Evening Star Newspaper, July 30, 1933, Page 22

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. | .WASHINGTON, D. C. ' BUNDAY..........July 30, 1933 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor 1 Ne e Chicago Office: Lal European Office: . Rate by Carrier Within the City. e Evening Star.............45¢ per month e Evening and Sunday Star di 60c per month 65¢ per month y Star. .5¢_per copy Collection made at the end of each month. Orders may be rent in by mail or telephone NAtional 5000. 3 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday....1yr.$10.00: 1 mo., 85c Daily only . yr., $6.00: 1mo.. 80c Bunday only 1yr. $4.00: 1mo.. 40¢ All Other States and Canada. Daily and Sunday. Daily only .. Sunday only . Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled o 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 are also reserved. = A City Manager for Washington? In connection with the long-deferred and still-deferred choice of Commis- sioners for the District of Columbia, the possibility of a later reorganization of the District government with “one man” or a “City Manager” in charge is the subject of recurring comment in news stories which reflect the tenor of gossip around the White House. Nobody knows certainly what the President has in mind concerning a *one-man” government for the Dis- trict as he has been as silent on that matter as he has been on the choice of Commissioners. If the President has a reorganization of that sort in mind, which Congress would have to approve, it will be made known in time for the careful consideration and a weighing of advantages, pro and con, by the voiceless community of taxpayers in whose behalf it would, of course, be advanced. As far as a “one-man” government for the District is concerned, we have it pretty much today. The President himself is the “one man” and the Commissioners, whom he selects to carry out his policies and execute his wishes, are directly responsible to him. If “one man” were substituted for three this condition would remain sub- stantially the same. The President would remain the “one man.” of three Commissioners, however, there would be one. Whether this would eventually make for a more efficient form of local government is, of course, debatable. If one man may act more quickly and decisively than three there is the offsetting factor that one man does not bring into his decisions the considerations and the experience of three. But whether one man is more efficient in fuifilling certain limited executive functions than three, acting as a board, is more or less an abstract proposition. It might be said good naturedly that three men could hardly take more time to settle the question of the District comissionerships than it has taken one man, the President. A city manager, as the term is under- stood, usually represents the effort of a community to cut through some of the highly expensive and often inefficient ramifications of a political machine. His choice is usually the result of a munici- pal revolution against the wastefulness and inefficiency and even the corruption of an organization that has built up a machine of office holders and depends for its success upon outlandish grants of public funds. To be successful the city manager must have complete authority. Otherwise he is snowed under by the very forces which he was supposed to supplant. Congress, of course, possesses the ex- clusive power of legislation, including the power to tax and to spend, in Wash- ington. How much authority would it grant to a city manager? Would it be any more far-reaching that the mini- mum of authority now granted the three Commissioners? Would anything be gained by a city manager bereft of au- thority of independent action? These are matters that may come up for more discussion later on. For the time being, it is to b: hoped that the President bears in mind that small| wvestige of “home rule” for the District / of Columbia that is now safeguarded in | the law's requirement that the two| civilian Commissioners shall have been | “actual residents” for the past three | years in the District of Columbia and “claimed residence nowhere else.” And | later, when and if the President under- | takes a reorganization of the municipal | government, the essential considera- tion here is whether there are to be| effected changes which will take away from or add to the indirect and ap- proximate hime rule enjoyed by the taxpayers of the local community. Anything that minimizes the slight | smount of home rule now existing | ought to be regarded as unthinkable. Gen. Hugh S. Johnson, administra- tor of the N. R. A, says that objec- tors to the code system will get a “sock right on the nose,” failing to specify the socker. Honoring Kosciusko. Postmaster General James A. Farley announces a philatelic honor for Thad- deus Kosciusko. Polish patriot, chival- rous knight in freedom’s cause, brother- in-arms of Pulaski, Lafayette and Washington, his portrait is to adorn a five-cent stamp to be issued October | 18. The homage is abundantly jus- tified. % But, curiously enough, the story of Kosciusko's career is only imperfectly known to modern Americans. It may be doubted if the average man or woman of the present generation could recite spontaneously three simple de- tails of his biography. Practically all that is generally