Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1935, Page 33

Editorial Page Civic Activities EDITORIAL SECTION he Sunday Star Part 2—10 Pages WAR TREND CRYSTALLIZED BY RECENT CONFERENCE German Purposes and Activity Uniting Foes With Certainty of New Outbreak. U. S. Circumspection Necessary. BY FRANK H. SIMONDS. ] E period which lies between | the conversations of London | and the conference of Stresa has already proved to be one of the most interesting and important fortnights in post-war history. The talk in Berlin between | Hitler and Simon served to crystal- | lize the situation. It put an end | to the vague hopes, and even more | nebulous plans, for averting actual | collision between irreconcilable pol- | icies by patching up the post-war | peace machinery once more and again prolonging the time of make- believe. Europe now knows what ! Germany wants and realizes that | these objectives can be attained only by war. | Broadly speaking, the German de- | mands are twofold. On the terri- | torial side Hitler has outlined his | purpose to bring about Austro-Ger- | man union, first economic and later | political, to include within the Reich the three and a half millions of the German-speaking population dwell ing on the perimeter of Czechoslo vakia from the basin of the Oder to that of the Danube and, in addition, | to recover Memel immediately and | the Polish Corridor eventually. On | the military side Der Fuehrer pur- | poses to create an army equal to the French, man for man and gun for gun; an air force second to none | and & navy capable of dominating the Baltic. | ‘What Hitler asks on the military | side amounts to the necessary means to take what he wants on the ter- | ritorial. It should be noted that Ber- lin has denied the Corridor detail and at least disguised the Memel intent. What the chancellor seems | to have told Simon, apart from a lot | of deliberate propaganda designed to | exploit obvious British dislike and distrust of the Soviet Union, was that Germany was resolved to apply the | old program of pan-Germanism to | Central Europe. Some 10 or 11 mil- lion Teutons living in the Austrian | and Czech fractions of the old Haps- | burg monarchy are thus to be united | to the 65,000,000 of the Reich. The | program foreshadows also the ex- | tinction of all but nominal inde- | pendence of the 7.000,000 Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia. Hitlerian Prospectus. A state containing almost 80,000,000 people and controlling the destinies ' of seven more, occupying the whole of | Central Europe and extending its | economic mastery and its political in- | fluence to the Aegean and the Black | Seas—this is the Hitlerian prospectus. | ‘This plan dooms the Austrian Repub- | Germans alike of Austria and Czecho- slovakia the privilege of deciding their own allegiance by plebiscite. It is true that in this respect the right of Germany to unity comes into -ollision with the right of Europe to security. It is evident that as the German peoples seem to be preparing to fight to establish unity, the peoples of other states are getting ready to fight to maintain their security. Nec- essarily Germany will be the techni- cal aggressor because the status quo which she is seeking to destroy con- stitutes the public law of Europe— based as it is upon treaties. Unques- tionably the domestic record of Na- tional Socialism will be made the basis for endless denunciation by those who sympathize with the vic- tims of Nazi persecutns, who loathe the principles set fortn in Hitler's book, who identify Germany as the culprit because the Reich has quit the League and rejected the post-war ideals of collective peace. But simple justice demands that one should recognize that the treaty law was framed by victors, that the unilateral disarmament imposed by |the treaty rendered a great people defenseless, and that -the countries which at Paris denied the German populations of Austria and Czechoslo- | vakia the right to choose their own | allegiance, claimed that right for the | Poles within the frontiers of pre-war | Germany and thus shattered the unity of the Reich. And, above all, it must be remembered that to escape from the restrictions placed upon her means of self-defense and her right to ethnic unity on equal terms with other peoples, Germany has no resource but | armed conflict. Danger of U. S. Confusion. Personally, I do not think any one will accuse me of sympathy either with National Socialism or with pro- German tendencies. Nevertheless I do feel it essential to point out that there is grave danger that American opinion will be unthinkingly led to confuse the basic case of Germany with the character and performances of the men who at the moment con- trol her destinies. We are not here confronted by the simple phenomenon of a militaristic and imperialistic na- tion plunging the world into war anew to gratify ambitions which are selfish and aspirations which are unfounded. On the contrary, we are faced by th spectacle of a great people which, denied rights which others hold im. prescriptible, has turned to violent leaders and violent means to attain | ends which in many instances cannot be condemned. By contrast, those peoples which | | | | | lic and involves the partition if not | are arraying themselves against Ger- | the elimination of Czechoslovakia. It | man purposes and have stood fast | Panyhad shutdown 12 of its 13 opera- directly menaces the security of Italy by establishing a common frontier be- tween Germany and Italy. It