Evening Star Newspaper, May 15, 1940, Page 10

The Evening Htar Wid Sunday Merning Editlen. THEODORE W. NOYES, Editor. WASHINGTON, D. C. The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Maip Offce: 11¢h 8t and Pennazivants Ave. New Yor st 43nd St k Office: HO 3 Chicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave. Delivered by Carrier—City and Suburban. Reguls ning and Sundsy e Evening Star 'he Bunday Star Night Final Edition. mnht eht Rural Tube Deli llllal and Sunday Star Final and Sundey Star __ 85¢ per month Final 8Ta Sne 800 Ber montn The Bvend 3 ing_Star . ;ln:a Sunday Star._ Soch wek, ek, Phone National lar Edition. 756 per mo. o1 180 per wee| 45¢ per mo. or 10¢ per weel - Eo 0¢ Der copy ivery. - 8B per month 58¢ per month -106 per copy Collection made at the end of each month or o ders may be sent by matl or fels- Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. sr. $12.00: 1 mo. $1,00 Bir. 7 #a no: 808 Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press fa exclusively entitled o the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in t?ll Paper and also the local news published herein. Al' nights of herein also ar _ - Defense Emergency As the German military machine rolls ominously onward in Europe it becomes more and.more imperative that America should take stock of her defenses against the new order of warfare now being demonstrated with such deadly effectiveness in invaded Holland and Belgium. Dis- patches from the ever-changing front tell of Nazi mechanized divisions rolling irresistibly forwardand throw- ing thousands of tanks into the fray, of waves of bombing planes blazing a bloody path of death and destruc- tion for marching columns to mop up, of new weapons and new tech- niques. President Roosevelt, General Pershing and others competent to speak are not indulging in hysterics nor in alarmist dramatics when they call forcibly to the attention of the American people the dangerously vulnerable spots in our plan of self- protection. Actually, the weaknesses are not in the plan, but in the means to execute it when an emergency strikés. The so-called “M Day” (Mobilization Day) program is pred- icated on the assumption that there will be instantly avallable in this country an initial protective force, fully equipped, of nearly half a mil- lion men, including the National Guard and other civillan compo- nents. But, according to well-in- formed observers, the United States could put into the field not more than 75,000 men properly equipped to wage war of the fearful type known to military science today. We have a Regular Army of 227,000 men, but it is grossly deficient in equipment, and, until recently, it lacked real training. It is estimated that near- ly a quarter of a billion dollars’ worth of materiel must be manufactured and supplied before the “M Day” protective plan becomes something more tangible than a blueprint. Needs of our Navy have been pub- licized of late, those of the Army to & lesser degree. We have less than 3,000 Army planes—and all of them have become obsolete almost over- night with respect to such develop- ments as self-sealing gasoline tanks and light armor. We have less than two hundred anti-aircraft guns, and they are of an obsolescent type. They could not adequately protect even one major American city from air raids like those which have destroyed European cities in the past few months and which now threaten England itself. We have less than four hundred tanks and insufficient anti-tank guns. Our artillery is wanting in quality as well as quan- tity. Our coast defenses are in urgent need of modernization. And as for strategic materials, we have only enough rubber and tin to last about three months if our supplies from the Netherlands East Indies were cut off. President Roosevelt did not exag- gerate when he announced yesterday that it will cost the American people 8 pretty heavy sum to remedy these grave deficiencies. But they must be remedied, whatever the cost—and at once. A billion for defense now may save us from paying vastly more than that in dollars and sacrifices and tears later on. It will take valuable weeks and months to re- store the country to a state of com- parative security, and time is a serious consideration in this era of shortened distances between air bases and military objectives. There is a way to gain more time, however, and that is by rendering prompt and: material aid to the allies in their resistance to aggression. While we are revising our own defense plans we should facilitate in every way possible the delivery of more planes and guns for France and England. By this method America can help to keep the forces of con- quest at bay until we have had an opportunity to get our own protective machinery in a state of efficiency that will give pause to dictators in any quarter of the globe. Battle of the Meuse The battle of the Meuse, rapidly taking shape, may go down in his- tory as one of the great battles of all time if the movements prelimi- nary to its fighting indicate its prob- able intensity. It isthe first big line- against-line battle of the present war, and the future course of the conflict will depend on its outcome. Already the Ggrmans have