Evening Star Newspaper, May 25, 1937, Page 10

A—10 THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition, WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY.__ _May 25, 1937 THEODORE W. NOYES The Evening Star Newspaper Company. 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd 8t. Chicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave. Rate by Carrier—City and Suburban. Regular Edi - d Sunday Star Bkt :“ ‘655 per month or 15c per week The Evenink BUaL. o month or i0c per week The Bunday Star ----5¢c per copy Night Final Edition Night Final and Sunday 8t 70¢ per month Night Final "Star o 55¢ per month Collection made at the end of each month or each week. Orders may be sent by mail or tele- phone National 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia, Daily and Sunday__ 1 yr., $10.00; Daily oaly _ H Bundsy only. 1 'mo., 85c 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. The Wage-Hour Message. President Roosevelt has asked the expected of Congress, a law governing maximum hours and minimum wages for labor which goes into interstate com- merce and the production of those things which comprise interstate commerce. And immediately bills to carry the Presi- dent’s recommendation into effect have been introduced into the House and Senate. It is the contention of the President and of those sponsoring the bills that only by a Federal law is it possible to reach the workers in all States, and that it is necessary to reach them in order to “extend the frontiers of social prog- ress.” The proposal calls for a liberal interpretation of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution. The manu- facture of goods that go into interstate commerce, rather than the actual trans- portation of the goods, is to be the basis of this interpretation. The President maintains that it is the right and duty of Congress to deal with the conditions under which these goods are produced, particularly as they relate to the labor involved. The standards which the President proposes for labor that goes into the pro- duction of goods that figure in inter- state commerce deal with maximum hours and minimum wages, with the enforcement of the right of collective bargaining on the part of employes and with the elimination of child labor. The Chief Executive, in his message to Con- gress, did not specify what should be the minimum wage nor the maximum hours of labor. Those are matters left to Congress. Neither of the bills in- troduced yesterday attempts to fix these standards definitely, although they apparently contemplate that Congress will write them in. The discussions pre- ceding the launching of the bills and the transmission of the President’s mes- sage indicated that the maximum work week would be forty hours and the min- dmum wage forty cents an hour. It is proposed, however, in both the House and Senate bills, to create a Federal labor board composed of five members with power to administer the proposed law. This board, it is now said, may be given discretion to fix, within certain limits, the minimum wage and the maximum hours of labor in the various industries producing goods that go into interstate commerce. It is an enormous and important discretion, a delegation of power that might easily “run riot.” The objectives of the President are admirable—the elimination of child labor and the elimination of underpaid, over- worked men and women. The field in which the new law is expected to operate is of great complexity, as the President himself realizes. He wisely recommends that there be not too great haste in seeking to develop national yardsticks for minimum wages and maximum hours of labor. Recognizing that there is much labor that goes into goods and services which do not become factors in interstate commerce, the President has declared that the States should deal with the problem of hours and wages which do not affect interstate commerce. Under recent decisions of the Supreme Court it has become clear that the States have this right. What the President has pro- posed is, however, a very long stride toward the control of working conditions in the States by the Federal Govern- ment. How the plan will work is still & matter of conjecture, and also whether 1t will in the end prove a benefit to workers., What it proposes is to give protection against long hours and low wages. On the other hand, there is always the danger that it may restrict the workingman in his earning capacity. j Boys’ Club Campaign. The Star is glad to indorse the current campaign to raise seventy-five thousand dqllars for the support of the work of the Metropolitan Police Boys’ Club. Sixty-three citizens, representing every neighborhood within the boundaries of the District of Columbia, are the spon- sors, and their altruistic effort deserves the commendation of the entire com- munity, The money solicited .will be spent to develop and maintain the foyr branches of the organization established in 1984 by Major Emest W. Brown, su- perintendent of