Evening star. [volume], June 19, 1937, Page A-6, Image 6

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

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THE EVENING STAR
With Snoday Marsing Edition.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SATURDAY.Jane I», 1**1
THEODORE W. NOTES_Editol
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tha use for rapubllcation of all news dispatches
credited to it or not otherwise credited In this
paper and also the loeal news published herein.
All right* of publication of tpeclal dispatches
herein are also reierved.
Time to Wake Up.
Senator Robinson of Arkansas, Demo
era tic leader of the upper house, has
taken up the cudgels for economy in
government expenditure. Specifically,
he proposes to restrict the expenditure
of the $1,500,000,000 relief fund to
W. P. A. projects where the local gov
ernments are willing and able to put up
25 per cent of the cost. This restriction
might well have a salutary effect. As
|Senator Robinson has said in the Senate
jfiebate, “We can't go on forever.” Par
ticularly when the public debt has
reached the unprecedented amount of
f36,000,000,000, more than a billion dol
lars in excess of what the President esti
mated it would be.
The Arkansas Senator complained,
and with justice, that in these days no
one takes seriously the question of debt
and deficits. After the World War, he
aaid, when this country faced a public
debt less by ten billions of dollars than it
Is today, the American people and the
Congress took the situation seriously.
They went to work to reduce the debt
and they did reduce it by many billions
of dollars. There seems no real hope for
ghe future until some one—and some one
In the highest authority, whether it be
Congress or the President or the Ameri
can taxpayers or all three—wakes up to
ghe untold trouble which is being laid
«p for the people in the days to come.
The course of the relief bill in the
Mouse, and more recently in the Senate
Appropriations Committee and the Sen
ate Itself, is not calculated to inspire
any one with confidence that the legis
lators and the President have ceased to
take government expenditures lightly, if
not with levity. Oroups in both houses
have demanded economy—groups of
ri*m/vraft Thav hava nninfaH ant that
the only place where a really big cut In
appropriations might be possible was
trith the relief bill. They suggested that
the amount be cut from $1,500,000,000 to
$1,000,000,000, and added that this should
be enough for one year, but If it were not,
another appeal could be made to Con
grass. The bill, however, passed the
House carrying the full $1,500,000,000 ap
propriation, and it is also going to pass
the Senate carrying that amount. What
will happen to the Robinson amendment
Is yet to be finally disclosed, for the Sen
ate has recessed until Monday.
It was a salutary thing for the Demo
•rttic leader of the Senate to take the
•tand he has taken on the relief appro
priation bill and demand at least the
restriction that government millions
■hall not be expended unless local con
tributions are made—where it is possi
ble for them to be made. It would be
more salutary if President Roosevelt
would make such a demand, or would
make the kind of statement which Sena
tor Robinson made to the Senate yes
terday.
Robinson called attention not only to
♦he fact that the public debt is the
highest in the history of the country, but
■l*o to the fact that private enterprise, In
a measure, is more prosperous than it
bras in 1W#—those boom days which it
•a now fashionable to denounce. Here
l« an added reason for restriction upon
relief appropriations. It is incredible
that, with business again at a high point
and industry revolving faster and faster
—except where strikes interfere—that
federal relief expenditures should remain
so high. The administration, however,
apparently has no Intention of taking a
stand in the matter. It is preparing for
another year of a billion and half relief
expenditures and perhaps more—no mat
ter what actual conditions may be. It
has stood firmly against any census of
nnemployed and preferred to guess at
the number.
Sixteen-Inch Guns.
Japan strikes a freeh blow at naval
limitation by her refusal to consider a
reduction of the maximum of big-gun
calibers from sixteen to fourteen inches.
In an eleventh-hour effort to salvage at
toast that feature of qualitative limita
tion, the United States recently asked
Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan
whether they would be willing to restrict
major naval weapons to the lower sine.
It was tacitly understood that all of
them except Japan were favorable to
such a plan. Formal efforts to adopt It
earn* to naught at last year's London
naval conference, because of Japanese
objections, but Washington remained
faintly hopeful that the desired arrange
ment might be attained by subsequent
private negotiation and before new
aapital ship construction was undertaken
by this country.
