Evening star. [volume], January 28, 1937, Page A-10, Image 10

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

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THE EVENING STAR
With Sunday Morning Edition.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
THURSDAY.January 2*. 1937
THEODORE W. NOYES_Editor
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The Facts on Strikes.
The principle of the legislation sought
by the Secretary of Labor, empowering
the Department of Labor or some other
Government agency to make formal in
quiry into the causes of strikes or lock
outs, with power of subpoena of wit
nesses and records, is probably a good
one. The danger, of course, lies in pos
sible abuse of the power by a Govern
ment agency which may not be strictly
impartial.
The legislation at this time is mani
festly suggested by the difficulties over
settlement of the strike that has tied up
plants of the General Motors Corpora
tion. Its proposal comes in the nature
of a plan to deal with an emergency.
Therein lies another danger—the danger
of impetuous enactment of important
legislation under the stress of an im
pending crisis. That, of course, should
be avoided.
Under impartial, strictly neutral ad
ministration, the powers conferred by
the proposed legislation would enable the
Government to present the facts to the
people and public sentiment would be
guided by those facts. Large strikes,
such as the tie-up of a section of the
automobile Industry, are no longer 'blat
ters affecting merely the employer and
the employe. Such strikes have a direct
effect upon the general public and are
thus vested with important public In
terest. But, as in the present dispute be
tween General Motors and the C. I. O.,
the public standing on the side lines has
no way of knowing the facts except as
given Ly the disputants themselves.
How many members of the automobile
Union under Mr. Lewis’ general direction
are actually employed in the General
Motors plants? Is it true, as Mr. Sloan
repeatedly emphasizes, that a small but
powerful minority is keeping thousands
of men who are anxious to work out of
their Jobs? The main issues do not
concern the usual questions of wages
and working hours. General Motors is
admittedly a good employer. The main
issue is collective bargaining. But, again,
the issue Is not collective bargaining in
the abstract, but the identity of the col
lective bargaining unit. If the actual
facts were available to the public, or
were to be made available, both sides
might be more amenable to settlement.
The principle of the legislation may be
Bound. But what condemns It In many
eyes Is not the principle, but the picture
of some Government official going on a
fishing expedition to see what can be
brought to the surface In the way of
colorful headline material every time
there is a strike or a threatened strike.
It Is not the power itself that is to be
feared, but the abuse of that power in
the hands of those who may lack public
confidence as unbiased judges.
Extra flood contributions should be
expected from peace-time profiteers who
undertook to peddle second-hand air
planes in a foreign market. The
soothing of conscience has often
prompted gifts to humanity of splendid
generosity.
Japan’s Die-Hard Army.
It was not to be expected that Japan’s
militarists, cocks of the walk at Tokio
ever since the Manchurian adventure
six years ago, would ever willingly or
gracefully surrender their supremacy.
Developments that followed last week’s
fall of the Hlrota cabinet at the demand
of a defiant Diet are proving afresh
the army’s die-hard determination to
fight to the bitter end for preservation
of its long-time predominance. General
Kazushige Ugaki, former governor gen
eral of Korea, who was commanded by
the Emperor to form another cabinet,
Is unable to carry out the mandate be
cause of militarist opposition. Although
himself a veteran soldier and former
War minister, Ugaki has been told that
no general will accept the war portfolio
In any cabinet of which he is the head.
As present laws require that the office
be filled by a nominee of the army; the
latter’s intransigence effectually blocks
the way to establishment of a new gov
ernment.
The spurred and helmeted elements
battling for retention of power resent
General Ugaki’s designation as premier
on account of his moderate leanings.
They are further mistrustful of him be
cause he enjoys the confidence of the
political parties which seek to destroy
militarist control and of the business
Interests which envision economic ruin
for Japan in consequence of mounting
armament expenditure. The Japanese
press, virtually of all parties, also is back
ing Ugaki and appealing to the entire na
tion to support him. A strong point is
made of the general’s traditional attitude
of blind devotion and obedience to the
Emperor. His opponents are now ac
cused of unconscionable disloyalty by
thwarting the throne’s choice for the pre
miership. This argument leaves out of
account that times have changed In Japan
since the great Emperor Meiji ruled,
with the aid of powerful statesmen like
Princes Ito and Yamagata. Today It
would be extremely venturesome to in
trude the Imperial authority Into a con
flict In which the prestige of the army
is directly at stake. A military revolution
might easily result. General Ugaki is
pursuing his efforts to overcome ob
struction. Hope of his success lies mainly
in the belief that the army as a whole
does not dislike him and that enmity Is
confined to certain individuals with
personal grievances to avenge and am
bitions to gratify.
