Evening Star Newspaper, August 18, 1936, Page 10

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON. D. C. August 18, 1936 —_— THEODORE W. NOYES..........Editor e The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Mce: y1 5 o Biudine. ndon Engl -45¢ per month -60c pez month (wl 65¢_per month The Sunday S -5c Der copy Night Final Edition. :HE’P;LL PH‘nl‘l B‘lnldr Sunday Star._.70c per month & tio d ach month. oo 8 or” teleshone Na- tional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Marriand and Virginia, Dafly and Sunday.. Daily only_... Sunday only_C! Daily and Daily only. Sunday o Member of the Associated Press. The Assoctated Press 1s exclusively entitled to the ute, for republication of all news dispatches crediten to [t or not otherwise credlied in this t] jocal news D\ e RIPang S ptbiication "of ‘sbecial dispatolies Rereln are also reserved . Drought Relief. Comparisons of the severity of this year's drought with those of other years are not important. The important as- pect of the drought this year is the new conception of the Federal Government’s responsibility in alleviating the condition of the victims. Under this conception every sufferer from the drought is a ward of the National Government, eli- gible for assistance in various forms, extending even to aid in removal from the afflicted regions and resettlement in some other more promising land. That is the most extraordinary thing about the present drought. The announcements today from the two relief agencies now most concerned in administering to the sufferers indi- cate that by the time the President makes his visit to the drought lands next week more than 180,000 farmers, most of them heads of families, will be receiving benefits from the relief pro- gram the President initiated a little more than a month ago. Furthermore, before the Works Progress Administra- tion and the Resettlement Adminis- tration complete their programs more than half a million farm families, em- bracing a total of perhaps 2,000,000 individuals, will be receiving an esti- mated total of $100,000,000 in cash grants and other forms of relief. When the past session of Congress appropriated its $1,425,000,000 for relief It was with the understanding that if the funds were not sufficient the new Congress would appropriate whatever edditional amounts would be needed for the remainder of the current fiscal year. When the relief funds were appropriated no drought relief needs were antici- pated as no drought was then in sight. It is now certain that new appropria- tions must be made for relief this Winter. As an indication of how the drought has upset calculations o(:reliei needs, Dr. Tugwell's Resettlement Administration may be cited as one example. The R. A. received—after the Heuse had originally disallowed funds for its use—$85,500,000 of “earmarked” money, which was to take care of its numerous activities in resettlement and soil conservation pro- grams. Now the drought has demanded emergency expenditures of Resettlement Administration funds, and the ultimate cost of its drought relief is placed at ebout $70,000,000, leaving a balance of ebout $15,000,000 to carry on its normal program. That normal program, nat- urally, will be drastically curtailed &f #t is not thrown overboard entirely. Sharing the program of relief with the Resettlement Administration is Mr. Hopkins’ Works Progress Administra- tion, which is not able to make cash grants, but must provide work in return for the relief wages it pays. Today the W. P. A. has 80,000 workers on its drought relief pay roll, and by early next week there are expected to be 100,000. That will not be the “peak load,” either, and even when the peak is reached, relief in the form of cash, work, loans for seed, and even the resettlement of stricken families, must continue over a long period. As the W. P. A. program will be curtailed by bad weather this Winter, that program must be supple- mented by others. The drought was not anticipated by Congress in making relief appropriations, nor was it apparently taken into con- sideration by Secretary Morgenthau and the President in their reassuring state- ment last week that no new or heavier taxes would be necessary, —_———— Expressions of opinion on bills before Congress are to be welcomed from citi- zens of the District of Columbia by Com- missioner Hazen. Such expressions are sure to be Welpful, and, thanks to the fact that this is normally an orderly community, accustomed to adjustment under all kinds of political circum- £tances, there can be no fear of serious intrusion by soap box oratory. ————s. Change of Mind. Milton Piers is a fortunate man. Yes- terday he attempted suicide—and failed. Only twenty-eight years of age, discour- eged and disheartened, he jumped from the Highway Bridge to end his troubles in the Potomac. Fifty feet through space he fell. Then, providentially, his coat caught on a projecting piece of {ron and, with assistance from passersby, he pulled himself back to safety. At Gallinger Hospital last night he ex- plained that he has changed his mind about self-destruction. But Piers may not realize his luck. Many individuals who momentarily have been tempted to terminate their lives have wished to make other thoice when it was too late for the wiser deci- sion to be of any avail. Not long ago a beautiful girl, disillusioned in love, drank & lethal poison for which there is no known antidote. Yet immediately after she had taken that fatal step, she re- gretted it; for two weeks in a hospital ward she struggled to survive—in vain. " s established rule. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1936. Her last words were an appeal to doctors and nurses to tell her story to the world, so that the lesson of her mistake might profit humanity in general. The thought of suicide, it seems, is a temporary phenomenon. In only a relatively few instances is it more than a passing whim. According to a great European authority on mental aberra- tions, it appears in the experience of practically everybody. Many of its con- notations are social and, therefore, sub- Ject to correction. The courage that is needed for it should be applied to its prevention. A change of mind, like that which Piers underwent, solves the problem. And help always is to be had for the asking. Let those who feel that they cannot “go on” consult any physician or priest—even any policeman—and they will find sympathy and understand- ing equal to the emergency. The world is a kindlier place than might be sup- posed. Give it a chance, and it will not fail to provide aid for its sorrowful children, ——— e . . . Barbarism in Spain. A hideous chapter in the history of warfare is being written in Spain, per- haps the worst in all the human records. Day after day from that riven land come reports of the slaughter of pris- oners. Both sides, the government and the rebels, are executing those taken in arms, and even others who are cap- tured in the course of the fighting, sus- pected of partisanship. Giving full al- lowance for exaggeration and mistake in the reports, there is plain evidence that the conflict is marked by the ut- most savagery. Warfare is necessarily destructive. Its purpose is the annihilation of the com- bative power of the enemy, whether the enemy be alien or native. In the earliest times those taken in arms, and indeed many who were not armed, were pre- served as prisoners, becoming slaves of the conqueror. Life was spared, not from a humane motive, but for economic purposes. Reprisals were common then, as today, but the value of the individual as a worker was recognized. In this conflict between factions in Spain there has been a reversion to worse than the savagery of barbaric warfare. Prisoners have been slain by the hundreds, the thousands. The motive, it would seem, has not been economic, avoidance of the cost and pains of immurement to prevent re- newal of military service. It has rather been vengeance, expression of a bitter hatred. In no other war in modern times has such a course been followed. In the Civil War in this country, seventy years ago, the care of prisoners, while not always the most considerate, was the In the latter stages of that conflict exchanges of prisoners were effected. In the World War, of twenty years ago, prisoners were confined in detention camps and there were com- paratively few instances of deliberate cruelty. Charges of reprisals were brought by both sides, but with little proof. The ferocity of this present warfare in Spain has been attributed to the fact that the Spanish population is a strange mixture of races, making for a veritable barbarism. This may be a libel upon the Spanish people, who have a long history of a cultured civilization. Yet here are the hideous facts, brought to view day after day, to suggest that some= thing has happened in that land to arouse the blood lust of the belligerents, with a record for destruction that is not to be equaled in all history. The future recorder of events will find in this chap- ter one of the most baflling puzzles ever presented by the conduct of man. Hatred of war is not enough to estab- lish a firm public sentiment so long as military uniforms and brass bands fasci- nate the eyes of youth. War is serious business, but it has been the custom of centuries to popularize it with pageantry, even when it does not exist. Poets, will- ingly or not, have glorified war from the “Ilied,” along to “Paradise Lost,” down to the modern battle tune, “Over There.” —————— Habitual politics induces an attitude that renders the public rather absurd, yet the ingenuous patriot may find his sympathies imposed on, It is not always easy to decide whether to be an ama- teur or a professional. “0Old Jabber Box.” The six-year-old Milwaukee boy who regained his hearing after a lapse of more than five years evidently has a sharp mind, for he lost no time in branding the radio as “an old jabber box.” This will seem a particularly acute observation to all those