Evening Star Newspaper, November 17, 1935, Page 41

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CENSORSHIP IS ACCEPTED AS INEVITABLE IN JAPAN Press, Otherwise Modern, Does Not Miss Its Freedom, Minor Inconveniences of Bans. BY BEN McKELWAY, Special Correspondent of The Star. OKIO.—Freedom of the press in Japan is not unlike the shoes of Haile Selassie’s Ethi- opian army. Both are miss- ing though neither is missed. Jap- anese newspaper men and the news- | paper-reading public of Japan philo- sophically accept the tyrannies of bu- reaucratic censorship, along with the absence of any eflective libel laws, as they would a spell of nasty weather. It may be disagreeable but there’s nothing to do about it. To the American newspaper man, however, fresh from the land of the free and the home of the brave, where any attempt at press censorship would bring universal condemnation of the would-be censor and the widest ex- ploitation of the forbidden news, the mechanics of press censorship and the psychology which permits it are of more than professional interest. Imagine, if you can, the indignant tonsternation in an American news paper office that would follow receipt of this official ban from police head- quarters: “You are hereby advised not to pub- lish any news other the grand naval maneuvers to be held in 1935, or items which can be sur mised as Teferring to the followi Time and place of the maneuvers; formation of the participating units: | matters concerning research and practice and equipment used. “Newspapers publishing the afore- mentioned shall be suppressed. ‘Censor Office. “Metropolitan Police Board.” But in Japan there was nothing unusual about that or man; others like it, for anytk ing pavy or troop movements usually suppressed until the author {ties want it printed. The unusual concerning the ban quoted abo curred when an edi of the Eng- language Japan Times allowed small item under a Washington “There was Japanese al maneuvers Edition Is Confiscated. licati that innocuous m of a col n on he suppression and Sundav edition of vich it appeared. The fact that was not discovered by the censor until half run was irculated was merely a lucky break circulation manager. The remainder of the paper’s undistributed eirculation was destroyed One curious thing about the cen- gorship system is that the ban some- times acquaints the newspaper offices for the first time with the news which is to be suppressed. Japanese news- papers were fully inf advance that ment was to b was a ban on it until mally by date on page confisca the Ti i the ban would be lifted was kno So Nichi- Nichi, one of Tokios and Japan's leading newspapers, with a circula- tion of over a million, decided to take a chance and get a scoop. It ran a story to the effect that on suc such a day there would be news about Manchukuo—not more than that. The police immedi- ately descended on the office and burned about 400,000 copies of the day’'s press run. And that hurt Nichi-Nichi more than if the authorities had sent theil publisher to jail Jar papers still maintain gometimes a printer, on pay Tolls, whose duty it is to go to jail and take the rap when a ban is violated— provided violation means a jail tence. Sometimes a ban's violation means nothing more than a small fine. which the paper is willing to pay for the news and the prestige of the £C00p. In the United States freedom of the press is regarded as the heritage of free men; something to be fought for and preserved as an essential element of democratic government. In the United States individual freedom and freedom of the press come above what some bureaucrat might happen to regard as the welfare of the State But in Japan there is another point of view. Nobody ever claimed that Japan and a democratic country had a great deal in common. In Japan the freedom of the individual is inci- dental to the welfare of the state and the determination of what is best for the state naturally falls to some bureaucratic office holder whose ideas | on the subject are sometimes vague and often silly, Bureaus Are Censors. Censorship in Japan is exercised | chiefly by two government bureaus, | the censorship office of the Metro- politan Police Board which comes under the home secretary, and the | office of the public prosecutor, or | procurator. ‘The former exercises censorship not only over all reading matter entering Japan but over all matter printed in Japan. When an| item appears in 2 Japanese newspaper | displeasing to the censor, to th2 army, the navy or to the government, the newspaper is notified immediately and if there is not time to make over a page a pressman with a chisel goes to work on the plate and de- faces the type. Not long ago an| English-language paper in Tokin printed a leading editorial under the title: “Japan’s China Policy” which | was not pleasing to the censor. The | paper was notified before its press run | was complete and for the rest of the edition the editorial column ran blank, with only the caption standing —constituting, thereby, a rather effective denunciation not only of Japanese policy in China but of the censorship policy at home. ‘The procurator may also ban police news and the ban is often exercised on news of anti-Communist police activities. In today’s Japan Adver- tiser the leading story on page one concerns the death under torture of a suspected Communist, arrested in a round-up of