Evening Star Newspaper, July 2, 1937, Page 10

A—10 THE EVENING STAR WASHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY, JULY 2, THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition, D. C. July 2, 1937 Editor WASHINGTON, FRIDAY ___ s THEODORE W. | OYES _ The Evening Star Newspaper Company. 11th St and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd St ©Onicago Office: 445 North Michigan Ave. Rate by Carrier—City and Suburban, Regular Edition. e v nd Sunday Star The Eventng and Suniny B or 1sc per week vening Star S e T 100 per week The Bunday Sta: - - 2127758 Ber copy Nlght Final Edition, Nisht Final and Sunday St ) Night Final Star__ ______ T__ per month Collection madi the end of each month or each week. Orders may be sent by mail or tele- bhone National 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance, Maryland and Virginia, 70¢ per month aily and aily Sunday__ 1y 13y, Bunday only only All Other States and Canada, 4 Sunday. 4 yr., $12.00: 1 mo. §1 1 N 1 mol, } 4T moy The Associated Pre. the use for repiblica eredited o0 it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published herein Al rights of public f svecial dispatches herein'are also re: d vely entitied to Is exclu on of all news dispatches A Face Saver. In presenting the substitute court- packing plan to the Senate the admin- tstration suffers the embarrassing pre- dicament of Midshipman Easy's nurse. But, like the nurse, the administration may argue that it is “just a little baby." Compared with the lusty and squalling infant left on the Senate doorsteps some five months ago and whose boorish behavior and ugly temperament turned the Senate against it, the new court plan is, indeed, just a little baby. But its legitimacy is as much subject to attack as its late lamented relative. It has no more right to survival. The strategy in the administration’s new “compromise” court plan would carry a greater appeal to the Oriental than to the Occidental mind. It is based primarily on the old and honor- able Chinese custom of face-saving. The administration has been licked on A court-packing plan that neither the Benate nor the country will accept. There is a certain grace in admission of defeat. But the more subtle mental processes of the ancient Chinese, and the administration, demand a face-sav- Ing gesture—and this is it. Age of justices, the majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee found in its historic adverse report on the first court- packing plan, exercises no ascertainable influence either upon the efficiency of the judiciary or the nature of opinions. Yet the new face-saving plan, as described In advance, seeks to perpetuate the fic- tion that when a justice reaches a cer- tain age—in this case, seventy-five—the Justice should be supplied with a substi- tute. Only one substitute per calendar year, however, may be appointed. Nine remains the preferred size of the court. When the aging justice steps out, after the appointment of his substitute, the court will shrink again to the number of nine. Suppose, however, there are four jus- tices who have turned seventy-five the game year. At the end of four years, the justices, if none of them chooses to retire, will all be seventy-nine. And the size of the court will have grown to thirteen. But in the interval, four more Justices will have become seventy-five. If none of them dies or retires, another Justice will have been added at the end of the fifth year, still another at the end of the sixth. And then, when time takes its toll and the elder members begin to &tep out, the court will automatically begin again to shrink. The new plan lacks even the carefully constructed base of false premises which supported the old plan. The only thing to recommend it is that it saves the administration’s face. And face-saving 1s not worth the price of this clumsy and {llogical slap at the judiciary. The Sen- ators who opposed the old plan as a matter of high principle cannot support the new and it is heartening to believe they will not. - ‘The Boy Scouts come from various parts of the world and still retain the quality of youth which makes them easy to surprise but hard to convince that anything they may see can claim real superiority to what they left at home. But they.will tell of strange sights and new experiences. e Newspaper men who long to write flippantly of eminent local personages restrain themselves for the present. The Boy Scouts might hear them. N Other Tax Dodgers. A certain Republican statesman of the old school, residing in Washinkton for many years, journeyed to Chicago in the Autumn of 1936 to deliver a speech against the New Deal. Five minutes before he was due to address an audi- ence of thousands he was handed a telegram from his wife. The message read: “Return home immediately. In- come tax trouble.” Of course, the orator’s report was as reasonably accurate as the average. The Internal Revenue Bureau had received from him the Government's share of his earnings. It later conceded that it was entitled to no additional payment. The inquiry, as it seemed to the victim, was