Evening Star Newspaper, December 25, 1936, Page 6

A—6 * THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Moerning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. December 25, 1936 i THEODORE W. NOYES..........Editer Pt i —— The Evening Star Newspaper Company. t. apd Pel Jvania Ave. Nel'utha 6&@!: 110 East 42nd B‘Ifi‘ @hicago Officc: Lake Michigan Build: Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Ldition, The Evening Star ---45¢ ver month 80c per month 656 per month --5C Der copy ders may be lfl'll.t nal 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Mafyland and Virsinia, the end by :n: or telephone Na- {ly and Sui aily only. unday only’ Member of the Associated Prees. The Assoclated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches it fotherwise credited in this Daper and also the local news published herein. Qi rients of publication ‘of apecial dispatches erein are also reserved. Christmas. In the cottage of a Polish peasant an Amerlcsn. traveler once saw an empty chair at the Christmas board. Of & size suited to the service of a child, it symbolized the devotion of the family to the Holy Infant whose birth the world celebrates today. But to father, mother, sons and daughters, as they gathered for the feast, the Babe of Bethlehem ‘was not merely theoretically present. To them and, curiously, to their guest He was a real participant in the Yuletide festival. “With the eyes of the spirit,” they explained, “we can see Him.” And the story, perhaps, is worthy of retelling for the Christmas of 1936. Nothing, it seems, is required in all the earth just now, save only the power of the personality, the doctrine, the exam-~ ple of the Savior of Mankind. His influ- ence, certainly, has been & force through nineteen centuries of advancing civili- zation. But the full impact of His mis- sion has not yet been felt. Strife still dominates the planet, greed still gov- erns human conduct, sin and sorrow still make sad the human soul. The mil- fennium has not dawned. Hope, however, survives in the hearts of uncounted millions of the men and women to whom, as St. Francis of Assissi beautifully said, the Christ Child is a Little Brother. The race, undiscouraged, aspires to peace and the fellowship for which He was born and for which He died. Indeed, the will to justify His sacrifice is stronger today than it ever has been at any previous moment since those tragic hours when He hung upon the cross of Calvary. His aposties have not preached in vain, His martyrs have not perished uselessly. Their words and their sufferings echo in the conscience of every human being alive. And the wars and revolutions of the past three decades have taught a lesson which can- not be forgotten. There is no question about it—mankind wants freedom, jus- tice and harmony; wants civilization and not chaos; wants law and order and not anarchy; wants Heaven and not hell. The problem is: How? But the answer is available. Christ, with His one com- mandment “That ye love one another,” shows the way; Christmas, with its un- restricted charity, provides the method. Let a single generation maintain the standards of honesty, unselfishness, tol- erance and mercy which society already professes, and the riddle will be read forever. The Kingdom of God is not in- feasible. It has been attained by ‘thou- sands of individuals; it can be won by any disciple who will “leave all and follow Me.” The need is for humility enough to attempt the experiment of living in obedience to ideals universally accepted. If that virtue can be culti- vated generally and sufficiently, the ulti- mate victory, now at long last so ardently and commonly desired, will be achieved. ‘The obligation lies upon individuals and nations alike. And the Christmas of 1936 is an occa- slon especially appropriate for the re- affirmation of Christ and His faith. He knocks at every door, brings His blessing to every family willing to open the portal and to permit Him to enter. And, par- ticularly, since it is in the guise of a little child that He comes, the world should be glad to make Him welcome. Prepare His place at the table, then; bring forth His chair, greet Him with Joy and keep Him always! The Polish peasant received Him in the name of his Creator, and his American neighbor can do no less. The holiday spirit brings about an annual demonstration of contradictory impressions. It is hard to reconcile the severe reputation of Hitler with his plcturesque and sentimental activity in playing Santa Claus. ¥ Regimemin§ Pedestrians, In eliminating from the new traffic code for New York City & section for pedestrian control, Mayor La Guardia gives forceful expression to these noble sentiments: To try to goose-step or to drive into formation march the residents of New THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. in belleving that pedestrian regulation is better obtained by education than by strict regulation. Certainly it is better, in the long run, to accomplish & desired end by co-operation, founded or general recognition of wisdom, than by fiat. Especially is this true in Mayor La Guardia’s own New York. Let some aim- lessly meandering pedestrian there try to cross the street in disregard of the the traffic policeman’s