The Indianapolis times. [volume], December 17, 1932, Capital Edition, Page PAGE 4, Image 4

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

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PAGE 4
The Indianapolis Times
(A SCRtPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER)
ROT W. HOWARD Prwldeilt
I.OYD GURLEY Editor
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tft I t -
GO r Light n*i<f the
Pepl Witt rind
Their Own Way
SATURDAY. DEC. 17. I*B2 •
THE BEER TAX BILL
The house ways and means- committee is to be
congratulated on its sane, quick action in drafting
and reporting a measure to legalize and tax beer
of 3.2 per cent (by weight) 'alcoholic content. The
house will take it up in a few days with full debate,
and its passage appears certain.
Probably the senate also will fcass it and send it
to President Hoover for signature or veto.
The bill, sponsored by Chairman James W. Col
lier of the committee, a former dry, has been
drafted with the primary aim of raising revenue
to meet part of the deficit. Wisely the committee
incorporated the 3.2 per cent alcoholic content limit
as the point at which the most tax will be raised.
Experts, in the brewing business arid out, cer
tified that within this limit a palatable beer which
the American public Will buy can be produced.
The tax yield from the rate of $5 a barrel of
31 gallons is problematical, but experienced brew
ers certified that, on this basis, a 5 cent glass, and
a bottle selling for 10 cents or less, can be pro
duced and sold.
It may be possible for the industry to pay even
larger tax without boosting prices—even as the to
bacco industry now sells at 10 and 15 cents pack
ages of cigarets which pay a 6-cent internal reve
nue tax.
The rate of tax can be thrashed out in the de
bate on the floor, with an eve on $300,000,000 of the
federal deficit which should be met by the beer tax.
A PEACE STEP
While Americans have been thinking about debt
defaults and other matters closer home, there have
been important developments at Geneva in the
fight to save the world peace machinery from de
struction.
After initial evasion by the league, its committee
of nineteen has gone much farther than expected
in preparations to hold Japan responsible for the'
Manchuria conquest and to establish a treaty regime
in that war zone. ,
Under the resolution just passed, the committee
of conciliation has decided to base its work gen
erally on the facts set forth in the Lytton report,
and to ban diplomatic recognition of Japan's puppet
government of Manchukuo. •
This is an initial victory for the American policy.
Significantly, the committee has voted that the
United States and Russia be invited to join it in
seeking a solution of the Manchurian dispute. Next
to China and Japan, the interests of Russia and
the United States in the far Pacific are greatest.
Lack of peace co-operation among the league,
Russia and the United States has encouraged Jap
anese aggression for a year. A united peace front
now is imperative.
Officials of the committee are reported sounding
out the state department before extending the for
mal invitation. American acceptance of member
ship in the enlarged international committee of
twenty-one to preserve the (American) Pacific
treaty and the (American) Kellogg pact should be
definite and quick.
Delay would be interpreted by Japan as a re
treat from the American treaty policy.
EINSTEIN’S "RADICALISM
As the gentle genius, whom patrioteering ladies
tried to keep out of this country, lands oh our
shores, let us have a look at the “subversive” ideas
he harbors.
“My political ideal is democracy,” writes Dr.
Einstein.
“I am convinced that degeneracy follows every
autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably
attracts moral Inferiors. Time has proved that il
lustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.
“For this reason I always have been passionately
opposed to such regimes as exist in Russia and
Italy today . . .
“I believe that thcee in the United States have
hit upon the right idea. A President is chosen for
a reasonable length of time, and enough power is
given him to acquit himself properly of his re
sponsibilities. • . v .
In the German government, on the other hand,
I like the state's more extensive care of the indi
vidual when he is ill or unemployed. What is truly
valuable in our bustle of life is not the nation, I
should say, but the creative and impressionable in
dividuality, the personality.
“War is low and despicable, and I would rather
b smitten to shreds than participate in such
doings , ~
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is
the mysterioys.
