Evening star. [volume], February 07, 1932, Page A-11, Image 11

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

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
COSI OF BUILDING
New York Statistician Makes
Estimate, Based on Prices
cf Land ana i_abor.
By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. February 6— It costs
about 25 per cent less to build an aver
age house today than it did two and a
half years ago.
L. Seth Schnitman. chief statistician
of the F. W. Dodge Corporation, made
this rough estimate today, based on ex
tensive study of prices of land, labor
and materials.
It's good news to Phil and Jane, who
are going to be married in June, and
even now spend an occasional evening
sedately figuring on a pad and drawing
house plans. And to Fred and Emily,
who are tired of apartment rent, and ,
know just the right spot for a hous”
in the suburbs, where the baby can play
in the sunshine.
This week the Building Trades Em
’ployers’ Association, whose members em
ploy 115.000" workers in New York and
Long Island, adopted a wag' scale car
rying reductions of from 25 to 30 per
cent for workers. The lower wages will
be effective when present contracts with
organized labor expire on April 30.
Labor Plentiful.
Chief effects of this cut and similar
ones rdscwherc, Schnitman explained,
will be in the metropolitan building
■field, especially in unionized cilies.
Wages actually being paid in the build
ing of small or medium sized houses
now are very largely below union scales,
he said, and labor is plentiful.
In building materials, lumber has
taken probably the longest price tumble,
while brick has not fallen so far. Count
less varying factors had to be considered
in arriving at the rough estimate of a
25 per cent cost reduction, the statis
tician pointed out For instance, an
importation of brick from Europe here
about 1R months ago. at prices as low
as $7 5(1 and $8 a thousand, had an lm
mrdiale efleet on the local market,
where thcv wire being sold for as much
as $18 to $22
"The quoted price here now is about
$14 50." he said, "but that doesn't, mean
it is always paid Prices these days are
fixed pretty largely on the basis of what
the seller can get."
Two Stumbling Blocks.
Is there chance, then, in such a mar
ket of a great revival of home building?
Or are the fallen prices merely signs
of economic perversity which makes
things cheap when many cannot buy
nt nil?
Edward A. MacDougall. builder in i
Queens Borough and chairman of the 1
newly appointed Housing Committee of {
the National Association of Real Estate j
Boards, sees two stumbling blocks to j
be removed before proper impetus qan
be given the construction industry.
One is the nagging question of real
estate taxes, disproportionately high,
economists say. and formidable for the
potential house owner to contemplate.
Legislatures of 16 States already are
struggling with the problem. Those who
favor lowering real estate taxes are
handicapped by State deficits, which
call for increased tax burdens In gen
eral. but even the consideration of tax
revision plans is evidence of favorable
sentiment, the builders believe.
Financing Is Problem.
MacDougall sees the finaneing ques
tion as the other stumbling block. His J
suggested remedy is the long-term '
mortgage, "for at least 15 years, with
tearonabl- amortization payments after
the first five years.”
On the MacDougall committee, which
was created at the Midwinter meeting
of the national association in St. Louis,
Mo., January 20, are Benjamin Bills,
Chicago: Robert P. Gerholz. Flint,,
Mich.; Harry Allen. San Francisco: H.
C, Thorman. San Antonio, Tex,; G. A.
Nichols Oklahoma City, and Justin
Matthews, Little Rock, Ark.
Saved by Phone Call.
How a man was saved from death by
r telephone call was told at the Inquest
into the explosion which caused the
death of 45 miners at the Bentley col
liery, near Doncaster. England. A col
liery worker named Swift said that he
left the pit a few minutes before the
blast, owing to an urgent private mes
sage he received over the telephone.
Justice to Speak
IMIV COLLEGE WILL HOLD
ANNUAL BANQUET.
JUSTICE WENDELL P. STAFFORD,
Former associate justice of the District
Supreme Court, will speak at the thirty
seventh annual banquet of the Wash
ington College of Law at the Mayflower
Hotel at 7:30 o'clock Saturday, Febru
ary 20. He will deliver an "Ode to
Washington,” of which he is the author.
Dean Grace Hays Riley will preside.
NUDES IN CITY THEATER
AROUSE FRENCH VOTERS
Belfort Mayor and His Friends
Face Defeat in Election—Art
ists Rally to Support.