Communists at Kyoto. The suspect died, an autopsy deter- mined, partly as the result of “exces- sive stimulation” after a police sergeant had repeatedly beaten him over the knees—a good way to stimu- late a prisoner's flow of conversation. ‘The police sergeant was “much con- cerned” when his prisoner died and reported the matter to his superiors, was tried and given a two-year sus- pended jail sentence. All of that made a very good newspaper story for anybody’s newspaper but it hap- pened six months ago—in April. The paper printed it today because the ban had just been lifted. Likewise the Japanese public is still than that se- | lected by the navy office in regard to | |ment for its censorship policy, and Objecting Only to waiting to be informed of the details of what must have been a sordid night of crime not long ago. judging from the official ban, which reads: ! “This is to notify you that an em- bargo is placed on reporting in news- papers on the case of murder of a | woman near Rokkakudo. Matsuyama | City, in October and the taking of a | watch and the case of murcder of Mrs. | Toyo Maramatu of No 4 Shinsyo, | Kyoto City, and the case of Matsu- vama Castle. Yours truly, “KUN HIRATA, “Public Prosecutor.” | point of view the ban in itself might | | not be so bad. But the police have a | | nasty habit of lifting a ban at sume} | unexpected moment, when the editors | have gone out for lunch or something, and that sometimes means an extra | paper. A Tokio paper needs very lit- postal savings passbook and gold | From the Japanese news editor's| THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., NOVEMBER 17, 1935—PART TWO. When England Votes System Strikingly Different From United States—Running Would Stump American Office Seekers. tle encouragement to get out an extra, | for the extra is confined to a single sheet, a good deal larger than a post- age stamp but along the same. gen- eral design. The extra has the com-| pensations of not only giving the| paper the prestige and the public the news, but furnishes work for the oth- erwise unemployed, each newspaper maintaining a staff of men of ad- vanced age and specially {rained voices | who race through the streets of Tokio | ringing bells and shouting in a leather- | i manner something that sounds | uch like “Extra papah! Extra papah! Extra papah! Wuh! Wuh! Wuh! Tingalingaling! Wuh!"” This correspondent devoted consid- | erable itme to researcn in running down exactly what the boys cry and | received a variety of answers from | Americans, some of whom said they called “Extra papah” and others who said they merely said “Wuh!” I final- ly cornered a Japaness graduate of the University of Washington and got reliable infcrmation that ay. Goga:! Gogai,” the ation of which is “A number out- that is, a number of the paper side the regular number, denoting to the Japanese that something is up. News Band Aids Police. om banning practically all news relating to Communists and the police activity against Communists the curator often places a ban on »olice news to assist the police in run- ning down the which is an odd sort of notion for an American newspaper man who always thought than when a cop tells a reporter the police have laid a careful trap for the capture of Machine Gun Charlie, who is expected to take a train out of Union Station at 12 o'clock noon, the ing to do is to get the news of the trap to the public before the trap is rung. If Machine Gun Charlie reads about the trap, why that's the police department’s hard luck. But in Japan the police allow the papers to print the news, say, about the finding of a dismembered corpse in the canal. which is said to be a popular sort of crime story over here. and then, just as the story is getting hot and the police are about to catch the criminal | they clamp down a ban and keep it clamped down until they catch the criminal or the criminal escapes. | Maybe six months later the ban will | be lifted and if the story is good | enough there will be a Gogai. There are some 30 bans on news of various sorts at present. I was in- formed at the office of Nichi-Nichi, but when I asked the editor of the Nichi-Nichi English edition if the Japanese newspaper men did not re- sent the bans he explained: “We do not have the same idea of the free- dom of ress in Japan that you do in America. And besides, we approve of some of the bans.” So that seemed to be that, although there have been | cases where bans have been lifted after vigorous protest by the papers There are other ways of banning news or censoring news than by the formal issuance of bans, however. A Tokio daily printed a leading editorial cri ng the army budget and the ! editor received an invitation to call at the war office—an invitation that in Japan is not lightly to be disre- | garded. The day following the editor’s visit the same paper printed an edi- | torial strongly indorsing the army | budget and saying that it was swell. For the army and the navy, especially, | often find ardent support for their | policies from the fanatical patrioteers | and Nationalistic societies—such as| the famed Black Dragon Society— | ose members can do much to guide | a newspaper’s policy along the straight | very | | and narrow path, even to the extent | of pouring sand in the presses or beat- | ing up the editor. Patriotism is ap- parently the refuge of many a scoun- | drel in Japan. Critic of Censorship