Evening star. [volume], January 06, 1929, Image 29

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Part 2—lß Pages
SOLUTION OF WAR DEBT
PROBLEM IS SUGGESTED
Question of Agreement by U. S. to Float
Huge German Loan in Ameriea
Is Raised.
BY FRANK H. SIMONDS.
THE assent of President Coolidge to
the proposal of certain Euro
pean nations that American
representatives should serve on
the commission to complete the
task begun in the Dawes plan and fix
the sum of German reparations raises
once more the most difficult and most
important of all the post-war problems.
In its essence the problem is sim
ple. for it comes down to the single j
question as to whether the United j
States is prepared to exchange th? debt I
settlements which it has made with the
allies for a single blanket German mort
gage. In a word, are we willing to
take a mortgage of $6,000,000,000 upon
German industry and business in re
turn for our present debt claims upon ■
the governments of France, Belgium.
Italy and Great Britain?
Such a change does not involve any j
real reduction of the sum to which we ,
are entitled by the debt settlements.
While nominally these amount to some
$12,000,000,000. their present actual I
value—that is. the amount which would
discharge them —reckoning at a 5 per
cent rate of interest, would fall slight
ly below the $6,000,000,000 mark.
France Meeting Payments.
On the other hand, the security for
th? proposed German transfer would be
another question. As it stands today
we arc possessed of the obligations of
the four allied governments, which
bind them to pay us around $12,000.-
000,000 to meet their wartime borrow
ing. France, to be sure, has not rati
fied her debt settlement, but she is
meeting th? annual payments as if she
had ratified.
If the program that lies behind the
Present proposal should go through, the |
steps would be something like this:
First the allies and Germany would fix
the sum of reparations.
Since Great Britain demands that j
she shall get as much from Germany ;
on account of reparations and from ;
France and Italy on account of debts ;
as she is paying the United States:
since in addition France demands a
sum sufficient to enable her to pay her
debts to the United States and Great
Britain and meet the costs of recon
structing her devastated area: since
Italy demands enough to pay her Brit
ish and American debts. It is easily as
certainable that the smallest amount
which would fulfil these requirements
would be $8,000,000,000, represented bv i
*n annual payment of some $450,000,000 |
for 62 years.
Preparation of Bonds Next.
Assuming that this sum w 7 ere fixed. 1
the next step would be the preparation
Df some $8,000,000,000 of German bonds.
These would be based upon German in- j
dustry. German railways and possibly
in part upon a direct charge upon the ;
German budget. Os this $8,000,000,000. i
24 per cent would belong to Great
Britain, 54.5 per cent to Prance. 10 per
cent to Italy and 4.5 per cent to Bel- |
gium. The balance wouW go to small- j
er States and can be ignored in the
present calculation. On the basis of j
the various debt settlements Great |
Britain w r ould receive in addition to her
own share a considerable portion of the
French and Italian shares.
The next step in the proceeding would 1
be the transfer by Britain. France, Bel- i
gium and Italy of German bonds to j
the United States to meet their debt j
obligations. When the whole process j
was completed the United States would 1
hold about $6,000,000,000 of German
bonds. Italy and Belgium would be
about square. France would have about
$1,750,000,000 to meet her devastated ;
area costs and the balance would be ;
scattered among lesser states, a minor .
part coming to us directly.
But since the United States has stead- :
fastiy insisted that debts and repara- i
tions are distinct and that it does not
have any interest in the settlement of
reparations, one may fairly assume that
our Government will not consent to
any simple process by which the allied
debtors liquidate their obligations to
us by turning over German bonds. As j
a consequence, an intermediate step is
necessary 7 .
Intermediate Step.
This intermediate step would consist j
In the actual issue of these $6,000,000,000 i
bonds, their sale upon the markets of
the world and the transfer to the 1
Friends Expect Swedish Explorer
To Return With Valuable Discoveries
——— —— i
BY WILLIAM H. STONEMAN.
STOCKHOLM. Takla-Makan. the
legendary city which has lain buried
under the desert sands of Eastern
Turkestan for 1,000 years or more, and
has never bren reached by explorers, i
despite countless attempts, is expected j
to give up its secrets to th° party led
bv Sven Hedin. the Swedish explorer j
and archeologist, some time in the |
near future.
