Evening Star Newspaper, August 1, 1937, Page 31

Editorial Page Specia] Articles EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundwy Shae Part 2—10 Pages OB-MINDEDNESS DOOMS CIVIL SERVICE REFORM Senate Subcommittee to Keep master Merit Bill From Action. Other Moves BY J. A. FOX. NLESS signs are amiss, the ambitious civil service reform program urged by President Roosevelt is all washed up. Prospects may never have been really bright, in view of the growing job-mindedness of Congress, and in two recent developments on Capitol Hill, it has become more apparent that the “future” of civil service is behind it. unless there is a decided change in the attitude of those who have the final say. The first indication of the way the wind is blowing came in a colloquy in the Senate in which Senator Mc- Kellar, Democrat, of Tennessee let it be known that a civil service sub- committee he heads would continue to keep bottled up a bill, that already has passed the House. to put postmaster- ships of first, second and third class offices—now prized po'itical plums— under civil service. Second was the publication of the hearings by the joint committee on re- | organization, which brought out that its members viewed critically the plan to provide career employment in Go ernment by filling all but “poli making” positions through the com- petitive system The postmaster legislation has been pressed by President Roosevelt for four vears. Primarily, it would make the postal service a career service in itself—and take 14,548 jobs off the patronage lis Part of Roosevelt Plan. The plan to put Federal employment | es a whole on a career basis was embodied in the reorganization pro- | gram President Roosevelt sent to Congress last January, which proposed | to bring under civil service thousands of positions now exempt. The entire plan, of course. was stymied by the court fight, and now, though new hearings have been decided upon, goes | over to the next session of Congress. ‘The reception thus far accorded the personnel provisions in committee, however, offers no encouragement as to their ultimate indorsement. Prodding by Senator O'Mahoney, Democrat, of Wyoming, a former Fir Assistant Postmaster General, closed the status of the postal legi lation, after McKellar, chairman of the | Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, had asked the Senate to con- firm, en bloc, a large group of post- master nominees. The resultant exchange was minating. “I observe.” said O'Mahoney, “that illu- there is a long list of postmasters who | have been nominated, and the con- firmation o: whose nominations is requested. Several months ago the House of Representatives passed a bill placing the appointment of post- masters under the civil service. A similar measure has been introduced in the Senate, and, as I understand, 1s now pending before the Civil Service Committee. May I ask the chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads what progress is being made with regard to that proposed legislation?” McKellar: “Very little progress being made in regard to it, for the reason that a canvass of the Senate— not of every member of the Senate, but of about 50 or 60—has disclosed that but three Senators were mildly in favor of the bill. I think its strongest advocate was the Senator from Wyo- ming (O'Mahoney): another Senator who favored the bill was the Senator from Idaho (Pope—Democrat). The Senator from Maine (White—Republi- can) also indorsed it.” At this juncture, Senator Maloney, Democrat, of Connecticut said Me- Kellar had not polled him and that he favored the bill. “That makes four Senators in favor of the bill” McKellar{ responded, prompting Senator King, Democrat, of Utah #» retort that he would try to “neutralize” that by recording his own | opposition. “I am quite sure,” said McKellar, “that the Senate is overwhelmingly | opposed to it. However, we are trying | to work out another bill that we hope will be satisfactory. I do not know whether we will be able to do so. O'Mahoney Asks About Bill. O’'Mahoney: “Mr. President, I may | #ay that, of course, it is common knowledge that the President of the United States several years ago rec- ommended that the appointment of postmasters be made under civil serv- | ice rules, and from time to time, dur- ing the past four years, been consideration of that suggestion made by the President. I am curious to know whether the chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads and the chairman of the Com- mittee on Civil Service (Bulow—Dem- ocrat—South Dakota) can give us an idea as to whether or not the bill to which the Senator from Tennessee just & moment ago referred will be reported at the present session of Congress?” McKellar: “I will be very glad to answer the Senator, so far as I am eoncerned. I am opposed to the bill.” O'Mahoney: “I understand that that 1s the attitude of the Senator.” McKellar: “And so far as I have gone, I think that my colleagues on the subcommittee are not in favor of it.” O’'Mahoney: “I think that is very likely to be true.” McKellar: “I think it is true and I doubt very much whether the bill goes through at the present session. Does that answer the Senator’s question?” O’Mahoney: “No, it does not.” McKellar: “Well, I