After the “purge” of February, 1936,
with its train of assassination and re
volt, expectation was widespread both at
home and abroad that civilian authority
would be more or less re-enthroned at
Tokio. Events speedily proved the fallacy
of such hopes. Aggression in China, de
manded by the militarists regardless of
political restraint, set in on an intensi
fied scale. If some compromise with the
war lords becomes necessary to seat
General Ugaki in the premiership and
to end the present crisis, it will signal
to the world that the army still rules the
roost. That will not be an omen either
of tranquillity in Japan or of peace in
the Far East.
Public Building Plans.
In connection with the need of a large
public auditorium in Washington the
President the other day said that a plan
is being worked out for consideration by
the appropriations committees of Con
gress looking toward a long-view public
building program for Washington to be
developed on a ten-year step-by-step
basis. This new building program, he
stated, would be somewhat similar to
that in the Mall-Avenue triangle which
has resulted in the magnificent build
ings on Pennsylvania and Constitution
Avenues.
It is greatly to be hoped that such a
program will be developed and adopted
and that the necessary appropriate
legislation will be enacted at this present
session of Congress. The need of It has
been apparent for some years. The
Mall-Avenue triangle program has not
been completed owing to suspension of
appropriations for the construction of
the remaining units included in the
original project. One of them is now
under way at the "apex” of the triangle.
Meanwhile the housing needs of the
Government have been increased. Many
thousands more Government workers
are employed in this city—indeed some
of them have had to be transferred to
Baltimore for lack of space here. Old
buildings are overcrowded. Some of
them are of the "temporary” type, con
structed during the war period to meet
the emergency of a sudden great en
largement of the Government service at
the Capital.
Unless « definite, comprehensive and
progressive project of building emplace
ment is designed and is executed as
adopted, to be followed consistently and
uninterruptedly for a period of years,
with appropriations assured for Its con
tinuous execution, there will be a
repetition of the hit-and-miss experience
of the war period, when necessity re
quired the taking of sites even in the
parks without regard to any definite
grouping plan. These needs must be met.
It Is assured that the Government
personnel in Washington will not ap
preciably diminish. Every consideration
of economy requires the Immediate
adoption of a broad plan which will
comprise provision for all the present
and Immediately prospective require
ments of the public service.
There is no real economy in unrelated
building emplacement, design or con
struction, A hundred-million-dollar
expenditure for permanent buildings
erected without reference to any system
of relationship is in large measure a
waste of public funds, whereas twice that
amount spent In the development of a
specific program would be an economy.
There are two areas within which new
Government construction should be
placed to accord with the broad plan
of Capital maintenance. These are the
southern flank of the Mall and the region
north of Constitution Avenue, now in
part occupied by the Department of the
Interior and somewhat definitely al
located for the future War and Navy
Departments. Any project that may be
adopted should be based upon the use
of these spaces, which have relation to
existing constructions and to Govern
ment activities.
It Is to be hoped that differences of
opinion as to location, design and cost of
the new buildings which are now
urgently needed and which should be
Included In the present plan of a ten
year step-by-step program will not be
permitted to cause delay, as in the past,
but that Congress, on the advice and
recommendation of the President, will
proceed speedily with the enactment of
the requisite authorization and the pro*
vision of the necessary funds to set this
often postponed federal project in
motion.
American newspaper men may be of
occasional service in assisting “G-men,”
but they should not be expected to put
in a punctual appearance at the copy
desk with an accurate survey of the
intricacies of foreign intrigue.
Calamity Philosophy.
When Seneca in his De Providentia
declared that calamity is virtue’s op
portunity he established an axiom which
has application in America today. The
super-flood which has devastated the
Ohio Valley represents tragedy for
hundreds of thousands of people, yet
it may be regarded as a blessing—if it
dramatizes the need for correction of
the conditions which have combined to
create the present disaster.
To illustrate the point, a story from
the other side of the world may be
cited. Between 1843 and 1863 the trade
of Calcutta trebled in volume and value.
