Evening Star Newspaper, February 25, 1935, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY....February 25, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES. . . Editor The Evening Star Newsp: ‘Business Offic 11th St. and Pennsylv: New York Office 10 E 2N Chicago Office: Lake Michigan Buile European Office; 14 Regent St., London, England. Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Edition. _ The Evening Star,..... 4% per month he Evening and Sunday Star (when davs) . ... .. 50c per month ar (when 5 Sundays) ~.685¢ per month The Sunday Star............O% Per copy Night Final Edition. icht Final and Sunday Star.70c per month Star, '55¢ per month end of each by mail ‘at the or Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Sunday. .1 yr., $10.00: 1 mo., 85¢ Daily only 15r "$6.00° 1 mo.. 50¢ Bunday only I71yrl $4000: 1 mo. 40¢ All Other States and Canada. Daily and Sunday. 1 yr.. $12.00; 1 mo.. $1.00 Daily only . $8.00: 1mo. 75¢ Sunday only. . $5.00; 1 mo.. B50c 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 recerved. —_ The Voice of the People. The President and the administra- tion leaders have determined to let a " recalcitrant Senate listen to the voice | of the people. This plan of campaign, of course, is conceived in the belief that the people will proclaim their friendship for President Roosevelt's | “security wage,” averaging $50 a | month for 3,500,000 workers on relief | projects. And when the “insurgent” resist League intervention was pre- cipitated by Geneva’s action in lifting the arms embargo .against Bolivia and in declaring that if Paraguay did not accept the League prograin she would be fighting an illegal war. This program provided for immediate ces- sation of hostilities, supervision of a neutral zone between the two armies by a neutral commission during boundary negotiations, discussion at Buenos Aires of all boundary and economic disputes, with World Court arbitration if direct negotiations failed, and acceptance of these con- ditions in full, under penalty of sanc- tions, by both belligerents not later than February 24, 1935. Thus, with Paraguay’s bolt from further jurisdiction by Geneva, comes to an inglorious conclusion months of effort, both by the League and by pan-American neutrals, to end the senseless carnage in the Chaco, which has already cost 60,000 lives and | brought both Paraguay and Bolivia | to the verge of economic ruin, The lamentable failure is more | than another example of the League of Nations' inability to prevent ag- gression and stop war. Paraguay is as deaf to Geneva's entreaties with respect to the Chaco as Japan was with respect to Manchuria, and as deaf as Italy at this moment is with respect to Abyssinia. The collapse of Chaco peace attempts is an even | greater reflection on vaunted pan- American solidarity. ———e—s Jobs to Fill. Speaker Byrns' assurances to a Democratic caucuf that the Civilian Conservation Corps would furnish some 10,000 jobs under the proposed relief measure brought several reac- Senators, who have had the temerity | to stand out for the McCarran pre-f vailing-wage amendment to the work- | relief bill, have been sufficiently im- | pressed by popular clamor, then the administration will seek again to ob- | tain a blank check from Congress for | $4,880,000,000, to be expended by the | President for any purposes he may see fit and in the payment of labor | at such rates as he or his agents may | deem justified. | It is difficult sometimes to distin- guish selfish propaganda. If the propaganda is broadly spread and is loud enough it is often mistaken for‘ the voice of the people. That is onei thing the Congress and the President, | too, should remember. The Congress | is to be deluged, according to the plans | of the administration, by messages | from those who support the Presi- dent’s security wage idea. Many of | these messages will come, of course, | from people on relief who believe that | any hindrance of the administra-} tion's program means cutting off their | sources of supply. Many will come from those who fear that there will be loss of public projects to localities | in which they live. And many will come from those who believe that the time is at hand to cut wages generally. | Whether the workers, the millions | who are still employed in this country, will make themselves heard in this interesting test to which the Congress is now being subjected remains to be seen. This overwhelming majority of the people is vitally interested in the maintenance of the wage scales in this country, and in seeing that they are raised, not lowered. This great mass of workers has the feeling that if the Government embarks on a huge | program of construction for which labor is to be paid a low wage scale, the effect will be a lowering of their own wages. Undoubtedly it would be 80. The President and his advisers, who demand the “security wage,” the lower wage, have perhaps not thought this thing through, nor given consider- ation enough to its effect on the em- ployed workers. They have given con- sideration chiefly to the unemployed. And even there, under the lower wage plan, the Government is put in the po- sition of seeking to have its work done at what would be called “sweat shop” wages if it were engaged in manufac- turing instead of construction work. The voice of the people, so often inarticulate, nevertheless becomes on occasion a clarion call. The adminis- tration should be listening for it, as well as the members of the Senate. The President in a letter to Senator Glass during the consideration of the work-relief bill in the Upper House last week promised that nothing would be done under the operation of the security wage which would disas- trously affect labor. In the so-called administration compromise, which the Senate committee wrote into the work- relief