Evening Star Newspaper, November 1, 1937, Page 8

A—S8 THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition THEODORE W. NOYES, Editor WASHINGTON, D. C. November 1, 1937 The Evening Star Newspaper Company Main Office: 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd St Chicago Office: 435 Notth Michigan Ave. Delivered by Carrier—City and Suburban Regular Edition Evening and Sunday, ti5¢ per mo. or 15¢ per week The Evening Star.. 45¢ per mo. or 10c per week The Bunday Star- 5c oer copy Night Final Edition Night Final and Sunday Star-_..70c per month Night Final Star._______ -65c per month Collection made at the end of each month or each 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¢ Daily only 1 yr. $6.00: 1 mo. 50 Bunday onl. 1 yr., $4.00; 1 mo. 40c All Other States and Canada Daily and Sunday. 1 yr. $12.00; 1 mo. $1.00 Daily only__. 1 yr. $8.00: 1 mo. The 1 yr, $5.00; 1 mo. 50¢ Member of the Associated Press ‘The Associated Press 15 exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news disoatches credited to {t or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published nerein. Al rights of publication of special dispatches herein also are reserved. A Fateful Conference. At no time since the “peace” of Ver- sailles made hash of the effort to “end war” by laying the sure foundations of future conflict, has the world faced more fateful decisions than those confronting this week's conference of- the Nine- Power treaty signatories. It is not going too far to say that upon the action or inaction resultant there, depends to an immeasurable extent whether the “outraged conscience of mankind,” Sec- retary Hull's gripping epitome of civil- 1zation’s resentment of aggression in the Far East, is to continue to tolerate brigandage in international relations or will “set in motion forces which will ereate unshakable order based on law.” Those words, used by the American Becretary of State at Toronto on October 22, might well supply the text for im- pending discussion in Belgium. As the head of the United States’ delegation, Ambassador Davis, is scheduled to speak first, it is reasonable to expect he will sound the conference keynote in a tone attuned to the. Hull pronouncement. There will have to be plain talk from some quarter, if the parley is to end in enything except new humiliation of the Western powers in Japan's eyes, plus clinching assurance that her armies and war lords may proceed to impose a conqueror’s “peace” on their brave but hopelessly handicapped foe. ‘Though our spokesman wiil open the ball at Brussels, there is no danger that he will signal American readiness either to initiate stern measures against the Japanese or even to make the chief contribution to any military or economic action to carry them out. Mediation is the emblem on the banner which Mr. Davis will unfurl. He may intimate that, under certain circumstances, the United States might be willing to go beyond mere conciliation, but definitely and only in the form of collective pro- cedure. In The Sunday Star, Sir Arthur Wil- lert, former Washington correspondent of the London Times and one-time director of press relations in the British Foreign Office, asserts that “London would, of course, be prepared to support the United States in a coercive policy if Washington undertook to bear the brunt of it” In rejoinder to such wishful thinking, let it be said at once that “Washington” does not dream of “bear- ing the brunt” of punitive steps against China’s despoiler. Sir Arthur’s candid and probably authoritative suggestion 1s designed all too solidly to support the thesis that John Bull, in a literal sense, expects Uncle Sam to do not only his own, but the lion's share, of any chas- tisement of Japan. The ex-Downing Street spokesman emphasizes Britain’s reluctance “to fight to save China from the Japanese.” He explains frankly that “the British attitude is dictated by the European situation.” As the great danger of the moment is “outbreak of another world war in Europe,” Britannia, despite her protests against “Japan’s piratical bru- tality,” her sympathies with China, and even her vast interests in the Far East, considers it her paramount duty to safeguard the British stake on this side of the globe. Matters, one ventures to think, might be different if Japan, irked and op- pressed by economic sanctions, were to seize Hong Kong, now China's chief base of supplies. In that event Britain could hardly dodge the necessity of sending a fleet to Singapore, just as this eountry, unquestionably, would move to eounter any Japanese threat to the Philippines. Short of such provocation use of Anglo-American force in the East, singly or jointly, does not seem likely. It is a constellation of events calculated to bring comfort only to Japan, but her whole adventurous procedure since 1931 has been a continuous story of capital- 1zing western absorption in purely west- ern concerns. Perhaps Soviet Russia's decision to go to Brussels, in response to Belgium'’s invitation, may