Only a deplorably few women even know ihat such a bureau exists for their benefit. The ady e could be Into at lengih, even by a lay person myself—and by child care I mean pre-natal care. Although its cannot always be followed imp! every case, I am et gra the instructions g m the and dance. dvice itly ful for CI its books and Yes. at this Secenty-second Congress the maternity and infancy act w again be presented. And it may ag: be rejected. because members the American Medical Association are not broad-minded enough to realize its value and importance or are o jeal to co-operate. Congress can pass b involving miilions of dollars to mair tain a large Army and Navy to destroy Luman life. It can pass a biil destroy perfectly good public and build new ones in order to “be: tify Washington.” And it a tariff biil which helps to employment and does no good to one. But it js awfully hard wor pass a bill to protect the lives health of mothers and babics! However. at Dr. Morgan's suggestion I shall write to my Ser resentatives. But I shall urge them to support the bill. And when it is even- tually I shall not be afraid of losing sanctity” of my home' RUTH T. STRACHAN, ——— 5 les Tax to Urges Restore Prosperity To the Edtor of The Siar: It has long been my desire to expre: my opinion concerning a highly possible solution to the stabilization of our coun- try's financial and economic status. The unequal distribution of local taxes upon the people who pay. these taxes has been to my mind the greatest ele. ment which has brought about the de- pressed state of being in which we are now floundering In all departments of localized gov- ernmental activities steps have been taken to change methods from old to modern, but in the most vital of these activities, taxation, we have fallen be- hind the times, Throughout the country building ac- thvities and its associated trades nor- mally employ 40 per cent of the labor in this country: not 5 per cent of these are today employed. The reason taxation has been laid upon real estate Railroads are suffering through lack of freight tonnage, the majority of which is normally building materials. They also ca a great burden of taxes. Farmis ‘also carry too great a burden of taxation. The market price of their products does not possibly pay for these exorbitant taxes. Of course, it is necessary to have taxes, but the form I advocate would remove its burden from the oppressed activities and commodities. My plan is a graduated retail sales tax. Every retail concern shall pay to its local government a specified per- centage of its yearly gross sales, on the following scale: One-half per cent on the first $20,000, 1 per cent on the second $20,000, 11, per cent on the third $20,000, 2 per cent on the fourth $20,000, 3 per cent on the fifth $20.000 and after that also 3 per cent The adoption of this plan of taxation and its concurrent abolition of all forms of real property tax. except that on idle land, will bring the unemploy- ment situation and the present eco- nomic crisis to a swift close, for moie building activities would immediately begin and continue. Employment would become normal | because of the demand for workers in| these activities. The demand for other commodities would keep pace with pro- jduction on account of the normalized spending power. The owning of a home would be each man's blessing instead of a burdening curse. Farms would be improved because of their release from the yoke, thereby creating more labor and employment. Railroads would in- crease their freight tonnage in building materials, as no competition would be forthcoming from motor trucks in the field. Incomes would mount and the result would be more money in the Federal Treasury and less deficit It now seems that the entire blame tor the present economic condition has fallen from the shoulders of the Fed- eral Government to those of the State. county and city governments, and it is just that each man who enjoys the privileges of citizenship in our great democracy should pay for it. ‘The adoption of this plan of taxation gives each and every one, according to his means, the honor and opportunities to share equally ir the great expense it requires to run our country and bal- ance our economic situation. SAMUEL L. GOTTLEIB. - Failed to Score Gloom. From the Hamilton. Ontario, Spectator. Dean Inge, declaring that the world can get along without wars, rouge and lipstick, well might have added gloom to the list. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Have we had the pleasure of serving cause they addressed audiences assem- you through our Washington informa- !bled for other purposes, such as theatri- tion bureau? Can't we be of some help | cal performances, and their time was to you in your problems? Our business 'limited to four minutes. ‘standardize | buidings | tors and Rep- | ! for | this stupendous drop in these activities | is because practically the entire yoke of is {o furnish you with authoritative in- formation, and we invite you to ask us |any question of fact in which you are interested. Send your inquiry to The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washing- tont I C. Inclose 2 cents in coin or stamps for return postage. What was the Communist vote for | Presigent in the last election?F. J A. Foster, candidate of the Workers' | Party, which is regarded as Communist {received a total vote of 48.770. Q. What foot ball team is called the “Bears”? K. A. There urc at least three teams | that are sometimes called the “Bears"s |those of Brown, California and Baylor | (Texas) pniversities | Q. How many Christmas trees are used in this country every vear’--S. J | A. The United States Forest Service {estimates the number sold annually at | from 5000000 to 10,000000. However, | there is no way of ascertaining the number of Christmas trees used that {are not bought and sold. ! Q. What classes of workers are em- | ployed in the Public Health Service of [the United States, and how many are | there of them?