Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, May 15, 1937, Image 9

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Evening star. [volume], May 15, 1937, Page A-9, Image 9
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Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 15 May 1937. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1937-05-15/ed-1/seq-9/>

Newspaper Page Text

Success in Oil
Lesson in
Economics
Standard’s Report En
lightening on Tax
Question.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
ARGE volume of sales, low
Prices—result, big profits!
This is a lesson in economics
which has been preached over
and over again in recent years, but
there is no better example of how well
It, works than in
the figures just
made public in
the annual re
port of the
Standard Oil Co.
of New Jersey.
Out of a total
of 278,000,000
barrels of oil sold
the "average
profit which ac
crued to the par
ent company last
year was less
than three
fourths of a cent
per gallon of pe
David Lawrence.
troleum products sold ”
This margin of three-fourths of a
cent was smaller than "the least on
erous of the gasoline taxes, that of
1 cent per gallon collected by the
Federal Government.” And, curiously
enough, the average of both Federal
and State taxes per gallon was "nearly
eight times the company's net earn
ings per gallon.”
What is most revealing is that not
withstanding the fact that commodi
ties are at a higher level than they
have been in recent years retail gaso
line prices along the Atlantic Coast
were approximately 50 per cent less
last year than they were 10 years
ago excluding, of course, taxes.
This is a tribute to the efficiency
t>f oil producers generally and an in
teresting commentary on what a
large slice of the gasoline price to the
consumer is now going to the tax
collectors.
But apart from the big tax pay
ments on gasoline, the Standard Oil
Co. managed to accumulate for 1936
about $84,813,000 of profits out of
that three-fourths of a cent per gal
lon margin. The company had about
•13.000,000 of profits from other ac
tivities, but it is a significant thing
‘that small margin on big volume
brought a return to the stockholders
Of about $3.73 per share.
Interesting Points Raised.
Several interesting points suggest
themselves. Could the prices of gaso
line be kept so low to the public and
could any companies of much smaller
size operate successfully on a margin
cf three-fourths of a cent a gallon?
Clearly the competition in the oil
business is keen and there are com
panies of varying sizes operating at a
profit, but the major companies have
the major share of the market and
they apparently can operate at a fair
margin of return on their investment
by selling at relatively low prices, but
t>n a large scale of transactions.
An enterprise like the Standard Oil
Co. of New Jersey cannot, of course,
continue to become more and more
efficient and keep its prices down if it
cannot make the necessary improve
ments in its processes of production,
refinement and distribution. Hence it
Is interesting to read in the annual
report a plea for a better system of
taxes.
"Your management,” says the report,
♦'feels that this plea for simplification
of and soundness in Federal revenue
laws and their administration is in the
long run just as important to the
Government's revenues as it is to the
corporate taxpayer. We must, and
desire to contribute our full share of
■he needed national revenue, but we
could do a better job of future plan
ning and employment if we could rely
on the continuance of certain basic
principles of a tax system and could
compute and budget tax costs on
certainties rather than gueswork.”
The company is particularly pointed
fci its criticism of the undistributed
■urplus tax as an impediment to the
expansion of its business and the im
provements that can be made for the
public's benefit in the furnishing of
fuel for America’s motor cars. The
xeport adds:
Excessive and Penalizing.
“If the surtax on undistributed
■arnings remains as a part of the law,
then the following results appear to be
Inescapable.
“1. Corporate earnings will bear an
excessive and a larger tax burden than !
■ny other kind of income.
"2. Returns on corporate invest- |
Bients will be penalized and new capi- !
tal for private enterprises will be I
Biore and more difficult to obtain.
"3. The time-honored and cus
tomary securing of working capital
by loans or bond issues will cease be
cause such debts cannot be paid out
cf future earnings without prohibitive
tax penalties.
“4. A company with no backlog, or
Inadequate reserves, will be hurt
first. Those with greater reserves will
be vitally affected when capital needs
have absorbed their available cash
Resources.
"5. It is an economic fallacy to
tom pel a company either to pay out
In the form of dividends each year
money it needs as a working surplus
©r to retain such needed surplus only
on penalty of sacrificing a sizable per
eentage of it through surtax. Reha
bilitation or expansion programs, ade
quate reserves for loss periods, the
continued security of employment for
workers and the beginning or develop
ment of new industries, all will suffer.”
Finally, it might be asked, who is
the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey?
’ The report answers that question
thus:
"At the close of 1936 there were
120.630 shareholders. The average
number of shares owned was 217. Of
the Individuals on the books, 60,780
were men and 49,371 women. Be
sides these individuals, a great many
fiduciary and philanthropic trusts
looked to Standard Oil Co. dividends
for a dependable income.”
