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}L The Foening Htaw With Sunday Morning Edition. THEODORE W. NOYES, Editor, WASHINGTON, D. C. BATURDAY pril 13, 1940 The Evening Star Nawspaper Company. : 11th Bt and Pennsylvania Ave. MR SEerk Omee: 110 East dind Bt Chicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave. Prices Effective January 1, 1940, Delivered by Carrier—City and Suburban, Regular Edition. ing and Sunday 75¢ per mo. or 18c per week B oo M ™ 486 bor mo: or 106 per week The Sunday Star 5 10¢ per copy Nicht Final Edition, Risht Final and Sunday Star ight Fina] Star Rural Tube Delivery. e Evening and Sunday Star __ 85c per month i’ga Evening Star 55c per month ‘he Sunday Star ___ 10¢ per copy Collection made at the end of each month or each week. Orders may be sent by mail or tele- pone National 5000, 85¢ per month 60¢ per month Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. fly ard Sun 1 2 ally only 1 Bunday only. Entered as second-class matter post office, Washington D. C. Member of the Associated Press. ‘The Al&nflll!flb Press 13 exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this Daper and also the local news published hersin All risnts of publication of special dispatehes Jersin also are reserv — First Tasks in Norway Out of the welter of reports of military, naval and aerial activity in and around Norway as the war in Scandinavia enters its fifth day the lines of German and allied strategies can be fairly well dis- cerned. There appears now to be more agreement in general among British, German, Norwegian and Swedish reports than existed in earlier stories. In their broad features the prob- lems of the allies and Germany and the means they are taking to solve them appear as follows: The first step for the allies—which now include Norway—must be, as | Winston Churchill pointed out in his report to the Commons, to wipe out German naval power in the Skager- rak, the Kattegat and along Norway’s western and northern coast. When that has been accomplished and the allies control the sea approaches which Germany must use in main- taining her several isolated army units, the allies can prepare to land | a large military force. But for the | present the strategic problem is naval and aerial rather than mili- tary, and sea and air power is the key to its immediate solution. For Germany the first problem is | to consolidate the positions she holds | along Norway’s coasts, and to main- tain her lines of supply between | tion. German and Danish ports and the occupied Norwegian points. The supposed separation and isola- tion of the army units at Oslo, | Stavanger, Kristiansand, Bergen, | Trondheim, Narvik and other points is, of course, the greatest weakness | in the Reich's offensive, and until internal communications can be established between these various forces Germany's hold on Norway will be tenuous. The chief obstacle in the way of establishing control in the interior of Norway is the obstinate resistance of the Norwegians, disorganized as they are. What there is of a Nor- wegian defense plan is the attempt | to encircle Oslo, the captured capital, | while British mines and submarines | bottle up the German warships— | reported to number seven—which are now lying in Oslo Fjord, and to make perilous any German attempt to re- inforce its land forces in Norway by means of transports. To allied air- | craft belongs the job of preventing any substantial reinforcements by air. The allies, in sum, are confronted with the necessity of cutting off—as nearly completely as possible—the German expeditionary forces in Norway from their sources of supply. When that has been done the next task will be to destroy these isolated German units in detail and to force a landing at some point from which a land offensive can be launched against the principal point of Ger- man invasion at Oslo. Britain is meeting her problem with widespread aerial activity, ranging almost the entire length of Norway’s coast, and by use of sub- marines not only for the destruction - of German shipping, but for the laying of new minefields in the _ Skagerrak and the Kattegat. British surface vessels appear to be operating mainly on Norway's west coast, where the danger of being trapped is less. But in the narrow waters which lead to the Baltic the submarine and the mine are the weapons. . The outcome of the battle for Norway appears at this stage to be . dependent upon two principal fac- tors: How long the Norwegians can prevent the consolidation of German positions now held along their coasts, and how quickly Norway’s allies can establish ironclad control not only of sea but of air approaches to Nor- way, thus paving the way for ful- fillment of Mr. Churchill’s dictum that “We shall take what we want” on Norway's coast. Americanism Plans are being studied by a com- mittee of Washington citizens for a proposed mass meeting to be held on the anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States, June 14, to impress upon young citizens who have just reached their majority their rights and responsibilities as Americans. In various forms ceremonies of this type have been held successfully in numerous communities during recent years. - In the past history of the Republic there have been numerous periods when a thorough realization of the meaning of Americanism was vital to the national welfare, times when the danger of being carried away by different ideals presented a definite threat to those things which still are the guarantees of lberty. 