Evening Star Newspaper, September 13, 1935, Page 10

., THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY ......c......September 13, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES...........Editor fatesshintdnmiidost bt a A The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Business Office: 11th 8t, &nd Pennsylv 2nd 8t. Chicago Office: Lal Buniding, _ European Office: 14 Regent 8t., London.. Engiand. Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Edition, e Evening Star__. -45¢ per month he Evening and Sunda: 4 Sundays) 0c per month B per month ¢ per copy ight Oc per month ight Sta) 5¢ per month Collec: made"af the end of each month. Orders may be sent by mail or telephone Na- tional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland ai . i&u mo’, 50c mo.. 40¢ 2} e 0 2 $1.00 o1y e 1 mo.. 7b¢ -1 yr, $5.00; 1 mo. unday onl 80c Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches eredited to it or not otherwise credited in this Paper and also the local news published herein. Il rights of publication of special dispatches erein are also reservel — ‘America Pleads for Peace, Conscious that the Italo-Ethiopian conflic® has reached the critical point, with war an imminent peril, the United States has made a vigorous eleventh- hour appeal for peace. In a formal state- ment reviewing this Government’s suc- cessive steps to promote an amicable settlement, Secretary Hull throws Amer- jcan influence whole-heartedly behind current efforts of the League of Nations to prevent hostilities. It is as & sig- natory of the Kellogg-Briand pact, whereby sixty-two nations, including Italy and Ethiopia, pledge themselves to renounce war, that the United States intrudes itself into the existing threat to peace. With logical emphasis Secretary Hull dwells upon the world-wide ramifications ‘of that menace. “A threat of hostili- ties anywhere,” he declaves, “cannot but pe a threat to the interests—political, economic, legal and social—of all na- tions.” Because “adverse and undesir- able effects in every part of the world result from any armed conflict,” the American position is that “every nation has the right to ask that no nation subject jnevitably accrue to all from resort to arms by any two. * * * The Government and people of the United States, with | i | ordinary issues of 1914-1935. good will toward all nations, desire peace.” Unfortunately, it is a matter of gravest doubt whether the invocation of the Kellogg-Briand pact at this advanced stage of Mussolini's war preparations will stay his hand. That prospect does not detract from the pre-eminent significance of the step that has been taken. It constitutes a forceful reminder to Il Duce that although the United States is not a member of the League of Na- tions or formally identified with its pend- ing endeavors to preserve peace, Amer- jcan sympathy with those efforts is un- mistakable and unqualified. Rome can no longer be blind to the fact that world | opinion is at length solidly mobilized against Fascist plans to flout the cove- nanted pledge of all civilized peoples to gettle international controversies exclu- sively by pacific means. There is, of course, no implication in Secretary Hull's statement that the United States would join in League sanctions against Italy. But 'ecently enacted legislation debarring American arms shipments to any belligerent would to that extent be in line with action against the aggressor, while the John- son law prevents the Italians from ob- tainigg credits in this country. In any event, Mussolini now knows on the highest authority that his defiance of the peace needs of mankind causes “deep concern” and “widespread anx- fety” in the United States. The dictator on the Tiber will realize that if he makes war on Ethiopia he can hope for no iota of moral support on this side _of the Atlantic, while the prospect of his obtaining material aid of any sort will at least be highly problematical. While strict neutrality may be the official American watchword, in ,case hostilities in Africa ensue, Italy’s war from its outset will be assured the com= plete condemnation of this Government and people. It is wholesome and proper* that the administration has placed it- self on record in a way which leaves little room for question on this score. ———r———————— An enormous number of novel pro- nunciations have been pushed over the air since Al Smith shot “raddio” into the microphone. There is still room for dis- pute as to whether he had not the moral right to pronounce the first syllable *“rad” as in “radish” or “radical.” This subject might be one for the Depart- ment of Agriculture to consider. Hospital Plans. Construction of a new Tuberculosis Hospital at Glenn Rale, Md, to be opened next September, was urged by the community not only to provide greatly needed additional and modern facilities for the adequate care of pa- tients, but in the hope that it would lead eventually to abandonment of the present Tuberculosis Hospital at Four- teenth and Upshur streets. The recom- mendation of Dr. J. Winthrop Peabody, superintendent of the Tuberculosis Hos- pital, concurred