The Tokio government now indicates
Anally that the suggestion makes no ap
peal to it, because, in Japaneee opinion,
mere reduction of gun calibers would
not achieve real disarmament. The
Japanese continue to insist that this can
tM had enly through <Anlte quantitative
curtailment. Agreement on that bails,
applying to either total tonnage or num
ber of warships, proved unattainable at
London, chiefly on account of Japan’s
unwillingness to accept continuation of
the fleet ratios which assigned her fixed
inferiority to Great Britain and the
United States. The result was the scrap
ping of the old 6—5—3 margin of
strength among the three powers in
question, leaving each of them virtually
at liberty to build as many ships and of
whatever types it suits their purses and
purposes to lay down, although there is
an Ar.glo-Pranco-American understand
ing to limit capital ships to 35,000 tons.
The United States, it is indicated, will
now in all probability proceed to arm its
two new battleships with sixteen-inch
guns. Some of our older vessels are
already equipped with such batteries.
The British some time ago announced
their intention of mounting fourteen
inch guns on their latest type battle
ships. There have been unofficial re
ports that Japan is thinking of using
eighteen-inch guns on the ships to be
constructed under her -nrniected five.
year program. It is regrettable that
Toklo has not seen fit to fall in with
suggestions for diminished caliber.
The difference in cost between ships
carrying sixteen-inch guns and those
mounting guns of fourteen inches is not
a particularly important item, measured
alongside the <60,000,000 or <75,000,000
gross expenditure represented by a mod
ern battleship, nor would the lower limit
of Itself constitute any considerable ad
vance toward naval disarmament. It
would, nevertheless, be a trend in that
direction. It would keep alive the prin
ciple and psychology of disarmament,
which now, unfortunately, appear to
have gone with the wind. These late
developments unfortunately supply all
too graphic evidence that the world
naval race is on again in old-time in
tensity. The revived competition is not
of Uncle Sam's making.
The eont to the temporary central
government of holding the constitutional
convention of 1787 was precisely $1,
165.80. Contrast that more than modest
sum with the billions added annually to
the national deficit by some who are,
to say the least, apathetic about main
taining the integrity of our national
instrument of government.
German military experts are all for
the abolition of the traditional goose
step. It is high, they admit, but neither
wide nor handsome.
Misrepresenting Facts.
Members of the House seemed greatly
confused over how the tax rate in Wash
ington is set each year and during debate
on the tax bill some of them Injected the
question of the validity of action by the
Commissioners in setting the tax rate
at the beginning of each fiscal year,
without specific direction of Congress.
The matter is important merely because
it reflects the utter lack of interest or
understanding by many members of the
House concerning the government of
tu. ..ui.u __tu. n..
stitution, they are responsible.
Mr. O'Connor, for Instance, the chair
man of the House Rules Committee and
one of the House leaders, told the House
that the Commissioners have never in
creased the tax rate here, but many times
have lowered it “and then come to the
Federal Government for a contribution
to make up the difference."
The tax rate, of course, is fixed by the
Commissioners at the beginning of each
fiscal year in order to produce the neces
sary portion of money appropriated by
Congress. Since 1924 it was raised by
the Commissioners, not by Congress,
from $1.20 to $1.40; from $1.40 to $1.70
and from $1.70 to $1.80. It was lowered,
from $1.80 to $1.70, to avoid raising in
taxes more than Congress would spend.
In 1933, passing the appropriation bill
for 1934, former Representative Blanton
tried to lower the tax rate by legislative
rider. He was defeated on a point of
order, but the late Representative Bu
chanan joined him in warning the Com
missioners that the rate must be lowered
to $1.50—the current rate. Otherwise,
the people of the District would be pay
ing several million dollars a year more
in taxes than Congress would spend.
Not a nickel can be spent here that is
not appropriated by Congress.
■Mr. u uonnor continuec:
Well, you can go to any window in this
Capitol Building and look in any direc
tion, and you cannot see one piece of
ground or one building to which the
people of the District have contributed
one penny. You can get in any automo
bile at this Capitol and ride from here
to the Shoreham Hotel, a distance of six
miles, and you will never pass over a
piece of land, you will never go through
a park, you will never see a building, to
which the people of the District of Co
lumbia have contributed one cent.
