Evening Star Newspaper, April 18, 1935, Page 8

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Editien. WASHINGTON, D. C. THURSDAY.....April 18, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES. . .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company offce: 1 yivania Ave, ew York Office: 110 East 42nd St :icago Office: Lake Michigan Building. European Office; 14 Regent St.. London., England. Rate by Cln’l‘er Within the City. Regula; egular Edition. The Evenine BLEI ‘45¢ per month 60c per month a r ‘Sund 65¢ per month ne" Bihady BT B¢ per copy Night Final Edition. t nd Sunday Star.70c per month i H“'“S 55¢ per month Colle end of each month. _Orders may be sent by mall or telephone National 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and ;’lr‘lnil. day. .1 e Sunday onl; All Other States and Canada. Dally and Sunday .1 yr., $12.00; 1 mo.. $1.00 Daily only......1yr. $8.00i1mo. " 75¢ Sunday only.....1yr. $5.00: 1mo. B5O0c Member of the Associated Press. Tie Associated Press is exclusively en: titled to the use for republication of all news disnatches credited to it or not other- wige ctedited in this paper and also the Jocal news published herein. _All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. e Germany Indicted. Time alone can tell what effect, if any, action taken on Wednesday at Geneva will have upon the peace of Europe. For the moment the resolu- | tion adopted unanimously by the League Council, with the exception of | the uncast vote of Denmark, leaves Germany isolated, condemned and re- buked by the fifty-seven member na- | tions of the League for unilaterally repudiating the armament clauses of | the Versailles treaty and plunging | Europe back into another era of mili- | taristic rivalry and terrorism. A Berlin Associated Press dispatch reports that Hitler “hit the roof” when he was acquainted with the | terms of the Geneva indictment. Be- | yond an outburst of resentful comment | in their controlled press, the Nazis give no indication of their next move. Their enthusiasm for Germany's re- turn to the League will certainly not be whetted. Nor is the Reich now any more likely to join whole-heartedly in the Danubian conference in Rome s month hence, at which general plans for solidifying European se- curity are to be formulated. The whole | relations between landlords and ten- ants, was undertaken as the result of an emergency, the severity of which was demonstrated on every hand. The conditions today, despite the increased population and accompany- ing demands for rental property, are hardly comparable with the condi- tions of the World War. But “goug- ing” or “profiteering” practices by landlords, guilty of victimizing their tenants, should not be permitted un- der any conditions. The essential undertaking now is to get the facts. A joint investiga- tion by the House and Senate Com- mittees should be able to get them. From the facts obtained it should be possible to learn whether Wash- ington landlords as a class are guilty of unconscionable gouging, or whether complaints placed before the inves- tigators are attributable to the iso- lated practices of the few. Rental legislation of World War days is not desirable, and any attempt at regu- lation of landlord-tenant relations should be made in the light of dem- onstrated facts concerning alleged abuses, and not on blanket indict- ments of landlords as a class. Pacific Air Service. Inauguration of a Pacific airmail service was accomplished yesterday when the great Pan-American Clipper alighted in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after a flight of eighteen hours and thirty-seven minutes from San Fran- cisco. So perfect was the performance that it was characterized as a routine passage. Actually the time was shorter than that elapsing between the start and the final stop, for the ship was ahead of the schedule that had been set, the actual flight from the main- land to the Island of Oahu being about three-quarters of an hour less, the plane loafing about to permit landing in accord with the program of recep- tion. The distance was covered in seven hours below the previous record by air, that set by the naval seaplane squadron in January, 1934. This is the beginning of a trans- Pacific air service, which, according to present plans, is to be extended be- yond Hawaii to Manila, by way of Wake Island and Guam, which lie in a generally direct line between Hawaii and the Philippines. The leg cov- ered yesterday by the Pan-American Clipper is the longest of the four in the contemplated route. Covering 2,400 miles of open sea, outlook at this embittered hour is for & continuance of tension, with the League of Nations facing another of those “supreme tests” of its moral authority from which in the past it has not emerged exactly with flying colors. without a bit of land intervening from shore to shore, this perform- ance marks another stage in the de- velopment of the heavier-than-air ship, which has progressed so greatly | since the first “distance” flight of the Wrights from Fort Myer to Alex- There are suggestions that an early manifestation of Germany’s rearma- ment program will be the fortification | of the Rhineland, which, under the Versailles treaty, is a demilitarized gone. Coincident with this prospect | are Geneva indications that such a maneuver by the Nazis, supplement- | ing their defiance of the military | clauses, would provoke instant and forcible opposition by the Western powers, if not by the entire League. | Definite hints of such a recourse are contained in a passage of the Council | resolution. It foreshadows the taking of “all appropriate measures on the | part of League members within the | framework of the covenant” in case | of any future treaty repudiations which endanger security and peace. Thus the Reich is not only indicted for what it has already done, but} categorically warned of the risk Ger-l many runs if it ventures any funher‘ violations. A committee of nations was named to map out a formal pro- | gram of