The harbor and the city grew great
In commerce. But, says Hubert 8.
Banner in a bode published in 1933, “It
never had been thought worth while to
provide this large and still rapidly in
creasing mass of shipping with any
adequate protection against the sudden
and vicious storms for which the Hooghly
River always has been notorious." Cer
tainly, the authorities were familiar with
the fact that hurricanes occasionally
swept the port. A committee of Inquiry
studied the problem for two long years,
then decided that 'nothing short of a
judicious system of wet docks could
serve to meet every potential emergency.”
The verdict was received with general
approbation — and filed for future
reference.
But quixotic nature did not wait. On
October 4, 1864, “the sun set amidst
clouds of a deep red, with purple veins,
as If bursting with passion.” Three hun
dred ships lay in the river, unsecured;
the town was filled with visitors for the
holiday festival of Doorga Poojah. A
guard at the Calcutta Observatory
noticed that the barometer was falling.
Yet no proper warning was given. A
"sudden noise like the rumbling of
distant thunder” was the first procla
mation to which the community paid
any heed. Within a few minutes the
cyclone crossed the Bay of Bengal and
tore Into the mainland. In the wake of
the blast came the inevitable tidal wave.
Official computations later estimated the
loss of life at "about sixty thousand”;
the property destroyed never could be
appraised.
The tourist to Calcutta now, however,
sees the constructive result of the still
remembered horror. A port trust ad
ministers the harbor. Vast facilities for
docking, loading and unloading have
been provided in a program which, espe
cially since 1892, has been expanded in
ratio with developing demand. Mean
while, the old slum areas have been
cleared away, the business quarter has
been reconstructed, suburban residential
neighborhoods have been created, streets
and roads have been widened, the water
system has been modernized, the drain
age system entirely renovated. No won
der the population has doubled in the
past half century I
What is wanted for the Ohio Valley
is a definitely planned anticipation of
the super-floods of tomorrow. The time
to think about those emergencies is
contemporaneous with the present
calamity.
A woman does not always assert a
right to the last word. All that Secre
tary Perkins is asking is frank conver
sation between Mr. Lewis and Mr. Sloan,
to lead where it may.
For a time Tennessee Valley Authority
is forgotten in the demand for some
reliable and practical authority over the
Ohio Valley.
Old-timers who gave the names Mem
phis and Cairo to river towns may have
had in mind the overflowing of the River
Nile and the necessity of flood control.
At this moment the Mississippi Basin
commands more American solicitude
than the Rhine River, the English
Channel or even the Mediterranean 8ea.
Shooting Stars.
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON.
The Craving (or Oratory.
Oh, why should unemployment be
A threat to any man,
If he some little chance may 6ee
To talk as best he can?
The soap box should be cast aside
As something insecure;
But any one with eager pride
May start a lecture tour.
The topic does not matter much
If it permits the choice
Of language which the heart will touch
And exercise the voice.
So do not linger to explain
The wants that you endure,
But take the way to ready gain
And start a lecture tour.
Seeking Temptation.
“Did you ever meet a lobbyist?”
“No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “The
idea that lobbyists are lying in wait for
the unwary statesman is largely erro
neous. In order to meet a regular, high
class lobbyist, you have to go to the
trouble of providing yourself with cre
dentials.”
Jud Tunkins says is it possible to judge
a man by his handwriting. A bank cash
ier can do it every time.
The Great Historic Game.
Of course, it’s very sad Indeed
That statesmen must in quarrels mix.
Yet without strife, it Is agreed,
There'd be no zest in politics.
And they who see from day to day
The rhetoricians throwing bricks
Will sigh, “Life has to be that way!
The one great sport is politics!”
“Deception,” said Hi Ho, the sage of
Chinatown, “is easily managed if you
are content to be one of those whose
vanity enables them to deceive them
selves.”
Protection of the Law.
“Didn’t you know you were exceeding
the speed limit?” inquired the officer.
“I suspected it,” admitted Miss Cayenne.
“Then why didn’t you slow down?”
“I found myself in one of those wild
rushes of traffic that make me feel as
if the only way to be perfectly safe is
to get arrested.”
Rough Experiences.
The citizen upon a jury served,
Where testimony was exceeding grim,
And wondered when he went his way
unnerved
If home folks would associate with him.
