The Indianapolis times. [volume], May 26, 1936, Final Home Edition, Second Section, Image 13

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

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Tt Seems to Me
HEYMBM
CINCINNATI, May 26.—1 t may be the
roar of the locomotive or the sight of
telegraph poles flashing by, but something
or other makes me more than usually talk
ative when I ride on trains. That’s why I
can’t sleep. Along about four in the morn
ing I Invariably find myself in the club car with
one reluctant listener.
He wants to go to bed but I impale him with an
accusing forefinger and exclaim,
“And furthermore, I think you
ought to know, and I propose to
tell you!”
The minute I get on a train
I begin to look around for a vic
tim. I try to get some man who
is sitting at a table. Part of the
strategy is to let him begin the
discussion. All I need is to have
the fellow marked as prey make
some simple observation such as,
“It looks as if they need some
rain out here.”
a tt n
Leaping With an Answer
Heywood Broun
WITH that as a lead I leap in and answer, “They
certainly need rain around here, but even more
they need an amendment to the United States Con
stitution. Do you realize that decisions such as the
Triple A opinion, the Guffey verdict and the findings
in the North Dakota tax case have established in
this country a No Man’s Land in which neither
the Federal nor the state government is allowed to
function. If we do not take action soon, democracy
will die, because some Fascist leader will avail him
self of misery and chaos by promising quick and di
rect action rather than the slow and tedious process
of amendment.”
It doesn’t matter very much whether the audience
says “Yes” or “No” or “Do tell.” In almost every
instance I cut him short and continue. “And the
chief difficulty in amending the Constitution is that
the process seems to be relegated to that limbo of
time which obtained in regard to Alice’s jam.”
Sometimes the man across the table says, “What
Alice?” or, “What jam?” But it doesn’t matter par
ticularly because I always go on to say, “You re
member, of course, that in Wonderland Alice found
that she could get jam yesterday or jam tomorrow
but never get jam today. And in somewhat similar
fashion the progressive forces of this country are
forever saying, ‘Of course, we must have a constitu
tional amendment, but this isn’t the right time to
start the agitation.’
“Do you realize, my friend, that the average Amer
ican pays very scant attention to economic or politi
cal issues except in a presidential year?
“The repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment is cited
to prove the contention that amendment is really
fairly simple once the people have made up their
minds. But this is not a fair analogy to the situa
tion in which we now find ourselves. Repeal be
came a campaign issue and was freely discussed.
The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt spurred on the
process of change.
“And again, there could be no great dispute as
to the kind of amendment needed to restore legal
liquor. Today much of the drive behind the move
ment to enable Congress to legislate for labor and
for the farmer is vitiated by the fact that there are
three dozen different kinds of amendments being
proposed. The eagerness for change defeats itself
by spawning too many separate panaceas.
tt tt tt
Nothing Quite So Topsy-Turvy
IF there is to be an amendment it certainly should
be broad enough in its scope to enable the na
tional legislators to curb child labor. Nothing is
quite so topsy-turvy in our land as the fact that
millions of children are being sweated and exploited
while 12,000,000 adults stand along the sidelines
without jobs. The fact that child labor is increas
ing during the very depth of an unemployment crisis
stamps us as being almost insane in the handling of
our affairs.
“If anybody tells me that the founding fathers
would be against the abolition of child labor I can
only say that the founding fathers would be utterly
wrong.”
And suddenly I look up and find I am talking to
an empty chair. My listener has disappeared. Per
haps he was bored. Or perhaps it was the ghost of
Jefferson heeding some sound advice.
Suspense Lacking
in G. O. P. Picture
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
WASHINGTON, May 26.—Stop Landon talk per
sists and probably will continue to appear un
til the nomination is made at Cleveland. But it is
talk rather than activity. The talk results from the
fact that there isn't much else to write about with
regard to the Republican convention. It is the only
way politicians and political writers can pump any
suspense into the Republican convention situation.