bill before it reported it to the Senate, it was provided<that the Presi- dent must pay the “prevailing wage” of private industry wherever it could be shown that the security wage was beating down outside wage scales. ‘That is like shutting the barn door after the horse has been stolen. —_— e ‘Tennessee wants nothing to do with evolution. Fortunately, the subject is not related to the kind of science that develops mechanical power. —raeee Andrew Mellon is willing to go to some trouble in encouraging the public to quit worrying for a while and look at the pictures. —_————————— Paraguay Leaves the League. Another country, Paraguay, has fol- lowed the example of Japan and Ger- many and left the League of Nations. Her action is the culmination of the protracted and futile efforts of Geneva to end the war which has been raging between Paraguay and Bolivia over the Gran Chaco wilder- ness since June, 1932. ‘The League, in a final and desper- ate attempt to bring the Paraguayans to terms, demanded that they accept by February 24 its plan to stop hos- tilitles or incur the risk of punitive measures as a formally branded ag- gressor. Paraguay now defiantly re- jects Geneva's proposals, preferring to push to complete victory the ad- vantages it has attained over Bolivia in a long series of successes in the fleld. ‘The Paraguayans’ ’ftemmnflm to tions in the Senate. Senator Hastings accused the Democrats of planning to find 10,000 jobs for as many deserving | Democrats under a measure that was primarily for relief and which was submitted to Corgress as a non- partisan measure. The Democratic leader, Senator Robinson, responded at length to the effect that Senator Hast- ings would not be aroused if the plan was to place 10,000 deserving Repub- licans in such jobs. Senator Harrison added an ironical aside, asking the Senator from Delaware if “he thought {he could find 10,000 Republicans in the United States to take such jobs.” Senator Long wanted to know whether the 10,000 jobs were to be reserved for members of the House, and if the Sen- ate was to be kept away from the “pie counter.” Senator Glass was indig- nant at the thought. voiced by Senator Hastings, that any political considera- tions entered into the Senate Appro- priations Committee’s consideration of the relief bill. Senator Borah sug- gested that when the relief bill comes out of committee again it should pro- vide “very specifically a method for the distribution of this fund, a method which will fix 1esponsibility,” and Senator Wheeler joined in with the wish that all patrcnage could be dis- associated from the relief bill, observ- ing that under the Republican admin- istration it was administered by Re- publicans and is handled by some Republican organizations in some of the States today. It is beside the point whether the Jjobs are to be filled by many Democrats and few Republicans, or by Democrats alone with all Republicans excluded. (It is beside the point whether, under a Republican administration, the shoe would be on the other foot and Demo- crats, or most of them, would be ex- cluded from consideration. The point is that no political considerations should enter the filling of C.C.C. jobs. Senator Robinson argued that a change in administration always brings about the same situation—vic- torious partisans rewarding their sup- porters and the ousted partisans cry- ing, “Keep politics out of the Gov- ernment.” There is no way that he knows, said the Senator, by which “Senators may escape devoting & ma- terial and substantial part of their time * * * in the attempt to reward their supporters and friends, their party assoclates, by securing for them political offices.” There is, however, a way and that is for the members of Congress to pro- tect themselves, and to protect the public Treasury and the public serv- ice, by making iron-clad regulations regarding the choice of public serv- ants through the civil service; to di- vest themselves of patronage responsi- bility by making eligibility for office a matter of merit, and by making such regulations stick between admin- istrations. In this respect, Senator Robinson said: I believe that underlying this dis- cussion is a serious principle. I do not believe that anybody should be appointed to office merely because of his politics. I do not believe that any one should be placed in a position who is incapable of performing the duties of that position fairly and efficiently. But, said the Senator, and there is always a but in such discussion, “But I must now and ever repudiate the implied theory of the Senator from Delaware—namely, that only Republi- cans possess high standards of quali- fication to perform public service.” It is unfortunate that debates as to removal of politics from the public service seem eventually to descend ‘o the level of disputes wherein the pot calis the kettle black. And as long as it remains on that level, little im- provement of the public service and little relief to patronage-beseiged members of Congress is in sight. Roads. Roads are friends. They bind com- munities together, they integrate na- tions. Their purpose is the service of the generality of mankind, demo- cratically and without distinction. Great cities and little towns, capitals and tiny hamlets are the centers of life to which they are especially dedi- cated, but they also move through the neighborhood of thousands of inde- pendent homes in which the human drama is being played, the human spark kept burning. And roads themselves live by life. ‘Without constant use, they soon would disappear. Their function is to be used incessantly, and ty are dependent wipon their public in that regard. Only so long as men choose to trave! over them do they survive. A dead or a deserted roadway, then, is a pitiful thing to see—it means that activity has ceased, that links have been