penalties to be imposed | henceforward upon any country acting | alone to disrupt treaty obligations, as | Germany did. The proposed ‘“sanc- tions” may be economic or military, or both. Fuehrer Hitler is expected immediate- | ly in some public manner to supply an inkling of Germany’s intentions, in the face of the international stigma that has just been put upon her. He has to make up his mind at the very moment which finds France and the Soviet Union about to renew the old | Franco-Russian military alliance, a pact which this time will claim the allegiance of the powerful group com- prising the Little Entente. British and Italian sympathies with the anti- German trend are no longer disguised. Yesterday at Geneva the Germans experienced the humiliation of seeing even their World War ally, Turkey, aligned against them. The Reich’s newly-found friend, Poland, also was in the Council group that voted to rebuke the Reich. Argentina, Chile and Australia joined in the indictment. Berlin today confronts literally world- wide condemnation of her threat to peace. It will be a madly bold stroke on Hitler’s part, if, by persistent re- | fusal to co-operate in collective action for security in Europe, he forges into concrete existence that ring of steel that already envelops the Reich in all but actual fact. There are no more parlor Socialists. Economic inquiry is concentrating on kitchen and dining room. ——— Getting the Facts. Representative Norton's proposal for @ joint meeting, possibly to be followed by a joint investigation by the House and Senate District Committees of the local rental situation, is doubtless the best course to pursue in the light of the many claims and counter claims regarding the rental situation. There have already been proposals for reviving the Rent Commission of war-time days, and efforts have been made to picture the present period as comparable, in housing shortage and in the difficulties experienced by tenants, with the acute emergency of the crowded war days. Many Con- gressmen, who are also tenants, have camplained of their rents, and there are organized movements under way for some method of regulation. Of course, the first necessary step is to get the facts. The dismal ex- periment with rental legislation dur- ing the World War, with its mass of litigation and disruption of normal b andria and return, ten miles, in July, 1909, the machine making a “con- tract speed” of forty miles an hour. Those who witnessed that flight real- ized that man had conquered the air. Few, perhaps, imagined that the day would come when the Pacific would be traversed over one of its longest spans from land to land, at the rate of about 137.25 miles an hour, in a practical postal service. It is not to be expected that a definite schedule will be maintained at once in this service, for it is not vet possible to send aircraft to sea in all weather conditions. The haz- ards of storms must be taken into account. Yet the risk from this source may be greatly lessened by the de- termination of unfavorable conditions by radio observations and the platting | of courses to avoid them. The great accomplishment of yes- terday’s successful flight lies in the demonstration that a plane can be flown on schedule over long ocean ranges when the conditions are rea- sonably favorable. If with the es- tablishment of suitable stations at | Wake and Guam Islands the links with the Far East can be secured, a regular trans-Pacific service, for mails at first and for passengers also eventually, is assured. Trans-Atlan- tic services may also be looked for | at any time. —_— e Even nature joins in the tendency to do things on a big scale. Wind storms which used to be content with | carrying away houses and barns now pick up the top soil of the entire farm. —— e David and Goliath. While the League of Nations Coun- cil at Geneva is preparing to show its teeth to Germany on the rearmament issue, little Switzerland has dared to defy the mighty Nazi Reich on its own account. In a spirit befitting the Wil- liam Tell tradition, with its contempt for tyrants, the Swiss government has called upon Hitler to surrender a Ger- man anti-Nazi emigre journalist named Berthold Jakob on the ground that he was kidnaped from Swiss ter- ritory in violation of international law and Switzerland's sovereign Tights. ‘The Swiss “urgently demand” Jakob's liberation. They have supplied cir- cumstantial evidence that three Ger- man citizens came to Switzerland for the purpose of kidnaping him and smuggled him into Germany with the connivance of German border officials. These allegations are based on the confession of one of the conspirators, Dr. Hans Wesemann, whom Switzer- land arrested and is holding as a hostage of Jakob’s release and return to Swiss jurisdiction. Germany, as might have been ex- pected has declined to yield Jakob. In a note just presented to the Swiss Minister in Berlin she disclaims any responsibility for the journalist's seiz- ure. It is blandly contended that he “has come within the reach of the Reich without the intervention of official German authorities,” and “in- asmuch as he is a traitor to the state of the worst sort, frequently punished in the past, there is nothing that can be done on the German side except to permit the criminal procedure pending against him for a long time to take its course.” This means that Jakob, whose guilt in Nazi eyes is enhanced by the fact that he is a Jew, is probably headed straight for the executioner’s block. The offense with which he is chiefly charged is an exposure in the foreign press of D | Germany's now fully acknowledged rearmament plans, Gallant and courageous as the Swiss are, there is, of course, no question of their resorting to force against their powerful neighbor for the purpose of vindicating the Alpine republic’s sovereignty. The Bern government, instead will probably in- sist upon the convening of an arbi- tration tribunal, as provided in = treaty between the two countries. The kidnaping episode is & glaring ex- ample