indi- rectly threatens French security by undermining the balance of power. Napoleon, at the heyday of his im- perial fortunes, did not possess the relative strength in the presence of other states which Hitler now seeks to gain. Therefore it must be plain | that if Europe is to escape from a | repetition of the Napoleonic episode | it must prevent the creation of a German Mitteleuropa which, at best, could only be demolished after a new war at least as destructive as the last. l And since the things Hitler means to | have or to do constitute a peril to| Italy, France, the Soviet Union and the nations of the Little Entente (Ru- mania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslo- vakia), it is reasonable to expect that these countries will now proceed to create a common front against an identical foe. As for the position Poland will take, that remains ob- | scure, but signs are not wanting that Warsaw is quite properly becoming nervous about German plans in Pomorze and in the Netze district. Under the existing circumstances, 1t would seem obvious that this com- bination of continental powers which is rapidly taking form would suffice | to surround Germany with a ring of steel and make war for Hitler a des- perate gamble to be undertaken only in the face of desperate economic conditions. Nevertheless, as long as Great Britain stands aside from such & coalition, her course will serve alike as an encouragement to German hopes and a spur to German prepara- tions. By contrast, if Britain goes Wwith the Continent, then, as Hitler’s hopes sink, his despair must become - mel:t flc:m'. at makes the British situation difficult is the realization that no mat- ter what else happens England can- not permit National Socialist Ger- many to win a continental war with- out sacrificing its own security. No matter how just German claims may be in many details, no matter how unfairly she may be treated in vari- ous respects, the simple brutal truth is that the hour in which the Ger- many of Hitler's dreams takes form, not only the security of the British Isles, but the safety of the British Empire will be in danger. That is why the German hopes of keeping England out of the next war are without real foundation. But it is utterly unlikely that British states- manship will feel free to take an un- compromisingly anti-German atti- tude. For while Britain's material interest is clear she must still have a moral justification for an inevitable decision, Alert and Anxious Foes. With or without Poland, then, Ger- many is henceforth to be isolated in all Europe and encircled on the con- tinent by alert and anxious foes. ‘While her armaments are expanded at a furious pace, those of the sur- rounding countries will be extended at an equal rate. Little by little the truth will be recognized everywhere that the end of the process is war. And meantime incidents like the re- cent affair of Memel will serve to keep the nerves of Europe constantly on edge and the tempers of statesmen aroused. One day some incident will come like that of Serajevo and that will bring’the explosion. Americans who are watching this impending conflict from afar must. however, preserve a degree of ob- Jjectivity in considering the issues in- volved. Germany’s claim to parity in armaments with all other powers rests upon inherent rights of sov- ereignty and the attempt permanently to deny those rights, expressed in the treaty of Versailles, was as unreason- able as it was unsound. Not less plai Germanys right to claim for th" rights, are in their turn faced by the inescapable fact that if Germany | °0- reaches her objectives she will be | fully able to proceed from that point and destroy the liberty of the con- WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 7, 1935. Millions in Bootleg Coal Hard Times Have Fostered a New and Unusual $20,000,000 Method of Meeting Unemployment. BY HELEN ELIZABETH DA'VIS. TAKE the road any day from Philadelphia to Reading and | Pottsville and you will meet a | stream of trucks loaded with | coal. First at intervals of sev- | one after another, on they roar— | trucks of every size, make and color. A few of them are new, most of them are in good condition, some obviously | have been trundling the roads for many years. A number have home- built bodies of rough boards. What- ever its age or condition, each truck carries its broom or shovel stuck up- | right in the lcad. This is bootleg coal | coming to market in Pottstown, Nor- | ristown, Philadelphia, Chester, Wil- | mington, Baltimore and way stations. | Presently you lose all intérest in the | landscape and begin to count brooms | and shovels. Twenty-five, 50, 75, as your engine devours the miles. By | the time you reach Pottsville the count | may easily rise to 150 or 160, while on your side of the road you have been contending with returning empties in equal number. Make inquiries in Pottsville about this bootlegging of coal; drive through | the hills and valleys surrounding thei town. You will discover a drama ! which turns the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves into a mere child'’s | tale. Pottsville lies on the southernmost | edge of the lower anthracite coal fleld. t is a city built upon coal. physically | nd financially. In the valleys round | about the town rise up the dark masses of coal breakers and mine tipples— but today the breakers are silent, the tipples empty; their machinery is rust- ing away. The mines are shut down. ‘The collieries of this field began to close in 1927. By 1930 