broken, that what once was a bright and cheerful prospect has become an empty memory. ‘The maintenance of roads, it may be argued, is important because it promotes the safety and welfare of distant and remote social entities as well as those immediately adjacent to their courses over the landscape. Towns, now and again, become iso- lated from settlements like themselves, and the estrangement is a source of weakness—they should be friends, co- operating, sharing, enjoying the strength and the power which acrues | from union; and highways, kept in i repair, normally would have the effect of stimulating and preserving the “gregarious instinct” which is the basic fact in a nation's career. But new roads, also, are wanted. Time in the modern era is of higher value than ever before in the history of the race, and the straightest route between one point and another is at once the shortest in distance and by the measure of the clock. Vast areas of the United States still are out of con- tact with the too-crowded centers of population, and a rational “back to the land” policy, it is indicated, would j render those areas available to occu- pation by thousands whose health and economic happiness would be advan- taged thereby. A road program, for all these rea- sons, well might be an eminently prac- tical and helpful aspect of any na- tional recovery plan. Much already has been accomplished by President Roosevelt’s administration along these lines, and a further development probably would be appreciated by the | largest traveling public the world ever has seen, as well as by mililons who think of themselves as “stay-at- homes.” —— taee Paraguay left the League of Nations for the simple and practical reason that she felt no need of it in her business. A determination on war dispenses with respect for logical per- suasion, ————————— Policemen find very litle time for rest in communities where they are obliged to attend to the war on crime and the political situation both at once. Senator J. T. Robinson calls on statesmen to put patriotism above ! politics. A new deal, to be worth while, must figure in a gentleman's | game. r——— It would be interesting to know ‘how many men played the stock market on the strength of the gold decision, without attempting to ascer- tain exactly what it meant. —.e— \ N. R. A is regarded as having | done enough to keep it working for still better results. It has at least iprompud many & serious discussion on lines of fairness which would have been impossible without it. B —— Explanations are not available as to why Russia should go to so much ex- pense for outside propaganda with so many educational needs of her own. —_——————— China has immense areas of coal. One of China’s trcubles may be that it has had too.many philosophers and not enough coal miners. ——oe—s SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Hay Days. Maude Muller had a gentle way That still survives in song. The Judge left Maudie making hay And sadly rode along. The ways of life are different far From those we used to see. In politics a lady star Might say, “Please vote for me.* So many changes are revealed As precedents we wrench, ‘We might let Judge work in the field And put Maude on the bench. Struggle Within. . “What is your opinion on this mo- mentous subject?” “I have studied it from many angles,” answered Senator Sorghum, “and I may arive at & preponderance of ideas in my own mind. But Il never be able to make a unanimous decision.” Jud Tunkins says February is typical of the spirit of debate, with sentimental and impolite Valentines about equally divided. Yes or No. “It is or it's not” Of words, in debate, ‘We're using a lot This one thing to state. ‘With arguments great We're put on the spot And all to relate “It is or it’s not.” Busily Engaged. ‘How’s your boy Josh doing in col- lege?” “Fine,” answered Farmer Corntossel. “He keeps'busy with foot ball and pays no attention whatever to propaganda.” As the Wind Blows. This thing called “politics” is queer. It meets us everywhere. It brings a promise of good cheer Or threatens clouds of care. The best Iaid plans, ‘tis said of men, Go wrong and cause regret. The weather we predict, and then We take what we can get. “De greatest danger 'bout makin’ a mistake,” said Uncle Eben, “is tryin’ to bluff it through and make folks think it was a good job.” The Hold-Out Season. Prom the Roanoke (Va.) Times. The big in base ball circles at this time of the year is how long the hold-outs wil¥ hold on. A—8 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1935. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL, Few things are as delightful as the so-called common names of plants. They combine the unknown and the familiar in a way to please the curious. If you want something to plant under rhododendrons and other acid- loving plants, where the ground 1s somewhat bare, you may get Oconee Bells, and Galax. ‘The first has small, white nodding bells, which appear in May against bronzy evergreen leaves. The scien- tific name is Shortia galacifolia. Galax is a wild flower from the South. 