Evening Star Newspaper, January 17, 1932, Page 25

THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, DL JANUARY 17, 1¢ Joi—PART - TWO. AL SMITH HOLDS KEY TO ROOSEVELT’S CHANCE Reported. Estrangement May Parallel Quarrel Between Theodore Roosevelt and Taft in 1912, BY MARK SULLIVAN. IVE months from now, roughly, the Democrats are going to choose a presidential nominee. At this moment Gov. Frank- lin Roosevelt of New Yofk is very ch in front. For nearly a year there been an organization behind him, a aggressive organization. (Possibly ttle too aggressive for Roosevelt’s good, for some of the Roosevelt s in their relations with other ocratic chieftains as high in rank Roosevelt, have made the impression ©f being a little arrogant.) In addition £o an organization that works on a Natlon-wide scale, there are local [Roosevelt oganizations in several States. These organizations, it is true, do not -eome “from the grass-roots. There is mo record of any case in which a con- siderable number of Democratic voters ame spontaneously together and spon- taneously formed a Roosevelt club or a Roosevelt committee. The REoosevelt organization, as to its big pers and with Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, had Taft, with Theodore Roosevelt's’ sup- | port. been re-elected in 1912 and served | untii 1917—in that event no_one can | say; of course, what would have fol- Jowed: but it is fairly certain that nei- ther Harding nor Coolidge would have | emerged from obscurity; our Presidents | during the post-war period would have | been persons now destined by the Taft- | Roosevelt quarrel to be unknown to history. In degree, it is so of this Smith- Franklin Roosevelt estrangement. If the paralled to the Taft-Theodore Roosevelt one should continue, if the relations of the two men, now at the stage we call estrangement, should go on (as the Taft-Theodore Roosevelt one did) to the stage of avowed, pub- lic quarrel—in that event, the quarrel will most certainly determine the Dem- ocratic nomination. And if is now in the cards that the Democratic nominee is to be the next President, then the Smith-Franklin Roosevelt quarrel will | have determined the next presidency. Colonies for War Debts? America Should Be Given Rich Congo Basin Instead of Cash, Says One Noted Economist. ARENTS ARE of Troubles dren En BY VERNON BOYCE HAMPTON. 6 UPIL FAILURES" are invari- bly blamed upon the school and the school system, but there is a place for the parent in this matter of failure in child training which has scarcely been properly emphasized. “Parent failures” and “problem parents” occupy a place of almost equal importance with “pupil failures” in the catalogue of school worries. The old-fashioned parent is fast dis- appearing. Within the last two genera- tions we have had & new type develop- ing. Twenty years ago a remarkable passage appeared in a book on family life (“The Shrine Invisibie,” W. J. Hampton), describing conditions in the home. The same applies almost word for word to the present day, although an entire new generation has developed in the meantime. “The phrase ‘There is no place like home’ carries with it but little signifi- cance to millions of children nowadays. 3 TO BLAME IN FAILURES OF PUPILS Lack of Discipline Is Often Chief Cause School Chil- counter. Moreover, in this case he had never used corporal punishment, and in ‘”fi‘i’]’d‘é‘n‘ the rod he had apolisd the child. Modern pedagogy frowns upon cor- poral punishment, and rightly so, for | there are “administrators” who know | not how to apply it; abuse of this age- | old method of discipline has been re- isponsible for its being held in ilI- repute today. Yet many a healthy lad of past generations was raised on lgpr;\tyer and hickory,” and flourished y it. Child Obedience Urged. Parents permitting willful children to grow up unrestrained do a far greater harm than proper administration of corpor] punishment could ever do. The observations of James J. Walsh and John A. Foote in a recent journal are apropos: “Children must be made to | understand even from their early years that they must not do what they are told not to do or that definite penalties Wwill follow. They will have to suffer The more popular rendering today would | Something for their refusal to obey Sts little, is composed of party workers | And whatever or whoever determines and party leaders of various degrees; of | g Lresidency. by that act, gives a new the type who, either for amusement or | gelf-interest, take frpm time to time an | active interest in politics; men who hope, perhaps, to get an office in case of victory. or, 8s in the greater number of cases, have no motive more material than merely the fun of the game. Roosevelt Backers Aggressive. The organization behind Roosevelt is much the most elaborate and aggres- sive in existence. There is behind Gov. Ritchie of Maryland an organi- pation as aggressive but by no means 80 elaborate. There is one behind ex- turn to history, the consequences of which defy speculation. Seen in this way, with the elevation it truly has, the cause of the estrange- ment between Smith and Franklin Roosevelt is the most important un- written story in current. American his- tory. For if the estrangement should blaze later into public quarrel, the country will flame with discussion of the rights and wrongs of it, with every- body taking one side or the other. If the Smith-Franklin Roosevelt estrange- ment should follow fully the parallel BY STEPHEN LEACOCK. (Famous Political Economist.) —Portion of & painting maae in the Parc Albert National, Belglan Congo, by Willlam R. Leigh, thought the purchase a reckless ex- travagance. limitations, seemed of no value. The| United States refused its slice and Eng- | :NE IN THE CONGO. WOULD DEVELOPMENT OF THIS VAST COUNTRY SOLVE THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS? Gulf of St. Lawrence and a line drawn from the head of the Gulf of St. Becretary of War Newton D. Baker; but | 0f the Taft-Theodore Roosevelt one, this, too, is much less pretentious than | then We would have during the next Roosevelt's. Associated with a few |few weeks of hurdles, both men con- others, such as Gov. Murray of |tending against each other