Evening Star Newspaper, March 31, 1933, Page 8

THE' EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY.........March 31, 1833 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Buldln.l’“ om'l:e:nh Ave. v ? 11th St. ane ve‘l’l‘r‘.l.lys.l o\ Y ichis Building. . London. ....45¢ per month vening ¥ (when 4 Sundays)...........60¢ per month The Evening and Sundsy Star Gy R < Der copy 2y Star ; ThEotlection made at the end of each month Orders may be sent tn by mail o7 telephons NAtional 5000, Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia, Dafly and Sunday....1yr, $10.00; 1 mo., 85c 1mo.. 50¢ Binday oy . $4.00; 1 mo., 40c All Other States and Canada. Dally and Sunday...1yr., $12.00; 1 mo., $1.00 Daily only .. 1yr., $8.00: 1mo., 75 Sundsy only $5.00; 1mo. 50¢ Member of the Associated Press. ‘The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dis- patches credited to it or not otherwise cred- ited in this paper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches herein sre also reserved. — === Confusion of Bu.gcts. The spirit in which Democrats, joined by a large number of Republic- ans, have patriotically united them- selves behind the President in his econ- omy program and other measures de- signed to hasten national reconstruc- tion, has had the effect of a ~‘imulat- ing tonic on the morale ol i people everywhere. There is leadershi: in the ‘White House coupled wih :esponsive | co-operation on Capitol Hill. Such /| unity is & necessary element in rebuild- ing from the wreckage of this depres- sion. I But, paradoxically enough, this splrlté of whole-hearted support of anything and everything that is classed as a part of the President’s program threatens to ‘become the very means by which the District of Columbia and its taxpayers are to be placed in the rack and un- necessarily punished in the name of economy. i The explanation is simple enough | and might as well be candidly stated. ‘The District estimates have come from the Budget Bureau and the President | apparently as part of the emergency Jegislation to be considered at this spe- cial session of Congress. If viewed as a part of the President’s program, it has behind it the weight and prestige of other parts of that program. Oppo- sition to the bill, or its amendment, to prevent the obviously illogical execu- tion of its provisions might be inter- preted as opposition to the President’s program. None of the administration leaders at the Oapitol wishes to oppose any part of the President’s program. Loyal Americans who are local tax- payers understand that as well as any- body else. Yet they feel it is entirely consistent to support the President and his program of national budget bal- ancing, no matter what individual or joint hardships are imposed, and at| the same time protest with all the strength that is in them the unnec- essarily harsh and wholly unfair pro- visions of this pending District appro- priation bill, so far as it affects expendi- ture of the local tax dollars. Those familiar with the fundamen- tween the Federal Government and the Jocal community of voteless taxpayers understand fully the unprecedented significance of the Budget Bureau's handling of the pending estimates. It is impossible to justify on any conceivable ground the Budget Bureau's proposals in relation to the municipal budget, which has been treated as if balancing the national budget depended | upon how many local tax dollars are to | be piled up in the Federal Treasury— unavailable for budget-balancing or anything else. It is, of course, absurd to suppose that it makes any difference, financial or | otherwise, to national taxpayers in Cal- ifornia whether a couple of new trash incinerators, just completed at local taxpayers’ expense, are to be kept in operation, or whether the trash is to be burned, as before, on the trash dump across the Potomac, thus saving a few thousand dollars. It makes no dif- ference to citizens of Texas and their Federal tax burdens whether local street improvement is continued, 6r whether the streets are to deteriorate while the gasoline tax money collected from Wash- ington motorists lies idle in the Treasury. Federal taxes of the citizens of Mich- igan are unaffected when excess water revenues, collected from a recent 25 per cent boost in local water taxes, are hoarded in the Treasury while men are denied the right to earn their daily bread—even by digging ditches for new water mains. It is not going to help the national economic situation to crowd local school children into double shifts, discharge the architects hired to design new buildings, eliminate the purchase of building materials and deny employment to day laborers and skilled mechanics while the money to do such things lies idle and unusable | in the Federal Treasury. The only item in the District appro- priation bill which is possibly subject to the President’s plan for percentage |. curtailment of all national expenditures is the lump sum national contribution. The District's main complaint concern- ing this particular lump sum curtailed figure is that the percentage :umu-} ment is not figured upon the right pri- | mary lump sum amount. The other items of the District bill | are almost without exception not na-| tional expenditures, but the expendi- tures of local tax money paid solely by local taxpayers and usable only to meet municipal needs. In respect to this bill the President acts not as President cutting down na- tional expenditures to balance the ma- tional budget, but as Governor of the District and Mayor of Washington, striving to give the local taxpaying community a wise and well balanced municipal budget. This budget is wise only when the real. municipal needs are adequately met and when cuts eliminate only un- necessary or extravagant and wasteful expenditures. This budget is well bal- anced only when local taxation pro- duces an amount sufficient to meet ade- quately genuinc municipal needs and nothing more cxcept a comfortable margin for emergencies. 