1It, too, has evergreen leaves, with white flowers in spikes. EE Here is an interesting plant, for full sun, called Puccoon. Here are the various Beebalms, or Bergamots, including the famous Oswego Beebalm that prefers moist shade. Here are windflowers, and colum- bines, and the wild-indigo. Peachbells and Coventrybells, snow= in-Summer, turtlehead, shootingstar and leopardbane—these are a few of the striking designations we see when we turn over the leaves of the cat- alogues. He or she was a poetic soul, indeed, who gave what scientists call Gypso- phila paniculata the fine old name of Babysbreath. * % ¥ * Who can resist the Candytuft? ‘This, like so many of these wild things, has comparatively inconspic- uous white flowers. So many of the plants have white flowers only, one may pause to won- der why this is, until he realizes that white, whether color or not, is very easily seen, and thus serves as wall as any shade to attract various in- sects to help in the fertilizing processes. Here we have the partridgeberry, familiar to those who have constructed so-called glass gardens. Its scientific name is Mitchella repens. The bright red berries through the Fall and Win- ter are the charm of the plant to the casual. The thorough-going plant lover, on the other hand, finds quite as de- lightful its green leaves and pink- tinted white waxy flowers in early Summer. They are small, not quite as much so as those of the so-called strawberry begonia, but very pretty. * ok ¥ % The greatest interest in the garden comes to the person who, either nat- urally or by intent, manages to see every detail of every plant. It is here, as with the home aqua- rium, as long as one is interested in every individual specimen, and every detail of every specimen, he is at the peak of the fancy. This must be so. The casual observer, who looks! wildly at a mass of flowers and says, | “Yes, very pretty,” really sees nothing at all. Such a person might come into the finest garden in the world, and not be able to see—and honestly not be | able to see—why it was any better | than an ordinary backyard. * x ¥ X Everybody has heard of the fringed gentian, about which Bryant wrote such a pretty poem. Not every one has heard its scien- tific name, Gentiana crinita, or knows that until the last few years it | WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. President Roosevelt is certainly having no luck with that vaunted two-thirds New Deal majority in the United States Senate. On the two vital occasions on which it has been called upon to function it has la- mentably failed him. Twenty Dem- ocrats forsook the administration on the World Court in January and 21 deserted on the prevailing wages amendment to the work relief bill last week. Undependability of the Senate Democrats is & painful reve- lation to F. D. R. and the party lead- ership. It is all the more unpalatable ‘because it strikes the high command as a species of base political in- gratitude, at least in the case of the insurgents who owed their election in 1932 or 1934 mainly to the fact that they carried the Roosevelt hall- | mark. Mr. Roosevelt now faces in the Upper House a brand of revolt within his own party ranks such as both Presidents Coolidge and Hoover had to contend with at the hands of the Republican progressives. The master of the New Deal is no stranger to legislative obstruction. He con- fronted it periodically at Albany and frequently came out on top. * X ¥ * Congress is tremendously interested in reports that the President may appeal to the country—presumably through a fireside broadcast—in order to rally public sentiment in favor of his work relief bill before it is wrecked by Senate opposition. It has often been suggested that he would resort to the microphone as the most effective big stick at his command. He knows from recent sad experi- ences how useful his foes have found it. As Governor of New York he regularly resorted to the radio for the purpose of winning support for his programs when they were blocked by a stubl Legislature. So one of these salul wintry evenings we may hear the dulcet Roosevelt tones in an appeal to “wire your Senators” to get behind the $4,880,000,000 work relief bill, now so perilously near the rocks. All this, of course, provided that the administration in the mean- time has not struck its colors and scuttled the ship. * * k Federal Judge William Irwin Grubb of Alabama, who has just declared illegal the sale of electric energy by T. V. A. and permanently enjoined the loan of P. W. A. funds to Ala- bama municipalities for construction of their own power-distribution plants, is undoubtedly the New Deal’s chief judicial Nemesis His latest decisions are on all fours with the one' he rendered last October declaring ‘the N. R. A. unconstitutional and his temporary restraining order in Janu- ary against the Alabama towns. Judge Grubb took office in 1909, early in the Taft administration. Like the President who appointed him, Judge Grubb is & native Cincinnatian and Yale man. He was a member of President Hoover's Law-enforcement ‘Commission. * ok ok X Arrangements are about complete for the early departure of a repre- sentative, though unofficial, American trade mission to the Far East. It has been organized by the National For- eign Trade Council and will be headed by W. Cameron Forbes, former Gover- nor General of the Philippines and one-time Ambassador to Japan. While the mission will carry no credentials of the United States Government, the State and Commerce ents are understood Chins and Japan. The Japanese hope the Americans will kuo, as trade missions from Great nfl"h.?’lmmflomwhln has been very hard to find in com- merce. Now we are supposed to be able to grow it very easily, and we hope we all do, for it has a place in our mind’s affection second to mone. Suppose we got a supply of the plants and set them out. Suppose their curious blue flowers appeared on the dot. ‘Then let the unobserving person come in to look at them, and what would she say? Why the chances are she wouldn’t seg ’em at all! 1f she did, no doubt she would say, “Oh, you should see them in the gar- den of Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones has such exquisite flowers!” * % % % And shrubs, too— ’ How many of us go on planting the same old standard things every year, or every other year, when we might be putting in a downy shadblow! We might have the red chokeberry, | or the black chokeberry. Some of us have tried the sweet- shrub (Calycanthus floridus), which really grows north of Florida, but not 50 well this far north. ‘There