Policy. Mr. Seijun Ando, a member of the Lower House of the Japanese Diet, | made news to newspaper men all over | the world during the last session when he took the apparently unprecedented | step of sharply criticizing the govern- especially for the violence which | marked the methods of the pa- trioteers. He read a list of Japanese newspaper editors who had been as- sassinated or beaten for the expres- sion of their opinions and pointed out particularly the danger that at- tended an editor or even a member of the Diet who dared criticize diplo- matic or military measures. “Should objection be taken to opinion expressed by the press, it should be made in the form of words and writing,” he said. “Yet, under present conditions, any criticisms ven- tured upon the subject of diplomacy or military matters are immediately defined as ‘rebellious thought’ True | deliberation upon state policies is im- possible under such conditions.” This disciple of freedom of the press, crying in the wilderness of Japan, lets it be known to American newspaper men who interview him, however, that he is willing enough to let his views on the subject stand as recorded in the Diet. Enough, apparently, is enough. Foreign correspondents in Japan are not greatly bothered by the cen- sor. Even the bans which extend to domestic news are not permitted to interfere with news which goes out to the world—for Japan is not so much concerned with what the world may learn or think about her as long as the Japanese people do their thinking along officially approved lines. Occasionally a foreign corre- spondent may send a cable which reaches the frantic editor in New York or London in such garbled form as to be unintelligible. But that is rare. When it happens the cor- respondent is never able to learn defi- nitely from the polite and courteous Japanese officials that his cable was (Continued on Ninth Page.) | never lived in any of them. | dred of |last House of Commons contained | more than 30 coal miners and many ‘ughmt evidence of irritability mgy do THE BRITISH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT (CENTER) AND G LIMPSES OF ELECTION CROWDS IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE. BY THE RIGHT HON. H. B. LEES- SMITH, Former president of F Education. HE first task of the aspiring politician in England is to be selected as a candidate for the House of Commons. Here he immediately comes up against the first difference between the United States and England. In the United States he would have to go through the pri- maries, With all their accompaniment of voting, publicity and rival candi- dates. In England he will have a pri- vate meeting with about a dozen peo- ple, with whom he will have an in- formal conversation; they will decide whether he shall be their candidate or not. This small group of peaple are the Executive Committee of the local organization of his party; but as thi organization itself is a very loose af- fair, the 10 or 12 leaders in practice and’s Board of | have to make the selection. England has nothing to correspond with the American political machine. The local party association meets only once in four or five vears and even the Executive Committee practically ceases to operate as soon as an elec- tion is over. The reason for the dif- ference is that in England an election generally comes only once in four or | five years, because the only elections are for the House of Commons. We need not elect a President. because have a King: Senate, because we have a H»o Lords. In the United States. there are elections for the House of Repr atives, the Senate, the Presi- dent, the State Leeislatures, the Gov- ernors and dozens of other officers the machine is necessarily in action all the time. Contrast in Candidates. ‘ ‘The next great contrast is in the type of candidate that the two systems produce. In England the candidate in most cases is a stranger to the district. whereas in the United States this would be inconceivable. In England there is no “locality rule” for Members of Parliament. In the United States candidates for Congress must be resi- dents of the areas that they represent but in England a candidate may put up for any constituency in the country regardless of where he himself resides. | Mr. Winston Churchill, for instance. | has been the candidate or Member af Parliament for the cotton town of | Oldham, for the commercial town of | Manchester, for the jute manufactur- | ing town of Dundee, for the hosiery town of Leicester, for the aristocratic | area of Westminster and the farming | area of Surrey—while he himself has | | ‘The English M. P. probably never sees his constituency six months be- fore he becomes its representative. He stays in it only for about three weeks | a year, He answers about 20 letters a week from his constituents and he may get a job for one of them about once in five years. No class shows a greater desire to become candidates for the House of Commons than the younger members of the aristocracy. More than a hun- its present members come from Eton College. A brilliant young man in England who has carried off the prizes at Oxford and Cambridge takes it for granted that he will be- come a candidate for Parliament. Life of Politician Attractive. The explanation is that the life of | a politician is very attractive. A mem- ber of Parliament is surrounded by a glamour that no other occupation