Evening star. [volume], March 01, 1936, Image 37

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

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I-;—;-—| EDITORIAL SECTION i-1
Special’ Articles [ ^
Part 2—10 Paget » WASHINGTON, D. C~, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH ,1, 1936. ”
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TOWNSEND PLAN THROWN
TO DISCARD BY CONGRESS
Movement Is Denounced as Unsound
and Fantastic, and as Medium
for Racketeers.
BY WILL P. KENNEDY.
HE Townsend plan Is out—
thrown into the discard even
by its original sponsor—de
nounced by Congress on two
charges: That it is economically un
sound and a fantasy, and that it has
been used as a racket.
By a Vote of 240 to 4 the House
voted to investigate “old-age pension
rackets’’ through a committee headed
by Representative C. Jasper Bell,
Democrat, of Missouri, and to find out
whether anybody has gotten rich by
preying on the credulity of those who
hoped to spend their old age in afflu
ence through this “crack-brained”
scheme.
This investigation starts tomorrow,
with R. E. Clements, co-organize*
with Dr. Townsend, as first witness.
The committee has $50,000 for ex
penses.
But coupled with the practical re
jection of the Townsend plan is the
sincere pledge of those who have
been fighting this “mirage” that
Congress will take pity on the plight
of its victims and all who might face
distress in their declining years by
enacting an adequate but practical old
age security system, giving greater
measure of relief than that approved
at the insistence of President Roose
velt. The wisest heads in and out
of Congress are now giving intensive
and concentrated study to devise the
best method of old-age pensions. To
that extent the Townsend plan has
helped by arousing the entire country
to a realization that some adequate
iocial security system must be adopted.
Dimes and dollars, mites to mil
lions, squeezed from the poor, have
flowed in a silver stream into the
pockets of the promoters. But the
message from Congress, broadcast
through the press and by radio to
every community throughout the land,
is sincere and dependable—a sensible,
sufficient, workable old-age pension
system is to be enacted.
Leaders in Expose.
Among those who have been leaders
in exposing the "'heartless hoax,” the
unsoundness and destructiveness of
the Townsend plan, and in pledging
their earnest efforts for real relief are:
Senator Arthur Vandenberg, Repub
lican, of Michigan: Chairman O’Con
nor, Democrat, of New York, of the
House Rules Committee: Representa
tive Phil Ferguson, Democrat, of Okla
homa'; Representative Thomas L.
Blanton, Democrat, of Texas; Repre
sentative Charles J. Bell, Democrat,
of Missouri: Representatives Charles
L. Gifford, Republican, of Massachu
setts; Representative Clare E. Hoff
man, Republican, of Michigan; Repre
sentative Richard M. Duncan, Demo
crat, of Missouri; Representative Al
bert J. Engel, Republican, of Mich
igan; Representative Clarence F. Lea,
Democrat, of California; Representa
tive J. Mark Wilcox, Democrat, of j
Florida: Representative Jesse P. Wol- |
cott. Republican, of Michigan; Repre
sentative Edith N. Rogers, Republican,
of Massachusetts; Representative
Maury Maverick, Democrat, of Texas;
Representative Frank H. Buck, Demo
crat. of California; Representative E.
E. Cox, Democrat, of Georgia, and
Representative P. L. Gassaway, Demo
crat, of Oklahoma. The House Rules
‘ Committee—four Democrats and four
Republicans—voted unanimously for
the investigation. Of the four who
voted against it in the House—Repre
sentative Vito Marcantonio, Repub
lican, of New York, explained he is
opposed to the Townsend plan but did
not want to see money wasted in in
vestigating its finances. The others
were Burdick, Republican, of North
Dakota; Moritz, Democrat, of Penn
sylvania, and Stefan, Republican, of
Nebraska.
Also denouncing the Townsend plan !
are such noted economists as Dr. H.
A. Millis, head of Chicago University’s
Department of Economics; Stuart A.
Rice, acting chairman of the United
States Central Statistical Board; Dr.