one coal com- | i tions, concentrating production at two | 0 | against the restoration of German And so it went | Central American governments have | and obligatory. At some coal properties, strip-| indorsed the program of the Bolivarian | huge new breakers. ping and open pit mining were sub- | stituted for underground mining. In | the stripping method the earth or rock | | ORGANIZATION IN THE MAKING—A GROUP OF BOOTLEG MINERS, official organ of the United Mine ‘Workers of America in this field, states that the most conservative es- timates place the total of illegiti- mately mined coal at 3,000,000 tons per year. tons a year, with a value at the mines of $20,000,000. In the face of this gigantic theft the powerful coal companies are helpless. Enormous Coal Banks. All over the anthracite fleld can be seen enormous banks of coal, com- posed mostly of “fines,” but contain- ing also some large coal. The com- panies found it unprofitable to re- screen these dumps, but when out- side interests have tried to buy the | waste piles the coal companies have | refused dum, to sell. Naturally, these ps have always tempted miners, & One of the big coal com- | eral miles, then in steady succession, | panjes puts the figure at 5,000,000 | o STRIP MINING—SUCH METHO oF but the companies kept a pretty close watch and any one caught taking s0 much as a bucketful of coal would be haled before a magistrate and | fined. After the 1930 shut-downs the mine wners, by ceasing to prosecute thefts, tacitly allowed the miners to feed their fires from them. ‘The miners, however, did not stop with feeding their own fires. They took home an extra bag of coal to sell to a neighbor who still had work, or to the storekeeper to pay for groceries. The owner of an auto- mobile might even peddle a few bags in the neyt town. But the dump coal did not sell for very much. The miners realized that they could make more money by leaving the dumps alone and mining large coal for sale. |~ What could be simpler? The miner had merely to walk into the woods | BOLIVIA’S PROGRAM WINS GOVERNMENTS’ APPROVAL League’s Aim to Spread Gospel of Pan- Americanism Among the Masses Gains Important Ground by Indorsements. BY GASTON NERVAL. LL sincere advocates of pan- Americanism, of genuine and effective pan-Americanism, will rejoice in the news that several of the Southern and A League of International Action. Established for the purpose of dis- seminating the lofty ideals of interna- |own representatives, which would guarantee their security, peace and progress through mutual co-operation. In other words, he advocated an American league of nations, but a league of nations with teeth, practical Treaty Stands for Ideals. Nowhere are the Bolivarian ideals |of union and reciprocal aid better DS WORK. tinent and abolish the independence | Which overlies the coal seams is first | of other nations. And the intention | loosened with explosives and then re- | tionalism and of continental union | demonstrated than in the treaty of | which Simon Bolivar preached more | URion, league and perpetual confed- to achieve these further ends is dis- | MOVed With a power shovel. Then the | coverable in the prospectuses of Hitler and of his recognized spokesmen. Thus it is equally unfair to denounce the nations and the statesmen who in the past have resisted and still oppose German rearmament. In a word, as the probability of a new war in Europe—perhaps next year, perhaps not for five years— grows ever plainer, Americans should be on their guard against being seduced into seeing such a conflict | as a combat between right and wrong, | with the balance on the moral side | | tipped by the character or the per- formances of the men who lead on either side. Ever since the close of the World War the United States has been drenched by a sort of | digging down 20 to 40 feet it is pos- pseudo-morality which asserted that peace was an ethical, and not a political, question, and that only the wicked could undertake a new con- flict. The truth is that the World War changed nothing in the relations be- tween European nations, because there was no way under the sun by which the right of the German people to unity and to parity in armaments could be reconciled with the right of the rest of Europe to security and the means to insure their own independence. And, while many have argued convincingly as to the wrong done Germany in denying her unity and parity, none has ever been able to prove that she would not employ the power thus assured her to dom- inate a continent and disturb a world. In a word, while two wrongs do not make a right, two rights not infre- quently make a war. And we are face to face with the collision be- tween these rights. Collisions Appear Certain. During the next few years, unless all signs fail, we shall see Europe divided into two camps and witness ever-recurring collisions between the countries belonging to the two camps. If war ultimately comes it will prob- ably come through some German action, just as the present crisis in Europe is the direct consequence of German _ policy and performance alike. In such circumstances the first instinct will be to denounce as an aggressor the country whose act is technically the signal for the catastrophe. And such a reaction will flow from the fact that Amerl- cans have been taught that a country and a people no longer have any moral right to fight, save in self- defense. We shall be told that if only she had waited Germany would have had her rights recognized, but the truth is that