am ready to eanswer it if I can.” O’Mahoney: “What I am anxious to know is whether the committee in | charge of the bill will give members of the Senate an opportunity to vote upon it by reporting the bill.” McKellar: “Does the Senator mean by reporting it adversely?” O'Mahoney: “By reporting the bill.” McKellar: “I think the subcom- mittee will report that particular bill adversely. That is my judgment. I may be mistaken; I have been mis- taken very recently.” O’Mahoney: “I will not pursue the matter any further this afternoon except to express the hope that the Committee on Civil Service, with the assistance of the chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, will report the bill and have it Pplaced on the calendar so that mem- ' 4 4 dis- | is | there has | Post- Are Disputed. | bers of the Senate may express their opinion with respect to the matter.” | There was no response. Selective System Changed. Since the President started pushing | the postmaster legislation, he has i changed, by executive order, the selec- | tive system under the casual civil serv- | ice examination through which they | now qualify, this regulation requiring | that the applicant at the top of the | list prepared by the Civil Service Commission be appointed. Prior to that, one of the first three could be | named, thus virtually making certain | that the candidate most acceptable politically to his respective Senators and House members would get the | post. | Although the field has thus been | narrowed, it is said at the commission | that there are fewer rejections than | under the old plan, although, if the | Senate refuses to confirm, the com- | mission has no alternative but to | certify another applicant. Postmaster General Farley is re- | ported to have objected to the form of the House bill, which permits open examination for a postmastership, | only if the incumbent is not reap- | pointed and the Post Office Depart- ment certifies that there is no employe of the vacancy office qualified for advancement. Farley, it is said, wants | the option of promotion or open | | examination without any strings. Representative Ramspeck, Democrat | of Georgia. chairman of the House | Civil Service Committee, sponsored the postmaster bill, and has repeatedly emphasized his belief that its passage | | will do more toward breaking up the | spoils system everywhere than any other single factor. | In comparison to the patronage set- | up as a wholegsomething like 300.000 jobs now are outside of civil serv the number and emoluments of these | postmasterships are inconsequential. More than 10,000 of them are in third- class offices, where the pay ranges from | $1,150 to $2,300 with graduated allow- | ances for clerk hire. and the top is | $12.000 for two offices—New York and | Chicago. But their political potency | is something else again. The plan to build a career service throughout the Government structure has received little attention since it was proposed in the report of the special committee headed by Louts | Brownlow, which embodied a vast re- | organization scheme and called for the extension of civil service “upward * * * outward * * * downward.” The joint committee headed by the late Senator Robinson, Democrat of Arkansas held 13 hearings on the| program over a period of two ahd one- half months, but devoted most of this | time to considering the section of the | report proposing to do away with the | General Accounting Office as at pres- i ent constituted, and setting up a new | auditing system. The tentative draft of legislation | offered by the Brownlow group to| | carry out the provisions of the report | was sidetracked by the joint com- { mittee, and its own measure, which finally appeared in the Senate and now is to have hearings, carries a complex | series of pemsonnel provisions that are | —to state the case mildly—a little less thar. understandable | Extent of Bill Unknown. Those who have tried to interpret the Senate measure are entirely in the | dark as to how far it would extend | | civil service through the rank and | file of the Government, but they are agreed that it has one angle that goes far afield from career principles. A provision that would remove several | hundred positions from civil service | | by making Presidential appointment | and Senate confirmation a requisite for | |all chiefs of bureaus and divisions | directly responsible to the head of an executive department. This section has drawn the fire of the American Federation of Government Employes, the National Federation of Federal Employes, the Civil Service Reform League and the National League of ‘Women Voters, but a study of the hearings indicates plainly that it was written in_ specifically to meet objec- tions of Joint Committee members to under-officials who hold over from one administration to another. The Brownlow civil service plan is a wheels-within-wheels idea. It pro- vides first for a single administrator to | replace the three-member bi-partisan Civil Service Commission. Then there would be a seven-member board, | chosen by the President, to “act as | watchdog for the merit system.” This board would meet four times a year or more and get $50 a day per member while in session. The administrator would