Evening Star Newspaper, January 5, 1932, Page 8

" THE EVENING ‘With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY......January 5, 1832 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office s s Ave 110 East 42nd St. Lake_Michigan Bullding 14 Regent ., London, England. £l ropean Office Rate by Carrier Within the City. e Evening Star 45¢ per month | e Eveniug and Sunday Siar ) 60c per month | undays and Sunday Star ndays) ..........65¢ per month The Sunday Star ...,/ 5c per copy Collection made at the end of each month. | ‘ders may be sent in by mail or telephone | Ational 5000, | e Evenin, (when 5 CHE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. O, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 1932. ling and taxing Federal Government. ‘Those who confess to & conception of the fixed Federal contribution as representing merely the amount of un- taxable real estate owned by the Fed- eral Government take too narrow a view of the basis of the Nation's obli- gations in respect to the Nation's City. e The Reconstruction Program. President Hoover's message to Con- gress yesterday urging quick action on his recommendations for improving the banking and credit situation in this country calls attention to the “para- mount importance to the Nation of con- structive action.” Generally speaking, members of Congress are imbued with Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. nd Sunday.....1yr., $10.00: 1 mo., 85c niy .. 1’ '36.00: 1 mo.. 50c | 54.00; 1 mo., 40c | | All Other States and Canada. | 00: 1 mo.. $1.00 | ¥ 1mo.. e | ., $5.00; 1 mo., 50c Dail ily o inday only 1yr, iveiy entitled | Tor republication of all rews dis- | edited to 1t or not otherwise is paper and glso the local rews . bublication of | also 1eserved. | published herein. All #pecial dispatches herel iy Experiments in “Self-Government.” | Today's installment in the series of special Star articles discussing the his- tory of fiscal relations emphasizes two points frequently discussed in relation to the sometimes kindred issues of the Pederal obligation to Washington the Capital and the rights of Washington- 1ans to' participate as Americans in the government that taxes them. Both of | these points are briefly attended to in the Mapes report history of fiscal rela- | tions. | The Mapes Committee, by inference, | takes the view that Washington's finan- cial difficulties of the past, not to men- tion the humiliations of the Feather- duster Legislature era, were demonstra- | tions of the inability of Washingtonians | to govern themselves ‘The suggestion is not new It has been made in connection with the ef- | forts of Washingtonians, assisted by friends and sympathizers in Congress, in behalf of & constitutional amend- ment conferring upon Congress the right to permit representation of the District in the House and Senate and the electoral college. While the conditions described and referred to by the Mapes report have o relevancy or bearing upon the con- | creation of a system of home loan dis- | count banks, | serve banks to | tone, the President explaining that his tisan basis. the same idea and hope for prompt consideration of the measures, some of which have already been introduced, to carry out the President’s recommenda- tions. Senator Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic leader of the Senate, following the reading of the President’s message asserted that the Democrats in neither house of Congress had de- layed or avoided action on the promi- nent measures of relief referred to in the message. The President’s legislative proposals were not new, but had been commended to Congress in his earlier messages. He made more definite & proposal to bring relief to the depositors in closed banks, thereby releasing millions of dollars to circulation. But in the main his recommendations were for the strengthening of the Federal Land Bank System, the establishment of a Reconstruction Corporation to furnish credits not otherwise obtainable, the the enlargement of the discount privileges of the Federal Re- take care of emer- gencies, revision of laws relating to the railroads and revision of the banking laws better to guard the depositors. He repeated his urgent desire that the ut- most be done to keep down Federal ap- propriations. The message Was non-partisan in proposals had been made to Congress! after consultation with Democrats as well as Republicans, and eith many leaders in the financial world and in- dustry. A disposition has been mani- fested by Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to deal with the re- construction program on & non-par- However, the Democrats have reserved the right to make| changes in the proposed measures of relief if they believe that these meas- ures can be improved. The countrv * particularly interested in quick the so-called recon- structior wn, hoping that 1t will materis 1 restoring confidence in this coun. .nd in bringing business with attendant employment of labor and & degree of prosperity, President Hofer expects much to be accom- plished by the creation of the Recon- struction Corporation, to function as did the War Pinance Corporation dur- stitutional amendment issue, and still less upon the current fiscal relations is- sue, it is worth while to recall the les- #s0ns that really were taught by the ter- ritorial experiment of 1871-74, and by the several instances of threatened bankruptcy, when the District, faced with financial ruin, was “rescued” by | Congress. | Bankruptcy has more than once faced | the District. But in each case it has| been due to an effort on the part of | local citizens to make up for the fail-| ures of Congress to meet the Nation's | ing the World War. Such an organiza- own obligations in respect to the|tion, with a wide range of credit, un- Capital. That these efforts were taken | doubtedly would aid in re-establishing by citizens misled into expenditures | confidence. The stocks of all kinds which properly did not belong to|of materials and commodities in this them, and that the views by which | country are gradually becoming re- they were governed were of a lib-|duced to & point where further pro- eral and public-spirited character, was | duction is essential. When that pro- emphasized in the report of Senator duction becomes more necessary still, Southard in 1835. And the financial | there is bound to be a revival of indus- ruination threatened by the so-called |try, After all, productive work, rather territorial government of 187:-74 Was in | than credit, is the essential need today. no wise a demonstration of the inability | e e of