Evening Star Newspaper, May 7, 1933, Page 22

2 THE EVENING STAR With Suaday Morning Edition. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, ONE LAW MAY 7, 1933—PART TWO. Capital Sdielights law protects the city’s ornaments, but|tically a British government comcern, an informed public opinion ‘showld aid | has enjoyed a monopoly of oil produc- in their preservation. It lies in the[tion in Persia, under a concession, WASHINGTON, D. C. SUNDAY...........May 7, 1833 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor BT The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: 11th_St. and Pennsylvania_ Ave, York Office: 110 East 42n Chicago Office’ Lake Michigan Bulldine. European Office: 14 Regent St.. London, England, Rate by Carrier Within the City. The Evening Sta . .45¢ per month Gre ing and Sunday T o 4 Sundave) 60c per month The Sunday Star...... -5¢ per copy Collection made at the end of each month. Orders may be sent in by mail or telephone NAtional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance, Maryland and Virgima. aily and Sunda ¥r.§10.00: 1 mo., 85c R:\]\y‘ 3:1]' B yr., $6.00: 1mo., 50c | Sinday only . Sri $4.00; 1 mo. 40c All Other States and Zanaaa. aily nnd Sunday...lyr. $1200: ¥ mo.. $1.00 Paily omig SUndavii e 300 dmon “ise Linday only 13T, 3500 amo. 50c | Member of the Associated Press. ociated Press 1s exclusively entitled %o 1t or not otherw:se cred- d in this paper and also the loal news published herein. All rights of publization of socclal dispatches herein are aiso feserved. Federal Relief Grants. One of the principles establfshed by the national relief bill, which will be- come law as soon as minor differences are reconciled between House and Scnate, is that the greater the amount from public funds spent by a State for rclief purposes the greater will be the 0t to that State in Federal relief Two hundred and fifty millions he half billion wdollars available tnder the act will be apportioned among the States and the District of Columbia on the basis of one Federal dollar for every two local dollars spent in the pre- ceding quarter for relief from public funds. That principle may be sound enough, as far as the States are concerned, as power of all citizens to co-operate with the authorities in matters of this kind. Vandalism is a totally indefensible form of misbehavior. It is an expres- sion of a deformed or perveried psy- chological character. A man or woman, boy or girl, capable of destroying an object simply for the joy of inflicting injury on an inanimate substance is in of being judged & pathologic anarchist. Granted that the instinct to smash things is common in the observation of students of human con- duct, it still is to be deplored that such a savage trait persists. It should be eliminated. Especially in children it should be controlled. No child should be encouraged to “express him- self” in terms of ‘nihilism. The notion that an anti-social action may be con- doned if it is done by en individual *too young to know l...er” is non- sense. Even an infant can be taught to have regard for his own belongings and for those of others. But even if badly-trained youngsters are the principal agents of destruction, it is the adult population that has the major responsibility. Mature minds too often set unworthy examples for \immature minds. Of course, grown- ups should practice the respect for all varieties of property which society has the right to require. Civic monuments, particularly, ought to be guarded by old and young alike. They have a sacred status as dedicated to natianal patriotic and esthetic ideals. — e Securities and Bank Reform. President Roosevelt, in his inaugural address and in subsequent messages to Congress, called the attention of the country to the need of drastic reforms in the banking system and in the handling of securities which are sold to the American people. The House, prac- tically by a unanimous vote, has just passed the “securities bill” and that measure is expected soon to be ap- | | originally granted to private British interests in 1901 and which embraced about five-sixths of Persia's entire tefrl- tory. The new agreement now sealed between the oil company and the Te-| “One law shall be to him that is heran government, whereby the British | homeborn, and unto the stranger that surrender the greater part of their vast | sojourneth among you.” concession, ends a controversy ‘which| A nation's security resides in obe- had gone to the Council of the League | dience to its laws. The above passage of Nations and as recently as a couple ::‘lent:km g:mléh:pmfi ;hl:do.:; of months ago threatened to have seri- lfi.&kn was simply emphasizing ous political consequences in Asia. the indispensableness of the law as ap- plied without discrimination to home- axlomatic in character. To have one led to the revolution of 1925 and put|law for the native and one for the BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES . Bishop of W Shah Riza Khan on the throne. The Shah and his supporters fomented agi- tation against the oil concession on the ground that it gave an opening for British aggression in Persia, and had been the product of the previous cor- rupt government. Last November Riza Khan formally denounced the oil con- cession and insisted that it would have to be drastically modified. Great Brit- ain at first essayed to fight out the issue before the League, but, deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, even in diplomacy, finally re- sorted to negotiations. From now until 1938 the area of the Anglo-Persian concession will be 250,000 square miles, instead of the original 500,000. After 1938 the area will be 100,000 square miles, or a fifth of its dimensions at this time. The British company loses its exclusive right for pipe lines, as from May 1; pays four shillings a ton to the Persian govern- ment on ofl sold in the' country or exported. and twenty per cent of the company's profits, whether made in Persia or abroad; accounts to Persia in taxation during the next fifteen years for £225,000 and during the second fif- teen years for £300,000; replaces pro- gressively its foreign employes by Per- sians, and will spend £10,000 a year in educating Persians in Great Britain. Thus ends, and ends amicably, one of the alien is inconceivable. Every now and again a situation arises in our corporate life where an effort is made to contravene or cir- cumvent the operation of law in the interest of some select few, and it in- evitably issues in confusion and dis- aster. Disorders that disrupt society frequently arise out of such practices. In all orderly and happy