8Such A | quota. ‘THE' EVENING BTAR, WASHINGTON, D. periods included the dark days of the decline under the \Articles of Confederation, the years when grati- tude to the French people and bitter- ness against the British threatened to align the world’s outstanding ex- ample of pure democracy on the side of the most widespread military dic- tatorship, and later during the eras of pernicious political and social activity of the nineteenth century. But there never has been a time in the history of the United States when realization of what citizenship means has been more important than at the present. General real- ization of the fact that the world has known only two basic types of government, autocracy and democ- racy, has never been more urgently required. Washingtonians who plan to dram- atize the meaning of what European thinkers a hundred years ago called the “American experiment” deserve encouragement in their effort to drive home to every citizen the benefits which are his. A Hurtful Proviso Members of the Senate Civil Serv- ice Committee should be convinced thoroughly by this time of the hurt- ful character of the Keller-Nichols amendment to limit the benefits of the Ramspeck civil service extension bill by making it conform to the apportionment law appointment rule. Witnesses who have carefully con- sidered the amendment, without ex- ception. have advised the committee it would work injustice and raise hopeless administrative problems, and this argument has been bolstered now by the testimony of Representa- tive Ramspeck, the author of the bill, who emphasized that the provision was “unworkable.” The amendment was voted by the House over Mr. Ramspeck’s protest, on the strength of arguments that it was made necessary by the failure of the Civil Service Commission to follow the apportionment law under which appointments to positions in the departmental service here are distributed among the States and Territorities on the basis of popula- In answer to this contention, | the commission proved to the com- mittee that every effort had been made to conform to the apportion- ment law and that it was impossible to regulate appointments in such a way that some States would not be always over quota and others under. Representatives of employe organ- izations, strongly advocating the bill, also have opposed the amendment, which would bar its benefits to work- | ers hailing from over-quota States as long as any States were under- Opposition likewise has been registered by other organizations supporting the bill, which is designed to bring under civil service thousands of exempt positions, thereby dealing a body blow to the patronage system and paving the way for building Government employment into career service. Despite the weight of evidence, Representatives Keller of Illinois and Nichols of Oklahoma still pro- fess favor for their proposal, but that should not stand in the way of its rejection. Neither that amendment nor any other recognizing apportion- ment has any place in merit legis- lation. — Butfleshup vs. Bomber It is only natural that the air and | sea battles now raging along the Scandinavian coast should have re- vived the old controversy as to which is the more important in war, sea power or air power. That there are two schools of thought in this con- nection was brought out during the fight which the late Gen. “Billy” Mttchell led some years ago in an effort to convince Congress and the public generally of the superiority of bombing planes over battleships. Gen. Mitchell’s campaign was cli- maxed by a simulated bombing raid on discarded warships, but the re- sults were far from conclusive and the debate has continued sporadi- cally to this day. While full details of the grim con- test now taking place off Norway, will not be available for days or perhaps weeks, nothing so far an- nounced by either side would sup- port the contention that modern bombing planes have rendered bat- tleships obsolete. Nor has there been any indication that bombing planes do not serve a useful purpose in their own field of operation. Undoubtedly