of the truculent mentality that now prevails in Germany. In pillory- ing and resisting so contemptuous and flagrant an affront Switzerland reflects the sentiments of civilized and constitutional government everywhere. The Jakob affair is an ominous hint of the Hitlerites’ avowed purpose some day to make “German Switzerland” part and parcel of the Nazi Reich. They are acting as if that were al- ready an accomplished fact. ——— A Wise Decision. Of the need for clarification and re- statement of the Commissioners’ powers, with the possibility of adding some new powers which - Congress, under the Constitution, may delegate to them, there has never been any doubt. But the Commisisoners’ tentative proposal to meet this need in legisla- tive form was combined with several new schemes, the effect of which would have been to threaten, if not eventually to destroy, the control possessed by | local citizens over some of their local institutions through citizens' boards. That met immediate and unusually strong opposition from citizens’ organ- izations; so strong, in fact, as to threaten the manifestly desirable por- tions of the Commissioners’ proposed bill. ‘The Commissioners’ decision to re- write their bill, eliminating from it the plainly controversial and doubtfully desirable sections which were opposed, is not only representative of action on their part in keeping with public sentiment, and therefore commendable, but is designed to hasten the concur- rence by Congress with the points of the bill on which there is general agreement. The community will await with interest the new legislation which Corporation Counsel Prettyman is to prepare and hope for the opportunity to back the Commissioners whole- heartedly in their effort to obtain its enactment. R Family feuds are hinted at as in- fluences in suburban politics. In poetical expression they fall short of the sad story of Romeo and Juliet. The Department of the Interior de- sires an Undersecretary., An appli- cant for the job should be familiar with a dictionary of synonyms. ———e—t—— The D. A. R. has its social side but has not fully accomplished the art of pouring tea without incidentally spill- | ing & few scalding words. - Appeal to the League of Nations is earnestly advocated, provided editors can collaborate satisfactorily on a revised version. ———————— An investigation halted for lack of funds calls attention to the high cost of relieving the public mind of sus- picion. SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Jail, Jail! Beautiful jail! The place where you get out on bail, Where the friends that you met in your innocent glee Are saying your other friends all ought to be. The spot where the wealthiest tastes may prevail— Jail! Beautiful jaill Jail! Beautiful jail! Where many philanthropists fail In efforts to offer the comforts of home And check the perverse inclination to roam. From a haven of safety that naught can assail, Jall! Beautiful jail! Adroit Publicity. “Some politicians will promise any- thing to their constituents.” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “Sometimes it looks to me as if the most able politician is the one who manages to provide himself with the biggest sucker list.” Endless Procession. Relief we need to bring us calm. ‘The dollar is the only balm For every land and every tribe; It’s always easy to prescribe. Relief on taxes must depend ‘Which without mercy will descend. Relief anew will make us sore— And s0 we need it more and more. Disintegration. “See that dust cloud?” said Farmer Corntossel. “There goes one acre after another of top soil.” “And I suppose,” said the traveling man, “you figure that you are broke.” “Broke! I'm pulverized.” “My ancestors,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “conserved their ener- gies. They fought when they had to, but they did not quarrel.” Sign of Recovery. ‘When fierce dissensions darkly rise And overcast the vernal skies I treasure the assurance that T'll soon be wearing my straw hat. Prosperity will come, I know, With blossoming fair and skies aglow. So on this hope I'm standing pat, I'll soon be wearing my straw hat. T tilt it with a jaunty air ‘While stepping out from here to there. Life will no longer seem so flat, T'll soon be wearing my straw hat. “De colleges am workin’ hard enough,” said Uncle Eben. “For many big men is usin’ de kind of language in speeches dat any Sunday school could have told '‘em dey ought to know ‘better.” R BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. A sentence quoted in this space re- cently deserves further consideration. It was as follows: “My books open of themselves at places where I have been happy.” Not only is that s felicitious sen- tence, as such, but it points to the real essence of the best reading. Happiness, in this world, comes in many ways, but it may be questioned whether there is any more complete happiness than a booklover with a good book. It will be remembered that Omar, materialist though he was, included s book in his famous trio of delights. If one is not happy in reading, one had better not read. ‘There is not much point to wad- ing through words if the immersion is not conducive to joy of some sort. There will be many times, of course, when works of reference must be con- sulted, when the plain gain of certain facts is the reason for reading. Even such reading, however, often 1s pure happiness to him or her whose mind is so constructed that such ac- quisitions, made in such ways, are really periods :(‘dellzht. * % The best reading must be happiness. It is the only kind of which one could write, as Alexander Smith said, “My books open of themselves at places where I have been happy.” He meant, of course, that certain passages, sentences, or even words, appealed more to him than others. It may be said that one who ap- proaches any writing as if it were all of equal merit is not going to be as happy with it as the reader who knows better. It is the same with the Bible. Some persons hold it equally inspired, every word