Evening Star Newspaper, December 5, 1935, Page 10

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY .. .December 5, 1935 THEODORE W. NOYES...........Editor e ARt A A R The Evening Star Newspaper Company. !IIIIII;I‘I Oflleflznu A%, © BureSmi SO i Hekent st- London. England. Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Edition, 45c per month 80¢ per moauth 5¢_ per month -bc per copy Fisht Einal and Sund: Oc per month B S Dok month e lection mads at the end_of eacn month. Ordérs may be sent by mail or telephone Na- tional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia, EIIY an 1 mo.. 85¢ mo.. 80c mo., 40¢c B Member of the Assoclated Press. e Aol B b S hews dispatcnes e A O ubjication of special dispatches erein are also reserved. —_— For Real Neutrality. Definite statements are still lacking, but there are clear indications that the administration is preparing to ask Con- gress for legislation designed more effec- $ively to safeguard American neutrality by clothing the Government with wider powers to curb trade in materials essen- tial to the waging of war. Current experience in the Italo-Ethiopian con- flict amply demonstrates the need of more extensive authority than is con- ferred by the existing neutrality reso- lution. As this will expire in February, the early weeks of the impending session will afford Congress an appropriate opportunity for reconsideration of a situation that clamors for remedial attention. Present-hour uncertainties and vacilla- tions with regard to oil supplies for Italy emphasize the urgency of broadening and stabilizing the United States’ war trade policy. The League Sanctions Committee is about to decide whether oil shall be added to the commodities withheld from Italy under measures already adopted. If such an embargo is declared and the United States, in defiance of it, continues to supply Musso- 1ini with oil, Geneva's peace-compelling program will be largely, if not entirely, nullified. At the moment the Washing- ton Government has no power to stop the shipment of oil or any other kiqu of materials except “implements of war” to either Italy or Ethiopia. Its preventive authority is limited to “moral pressure.” It can only plead with American business not to seek profits in “blood money” by exporting materials that both prolong war and augment the danger of our in- volvement. It cannot legally stay the hand of individuals, firms or corpora- tions which, regardless of appeals and admonitions, care to engage in such transactions. Events of the past two months have shown that something more is necessary than platonic requests for restriction or cessation of war trade. While the ad- ministration will continue tc “discourage” shipments of “essential” materials, like cotton, copper, oil, scrap iron and trucks, beyond normal peace-time quantities, of- ficials reflect an earnest desire for gen- uine authority. They have suggested the imposition of a quota system for the pur- pose of curbing excessive exports. 1t is greatly to be hoped that if the administration decides to seek powers more potent than those of mere per- suasion, Congress will grant them with & minimum of delay. There is no wish upon the part of the American people as a whole that this Nation shall con- tribute, directly or indirectly, to a pro- longation of bloodshed in Africa. The country does not desire to entangle itself with the League or with any of its works, but it is anxious that the policy of neutrality upon which the United Btates has embarked shall be real neu- trality and not a brand of it which, in the existing circumstances, works out in the extension of aid to oniy one of the belligerents, namely, Italy. Secretary Hull is on unassailable ground in favor- ing a program that will make American neutrality actual and efficiént. —_———— Authors who write the history of the world are numerous. Those who seek to rewrite it are even more industrious. More Room Needed. The need of the Smithsonian Institu- tion for more display space has been dramatized by the installation of the Winnie Mae in the Arts and Industries Building. Flown sround the world by ‘Wiley Post, the plane represents a highly desirable addition to the exhibition illus- trating the history of transportation. But the public, going to see it, will find the ship hung in an overcrowded hall. The regents had nowhere else to put it. Yet a moment’s thought will suffice to show that the demand for more room should be met. Sooner or later the day will dawn when the institution will suffer the penalties of its present inadequacy. Already the problem is acute. Valuable materials are being lost simply because there are not enough galleries to shelter them. Only a few months ago a fine col- lection of New England domestic arts and crafts relics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was declined for that reason. But the Smithsonian is the Nation’s depository, and it is little short of a crime that it should be neglected. Con- gress has done nothing for the institu- tion's enlargement since it appropriated funds for construction work completed in 1911, Meanwhile, the country has taken part in the World War, witnessed un- precedented advances in a dozen different flelds of human enterprise and developed 8 new appreciation of its progress. Great Britain, passing through