Evening Star Newspaper, October 27, 1935, Page 36

D—2 = THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C SUNDAY ...............October 27, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES...........Editor —— The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Bustness Office: t q Pennsylvanta Ave New York Ofee 110 Eash 42nd 8t ko Oice. Lake xmrmx-n uildin European Office: 14 Reaent 8t o Engiana. Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Edition. The Evenng Star . - .- -45c¢ per month The Fveni,+ and su—\‘ ay R 63¢per montn c Der copy Night ®inal Edition | ana Sunday Star__._70c per month a1 Star A5c ver month n made at the end of cach month. rs may be sent bv mail or telephone Na- tional 5000 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia cay...1 yr $10.00; 1 mo.. 85¢ = mo.. 50c 40c $6.00; 1 i 1 mo.. mo.. $1.00 0., 75¢ Datly ax e S0c m yri $500: 1 mo. Member of the Associated Press. The Assoctated Press s exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches eredited to it or not otherwise credited in this nd also the local news published herein publication of special dispatches are also reserved avy l)ay. Day of 19835. officially tomorrow because this year's anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's birthday falls on a Sunday, comes in the midst of gravely troubled international times. Once again the shadow of war darkens European skies and behind it lurks the dread mirage of another con- flict that may embroil nations in both hemispheres. At such an hour the thoughts of the American people turn pridefully and gratefully to their “sure shield,” the United States Navy, the Nation's first line of defense. They rejoice in the acme of efficiency which it represents. Under the eye of our sailor-President, whose naval-mindedness is a particular source of gratification to his fellow countrymen, the fleet within the present month had opportunity, in the waters contiguous to its Pacific base, to demonstrate its instant readiness for the tas some day be called upon to perform. Preparedness, in a very literal sense, is the Navy's watchword. On previous Navy days stress has been laid on the necessity of constructing a treaty fleet—an establishment of the size allocated to the United States under the 5—5—3 ratio arrangement with Great Britain and Japan. Due to recur- rent economy waves in the decade fol- lowing the Washington Limitation Con- ference of 1922, this country systematic- ally lagged behind both Britain and Japan in building the ships and provid- ing the personnel to which it was entitled under the treaty. It required persistent pressure to persuade succeeding Con- gresses to appropriate the funds necessary to enable the United States to maintain even a decent second or third place alongside the British and Japanese, who, unlike ourselves, took advantage of their treaty building rights. ‘Within the past year the Vinson- Trammell bill, contemplating progres- sive expansion of the Navy, has become law. Under it, if authorizations are not tampered with, a United States treaty Navy should be in commission by 1942, in consequence of a construction pro- gram spread over the next five or six years. Coincident with such a schedule there are provisions for appropriate ad- ditions tc enlisted personnel and for an augmented corps of officers through in- creases in the midshipman stud at Annapolis. No New Deal achievement is more deserving of national acclaim thar. the plans for creation of a treaty Navy. There remain to be provided modern naval auxiliaries in the form of an ade- quate merchant marine. In that dis- tinct component of sea power the United States is stili deficient. We continue to be dependent on foreign shipping for transport of much of our sea-borne commerce. Navy day is an appropriate time fer reminding the country that American strength at sea will not be properly rounded out until we possess a Navy built up to full treaty level in fight- Ing ships. supported by an American-built, American-owned, American-manned and American-operated mercantile fleet com- mensurate with our foreign trade and with our rank as a first-class power. “A treaty fleet fully manned; an adequate merchant marine” is the goal which the American people should set themselves this Navy day! ———————————— A fretful disposition is sometimes escribed to adenoids. Hitler may find a physician to assure him that recurrent throat obstructions may have a similar effect and that a simple operation may suffice to reduce nervous irritation, ———ate Many students of phenomena related to germ plasm and cortex incline to the theory that the pink elephant, whose very existence is sometimes challenged, is being introduced into the political picture. Navy Last Words. A fascinating contribution to the lit- erature of crime is that of the death- bed ravings of Arthur (Dutch Schultz) Flegenheimer, reported by a Newark police stenographer as he sank into unconsciousness. Rarely, if ever, before has such a document been compiled. Through its garbled sentences, its un- finished phrases, it is possible to look into the unguarded mind of a character whose whole career was a war against society. The record is illuminating for its revelation of the pattern of & public enemy’s brain. And, approached from that angle of inquiry, Schultz was an adult child. Even when ample allowance is made for the effects of his injuries and the fever raging in his