suc- ceeded in driving deeply into the heart of Belgium, reportedly to at publication of svecial dispatched eserved, * least_the outskirts of Brussels, but north of Liege the Germans are said by the French to have taken a severe drubbing in a battle between nearly two thousand tanks in the first mass engagement of such machines. The battle is still in its preliminary stages, with the Meuse River mark- ing roughly the line along which French and German forces are drawn, with its extremity winding around Sedan—now in the hands of the Germans—Luxembourg and the Sierck sector of the Maginot Line. Dutch capitulation to German force will release some of Germany's strength for the drive south into France, if that is what Fuehrer Hitler has planned. More important, of course, is that it will give Germany the hopping-off place for the ex- pected air attack on England. Although the battle of the Meuse may decide the fate of Belgium, it may decide little as far as France proper is concerned, except as it brings the Germans within range of the little Maginot Line which guards France’s northern border. Before France herself is deeply invaded, that line—which is not as strong as the main Maginot Line— must be penetrated. Sedan isonly a hop, skip and jump across the border, lying as it does in front of the main French defenses, so that its capture 15 not greatly significant. Hitler is now making his supreme effort. What its final effect will be only the most presumptuous would guess. If it fails Germany will have been forced to expend her major effort in a futile attempt to destroy the allies quickly. The longer the allies resist, the greater support they recetve from Time. Six Days The real or total war is now six days old, with few signs of any serious check to the smashing Ger- man advance. Can it be stopped? Is it to continue until all Belgium as well as most of Holland is taken, to be used as jumping-off points against Britain and France? It is interesting to look back nearly twen- ty-six years to the fateful first week of August, 1914, and to compare the situation then and now. At that time, as at present, Ger- many found it of military advantage to invade neutral countries standing in the way. Striking as they did, while the enemy was tied by respect for such neutrality, the Germans made tremendous initial advances, and swept like a steam roller over hastily organized opposition. Pouring through Luxembourg, that little country was taken with no resistance. In Belgium, their columns were met with a delaying action and thousands of German soldiers were sacrificed. But with more thousands behind them, sheer force of numbers over- whelmed the defense, and, in six days, the Germans had taken Liege and were well on their way to Ant- werp and Brussels. They would have gone even faster, no doubt, had it suited their purposes to violate Hol- land’s neutrality and thus to move through, instead of around, the Dutch “appendix” province of South Lim- burg. They also penetrated France—a more serious matter in those days when Alsace-Lorraine was already German, and there was no Maginot Line. Later on, when the allies were able to get large bodies of troops into action against the Kailser’s hordes, the invasion was stopped, none too soon—but much territory was cov- ered in six days. In the present lightning invasion the situation is much the same, ex- cept that Holland is an added vic-. tim. The Low Countries fought against odds initially overwhelming, with little hope of success. But there is no disguising the fact that the . Nazis have conquered more territory in six days of 1940 than their im- perial predecessors did in the same time in 1914. This, however, may be due in part to the fact that—as- sisted by the same initial advantage of the violation of neutrality—great- er advances may be made by an offensive sustained by tanks and air- planes than was possible twenty-six years ago when the tank was un- known and the airplane was in its infancy. According to experts, the situation is bad, but by no means hopeless. Six days have not sufficed to enable the French and British armies to get men in proper numbers to the scenes of action, one of which“s now a corner of France itself, where the enemy has broken through in the Sedan area. In the last war Sedan fell to the Germans on the twenty- fourth day. In this one if was occu- pied on the fourth. However, a real defense front has not yet been formed: When it was, in 1914, Ger- many was stopped. What will happen in 1940, time alone can tell. New World Problems Problems of tremendous import for the American republics are arising swiftly from the European war. Their solution demands calm reason- ing in the light of established New World doctrines and long-range ob- jectives. One case in point is the landing of British and French forces at Curacao and Aruba in the Nether- lands West Indies, on invitation of the local authorities, to help guard against “probable German attempts at sabotage” to the vital oil refineries there. Another is reflected in the Argentine proposal that the Ameri- cas scrap some of their rules of neu- trality on the theory that a neutral- ity based on international law is a “fiction” unless all the