The Indianapolis times. [volume], January 03, 1930, Home Edition, Page PAGE 4, Image 4

About The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965

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PAGE 4
S tH PP t -MOW AAO
The Courts and Politics
Perhaps it is fortunate that the election
of so many judges occurs on the same day
that the people will pass upon the question
of drafting anew Constitution for the state.
The present Constitution, as a practical
matter, is impossible of amendment. The
provision that each amendment must have
a majority of all votes cast has been a bar
rier to any improvement. Unfortunately
only a minority of citizens vote on proposed
amendments and they are defeated, even
when there is a unanimous sentiment for
change.
That the courts should be removed from
partisan politics would be admitted by even
the most partisan of politicians. When can
didates for the bench are compelled to pa
rade their partisanship and to cater to those
who make a business of politics, the brand
of justice can be expected to be more or less
corrupted by politics.
This spring each party will nominate ten
or twelve candidates for judges, ranging
from two positions on the supreme court to
a juvenile judge for the county.
This means that perhaps four times that
number of lawyers will compete in primaries
for nominations. In very many cases the
appeal by these lawyers will be service in
political affairs in the past and loyalty to the
party from which they seek the honor.
It is not surprising that in very many
cases, and this goes for all the courts, the
successful candidates are not the best law
yers, not those with the most profound re
spect for substantial justice but the best
politicians. The ones who win are those
who can round up the most influences and
balance themselves most easily on the tight
wire that stretches between the prejudices
and hate of different factions.
Not the least of penalties paid for this
system which ties up the courts to political
parties is a growing lack of respect for all
courts.
No longer do the people believe that the
founts of justice are pure and undenled. At
times, there are bets, in places where men
gamble, on the outcome of important cases,
especially political cases, and it is history
that those who are shrewdest in their un
derstanding of the underground workings of
politics usually win.
Instead of devoting all attention to can
didates for office, independent citizens who
wish to save the traditions and the substance
of our democratic institutions should organ
ize to carry the proposal for anew Consti
tution.
The spokesmen for bossism are against
the movement. They are speaking openly
when given a chance. The people, if for no
other reason than that of divorcing courts
from political machines, should unite for a
new Constitution.
Soldiers’ Bonus
Approximately three and a half million veterans
had applied for “adjusted compensation" certificates
when the time for flimg expired at midnight Thurs
day. The applications had an ultimate potential
lvalue of around $3,500,000,000.
I The certificates are In the form of twenty-ye#?
sndowmment insurance policies, based on credit for
length of sendee. They have a loan value, which
1,500,000 veterans have used.
Legislation to extend still further the time in
which veterans may apply for their bonus is pend
ing, but there is no great demand for its passage.
Tire law has been in effect for five years, and few
entitled to its benefits have failed to take advantage
of them except through deliberate choice.
‘ Thus it appears that the much-mooted question of
the bonus passes into history' as an issue, and it re
mains only to pay during the years to come. Few
will complain about that.
Churches Rick Labor
Labor has won support of the churches in its
efforts to obtain justice in the southern textile mills.
In the midst of American Federation of Labor plans
for an extensive southern organizing campaign and
renewed demands for congressional investigation of
anti-labor abuses there, the recognized social agencies
of the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish churches have
issued a statement condemning working conditions
and violence against workers.
At first the American public, confused by the con
flicting charges and claims of labor and employers,
was not sure of the facts in that industrial warfare.
But the facts now are clear. There have been
various nonpartisan reports on the situation. Official
government figures prove the long hours and poor
WKges. The neutral press has sent investigators and
reported, almost without exception, in substantiation
of labor’s charges.
Now the organized investigating agencies of the
churches add their powerful voices to the protest with
the joint statement of the Federal Council of
Churches, the National Catholic Welfare Conference
and the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
In addition, the Federal Council of Churches has
issued a special report disproving the alibi of mill
owners that Marion, N. C., strikes, in which six
workers were killed by sheriffs, were caused by out
side “agitators.”
