Evening Star Newspaper, August 13, 1935, Page 8

T HE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1935, —8 ) b : . THIS AND THAT « BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition, . .WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY .............August 13, — e, THEODORE W. NOYES...........Editor —_— The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Business Office: 11th 8t. and Penflylvnm An Nu York Off e: Lake Michigan utldml o0 OMfce: Lake 1 ? g mfflgflnl MC! 14 Regent St.. Lon ‘Rate by Carrier Within the City. 1935 --45¢ per mon‘h --60¢ per month 65¢ per month isht Final and Sunday ight. Finai Star pe: Collection made at the end of each month, @rdars may be sent by mall or telephons Na- onal 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance, and Virginia, aily and Sundsy__1 vr. aily. o ¥ A Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches gredited to it or mot otherwise credited in this Paper and also the local news published herein. TP Fights of Dublication of ‘Shecial dispatches erein ane also reserved. — —_— Evading Realities. The Senate committee’s quick turn- about and precipitate flight from the realities of taxation was unexpected only in that it happened a little earlier than had been anticipated. On Saturday afternoon it appeared likely that the tax bill would at least be reported to the Senate as written up to that time. A week-end of deliberation and consulta- tion were apparently enough to start the runaway. The result is to add one other farce to those that have already marked the curious legislative history of this tax bill. The significant difference between the tax bill passed by the House and the bill tentatively agreed on Saturday after- noon by the Senate committee was that the latter was a revenue-raising meas- ure, whereas the former was not accepted seriously by anybody as a revenue-rais- ing bill and was mainly punitive. this political gesture, potentially harm- ful enough, the Senate responded with what turned out to be another gesture. This was a gesture in the direction of really raising the revenue that the tre- mendous governmental spending pro- gram now demands. What appears too likely now is that Benate and House will enact a tax bill that conforms generally to the pattern of the Ways and Means Committee’s product—a measure, in other words, that will contain punitive taxes on wealth | and size without remedying any of the abuses of tax-avoidance pointed out by the Internal Revenue Bureau and with- out raising anything like the amount of revenue that the Government should seek to bolster its borrowing program or begin the balancing of its actual budget. Common sense should dictate one of $wo courses of action: To give up thought of early adjournment and to settle down to the grim business of framing a tax bill that will produce revenue and bring home to the people a realization of the cost of government; to go home now and come back in January, or earlier, with the same determination in regard to revenue legislation but with more time and less fever in making it effective. The real danger now is that Congress, In trying to make good a political bluff, will enact a crazily patched-up tax meas- ure capable of great harm to recovery now under way and incapable of raising needed revenue, And the added dan- ger is that fear of levying taxes directly affecting the people who must shoulder the cost of government—and that means most of them—will be as great a few months or & year or so hence as it is now. That will leave ruinous inflation as the alternative, o As the reputed possessor of King Bolomon's mines, it is perhaps only natural for Ethiopia to expect to be lined up among those to be soaked. —e— Building an Issue. ‘The Guffey coal bill, setting up a com- mission for administering a “code” for the bituminous coal industry, has finally been reported, favorably though grudg- ingly, to the House by the Ways and Means Committee. Indeed, the bill eould not have been reported at all if two Democratic members of the com- mittee had not been willing to vote *“present” instead of “no,” although it is reported they were opposed to the meas- ure. The very fact that the President was able to have his way in this matter by s0 narrow a margin adds to the evi- dence that the New Deal is slipping fast in the house of its former friends, the hugely Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. For the Guffey bill has all the earmarks of the New Deal. It is the kind of measure that two years, & year or even six months ago would have gone through with a whoop. The coal bill, if the demands of the President are met, is to be put through the House and Senate before Congress adjourns. One of the reasons advanced by the President for the passage of the bill is to bring a test of its constitution- ality before the Supreme Court. He has urged the House members to vote for the measure’s passage, despite any rea- sonable doubts they may have as to the constitutionality. If he succeeds in hav- ing the bill passed, this test is expected to come in the courts, even though