Well, if that is the sort of information
on the District that comes from one of
the leaders of the House, what can any
body expect from the new members who
are serving their first terms? When that
Is the sort of stuff fed to members to
emphasise the need of piling up local
taxes on Washington people, can they
be blamed for voting to soak the people
of the District with every variety of tax
under the sun?
Nobody rose in the House to contra
dict Mr. O’Connor. Nobody told the
House of how District parks are bought
and maintained; how the people of the
District, in addition to their local taxes,
pay their Federal taxes for the National
buildings in Washington, Just as the
people of the States pay—far more than
many of the State# pay. When another
House leader, Mr. Snell, rose to do his
bit, he spoke of the Jacobs report, “which
cost the Government some fifty thou
sand-odd dollars.” Which government?
He did not explain that It was the Dis
trict Government, the people of the
District, who threw that fifty thousand
dollars down a rat hole at the command
of Congress.
Good government is only possible
when those in whose hands the power of
government mg» have at heart the in
terests of the people they govern, and the
knowledge that must go with that Inter*
est. The people of the District are suf
fering from misgovernment, for which
the only remedy is self-government. The
more misgovernment there is, the nearer
draws the time when self-government
through representation in Congress will
become, not a plea, but a necessity.
Manhattan Transfer.
Manhattan Transfer was unique. Noth
ing exactly like it existed anywhere. It
consisted at a narrow strip of concrete
island in an ocean of railroad yards
seven miles west of New York City.
Built to accommodate crowds of travel
ers, including an army of commuters, to
downtown Manhattan, it served for
twenty-seven years as the place where
Pennsylvania Station trains and Hudson
Tunnel trains “met up." Millions of
people passed through it without leav
ing their coaches, still other millions
hurried across it in a human shuffle
from one route to another. It was the
point at which eastbound traffic ceased
being steam-hauled and became electric;
also, the spot from which awe-struck
pilgrims from the hinterland to Bagdad
on-the-8ubway caught their first
glimpse of the towers of the metropolis
rising above the marshy desolation of
the Jersey meadows.
Now the junction is to be abandoned.
The new Market Street, Newark, station
of the Pennsylvania system will be its
substitute for an indefinite period of
time. "One of the world's most modern
and highly concentrated centers of
transportation," built at a cost in ex
cess of twenty million dollars, has rele
gated the island to conclusive oblivion.
Gradually its name will fade from pub
lic memory; it will be forgotten.
But occasionally, perhaps, some linger
ing oldster, bewildered in an "age of
transition,” may think of it curiously,
uselessly yet gratefully. It once was an
objective for many dreamers—a symbol
of the adventures of youth; a label for
a hope and an enthusiasm; a step, if
nothing else, toward the fulfillment or
maybe the destruction of a vision. Part
of the experience of a generation of
Americans, it remains momentarily
fixed in the reality of a thought. It
will die only when those who think it
start their final Journey.
While F. D. R. is by no means old,
or even elderly, yet there is a resem
blance here to “Old Faithful,” famed
feature of Yellowstone Park. He erupts
new “must” legislation almost as fre
quently and as regularly as the geyser
sends up its sprays.
Vice President Garner, looking for
ward with Justifiable pessimism to
Washington's Summer climate, has
arranged for an early Ashing vacation.
It is feared that “when the cat's away
the mice will loaf.”
Eugenics in advertising: The collar
ad boy of 1903-1911 and the discreet and
blushing hosiery model of the same era
seem to have mated, and their offspring
are showing the bathing-beach garb of
1937—what there Is of it to show.
Shooting Stars.
BY PHILANDER J OH NOON
The lightning Bog.
De lightnln’ bug, he started out
A'trabblin’ froo de night;
Says he, “De road is full of doubt,
I wisht I had a light.”
An' so he flew up to de sky
An’ stole hisself a star;
Says he, “Wif such a lantern,
I kin Journey near an' far.”
Dat shinin’ star, it weighed so much
It nearly made him fall
An’ any boy dat tried could clutch
De lantern, bug and all.
Sech doln's, honey, is what makes
Some people lead a dance.
De man dat steals his brightness takes
A mighty sight o’ chance.
Out in Front.
“Is that antagonist what you would
call a political leader?”
"Not a real leader,” answered Senator
Sorghum. “He's Just one of those fellows
who keep nudgin’ up from one vacancy
to another until they Anally get to the
front place in the machine.”