According to tradition, the Takla-
Makan desert, in the center of which |
the ancient city is reputed to lie. is j
one of the most treacherous in the j
world for travelers because of the great j
variations in temperature and terrific j
sandstorms which have trapped nu- [
merous caravans, and the Hedin party j
is prepared to meet with many obsta- |
c'.es in its journey. A large number
cf camels, several motor cars and a
large staff of scientists and experienced
«.aiavan leaders are being taken on the
trip, and the explorers may take sev
eral months if the city is actually
found to exist.
The last attempt by H-din to reach
the fabled city was undertaken in 1895
and ended in disaster. Starting from
Market on the southern edge of the
desert with four men and eight camels,
he headed for the River Khoten-daria.
which was reported to be four days'
travel north across the desert. Six
teen days later he crawled on his hands
and knees, dying from thirst, down into
the bed of the river, which was found
to be dry, and he was only saved from
death by a pool of brackish water which ,
had been left from the rainy season, j
Two of his men and all eight camels
died of thirst, and he saved the lives j
or the others by walking bark across j
rhe desert in bare feet with his boots ;
filled with water.
In his book “My Life as an Ex
plorer’’ Hedin describes the journey
across Takla-Makan as the most diffi
cult in 40 years of Asiatic travel, and
his present trip is regarded with anxiety
by his family and associates in Sweden.
One of the strange legends surround
ing the buried city is to the effect that
gold ingots and lumps of silver lay ex
posed among the ruins, protected
against marauders and explorers by a
mysterious power. If a caravan loads
. it? camels with gold, the story goes, it
' v.;iU lose its way in the sands of the
desert and can be saved only by throw
ing away its precious burden.
Marco Polo, who traveled in the
Vicinity of Takla-Makan in 1275, wrote:
A * There is a marvelous thing related
Editorial Page
Reviews of Books
1 United States Treasury of the actual !
funds collected by the sale. If this ]
process were possible, then the Anieri- j
can contention would prove no real bar- ;
j rirr to adjustment.
But. in practice it is not possible to
I sell, save over a long period of time,
any such colossal bond issue as that !
amounting to $6,000,000,000, and. again, ■
in the present state of the world mar
ket. nowhere save in the United States :
would it be possible to sell any large
j part of the securities.
Thus one is thrown bark upon the :
final situation. What is now foreshad
owed is that Germany should issue
$8,000,000,000 bonds, that $6,000,000,000
should b? floated upon the American
mark°t. that the proceeds of such a
sale should be turned into the United
« States Treasury and the allied debts j
thus liquidated. When the thing was fin
ished. the Treasury would be relieved of
| its debt problem, the American national
debt would be reduced from $18,000,000,-
• 000 to $12,000,000,000. and the Ameri
can people would hold a mortgage upon
German industry, represented by their
newly purchased securities, amounting
; to $6,000,000,000.
Host of Questions Raised.
Patently a whole host of questions is
raised. In the first place there is the
question as to whether the American
! people w 7 ould buy this vast amount of
German securities at any price suffi
cient to warrant the experiment. Back 1
of this lies the question as to whether I
the Government would approve of such
a vast transaction. Today in the gov- !
ernmental debts the official credit of •
Britain. France, Italy and Belgium is |
involved for the respective parts of the |
total represented by their obligation.
But under the proposed plan only Ger
man commercial credit would be in
j volved.
There are other phases to be con
sidered. Eight billion dollars is just
; about twice the sum most Germans re
gard as commensurate with German
! capacity. Under the Dawes plan Ger
j many is now 7 protected by a clause
which prohibits all payments when they
threaten the stability of German cur
rency, and under the treaty of Ver
sailles 30 years is the maximum time
during which reparations payments can
endure. Germany thus has certain
cards to use in the coming game.
On the other hand. Germany, in re
turn for an agreement to evacuate the
Rhineland and the Sarre promptly,
might consent to undertake the pay- j
| ment of an $8,000,000,000 reparations i
i total, if, in addition, the financial super- !
vision of her economic life came to an i
end.
Whole Dream Deflated.
We are seeing the first act in a new j
; and interesting drama built upon the j
old theme of reparations and debts, j
After 10 years the whole reparations i
| dream has been deflated to the point !
at which the measure of allied expec- j
tations Is the size of the American
debts. Save for a French reconstruc
| tlon fund, that is all Europe now ex
pects reparations to amount to.