living condi- tions law must determine, and deter- mine equitably and im A it human relationships. Much of the dis- order and on that has issued in the present unhappy conditions . is traceable to the failure of some of us as citizens of the state to govern our- selves consistently with laws which we ourselves have fashioned. We refuse to abide by our own definite and pre- scribed rules, contending that for some cherished conceit, born of our own self- ish desires we are immune to that which is designed for the common good. amples of this are before us daily and they inevitably produce conditions in our corporate life that imperil our peace and our permanence. We repeat, our seeurity, yes, and our prosperity as well, reside in obedience to law. We may not forget that law is the crystal- lized expression of public opinion ef- fected through properly constituted channels and that its tial pur- pose is to conserve the interests not of the few but of the many. Our youths today, as is evidenced by our court records, are witnessing to a disregard of the restraints ard inhibitions which law imposes. Another class, increasingly numerous, has grown up in the late years that wantonly and maliciously sets at naught E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL; D, ‘ashington. 3 every rule designed to regulate sociel and industrial relations, creating a con- dition that menaces and imperils the large interests of communities and states alike. Possibly at no time in our his- tory have malevolent and violent forces been 50 emboldened as in these more recent years. The situation i one that must engage the deep concern of every citizen. t lies behind this grave condition? Is it not, in part, a definite and unchecked lowering of ‘the moral tone of the Natian as a whole? We have thought to stabilize our- selves through legal enactments. Our lon for legislation has led us to|. lieve that in the multitude of laws is our strength. We have in the post- war years been so busy rehabilitating our impaired forces, restoring our estate, that we have given scant heed to those strong moral and spiritual forces that constitute the abiding and indispensable assets of any people. We have reluctantly recognized as an es- sential concomitant of well ordered social life, the church and its al- lied agencies. We have come to re- gard Sunday as a day of privileged relaxation, for the pursuit of our selfish occupation and amusements, and we have beén unresponsive to those finer, things that concern our spiritual enrichment and development. The whole emphasis has been upon material values. In such a situation it is little wonder that many of our laws are neglected or ignored. They do not enforce them- selves; without high ideals of what con- sistent living should be they are in- operative. May it not be that the dis- ciplines and privations of the present are forcing us to soberer thinking, compelling us to reckon with those enduring values that alone make for character? “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” is a word that has lost none of its profound significance. We shall restore and make sure those things in our life that we most desire, when we once again turn our faces to the eternal God who has made and preserved us a Nation. We shall become obedient to law when we have more of reverence for things sacred. BY P. KENNEDY. The real: hard and dirty work of searching ower historic old records in the Senate flles is being done—has been done for more than six years—by one of those “unsung heroes” who have put their hearts into a tedlious task, in the cellar of the Capitol, in dust covered closets, up under the skylight close to the dome, searching under coatings of coal dust and the filth of a century or more. Col. Edwin A. Halsey, the Sen- ate secretary, gives unstinted credit to Harold E. Hufford of Indiana, file clerk of the Senate, for his faithul and zeal- ous work during the past six years, in rescuing from oblivion these most sac- red documents, many of which he found in obscure places being trampled under foot. While all Senate documents have been preserved, the work in past dec- ades was not systematically done, care- fully filed and indexed. The documents were merely stored away in a haphaz- ard style, often times with unrelated documents heapsd into the same bundle. File Clerk Hufford has put system’ into the filing, searched tire- lessly for missing documents, and now has them carefully sorted over, indexed and filed in steel cases. He has the work practically completed up to the Sixty-fitth Congress. is has meant a careful study of each paper in a packet—sorting over thrusands of bungdles and boxes in every nook and cranny of the Senate end of the Capitol and finding some ot the greatest treasures in most unex- pected places. Among the papers of the Senate Mil- | ftary Affairs Committee during tne period when Henry Wilson of Massachu+ setts, who succeeded the noted Edward Everett, was chairman of that commit- tee, are letters from famous officers ask- ing to be placed in command of the new Negro regiments about to be formed— 1862-63. One of these is dated Febru- ary 12, 1862, from Robert D'Ewald, for- merly a captain in the Prussian Army, then professor of music, German and | French in Indianapolis, who had served _with distinction under Gen. Kimball. | Only yesterday Mr. Hufford found a | letter signed by John C. Calhoun, dated | 1824, in a box with papers of the Sixty- fourth Congress, 1915-17. This Calhoun letter was evidently withdrawn from the Senate files for some purpose and when returned it was not placed back in the files where it chronologically belonged, But was tossed into the most conve: lent receptable—out of place only a| i THE COST OF EDUCATION | BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. ‘With the volume of tax receipts of local jurisdiction greatly diminished as an incident of the depression, there has developed a tendency to reduce the amounts of money spent on our educa- tional system. has been strongly opposed, many communities feel that they cannot afford the syms called for to maintain the educational plant. In the aggregate it is a huge sum. Scveral communities have been un: able to pay their teachers, notably Chi- cago and Philadelphia. Others have re- sorted to issuance of scrip, which does not pass current, but is rather in the nature of an I. O. U. While some land- lords and merchants have accepted some of this, it cannot be depended upon by the recipients to discharge all of their obligations. In 1930 a total of $3,224.638,567 was expended by the educational institutions of the country. Of this $2,656,420,316 | was expended by public schools and arose from taxation, while $578,218,251 was expended by private schools and came from payment of tuition and the proceeds of endowments. ‘The cost of education has been stead- ily rising. Comparisons with 1920 ex- penditures show all communities have increased their outlay, some multiplying it. The chief cost is for the payment of salaries, and these have increased on an average of 100 per cent. According to the Bureau of the Census, the average teacher’s salary has risen from $871 a year in 1920 to $1,420 in 1930. Accord- ing to the 1930 census there were 1,037.