current about him is the single fact that he served in the Colonial Army in the Revolutionary War. He was a scion of noble stock, born on, February 12, 1746, exactly sixty- three years before the day upon which Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin first saw the light. His education he obtained at the military academy at Versailles, schooled in the art of war when he Joined the Continental forces in 1777. Instead | | determination not only to rule, but, as His stay in America extended to more §an s decade. He served with dis- » tinction in the fighting arqund New York and at Yorktown, and designed the fortifications at West Point. But victory in the New World meant for him release for duties in the Old. Poland was steaming with discontent under alien tyranny. He had no choice but to answer the call. When the crisis came in 1794 he was the logical com- mander for the rebels. He defeated the Russians at Raclawice and defended Warsaw for two months against an al- lied enemy, but was decisively beaten, wounded and captured at Maciejowice. For two years he lay in prison until the Emperor Paul ordered his release. But his spirit was unbroken. When the Czar offered him his sabre, he re- plied, “I have no need of a sword, since I have no longer a country.” The retort, however, was inexact. Kosclusko, never ceasing to Be a loyal Pole, had been admitted to American citizenship and gladly would have been welcomed had he wished to reside in the United States. He survived until 1817, spending his energies in a vain endeavor to persuade the Russian ruling class to grant a constitution to the Polish people. A man of character, generous and chariteble, wholeheartedly devoted to liberal ideals, he should be more en- thusiastically remembered than he has been. Perhaps the new stamp will be of value in prompting study of his brave and unselfish life. ———— Nazis Rule and Ruin. With the iron lid of censorship clamped down cn all news likely to | awaken present-day Germany from the | dream that Hitlerism is the perfect | state, it would be interesting to know how much the country was allowed | to learn about what happened last week at Hamburg. At the annual meet- ing of the executive board of the Hamburg-American Line, the chair- |man, Dr. Max von Schinkel, an- | nounced that the boycott movement ) against Germany in many countries, organized in protest against certain Nazi domestic policies, is being felt with increasing force by German ship- ping. The chairman declared that the | outlook for the line's business this year is gloomy in the extreme. Not only is ; the Hamburg-American's business in} | serious slump, but German shipping | generally is steadily falling back. The reference must concern the affairs of | the North German Lloyd, because the | famous company which built and op- erates the sister queens of the Atlantic, | Bremen and Europa, now is allied in; intimate combination with its one time Hamburg rival. German shipping is mainly dependent | on traffic to and from the ports of the| | United States, Great Britain and| | France, the three western democratic Ecourm'les in which there has been the ; most persistent and vehement protest | against Nazi political excesses, not only | within Germany, but in the interna- | tional realm, such as the threat to the | independence of Austria. It is now ap- parent that the business world upon | whose good will and custom the Ger- | man shipping lines mainly rely is not 1‘patromzmg them to the old extent. Of no less significance than the Ham- | | burg-American Line's admission that | {Nezl rule is bringing ruin to German shipping is the resignation of seventeen members of the company’s executive | board, including the managing direc- tor. They severed their connection| | with its administration, they said, with | |regret at a time when the company | |15 doing badly, but recorded the fact | | that developments left them no choice. | This statement relates to the reor- | ganization of German shipping, along | with all other branches of industry, in | order to “co-ordinate” them with Nazi political policy. Dr. von Schinkel de- clared as to this: “I, as chairman of the executive board, have not even | been able to find out what the re-| { organization of this company aims at.f | No doubt it has been planned with the | | best intentions, but I cannot share re- | sponsibility blindfolded.” | If the new regime at Berlin per- | sists in the blindfold policy of dis-| regarding every consideration except the Hitlerization of German life, lock, | stock and barrel, it can hardly expect ! | that shipping will be the cnly branch | of the German irdustrial fabric to face | the fate that now menaces the great | ports of Hamburg and Bremen. It is all the sadder a fate because during, the past ten years since the war Ger- man shipping has achieved a truly re- markable comeback. It has recovered | the blue ribbons of the Atlantic. Ger- | man mercantile tonnage was rapidly approaching the pre-war level. It is small wonder that the prominent busi- ness men who have relinquished theh" places on the Hamburg-American board are filled with disgust over the Nazis'| events are attesting, also to ruin. e Local gunmen who are trying to put Washington on the map as a crime center are in the way of afford- ing immediate material for the Na- | tion-wide drive on law enforcement. . ——oe—s Interpreting the Code. An official “interpretation” of the President’s “blanket code” in fhe in- dustrial recovery program asserts that the compensation of employes now re- celving more than the minimum wage | specified in the code must not be re- duced to offset the specified reduction in hours of labor. It is clear that they must not be so reduced if the purpose of the recovery program is to be fulfilled. ‘That purpose is to develop and increase the buying power of the American people so that industry.