Evening Star Newspaper, June 20, 1935, Page 10

''A—10 THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C THURSDAY ...000ueeeees.June 20, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES..........Editor ot e e A T S SR s RN The Evening Star Newspaper Company. 11¢n 8t "Sad Fenbeyivant Ave olew Yerk 'fi‘f.’n 110 :lm-:z 'cz’m Bt BurSoeard Doy, hake MIC e, fon. Bngland Rate by Carrier Within the City. Eegular Edition, St o SR onth g Sunday BHAF e o " 5'7 60c per month undsy * Star .65¢ per month . 5¢ per copy e Eveni (.when An‘eundln\ (when 5 undays) The Sunday Btar. ... Night Final Editien. Night Pinal and Sunday Star ."70¢ per month h month Night Pinal Star .o bficgllr Collection made at the end of each month. Orders may be sent by mail or telephone Na- tional 5000, Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia, aily and Sunda ally only .. Sunday only All Other States and Canada. Sunday only. Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this aper and also the local news published herclo, All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. No Security From Taxes. The Fresident’s “share the wealth” or %“soak the rich” program of taxation seems to have caught Congress off guard. The leaders, as the end of a hard ses- sion was coming in sight, were tentatively making forecasts once more of the date of adjournment. The hardest parts of the “must” program were behind them. And then, without warning and appar- ently without consultation with the legis- lative generals at the Capitol, the mes- sage lands among them with the sharp report of a bursting bombshell, setting up reverberations that will continue to echo for a long time to come. Yet there is a certain timeliness about it. The Senate placed the finishing touches on the social security legislation yesterday afternoon. That is the bill which has been hailed as marking the end of the poorhouse and alleviating many of the ills associated with unem- ployment. It is also a& bill which levies heavy taxation; taxation probably more widely distributed among all the people than any tax measure ever enacted by Congress. In unemployment taxes and in income taxes to defray the expenses of old-age pensions the bill is estimated to produce about $1,877,800,000 annually by 1943—less than ten years hence. And the weight of that added tax burden may be measured in part by comparison with the existing Federal tax burden, which in the fiscal year 1934 amounted to $2,672,239,194, including the A. A. A. processing taxes. In other words, less than ten years hence the total present existing Federal tax burden will have been increased by more than one-half through the excise taxes on pay rolls and through the income tax on employes to pay the expenses and create the re- serves for unemployment insurance and old-age pensions alone. This new, added tax burden—not in- sluding additions which will come through the levying of local taxes to meet State requirements—does not contemplate the taxes necessary to finance other new governmental functions undertaken by the New Deal, or to begin the liquidation of the huge public debt which has been and is still being assumed for New Deal expenditures. The President’s message on the taxa- tion of higher incomes, the increased taxation of corporate earnings, the new taxation of inheritances and gifts, not to mention the possibility of removing tax-exemption from Federal and State securities through future constitutional amendment, furnishes in part an an- swer to the question of the source of these additional revenues that must be found when pay day rolls around. And, judging from Senator Huey Long’s fer- vent “Amen” on reading the message, it represents to him a highly satisfactory method of “sharing the wealth.” For, while the President lays stress in his message on “the need to simplify and clarify our revenue laws” that is not, of course, the chief objective which the message as a whole outlines. That objective, first, is to obtain more revenue to meet the accumulated needs for the future, represented in borrowing during the past. There is the additional objec- tive, which has its political implications, of moving toward the confiscation of great fortunes. Whether Congress, weary with its past labors and restive under the White House spur, will attempt en- actment of the new tax program at this session is a question that leaders will settle in the next few days. The Presi- dent’s message is not clear in that re- spect. But if the new tax program was not intended to take its place on the legislative “must” list, what was the rea- son for sending it up now? Communism and Labor. William Green, president of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor, has issued & warning that any local unions affiliated with the federation that admit Com- munists to membership will not be rec- ognized and that unions violating this rule may expect to have their charters withdrawn. The announcement is re- garded as a declaration of war on com- munism. It will be hailed as & whole- some policy and to the extent that it is carried into effect it will be & contribu- tion to the public security. The late Samuel Gompers, long head of the