some of the House supporters of the bill now insist that the bill has been so amended as to be within the Constitution as in- terpreted by the court in the Schechter case. President Roosevelt may be unwilling at this time to say what plans he has, if any, for amending the Constitution so as to give the Federal Government greater power to deal with social and economic problems Nation-wide in scope. But certainly his request for the pas- sage of a bill of which Congress may doubt the constitutionality seems to bé laying the groundwork for the erection of an issue that eventually will have to g0 to the voters. Add to this-the fact To | that the A. A. A. and its processing taxes—companion piece of the N. R. A, in the New Deal program—is to be tested in the Supreme Court next Fail, and it appears that the President is in reality seeking to make the issue, whether he announces publicly that he will ask for a constitutional amendment or not. Un- doubtedly the President is desirous that & ground swell of demand for a change in the Constitution be found among the people before he crystallizes the issue in definite constitutional amendment. It is reported that the President, dur- ing the course of a pre-campaign West- ern trip, will discuss the matters in- volved and make reply to the challenge of former President Hoover calling on Roosevelt to tell the people exactly what he wants changed in the Constitution Even if President Roosevelt should dis- cuss these questions, it seems scarcely likely that he will put before the people at this time a definite proposed amend- ment to the Constitution. He is more likely to explain to them that under ex- isting constitutional limitations it is not possible for the Government to come to their aid either in maintaining wages and hours of labor or in keeping up prices of farm products. His strategy would be to make the people dissatisfied, if possible, with the Constitution as it now stands. The President may be held back in his desire to make this constitutional issue by some of the Democrats, par- ticularly those of the South, who would view with distrust a demand that the Federal Government be empowered to act within the States with great free- dom. It looks more and more, however, as though he were intent upon a cam- | paign of persuasion at this time, rather than the raising of a definite and im- mediate issue, e Local Tax Investigation. The Commissioners, in appointing a group of municipal officials to study local taxation, will be careful not to put the cart before the horse. Before proposing new sources of local taxation or new devices for soaking the local taxpayer, they will find whether the anticipated shortage of local revenue expected to result from enactment of the social security measures is due to the fact that the local community is undertaxed, or whether it is due to the fact that the local community has been forced to assume not only the normal burdens of a municipality, but the ex- traordinary burdens of National Capital maintenance and development as well. It would be a relatively easy matter for the assessor, the corporation counsel, the auditor, the director of highways and a member of the Public Utilities Commission to put their good heads together and devise a local income tax bill, inheritance tax bill or new tax bills plastering automobile owners and to demonstrate that any or all of them | would work; that is, that the money would be paid by voteless taxpayers and sent to the Treasury by the tax collector. But before they do that the Commis- | sioners or their committee of tax authorities should inquire not only into the real estate tax burden, but into the total tax burden of the local com- munity, compare it with tax burdens of cities of comparable size and en- vironment and demonstrate what has been amply demonstrated before—that the people of the District are already taxed as heavily as the people of com- parable communities. While & shortage of revenue to meet Capital City budgets may be demonstrated at the same time, the results merely show that the exclu- sively controlling National Government, and not the local community, is re- sponsible for the deficit. As for the social security measures and their added cost, if the unemploy- ment insurance bill is enacted without the unique provision that the District government contribute and is modeled on the few laws so far enacted by the States, no additional drain on local gen- eral tax funds should result. The measure should be supported by the pay roll tax levied on employers. That is the way the States plan to support their measures. The cost of old-age insurance will be borne, according to the theories of the legislation, by pay roll taxes and income taxes levied against employers and employes. The cost of old-age pensions and aid to the needy blind is not yet definitely known. But it will not be relatively high. The Commissioners' tax study should rightly include an investigation of sources of local revenue. But that study will not necessarily demonstrate the need to plaster higher taxes or new taxes on the local