Evening Star Newspaper, March 30, 1935, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR With Sundsy Morning Editien. WASHINGTON, D. C SATURDAY.....March 30, 1835 THEODORE W. NOYES. .. Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company R oY ow E s B Bl s Rate by Carrier Within the City. e Evenine &lr" . 45¢ ver montd Thy 'E:fm‘ ‘:%'E a-.',':fi“" oot TR, e B mony {llent ol Nieht Fina; B Zfi per month Fina) Stai IQ’ for mlrfl BiRone Rationat Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. 1ly lmundu 1 yr.. $10.00: } mo. 83e £ the ‘end of Zo0s sent by ‘matl"or 000. arousal of public apprehension and the stimulation of safer driving by means of public meetings and appeals an effort should be made to correct the faults in the regulations, espe- cially with respect to the pedes- trians, who contribute the largest share of the accident total. Under the present rules and signal systems they are in constant peril, their op- portunities” to cross streets being greatly reduced by the turning ma- neuvers of the vehicles. The timing of the signal lghts can be improved, to the advantage of both pedestrians and drivers. It is not enough to teach people to use the streets with caution and to erive with care and consideration for each | others. For there are many who are unteachable, who habitually disregard rules, who drive at excessive speed. They are the crux of the problem. 50c | Their elimination as drivers is re- 80c Member of the Associated Pr: The Assoclated Press s exclusively e titled to the use for nrublluunn of 5 news dispatches credited to it or not other- wise .redited in this oa d t local news oul All rights Dublication of gvecial disatches herein are also rer Choice of Alternatives. ‘The special House committee inves- tigating crime and law enforcement in the District has heard some rather blind and pointless criticism of the District Parole Board and even of the principle of parole. But the testi- mony yesterday of Chief Justice Wheat of the District Supreme Court does not fall within that class, even though he advocates doing away with the District Parole Board entirely and transferring its job back to the Fed- eral Parole Board. For service on a parole board should not be a part-time, volunteer, service by unpaid citizens. The responsi- bility to the community is too great. It calls for a great deal of time and experienced effort. It calls for an organization of full-time, salaried workers. The effort o create the District Parole Board and to inaugurate the local system of parole was based on the highest 1otives. It was probably conceived in the beginning as eventu- ally leading to a full-time board of experts, specializing in the delicate | nature of the work before them. But instead of progressing in such a direc- | tion, the board has stood still. It has been denied the funds necessary to carry out a well-rounded program of parole work. Chief Justice Wheat's views are similar to those expressed by Dr. Loren B. Johnson, former chairman of the District Parole Board, when he resigned because of his con- clusion, after careful observation, that the board as constituted by law was capable of doing more harm than good. The alternatives seem clear enough. * Either the District Parole Board should be placed on an entirely new footing by amendatory legislation, which would supply it with paid offi- cers and adequate personnel, or else it should be done away with and the work transferred to the Federal Pa- role Board. It seems useless to ex- pect the board to function, no matter how well intentioned may be the work of public-spirited citizens who have volunteered their services, until the board is equipped with the ma- chinery necessary to make it function. Chief Justice Wheat also adds his own criticism to that which has been previously voiced in condemnation of the indeterminate sentence law, which takes away from the trial judge the discretion which he properly should possess in determining punishment. ‘This law has found few supporters. The House committee, in the program of remedial legislation which it will doubtless recommend on the basis of its investigations, should advocate its repeal. ——— Oliver Wendell Holmes gave a large share of his samall fortune back to the Government. As a good jurist, he did what he could to discourage possible litigation. —_————— Pedagogues and demagogues may move admirers of Wagnerian opera to wish for a parody referring to the twilight of the gogues. Changes of title are ineffectual, Dictators are no more free from dis- sension than kings and emperors. A Safety Campaign. Another trafic safety campaign to reduce the high mortality rate in the Distriet of Columbia has been organ- ized with the appeintment by Com- missioner Hazen of a committee of citizens. The campaign will begin April 12 and will be conducted through newspaper publicity, radio addresses, meetings, motion pictures and posters. 