Evening Star Newspaper, November 29, 1936, Page 32

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. SUNDAY......_____ . November 29, 1936 THEODORE W. NOYES The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Ave, nd 8t. 2 Buildin, TuropeanOmce 14 Hegent St. Loadon. Envland Rate by Carrier Within the City. Megular Edition, o Evening Star _ e Evening_and Su Tne Evenine and. B < n Cwhen' & Sundays _ 65¢ per month Night nal Edition. teht Pinal ana Sunday Star. Nisht Final Sfar The Sunday Syt 005 11th St an ennsy] a0 SREYY 45¢ per month 60¢ per month Collection ma each Orders may be sent by mail or telephone Na- tional 5000 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland snd Virsinia. aily and sunday aily only —_ Sunuay only_. Aul Otber States afly and Snnday..1 yr. aily only_ 19l Sunday oniy- 1 32 Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this Paper and also the local news published herein All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved Warning to Aggressors. On any occasion Mr. Roosevelt’s ad- dress before the Brazilian Congress would have been a notable contribution to the cause of peace and inter-American fraternity. Delivered at the present moment of international tension, with perils of conflict and new power group- ings aggravating war psychology, the President’s utterance, on the threshold of this week's epochal conference of the American republics, assumes extraordi- nary significance. Its implications are not confined to the Western Hemisphere. They span the globe. Their true in- wardness is manifest in the assertion that “we cannot countenance aggression, from wheresoever it may come.” In voicing that sentiment, the President afirmed that the peoples of the New ‘World “meet today as neighbors. We can discard the dangerous language of rivalry. We can put aside the empty phrases of ‘diplomatic triumphs’ or ‘shrewd bargains’.” Then he added: “We can forget all thought of domina- tion, of selfish coalitions or of balances of power. Those false gods have no place among American neighbors.” If Mr. Roosevelt had been addressing himself directly to certain quarters in Europe and Asia, his words could hardly be more timely or purposeful. He was speaking while the ink was not yet dry on the German-Japanese alliance and the co-related Italo-German under- standing, and while the world waits to discover what may flow from the clash between Fascist and Communist ideolo- gies in Spain, The President was re- ceiving the plaudits of his warm-hearted Brazilian hosts, too, while the world speculates anxiously about what lies behind current moves on the European and Asiatic chessboards. Mr. Roosevelt’s allusion to “aggression” cannot have been lightly made. It does not seem unlikely that he had in mind the possibility that in its zeal to make the world safe for its particular cult, a Fascist or Communist dictatorship some day may risk a mad gamble to secure a political or territorial foothold among the democracies of the American Con- tinent. That contingency, fantastic as it may once have seemed, assumes a differ- ent guise in light of the asserted purpose of Germany and Japan to carry their anti-red crusade into any fields wherein they consider it necessary to clear for action. Latin America, being so largely Spanish in origin, naturally suggests, because of events in the mother country, that the southern continent might easily become a battleground between the rival philosophies now at daggers drawn across the Atlantic. The President’s visit to Rio de Janeiro recalls that not so long ago both Ger- many and Japan evinced lively interest in Brazil. Germany in pre-Hitler days conducted an intensive drive for German “colonization” in the Amazon republic. Japan once sent emigrants there on a systematic scale. Perhaps those facts were not out of President Roosevelt's mind when he warned would-be ag- Bressors to keep hands off the Americas. His declaration strikes a stimulating key- note for the business about to be trans- acted at Buenos Aires. By every portent the Peace Council of the sister republics 15" destined to link them more closely together than ever in bonds of interde- pendence, amity and confidence for preservation of ideals and interest com- mon to them all. —_———— No matter what reports of privation may circulate among the proletariat, a dictator before the camera always man- ages to reveal a well-rounded waist measurement. Opera in English. ‘The debate about opera in English is perennial, and perhaps it ought to be so. Certainly it would be a sign of neglect if people could not be aroused to defend their respective views concerning music drama. Yet controversy for its own sake is no solution for any problem. Spe- cifically, the public never will be in position to decide whether or not it desires “Madame Butterfly” and “The Girl of the Golden West” translated back into the language in which they origi- nally were written unless or until some opera organization of the first class makes the experiment. Why should not the Metropolitan Company try it? Professor Willlam Lyon Phelps declares that it troubles him to think of a throaty German hero singing “I luff