Evening Star Newspaper, October 20, 1937, Page 10

THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition THEODORE W. NOYES, Editor WASHINGTON, D. C. WEDNESDAY. __ October 20, 1937 The Evening Star Newspaper Company Main Office: 1ith St. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd St. Chicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave. Delivered by Carrier—City and Suburban Regular Edition Evening and Sunday, 65¢ per mo. or 16¢ per week 45¢ per mo. or 1Ge per week Sunday Star . __bc per copy Night F Night Final and Sunday Night Final Star. 5¢ per month Collection made at the end ach month or wach week. Orders may be sent by mail or tele- phone National 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance Maryland and Virginia Dally and Sunday_. 1 yr. $10.00; 1 mo.. 85¢ Dally only -1y, $6.00: 1 mo. 50 Sunday only. ~ 1 yr, $4.00; 1 mo. 40c All Other States and Daily and Sunday- 1 yr. $12. Daily only _____ 1 yr, $8.00: Bunday only _____ 1 yr., $5.00; Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitied to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published nerein. All rights of publication of special dispatches herein also are reserved. 0¢ per month 1 mo., 1 mo.. Landon’s Indictment. Alf M. Landon, breaking a long silence, indicts President Roosevelt and his administration. He has, he says, been willing to give his successful opponent of a year ago a chance to bring harmony and progress to the Nation. The President has done neither, in the opinion of Mr. Landon, and the time has come for action. The picture that the former Governor of Kansas draws of President Roosevelt is not pretty. He sees him with an ever-increasing lust for power—different from the man who took over the reins of government in the early Spring of 1933. He sees him as a dominating executive, and not a very good or effi- cient one. Pointing out that progress in this country is lagging, Mr. Landon attrib- utes the lag to the President directly, and to his methods. There are many who take the same view. Nevertheless, the President has recently returned from a swing across the continent, in the course of which he was royally received, confident that his popularity is as great as ever. So confident was he that upon his return that he called Congress into an early special session to carry out a program he has already outlined for it. He is assured, apparently, that he is on the right road and that the American people, or a great majority of them, are with him. Either the President is right or Mr, Landon is. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There is either progress or there is not. In the four and a half years that Mr. Roose- velt has been President the administra- tion has spent billions on billions of dollars—of the people’s money. Taxes have been at an all-time high for peace days, and the revenues of the Govern- ment have been large. Yet deficit after deficit has accrued, until the public debt has become some fifteen billions more than when Mr. Roosevelt took office. Law after law has been enacted, seeking to bring about greater social justice, but many of them have been faulty in their {raming, and faulty in administration, For four and a half years President Roosevelt has pounded at one class of citizens—those who have opposed him— and sought to arouse all others against them. Gradually a degree of hatred has been engendered among the people, as between classes, such as never before existed in the United States. The results to the people of America of all this spending and hating and lawmaking are what should be exam- ined. Mr. Landon insists that what is needed now—after the New Deal has been in operation all these years—is a new yardstick to measure the results. In the past the people have been unwilling to use such a yardstick. They have lived on present spending and promises of future spending. But now it appears that progress lags—it has been admitted even by the President himself, as Mr. Landon reminds the people. It is time to learn why it has lagged and to correct mistakes which are responsible for the lagging. No one in this broad land wishes to aee the depths of another depression, whether he be Democrat or Republican, It is time to take stock, to put on the brakes. What has been done cannot be undone. At least, however, it is not necessary to continue a course under which progress lags and threatens to halt. It is time to remove from Amer- ican enterprise the blighting fear that it is to be more and more hog-tied. No New Dealer, least of all Mr. Roosevelt, will admit that American enterprise has been hampered. It is clear, however, that something is wrong, very wrong, #*and calling the leaders of industry economic royalists is no remedy. Mr. Landon has done & healthy thing when he calls the attention of the coun- try to the need of sound legislative measures—not that conditions can be cured alone by legislation, although that seems to have been the attitude of the New Dealers. Conditions can be cured when the country knows what to ex- pect—and