veins, his incoherencies are those of an immature personality—not the romantic, clever, skillful genius of mis- chief which the public had been invited to believe that he was. Ideas, of course, are jumbled in the text of his utterances; to be celebrated | ks it may | nt body | | tion methods.” | general terms. but they are not developed concepts— thev represent & potpourri of infantile images. The dying man is a psychologi- cal baby. He gabbles about dog discuits, “play jacks” and bean soup. Indeed, not a single word of his recital was worthy of the emperor of lawlessness which he had aspired to be. ‘ The truth, then, is that Flegenheimer never at any time deserved to be ranked as possessed of a first-rate intelligence. John Dillinger probably was irimeas- uvably above him as a thinker. But the same fate has taken care of both. The forces of opposition which they raised up against themselves by their own mis- deeds cannot be defeated nor success- fully evaded. - Organized civilization cuppresses one, organized barbarism the other. Both perish by the impartial swerd which, once adopted, cuts with a double edge. They die by violence because they had ‘chosen to live by it. Science, it may be expected, will study Ficgenheimer's last words with care. But the lay public also should read them with attention. They demonstrate, as vothing else can, the agony, the misery, the degradation of such an end. In the annals of the twentieth century they should be preserved for the light they throw on the conditions of the age— conaitions of relative peace, prosperity and progress which, sadly enough, can be and are disturbed by baby-minded savages whose only claim to fame is that of ignorance, violence, failure and inevitable retribution. o Permanent A. A. A. President Roosevelt has declared him- self for a permanent and long-time pro- gram of agricultural adjustment. In his statement calling for such a program the President makes highly significant suggestions. Whereas in the A. A. A. programs of the immediate past and present benefit payments have been made to the farmers for not producing crops, the President now proposes that “the benefit payments can be made on a basis that will encourage individual farmers to agopt sound farm manage- | ment, crop rotation and soil conserva- The farmers are to be paid in the future not so much for doing nothing with some of their land as for doing something constructive with it. Furthermore, the President suggests that the time may come when the A. A. A. will prove as important in stimulating certain kinds of production “as it has been in removing recent burdensome surpluses.” The administration is now seeking a new psychology in connection with the A. A. A. The idea of prosperity through scarcity has an odd, doleful sound when put into so many words. The payment of hard money to farmers for not pro- ducing a certain amount of pigs and corn, wheat and cotton, while the Amer- fcan consumers are meeting the taxes to make those payments and at the same time paying higher and higher prices for food has been having its effect among the great mass of the people who do not live on farms. Such payments may be | popular in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, but they are not so popular with the men and women who are sweating for a living in the manufacturing plants of New York, Connecticut and Michigan, for example. The statement of the President re- garding the long-time A. A. A. program is not specific in its details. It suggests these changes without stating how they are to be accomplished, except in very However, it is admittedly more in the interest of the people gen- erally and the farmer, too, to pay benefits for something affirmative which the farmer may nothing. The President, in his declaration for a permanent A. A. A. program, says nothing about the jeopardy in which the benefit payments, through the processing taxes, find themselves. Yet there is the possi- bility that the Supreme Court of the United States will declare the process- ing taxes unconstitutional. In that event the hundreds of millions of dollars to finance these payments must be found elsewhere, and apparently through gen- eral taxation. In his revised budget statement, made recently, the President indicated that if the processing taxes were made impossible through action of the court, it might be necessary to ask the coming session of Congress to pro- vide revenue from other sources. This would mean new taxation. Farm prices have advanced since the Roosevelt administration came into office. Whether this has been due to the operation of the A. A. A. or to the drought is a question upon which there has been disagreement. One thing is certain, however, the farmers have re- ceived from the Government a bounty in the shape of checks for not planting wheat and cotton and corn and tobacco and not growing hogs. The drought is not responsible for those checks. They were the results of the planning of the administration to bring the farmers into compliance with the restricted produc- tion program. They were the bait. They are to be continued. It is these checks which have had much to do with main- taining the popularity of the Roosevelt administration in the great farm States of the West. Safe Toys. It is incredible that any adult would wish to harm a child by the gift of a dangerous plaything. No parent delib- erately would equip his son with any instrument