much the same experience, provided four or five modern structures, including the Imperial War Museum at South Kensington, for the THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1985, THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. historic importance. Even Germany, sunk in poverty, has found ways and means to proteci the souvenirs of the recent past. Plans, of course, have been formulated for the expansion dictated by conditions. The regents have asked for two wings to supplement the so-called New National Museum, and their petition has been approved—thus far without practical re- sult. Buildings for the National Gallery and for history, however, also are wanted. And it seems incredible that, whils vast sums are being spent elsewhere in public works projects of every conceivable kiad, no grant has been made for these edi- fices. The issue should be faced by Congress as soon as it reassembles. There is no excuse for further procrastination in a matter so vital and so pressing. P — Statesmanship in Business. Alfred P. Sloan, jr., president of the General Motors Corporation, has demon- strated that there is just as much and as notable statesmanship in business as there is in politics. His address to the Congress of American Industry and the annual convention of the National Asso- ciation of Manufacturers in New York last evening was a masterpiece of thoughtful and practical idealism. The text merits the careful reading of every citizen interested in the welfare of the Nation. Mr. Sloan was not content merely to reply to the critics of business. Instead, he preferred to employ his opportunity to reaffirm “those principles which have formed the foundation of economic evo- lution and industrial progress during the past several decades” and to assert “the vital necessity of searching aggressively and with an open mind for the funda- mental truths in the broader relation- ships of industry to society; the separa- tion of the truths from the fallacies, and the promotion of the broadest possible understanding on the part of all the people as to the effects of these funda- mental truths on industry’s ability to accelerate human progress.” In other words, he declared the right and the duty of business to survive, and he indicated how that right may be protected and that duty discharged. The past, he was justified in insisting, was not so shameful as some propagandists for radical reform have pretended to believe; the future, likewise, can be a period of advancement in consonance with pragmatic standards. Trade and commerce, therefore, have little to fear from political assault. The danger, rather, is that they may be bluffed into an inferiority complex which would result in an experimental anarchy at the ex- pense of the whole public. But that peril, he argued, can and should be avoided by the acceptance of “broadened responsibilities * * * for human happi- ness and security.” The logic of Mr. Sloan’s case is obvious. Business, as history shows, has con- tributed to “the more abundant life” as “the most efficient creator of wealth.” By expanding “its horizon of thinking and action” it can continue its beneficent course. The only risk it faces at the mo- ment is that of permitting politicians to usurp its place and power. But that hazard may be met by a conscious resolve on the part of business men and business women to deserve public confidence. In the long run, if not immediately, the people will judge business fairly—by its fruits and its services. Mr. Sloan spoke frankly and without apology. He represented in himself the powers of intelligence and character for which he appealed. A business states- man of the first order, he personifies the leadership which business needs. The note he has sounded is the right note, and for his courage, his wisdom and his enthusiasm his countrymen should be grateful, - ——at Mussolini publicly indorses George Bernard Shaw as an author worthy to be read along with Shakespeare. There is no fear of a “diplomatic incident,” al- though the decree is an implied slight to the eminent musician and epigrammatist who in a British banquet hall reproved Shaw for putting his art to unworthy use. With suspicion in their hearts, Dawes devotees might be tempted to retort Helen Mafia! Mussolini may compare himself to Jove hurling thunderbolts, not over Ethiopia, but over the Mediterranean. The camera will not lie even for a dictator. He does not look the part. New Jersey is looming so large in af- fairs that Standard Oil of New Jersey gets into the international picture, o A Freak of Chance. New York is a big and busy city. Its population is now approximately seven and & half millions, counting all five boroughs, and not including the inhabit- ants of the adjacent communities and suburban areas outside of the metro- politan jurisdiction, which if added would bring the total up to between ten and eleven millions. The day-time popu- lation of the metropolis is its largest and in that period of activity the street population is several incomputable millions. The big town rather prides itself on its density, especially in the thoroughfares. Some day some inquisi- tive person will compute the sidewalk - population during the working hours. It will be a big figure. Considering this density of humanity, it is a strange freak of chance