Evening Star Newspaper, June 6, 1937, Page 32

D2 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 6, 1937—PART TWO. *‘_ THE EVENING STAR District of Columbia with special success. With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. June 6, 1937 The Evening Star Newspaper 11th 8t. and Pennsylvania New York Qffice: 110 East 421 o Ohicago Office: 35 North Michigan Ave. Rate by Carrier—City and Suburban. Regular Editlon. ‘The Even) d_Eunday Btar R e Der month or 150 per week The Evening Star 45¢ per month or 10¢ per week The Bunday Star % =8¢ Der copy Night Final Editien, 0c per month Sc per month Collection made at the end of each month or each weey. Orders may be sent by mall or tele- Dhone Natlocal 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryiand and Virginia, Dally and Sunaay_. 1 sr. $10.00; 1 mo. 85¢ Daily oaly 1 yr. $6.00; 1 mo., B0c Sunday only. 4.00; 1 mo.. 40c B:Hy and Sunday ily “only_ Sunday onlv_ 1 yr., $12.0¢ mo.. $1.90 1 yrl "SR 1 mo. 78c 1. $5.00; 1 mo. B80c Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches eredited to it or not otherwise credited in this Daper and also the local news published herein. {ll rishts of publication of special dispatches erein a 50 reserved, Beating a Retreat. Having issued an ultimatum—no com- promise—on the President’s Supreme Court program, the administration finds itself in an untenable position. Either it must retreat or take a licking. The decision has been, apparently, to retreat. The six-men addition to the Supreme Court, a possible maximum of fifteen Justices, which was declared to be the unalterable desire of the President, is to be modified. It may be reduced to two new justices, or it may be that a new formula will be advocated, with a one- man addition each year for every jus- tice over seventy years of age who does ot retire. Any such compromise, as puinted out by opponents of the President’s plan for the Supreme Court, at this time would mean the abandonment of principle on the part of the opposition. It has fought the President’s court plan for one prin- cipal reason, that it was an effort to control the highest court in the land, to take away the independence of the ju- diciary and make it subservient to the executive branch of the Government. That is the nub of the whole contro- versy. The President insists that the people want the court change and, in- ferentially, that he is only the mouth- piece of the people. The people them- selves, however, have never had an opportunity to vote on a proposal to “pack” the Supreme Court. It was never even suggested during the past cam- paign. The attitude of the Senate and the great response from all over the country must have pretty clearly indi- cated to the President that the people are not only divided on this issue, but that a majority of them may very well be against him. The President now represents himself as being more interested in the general question of court reform than in any particular detailed plan. He and the people are looking at the “forest,” rather than at the “trees.” And the number of new justices to be added to the Supreme Court is just a question of “trees,” not the “forest.” In a measure the Presi- dent is correct. It would be quite as bad to pack the Supreme Court by adding two new justices as it would be to pack it by adding six, from the point of view of principle. Having failed in one line of attack, a major attack, the President wisely is seeking another line. If he has run away from the first attack, he is still in position to make a formidable onset from another angle. His principal mistake was to permit the “no compromise” chal- lenge to go forth—his and Mr. Farley's, the genial political generalissimo of the administration. Between the President and Mr. Farley, the pressure brought to bear on some of the opponents of the President's original plan is expected to be intense when the compromise plan has been worked out. The Government today is & “pressure Government.” Pressure is brought to bear on members of Congress when the administration needs votes in House or Senate. The administration has co- operating with it several powerful minor- ity groups, represented by organizations, upon which it can and does call for aid in applying pressure. Sometimes the pressure is merely political. Despite all this pressure, the President was unable to win his way with the Senate on his original proposal for the Supreme Court. He should not win his way with a eompromise, o American University. The founders of the Republic visioned & civilization for “the wise and good.” George Washington himself coined the phrase. It expressed his own conviction and, logically, that of his colleagues in the Constitutional Convention. But the Father or his Country was not inter- ested merely in the theory of wisdom and goodness. In his will he left a por- tion of his estate to establish an insti- tution of higher learning. The story has been told again and again, always with apt effect—because its significance is basically impprtant. But a certain detail sometimes is omitted in the repetition of the anecdote. It happens that the first President speci- fled the Nation's Capital as the place in which his visioned academy was to be bullt. He desired the city named for him to be celebrated for its culturel character; he thought of it as being, in centuries to come, a new Athens in the New World. An accident prevented the fulfilment of his dream while