which the youngster might use to hurt himself. On the contrary, it is natural to suppose that fathers and mothers as a class are interested in safe toys. But it happens, none the less, that thousands of boys and girls each year are killed or crippled by mechanjcal devices presented to them for their amusement. Lewis H. Carris, managing director of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, has been making a study of the problem. His findings were an- nounced in an address at the recent National Safety Congress at Louisville. “From the time children begin to walk unaided until they become men and women,” he sald, “more of them die as , | and hard teaching will be required. do, rather than for doing | the result of accidents than from any disease.” A loss of twenty-nine thousand youthful lives is the average for a twelve- month span; seven hundred and twenty= five thousand other young people are seriously injured in a similar period. Mr. Carris continued: “The automobile killed thousands. Thousands of others were drowned or killed by falls and other accidents. But toys also took a heavy toll. * ** In 1933 some twelve hundred children in the United States were killed by firearms, mosteof them in the tiny hands of other children.” The air rifle, for example, is a fear- some weapon in its effect. “Ask the parent whose child has been blinded by a shot,” is M Carris’ challenge. “There are htindreds of such parents in America today " Fireworks, too, are responsible for untold sorrow. “In thirty years we have kilied and injured more people by using fireworks to celebrate our acquisi- tion of independence than were killed in the Revolutionary War.” But Mr. Carris warns as well against the perils of even the commonest household im- plements—almost anything, it seems, mey be a risk when misused. “Every kitchen cabinet and every tool box,” he insists, “is fuli of instruments which, in the hands of little children, are danger- ous. None of us would think of giving 8 small child a hammer and expensive watch to play with at the same time. And yet at this moment there are in America hundreds of children with eyes far more delicate and far more valuable than the finest watch who are playing not only with hammers, but with scis- sors. knives and other instruments, one slight jab of which will destroy or seri- ously injure the eye.” Traced down to its basic elementals, then, the problem is one of education— as most other great problems are. A shotgun, probably, is perfectly harmless when used with proper skill; but, on the opposite extreme, a buttonhook may be a fatal implement when carelessly flourished by an infant unaware of the mischief it can do. What is wanted, apparently, is the thought of caution in every mind, be it old or young. And | for that vastly desirable psychology long It is worthy of notice, however, that every lwving soul can participate in such a campaign of instruction. ———ree Ireland has some picturesque legends which apply to politics as well as poetry. One of them worthy of the remembrance of Europe is a story of the Kilkenny cats. ————————— However learned men may become in the laws of ancient and modern nations, the parking regulations require close and intelligent study. e ——— In the absence of Congress an occa- sional press conference serves to pro- vide a more limited but an intensely interested audience. ——rat Mussolini's picture is impressive. If photographs can win a war Selassie may as well surrender. Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, Eternal Impulse. In days of old, when people wrote With chisels on a rock, The rulers one another smote Till history felt the shock. Each lusty warrior raised a lance In tribal discontent And everybody sought a chance To run the government. A hierarchy tried to earn A gratitude serene, And each profession took its turn On the tumultuous scene. And fate has led them all a dance ‘Whose lives were boldly spent In fierce contention for a chance To run the government., A few of philosophic mind Were called against their will To lead the way for humankind. Yet what availed their skill? The power that withers at a glance Itself in turn is bent— Yet everybody wants a chance To run the government! Overconfidence. “Your opponent says he can win in a walk,” said the campaigner. “Well,” replied Senator Sorghum, “let us encourage that idea. If we can per- suade him to hold himself down to a walk, maybe I can get up a burst of speed that will beat him.” Backing Sunshiny Judgment. “I suppose you are what they call an optimist?” “No. I used to be called an optimist. Now I'm known as an overconfident speculator.” Publicity. Lives of great men now remind us, Be they ne'er so strong and wise, They will get left far behind us If they do not advertise. Substitution, “What is your idea of a socialist?” “A socialist,” replied Miss Cayenne, “is a person who expects the Government to do everything. He wants to abolish Santa Claus and put Uncle Sam in his place.” Hieroglyphics. “You seem interested in that Egyptian obelisk.” “I am,” said the man with the faint grin. “There’s no doubt that the pictures are funny. But the artist ought to have put in some reading to show what they're about.” Response. Your wisest words no cheers will' wake. They do-not seem to matter. But if you make a foolish break It starts an awful chatter. “Patience is fine,” said Uncle Eben, “ef it keeps a man workin’. But it ain’ much good ef it keeps him mckln to 8 crap game.” D. C, President Back With A New Set of Signals By Owen L. Scott. ‘The White House took on a different appearance to President Roosevelt on his return this week from vacation. Not only had the old place been touched up in his absence, but the job that goes with it scarcely seemed the same. If the President turned his thoughts back to his homecoming a year ago, the contrast must have startled him. In that period faces are different, problems different, issues different, the outlook different. One glance at tasks awaiting attention, and a moment’s reflection on changes in prospect give color to Mr. Roosevelt's reported remark that any- thing can happen in a year and that he didn't know who would be President in 1937. The shift taking place in recent months is striking. It has taxed the capacity of a self-styled “quarterback” President to call a new line of plays for the Nation. Signs are that President Roosevelt will need to do even faster thinking in action to take advantage of “breaks” in the game as it continues to speed up. A year ago he had crossed the coun- try on a triumphal ride that awed ac- companying newspaper men. This ride was followed by an election in which the New Deal won a victory even more sweeping than that of 1932. L T Now another ride has occurred. An- other homecoming has been witnessed. Reporters noted that the fervor of 1934 was gone from crowds and that prac- tical politics occupied much presidential attention. The confidence of a year ago is giving way to enough doubt about 1936 to cause an about-face from the studied avoidance of political considera- tions that marked the 1934 situation. Moves from now on are to be made with an eye to November, 1936. Not so long ago Mr. Roosevelt figured that the New Deal, with its emphasis on national- ism, had parked Europe and its troubles outside on the doorstep. As late as August the President was seeking to steer Congress quietly away from its desire to enact a neutrality law. One of the few plain-talking sessions of the Roosevelt regime occurred at the ‘White House when members of Congress laid down the law on that issue. President Roosevelt finally gave in on condition that the statute should run only until next March 1. Now he finds this neutrality legislation his greatest comfort, politically and otherwise. It enabled him to tell the world—amid loud huzzahs from the electorate—that the United States would remain “unen- tangled and free.” Neutrality is adopted into the New Deal family. * % o ox More than two years ago the President cut the dollar loose from gold and turned Irom the path of possible leadership in a drive for world recovery to follow the path of nationalistic domestic recovery. Two years ago the gold-buying experi- ment was undertaken. Today Mr. Roosevelt is ready to admit that he was sold a gold brick when he took to b gold at a in dolla He also wa dollar back on a stable basis with the British pound, the French franc and other currencies. His present advisers now tell him that stabilization of money is a prelude to sound business recovery. But the British are turning a cold shoul- der to American approaches. Wooing of European favor, particu- larly if the present war scare fades, is likely to be the newest New Deal gesture. * % x % A year ago President Roosevelt had just breathed a sigh of relief over the retirement of Gen. Hugh 8. Johnson as R. A. administrator. Just about every one agreed at the time, and that agreement has become more widespread since, that Gen. Johnson had succeeded in engineering the most colossal blunder of the post- 1932 period. His codes had succ frozen the depression in indust making prices rigid and higher than the purchasing power of the people could ant g employment. The general never did accept diagnosis made by specialists. He felt that the rest of the New Deal was out of step with N. R. A. President Roosevelt, in an effort to head off Gen. Johnson from a plan to sell the country on his idea, induced him to try to make work-relief work in New York City. But now the former N. R. A. adminis- trator has turned from that task and has just let loose a magazine blast that caused eyebrow raising in high New Deal quarters. The 1934 problem is accentu- ated as a potential 1936 problem un- solved by presidential attempts at solu- tion. There is much wonder over whether Gen. Johnson aspires to high elective public office. * ¥ X X Not long ago Mr. Roosevelt talked freely on his determination to push prices higher as the prime consideration of the recovery program. The prices of foodstuffs, due primarily to drought and secondarily to the New Deal farm pro- gram, decidedly have gone higher. Bread is joining the procession with another advance. Potatoes are on the list sched- uled for a boost. Meats, particularly pork, are above the price goal set by the A. A. A, So today, instead of talking about price rises, the President’s aides are busy giv- ing assurance that food costs now have about reached their peak and may tend downward during the year ahead. They point out that the man with a job actu- ally is spending a smaller proportion of his budget for food than he did back in the 1920s. During the depression he got accustomed to a food price level much lower than other prices in proportion to their old relationships. But the farm problem in one year has turned from a problem of con- vincing the rural