be chosen through a competitive examination devised by a special ex- amining board named in turn by the seven “watchdogs,” but nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate would be necessary. A salary of $15,000 was proposed. ‘The joint committee bill saved the salary figure, but junked the examin- |ing procedure, providing only for Presidential appointment and Sena- torial confirmation. It also knocked out the “watchdogs.” The appointive plan for the admin- istrator drew a running fire of criti- cism from the Joint Committee mem- bers as they quizzed Brownlow on it. Said Senator Barkley, of Kentucky, now the Democratic leader: “Do you believe, for an“important position like this, which is almost as important as that of a cabinet officer, where the President ought to be able to survey the qualified men of the whole country for this administrator, you can get the best man for it out of a list of three who are sifted uj through a civil service examination Brownlow did. Representative Vinson, Democrat of Kentucky, then took over. “Don’t you think the fact that you would hold a competitive examination would automatically exclude some of the best men in the country for this position, who might be available if such competitive examination was not held?” Would Be Invited to Take Test. Brownlow demurred, explaining if the board followed the best accepted practices, various men would be invited to take the examination. “You did not get my point,” Vinson continued. “I am not speaking about “(Continued on Page 7, Column i) WASHI SUNDAY MORNING, Part Two Travel — Resorts AUGUST Tributes to Heroes neral Pershing Dedicates a Memorial in France to the Americans Who Never Came Homse. At Montfaucon BY COL. FREDERICK PALMER, Author of “Our Gallant Madness.”" Etc. AFAYETTE, they, too, will be there. The dead. sleeping si- lently under 6 feet of earth, will be present at today's stir- ring ceremonies at Montfaucon. Do not forget that—when vou hear over the radio, or read in tomorrow morning's paper, the address by the President of France and the broad- cast from the White House, when the 175-foot monument that towers over the largest of ‘our soldier cemeteries in France is formally dedicated to commemorate the services and sacri- fices of the American troops in the Meuse-Argonne batile. During the rest of the Summer, un- der Gen. Pershing’s eye, the memo- rials of ‘ome-other battlefields, from St cated. Mihiel into Belgium, will be dedi- | Distinguished guests will find | that all is ready for the official tribute | to valor and victory. They will see monuments of enduring stone in weil landscaped parks, look out on fields of white crosses of enduring stone (the Star of David for the Jews) set in greensward All the crosses are alike, the same distance apart, in rows of perfect alignment. —except to assure that another Euro- pean war shall not spread into France —to make the scene of the long sleep of the men under the white crosses quietly peaceful. It is in unforgettable contrast with the last scene that they knew on earth: the shell-torn ground, the roar of gun blasts, the undertone of hoarse commands. and then, “He's got it!"—as he got his future white cross. “White Cross Summer.” ‘The dedications might warrant call- ing this the {al White Cross day on which, unlike | we would honor only | Memorial day the memory of men killed in battle. But the men under the white crosses in Prance will not know this will not see the flowers on their graves or hear the orators sound their praises —unless they look down from their Valhalla. Monuments and crosses of stone out of quarries and the flesh of youth— always of youth! For the men under | the white crosses were killed in the full tide of youth's ardor. The story of today’s dedication real- 1y began more than 20 years ago when youth stood in line at the training camps. Behind them was the war emotion of a nation in mad, impetu- ous haste—a nation unprepared and without ships. Their bodies and minds—as it must be in war—were surrendered to the goad and spur and stern regime of military com- mand. The war-toughened, war-wise old hands in Europe, in the prestige of their scars, said Americans never could be trained in time to be of any use against German veterans. But there we were in the trenches winning our first white crosses of death; and then under the fire of Montsec we earned more of them. In the great crisis of the German drives of 1918 our soldiers earned a spatter of white crosses near the little village of Cantigny—our first offen- sive. We stood fast, back of Chateau- Thierry, on the Paris road, while the people were evacuating the French capital. We stormed Belleau Wood. A lot more white crosses The Allies were in ecstasy. We were the .saviors. Our people at home thrilled with pride at the news—news that Ameri- can youth had not forgotten how to be brave since Gettysburg and San Juan Hill. In immortal stonewalling and in- itiative we made good on our own “They shall not pass.” We threw the fifth German offensive back across the Marne. And at last Paris breathed freely again. Then we put our weight into the closing of the deep Marne salient, and finally turned the tide against the enemy. But that fighting resulted in the second