yet he lived. Other patriots, however, have labored to make it come true. Just now the friends of American Uni- versity, chartered by Congress in 1893, are engaged in a campaign to raise two mi;llon dollars for adequate quarters for the Graduate School and the School of Public Affairs, sadly needed supple- mentary structures (a dormitory for the College of Liberal Arts, for example), enlarged scientific equipment and endow- ment for increasing the faculty. The drive should appeal to residents of the [} Knowing the requirements as they should in their role as neighbors and sympa- thizing with them as they do in their capacity as direct beneficiaries, they ought not to fail to join in the effort. The two hundred and fifty thousand dollars sought locally should be forth- coming promptly—a cheerful and gener- ous recognition of a privilege and a duty. Let one conclusive word be added: Education is imperative, if the United States is to survive the difficulties of the present period of change and transition. ‘Young people, anyway, must be equipped to face the future with an approxima- tion of knowledge and ethical develop- ment. Who gives to American University, then, contributes to America—the land made free by “the wise and good” of another era and providentially kept free by “the wise and good” of today. r—ee—s Still Defective. The fantastic proposition of making the provisions of the proposed local in- come tax retroactive, covering income already earned and spent in 1936, has been abandoned. Gratification over that fact is somewhat modified, however, by astonishment that such a scheme should have been seriously entertained even temporarily and by realization that the remaining parts of the tax program, as shaped now, are far from sound or equitable. It will be a mistake to impose a local income tax on the District, especially with the relatively high initial rates now comsidered. The result—under the con- ditions peculiar to the District of Co- lumbia, with its large transient popula- tion of Federal employes and its large suburbanite population owing original tax allegiance to Maryland and to Vir- ginia—will be an aggravation of existing evils of duplicate taxation with the addi- tion of many odd tax inequities and com- plicated administrative difficulties, to which no thorough examination has been given. If the Congressmen exempt themselves from the tax—as they are very apt to do—the inequities already threatened will be increased and there will remain no practical form of restraint on an alien taxing body in future income tax rate boosting. The income tax, under such conditions, is peculiarly susceptible of abuse. The tendency will be to in- crease the rates and to lower the exemp- tions as new revenues for Capital City improvement become necessary, regard- less of the source of the demands or the nature of the needs for such new reve- nues. The only safeguard against that abuse lies in the ballot, and the people here are helpless. The local income tax would be best abandoned. But, if retained at all, the income tax should be substituted for the tax on in- tangibles and the latter tax repealed out- right. The local income tax was never proposed in the past as anything but a substitute for the tax on intangibles. The fact that it is being seriously considered now as merely an additional tax, with retention of a more strictly enforced tax on intangibles, indicates a total lack of consideration for the local taxpayer. That is plain enough. But confusion is added to the picture by the guesses hazarded by the tax boosters as to what this proposed double dose of taxes will yield in new revenue. The original Collins income tax bill—neatly exempt- ing members of Congress and higher- salaried officials of the Federal Govern- ment—was to yield an estimated $6,000,~ 000 in revenue as a substitute for the intangibles tax. Now, with such exemptions temporarily removed and the intangibles tax retained and strengthened, there is talk to the effect that the net gain in revenue from both taxes, when reciprocal credits are allowed, would be less than originally contemplated in the substitution of an income for an intangibles tax. That is not merely nonsense, but dan- gerous nonsense. It indicates once again that those in charge of preparing the tax program have no clear idea of the amount of additonal taxation they are preparing to shove on the District. Such & position is, of course, indefensible. The weight tax on.automobiles offers another case of substitute taxation—sud- denly changed to additional taxation. The weight tax has been proposed in the past as a substitute for the personal property tax on automobiles. Now the scheme is to retain the old and to add the new. And instead of being utilized to reduce the deficit in the general fund —this deficit being the only excuse for a weight tax in the first place—it is plan- ned to segregate weight tax revenues for the highway department, where there is no deficit and where there is more money than Congress has been willing to appro- priate. If the weight tax is not to be substituted for the personal property tax and applied to reduction of the gen- eral fund deficit, then its imposition is wholly unjustified and it should be thrown out of the window. A descrip- tion of what the highway department would like to spend in the future:if it had the money is, of course, no justifica- tion for this proposed additional tax gouge. As for