Europe can never in any calculable time recognize Ger- man rights without compromising its own. At the Berlin meeting, Hitler'’s statement to Great Britain was a challenge to Europe. He laid down & program of military expansion and territorial revision which, taken to- gether, would constitute a peril to Europe, collectively. That challenge will doubtless be taken up by the im- periled countries other than England in no long time and probably by Britain eventually. But let us Amer- icans begin by perceiving that, while the system of France and Britain is democratic and that of Germany dic- tatorial, and while the policy of Ger- many is explosive and the purposes of France and Great Britain pacific, these details have nothing whatever to do with the issues involved. If American neutrality is to be yre- served in a next war in Burope, o coal is loosened in & similar manner | and loaded into trucks. A power shovel with a crew of 15 men can dig | and load 300 tons of coal a day. An underground mine producing 300 tons a day would employ 100 men. Jobs Lost by Thousands. ‘Thus thousands of miners have been thrown out of their jobs. The great majority have been unable to find any other kind of work. In a mining region there is no other kind of work. But the coal is still there in the earth. Moreover, it is comparatively easy to get out. It lies in veins which dip under the valleys and outcrop in the hillsides. Occasionally the €oal actually comes to the surface. By sible ,to strike coal almost anywhere along the base of many hills. And unemployed miners to the num- ber of 10,000 or 15,000, it is estimated, are digging. Practically all the coal land in the anthracite district belongs to a few large coal companies. Never- theless on their own initiative, in groups of two to five or ten, these miners who have been out of work for five years or more are mining coal on the property of the coal companies and selling it in most of the towns within & radius of 150 miles. The colliery beside the highway is deserted, but follow any one of the numerous dirt roads back into the scrub wood and you will find the hillside teeming with activity. At 25 or 30 openings dotting the slope miners are hoisting coal, screening it, shoveling it into trucks. Loaded trucks rumble off; empty ones take their places. A Ford coach loaded to the roof with mining supplies drives in and toots its horn. The miners tramp down to buy shovels, picks, pick handles, explosives and other supplies. A coupe arrives, drives slowly the length of the hillside, turns and comes back. The two men inside look closely at all that is going on. They are coal company police. Work at the openings con- tinues uninterruptedly. Amazing as this spectacle is, a few figures are still more astounding. Accurate statistics of such sporadic production are, of course, impossible. But the Anthracite Tri-District News, as much depends upon regulation of our sympathies as of our neutral rights. And if this new struggle, con- sequent as it will be upon the physical and political circumstances of the ©Old World, is to be translated into a battle for democracy or against it, if the belligerents are to be divided into saints and sinners, or even grouped as sinners all; if, in fact, another war just like those of the past is to be explained in moral or immoral terms, my conviction is that we shall end by becoming involved again. Many times during the present crisis I have been asked here in Washington if I believe we shall be drawn into a next war in Europe as ‘we were into the last. My invariable answer has been, “Not if we are will- ing to see such a conflict as a war and nothing more.” In a word, if the United States accepts the visibly approaching struggle as the result of & collision between the irreconcilable rights of European countries and not as offering the opportunity for a ma- terial profit or for & moral crusade, I feel sure we shall keep out of it. On the other hand, if we undertake to make the world safe either for debts democracy, I have my dogbts, \r Y, my P A | tellectuals attended. | persons, naturally, were already fa- that a century ago, the league decided recently to undertake a more direct and active action than similar organi- zations have pursued to this day. In- stead of confining itself to occasional displays of oratory and social func- tions, abundant in highly sounding | phrases but sterile in achievements, the league resolved to take its mes- sage directly to the masses of Latin America, where it was most needed and where it could be most effective. Other Bolivarian societies had so far relied entirely on sporadic govern- ment-sponsored meetings which only high functionaries, diplomats and in- Most of these miliar with the Bolivarian ideals, and, even though they went home with their beliefs and enthusiasm strength- ened, little of them transcended to the | Except in the | masses of the people. six properly Bolivarian nations—Vene- zuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Bolivia—where a popular | In the cult of the Liberator exists. majority of the Latin American re- publics the masses are scarcely ac- quainted with the personality and the history of Simon Bolivar, nothing to say of his political and international ideas. And even in the six Bolivarian countries the masses are concerned only with the military glories of Bolivar. They know and remember, and they honor, Bolivar the warrior, the liberator, the man who gave them independence. But they hardly know anything of Bolivar the