elders who have suffered from the universal run- ning off at the mouth which has afflicted radio broadcasting in recent years. Man loves the sound of his own voice, and radio has given him a great outlet. The abuse of the voice has crept over the art and industry a little here, a little there, so that few, perhaps, have realized just what predominance is given now to the human voice. It took a six- year-old, with the sense of hearing sharpened by long deprivation, to put the label squarely where it belongs. “Old Jabber Box,” as he calls his radio receiving set, is forever jabbering away about something or other. Even when music is played, the announcer tells all about it before it begins, then insists on repeating the same afterward. No doubt he would say that this care was taken in the interest of the great radio public, but the Milwaukee lad would be nearer the truth. ‘The listener who gets this idea of Jabbering into his head will come to hear everything as jabbering which comes from the jabber box, so wonderful yet so abused, so necessary yet so tiresome at times. But perhaps it is not as bad as in Spain, where the government broad- casting station at Madrid is said to play phonograph records twenty-four hours around, broken only by official broadcasts between times. Old Jabber Box has great possibilities, potentialities w] as yet have not peen touched. Like the screen, its future seems without limit, if the limits and liabilities of human nature in the raw are held in leash by common sense. Broad- casters as well as announcers will do well to keep in mind the fresh designation of the youngster who spoke the truth as he heard it, and in their turn realize that a few less words, out of their ample store, will not hurt anybody, especially the. activity for which they stand and sing and talk, Pet or Pest? Few things strike the heart of the friend of dogs so woefully as the sounds of a puppy crying in the night, locked out from its owners in the mistaken be- lief that this is the way to train a dog as it should go. Just how the owners themselves can sleep so blissfully, when the remainder of the neighborhood is lying awake listening, is one of the perennial mys- teries of city life, ‘Those lying awake, torn between the sorrows of dogs and their own discom- fort, never are able to understand how 1t is that the big brute in bed is so oblivious to the cries of the little brute in the yard. The cries of the damned would not wake him, evidently. He is lost to canine appeal. Some one has told him that a pup ought to be kept in the yard these hot nights, when all the time the base- ment is by many degrees the cooler. City life is noisy enough, without any one adding to it this lamentable crying in the night. Many little dogs are almost human, in the queer, sobbing accents they acquire when cut off so ruthlessly from the companionship they have all day. The night is dark, and the world huge, and a puppy so little, and the neighbors trying so hard to sleep, let no one to whom the ownership of a dog is en- trusted make of himself and his poor helpless little pet a pure pest. —_— e —————— A large audience is necessary to stimu- late the enthusiasm which inspires an orator. Father Coughlin, whose momen- tary exhaustion caused sympathetic apprehension, might, except for the need of mass enthusiasm, have reached mil- lions of listeners while sitting in his own library. —ae A remark by Gifford Pinchot expresses belief that Landon’s election will help to get rid of the Democratic State admin- istration. There is something indeed re- markable that finds Pennsylvania look- ing to Kansas for big political influence. —_—et———————— Costs of food products are reported by statisticians to be due for a rise. This puts another element of imcertainty into calculations of the precise value of a dollar. R BY PHILANDER JOHNBON. Frankenstein, Muysterious creature made by human will Like' Frankenstein, man marvels at the skill With which he brought to life a being crude shuddered when by It he was pursued. And A voice intrudes wherever man may go And what is kindly meant is fraught with woe. A microphone stands gaunt, devoid of grace, With wires strung to imitate a face. A blank, you babble through the atmos- phere Repeating anything you chance to hear. Oh, microphone! Too frequently we find You seem most flerce when seeking to be kind. He Flew the Track. “You are accused of having a single- track mind,” said the candid constituent. “The accusation is false!” replied Sen- ator Sorghum. “A single track implies something like a rut. It might be more reasonable to say I have an airplane mind, soaring into the clouds of imagi- nation and often uncertain as to whether or not I'm going to get back safely to earth.” Question. When do we sing? ‘When do we play? When do we bring The banners gay? When do we raise In strength renewed Some glorious phrase Of platitude? ‘When will we curb Material thought Which must disturb The- wish long sought? When will our bliss No