Landon's strength and the probability of his
nomination rest on three circumstances:
Firse, a sizable block of delegates, not by any
means a majority, but a bigger squad than any other
candidate has.
Second, he almost invariably ran far ahead of the
field in every’ test of strength and every straw vote,
thus indicating considerable latent strength which
has not yet found its way into the delegate tabula
tions.
Third, the fact that no considerable number of
party leaders are willing to assume the responsibility
for trying to head off the favorite, tie up the nomi
nation and decide the deadlock in a hotel room.
Nearly every one wants a quick and enthusiastic
nomination. It is not likely that the convention will
be in any mood to cast aside the one man who has
aroused popular interest.
The continued stubbornness of Charles D. Hilles
of New York and other Old Guard holdouts is not
due to any hope of preventing Landon’s nomination.
They realized some time ago that they had missed
the boat. Now they are waiting to determine
whether any concessions will be made to bring them
into line.
They are an unhappy group. A year ago they
foresaw a miscellaneous field of candidates out of
which they could pick a nominee. Party sentiment
got out of hand and went for Landon in spite of
them. They suffered the same unhappy fate in 1928
when they tried to stop Hoover and continued their
futile efforts long after every one else knew’ Hoover
would be nominated. Asa result some of them
never fully made their way into the good graces of
the Hoover Administration. Naturally they are de
pressed at having failed again to see the bandwagon
coming down the road.
tt tt •
SIGNS of the long-expected break in the New York
delegation have appeared. One upstate delegate,
John C. Clark of Binghamton, declared for Landon
a few days ago. He is an ally of Melvin C. Eaton,
New York Republican state chairman.
Landon people believe Clark's move was an over
ture from the camp of the state chairman, and an
Indication that the upstate crowd has decided not to
wait for Hilles to make up his mind.
Long and patient search of Republican National
Committee campaign publicity material, extending
over months, has finally yielded a substantial nugget.
A press release has just come in with this devastat
ing statistic:
“The total male population, of voting age, west of
the Mississippi River is a million less than the total
unemployed in the United States.”
London probably will be placed in nomination by
a Kansan. Three are under consideration—John D.
Hamilton, Landon campaign manager; former State
Senator Fred M. Harris, and William Allen White,
who appears to be the best bet provided his health
permits.
So far sa ean be learned no commitments regard
ing the vice presidential nomination have been made.
That is being held back as a hole card in case any
thing becomes unstuck at Cleveland and a special
SMOKING OUT THE CANDIDATES
* * tt tt a tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt
Borah Would Balance Budget, Shorten Hours, Check Farm Imports
This is the second of a series of articles, “Smoking Oat the Candi
dates,” written by Frazier Hunt, world famous reporter, for NEA Serv
ice and The Indianapolis Times, in which are presented the answers
of Republican presidential possibilities to the same ten questions on
vital issues of the day.
tt tt tt
BY FRAZIER HUNT
(Copyright. 1938, NEA Service, Inc.)
gENATOR BORAH was the second candidate for the
Republican presidential nomination to face my list of
the 10 most important problems that confront America.
When I sprang them on the Old Lion of the Senate, *
who can still roar and still bite, he shook his mane and
growled a hearty approval: “Sure I’ll answer them. I’ll
answer any and all questions that the rest of them will
answer. But hold on here, you haven’t anything in this
list about the Wagner-Costigan anti-lynching bill. I’m
taking the rap because I’ve got nerve
enough to say openly that it’s unconstitu
tional. Smoke these other fellows out
about that item.”
I explained that it was too late to add to my
10 questions, and that I’d have to let them ride
as they were. He growled a bit over that, but his
inherent sense of fairness made him ste the cor
rectness of my position. You can always depend
on the Borah type of ruggfed honesty.
“All right,” I went on “How about this first,
question?”
“Wait until this Ohio primary is over,” he in
sisted. “Come avound then and I’ll work out this
stuff with you.’’