you” to a heroine who might respond, “I luff you mit der same dewotion.” But German singers essay Italian and French and even Russian without ~hesitation. It should not be too much, then, to expect them to attempt English.” And if their failure were too painful, some otherwise neglected American aspirants would be available for consideratiof. Indeed, it is conceivabie that opera as a cultural institution in the United States might THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., NOVEMBER 29, 1936—PART TWO. receive a new lease of life from & suc- cession of such accidents. . Meanwhile, it is ridiculous to think that & native-born artist like Queena Mario should have to pretend to be an Italian. Her real name was Queenie Tillotson; she first saw light of day at Akron, Ohio; received her academic and musical education primarily on this side of the Atlantic, and is patriotic to, her finger tips. Undoubtedly, she would prefer to be known for herself as distin- guished from the legend she is supposed to be. And the same observation may be offered for the arias she sings. But it is objected that many foreign librettos are “silly.” If so, what of it? Let them be revised, repaired, reno- vated, re-formed, even rewritten. There is nothing sacred about them in their present form. If necessary, they can be replaced. Genius enough abounds in the New World to do the required labor. The matter, however, does not de- mand argument. Edward Johnson can settle the dispute, if he has the wish to. Submit a great masterpiece like “Aida” to the test; perform it in English, and leave it to the audience to decide the next step. A fairly reasonable guess is that the gamble would bring unprece- dented crowds to the neighborhood of Broadway and Fortieth street. If an- other city be wanted for the trial, Wash- ington is suggested. —e— “Paramount Objective.” Only five years ago the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor regarded a constitutional amend- ment to give Congress the power to re- duce hours of labor as “a dangerous pro- posal.” A year later, in 1932, the fed- eration’s Legislative Committee and the convention delegates turned down the same proposal on the ground that it “conflicts with the principle long main- tained by labor of opposing the regula- tion by legislation of hours of male adult employment. * * * Experience has taught us that the shorter work week has not come through legislative proo- esses.” But Friday at Tampa the A. F. of L. convention again chose as its “paramount objective” legislation for the thirty-hour week, thus reindorsing the report of its Committee on the Shorter Work Day in 1935. This complete about-face by or- ganized labor in favor of legislative establishment of the six-hour day and five-day week throughout American in- dustry is, of course, a development pro- duced by the depression and the millions of workers who were thrown out of em- plovment. While Willlam Green, A. F. of L. president, was tacitly threatening a general strike two years ago to enforce labor's new shorter hours demand if legislation and voluntary action by em- ployers failed, the emphasis this year is again placed upon legislative accomplish- ment of the “paramount objective.” The Federation of Labor and other proponents regard the thirty-hour week, of course, as a boon to labor on the theory that it would spread work and, if existing wage scales were maintained, would increase purchasing power. But the organized spokesmen for industry are skeptical over its ability to accomp- lish much in these flelds and fear, on the other hand, that production costs would be increased to a degree offsetting anticipated benefits. The National In- dustrial Conference Board in 1935 esti- mated that the thirty-hour week would increase prices of manufactured goods by twelve per cent. Such sound econom- ists as Moulton and Leven of the Brook- ings Institution concluded that “a re- ductfon of the hours of work such as is contemplated would inevitably mean a volume of wealth production substantial- ly below the levels obtaining in 1929. But it should be emphasized again that what the country needs is not less pro- duction but more.” In a recent address Mr. Moulton pre- dicted that if recovery continues at the present rate there will be a real shortage of labor in some industries within two or three years Even now a shortage of skilled labor is reported in some lines of work. Aside from the constitutional questions—and the dependence on the existence of an “emergency” weakens with every day of recovery—the economic eonsiderations involved in a blanket re- duction of the hours of labor and a drastic increase in the cost of produc- tion and prices are serious enough to demand extended study. Labor’s former dependence on its “economic strength,” upon which it used to count for gradual attainment of its objectives, may still be preferable to the extreme recourse to such sweeping legislation as the proe posed thirty-hour week. Sir Basil Zaharoff. Sir Basil Zaharoff, so-called “mer- chant of death,” is dead at eighty-six in Monte Carlo. He was a man of mystery about whom there has been much debate and about whom