en- joys. The House of Commons is still | “the best club in London.” To be in- vited to “tea on the terrace” of the House is still a privilege. The young M. P. finds that at fashionable dinner parties he alone is permitted to appear without evening dress, because of the fiction that he is too busy with his Parliamentary duties to have time to change. At the other end of the scale of candidates are the working men. The steel workers, railway men, brick- layers and carpenters. Some mem- bers of the House had been receiving “the dole” up to the day that thev were elected, and passed from the un- | employment queue to Parliament without creating any public surprise. Some of these working men became ministers of the crown, lost their seats at the last election and quietly re- turned to their former jobs. Men who three years ago held court positions and appeared in elaborate uniforms at Buckingham Palace are now back as engine drivers and carpenters with- out any particular comment being made. The actual election is spread over about three weeks. The candidate makes about three speeches each night in the halls of the local schools. The meetings are in most places very quiet, with no interruptions, but with very active heckling at the end. As the heckling will be concentrated on na- tional and international politics, the candidate who is merely versed in local politics will soon be discredited. Art in Answering Hecklers. This is one of the reasons that the best candidates usually come from outside the constituency. The art of answering hecklers demands a sense of-humor and a good temper. The able damage, for a singl - courteous reply will be repeated with indignation in thousands of homes. But the most important meetings of all are at the dinner hour in the middle of the day. In an industrial constituency the working people usually get from 12:30 to 1:30 for their dinner. The candidate there- fore goes to the workgates at about 1:15, when the workers are returning from their meal, and holds a meeting which lasts a quarter of an hour, ‘These meetings can win or lose an election, for the non-political men and women who will not turn out in the evening are willing to come to these. The candidate under very cult conditions which are an acid of his capacity. When he begins at 1:15 his audience consists of per- haps a dozen; at 1:20 it is 500; at 1:25 it is 5000. And then he has the critical five minutes of the whole day in which to make an impres<ion which will reverberate through the whole town. Meanwhile engines are buzzing, sirens are blowing, street cars are pass- ing and his audience continually mov- ing; but if his personality can dom- mate all these distractions he is a made man. At halfpast one the hooter sounds, and within a minute he is left facing an empty yard. Style of Speaking Changed. of public speaking has changed in the last 20 e Gladstonian peri Today the enter so es of the audience that 3 re not looking for rhetorieians, but for constructive statesmen. The best type of cand date is the man whom you w choose to be the god-father of your children, Personal attacks upon the rival candidate are very rare. The most experienced candidates never mention the names of their opponents. Only a small proportion of the voters attend any meetings at all Even in the most exciting election not more than one-fifth of them will hear any of the candidates. Litera- ture, therefore, will swing thousands of votes. Each candidate sends out a formal election address with photo- graphs of himself, his wife, and even his children, and a reasoned state- ment of his policy. The post office | | sends a copy of this election address | free of charge to every These formal “punch.” voter. ad Ses that they have not The real battle is waged s which the rival ean- s issue as one subject after ner comes to the front. These ts set going very lively argu- s in the homes. A good lea is more important than a good speech. A smashing hit issued to every voter on the morning of election day has often won the battle. Expense Limited by Law. All this, of course, costs money, but the expense of elections is limited by the law. E iate is per- mitted to t $5,000. A very usual arrangement for e-third of this n his own pocl local election are so c nomination of each can- the closing of Ten days before each candidate proceeds to the Town Hall s ounded by his leading s porters and form: presenis mayor with the pape inating him as candidate, signed by any number of voters, from two to five thousand. He has, at the same time, to hand over to the mayor $750 1in notes to show that he is a bona stages SANCTIONS BEGET REALIST " VIEWS IN LATIN AMERICA Support for Boycott of Italy Fails to Materialize as Le ague Tries to En- force Status Quo in Europe. BY GASTON NERVAL. O THE many problems con- fronting them-in this hour of crisis, statesmen must now add the | stand taken by some of the leading Latin American countries in the Italo- Ethiopian conflict. Some of the most important South American governments have an- nounced that they will go only half way in supporting League sanctions against Italy. They are all for moral sanctions, and, being by tradition and by political necessity declared enemies of imperialism, they have been most outspoken in their denunciation of Mussolini’s aggressive methods. Some of them have even gone soO far as to indorse the second type of sanctions, the