But it can’t amount to that unless i
we are willing to advance the money |
to Germany to pay her conquerors, who i
will in turn transfer that money to j
us to pay debts. We have lent the
money to our wartime allies to aid in
; the defeat of Germany. We are now
going to lend the money to Germany i
to pay the costs of defeat to her Euro
-1 pean conquerors. They, in turn, are
going to hand this money back to us. j
Surely nothing could be more droll. j
As to whether Germany can finally j
liquidate a mortgage, amounting as to
| our share to $6,000,000,000, that is
j another question. If it cannot, one
i must see that in the process of time.
! the mortgage we may hold upon Ger
: many will mount materially each year.
i On the other hand, if Germany can
1 pay. the vast burden will in due course
of " time be abolished. In any event, j
j if the proposed plan of commercializing
the reparations goes through, we shall
become an enormous stockholder in
Germany, deeply interested in German
prosperity. In fact, a business and
financial, if not a political, alliance
! between the United States and the Ger
man republic would be almost inevita
! ble, and might have very important
consequences in European history In
: the next half century.
• (Copyright. 1929. >
of this desert, that when travelers are j
on the move by night, and one of them
chances to lag behind or fall asleep or ;
the like, when he tries to gain his com- ,
panv will lisar spirits talking i
and* will suppose them to be his com- ;
rades. Sometimes the spirits will call
him bv name, and thus shall a traveler
ofttimes be led astray so that he never
finds his party. And in this way many
have perished. Even in the davtime
one hears spirits talking, and some
times vou shall hear the sound of a
variety of musical instruments, and
still more commonly the sound of
dr Hcdin is interested neither in lumps
of gold nor the voices of spirits, and
his sole object is to find traces of the
race which once inhabited the district.
He is particularly anxious to secure
works of art, and possibly inscriptions
and parchments, to furnish clues to the
nature of the people. Chinese officials
have been reluctant to permit the ex
pedition, and there is a stipulation to
! the effect that nothing excavated may
be taken out of the country unless a
duplicate be found and given to the
Chinese government. Plans to explore
the country by airplane were also pre
vented from being carried out by action
of the Chinese military authorities.
(Copyright, 1928 >
New Electric Train
Service in Morocco
Morocco's economic growth, as well
as the country's increasing attractive
ness for tourists, is emphasized by the
1 newly instituted electric train service
between the port of Casablanca and
Marrakech.
This modernization, which first be
came available to travelers with its in
auguration recently by Sultan Moulai
Yussef and Theodore Steeg, French
resident general, represents the third
step in Morocco’s electrification project.
One hundred and fifty miles long, the
railway links the Mediterranean with
1 the foot of the Atlas Mountains, con
nects the biggest Moroccan port with
the gates of the Sahara Desert. About
120 miles, comprising two separate
I lines, had already been rlectrifled, thus
making a total of 270 in the gradual ex
tension of electrically operated railways
contemplated for the whole of the
French possession.
She fhmclau plat
WASHINGTON. D. €., SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 6, 1929.
j
Supreme Court’s New Home
*
Structure to House Tribunal's Activities Will Be Memorial to Chief Justice William Howard Taft
can be recomputed
Few pieces of legislation in many;
i years have met with so universal ap
proval as that providing a home of its
own for the United States Supreme
i Court fitting its dignity as one of the
| three great branches of Government,
i This new 7 Temple of Justice will face
the Capitol from the east and be a
companion building for th« Library of
Congress, with which It will harmonize
structurally.
It is designed to be a memorial to
William Howard Taft, the only man in
American history to have the distinc
tion of having been at the head of two
of the three great branches of our
Government and who has served the
Nation in a wider range of important
positions than any other man—as so
licitor general of the United States,
United States Circuit Court judge,
president of the United States Philip
pine Commission, first civil governor
of the Philippine Islands. Secretary of
War, in charge of construction of the
Panama Canal; sent to Cuba by Presi- )
dent Roosevelt to adjust insurrection,
there, provisional governor of Cuba, j
| twenty-seventh President of the United j
: States, co-chairman of National War
' Labor Board, president of the American i
Wailing Wall An Issue
England Gets Summary Orders to Rectify Conditions in Palestine's “Holy of Holies. ’
I
BY ALBIN E. JOHNSON.
THE British administration in
Palestine has been given what
is tantamount to summary or
ders to "settle amicably” to the
satisfaction of Moslems and
Jews alike, the troublesome issues sur
rounding the “Wailing Wall.’’