purely political in its motive. It had been intended to discourage his efforts in the campaign. The partisan char- acter of it was manifest in the time and circumstances under which it was begun. Similarly, Andrew W. Mellon and former Mayor Jimmy Walker of New York had been bracketed in a publicity release issued by the Democratic Na- tional Committee Press Bureau through the office of Attorney General Homer S. Cummings on March 10, 1934—a ma- neuver designed to distract public atten- tion from the scandal attendant on the cancellation of the airmail contracts a few days previously. But such tricks are not invariably suc- cessful. Psychologically, a considerable portion of the population of the United States hails from Missouri. It requires to be shown before it will ynsent to believe. Just now it reads of the alleged tax- dodging proclivities of so-called “eco- nomic royalists” and wonders what an unbiased investigation of the returns cf their critics would disclose. Representa- tive Hamilton Fish, jr, has demanded information on President Roosevelt's own remittances. He likewise desires data on the extent to which Postmaster Gen- eral James A. Farley has shared his prosperity with Uncle Sam. The income of John L. Lewis of the C. I. O. is a sub- ject of interest to millions of people; and the same may be suggested with re- gard to numerous other leading charac- ters in the New Deal drama. They, too, are well-equipped with the world's goods and just as anxious as any of their political rivals to preserte their property against the tax raids inevitable at a time when the Government is spending like the proverbial intoxicated mariner. R War on the Amur? Although the Russo-Japanese border imbroglio on the Amur has not yet led to large-scale hostilities, the “incident” contains in plenty the ingredients of war. While the Moscow and Tokio gov- ernments hold each other respensible for the dispute and are negotiating for a settlement, Soviet and Japanese mili- tary, naval and air forces are massing on their respective sides of the river amid every indication that a clash is anticipated. With recriminating charges of “aggression” and “invasion” and offi- cial Japanese description of the situa- tion as “very strained.” it is evident that the Far East is once again perilously close to an explosion between the two great powers with conflicting ambitions for Asiatic supremacy. The crisis bioke out with disconcert- ing suddenness. Foreign Commissar Litvinoff and Japanese Ambassador Shigemitsu had just agreed upon with- drawal’of Russian forces from disputed Amur isiands when, according to the Jap- anese;three Soviet gunboats entered the channel between Sennufa Island and the Manchukuoan shore and fired on Japa- nese soldiers swimming in the river. Japanese-Manchukuoan batteries retali- ated, reportedly sinking one Soviet gun- boat, seriously damaging another and causing the third vessel to retreat. Soviet authorities claim the trouble was started by a Japanese-Manchukuoan cutter’s at- tack on a Russian post and gunboat, re- sulting in the killing of two of the lat- ter's crew. Japan has demanded that the Soviet forthwith evacuate all its troops from Amur islands, intimating that severe consequences will follow re- fusal to do so. There the purely diplo- matic aspect of the controversy rests. While charges and counter charges rage respecting origin of the affair, spec- ulation is rife as to what motives ac- tually inspire each country to permit “a couple of economically, worthless marshy islets” to provoke the long- threatened Soviet-Japanese duel. Are Stalin and his confreres tempted to ven- ture a gigantic war gamble as the best means of rallying the Russian people and quelling the disorganization and revolt so glaringly revealed by whole- sale military and civilian purges? By such a remote patriotic “diversion” does the Kremlin perhaps hope to distract the country’s attention from dissension and chaos? Is it possible that the red army in the Far East has gotten out of hand and run amuck, regardless of Moscow? If these are considerations suggesting what may animate the Soviet course, what may be the impulses at work on the Japanese side? Are there military hotspurs on the Amur as disdainful of restraint from Tokio as the Kwantung army leaders who took matters into their own hands at Mukden in 1931 and exploited a relatively trifling railroad incident that was to end in the estab- lishment of puppet Manchukue? Or does Japan again envision a west, pre- occupied six years ago with depression, now so absorbed in other problems—the French financial upheaval, European differences growing out of the Spanish conflict, Russia’s industrial and military dislocation—that Nippon has another fortuitous opportunity to sally forth on a territorial expansion adventure at minimum risk? Whatever the prologue, the Far East- ern stage once more seems ominously set for that tragedy on which the world has almost fatalistically waited for the curtain to rise, e There were some elements of intru- sion at the famous meeting at Jefferson Island. forgotten when it