The evening world. Newspaper, November 30, 1921, Page 22

Oe CGiiy eatorio. q HSTABLISHED BY JOSEPH PULITZER. i Dally Except Sunday by The Press Publishing . Company. Nos, RALPH BUILT FOR A THEATRE! TOUR investigations are under way to determine what caused the collapse of the unfinished iiding on Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, which was hhave been the American Motion Picture Theatre. Between them, the police, the District Attorney, "the Building Department and the Medical Examiner Ought to arrive at some conclusion as to who or what was responsible for the loss of life in the _ ¢rumbling of a structure supposed to be thoroughly If a storin- no worse than that of the last few days _ €am so weaken an unfinished building that scores of ~ men at work on it are in danger of being carried “down in its collapse and buried in its wreckage, it is about time to enforce new standards of building construction hereabout. “Too much sand in the cement” is one ominous charge heard in connection with the Bedford Avenue It is a charge that should be probed to bottom. We can think of nothing more criminal than the use of faulty mortar in the walls of a theatre. ~ Why does inspection shut its eyes to flimsy build- ing until AFTER a catastrophe? i A SERIOUS MATTER.’ ‘ rs hers of the Interborough did not ap- pear before the Transit Commission yester- ‘day because they wished to consult their personal attorneys. This is, in a way, an encouraging sign. It indi- cates that the financial powers behind the subway are taking a justifiably serious view of the investi- gation now under way. It is to be hoped the Transit Commission will the exact degree of liability, civil, criminal, or of those who helped bring the transit prop- erty to its present sorry plight. Once these facts ‘are on the record, they should form the basis for ‘appropriate legal action. New York will not be satisfied with anything "Yess than the full letter of the law if it can be oved that the subway has been looted by un- lawfut methods. If there has been wrongdoing—and most of the y has pointed in that direction—those re- S should ‘be called to account as a warning against similar manipulation in future transactions. TWQ WORTHY CAUSES. F THE Christmas spirit means anything, it ought to make itself evident in two appeals for funds _ ow before the public. . ~ One is the United Hospital Fund. The other is the campaign for “Casey's hut” to be built by the Knights of Columbus. _ The philanthropic motive cannot go wrong if it. responds to either of these pleas. The money will (be well spent. - “Casey” won his spurs in the war. “Casey” was om hand and delivered the goods. When “Casey” comes around asking for help to keep up his good ". work and extend its scope right here at home, we _ believe he will meet with a ready response, The work of the hospitals is less spectacular, but it is a work which affects every one directly. The hospitals are here for the use of every one. When the hospital is needed the need is immediate and imperative. There can be no delay in that sort of ce. It must be ready and waiting. Prepared- "mess is essential, and no one is immune from the _- Possibility that he may need a hospital and need ‘it quickly. & Contributing to the hospital fund is on a par with © investing in insurance. . BORING AND. BRIDGING. ay subway transit proved successful, many imagined that once we had the east and ‘west side subways built New York would be fairly grown up and would, for a time, enjoy relief from owing pains in jits traction muscles. ‘On the contrary, the growing pains seem more cute than ever. Transportation and traffic schemes ‘multiply so rapidly no one can keep track of all of them. Here are only a few of the more recent Projects which, from an engineering standpoint, are considered feasible and which have serious backing : ty responsible organizations. Some are under con- » Siruction, others are authorized and some only pro- fected, but nearly all are possibilities of the near - & vehicular tunnel under the Hudson. A bridge over the Hudson. ~ A loop subway to bring New Jersey commuters ct to the business districts of Manhattan, A vehicular arcade between Fifth and Sixth Ave- from Washington Square to Central Park. Liiethethntulin x simihaeibiaadbiaenbaddaeano cote ee THE EVENING WORLD, WEDNESDAY, NO ET ways for exclusively fong-haul traffic. A freight subway with automatic electric cars from New Jersey to the Bronx terminals. Cross-town subway extension in the Grand Cen- tral zone. Moving platform transportation between Times Square and Grand Central. This list is admittedly incomplete. It makes no j mention of the Manhattan Extension project. And it concerns only projects affecting Manhattan, But it is impressive as an indication of the time and thought expended on a great and constantly grow- ing problem. Truly it is fortunate that New York is a city founded on a rock. If it were not it could not be. It would slide into the pits it is digging under itself. A limit will be reached when there are no more subway spaces between the surface and regions where the heat of the earth is too great for human beings to endure. But until that time, who shall say when New York is likely to stop? STRICTLY BUSINESS. A DOOR that would not open to ideals begins to yield to the hard, insistent knocking of necessity. Already there is talk of an international finance conference in which the Government of the United \States will join. A few months ago many Americans still believed this country could sit snug and warm in its own prosperity while the cold winds of poverty, debt and demoralization blew down the backs of