1t is described as a sequel to a recent appeal by the President for unified traffic laws and for a concerted effort to reduce the heavy traffic toll in this country. Everybody is concerned in this en- deavor to lessen the perils of the streets and to prevent the needless sacrifice of life to speed and reckless- ness. There is no assurance of safety at present for anybody, The people who walk and those who ride in motor cars are all equally endangered. No- body is safe as long as the traffic rules are disobeyed and incompetent drivers are permitted to range the streets and roads. Safety campaigns have been con- ducted before, with temporary results in the abatement of the casualties. But their effects have not been last- ing. The mortality records have steadily mounted until Washington is one of the most dangerous cities in the country in this respect. One rea- son is the difficulty met in the se- curing of corrective legislation. An- other is the intense concentration of traffic owing to the simultaneous starting and ending of Government work, which is now being somewhat relieved by a plan of “staggering” the hours. quired. At present the extreme penalty of revocation of license is rarely applied, whereas it should be administered frequently, until the habitually reckless driver is removed from the streets. Out of this campaign for safety should come an agreement on the part of the local authorities, including the legislators, for the drastic revision of the penalties, with assurance of competent police service to make the rules effective. ——— e Europe's Struggle for Peace. Europe's struggle to lay new foun- dations for peace, menaced afresh by Germany's rearmament plans, has advanced anothier stage with this week’s Anglo-Russian “exploratory” comversations in Moscow. There are indications that progress is being achieved, though concrete results are not yet discernible. Capt. Anthony Eden’s negotiations with Litvinoff and Stalin are con- cerned with ways and means of thwarting the general dangers threat- ened by Hitler's program. Soviet ef- forts are primarily concentrated upon convincing Great Britain of the neces- sity of curbing the Reich's aggressive ambitions' in Eastern Europe, as well as in the region of the Rhine, to which British interest in German maneuvers hitherto has been re- stricted. Until Britain has completed her soundings at the various conti- nental capitals, which set in with the Hitler-Simon conference at Berlin this | week, continued with the current Lit- vinoff-Stalin-Eden conversations at Moscow, and are now to be supple- Jmzmed by Capt. Eden’s talks with |the Polish government in Warsaw, | the extent of British participation in | collective action for Eastern Euro- pean security will not be divulged. Unofficially, it is reported that Britain is prepared to “support” but not actually to join, an “Eastern Locarno.” Sir John Simon's meeting with Premier Mussolini and Foreign Min- ister Laval at Stresa, Italy, on April 11 will have to be awaited before anything in the nature of final clari- fication is to be expected. About all that can be said with pos- itiveness at the moment is that Hit- ler's military, naval and air plans, ccupled with unabashed claims for the return of Germany's colonies, for revision of European boundaries, for “repatriation” of pre-war German peoples, for economic union with Austria, and what not, have fired the rest of Europe with an unmistakable resolve to league itself against what has manifestly become a common peril. Just how that can or will be ac- complished is for the time being problematical. Hitler at any rate must be amply convinced by events of the past fortnight that the Nazs are not going to be permitted to lord it over Europe without some kind of tnited remonstrance and resistance. ———a—— A “snub” is not easy to define. It is usually an asserticn of rugged in- dividualism at & time when mass psychology is the main consideration. “Integrating Principle.” ‘Three representatives of the Amer- ican Association of University Pro- fessors recently joined in the opinion that the city of Pittsburgh is lacking any “integrating principle” eother than the sign of the dollar. But the pedagogs, with equal justice, might have expressed a similar judgment in the case of almost any other com- munity in the United States. The dollar mark is a universal symbol throughout the country and properly might be conceived to stand for towns far less famous than the great industrial center of Western Penn- sylvania. New York, for example, is a metro- politan market which prides itself upor its frankly commercial charac- ter. Boston, again, is not exactly bashful in the assertion of its claims as & hub for active industry. Phila- delphia and Baltimore advertise their business aspects as well as their schools, their museums and other cul- tural institutions. Chicago boasts of its wealth of material advantages, and would be indignant were any one to have the hardihood to question the pre-eminence of its status as the money vortex of the Great Lakes area. Even Hallywood is not exempt from temptation to view the dollar sign with respect. But what of it? There is nothing essentially sinful in the emblem of ; : THE EVENING STAE, WASHINGTON, : : THIS AND THAT there been no rich donors to finance construction and maintenance? Lucre may be fiithy, but that depends upon what employment it is put to—it has been said that “by doing good with his money, & man, as it were, stamps the