statesman, the man of vision who, even as he was founding the new sovereignties, was already thinking of the ways and means by which their future strength and prosperity could be assured through their mutual aid. Advocate of Union. Bolivar may not have been the first to speak of continental union in the New World, but, as we have so often stressed’ in these columns, he cer- tainly was the one who spoke of it most constantly and most effectively. He is the one who actually worked for it, with all the vast influence at his command. He is the one who in- spired the individual treaties of al- liance between several of the Latin American states which preceded the collective attempt at Panama in 1826. He is the one who conceived, planned and carried out the historic Congress of Panama, where his genial dream of & united America was put to a test. He is the one who first laid down spe- cific plans for the organization of a federation of American republics. Bolivar was the “spiritual father” of pan-Americanism. His__ flight of thought knew no limits. He first con- ceived the liberation of his native country, Venezuela. He widened its frontiers and, giving it & new name, caused that of Colombia to be writ- ten into the annals of history. After- ward he formed “Gran Colombia” with the territory which constitutes today the republics of Venezuela, Co- lombia, Panama, Ecuador and, with the pride of a creator, called himself a Colombian, Then he gave freedom to Peru and Upper Peru, now Bolivia, and became the leader in the libera- tion of a whole continent. When, finally, that continent was free, Boli- var dreamed of a strong and united America which would present itself to the world with an unexampled aspect “of majesty and greatness.” Bolivar's plan was that of a confed- erftion of American republics, in which all of them, retaining their in- ternal sovereignty, would sacrifice eration which the liberator inspired and had signed at Panama by dele- | gates of Gran Colombia, Central America, Peru and Mexico. Although, later on, the many forces which were | working incessantly for separation and | | disunion among the young republics— | political changes, internal unrest, lack | of unity in direction, lack of physical | | contacts, personal rivalries, etc— prevented not only the enforcement but even the ratification of the treaty, its provisions and purposes constitute a monument to the genius of Bolivar, | the statesman whose prophetic vision | pierced 200 years into the future. These are the most outstanding: 1. Intimate character of relations | | among the American states members | | of the League, which any other con- | | tinental nation might later join. (In- | troduction to the treaty); 2. Permanence and inviolability of | |a close friendship and union with | |each and every one of its parties. | (Article 1); 3. Defensive, and, if necessary, of- fensive common support of the sov- | ereignty and independence of each of | the confederated states of America against all foreign domination. (Article 2); | | assembly, formed by plenipotentiaries | of each of the parties, entrusted with | treaty-making powers, the mainte- nance of peace and harmony among the confederated states, and the gen- |eral conduct of their relations with outside powers. (Articles 11 to 16); 5. Impossibility of declaring war jn.mung themselves without previous conciliatory intervention by the as- | sembly of plenipotentiaries. (Article 175 6. Impossibility of going to war with nations not members of the League, except in case of failure of the good offices which should be requested of the other members of the League (Article 18), and 7. Mutual guarantee of the terri- torial integrity of all the contracting parties (Article 21). Principles Desired. It is these principles, which obvi- ously were too far ahead of the times in 1826, that the Bolivarian League of International Action is endeavoring to keep alive in Latin America. But the directors of the League are not vision- aries. They realize that those ideals are still ahead of our times. They do not expect to have them adopted over night, or even to have them tested out at once. All they want is to spread the Bolivarian gospel among the masses of Latin America, which here- tofore have lived in almost complete ignorance of it. All they wait is a chance to explain to the people of Latin America the wisdom and the vast possibilities of the Bolivarian plan. Their task is to prepare the ground, as it were, for the time when the minds of modern statesmen, the interests of individual states and the understanding of the masses have caught up with the vision of Bolivar. Returning from a successful tour of various Central and Southern Ameri- can nations, the head of the League, Don A. Ramon Ruiz, has just an- nounced that the first two steps in that direction have already been taken; one is the establishment of branch’ organizations in each one of the capitals he visited, and the other, the introduction by presidential de- crees of the study of Bolivar’s life and ideas in the schools and colleges of the Central American republics, where least known. i | the disintegration of the old, are a; HAVE THROWN MANY OUT behind his house, put down a shaft and, 9 times out of 10, there he ! would find coal. And that is exactly what he did. At first the miners peddled the coal individually in an automobile or, by clubbing together, to rent a truck. Soon some of the miners had | made enough money to buy trucks | and began to buy the coal, assuming | for themselves the