police, as one of his constructive endeavors to make the Na- tion's Capital a safer and happier place in which to live. Need for the club is demonstrated by the fact that a branch opened only a month ago already has enrolled thirty- three hundred members, and the effi- ciency of the club idea is proved by a forty-five per cent decrease in juvenile delinquency in the past two years. The alternative to such guidance and direc- tion as the club provides would be that anarchistic type of neglect which leaves | Doys free to follow the line of least re- sistance into crime and misdemeanor in- A finitely more costly. Patently, it would tax the imagination to conceive of & wiser investment for civic benefit than a generous endowment of the city’s under-privileged youth. ‘The matter, however, stands in want of no labored argument. Either one responds instinctively to the appeal or one rejects it thoughtlessly and selfishly. The average heart, it may be presumed, will be sympathetic, and the fund should be collected promptly and without over- much difficulty. Few Washingtorians will desire to resist the petition of a future generation which is appreciated affectionately for its qualities of manli- ness, intelligence and courage. Climax of a Trilogy. Yesterday’s decisions upholding valid- ity of contested provisions of the social security act are of great importance in themselves, setting as they do the final seal of approval on the most far-reach- ing of the National Government’s experi- ments in social legislation. But in a larger sense yesterday's de- cisions are even more important than approval of the particular statute on which they were made. For the decisions constitute the third part of a trilogy on the new interpretation of the Consti- tution written by the Supreme Court in the historic term that comes to a close next week. This term has witnessed established conceptions of the powers of legislative bodies—both Federal and State—and the division of such powers between the Federal and State governments, con- ceptions based on a long line of court decisions, changed if not swept away. There has come, for better or for worse, a new deal in the court’s reading of the Constitution. Old frontiers, beyond which it was dangerous to tread under previous decisions, have been pushed toward a distant horizon which is as yet only dimly defined. In the minimum wage decision the court reiterated, but nevertheless em- phasized with extraordinary force, the limitations imposed on judicial powers in the interpretation of “due process.” The courts, the opinion declared, are not concerned with the substance of laws —which is the province of the legisla- tures—as much as with the pro¢edure of their enactment and administration. 8o much social legislation has been success- fully attacked under the due process clause that the court’s decision in effect removed & barrier in this fleld which had been steadily strengthened by judi- cial decree since the Civil War. In the decision on the Wagner cases the court did not go so far, perhaps, as to write & new definition of the inter- state commerce that is subject to Fed- eral regulation. It did not, perhaps, so much as reverse its previous dictum that manufacture is not commerce. But it did enunciate the broad principle that manufacture which substantially affects interstate commerce, even though the effect be indirect, is subject to Federal Regulation. And now, in the validation of the social security act, the court has broad- ened considerably its previous construc- tions of the power to tax under the general welfare clause of the Constitu- tion. This power is still subject to limi- tation. “The line,” as Justice Cardozo said in the opinion on the old-age benefit section of the act, “must still be drawn between one welfare and another, be- tween particular and general. Where this shall be placed cannot be known through a formula in advance of the event. There is a middle ground or certainly a penumbra in which discre- tion is at large. This discretion, how- ever, is not confided to the courts. The discretion belongs to Congress, unless the choice is clearly wrong, a display of arbitrary power, not an exercise of judg- ment. This is now familiar law.” But it is only recently familiar law. Senator Wagner, that sturdy pioneer in unemployment insurance legislation as well as the labor legislation which bears his name, has hailed the decision as striking off “these shackles” imposed by previous decisions of the court affect- ing due process and inferstate com- merce. He says, with full right to his enthusiasm, that “through the national labor relations act decisions and the social security act decisions, the Federal Government stands ready and able in the full plenitude of the power originally conferred upon it in 1789.to legislate for the welfare of the whole American Ppeople.” Does not the President agree with Senator Wagner? Does not the court’s decision in the social security cases, coupled with its decisions affecting