image of God upon it and makes it pass current for the merchandise of heaven.” And at its worst the dollar mark still is a representation of labor. It connotes toll, and therefore may be régarded as an “Integrating principle” not utterly to be despised. But it also is related to national honor, to the stability of constitutional government and to patriotism—factors in the Na- tion’s life and in the people’s existence which need no apology nor excuse as cohesive forces of the highest con- structive significance. It may be added that the pedagogs have been, perhaps unintentionally, unfair to Pittsburgh. The city's ma- terialism is a common fault, not pecu- liar to itself, and it should not be for- gotten that the community likewise has an idealistic side. Stephen Col- lins Foster, Ethelbert Nevin, John W. Alexander, Margaret Deland and Mary Roberts Rinehart may be cited for proof of contributions made to human enterprises which should appeal to university professors as being “inte- grating principles” not altogether un- ‘mportant. ——————————— ‘The Maryland Legislature is engaged in solving several problems at once; among them the rights of groundlings and aviators and the propriety of & sales tax. Incidentally it has indorsed “Maryland, My Maryland” as the State song. If it can settle both moot ques- tions with definite lucidity, the whole country will join in the chorus. ————————— A crash into a high-tension wire at | Bolling Field meeds no eloguence to enforce its significance as an argu- ment for better flying rules strictly enforced. The cost of putting high- tension wires underground would not be too great a price to pay for safe- guarding valuable lives. It is asserted that the next presi- dential campaign is already on. The man who is first to the microphone is not necessarily first in the hearts of his countrymen. ————— Radio announcers are demonstrating the usefulness of the ad writer as a cheering influence even when the world news is not so good. —_—————— Fisticuffs may yet elevate congres- sional encounters to the distinction of expert technical discussion on the sporting page. —_—————— Criminals are fond of the spotlight, but resent it when it takes the form of a dark lantern turned on by a policeman. Germany, having accumulated a stack of armament chips, is willing to sit in with the League of Nations. ‘Tourists are not as profitable as formerly, but a lottery helps to keep American money going across, B Communism has invariably devel- oped a situation which abandons the farms in favor of battlefields. —_———————— Even in a financial struggle Belgium becomes the sceme of early conflict. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The Friendship Flower. | Forth shall I fare to plant the seed A good friend sends with care And shield it from the envious weed Which may be lurking there. And when that seed a bloom shall bring For all the world to see It will become a cherished thing Of loveliness to me. The flaunting weed shall not deceive My careless, roving eye, And in its ruthless struggle leave My friendship bloom to die. Supervision. “Some of vour demands in connec- tion with this big appropriation seem extraordinary,” remarked the adviser. “I am trying a new system,” an- swered Senator Sorghum. “T want to provide for expert accountants before we start instead of letting their work pile up by degrees.” The Loud Noise. The old cash register I hear. It brings new rhythm to my ear. Its chattering overwhelms the rhyme Of pigs who squealed at feeding time; The “giddap” tiat would send the hoss Plowing the fertile field across. That old cash register will stand A soloist that beats the band. Getting Imposed Om. “How's the crime wave in Crimson Gulch?” “We're kind o’ humiliated,” answered Cactus Joe. “We used to think we had bad men, but now any stray ten- derfoot can hold up the town by pre- tending to be public enemy number one.” g “We built great walls to keep out our enemies,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown. “Our enemies tore them down and threw the stones at us.” Shining Mark. As we observe the troubled map In this and foreign lands Folks just keep picking on the chap ‘Who in the spot light stands. ‘When he the pathway has to trace Unto oblivion grim Another chap will take his place And all will pick on him. “Tain’ Yike de old times,” said Uncle Eben. “I kin remember when it would have been impossible to circulate all dis rough talk wifout anybody drawin’ a razor.” The Profane Trend. C., SATURD. MARCH 30, 1935. BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Watch and fountain pen manufac- turers, according to Templeton Jones, are missing & chance. Many men carry neither, he has observed. More men pre timeless and pen- less than otherwise, the astute Jones believes. He bases this on the fact that he never can find out what the time is from a friend. And he has fcund out that he is the | puts up only one he knows who carries a foun- tain pen. Everybody clce wants to borrow it. The things Jones never did, and the things he never had, would fill a large book. One of thse is & knife. Templeton Jones honestly believes that he is the only person in the world who never, positively