-may be put back on its feet and employment again flourish in the land. There is no purpose in the code or program to bring about a reduction of wages and salaries, merely to make it possible to raise minimum wages. To carry out such a program as that would not increase the purchas- ing power of the people. It would merely result in a more nearly equal scale of pay for all employes, no matter what the character of work performed; an increase for the lowest paid and a de- crease for the rest. The interpretation of the blanket code put forward by the National Recovery Administration itself says in this connection: Paragraph 7 means, first, that com- pensation of employes above the min- imum wage group (whether now fixed by the hour, day, week or otherwise) shall not be reduced, ejther to com- THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., JULY 30, sty i S0 ey is & general statement of what shall not be done. Here is stated very ‘clearly what té employer is not to do. 'The interpréta- tion of the code, however, explains that rates of pay for employes above the minimum wage group shall be increased by “equitable readjustments.” ‘These readjustments must be fair to the em- ployer. But at the same time it is made clear that these readjustments are not to be made unfair to fhe employe, Indeed, there is the certain implication that the readjustments are to be for the’ benefit of the employe. The National Recovery Administration admits that & hard and fast rule governing the wages of the higher paid employes cannot well be set up, in view of long standing dif- ferentials in pay schedules, with.due regard for the fact that pay rolls are being heavily increased and that em- ployes will receive benefits from shorter hours, from the re-employment of dther workers and from stabjlized employment which may increase their yearly earn- ings. P The National Recovery Administra- in which “equitable readjustments” are made for the .employes feceiving more tation asserts. It will announce such action as is necessary from time to time to see that these readjustments arg fair, both to the employe and to the employer. The difficulties which face both the employers and the National Recovery Administration in the work- ing out of the recovery program are frankly very great. But they can be surmounted. The rule of fairness, the intent of the whole program and the | national recovery act, must be allowed with some injustices. But these mis- takes and injustices are capable of cot- rection. The recovery movement is in the making. As President Roosevelt has sald, it can succeed if the American people determine that it shall. ——————— Hollywood’s publicity methods are various and ingenious. An actress has Jjust been jailed for an hour for smok- ing in a nearby national forest. The brief discomfort was probably & small price to pay for a printed portrait. ——————————— Announcement that French financial interests are planning to make invest- ments in Manchukuo with Japanese co-operation suggests that perhaps American capitalists have missed an opportunity in that quarter of the world, —_————— Just to differentiate the troubles now afflicting this country the Chinese residents of Manhattan are reviving a tong warfare without any likelihood of provoking international complications. ———————————— Henry Ford, who has played a lone hand in motor manufacture for many years, is consistent in holding out on the recovery code until he has studied it to his satisfaction. —— et Students of economic conditions in this country will soon become graph- conscious to the extent of being able to read zigzag lines quite intelligently. e ‘The Texas farmer who was first to receive a Federal reward for plowing under his cotton will probably not preserve the check as a souvenir. SHOOTING STARS. ? BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Attainment. Have you forgot how, a few months since, You railed at the chill which the climate displayed? | Each breeze that came out of the sky made you wince, And the weather reports left you sad and afraid. . And now, when the boughs all laden we see, Have you the assurance to kick ‘cause it's hot? Those days which were mournful and dark as could be For lack of a warm wave, oh, have you forgot? let the thermometer joyously range, Fulfillment is here of our earlier de- sire, ‘We've shivered a full share and now, for a change, -Our privilege proud it shall be to perspire. So be not discouraged nor call it a grind, Nor vow a mistake is discovered too late. The present discomfort, we frequently find, Is something we formerly thought would be great, Applause. “You don't attach much importance Now | to the applause an orator receives.” “Not much,” admitted Senator Sor- ghum. “There is bound to be ap- plause. You can't expect an audience to sit still all evening