of it; others feel that certain passages are far superior to other sec- tions. Certainly, with what may be called everyday reading, whether in book, newspaper or magazine, there is bound to be uneven merit. x kX X ‘That reader is at & loss who cannot tell the difference, not only between book and book, but even more between truly inspired sentences and mediocre sentences in the same book. criminate. The writer, whoever he may be, discriminates as he writes. He would not be equally great from page to page—he would be too great a strain on his readers. Writing is a sort of building-up process, as surely a construction as a house. He who is interested only in the bricks cannot be said to be a builder, and he who wants only a few words to read, now and then, cannot fool others into regarding him as a reader, even if he deceives himself. What the writer builds the reader must build in his turn. He, even as the writer, will see the difference be- tween mortar and brick, as he goes the framework to get at the complete building. It is as foolish to regard everything in every piece of writing as equally good as to believe every picture in an art gallery of one merit. Even the least trained person knows better, when he steps into a gallery. He may not know enough about art to make any comments (truly there 18 no calling in which the average man can feel himself so ignorant), STARS, MEN ! Laboratory Hearing voices and seeing things may be part of the everyday experi- ence of everybody—only one must be crazy to know about it. Such would be the case according to a mechanistic theory of hal- lucinations advanced in the Ilatest | Medical Bulletin of the United States | Veterans' Administration by Dr. L. M. Brown, psychiatrist of the staff. The hallucination, Dn Brown believes, may be a true sensory phenomenon The paranoid schizophrenic of the psychotic ward tells wierd stories of hearing voices in the air threatening to murder him because, in a sense, he actually hears them. Not that he has acquired any new mental faculty, says Dr. Brown. It is rather because the protective and which shield most persons from such voices, have deteriorated. Dr. Brown builds up his hypothesis of the real nature of hallucinations on a basis of the conditioned responses of behavioristic psychology. A cer- tain stimulus to the nervous system, constantly repeated and invariably followed by a specific satisfaction or pain, eventually will rouse the same nervous response as the satisfaction or pain itself. For example, if the ringing of & bell is invariably fol- lowed with something to eat, after a few trials the sound alone will cause an increased secretion of di- gestive juices. Or, if the sound of a buzzer invariably is followed, for a few times, by an electric shock to a finger held on a key, it will not be long before the finger will be withdrawn automatically at the sound, even when the shock does not follow. Dr. Brown's hypothesis involves an anatomy of thought itself. Accord- ing to the behavioristic theory, sup- ported by considerable experimental evidence, all thought must be in words —either spoken or manifested by sub- conscious movements of the throat muscles. Whenever we think we are talking to ourselves. Or there may be thinking in substitutions for speech, such as writing, drawing, gestures, etc. Says Dr. Brown: “Imagery, or imageless thought, if it takes place at all in thinking, is probably the exception rather than the rule. This is perhaps proved by the overtalka- tiveness of children even when they are alone—they are thinking aloud. Many adults never overcome en- tirely this condition and articu- late the words or move the lips wher reading or thinking. This hap- pens especially when under emotional stress. The individual also is more prone to revert to the child’s habit of overt thinking when alone.” Words are necessary for thinking.| "8 But how does one come into the pos- session of words. This is due largely, says Dr. Brown, to the infant's “cir- cular ear-vocal reflex.” A sound is heard and associated with a certain object. The sight of the object acts in turn as a stimulus for making the sound. Thus, eventually, a certain vocal expression, or word, becomes at- tached to a certain object or ordered speech . This process may be slow and awkward at first, but soon is speeded up greatly and the acquisition of language proceeds without con- scious effort. A conditioning is established where- by the object evokes the sound. The time comes when the word recalls the object. But any object is associated with & vast number of sensory stimu- lations. As Dr. may This is the essence of happy read- | | ing, we may think, this ability to dis- | along: he will go ahead swiftly over | inhibitions, built up by experience | still he knows more or less what he likes and, surprising enough, his opinion has a very good chance of coinciding with that of artists. *x 8w ‘Much reading is a necesity, if one is to feel thoroughly at home in a book or other piece of writing. It is here as in & garden; the new- comer to plants finds a thousand un- knowns shead of him, so many that he forgets at times to enjoy himself. The little-read person is dumfounded at so many words in his books. He is not at home, hence is unable to dis- criminate. It is only when one is at ease that one can do that. Books only open of themselves at places where a reader has been happy. He should see to it that they do not do this physically. Let him choose to believe that the old Scotch essayist did not mean that quite literally. ‘There is no reason for bending a book so strenuously at a particularly ad- mired section that it suffers any harm. It is not necessary at all, and, indeed, shows an indifference to the physical side of & book which a good volume ought not to face, nor & good reader inflict. The best way to mark where one has been happy is with a pencll, not too black a lead, with which one can check, underline or’ otherwise distin- quish words, sentences or paragraphs of particular appeal. Then a book