is remembered that Jefferson himself formed his opinions without evidences of envy of the talents of the “good mixer.” e It comes a little hard to assume an air of rigorous superiority at a wedding. Young people do not expect it. Neither do their relations. And whether the gown cost $50 or $50.000, the world ad- mires the love story, told in jewels or in the simple symhols of honest beauty. e France is calling unreserved attention to financial hardships. Just what Uncle Sam is going to do about them remains to be seen. It becomes evident that they cannot be ignored. -—or—s iverything All Wrong, If the Government machinery is as inefficient and the official personnel as unsuited to their tasks as the Brownlow investigators contend, - the shake-up at which they aim is manifestly necessary to keep the structure from collapsing. Three reports have come from this group—the President’s Committee on Administrative Management—and all have one factor in common: virtually everything that has been done is wrong, and the plans now projected would set everything right. In fact, such a good case is made for the cause of a reorganization, to cen- tralize authority over the executive agencies in the hands of the President that the entire chain of argument stirs doubt as to wh*her its conclusions fol- They will be the more easily | lowed or preceded the collateral studies. Two reports issued in the past few days—covering the Civii Service Com- mission and the General Accounting Office, which are scheduled for the Jjunk pile—have been particularly harsh in their indictment of administrative officers, although in the case of the latter the fire obviously is directed at former Controller General John R. McCarl, who apparently aroused an- tagonism by enforcing the law as he “reed it. No economies are indicated by the recommendations, although the greakest need of the Government today is for some check on its sprawling activities. The reorganization bill just intro- duced by Senator Robinson, the Senate majority leader, and now to be followed by a corresponding series of measures from the House, is along the lines laid down by the President’s committee. In considering these, some attention should be given also to proposals by Senator Byrd, who is calling for visible savings instead of simply making changes the benefits of which are for the present no more than theoretical. e It is believed that scientists can get new and valuable material by the exam- ination of a man who confesses to sev= eral Killings. So much material of this kind has been accumulated in the past that the plain citizen who desires to earn a decent living among friends is entitled to more encouragement. e An objection to the trial of Robert Irwin is that it will inevitably recall cases in which the public felt thetic although left much to devices in determining exactly about. mpa- own what N As the course of events in Spain Is examined an increasing respect is felt for eminent citizens who are inclined to allow that particular piece of trouble to remain as nearly as possible & local condition. oo Questions as to another term of office are addressed to the President with a friendly freedom which may eventually cause him to take the subject seriously without saying anvthing about it to his accomplished staff of informants. oo Mysterious explosions cut off the water supply of the Cambria plant. Tom Gird- ler does not claim to know who is re- sponsible for the damage but is willing to step out and assume responsibility for the repairs. ———s Eminent educators are heard with in- terest in comment on present conditions in America’s industrial life. Some of them suggest that to be an eminent edu- cator it is desirable to avoid work. e T — Having been induced to employ tax experts, it has been candidly d@ided by several gentleman that they would rather pay more than allow strangers to 80 into the accounts. o When eminent picture men are en- gaged in photographing great men of the news, the smile of Mr. James Farley sets & standard well worthy of the study with which it is consistently honored. Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The Dog and Rabbit Game. A dog and rabbit on the run Are something fine to view; When all is done, we say the fun Would pass an hour or two, It'’s even more exciting when More lofty hates prevail, For now and then we find that men As foes must hit the trail, The sum of pleasure you secure As through this world you jog Depends for sure on whether you're The rabbit or the dog. Giving Up. B “Doesn’t this tax riddle sometimes make you feel like giving up?” “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “My feelings don't matter. What I want to see is a cordial willingness on the part of our citizens to give up.” Jud Tunkins says a man who is always talking about how the adjacent farm should be run seldom saves up enough money to buy it. E Rustic Confusion. A city lass once heard the moan Of a sad cow by chance. She thought it was a saxophone And started in to dance. A Question Settled. “Some questions are never settled,” exclaimed the weary citizen. “That