financial sanctions, pledging themselves to uphold the sus- pension of credit and the restrictions on the exchange of the lira dictated by the League. ‘When it came to applying the third kind of sanctions, however, the eco- nomic sanctions half-heartedly ap- proved by the Europeans themselves, the South American statesmen dis- played a more realistic judgment. They made it known that, so long as the economic boycott of Italy could not be made universal or effectively inforced except at the cost of another World War, the responsibility for in- forcing it should be left in the hands of the European big powers, the only ones really interested in preserving the status quo. Ttaly Buying. An Ttalian commercial mission is at present making considerable purchases of raw materials and foodstuffs in Brazil, not a member of the League; Argentine, where economic sanctions must wait the approval of the next Congress, and Chile, where ad- vocates of strict neutrality cling to the theory that this would be violated by siding with the European powers in control of the League and closing the doors to Italian trade. This will illustrate only once more the difficulty, nay the impossibility, of carrying out a complete and suc- cessful economic boycott of an indi- vidual nation under the present or- ganization of society. Be it with the hardly veiled intention of helping Italy, as Austria, Hungary and Al- bania, with a desire to embarrass the League, as Germany and Japan, or merely unwilling to pass up the material benefits coming their way, as some of the Latin American coun- tries, the fact is that nearly a dozen states members of the community of nations have refused to follow the lead of Geneva' and are staill willing to trade with Ifaly. Take Realist View. Aside from the purely material considerations. .involved, the Latin American governments which insist on maintaining their freedom of action in the present emergency only revealing & realistic concep: of the troubled European | , modern international politics. They know that the League, deprived of all the idealism and speechmaking phraseclogy with which it is dressed ! up, is only the instrument devised by the great powers which won the World War to preserve the status quo, | to keep the hungry nations from at- | tacking the sated ones. They re- member that the League never was able to stop a war in the past. unless the desire for peace happened to coincide with the interests of the great powers, They remember that, only a few years ago, when Japanese imperialism was setting an example in Manchuria for the present course of Italian imperialism in Africa, the League was satisfied with passing moral sanctions. They remember, moreover, that on that occasion the protests of the Latin American bloc at Geneva and its demands for a stronger attitude on the part of the League went unheeded. Today. therefore, they seem a bit League. They are reluctant to accept without reservations the picture of the League as the unflinching defender of the peace and the champion of the rights of small countries which is being painted for them at Geneva. They know that it is the great powers which are to gain irom the appli- cation of economic sanctions against Italy, and they logically believe that it is the great powers which should carry the burden of applying and enforcing them. Perhaps the Latin American states- men go even a little further in their reasoning. and realistically conclude that the sacrifice they are being asked to make, in the name of peace, will hardly be worth while as long as the nations of the world pursue poli- cies and practices which make for war. Perhaps they realize that, no matter how effectively the present offender against the status quo may be pun- ished, the outbreak of another war would be only posponed until the next offender were ready to strike. System to Blame. ‘Under our present capitalistic system, it could not be otherwise. The export- able surplus created in industrial countries through the production of goods in excess of the domestic de- mand grows ever larger, while the area for the consumption of that sur- plus in the less developed regions of the earth is constantly diminishing, as these regions become, in turn, in- dustrialized. The result is that each year that goes by, the great manu- facturing nations must compete more intensively, more energetically, and with much more difficulty in rapidly dwindling markets, to be able to sell goods of which, due to free capitalist production, there are always increas- ing surpluses. As the nations of the world are not yet ready to stop this ceaseless competition, under which their private interests thrive, they must pay the price for it, and the price is war. (Copyright. 1935.) 4 much | skeptical as to the sincerity of the| PR il S T E lfide candidate. This money will be returned to him if he polls more | than one-eighth of the total votes | cast; but is forfeited if he does not. | The object of this rule is to dis- courage frivolous candidatures. It has had a great effect in Kkeeping | down the number of Communist can- | didates. On the day of the poll the candi- | dates and their wives spend 12 hours D3 NEW GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CANADA KEEPS BUSY Lord Tweedsmuir Sets Social Pace and Has Many Clubs He Is a BY D. M. HALLIDAY. ORONTO.