is a legend in the South that the “shrub” will grow only for such households as are henpecked. * ok X % Do you know Clethra alnifolia, called by some experts one of the most useful shrubs grown? it is better known as sweet pepper bush, but we prefer the scientific no- menclature, in this case, as its scien- | tific name is beautiful enough to be| a girl's name. Clethra Alnifolia Jones, not bad, eh? Every one would call her “Clethe,” of course. Here is a shrub most of us never heard of, Daphne mezereum, called the February Daphne by some. The branches grow upright, some- thing on the order of Russian candle- sticks of the old school. Those fa- miliar with it say that its dark wine flowers appear shortly after the snow leaves the ground, at ebout this time, or perhaps a little later, and that they are accompanied by a fine fra- grance which, to those who know it, is a harbinger of true Spring. Surely that must be a shrub worth having. * K kX Every one has heard of the High- bush Cranberry, but how many would recognize a Highbush Blueberry? And then there is an entire family of shrubs, the Euonymus, which fev amateurs know by sight. One of these has a delightful common name, the Brook Euonymus; another is called the Winged Euonymus. There is a dwarf variety which is supposed to grow flat across the top, like a well- clipped privet hedge. Few gardeners any more plant the vernal Witchhazel, which in mild Winters (not like the last two) will open blossoms every now and then on the milder days. Yet few per- sons have not seen the name “Ham- amelis” on bottles of extract of witchhazel. The common Witchhazel, or Hamaelis virginiana, blooms yellow in late Autumn, at a time when little else does, still it is not seen very much, at least in the cities. Every one knows the famous Spiraea vanhouttei, but how many know the steeplebush, 8. tomentosa, a slender shrub with pink flowers borne in July and August, when shrubs are not flowering freely? Even its neme is lovely, in a church-sprinkled land. done, If they come home impressed with the desirability of diplomatic recognition of the “independent” state which the Japanese set up in Manchuria there will be vast rejoicing at Tokio. To date, only El Salvador and Vatican City have recognized Manchoukuo. e Senator Carter Glass is breaking all records for congressional versatility. On the same day last week the veteran Virginian enacted the role of a fierce critic of the New Deal's monetary policy and of a passionate defender of the work relief bill. F. D. R.s “unreconstructed rebel” has been im- | pressed into service repeatedly by the | ‘White House to help break the sena- torial log jam. The Lynchburg edi- tor-statesman apparently is ready to oblige, on the definite condition that he retains complete independence on all occasions involving his convictions and principles. He will be in the thick of the fight when the banking bill, with its proposed enlargement of Federal Reserve Board powers, is to the front. * k * X Reports are current that Senator Joseph F. Guffey, Pennsylvania's Democratic Boies Penrose — boss, bachelor and all—is grooming his 193¢ running-mate and co-victor, Gov. George H. Earle, as the 1938 | Democratic candidate for the Senate from the Keystone State, as the op- ponent of Republican Senator James J. Davis, who presumably will seek re-election. Gov. Earle’s four-year term runs until January, 1939. By that time, Keystone Democrats be- lieve, Guffey will have built, with Earle’s co-operation, a State-wide or- ganization as invincible as the ma- chine Penrose ruled. Two Democratic United States Senators from Penn- sylvania would set a world record in political miracles. . * ok X Although Herbert Hoover’s re-entry into the political arena did not set the Potomac on fire, it has caused politicians to wonder whether gold is destined to become the G. O. P.’s best “paramount issue” bet for 1936. The Barbour bill in the Senate and the concurrent Hollister bill in the House, designed to restore gold pay- ments for all Government obligations, will spur such a movement. Few authorities expect that, under any circumstances, Mr. Hoover would be called upon to resume the Repub- lican helm, either as a leager of the z;;fl cause or on any other issue. e Californian enjoys widespread respect in his party, as manifested by the big hand he got at the recent Lincoln day dinner in New York, but the depression handicap is believed to bar him from serious reconsidera- tion for presidential honors. * ok ok % Mile. Louise Weiss, now leading the women of France in & vigorous drive for suffrage, is well known in Wash- ington. In her capacity as editor- director of her own magazine, L'Europe Nouvelle, she was a mem- ber of the newspaper contingent that accom] Premier Laval to the United States during the Hoover ad- ministration. Mille. Weiss is familiar tactics that car- ;l:‘d mt:m .:‘:y “ln America and Great , apparently eschewing militant methods in France. (Copyright, 1935.) ———— * Inflation. Prom the Wichita Eagle. Senator Thomas, Oklahoma, thinks that currency inflation is inevitable. And if that doesn’t work, Thomas is ll:Iel'-h. He can claim it came too | economy measure. ThePolitical Mill By G. Gould Lincoln. President Roosevelt has come to grips at last with Congress. Every President does, sooner or later. It probably is difficult for the adminis- tration to realize that Democrats in the Senate and in the House are not willing to go along with the Presi- dent’s recommendations. When the new Congress met, almost immedi- ately following a Democratic land- slide in which the President and his policies were extolled to the skies, it was believed that the Chief Execu- tive could get anything he wanted out of the legislative branch. There had been no “cooling off” period, no “lame duck” session of the old Congress. The members