largest field of white crosses in Prance. The tourist may see it at Fere-en-Tardenois, be- yond Belleau Wood from Paris. ‘When the old European war hands saw how good the first Americans were they cried for more of us “You shall have more and more until we win this war,” answered America in the white heat of determination, driv- ing the throb of its mighty energy across the Atlantic. Since we were so willing, 30 ambi- ) All care has been taken | White Cross Summer. | | They might point the way to a nation- They | | by the chief executive of the South- this shaft commemorates the Meuse-Argonne battle. - tious to win white crosses, Generalh-! simo Foch kept on raising the ante. One-two-three-four—he would have | five millions of American soldiers in | France. But, in their hearts, the men over there were not fighting for France or to make the world safe for democ- | racy—the causes that sent them forth Disillusionment on the spot soon made | them deaf to the trumpeted slogans They were fighting at their country’s call and command, to play the game, to finish the job in hand—they were fighting to get back home. When Foch reneged on his prom- ise that we should have our own army under our own flag, Pershing held him partly to it—heid him to it for our | sake and for the sake of the Allies, | to make sure they did not lose the war. And our army under our own command took the redoubtable Mont- sec, closed the great St. Mihiel salient | and swept forward on the plain, the conquered heights behind them. And | another fleld of white crosses was (o Brow up in their footsteps. | Hope, now, while the machines in | home before Winter. the War Department clicked off the i mames of the dead and wounded for immediate dispatch to relatives—hope, | in face of the influenza epidemic tak- | ing its toll at the front and in home camps—hope that if we fought hard | enough we might not have to remain in France on into 1919. We might be Detached divisions stormed Blanc ' Mont to help the French in Cham- | pagne and to help the British to break | the Hindenburg line. Two more fields | of white crosses. Our main Army was advancing in the Meuse-Argonne, drawing off Ger- And Premier “Tiger” Clemenceau of France was growling because we did not move faster against pDositions which the French army had found too forbidding for an offensive. ‘War Scenes at Home, More, more! At home it was “work or fight” for all, every ounce of our energy in pounding effort. Empty the | training camps! Draft more men! U. S. FEARS ON CANAL PACT STILLED BY PANAMAN America Has Nothing to Lose, Says Arosemena, Since More Interested in Protection. BY GASTON NERVAL. NY fears which might still have remained about wartime | defense of the Panama Canal under the new United States- Panama treaty have been dispelled ern republic. Declaring that the United suus: has nothing to fear from the clause in | the pact providing for consultation | between the two countries before | United States troops could enter| Panamanisn territory, to defend the canal in the event of an international conflagration, President Arosemena | pointed out that her own interests would force Panama to permit and even facilitate such action. “If a foreign power attacks the canal it attacks us,” said the Pana- | manian President. “The shots would | inevitably drop In our territory. Pan- ama is bound forever to assist the United States in protecting the canal.” | In thus answering the main criticism of treaty opponents and solemnly re- assuripg them of the good faith in | which’ the compact has been signed, the head of the Panamanian gov-| ernment has sought to remove once for | all a great misunderstanding which is | still delaying ratification of the new | treaty by the Senate of the United States. Abuses by U. S. Corrected. Enemies of the administration have made the most of that misunderstand- ing and have based on it, and its im- plications, their fight to prevent con- sideration of the new treaty by the Senate. They have claimed that the new pact gives up all the rights and privileges acquired under Theodore Roosevelt, that it secures nothing in exchange, and what is even more im- portant, that it jeopardizes the safety of the Panama Canal, and, therefore, the whole military defense of the United States. What is the truth, however, of these charges? As for the first, any one acquainted with the background of United States-Panama relations since Theodore Roosevelt, in his own words, “took the canal” will agree that the new treaty does not affect any of the fundamental rights belonging to the United States as the constructor and operator of the Panama Canal. Those rights, as originally defined, were those necessary for the maintenance, opera- tion, sanitation and protection of the canal, and they are carefully pre- served by the provisions of the new instrument. What the United States does give up is a series of self-acquired privileges and unfair practices aris- ing out of misinterpretations of the original treaty of 1903 or of sheer military predominance and abuse of power in 33 years of the one-sided situation which the new pact is in- tended to correct. It is hard to believe, nevertheless, [{ Panama Is Even that the abolition of the guarantee of Panamanian