American Federation of Labor, was an unceasing opponent of radical- ism. He fought for years against the “poring from within” tactics of the rad- fcals, who sought to gain control of that 1argest and most influential labor organ- ization. Mr. Green is carrying on the principles of his predecessor in this proc- lamation. The immediate cause of this statement is the action of the International Fur Workers’ Union, which is affiliated with the A. F. of L., at its recent convention in Toronto authorizing & “common front” with the Fur Workers’ Industrial Union, controlled by & Communist “left b wing” leadership. The latter body is not affiliated with the A. F', of L. By virtual amalgamation of the membership the radicals of the trade would become affill- ates. The test of the mandate just given by Mr. Green will be in the deci- slon of the status of the now affiliated organization, after the inclusion of the Communists in its membership. The words “common front,” employed in the Toronto action, have a sinister meaning. It is used in all radical move- ments which seek to combine the forces which are working for the overturn of the American Government. That such is their purpose is not to be doubted. It is, indeed, frankly stated by the more outspoken and determined leaders. There is no concealment of the design to de- stroy the present Federal system. This is not a cry of “wolf, wolf!” It is & very definite menace. Organized 1abor is only one of the agencies of action which the radicals seek to employ, but the most important and potentially ef- fective. In the recent general strike in San Francisco the purpose of those promounutwutommadlmm- ized workers into a “common front” for the paralysis of the activities of business and industry as a means of precipitating social chaos. Its defeat was a vidtory for the State as now established. The newly proclaimed principle of anti-communism in the ranks of the A. F. of L. will be a means of defeating this malevolent design 1f it is stoutly and unflinchingly maintained. “Perfidious Albion?” If Great Britain imagined that her naval deal with Germany, perfected in cynical disregard of the treaty of Ver- sailles and the susceptibilities of other powers, would evoke no remonstrance, London must be disillusioned by the emotions its action has aroused in France and Italy. In both countries resentment is intense and outspoken. It is not con- fined to mere protest, but finds expres- sion in proposed retaliatory action bound to have profound effects upon the en- tire European situation, political, military and naval. No one, apparently, has yet gone the length of publicly denouncing Britain as “perfidious Albion,” but between the lines of French and Italian comment is a dis- tinct undercurrent of suggestion that the British have betrayed their con- tinental friends in covenanting with Hit- ler behind their backs to restore Ger- many to the rank of a first-class naval power. French and Italian criticism pillories Great Britain not only for dis- rupting European solidarity, recently fashioned at Stresa, but for venturing, solely off her own bat, to assign the Nazis a ratio of strength at sea which, while safeguarding British interests, cal- Jously leaves out of account the security of Germany'’s other neighbors. Nor does the Baldwin government escape rebuke for disregarding the League of Nations and its supposed prestige as the guardian of international treaty rights. In defense of their private understand- ing with the Germans, the British con- tend they have paved the way to further international naval limitation. Nothing coming out of Paris or Rome supports that rosy alibi. France is already dis- cussing an enlargement of her fleet, made necessary by the Anglo-German agreement, which is held to wreck the 1922 Washington treaty. Italy, too, is talking expansion. Increases in the French and Italian fleets would, of course, impel Britain to lay down additional ships, while Germany’s quota of 35 per cent of British strength would auto- matically permit her to build more ex- tensively. In the face of such develop- ments the United States and Japan would not be idle. Soviet Russia already feels called upon to meet the German menace in the Baltic. Politically, the Anglo-German compact threatens to drive France and Italy into each other’s arms. The French press is discussing the advisibility of a Franco- Ttalian alliance, “a Latin friendship,” to counteract the mew naval entente, and advocates, specifically and immedi- ately, French support of Italy’s plans. in Abyssinia. Similar sentiments find utterance in Mussolini’s press. All in all, it is painfully apparent that the British, in their zeal to fortify them- selves against a new German naval peril, have precipitated a situation that may lead to grave and unsuspected conse- quences. Two things are fairly certain—disarm- ament has received a knockout blow along with the treaty of Versailles, and the solid front which Europe only a few weeks ago was presenting against Ger- man pretensions is smashed beyond rec- ogrition. 