'The budget neither wise nor well palanced if it 1l tals of the division of expenses be- | exacts an unnecessary and excessive amount in local taxes. The local budget proposed by the Budget Bureau offends under both heads. The Budget Bureau method of blindly striking out items to bring the total figure within certain limits—hurt whom it may—is unscientific, unwork- able, unfair and—for the local com- munity—ruinous. What reasonably well managed and progressive city would arbitrarily make a horizontal cut of twenty-six per cent in its expenditures in the course of a single year? Such action would be courting municipal suicide, What city would make one-half or one-fourth of such a cut except for the purpose and with the assured result of proportion- ately reducing taxation? ‘Washington’s taxes cannot without | injury to Capital development be re- | duced twenty-six per cent or anything | like that figure. Any cuts in expendi- tures should be carefully and dis- criminately made to avoid any ex- travagance and unnecessary outlays and be so moderate in amount that it can be readily and surely reflected in decreased taxation. The budget for this community must not &8 eonfused with the national econ- omy program of national budget bal- ancing. The District appeals to the Presldtnt‘ to differentiate between the national budget and ‘the local municipal budget and as Governor of the District and Mayor of Washington to balance the | municipal budget by a wisely discrim- inating method of procedure which will | wholesomely develop the National Cap- ital and exact from the local taxpayers only the tax money necessary for wholesome municipal maintenance and | development. ——ee— A Constitution for India. 1t is probably too much to hope that Mr. Gandhi's great army of supporters |or the Nationalist Congress, which is their political organization, will accept as satisfactory the proposed constitu- tion for India which the British Par- liament is about to enact. Yet the plan strikes fair-minded foreign observers as 2 far-reaching and generous gesture in the direction of self-government. From that complete and immediate | independence for which Mr. Ghand is | agitating the program is, of course, far removed. It is nevertheless an im- mense advance toward that goal. In the realm of local self-government, throughout the provinces of British India, concessions are broad. They ex- tend the franchise to one-fourth of the adult population, and the provincial legislatures and governments enjoy vir- tually unrestrained autonomy and re- sponsibility. To a limited extent, the American Federal system seems to have served as a model. At the center—as at Wash- ington—an Indian prime minister, cor- responding in respect of many of his prerogatives to our President, presides over a cabinet responsible to the federal legislature, which happens to be dom- inated by a conservative bloc. Of the 260 members in the upper house, 100 are to be appointed by the native | princes and 10 by the British viceroy. In the lower house, 125 of the 375 members are the princes’ appointees, while the remaining 250 are elected from British India under a franchise restricted to less than five per cent of he adult population. Under this set-up he Hindu' Nationalists, Gandhi's party, consider that they would be effectively barred from securing a legislative ma- Jority in either branch of the federal legislature. If that hindrance to the plan's acceptability by the independence group were not enough to condemn the whole scheme in its eyes, Mr. Gandhi’s hos- | tility is sure to be evoked by the pro- posal to place the federal executive | firmly under the control of the British viceroy. He retains exclusive power over the Indian army and India’s foreign | relaticns. He can override the Indian | cabinet on five matters: (1) To prevent grave menace to the state (i. e., a national uprising); (2) to safeguard legitimate interests of minori- ties (i. e, the anti-nationalist section of Moslems, allies of Britain); (3) to safe- guard the financial stability and credit of the federation (i. e., Britain's fiscal centrol); (4) to protect rights of the dian princes (i e., to buttress their autocratic regimes); (5) to prevent commercial discrimtnation (i e., to for- bid Indians to break down British monopolies). The viceroy’s consent must also be obtained over a wide range of legislative subjects before bills can | be submitted. | British and Indian opinion on the “generosity” of the political “freedom” thus offered will differ widely. No early reconciliation of the divergent view- peints can be expected, In any event, a delay of several years is probable before any attempt is made actually to carry the program into fulfillment, because the princes ruling half the aggregate popu- lation of India must first signify their acceptance of the federation. In addi- tion, a politically-free sound national reserve bank has meantime to be estab- lished. —————— Cutting wages means a diminubion | of purchasing power. The shopper for | meat and potatoes must claim con- | sideration, to some extent, as the ulti- mate paymaster. —_— e Legislative Grist. With President Roosevelt as the miller and Congress as the mill, the legislative grist continues to. pour out at a rapid rate. They have together disposed of the emergency banking act, | the economy act, the beer revenue act, and the reforestation bill is the latest measure to be put through the final stages of enactment into law. In the mill still remain the farm relief bill, which has passed the House; the un- employment direct aid bill, which has passed the Senate, and the securities bill, which has so far passed neither house, but upon which action is ex- pected soon. In addition, the Congress has put through the Steagall act to allow State banks certain benefits of the Federal Reserve system under the emergency banking law, has disposed of a bill lifting the limit on the liquor and wine which physicians may pre- scribe, and is in the final process of putting through a bill to legalize the manufacture and sale of 3.2 per cent beer in the District of Columbia. Cer- tainly the first three weeks of the spe- clal session of the new Congress, under the leadership of Mr. Roosevelt, have been productive. Already the | | administration has cuts expenditures as’ to cripple| moved fast to utilize the emergency a 'wholesome municipal actiwiics, or if it banking act for the benefit of the de- and saw wood.’ THE EVENING STAR, positors in banks throughout the coun- try. And under the provisions of the economy act the director of the budget, backed by the President, is expected to lop almost a billion dollars off the expenditures for the Government in the next year. Consclidations and elimina- tions of Government agencies on a large scale have either been ordered or nrez in the making. On April 7 beer will begin to flow &gain in many of the States, and the revenue from that bev- | erage is expected to help materially to bring the expenditures of the Govern- ment near to a balance The Roosevelt program is moving on. Other measures of great importance are still to be initiated, among them bills | dealing with farm mortgages, the rail- roads and other systems of transporta- tion and communication, the banks and the stock exchanges and the Govern- ment’s power development at Muscle Shoals. If the Congress continues to work at its present high rate of speed, however, there is hope that this huge program will be completed by June. If so, a record will have been estab- lished that is likely to stand, in the matter of legislative enactment, for many years to come. Beer and Anrtomobiles. There are at least two sections of the Senate District beer bill which should be discussed thoroughly when the meas- ure is under consideration on the floor. ©One of these relates to the recently- added provision giving such bona fide restaurants as “barbecue stands” the right to sell beer to the occupants of vehicles parked on the premises. It may be argued that the individual should be permitted to enjoy the priv- ilege of driving up to a barbecue stand and ordering a bottle of beer and a sandwich, and ninty-nine out of a hun- dred individuals might do so without harm to themselves or anybody else. Unfortunately, in these days of speeding automobiles and dense traffic, it is necessary to pay some attention to the one person in a hundred who may drink, or gulp, several bottles of beer while sitting in his parked automobile and immediately thereafter continue on his journey. Beer may be non-intoxi- cating by inference from the words of the law, but care should be taken not to encourage the mixing of beer with automobiles. Beer-drinking traditions were established in the days before ex- tensive automobile driving and before the days when automobiles could be bought for $15 do¥n and $10 a month. Rufus Lusk of the Crusaders has suggested another last-minute amend- ment to prevent the possibility that numerous “incorporated clubs” will be established in certain residential areas, without the knowledge of surrounding property owners, for the purpose of dis- pensing beer and maybe other drinks to their $6-a-year members. Six dollars a year means 12 cents a week. The amendment would require the consent of 75 per cent of the property owners within 200 feet of the club before the club is able to obtain an “on sale” li- cense for sale of beer. Under the zon- ing regulations clubs cannot be estab- lished in certain residential zones with- out the consent of 75 per cent of the property owners within 200 feet, but they may be established without such consent in other zones. This amend- | ment is plainly designed to avoid what | might be the establishment of nuisances, as well as to diminish the possibility | that a new form of speakeasy will be | encouraged. e ———— An occasional radio address by Alfred Smith gives assurance that he has lost none of his ability to interest an au- dience. Intervals of personal silence indicate that while he permits himself no boastful demonstrations, he has nothing in particular to complain of. Lo Discussions “of debt payments indi- cate a realization by Europe that in international business the element of good will must be considered. —r—e— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Puzzlement. Yon dictionary bring to me, For it is full of speech; It's words I rearrange with glee, So neatly within reach. The jig-saw puzzle please remove, I'm weary of its art; My mind it surely can’t improve To fit it, part by part. My dictionary will abound In joys that are intense; I like to shove the words around And see if they make sense. Repose Disturbed. “Your constituents have reposed a| great deal of confidence in you.” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “But they're no longer satisfied to let it repose. . They're beginning to want action.” Jud Tunkins says it's hard to satisfy some men with the truth. They'd rather hear something clever and original. Reforestation. Posterity! We sometimes fear We'll cause you some regrets, And leave you, when we quit this sphere, Not much, excepting debs. But we may ease the future yet. Arrangements we have made To plant more trees; and we will let You sit beneath the -shade. Gilded Leisure. “At least you have no fear of unem- ployment. “You are mistaken,” answered Mr. Dustin Stax. “Finance is always uncer- tain and what seems my gilded leisure is only unemployment highly financed.” “The censure of an honest friend,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is more to be valued than the flattery of a multitude of strangers.” Ancestral Echoes. ‘We look into the distant past ‘With problems all severe. Though skies were often overcast, Their songs were full of cheer. And as my ancestors I view With duties bravelj done, I'm sure, 'mongst hardships that they knew, They had & lot o’ fun. “Dey’s makin® arrangements to grow more trees,” said Uncle Eben, “so’s to pervide material for de quiet, industrious kind o' folks dat is willin’ to say nuffin’ BY CHARLES Seek no better audience than your- self. It is human, when one has achieved | something, to look around for admira- tion, but there are some persons who ‘were not made for it. They should remind themselves who is their one best spectator after all. He—or she—will always admire, Especially will this be a wholesome realization in regard to those thousand- and-one creations of the garden and the home. These will be art, at their best, be- cause very practical art, and the aver- age home owner will want others to behold and praise. It must never be forgotten, however, that because they are connected with matters familiar to every one they are very common. Even when the particular achieve- ment is unique, it will be largely dis- counted by others in all likelihood. Here is an exquisite outdoor pool, a creation on a small scale of an artist, whether one chooses to regard the gar- dener or nature as the true gardener. A flush of pride comes over the hu- man being in the case. He asks a few friends around to see his handiwork. % e ok And do the friends “enthuse”? Well, scarcely! Every one who ever kept an old-time phonograph knows how it is. You prided yourself upon your large stock of classic selectiops. You invited a friend or so around to “listen to the music.” It was with something akin to real pride of possession that_you began to place your largest and finest disks on the turntable, one after the other. You waited expectantly for certain notes, wherein the artist or artists had done exceptionally well, you thought. Well, the dear visitors didn't care. They went right ahead talking about the latest news of the day, and the latest scandal of the day, and never paid the slightest bit of attention to your pet records. True, at the end of each record they blurted out a polite “Splendid!” ‘Their heart was elsewhere, just as their ears had been. They revealed, by their haste to re- turn to the assorted topics of the