other peoples. The belief has weakened. Isolation threatens to be draughty. It’s cold comfort being everybody’s creditor if it leaves nobody with the money or courage to do business with you. There's scant satisfaction in watching exchange perform fabulous stunts in your favor when it means nobody will buy your goods. Of course, the United States could set out to make itself economically self-sufficient. But few persons in the United States care to face the hard- ships of the undertaking. The country wants foreign trade. The country is rapidly reaching the point where it would even be willing to give something to get foreign trade. That's the most hopeful sign yet. Realization begins to dawn that a nation can’t go on for. years entangling itself commercially with other nations for the profit there is in it and then suddenly disentangle itself from ‘them and their misfortunes without loss, ‘ The people of the United States have been plenti- fully warned of this by their own bankers and busi- ness men returning from Europe. It’s an old story. But they. have only begun to take stock in it, as they feel for themselves there is something wrong with present American “prosperity.” Many talk about this prosperity, but few can show much of it. And what there is of it seems to be slipping. The plain truth is, other nations’ misfortunes are our misfortunes when those nations are buyers upon whdse buying power a large part of our eco- nomic and industrial turnover at home has come to depend. ' The gold of these nations in our vaults is no good to us. It doesn’t buy the products of our fac- tories or stimulate our entetprise or increase our profits. We have nothing to gain from a lot of depressed, overburdened debtors who can’t afford to buy of us because they have to skimp and save every cent they can to pay us interest. Without letting them think they can relax their efforts in their own behalf, we have got to do something for these debtors that will bra¢e them up and reconvert them into customers, We have got to do it soon. No sentiment or idealism about thal. Strictly business, When Mayor Hylan called the Transit Com- mission a “tool of the traction interests” he did not foresee that it would beat him hollow at boring into the Interborough. xd | sion * 8 @ ‘ce T# court may issue injunctions, but injunc- tions will not make cloaks.” —An employing garment maker. TWICE OVERS. DO not believe New York is going to lose itself. T will be glad to go with it if it does.” — Job 66 AS it is now, any one can set himself up as a builder, hire sub-contractors to do the work and get by with any kind of construction.” —Borough President Riegelmann. ‘Pe ee ©6 DQY Tuesday next these negotiations will have broken down or. the Prime Minister will send me new proposals.” —Sir James Craig to Ulster her . Guat VEMBER 380, 1921, From Evening that gives the worth of a thousand eay much in few words. Good Business Ahead. Te the Edltor of The Brening World: I have noticed the business condl- tions prevailing for the last two years in i a country, and I most honestiy thi that they point to an era prosperity and peace in social and business life after Jan. 1. For two years the people and cor- porations made money hand over fist. Where small orders should have been given, large orders were given instead. Companies and corporations and retail stores started to accumu- Jate large reserve stocks of merchan- dise, The companies and corporations also took large orders for future de- livery. Eyery one was stocking up. Banks and financial houses were very free and Itberal with their credits. Suddenly, as prosperity flared up, so did it dje down, and most every one was caught in the slump. Credits started to close down and the people started to unload their re- serve stocks at a loss in order to pay their bills, What's the result? The people were forced to sell their mer- chandise below the manufacturers’ price of to-day, naturally forcing the manufacturers to keep down their output. * Now the reserve stocks have been mostly sold and the manufacturers have not made any stock; 80 common sense shows that we will need new, stocks, People will start to work and buy. Banks and financial houses will be a little more liberal with credits, Exportations will increase and busi- ness will boom again, but will be on & more sound and firm foundation, and we will once more have peaceful times, M. New York, Nov. 26. Welcome Dr. Lo: To the Editor of The Brening World: The undersigned has been a reader of your good paper for some years past and is happy to say that in gen- eral the manner in which you ex- pound current affairs is largely in keeping with my, own thoughts, al- though your stand in the recent elec- tion was very, very different from my own. But that is another matter. Your very short, but nevertheless pointed, editorial in to-day’s paper about that very worthy gentleman, Dr. Lorenz, has determined me to put my feelings about his endeavors in writing. Though it has been said within the last few years that this is still a country of great democracy, so often as to be alrmost time worn, some of our existing citizens certainly do not act the part. . I have referende to the statement made by Philadelphia that it would not welcome Dr. Lorenz That in it- self is ridicalous, but coming from laymen can perhaps be sed over & bit more rapidly than the following, which I consider a black mark against the medical p: but inst the throughout this In yesterday’ niversity dit would lon particularly, ircles of science not ins ey me Dr, Loreng within its doors, and that if he did come to Baltimore is own behalf or that friend. of | World Readers