and do abso- lutely nothing.” The Voice of Discontent. “Had much rain around here lately?” “No,” replied Farmer Corntossel. “Jes’ enough to keep the Summer boarders kickin' an’ not enough to help crops.” Appreciated at Last. The statesman now is feeling good, By lectures he is drawing pay For what his fellow statesmen would Not offer him a chance to say. A Shade of Doubt. “Don’t you think women ought to |Tun the affairs of the country?” “Certainly,” replied Miss Cayenne, “but I'm not absolutely sure they ought to come out in public and call attention to the fact that they are Just when ii's time to shake a R:nnu the employer for increases that may be required to make in the minimum wage group in order to comply with the agreement, or to turn this re-employment agreement into a mere share-the-wark movement without » And when to shake & “Cheap flattery,” d “4s de ‘counterfeit money tien.” tion will observe carefully the manner | ¢ho than the minimum wages, the interpre- | },o togovern. Mistakes will arise invariably, | 5y FRIENDSHIP BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D.D, LL. D,D.C.L, Bishop of Washington. eggizggéé for what we are, appraises us at our true worth and understands with sympathy both our weakness and our strength. Many of the noblest works we cherish in art, literature and music have had their inspiration in such a ther found in . Martin Lu his comrade, Melanchthon) that which ed, stabilized and kept him repose Neither prosperity nor adve can chill the affection of one who knows and understands us. It may be that nrudymmubth approach, grows oul & correspond- ence of spiritual ideals and aspira- A friend in Parls with whom I was long as men see in this Prient man the supremest expression of love and devotion the world ever known. It was this itest Friend who said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for friends,” and He exemplified it through is in this acknowl- genius | have been formed. That, “There is a place where spirits blend, And friend holds fellowship with friend,” is demonstrably true. We find our own adversity is a severer test of friendship | The than all else. It is certainly true that it furnishes an opportunity for a more demonstrative expression of affection and confidence, ‘The strain of friendship comes when misunderstandings shadow and impalr it, and one of life’s is the broken tie between those who in happler days have shared confidences. ong the influences that provoke true friendship is correspondence of tastes and aptitudes. The artist, the writer, the professional manefind frequently in their fellows engaged in like occupation indissoluble one. Ties that grow out of fellowship in our occupational and social life are strong, but they are made tions and devotion to a common Master. Some of the noblest friendships of time have been of this order. Where the heart of another answers to the deeper, finer feelings of our own, there is born a friendship that is second only to kinship. Big Job Lies Ahead of the American Eagle on the New N. R. A. Emblem BY KATHARINE DAYTON. ‘This department is more than happy to report that there is a world of com- fort, for an old human-nature lover like ourselves, in contemplating the new N.R. A eagle which practically all God's chillun will be handed next week. In the first place, it is an eagle. This alone, after all we had read in the pa- pers about a brand-new world with all its old furniture, as you might say, sent to the Salvation Army, and everything | smelling of fresh paint and sticky with varnish and all, certainly warmed our heart-cockles, to say nothing of being a sight for sore eyes. We had expected, of course, some- thing much more realistic and original | —a modernistic cootie, say, symbolic of | such intense irritation that the most | self-centered egotist is forced to drop all selfish interests and do something about it. And here was our old friend, the eagle! A gay young eagle, it is true, appar- | ently doing a “split” in what appears to | be a burst of animal spirits, clutching the while a doughnut in one claw and a bunch of forked lightning in the other, | which would be & Wow of an act under | them, if they ever had time to think of | It any circumstances, but is really not much hotter than those the American eagle has been staging since we were a slip of a girl and recovery was con- sidered 'way up town. For instance, on a good old-fashioned half dollar. We | are looking at one as we write this—no, | we're not bragging, we just asked a | g | an olive branch with its right and shak- | ing & mean clawful of 13 arrows in | its left, holding a ribbon in its beak and wearing & striped vest, all at one and the same time, ladies and gen'lemen, which is certainly as much as you could | expect of any eagle. | * % ok x ‘The American eagle’s act has always | been a darn good act. Personally, we like it just as well as the first time we saw it. The only thing that is puz- zling us is the people who are staging it this time. By this, of course, we do not mean President Roosevelt, who was decidedly among those present when the eagle simply knocked ’em cold the last time the world was made new in Woodrow Wilson’s administration. Nor Gen. Hugh Johnson, tireless, determified, able administrator of N. R. A., who knows | his ‘eagles, man and boy, since that same tremendous