The whole report is an enlightened
document on many other aspects of
modern business, including labor re
lations and a discussion of the re
aporisibility of large scale business to
the public and is a significant exam
ple of how companies predominantly
owned by the public are manifesting
* deep sense of their obligation to
the public interest.
(Copyright, 1937.)
Welcomed Insurgents.
Strange as it may seem in the light
tef what is going on today, Prussia’s
'early rulers welcomed outsiders with
open arms, encouraging French Hug
uenot refugees. Dutch engineers and
Jewish merchants to come and settle I
help build up the country. I
News Behind the News
Washington-London Gold Arrangement Seen—Pur
chase by Bank of England Aids U. S. Policy.
BY PAUL MALLON.
THE Bank of England seems to have become big-hearted all of a sud
den about President Roosevelt’s gold predicament, it bought the
the other day about $25,000,000 worth of this mysterious-commodity
which Mr. R. has been unwillingly hoarding. This was the first such
purchase recorded in several months. Until then every one had been letting
Treasury Secretary Morgenthau buy it all.
Now, there will be many explanations of this transaction. As no one,
including Prof. Warren, really seems to understand gold with any degree of
certainty, every one can speak freely. However, the best explanation ac
cepted in gilt-edged quarters is that it indicates the existence of some sort
of gold arrangement between Washington and London.
It likewise tends to confirm the vague story which has been
kicking around the best circles for some months, namely, that Mr.
R. reached some indefinite and vague price working basis with
Walter Runciman and Lord Tweedsmuir and hopes to carry it for
ward when Premier Van Zeeland of Belgium comes over.
The story that co-operation exists is being denied officially, of course.
In the official explanation it is pointed out that British gold stocks have
fallen 25 to 35 per cent in the last
few months. The bank and the
British government naturally are
concerned.
The reason the stocks have been
falling is that the world seems to
have reached the conclusion that
the United States set the gold price
too high. There is agreement
abroad that it will have to be
changed eventually.
From this Washington end, how
ever, convincing evidence is available that no change in the price can or
will be made, as has been previously reported. It seems certain Washington
intends to let the matter slide until the inactive gold fund reaches over a
billion dollars. At the rate the metal was coming in from abroad In April
and early in May, that reckoning day would not be far distant, but now that
the British are concerned, the inflow may decrease.
This policy of play and delay also may be helped by the recent
arresting of stock and commodity prices here. Some authorities are
coni'inced the real reason gold has been coming in is that there was
a flight of foreign capital toward American investments. What
makes the American investment field appear inviting to foreigners
is that the Government has been following an unbalanced budget
policy, looking definitely toward higher prices. Furthermore, if there
is any crack in exchange, the foreigners figure it uiill be in their favor.
Orthodox Washington economists will tell you there is nothing in
that. They blame the excess bajance of American trade for the inflow.
But computations recently have been made indicating that, if you estimate
the invisible trade (tourist travel, etc ), there is no excess in balanced
volume sufficient to warrant the gold imports.
Thus the adoption of sounder policy here (curtailment of relief,
balancing the budget, etc.), plus British ooncem and whatever working
arrangements it represents, may tend to solve the gold problem which
otherwise appears unsolvable in the master minds.
What happened in the Dodd case is that the Ambassador extraordinary
(official title) in Berlin got hold of a rumor which was two years old, and
which was sour, even when it was new.
That old story about the billionaire backing a dictatorship teas
current, but not very current, in the last campaign. It was supposed
to be aimed at Henry Ford then. Also o variation of it mentioned
the Du Ponts. However, no one this side of Berlin was expected
to believe it.
The State Department is inclined to be easy on Dodd because he is
on the ‘•right’' side of the court question. However, it will prove, if pressed,
OF AILTHE
NUTS/<=
•y.'.
/ «T2^WT
'4v«/C
„ Mon
that Dodd did not give up the
letter voluntarily, but merely con
firmed it when news of its con
tents leaked out in this country.
Lo, the poor Congressmen
have troubles, too. One got a letter
from a constituent requesting that
he go to all Embassies and Lega
tions and get a collection of their
foreign stamps—immediately.
Despite the coronation, there
are more visitors to Washington
tnis spring man ever before. Capitol guides find the flocks of visitors
asking mostly where Huey Long sat.
Those who are apprehensive over the absence of all peace negotiations
in the international situation will be relieved to know the United States
is going to send eight delegates and a secretary to the Military Medical
and Pharmaceutical Convention in Rumania. In other words, the nations
cannot get together on armament or war, but they are getting together
on how to bandage wounds and saw off legs adroitly in the next one
(Copyright, 1937.)