of the new Congress came hot off the hustings. What has caused the administration program to bog down? * K k% Some of the Democrats in Congress say frankly that the President has demanded too much; that he has gone too far in asking for powers from Congress. Their resentment at pres- ent centers particularly on the so- called work-relief bill. They insist that the President has not given them adequate information about what he intends to do with this $4,880,000,000 which he asks to have appropriated with no strings attached. They do not like his “security wage” proposi- tion, which is intended to benefit the unemployed, but which may hit those who are employed a hard blow by bringing down wage scales in private industry. They say that the President has gone ahead too fast with his plans for relief and for recovery without giving due consideration to what Con- gress may think about these measures. ¥ % x> ‘There is a lot of talk about Demo- crats in Congress being sore with the President and the administration be- cause they have been unsuccessful in obtaining all the patronage jobs for their constituents. Some of them are sore, but they are so in the minority that they would have no effect what- ever on the vote in the Senate or in the House on administration meas- ures if other factors were absent. ‘The House and Senate are both over- whelmingly Democratic. The Repub- lican minority is so small as to be absolutely impotent unless there should be a very great split in the Democratic ranks. When some 25 Democratic Senators split with the administration on anything, as they did in the vote on the McCarran pre- vailing wage amendment to the work- reliel bill, there is a real split in the party ranks. *x %% ‘The President and his advisers have | declded that it is time to let the Sen- ate hear from the country. So their present plan is to let the relief bill rest quietly in the office of the Sen- ate Appropriation Committee until Senators become convinced they had | better line up with the President in favor of the security wage and against | the prevailing wage. This may be ! effective. There is a huge clamor in | the country for more spending, for more billions of Federal appropria- | tions. There are millions on relief rolls who will see in any delay of the President’s work-relief bill the possi- | bility of having their food and money halted. The politiclans want money to pour out. Incidentally, there is a national election coming next year. Congress has been in session nearly two months, and still little has been done. None of the major pieces of legislation advocated by the President has been put.through. When the | Congress first assembled, predictions were made that the program would be rushed through in a hurry and Congress would adjourn perhaps in | April. The legislative branch of lhe} Government, however, has come to | life and wants to do some of the legis- | lating itself. When other Presidents have been in office, such an attitude on the part of Congress was consid- ered patriotic and in accord with the | Constitution of the United States, * Xk x ¥ The pleas made by administration leaders to the effect that the passage of the work-relief bill with the se- curity wage instead of the prevailing wage is a measure of economy is mak- | ing some of the legislators smile. They look on the work-relief bill, carrying $4,880,000,000, as anything but an | It is the mgm‘K appropriation bill ever to come before | any Congress—except perhaps in World War time, when billions were | authorized for loans to the allies, The | administration leaders insist that the | payment of the prevailing wage would add $2,000,000,000 more to the cost of ! the work-relief projects. Such addi- | tional billions would be too much of a strain on the national Treasury. The administration’s proposals in the past, i as well as the present proposal to ex- pend nearly $5,000,000,000 for relief, has dulled the economy sensibilities of people. * kX Matthew Woll, third vice president of the American Federation of Labor, the organization which has been fight- ing against the President’s security wage plan and in favor of the pay- ment of the prevailing wage on work- Telief projects, in a letter to Henry Ford said that a movement among leading industrialists against high wages is under way. Mr. Woll asked Mr. Ford for his views on the question of wages. He got a reply from the veteran automobile manufacturer, in which Mr. Ford said: “Unless the worker in American in- dustry is enabled to use and enjoy the products of industry, the natural bal- ance cannot be maintained. Our market is our people. I believe that wages will continue to go higher, not as a result of politics or from purely humanitarian motives, but as the result of the kind of management that will enable men to earn more. You under- stand, of course, that inexperienced or short-sighted management does not create the conditions under which men can earn more. Industry cannot pay men what they do not earn, but it can create methods by which men, with the same effort, or even less, can earn more and so receive more. In my opinion, absentee ownership in in- dustry is one of the chief obstacles to higher wages, for two reasons—it im- poses an extra tax on industry in the form of unearned dividends and it will not or cannot give the same at- tentive care to conditions that owner- ship and a regard for the good name of the business and the product can give” * K ok % Republicans in the Maine Senate have turned a cold shoulder to the proposal that the Pine Tree State should hold its elections for Governor and other State offices and for mem- bers of Congress in November at the time of the presidential election. The Democrats voted solidly for the change. Apparently the Republicans believe it is better to keep Maine as the political barometer State. Dirigibles. Prom the Tulsa (Okla.) World. About all a enthusiast do now is to stick his battered up out of the wreckage and re] progress. Dear at the Price. BY FREDERIC ). HASKIN. A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Washington Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. What is the new name for Persia?