statement goes a little too far. All doubt has been removed, at least for this year, as to whether it's time to wear a straw hat.” Eggs. “Everybody seems afraid of a man who asserts himself as hard-boiled.” “Yes,” replied Miss Cayenne. “Every- body handles him with care. Any kind of an egg is liable to be so mussy when it is smashed.” Tree Climbing. If evolution were a fact Perhaps we'd learn just how to act, And always know, in agile glee, Exactly when to climb a tree. But we, dull humans, hang around, With thumbless feet upon the ground, And fight in manner sad to see, When it were best to climb a tree. Oh, Time, turn back, through ages vast, And give me primate sense at last. The Simian Lesson bring to me And teach me to climb a tree. “When a man says he enjoys fishin’ in a rainstorm,” said Uncle Eben, “he don’ prove nothin’ to me, ‘ceppin’ da he'd ntw do anything dan stay homei i THE POLITICAL MILL BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. The demand for amendments to the Wagner labor relations act which will put some curb on the activities of labor organizations in this country is growing on Capitol Hill. The lawless manner in which strikes have been conducted in the automobile and steel industries is re- sponsible for the immediate demand. Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, who last Monday offered three amendments to the Wagner act, has been deluged with letters and telegrams from all parts of the country, praising his proposals. Only one letter, he said, out of some 10,000 has been critical. The writer of that letter objected because in one of his proposed amendments Senator Vanden- berg made American citizenship obliga- tory to hold an office in a labor union, That, it seems, is almost too much to bear, according to the Senator’s critic. * Kk % x The amendments to the Wagner act proposed by Vandenberg are salutary, even though they come from a Repub- lican source. The Democratic adminis- tration will not consent to their adop- tion. If it gets around to the view that the Wagner act needs amendment, the amendments will be submitted by Demo- cratic Senators and Representatives. That is the technique of any party— Democratic or Republican—if it has con- trol of the White House and the Con- gress. The White House has so far given no public approval to any legisia- tive proposal to curb the operations of the C. I O. or any other labor union. There has been no proposal from the admin- istration to amend the lopsided Wagner act. * ok Kk The Vandenberg amendments to the Wagner act are three in number. The fi which seems reasonable enough, would give the employers of labor the right to ask for an election among their employes to determine who is to repre= sent them in collective bargaining. The employes have this right under the act as it now stands—but not the employers. His second amendment provides that a voluntary agreement entered into be- tween emplover and employes must be set down in writing. That is one of the demands made by the C. I. O. in the present steel strike, But the amendment goes further. It would require that be- fore any strike is called, it must be voted by a majority of the employes—not called merely by so-called labor leaders. Such a salutary rule already is in effect in the railroad brotherhoods, among the most substantial labor organizations in the country. 1t is obviously not in effect in the automobile and steel industries, in which strikes have been called by C. 1. 0. leaders without the slightest effort being made to ascertain the desires of the majority of the workers. This second amendment also requires that any breach of contract, if not corrected upon order of the National Labor Relations Board, shall suspend the right of repre- sentaton of the employes. * X ox The third amendment proposed by Vandenberg sets up a “fair practice code” for labor—a counterpart of the code established in the law today for em- ployers. ' This code would prohibit com- pulsory political assessments upon union members; require that all officers, agents and representatives of a union be Amer- ican citizens; make it unlawful to force any worker to join a labor union by means of threats, intimidation, coercion, or physical violence, or to damage or destfoy the property of any person or to violate any person's rights in real or personal property, or to strike for the purpose of coercing or forcing any per- son to violate any contract or the laws of any State or of the United States. The Vandenberg amendments have been actively and favorably discussed by members of the Senate and House, since their introduction. Many of the Democrats are said to believe that the country will have to come to some such legislation. The British, after the at- tempted general strike in 1927, drafted and enacted laws much more drastic. They reached the conclusion that Eng- land should not have to undergo an- other disaster like the general strike. The British trades union act of 1927 makes it illegal, for one thing, to call a sym- pathetic strike—when a union not con- nected with the industry in which a strike