day, Jjust how little they valued music in the particular setting. * K ¥ % And the same thing is true, unfortu- nately, of so many of the artistic achievements of the individual. Those who are brought to praise often do it reluctantly, not because they would not, but because of one of two reasons: They have seen better, or they have not seen as good. They have seen too much, or else they have not seen enough. At any rate, they damn with faint praise. Why they do it makes little differ- ence after all. They leave a sense of dissatisfaction with the innocent person who brought them to see something which they had no particular interest in seeing, a sense of disappointment that so much of beauty could be regarded as not worth much, a feeling of chagrin that one had ever invited them in the first place. What is wrong, however, is not the spectator, who admired the best he BY FREDERIC President Roosevelt paid a pretty compliment to Huston Thompson of Colorado and the District of Columbia by letting him deliver on Capital Hill this week the administration’s “‘Federal securities act.” Thompson was drafted for messenger service for two reasons. In the first place, he wrote the plank in the 1932 Democratic national plat- form providing for the now proposed Government supervision of investment securities. Thirteen years earlier, in 1919, when Thompson was chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, its “blue sky division” was considering ways and means for accomplishing the precise purposes contemplated by the legislation for which President Roosevelt has just asked. Carter Glass, who was Secre- tary of the Treasury at the time, was experiencing some difficulty in floating the Victory loan and sought the aid of the Federal Trade Commission in con- trolling the issuance of se¢urities which might militate against the success of the Government bond issue. Secretary of Commerce Roper has had active charge of preparing the “Federal securi- ties act,” and, knowing Huston Thomp- con’s long-time connection with the project, enlisted his co-operation in drafting the bill. It follows similar legislation in Great Britain and Bel- gium and recommendations approved by the American Bar Association, as well as by 36 of the States. S e Vice President Garner, at the instiga- tion of his secretarial wife, has been cajoled into breaking a Sunday habit of a political lifetime. He stays abed the entire Sabbath forenoon, reading the papers and taking things easy, and the rest of the day just loafs.” Mrs. Garner hopes eventually to persuade the Vice President to take afternoon drives into the country. He is not a golf ad- ‘Throughout his long congressional career “Jack” has insisted on going to his offices on Capitol Hill on Sundays to see political cronies, catch up on the week’s correspondence and in other ways make a working holiday of it. Mrs. Garner is gratified that she's at last wheedled him into slowing down. They are both Christian folk, but not church-goers. * % ok ok “Black Jack” Elliott of Los Angeles, leader of the militant independent ofl producers now waging a fight at Wash- ington against the “major” operators and the conservetion policy of the In- terior Department, is a picturesque, two-fisted politician with ‘a _militant Democratic background. At the head of his group, entitled the “Independent Petroleum Association Opposed to Mo- nopoly,” Elliott had a full hour’s eon- ference with President Roosevelt this week. In the course of it he pleaded eloguently for the independents, claim- ing that, contrary to the rcpresenta- tions of the “majors,” there is an un- derproduction, not an overproduction, of oil 1n the United States. Arbitrary curtailment of output, Ellott holds, would about ruin the independents. “Black Jack” was the man who stood guard over the ballot boxes in Cali- fornia during the hectic hours of No- vember, 1916, while the presidency was in doubt as between Wilson and Hughes. He was field marshal of the Wilson forces out there that year. In 1932 he led the fight for Garner-for-President delegates in California and subsequent- 1y managed the triumphant Roosevelt- McAdog campaign. * * K x ; eaders are watching with cagle eye the feud between Gov. Lehman of New York and the Republican and Democratic politicians who want to re- tain county control of liquor licenses atter April 7. The Governor is bat- tling for a State board of control, con- tending that county control means handing over the booze traffic to the same old local political influences which ran the saloons and thereby con- tributed largely to the enactment of National prohibition. If the political bosses get their way in New York, dry organizations are confident the anti- repeal cause will be immensely streng ened. Gov. Lehman publicly warns this will be the inevitable result. All the organized elements working for repeal ratification in the States feel the same way about it. They are concerned, too, over the possibility that the country may overindulge in beer to such an ex- tent that a popular reaction in favor of the eighteenth amendment may set in Dry I on a scale easily capable of generating the contrary, the motorist who is struck this time? WASHINGTO D. C., FRIDAY, THIS AND THAT E. TRACEWELL, could, but rather the failure of the owner to realize his own nature. R | He is—and this is the type we write | of—not of the show-off sahool. Pointing with pride may do for others, | but not for him. Every one has read so much of blow- ing one’s own horn, of boastfulness, of strutting, of telling every one else what to do, that there seems to be a belief on | the part of every one that every last man alive should live and act accord- ingly Nothing could be less true, however. in mind and heart. It is easy enough to call them “timid call them, the name does not alter the facts -of their dispositions. Their natures are modest and humble; in the best sense of the terms. S Now, it is such a man who is false to himself when he permits the popular ballyhoo to lure him into demanding an audience for his better achievements. None knows better than he that his one best audience is himself, but, at times, swayed by the clamor, he forgets himself, lends himself to the easy notion that nothing is beautiful unless it is praised by others. It is a hard lesson to learn, at any time of life, that beauty has no relation to audience. And especially has nothing to do with the size of the audience. One will do, and if that one is one’s | self, well, so much the better, perhaps. One will know so much more about the thing, and therefore be in much better a position to give it its meed of praise. * ok ok Praise by others does not make this beautiful aquarium any more beauiful.