Evening Star Newspaper, April 21, 1940, Page 30

C-2 The Sunday Star® Witk Daily eveninz “dition THEODORE W. NOYES, Editor, WASHINGTON, D. C. SUNDAY__ pril 21, 1940 The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Main Office: 11th St and Pennsylvania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd St. Chicago Office’ 435 North Michigan Ave. Delivered by Carrier—City and Suburban. Reguiar Edition. Evening and Sunday 75c per mo. or 18c per week The Evening Star 45¢ per mo. or 10c per week The Sunday Star 3 __ " 10c per copy Night Final Edition. Night Final and Sunday Star Nigh! Fina) Star __ Rural Tube Delivery. The Evening and Sunday Siar e Evening Star 85c per month The Sunday Star 3 10c ver copy Collection made at the end of each mcnth or each week. Orders may be sent by mall or tele- Phone National 5000 5¢ per month 858 5er Honth 85¢ per month Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. E{y &and Sunday 1 00: 1 mo. 81, day oniy_T71" 3888 1 me: dos Entered as second-class matter post office, Washington. D. C. Member of the Associated Press. The Associsted Press is exclusively entitled to Ahe use for republication of nll news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited In this Daper and also the local news published herein. ] ights of publication of tpecial dispatches erein also are reserved. Strategy in Norway There is no way of determining with certainty now whether the Brit- ish and the French have landed 30,- 000 or 40,000 troops in Norway, as reported by Swedish newspapers, but it seems reasonable to assume that the allies have landed in force on Norwegian soil if one strikes some sort of balance between the unofficial reports, official claims and official denials. i The best information available, from Swedish newspaper reports, is that allied landings have been made as far south as Laerdal, some 90 miles inland at the head of the Sogne Fjord, just north of Bergen, and at two points flanking the important city of Trondheim. These points are Molde on the south and Namsos on the north, the latter being near Steinkjer, where the Norwegian forces are reported to be concen- trated. In Southeastern Norway the pic- ture is becognlng clearer, with the Germans holding practically all Norwegian territory lying east of Oslo to the Swedish border and north as far as Hamar and Elverum, the northernmost points to which the Nazi troops are reported to have penetrated. Oslo is connected with the Atlantic coast by two railways, one leading to Bergen, the other to Trondheim. German consolidation of her internal “hold upon Norway appears to depend upon her ability to control the length of these lines. Apparently that con- trol has not yet been established, but if it should be cinched the two strategic ports of Bergen and Trond- heim could be fortified by shipping heavy artillery across the Skager- rak to Oslo, thence transporting it by rail to the two key ports. British landing points have thus been chosen with the most scrupu- lous regard for the strategic value of these railways. Laerdal is only some twenty-five miles from the closest point of the Bergen-Oslo line, and the problem of cutting this line and | preventing German reinforcements | from arriving by land appears to involve primarily the matter of get- ting enough troops into the area to attack the Germans successfully over the rugged terrain. ' The strategy in the Trondheim district is equally clear. Both Molde and Namsos, the other points where British and French are reported to have landed, are at the extremities of branch lines connecting with the Trondheim-Oslo railway. An en- veloping movement on Trondheim by the allied forces which now flank it may isolate the Germans there and establish the main allied-Ger- man battle line in Southern Norway, rather than at the narrow waistline along the Trondheim Fjord. The land offensives by both allies and Germans, then, signify a race _-for control of two vital railways, pos- session of which will determine where and under what conditions the battle for control of all Norway will take place. Winston Churchill expects the allied campaign in Norway to run well into the summer, and the mag- nitude of the task bears him out, but Britain and France are by no means in an unfavorable position for its performance. Fairfax Police A progressive step that may be ' expected to prove of lasting benefit | to Fairfax County has been taken THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL its new police force in & thorough way. First it had legislation enacted to insure the legality of the move. Then it named & special committee to study the police reorganization proposal and now it has named an advisory committee to assist in drafting regulations for the new de- partment. Officials with police ex- perience have been named to the committees. Thus with legislative sanction and the counsel of experi- enced advisers the new department will start functioning under auspi- clous circumstances. Circle Underpass One of the items eliminated