According to the churches’ joint statement:
"The tragedies at Gastonia and Marion, N. C..
have appalled all thdl* who accept the respective
ethical teachings of our religions. Rieht and wrong
la such conflicts can not be decided by violence. To
attempt to bring peace by bludgeon and bullet m
The Indianapolis Times
(A SCKIPPS HOWAKD NEW I’APF.Rt
Owo'Ki and pnbUb<l daily ifxeept Sunday) by Tfc* Indianapolis Publishing Cos.,
214 Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price In Marlon County,
2 onts a copy; el-owhere. 3 cents- delivered by carrier, 12 cents a week.
BOYD C;r;KLKY, ROY W. HOWARD, FEAXK G. MORRISON,
Editor President Business Manager
PHOXFI —It 1 ley 5.~51 FRIDAY, JAN. 3. 1930,
Member of I nit*d Press, Scripps-lloward Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Asso
ciation, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations.
“Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way”
such conflicts is contrary to every rule of morality.
We condemn such a course unqualifiedly.
“We urge employers and public officials not to
suppress by force the protests of the workers in their
efforts for the redress of manifest evils, nor to employ
legal action, backed by force, save in the keeping
of peace.
“The unrest in the textile industry and the trag
edies in some mill centers have arisen not only be
cause of the economic confusion in the industry as
a whole, but also because of the faulty relations be
tween employer and employe,
“That the hours are longer and the wages lower
than the standards which public conscience deems
right generally is acknowledged.
“Employers in the industry have failed to recog
nize organizations of labor and to show a willingness
to allow labor that freedom to organize for which
our three bodies stand."
Congress should act on the recommendation of
this and other newspapers, to which the specific de
mand of the churches is now added, for a federal
investigation.
Aviation Progress
Aviation leaders, as usual, predict the brightest
and balmiest year in the industry’s history. The year
just passed wasn’t an especially bright one, and
there is little doubt that 1930 easily will outshine it.
Aviation just has passed through a year quite mis
erable with growing pains. It has suffered a series of
disastrous crashes, and there has been a severe read
justment in the manufacturing industry. Some call
it a depression. Several thousand more planes were
built than could, be sold.
Tins was a natural predicament for a young and
booming industry to get into. Aviation’s growth from
now on promises to be sane and firm.
Despite this depression, aviation really has gone
forward. Mileage flown by mail and passenger planes
over scheduled routes has increased tremendously, and
is nearing ICO,OOO miles daily. The outstanding de
velopment has been the vast increase in number of
passenger airplanes established.
Almost equally outstanding is the fact that none of
them yet is making money. Fares on airplanes have
been cut drastically in the last few months, removing
one of the greatest obstacles against general use of
the airplane. The other obstacle is an ingrained fear
of flying.
The air mail still is the backbone of America’s
commercial aviation. A few new lines were estab
lished during the year, but the most significant de
velopment was the determination of the postoffice to
cut down payments to contractors.
The postoffice faces a loss of about $3,000,000 year
ly under present contracts. Anew agreement is being
worked out, and within the year rates are likely to be
so adjusted that both postoffice and the contractors
will come out even.
The navy is fairly well equipped. The five-year
program stipulated that the navy should have 1,000
planes by July 1, 1931. On last July 1, with two years
yet to go, it had 529 planes.
As for the army, the five-year program stipulated
that there should be 1,345 planes at the end of the
second year. The army had 1,273 planes and 201 on
order. This apparent discrepancy is in training planes,
and will disappear next year. There is a serious
shortage of planes for tactical units. The air corps
budget for the coming year has been sliced several
million dollars by the budget bureau.
The arm of the national defense ’•'presented by
the air sendees is bound to be seriously impaired
unless congress keeps its promise and furnishes suffi
cient money.
REASON
WE are C' lighted to have Colonel Fuller, the cele
brated English military critic, declare in his
book on General Grant that the hero of Appomattox
was “the greatest strategist of his age, of the war,
and consequently, its greatest general.”
This praise, coming from an English authority, is
the more acceptable since his countrymen have long
insisted that Lee and Jackson were the outstanding
figures of our Civil war.
a a tt
In recent years there has been a disposition to dis
parage Grant, the same being but an incident of the
epidemic of character assassination which has claimed
for its victims Washington, Lincoln and other indis
pensables, but for a longer period Grant has suffered
at the hands of many who have extolled Lee at his
expense.
a a a
TANARUS: ere always is a disposition to deify the leader
of a lost cause.
