Evening Star Newspaper, November 30, 1934, Page 10

A—-10 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON A=Y THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON,D.C. FRIDAY....November 30, 1934 THEODORE W. NOYES. .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: 11th 8t. and Pennsylvanis Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd St. Chicago Office: Lake Michigan 3mlding. SroheRn Omce 14 reren 8. Lonata. et The Evening Star_.. The Evening and Sun far wnen 4 Sundays) 60c per month Star (when 5 Sundays) .65¢ per month The Sunday Star .5¢ per copy Night Final Edition. nd Sunday Star, 70c per month Nicht PFinal Star . b5c per month 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 Virginia. Baily and Sunday. .1 yr., $10.00: 1 mo. aily onty L1yr. $6.00:1 mo, Sundav only.....1vr. $4.00;1mo.. 85e Sue 40¢ All Other States and Canada. Daily and Sunday, 1yr., $12.00: 1 mo.. $1.00 Daily only $8.00: 1 mo.. " 75c Sunday opiv 0: 1 mo, B¢ Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively en- titled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not other- wise credited in this paper and also the local news published herein. ~All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved The President on Fiscal Relations. No one can justly quarrel with the President’s desire to convince himself, at the outset of his promised attempt to end the “hit or miss” policy of appropriating for the National Capital, as to the adequacy and fairness of the local tax burden Many before him have approached a study of the unique, complicated fiscal relationship between local com- munity and exclusively-controlling Na- tional Government from that angle. A great many other considerations are involved, but these may logically await the outcome of the President's pro- posed tax inquiry. The President would determine the adequacy of the local tax burden on real estate by comparing it with what other cities bear that are comparable in size and cohditions of environment. He indicated that he would seek an adjusted or evaluated tax rate as his yardstick. A method of adjusting tax rates for comparison, casually men- tioned by the President, is to apply to the tax rate the reported ratio of assessed value to true or full value of property. For instance: If a city's tax rate is twenty dollars a thousand and although the law specifies 100 per cent assessment the assessor or somebody else estimates that property is actually assessed at 50 per cent of full value, then the adjusted tax rate of the city is ten dollars. Naturally, the determination of these ratios of assessed to full value is not as simple a task as it might appear to be and it is taken for granted that those to whom the President in- trusts his search for a fair, accurate vardstick of tax burden measurement will give due consideration to their choice. When the so-called Mapes Commit- tee of the House made its report on comparative tax burdens in 1931, it ironically included the observation that “arbitrary set-ups of property values can be worked out to the ad- vantage of any interests by mathe- matical calculations,” and then pro- ceeded to produce “mathematical cal- culations” of adjusted tax rates that were reduced, by careful analysis, to an absurdity. For the difficulty of adjusting tax rates on the basis of ratios of assessed to full value is that determination of such ratios is gov- erned by pure guess-work and this guess-work, in turn, is influenced by a variety of political and other con- siderations. ‘The resulting yardstick varies for every State of the Union, and is npt alike in any two of them. 1t is therefore unreliable, worthless and misleading as a common standard of measurement. Applying such a vardstick to measure tax burdens, it was demonstrated with mathematical certainty that the tax burden in Jack- sonville was in 1931 considerably higher than in Chicago, and twice as high as in Miami or Tampa; that the tax burden in San Antonio was about twice as high as in Dallas and that of Cleveland was only two-thirds of that of Waco. There are other incredibly grotesque conclusions, such conclusions being false because the premise is false— that premise being that tax rate, coupled with estimated or guessed-at ratio of assessed to full value, produces an accurate picture of relative tax bur- dens. The authorities, including the Census Bureau, are agreed on the difficulty of obtaining such estimates with any reasonable degree of accuracy and most of those who use yardsticks made of such estimates apologize for their use, The District assessor has said that Washington is assessed at about 90 per cent of true value, as determined by sales prices, and shrinking property values in the depression brought this assessment, Mr. Richards has said, nearer 97 per cent of actual value. This is an absolute ratio, and Wash- ington suffers, in comparison with other cities, when this absolute ratio 1s used relatively; that is, when Wash- ington’s 90 or 97 per cent of real value Is compared with a reported 100 per cent ratio given by some over-enthu- siastic assessor in another city, where, as in most cases, 100 per cent is re- guired by law. One hundred dollars of legal, full value in other cities may mean anything from twenty-five or thirty dollars up, Coupled with the elusive factor of what constitutes “true value” are the equally uncertain and varying standards’ of assessment by hundreds of different assessors. ‘The yardstick preferred by Assessor Richards, the Bureau of the Census and others who have experienced the difficulty if not impossibility of ob- taining accurate estimates of ratios of assessed to full value, is one which ‘uses actual statistics relating to asséss- ments, tax levies, receipts from the several forms of taxation, expenditures, indebtedness, etc., all of which figures A | i | | are obtained directly