the remainder of the proposed local tax program, the local taxpayers have as yet only a vague idea of what it is. Despite the ceaseless shuttling of the program between the District Build- ing and the House District Committee’s special subcommittee, copies of the pro- posed revenue measures are still un- available for study and analysis. An added danger now is the possibility that the measures may be rushed through the House before any opportunity is given local taxpayers to find out what they mean. C. L. 0. in Canada. John L. Lewis and his Committee for Industrial Organization not only have split wide open the ranks of organized labor in the United States. Their plans to bring Canadian workers under their authority are now spreading dissension in the Dominion’s dominant political party, the Liberals, who have held office since the 1935 landslide victory of Prime Minister Mackensie King and his sup- porters. Revolt against the government leader is the direct outgrowth of recent C. 1. O. efforts to gain & foothold in Canada through the General Motors strike in Oshawa, Ontario. That maiden venture was sternly and successfully op- posed by Mitchell Hepburn, premier of Ontarlo, who has threatened to use every recourse at the province's disposal to thwart any future attempts by an “alien labor dictatorship” to establish itself on Canadian soil. : Events of the past week reveal the extent to which the C. I. O. movement has stirred Canadian politics. Premier Hepburn in a public address at Toronto proclaimed an open break with Mr. Mackenzie King, despite the fact that during the campaign of two years ago the Ontario leader, as a militant Liberal, stumped Canada from coast to coast on the prime minister's behalf. Reiterating his attack on the Lewis drive and his determination to combat it tooth and nail, Mr. Hepburn declared: “I am & re- former, but I am no longer a Mackenzie King Liberal.” Adding that as long as he is premier no C. 1. O. organization or “labor lawlessness” will be tolerated in Ontario, he thrust at his party chiet by asserting that “I can't speak for Canada in this regard, because we have a vacil- lating government at Ottawa.” Hepburn apparently has a candidate for the prime ministership, should Mac- kenzie King be unhorsed. There have been lurking suspicions that the belliger- ent Toronto statesman himself casts longing eyes toward Ottawa, but he now identifies his anti-C. I. O. ally, Premier Duplessis of Quebec, as his ideal of the caliber of leadership which Dominion affairs require. Hepburn emphasizes that as Ontario and Quebec between them contribute the lion's share of federal revenue, they are entitled to larger in- fluence ®n national policy. M. Duplessis, incidentally, finds himself under heavy fire from organized labor because of his advocacy of new “fair wage” acts, which are assailed as Fascist in trend and as seeking to establish “political dictator- ship” over Quebec workers by forcing them to identify themselves exclusively with government-approved unions. It is apparent that C. I. O. is no longer a project conflned to this side of the great unfortified border, but has assumed an international character. The de- plorable feature of this development is that it contains the seeds of injury to Canadian-American political and eco- nomic relations. —re—————— Speaking of the local transit com- pany’s frequent pleas for ever-increasing fares, who remembers the old vaudeville gag about the conductor boy-friend whose name was “Rob Nichols”? Funny at the turn of the century; sad now. B — “Incorporating tax dodgers” is not quite as pungent a phrase as “malefac- tors of great wealth,” coined by Cousin Theodore, though “economic royalists” serves fairly well as a battle cry against privilege and plutocracy. ——————e—————— Carthage, N. Y., triplets, in three-fold ceremony, marry twins and “another fellow.” There is a bad headache wait- ing for some future genealogist. oo Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Perfume. It is just a breath of sweetness with a delicate completeness That we knew we'd find about us pretty soon. And beneath the stars that glisten now we pause awhile and listen As. the honeysuckle whispers to the moon. A message it is bringing as the sweetness it is flinging When the world has jogged along to joyous June, And we overhear a story of life's gentle, generous glory As the honeysuckle whispers to the moon. . As Time Goes On. “There is no man whose place cannot be filled,” said the readymade philos- opher. “True,” answered Senator Sorghum. “But in a little while it is apt to look mighty different from the same place.” Jud Tunkins says maybe he's preju- diced by indigestion, but when he says dogs are man’s faithful friends, he doesn’t mean to include “hot dogs.” Among Fishermen. Jonah in the whale did dwell. He found eternal glory. The whale caught him and let him tell The champion fish story. Unenvying. “Are you going into any beauty con- tests this Summer?” “No,” answered Miss Cayenne. “The winners of beauty contests I have met are like prize plays—well constructed and well advertised; but, as a rule, not very interesting.” “Even one who cheats,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “must trust to luck and hope that chance wiil not lead to discovery.” The Old Mother Hubbard. And now I must apologize Because I used to criticize In Puritanic days of yore The “Mother Hubbard” that she wore. It was a garment which implied