In its confidential report the man
dates commission declares that it is
not sufficient that the Palestine gov
ernment be prepared to act as inter
mediaries.” The commission declares
that: “It would seem expedient and
indeed imperative that the government
take active steps to induce the two
conflicting parties to reach a voluntary
agreement." Clothed in diploma.ic
parlance, the report is like the famous j
“Message to Garcia.” It refrains from
: telling the British Palestine adminis- j
' tration how to carry out its suggestion, ;
but specifies clearly what Is to be done.
The controversies over the “Wailing
Wall” have reached the League on at
least two occasions of late. A year ago
the Jewish population appealed to the
mandates commission to force the Mos
lems to permitting the erection of
benches for the worshipers. In in
clement weather, according to the pe
titioners, the aged and infirm, many of
whom had traveled many miles to weep
at the most sacred shrine of Israel,
sank down exhausted from their wail
ing on the cold, damp ground, con
tracting illnesses which often proved
fatal.
Moslems State Their Case.
I The Moslems, whose Mosque of Omar
jis located on the ground bounded by
! the ancient wall of Jerusalem, pleaded
j their case well. They pointed out that
i it was not the benches they objected to
but the establishing of precedents. The
Jews, they said, would first raise the
benches, then they would demand the
right to place a wall around the benches.
Then would come a request to place a
roof over the wall, after which it would
require bloodshed to restore the previous
status. The Mandates Commission de
liberated long and seriously. One mem
ber even suggested that the Jewish
wallers provide themselves with portable
chairs or stools which, like the milk
stools of the Swiss mountaineers, could
be strapped to its owner. The Moslems
offered no objection to such an inno
vation, but the Jewish worshipers did
not take kindly to the idea.
This year’s protest resulted from forc
ible removal of a partition erected by
the Jews to separate the men and
women wailers. The Moslems, it seems,
had only protested, leaving it to the
British authorities to bring about the
destruction of the barrier. The wailers
resisted and some of them were badly
handled —in fact, so badly, according
to the petition, that the entire Jewish
world was shocked at the outrage.
Although the Mandates Commission
has not recommended thp action offi
cially, it is understood that there Is a
movement on foot to seek property
rights in the historic wall for the Jews.
Since the Moslems regard the ground
in the vicinity as sacred, it would be
rather difficult for the administrative
authorities to expropriate it. The Jews
offer to purchase it, but the Moslems
refuse to sell—at any price.
Report Confidential.
The question, to a certain extent, is
similar to the Iraki-Bahai controversy
over the property of Abdul Bahai,
founder of the Bahai movement. The j
Irak mixed tribunal ruled against the i
Bahai group who sought to ragain j
j possession of the confiscated shrine and i
the latter have appealed to the League ]
of Justice on the grounds that the
principle of religious tolerance in a!
mandated territory is involved. The j
Mandate Commission’s report, which,
will not be submitted to the League
Council until next March, at the mo
i ment is regarded as confidential. |
J Whether the Council will approve it
and order it forwarded to governments
EDITORIAL SECTION
CHIEF JUSTICE TAFT.
—Harris * Ewing Photo.
I
National Red Cross, chancellor of the
! Smithsonian Institution and Chief Jus
; tice of the Supreme Court.
! Chief Justice Taft is radiantly happy
! these days, because of the prompt action
of Congress in response to his appeal
i for a Supreme Court Building and
—Wo, j; ''
, \ :.,® / »a|,»
THE WAILING WALL, JERUSALEM.
depends upon developments in the in
terim.
Text of Report. > >
The Mandates Commission's report,
which was adopted, and which is being
held for final action by the League
Council reads:
Geneva. November 9, 1928.
Permanent Mandates Commission:
Petition, dated October 12, 1928, re
lating to the incidents which occurred
at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, Sep
tember 24, 1928, from Zionist organiza
tion :
"The petition Mandates Commission
have taken cognizance of the petition
dated October 12, 1928, relating to the
incidents which occurred at the Wail
ing Wall at Jerusalem on September 24,
1928, from the Zionist organization, as
well as of the comments of his ma
jesty’s government on the memorial
from the Zionist organization dated
October 12, 1928 (and other annexes).
"The commission have carefully con
sidered the various points of fact and
of Jaw raised in these documents. They
have been gratified to note that there
have been no essential discrepancies
between the statements placed before
them by the petitioners on the one
• hand and the authorities responsible
i for the administration of Palestine on
the other. Although differently pre-
I sented and variously stressed, the in
] cidents ... are in these documents
related in a manner so clear and so
! complete that no uncertainty is lert
I in the mind of the. careful reader as
ito what actually took place. There is
Iwhat would seem to be a full agree
ment also between the petitioners and
the authorities as to the only possible
method of remedying the present sit
uation—a situation as painful for those
hopes to live to see the edifice erected
and occupied. The work is being expe
dited to fulfill this wish.