never, at any time in his life ever carried what is known commonly as & jackknife. * k% ¥ As for watches, he has one very good one, and several very cheap ones. Still he carries none. A watch, he believes, is a matter of habit, as much as anything else. Business has very little to do with it, unless one happens to be in some line wherein exact time is necessary. Bus drivers, for instance, must carry watches, but often enough big busi- ness men never 6o so. You never can tell. Ask the average person you meet what time it is, the chance is that he will look around for a clock or guess at it. * ¥ % % The fact that many do not carry watches is no stricture against them, men already carry around too many articles. The small boy complex, which de- manded a pocketful of odds and ends, has never been relinquished. A search through 13 pockets in the average business suit would show a variety of articles, ranging from pocketbook to small comb. In between there would be hand- kerchiefs, pencils, small change, medicine, and 8o on. Pockets are so filled that many a man cannot find room for a watch. Even the so-called watch pocket is full *ox ko Perhaps a little suspected reason for failure to carry one’s own per- sonal timepiece lies in the fact that watches are so often dropped. Often enough this means that the teller of time is put out of commis- sion—and the owner fails to take it to the repair ma He puts it away, thinking that some time he will go to the jeweler’s with it, but as time passes he fails to do so. One of the reasons for this is the prevalence of large clocks everywhere. It is impossible in a modern city to go more than a block without meeting a clock face to face. 1t is on the corner, or in a window, or in a store, or some place along the line. Along every bus route, for instance, there will be one or more clocks to | tell the craning passengers whether they are on time or not. Too often they are not. Why is it that so many persons are able to get to work at 9:02 o'clock, who cannot ! STARS, MEN Possibly make it squarely on the hour? A watch in the pocket would do such folks no good. They are the chron- fcally late. - Templeton Jones, being & punctual man, believing in it, goes to extremes. He has two alarm clocks, one elec- tric, one wind. He sets the first at 4:30 am, the second at § am. When the electric alarm buzzes, he with the noise as long as he can, then he gets out of bed, turns off the buzzer, and goes back to sleep again. Half an hour later the spring alarm clock tunes up, but he permits it to run clear down. > In between his two clocks he has enjoyed those sweetest of all mo- ments, in the half-doze which follows the first alarm clock. ‘This is an idea which Jones would like to suggest to all persons who want to get the most out of life. Every one knows that to be able to roll over and go to sleep again, or re- main in a doze, after the alarm rings, is one of the real joys of modern life. Few seem to have thought of the two-clock idea, however. * * ¥ ¥ ¥ As far as Templeton Jones knows to the contrary, he is one of the few persons in the world with a fountain pen, if he can judge by the regularity with which all of his friends ask him for the loan of it. Despite the many and glowing ad- vertisements of these writing instru- ments, Jones knows dozens of men who must look around frantically for an ink bottle and & steel pen every time they desire to sign a check. ‘Templeton has even gone to the ex- tent of suggesting that modern pens are cheap and seldom leak in the pocket. It does no good. Everybody demands his personal pen. There is Iron-Grip Bill, who presses down heavily. Even the pen that is guaranteed to withstand a leap from Pikes Peak cannot ever write quite the same after Iron-Grip Bill gets hold of it. So Templeton Jones has gone to the | extreme of keeping his coat tightly | buttoned when Bill is around. Surely it is a curious thing, how a man who would never think of asking for the loan of a watch will ask for a fountain pen without batting an eye. Often enough he will use it, then calmly put it into his own pocket, forc- ing the wary owner to keep an eye on it all the time it is in action. This little problem of the everyday has been solved by the astute Jones easily enough. He takes the pen off the clip and slides it down in his pocket, so that it is not visible to possible borrowers. The only trouble comes when he happens to stoop over, say to pick up a fallen paper. Then the pen slides out on the floor, right in the face of Iron-Grip Bill. “Ah! loan me your pen, old fellow,” he chortles. Seizing it, he pushes it down on paper until the nibs spread widely, never to come together again. ‘Templeton Jones groans and wishes the manufacturers would redouble their campaigns. With America nine- tenths penless, the fleld is wide, he feels, AND ATOMS Notebook of Science Progress in Field, Laboratory and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. Picture & man in a cell without door or windows, with walls of solid granite 2 feet thick ‘Would it be possible for him to dash headfirst against one of the walls and, instead of cracking his skull, go right through to frecdom? Contrary to the answer