Evening Star Newspaper, December 27, 1936, Page 28

. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., DECEMBER 27, 1936—PART TWO. ' ‘WHAT OF TOMORROW? BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL.D, D.C. L, BISHOP OF WASHINGTON. THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON,D. C. - BUNDAY. December 27, 1936 THEODORE W. —_— The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Pennsylvanis Ave. wow Fork Slice: TI0 Est Sond Bt Ohicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave. Rate by Carrier Within the City. RER 'when 4 Sui g Night Final Editien. light Final and Sunday Sta: -70c per month ht Pinal Star, .. - ~65¢ per month llection made at the el 1 ‘ni ‘month. Qrders may be sent by mall or telephons Na- tional 3001 Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia, ly llfid Sunda: 1 yr. !lg.%: 1 s 1 yr. "36.00 All Other States and Canada. aug Sunear——L yr. i3t § me. e i 1 mo. Member of the Associated Press. 15 exclusively entitled to e e o republication of all mews dlspaiches eredited to 1t or not otherwise credited in thia peper and also the local news publllha erein cll {!llnm of_publication of special dispatches erein are also rved. mo., g& mo. 400 rese: ———————————————————— Opera Bouffe. ‘Ways and means of Oriental statecraft pass the feeble comprehension of the ‘West. In the case of the capture of Gen- eralissimo Chiang Kai-shek by Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang and the former's liberation after a fortnight's imprison- ment, it is especially difficult to fathom the true inwardness of an episode that has all the ingredients of opera bouffe. Until the truth is available and the con- sequences destined to flow from the inci- dent are more clearly visible, nobody but Gilbert and Sullivan could possibly do Justice to as weird an affair as ever took its place even in the tortuous history of Chinege political puzzles. Chiang Kai-shek is back at Nanking, having been accompanied to the capital by his late captor, “the young marshal,” in the guise of a rebel ready to “face the music” for the uprising of December 12 and the subsequent kidnaping of the government chief. The generalissimo’s release was obtained, under circum- stances still highly mysterious, through negotiation with Chang by Chiang Kai- shek’s American-educated wife, her brother, T. V. Soong, governor of the Bank of China, and William H. Donald, Chiang's Australian adviser. A settle- ment was arranged which seems to have suited all parties. It ensued after ex- planations that Chang acted against the head of the state through “misunder- standing” on two scores—(1) that the government intended to punish the marshal for ineffective military activity against the Communists, and (2) be- cause Nanking had stopped paying Chang and his troops their wages. ‘When it developed that there was no plan to discipline Chang and that his pay roll funds had been misappropriated by a subordinate the marshal agreed not only to set Chiang free, but to accompany him to Nanking as an act of penance. What will now happen is something no Occidental, and probably no Chinese, would venture to foretell. There are re- ports that Chang was bought off with & sufficiently fat ransom to permit him to live in luxurious exile, and that thus his “face” will be saved. Of more im- portance than any fate in store for the former Manchurian war lord is the ques- tion of China's relations with Japan, as they may be affected by the Chiang- Chang maneuver and its amazing after- math. Japan and Russia at first accused each other of instigating the kidnaping of the generalissimo. But there is no reliable evidence tc support either accu- sation. The Japanese apparently made no effort to capitalize the crisis which Nan- king faced during Chiang's incarcera- tion. As to the future, much depends upon whether Nanking traded to Chang, as the price of Chiang's restoration, a pledge to maintain a stiffer attitude to- ward Japanese pretensions in China, pos- sibly to the point of a declaration of war. Relations with the Soviet would be in- fluenced by any concessions extorted from Nanking in favor of Chinese Com- munists. Japan's hands-off policy may be due in part to the bitter criticism to which the Hirota government's foreign policy is being subjected in the new Diet at Toklo, It is, of course, premature to conclude that Nanking's troubles with other ambitious war lords like Marshal Chang are at an end and that the la- borious process of “unifying” China will now take a normal course. Military evolutions in a parade do not necessarily imply a warlike spirit. Some of the best marching may be pro- vided by the High School Cadets or the Mystic Shriners, not to mention the National Guard. The Republican campaign organization will remain intact for future operations and in the meantime study any new sys- tems of budget balancing which the administration may develop. Gossip Rebuked. - King