population that it was | going to get higher prices into a prob- lem of convincing the city population that it is going to be protected against continued rises in food prices. Cost of living as a political issue is assuming real importance. %k The same about-face is noticed on spending. A year ago the public was sold on the idea of spending for recov- ery. As late as last Spring, President Roosevelt could command wide support for his plan to use $4,880,000,000 to create 3,500,000 jobs. No blueprints were asked and none offered for this biggest of appropriations ever voted by Congress. Few thought of asking for an account- ing of results that came from spending earlier billions. . But now all is different. The Presi- dent’s dream of huge sums spent on a national plan to develop national re- sources through the use of unemployed workers is shattered by arithmetic and by the physical problem of bringing to- gether the national resources and the unemployed. The public’'s dream of the same thing is shattered by revelation that it will have less than expected to show for the money that is spent. In the past Mr. Roosevelt has sought favor by planning to spend more billions than he was able to spend. Each of his budgets has far over-estimated the New Deal’s spending capacity. Now that the public is unsold on Gov- OCTOBER 27, the | A MAJOR 1935—PART TWO. PROBLEM BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, D. C. L., BISHOP OF WASHINGTON, A major problem in our modern life concerns the reformation of society threugh a fresh recognition of the place the home occupies as the supreme factor in all that concerns moral worth and character building. It was the unfail- ing practice of the Jewish home to train its children in the ways of religious ob- servance. Ii was an imposed discipline toat contemplated the moral and spir- itual development of youth. The Jew- ish people 1egarded it as a matter of tran:scendent importance. There could be no well-rounded development of char- acter without it. It is true of nations and peoples gen- erally that moral and religious training has occupied a conspicuous and essen- tial place in the economy of their life. Educational and cultural values have their distinct place in the fitting of youth to the service of life. However well trained in those things that con- cern occupational life, however well adapted he may be to assume his just share in the general scheme of things, lacking in the fine things of character the youth ultimately discloses weak- nesses that hinder him in the prosecu- tion of his tasks. The degeneration of races and peoples is directly traceable to a lowered moral tone. Without self- imposed and self-accepted reasonable disciplines, disciplines that contribute to the stabilizing of character, failure is inevitable We are faced today with a situation tnat is more searching, and at the same time more threatening, than anything that concerns our economic well-being. We are constantly being reminded by the judges of our criminal courts that the percentage of crime gmong the youths is steadily and surely mounting. ‘The most serious offenses, and those that involve the taking of life, are committed by boys and young men barely out of their teens. Public enemies of the first class, with hardly an exception, are, in the main, young men. Increasing edu- cational and cultural advantages (and we have made progress along these lines) do not inevitably result in strong and stabilized lives. One of the greatest edi- tors in the country, namely, the late Mr. Ochs, advised me on one occasion that nothing was more menacing in our day and generation than the defection of youth as disclosed in the records of our criminal courts and in the looseness that is evident in our modern social practice. Ali kinds of devices and re- formatories are generously planned to safeguard the young and to protect them from evil ways. Probably at no time in history have we spent more of time, money and energy in these agencies than in this modern age, but the prob- lem increases with each recurring day. The large question that faces us is: Can morality be maintained without a re- | ligious basis? Will some system of ethics, ‘ such as that of Marcus Aurelius, serve the purpose? Will a system of ethical culture, rigidly applied, affect salutary resuits? The record of history furnishes no affirmative answer. There can be no blinking the fact that the chief factor in the making of the strong elements of character is the home. Where it is loosely administered, where parental direction and control are flaunted or ignored, where there is no evidence of deep moral and religious conviction, we can hardly expect the sensitive and plastic youth to accept restraints or dis- ciplines that make for the strong things of character. Schools may impart knowl- edge and prepare the student for his place in the world of action; churches and Christian agencies may press their | claims and clubs and agencies for recre- aticnal purposes be built without num- ber, but none of these can serve as a substitute for the well-regulated, well- ordered home, in which the high things of religion and morality are exemplified and practiced. It was said of the parents of Jesus in the days of His youth that “He was subject unto them,” and His re- peated tributes to His mother witnesses to the profound influence she exercised upon His formative years. In the humble home in Nazareth