inter- state commerce and the due process clause, once and for all do away with the discredited court-packing plan? The American people will approve and rec- oncile a change in the court's point of view with & change in the nature of our society and its problems and with new conceptions of governmental responsi- bility resulting from such changes and problems. But they will not approve a dangerous redesign of the American form of government under the pretense of accomplishing what already is being accomplished. Sesquicentennial. ‘The national celebration of the sesqui- centennial of the Constitution properly should begin today. It was on May 25, 1787, that the convention summoned to frame the basic charter of American liberty first met at Philadelphia. The place of gathering was the same city, the same building, indeed the same room, from which the Declaration of Independence had emerged eleven years earlier. A more fitting scene could not have been selected. Representing the best and most constructive thought of thirteen self-governing commonweslths, the delegates by general consent were regarded as “the best brains of the land.” Some of the signers, perforce, were absent—Thomas Jefferson and John Adams at the moment were in Europe on the business of their country—but, a3 Dr. Henry William Elson says in his “History of the United States” “an THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1937. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES B. TRACEWELL, abler body of statesmen has not assem- bled in modern times, nor has any as- sembly met with truer motives or pro- duced a grander result.” George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were present. The “most learned lawyer” was James Wilson of Pennsylvania, later to serve on the Supreme Bench, but “for profound knowledge of constitutional law few sur- passed the youthful James Madison of Virginia,” afterward to be President. Also well to the front were Alexander Hamilton, the Federalist philosopher, destined to die at the hands of Aaron Burr with his work unfinished; Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution; Gouverneur Morris, the author of the decimal system of money; Edmund Ran- dolph, Governor of Virginia; John Rut- ledge, South Carolina’s brilliant orator; Charles Pinckney, subsequently to be an envoy to France and twice candidate for the White House; Roger Sherman, the shoemaker-statesman of Connecti- cut; Rufus King and Elbridge Gerry. The citizen-soldier who had been com- mander-in-chief of the continental armies was elected chairman. He ac- cepted the responsibility with no fllu- sions, saying: “If, to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.” Little of the Constitution was new. “Much of it,” declared Viscount Bryce, “is as old as Magna Charta.” Still more of it, probably, traced back to the Holy Scriptures. Dr. Elson summarizes the unchallenged fact when he writes: “The framers gleaned from history, from the mother land, and especially from the various 8tate constitutions. * * * On the whole, the instrument was a com- pilation, not an original production, It was the culmination of the institutional growth of two centuries—a tree with trunk and branches purely American grafted on an English root.” Remembering these things, it is geod that the celebration of the Constitution should occur in 1937. The observation will educate the people to understand the campaign which currently is being waged against their freedom. By the end of the year the masses should com- prehend the emergency and, providen- tially long before that date, should dis- cover the proper answer to return to those who would destroy their funda- mental heritage in the interest of some allegedly expedient innovation imported from Moscow, Rome, Berlin or other and even nearer center of alien sophistry. N — Markets are described as moving with- in a narrow margin with a hope for action on unexpected trading. There is always something to cheer the atten- tion no matter how the market happens to be going. If a man fails to find it satisfactory he can imitate Mr. Van Devanter's course and check up on it both practically and theoretically. —————— After seeing the resuits of his political activity, General Jim Farley is possibly wondering whether it might not have been as well for him to have watched the game without betting his entire future on it. ——oe—s. Maryland will have many handsome rewards for competent men in official life. The question of getting the com- petent properly discriminated from the merely lucky is one that may take a little time. —————e—. Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNBSON. Unsafety in Numbers, That trouble loves company long has been known. One trouble's not much when left stand- ing alone, But when they're assembled in numerous array To think becomes hard, 'cause there's too much to say. When an uproar arises on many old things, Which include protest running from serfs up to kings, These troubles might yield to intentions sublime If we only could tackle them one at & time. General Reduction. “Did you ever know & man who tried to be bigger than his party?” “Once,” answered Senator Sorghum. “Did he succeed?” “Partially. He was a little bigger than what was left of it.” “Contests,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “are most enjoyed by those who admire energy whether it accom- plishes anything useful or not.” Easier Said Than Done. The roses bloom in bright array, Let us be happy, come what may; And if the landlord should display A manner not completely gay Bend him rejoicing on his way By handing him a sweet bouquet! Jud Tunkins says Barnum got rich by his discovery that the public likes to be fooled and is willing to pay lib- erally for it. As Fashion Goes Forward. “Has fashion reached the limit in bathing suits?” “I think s0,” answered Miss Cayenne. “The only thing more to be done is to guarantee them non-shrinkable.” Keeping Faith. Some little child looks up to you As one of wisdom’s very great, A guide and teacher good and true, A shield from any adverse fate. ‘We may suspect that he is wrong. Let us give battle to each foe, And try to be both big and strong * Por love of those who trust us so. “After T has looked at two sides of an argument foh awhile,” said Uncle Eben, *“T begins to feel like mebbe I was gittin’ mentally cross-eyed.” \ R THE POLITICAL MILL BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. Although forecag for weeks, the Presi- dent’s message to Congress asking for minimum whges and maximum hours legislation for labor has brought to an issue in concrete form one of the most important parts of his program. At one time administration leaders were putting forward the idea that labor legislation and the President’s recommendations therefore would be held up until after the President’s bill for the reorganization of the Supreme Court had gone through Congress. If this was the President’s idea, he seems to have changed it. Cer- tainly it now appears that the Congress is not to wait on the court bill before tackling the labor program. In the first place, the court bill may be delayed a long time and it is very doubtful that it will ever be enacted into law in the form originally asked by the President. In the second place, labor is naturally anxious that its legislative objectives shall not be indefinitely postponed. The President’s - proposals for labor legislation are in line with his cam- paign pledges. The suggestion has been advanced in some quarters that they could not be enacted into law and main- tained without the infusion of ‘“new blood” into the Supreme Court, that it was necessary to get a court that would interpret the Constitution more liberally. The alternative was a con- stitutional amendment, and the Presi- dent has opposed that. * X Xk X The labor situation in this country has been greatly clarified by the Su- preme Court's decision upholding the ‘Wagner labor relations act. There is still a great deal to be done to bring about & smooth-running operation of that law. Those are details, though important details. The concrete gain, as labor regards it, lies in the final legalization of the principle of collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is not new. It has been going on for years in this and other countries. But a law compelling employers to deal with their employes collectively makes a very dif- ferent situation. The employers are criticizing the Wagner act. They insist that the law gives all the advantage to the workers. 8o far there has been no agitation in Congress and no bills have been intro- duced to place greater responsibility upon the labor union. Yet such laws must necessarily be a corollary to those which give the unions great power. In England, where the struggle of labor for better working conditions, better wages and the right of collective bargaining has gone on for centuries, laws have been enacted which place great responsibility upon the unions and their leaders. * % % x As labor has progressed Into its pres- ent strong position the feeling has grown among the friends of labor and among some of its leaders that labor unions must assume responsibility for discipline among their members, for the sacredness of contract, for the efficiency of produc- tion and the elimination of waste. Labor has been given the right to organize and now it has been, given the right to bar- gain through representatives of its own choosing on wages, hours and working conditions. It has been contended that labor unions should be incorporated, and as such held responsible for con- tracts and for any damage done to prop- erty or to life when there is industrial conflict. Labor unions have for years re- sisted the idea of incorporation. In England a trade union is neither & corporation nor an individual, nor a partnership between individuals. It is a voluntary association of individuals almost invariably owing its legal validity to the trade union acts, which have bestowed on it a capacity to own property