Leopold of the Belgians, still mourning the tragic death of his consort, 'Queen Astrid, has found it necessary to protest against misrepresentation by rumor mongers. He has publicly re- buked the unknown sponsors of a story to the effect that he was considering a second marriage. Such reports, he said, “might be excusable when they concern & bachelor prince, but are not when they concern the head of a state whose heart 1s bleeding from a wound far from com- pletely healed. Gossip about the King's private life ought to be prohibited.” But the problem of what the Bible oalls “the mischief of tongues” cannot be solved by indignation. It is human to discuss humanity. People are nat- urally interested in people. Laws against talebearing never have been obeyed; regulations against tattling never have Been amenable to successful enforcement. Indeed, endeavor to suppress unkindly whispering is apt to lend to it the pre- sumptive color of truth and to magnify ] its harmful power immeasurably. The Belgian sovereign, it might be suggested, owes a debt of gratitude to those who brought to light the libel against him and thus gave him opportunity to deny it convincingly. Being openly answered, his detractors are discomfited. Their capacity to hurt has been taken away; their fangs are drawn. A Lesser individuals, perhaps, would be well adviséd to be guided by Leopold’s example. It is related of Grover Cleve- land that, during one of his campaigns for the presidency, a heckler demanded to know if it were true that he once had hanged a man with his own hands. The answer was prompt and passionate: “I may have. If so, the man deserved to be hanged and it was my sworn duty to hang him. What would you have done had you been in my place? Asked some other fellow to substitute for you?” Another candidate for the highest office within the gift of the American electorate, nameless because fortunately still living, on & certain occasion told his friends: “Go out and try to discover the meanest things the opposition is charging against me; I want to know what they are, so that I can nail them down.” His theory was that publicity is the best remedy for slander. King Leopold “seconds the motion.” Back to Joseph’s Plan. ‘The report and recommendations of the President’s Committee on Crop In- surance are singularly free from the trumpet-blowing and the glittering promises that so often accompany the launching of new devices to improve the lot of man. This may be explained, in part, by the committee’s realization that there is nothing radically ‘new in its scheme. Joseph, summoned as the almost forgotten man from prison, outlined sub- stantially the same thing to Pharaoh, in- cluding even the localized administration by county committees. The fundamental differences are that Joseph was a better crop forecaster than any we have today, and that while he thought mainly in terms of insuring the people of Egypt against crop failures, Secretary Wallace advances crop insurance as another form of aid to the farmer. i The committee’s report records past failures of crop insurance experiments privately conducted, at‘ributing them partially to the lack of ‘adequate crop data and satisfactory actuarial statistics upon which to base rates. These, it is contended, have to a helpful extent been furnished by the Department of Agri- culture’s experience in A. A. A. crop control and through many conferences with farmers and insurance experts. The committee has outlined & definite pro- gram of crop insurance and recommended its adoption, to begin with wheat and to be extended only as experience and the interest of producers of other crops may dictate. Some of the important elements of the plan are that while crop insurance will be extended only to wheat growers who want it, the premium rates, payable in kind, will vary with the conditions on the individual farm and the county in which the farm is located. This would tend to prevent the competent farmer from bearing the losses due to shiftless farming by his unskilled neighbor. The insurance would extend only to seventy- five per cent of what is decided as & normal crop, and would apply to ecrop yield and not to price. The wheat paid as insurance premiums would be stored at Government expense in bonded ware- houses for payment, in adverse years, as indemnity. While the farmer would have the privilege of paying premiums in cash, instead of in kind, the Government would immediately use the cash for the pur- chase of wheat for storage. The proposal that the Government shoulder all the overhead expense, such as administration and storage, is de- fended on the ground that crop insurance will in some cases supplement, if not re- place, other forms of Government aid. The strength of this argumént, however, is not measureable until estimates of cost to the Government, based on some actual experience, are available. The other Justification for the Government's shoul- dering the cost of overhead is that the anticipated results of erop insurance, in the form of accumulating supplies during the fat years for use during the lean years is a public benefit. 