Evening Star Newspaper, August 14, 1937, Page 6

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Editien, WASHINGTON, D. C. "T"'DA" August 14, 1937 THFEODORE W. > Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company. 11th S8t and Pennsvivania Ave New York Office: 110 East 47nd 8t. Onicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave, Rate by Carrier—City and Suburban, Regular Rditlon, The Evening and Sunday Star . 65c per month or 150 per week ‘The Erening Star 45¢c per month or 10c per week The Bunday Star ___ ¢ per copy Nizht Final Night Final and Sunday 0c per month Night Final Star._ __ 7T per month Collection made at'the end of each month or earh week. Orders may be sent by mali or tele- phone National 5000, ? Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Marviand and Virginia, Dailv and Sunday %10.00 only Daily $5.007 Sunday only_ $4.00; ANl Other Stat, Daiy ana Sunday Daily only Buaday nnly and Can $12 00; £R 00 $5.00; 1 i Member of the Associated Press. ~ Assoclated Press is exclusively entitied the nse for republication of all news msp-w‘: credited o it or not otherwise credited in this AP ewd also the local news published herein, Of Dubious Validity. of publication of special dispatches | Iso ed. | harangue.” Yesterday a subcommittee of the | Senate Committee on Judiciary voted | five to one confirmation in of Senator Black as Associate justioe of the Supreme Court. The one dissenter voted “nav’ not cause of a doubt as to the ability of Sen- | ator Black to serve adequately on the highest court, but on the score of his eligibility under the Constitution to be- come & member of & body the compen- ration of which had beeun increased by Ret of Congress during his term as Sen- ator. That question, raised immediately upon the nomination following constitutional provision, para- graph 2 of section 6 of Article I: “No Senator or Representative shall, during the time.for which he was elecied, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emolu- | ments whereof shall have been increased | during such time.” Mr. Black was & member of the Senate when the law providing for the retire- ment of judges and increasing their ralaries was enacied. Of that there is no possible question. Nevertheless the President has secured from the Attor ney General, who is always ready with sus- taining opinions, a ruling that the nomi- nation of Senator Black is perfectly legal and constitutional in every way. It w be remembered that the Attorney Gen- eral racently advised the President that he could legally and constitutionally make a recess appoiniment to the Su- preme Court despite the fact that the vacancy on the court occurred while Con- gress was in session, an opinion upon | which the President did not choose to rely in the making of this appointment. ! | philosopher, | effect. There ig no possible doubt of the fact fhat Senator Black was a member of the | Senate when the compensation of the justices of the Supreme Court was in- creased. A supporter of the President’s selection in subcommittee met®an objec- tion raised on that ground with the re- mark that it was to be presumed that the President has investigated the legal npinions on the subject before sending to the Senate. That would mean nothing else than that the the nomination Senate, in exercise of its prerogative and | the discharge of its duty of considering | nominations, must rely solely upon the | President in respect to qualifications, | legal and otherwise. Yet the fact of Senator Black's participation in the en- actment of the law increasing the com- pensation of the court stands without possible question. Tt will be most unfortunate if this evasion of the law, in a matter especially important, should be tolerated. Senator Black may be in every respect qualified, As to capacity and talents, to become a member of the highest court. He may have been the best possible selection the President could have made—though of that there is much doubt. He may, if ronfirmed despite this flaw in title, prove to be a capable and valuable member of the court, But there will always be a question of the validity of his title to the office, if he is confirmed in the face of the fact that under the letter of the Constitution he is not eligible for that post. b———— A memory of tenacious purpose clings to the State of Alabama. The announce- during a nominating convention “Alabama gives 24 votes to Underwood” made history. Mr. Black may be able ta equal so distinguished a record of endurance. ment r——— A date for congressional adjournment was announced for August. But Con- gress is getting to a point where it does not believe any information about what ¥ poing to happen next, e Selling Organization A professional labor organizer, who, for #bvious reasons, prefers to be anonymous, describes in Forum Magazine the sales methods of the C. I. O. “In the old days.” he explains, “prospects used to be hard to get, but, since Roosevelt told labor to organize, the thing is amazingly simple.” Yet not everybody is willing to commit body and soul to John L. Lewis without persuasion. The unidentified author re- ports: “Our tactics thus far have been fairly clean. * * * Of course, we suggest subtle means by which they (the solici- tors in the shops) can surround the enemy and bring him back alive, should he prove balky.” A man who objects to wearing the C. 1. O. handcuffs, pre- sumably, may be knocked on the head with & hammer efficiently wielded “by accident.” His unionized fellow-workers are in.