BELFORT, France, February 6 OP) —
Mayor Levy Grunwald and all his
adherents are threatened with defeat
in the May elections because they
permitted nudes in a mural decoration
for the city theater.
Attacks upon the mayor became so
heated that when the theater was
inaugurated the artists who contributed
to the decoration—among them some of
France's best- moved en masse into
Belfort- to defend their work and to
make election speeches on behalf of the
mayor and his friends.
•
Bucharest's population Increase in the
last 10 years was nearly 10 times that
of all Rumania.
Cape Town Professor Gives
Theory on Discovery of
Ancient Skulls.
if
BY THOMAS R. HENRY’.
Human beings may be. in some, re
spects at least, ‘‘grown-up babies of
the anthropoid race.
Implication that the ancestral
human type was made up of ' mature
morphological infants” of some ancient
I species of the great ape family is con
tained in a report to the American As
sociation of Physical Anthropologists
i here, describing the disctfvery of what
many be akin to a "missing link in
the development of man.
The discovery is that of some pre
Bushman skulls in Africa—fossil re
mains of a long-extinct race, supposed
to have been ancestors of the Bushmen,
regarded by some anthropologists as
among the mo.-t primitive types of
modern man. It is reported in the
current issue of the journal of the as
sociation by Dr. M. R. Drennan of the
University of Cape Town, who recently
| restored the skulls. He does not re
gard the pre-Bushman as an actual
link between man and his nearest
anthropoid relatives, but as a possible
part of the bridge crossed on the way
to modern man. Much more primitive
human forms have been found, but
this one happens to illustrate, he be
lieves, certain fundamental evolution
ary processes.
The Bushman, himself, he says, often
has appealed to anthropologists because
j of the number of juvenile physical
characteristics he retains In adult life,
I compared to other races. He is truly
a ‘grown-up boy,” retaining to old age
[ various peculiarities which are strictly
| juvenile in other races. The great in
: terest of the restored pre-Bushman
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Monday! The Downstairs Store Offers Another
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skull Is that It show's this peculiarity
much more strikingly than does the
living descendant of this type.
Dr. Drennan brings up the principle
of "pedomorphosis” In evolution, as ap
plied to the human race. In the ani
mal kingdom there is one very striking
example—the axolotl of Mexico, a spe
cimen of which now is at the National
Zoological Park. This is a salamander
which remains a tadpole all its life, be
coming sexually mature in this form.
But by suitable feeding in the labora
tory it can be made to change into an
adult salamander fitted for life on land.
Every individual salamander, just like
every individual frog, must pass through
the tadpole stage in its infancy. The
curious axolotl sirr.ply fails to make the
metamorphosis and proceeds to grow
up in its baby form.
Some similar phenomenon in the ape
family, Drennan believes, Is shown by
the pre-Bushman skull to have been
partly responsible for the human race.
The young, perhaps before birth, failed
to make the essential metamorphosis
into apes but went on glowing and de
veloping in their foetal or infantile
form. That this principle of pedo
morphosis has had its place in the evo
lution of higher animals, Drennan be
lieves, is as well established as the con
trary principle of "gerontomorpln' is,'
much better known, by which the stages
in the evolution of the race from the
beginning are "telescoped” into the de
\elopment of the embryo.
The skull studied was that of an
elderly adult. The most striking fea
ture was the extraordinary size of the
cranium, or skull bone. Its capacity
was 1,750 cubic centimeters, close to
that of the very largest normal white
skulls and almost a third again as big
as that of the average living Bushman.
Different measurements of the face
show a close approach to the propor
tions of the human infant face, as dis
tingr -»hed from the face of the adult.
Mast s iking of all is the ratio between
the dimensions of the cranium and the
face. This is nearly five to one. In
the modern Bushman it is about three
to one and in the modern European
slightly less. But it is very close to the
ratio found in a Bushman child. Dren
nan calls this "a harmonius enlarge
ment of the infant skull.” Careful ex
amination of the teeth also showed
striking infantile characters.
Detailed analysis, Drennan says, shows
this pre-Bushman skull ultra-modern
in many of its features, surpassing the
European in almost every direction.
Also, he points out, the skull of the
infant, or even embryo, European is less
apelike in shape and proportion than
the adult European skull. This might
lead to the supposition that there lived
a superman in the African jungles un
told centuries ago, except that the white
infant certainly is not really superior
to the white adult.