“It is the source of all true art and science. He
to whom this emotion is a stranger, who no longer
can pause to wonder and stand wrapt in awe, is
as good as dead . * .**
ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
War debts, Manchurian. Questions, dissjrmament,
recognition of Russia, and the like are forcing our
country to take part in international discussion and
negotiations to a degree not exceeded since the close
of the World war.
Friends of tl\e League of Nations have stressed
this as another proof that the United States should
be in the league and able to make use of its organs
and its avenues of action. .
Whatever the weight of this argument, a pleb
iscite recently held in New England throws some
interesting oil the state of American opinion
relative to American participation. It usually has
been held that the entry of the United States into
the league would be immensely unpopular in this
country. , .
The avalanche that overwhelmed Cox in the
election of 1920, when he sponsored Wilsons policy,
still is remembered vividly. Even such veteran
'•leaguers’* as Governor Roosevelt and Newton D.
Baker handled the league problem last summer deli
cately and well protected by political gloves.
At the recent election, however, the following
question was submitted to all voters in one Norfolk
and three Middlesex representative districts in
easterq Massachusetts:
"Shall the representatives in the general court
from the ... district be instructed to vote to request
the President and the United States senate to enter
into full co-operation and membership in the League'
of Nations, with the explanatory reservation that
the United States shall not engage In any war with
any nation, except by vote of congress, as provided
in the United States Constitution, and such other
reservations as they deem wise?"
The vote was decidedly in favor of our entry
in the eleven towns which voted on this question.
The vote in Needham, Wellesley and Dedham was
8,87* to 3,783 in favor of joining; in Belmont 4,965
to 2,629; in Concord 1,139 to 637; In Waltham 5,750
to 3,389, in Watertown 5,401 to 3,477; in Weston 710
to 428, and so on through the list.
This plebiscite is, of course, no advance test of
American opinion as a whole, but it was certainly
held in an area more than averagely unfavorable
to international sentiment. It is the center of Amer
ican patriotic tradition—the area over which Paul
Revere traveled and where the shot was fired that
was heard around the world.
It was in these environs, moreover, that .Henry
•Cabot Lodge thundered against the league. .In any
event, the episode indicates the desirability of fur
ther samplings of American opinion on this impor
tant matter.
“CHEAP AMERICAN LABOR”
We are accustomed to hearing tariff advocates
demand that American workingmen be protected
against competition with the ‘‘pauper labor” of
Europe. It isn tso usual to find the shoe being put
on the other foot; and Lady Astor’s recent speech
, before the National Consumers’ League of New York,
therefore, comes as a rather unpleasant surprise.
Lady Astoi declared bluntly that ‘‘cheap Amer
ican labor” is hampering English efforts to get a
forty-eight-hour-week law through parliament.
She asserted that child labor in the American
textile industry produces so cheaply “that respect
able textile unionsts in Manchester can not meet
the mark and are being ruined by American labor.”
Here is a little unpalatable food for thought; but,
even though it is unpalatable, it might not hurt us
to digest it, anyway.
WHY THE FARMER WAILS
One reason why the farmer is not enjoying eco
nomic good health is touched upon in a statement
recently made by Horace Bowker, president of the
American Agricultural Chemical Company, who
pointed out that taxes on farm property nowadays
absorb nearly 12 per cent of the gross farm income
of the nation as compared with about 4 per cent
before the war. *
That item in itself is enoqgh to explain a very
sizable part of the agricultural depression. And
yet, when you stop to think about it, that is only
the beginning.
The farmer pays out three times as much in
taxes now as he did two decades ago; but, to make
matters worse, he has to do it with farm products
that are worth only about half as much.
This combination—a steady decrease % in com
modity prices and* a constant increase in fixed
charges—makes it very easy to see why the farmer
is desperately in earnest in his demands for relief.
If the average man devoted as little thought to
his business as he does to matrimony, says former
Judge Ben Lindsey, he’d speedily go bankrupt. Had
any one noticed any undue delay?