is going forward is called out. ‘In the event such a sympathetic strike is called, the officers of the union may be put in jail. Responsible labor leaders in this coun- try are anxious that there be more dis- cipline in the unions themselves. They believe in living up to contracts, and they do so. There are others, however, less scrupulous. It is due to them that additions to the law are needed. * ok ok X The alliance between the Roosevelt administration and the C. I. O., headed by John Lewis, which seems to have been in effect although not publicly pro- claimed by the administration, is getting under the hide of some of the Demo- cratic members of Congress. Two of them from Georgia, Cox and Deen, have already expressed their disapproval of the C. I. O. and of Lewis in forcible language. Deen declined to fill a speak- ing engagement for the Democratic Na- tional Committee in Alabama when he found that his traveling expenses were to be paid by Labor's Non-Partisan League, of which Lewis is chairman of the board, acting for the Democratic National Committee. He did not like, he said, the “sit-down strike” tactics of Lewis and his organization. Representative Cox took the floor in the House on Wednesday to denounce the C. 1. O. and to charge that Lewis is seeking to set up a “labor despotism” in the United States. He warned that a “deadly economic plague” is creeping over the country as a result of the C. I. O. efforts and that it would end in civil war if not checked. x koK ok Cox charged that the Federal and some of the State governments are aid- ing and abetting John L. Lewis and his associates in forming “a labor-political- communistic movement.” “If we are going to pursue a policy of encouraging defiance of the courts, of approving lawlessness and disorder,” said the Georgian, “of condoning illegal seiz- ures of entire industrial plants, and if we are going, as we already have gone, a dangerous step further, and use the armed forces of the States and finally of the Federal Government itself to compel satisfied wage earners to submit to conscription into the C. I. O., then we.must be prepared to admit not only that this Government is no longer ca- pable of maintaining the constitutional rights and privileges of its citizens, but that it has gone into partnership with the forces of lawlessness and disorder; it has joined hands with a labor despot; it has embraced communism in industrial relations.” Cox said, in support of his charge that the C. I. O. is communistic, that a total of 121 of the staff of the organization are “known to be Communists” and com- mitted to. the job of overthrowing the American form of government. He gave the names and addresses of 249 C. I. O. organizers, of whom 75 were members of the Communist party and 46 others were “known to be Communists.” 1937. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. It may require as much as ten years for shrubbery to grow tall enough and tangled enough to attract the wild birds for nesting. The bird lover will not mind waiting. If he refrains from using the pruning shears, and refuses to listen to the pleas of those who want them used, he will be rewarded in time. : There can be little question that it is the shrul overgrown to the point of tangled, untldy branches, that the birds like. Neatly trimmed bushes seldom seem home to nesting birds. Here and there they may use them, if nothing better is available, but in the main they like them tall, rangy and tangled up. Perhaps it is this desire, rather than a liking for solitude, which makes the birds take to thickets in woods. Mostly it has been believed in the past that the unfrequented ways were liked best by the birds. When a pair of catbirds, however, make a nest in a weigela at the corner of a much used sunporch, it may be necessary to revise the old opinion. * % % X This shrub has been at the porch corner for many years. This Spring it became so tangled that the owners decided to prune it smartly. Every one knows, however, how de- cision is seldom followed by action, in such matters. For one thing, pruning is not an easy, r pleasant job, either mentally or physical It requires an amount of real knowl- edge which the average amateur gar- dener does not possess. Most often he does not know where to find it. Some bushes are best pruned in the Spring, right after blooming. Some should be cut back in the Fall only. Some should not be lopped off at all, but removed bodily to another location, where their height will cause no hard feelings from any one. The physical job of cutting is not easy. Often the best pruning shears, or cli rs, will not go through the largest” and stoutest of the branches to be cut. A saw must come into action. Sawing shrubs is no part-time job. It requires good sawmanship, for one thing, often in places®where there is little room for the best handling of the tool. * ok & % Old shrubs, growing to the point where some one is sure to refer to them as “messy looking,” are exactly the one liked by our best birds. The catbird, the cardinal, the mock- ingbird, the robin, the wrens, the doves, and