Evening Star Newspaper, September 15, 1935, Page 46

. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER 15, 1935-PART TWO. ({THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition, WASHINGTON, D. C. SUNDAY ............September 15, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES.... .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Business Office: 11th 8t. and Pen n Ave. ce: 110 East 42nd 8t. Chicago Office: Lake Michigan Building, Buropean Office: 14 Regept St.. London. Engiand. Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Edition. -=-45¢ per month flisht Final and Sunday Siar. ight Final Stal ily aud Sunday ily “only__ Sunday onl¥. All Other States and Can: Daily and Sunda: Ir., $12. A i 1201 i 1 yr. 35 Member of the Assoclated 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 Daper and also the local news published herein. All rights of publication of special dispatches . herein are also reserved. The Olive Branch. Reports from Baton Rouge are that the leaders of the Long machine in Louisiana are holding out the olive branch to Washington. So quickly perish the Long traditions! The Senator defied President Roosevelt and all his New Deal works. He throve on this opposition. He attacked the President in vitriolic style in open debate, spoke of him con- temptuously and profanely in private conversation. His particular pet aversion in the President’s cabinet was the po- litical ring-master of the administration, James A. Farley, Postmaster General and Democratic national chairman. And now it is said that Long’s lieutenants are seeking peace and perhaps an alliance with the President and Mr. Farley. Self-preservation is the first law of politics. The Long leaders, from Gov- ernor Allen down, were puppets in the hands of the late Senator. With Huey Long out of the picture, the distracted leaders are anxious to perpetuate the organization and to retain their power and their jobs. They apparently do not figure that they are strong enough to fight the Federal administration and the anti-Long forces at the same time. They are made, it seems, of less stern stuff than their lost leader. So they are about to dicker for peace with Wash- ington. The amazing suggestion is reported that in return for Roosevelt support in Louisiana the Long leaders would like to see the Federal Government terminate income tax investigations in Louisiana. That is to be part of the quid pro quo for a right about face on the part of the Long leaders. It seems incredible that the Roosevelt administration would agree to any such thing. For a long time the Federal investigators have sought data regarding the late Sen- ator's income. There were periodical reports that it was about to move against him. A suit against Long him- self, however, was never brought by the Government, although one of his lieu- tenants was snared. The open excuse given by Long lead- ers for attempting a reconciliation with the Roosevelt administration is that, with the death of Huey Long, the feud between himself and President Roosevelt came to an end. Further, they hold tifat es Louisiana is a Democratic State, it should co-operate with a Democratic President. The anti-Long men in Louisiana would seem to be the natural allies of the Roosevelt administration. In their case it is not necessary to hold out an olive branch, or to seek concessions from the administration. The administration may have to chose between the two groups. It politics runs true to form the admin- istration probably will tie up with which- ever group shows itself to be the stronger. It looks very much as though Postmaster General Farley was correct when he predicted, a day or two ago, that Louisi- ana would send a Roosevelt-instructed delegation to the Democratic National Convention in 1936. e — If the swastika is to be venerated, the step toward antiquity may lead to a movement to relegate the Washington Monument to the status of a reinterpre- tation by enemies of the Constitution of the obelisk as only an art form. The Constitutional Issue. Representative Bertrand Sneil quotes Professor Moley as saying: “We are therefore reduced to the necessity of amending the Constitution in order to permit Congress to do what the people want it to do.” And there, says Mr. Snell, in the ecourse of his strong attack on the New Deal printed in the Congressional Rec- ord appendix last week, “is the issue. The Constitution must give way to the socialistic, un-American policies of the New Deal or they must give way to it. It is an issue which has been drawn by the President. It is of his making. He has forced it upon the country. The Republican party is prepared to meet thet chanenge. We will welcome a straight-out fight to the finish on that Issue.” But is the issue as clear'y drawn as ‘that? - If it were, Mr. Snell and others who see eye-to-eye with him would be justified in meeting it joyfully and taking it before the country. But un- fortunately it is not. In the first place, where is the Constitutional amendment? What does 1t look like? Senator Borah, defending the N. R. A. decision after the President’s famous “horse and buggy” remarks, undertook to frame an amendment which would meet at least one of the court’s