from the fiscal records of cities or through the trained census workers of the Census Bureau. Resulting comparisons, expressed in terms of per capita tax levies, etc., for cities in different population classes, or in total figures for cities which ap- proximate Washington in size, are more accurate and less controversial. There are, in addition, other elements which must be taken into consideration before the adequacy of the local tax burden can be fairly determined, as for ex- ample, the elimination from city tax comparisons of the State taxes and interest on indebtedness. Such con- siderations, of course, should be a part of the President’s proposed investi- gation. o It may happen that a man gets a reputation as a propagandist when he regards himself only as a simple, hon- est press agent trying hard to earn his salary. s Germany's Rearmament. Great Britain has taken a dramatic lead in the effort to extract some of ! the gunpowder frcm the European sit- uation, fuller today of explosive pos- sibilities than at any time since 1914. Recognizing in Germany’s determi- nation to rearm, especially in the air, the most immediate menace to peace and a peril to British security, the London government has instituted what Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon describes as a new policy in dealing with the Reich—one of “direct and frank contact.” As the first move in that direction the British cabinet resorted to the un- | precedented step of communicating to in advance of its Chancellor Hitler, delivery, the speech made in the House of Commons last Wednesday by Stan- ley Baldwin, vice prime minister. The speech was an outspoken exposition of Britain's views of Germany's air program and of British plans for ade- quate protection against it. France, Italy and the United States were also acquainted beforehand with Mr. Baldwin's remarks, on the ground that the matter at issue “is not an Anglo-German problem, but a Euro- pean, a world, problem.” Through direct communication with Germany “suspicion has been cleared away,” Foreign Secretary Simon declares, and | an initiative taken that “may create a new situation.” The kernel of Mr. Baldwin's speech | lies in the statement that while the British government believes reports of German rearmament to be exag- gerated, and at the moment “undue alarm and panic anywhere in Europe” are not justified, “there is ground for very grave anxiety” Because of her own position in Europe and of her obligations as a member of the League of Nations (unmistakably & hint at Germany’s deflance of the arms clauses of the treaty of Ver- sailles), Britain is ready “to act in any emergency that should develop and will not be caught unprepared.” Then the vice prime minister re- vealed the formidable aviation pro- gram Britain projects for 1935-36. The figures—twenty-five squadrons of eircraft in addition to four now in formation, making “available in Europe” an eventual force of roundly one thousand fighting planes—are de- signed to impress the Nazi govern- ment with John Bull's intention and ability, as Mr. Baldwin asserted on a previous occasion, to make the Rhine “Britain's frontier,” in case of necessity. The underlying British purpose is neither to bluff nor intimidate Ger- many, but to persuade her to end her isolation on the arms proposition. What the British seek is to bring the | Reich back to Geneva or some other round table for continued discussion. If the Germans are not minded to accept the olive branch extended to them from across the North Sea, they are at least on notice that their re- armament activities will be regarded by Great Britain as a threat which she does not intend to ignore. That is the true inwardness of London's “new policy” toward the Nazi arms program. —————————— Problems of child labor can be taken care of. The present perplexity relates to the increasing anxiety caused by child murder. o A Royal Wedding. All the world likes a show and all the world loves a lover. Hence the universal audience which yesterday watched or listened to or read about the marriage of the Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece. As a spectacle, the ceremonies consti- tuted such a pageant of beauty and grandeur as England had not known since the coronation of King George and Queen Mary; as a romance, the story of the two young persons most concerned was even more attractive— theirs was not merely & political al- liance framed by chancellors as an incident in the everlasting “struggle for power” in the European arena; they met, became acquainted, learned to care, like other people, and their wedding was not basically different from that which would have been theirs had they been humble com- moners. And it may be that it is the sim- plicity of the reigning house of Britain that most endears its mem- bers to an international public. Queen Victoria, it seems, set a fashion in royal democracy which her children, her grandchildren and her great- grandchildren have had the wit and the grace to follow. She was an em- press and she ruled a domain upon which the sun never set; but by temperament and possibly by deliber- ate choice she carried herself like a representative Englishwoman, re- membering always, from first to last, her girlhood promise, “I will be good.” Her son, the well-beloved Edward, and his son, liberal and unpretending George, each in his own time and place, were destined to keep the af- fection of the masses which she had won. And the Prince of Wales and his brothers, doubtless, have been even nearer and dearer to the mil- lions—they have been practical demo- crats from the beginning, working and fighting in the common cause of the British folk, and never once pre- suming on the position to which they were born. As for Marina, her claim on the good-will of mankind is the best of all. She is young and lovely, first a