Jud Tunkins aays what is moet painful
about a hypocrite is the fact that he’s
generally such a bad actor.
Making It Unanimous.
Some day we’ll have disarmament
For aircraft that might harm us,
And no mosquitoes will be sent
With weapons to alarm us.
Utilitarian.
"Don't you despise gossip?”
"Not always," replied the movie star.
“It may be made a Arst-rate advertising
medium.”
“We honor our great ancestors best,”
said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown,
“when we so conduct ourselves as to be
worthy of them.”
Ferversity.
Sometimes the more you tell a boy
It's wrong to swim on Sunday,
Hie more he Ands aquatic Joy
Most potent on that one day.
The more you tell of crooked games.
Some tragic and some funny.
The more the bunco-steerer claims
Tour Uncle Reuben's money.
And boy and man are never rid
Of grief—let none deny It.
The more some fool scheme is forbid,
The more you want to try it.
“Young folks nowadays,” said Uncle
Eben, “seems to know more dan de old
folks, hut dey don’t understand %
naeh.'P
Supporting Insurrection
By Not Delivering Mail
To tho editor of TTio Star:
Will you permit me to trespass on your
valuable time to express my sincere
thanks for the article by David Law
rence In your issue of Monday, June 14,
in regard to the refusal to deliver parcel
post packages to workmen In the mills
where strikes are being carried on in
towns In Michigan and elsewhere?
It was a clean and true statement of
postal laws and regulations as they pre
vail In our land, and the action of cer
tain officials of the Post Office Depart
ment In endeavoring to uphold the ac
tion was too flimsy to carry its own
weight. It has always been held that
a letter or package properly stamped and
addressed must be delivered to the ad
dressee, and the ideas advanced by As
sistant Postmaster General Howes can-'
not be Justified in any way by his idle
dream, an idea thkt permeates the ad
ministration's function of our Govern
ment today to aid these C. I. O. strikers
In everything these violators of law and
Justice, those unworthy followers of
Lewis are carrying out.
It's a disgrace to our country that
higher-ups do not do something to re
store our land to the peaceful condition
that existed before this man Lewis and
his satellites, bv sit-down Acrunafi/tn
defied court decrees to vacate the prem
ises they took possession of, and our
Governors by palliation have allowed
such disorderly affairs to continue to the
detriment of right and order. The sooner
the United States takes positive action,
from the President down through the
Labor Department and Congress, the
sooner will this country be rid of the
Insurrections that now prevail.
Oh. for another Grover Cleveland in
the White House at this period, for then
the malls, duly issued, would not be
stopped by weak-kneed officials of the
Post Office Department, and let us peti
tion the present occupant of the White
House to arise and meet the question
like Grover Cleveland met it during his
term as President.
JOHN HADLEY DOYLE.
Judiciary Report Indicates
The Rebirth of Freedom
To tho editor of Th# St.»r:
"For what avail the plow or sail.
Or land or life, if freedom fall.”
Thank God freedom hat not failed us,
but has asserted Itself and found expres
sion in the historic document presented
to the Senate of the United States by the
Judiciary Committee of that body con
demning in unanswerable logic the pro
posal to pack the 8upreme Court and
destroy its independence. This report
is a clarion declaration of freedom's re
birth, and gives aasurance that govern
ment in these United States at least, of
the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth. The au
thors of this heartening document have
lengthened the long line of martyrs,
heroes and patriots who have fought the
battles for human liberty through the
ages, and shed immortal luster upon
themselves as the benefactors of the
human race. Future generations, who
will fully realise the debt they owe these
men, will enshrine them in their grate
ful hearts, and hold them in everlasting
remembrance. Their names are: Wil
liam H. King, Frederick Van Nuys. Pat
McCarran. Carl A. Hatch, Edward R.
Burke, Tom Connally, Joseph C. O'Ma
honey, William E. Borah, Daniel O. Hast
ings and Warrin R. Austin.
ALEXANDER SIDNEY LANIER.
Cure Potential Criminals
Through Corrective Work
To tho editor of TSio War:
Curing the criminal depends largely
upon diagnosing his ailment. If the sub
ject Is a vicious, cold-blooded, heartless
type, or an habitual offender, we must
classify him as an incurable criminal
with a dismal prognosis, and for him we
have but one recourse: Permanent con
finement or supervision.