-zt,r}wmd to educate him into proper regard for the safety of his skull. They ascure him: “A union man doesn't find things in his way.” favor of the immediate | an | is based upon the | | may call himself a Liberal, | Liberals real or, like himself, pretended; Class hatred, naturally enough, is the stock-in-trade of the member-getter. “We polund home the idea that all eapi- talists and employers gre wolves waiting for the sheep (who sre the workers) to come to the pasture (which is the fac- tory). We tell the prospects that as they produce more they should receive more and that all they have been receiving is the bone that is left after the employer has scraped off the juicy meat.” It would be an error to disclose that the average “boss” does his “scraping” principally for the Government, which takes taxes in amount of $881,000 out of any million- dollar income. Such disconcerting truths must be concealed. Otherwise, a decent sense of justice might interfere with C. 1. O. prosperity. Bu the poor, oppressed laborer does not object to Mr. Lewis’ war chest riches. He has been hypnotized by the peregrinat- ing sales agent. “We hold members re- sponsible to our organization and ac- countable to their own officers, when elected, by the simple means of expelling them if at any time they should fall be- hind in their dues for a period exceeding three months. We make them repeat a | pledge, when initiated, not to do this and that. In return, we give them assurance of nothing of a definite nature.” The organizers “have sold another bill of goods and move on %o the next hall,” where a waiting multitude has been as- sembled for “an hour or so of this type of Any stickler who will not listen is denominated & “scab” and treated accordingly. However, sanity returns. Tt is difficult to keep people fooled interminably. At Akron, for instance, the toilers in the he- ' rubber factories recently have paused to inquire about what is becoming of the thirty-five thousand dollars a week they are paving for the dubious privilege of being listed as C. I. O. recruits. - - = What Is a Liberal? Speaking in Providence recently, Sen- Burton K. Wheeler of Montana raised a question about the meaning of the word “liberal.” He declared, “To be a liberal in Ttaly you must believe in Fascism, and to be a liberal in Germany you must believe in Hitler.” Specifically, he desired to know, in the light of cu; “What is liberalism?” The Century Dictionary answers: “A person free in views or opinions; expan- sive in purpose or aim: not narrow, big- oted. or intolerant; favorable to per- sonal, political or religious liberty: op- posed 1o narrow conservatism or undue restriction; inclined: mag- nanimous; a person of liveral principles.” But the same authority confesses thai For example, it refers 1o the Liberal party ator rent history generously the term has other connotations. in England ss “& party united in ad- vocacy of progressive reform. As a dis- tinctive designation in Britisn politics, the name was adopted by the Whig party | about 1830, to denote the body formed by the addition to their of the radicals.” Something additionally disconcerting in the circumstances, moreover, may be found in the Century's quotation of the Herbert Spencer, to the “Most of those who now party that: | pass as Liberals are Tories of a new tvpe.” One further step, and a forth- right contradiction appears—a politician ssociate with give lip service to Liberal doctrines, yvet be in fact a reactionary of the most pro- nounced and offensive type! That would account for leaders who want totalitarian government, but opportunistically make use of existing liberal and radical facili- ties for their achievement of it. The phrase, then, has fallen upon evil davs. In 1859 John Bright was not mis- understood when, in Itis speech at Bir- mingham, he announced: “I am for Peace, for Retrenchment and for Re- form—thirty years ago the great watch- words of the great Liberal party.” Today, it would seem, class war, untrammeled exiravagance and social revolution are the objectives of many who wish their neighbors to think of them as custo- dians of the Liberal tradition in its American aspect. But what is to be the fate of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson? They, in their respective times, professed, liberalism; denied that they were rebellious radicals. Now they are accused of “trimming” and “compromis- ing”; their penchant for “the middle of the road” has been cited against them; they are “rejected” by the New Deal apostles. The ghost of William Ewart Gladstone, glancing over the Atlantic in the direction of Washington, must be dis- mayed at the specacle. Socialists and