and to act by agents. These are ad- mittedly essential qualities of a corpora- tion. They constitute a trade union as a species of quasi-corporations. The trade union acts in England create statutory legal agencies with registration of their members. Annual reports to & governmental agency, showing receipts and disbursements, are a matter of law. * X X X The history of trade union legaliza- tion in England before 1927 was a history of liberation for the trade unions. The same, in a measure, may be said of the history of labor legislation in the United States. In 1926 England experienced a national or general strike. In this strike the government was chal- lenged by the unions. It was the largest strike ever waged in British history, starting with a controversy between the miners’ federation, their employers and the government. The strike was finally broken by the firmness of the govern- ment and the rising of the people them- selves. There followed in 1927 the enactment of the trade disputes and trade unions act. The British people had definitely determined not to go through another general strike. This act made vital changes in the earlier trade union laws. It provides that sympathetic strike action, whether on a national or a local scale, if designed or calculated to coerce the government, either directly or by inflicting hardship upon the community, is illegal, provided it is not within the trade or industry in which the original dispute arose. Lockouts are also similarly illegal. Criminal liability is imposed on union officials who take part in any way in a strike which is made illegal by the act. The act takes away the statu- tory rights of labor unions to use their funds for political purposes. Civil serv- ants are prohibited from joining & trade union which ‘is not confined to employes of the crown or which has political objects or which is affiliated with any outside industrial or political organization, meaning the Trade Union Congress or the Labor party. ¥ * ok K X In this country we have never had a general strike or a strike of the propor- tions of the 1926 strike in England. It may be we will have to go through such an experience before the demand for legislation to make labor unions re- sponsible becomes sufficiently strong to insure enactment. Or it may be that given proper leadership labor will itself agree to the necessary responsibility. Not long ago the Assistant Secretary of Labor, Edward F. McGrady, in a na- tionally broadcast speech, declared that he had been reassured over and over again by the leaders of the American trade union movement that if given an opportunity they are ready to assume these obligations in the full. * K K ok On the very day that President Roose- velt sent to Congress his recommenda= tions for & minimum wages and maxi- mum hours bill for labor, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down an epochal decision upholding the valid- ity of the social security act. It marked a victory for the Government and gave promise of a future decision, if the question is raised, upholding the proposed minimum wages and maximum hours law. The court has very definitely “gone liberal.” It has consistently, in recent ~months, upheld legislation dealing with State laws relating to minimum wages for women, and also laws of Congress :gulumed to improve aocial conditions The of the court iz the social fd How many have noticed the “blood” of the iris? A reader has, and sends the following note: “Dear Sir: I presume you don’t have time to write answers to questions, but perhaps you can work this subject into your very interesting daily column, which I always glance through, and often profit by (as the talk on gladiol) though I don't have time to watch birds or raise goldfish. “I admire the joint workings of your soul and intellect in expressing your discoveries in your refreshing way. “I have noticed before this year that the purple iris, standing in a vase, drops & purple liquid not easily removed from a mahogany table. I wonder if this could be used, or has, in making dyes or ink, and why it is so deep in color, or colored at all? “Does the flower, in withering, throw off the liquid of the veins of the blos- som in such profusion? It appears that the blossom withers quickly, and in cut- ting this amount of juice is squeezed out and falls. Very sincerely yours, M. 8. R” ® xox % x ‘The iris in its many species formerly had more uses, in addition to that of decoration, than it has today. Orris still comes from the root. Much of the “violet” perfume in the cheap and medium price classes is really dis- tilled from the firis. The stain from the common iris has been used in the past in making tests for comparative alkalinity and acidity. Litmus, of course, is much more used for this purpose. Litmus is a blue color- ing matter got from lichens. It {s turned red by acid, and restored to blue by alkali. A type of washable ink could be made from the iris, but as a dye-stuff it would be almost useless, since it would