Henry S. Pritchett, president emeritus
of the Carnegie Foundation for the ;
Advancement of Teaching; Dr. Ray j
Bert Westerfield, professor of political
economy, Yale University, and Robert
G. Elbert. New York.
The original Townsend plan has
been discarded. Its cardinal feature
was payment of $200 a month to all
60 years of age—with a sufficient tax
rate to meet the cost. The Townsend
weekly carried the slogan ‘‘We will
never compromise on $200 a month”
and it is on this basis that the or
ganization was built up. That was
the basic provision of the bill intro
cucea dv itepresenmve jonn Stephen
McOroarty, Democrat, of California,
on January 16, 1935. But that has
“gone flooey.” This original sponsor
has a new bill before Congress, intro
duced on April Fools’ day, “with many
changes and modifications,’’ of which
the Townsend Weekly of recent date
said: “Our new bill embodies all the
salient features of the Townsend plan
—optional retirement at 60 years, the
transaction tax; compulsory spending
and (200 a month when (and if) the
tax reaches that amount pro rata, etc.”
s (200 Objective Forsaken.
It is only recently that the Town
send Weekly eased down (and that as
inconspicuously as possible) from its
original Insistence on (200 a month
on which the entire movement was
originally founded. Representative
McOroarty, more loyal to the Town
sendites who built up a great national
demand for old-age security legisla
tion on a generous scale than the
Townsend leaders are to him—still in
sists that “this is the official Town
send bill.”
An invitation recently was extended
to Townsendites from the American
Commonwealth Federation, headed by
Representative Amlie, a Wisconsin
progressive, to join their political for
tunes in a third party effort. Mean
while the Communists had indorsed
the Townsend plan.
But in fairness to Representative
McOroarty it must be said that he
repudiated all third party talk. He
warned Dr. Townsend that "there must
be no third party movement.” He said;
“I am a lifelong Democrat. I will stay
to the Democratic party, and fight for
a Townsend plank in the Democratic
party platform. I am not anti-Roose
velt If the party won’t do it, I will
•till stay to the party.!' He explains
» 4
that he is "going into the Democratic
primary in California as a candidate
for the presidency (which he knows
he could not get and doesn’t want) so
that the Townsendites can name their
delegates to the national convention in
Philadelphia. This is done to comply
with the State primary law."
Big Force in~ Election Seen.
Just the same, .Mr. McGroarty boasts
that the Townsend movement is ‘‘going
to be the big force that will swing the
coming election." He says that “Dr.
Townsend has built up a vast political
organization the like of which has not
been known in the political history of
the United States—this is what is go
ing to swung the election—and the
ossified politicians don’t know yet what
is going on. This organization has
completely overwhelmed the West.
The Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast
States are almost solidly Townsend.
The movement has invaded the East
and is going like wildfire.” He points
to a picture on his office wall of a vast
gathering to welcome him home to Los
Angeles last year after he introduced
the Townsend plan bill. He says that
there were 142,000 persons in that
gathering.
So much for the change of heart
of the Townsend plan and its spon
sor—and so much for their scaling
down of their demand.
Now for the pledge of those oppos
ing the plan that they will work for
a real social security measure.
Senator Vandenberg speaks a quite
general sentiment when he says:
’’I believe the Government must
make adequate provision for adequate
old-age pensions. The Townsend plan
is entitled to great credit for forcing
this issue to the fore. I do not be
lieve the old-age pension provisions
in the social security act is adequate,
and I expect to join in making it
more adequate. It is my opinion that
the Townsend plan would not be a
step forward in this cause. On the
contrary, I believe it would precipitate
disaster not only for its intended ben
eficiaries, but also for the entire coun
try. It would create infinitely more
problems than it would solve and do
infinitely more harm than good.”
iter uses 10 Act tor Two Reasons.
Congress is refusing to act upon
the Townsend plan for two reasons—
many, a big majority, believe it is un
constitutional, and there is an almost
unanimous conviction that it is eco
nomically impossible.
As to the constitutionality, Rep
resentative Blanton warned his col
leagues: “Every good lawyer in the
United States knows full well that
the proposed Townsend plan is un
constitutional and that it would be
set aside and annulled by the Supreme
Court before it could be put into ef
fect. Not an aged person would ever
receive $1 from it. Hence it is a de
lusion and a snare. It is a fraud
on its face. It is deceiving good peo
ple. It is taking money from them
under false pretenses. It will end In
their sad disappointment.”
About a score of members of Con
gress and many noted economists have
gone into detail as to why the Town
send plan is economically unsound
and impracticable. Dr. Westerfleld
points out that “the United States
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce in co-operation with the Na
tional Bureau of Economic Research
estimates the national income paid
out in 1934 at *50.189,000.000. Of this
sum, the pensioners, who consitute
about 9 per cent of the population,
would be deceiving 55 per cent. If
the *27,468,000,000 going to pension
ers were deducted from the total in
come, there are left for the non
pensioned population *22,721,000,000.