*
They frown on ball players playing the ponies,
but it s all right at this time of year for managers
to plank down $25,000 ofr so for a promising bush
league rookie^
>-
Some prefer a good name to great riches while
others get their biggest kick' out of a low auto
license number for 1933.
t*
One way for a man to convince his wife that
he keeps no secrets from her is to let her know that
the Kansas supreme court ruled the other day that
the “back-seat driver” not only has the right, but
the duty to interfere in motoring.
t
Our government should subsidize the theater,
says Yeats, the Irish playwright. Then, maybe,
troops could be used against those folks who have a
habit of interrupting the first act.
Men will walk out to sea to fight in the next war,
says J. E. Williamson, the underseas explorer. Pic
ture diving-suit doughboys chucking mermaids under
the chin and going A. W. O. L. off the Grand
Banks.
Just Plain Sense
===== BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON -
■\T7ILL the scarcity of jobs teach parents wisdom?
’ ’ During the last decade we have cheered the
children to sprint through high school. Satisfying,
T imagine, some deep personal ambition of our own,
we have watched Junior being graduated at 16 and
launched him into college at an unpropitious mo
ment.
Now anthropologists warn us that this is a tragic
mistake. To force the mentality of a child is as
bad, if not worse, as to force it to physical over
exertion.
Though you may succeed in cramming his head
with book facts, no youngster is able to hold his own
with maturity. And the 16-year-old, I care not how
brilliant he may be, lacks judgment and is not
capable of understanding the worth or the mean
ing of education.
It is unfortunate for the individual and for so
ciety that the high school graduate can not remain
out of college for a year or even two. Or at least
until he has some vague idea of the sort of course
he most desires and-needs.
It wouldn’t harm the children to stay quietly at
home for twelve months, if possible. Thus by leisure
they might learn something of the wonder and the
significance of living. And this would be the best
possible prelude for college.
# * K
A 8 It is. thousands 6f educational pearls are cast
before unappreciative adolescents. Long after
ward, when years have ripened their intellect, they
look back regretfully at the opportunities they passed
so blithely.
Girls especially should be spared the forcing sys
tem. To place any 16-year-old in a group composed
of 18 and 18-year-olds is to put her in a bad
psychological situation. She can have no friendly
contacts. For whatever educators may say, there is
a deep gulf fixed between the 16 and the 18-year
old girl. '
Whence comes this passionate desire to send our
children to the wolves of the world while they are
sc young? Have we forgotten that childhood and
adolescence are brief periods in a long, hard succes
sion of the years?
How much wiser we would prove ourselves if we
kept them at home longer and tried to educate them
for living, instead of pushing them post haste into
,college. a
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
Believe It or Not RerUtered IT. S. Patent Office By Ripley
(On request, sent with stamped addressed envelope, Mr. Ripley will furnish proof of anything depicted by him)
VJORDE, lr* fl, ~ of I. 1 ' ‘ J
1078 COUPLER- yOURMoTteu ~7 Mp | nSi I Iff
IS EXACTIV TWICE FIRST SOU Jf'|\
| |mJPjgip
I. JL ', c MORTEN ' ' *
? *** f ~ OOLVSBERG who lived ewrw in M \T- Ctffoa*
1952. King Fnmm Syndicate, .lm, Grew Bncait nefct* ...... . ...
Gravestone, in ann arbor/iic*,. 7l(£y all ejtmer live or have lived on the
OLI oi fer FAmily") STThomas CEMCTEiry SAME FARM in-WES. HEDEWRKEW, NORWAY
MI? 'TVo r>\r Qgtfc • THE foundation of; business
• ■ L/ * 1 Odyo. CAN’T BE MEASURED IN CASH
NEW YORK, Dec. 17.—The
best sign of recovery is anew
attitude of mind toward depres
sion *and the problems it involves.
People no longer are waiting for
miracles.
The idea that we all have to
' buckle down and help slowly is
gaining ground.
Business, as we call it, is not
an outside, impersonal force
which blesses or spanks us ac
cording to some caprice of in
scrutable fate.
Business is something that we
have created and that we must
maintain.