Communists, he will be horrified to see, are wearing his label, probably without ever having heard his name. The lib- erallsm he personified was predicated on faith in revealed Christianity, the Crown and the Constitution. He was “red” only with reference to free trade. e —e——— A house collapsed in a rainstorm on Staten Island, causing the death of 19 people. New York likes to talk about the early days when the people would get together and fight without fear of de- stroying the architecture. ———— Sometimes Mr. James Farley feels like getting & new map of Blarney Castle and making a new attempt at kissing the Blarney Stone. e, Illuminated Tags. Automobile license tags in Colorado are to be illuminated. By order of Sec- retary of State George E. Saunders, the plates issued for 1938 will be dipped-in & beaded solution “to make them glisten at night.” The purpose which prompts the order is obvious. It is intended to contribute toward greater safety for motor and pedestrian traffic. Of course, a psychological influence is intended. Last year approximately fifteen thousand persons were injured by hit-and-run drivers. Twenty-two hundred succumbed from hurts “inflicted by motorists who did not have the cour- age or the humanity to stop and face the consequences of a careless moment.” Richard' Holcomb, writing in Public Safety for July, says: “There can be no doubt that hundreds of these victims would not hare died, if drivers had SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1937 stopped and rendered quick assistance.” He might have added that there were occasions when people were struck by successive cars, almost literally mur- dered by operators who followed each other’s example—fled the scene from fear of being caught and punished. Illuminated tags surely ought to serve to restrain some of the careless drivers. They never can be absolutely certain that a dying man or woman may not gasp out the number of the juggernaut by which he or she has been injured. Instead of gambling on escape, motor- ists may prefer to take a chance on turning back to offer help. But pedestrians also may find. certain correction in the new device. Seeing tag numbers more clearly at night, they may realize more fully the advisability of viewing them from a distance suffi- clently great to be not perilous. The old and homely axiom about avoiding contact with the buzz-saw applies. Like the Habitant hero of W. H. Drummond's poem, they “won't get drown' in Lac Saint Pere, so long as they stay on shore.” ————— e o When 8enator Copeland gets into his | stride he may be able to convince his constituency that there is need in public life at present of a man who takes his resppnsibilities seriously. There have been disagreements in opinion, but none calculated to cast a serious doubt on the sincerity of his motives. " ——— g Another scnool teacher, this time a Pennsylvania woman, loses her Job be- cause she spoke too tolerantly of the monkey as closely associated with human origin. Those who insist on dignity of ancestry should endeavor to provide it for children of the present day and not 80 away back in history, Money is demanded for a roadway to complete the airport sought south of this city. Railroads have been obliged to pay heavily, but an airship is not encouraged to undertake risks for which it does not pay in advance, A declaration by Mr. Borah that a Supr ne Court justice cannot create a vacancy by retiring puts a question into the situation which Mr. Black might in order to show his qualification for office be able to answer offhand. A political future calls for & lavish use of energy. A man who starts at 51 or 52 Vvears to realize a career on the Supreme | bench should be candid with himself and | have a reliable doctor look him over. Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. The Front Porch Fisherman. While others brave the foaming wave, Or trudge along the brook, He much prefers his strength to save In some reposeful nook. But, oh, how well he likes to tell Of luck that strangely ran! It's great to hear of what befell The front porch fisherman. No one can say upon what dayv— No one except himself— He beat the record in a way Worth more than worldly pelf A friend will bring his little string Of fish he scorns to scan, As he his own great deeds will sing, The front porch fisherman. Let those who will display their skill Where tempests may And feel the sweet uncertain thrill Beneath the changing skies Thevll hope in vain the praise to gain | Of this exultant fan. He views all others with disdain, The front porch fisherman. arise, We like him, too. When fishing's through | We bid him seize the chance, 1 And with poetic 7eal anew Relate his bright romance. Both great and small upon him eall, The hero of the clan. He is the luckiest of us all— The front porch fisherman! The Busy Public. “Don’t you want to have a grateful public rear monuments to your memory?" “Yes,” replied Senator Sorghum. “But I'm not asking too much. The public is terribly busy these days. If a man can keep from being forgotten while he is alive he's making & pretty fair