chief objections. ' He did it in erder “to get a full view of its hideous legal and moral aspects” and the resulting monstrosity took form in this suggested amendment: “The legislative power is hereby vested in the Congress .of the United States and in the different executive depart- [ ments which may be created from time to time.” ‘Would the Democratic party take such an amendment before the country? Not 1i 16 15 sane. Nor would an amendment seeking to give the Federal Government unlimited power over commerce or in- dustry—plainly the objective of certain New-Deal elements, if not the Presi- dent—look any more attractive when written dowa and exposed to the light. Mr. Snell suggests that the sub- mission of a constitutional amend- ment is being preceded by a more insidi- ous form of attack on the Supreme Court and the Constitution, in which one or both are to be placed in the position of deliberately blocking the New Deal’s efforts to produce the More Abundant Lifeina promised land. Thus might the issue be built up. Thus may it be build- ing now. But the amendment itself has not been written. And until it is, the issue will be elusive and hard to pin down. The Peril in Africa. It remained for the delegate of the Union of South Africa to bare before the League of Nations Assembly at Geneva the peril that lurks for the white masters of Africa—Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy herself—in the war which Musso- lini is determined to wage against Ethiopia. The population of the appro- priately designated “Dark Continent,” as all the world knows, is overwhelming- ly black. The spokesman of the Cape- town government, which rules over a population consisting of some two mil= lion Europeans and seven million na- tives of mixed colored races warned the League bluntly that “Africa may arise and overthrow” in the event of an Italo- Ethiopian war. He declared that all the people of his country, both black and white, view “with deep concern and with the anxiety born of the instinctive knowledge of cone sequences the slow but apparently re- lentless march of the disease of war into our continent.” Then he spoke these ominous words: “Let it not be forgotten that the long memory of black Africa never forgets and never forgives injury and injustice.” The delegate in- timated that the South African Union's emotions are so stirred by the implica« tions of Italy's threat to the peace of Africa that it might withdraw from Geneva if the League proves incapable of restraining the Fascist legions from launching a campaign of colonial con- quest. The danger inherent in Italian ag- gression against the one remaining in- dependent black realm in Africa is double-edged. If Ethiopia turns out to be the helpless victim of Mussolini’s lust for imperial glory, the sympathy of native peoples throughout the continent will be aroused to an extent that might incite them to rise against each and every European power that now essays dominion over black territory. No less la disturbing possibility is conjured up by the remote chance that Ethiopia, alone or with native support from other quarters—such as she is already receive ing from even Italian Somaliland—might defeat Italy, as she did in 1896, or at least make the campaign so costly for. the invader that it would be abandoned. Black Africa would in that event be in the position of having visited a humili- ating reverse upon a white nation. The inevitable repercussion would be a con- viction that what native power and patriotism had accomplished against Italy could be accomplished against other European “oppressors.” The con- sequence could easily be a wholesale “war of liberation,” waged in a spirit of fanatical desperation and barbarism dreadful to contemplate. It is at such & contingency that South Africa’s rep- resentative at Geneva plainly hinted. Nor might a “rising tide of color” con- fine itself to drenching merely Africa in blood. War in Africa might be the signal for men of non-white races throughout Asia, particularly in the ime mense British dominions, long ripe for revolt, to assert themselves. Observers of conditions in the Orient periodically picture Japan as eager to lead the col- ored peoples of the Eastern Hemisphere in a “holy” struggle for racial suprem- acy. In the course of Italy's quarrel with Haile Selassie it has more than once been suggested that the Japanese were fishing in the troubled Ethiopian waters. It seems incredible that Mussolini can be blind to the vast and terrifying pos- sibilities for evil that lie dormant in in- flaming the passions of black Africa. President Roosevelt approaches a phase of campaigning which will require him to depend more on remarks that are on instead of off the record. From Program to Program The most interesting fact lished by the President’s temporary solution of the work-relief muddle is the nature of plans already in the making for the new relief program to be submitted to Con- gress next year. The President has apparently decided to make the “temporary” C. C. C. camps—the least criticized of all relief undertakings—permanent. There are some half a million men enrolled in these camps now, and the present plan would be to cut the enroliment to 