for dele- Oklahoma and Banker “Mel” Traylor | gates, both striving to control the con- On the other hand, at the close of the Napoleonic War, for the sake of which | Napoleon had sold Louisiana, England got as the “prize of war” huge slices of F CURRENT press dispatches are correct, it is altogether likely that Canada will buy from Newfound- land the ungainly and infertile of Good Hope, Lawrence to the head of James Bay. This whole territory includes about 500,000 square miles. Minerals Change Land’s Value land gave some back. | Now, if the great war and the great | peace ‘had been conducted on old- | | fashioned lines there would have been ©of Chicago, are modest efforts rather 00 unassuming to be called organiza- tions, In short, Roosevelt is the only one whose friends are going after-that nomination in real “go-getter” fashion The Roosevelt organization is just now being slipped into high gear. Pri- mary elections, in the several States that have them, begin in a few weeks, Formal steps looking to the primaries are beginning this present week. At every such point the Roosevelt forces are on the job. If the Democratic nomination is to be had by energy and organization, Roosevelt would seem to be by far the best bet. | vention, each making charges of ingrat- |itude and disloyalty against the other, | the newspapers flaming with acrimoni- ous charge and counter charge. That is the course the Taft-Theodore Roosevelt quarrel took in 1912: it caused every other aspect of public affairs to be ignored, it started about half the people singing “Onward, Chris- tian Soldier” behind the Theodore Roosevelt banner, while another group | behind Taft marched grimly in what they deemed to be defense of the Con- stitution. It set us all to talking in the pitch of Theodore Roosevelt's fa- mous battle cry, “We stand at Arma- The key to the Democratic situation geddon and we battle for the Lord.” s ex-Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New |In short, that Taft-Theodore Roosevelt York That Smith does not look kindly | quarrel in 1912 wrought us all to a on Roosevelt and his candidacy no one | Pitch of passion such as now seems in- doubts. That there is estrangement be- credible and caused the newspapers to tween the two men every one assumes. Tecord the battles of 1912 Republi- The writer of this article has no atom | can_National Convention in headlines | of direct or positive information about 50 huge they had nothing bigger to it. But friends of each discuss it casu- record the battle of Chateau Thierry ally, newspapers allude to it daily, When it came. magazines print articles about it it W ” ; e Botn “Hoasevelt | Public Split Would Not Hurt Party. toward the nomination, in the sense of | In the Taft-Theodore Roosevelt case actively and publicly promoting it, is it was the Roosevelt of that day who | now pretty nearly impossible. The de- | took the initiative, made the quarrel tachment that Smith has from Roose- | public, carried it before the people. In velt is now so well known to the pub- | the somewhat reversed setting of the | lic—or so believed by the public—that | Smith-Franklin Roosevelt _estrange- | &ny ardent assertion by Smith of sup- ment, if any one brings it before the port for Roosevelt would cause wonder | public, it must be. presumably Smith. | about Smith's motive, even raise a If Smith says nothing about it, natu- | question of his sincerity. The only real rally Franklin Roosevelt will say noth- | question is whether Smith will preserve | ing. It is Pranklin Roosevelt, decid- | his silence, stand quietly by and let | edly, who has everything to lose by the Roosevelt get the nomination, or |estrangement becoming a political bat- whether Smith will actively oppose him. | tle, with the friends of each party to If Smith should -actively and publicly | the quarrel taking angry sides. ppose Roosevelt, Roosevelt would not| It i commonly assumed that any | have & chance in the world. Smith |blazing of the Smith-Franklin Roose- could, if he should undertake it, de- | velt estrangement into public quarrel prive Roosevelt of practically all the|would be a detriment to the Demo- delegates from every one of the big | cratic party, would impair its chances States from Illinois east. in the subsequent campaign against the 5 Rebublicans. That is not true. That AVIR Esirangrment Oitoh, is where the Smith-Franklin Roosevelt It was said of the estrangement be- | estrangement departs from parallel tween another Roosevelt, Theodore, and | with the Taft-Theodore Roosevelt one. William H. Taft, twenty years ago, that | The Taft-Theodore Roosevelt quarrel it determined the presidency of the | was fatal to the Republicans in 1912 United States for at least eight years; territory of Labrador for $100,- 000,000, For the moment the conclu- sion of the purchase is held up by the hard times. But there is no doubt | that the Canadian people at large con- sider that Labrador is certainly “worth” $100,000,000. Indeed, it is asserted on| what seems good authority that & Ger- | man syndicate is willing to pay that| sum for the possession of the Labrador territory just for 99 years. After that they would give back what was left of it Now here is something which ought | to start any thinking man thinking. If “sovereignty’—whatever that means —over naked territory like Labrador is | worth all that, what is the value of | such a fertile extent as East Africa or | Mesopotamia or the Congo? Yet there | are those of us still alive who can recall | the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 when these vast territories went begging as “mandates,” accepted somewhat grudg- ingly by the Allied victors as part of the white man’s burden. The United States, so it is understood, could have had all of Armenia, including any Armenians left alive in it, and wouldn't take it Let us turn to the history of this| matter and show what a mess it is. Recalls Louisiana Purchase. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson persuaded the United States to “buy” Lou'siana for $15.000.000. The territory included all the land between the Mis sissippi and the Rockies in one direction and between Spanish America and the forty-ninth parallel in the other. It| contained almost 900.000 square miles. | But at the time most plain Americans | territory—the Cape 0 Ceylon, British Guiana, Mauritius. The increase of the national debt to $4.