We think too much about busi
ness from the investment stand
point, from what we get out of
it in dollars and cents.
That is necessary on the pro
duction side, but it falls far short
of explaining why we have busi
ness.
In the end. our enterprises and
activities hark back to what
Views of Times Readers
Editor Times — • ■
T SUPPOSE the street car com
pany, now known as the Indi
anapolis Railway company, thinks
it has done a big thing for our city
by buying all those new street cars
and motor busses. If it really wanted
to do something for our people, it
would cut the fare to five cents, six
fares for a quarter. Then it really
would be doing something for the
people’s benefit and would have
twice as ifiany riding their cars and
busses.
I, myself, drive my car because,
with the present fare, it is cheaper
to drive, but if the fare was re
duced to five cents, I would ride
the cars and busses and profit.
A READER OF THE TIMES.
u
Editor Times —
THE people, the country over, are
howling for repeal ' of the
eighteenth amendment. They pre
tend to thihk this will bring back
“good times” to our country. ,
The eighteenth amendment prob
ably was passed prematurely. But,
if the people who voted for it in
the first place would have stood up
and fought for it, it would have
been a success. •
These voters put citizens in the
public offices who were unreliable.
With unreliable officers, no law can
be enforced. I think if our coun
try can not enforce a law that the
people know is right and just, we
might as well pull down our flag
and quit.
The people are saying that dt
costs too much to enforce that law.
If we had reliable officers, why
would it cost much more to enforce
one more law. Os course, if a man
is caught for making, selling or
hauling liquor and is not punished
properly, why should he be afraid
to do it again?
Again we say that our govern
ment needs the money that could
be collected in revenue on liquor.
The government could make great
sums of money by selling narcotics.
Why not do that? Why shouldn't
—'" DAILY HEALTH SERVICE ■ ..
Jokers Spread Cowhage Itch
BY. DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN
POPULAR superstition as well
as medical attention have
provided a considerable number
of anecdotes relative to the sprink
ling of cowhage by practical jok
ers, with resultant extraordinary
manifestations on the part of
those who have been subjected to
the action of this plant.
Cowhage “itch” is not a com
mon condition in the United
States and its “spread” is attrib
uted to jokers with a warped
sense of humor.
It is due to a plant that' be
longs to the bean family, a trop
ical plant with a climbing vine.
This vine develops a pod from
three to six inches long and about
one inch wide, which contains six
to edght seeds.
The pod is covered with innu-
people need and want by way of
improved living conditions.
nun
Can't Measure in Cash
IN the end, about every kind of
product and service reaches
a p*int where it pays no divi
dends, save in the satisfaction
which people find in it.
Take a pair of shoes, for in
stance, ahd the person who wears
them gets no interest on his or
her money. We believe that shoes
are worth while. But, in the end,
they earn no dividends, except as
they add to our health and com
fort.
The foundation of business can
not be measured in terms of
money.
It goes without saying that the
manufacturer of bathtubs must
make a profit not only to meet
pay rolls, but to attract the needed
capital. Those who actually use
people be allowed to use powerful
drugs”
We would raise an awful row if
something like that was proposed.
We should raise just as big a row
to keep the eighteenth amendment
from being repealed.
If we, who claim to be Christians,
do not do all within our power to
prevent the repeal of this noble
law, I feel that we will be held ac
countable for it at the judgment.
If the |ighteenth amendment is
repealed, it not only will be a back
ward step, but a downward step, for
our country. Are we, as citizens of
the United States, willing to see our
county going toward destruction?
If not, do all within your power to
prevent It. a. E. S.
Every Day Religion
====== BY DR. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON -
'T'O practice the Golden Rule
asks for love and wisdom, but
also for the imagination to put
ourselves in the place of another,
to . sit where he sits and see things
from his angle. \
To the promptings of love we
must add “the moral obligation
to be intelligent,” also we run a
risk of injuring our fellow-man
by helping make him greedy, self
ish, exacting and as flabby as a
jellyfish, if not a miserable para
site. .