be washed out too easily. This is the trouble with many otherwise excellent dyes which the Indians used. As long as they did not get caught in the rain without their umbrellas they were all right. * ® % % Our correspondent will see that we do not know much more about the “blood” of the iris than she does, but we are always glad of an excuse to write about the flower. What a beautiful flower, and what a wonderful name! No wonder the ancients used the iris, or fleur-de-lis, as a symbol of royalty, the three parts of the formalized flower denoting wisdom, faith and bravery. Our name, irls, comes from the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris, herself. Somehow it seems one of the most colorful names in the world, and one cannot help but marvel that it has not been used more. One seldom meets a woman named Iris. Now why is that? Iris, in itself, is a beautiful name. Its connotations are lovely, the colors of the rainbow, the glossy green of lawns and leaves after the rain, the out-coming sun, the general joy of mankind. And above all, in the sky, the messen- ger of hope itself. * % x ¥ The iris, brought to earth, does its level best to make a rainbow in our gardens. That it succeeds more than any other beautiful flower in which there is a range of shades may be disputed, but that is nothing against it in the least. STARS, MEN Do not roses give us a garden rainbow? Tulips do the same. The gladiolus, in its hundreds of spe- cles, makes Iris alive in every back yard. 80 what’s in a name, indeed? But that is nothing against iris, the flower, surely. It belongs to the “big 4” of the flower garden—rose, peony. iris and gladiolus. Without this quartet, gardening on an average scale would not be what it is with them, or even part of them. % k% There seems to be little question that the so-called bearded, or German, iris, the general favorite with most persons, needs to be dug up and re-set, after dividing, about once in four years. Short of that, a planting which last year may have bloomed profusely will dwindle away to practically nothing, as far as blossoms are concerned. Yet the temptation to leave them as they are is large, and one may be for- given for failing to disturb them. Let no one be surprised, however, if they fail to bloom up to standard. The sight of a glorious flowering in another yard, when one’s own iris are doing very poorly, usually stirs up the planter to do something about it. Fortunately, the iris is one plant which may be dug up and transplanted at almost any season. Right after the blooming season is always good. , If care is taken, iris may be taken up, divided, and transplanted when in full bloom. * % %% So it may be seen that this is an ideal flower for the beginner, and that is more than true. It is perhaps “the” ideal flower, since it gives luxuriant beauty in almost any yard. Its rapid spread enables almost any one to give away to friends bushels of rhizomes within a few years, and these almost invariably do well, so that this is one flower which may be given with real appreciation—especially from the receiver. There are many “naturals” among the iris, in addition to the lusty “made” va- rietles which enterprising hybridizers have evolved. ‘The average gardener would do well to look up the native iris more, rather than remain enthralled with the new- comers, those tall fine creations which have set the iris world agog in recent years. f % % % Many flower lovers do not know that there is a tiny iris, not more than 2 inches high, which may be grown to perfection in the rock garden. Also there are Spanish iris, which comes from bulbs, and the wonderful Japanese iris, which grow from a mop of roots, without the rhizomes of the German kinds. A garden filled with native American iris (many grown in Louisiana) would be a wonderful hobby for the person who might wish to specialize a bit. ‘We know a tiny nook, in an otherwise useless space in a garden, where grow several varieties of plants used in medi- cine, and while this spot would appear nothing but a collection of weeds, to the person who did not know, those who have been initiated find in it some of the most famous herbs in all the world. An all-American iris garden would be a wonderful thing, provided, of course, the proper soil and climatic conditions could be secured in one place. Maybe so, maybe not, but at least some of them could.be grown. AND ATOMS Notebook of Science Progress in Field, Laboratory and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. Last year the Bureau of Indian Affairs found a prodigy among the Point Bar- row Eskimo—a landscape and portrait painter of real genius. And now, from the other side of the Arctic, comes an Eskimo novelist of even greater genius. Strange is the story of Taeki Odulok. He is a Yukagir, one of the tribes of nomad Siberian Eskimos, who herd their reindeer over the barren tundra around the Arctic Circle. The red revolution in 1917 and its aftermath of counter-revolution which swept over Siberia reached even