What kind of letter do you find most readable? Isn't it the one words in a couple of hundred? There is fine mental exercise and a lot of satisfaction in trying te Take time to be brief. look to us for initiative is further evi- denced again this month when we see with what enthusiasm Secretary Hughes's disarmament plan was re- ceived. How flagrantly we continue |his fine example. If we continue to “throw cold water” on other matters, ;@8 we do on this, when is the period of depression to be over, when the biggest men of the country return- ing from abroad tell us without hesi- tancy that we must stand behind Burope in order to prevent absolute chaos? ‘ Being an American citizen, it furthest from my mind to forget the actions and atrocities committed by our enemies in the recent world con- flict, but here is a‘man, who undoubt- edly has some convictions of his own and some national pride, willingly overlooking these to offer us his great services free. (And there certainly can be no doubt but that there is ample opportunity for his great knowledge in his own country.) There is only one understanding that I can get from the stand of Johns Hopkins. They must certainly be actuated by a fit of jealousy, nothing else. They are too blind to see the bigness of this man’s heart and I think they deserve public censure, I regret I cannot personally have the honor of shaking Dr torente hand. M. C. New York, Nov. 26, 1921. A In Right. ‘To the Editor of The Evening World: A says that each year the Presi- dent of the United States proclaims late of Thanksgiving. lap hen that the first President set the last Thursday of November for the day of Thanksgiving, and that ‘no other President since has proclatmed the day. A Brooklyn, Nov. 26, 1921. Prohibition and the Bible. ‘To the Editor of The Evening World: “To adopt Prohibition is to pass a vote of censure,” declared the Rev. » W. Pull r of Pittsburg, to Re Eongregation® “on Jesus Christ, for He made wine and drank it too.” redding of Cana would not have been . miracle, The juice of the host's grapes could have beep tramped out by his servants, and the Divine Guest need not have concerned Himself about the depleted wine jars, nor the conscious water, the subject of Dry- den'’s exquisite metaphor, to have blushed in the presence of its Maker. “If Christ Came to Chicago” was the subject of a book written several ears ago, as I recall, by the late wv ‘T, Stead, who went. down with the Titanic. Whether or not He has ever visted that unregenerate pl. I have my doubts, but I firmly believe if He were now to visit it or any other part of the country, and were to re- peat the miracle He wrought at Cana, or to re-enact the Supper, a cer- tain element now, much to the fore twould find meang to punish Him for ying violated a man-made iaw, herein is embodied a_ morality higher than His own! Ba M, "Brooulym, ov. Be 302% antxtuitien By John Cassel : Blue Law Sunday In'the Light of the Bible and History ‘|NO. Vill, SUNDAY LAWS LONG aN Sy = ate eee AO wt ae UNCOMMON SENSE By John Blake (Copyright, 1921, by John Blake) PROVINCIALISM. Provincialism isn’t confined to the dweller in a small town. It isn't confined to ignorance. . It is a state of mind which leads a person to think that his narrow sphere of knowledge is the only- knowledge worth having. The small town man is called provincial because he regards people who live in cities as necessarily dissipated or extravagant. . He despises a way of living of which he knows nothiug. He refuses to take the trouble to learn about it. The city dweller thinks that people from-small towns must be ignorant and narrow minded merely because they have never seen St. Paul's Cathedral or the Woolworth Building. Many of the Americon doughboys who went to France regarded the French as stupid merely because they couldn't understand sentences addressed to them in English. The French on their part were impatient, of soldiers who wanted to eat vast breakfasts of meat and potatoes and griddle cakes as, soon as they got out of bed in the morning. A i You find provincialism in every place where men do not think enough. Nowhere is it more virulent than among a certain sort of highly educated college professors, who regard the sort of learning they possess as the Only learning worth having. Seward, the learned American statesman, looked upon Abraham Lincolr as provincial when reluctantly he entered Lincoln’s Cabinet. Only after years did he discover that Lincoln, though he spoke with a small town accent, and did many things uncouthly, possessed a mind superior in quality to that of any living American, Provincialism is always the mark of the narrow mind, whether it belongs to the educated or to the ignorant, It arises from a lack of sympathy with others—from u lack of understandirg of them, Always it is a bar to full development—always does it stand in the way of really great achievemenk, You can do nothing important for people unless you know them, You can never know them if you in any degree despise them. Be sure before you consider others provincial that the thing that makes you hold that opinion isn’t a touch of vrovincialism in your own make up. 7 proceeds from a desire to have dt repeated.—Anonymous, In buying horses and taking a wife, shut your eyes and com. mend yourself to God.—Itallan proverb. From the Wise Good fortune or bad generally falls to those who have the greatest share of either—La Roche. Mankind is @ acience that de les definitions —Burns. P The refusal of praise often Man was created to work—not to speculate or feel, or dream.