He experienced the disciplines which a Jewish home im- poses, and, humble as it was, it became the training ground for the supreme ministrv of His later years. The greatest issue before us today is one that concerns the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the American home on strong and stable religious foundations, and without these all our legislative and other emergency measures will signally fail. We have found no substitute for high-minded, God-fearing fathers and mothers. Fifty Years Ago In The Star Upon his retirement from active duty in 1884 Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman Homesick for left Washington to make his home in St. Washington. Louis. The following in The Star of October 22, 1885, indicates that the move was not altogether satisfactory to the old soldier: “Gen. Sherman has, it is said, written to a friend that he regrets having re- n Washington to St. Louis and es himself back at the Capital, y settled for the remainder of | his days. One reason assigned is that there is less brilliant and pleasant social life in St. Louis than in Washingtonand a greater scarcity of pretty girls. Another is that he finds there fewer Army com- panions and congenial friends with suffi- cient leisure to chat about the past and kill time pleasantly. Of all that sort of thing Gen. Sherman is very fond, and these features are sadly lacking in a purely commercial and business city. It may be added also that the old hero thoroughly enjoys publicity, and as there are fewer newspaper correspondents in St. Louis than in Washington to con- stantly chronicle and keep before the world his sayings and doings, he doubt- less feels that something has been taken from the pleasures of life in that respect. The general has a way of making dis- paraging remarks about reporters at | times, but newspaper obscurity is the one | sustain on a basis of increasing produc- | thing he doesn't hanker after.” | tion and increa % ‘The following in The Star of October 23, 1885, revives the memory of a man who was once a familiar | Pinchover's foyre on the streets of Millions. Washington and frequently a factor in the news: “Col. Morris Pinchover, formerly a well-known character about town, who is now in St. Elizabeth's insane asylum, has written a letter to a lawyer in the city asking him to come to the asylum and bring a ‘subpoena’ for various asylum officials, and have them answer for the charge of bad treatment and pilfering the colonel's private effects. ‘I was grab- bed in the street the letter says, ‘and put in here without law or order. I want you to make a bargain with Gen. B. F. Butler to investigate the case and the crime of stealing my two big trunks full of bonds and I will bear all expense vou may incur. Move without dela) come here and bring blank subpoenas. I am worried to death and harassed be- yond all endurance by these attendants. I want a receipt for the 460 million dollars that the superintendent, Dr. God: ding, has on my account. Please to re- member that Green and the ladies are witnesses in the case and deliver to me all my mountain and everything that belongs to me.” ernment spending as a depression cure, the White House suddenly is turning to the idea of raising revenue estimates and cutting spending estimates. Econ- omy talk is in the air. Budget makers, working on the plan for the next fiscal year which starts July 1, 1936, aim at a deficit under $2,000,000,000, in place of the present budget deficit of more than three billion. o ‘The President, judged by present signs, plans to seek re-election as an advocate of sound Government finance who is making progress toward a balanced budget, instead of as an advocate of spending for recovery. Another change gets attention. For two years the New Deal has been build- ing. It has worked on housing, on syb- sistence homesteads, on big dams. Those projects now are being completed. And new problems arise, Millions were spent on subsistence homesteads to care for stranded popula- tions. Now it is discovered that people formerly stranded in private areas are stranded instead on the Government projects. To help meet that situation the Government at Reedsville, in which Mrs. Roosevelt is interested, built a fac- tory. But now the controller general says that the Government can't run the factory. More millions are being spent on slum clearance. Completed, the Government is finding that slum dwellers who were supposed to be aided by the new build- ings can't pay the rent that the Gov- ernment must have to pay out, and so the slum dwellers move to new slums and the Government turns to non-slum dwellers to fill its apartments. Mr. Roosevelt, back in the White House again with a new set of signals, will con- tinue to call the plays. Gradually he is working back to his 1932 strategy, when sound money, sound finance and ortho- dox economics figured in his (Copyright, 1935.) 