the people to govern themselves, but British Fighting Planes shomed conclisteely the Hucompetenoy |y P sl Biay finithe Harartont of the particular form of government m e of aviation development, especially in Municipal self-government had been oo 18 demonstrated by the recent order placed by the Belgian govern- replaced by the so-called territorial ment with an English airplane firm for government, the real power of which sixty high-fiying fast war fghters, was vested in the Board of Public Designed to operate at altitudes be- Works. The Board of Public Works was | W¢en tWenty and thirty thousand feet, 3 | the planes specified in the commis- appointed by the President, as were the | sion—the largest single order given to Governor and the members of the upper any firm in the history of flying—are branch of the territorial Legislature, rated as the most complete combat The lower house was composed of elect- | Machines of their type yet developed. It is easy to understand why Bel- members, whose power Was SUEht| oy turned to England for its new and practically negligible, and there | force of aircraft. Ships of the type was an elected, non-voting delegate ordered have been dived vertically at A PR R R a speed of more than four hundred | miles an hour and yet remained fully ment was ot and nev 2 it ver can be con- |y, control of the pilot. Such develop- strued as an experiment in self-govern- ment can come from only one thing ment. And though its failure has usual- and that is the bulldog persistence ly been viewed as complete and unquali- | ©f the English in seeking gnd captur- ing the speed honors of the air. For the third year in succession the British were victorious last Summer in the the responsibilities equitably to be borne Schneider Cup races, and now retain toward the District, and which were permanent possession of that trophy written into the organic act of 1878, Pecause they kept everlastingly at it Certainly the pseudo representation 204 Pushed forward to a new world S e record of more than four hundred and % under the Feather-duster Legis- | eight miles an hour, a speed of one lature regime is not to be confused with ' hundred and twenty-two miles an the rights to be secured, in accordance ! hour more than an American has at- with fundamental American principles, ““;’d-h If the United States had pur- sued t sam S i through the representation £ Wime faciios s She Briteh in speed development an American amendment to the Constitution. | firm might well have procured the When Congress removed the last ves- | order for a million and one-half dol- tige of representation from the Dis- lars' worth of planes, trict and instituted the present form of | s ateat commission government in 1878, it wrote, The Worst epithet of 1931 was not into organic law the principle of fixed let Joose until the very last day. ‘Mis- ratio @s an expression of the obligation guided and egotistical whiffet” are that naturally follows exclusive power, surely harsh, harsh words. The Mapes Committee and others| ————— have attempted to show that the amount The Treaty Navy. of governmental financial respons y : Before the House Naval Affairs Com- was alone determined by an appraisal of | mittee hearings are in progress on the the value of Federal property iff thelpi) just introduced by its chairman, District. | Representative Vinson, Democrat, of Of course, there is a substantial and | Georgia, providing for construction of the Federallthe Navy authorized for the United Government based on the vast tax-| This arrange- fled, it apparently required just such 8 total failure to convince Congress of national econtinuous obligation of States under the London limitation treaty. The bill calls for a ten-year | Program, involving construction of 120 But the strongest obligations| vessels—aircraft carriers, cruisers, de- it their nature, stroyers and submarines—at a cost of $616,000,000. The expenditure would be spread over the years between now and 1942, averaging about $61,000,000. Rep- resentative Vinson proposes that only $18,000,000 be spent during the next fis- cal year, the annual appropriation ris- ing to & peak of $90,000,000 in the fiscal year 1937. Congress should promptly enact the treaty navy bill. It would give the United States not a ton or a gun more of maval strength than the American exempt areas that it occupies in Wash- ington are equitable based upon the circumstances of the Capital's ereation and the plan for its develop- This exclusively con- ment as the seat of Government. i the Nation's Oity, trolled by the Nation through its Legis- Iature. And as financial obligation follows political power, if the Nation controls, it pays. Plans have been ad- vanced whereln the Nation would do all the controlling and none of Wel, . yyo; seked for, fought for and paying. Washington's €fleclive | htained at the London conference of safeguard agalust such proposals lles in | 1930, The gross new tonnage sought, only STAR | contribution is placed upon the control- | and finally achieved that objective. It is high time that Congress, in which alone power to do so is vested, took steps to convert the treaty navy from parchment into steel. Representative Vinson emphasizes that the “first and foremost point” in his Navy bill, apart from its intent to bring our sea establishment by steady stages up to London treaty figures, is that it provides for a replacement pro- gram. With the exception of two 20,- 000-ton aircraft carriers, every ship called for is a replacement ship—that is, a vessel eventually to take the place of one become obsolescent with the pas- sage of time. With the continual im- provement occurring in naval archi- tecture and construction, a fleet that is not kept up to date is a fleet which would essay its task in national defense under fatal handicaps. Cricticism will doubtless be offered to the effect that the threshold of the Geneva Disarmament Conference is an incongruous moment for the United States to launch a new naval program Such arguments lose sight of the fact that a country which enters a limita- tion conference with bargaining power is in far better position to accomplish results than a country which has nothing to trade with. The United States was able to lay down terms for capital ship limitation at the Washing- ton conference of 1921-22 because it had vessels in being and under way which it stood ready to scrap in Te- turn for an agreement with other naval powers to restrict future construction of battleships and battle cruisers. Apart from Geneva considerations, the American people will note carefully the testimony