period. We mean particularly the earnest bands of brothers and sisters who are sitting on committees and pinning on badges and handing out buttons and pasting up lists of “conscientious ob- jectors” in exactly the same way they used to scoff and jeer at us for doing in an earlier day. We mean particularly that most conscious of all classes in this or any democracy, who are called the intelligentsia, for want of a better word, and who at present occupy so many of the luxurious, air-conditioned offices in the national recovery act’s headquarters in that anathema of all New Dealers in good standing, the new Commerce Building. * x k% It must come as rather a shock to it in the midst of their 40-hour day job of making a new world, that there is only one method by which they may leave their blueprints, so to speak, on the sands of time—the old method symbolized by their hitherto disdained eagle and his scream. Unfortunately, most of them are too busy making his- know that the world is always made new by that little old English word of four letters—no, Bernice, we do not mean I -e, we mean g-u-t-s. process which has been going on for & mere ten to twenty million years. The American eagle has done his stuff for one-hundred and sixty odd— | some of them a great deal odder than those we are passing through—and he’s going to do it again. Watch him, everybody! Allez-oop! (Copyright. 1933.) American Industries Dependent Upon Tin | BY HARDEN COLFAX. The international tin cartel to con- trol production, which was in effect for two years ending in February and was then continued by common consent, ran into difficulties this week when an ef- fort to renew it formally was made by the International Tin Committee. Representatives of the five tin-pro- ducing countries—Bolivia, the Dutch East Indies, Nigeria, Siam and the Federated Malay States—which have been operating this cartel since early in 1931, have been holding conversations | with a view to a renewal of their | agreement for another period of two | years. The International Tin Commit- tee is anxious to renew its restrictive agreement and to include certain coun- tries which were not in the original pact_but which, by keeping out, might wreck the scheme. Authorities on tin, both in and out of the Federal Government, are inclined to believe that hime &numfleml tin cartel is approaching the rocks. As organized this pool had for its purpose the allocation of pmductlon' and was controlled by exports by L~ cense. The cartel controlled more than 85 per cent of the world’s production. At the time of the formation of the international tin cartel, the world’s visible supply of tin was more than double the normal. An independent syndicate was_formed, known as the International Tin Pool. This organi zation announced, on finuguat 12, 1931, the purchase of more than 21,000 tons of &e then visible supply. It was agreed that the tin so held would be reduced as market conditions warranted and certain stipulations were entered into. The rise in tin prices, owing to exchange fluctuations and general busi- ness conditions all over the world, has now made it possible for this pool to realize a handosme profit. * ok kX rest of the American busi-| ne}:‘ :nli:uin this arises from the fact ing in the t:filen it has up to the present proved to be indispensable. Our vast canning and automobile industries are absolutely dependent on tin. But we produce cally none of this essential. Since "o! ESE fis 5.!%5. 3 ¥ U E&EEE i §E§§ 1 Four-Power Pact May Solve Europe’s Problems BY WILLIAM BIRD. PARIS, July 29.—The four-power pact signed in the Palazzo Venezia at Rome may become the instrument for establishing a united front among Eu- ropean countries in their dealings with other continents, and particularly with the United States. Many Eurcpean statesmen have felt ever since the war that the United States on_one hand and Japan on the other had a tremendous advantage in dealing with Europe, on account of the fact that they were able to play one nation or group of nations against an- other. At the same time these differ- ences between European nations have been pointed to by Amiericans as evi- dences of the impossibility of any kind of international harmony and as justifi- cation for an attitude of aloofness on Four years ago Aristide Briand, to overcome this difficulty, elaborated a plan for a federation of European na- tions. Eventually, however, the idea was broadened to include South Ameri- can and Oriental ’pow!rs scheme virtually fell by its own weight, although the League of Nations is still working at it in a perfunctory way. The four-power pact is an effort to reach the same in another way. Being limited to four principal Eu- ropean powers, England, France, Italy and Germany, all non-European influ- ence is excluded. And while the other European nations are not represented, formal assurances have been given that no decisions will be taken affecting their rights without consulting them. * ok k% The formation of this four-power bloc was not possible sooner, because of the feeble position of the successive German governments that led . German foreign icy had been at the mercy of the Na - and German negotiators 1933—PART TWO. to viding for aboll and election of the President and 17 f ETF 1y E Judiciary vorably on a resolu- Senator N thich es vote for President, a di- State