to these remote tribes and they were lined up on one side or the other. Among other nomads swept into the Soviet Army was Taeki Odulok. Until 1925 he was a soldier, but in the course ef his sol- diering he acquired the groundwork of an education. He aroused the interest of the government and in 1925 was sent to Leningrad to study. His first novel, “Snow People,” is the result of this study. It is the simple history of the family life of a family Chuckchee, neighbors of the Yukagirs, who lead much the same sort of no- madic existence. There is the bare thread of a plot which serves to sus- tain interest in probably the most vivid tale of primitive life ever put on paper. Taeki Odulok writes as an Eskimo about Eskimos. He is describing a way of life which to him seems natural. He doesn't have to get inside another man’s skin or strain himself to think in the pattern of a foreign race. But he has a keen appreciation of universal hupan phychology, and his characters stand out not as types but as knowable human beings. There is a father and mother, a son and daughter-in-law, a little girl and a new-born baby. They do, with perfect naturalness, incredibly filthy things. No- body but one of their own could have recounted these things without arousing disgust—but the remarkable genius of this Eskimo novelist does it and still keeps his characters likable and good men and women, as they doubtless are in real life. He doesn't consciously stress the fllthiness of their lives. It simply develops in the natural course of events. And in some of his descrip- tions of nature he hits the heights of true poetry, as the following: “In the far distance something dark was descending on the snow. It was the sky. There were holes in it and twinkling lights shone through them. Those were the stars. There was some- thing big and white moving among them. That was the moon.” The long night falls on the Arctic. The family crawls into its big skin tent when the stars are blotted out and the howling wind warns of the coming snow. The tent is buried under feet of snow. The people huddle together in hot, fetid darkness. Devils howl in the wind. security act cases, in the opinion of many who are opposed to the President’s plan to increase the membership of the Supreme Court, so as to infuse “new blood” into that tribunal, has put an- other stumbling block in the way of the court bill. But it seems quite clear that whether or not the court bill becomes a law, the interpretation of the Consti- tution by the Supreme Court has taken ® new turn, and along the lines desired by the President, The little girl cuddles shivering new- born puppies to her breast. A child is born. Seldom in literature has there been such a terrifying picture as that of these six human beings buried for weeks under the snow. Nobody but an Eskimo who had lived through the experience could have portrayed it. The storm ceases. Father and son burrow like moles to the surface of the snow and start hunting reindeer, their only hope of escaping starvation. For days they wander in the star-dotted darkness. At last they arrive at a mound of snow which, their noses tell them, covers a tent. They are starving. They burrow their way in. They are greeted by two women who look like their own wives. They are in deadly fear. This is some foul enchantment. Demons have killed the women, taken possession of their bodies, are now about to eat the luckless husbands. At length the women persuade them that they are, after all, themselves and not demons. The hunters, of course, have wandered in a great circle in the darkness. They never know this and debate between themselves as to which of the devils picked up their tent, fami- lies and all, and brought it after them. Now the occasion for thus empha- sizing the work of Taeki Odulok is not necessarily because he is a great nov- elist—although he seems to be—but be- cause there seems to most people some- thing ludicrous in a blubber-eating Eskimo engaged in any artistic pursuit. Yet there is every prospect that the next few decades will see the birth of a Eskimo school of art and literature. The American painter and the Russian nov- elist together have made a big start. And why not? The snow people should be—and very likely are—the most in- telligent race on earth. One might say that they were in- credibly dumb to get themselves into such an inhospitable environment. How it happened nobody knows. There is one theory that they are the descendants of the people of Ice-age Europe who followed the glaciers northward. But once there it required first-class brains to survive. Very likely the whole of modern civilization is not so great an intellectual accomplishment as has been that of the Eskimo in merely keep- ing extant. Now he is acquiring contacts—paints and typewriters and alphabets. He 15 on his way to his place in the sun. Brains. From the Owensboro (Ky.) Messenger. Boston’s mayor and flve other city officials flunked the examinations for $20-a-week jobs in the public library. In life's battles, it’s brains that count. Matrimonial. Prom the Yakima Republic. Kentucky college men prefer girls that are blue eyed and plump, we read. They may have their preferences, but in the long run they will take what they can get. Thespians’ Strife. From the Sacramento Bee. The actors’ strike appears to be bring= ing home the bacon. But what will they do about the hams? 