belligerents observe it. In the first instance, the imme- diate question concerns possible ap- plication of the Monroe Doctrine and ;i its complementary Declaration of Lima. Obviously, the allied action in the Dutch West Indies does not vio- late the Monroe Doctrine because it implies no menace to the existing sovereignty of the islands—despite German propaganda to the contrary. It may be worth while to recall “Just what the doctrine enunciated by President Monroe on December 2, 1823, really means. Under it, we would consider as “dangerous to our peace and safety” any further colonization by outside powers or attempts to extend their political systems in this hemisphere, while promising not to interfere with their existing dependencies. The doctine has been applied to prohibit any change from the outside in the sovereignty of any territory in this hemisphere. It was reinforced, but not superseded, by a declaration adopted by all the twenty-one Amer- ican republics at Lima in 1938, pledging joint action to maintain and “defend against all foreign in- tervention” or threatening activity, the territorial integrity, “personality, sovereignty and independence of each American state.” American principles would be jeopardized in the Dutch West In- dies, it appears therefore, only if their sovereignty were threatened— as would be the case if German forces should attack them. The Argentine suggestion for abandoning some of the “rules and limitations” of neutrality—which in- clude bans against belligerents re- cruiting for their armed forces or establishing bases in American ter- ritory—Is shortsighted. As Secretary of State Hull emphasized in a speech to the American Society of Inter- national Law Monday night, the “firm establishment of order under law” is essential to avoid con- tinued “chaos and retrogression” in world affairs. It also is true, as the Argentine Foreign Minister has pointed out, that neutrality under internatjonal law “implies bilateral obligations,” and that Germany has shamelessly violated her obligations to observe the rights of neutrals. But Americans do not condone the use of “third degree” or other illegal methods against even the worst do- mestic law breakers. The same principle holds true in international affairs. One of the last bulwarks of “order under law,” the American re- publics cannot afford to violate the very principles they are striving to uphold. " Face Saving The Senate has saved face for the administration but at the cost of injecting undesirable factors in gov- ernment regulation of civil aviation in the United States. It is difficult to take any other view of yesterday’s vote by which the Senate gave life to the President’s order abolishing the Air Safety Board and transferring the Civil Aeronautics Authority into the Commerce Department. In view of the almost united countrywide protest against the President’s order and the overwhelming vote by which the plan was rejected in the House, it is impossible to believe that a Sen- ate vote based upon the merits of the proposal alone would have been favorable to the transfer. It is no secret at the Capitol that administration pressure was brought to bear upon Senators who had been in the doubtful column prior to the vote and that the decision was made an administration matter despite the open rebellion of many Democratic Senators against the order. Every airline and every major aeronautical organization fn the country joined in what apparently was a perfectly sincere protest against the order. The tenor of their arguments leaves no doubt that they consider a return of civil aeronautics control to the Commerce Department a serious backward step. The Senate vote con- stitutes for them a discouraging defeat. Tobacco Market Test The competition now going on be- tween the loose leaf tobacco markets in Southern Maryland and the long- established Baltimore market has been described as a showdown fight to determine which system shall survive. A bad crop in 1037, followed by low yield in 1938, put the farmers in a receptive mood toward a new system. Result was the establishment last year of two loose leaf markets in Southern Maryland—one at Upper Marlboro and the other at Hughes- ville. Together they claim to have . s0ld more than seven million pounds of tobacco compared to the twenty- nine million pounds sold on the Bal- timore market. This year there are six loose leaf warehouses in four Southern Mary- land towns as advocates of that sys- tem intensify their fight on the hogs- head market in Baltimore, said to be the last of its kind in the country. Evidence that there still is consider- able support for the old order has been apparent through an organized effort by the Maryland Farm Bureau Federation to get the producers to sell in Baltimore. From the public’s standpoint the struggle has a dramatic angle—the importation of the much-publicized tobacco auctioneer to the nearby counties. From the farmers’ stand- point it is grim business. They, and the groups backing both systems, have much at stake. The growers face the difficult task of weighing the argument advanced by the advo- cates of both systems and deciding which is preferable, Developments to date indicate many