- 605 school teachers in the country. This amounted to 3.5 of the aggregate of those gainfully employed in all occu- Ppations. = There is a wide range in the amounts been increased. In New York, for ex- ample, the average school teacher’s sal- ary is $2493, while in Mississippi it is only $620, yet the Mississippi figure has increased more in proportion than that for New York. Between 1920 and 1930 the New York salary cost rose 171.7 per cent, while in Mississippi it rose 257 per cent. How Money Is Raised. In New York, California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia the aver- age salaries exceeded $2,000, while only H ! represented an increase of 157.8 per cent over the figure for 1920. Seventy-eight per cent of the cost of maintaining the schools in 1930 was met by taxation. Educa always been the province of the States and lo- cal jurisdictions in the United States. With the exception of the land-grant colleges, the Federal Government pays nothmx save for the maintenance of the of Education, but this is only an advisory branch. Only eight-tenths of 1 per cent of matntaining the school system was met by the\Pederal Govern- ment. This compares with 169 per cent by the States, 54 per cent by cjties ana gchool districts and 6.9 per cent by counties. The remaining cost came m;{nhgm.; and b;uluog, as long been the policy of Amer- ican jurisdictions to borrow for educa- tion. Many millions in school bonds have been issued. The cost of paying the interest on these bonds has come to be an important item in the total edu- cational cost. Thirty-four States owe school bonds, the aggregate amounting to $2,120,795,000. Pennsylvania owes the heaviest school bond debt, an item of $272,795.000, but New Jersey owes more in’ relation to the number of pu- pils enrolled. The New Jersey debt amounts to $321.69 for each pupil. New York owes $250,147,000, but so heavy is the enrollment that the State ranks fifteenth in terms of debt per pupil. These debts have mounted so high that they have proved an embarrass- ment and while it has been the policy to mortgage future tax receipts in or- der to pay for immediate education, there are indications that this will be checked. A policy of payment out of current tax receipts has been strongly urged. There has been a temptation |to borrow largely on school bonds be- | of salaries paid in different sections of | cause they usually find a ready market, | the country, but everywhere they have | being exempt from the Federal income tax. | A number of the large endowed | schools have beeft serinusly embarrassed {in the last two & three years because of the decline in the value of their se- | curities. Endowment funds whirh were invested in high-grade railroad and in- dustrial stocks have been producing much less income through the passing of dividends or their diminution. Disagreement on Policies. There are two distinct parties in at- titude toward educational expenses. One Second Extra Session May Be Needed greatest politico-commercial mere matter of some 90 years. about half that was paid in such States | numerous party thinks that any amount the money is not only apportioned on the basis of need as already demon- strated by expcnditures from public funds, but encourages the further ex- penditure of public funds by holding out the promise of additional Federal as- sistance. But in the case of the District the principle of distributing the Federal grant works to the disadvantage of the local community. In the latest table m the Children’s Bureau listing ex- s for relief in the States it happens that Delaweare and the District of Columbia show expenditures for re- lief in uary and February of this year that are comparatively close. For these two months the expenditure in Delaware was $311,101, for the District of Columbia, $333,582. If the same rate of diture held true for March and A it might be expected that the and Delaware would receive ap- T the same in grants from the Federal Government. But the Fed- eral grant for Delaware (on the basis of January and February) would be about $100.589. For the District it wouid be $82243. The reason for this is that 97 per cent of Delaware's relief expenditures came from public funds, while only 74 per cent of the District's expenditures came from public funds. Federal graft is made only on the basis of expenditure from such funds. According to the same table, the Dis- trict's percentage of expenditures from public funds is among the lowest in the United States. This is not because the demand for relief has been lacking, but beca: of the inability to secure appropriations of local revenues in keeping with what the relief authorities considercd necessary and because pri- relief agzneies have been forced to assume a responsibility that elsewhere has been taken over by public relief. In the meantime, private relief agencies are being broken down and may have o go out of business August 1 unless public relief funds are increased. For almost a year the States have been borrowing from the R. F. C. for relief. The District was not given this privilege. Through April the total R. F. C. relief loans to the States amounted to $289,190,502. For the first quarter of this year such advances amount to $120,876.527. Forty States ritories—Hawaii and Puerto Rico—have availed themselves of the borrowing privilege. The Children's Bureau estimates that the Federal funds advanced constitute from 75 to 80 per cent (for the month of March) of the total expenditures from public funds in the States which borrowed. The money borrowed from the R. F. C. and spent for relief in the first quarter of year will constitute a large part of the total expenditures during that quarter on which Federal grants, under the new relief bill, will be based. The District, of course, having received no R. F. C. loans, is at another disadvan- tage when it comes to sharing in the} Federal relief grants. proved by the Senate. The bill is in- tended to prevent the sale of unsound securities. In the light of