Evening Star Newspaper, March 17, 1935, Page 32

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Editien. WASHINGTON, D. C SUNDAY.. ..March 17, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. Editor ‘The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: 11th 8t. and Pennsylvania Ave New York omg' 110 East 42nd icago Office: Lake Michigan Bullding ropean Office: 14 Regent St.. London. England. Rate by Carrier Within the City. Berular Edition. o ooth 2 Sunday Star .F” 106 per month tar 65c per month B per copy Night Final Edition Star 70c per month B5c per month at _the end of each month. Orders may be sent by mail or telephone National 5000 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. 1ly and Sunday .1 yr. $10.00: 1 mo R8¢ il 1yt only. ... $6.00: 1 mo. B0c unday only 1vr $400:1mo 40c All Other States and Canada. fly nndlsyundn %;r $12.00; 1 mo.. $1.00 2 ily on] 8.00: 1 mo. ~ 78¢ inday OBl 17 B0 ime 86 Member of the Associated Press. The Ascociated Press is exclusively titled to the use for republication of a news dispatches credited to it or not other- wise .Tedited in this Daper and aiso the local news published hereln All rights o publication of special dispatches herein are also rererved Security Legislation Amendments. ‘While other suggestions have been | made, two specific proposals for | amendment of the Ellenbogen unem- ployment insurance bill should re- ceive extraordinary consideration, as | they affect fundamental principles of | the measure proposed for the District. One of these is for participation by the employe as well as the employer in building up the unemployment reserves. The other is to provide in the bill some measure of reward, or tax credit, to the tax-paying em- ployer who succeeds in stabilizing employment under his direct control. As drawn, the Ellenbogen bill places & three per cent tax on the employer’s | pay roll and the employer pays !hls" tax, without participation by the employe. The theory is that the em- | ploye will contribute indirectly when | the tax is passed on to the consumer, in the form of higher prices or de- creased wages. Neither is desirable, yet even the ardent proponents of the plan take it for granted that such will be the effect. It has been argued | that direct participation by the em- | ploye in the building up of unem- ployment reserves would give him a | more or less proprietary interest in the use of such reserves; that the employe could be counted upon to assist in the prevention of “chiseling” tactics by fellow employes, and that sharing the total tax as between employe and employer on the sug- | gested basis of one per cent and | two per cent, respectively, would be | in keeping with the theory of the joint | responsibility in guarding egainst | some evils of unemployment. i Under the Ellenbogen bill the three | per cent tax is applied to all employ- | provocative character as far as Japan is concerned. Opponents of large-scale high seas maneuvers overlook the fundamental necessities of modern naval prepar- edness. A fleet, to be ready to do its full duty in an emergency, must be kept in training. Its enormous per- sonnel requires regular practice in the handling of fleet units and of squad- ron and division formations, These things cannot be taught theoretically ashore or aboard anchored vessels. They must be learned at sea under circumstances as nearly like actual war conditions as peace time permits. The new naval problems posed by scouting and bombing aircraft give fieet maneuvers an aspect utterly un- known a few years ago. To acquaint officers and men with all the possi- bilities which naval aviation presents is of itself a sufficient justification for such long-range maneuvers as both the American and Japanese navies plan to carry out in the Pa- cific this year. ————rtee Increase the Lump Sum! Prominent educators, not connected with the Washington public schools, appeared before the Senate Subcom- mittee on District Appropriations last week in behalf of continuation of the experiment launched last Fall in character education. The House. in passing the District bill, lopped off the funds to continue Money already spent will have been wasted if character education study | is stopped now, for the results can- not be conclusive unless the study is continued. As the Senate inaugurated the character education demonstration in the local schools, the Senate will pre- sumably fight to retain the funds. Senator Copeland of New York. spon- soring the work here, has been con- vinced through his investigation of crime conditions in the country that there is a direct approach to the elimination of crime through the pub- lic schools. He proposed the study here, at considerable expense to local taxpayers, to determine the practic- ability of applying the theory on a larger scale, here and elsewhere. The money should be appropriated. The cause in which it is spent is a good one. It is wasteful extravagance to begin such undertakings and then to throw them in the discard on the strength of capricious judgment. But character education is merely one of the items stricken from the Dis- trict bill by the House. Others, equally important, should be restored. Citizens and municipal officials who so far have appeared before the Sen- ate committee have argued strongly for the unmet needs of the police | force; for the nursing services and equipment needed by the hospitals; for the requirements of prisoners at Lorton; for the bare maintenance of the city's libraries, which have suf- fered to the breaking point under the ruthless economy cuts of the past few years; for the highways, where “sav- ers without attempted distinction | in8s” accomplished through refusing between those whose pay rolls are | (0 apropriate funds already collected steady and those whose pay rolls fluc- tuate with seasonal and other changes. Nor is any maximum placed on the | reserves to be accumulated by the | pay roll tax. The tax will last in-| definitely. | Under the Wisconsin plan—the only | State which has an unemployment in- | surance law-—the employer who ac-' cumulates a reserve of $75 per em- | ploye