from the District appropriation bill by the House was a $15,000 fund for pre- liminary plans for the Scott Circle underpass. Approval of tentative plans for the project has been given by the Park and Planning Commis- sion, and Friday night the Traffic Advisory Council unanimously urged early action on the tunnel. Delay in construction of the Four- teenth street overpass, which will carry a large volume of traffic over the Speedway exit, Tidal Basin out- let and Maine avenue, is of less im- portance. The Planning Commission deferred action on this project at its last meeting. Results of the traffic flow survey have not yet been compiled; Morgantown Bridge, which is expected to divert some through truck traffic from Number One high- way on Fourteenth street, is not completed, and nothing has yet been done on a belt route to draw inter- state traffic from the center of the city. Upon all these depends the future of the problem at Washing- ton’s approach to Highway Bridge. But Scott Circle is not in the same class. When Massachusetts avenue’s traffic congestion became an acute problem, various agencies, after con- siderable study of means to improve it, agreed that a system of grade separations offered the only solution. This system was presented on the theory that Dupont Circle should be the first, for various reasons, most outstanding of which was the “wrong way” arrangement of street car tracks.. But Congress, against the judgment of traffic experts, des- ignated the Thomas Circle tunnel to be first. Resulting has been an in- creased confusion, especially during the evening rush hour, at Scott Circle, making construction at that point in the near future absolutely necessary. It is to be hoped that the Senate face the facts of the situation and restore the appropriation for plans to carry Sixteenth street under the statue of General Scott. Blockade in the Pacific Now that the spread of war te Norway has closed one big gap in the allied blockade of Germany, Britain is paying more attention to shutting off the flow of contraband to the Reich through other channels. The main leak in the blockade now is Russia, through which Germany is obtaining—if British claims are ac- curate—considerable raw materials, particularly metals, neutrals. Vladivostok, Russia’s Far Eastern port, is the port of entry for the cargoes of copper, rubber, tin, molybdenum and aluminum, which are shipped over the Trans-Siberian Railway through European Russia into Germany. The blockade in the Pacific, if ap- plied in full strength, as the British now indicate it will be in a few days, presents special problems which, in some ways, are potential sources of more trouble with non-belligerents than the allies experienced with Scandinavia. In the first place, a close blockade of Vladivostok will encounter resist- ance from both Russia and Japan, the former claiming that inasmuch as it is not a belligerent any blockade of its ports is contrary to interna- tional law; the latter claiming—as, indeed, it already has done—that the Sea of Japan, on which Vladivostok lies, is a Japanese lake, in which such belligerent action as the blockade could not be tolerated. Another great obstacle, but one which the allies, with their vast resources, may be able to overcome, is the tremendous extent of ocean which must be covered if the block- ade is to be made effective i waters outside the immediate vicinity of Japan. A naval patrol will have to i by the board of supervisors in au- | thorizing the establishment of a : county police department inde- pendent of the sheriff’s office. After June 1 the new department will handle all criminal work in the county, leaving civil and court work to the sheriff, who heretofore also has directed crimindl investigations. £ All other counties in the suburban area, Montgomery, Prince Georges and Arlington, have found it advis- able to separate the police force fron. the sheriff’s office. All have made -the change in comparatively recent years for approximately the same yeasons and apparently with suc- .eessful results. In Arlington the ‘change was made this year, $o it “may be a little premature to hail the ‘new setup there as a success, but certainly in the other counties there “has been no suggestion that the Zpolice be put back under the sheriff. {sIn general, the division of work be- Ftween police and sheriff seems log- $cal. A separate police department Yoften leads to such improvements as higher personnel standards and civil service ratings, and the public, as a rule, is better satisfled when the county board has control or super- vision of the police force. Fairfax has gone about setting up [} be maintained in a great belt about 3,000 miles long from Hong Kong around Japan to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the north. It is a Gargantuan task which the allies undertake in trying to shut oft Germany'’s source of supplies through Vladivostok, but one which Britain and France appear resolved to under- take, in spite of its difficulties, in order