It is much the same emotion which waters the
stock of the young man who goes wrong, a tendency
which you have witnessed many a time.
Always we paint, marvelous pictures of what the
dissipated youth of ordinary brightness might have
accomplished, had he walked the straight and narrow
path.
n a a
THE jobs of Grant and Lee were essentially differ
ent and in their respective fields both were mas
ters; it was the job of Grant to pursue the offensive
in a hostile land, to watch all the jumps his adver
sary might take, while the job of Lee was to defend
in a region where every human being, every read,
and every ford was his ally.
Lee found the offensive a vastly different piece of
work, as witness his one and only effort which
culminated in defeat at Gettysburg.
tt tt tt
The distance from those days is so great we can
not appreciate the sendees of Grant, we can not
visualize the sense of helplessness which pervaded the
north when the south won victory after victory,
neither can we hear the cheers which rent the north
ern sky when Grant hurled his raw troops against
Buckner at Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson and won vic
tories which dispelled the gloom and gave the north
the mental attitude, indispensable to success.
a a a
Nor can we rebuild the long, heart-rending cam
paign before Vicksburg when a thousand liars fanned
the nation's impatience with stories of Grant’s incom
petence and intoxication, but all those evil tongues
were silenced when his superb strategy compelled the
surrender of Pemberton and made the Mississippi
free.
In that campaign Grant had the sublime audacity
to turn his back upon all the tradition- of war and
cut himself loose from his base of supplies and the
end justified him.
HIS campaign against Lee was assumed after all
his predecessors had failed, bearing with them
into failure the illusion that Lee was almost super
human, but Grant did not believe in fairies or in
supermen and he held Lee in his grasp until Sherman
and Thomas in the rear could make the cefeat of
the south absolutely inevitable.
And Grant did this in the only way it could have
been done, by terrific fighting.
FREDERICK
By LANDIS
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
M. E. Tracy
SAYS:
If the World Imagines It Can
Stop War Just by Making
Another Agreement It Is
Chasing a Rainbow Up an
Alley.
PATRIOTISM suggests support
for our state department in its
contention that the Kellogg pact
does not need to be strengthened.
History suggests that, satisfying
as such an ic.ea may be, it is dumb.
From the dawn of consciousness,
men have dreamed of solving their
problems by negative action, by
merely agreeing not to do things.
In the end, they have found it
necessary to take a positive stand.
aba
Who supposes that our statutes
against murder, theft, or arson
would amount to much without a
police force to back them up?
Who supposes that we could reg
ulate traffic without cops on the
comer?
Or, to cite a more important ex
ample, who supposes we could have
disestablished monarchy without
republican government to take its
place?
tt A tt
Gets No One Nowhere
PROGRESS is not based on re
pudiation.
The idea of refraining from some
thing gets nowhere, unless it is fol
lowed by the idea of doing some
thing better.
This is particularly true when it
comes to the abandonment of agen
cies on which men have learned to
depend.
Take the frontier community, for
instance, that has learned to go
armed because of lack of effective
law enforcement, and who supposes
it would disarm without being prom
ised adequate police protection?
a a tt
The present day world is analo
gous to such community.
Nations remain armed because
they can see no other way to pro
tect themselves, yet our state de
partment contends, that a mere
agreement to outlaw war is enough
to warrant them in disarming.
France takes an opposite view
and no sane man will deny the logic
of her position.
a a u
Just Another Rainbow
IF the League of Nations, the world
court and other agencies de
signed to promote peace do not im
ply co-operative action to maintain
it, even to the extent of establishing
an international police force, they
imply nothing.
If the world imagines it can stop
war by the simple process of mak
ing an agreement, and without as
suming any responsibility in case
that agreement is broken, it is only
chasing another rainbow up a blind
alley.
a a a
Outlawry cf criminals is dreaded
because of the threat of punish
ment that goes with it.
That, and that alone, gives it
force.