MAURICE H
ON MIGHT
English Actor to Be Heard
During Saturday Night
Party.
MAURICE EVANS, English ac
tor, starring currently on
Broadway in "King Richard
III,” will make his first radio
appearance since receiving the medal
of the New' York Drama League for the
most distinguished performance of the
theatrical season when he faces a mi
crophone during the Saturday Night
Party.
An additional guest star is Michael
Strange, actress-writer, while James
Melton handles the singing and master
of ceremonies assignment. Tonight’s
program, heard through WRC at 7,
will be the last under the present title,
the show changing to Sunday Night
Party on May 23.
'J'HE Paul Taylor Chorus has been
added to the company in support
of Grace Moore tonight, with ‘‘The
Song Is You” announced as "produc
tion” number—WJSV at 8 o’clock.
J£D KING, wizard of the ukulele,
and Johnny Jones, comedian,
headline the National Barn Dance tal
ent array, and all regular participants
intend to do what other regular par
ticipants are accustomed to doing,
the result being in doubt—WMAL at 8.
ERETT MARSHALL, singing star
of musical comedy and opera, is
an “extra added’’ on the Hit Parade—
WJSV at 9.
’T'HE Preakness ball in Baltimore* is
a WMAL feature at 11.
“'J'HE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER’S
DAUGHTER.” one of the lustier
of melodramas, will be presented with
Air Headliners
Afternoon Programs.
1:00 p.m. — WRC, Metropolitan
Opera Co., "Mignon.”
2:00 p.m. — WMAL, Complete
Pimlico Race Program.
5:15 p.m.—WMAL, The Preak
ness.
Evening Programs.
6:36 p.m.—WRC, Question Bee.
7:00 p.m.—WRC, Saturday
Night Party; WMAL,
"Of Great Riches.”
8:00 p.m.—WRC, “Snow Village
Sketches”; WMAL, Na
tional Barn Dance”;
WJSV, Grace Moore.
8:80 p.m.—WRC, Joe Cook’s
Show; WOL, Old-Time
Melodramas.
»:#0 p-m.—WJSV, "Your Hit Pa
rade; WMAL, Danish
Royal Anniversary.
11:15 p.m.—WMAL, Slumber
Hour.
Short-Wave Programs.
7:30 p.m.—BERLIN, "Die
Schone Mullerin,” DJD,
25.4 m., 11.77 meg.
8:00 p.m.—O ARAOAS. T II e
Waltz Hour, YV5RC,
51.7 m., 5.8 meg.
straight faces over WOL at 7:30, by a
cast including William Desmond, Ruth
Stonehouse and Gladden James.
TOE COOK offers Eddie Garr, come
dian: Fred Perry and Ellsworth
Vines, Joseph Lhevinne and wife,
pianists; Alexander Kikiloff's Gypsies,
Arthur Byron, actor: John Kissinger,
"human guinea pig”; C. W. Coates,
curator of the New York Aquarium—
WRC, 8:30 o’clock.
START SAFETY DRIVE
The Brookland-Langdon-Woodridge
Federation of Young Church People
has started a safety campaign of Its
own.
In a letter to Traffic Director Van
Duzer, Edward Barber, president of
the federation, said 45 “drive safely"
pledges already have been signed.
The pledge reads in part:
"If ever I am found guilty of a
traffic violation, no matter how large
or small, I promise to accept the line
or punishment without seeking to
escape responsibility by influence or
•pull.’ ”
Capital’s Radio Programs
TODAY’S PROGRAM MAY 15, 1937.
WMAL—630k |
WRC—950k
WOL—1,310k
WJSV—1,460k
12:00
12:15
12:30
|2:45
" 1:00
1:15
1:30
1:45
"2:00
2:15
2:30
2:45_
~37o6"
3:15
3:30
3:45
' 4:00
4:15
4:30
4:45
5:00
5:15
5:30
5:45
' 6:00
6:15
6:30
6:45
7:00"
7:15
7:30
7:45
8:00
8:15
8:30
8:45
~9:00
9:15
9:30
9:45
10:00
10:15
10:30
10:45
11:00
11:15
11:30
11:45
TFoo
12:15
12:30
12:45
“l:00
Danish Jubilee
News Bulletins
Farm and Home Hour
*» M
Farm and Home Hour
»» n
Chick Webb's Orch.
Strings and Things
Pimlico Races
*» »»
M M
II U
Pimlico Races
»» II
tt M
H II
Pimlico Races
tt tt
M H
M M
Pimlico Races
The Preakness
ft it
Pimlico Races
Message of Israel
•l it
News Bulletins
Dinner Hour
“Of Great Riches’*
M II
N II
II tt
National Barn Danes
It it
19 tt
10 It
Danish Jubilee
is «
Meredith Willson’s Orch.