both are interdependent and indis- pensable. There have been certain incidents during this war, how- ever, which show that battle- ships, under certain circumstances at least, can take the worst that bombing planes have to offer and yet suffer no disabling damage. Ger- man bombers have made repeated raids on Scapa ‘Flow and British planes have engaged in similar bombing forays against the German fleet, but there has been no authen- ticated instance so far of a battle- ship being sunk by air bombs. Only this week the British dreadnought Rodney was struck squarely on her forward deck by a heavy bomb, but her thick armor saved her from seri- ous damage, according to the Ad- miralty. All battleships today are protected against aerial sattack by steel plates designed to resist the heaviest bombs. In addition, there are watertight subdivisions by which effects of a bomb or of shellfire may be localized quickly by damage- control crews, and, of course, there are also anti-aircraft guns and planes for counterattack. Rear Admiral'S. M. Robinson, chief of the Navy Department’s Construc- tion Burea, told a Senate appropri- ations subcommittee recently that the present European war, as a mat- ter of fact, has strengthened the be- lief of American naval officials that the nation with the biggest fleet has a tremendous advantage over its ad- versaries, irrespective of the size of the enemy alr forces. He pointed out. that although Germany has greater air power than the allies, she has been blockaded tightly by the British and French fleets. “The point is” Admiral Robinson suceinctly added, “that the United States wents to be in the position of England on the seas—not in the position of Ger- many.” That is eminently sound reasoning, The Star believes. The intimation that President Roosevelt may urge an additional appropria- tion for the Navy, which has suf- fered some ill-advised cuts at the hands of the House and of the Sen- ate Appropriations Committee, is most encouraging news. S — A Noazi Greenland? No whirl of the kaleidoscope through which Hitler’s war of ruth- lessness is exhibited to the world has produced a change more startling than that which suddenly projects the possibility of Germany’s becom- ing a landholder in the Western Hemisphere, P \ Among the outlying possessions of King Christian’s people is Greenland ‘in the Arctic latitudes of the North Atlantic. Unlike the Faroe Islands and Iceland, which are also part of the Danish realm, Greenland’s 736,- 000 square miles lie within this hem- isphere. The vast island flanks the North American continent, clothing its deep southern fjords with uncom- fortable strategic possibilities for both Canada and the United States if Greenland were to come under the domination of an unfriendly power, especially an air power. President Roosevelt clearly had in mind the potential uses to which Greenland might be put in hostile hands, when he observed at his White House press conference yes- terday that it might be well for Americans to consult their maps and study the location of Greenland. The German government avers that it is not interested in the Arctic territory over which Denmark’s flag flies, but that assurance, on Nazi lips, means nothing. Should it suit the purpose of the invaders to proclaim that their bloodless conquest of the Danes’ ter- ritory in Europe automatically con- veys title to their holdings in the North Atlantic, Adolf Hitler would hardly shrink from that pretension. The British, indeed, have anticipated just such a contingency by an- nouncing that they will prevent a landing in the Faroes, which lie at Scotland’s back ' door, northwest of the Shetlands. Iceland, which has the most ancient Parliament in ex- istence, has taken full control of the powers of government, hitherto headed by Christian X as King of Iceland. The status of Greenland alone remains undetermined. When not icebound in winter or fogbound in summer, Greenland of- fers fairly favorable flying condi- tions. These have not been ignored by the United States in considering our general defense scheme farthest north. Greenland lies, roughly, in the same latitude, sixty degrees north, which runs through Seward, Alaska, in the region where the Navy,!or sev- eral years ‘has been carrying on ex- perimental flying operations. From the northern end of our chain of chief naval ports—Boston—the limits of fleet radius reach as far as Cape Farewell, Greenland, and to the Azores. That European strategists understand the value of Greenland, the Faroes and Iceland as “stepping stones” for air power in trans-Atlan- tic operations was made manifest when Marshal Italo Balbo used them for that purpose during his famous massed flight to the United States in 1934. Should Hitler attempt to assert Nazi sovereignty over Greenland, complications