that yes- terday a large block of granite, the ledge of a window of a tall building fn Fulton street, one of the busy thoroughfares of the downtown section, fell from the seventh story to the sidewalk—and did no damage! Nobody was hit, nobody hurt in any degree. True, it was just a few minutes before noon, at whicl hour the street crowds are great- est. But even so, it is & bit humili- ating to the size-proud New Yorker, albeit gratifying from the humanitarian point of view, that such a great stone could drop into the street and not hit anybody. the tragedy in Equador, where an ava~ lanche descended from a mountainside and hit & town and completély destroyed it, with all of the inhabitants. The chances of such a landslip striking and entirely overwhelming a community were no smaller than that a big block of stone could drop into & busy downtown street of New York and not hit a person. “Safety-Conscious.” After a determined fight of three months against death and wanton de- siruction on the streets and highways of the National Capital, The Evening Star's safe-driving campaign comes to a close. Active participation in the drive ends with the hope that the majority of the public, motorists and pedestrians alike, have been educated into a spirit of safety-consciousness. There are threesmethods of eliminating traffic accidents on the streets of today. ‘The first is by education, the second by strict police enforcement of all regula- tions without favoritism, and the third is by stern treatment of traffic offenders by the courts. All three methods are essential and equally desirable. The Star hopes that it has accom- plished all the good that lies within its power—education. It is now up to Dis- trict officials to see that the two other methods are properly employed. During its campaign The Star has used every possible means of educating the people of Washington. Hundreds of columns have been devoted to explaining the menace of modern-day traffic, including the so- called “horror” pictures and stories. The broadcasting companies and the theater managements gave their full co-opera- tion to drive home the true picture. As a result there are now more than 50,000 signed safety pledges in the office of the director of traffic. This roll of honor is proof that the citizens of Wash- ington are interested in this vital theme. This list of names includes the President of the United States, cabinet officials, members of Congress, judges, clergymen, and representatives of all walks of life. The Star concludes its drive, but the great fight against what is more ruthless than war must go on. The fight is a national one, and Nation-wide efforts must be taken. Be safety-conscious! ——————— Attention is often called to the fact that James Whitcomb Riley and Dil- linger lie in the same graveyard. Could this have been foreseen, Dillinger might have boasted to the gang, but Riley would have written a poem about it. —_———————— There is no telling how far reminis- cence will travel, but there is no present fear that Italy's oil agitation will perco- late all the way back to Teapot Dome. - Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Oleomancy. Most primitive become our lays. We're back to pre-historic days When far beneath the surface soil Dame Nature was preparing OIL. It is & juice which will produce Some queer effects when put to use. It holds, the scientist now learns, Strange animals and curious ferns. To OIL a toxic mystery clings. Today it keeps us seeing things And makes plain people as they plod Seek aid from the narcotic squad. The brontosauros is revealed And other critters long concealed As phantom forms our rest will spoil Conjured from ceuldrons of Hot OIL. The witches crooning in “Macbeth™ Have sometimes scared me 'most to death, But most of all they fret my brains— The specter that Hot Oil contains. Only Pokes. “Our orational friend says he plans a state of society in which there will be no deception.” “How will he manage?” “To start with, to prevent anybody from buying & pig in a poke, there will be no pigs.” Prose Preferred. I would not be a poet—no. Had I a thought sublime I never would consent to go And chop it into rhyme. Had T a thought which might imply An intellectual thrill I'd get my Senator to try To pass it in a bill. Minute Calculations. “How's your boy Josh doing in college?” “Fine,” said Farmer Corntossel. “He has figured out a scale of prices that will let us know just where we stand when they begin to sell potatoes by troy weight.” “My neighbor, Hi Hat, likes to be seen on parade,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “but he makes the mistake of believing he can be an entire proces- sion all by himself.” Mussolini Cocktail. ‘When Mussolini tells the schools "About new literary rules He speaks of Shakespeare very movingly And also mentions Bernard Shaw ap- provingly, He shows an intellectual sense That likes poetic forms intense, Yet holds, in intellectual meanderings, A plessant place for Shavian philander- ings. Extremes must very often meet. 80, when the autocrat we greet, THE POLITICAL MILL By G. Gould Lincoln, the most astute members of the All he has to do is to make up’ to go through with the matter and build up an organization; to go into presi- dential preferential primaries in popu- lous States and demonstrate