»» tt
Behind the News
Les Brown’s Orch.
Bill Strickland’s Orch.
»» it
News Bulletins
Slumber Hour
It >i
tt It
The Night Watchman
tt tt
m *
• m
Night Watchman (1
News-Music
He6sburger’s Orrh.
Linton Hall Band
Melody Matinee
Metropolitan Opera Co.—
"Mignon”
♦ * M
»» M
Metropolitan Opera
f» M
II **
W H
| Metropolitan Opera
1 I* ll
I " - •
I H N
Week End Revue
ll »»
The Kindergarten
ii ll
Top Hatters
II II
News—Did You Know?
Sundown Revue
Martinez Brothers j
Hampton Singers
Question Bee
ii ll
Saturday Night Party
H P
* * ■
» M
Snow Village Sketches
i» ll
Joe Cook
is if
Joe Cook
ll ll >
American Homes
“The Job Ahead”
News—Music
Supper Dante
Lee Gordon’s Oreh.
ll ll
Preaknees Ball
j M U
Midnight Frolic
ii ll
jsign Off
Howard Lanin’s Orch.
News—Songs
Carnegie Tech Orch.
44 «4
Sylvia Cyde
44 4(
Concert Orchestra
Dance Medley
Wakeman's Sports Page
44 «<
Metropolitan Handicap
44 41
News-Sports Page
Wakeman's Sports Page
Howard Lanin’s Orch.
Wakeman’s Sports Page
Choral Glee Club
Wakeman’s Sports Page
Dance Music
Today's Winners
"PiecTPiper
Ladies of the Air
Enoch Light’s Orch.
Wakeman’s Sports Page
Evening Concert
News-Songs
Nat Brandwynne’s Orch.
WOL Spelling Bee
44 44
** 4*
M «4
Central Union Mission
44 44
Old Melodrama
M 44
Howard Theater Orch.
George Fischer
Saturday Serenade
44 44
Henry King’s Orch.
Ted Weems’ Orch.
Art Brown
44 44
News—Music
Dick Stabile’s Orch.
Paul Whiteman’s Orch.
44 44
Sterling Young’s Orch.
Tommy Tucker's Orch.
44 44
Herman Waldman's Orch.
Lights Out
F. and M. Glee Club
H. B. Derr
Dr. Abram Simon
Buffalo Presents
Afternoon Rhythms
Tulip Festival
Your Home and Mine
Down by Herman's
If «l
Commerce Program i
Clyde Barrie I
A Oappella Choir ’
f* fi
Ann Leaf, Organist
«f ii
Eddy Duchin's Orch.
..
Danish Jubilee
Junior Commerce
Government News
Evening Rhythms
News—Scores
Terry and Ted
Glenn Carow
Arch McDonald
Week End Potpourri
tf f*
Professor Quls ""
<* .fl
Johnnie Presents
ii if
Grace Moore
ff if
Saturday Serenade
if fi
Hit Parade
fl ff
f* ff
Rhythm Show
Rhythm Show
Bunny Berlgan’s Orch.
Robert Horton
Anson Weeks* Orch.
Labor News
Ted Fiorito’s Orch.
Harry Owens’ Orch.
ff ff
Ray Benson’s Orch.
ii fi
The Witching Hour
,j News Bulletins
1 Sign OS
12:00
12:15
12:30
12:45
1:00
1:15
1:30
1:45
2:00
2:15
2:30
_2j45
3:00
3:15
3:30
3:45
4:00
4:15
4:30
4:45
5:00
5:15
5:30
5:45
6:00
6:15
6:30
. 6:45
'7:00
7:15
7:30
7:45
8:00
8:15
8:70
8:45
"9:00
9:15
9:30
9:45
10:00
10:15
10:30
10:45
11:00
11:15
11:30
11:45
12:00
12:15
12:30
13:45
1:00
CTHE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not
necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in
The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its
readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among
themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s.
Dictator Infection in U. S.
Many Symptoms Dispose Congress to Resent Further
Encroachment on Its Powers.
BY MARK SULUVAN.
WHAT Is going on since Presi
dent Roosevelt returned to
Washington is the fixing
of a new boundary line be
tween the President and Congress,
between their respective powers. The
boundary between the two always
fluctuates. Is the present reflxing
merely like others that have often
happened? Or is it something new
and portentous?
The present reflxing might not seem
novel, but for the attending condi
tions. For four years Congress has been
surrendering more and more power
to the President. Recently the Presi
dent has asked for still more, vastly
more. He has made the request for
mally, in the shape of his plan for
executive reorganization, which he
sent to Congress January 12. This
plan has been lost sight of in the con
centration of interest on Mr. Roose
velt’s other reorganization plan, the
court one. which he sent to Congress
a little later.