escapes further payment of the | tax until his reserve falls below that | amount. In the bill proposed last | year by Senator Wagner for the Dis- trict the same principle was followed, ! except that the reserve reached $100 | per employe before tax payments | ceased. | Certainly this principle is a good one, and should be contained in some form in the District legislation. The object of the bill is to stabilize em- ployment, and there should be a di- rect incentive for the employer who | makes a successful effort in that | direction. The most practical in- centive that could be offered would lie in the possibility of tax reduction. Hearings on the Ellenbogen bill have been concluded. But the bill should not be finally prepared for report to the House until the national legislation—which it is to supplement ~is enacted and out of the way. Admitting that the District provides the perfect laboratory for experiments 1n social security, it is still imperative that vivisection at the hands of the experimenters, who are in no manner responsible to the subjects—the local taxpayers—should be as painless as | legislative science can make it. Local | legislation should not be more severe | in its demands than the still pending | national legislation contemplates, nor more severe than the legislation which the States are expected to decide upon for themselves. ——————— Underworld operators violate so many laws at once that it is not always easy to devise a formal system for their pursuit. ——————————— Fleets in the Pacific. ©On March 4, in the course of a New Deal anniversary review of American naval policy and activities, Secretary Swanson referred to this Summer's maneuvers of the United States Fleet in the Pacific Ocean. He had evidently had brought to his notice suggestions current in Japan, and which have been echoed in this eountry, to the effect that these pro- Jected operations have caused some resentment and anxiety among the Japanese. Here and there the idea seems to have cropped up that it might be a good thing, in the interest of Japanese-American friendship, to call off or materially curtail the ma- neuvers. Secretary Swanson drew attention to the fact that the operations in question not only merely constitute the normal training practice of the fleet, but that no American ship par- ticipating in it will approach within two thousand miles of the Japanese mainland. That circumstance of it- self divests the mlnau:en of any from the taxpayers and which are available for employment-giving public works, merely result in sending ear- marked dollars to the Treasury, un- available for other expenditures. This week arguments will be made in behalf of other school needs, rep- resented in construction and other items totaling a quarter of a million dollars eliminated by the House al- though approved by the Bureau of the | Budget, and for additional items in other departments. The shortage of prospective reve- nues with which to finance District needs results from the continued whittling away of the Federal lump sum, and not from any failure by local taxpayers to bear their share of the burden of Capital maintenance and development. Capital taxpayers are now confronted with the prospect of largely increased local taxes to sup- port undertakings in social security, praiseworthy in motive if untried by experience, which have been pledged as a part of the New Deal. Revenues from such increased taxation would accomplish nothing beyond meeting additional costs imposed by unemploy- ment and old-age insurance. A deficitin providing for the normal needs of the normal municipal functions must be met and the equitable method of meet- ing it is to increase the national par- ticipation in National Capital expenses in keeping with the spirit of unre- pealed substantive law. The District looks to the Senate to assert its right jointly to legislate for the District and to present a bill which provides for urgent District needs in- stead of ignoring them. ——— e Charges of plotting in any police force are confusing. Discovery and punishment of plotters are popularly supposed to be the especial function of the police themselves. e —— Avenue Traffic. The extent to which an already | serious traffic problem has been com- plicated by concentration of so many Federal employes in the Avenue tri- angle is sharply outlined in Trafic Director Van Duzer's statistics. From Ninth to Fifteenth street about 10,800 rore pedestrians are crossing the Avenue between four-fifteen and five- fifteen o'clock in the afternoon than were counted last year; about 6,000 more between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. Moving along Pennsylvania Avenue at the same hour in the afternoon are some 4,000 automobiles and 300 trolley cars. ‘This congestion reaches its peak at Twelfth street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The total number of pedes- trians will be increased with comple- tion of the Archives Building and the Pennsylvania Avenue extension of the Internal Revenue Building. It will always increase, of course, with normal population growth. Staggered hours in the Government departments may ameliorate, but not eradicate, the seriousness of a prob- lem which endangers pedestrians, on the one hand, and slows the move- ment of vehicular traffic on the other. There 15 & relatively short time to A the work. | which the staggered hours of open- ing and closing may be applied. Opening hours cannot be moved con- veniently to earlier than eight o'clock in the morning, nor extended beyond five in the afternoon. One of the .complications, as far as vehicular traffic is concerned, has been added by the closing of Thir- teenth and Eleventh streets below the Avenue, which increases Avenue traf- fic. Another is furnished by the greater demands for street cars to transport the office crowds. While the authorities have per- sistently shunned attempts to control the movement of pedestrians—as signal lights now control the movement of vehicular traffic—it is a question how long such control can be de- layed. It is not a matter of depriv- ing the pedestrian of his