others—these find nothing quite so satisfactory. The gardener who puts off pruning his shrubbery is doing the one thing necessary to attract many popular song- sters to his place. Let him not be unduly sensitive, therefore, if he is remiss in this respect, for in every tangle there may appear a pair of birds, and a nest, and youngsters in time, Such shrubs near a house give a most excellent spectacle to the bird-minded human, who finds watching them easy, almos, from a grandstand seat, as it were. It will be found, in most cases, that the birds which have decided upon such & place are not in the least disturbed by human company. ‘They will not mind; that is, if reason- able care is taken by the watchers. Since most person’s interested in bird watching are not liable to be noisy or hasty in their movements, this caution is scarcely necessary. Provided this care is taken, the birds will not mind, but will fly to and fro at all times as unafraid as if in the deepest forest. * X x ¥ It may be believed that some of our birds, notably the robin and cardinal, have become so tame that they actually prefer the close company of humanity. In a territory the size of any large city, with its contiguous suburbs, and parks, there are surely plenty of secluded nesting places. Rock Creek Park, in this vicinity, would provide all the tangled shrubbery all the birds in the territory need. But all of them do not go there, by any means. One of them comes to that tangled shrub by the sunporch window. Another takes up a nest a few feet to the south, in an equally tangled mock- orange. A cardinal selects another big shrub Just a few feet to the west. Here, within the space of a few square feet, are three bird families, cardinal, robin, and catbird. Where—and this is the point—no bird had nested before this year, although, to the unpracticed eye, the layout of the territory might seem much the same as ever. Much the same, that is, with one very definite exception! Tangled shrubbery. ok % % Wherefore, if any one shrinks from the task of proper pruning. let him keep well in mind that there is another proper attitude in regard to shrubbery, If branches are permitted to go high, and to become involved, one with an- other— If the boughs become bowed over with their own weight— It they present a much tangled ap- pearance, instead of that neat look so much desired in Surburbia the world around— Then feel sure that the birds have found exactly what they have been looking for all these days. Bent over branches give a cave-like appearance to even the most humble shrub which evidently strikes the cat- bird family as home, sweet home. Not only is the nest hard to get at. in such a situation, but it is very well protected from rains. Animals and humans more or less leave it alone, a most desirable thing from the standpoint of the tribes of the air. Yet the birds themselves have no trouble flying in and out, in and out, all day long, as they go about their tasks. The bird watcher usually has no trouble in seeing them at their work. So every living being which has any real concern in the matter is highly pleased, a situation which does not pre- vail too often, but which, given the proper tangled shrubbery, may exist at any porch corner. B e WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. On none of the four other Independ- ence days which Pranklin D. Roosevelt has spent in the White House has the “Spirit of 76" flamed so flercely in po- litical Washington as on this Fourth of July. Never before has the President faced so determined and widespread a brand of revolt against administration domination. The founding fathers who fomented and fought the Colonial revo- lution find something of a counterpart in the men who are waging today’'s con- gressional revolution against centraliza- tion of government in the executive branch. The attack on the Supreme Court bill is the immediate and over- towering symbol of the struggle, but those two other projects near and dear to the Rooseveltian heart—wages and hours legislation and Government re- organization—arouse hostility every whit as bitter as the judiciary reform scheme has generated. Jefferson Island may have minimized the volume and inten- sity of anti-administration sentiment in spots, but the vaunted get-together by no means abolished the resentment and belligerency with which the atmosphere of Capitol Hill is so heavily charged. Old-timers have difficulty in recalling a situation so loaded with high explosive. There’ll be a hot time in the old town this Summer, in more ways than one. * k% X Mr. Roosevelt is so resourceful a com- batant when political fighting is rough that it would be rash to foreshadow for him as crushing a defeat on the labor and reorganization bills as unquestion- ably stares him in the face on court packing. At the moment, there's prob- ably a majority in both houses for the wages and hour measure, as well as for the less controversial provisions of the Government-reform proposition, such as the one giving the President six new administrative assistants—men with “a passion for anonymity,” as