>—BE. J. D | A. The personnel consists of a corps !of medical, dental. sanitary engineers and pharmacist officers, nurses, spec Ists and otier technical ar non-tech- | nical employes. At the last report theie jwere 1.094 medical officers and otier I persons of scientific ratings and 3681 |Keneral technical empiores Q. Who wrote the song “Dinah"? 8. N { A. This song. which was popular about five years ago and is still plaved by dance orchestras, was composed by Eubie Blake. Q. What is the diffs High German and Pla A. The designation, | German refer to the guag: High German is so called because it i {spoken in the hilly and m: {midland and southern districts [ German is spoken in_the low ax | northern sections. Platt Deuts [ “low” German. is the term oft {plied to the dialect spoken in the r | districts, Q. What is the record for a person | holding his Lreath under water? —H. P. | A, The record for st inder 1s 6 i 294-5 seconds. made M in Paris in 1912 Q. What in the Br: is the “unpardonable nmin religion?—L. R. E Brahmin code lists four great 0 deser nd to betray ast there can for the sness, illvgal to date a check ahead? no law against it on March 15 and dated bank does not pay the 1 1. If on April 1 there the bauk, the check is d “No funds If a requently refer to! en and wom services to the Gover purpose of m behali of the They were so cailed be- Vachel Lindsay ment speeches Victory loans Vachel Lind- his genera- How emai n poet pression ¢ death City of Springfield, 111 In walked at midy was born and ton Chronicle, de- ie last of the trouba- 1 who in ped the highways of the South and West ‘changing verses for his bread and |lodging " "As to the character of the { man and his poetry. the Chronicle com- ment He not born to lead a oistered 1 provided by and obsequious patron tead the plaudits of the ed them. Reading d not see sheltered ulture beneath New England You saw instead the round-up 1g steers on the last fringe of merica’s far frontier. A u heard | the clang of hammers and the noise of | steel gi s sliding into place and t! {voar of the mill. which is America. Vachel Lindsay sang of the common man and what he has accomplished in a Natin which was founded for the common_man Recording that Lindsay, “more than Imost poets, conceived of his poems as i being re. * and holding th: to hear them read aloud to c them fully, “while those who author read them were most appreciative of all,” the Bloomington { Pantagraph pays the tribute: “This { Illinois troubadour will be remembered | by many to whom he has made poet a living art. He will be remembered, too, for pointing out the color, U music, the thrill of life on the Mid- | west prairies—a life that many Eas { erners still think of as drab. He did | much to take poetry off a du pedestal and ¢ it a new place by the fireside.” x % * That his “best work was &trikingly individual, definitely original” is the estimate of the Chicago Daily News as |it recalls that “20 vears have passed since he wrote that oddly titled. quaintly |and beautifully printed book in paper | covers. ‘Rhymes to Be Traded for | Bread.’ As a name for a book it was no jest. Lindsay walked a thousand miles West. sleeping where night found him, trading his little book and giving impromptu programs of readings in ex- | change for food and lodging,” his pur- | pose being “to bring an art ‘awakening to every town and crossroads.” As the Rockford ~ Register-Republic pictures him, “For years he was a troubadour. !like one ot the free singers of the | medieval times, the roadside his king- { dom. the stars his friends, the poor folk of the fields and cottages the bene- | ficiaries of his muse. He found a rich- ness of life that most of us miss." In its tribute to his memory the Register- Republic_quotes the first verse of his Abraham Lincoln Walks at Mid- where ht da:s byways | night “It is portentous and a thing of state That here at midnight in our little | town | A mourning figure walks and will not rest, Near the old courthouse pacing up and down.” That this pcem and “The Chicago Nightingale” will not be overlooked by lovers of poetry in succeeaing genera- tions is the belief of the Dallas Journal, with the conclusion: “Vachel Lindsay served poetry in a time that had little ear for poetry by bringing poetry to the people and making them listen and like it. He essayed the role of troubadour and with an effectiveness that quick- ened popular interest in modern verse. As such he served well the art which he championed and the cause of con- temporary literature.” It is the opinion of the Youngstown Vindicator that “Lindsay's poems are not deep and he was not particularly interested in beauty. Rather he cared more for originality, something fierce and explosive, that startled by its vio- Alzticn cf 2ll the conventions of postry.” | But as the Allentown Morning Call sces his work, struck some new notes . in- ! Q. Where is Mandalay?—T. B. A. A. Mandalay, the chief city of Upper Burma, with a population of 150,000, is situated on the Irawaddy River, in Cen- tral Burma, which is the easternmost part of the Indian empire. | @ How does the use of coal today !compare with a few years ago>—J. B. O. A, In 1930 coal supplied 72 per cent of world energy procuction, as com- pared with 88 per cent in 1913. Q. Is there much world today?