sweet- heart and now a bride. A race which delights in fairy tales needs no in- struction in learning to appreciate such a princess. She personifies some- thing elemental in the human soul— dreams that now and again have been expressed in gentle music, a sweet mystery of life. Yesterday is only a date in an end- less chronicle; today there is a new home in London, and & crowd in the ancient Abbey to inspect the scene of a page which has been turned in the annals of England. — e The wedding of Princess Marina has been an occasion of general rejoicing. There is no lady in the world who ventures to lift & captious eyebrow and say it is hard to imagine what she ever saw in the Duke of Kent, - France and Germany have arranged a peaceable method of handling the Saar Valley plebiscite. In present con- | ditions there is never any telling when what was meant to be a small riot will prove a protracted combat. ——eor— Differences of opinion as to housing have not been allowed to go so far as to interfere with a desire to make home happy for the administration family. — e The only possible apology for big gambling is that it affords the racketeer the means of collecting large sums without the use of a machine gun. —_— e The Supreme Court of the United | States has some vital questions under attention. Gratitude is due to the ancestral wisdom that kept it as far as possible out of politics, e Colleges are developing so many variations of custom and opinion that an inclination may arise to persuade them to devote more time to foot ball. o ‘The police are working faithfully and may develop a voice of safety that | will reach into the haunts of gang- sters in time to give valuable warning. oo An element of German policy ap- pears to be to allow Hitler to have entirely his own way and see what happens. ———ee—s ‘The Post Office Department has no trouble with the voters but cannot avoid some flurry among the philate- lists. —————————— ‘There are so many homicide mys- teries that there is scarcely time to congratulate the Department of Justice before another arrives. o The elephant and donkey join in regarding the proper emblem of Socialism as the ostrich, which is willing to try to swallow anything. ———e— One of the hardest problems in social enemy No. 1 to zero. e For some of the neighboring election contestants Thanksgiving day hasn't happened even yet. R SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Remnant of Glory. There seems no way to circumvent Hard Luck’s decree of swift descent. I set my high-toned pledge astir, But missed the Social Register. One hardship finds another in its wake, Another effort I made bold to make. I could not be, I learned in terms ac- cusative, Rated as worthy of a rank “who's whozative.” Still do I lift my head in stubborn pride, For one distinction is not yet denied: Despite the downward curve in my trajectory I'm mentioned in the Telephone Di- rectory. School Days. “Are you a statesman of the old school?” “I thought I was of the old school,” instruction now handed out to me make me feel as if I were in the in- fant class.” Jud Tunkins says students used to have pillow fights. Now they get into padded suits and play foot ball. Aftermath. ‘Thanksgiving day Has come and gone, My thanks, I'll say, Are not long drawn. My palate rash Cares not a whoop For turkey hash Or turkey soup. From Twilight to Dawn. “What Crimson Guich needs is a newspaper,” said the recent arrival. “We had one,” answered Cactus Joe. “It lasted twelve hours. It came out in the evening and the editor was shot at sunrise.” “We are tempted to evade the truth,” said Hi Ho, the sage of China- town, “for there are many times when we are happiest when we are de- ceived.” Big Bad Ballot Box. The ballot box is set aside With vigilance that must not cease. It is reported far and wide It should be viewed by the police, Abroad the gruesome story goes That it may prove, through the sleuthful arts, A mystery trunk that will disclose Some sacdly mutilated parts. “You got to be a good listener dese days,” said Uncle Eben. “Tain’ no use to talk back to a radio set.” } mathematics is that of reducing public | answered Senator Sorghum. “But the | Have you s mania for collecting small boxes and containers of all kinds? Many a man or woman has, and the result is that no house is large enough to hold them all, ‘When a family moves from a small home to a bigger one every one thinks that at last there will be enough room. In & few short years, however, shelves and bureaus are as full of charming little cardboard boxes as ever. Even the shelves in the garage over- flow with them, and as for the attic, it is almost impossible to get up there. * x ok % Every new purchase that comes by mail pays two dividends to the rabid collector, the article itself and the box it comes in. Often {t is impossible to say which one is the gift, the box enthusiast 1s =0 taken up with the new container. Any particularly well made affair wins his admiration at once. “We must save that,” he remarks. “What for?” may be the question. “Oh, there is no telling when we may need it.” Such is his reply, and there is no telling, indeed. Particularly at Christ- mas fine boxes of all descriptions come in handy. * % x X ‘What shall one put the gift in which goes to Aunt Mary in the West? ‘Why, don’t you remember that little brown box we got last Spring, the particularly fine one with the rivets at _each corner? That was a box, indeed! ‘Whoever put that device together meant it to stay together, evidently, it is so neatly done, with fine rivets where brdinarily there would be noth- ing at all. The connoisseur holds it aloft, gaz- ing at it fondly. Some one had a product to sell and he looked around for a box to send it in. He must have thought a great deal of his invention, for this box was a great deal more than he needed to send it to purchasers