may not open of it- self, literally, but the selected por- tions will fairly jump at the reader when he takes it up again. This means that he has made the blossoms of thought stand out, as real flowers of thought ought to do. Attempts have been made, from time to time, to do this work for a reader by setting in red ink what {he publisher, or even general con- sensus, regards as flowers of thought; but while this has its merits, in well known and long-discussed writings, it also has the drawback that it does not leave the reader free to choose for himself. What strikes one will not strike an- other; what makes special appeal to | one will slide off the mind of the next | reader. No one can tell what is going | to make an appeal. It is best, there- fore, to buy editions only in which no | such pre-digestion has been attempted. | Then the reader may mark for him- self as suits him. Passages will gleam from the pages, the veritable flowers, while the remainder of the words will | serve for him as the essential boughs nd branches of thought. Without | | them, of course, the flowers could | | never some into being. The amazing blankness of a printed | page is rather disconcerting at times, | especially when one is attempting to | locate a passage. “Why, I know right where it is” one says, turning the pages briskly. | Just a few more pages, and then— | and then a few more, and a few more. | Pretty soon one becomes discon- certed, sometimes even angry, but it could have been averted by a simple | underlining. It is not necessary to | run the pencil entirely under every | word, but just under some key word, | s0 that it marks & spot where the | | reader was happy. Often it is utterly | | impossible to locate some desired | sentence without such an aid. With | it, the thing is easy, and pleasant at all times. This is & much better way, after all. than opening a book 50 harshly that it stays open of its own accord, even if one has been happy there. AND ATOMS ! Notebook of Science Progress in Field, and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. ess in which we employ. inaudibly to stitutes as symbols of objects and situations and of our knowledge and feelings concerning them. Language 1s developed from a series of vastly complex conditioned responses involv- ing all the sensory organs and all manner of sensory stimuli. The ques- tion suggests itself at this point why does not the same conditioning mech- anism operate in the reverse direction? From the nature of the conditioned response we should expect that any language symbol, whether expressed | or in thought. would evoke all the other components of the response, especially the auditory, since the pri- mary element in language develop- ment is the circular ear-vocal reflex. “It is not unlikely that in the early stages of the child’s linguistic ad- ventures such experiences do occur and that his thinking evokes a medley of what might be called hallucina- tions.” * ok ok % As one emerges from childhood, the Veterans’ Administration psychia- trist points out, the complex of ex- perience teaches the individual to dis- regard the irrelevant responses, and to separate what actually happens from the illusory experience which accompanies it. One can judge from the rest of the environment which perceptions are true and which are false and soon arrives at the point where there is hardly any conscious- ness of the false. For example, the sound of a dinner bell may evoke various fleeting sensa- tions—a vision of the expected guest, auditory sensations of his voice, smell and taste sensations of some dish known to be on the menu. The small child might be puzzied to know what was real and what false about the sit- vation. For the normal adult, however, the only perception recognized as real is the sound of the bell. From ex- perience and analysis of the rest of the environment he knows that the ringing of the bell is the only thing that actually happened. “But,” says Dr. Brown, “the ad- justment is never complete. Under different conditions, when attention is weakened or impaired, or when the corrective influence of the environ- ment is absent, any of the sensations evoked may be accepted as real. Thus in extreme fatigue, starvation, hyp- nosis, day dreaming, sleep, etc., the conditioned sensation evoked by any stimulus will be accepted as true and their hallucinatory character not realized.” In other words, the corrective inhi- bition imposed by experience with the environment is removed and one re- acts—by seeing, hearing and smell- things—as does the small child in whom - the inhibitions of experi- ence have not been bullt up. « %% Now it is curious, Dr. Brown says, that the types of mental disease in which hallucinations are most likely to be reported are those in which there is withdrawal from the environ- ment and to the status of early childhood. In keeping with this, the hallucinations are most likely to be auditory—the victim has gone back to the stage of the child getting its first conceptions of language, in which the image of an object arouses, as a conditioned response, the sound asso- ciated with it. Curiously enough, such hallucina- ported by the ine Brown says: it be said to be & proo- a great extent, words and their sub- | ‘Willingness on the part of admih- istration forces in the Senmate to “compromise” in the soldiers’ bonus fight was hailed by at least one vet- erans’ organization todsy. The fact that a so-called compromise bonus bill was introduced in the Senate yes- terday by that stalwart Democrat and administration supporter, Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi, was enough to convince Commander in Chief Van Zandt of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that President Roosevelt himself has “recognized the justice and wisdom of paying the long-overdue debt to the veterans of the World War at this time.” Indeed, while declaring that the Harrison bill falls far short of an equitable settlement with the veterans, Commander Van Zandt said that the bill