forbidding hand. If he lives to tell the tsle, the tongue- lashing be receives in a sraoothly rolling Irish brogue will remain with him longer than the memory of any miserable fine, Peace and Neutrality. Deadly civil war grips one European nation this Christmas day. The con- flict threatens to draw the others into the vortex. In the Far East unrest is growing among hundreds of millions of people. The Western Hemisphere—the New World—is fortunate. It has peace. It has just concluded an Inter-American Peace Conference, with great hope that its deliberations will result in & pro- longed peace in North, Central and South America, and that the Americas will be able to ret an example to which the rest of the world will give heed. It is of vital importance to the people of America—and to the peoples of all other nations in this Western Hemi- sphere—that peace be maintalned in Europe and in the East. No longer is it reasonable to suppose that the world can exist half at peace and half at war, so interrelated are the interests of the whole. And yet if war comes, the Gov- ernment of the United States and the people should and will endeavor to keep aloof. When Congress meets in January one of the most pressing measures will be that to supplant the present neutrality act, which expires in May. It does seem that in the drafting of such a measure American legislators should be able to agree, no matter what their politics. Yet what constitutes true neutrality is & different problem. A prohibition against the shipment of arms and muni- tions of war is considered by some as insufficient. They would extend it to other materials, including foodstuffs. And yet to decline to ‘export foodstuffs to nations that need them is scarcely a friendly act, particularly if those nations have been accustomed to draw imports from the United States. The neutrality act as it now stands requires the President to prohibit only the shipment of “instruments of war.” There are other materials, however, es- sential to peoples at war, among them coal, iron and oil, for example. And certainly no nation can long make war without a supply of the necessary food for its people and for its armies. Already proposals to make the neutrality law much more drastic are being formulated. The Government of the United States resisted for three long years the efforts and the impulses—which constantly grew stronger—to bring this country into the conflict which had engulfed most of the rest of the world, before it was finally dragged into the last World War. The President, in those days, was not required nor given the power to lay an embargo on the shipment of all kinds of materials needed by the warring na- tions. It was through the shipment of such materials, and the consequent sink- ing of American vessels and the loss of American lives, that in the end this country entered the World War. The world has struggled—indeed, it is still struggling—out of the morass of the last great war. Another such con- flict may well wipe éivilization, as it is known today, from the face of the earth. If the United States can take steps to prevent a breakdown of the peace as it now exists, how much more effective it would be than the mere enactment of a law which is designed to keep America from being entangled in a conflict be- tween foreign nations. This country has sought for years to set to the world an example for peace. It has sought to convince other nations that peace lay in & reduction of arma- ments. All its efforts appear today of little avail, when Europe and Asia are largely armed camps. Nevertheless, America has not given up the struggle. It is still dedicated to the cause of peace. May it always be so. Traffic regulation in this Capital City might be much more effective if the vigilance of police officials were not more or less interrupted by the necessity of studying the congressional and diplo- matic immunities, Impeachment in Cuba. After a tenure of barely seven months, President Gomez has been impeached by the Cuban Congress on charges of interference with the legislative power and ignominiously removed from office. His doom was sealed from the moment he disapproved the sugar tax bill, where- by the army proposes to place rural edu- cation under the military yoke. Pinal passage of the measure over the presi- dential veto was speedily followed by impeachment proceedings 'decreed by Col. Fulgencio Batista, whose dictatorial influence thus becomes more firmly rooted than ever. President Gomes’s successor, former Vice President Bru, enjoys army favor and is credited with corresponding readiness to do Batista’s bidding. 