| It does not help the fishw;, swimnling contentedly in their shining prison, which is no prison to them. Besides, if an outsider were here, he might attempt to crack that old joke gsbgq'b “no more privacy than a gold- The truth is that fishes know noth- ing of privacy, or lack of privacy; the old saw has no relevancy, except in re- lation to human beings. This aquarium, although dependent upon a human being for its beauty, is, at the last, dependent upon nature, which includes both man and fish. It is nature, after all, which makes beauty. * K x * The outside audience which the soul craves—what shall its denial be, except a much needed lesson to the same soul? Everybody talks of souls, and nobody | knows what a soul is, but the word has been used so long that it must mean something. It is refreshing to feel that one has a soul, and that one’s soul, no less than | | one’s material body, needs a good lesson, now and then, to keep it in the straight | and narrow path. “Good soul,” let us say to it, in the stately language which somehow it | seems to like best, “good soul, on yes- ;ter e’en thou didst crave admiration | for that new creation of beauty of thine, “Thou ought to know better. The beauty was there before thee, and thou, oh great one, wert enough of an | audience. “Never forget that. “Remember thyself.” WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS WILLIAM WILE. |a demand for its retention. Various | beer “celebrations” scheduled for April | 7 are also deplored as injudicious. * % % % Somebody has taken the trouble to | dig up the fact that of the 16 new | members of the United States Senate, eight have served as public prosecutors. | The conclusion is drawn from this | numerical circumstance that there will | be more “demagoguery” in the upper | | house, on the theory that practice in | | jury pleading is often practice in dema- | goguery. further deduction is | made that, with its accession of former | | prosecutors, the Senate’s lust for in- | quiries and investigations will be whet- ted. Jim Reed of Missouri boasted in the Congressional Directory of his Pprosecutory past—prosecuting attorney of Jackson County,” his autobiographical | sketch narrated, then: “Prosecuted 195 | persons; convicted 193.” * ok ok % It isn't generally known that Presi- dent Roosevelt has a stake of his own | in Canada. It consists of his Summer home on Campobello Island, in Passama- quoddy Bay. The establishment is usually referred to as lying “two miles | off the coast of Maine.” This is geo- graphically true, but the attractive red- gabled cottage is across the water from | Eastport, Me., and stands on Canadian |soil in the maritime province of Ncw; | Brunswick. For years Camobello Island has been the Summer vacation retreat {of a number of prominent American | families, of which the Roosevelts are | the most. distinguished. The President | spent_his childhood vacations _there | with his parents, who were the pioneers | of the local “American colony.” Dur- Ing most of his life, F. D. R. and his | | people have “Summered” on Campo- | | bello. The island has ancient British |naval traditions, having in its earliest | days, dating from 1767, been property | held under feudal grant by families as- sociated with the Royal Navy. X w Former Senator Jim Watson of In- diana has contracted with a national news syndicate for publication in serial form of his political memoirs. They will date from the Hoosier statesmgan's arrival in Congress as a member of the House of Representatives in 1894 until | his disappearance from the Senate in | March, 1932, a span of nearly 40 years. * ok k¥ North Carolina has taken the initia- tive in placing on formal record the Nation’s approbation of Roosevelt poli- cies. The Legislature at Raleigh has| passed a joint resolution in support of the administration’s economy program. The project of having State govern- ments publicly voice their approval of the New Deal originated with Erwin A. Holt, a Burlington, N. C., textile manu- | facturer, who confesses that he was an | original T. R. man and’is an equally enthusiastic supporter of the present Roosevelt. (Copyright., 1933.) o Airplane Accidents and Grade Crossing Mishaps To the Editor of The Star. In your issue Thursday a letter by |John S. Wynne, general manager, At- lantic Seaboard Airways, criticizes The Star for having the temerity to com- ment on the recent crashing of an air- plane into a home, with the resultant death both of passengers in the plane jand persons in the house. Just why the aviation industry should hold it- self sacrosanct and above all newspaper editorial censure is cause in itself for wonder, but the particular circumstances of the accident in question make it | | occurred, judging from published ac- counts, because of an absence of due caution in flying. The point of Mr. Wynne's letter which attracted my attention, however, was his comment on accidents at rail- road grade-crossings, Just what analogy there is between ‘this and air crashes I fail to see. In an airplane the passenger is utterly helpless and |is solely at the mercies of the pilot, and in the case of an airplane crash- ing into a home (the accident to which he refers) the residents thereof cer- tainly have no opportunity whatsoever to take due precautions to protect them- selves. At rafifoad grade- , on MARCH 31, | souls” or brand them with less gentle- | manly names; whatever one chooses to ! | rates. doubly surprising that the air lines| should minimize this catastrophe, which | 1933. Regulate Machinery To the Editor of The Star: ment places a machine to dig the foundation of a new building the American people pay three ways to have the work done, viz.: First, it pays to buy the machine or to have the work done by the machine. Second, it pays through charity to keep the men left idle and their families. Third, it pays through loss of revenue in taxes to the States and Government, for if the men | were doing the work their wages spent | farms large enough to be taxed. being done by machinery. The men are idle, the tradesmen lose their trade, the farmers lose their market, the Govern- ment loses its taxes and is forced into There are thousands upon thousands | unemployment programs and, through | of persons who are modest and humble | lack of industry, the machine stands idle. There is a difference in ma- | chinery, some displaces men, some does not. The automobile displaces horses, a ditch digger displaces men. An ele- vator displaces no one, but creates jobs | for elevator boys and pays & license to | the State or Government. The rail- roads