he. dubs them. But the opposition to each of these projects is not yet fully crystallized. Both have given way in public interest to the Supreme Court strife. When the time comes, each proposal is sure to be hammered hard from many sides. The idea of clothing a.five-man board with super-N. R. A. power will be sternly re- sisted. So will the reorganization plans to give the White House supreme au- thority over expenditure and curb inde- pendent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission. * K K K Rear Admiral Percy W. Foote, U. S. N, retired, has just been appointed commis- sioner of the new Pennsylvania motor police organization by Gov. Earle at an $8.500 salary. A native North Caro- linian and 1901 Annapolis graduate, Foote was retired in June, 1936, with the rank of rear admiral after 35 years of service in varied capacities at sea and ashore. He was awarded the Dis- tinguished Service Medal for “excep- tionally meritorious service in duty of grave responsibility” as commander of the transport President Lincoln when that vessel was sunk by an enemy sub- marine in May. 1918. After the war, Foote became aide to Secretary Josephus Daniels and later commanded the cruiser Salem, the battleship Arkansas and a destroyer division. The admiral is par- ticularly well remembered in Washing- ton from the time of his service at the Navy Yard here. The new chief of Penn State’s motor constabulary was active, as a Tar Heel, in promoting the recent banquet tribute tendered to Gov. Earle by Southerners resident in the National Capital. His home is at Drexel Hill, Pa. ; * k% This being the season when the Nation is celebrating the revolt triumphantly waged on these shores to vindicate the principle that “taxation without repre- sentation is tyranny,” Mmely interest attaches to the late disclosure of the In- ternal Revenue Bureau regarding 1935 income tax returns. The number filed by the voteless District of Columbia, 95,714, was exceeded by those of only 12 States—New York, Pennsylvania, Cali- fornia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, Missouri, Wis- consin and Connecticut. All of the other 36 States are outstripped by the dis- franchised Federal area, which is about to have new and burdensome taxes im- posed upon it by a Congress in which it has neither voice nor vote. More re- turns were filed by unrepresented Wash- ingtonians than by the voting residents of some 10 States put together. * k% X J. Butler Wright, seasoned foreign service career officer who is Ambassador- designate to Cuba, relinquishes his min- isterial post at Prague with high appre- ciation of the statesmanlike qualities of President Eduard Benes of Czechoslo- vakia. Still widely regarded as one of Europe's outstanding leaders, not the least of Benes’ attributes, the American diplomat s, is the fact that he is as quick on his feet as he is with his head— & circumstance which recalls to Wright that “Gentleman Jim"” Corbett beat John L. Sullivan because the former was as agile with his pedal extremities as he was with his fists. Nimbleness of foot, in Benes’ case, is not construed in Eu- rope as evidence of a penchant for eva- sion, opportunism or sidestepping. It is, on the contrary, in the conspicuous absence of pussyfooting or dodging that the essence of Benes' technique lies. * X X % Mr. Roosevelt was given a first-class opportunity at his latest press conference to blow up third-term talk, but pre- ferred to evade the issue by indulging in some pointed irony at the expense of newspaper men who sought to smoke him out. The President manifestly doesn't think the time ripe for either denying or affirming the soft 1940 im- peachment. As long as he doesn't choose to commit himself, politicians insist he must be regarded at least a tentative Barkis. New Dealers argue that it wouldn't be the part of wisdom at this critical stage for the President too posi- tively to show his hand. If he were to withdraw from the picture thus early in the game, administrationists point out, he would prematurely and quite unneces- sarily divest himself of authority that will be his as long as he ranks as his own possible successor. * X X X Referring to the number and promi- nence of Dixie members of Congress op- posed 1o the Supreme Court bill and cer- tain other pending projects, a resident of thne deep South recently wrote to a Washington friend: “You Northerners saved the Union some 70 years ago, and we Southerners are going to save it now!” ERE Labor troubles and prospectively in- creased manufacturing costs resultant from wages and hours legislation appear to be gumming up Secretary Hull's hopes of an -Anglo-American reciprocal trade treaty. involving tariff concessions to John Bull. Some members of Con- gress expect that the next development in the tariff situation may be a demand for higher rates rather than reciprocal reductions. (Copyright, 1937.) ———— A National Need Prom the Winston-Salem Journal. Educator suggests we need a one-word commencement, address in this country. Business of nominating “work” as the word. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN., A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Evening Star Informadion Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, . Director, Washington, D, C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. Why is base ball our national sport? —P. M A. Ford C. Frick, president of the Na= tional League, says: “I think base ball Is our national pastime because the qualities it develops in its contests, the team play, co-operation of all members of a team toward one purpose, with star= dom achievable only through and with such co-operation, come closer to ex- pressing the fundamental principles that make up the spirit of American people than is true in the case of any other sport on the calendar.” Q. Please name the sons of John D. Rockefeller, jr., in order of age—E. F. C. A. John D, 3d; Nelson Aldrich, Lau= rance 8., Winthrop and David. Q. How fast can currency be counted? —R. McE. A. The expert counters of the Depart= ment of the Treasury have counted ap- proximately as many as 40.000 new notes a day, and 25,000 old ones. Q. Does the Royal Canadian Mounted Police use any airplanes?—B. B. C. A. American Aviation says that the department has acquired four airplanes for use in the maritime provinces in search of rum-runners Q. When a bale of cotton is fluffed up in a cotton mill. how much space does it occupy?—A. M. S A. When a bale of cotton is opened, the crowded lint is loosened, beaten to a swan's down full and fanned free ol dirt. It is then so light that one bale fills a big room. Q. How many new students will be taken at the Coast Guard Academy in 1937?—R. C. G A. The Bureau of the Coast Guard says that 50 candidates will be admitted to the Coast Guard Academy this year. Q. On what day of the week did Co- lumbus discover America?—R. M A. October 12, 1492, fell on Friday. Q. Why is it harmful to cut grass to short?—H. J. A. If the grass is cut too short, not enough leaf surface is left to supply the roots with plant food. This results in weakened plants which permit dande- lions and other weeds to get started. Q. When was the first apartment house built in New York City?—K. F. M. A. New York City's first apartment house was erected at 142 East Eighteenth street in 1870. Q. Who organized the Lafayette Es- cadrille?—A. A, A. This French squadron, composed entirely of American aviators, was or- ganized in 1915 by Norman Prince and William Thaw. Q. What and where is the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles?—G. D. o A. The Los Angeles Chamber of Com- merce savs that the Miracle Mile is a section of Wilshire Boulevard, Los An- geles, beginning at La Brea and run- ning westward toward Beverly Hills. It received its name because of the rapid rise in values which took place in this general region during the last decade. In seven years this property incrsased from $5.000 per acre—$20 per front foot— to $2500 a front foot. Q. Where in New England is there an authentic collection of Sandwich glass? —G. T. A. The Sandwich, Mass., Historical Society has an invaluable coliection which is on display throughout the Summer. Q. How old is Burgess Meredith, star of “High Tor"?—H. F. A. The actor is 28 years old. Q. When will the American Legion meet?—W. H. A. The American Legion convention will be held at New York City Septembe: 20, 21, 22 and 23. Q. What is the oldest rowing event? —C. M. F. A. The oldest one of importance ir the Henley Regatta which was foundec at Henley-on-Thames in 1839, Q. How many mystery books are pub- lished yearly?—C. H. A. Approximately 300 mystery book appear on the market yearly. Q. What does the Indian reorganiza tion act of 1934 do for the Indians’ —R. McG. A. The provisions of this bill grant more home rule; permission to organize, to purchase land, stop the sale of land to outsiders; set up a revolving loan fund, and in general give the Indians greater voice in handling their own affairs, Q. On which side of the head are most malformations of the ear?—C. J. A. The American Medical Association says that most of them are on the right side. Q. How many animals are buried in the Hartsdale Canine Cemetery near White Plans, N. Y.?—H. L. W. A. There are 8.000 pets buried in the cemetery, the majority of which are dogs. Q. What caused the death of Sir Francis Bacon?—E. K A. Bacon. died in 1626 as the result of a cold caught during an experimen- tation on the refrigeration of fresh meat. Q. How much larger does a grain of Ppop corn become when it pops?—D. M. A. It increases 6 to 8 .times in bulk. Q. What is meant by letting land lie fallow?—N. M. A. Fallow land is land which is plowed but not seeded, either for the purpose of allowing moisture to gather in the soil or to kill weeds and plant diseases. -—or—s A li—hyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton. Bubbles. How troublesome seem all the diurnal worries, Little, fluttering things that assail us in flurries. They grow in dimensions that fluster and frighten, And cling as if seeking their holdings to tighten— Until real trouble comes. When small things cease to trouble; But t into nothingness like & soap Yubble. -