longer meet Rebuff like this— WHEN DO WE EAT? Sunshine Surfeit. “You must look on the sunny side of life,” said the gentle friend. “That’s just what I'm tired of doing,” answered Farmer Corntossel. “After this drought what I want to do is to trade off sunshine for rain, thunder and lightning.” “A pretense of knowledge you do not possess,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chiga- town, “imposes only on the ignorant, such as are easily deceived with counterfeit money.” Political Pacification. The “politics” which some deplore Is growing helpful more and more! To some extent an argument Serves as relief to discontent. So when we are inclined to balk At Fate, we hold another talk. Some talk polite may keep things right— ‘While you orate, you cannot fight! “One trouble ’bout dis world,” said Uncle Eben, “is dat everybody is tryin’ to explain somethin’ to everybody else without bein’ certain he understands it » hisself,” i 7/ Democracy a Heritage Too Stable to Be Shaken To the Editor of The Star: Mr. Sullivan in his article, “America Last Citadel of Democracy,” speaks of & “true pattern of the present state of the world.” Very well, then, let him include the entire world in his thesis, Europe, Asia and Africa, and see what happens; let him not take a Spain, a Russia or a Germany, call that his world and draw conclusions. Since when have these con- tinents enjoyed democracies? And since when have such democracies been tested by such continents whose people have a background of 150 years in their adven- ture of democracy? It is true that in 1917 (and before) people of the world dreamed about democracy, but it never went further than the dreaming stage. Demagogues stole a march on the people’s dreams with their ambitions and stark realities. ‘The people were not prepared for demo- cratic rule in the sense that we were prepared a century and a half ago, and they accepted the demagogues’ preach- ings instead of making their dream come true. ‘We see now that one World War was inadequate to prepare a world for democracy. Wilson found that out. Faced with a mass hysteria clamoring for war, he either had to resign or lead the people in a direction they wanted to be led. He chose the latter. Then he tried to compromise a situation with his abhorence for war and his idealism. He wore to a frazzle a convenient phrase that it was a war to end war. Then he tried to seal all past wars with this war by injecting his 14 points and other idealistic concoctions. The net result of the whole business ended in Wilson's disi'lusionment and disappointment. As a Nation we lost a good portion of our youth, countless wealth and we made enemies, What happened once can happen again if we follow the same tactics that catapulted us once before into the war, More than a century ago men of vision saw that the only salvation for Europe as a starter for world democracy was a United States of Europe; it was Napoleon's dream. Had that dream taken root in the mind of a competent statesman instead of an ambitious soldier-demagogue, a United States of Europe, fashioned somewhat after our own democracy, would probably new be an accomplished fact. It is hard to see in what other direction their salvation lies. It seems that they must eventually reach that conclusion if it takes them another century. Perhaps the present ferment is the forerunner of what is to come. It is one of those things where we can by example show them that a real democracy serving a people lives and flourishes, Observe the effective methods em- ployed by the proponents of facism, nazi- ism, communism, etc., to gain adnerents to their brands of government, and compare them with the methods em- ployed by adherents to our form of government, and see the clarity of the former and the confusion of the latter. The former are not attacking democracy. On the contrary, they praise it by in- direction; they play directly on the miseries of the people; they point a finger to a democracy with its 11,000,000 people out of work, the dole, etc., as proof that their prescription is even better than democracy, while we shout loudly and condemn blankly other forms of government which may be O. K. for some of the peoples across the seas. That there are defects in the execution of some of our institutions is admitted; that it is a sad commentary for the richest country in the world to have so many unemployed and misery, all economists agree. Doesn't this situa- tion point the direction to which the wielders of the heavy artillery of the friends of democracy should concentrate their fire? Of course, a democracy should alwayvs be alert to ward off dangers from within and without. Observe with what calm- ness and sanity real defenders and instigators of free government went about this war business which insured success, and compare this with the methods that plunged our people into recent wars. The Americ- . democracy without a king is the oniy one left on earth and is the envy of all the world. Crowned