is not subject to constant surprises, e Momentary Millionaires. On this day there are a number of momentary millionaires in Washington. That is, a considerable portion of the community feel as rich and happy as a millionaire is supposed to feel. Oc- tober is responsible. The air is like wine, the sky is kind with the gentle haze of Autumn. Men and women go about their duties without complaint. They are truly alive, and life is con- genial. Human souls are sensitive. A biog- rapher of Henrik Ibsen, the famous Norwegian poet, notes that the scenes of most of his earliest dramatic efforts are set against a background of mid- night. The explanation, it is suggested, (\ THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTO might be found in the fact that he was writing in the last hours of the evening, after his work as a university student was done. Similarly, many critics have believed that the somber character of Russian literature traces back to lengthy Winters and heavens commonly dark with threatening snow. It is easy, perhaps, to be pessimistic in a climate dull and drab. Logically, then, it should be hard to be incurably “blue” in a place like the District of Columbia at a time like the present harvest season had been until yesterday's downpour. A little girl once demonstrated in her own fashion the principle involved. The occasion was April, rain had been falling all week, the world was drenched. But the undiscouraged infant heart could pretend. From a large sheet of yellow paper the child cut out a ciréle which she pasted on the window pane. “It will make me cheerful,” she declared, “until the real sun shows itself.” With such a philosophy she never will be bankrupt of the spiritual wealth which provides that existence shall be worth- while regardless of circumstance. e Secretary Hull in Canada. It will assuredly fill Secretary Hull with keen satisfaction to have oppor- tunity today and tomorrow to pay his 1espects to our good neighbors of Canada through the medium of brief visits at Ottawa and Toronto. In ac- cepting the hospitality of Baron Tweeds- muir, Governor General of the Do- minion and King George's personal rep- resentative, and of Prime Minister Mac- Kenzie King, the Secretary of State follows in the footsteps of President Roosevelt, who sojourned in Quebec and Montreal earlier in the year on a similar mission of Canadian-American fraternity, while also returning the calls the two British statesmen made in Washington. To Judge Hull the opportunity to pull the latchstring across our Northern border has a peculiarly personal appeal because of his immediate identification with the United States’ reciprocal trade program. The agreement with Canada, effective January 1, 1936, was not only the first important pact of its kind, except the Cuban agreement, which was in a special class, but has proved to be one of the most conspicuously profitable —mutually profitable, as was its intent and purpose. Figures tell the tale. American imports from Canada in 1936 amounted to $378.000.000, as compared to $286,000,000 in 1935. Canadian im- ports from the United States totaled £370.000,000 in 1936, or $57,000.000 more than imports of $312,000,000 in 1935. These two-way increases have been maintained in 1937. For the first seven months of the year our purchases from Canada amounted to $247,000,000, as compared to $189.000,000 for the same 1936 period. The Dominion's imports from the United States from January through July of this year were $279,000,- 000, as against $236.000,000 during the same months & year ago. Improvement in Canadian-American trade is a re- flection of revived business conditions in both countries. No less significant is the fact that during the first reciprocal agreement year those products, both agricultural and industrial, on which tariff reductions were granted, led the way in the volume of trade growth ex- perienced by either country. Thus it was speedily demonstrated that calamity howlers on both sides, who predicted dire results to their respective peoples, as the consequence of Canadian- American give-and-take, were indulging in baseless jeremiads. Secretary Hull visits our fellow North Americans at a timely moment. Canada’s interest in the Far Eastern crisis is on all fours with our own. No member of the British Commonwealth of Nations is more deeply concerned in preservation of the open door in China. Aggressive expansion efforts by Japan across the Pacific would impinge upon Canada’s great west coast no less than upon our own. Prime Minister MacKenzie King has said that Canadian foreign policy in major degree runs parallel to that of the* United States. Such expression of North American solidarity has particu- lar application to the grave conditions about to come under consideration at Brussels. Uncle Sam’s foreign minister may assure his Canadian hosts, with complete confidence, that the Govern- ment and people of the United States have no fonder wish than the mainte- nance, in perpetuity, of the closest pos- sible bonds of friendship and economic