of common sense, the prisoner might succeed if he tried it often enough—say 1,000 times a day for a billion decillion years. And. of course, he might go| through the very first time he tried it. | His chances of success can be cal- culated by a very precise formula— perhaps the most fundamental mathe- matical statement evolved by the new physics to explain some of the myste- ries of sub-atomic phenomena. But one factor i this formula is one octrillionth, a fraction represented by the figure one over 1 followed by 27 visiting fessor of physics at George Wumnxwm'l): University, has been able to the puszle of the radio- activity of elements. When Prof. Gamow first ":esented his theory in London, Lord Rutherford, the man who first was able to bring about artificial transmutation of elements, accepted it with the remark that at last had been solved the old mystery of the detective story—escape from the room without doors or windows. Prof. Gamow himself uses s differ- ent analogy. Take, for example, an obstruction a centimeter thick. Fire at it a bullet weighing one gram with a force only half that necessary for it to go through—say at a speed of a kilometer a second. Would it be possible for the bullet to go all the way through the ob- struction? Yes, says Dr. Gamow—once in ap- proximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 000,000,000,000,000 times. Take the population of the earth, in round numbers, as approximately 2,000,000,000. Supposing everybody on earth fired just such a shot 10 times a day every | day of their lives. It would require 1,000,000,000,000,~ 000,000,000 years, on the average, for sponsible for some of the most im- portant phenomena in the universe. 1f they didn’t happen this earth would years. And oae can get through an atom of Radium C, the shortest-lived of the elements, once in a ten-thous- andth of a second. For there the distance to be traversed is about s trillionth of a centimeter and the particle is moving at a speed of a billion centimeters a second. If no difficulties were encountered the re- action should proceed at the rate of once in a sextrillionth of a second. But in both cases. considered from the point of vicw of classical mathe- matics, ihe alpha particle couldn’t get out, for its energy is too small and the walls too thick for it to get through. It s in precisely the posi- tion of the bullet striking an obstruc- tion a centimeter thick with only half the energy necessary to get through. ‘The nearer the energy approaches that actually required to penetrate the wall the better the chance that the “impossible” will happen. The chance happens to oe very great in the case of thin-walled Radium C, very great in the case of much heavier uranium, and impossibly great in the case of the man in che closed cell. * % x % The introduction of Prof. Gamow’s wave mechanics hypothesis into the field of radiation literally explains the unexplainable. Under any “common sense” hypoth- esis, radio-active disintegration either would be an instantaneous process— l dependent only on the speed of the alpha particle—or it could not pos- sibly take place. The speed of the process would not depend upon the element, yet physicists knew that this speed proceeded at very different and very precise rates. The speed of alpha particle emmis- sion, in fact, was so precise that it provided most accurate time scale for measurement of the age of rocks in which radio-active elements with slow disintegration rates were found. Hence, says Prof. Gamow, since the observed facts did not agree with clas- sical mechanics the old explanations had to be discarded. They could be considered only fair approximations which had served their purpose. Mr. Mellon’s Art Gift to The American People ‘To the Editor of The Star: The fare and should silence to some extent the cry of a certain type of individual who forever condemns the wealthy or even well to do and claims they are all parasites and grinding down the poor and less fortunate, for here is a man who contributes an art collec- tion that even the poorest man and woman can enjoy. I notice that often the people who condemn others as & rule are the ones who do the least for themselves, and the Communists and the Socialists Who begrudge the means that others possess often ignore the fact that many people do today use their money for the general good of all and give, like Andrew , money for libraries but is due simply to the fact that |y Fither that, or they ask Jones for | THE LIBRARY TABLE BY SARAH G. BOWERMAN. ONE LIGHT” BURNING. By R. C. Hutchinson. New York: Farrar & Rinehart. In “The Answering Glory” and “The Unforgotten Prisoner,” Mr. Hutchin- son proclaimed himself a romanticist, perhaps a bit of a sentimentalist. This statement will only recommend him to many readers who are tired of “stark truth.” He here describes a heroic quest across the wastes of Siberia and with it a moving love story, all in un- fashio; to a reader who would like more defl- nite information about who the char- acters are and what they are doing. Andrew Wild, idealist, goes into 8i- beria in search of Franz Grundmsann, who has disappeared somewhere in the lonely interior, whither he has gone to