the experi- ence of the American investing public in recent years, it is high time for |such a measure to be enacted into law. It is proposed under this bill that full publicity be given relating to all corporations issuing new securities, and severe penalties are imposed for false information. The British for years have had a drastic law to safeguard the investing public, a law which has been peculiarly effective. One feature of the bill which passed the House places responsibility upon all the members of the boards of direc- tors of corporations for the statements filed with the Federal Trade Commis- sion regarding the corporations. While this provision in the bill was assailed in some quarters, beyond doubt, if enacted into law, it will have a salutary effect. At least it will discourage the election of dummy directors who merely lend their names to corporations. A man who becomes a director of a cor- poration, knowing full well that unless | he keeps himself informed and is well | acquainted with the status of the cor- poration and its financial standing he may be subject to penalties under the law, will insist upon knowing what his corporation is doing. Furthermore, the great overlapping of directorates in cor- porations, found to exist today, is likely to be eliminated in considerable part. While the securities bill seems well on its way to final enactment into law, the bank reform bill still lags. This seems to be due, if reports are correct, to conflict in opinion between Secretary Woodin of the Treasury and members of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, headed by Senator Car- ter Glass of Virginia, who are in charge of this legislation. President Roosevelt may be called upon to adjust the dif- ferences. Among the Senators—and this is true generally so far as the Con- gress is concerned—there is demand for some form of insurance of bank de- posits. Secretary Woodin and President Roosevelt have both been reported as in opposition to any such guaranty by the Government. On the other hand, the administration has obtained from Congress a measure virtually to compel the people to place in the banks gold coin and gold certificates as an anti- hoarding measure. Further, the Gov- ernment guarantees the deposits of the people made in the postal savings banks. . No measure enacted by “Congress or to be enacted is more important or more cf an emergency measure than the bank reform bill. It is true that an emergency transactions on international record. A banking act has bsen passed, giving the President great powers over the banks. Thousands of banks are today closed. The very fact that they are closed has shaken confidence of the public in banks. Many of them, if re- opened, would perhaps go to the wall because of that lack of confidence. What is needed is a great and full measure In passing the District nppraprntlon‘ bill, the Senate increased the appro-: priation for public relief from $1,250,000 | to $1,500,000, and added the phrase, “to | be immediately available and to be ex- pended in the discretion of the Com-i missioners without regard to monthly | or other apportionment.” The District | is now spending, for public relief, |boul] $42,000 a week, or $2,184,000 a year. | But Community Chest funds for private | relief are rapidly being exhausted, and | public relief must take over a part of the work of private agencies. Even with | the possibility of Federal aid, the ap- propriation for public relief is not sufficient and should be increased. —r—o———————— Vandalism Again. With perennial regularity acts of wandalism are reported to the police, but only in the rarest instances can the culprits be discovered. A few “months ago it was the bison of the Q Street Bridge that were damaged. More recently the sword of Joan of ‘Arc’s statute in Meridian Park was re- moved and the countenance of the sym- bolic representation of Serenity was touched up with rouge and black crayon. Now it is reported that the fingers of the marble figures of the Dupont Circle fountain have been broken off. In each of these cases human mischievousness appeared to be responsible, It would seem that an educational campaign is necessary to teach a minor- ity of the people the obvious truth that of confidence in banks. And nothing could give that confidence in greater measure than a bank reform bill. Yet there is talk tcday of allowing the bank reform bill to go over without final action until next Winter. Why shculd this be? This legislation has been un- der consideration for almost two years in the Senate committee and the House committee and in the Senate itself. There is far more need of such salutary legislation even should it require lengthy| debate, than an adjournment of the| Congress the first week cr the second week in June, which seems to be the goal of the Democratic leaders in Con- gress and of the administration, ] Arrangements are insisted on that will find work for Muscle Shoals in a comprehensive economic program. et Peace in Persian Oil. As a result of some of the most rapid- ly completed international negotiations on contemporary record, Great Britain and Persia have buried their diffef- ences over the Persian oilfields and reached an agreement covering an area which originally comprehended 500,000 square miles. The revised agreement can only be considered a decisive vic- tory for the Persians. It ensues in that spirit of political compromise for which the British race and the statesmen it produces have a positive genius. John Bull knows how to give way, and whe and usually profits in the end as the public property is a public charge. Otherwise, it is not at all unlikely that every mhonument in the Capital'may be gefaced or marred. Theoretically, the e . result of his magnanimity, whether voluntary or impelled by self-interest. For more than twelve years the Anglo-Persian OQil Co., which is prac- . powerful empire, on which it is proudly boasted that the sun never sets, comes to terms with a small country upon which the empire might have imposed its will, but obviously at a cost which the stronger party to the controversy considered too high a price to pay. The Anglo-Persian cil deal is a triumph for practical statesmanship. Its consum- mation does credit to both parties. ‘The bonus men are invited to join in a method now favored in responsible interviews on public questions; that is to review the situation dispassionately | and give everybody & chance to find out exactly what he is talking about. ————ae— Germany wants the drama included | fFOm the business point of view—of the in Olymplan competition. An interpre- tation of the “Twilight