mow to be given before the House Naval Affairs Committee on the exact state of our sea establish- ment’s efficiency. Authorities of repute, like Admiral Upham, chief of the Bu- reau of Navigation, has recently said that cuts and sjashes in the naval bud- get have seriously crippled the fleet. The facts on this score should be brought to light. Current developments in the international situation, especially in the Pacific, constitute other reasons why the Nation will desire to move cautiously before approving any penny- wise pound-foolish naval policy at this time. r—— Now, it is solemnly declared in an English newspaper, the Welsh want to make their principality & separate entity in the British Empire. If they succeed, how about Cornwall? And how about the Isle of Man? In the end, by a sort of “reverse English,” the empire may o back to the ancient mile-square City of London proper. Cr——— Today, after all the talk, hubbub and recriminations, and with the prospect of permanent resumption of relations, who outside the two services can state accu- rately offhand how many years passed without an Army-Navy game? L GRS If the report of the capture of the in- fantile paralysis germ should prove to be true, that alone would remove much of the stigma attaching to poor, old, friendless 1931. r—————————— The celebration of Christmas killed two hundred. New Year was observed with & paltry hundred deaths. What is the matter—are we becoming mollycod- dles? ey Two hitherto uncharted islands, dis- gorged by an undersea volcano, have re- cently appeared off the coast of Brazil. Absolutely providential for that super- fluous coffee. e SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Causes of Elation. The things that nearly happen, how they fill our souls with dread, As we think on the escapes that we have made. The little germs are prowling under foot and overhead, And their occupations make us all afraid. The locomotive, had you crossed ahead of when you did, Would certainly have slain you on the spot. We are thankful, as we think of the explosion or the skid, For the things that might have hap- pened, but did not. Had you been born some decades in advance of when you were, You'd now be resting 'neath your epitaph. If the annoyances which unto wrath your neighbors stir ‘Were yours, you might lament instead of laugh. So when Fate seems unrelenting with a disposition rude And you're tempted to bemoan your mortal lot, Just pause and think a moment with a sense of gratitude Of the things which might have hap- pened, but did not. Ruminations. “Do you give much time to your speeches?” “Yes” replied Senator Sorghum. “And no matter how much thought I give & speech before I make it, it is lisble to cause me still more worry afterward.” Unproficient. “I suppose you play golf?” “No,” replied Mr. Cumrox. “I ean’t say that T play it. But Iam still work- ing at it.” Present Prosperity. Prosperity we say draws near. For future bliss we persevere, | And fitting thanks fail to allow For blessings we enjoy right now. A truly courteous man has to listen smilingly to the same story a great many times, In and Out. A man once longed for a career. He sought to serve his country dear. But politics was very hard. He felt that he was somehow barred. He worked and schemed till he grew thin Getting in, And when at last & place he found ‘Where great responsibilities abound, His pride it was that none should say THIS AND THAT A retired sailor, with knowledge of navigation, might work up & neat liv- ing in a large city by supplying the “position” of homes to home owners. As far as the writer here knows, this is his own idea, which he offers to any one who has the ability to handle a sextant. Houses are ships, green. Each home has a fixed position on the earth. It is seldom that a house is moved, although that sometimes happens. Mostly our homes stay in one place, however, so that their “position,” once determined, will remain the same. It occurred to us that hundreds of home owners would be interested in knowing the exact location of their homes on the great earth. Taking the ship's position is done every day, owing to the movement cf sailing & sea of would have to be determined but once. The astute gentleman who furnished these positions might embellish them on a blue print, or some such device, and furnish this to the customer in the same way that a surveyor gives the landowner a certified document. x & K % The first abjection to this plan s one voiced by & gentleman to whom we ex- plained it: know the position of his home.’ That might be true, for the present, but there is where the education would come in! A little judicious advertising would help largely, it would seem. After a while, every one would want as every one wants a correct survey and a good photograph of his house and grounds. * X X X At first the demand would come from members of the great tribe of Friends of Ships. i This is & far larger organization than many would imagine. In every place in the world there are many people, especially men, who have & secret love of ships in their veins. The great seas of the world enthrall them. They may never have been within & thousand miles of the ocean, but never- theless the sound of it is in their ears forever. Their love for the water is in their blood. They were born with it. They read sea stories. The sight of a pic- ture of a clipper ship touches strange chords. These men are thinking about the sea and wondering how it is life never permitted them to go down to it in ships, as biblical Janguage has it. * ok ox X The fact that they own no vessels, BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. the vessel, but the position of a house | “Nobody but you would want to| the “position” of his home taken, just | One may love what one fears, of course. Love of the water, especially of the great rolling seas, is something im- planted. The interest in boats and boating may be purely theoretical, but based on a tangible background. This is why a ship is & symbol A ship is more than a vessel. Even the sailor recognizes as much when it might be expected that he would have no thought beyond his plain duty. A ship is & symbol and it means that the man who loves it has a special interest in life. ok ok x | Those who love ships are interested {in" everything. They are not like so many people you meet, who cannot talk about anything but the activities in which they earn their living. | Priends of ships, wherever you meet | them, are like sailoringmen, who must | know a great deal about many things | in order to keep the household of the | vessel