8ociety should not look to penologists
and parole boards to combat crime—the
twig has been bent and the damage is
too often irremediable—but to the com
munity and the family. Environment is
everything. Correct the environment
and cure the potential criminal!
The community must attack through
Its social workers, health clinics, slum
clearance, boys’ clubs and youth guid
ance organizations, and the family must
aid the cause through enlightening influ
ence and daily example to the growing
child. H. C. WILLIAMS.
Economic Trapeziums of
A Juggernaut Government
To the Editor of Tht Bt»r:
Sugar-coated, honey-oiled tongues in
the mouthpieces of an idol of juggernaut
government are sweetening the public's
national opinion with a New Deal no
housing program that for sheer destruc
tive economics surpasses ancient or
modern trapeaiums on the apish face of
a system of rip, rack and go to halleluiah.
Where are the wrecked fathers, the
worried mothers, the starving children
going to pilgrimage next after the Fed- i
eral Government kicks the last Federal
relieved “relief family’’ into the gutter,
leaving furniture on the front walk, and
setting up a “No Trespassing" sign on
the lawn of the old homestead?
These economically coerced and then
legally grabbed large-family shelters
stand as empty as a politician's brain,
for sale, but not for rent, while the for
mer occupants go no-housed, 111 clothed,
half fed. CARL LIDDLE.
Palmetto, Fla.
Bad Condition on East
Side of Pension Building
To tba Editor of Tht Star:
I respectfully cell your attention to
the deplorable condition of the east side
of the block of the Pension Office Build
ing.
As there is no sod along the sidewalk.
every rain washes the soil and pebbles
to the streets, leaving the roots of those
ancient trees exposed. Rains wash the
pebbles and sand to the gutters and
sewers. CHARLES H. CORBY.
Debt Interpreted as Good
Reason for Strike Silence
To tba Editor at Tha Star:
Report of the Democratic National
Committee shows that It has borrowed
WO,000 from John L. Lewis’ United Mine
Workers.
Now we know why President Roose
velt has consistently refused to express
an opinion on sit-down strikes.
J. C. OLDHAM.
Tax Dodging
Pram tha Waraaatar Oaiatta.
Dodging taxes may be unethical, as
the President says, but it’s hard to con
ceal a sort of admiration for any one
who can dodge taxes these days.
A Noisy Drop
Prom tha AibarlUa Timet.
The President has dropped his court
plan quietly, hints a White Hquse aide.
And you never heard anything Jhake so
much clatter before tt hit Jf
[ THIS AND THAT |'
MY CHARLES g. TRACEWELL.
Stormy night, you blow In vain—
wasn’t that the way R. L. S. put it?
If the evening is not too stormy it
may blow a good deal of cooling peace
on its tempestuous wings.
Summer storms began early this year
and seem destined to be a regular part
of the season.
It is difficult to recall that last Sum
mer there were practically no thunder
storms in this vicinity.
This season they have started off
under full power, but so far have not
presented that full cracking type of
flash which drives the timid to charms,
and some pet animals into closets and
under sofas.
One house cat in every thousand is a
thunder fearer.
At the first roil the animal slinks its
stomach to the floor and makes off to
a favorite hiding place.
It is significant that it is the thunder,
not the lightning, which stirs it to
action.
Many a human, despite a conscious In
telligence which assures him, as it has
most of his life, that it la the lightning,
not the thunder, of which to be afraid,
persists in shrinking most from the
noise.
* * v *
Those rolls of thunder the other
night followed so long after the flashes
that, according to popular tradition, the
bolts must have originated many miles
away.
This is a soothing reflection during a
storm, one which the parlor philosopher
-J VTEI1 U IV QOM
the household cat little good.
"It” seems to be specialising this year
on treacherous flashes of lightning
which come after the storm seems to
have passed over.
Windows and doors are shut, the house
is stufly, but the pouring rain, coming
in on the slant of a northwest wind,
makes it impossible to open them.
A lull in the storm follows.
How grateful seems the fresh air,
pouring in at opened windows and
doors!
Surely there are few thrills in life
worth more than this very common
one, the smell of fresh air after a
thunderstorm.
It is grateful to skin, nostrils and ears;
almost ail the senses revel in that air
and the cool feel of the rain drops still
falling.