300,000. But if the C. C. C. camps be- come permament it is idle to speak of any permanent limitations on enroll- ment. Enrollment would doubtless be increased in accordance with demand, just as it has already been increasefl. Another €lement of the new program is establishment of a revolving fund for low-cost housing. from which the Gov- ernment would lend money to States and municipalities. That would be unwork- able as long as the Government is grant- ing funds outright for low-cost housing, and the President indicated, by with- drawing $100,000,000 previously allotted for slum clearance and low-cost hous- ing, that direct governmental financing of such undertakings will cease with the completion of certain projects already But these two elements of the pro- A gram are relatively unimportant. What will be proposed after Mr. Hopkins has succeeded in placing employables—about 2,400,000 of them—at work intended to take care of them this Winter? For the most part, such work is not substantial. It will last until the money runs out, with little to show for it. The President is counting on Secretary Ickes' public works projects to come to the rescue in the Spring and apparently take care of some of those who during the Winter will be employed on the Hopkins type of work. The policy at best is capable merely of taking care of unemployment only so long as the unemployment funds last. They will not last long at the present rate of expenditure. It is feared that the chief demonstra- tion of the present relief policy is that expenditure of billions on work-relief must be followed by the expenditure of additional billions on work-relief. —— e The duties of the Secretary of State have expanded to a degree that cause him to be appealed to as an authority not only in questions of trade, but as a responsible supervisor of New York police etiquette. Keep Them Clean. The park authorities are to spend about a million dollars in improving the National Capital park system, with major attention given to the small parks and reservations, most of which have been allowed to run down at the heel for many years through inadequate appro- priations. As C. Marshall Finnan, su- perintendent of National Capital Parks, points out in an interview in today's Star, the success of the park improve- ment program depends eventually on whether the parks are used or misused. What Mr. Finnan wants, and by all means should receive, is the co-opera- tion of Washingtonians not only in protecting the investment in park im- provement by preventing vandalism, but in cultivating a sentiment which takes pride in keeping the parks beautiful. As Mr. Finnan says, he would rather have the citizens themselves enforcing the reasonable regulations against abuse of the parks, such as improper disposal of rubbish and destruction of shrubbery, than see the job turned over to the police. And the matter fundamentally concerns individual conduct rather than police activity. The occasional acts of vicious vandalism with which the police must contend are one thing, but the greatest abuse of the parks results more from careless lack of consideration than from outright mischievousness. The parks are public property. They are created and maintained for the public good. If people could be made to feel their individual proprietorship in the ‘parks and safeguard the appearance of the parks as they would their own prop- erty, much would be gained. — e The King of Kings apparently thinks he is being ganged and would like to have a ransom stipulated before the machine guns are turned on. Mr. Ickes’ idea of relief is evidently to assure “money’s worth” even if there is no opportunity of assuring “money back” in case of disappointment. aves Monuments are so much in demand that it might be proper to bring out the old cigar store Indian as a reminder of a heroic past. —————— England has sea-faring traditions that make supervision of the Mediterranean seem relatively no greater than watching a goldfish bowl Shooting Stars, BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. ‘What? We're going to have Thanksgiving day Ere long. ‘We'll eat 'mid festival array And song. Taxation hits the bill of fare A lot. ‘We'll feast—yet must inquire with care, “On what?” A turkey is too thin to kill. We stop ‘The feed. There is no corn to fill It’s crop. Our purses have been put upon The spot.. We ask, and count the dollars gone, “With what?” Hospitalities. “Will you invite that office-seeking friend to breakfast?” asked the secre- tary. “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “A breakfast won't satisfy him. What he wants is an entire meal ticket.” Jud Tunkins says he’s in favor of sharing the wealth, especially when he’s sittin’ pretty with three aces before the draw. Climatic Test. A tendency we can't deny In every tribe and nation, To measure our advancement by A physical sensation. ‘The optimist in tones profound Foretells a joyous movement. Each Autumn, as it comes around, Brings with it an improvement. The Unpopular Swine. “Why did ancient laws forbid people to eat pork?” asked the bright professor. “Maybe,” said the dumb student, “they had killed off so many that nobody could afford it.” Granting a Boon. “I'll