— SINCE TESTED. ‘The leaders in the Sunday move~ ment make one of the foundation claims of their work “the preservation of society, the State and the Nation. It 1s for this that they insist upon the enactment of Sunday laws. Acoord- ingly, they are always calling for more Sunday laws. It matters pot what far-reaching Sunday laws may be already on the statute books, they call for still more Sunday laws and the more vigorous enforcement of them all round. Yet this whole thing is one of the most pernicious of fallacies, It is ane only such pernicious fallacy in prin- ciple, but it has been abundantly dem- onstrated to be such in practice. Bvery point advocated by the Sunday law workers to-day has been weighed th the balance of practice and of experi- ence, and has been found utterly wanting. The whole thing has been iaatet ‘on @ world theatre and has been found absolutely vain and ruinous. ‘The greatest example of national ruin, the most complete destruction of the State, the most thorough annihila-~ tion of society that has ever been seen on this earth occurred where there were the most and the most far- reaching Sunday laws, That was in toe Western empire of Rome. In A. D. 318 the Western empire be- came “Christian.” In 814 the first state favor was shown for Sunday. In $21 the first direct Sunday law was enacted. And so it went on with one Sunday law after another till by 426 every kind of secular work or amuse- ment was stridtly forbidden on Sun- day. By that time, too, wickedness and corruption of every sort had mul- tiplied in this “Christian” empire to such an extent that the judgment of God In destruction had already begun to fall unchecked. In 351 the Franks and Alemannt swept like a’ fire, a space of 120 miles, from the source to the mouth of the Rhine, In 400-403 the Visigoths carried de- struction and devastation through Roumania and into Italy as far as to Milan. In 405-429 a mighty host of Suevi, Vandals and Burgundians ravaged Italy as far as Florence, the greater part of Gaul, all of Spain and all of Africa to Carthage. In 408-419 the Visigoths! overflowed the whole of Italy, all southwestern Gaul and all of Spain. - In 449 the Angles and Saxons en- tered Britain and never rested until “the arts and religion, the laws and language which the Romans had so carefully planted in Britain were ex- tirpated”; not until “the practice and even the remembrance of Christianity were abolished.” In 461-463 the Huns under Attila carried fire and slaughter from the Danube to Chalons and to Milan. * In 453 the Ostrogoths took posses- sion of the Province of Pannonia and the Lombards of Noricum. In 476 Odoacer and his barbarian followers took possession of Italy and abolished the office of Emperor of the West; and the Western empire of Rome—the state and even soclety— had been swept away by ruin upon ruin. And that was the “Christian” em- pire of Rome, That was the empire that had exhausted the subject of Sun- day laws and enforced Sunday observ- ance. That was the state that had done all this on behalf of the kingdom of God and for the preservation and even the salvation of the state. ‘There is not a method of Sunday enforcement, either mild or cruel, that |has ‘not been fm that “Christian” Ro- ‘man empire. There is not a phase of Sunday laws that has not been em- fairs in that “Christian’ Roman state. There is nothing on that subject left by those for the Sunday law clergy of to-day to discover. And the Sunday law olergy of to-day must hide their eyes, not only from the principles, but also from the practical effects of Sun- day legislation of every kind before they can go on in their pernicious Sunday law course. For pernicious that course is, even to the ruin of the greatest nation and state in the world. This has been thoroughly demonstrated to the last detail, and in the demonstration it has been made plain that enforced Sunday observance is the worst thing that can ever be put pon a nation or practiced in society, ART MASTERPIECES IN AMERICA By Maubert St. Georges. 1921, (Now Y Coprisht, 1021, (Nex York Brening Worth, “THE FOUNTAIN OF THE PA8SS8- ING OF TIME.”—Lorado Taft, The erecting in the Midway of Chicago of the plaster model of Lorado Taft's masterpiece, “The Passing of Time,” is one of the greatest compli- ments that could be paid to an artist. When the trustees of the Ferguson Fund first saw the model-in the artist's studio they were so enthusiastic that not only did they commission Taft to execute the composition in marble but also, ‘unable to wait for the com- pietion, they decided to erect th plaster model where all might be able to enjoy and appreciate the marvel~ lous conception. ‘There are three distinct waves repe resented, that of birth, life and death, In the first wave, to the right, can be seen the tragedy of birth and the struggle for existence, relieved by the joy of youth in the form of dancing xirls. In the second wave rides the conqueror upon a huge armored horse, surrounded by soldiers, tattered refu- gees and lawless camp followers. The next wave shows old age, the lovers who are parted by death and a joyful girl who is dancing madly, not know. ing she is on the brink.’ The final wave \s carrying a young man who is struggling with all his might against that which he cannot control and an cld man who stretches out his arma to welcome death. Here and there in the Bronrs es enone Space where some one has fallen, worn out terrific surge of life, 7 a Lorado Taft 1s called the ortistic and educative pers the Central West to-day, ana hala done more to inspire a knowledge of rt_and a love of beautiful noulptuse nd painting than any mi { America. His latest achive is well worthy of his reputation, ployed by the clerical managers of af- * to)