intercourse between the two democracies of the golden west, which need no fortifications to guard a frontier that divides them only in theory. ——————— When Kipling said of East and West, “and never the twain shall meet,” it may be that he only hoped so. ———. Reims Cathedral. With funds provided by John D. Rockefeller, jr, the beautiful Gothic cathedral of Reims has been restored. The havoc of ages of neglect as well as the damage inflicted by German cannon in 1870 and between 1914 and 1918 have been repaired, and the sacred shrine once more is approximately as glorious as it was in its prime, seven centuries ago. Perhaps it has no superior as an architectural masterpiece. Its only rivals, probably, are St. Peter’s in Rome and the bishop’s church of Cologne on the Rhine. If its fame is surpassed by Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's in London, the explanation must be found in something other than inherent merit of design and rich historical tradition. Reims has been a sacred spot since 496, when Clovis and his captains were baptized there by St. Remy. The place was marked by a temple intended to symbolize the beginning of Christianity as the state religion of France. Each successive monument of the faith has repeated the legend. American tourists remember the sculptured picture on the » facade. They likewise recall the statue of Joan of Arc, the Warrior Maid of Orlesns, who brought her unworthy prince to the altar to be crowned Charles VII under her protection. She might have had him anointed elsewhere, but she was mindful of the significance. of Reims as the scene of the coronation of Philip Augustus and all the line of kings who followed him. Wise with the wit of the folk, she insisted on the proper place as well as the proper ritual for the enthronement of her sovereign. But nothing could save him from his fate. He was destined to betray her. 8he perished in the market at Rouen, wrapped in immortal flames; and the latest generations will hold her in grateful recollection. It doubtless was for Joan that Mr. Rockefeller gave the money to make Relms new. His countrymen, surely, would like to think so. They have read Mark Twain's stirring biography, have seen Bernard Shaw's convincing play. Hence, the Maid is dear to them as a sister would be. It pleases them to believe that an American should pay tribute to her name in the church where she unfurled her banner bright with virgin lilies. e When an element of dependence is frankly being placed on the influence of terror there is no use in trying to be daintily particular as to the kind to be selected. Any old false face will be good enough for the evening's celebra- tion. —————— ‘When the United States Supreme Court decides on the right of & member to consideration of his probable views it carries on in a way that tests opinion and lets the public know the result without prejudice or favor. S e As pictures of new Zoo inhabitants are displayed, doubts arise as to whether there are so many animals that have never learned to laugh nor to talk sufficiently to give a reason for not doing so. ———r———— Problems affecting the Nation's purse are numerous. It may be too much to hope that the generosity and wisdom 50 obviously at hand can be made avail- able to correct them all at once. TR T s ST ’ Tourists abroad continue to report that some of the noblest specimens of architecture remain unrestored, but in the pressure of events do not seek to explain why. —rmt— An airplane disaster calls attention to an unfortunate situation which must have expert attention. It cannot cor- rect itself. —————— English still expresses thoughts of nobility and power. It will continue to be heard with respect even among the dilettante. Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Foot Note. Singin’ 'bout flowers that blossom an’ fade. Singin’ "bout birds that are leavin'. Singin’ ‘bout Autumn, with sunshine an’ shade; What is the use of our grievin'? Singin’ ‘bout things that true comfort will bring— Singin’ 'bout beans an’ tomatoes, Singin’ ’bout meat cured so nicely an’ neat; Singin’ "bout corn an’ potatoes. Singin’ 'bout goldenrod flauntin’ so fair; Singin' 'bout trees that grow golden; Singin’ ‘bout snowflakes, with beauty so rare, That Winter so soon will embolden. Singin’ 'bout things of importance more great— Singin’ bout beans an’ tomatoes, Singin’ of ham an’ the oyster an’ clam, And also 'bout corn an’ potatoes. Fact and Phantasy. “Truth is stranger than fiction.” “It isn't,” answered Senator Sorghum. “That impression is due to the fact that fiction is so frequently substituted for the truth.” Jud Tunkins says a good servant is one who knows how to disobey with deferential discretion. The Odds. The politician makes his play A cherished goal to reach. You risk your taxes, day by day. He only risks a speech. Disappointed. “My daughter is going to marry a chauffeur,” exclaimed Mr. Chuggins. “Are you disappointed?” “Yes. It looks like a reflection on the way I have been driving the old family car.” “A smiling friend who hates you” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is less dangerous than s frowning enemy who fears you.” Amid Red Tape. Although a thought should boldly throb, It may remain unheard. The man who really knows his job Should seldom say & word. “A cheater,” says Uncle Eben, “has no friends except folks dat imagines dey kin cheat better dan he does.” —o——————— Hot Air Statesmanship. Prom the Scranton Times. An important move for peace could be the installation of air conditioning units in the council chambers of European governments. This might lessen the prevailing high temperatures. o White Collars. Prom the Dayton Herald. The white collar class will disappear, moans & pesiimistic editorial writer. Judging by the number of those new colored shirts we see around this office it already has. ‘ I3 NEW BOOKS ~ AT RANDOM BY MARGARET GERMOND. HEYDAY IN A VANISHED WORLD. By Stephen Bonsal. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. Stephen Bonsal, author, world traveler, diplomat and, above all, a newspaper reporter, began the serious business of earning a living back in the days when political upheavals, revolutions and wars never ceased. The world frequently was rocked to its foundations by the impact of history-making events during the latter part of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth centuries, but with all the violence and turmoil which accompanied the march of time through that particular era, the whole pattern of civilization and of life re- mained colorful and spectacular. A four-legged animal at Sheepshead Bay on which the young Baltimorean had pinned his faith and placed his money somehow failed to get the idea that it was time to run and run fast. No money and no job! Both items being fundamentally important if life was to be maintained, Mr. Bonsal decided to peddle his wares. He had been educated at St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H,, and had studied in Heidelberg, Bonn and Vienna. He believed that with his knowl- edge of languages he would be welcomed. and given a job by the New York Herald. Surprised at being rebuffed, he wrote some articles on the political situation in Southeastern Europe, offered them to the New York World and exulted in the thrill of having them accepted. But low pay and infrequent publication made it necessary to seek permanent employment, and he wanted a job with the Herald. Persistence resuited in suc- cess. Weeks of good reporting registered to good effect in the editorial office, which meant that James Gordon Bennett would -not long remain unaware of the identity of the young reporter. Within a very short time the “Commodore” cabled: “Send Bonsal to London. I think I can use him and his languages over here.” So it happened that for six months he “covered” London when the Parnell affair was advancing toward its climax and when followers of Karl Marx were just beginning secretly to talk and plan for the world revolution. Traveling from one place of turmoil to another throughout a long and color- ful career, Mr. Bonsal has been one of the busiest men in the world. For one thing, if it has so happened that he was not on the scene when the shooting or the fireworks began, he was one of the first to arrive after hearing the alarm. He served the New York Herald as special correspondent in the Bulgarian- Servian War of 1885 in Morocco in 1889, in the Macedonian uprising of 1890 and in the Chino-Japanese War of 1895. He traveled through Siberia in 1896 and was on hand in the Cuban insurrection of 1897. In 1900 he was & member of the relief expedition to China and in 1901 was in attendance at the campaigns in Samar, Batangas and Mindanao. When the Matos revo- lution broke out in Venezuela in 1903 he arrived promptly on the scene of action, and when Russia and Japan went to war in 1904 Mr. Bonsal was commissioned by the Herald to spend six months in the Balkans, Macedonia, Albania, Monte- negro and other neighboring countries. He was in Russia in 1807, when that country was rife with revolution, and three years later covered the Madero revolution in Mexico for the New York Times. During the interval between these two turbulent outbreaks he toured all of the West Indies and visited parts of South America. Other interests commanded his. serv- ices for a while and he entered the diplomatic service as Secretary of the Legation and Charge d'Affaires in Pe- king, Madrid, Tokio and Korea. He became secretary to the Governor Gen- eral of the Philippines and was ap- pointed commissioner of public utilities of the islands in 1914. Trouble in Mex- ico in 1915 found him on a special mis- sion to that country. and later in the same year he was with Von Hinden- burg's army on the east front in the great war. He was named adviser to the American-Mexican joint commission in 1916-17. It was inevitable that a man who had managed to be in the thick of every political and military fight that his generation had witnessed should be drawn also into the devastating conflict in which this Nation participated in 1917 and 1918. Mr. Bonsal