grant a boon,” the great man said. In gratitude I harken. And now and then I lift my head, Detying skies that darken. The generous mood which you display, Still further, please, pursue it, And when you grant a boon, I pray, Don't tie a doggle to it. Changing Scene By Owen L. Scott. A firs! New Dealer, present dur- ing the 1933 hurly-burly, returning today after a year or so of absence from the Capital, would scarcely recognize the place. Shifts in men and measures, still going on, have too greatly altered the New Deal scene. The early high-powered drive has given way to caution. Assurance is re- placed, by an uncertainty. that caused President Roosevelt to observe the other day that he didn't know who would be President in 1939. Plans that sounded fine twa years ago are in discard today. Men whose every word was law and whose every gesture caught the national eye, now are back in the ranks of ordi- nary citizenry. Few now talk of a New Deal brain trust guiding the President. Members of that group, which played a part in the early days, have scattered and Mr. Roosevelt does most of his own guiding. Neither do officials talk much about “co-ordination” and the need for “co- ordinating” the muititude of Government activities.” Co-ordinators, still badly needed, have gone out with “Assistant Presidents.” But it is in the ranks of high officials, who really run the New Deal show, that the striking changes are to be observed. * K K % At the White House an early day New Dealer would find the same surrounding personnel. The staff stays on and the secretaries are the same. Marvin McIn- tyre continues to hold the power to say who and what should reach Mr. Roose- velt. A little inquiry would disclose instances where important administrators with important problems had been un- able to reach the President with those problems because Mr. McIntyre didn't think that they were caring for enough needy former Senators. The same dearth of disinterested and expert advisers would be notable about the White House. Digging would uncover Prof. Felix Frankfurter of Harvard as a sort of part-time one-man brain trust, dividing time between teaching law and giving President shrewd advice on policy. It 1so would uncover the fact that where the basic New Deal philosophy in its early days was to regulate bigness in industry, the policy now is to penalize bigness. This shift away from original brain trust policy is attributed to Prof. Frankfurter. The visitor no longer would run into Donald Richberg or Gen. Hugh Johnson emerging from the White House. Neither would he need to watch back doors to see whether Prof. George F. Warren or Prof. James Harvey Rogers—the money specialists—were coming and going. Dollar tinkering no longer appeals to the President. Only if a speech were being prepared would there be a chance of running across Raymond Moley in the presi- dential precincts. Much more likely would be an encounter with Tom Cor- coran, youthful attorney for the R. F. C, and at present a White House favorite. * & % X Changes away from the White House are as striking as in its neighborhood. Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, held the most jobs and among the big- gest during the early New Deal days. He was czar of the-oil industry, admin- istrator of a $3,300,000,000 public works fund, housing administrator and director of a number of Government corporations. And what of today? The Supreme Court has taken away his oil job. Mr. Roosevelt has been whittling down the scope of the P. W. A. job. Low-cost housing still is in the stage of prepara- tion. Mr. Ickes has offered his resigna- tion more than once of late only to be talked out of it by the President. Odds still are better than fifty-fifty that | he will be among the first to leave the cabinet. Then as understudy to Mr. Ickes is a new light in the administration, Charles West. Mr. West is Undersecretary of the Interior. He was former contact man for Mr. Roosevelt in Congress and did such a good job that he is in line for big things. The Undersecretary is a doctor of philosophy, but does not use the title. He is a professor, but not a mem- ber of the brain trust. He is intellectual, but was practical enough in politics to be elected to Congress. He is high- minded and something of an idealist, but knows his way about among the hard-headed old-timers in Congress and outside of it. * o ox Secretary Ickes found that his yegime tended to crack up on the rock of cen- tralization. Realizing that, the visitor runs across a changed man when he en- counters Harry Hopkins, the relief ad- ministrator and now the Works Progress administrator, who has recently been in open conflict with Mr. Ickes. Administrator Hopkins built his fame on the basis of a decentralized relief administration. Now he is engaged in trying to spend $4,000,000000 from a centralized Washington set-up in an effort to create 3,500,000 jobs. Thus far more problems than jobs have been cre- ated. Mr. Hopkins, once debonair and wise-cracking, is found to have become more troubled and less sure of himself. He is beginning to think about Mr. Tekes' experience with centralization of power and authority. o S Any New Deal survey would be incom- plete without