community. It will require the production of facts not now revealed to justify any such procedure. et ‘When men quit work and go home, what some call “a strike” is not so serious as it might be if the men did not have homes to go to. ————- Relatives on Relief. Representative Frank E. Hook, Demo- crat, of Michigan yesterday enjoyed un- desired distinction by reason of the dis- covery that his father and three of his brothers had been on relief. A dispatch from his home town carried the news to the Nation, including the Capital. And the legislator found himself obliged to explain. But the statement he issued was not altogether unreasonable. “I wish I could support all my relatives,” he said, “but if any one can tell me how a Con- gressman can live in Washington eight months of the year, meet all of the re- quirements of his constituents and have a penny left over I wish he would do it.” A Representative’s salary is ten thou- sand dollars per annum, and he likewise has traveling and clerk-hire allowances. Yet, as Mr. Hook insists, it is difficult to make both ends meet. Living is expen- sive everywhere and during all parts of the year, not merely in Washington for eight months. And poor relations are numerous. But it may be hoped that the Congressman and his colleagues will not forget that their plight is not pe- culiar to themselves, Other folk have similar problems, The average citizen has far less than a Representative’s income and, proportionately, almost as many demands upon his purse. It fol- lows, therefore, that many individuals have relatives on relief, and no special shame attaches to the circumstance. But a Congressman has the power to do something about the difficulty. He can rise in his place in the House and demand that Government be a little less costly, administration a little less ad- venturous. Exercising his facilities of persuasion, he can organize his fellow- members in behalf of economy and san- ity. Mr. Hook belongs to a party which is pledged to the cause of democracy and social progress, but that cause needs practical, as well as oratorical, service. Any Congressman who knows from ex- perience how hard it is to live on ten thousand certainly should be anxious to help those who are trying to exist on, say, eleven hundred. The publicity of yesterday, perhaps, has opened Mr, Hook's eyes to the larger situation in which he is only one of a vast number of strugglers. D Unfeeling Crowds. Crowds of men, women and children, “from miles around,” gathered last evening near the District line to watch a company of firemen engaged in the pathetic business of cutting down a man who, despondent from unemploy- ment, had hanged himself. The throng laughed at the spectacle, found amuse- ment in the horror of it. Only a few individuals seemed to prefer to be else- where or to express regret over the fate of their fellow creature. But is it fair to conclude that hu- manity is conspicuous for its absence in ordinary human hearts? Suppose the man still had been alive: Would there not have been many who gladly would have assisted in any effort to rescue him? The answer to the latter question, surely, must be an affirmative. People cannot be so lacking in sym- | pathy, so hardened to suffering as to be willing to stand idly by while a suicide takes place. The problem, then, is one of extending their charity one degree further, of making it include some sense of pity for the dead without regard to how or why they have died. And eventually, when the race has attained its ultimate spiritual maturity, the struggles of the living may be embraced in the comprehension and understand- ing of mankind while yet some relief may be given effectively. It is in- credible that the world, having experi- enced war and revolution and long years | of poverty, | love. The crowds that laughed, please | God, were less numerous than the crowds that, reading the story of their laughter, feel ashamed that such an incident should have occurred on the edge of the Capital of the most free, the most proud, the most fortunate, the most truly civilized Nation of the earth. —— Everything possible has been done to prevent a spread of infantile paralysis. Its discussion may properly be restrained to simple facts free from imagination that might promote a “fear epidemic.” ———— Ethiopia is making an effort to frame a satisfactory apology for something or other that it never meant to be offensive. R Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, Always Merry and Bright. Some day I'll go a-fishing Beneath a Summer sky And live in idle wishing While hours go drifting by. I'll bait & hook and fling it In an ecstatic style, 1 shall—with joy I sing it— Boondoggle for awhile, I'll pick the flaunting thistle— And wish that I had not. For spectral pigs I'll whistle That I put on the spot. Though nations are in panic, Il wear a pleasant smile, And in a glee titanic Boondoggle for awhile, X-Rays. “Did you get any inside facts during your investigation?” “I did,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I showed some unpleasant things.” “Are your friends