was- com- missioned as a major and was on duty at the War College in this city before Joining the American Expeditionary Forces in France. In the era of peace negotiations he represented the United States at the Congress of Oppressed Na- tionalities in Paris and served as lieu- tenant colonel of Infantry attached to this country’s mission to the Peace Con- ference following the armistice. He was s member of the Inter-Allied Mission to Austro-Hungary and the Balkan states under General Smuts &nd was also & member of the special mission to Germany and Bohemia in 1919. When 1931 rolled around it found Mr. Bonsal traveling ten thousand miles through Soviet Russia and in 1934 he was taking in the sights and the political situations in North China and Manchukuo. ‘The logical question that presents it- self after noting these strenuous activi- ties is: “What did he do in his spare time?” Well, he seems to have used it to good advantage in writing this and other books. His own experiences, plus his recollections of men and women who made the “heyday” of the vanished world about which he writes in this latest of his publications mount to stag- gering proportions when it comes to recording them in the form of an il- luminating and intensely interesting narrative. It has not, of course, been possible to include the whole range of adventures in this one volume, which leaves the very pleasing prospect of more to come. The present narrative begins with the Parnell era of excitement and runs through the period of his first years as & reporter in England and in France and on to his experiences in the Bal- kans, winding up in New York just on the eve of the uprising in Morocco. From the vast storehouse of knowledge and adventures in one of the most spec- tacular ages in the history of the world, Mr. Bonsal selects a rich and interesting array of occasions and personalities that revive and refresh memories of a world that has indeed vanished. He was present when Arthur James Balfour made his maiden appearance as undersecretary for Ireland. He heard young Herbert Asquith, an undistin- guished barrister, make an eloquent if unsuccessful plea in a police court for the liberation of John Burns and his riotous followers. He tells the story of John L. Sullivan and the Prince of Wales, who became Edward VII, be- coming acquainted and creating a stir in a jockey club. He recites the story of his entrance into the inner circle of the Boulanger movement, and also tells of his famous interview with the prime minister of Austria. His acquaintance with armies is intimate, and his descrip- tion of them in all parts of the world sums up in the conviction that “all armies smell alike.” ‘Young men whose names were scarcely known at the turn of the century and A \ D. C, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1937. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. Tiddle, the one-eyed goldfish, last of 400, was swimming placidly in her tank. Bhe represented the end of an en- thusiasm. It is not every individual vogue which can be terminated so brightly. Often an enthusiasm will vanish without the holder thereof knowing it is gone. He may pursue his former ways, in the fond belief that he iz getting as much fun out of his hobby as ever, when all the time his enthusiasm has slid away from him. Tiddle was plain enough. Last of several hundred fishes, both tropical and cold water, she was kept for sentimental reasons. * XK % She was purchased nearly five years ago, as a young thing of golden-red color, with an overlay of apricot. Not exactly a fan-tail, nor yet of the comet variety, she nevertheless had what some fanciers would call a veil- tail. It was her single eye, however, which attracted attention from the very first. She had been in a dealer’s tank with at least a thousand of her fellows, all probably from a Maryland fish farm. All the rest of them had the normal number of eyes. Tiddle had but one. It was (and still is) located on the right side of her head. Where her left eye should have been was nothing at all, simply a continuation of the gill covering on that side. There was the merest depression where the orb of sight might have been had Nature been in a more bountiful mood at the time. * % X % Some persons who saw her afterward professed to believe that an eye had either been there, or would grow there, but they were mistaken on both counts. From the egg she had been a pisca- torial Cyclops, not exactly a freak, but certainly odd. With her eyeless side to the front glass of the aquarium she made no movement when any one came up to the tank. It had been so when she was crowded with the mob in the dealer's large aquarium with running water. The others were milling around, as fishes do under such conditions, some of them trying to swim, others help- lessly jogging around. Tiddle was down on the slate, motion- less, and that was what attracted at- tention to her. * ok k% Was it an ill fish? Then came the realization that she was not sick, but sightless on that side! “Let me have that one” purchaser, pointing