Without including something of
the sort, how can the outlawry of
war mean much?
tt a a
Mockery and Sham
W'HILE it is hardly to be ex
pected that people could be
persuaded to take such a revolu
tionary stand as this involves over
night, the time has come to admit
frankly that it can not be avoided
in the end, unless the gestures be
ing made in the interest of world
peace are a mockery and a sham.
Either we are going to provide
punishment for those who disregard
their obligations, and ignore the
agreements they have signed, or the
whole movement will collapse.
At present, most nations are try
ing to get the benefit of reduced
armaments, arbitration treaties and
agencies designed for the peaceful
adjustment of disputes wuthout as
suming the necessary obligations, or
making the necessary sacrifices.
To put it bluntly, they are trying
to have their cake and eat it.
a a
The French not only reahze the
issue, but face it frankly.
Instead of playing the part of ob
structionist, as many charge, the
French really are telling us what
the movement implies, and what we
must expect if we see it through.
Their insistence on regional agree
ment, such as they now are asking
in the Mediterranean, and such as
they tried to obtain from Wilson at
Versailles, should be regarded as
trading propositions, and not as
comprehending their ultimate aim.
tt a a
France Is Right
WHAT France is after for her
self, and what she rightly
believes all nations will demand be
fore we are through with this move
ment, is such guarantee on the part
of subscribers to the various coven
ants and agreements as will justify
nations in reducing their military
establishments.
Who supposes that such guarantee
can be furnished, without a promise
of positive co-operation on the part
of signatory nations to punish any
government that violates its agree
ment, or disregards its obligations?
Daily Thought
Ye can not drink the cup of the
Lord, and the cup of the devils.—
I Corinthians 10:2L
a a a
He must have a long spoon who
eats with the deviL—Marlowe.
When and where was the Grand
Army of the Republic organized?
Decatur. 111.. April 6, 1866.
What percentage of the popula
tion of France are Roman Cath
olics?
The majority of the population is
Roman Catholic. There are only
about 1,000,000 Protestants there.
Who was Tacitus, and when did
he live?
He was one of the greatest his
torians of the Roman empire, who
lived about 55 to 129 A. D.
Seems to Bea Hitch Somewhere!
Fat Person Target of Blood Pressure
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN,
Editor Journal of the American Medical
Association and of Hygeia, the
Health Magazine.
INSURANCE companies consider
the fat man a less suitable risk
than the thin one. Considerable
numbers of policy holders beyond
middle age are found to be over
weight, and overweight is generally
associated with the onset of the
degenerative diseases which are to
day responsible for the vast major
ity of deaths.
Studies made by J. W. Larimore
showed that fat people are likely
to have high blood pressure more
often than thin ones, a factor which
has also been established by in
vestigations covering hundreds of
thousands of people.
In order to find out what rela
tionship exists, if any, between the
IT SEEMS TO ME
IN addition to all the other more
familiar complexes there should
be listed one which is almost uni
versal. It could be called the Dr.
Johnson complex and it consists of
a passion for assuming the airs of
an intellectual arbiter and making
up lists of the ten best this or that.
Listology is peculiarly an Ameri
can complaint.
We forever are setting down some
body’s choice of the ten greatest
men or the ten greatest women, the
eleven most effective football play
ers, and the twenty-nine most prac
tical ways to win a lady’s love.
In apology for my list about to be
unfurled I can only plead that it is
very short. Instead of ten I purpose
to give but three names and in so
brief a compass include what seems
to me the year’s high point in fic
tion, drama and in music.
Fossibiy to round it out the best
piece of acting seen this season may
be added.
If Ernest Hemingway’s “A Fare
well to Arms” is not the best book
written by any American this year,
what is? For this selection, at
least, I am ready to lay down my
life.
Not only does “A Farewell to
Arms” seem to me the absolute top
point in current fiction, but I would,
add gratuitously that I do not be
lieve any living American ever has
done as well. If asked to name its
greatest rivals, I would suggest
“Arrowsmith” by Sinclair Lewis and
Willa Cather’s “A Lost Lady.”
a u a
Three Americans
“TJ ERKELEY SQUARE,” by John
-D Balderston is the best play
shown to New York this year and
Jerome Kern’s score for “Sweet Ade
line” the best of the moment's na
tive music.