3 Although since abrogation of the Platt amendment the United States no longer has either the right or the duty of inter~ vention for preéservation of orderly gove ernment in Cuba, the American people have an abiding interest in the republic’s welfare. Actuated solely by sentiments ot the provincial schools is designed to pave the way for a Fascist-military re- gime. The impeachment proposal of- fered Congress the clear choice between saving democratic government and ruth- less military dictatorship. The army won the day, and there is all too much reason to fear that autocratic sway on certain European models is now the fate in store for the country which has so long suffered from chronic turmoil and tyranny. ‘When President Gomez took office, apparently with army approval, his ac- cession as the first duly elected Presi- dent whom Cuba has had in many years seemed to foreshadow an era of political peace and material prosperity. The reciprocal trade agreement with the United States had paved the way for economic recovery. But Col. Batista never ceased to hanker for fuller sub- jugation of the civilian authority to army domination. In his statement to the Senate, immediately preceding his impeachment, President Gomez did not mince words in pillorying the procedure by which he was about to be victimized. He charged that the trial was not an act of justice, but “a mere political ma- neuver to depose a constitutional Presi- dent because of orders and pressure from sources known to all.” He did not shrink from warning that his deposition, under the circumstances, would be “the be- ginning of new days of anxiety and de- termine the eclipse, perhaps even the definite end, of Cuban lberty.” Wide sections of the Cuban people look upon the President's impeachment a3 a travesty on constitutionalism and elementary justice, and resent it. Dr. Gomez himself has accepted his fate with resignation. But it would plainly be premature to conclude that this latest turn of the insular kaleidoscope ends with finality one of the blackest chapters in the country’s turbulent history. Es- tablishment of “authoritarian” govern- ment in the Caribbean would fill all the Americas with displeasure not unmixed with grave concern, B — China is a big nation and there may come an interest in how many conquests it can endure without becoming aware that it has been conquered. —————— The charms of Greenbelt are so vividly depicted that a lease may become of great value because of the privilege of subletting. —————— Some philosophers fear that war will arise through human curiosity which will require a try-out for the new and im- proved battle machinery developed since the armistice. A crisis is very likely to solve itself if it can be sufficiently prolonged. If nothing else happens some other crisis is likely to arise and shove it out of the way. Cynics say that war is inevitable. Advo- cates of peace agreements regret the persistence of cynicism, e Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. A True Hero. You gayly smile at him, because A modest elf is Santa Claus. When all the world is safe and warm He sets his face against the storm And drives all fearless and alone Through starry skies o'er many a zone. His generous purpose is to show A day of gladness here below. ‘Though bringing peace to every one Is hard, he proves It Can Be Done, By making one day free from stress, A labor of unselfishness. You smile at him, he doesn't mind, 8o long as tears are left behind. And 0 our cheers we raise because A hero is our Santa Claus! Interesting Relic. “Why are you gazing at that picture of Santa Claus?” “It is & landmark,” replied Senator Sorghum. “It is the last trace of a once general tradition that large whisk- ers signify great wisdom and benevo- lence.” Increase of Volume. When Christmas brings along the toys The childre: make & lot of noise. As they grow older they get prouder And simply make the noises louder. “One who closes his eyes to the truth,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “shuts out the light and must walk through life in uncertainty.” ©Old Man Trouble. ©Old Man Trouble went a-scowling on his way. He saw the stars all shining fit to make a holiday. The evergreens were growing and he said, “It seems to me That the lights above are glowing over many a Christmas tree. I've no excuse to stay ‘Where the world is all at play.” Old World said, “Just drop the scowling from your plan. If you tell 'em what's the matter, folks will cheer you if they can.” And Old Man Trouble when he found a And we'll teach you how to smile!” ‘The person who insists that he pre- fers the drumstick of a fowl is either o family martyr or & poor judge of food. Defining ‘General Welfare’ And ‘Due Process of Law’ To the Editor of The Star: An Associated Press mews article in your columns recently contains some interesting questions which readily are answered by public documents avail- able to all. One question is: “Shall we define ‘general welfare’ once and for all?” “The general welfare clause (of the Constitution) contains no provision of power, of itself, to enact any legislation, but, on the contrary, the words ‘and provide for the common defense and general welfare’ is a limitation of the taxing power of the United States only.” This disposes of the erroneous notion prevalent that the Congress can pass any sort of legislation for every purpose on the allegation that it is “to promote the general welfare.” In clear-cut de- cision this court has made plain that Federal taxes cannot be levied upon one class to be put into the pockets of an~ other. It is equally clear under the Constitution that Federal tax money must go into the Treasury of the United States and be expended for purposes of Government under powers delegated— to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and welfare of