to make the blockade airtight. Mrs. Patrick Campbell The greatest actress of her time has died, and her passing has been but little noted by a world obsessed with destruction. Mrs. Patrick Camp- bell belonged to a period which most modern critics presume to regard with unconcealed contempt, but it was an era in which the things that make life worth living were better protected than they are in the arro- gant and violent present. She was a person of gentle charm, possessed of qualities of mind and heart which now, unfortunately, too often are considered “old-fashioned” and for that sorry reason held In scant esteem. Yet those who knew her well and the public acquainted with her only across the barrier of the foot- lights rejoice in memories” of her quantities of | from the United States and other | 22 inundated area between them. All genius and offer no apology for their preference. Mrs. Campbell perhaps was the only woman who met Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Willlam Butler Yeats, Arthur Symons and Frank Harris on equal terms. Wit was their stock 1n trade, and she was endowed with enough of it to match their best. Her love of beauty, her devotion to the English tongue and her passion for the arts of language were unsur- passed by the most distinguished of her masculine contemporaries. She was a star in the theater because she was by nature an individual illumi- nated with a spirit superlatively bright. The discipline to which she subjected herself made her a more compelling character than any she played. So it happens that every Mrs. Tanqueray and every Eliza Doolittle of these later years is a reflection of Mrs. Campbell. She created those roles from the raw material of their authors’ scripts, and her successors are wise in being content to imitate them. But her larger part in the drama of last decades of the nine- teenth and the first decades of the twentieth century was even more real, much more compelling. Her husband died fighting the Boers, her son died fighting the Germans. She lived on into a crueler time and was to the end a contradiction of all that is ugly in the tortured earth. The Grebbe Line For the first time since the adop- tion of its constitution in 1848, the Netherlands government has de- clared the entire country to be in a state of siege which permits the ex- ercise of drastic powers to suppress subversive activities and, if war should come, to conduct the defense of the nation. The people of the Netherlands hope that they will be able to stay at peace. As Premier Derek Jan de Geer put it in his address to the na- tion on Friday: “We have received assurances from both belligerents that they would safeguard this neu- trality of ours. We trust that this as- surance can be relied upon. But, in any case, we wish to make it per- fectly clear that we ourselves are perfectly able as well as determined to protect our neutrality.” A year ago that warning might have been heavily discounted by a potential invader, but today it will be received with respect, for the Netherlanders are prepared to wage | a valiant fight in defense of their country. The precise nature of the new defenses which have been erect- ed in the Low Countries is a military secret, but the broad outlines of these fortifications are fairly well known. Assuming that the thrust into the Netherlands, if it materializes at all, should come from Germany, the in- vading forces would have to contend first of all with a series of pill boxes, tank traps and small fortifications along the frontier. Their purpose would be merely to hold up the ad- vance until the fighting units along the second line of defense are pre- pared for action. This second line is formed by the River Yssel and the River Maas and bridges would be blown ,up imme- diately and artillery and machine gun fire would make the crossing of these rivers a hazardous and costly undertaking. Without doubt, however, a determined and powerful enemy could break through, and to guard against just such a contingency a third defense line has been prepared. This is the Grebbe Line, a truly formidable series of fortifications running from Lake Yssel to the Bel- gian frontier. It is here that the Netherlands troops would make their real stand. This line consists in the north of a series of inundations and termi- nates in the south in the swamps of Peel. These inundated lands are pro- tected by a great number of invisible ditches, serious hazards for a | This means that so long as Japan is in | planes can sink battleships, both large mechanized force, and they can be swept with a crossfire from heavy guns far behind the line. Should an invader fight his way through these obstacles he would still have to contend with the so-called water line, a series of inundations, before he could reach the strategic- ally important coastal provinces of Holland, Brabant and Zeeland. In the meantime there is every reason ‘to suppose that help from the allies would have arrived. The Netherlanders, needless to say, fervently hope