of the Gods” on modern political lines might be an in- teresting feature. e ‘The stock market is represented as responding to supply and demand. The supply of speculative dollars has in- creased. The demand for them always exists. ——ee—. The pound is valued at $4, which sounds better in London than in New York, where a dollar must be figured as worth a quarter of a pound. —————————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Weeds and Wishing. I'm glad, when rainbow skies are here And weeds and flowers, too, Come forth, that dreams I once held dear Did not at last come true. When, as a small, knee-panted boy, My hopes would drift afar, I thought what I would most enjoy Would be to drive a car— A plain horse car—no motor gay— I longed in state to sit Like old Joe Dagget did and say, “Giddep! Gol darn ye! Git!” And later on I scorned old Joe. I thought I'd like to be A sailor singing “Yo heave ho!” While pirating at sea. Then T devotedly longed to play A big resounding drum. So change my dreams and—well-a- day— I still am dreaming some. As onward through the years we drift Our fond ideals change, We smile as the conditions shift At wishes crude and strange. Therefore some thanks are due Unto the fate that shelves Our cherished hopes—if all came true, How we have bunked ourselves! Popularity Not So Easy. “Do you try to represent the old school of statesmanship?” “Not as I once knew it,” answered Senator Sorghum. “A man in Congress can no longer hope to get by with a few speeches printed in the Record and a steady supply of picture post cards.” Jud Tunkins says good Rotarian sense causes a town to make the “Welcome to Our City” sign more conspicuous than “Keep Off the Grass.” Salting the Dove. The Dove of Peace that flies so fast In its pursuit new styles prevail. Big guns no more we'll try to cast To throw salt peter on its tail. Utilization, “When a tree is dying,” said the forestry expert, “we sell it immediately to & paper manufactory.” “How marvelous!” exclaimed Miss Cayenne. “The tree that made this comic supplement must have died in convulsion.” “Credulity,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “should be tempered by skepticism. To believe all doctors and fatal.” ‘Misunderstood. A man who says “I am misunderstood,” Might find the truth a slight surprise to him; Disclosing that his words so fair have not made good And that the folks at last are getting wise to him. “Two things I gits found fault v“.h."' said Uncle Eben, “one is workin’ too much an’ de other is not workin® at A" el To Provide Safeguards Against Inflation BY WILLIAM HARD. ‘The President is determined now to get rid of Congress early in June; but there are many excellent observers— political and economic—who are firmly convinced that Congress will be back again in Washington in another extra session early in the Fall. They base this calculation on the laws which the present extra session will have enacted by June 1 and on the laws which it will not have enacted. The laws enacted will give a large momentum to inflation. They will be of instant advantage to those who have commodities or securities to sell. Such sellers will presumably find themselves {in a rising market and will presumably succeed in making sales at advanced prices. This is the total essential aim— farm bill and of the inflation rider which it carries. On the other hand, Congress will be unable by June 1 to enact any compre- hensive legislation for the adequate protection of those to whom inflation is injurious. It is injurious, naturally and obviously and admittedly, to those who | !sell not commodities or securities but only the labor of their hands or brains. Such people—and there are many | millions of them—are restive already under the prospect that the prices of all those things which they purchase will increase, while there is no assur- jance whatsoever that their wages and salaries will correspondingly increase. ! They constitute a potentially discon- | tented element of the highest and political importance. * X ok * It has been partly in consideration for them that some of the administra- | tion’s advisers—both regular and vol- unteer—have busied themselves with such suggested measures as the pro- posed “national industrial recovery act.” Under that act there would be a_deliberate governmental recognition | and encouragement of organizations o!} wage earners and of salary earners throughout all American industry for the safeguarding of their _interests. Under that act there would also be a strong governmental direct influence upon the general level of wages and salaries. Under the farm bill, with its agri- cultural price-raising devices and with its device for the expansion of cur- rency and of credit, it is owners— owners of commodities and of securi- ties—that will be presumably cheered and ostensibly benefited. Under the “national industrial recovery act.,” with its stimulation of “collective bargain- ing” and its concern for wages and salaries as well as for profits, it would be the employes who would also be—in principle—cheered and benefited. In other words, the two laws put to- gether would be an attempt to K‘“ everybody—owners and employes both— on a governmental economic escalator “p!‘!nr?'mwever Congress adjourns by early June, the likelihood is that the owners will be on the escalator and the employes will not. In somewhat similar circumstances right after the Great War there were vast strikes. Prices seemed to employes to have risen out of harmony with wages and salaries. Profits seemed to them to be expanding out of propor- tion to pay rolls. They thereupon called strikes, which in turn produced governmental repressive intervention on a large scale. EIE Parallel developments are expected now by many observers of great wealth of experience and of great sobriety of temperament. They believe that the inflation now started cannot possibly be checked before it begins to react in- juriously upon people with fixed in- comes, whether those incomes are de- rived from pay rolls or from invest- ments. They admit that the administration will do everything within its power to keep the inflation “controlled.” They point out, however, that in every in- flation there are two influences at work. The first is the Government; but the second, very early in the inflation, is the business community itself. The Gov- ernment may strive to curb the infl tion at a certain stage in its progress; but the business community, having ted, straight ahead bidding the prices of comgxodlnes and of securities farther and farther up without the Govern- ment being able to do anything to stop that