apparently are following the shrewd method of try- ing out both systems before reaching & conclusion. WEDNESDAY, 'MAY ‘15, 1840. THIS AND THAT Thankful His Mother Came to America Official Pays Tribute To Foresight of a Scotch Pioneer ‘To the Editor of The Star: My mother is a little Scotch lady who came to this great Western Country over 50 years ago, with a hope that in America she would find her place among the other ploneering Americans; where opportuni- ties to live peacefully held promise of happiness. Her lot was not too greatly different than that of countless other strangers who looked toward America for the fulfiliment of their dreams. The fact that she’s my mother makes me feel that she is different. I picture her now as I saw her 30 years or more ago, a steadfast, thrifty, quiet mother, living among the difficult sur- roundings of a ranch in Montana; suf- fering sorrows and disappointments with her family; courageously carrying her job of being housewife, mother, coun- selor, and through it all carrying an ablding faith in the fitness of things. She now looks back through the years of what was America, seeing clearly, while I peer forward still, unseeing, but believing that this is America. The people of our United States enjoy a freedom of life and opportunity un- paralleled in the experience of any other nation on earth. Where else on earth can a farmer's son rise to become a great statesman; where else can a man live by the fruits of his labor in peace with his friends; where else can people travel hundreds of miles without effort or inconvenience; where else can & man take his gun or fishing pole or dog or book and retire to a piece of earth as much his as any one else’s? Or where else can the needs of life be had s0 nicely de- livered? (wrapped in cellophane)—no- where else but in America. From the carriage and kerosene lamp to the automobile and automatic toaster, the advances of the earth's constructive minds are ours to enjoy with thankful- ness to its founders. For the govern- ment of their day is not outmoded; it still lives, but on a greatly expanded scale. It will live in the future without change, if we believe in it. Changes are costly. If we feel the urge to cast off & practice of government as “outmoded,” let’s look at Europe now and bury our discontent before we lose our heads. America has lasted this way for 160 years or more. It can easily last that much longer if we want it so. Today the moors of Scotland are trembling with the blasts of bombs. To- day the peace of Europe's nations is virtually unknown. The feeling of in- dividual opportunity and security is once again shattered for every human draw- ing breath in that dark continent. To- day I twn my eyes toward a penetrat- ing hum of engines, and, without fear or trembling, see giant friendly wings spanning the skies. My bombproof is America; my blackout is a restful sleep; my fears are not engendered by the noise of sirens. I thank God my mother chose America for me! DAVID J. MACLAY, Assistant Chief, Regional Divi- sion of Wild Life Management, U. 8. Forest Service. Missoula, Mont. May 11. “Airplane Discounters” Decried by Writer. To the Editor of The Star: English, French and American big navy men and big army men of the old school can properly claim a good share of the credit for the aerial successes achieved by aggressor war lords. The proverbial ostrich buries his head in the sand. Our airplane discounters also bury their heads in the sand. Manchuria, the conquered parts of China, Ethiopia, Spain, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Finland, Albania and Norway— altogether 200,000,000 people in quivering subjection to the ruthless power and speed of the aerial bomber, and still we hear the fervid assurances from men in high offices of responsibility, and re- putedly sound mentality, that aircraft is not of decisive importance in warfare. The success of these airplane discount- ers in prolonging for the allies and for the United States a state of unprepared- ness and incompetence in the air should fill Hitler to overflowing with his warm- est gratitude. They are his best and most effective partners in fact if not in intent. Without adequate aerial equipment the Britons may as well crouch under their own umbrellas at home and await the coming rain—of bombs. In the meantime their official airplane discount- ers, no doubt, will entertain them with verbal barrages on the ineffectiveness of aircraft in warfare. Moville, Iowa, May 8. O. P. SANDBECK. Rear Admiral Wiley Differs on One Point. To the Editor of The Star: I have just read with interest and un- qualified approval, except in one respect, your editorial entitled “American Crisis” of this date. The one exception that I make is this interrogatory: “Is this Nation going to imperil its own security by shutting off further supplies of planes and guns be- cause the nations fighting our battle for us cannot afford to pay cash?” I do not feel that the allies are fighting our battle, but I do feel that they are fighting the battle for civilization and that the United States cannot afford to permit the Ger- mans to succeed. My thought is, and it is not a new one, that the sooner we pour all the supplies