pleased?” « “No. An artistic photograph assists hero worship. But you can't expect peo- ple to get- sentimental over an X-ray photograph.” Jud Tunkins says he can't afford pork chops. Somehow or other his pocket- book seems to have got plowed under, along with the rest of his stuff, Swastika. Oh, Swastika, you proudly claim My rude but honest praise! I know you only by your name, And yet your powers amaze! So wonderful you are to see That often I'm beguiled Into the fear that you may be A pinwheel running wild. Life of the Party. “Who was the life of the party?” “I was,” answered Father William. “Nobody noticed me. But I paid all the bills.” Scrambled Alphabets. Ben Franklin was a printer bold; So was Mark Twain, we have been told. They plodded on with patient skill A place on history’s page to fill. In sadness I admit this much: They lacked the Scientific Touch. They stood with faces all awry When type was tumbled into “pl.” They passed to fame, but never knew ‘What Scrambled Alphabets can do. “Some men,” said Uncle Eben, “who is mighty smart ‘bout makin’ money don't seem to do anythin’ wif it ‘cept invest in trouble.” A has not learned anything of | Claims the Taxicabhs Have Profited Transit Company ‘To the Editor of The Star: At the recent Public Utilities Commis- sion cab rate hearing I, as spokesman for the local cab drivers’ union, pointed out to the commission that the local car lines and busses were doing an enormous amount of business. I also called their attention to the fact that the 20-30-50-70 cent cabs were doing very little except to block traffic in the congested sections of the city. Recent news reports indicate that I was exactly correct in my summary of the local transportation situation. I said that the real reason that caused this situation was that the rate used by the local rental cabs was so low that the rental drivers were forced to drive so fast and so recklessly and that they had had so many accidents that think- ing people had become afraid to ride in taxicabs. I also called attention to the fact that the rental drivers had treated patrons so discourteously that self-respecting people had quit riding in cabs. A report from the traffic director has Just been published. It states that one out of each four of the local cabs was involved in an accident during the last year. Only one out of each 118 private cars was involved in an accident dur- ing the same period. The situation is even worse than I said it was. Another interesting news report states that the car and bus monopoly, known as the Capital Transit Co., has granted its employes a wage increase that will cost the company $700,000 a year. Five years ago the car and bus lines here were claiming that they were bankrupt. They were refusing to make necessary track repairs. Then came the 20c cab that was gding to “put the cars and busses out of business.” Now after four years of 20c cab oper- ation the prosperity of the car and bus monopoly is so great that they are spending thousands of dollars making track repairs. They have placed in operation all the cars they had in storage. They are spending thousands of dollars buying new cars and busses. They are paying their stockholders dividends. And, in addition, they are able to give their faithful employes an increase that car men tell me means that each of them will receive a bonus of $100 cash and almost $1 a day more in pay. There is only one thing wrong about all of this. I claim that the car and bus monopoly should have given the $700,000 a year to the local 20c rental cab drivers. Because, after all, it was those low-rate cab drivers who made a success of the local car and bus busi- | ness after the local car and bus em- ploves and executives had made a failure of . BERNARD L. HENNING. e Safety Drives and the Problem of Parked Cars To the Editor of The Star: In a recent Sunday Star I saw an entire page devoted to an article of how Wasiington was the fastest-growing city in America. Well, it may be the fastest- | growing city in America, but it surely has got the reputation of being the most backward city in America when it comes to the parking of cars on the public streets. The police “safety drives” chief makes so-called every few months. The traffic director never has anything to | say. He is paid to direct the traffic, but if he says he wants the cars parked 45 feet away from the curb, some other fellow that knows nothing about direct- ing traffic says 25 feet, and that is who wins here. If the police chief and the traffic di- rector and the two Commissioners and the Honorable Mrs. Norton would get together and make the Government pro- vide places for the Government em- ployes to put their cars while at work and not jeopardize the parks all day with their old cars, or make them use the street cars or busses more, and make the rest of the people provide a place to store their cars, they weuld really try to make this city a safe place to walk and drive in. But all these safety drives are just a lot of nonsense as long as the city streets are so jammed with cars parked on both sides 24 hours a day. One