in by Dr. George C. Ruhland, health officer, that the old Tuberculosis Hospital be rel.n'ned even after new facilities are provided at Glenn Dale, will be the source of some disappointment and regret. As for the doctors’ arguments, they are undoubtedly sound. They show there are now some 370 petients at the Tuberculosis Hospital and at Gallinger; that the capacity of the new hospital at Glenn Dale will be 400; that the needs of the District now are for an absolute minimum of 600 beds, and the new campaign against tuberculosis or- ganized by Dr. Ruhland, with the full THE EVENING STAR, backing of the community, will undoubt- edly produce, along with population in- creases, & showing for even greater fa- cilities. The doctors point out that the District will not have gained substan- tially in its efforts to achieve the ideal in. tuberculosis hospitalization should it scrap the old hospital with completion of the new. Both will be needed. ' Commissioner Hazen has called & con- ference of District officials and citizens to discuss the future of the old Tuber- culosis Hospital. It would seem that the wise course would lie in recognizing that while immediate need may exist for the old hospital, its retention is to be on a temporary basis only. No step should be taken which gives the old hospital a per- manent status, Efforts should be made to enlarge the G\enn Dale plant, with the specific purpose of abandoning the Upshur street hospital. The site, on Thirteenth and Four- teenth streets, part of which is occupied by the Tuberculosis Hospital, was orig- inally intended for & new municipal hos- pital group which would replace Gal- linger. The Tuberculosis Hospital was built as agunit of this group. After & long battle citizens defeated the measure which would have permanently located the municipal hospital center in this neighborhood. And the ensuing years have demonstrated the wisdom of utiliz- ing the land for school and recreational purposes rather than for hospitals. The surrounding territory has been developed as a community of homes. The site is no longer appropriate for a tuberculosis hospital. While the pres- ent hospital may remain for a few years, every effort should be made to hasten u}e time for its abandonment. R Potato Stamps. The philatelic public soon is to have another series of stamp novelties to pur- chase, stydy and argue about. Under the i)ot.lw acreage control scheme of the Department of Agriculture the com- missioner of internal revenue must bring out a set of “tax-paid” and “tax-exempt"” stamps to be attached to sacks of tubers sent to market. The initial difficulty in the matter is that of the choice of sub- ject material for the designs. Every stamp, tradition says, must picture something. George Washington was portrayed on the handsome revenue issues of 1862; a profile of Liberty adorned the 2-cent, blue, issue of 1875; it and other nations to the | ® battleship and an allegorical repre- hazards and uncertainties- that must | | mental themes of the proprietary and | documentary issues of 1898 and 1899, and sentation of commerce were the orna- geometrical labyrinths were used on the But for the projected potato stamps, it may be supposed, an artistic effort of superlative character will be desired. The Government certainly will wish to make the most of the opportunity to dramatize the great cause of agragrian recovery. It employed stamps to popu- larize the late lamented N. R. A, and | to aid the Byrd Expedition to Little America; to advertise the Century of Progress and San Diego Expositions and the national parks; to help to finance the visit of the Graf Zeppelin to Miami, Akron and Chicago in 1933; to com- memorate the tercentennial celebrations of Maryland, Wisconsin and Connecticut, and to mark the inauguration of the combination airmail-special delivery serv- ice. The humble vegetable known to botanists as solanum tuberosum and to humanity at large as “spuds” is too im- portant a factor of culinary science and | national economy to be dealt with sum- marily. Indeed, a conference is to be held to discuss the problem. The best brains of the Treasury and the Post Office as well as of the A. A. A. are to be enlisted toward the achievement of & satisfactory solution, and before actual | printing is begun the approval of the country's premier philatelist, Presifent Roosevelt, will be solicited. Perhaps the countenances of Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh might be reproduced, if reliable pre sentments of those worthies are avail- able. The one is credited with having introduced the sweet potato to England and the other is reported to have spon- sored the fuyst planting of the “Irish” potato in Ireland. But in philatelic circles a third suggestion has been offered, namely, that the stamps should show doryphora decemlineata, the busy little beetle whose fate it will be to go hungry under the New Deal effort to increase food prices. The potato bug, subjected to famine, decimated by the cutting of acreage, it seems, should have a monument, and what could be more fitting than that the stamps which are