rights. It is a matter of protecting his life. Under common law, suicide once was regarded as a crime. —————— Gentlemen's Agreements. The trouble with government through “gentlemen’s agreements” is that so few gentlemen participate in the agreements. The theory of demo- cratic government is that all the gentlemen—and all the ladies—eligible to agree shall reach such agreements openly and through the legislative and other channels marked out for that purpose. Here in the District, government is | maintained through agreements | reached by the ladies and gentlemen | elected to Congress through the votes of all the ladies and gentlemen of the country qualified to vote. The only ladies and gentlemen who cannot par- ticipate in the government of the Dis- trict of Columbia are those who live | in the District of Columbia, aliens and | convicts. | The difficulties of attaining repre- sentative government for the District | of Columbia, therefore, are increased when government by “gentlemen'’s | agreements.” in which only two or | three gentlemen participate, is sub- | stituted for government by agreement | of all the ladies and gentlemen of Con- gress. If “gentlemen’s agreements” are made to serve the public welfare, there {is no good reason why they should be | confined to one or two gentlemen. | They should be reached by all the | ladies and gentlemen qualified to make | ‘!hem. When gentlemen agree to do 1 | thus and so among themselves the | | agreement is not always predicated on ! | desire to serve the public, but on the | | desire to serve the few gentlemen par- | ticipating in the agreement. The | | fewer “gentlemen’s agreements” in | Bovernment of the District the better | | the government will be. ———— When he was through with hxs‘ | modest fortune, the late Justice Oliver iwmdell Holmes returned it to the | Government under whose protection | lnt was accumulated. His example suggests a means of averting much profitless litigation. P Communist Strachey objected to | having a collection taken for him in | Detroit. It may have occurred to him | that “passing the hat” has become | too prominent an incident of cere- monials supposed to be consecrated to unselfish ideals. ————— | Judge Ben Lindsay continues to deliver opinions from Los Angeles dis- | cussing problems of personal romance. His files would be even more revealing | than the pink slips that go with in- come tax returns. ———————— Economists are compelled to admit that the brain trust blend of logic and logarithms s of less conse- quence in molding opinion than the | simple practice of making change | over the grocer's counter. B SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Substituted Identity. Said the cannibal king, “As best I can I strive to eat my fellow man, | And by this simple means you’'ll see Their qualities transferred to me.” Said his minister, “Should you devour The foes who fall beneath your pow’r "Twill bring you indigestion sure, ‘Which medicine men can scarcely cure, “So let me prescribe a method neat For substitution all complete. Let taxes be by them disbursed, Eat what they eat, but eat it first.” Improved Commerce. “You will find a nice comfortable studio for your session with the micro- phone,” said the radio announcer. “Thanks,” said Senator Sorghum. “This is an improvement on the old days when, if T had patent medicine to peddle, I had to use an open hack and a gasoline torch.” Jud Tunkins says he'd like to go to the Legislature if relief funds could piece out the pay so as to meet the cost of living. Patient Listener. When there is trouble in the clan Somebody has to be Instructed in a proper plan To teach a referee. There must be someone standing by ‘When others misbehave To view them with a patient sigh And murmur “Let ‘em rave!” Profit Motive. “You are deeply interested in art?” “Yes,” answered Mr. Dustin Stax. “Show me any piece of commercial paper that's as good an investment as a duly signed painting by an old master.” Disguise Doffed. “No breach of promise suits shall thrive, And now the gay Lothario gloats. Those who against his purse connive Are racketeers in petticoats. “Some men,” said Uncle Eben, “has to work terrible hard in order to look like dey is actually doin’ sumpin’ wuf while,” 1 A | enlisted strength of the Navy. OUR IDOLS BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, D.C.L, Bishop of Washington. The worship of idols is not neces- sarily the bowing down to images of wood and stone. We become idolators when we make a fetish of conceits and practices and regard them as the supreme arbiters of our thought and action. Prejudice, bias, intolerance and other expressions of our thinking and habit where they govern us in our life become idols that we pay homage and reverence to and in doing so narrow our vision, limit our affec- tions and restrict the area of our fleld of operation. Our modern life is characterized by much of this practice and many of the old ideals and whole- some conventions that we once re- garded as the high standards of con- duct have been displaced and in their stead we have set up our selfish con- ceits and to them we pay unfailing homage. In one of the ancient prophecies, namely, that of Ezekiel, xiv.4, are these words: “Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, I, the Lord, will snswer him according to the multi- tude of his idols.” These ancient prophecies have never had greater pertinence as applied to modern con- ditions than they have today; indeed, some of the utterances of these great statesmen-prophets have a distinctly modern flavor. Evidently the prophet Ezekiel was | dealing with conditions that were threatening the peace and security of the people. The abandonment of their religious convictions and the setting up of new standards of con- duct had carried them away from the wholesome practices and usages that had governed and controlled them in other and more prosperous | days. While religion was indif- | ferently held or its practices lightly maintained, they had ceased to be largely operative in the life of the people. There 1s something about this con- dition that is suggestive