When I saw him a week or two later and slipped
the typewritten list to him he glanced over it and
Hunt
then ran his capable right hand through his still tawny mane.
‘ Say, Hunt,” he pronounced, “it’d take me two weeks to handle
fully this innocent-looking bunch of dynamite crackers you’ve got
here. Why a man would need a thousand words to answer that single
No. 4 question about our currency problems. . . . But I’ll try my best
anyway.”
Mr. Borah travels by himself.
Besides being the Old Lion he’s
the Lone Wolf of the Senate. And
by some mysterious formula he
seems to have successfully evaded
that persistent enemy of man
kind known as The Ravages of
Time.
tt tt
TT was 17 years ago when I first
X met Senator Borah, and except
for a few more wrinkles, a little
less hair and possibly an extra
chin or two, he hasn’t changed
a bit. He can get just as en
raged, and he can pound his desk
just as hard, and his eyes can
blaze just as magnificently as
back in 1919.
At 70 he still can outride or
outwalk the ordinary man with
a mere half-century to his credit.
Long experience has made him
an even more effective debater
than ever before. He still has his
championship wallop.
He continues to be the No. 1
thorn in the side of the Repub
lican Old Guard. Only he him
self knows whether or not he’ll
“take a walk” if Mr. Landon is
nominated at Cleveland.
And it’s highly probably that he
hasn’t made up his own mind as
yet. If he does break out, it’ll
be fun to listen to him roaring
and tearing through the political
jungle.
Meantime, it’s interesting to
study the Senator’s answers to
the 10 questions.
tt tt tt
1 DO YOU favor balancing the
budget? If so, do you advocate
reducing relief expenditures or in
creasing taxes? If by taxes, what
kind? If not by taxes, how?
I favor balancing the budget.
That is a sound principle which
should alw’ays be maintained when
practically possible. But I would
not favor increasing taxes for that
purpose. In so far as it is possible
to balance the budget through re
ducing expenditures, that should
LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND
BY DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM
JfIWU 11%/ INDICATE
/%*••**•l V 11/} 'fOOR INTELLI6EMCE &ETf&R.]MAH
lljfaL NoUR ‘ AM-fIY?
—Kftec <x tooE
1 AENIPW THAN B0Y6?
A \b 72. B6AV6
TenPc** temperature leToo HOT. aw
* 6IAI£M6NT6 BE PROVED M LOCMCAL RE*bONIN6? il |in
IIN A fine discussion of this
problem by E. J. Roeihslis
berger, Harvard School of Business,
in the Personnel Journal, he points
out that A’s statement can be
proved or disproved with a ther
mometer—the strict logic of fact.
But even if you prove to B that the
temperature is below zero, it does
not disprove his statement because
he feels too hot and that ends all
argument.
m
IT INDICATES your “general
** intelligence” or “general men
tal alertness” better than mechani
cal ability does because it covers a
vastly w’ider range of mental ac
tivity and behavior and is the chief
means for expressing the mental and
emotional life. Mechanical intelli
gence is a very large phase of in
telligence but ooany of the great
thinkers have been poor mechanics.
A man may be a fine mechanic but,
without high general intelligence,
which is best indicated by his abil
ity to use language, he can not be
The Indianapolis Times
be done. But unemployment must
be taken care of, and the extent
to which expenditures can be re
duced is wholly problematical. It
is rather difficult to determine.
However, I have no doubt that a
great waste and unnecessary ex
penditures exist.
tt tt tt
2 SHOULD relief be by direct
cash payments or as wages?
Should relief be paid for and ad
ministered by the Federal govern
ment or by the states, or both?
Relief must be adjusced ac
irg to the conditions prevailing in
different communities. I favor it
being done by the Federal govern
ment, although I think that the
individual states should have
much more to do with the admin
istration of relief than at the
present time.
tt tt tt
3 HOW should the problem of
permanent unemployment and
care of the aged and unemployed
be handled?