heads, traditional enemies of democracy, have perished. It is too good a heritage to talk glibly about it. ISAAC TEPPER. Are the Individual’s Rights Secure or Insecure in U. S.? To the Editor of The Star: Recently a commentator asked: “Is there any other country where the rights of individuals are as secure as in the United States?” A more important question is: “Are the rights of individuals secure in the United States?” In one particular the layman was led to believe that the United States Su- preme Gourt (5 to 4) answered the sec- ond question affirmatively on this point in the Tennessee Valley Authority case, so far; as the rights of minority stock- holders are concerned. Sustaining its pronouncement by citation of various United States Supreme Court cases, it was decided that “while their stock holdings are small, they have a real in- terest, and there is no question that the suit was brought in good faith.” It was currently reported at the time that the four so-called “liberal” justices concluded that the minority stockholders were not entitled to be heard. One sus- taining quotation from a previous court decision was this: “The directors repre- sent all the stockholders and are pre- sumed to act honestly and according to their best judgment for the interests of all. Their judgment as to any matter lawfully confided to their discretion may not lightly be challenged by any stock- holder or at his instance submitted for review to a court of equity,” etc. This is rather a precarious basis, considering that the “presumption” is subject to many contrarities of human nature, and seems to assume that the directors (like the king) “can do no wrong.” The majority conclusion (5 to 4) made it possible to get the case before the highest court and get for the Gov- ernment & decision that the surplus electric energy generated under the war act of 1916 and the commerce clause of the Constitution (including “naviga- tion”) could be sold as property belong- ing to the United States. Had the mi- nority opinion prevailed, its exclusion of the minority stockholders would have prevented our highest court from ren- dering a decision in this momentous case. It appears, then, that the rights of individuals are secure in court procedure only when all courts are as alert to recognize and protect their rights as was the Supreme Court of the United States in the Tennessee Valley Authority case. They will not be secure if courts superior or inferior are to deny them recognition because they hold a very small proportion of stock and the di- rectors of the corporation have not Joined in the litigation. There will not be “a legal remedy for every wrong” if the little fellow is granted no considera- tion and no chance for redress when threatened action against his individual or stockholder rights leads him to believe Shey R Ammhmhm THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. A flock of warblerlike birds, larger than a house wren, but smaller than an English sparrow, flew down in the yard in the Iate afternoon. ‘What were they? They seemed bent on eating the chaff and seeds which lay upon the ground from a mowing the day before, Few things are lost in Nature. Some- thing is good for something. Almost everything is good for somebody. The little birds were finding ‘great delight, as they skimmed across the Jawn, or hopped around from place to place. There must have been between two and three dozen of them, all exactly alike, of a size, with soft, light gray breasts and brownish wings. ‘They were not English sparrows, evi- dently, for a dozen or more of these were feeding Industriously at a device placed on the gravel driveway near .the garage. ‘The sparrows paid no attention to the newcomers, which, in their turn, gave no heed to the grain feeders. * % k% These little birds, as yet unidentified, were typical of what happens in the average backyard in the suburban areas. Probably no day passes without some new species visiting it. Probably most of the visitors are un- seen by human eyes. It takes a great deal of time to be a bird watcher. Hence the average person will be, out of necessity, only a part- time observer. This will be enough, perhaps. In the time the average interested person can give to it, he will be able to identify a great many more species than he ever had any idea he could “spot,” if he really enjoys the game. Here, as elsewhere, the key to pleasure and profit, in this case happily the same, is interest. Here, as elsewhere, the best way to begin is to begin. The man or woman who knows the robin and the blue jay and the English sparrow on sight will be able to identify many others easily enough after a little practice. It is possible to do this on hikes and in the woods, but the stay-at-home may identify almost as many birds in the garden, if it is located in the suburbs, and there are not too many bird enemies around, * k% The heavily shrubbed garden lures many more kinds of birds than the open garden. ' Not only is such a yard a