to the Re- publicans generally that there is a real demapd for him. Other potential candi- dates for the nomination will fold up, if the Idahoan does that, it is contended. Once nominated, can Borah be elected over President Roosevelt and his New Deal? These G. O. P. politiclans say he has a “chance.” So far, they do not give him more. Some of the friends and ardent admirers of Senator Borah go much further. They insist he can be elected; they say he can carry the States of the West against Roosevelt, even Nebrasks, for example, * ok k% Meanwhile Senator Borah has a prob- lem before him. Granting the proposi- tion that he can win the Republican nomination, the question is whethe - “e prefers to take the chance of running against President Roosevelt—with a hard and bitter campaign ahead—or whether he would rather seek to retain his pres- ent seat in the Senate, a seat he has held for a quarter century. No one seems to have much doubt that he can be re-elected to the Senate. Many of his friends, and many who have no desire to.see him nominated—Democrats as well as Republicans—believe that in the end Borah will run for the Senate. It remains to be seen whether the Senator will surprise them. Doubtless, during the session of the Republican National Com- mittee meeting here, set for December 16, opportunity will be sought and ob- tained for sounding out various members as to the possible Borah candidacy. Had it so happened that Borah's term of office in the Senate did not expire until January, 1939, instead of January, 1937, there would have been nothing to prevent his holding on as Senator while seeking to be elected President. That the ending of his term in the Senate coincides with the ending of the presi- dential term is just one of those things. Never before has the chance for a pres- idential nomination been so good for him as now, though he has frequently been mentioned in the past as a possible selection of his party. * x x ¥ So confident are some of the well in- formed Democrats that Philadelphia is the preference of President Roosevelt and some of his political advisers as the city for the Democratic National® Con- vention next year that they have already begun to make reservations there for the period of the convention. The publication of reports that Philadelphia is to get the convention, however, has given the pow- ers that be no particular joy. They fear that if the impression gets well abroad in the City of Brotherly Love that the convention is sure to be held there, the check which must accompany that city’s bid for the big affair will shrink in size. Why pay too high for a sure thing? After all, the Democratic National Com- mittee wants to get all the money it can, not only for the expenses of the con- vention, which are large, but also as a nest egg for the coming campaign. So 1t is not surprising that Chairman Farley of the national committee declines at this time to commit himself to Philadel- phia, or even to say that Philadelphia is the most likely city for the affair. He even throws out the suggestion that had the Democrats succeeded in electing their candidate for mayor last month Phila- delphia would have been in a stronger position as a bh:d!:r for the convention. * *x x The meeting of the Democratis Na- tional Committee here on January 8 will be made the occasion of a great party rally. The Jackson day celebra- tion and dinner affords the occasion for a colorful demonstration, with the Presi- dent himself participating as the prin- cipal speaker. It looks now as though the Democrats will, as in the past, hold their convention after the Republican National Convention next June. The Republican National Committee will fix the date of the party convention when it meets here December 16. Usually this has been about the middle of June. All the Democrats have to do when they meet later is to pick a date following by a couple of weeks the Republican convention, * K K % Former President Herbert Hoover's attitude toward the Republican presi- dential nomination has been pictured from many angles by many political observers. Some are convinced that he is intent upon making himself the party candidate. Others are equally confident that Mr. Hoover has no other purpose than to campaign against the New Deal and to defeat President Roosevelt for re-election—with some other candidate than himself as the G. O. P. nominee. Theodore Joslin, who was secretary to Mr. Hoover during the last two years of his term in the White House, writing in Today, takes the position that Mr. Hoover “wants nothing for himself”; in other words, that he is not seeking the presidency as a personal prize or to vin- dicate himself, or that he is seeking the nomination at all. Says Mr. Joslin, com- menting on Mr, Hoover’s position today: “Now for the present and the immedi- ate future. News stories have been printed recently that he really is build- ing up a political organization, presum- ably for his personal use in the 1936 campaign. Commentators have jumped at the conclusion that this is the reason for his increasing activity. The blunt truth is that he has no organization, political, personal or otherwise today. And it is about the first time in twenty years that he has not. So this is another change. “He has one particular objective in life foday. That is to