risks of resale and delivery. As knowledge spread | that coal could be bought cheaply at bootleg holes, other men started to buy and sell it. With the advent of these coal truck- | ers the bootleg coal business was fully launched. Selling the coal from $2 | to $3 below the regular retail price, | the bootleg truckers found ready | then other cities. | livery was extended gradually through Central and Northerrr New Jersey into | the New York metropolitan area and south to Baltimore and Washington. | It is estimated that Philadelphia is | today receiving 1,000 tons of bootleg coal daily, Baltimore, 500; New York City, 2,500. as Cape Charles, Va., and as far west as Chambersburg, Pa. Of course, the coal companies have not stood idly by while their coal was being carted off and sold. They first sent out their own miners to explode charges of dynamite adjacent to boot- leg holes to cave them in. Whistles and Bells Sound. In some localities, whenever the coal police appear to blast a hole shut, all the whistles in the village blow and the bells ring. In an instant men, wom- en and children rush to the hole and take their stand in it and around it. Gandhi is not the only person who knows the effectiveness of passive re- sistance. State police and other offi- ! cial enforcement agencies usually re- fuse to interfere unless actual rioting takes place. Anyway, with thousands of miners in the game, new workings can be opened faster than the coal com- panies can cave them in. In the main, the bootleggers have kept off the prop- | erty of companies which are still operating several of their mines. ‘The coal companies have also tried recourse to the law. But soon magis- trates began to dismiss miners who were accused of theft and juries to acquit those who came to trial. In- deed, the only way the coal companies can get men arrested in any of the | coal counties is by their own deputy police—and recent incidents seem to indicate that some of these deputies are not very keen about carrying on a losing battle. On one occasion one of the coal police drove up to a nest of bootleg holes where the men were all above ground eating their lunch. “Come,” he said, “I'm going to clear you all out of here. I'm going to arrest you right now. I'll take one man from each hole.” After some argument the men de- cided among themselves which ones would go. “Aw,” said the policeman, taking a proffered cup of coffee, “it’s no use to haul you fellows in. Last week I took 4. Establishment of a permanent | & couple of bootleggers to the lock-up. As T walked around the corner to get into my car on the side street, I met them coming out the back door. I'm not going to be made a fool of again.” Upon a still more recent occasion a coal company deputy arrested eight or nine men. The magistrate heard the charge against them and fined each man $10. “We can't pay it,” said the miners one and all, “we haven't got $10.” “Then I'll make it $5" said the | magistrate. “We haven't got $5,” replied the men. “Can you pay $1 apiece?” “No.” “Well, then, next time you get a dollar, will you each bring it in to me?” “Sure,” replied the men, “if we ever get a dollar we’ll bring it to you.” Thereupon the magistrate dismissed the miners; they climbed into thg truck and the company policeman took them back to their workings. Why is it that the processes of law that ordinarily safeguard property have thus broken down? To some extent, no doubt, politicians protect the bootleg miners to secure their votes. It is realized that the great majority of them were honest men who never had a thought of stealing anything as long as they could get work. And in many minds there is for shutting down the mines. However, the chief reasons why public opinion backs the bootleggers are probably economic. First, if the miners were prevented from mining and selling the coal, the county or State would have to contribute to their support. It is said that many of the bootleggers are also getting re- lief, but certainly the drain upon pub- lic funds is much less than if they were earning nothing. Coal Bought by Residents. Second, the residents of the district are buying coal—and good stove and nut coal it is, too—delivered in their cellars for $5.75 a ton. At the mines 1t would cost them $7.25, with hauling charges extra. Some of the leading merchants and foremost citizens of the anthracite towns are using boot- leg coal. the bootleg coal traffic brings into the district millions of dollars Continued a ey | for themselves. They gave up mining | | buyers, first in the coalfield towns and | ‘The radius of de- | Recently bootleg coal | | trucks have been seen as far south| Special Articles D. C. Organizations “NEW ORDER” IS THREAT TO U. S. INSTITUTIONS Free Press and Independence of Courts Doomed if President’s Assurance of Change' Is Fulfilled. BY MARK SULLIVAN. ADDRESS myself to those Repub- lican leaders, editors, candidates for the presidential nomination and sundry others in seven Mid- western States, who, some time 1n May, are going to gather at Kansas City. (I acdress myself to them, but | there is no objection to anybody else listening in.) I ask them this ques- tion: What do they think President Roosevelt meant when, addressing Congress as recently as last January 4, he said: “We have undertaken a new order of things. The outlines of the new economic order, rising from | p- | Each country, as it adopts the new order, modifies the new to its own conditions. For example, in Russia and Germany the new conception in- cludes a universal