movement. This is the fundamental reason why a “controlled inflation” has been at- tempted often in principle but has sel- dom been accom in practice. The Government starts the inflation and then tries to throttle it down, but by that time the business community has put its foot on the accelerator and the car leaps forward progressively faster, not under governmental urging, but under the urging of the private markets. * K K X mer. The International Economic Conference will then session in London. For the delegates both of the United States and of Great Britain the prime of the con- ference is & is its central design inflationary. It will mvor. if the Americans ‘and the have their way, to unite the stores central banking systems of the world upon concerted credit policies directed toward higher prices everywhere, in- cluding this country. In such circumstances of incalculable changes in price levels, the French may be reluctant, as they have already plain- ly intimated, to reduce their tariff du- ties, and the British, as they likewise have already plainly intimated, may be reluctant to stabilize their pound. The negotiations on those points may be- come extremely protracted. They may not come to an outright issue and con- | clusion, one way or the other, till well on into the Fall or Winter. * K X % The administration may thereupon find itself obligated to protect our do- mestic situation by further domestic legislative measures. The temporary beneficiaries of the inflation m&y begin to be out-shouted politically by its tem- porary victims. The Wilson adminis- tration and the Harding administration were willing to go into the courts to secure injunctions against strikers. The Roosevelt administration would not seem to be of a nature to adopt that €xpedient. It would scem to be much more likely to attempt to redress griev- ances by further “relief” laws enacted by Congress. It is through such reasoning that | many calculators here and in New York expect to see Congress sitting in Wash- ington again well before the Winter | snow arrives. They think that it will then address itself either to making wages and salaries share the advances of prices or else to putting prices them- selves under some restraint. In any case, it will, they think, try to com- plets its legislation of this Spring by legislation embracing and forwarding the interests of all classes combined. All of which is in strict accordance with the experience of other countries, in which it has always been found that governmental intervention on behalf of Pprices tends strongly to lead toward ad- ditional governmental intervention on behalf of all the other elements in the national economic structure. (Copyright. 1933.) —.—s Records Show Changes In Credit Situation BY HARDEN COLFAX. At a time when no one can predict the credit developments of even a few months ahead, the Department of Commerce is providing business men with useful records showing the chaniu in credit conditions in recent months. The department, which has had the co-operation of the National Retail Credit Association, has just made pub- lic its sixth semi-annual retail credit survey. The report shows that dollar sales in the United States decreased by ap- proximately 24 per cent from the fig- ures of the corresponding period of 1931. There was a slight increase in the proportion of sales for cash and & falling off in the proportions of open credit—regular charge accounts—and instaliment sales. What are known to the retail merchant as “time open accounts receivable” were outstanding, on an average, some six days longer than in 1931, while in.!hllg:ent gc- counts were out about one month longer. Bad debt losses increased by Just short of 1 per cent for the fuil year 1932, as compared with 1931, in the case ‘of open accounts and by nearly 11, per cent in the case of so- called installment accounts. This survey is based on data from 415 retail establishments, including de- partment stores and stores devoted to the sale of furniture, jewelry, men’s clothing, sl , Wwomen's specialties, electrical appliances and automobile accessories, located in 30 cities, which, in the l:n six hn’mgfl'ls of 1031, did a total net sale business of more than $509,000,000. B L] Estimating that retail prices fell from 12 to 14 per cent during 1932, the compilers of this survey point out that dollar sales declined during the six-month period more than the gen- eral price level, so that unit sales probably were considerably less. The dollar sales of electrical appliance stores showed the greatest decline, those handling automobile accessories Indianapolis had the trical appliance stores did the largest proportion of business, more than 90 per cent, in 1931, while in 1932 this S | the least. So where the Senate papers were heretofore largely “dumped,” they are now being carefully preserved for ready reference—and the important, though dirty work of bringing this order out ot chaos, had been done by this incon- spicuous file clerk. “Is it worth while,” Mr. Hufford was asked, when found under the skylight where it was hot and stuffy with coal dust all about, literally pouring over a bundle of old documents. “It's been my job,” he answered, “and I've done it the way I thought it ought to be done. I may lose this job. but 1 will leave it knowing that these files are in order and systematized, so that those who are searching for source materials and the records can find them.” These files are consulted by historians, college professors and research student writing books or treatises—by peopl who are searching for foundation facts to set history straight. Mr. Hufford is pointed to by Col. Halsey as “the for- | gotten man" who has been dirtying his { hands and using his special talents to students of future generations to a | common meeting place. | x x ok % The human side of mankind—great and small—survives in memory vears after his great deeds have been pigeon- holed and dust covered in the | history. That h since nomadic tribes sung their sagas, since Priscilla “Why don't you speak for yourse Jchn"—since ‘George Washington or did not throw a doliar across tree. Take the Congressional Record—the daily newspaper of Congress, chronicling what 13 'said and done in the 1-gislative {chambers—it is an intensely | document. Now comes Representative | Raymond Cannon of Milwaukee, pro- posing that time and money be co served by restricting the free distribi tion of the Record. Of course, the “ex tension of remarks” section has been | abused—but 1t also contains a tre- mendous amount of wonderful human interest material and educational articles which cannot be