get the absolutely fundamental national issues before the American people. As the titular leader of the opposition, he will go after the merits of the issues hammer and tongs. He will confine his arguments to prin- ciples. There will be nothing personal \In his criticisms. He never “smears” men. “He will be the fighting Quaker this .chips may fall where they may. freshed by the rest of the last three years, the real Hoover, not new nor old, will show himself. He wants nothing for He lightens cares which threaten to | bedivil us By adding dainty dashes of the friv- olous. “When npdluchn-—ueuumm' sald Uncle Eben, “he is supposed to talk through it awhile before he throws it mqmmu This episode contrasts strikingly with into the ring.” A J Yo 4 ty, kindness. Out of hate, love. It is the old struggle, any way you write it, and it will never cease. Man did not have to go that way in his thinking, but since he has he will never give it up. There is something in him, which he likes to think his best, which demands that he go ahead along his best, self- chosen line. * ok k% The captains and the kings depart, but still there stands, as the great poet said, this longing of the human heart. The power of light over darkness, the bringing of knowledge, has been taken as the symbol of better things. It is not altogether a tymbol, fortu- nately, but a very real thing, as sunrise shows. Yet the dawn would pass unheeded and unknown if it were not for the eye which sees. 1t is so with love, kindness, good, peace. The best that man has thought and been is the “eye” of the soul. It is the criterion of action. He who is captain of his soul is captain in this, if anything. Or it is his captain. * ok x x The fine thing about a motto, such as the one given above, is that it is explicit. From obscurity, light. Light out of darkness. Any way you put it, it means the same thing. There is no doubt about “what it says.” It means the two are opposed and there is no compromise possible or desirable. The good oculist is always fighting for better vision. If the sight is blurred temporarily it is only a step toward more light. It is so with everyday life and living. There will be many steps backward, be- cause no one is so perfect as to prevent them, but the main thing is to keep in mind the desired goal. * x x % It probably is impossible for any human being to keep constantly in front of him good ideas without being bettered by them. His failures may be as many as his strivings, but no doubt he is better off, and society surely, because he has at- tempted. It is when the attempting is given over as & bad job that the human becomes thoroughly bad. The use of mottoes, precepts, injunc- tions and the like is wholesome because practical as well as inspirational. Perhaps there has been too much stress placed on the inspirational value of good words and works. The practical rewards are worth keep- ing in mind, too. i * kK % It is much the same as with etiquette. A great many persons get “all mixed up” when confronted with the usages of everyday courtesy, as if the whole thing were simply a set of foolish rules based on whim. The fact is that almost cvery rule of etiquette is built solidly on common sense. STARS, MEN One does what one is supposed to do, not just to satisfy some dictator, They have a wholesome influence. kK ox A mere collection of wise sayings hung on the wall or placed on a desk is nothing. The larger the frame the less the motto, if it is not backed up by application in some form or other. This is where their practical value comes in. One need not consciously think of them, any more than one need run for a book of etiquette when con- fronted with assorted forks, knives and spoons at a dinner. The use of mottoes of all kinds de- pends upon their integration into the life of the holder. It would be silly to expect to recall a “good motto” every time one thought of a need for one. ‘The only hope is to have such things so well in the mind that they uncon- sciously “work” without the user even recalling them. That this is not an im- possibility was proved by the oider type of education. It believed that, properly implanted, moral instruction had its plain uses in a devious world. There is some question whether the spirit of an age cannot overrun and finally all but bear down this good idea. Even then there will be thousands who have not bowed mekneew‘a:l. * % The wisdom of the people is incorpo- rated in thousands of maxims and wise sayings the world around. This homely material still does duty everywhere, even among the sophisti- cated who refuse to give it credit. It crops up in conversations between those who never stop to realize that what they say has come down to them through the ages. Recently a Washingtonian signed a contract to have some work done at his home. Time went by, and no attempt was made by the successful bidder to do the job. ‘The homeowner called up and com- plained. “I am afraid,” he said, “that you are doing work for those who have pressed you, and leaving me to wait, just because I haven't said anything.” The man on the other end of the wire was very cheery about it. “Yes,” he admitted, “the squeaky wheel always gets the grease first.” Just so! ‘The wisdom of the people, as worked out through actual experience, shines in the mottoes of educational