—B. D. A. The Persian foreign office re- quests the discontinuance of the use of the words Persia and Persian. Be- ginning on March 22, 1935, Iran and Iranian will be used. It will then be the Iranian foreign office instead of the Persian. Q. What salary is attached to the :hlAim(l:ln&h!p of the Red Cross?— A. There is no fixed salary. Judge John Barton Payne served without compensation. His predecessor did likewise, but in his incumbency a home in Washington was provided for him. Q. Is cigarette smoking increasing in Canada?—O. 8. A. 1t continues to increase. In 1934 the consumption of factory-made cigarettes was close to five billion, an increase of 12 per cent over 1933. Q. When did Vasari first publish his lives of famous painters?>—M. A. A. In 1550. Q. How long ago was Prater Park in Vienna opened to the public>— H M. G A. Prater Park was formerly imperial hunting ground closed to the public. It was opened by Emperor Josef II probably between 1780 and 1790. an Q. Please give the name of a horse which George Washington rode dur- ing the Revolution—K. B. A. Blueskin and Nelson were the best known of Washington's horses ridden during the Revolution. Mag- nolia was another. Q. What college has a collection of Browning autograph letters?—B. S. A. Wellesley has a collection con- taining 284 letters from Robert Browning and 287 from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. i Q. What denominations were the | early churches in the Colonies?> What translations of the Bible were used?— | P. M. S. A. The principal denominations were the Church of England, the Lutheran, Congregational or Non- Conformist, and later the Baptist and Methodist, as well as the Roman Catholic. The Bibles principally in use were the King James version of the English Bible, the Lutheran translation of the German Bible, and the Douai translation of the Catholic or French Bible. Q. What color is ebony before it is finished?>—H. B. A. The sapwood is almost golden, while the heart is black. Sometimes the wood is streaked. Q. Who captured Aguinaldo?—R. S. A. The leader of the Philippine in- surrection was captured by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston March 23, 1901. Aguinaldo took the oath of allegiance to the United States. Q. Who was the first Catholic to run for the presidency of the United States?—M., R. A. Charles O'Conor, in 1872. He ran as an independent Democrat, and John Quincy Adams, grandson of the President of that name, ran for Vice President on the same ticket. Q. Why do the eyes in some pic- tures seem to meet the gaze of the observer, though viewed from differ- ent angles?>—T. H. A. It is because the subject of the picture was looking straight ahead, or into the camera. The picture is a flat surface and has only two dimen= sions. Q. Does the City of Washington cover the entire District of Colume bia?—R. V. A. The city is not independently incorporated. Its boundaries are those of the District of Columbia. Q. What is the origin of the honey= dew melon?—H. N. S. A. The honeydew melon on the mar- ket in this country is the same as the melon listed by Paris seedsmen as Antibes Winter green fleshed melon. The original seed of the honeydew melon is said to have been obtained from a melon shipped from Africa to New York City. This seed was planted at Rockyford, Colo., and John Gauger and Weaver were re- sponsible for having put this melon on the market in the United States. Q. How high is the bluff on which Vicksburg, Miss., is built>—P. T. A. This bluff, on_the eastern bank ‘o( the Mississippi River, is 235 feet | nigh. | Q. wnhat is the average life of an automobile?—J. R. A. The average life of an automo- | bile is seven and one-half years, and | old cars have been scrapped at an | average of 2900,000 a year for the last three years, Q. Do more automobile accidents occur on crowded city streets or on open roads’—E. M. A. In 1934, according to an analy- sis of the American Automobile Asso- | ciation, more accidents occurred in ! the wide open spaces traversed by | State and local highways than on | crowded city streets and urban boule- vards. Q. Please give a biography of the present chairman of the Republican National Committee.—L. W. H. A. Mr. Henry Prather Fletcher was born at Greencastle, Pa., 1873. He was admitted to the bar in 1894. Mr. | Fletcher served as official reporter for | the judicial district of Pennsylvania, 1891-98. He then served in the Span= ish-American War. Since that time he has been almost continuously in public life, and has served either as secretary or minister in the legations and embassies of Cuba, China, Portu= | gal, Chile, Mexico, Belgium and Italy. | He was chairman of the United States Tariff Commission, which position he resigned to become chairman of the Republican National Committee. | Q. What is meant by the expression, muscle bound?