all. Another question is: “Exactly what does ‘due process of law’' mean?” “By the law of the land (which Web- ster sald was equivalent to due process of law) is most clearly intended the general law, & law which hears before it condemns, which proceeds upen in- quiry and renders judgment only after trial. The meaning is that every citi- zen shall hold his life, liberty, prop- erty and immunities under protection of the general laws which govern so- clety.” Our highest court approved this defini- tion of “due process of law” as given by Daniel Webster in the Dartmouth College case. In further decision, this same court held that “due process of law, within the meaning of the fifth amendment, refers to the law of the land, which derives its authority from the legislative powers conferred upon Congress by the Constitution of the United States, exercised within limita- tions therein prescribed and interpreted according to the principles of the com- mon law.” Again, it was said by the Supreme Court of the United States that due process of law means “a course of legal proceedings according to those rules and principles which have been estab- lished in our systemqn of jurisprudence for the protection and enforcement of private rights.” Due process of law, then, protects the citizen by law unwritten, by valid laws written and by judicial preservation of rights guaranteed. Rights reserved to the States and to the people are rights inherent or rights conferred on the American Colonies by charters of liberties. They are known. They exist still unless expressly dele- gated to the Federal Government. Further to guarantee such rights, the first 10 amendments to our Constitution were added. The Constitution would not have been approved unless it was agreed that the “bill of rights” must be added to it. In these 10 amendments (for every man to see and know) are set forth most priceless liberties and immunities of & free people. They are restrictions upon the Federal Govern- ment for protection of rights of the States and of the people. To surrender these priceless rights in a time when men are incited to yield to political hysteria is to make Government in the United States the master instead of the servant of the people. Modern evils can be eradicated without tearing down the most effec- tive means needed to overcome them. The common sense of the American peo- ple has solved every great problem in all our history, while temporizing bu- reaucracy has aggravated wrong and blunderingly fastened mew disabilities upon the people. Brainstorms have their day and pass away, but human rights and freeman rights never should pass away from the people to any Gov- ernment. JOSEPH W. CHEYNEY, A Warning as to Pets As Christmas Gifts To the Editor of The Star: May I through your valuable paper say a word of warning to those who will re- ceive new pets into their home on this Christmas day? Please remember that these little creatures that come to us at this time should be kept quiet and not handled by young children for some time. The excitement of a new home is enough for these little creatures and if common sense is used the recipients will have & happy member of their households. If not, well, anything might happen from convulsions to a little nip. A little precaution is worth a pound of cure, MARY E. CLARK. ————— Another Farm Problem. From the Reno Gazette. It is estimated that during this year 8800 farm families have moved into Idaho. Washington and Oregon from the Midwestern drought areas. Many of them are in the refugee class, others need loans for equipment and comparatively few are independent. Thus there has developed in the Northwest another problem caused by the crop fallures in recent years. As the Midwesterners who made the long move are grain farmers, it is only natural that they headed for another wheat and corn region, where the flelds bloomed richly during the drought period in their home States. In consequences, there are now more than 8,000 families in the three States who are in no better condition than be- fore they moved, except that they are on land that is reasonably sure to produce if it is developed and planted. It is in finding means for the development that the problem arises. The outlook is that the Federal Resettlement Administration has another big job on its hands. To rehabilitate 8,000 farm familles may be a long and costly task, but if it can be completed successfully the three States will have gained in total about 75,000 population. Italians Receive Diluted News From the Birmingham News. ¥ ‘The ability of an authoritarian country to give its subjects just what the dictae C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1836. “THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Give a thought at Christmas to the squirrels in your garden, if you live in the suburban sections. q'hnlu“ - :;mumunm. ese only keep these festive rodents busy, but will distract their attention from bird-feeding sta- tions. Either of theése ends is desirable. Both attained, one has a good Christ- mas present in itself. : The squirrels will not recognize the day as anything apart, so you will have to do that for them, Yet of all the happy occupants of the ‘Winter garden, none is o in