That drapery was scant inside. And all the neighbors would deplore The “Mother Hubbard” that she wore. These dresses that we now observe Display anatomy and nerve. Dame Fashion, can you not restore The “Mother Hubbard” that she wore! “Some men,” said Uncle Eben, “are smart enough to talk by de hour, but haven't sense enough to keep from say- in’ sumpin’ dat kin ruin ’‘em in five minutes.” President Enjoys His Job as Never Before BY OWEN L. SCOTT. President Roosevelt obviously seldom has enjoyed his job quite as much as he does just now. He is on another rich tax-dodger hunt. The Supreme Court has left town after approving many new uses for Government power. Big things are stirring backstage on gold and foreign affairs. A dangerously expanding baby boom has been brought to heel, at least temporarily. All of this pleases Mr. Roosevelt. Yet it does not compare with the satisfac- tion he derives from the opportunity to set about building a new and legally bulletproof New Deal. Congress may be increasingly uncomfortable in the first blast of Washington heat, worried in the knowledge that any record of accomplishment must be made in the hot weeks to come. The President rel- ishes the task. At the moment of triumph, when the Supreme Couft ended its latest term, leaving behind a near-perfect score of victories for President Roosevelt, some White House strategists counseled: Now is the time to let things ride until tempers cool and there is more obvious need for new experiments. The people want a rest. Farmers can get along for at least one more year without the con- trols of a stronger A. A. A. and workers are doing quite well without an N. R. A. This advice the President spurned. He put heat under Henry Wallace to drive for action on a streamlined plan of farm control and tossed to Congress a plan for Government regulation of wages .and hours in industry that made former code controls appear mild by comparison. There obviously was deep satisfaction to be derived from the pros- pect of snatching victory from the two major defeats that came at the hands of the Supreme Court. This time the President is determined upon a perma- nent “Roosevelt revolution.” * X k'K Of all the plans taking shape, Presi- dent Roosevelt’s heart is most firmly set on that for revival of wage and hour controls in industry. Yet, in determining to drive ahead, the President is aware that no venture of the Federal Government could raise quite as many questions or quite as many major problems. N. R. A. found the answers to few of those questions and solved none of the problems during its two years of existence. Now the way is prepared for a new try. That raises, first of all, the question of need. Is any important portion of the industrial population going to be af- fected by Government regulation of wages and working hours? The Social Security Board finds ap- proximately 24,000,000 workers in in- dustry and trade—outside of agricul- ture, domestic service and self-employ- ment. Of this total, 4,000,000 are at work in concerns employing fewer than eight persons each. The contemplated law would not affect them. Another 4,000,000—at & minimum—are at work in purely local trades and services, also exempt. This leaves 16,000,000 who might be affected. But: Department of Labor statistics show that the average wages paid in Amer- ican industry today are above 60 cents an hour and the average work week is approximately 40 hours in length, re- sulting in an average weekly income of above $24 The President’s plan con- templates a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour and a maximum work week of 40 hours, with a minimum wage of $16. Official figures reveal that the bulk of industry is maintaining standards far above the minimums. The outside estimate is that not more than 4,000.- 000 workers in trade or industry, who might be affected by a Federal law, are earning less than the minimum wage. And where are these workers found? If N. R. A. experience revealed any- thing, it was that the lowest wages were discovered most frequently in the local service trades, in small establish- ments located in small communities where living costs were relatively low; in industries employing woman workers and in the South. * ¥ k¥ President Roosevelt already has made concessions concerning each of these groups. He accepted the need for a spread be- tween minimum wages paid in South- ern industry as contrasted with North- ern industry. He has agreed that small establishments employing only a few workers shall be exempt from the law's application. And he is ready to con- cede a differential between wages paid to men and wages paid to women. Two- thirds of all N. R. A. codes included these differentials. Yet, when they are applied, the number of workers who can expect to have their pay envelopes affected by a new Federal law is nar- rowed even further. This leads to the conclusion, ad- mitted by those experts who are at work on details of the new control plan, that its enactment would add little to the total income of the Nation's workers. ‘What then is the purpose of the plan, and why the rush for its enactment? Is it to spread work so the present unemployed may more readily be ab- sorbed? Again the answer of the experts is largely in the negative, 'although they explain that a spread-the-work argu- ment may be used to rally support. At present the average work week of all industry, reported by the Department of Labor, is 