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. Is one of the funnels on the S. S, Normandie & dummy?—P. 8. A. It is & dummy smoke stack, but is used as a dog kennel. Q. What is the hat-trick in cricket? —D. W. A. It is the bowling out of three players with successive pitches. It com- pares with striking out three men in base ball with the bases full. Q. What is the average check paid by patrons of road diners?—D. L. A. The average is twenty cents, ) Q. Who invented the box kite?--T. W. A. The box kite was invented in 1893 by Lawrence Hargrave, an Australian, who demonstrated the great lifting power of kites and wrote many papers on the subject. Q. Is Hans Rallada the real name of the author of “Little Man, What Now"? —W. F. A. Hans Fallada is the pseudonym of Rudolph Ditzen, the German novelist, Q. How much protein and fat does & hen's egg contain?—H. K. A. The average hen egg is 134 per cent protein and 10.5 per cent fat. Q. Was there a famous magician named Houdin?—W. H. A. Jean Eugene Robert Houdin (1805« 1871) was a French magician celebrated for his optical illusions and mechanical devices, and for the fact that he attrib- uted his magic to natural instead of supernatural means. He was the firsy to use electromagnetism for his effects, Q. When did Lew Fields first appear on the stage?—E. R. M. A. The comedian made his debut in 1878 with Joseph Weber at the old Bowery Theater, New York City. There- nufler Weber and Fields played as a am. Q. Who was the first printer in the United States?>—C. H. A. Stephen Daye came to Massachu- setts in 1638 under contract to the Rev. Samuel Glover, who brought a printing press, but died on the voyage to America. Daye set up the press in Cambridge and there, in 1639, issued as a broadside “The » Freeman’s Oath,” the first piece of print- ing in the Colonies. Q. Who was Stanford White's father? —W. H. A. The architect was the son of Richard Grant White, a Shakespearean scholar and writer on English usage. Q. Who gave linoleum its name?— E. M. A. The name linoleum was given by an Englishman, Frederick Walton, to an invention of his own about 1860, ale though a similar floor covering had been made before that time. Q. When was Edward Everett Hale's “The Man Without a Country” first published?—T. R. A. The historic tale was published without a signature in the Atlantic Monthly in 1863. 5 Q. What position at Ellis Island was held by Mayor La Guardia?—J. G. A. He was an interpreter in the United States Immigration Service at Ellis Is- land from 1907-1910. Q. Why are the New England States so called?—E. F. A. The group was named by Captain John Smith in 1614 because of its re= semblance to the English coast. Q. Who founded Lehigh University? —W. R. A. Lehigh University at Bethlehem,~ Pa., was founded in 1865 by Judge Asa Packer of Mauch Chunk, who gave a tract of land and $500,000 for its estab ment. Q. Do all birds have feathers?—A. T. A. All birds do have feathers and no other animals have them. Q. Is Paul Chabas, who painted “Sepe tember Morn,"” living?—W. M. A. The artist died recently in Paris after a long illness. Q. What is cretinism?>—C. L. B. A. It is a condition resulting from lack of thyroid secretion in fetal life or in infancy. There is stunted physical and mental development, the cretin being one type of dwarf. Q. Please give some information about Wards Island.—W. H. b A. This is a small island in East River, New York City, between Welfare and Randalls Islands, and separated from the former by the Hell Gate Channel. At one time the New York City potter's fleld, it has been for many years the seat of a large State hospital for the insane. Soon after the Revolution it was purchased by two brothers named Ward. Everyday Science In Simple Language ‘This attractive 48-page booklet is filled with questions and answers that have been asked most frequently of The Star's Washingten Information Bureau, such as: Why is snow white? How are ocean waves produced? How is rayen made? ‘Why does a magnifying glass magnify? The stories of the sciences told in this book do not attempt to cover the field fully, but they do point out the high lights. Of interest to all who wish to understand the ordinary happenings of * everyday life. Helpful to boys and girls— as well as grownups. It gives the answers you have always wanted to know. Order your copy today. Enclose 10 cents in coin to cover cost and postage. Use this order blank by mail. The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, ‘Washington, D. C. I enclose herewith TEN CENTS in coin (carefully wrapped in pa- per) for a copy of the booklet EVERYDAY SCIENCE. Oy oo (17—