to signify his ruin should depict his perishing species and be paris green in color? Setting Up Defenses. A newly organized “Lawyers’ Vigi- lance Committee,” formed to investigate legal aspects of new laws passed by Con- gress, is giving its attention to major acts of the recent New Deal session. Pariicularly is it inquiring into-the con- stitutionality of these acts. Among those which have been selected for study are the Wagner labor disputes act, the agri- cultural adjustment act, the Guffey coal act, the “death sentence clguse” of the public utility holdingt company act, T. V. A. competition with private in- dustry, the economic security act, the Roosevelt “share-the-wealth” tax law. It is reported that & subcommittee already has prepared a report holding certain phases of the Wagner labor dis- putes act unconstitutional, . Soon or late the courts are expected to pass upon all these New Deal acts. When the Supreme Court of the United States dealt the N. R. A. a body blow, handing down an opinion unanimously holding the act unconstitutional, it was a foregone conclusion that other tests of the New Deal experiments would fol- low. President Roosevelt himself has recognized this situation, first, in his press conference, in which he suggested that the A. A. A. and Other New Deal measures could not pass muster in the light of the Schechter decision, and second, when he urged Congress to pass the Guffey coal act even 1f there ¢ interrupted by s machine gun.* W. were “reasonable doubts” as to its con- stitutionality. ‘The Lawyers’ Vigilance Committee has more than fifty members of diverse po- litical faiths. They are men who stand high at the bar. Among them are John 'W. Davis,- Democratic presidential nomi- nee in 1924; George W. Wickersham, for- mer Attorney General in the Taft admin- istration; former Governor Joseph B. Ely of Massachusetts; James M. Begk, former solicitor general of the United States; former Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, Frank J. Hogan, D. J. Kenefick of Buffalo and Malcolm Donald of Boston. They serve as members of the new committee without pay and in the public interest. It is not expected that the committee will bring suits to test the constitution- ality of these New Deal acts. But the mere existence of such a committe is highly significant. Its formation indi- cates the nature of the defense of the Constitution that is building. It will doubtless act to point the way to agerieved citizens who make the actual litigatory tests of New Deal experiments, Kelly’s Downfall. Shipwreck Kelly was as much a part of the Golden Age of America as were the Channel swimmers. In those lush days, when the stock market and every- thing else was heading for the sky, the prodigious feats of flagpole sitting ac- complished by Kelly and the many mem- bers of his cult were anxiously followed by a breathless public and duly recorded in the public prints. But now—witness the abysmal depths to which the mighty Kelly has fallen! A woman Wwas the cause of it all, a woman magistrate in the Bronx. On Monday afternoon Kelly ascended & flagpole on top of & theater building at a husy corner, intent on beating his own remarkable record of seven weeks and one hour of continuous sitting. Magistrate Anna M. Krose put the evil eyve on him. She issued a warrant charging him with violating the sani- tary code by distracting motorists and pedestrians in the street below. and thus endangering human life. Police, with ladders and wire cutters, appeared on the roof and Kelly ignominiously de- scended, appeared in court and received & suspended sentence. Kelly, according to the reporters, does not understand. The charge of being insanitary had a sinister sound to it that broke his spirit. But the answer, Mr. Shipwreck Kelly, is simply this: You have been regimented. The days of individualism and flagpole sitting are dead as the dodo. ———— e Stock tickers are struggling boldly to record quotations approximating those which would be in evidence if the dollar had not been very nearly bisected in value, . - The horse-and-buggy days do not | mean much at a time when international politics slips back toward the creatures who featured the geologic era of oil deposits. ——— et Assassination has no part in govern- ment. Objectionable as it is, it holds a prominent place in the history of gov- ernments. It is the unethical intrusion that becomes most conspicuous. oo Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. One Slight Request. One slight request have I to make As times grow strange indeed. If I should offer some mistake For all the world to read, Scold on till I am il at ease And bid the rabble hoot To add to my distress, but please Don't shoot! A custom may in time become A habit to deplore. Each weapon pointed by & bum Disturbs us more and more. ‘With fierce reproach my conscience wake And cherished plans uproot To grieve me—but for Heaven's sake Don’t shoot! Broadened Views. “Do you approve of women in politics?” “Certainly,” said Miss Cayenne. “We should be given every opportunity to discuss public affairs instead of private gossip.” Jud