A few days after Mr. Roosevelt sent
his executive reorganization plan to
Congress there appeared in the New
York Times a dispatch from Germany.
It dealt with Mr. Roosevelt’s plan and
with the German equivalent of our
Congress, the Reichstag. It began:
“Berlin, January 15.—The German
press and radio are giving a surpris
ing amount of attention to President
Roosevelt's proposal for administra
tive reorganization. Such interest in
American affairs is unusual, but may
be attributed to preparations now
being made here for changes In the
Reich government. * • • The most
influential and the largest number of
Chancellor Hitler’s advisers propose
that the Reichstag be abolished as
unnecessary. It is probable it may
vote itself out of existence or be dis
missed forever. • • *”
Expected to Disappear.
What has been done about the
German Reichstag since that dis
patch? I have not followed. Nearly
every well-informed observer, I think,
expects that sooner or later the Ger
man Reichstag will disappear. It
began to abdicate five years ago,
when Hitler came to power and took
over many Reichstag functions. The
German Reichstag will disappear as
did the Italian Parliament, and for
the same reason. The Italian Parlia
ment, like the German Reichstag, be
gan by relinquishing its power and
functions gradually to Mussolini. After
10 years of that it voted itself out
of existence at Mussolini’s command.
In the authoritarian form of society
and government a Parliament or
Reichstag (that is, a Congress) has
no place. The new form is personal
government, one-man government.
Now what justification Is there for
asking the American Congress to
take notice of what Is happening to
the German Reichstag? That Ger
mans think there is a relation be
tween the two is evident from the
dispatch I have quoted.
There is plenty of American au
; thority which thinks that what is
happening about the German Reichs
tag may happen about the American
Congress. But it consists mainly of
scholars. These scholars either are
not heard by the American people or
if they are heard they are not be
lieved. What they say strikes the
average man as too fantastic for belief,
“Congress disappear? That's the
bunk!”
What we need is authority that will
convince the American people. Per
haps it is not possible for any one to
convince the people of their peril
until the peril has become actuality.
I once followed a conversation be
tween an American statesman and a
1 German one. It was in 1932, Just
when Hitler was overthrowing the
German democracy. The American
asked the German, "Why don't you
warn the people?” The German re
plied, "A democracy can never aee
this kind of disaster until it is over
the brink.” This profound and dis
turbing truth is recognized by Dor
othy Thompson: "No people ever rec
ognize their dictator in advance.”
Now just what is this peril? What
is it we would make Americans see,
if we could?
To put It in an inadequate few
sentences: There is in the world a
new oonoeption of society and gov
ernment. It is one-man government,
personal government, commonly (and
somewhat misleadingly) called dic
tatorship. In country after country
of Europe this new conception has
driven out parliamentary and demo
cratic government. Since 1917 dem
ocratic and parliamentary govern
ment has been losing ground every
where.
We think there Is danger that this
may happen in America. We think it
possible for this to happen here as
a mere result of infection, like a con
tagious disease.
Mr. Sinclair Lewis has described the
danger vividly in a novel called, iron
ically, “It Can’t Happen Here”—de
scribing just how it could happen here.
Mr. Lewis' wife, Dorothy Thompson,
is able to recognize the danger be
cause she was in Germany when Hit
ler came to power. Speaking of Pres
ident Roosevelt’s proposal about the
Supreme Court, Miss Thompson says:
“This is the beginning of pure per
sonal government.” Senator Borah
had this danger in mind when, in his
philippic on May 6, he said that “in
our own land, men seriously debate
whether democracy is worth saving,”
and expressed eloquent alarm about
“where we are drifting when we waver
in our fight for democratic principles."
Mr. Walter Lippmann has come to
recognise the danger. He says:
“He (President Roosevelt) has come
to think that the sole function of
Congress is to supply him with the
means of power. • • • Personally, he
wishes to make the laws, either openly
and boldly as in N. R. A., or indirectly
by ocmpelltng Congress to ratify what
he proposes. Personally, he wishes to
fix and control public expenditures.
Personally, he wishes to fix the powers
of all Government departments. Per
sonally, he wishes to dominate the
courts and to Interpret the Constitu
tion.”
That describes the danger in terms
of actions taken by the President.
Without questioning that way of put
ting it, I am willing, if I can thus
avoid personalities, to exculpate any
individual from the charge of trying
to bring about the new order in Amer
ica. That such things are contagious
every historian knows.