record.” Jud Tunkins says when a man gets himself on his mind he’s liable to dis- cover that he feels the lack of space same as a fat man in a flat, Rotation. The lass pursues the old-time plan— Perhaps there's no improving it— All Summer she's acquiring tan, All Winter she's removing it. Quick Answer. “You have a few gunmen in Crimson Gulch,” said the tenderfoot. “Only & few.” answered Cactus Joe. “Most of them have gone to the metrop- olis, where they have more electric lights to work by.” “We permit ourselves to be flaitered,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “as- cepting even an undeserved compliment as a tribute to real or suspected power.” Supply and Demand. Supply on hand exceeds demand In one case—and it always will. More candidates in waiting stand Than there are offices to fill. “De greatest danger ’bout a mistake,” said Uncle Eben, “is tryin’ te bluff it through an' make people think it was a good job.” ———— Inside Information. Prom the Tilinois State Journal. War is inevitable, declares Mussolini. Since he has the makings and the torch it is useless to discount his prediction. ——— The Inevitable Target. Prom the Omaha World-Herald No matter in whai, direction a tax Is hnrlnd\n always hits the ultimate e:l- sumes. \ | pany decided to try out & method of car marking that has been in use successfully | | Did they proceed | it be marked when it comes back? { of musical culture which ought to be op- | posed to the last savage note by every- | Street Car and Bus Patron } Urges Identification Plan To the Editor of The Star: Your editorials, “Jigsaw Puzzle Transit,* August 10, and “Catching a Street Car,” August 8, are a brave and_commendafle beginning. All you say is true anll in what you have le{t unsaid there i~‘enough | to provide a daily editorial for quite somge time. Have you never heard it said that the “Toonerville Trolley” cartoons were | inspired by an ambition to depict a small- | town situation as “hick” as that which®! Washington has long endured? Why do so many people ask the car or | bus operator, before boarding, ‘Where | does this car go?” Simply becaute there | is no sign alongside the entrance to tell them the destination or route. You may have been busy picking your way acgpss | the street, using your eyes to protect your life and limb instead of trying to read the marker on the vehicle; or the car you should take is one of a string, with mark- ers obscured; or you may have been plain inadvertent (which, 100, has to be reck- oned with); in any case, when you stand where you stand to geu aboard, there is in sight no identification such as prob- ably you have had in other towns ,to guide you—unless, if you are good =t reading backward and are positioned just exactly right, you may be able to squint through to the sign that is carried on the wrong side of the car. Whence the reluctance of the transit company to give all cars of one certain route some distinguishing sign (equiva- | lent in purpose to the editor's rainbow suggestion, but interchangeable to aliow | use of the same car on other routes) by which that route couid be recognized re- | gardless of direction—fnbound or out? And to place such identification where You cannot fail to see it? Some few months ago the transit com- | in other cities these many years past and | see whether it really would work; reports from the hinterland might be wrong Lo mark all cars and buses so plainly that their route numbers would be easily seen from any direction at any time of day, in any weather? It is doue so. in the hinterland.) Yes, they did not. They got & few pasteboard cards | very like those used on an fce route, and perched them inside the car against the operator’s window. on a few of their vari- ous lines. Most likely the report on their use will be adverse. How strange! In the meantime (and you need not be & stranger in town) you happen to be in some part of the city to which you are not well accustomed. You see a bus out- bound that you know might serve von on its return—if only you could spot 1t from other routes—but what in the world will So the transit company leaves vou “at sea” while it is investigating to find out whether a good and proven method will work when adopted in a haphazard fash- ion. Ingenuity could hardly devise more wAYS (o violate the most elementary and self-evident principles for adequate guid- ance of the riding public. How about the bus and car siop signs along streets on which are located car and bus routes both? At some car stop signs no bus will stop. while at others both buses and cars will accommodate There is absolutelv nothing to indicate, bv marking or appearance. whether a stop sign belongs to the variety at which buses will pick you up or pass you up. What about those places—exceptional, but they existi—where a bus follows the car tracks for a few blocks and picks up passengers from the street car islands? Are they marked? Yes, thev are not. What about such street locations as have a good number of routes passing that wav? Are there signs by the side- walk to list them? Yes. there are not Do cars wait