a glance at Dr. Rexford Guy Tugwell, once known as the head of the brain trust. Dr. Tugwell is attempting to make good in a $500,000,000 project. His ambi- tion is to show that he can be, not alone a thinker, but an administrator. He is engaged in rehabilitating farmers and in building “suburban communities” to house workers on a low-cost basis. His definite policy is to let results speak for themselves. Big business has served as his model of organization and he has made a deliberate effort to learn from the mistakes of Mr. Ickes and Mr. Hopkins. The President still is a close friend of Dr. Tugwell, but the Undersecretary of Agriculture no longer plays much part in guiding central policy. The reason is that his political judgment is far from acute. Of course, N. R. A, as a code-govern- CONFIRMING TESTIMONY BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D,LL.D,D.C.L, BISHOP OF WASHINGTON, Within the life of every man there is that which certifies to him that he is possessed of a quality of life that is indestructible. As Tennyson puts it, “We know we were not made to die.” No matter how we may express it in a for- mal creed, we have the deep conscious- ness that the better part of our natuce, the real self within us, must go on. The iptimations of immortality come to us with increasing insistence and stronger affirmations as life . Quite apart from revelation itself, we discover in every race and people a passion for life, a desire for higher fulfillment, and this passion will not be denied, no matter what the disappointments and dislllusionments of life may suggest. One of the great interpreters of this conception of an endless life is the apostle, St. Paul. He writes with strong conviction concerning it in the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corin- thians; so assured is he in his trium- phant belief that he cries out: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” In another place, in a letter written to the church in Rome, he says: “The Spirit itself beareth wit- ness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” It is the concurrent witness of the Eternal Spirit with that which resides in man that compels him to believe in his higher destiny, in a divine quality within his nature that survives all the shocks and ills of time. Even though in moments of careless, objectless living he seems to silence the voices that tell him he has a spark of the divine in his nature, when severe tests and trials are upon him he in- evitably asserts his belief that he must g0 on even when death has sealed his eyes in an “iron sleep.” 2 Ever and again in these recent years we have heard it suggested that man has lost his zest for a fuller, more abundant life, that the misfortunes of this life rob him of desire for a life that is to be. We do not believe it. All our observation and experience affirm the utter indestructibleness of man's hope for higher attainment. He may suppress his deeper feelings and emo- tions, regard himself as the victim of Fifty Years Ago In The Star “The question of appointing Democrats to offices held by Republicans,” says an Pat d editorial in The Star atronage and of September 9, 1885, the Senate. .15 one that confronts return. Some of those who, either for themselves or for others, want places are already on hand and others will come without loss of time. The Ohio Democrats want control of the Federal | offices of that State to aid them in the pending political canvass, and consider- able pressure will be brought to bear upon the President to grant them this aid. “The President’s attention will be urgently called to the political status of the Senate and to the feasibility of mak- ing that body Democratic during his term. Of the 25 Senators whose terms will expire on the 3d of March, 1887, 16 are Republicans and nine are Democrats. The Republicans are: Messrs. Miller of California, Hawley, Harrison, Hale, Dawes, Conger, McMillan, Van Wyck, Sewell, miller of New York, Sherman | Mitchell, Aldrich. Edmunds, Mahone and Sawyer. The Democrats are: Messrs. Gray and Jones of Florida, Gorman, George, Cockrell, Fair, Jackson, Maxey and Camden. According to Democratic calculations their party may count con- fidently upon electing Democratic suc- cessors to eight of the nine who go out on their side. They count Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia as safe to elect Democratic Senators, and | admit that of the nine outgoing Demo- crats the seat of only Fair of Nevada is at all doubtful. “With regard to the 16 retiring Re- publicans, Democrats contend that eight of them can be replaced by Democrats by good management. It is claimed that in California (Miller), Connecticut (Hawley), Indiana (Harrison), Michigan (Conger), New Jersey (Sewell), New York (Miller), Ohio (Sherman) and West Virginia (Mahone) Democratic Legis- latures can be elected. Those of the States having Senators whose terms ex- pire in March, 1887, which hold biennial sessions of the Legislature, will elect Legislatures this Fall which will choose the next Senators. Hence Democratic leaders insist that no time is to be lost if the party intends to enter upon & united and determined fight to control the United States