A case in point is the story of
the life of Samuel Butler, the
•famous author of “The Way of
-All Flesh,” of his dealings with
his friend Pauli. He met his
friend in New Zealand, and, as
Pauli was in bad health and poor,
Butler paid his way to England,
and agreed to give him a thou
sand dollars a year for three
years, while he studied law.
Butler fulfilled his promise not
only for three years, but for
thirty-three years, often when he
himself was poor.
Editor Journal of the American Medi
cal Association and of HTfeia, the
Health Magazine.
merable fine reddish hairs , which
can come off and be blown by the
wind on to the skin of human
beings.
-# m a
'T'HESE hairs apparently are
very irritating to the skin
and produce on contact an In
tolerable itching. Apparently
there is within each hair a series
of cells containing an oily sub
stance.
On the outside of the hair are
little hooks. The little hooks at
tach the hair to the skin and the
oily substance is exceedingly irri
tating.
Dr. R. B. Moreland described
them, however, must look for re
turns in another way.
The real profit consists in prog
ress as determined by improved
health, greater comfort and in
creased ability to enjoy life.
u n *
Consumption Is Basis
W'E have talked a great deal
about buying power during
the last few years, but largely as
though it were something which
A few could confer on the many.
People learned to make and de
sire things before they built fac
tories, or formed corporations.
They must continue if they want
more factories and more corpo
rations.
Consumption, as transformed
and increased through a steady
drive for improvement all along
the line, is the basis of modern
industry.
When it can not be encouraged
by higher wages, it must be en
couraged with lower prices,
When consumption falls off,
there is obivious need for read
justment.
* tt
Perspective Better
SUCH a need was apparent from
the beginning of this depres
sion, but we stubbornly refused to'
recognize it.
Now we are beginning to re
trench on the one hand, and put
forth greater efforts 'on the other.
Everywhere, one can feel the
urge of a healthier perspective.
Instead of waiting for help, we
are beginning to help ourselves.
Instead of crying for credit, we
are trying to make better use of
what we have.
The old will to do and the old
belief that it can be done are
making their reappearance. That
means that the crisis has been
passed.
IN secret, Pauli earned at times
$4,000 a year, and died leaving
an estate of $45,000, without re
membering Butler in his will. The
point is not the injury done to
Butler, bad as that was, but the
injury to the man who sinned
against him —a sin eneburaged
by an extraordinary kindness,
until his soul must have been
rotten within him. Butler, who
did not profess to be a Chris
tian, said very simply:
“I felt pretty sure I was doing
a great deal too much, but I had
rather have done a great deal
too much than a little too little.
My conscience is absolutely clear
of all offense toward him, save
that of having made it so deplor
ably easy to do things- which, if I
had made them harder, he would
have been less likely to do.” .
Os course, such a case is as
exceptional as it was outrageous,
but it goes to show that we may
do good in a stupid, easy-going
way, and actually do more harm
than good.
Copyright, 19?2 United Feature Syndicate)
the case of a man who sat down
in his bare skin on a seat upon
whidh a number of the hairs from
the tropical plant concerned had
been deposited.
He entered the office of the
physician running, disheveled and
breathless, and complained of
itching so intense that it was in
tolerable.
The physician immediately ap
plied alkaline washes with some
antiseptic and the itching stopped
in about two hours.
Apparently the hairs or cow
hage powder had been placed
where it would cause trouble by
malicious "people who were trying
to revenge themselves on the
owner of the building in which
the incident occurred.
It .Seems to Me:
■ *
BY HEYWOOD BROUN
“T ONDON.—A member of the house of com
i_ymons protested today against the use of
tabasco, on the ground that the sauce is of
American manufacture. The chairman of the
kitchen committee promised to find a British
substitute.” ,
The debt discussion nfcjv has reached the
silly stage, and there will be other ridiculous
incidents to come. Somebody in a French
restaurant will start a riot because he sees
chicken ala Maryland on the menu, and Will
Rogers will suggest the elimination of Brussels sprouts here because
Belgium has defaulted on the debt.