If a contagion, what are the sympv
toms? We identify the symptoms
when we find in America parallels to
what has gone on in countries where
the infection has taken. Several
symptoms are pointed out in the pass
age I have quoted from Mr. Lippmann.
There are many others, so many oth
ers that a portentous interest at
taches to the outcome of the present
disposition of Congress to resist fur
ther encroachment on its powers.
(Copyright, 1937.)
-•
“HOLY REVOLUTION”
SETTLEMENT REJECTED
Tokio Salvation Army Members
Remain Barricaded in Demand
for Independence.
By the AssocUted Press.
TOKIO, May 15.—One hundred
fifty Salvation Army men and women,
still barricaded in the organization's
hospital, refused all appeals yesterday
for settlement of their "holy revolu
tion.”
They demanded that the Salvation
Army in Japan be given complete in
dependence from the international
headquarters in London.
Lieut. Gen. Gunpei Yamamuro, vet
eran commander in chief of the organ
ization in Japan, wept as he listened
to the complaints of the men and
women, but declared himself powerless
to settle the dispute.
The "rebels” then appealed to an
American Salvationist, urging him to
use his influence on their behalf. The
“revolt" started two days ago.
The American, Ernest I. Pugmire,
lieutenant commissioner and territorial
commander for the southern United
States territory of the Salvation Army,
recently arrived from Seattle.
We, the People
"Neutrality in Thought” Usually Undermined by
Concern Over Foreign Investments.
BY JAY FRANKLIN.
THE recent neutrality act contains a clauie, Inserted by the State De
partment, prohibiting the solicitation of funds for foreign wars
(international or civil) unless the canvassing agency is licensed by
our diplomats. This recalls Woodrow Wilson's request that we re
main “neutral in thought” in 1914, and how, through such agencies as the
American ambulance in France, we undermined our own impartiality. For
where one sends one’s treasure, one is apt to give one’s heart.
At the moment, such a clause would hit the various committees
friendly to the Spanish Loyalists and would doubtless lead to a test case
as to its constitutionality should the State Department try to limit the
“inalienable right” of American citizens to support the twentieth century
equivalent of foreign missions—the cause of political and social democracy
in distant lands.
Three recent piece* of writing, by Yankees of three different
generations, suggest how hard it will be to maintain even the fiction
of mental neutrality as the European drama develop*.
The first is by a friend and classmate of my father’s, Tom
Sg*~
Ripley, whoee book, "A Vermont
Boyhood,” distills the family
chronicle* of a tribe of Rutland
Yankees in the 1860's and 1870’s.
The book has the clean tang of
good, hard cider, and is worth read
ing for its charm and warm
heartedness. What is important
here are the sections about the Civil
War. To young New Englanders of
fighting age, that mighty conflict
must have been magnificent fun. It
reminds me of what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once told Tom Cor
coran. Corcoran had asked why it was that the young men of New
England entered the Civil War with such enthusiasm, as he could not
believe that they were really moved by the abolitionist propaganda.
Holmes replied that the young New Englanders of his generation had
been bored to death, that New England had seemed to be played out, and
that the war offered an outlet, adventure, opportunity—regardless of its
merits. Boredom is still the great enemy of peace.
The second piece of writing is Miss Dorothy Thompson’s latest hymn
of hate on the fate of the Basque nation. It recalls the magnificent fury
of Milton’s poem on the massacre in Piedmont. It is stirring, tear-jerking,
noble in diction and high as the Alps in the purity of its sentiment. For
the murder of the Basques is a crime against humanity. War, incidentally,
is murder.
Yet, if American boys die on European soil fighting for the defense
of the French, British and Russian Empires, they will owe their heroic
deaths in part to the ceaseless tirades of Miss Thompson against the Hitler
regime which ran her out of Germany.
It it a tericmt question whether we can indulge in these long
range paroxysms of fury against Fascism without eventually com
mitting ourselves to the forcible destruction of the Fascist nations.
In all honesty, uriters ought to ask themselves the ultimate effect
of their propaganda against certain foreign governments and certain
foreign peoples. One need have no sympathy for the methods of
Fascism and Communism to point out that their suppression can be
made our business only if we are prepared to finance, fight and die
for European democracy. Are we so prepared to finance, fight and
die for European democracy? Are we so prepared?
The third, and mo6t encouraging, piece of writing is an article entitled
“War Mongenng on the Left” recently written by Alfred M. Bingham and
published in his hard-headed weekly papier, Common Sense. Mr. Bingham
is an American radical who takes his doctrines from Tom Paine, Andy
Jackson and Abe Lincoln, rather than from Karl Marx or Leon Trotzky.
He has had the honesty to see and the moral courage to say that the
present indiscriminate, emotional anti-fascism of American liberals is
making our public opinion a piawn in the Europiean diplomatic game.
And pawns are usually sacrificed in pxilitics, no less than in chess.
All of Mr. Bingham's arguments may not stand up, but on the main
issue he is eternally right. Just as in 1914-1917, our liberals, radicals,
pacifists and internationalists are persuading themselves that war of a
certain noble-minded sort Is quite all right. And the only sort of war
they would now suppiort would be, in fact, a war to defend the great
‘have' nations—Russia, France
and Great Britain—from the mast
aggressive “have nots"—Italy,
Germany and Japan.
Alfred Bingham probably will
pay for his courage by being quickly
branded as a Nazi agent or worse.
Yet his is the first plea for honest
neutrality which has yet arisen
from the radical ranks. For to
come down to cases, we are either
going to support the Basques or
^£>/c,
not going to support them. If we support them effectively, that means
armed intervention. If we don't support them, what moral right have we
to encourage them to "resist to the last man?” I admire the Basques; I
sympathize strongly with the Spanish Loyalists: I believe that Mussolini
and Hitler, in carrying their warfare into Spain, have forfeited their last
claim to plead that fascism is the private affair of the Italian and German
peoples and hence not properly subject to foreign criticism or interference.
But I contend that if we are going to commit ourselves to open in
tervention in Europe—even an emotional intervention—it should be on our
own terms and not for the convenience of either side in the great diplomatic
scramble for the boodle of the Eastern Hemisphere.
(Copyright, 19.'!7.)
BILL IS CONSIDERED
ON MEDICAL CENTER
Institution for Navy Here at
Maximum $4,850,000 Cost
Sought.
The House Naval Affairs Committee
yesterday considered the bill spon
sored by Chairman Vinson for a new
naval medical center in Washington
at a cost not to exceed $4,850,000.
The bill does not limit the amount
that can be spent for a site, but Vin
son said the cost of the land should
be limited to not more than 10 per
cent, of the total authorization.
The site for the proposed medical
center has not been selected, but Rear
Admiral Perceval S. Rossiter, the
surgeon general, disclosed that two
sites on .Conduit road are under con
sideration—one at American Uni
versity and the other on the East
West Highway near the entrance to
Rock Creek Park. He said another
desirable site, which can not be seri
ously considered because of the cost,
is the McLean estate.
Admiral Rossiter disclosed that in
designing the new medical center a
600-bed hospital would be the nucleus,
with a possible expansion to 1,600 to
1.800 beds to meet wartime needs.
The question of wartime requirements
resulted from a statement by Repre
sentative Maas, Republican, of Minne
sota, that the basis of expansion is
overestimated, that there is no need
at the present time for more beds and
that in the future the bed requirement
would decrease.
The present hospital, which has 178
beds, is wholly inadequate, Admiral
Rossister said. He emphasized that on
the present site there is no room for
wartime expansion. He explained that
already a new War Department build
ing has been authorized to the east
of the present site, with the prospect
that a new Navy building will be erect
ed to the west of the present site.
When Swedes Bowed.
Nations like styles change. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century
when Peter the Great became ruler
of Russia. Sweeden was among the
first in military power in Europe and
when Peter first beat the Swedes in
battle his success gave him unbounded
joy. "We beat the Swedes,” he said,
"because we have just double the num
ber of soldiers, but we will learn to
beat them with equal numbers."
mu
“Benjamin'* Cup"
WJSV
SUNDAY, 1:30 P.M.
Compliments
Washington Flour
U. S. AIR OFFICIALS
TO SEE RADIO LANDING
Test to Be Made on Plan for
Bringing Planes In
by Radio.
A score of Federal aviation officials,
radio and aviation engineers and
technical experts left Washington Air
port yesterday aboard a special flagship
of American Airlines to witness the
first official radio landing tests for
transport airplanes, to be made at
Indianapolis.
The tests arc being made under di
rection of the International Telegraph
& Telephone Co., with American Air
lines. Transcontinental and Western
Air and United Airlines furnishing
transport airplanes and radio experts
for the tests.
Among the Washington group were
Senator Minton of Indiana, Lieut.
Comdr. G. B. H. Hall, Navy Bureau
of Aeronautics' E. L. White, Federal
Communications Commission; E. J.
Girard, Mackey Radio Corp.; Comdr.
C. T. Solt, Coast Guard aviation, and
W. E. Jackson, Bureau of Air Com
merce.
Dr. Ernest Kramer, director of the
Lorenz Co., of Berlin, which devel
oped the system now under test at
Indianapolis, was a member of the
party, which was led by George Lewis
of the I. T. & T.