* * * *
Suddenly, without warning, comes a
great flash of lightning.
Everybody jumps back from windows
and doors.
"Must have struck some place close,"
is the cry.
Seconds, however, elapse.
Thirty or more have gone by before
the vibrating roll of thunder arrives.
In lightning which really strikes near
the crash of thunder follows almost in
stantly on the flash.
The keen eye and ear can distinguish
the difference between the two sorts,
and thus apply intelligence to the calm
ing of the intrepidation which comes to
even the most sophisticated during a
real thunderstorm.
It Is almost Impossible to know who
fears, and who does not, the genuine
i 1
butter of a Summer itorm, for not every
| one telle the truth In thle matter more
than in many others.
One who persists in stating that he is
not at all afraid of thunder and
lightning ought to keep In mind just
what he is saying. The history of the
race reveals a long fear. It was only a
little leas than 2,000 years ago that one
of the moat distinguished Romans wrote
a long philosophical poem to prove,
among many other things, that man had
nothing to fear from lightning.
More thousands of years which had
preceded him told mankind that It had
a great deal to be afraid of; the basic
fear is a real one, even today, based on
science, rather than religion.
We know the tremendous voltages in
volved, we have a right to be appre
hensive.
* * * *
Perhaps the best basic protection the
timid may take is to shut every window
and door in the house during a storm.
There seems to be no reasonable doubt
that the tendency of these mighty
charges of electricity is to follow a cur
rent of air after they get within strik
ing distance, as it might be called, of
the earth.
Not too many years ago a man was
picked off at his front door while watch
ing a storm.
Many have not forgotten this hap
pening. and it is a good thing to keep
in mind, because it points a good lesson
in storm conduct.
Don't stand in an open door, or sit at
an open window, during a Summer
thunderstorm.
Mostly they are over shortly, and even
though the house seems and is very hot,
for* the Hma kalnsr 4*■ 1 m
close all doors and windows before the
storm breaks.
Aside from this simple precaution
there is very little any one can do about
a thunderstorm, although there are cer
tain petty reliefs afforded the mind by
observing certain traditional precau
tions.
One of these is not to hold a metal
object during the storm. There is prob
ably not much in this, but if it is sooth
ing to the mind it will do a great deal
to help the storm-conscious person to
weather through.
That old one about sitting on a
feather bed Is mostly hokum, but here,
too, if such a position helps the mind, it
is all gain and little loss.
Pulling down the shades, so that the
flashes cannot be seen so well, is very
helpful to sensitive people.
Just why any one wants to run a
radio, with the crashes of static, is
something that will remain a mystery,
but there can be no doubt that if the
mind is occupied some of the fear will
be crowded out.
‘‘Not enough sense to come in out of
the rain”—an old country saying, that,
and a good one, with probable reference
mainly to thunderstorms. The danger
of being under a tree struck by lightning
is evident; not every one knows that a
man, being the highest place in a field,
Is just as likely to be struck.
There are three good things about a
thunderstorm—it clears and cools the
air. it gives all plant life a good drink,
l and it usually is over quickly.
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
This bit of etymology isn't In the dic
tionary. but Dr. C. X. A. Winslow of
Yale University, who lectured here the
other night, dug it up somewhere. It
explains the origin of the word “quack."
Columbus’ sailors, it appears, picked
up various maladies in Cuba. When
they got back to Europe a disease spread
over the continent like black spot
through a rose garden. Among the doc
tors who studied it was one Bombastus
Paraceleus. He treated it with mercury
—or “quicksilver,’’ or in the German dia
lect of the doctor, "quack salber.”
Paraceleus was right. But the ortho
dox medical profession of renaissance
Germany hated him for disturbing the
routine of their ways. They referred to
him and his students contemptuously
as "quack salbers,” or “quacks.”
Hence the term came to be applied to
anybody operating under false preten
sions—especially to medical men.
Paraceleus often was right, but he
was one of history’s biggest swelled
heads. He went out of his way to make
himself obnoxious to his fellow doctors.
All the medicine of the past, he loudly
proclaimed, was “bunk” and all who
practised it were asses. In this way he
provided another word to both the
English and German languages. His
first name, Bombastus, passed into the
dictionaries as “bombast.”