stiffen the resolve of the Nine-Power signatories not to let the conference pass into history as one more example of the world’s incapacity to link its will and its potentialities in a cordon sanitaire against international gangsterism—the “quarantine” which President Roosevelt mentioned at Chi- ©ago. A Mayoralty Prophecy. Mayor La Guardia evidently nears the hour of election in New York City with supreme confidence in his. result. - Testi- mony to his optimism'has just beeh furnished by an enterprising youth, who qualifies as & “journalist” through his editorship of a neighborhood newspaper which is styled “strictly Republican” and which has a weekly circulation in Brooklyn of 125 copies. This young man 4 THE EVE he has reached the mature age of ten years—met the Mayor on a ferry boat, recently and engaged him in conversa- tion about the campaign. He has made public an account of the interview, as follows: . ‘When I asked him what he thought of the campaign, he said it was a very stupid and uninteresting campaign. He said it was like putting a “palooka” in the ring with a good fighter. Nobody likes to watch a fight like that, he said. Then I asked him if he would win the election. He said to me, “What kind of horses eat the most, black horses or bay horses?” I said I didn't know. Then he laughed as he said that bay horses do because there are more bay horses. I asked him what that had to do with the election and he laughed. Then he said he would win the election because there are more pebple in New ‘York who want good government than want ‘bad government, Now there is an excellent bit of re- porting, especially for a journalist of ten years. Incidentally it reveals Mayor La Guardia in a somewhat new light. He is decidedly a humorist. And more- over, he demonstrates that he knows how to talk for publication. His opponent for the mayoralty may not like the sug- gestion that he is a “palooka.” But harsher names have been flung about in the campaign. Indeed, in his inter- view the Mayor manifested rather com- mendable restraint. Whatever happens tomorrow at the polls, New York has discovered a talent for vivid reportorial service, s W. P. A. Turnover. That there is nothing static about the made-work situation, in relation to the efforts of the Government to provide employment for those who are idle from any cause, is demonstrated by a report Just made by the Works Progress Ad- ministrator of the New York City dis- trict for the year which ended Septem- ber 30. During that period, he states, the total force engaged in that area ranged from 135,000 to 185,000, indicating a “spread” of 50,000. Some 40,000 found private jobs. The “separations” for all causes numbered 104,362 during the year. This was a relatively Idrge turnover, which might indicate both some revival in private employment or some dis- affection on the part of the beneficiaries of the Government's project. One paragraph of the report is of some particular interest in respect to the rea- sons for the discontinuance of benefac- tions in the form of Government jobs. The administrator states that 246 em- ployes of the Federal agency were dis- missed for inefficiency, 471 for intoxica- tion, 387 for shirking and 2,361 for in- subordination, a total of 3465. Under the classification of “insubordination” came those who refused demotions or who declined private jobs paying pre- vailing wage rates. As an offset to the “insubordination” item it is stated that during the twelve- month period about 40,000 relief em- ployes had found private jobs. 'Thus it would appear that for the majority of those taken on the relief rolls during the year the Works Progress Adminis- tration was a tide-over service. This is an encouraging showing, both as to the indication of a revival of private em- ployment and as to the attitude of those who have been cared for in the emergency. “Doles” of any kind are not necessarily demoralizing to the mass of people who are left without occupation by a reces- sion of business. If the administration of the made-work system is efficient and conscientious that effect may be avoided. The relatively small percentage of those who proved to be slackers and spongers and otherwise unworthy of assistance may be taken as a fairly normal repte- sentation of the attitude of the “world owes me a living” fraction of humanity. In any turnover of business employ- ment there are always failures of ad- Jjustment, misfits, temperamental {dlers and spongers, who regard their occupa- tions as gifts or grants and not as oppor- tunities to make good in self-support. It is likely to be particularly the case when Government steps in to take up the slack caused by business depression and economic recession. The vitally impor- tant point of the whole matter. is that these doles must be definitely recognized as temporary expedients, to run only during the period of urgent need. ———— Airports and aviators must be provided and the work they make necessary calls for something more than the considera- tion of