running smcothly. | Friends of ships find nothing too | small or too great, from darning socks | to the great sweep of the horizon, to | interest them. | It anything is great, or if it is small, makes little difference. The important thing is that it have | some point of interest all its own | That is why a sailoringman takes | good care of the ship's cat. PR The position of the ship, at any given time, is of interest to every man | aboard. | "The position of a house, on the | bosom of the broad earth. is of more | than monetary interest, although it is fixed. We are assured by a seafaring gentle. | | man_that about an hour's time would be all that would be needed for fixing the position of a house. An ‘“artificial horizon” would have to | be established, since there would be none, in the natural sense. | " “Our longitude and latitude are so- | and-so,” the home owner could say | thereafter in a most knowing way. | Neatly blazoned and properly framed, | the position might be hung in an ap- | propriai place, preferably on an in- | closed sun porch, which often suggests a ship. A few nautical objects, such as a small ship’s bell. with perhaps a steer- | ing wheel, would add to the illusion. S N | A nautical position of a house would mean nothing, after all, we hear some one object—would mean no more than | a “survey” of a “lot” 100 by 200 fect | on_the ocean! | This is & showy objection, but ft will | not hold water. The trouble with the | marine “survey” would be that the ship would be out of it before it was com- | pleted. and even if the vessel anchored, the survey would be merely a berth. and probably never will, not even a| The position of a house on land small sailboat, has relatively little 1o would be fixed, as we pointed out, for- do_ with it. ever, barring some natural upheaval | year. Even they might be afraid of the| water, having had no experience of it | in their youth, the proper time to Te- | move all fears from the mind and heart. Often it is too late in life to safely | remove fears, if one waits to middle | age or later. | The dream of mankind is to be afraid | of nothing, but to retain a proper re- spect for the unknown. | Respect of the water is wholesome, | it one does not know how to swim. | OVIET ECONOMIC REVIEW, | Moscow.—Russia was the lead-‘ ing exporter_of bristles before | the World War. The average annual exports for the period 1909-1913 amounted to 2,500 metric tons, the total in 1913 being 3,000 tons, valued at 8,369,000 rubles (£4.435.000). During the World War exports fell off | considerably and the world markets | were obliged to meet their requirements | by larger imports from other countries, especially China. Soviet exports have not so far regained their pre-war vol- ume, the subsequent peak total never exceeding 2,000 tons. ‘ P | Table Is Broken, | But Chair Still Remains. La Voz de Madrid, Madrid—A gen- eral for the republic in times of peace as well as in the dark days of strife Senor Azana showed himself recently. Like Pedro Crespo, that admirable and symbolic hero of moderation and honor in government, and characteristically reiterating that “if you break the table, some one else will smash the chai the minister of war set forth the in- evitable course to be followd in proper defense of the republic, | Tllustrating _his _point, our ‘“civil” rather than “martial’ general swung about his head the flimsy table before him, holding it by but one leg. This table represented in his speech the monarchy, and he illustrated how it had been demolished at one stroke, and without apparent premeditation. = Yet while the breaking of the table was a | voluntary and unanimous episode. justified with & clear, plausible, pat otic and noble intention, now we are| confronted with the prospect that per- | haps the chair—that is to say, the re-| public—will be shattered, too! | During the long years of the dicta- torship the efforts of Senor Azana to| bring about better conditions were pru- dent and methodical, and resulted finally in the smashing up of one piece of our obsolete furniture. But the civil general of the republic need have no fear that any of us contemplate the fracturing of any other furniture—that is to say, the democracy established on | the 14th day of April in the current | Rather, we shall all loyally as-| Sist the new President of the republic | in repairing any damage to these chat- | tels. e | Wheels of Progress | Depend on Agriculture. | Nyomdaigazgato, Budapest. — The | earth has 1,850,000,000 inhabitants, and of these nearly 850,000,000 are living | from agriculture, 700,000,000 from | manufacturing work and the remaining | 300,000,000 ind.rectly from these two sources of supply for our necessities. | Interdependent as these two branches | of human occupation are, when one is | adversely affected the other likewise sustains afflictions, and it is patent to all that in the present sorry state of things, the misery of the agriculturist has increased that of the factory worker, and each one’s buying capacity has been diminished. The aggravation of such conditions is responsible for what we call the economic world crisis. Civilization calls for help! When the soil is untilled it brings in no return, and the farmers can buy no manufactured articles. And those em- i ployed in the factories, when there is no market for their products, must also come to idleness. The first group of workers is now in rags—the second group without food. A wheel of the world economy wagon has come off— indeed, two wheels have come off. The s0il does not earn, and, as a result, in- | dustry cannot, either, Capital loses confidence in both of them. | Where can we find help? In a| system of careful planning. Tet the| more important exporting states de-| termine by mutual agreement quotas | | for production and fair prices for their | products. Then the land will begin to earn again, and the farmer can buy | the products of the factory, and the | mechanical worker the product of the | soll. When the soll is earning, other | ‘That politics his mind could sway. the fixed ratio principle of organic law. | 303,100 tons, would equip the United The theory of the organic law is to|States with that “balanced fieet,”” on prevent the inequitable *condition that Sabiohiione camd ‘apaLi shiee tiban e exists under the temporary Jump sUm, cared to be our irreducible minimum. whersis the ony maximum Mmit of Two years have elapsed since we set up terms of parity with the British navy, { He worked still harder, there's no doubt Keeping out. “Mebbe de man dat never has to fight,” said Uncle Eber’ “ain’ as peace- able as