with this country, based on the Monroe Doctrine in general and our “hemisphere de- fense” plans in particular, would al- most automatically ensue. It is a contingency brought near enough by this week’s events in Scandina- via to be worthy of the serious consideration recommended by the President. Pass the Grass The American Chemical Society, in convention at Cincinnati, has just doomed the old-fashioned pancake and proposes to replace it with one maqe of powdered grass. Grass, it seems, is richer in vitamins than any other food product. This is wonder- ful news for vitamin fans, but leaves all others cold. Vitamins may be necessary, at least since their dis- covery, but unfortunately are taste- less, so that it is more fun to acquire them by eating meat, vegetables and fruits than by consuming hay pan- cakes. In spite of the possibility of having the lawn replace the grocery store, the A. C. 8. will have quite a task muscling in on the prepared pancake industry, particularly as the plan is not new. It was, in fact, first tried some two thousand five hundred years ago by Nebuchadnezzar. It is true that Neb ate his grass raw, but he did give it a fair trial for quite a while, and the results were not satisfactory. He must have been a glutton for vita- mins, and undoubtedly absorbed them by the millions; but history records that eventually he became tired of jackass fodder and called off the whole project. The first thing he did was to sneak into the palace kitchen and fortify his system with everything on which he could lay the royal hands; the next was to remount the throne with a tooth- pick for a scepter; and the third was to execute any and all subjects thoughtless enough to refer to the noble sxperiment. A Of Stars, Men And Atoms Notebook of Science Progress In Field, Laboratory And Study ‘By Thomas R. Henry. More than 40 elements hitherto un- known in the universe have been created during the past few months by bom- barding uranium, the heaviest of the building stones of creation, with slow neutrons. This entirely unexpected development ¥om the phenomenon discovered under dramatic circumstances barely a year ago, in which the uranium atom is split in two with the production of energies which before had existed only in the interiors of the stars, was revealed to the Washington branch of the American Chemical Society the other night by Dr. Philip Abelson of the Carnegie Institu- tion of Washington. When uranium splitting was first re- ported and verified in the United States in February, 1939, it was hailed as the first tapping of atomic energy—the in- credibly tremendous binding power of creation. Atoms were split in two with the release of approximately 200,000,000 volts energy. It soon was found, how- ever, that extreme difficulties stood in the way of producing this power for practical purposes. The new develop- ment has come largely as a by-product of the efforts to overcome these hurdles. It was thought at first that uranium split in only one way, into roughly approximate halves. One-half was iden- tified as the element barium and the other appeared te be the very rare ele- ment masurium, of which there were only a few grams in the world. The present results show that the split may come in a great number of ways, depending on the way the atom is hit. This is a matter of pure chance and cannot be controlled in any way. Chem- ical analyses of what is left after the bombardment of pure uranium show traces of the elements bromine, krypton, rubidium, strontium, yttrium, zirconium, columbium, molybdenum, masurium, tin, antimony, tellurium, iodine, xenon, caesium, barium, lanthanum and cerium. These are present in the bombardment residues in amounts barely detectable by the most delicate chemical means—in some cases less than 100 trillionths of a gram. But, Dr. Abelson explained, these elements in the forms hitherto known are only the end products. They change into each other in series of explosive steps lasting from a few seconds to two months—and each step is an hitherto unknown element. The process is much the same as that by which uranium it- self changes into a particular form of lead in nature—producing in the process such intermediate elements as radium. All of the chips of uranium when they are first split off, he explained, are ra- dio-active. As an example, he cited the metallic element tellurium in one of the explosive forms in which it has been found in the residue. It changes into an exploding iodine. This in turn changes into an exploding form of the heavy gas xenon. The xenon turns into radio-active calcium. This explodes into barium, in a form which is not radio- active and which will remain unchanged forever. Thus four new elements make their appearance in this single reaction. A few of the new elements which have