40.5 hours. This is a sharp increase from N. R. A. days, but is accounted for in important part by the fact that more of industry now is work- ing full time. But again N. R. A, ex- perience showed that variations in the work week were general, allowing for increases in busy seasons offset by decreases in the number of hours worked during slack seasons. There was no rigid rule that forced work spreading. » * x % % Then what is the idea of the Presi- dent’s latest plan? . Essentlally, say those who are work- ing on it, the idea is to establish some sort of floor under wages and some sort of roof over hours in industry, so that the inequalities of competition may be leveled somewhat. In parts of the South wages range down as low as 10 cents an hour, while comparable labor in parts of the North may be 50 or 60 cents an hour. Some individual Southern States are using the induce- ment of cheap labor to attract indus- tries from the North. This factor had & demoralizing effect on the textile in- dustry of New England even before N. R. A. Since N. R. A. other indus- tries have been involved. Furthermore, an increased proportion of ‘American workingmen are organized into unions for collective bargaining. Their position is strengthened. But out of the 24,000,000 workers registered for old-age insurance fewer than 6,000,- 000 are members of unions. A tendency is noted for concessions granted to or- ganized workers to come out of the standards of the unorganized. . In order to even out labor standards between States and between organized and unorganized workers, the Federal Government intends to step in with its power. ‘Those who oppose this use of Federal power contend that the attempt by ( REALITY OF THE SPIRITUAL BY THE RIGHT REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D. D, LL. D, D. C. L, BISHOP OF WASHINGTON. 1t is dificult to define what we mean by “spiritual power.” The late Hamilton ‘Wright Mabie once said: “How little of that which makes up life is tangible or visible.” He then goes on to speak of those who “sit in the sublime theater in which the drama of human life is be- ing enacted, unconsclous of the reality of forces and powers that, because they are intangible, make no appeal to them.” Another writer has described the indif- ference of those who, “looking at wonder” are insensible to its deep significance. Material things we can measure and appraise, spiritual things, to use the scriptural phrase, are “spiritually dis- cerned.” Notwithstanding our incapacity to adequately comprehend the phenom- ena of the spiritual, we are the daily witnesses of the evidences of it in our life—in our individual as well as in our corporate life, The Master tried to make real to His followers the reality of things spiritual. He told them that once He had left them He would send to them a power so great and potential that it would bring all things to their remembrance what- soever He had said unto them. He ad- monished His disciples that this power, spiritual in character, would continue with them, energizing and inspiring them and enabling them to attain the loftiest things of character. The first record of the imparting of this power is recorded in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The scene is a homely one. A group of humble men and women were waiting for that of which they had no knowl- edge. They had been told to “tarry in Jerusalem” until they be endued with power from on high. They were filled with wonderment as to what this power was to be. Up to this time they had been & disunited and in many respects a dis- loyal band. When their Master was meeting with the great crisis in His life and was under condemnation they had left Him alone and undefended. They had witnessed what seemed His utter defeat on the cross. Subsequent to this 8 few of them had been the witnesses of His resurrection. Then followed a pe- riod of waiting for the enduement of a new and mysterious power. As the narrative runs it begins with the significant words: “They were all with one accord In ore place.” At length a great expectation had compelied them to unity. What happened long ago in that upper room in Jerusalem will never be adequately told. But a power came into the lives of these humble men that inspired them to a service that has no parallel in the history of the world. From that upper room they went forth to tell the story of the life, ministry and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Wherever they went they met with stern opposi- tion and many of them came to mar- tyrdom. Weak men were emboldened, and we read that upon the first sermon preached by Peter, the apostle, three thousand people were converted to the new cause. . The story that follows is a record of achievement so great in its accomplish- ments that it staggers the imagination. Opposition and persecution acted as stimuli rather than as deterrents. Ob- scure men, unhearlded for any genius or scholarship—peasants, in the main— undertook a task greater than that of armed forces. Beginning in their own country and among their own people, resisted everywhere, still they carried on until at length they invaded Rome itself and proclaimed the truth that had been made real to them. The cause that began in humility of circumstance spread over Europe, crossed the seas and today has its witnesses in every land. It is little wonder that the skeptic historian, Edward Gibbon, reckoned with this indescribable