—No mere figure- head of government or em- bodied link between Cana- dians and King George V is the Dominion's governor general. Duties incumbent on Lord Tweeds- muir during his new tenure of office probably will curtail greatly the lit- erary output of John Buchan. While he will not be called on to solve such political problems as the social credit movement in Western Canada, as one United States news commentator suggested recently, Lord Tweedsmuir will be one of the busiest men in Canada. He and his wife set the social pace of the capital community, lend their presefice at outstanding events in Toronto, Montreal and other larger Canadian centers, such as opening the Woodbine race course and pre- senting the famous guineas to the winner of the historic King’s Plate or occupying the viceregsl box at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto and congratulating leading prize winners. Close to Prime Minister. But the governor general plays a larger part in the country’s govern- ment than may be realized even by Canadians. If he is not consulted in advance on public policies, he is fully advised of them. The prime minister of the day, exclusively, has his official day. Their association is usually inti- mate. Occasionally, on matters of pressing national importance, the leader of his majesty’s loyal opposition is called | into consultation. When W. L. Mac- | | kenzie King was opposition leader in | | the last Parliament, he told Lord Bess- | borough that if there was anything | the opposition could do to assist the | King's representative, he was entirely | { at his disposal. | The governor general resides in | in slowly driving round the con- stituency in largé open motor cars decorated with streamers, flowers, mascots and balloons, all in their party colors. As all the schools are being used for polling booths, the children have a holiday and spend the day in cheer- ing or booing the candidates as they appear. An experienced candidate can generally forecast the result of the election by about 11 o'clock in the morning by the reception that the children have given him. Mayor Is Presiding Officer. IRidelu Hall, Ottawa, in the Winter and in the citadel at Quebec during the Summer. These properties are | maintained by the federal government, | which pays the heat and light bills, 1bu( the governor general pays his | own staff and brings out his “con- | troller,” who does what his name | implies. A suite of offices is main- tained for the governor general in the Parliament | large Union chk; | the east block of buildings, and a is unfurled on the flagpole when he arrives and is struck when he departs. All government business requires , But Officially Robot. Lord Aberdeen created a precedent in 1896 when, after the Tupper ade ministration had been defeated, he refused to approve appointments it sought before resigning. There was & more recent instance, in 1926, when Lord Byng refused dissolution to Prime Minister Mackenzie King after the resignation of his government had been announced and another gov- ernment, led by Arthur Meighen, had suffered a defeat by one vote within three days. Mr. Meighen, having ac« cepted the premiership and the task of forming a ministry, automatically was deprived of his seat in the House of Commons pending re-election. Defeat of his government by 96 to 95 on a motion challenging the con= stitutional right of its members to sit in the House was recorded. Ade journment followed. The next after- noon the governor general granted Mr. Meighen's request for dissolution, and during the election which fol« lowed much constitutional controversy was heard. It was the first time in Canadian political history that a gove ernment was defeated in the Come mons by one vote. And Mr. Meighen's administration was the shortest on record, existing from June 30 at noon to the morning of July 2. Formal Approval Usual. However, almost invariably the King’s representatives in Canada do as his majesty does in Great Britain— sanctions government measures as & formality. Lord Tweedsmuir will be host to dis- tinguished visitors to Canada. He will be called on to be honorary president of all the leading organizations in Canada, and many of these will re- quire considerable attention. As chief scout he will attend national jamboe rees, as head of the Canadian Legion more work is entailed. His salary is fixed at $50,000 a year—£10,000 stere ling—and is charged against the cone solidated revenue The royal prerogative of mercy in capital cases, formerly exercised on | the governor general's own judgment and responsibility, is now exercised pursuant to the advice of the ministry, The practice whereby he served as a medium of communication between the Canadian and British governments has been given up: since July 1, 1927, direct communication has been instie tuted. Lord Tweedsmuir included fishing, deer stalking and mountain climbing Finally the polls are closed at 8 | the vice regal approval, a traditional lamong his recreations before coming o'clock in the evening: the boxes are | sealed and taken under police guard {to the Town Hall. The mayor, the candidates, their wives and a few privileged supporters are present at the count. The mayor is the presiding fficer and the counting is done by the clerks of the local banks. It is a very remarkable fact that | although there may be 50,000 votes the first 5.000 almost invariably wins. The law of averages very seldom belies its reputation. The count