there probably always will be great controversy. But it is the legend rather than the facts of his life that must be eliminated, if the truth concerning him ever is to be known. And Sir Basil himself was to blame for many of the myths so commonly circulated concerning the part he played in a war-torn world. He was secretive. The munitions business, in which he was a predominant figure was, in his judg- ment, not amenable to public inspection. Making and selling the instruments and materials of slaughter, according to his point of view, was a private affair into which people at large had no right to inquire. He argued reasonably enough that his clients did not desire advertising. But Sir Basil did not invent war. It wds an institution centuries before he first thought to take advantage of the propensity for killing. He merely sup- plied the existing demand for weapons and ammunition. With fine impartiality, he catered to both sides. Indeed, it was alleged that he organized a munitiohs trust to that end. The purposes of fair play, he insisted, were best served by providing all parties with the lethal hard- ware they needed. Any customer who ‘could pay was accommodated. Yet it doubtless is a libel to believe that Sir Basil deliberately stirred up strife for profit. The logic of history is hostile to such a theory. For centuries Europe has been constantly ready to resort to arms, consistently willing to take the chance of battle. No special urging was required. Had there been nothing but brickbats available for use in 1914, the nations would have fought about their differences rather than have submitted them to arbitration. Of course, Sir Basil shared in the guilt. Justice, however, stipulates the conclu- sion that a similar indictment might be rendered against every other soul alive in a generation addicted to violence. Even the pacifists were intolerant. It was—and unhappily it still is—an age of passion. If “the devil's agent” was conspicuously culpable, what shall be said in apology for the thirty-one gov- ernments which conferred upon him no less than two hundred and ninety-eight decorations? : Few will mourn Sir Basil. His hands incontrovertibly were stained with blood. In the chronicle of his time he will be identified with forces and influences hostile to human progress. That he does not stand alone is the pity of it all. The race will remember him in the com- pany of his partners and his rivals—em- perors and kings and dictators who com- peted for his favor and magnates who gladly would have occupied his shoes had they been possessed of his peculiar brand of genius. ————————— A munitions mystery man, Sir Basil Zaharoff may have had fame and for- tune thrust upon him by force of cir- cumstance. His willingness to remain a “mystery man” does not indicate an inclination to glorify the sources of his fortune. —_— e As resignation rumors are discussed the charming story of the statesman who continued to serve his country rather than make more money in private em- ployment is constantly due for revival. —————— If Charles Lindbergh were as appre- hensive about his safety as are millions of admirers, he would be pardoned for occasional attacks of palpitation of the mechanical heart. ———— It was reported that Colonel Charles Lindbergh went to Europe in quest of quietude. As events proceed, the same desire may lead him back to America. — “Government by aggression” is gen- erally deplored. At the same time it will not be easy to formulate‘a complete policy of government by submission. — e One style of radicalism hinted at with- out causing undue alarm is that of put- ting the alphabet back in its usual order and starting all over. —————— None of the Americans who has seen communism active in Spain shows a desire to bring any part of it back to this country. It was a Thanksgiving which reported not only gratitude for past favors, but appreciation of benefits yet to come. ———— Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. November Song. De frost it come a-prowlin® Whur de sky is dark an’ scowlin'— Let it prowl! An’ dar’s gineter be some snowin’ While we feels de wind a-blowin'— _ Let 'Im blow. And let ‘im howl. I'll set up to de fireplace an' I'll hear de chimney roar. De sunshine’s kind o' skase, but dar is boun’ to be some more. De crow, it keeps a-callin’ As it sees de leaves a-fallin’, Let 'em fall! De trees ain’ much foh shadin’ An’ de blossoms done bin fadin’, Let ’em fade. Cause, after all, De blossom will come back along wif leaves upon de tree. Dey need a little restin’ spell, de same as you an’ me. Holding a Position. “How do you manage to hold your position as a leader of the people in your part of the country?” “I observe which way they are going,” answered Senator Sorghum, “and then step lively to keep ahead of them in case they take & notion to stampede.” Jud Tunkins says he hopes the nations don't get to talking any bigger figures, as he hasn't learned to count as high as a billion as yet. The Bird of Thanks. The turkey reappears, alas, In soup and hash and stew. Your thankful sentiments may pass Before its course is through! Scrupulous. “I guess we'd better fix up our ad- vertisement