keeping with the merriment of the season as the plain, ordinary squirrel. He is a fellow who enjoys life to the full. ‘Watch him bound around from limb to limb, from tree to tree, or running along a fence rail, or tight-rope-walking it on the telephone wire. Then he seems the very incarnation of life in happiness, embodying the mean- ing, in his humble way, of & season of which he knows nothing. * xx % Squirrels at bird feeding stations are perpetual sources of amusement and worry to the human beings who keep the stations supplied with food. Amusement always wins, of course. If feeding the birds, as practiced by an increasing number of home owners every day, were to become a source of worry and nothing else, it would not be worth “while, as far as humanity is concerned. Except, of course, from an economic standpoint. It must never be forgotten that bird feeding helps conserve these best destroyers of inimical insects. With- out the birds there would be no agri- culture. But it cannot be gainsaid that the average householder, feeding the birds in his yard, is not thinking of this aspect of his hobby, but solely of the apparent €00d he does these feathered creatures, and of his own entertainment through watching them. That this entertainment carries with it and is based upon real Christian practice of being helpful to small creatures, is something which need not worry the bird observer at the time. R But what will worry him, despite his best efforts, is the squirrel. This is the most constant bird at his feeding stations. It comes early (although it does not remain late) and insists on raking through the trays of every feeder in an, effort to find the special types of seeds and grains it likes. One might think a squirrel a veritable bird, indeed, so great 1s its avidity for seeds, especially the plumper sorts, such as the sunflower, the cardinal's favorite. The squirrel is one of the best reasons why every feeder put up should be fixed solidly on its post, stand or tree or other holder. The birds would not jostle it much, even the largest of them. but the squirrel is something else again, and must be guarded against. Now to keep him away is almost impos- sible. If in feeding the birds one has first to trap and cart away the squirrels, and then trap and get rid cf the English sparrows, as some advocate, the activity _would not be worth it. Fortunately there is no need for all this. The squirrels, while in a sense a nuisance, may-be regarded with amuse- ment. They are, in truth, great come- dians. The squirrels in time are seen for what they are, the real comedians of the garden play. Without their antics any garden would be the poorer. They furnish true comedy, although at times it may not be appreci- ated. * % %% ‘The sight of one of these fat rascals, filling up the entire tray of a feeder, with his great tail bushing out, and his bright little eyes peering forth, is one to bring true joy to the heart and mind of the Nature lover. And this no matter how many times he has seen the same sight, and no matter how much he tes the great pawfuls of seed which the enter- prising rodent shovels out to the ground. The birds, fortunately for them, are not much afraid of the squirrels. ‘When the songsters are busily eating at & feeder, both from the shelf and from the ground beneath, they will scatter a bit when a squirrel darts across the yard. No sooner has it ascended to the tray, however, and thus ejected the birds from that place, thar the whole flock of feeders comes back to earth and eats placidly away again. Indeed, even if the rocent finally scampers down with them, they will not fly away, but may be seen eating with him, side by side, in true natural brother- hood. This is one of the happy features of bird feeding and must be kept in mind by the watcher, when at tiines he or she thinks the scene would be better off without the squirrels. * % x 2 Feeding stations which offer these rodents any soft materials, such as roof- ing, or paper, will be torn up to the full extent of Lhe softness of the material and the mischievous powers of the squir- rels. There is nothing they love better than to pull and haul at some inoffending corner where they can gnaw away at with their needie-sharp teeth. This fact must be kept in mind, then, in building a feeding station. Make it as squirrel-proof as possible. While pieces of tin may be so placed that the rodents cannot ascend at all, these pre- ventive devices are invariably ugly. And the chances are that the squirrels will be able to circumvent them, after all. They are, in truth, brainy fellows, with a persistency and will power second only to their sense of the comic That they possess this latter quality there can be no doubt at all. Watch them in the garden this Christ- mas time and deny it who can. Few wiil want to. Every watcher will think the squirrels have more than earned that gift of choice nuts. WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. Season’s greetings from Premier Mus- solini to the American people seem to have taken the form of Il Duce’s de- cision to dispatch his vivacious daugh- ter, Countess Edda Ciano, wife of the Italian foreign minister, on a visit to the United States. She will arrive on Jan- uary 21 