The United States Supreme Court;
has been located in the Capitol ever
since the building's erection, even go- j
ing with the legislative body when the I
■ who feel offended and mortified in
their most sacred sentiments as it is
trying and unsatisfactory for those who
are responsible for the maintenance of
, order and for the observance of strict
, and impartial justice between the con
’ Aiding claims of rival religious and
racial communities in Palestine. This
remedy, as already recognized by the
Zionist organization in a similar though
not so critical, circumstance in 1926. as
again implied in the concluding para
• graph of the present petition, and as
I repeatedly emphasized by the repre
sentative of the mandatory power, can
be found only by common agreement
■ between the Jewish and Moslem com
munities.
i “Anything that may facilitate and
i hasten the conclusion of such on agree
; ment, will be warmly welcomed by the
■ Mandates Commission, who, on the
, other hand, unanimously deprecate
; anything that might prevent or re
. tard It.
I “For this reason the commission.
[ while profoundly deploring not only the
most regrettable incidents above refer
, red to, but also the circumstances, both
[ distant and immediate, which led to
r and surround them, and the serious,
. repercussions to which they have given 1
I rise, deliberately refrain from passing
. censure on any of those whose acts or
I omissions may have contributed to pro
i voke or embitter them. Such incidents
I cannot but imperil the peace and pros
, perlty of Palestine as a whole and to
. aggrieve all those the world over to
i whom Palestine is dear and sacred,
i “The Mandates Commission therefore
: confidently hopes that no effort will be
i spared for the promotion of a fair and
> friendly agreement, which alone can
prevent the recurrence of such inci
: dents.
s “For that purpose it is not sufficient
that the Palestine government allow it
s to be known that they are 'prepared' if
, Capitol was burned by the British in
| 1814. Although in size it is the smallest
jof the three co-ordinate branches of
I the Government, it has the distinction
of being a creation unique among gov
ernmental activities. It occupies what
was formerly the Senate chamber,
where the Nation’s greatest statesmen —
Webster. Clay. Calhoun and others—
made some of their most famous
speeches.
The quarters assigned to the law
library are not adequate, nor are the
other rooms assigned to the clerical
force sufficient for the services required.
It has long been intended that the
Sunreme Court should eventually have
a building of its own. and the site
now being purchased at a cost of
$768,000 has for many years been set
aside for such use in the plan for the
future of the Federal City.
A portion of this site, at First and
A streets northeast, is now occupied by
the ‘’Brick Capitol.” so called because
Congress met there during 1815. It
! was there that President Monroe de
| livered his inaugural address in 1817.
John C. Calhoun died there in 1850,
• Continued on Fifth Page.)
f
approached by both parties to act as
intermediaries, as they did on a pre
vious occasion. ... It would seem ex
! pedient. and indeed imperative, that
; they take active steps to induce the
two conflicting parties to reach a vol
! untary agreement, and that both Jews
i and Moslems respond with a sincere
desire for a settlement based upon a
full and equal regard for the moral and
I material interest of all concerned. . . .
! The commission earnestly hopes that
neither party will, through unreason -
1 able demands or intolerant refusals,
: assume the responsibility of rendering
impossible the achievement of a just
! settlement.”
1 In summing up its report the Man
! dates Commission warns that should it
| be impossible at the moment to bring
about a settlement it considers it im
perative that temporary adjustments be
promptly made and that “no disturb
ances be attempted or tolerated.”
Finns Would Make
Language Official
! Sweden is keeping an attentive eye
! fixed on the growing pro-Finnish stu
dent movement whose object is to make
Finnish the one official language of
Finland and to eliminate completely the
use of Swedish, which now has an equal
footing.
A strong effort is being made to de
clare Finnish official at Helsingfors uni
versity, an institution founded by the
Swedes and in which nothing but Swed
ish was taught and spoken until the
middle of the last century. This na
tionalist or “patriot” movement was
j begun in 1850 when Finland was under
; Russian domination and since the little
! country was granted its independence
|in 1917 it has gained new force. Al
! though the Swedes actually lost con
j trol of Finland at the time of the Na
poleonic wars, the upper class has
always remained largely Swedish.