he is Mag.” industries are earning, too. Money circulates sgain in the world. The| economy cart has been fitted with new | wheels and sets out boldly again on | prosperity’s only way, for prosperity | means but the satisfying of the de- mands of all the people everywhere. | The restored e‘nrr&nllnxs of the 850,000,000 agrieulturists the earnings ' Highlights on the Wide World Excerpts From Newspapers of Other Lands or a determination on the part of the owner to have it moved to another site Ordinarily a house “position” would mezn_ something quite definite, al- though it would have no particular use. But there are a great many fine things for which there is no particular use. Usage is only one of the measurements to be used in judging anything. A home “position” would be interesting, and, properly engrossed and framed. would prove decorative. We commend the idea to home owners. of the 700,000,000 industrialists, and the result will be a proper balance in trade. X ¥ Fire Fighters Willing, but Lack Equipment. El Universal, Mexico, D. F.—The fire department of this city is in a lament- able condition due to lack_of funds to | make necessary repairs. It is hardly | t0oo much to say that half the equip- ment is practically useless. As month after month passes without the means to replace the worn-out pumps and hose-carts, in about half a year the department will cease to function al- together, for the firemen will no longer have any apparatus with which to fight fires. Some of the fire engines are ab- solute ruins and ought to be in muse- ums. Fires of a mediocre character, which could be easily subdued with modern and well cared for units, speed- ily become alarming conflagrations which require the joint efforts of the entire department to extinguish., Such was seen to be the case at the recent fire at the Hotel Lagunilla, where the bomberos could do nothing to pre- vent the spread of the flames. though | they were on the ground ready to do! everything required in the circum- stances had they the equipment to work with. At the moment, the pumps “Cha- pultepec,” “Coahuila,” “Constitucion” and “Libertad” are still in service, al- though decrepit and comparatively use- less. The four hose-trucks for these engines are not in much better condi- tion. ‘Three other engines, “Mexico, ‘Benito Juarez” and tIndependencia, with but two hose-carts between them, are out of commission with their motors disassembled. All the other pumps are almost as ineffective. In case there is another fire like that in the Teatro Principal, all the firemen can do will be to fold their arms and let the blaze burn itself out. Their efforts would be of no avail Under such conditions, it certainly behooves the commandant of the corps to invoke the immediate aid of the authorities in rejuvenating all the equip- ment of the city before a disaster of magnitude overtakes us. At present the firemen cannot be held responsible for the consequences of any fire. Let us hope that the municipal coun- cll, in particular, will see the importu- nate and imperative needs of the de- partment, and supply whatever is nec- essary for the fire corps to put their impaired equipment in serviceable condition. Time is Just Eternit To Kentucky Engineer. From the Rochester Times-Union. Abner Bush lost his teeth. Sneezed them out of the cab window into the ditch. For Mr. Bush is a veteran en- gineer on the Hodgenville & Elizabeth- town Raflroad. Hodgenville and Eliza- bethtown are towns 20 miles apart, in Kentucky. Now, no matter what you may think of a set of false teeth sneezed out of the cab window of the Twentieth Cen- tury Limited, or the Yankee Clipper, you don't know your Kentucky if you think that making Elizabethtown on time is more important than getting back those molars and bicuspids. Engineer Bush brought his train to a sudden stop, backed her up, called out the crew and passengers and started a search. No use. No teeth. Sadly climbing back in the cab, Bush gave her the steam and the journey was resumed. But taking one look back | at the scene of the tragedy, Abner saw frantic signals being displayed by a little company of natives who had come to join in the quest. Good news! The teeth! Back her up again. Firmly clamping the set in his lower jaw, the veteran of the road registered five long blasts on the whistle as a re- sponse to the glad shouts of passengers and crew. Al was well Now and then when we survey the mad traffic jams of our larger cemters; sometimes when we reflect on the new national anthem, “Step On It.” we long for a few weeks in a locality where teeth are teeth, and time is the stuff. that eternity is made of. Just & few. NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM MOBY-DICK: Herman Melville. The John C. Winston Company. Certainly not a “new book” save only in the sense that a great work be- comes progressively new, increasingly vital. As clearly also not a book picked up in casual “random” outreaching. Her~, instead, a definite tribute to the holi- day dignity and beauty of this particu- lar issue of “Moby-Dick.” Tribute, as well, to its sponsor, the John C. Win- ston Company. A minute of fair advantage night Low pass into tracing the relation be- tween high art in book-making and a sharpened zest in reading itself. Bu there is no minute for this. No time cither for the arresting book situation that, within the year, has develop=d out of the general malady, hard times. Promises were not lacking from cne house and another for “fewer books and better ones.” Yet, hardly within recall, has the open been so jammed and Jjostled with publications, cheap inside and out, as in this period of frantic endeavor and plainly questionable econ- omy. An absorbing and pertinent study cpens here on the nature and methcds of economy in every sort of enterprise, mm; running a house to running the carth, Xk x X However, the pleasure and business of the moment lie with “Moby-Dick.” “I get very little out of it. Not half 0 good, to my way of thinking, as “Two Years Before the Mast.”” And he passed by the lovely Christmas “Moby-Dick.” Just talking, casually, the two men as they fumbled the book shelves. Interesting, though, for this passing opinion served to draw up before us the two American authors who have written great sea adventures—Herman Melville and Richard Henry Dana. It reset the fact also that each of these writers commands his own following. And that the two form separate camps. And hardly “the twain shall meet.” Here, on the one hand, is the clear realist, Dana. On the other hand, Mel- ville, realist plus and an imaginative reach that passes the