cannot drive or walk safely here. Where the space is coming from to put more cars en the streets here I some- times wonder. Every day there are more and more cars parked 24 hours on the city streets. What is to become of the streets? A. STIMPSON. e Clark Amendment and The Proposed Substitute To the Editor of The Star: With reference to the Clark amend- ment and the proposed substitute, I find it difficult to reconcile the claim that these will aid in preserving private pension plans with the fact that un- earned annuities will be paid under the Government plan. If an employer re- moves his employes from the Govern- ment plan and thereby loses the benefit of the unearned annuities, just how is he encouraged to provide more liberal benefits? Of course, it is expected that unearned annuities will be paid up to about 1980, and that thereafter the an- nuities will be somewfhat less than those earned, since the whole scheme must balance. Perhaps some far-sighted em- ployers are now concerned over what their pension costs will be after 1980. Following the same line of argument, it must be that the proposed substitute will be of very little assistance in pre- serving private pension plans, since un- der it the employer would lose only a small part of the benefit of unearned annuities. After all, perhaps it's the heat. JOSEPH B. GLENN., Children Now Lacking In Character Training To the Editor of The Star: Still a comparatively young woman, I can recall that a few years ago & man’s word was as “good as his bond” and in business transactions people had old- fashioned ideals of integrity. But to- day, unless a contract is written down in black and white, many are evasive and their word apparently means noth- ing to them. Promises and agreements, if made only verbally, are broken con- tinually, and it seems that standards have broken down to a large extent. In my estimation, it is time parents inculcate in their children old-fashioned ideals of honesty and integrity which many of us were taught in our child- hood. Much of the crime wave is due to the fact that children do not get character training in the homes as they did some years ago. Thousands of children, too, are not in any Sunday school today. So if children do not get character training in either homes or churches they will not get it anywhere, and this is why fraud and dhholult.y seem more common today in business contacts. DOROTHY A. DAVIS. Pittsburgh, Pa. Straight Drink, Crooked Driving. Prom the Milwaukee Sentinel. Though he drank straight whisky, his driving was sigmg. The college song said that the bullfrog in the pool was a “green old water fool,” which was good rhyme, but fairly poor biology. If there is any creature suited to its environment, its two environments, as a matter of fact, it is the frog, in any of its speciss. ‘There is one out our way and every night we hear him go “plunk, plunk,” rather than “ker-plunk,” as it so often is given. In air and water he is able to keep fresh and cool all Summer long, a virtue which mere man may envy him. ‘The female of the species has little to say. It is the male frog which goes plunk, plunk, as if some one were beating with a padded stick on the bottom of an old rusty bucket. * % % % No frog is such a fool as the old song made out. Its life and development have in- trigued scientists for decades. From its sticky chains of eggs, through the vast changes of the tadpole stage, to full-fledged frog, this creature has an intrigue all its own, The ordinary home owner, who may be no scientist, still may have a frog or two in a pool in the back yard. Sometimes these amphibians hop across land from somebody's else’s pool, in one of these strange journeys the creatures make from time to time. Then the water gardener gets an in- teresting addition for nothing. * X ¥ x A good-sized frog can and will eat goldfishes of a fairly good length. So care must be taken to have large fishes in the pool, unless one does not mind the disappearance of smaller ones from time to time. Fishes are good swimmers, however, 80 even the little goldfishes have & very good chance for survival. It will be well, however, to keep just one frog per pool, One is enough. Not more than a pair should be kept, | at the most, and one is better. We cannot think that such a creature | is lonesome. He loves his environment, and if this environment does not pro- vide a mate, perhaps he doesn't mind. Like all the creatures of strict Nature, he accepts life as he finds it. x ok x ox The two, or at most three, notes which comprise his vocabulary come in time | to have a most amusing sound, which | would not be at all amusing if there were two, three, half a dozen of them. The human listener finds the notes chime in with the mood of the night, not the night of the night clubs, but the night of Nature in the open. areas. It is a subdued Nature, & re- stricted and well hedged Nature. It is Nature in one of her better moods, many will like to think. The rawness which sometimes en- cumbers her is for the nonce laid aside. Yet certainly some specimens sleep or do what to all appearance