4 - An initialed political economy will hardly go so far as to produce a cus- tomary reference to the Supreme Court as “8. C." The Social Security Bill. The social security bill passed by the of the Constitution and for the time being end there. There are few stand- ards of experience by which to gauge the practicability of its theories—either the theories represented in the House version of the bill or those contained in the Senate bill. But the Senate bill undoubtedly contains some wisely lib- eralizing provisions with which the House should concur. One of these is embodied in the Clark pension section of the bill those com~ panies which have previously adopted their own retirement and pension plans —provided the latter are as gemerous or more so than the national plan. That seems to be good sense. Nothing is to be gained by destroying, or pulling down to a lower level, what has already been accomplished voluntarily by private cor- porations in the matter of retirement and pension. Another liberalizing amend- ment recognizes the plan, followed in THE EVENING BTAR, | ‘Wisconsin, of permitting individual com- pany reserves for unemployment insur- ance, as well as the pooling method by which all companies pay their pay roll taxes into a common State fund, from which benefits are paid, regardless of the amounts of the company contribu- tions or the source of unemployment. ‘Under the pool system a company which protects its employes, epd which has a Jow labor turnover, will be assessed at the same rate as the company which makes no provision and little effort to guard against lay-offs of its personnel. Under the company reserve plan, the company which stabilizes its employ- ment is rewarded, when its reserves have reached a fixed amount per employe, by the benefits of pay roll tax reduction. But the Senate also went to curious lengths of liberality by adopting the Russell amendment. This amendment to the section providing for aid to the needy aged—not to be confused with the old- age pensions—is contradictory in prin- ciple and certain to be the source of later difficulties. The bill originally pro- vided that the Federal Government would grant aid—on the 50-50 basis— to those States which provide their own assistance to the needy aged. The Rus- sell amendment provides that the Fed- eral Government shall, for two years, grant Federal aid funds to States which have not yet enacted their own laws. There are about fifteen such States. But they will find little inducement to enact their own fund-matching laws if the Federal Government is to make grants to them regardless. And while the Russell amendment is for two years only, such liberality by the Federal Gov- ernment has s way of continuing in- definitely, once begun. The midget who sat on J. P. Morgan’s knee is mentioned only impersonally. She seems to represent a magnificent opportunity for showman publicity gone to waste. —_———————— An obscure poet wrote: “We praise the knave and scourge the tool that did his work,” and to this day a number of public men feel the same way about the matter. —e————— In musical aifairs union influence con- templates no assumption of art authority that gives the diatonic scale precedence over the wage scale. West Virginia has presented Rush Holt on the theory that Congress as well as Hollywood is entitled to its juvenile prodigies. By putting the jail on the roof, archi- tects of the Rockville court house made it only a few steps from the underworld to a place in the sun. —_——e————— Reducing the value of the dollar in gold measurement has by no means lessened competition for its immediate possession. In spite of authoritative repudiation, Trotsky manages to assert himself as a one-man brain trust. Shooting Stars BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. 0. W. M. We fear no aggressor Who might undertake ‘To be the possessor Of all we can make By toil or directing Some fortunate plan. We're mostly respecting That old weather man. Though some one satanic May threaten and jeer, ‘We feel no such panic As surely draws near ‘When the Heavens above us He calls us to scan. He doesn’t seem to love us— That old weather man. He makes his prediction And tells us anew He leaves this conviction— The worst will come true. The farm or the city Must fall ‘neath his ban. He shows us no pity— That old weather man. Wisdom Unimparted, “You ought to make a profound study of political economy,” remarked the constituent. “What's the use?” said Senator Sorghum. “Even if you should manage to know all about it yourself you couldn’t explain it so that other people would understand it.” The microscope shows tiny shapes of fear. The telescope makes flery wrath seem near. *Twixt great and small we play life’s little game— And each result is pretty much the same. Anti-Crime Strategy. “What is Crimson Guich doing about the crime wave?” “Plenty,” said Cactus Joe. “We have an armored gas filling station and no speed restrictions. Whenever a crime splash looms up we give it every en- couragement to flow on past.” - “My’ ancestors were wise men,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown. “With all their wisdom they could not avoid producing frivolous children, such as my frivolous neighbor, Hi Hat.” \ Publicity. The politician strikes a pose. ‘We pause to have a look. Along with beauties in the