“If I bet pn a hoss dat done lef’ me
broke,” said Uncle Eben, "I’d jes’ hang
around hopin, dat mebbe I’d git a little
friendly consideration when de ‘Be kind
to Dumb Animals week* come round
agin.**
*\ V
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.
Public opinion in the past has had real
influence in the settlement of strikes.
Probably it will have its part in settling
the automobile strike of today. When
John L. Lewis, chairman of the Commit
tee for Industrial Organization, turned
loose a demand that President Roosevelt
pay his election debt by backing the
strikers in their controversy with Gen
eral Motors, he aroused considerable
anti-union opinion. But when Alfred
P. Sloan, jr., president of General Motors,
declined an invitation extended by Miss
Perkins, Secretary of Labor, to attend a
conference with herself and Lewis, he
set public opinion swinging in the other
direction. It looks as though both sides
had been pretty stupid. What the
country wants is the settlement of this
strike, which is causing huge losses in
wages, production and business gen
erally, and a settlement without the loss
of life or destruction of property.
Lewis is clinging to the “sit-down”
strike as a weapon. Sloan has declared
there will be no settlement, and no
negotiations looking to a settlement,
until the sit-down strikers have left
the plants of General Motors. The ad
ministration in Washington has said
nothing so far about the sit-down
strike. The sit-down strike, however,
threatens to become a grave issue in
this country unless something is done
about it. Administration Senators are
unwilling to discuss the sit-down strike
for publication, awaiting a cue, perhaps,
from the White House. Privately, some
of them say that there is growing a new
conception of property rights, and that a
man’s job may be considered a property
right. There is an Implication to that
effect in the Wagner labor relations act,
passed by the last Congress. If there
is to be new labor legislation in this Con
gress, the property right of a laborer to
hold his job may be more explicitly set
forth,
* * * *
But even granting to labor a prop
erty right in its jobs does not clear
up the problem of the sit-down strike.
When a group of employes takes over
an industrial plant, refusing to get out,
it is trespassing if it is not doing some
thing more serious. Sloan takes the
position that a small group of the
General Motors employes, now on strike,
have taken over the company’s plants
and are “holding them for ransom with
out regard to law or justice.” In other
words, the plants have been kidnaped.
There are ways and ways of maintaining
a property right. But so far it has not
been held legal to maintain a property
right by seizing another’s property. It
looks as though the Government wTould
have to take a position, one way or
another, before long in regard to the
sit-down strike.
Miss Perkins' latest move is along
different lines. She has called upon
Senator Robinson, Democratic leader of
the upper house, to put through a new
law giving the Department of Labor the
right to go into all the papers and
records of any concern in which a strike
takes place. Presumably the depart
ment would also have the right to go
into the records of labor organizations
which are conducting the strikes. Pre
sumably Miss Perkins would use the
facts turned up by the department'
agents to influence public opinion, under
the proposed law. Or the facts would be
turned over to Congress to be used in
drafting legislation. Her proposal smacks
a good deal of the John L. Lewis in
fluence. He has been demanding that a
Senate committee look into the affairs of
General Motors.
“What will the Republican party do
now?” is the question asked—and tenta
tively answered—in Fortune Magazine in
its recent issue. The magazine claims
to have made an exhaustive survey of
the political implications of the Novem
ber election. As a result of that survey
it is proposing to the Republican party
that it do what the Federalist party did
a hundred years ago—fold up and vanish
from the political horizon. One possible
result, the magazine suggests, from the
retirement of the G. O. P. from the
field, might be a split in the Democratic
party. The Republican party might do
worse, it says, "for if the Republicans
liquidate, the Democratic will split. And
if the Democratic party splits, the split
will run along economic rather than
economic geographic lines, and then
there would be no more solid South.”
The ultimate result would be a cleavage
between liberals and conservatives.
* * # *
This might happen, and then again
it might not. In the meantime, Re
publicans go about trying to think up
something that may be done to put new
life into the old party. They are not
talking about liquidating. As Fortune
points out, the Republicans are thinking
along two lines. One group wishes to
make the party more liberal and to put
it in closer touch with the people. An
other group wants the party to become a
stout opposition party to the New
Dealers, biding its time until something
turns up. Today it looks as though the
Republicans would take it out in talk—
at least for a while.