a finger. Into the net went the one-eyed fish, one in a thousand, perhaps one in a million, who could say? Such vayiations occur, although not often, and have little value to any one except the occasional collector. This particular fish had a very pleas- ing figure, as goldfish go, and a particu- larly nice coloring. Her flowing tail was exactly the type to please an average purchaser, * ok % % said the It was that one eye, however, which won her a good home. Can an aquarium be called & good home for a goldfish? Enthusiasts sometimes ask themselves this question, in a pang of momentary contrition, as they gaze at the bright swimmers in five, ten or maybe twenty gallons. Always they decide in the affirmative, for it must be kept in mind that prac- tically all of the goldfishes, and the bulk of the so-called tropicals, really know nothing else. They have been bred for generations for tank use. Who can say whether they pine for the great open spaces? It is plain enough that they are not unhappy in a properly managed tank. If intelligence is used in handling them, so that their water has a reason- able amount of oxygen in it, and is at the right temperature, without drastic changes too suddenly arrived at, and particularly their food is really nutritious, all types of fishes which may be so kept may lead fairly normal lives. * ok X % Old Tiddle, the one-eyed goldfish, made a real place for herself, so that when the enthusiasm for keeping many fishes came to a painless end, there was no thought on anybody's part of getting rid of her. She was a fixture. Some persons always had regarded her as the “best fish in the show,” even when she had been surrounded by vastly more expensive and particularly exotic creatures. It not only was that eye which won her praise—or perhaps it would be better to say that lack of the other eye—but peculiarly her pleasing coloration, which was & cross between apricot and typical goldfish red-gold. Above all, she was and is a charming fish. Charm, despite the claims of some persons, is not confined to the human race, Real charm is indefinite. It is not so much personal magnetism, “it,” or what- ever one chooses to call it, as a com- bination of many factors. That is what makes it indefinite. this charm of which we hear so much. While perhaps 20 per cent of charm, as com- monly regarded, is pure hocum, the rest of it is the real thing, fish or man—er woman, ok o % Now piscatorial charm is something else again. It depends upon several factors, none of which will be plain upon a single glance. It is notorious that persons who have never been interested in the aquarium hobby, or fancy, tend to look with patient forbearance upon those indi- viduals who have succumbed They believe that it is a passing lsberrauon which time will soothe at ast. In the meantime they themselves tend to get interested, if exposed to several good tanks—and in the end often be- come more enthusiastic than anybody. A good fish, such as Tiddle, she of one eye, always works this miracle, and no wonder, for certain fishes, as certain persons, possess charm, that rare com- bination which somehow attracts. Today Tiddle has a big tank all to herself—plenty of plants, plenty of swimming room, plenty to eat. Let no one think she minds being alone. 8he likes it. And while she has gnly one eye she has seen a lot in her ay. WASHINGTON OBSERVATION BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. No doubt exists that the timbers of | supporters of the Texan's opposition to the New Deal ship have been shivered from stem to stern by the crash in the stock market and the business slump. The creakings are audible on the bridge itself, as Skipper Roosevelt was widely expected to disclose in today's address dedicating the new home of the Federal Reserve System. Conditions in Wall Street, unequaled since the cyclone of October, 1929, are painful reminders that the Hoover administration’s down- fall set in with that curtain raiser to depression. All over Washington Demo- cratic headaches are encountered, the result of panicky fear that history may repeat itself at the expense of the Roosevelt regime. Should events in Wall Street prove the forerunner of a wide- spread industrial setback. politicians freely concede that the effects on Demc- cratic fortunes would be disastrous if not deadly. Immediate cause of anxiety is the havoc they would play with the party’s 1938 congressional hopes. * ox % % Just a year ago the President was winding up his triumphant campaign for re-election on the “happy-days-are- here-again” theme. That the rose- tinted skies of that carefree era should within a twelve-month have assumed the black and ominous hue they now present is something that clamors for explanation to Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen. New Dealers of high and low degree who proudly proclaimed the ar- rival of Roosevelt recovery, and glorified the heroic if costly measures which produced the abundant life, must now clear up the mystery why all these starry-eyed achievements have suddenly