is absolutely secret. and in order that no messages should be sent. the police forbid any one to leave the room once it has | begun. The result is declared by the mayor | to the small group inside the room |and the defeated candidates are al- ways the first to congratulate the victor. The mayor then leads the way to a balcony to announce the 1resu!l to the thousands who are col- | lected outside. There is an uncanny contrast be- tween the deathly stiliness of the counting room and the raging tur- moil which has all the time been | seething outside. Even more eerie is the sudden stiliness which descends upon the vast multitude when the spotlight is turned upon the balcony, and they know that the man who first | emerges onto it is the victor. those few minutes the air is as hushed as within a cathedral. When the victor appears the pent-up political | feelings of the last five years unite in | a roar of triumph and execration. He makes a short speech of thanks, of which not a single word has ever | yet been heard, and then hands him- | self over to the crowd to be carried through the streets until, between 3 |and 4 o'clock in the morning, his | supporters escort him home. —_— Portugal Bolsters Fighting Forces LISBON (P).—The European-East African situation being what it is, Portugal has undertaken the improve- ment of its fleet and air force against around 1ts small but important sphere of influence. Both the Portuguese naval and air forces recently engaged in lengthy complicated maneuvers—the most im- envisaging the combined “defense of European coast.” Strategically Portugal occupies an enviable position among European powers because it enjoys not alone the protection of its modernized navy, but the guarantee of the strength of the British grand fleet through the provi- sions of he Anglo-Portuguese alliance —the oldest in existence. The Portuguese Navy today em- braces a fleet of 50 units, 14 of them up-to-date vessels recently built in England and Portugal under super- vision of the Anglo-Portuguese ex- perts. These include 5 destroyers of 1,600 tons, capable of 37 knots; 3 sub- marines of 1,000 tons each, capable of 18 knots; 2 small cruisers carrying their own protective aircraft, and 4 second-class sloops of 1,200 tons each. The older ships include 1 destroyer, 3 torpedo boats, 2 second-class sloops, 15 gunboats, 3 mine layers, 1 depot ship and 11 auxiliary ships. The navy embraces 800 officers and 6,000 men. Additional airplanes, to bulwark the present air force, have been ordered in England and are expected shortly to bring the force up to 150 modern fighting, observation and bombing craft. Portuguese statesmen feel the coun- try’s possessions located as they are near the Atlantic entrances of the Mediterranean, may make the coun- try’s position of vital importance in case the present East African em- broglio spreads. Coach Lucky in Varied Ways. CLARKSBURG, W. Va. (#).—Good fortune pursied Coach Cebe Ross of West Virginia Wesleyan College. First his foot ball team won a 14-12 victory over one of its greatest rivals, Salem. Then Cebe got into a bridge game at Richard Talbott's home and picked up a hand of 13 clubs. Without & fumble, he made a grand the candidate who is ahead on | For | the day when hostilities may break | portant held since 1920, upon a plan | | formality, The prerogative of veto | seldom is exercised. But the gov-‘ ernor general, before assenting to a | ministerial order, may call for ex- | planations, and sometimes as a result | the proposal is modified. [ ORONTO.—“New Deal” legisla- | tion enacted by the recent Bennett government will be | | I tested thoroughly for constitu- | tional flaws by the new administra- | | King before being put into operation. | | Premiers of all the provinces and | | their colleagues will discuss the re- | | form measures this month at a con- | ference with the cabinet in Otta | and decide if the provinces will im- | plement them as being within Domin- |ion jurisdiction under the British North America act, Canada’s con- | | stitutional keystone. | Since the provincial governments, | except social credit Alberta. are of the | same liberal political complexion as | the federal government, they un- | | doubtedly would support any eco- | | nomic and social reforms advanced by | | Ottawa. but Mr. King and his minis- | ters wish to straighten out some of the | anomalies in Canada’s governmental structure with a view to moderniz- | ing it Supreme Court Approached. The cabinet will be guided in its constitutional revisions by opinions and by findings of the Supreme Court of Canada, to which a reference has minimum wages, unemployment in- surance, day of rest, federal market- ing and other measures arising out of the parliamentary investigation of business practices. Before setting the reference down expressed at the Ottawa conference | | been directed on the eight-hour day, | to Canada. How much time or oppore tunity he will have for these is cone jectural, but apparently he will have little if he accepts a modicum of invie tations which he will receive soon from all parts of the Dominion. King Will Make Court Test of Bills Before Putting Them Into Practice uniformity of standards throughout the Dominion. If the Supreme Court rules against the Dominion government there is & strong possibility that the B. N. A. tion of Prime Minister Mackenzie lact will be amended. either by proe