we possibly can, especially airplanes, into the allied coun- tries the better it's going to be for us and for the world. May 14, H. A, WILEY. Says It Is Time to Adjourn Politics, To the Editor of The Star: It would be a good thing for the coun- try if many of the mouths which are now clamoring loud for political office could pe stopped. Selfish men who can think of nothing but their own prefer- ment should be relegated to and kept in private life. They are parasites who have no idea of what public service is. They do not want to serve; they want to be maintained and to get an easy place, or what they think is honor. We need real men now, men who are willing to dare, to sacrifice, to suffer. ‘What account shall we give of our- selves in this awful crisis? A. B. CANNADY. Crescent Oity, Fia, May 13, IRIS STREET. “Dear Sir: “I have been reading abait the car- dinal bathing, but I have only heard ohe person say what his song is (cheer, cheer), “Now my neighbor lady always said he called ‘wet, wet,’ whenever it was going to rain, and I think that is what he calls, as it sounds so plain and I have always noticed we have rain the next day or soon after he calls ‘wet, wet.’ “Then I heard a minister sey the robin is the only bird that sings in the rain. “Bluebirds mate early, so have started to sing their delightful song, tru-al-ly. Their song has a fine, rich quality as & robin, only it is softer and purling. “A friend of mine says the wood thrush sings, ‘Mary Lee, Mary Lee,’ but we do not have the woodthrush here in our yard. “But we do have the wren and the tiny song sparrow and it comes so early in the morning and sits under my win- dow and sings such a lovely song. “But I have never been able to under- stand just what it says. “Maybe you or some of your friends can tell me what he sings. “Your truly, M. 8. H"” L Any reader wishing to know what the song sparrow “says” is referred to Prof. P. Schuyler Mathews' “Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music,” published by Putnam. Prof. Mathews devotes more than 13 pages to the fascinating variations of this bird, together with musical illustra- tions. He asserts that some of its outpour- ings resemble motives from Verdi’s “Traviata” and “Rigoletto.” Our correspondent should not lament because of inability to “understand just what it says.” We can only understand what it says to us. Thus, to one listener the wood thrush seems to be calling Mary Lee, whereas out our way it seems to hail Clara Lee. Birds really say nothing. This has been argued, pro and con, in this column on varfous occasions, without any ad- herent of one school being able to con- vert others. Birds make sounds, and thus to some human listeners they must “say” something. Others are more willing to accept the sounds as sounds merely, and let any “meaning” go. It is evident that the whippoorwill can have no idea of ad- vising any human to apply the lash.to some mythical person named Will. Nor can the bobwhite, despite the ap- parent wordage, be calling Mr. White, whose first name is Robert. * x % x If the sounds the birds utter do, upon occasion, imitate or simulate human speech, it is just chance, and therefore has no real meaning, in the sense of the meaning which words have when uttered to another human in his own tongue. Letters to Citizens Urged to Forget Politics. To the Editor of The Star: May a democrat appeal to democrats, in what is still a democracy, though enfeebled, through the columns of The Evening Star? Factions and politics should be for- gotten in democracy’s present plight. ‘We have no clearly defined views about the extent to which we should take part in regulating and controlling foreign affairs. Unless we are accorded partici- pation in them, and choose to accept it, in times of peace, it is obviously illogical and ruinous to be called on to settle foreign wars. Our entire re- sources will be expended on wars. We will have no time, or resources, to de- velop & wholesome domestic policy based on peace. ‘We have become intricately emotional. We devour such classifications as inter- ventionist and isolationist, without a clear grasp of the distinctions between them. If a person in one of these camps accuses an opponent of belonging to the other he pats himself on the chest with as much satisfaction as a member of Congress feels when he votes a billion- dollar appropriation for the Army, or the Navy, or the Air Service, knowing that the appropriation will not be much used for the betterment of those serv- ices. The Congressman will say to his constituents, “See what I have donel!” I have led up to my democratic ap- peal, make America invulnerable! Our duties abroad will solve themselves on this fundamental resolve. Appeint a standing commission, representing Con- gress, the Army, the Navy and the Air Service, to examine into and report what has been done with the appropriations for those services, and to enlighten the people about the extent to which poli- tics is directing and controlling this democracy. A “verge-of-war” political campaign should be resented by every courageous democrat, whether he be. longs to the New Deal party, the Demo- cratic party, or the Republican party. Such expressions as that