for Summer boarders right now,” said Farmer Corntossel. “What for?” asked his wife. “I don't want to write anything that ain't truthful. There ain’t any mos- quitoes now an’ the nights are always cool.” “Honors undeserved,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “are like resplendent raiment which loses its beauty because it s ll-fitting.” g Evolution. Evolution teaches how Growth will depend on using. Inferences, youll allow, Arise that are amusing. I listen nightly to & line Of chatter that grows stronger. These ears of mine, quite asinine, Seem really growing longer. “Satan,” sald Uncle Eben, “gits credit for temptin’ some men dat he jes’ let ndgpmmflmtmm:emqr A Budget Balancing Now in Prospect BY OWEN L. SCOTT. Just after election, while elated over the victory, President Roosevelt told his Hyde Park neighbors that he was going back to Washington to balance the Fed- eral budget. Few persons at the time regarded the statement as anything more than a cas- ual reference to the fact that Govern- ment finances would occupy his attention prior to sailing for South America. Yet today enough is known of budget plans to make it appear highly probable that President Roosevelt will be able to tell Congress in January that cash outgo and cash income can actually balance in the fiscal year beginning next July 1. He expects to be able to say that no new borrowing will be necessary after the present fiscal year. At its peak—be- fore turning down—the national debt, according to present estimates, will be under $34,750,000,000. , In other words, Mr. Roosevelt meant what he said at Hyde Park. * x x ¥ How can present prospects of a bal- anced Federal Govepmmpe:zct budget be reconciled with the persistent assertions of the President’s opponents that noth- ing but continued deficits and eventual financial ruin could be seen ahead? The answer is found largely in rapidly increasing revenue, with prospect of even greater increases flowing from the direct and indirect effects of the new tax on the part of corporation earnings not paid out jn dividends. But it is found partly in the prospect of decreased spend- ing due to lower relief costs and to cur- tailment of much emergency lending and spending. Daniel Bell, acting budget director, is doing an expert job of expenditure trim- ming, to judge by the anguish of some leading spenders. He is operating under orders from the President that give him full opportunity to exercise a technical skill that exceeds that of previous di- rectors of the budget. * X * % ‘When the President and Dan Bell get ;hr;;xch, what are the people likely to nt Principally, that the cash outgo and the cash income of the Federal Govern- ment will probably reach a balance on a tem basis of about $6,500,000,000. As the social security program speeds up that figure will rise rather rapidly. It contrasts with outgo of about $7,500,- 000,000 and income of about $5,500,000,000 in the present fiscal year. The prospective shift from a deficit of about $2,000,000,000 to a budget balance is accounted for by a $500,000,000 soldiers’ bonus item in this year's expenditure, along with another $500,000,000 for drought relief and other relief that can be eliminated with the end of the drought emergency and a pick-up in industry. Pay roll taxes and income taxes account for the probable larger revenue. Those officials who have shaped New Deal recovery policies say that when an end comes to Federal Government bor- rowing there will occur a real test of the underlying theory of a stimulated recovery. * % & ¥ President Roosevelt set out deliberately to borrow huge amounts of money and to spend that borrowed money in a way that would be reflected quickly in the channels of trade. W. P. A. during the past months has been as much an agency of getting money into the hands of those who would spend it rapidly as it has been an agency for relief. All signs point to the fact that spend- ing has taken hold. Nearly all business has had a sensational advance. Expand- ing consumption is being reflected throughout industry. The next step calls for the Government to put out from under by balancing its budget while pri- vate business takes over the load of continued revival. If this transition works as scheduled, then New Dealers will insist that their theory of a stimulated recovery has been borne out in actual practice. Then what? Once business is on its way and Gov- ernment finance is in order the idea is to build permanent machinery into the structure of the Federa! Government designed to guide the future distribution of national income. This second stage calls for a new use of Federal power. * x x x In this stage. there is scheduled to be a reduction of the national debt as that debt is held by private citizens, an exercise of control over credit and cur- rency, a use of taxing power to prevent further concentration of income into the hands of the wealthy, a building of several devices to spread the national income more evenly among those in the lower income brackets. The new tax on the part of corporation income not paid out in the form of divi- dends plays an important part in the new planning. That tax