safely. He did not hesitate or quibble over price. and this one was as staunch as a battleship. The receiver knew, even before he opened it, that the product would be good. * ok ok % ‘The connoisseur held aloft his lat- est treasure. A steel tube, neatly made, welded at both ends, all to hold a round cardboard container to make sure the latter would receive neither dent nor mar in transportation. Very few persons would ever go to that extra trouble, he thought. Surely the sender must have had & high regard for his product and those to whom he sent it. That was what won the heart of | the collector, the idea that some one wanted him to get the thing as it had been sent out. It was all very well to put a thing in the mails and expect it to get there in due time. Most often such things do, but often enough they are dent- ed up. As the December 15 installment due date will still find Uncle Sam’s war debtors in default, the flotation of Finland’s new 4 per cent $10,000,000 loan comes along just in time to re- mind delinquent nations of the ad- vantage of & clean slate in the Amer- ican money market. Finland, as the only debtor country that has met all its payments, is immune from the pro- visions of the Johnson act prohibit- ing fresh financing in the United States by countries in full or partial default on nrevious obligations. The Finns are using the proceeds of their new American loan to redeem some outstanding bond issues here. Their international trade balance is so fa- vorable that they are now in position to curtail their foreign indebtedness. Finland's debt is a bagatelle compared to the billions owing us from the rest of Eurone, but Washintgon feels that she has done amazingly well and shown big debtor countries a way that | some of them, with the proper will, { might well have emulated. The latest | suggestions of debt cancellation, made by a National Research Council head- ed by President Hutchins of the Uni- versity of Chicago, do not stir much enthusiasm in administration quarters. They will evoke even less approval in Congress, which, in enacting the em- bargo against defaulters, once again recorded its stern anti-cancellationist attitude. * X %X Senator Robert P. Wagner, Demo- crat, of New York is in Europe look- ing informally into social security systems, including especially unem- {ployment and heglth insurance and old-age pensions. The Old World is far ahead of the United States in such legislation. Senator Wagner pro- | spectively will have charge of President Roosevelt'’s unemployment insurance program in the Senate. Wagner has been active throughout his congres- sional career in labor legislation and is recognized as the Senate’s expert au- thority in that field. * X x % ‘When Paul Atlee Walker, chairman of the Telephone Division of the Fed- eral Communications Commission, in- augurates the big investigation of A. T. & T. early in 1935, he will tackle a job in which he has already had wide practical experience. While chairman of the State Corporation Commission of Oklahoma, which cor- responds to what in many States is known as a Public Service Commission, he presided over a sweeping inquiry into the operations of the South- western Bell Telephone Co., an A. T. & T. subsidiary. Certain phases of that investigation, which concerns mainly rates, are still pending. Mr. Walker is of Virginia-Quaker stock, a Ph. D., of the University of Chicago and a World War veteran. He was active as a law- yer and educator before joining the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in 1931, While in that position his ac- tivities ranged all over the utility field, especially with regard to rate structures, * % x % Capital friends mourn the recent passing of “Bill” Brigham, former Washington correspondent of the Boston Evening Transcript and presi- dent of the Gridiron Club about 10 years ago. He was in his 69th year and active until the last as a Tran- script editorial writer. An. astute analyst of politics, Brigham was for years the confidant of New England members of Congress, who valued his keen interpretation of the national scene. A native Bostonlan and lover of animals, especiaily dogs, Brigham took time off from journalism in re- cent years to direct the affairs of the Massachusetts Animal Rescue League. * X ¥ % Among recovery enterprises which the Chamber of Commerce of the United States i now boosting is ex- pansion of the American merchant marine. The chamber’s special com- What he wanted was a stout box | | universe as a whole. Now a dent or jammed-in corner | WASHINGTION OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. D. C. FRIDAY. to s cardboard box, whether round or rectangular, may not seem a very about dents and mars. To other souls, perhaps less hardy but certainly more artistic, & dent in an otherwise perfect surface is a sad thing, even if the dent is in a con- tainer which the other type would throw away without a thought. * ko ox ‘They say that such traits are not in- herited, but ihe collector may have had a grandmother who loaded up an attic years ago with all the cardboard boxes which came to her home. As a child the collector may have been “exposed” to the box mania, but surely that cannot account for the susceptibility. Surely it was in the biood, and now outs at last on kitchen shelves, shelves in the pantry, in the garage, in the attic. It was said of grandmother tha she saved every paper, every magazine, every box, every coffee container. ‘The modern collector does not go io that extreme, although at times he has qualms about cracker boxes, they are | 50 neat and regular. Still, he does pretty well with just the more unusual specimens of the boxmaker's art. Grandmother never threw a thing away. But the coffee containers, really stout paper bags, were her spe- cialty. She had hundreds of these, collected over a long period, and each one