Senate. “In addition to the eight States now held by Republicans which the Demo- crats believe can be captured, they point to the vacancy in Oregon and say thefe is a good chance to secure a Senator there. If the Democrats could succeed in making their estimates hold good, they would gain nine Senators and lose one, which would give them a majority of eight in the'Senate. But in all cal- culations of success in getting control of the Upper House of the National Legis- lature, the distribution of Federal patronage in the States counted upon to return Democratic Senators instead of Republicans is relied upon. Demo- cratic managers urge that the Senate cannot be made Democratic unless the Republican Federal officials are sup- planted by Democrats in the close States. This phase of the question will be pre- sented to the President with all possible force and eloquence by the party {eaders.” —————————————————— the Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, jr., who just now is more concerned than usual about the state of the Federal budget. There are beginning to be new problems involved in the task of raising money to pay for the New Deal. Busi- ness recovery and a demand for money by industry would add further compli- cations. Here in the Treasury is found the official pressure for a balanced budget. But Mr. Morgenthau's troubles can be eased after next February by a new Board of Governors of the Federal Re- serve System—a board that will have sweeping powers over the country’s bank credit. At the head of this new show, and one that should attract the attention of any early New Dealer, probably will be Marriner S. Eccles, at present gov- ernor of the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Eccles reflects New Deal bank philosophy and makes old-line bankers squirm. The New Deal worries of today are not the New Deal worries of 1933. Now the inquirer will find that New Dealers are asking: “What is the prospect of having this or that law approved by the Supreme Court? Will it stand up when the court puaud on the issues involved?” And: “What are the voters talking about? Can the President get four more years to give his policies, now written into the President upon his | fortuitous circumstances, while away his days in excesses and the gratification of selfish desire, but sometime, somewhere, when he is rendered sober and reflective by misfortune or disaster, the witness within answers to the witness without and he sees life as a process of de- velopment, leading on beyond the years into a future where all his better hopes and ideals shall have their logical fulfillment. “Alas for him who never sees, The stars shine through the cypress trees.” Thus the poet wrote; to him the tragedy of tragedies was a life without assurance, without the capacity to see the glimmering stars shining through the darkening shadows of the somber trees. I have dealt with every variety and expression of life, from the most de- praved to the most virtuous and I have yet to find the individual who persist- ently refused to believe in the larger, more complete life. There may have been doubts and misgivings, there may have been barriers that seemed insur- mountable, but when the supreme test came the spirit within asserted itself and it found peace and satisfaction in the assuring voice that said: “Because I live, ye shall live also.” So real was Christ’s recognition of this spirit within man that he used all His powers to give it a finer, fuller expression. Wher- ever He touched life, no matter what its limitations, He evoked a response by showing it what it possessed of divinity. Herein we discover His power over men— yes, and His continuing power even down to the latest day. Our human nature responds to His appeal, not alone because He speaks with authority, but because He calls forth that which we recognize is common to life itself. We are at our best and our truest when we give the divine element in our natures its fullest, freest expression: when we really assert our rightful heritage as the “children of God.” It is the “Spirit that beareth witness” with our spirit that gives to life a new meaning and a consciousness of its ulti- mate attainment. Capital Sidelights By Will P. Kennedy. The saga of the village post office and how “Jim" Farley rescued that historic institution and thereby won a crown is told in his best style by Representative Louis Ludlow of Indiana, foPmer Wash- ington correspondent, ex-president of the National Press Club and author of several human interest books on ! Hoosierland. “Henry Wadsworth Longfellow pro- moted the village blacksmith to the dig- nity of an established institution by writing a poem about him,” Louis of the facile pen reminds us. “Postmaster General Jim FParley, less gifted with poetic genius, but stronger and more adept as a political craftsman, has per- formed the same service for the village postmaster by an administrative edict. “There is an old saying among meteor- ologists that weather originates at Medi- cine Hat, and by the same token the the cracker-barrel philosophers who gather around the potbellied stoves at the village post offices,” sagely states Representative Ludlow. “As a boy Jim tapped the