Tunkins says he goes to funerals, but not to weddings. Married people may change their minds, but a funeral is final, Time and Taxes. There's ‘a_tax upon ofl, there’s a tax upon gas, There's a tax on hard cider or plain apple sass. You're taxed on a ticket to go through a gate, You're taxed on the provender served on a plate. Oh, who has the”mind so profoundly astute \ That all of these items his skill can compute? If you spend all your time in this friv- olous way You can’t earn the money you're ordered to pay. Abundance. “What Crimson Guich needs is & col- lege.” v “We've got professors enough,” said Mesa Bill. “Placer Jim's a sleight-of- hand man and a mind reader and Coyote Charley can play the piano by the hour.” 3 G Pen Pathos. They tell us of the old times when A feather would provide a pen. ‘Writing is now dependent much On ribbons and a graceful touch. Although the goose quill, once admired, From modern literature’s retired, A pen still bids the poet dream. The empty pig pen is his theme. “What we needs,” said Uncle Eben, “is more time for srgument dat can't be & GTON, D. C, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1935 Negro Farm Plan Held Impractical “To the Editor of The Star: Kelly Miller, that ebullient purveyor of social and political anachronisms, delivers himself, in Saturday’s Star, of a new cure for the “Negro’s industrial and economic predicament.” This pana- cea, he explains, was discovered during a recent visit to the model farm oper- ated by his distinguished friend, Bishop M. H. Davis of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Your correspondent’s description of the idyllic relations which he claims to have found there sounds quite beautiful and looks inspiring, but in the less felicitous world at large it just won't work. For one thing, few of the unemployed urban Negro population have for rela- tives prosperous and altruistic bishops who might set them up in such an agricultural Arcadia. Nor is the solu~ tion for their plight to be found, as Prof. Miller suggests, in a fantastic search for high-minded patrons who aspire to be “benevolent overlords.” The stern logic of contemporary economic life does not permit the survival of such philan- thropic souls in sufficient numbers to effectively carry out such & plan. Nor have they ever existed on a scale large enough to warrant his apparent faith in them. We had thought that the red herring of sentiment with which romantic historians once sought to em- bellish the bloody oppressions of the feudal overlords had been effectually exposed. Their modern prototypes are exemplified, not in Bishop Davis, but in the Mussolini's who are out to uplift the benighted Ethiopians with fire and sword; in Japanese imperialism whose humanitarian overlordship in Manchuria has borne fruit in an appalling famine, or in the generality of plantation owners, who would have us believe that their “propertyless Negroes are wholly satisfied with their small pay, their one- teacher schools, plantation - unit churches and their chronic economic and political dependency.” It would seem that Kelly Miller looks for remedies in every direction save in the play of those political and economic forces which alone account for the social disintegration expressed in the phenom- ena of widespread unemployment. ' He seems profoundly unaware that the crisis in agriculture is as intractable as it is in industry. This is evident by the naive assurance with which he points to the alleged profitable production of cot- ton on Bishop Davis’ bucolic asylum for depression-ridden kinfolk. The mechan- ization of cotton and agricultural pro- duction in Dixie, like the intensive ra- tionalization of industry in the North, has rendered permanently superfluous a mass of labor which all the benevolent overlords in history could never shelter. The internal logic of this development accounts for the tragic dispossession from the land of great numbers of both black and white farmers and their sub- sequent shift to the industrial centers. This dilemma cries for a solution out- side the current institutional set-up. This solution might be hastened by the plowing under of at least every third row of Kelly Miller's medieval chimeras. JULIUS DAVIDSON. Beer-Drinking Episode Held Political Index To the Editor of The Star: A recent Associated Press news dis- patch tells in great detail of the pro- digious feat of a Mr. Cella, member of the Eastern Democratic Club of Bal- timore, who succeeded in breaking a record by drinking half a gallon of beer in 174 seconds. At the conclusion of this wonderful piece of work this gentle- man was presented with a wrist watch by the Eastern Democratic Club in rec- ognition of his important achievement. | The presentation speech was made by | Democratic Representative Palmisano of | Maryland. What a relief it must have been to this Representative when Con- gress adjourned, thus enabling him to forget the trifling and unimportant na- tional issues that were up for settle- ment before that august body of jelly fishes! He can and is now doing some- thing really worth while for his