Dividing this sum over the estimated
number of persons under 60 years of
age (namely 114,797,000) in 1934, al
lows *197 per year for the non
pensioned as against the *2,400 a year
for the pensioned, or about one-twelfth
as much.” He refers to Dr. Town
send as "a true child of the New Deal
spree in Utopian fairyland” and calls
upon the American people to “come
back to a realistic world and quit chas
ing fairies in the land of make
believe.”
“Emotional Adventure.”
Elbert says that the Townsend
plan is "an emotional adventure in
the field of economics—the Town
sendites are looking for the rainbow’s
gold. The rainbow is too far beyond
the horizon.”
After a careful and detailed enalysis
of the second McGroarty bill, Repre
sentative Engel tells what the trans
action tax would mean to the farmer,
the merchant, the banker, the manu
facturer, and the wage earner, the
advantages it would give the chain
store and how it would ruin thou
sands of independent merchants,
hundreds of struggling industries. He
shows the tremendous cost in addi
tional taxes to Federal and State
governments, how the individual
would have to pay in taxes “from
diapers to coffin.” He explodes the
business turnover argument of the
Townsendites by showing the fallacy
of taxing $1 600 per cent and con
cludes that “you would have to cross
breed the dollar with a guinea pig to
make it produce itself six times a
year, and make that one dollar pay
$6 in taxes.”
More than a dozen prominent mem
bers of the House have made speeches
giving various groups of statistics and
economic arguments against the
Townsend plan—far too numerous to
quote here. Representative Lea in
conclusion says:
“The adoption of the Townsend ptyrn
would make more people dependent
upon each other than any other single
act of mankind. The far-reaching
and ramifying effects of such a
change upon our political, economic
and social structure can be measured
with no degree of accuracy. If the
Nation hastens upon this magnificent
folly, it will probably long repent in
sackcloth and ashes”-but:
“Our American people are the de
scendants of pioneers. On the whole
they have been a hard-working, self
reliant class. In the language of
another, I do not expect to see this
people sink down ‘to the level of a
pension collecting, rocking chair sit
ting, money squandering outfit.’ ”
The same sort of sentiment was ex
,(Continued on Third Page.),
_ *
First Southerners Traced
r
Two New Indian Civilizations Found, One Before Day of Bows and Arrows, in T. V. A. Area.
SAPLINGS ANI) MUD: A “TOWN HOUSE” RECONSTRUCTED
BY ARCHEOLOGISTS. ONCE HEADQUARTERS OF A PRIMITIVE
TRIBE-A SITE NOW UNDER 150 FEET OF WATER.
—Photos Copyright by Maj. W. S. Webb.
BY GRACE HALLER.
UPON the Clinch River, in what
today is Tennessee, there was
trouble. The green corn
dance was only seven risings
of the sun away, and the town house
was slithering into the river. Seven
risings of the sun, indeed! For 10
days the sun had neither risen nor
set on the men of Clinch River. Only
a grayness, a little less dark than
night, had pierced the constant veil
of rain. And now the carefully packed
clay on the roof of the town house was
oozing off in ever-faster streams; the
hickory sapling frame was leaning to
the westward.
The chiefs wrapped their buffalo
robes around themselves and sent the
young men into the forest. A cedar
must be secured to brace it. A large
cedar! But it would be no easy task,
even for young men, to fell a cedar 2
feet thick with stone axes in the rain.
How could the ring of fire be burned
around the trunk with the whole sky
weeping like a woman-child? And
without the fire, the axes would not
bite the hard cedar nor, indeed, any
other wood.
But the young men carried their
brands into the forest, a mile away,
where they knew of a cedar. They
prayed the sacred cedar’s mercy and
set to work.
Fires Must Burn.
Three days before the green corn
dance, panting and struggling. 10 of
them dragged the giant timber into
the cane-thatched village. The cedar
had been willing, they told the war
riors and the beloved men—the eld
ers—to prop the town house back to
the eastward. The fires of thanksgiv
ing must burn on the holy hearth for
the green corn ceremonies. Other
wise, the corn might not yield next
season—or, worse, perhaps, never
again. By the grace of the cedar’s
spirit, the sun broke up the clouds,
and while the men worked within to
set the timber in the floor, the women
scooped up dripping clay from the
river banks to repair the damage.