vincial ratification of a federal state ute or by a conference of all the gove ernments. There has been a growing agitation to make the constitution less of a lawyer's paradise, with fat fees being paid to have the Supreme Court or the Imperial Privy Council decide whether certain legislation is sound, wobbly or invalid. In the matter of trade and commerce, and in the whole fleld of economics, with new problems raised by invention and modern come munications, the B. N. A. act is become ing in a large measure obsolete, inade« quate and costly. In the field of new revenues to meet the steady increase in the public debt the Dominion and the provinces have been tapping new fields of taxation and crying “poacher” at each other, This is only one instance of the cone- stant clashes that occur and which present government plans indicate will be settled by making Canada's con- stitution & workable and practical | instrument of modern government. D.M. H.. e g {Race of “Sissies” In U. S. Foreseen President George Barton Cutten of for hearing, the court must notify provincial governments and employers ;and employes in industries affected under the employment and social in- surance act. This is the first refer- ence ever made on statutes which have become law and to which objection | has not been taken by an interested | party. At present the Supreme Court | has before it a reference as to whether | Eskimos are Indians. If they are, the Dominion government is responsible for their welfare. If not, the prov-| Colgate University is afraid the scrubs are going to sink the world unless we uit nurturing and coddling them. | “Nothing could threaten the race as | seriously as social legislation,” he told | students and faculty of Colgate at | their annual convocation. “If we insist upon keeping the feeble-minded,” he says, “then our in- telligence should dictate to us the necessity of sterilization in order that the race may be saved.” For many years Dr. Cutten has been | the eloquent and vehement expounder Madeira, Azores and the Portuguese inces are responsible. Other References. Other recent references regarding federal and provincial powers have | concerned radio, aviation, water | power and insurance. The court up- held the federal authority over radio and aviation, refused a definite answer concerning ownership of water power in navigable waters and upheld provincial control over insur- ance. The questions now before it differ in pertaining to the validity of a law rather than to the interpreta- tion of a law. Under the British North America act, which was drafted nearly 70 years ago as the framework of union be- tween the four provinces then exist- ing, federal and provincial powers are divided, but its framers did not vision a day when the state would become a second father to all its citizens, with added responsibilities. Provinces May Fill Gap. If the court finds that the Bennett “new deal” laws are beyond federal competence under the British North America act, the provinces may turn over some of their powers to Ottawa, | or they may agree to enact uniform | legislation to supplement Iedenlyl statutes. Liberals questioned the validity of the social legislation in Parliament, and Mr. King and his cabinet want to make sure of their ground before putting the laws into effect, even though they have given them favor- able support. Ernest Lapointe, min- ister of justice, thinks the work week should be shorter than 48 hours, but his personal views must not weigh against the possible unconstitution- ality of the present statutes. Mr. King holds that assertion of jurisdic- tion’ by Parliament does not confer jurisdiction, and since his day as min- ister of labor has & strong advo- cate of improved conditions with of the let-Nature-take-its-course school of thought. From time to time he sounds his tocsin against the decadence and danger of democracy and the democratic ideal. He has been for longer working hours, citing “underwork” as a menace to civiliza- tion, this idea being vigorously ade vanced in his book, “The Threat of Leisure.” published in 1927. He pleads for an aristocracy of brains, but insists that “there is only one way to get brains and that is to breed them.” He deplores manhood suffrage as “our greatest and most popular failure, until we doubled it by granting universal adult suffrage.” He finds human being “too intelligent for their own good.” He's alarmed about overheated brain pans of the future. “Suppose,” he says, “that in 50 years Einstein should be generally understood and get into high school curricula. Shall we be able to withe stand a national strain like that?" Addenda: He thinks we wouldn’t have ap- pendicitis if we all walked on all fours. “Nine-tenths of the human race isn't capable of thought.” “Democracy is founded on the idea that the world is run by intelligence. That has never been so and never | will be.” “Elections are never intelligent.” “The idea of democracy is based on mob psychology.” Dr. Cutten, born in Nova Sotia, has been president of Colgate since 192! He likes to talk about his ancestors who didn’t mind mushing a hundred miles or so on snow shoes,’at 30 below zero. People these days are just & lot of sissies. (Copyright. 1035.) Cruise in Canoe. Two men are going from France to Singapore in a 17-foot canoe and exe pect the voyage tA require four years,

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