sugar barrel and played checkers with the whiskered experts at the village post office at Grassy Point, N. Y. and it was there he imbibed the first draughts of the political wisdom that enabled him in maturer life to drive the Democratic donkey under the wire to a galloping finish.” Summarized, the story that promotes this panegyric by Ludlow is that the post office at Lincoln, Ind., which flour- ished since 1856, now located in Nora Kitchell’s general store, was to be abol- ished—this public forum of the country- side—to be superseded by rural free delivery. In desperation the populace of 75 inhabitants, reinforced by some 700 neighbors, appealed to Lincoln’s most illustrious son, Everett C. Watkins, Washington correspondent of the Indi- anapolis Star and diplomatic represent- ative plenipotentiary for Indiana inter- ests in the National Capital. Watkins laid such a human-interest brief for the village post office before “Jim” Farley, emphasizing its political acumen, far antedating the “brain trust,” that the Lincoln office was saved. What did Lincoln do? It organized & “Jim Farley day” in celebration. Bands and a drum corps from a far-flung coun- tryside joined in a 24-hour jamboree serenading a life-sized portrait of “big hearted Jim.” The Republican precinct committeemen joined with the Demo- crats in felling a tree and erecting a flag- pole 50 feet high to the everlasting honor and memory of Jim Farley. 5 * % % X First-hand information of how the late and lamented Will Rogers came to do his daily comment in newspapers throughout the country is had by Gerald B. Dobben, secretary to Representative Engle of Michigan. Some years ago Virgil V. McNitt, head of the McNaught Syndicate, went to visit his father in Muskegon, Mich., and Dobben was show- ing him around. McNitt had met Will Rogers in New York and conceived the idea of having him as he traveled around make daily editorial comment on men and affairs. Rogers couldn't see it, and thought it would be a flop, but finally consented to meet MCcNitt and talk it over. He didn't keep the appointment, and McNitt was so sure he had something that would make a hit with the people that he chased ‘Will Rogers to the depot where he was about to catch a train, and then and there persuaded him to stop over and sign a contract. R Representative George Holden Tink- ham, Republican, of Massachusetts, one of the real Mayflower descendants, rated one. of the richest men in Congress, who has a private museum, who several years ago was famous for having fired one of the first “shots heard ‘round the world” in the World War, who has a reputation as an amateur boxer and for his horsemanship, has had two pet aversions—prohibition and Bishop Can- non—and one special hobby—interna- tional relations. On letters he sends out he now has typewritten in the address corner “Moscow on the Po- tomac.” e el e A Word to the Wise. Prom the Worcester (Mass.) Evening Gazette. Just now there’s at least one good safe rule for the Republicans to follow in choos- ing their presidential candidate—find out which one Messrs. Roosevelt and Farley prefer and then pick somebody else. Wise “Critters.” Prom the Pittsbureh Post Gazette. Not so much has been heard lately Can it be that the animals now confuse the sounds with A. A. A. and run for their lives 38 the other direction? | long, well-nigh crowded with game. | amazed were the explorers that they ex« African Exploration By Frederic ]. Haskin. When Queen Elizabeth had promised to outfit an expedition for Sir Martin Frobisher for the purpose of seeking the Northwest Passage, that famous mariner wrote in his diary in bad humor, fretting over the delay. It was a period when many explorers were forth on the seas. 8ir Prancis Drake was circum- navigating the globe, Sir Waiter Raleigh was on the seas, and others were looking over the face of the earth. What Sir Martin wrote in his diary, still extant, was an expression of impatience based on his fear that, if there were continued delay in his setting sail, there would be nothing left in the world to discover. Yet only this year a British expe- dition has explored a vortion of the earth’s surface which had never been explored in modern times. This expe- dition went to the Desert of Libya and traversed unmapped, uncharted regions of wide extent. Africa is so huge a con- tinent that there are many spots which modern man knows little about. Sir Martin Frobisher died some hundreds of years ago, but some people are still finding things to discover and. inci- dentally, it was not until long after his passing that the Northwest Passage finally was found. ‘This African expedition was headed by W. B. Kennedy Shaw and other members were R. E. McEuen, W. H. Mason and Lieut. R. N. Harding Newman of the Royal Tank Corps. They traveled 6,500 | : | miles in making a survey of this unknown land in the interests of the Royal Geo- graphic Society, and they came upon many strange things. Three specially built automobiles carried them, and everywhere they went it was necessary to carry as extra weight cans of drinking water as well as water to serve the motors. It was a hazardous jaunt. Probably their most amazing find was a land where, contrary to all