possible profits for any favored group. The wise expenditure of funds is one of the chief responsibilities of the present generation. ———————— A holiday picture shows Vice Presi- dent Garner broiling a steak at an open fire just by way of a reminder that the dinner bell must be heard with respect, whatever considerations may arise in the course of government. e — Taxation is recognized as a necessity. Efforts to enforce it as a privilege already calls for consideration in this Nation’s history. Parents and Vandalism. Community Halloween observance, in the form of a parade of maskers and costumers on Constitution avenue Sat- urday night, did not wholly abate the nuisance of juvenile vandalism, tolerated on that occasion for many years as a vent for the partially suppressed spirit of mischief. There was the usual de- facement of property, in all parts of the city. There was the usual shifting of detached bit of property, sometimes with permanent injury. There was the cus- tomary rowdyism that made the lives of householders miserable for several hours. The ‘practice of defacement of prop- erty by costumed youngsters reflects upon the parents, who are apparently incapable of impressing upon their chil- dren the utter silliness of form of pranking. Just what pleasure the boys and girls can derive.from marking motor car windows with tallow is beyond com= prehension. They seemingly do not reale ize that they may be contributing to ) NG STAR, driving accidents, perhaps costly in terms of life and limb. They do not appear to understand that the scrawling of meaningless designs and sometimes un- seemly words upon shop fronts is no sign of cleverness and makes toilsome labor necessary for their removal. Respect for property is taken for granted in adults who are not them- selves inclined toward vandalism. That respect should be impressed upon the children as one of the primary social obligations. But unfortunately there is a lamentable laxity in this matter on the part of parents. Too many of them are prone to say, when such matters arise, as the familiar “ruthless rhyme" runs about “willie, always up to tricks, ‘AiL't he cute? He's only six!’” ——— . A refusal to recognize a coming Con- gress as an event in the affairs of a Ration is one of the numerous ways to give offense to the delicate sensibilities of the statesman who regards anything that may happen as a personal incident. Even the purchase of a railway ticket may come to be regarded as having its political significance. s The good citizen is still concerned with the announcements of household purchases and eager to maintain his personal credit as well as to lift a voice in the affairs of nations. A wise govern= ment takes account of the honorable shopper as well as of the life and death theorist. S ‘Every dominant personage who gets into & mix-up with thugs may cause indirect harm by seeming unduly to broaden the realms.of social distinction by leaving too much responsibility in the hands of the man who runs a motor car but has no gift for lecturing on the civic responsibility he has assumed. ——— e . England has complimented this coun- try by sending some of her best speakers to address American audiences. The opinions of the listeners have to “be considered and the reputation for re- spectful attention is something to be valued as one of our great national assets. ——ee— Railroads are nothing if not obliging, but the effort to establish a rate that will pay the investor and at the same time content the wage earner is one which has in the past caused gray hairs to appear where they were not imme- diately expected. — Japan has ideas that attach great blame to any interference with political policies carrying slaughter as its nat- ural consequence. Nations grow elo- quent in warnings against interference with plans that have been started. — ey New York .choruses continue to re- echo. “Tammany Hall or no Hall at All,” though held up to criticism, still has its place in the song book. ) One objection to the metropolitan bandit is his failure to read the print which so candidly describe the nuisance he has allowed himself to become. R Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. History. That History repeats herself We say in accents wise. Yet, when she does, each mortal elf Is filled with great surprise. Old problems and old fashions, too, From ’neath the cobwebs gray Come bravely prancing into view 'To make us grave or gay. So money causes folk to fight And beauty does the same; And men as centuries take flight Still play the same old game. ‘When History herself repeats, As she is sure to do, An untried audience she meets For whom old jokes are new. Safe Repertory. “Are you preparing any speeches to be delivered in Congress?” “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “I don’t propose to add to any dissension. I shall be prepared to say ‘present’ and ‘aye’ or ‘no’ And if I am called on to filibuster I can read something out of 2 beok.” Jud Tunkins says he never was so busy and worried. If he