that they will never find it necessary to put these defenses to the crucial test. But sho that necessity arise, it may well discovered that Premier de Geer knew whereof he spoke when he alluded to the determination and the ability of the Netherlands fight in self defense. . A your;g lady attended the banquet in observance of the sesquicenten- nial of United States patent law costumed as “Photography.” It is assumed that her dress of celluloid film was marred by neither over nor under exposure. President Roosevelt warns Con- gress that fifty-nine Americans may have to remain in Antarctica unless further funds are forthcoming. That would be putting American citizens in cold storage, all right. Germany may have a‘ hand that she can bet with confidence against the “three kings” of Scandinavia, but perhaps not one that will win against the same three cards but- tressed with a supporting pair. It is stated that the District of Columbia income tax is “far from dead.” Possibly, but it does not feel 80 good, elther. ) ! Hard Choice Faces United States By Owen L. Scott. Events are beginning to disclose that the position of the United States in to- day’s world is far from envious. This country is being forced irresistibly toward & choice: Whether to fulfill obligations assumed over much of the world or whether to crawl into a shell and watch the rest of the world go by. Obviously, the urge in Congress is to crawl into a shell. Congress, in turn, reflects the popular urge. The urge in the United States, as in Scandinavia be- fore April 9, is to be let alone and to let other people alone in turn. But, as the Scandinavians found out, the choice is not always that simple. This country today discovers that it has assumed immense obligations, judged in the light of what now is going on. There is an obligation to defend the open door in China, just when Japan wants to close it. There is an obliga- tion, until 1946, to defend the Philippines. There is a practical necessity, if not an obligation, to defend the Dutch East In- dies and the British Malay States that supply the essentials of rubber and tin. Fulfillment 4f any of these obligations, in case of necessity, would take the armed forces of this country far from home. But then there are other obligations in the other side of the world. There is an obvious obligation to defend Canada. This is relatively simple. There is the long-accepted obligation to defend all of Latin America, and that no longer is so simple if things should go badly with the British in this war. The requirements of the Moy:0e Doctrine involve the United States in commitments much farther away from home than Europe is away from this country. In Latin America are the richest undeveloped areas of the worle.” And Latinsamerica is very poorly prepared to defend those richea In the past all of this has been very simple, The British kept a fleet in the Far East that helped to keep Japan in her place. Thi British maintaixed a vest fleet in the Atlantic that freed the Amer- ican fleet for use in the Pacific and as- sured the safety of South America as well as of Canada. A Now, however, some very hard facts are having to be faced. One of these facts is that there no longer is absolute assurance that the, British will be able to maintain their traditional position in the world. The calm confidence that Britain and France | together can overcome Germany no longer prevails in the highest quarters of this Government. The easy assump- tion that sea power will continue to rule | the world is giving way to very evident,, uncertainty. | The second hard fact is that unless the | British fleet can continue its habitual | rule of many of the seas of the world, | the United States is going to have an awfylly hard time fulfilling its obliga- | tions. Right now, this country has no very decisive edge over the Japanese Navy in modern fighting ships for the simple reason that the Japanese started to increase their naval strength at least two years before the United States started. Whereas that nation is rolling off its big fighting vessels now, this coun- try will be two or three more years in completing the big ships it has laid down. an aggressive mood the American fleet | has its hands full in the Pacific without | even thinking about the Atlantic. * ok %k % But Europe’s war is beginning to sug- gest that there is a third hard fact that will need very earnest consideration. This fact is that bombs dropped from air- and small. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty, has asserted publicly that bombs dropped fram British aircraft have sunk German cruisers. If bombs dropped from British aircraft can sink German naval vessels, then bombs dropped from German aircraft can sink British naval vessels. In other words, there is a very real threat to naval power that now must be considered. This does not mean that the battleship is obsolete and that the United States can stop spending a billion dollars a year on its Navy. Rather, it means that the battleship is not necessarily the un- disputed ruler of the seas and that the problem of nations which have wide- spread obligations to defend lands thousands of miles from home may be very seriously complicated. The British are learning that fact to- day. It might easily be the lot of the United States to learn the same fact in the not too distant future. Obligations already assumed require that the United States have a fleet in several places at once—if there is no assurance of a British fleet to divide up the job. This makes it imperative from the point of view of the United States to have the British win in the current Euro- pean war. If the British are not going to win—and few high military and naval officials here give them more than a 50-50 chance unless American help is ex- tended to them—then this country is faced very directly with its choice. The United States could cut loose from the Philippines and let them fend for themselves. This country could forget about its rubber and tin supplies in the Dutch East Indies and British Malay States and turn to substitutes. In event of a British defeat the United States could tell Australia and New Zealand to look out for themselves. All of those decisions would be for the people to make. If the decision was to pull out, the fleet and air force of the country could then be devoted to defending the west coast of this country and defending obligations in Latin America. g But it is next to impossible for this country to dominate the Far East below China and to dominate this hemisphere as well unless the British handle half of the job. * X % % The British cannot handle their of the job unless they win war. And there is grave doubt wheth the British are going to win thi unless they get some help in the credits and unlimited supplies of air- planes—and possibly pilots—from the United States. This country, Mr. Roosevelt and State Department officials realize, will be forced to make up its mind. It can continue to sit on the sidelines while European nations fight for domi- nance—knowing that if the British and French lose, the United States will have a vastly different problem of defense— or it can throw its economic force on the side of the allies in the hope that a vic- tory by them would bring stability and no need for vast new defense outlays. 21, 1940—PART TWO. “LOOKING BACKWARD" By the Right Rev. James E. Freeman D.D. LL.D., D.C. L., Bishop of Washington. A brilliant writer many years ago wrote an interesting volume under the above title, in which he sought to indi- cate how future generations would meas- ure their advance by studying the seem- ing snaillike progress of preceding ages. ‘When Edward Bellamy wrote his book he was not reckoning with such an age as that through which we are now passing. No prophet or statesman could have foreseen the tremendous developments which the world has witnessed in the past four years, and doubtless it would be quite as impossible for any living prophet or statesman-to clearly forecast what is to be in the period that lies im- mediately ahead. ‘Too many of us mealure our progress by looking backward, we register our gains by reveated reference to our yes- terdays. It is a good thing to keep a diary, but it is not an overhelpful thing to live too much in its soiled pages. The old maxim that “What has been must be” has arrested human progress, paralyzed enterprises and halted both science and invention. In his great work on science and religion, the late Andrew D. White indicates the dark periods of human his- tory that were marked by bigotry and superstition, and that resulted in imped- ing both the thought and the action of some of the world's finest geniuses. Happily, these days have long since passed, but it is well to be reminded just now that progress is determined, not by harking back to the things of tradition or by noting overclosely what our fore- bears ®id. Some one once wrote an ad- mirable article under the caption, “Prog- ress Through Oblivion of the Things of the Past” It is well to be proud and { 10yal to the best things that have marked our advance, but it is unwise to feel that somehow the whole universe must be shackled to a hitching post. Too many of us are like David Harum’s horse, we ,Fiff’y Years Ago - In The Star After thany years of wrangling over the erection of a city post office in Wash- ington a favorable report, Post Office approving a site at Ninth Bill Fails street and Pennsylvania avenue was made to the Senate. Suspicion then arose that mis- ecading information regarding the suit- ability of the site had been furnished, and on April 18, 1890, the Senate recom- mitted the bill to the Committee on Pub- lic Buildings and Grounds. In its issue of April 20, 1890, The Star makes the following editorial comment: “The Senate Committee on Public Buildings has withdrawn its assent to the House proposition of a local post | office at Ninth street and Pennsylvania | avenue, and the city’s strong hopes of a speedy settlement of the question are destroyed. The