coun- sry and his constituents. It is only reasonable to presume that Mr. Cella's feat will be celebrated with song and story in the annals of the Eastern Democratic Club throughout the ages. How unfortunate it is that those old masters, Rembrandt, Holbein and Frans Hals, are not living today, so all of them could put the wrist-watch pres- entation scene on canvas for Demo- cratic posterity. What a figure Representative Pal- misano would cut in that picture with an aurora of suds around his noble brow, a sheaf of patronage appoint- ments sticking out of one coat pocket and a package ‘of dole slips out of the other! Truly a great man and fairly representative of the caliber of the “statesmen” who have just bestowed the inestimable boon upon the country of betaking themselves home. The news dispatch did not state who has been paying Mr. Cella’s training ex- penses while he was preparing to break the beer-drinking record. It is a safe bet that the taxpayers footed not only his bill but also that of his “sparring partners” in the Eastern Democratic Club. Mr. Cella’s remark when he received the watch was a little gem of becoming modesty and devotion: “I did it all for the Eastern Democratic Club.” It re- minded me of the gentleman who, in a moment of inebriated boastfulness, de- clared: “Of course I don't want to brag, or anything like that, but I am the champion 175-pound chicken, thief of this county.” Representative Palmisano, in the same spirit, could have remarked: “I don’t want to brag, but I was one of that peerless band who tried to tax wealthy business men out of business and thus perpetuate the dole. I also helped to pass some unconstitutional bills. I also helped to put through appropriations that will bring the country to the verge of bankruptcy and communism. My friends, I did it all for F. D. R.” SAMUEL H. MUMFORD. - - Englishman Names Fish That Destroys Mosquitoes To the Editor of The Star: It would be interesting to know if any one in the hotter parts of the United States has yet discovered any sort of animal which would lessen the num- bers of mosquitoes by devouring the mosquito larvae. There is actually a kind of fish, good to eat when in the adult stage, which spends its time devouring mosquito larvae. It is indigenous to the districts surrounding Laurenco Marques in fresh water only and is called pia Natalensis.” Perhaps this will interest many of your readers. D SYD. W. UPJOHN. Colchester, England. . Mussolini’s Modest Wants. Prom the Louisville Courier Journal. . Italy doesn’t mean any harm to Grea Britain; just to place the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the Upper Nile between an Italian Ethiopia and Italian Libya, adjoin- Egypt' on the southern shore of the Italian pen- Kl that champion ef the people’s rights, | THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E, TRACEWELL. . ‘The “meanest man” is a famous char- acter, but how about the meanest ‘woman? 8Bhe got on a street car downtown the other day and proceeded to take two-thirds of a seat. ‘Then, when a mild and inoffensive Milquetoast-sort of man sat down beside her, up she flounced, highly insulted. “I do not like to be set on,” she breathed, defiantly, taking a seat beside another fat woman in a seat behind. Her grammar was not so good, but her nleaning was unmistakable. The poor gentleman evidently had ex- perienced her sort before, for he said nothing, which was exactly the best reply possible, From time to time thereafter, as the car rolled along, the meanest woman found some comment to make, critical of mankind. When the motorman slowed down his car to permit two pretty girls to run across, she growled to her new com- panion: “He wouldn't have done that if they hadn’t been young.” Several blocks up the street she spied 2 woman taking a dog out for a walk on & leash, “See the dog and its mother,” she breathed sharply. “Disgusting!” * kX Fortunately, this type of person is not met—and heard—very often. Especially womankind, one may think, is free from such unnecessary sarcasm, despite the general strictures hurled at the sex from time to time. Such essentially petty carping really is masculine, although few men who in- dulge in it would welcome or admit the justice of “catty,” if the word were applied to them. Such going out of the way to say nasty things is unnecessary—and when that is said a great deal has been said. There are many occasions when such criticism would come with crushing force. Properly used, and at the right time, sarcasm is one of the greatest of all oral weapons. Used indiscriminately, without jus- tice and about persons one does not know, it merely adds to the sum total of cruelty in the world. * x x x Cruelty has many forms. Divorce laws commonly recognize this. One of the meanest forms consists in applying indiscriminate and often unjus- tified sarcasm against all and sundry. This is & vice which grows on the human being who, through some unusual quickness of mind and tongue, takes it up early in life. Once a laugh is secured, at the expense of a fellow mortal, the wielder of ordi- nary sarcasm feels that he is a made