independence, the suppression of the right of interven- tion in domestic affairs, the provisions for consultation in cases of emergency, the restrictions imposed upon the com- | mercial activities of the mmmmarmtfl of the Canal Zone, the recognition of | various Panamanian claims in eco- | nomic, commercial and administrative | matters, and other such concessions sacrifice any of the fundamental rights of the United States for the mainte- nance, operation, sanitation and pro- tection of the canal. As for the second charge, that for these concessions the United States gets nothing in return, it must be borne in mind that. apart from a few secondary material advantages, the United States would obtain by means of the new treaty something which is of incalculable value to her. namely, the good will and co-operation of the Panamanian people. The proposed new regime of friendly co-operation and joint responsibility, despite the said concessions—which, after all, are mainly ethical and political—would make it infinitely easier for the United | States to defend those really impor- tant rights she has in the mainte- nance, operation, sanitation and pro- tection of the canal. The third charge, and the more serious one, is that the safety of the canal would be impaired by the sub- stitution of provisions for consultation and agreement between the Umfted States and Panama as to emergency measures for its defense instead of the unilateral and arbitrary power here- tofore reserved to the United States in this respect. Charge Is Foolish. ‘Those who proffer such charge ap- parently seem to forget that, of all countries in the world, Panama is the one most Interested, even more so than the United States itself, in the safety of the Panama Canal. After all, its two most important cities would be the first to suffer in an emergency attack on the canal, and the whole country would be econom- ically ruined by the destruction of the Panama Canal. That is, precisely, the import of President Arosemena’s assurances that “Panama is bound forever to as- sist the United States in protecting the canal.” And if, to give the skepucs the bene- fit of the doubt, one®concedes the very hypothetical danger which an unfriendly Panamanian government would mean to the defense of the canal by the United States, is not this the very reason why the United States should do its utmost to regain Pan- amanian good will and insure the friendship and co-operation, in the years to come, of the two nations which, as the new compact reads, —Signal Corps Photo. | today. made possible the Panama Canal? (Copyright, 1937.) [} Rush the men in freight cars from | the transports and patch up the| wounded to fill the gaps in the ranks | at the front! Drive, drive for seven weeks in that long battle, gaining ground foot by foot, as we provided | dead for the cemetery we dedicate | America’s largest cemetery in France, and three times larger than the next in size. At last we were over the crest and | sprinting downhill in the chase. The | war was over—guns silent at the| front and a roar of rejoicing among | the allied peoples. | man divisions to weaken resistance to | | the allied advance in Western France. | And the dead? A dead man is of no further service in war's harsh ma- terialism. He ceases to be fighting vouth and becomes so much excess flesh. His buddies mav mourn him, but commanders must think in terms of living youth. Get the living back to billets, first, away from the germ and vermin in- fested battlefields, and then get them home, clean, free of disease—and get jobs for them. The dead already had jobs in eternity. Thev alone of the | Americans were still in the area of trenches. ruins and the gashed, limb- | less trunks of trees on the sites of w h211 had been forests. Seventy-eight thousand Amencax" boys were under French sod in 2.400 | separate burial places, aside from those in shallow, scattered graves likely to be turned over by the pea ant’s plow. They were in the way of reconstruction Practically all must be moved. To send them home when our own war /| debt and allied borrowings were | mounting meant & great expense and | a harrowing process. The first plan | was to have them lie in selected sites | on or near the fields where they fell. | But there were protests against this | from those who had the heartfelt right | to protest. “I gave him to his country,” said a mother who had a gold star in place | of a live son, “pnd the least his coun- try can do is td send what remains of him back to be puried beside his fath- er and mother.", “From what I know of European history,” said a father, “the body of my son will be safer in our family plot than in any cemetery in France which may be cut by trenches and blasted by shells in the next war.” Wanted Sons Buried at Home. ‘With decision left to the nearest relatives of the dead. more than half wanted the son, husband or brother buried at home. War's aftermath had its supreme grisly horror in the exhuming of the bodies. Names of many who had fought over the battlefields were still missing after all the names in the known burial places had been checked off. Not all were in the scattered in- dividual graves. The combing search would reveal a skeleton in khaki in a dense bit of