votes among the proportion to their ;')eo‘pu- lec- gL o % . i i : | and the whole} lecting &:o ratification by the various States. It oecting. the Frcaident that have len! ve all students of our Government _for would establish consistent with our general scheme of government and, I believe, ould contribute materially to the bet- terment of the political life of this country. Emphasizing that in the State unit vote all minority voters in every State in effect, disenfranchised, their votes discarded and not counted in com- puting the ultimate result of an election. Representative Lea figures that in each of the last two presidential elections the votes of over 38 per cent of the voters of the eountry were thus disen- {::chiud through the unit-voting sys- In three instances candidates receiv- ing the plurality vote of the Nation for President have been defeated by can- didates with less popular votes. “The defeat of the candidate sho polls to be the choice of the people of the Nation is a political injustice of major character,” declares Representa- tive Lea. “A system that makes such results possible is not only undesirable, but a menace to the welfare of popu- lar_government.” The election of a President is a great contest, & national game that should be conducted, he argues, with good sportsmanship. The rules of the game are now unfair and tricky. The pur- pose of the amendment proposed by Senator Norris and Representative Lea is to provide fair rules for the contest, for a just decision, respected because it is fair and just. The electoral college system under some circumstances. they argue, need- lessly creates deadlocks and provides uncertain and inept methods for break- ing them. If the election is thrown into the House of Representatives, each State. regardless of its population, is the equal of every other State in selecting a President. Each state has one vote— |no more, no less. A majority of the Representatives from each State casts | the vote of that State for President. | The State with one Representative is with her 45 Representatjves in deter- | mining who shall be President. Each of the two elections that have | occurred in the House of Representa- | tives has been accompanied by national | scandals and bitterness. * * % % Visftors_this Summer to the new ouse Office Building are much im- | pressed by the beautiful lobby. It is | entered through the portico on the | north end—built entirely of marble, but | only partially inclosed—with five out- ! side doors. The lobby is approximately | 30 feet wide by 55 feet long, with cir- | cular recesses at either end. There re five doorways opening in the B | street front to the north facing the | Capitol and five square-headed openings | by which the elevator lobby to the | south may be reached. The walls of | the lobby are of gold vein Alabama | rockwood limestone. The floors are of | marble laid in geometrical pattern in a combination of dark green, purple and | black. The ceiling is of ornamental plaster. The architectural style of the | Tobby is a simple composition of Ionic, Doric and modified French Renaissance, | the frieze being decorated with tri- | glyphs and metopes. These metopes contain circular panels, representing seals of all the States, Terriorities and possessions of the United States, to- gether with conventional panels rep- resenting the various industries of the country. The panels on the ceiling are representative of the various phases of industry and the arts—military tro- phies, farming, agriculture, sculpture, mechanical arts, marine trophies, fruit, music, literature, drama and trans- portation. * kK X The magnificent new ‘home of the United States Supreme Court, ranking with the White House and the Capitol as visualizing the three great functions of Government—executive, legislative and judicial—and often referred to as “the balance wheel of government.” is one of the new sights for Summer tour- ists. The exterior marble is from the quarries of Danby, Vt. The marble for the exterior of the four courts, the light spaces of the building, is from Georgia The interior marbles are from Alabama. Some foreign marbles have begn in_the court room. Because of the conviction for many years that all bulldings with frontage on the Capitol grounds should conform in architecture and materials to the ex- isting buildings in the Capitol group, the Supreme Court Building is of classic architecture of the Corinthian order. The exterior is of white marble, but during these Summer months it cannot be seen from the Capitol Building be- cause of the heavy foliage on the trees in the Capitol grounds. It has been fitted on its site to conform with the Library of Congress, just south across East Capitol street. The Supreme Court Bi is erected on what is known as a ‘“skeleton frame,” the marble walls being self supporting and form- ing no part of the weight-supporting characteristics of the skeleton frame. Under each of the four open courts for better lighting and ventilation is a garage accessible both by stairways and elevators from the upper floors. * X % % tment under the | as powerful as the State of New York THE OLD CAPITOL TAP ROO BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. may be served in the Senate and House restaurants which are, respectively, al- most exactly beneath the chambers of the two