of our mod- ern life. We may not be prone to pay tribute to external objects that constitute idols. It is certainly true that we have come to pay devotion | to our own conceits and to regard them as the infallible guides of our daily habit and practice. Among these we name three that are generally con- spicuous in our life today, namely, self-ease, self-esteem and self-grati- fication. There are others, but these are possibly the most evident, and they exercise the largest influence upor our modern ways of living. Self-ease, the desire to have nothing interfere with our complete freedom of action or to lay upon us any restrictions, is common to most of us. If we have a diluted religious faith or a superficial conception as to its relation to our daily conduct we do not permit it to cause us any in- convenience or to lay upon us any disciplines that are irksome or un- acceptable. Our desire for complete freedom makes us unresponsive to anything that places limitations upon us. We would be unfettered and un- embarrassed by anything that dis- turbs our comfort or our assumed right to live our lives according to the dictates of our own wills. We pay unfailing tribute to the god of self-ease, Again, an undue self-esteem occu- pies an important place in our philos- ophy. Our infallibility of judgment must never be questioned. It reserves to itself the right to speak with finality upon all matters that concern belief and practice. It is a final court of authority, and from its decisions there ®no appeal. This form of self-idolatry issues in a kind of insularity of living, denies social responsibility and refuses to accept the ancient dictum that * man liveth unto himself.” It is in- dividualism carried to the nth degree. Self-gratification normally follows upon an excess of self-ease and self- esteem. It implies unrestrained {ndul- gence and utter abandonment of one's self to ways of living irrespective of the consequences they may entail on one's self or others. ‘These are some of the modern idols we worship, and they bar the way to the attainment of those high things of Christian character that are utterly indispensable to our truest develop- ment and highest attainment. Uncle Sam to Spend a Billion Dollars In Next Fiscal Year on National Defense BY OWEN L. SCOTT. Washington Naval Conference, and no | 1935—PART TWO. Capital Sidelights BY WILL P. KENNEDY. “Mistaken Identity” still stalks on Capitol Hill—as it does most every- where; oftentimes, a man gets in wrong through no fault of his own— thereby, as has Representative Harry P. Beam, Democrat, of Ohio. In the rapid fire of debate on the floor, even the reporters in the press galleries, zealously striving for exactness, oc- casionally make a mistake regarding which individual made a certain re- mark, and a member is heralded to the country for something he did not do. Quite naturally, if the matter is something for which he receives ap- plause from his constituents the mem- ber is usually not strenuous in denying the report, but if it happens to be something that gets him in wrong with the voters of his district. even more naturally he insists on a cor- rection. Thus was it with Representative Harry P. Beam—who publicly on the floor last Friday called attention to such a mistake in identity. He had been confused with Representative Carpenter, Democrat, of Kansas, who the day before had told the House relative to his participation in a con- ference of members looking toward the formation of a new political party: “If this be treason, make the most of it” Mr. Beam said in self-justi- fication: made no such statement. I have no sympathy with this move- ment. I am a Democrat and believe in Democratic doctrines, and I stand | 100 per cent behind the President of | | the United States.” This fellow Beam besides being “100 per cent behind the President” is a 100 per cent typical American, who | lived in his own balliwick since he was 7 years of age, educated in its | public schools and local universities, enlisted in the Navy during the World War, served as commander of an American Legion post. as assistant | corporation counsel of Chicago, mem- | ber of the local State and American | 1Blr Associations. Carpenter also is | a high-grade citizen and legislator | who served in the World War. He| | organized a company of Kansas In- | | fantry. He was promoted to first| lieutenant during the Argonne offen- | sive. He is a member of the Board of Education “back home.” Before he told his colleagues in his- toric words the “make the most of " Representative Carpenter ex- plained his position thus: “I do not yield in my lofty Tespect and admiration for our Speaker, Mr. | Joseph W. Byrns, to any member in this House. I do not yield in my | loyalty or my respect and admiration for the President of the United States Is the United States getting set for | until 1934. when world conferences | or the Democratic party. But I do not war? If so, with whom? If not, why ) the plans to spend $1,000,000,000 on arament during the next yea: | Answers differ. But there is no| | questioning the fact that war talk | and war preparation are getting a large amount of official attention in and out of Congress just at this time. Both the House and the Senate now have approved an administration- | backed bill to permit an increase of 46,250 men and 2,000 officers in the Regular Army. The naval appropria- | tion bill, coming next, would add 11,000 men and 1,000 officers to the Budget allotments to carry the| Army and Navy through the next | fiscal year total about $957,000,000. | That total will be increased by a| large amount of emergency spending under the guise of public works and work relief The Navy received $238.000,000 in an allotment by P. W. A. That money is going for 78 new ships. Now 24 more are to be constructed. But the fact of record-breaking peace-time military and naval ex- | penditures is not the only develop- | ment getting attention. * Xk x k Gen. Douglas MacArthur, chief of | staff, is reputed to be suggesting that | the 300,000 young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps be given an op- portunity