state religion. The government aims to control religion @s in Germany or the government is merged with religion as in Russia. In Italy, Mussolini has refrained so far from trying to take over the church. Probably the reason is that Musso- lini’s seat in Rome is close by the world capital of the Catholic Church in the same city and Mussolini hesi- tates to attempt what Stalin does in Russian and Hitler in Germany. And so it would be in America. The new order here would differ in detail from the new order in Europe. But in principle it would be the same new order, for there is only one new order. Repression of Minorities. The new order in America would not, for example, attempt to do any- thing about religion. Certainly it would not for many years, until it should become thoroughly established. Yet it must be remembered that an essential practice of the new order is minorities. Already, in the ep America has taken in N. R. A, minorities and dissenting indivi- duals in every industry are repressed and haled into criminal court. It is fundamental in the new order, the “totalitarian state,” the “authoritarian state,” that minorities shall be re- pressed—in most cases suppressed. The new order of society, wherever it exists, gets rid of two institutions | which in America up to now we have prized highly. The new order puts an end to freedom of the press. That might be a considerable time coming in America, but come it would. The new order, the “authoritarian state,” cannot exist where freedom of the press exists. Likewise the new order, wherever it exists, does not tolerate independence of the courts. Where the new order has been adopted the courts are mere agencies of the government. The characteristic of the courts in America is that in their functioning they are independent of the Government. To the courts in America any one citizen weighs just as much as the Govern- ment. We have seen lately, as re- spects N. R. A, case after case in which the courts have sustained the citizens and condemned the Govern- ment. This present American condi- | tion could not continue if we adopt the new order of society. It can be taken as axiomatic that the “new eco- nomic orcer” President Roosevelt speaks of cannot come to fulfillment in public without first, in some way, getting rid of the independence of the court. The new economic order can only go to fulfillment by either making the courts subservient to the administration, or else by, in some way, evading the courts, “getting around” the courts. Test Favors Individual. Before us right now is a spectacle of the embarrassment which an inde- pendent court is to the new economic parent”? And what do they think Mr. Roose- velt meant when, a year before, in his | other annual message to Congress, he | spoke of “a permanent readjustment of many of our ways of thinking and therefore of many of our social and ! | economic arrangements”? | If the Republican editors and lead- ers understand what that means, they are equipped to hold their meeting and write their resolutions. But if they are getting together merely be- cause they think things are looking better for the Republican party, and if their purpose is merely to write some resounding vaguenesses about old and outworn issues—in that event America will not be carried forward by the Kansas City meeting, and the American people will not be mate- rially enlightened. Pity to Divert Situation. It will be a detriment and a pity if the Republicans at Kansas City, or anywhere else, try to divert the pres- ent political situation in the United States into a presidential campaign next year which shall merely be an old-fashioned struggle for power and | the offices, a fight between the Repub- licans and the Democrats, between the “ins” and the “‘outs,” between the | “point-with-prides” and the “view- with-alarms,” between the office hold- ers and the office wishers. Announcement of ihe Kansas City meeting is cheering in the sense that | it reflects a rising energy on the part of opposition to the path along which America is being led. The widespread attention which the announcement of the Kansas City gathering stirred | up is evidence of wholesome political | vitality. But I can visualize an announce- ment that would attract more atten- tion and give more promise. Suppose | it were announced that there would | be a meeting in Richmond, Va.; that | the purpose is to resist the introduc- tion of a *“new economic order” in America; that the further purpose is | to preserve the American form of so- | clety, the American form of govern- | ment, and the American Constitution; that the leading speaker would be Senator Carter Glass of Virginia: that one group of delegates would include | |Senamr Harry F. Byrd of Virginia | and the large number of other South- ern Democratic leaders who, some order. resentment against the coal companies | is. vocal but some still silent, are alarmed by the revolutionary implica- tions of the New Deal; that another | group of delegates would _include | Democratic ex-Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York, Democratic ex-Gov. Joseph B. Ely of Massachusetts, and the large number of Democratic lead- | ers in the North who, some vocal and | some still silent, deplore the New Deal as much as Senator Carter Glass does; and that yet another group of | delegates would consist of the leading men in the Republican party, headed by National Chairman Henry P. Fletcher, prepared to state to the gathering that the Republican party |is willing to waive