4 Capital Sidelights By Will P. Kennedy. Probably there is none in the Capital City today who remembers the time, in | 1847-48, when there was an 80-foot mast guyed on the old dome of the Capitol, to hold aloft the lantern used by Jantes | Crutchett in lighting the Capitol grounds | by solar gas. In 1830 an iron railing had been erected about the circular drive and some of the primeval forest on the Capi- tol Grounds, where some romantic cou- ples seeking seclusion found themselves locked in by the night watchman who closed up the grounds at 10 o'clock. Previously the Capitol Building was * lighted by whale-oil lamps and candles and the grounds by lamps. Prior to 1825 there were only 10 lamps in the Capitol Grounds, but in the 30s this number was increased to 24. Then along in the 40s the lamplighter, P. Kaufman, had his job greatly increased—to 70 lamps and an assistant had to be employed— Conrad Kaufman. Flint, steel and tin- der had given away to the lucier match, but the greasy lamp and candles were still in use. Improved lighting had been discussed for years and the experiences of Baltimore with gas lighting were | watched with interest. In 1840 Robert Mills, architect of the Capitol, through Col. W. Noland, then commissioner of public buildings, made a report recommending lighting the Capitol Building and grounds by gas. About 1846 James Crutchett, living near North Capitol and C streets, ex- perimented with lighting by solar gas. | His works wete near the old Baltimore & Ohio depot. Having succeeded in lighting his own home, he approached committees of Congress. Finally in an act of May 3, 1847, an appropriation of $17.500 was made with direction to the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House to contract with Mr. Crutchett. He spent $5,000 that year and the re- mainder the next year, with an additional $3,000, and later nearly $3,000 more for additional work. He lighted the build- ing and a considerable area. The light on the dome flagpole could be seen from ! far down the river and citizens of those days testified that as far west as Twelfth street one could see the time on their watches by the light from the Capitol. It was while the dome was thus lighted that former President John Quincy Adams was stricken in the House chamber and died in the room now occu- pied by the clerk of the House. When the Capitol was placed in mourning a piece of black cloth was placed around the solar gas lantern on the Capitol fi 3pole. Mr. Crutchett did not renew his con- tract and subsequently established the Mount Vernon cane factory. When the Washington Gas Light Co. was incorporated by act of Congress, July 6, 1848, with a capital of $50,000, Col. B. B. French, then clerk of the House of Representatives, was one of the incorporators. 0y Minority Leader Snell, one of the men mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for Presi- dent, 1s one of the hardest-working mem- bers of the House, but does it all &0 | quietly, so smoothly, so efficiently, that most of his fellow members, accustomed to seeing a lot of dust kicked up and laborious motions, think that “Bert” is easygoing and a good visitor in fellow- ship groups. Snell is a rich man—de- votes much, if not all, of his salary to benefactions and public works in his dis- trict—but what he has he earned him- self, and by hard work. He was not born “with a silver spoon in his mouth.” His father was foreman in a lumber camp in the Adirondacks, and died when young Bertrand was 20 years old. So the son started to work as a lumberman, “I've done more menial work, I've done more hard labor than most of the House members will ever do,” Snell says. He followed lumbering all the way from woodsman’s felling camp to news- print. He eventually was a bookkeeper in a pulp mili where paper was made— at $70 a month. He went out on his own in the tempestuous warfare of the lumber industry. He bought forest stands and logs that had been cut. He had others cut, and he rode the drive down the river in the Spring freshets. During those heroic days of the drives the now debonnaire, meticulously dressy leader of the House Republicans would sleep in his rough clothing night after night. Qut of funds he made in the lumber business he purchased an interest in a dairy products industry. ———— Plenty of Material. From the Toledo Blade. There are enough war correspondents in Ethiopla to give assurance of contradictory reports, Ethiopia a Land Of Strange Things By Frederic J. Haskin. If any Italian detachments get lost in the wilds of Ethiopia they might be able to find their way out if they happened to stumble upon a trail and recognized 1t &s such. For tralls through the forests of Ethiopia are marked as no other trails in the world are marked. In pioneer days in America and in other forested lands, it was customary to blaze a trail by cutting notches in trees. The Ethiopians long ago discovered a more ingenious system. They tie knots in growing saplings while they are yet young enough to be supple. The saplings then grow into trees with the knots still tied in them. Some of the trees are very old, but the loops are still there. One has to know their significance—that they mark a trail. Ethiopia is so full of curiosities that it is to be expected a good many books will appear now that the eyes of the world have been turned on the ebon empire. There will be no lack of material, for it is doubtful whether any country in the world is so strange and magical as the land of the Blue Nile. The knotted trees are not the only queer ones. In grain fields one will come upon a lone tree, left standing in the .open, and on a platform built in its top ‘will see a group of living scare-crows. The Ethiopians take no chances on damage to their crops and have no taith in the sort of scare-crows used in Amer ica and other countries. Living persons act the role. There will be two or three of them always on guard during the growing season, alert