until reaching the end of the line before changing their “make- up“? Yes, they do not; they erase their identity five blocks ahead of time. A small item. but it's one more wayv to be- devil a stranger, R. F. WOOD. — e = Jose Tturbi Praised for Action in Philadelphia To the Editor of The Star In response 10 your suggestion in the editorial columns of The Evening Star of August 11, T am “taking my pen in hand” to “do my bit”’ toward commending Jose Tturbi for his action in refusing to lower the musical standing of the Philadelphia Orchestra by participating in a program | with a “jazz” orchestra. It is, perhaps, too much to hope for, to expect lovers of | music to be as articulate in defense of | the art, as the jazz maniacs are in for- warding the destructive element of jazz. | Evenso, 1 pe more of your readers will | respond by writing the National Broad- | casting Co. In recent years more and more music | has been heard from the radio and the | screen, but despite this fact. it is appar- | ent that the great majority of our people still listen to jazz, from the more inno- cent type to “poison swing.” Swing! There, now, you have a depraved enemy body who believes that music is a thing | of beauty, to be enjoyed by all. Swing is the most savage form of jazz yet to be invented. Whether the satisfying beauty of music is something that may be understood | either at first hearing or by study and continuous listening, the fact is that it | may be learned. The disturbing factor in our public understanding of music, | however, is the fact that the average lis- | tener who is an addict of some form of | jazz. simply will not listen. All music he marks as “high-brow,” and will have none of it; he takes his jazz year in and year out, and remains musically much worse than a child—actually a savage. That, despite the fact, as pointed out recently by Miss Alice Eversman in The Star, that the barriers lying in the way of a genuine appreciation of music, may easily be conquered by any one who is willing to listen. We need more instruc- tive articles of that sort in the papers, as | well as more music on the radio. FRANK FORD BURNET. e Thanks for Editorial on Rainbow Over Gettysburg To the Editor of The Star: I want to thank you for your editorial, “Rainbow Over Gettysburg.” I, too, saw that rainbow while sitting here on my porch at Charmian, overlooking the val- ley which leads to Gettysburg. It is such & scene of beauty in the material uni- verse that fllls one's heart:with peace. One can, indeed, be exalied, and echo Browning's never-forgotien lines, “God's in His heaven, All's well with the world.” CAROLINE B. STEPHEN, R Hordes and No Horses. Prom the Philadelphia Evening Bulietin What with hordes of beetles. moths, crickets and even army worms eating Eastern crops. it begins to look as if we're getting back to buggy days with- out the horse. e The New Mode. Prom 7h!~(,*|rlnlb,’ Observer. Apparently nations havé discarded the old-fashioned practice of ‘“declaring war’—one just steps up and ?ock! the otheér on the nose. | green plants | | evidence. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL, - Putting a foreign language to work ior you, although vou may not know one word from another, is easy if you know how. Suppose you are an addict of the modern phonograph and the electrically recorded discs. You are fond of light music of the better sort, but cannot abide the words, with their silly images and outrageous | rhymes in the American versions. So you buy your records entirely in French, You cannot understand a word of what is sung. You are able to enjoy the music | as it ought to be enjoyed, without being harassed by the typical love moanings, | even if they are there. The voice of this fine tenor becomes just another instrument in the orchestra for you, the listener. Thus in time you build up s record library of which you understand every note—and happily do not understand a single word! * k¥ Who shall say that ignorance has not its uses? Come to think of it, even when words are sensible, in songs, they divert the attention seriously from the music. Every one knows how it is, There is not one singer in a hundred, even among the top notchers, who enun- ciates well. The listener must strain to understafd. This puts the music out of his mind, at least in places. What should be a smooth composition becomes a series of | sentences, parts of which the listener is doing his best to translate to himself, * ok ok That this is & serious handicap to musical appreciation is not always un- derstood. i All one has to do, to understand this, is to purchase a record in some foreign language one does not understand at all, He settles down at once 1o a new way of listening. He listens—to the music itself! He knows the singer is saying some- thing, but it makes no difference what | he says. The listener does noi struggle to un- dersiand anything, hence the music goes right along for him: he is able at all times to hear with wide open ears and mind. Yes. one hears with the mind, too. Tt is here just as it is with sight. Actually one does not see with