I am in favor of old-age pen
sions. The amount is the only
question in debate. I do not con
cede that there should be any
permanent unemployment if we
had an economic situation with
out monopolistic control. There is
no more necessity to have perma
nent unemployment than to have
contagious diseases. Proper treat
ment will get rid of both.
tt tt it
A Do you favor further devalua
tion at present gold content?
Do you believe in any form of
currency change, currency infla
tion or credit inflation, a return to
the gold standard, the remoneti
zation of silver or a managed cur
rency.
The money question is so in
volved that it would require a
most extensive discussion. I am
against both inflation and defla
tion. I am in favor of the govern
ment itself coining money and
come an engineer. Mechanical in
telligence is probably pretty clearly
separated from vocabulary intelli
gence or the intelligence by which
we grasp abstract things such as the
meaning of words or the solution
of problems in numbers.
tt tt
3 DR. CATHARINE COX MILES,
Yale psychologist, in an ex
haustive tabulation and interpreta
tion of the numerous tests and
studies of tthe differences of the
sexes, entitled "Sex in Social Psy
chology,” concludes that tests, to
date, show girls are on the average
consistently superior to boys in
memory. * One of the best studies
is still that made in 1918 by L. W.
Pressly, psychologist, on 2544 school
children between the ages of 9 to 16.
Especially in logical memory, that is
the ability to read a paragraph and
remember the main ideas in a con
nected way, the girls exceeded the
boys.
NEXT—Are 1 Women of 35 and
Older .Good Marriage Risks?.
TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1936
/~n /
Senator William Edgar Borah
regulating the value thereof as
provided in our Constitution.
tt tt tt
5 Do you favor any program
whose aim is to control or fix
wages, working hours or a shorter
work week?
I favor a shorter work week.
tt tt tt
6 Do you favor an amendment
.to the Constitution authoriz
ing the Federal government to
deal with economic and social
Washington Merry-Go-Round
BY DREW PEARSON AND ROBERT S. ALLEN
TTTASHINGTON, May 26.
’ * Some of the bright inner
circle boys have figured out how
Harry Hopkins, the President’s
fair-haired favorite, can be made
a Cabinet member.
They would have to create a
new department, made of inde
pendent bureaus and agencies
from other departments, to be
known as the Department of So
cial Welfare.
The idea is not anew one; it
has been advocated by govern
ment reorganizers in the past.
There is a lot to be said for the
idea. Scattered throughout the
government structure are numer
ous agencies dealing with various
phases of social welfare, which
advantageously could be brought
under a single administrative
head.
For example: The Public Health
Service is in the Treasury, the
financial branch of the govern
ment. The Children’s and Wom
en’s bureaus are in the Labor De
partment, while the Office of Edu
cation and the Board of Voca
tional Education are under the
jurisdiction of the Interior De
partment. The Social Security
Board and the Relief Adminis
tration are independent.
tt tt tt
THE inner circle proposal is to
create anew (eleventh) de
partment out of all these units
with allied interests.
Proponents of the plan claim
that the President looks on it with
favor—particularly the idea of
putting Hopkins at its head. It
is certain that the program will
be seriously urged if Roosevelt is
re-elected. However, it will be
strenuously resisted by some of
his Cabinet prima donnas.
Stripping the Labor Department
of the Children’s and Women’s
Bureaus would leave Madame
Secretary Perkins with a skeleton
department. Extremely sensitive
about any diminution of her au
thority, she can be depended upon
to fight the removal of the two
bureaus from her control.
Secretary Ickes also has shown
no disposition to give up any ad
ministrative jurisdiction.
On the other hand, Chairman
John Winant of the Social Se
curity Board is friendly to the
idea of a Social Welfare Depart
ment, and would offer no objec
tion to making his agency a part
of such a setup.
If created, the new department
would be one of the largest and
most powerful divisions of the
government, ranking with the
Treasury and State Departments
in importance.
a tt m
T TNTTL charges of mail fraud
U sent Dr. Francis E. Townsend
stalking defiantly out of the
House committee room, the lowa
country doctor who started the
Old-Age Pension movement proved
one of the sassiest and most suc
cessful witnesses to appear before
a congressional cor. mittee in re
cent years. He had the commit
tee gasping by the frankness of
his answers.