sort of bird refuge, but the very shrubs used to make it so supply berries for the songsters. Bittersweet vines, too, are favorites of many birds, and two or three of these should be so placed, not too close to the house, so that they will do their share in attracting the wild birds. In this sort of a garden the birds feel perfectly at home. Even when they fly up from the ground, at any alarm, they merely go | into the shrubbery, and sit there until the danger, as they see it, is past. Such a garden naturally attracts many more birds than the yard in which a disturbance is going on all the time. STARS, MEN Notebook of Science Progress in Field, In this connection a few words should be said for the cat. Some bird lovers go crazy, in a sense, at the mention or sight of a house cat, without waiting to see whether the particular specimen is a menace to birds. It may seem strange to some, but it is true, that not all cats are bird killers by any means. We told last Winter here of a great striped tiger cat which spent the season on the back porch, watching several hundred birds at three feeders, without molesting a one. The birds never worried their heads about this cat, but ate away every day as if he had been 50 miles away, instead of 50 feet. Of four cats which visited this yard regularly, only one offered any harm to the birds, and he let them alone after a reproof or two. His “harm” consisted of catching a baby English sparrow by the back of | the neck. This little bird, when caught, suffered no harm, but snuggled contentedly in hand, until released, when it flew away on steady wings. This little bird was a beautiful thing, totally unafraid of its human captor. Its eyes were particularly appealing, and we feel sure that a typical English sparrow hater, had he been told it was a rare specimen from Europe, would have | proclaimed it a most charming creature, indeed. * * ok % It would be a queer thing, would it not, if the English sparrow, despised and rejected for so many years, would rise to become one of our most vahiable | birds? It is coming to be believed in many circles that this bird is one of the great- est foes of the Japanese beetle, which is playing such havoc in various sections of the country. Occasional beetle scares in Washington and nearby Maryland and Virginia have given residents here no real taste of what these most déstructive beetles can | do. Only those sections where they are | found by the hundreds of thousands and by the millions have any idea of this | pest, which bids fair, according to some experts, to become the greatest menace in the history of such invasions. 11 this is true, and if the English spar- row loves to eat Japanese beetles, Amer- | ica may pay dear in the end for its persecution of these small birds, as obnoxious as they are to many. It may be that this sparrow, as an insect killer, will find itself being cul- | tivated, instead of being destroyed. Half of the antipathy of many persons for the English sparrow is solely a mental build up, “caught” from one person and | passed on to another without investi- gation. In this way all slanders are | perpetrated. The two dozen little birds, which looked sparrowlike, but probably were warblers of some description, spent only about 15 minutes in the yard. Then one by one they flew away, all going South. Probably they had dropped | down on their way from the North, and | within a month will be in Florida or Honduras, maybe. AND ATOMS | by | even dissolve | in 'America. | high, has coarse, wrinkled leaves clasp- ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN, A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. How much money is invested in the. liquor business?—N. K. A. About $500,000,000. More than 1,000,000 workers are employed. Q. What proportion of the people who attempt suicide succeed in killing them- selves?—W. E. R. A. About one-third succeed in the United States. Q. What breed is the motion picture dog Buck?—K. B. A. He is half St. Bernard and half Newfoundland. He weighs 200 pounds and has great strength. He has been insured for $1,000,000 during the taking of a motion picture in which he has a part. Q. What percentage of American homes is equipped with electric irons, refrigerators, clocks and washing ma- chines?—F. H. L. A. Of all homes wired for electricity 97 per cent have electric irons, 34 per cent have electric refrigerators, 42 per cent have electric clocks and 49 per cent have electric washers. Q. How many Negroes have attended West Point?—H. M. A. Sixteen colored cadets have been admitted to the United States Military Academy, four of whom successfully completed the course and were gradu- ated. Q. How large do sponges grow?—H. D. A. Unusually large ones may measure about 6 feet in circumference. Q. Why is the expression alma mater used with reference to a university?— K. R. A. A statue of the Virgin Mary over the portals of a university in Germany was known as alma mater or fostering mother. Thus the term was adopted all students. and applied to their | universities. Q. What is deliquescence?