its franchise and | merge itself in a new party dedicated to preserving the American system. Three Major Candidates. That would be a gathering to talk about. And it would be the kind of gathering that would be appropriate to the loftiness of the issue that is going to confront the American pub- lic next year. If that dreamed-of gathering at Richmond, Va. should take place, then it would be possible to picture | next year's campaign and safely sur- mise the results. There would be three major candidates. One would be Mr. Roosevelt, another would be Huey Long and one would be the candidate of the new party. The new whelmingly. Mr. Roosevelt might run second, but a very low second. All the conservatives and all loyal to the American system and the American tradition would vote for the new party candidate. Mr. Roosevelt and Sen- ator Huey Long would divide the rad- ical vote between them. But I see no prospect in such a set- up—at least, no strong prospect. A small number of highly enlightened Republican parties have made some faint, groping gestures toward form- ing & new party dedicated to support of the American form of society and the American form of government. There have been a few conversations between some Republican leaders and some Democratic ones. But nothiag tangible has been accomplished yet. The probability is-that next year will see the familiar line-up of Republic- ans versus Democrats, only modified by Huey Long running as a third three other third parties. Two Economic Principles, It is a pity the issue now develop- ing for next year cannot be seen as it Mr. Roosevelt says he is for a “new economic order.” There are only two economic principles of economic orders; one is individualism, the other is collectivism. = Individualism is the order we have always known in Amer- ica. Up to 1917 individualism with varying modifications was the only economic order anywhere in the world. In 1917 collectivism was brought into the world by the promoters of the Rusisan revolution. In 1922 collec- tivism in a different form was in- troduced in Italy. In 1933 another variation of collectivism was brought into the world by the German Naz. When Mr. Roosevelt talks about a “new economic order” he can only mean the order that is common to Russia, Germany and Italy. That is the only “new economic order” there is. Some New Dealers deny that the new order they propose is identical with the new one in Europe. Sure— it 1s not identical. It is not identical w three gountries that have i and sge now practicing i, \ party candidate would win over- | persons in both the Democratic and | party candidate and perhaps two or | Because the administration fears that the Supreme Court might decide against N. R. A, the adminis- tration refuses to take before the court a case in which the lower courts have found against N. R. A. At the same time the administration asks Congress to re-enact the N. R. A. statute which the administration fears ! to submit to a court which, following the American tradition, is independent of the Government. I wonder how many Americans are aware of the revolutionary implica- tions inherent in Mr, Roosevelt's pro- posed “new order” Why s it that no party and no individual seems to | have the capacity to make the issue | clear to the country? Is it merely | that the issue is too complex for the | average man to understand? Or is it | that America doesn’t care? If America is effete, if it has come to lack vitality, then assuredly we shall succumb to | the new order. The new order is young | and vital and aggressive. In the world | for 18 years, since 1917, the individ- hm.ust order of society and the demo- | cratic form of government have been | in retreat. The new model has estab- | lished itself in three great nations, Russia, Germany and Italy, having an | aggregate population of some three | hundred million people. In the world |as a whole is a competition between | . | the new model and the old, with the new growing, the old receding. Is that meeting of Republican edi- |tors and leaders about to take place |in Kansas City ready to see the real | issue? Have they the understanding | to see it> Have they the clarity of | thinking and the clarity of expression | that is necessary to make the issue | clear to the public> Have they the | vitality to defend the American sys- | tem? | We shall know about this after the | meeting has been held. ;Earlh Is Not Flat At Poles, Tests Show MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (#).— Scientific investigation beneath the surface of the sea has convinced Dr. F. A. Venning Meinesz, scientist from | the Netherlands, that the earth is not | flattening at the poles. Dr. Venning Meinesz, aboard the Netherlands submarine K-18, has been making subsurface investigations as to the shape of the earth, measur- ing the pull of gravity with the sub- mersible craft under water to a depth of about 100 feet. After leaving Holland en route to the Dutch East Indies, the craft stop- ped at the Cape Verde Islands, touch- ing the African Coast and Brazil be- fore going to Montevideo. “My investigations here,” said the scientist, “have brought me to the conclusion that the theory that the earth is flattened at the poles is wrong ‘and that in reality the condi- tion is to the contrary. In regard to the theory that there are certain flat- tenings along the Equator, I believe they are irregular, produced by phe- nomena of movement in the earth’s crust.” Guide for Readers PART TWO. Editorial ... Civic Affairs . Aviation