In their own language, said to be one
of the most difficult to master, the
Finns see a means of eliminating
foreigners from power and if it is made
official the Swedes will almost auto
matically disappear from the active par
ticipation in government administration
or educational institutions. The Fin
nish armv regulations now require
officers of‘Swedish birth to speak Fin
nish in the presence of their troops and
all commands, formerly given in Swed
ish, must now be given in Finnish.
Very recently all names of railroad sta
tions in the country were painted over
and changed to Finnish.
Seattle-to-Tokio
Flight Is Planned
Preparations for a non-stop trans
pacific flight from Seattle to Tokio have
been completed by Bert Hall, famous
American flyer and former member of
the Lafayette Escadrille. who has been
in Tokio consulting with Japanese gov
ernment officials on the establishment
of flying schools. He expected to make
the flight last Summer, but was pre
vented bv mechanical delays.
The flight will be attempted as soon
as weather conditions warrant next
i June. "Every possible scientific prepa
! ration has been made,” said Mr. Hail,
: -and every emergency that can possibly
!be foreseen has been provided for. The
distance from Seattle to Tokio is 4,300
miles and could be covered easily by a
very fast plane in about 35 hours. I
will make the trip alone. There will be
no need for a mechanic, and I have
had enough experience in navigation to
follow the course without assistance.
There is no object in carrying a radio,
either. As long as everything is well
there is no use for one; when falling
there is no time to use it, and after hit
ting the water there is small chance of
its being usable. The plane will have
an earth inductor compass as well a«i
an ordinary compass.”
Classified
Advertising
PROBLEM OF BAD BOYS
CLOSELY STUDIED IN D. C.
Unmanageable Youngsters Are Made to
Turn to Better Ways in Experiment
in Schools of City.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
THE problem of the bad boy is as
old as creation.
The adolescent male human
is a hard animal to tame —and
the taming process, unless it is
; carefully considered, is likely to do
more hurt than good.
An experiment has been in progress
in the District of Columbia schools for
the past three years, some of the re
sults of which have just come to light.
It is not concerned with ordinary bad
boys, but with the pathologically bad—
the obviously incipient criminals who
are found in the school system of the
National Capital. Some of these chil
dren are so abnormal as to be mate
; rial for the psychiatrist. They all drc
misfits in the schoolrooms —boys who
will not or cannot learn and who seem
! to have an inborn drive toward crlm
: inal careers.
If anything is to be done with them,
they must be handled as individuals
and not as members of a class. They
are anti-social and apparently can’t
jbe made to conform to the require
ments of any group. So long as one
!of them is a member of a class he
j makes the orderly conduct of that class
j impossible.
Old Idoas Out of Style.
Reform schools are filled with such
children. They graduate from the re
i ■ form schools to the jails, from the jails
; | to the penitentiaries and from the peni-
E i tentiaries to the electric chair. They
1 1 used to be considered congenital crim
■; inals. a concept which now has gone
t i out of style. They arise from all sorts
,i of homes, social conditions and an
* l cestry.
Different schools of pedagogy ad
> vocate different methods for dealing
with bad boys. None of the methods
r I seem to apply to these children, as a
I! They may be tried under teachers
. ! who are strict disciplinarians. Corporal
• punishment, of course, is prohibited by
> law in the District schools, but an
: i almost military strictness is possible,
f Teachers of this class demand abso
i j lute obedience, good manners and
: punctuality, and work with an adequate
j machinery of rewards and punish
-1 ments. . . ,
i i These children don t respond to disci
* j pline. Instead of inciting them to
11 make good. It results only in hatred
• of a teacher —usually a sullen, vin
• dictive hatred. Boys of this type don't
. hesitate to strike a woman.
Advisers in Contempt.
. Then there is the gentle, motherly
soul —the sentimentalist, who pats the
boys on the back, cries over them, tries
to inspire them to be great and good
men. This system doesn't work, either.
It only nurtures contempt. What’s
the use of appealing to the better na
tures of boys w r ho, it seems, have no
better natures to appeal to? The
motherly counsel goes in one ear and
out the other. The children may prom
ise to be good, but promises mean
nothing in their young lives. They’ll
! be promising the kindly judge the
: same thing later on—and picking his
j pocket when he leaves the courtroom
: i if he doesn’t watch out.
j Another method is to put them in
' I atypical schools, where they are segre
► gated from other children until they
I' seem fit to be returned to regular
; I classes. Only indifferent success at
-5 tends this method. It may be the
. i worst possible procedure with children
L I of this type, as is shown by efforts to
I' analyze their personalities.