Here are some sample cross
fires directed by and at Con
gressmen Hoffman (Mich.), Bell
(Mo.), Cavagan (N. Y.) and Lu
cas (111.):
Bell—You still own more than
50 per cent of the Prosperity Pub
lishing Cos, And you say. it is
ULi,, ....
problems, national in scope, or of
limiting the courts as to their
right to declare laws of Congress
unconstitutional?
I do not favor an amendment to
the Constitution which would de
prive the states of the power to
deal with internal, economic and
social problems. The question is
asked: If I favor amending the
Constitution to deal with social
problems national in scope. I am
of the opinion we do not need
an amendment if the problems are
worth millions. But you solely
control the corporation, do you
not?
Townsend—l propose to con
tinue to do so.
Bell—You have expressed a de
sire to get your counsel a seat in
Congress.
Townsend —Certainly. I would
be delighted to see him here.
Cavagan—You presume that
under the California law you
could take the assets of ORAP?
Townsend—We could not take
them.
Cavagan—When did you come
to that presumption?
Townsend—May I ask my at
torney to enlighten you on the
California statutes?
Cavagan—l do not need any
enlightenment!
Hoffman—Did you ever say you
were the embodiment of Jesus
Christ?
Townsend —No.
Hoffman—Why did you refer
to “the apparent unfriendliness
of this committee?”
Townsend—ls I may be per
mitted to elucidate: It has ap
peared to me from the beginning
that this committee is more in
terested in besmirching the char
acter of people than ascertaining
anything of truth concerning the
virtues of the movement.
tt tt tt
'T'HE new surgeon general of
the United States Public
Health Service is a brilliant, in
tense young man who believes in
calling a spade a spade, in giv
ing “social diseases” their proper
names.
Other countries are not afraid
of the words says Surgeon Gen
eral Thomas Parran. The Amer
ican public, he continues, must
discard its parlor manners and
speak of venereal diseases with
CWH Ab® IM* IT • by LyWy
*‘lf K your kid gets any fancy notions from the show — don’t
. , say I didn’t warn you” n'irti>nn-
national in scope—that power al
ready belongs to the national gov
ernment. I certainly do not favor
limiting the power of the Supreme
Court to pass upon the constitu
tionality of acts of Congress. That
would destroy constitutional gov
ernment.
tt tt tt
7 Do you favor modification or
suspension of the anti-trust
laws to enable business men to
get together; (a) To agree on
trade practices; (b) To agree on
labor relations; (c) To agree on
control of production; (and) To at
tempt to fix prices?
I do not favor any modification
or suspension of the anti-trust
laws. I would strengthen them
and enforce them. Under the
decisions of the Supreme Court,
business men may now get to
gether in regard to certain trade
practices and labor matters, and
it is not necessary, in my judg
ment, or in the interests of the
country that any greater au
thority shall be given in this re
spect.
tt tt tt
8 What is your remedy for the
farmer? Do you favor the
curtailment of production, indus
trial or agricultural?
In the matter of agriculture, I
do not favor reduction of produc
tion. If the American people
could buy what they actually need
for a decent standard of living,
there would be no overproduction
on the farm. I would say in this
connection that the American mar
ket belongs exclusively to the
American farmer to the extent
of his ability to supply it. I would
not favor the importation of
farm products so long as the
American farmer has a surplus of
farm products.
tt tt tt
9 Are you in favor of the policy
of making reciprocal trade
treaties to encourage foreign trade
or reduce tariff walls?
I am definitely in favor of all
treaties and trade agreements be
ing made by Congress, and against
the idea of any trade treaties or
agreements being made without
the approval of the Senate.
tt u tt
j A Do you favor a policy of
XV/ public power development;
the continuance or expansion
of TVA, and control of utilities
through the utilities holding com
pany act?