the eves, at all, in 8 sense; the looker is enabled to see be- cause a part of the eve is really a part of the brain. R Musical appreciation being “all ear.” When the audience, whether it be one or one thousand, must think of some- thing else beside the music—the words, and their meaning—it loses just that much from the music. Consider the comic song, in which there is no fun at all except in the words. Usually there is not much else. Old Man MacDonald had a farm. hee- haw, hee-haw, hee-haw,” stc. Between depends upon ARS, MEN | for you. | where present. | French nation for many vears the repu- | merely jazz. | course, but our belief is that they never listening to those animai imitations and following the sense, the listener to this favorite comical ditty loses something of the tune, which really ian't bad. * k% x An amazingly interesting thing, if vou happen to turn to French recordinga. is to note that the melodies from the films there are much better than ours. They are, in fact, equivalent to the work done some years ago by Victor Her- bert and Reginald de Koven. There is real melodic invention to be found in most of these pressings, not just movement, They are, in the main, high-class work, a delight to the ear brought up on the old “comic operas” of the famous 90s. The singing, especially, in these rec- ords, is restrained singing. There is no tendency on the part of the tenor mentioned to “yell” on the high notes. He is not singing for an audience, but There is this intimate quality every- It ix one of the good things, of course, which has given the tation of being an artistic nation This is restraint, without which art is | With restraint, even jazz may become art. ok ¥ ¥ | Words and music do go together, of really mix. The words are always outside, or on | top, of the music They never mix like cream with coffee. | If you stop stirring, if you cease playv- | ing. the music and the words come apart, just as they are in different places on the musical score. If, as listener, you stop to think about what the words say, you will cease to hear what the music ‘We do not know what any music means. Nobody does. He who attempts to explain the | meaning of music is a four-flusher.) * x ox % Music is something, that is all. This is brought out strikingly in real Chinese music. It doesn’'t mean a thing to the Occidental listener, but it is plain on the faces of its proper audience that they really hear something—it is some- thing to them, but very little to us, Music is. When it is sugared with 100 many words, or words which are sillv, when not vilgar (as in too many of our pres- ent-day popular songs) it means lar less | to its proper audience Music is fun only incidentally. Thumps with the big drum and cascades of sound with the horns—these may strike the medern ear as “funny.” but actuaily there | is no fun in them, only sound Therefore, music in which words be- come merelv so many sounds is nearer the soul of real music The simplest wav to get this. if vou like a beautiful tenor, or soprano, is to secure records of these in a foreign lan- guage you do not understand Then you can listen in peace. undis- + turbed by the blurb of hiimanity. AND ATOMS stehbook of Science Progress in Field, Laboratory and Study.’ BY THOMAS R. HENRY. A step toward eventual explanation of | rose from 7ero o its maximum in a | one of the basic biochemical reactions which makes possible all life on earth is reported bv E. D. McAlister, Smith- sonian Institution physicist. This is photosynthesis—the creation of | carbohydrates out of carbon dioxide and can be accomlished onlv by These have in their leaves small amounts of a very complex chem- ical. chlorophyll. The molecule of chlor- phvll has the unique properiy, with one possible exception, of trapping photons of light and using their enormous ener- ‘Ries to combine the water and carbon dioxide into very complex carbon-hydro- gen-oxygen molecules. These constitute the starches and sugars which serve as the fuel of life. The animal bodyv is essentially a heat engine with carbohvdrates serving as fuel. Coal, oil and gasoline are carbo- hydrates. Practically all food contains them. In each carbohvdrate molecule is shut up a little bit of solar energy which may have hit the earth millions of years ago. Carbon dioxide and water in themselves are lifeless things. They have no capacity for sustaining life, ex- cept in combination bound together by water. It | trapped solar energy. The chlorophyll itself does not enter into the carbohvdrate combination. Its job is that of trapping the sunlight and | passing it on in the proper fashion. The actual mechanism of the phenomenon has puzzled chemists for a century since the process of photosynthesis was first suspected. It seemed to violate all laws of chemistry. It looked as if what was | taking place was something unique in nature. To explain several effects it seemed necessary to assume that at one point in the process approximately 1,000 chloro- phyll molecules were entering temporary combination with a single carbon dioxide molecule. The combina- tion was known