forces distribution of income either through payments to individuals who will be inclined to spend the money, thereby keeping it in the stream of pur- chasing power, or through payments to the Government, where it may be re- distributed to farmers, or unemployed, or aged people or other potential spenders. Regardless of reports to the contrary, this tax is expected by the Treasury to yield a very large amount of revenue— as much as $1,000,000,000 in the next full year. Thus it is regarded both as a revenue raiser and a reform measure, * ok ok Then there are W. P. A. and P. W. A. Both figure in plans for permanent Fed- eral economic controls. W. P. A. is scheduled to have a place as an agency that will expand and contract with the volume of unemploy- ment. It can serve to insure a flow of purchasing power to individuals who might otherwise be lost to business as consumers owing to lack of jobs in private industry. P. W. A. is to become more of an agency for planning and financing large- scale public works, with its activity speeded up in periods when private con- struction lags. At the same time, the Agricultural Ad- justment Administration will be con- tinued as a permanent agency for pro- tecting farm income through subsidies, insurance and production controls. And the new systems of old-age in- groups in the way it did after 1929. The planners actually are so confi- strength of the present busi- that they are devoting spe- to new boom controls. ¥ %o one-half years all ef- lem is to keep the revival from getting out of hand. . A TYRANNY OF THE AVERAGE BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, D.C. L. BISHOP OF WASHINGTON. “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment.” This constitutes part of the narrative of what is known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The story is designed to relate, not the utter prodigality of the heady and erring son, but the generosity of the forgiving father. Some one has called it the “Parable of the Benignant Father.” The home son of whom the text speaks, who was angry at the cor- diality and generosity that characterized his brother’s return, is an example of what might be called the tyranny of the average. His contention with his father was that his own service had been uninterrupted and that obedience to the law of the household had been free from transgression. He had lived his life in a monotonous, colorless way and his attitude toward his father upon his brother's return signalizes the domi- nant trait of his character; he was a negatively good man, he was an average good man. He never transgressed the rule of his home, but his whole attitude toward his repentant brother disclosed the utter meanness of his soul, and as & man bound by the tyranny of the aver- age he illustrates the point of our theme. Freedom from transgression of the law is no guarantee of even respectable goodress. People who are satisfled with being “up to the average” come in due time to fall under its tyranny. Probably no fault is more common, especially with the youth, than satisfaction with average development. The , standard of the common-place, the let-well-enough alone conception of life, is destructive of ambi- tion, demoralizing to character, and, like death, is a great leveler. We are ever satisfying our consciences, as well as our minds, with the thought that we are “up to the average.” We seem to forget that “up to the average” means a low standard of mental and moral develop- ment. If the world had been only “up to the average” and there had been no more than average people, the develop- ment of our civilization would be put back thousands of years. Had therr been no one to break from the tyranny of the average, we would be plowing our fields with wooden plowshares, lighting our houses with tallow dips, making our journeys in stage coaches, crossing the seas with sails, sending our messages by Ppost. ponies, exorcising maladies with in- cantations and lving in pestilential cities without proper sanitary and hygienic conditions. It is only because some man broke from the shackles of average development and determined to rise to new heights of power that modern civilization is what it is. Balzac says somewhere that “genius is intensity”; yes, it is this, but we believe also that genius is the transoendence of the aver- age. What of this tyranny as applied to the religious life We submit that aver- age goodness belongs to the primeval stage of man’s moral development. The cry of the man who is everlastingly making mistakes and failures is, “I am as good as the average.” The excuse of the people of society who are dis- posed to violate all law, human and divine, who break all sacred traditions and customs and violate the sanctity of every holy institution is, “We are as good as the average.” We believe that average goodness is wholly destructive of high and true character development; it lies at the root of most of our abuses, both individual and social. Our time makes an urgent and per- sistent call to the church, that her people arise from their slumber of self- satisfaction and indifference, and present to the world a religious faith