In one generation we. shall see the transition from "brave little
Belgium” to bitter cartoons on "the small busted nations.”
I would like to see the humorous side of the vast commotion, which
is going on and which will increase in volume until the nations of the
world have the good sense to sit down and talk things over.
n a
Enough Blunders to Go Around
\ •
I HAVE made no secret of the fact that in my opinion America has
blundered in its unwillingness to participate in a general debt and
economic discussion. But it would be foolish to pretend that all the
bad judgment has been cornered in this quarter of the globe.
French deputies are practical politicians in the same sense as
American congressmen. France has its Hiram Johnsons, its Hearsts,
and its rope toscers, as well as America.
When the chamber of deputies voted to default the nineteen million
dollar debt payment due at this time, it acted in precisely the same way
as an American congress under the same emotional strain. The voice
of wisdom was not heeded in the chamber—not even the heroic voice of
Herriot. The shouts of the crowds milling outside w'ere more potent
in the ears of the politicians.
It would have been wiser all around for France to have made the
payment with the distinct reservation that nothing more would be
paid unti. the whole subject had been opened up again for discussion.
It is well to remember that nineteen million, while it raav sound
like a large sum to the individual, is a pretty small white chip in the
matter of international finance.
I can net evpn find the consolation of being able to say. “It had to
come sooner or la er: why not now?” a year from now would have
been so much better.
The last lame-auck congress marks a very tragic flaw in our
governmental -structure. We have before us a vital problem in inter
national relations, and there is no one with full authority to meet it.
Obviously Mr Hoover is in no position to conduct anything more
than the merest stop-gap sort of negotiations, and Governor Roosevelt
made the great mistake of refusing any close co-operation until his
induction into office. There is a knocking at the door, and the best
that we can say is: "The boss isn't in. He won't be here until March.”
* # tr
They Didn't Know What They Wanted
TTOWEVER, the r s is one grain of comfort. Even though the situa-
AI tion has come about prematurely, we are faced with a condition
and not a theory, it is a condition which should not surprise any
man with an ounce of information about foreign affairs.
The American public is both startled and angry, but I beg Amer
icans not to vent el! their Wrath, on our European neighbors. Save a
little for the liars at home who have been going up and down the
land spreading a *tcry which is now shown up in all its falsity..
The voters were told by hundreds of congressmen that nothing was
needed io collect the debt except a stern ana resolute attitude and the
constant reiteration on the phrase "no cancellation.” Thousands of
words were spilled on the justice and the necessity of making Europe
pay every last penny. *
But none of these orators naused for breath long enough to sug
gest just what bent fit we would get out of the stern and unyielding
attitude when Europe didn’t pay.
nun
No Time for Blinking
"VT 0 sane man can blink the fact now that the French default is the
i-N beginning of the end. it is as certain as taxes that the full
scheme of payments never will be carried out. And that always was
certain.
By negotiation we might have saved something from the wreck
By now even that is doubtful. The pay-to-thc-last-nickel boys have
their default What are they going to do with it?
It will yield, T should say, about 500 poupds of rancor and ill will
to the ton. There will be by-products of boycotts, distrust, and suspi-
Cl ° n ' . es : lt s a rich or ?> but all the things which can be smelted
out of it already are vastly overproduced in the world.
n ? ? 0t an “ conomi3t '> bu t 1 have a remedy to suggest. First of
ail, lets stop making faces at 6ne another. Let's stop writing notes
And then whv not sit down around a table, call for Gus the waiter
and r ow? i ” Say ' Wcll, k° ys ’ we re all in on this together. What do we
(Copyright. 1932. bv The Times)
~ SCIENCE
Honor Merited by Hale
BY DAVID DIETZ
Announcement that the
much-coveted Copley medal
of the Royal Society of London
has been awarded to Dr. George
Ellery Hale will be received with
satisfaction by all students of
astronomy. For Dr. Hale, honor
ary director of the Mt. Wilson
observatory, is one of the great
est figures in the world of as
tronomy.