and spend six weeks on a coast- to-coast tour. The countess, a great favorite of her distinguished dad, will be accompanied by Marquis Leonardo Vitett! and his American wife, the for- mer Natalie Coe of Long Island. The marquis is well remembered in Wash- ington from his service as a secretary of the Italian Embassy 10 years ago. Standing high in Mussolini's graces, he is_now director general of European affairs at the Rome foreign office. Coun- tess Ciano’s sojourn will be without official character. She is coming purely as a sight-seer. Recently she was the recipient of conspicuous honors during & visit to Berlin. Her husband, widely regarded as heir to Mussolini’s place of eminence has long desired to explore the U. S. A, but the present troublous state of Europe makes it impossible for him to come here at this time. Among items ¢n Countess Ciano’s itinerary are & shooting party at the Marchioness Vitetti’s ancestral estate, near Charles- ton, 8. C, and a close-up of Hollywood. *x % x Former Senator Simeon D. Fess was the perfect flower of regular Repub- licanism. He looked upon the G. O. P. as the sole fountain of national good and burned incense before it with almost religlous fervor. Once upon a time, in accordance with the hope that springs eternal in the bosoms of all true sons of the elephant in Ohio, Fess flirted with the dream that a presidentisl iomi- nation might light on his devoted and industrious shoulders. But the national committee chairmanship was the high- est rung of the party ladder to which he ever climbed. Though never an in- spiring figure, Fess’' congressional col- leagues held his intellectual equipment and political zeal in high esteem. When he left the Senate two years ago, the schoolmaster of Yellow Springs pitched his tent at the Library of Congress in order to make some exhaustive re- searches for a series of works on the con- stitutional phases of legislation. He had already written books on United Stated history and American political theory. * x % x Another important New Dealer 1is about to quit—John J. Burns, general counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is retiring to resume private practice either in New York or Boston. NMr. Burns, Harvard law man and former justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, was brought into the commission by its first chairman, Joseph P. Kennedy, and played a major part in directing its policies, specialty resumed from some quarter as soon as Congress is on the job. Mr. Hopkins’ fight for his irreducible minimum is sure to strengthen the hands of those members of House and Senate, who are admittedly anxious, with the home folks in mind, to keep relief dollars rolling. With Hopkins’ facts and figures as talk- ing points, the “gimme” block is ex- pected to enact a vociferous and per- sistent role. * % x % ‘Turmoil in Cuba, resuitant from Presi- dent Gomez's impeachment, could not have broken out at a more inopportune moment, from Uncle Sam’s standpoint. Some Pan-American authorities feel that high-handed events at Havana take a bit of the edge off the love feast which the 21 Americas just staged at Buenos Aires. Dr. Gomez visited Washington as President-elect last Spring, and made the most iavorable impression on Presi- dent Roosevelt and Secretary Hull. He left behind him a feeling that faction- alism in the strife-torn island had come to an end with his constitutional elec- tion to the presidency. While Washing- ton has suspected that Col. Batista and the army were scheming for more power, our people thought that the concilatory, square-shooting Gomez would keep things on an even keel. His sudden upset took Washington by surprise. If the Platt amendment still existed the United States Navy might once again be showing its flag off Morro Castle. * x k% Louis Stark, the New York Times labor expert at Washington, has just coined a prize word for the speculation that has so long raged around the un- empléyed total. He dubs these wildly divergent tabulations “guesstimates.” Even today, with the depression on its last legs, statisticlans are miles apart regarding the actual jobless population. American Federation of Labor figures, now in process of revision, are expected to reveal approximately about 8500,000 idle. The United States Chamber of Commerce “guesstimate” 1is 4,000,000 The National Industrial Conference Board’s total is close to the A. F. of L. count. How soon the Federal Govern- ment, in President Roosevelt’s idiom, can retire from “this business of re- lief” will depend very largely on the compilation of reliable unemployment data Exactly what constitutes being “out of work” is still a moot question. xxxx White House pians at long last to grapple with departmental reorganiza- tion reminds contemporary observers of the Washington scene that the project has whiskers at least 15 years old. It was something to which first the Harding sadministration set its hand. Walter P. Brown of Ohio, later Postmaster Gen- eral under Hoover, was intrusted with the job of bringing order out of execu- tive chaos. But beyond a mounting pile of reports, surveys and blue prints, which spasmodically enlisted public interest and cabinet attention, the project It's suspected that one of the reasons why Jim Farley may not scon leave the cabinet is that F. D. R. may find it use- 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. Why was there hesitation in the Irish Free State in accepting King George VI when therc was not in the case of King Edward VIII?