shows He has his picture took. * Just what he wears we may discern And what he eats and drinks, Yet all in vain we seek to learn Precisely what he thinks. “De man dat has de best of an argu- ‘ment,” said Uncle Eben, “is most gen=- erally de one dat managed to keep out of it in de first place.” As a political document President Roosevelt's special mebsage to Congress calling for increased taxes on corpora- tions, incomes and gifts and an inheri- tance tax is likely to have considerable and wide effect. Every one knows that sooner or later the administration must start collecting more revenue to meet the ' huge expenditures which it has undertaken in the last two or three years. Every one knows that taxes are not popular. The President, however, now comes forward with a “share-the- wealth” program of his own—a program that caused Senator Huey P. Long to utter a loud “amen” in the Senate cham- ber. This will have a popular appeal, since it proposes to take money from the rich to pay the public debt, and a popular appeal means a political effect. If the President sticks to what he saild and implied in his message, Senator Long may yet be found in Mne with the Democratic national ticket next year. This seems almost incredible in view of the torrent of invective that has been heaped upon Mr. Roosevelt and the New Dealers by the Louisiana Kingfish. Strange things happen, how= ever, in politics. * ¥k x % 1t was not only the President's imme- diate proposals for increased taxes that stired Huey Long and other share-the- wealth enthusiasts. It was his proposals for a broad program which would not only curb further concentration of wealth in the hands of individuals, but also in corporate hands. “Ultimately,” the President said, “we should seek through taxation the simplification of our corporate structures through the elimination of unnecessary holding companies in all lines of business. We should likewise discourage unwieldy and unnecessary corporate surpluses.” * x x % ‘To some the President’s suggestions will sound like a demand for a return to the “horse and huggy” days of business. That will not, however, dis- please a lot of Americans who have been going out of business because of the rise of chain stores and of other great | corporate organizations that once upon a time were called “trusts.” In fact, this “horse and buggy” business, with its promise of greater independence and greater chances of success for the little fellow, will undoubtedly be popular, although it would call for & tremendous readjustment. * kK % ‘While the President shows himself willing to return to the “horse and buggy” days of business, he apparently is still not reconciled to return to the “horse and buggy” days of Government. The decentralization of power may be all right so far as business is concerned. But the decentralization of govern- mental power is not in line with the plans of the New Dealers. And yet the decentralization of governmental power is not without its strong appeal to Americans. They do not like to be “regimented” or told exactly what they must do in their usual occupations by a powerful and centralized Government in Washington. The President had a glimpse of that fact after the Supreme Court declared his N. R. A. unconsti- tutional and after he had declared that the court’s decision was taking the country back to the “horse and buggy” era. Undoubtedly there are a lot of people who would like to see decen- tralization of business and of Govern- ment and a break-up of the concentra- tion of great wealth in the hands of a comparatively few individuals and a few corporations. * % % % The President’s “share-the-wealth” tax plan may serve to take the atten- tion of the people away from the rebuff which the New Deal experienced at the hands of the Supreme Court. From a political point of view the check which the President met in the court’s deci- sion on the N. R. A. was the first body blow he has received since he became Chief Executive. His prestige and that of the New Deal suffered. It does not do to let such an idea simmer long in the minds of the people. Soon after the Supreme Court handed down its N. R. A. decision, some of the informed leaders in ss talked “off the record” about a probable tax message which the President would send to Con- gress. At the White House it was denied that the President had thought of taxes for months. Yet within a comparatively few days this elaborate tax program was put forward to Congress in a special message. * x ok % If the Congress undertakes to make the tax changes recommended by the President at the present session of Con- gress, it may delay by a couple of weeks or more adjournment—an adjournment that even now is not expected before the middle of July. The suggestion has been made that the Senate write the President’s three-way tax plan into the joint resolution extending the life of certain excise taxes beyond July 1. That plan may be followed, although the leaders in the Senate, including is done will depend, it is expected, upon the demands made by the President. Whatever the Democratic leaders may decide, in conjunction with the Presi- dent, regarding this matter, the Senate is going to have