man. He sees how easy it is, in this world, to divert the laugh from himself to others. He glows with all the silly pride which comes to the average mortal who man- ages to get the laugh on some one else. - % % ¥ x At bottom, this is nothing but essen- tial meanness. It 1s such a cheap trick and so easy to do that its very usage betrays the unstable mind. e A first-rate man or woman is ashamed to utilize such a way of gaining a little cheap backhanded praise. He or she wants no acclaim that is merely a rebound off some one else, brought about by a common application of the tricks of language. It is the sort of thing that sounds clever when it is about some one else, but is nevg appreciated when it !s about the self. That alone, one may think, ought to prove its basic bad quality. * % x The unfairness of all such remarks is striking. To return to the woman in the street car again—the man she accused of sit- ting on Mer was the soul of courtesy and chivalry. ‘Women who knew him usually thought of him as the one man they knew have ing the most respect for womankind. The street car motorman she accused of slowing his car only for good-looking young g was, in reality, & man who would have stopped it all the sooner for older women. The woman “walking the dog” was doing so out of kindness of heart for a neighbor who was ill. She had four children, which fact alone proved the mean woman as horribly wrong, in her .snap judgments, as such people often are. * * * x ‘The essential meanness, of all such re- marks, lies in the usual inability the victim has for getting back at the | speaker. Revenge is supposed to be not a very, pretty sentiment, but every one knows it is very human. Often when it is possible to “talk back” there is & real satisfaction in it, espe- cially if one happens to say “the right thing.” 4 Just what this “right thing” is de- pends wholly on circumstances. Occasionally it will be the sequence of words which “gets the laugh” on the mean speaker. He—most often it is he—deserves it and usually this is the only sort of re- venge which he can understand. A more subtle sort, however, is that which deals in justice and truth, as com- pared with his snap judgment, usually unjust and untruthful. If there is no audience to the verbal conflict, the aggrieved one will have a fine sense of having said and done the right thing at the right time. If an audience is present, he will have this same sense, along with the evident applause of such members of the audience as are capable of sensing conflict. Often this sort of conversation, dealing in verbal thrusts, is so accepted as a | part of life that many persons, unusued to kindness ln;l gentleness in everyday life, accept it for nothing much. * x * x A touch of the “meanest man” or “meanest woman” is good in this life, | | flesh of orange-red color. | term has come to be used by the trade because it sets off better the good, kind persons one meets every day. Just as & newspaper often seems, to the critical eye, to deal only with crime and vileness, but really prints a great deal of good, which often goes unno- ticed, so in the everyday life of all of us we meet many fine persons, who deal mostly in gentleness, but whose kindness to us and others is so unobtrusive that too often, alas, we recognize it not at its true worth. Let us thank all unnecessarily mean- tongued persons then for making these klnd[ and gentle persons stand out in relief, WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. How Huey Long would have rejoiced over the colossal publicity given by the press, not only in the United States but abroad, to his tragic fate! There has been nothing like it in our time except the Lindbergh flight, the Lindbergh baby kidnaping and the Hauptmann trial. The nearest recent approach to it was the disaster which befell Will Rogers and Wiley Post. There could be no more convincing evidence of Long's hold upon the popular imagination than the pages of news, editorials and pic- tures devoted to his passing. They are | indisputable proof that, with all his faults, he had become a towering na- tional figure. Editorial comment is notable in that it discusses with candor the seamy side of Long's career. Ex- pressions of regret over the circum- stances of his doom are mingled with critical references to his dictatorship, his ruthless tactics and the lessons to" be drawn from political methods so re- pugnant to American ideals, * % ¥ X Long's amazing life nevertheless seems likely to prove a theme of study for some time to come because of the phe- nomenon he personified in public affairs. No fewer than three books, all planned before his death, are scheduled for early appearance, in addition to his own “My First Days in the White House.” For- rest Davis has written “Huey Long: A Candid Biography.” Carlton Beals is revising an earlier book about the Louisianan, and Herman B. Deutsch is revampin biography. Publishers seem justified by the flood of Long post- mortem printer’s ink in believing that interest in the Kingfish will survive his disappearance, short as the American people’s memory is for