wrangle which has para- lyzed all action for many years will mow be resumed. The representatives of con- tending site owners will proceed as of | old to cut the throats of one another’s projects; the advocates of the sacrifice of a park to bricks and mortar will club the site which promises to survive the throat- | cutting; those who wish to utilize the urgency of the need of a local post office to secure an extension of the general | Post Office Department with temporary | accommodations on one floor for the city | office, will be on hand to stab in the back the project which has run the gantlet of the throat-cutting and the clubbing, and the Capital will continue to be dis- graced as in the past by the discreditable and dangerous rented accommodations | which it provides for its post office. “The objection which seems to have been viewed as fatal to the House propo- sition is that of lack of adequate ground space. Abundant floor space is offered, but the postmaster is reported to have insisted that the 50,000 square feet of space required must be on the ground floor. The report of the House commit- tee states that the supervising architect of the Treasury had estimated that the plan of a post office building upon the proposed site would afford 78,000 square feet of floor space, exclusive of the base- ment, or 28,000 feet more than was now needed, and so planned and built that sev- eral stories could be added to it if found necessary in the future. The present unsuitable rented quarters furnish 20,000 square feet of floor space. The necessity will arise of making it very clear to the people of Washington that accommoda- tion on the ground floor is so essential to all branches of the post office that it is better to retain the present rattletrap than to secure a building to cost $800,000 in a convenient location with four times the present floor space, merely because it will have only 11,000 feet of ground floor space instead of the 50,000 feet of an ideal post office in another city. If this showing can be made then the action of those who have deprived Washington of a million-dollar post office will be jus- tified, for the new building would be practically worthless; otherwise a very heavy responsibility will rest upon those who have interferred to throw the post office discussion back to its starting point, and Washington will be in a mood to hold them strictly to this responsibility. “It s supposed that the Senate com- mittee will now take position in favor of housing the local office in a new build- ing with the general department, to be kicked into the street when its rooms are needed by the general Government after the fashion in which it was ousted when it occupied quarters with that depart- ment once before. Representatives will, it is expected, oppose the proposition, as in the past, by the advocacy of various distinct purchased sites for the post office, or a location on Judiciary Square. The sooner & conference is reached the better. The proposition of a disinter- ested commission to select a site will be favored by everybody in the District who cares more for securing a post office than for booming & particular site. The advo- cates of various locations will not agree, however, to the appointment of & com- mission composed of men who are known to be committed to a particular method of settling the controversy or to a par- ticular site. They will undoubtedly con- tend that all should have a fair chance in the tossing of pennies for the site. Washington asks the Senate to yleld to the House, and the House to yield to the Senate, and, if neither will yleld, that they leave the settlement of their dif- ferences to & commission.” k. “stand without hitching,” and we are too easily satisfied with the “let well enough alone” policy. Unfortunately, this is too frequently true of our youth. They study too much and follow two closely the lines of least resistance. ‘We are making history today by look- ing forward and not backward. It is wonderful when we come to study closely His life, how forward-looking Jesus of Nazareth was. Unlike all other religious teachers, He was ever seeking to profect the world’s vision into the new day and to compel it to recognize the opportuni- ties of a hopeful and promising tomor- row. Even in dealing with the worst forms of human sin, He looked forward and not backward. If a vice had shac- kled and bound some wesk and erring mortal and if condemnation for the sins of the past had closed the doorway to & better and triumphsnt future, He de- j clared in hopeful words the pardon that broke the shackles and opened the door, saying, “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” ‘We shall not make progress by talking overmuch of the “good old days” or by too frequent reference to the superlative qualities of those who have gone before. Just now this old world needs the strong tonic of a rational optimism and a rea- sonable hope. We need in every depart- ment of our life what the date President | Wilson called “forward-looking” men and | women. | Christianity in its highest conception | is essentially optimistic in tone. The | Gospel is not a book of “don’ts,” it is a book of “do's.” We are not moving into a future over whose archway is the leg- end, “They leave all hope behind who enter here”; we believe we are entering a future that is to bring the whole race of mankind to saner and more Christian, “and hence, higher levels of thinking and ltving. Capital Sidelights By Will P. Kennedy. Political sagacity and experience “from 'way back” preside in the office of Speaker Willlam B. Bankhead. That is why his home State peoplé are prepared to present him as a candidate for Presi- dent to the Democratic National Con- vention, just as they historically fought to the last ditch for another illustrious Alabama salon—Oscar W. Underwood “The Bankheads of Alabama” have writ- ten State and national political history. John H. Bankhead, the Speaker's father, War Menaces Norse Whalers By Frederic J. Haskin. The possibility of a return of the United States to a position of supremacy in the whaling industry has been en- visioned as one result of the plunging of Norway into the vortex of European warfare, especially in view of the Amer- ican determination to hold aloof from the struggle. Such a possibility seems more credible in view of the fact that, with the enforced withdrawal of the* American merchant marine 'frem so many waters and trades, there will be a diligent search for ways of its employ- ment. Since about the beginning of the pres- ent century, the kingdom of Norway has held the supremacy in whaling which had been held, in turn, by the Dutch, the English and the Americans. Today the Norse supremacy is challenged only by the Japanese and, up to the present, the Japanese have been a lagging second. Should the war compel the Norse to withdraw, the fleld will be left open to the Japanese who will not be slow to seize every opportunity, unless American mariners make a bid for their old-time pre-eminence. Doubtless, to many modern Americans, whaling seems an industry merely of his- torical and romantic interest. Whaling is thought of in this country chiefly in terms of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” and the brave days when the whalers sailed out of New England ports and New Bedford was the whaling capital of the world. The fact is that the whaling industry 1s bigger than it ever was be- fore in terms of value of product, al- though, indeed, most of the romance has been sacrificed to a mass-production commercialism. The fact that Norway for nearly 40 years has held the whaling supremacy is an example of history coming full circle because the industry had its origin with the Norse® Records show that as long ago as the 9th century, Norsemen took the whale in the icy seas around Spitz- bergen. Gradually the Dutch entered the field. It was during that period when the Dutch were the foremost mariners of the Western World, a period which saw the Dutch challenging the sea power of Britain. They proved themselves even more venturesome than the Norsemen, for they pursued the whale much far- ther offshore, indeed, into the distant waters of Greenland, the habitat of the right whale, in many respects the most valuable of the entire species. * X %x x Fyenchmen participated to some ex- tent and they, with the Dutch, prac- after service in the Confederate Army, was in the State House and Senate from 1865 to 1877. He served 10 terms in the national House, from 1887 to 1907, and | in the United States Senate from 1907 | until his death in 1820. His son, Senator John H. Bankhead, 2d, has served in the | United States Senate nine years. The Speaker has served 12 terms consecu- | tively in the House, having previously | served in the State Legislature. And Speaker Bankhead hLas fortified his political position by inducing Carter | Manasco to quit the State Legislature and be his private secretary and political adviser and campaigner. Mr. Manasco is a personable and genial young man of 38, single, a lawyer and fellow towns- man cf the Speaker. He took two years of premedical work in Howard College, Birmingham, where he was a member of the glee club and baseball team. He also played semi-professional ball in Birming- ham City League and the Walker Coun- ty League. He worked his way through school and was employed during summer vacations in a coal mine in Illinois. Mr. Manasco has the blood of poli- ticians in his veins. His grandfather had served 14 terms in the State Legislature and was a member of the Legislature that voted secession. “Grandad” Ma- nasco voted against secession, but later had three sons in the Confederate Army, one of whom was killed in action. Carter Manasco was elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1931, at the age of 28, from Walker County. He came to Washing- ton as Mr. Bankhead's secretary in the Seventy-third Congress, and was clerk to the Rules Committee after Mr. Bank- head was elected chairman. He was leg- islative clerk to