we are shocked at what is taking place in Europe, that it is unrestrained brutality, unspeakably horrible, shocking to de- cency, repellent to humanity, the work of cut-throats and thieves, not to be endured, etc., are mainly indulged for “home consumption.” They rarely ever reach the ears of those who are con- demned. Give us an “invulnerable Americs” and then we can extend our influence internationally, based on friendly rela- tions with all nations, as far as prudence People will never give over trying to read words where there are sounds only. Perhaps it is the best way, but we do not believe so. Personally, we always have been able to accept musical sounds as sounds alone. We prefer them that way. ‘That is the reason we like to hear songs in foreign languages which we do not understand. We believe that music is music, and that the setting of poems to music is somewhat in the nature of love's musical labor lost. Listening to the meaning of the words, except in certain songs, where this is desired, such as religious and patriotic songs, distracts the listener from the music. It is & question with bird song, as well as with all music, whether you prefer to concentrate on the music or on the words, because you cannot do both at the same time, although you may think you can. But the truth is, as we see it, that when you listen to the words, you miss something of the music; when you are able to listen just to the music, with- out all the thousands of ideas which words call up, you get all of the music, a great deal more of it than the other sort of musical listener ever can, Instrumental music, then, is the pure music. There can be no quarrel with those who want their music diluted with words. If they enjoy it thore that way, God bless them, they can have it—the world of music is filled with wonderful examples, both classical and popular. Adherents of the other school will stick to their instruments,. and to lis- tening to songs and opera in foreign languages, in which the voices become again just instruments. % % % As for the birds, their songs are pret- tler, more a part of all nature, if we listen to them simply as notes, without the distraction of trying to read human ideas into them. Truly, that is one of the finest things about the birds, that they come to us quite fresh from the hands of Mother Nature, utterly without humanity. They are divested of man’s pettiness, his perfect inhumanity, his insane idea of mass slaughter. The birds fight, but only upon occa- sion. They do not plot it. Their music is perfect expression of their life. It is better, we believe, to listen, with- out trying to understand what the birds “say,” for there is great doubt whether they mean to say anything, at least in the human sense. Whether the robin is the only bird that sings in the rain, we do not know, but it really does. More than that, it sings for rain. The evening before a rain on the morrow, it changes its out- pourings to a characteristic bubbling utterance, with vastly more vehemence in it than on ordinary days. As a weather prognosticator, the robin, alas, 1s no better than many a human would- be prophet of things meteorological. It, too, often “misses” it. 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! are aggressors,” etc., are so false and vicious that they should not go un- challenged. The “you're another” claim is no alibi for aggression if it were true. In the instances the contributor cites it is not. That the United States ac- quired any part of its domain by ag- gression, that it cheated the Indians or that it got or expected to get any ma- terial benefit out of any war other than such as resulted from settling the moral question involved is also untrue. The Don Gallagher plaint is an- other spiel of the same kind. Both are intended as apologies and alibis' for the Hitler regime. The “traitors,” Mr. Gallagher, should know, are those who would stand by and see gangster- minded dictators commit mass murder in an attempt to rule the world, not those who would lend a hand to stop it. We extended a helping hand to Cuba and to the defenders in the first World War and made no charge for it in either case, and it would be well for Hitler and his backers to know that we can do it again if necessary and with- out conscripting a single reluctant soul. Just give the husky liberty lovers in the land a chance and the job will be done regardless of the Hitler partisans, anonymous or otherwise. $ W. B. EDWARDS. May 13. Sidelight on Plans For Communized Europe. ‘To the Editor of The Star: Last October, I met a salesman from the Balkans. He had been informed that there could never be peace in Europe till the small nationalities were wiped out, merged into one or two great empires. He spoke of the feuds of the Balkans. Those people, he said, have lived there 20 centuries. Their blood is absolutely mixed, and all these feuds about race are ridiculous. They must be welded into a whole and industry set going in their midst. This was what Russia and Germany proposed to do— make two empires of Europe. Then there could be peace. He highly ap- proved the entire proposition. The peace would set up a Communistic world into which the Prench workman would come of his own accord. The process would be nithless, but salutary. “And England?” I answered. He an- swered that England would be allowed to have her empire, only she must leave Europe alone to be developed by Ger- many and Russia into a revivified civili- sation. * “And the United States?” “Oh,” he answered, “they never give it a thought. Haskin’s Answers To Readers’ Questions * By Frederic J. Haskin. A reader can get the answer to any ques of fact by writing The Eve- ning Star Information Bureay, Freds eric J. Haskin, director, Washington, D. C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. In what year did the firm of J. P. Morgan make a large loan to Gere many?