to enlist for three months | of intensive training in the Regular Army. The corps is to be enlarged to 600,000 under present plans. Serv- | ice now is limited to one year in the forests. To top off that year of work | with Army instruction would provide the country with a large trained re- | serve. War preparation extends bevond | the Army and the Navv. President Roosevelt has a committee at work, | headed by Bernard Baruch, devising a plan to take the profit out of | the next war. His plan calls for a ' freezing of prices at the level pre- | vailing before trouble started. It is being countered by a proposal | of Senator Gerald P. Nye to place a 100 per cent tax on all income above $10.000 earned during war-| time. | Senator Nye is broadening his in- | vestigation of the country’s munitions | industry, with its profits from the World War, to include an investiga- | tion of financial transactions that oc- | curred between the European allies and American private bankers prior to our entrance into the trouble. Sen- sations are promised by the Senator. Added up, the figures show that Army and Navy expenditures for the next fiscal year are to exceed $1.000- 000,000. Another billion is going to pay for interest on the debt of the last war and for pensions grow- ing out of past wars. In the balance is an expenditure of two more billions in the form of a bonus to soldiers of a past war ST All of this sounds very warlike. Is it? Prof. Charles A. Beard, well-known historian, thinks so. He is saying that the United States has emerged from some past depressions by running into trcuble with other nations. War brings national solidarity and big spending. But this explanation gets little more than academic attention in Wash- ington. Rather, very definite reasons have been offered by officials and by Con- gressmen for the sudden interest in preparedness. Those reasons are listed as follows: 1. The world is in such an un- settled state that it is dangerous for any nation to allow its defenses to go unstrengthened. Japan has in-| creased her military expenditures about 400 per cent since pre-war years. Her navy has been enlarged until today it is stronger than the American Navy in some categories of ships. 8he is closing the door to China— a door that the United States long has sought to keep ajar. Her plans call for building a ring of steel around China, with the Philippines penetrat- ing that ring. Now Congress would counter by building & ring of steel around the United States. Plans call for making the Hawaiian Islands an impregna- ble defense outpost, threatening the line of any nation that would venture across the Pacific. Alaska islands are to be fortified and the Panama de- fenses strengthened, thus completing the- defensive triangle. Great Britain, watching the moves of the United States and Japan and of European countries, now is mov- ing to build up her military and naval power. The whole world is en- gaged in getting ready for trouble. 2. A long period of neglect of the American Army and Navy makes necessary larger expenditures at this time. During the years following the 3 on military and naval disarmament were functioning, the United States allowed her armed services to deter- iorate. The Navy went for four years without a new ship. The Army was armies in modernizing its equipment. Air services of both branches of the country's defense forces complained of neglect. Now large outlays are defended in Congress on the ground that they are needed to bring the Army and the Navy up to modern standards. Ships are being turned out as rapidly as possible under the coun- try’s largest peacetime building pro- gram. Much of the money for this building is coming out of funds ap- propriated by Congress to provide jobs for the unemployed. Harold Ickes, administrator of public works, ad- mitted to Congress that the number | of jobs growing out of the naval building program was relatively small. Both services are being brought up | to date. The operation is expensive but necessary, in the view of both branches of Congress and of the President. This country now is spend- ing more than any other nation on its ?e!enses and is to increase that spend- ng. 3. Unrest within the United States makes necessarv a larger and better equipped Army to deal with anv dis- turbances that may arise. Such is the argument advanced in Congress as an important reason for increasing the size of the Nation's standing Army. Speakers paraded the possibility of calling on trained soldiers to cope with internal trouble. They pointed out that there now are but 35,000 Regular Army officers and men stationed within the vorders of the United States. This total was described as only three times the size of the New York police force. * x x * In the past the job of maintaining order has been left to the National Guard when police forces fell dcwn That Guard has a strength of 195.000 men. It is to be enlarged and strengthened under plans already ap- proved by Congress. These are the three chief rcasons advanced fo defend the huge expendi- tures being made on the American Army and Navy. They picture the Government preparing for trouble that may develop abroad or at nome. But they leave unanswered many questions. One is: Why does this country re- quire a great fully prepared Navy, if it is interested anly in defense? Does the existing danger from any outside source justify the huge expenditures that soonar or later must be met by taxation? Another is: Does the emphasis on preparedness mean that the United States is going to move to checkmate Japan in her effort to dominate the Far East? If so, would we be bearing the burden of a struggle that really concerns Russia, Great Britain and France more than it does this coun- | Our interests are less important | try? than theirs in the region of Japanese activity. A third ’s: 1f defense alone s the object in view, why do War Depart- ment plans call for maintaining a nucleus 1or a force of 4,000,000 men? The fact is that Congress has shown an eagerness to shove the United States into the swim of world-wide military and naval preparedness. If a building race is what the other coun- tries want, they wili have to step fast from now on. (Copyright. 