is sleep. The fact that fishes have no eyelids makes it difficult to say they sleep in the human sense. But certainly they remain still, even in the daytime, for comparatively long periods. If it is not sleep it is something equivalent to it. Often fishes will seek the refuge of a clump of plants and remain behind it for an hour or two. The best we can say, since they are not ill, is that they are sleeping. It is possible that fish sleep may not be exactly the same as human sleep. Probably not. It 'must be some equivalent, however, and for the same reason and purpose. x ¥ %k X A light sleeper can hear the frog in his pool at any time of the night he may awake. Therefore, he comes to believe that these curious creatures must do what sleeping they do in the daytime. He is thankful there is just one of them. One is interesting. A full chorus would be something of a nuisance. The song of the frog, unlike some other music, grows upon a listener. It is of a very limited scope, but its musical pattern is good, if simple. Perhaps it is oot‘;xe very simplicity which makes it There is enough variation to keep it from becoming monotonous. It is with the frog’s music as with the drums of mankind, a great deal can be achieved in small compass. | The range, as musicians say, & not great, but the inflections are so varied, from repetition to repetition, that the | listener will come, in time, to listen | for them. Then he will realize that instead of being monotonous, as many think, the music of the frog is real in every sense, It is not the strings of Nature's orches- | tra, rather the tympani and of these rather the kettle drum than anything else. ‘We never listen to our pet frog without thinking of a kettle drum player of long ago. He functioned in one of the great | orchestras which made an annual ap- pearance in the Washington of war time. | Those were the days when Fritz Kreisler had to be guarded when he appeared here. Somebody, or some group of some- bodies, thought he ought to be pro- tected, at any rate. (The ensuing con- cert, of course, proved that no such guard was necessary.) “The background set was a house with two rather large windows. Usually an artist plays before a simple curtain drop. ! All during the concert the figures of two guards could be seen behind the “house” curtains of the windows. The movements of these men in time | held an irresistible fascination for per- Especially the night of the suburban ' Here is a little pool, here one frog, here | a dozen goldfishes, placidly swimming. Even in the dark, by the light of the moon, their colored sides would strike the eye. * % oo ‘There is perhaps more life astir ln Nature than a sleeper suspects. The fishes in the pool do not sleep at night, as many think, but alternate quiet with some swimming. Perhaps the latter is brought about by the accidental touching of fins in the dark. STARS, MEN AND sons seated in such places in the theater that they could be seen. Fortunately, for Kreisler and his artistry, the guards were not visible from every point in the house. * ok x x ‘The frog in the pool has little com- petition, at least, out our way. A large brown rabbit, nibbling flowers | in the moonlight, pays no attention to him. Small night-singing birds, they are, cheep away undisturbed. The frog every now and then, as if in sheer amphibian joy, goes plunk, plunk, or occasionally plunk, plunk, plunk, as if some one were softly strik- ing an old empty bucket with a padded stick. ATOMS Notebook of Science Progress in Field, Laboratory and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. Lightning on the stars and the island | was told by Seminole Indians that there universes may account for the origin of the mysterious cosmic rays, the powerful radiation from outer space which con- | stantly is bombarding the earth. This hypothesis is advanced by Dr. Thomas H. Johnson, research associate | of the Carnegie Institution of Wash- | ington, in the current Journal of the Franklin Institute. With it he derives ' a method distances. Something similar to the electrical disturbances displayed during thunds storms and volcanic eruptions in the atmosphere of the earth, he holds, prob- ably takes place on a much greater scale in the stellar atmospheres. Negatively charged clouds of dust and condensed for measuring cosmic vapor, high above the surface of a star, | would draw positively charged atomic | jons from the surface and project them, like the beam of a cathode ray tube, into cosmic space, The nucleii of helium and hydrogen | atoms, the chief constituents of the stellar atmospheres, thus would become the cosmic rays. During their passage through interstellar space these posi- tively charged particles would hit small bits of matter, thus generating sec- ondary rays which would be the ob- served negatively charged component of cosmic radiation. Now, Dr. Johnson points out, the lower limit of the density of matter through which the passage of a cosmic ray will knock out an electron is ap- proximately 10 grams per cubic centi- meter.. The density of matter in the space between the