Paraceleus was a combination of
genius and fool. His method af diag
nosis was to draw the patient’s horo
scope. He was very successful, made a
lot of money, and drank himself to
death. Now historians are coming to
regard him as the father of experi
mental medicine.
* * * *
This Paraceleus had been a wild young
fellow, got into trouble at the university
where he was a medical student, and
for some years lived the life of a tramp.
He wandered about with the ragged
hordes of beggars that infested the
country. Sometimes he was Impressed
into one or another of the armies. Al
together a pretty useless sort of fellow
—but all the time gathering from the
hobo ‘Jungles” and army bivouacs
something that was to have a far
reaching effect on history.
For without benefit of Oaten and the
others, these outcasts of society were
managing to live under quite adverse
circumstances, and their like had been
living successfully since mankind came
on earth. Their folk medicine—some of
it—was much better than the medicine
of the doctors.
This was what sunk into the mind of
Paraceleus. Medical tradition was,
after all, "the bunk.” The fact that
something worked was more Important
than whether or no it conformed to tra
dition. He came out of the depths, be
gan practising this kind of medicine,
and worked seeming miracles.
The orthodox doctors raved. Paraceleus
raved back. The dead weight of cen
tury-old tradition was taken from the
shoulders of medicine—and the man
primarily responsible for it left as his
monument the word “quack.”
* a * *
Another queer bit of medical history
related by Dr. Winslow, again referring
to the new disease the Indians of Cuba
so kindly donated to Columbus’ sailors.
Living in Italy was a doctor named Pra
castorlus—a quiet, scholarly man the
exact reverse of his contemporary, Par
aceleus.
He also studied the disease, got it all
wrong and recommended a useless treat
ment. But he published the first treatise
on it—a poem in three books of Latin
hexameters which is one of the classiea
of the world's UteraturA marks a high
water mark of Latin during the
renaissance, and still is compared with
Vergil and Lucretius.
Perhaps the queerest subject a great
poet ever chose for a great poem—but
the verses never cured a single case of
the disease introduced from America.
Has ever the spread of a contagion been
described so poetically as by Fracas
torius:
"Was it borne by the Western Sea. and
so came to our world at the time when
a chosen band set sail from the shores
of Spain and dared to attack the foam
and the unknown waters and search out
lands lying in a New World. Por there,
they say, that sickness held sway with
everlasting ruin through all the cities
and wandered hither and thither by
endless fault of heaven. Just as often
times when by chance a spark from a
torch which a shepherd had carelessly
left in the cornfield falls among the
stubble, it is small indeed at first and
moves with lingering pace. But before
long, increasing little by little as it
goes, it raises itself aloft and lays waste
the conquered fields, the harvest and the
neighboring woods. Its flames surging
up to the sky. Then Jove's wood where
none can walk crackles and thunders
afar, and the wide heavens around and
the plains give back the glow."
Georgia Gives a Lesson.
Prom tht New Tort Here Id Tribune.
The press in the South has very prop
erly been praising the recent trend away
from one-crop farming toward greater
diversification In that region. We here
in New York, which ranks seventh in
the value of agricultural output among
the forty-eight States, long ago learned
the importance of this lesson. It is as
old as the history of Europe—and even
of China—but still too little understood
in most sections of the United States.
The example most frequently referred
to In the South is Colquitt County, Ga.
In the peak year of 1919 its total farm
produce was valued at $3,000,000—all in
cotton. A few years ago farmers, busi
sitras iiicu anu usurers umw?o Wltn UrOV
ernment experts in a drive to diversify
Colquitt’s farm output. Last year this
was valued at $11,000,000. Particularly
striking is the fact that the value of the
cotton crop (owing, of course, in part
to disparity in price) had dropped to
only half what it was in 191$, and that
the county now produces Li live stock
twice as much as its 1919 cotton crop
and in tobacco two-thirds as much.
Various crops, including melons, pea
nuts and poultry, make up for the re
mainder.
What Colquitt County has done many
other counties can do. Even in the
richer farm lands of the Middle West
the same tenden6y can be followed ad
vantageous!:'. To be sure, the dairymen
of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota
look with disfavor on anything which
is likely to increase the production of
hay and dairy cattle extensively
throughout the South. But there is
reason to believe that this is a short
view and that, despite the increase in
diversification, in these Northern States,
there is still more of it to be done if
farming throughout the country is to be
put on a sound and enduring basis.