woods; another under his steel helmet in a tumbled-in trench. ’ Once the bodies were all at home or In the cemeteries in France, what about battlefield monuments? Al- ready regiments and divisions were beginning to put up their own. But the French objected that if they had monuments to all .the regiments and divisions which had been in their many wars there would be no room left on which to grow crops. Congress created the Battle Monu- ments’ Commission, with Gen. Persh- ing as its chairman. There should be one monument for each battlefield, each cemetery, to the valor of all who fought there. Now all the monu- ments are in place. A fountain at Tours is the me- morial to the workers of the Service of Supply who kept up the flow of sup- plies to the front. The Army has erected a granite arch to the Navy at Gibraltar, the gateway of the Mediterranean. A tall shaft at Brest recalls how the sailormen safely ferried 2,000,000 soldiers through the submarine zone. Each fleld of crosses has its non- denominational chapel. Here are in- scribed the names of more than & thousand dead whose bodies have never been recovered. Shellbursts mixed their flesh with the earth. The only unknown soldier who sleeps at home is in Arlington. Those in France have marble markers with the inscription: ‘“Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.” -2 U. S. PREPARES ANOTHER BLAST AT DICTATORS Trouble Spots of Europe Watched as Warning Gun Is Primed by Diplomatic Musketeers. BY CONSTANTINE BROW HE administration has fired two blank shots across the bows of the ships of state of the Eu-| ropean dictators—the warning | speech of Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles at Charlottesville on July 9, timed to precede by four days | the important meeting of the London Non-intervention Committee, and the | new political credo issued by Secretary | Hull on July 16 announcing a de- parture from Washington's traditional policy of aloofness in world affairs. President Roosevelt and his musketeers—Secretary Hull, three | Under- | spite the steadiness of Fore: Min- appeasing the temper is becoming ister Yvon counsels from of the French more reck and Hence d Deutschland and will not be pa. nonchalance a Delbos and London, people other incidents past Spot No. 1. But the really precarious arising in a quarter from no spectacular news has vet lated. That is Czechosl was described by Fore Anthony Ed: mo in the “Danger secretary Welles and Ambassador at | " Large Norman Davis—are now pre- paring a third and last warning shot. to be fired in the event that develop- ments in Europe make it necessary The White House and the State De- partment are following with unusual attentiveness all movements in Eu- rope and Ambassadors and their staffs are instructed to spare neither money nor effort in keeping Washington posted on developments in Spain Czechoslovakia and other major dan- ger points across the Atlantic. If no particular concern is felt about the Sino-Japanese conflict, it is be- cause the troubles on the Asiatic main- land are so closely connected with Eu- rope that the situation will become better or worse in accordance with what happens in Spain or in Central | Europe in the course of the Summer. Smoke Screen Suspected. Experts on the Far East hold the opinion that the Sino-Japanese con flict is a mere smoke screen to ena | the Japanese general staff to concen- trate an important force in Manchu- Kuo. | The Russian-Japanese Amur River incident, which occurred a few weeks ago, was a skillful arrangement to tes the temper of the Soviet Republics The complete surrender of Soviet rights on the Islands of Bolshoi and Sennufu showed the Tokio government that Russia is neither eager nor pre- pared to fight. It indicates that her internal troubles have re: portions which worry Stalin an vinoff and that until a complete purge has enabled the present ruler to place | the country on a bourgeois basis he will be reluctant to take a chance on fighting an external enemy, compelled to do so The Peiping incident fis 2 Oriental. The 29th Route Ch Army is actually controlled by the J: anese. Its commander is believed receive & substantial allowance Tokio to keep his men together. ) The | Japanese have been masters—in fact, | if not in name—of the Hopei Province | | for more than a year. It is not im- probable that the incident which has given the Japanese a chance to pro- claim a partial mobilization of 3.- 1000.000 men and to rush new di to China was a put Japanese and their C men Japan's Strategists Cautious. ‘The advantages of obvious. The Japanese general has strengthened the Kwang Army. The force of in Manchukuo and | has been increased to 265 more divisions are expected to rea the Chinese mainland in the course of the next few weeks. The Japanese strategists are known never to risk an attack unless they have a superiority | in numbers of at least two to one and they did not have that superiorit over the Russians. Furthermore, the Japanese feel they must be masters of the region of the Baikal Lake. so that they can cut com- | munications between Siberia and Rus- | sia when the latter’s forces on the! Amur are attacked. To reach that im- | portant strategic point, the .Japanpse} must wage a successful