I favored the Utilities Hold
ing Act.
Next—Col. Frank Knox.
the same candor as tuberculosis
or small-pox.
Parran sees a break in public
sentiment on the subject in the
last few months. Only a year ago
a broadcasting agency banned a
speech of his because it used the
word “syphilis.” But last Febru
ary, a similar speech was allowed
in uncensored form.
He finds that a similar change
has occurred in newspaper policy.
Many editors now admit free dis
cussion of the subject, whereas
they used to allow only veiled ref
erences under the polite name,
“social disease.”
tt tt tt
■fITHEN tne Commerce Depart
or the NRA it inherited an air
cooling machine which Blue Eagle
employes gave Gen. Johnson as
a birthday gift, plus a refrigera
tor in which he kept food in his
office. Little Robbie, his secretary,
used to cook his meals adjacent
to his office. . . . Most expert
gardeners in the Cabinet are Sec
retary of the Interior Ickes (in
ventor of new varieties of gla
dioli), Assistant Secretary of
Stats Sumner Welles, and Secre
tary of Commerce Roper. Roper
is a specialist in old-fashioned
Southern gardens. . . . The Food
and Drug Administration recently
fined a patent medicine manu
facturer $75 for claiming his prod
ucts would . . . “cure run-down
and debilitated conditions, acido
sis, anemia, stomach ulcers, colitis,
high blood pressure, obesity, rheu
matism, neuritis, constipation,
backache, purify the blood, bow
els, kidneys and bladder, and cre
ate an appetite.” The FDA
found the product to be a mixture
of water, laxative and an iron
solution.
(Copyright, 1936. by United Feature
Syndicate. Inc.)
Second Section
Entered ns Second-Class Matter
at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.
Fair Enough
WESICMPMEt
May 26.—Prophecy is
not my line but I dare say that the
American people have a better than even
chance to play host for four more years to
Senator Wild Will Lyons, the executive as
sistant to the Postmaster General and the
great American guest. Senator Lyons occupies an
office close to that of James Farley in which he
performs his public services in return for the salary
pertaining to one of the first ap
pointments that Mr. Farley signed
after coronation day, March 4,
1932. These duties consist of clip
ping x and pasting in scrap books
all the articles and cartoons that
he can find in the papers relating
to Mr. Farley and himself and of
keeping the Postmaster General
amused. This latter phase of his
work is surely a worthwhile pub
lic project, though hardly to be
classed as self-liquidating. Mr.
Lyons has worn the title of Sena
tor for many years, explaining
that he was for a spell in his
early days a member of the Upper
House of Colorado. He will admit, also, under so
little pressure as to be scarcely noticeable, that he
once rode with the Texas Rangers. That phase of
hls < L a !s er was a little before my time, however,
and I have known him only as an inveterate guest,
the constant guest, as you might say, and as a cloth
mg saiesman touring the beet fields and mine fields
01 , West with a l* ne of snappy two-pants suits
with belt in the back, combining the best goods with
the highest character and workmanship, for as little
as sl2.
tt tt tt
From Dempsey to Farley
AFTER Jack Dempsey came along to be heavy
weight champion of the world, Mr. Lyons be
came his guest on many occasions over the period
of his reign and after Dempsey lost the title the
Senator attached himself to Mr. Farley, who was
then just beginning to organize Frank Roosevelt.
Always during my acquaintance with the Senator
he has had steady employment either in the two
pants suit with belted back line or as executive
assistant to the Postmaster General. Yet, if you
were to ask me what he does I would instinctively
reply, “Do? Why he is a guest.” Because notwith
standing his achievements in other lines, notwith
standing his statesmanship in the Colorado Legisla
ture, his visit to the Taxas Rangers, his services as
honorary timekeeper at some of the big Dempsey
fights, I still would have to think of him in terms of
his guestmanship or guesthood.