8o enthusiastic was Pharach over Joseph’s interpretation of his dream, and s0 confident was he of the sound- ness of Joseph's plan, that he “took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph’s hand and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck, and. he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had, and they eried before him and made him ruler over all Egypt. “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” ‘Which may explain the Department of Agriculture’s insistence that full adminis- trative control over the crop insurance plan be placed with the Department of Agriculture. ———— Suburban police demand a raise of pay. They work hard and ask nothing like the compensation which an adroit politician may command for working up to nothing but & nolle pros. Trotsky to Mexico. Leon Trotsky, it is announced from Oslo, has left Norway for Mexico. The international significance of his hegira perhaps may be noteworthy. Arriving at his destination, he will be again an actor in the American scene. His writings, re- produced in the press, and his speeches, heard over the radio, are to be reckoned with. It is not too much to forecast re- newed activity for him. Still an agitator, he will strive to make the most of his opportunities to reform the New World :l’ tragically enough, he reformed the d. - But ' Trotsky’s powers have declined. He is twenty years older than he was in 1016, when, an impoverished journalist in New York, he plotted the overthrow of Nicholast IT, Osar of All the Russias, Also, it may be hoped, soclety is twenty A years wisex than it was at the time of | the outbreak of the troubles in 8t. Peters- burg and Moscow of which he was & promoter. Theoretically, Europe needed the kind of revolution he designed. A numerous company of idealists on both sides of the Atlantic had preached rebel- lion in the interests of social democracy, and their influence was reflected in the tolerance of millions who, discouraged by prevailing conditions, were willing to gamble on the result. So the Communists got their chance to wreck & civilization already staggering. And Trotsky incontrovertibly was one of the principal architects of the de- struction and anarchy which followed the collapse of imperialism. He helped to clear the path of Mussolini, he aided in the building of the road over which Hit- ler rode to fame. The effect of Bolshev- ism in the East is felt today throughout the West. Such was his dream. As John Reed said, it was part of his purpose to shake the planet. The pity of it is that he was not satisfled with his work. His plan for a proletarian dictatorship was perfect, as he visioned it. Yet when it had been transiated from the realm of adventurous philosophy into the realm of sober fact, he was not pleased. Instead, he attempted to tear it down and argued for another beginning. The masters he had elevated to positions of dominion drove him into exile. Meanwhile, a universal audience watched the drama of his experiment with increasing disapproval. His blue print, it was evident, was faulty; his methods were barbarous. Chroniclers of the future will tell the whole tale as it should be told. And Trotsky's contempo- raries should record for their attention the judgment of disappointment, disillu- sionment and rejection which is the proper verdict to be rendered against the doctrine and the forces which he has personified to his own discomfiture and mankind's sorrow. Mexico will receive him, but America at large no longer should believe him. ———— A demand for representation in Con- gress is for the District of Columbia, like other questions of highest impor- tance, always classified as “unfinished business.” There are types of pettifog- ging that depend on deferring an issue instead of meeting it with candor in terms of simple justice. ————— ‘The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ex- presses a simple dignity of sentiment that can hardly account for the desire of the late Basil Zaharoff's wish to figure in history as the forgotten munitions sales- man. —_——— It is wisely observed that the world never stood more in need of religion, and the fact should be evident that it is no time for religions to resume quarreling among themselves, —_———— It has been found possible to repress Troteky to such a degree that the only news he can provide of real interest is the latest stop in his itinerary. Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. “On Yoh Way:” December go a-slippin’ along ‘Whar de sky is cold an’ gray, An’ as she go she sing dis song: “On yoh-way, chile! On yoh way! Dar ain’ no use of a-turnin’ back To travel de recollection track. You wants to look forward, fur a fack— On yoh way, chile! On yoh way! “Oh, January’s nex’ in line, An’ it ain’ so long till May, When de flowers will bloom an’ de sun will shine! Oh yoh way, chile! On yoh way! Dar's ginéter be ice an’ sleet an’ snow, An’ de weeks will seem to travel slow, But a smile an’ a song will help 'em go. ©On yoh way, chile! On yoh way!” Same Old List. “Have you selected your list of New Year resolutions for 1937?” “Yes,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I remind myself of my patient constitu- ents who listen to the same old ideas from me year after year.” Take & look in your own mirror be- fore you laugh at the man who is wearing his Christmas necktie, A New New Year, Along comes New Year, Next upon the list! With joy-the-whole-way-through year; Too precious to be missed. Of Happy New Year we have told For many years gone by. We'll make it now in truth unfold— At least we're going to try. Along comes New Year With resolutions fine; An honest and a true year To hold ’em all in line! The same old Dreams we're cherishing, And when the year is new ‘We hope that Time some way will bring To make ‘em all come true. On the Ran. “That candidate has become rather unpopular in this community.” “Yep,” replied Farmer Corntossel, “us constituents is gettin’ right resentful. If he starts to run for office about once more I wouldn't be surprised if he had to change his mind and run for his life.” Usefulness. “Did your wife give you s useful Social Security Problems Just Beginning BY OWEN L. SCOTT. One per cent will be deducted from the employe, 3 per cent from the employer. ‘Together, they represent a vast system of forced saving in the interest of future security. Workers are forced, by taxa- tion, to save against the time when they will be old. Employers, similarly by taxation, are forced to help their workers build up old-age accounts and to build reserves of their own against unemploy- ment. * * ¥ % Federal Government calculations for the future revolve more and more around these savings. Through them there is the prospect that the Treasury will be relieved of the need for further borrow- ing from bankers, insurance companies and Individual investors. This means that pay roll deductions will bring a cash balance to the national budget— although adding to the debt owed to millions of workers in the future. It means, too, that, by lessening the need for the Government to borrow from the investment market after next July the danger of a future inflation is checked. What actually becomes of the pennies from the 25,000,000 workers and the dollars from the 3,500,000 employers after they are paid into the Treasury? Money taken from the pay rolls of ‘workers, supplemented by money con- tributed by employers under the old-age insurance plan, comes to Washington, where it goes into the general fund of the Treasury. But the Government is setting up individual accounts for every contributing worker, and an entry will be made in those accounts for all of the pennies paid over by the worker and by his employer. Thus the cash will go into the coffers of the Government, while a bookkeeping entry will be made to show that the Government owes this money to the individual. * * % % The course of money taken from em- ployers to support unemployment in- surance systems is less direct, but the effect is much the same. Where there are State unemployment insurance sys- tems the States collect the tax and turn the money over to the Government for safekeeping, to be drawn upon later as workers lose jobs and become eligible for insurance payments. Where there are no State systems the Federal Govern- ment collects the money and keeps it. However, the accumulating pay roll tax dollars are not going to be piled up in a corner of the Treasury to lie unused until each individual draws out the par- ticular dollars that he has contributed. Rather the dollars come in and go im- mediately to work paying bills for Uncle Sam, while the individual is assured that the Government's debt to him is entered on the books. = For example, John Smith, at his next pay day, finds that 25 cents is deducted from his $25 weekly wage. That 25 cents is matched by the employer and goes to the Treasury in Washington. There, together with millions of other contributions, ' it is available to meet current bills. John Smith's pennies may go to pay wages to Bill Jones, at work on the W. P. A. or to pay for armor plate being purchased from the United States Steel Corp. for battleship build- ing, or for any of the multitude of things that the Federal Government spends money to do. * x x But the Government acknowledges its debt to John Smith and all the other millions of contributing workers by set- ting aside bonds to represent this obli- gation and by entering his contribution in the individual account he is to have at the Social Security Board. Since about $1,000,000,000 will flow in from pay roll taxes during 1937—unless collection is stopped by the courts—and since no