Fortune denies that President Roose
velt ran for re-election and was vic
torious as a "liberal.” It insists that
he ran and was elected as "Mr. Roose
velt,” and that his chief issue was not
liberalism, but prosperity. He was the
man who had brought back, through his
administration, prosperity. This, prob
ably, will shock some of the liberal
followers of Mr. Roosevelt. It seems
true, however, that if there had not been
a big pick-up in business and employ
ment and production in the year 1936
that Mr. Roosevelt would have had a
tough time being re-elected.
a, w w
The National Get-Out-Vote Club,
headed by Simon Michelet, is entering
upon a campaign election and registra
tion reforms. The president of the club
points out that since its organization in
1924 and it began its campaign for a wider
suffrage, there has been a big increase
in the vote. In the presidential election
of 1920 the total vote cast was less than
50 per cent of the potential electorate
21 years of age and over. In the 1936
election this percentage increased about
63 or 64 per cent. Even now, however,
the percentage of voters in the United
States is far below the percentage in
Great Britain and Germany, where the
records show a turn-out of about 80
per cent.
The Get-Out-Vote Club is centering its
fire just now on the States which con
tinue to impose poll taxes on their citi
zens as prerequisite to voting. There
are nine of these States—in the South.
Rhode Island has a poll tax, but it is not
imposed on the poor and needy and
therefore does not act. as a deterrent.
“The nine poll tax States,” says Mr.
Michelet, "here grouped — Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and
Virginia—have an aggregate potential
electorate of citizens 21 years of age
numbering 12,472,245. In the 1936 elec
tion they cast an aggregate vote of
3,006,893—an average of 24 per cent or
the electorate.
“Immediately adjoining the poll-taxed
| THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.
Peony shoots were up, poking their red
heads through the earth.
Answering the call of Spring in Janu
ary, shoots of those stalwart species, Fes
tiva maxima, Jules Elie and Maiguerite
Gerard, came up to see the sun.
For the entire month they had felt that
lure, now they succumbed, came into the
light at last.
Observers almost felt they had a right
to read triumph beaming from the tip of
that small red shoot.
This coming into the light—we won’t
say sunshine, for there had been very
little of it—had something of the tri
umphal about it.
It was fair to believe that the shoots
had come up to see the sun, even if they
were to find very little of that precious
commodity.
It was the heat of that orb which was
drawing them and many other shoots,
buds, and even flowers, into the air, to
And that January is a cruel deciever,
ever.
* * *
Man can say to himself “Why, this
Isn't Spring, really, this is Just a freak
January!”
But the birds and the flowers and
the shrubs and the trees have nc way
of knowing. They simply respond to
a combination of warmth and moisture.
The action shows better than many
the combined intelligence and seeming
lack of it which characterizes Nature.
On one hand we have great forces which
are beyond our understanding, and on
the other perfectly mechanistic hap
penings which speak of a fury and
ignorance which the world has long
tried to picture as the “devil,” so-called.
The peony shoots should not come up
at this time of year, but they come just
the same when warmth and moisture
call them. There is nothing else for them
to do.
* ^ a
In sheltered spots In the rear of the
yard a few violet leaves had uncurled.
They, too, were hopeful of better
things than Nature evidently had In
store for them.
Perhaps it is not an unfair wresting of
words to say that violet plants show
hope when they uncurl their leaves.
There are many more hopes, surely,
than those which rest somehow in the
keeping of mankind.
Surely there must be a hope for more
warmth, more light and more moisture
when a small violet unfurls its leaves
at this time of year.
There is a beginning of different
things. The plant wants to go ahead.
This “want” or desire must be in every
fiber of its being, although it has no
language of its own, and must rely on
man to say it for it. If he "says it with
flowers,” he may say it for flowers, too.
One variety of tulip had poked its
nose (green) through the soil.
It was that splendid variety, the Clara
Butt, which forever will be a monument
to that great woman.
A tulip is a plant better adapted than
many others to endure the cold of Win
ter after it has sprouted.
It has been grown for so many years
in the cool climate of Holland that
somehow that chill, moist atmosphere
has penetrated its very fibers, and it
can stand more cold than many another
green thing out of season.
The tiny crocus, and the stately
narcissus, both emerged into the light
that week.