convert a tribe of Tartars. Unac- countably, Wild has persuaded four other men to go with him: Matt, the financial backer; Paillard, a physi- cian; Guller and Keel. The sufferings | ... o of the party are almost unbearable, from cold, fatigue, the glaring white- ness. One of the five becomes mad, another is incapacitated from a gan- grened foot and a third is left with him, but the remaining two go dog- gedly on, The return, told in the sec- ond part of the story, when Andrew fights against the sinister enemy sleep, is even more dramatic than the first part. Andrew is also an idealist i his love for Greta Brissaut, wife of Sandy. We are able to discover noth- ing in Greta, either in the way of physical attractiveness or cleverness, to explain Andrew’s worship. We no- tice her chiefly because she is very seasick. * ok ® % SHEPHERDESS OF SHEEP. By Noel Streatfeild. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock. A member of Parliament, an in- valid wife and four children make up the Lane family. Sarah Onions is sent by an agency to the Lane coun- try home as shepherdess for the chil- dren, or at least the two who are out of the nursery. Five other governesses have been sent before her and have remained only a month each. Prob- ably the reason why she remains much longer, many years, is that her per- fect honesty and whimsicality appeal to the invalid Mrs. Lane at the be- ginning and her unselfish devotion later wins complete confidence. Sarah becomes the real mother of the four children even before Mrs. Lane’s death and her bequest letter tie her |Q to them altogether. There is Jane, the problem child, who is “differ- ent,” and because of her Sarah will not marry Dr. Jim, though she loves him and is not afraid of the poverty he offers. Then the need for her suddenly comes to an end and, after nearly 10 years, she is back at the agency office. She finds that “times have changed,” the World War has been fought, most people no longer employ governesses and those who do require university degrees. But Sarah is indomitable and accepts the suggestion that she take a post as a mothers’ helper. She wonders if Dr. Jim has seen a notice of Jane'’s death in the newspapers, then reflects that of course he has married by this time. We hope he hasn't, but we are not told. ‘“Shepherdess- of Sheep” is a story of an old-fashioned, self-sacri- ficing woman, told with great charm and with fine character portrayal. % e THE ROYAL WAY. By Andre Mal- Taux, bert. New York: and Robert Haas. ‘The jungle of Siam was crossed in former times by a great road, “the royal way,” from Angkor to the basin of the Menam River, and its route is today marked by ruined temples whose stone carvings are of rare artistic value. In search of some of these illicit treasures the French Perken and his friend Claude go into the jungle and there meet all imaginable dangers with which the miasmic tropics can thwart and strangle their victim. Their guides and drivers desert, hostile natives assail them with poisoned darts, their minds are threatened by horrible sights. The tale is a lurid one, whose basis is hor- ror and wild adventure, with a large admixture of sensuality. Malraux be- longs to the French school, in which Pierre Loti was an early practitioner, which seeks plots and atmosphere in exotic places and among barbaric characters. He received the Goneourt Prize for his earlier novel, “Man’s Fate.” Harrison Smith * X X % THE EXTRAORDINARY HOUSE. By Rosita Forbes. New York: Fred- erick A. Stokes Co. South American background is here so well depicted, from the author’s own experiences of travel, that it often pushes the story of passion and mur- der into second place. A boat load of English passengers on a cruise arrives at Montevideo, where Mrs. Wraxen- don, her niece, Jean Langford; Tony Walwyn and George and Kay Strang decide to leave the boat and their fel- low passengers, of whom they are tho tired. Agnes Wraxendon, for the sake of “local color,” takes & house 10 miles out of town, covered with bougainvillaea and orange trumpet flower and surrounded by eucalyptus avenues and aisles of gum trees. The extraordinary house is haunted, for it has seen violent love &nd violent death. The English vis- itors find out a good deal about the house before they leave it and are in- | pe fected by its violent past, so that sur- prising conflicts break out among them. George and Kay Strang, hap- pily enough married, discover them- selves duplicating the earlier tragedy of the extraordinary An un- usual plot is handled with skill and growing suspense. . BOOKS RECEIVED. Neon-Fiction. EVERYBODY'S SHAKESPEARE. Three plays (“The Merchant of Venice,” “Julius Caesar” and “Twelfth Night”). Edited for reading and arranged for staging by Roger Hiil and Orson Welles. ‘Woodstock, Ill.: The Todd Press. Translated by Stuart Gil- | ¢, ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN. W stamp for reply. Q. How did the custom of having hot cross buns on Good Friday start?