important payments will be made under the old-age insurance law until 1942, and, under the unemployment insurance law until 1938, this huge amount of cash is going to be available to the Government. By using this cash rather than money borrowed from the investment markets the Treasury can arrange what amounts to a cash balance of the Federal budget. Pay roll tax collections are scheduled to increase year by year until they reach approximately $3,000,000,000. They are scheduled to accumulate until, by 1980, they amount to $47,000,000,000 available to support the old-age insurance system alone. The Federal Government will need to find use for that total of dollars, representing the debt it will owe to workers forced to save against old age. To find use for that much money, it would need not only to buy in all the present debt, but to create an additional $13,000,000,000 of debt. * x x x Such is the eventual effect of the Pplications are becoming apparent enough to cause predictions from officials on the inside of the picture that the whole plan will need to be revamped before many seasons have gone by. Thus the Federal Government is pre- : paring to hire thousands of employes and to spend millions of dollars in an at- tempt to keep an accurate record of all the pennies contributed by each one of £a 1 skég At the end of the old year and in eager anticipation of & new one we would project ourselves into the days that lie ahead and attempt to vision what is to be our lot. “Off with the old and on with the new,” this is the story of life. We rush through our todays ever reach- ing out to discover what is to be in our tomorrows. Had we the power to do so, we would strip away the curtain that shrouds the future and disclose to our viston the events and conditions that await us. Whether the future is to mean success or fallure, happiness or sorrow, physical vigor or failing strength, we are impatient to know what it holds for us. How wise has been the ordering of life that we can only know the events of each passing day. The curtain of night falls and only another sunrise can reveal to us the realization of our expectation, as ‘well as the fulfillment of our hopes and fears. It is well that this is so. He would be daring who would seek to penetrate the unknown. True, We have the benefit of both knowledge and experi- ence and by these we seek to shape our course. We chart the future by what we have learned in the past. There is com- pensation in the fact that a new year, Khyam’s “Rubiyat” and Tennyson’s “In Memoriam,” The first is dark and misty, with little of promise and nothing of hope. It tells the story of unsatisfled carnal desire and of despair that grows out of a future clouded in defeat and ultimate extinction. “One thing is certain, and the rest is lies, Thedl‘lower that once is blown, forever It is the recital of a pilgrimage that finds its only satisfaction in the experi- Fifty Years Ago In The Star “The Star quite agrees with the Sun- day Herald,” says ;lq'he e::r of December : ’ , 1886, “that & new Washington’s gas company will by Gas lnpyly. no means insure this community against the evils it now suffers at the hands of the present greedy monopoly. The Star knows very well that the proposed remedy is an exceedingly risky one, since there is always a strong tendency on the part of competing corporations to com- bine their forces and grind the public to s finer powder than ever between the upper and nether millstones thus brought together, but really there seems to be no other chance, as things go, to get a decent article of gas in Washing- ton. Congress has the power, as every one knows, to afford relief, and it ought to see that it is afforded, even if it be necessary to that end to amend or re- voke the charter of the existing concern —as it doubtless has the right to do, but for some occult reason, while appearing to be active, that body does nothing. A new company was only suggested by The Star as a last possible means of escape, and what it aimed to emphasize in that connection was the fact that the objections to the establishment of another company here are nothing like 50 serious as they are represented to be.” * x * Relations between labor organizations and radical forces were a subject of dis- cussion fifty years ago Labor and as now. The Star of Anarchism. December 29, 1888, says: “Mr. Powderly is going to wage offen- sive as well as defensive war, it seems. Not content with sitting down and let- ting his enemies abuse him, he has issued an order commanding the return to the treasuries of the various local assemblies of Knights of Labor, in dis- trict No. 24, in Chicago, of all money drawn thence for the defense of the anarchist conspirators or for any other object not contemplated by the con- stitution and by-laws of the Knights of Labor. This is in consonance with the advice his best friends having given him for a year past. They have urged upon