as the “photosynthetic unit.” It verged on the mystical. Assumption of the existence of this photosynthetic ~ unit, Dr. McAlister explains, has rested on several lines of The simplest is the fact that in an inclosed chamber containing a measured amount of carbon dioxide far beyond that of the air and placed under illumination much more intense than sunlight the number of molecules of the gas which are taken up by the plant, per light quantity absorbed as determined by precise analys thousand of the oalculated number of chlorophyll molecules in the plant itself. Dr. McAlister worked with a device of hig own invention which makes possible continuous quantitative determination of the precise amount of carbon dioxide in the air of the closed chamber sur- rounding & plant. By this means it is possible to tell what is happening from second to second. The device is based on the principle that carbon dioxide absorbs gecifically certain wave lengths of light, so that the intensity of light of these wave lengths varies very pre- cisely with the proportions of the gas in the atmosphere through which it S, He found, contrary to the long-estab- lished belief, an almost one-to-one rela- tionship between the calculated number of chlorophyll molecules and the con- tinuous carbon dioxide decline in the atmosphere of the closed chamber. That is, every molecule of the chlorophyll was attaching to itself under illumination one molecule of the gas, or something of that order. Dr. McAlister determined by his meas- urements another phenomenon which opens up new paths in the study of photosynthesis. A plant was kept in the dark for varying periods. Without illumination there is na photosynthesis. Upon turning en the light, he found, the rate of absorption 4f carbon dioxide | normal rate the old assumption finds no | ! causes of the business depression, into a | | ments of Agriculture and Labol | abolished; all subsidies to agriculture or to idleness of any kind should be abol- | ished; all the numerous bureaus estab- is, is only about one per | period varving quite directly with the length of the preceding period of dark- ness During the dark “resting period parently some chemical process of un- known nature is going on. perhaps as important to the life of the plant as | photosynthesis itself. Something at- taches itself to the chlorophyll molecule. The first function of the illumination is to knock off this unknown “something” before there is room for the carbon dioxide molecule to attach itself The photosynthetic unit hvpothesis. Dr. McAlister points out. was challenged a few months ago by Dr. J. Franck of | Johns Hopkins University and Dr. K. F Herzfeld of the Catholic University of America. These scientists receive sup- | port from the Smithsonian phvsicist's precise quantitative measurements. He himself offers no hypothesis to explain | the carbon dioxide surplus in “overfeed- ing” experiments, but onlv shows that when photosynthesis is proceeding at its ap- support from the experimental evidence —_— ———— L recial Privileges to None Plan to End Economie 1lls | ‘To the Editor of The Star A capable committee. not of politicians. but of men well grounded in political economy, appointed to determine the the critical %ondition of governmental af- fairs at Washington, and to decree the right remedy to be applied in correction of same at the present time would un- doubtedly state that the following meas- ures should immediately be undertaken in strict conformity with the Democratic stipulation, “Special privileges to none.” In accordance therewith, the Depart- ould be S lished in recent years for socialistic ex- periments under a program of paternal- ism should be abolished; the spoils sys- tem with its powerful support of the political party in power should be abol- ! ished; while all governmental extrava- gance should be replaced by minimum expenditures in every department. All legislation which favors either capital or labor in any way should be abolished. Legislation should then be enacted which will enable the Government to collect its rightful revenue, economic or ground rent, to be determined by a single tax upon land values. This revenue is purely the fruit of population and the taking of it by the Government would rob no man and would interfere in no v with any activity of either labor or capital. The above program tallies with every consideration of justice and also of expediency and must ultimately be adopted if the Nation is to be re-estab- lished upon a sound economic basis. HENRY WARE ALLEN, Wichita, Kans. e s Sadly Non-Fatal. Prom the S Joseoh News-Press. The worst thing about hay fever is that it won't kill you. e e Wigs on the Bench. Prom ihe Saginaw News. ‘Wise old Britain has avoided fights over the age of its jurists. Maybe making them all wear wigs had something to do with fit. ————— Unpleasant Revealer. Prom the Grand Rapids Press A cvnic ix a disturbing person who exposes a truth that we all know but have tacitjfragreed not to recognize. | equipped with | States Government?