goes to a motion picture he’s liable to miss some- thing on the radio. Call for an Old-Timer. Oh, Genevieve! Oh, Genevieve! Sweet, sentimental bluff, I wish you'd come back to relieve The syncopated stuff. Advancement. “If evolution is true, we have advanced amazingly.” “We have,” agreed Miss Cayenne. “I can’t imagine a group of chimpanzees going to the seashore and holding a beauty contest.” “Most of us pass our lives,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “in hope or fear, day by day, of what is going to happen tomorrow.” Local Pride. My little old house appears to be The best little house in the block, to me. My little old block—I set it down As the best little block in all the town. My little old town seems good and grand; The best little town in all the land. And this land of ours displays such worth, Lew the best little land in all the earth— And this world, I'll state in’ language terse, Is the best little world in the universe. “De Bible,” said Uncle Eben, “gives some people sumpin’ to think about and othérs Jes’ sumpin’ to talk about.” “ WASHINGT Parallel for President’s High Finance Experiment 'To the Editor of The Star: Several years ago, just after I had entered the real estate business, I had an interesting problem in financing put up to me. I advertised a house for sale and a lady answered the ad with the request that I call on her and give her more information about the property. The advertised house was an expen- sive one and I was surprised when I found my elderly prospective client liv- ing in a one-room basement apartment. The surroundings were eloquent of gen- teel poverty, The few pieces of furni- ture in the room had evidently been quite elegant at one time. The lady was a dear old soul, cultured and refined. Indeed, if she had been a man I would have said her accent was Groton- Harvard. To my amazement the lady assured me that it made no difference to her about the price, the location or the size of any house she might buy. There was only one condition upon which she in- sisted: The property must be free and clear of any encumbrance. “I feel that I can talk freely to you,” she said. “My finances are in a de- plorable state. So I have been thinking that if I can find a house for sale that is clear of encumbrance I would buy it. I have only $25, but I thought I would put a mortgage on the property and use part of the proceeds to discharge some of my most pressing obligations and turn over the rest of the money to the owner of the house as a down pay- ment.” Goggle-eyed with astonishment T tact- fully assured the old lady it could not be done. I never expected to hear again of any- thing quite so cockeyed in the way of financing. However, I was wrong. Wit- ness Mr. Roosevelt’s suave promises to continue spending billions in his role of Santa Claus to the farmers and reliefers, while in the same breath he promises to balance the budget. On top of that he collects over a billion dollars a year from workers and employers, presum- ably to be used as a social security fund, and then spends the money, most of it around election time, to play Santa Claus. Say what you please about the old lady’s idea of financing, she at least had sense enough to realize her mistake when it was pointed out to her. S. H. MUMFORD., ———— Heroism or Cowardice In the Face of Danger To the Editor of The Star: I. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the board of the Cunard line when the Titanic (1812) went down and a passenger on the vessel, has lately died. He was much blamed for not choosing to go down with the ship. There was an investigation of his conduct both in England and here. He was exonerated. While attending the hearings in Washington, he stopped at the Willard in the presidential suite. I didn't get sight of him. He stayed out of the limelight. Despite the exoneration, the public clamor continued. But why? He had no authority. He was a tourist who went on a joyride that turned into a “dance of death.” It was also shown that he observed the rule of “women and children first.” To the captain, of course, a different code applies. Under an unwritten law and according to tra- dition he must sacrifice himself—even if he has a chance to leave the ship as the last man aboard. The reason for this self-immolation no one seems to know. Now, on the other hand, kings and chief commanders, after losing a battle, are not expected to join the corpses. They ride off the field and no one thinks any the worse of them. The great Fred- erick himself, when first under fire, ran off and left it to his men to win the battle for him. Later on, of course, he redeemed his reputation for personal valor ten times over. History even records one instance where a general who sought safety in flight was highly commended by his govern- ment. When Hannibal, the Carthaginian, destroyed the whole Roman Army at Cannae (216 B.C.), Aemilius Paulus, the consul, lay dead on the field. But his colleague, Terentius Varro, was still alives Gathering up a few