stars is estimated as about 400 septrillionths of a gram per cubic centimeter, a fraction which would be represented by one over four followed by 26 cyphers. From this it can be calculated that in order to tra- verse as much matter as would be necessary to produce a secondary ray, a cosmic ray would have to travel from a billion to 10 billion light years. This indicates, Dr. Johnson points out, a source for the mysterious radia- tion beyond the Milky Way galaxy itself and gives dimensions for the universe which fit well into the expanding uni- verse theory. * K ok % A large, stone-faced mound, different from any other known aboriginal relic in the United States, was among the finds of Mathew W. Stirling, chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, in a recon- naissance survey of Indian sites on the extreme southern tip of Florida and the Florida Keys. The survey was undertaken in con- nection with & project for a thorough study of the aboriginal life and history of the Florida Peninsula, especially at the time of the first arrival of the Spaniards. Up to the present the southern tip, occuplied in the discovery days by the Tekasta band of the Calusa Indians, has remained practically unex- plored territory for the archeologist. Mr. Stirling found on Key Largo a mound about 11 feet m presumably of similar structure the common “sand mounds” of the Hnfll’l Indians, but with the outstanding peculiarity that it was faced with stone. So far as known this is unique, at least in the United States. There are roughly similar structures in the Southwest and others in Central America, but they were not bufjt as true mounds. Mr. Stirling is another stone-faced mound of the same sort in the middle of the Ever- glades. The probability is, Mr. Stirling points omt, that such a mound formed the substructure of a religious edifice and may also have served the purpose of a burial mound. * ox ok ok The tongue is extremely sensitive to electricity which causes both a tingling sensation and four pure “tastes,” accord- ing to & note in the British scientific journal, David Katz. When a current is passed through the tongue the sensations of “sour” and and the sensations of “sweet” and “bit- ter” at the cathode. The tingling sen- “sation is probably due, Prof. Katz holds, | to the generation of gas. The tastes do not depend on the metal used. He advances the theory of the tongue as the most primitive sense organ, de- riving from the days when all life was confined to the waters. Its original function may have been the perception of wetness, a protective sense to save the organism from getting outside a liquid medium. This function 1t has preserved to a large extent, for taste | may be considered as a highly cialized perception of wetness. * X ¥k x The rural dweller in the United States has, on the average, four or five years longer life than the city dweller, ac- cording to a set of life expectancy tables just prepared by the Statistical Bureau of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. At birth a white male has an expecta- tion of life of 56.73 years if an urban resident and 62.09 vears if not dwelling in a city. The corresponding figures for white females are 61.05 and 65.09. Cor- responding differences between urban spe- and rural populations are found at | other ages. There may be some small source of error, the report points out, through the impossibility of making proper allowance for country people who die in city hospitals, but, broadly speaking, | there is little doubt that the figures represent an actual longevity advantage for country people. A Rhyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton Idols and the Ideal. I have known such falsities all along the Flatterers’ and satellites lured my feet astray, Idols at wh{au shrine I knelt proved but dreams in vain; Only you can make me trust my own world again. ©Oh, my beloved, give faith back to me! ‘Visions full of promise, of beauty and of grace Left but disillusionment and an empty Space, All the loves enchanting me never reached my soul; Only your ideal love may ever make that goal. ©h, myl beloved, keep good faith with - me ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS: By Frederic J. Haskin, A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Washing= ton Evening Star Information Buregu, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washinge ton, D.C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. What style of architecture is used in the new United States Supreme Court Building?—G. D. A. Corinthianw This was decided upon as being most harmonious with the Capitol group, Q. When was “Oh, Promls@ Me” first sung at a wedding?—A. W. A. It was written in 1889 bv Reginald De Koven and interpolated in Robin Hood in 1890. The date at which it was first sung at a wedding is not available, but it soon became very popular for this use. Q. Was John Hays Hammond, the mining engineer, ever sentenced to death | by the Boers?