—M. 8. A. The custom is very old. The buns originally were supposedly Congress in March, 1791, was the objection to this tax law that there was an outbreak which necessi- tated President Washington’s calling out an army of 15,000 to subdue it. Q. What salaries do the justices of the United States Supreme Court get? —F. B. A. The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court receives $20,500 & year, the associate justices $20,000. Q. Who said, * ignorance is bliss, "tis folly to be "?2—S. C. M. A. This sentiment is very old and has occurred before in literature, but this adaptation is from Gray's “On a | Distant Prospect of Eton College.” Q. Could all the people in the United States ride in automobiles at the same time?—L. E. A. Since the country’s motor car registration is about 24,000,000, it could be managed by averaging slightly more than five persons to each car. Q. What buried the ancient cities which have been uncovered from time to time?—J. B. 8. A. In studying the history of an- cient cities which have been excavated, | it is generally found that various fac- tors have contributed toward their burial, as for instance, conquest, de- struction by fire, volcanoes or earth- juakes. In many instances the in- habitants left the town, returning after the disaster to raze what was left of the town and rebuild on the | same site. Thus, excavations at Troy | have shown that there were some nine cities on the same site at different | periods. In some instances ancient ! cities have been buried by sand-| storms. | P Q. What was meant by the do- ‘[ mestic system of England’—J. G. R.| A. The name is applied to the sys- tem of household industry which pre- | ceded the factory system. There was little factory work previous to the early eighteenth century. Industrial | projects, particularly textiles, were largely manufactured in the homes | under the personal supervision eitheri of the merchant or his deputies. Due | to this hours were variable and wages | were unregulated. This resulted in a system known as sweating, of which there is still much today in work done at home. Q. How old is President Masaryk of | zechoslovakia?—W. S, i A. The President of Czechoslovakia ‘was 85 years old on March 7. Q. How does the road mileage of the United States compare wit of all of Buroper—at np T R A. The United States has about 3,- 009,065 miles of roads, while Europe has 3,340,616 miles. Q What kind of glass is cameras?—W. H. Z. e e A. It is specially d o ground optical Q. How many Bibles are owned in the United States?—O. L. 8. A. It is quite impossible to say how many Bibles are in existence in the United States. The American Bible Society alone has issued in the 105 years of its existence 141,729,340 vol- . | Umes of Scriptures, of which 25,000,- 000 were complete Bibles. Q. Who is the pianist who has won distinction in playing compositions with his left hand only? His right arm was amputated—H. B. A. The musician is Wittgenstein, who returned last Fall to appear with orchestras, in joint recitals and in chamber music concerts. Q. What caused the death of Na- poleon’s son?—K. B. A. Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles, Duke of Reichstadt, although very frail, indulged in physical exercise far beyond his powers. This aggra- vated a natural weakness of the chest and he died on July 22, 1832, Q. Which is larger, China or the United States?—B. O. A. China is a little larger. The con- tinent of the United States has an area of 3,026,789 square miles. China, not including Manchoukuo, has an area of 3,853,560 square miles. Q. How much money is spent on the game by bridge devotees?—H. J. K. A. Last year bridge players spent approximately $5,000,000 for 2,500,000 books on bridge. Four million dollars was the outlay for 17.000,000 decks of cazds, while bridge accessories amounted to $168,000. Bridge teachers received $8,000,000 for lessons during the year. Q. Is there to be a Federal exhibit at the California Pacific International Exposition at S8an Diego this Summer? —T. N. L. A. Participation was authorized by Congress, March 7, 1935. Joseph W. Hiscox will be the Federal commis- sioner in charge of Pederal exhibits. Q. Is the tuberculosis rate extremely high among Indians?>—J. T. A. There are seven times as many deaths per thousand from tuberculosis among Indians as for the rest of the United States population. Q. Is there such a thing as carrot marmalade?—K. L. A. There is. Grate s dozen raw carrots, add a cupful of sugar for each cupful of grated carrot, and allow the mixture to stand over night. In the morning add the strained juice of three lemons, a teaspoonful of powered cinnamon, & teaspoonful of powdered cloves and a teaspoonful of allspice. Cook the mixture slowly for an hour. Seal the marmalade in glass jars. Q. How many veterans of all United States wars are dying daily?>—F. C. A. About 78 World War veterans, 17 Spanish-American War veterans and 15 Civil War veterans die per day. Q. How can it be said that Ellis Island is foreign soil?