create jobs, the tractors, mowers, binders, harvesters and tractor plows displace men, When a man loses his job to the machine he becomes a public | charge, yet the machine pays no taxes, does not he]g supnort the idle, nor con- tributes nothing toward increasing the purchasing power of the public except- ing the making and upkeep of the ma- chine, which is trivial. If the men did the work there would but one cost and the wage is the people’s inherent right and should go to them, then the people could support the Government—not the Government care for the people. Why take away the wages of the poor and give the | monex to a privileged few and then let the Government support the people. The strongest government in the world would soon go bankrupt under such a system, for the government loses its Tevenue; it assumes new burdens in helping 'the unemployed. The fact that machinery can dis- place men proves that it displaces more | men than it provides work for, although |any one can see how ditch diggers, steam shovels, street washers and the like are taking away jobs and creating | idlemness. tHng waves, soldiers’ economy and laying off men is only lowering the pur- chasing power of the people, and to take this money and use it in employ- ment programs is only to take from one needy class to give to another needy class without bettering our economic condition. The system is wrong; the people must support themselves and the Government: yet to do_this the people must draw the wages. Men are happier working and are self-respecting Ameri- can citizens, now we are rapidly de- generating into a Nation of tramps. Foreign countries are also rapidly in- stalling machinery, thereby taking away our foreign markets and are shipping goods here to undersell our farms and e fear. th e hear the phrase, “It is an un- precedented condition.” ‘There is no change in our form of Government. The only change is the machine. There- fore, if the old way was good the fault lies with the machine. Regulate the use of machinery and we correct the NEWELL B. DA evil, R Federal Pay-Cut Order Is Harshly Unrealistic To the Editor of The Star: There is something curiously un- realistic about the pay cut ord:r It assumes, not only that every Govern- ment employe can live as well in 1933 as in 1928, on 15 per cent less y, but that every Government empf:ye had enough to live comfortably on in 1928. The fact is that many salaries have become adequate only since prices fell. Many are not adequate yet for the number of people who live on them. Why should there not be exemptions ;oury de}:endcms ? con'x’l‘egtmn with a cut as much as with an income tax? The President must know that the same fiat cut has quite a different effect on @ pay check on which only oue person is dependent, or even two, from what it has on a pay check for the same amount which bas to carry three or four people, or more. In the first case there is likely to be some margin that can stand trimming. In the second, taking 15 per cent off may take away all comfort, peace of mind, perhaps some pounds of flesh. It may cost the family their home and put thgrm into debt. we were not used to seeing it dong by business, it would .lee'mu:‘l’lal!.lt gl’!; subtract 15 per cent from the income of a family that is 25 or 50 per cent larger than in 1928 oy reason of the arrival of a baby or two. It would seem only sensible for the Government to do what it did when a baby was born to a soldier's wife during the war, send an allowance for the baby every montb. ere is one good thing about the order. It is for only the rimu:der of this fiscal year. Of course, it is under- be continued. But stood that it will it can be changed. KATHARINE WARD FISHER, ot Local Salary Cuts and Rates of Living Costs To_the Editor of The Star: Your editorial on reduction of taxes is very timely. The reduction of sala- ries in the District of Columbia should | not be based on the index of average cost of living in the U. S. A. but in the District of Columbia. The market conditions here, due to this being the | seat of the Government, with all those drawn here {rom the States and for- eign countries, make such a demand for the best of everything that the cost of living here is above the average na- tional cost. The Government employes are forced to buy in this high market housing, food, clothing, etc. The law |of supply and demand makes this a permanent condition, and this fact should be considered In determining the wage reduction of Federal and Dis- trict employes here in the National Capital. Since the interest rates are a large factor in the cost of living and enter into the cost of each item, housing, food, clothing. etc., the legal rate of | interest should be reduced to a maxi- mum of 4 per cent. It is not enough to simply reduce the interest rate on one's home, as frugal wage-earners over several decades of efforts have little nest eggs invested for their declining years. With empty houses and all development of vacant lands at a standstill, this last wage cut will remove all possibility of the wage- earner carrying on at present interest DILWORTH POWELL. —_— e A Composite “Hero.” From the Topeka Daily Capital. If the statue of Gov. Glick is returned to Kansas, it might be replaced, if it is desired to have Kansas statesmanship represented in the congressional Hall of Fame, by a composite statue of the just adjourned State Legislature. by a train can blame just one person for it—himself. At all important cross- ings there are full and adequate warn- ing signals, and if he chooses not to heed them, it is his own fault. Just why Mr. Wynne should seek to blame the railroads for the carelessness of motorists struck by trains, or what similarity there is between this and a person whose home is broken into by a miscreant airplane I cannot see. And as for the “railroads menacing the |public,” to quote from his letter, the | fact that an automobile derailed a mov- ing freight train today would indicate that the railroads are in as much danger as_the automobilists, While the subject is in the public eye, might it not be opportune to point out the extravagance in paying the air lines 315,000‘00,0 mASubI:dieaMg:m the Federal Treasury? subvent for carrying the mails is quite appropriate, but with |adequate and, in fact, excessive trans- | portation machines already in existence for carn passengers, governmental funds in air And Reduce Idleness 1 | If the American public or Govern- | would create income in factories or on | No one gains through man's work | BY FREDERLI x When troublesome questions arise, | avail yourself of the service of this de- partment. It costs you nothing—you have only to send three cents for postage on the personal letter you will | receive in reply. Do not use post cards. | Any question on any subject of fact | will be answered. Address your letter of inquiry to The Evening Star In- formation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, | Director, Washington, D. C. | £110 20 | Q. Do the airmail planes belong to | |the United States Government?