been identified, JDr. Abelson said, are identical with some “artificial radiums” which already have been produced in the laboratory by bombarding various elements with deuterons, the atoms of heavy hydrogen. ever, were hitherto unknown and appar- ently can be produced in no other way. The work, Dr. Abelson explained, is only in its beginning and there is no reason to suppose that many more new ele- ments may not be found—some, for ex- ample, with life periods of more than two months. The possible uses of the new-found elements still are obscure, but some al- ready promise to be of value in tracing the progress of various food constituents through the body and others may be found which will be indispensable in medical treatments. The discovery of these exploding substances has attracted little notice up to the present because it has proceeded step by step in various places—but chiefly at the physical labo- ratory of the University of California with which Dr. Abelson was associated before joining the Carnegie staff. It has been mostly under the direction of Dr, E. O. Lawrence, inventor of the cyclo- tron atom-smashing machine, Up to the present, Dr. Abelson points out, all the uranium splits have been into relatively heavy elements. The heaviest element continues to explode very roughly in halves. There has been no splitting off of exploding light chips —such as radio-active carbon or oxygen. Thus, he said, all the new products may be expected to fall about in the middle of the table of elements where are found some of the rarest of all the building stones of nature. In spite of the extremely small amounts produced, Dr. Abelson ex- plained, the uranium fissure technique, with the extremely small expenditure of power which is required, promises to be a much cheaper means of manufactur- ing some of the “artificial radiums” than any other process found to date. Keystone Auto Club Commends Editorial. To the Editor of The Star: | The Keystone Automobile Club ap- Ppreciates your editorial of Sunday, April 7, calling for favorable action on the bill which would establish in the De- partment of Vehicles and Trafic an office of record for the purpose of re- cording and releasing liens and en- cumbrances on automobiles. The need for such a step has long been pointed out by the Keystone Auto- mobile Club, and passage of legislation embodying the provisions of the Ran- dolph bill has been a continuing proj- ect of our organization. The club’s pioneer recommendations in behalf of the end sought by the present bill were based upon intimate and frequent ex- perience with the serious limitations of the system .now operative. ‘With the support which has rallied to the proposal, both on the part of the press and a large number of local or- ganizations, there should be no delay in" its final enactment. GEORGE E. KENEIPP, Manager. April 8 The majority, how- | C.," SATURDAY, APRIL - 13, 1940. THIS AND THAT By Charles . Tracewell, " 2 “WARRENTON, Va. “Dear sir: “We are hird feeders at our house, and T would like to pass on an idea to others. “Last spring « friend who owns a farm. not far from Warrenton planted sun- flowers for us. “In the fall we had a large quantity of sunflower seed for winter and our birds have eaten and grown fat. “Our own garden is small and shady at the time sunflowers get their growth, bloom and go to seed. “The cardinals and chickadees are our most frequent guests at the bird shelf, but in another sheltered spot we feed our sparrows, mockingbirds and starlings —apples, raisins, bits of meat and fat, and, above all, bread. “They never bother the shelf. “By the way, have you ever seen a starling contest over an old ham bone? “It’s very amusing. “We enjoy your This and That and thank you for it. “Sincerely yours, B. F. “P. 8.—This a.m. early I heard a card- inal ‘chipping’ in the glrden,_ looked out the window and there was a male cardi- nal having a fine bath in the bird bath. He then preened himself on the rim and back he went again. So there, to the doubters.” * ok k% It’s not a bad idea, to get a farmer friend to grow your sunflower seed. Most probably he would do it for noth- ing, at least for no more than the cost of a few packets of seed. It is more fun, however, to grow sun- flowers yourself, provided you have a sunny spot in the yard which can be turned over to them. They are old- fashioned things, it is true, not in the least streamlined; many city gardeners would no more think of growing them than they would of putting out alfalfa, purple Lucerne, or buffalo herb, what- ever you choose to call it. Yet there is no seed most birds like better than sunflower seeds. Millions of pounds of them are raised every year now for no other purpose than to feed to birds, either straight, or by incorporation in bird seed mixtures to be fed