Mr. Bankhead after he was elected majority leader in the first session of the Seventy-fourth Congress. He has been secretary to the Speaker since June 4, 1936—and is one of the most obliging, helpful and best-liked of all the Capitol employes. * ok x> The oldest member of Congress—Rep- resentative Edward T. Taylor of Colo- rado, chairman of the House Appropria- tions Committee—who will be 82 in June, is making his last run for re-elec~ tion, after having been in public service 56 years. His friends say that the voters of his district are.going to hand him the election “on a gold platter” in apprecia- tion of his long and able services. Mr. Taylor is an outstanding illustration of what the late Speaker Champ Clark had in mind when he advised the voters to select & good man as their Representa- tive in Congress and then keep him there. Mr. Taylor came up from\a farm in Illinois and cattle ranch in Kansas. At the age of 23 he was the first principal of his local high school. He is credited with having done more for his section of the country than any living man, He was acting majority leader in 1935. He has achieved five official distinctions never duplicated by any one else during the 150 years of our congpessional his- tory. Pirst, he was successively elected to the State Senate 12 years and to Congress 32 years (1897 to 1941); second, besides holding many appointive offices he has run for office in 21 general elec~ tions and has never been defeated; third, all of his congressional service has been after he was 50 years of age, and last year, out of 8,124 members of the House since the First Congress, only six others had been elected 16 consecu- tive times—Bingham and Butler, Penn- sylvania; Gillett, Massachusetts; Hau- gen, Iowa, and Sabath, Illinois, and he outranked all of these in previous serv- ice in the State Legislature; fourth, he has been the author of more State laws, constitutional amendments and Federal laws combined than any other man who hucvarlervedin&mm,md, fitth, he is dean of the House in sge and chairman of the Appropriations Com- mittee In the last two Congresses, s position not heretofore aitained by any | one from 18 Western states. i tically exterminated the whales of the Bay of Biscay where once they had been numerous. Then came a fresh chapter. The Brit- ish took up whaling on an important scale. Ever jealous of the commercial success of any other nation, they had long been enviously aware of the Dutch whalers’ success with their 260 whaling | ships afloat, employing some 15,000 men and bringing rich treasure in oil home to Dutch ports. P The British Parliament took a hand in the matter and offered bounties for the capture of whales. This and the promised commercial rewards resulted in the fitting out of scores of ships From Liverpool they sailed, from Leith and Dundee in Scotland, but Hull be- | came the whaling capital of the British | Isles and held that position for genera- | tions. In fact, the very last of the old- | time whaling ships under sail put ou | from Hull in 1868. | While the American Colonies were still under the British crown, whaling began on this side and it proved that Ameri- cans were destined to become the greatest whalers of all time. The first of the Americans was fitted out at New Bed- | ford in 1755. Then from Nantucket, from Newburyport, from Boston, from every New England port the whalers be- gan to sail. Then came the Revolutionary War, which brought a pause in activities be- cause the British would capture every Yankee whaler they could and impress the crews. When that stubborn war was ended, whaling was renewed with fresh vigor, but the War of 1812 was another serious interruption. The whalens took to the more profitable business of priva- teering. It was not until after the Treaty of Ghent that the American whaiing in- dustry began its real rise. Then, indeed, it flourished. The Yankee whalers ventured farther and farther afleld. They burst into the Pacific to find new types of whales, and, for long, the Pacific became the chief hunting ground. The Yankee whalers were, perforce, explorers and on the charts of today is many an island, many a reef which first was sighted by whalers. * ok ok X Between 1845 and 1850 the American industry reached its peak. At that time there were 750 whalers at sea, employing an aggregate of 70,000 men. The oil was used chiefly as an illuminant, but had some medicinal uses also, while whale- bone, the baleen plates of the right whale taken from the maw of the great mam- mal, furnished the whalebone which until not so very many years ago stiffened the corsets, bonnets and other millinery of the women of the world. At one time whalebone was worth $10,000 & ton. Then came the Civil War to destroy or divert scores upon scores of ships and there also came the development of coal oil or kerosene, to say nothing of gas, to infringe the monopoly which whale oil had enjoyed as an illuminant. Rapidly the industry declined to almost nothing. It was in 1904 that a Norseman invent-