neatly creased and laid away, as if to hold coffee anew. Judged by modern standards, it was not good coffee, but it was the best they had in those days, and everyone who sipped it said it was excellent. LR The collector must get rid of some of his treasures, in time, but that time should be after Christmas. ‘This is the one season of the year when no good box should be discarded. Just as surely as one permits it to get out of the house one has a very |good use for it. This is invariably true, and offers the connoisseur the best possible ex- cuse for never getting rid of any. How has the expert collector any way of knowing when he needs & certain type of container? Any one he happens to throw away, or permit some one else to throw away, will be the very one he could use later. There is a perverseness in such things which others have found in the Primitive reli- gions usually make a great deal out of the supposed malignant powers which reside in all things. Even the civilized Poe wrote a story called “The Imp of | the Perverse,” dealing with this very thing. Cardboard boxes—surely in them resides nothing but air, which is & good thing, for if there were no air in them they would be crushed to bits in a twinkling of an eye, probably as good a way to get rid of them as any. Yet the enthusiast will think there are far worse things to collect than little boxes; that these offer as fair a mark for the collector's spirit as any; that what was good to make and use will be good to keep and use again. mittee on that subject, of which James A. Farrell is chair , reports that the United States’ contribution to world tonnage since 1917-18 has been small. Of our present gross tonnage 81 per cent is between 10 and 20 years old and largely of World War vintage. Although the Stars and Stripes flutter from 30-odd fine new passenger and | combination vessels well suited to trade and defense requirements, America almost totally lacks fast, modern cargo vessels. * % x ¥ Soviet Ambassador Troyanovsky, who has just left Moscow, is not expected to reach Washington until some time after January 1. He plans to revisit his old diplomatic stamping-ground in | Japan before crossing the Pacific. So- viet-American debt and trade matters are in abeyance pending Mr. Troya- novsky's return. Ambassador Bullitt will shortly be here on leave from Moscow and his presence, it is hoped at the State Department, will facili- tate the settlement of differences which have hitherto held up that vaunted big business deal between the U. S. A. and the U. 8. §. R, which was to ensue after President Roose- velt and Foreign Commissar Litvinoff arranged for American recognition of the Soviet, now more than a year ago. * x x x House Naval Chairman Vinson's proposal to build five tons of Amer- ican warships for every three tons laid down by Japan, if the latter makes a scrap of paper out of the 5—5—3 treaty, is believed to represent admin- istration sentiment. Various seem- ingly inspired intimations have been published during the London naval conversations that the United States would definitely maintain a 5—3 Navy vis-a-vis Japan. The assumption is that such plans encounter no hostility at the White House. Chairman Vinson reflects confidence that Congress is bigger-Navy-minded, as far as Japan is . concerned. It is certain to follow any lead that the sailor-President gives. * ko ¥ French Premier Pierre-Etienne Flan- din, who projects a reorganization of French industry on N. R. A. lines, had opportunity to discuss the New Deal with President Roosevelt in person over the luncheon table at the Sum- mer White House in Hyde Park last September. M. Flandin was spending 8 few days in the United States on the way back from the Cartier me- morial celebration in Canada. During his brief sojourn on American soll, M. Flandin took part in some Canadian- American ceremonies at Niagara Falls, where he met Undersecretary of State William Phillips. The giant French statesman, who towers 61 feet into space, was much impressed with Amer- ican recovery methods, and the plans he has just unfolded in Paris indicate his intention of putting into effect some of the inside stuff imparted to him by F. D. R. (Copyright. 1934.) —_————— Collegiate Rough Stuff. From the Botce Idaho Statesman. In Columbia University a group of male students have formed & knitting club and filed a petition for a charter. The younger generation seems to be getting more boisterous every year. —_————— Rest Was Needed. Prom the Rockford Register-Republic. “Called to rest,” says an exchange, telling of the death of an old resident of the town. “He had been on the school board 21 years.” Yellow, Perhaps? From the Philadelphia Evening 'Ig:ln. It may be suspected that ex- up s Fascist merely OVEMBER 30, 1934, Injustice to Federal Employes Claimed “To the Editor of The Star: Have been reading your editorials regarding the “patronage rider” that has been causing so much discussion lately. Am glad to see that you are aware of the injustice that is being done to numbers of employes. There are others that are not being treated right and I wish to state my case, as follows: I was interested in obtaining = position under the Industrial Alcohol Bureau as an inspector, and wrote the bureau in August, 1933. I had noticed 80 many newspaper reports of the bureau being abolished that I wrote to the commissioner, asking if the bureau had been sbolished. I re- ceived a letter daied October 11, 1933, signed by Mr. Doran, advising that “the position of inspector, Industrial Alcohol Bureau, had not been re- moved from civil service nor had the bureau been abolished.” I am & dis- abled veteran and as such was entitled to reopen certain civil service exam- inations, so I applied to the commis- sion to take the examination as in- spector, Bureau of Industrial Alcohol, in April, 1934. One June 20, 1934, I received & notice of my rating from the commission. y gave me 90 per cent plus 10 per cent for being disabled. Please note these dates. Being anxious to get a job, I wrote to the Industrial Alcohol Bureau again on August 8, 1934, inquiring about my chance of a place, and received a reply August 13, 1934, from the deputy commissioner of internal revenue ad- vising that “the Bureau of Industrial Alcohol was abolished May 10, 1934, and it's work taken over by the Alcohol Tax Unit. Also no appoint- ments can be made from the inspec- tor examination at this time.” I addressed a letter to the Civil Seervice Commission August 21, 1934, asking certain questions; no reply has been received to that letter as yet. The unfair part of the whole busl- ness, it seems to me, are the require- ments to take the new examinations for investigators. I could very easily meet, the requirements as an inspector, but didn’t stand a chance on the in- vestigator’'s examination, although the same work is being done by the Al- cohol Tax Unit as was formerly done by the Industrial Alcohol Bureau. It 2150 seems unfair that the Civil Serv- ice Commission hasn’t replied to my letter of August 2141934. I don't know who or where to write to get any satis- faction, letters to my Congressman and Senator get me nowhere. Maybe somebody will read this in your paper and assist me getting started on the right road. I hope so. Believe me, it is getting pretty tough on veterans to get jobs, anyway you start. J. C. POWELL., Tolerance Teaching In Schools Indorsed ‘To the Editor of The St Sunday I read a description of the new curriculum of study for Virginia public schools in the press. It is & most advanced method in education of children progressively to understand and solve the problems of life faster and better than we have in our genera- tion. There will be less of indoctrina- tion. Hearts and minds will not be 50 hardened in favor of traditional con- cepts that they will be unable to change institutions in life when the changes in the material world neces- sitate. Evidently teachers and children are to adopt a sclentific attitude and method in approaching social problems. In Virginia and most of the South- ern States one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome in education, ac- cording to the new source of study, is going to be the teaching of a broad social tolerance, as regards racisl, religious and political differences. Rather than spend so much time try- ing to inculcate attitudes of tolerance for the different peoples of and Asia, it has been thought that the health, schools and Negro peoples who live close by might be the most logical and beneficial point of de- parture. On the high school level, why not pursue a limited study of the causes and social advantages, if any, in segregation, the dual school system, etc. Most of the important issues of life are controversial and these are the materials of the new curriculum. It is going to be difficult to teach tolerance as a trait of good character when a high school boy of girl knows that the school’s foot ball team cannot play a rival school in another section because of the presence of a Japanese, Negro or Filipino boy on the other team. Unless we keep the minds of our children free from the indoctrina- tion of our beliefs and prejudices, much of the good of the new curriculum will be lost. Also we are making it more impossible to outlaw war or reduce armaments, and planning for our American children the horrible bloody deaths of future battlefields if we don't avail ourselves of the opportuni- ties of the new courses of study planned to meet the changing civil- ization or new social order. Give the new curriculum and the children a chance to think through all the social | problems in life. E. B. HENDERSON, Falls Church, Va. Parking Ban Declared Unfair to U.S. Workers To the Editor of The Star: It is logical that arteries of traffic be kept as clear as possible during rush hours, but will the authorities consider how heartlessly it militates against the Government employe who has to park his car against an 8 to 9:30 a.m. sign and be at his desk at 9 o'clock am. It is just as hard for him in the afternoon when he leaves work at 4:30 o'clock to obey a 4 to 6 p.m. sign. The arteries of traffic are needed clear, but the Government employe has a counter need of a place to park his car—just as important for the good of the public service. Commissioner Hazen aptly stated last June 4 that the United States Government, by its Congress or Public Works Administration, should provide its employes a place to park. This will be for the beauty and effi- clency of the City of Washington, as well as for the morale and efficiency of Government employes. All game, public-spirited citizens should concen- trate their efforts now to this end. D. F. McQUEARY, President Assoclation for Adequate Parking PFacilities. Veteran Explains Why He Needs Bonus To the Bditor of The Btar: Have read a great deal in your paper about the “soldier bonus.” Will give you my experience and why I would like to have the bal- due me at this time. the two years 1931 and 1932 not get a job anywhere at and lost all my posses- luding the furniture. Today the Government service mak- than $100 per month, with which I must provide shelter, food, clothing, ition, gas and elec- tricity, to say nothing of paying for sickness or recreation for three peo- ple. My boy is 12 years old and should have a better chance than I had. I used money to pay off old obligations and for that reason and others would like to see the bonus paid at this time. JOHN GARDINER. because it aims to prepare the minds| W. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Washington Evening Star In- formation Bureau, Frederic J. Has- kin, director, Washington, D. C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. How often is a murder committed in the United States?