notables who are no more. - ok ok % Gov. Eugene Talmadge of Georgia now ranks as the only man likely to attempt organized opposition to President Roose- velt within the Democratic party. Belli- cose as he is, administration leaders do not take Talmadge a tithe as seriously as they regarded Long, because the former has not contrived to build him- self up nationally to any stature approxi- mating that of the late share-the-wealth apostle. The Talmadge threat never- theless will be vigilantly watched by the Rooseveltians, particularly if the Georg- jan seeks a third party alliance with such a man as Gov. Olson of Minnesota: or other radical opponents of the New Deal. The more they think about it, Democratic politicians are inclined to believe that with the Long menace re- moved, the Republican party is the only thing F. D. R. has to fear in 1936. ) Letting of contracts for 23 new war- ships for the United States fleet at a cost approximating $100,000,000, denotes a substantial boost to industrial recovery. From 85 to 90 per cent of all expenditure have jobs About 1,600 are employed on & 10,000~ ton cruiser, while roundly 500 are needed for & submarine or s destroyer. Periods of employment range from 24 to 36 months on these various classes of vessels., *x % x Insurance money of $250,000 has already been refunded. The policies under which insurance companies were | liable covered the emergencies of cyclones, earthquakes, hurricanes or epidemic in- volving cancellation by Government order. The entire jamboree insurance premium is understood to have amounted | to $24,000, which paid for 11 different | types of indemnity, including property damage, personal liability on the part of the Scouts from the time they left | home until they returned, fire and any | possibility that might jeopardize the boys’ $25 deposits. * X ¥ X These are times when Republican presiiential white hopes are offered op- portunities to preen themselves in sec- tions of the country where they are not well known and display their wares, oratorical and otherwise, for the edi- fication of possible supporters. The latest favorite son to figure in an ex- pedition of this sort is Gov. Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey, who has been invited to address the annual convention of the American Trucking Association at Chicago in mid-October. Gov. Hoff- man, as & former commissioner of motor vehicles in New Jersey, is ardently in- | terested in highway safety and other dustry. If the G. O. P. adheres to its reputed purpose to nominate a Western man for President, Hoffman's friends are | prepared to groom him for second place, believing that his feat in carrying New Jersey when the rest of the country was landsliding for the New Deal makes him | logical timber for the Republican ticket. * x x % State Department history is likely to record the Summer of 1935 as a hectic season of diplomatic protest. “Inci- dents” have succeeded one another with unprecedented frequency for a peace- time era. They include Germany's remonstrance against the Bremen flag incident in July, Japan’s objections to the caricature of Emperor Hirohito in a New York magazine, the demand of the United States for cessation of anti- American activities in Soviet Russia, American opposition to the hiopian oil concession and German; protest against Magistrate Brodsky's verdict in the Bremen case. None of these affairs has led to serious consequences, but each of them bristled with disagreeable pos- sibilities of international complications. Secretary Hull and his coadjutors are congratulating themselves that they promise to pass into the record as “in- cillents” more or less satisfactorily closed. -~ * x K % Decision of the Social Security Board to employ 3,000 P. W. A. white-collar workers for a year in recording the ages of all persons listed in the 1900 census is rough on a numerous contingent of folks in public life who regard it essen- tial to conceal their vintage. Many members of the House and Senate, in their Congressional Directory auto- biographies, habitually refrain from dis- closing when they were born. It used to be supposed that only women have inhibitions on this score, but any num- ber of the, male persuasion on Capitol Hill are coy on the subject, as well as one or two of the congressional widows. (Copyright. 1935.) ———e— No G-Men Needed. Prom the Worcester (Mass.) Evening Gaszette. It is suggested that detectives be sent to C. C. C. camps to find out who are the Communists among the campers. One old-fashioned device for detecting them was & big pile of wood and s _heavy ax. H | Chippendale ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS By Frederic J. Haskin, A reader can get the answer to any Qquestion of fact by writing The Washinge ton tv{minn Star Information Bureau, Frederie J. Haskin, Director, Washing- ton,D.C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. Is the suicide rate increasing?—L. R, ™ A. In 1933 there were 19,993 suicides throughout the country, while the 1934 estimate is 18,000, Q. When was the British Industries Fair started?