The fires burned in the four basins
of the white clay, and in the great
central one. The chief rose from his
white clay seat opposite the door, and
all the people followed. One by one
they wriggled between the saplings of
the door into the brilliant sun of the
Summer solstice. And on the bank
of the Clinch River they made a dance
unrecorded by any man. In the Clinch
River they washed away sins no liter
ature recalls and returned through the
sapling door to give thanks for un
recorded blessings.
Flnrincf fVio finmmhr a vinlont VO
storm flattened the town house, cedar
prop and all. There was nothing left
to do but burn the sacred remains
and erect a new building on the dedi
cated soil. The village of sapling
houses thatched with cane had grown
a good deal since the town house was
built—so the new one was larger.
Such a scene, perhaps, was typical
of the strange ‘‘town house” culture
unearthed by Maj. W. S. Webb, retired
United States Army officer and head
of the departments of physics and
archeology at the University of Ken
tucky. Maj. Webb conducted T. V. A.
archeological excavations in the val
leys of the Clinch and Tennessee
Rivers before completion of the Norris
and Wheeler Dams. The territory
was to be inundated forever. If any
thing was to be found out about the
pre-histofy of the country, it had to
be done at once. The resulting exca
vations comprised one of the most
comprehensive and wide-flung arch
eological studies ever conducted in
this country.
Most Primitive People.
But the “town house" people were
only one of two extraordinary cultures
brought to light. The other was found
in the Wheeler Basin, 300 miles away,
in Alabama, it is the most primitive
yet discovered east of the Mississippi
River. The earliest people here were
so unskilled that they did not even
know the use of the bow and arrow;
they lived on shell heaps and shell
Islands in the rivers that furnished
their food. And in this locality Maj.
Webb encountered one of the most
singular situations ever known to
archeology—burial mounds contain
ing impressions of skeletons, but no
skeletons!
Archeology without skeletons! It
is almost like printing without ink.
And yet the T. V. A. diggings at the
outset were peculiarly lacking in this
respect. Whereas the primitive peo
ple of the Wheeler Basin left burial
mounds but no skeletons, the “town
house” folk left no traces of burial
whatsoever. What did they do with
their dead? It is an ancient and US
solvable mystery. ■ .
These early peoples, living on the
k
pumpkins, beans, maize, squash, mel
ons and wild game of most Indians,
occupied a territory of Edenlike fer
tility. It was a land in which wild
fowl was so plentiful and so easy to
catch that Indian children shot birds
with slingshots. It was a land where,
at the turn of the hoe, the fertile,
loamy soil would increase any plant
ed thing a thousand times over. This
effortless agriculture was consequently
considered easy enough for the women
to handle alone.
This country of rushing rivers,
broad valleys and hills of giant for
est was densely populated—that is,
according to prftnitive notions of den
sity. One “town house’’ after the
other and one on top of the other
was found up the Clinch River. A
constant succession of tribes occu
pied the shell mounds in the Wheeler
Basin. But they all seemed to have
vanished before the Cherokees ar
rived in Tennessee. To the Indians
of this great, enlightened tribe, the
Clinch River was only a wilderness
inhabited by waterfowl. Not until
the T. V. A. took shovel in hand
did the once-populous valley tell of
these ancient, completely-forgotten
inhabitants and their strange, sa
cred “town houses.”
Intensified Archeology.
In the Spring and Summer of 1934
Maj. Webb conducted archeological
research in the two basins at once.
This was archeology on an in
tensified, World-War scale. Super
visors, fresh from digging shell heaps
in Algiers, pueblos in Mexico and
temples in South America, had to
learn the technique of earth mounds.
And 1,000 greenhorns or a shirting
relief personnel had to be taught the
rudiments, at least, of scientific ex
cavation. Forty-four sites had to be
examined in a quarter of the time
ordinarily spent on one.
And the two main sites were 300
miles apart! Up the Clinch Valley
was a string of workmen stretched
85 miles along the river bank over
80 square miles of land. Over in the
Wheeler Basin another 500 men were
digging on 75 miles of Tennessee
River bottom, covering 100 square
miles of land. Rain and flood could
not stop the work, which must be
completed or be forever lost.
"Ordinarily, you know,” said the
major, "we select a single mound to
work on.”
But the Government said of the now
flooding valleys:
"Clean ’em out. Find out all you
can, because nobody will ever get the
chance again.”
And the major did. He was able to
see the whole pre-history of the coun
try spread out over the entire land,
rather than learn it a single page at a
time. Within six months it was pos
sible to make comparisons that ordi
narily would have consumed years of
time.
Maj. Webb was summoned, on a
three-day notice. After making his
plans for these wholesale excavations,
22 archeological supervlsers had some
how to be snatched out of their va
rious capacities in colleges and uni
versities, and put into the field. Co
operating Tennessee and Alabama re
lief authorities assigned 1,000 relief
workers to do the bulk of the digging.
Approximately $200,000 was spent
from the relief funds of those States
in salaries and other expenses, keep
ing the 1,000 employed for six months.
Now these tremendous investigations
are completed—one of the many and
various social-economic projects spon
sored by the T. V. A. At present,
while the eventual fate of many of
these activities hangs in the balance,
and water gradually rises over the
scene of "one of my biggest years.”
the major is back in Lexington, ad
ministering his departments in the
University of Kentucky.
Traces Prehistoric Men.
But his week ends are spent poring
over the records of the 22 supervisee,
studying photographs and drawings,
shreds of pottery, bits of copper.
Others he spends comparing sites in
Florida, Alabama and various other
spots in the southeast with those of
his findings, comparing notes with
fellow archeologists. Cautiously he
ventures the opinion that these “new”
pre-historic Norris Valley men may
belong to the Yuchi, one of the In
dian linguistic stocks.
"But we couldn't find their ceme
teries!” he exclaims. "Two or three
burials, evidently accidental, in the
w’hole of the town house country, were
the only skeletons we found.”
What did these people do with their
dead? Nobody knows. Perhaps, like
: their successors, the Cherokees, they
| threw their dead into the river. Per
haps they ascended a ramp of logs to
the top of the town house and scat
tered crematory ashes to the four
winds. Perhaps the dead were placed
in trees, to remain there till they were
disintegrated by the elements. One
thing is certain—they left no bones
behind.
All this may not seem so startling
until it is realized that the whole
eastern half of the United States is
one vast graveyard of the mound
builders, those prehistoric Indians
whose earthworks and burials have
astonished scholars for the last half
century.
Somewhat like villages of inverted
basket? were the sapling town sites in
the Norris Valley. The houses varied
in size, averaging about 12 by 15 feet,
and were thatched with cane. But
the town house, in addition to thatch
ing, was also covered with earth.
One corner was the door, which
must have been similar-to the door
ways of the round Cherokee council
houses. For these people, according
to all the evidence, must have had a
civilization similar to that of the
Cherokees, although they probably
antedated that nation and were cer
tainly gone before the appearance ol
Europeans.
oo tnis doorway, then, was merely
an aperture between the smallest sap
lings.
Then the thatching with grass and
cane. After that the piling on of earth.
Inside, the imprint of cane matting
was found bordering the floor along
the walls, delicately exposed with
trowel and whisk broom by the relief
archeologists.
Also on the Inside was a raised seat
made of clay, in a different color from
that of the ground, and in the center
was the raised clay altar containing
one central basin and four corner fire
basins. For what purpose? No one
knows. But whatever the color of the
floor, the seat and altar were of a
lighter hue. Black floor, let us say, red
seat and altar. Red floor, white or
light yellow seat and altar.
Outside—although this may not al
ways have been the case—a ramp of
logs ascended to the roof, which was
flattened on top, and from which tid
ings were broadcast or evil spirits dis
pelled as in the similar Cherokee prac
tice. The imprints of the logs that
formed the ramp were found on the
earthen ramps in the remains of these
prehistoric Cherokee neighbors.
First Actual Prehistoric Date.
But the rains in the Winter and age
itself caused the town houses to get
wobbly. Ancient charred cedar logs,
propped against the walls to remedy
the situation, were found in place.
From one of these a student of tree
ages, Dr. Florence Hawley of the Uni
versity of New Mexico, will soon be
able to report the first actual pre
historic date of the eastern part ol
the United States.
But the earth on the roof has been
responsible for the remarkable data
concerning the town houses.
If the Clinch River men had writ
ten in English exactly how these town
houses were made, they could not
have left a clearer record for the
T. V. A. archeologists. Por when the
town houses were burned, the volatile
gases passed off, but the indesructt
ble charcoal remained in the earth.
Atfeund the town bouses wen the
4
T. V. A. BECOMES TITANIC
ELECTRO-SOCIAL TRIAL
Far-Reaching Effect on Nation Seen at
“New Deal Laboratory” in Housing,
Town Planning and Transportation.
Note—Public interest in the Ten
nessee Valley experiment, re
awakened by the Supreme Court
decision favoring the Government’s
project, has raised questions con
cerning the working out of this
gigantic undertaking. What the T,
V. A. has already done and how
its friends and critics view its work
are discussed here by a newspaper
correspondent who has traveled
throughout the Tennessee Valley
and made a thorough survey of this
laboratory of the New Deal,
(INSTITUTIONAL lawyers may
argue over the broadness of
the Supreme Court’s T. V. A.
decision. Economists may dis
pute the soundness of the whole ti
tanic electro-social experiment which
the government is conducting in the
great drainage basin of the Tennessee
River just west of the Southern Appa
lachians.
But for the directors of the Tennes
see Valley authority and their still
enthusiastic corps of engineers, econ
omists and conservation experts, the
decision was a punched ticket to go
ahead with one of the biggest scientific
experiments in history. They have
gone a long way in two and a half
years of mammoth dam and power
line construction, and of efforts to im
prove economic and social ways of life.
• During this time they have heard
a good deal of criticism—some un
doubtedly due to of
t
what they are trying to do, and some
due to fundamental disagreement with
the whole philosophical basis of their
undertaking.
Dr. Arthur E. Morgan, who heads
the great Federal enterprise, is a com
bination of practical engineer and
idealist educator who, from the first,
has looked far beyond the purely eco
nomic aspects of the Tennessee Valley
problem.
T. V. A. Set-up Yardstick.
The T. V. A. set-up has been widely
publicised as a “yardstick” of the cost
of producing and distributing electric
power.
After two years of operation, it finds
that it can generate and transmit
power from Muscle Shoals through the
surrounding area for approximately
six mills per kilowatt hour on the
average.
}f this is a fair yardstick, the private
utility companies have made a good
showing. The Alabama Power Co. has
rates as low as five and eight-tenths
mills. The Mississippi Power Co. fur
nishes electricity for as low as seven
mills.
Utility company proponents say the
government corporation is able to offer
the six-mill rate only by a gross mark
down 6f the value of the Wilson Dam
plant below construction casts—from
$60,000,000 to $19,000,000.
The T. V. A. officials reply that Wil
son Dam was built under war condi
tions at grossly excessive costs, as s
.(Continued oa Third Page.),
1
BRITAIN INCREASES U. S.
DANGER OF PACIFIC WAR
Japan Prepares to Fight Either Nation
to Expand Southward as Situation
Becomes Perilous Powder Key.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. i
INCE the heavy war clouds have i
been spreading toward the Pa
cific, the Japanese generals and
admirals are smiling again—
their most innocent smile.
Last Pall, when the European war
failed to materialize, there was a wave
of pessimism in Tokio. The general <
staff had hoped that the conflict be
tween the League of Nations and Italy
would lead to war in the Mediterra- 1
nean. Ammunition and arms factories
throughout Japan were placed on a
24-hour schedule; the navy, returning '
from extended maneuvers, was ordered
to stand by; the German aviation in
structors worked overtime.
Then Europe managed to muddle :
through. # 1
But the European crisis has been
only postponed. The latest develop
ments in Paris, Rome and Berlin show
that the expected European clash can- j
not be delayed much longer. The out
break of hostilities in the Old World
will be the signal for a war in the
Par East. Japan is prepared for it.
Several Possibilities.
It may take place in the shape of a
struggle between Japan and Russia
for the possession of the maritime
provinces or between Japan and Great
Britain—possibly the United States—
for the conquest of the Southern Pa
cific. It all depends on which forces ,
will become engaged in Europe.
Japan is not seeking room for her
surplus population. Her people do
not want to leave the narrow confines \
of the islands. Neither Korea nor!
Manchuria has attracted the Japanese 1
farmer.
Japan wants vast territories for ex
ploitation purposes only. It needs new
arpas with raw materials for its in- j
dustries and large populations to con- j
sume the manufactured products.
| Of this, the dictator of Japan—the
1 general staff—no longer makes a!
I secret. A few years ago the Japanese
; admirals and generals did not object
| to having the diplomats camouflage
i their intentions. Now this pretense
has been abandoned.
A Japanese Manchukuoan army of
j 380.000 men is near the Siberian bor
' der ready for action should the
Soviet Republic become involved in a
war with Germany. The Japanese
Navy, the strongest in the Western
Pacific, and an army of 250.000 is
j concentrated in Southern Japan and
1 in Formosa ready for a drive south
ward.
Awaits China's Prize.
That China as far as the Yangtze \
River will fall into the lap of the |
Japanese Empire without the army
firing a shot is a matter which Tokio
takes for granted.
In order to expand further south,
however, the Japanese may have to
! fight. And the general staff welcomes
the idea of such a fight. It will mean
a war either with Great Britain or the
United States or both.
It was two years ago that Ambas
; sador Matsuidara called on the then
| British foreign secretary, Sir John j
Simon, “just to chew the rag,” as the I
Ambassador expressed the object of
his visit. Matsuidara indulged in a
lengthy discourse on racial psychology, j
And he observed casually, “of course, j
. your presence in Hongkong might
j some day endanger the friendly rela
! tions between our two countries. Sup
pose the Chinese nationalist move
: .—----...
village sites. No matter what the ex
tent of the village, every town house
I was near the river—a matter of 200
feei, more tt less. This was, perhaps,
because of the rites of the green
corn dance, which required ablution
in the river to signify a spiritual
cleansing. The Cherokees had such
a rite.
Besides these town house people,
the Norris Valley had cave dwellers—
primitive Indians of Algonquian stock,
wh» buried women and children in the
floor of their cave homes. And there
are traces of a third culture; but it
is so ephemeral and distant as to be
almost non-traceable.
The major thinks, while Tennessee
River w'ater covers forever the sites
of the town house people, a people
utterly different from other pre-his
toric cultures of the region, that in
six months, perhaps, having compared,
digested and thoroughly examined the
tremendous amount of material at
hand, he may be able to publish the
Norris Valley report. But it will be
two years or maybe more before the
Wheeler Valley material can be simi
larly completed.
Ancient Shell Heaps.
Nevertheless, the Wheeler Valley
promises to be equally exciting,
though infinitely tedious and difficult.
For “when folks go to living and bury
ing and clam-baking all in the same
hole, it creates a very difficult prob
lem for the archeologist.”
As at Muscle Shoals, 18 miles down
the Tennessee from Wheeler Dam,
and as in the whole of the world, an
cient shell heaps are the sources of
information concerning primitive man.
They are the remnants of the fisher
man-hunting stage of progress, in
which man subsided largely on fish
and clams and whatever game he
could trap or snare. Being not too
adept with weapons, fishing was easier
than hunting, and catching clams was
the easiest and surest of all.
So in the Tennessee Valley, as else
where in the world, the human in
habitants .lived on the shell beds;
made masks of shell, and beads of
shell, and utensils of shell—and, in
cidentally, raised quite a large heap
of shells. The heaps became islands
In flood time, but were never quite
under water, so that the people could
stay right there and keep on living.
Periodically, when the hearths be
came a hole in the surrounding pile
of cast-off shells, they scraped the
shells together and moved on top.
When anybody died, they simply
buried them in the shell heap. Later,
"when they dug holes for a clam bake,
they as likely as not stirred up the
bones of a burial that had been en
tirely forgotten. It was this clam
baking and consequent "stirring"
which causes the problem of the arche
ologist. The age of deposit cannot
be reckoned by the position in which
tt 1* found In the shell heap.
I
nent reaches Hongkong and there are
iisturbances which must inevitably
ead to bloodshed. Our people in
Japan will see in the death of a score
>f Chinese a conflict be ween the white
ind the yelow races. I am seriously
worried lest my government may not
» in a position to prevent a popular
wtburst against the white domination
)f China. You may have to haul
iown the Union Jack.” Matsuidara
irew in his breath and, smiling in a
nost friendly manner, added, "This
ioes not express the views of my gov
ernment. I am just thinking aloud.”
And by a strange coincidence, when
he Japanese minister at the Hague
called informally on the Dutch foreign
ninister, he discoursed on a number
>f questions, but principally on Japan’s
ack of oil, and suggested that it might
>e advisable for the Dutch government
o sell Borneo and Sumatra to Japan.
‘You can write your own check,” said
he Japanese diplomat, ”it would really
>e much cheaper for her majesty’s
government to take a large sum than
;o spend so much more defending
hose islands.”
Real Move Southward.
Japan is waiting only for the out
>reak of a European war to “expand”
oward the south. The maritime
jrovinces are of secondary impor
;ance. The conquest of Siberia to
Baikal Lake is important because it
would remove a potential enemy from
he Manchukuoan border. But the
real move of the Japanese must be
southward.
American diplomacy, weak as it is
in regard to Europe, is well informed
about the Far East. The trend of the
Japanese ambitions became clear the
Jay Gen. Honjo’s army entered Muk
ien. And Great Britain, which had
spurned America's advances in 1932,
is making eleventh-hour efforts to co
ordinate its policies with those of the
United States. The British admiralty
abandoned its claims for a small bat
tleship, opposed the Japanese naval
parity demand and eased Japan out
of the London conference with true
British erace.
The United States responded to the
British advances. It strengthened
Britain's hand at Geneva, drafted a
neutrality bill to prevent the export of
oil to Italy, Britain’s potential foe;
then dropped it when it appeared to
be more detrimental to the empire in
case of trouble in the Far East. The
United States Fleet, which was trans
ferred temporarily to the Pacific, is
now there to stay.
Furthermore, while there has been
no official offer to the American Navy
to ‘‘make herself at home in Singa
pore,” Great Britain will not hesitate
to offer the freedom of the port to
American men-of-war should they
happen to be around there under dif
ficult circumstances. Stanley Baldwin
denied emphatically two weeks ago
that Great Britain had offered the
use of Singapore to the United States
Navy in exchange for a compromise
on the size of the battleship—and he
spoke the truth. It is not for such a
futile purpose that Great Britain
is willing to offer a shelter to the
United States when it is far from
home.
Roosevelt Watching Early.
President Roosevelt was thinking of
the possibilities of a dangerous situa
tion in the Western Pacific as far
back as 1933. When Edouard Herriot
came to Washington to discuss debts,
they talked Indo-China. Mr. Roose
velt was interested in the Saigon
naval base and in the new military
pbrt of Cape Saint Jacques, north of
Saigon.
Of course the British interests In
the Far East are more important than
the American. The total British in
vestments in China alone exceed $1 ,—
000,000,000, while the American rep
resent barely a fifth of that amount.
And the British are worried.
The government and the navy in
Great Britain see in the plans of the
Japanese toward the south a direct
challenge to the British Empire. They
see a threat not only to their estab
lished position in China but to India
and Australia. And, reluctantly, the
British Imperial Defense Council has
come to the conclusion that a show
down with Japan may be necessary in
the near future.
The eyes of Great Britain are once
more turned on the United States.
During these last weeks there has
been an encouraging response, as far
as the British are concerned, from
Washington.
mu« nnt.nl Unilrlinn nenrrrom ic KfiinCf
speeded up, This is only natural
under the present circumstances. But
two speeches have been made recently.
In Washington, Senator Pittman de
clared Japan a menace to the United
States. Coming from the chairman of
the Senate's Foreign Affairs Commit
tee, this statement was significant.
Undersecretary Phillips spoke in Chi
cago. The second in command in the
State Department is a diplomat by
training and by profession. Mr. Phil
lips is never known to speak out of
turn; quite the contrary. Yet, in Chi
cago, the Undersecretary of State, re
fraining diplomatically from mention
ing Japan by name, sounded a warn
ing that this country is determined
not to abandon the open door policy
in China.
Mr. Pittman was irked by the atti
tude of the Japanese in regard to the
Philippines. Mr. Phillips spoke about
the open door because the so-called
independent governments created in
China by Tokio are levying heavy
duties on American and British goods
when products manufactured in Japan
are admitted duty free.
The State Department, conceding
that the trade in China is of no great
consequence, bears in mind there are
500,000.000 people living in that coun
try. Within a generation or two this
population may have a purchasing
power.
The question is whether investments
amounting to less than $200,000.00 and
the possibility of trading with China
remuneratively within the next 60 or
70 years are worth the risks of conflict
with Japan.
Hie real truth, however, is that when
the next European war breaks out,
Great Britain will be in serious diffi
culties in the Atlantic and in the
Pacific. And Cousin John hopes that
once more the United States will coim
and pull the chestnuts out of the fire.
(Coprrisht. 1936.)
4