The bridal wreath shrub still sent
forth its tiny white flowers, and the
leaf buc^ of the Thousand Beauties
climbing rose were now about an inch
long, almost ready to unroll.
Some gardeners think there is nothing
prettier than this red of the new leaves,
just before uncurling. It is one of the
garden beauties which one must pay
particular attention to, in order not to
miss in the general excitement of true
Spring, when there is so much to be
seen. But now, in January it was, there
were only a few developing things to be
watched, after all.
The amateur gardener should not be
come much perplexed at Spring in
January. These unseasonable periods
will come, and there is not much the
gardener can do about them, except
try to protect his budding plants as
best he may and be reconciled to in
evitable losses. What should save him,
as it will the plants, is the boundless
latitude and amplitude of Nature, in
whom there is forever despair and
triumph side by side, and no man shall
know which is which.
What was the perplexed gardener to
do with peony shoots at this time of
year?
There wasn’t much to do, but cover
them up as best he could.
Many leaves were piled over them, in
order to protect them when the cold
should come again, as it might almost
any day or hour, even.
Every one of those shoots which became
blighted meant just that many less stalks
on the bush in May and June.
It was entirely possible that a peony
which sent every one of its shoots into
the air at this time might lose them all,
and be a very poor bush, Indeed, at its
normal time next Spring.
It was easier to understand, during
such a season, what the advice meant
which said that mulching with leaves,
peatmoss or other material should be
done to keep the cold in.
Covering of peony roots during the
Winter is mostly unnecessary, provided
the season is a normal one, that is, pro
vided there is a freeze, and the ground
remains more or less frozen until Spring.
Too much mulching in Winter is not
good for peonies, and commonly results
in shy blooming.
But in such a Winter as this, with
Spring in January, at least for two-thirds
of the month, a deep mulching might
have prevented the shoots from getting
into the air.
If one had not previously covered, now
was the time to do it, in order to protect
the shoots as far as possible.
That this would be a successful effort,
one could not predict, but at least it
would have the merit of protecting, to
some extent, the lower part of the shoot.
Nature is wonderful, truly enough, and
may manage to grow back a new tip if
the lower portion, emerging from the
root, is not too badly damaged.
* * * *
Other things were up in the yard.
Tulips, the crocus, the narcissus, were
showing above the surface of the earth.
They, too, would suffer when the in
evitable cold came.
It would be better for them, and for
all shrubs, whose leaf buds wTere swell
ing. if they had remained dormant.
Who could blame them, however?
The dumb vegetable Intelligence of all
plant life was being fooled.
Nature was “putting one over” on
them, and they had no way to protect
themselves. When Mother Nature goes
back on them, they are to be pitied,
indeed, for she is their all.
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
Much of the present area covered by
the Atlantic Ocean once was dry land.
Through most of the great gulf of
time between the cooling of the earth
and the appearance of the first known
life about a half billion years ago it was
above water, and had seas, lakes, rivers,
mountains and valleys. This condition
continued after the development of life
through most of the paleozoic, or old life,
period of the earth's history'. Even in
the tertiary period of geologic time, just
before Hie coming of the ice ages, there
may have been large land areas which
were temporarily enlarged by the pe
culiar climatic conditions which accom
panied the glaciers.
necessary but modest postulate of a
limited Appalachia—a hypothetical an
cient continent—is but a structural ele
ment of the whole sub-Atlantic litho
sphere, and stratifgraphers are finally
relieved of the insupportable structural
difficulties which they now encounter.
“It is not implied that the down-warp
of this great continent of Atlantlca was
relatively rapid, or that it took place all
at once. In the late tertiary there may
still have been some remnants whose
land areas were temporarily enlarged by
the particular climatic conditions of the
Pleistocene. What is implied, however,
is that through the pre-Cambrian and
paleozoic history of the earth, the At
lantic region was characterized by seas,
lakes, rivers, mountains, sediments, ma
rine and terrestrial organisms similar
to and consistent with those of the
continents.”
An Important bit of evidence support
ing the hypothesis is that of the great
submarine canyons stretching off the
Atlantic Coast of North America. Fossil
remains and other data indicate that
their bottoms were once above water, and
became submerged with the melting of
the great ice sheets. This would involve,
however, the assumption that these Ice
sheets on the two continents were from
20,000 to 50,000 feet thick. Another pos
sibility Is that of a change in the el
lipticity of the surface of the oceans due
to a sudden decrease in the rate of rota
tion of the earth, and the consequent
drawing of the oceanic waters Into polar
latitudes.
Such is the hypothesis presented to the
American Geophysical Union of the Na
tional Research Council, based on sev
eral lines of evidence but particularly on
the progress of earthquake waves in the
rock strata under the sea, by Dr. Richard
H. Field of Princeton University. Thus
the idea of an ancient Atlantis—but far
older and bigger than the Atlantis of
Plato—is given considerable support.
For many years geologists have held
that the bottoms of the oceans were
composed of much heavier rock than the
surfaces of the continents, as a result of
which, according to the principles of
isostacy, they sank while the lighter
rocks were pushed upward into con
tinents and mountains. The experi
mental evidence for this so far as the
Atlantic is concerned, Prof. Field claims
In his report to the National Research
Council, has been very slight. It has
consisted chiefly of a few bottom samples
brought up by dredging and the sub
merged and clifflike margins of the con
tinents.
Analysis of the earthquake waves, he
claims, brings forward quite a different
picture. These indicate that the rocks
beneath the ocean floor are not markedly
different in density than those of the
European and North American conti
nents. In the past students of ancient
life have been puzzled to account for
the similarity of fossils found in the
rocks of the two continents and have
been obliged to postulate the existence
of land bridges across the sea. The al
ternate hypothesis has been that they
once were contiguous but at some point
in geological history were broken apart—
after which North America started a
slow drift westward while waters from
the Pacific rushed In to fill the gap.
According to this theory, the Atlantic
has been growing bigger and bigger, at
the expense of the Pacific, through the
mesozoic and tertiary eras of geologic
time.
Says Dr. Field: “Combining all the
seismic evidence produced during the last
few months, it Is possible that the sub
Atlantic lithosphere constitutes a vast
area of down-warped pre-Cambrian
and paleozoic geology, fully comparable
to the unwarped pre-Cambrian and
paleozoic geology of the surrounding
continental areas. If this be true, the
An Underestimate.
From the New York Sun.
A naive person has calculated that the
present session of Congress will cost the
country $21,000,000, but he has figured
in only the legislative salaries and the
bill for printing.
Reno’s Enterprise.
From the Worcester Qazette.
Reno points with pride to the fact that
it had more marriages than divorces in
1936, which is evidence of enterprise in
developing raw materials for its major
Industry.
An Incomplete Computation. I
From the Indianapolis News.
The Republicans spent $8,065,524 and
the Democrats $5,030,848 on the cam
paign, and goodness only knows how
much it cost the taxpayers.
Modern Youth.
From the Danville (111.) Commerclal-Newa.
A Michigan lad set fire to his mother’s
$1,100, which fits the theory that modem
young people think their parents have
money to bum
Tracks and No Tracks.
From the Saginaw Newa.
The vandals who stole Holyoke's fa
mous dinosaur tracks apparently left
none of their own, either.
Hard Hearted.
From the South Bend Tribune.
By this time the would-be munitions
profiteers should be convinced that
Unala Sua Isn’t entirely sympathetic.
group are six poll-tax-free States along
the Mason and Dixon border—Kentucky,
Maryland, West Virginia, Indiana,
Illinois and Missouri—which have an
aggregate potential electorate of 12,
434,793 (or slightly less than the poll
taxed group) and this group of six cast
on November 3, 1936, an aggregate presi
dential vote of 9,817,094—or three times
the vote of the poll-timed group.”
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 stomp for reply.
Q. How much gold and silver went Into
Industrial consumption in the United
States last year?—T. G.
A. The figures for 1936 are not yet
available. In 1935 the figures—subject
to revision—were: Gold, $25,929,497;
silver, 41,192,023 fine ounces.
Q. Where is the sword surrendered by
Santa Anna at San Jacinto in 1836?—
J. L. H.
A. When Santa Anna was captured
and brought before Houston he was
dressed as a private soldier and hacl
no arms.
Q. How are lighthouse tenders named?
—E. F.
A. Since 1865, lighthouse tenders have
been named after flowers, trees, and
plants. The Orchid, Violet, Jasmine,
Crocus, Ivy and Willow are typical names.
Q. When was the Venus de Milo
found?—A. R.
A. It was found in 1820 on the Island
of Melos, Greece.
Q. What is the density of the popu
lation of Alaska?—J. A.
A. The average number of inhabitants
to the square mile is one-tenth of one.
This may be compared with continental
United States, with a density of 41.3 to
the square mile.
Q. Who were the most popular movie
stars of 1936?—H. K.
A. A personal popularity contest, con
ducted by the trade magazine Box Office
showed the following preferences: Clark
Gable, Shirley Temple, Astaire and
Rogers, Robert Taylor, William Powell,
Myma Loy, Claudette Colbert, Norma
Shearer, Gary Cooper, and Fredric March.
Q. What are the earliest examples of
Gothic architecture in the United States?
—G. R. S.
A. The Gothic revival of the nineteenth
century manifested itself in the*United
States as early as 1839, when Richard M.
Upjohn undertook the design of Trinity
Church, New York. Of the same time
was the Church of Holy Trinity, Brook
lyn, New York, designed by Lefevre.
Grace Church, New York, by James Ren
wick and by the same architect, St.
Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, are among
the most successful efforts of the period.
The Gothic style was for the most part
restricted to churches.
Q. What is the percentage of illiteracy
in Soviet Russia?—C. H.
A. According to government statistics.
90 per cent of the Soviet citizens are
literate.
Q. How did the word blackguard origi
nate?—E. M.
A. The term was used In the sixteenth
century with reference to the lowest
menials of a noble house, the scullions
who cleaned pots and pans. It was also
used of the hangers-on of an army camp
and of vagabonds in general.
Q. Does Louisiana still have the news
paper license tax enacted by Senator
Huey Long?—E. W.
A. On February 10,1936, the newspaper
license tax was unanimously invalidated
by the United States Supreme Court on
the ground that It abridged the freedom
of the press.
Q. Why did Charles Dickens use the
pseudonym Boz?—E. J.
A. A younger brother of the author had
In childhood received from the latter the
nickname of Moses, which, being face
tiously pronounced through the nose, be
came Boses, and being shortened beeline
Boz.
Q. Do all the farms in the United States
show the effect of soil erosion?—H. W.
A. About one-third of the acres of land
show little or no soil erosion.
Q. Where is Black Rock Desert?—
W. R.
A. This is a tract of nearly 1,000 square
miles north of Pyramid Lake, in Nevada.
Q. What was the name of the man who
claimed he was John Wilkes Booth?—
G. M.
A. The one whose claim has persisted
was known as John St. Helen and later
as David E. George. Some years ago the
mummified body of St. Helen was ex
hibited about the country.
Q. Please give some information about
the inventor of the Gatling gun.—H. W.
A. Richard Jordan Gatling was bom
in Hertford County, N. C., in 1818. While
a boy he assisted his father in the inven
tion of a machine for sowing cottonseed.
Subsequently he invented a rice-sowing
machine, later adapted to sowing wheat in
drills. Ke graduated in medicine at Cin
cinnati, but before establishing himself
in practice conceived the basic idea of the
gun which afterward made him famous.
In 1861 he built the first types of the
revolving battery gun now known as Gat
ling. This was improved in 1865 and
immediately adopted by the United States
Government. In 1886 he invented a new
gun metal of steel and aluminum. Con
gress soon afterward voted him $40,000
to perfect a new method of casting can
non. He died in 1903.
Q. Have the perfumes in musk and
civet ever been produced synthetically?
—W. H.
A. The chemical compounds in musk
and civet used in perfume making have
been chemically duplicated by scientists
in the Du Pont laboratories.
Q. Who established Herbartian prin
ciples in the American educational sys
tem?—C. F.
A. Charles Alexander McMurry, his
brother, Frank Morton McMurry, and
Charles De Garmo were among the early
advocates of Herbartian principles in
education. They were influential in
establishing the National Herbart So
ciety in 1892.
A Rhyme at Twilight
By
Gertrude Brooke Hamilton
The Deeper Joy.
There Is a joy man can sometimes reach
That Is not the carefree kind;
It comes when heavy sorrow has wrought
Problems to which he’s not blind
But has squarely faced and met and
solved
To the best of human ken;
Accepted the grief and learned the while
To smile with his fellow men;
Learned to disregard from day to day
All small-minded stings and fears;
Has attained a certain peace—and knows
A happiness deep as tears.