legislative bodies. ‘Washington has an old tradition of good food and good wine. There were careful men in the old days who gave thought to what they consumed. it was before the time of the glass of milk and ham sandwich taken on the run between committee meetings. Once the two restaurants at opposite ends of the Capitol were presided over by chefs who knew their art and patronized by per: sons whose taste was sufficiently keen to locate the very vineyard which had produced a given wine. Better still were most when it came to judging hard liquor. z ‘The mystery of planters’ punches, royal gin fizzes and of a score of other drinks was _intimately known to the legislators of the earlier days and their tastes were so sharp and schooled that if a bartender ha:mlgdzd a d.rotp &)g much of any req ingredient, error was detected and the drink prob- ably sent back. Hole in the Wall. The Capitol restaurants are not | nearly as old in fact and reputation as | were some of the privately-ccnducted restaurants along Pennsylvania avenue. But those are gone and the Capitol | dining rocms remain. However, before the present quarters were set aside in the Capitol structure there was, in the very oldest part of that historic build- ing, an earlier place of refreshment— the original Capitol tap room. It seems to have been the exclusive province of Senators, but Senators were free to invite Representatives as well as other friends to join them and did 30 as far as space would permit. For the old tap room was smaller than that of many an inn. = The Capitol was slow in building. In | the first place it was built by hand.| There were no steam cranes to handle the great stone blocks and no me- chanical mortar mixers. Also the work was more ponderous. There are walls in the Capitcl foundation structure 10 feet thick. An interruption came when the British burnt the edifice in 1814. So space was at a premium. Indeed, so cramped was the space | available for the Senate's tap room that it was called the hole in the wall. | It is in the sub-basement, among the | crypts of the old building, and because of the honesty with which this work was built, has survived the British burning and the ravages cf time, in- tact. Now a forgotten and dark lumber room, the little tap room once | bill. was crowded with the Senators whose names made history. ‘There were no_ chairs nor tables— there was not sufficient rcom for that —but merely a bar. Opysterr were served, sandwiches and similar viands of the later free lunch type. The prin- cipal business of the tap room was the of drinks. When some important affair was forward, the place would buz with conversations, a record of which the senger would hasten in with news of what was happening in one house or the other. There was & trapdoor in the stone floor and down this led a ladder to the cellarage below. Supplies of wines and barrels of whisky would be hoisted through this when supplies in the tap room proper ran low. Clay Strategy. ‘There is a curious With the deeply subterranean cel It was in 1820, when the Missouri Com- promise was at issue and abou I enry Clay it room a Senator he knew to his measure. The vote was to be close and this opponent’s influence felt Clay to be cha oung his politi —even as it often does today—on the respective merits of liquors. On the pretext of exhibiting to his colleague a Iresh consignment of prized Kentucky whisky, Clay took him down the ladder through the trap door. Clay led him off, holding a candle. Now the crypts of the Capitol are a veritable Cretan maze. ClI had principal turnings. When they had &rggrmd some distance Clay, seem- ly accidentally, let the candle be blown out by a treacherous draught, plunging them in utter darkness. Then Clay tip-toed back to the trapdoor and ascended. He returned to the Senate chamber where he was able to ma- neuver the Missouri Compromise to its final passage. The opponent became so lost in the dark maze that Clay became alarmed and organized a rescue party. It was too late to alter the vote on the ‘There is no canto to the legend which says that the opposing Senator actually found the Kentucky whisky. That might have delayed him, but it probably was a mythical supply, imag- |ired by Clay. While the Hole in the Wall no longer lis likely to be employed as a tap room and while the crypts of the Capitol are never visited by any but engineers in- specting steam fittings or electrical lines, the old building still is so full of devious twistings ard turnings that even the most sober person could readily get lost though electric lights were burning. What the return of liquor to the Capitol will produce in the way of new legends must be awaited. It might be advisable to outfit an ex- ploring expedition to search these cata- combs to determine whether Clay's whisky was, indeed. wholly mythical, for, upon repeal, there will be stark need for supplies. | {British Not Optimistic Over Economic Prospect BY A. G. GARDINER. LONDON, July 29.