horsemen he re- turned to Rome. It had been his own rash conduct that was partly responsible for the calamity. Was he court-martialed? No. At the gates of the city the Roman Senate in solemn procession received him and thanked him “because he had not lost faith in his country.” In the end Rome won. You can't lick such people. As for the average man—well, it’s not good Bible doctrine, but it still holds that “he who fights and runs away shall live to fight another day.” FRED VETTER. Remarks on Jay Franklin’s Comments on Stock Crash To the Editor of The Star: Jay Franklin, seeking to whitewash the New Deal of blame for the stock crash, bespeaks the voluble insistence of New Yorkers to get regulations relaxed so that the “big shots can palm off their bum guesses on the sucker public.” It is easy to agree with that part of Mr. Franklin’s reference to a “sucker public,” sometimes still estimated at 27 millions. The trouble with the rest is, not that it won’t make a New Deal alibi, but that it is three months late. “Big shots” were unloading visibly and strenuously during the stagnant June-August tops. Whether in distrust of Roosevelt or the Deal—certainly rea- son enough—is trivial. Mr. Franklin, of course, must know that a vast body of heavier shots never returned to the speculative markets in force after 1929, which means they are now ready and able to swap Government paper for bargains. The spot was politically but uninten- tionally created for them. So can you blame them for grabbing it? No more than you can blame foreign royalists for unloading gold bullion on Uncle Sam (New Deal, agent) at a 40 per cent pre- mium. Naturally this sort of stuff re- verses the wealth distribution pap so dear to the hearts of the advocates of Utopia-to-order (bill rendered later). One blind guess equaling another, the sucker squeeze is still ahead. The New Deal, with characteristic dumbness, is aiding the cause of the “Liberty Leag- uers,” then berating them for it. I. H. LATIMER. The People Are Masters Of Those Whom They Elect To the Editor of The Star: There is a fundamental principle of democracy to which all agree and too many forget. The people are the mas- ters. Those whom the people elect to office are elected to serve the people. ‘When a servant gets to the point where he assumes the right to tell the master how to conduct his life, how his house shoulll be run, what he may plant and what he must not plant, how he must spend his money it is time to get rid of that servant. JOHN CUTLER, Los Angeles, Calif, i C., MONDAY NOVEMBER 1, 1937 THIS AND THAT - BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL, If the beginning bird observer is de- termined. to trap English sparrows, to get them out of the way of the more choice songsters at the feeding station, let him be sure he knows his birds. There are three other sparrows which come in numbers to stations in gardens throughout the suburban areas of our great city, and to the inexperienced eye they look a great deal like their English cousins. Indeed, there is not much chance that the newcomer will be able to tell them apart at first, especially if he tries to do it when they are crowded in a cage. It must be pointed out that if he traps and kills a group of birds which he thinks are “English sparrows,” he runs & great chance of killing some of the finest birds which come to his garden, if it includes the other three species. If he transfers the.catch to a receiv- ing cage, sometimes provided by the manufacturer, and bears them all away to another section of the city, there to release them, he merely contributes a few specimens of fox sparrow, for in- stance, to bird lovers in another section. * % X X Whatever he does he has hurt him- self and his garden and especially his interest in bird observation, for trapping anything is not part of the better side of this sport. Nor need he think that he is luring birds of any type by his activities. Birds are canny enough; they stay away from any place where trapping is going on. How can a cardinal know that the trap is not meant for him? As clever as the nuthatch may be in walking head-down a tree, he has no way of realizing that the wire con- traption is designed for English sparrows alone. That is the joker of the trapping idea and procedure. The trap takes in all that come, and 'in any catch there is as likely to be a chickadee as a sparrow. Separation is not easy. Indeed, this is a work beyond the average amateur observer, provided he has enough sense and honesty to realize it. Ask any one who has not observed birds by the hour to tell the name of a bird in the border, and he will say instantly, with the “knowledge” of the unknowing, “Why, that's a sparrow,” but ask him what sort of sparrow, he will not know. Pinned down, he will say, “English sparrow, I guess,” when, as & matter of fact, the bird is a song sparrow. * x x X% Now the song sparrows, and the fox sparrows, and the white-throated spar- rows are among the finest birds we have, but they are not easy to differentiate