institu- tions, no matter how learned. “Out of darkness, light.” Every day proves it. AND ATOMS Notebook of Science Progress in Field, . Laboratory and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY, New evidence of the descent of man from tree-dwelling ancestors is pre- sented by Dr. Charles B. Davenport, noted biologist of the Carnegie Institu- tion of Washington, in a report to the American Society of Mammalogists. From the earliest stages of life before birth about to the time of adolescence the length of the human arm relative to the leg is declining, as is also the length of the lower arm in relation to the upper arm. At one stage the arms are longer than the legs and the lower arm is longer than the upper arm. Both of these pre-human relationships, however, are corrected early in life, as the child turns to the specifically human road of development, The early-length relationships show, Dr. Davenport holds, stages in the evolu- tion of the species on the theory that each individual repeats in an abbrevi- ated fashion the life history of the race. The findings suggest clearly, he holds, that man came from a long-armed an- cestry—possibly from a group which is represented most closely today by the gibbons, Gorillas and chimpanzees have followed much the same evolutionary road away from tree-dwelling creatures. The evidence is important in the nega- tive proof it affords that man’s ancestry is not to be found among quadrupeds, where the lengths of the limbs are ap- proximately equal, nor among the lemur- like forms of the primate family, where the progress of the arm-leg index from birth to maturity follows an entirely different sort of curve. The findings, Dr. Davenport stresses, throw doubt especially on the possible descent of man from some creature re- motely resembling the weird, nocturnal tarsius of Madagascar, whose limb de- velopment has been in the direction of & hopping, .rather than tree-climbing, existence. Dr. Davenport also makes co! between man and two other mammal bipeds—the kangaroos and the jumping mice. Both have taken to walking on their hind legs, with the result that the fore legs are greatly shortened—much more, relatively, than the human arms. Both are quite obviously derived from 2 quadruped ancestry. If the sume were true of man and the manlike apes, Dr. Davenport ints out, their arms would be much shorter than actually is the case. *xox % There are no strains of Melanesian or Australoid blood in the American In- dian, declares Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, curator of physical anthropology of the Smith- sonian Institution, after a painstaking survey of all the evidence brought to light to date on this point. ¢ He finds, he declares in his report, reliable basis for any assumption that the_black-skinned people of the Indian Ocean and the Australian Continent Hrdlicka shows that the theory of & Melanesian settiement of the New World is inherently self-contradictory. Accord- ing to various indications, he says, the spread of the black races into the South Seas belonged essentially to the last mil- lenium before the Christian era. It was almost an historic event. By that time the New World had been populated for several thousands of years. “Judging from the reception given the first contingent of whites,” he says, “what chance would there have been for a small, stray group of any other people, and especially one not superior to the native Americans? To leave any trace of their type, and especially any plain trace, the oceanic blacks would either have had to reach America in respectable numbers of both sexes— which, considering the distances they would have had to cover and their means of transportation, appears impossible— or they would have had to reach the con- tinent before the Indians did, which seems fabulous. “It is legitimate to ask whether there were yet any Melanesians before the time of the peopling of the Americas from the Far North. They are a mixed people. They show to this day types that approach now the Indonesian, now the Negrito, and not seldom that of the true Negro—all of which indicates as yet imperfectly assimtlated mixtures. To this day there is known no real antiquity of any of the group.” The idea of Australian colonization is even more absurd, Dr. Hrdlicka says. There is reason to doubt whether Aus- tralia itself was populated at the tIme of the first Asiatic colonization of Amer- ica. If they came here, how did they get here? It has been proposed that they came aleng the shores of Antarctica and the Antarctic islands at a time when that land was much warmer than at present. But to have ‘done so, Dr. Hrdlicka says, they would have had to come to America before there was the slightest trace on earth of the existence of human beings. A Rhyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton Tell Me Your Story The curtains are drawn for the falling night And the town seems far away; Your head %n my knee in the warm firelight, Be a boy at the end of day— Voice some childish hurt that the telling it Forever brush away. The lingering pang of a first ideal youthful heart Nnnthnpmnh: heel Till you hid the pain in part— Tell me tonight how the loss made you feel, X To ease a bygone smart. And the inmost hurts in your heart today, Like the secret tears of kings From the world you've hidden them far away— "In the respite twilight brings, ‘Your hecd on my knee at the end of day, ‘Tell me of all these things. _ Prunes Await-Attention, ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS By Frederic . Haskin. A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Washing- ton Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washing~ ton, D.C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. Is the water supply publicly or pri- nrly owned in Great Britain?