gone haywire—why, after the most fabulous expenditure in American his- tory, typified by a $37,000,000,000 national debt and another round $1,000,000,000 deficit, the times are still out of joint. Unemployment figures now seem likely to run into far more staggering totals than looked probable 30 days ago. On top of all this gloom there is the mount- ing cost of living, with meat & luxury and other household necessities steadily climbing into that classification. The merest amateur knows it's of such stuff that political dynamite is made. No wonder that Republicans, victims of the Hoover economic collapse, take heart from what begins to look like a Roose- velt blow-up of the same kidney. oK X X It is, of course, purely a coincidence, but defeat of the New Deal candidate in the Arkansas special election for Joe Robinson’s senatorial seat ties in, almost to the day, with the “Roosevelt panic” on the stock exchange. Jubilant G. O. P. leaders, wishfully thinking, gloat that Representative Miller's smashing victory over Gov. Bailey is handwriting on the political wall that can only be read one way. Miller, influential member of the House Judiciary Committee, rated as one of Chairman Sumners’ strongest Pt who have since then become world re- nowned make the book particularly in- teresting. Clemenceau, Balfour, As- quith, Brisbane and many others now familiar wherever newspapers are read were just beginning to attract atten- tion. World leaders of the day were men and women with whom it was his business to become acquainted in his search for the center of the constantly boiling political pot. If he by chance missed the scene of a few explosions in the course of his long career, it was be- cause more than one lid blew off simul- taneously and itewas physically impos- sible to be in two or more widely separated localities at the same time. A the Supreme Court bill. Although Sen- ator-elect Miller disclaims that he tri- umphed as a Roosevelt opponent, he was ranged during the late session of Con- gress against various administration- sponsored major measures. Among them were the amendment and extension of the monetary stabilization act, the reso- lution to extend the President’s right to negotiate reciprocal trade agree- ments, the neutrality resolution and the farm tenancy and rural rehabilitation act. oo % It's a $4,000,000 pile of Georgia marble and Swedish granite that the Federal Reserve System Building, about to be unveiled by the President, represents. The architect, Paul Phillippe Cret of Philadelphia, is a native of France. His designs won first place by unanimous choice in a national competition. Dr. Cret is the creator of several of Wash- ington’s structural gems, including the Pan-American Union and the Folger Shakespeare Library. He also designed the” American battle monuments at Chateau Thierry and elsewhere in France, as well as the memorial at Gibraltar in honor of the Navy's World ‘War achievements. Begun in February, 1936, the Federal Reserve temple is the last word in architectural splendor and utilitarian convenience among the im- posing array of modern structures which now adorn the Washington landscape. The interior piece de resistance is the palatial board room, 56 by 32 feet. Its decorative features are a monumental fireplace of Tavernelle Fleuri marble. with an inset bronze relief symbolizing stability and productivity, a reproduc- tion of the United States coat of arms and a Federal Reserve map of the Union painted by Ezra Augustus Win- ter, celebrated American muralist. LI Y Chairman John Hamilton's recent off- the-record address before the regional conference of Republican leaders from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware is acclaimed as the most stimulating pep talk sons and daughters of the elephant have heard in many a day. It was a review of national committee achievements, finan- cial and organizational, since the party was sent to the wilderness in '36. In- cidentally, it developed at the pow- wow that Gov. Landon's decision to hold a “mass meeting” on the air last night not only took the Republican high command’s breath away, but caused complete mystification as to the Kansan's purpose. On the eve of his broadcast two views prevailed: (1) That Landon wished to remove misapprehen- sions as to his supposed hostility to Hoover’s plan for a midterm national convention, and (2) to assert his titular leadership of the party. x X X* ¥ Not long ago the President registered impatience with criticisms that he plays hopkey too often from the White House for recreational or political purposes. Many are the mutterings on that score at this witching hour of economic gravity at home and perils abroad. F. D. R. was barnstorming in the West at the height of the Far Eastern crisis a couple of weeks ago, and this week’s tirmoil in Wall Street, with all it en- tails for the country, found him salu- briating at Hyde Park. It's understood he'll not be back at the White House for long before tripping to New York over the Navem:er election week end. x x % Chinese Ambassador Wang, who will shortly present China’s case before the ) ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN, A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. How many people have accounts in savings and loan associations which are insured?