—W. H. A. Mr. Hammond was one of the four leaders in the reform movement in the Transvaal. For his connection with the Jameson raid, with which, however, he did not sympathize, the Boers sentenced him to death. The sentence was later commuted to 15 years’ imprisonment and then to the payment of a fine of $125,000. whatever | Nature, on the work of Prof. | are experienced at the anode | Q. Who invented the close-up and the switch-back in motion pictures?—H. J. A. They are credited to D. W. Griffith. Q. What is the purpose of the Co- | operative Central Bank in Massachu- setts?—J. H. B. A. Membership in this institution is compulsory for all co-operative banks in the State. The purpose of the bank is | to accumulate reserve funds and to be in & position to loan these funds very readily to co-operative banks whenever | need may arise. Q. Why does a locomotive whistle seem to have a lower pitch after the locomo- tive has gone past?—F. N A. While the locomotive is approach- ing each sound wave has a shorter dis- tance to travel than the preceding one and the pitch seems higher than it would be were it at rest. While moving away the opposite is true, each wave has a longer distance and the pitch is lowered. This is known as the Doppler effect. Q. How is the President's flag d played when he is on board a vessel?— H. K.R. A. When the President visits a vessel of the United States, the President’s flag is broken at the main the moment he reaches the deck and is kept flving as long as he is on board. When the Presi- | dent is embarked on a boat he usually directs that his flag be displayed from | the staff in the bow of his barge. Q. When was mustard gas first used?— W-B A. It was introduced by the Germans in July, 1917, at Ypres. Q. What was the Shadrach case?— M. L.C. A. In May, 1850, a fugitive slave from Virginia, named Frederick Wilkins, came to Boston, under the alias of Shadrach Subsequently he was arrested and jailed in the United States Court House pend- ing trial. Shadrach was rescued by a body of colored people and conveyed in safety to Canada. Intense excitement prevailed in Boston, and spread over the entire country when Congress turned its | attention to the infringement of the law. Q. How sensitive is the ear?—C. D. A. The normal ear transmits to the brain the sensation of sound when a pressure variation of .001 dyne per square centimeter occurs at over 100 cycles per second. This pressure is about 1 mil- lionth of a gram per square cm. or & 30 millienths of an ounce. Q. What is meant by the expression, Tom the Tinker?—A. V. W. A. This was the popular watchword of the insurgents of Western Pennsyl- vania during the Whisky Rebellion of 1794, originating in the destruction of the house of an obnoxious official by a mob, which gave out that it was being tinkered. Q. When was the American College of Surgeons established?—L. J. A. The college was organized in 1913 by some 500 surgeons, leaders in every branch of surgery and representatives of all sections of the country. Q. Please give some information about the Passion Play at Roquebrune, France. —A, P. A. While this play has been given for 468 years, it has never been publicized, so few foreigners have seen it. The play is given on the first Sunday of every August and no admission is charged. It had its origin in a pestilence which visited the town in 1467, killing many of the villagers. Prayers to the Virgin for relief were made by the unstricken and on the fifth of August the plague dis- appeared. A procession of thanks was formed. the participants enacting scenes from the Passion of Christ. It was vowed to repeat this procession every year in gratitude for the miracle. Q. Of the cheese eaten by the average person in this country, how much is im- ported?—H. F. A. For the years from 1926 to 1930, the average consumption of cheese per per- son was 46 pounds. Of this 42 pounds was imported and four pounds was domestic. Q. What property is exempt from taxe ation in New York City?—E. R. A. Under the State tax law, exempt properties in New York City include all forts, post offices, navy yards, custom house, Army buildings, assay office, pris- ons, cemeteries and hospital owned by the United States Government. It also exempts from taxation all armories, hospitals, lands and buildings owned by the State of New York, and all land and buildings owned by the City of New York. The statute specifically exempts churches, synagogues, convents, asylums, hospitals, colleges, schools, libraries, par- sonages and many other benevolent in- stitutions which comply with the law. Q. Can any one join the Youth Hostel Association? What are the dues?—F. G. A. Any young person or adult is eligible to join the American Youth Hostel Association. The annual dues are $1, membership entitling one to use hostels both in this country and abroad. The rate at most of these is 25 cents a night. Q. How many libraries were there in the United States and Canada when the American Library Auochflon was formed?—W. 8. A. It was founded ln 1876 when there were about 300 public libraries in the United States and Canada. There are now more than 6,000. Q. In what State are the most felt hats made?—D. D. A. Connecticut leads In this industry.