And, to return to “Berkeley
Square,” this play also furnishes the
Questions
and Answers
Why did George Washington re
fuse to accept a third term as Presi
dent of the United States?
Because he thought it savored of
monarchy, the very thing which had
been a grievance to the colonies in
their dealings with George in.
Where was Ninevah?
Ninevah is an ancient city on the
Tigris river, founded by Nimrod, and
later the capital of the Assyrian
empire.
Who plays the detective role in
the motion picture “Street Girl?”
There is no real detective role in
the picture. Ned Sparks played the
part of the violinist, of whom it was
said by the pianist in the picture
“You’d make a good detective.”
Who was the “Mad Empress”?
Marie Charlotte Amelie Auguste
Victorie Clementine Leopoldine,
wife of Emperor Maximillian of
Mexico and daughter of Leopold L
king of the Belgians. She died Jan
19, 1927, at the age of 86, in the
chateau Eaude Bouchone, not far
from Brussels.
What is the highest altitude to
which man has ascended in moun
tain climbing?
About 27,441 feet, was attained by
the Mallory, Somerville and Norton
expedition in 1924, which climbed
* within 1,700 feet of the summit of
Mi. Everest.
.DAILY HEALTH SERVICE-
body weight and blood pressure, H.
R. Hartman and D. G. Ghrist
studied the records of 2,042 persons
who entered a medical clinic in re
cent years.
Their studies prove quite certain
ly that there is a steady rise in
th systolic blood pressure from the
point of underweight and over
weight both for men and for wom
en, and that in women also there
is a steady rise in the diastolic pres
sure for overweight.
The two readings of the blood
pressure are taken at various phases
of the heart beat.
These studies prove that one of
the most important steps in con
trolling rises in the blood pressure
after middle age is the contrdl of
the diet, which should be reduced
so as not to place undue stress on
the digestive organs, as well as on
the tissues generally.
Among many leading physicians
o HEYWOOD
y BROUN
high spot in acting. Leslie Howard
gives the most moving and com
pletely rounded of all current per
formances in the role of the com
edy’s hero, Peter Standish.
Os the four men named, three are
Amßricans. Leslie Howard is the
lone Englishman, although John
Balderston has lived for many years
in London, which saw his play
months before it was introduced in
New York.
In the matter of “A Farewell to
Arms,” it is possible to cite the bulk
of critical authority. Few books
have been reviewed so enthusiasti
cally and while there may be scat
tering dissent no other novel of rhe
day looms up as a challenger.
I think that nationality in the
arts is more properly a thing of the
spirit. It is difficult to imagine a
Frenchman or a German writing
“A Farewell to Arms.” Its sophisti
cated sentimentality is typical cf
our temper.
a tt a
No Strain
JOHN BALDERSTON’S fine play,
“Berkeley Square,” is a comedy
in its form, but that should not de
ceive you into expecting a happy
ending. Here, too, the frustration
imposed by fate is celebrated, but
again the characters go down fight
ing.
Probably this is one of the few
romances of the world directly in
spired by higher mathematics. Ein
stein himself may have been one
to suggest the framework of the love
story, for Balderston has built his
play around the philosophic con
ception that all time is co-exten
sive.
It is easy to see the comic pos
sibilities in the scheme which Bal
derston has devised, and these are
well realized by the playwright and
by Leslie Howard, who is magnifi
cent in the role of the hero. But
tills is a play in which the laughter
is wholly incidental. At least for
me the tragic Idve story overshad
ows everything else.
Times Readers Voice Views
Editor Times—l wish to call at
tention to a profitable field lor in
vestment. If there is a crying de
mand for public service it is for a
better means of heating houses. We
are making no progress in this di
rection. The great advantages to
health and cleanliness in a substi
tute for coal fires needs no argu
ment. /
The distribution of steam heat is
so wasteful that producers are not
extending their service. They
frankly admit that it is not prac
tical for long lines.