bounds of ma- terial support and, over the line, roams the .domain of the spirit drawing near to many of its mysteries, clearly pene- trating some point at which the human ever stands importunate and pleading. From a lifelong intimacy with New England, sea and shore, these two cre- ated and held in perpetuity the whaler and the whaling industry of the North Atlantic Coast. At its height, besides, but at & moment when the uplift of enterprise was, unconsclously, facing abasement and final disaster, through the seeming inconsequence of oil wells bubbling through the ores of old Penn's State. Snuffers to sperm candles were already in the making. However, here they are, the two great stories commemorative of a passing pe- riod, commemorative of human genius besides. A young Harvard graduate, over- studied in the fashion of his day, Rich- ard Dana signed up for a two-year cruise around the Cape to California, wnich then was a Mexican province. About 1840. Out of that shipboard life grew “Two Years Before the Mast.” A book of many printings in many lands. A book that even yet 1s vigorous in its own enduring simplicity and verity One whose devoted appraisers liken to the ways of De Foe, with words and with the straight and clear path of that immortal chronicler of the heart of man, For the time being that whaling ship was the world. Upon it men who worked and played, who fought and re- pented, who were punished for short- comings and not praised for full meas- ur.; of overservice. Quite like the world, that ship, you see. A travel- ing planet in itself. Over it the im- measurable sky, proud of its own out- spread universe of sun and star and winding courses. Beneath it the vast, mysterious sea. And these, the shin, the sky, the sea, the men, are trans ferred to print in a straight and simple clarity that stands as a long life in- surance for “Two Years Before the Mast.” This writer's only notable boo'. The experience back of it went deep. turning Richard Dana to th> pursuit cf admirality law and to the reform of many a hardship and injustice to sail- ors of the seven seas. * oK K K oOut of the same New England, with its stock of Puritans and Quakers and other hard-headed fightors against the very obvious and most potent Satan living in their midst, wily and never- Sleeping—out of this same spot issued the splendor of “Moby-Dick.” As with young Dana, the threads of this tale were drawn from the daily life of the Puritan, from the basic traits that built the Yankee character, and made the Yankee famous the wide world around. New England and the whaling industry, just these, were,the initial literary lug- gage of this pair of writers. Here, too, as in the other case, a whaling ship became, for the time being, the world itself. And here also the pursuit and capture of the great sea mammal, to meet the ends of trade and commerce, became the prime preoccupation. Right there the like- ness ends: the two literary creators part company definitely. : Except—that some say it was Dana’s book that caused young Melville to choose the whaler's life In that case——! One must not forget, how- ever, that Herman Melville is of the tribe about whose members everybody says everything. There are such peo- ple. Clearly, he is one of them. The human cargo of that ship and the errand upon which it was bent create a world of new outlook, of mag- nificent, but errant, treatment, which from its day of issue far out into the future will cause wars and rumors of wars among the literary clans upon the true greatness of “Moby-Dick” and upon what it is all about anyway. Everybody grants, everybody who has any dependable information upon the subject, that this is a great story, his- toric in substance and effect, of the whaling industry at its height. That at no spot does it sacrifice items of fact in the interest of imaginative splendors and melodramatic events. But here is a mad ship, commanded by a maniac, Capt. Ahab, racing toward the North Pole and back again toward the South, ostensibly hunting whales, but really in pursuit of Moby- Dick, the great white whale, that had 50 neatly, yet so ferociously, bereft, at a single bite, Capt. Ahab of one of his two legs. The driving force of that particular whaler was revenge, deep, ~ unalterable, vindictive. Capt. Ahab and Leviathan in enmity. Man and nature at odds. And under this elemental sweep and clash of forces the great adventure passes out of the realm of measurable reality and be- comes a splendid pageant of wrath and its age-old fulfillment. And yet, under the terrors of approach, of onset, of impact, under the sheer ferocity of the adventure at a hundred points the strong cordage of human logic and reaction does not break. Revenge falls back upon itself, as ever. The avenger becomes victim to the full measure of his own passion of destruction. Sam- son pullipg down the pillars of the temple. A piece of literary greatness bent, continuously, upon contention. Upon dissection, upon points of weakness to be paraded, upon inaccuracies to be set out to the caviler's credit. Never mind! Let be! Respect for commas and the integral infinitive is no sin. us, instead, glory in the sheer splen- dor of Moby-Dick. A masterpiece of realism and symbolism singly incor- porated. A great gift to many another writer has been the work of Herman Melville, A distinction of worth that no one seeks to abase, “He is the literary discoverer of the South Seas.” his followers from Stevenson to O'Brien openly declare. “Melville and Dana created a new world—shipboard. They &re pioneers in whose wake sweep Conrad, Kipling, Masefleld.” ‘Melville 15 possessed of an imagina- tlon so truly creative, of such com- manding ANSWERS TO BY FREDERI This Bureau does mot give advice, but it gives free information on any subject. Often, to be accurately in- formed is to be beyond the need of ad- vice, and information is always valu- able, whereas advice may not be. In using this service be sure to write clearly, state your inquiry briefly, and inclose 2-cent stamp for Teply postage. Address The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. Q. Is Alabama Pitts, captain and quarterback on Sing Sing's foot ball team, a colored man?—E. C. A. The warden of the prison states that Pitts is white. Q. What are Poverty Row’—R. A. Quickies are pictures made by the cheaper independent studios. Poverty Row is the legendary street on which all independent studios are commonly supposed to be located and where many quickies have been made. quickies? Where is . B. sidered tall, short, Leight>—M. A. S. A. A woman is considered short who is from 4 feet 11 inches to 5 feet 3 inches: medium from 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 5'; inches; tall from 5 feet 512 inches to 5 feet 10 inches. Q. Did the Continental Congresses have officials comparable to the clerk of the House and the secretary of the Senate in the present Congress?