It seems almost as if there is some law in this
country or a great national conspiracy to prevent
the old Senator from getting off his hands, not that
it has been any great struggle to prevent him from
doing so. The Senator just seems to accept the
situation gracefully and submits peacefully to a
fate which denies him the privilege of lifting the
tab for the party. There have been some great
fumblers along Broadway who could break an arm
churning their pants pockets while the waiter went
to sleep on his feet, but the old Senator is not one
of those. If a man is a guest it is bad manners of
him to give the bill so much as a distant glance,
and even worse form to fumble. In this respect
the Senator can look the whole world in the face
and defy any man to name the time when he was
not a perfect gentleman.
The Senator’s guestmanship extends to other
phases of his existence. He has probably the great
est American collection of season passes for things,
including gold engraved passes and heavily embossed
cards of admission and, of course, his warrant of ap
pointment as special assistant to the Postmaster
General in itself is a pass. It has given him the
status of guest of the American nation for almost
four years now and its renewal will extend the in
vitation for four years more.
tt tt tt
A Model of Behavior
SENATOR LYONS wears a toupee with a white
blaze down the middle which sometimes gets
turned somewhat slaunchwise in the heat of a
social evening and he generally carries a walking
stick, suitable for beating up whole gangs of des
peradoes on dark streets at night. He is a man of
elaborate courtesy to ladies and a model of be
havior as becomes a guest.
In Washington, having no inhibitions, he is a
very helpful man to his friends. Mr. Farley has
limits beyond which he will not go, but Senator
Lyons stands in awe of no man or office. I dare
say that if I were to call him up in the middle of
the night to get me out of jail he would immediately
telephone Chief Justice Hughes and yell, “Hey,
Charlie, Peg is in the can for some trouble with a
cop; we have got to get him out.”
That reminds me that the Senator never has
been my guest. I must invite him to dinner, al
though I probably will have to wait my turn for
most likely he is booked up years in advance.
New Books
THE PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—
MR. A. P. HERBERT in his little book, WHAT A
WORD! (Doubleday-Doran; $2), part of which
appeared in numbers of Punch, is very amusing as
he wages his war on the misuse of words.
Tt is rather startling to realize how w’e have be
come accustomed to involved phrases and high
sounding words, as they are debunked (he would dis
like that word) before our eyes by Mr. Herbert.
Some of the more recently coined words send
him on the warpath in a highly entertaining way.
Would you think “de-ratization” used in official or
ders and reports means simply “getting rid of rats”?
The latter is longer, granted, but the former—“what
a word”!
There is a good index where you can find your
own pet aversions.
tt tt tt
A“WHO-DUNNIT” with a Cape Cod setting and
the wily Asey Mayo as the sleuth is THE CRIM
SON PATCH, by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (Norton.
$2).
Down at Skeket was an old house cut off from the
mainland by a swamp. Here were gathered several
young people, one of whom was “ghost-writing” the
autobiography of a popular radio star.
Their isolation was rudely interrupted with the
murder of the radio beauty by an unknown person
who “throws a mean harpoon.” Asey’s slow speech
and casual manner cloak a quick intelligence and an
uncanny ability to scent a murder and find the mur
derer.
This is a book to put on your hammock list for
summer. It is high in entertainment value and
easy on the brain cells.
it tt
IF we fancy ourselves as masters of our fates and
captains of our souls, Clarence A. Mills’ LIVING
WITH THE WEATHER (Caxton Press, $150) may
feive us pause.
Climatic conditions, he tells us, play an important
part in determining our dispositions, physical condi
tions, and mental attitudes. Those who dwell in the
variable temperatures and severe storms of parts of
the United States he warns against overstimulation.
Highly organized and competitive athletics are harm
ful. Alcohol is a safer stimulant than coffee. Man’s
energy is largely consumed in his youth, leaving a
middle age of depressed vitality.
The writer, however, does not leave us merely with
these warnings. He shows us how, by properly under
standing the effects of atmospheric conditions, we
may counteract than and even make them &yt Ufc
Westbrook Pegler