and prac- tice that so far transcends the average, as to bring inspiration to a new life and & new hope to a multitude of folk who have come to regard religion as a con- ventional and insipid thing. Fifty Years Ago In The Star “Criminal jurisprudence is daily con- tracting its harder:11 in one q\une‘; and enlarging them an- Strange Pleas otner,” says The Star in Defense. ©Of November 29, 1886. “Some years ago it was customary for the courts to look with some charity upon offenses committed under the influence of liquor, but this cobweb was effectually brushed away by the Noe murder case, where the prin- ciple was plainly laid down that a man who, by drinking spirituous liquors, vol- untarily induced a condition of mind in which he had not full control of his conduct could not be permitted to plead | this condition in extenuation of an of- fense committed under its influence. The insanity plea, which had been fairly successful as long as kept within the limits of reason, tried human patience overmuch in the MacFarland-Richard- son case, where the defense projected the theory that a murderer might be insane for the single instant necessary to conceive the deadly purpose and dis- charge his weapon, but perfectly sane before and after that instant; and Judge Cox of this city dealt a well-merited rebuke to the insanity theorists gen- erally in the Guiteau case, which estab- lished the sensible doctrine that a man who is sane enough to plan a murder and carry it into execution, in entire consciousness of the nature of his act and of its consequences, is sane enough to hang. “If, as some reports have it, the hero of a recent escapade in housebreaking and assault in Washington intends to plead that he was under the influence of & mesmerist at the time he committed his offense the public will be treated to one of the most interesting criminal trials of modern times. It will be neces- sary to do one of two things—either to show that the judgments of some of the foremost psychologists and neurologists are wrong in holding that the subject of an active mesmeric trance must be always in the presence of the operator, or else to prove that the operator did, in this case, accompany the subject on his housebreaking expedition. Experi- | ments made in good faith have re- peatedly failed where even a cotton sheet or a newspaper was hung up be- tween the operator and his subject so as to intercept the former’s view and in cases of what is known as involuntary mesmerism—a nervous disorder which compels one person to imitate every attitude, gesture and word of -another— the spell is broken and the patient often faints when a third party interposes his body between the two. It will be curious to note to what lengths the defense in the present instance will go with its researches and whether the criminal lawyers of the country generally will adopt the plea of hypnotic irresponsi- bility as a resort from the outworn theories of intoxication and insanity.” * x x X With the site for the new Library of Congress Building acquired Andu in 2 process of preparation, Materials of the quemor;h of the i . character of the struc- the Library. e herame of keen public interest fifty years ago. The Star of December 4, 1886, says: “The question as to what material shall be used in the construction of the new library building has never been cone sidered by the commission, natwithe standing the published assertion that the contract for material would probably be awarded to Gov. Budwell of Maine. Mr. Clark, of the commission, said to & Star reporter: ““The question as to whether the building shall be of marble or granite or brick has never been considered for a moment. Inquiries have been sent to us on the subject and we have replied that nothing has yet been determined. I have no doubt that when the com- mission decides this point they will then, of course, advertise for proposals and each bidder will be required to send in samples of his marble, or his granite, or whatever may be used. Then the be let upon those bids Capital Sidelights BY WILL P. KENNEDY. Preliminary work of Congress has already started—about six weeks before the Seventy-fifth enters upon the stage | of Capitol Hill—and this does not mean the usual cleaning preparations for the incoming Congress. Usually at this time of the year several subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee are at work on supply bills to get them in shape | for passage at the “short session,” which has been done away with by constitu- tion amendment. Of course, the parlia- mentarian is getting the program ready for prompt organization on January 5 | S0 as to be ready for counting the elec- tory vote on January 6, as provided by | law. But this year an entirely new pro- cedure has been started, so that the | usual jam of bills in the House on the opening day may be eliminated. At the | opening of a session something like or more than 1,000 bills and resolutions are to be expected. On the first day of the last Congress there were 1876 bills in- troduced, and during the first session | 9,242 bills and 642 resolutions. So that the office of the chief bill clerk and the Government Printing