him the necessity for an aggres- sive campaign against that element in- side of the society who do it more dam- age in & week than Jay Gould and Philip Armour combined could do it in a year. The endeavor of some of these internal foes has been to identify the Knights with the anarchist nda. They have also striven to convince the outside world that a man of the conservative tendencies and judicial temperament of Mr. Powderly could not enforce his orders in Chicago.” * * * “M. Clemenceau,” says The Star of De- cember 30, 1886, referring to the Prench publicist and states- Clemencean man who many years d n’ later was a tower aRd Sumany, strength to the French in the Great War, “endeavors to put a quietus on warlike rumors in Western Europe by saying that ‘it would require a gross provocation indeed to rouse France to war’ with Germany. And yet this statement will satisfy few people with & memory sixteen years lon(_. It will be recalled that France went to war with Prussia in 1870 on & ‘gross provoca=- tion'—an insult which could be wiped out only in blood, in spite of the fact that it was never given. When gross provoca- tions can be found in interviews that never took place, and flings and slights can be manufactured out of no tougher material than the cobwebs in men’s brains, such assurances as M. Clemen- ceau’s must be accepted with caution.” —————————————————————— social insurance field, that the Federal Government is setting up the most com- plicated system of old-age insurance and unemployment insurance that it was pos- sible to devise. Even members of the Bocial Security Board, in private, admit doubt about the future of the plan’s huge reserve fund. But there has come to be a stock answer, given by cabinet suggest! e present system might be in need of important change. The answer {s: “It is either this plan or the send old-age pension plan. Unless is & system of individual accounts for worker in the land, with that wn- Sggersae ?gégsé £ -8 ences and joys of today. There is no tomorrow and if there were it has in it poem with the note of a deep and abiding confidence: “Strong Son of God, immortal love, Whom we that have not seen Thy face, By faith and faith alone embrace, Believing where we cannot prove.” He refused to see in the defeats and disappointments of today the shattering of that which his deeper reasoning be- lieves could never be destroyed. His is a hopeful and expectant philosophy of life. It is inspired by the word of Him, who, facing an inevitable martyrdom, dared to affirm: “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He is the world's supreme optimist. Those who have been His followers have faced their tomorrows with courage and confidence. They could not be defeated, they lived their lives knowing that even a cross could not destroy Him or His power To enter a new year sustained by His word and example means to give assur- ance and hope even though the record of the past witnesses to disappointment and fallure. We cannot go forward in our own strength, it may fail us in an emergency. Despite wars and rumors of wars, despite the folly and cupidity of human reasoning, we press forward be- lieving that, come what may, we are following a leader who cannot be de- feated. “This is the victory that over- cometh the world, even our faith.” Capital Sidelights BY WILL P. KENNEDY. Uncle Sam had a nice Christmas pres- ent of some quarter of a million acres of the best country in all the world's history—this was the gift of generous Americans to preserve forest lands for future generations. and “to obtain the largest net total of public benefits” for all the people. This looks forward to happy New Years under greatly changed conditions since the pioneers hacked their way through the forest and felled their own Christmas trees and firelogs, resulting in the passing of the frontier and the replacement of labor by ma- chinery. It emphasizes many “relative- ties” in our complicated modern life. It opens up vistas and trails for one of the very best of the New Deal agencies— the C. C. C—which is to be an im- portant unit in a new Public Works De- partment, and gives that gallant band of vigorous youth an objective on which they can bend their backs and idealism, while worshiping at God’s altars on the mountainsides. We who live in congested city homes and beehive apartment houses seldom, if ever, stop to realize what is being done by the C. C. C. boys and other Government out-of-doors men in the great open spaces of this broad land ef ours. The physical improvements in this vast national domain of 165,987,691 acres, which includes five new national forests, during the past vear consist of 4,671 miles of telephone lines, 282 public camp grounds, six airplane landing fields, 1,930 miles of firebrezks, 5911 miles of roads and 1,964 miles of trails. Hooray for the C. C. C. boys. And range im- provements include the construction of 1,979 miles of range