was a step in the right direction, | ™Ik and he wound up with the statement that he appreciated “the significance of this concession on the part of the President.” “We are confident,” he said, “that the efforts of Senator Harrison will eventually result in & just and final settlement of the so- called bonus issue in a manner ac- ceptable to the supporters of the Pat- man bill.” * * * * This concillatory spirit, shown in the statement of the commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, may or may not be followed by the com- mander of the American Legion, who wants to see the bill before he makes a statement. It is clear, however, that some of the veterans believe that once the wheels of compromise have started moving there is a chance to gain something. The President him- self has sald nothing sbout the Har- rison bill, although spokesmen for him at the White House have insisted he has given no indorsement to the Harrison measure. Efforts on the part of Senator Har- rison and other Democratic Senators to reach a compromise, to do some- thing for the veterans of the World War at this time, or at least to make the gesture, are not without political significance. There is an election coming next year in which not only the entire membership of the House and one-third of the members of the Senate must be elected, but a Presi- dent must be chosen. Nineteen of the Senators up for re-election are Democrats, among them such prom- inent Democrats as Senator Robin- | son of Arkansas, leader of his party in the Senate; Senator Harrison of Mississippi_himself, chairman of the Finance Committee, and Senator James Hamilton Lewis of Illinois, Democratic whip and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Committee. ‘This bonus issue has been troublesome for several years. It could. of course, | have some ‘effect on the presidentia election as well as on the congres sional elections. & The bonus bill offered by Senator Harrison is the vehicle by which Sena- tors, and possibly the administration, are saying to the veterans, “We have not shut our minds and hearts against you; we are willing to do something.” Some of these Senators do not like | the idea of standing merely as a bul- wark against any bonus legislation at | | this time. They know that the! President is relying on them to support | a veto of the Patman “greenback” | bonus bill if that measure is finally | passed and sent to him. Many of the Republicans in the Senate have | taken the position that if the adminis- | tration is to ladle out billions of dol- | lars for all kinds of projects the veterans might just as well share in the money shower. Also, in States that are strongly Democratic, Senators and members of the House who must come up for renomination know that | Democratic opponents may cultivate | | the bonus issue against them in the | primary campaigns. * %k Kk % ‘The Harrison bonus bill and how | it will operate has yet to be cleared | up in a great many details. However. 1t will be a disappointment to veterans | who hope to receive immediately the | cash value of their adjusted service | certificates and also to have the in- | terest they owe on loans which they | have made on these certificates remit- | ted. It looks as though a veteran who | holds a bonus certificate for $1,000 | will be able to obtain for it $775, of | which $750 will be in 3 per cent Gov- ernment bonds and $25 in cash. On the other hand, if he holds the bonus certificate until 1945, the date it is Ln:;cld of the $1,000 originally prom- What finally will come out of the bonus fight it is impossible to pre- dict with certainty at this juncture. There is not the slightest doubt, how- ever, that the drive for some kind of & settlement is on, and that it is to be a very persistent drive. * K ok X President Roosevelt's announced in- tention to use part of the work relief money granted him by Congress to take a census of the unemployed is decidedly interesting. It is quite true that information showing accurately how much unemployment does exist in this country and where should be of real value in dealing with the un- employment problem. Many estimates of unemployment are made. But at best they are estimates and may be far from correct. It is reported that taking such a census will give tem- porary work to approximately 600,000 persons—presumably of the white col- lar class—now unemployed and on re- lief rolls. The job will cost about $15,000,000 it is said. That's a small slice out of the $4,880,000,000 total for relief and work relief, but it gives an idea of what may be done in the way of putting money into the hands of a lot of people. A bill to take such a census was advanced in Congress in the last session. With an election coming on, the Republicans figured that it was just like handing the Democratic administration some- thing on a silver platter. They threat- ened a filibuster. Well, the President has the money now, with no strings attached to it. It is going to be very, very difficult to defeat an administra- tion at the polls next year which has 80 much cash to pass out. LR The President has let it be known finally that Secretary Harold L. Ickes of the Interior is to continue in charge of loans and grants to States, cities, ete., for public works, under the work- relief program. Mr. Ickes has made & name for himself as a jealous guardian of public funds, and his continued administration of P. W. A. will be hailed by a lot of people— | South Boston, Mass., is being con- due and payable, he will receive $1,115 | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN, A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, direc- tor, Washington, D. C. Please in- close stamp for reply. Q. How much money is paid to a Jockey?