I would suggest that since natural
gas formerly was serviced over large
areas, that artificial gas could be so
distributed. If coal lands were ac
quired and gas plants installed at
the mines, so that the same ma
chinery which brought out the coal
could carry it to the gas-producing
equipment, there would be no rail
road or rehandling expense. This
would be especially applicable at
strip mines. The gas could be de
livered to consumers by means of
pipe lines and pumps at nominal
cost.
With coal stoves and furnaces, the
larger part of the heat is wasted.
In the production of gas and by
products much of this waste would
be saved. It is also safe to say
there is developing some question as
to Just how much significance
should be attached to gradual rise
in blood pressure after middle life.
Apparently some rise may be con
sidered as the normal reaction of
the tissues to the changing nature
of the body.
Hence we have the form of high
blood pressure known as essential
hypertension, of which the definite
cause is unknown, but which seems
to be associated with the changes
that come on with advancing age,
increased weight and similar fac
tors.
The treatment of such conditions
Is usually to reverse the associated
process.
Thus, for overweight and high
blood pressure, it is customary to
reduce and to rest. Almost invari
ably a reduction in weight and rest
will bring about a decrease in the
blood pressure.
Ideal),’ and opinions expressed
in this column are those of
one of America's most inter
estlnjr writers and are pre
sented without regard to their
agreement or disarreemeni
with the editorial attitude of
this paper.—The Editor.
By now I’ve seen “Berkeley
Square” several times and there
are certain scenes at which my tears
rattle down with regularity. Noth
ing in the theater this year has
moved me so much.
In fact, it would be no strain for
me to make “Berkeley Square” the
high point even if several other
years were added to the field.
In New York now there is noth
ing fit to stand beside it for the
season has given hs just this one
play which deserves a place in the
rank of truly first-rate things.
Nor is this a very meager allow
ance of first-rate plays. There never
have been very many.
m m tt
Now’s the Time
TN the matter of music the task of
awarding a palm is somewhat
simplified by the fact that no piece
of so-called serious music has risen
during the year. There have been
no native symphonies of any conse
quence or any opera whatsoever.
Yet even if there had, I think a case
might be made for the composer of
the lighter type of American music.
The leader this year in the mak
ing of hits Is Jerome Kem. Hi 6
“Old Man River,” of course, does
not fall within the year, since it is
several months older than that, but
it may be mentioned as a piece of
music based upon native models of
which anybody who had written it
would have a right to be very proud.
But Mr. Kern’s “Show Boat” falls
outside the span of time allotted to
us, his “Sweet Adeline” fits in very
neatly and it is among the most
tuneful of light opera scores.
It is well enough to regret the
passing of such masters as Victor
Herbert and De Koven, but we are
a dead folk if we insist upon wait
ing until Jerome Kern is dead be
fore we recognize the fact that he
stands high and handsome among
the music makers of the world.
Here, then, is my quartet all over
again: Hemingway, Balderston,
Howard and Kern.
that a thoroughly up-to-date plant
wolud produce gas under the pro
posed plan at much lower cost than
at present. The great body the
people gladly would take advantage
of the chance to rid them?elves of
the coal nuisance. Moreover, the
present equipment of stoves and
furnaces could be adapted cheaply
to gas, although betteT devices would
be offered.
If this service were started at
most any of our mining regions,
enough customers could be found
within twenty-five to fifty miles to
keep a large plant busy. Eventually
this supply would reach the larger
cities, even if it met opposition from
present gas producers, because the
fittest will prevail.
There is evidence that good gas
has been produced as low as 10
cents a thousand feet, even where
coal transportation was necessary
and with little attention to by
products. With a proper system and
equipment, I think it could be pro
duced at the works for half that
sum. Furthermore, the Increased
supply of low cost by-products would
be of great advantage to other
American industries and help to
make our country a greater factor
in world commerce.
AL B. HALL.
212 Liberty building.
_JAN. 3, 1930
SCIENCE
By DAVTD DIETZ—
Interferometer Will Be Used
in Measuring Diameter of
Stars by Nation’s Scientists
A POWER FIT, engine of astron
omical research, capable of
throwing Important light upon
theories about the universe, will be
put into operation at. the Mt. Wilson
observatory in California tins sum
mer.