—1 | was remarkably | as in ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS RY FREDERIC J. HASKIN, A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederie | Haskin, Director, Washington, D. € Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. How many automobiles are junked in the United States in a year?—G. 1. & A. Tt is estimated that 2.500.000 ears were scrapped last year. About A8 per cent of them were passengen cars, Q. In what State are the most ear- bonated sofi, drinks made?>- P E. D A. Texas leads, according to the Censis Bureau, with 14.379.000 cases a vear or 8 per cent of the aggregate output for the United States. Q. What is the latest figure on gha amount of the public debt, and what is the interest on this sum?—I.. T. A. The latest unofficial estimate of the public debt is that of the National Feon- omy League which states that asz of June 30, 1937, the nei debt was $41,143 - 000,000. The annual interest on this unparalleled sum at the approximated rate of 2's per cent would he $1.028- 575.000. It amounts to $2,313.013.69 per day, $117.417.24 per hour, and $195695 per minute. Q. How large are the new Armv homha= ers?>—N. W. K A. The flving fortresses. which are said to be the world's largest bombing planes that have recentlv been acquired bv the United States Army, are 4.000-horse- power craft. The Armv has acquired thirteen sich bombers. A flving fortress weighs sixteen tons, is seventy feet long, fiften feet high, and has a single spread of 105 feet. This type of plane is known as YB-17 It is armed with five ma- chine guns designed to protect it against attack from any angle. The planes are four motors and ecarry more bombs than anv other ships sver used by the Armv. Thev are capable of cruising over 250 miles an hour and have a non-stop radius of more than 3,000 miles, Q. What was the first modern hotel in Austin, Tex ?>—R. C A. The Driskill. Tt wax buill in the | B0s at a cost of $400.000. and advertizer that it was electric bells, vator, etc. furnished througheut hot and cold water with ele- Q. What other names are_used for the black widow spider?—H. .J A. Tt has been called by among them red rump, shoe-button, man: hourglass and names= Q. How early were fingerprints nsed asa means of identification hy the United 2 A. Gilbert Thompson of States Geological Survey pi print on all commissary by him during a survey in 1382, the Tinited humb- orders issued of New Mexico Q. In what line did Julius Cacsar excel? —W. G.C A. This Roman statesman and saldier versatile. He excelled in war, in politics, in statesmanship, in letters, in oratory and in social gifts Q. Since the word, sunset, is nsed i« there no similar word, moonset? A. The word. moonset whi R.T is in good nsage, | but is not heard so often as sunset, Q. Where is the longest stretch of cotton road in North Carolina?-C 1, R A. Tt is the fourteen and one-half miles of road between Faison and Clinton which comprises an experimental high- way. Various weighis of cotton sheet- ing have been laid and highwav engi- neers will determine after a thres-vear trial what weight of cotton fabric forms the best binding laver Q. When did the famous horse, Just Morgan, 1 A. Justin Morgan was [naled ahoi 1793 and died in 1821, He was owned by a Vermont schoolmaster of that name. in Q. Ts John Steinbeck, author of “Mice and Men,” now in this country?-F. 8 A. The author has gone 1o Denmark and plans to visit Ireland before return to this country. his Q. How many different kinds of joints are there in the bodv?—E. W A. The chief kinds of joints are: Ball and socket, as in the hips and shoulders hinge, as in the knee: pivot, as in the upper two verfebrae, permitting the skull to turn to the right or left, and glidin the closely packed bones of the wrists and ankles. Q. Would the highest mountain in wotld rise above the =urface of the if it were in the deepest place in ihe ocean?—A. P A. Mount Everest mile under water. would be about a Q. How does the number of morning and evening newspapers in New Yark City compare with the number in Lon- don?—E. H. A. London has three evening news: papers and nine morning papers, wh New York City has seven evening news papers and six morning papers, A Fine Large Map Of the United States Prinied from the verv latest plates, in five colors, on strong. durable paper| 21 by 28 inches in size, the MAP OF| THE UNITED STATES will be & daily ald in every home or office. It shows| not only the continental United States| but all of the detached Territories- Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the others—and on the reverse side will be found important georgraphical and up- to-date statistical data. interesting, his- torical facts sbout each State, pictires) of the National Capitol and other Gov-| ernment buildings and a map of thel heart of Washington, D. C. Send for] your copy today. Inclose 10 cents tol cover cost and handling. USE THIS ORDER BLANK. The Washington Evening Star Information Bureau Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. T inclose herewith TEN CENTS in coin (carefully wrapped) for a copy of the MAP OF THE UNITED STATES. 8treet. or Rural Route, City.