—G. F. A. Statistics as of August, 1937, show that there were 1803 insured institu- tions, the assets of which totaled $1,- 640,000,000. There were 1,450,000 share- holders or depositors. Q. How many commercial and pri- vately owned planes are there in tne United States?—J. Q. A. About 9,000. Q. How much freight was carried by the railroads in the United States last year?—E. Q. A. In 1936 the railroads moved 36, 063,000 carloads of freight. Q. What is the most important musical event in Europe during the summer? —E. G. A. The Salzburg Festival in Austria in midsummer is probably the most im- portant musical event held in Europe during the summer months. Grand opera is presented almost continually in most of the European countries during the summer season. Q. How long has this country used standard time?—W. McN. A. It was adopted in the United States in 1883 on the initiative of the American Railway Association. Q. Do all Italians speak alike?—C. R. A. The modern Italian language is a development of the Latin which was spoken during the days of the Roman Empire. As spoken today by educated people it is derived from the Florentine dialect which was the language of Dante. This was the form taught in the schools and used in all Italian dictionaries. But the common people do use dialetic forms which vary slightly in the north and south of the country. Q. What actress popularized the song, “After the Ball"?—E. J. A. It was first sung by Mayv Irwin and later introduced in Hoyt's “A Trip to Chinatown.” Q. How is cork made?—J. H. R. A. Cork is not made. It is the bark of a species of oak tree which grows in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Tunis, Algeria and Morocco. The bark is cut in strips suitable for packing and ship- ping and new bark grows about every eight or nine years, improving in quality with each cutting. The trees last 150 years or more under this treatment. Q. What is tHe national flower of Panama?—E. J. A. It is the Peristeria elata. or dove orchid, sometimes known as the Holy Ghost orchid: The flower is of an ala- baster whiteness and has in its center the image of a dove. Q. Did the ancient Egyptians observe a period of mourning after the burial of their dead?>—M. N. A. It was customary for the afflicted family to conduct lamentations at home during a period of 70 days or more, sing- ing funeral dirges and fulfilling all the other duties required by custom and their own feelings. Q. Is New Orleans farther from the Gulf of Mexico than it was when it was built?>—J. H. M. A. New Orleans is over 100 miles far- ther from the sea than when it was founded. This land has been built up gradually from silt carried in the water of the Mississippi River. Q. How many olives does it take for a gallon of pickled olives?>—H. B. A. It requires about 6 pounds of olives to make 1 gallon of pickled olives, and about 1 ton to yield 35 gallons of oil. The average production is about 1’ tons of fruit per acre, but greater yields are | obtained on the best plantations. Q. How does Time, the weekly news magazine, get its news from New York to Chicago where it is printed?—C. H. A. The news is flashed from New York by teletype. Q. What is Baraca?—E. B. A. Baraca is the name given to young men's Bible classes, founded in 1890 by Marshall A. Hudson. The name is & Hebrew word meaning blessed. Its ob- ject is the work of young men for young men in acknowledging the sacredness of the Bible, the Bible school, and the church. The motto is: “Win the one next to you” The slogan: “We do things." ———rwte A Booklet on Astronomy. To serve the lively interest in this subject this bureau offers an unusual booklet on Astronomy. Astronomy 1§ America’'s most popular scientific hobby, Everybody is interested in the sun, moon, stars, and planets. The booklet answers more than 500 questions on the subject. Order your copy now. Inclose ten cents to cover cost and handling. Use This Order Blank The Washington Evening Star Tnformation Bureau, Prederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C. T iInclose herewith TEN CENTS in coin (carefully wrapped) for a eopy of the booklet, ASTRONOMY. (Please order by mail only.) —_— — National Press Club, following the re- cent address of Japanese Ambassador Saito in the same forum, always re- ceives newspaper men in & drawing room of the Chinese Embassy which Is con- spicuously adorned by a portrait of Sun Yat Sen, founder of the republic, hung between its original banner and the flag of the Nationalist government at Nan- king. * ok K K Bearer of & famous monicker, Karl Marx, founder of Socialism, is the New Yorker of that name who will have charge of foreign language newspapers in the campaign of education and pub- licity just launched by the unemploy- ment census organization, (Copyright, 1937.) A