fences, 504 miles of stock driveway and the development of 2260 water supplies. More than 1,000 small dams were constructed for recrea- tional use, fish, wild life and water con- servation. By tree planting and other- wise, control of erosion has been effected on 345424 acres. Tree planting covered 140,724 acres, an increase of 66,008 last year. Surely the C. C. C. boys are earn- ing their way and winning physiques and learning to live with and love nature. The new year opens large for them— with much good work yet to be done. * x 2 % The sharp division beiween Federal and State functions in Government, the century-old squabbling over States rights, comes to the fore again not only in tax questions, in division of costs over W. P. A. projects—but also over duplica- tion in office holding, which is growing more prevalent. There have been re- peated examples in recent years—a mem- ber of Congress still holding his legisla- tive title while being commissioner of motor vehicles in his home State; a member of Congress still retaining his position as chairman of a campaign in- vestigating committee while serving as a district judge in his native city in New England. Now comes to Congress George J. Bates as successor to the late (and universally loved) Representative A. Piatt Andrew of Salem and Gloucester, Mass. Bates has been Mayor of Salem for 13 years—that office once made fa- mous by “Top-hat” John F. Hurley, a former auctioneer, and coming to Con- gress he declared his intention of also continuing to hold the office of major, making week-end trips back home to handle the financial affairs of the city. In the last Congress, which is closed out of January 4, there was a great furore because Representative Richard M. Russell refused to give up his post as mayor of Cambridge until his term had run out. Then Russell failed of re- election to Congress and the veteran Robert Luce, a decided asset to the Re- publican side of the House, returns. Now Bates takes a leaf out of Russell’s book of experience—declaring he will continue to hold the municipal office, but fending off some criticism “with the distinct understanding that he would accept no salary for his services as mayor while Congress is in session.” There is criti- cism back home and in party circles, however, because he is keeping some other man of the people’s choice out of & good job, where he could work single- mindedly for the advancement of the community. * % * * x % * * gymnasi the members of the House in the new House Office Building is opened again and doing a The lum for steady business. It was formally re- opened with appropriate exercises by Representative James M. Mead, who is chairman of a group of House members who have banded themnl:m mhe;e: support this agency to keep meml “fit.” An muaumz numberpol legisla- tors are to use its facilities, with Dismal Prospect. Prom the Omaha World-Herald. h&wt all the littie boy in Europe can forward to, confidently, is to grow up 10 become an unknown soldier. P & Stamp Series for War Heroes BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN., A new chapter in American philatelie history has just been written with the issuance by the Post Office Department of the Army ané Navy heroes stamp series. Por years philatelists have been importuning the Post Office to issue such a series but, for various official rea- sons, the event was postponed. Now it has been started and it is to be expected that an unbroken series will appear. Presidents of the United States have principal subjects for American postage stamps, but there have been many variations. There have been re- productions of famous paintings, such as the “Landing of the Pilgrims” and the “Landing of Christopher Columbus,” but the Army and Navy heroes have been neglected. There has existed a certain purely American prejudice against the glorificatior of individuals through postage stamp portraiture This appears now to have been broken down. There have been many stamps in the commemorative series. Great occasions are celebrated by the issuance of specially designed stamps in the same manner that such occasions have been celebrated by the issuance of special coins. The usual rule has been to make them some- what impersonal in design, tending more w[;hel hg’:nenul nnc{:flegofiul. policy the United States has differed markedly from most other countries. In Great Britain, for example, no sooner does a new monarch mount the throne than stamps are issued bear- ing his likeness. Even though Edward VIIIL reigned less than a year, stamps Wwith his likeness have been current. The fact that he had not yet been officially crowned and anointed made no dif- ference. The Edward stamps appeared. By the same token, it will be but a brief time before stamps bearing the likeness of George VI, the new King, will be in circulation. * *x * % In South American countries the like- nesses of various presidents appear, as well