to the wild birds in fall and winter. An average small yard has plenty of room for some sunflowers. These range from the gigantic old countty kinds, known to every one who ever lived in a small town, to the more refined species which grow no more than four to six feet tall. * X X X Some of the old-fashioned types go as high as 16 to 20 feet, and put forth flowers in their season which measure as much as 12 to 15 inches in diameter. The more refined sorts set smaller seed. There are here, as in all matters, | various degrees, or grades, ranging from “common” to “extra fancy,” but we do not believe the birds care much, just so it is sunflower seed. * Birds which particularly like sunflower seed include the cardinal, chickadee, nuthatch, goldfinch, pine grosheak and the purple finch, but these are only a few; most of the seed eaters like them. Blue jays eat them greedily, and like to carry them away to hide in tree crevices against future hunger. There many smaller birds find them. * Xk % The sunflower is a true American plant, coming originally from Mexico and Peru. In ancient Peru the flower was rever- enced by the Aztecs. It 1s said that in their Temples of the Sun the priestesses were crowned with sunflowers, and carried them during ceremonies. ‘. ‘The Spanish conquerers found in these temples sunflowers made of pure gold, it is reported. ‘Today the economic aspect of the plant has overcome the ceremonial. Sunflowers are grown the world around, for a variety of purposes, of which rais- ing them for bird food is only one. Chickens fed on crushed sunflower seed lay more eggs. Oil is pressed from the seed. In old Russia, seeds of the larger varieties were sold on the streets like chestnuts over here. 7 Roasted sunflower seed are said to make a good coffeelike drink. Note— let's try it some time! * X % % The next time you see one of those long stalks, sometimes regarded by city gardeners as rather crude, look at it with new respect. For the pith of that stalk is one of the lightest substances known, its specific gravity being less than that of cork. This pith has a variety of uses, one of them being in the making of life-saving appliances. The sunflower is a prolific plant. One of the tall mammoth types, bearing heads 15 inches across, will yield 2,000 seeds. This works out to about 50 bushels an | acre, yielding 50 gallons of oil and 150 | pounds of oil cake, used in cattle and chicken feeding. If you have a damp patch of soil in your yard, grow sunflowers in it. It is said* that they will dry up the ground, owing to their marvellous ability in ab- sorbing water. Sunflower leaves may be fed to rabbits, horses and cows. In fact, there is little to this plant which may not be used in one way or other. In herbal medicine, the leaves, ground, are used in tobaccos; the seeds, boiled in water, provide a drink which is said to be good for a variety of purposes. Sunflower seeds, while more expensive than most of the seeds used in bird feed- | ing, are worth all they cost, because the birds love them so, and thrive so upon them. Every wild bird mixture should This is the prime food for attracting | and keeping cardinals the year around. Letters to Deplores Our Readiness To Give War Advice. To the Editor of The Star: ‘We are a peculiar people. We can run our own affairs and have time to advise the rest of the world just how they should conduct their business; especially a world war. Almost 26 years ago we thought the | World War was none of our business | and proceeded to advise the allies just ow to win that war. After three years of losing the war driving from the back seat, and with the aid of German sub- marines, we arrived on the front seat and began to take lessons in the real thing from Germany, after buying war gear from the allies. Today we are again driving from the back seat, forgetting the lesson of some 20 years ago. We seem to have forgotten that it took England two years after she declared war against Germany in 1914 before her newly recruited army was trained and equipped and ready for at- tack—all except her small standing army of some 120,000 regulars. We forget that it took us 18 months, with the help of the allies, to get ready for battle. Driv- ing from the back seat, we are impatient at the delay in attack today, forgetting that green troops illy equipped would be murdered. Only America is impatient and calis this a phony war. Might it not be that we are the phonies, phony critics? Most people are aware that Germany, Russia and Japan need no provocation to start a war; therefore, why consider treading on their toes.. When it suits their purpose they will attack, willy-nilly. Our interests lie opposite theirs and our sympathy is with their foes, yet we offer the democracies our help grudg- ingly only when cash is laid down—giv- ing