at first. Let us insist on the time. It is al- ways at the beginning of bird feeding, as a daily occupation, that one gets angry when things do not go as one desires. The English sparrows come in num- bers, and the new-fledged observer is angry at them, because he has read somewhere that they drive the better birds away. He wants to exterminate English Sparrows. The pigeons come and he wants to kill pigeons. The squirrels arrive. The observer is furious at them. He vows vengeance on all rodents. He sees a bold bluejay drive a chick- adee out of the feeder and he begins to run a temperature. He has read somewhere that bluejays are & nuisance at a feeding station. He overlooks that they are beautiful, interesting birds, and that they seldom stay at a feeder more than 15 minutes. The remainder of the day they are winging their lordly way through the air, * ok K ok Pretty soon the observer begins to see that his emotions are running away with him. Why, what he undertook as fun is leading him merely into daily anger. As if there weren't already enough ways of getting “mad” in the world! Anger needs no birds. It is on tap with many persons at the slightest thing, and always leads to unhappiness. The bird observer comes to realize that if his new sport is to be worth while to him he must carefully erase from his mind the wrinkles and creases that it is causing him. * ok ok % With this salutary change of mind, usually comes a great peace. He at last sees what his feeding sta- tion is for, and why the free lunch he offers to the creatures must be for all that choose to accept it. This way, he realizes, is nature’s way. ‘The squirrels, a wise man has pointed out, do not put false values on the nuts they collect, but take them as they fall, and eat them all to a good purpose. The man or woman who, in goodness of heart, begins to feed the birds, must carefully guard mind and heart against the baser emotions. Bird feeding is a part of bird con- servation, and the latter offers no re- wards to the person who pursues it with malice toward any living creature. It is true that at times certain steps will have to be taken to end nuisances, but these mostly turn out to be of far less moment than the viewer though them at first. * X ¥ ¥ In this sport, as in so many others, one easily loses a sense of balance and pro- portion. J It is far more sheer fun, and far closer to the idea of protection, to permit all creatures to share in the feast of the feeding station, than to become per- turbed the moment something happens | in the yard that is not exactly as one had planned. Few things in this world are 100 per cent, despite the claims. Just as one has affixed the suet basket to the fence, a big black. woolly dog lopes in. seizes the basket and makes away with it, suet and all. Well, why curse the dog? Viewed properly, the dog and his act make mighty good comedy, and if a basket is lost because of it, well, one can learn a great deal from the experi- ence, if no more than to attach the basket to the fence better next time. * x * x Be sure of your sparrows. The person who comes to know and look for the fox sparrows, those comical fellows; the lovely song sparrows, and the white-throated ones, in time will realize that their English cousins are not as bad as theyv have been painted. He will thus save himself a great deal of trouble and confusion, both of heart and mind, and be nearer to the real meaning of help to others, man or beast. WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE. No illusions fire the breasts of G. O. P. topnotchers and insiders as to the truly desperate plight of the Republican party. The National Committee is convening at Chicago this week in complete and candid cognizance of conditions. The party is without a leader, program, unity or funds. Probably at no time in Amer- ican political history has a national or- ganization, which only a year ago polled 17,000,000 votes, sunk to so low an estate. Chicago will reverberate with brutally frank lamertations on this score, cou- pled with stentorian demands for mili- tant remedial measures. Divided and distracted as the party is on matters of command and policy, Chairman Hamil- ton will preside over a fairly unanimous body, as far as the immediate business in hand is ccncerned—the proposal to hold a midterm national convention to formulate something smelling like a platform. Of the 106 National Commit- tee members, an advance nose count discloses some 80 for the convention and 26 opposed. This divergence of com- mittee opinion on a relatively routine issue is harmony personified, compared to the discord that disunites G. O. P. rank and file and the party’s representa- tives in Congress on that score and nearly everything else. * Kk K % In Senate and House, eminent Re- publican spokesmen disapprove the con- vention scheme favored overwhelmingly by the National Committee as interpre- ters of the popular will of the party. Borah of Idaho, Capper of Kansas and McNary of Oregon are openly hostile. ‘Vandenberg