—H. W. A. At present, the average is one every 45 minutes. In money, the an- nual crime bill is estimated as high a3 $13,000,000,000. Q. How many licensed fiyers are thgre in Great Britain?—L. G. H. A. Only 2,870 persons hold fiylrg licenses in Great Britain. Q. How did Elbert Hubbard con- ceive the idea of establishing the Roycroft Shops?—H. R. A. Boon after Hubbard started on the first of his “Little Journeys” he visited Willlam Morris, the poet. Morris was at that time presiding over the Kelmscott Pfss and directing the activities of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which manufactured books, furniture and tapestries. The idea appealed to Elbert Hubbard and he came home and started the Roy- croft Shops with a personnel of four girls and three boys. Today the Roy- crofters is a million-dallar concern employing nearly 500 skilled crufts- men. Q. How early were elephants ex- hibited in this country?—L. C. R. A. The first glephant exhibited in America was announced in an ad- vertisement printed in the Philadel- phia Aurora, July 28, 1796, as having just arrived “from New York in this city, on his way to Charleston.” Q. What character in mythology was condemned to roll a stone up- hill>—S. H. A. Bisyphus, a crafty and avaricious king of Corinth, was condemned in the lower world to roll to tne top of a hill 2 huge stone which constantly | rolled back again. Q. Does President Roosevelt have any cattle on his farm at Warm | Springs, Ga.>—P. W. A. There is a herd of 140 cattle on | the farm. Q. What is the rose of Sharon re- ferred to in the Bible’—H. K. G. A.In the Museum of Biblical Botany at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, | the flower exhibited as the vose of Sharon is not a rose, but a tulip, Tulipa montana, a showy, deep red flower with a black center, belonging to the lily family. This plants grows on the flat Plain of Sharon lying along the Mediterranean coast. Q. Which has more floor space, the Empire State Building or the De- partment of Commerce’—C. H. A. The Empire State Building has nearly twice as much flcor space as the Commerce Ruilding. Q. What is Darwin's tidal theory?— . B. A. The thecry of tidal evolution, first elaborated by Sir George Dar- win late in the nineteenth century, postulated that the earth and moon evolved from a single liquid body | which rotated on Its axis in a little less than five hours. Owing to its | rapid rotation, this body was very | oblate and the motion of its particles was continually disturbed by tides raised upon it by the sun. Darwin showed that, granted certain reasona- | ble assumptions, the free period of | vibration of this body must have been the same as that of the tides, and this vibration caused a portion of the Q. What is the expression used to indicate constant smoking—lighting one cigar or cigarette from another?— N. G. A. 1t is called chain-smoking. Q. Please give some information about Borrah Minevitch, the har- monica player—H. D. A. Born in Kief, Russia, one of seven children, Borrah Minevitch was brought to America, where his family settled in Boston. There he was .known as the harmonica-playing newsboy. He attended the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology for while, but completed his education it City College in 1924, when he re- ceived his B. §. While clerking at Waurlitzer's he was given his first opportunity to play 8 harmonica solo in public at the Rivoli with Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld’s orchestra. Q. How many Americans make their home outside of the United States?—A. J. L. A. There are 429209 American citizens who permanently make their residence outside of this country. Q. How many one-room schools are there in the United States?— F. 8 A. There were 143,445 one-rov. schools in the school year ending 1931-2. . Q. What is the oldest regular pro- gram on the air>—M. W. 8. A. Maj. Bowes' Family is the oldext program on the radio. It made it debut on November 19, 1922, with Roxy as master of ceremonies. When Roxy left the program Maj. Bowes became the director. Q. How much paper money is lo't due to fire or flood>—M. W. A. It is estimated that about one- half of 1 per cent is lost beyon power of redemption. To this exter the Treasury of the United States i the gainer, Q. What is the cost of a rovo! wedding such as that of Prince George and Princess Marina?—E. R. M. A. It has been estimated that the total cost of the wedding of Princ: George and Princess Marina will ex- ceed $75,000. Q. How many newspaper adver- tisers are there in the United State:? —P. 8. A. It is estimated that there are between 800,000 and 900,000. Q. Has Josephine Roche, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, ever been married?—H. K. R. A. Miss Roche was married in 1920 to Edward Bierstadt, a New York writer, but subsequently obtained a divorce from him. Q. How large a fleet of whaling ships ply off North American coasts? —P. G. A. There are now only 14. These are all on the Pacific Coast One is a sailing vessel, one is motor- driven, while twelve are steamships. In the early days the American whaling fleet numbered a thousand ships. Q. How many novels has Kathleen Norris written?