an opportanity to ex- press itself upon increased taxation when the joint resolution comes up for consideration. Senator La Follette of Wisconsin, Progressive, who for years a much higher tax on corporations. In fact, it has many of the earmarks of the T Hessin i THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Templeton Jones stood in his garden, looking down at the borage plant. He thought he knew at last why the ancients believed that a wreath of the leaves would bring courage to the wearer. ‘The relation between the borage and courage is almost as old as mankind. Just why, however, nobody seems to know. Many centuries ago the idea of “mel- ancholy” was very prevalent; the “glad- dening of the heart” was a subject as much under discussion among the peo- ples of old as the common “cold” is among us of today. - For some reason or other the bor- age—a plant somewhat resembling a fine, vigorous burdock—was supposed to have the “virtue” of giving courage to those who wore it or drank an infusion of its leaves. * x % x As Templeton Jones felt the great, crinkly leaves, covered with stiff hairs, he believed he knew. It took courage to wear those things around the brow! A chaplet of those prickly leaves would mean that & man had courage to begin with, just to put it on, so that the attain- ment of the quality Would be easy. Perhaps many of the myths of man- kind had no more real reason for being, Often enough, when one is reading about ancient superstitions, one wonders how on earth such ideas ever arose. Many plants were given the reputa- tion, in the old days, of contributing to the merriment of the heart, making the mind glad and in other ways fortifying the attributes of character. Perhaps their reputations along these lines rested on no more than the belief of some one person who, having so used them, happened to be helped or, at least, thought he was so helped. Probably he was a good advertiser and spread the fame of his chosen plant among others who, trying it out, found help, too. Often it is easy to find the good points of something when one honestly is look- ing for them. The ego of the human spirit is such that the moment one goes to the trouble of buying a thing, especially when it is thoroughly expensive, one is very likely to find the good qualities sought. Did not one put the preliminary sanc- tion on it by acquiring it? Then how can it be bad? * % % X Templeton Jones was intrigued with his lordly borage plant. Some one has described the borage as “sullen” in appearance, but Jones did not think the adjective very fitting. 1t is, rather, a jolly looking plant, for all of its large leaves or, perhaps, even because of them. Every time Jones looked at his borage he thought of King Henry VIII, whose fame suddenly was revived recently by several popular histories of his activities, particularly marital. ‘While there is a plant of another fam- ily popularly called “the good King Henry,” surely Henry VIII cannot be the monarch; probably it is Henry II who is meant. Yet there is something jolly about the borage which reminded our gardener, as perhaps it has many another, of a Jolly fat man. . Let us say Falstaff. There is a character for you—probably more honored on paper today than on STARS, MEN meauns, but gave to his fat good quality. Maybe he wore a borage wreath, at least at times. B The blue flowers of the borage are somewhat star-shaped, not nearly as large as one might expect, from the size of the leaves, and have black anthers which make a beauty spot for the flower. The arrangement of the preity flowers on the flower spike is interesting, the whole being given a spirelike or bell- tower resemblance. Bees of all kinds love the borage flowers. They are said to yleld an especially good honey. It was interesting for Jones to watch one exceptionally yellow bee—probably wasp of some type—wing its way from flower to flower on the spike. The outline of the entire plant is interesting, forming almost a perfect triangle, with its base on the ground and the blue flower at the peak. If any one does not understand how & plant can form a triangle with the ground, let him grow borage next Spring and find out. * % x X% This plant prefers plenty of sun, in common with many of the so-called herbs. It is an annual, but so self-seeds itself it will come up every year. No doubt it will be found too weed- like for some, but surely those who ap- preciate the unusual will take it to their horticultural hearts. Some plants seem to suffer at times from a sort of wilt, but since many of our common garden ornamentals are in the same boat, this is nothing much against the growing of the borage. ‘The main thing to keep in mind is to plant the seed early, or to set out pur- chased plants as early as possible, Not later than the last of Apr}l is best for the latter. Templeton Jones had two plants, one | 5 the large one instanced here, planted about May 1, and another planted about the last of May. The first one set out grew nobly and was in every way a plant to call down admiration on its scratchy head. The second, planted too late, has bloomed, but the height of the plant is not a third of the other, and the leaves, in particular, are