power in his “Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.” Every Christian church throughout the world witnesses to it today. Every man and woman who accepts the Christian faith is an exponent of it. It is one of the miracles of time, it has survived all opposition, triumphed over its persecu- tors and continues on from age to age. Fifty Years Ago In The Star “The opening of libraries, museums and art galleries on Sunday,” says The : Star of June 2, 1887, “is Recreation asked especially by on Sunday. those whose week days are fully occupied in physical labor. The parts of that day not devoted to religious exercises can hardly be spent in a more improving and elevat- ing manner than in taking advantage of such institutions. The man who works hard physically through the week finds in the elevation to a higher plane of thought and in new activity of mind as refreshing rest as from cessation of bodily labor. The mind worker finds rest'in change of thought and inactivity of body in the open air. Sunday does not mean torpor. Religious services give spiritual activity; our parks and beauti- ful suburbs invite the weary mind worker to refreshing walks, and our libraries, museums and art galleries should give the tired body worker the change and rest of mental activity and development. Churchgoers do not necessarily relapse into Sunday sluggards after hours of service, and non-churchgoers should not be confined to the saloons of city or country as places of Sunday resort or be permitted only the frivolous and often debasing forms of Sunday recreation.” * X X X% The Star of June 4, 1887, thus refers to a notorious financial swindler of fifty years ago: Brockway at “Chiet Brooks of the Large Again. secret service has is- sued a warning to bankers to scrutinize their checks with more than common care now that the noted forger Brockway is at liberty again. The mysterious manner in which this man gets out of prison almost as soon as he gets in warrants the sus- picion that he has what the politivians know as a ‘pull’ on somebody high in power. It is a strange commentary on the mingled strength and weakness of our social structure that one man, marked as a lifelong criminal, can thus snap his fingers in the face of justice and keep a large part of the business community in a state of dread lest he should take it into his head to try an- other of his predatory exploits. It is possible that one day the civilized world will throw sentiment aside and arm itself for common defense against such ene- mies and, when a criminal has been given abundant opportunities to reform and has shown that he will not or can- not, it will put him permanently under lock and key as it does the dangerous and incurable lunatic. The success of one public foe raises up dozens more, moved by the spirit of emulation, and the evil done by such a person reaches far beyond the mere circle of his depreda- tions.” Government to bolster the lowest wages will result in narrowing opportunities for employment. They accept the orthodox economic view that lowered wages will result in more widespread employment. But the President’s advisers say that the depression blew that theory sky-high by demonstrating in graphic fashion that the lower wages went the larger was the unemployment. Mr. Roosevelt is acting on that advice. But what does the experience of this country and of other countries reveal concerning the effectiveness of wage and hour controls? * Kk ok For the last year the Federal Govern- ment has imposed wage and hour stand- ards on employers who supply its ma- terials. In all of that time the Secre- tary of Labor has imposed a standard of minimum wages on only one industry —the men’s work garment industry— employing about 80,000. Eight or nine other industries are in line for wage schedules, but, even in this small seg- ment of industry, a myriad of problems have arisen to baffle the administra- tors. This is a taste of what lies ahead in administering an act that will cover much of industry. In England the government, for nearly twenty years, has enforced labor stand- ards in industries of “exceptionally low” wages. That government has operated through “trade boards”—one for each affected industry. These boards are made up of representatives of labor, of employers and of the public. Their decisions are binding on the industry. In practice, they have served to raise wages materially in industries employ- ing unorganized workers, and during the depression they maintained a floor under those wages. About 3,000,000 out of 12,000,000 English workers are affected by their decisions. The task that the President now is determined to tackle is one that busted & series of administrators, starting with Gen. Hugh Johnson. Yet the prospect of tackling it gives him greater satis- [ Capital Sidelights BY WIZL-*P. KENNEDY. +Smoking “Missouri meerschaums” s the new fad at the Capitol. It was Rep- resentative Clarence Cannon, who, after serving as parliamentarian under both Democratic and Republican regimes, is now in his eighth term as a member, who started it. He contributed several thou- sand of these pipes for the solace of his colleagues and members of the press gallery, and as a former history teacher he told his fellow members the story of the “corn cob”: “When the earliest pioneers from Vir- ginia and the Carolinas first migrated to the motherly bosom of Missouri, a century and a half ago, each settler brought