—D. B, . Tb~> water supply is publicly owned in practically all of the regular h{umum, in about two-thirds of the county bor- oughs, and in about half of the urban districts. The water system for Metro- politan London was transferred by act of Parliament in 1902 from the pri water companies of London to the Metro- politan Water Board. Q. What is meant by an encased stamp?—A. W. W. A. the Civil War it was some- times the practice to take a postage stamp and encase it in a small piece of metal. The stamp would then be cov= ered with isinglass which protected it. This was usually done with three and five cent stamps, and such stamps were used as currency. Q. How long has the operation of brain trephining been known?—R. S. A. It was practiced in neolithic Europe at least 10,000 years ago. Q. Who is the youngest airplane pilot in the United States?—B. H. s A. Lorraine Bowman of Burbank, Calif., is the youngest full-fledged flyer in the United States. She is now only 14 years old and has no license. The rules of the Department of Commerce concerning flying licenses require that a person who wishes to secure a private student or amateur license be 16 years old. Q. Who succeeded Jay N. Darling as chief of the Bureau of Biological Sur- vey?—D. D. A. Ira N. Gabrielson has been ap- pointed to this office. Q. Who won the Atlantic Monthly award for non-fiction this year?—L. M. A. Mari Sandoz was awarded the $5.000 prize for her biography of her father entitled “Old Jules.” Q. Was there a famous actor in the 1800s named John Gilbert?—C. H. A. John Gibbs Gilbert (1810-1889) made his debut in 1828 at Boston in the play, “Venice Preferred.” He was recog- nized as a leading character actor, espe- cially in old men’s parts. From 1862 he was connected with Wallack's Theater in New York, playing Sir Peter Teazle, Sir Anthony Absolute and similar parts. Q. For whom is Dartmouth College named?—S. C. A. It is named for the Earl of Dart- mouth who contributed to its establish- ment. Q. Port Said is at one end of the Su~ Canal. What is the port at the other end?—S. J. A. The Suez Canal connects Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea with Port Thewfik on the Red Sea. It was opened for vessels on November 17, 1869, Q. Is any dwarf a pygmy?—E. N. A. The term pygmy is now applied onl" to people whose shortness of stature 1 a racial trait and not the result of pathological conditions. Q. Is there a breed of cattle whiclt lau_rn band of white around the body?— A. Dutch Belted Cattle answer the de- scription. Holland is their native home, but they were introduced into America about 1840, Q. What place is known as Little England?—L. J. A. This nickname is given to Barbados because of its splendid isolation. Q. Please give some information about Worth, the famous dressmaker—F. W. A. Charles Frederick Worth (1825- 1895) was a French designer who for over a generation was the leading arbiter of women'’s styles. Born in Eng- land, he settled in Paris in 1846, becom- ing designer for a wholesale silk house. In 1858, with a partner, he set up as a ladies’ tailor. Empress Eugenie's patron- age established his reputation for orig- inal designs. Q. What is a durbar?—M. J. A. The word is Hindustani, and sig- nifies a court or place of judgment where things of importance to the state or tribe are decided. The viceroy and other gov- ernors of India hold durbars. Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress at a magnificent durbar at Delhi in 1877, Q. What do cash transactions in the United States amount to?—L. M. A. It is estimated that in a normal year they exceed $1,000,000,000,000. Q. What disposal is to be made of the block of stone sent by Hawaii to the United States?—E. P. S. A. The block of sandstorie from Hono- lulu is now in Washington and will be placed in the Washington Monument within a short time. Q. How was the Saar Valley contro- versy settled?—A. K. A. The peace treaty of Versailles speci- fied that the Saar Basin should remain in the custody of the League of Nations for 15 years, after which a plebiscite should be held among the citizens to decide to which nation, Germany or France, it should belong. The plebiscite was held April, 1934, and decided to return it to Germany. Q. How many cadets may attend West Point at one time?—W. H. 8. A. The authorized strength of West Point is 1,960 cadets. % Hobvlv! m::y people were killed by : automobiles one year about 20 ago?—S. F. SR A. In 1913 there were 4,227 fatalities caused by motor vehicles in the United States. In 1924 there were about 36,000." Q. What kind of o e iy flooring is plank floor: A. It is made of wooden boards. A plank is a piece of wood more than 1%, inches and less than 414 inches in thick-’ ness and at least 6 inches wide. Q. How does it happen that the Public Health Service is a division of the Treas-: