Evening star. [volume], July 20, 1936, Page A-8, Image 8

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

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THE EVENING STAR
With Sunday Morning Edition.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MONDAY..July 29, 1936
THEODORE W. NOYES.Editor
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Local Budget Procedure.
In commenting last month on the fact
that the amount of the Federal contri
bution to Capital City expenses will not
be known until the President submits his
recommendations on the subject to the
next Congress, in compliance with the
terms of the District appropriation act,
The Star suggested that the Commis
sioners either would submit to Congress,
through the Budget Bureau, a budget
based on District needs—without refer
ence to anticipated revenue availability—
or delay the submission of any budget
until the amount of the Federal contri
bution becomes known.
The latter procedure would appear to
be more logical. A budget is supposed
to contain the proposed expenditures to
be made from an accurately estimated
amount of revenue. Otherwise, it is no
budget—merely a list of proposed ex
penditures. But the Budget Bureau may
insist that the Commissioners submit
their proposals for bureau approval. In
such case t.he list of nronosals to be
submitted should cover all the ground
of essential District needs.
What is the procedure to be? The
department heads at the District Build
ing are even now working on their pre
liminary estimates, wisely cautioned by
Maj. Donovan to exercise every rea
sonable economy. Under normal condi
tions these estimates would be submitted
to the bureau by the middle of next
month. But under present conditions
no one has the faintest idea of what
amount the President will propose should
come from the National Government as
joint participant in Capital City financ
ing. Nobody knows, in other words, how
much money the District will have avail
able for expenditure.
Regardless of what else is done, one
thing that should by aU means be avoided
is the submission to the Budget Bureau
of a partial budget made up only of
those items that can be financed from
local tax revenues. Such a partial budget
would present a false picture of local
needs. It would necessarily be confined
to mere maintenance, on a restricted
6cale, of the most essential activities. It
could include none of the long-delayed
school building or other Improvement
projects. It would distort the accurate
conception of the joint responsibility be
tween the National Government and the
local community in financing National
Capital needs. Local tax revenues and
the national contribution, representing
the national obligation in support of
the National Capital, are inseparable and
indivisible. Each forms a part of Dis
trict revenues. The amount of District
KmrAntmn nrill > 1, ~ _ __
■ v ■ w.mvw wvwiub nuunu Ulibii
the President’s recommendations are
made. A partial District budget, con
templating the expenditure of revenues
from local taxation alone, would be of
little use to anybody.
Government organization will have
the attention of Senator Harry F. Byrd
of Virginia. It is proudly remembered
that from Virginia came some of the
forefathers who are regarded as having
organized the best government.
A third party usually has enough
communistic sentiment present to desire
a new distribution of all tangible assets,
including votes.
“This Fine, Pretty World.”
Percy Mackaye once wrote a play about
a ne’er-do-well Kentucky mountaineer
who, despite a plethora of troubles, still
insisted that "this fine, pretty world”
Is a wonderful place in which to live.
The man loved romance and laughter,
color and adventure; and he found those
values even in poverty and degradation,
hardship and suffering. His philosophy,
it seems, might be extended also to
include the age—"this fine, pretty time”
in which so much goes wrong and yet
so much somehow goes right.
Think of the marvelous triumphs that
practical science is winning for children!
A boy accidentally is hit in the corner
of an eye by a steel bullet carelessly
fired from a theoretically harmless air
rifle. Mercifully, the pellet misses the
eyeball. Instead, it lodges deep in the
optic socket beyond the reach of a sur
geon’s probe. But there is no reason
for despair. In a hospital operating room
an electric magnet, skillfully directed,
draws out the missile; th£ wound heals
and within a fortnight the patient is
recuperating in camp, none the worse
for his experience.
Another lad crosses the Pacific from
Australia to America to have a nail
removed from his lungs, a wonderful
Invention perfected by a Philadelphia
physician accomplishing the miracle in
seven minutes. By grace of radio the
small visitor then converses with his
father back home, nearly ten thousand
miles distant.
Meanwhile, a little girl has her in
verted stomach “corrected” and happily
anticipates the first degree of normal
health she ever has known. And a
Canadian country doctor, unprepared
for emergency, brings five baby sisters
Into "this fine, pretty world” at a single
birth and, still more incredibly, manages
to keep them alive.
The list might be prolonged endlessly.
Men fly above the poles, commute over
the Atlantic and the Pacific, climb the
stratosphere, plumb hitherto unmeasured
depths of the sea, develop wireless teleg
raphy and telephony, make pictures
talk, photograph the stars, weigh the
planets, analyze the atom, double the
presumption of life in less than three
centuries, decrease by more than half
the toll of maternal mortality, recon
struct the shattered faces of wounded
men rescued from battlefields, halt the
progress of typhus and tuberculosis,
stamp oui yellow fever and smallpox,
construct huge water-power generators,
electrify railroads, harness the tides of
the ocean to the uses of industry.
To dramatize the issue one has only
to glance out of a window. Any pass
ing automobile will suffice to prove the
point. Represented in it, pulsing un
seen within it, is a gasoline motor—a
device so utterly magical as to be un
imagined a mere fifty years ago! The
genius of its sponsors has set the clock
of human advancement forward by a
far more notable span.
Mr. Mackaye’s hero was well-advised
to be Joyful. It is, incontrovertibly, a
"fine, pretty world” and a “fine, pretty
time.” People, conscious of enhanced
evolution, are not discouraged.
Revolt in Spain.
Chronic unrest, prevalent in Spain ever
since the Radical Front's accession to
power in the February election, has flared
at last into something approximating
revolution. Following an army rebellion
against the government in Spanish
Morocco and the Canary Islands, the
Leftist cabinet of Premier Quiroga has
quit office, leaving former President
Barrio, as chief of the Republican Union,
to carry on with a stop-gap ministry
amid conditions that are immeasurably
precarious.
Events plunged toward a crisis at the
end of last week after the assassination
of Senor Sotelo, a leading Monarchist
deputy, supposedly by elements identi
neu W1M1 tile I\auu;<u icguuc, A-c»o\,iouo
joined Royalists in the bitter hue and
cry that the Leftists in power were bent
upon setting up a Republican dictator
ship under Socialist-Communist control.
Fears of such a development spurred the
army, long resentful of ineffectual prole
tarian rule at Madrid, into open insurrec
tion, which manifested itself in an up
rising of the 20,000 troops stationed in
Spanish Morocco. Government ships and
planes were ordered into action against
the rebels at Mellila and Ceuta and
prompt steps were taken to prevent the
revolt from spreading across the narrow
strait separating the Spanish mainland
from North Africa. Meantime soldiers at
Cadiz, Barcelona, Seville and other points
rebelled, precipitating violent clashes
with government forces.
From his vantage point of exile In
Italy', ex-King Alfonso doubtless observes
the troublous course of affairs within
his former realm with hopefully longing
gaze. While only super-sanguine Right
ists envision the possibility of monarch
ical restoration, events indicate that
Spain Is heavily saturated with conserva
tive sentiment and ready to resort to
force to check the swing to extreme rad
icalism. To that end faith is pinned
mainly on the army. Former War Minis
ter Robles, chief anti-Leftist leader, re
cently predicted that the army would
revolt unless the reign of terror ascribed
to the Communists and revolutionary
Socialists was halted by the government.
That prophecy seems to be bearing fruit.
General Franco, leader of the rebellious
troops in Morocco, was Robles' chief of
staff at Madrid. He has been frequently
mentioned as probable captain general
of a military uprising.
Spain thus becomes the first arena
of determined hostility to the Radical
regimes which this year has seen sue
cessively swept into office there and in
France and Belgium. In each of those
three countries, groups of varying
Fascist hue are leagued to overthrow
Socialist or combined Socialist-Corn-.
munist ascendancy. Extremist Labor
factions of more or less revolutionary
tendencies aggravate the situation. In
Spain everything depends upon the
ability of the civilian authorities to cope
with the army. The military rank and
file are bitterly dissatisfied with the
Leftist government. They have been de
manding a state of war as the one means
of suppressing the disorders, accom
panied by heavy loss of life and property,
which have kept Spain in incessant tur
moil and terror for the past five months.
The King of Kings, who has met many
exploration parties in Africa, is now con
ducting a searching party to locate the
League of Nations.
Rest at Sea.
President Roosevelt is well-advised to
have recourse to the sea in his search
for a place to rest. At the moment of
his departure for his marine holiday he
said that he "prayed for a fog”—a cur
tain of haze to protect him from intru
sion. Experience has taught him that
a Chief Executive ordinarily has no more
privacy than the proverbial goldfish. On
land he has ah audience constantly; I
also, he is available for incessant inter
ruption. The bounding main, then, pro
vides about the only escape he may enjoy.
And Mr. Roosevelt is fortunate in being
equipped with a temperamental affection
for the water. Calvin Coolidge and Her
bert Hoover, on the other hand, lacked
the nautical instinct and found scant
pleasure in sailing. Indeed, it is neces
sary to go back to Grover Cleveland to
find a natural-bom yachtsman among
occupants of the White House—he sought
the isolation of a cruise on one occasion
when his physicians desired seclusion for
a delicate operation which they were
obliged to perform in the interest of his
health.
But it is mental recreation, not merely
physical leisure, that Mr. Roosevelt
wants. The past several months have
beqp more strenuously busy than the
public has realised. In a single day a
fortnight ago the President studied and
signed or otherwise disposed of seventy
bills passed in the final hours of Con
gress. Each separate piece of legislation
represented a problem which had to be
solved before the end of ten days after
adjournment; none could be accorded
approval until its merit had been con
clusively established in the mind of the
individual who, above all others, Is re
sponsible for administrative policy. The
mere reading of the text of nine hundred
and sixty-five different acts In one ses
sion is a tedious task. Yet Mr. Roosevelt
perforce performed the labor of it.
• No wonder, then, that the President
chose to take his vacation on the ocean.
Even though he still is watched by re
porters and keeps In touch with land by
radio he is as completely exempt from
coercive routine as it Is feasible for him
to be the while he continues to support
the burden of his office and its duties,
the most difficult job in the world.
Judicial Duck Soup.
Judge Mattingly has rendered the
Communist party of America a distinct
service by his Ill-advised lecture on Com
munism, which he delivered from the
bench the other day in sentencing two
persons to pay a line of twenty-five
dollars or spent thirty days In Jail for
distributing Communistic handbills at
the ball park.
The offense with which tjiese persons
was charged was distributing literature
in a public place in violation of police
regulations. That the distributors were
Communists, that the literature advised
persons to vote the Communist ticket,
had nothing to do with the case. The
same charge would have rested with
equal force, under the law, against per
sons violating police regulations by dis
tributing handbills at the Roosevelt noti
fication ceremony advising the public to
vote for Governor Landon and to tune
in on his next radio speech.
When judges make the injudicious mis
take of rendering irrelevant dicta from
the bench against Communists and Com
munism, when the charge against the
defendants before him has nothing to do
with Communists or Communism, they
help the Communist party. For what
the Communist party needs now, more
than anything else, is to be taken serf
ousiy.
Judge Mattingly’s little anti-Com
munist speech is duck soup for the Com
munists.
Haille Selassie has been absent from
the newi dispatches for so long that
fears are felt that he may be at work
on an underground campaign against II
Duee from somewhere within the Alpine
area.
Spain’s contribution to the turmoil of
nations is at least to be welcomed as
not another demonstration of the fu
tility of the Geneva League.
Prisoners who have money can buy
extra luxuries. Class distinction is so
insidious that it pervades even the
penitentiary.
Shooting Stars.
BT PHILANDER JOHNSON.
The Indomitable Song.
Oh, mocking bird, you seem to hear,
Despite the discord and the storm,
The songs that sound when friends are
near,
Holding them still in memory warm.
Though clouds are dark in yonder sky,
Your gladdest song you stUl preserve.
I sometimes listen with a sigh
And wonder how you have the nerve!
In ridicule you may repeat
The cackle or the snarling caw;
Then you resume your singing sweet,
And happiness is still your law.
Of fairest blossoms still you tell,
Beneath the rainbow’s radiant curve,
And to all sorrow bid farewell—
I wonder how you have the nerve I
Choosing a Coarse.
“You must try to see both side of
every question."
“I do,” answered Senator Sorghum.
“But the effort to do so will make it
hard to go straight ahead if you per
sist until it renders you cross-eyed.”
Self-Deception.
“Why don’t you marry some good
man?”
“The trouble is,” said Miss Cayenne,
“that any lady who finds a man who
really interests her Is likely to be mis
led by her own imagination. His appre
ciation of her makes her think he must
have extraordinary taste and discrimi
nation.”
Memory Mismanaged.
The things that we remember
Will too often cause a sigh
That brings flame Into the ember
Of a grievance long gone by.
We recall the bitter speeches
That impulsively were made
And the old mistake that teaches
While far better lessons fade.
Generous kindness seems to perish
As we harbor vain regret
And the memories we cherish
Are the things we should forget.
Jud Tunkins says as soon as a man
says “psychological” you can make up
your mind that pretty soon you are not
going to understand what he is talking
about.
“Vice,” said Hi Ho, the sage of
Chinatown, “is in many cases pitiful
ignorance frankly, even boastfully, con
fessing Itself.”
Discrepancy.
Amid the Nation’s hopes and fears
A curious fact you’ll note,
The man who gets the longest cheers
May land the shortest vote.
"Arguments kin often start," said
Uncle Eben, "not so much because
sumpin’ is wrong as because a lot o’
folks im' natchelly like to argue.”
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.
It won’t be long before the administra
tion will be spending Government funds
at top-rate speed. The Works Progress
Administration is getting into action
even to a greater extent than before,
particularly with projects on a larger
and more permanent scale. The drought
In many of the States has opened up a
new field for Government expenditure
and hundreds of thousands more persons
are to be put on relief. The farmers will
be getting their checks for complying
with the A. A. A.’s soil erosion and soil
conservation program. The spending will
Increase as the national election ap
proaches. If there were no election this
year it might have Increased in Just the
same way. But it happens there Is an
election, and the political effect of this
spending is not to be lightly tossed aside.
* * * *
Why is it that the Roosevelt Democrats
are counting strongly on having the sup
port of the Negro voters in large Eastern
States and in Illinois, Ohio and Indiana?
Is it because the reciprocal tariff agree
ments or the managed currency program
of the administration appeals to these
colored voters? It is not. It is for the
simple reason that the administration
has passed out to the colored voters and
their families millions and millions of
dollars as relief payments. They are
telling these colored voters that if the
Republicans win in this election the
supply of money will be shut off.
It is true that this Democratic admin
istration has been more friendly In the
matter of appointments and favors to the
Negroes than has any other Democratic
administration since the Civil War. But
this alone would scarcely have moved the
Negro from his allegiance to the Repub
lican party. The Republicans have been
recognized as the friends of the colored
people since the day of Abraham Lincoln,
who Issued the emancipation proclama
tion. It was the party under whose
administration the colored people were
set free. But now it is urgq^ that the i
Roosevelt administration has been re
sponsible for paying millions of the col
ored people money which they otherwise
would not have received, and that if this
payment is to be continued Roosevelt
must De kept in the White House. It
may work, and then again it may not.
What could the colored voters expect if
they moved over In considerable numbers
to the Democratic party this year, and
then the country elected Landon Presi
dent?
a a a a
A very considerable number of Negroes
vote, for example, In Maryland. They
have voted. In the past. Republican. But
If they turn to the Democratic ticket this
year, will their vote more than offset
the Democratic defections, the votes of
the anti-Roosevelt Democrats in Balti
more and out in the counties? It is what
the Democratic high command is hoping,
anyway. CoL Henry Breckinridge, who
has recently announced his support of
Oov. Landon for President against Presi
dent Roosevelt, ran as a Democratic op
ponent of the President in the Maryland
presidential preference primary this year.
He polled almost 20,000 Democratic votes.
And a great many of these Democrats
who supported Breckinridge are suffi
ciently hostile to Roosevelt to vote against
him next November 3. Unless the Roose
velt ticket gets the support of a very
large number of colored voters in Mary
land, the State is likely to be found in
the Republican column. And It has been
said that Maryland is rarely wrong in
a presidential election—that it invariably
supports the winning presidential candi
date.
* * * *
A great play is being made by the ad
ministration for the support of organized
labor. Labor’s Non-Partisan League,
headed by Maj. George Berry, who was
a part of the Roosevelt administration
and who still holds some kind of a non
paid job in the administration, is doing
its best to line up organized labor all
over the country for Roosevelt. The ad
ministration was taking no chances. It
may have feared that the American Fed
eration of Labor would retain its tradi
tional policy of not indorsing presiden
tial candidates. It abandoned that pol
icy in 1924 and gave its official support
to the late Senator Robert M. La Follette
of Wisconsin, running as a progressive
and Independent candidate. Anyway, it
gave its immediate blessing to the Berry
organization as soon as it got under way.
John L. Lewis, president of the United
Mine Workers of America, is an officer
in the Berry organization. He had al
ready seen to It that his own union in
dorse the candidacy of President Roose
velt. And now, Berry reports that great
strides have been made all over the
country in lining up the labor unions.
In other words, he and his organization
are going to deliver the labor vote to
Roosevelt.
* * * *
II organized labor, the relief receivers,
the farmers who are receiving cash sub
sidies and the drought sufferers line up
with those Democrats who still.are con
tent to go along with the New Deal ticket
It will be a formidable array, and more
particularly if the Negro voters follow
suit and support the President for re
election.
Despite the efforts of organized labor.
It looks as though a lot of the “masses,”
so called, might turn out to be in oppo
sition to President Roosevelt, Certainly
Father Coughlan counts a lot of these folk
In his National Union for Social Justice,
and Dr. Townsend in his old-age pen
sion organization. They have both prom
ised to campaign for Lemke, which is
just another way of saying against
Roosevelt.
* * * *
How much good Father Coughlin has
done either his cause or himself by call
ing the President a “liar” and a "be
trayer” is decidedly questionable. That
kind of personal attack upon the Presi
dent may really bring aid to him. It’s
something that Coughlin will have
trouble living down in the future. Now
that the Townsend convention in Cleve
land Is over, the followers of Coughlin,
Townsend and Rev. Gerald Smith of the
Huey Long share-the-wealth clubs will
be looking forward to the convention of
the National Union for 8ocial Justice,
which Is to be held the middle of August.
The new Union party, of which Lemke is
the self-imposed presidential candidate—
with the backing of Father Coughlin—
may flower from this convention of the
national union.
* * * *
The Democrats are talking about
launching an attack on Gov. L&ndon on
the ground that he has been a dry Gov
ernor of a dry State. It is said that some
of the wets in New York, Illinois, Mis
souri and other States are looking at the
Republican nominee slightly askance.
They want to be assured that the drys
will get no comfort from L&ndon if he
gets into the White House.
With national prohibition apparently
safely burled, it seems scarcely possible
that the issue will amount to much in
the coining campaign, although the na
tional prohibition party may put a pres
idential candidate in the field. The
wets, however, had a tough time of it for
a dozen long years. They may remem
ber that it was Roosevelt and his elec
tion which speeded the repeal of the
. eighteenth amendment.
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAC EWELL.
"Dear Sir: Your remarks in This and
That about squirrels drinking bring to
mind a droll happening in our yard Just a
lew weeks ago.
"There Is a bird bath about 18 inches
off the -ground very near to a beautiful
crape myrtle bush, which you can imagine
Is the delight of all the birds.
"Our breakfast window overlooks this
spot, and one morning our handsomest
squirrel was romping about in the crape
myrtle, and to our great surprise landed
stomach down in the middle of the bird
bath.
“He Jumped up into the branches and
scolded for about two or three minutes
in a manner indicative of great rage with
himself, then began busily cleaning him
self up like a cat, as you describe.
“I had never seen a squirrel do this.
He licked asid licked, and that seemed to
be too slow, so he got down on the
branches of the shrub and rubbed his
stomach along the bark.
"Finally, after giving his tail a final
touch and getting himself in order, he
descended to the ground and stood up on
his hind legs, his front paws reaching
to the edge of the bath, pulled himself
up, squatted there on the edge and took
a long drink.
"It is our belief that he had wanted
a drink in the first place, but fumbled,
as it were, and got himself wet.
"I wish to take this opportunity to
tell you how much I enjoy your remarks
at various times about the birds. Wash
ington seems to have so many, and right
in the city. We live within a block of
Meridian Park and we have bluejays,
cardinals, robins, starlings, sparrows,
blackbirds, thrushes, wrens and others I
cannot identify. To watch a blackbird
take a chunk of bread over to the water,
"dunk" it and wait around until it is
soft enough to eat is better than most
comedies one pays to see. Very truly
yours, "M. M. O.”
* ★ ★ *
There is a very real point in this very
interesting letter, and that is the great
amusement value of watching birds, ani
mals, plants, weather, etc.
There is comedy, tragedy, drama every'
minute of the time for those who have
the preliminary urge to be interested.
Without this urge Nature becomes a
bore, or a threat.
With it Nature becomes a vast stage
whereon natural actors strut their parts,
some with sound and fury, some comic
ally, as man sees it; some hesitatingly,
some boastingly.
These fine scenes crop up everywhere
so that one is never at a loss for this
entertainment.
Man and his works are wonderful.
If you want to see something as dramatic
as anything, look up the chemical formula
for carotene, the pro-vitamin A, and con
trast it with the formula of the true
vitamin A.
Those aggregations of symbols, rang
ing across aa entire page, show how
the mind of man has searched and found
out something.
8uch things are incredible, but the
natural things are even more so, if we
view them rightly.
This mental attitude is, in a way,
scientific. That Is, the observer of
Nature's plays is not content to say, "Oh,
a pretty bird,” and forget about it.
He has the urge to know more, upon
which all human advancement has been
built.
And upon which, too, entertainment is
built
* * * *
“Life Is a Joke, and all things show it;
I thought so once, and now I know it.”
The above lines were written by a
man who had none of this good interest
in his heart and mind. ,
If he had been Interested in the birds
and the flowers and the trees and the
ferns and the cows and the pigs and the
squirrels and the dogs and the cats
If he had longed for a microscope, so
that he might view the slipper animal
cules at play, and witnessed the rotifers
rotating
If he had wondered over the annual
mystery of seeds and bulbs, and. tried
to figure out what was the matter with
his delphinium, and why his roses weren't
up to the glowing descriptions
If he had been interested, that is, in
all the natural things, instead of solely
in artificial, man-made things, he never
would have penned those lines, and he
and the world would have been better off.
* * * *
r
Sometimes we. think that farmers and
other men who work with the soil ought
to be the happiest men alive, and if they
are not it is probably because part of
their livelihood depends upon killing
things. They may not realize it, but this
latter infects them, just as w^r infects
men and leaves soul hurts whicn do not
heal In a lifetime. Maybe another life
time—
The man or woman interested in nat
ural things, which are to be found every
where, being a part of everywhere, has
this great advantage over others, that
the inevitable is seen for what it is and
is accepted as something good.
These beautiful bluebirds, carrying the
sky on their wings, are inevitably blue
birds. Give us a bluebird without the
blue, and it no longer is a bluebird, but
something else.
Sometimes when we read about evolu
tion, and think of all the huge time in
which the beautiful bluebird has been
so serenly blue, without a single solitary
change, we wonder about the theory.
We do not worry about the theory.
* * * *
Nature is at once the theater and the
actor, the playwright and the play, the
seer and the seen.
Man alone of her actors here on earth
has the power to see the play somewhat
as given.
He should not miss the opportunity.
The four-legged things, the animals
whose legs have given place to fins, and
many others, have not the power to see
much. They get peeps only at life, being
relegated mostly to the strange parts
they play without any knowledge of them.
Man alone has the power to both play
a part and to write a part, to be in the
play and out of it at the same time, to
direct from the wings and yet to be
actively on the stage.
And this is wonderful, and something
not to be given over lightly, just to be
come a banker, or a stock broker, or a
clerk, or a writer, or a cello player, ci
env one of the hundreds, nay, thousands,
of ways of earning a living.
Let no one get so immersed in these
things that he has not time for the
natural things, all the teeming thou
sands of little actors In fur and scales,
or soft greens, or glowing colors, or lights
and shades of life made and in the mak
ing, ever changing.
Their lives are inevitable, so are ours,
we see If we watch theirs long enough.
As it is good with them, so it is good
with us. Time and tide wait for no man.
It is man who waits for them, and finds
them good, if he looks long enough.
Only by finding time and tide in the
bushy-tailed squirrel, and the cicada, and
the rose, will he come at the true
meanings.
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE.
High cest of living, as a possible conse- |
quence of drought conditions, is one of
the factors now muddying the calcula
tions of political managers in both
parties. If such household staples as
meat, milk, potatoes, butter and sugar
should undergo any considerable rise in
prices during the Summer and Fall, it
would be normal for voters to be influ
enced unpleasantly by the effect on the
family budget. Such a prospect Is one of
the reasons why the New Dealers are
anxious to see drought conditions amel
iorated as rapidly as possible either by
the processes of nature or through the
governmental relief activities now getting
vigorously under way. Meantime admin
stration authorities plan to keep a sharp
lookout on food profiteering. According
to Secretary Wallace, there Is no justi
fication for gouging, although, as usual,
there are already some Indications of a
tendency to exploit the drought, with
accompanying warnings that sooner or
later there may be a dangerous shortage
of certain food necessities and resultant
higher prices.
* * * *
Both Democratic and Republican
strategists from now on will be busily
engaged in figuring out which party will
be hit the harder by the Lemke-Town
send-Coughlin-Smith quadruple alliance.
While the view widely persists that the
New Deal will be the chief sufferer.
Democrats point out that the third party
threat may prove to be a blessing in
disguise for them in that the ultra radical
onslaught against President Roosevelt
may rally to his standard certain hitherto
hostile conservatives. Republicans are
convinced that the forces Just leagued at
Cleveland for more or less common action
spell greater danger to F. D. K. than to
Gov. Landon. But all concerned admit
it’s too early to gauge with certainty just
what is going to happen. Only one thing
is sure—that the third partyites have
projected into the campaign a situation
which neither Democrats nor Repub
licans can afford to scorn as unworthy
of notice.
* * * *
Chairman Hamilton left no doubt dur
ing his recent whirlwind tour of New
England that he lays paramount stress
on winning the Maine State elections in
September. If the Republicans can re
elect Senator Wallace H. White, jr.;
capture at least two of the House seats
and elect their gubernatorial candidate,
they believe the psychological effect of
“how Maine goes” will be of inestimable
value for the Landon-Knox ticket
throughout the country in November.
Mr. Hamilton exudes complete confidence
that the elephant will sweep Maine for
both State and congressional offices, be
cause of anti-New Deal sentiment ram
pant in New England. But the fact that
Gov. Brann, Democrat, was re-elected in
1934 and that Senator Hale, Republican,
squeezed through for re-election by only
1,200 majority, fills Pine Tree State
Democrats with hope that they will more
than hold their own this year. Chairman
Farley, too, hankers for a “psychological” ,
Maine victory in September.
* * * *
Definite indication of the advent of a
national labor party four years hence is
seen in last week’s action of delegates
representing 400,000 organized workers in
launching a New York State labor party.
While their Immediate objective is to
rally the 1,000,000 New York trade
unionists behind President Roosevelt and
Oar. Lehman in November, leaden of the
r
movement concede they are looking for
ward to 1940, with a view to independent
political action on Nation-wide lines.
The New York workers say they are
“impelled by the urge of extreme national
emergency.” They do not see their sal
vation, as a permanent proposition, in
either of the existing big parties, but in
a brand-new organization which will, in
the language of their platform, “mobilize
the political power of labor with the
progressive forces of the people every
where in the cities and on the farms
against reaction, for freedom against
economic oppression and depression, and
for recovery and democracy.” Belief re
mains general that John L. Lewis is the
leader upon whom advocates of a
workers’ party chiefly pin their hopes of
bringing about a national political re
alignment under labor auspices.
# * * *
One of the most significant early cam
paign developments is the indication that
the Republicans come pretty near to
presenting a united front for Landon
and Knox. With men like Hoover, Borah,
Vandenberg. Hilles, Lowden. Mills et al.
marching shoulder to shoulder for the
ticket, the G. O. P. presents the aspect
of a band of brothers battling in solid
phalanx for victory. The feat of bring
ing old guard interests and liberal ele
ments under one umbrella is mainly
credited to the harmonizing capacity of
Chairman Hamilton, who has devoted
nearly all his time thus far to the bury
ing of hatchets. Certain Progressives like
Senator Norris are off the reservation,
but to date there have been no notable
"walks” out of the Republican camp at
all comparable to the promenades away
from the New Deal. The Landon high
command is overjoyed by the interest in
its cause displayed by former Controller
General John R. McCarl and by George
N. Peek, late foreign trade adviser to
President Roosevelt. Both one-time
potent Federal officials are expected
eventually to be in the thick of the fray
to overthrow the New Deal.
* * * *
John Francis Goldsmith of Easton. Pa.,
in a communication to the New York
Herald Tribune, is first in the field with
a brass tacks prediction of Republican
victory. He says that Landon will be
elected by a popular majority of between
55 and 60 per cent; that the Republicans
will sweep the House by the same mar
gin; that Roosevelt will "probably” carry
not more than 15 States, mostly South
ern; that Landon will “surely” carry the
22 following States, in themselves con
stituting an electoral majority—Colorado,
Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois,
Maine, Maryland, Massacnusetts, Mich
igan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hamp
shire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania. Rhode Island, South Da
kota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin
and Wyoming, and “probably” carry the
10 additional States of Arizona, Cali
fornia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri,
Montana, North Dakota, Oregon and
West Virginia.
* * * *
“Baby bonds” are now accounted one
of the New Deal’s outstanding financing
triumphs. The $500,000,000 sales mark,
maturity value, has now been passed,
following introduction of the securities
on March 1, 1935. Since January 1 of
this year sales have averaged a daily
total of $1,535,000, representing a 50 per
c£nt increase over 1935. The Treasury
has many inquiries as to the advisability
of selling bonus bonds and buying baby
4
bonds with the proceeds. Bonus bonds,
if held until maturity, will pay 3 per
cent Interest. Baby bonds pay an average
of 2.9 per cent.
(Ooprrlsht, 1934.)
| ANSWERS TO
QUESTIONS
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
A reader can get the answer to any
Question of fact by writing The Evening
Star Information Bureau, Frederic J.
Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C.
Please inclose stamp for reply.
Q. How much money did the Seventy
fourth Congress appropriate daily?—
H. W.
A. The total appropriations of the
Congress for the 282 days of both ses
sions were at the rate of *70,921,000 a
day.
Q. What points about an automobile
should t»e checked before starting on a
trip?—A. D.
A. Aside from any trouble that may
be peculiar to the individual automo
bile, the driver should check gas, water,
oil, general lubrication, spark plugs, igni
tion contacts, tire condition and air
pressure.
Q. Is the Government to establish any
camps for women similar to the C. C. C.
camps?—E. H. R.
A. The new relief program calls for
the establishment of some 50 resident
camps for unemployed women and girls.
These will be operated like the C. C. C.
camps, but will not be under Army su
pervision.
Q What is the highest body of water
in New York?—H. M.
A. It is Lake Tear, on the southwest
slope of Mount Marcy in Essex County
—4,300 feet above sea level.
Q. Who founded the Weyerhaueser for
tune?—C. D.
A. Frederick Weyerhaueser emigrated
to America in 1854 from Germany at the
age of 20. He had no money and started
to work at *4 a week. He died in 1914,
worth more than *200,000,000.
Q. Is there any estimate of how long
most of the people looking for jobs hava
been unemployed?—C. F. G.
A. Of 4,000,000 applicants for jobs reg
istering at the United States Employ
ment Office, nearly half reported that
they had been unemployed less than six
months. Only 11.3 per cent of the regis
trants reported more than four years of
unemployment.
Q. Where Is the largest distillery in
the world and what did it cost?—B. H. G.
A. The Hiram Walker distillery at
Peoria, 111., built at a cost of oyer $9,000,
000, is the largest in the world.
Q. When did Elsie Janis marry and
how much younger than she is her
husband?—E. F.
A. The actress married Gilbert Wilson
on December 31, 1931. He is 16 years
her junior.
Q. How many people are protected b7 ,
hospital Insurance plans?—F. H.
A. Five hundred thousand Americans
have membership in hospital insurance
groups.
Q. Are the bonus bonds for the World
War veterans printed on the same
paper as currency is?—B. S.
A. The Government Printing Office
says that it is not the same type of paper
that is used by the Bureau of Engrav
ing and Printing in the making of paper
money. The quality of paper used for
currency is much better.
Q. For whom is Fort Frederica on St
Simon Island, Ga., named?—F. C. L.
A. Fort Frederica was named by CoL
James Oglethorpe in honor of Frederick,
Prince of Wales, son of George II. It
was built on St. Simon Island in 1735.
Q. How’ many American debutantes
will be presented at the Court of St
James this Summer?—M. L. C.
A. Because of the mourning for King
George none will be presented, invita
tions to the receptions being issued only
to members of the diplomatic corps.
Q. Is the number of people who dwell
on Manhattan Island increasing or de
creasing?—T. R.
A. It is decreasing. The peak popu
lation of this center of New York City
was reached in 1910 when it was 2,330,
000. There are now about 1,830,000
people actually dwelling there, while
the other boroughs comprising the city
have gained enormously in population.
Q. Is a meter more or less than a
yard?—W. A.
A. A meter is 39.37 inches, or a yard
and three inches plus.
Q. Where was the first linotype in
stalled?—E. G.
A. On July 3, 1886, Ottmar Mergen
thaler installed in the composing room
of the New York Tribune the first of
his typesetting machines. Whitelaw
Reid, the editor, gave it the name lino
type.
f -
Q. Is it true that Chinese dentists
can pull teeth without forceps?—M. N.
A. Until recently Chinese dentists
were trained to extract any tooth from
a patient's mouth without using Instru
ments, but solely by the strength in
their fingers. They were trained for
this by repeated extraction of wooden
pegs driven into a board. The muscles
of their hands and fingers were so de
veloped that this was possible. Mod
em dentistry is now making its appear
ance in China.
Q. Where did the eggplant originate?
—M. R. ,
A. The eggplant is a native of India,
where it has been grown since remote
antiquity for its large, white or dark
purple, fleshy fruit.
Q. How many acres in the United
States are devoted to wild duck and geese
refuges?—P. R.
A. There are now 2,100,000 acres of
refuges.
Q. Where are the largest talc mince
in the United States?—C. G.
A. They are located In St. Lawrence
County, N. Y.
A Rhyme at Twilight
By
Gertrude Brooke Hamilton
On the Pool.
Dragon-flies from marble rim
O'er the fountain water skim,
Hovering, fluttering. In sunlight
Seeming dark of wing, then bright.
Blue as ether, green as trees.
Darting, flitting, ill at ease.
Sun-suffused their restless wings,
Opalescent, brilliant things
Blown along by breezes cool;
Water babies of the pool.
1 1 - ' —=