with him his rifle, his Bible and his pipd, and was equally proficient in the use of all three. There, on the fertile, alluvial Mississippi bottoms and the rich loam of the Missouri uplands, he found Indian maize yielding corn with cobs of such durable texture and generous proportions that he abandoned the Colonial clay and briar bowls of the Old Dominion and adopted the Missouri meerschaum, which has become today the standard of pipe comfort, luxury, simplicity, economy and enjoyment throughout the world. Whether in Lon- don or Shanghai, on San Francisco Bay or the sidewalks of New York, buy a pipe at the nearest tobacconist’s and on the bottom of it you will read ‘Made in Missouri’ Fill it up with the gclden flakes of your favorite smoke, preferably old homespun from a Missouri hillside, aged and ripened and mellowed in the top rafters of a Missouri tobacco barn, and it will give you such joy and solace as it is seldom human privilege to enjoy.” It was with this thought in mind, he explained, that he invited his colleagues in the House and press gallery to thus “enjoy an exceptional product of Mis- souri’s soil and industry.” And he ad- vised thus: “When you get crosswise with life or digestion is bad; when things go wrong and you want to kick the dog; when the wife is critical and your best friends are eut of town, tamp down an extra heavy charge in one of these friendly pipes and light it with a coal from the fireplace, and peace and contentment will attend you like a bene- diction, cares will vanish in dissolving rings of fragrant blue and life once more will be worth the living.” * X ok X The Speaker's chair is an uneasy one, for physical as well as political and par- liamentary reasons. And this doesn't apply to the Speaker in person, but to those other members who may be called to preside in the committee of the whole for long and tedious hours on vexed legislation. Now they are trying out a new chair. After a careful study of the requirements, C. A. Rapee, who has charge of House furniture under Clerk Trimble, secured a heavily padded blue leather chair that was a cross between a barber shop throne and a beauty parlor chair, with a specially pronounced head rest. But Speaker Bankhead soon banished it. The requirements for a Speaker's chair are much more intricate and ex- acting than might be supposed. * k x X A new all-time record has just been established on roll-call of members’ names in the House—where the reading clerk has to take time for the member to answer the call, which he repeats to a tally clerk and gets a response. The veteran reading clerk, A. E. Chaffee, several years ago established the record of a no-quorum call in 14 minutes and an aye-and-nay roll call in 17 minutes. But last Tuesday night he made the new record on an aye-and-nay roll call on the rellef bill. He started the call at 11:25 p.m.—yes, Congress does work overtime— it was completed and Mr. Chaffee handed the slip bearing the figures— yeas, 326; nays, 44; answered “present,” 1; not voting, 61—to the Speaker pro tempore, Representative Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky, at 11:40 p.m. and at 11:42 the House had officially adjourned. * ok x X% The greatest contest in the history of the House is now supposed to be closed —for the new position of assistant read- ing clerk. This contest has been in progress for more than six months, with more than 140 candidates for the job tried out. Gradually the field was weeded out and reduced to six. During the last two weeks the finalists have been put through an intensive contest, with a new secret committee of members listening in. Even Reading Clerk Chaffee, who conducts the trials, doesn't know (and chooses not to know) who the members of the Committee of Judges are. Of course, the final appointment rests with South Trimble, chief clerk. The last roll call closing the contest was on Thursday night by Fred H. Gormley of Montgomery, Ala. The contestants have been from every State in the Union. The six finalists are R. H. Ammerman, Brooklyn, N. Y., Charles M. Brooks, Texas; Paul G. Carney, Boston, Mass.; R. M, Calloway, Wyoming; Gormley and Ralph Roberts, Indiana. A The Forgotten Man of Medicine. BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. “I will share my substance with him and I will supply his necessities.” That is a cardinal portion of the Hip- pocratic Oath, the vow taken for cens turies by physicians. The oath is fole lowed in spirit, at least, by the most modern deetor, just as it was ohserved when laid down by Hippocrates of the Island of Cos more than four centuries before the birth of Christ. It has been observed, however, that it is seldom indeed that laymen, the beneficiaries of the skill of physicians, reciprocate in the manner that they do in respect to other friends, philosophers and guides. Daily the newspapers publish reports of wills filed in which all manner of curious bequests are made, but it is a rare thing to find a hequest made to a physician. These wills, aside from the usual family bequests, leave incomes or property to churches or to priests, in their own right, to institutions of learn- ing, to foundatlions, to fraternal or other organizations and to learned societies. Now and then a will's probate shows that a small fortune has been left for the maintenance of dogs or cats or to keep green the grave of some dead person or animal. Recently a West Virginia man left money to buy drinks for