—T. A. A. A. She is credited with 37, Q. What were the names of tI- famous Arabian stallions which we:. imported into England about 17007— B.P. A. The Arabian stallions which be- came the founders of the race c: thoroughbreds in England were Darle body to be separated from the re- mainder. \ Arabian, Byerby Turk and Godolphi Barb. Clearer Idea of Labor Rights Given by Richberg Statemen Donald Richberg's statement seek- ing to clarify the 7-A clause of the national recovery act is regarded by ! many newspapers as & noteworthy | plece of work, but others believe that | a more complete and authoritative ' interpretation must yet be made be- | right to work as well as the right to strike.” Commenting on other subjects treat- ed in Mr. Richberg's New York speech the Indianapolis News states: “There will be no dissension from his view that codes should fit accepted trade practices, that sweatshop conditions should be barred by code as in most fore the much-debated piece of legis- progressive States they are barred by lation is understood. | law, that a minimum wage based on. “Mr. Richberg's statement of la- bor’s rights to free collective bargain- ing under section 7-A was, perhaps, the clearest and most persuasive since enactment of the law " declares the Columbus (Ohio) Citizen, while the | the market is within reason, that dis- | honest business practices should be | stopped and that reliable production | figures should be provided for use in J formulating Government policies.” It seems to the Asbury Park Evening New York Times thinks that “few | Press that “the most important factor discussions of the N. R. A. have been as thoughtful as that by Mr. Rich- berg,” and the Denver Rocky Moun- tain News says: “Seldom has a diffi- cult subject been more lucidly un- folded.” ‘The Portsmouth (Ohio) Times sees lack of definiteness ana explains that “this is due, not so much to Mr. Richberg’s exposition of his beliefs on the matter, but to the fact he Was §] only as an individual.” The New York Sun, however, par- ticularly commends his discussion of section 7-A, adding that “it would have been better if all responsible spokesmen for the administration had always been as clear and straightfor- ward in discussion of this subject,” and the Chattanooga Times points out that his utterance “has back of it authority second only to that of President Roosevelt himself.” “As we interpret the Richberg thought,” declares the Buffalo Eve- ning News, “an employe can be a member of an American Federation of Labor, a ‘company union’ or just himself, and may bargain collectively with his employer, singly, or in con- junction with his fellows.” “The industrial air should be cleared by interpretation of the prin- ciples underlying the controversial section 7-A, which upheld collective bargaining, but denied organized la- bor's contention that it should be the sole representative of all employes in plants where its membership consti- tuted a majority,” contends the In- dianapolis Star. “Mr. Richberg's conclusions appear to constitute an open-shop system,” asserts the Marshalltown (Iowa) ‘Times-Republican. “It is to be gath- ered from what he said in New York that if 51 per cent of employes vote for one organization as bargaining representative, the other 49 per cent, or any part of the 49 per cent, are not to be bound by the majority vote, but may, it is to be assumed, refuse to €omply and by inference create an organization of its own.” The Cleveland News says that “there is much in such reasoning,” but thinks that “it doesn’t quite jibe with former opinions and seems to throw the question of union representation wide open again.” The St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press sess Mr. Richberg “taking s more realistic view of & mooted labor issue than most New sible for an employer to be compelled to treat separately with two or more groups of employes. Equally obvious is it that it is possible that negotia- tions might be successfully transacted between employer and one group, while negotiations between employer and another group of employes might in Mr. Richberg's address is his asser- tion that there are indispensable benefits to be derived from orderly co- operation and economio planning.” It continues: “Most business men, while opposed to many features of the codes. agree with this principle.” The Helena (Mont.) Independent calls attention to the fact that “industries which though they had virtually a free hand could not write rules of the game satisfactorily to themselves should bs more tolerant hereafter to the efforts of legislative bodies to enact rules for them.” “The whole address,” concludes the Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator, “was in such good temper and showed such a clear understanding of the issue that Mr. Richberg’s audience could not help deriving from it a greater degree of respect for their Government and 8 deeper sense of confidence in the wisdom and justice of its purposes.” Helping the “Gold Bloc.” From the New York Times. The “loan” made by the Federal Reserve Banks to Belgium, reported to be about $25,000,000, may not seem in itself of great importance. It is not a credit of the usual sort, designed to obviate gold shipments or to supple- ment them. It is intended merely as a stop-gap. In the present delicate period it would have been unsettling to their exchange, the n au- thorities apparently felt, to wait for even the short period required to ef- fect physical shipments of gold, and therefore they aranged with our Fed- eral Reserve authorities to advance them dollar credits against shipments of gold to follow soon. Nevertheless the fact remains that our Reserve banks have been whole- heartedly co-operating with the Bel- gians in this transaction, and when this is considered in connection with our action of only & week ago in re- m restrictions on the export of capital it is impossible to dismiss the episode t.;:t without significance. bloc and that it is throwing its influ- ence on the side of stabilization. It is only necessary to contrast our present policy with that hardly more than a year ago when the theories of Prof. Warren were in the saddle, when monetary stabilization was frowned upon as something that might block the march of recovery, when the offi- cial dollar price of gold was being changed almost daily and when it was considered an excellent thing for all not be successful.” This paper adds that “it would seem to indicate that the Government will recognize the