You Can’t Afford NOT to Renovize The Eberly Way
What more could
be taid?
• * * A vary
satisfactory Job,
with thanks.
Dr. J. C."
•Orioinat of tbit
letter on file
Check Up NOW on
Needed Repairs or
Improvements
Prevention is better than cure is on
old and true saying. So after the
siege of one season and before the
advent of the next it is a good plan
to look the house over and see where
there ore weaknesses that need
strengthening; and to go forward
with the renovizing you have had in
mind.
The Eberly Plan can be of very
practical and efficient assistance in
both renovixing and modernizing,
and when you bring us into your
service you may be sure that we
make your interests our interest.
|
A. Eberly’s Sons
1108 K N.W. !» Our Silk Year Di. 6557
One Stanford—One Responsibility—One Modest Profit
An American
You Should
Know
Conway P. Coe Puts
Patent Office on
Paying Basis.
BY DELIA PYNCHON.
Ilf THE heart of a country opposed
to monopoly functions our patent
system, authorized by the Consti
tution In 1790. Industrial suprem
acy rests upon the property rights so
allocated. Business is founded upon
patent monopolies. If it were not so
any man could steal another’s brains.
The mantle of patent performance
has fallen upon Conway P. Coe’s
youthful shoulders. He Is commis
sioner of the Patent Office, Depart
_ ment of Com
Conway F. Coo.
merce. Reputed
the youngest
comm inloner,
Coe says that
each week ia re
lieving that con
dition. HU face
is strong, hU hair
black, his brown
eyes serious, his
manner alert, his
record efficient.
For each of the
12 years prior to
1933, when Coe
was appointed, a
deficit r e s u lted.
Receipts are now greater than expen
ditures.
The son of a Methodist minister at
Dunkirk. Md., where Coe was born, ha
has spent his life since graduation
from Randolph-Macon College in 1918
either in the Patent Office as an ex
aminer or practicing patent law. He
studied law’ nights at George Wash
ington, receiving his LL. B. In 1933.
The Patent Office grants patents,
registers trade-marks. Its comer stone
is secrecy, its watchword industrial
progress. As many patents are re
fused as accepted. This causes much
litigation between the Patent Office
and the inventor on the scope of his
latent. It must have novelty, utility.
If it does not come up to the standards
of Inventive genius, specified in patent
laws, the application Is refused. Coe
says that he is the defendant of more
litigation than any Federal official in
Washington. The United States mar
shal is a daily visitor.
If the application is granted, the in
ventor is presented with a stamped
certificate w’hich gives him an exclu
sive right "to make, use and vend'*
the invention for 17 years. Coe says,
"We give it a pat on the back, wish it
Godspeed." Infringement is in the
hands of the courts.
Last year the Patent Office cele
brated a centennial, a century of prog
ress since patent laws were changed,
in 1836. Personnel was then eight
persons, including the commissioner.
It is now 1,450, occupies one-third of
the giant Commerce Building and has
granted 2.075.000 patents in that time.
"It is the most accurate barometer
of business and trade in the country,”
Coe says. Pursuing this thought fur
ther, he says that "new Inventions
have followed business curves.” In
I ventive genius is stimulated by pros
: perity, which brings opportunity. In
j 1929 inventions reached the high
I water mark, subsequently declined one
third. picked up gradually and have
been stabilized since 1934.
LABOR’S RESPONSIBILITY
DEBATE TOPIC TONIGHT
Alvey Society of National Uni
versity Law School to
Argue Question.
The Alvey Debating Society of Na
tional University Law School will ar
gue at 7:30 o’clock tonight that labor
unions should not be forced to incor
porate and accept responsibility for
acts of their member*.
Upholding the affirmative of the sub
ject, “Resolved, That all labor unions
shall be incorporated and be held
liable for the torts of their members,”
will be a picked debating team of
the school's freshman class. The de
bate will be held in the university's
lower hall, 818 Thirteenth street.
The freshman team is composed
of Miss Marion De Belle, Earl L Kline
and Bryan Gordon, jr. The Alvey
Society team comprises Stanley B.
Rider, Miss Leila Terrill and Spiros
J. Gianaris.
War Plan Fail*.
Every military nation is busy plan*
I ning for offense and defense, their
best laid plans, like human beings,
fallible. France’s professional soldiers
had been going over the strategy of
a Franco-German war long before
1914. but their famous "Plan No. 17”
proved so wrong that within a month
j after war’s outbreak in 1914 the CJer
| man armies were within 30 miles
j of Paris only to be foiled by the mis
j carriage of their own long and care
I fully made plans.

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Evening star. [volume], May 15, 1937, Page A-9, Image 9
About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972