of Michigan rates as luke- warm, with leanings toward disapproval. Bert Snell of New York, House minority leader, is about the only Republican of stature in Congress who warmly espouses the Hoover-inspired convention plan. Representative Joe Martin of Massa~ chusetts, chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee, is just as bit- terly against it. G. O. P. captains, inno- cent of partisanship as between rival leadership claims of Hoover and Landon, and craving .only party solidarity, are particularly sore over Borah's incorrigible passion for sulking. It's not generally known that in their anxiety to give the party the benefit of the Senator’s national prestige and political acumen, he was the almost universal choice as head of a committee of five, to be charged with authority to refashion Republicanism from top to bottom and map out ways and means for its regen- eration. Idaho’s biggest potato appar- ently would have none of it, possibly hecause the proposal had the joint sup- port of Hoover and Landon, respecting whom Borah’s reputed reaction is: “A plague on both your houses.” He is supposed to suffer under the incurable complex that the Californian as well as the Kansan is yoked to the “interests,” oil, in particular, in Landon’s case. * %k X x Jesse H. Jones, R. F. C. chairman, perhaps because the functions and funds of that 5%-year-old $10,000,000,000 or- ganization of Hooverian origin are about to come to an end, recently took the first vacation he’s indulged himself in 30 years. It consisted of five weeks in the Far West and Northwest, including British Columbia. Thé Texan ascribes his physical well-being and emotional composure, after a nerve-racking quin- quennium on the palpitating Potomac, to the fact that he transacts most of his business by long-distance telephone. He averages two hours a day talking across the country and sometimes across oceans, having found by experience that it saves time, money and mental wear and tear for all concerned. * ok K ox By the will of the late Ogden L. Mills, former Secretary of the Treasury, just filed for probate in New York, $200,000 is left to Harvard College, $200.000 to the New York Home for Incurables, $100,000 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and $25,000 apiece to the New York Charity Organization Society and the National Cathedral at Washington. Mrs. Mills receives the residuary estate, except $5,000 and $10,000 annuities to former wards of the deceased. Mills’ office em- ployes in Wall Street are bequeathed sums ranging from $5,000 to $10.000 each. Annuities of $1,200 are given to-Mr. Mills’' butler and chauffeur, $5,000 to his gar- dener and $2,500 each to domestic servants in his employ for at least seven years. [Everything -else, including the Long Island estate, the Fifth avenue mansion and the testator's holdings in the New York Herald-Tribune, goes to the widow. The Mills lawyers say they cannot estimate the exact value of the estate, which runs into millions. * K ok x One phase of “My Son Jimmie” Roosevelt’s appointment as liaison officer between the White House and 18 independent Federal agencies, which is likely to be the target of torrid con- gressional attack, is the allegation that the appointment is the latest form of Executive “encroachment” and “usurpa- tion.”™ It will be contended that the Interstate Commerce Commission, Fed- eral Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, Social Security Board and other agencies which must now approach the throne cap in hand through the crown prince, were created by acts of Congress and endowed with supposedly sovereign administrative and quasi-judicial powers. How these are going to fare under the new son-to- father dispensation is a matter on which opinion differs and bitter doubts pre- vail. * ok K % Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, better known throughout Europe as “Bob” Cecil, may hit Washington 10 days hence as the President’s White House guest at a psychological moment, if Brussels meantime sprouts anything savoring of economic sanctions against Japan. As minister of blockade in Britain’s war- time government, the lanky, shouldered, scholarly third son of the late Marquis of Salisbury became a world figure and outstanding authority in the field of trade embargoes. An ardent war-maker while the fray was on, Lord Robert Cecil is today an aggres- sive apostle of peace. It was mainly due to his leadership of the British League of Nations Union two years ago that the country voted overwhelmingly by plebi- scite in favor of John Bull's whole- hearted adhesion to Geneva and its program for collective action against international lawlessness of the Italo- German-Japanese brand. * K K X ‘There arrived.in Washington last week & letter from a Shanghal merchant, who is Chira’s greatest exporter of furs. He writes that while the war has ruined business everywhere in China, prince and pauper, capitalist and coolie, are grimly united in the national resolve to fight Japan, no matter what the cost or end may be. * X K % President Roosevelt is a resident of New York City as well as upstate Dutchess County. Having migrated to the Hudson until after tomorrow's elec- tions, a Capital wag wonders whether il | is named?