—M. H. R. A This is the property displayed by | certain substances of absorbing water from the air so that they become wet or in the absorbed liquid. Substances possessing this property are called deliquescent. Examples are caustic potash, caustic soda, magnesium chloride and calcium chloride, the last named being extensively used as a drying agent. Q. How many bridges are there across the Ohio River? How many dams? —D. W. A. There are 56 bridges and 52 dams | on the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Cairo. Q. What is elecampane?—K. W. R. A. This is a tall herbaceous plant (Inula helenium) of the composite fam- ily, native to Europe and naturalized It sometimes grows 6 feet | ing the stem and bears large yellow | flowers | acrid resin used in medicine. Laboratory and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. A butterfly is born seven times. It passes through six metamorphoses in its progress from the almost micro- scopic egg to the adult insect, each stage having its own peculiar physical struc- ture, color and way of life. For each of the periods of its existence it builds a new house, and most of these ingeniously | made structures it destroys when it is through with them. Such, at least, is the life history of the gold-banded skipper, a rather rare crea- ture of the early Summer in damp Maryland and Virginia woods and by streamsides. Its progress has been fol- lowed, step by step, by Afistin H. Clark, Smithsonian Institution biologist, in an extremely detailed life history study of a creature little known to entomologists. ‘The life pattern of the gold-banded skipper, Mr. Clark says, roughly approx- imates that of butterflies in general. Some, however, have fewer stages. This creature, Mr, Clark points out, might be | described as seven insects in one. Each | metamorphesis brings into being a crea- ture different not only in physical ap- pearance but in psychelogical reactions. There is a sharp break between each of the life forms. It emerges from the egg as a tiny. chrome-yellow caterpillar with a very large head, almost half as wide as the body is long. Thenceforth, for a period of approximately five weeks, the cater- pillar crawls out of its skin five times, the newly emerged creature differing notably each time from its appearance before the rebirth. The differences are in form, color and hairyness. Then comes the radical change of pupation, in which, for protection during its helpless days of suspended animation in the cocoon, the insect covers itself with a waxen overcoat which looks, says Mr. Clark, “like light, lavender-tinted snow.” Out of this stage emerges the butterfly, to enter upon its final period of existence. An outstanding peculiarity of the_be- havior of this creature in its various caterpillar stages, Mr. Clark says, is its house-building. Almost as soon as the first tiny caterpillar emerges from the egg it builds itself a shelter like a pup- tent by cutting a flap from the edge of the leaf on which it finds itself, bending it over and sewing it together in the form of a limpet.- Every new-born in- sect builds this shelter according to an almost invariable pattern, although close examination of hundreds of pup-tents, Mr. Clark says, shows small individual variations. The first shelter soon is partially de- stroyed by the caterpillar and a larger one constructed. By the time it enters the fourth stage of its existence it is ready for a more ambitious home, con- structed of two leaves fastened together and quite different from the pup-tent pattern. This is one of the few house- building butterfly caterpillars. Once it enters the butterfly stage the gold-banded skipper is a somewhat ob- scure insect, chiefly interesting because of its peculiar distribution. Its chief habitat is Mexico and Southern Arizona, with a secondary habitat in the East, where it seldom comes under the obser- vation of entomologists. It appears only during the afternoon in wet hollows near water. One interesting feature of its life ob- served by Mr. Clark is the selection wet open spots in the woods as play- grounds, where the males congregate and engage in combats. The nearest S———————ep— nouncement as to the rights of minority kholders d The root contains an aromatic, Q. What is Doppler's principle? | —E.R. L. A. In case a sounding body, such as | a whistling locomotive, is approaching related species choose low, bare hilltops as tournament grounds. This is, however, a sluggish, pacific. unsuspicious butterfly. Even two males engaged in conflict, Mr. Clark observed, take only a half-hearted interest in the fight and lack the dashing energy of the males of closely related butterfly species. Previous to Mr. Clark's study—per- haps the most detailed ever made of the life history of an American butterfly— the earlier stages were unknown. It re- | quired some detective work on the part | of Mr. Clark, aided by Mrs. Clark. to find