- 000,000,000 seemed offset by the splen- did addition to national wealth. Alaska Was Held Bad Bargain. But in the next generation, that of Cobden and the Free Traders, the uppermost idea was that “sovereignty” over territory was quite worthless. Only trade mattered. and that could be had just as well without sovereignty. Hence When the United States bought Alaska in 1867 from the Czar of Russia for $7.200,000 the ownership of this vast territory of _approximately 590,000 square miles, otherwise called “Seward’s icebox,” seemed not worth while to most Deople. Yet within 20 years all Europe was engaged in the scramble for Africa, dividing up that dark continent and he dark meat with it as if sovereignty over raw material and natural resources were of vital meaning to manufacturing nations. And so they are. In 1917 the United States paid $25.- 000,000 for the Danish West Indies, the Virgin- Islands. Put together, all the Islands would be 13 miles long and 10 miles wide. But somehow, at the Treaty of Ver- sailles and in the settlement afterward, the Allied victors missed the point of past experience. They imposed colossal sums of money as reparations and re- payments, none of it collectable with- out injury both ways, and let territory go. 1In place of ownership was sub- stituted a wishywashy, hypocritical thing called a “mandate” a sort of white man’s burden. This, with its | not “mandates” but out-and-out cession of territory, Tesources and black and tan subjects thrown in. Everybody would have been satisfied, including the black and tan subjects. England would have matched its $40,000,000,000 of war debts | against 500,000 square miles of fertile territory and abounding _Tesources. France would have painted Africa green | to the waist line. Even Mussolini could have found pasture for unborn Italians. Germany, beaten in _the scramble for land, could have gone back to industry and philosophy at home. | Whether the territory would have been an asset or not is of no consequence, The nations would have thought so. In 10 years the bitterness left of the | war would have been over. These are | not fancies, absurdities, jokes. These are facts. | And the United States? Why, of course the United States would have | been the major claimant. And the “claim” is there on the map all ready to stake out—the Congo Basin. Here is a | stretch of 1,500,000 square miles capable |of satisfying in rubber and tropical products every need of the United States for_uncounted_generations. | Turning back for a moment to Lab- | rador. This territory and the question of its recent transfer (in 1927) from | Canada to Newfoundland is of itself of no great interest to American readers. | But its present situation serves admi- Tably to illustrate the economic mean- ing of the “ownership” of territory in | the world of today. The Labrador pen- insula, in the larger sense, means the | vast oblong block of land surrounded by | | the James Bay, Hudson Bay and Strat, | | Ungara Bay, the north Atlantic, the But it is only a minor part of this, the northeast section, an area of 100,- 000 square miles, which was declared in 1927 to belong to Newfoundland and which Canada will probably buy. This “Labrador” includes, roughly speaking, the land drained by rivers flowing into the Atlantic, either directly on'$he coast- al strip, always part of Newfoundland, or by way of the inland valley draining ! into the Hamilton River, with a con- ventional southern boundary along the fifty-second parallel. The question of possession goes back to rights of New- foundland as arising from its recogni- tion as & British colony—it is the oldest —in 1583—and the rights of the Hud- son's Bay Co, of 1670, which had juris- diction over all the iand that drained into Hudson Bay. At the time and for long afterward no one knew, or cared, to where the bleak uninhabited central valley of Labrador was drained. modern search for minerals and power put the matter in & new light. In 1927 the Judicial Committee of the King's Council—the last court of appeal for British colonial cases—declared that the disputed territory was part of Newfoundland. Under the Cobdenite theory this would have involved no loss to Canada, since the Canadians could “trade” with Labrador. But in Labrador there is no one to trade with. In the whole of it there is not even a village. Apart from mission stations and such choice spots as Makkovik and Okak, and the land- ing places of fishermen, there is noth- ing. The inhabitants are estimated to (Continued on Fourth Page) TO VANISH TWO MYSTERY ISLANDS FROM CHART LA TROUBLED TIN AMERICA FACING YEAR IN 1932 Land, Reported Long Ago in South ‘Financial and Economic Problems and that it determined whether America should take part in the World War, and, if 50, when and how, and that it gave to the whole stream of American history a turn whose consequences are impossible to estimate, That is all true. The quarrel between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt made it easy for Woodrow Wilson to be elected in 1912; Wilson's presence in the White House made it easy for him to succeed himself in 1916. The course of America during the World War became largely what President on initiated. And that is not the sum of the consequences that flowed from the quarrel between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Once the new twist had been given to the stream of American history by the quarrel in 1912 and the election of Wilson, the farther reaches of the new direction were largely what Wilson, intentionally or unintentionally, made them. By the end of Wilson's eight years, a new set of conditions, largely ~associated with Wilson, had arisen. The speculation _is eourse: but had Taft whimsical, of not quarreled only because both men tried for the presidential nomination, one of them got it and the other started a third party. What would follow a public blazing-up of the Smith-Franklin Roosevelt estrangement would be quite different. Neither of the two would get the nomination. The prize would go almost certainly to some one not a party to the quarrel, such as Newton D. Baker (it may go to him anyhow). There would be no third party, and the Democrats in the ensuing campaign | would suffer no detriment. Indeed it would be much better for the Democrats to have this quarrel blaze up and burn itself out, For if it merely smolders, and if Franklin | Roosevelt gets the nomination, with | most of Smith’s friends and most of his very personal following understand- | ing vaguely that Smith seems to feel he has cause for sullenness about Roosevelt—that set-up for the Demo- crats might cost them more votes and be, in all respects, more disadvantage- ous to them than a public burning out of the quarrel, with the netural Baker | getting the nomination. Shattered British Labor Party to Open National LONDON.