—R. K. A. The action of the Irish Free Btate with regard to His Majesty King George VI connotes no personal objections to the present monarch. Under the statutes of Westminster the British dominions may refuse to accept a new sovereign in the case of abdication if they so desire. ‘The Free State was already in the proc- ess of drawing up the new constitution, under which the name of the King is to be omitted as far as internal affairs are concerned. The Dail had adjourned for the Christmas holidays when the abdication came and reconvened in order to consider the new question. King George VI has now been accepted and the objection which was raised was merely further manifestation of Irish nationalistic feeling. Q. How many immigrants came to this country last year?—A. B. A. During the last calendar year 34912 immigrants came to the United States for permanent residence. Q. How many people marched in Presi- dent Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inau- gural parade?—C. K. A. Approximately 18,000 marched in a procession that took more than threc hours to pass the reviewing stand. Q. Do many colleges have compulsory chapel attendance?—H. J. H. A. A survey of 828 institutions for the Council for Church Boards of Education reports that more than half the State and_ municipal schools have no chapel at all. Fifty-one colleges have changed chapel requirements in the last 20 years, and 38 since 1930. Of these 22 made attendance voluntary, 16 reduced number of services or increased cuts, while 12 made rules stricter. Q. How does the amount of whisky made in Kentucky in 1933 compare with the present production?—C. H. A. In 1933 Kentucky's whisky output was 2,800,000 gallons. In 1935 produc- tion amounted to 53,000,000 gallons, Q. Did Kant, the philosopher, live in retirement?—M. H. A. Kant spent his entire life in Konigs- berg, Prussia, engaged in his professorial duties and the writing of his great philosophical works. He lived in re- tirement under strict, self-imposed rules for health and study, never having trav- eled more than 60 miles outside of his native city. Q. Is it correct for a young woman to go to visit the family of a young man on his invitation?>—F. R. 8. A. The invitation should come from either his mother or his sister. Q. What are the names of the different kinds of Pacific salmon?—E. H. A. There are five kinds: The quinnat, the blueback, the silver, the chum and the pink salmon. Q. Is it true that birth certificates in New York do not show whether or not the parents of the child are married? —B. D. A. New York birth certificates have spaces only for the maiden name of the mother and the name of the father and no space for a notation as to their marital status, if any. Q. How much was paid for a slave before the Civil War?—H. J. E. A. The value of slaves varied greatly from $100 or less on an old decrepit Negro to considerably over $1,000 in the case of a strong active young person. In ex- ceptional cases, such as a young and beautiful girl, the price is said to: have run into several thousand dollars. It is estimated that an average price would be $600. Q. Who is the new president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America?—G. L. A. Dr. Edgar De Witt Jones of Detroit was recently elected to that office. Q. What are the Sea Scouts?—E. H. A. The Sea Scouts are an important part of the Boy Scout senior program for youths of 15 or older. They are con- cerned with nautical and aquatic matters —swimming, sailing, rowing, marine his- tory, marlinspike seamanship, ground tackle, life abcard ship, rules of the road at sea, foreign commerce, navigation, sig- naling and cruising. Q. Has Switzerland a national anthem? —M. C. A. It has. It is “Rufst du Mein Vater- land” (“Callest Thou, My Fatherland”). It is written in German by J. R. Wyss (1781-1830). Q. Who directs Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their dances?—E. H. A. Hermes Pan is their dance director. Q. How many of each party were elected to the Cortes at the last election in Spain?—C. K. A. The total number of members of the Spanish Cortes is 473. In the Feb- ruary election of 1936, the party of the Left, which is the party of the present government, secured 253 seats; the party of the Right, consisting of the Conserva- tives, the Royalists, Clericals or Catholics, Agrarians, Fascists, Liberal Democrats and monarchists, obtained 200 seats; while the Center party, with political affiliation with the Rights, secured ap- proximately 20 seats. Q. What is the name of the poem which begin “'Twas the night kefore Christmas”?—N. N. A. Its title is “A Visit from 8t Nicholas.” ——— Page Joe Miller} R4 Prom the Lowell Leader. Scientists of the Department of Agri- culture now tell us that white meat is increased when chickens are allowed a free and wider range. 8o that it may be inexpedient to discourage a chicken from crossing the road. A Rhyme at Twilight B: 2 y Gertrude Brooke Hamilton It’s Snowing.