The instrument to be known as
the 50-foot interferometer, will be
used in measuring the diameters of
stars. Its construction now is under
way in the observatory’s machine
shop in Pasadena.
The Instrument was discussed
here at the annual exhibition of
the Carnegie institution of Wash
ington by Dr. Walter S. Adams,
director of the observatory. The
observatory Is one of a great group
by the Carnegie institution.
Five years ago astronomers at Mt.
Wilson startled the world of science
by succeeding in measuring the
diameter of a star. The instrument
used was a form of interferometer,
the invention of Professor A. A.
Michelson, famous American scien
tist, and research associate of the
observatory.
At the time, however, it was pos
sible only to measure the diameters
of the very largest stars. The work
showed that the giant star, Antares,
had a diameter of 415,000.000 miles,
w'hile Betelgeuse had a diameter of
215,000,000 miles.
a a tt
Confirmation
Astronomers were elated by
these results, because from
theoretical reasons they had calcu
lated that these stars must have
diameters of approximately the size
which the measurement showed.
The interferometer, therefore, not
only gave direct measurements of
these stars, but served also to con
firm the theoretical reasoning upon
which astronomers were basing their
researches.
The interferometer used in meas
uring the giant stars was a form of
the instrument which first had
made Professor Michelson famous
in his youth.
It had been known for a long
time that when two rays of light
were admitted into a dark room
through two small holes in a screen
that the resulting spot of light took
the form of concentric circles of
light and darkness.
This pattern, known as an inter
ference pattern, is the result of the
effect of the two streams of light
waves upon each other.
Professor Michelson built an in
strument in which a system of mir
rors was used to split a light wave
in two and then recombine it into
an interference pattern. This in
strument at once was useful as a
measuring instrument, because a
motion of one mirror equivalent to
less than a millionth of an inch
would cause easily measured
changes in the interference pattern
or fringes.
Professor Michelson next built, a
large interferometer in order to seek
differences in the speed of light in
different directions. This instru
ment was used by Michelson and
Dr. Edward W. Morley for the
i famous ether-drift experiment, upon
which the Einstein theory was
based.
a a m
Girder
THE interferometer used to meas
sure the diameter of the giant
stars consisted of a steel beam
twenty feet long. This is mounted
across the top of the 100-inch tele
scope at Mt. Wilson.
There is a small mirror at each
end of the beam. Each mirror
catches an image of the star.
These images are reflected to
other mirrors and finally are com
bined in the eyepiece of the tele
scope, forming (die interference pat
tern.
Professor Michelson showed that
the interference pattern changed
when the distance between the two
mirrors was changed and that at a
certain critical distance the inter
ference fringes disappeared.
He showed further that this
critical distance had a direct rela
tion to the diameter of the star and
that the star’s diameter, therefore,
could be calculated once this dis
tance was known.
The smaller the star, the larger
the distance between the mirrors at
which the fringes disappear. Thi3
was why the twenty-foot interfer
ometer could only measure the
largest stars.
The fifty-foot interferometer will
not need the aid of the big tele
scope. It consists of a great fifty
foot bridge girder mounted on a
telescopic mounting of its own.
It contains all the mirrors and
optical parts needed for measure
ments. The stars measured with
the twenty-foot interferometer are
all giant red stars, known to as
tronomers as Type M giants.
The fifty-foot interferometer, ac
cording to Dr. Adams, will enable
the astronomers to make measure
ments on the next class of stars,
the Type K stars, thus opening up
a whole new field of study.
lsjTH£ ia -
MAINE JOINS UNION
Jan. 3
ON Jan. 3, 1820, congress passed
a bill to admit Maine as a
state.
The struggle over the admission
of Missouri into the Union had
brought about the necessity of ad
mitting a northern state to preserve
the balance of power, and on March
15, 1820, Maine Joined the Union.
Today also is the anniversary of
President Taft’s announcement of
his candidacy for re nomination, on
Jan. 3, 1912.
On Jan. 3, 1898, the United State*
treasury recalled all SIOO silver
certificates on account of counter
feits.
And on Jan. 3, 1861, the Delaware
legislature refused to Join the Con
federacy.