advice freely! Randolph, Utah. FRED P. PATTON. April 8. Wants Congress to Provide More Patrolmen for Washington. To the Editor of The Star: I would like to commend your edi- torial of March 31, “Police Appropri- ations,” which convincingly showed the need for additional personnel in the department. Present conditions are in- tolerable, and prompt action by Congress is imperative. Further delays may lead to even more serious results. I might also add that if and when they are provided, the additions to the force should be foot patrolmen, and not auto- mobile or scout car riders. Foot patrol- men excel in every way, In conclusion I might say that the courts are too lenient with offenders when caught. It weuld help the problem considerably if they would hand out stiffer sentsnces 8s a deterrent to crime. H. F. ASH. April 1. Predicts. Ultimate Defeat For Germany., To the Editor of The Star: The other day I read with - bated breath the headlines referring to Ger- many’s invasion of Norway and Den- mark. Part of Hitler's plan of war is . surprise attack, and this is but an instance of that. While the allies are thinking how to defend themselves he suddenly makes a powerful thrust. But this cannot last. The allies have far greater man-power and resources than Germany. When the mobilization of these is accomplished Der Tag will ocoms, but not for Germany. It is ouly " the Editor Letters to the Editor must bear the name and address of the writer. although the use of a pseudonym for publication is permissible. Please be brief! natural that she should be far ahead of the allies at the present time because she started to prepare years before they | began. There must be a reason for this sud- den shift of the war northward, and it may be that Germany is being tuo tightly squeezed by the pincers of the allied blockade. Now she is surely reaching out for lebensraum, but it may turn out to be something entirely differ- ent—namely, todesraum, if I may be permitted to coin the expression, which means literally “room for death.” Germany's wild career must stop, and will stop. To use a well-known German expression: “Der krug geht so lange zum brunnen bis er bricht”—you can carry the jug to the well only until it breaks. When a country tries to fignt the whole civilized world, just as Ger- many is doing for the second time, annihilation is bound to result. It is only a matter of time. April 10. HENRY LEBACH. Describes Experience in Apartment Fire. To the Editor of The Star: The disclosure that building inspectors are forced, under the present law, to approve fire stairs that are open hazards is alarming to those who live in the upper stories of high buildings. The following incident which occurred last fall in the building where I live demonstrates the inadequacy of its fire escapes. Fire broke out in the trash on the loading platform. The bells clanged a warning throughout the build- Ing, and I, with others, tried to descend the nearest stairs. We were obstructed by the smoke at about the fourth floor (I am not sure how many flights I descended). We rushed to the one other \stairway, and found that, also, obstructed by smoke. The freight elevator was out of operation because its landing was at the site of the fire. That left two smail passenger elevators the only means of exit from a building of about 200 cpart- ments, most of which consist of living room and one bedroom. The fire did little damage, but it proved that this building is not provided with adequate fire escapes. It is said to be fireproof, but the doors are made of Yood. andtheteumriors S are/l nty { I love the lights on yonder castle tower; carpeted. None of the large apartment buildings erected in the District of Columbia in recent years seem to have outside fire escapes. Are they all as dangerous fire- traps as this one? Cannot something be done before another h aster occurs? SIXTH-FLOOL® . April 10. ped AT L] Commends Reporting by ‘W. L. White, To the Rditor of The Sfar: I want to express my appreciation of the splendid work of your very able war correspondent, Mr. W. L. White, particu- larly .when billeted with the Finnish army. He deserves high commendation for facing the hazards of asub-zero weather qnd,Ruqdln bombs to get news firsthand. J. WELLINGTON - SMITH. April 10. A ! contain some sunflower seed, and if it | | doesn’t, you should add a handful or two. | Answers To Questions By Frederic J. Haskin. A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Eve- ning Star Injormation Bureau, Pred eric J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. Does the Federal Communications Commission exercise censorship over ra- dio?