Dr. Hale has performed a three
fold service to the world of as
tronomy. First of all, he has
been an indefatigable research
worker, making many discoveries
of primary importance.
Second, he has been a wise or
ganizer and executive, making it
possible for other astronomers to
carry on their work under ideal
conditions.
Third, he has been an inventor
and instrument designer, furnish
ing new instruments of research
which have been of service to as
tronomers of the whole world.
The Copley medal was awarded
to Dr. Hale specifically for his
work upon the magnetic field of
the sun. Dr. Hale was the first
to establish the fact that the sun
spots are gigantic magnets.
This piece of work gave the
world of science anew under
standing of the nature of sunspots
and solar phenomena in general.
It made the connection between
sunspots and terrestial magnetic
storms-'and the aurora borealis
more understandable.
/* * *
At Mt. Wilson
DR. HALE S great feat of or-
I ganizing was formation of
the Mt. Wilson observatory. His
chief invention was the spectro
heliograph. It was with the spectro
heliograph at Mt. Wilson that Dr.
Hale carried on his famous studies
of the sun.
The Carnegie Institution of
Washington was founded by An
drew Carnegie on Jan. 28. 1902.
Dr. stale, then at the Yerkes ob
servatory, was drafted to organize
the Mt. Wilson observatory as one
of the branches of the institution.
Today, the observatory is one of
the best known in the world and
the owner of the world’s largest
telescope.
When Dr. Hale built the Mt.
Wilson observatory, he introduced
anew plan of action into observa
tory procedure.
Most observatories start with
certain equipment. The sort of
work which the observatory can
do is limited as a result to the
available equipment.
Dr. Hale made a machine shop
a part of the observatory’s equip
ment. He realized that instrument
design and research went hand in
hand and wanted to make it pos
sible for the observatory to build
the instruments needed for the
problems which it became desira
ble to investigate.
The spectroheliograph is a de
vice which Wakes it possible to
photograph the sun in a single
-DEC. 17, 1932
S~ '
BROUR
wave-length of light. Since each
line in the spectrum is due to some
specific chemical element in the
sun, this made it possible to ob
tain photographs which showed
the distribution of any given ele
ment in the sun's atmosphere.
Thus it was possible to obtain
photographs showing the distri
bution of hydrogen, or helium or
calcium, and so on.
* n *
Tower Telescopes
TN the early days of the Mt.
A Wilson observatory, Dr. Hale
turned his attention to design of
new apparatus for the study of
the sun.
He realized that the ordinary
telescope is not adapted to study
of the sun.
s The big lens or mirror of a
giant telescope is a light-gath
erer. Now, hr the case of the sun,
there is too much light to start
with.
It is impossible for the observer
to look at the sun tjniess his eye
is protected by dark screens
which cut out most of the sun's
light.
What was needed was a tele
scope of extremely long focal
length, so that very iarge images
of the sun could be obtained
Accordingly, Dr. Hale designed
his famous tower telescopes. The
first was. seventy-five feet high
This worked so successfully that
a second, 150 feet high, was built.
The tower telescope is a great
steel tower, with a dome on top
and a little house at the base. A
long tube connects the dome with
the house.
A system of mirrors in the
dome catches the image of the
sun and sends it down the long
tube to the little house, where it
is brought to a focus.
Beneath each little house is a
deep well, witl\ spectographic
equipment at its bottom. The
well below the 150-foot tower is
seventy-five feet deep.
The tower telescope not only
furnishes unusually clear photos
of the sun, but when combined
with the spectroscope or the
spectroheliograph give astrono
mers their most powerful instru
ment for the study of the sun.
It was with the tower telescopes
that Dr. Hale discovered the mag
netic nature of sunspots by prov
ing that the spectrum lines of
the sunspots were double, an ef
fect which is the result of a pow
erful magnetic field.
Daily Thought
. -Be careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and suppli
cation with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known unto God.
—Philippians 4:6. !
SOLICITUDE “is *he audience
chamber of God.—Landor.