—Reconstruction work on & national scale is being undertaken from January 17 to March 7 by the hard-hit British Labor party, with the object of adding 1,000,000 new mem- bers to the party's roster. which, it 15 confidently asserted, would eventually mean the return of Labor to office, probably with a full working majority. Since Labor’s overwhelming defeat in the recent general elect which in- stalled its former leader, J. Ramsay MacDonald, as premier in a National government able to call upon the sup- port of an unprecedented majority, there has been a great deal of stock- taking in Labor quarters and much criticism of the organization or ma- chine and the nner in which it failed to respond to the acid test of efficiency. The present organized membership s a composite one, including individ- uals and affiliated trade unions. The trade union membership, 3,250,000, comprises the vast majority of the party, and it is for that reason that it has exerted such powerful influence on Labor's legislative programs when it has been in office. Nevertheless, it was the contention of the trade union- ists that MacDonald often exercised an autocratic authority and to prevent leader in the future domg so trade union movement will st ton the closest contact with those its membership shaping party policy in the belief that this section \e Labor organization was really g to pull the legislative strings Jost ttat party thousands of votes. But the party organizers are evi- dently unrepentant, for some of them declare that the time has come to take from the prime minister, who forms a Labor government, the com- pletely unfettered power of choosing the members of his cabinet. A strong section favors the method of caucus election of the cabinet, as practiced by the Labor party in Australia. where & panel of possibilities is submitted to the premier and where, although the latter has the power to select individ- uals for particular portfolios, he can- not_choose from outside it. e « 1 « t it The reorganization planned is the | tion Drive for Comeback “We certainly lost seats in Parlia- ment,” he said, “but these were out of all proportion to the votes we lost in the constituencies. We hope to double the membership through those who voted for us in that election.” Another important recent develop- ment is the formation of a National Joint Council to secure closer co-opera- tion and consultation between the dif- ferent bodies composing the party. “Events have convinced the industrial and political wings of the movement,” asserted Mr. Tracy, “that there must be more co-operation than existed in the lifetime of the last Labor govern- ment Many difficulties arose between the trade unions and the government because there was not enough contact between ministers inside Parliament and the trade union movement outside | The newly formed National Joint Coun- cil will meet every month, and its busi- will be to secure joint action on all matters of common interest.” | The national government candidates made telling use of the charge that the Labor party was subject to Trade Union Congress dictation. But in Tracy's view there is & feeling in trade union quarters, intensified by recent events. that it is necessary to exercise stronger control over the work of the parlia- mentary party, both in opposition and when Labor is in office. For the moment the question of Premier MacDonald's_excommunication from the Labor fold—he, of course, does not recognize it—is not more than a subject of casual speculation, at least outside his old party ranks. But in the ranks there is vociferous clamoring that be will never get back. for it would mean a party schism of disastrous con- sequences. Nationalization of the banks still fig- ures in the party program, although a | number of the wiseacres in the Labor | movement say that such an unpopular | platform plank ought to be put com- pletely out of sight. Candidates are being chosen for the various constituencies where Labor lost out Most of them are men and women who stood for office in the recent elec- Nevertheless, some of the defeated first answer of the Labor party to the | ones were so hard hit financially and ['have such small incomes that there are events of the late general election a In the view of Herbert Tracy, & still numerous vacancies. Intensive and Malson officer between the Labor move- | incessant propaganda between elections ment and the press, the election showed | has greatly aided Labor in the past, and & rock-bottom foundation in the con-|the party leaders are now intent upon stituencies of nearly 7,000,000 Labor rukin‘xh the propaganda effort even supporters, a total not very much below L more thorough. V¥ 4o o 1928, (Copyrisht, 16320 Exploring BY LAWRENCE G. GREEN. | CAPE TOWN. HEN new charts of the South Atlantic are issued by the British admiralty two mys- terious islands which have appeared for a hundred years will have vanished. They are Thompson and Lindsay Islands, down in those stormy seas known ' to sailormen as the “frozen fifties.” Word has just reached Cape Town that the whaling survey and ex- ploring steamer Discovery II has searched and failed to find any trace of them. This is a more surprising report than the landsman might imagine. In the past, of course, large icebergs, masses of wreckage, derelicts and the flotsam of great rivers often have been mis- taken for islands and