>—R. J. | _A. They belong to commercial com- | panies which hold airmail contracts. Q. How many movie feature films were released last year?—A. S. A. In the United States 685 were re- |leased. Of these, 196 were foreign. | About 1,450 short subjects were released, | almost all made in this country. [ Q. What orchestras played for the | %mc}\ng at the inaugural ball on March >—A. S A. The orchestras were: Ben Bernie’s, | Eddie Duchin’s, Rudy Vallee'’s and Guy | Lombardo's. Q. What is the a; ge height of the adult in this country?—R. E. A. In the United States, the average height for men is 5 feet 9 inches, and | for women, 5 feet 5 inches. | Q Why is called?—S. B. | ~A. The term “cabinet” referred orig- a ruler's cabinet so |ment of a monarch, in which he con- | sulted with his most trusted advisers. Q. Has an island in the Potomac River been definitely named Roosevelt Island?>—N. T. A. In May. 1932, Congress passed a law authorizing the acceptance on be- half of the United States from the Roosevelt Memorial Association of the island in the Potomac River “hitherto {ing further that hereafter it shall be | “known as Roosevelt Island, and shall be maintained and administered as a national park for the recreation and en- Joyment of the public.” Q. How fast can a travel?>—D. A. A. Under some conditions its advance is very rapid. One forest fire in Cali- fornia last Fall traveled 12 miles in one hour. It took 2,500 men along & 300- mile front to check it. Q. In normal times how much of their deposits are banks supposed to keep in cash-—C. E. forest fire that about 30 or 35 per cent of the de- posits of the bank will be in liquid form; in other words, in Q. Could Sitting Bull, the Indian chief, write —C. W. A. He learned, in his adult life, to write his own name. Before this time he made his hiercglyph signature, a ;orfivenumund picture of a sitting ull. Q. What is the flash point of kero- sene and of gasoline?—K. N. A. The flash point of kerosene is 100 degrees F. or over. The flash point of gasoline starts at 0 degree F. Q. Are American tourists spending as much money in Canada as they did a few years ago?—G. L. A. Fewer Americans visited Canada last year and the total amount spent was about $183,000,000, or 23 per cent less was spent by American tour- ists Canada in 1931. Q. How did the Minutemen get the nzme?—B. G. K. A. Civilians in Massachusetts and Attacks on Jews in Germany are be- lieved by some Americans to indicate a broad policy of despotic suppression of all opposition to the existing order. It is pointed out that the acts of the Ger- man dictator already have aroused the condemnation of the world, and it is held that critical opinion will be a handicap to the Hitler rule. “Black reaction is in the saddle, and the new rulers have no program, except a negative one,” declares the Buffalo Evening News, with the feeling that “the risk of Hitler is nothing short of a world calamity.” The Cincinnati Times- Star_condemns “the headstrong tactics of Hitler's followers,” and avers that “Hitlerism itself is menaced by their madness, for where no law prevails no government is secure.” The Portland Oregon Journal states that “Germany turns back,” but adds: “It can't be that a restored throne would long con- tinue.- Having tasted the sacred privi- lege of freedom, the German people will not forget. It is the depression, the debts, the reparations and poverty that have caused Germany to turn back.” “A turn, of the wheel,” thinks the New York Sun, “has brought the fire- brand chancellor to the top; another may base him again. The one man of whom Adolf Hitler should stand most in fear at the moment is Adolf Hitler himself.” The Lincoln State Journal feels that the dictator “will have to be diplomatic and tactful, traits he has not displayed in the past, if he is to guide his country to prosperity and avoid trouble with neighbors.” movement, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette utters the warning that “no nation has grown lastingly great through persecu- tion of law-abiding residents within its boundaries.” The Ashland Independ- ent holds that the dictator is “planting the first seeds of failure,” while the As- bury Park Evening Press is convinced that the present leaders “cannot with- stand the world’s hatred of racial per- secution.” The Columbia (S. C.) State says that “no country, no people of any consequence czn stand alone or disre- gard neighbors.” The Danbury News- Times advises that “nothing will hinder the Hitler dictatorship more than this treatment of Jews.” “The percecution has the aspect of medieval barbarism.” states the Charles- ton (S. C.) Evening Post. while the Hartford Evening Times calls it “intol- erant medievalism.” Similar strong terms are applied by the Cleveland News and the Houston Chronicle and the New York Sun. The last mentioned sees the | persecutions as “a spectacle so repellant | that the mind hesitates to accept it as | capable of enduring long.” The kosh Daily Northwestern concludes that “while the intolerance lasts it will dis- credit the Hitler regime in the eyes of the clvilized world.” Alienation of the good will of the world is predicted by the San Francisco Chronicle. the Nash- villa Banner. the Connelisville Courier, | the Port Huron Times-Herald, the | Charlotte Observer and the Youngstown Vindicator. The Scranton Times says the public “finds it difficult to under- stand the reasoning of National Soclal- ists who declare a purpose of insisting that the opportunity offered to Jews in Germany be restricted and confined in proportion to their numerical strength | among the populatjon of that country. The Des Moines fbune asserts that “Germeny has just cheated herself,”| and the Rutland Herald warns that “the Nazis will face the judgment of the civilized world.” Belief that the Hitler group already has been imvressed by world comment is voiced by the Baltimore Sun and the New Orleans Times-Picayune, while. on the other hand, the existence of a feel- ing that others are willing to be shown that he is able to rule is recognized by the Oakland Tribune and the Spokane Spckesman Review. The Salt Lake Deseret News offers the judgment as to Hitler that “his experiences, together with moderal influences of bility and added years will him, if¥he in pewer, to choose | unit or currency of another using the | inally to the closet or private apart- | | variously known as Barbadoes. Analos- | tan and Mason’s Island,” and provid- A. Sound_banking practice provides | P Giving attention to the anti-Semitic lead | stay where ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS t C J. HASKIN. i | several other Colonies, at ithe appro: |of the Revolutionary War, pledg themselves to be ready to itake the fie! at a minute’s natice and were, ther | fore, called “Minutemen.”; Q. What is meant by par in speaking the value of foreign myneys?