Now. Drennan points out, the embry
onic skull forms of man and the great
apes are much more alike than the
adult forms. Starting before birth from
something quite similar, they develop
along separate lines.
Thus, he says, “it is conceivable that
the pre-Bushman might be regarded In
an analogous position to the axolotl—
an expression of the method of linkage
between human and simian types. The
simian or ancestral foetal stage has be- j
come retarded, so that the foetal pat- |
tern has persisted and given rise to j
infantile man.
‘ It is not contended that the pre- i
Bushman actually jumped the gap in
the manner indicated. It is submitted j
rather that he is a good example of j
the kind of bridge by which the chasm
was crossed. He could easily have linked
Neanderthal to modern man. The
Neanderthal foetus and even the
young infant were probably not very far
from the corresponding stages in the
development of homo sapiens, so that
it is quite possible that by a process
of retardation they gave rise to a
Bushman-like form.”
Bushman and Neanderthal man, he
points out, both present the curious In
fantile tooth anomaly as evidence of a
very close relationship.
‘‘It would seem legitimate by ana
; legy,” he concludes, "to regard the pre
Bu'hman as In a Somewhat plastic
juvenile condition with the potentiality
of evolving further into other human
; types. His big head probably contained
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201fl S St. N.W.. ( or. Conn. Ave.
Oik Palais Royal
ELEVENTH AND G STREETS N.W. TELEPHONE DISTRICT 4400
Of course you’re going to hare
a suit this year!
Spring
Smartness
Slums Itself
Suits
Jackets are short and, growing
shorter—there are new ideas as to
fur scarfs and fur collars—tai
loring touches are more clever
than ever— cape collars are here—
and the new suits are perfectly
stunning!
Krinkle cord, diagonal
woolens, and soft crepes are
the most often-used materi
I als and you’ll find them in
9 corsair blue, the new beig
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black.
Tailored suits—but with feminizing
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Other suits, 16.50 to 29.75
Palais Royal —Third Floor
Those important
SILK MESH
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at a very special price tomorrow!
Reg. 1.65 Ruby
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JL Pair
Full-fashioned, pure thread silk mesh with silk sole
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Palais Royal—Main Floor
Presenting
the New
Marvelette
Foundations
to fit every
figure
Miss J. Cassidy
New York stylist, will be in
our Corset Section this week
to show you the new
models.
Here i« a foundation gar
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likp a glove! The new
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Of tine quality bro
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3.50 to 7.50
1 Palais Royal Third Floor.
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for long 1.25
hair
Regularly 1.35 and 1.60
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a Juvenile type of brain, which had all
the nascent possibilities of future of
florescence. He seems definitely to have
been the forerunner of the present Bush
man, but such a type might conceiv
ably have been the ancestor of other
races of modern man."
-•
Civil marriages in Glasgow, Scotland,
last year totaled 2,017, an Increase of
53 over 1930.
Violin-Bas* Viol Invented.
Violins may be made to sing bass by
simply aplylng electricity, according to
an Inventor-musician In France, who
has perfected a small device which
causes the change. The device may be
quickly placed on the violin, the “Juice”
turned on, and the delicate instrument
gives forth deep tones when the bow is
drawn across the strings.
Hats
lake an XPpward j
l urn to Pi chi eve
Smartness
As Vogue says,
"t/ie trend is up in millinery”
If you are going to be very chic
this Spring your hat will cer
/ J
tainly show it in the way it
tilts rakishly up in the back or j
flaunts an upward, perky bow
or flower. To show our fash
ion rightness, our Millinery
Salon is just full of new exam
ples of the Spring model
The upward
trend of this
youthful black
silk crepe and
fine straw tur
ban is accented
I by the feather
! fancy of black
and red and
white. $5
Here's a smart ■
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fine Baku, a
deftly turned ;
brim and a flat :
feather treat
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and white. 23- !
in. head size. $10 /
| Flowers are back
; again! You'll
! love them on
! this violet shark
[ skin model with
[ its cluster df vio
! lets in the back.
! The brim is nar
! row — and the
[ head size 23.
! 12.50
i
t
This is a perfect 5
example of |
Agnes’ Tyrolean \
hat of fine
Italian black
Milan and its
dashing red rib
bon points will !
give you the
smartest air!
$15
Millinery—Third Floor \
% PALAIS ROYAL
G STREET AT ELEVENTH /