They can't be trusted, they are a
t i bad influence on other children, and
.! some of them are dangerous
The way to deal with them is to
r put them in reform schools. This sim
’ | ply gets them out of the way. It doesn t
l cure them. ... ..
! The problem of the bad boy—the
mean, sullen, dull, unscrupulous boy
r I with criminal tendencies—was giving
! I Supt. of Schools Ballou and Assistant
>! Supt. Kramer some bad hours three
j years ago. There seemed to have been
an increase of them with the social
nervousness which followed the war.
Experiment Is Started.
At this time a young graduate stu-
I dent at George Washington Univer
‘ sity applied to Mr. Kramer for a job
in the District schools. Harold D.
. Fife wanted a teaching appointment in
one of the high schools, but he was
tired of waiting for a vacancy.
Mr. Kramer told him of this bad boy
' problem. Something must be done and
the school officials didn’t know ex
actly what to do or how to do it.
Fife didn't know either, but he jumped
at the opportunity to find out. It
was an experiment from the first —
and an experiment it remains.
He was given a vacant room in the
Gales school. First and G streets, and
put on his own responsibility for the
1 redemption of the possibly criminal
element among D. C. school children.
‘ Supervisor of special schools, W. B.
Patterson is in general charge of the
special school.
Fife took the job to heart and in the
past three years he has brought about' l
1 some remarkable transformations of
churftctcr
He has not worked with any defintte
psychological system, but has applied
various systems, in accordance with his
judgment of the individual case.
Everything is individual. There is no
set of rules which can be applied
to any two bad boys with any reason
able expectation of success.
One Principle in Mind.
The one principle he has kept in
mind he expresses:
j "There is no such thing as an in
j herently bad boy. The bad boy Is a
misunderstood boy. The essential
I thing is understanding of the forces
responsible for the individual person
ality.” I
Some of the cases, he finds, have
a physical basis, some organic inferior
i ity w'hich has escaped attention be- j
tore. This is not an important ele- i
ment, however, among children sent j
to the Gales special school, for usually
they have been examined rather care- !
fully by school physicians.
More often he finds a psychic in
feriority begotten of social conditions,
which results in what might be called
a "dual personality.” the term being
divested of any mystical significance. It
turns out that the antt-social behavior
of the child is only a mask to cover
up something else and that strict dis
cipline or mothering were equally in
effective, because they treated only the
surface symptoms without uncovering
the thing the child was trying sub
consciously to hide.
Cases of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
in real life are quite common, he finds,
among children. But, as in Steven
son’s story, the tendency almost always
is toward the increasing dominance of
the Mr. Hyde personality unless the
case is taken in hand in time. When
the individual has become a confirmed |
adult criminal, there is little to be done i
about it.
These inferiority complexes seem to j
be about the most fruitful causes of i
adolescent “dual personalities.” The j
i child seeks to “get even” with some-1
body—playmate, teacher, parent at
neighbor. Then the process works in
two ways.
In some cases it proves impossible to
“get even.” The intended victim is too
secure to be injured. In that case a
process of subconscious transference is
set up. Consciously the child may for
get his hate for the individual, but
transfer it to other individuals or to
i a society as a whole.
Supposing the child Is unjustly pun
| ished by a teacher. He determines to
j get even with that teacher. He can’t,
j He transfers his hate to other teachers.
; Teachers represent authority. His hate
j broadens to include all in authority,
j His life becomes a continual striving
jto “get even” with the world. After
the first forgetting he can’t tell, as a
rule, what the world has done to him
for which he seeks revenge.
Thrill in “Getting Even.”
Another child may succeed in “get
ting even.” The success gives him such
1 an exhilarating sensation of self-satis
faction—a thrill—that he desires to rc
; peat it. He repeats it over and over
again, gradually forgetting the original
cause and remembering only the satis
faction that results.
In either case, the outcome may be
the confirmed criminal or the mur
derer.
On the other hand—this is a highly
I disputable point which was stressed
by Dr. Adler of Vienna, the father of
’ this school of psychology, who lectured
; in Washington last Winter—under cer
tain circumstances the outcome may
' be genius—a Napoleon or a Shake
-1! speare. The only reason for mention-
I I ing Adler’s debatable theory is that
’ ; Fife's work seems to have brought out
j some remarkable confirmations of it.
I Fife, however, holds no particular
: j brief for the inferiority complex school
’ of psychoanalysis. His classroom
! varies in some essential aspects from
1 the school clinics which Adler set up
j I all over Germany. The facts remain
1 i that most of his cases seem to have
| originated in an inferiority complex.