—C. D. A. There was one such official, called the secretary of the Congress, as the Continental Congress was a unicameral body. Charles Thompson of Pennsyl- vania acted in this capacity through- cut 15 sessions in 8 citles and under 14 Presidents of the Congress. He served from September 5, 1774, until January 22, 1788. Q. How long has the Freich Riviera been a popular Winter resort?—N. A. T. A This season marks its anniversar; Lord Brougham and Vaux, lord chan cellor of Great Britain, in the Winter of 1831-32 fled from the rigors of a London Winter to Cannes. Because of hi~ political distinction his example was followesd by other British nobles and persons of wealth, Lord Brougham made a practice of spending a part of his Winters on the Riviera. He died at Cannes in 1868 Q. What plans Mississippi flood control are being carried out - at present?—J. L. C. A. The act of May 15, 1928, approved the flood control plan of the Lower Mississippi River. This plan has been under way since 1928 and something like $127,000000 has been spent or obligated. The program contemplates the completion of the project in 1938, including expenditures of $225,000,000. or of medium Q. How tall is a woman who is con- | QUESTIONS ‘Elmvkx instead of four of more value?— | _A. The so-called imperial dragon of China was represented as having five ) aws on each le Used as a symbol of rank, as, for example, on embroid- ered eoats, it was appropriate to mem- bers of the tmperial family only. Coats made for this class of people “were often, t h by no means iavariably, of better quality than those made for | lower classes. and might, therefore, be | more valuable, Q. When did the first book appear in which Sherlock Holmes was a char- acter’—H. H Arthur Conan Doyle intro- herlock Holmes in “Study in published in 1887, | duced Scarlet, Q. What tanker?—J. A. The tankage of an oil-tank ship varies with the size of the vessel, from 300,000 to 6,000,000 gallons. Q. TIs Ven country?—L. T. A. Rainfall varies from less than 1 inch a month in the dry season to much as 5 inches a month in the rain season. In addition Venezuela is par- ticularly well endowed with rivers. The country has more than 1,000 rivers. About 0 rivers empty into the Carib- bean Sea, while some 200 flow into Lake Maracaibo. Included among its streams is the Orinoco, one of the great rivers of the world. Q. Why is it said that the Bunker Hill Monument commemorates a battle which was never fought?—F. H. P. A. Back of the village of Charleston rose an elevation called Breed's Hill, while still farther back was a higher elevation known as Bunker Hill. On the evening of June 16, 1775, Col. Pres- | cott led his regiment and some other soldiers to Bunker Hill, but possibly be- cause the soil was refractory at that point the detachment proceeded to the eastward extremity of Breed's Hill. When the detachment reached this hill at midnight, it began to throw up em- bankments and the battle known to us | as the battle. of Bunker Hill is really | the battle of Breed's Hill | Q. When it is noon in Washington D. C., what time is it in Honolulu and in Auckland, New Zealand?—B. C. A. It is 6:30 am. of the same day in Honolulu and 4:30 am. of the fol- lowing day in Auckland. is the capacity of an oil M ela a dry or well watered B | @ How many Emperors of the pres | ent reigning family has Japan had?— P2 A. The present Emperor, Hirohito, is the 123d of his line | | Q Is an octopus, sea bat and devil fish one and the same creature?—C. R. | A, The name devil fish may be ap- The project was primarily one for the | Plied to either of the others. The octo= alluvial valley of the Dewer Mississippi, | PuS s a cephalopod of the phylum mollusca, and, strange as it may seem, But—let | = but includes $10,000,000 for levees on the Upper Mississippi to Rock Island, Tllinois, and for levees on the tribu- tar the Mississippi River. The project does Q. Please describe the mace in the House of Representatives—R. S. o A. The mace is about 3 feet long and consists of 13 ebony rods representing the Thirteen Original Colonies. It is bound together with transverse bands of silver in imitation of the thongs that shaft is surmounted by a globe of solid silver about 5 inches in diameter upon which rests a massive silver eagle Q How large an army has Ger- many now?—E. E. W. A The strength of the German army is 100,500 men. Q. Is a mandarin coat upon which the embroidered dragons have five | Recent revival of the legend that John Wilkes Booth escaped after his slaying of Lincoln, and that some other per- son’s body was buried for his fails to convince the public. Study of the mummy of John St. Helen by Chicago medical experts, with the announce- ment that characteristics found cor- respond with those known to have been possessed by Booth, leaves the world still skeptical. “The Booth ‘mystery’ lingers on, catching the fancy of the credulous,” says the Rockford Register-Republic, recalling the official report of the death of Booth, as ‘“related with much detail in ‘The History of the United States Secret Service’ published in the 80s, and written by Brig. Gen. La Fayette C. Baker, who is credited with having organized the Union’s secret service and was its first chief.” The Register-Re- public gives the detailed information: “According to this narrative, Booth was shot by Sergt. Boston Corbett. The body was brought to Washington, the pursuers also bringing as prisoner the man Herold, one of the conspirators. Only a few persons were permitted to view the body. Gen. Baker writes, and these for purposes of ‘Tecognition.’ They were a Dr. May. who had removed a carbuncle from Booth's neck two years earlier, and five others, inquest wit- nesses, who had known Booth intimately for years. The story of the disposition of Booth’s body is told in a few para- graphs with which the general con- cludes his historical volume. With the assistance of Lieut. L. B. Baker, Gen. Baker took the body from the gunboat on which the inquest was held direct to the old penitentiary, adjoining the arsenal grounds.” The editorial closes with the statement that “reburial by friends or members of the family, it is told in other accounts, was made later.” e “That Booth did escape has begome a legegd in many parts of the Sduth,” according to the Knoxville Journal, which recalls stories of his residence in a little town of middle Tennessee, or of his position as a college instructor, or of his filling the role of “a morbid and horror-haunted villain, moving in de- spair from place to place over the entire South, hoping to escape a just fate that aited him.” The Journal continues ‘hat he finally killed himself and that his body was prepared for exhibition | as the present horrifying mummy is| part of the story now under discussion. Of the truth of the whole dark occur- rence which brought him to destruction history itself has never taken full thought. It is a record tragic enough in any way that it may be taken, but that Booth acted from reasons of politi- cal or sectional revenge has long been disproved. His was a personal ven- geance against his victim. It blackened his memory, embittered the heart of Edwin Booth, his brother, and the North's reaction to it brought upon the South woes without number. The whole sorrowful tale may one day be- come a part of history.” * K K K “Dearly do we love to believe what can't be true” avers the Springfield Illinois State Journal, which refers to the myth attaching to the memory of Michel Ney, Grand Marshal of France, upon the measured literalism of com- nion acceptance as to place him, legit- imately, in the order of genius.” A great artist whose convincing master- plece is ““Moby-Dick. Yet, we called him “a cannibal.” We New England folks are great for calling names. And what else was he? A vag- abond, 8 common sailor, hobnobbing with the very dregs of our Christian civilization—mutineers, Bohemians. And vet out of it all, you see—the refuse, the mess of humanity, the vagabondage of es within the backwater effect of | not include reservoirs or reforestation. | bound the fasces of ancient Rome. The | is more closely related to the oyster | than to_the sea bat, which is a true fish. The octopus, together with the | other mollusks belonging to the same | order, are sea creatures of very low development, having no skeleton and no true nervous system. The sea bat |is a fish belonging to the group of | cartilaginous fishes called rays. These | fish, Tike their near relatives, the charks, have a cartilaginous structure | which 'acts as a skeleton in place of the bones of more highly developed fishes. | Q When was the Church of St. | Botolph in Boston, England, founded? —A. E A. It was built in 1309 on the site | of ‘an earlier church. It is one of the | finest. parish churches in England. The | Lincolnshire town of Boston, for which | Boston, Mass, was named, gained its | name as a corruption of Botolph's Stortes of Booth’é Escape Received With Skepticism | and’ “similar yarns which have gained | more or less credence from the gullible.” | Of the tale about Marshal Ney, the State | Journal records: “This story is to the | effect that the firing squad which exe- cuted Ney did not, in fact, shoot him; | that ,the burying squad smuggled him | out of the country; that he came to America and spent the remainder of his life teaching school in the Caro- linas. The words of a teacher of mathe- matics, recalled after his death, furnish the basis for this tale. One of Mark Twain’s stories illustrates the American disposition to swallow pretensions of impostors who divest themselves with | romance. The Dauphin who imposed | on Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn | was no more ridiculous and impossible than a dozen other reincarnations with | which newspaper writers are familiar. | There are many who believe that the | bullet meant for Jesse James Kkilled | another man.” | “Probably it is merely another myth | —but_interesting,” suggests the Cleve- |land News, observing that “at least it |1s being subjected to the acid test of | science,” which is more than can be | said for the ordinary story of tris kind.” The News takes note of the fact that “cited in evidence are anatomical pe- culiarities, as_well as the fact that & | Ting such’as BoothWore and was sup- posed to have swallowed when pursued was found in the stomach of the | mummy.” Of the public attitude toward | such mysteries the News says: “Many have been the infamous characters— and famous ones, tco—whose deaths have been doubted by the public. Guiteau, the assassin of Garfield, was | supposed to have been miraculously de= |livered from the noose that awaited him | in Washington on June 30, 1882. Thers | have been legends hardy enough to hint |at a similar escape for Czolgosz—an- | other took his place. The Dauphin in France fled to America. At least one member of the Russian royal family escaped the red executioners and is | alive today. So run the tales.” *x ok ok Kk | . “Few orthodox historfans,” in the judgment of the Gary Post-Tribune, | “will give any credence to this astound- ing theory; ye% such are the quirks of | human nature. the story will probably | linger, in footnotes and anecdotes, for |a century to come. For years it has been whispered that the pursuing avalrymen did not really catch and kill the fugitive Booth. The most care- fully gathered evidence of sober his- tory was never enough to silence trose whispers. With this new fuel they should be good for another century, at least.” “Such stories grow up around popu- lar or notorious characters who come to a tragic end.” advises the Charleston (W. Va) Daily Mail. with the com- ment: “The ‘identification’ of the mum- my as the body of Booth may arouse some interest, simply because tkere is injected into the story an element of doubt and of mystery. If Booth were not slain who was? Who was the vicarious sufferer in place of the actor? Booth was well known in Washington as well as in Baltimore, and identifica- tion would have been easy. It is true that there were some at the time who refused to believe that Booth had been caught and killed. Yet not one of ;lhgm could give a reason for tre be- Of the medical examination in Chi- cago, the Dayton Daily News remarks: “The X-ray plctures show where a bone in the left leg was broken: Booth suf- fered such an injury when he fled from Ford's Theater. "There is the same de- formity of the left thumb. From the ,\LumM'hv is taken a ring bearing the letter “B'. The inference is that Booth, to avold identification, swallowed it fol- lowing the crime. The consensus o historians leans toward the theory that Booth was the man killed in the Bowl- ing Green, Va., barn, but there is & life—he dgew a greatly beautiful, a pro- foundly leting work of art. The story of -Dick, the while whale, ko great deal of dissent from this h ypothe- sis” The Daily News feels fl%fi be other investigations