—B, F. O. . A. The Federal Communications Act states: “Nothing in this act shall be un- derstood or construed to give the com- mission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals trans- mitted by any radio station, and no regulations or conditions shall be pro- mulgated or fixed by the commissior which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communi- cation.” However, lotteries and kindred enterprises, and ‘obscene, indecent or profane language are definitely barred from the air by the act. Q. Please give a short biography of ‘Tom Noonan, the Bishop of Chinatown. -F. P r A. Tom Noonan was born in New York City in 1878. He was a criminal at 16 and while in prison at Dannemora, N. Y., was impressed by a visiting preach- er's words. After release he visited Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth, who found him work at Hope Hill, a country home for ex-convicts. In 1904 he took over the work of the Rescue Society at Doyers street and remained for 32 years. He began to broadcast the mission service on Sunday afternoons in 1925, resuming in 1929 with great success. Because of his work, he was known as the Bishop of Chinatown. He died at Brooklyn, N. Y, July 25, 1935. Q. Is the motion picture, “Strange Cargo,” based on a book?—L. P. M. A. It is adapted from “Not Too Nar- row, Not Too Deep,” by Richard Sale. Q. Did Brigham Young provide in his will for all of his wives and children? —=T. 0. D. A. Brigham Young died on August 29, 1877, in Salt Lake City, leaving an estate valued at about $1,000,000. In his will he provided each wife with a home of her own or a life suite in the Lion House with .ample provision for her mainte= nance in comfort for the rest of her life, All of his sons and daughters inherited alike, Q. Is there a name for the inside of & loaf of bread?—J. J. O. A. The inner part of a loaf of bread is called the crumb. Q. Who were the four-star generals in the United States Army during the World War?—L. M. C. A. They were Gen. John J. Pershing Gen. Tasker H. Bliss and Gen. Pefton C. March. Q. Why is an early edition of a news- paper called a bulldog edition?—sS. A. A. In the late '90s the New York World, Herald and the Journal fought to get out an edition that would catch the early mails going out of town. It was said that they fought like bulldogs, hence, the “bulldog” edition. Q. How many of the new books ‘pub- lishe | annually are classified as fiction? —R P.H. A In 1939 of the 10,640 new books pub- lishvd, only 1,547 were fiction. Q. What songs have won the Motion Picture Academy Award for the last three years?—L. A. A. | A. The 1936-37 award of the Motion | Picture Academy was given to “Sweet | Leilani,” by Harry Owens; 1937-38 to “Thanks for the Memory,” by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin. The award for 1939 was made to E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen for “Over the Rainbow.” Q. How many people will it require to take the census in New York City?— V. G. A. There are 8,300 census enumerators employed in the taking of the 1940 cen- sus returns in that city. Q. What famous man referred to a political opponent as “A sophisticated Thetorician, inebriated with the exuber- ance of his own verbosity”?—C. R. A. Disraeli, in a speech in London on July 27, 1878, referred to Gladstone in those words. ; Q. How long has Thornton Burgess been.writing bedtime stories?—M. §. L. A. The author wrote the first of these stories in 1910 for his small son. Q. Please give some information about the Jeannette Expedition—C. P A. This was an enterprise projected in 1879 by James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald, who sent out an Arctis expedition from San Francisco on the steamer Jeanette under command of Lt. De Long, U. S. N. The Jeannette was early caught in the icepack, drifted for nearly two years and never escaped from its grip. After the wreck of the boat the crew embarked in two cutters and & whaleboat. Lt. Danenhower and & portion of the crew reachql New York in May, 1882. The bodies of De Long and his men were discovered in the snow, all having perished from cold and hunger. Q. What is the origin of the word plagiarism?—C. B. R. A. The Latin word plagiarius meant 8 kidnaper, a stealer, or abdiuctor of a slave or child. It Was first used in the modern sense of appropriation or copy- ing by Martial. * Stirling I love the grayness of its ancient wall, The mists that gather in the morning hour, o In waning day as purple shadows fall; The mllsive court could speak heroio tales Of chivalry, of tournaments long past, Of clansmen gathering in the nearby vales And rallying Jorward at the bugle's blast. I lovesthe tales of clansnian and of chief, The pibroch from the pipes at rising - sun, The thrilling days of over-laird and fiet And rich rewards for deeds.most nobly _done, * The clans are gone, shepherd’s call From heathiered hills. The claymore’s the’walll . on JOHN FRANOCIS STEELE. We hear the