Seeks Something Wholesome.
; His actual method of treating these
1 cases of dual personality is purely a
: pragmatic one, combining Adlerism
' with behaviorism in away which has
brought results. He seeks, by obser
vation and by conversation, to discover
I something wholesome in which the boy
1 is interested. Usually this discovery
' comes simultaneously with the discovery
“| of the complex that dominates the
1 child’s personality. Sometimes, how
ever, it results purely from an off-hand
. observation and has no direct refer
,! ence to the underlying causes.
;; He has found, for instance, that the
1 j great majority of these "dual per
! sonality” children are idol worshipers
5 ! —that is. they have set up some figure »
. | in history as an ideal and are intensely
) j interested in everything pertaining to
» ! that figure. It might, for example, be
i Napoleon.
. i Upon this Napoleon complex he tries
! to graft other interests. Take arlth
-1 metlc. Almost every boy sent to the
» Gales Special School hates arithmetic
s and has failed in this subject. A great
i deal of arithmetic can be grouped
around the career of Napoleon. He had
i to know arithmetic to be an artillery
• officer, the foundation of his career.
r Once the interest in arithmetic has
• been aroused. Fife tries to give the
■ 1 child instruction in the fundamental®
>! of the subject with some hopes of suc
i; cess.
> i Also Dislikes Grammar.
Another subject which almost every
I! boy in the school hates and has failed
!in is English grammar. It always is
I perplexing to devise some way to arouse
a child’s interest in grammar. This
! is particularly the case, Fife says, with
children from foreign-speaking homes
,; where English is not spoken.
Again the child may be hand
minded.” The interest around which
1 everything can be grouped then is the
; opportunity for making things and the
■ use of tools.
Once the interest or the complex has
been uncovered Fife’s work is purely n
process of conditioning according to
the behavioristic philosophy.
This problem of genius and complexes
is a touchy one.
The District school system has a
pragmatic system for testing intelli
gence and classifying children accord
ing to their mental age. The theory
behind this practice is somewhat ob
i scure, but the fact remains that it
| works very well in practice with the
great majority of children.
What Is Intelligence?
Nobody is agreed on a definition of
intelligence. It may be one thing or
another, or it may be nothing at all.
There does, however, appear to be a
factor in most persons which determines
i their ability to cope with a new situation
j —that is. leam—and which remains
I fairly constant throughout life. This is
! what Is tested. School officials don’t
claim infallibility for the method.
: Now one school of psychology, into
whose findings Fife’s results seem to fit.
would say that "intelligence" is a myth
' —that there is no such thing. It would
do awav with the problem of feeble
mindedness by the statement, with cer
tain reservations for congenital atrophy
of brain cells, that there Is no such
thing as feeble-mindedness —or rather
that the difference between the moron
and the genius is not intelligence, but
something else.
It holds that ability is a matter of
complexes, just as thinking is admittedly
a matter of complexes. It would hold
that children who do well with intelli
gence tests do so simply because the
tests happen to fit into their complexes.
There is a small percentage of chil
dren in the District schools with I. Q.’s
of 150 or above. For the most part
they are fairlv well behaved children
with healthy bodies. They do extremely
I well in their classes.
! They are classified as. geniuses. Ob
i viously the word is used here in a spe
! cial sense. It merely means high-class
i all-round ability. It hardly can be held
I to mean ability in any special sense,
i Such children can be expected to do
well in the world if the luck isn’t all
against them and stand well in business
and the professions.
At the other extreme a.*e the children
with I. Q.’s below 100 —not defectives,
but barely up to the average.
Gets Intelligence Ratings.
When boys come to Fife, he is fur
nished with their intelligence ratings,
but he finds that in many instance*
special conditions obtain which throw
grave doubts on the validity of these
ratings. The children simplv have not
fitted into the rating system, yet some
of them appear to be geniuses in the
popularly accepted meaning of the term.
When a 15-year-old boy with an I. Q.
which would Indicate that he was a
high-grade moron draws a pen-and-ink
sketch of Lindbergh which an art critic
at first sight mistakes for a photograph
i and which Is exhibited as a special evi
: dence of child genius in the art gallery
. of a large American city, it is clear that
i there has been a mistake of some kind,
j There is something about the lad which
j tests have failed Fo touch.
| Once Fife tried an intelligence teat
(Continued on Fifth Page.)