nature, ani- mals live without water. An examina- tion of the map of Africa will reveal that in the southern portion of the Libyan Desert there is not a town, not an oasis, not anything at all. No river courses are observable on the map and even this exploration failed to reveal that any isihoulcl be charted. It is unimaginably ry. That is the remarkable fact in view of the circumstance that the exploring party found one stretch, some 250 miles 8o hausted every possibility and found no | trace of water. There were evidences that | rare and slight rainfalls did leave small pools of water, but these quickly dis- appeared in the desert sands. There is not a stream of any sort in the whole region. Entirely Waterless Region. In spite of this, the explorers observed oryx, addax, gazelles, giraffes, lions, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals, foxes, wild dogs, monkeys and ostriches. They brought back photographs of them. The members of the expedition are scientists; The purposes of the exploration included investigations into the geography, topog- raphy, flora and fauna and archeology of the unknown region. Thek scientific curiosity was especially aroused by the sight of so many animals, whole herds in some instances, in a waterless land. They did find some vegetation of a character not greatly unlike what is | found on the Great American Desert and yet not the same. It must be, they science of government originates among | concluded in making their report to the Royal Geographic Society, that there is some modicum of moisture in these plants, drawn from suppositious under- ground sources, which gives the herbi- ferous creatures the moisture that life requires. The carnivores, presumably, draw their water from the flesh of their prey. The one thing certain, according to these scientists, is that there are ne streams, no pools, absolutely no surface water of any kind. The inevitable con- clusion, the report states, is that here is one place in the world where mammalian life is actually supported without whter. It is well supported, too, apparently, for whole herds of gazelles go careering across the desert at an incredible pace and the lions are strong enough to bring them down. This waterless region is known as the Wadi Hawa. It is the valley of a river which ran many centuries ago and prob- ably was a tributary of the Nile, flowing to the eastward. The climatic history of much of Northern Africa is uncertain. It is, however, certain that much more of Northern Africa was habitable and productive than now. Even in the days of the Roman Empire, Northern Africa was regarded as a garden spot, and much of the food supply of the empire was drawn from there. But the time when the region of the Wadi Hawa was habitable and productive must have been centuries before Romulus and Remus. The party also explored a region, some 500 miles to the northward, which had been partially explored before, but many new finds were made. This is the region known as the Gilf Kebir. It is a great plateau. Steep cliffs rise from the desert on either hand and make the plateau an effectual barrier to passage in an east and west direction across the Desert of Libya. Paintings and Carvings Suggest Life. The expedition was able to win to the plateau by going up the defile of the Wadi Hamra. This is a long, dry valley. At some points its opens out broadly and the beholder sees a sea of sand. Unlike the Sahara, this sand does not rise in dunes. Being sheltered by the walls of the ravine, the wind effect is not felt and the surface is as flat as a billiard table, absolutely unrelieved by any form of life, vegetation or animal. The top of the plateau is described in the report as unusually impressive because of the absolute loneliness and silence. The curious fact, though, in contrast with the utter desolation of the present, is that vestiges of a long-gone life were discovered by the explorers. Wall paint~ ings and wall carvings were discovered, and the archeologists of the party proe- nounced them the work of Stone Age men who lived not less than 10,000 years ago. This means that, in this desolate region, there dwelt a people centuries before Tut-ankh-Amen was laid to rest in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The party also visited Pottery Hill This was first discovered in 1916, but was re-examined by Mr. Shaw’s party. It is a hill on the sides and at the bottom of which are found hundreds upon hun« dreds of earthenware pots. Many of them are unbroken; others, of course; in shards.- They are of great antiquity, and why they were put there in such quantities remains a deep archeological mystery. One theory is that some tribe, planning a raid, had assembled a sort of commissary, a depot of food and espe- clally water. But, reverting to Sir Martin Frobisher, it might be suggested that there are still parts of Africa which remain unexplored: Mr. Shaw's party has been first in an- other place, but there are yet fastnesses which invite the adventurous. An Unkind Opinion. Prom the Watertown (N. Y.) Times. A Chicago scientist says that a bald head does not .indicate in any way superior mental capacity. That's toQ bad. That was the great solace so many men had. 4 -