found else- where. It gives a broad general know edge of life in many parts of our coun- try which the majority of the people would not know about; just as the hear- ings before appropriations committees present detailed facts about the opera-+ tion of the Government that are highly educative to students. Few men have contributed more In recent years to putting human interest writings into the Congressicnal Record than has Representative John J. Boy- lan of New York. He delights in thus preserving to be read by future genera- tions, the sidelights on great men, im- portant events and institutions. While a group of close personal friends of the erecting a fishing lodge at his favorite fishing ground not far from the Capital as a memorial, Representative Boylan, co-operating with Representative U. S. Guyer, put into the Record a story cf how Mr. Wood, late chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Republican Congressional Committee, for more than 20 years, daily fed the pigeons at the corner of the House Office. Building adjacent to the Library of Congress. After having had his breakfast and promptly at a certain time each morn- ing Mr. Wood would come to that corner with a supply of corn bread or other suitable food which he tossed on the pavement and plot of grass bordering the walk. When in Washington he never failed his pigeons, and most of the time he was detained here by im- portant official duties. “Thus, many generations of burnished. blue and purple pigeons learned to know him,” Mr. Guyer explained, “and as he talked to them he insisted that they ‘sassed’ him back in pigeon language. “During the last ‘lame duck’ session of Congress that will ever convene,” he continued, “Mr. Wood worked as usual like a galley slave from 5 o'clock in the morning until late at night. Then one day Congress adjourned ‘sine die’ and another morning the retiring statesman sadly but affectionately fed the pigeons he loved, whispered good-by to them—— “Ever since the purple pigeons wait in a pathetic vigil looking up with ex- pectant gaze at every passerby, hoping again to hear the voice of their ol friend. But he has sailed on a ship that never comes back. So, after 20 years of devoted service to his country, during which he served millions of the people, and after raveling out his life like a prodigal spendthrift in their service, he is missed—by the pigeons. ‘Sic transit gloria mundi’—which, be- ing tranlated, means that there is a vast difference between pigeons and people.” e Snitchers. Prom the Sioux Falls Daily Argus-Leader. Bandits who stole $160,000 from Ne- braska banks last week appear to have violated the anti-hoarding regulations. dling automobile accessories suffered The total loss on these scores was somewhat over $120,000. The secretaries and managers of the bureaus making up the National Re- tail Credit Association, who share with groups of business men who have asked the Department of Commerce and the various retail credit associa- appliance flulMan(ndluma tions to collect and classify reliable factual information as to credit prac- (Copyright, 1933.). as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, | spent on education is justified because late Representative Will R. Wood are | and of the! Kentucky, the Carolinas and Virginia. | While the salary list is the main item |n the cost of education, the investment {in plant and equipment must also be |counted. For 1930 this investment was placed at $11,217,000. This figure in- cludes the amount of endowments and all property owned by the schools. The | value of the actual structures used for | school purposes was $6,211,327,000. This | it represents an inestimable investment in the future. The raising of succes- | sive generations of better trained youths will pay for anything spent in the process, it is contended. Another party holds that schools have been regarded in an emotional rather than a practical manner and that there has been a great deal of wastefulness in spending money for specialties, fads and frills. Fifty Years Ago ' In The Star “The work of laying stone on the Washington Monument will be resumed next Monday,” says The Monument Star of May 1, 1883. “There is sufficient stone, | Progress. ;.. flc and granite now to raise the Monument 30 feet, but it | is thought advisable not to begin plac- | ing it in position until there is a better | supply on hand. The laying of the stone can be pushed much more rap- idly when the stone can be supplied. | Fifteen courses could be laid in as many for further supplies. Hugh Sisson, who has had the contract for furnishing | it is desired that a good supply of this | chall be on hand before the work is resumed. As the height of the Monu- ‘ ment increases, the need for granite di- human | minishes, so that when the Monument | &atisfactory |is a hundred feet higher no granite Dacking will be necessary.” . * * % | Furious cyclonic storms prevailed in | this country 50 vears ago, doing great | damage. The Star of May 3, 1883 says: 5 “The late devastating Studying tornadoes have setulhe scientists to working | Cyclones. giilely once more at | investigation of the phenomena. with a view to the acquirement of useful infor- | mation. The result of this study, so far as yet presented to the public, is not of any great value. It consists of statistics as to the number of destructive torna- does or cyclones which have visited the country in a certain period, the months |in which they have occurred, average | width of the path of destruction, etc., | but contains little or nothing of precau tionary value. If the students of mete- selves credit and the country service, | let them find out how people may be warned of the approach of one of these | death-dealing clouds in time to escape { from its track. A Western journal axio- matically declares, speaking of the cy- clone: ‘If its exact path were known, a { few minutes would suffice to escape to one side or the other. but this can never be foretold.’ It is not necessary | to foretell the exact path in order to | prevent a great deal of injury. If the | approximate route of an approaching | tornado can be arrived at and the in- formation conveyed to the threatened people a very little in advance of the storm, humaa life can be saved; for statistics prove that the average width of the path of destruction #is narrow, {only about 1,085 feet, and therefore | half an hour’s warning would be in- | valuable.” * * % cells in the District Court Building on the afternoon of May 4, 1883, in un- usual Escape of The Star of the next Prisoners. its aftermath: “Yesterday afternoon, as soon as it was discovered that four of the prison- ers in the cell rooms below the Criminal Court room had escaped, the police were notified and the marshal’s officers sent out to get a clue to the fugitives if pos- sible. The prisoners, from the state- story of the break and the scape was made on the spur of the moment. There were seven at the time in the cell rooms and they were in charge of Perry Carson, who was assist- ed by James Leonard. During the morn- ing, when some of their friends called to see them, they asked for whisky, but Carson said they could pass no whisky in while he was in charge. Subsequently the prisoners commenced singing, Car- son and Leonard being outside the cells, seated one at each door. In a few minutes the singing ceased and the door being unlocked, Robert Chase was seen in the act of climbing up the caging. Of the prisoners, four had got out. It was claimed th‘;t the lronwor‘k' "vhu b.nm ‘badly put up, the upper end of the not having been riveted. Today they are being strongly riveted. From the statements made, the bars were first bent by Reddy White. who was convicted of grand larceny, and Richard Hill, being the smallest pris- oner, went out first, then Reddy White, followed by George McCai , charged with assault with attempt to kill. Next came James Waters, charged with house-| McCauley states that he \glkg Four-and-a-Half street to down the fifth precinct station. He says he had no intention of getting away, but only wanted a little lark, v"ich he has . Reddy White went L) the jail at 9 o'clock last and gave himself g. Hill says he went away frcm the ity Hall so fast he didn't know whether he went by pavement or car- [ orological science want to do them- | Four prisoners made their escape from | ‘circumstances. | day thus told the | ments made, acted upon no plan, but 'Britain Sees Great Difficulties Ahead BY A. G. GARDINER. LONDON, May 6.—Premier Mac- Donald’s return from Washington on | Wednesday, coinciding with the issu- ance of invitations to the World Eco- nomic Conference, clears the decks for a momentous grapple with the crisis 1 | world affairs, both political and eco- | | | bring the statesmen of the past and the Of the ground, cut and ready to be laid, | nomic. With regard to political affairs, the outlook is overshadowed by the ter- rific social revolution proceeding in Ger- many and its incaiculable repercussions on the European situation. Everywhere cn the continent the greatest tension experienced since the war prevails and the probabilities of an outbreak of attic of | cays, but then there would be a celay hostilities is a universal subject of dis- as been eternally true ! cussion. The Disarmament Conference is said ‘to John Alden— | marble until this year, yesterday sent | trembilng in the balance, owing to Ger- M. | his last load. The present contractors, | Many’s did | the Lee Co. of Massachusetts, are to British plan, which is otherwise gener- the! send’ their first shipment from their | 2lly accepted as a moderate, sensible Pctomac and tock a hack at the cherry | quarries on the 4th of this month and | Scheme and the utmost at present ob- stubborn resistance ~ to the | tainable. * ¥ % ¥ Hopeful factors are the anxiety of the American Government to secure a agreement before the | Economic Conference meets and the attitude of France, which exhibits a more accommodating temper than at any time since the armistice—all the | more remarkable in the face of the cyclonie condition of Germany. | "It is difficult to believe that Germany | will persist in her resistance, which, while torpedoing the Disarmament Conference, would leave her isolated in Europe as the general enemy of dis- armament, peace and economic recov- ery. Some gleam of hope that moderat- ing influences will prevail is derived from Chancellor Hitler's assurance to the Polish Ambassador in Berlin on Wednesday that Germany will act with- in the terms of treaties and desires both countries to examine the situa- tion in an objective spirit. This is important in view of the fact that the Polish Corridor is the immediate danger spot and that alarm prevails in regard to the outcome of the Nazi demonstration in Danzig at the end of this month, R Assuming that the Disarmament | Conference reaches a favorable port, | the prospects of the Economic Con- ference will be greatly enhanced, but there are great difficulties ahead. The war debt question still remains open, | awaiting the first move by President Roosevelt, who has not yet addressed Congress on the subject, though his | own wishes are well known. | Mr. Roosevelt's other preliminary | gestures are regarded as equivocal. His preposal for a tariff truce for the dura- | tion of the Economic Conference has | been accepted by France with the pro- | viso_that a compensation tax will be | applied to meet the fluctuations of cur- | rencies. The subject was discussed at the first meeting of Premier MacDonald with the cabinet on his return. It is understood that the proposal was only accepted with important reservations. Nor is Neville Chamberlain, chancellor | of the exchequer, dispcsed to agree to the American plea for the early stabil- ization of sterling without solid inter- | national guarantees against a recur- rence of the risks which precipitated its collapse in 1931. | K K X It is unfortunate that the atmose phere of the coming. conference has been embittered by the feeling aroused by the decision at Washington to re- fuse to permit the export of gold to meet the interest coupons on American securiti=s held abroad, or to release gold placed by foreigners in American safe deposits. This decision has created the strongest resentment in financial circles and the newspapers of all parties con- demn the proceeding as a shattering blnwldw financial confidence in the world. The Financial Times roundly de- scribes the embargo as a calculated breach of contract; the Londcn Daily Telegraph asks how Great Britain would dare risk the hasty alterations of currency proposed by America in the face of such action, and the London News-Chronicle says that America in striking this blow at the sanctity of Gangerous precedent, adding, ~Ameris angerous nt, , “Ameri- can investors who have lent thousands of millions of dollars to Europe and nd observed and the loans repaid in gold dollars if America’s foreign credi- ted dollars.” most favorable view of the matier = s for Economic Conference. (Onyruht.' 10332 d that ‘when h trying To- et ouk ne had no Jaca of makiog his escape, but once outside he intanded to stay. Sergt. Redway of the sccond pre~ 'dmupcm;lcdmm;!‘:h:meonrom street northwest about 5 o'clock pam., secreted P