found their way onto the charts. And it is true that the reported positions of Thompson and Lindsay Islands always were re- garded as doubtful, owing to the diffi- culty of using & sextant in those misty seas. But as the old “Sailing Direc- tions” remarked, “That they do exist somewhere seems morally certain.” Island Was Volcano. ‘Thompson Island was reported first by Capt. Norris, & famous whaling ex- | plorer of his day and master of a brave little Hull whaler, the Sprightly. His men landed there in 1825, killing seals and catching fish. “The island,” he wrote, “bears evident marks of hav- ing been & volcano, as it is nothing less than a complete cinder with immense veins of lava which have the appear- ance of black glass” Lindsay Island was reported & few years earlier by Capt. Lindsay of the Whaler Swan. "It was rediscovered in 1898 by the German deep-sea explora- | tion vessel Valdivia, and found to be | almost exactly in the position given | by Lindsay—a single volcanic cone sur- rounded by steep cliffs, covered with | snow and ice | When Discovery II steamed over these lonely seas recently, zigzagging so that no trace of land could missed, her officers saw nothing. Alded | by the most modern instruments of | navigation they made a thorough | search and satisfied themselves that no_jslands had been missed. Where are Thompson and Lindsay Islands? Do they exist in some lonely part of the South Atlantic far from ! the area of search? Or have they, like | so many other islands, sunk beneath the ocean? | Only just over the horizon from the | reported position of Thompson Island | lies Bouvet Island—an icebound isle | which mystified navigators for 200 | years. There is no doubt about this| lonely spot, hovever, for the Nor- | wegians have raised thei | and claimed it as & “m[on!;‘jl:!nza i5E Bouvet Island Lonely. Many so-called lonely islands are not remote nowadays. Even Tristan da Cunha is visited by hundreds of Ameri- | can tourists every year and the resi- dent clergyman has a wireless receiver | to keep in touch with the outside world. | But Bouvet Island, with its shadowy past, is really a lonely island. Many | years pass between the visits of ships. It never has been explored. and few men have landed on i Dien b ts cold and rocky In the messroom of a st in Table Bay docks I sntelomnewx?llgl;l‘: talking to a sturdy Norwegian sailor- man. His yarns drifted to the south- | his name. Atlantic, Is Unlocated by Steamer. ing gales and unknown, uncharted islands. And he pulled out a yellow- streaked chart and pointed to a dot marked “P. D.” which, as every mar- iner knows, means “position doubttul.” The position of Bouvet Island has, indeed, been doubtful since M. Bouvet, a French naval officer, sighted the gla- clers of the island in 1739 and gave it Since then many shipmas- ters, including Capt. Cook, have search- ed for Bouvet. Many missed it and few sighted it; but no two navigators agree as to the latitude and longitude. The sun hardly ever shines in the stormy wastes of the great Southern ocean, so that the position of the island could never be fixed accurately. Bouvet be- came known to seafarers as a mystery | island, vanishing and reappearing and jumping about on the chart like a troublesome flea. Land Small Boat on Bouvet. But my friend the whalerman had landed on Bouvet Island during a long whaling cruise when fresh water ran short. Anchoring in the lee of some grounded icebergs near the wave-swept shore, he steered one of the ship’s boats boldly toward the white line of the surf. There was no beach and they | risked disaster when they heaved the water casks out of the boat on to a at-topped rock. The weirdness of Bouvet Island im- pressed this tough old sailor, though he had roved the lonely spaces of the world for years. There were no trees, no vegetation, apart from patches of tussock grass, and little running water. | Trudging up & valley the whalermen climbed the island heights and stood at last on the edge of a great dead crater. When they looked seaward for their ship they saw only a white blanket of fog. They hurried back to the shore, filled their casks and “smelled” their way back to safety, as only Norsemen in small craft can. Sealing Party Marooned. A party from an English sealing ship were not so fortunate. They had landed in search of seals when & storm blew up and marooned them for days. Snow and raw seal meat kept them alive. ‘Among the scientists who have visited Bouvet_ were the staffs of two German research ships—the Valdivia in 1898 |and the Meteor a few years ago.| At first the Valdivia's navigator despair- ed of finding the island, for the deep- sea sounding machine registered a depth of 10,000 feet. Abundant bird life gave them a little encouragement, and after a long search, the steep island shores Tose from the sea, gleaming in the rays of a rare burst of sunshine. The danger of collision with icebergs was great and the scientists had to be content with a brief running survey as the ship circled the island. A French exploring ship some years before had been unable to approach Bouvet, as the island was surrounded by & dense ice pack. The Germans did some dredging and found rich marine fauna—a link between Kerguelan and the Straits of Magellan. The cone | which dominates the island was named Kaiser Wilhelm Peak, and they sailed away. Their fellow countrymen in the Meteor, years after, sighted Bouvet, wrapped in mist. So it was that a few whalermen and sealers were the only human beings who have ever walked on the glaciers and rocks of Bouvet Island. One day the island may become a revelation, for certain scientists think that this bliz- ern wastes of the south Atlantic the “roaring forties,” the icebergs, screame zard-swept rock oc the edge of the Antarctic now alofe may represent the great lost continent of Atlantis. Many Political BY GASTON NERVAL. | F the past two years have been | prodigal in_ political and economic upsets in Latin America, nothing much different may be expected from what 1932 has in store for the | § countries on the other side of the Rio | Grande. | As the new year begins, the major troubles appear, of course, to be of an | economic nature, But politics during | the next 