Office will not be swamped on the opening day, bills and resolutions are already being received, recorded, numbered and printed confidentially. They will not be available, however, to newspaper men and other interested parties until the House is officially open for business. Several hundred bills have already been received. William J. McDermott, jr., the chief bill clerk, has undertaken this preliminary work with the approval of South Trimble, clerk of the House. The members of the House have been notified to this effect in a form letter. McDermott has charge of the num- bering and printing of bills and the transcribing for the Congressional Rec- ord of bills, resolutions, executive docu- ments and reports of committees—and he keeps a complete record of the ref- erence of and action on bills, resolutions, executive documents and reports of com- mittees and their status. Bills, resoiu- tions, memorials and petitions are de- posited in a basket at the clerk’s desk. Those of a public nature are referred to committees by the Speaker; the refer- ence of those of a private nature is in- dicated by the member introducing or | presenting them. The Committee on Invalid Pensions has jurisdiction over Civil War pensions exclusively—all other pension bills are referred to the Committee on Pensions. Those for correction of a military record go to the Committee on Military Affairs; those for correction of a naval record to the Committee on Naval Affairs. War claims bills go to the Committee on War Claims. It is necessary that the name of the member introducing appears on a bill or resolution in order that he may be given proper credit, and before it can be printed or entered in the record book. The title on the back of a bill must be the same as in the body of the bill. Change of reference of public bills is made by action of the House only. Change of reference of a private bill is made by the committee to which the bill was referred. The substance or transcript of peti- tions and memorials is prepared in the chief bill clerk's office and reference made to the proper committee. In order that the transcript may appear in the Congressional Record in accordance with the wish of the member flling it, it 1s suggested by the clerk that he place a brief transcript on each paper and indicate the committee to which he desires it referred. In preparation ®f reports of commit- tees, care should be taken that a copy of the bili reported accompany the re- port, and if amended, that the amend- ments be placed in the bill accompany- ing the report. Information concerning the introduction, reference and status of legislative proposals may be obtained by new members promptly from the chief bill clerk, Mr. McDermott, or his as- sistants. * x k% Hats off again to the women in politics. Here we have one who most successfully managed her husbhand’s campaign for re-election to without opening headquarters or issu- ing literature or advertising of any kind. He—Representative Clarence Cannon, Democrat, of Missouri, former parlia- mentarian to Speaker Champ Clark and successor to the seat in the House held for so long by that “Old Roman”—re- ceived the highest vote ever cast for any candidate for any office in any election insthe history of that old ninth district. The official vote was Roosevelt, 60,428; Cannon, 62557. Cannon’s ma- jority was the largest given any congres- sional candidate in rural Missouri—and a compliment to Mrs. Cannon’s manage- ment. Undiscouraged. The Threat to Madrid’s Art BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. It doubtless will be some time before the world learns just what has happened to the art treasures housed in the Royal Palace and in the museums, galleries and churches of Madrid, but nothing short of a miracle could prevent the mutilation or complete destruction of many objects which have excited the admiration of the whole world. The fact that so many of the subjects of the great Spanish painters were of a religious nature, and thé further fact that the communistic government which has held the old capital for so long is anti-church bodes 1ll. It has been reported that many works of art of a religious nature were destroyed wantonly even before the siege. ‘When peace is restored, it seems prob- able that some inventory will be forth- ceming which will show what was de- stroyed and what survived, bui mean- time all is conjecture, and the outside world can only fall back on its knowl- edge of what was there. That fabulous riches in art treasures, at least from the point of view of artists and those inter- ested in art, reposed there is known. For example, it is known that in the Royal Picture Gallery alone there were more than 2,000 pictures, each considered a major or minor masterpiece. There and in the Salon del Prado are known to have been not only paintings of the great Spanish masters, but Titians, Tintorettos, Vandycks, Rubens. * * x % ‘The University of Madrid. which was the center of some of the hottest fighting and the most destructive shelling, had a library which boasted upward of 2,000,- 000 volumes and manuscripts, many of them of tremendous value and incapable of