1935.) Simon’s Visit to Berlin Is of Great Importance BY A. G. GARDINER. LONDON, March 16—Sir John Simon’s forthcoming visit to Berlin is | an event of the first importance. In pre-war days no foreign minister ever left the purlieus of Downing Street. Diplomacy was carried on through the | medium of the resident ambassadors, and in the long period during which | Sir Edward Grey was foreign secre- tary, he only left the country once, and then not for high offlical pur- pose. But since the war the methods of | diplomatic intercourse have entirely changed, and direct personal contact between the principals has become the normal custom. Two facts are responsible for the change. The immensity and urgency of events after the war required almost ceasless conferences among the heads of the respective governments and the establishment of the League of Na- tions made it incumbent upon them to meet periodically at Geneva. The re- | sult is that exchanges of visits between the principals of governments, espe- | ea: ily bluff. “If it be treason to assemble to- | gether with members of this Con- | | gress—Democrats, Republicans, Pro- | | gressives, Farmer-Laborites—whoever | they may be—to discuss progressive | permitted to lag far behind other | legislation for the benefit of the peo- | | ple of this country—I say, ‘If this be treason, then make the most of it."" T Ew Here is a teaser for the word sharks | —those meticulous in the niceties of diction—it has already been discussed by some of the dictionary writers, ac- cording to Representative Sol Bloom | of New York, who is propounding his query to colleagues: In speaking of the anniversary of the Constitution is it proper to say the “formation” of the Constitution, or the “formulation” of the Consti- tution? Representative Bloom him- self insists that “formation” was cor- | Tect up to the time the Constitution tinkers got to work, but that now it has been emended the correct word is | “formulation.” cially the governments of France and | Great Britain, have become a com- | monplace. Sir John Simon has paid repeated visits to Paris and has also been to Rome. * ¥ % K Hitherto, however, Germany has been outside the orbit of these direct and intimate discussions. This has been especially the case since the Hi ler regime came in and since German withdrew from the Disarmament Con- ference and the League of Nations. | The result has been a stereotyping of Western Europe into two camps, with | Britamn, France and Italy (more or | less) in one group, which originated | policy, and Germany, outside. The fact that Germany's withdrawal from Geneva was largely responsible for this | did not make the breach less regret- table and one passage in the Anglo- \Frenrh communique of February 3 | was interpreted in Berlin as an at- tempt to place the conduct of nego- tiations on a Franco-British basis. | Nothing could be more fatal to those negotlations than such a suspicion, and Sir John Simon's visit to Herr Hitler is designed to remove any | ground for that suspicion. It will be the first direct personal contact that | the British government has had with the German chancellor and the issue of the discussions will be fraught with momentous consequences. B | What 1s in doubt is Sir John's | success in prevailing on the German | chancellor to accept the other pro- | | posals, about which so far he has shown no enthusiasm. This is par- | ticularly the case in regard to the | | Eastern European pact. The idea ofi | these regional pacts, by which the | peace of Europe can be consolidated | under the aegis of the League. has| | taken strong hold of the public mind and Germany has adduced no con- | vineing ground for declining to sign | the Eastern pact. If she persists in |her refusal, the fact will give | | color to the suspicion that Hitler still | entertains dreams of the extension of German influence in the East of | Europe in co-operation with Poland | | which, between the hammer of Rus- | sia and the anvil of Germany, has upparently come down on the side | of the anvil and has also declined to sign the Eastern pact. s If Sir John could prevail on Hitler to accept the Franco-British pro-| posals in this respect, he would clear | the sky of Europe of one of its most | threatening clouds and would makel the return of Germany to Geneva | practically assured. Until Germany resumes her place in the counsels of the League, there can be no confi- | dence in her Pacific intentions and no decisive program toward disarma- ment, and the measure of the suc- cess of Secretary Simon's meeting | with Hitler will be the extent to which that meeting has smoolhed‘ Germany’s path to Geneva. | But, however, strongly he presses the German chancellor to join the Eastern pact, he will not, of course, make the air convention with Britain and France dependent on Hitler's | decision about the pact. The air convention would alone go far to change the atmosphere on the Rhine. Now, as always, the rivalry between France and Germany is at the bot- tom of European unrest, and no one familiar with France can doubt the | extent to which she is oppressed by the fear of a sudden air attack | from Germany. A convention which | removed that fear would be a land- | {mark in European history. | If Sir John Simon’s visit to Berlin brings that landmark nearer, it will have done much to relieve the strain !in Western Europe. If in addition he can persuade Hitler to adopt a | policy which will remove the anxieties | on his Eastern front, he will have gone far to unravel the whole problem of European unrest. | €Copyright, 19350 ’ | habitations. | Pesukoth, by Jehudai, | in trouble. A LIBRARY OF JEWISH LAW BY FREDERIC ]J. HASKIN. There reposes at Washington the most complete library of the Jewish law In the Occident. It is a part of the Library of Congress and much of it has been assembled under the supervision of Dr. Israel Schapiro, chief of the Semitic division of the Library. The law of the Jews has an un- usual fascination because of its world- wide application. Jews