nothing exceptional. The borage is a plant whose leaves, properly grown, constitute one of its real charms. The leaves of the second plant were not in the same class with those of the former. The main stalk was not more than a third of an inch in diameter, whereas the stalk of the good plant was an inch and a half through. It may be realized that the borage, well grown, is considerable of a plant, and not lacking in that elusive appeal of beauty which every garden plant | ought to have. It does not possess the fragile spike of the Veronica, or the dainty flowers of the feverfew, but its great leaves and odd blue blossoms give it a certain charm of its own. When the history of the plant is added, to- gether with the legend that has clustered | around it since antiquity, we have a plant which richly deserves to be grown in our gardsns today. AND ATOMS Notebook of Science Progress in Field, Laboratory and Study. - BY THOMAS R. HENRY. Bird societies have evolved out of formless and orderless conglomerations of individuals, perhaps possessed of an inborn tendency to huddle together. Out of this chaotic gregariousness social evo- lution has moved by diverse paths to various forms of group organization, of which the feathered creatures furnish some of the most striking instances among animals, or to solitary living and the self-sufficient family. That bird organization was a result of movements within the mass rather than of the coming together of iso- lated individuals is the deduction of Dr. Herbert Friedmann, curator of birds of the Smithsonian Institution, from a survey of different forms of avian so- ciety reported by ornithologists in the professional literature from all over the world. The highest of all birds—in the sense that they are structurally farthest re- moved from the common forms of bird life—tend to be solitary. They are the song birds, of which there are 67 families scattered over the world. Fifty-eight of these families are soli- tary nesters. They apparently have no society whatever, beyond the imme- diate family group. The majority of the species in the other nine families also live in self-sufficient families. To the contrary, however, some of the song bird group—notably the crows and the ravens—afford some of the most highly organized examples of bird society. The facts remain, Dr. Friedmann points out, that the most remarkable “societies” are found in the more primi- tive orders. Such, for example, are the remarkable group organizations of the penguins, or the sky-darkening flights of millions of the extinct passenger pigeons reported by early American observers. Only by surveying the whole bird world cbuld certain genersl trends be noted, Dr. Friedmann found. Environ- ment, food habits, relative helplessness defense, care of the nestlings, or shelter. Seldom does one society serve more than one end. The evidence indicates, Dr. Friedmann holds, that birds tended to flock together., This tendency appears basic in bird nature and Friedmann in the section on societies contributed to the 1935 of social psychology issued by versity : t.hnt;.hemltmlorgytg: birds are more or less gregarious suggests very strongly that birds are essentially gre- garious in their tendencies. It seems that solitary nesting, rather than col nial nesting, is the more recent de- velopment and on the whole this is borne out by the fact that the great majority of the ‘higher’ groups of birds are solitary nesters, while the bulk of gregarious breeding species belong to the ‘lower,’ ostensibly groups.” Ak » ‘The curious phenomenon of “terri- torialism” has been a vital factor in the development of self-sufficiency as op- posed to group living, Dr. Friedmann points out. It is the condition in which each breeding pair of birds tends to lay claim to a sufficient area around the nest to supply food for themselves'and their young. With such a contingent territory the parents never are obliged to go so far from the nest as to leave the nestlings unprotected. Such a development is dependent on the nature of the food supply to which the bird has become accustomed and adapted. It would be valuable only to such species as live on worms, seeds, etc., which have a wide and almost uni- versal distribution. Such birds might be compared to small farmers, or to subsistence homesteaders. In many species the males will sep- arate from the flock in the Spring and each will isolate himself on an exclusive breeding territory, strenuously resisting the encroachment of any other males. There also he makes himself conspicuous by display and song, so as to attract a mate. Apparently, according to Dr. Friedmann, this kind of behavior started early in bird evolution and represents a great step away from gregariousness and toward solitude. After the breeding season the tendency was to return to the flock once more for the annual migration. On the other hand there has been the least development of family self-suffi- ciency among those birds whose food habits are such that they must cover great distances in search of sustenance. Such, for example, are those that feed upon fish, or that capture the majority of their sustenance on the wing. For them territorialism could have no object. The immediate environment of the nest offers them very little to supply their | more primitive, | ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS By Frederic ]. Haskin. A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing T7:e Washing=- ton Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washing- ton, D.C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. How many people are assisted by Travelers’ Aid yearly?