--M. M. A. The annual report of the United States Public Health Service says that cholera” was more prevalent during the Calendar year 1930 than it was during 1929, although in 1930 it was not re- ported outside of Asia and the adjacent islands. ~ Cholera did not appear in the continental United States, but an out- break began in the Philippine Islands in May, 1930. and continued throug! out the fiscal vear. Cholera appears €very year in parts of Asia, and under present conditions outbreaks in the Philippine Islands may be expected, but the number of cases and deaths are much smaller than they were & few decades ago. cholera in the Q. In what direction did the center of population of the United States move between 1620 and 19307—S. A. T. A. Between 1920 and 1930 the popu- Jation center moved 223 miles west Il»(vl & point 1.9 miles west of White- hall, Owen County, Ind., to a point 29 miles northeast * of Linton, Greene [ y. In which po is 31 miles Southeast by south of T a Haute and 336 miles northeast by north of Vin- cennes Q is “the Street A. W. H A A b v The What Bible of Wall e Cramberlain or Bond Invest- d. ment T is country get the th:_ of a tripartite government?—W, A. Probably from Montesquieu, whose books were very popular in the colonies, He was « first to introduce the tri- parti ne the advantages of the executive, idicial functions, number of the total A R mber o of octaves mated that the equal to a strain does & gas company charge Whet omer's Louse is ! the city?—W. blic utility com- e a flat charge er of gas or whether the Al:o equip- e customer a reinstalla- How much popped corn will one of popcorn make’—T H “, shoulsd 4 good condition 15 w 20 Popcorn should stored or heated as it dry. This sprin- If it mayv be placed t a shaded place w e can absorb moisture from the air becor t o be me Gave Poetry Unique Setting, Sav Critics ue not alone as a c creative poet gests “perhaps Americans will remember best and longest the prize poem of 1913 entitled Booth Enters Heaven,' ire of the Sal- vation Arm S mulitant activities e ter but also * “It should ger liter: scorn interest some of the men who have an un- for the materials and country and who have and enervating nostalgia for Europe that Vachel Lindsay was as Am{" can s a Chautauqua meeting or as Will Providence Evening Bull hich be- ieves “there was in him a great feeling for beauty and a strength. He transl camp meeting into of playing in crescendo upon the emo- tions, urging readers to rise and proclaim the moving spirit within them. He has had a wides, fluence upon some of the newer poets his works are a splendid contribution to the grow- ing articulateness of the United States.” Speaking of honors done him, the Schenectady Gazette. noting that “he invariably fascinated audience, whether of high or of low degree,” records that “he had the honor of being the first American poet to give a recital of his own poems at Oxford,” and holds the further unique distinction of being “the only poet whose voice has been recorded to any extent, if at all.” with “some 36 phonograph records of it in the poscession of the Columbia Univer- sity library, including many of his more famous poems.” a polite Defects in Railroad Regulation Deplored From the Baltimore Su After almost half a century of Ped- eral railroad regulation it might be supposed that a moderately workable scheme of regulation would have been perfected. Quite on the contrary, how- ever, the report which the Interstate Commerce Commission has forwarded to Congress indicates that, in the eYes of this competent body, we are scarcely under way toward satisfactory railroad regulation. In the report almost every major ele- ment in the present method of regula- tion is viewed as basically defective, and a thoroughgoing overhauling of the whole scheme is proposed. The present plan of fixing a value of the railroads for rate-making purposes, evolved after years of costly contro- versy, is found to lead to such stag- gering complications that its abandon- ment in favor of a new plan is ad- vocated. Even if what Commissioner Eastman has termed the “nightmare of valuation™ could be dispelled, however, the commission concludes that the plan of holding the railroads to a fixed an- nual return on the value of their prop- erty works in just exactly the wrong way. It serves to hold rates down dur- ing periods of prosperity when there i ood reason to raise them, without per- mitting downward adjustment of rates during periods of general business de- pression, Hence the commission pro- poses a play whereby the rate of re- turn to be allowed to the rai¥oads in any given years would be released from a fixed percentage to move up and down with general business conditions. ‘These are but two of about a score of changes in the present scheme of railroad regulation which the commis- sion proposes, but, taken alone, they involve a basic overhauling of the reg- ulatory scheme. It is dsturuln&thn at this late date in rallroad regulation the scheme should still be so far from one that would be generally workable. This being 8o, however, there is only one thing to do short af | abandoning the whole und Lo | hopele: step which almost no one | seriously proposes. And that is to have | Congress address itself immediately and | With real vigor to the report of the In- terstab':e commm’commlnim. 'nagu can be no excuse for congressional in= ifference to a system of railroad regue