have no coun- try of their own, not even Palestine, but are found in every land. Where they abide they conform to the local laws as a matter of course, but, wherever they are, they also are | ruled in large measure by their own | universal law. This is not a loose code of religion or morals; it is a statutory, codified corpus juris, which might be said to bear something of the same relation of the world’s Jewry as the Revised Statutes of the United States bear to the citizens of that Nation. And there are lawvers of the Jewish law and courts. One of the most important courts is in Lon- don and so fair have been its de- cisions, following the Jewish codes, that in cases where appeals have been taken to the English courts, the findings of the Hebrew judges nearly always have been followed and no reversals handed down. Leviticus is known as the Book of !the Law. but that is a Book of the Old Testament as used by Christen- dom. The Talmud is the Jewish Bible. For a long time the Talmud stood alone. Growth of the law and the interpretations of the law began some time later. The Amoraim and the Mishna were the first legitimate expounders of the Talmud. These so-called Tractates were partial codifications intended to simplify Talmudic law and unify practice throughout the Hebraic world. As soon as the dispersal of the Jews began, centuries ago, it was found that modifications in the law were required to meet local conditions. The Jews were dispersed, it might be said to the winds and, as seeds dispersed by the winds fall on different types of soil and must adapt themselves to thrive, so the Talmudic law must needs be adapted to fit in with local It was inevitable that a number of important codes should be set up, all. to be sure, stemming back to the fundamental law, but geo- graphically and. to some extent, poli- tically, modified. It has been part of Dr. Schapiro's work to assemble in one Jewish law library, the more important of these codes of law. On the shelves of the library are priceless tomes, some of great antiquity and rarity. The Earliest Compilations. ‘The earliest codes are classed as Babylonian. They were produced by the geonim, the heads of the acad- emies who acted as lawgivers and judges. Their decisions became in- corporated in the Jewish law in much the same way that the decisions of | such great Chief Justices as John Marshall and Roger Taney have be- come accepted as a part of the law of the United States. Law and in- terpretation. become fused. The first compilation, Sheiltoth written or compiled by Ahal, contains 191 discourses on points of Jewish law. One of the most prized pos- sessions of the Library is a veritable first edition of this epochal work. printed in Venice in 1545. ‘The second compilation, called Halakhoth one of the geonim, has survived only in frag- mentary forms. But some of the fragments, coilected and printed in 1886 at Versailles by A. L. Schlosse berg, are in the Library here. | The third compilation, called the Halakhoth Gedoloth. by some at- tributed also to Jehudai, but by others to Simeon Kayyara, who flourished | about the middle of the ninth cen- | tury, is considered of greater impor- | tance. The Library has a first edi- tion of this work. printed in Venice in 1548. An interesting fact concern- ing this compilation is that it obvi- ously was intendeg for general use | and not merely fol ars and Tale mudists because its an entire group of laws whic] bcame inopere ative of necessity the destruc- tion of the temple and the beginning | of the dispersal. | Later codexes are on the shelves of the Library and some illustrate | how secular much of the Jewish law |is. For example, there are works of Hai of Pumbeditha, translated from the Arabic, on buying and selling and on mortgages. Then there are the | notes of Eleazer Ben Aryeh and the | Mishpete Shebuoth, a work on oaths. The center of Jewish learning { moved out of the East and into North }Amca and Spain and the next great code to appear is the Code of Alfasi. This code laid down rules for the | reaching of decisions in vexed ques- | tions among the Jews. The Library | has the 1521 edition printed at Venice as well as Frankfurt, Basle. Amster= dam, Sulzbach, Vienna and Johane nisberg editions. The Rabbi Isaac | Alfasi lived from 1013 to 1103, de- voting that near century of life to study of the law and the prophets. Code of Maimonides. The most monumental of all the codes is the Code of Maimonides. Moses' Ben Maimonides lived from 1135 to 1204 and must have made of this codification his life work, so comprehensive it is It is called in the Hebrew tongue the Misnah Torah,| a term which implies that, after this, no further codification will ever be needed. The work is divided into 14 books and follows a different syse tem from the earlier codes. So thore oughly had some of the ancient de cisions impregnated the original law that their authors are not even identified; thevy are taken as part of the law itself, as, indeed, they had become through generations of ace ceptance. Concerning this great code Dr. Schapiro says: “The Code of Mai- monides represents the greatest tempt ever made to digest the entire mass of what is called oral law, scattered and complex as it is, in & logically coherent man- definitions of 1 explanations, including the customs oduced, or of Moses to Talmud: also hose of which were prin| h had been estab- able exceptior So colossal a work duced a cloud of co code and many of the commentaries are on the the Library, print Constantino in 1502 has an impressive col- be called sub- ial codes. repre- senting adaptations to meet local ree quirements. Wherever the dispersal either led or drove the Jews, scholars arose to produce interpretations of the law for them. of what or prov World Agreement on Wheat Now Unlikely BY HARDEN COLFAX. The refusal of the representatives of Argentina this week to agree to a new attempt to control wheat acreage and exports for the coming vear is re- garded as postponing, perhaps indefi- nitely, any world agreement on wheat. In August, 1933, it will be remem- | bered, an international agreement was