—C. M. A. The report of the Foreign Debt Commission for the fiscal years 1922-26 refers to a private commercial loan to Germany of $114,000,000 in 1924 by the J. P. Morgan Co. Q. Is there any estimate of the per- centage of women in maternity hose pitals who smoke?—S. F. R. A. Pigures compiled by a large insur- ance company show that approximately one-half of the women confined in ma- ternity hospitals are addicted to smok- Q. When was the Colt dragoon re- volver made?—D. H. H. A. The National Rifle Association says that this revolver was first made in 1848 and was manufactured until about 1860; there were two models. Q. Who executed the gargoyles at Princeton University?—C. 8. A. They are the work of Gutzon Borglum. Q. What famous poet buried his work in his wife’s grave?—D. 8. P A. When Rossetti’s wife died, two years after their marrjage, his grief was 50 in- tense that he placed in her coffin all of his writings then unpublished. In 1870, yielding to the demands of his friends, he permitted these to be exhumed and published. Q What is the population of the smallest town in the United States?— P.L. B. A. According to the census of 1930, Arundel-on-the-Bay, Md., and Bourne, Oreg., both of which are incorporated towns, had a population of one. The Bureau of the Census says that it is pos- sible there are other towns and villages in the United States having a population of only one. Q. Has New York City an Eternal Light in memory of the war dead?— J.E.R. A. The Eternal Light in New York City is located in Madison Square Park at Broadway between Twenty-third and Twenty-seventh streets. It is a shaft having at its top the glass figure of & star, which is perpetually lighted day and night. The memorial was erected by Rodman Wanamaker. Q. What is the most poisonous snake? E.R. A. The king cobra is the most poison- ous snake in the world. Q. Please quote Abraham Lincoln’s eulogy of George Washington in which he uses the sun for comparison.—A.O.R. A. It is as follows: “This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Washington; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the mightiest name of earth—long since mightiest in the cause of civil Hberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name today no eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible.” Q. When were blueprints first used? C.H. N. A. The blueprint process was discov- ered by Sir John Herschel in 1840. Q. What proportion of the world’s water surface is represented by the Pacific Ocean?—D. E. L. A. The Pacific Ocean comprises more than half of the total water surface of the globe. Q. When was Walter Johnson, the former ballplayer, elected a county com- missioner in Maryland?—R. G. J. A. Walter Johnson, Republican nomi- nee for Montgomery County commission- er in Maryland September 13, 1938, was elected November 9, 1938. Q. How many copies of Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” have been sold?— K A A. More than 600,000 copies of the novel have been sold to date. Q. Has Washington, D. C., ever had daylight saving time?—M. B. A. The City of Washington observed daylight saving when it was in effect by act of Congress in 1918 and 1919, Q. Are there any statistics on the per- centage of people in the United States who read newspapers, magazines and books?—M. D. A.In a study entitled “How Adults Read,” by Prof. Guy Thomas B the author finds that 91 per cent of the adult population read newspapers regu- larly, 41 per cent read magazines reg- ularly, while 34 per cent read books. Q. How many springs are there at Silver Springs, Fla.?—W. D. E. A. There are over 150 known They flow into a common basin, and constitute the source of Silver River. The maximum flow of the springs is 975,000,000 gallons of water & day. Q. Who wrote the poem beginning, “They do me wrong who say I come no more”?—8. T. E. A. Walter wrote the poem, which is entitled to Opportunity.® Corinna in Candlelight Whomu!mmtnbyflnofmm Corinna to her morning tasks resigned; Behind the silver coffee-urn she hides : The morning rose which on her cheek abides. And!uwhneomuntmmo!nflhy noon Learns to his loss that he has come too soon. Corinna’s lilac-printed gown is torn; Her hands are weary and her air forlorn, And he who comes at 4 o'clock, for tes, May find his love as drowsy as the bee mthnmmdmnmblulnmm bed While coy Corinna nods her sunny head. But he who comes to woo by candlelight Shall find his love most e beautiful by He then shall see reflected from her eyes Twin candle-fiames like stars in sume mer skies! 5 L .