duplication. Then there are the churches, which contained historic works of art in both painting and statuary. Private mansions unquestionably con- tained masterpieces. Between the de- struction caused by shelling by artillery, bombing from the air and looting by the Communists who held the city, wholesale destruction of invaluable treasures seems a foregone conclusion. In the World War care was taken to remove endan- gered works of art and to seek to protect monuments and churches by placing sandbags about them. There has been no such effort in Spain, especially as destruction of such things seems to be a part of the program of the Communists who have been in charge of the govern- ment. * % x % The roll of great Spanish masters is too long to call, but some of them may be mentioned. Diego Rodriguez de Silva v Velazquez has long been celebrated as the greatest of the Spanish masters. Indeed, he is accounted one of the greats est painters of all countries and all time. Born in Seville in 1589. he removed to Madrid when he was 23 years of age. In a surprisingly short time news of his talent reached the ears of King Philip 1V, who thereafter became his patron. Paintings by Velazquez have been widely scattered across the world, including the United States, and these presumably will remain safe. But in Madrid there re- mained such great masterpieces as the “Adoration of the Magi,” “Christ on the Cross,” the “Forge of Vulcan,” “Bacchus,” “portrait of the King,” and at the Es- corial, near Madrid, “Joseph’s Coat.” What has or may happen to these world-famed works excites the interest of the world of art. * k% % Bartolome Esteban Murillo, also of Seville, came early in contact with Velaz- quez, and became, in some sort, his pupil. He was not an imitator of Velazquez's style, but evolved one of his own. His paintings, too, are widely scattered through the great museums and private collections of the world. Many of his, and also of Velazquez's were in Seville, and there is no news as to what hap- pened to them there. But some notable Murillos were in Madrid. There were the “Festival of Our Lady of the Snows.” the “Infant Christ and the Baptist,” “St. Tldefonso,” “Christ and the Virgin in & Cavern,” and some 40 other works. A great master who came long before Velazquez was El Greco. He is known to the art world and to history by that name, although his birth name was Domenico Theotocopuli. He was born at Candia, in the Isle of Crete, and, be- cause of that Greek origin. when he came to live in Spain, he was nicknamed very simply El Greco, which merely means the Greek. Of all the millions of Greeks | who have lived, he out of all history, is known as the Greek. Yet he now is known as a Spanish painter. EIE He traveled widely for those days be- fore he came to Spain. At Rome he had as patron the Farnese, and the Pope took favorable notice of him. He be- came a pupil of Titian. He did not come to the Spanish capital, Madrid. Indeed in his day Madrid was not much of a city. It was Toledo he sought, Toledo. with its great cathedral and seats of art and letters. That city was a great place in the world when Madrid was little more than a .cluster of buildings. Indeed, one of his paintings reveals in the background the Alcazar of Toledo, that vast citadel which was nearly de- stroyed by the fighting this year. ‘While his work attracted great interest. 1t also attracted special curiosity. E1 Greco had a Byzantine strain about his work which sharply differentiated it from the Spanish schools, and while its genius was recognized, it was a little too strange to be immediately accepted. El Greco's greatest fame came many years later. For example, the King at first frowned on his “St. Maurice and His ‘Legions,” which had been commissioned for the Escorial chapel. and rejected it, but finally it was allowed to stay, although never hung over the altar. It is there now, unless it has been destroyed in the riot and civil commotion and war. His “Pentecost” and “The Dead Christ” are in Madrid, if they survive, with many others, but as he had preferred Toledo, and had done his work there, most of his paintings and carvings remaining in Spain were in that city during the storm of civil conflict. Word has not been received concerning their fate. LR O Then there was the great Spanish master, Francisco Goya y Lucientes. He was a Saragossan by birth, but at 19 fled to Madrid. This was in 1755. Goya was a turbulent youth who became often involved in just such street fighting as has characterized the present war. He was frequently in flight. But between exiles he served as court painter, and work which has been in Madrid included the “Family of Charles IV,” the “Queen in a Mantilla,” the “King in Uniform,” equestrian paintings of the King and Queen, the “Crucifixion,” which was in the church of San Antonio de ia Florida, and several others. Also his savage series of etchings, depicting the horrors of Spanjsh warfare about 1800, at the time of the French invasions, were in Madrid. The catalogue of other masters is long and represents the “214 rlxches of aru work of both oreign mas- ters. How mm been destroyed must some day become known. t