as portraits of other distinguished persons. The same is true in European countries. There has, it is true, been an increase in the use of landscapes, usually of historical significance, in re- cent years. Here in the United States there are postage stamps showing notable national park scenes. Some military heroes have been hon- ored by stamp portraiture here, but not primarily as such. George ‘Washington was a military hero of the highest order, but, his portrait appears on a stamp issue not because of his sword but because he was President of the United States. The same is true of Andrew Jackson. It might be argued that the American prejudice which has existed so far springs from a certain fear of too great a glori- flcation of the military. Such a fear dates from the foundation of the coun- try. For example, the Constitution pro- vides that no appropriation for the mili- tary branches can be made for more than two years in advance. The theory of this is that if it were possible to pro- vide funds for the maintenance of an army for a long term of years in ad- vance, some President of the United s::ut; being ei;:x;umncle: in chief, might e arme orces to perpe tenure of office. g * % ¥ & It might be suggested that this new departure, this final acceptance of war heroes as stamp subjects, indicates a Fascist turn of sentiment. But that seems scarcely likely. Much of the old fear has been dispelled after so many long years of civilian control of Ameri- can affairs, with the Secretaries of War and of the Navy almost invariably civilians who have never borne arms. Ceremonies marked the initial issuance &the Army u;d Navy stamp series. The le was made on] Franklin station ux?n:‘f»&%m%flfllm new Post Office Building at Washington. Roy M. North, Acting Third Assistant Postmaster General, sold the first sheet of the one-cent Army issue to Secretary of War Woodring. He presented the sheet to a dintinguished guest, Mrs. Eleanor Selden Washington Howard. Mrs. Howard is the great-great-grand niece of George Washington, who might properly be named as America’s No. 1 military hero. She is the only living person who was born at Mount Vernon. The first sheet of the 1-cent Navy stamps was purchased by Admiral Wil- liam H. Standley, retiring chief of naval operations. He also presented the sheet to Mrs. Howard. The stamps will be placed on sale at post offices throughout the country as soon as distribution can oe accomplished. That the demand will be large is indi cated by the circumstance that, in an- ticipation of the first sale at Washing- ton orders numbering 200,000 were placed. *x ok X One of the mysterious things about stamp collecting is that stamps become rare so soon. When one thinks of the millions of copies printed it seems strange that they are not ever-present but soon become rarities. To be sure, most users of stamps are not collectors. An envelope bearing a stamp destined to become rare more often than not is tossed into the waste paper basket, to be sent to the dust bin and the incinerator. There is a distinct fascination about postage stamps. In some fashion they constitute a pictoral history, for usually the pictures which stamps bear, whether of men or events, notice an important subject. The first stamps are traced to 3,800 years before Christ, when the great King Sargon of Babylon employed them as identification of his couriers. That is a long time ago, bpt to this day the same general idea is used. In the exact survival we find that the British post office stamps official mail with the letters O. H M. 8. That means “on His Majesty’s service” and is comparable to the United States postal frank. * E ok % An illustration of stamp rareness is found in the story of the most famous stamp in the world today. In British Guiana the postmaster ran out of the regular issue, periodically shipped him from England. He improvised an issue, printing from a picture of a ship pub- lished in a local newspaper. To guard against counterfeiting clerks initialed each stamp. Many years later a school- boy found one of these stamps among some old papers. He later sold it to a collector for $1.50. The last sale of this unique stamp was for $36.500. There now is a movement afoot to ccilect by popular subscription enough to buy this stamp from its private owner and place it in the Smithsonian Institution. So far as is known it is the only copy of this issue extant. What is declared to be the most popular of all Uncle Sam’'s publications is a booklet, issued by the Post Office Depart- ment, called “A Description of United States Postage Stamps.”* No sooner is one edition off the press than it is ex- hausted and another called for. Early in the year will appear a fresh edition, but, unlike all previous ones, it will be illustrated with cuts of the various issues. It is unlawful ":;rw any m&: person or company to luce stamps, even for illustration, but that tion does not run against the