—J. B. A. Several conditions are described by the term muscle bound, but per- haps the commonest is that by which | muscles, through constant practice, are trained to oppose one another rather than to act together in efficient work. Thus, when a muscle is called into play involuntarily its opponent also | contracts and the result is less efficient | action. The condition can obviously be altered first by rest and then more efficient training of the muscles. Great Dirigil;ies Still Have Champions Among Newspapers Another dirigible disaster brought a | flood of demands that the American Navy stop experimenting with such | expensive and dangerous craft as the Macon, which fell to destruction in the Pacific. Yet there still are cham- pions among the newspapers of the great lighter-than-air cruisers. “To abandon these craft because de- fects have not been overcome,” says the Birmingham Age-Herald, while, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury-Herald, | the Chattanooga Times states: “It is: “is to surrender to other nations the !easy to jump to conclusions drawn' development of a kind of air trans- port that may prove to be of great value in war and commerce. The cost of the Macon was $2,600,000. In re- lation to our existing scale of expendi- ture, this is a trifling item which af- fords no reason for abandoning what may become an important means of air transport.” “There is much about the dirigibles,” the Boston Transcript concedes, “to appeal to popular fancy. One of these great ships of the air floating in the sunlight, silvery sides gleaming against | the blue of the sky, is a spectacle of rare beauty. Its majestic proportions tend to a sense of power and security. But,” warns the Boston paper, “the record indicates that this semblance | of safety is in reality a glittering de- ception. The dirigibles are fair- weather craft. When they are called upon to ride the gale, death stands by the helmsman.” Value of the dirigible is doubted by the Lincoln (Nebr.) State Journal, while the Syracuse (N. Y.) Herald calls the fine conduct of officers and crew in the recent disaster “the sole re- deeming feature of a painful record.” The Wichita (Kans.) Eagle is con- vinced that “more progress woyld be made in units built on a smaller scale.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune ad- vises that “the sober judgment of the only | country has turned thumbs down on this type of huge and unwieldly air- ships.” The Rockford Register - Republic predicts “temporary abandonment of construction of these craft,” and the Haverhill (Mass) Gazette feels that “Congress will be reluctant to approve building of more of the ships.” The Indianapolis News argues that friends of the dirigible “should look to pri- vate enterprise.” Germany’s success with lighter- than-air craft impresses the Youngs- town (Ohio) Vindicator, which ob- serves: “There can be no mystery in the Germans’ successful operation of dirigibles, as compared with our fail- ure. Evidently the Germans are more careful, both in building and in op- erating their ships. They built the Los Angeles, which is the only one of our dirigibles to survive. If they had built and operated the Akron and the Macon it is possible that both would still be flying. The di- rigible has become a challenge to America—to our designers and build- ers and to our navigators. We should not decide to abandon it until we can do. The Long Beach (Calif) Press-Tele- gram feels that “it is not probable the idea of dirigibles in transocean trade will be abandoned,” while the Louis- ville Courier-Journal points out that “there are still champions of this type of craft,” and the Flint (Mich.) Daily Journal makes the argument: “Over a period of time, now that the United States has no more lighter- than-air craft, the memories of thece will fade in the back- lence will have additional its researches, weather | advantage of this inevitable pausc to | put men at work, studying and ex- "perlmeming. for the day when it {will be possible to resume building !and flying of dirigibles, which most | certainly have commercial as well as | military possibilities.” | Support for this belief is given by the Boise (Idaho) Statesman, and | from what may be, after all, only coincidences. Much as one deplores any loss of life, it may sometimes be justified if it is the means of saving many more lives in the future. But useless throwing away of lives should never be tolerated. These facts should be borne in mind by the authorities when they map the future course of American aviation.” Sees Townsend Plan Adopted in the Future To the Editor of The Star. Being one of the morons who be- lieves in the practicability of the Townsend old age pension plan, I read your recent editorial entitled “Utopia” with keen interest and keener disap- pointment. | Your arguments against the proposi- tion are altogether predicated on a series of fatuous assumptions as to the number of pensioners, the amount | to be disbursed, the problem of finan- | cing the plan and the insuperable difficulty of sperding $200 per month, for not until this plan is put into operation can these assumptions be | proven one way or another. | Now, while this proposition may sound fantastic, yet it is precisely what was done during the World War when wages and salaries were high and work plentiful. The Townsend plan simply proposes that we go on a permanent “‘war basis to support an army of aged American citizens who have created the nation's wealth, thereby rehabilitating 5,000,000 fam- ilies now on relief rolls and bringing back prosperity to stay. Sophistry and demagoguery doubt- less will defeat the Townsend plan in the present session of Congress, since this unscientific idea conflicts | with the highly scientific administra- tion policies of pig-sticking and gold- dollar sweating, but a general elec- tion is not more than 18 months ahead, when the 25 or 30 million American citizens who are clamoring and petitioning for the Townsend plan will have their day in court and will not be denied. N CHARLES W. PAFFLOW. A Rhyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton My City I call it mine Because no other place can make for me Such melody. The clamor here has a familiar strain, The play of fountain water in the rain, The whir of pigeon wings sbove the park, The midtown chimes, the din of early | dark, | Even the moon illumines many spires Known to my sires. I fear no end use I know my dust shall lie learby, nearby. ’