—T. R. A. This refers to the fact that in enlarging the jsland land was made by permitting foreign ships to dump their ballast there. Dangerously Confused Situation as to Liquor Regulation To the Editor of The Star: No other secular newspaper has con- tributed more to the present vantage ground of Montgomery County as a residential section than The Star. It is deemed sppropriate, therefore, that I should address you upon an unbal- anced status fraught with immediate danger to its present civilization, which has been established here through years of material develop- ' ment and character building. Mont- | gomery County was one of the first in the Nation to adopt, by direct vote of its people, the local option system with reference to the sale of intoxi- cating liquors. Prior to the enact- ment of the eighteenth amendment, this law had been perfected by re- peated amendments in such manner that its acceptability to the electorate was practically universal, and it re- mained in full force and effect dur- in Montgomery Co. having been filed, that territory is now wholly under the dispensary system. Of the balance of the districts, Barnesville and Damascus remain dry, for lack of a 30 per cent petition to the contrary. In the remaining dis- tricts of Laytonsville, Poolesville, Clarksburg, Colesville, Darnestown Olney and Gaithersburg. an election is to be had in each such district on the fourth Tuesday in April, 1935. Under the State law, as applied to Montgomery County, with the excep- tion of certain leading non-profit- making clubs with athletic features. no hard liquors are authorized to be dis- pensed in the county through any agency except the dispensary, and then in sealed packages, and it would now require an act of the Legislature to permit the holders of licenses to sell beer or light wines, to indulge in the commercialized business of sell- m:tflqum of a higher alcoholic con- ing the period of the existence of | ten the eighteenth amendment and the Volstead act. Having been enacted by direct vote, it was natural to as- sume that it should not be repealed, in part or in whole, without an op- portunity for a direct vote of the political unit embracing the whole county. At the extraordinary session of the General Assembly of 1933, however, while the State Senator was The experiences of the last two years have resulted in the proposal, through & bill introduced by Mr. Ma- gruder of Montgomery County, to re- quire a closing of the places of sale of liquors on Sunday, and such bill has passed the House, and its enactment depends primarily upon the action of the State Senator from Montgomery County. ill, a majority of the delegates in the House of Delegates from Mont- gomery County concurred in the en- ;ct:nent of two statutes on the sub- ject. One of them was contained in the State-wide law which undertook to establish the dispensary system as the means through which liquors might in any part of Mont- gomery County. The other was a local law for Montgomery County, under which the registered voters might determine, through referendum vote by districts in April, 1935, whether YOUNG WARD'S DIARY. A human | liqu and eager record of the years between 1860 and 1870 as they were lived in the vicinity of the little town of Towanda, Pa.; in |it would be the field as & rank and file sol-|of dier in the Union Army and later in the Nation's Capital, by Lester Ward, who became the first great sociologist the country produced. Edited by Bernard J. Stern. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. THE LINDBERGH CRIME. By 8id- ney B. Whipple. New York: Blue Ribbon Books. ‘WAR IS A RACKET. By Smedley D. Butler. New York: Round Table Press. HISTORY OF THE BARON De HIRSCH FUND. The American- ization of the Jewish Immigrant. By Samuel Joseph, Ph. D. New York; Printed for Baron De Hirsch Fund by the Jewish Pub- lication Society. VALUES. By William F. Fowler. Lynbrook, N. Y.: William F. Fowler. BAZAAR OF DREAMS. A collection Dop Rockwell (Mohamiped Feisal), On the other hand, there has been introduced in, and passed by, the State Senate and is now pending in the House of Delegates a bill under which tea houses, inns and restau- rants of a defined type may be per- mitted, under license, to include in their commercialized business the sale of hard liquors. If such a bill should pass there would be a radical departure from the basic theory of the dispensary law. People from the City of Wash- ington would be induced to go far out into the country, where police protection is meager and intoxicated drivers are dangerous. The higher the license, the more necessary it would be to popularize these sellers of hard liquors, and the natural tend- ency would be to stimulate develop- ment of night clubs in the rural and residential sections of Montgomery County. Furthermore, to pass such a law at this particular time, on the very eve of what should be & fair and un- influenced referendum election, in some of these districts at least, the commercial stakes would be so great 8s to induce, or make possible, a con- test in which the element of pro- spective licenses to sell hard liquor would be a source of confusion and interference in an election which, at worst, should be on its merits, un- mixed with mercenary interests. GEORGE H. LAMAR. A Rhyme at Twilight B Gertrude Brozke Hamilton Possessions .| These things are mine by heritage and | " birtn: m:p‘ee-vamn‘me in God's rich The house from generations willed to me, 'l‘hke”delkmwhlchmylmhg!dms The lifelong friends that are my ovn dower— The dreams I choose to fill my twi= 3 )