—R. C. A. Par is the established value of the monetary unit or of currency one country expressed in the m of same metal as the standaid of value Q. What is the word iconoclasts?—E. N. A. It is from the Greek and literally means image breakers. Reformers ro in the Eastern Church in the eigh century who were especi to the eployment of pictures, statues, emblems and all visible representations of sacred objects. Thay crusaded | against their use. erivation of tne Q. How does the ares of Chicago re with the area of New York ?—W. H. A. The area of Chicago is 210.7 square | miles, while that of New York City is | 314 square miles. Q. What did the term freeman sig- nify in Colonial times?—C. J. E. A. The expression was used to dis- tinguish free persons from slaves or from indented white servants or per- |sons known as redemptioners. In- | dented white servants ware composcd | of eriminals who were sent to this coun- | try in lieu of serving a prison sentence, jor waifs sold by parents or kidnaped | By exploiters and 'sold for transport | tion to the United States. Redemption- | ers were persons who sold their services ;Ior a term of years, usually five, in { order to secure passage to this country Most of these persons, after their re- |lease. Dbecame members of our great middle class, and many of them were | among the early Western settlers. Q. What is permutation?>—G. N. A. Permutation shows ‘n how many positions any number of things may be |arranged in a row; thus, the letters | A, B, C may be arranged in six posi- tions, viz. ACB, CAB, A, BAC, BCA. o | Q. What is the usual temperature in | Washington, D. C., on March 47—W. W. A. The normal range of temperature for this date is from 30.2 to 47.5 degrees | Fahrenheit. Since 1371 only 23 times }hu there been precipitation of some sort on this day. Q. What is the real name of the prize- ighter, Jack Britton?—J. F. 8. illiam J. Breslin is the correct iname of Jack Britton, the ex-welter- | weight champion. He is & retired boxer and now a boxing instructor, ‘ Q. Is France still s French Guiana?—L. F. R. A. Cayenne, or French Guiana, was a | penal colony from its founding until | January 1, 1933, The penal colony was abolished as of that date, and no more | convicts will be transported. Gold, dia- | monds, rubies, and emeralds were dis- | cavered in the interior three years 3 | and in order to provide for their exploi- {tation the Prench Government has erected the interior into a separate col- ony, which is to have the name Inini. ’ Q. Are long hairs plucked out of gen- uine Alaska seal when it is prepared for | the fur trade? W. A. K. A. The fur of the fur seal in the rough is heavy and is covered with a | thick coat of dark brown guard or | water-hairs. When these are plucked "out a dense woolly under-fur is left. | This is dyed and the pelt on the skin | shaved to reduce the weight. The fin- ished fur is flexible, with an excellent depth of color and sheen. | fi ending convicts to F. R Hitleg Treatment of Jews ‘Held One Phase in Despotism the better course.” The San Jose Mer- cury Herald advises that the public must wait “until the temporary wave of feeling has subsided.” Hitler is called by the Providence Bulletin “the desperate remedy of & desperate people,” and the Lowell Eve- ning Leader finds that “the develops ments at Berlin are not ." The is a dismal one.” Beacon Journal sees central Europe “headed straight for feudalism,” and the Lexington Leader toward a i “A people accustomed to ac- cept the rule of a Kaiser could not all at once summon the self-assertion to retain the mastery of a government of their own. Now they lose their chanc They are under the despot heel again. Bellef that “it is France that de- stroyed the German republic” is voiced by the Chicago Tribune with the con- clusion that “France broke the consti- tution of Weimar down, and with it the German republicans by exactions and repressions which the spirit of the people could not tolerate.” On the point of the policy of discrimination against Jews, the Omaha World-Herald attests that “persecution is directad both at racial and at political groups.” The Philadelphia Evening _ Bulletin con- demns ‘“condonation of such crimes,” the Boise Idaho Statesman believes that “Hitler's utterances are enough to con- vict him of the narrowest kind of big- gotry” and the St. Joseph Gazette con- tends that “reaction and anti-Semitism aiways have been outstanding in Hitler’s rogram.” views are in ly well as without A the Jewish situation, the San Antonio Express recalls that the race “contrib- uted at least as much to Germany's progress as the element now politically dominant,” and the Springfield (Mass.) Republican views the Jewish function as servl 8s “the spearhead of the counter-offensive that must eventualiy reclaim the lost provinces of emanci- « pated humanity.” That paper also ccmments: “While the Jews happen to suffer the first shock of the Fascist assault upon freedom in Germany, there is a much broader front upon which the offensive of the Fascist movement is hurling itself. All liberal and demo- cratic aspirations are in the zone of fire.” “The dark hour before the dawn” is seen by the Schenectady Gazette, while the Goshen News-Times points to trcuble for all minorities, and the Meridian Star believes the world “will watch the new-born Teuton race and keep its powder .” The Newark Evening News feels that “ruthless in- vasion of rights offers no progress fob Germany,” and the Wall Street Journal describes the new dominance as “a strong. well-established government, based on organization and enthusiasm, conducted by able and popular leaders, but disfigued by manifestations of an ugly. intolerance, which the leaders of this resurgent nationalism are busily disavowing.” Some Mathematics on The Reforestation Plan ‘To the Bditor of The Star: Reforéstation will cost $20 per week ger man. We could help five times 50.000 men, equal to 1,250,000 men, with the same money if we would give $4 per week to each man and let him he now is and look for a job,