campaign | through the Mongolian Republic, which is more or less under Soviet influence. But the active war preparations of Japan, the reinforcement of troops, the rushing of large supplies of am- munition—desepite official statements to the contrary—all are going on while Tokio keeps an eye on Europe. Noth- ing will happen—at least, so the best | informed quarters believe—unless the European pot boils over. Dr. Hans Dieckhoff, the German Ambassador at Washington, called at the State Department to express his | government's sympathy with our pol- icy of peace in the Far East. The | expression of sympathetic feeling on | the part of the German government | was received with “official” pleasure | and unofficial skepticism. The Berlin- Tokio axis is well known here, and while not so strong as the Rome- Berlin axis, it is substantial. There is no doubt in the mind of anybody, here or in other capitals. that the Jap- anese are awaiting the signal “Go” | from Berlin to launch their troops | across the Amur River. And that signal may be given before very long British Anxious. The Spanish civil war might be- come the cause of an | conflagration at almost any time de- | spite the unquestionable desire of | the British government to keep the | conflict within Spain—until the Brit- ish rearmament program is com- pleted. The feeling in France is somewhat different. The Blum government mane aged to keep France out of trouble. ‘Whether this can be continued un- der the Chautemps administration is still undetermined. The nerves of the French people have become strained. A year of war at their bor- ders, rumors and provocations, a bad internal situation due to an empty treasury and a class hatred which has become stronger since Blum abandoned the reins of government, the distrust of the working classes of the Chautemps administration, which is already denounced as the servitor of big business and the bankers—these conditions have com- bined to quicken the temper of the French people, who are more and more inclined to believe that the victory of Franco means the vic- tory of Hitler and Mussolini and the final and irretrievable encirclement of | above parag international | Prance by Fascist-Nazi powers. De- t tically complete no Czechoslovak can grant t Henlein man. He their leader, is a ca of a sett The B situation, Benes and make as large concess in order to avoid a ment who have see clea Fall beyond a shad that th Mi opposed he adds, th t expected from te in the Free Advice Plentiful. rt which Ruma and Rive to the Prague 1 consist, from now on, The Yugo- tied to the event of a Germa kingdom few mor stanch an axis eventual Germa flict 1s -Czech-Russian cone orth assured. France h war treasury g a German line of fore he Rhine, 19 Ge: her tances it appears, the ey impartial observers, that the on for President, Benes to do is t t the terms the Germans their another But repo Prague ate the Czech leaders a not so inclined. They maintain that the unity of country must be preserved All to o r form o the sketched being ser ton. The convi the hands of H and Mussolini can be clearly seen This conviction is strengthened by advices from London and Paris that if the dictators can be curbed the danger of an explosion in Europe will be greatly reduced. And when the situation in Central Europe becomes g in the eyes of the great public, when press and official tele- grams point to an immediate danger, the United States Government will fire the third warning shot across the bows. (Copyr ht, 19 New Diatoms Found In Chicago’s Water To the Field Museum of Natural History there has come from Harbin in Manchukuo news of the discovery | in Chicago’s drinking water of a num- ber of new species of diatoms pre- viously unknown to science. These were discovered by Dr. B. V. Skvortzow, who is engaged at Harbin in a compre- hensive study of the fresh-water di- atoms of the world. Several months ago the department of botany at Field Museum collected, by use of a filter. a quantity of sedi- ment from ordinary Chicago tap water and forwarded it to Dr. Skvortzow, who sent back a description of 17 dif ferent kinds of diatoms. Diatoms, it is explained by Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, chief curator of botany at the museum, belong to the group of minute aquatic plants known as algae They possess a siliceotis external skele- ton or covering which is the part ordi- narily studied. The skeletons are highly varied in form, but in genera] resemble a pill box in shape, and fre- quently are marked with elegant sculpturing or intricate patterns of dots and lines. Therefore they are fa- vorite test objects for the microscope., 60 Sub Detectors Will Protect England LONDON.—Powerful lamps pro- ducing a beam up to 500,000 candle=~ power will be used on the new light- ships stationed around the coasts of Britain. The lamp, mounted in a glazed lantern and fixed to a mast 32 to 40 feet above the water level, has a beam which can be seen from a distance of 10 to 11 miles. The ships will be fitted with wireless and the submarine detectors will reveal the presence of a vessel as far away as 40 or 50 miles. These lightships, 60 in all, are to be stationed at the most dangerous and isolated spots around the shores of Britain. A