—G. H. A. A report of the National Associa- tion for Travelers’ Ald and Transient or more of the services of this organi- zation. Q. What does the electricity cost for gu;umunz & night basz ball game?— A. It is estimated that the cost of electricity for the game runs between $250 and $300. Q. What is the significance of the term grass roots as applied to the Re- publican Convention?—H. H. A. John Hamilton, national commit- teeman, used the expression in a speech made at Topeka in January on the oc- casion of Kansas Republicans celebrat- ing their 1934 victory. One explanation is that grass roots is equivalent to get- ting down to the brass tacks of a situ- ation. Another is that the rally is held to revitalize the party from the roots up. Q. Why are blue sky laws so called?— H P 8 A. The name came from the pro- poser’s claim that to capitalize the blue skies was the object of some promoters. Q. Please describe the animal known as the aard-vark—M. M. A. The aard-vark is a curious insect- eating, burrowing mammal of South Africa. It attains a length of 5 feet, in- cluding the tail, and feeds entirely on ants, which it catches with its long, slimy tongue. The hair is a dull brown color. Q. What is meant by new cabbage?— F. A. New cabbage is not nmew in the sense of being immature. It has leaves that are green almost throughout the head, and is a different variety from Winter cabbage. Q. What did it cost to administer the N.R.A?—A.F. L. A. According to an estimate of the National Industrial Conference Board, the total cost of administering the N. R. A. and its 578 codes during the two- year period is more than $93,000,000. Q. Who originated the milk-for-health campaign?—A. M. A. In 1919 the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture conducted the first milk-for-health campaign in the United States. This was the same year that the dairy industry created the National Dairy Council. Q. Who started Sunday schools—S. M. A. Robert Raikes (1735-1811), an Eng- lish religious leader, in 1780 started a school in Gloucester, where children might be taught to read and to repeat the Catechism. Q. What is the extent of the area covered by the Alps?—R. W. C. A. The land of the Alps covers an area of 15,737 square miles. Q. Does the Government pay $35 an ounce for 14-carat gold?—S. M. A. The Government pays that amount for 24-carat gold. An arti-le made of 14-carat gold would bring only $20.41 an ounce, Q. Who is known as the father of the United States Military Academy?—R. D. | A. Gen. Sylvanus Thayer is called the father of the Military Academy. This month West Point is celebrating the sesquicentennial of his birth. Q. Has the road from Laredo, Tex., to Mexico been completed?—L. C. M. A. The road has now been completed, affording a new approach for travel to Mexico. The modern hard-surfaced highway extends through deserts, moun= tains and jungles for 783 miles. Q. Does hair grow faster in the Win- ter or in the Summer?—S. T. A. It grows faster in Summer than in ‘Winter, and faster by day than by night. Q. Does Great Britain have many horses?—F. B. M. A. A recent census made by the Army Council shows that there are 1,263,000 horses in Great Britain. The number | has declined by more than 600,000 in the | last 10 years. | Q. Please tell something about the monastery at Mount Athos, Greece.— J. B. A. The rocky promontory of Mount Athos (121 square miles) is occupied by 20 monasteries of the Greek Ortho- dox Church, each a sort of little re- public in itself. The monks number over 4,000, and no. women are allowed to enter the territory. Q. Was Du Maurier’s “Peter Ibbetson” ever published as a serial?>—N. B. A. The novel appeared serially in Har- per’s Magazine in 1891. Q. What became of the college for In- dians at Carlisle, Pa.?—G. 8. A. The Carlisle Indian School was originally a military post at Carlisle, Pa., and was made into an elementary school for Indians in 1878, It was never a col- lege, but remained an elementary school for Indian youth until shortly after the World War, when it was discontinued and the plant restored to the War De- partment, September 1, 1918. Q. When will-the American Bar As- sociation hold its convention?—E., W. A. The American Bar Association will convene in Los Angeles, Calif., on July 15, the meeting lasting five days. A Rhyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton Singing in the Dusk In a city park under blowing trees, ‘When all the town was roaming. Children at play ina sportive breeze Sang in the early gl 2 The song of a game I used to sing As a child in ts shady, Of a falling bridge, in a dancing ring, And fare-ye-well, my lady. I heard the song with a laugh and i frown, For those who go a-roaming! The children - went dancing off to sup From and