—E. K. R. A. Some apprentice jockeys receive from $40 to $60 a month with the privilege of accepting outside work at the rate of $10 a race, or $25 if they ride a winner. Skilled jockeys receive a contract of $500 & month plus 10 per cent of the purse if they win and minus the agent’s commission. Q. Is it dangerous to eat sea food and ice cream at the same meal? -—J. B. A. They should not produce dis- comfort provided the foods themselves are fresh and in good condition. Fish, a protein food, combines well with Q. Were the hospital scenes in “Private Worlds” made in a real hos- pital?—P. M. A. It was a reproduction made at a motion picture studio. It is said that $300,000 worth of medical equip- ment was rented and that a hospital setting of 17 rooms was built to| house it. Q. What State contributed the most base ball players to the major leagues last season?—D. P. | A. Last year Texas contributed more players to the two major leagues than any other State. Q. How large was the Salvation Army when it was first established in | this country?—A. F. A. One officer and seven lassies comprised the original Salvation Army group which landed at the Battery on March 10, 1880. Q. Whose child was the one whose | | picture is known as Baby Stuart?— A. He was James, Duke of York, child of Charles I of England. Q. How fast does sound travel? -T. G. A. The speed with which sound | travels through various materials | | varies greatly. In air, sound waves | | move 1,087 feet per second. They move through water nearly five times | | as fast as through air, and through | hard dense materials such as steel and | glass, the sound waves travel from 15/ | to 20 times as fast as through air. | Q. How long has Walter Dam- | rosch been conducting?—S. M. A. On February 11, 1885, Mr. Dam- rosch conducted “Tannhauser” at the | Metropolitan Opera House because of | the iliness of his father, Dr. Leopoid | | Damrosch. A golden jubilee perform- | ance in honor of his fiftieth anniver- sary was held recently at the Metro- politan. Q. What is the meaning of Yueh Hua, the name of the Empress of | Manchoukuo?—L. B. A, It means beauty in flower. Q. Please give a biography of President Washington'’s mother.— | M. A C. A. Mary Ball, mother of Wash- ington, was the youngest daughter of Joseph Ball, who appears to have been a well-to-do planter on the Rappahannock River. She was born about 1706. Little is known of her youth and early womanhood. She had flaxen or auburn hair and blue eyes. She was married in 1730, when about 24 years old. She bhad six children and died when she was 37. Q. In the South Boston project, in whose name will the deeds be handled? Will residence there affect a citizen's status?—A. J. D. A. The United States project in l duced by the low-cost housing sec- tion of the Public Works Adminis- tration. The deeds will be in the name of the United States Govern- continue to act as landlord, but the preferred scheme is to turn the project over to the local housing authorities. The City of Boston will furnish fire and police protection. The people will vote and children attend school in the regular places. Living in this community will not affect in any way any one’s citizenship status. Q. How is cloture arranged ir the United States Senate?—G. W. H. A. In the Senate debate had been unlimited, but a filibuster in 1908 by Senator La Follette of 17 hours, by Senator Smoot in 1915 and other lesser filibusters, caused the Senate to adopt a cloture rule in 1926, pro- viding that in the event of a threat- ened deadlock on a measure 16 Sena- tors might present a petition that the amount of debate on the measure be limited and the bill brought up for action. This petition would be pre- sented to the Senate floor and, if concurred in by two-thirds vote, the measure would be considered and each Senator be limited to one hour's debate on the measure. Q. What Shakespearean play will be given first this Summer at Strat- ford-on-Avon?—F. C. A. Beginning with a production of “Antony and Cleopatra” on April 15, plays will be presented at Stratford- on-Avon until September 14. Q. What is the recipe for banana porridge used by the natives in Africa to check fevers?—P. L. H. A. Banana porridge used by the natives of Africa to check fevers and stomach disorders is mostly so-called magic and has to be administered by the right person, namely, the witch doctor, to be effective. The formula is in possession of the tribe itself and, as far as is known, the porridge has nothing in it which is especially beneficial to the indi- vidual. The benefits depend upon the individual's belief in the ad- ministration of the porridge. Q. How long has it been since the U. S. 8. Cyclops disappeared?>—R. L. C. A. Her last port was Rio de Janeiro, and she was last reported at one of the West Indian Islands. March 4, 1918. She was bound for Baltimore. Q. How much gold has been pur- ;ha;ed during this administration.—H. A. Approximately $1500.000,000 worth of gold has been purchased. Q. Where was the ancient city of Philadelphia?—C. H. C. A. The site of the ancient city of Philadelphia, spoken of in the Revela- tion, is located 105 miles from Smyrna, Asia Minor. The city stood on a hill 650 feet above sea level and apparently was founded about 189 B. C. Some- times it was called Decapolis, and was one of the 10 cities of the plain. It was also sometimes called Little Ath- ens, on account of the magnificence of its buildings. It was destroyed by earthquake and was rebuilt. At pres- ent there are only remnants of the walls and ruined buildings. Q. What is the largest excavation in the country?—E. F. A. The copper mine at Bingham Canyon, near Salt Lake City, is &t present the largest excavation. It is nearly a square mile in area and almost a third of a mile deep. Ap- proximately 2.000.000 tons of refined copper have been taken from the mine since 1908, Q. How many sound vibrations per second can be heard by the human ear?—C. B. A. Sound is a sensation which oc- curs when sound waves produced by a vibrating body fall upon the ear. Vibrations as low as 16 per second are detected as sound and most peo- ple can distinguish sound produced by 20,000 vibrations per second. Har- mony in pitch relations and in the periodic movement of sound waves results in even and regular vibrations as in music. Distordant vibrations ment. Possibly the Government will produce noise. All eyes are turned now to Presi- dent Roosevelt as he undertakes the most monumental task of his admin- tration—the spending of nearly five billion dollars in his supreme effort to | solve the problems of relief and re- covery. “He is considered a glutton for work and responsibility,” says the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, “but | in this action he has taken both in a measure not equaled in all its impli- cations and_significances in the two | years of his administration.” The| Boston Transeript believes that “if it | succeeds in putting more than three | million men to work, and if the money thereby thrown into circulation has the effect of priming the pump of pri- vate industry, the appropriation will have been justified. “It provides,” according .0 the New Orleans Times-Picayune, “a definite and comprehensive plan for the ad- ministration of relief by re-employ- ment, constitutes & marked improve- ment over the old relief system and— despite months of flaw-picking and fault-finding—stands approved, as we believe, by popular majorities propor- tionately as great as the congressional majorities recorded.” “In every State and in every com- munity and district throughout the Nation,” declares the Pasadena (Calif.) Star-News, “many projects, great and small, have been waiting for the Senate to finish its play and do what it intended to do during all the days that were so ruthlessly wasted. Now, however, these anxieties will be forgotten, and unless obstacles are placed in the way of administration the biggest spending program ever undertaken in this or any other coun- try will get under way at once. That the results may be all that are hoped for is the prayerful wish of all Amer- ica “It will be a test of the wisdom of the Roosevelt recovery policies,” thinks the Jacksonville (Fla.) Jour- nal. The Willlamsport (Pa.) Sun says “the Nation is vitally concerned in seeing what the administration can accomplish,” while the Knoxville (Tenn,) Jouznal advises a “definitely and earnestly and honestly carried out 5 “The object is to provide employ- ment on permanent, necessary works though there are others who would like to get their hands into the trough. Coincidental with the President’s dis- closure about Mr. Ickes comes the row between Mr: Ickes and Senator Huey P. Long, Loulsiana, dictator. Mr. Ickes has told the Kingfish flatly that e does not intend to have the Federal funds used to build up a political or- ganization for Long in Louisiana. That is all right. But the use of Fed- eral funds inevitably builds up a political organization for some one. It just can’t be helped. Nor.is it dif- ficult to see who is likely to benefit from the politics of this money X until a general improvement in busi- ness sweeps the capital industries into action,” observes the Indianapolis News, with the added comment: “This pressure for better road and rail trafic conditions, flood prevention, housing improvement, conservation of natural resources, educational expansion and numerous improvements in the inter- est of public health are among projects to which the money ran be devoted in the certainty that future genera- tions will feel, as they pay the bill, that wisdom governed the decision. If the administration not only selects wisely, but hol§® firmly to the man- date that no money shall be wasied, Look to President Roosevelt For Supreme Recovery Effort many who look with some consterna- tion on such a large outlay may in due time feel that it was worth while.” In the judgment of the San Fran- cisco Chronicle: “Either there is some way of bringing about recovery arti- ficially, or else it will have to be en- couraged and guided in coming about by natural processes. We are spend- ing $5,000,000,000, mortgaged on our future, in this final effort to bring it about artificially. If it works, it will be worth the money. If it does not, perhaps the lesson that the thing cannot be done artificially and must be done naturally, may be worth part of the mone Strong criticism of the undertak- ing is voiced by the Roanoke (Va.) World-News. and that paper argues: “As & recovery measure. most eco- nomists hold that the bill will do more harm than good: that for every public project launched, such as Gov- ernment housing and electrification, private capital will be driven into re- treat, as unable to compete with tax- free Government operations. In the long run, therefore, it may create as much of unemployment as it cures.” “It is seriously doubted.” contends the Charleston (S. C.) Evening Post, “that five billions can be expended within 12 months—certainly it can- not be expended wisely and possibly it may nor be possible to scatter it even foolishly, although doubtless there will be herolc efforts thereto— yet, if it is to have the political value which opponents of the Presi- dent have charged as one of its prin- cipal objects, it will have to be made operative within such a period.” “Certain scoffers inside of Con- gress,” recalls the Philadelphia In- quirer, “insist that the United States cannot buy its way into prosperity, but can spend its way into poverty. We are borrowing heavily and the debc will have to be paid. This is a feature of the situation that causes apprehension, considering that in the administration’s program we no long- er hear of the day to come when debt creation will stop, with a bal- anced budget the aim. There are other causes for apprehension. The heretofore lavish expenditure of bil- lions may have had some edect, but when we move forward the iron hand - of restriction stretches over business and industry.” A mght By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton An Ideal Hearts of men are always seeking Some far' rill beyond the mountain That may slip into their keeping Like a pure and cherished fountain; Some fair one eluding capture, Frail enough for their protection, Who may ever rouse fresh rapture By her touch of cool perfection.