12 months will play an im- | portant role on th¢ Latin American | | stage. Paramount political events are | scheduled to take place in the various southern republics before the last leaf | falls off the 1932 calendar. | Before undertaking a description of | the chief political issues at stake, it | seems proper to mention the economic | difficulties which confront the Latin | | American countries, for these are more | | or less common to the majority of them | | and can, therefore, be stated in & gen- | eral way. Besides, economic considera- | tions obviously will have an important bearing on the course and outcome of | those political developments. For nearly every one of the Latin American countries the problem im- mediately ahead at the beginning of the year is the fulfillment of their for- eign’ financial obligations. Because of the prevailing influence of international | credit on their whole economic struc- ture, the payment of principal and in- | | terest on their national debts is’of pri- mary importance to the governments | | of the Southern Hemisphere. i Value of Exports Falls Sharply. The rapid material development of Latin America, which started immedi- | ately following the conclusion of the | World War, was financed by capital | | borrowed from the United States and | Europe. While normal conditions pre- | vailed, " repayments were religiously | made, and the legend of Latin Ameri- can defaults seemed to be a thing of the past. However, when the world-wide eco- nomic depression cut the prices of raw materials in two, or in three, it appeared evident that some of the Latin Ameri- can countries would be unable to meet | their heavy external obligations. De- pendent entirely as those countries are | upon their exports of raw materials, mwost of them upon one or two single products, the extraordinary fall in | prices, which has been the main char- | acteristic of the present crisis, has re- | duced their income to an alarming | degree. | By the end of last year the value of | some of the principal commodities pro- | duced by Latin American countries had declined not solely to pre-war levels, but in certain cases to as much as 40 or 50 per cent below. Under these cir- cumstances at least four South Ameri- can nations—Bolivia, Peru, Chile and | Brazil—were obliged to suspend pay- | ment of interest on certain of their | foreign debts during 1931. Exchange Operations Curbed. Other Southwrn republics have al- ready announced their intention of fol- lowing that example, and practically all of them are experiencing great diffi- culty in meeting those obligations when their income has been cut almost in balf. In an attempt to re-establish a favorable trade balance the Latin American governments have instituted control of exchange operations and im- posed drastic restrictions on imports. Other financial problems which the economic depression has brought about, and with which most of the Latin American governments will have to struggle during the year, may be thus | | | Changes Face Southern Republics. enumerated: Severe budget reductions to offset the losses of revenue income; devising of new means of direct and indigect taxation; diversification of in- dusfry to avoid the evils of “single- rop” production; industrial readjust- ments, and perhaps social legislation to cope With unemployment and other la- bor difficulties which the current de- pression has for the first time devel- oped in that part of the world. Important as the economic problems are, they will not make all the front- page news from Latin America during 1932, Politically this is going to be a most_Interesting year in Central and South America. Four Elections Scheduled. Four presidential elections; two more, and maybe four more, presidential in- augurations; negotiations for the solu- tion of two of the most difficult and long-standing boundary controversies; consolidation of three recently inau- gurated conservative regimes—these are | the outstanding events formally sched- uled for 1932. To this list many unex- pected additions may have to be made before the year is over. The presidential elections will take place in four Central American repub- lics—Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua. El Salvador and Bra- zil also may join the list. The first to elect & new chief execu- tive will be the Costa Ricans. In Feb- ruary they will choose him from among three outstanding candidates—D. Ri- cardo Jimenez, representative of the group of “elder statesmen” who have governed the country for & number of years; D, Carlos Maria Jimenez, cousin of the former, who is opposing him, and D. Manuel Castro Quezada, former Minister to Washington Costa Rica is considered the most advanced, politically and intellectually, of the Central American states. Popu- lar education has cut illiteracy to 23 per cent of the population. Political con- troversies have not been fought in that country during this century with the bitterness characteristic of its neigh- bors. Since 1870 Costa Rica has seen | o successful revolution except the Ti- noco coup d'etat of 1917. Elections are generally fair and free from disorder in Costa Rica, but any- | thing may be expected in a period like | this, when unusually critical conditions obtain throughout the continent, Panama to Select President. The Panamans will be next in se- lecting a new President. This also will be a three-cornered contest, although it promises to be more hardly fought than that in Costa Rica. Dr. Harmodio Arfas, former Minister to Washington and leader of the Doctrinal Liberals, who are now in control of the govern- ment, appears as the outstanding can- didate. He will have a strong oppo- nent, however, in Dr. Francisco Arias Paredes, who until recently was a mem- ber of the cabinet of President Alfaro, and has started a new sector, with Lib- eral elements to support his candidacy. The other candidate jis Dr. Augusto Boyd, backed by the National Liberals, or “Chiaristas,” who follow the inspira- tions of former President Chiari. This group was ousted from the government, after many years of power, by the Jan- uary revolution of last year. ‘The alignment of candidates for the presidential elections in Honduras and Nicaragua, to take place in October, is not yet definite, but the variety and the prominence of the names already being mentioned is indicative of the im- portance which these contests will have. The Honduran government is one of " (Continucd od Fourth Page) be ‘Every place other than home.’ The glaring lights of the city streets, ball games, moving picture shows, all have a peculiar attractive power to children, luring them away from their homes. Many children turn in toward home, and that reluctantly, when there is no place left for them to go. * * * Parents, in most instances, are tremendously to blame for this condition of affairs. The home has been dethroned to their chil- dren because they, as parents, have never made an effort to have it en- theoned in their thoughts and affec- tions. The modern father spends but very little time in the companionship of his family. The time that is not consumed by his business or profession is devoted to lodges and clubs and social functions. * * * The same is true of the mother. She is absorbed in clubs and immersed in fashionable fandan- goes, forgetting the claims her children have upon her.” This description of the failure of the family life was written to describe the home in 1910. tensified today, the development of the | apartment house life being perhaps a major cause. Trace Discipline Faults to Home. 1n one discipline case out of every two | which come to our attention in the schools the self-willed attitude on the part of the student, evasiveness, or & tendency to timidity, may be traced to unsatisfactory home conditions. The child has been permitted to grow ub undisciplined, overdisciplined or neg- lected. In many cases this is due to the fall- | ure of the father to take his place as | function over to the mother, and when | she fails to correct the young offspring successfully his exasperated “Can’t you !do anything with the boy?” is all the encouragement or assistance she re- ceives. According to the recent statement of Theodore W. Darnell, secretary of the United Parents’ Association, “Let Ma | Do 1t is becoming the adopted slogan of more and more modern homes. The | result of this is not only an unequal distribution of responsibility in the home, but also the prevention of the child from having the wholesome mas- culine direction which is his heritage. Due to the too-often weak hand of the mother, he develops into a headstrong youth, unused to being opposed, deter- mined to have his own way. Dangers in Lack of Control. A home that is perhaps typical of this_situation stands out in my mind. It shows the dangers to which lack of parental control may lead. The father of the family in question for years has left control of the child to the mother. She herself is not a woman of strong character, and fails utterly in matters of discipline. The boy has been per- mitted to do pretty much as he pleased. He has bulldozed his mother, and talked back to his father, whose only Tesponse has been & blustering attitude, purely defensive. The son appears to have no respect for either parent. He failed in school and left it in spite of the wishes of parents and against the advice of friends. Rapidly approaching his ma- jority, the boy has grown up with no restraining influences, and is going out into the world to face harsher disci- pline in walks of life which will not sympathize with his selfish aims and purposes. Have the parents really been kind to him in failing- to show proper parental authority? Cites Case of Pleading Father, Home problems are frequently added to school problems in discussions by visiting parents to my office. In the case of a boy, designated for conveni- ence “Harry,” his father came to see me as the lad’s grade adviser, desiring advice and help in the direction of his son. One could see that the father be- longed to the pleading type, and that he probably pleaded with his easy- going son in much the same manner that he was now beseeching me. He had given the youth everything he had ever askegl for from babyhood to youth. The lad took advantage of his father's good nature, knowing that his every wish was law. Why worry about passing school subjects; according to his phil- osophy. school was only & place for a | good time. For the father it was a serious mat- ter. He was frantic. “What can I do?” he asked. “Harry has everything money can buy, and I am willing to go any length for him. I have reasoned with him, admonished him, tried to shame him by comparison with other lads more successful, and all to no avail He just isn't interested. He is my only boy and I love him. I will do any- thing for him. I have never whipped Punishment has always been of the mildest sort, and now he rewards me by failing nearly all his subjects. Won't you do something to help me? Upon searching the record, I found that Harry had indeed been failing with alarming regularity. His father had paid me several visits during the boy's high school career, and we had once or twice managed to check the student’s downward course. I appreciated the father's viewpoint. But I also saw a fatal defect in his method of control of the child. The boy had never felt the hand of rigid discipline in the home. Of what use was our brief five-hour contact in school with its inhibitions, when there was a daily 19-hour home contact with the disciplinary “lid” off? Discusses Problem With Student. We decided upon a new point of at- tack during our interview, which lasted over an hour. interview Harry. I gave over another talk with the latter, in which I mixed wholesome advise and counsel with sterner stuff, and also managed to draw from him some little confidences disclosing his ideals and purposes in life. I took advantage of some informa- tion the parent had given me to drive home my attack. This proved & vulner- The picture s only in- | him; I couldn't lay a hand on him. | It became necessary to | period, of 40 minutes, to a confidential | | what they have been told.” Many of our leading judges of juvenile courts are now on record as emphatic- ally believing that many of the boys and girls under 16 years, who are | brought before their courts as violators of the law, would not be there if they had been