the clue. They noticed that wings | of the females were very frayed. This | indicated that they must be laying their | eggs on rough leaves which tore the | flimsy texture. This deduction led to the search for such a plant. It was found to be the hog peanut, a common Maryland vine which has a leaf with numerous strong, hooked hairs on the underside. There, sure enough, were the eggs and the shelters of the various caterpillar stages. s Mathematical Conclusions On Our Billions of Debt To the Editor of The Star: During the past three years we have read and heard much about billion- dollar appropriations and expenditures by the New Deal, yvet it is possible that the average citizen has little concept of | these tremendously large figures when reduced to time and common dollars and cents. What is a billion? Simple enough— one thousand times a million. This is quickly written and even more quickly pronounced, but no human being with- out the aid of a machine could count | it. One can count 160 or 170 a minute, and even 200 in the same time, if addi- tional effort is applied. At 200 a minute, one can count 12,000 in an hour; 228,000 in a 24-hour day; 105,120,000 in a year of 365 days. Now let us suppose that Adam at the beginning of his existence had begun to count according to the above rule, and had continued to do so, to today and be- yond, he would still not haye counted enough. For to count a biilion, he would require 9,512 years, 34 days, 5 hours and 20 minutes. And, mind you, no time out for food or sleep. If Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer throughout { the country would multiply the above figures by 35, he or she would get some idea of what "$35,000,000,000 (the na- tional debt, and soon to be more) amounts to and how long it will take to balance the budget. A considerable amount of the above has resulted bgcause of A. A. A’s, N. R. As, ship canals, Alaskan coloniza- tions, Passamaquodies and other New Deal experiments of the past and con- templated in the future. With this knowledge at hand, it might be bene- ficial to carefully scrutinize that ballot before casting it next November. J. ED SNYDER. ——e— Hayseed. Prom the Burlington (Vt.) Pree Press. This is a year in which Vermont farmers will not seriously object to get- ting hayseed in their hair, provided they can get the hay. B Railroad Fares. From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Railroads are cutting fares, but they haven't yet got around to the point of putting a box in each car and asking maflderwdmpmwmchetnmnnul Journey 1s | Head. | octagonal a listener, the pitch of the note is higher than when the source of the sound is at rest or receding. In other words, the frequency of the sound waves is appare ently increased when the sound is ap- proaching and decreased when it is moving away. This principle holds true also regarding light. Q. How many Ford cars have been made?—S. L. K. A. On Mr. Ford's recent 73d birthday anniversamy it was stated that the 24, 500,000th Ford had been assembled. Q. Who first thought of cooking eggs? -M. L. C A. The first method of cooking eggs was that emploved by Egyptian shep- herds, who cooked them without fire. The eggs were placed in a sling which was turned so rapidly that friction | heated them to the right degree. Q. How old is the game of Go?— | B R T | A. The Japanese game which re- sembles chess is 4,000 years old. Q. What would be the force exerted per square inch on a plate glass window | by wind blowing at 150 miles per hour? —C. D. C. A. The National Bureau of Standards says that the force exerted would be anywhere from ’; to 2; pound per square inch, depending on the location of the window in building, shape of building and direction of wind. Q. What is John O'Groat’s House? —H. R. A. This is a spot on the mnorth coast of Caithness, Scotland, 14 miles north of Wick and 1% miles west of Duncansby It is the mythical site of an house said to have been erected early in the sixteenth century by John Groot, a Dutchman, who had migrated to the north of Scotland by permission of James IV. The site of the traditional building is marked by a mound and flagstaff. Q. What is the standard for ripeness required for marketing Florida oranges? —B. C. A. They must contain at least eight parts of sugar to one of acid. e Spain’s Political Puzzle. From the South Bend Tribune. In Spain’s civil war the Rightists are the rebels, the loyalists are the Leftists, the government is liberal and the Fascist rebels are conservative. Our November voting machine is simplicity itself by comparison. A Rhyme at Twilight B Gertrude Bro:ke Hamilton Overwhelming Fate. Her days had been as though encroach- ing tides Were far across her shores by ocas cast; She stood upon the sand, waves creet: ing in g in, Each higher, more engulfing, than the last. She could not battle with such tides. For she ¢ Had not the vigor nor the strength of men. She only waited, staggered; wondering When the last wave submerged her Jife—what then?