—E. R. A. The fai*has been held aince 1915 and is the world's largest national trade fair, attended by buyers from all parts of the world. Q. Is there any European collection of tin soldiers that is noteworthy?—J. M. A. That made by the French poet, Valery Larbaud, is said to be the finest in Europe. Q. How much money does the Gov- ernment pay to employes in Washing- ton?—E. B. A. The Federal Government distributes to 117,058 Washington employes $8,853,288 on the 1st and 15th of every month. Q. Was a bounty ever given for making canvas in Massachusetts?>—H. C. T. A. As originally introduced into Eng- land, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, canvas was cloth made of hempen threads. Time has changed the composition, although the eloth re- mains the same. Canvas or duck was made in America during the early Colo- nial period. Because a demand was created for it in shipbuilding, fishing and other industries, efforts were made to promote its manufacture and bounties | were given throughout the Colonial period. In May, 1726, in response to a petition of John Powell, a Boston mer- chant, who undertook to establish the manufacture of canvas if given proper encouragement, the Massachusetts As- sembly granted a bounty of 20 shillings for every bolt of canvas of specified dimensions and quality made in that colony. Q. For how many seasons has Marti- nelli sung with the Metropolitan?—N. D. rA. Next season will be his twenty- fifth, Q. Why are muskmelons called canta- loupes?>—W. C. B. A. The word cantaloupe comes through French from the Italian cantalupo, a castle in Italy near which the first cantaloupes ‘are said to have been grown in Europe from seed coming from America. The term cantaloupe is correctly applied to a variety of musk- melon having a hard, furrowed rind and However, the in reference to any muskmelon, nllhou{h it is not preferred by botanists. Q. When were post cards first made? —A. F. G. A. When the postal authorities of the German states assembled in conference at Karlsruhe in 1865, Stephan, postmaster general of Prussia, submitted a design for an open post card, which is believed to be the first suggested for this means of communication. Little attention was paid to it at the time. It was again | brought up in Austria in 1869 and adopted by the government of that country. Post cards were first permitted in England in 1870, and first issued in the United States on May 1, 1873. Q. Are there more Indian men or women in the United States at the pres- ent time?—A. E. A. There are at present 170,350 male Indians and 162,047 females, Q. Was Sarah Bernhardt a Jewess? —8. F. . A. She was of Jewish descent, but was a Roman Catholic, her parents having embraced this faith Q. How many war correspondents did the New York Herald have during the Civil War?—J. G. A. It employed 63. The Herald was the first newspaper to employ the tele- graph exiensively. Q. How long has the chrysanthemum been cultivated?—C. 8. A. It has been grown in the Orient for at least 2,000 years. Q. Did Fannie Hurst obtain her mate- rial in her stories of working girls from real life?—H. P. A. In securing material for her stories she served as waitress, saleswoman and steam laundry worker. . Q. Please give some information abont a furniture designer named Ince—E. G. A. William Ince was an 18th century matters of concern to the trucking in- | EVlish furniture designer whose designs were produced in the period between and Heppelwhite and showed the influence of both. Q. Who were the Jukes?—J. C. A. This is the fictitious name of & real family, studied in 1874-76 by the sociolo- gist, R. L. Dugdale, the first and most famous study of a degenerate stock. In “The Jukes in 1915, A. H. Estabrook made a further study of the family, Q. How many shots were fired when Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, the outlaws, were killed?>—R. R. A. The officers fired 167 bulle their automobiles, 50 of which hi couple. Q. Is the Atlantic Coast of the Uni States affected by coastal erosion?— A.E. C. A. Coast erosion is to be found on prac- tically all the coasts of the world. In the United States notable instances are on the coast of New Jersey, where the beach is being washed away in some sections and built up in others. At Longport the coast line has receded continuously and the sand has worked its way gradually across the inlet to increase the acreage at Ocean City. The Cape Cod shore is slowly yielding, as are the exposed shores of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The sands of the southern shore of Long Island have persistently drifted to the westward toward New York harbor. Ocean City, Md,, is also in need of pro- tection. A Rhyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton Human Tides Black cinder path by the river wall. There flows the human tide— Delicate lace and gypsy shawl, Old age and youthful stride, Lovers with their mingled shadows, Shadowy men and cops blue-clad, Brown bare feet as fleet as swallows, Dreamer, plotter, magnate, lad. Beyond the wall, in rise and fall, Floweth the river by; e Peaceful blue tide, even and wide, Mirroring bnly the sky. ; Ay