properly punished when they | were young. Parents in too many in- stances have become victims of a sen- timental psychology which asserts that a child should never be punished. It is tragic to watch the modern mother forbid her child to do a certain thing, threaten dire punishment, and when the youth proceeds to transgress her law, to see the utter failure in ful- filling the punishment. Her words be- come an empty threat; the son regards them as such, and daily he storms the citadel of parental discipline until at last all barriers are down. The opposite of the over-indulgent parent is the one who is too severe. He, likewise, is a “parent failure.” More- over, in the case of brutality in the home, the one at fault is likely to be the father rather than the mother. The effect upon the children is either to cause the development of a perpet- ual cringing attitude or to result in the hardening of the children to all pun- | ishment. Both results are bad. To be- come over-sensitive and fearful is as bad as to become immune to discipline. The school in such a case does not dare | to ask for co-operation from the home, | for the children become the victims of | punishment out of all proportion to | the transgression. Severe Punishment Bad. The following example illustrates the school's solution in such a case: Vic- The | the disciplinarian, He has turned this |toria was referred to the grade adviser | by the head of the modern language | department for failure in af,u\:iie.s,g agc | by her section teacher for defiance of regulations. Her influence was bad. Investigation showed that she came from a home where brutal beatings were the only mode of discipline. Vic- toria was attractive and probably her graces made her somewhat of a belle Her father “saw red” whenever Vic. toria came home late, and being of Latin extraction, the application of punishment always took the severest of turns. The girl became hardened, cold and cynical. When disciplined in school we found a sullen, morose attitude assumed; she showed an indifference to regulatory measures which left our hands tied. Yet things could not go on as they were. Things came to a climax. Her audacious, pugnacious, cynical spirit was broken one afternoon during an interview which I had determined was to be the last. The usual quiet dis- cussion had been met with the usual cold, half-sneering responses. Brute force, mentally applied, found its re- sponse in a sobbing, penitent girl whose cynicism had been overcome. Kindness on my part followed the storm of wrath which I had poured out. “I am going to try to be a dif- ferent girl,” she sald, weeping con- vulsively. “I am glad to hear you say that, Vic- toria,” I responded. “I know you will ;do better.” The tears of this high | school miss flowed as they had never flowed at home. She registered a pen- itance never witnessed before. Would it last? As the days passed I actually mar veled at the change. Victoria’s atti- tude in class and section room became one of helpfulness and willingness to co-operate. and an occasional smile lit her previously cold features. One day, a week or two later, I called her into the office. She had an inquiring look on her face. What had she done, it seemed to say. “I sent for you, Vic- toria, because I want you to know I appreciate your helpfulness in the | class room,” I said. “I want to thank | you, you have been a help to me.” As the purport of my words dawned upon her her eyes again filled with tears, and she answered somewhat incoher- ently. I excused her with a kindly gesture. Had no one ever told her before that she was helpful? Had they never been able to discover her lovely spirit at | home? I wondered. The spirit of de- flance, engendered in the home, as the result of severe and perhaps unmerited punishments, had been overcome by a | curious admixture of kindness and of force. What the home had accom- ‘pllshed in warping this life, the school ‘hadl been able finally to set straight again. e Explorer Reports Ores At Great Bear Lake Bay | OTTAWA, Ont—Maj. L. T. Bur- wash, noted Canadian explorer, has used the plane with good results in connection with his extensive explora- | tion work. In July, 1930, he visited Hunter Bay, the eastern extension of Great Bear Lake, and as a result of his investigations found that “what appears to be & great fault strikes | from Hunter Bay northeasterly to the Coppermine river, a distance of 45 miles, and along with this fault sev- eral ‘concentrations of calcocite and | bornite float.” Burwash reported these gave prom- | ise of important ore bodies in the im- | mediate vicinity. Two crosscuts along | this line uncovered ore for a width | of 20 feet, but the heavy overburden | was still solidly frozen and operations were Testricted. These properties are to be further examined to discover their commercial possibilities It is also stated that to the north- east, as well, two othe: groups of | claims were located, each with prom- ising outcroppings, while at Dismal | Lake a crosscut uncovered 18 feet of high-grade copper ore. Strong indi- | cations of cobalt and uranium ores, with economic_possibilities, were also found, and the Burwash hints of great mineral wealth in these north- erly regions. able spot in the lad’s armor. The succeeding marking-period found | the youth passing all subjects. The | school had succeeded where the home | had failed. What criticism is there for | the parent in this case, which is so | typical of the modern home? The answer is simple. The father knew his son's weak spot, and yet had not ‘Hockey Brings Thrills And Work for Canada OTTAWA, Ont.—Hockey—Canada's national game—not only provides thrills for millions annually, but work | for men in factories. In 1930 a total strength enough to command his son’s obedience to his mandates. He re- quired the stronger hand of the grade adviser and school disciplinarian, with the authority which it represented, to achieve what was unable to accom- plish in his own offspring’s behavior, of 574414 sticks were manufactured at a value of $177,689, or about 30 cents each. ‘The number of tennis rackets pro- duced in the dominion during the year was 83425, vith a value of §34,- 503 to the manufacturers.