—E. W. stoop-" 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. Please state what the groups of gcire:: on social security cards mean.— A. The first group of figures represents the geographical district. Each State is divided into small geographical units. The second number is administrative, for expansion purposes only, The third number is the individual's number in rotation beginning with one and going to0 9,999. When this number is reached the second or administration number moves from 01 to 02 and the third begins again at one. Q. Please name a few authors who had to wait a long time for financial success—A. D. H. A. Joseph Conrad wrote for 20 years before he sold & book. In the first nine years of George Bernard Shaw's lit- erary endeavor, he realized about $30. A. A. Milne earned about $100 the first year he spent as a full-time author, Q. Has Lily Pons ever been married?— H W ‘A. The singer was divorced in 1933 from August Mesritz. Q. Of the Presidents who have been assassinated, which one was shot in the head?—W. N. A. President Lincoln. President Mce Kinley was shot in the abdomen; Presi- dent Garfield by a bullet which entered above the third rib. President Theodore Roosevelt, while not in office, was hit by a bullet which was deflected by a spec- tacle case in his pocket, doing no damage. Q. Can students at 8t. John's College in Annapolis change from the regular college courses they are taking to the new program of 126 books?—P. C. A. Not unless they are willing to enter this program as freshmen. Q. Who will be represented in the Museum of Modern Art when the ex- hibit opens in Washington on November 152—S. R. A. The works of Cezanne. Seurat. Gauguin, Renoir and Van Gogh will be on view. Q. What republics have lasted longest? -—G. G. A. The Venetian Republic lasted 1,196 vears; Republic of Genoa, 802 years; Carthage, 704 years; Grecian Republic, 554 years; Roman Republic, 504 years. No other important republic lasted as much as 500 years. Q. What is pink salt?—H. W. J. A. Ammonium chlorostannate, a well crystallized salt used as a mordant in dyeing, is called pink salt. Q. What foods do native Hawaiians eat?—J. H.” A. Foods common among the Hawai- fans are fruits, rice, various kinds of meat, honey, fish, poi and varlous trop- ical vegetables. Q. Who was Nicot for whom tobacco A. Jean Nicot, Sieur de Villemain, was a French diplomat born at Nimes in 1530. He studied in Paris, was a cour- tier of Henry IT and acted as envoy of Frarcis II to Lisbon in 1560, whence, having procured seeds from a Dutch- man, who brought them from Florida, he introduced tobacco into France, Q. Do many people trespass on rail- road premises?>—M. B. A. From March to August this year, 2,172,763 illegal train riders and other trespassers were ejected from railroad premises. This number was smaller by 80,000 than that of summer before last. Q. How many pounds of black wal- nuts and English walnuts are needed to make a pound after they are shelled? —E. K. A. It takes 8!3 pounds of black wal- nuts to make a pound of shelled kernels, and 238 pounds of English walnuts. Q. What is the meaning of mahatma? —W. M. A. It is a Hindu word meaning the great-souled one. Among the Brahmans it is applied to one who has attained the highest possible point of spiritual en- lightenment. It is also the name of a high priest or wise leader of the theos- ophists, Q. Where is New Albion?>—W. H. A. This was the name given by Sir Francis Drake, in 1579, to the western coast of North America when he landed at Bodega Bay, 40 miles north of the present city of San Francisco, and of which he took possession in the name of Queen Elizabeth. Humboldt and later writers restricted the name to the region between San Francisco and what is now the northern boundary of the State of Oregon. Famous Places in the United States. The place of major historical Interest in each of the 48 States and the District of Columbia is illustrated and described in the booklet FAMOUS PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES. Every photo- graph is illuminated by authoritative descriptive and historical text. An hour with this booklet will prove one of the most_entertaining and most profitable you have ever spent. Send for your copy today and learn more about your own United States. Inclose 10 cents to 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 booklet FAMOUS PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES. Name Street or Rural Route City State (Please Order by Mail Only.) —_—n F. D. R. will try to cast ballots in both places, in pursuance of the old Tam- many maxim to vote early and often! Jim Farley is also supposed to lead a double voting life—with domiciles at Haverstraw, N. Y, and 3 East Eighty- fourth street, Manhattan. ' (Copyright, 1937.) A i 4