—The funeral ob- | sequies of the World Economic Confer- | ence on Thursday were suitably charged | with assurance of a glorious resurrec- tion, but this calculated cheerfulness | dia not conceal the fact that the con- |ference disperses with a sense of a colos- | |sal and humiliating faflure. Behind the confident predictions of | a reassembly in the Autumn is a con-| | sciousness of vast and formless happen- | {ings which must take shape before the ;l'orld can be profitably summoned to| | London again, for all agree that a repe- | | tition of the fiasco would deal a fatal | | blow to the hopes of international co- operation. i The two main unresolved centers of | disturbance are Germany and the | United States. The political convulsion |in Germany still leaves Europe heaving with incalculable fears, which have com- pietely blanketed the Disarmament Conference and have an equally de- pressing effect on the outlook for the Economic Conference. Arthur Hender- son, chairman of the Disarmament Con- | ference, has returned to London front a | | p of peace to Italy, Germany | and Prance, but little expectation is en- | tertained that he will be able effectively | to rehabilitate the Geneva conference | while the menacing situation in Ger- | | many continues. - | Even those who have been most crit- | ical of the French insistence on security |in the past admit the reality of the alarm now and, while holding Poin- careism largely responsible for the tri- | umph of Hitlerism, acknowledge that in | the present circumstances it is unrea- | scnable to expect a more enughtened} attitude in regard to disarmament than | that prevailing at the Quai d'Orsay. ‘Tribute is paid here to the restrained | and responsible temper of the French government in conditions of grave diffi- culty, but there is no misapprehension regarding the possibilities of a serious rupture in Franco-Gérman relations as a result of the present combustion east of the Rhine. L The second consideration which makes the reassembly of the Economie Con- ference problematical is the position in America, which is being followed here with the profoundest anxiety. The ques- tion discussed in all circles is the pros- pect of President Roosevelt succeeding in his heroic appeal to the American Nation. The setback in the markets a week ago caused no surprise and in ex- pert circles was regarded as a not un- welcome fact, as the expansion of val- ues had assumed unwarranted dimen- sions. That excessive expansion, how- ever, is held to be an inevitable result of President Roosevelt’s declared inten- tion to raise prices. ‘The general tenor of press comment is doubtful whether so vast an operation Posing iets en weg can be efectet and wages can be effected. Conservative criticism takes the line that the policy of fixing wages, prices and hours is a movement toward the establishment of a Socialist state. haps for this reason and for the ex- ample it sets up for imitation by this country, the most cordial indorsement of the Roosevelt policy comes from the Labor party and from the John May- nard Keynes school of economists, who ardently preach the gospel of expendi- ture on public works and of national- istic finance as the cure for unemploy- Fifty Years Ago In the Star “Forty-three blocks the Washington of marble for Monument.” savs Th> Star of July 25. More Marble for 1883, “have boen received from the the Monument. quarries of M-, Hugh Sisson in the past three days. On Monday twenty-two blocks arrived. on Tuesday ten and today eleven. 1t takes thirty-two blocks to complete : course, although the contract does not require the delivery of stone until the 6th of August, more than a sufficient quantity has been already delivered for a regular course. The stones as they are sent are marked with the number of the course for which they are in- tended, and also the relative position they are to take in that course. The stones, however, are not shipped in or- der, s0 that a carload is apt to con- tain stones intended for different courses. This makes no difference, how- ever, as they will not be laid until they are cut and dressed, and it is not ex- pected that the work of setting will be- gin until enough material is on hand to raise the structure to a height of 410 feet, and to do this will requirz 640 stones. As the marble is delivered | workmen will put on the finishing touches, so that by the middle of Octo- ber there will be plenty of stones on hand to prevent any delay in the set- ting, which will begin then.” * * % ‘The strike of the telegraph operators continued to be a c]:‘ause of serg;us pub- Strike of the ‘ago. The Sior of 555, 26, 1985 mmyer ly 26, 1883, says: Telegraphers. “U.7, 5> 250 el graph companies has made terms witth the strikers. The American Rapid yes- terday consented to recognize the Brotherhood and treat with its com- mittee. A short conference resulted in an amicable and satisfactory agree- ment, and by this time the American Rapid is fully for business. This result shows how easily striking complications can be settled if the two parties to the controversy will but meet and talk the situation over in a prac- tical, common-sense way. The point made by the Western Union and, sub- sequently, by the Baltimore & Ohio Co., was that they had no assurance that a committee presenting the protest and list of grievances represented their em- ployes. This position is no longer tenable. The strike, which took the most skill- ful operators out of the offices of both companies, demonstrated the authority of the Brotherhood’s Executive Com- mittee. This committee can restore the : L g35p fizs Egg i “FE ERE i z | § : f | % ga i & i ul il ézgg .yi H 8 ¥ E i g § o 1) B i ¢ i J] i i i i i ! | i ] E =] i% i 3 i