his friends in order that they, if they remembered where he made one, might turn down an empty glass. * x k% So often bequests to great institutions, universities and the like are coupled with conditions. A certain sum will be left to a college for a library or a gymnasium, provided the structure be named after the deceased donor. Not infrequently institutions find such be- quests somewhat embarrassing. They may be hard-pressed to find enough in- come to pay living salaries to their staffs. Yet, if the bequest is accepted —and the temptation is strong to ac- cept—an addition to the plant is made which costs yet more money for up- keep. During the depression, especially, some such unwanted memorial struc- tures are said to have gone untenanted and practically untended because of lack of income. In some cases endow- ments accompany, so that the item of upkeep is met, but that is the excep- tion. It may cost a college as much in a year to wash the windows of some memorial chapel or other building as would meet the salary of an additional and much-needed professor. So much has been said about the underlying motive of the donor being personal vanity rather than a desire to bring benefits in such cases that the subject need be mentioned only in con- trast to illuminate the neglect in such matters from which physicians suffer. There probably is scarcely a physician living who ever has given a thought to the matter. It would be contrary to his professional attitude and way of thought. His whole genius is bent on maintenance of life rather than death, and so he is far more certain to think of things of life than things that may occur after death—such as bequests. * ok ok % It is true, of course, that vast sums are left to hospitals and for medical research. Such bequests usually are those of rich testators. Nothing can detract from the value of bequests for the general advancement of the medical science, but by a curious quirk of human nature the doctor, as a person, as & living entity with his own personal prob- lems, almost never is remembered at all. Dr. Hugh Cabot in his book, “The Doctor’s Bill,” presents statistics show- ing that the average annual income of physicians in private practice is less than $4000 a year. But this average is drawn from the 142,000 doctors in the country, and it is shown that nearly one-fourth of them had incomes below $2000 a year. An amazing number of practicing physicians, especially in small towns and rural areas, receive no more than $1,200 a year. Many things must be taken into con- sideration in reviewing the life and work of a doctor. To begin with, he or some benefactor must pay substantial sums of money for an education, more pro- tracted than that necessary for most other professions. Costly text books must be purchased as well as other equipment. Then there is almost in- variably a long, tedious and often dis- couraging apprenticeship. To become established in practice, unless it is inherited or purchased, is difficult in the extreme. But, from the purely human point of view and wholly aside from the tech- nical and professional point of view, the doctor, especially the old-fashioned family physician, is far more than a doctor of medicine. He becomes a family counselor. He may attend two and three generations of the same family, help bring children and grandchildren into the world safely. and minister to their safety all his days. * ¥ ¥ ¥ What seys the Hippocratic Oath? “The regimen I adopt shall be for the benefit of my patients, according to my ability and judgment and not for their hurt or for any wrong. What- soever house I enter, there will I go for the benefit of the sick, refraining from all wrongdoing or corruption.” One often hears of the bedside man- ners of a physician, referred to in a tons suggesting an attitude thrust upon a patient. More often the bedside man- ner, the position of confidant in all matters, is solicited by the patient. A father will draw the doctor aside and ask his advice concerning a waywars son or & mother concerning a head- strong daughter. Again the Hippocratic Oath: “Whatsoever things I see or hear con- cerning the life of men, in my attendance on the sick, or even apart therefrom, which ought not to be noised abroad, I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be as sacred secrets.” This oath, written more than 2300 years ago, still is adhered to by reputable physicians, and those who fail to keep it are likely to be stricken from the medical register, an event that leaves 2 man no further career. There is no place for what is known as a spoiled doctor. . In spite of the innumerable services the family physician performs, in ad- dition to his professional services, with no thought of fee, he often does not collect fees for his strictly professional work. It is doubtful whether any doctor ever died who did not have on his books thousands of dollars of unpaid bills. If he has not actually advanced money to patients, as often is the case, he has fulfilled his Hippocratic Oath as to that part which speaks of dividing his substance with them. He has left them in his debt. Yet, even patients of wealth, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, have completely forgotten him in their wills. R ] High Art. Prom the S8an Prancisco Chronicle. An oil painting by Pieter de Hooch was sold at a London auction for 887,500, which would have been a stiff price for it even during prohibition. f . 4