concluded for the restriction of acre- age planted to wheat. This agreement was to have been renewed last No- vember, when the International Wheat Advisory Committee met at Budapest, but Argentina refused to agree to a renewal. It was then un- derstood that, until the so-called “Big Four” in wheat (the United States. Canada, Australia and Argentina) had agreed among themselves as to how much they would plant and ship abroad. the other countries, most of them importers, would simply mark time. Since then the world wheat situation has shown little improvement. Ac- cording to advices to the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce. plant- ings have been restricted but world prices are still very low. The present wheat adjustment con- tracts in the United States expire July 31, the end of the season of the present year. During the next few months American wheat growers must decide on a future course. It was realized in 1933 that the world situation had become acute and the Federal Govern- ment stepped in with the setting up of the Agricultural Adjustment Ad- ministration and the imposition of a processing tax, as well as other meas- ures and it is said in Washington that results so far have been in the main satisfactory. ¥ Two short crops and the adiustment program have reduced the surplus of wheat in the United States, according to a review of the general situation just issued by the A. A. A, so that by July the carry-over is expected to be down to normal. It is true that in recent years there have been changes in wheat consump- tion and the experts at the A. A. A. tell us that Americans have been eat- ing less and less wheat per capita every year for the past half century. The decline in consumption of wheat flour has been caused by sweeping changes | in the diet of the American people during and immediately after the World War Other factors include the develop- ment of the refrigerator car and other devices which have made it possible to transport meats, fresh fruits and vegetables over long distances. * ok x X In Australia, reports from govern- | ment agents in the field indicate the wheat export subsidy system is not working very well. The marketing | agency of the Argentina government has been selling wheat at a loss, but | that country continues to ship vast quantities abroad. Canada’'s wheat policy, which was originally designed to maintain the price of grain and yet keep her world markets, is also During the present sea- son Canadian exports of wheat have been disappointing. At the end of the crop year, July 31, the Dominion will probably have a carry-over of | abnormal proportions. although per- haps less than last year. Dominion officials are saying that this season Canada may be called upon to supply more than half of the | remainder of the world’s wheat re- quirements, approximately 330,000,000 bushels. Ot the 552,000,000 bushels to be consumed this season through- Fifty Years Ago . In The Star In the Star of March 13, 1885. 15 a prediction regarding the apprecia- . tion of the Americai Washington e Wadh public for Wash- Monument. 1ngton Monument, three weeks before dedicated about which has been amply verified in the course of half a century “The final dedication of the Wash- ington National Monument has given to the space-filling newspaper writers of the cou a fresh opportunity to celebrate themselves in their observa- tions on that structure. The majority of the comments are flippant in tone and unfavorable in character, but this was to have been expected, since a large majority of the sneering criticasters have never seen the Monu- ment and are therefore not compe- tent to judge its effect. But at the same time their comments show how little, as a rule, they really know about the principles of architectural art. It is casy to find fault in a gen- eral way—much easier than to po.nt out a specific objection, and still easier than to furnish something bet- ter as a substitute for that which is condemned. Most of the long-range critics therefore content themselves with an off-hand disapproval of the form of the Monument, which they pronounce ugly in itself and notable only for its bigness. And just here is where they betray their ignorance of the subject and the spirit in which their objection is conceived “It is admitted by the artists and architects of every land, as well as by the competent writers on art and architecture, literally without excep- tion, that the Egyptian obelisk is in itself the very perfection of proportion and symmetric harmony. Now the Washington Monument is in form simply the Egyptian obelisk, increased in size from five to ten fold, according to the particular example chosen for comparison. Nothing more; nothing less. The fact that one is composed of a single stone and the other con- structed of many stones has nothing to do with the principles involved in the structure or in its effect upon the eye of the beholder. The only diff ence lies in the fact that one must be inspected nearby, while the other may be seen at close range or at & distance, as the observer may choose. When it is successfully shown, there- fore. that an obelisk of one size is an object of delight while that of another size is only a subject of obloguy and abuse, then and not until then will there be some weight in the common so-called criticism of the day on the Monument as it stands. “Meantime The Star wishes to place on record the prediction that the simple and noble shaft as it now ap- pears will have the unqualified ape proval of posterity. It will grow in favor as the years go by, and the best judgment of the future will be that it is alike worthy of those who con- | ceived and constructed it and of the great personage whose fame and vir- tues it was designed to commemorate.” out the world, Government officials state, only 219,000,000 bushels had been shipped up to the end of 1934. With Russia and the Danubian wheat- growing countries reported planning to abandon exports, and this country facing a shortage, the remainder of the world requirements must come | from Canada, Argentina and Aus- tralia. A (Copyright. 1835.)