to scare away with flapping arms and cries, not only ma- | rauding birds but baboons. * ok ox % Then, too, occasionally one sees a tree seemingly decorated like a Christmas tree with hanging objects. These are beehives which the Ethiopians hang in the trees to attract wild bees. When a hive has been occupied, the natives pe- riodically go to it and remove the honey. Then there is a certain bird, the sun bird it is called, which is trained to find bee trees where wild honey is discovered. A honey hunter will follow his bird through the torest and sooner or later the bird will locate a tree. Speaking of trees, the thistles should not be passed over. In certain sections of the country there are growths wh: many people would be inclined to call trees, inasmuch as they grow 15 and 20 feet high. They are, however, not trees, | but thistles from the point of view of botanical classification. They grow in dense clumps and are so fiercely spiny that they form an almost impenetrable barrier. The Italian invaders will find them just about as formidable as the Ethiopian tribesmen. Perhaps the most romantic trees of Ethiopia are not native. They are the eucalyptus trees which ring a great forest around the capital city of Addis Ababa. When the old Emperor Menelek was engaged in fighting off the Italians some 40 years ago he was, for a time, encamped on the heights of the Entoto Hills. He liked the location and vowed that if he was victorious in the war he would build a new capital there. He was victorious and redeemed his vow, but, in the course of building the new capitai, all the native trees were cut down tor building material and for fuel. He woke up to discover his new capital was standing in a waste of tree stumps. Thereupon he imported thousands of eucalyptus trees from Australia and made it a major crime for any one to touch them. So now the city is em- bowered in a magnificent forest. The trees grow as much as 12 feet a year in the Ethiopian climate. The city was named Addis Ababa because those words in the Amharic mean new flower. There are many towns in the country having the name Addis. It is like New York or New Haven. * * x % Everything seems to be different in Ethiopia. The Christian churches are nearly all circular, and within there are many fascinating frescoes. The art is distinctive. It does not at first appear very finished, but close examination reveals great graphic power. Most of the wall drawings and paintings are symbolic and serious and very expressive. For example, one interesting church fresco shows an angel standing between two groups of figures. On one side is a group of saved souls. They are depicted as sleek, fat individuals, looking smug and contented. On the other side are the lost souls and it would be difficult to find a more sad, lugubrious, starved looking set of woebegones. The artists keep up to date. There are wall paint- ings showing airplanes, which are some= thing new in Ethiopia. Andrew Carnegie did not extend his benefices to Ethiopia, but the country does not lack libraries. They are usually stone towers with thatched roofs and they are literally crammed with price- less illuminated manuscripts bound in sheepskin-covered boards. The librarians are Coptic priests. It can scarcely be said that many of the natives spend much time reading, but the priests guard their treasures jealowsly and themselves | pore religiously over the ancient tomes, many of which, doubtless, would make any collector covetous. * % ox % The people are as strange as their country. They have lived so out of the world that most of them know very little of what goes on over the frontiers. Now, because of the war and because of the efforts of the Emperor to improve his people, there are occurring some changes, but it is a big country and there still are many regions as remote as the Valleys of the Moon. The Ethiopians are a people of fine stature, but there is one who looms above all others. He is the finely uniformed but barefoot drum major of the Imperial Guard’s band. He stands 7 feet tall. There seems to be some trouble in the Emperor's family. His eldest son, the crown prince, is practically in exile and has been for some time. He lives in the distant Province of Dessye. The second son, Prince Makonnen, Duke of Harar, lives at the palace and appears with his father on ceremonial occasions. Although only 14 years old, he has been sent on diplomatic missions which he has discharged well. It is the general feeling that he and not his elder brother will succeed to the throne. It might be interesting to note that John Quincy Adams was appointed in the American diplomatic service at 14. ‘The Empress Memen is a woman of charm, ability, and queenly force. She rules her household and takes an active part in affairs of state. Her principal lady in waiting is Frau Hartl, a German woman, the wife of the man who for some years has been court architect. She delivered a radio broadcast recently addressed to all the women in the world and told them of the oppressive Italian invasion, explaining the position of her people. The gist of her address was that Ethiopia wanted one thing—to be left alone. She described her countrymen as “a pastoral people living near to nature and in communion with God!” Sign of Improvement. From the Atlanta Journal Yes, sir, times are getting better. Now and then you see a man go into a bank with his hat on his head instead of in his :