The more self-supporting small farms
there are in the country the greater will
be the true prosperity of the Nation as a
whole. Colquitt County has made this
lesson clear to all who have their eyas—
and their minds—open.
Temptation
Prow tb» Ohieai# OeUr Stti.
Taxes eat up so large a part of the
rich man’s dpt* when he dies that he is
tempted to fy on living lust for spite.
ANSWERS TO
QUESTIONS
RY FREDERIC J. HARRIS.
A reader can get the answer to any
fuestion of fact by writing The Evening
Star Information Bureau, Frederic J,
Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C.
Flease inclose stamp for reply.
Q Is It true that Robert Ttvlor. the
motion picture star, stammered so
badly that he Joined a speech-correction
class’—J. H.
A. He did stammer when he was three
years old, but lost this speedt defect
when he was four years old. Hi did not
attend any speech-correction data.
Q. How much did contestants in the
Old Gold advertising contest Spend for
cigarettes?—W. L.
A. it is estimated that between Feb
ruary 1 and May IS contestants spent
more than $12,000,000 for cigarettes.
Q. How many people visit Boulder
Dam in a day?—W. R.
A. On May 30 11,184 persons visited
the dam. In the period bet weep April 1
and May 31 there eras a total df 132,028
visitors.
•jr
9 When will the cup races begin?
—J. L. t
A. The America's Cup races are
scheduled to begin July II eff Nan
tucket
Q. How early was steam known as a
driving force?—E. R. H.
A. About 130 B. C. Hero g£ Alex
andria described a toy which revolved
because of escaping steam.
Q. What proportion of the mHk con
sumed in this country is pasteurized’
—B. V. C.
A. About 90 per cent.
Q. What is a lodgepole pine?—W. R. T.
A. The lodgepole pine <P. contorts >
is a slender tree, usually 70 to M feet
high. It bears yellow-green leaves and
small prickly cones. This is a common
species of pine from the valley of tha
Yukon in Alaska, southeastward through
the Rockies to New Mexico. Arison a, in
the Cascades and Sierras to Southern
California. The lodgepole pine takes
its name from its former use by the
Indians in building their tepees and
lodges. It is used for ties and for tele
phone and telegraph poles.
Q. What was the name preferred bv
the early Mormons for Utah?—H. M. •
A. Their first choice was Deseret.
Q. Did Washington consider leading
the American forces in war after he
retired from the presidency?—K. T.
A. He was asked to take chief com
mand when war with France threatened
in 1799. He refused unless Hamilton be
given command under him. War, how
ever, was averted.
Q. Did the Incas have a written
lanmianal A
A. They did not write. For records.
for computations and messages they
used knotted cords called qulpus. Small
cords with knots in them were attached
to a main cord. Special, trained of
ficers made and deciphered the qulpus.
The art is no longer known.
• _
Q. How long ago did Walter Reed,
the Army surgeon, live?—W. F.'
A. He was born in 1851 and died in
1902.
Q. What was usually embroidered on
samplers?—T. U.
A. There was a great variety of ar
rangement and design, but nearly all
samplers bore the name of the maker,
the date, the alphabet, pictures of
birds, animals and flowers, and perhaps
a house, a scriptural text or a proverb.
Usually a conventional border waa em
broidered around the edge.
Q. Has Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt
been married twice?—W. R.
A. In 1884 she was married to Leo
Chapman, whe died in 1888. In 1890
she married George William Catt, who
died in 1905.
Q. What is the other name for the
flower called Queen Anne's lace? —
W. B. C.
A. It, Is wild carrot. It is also called
lace flower, bird's nest and crow’s nest.
Q. Who is the greatest woman finan
cier of all time?—W. H.
A. Hetty Green had the reputation of
being the greatest woman financier in
the world.
Q. What does the term agio mean?
—H. W.
A. It is the rate at which the money
of one country exchanges with the
money of another country. Tha term
ia also applied to the rate at whleh *
particular kind of money, such ah gold,
exchanges with another kind of money
within the same country.
Q. Were Roman gladiators slaves or
free men?—L. P.
A. At first prisoners, slaves or con
demned criminals were used to allord
entertainment for the citizens of Rome
by feats of swordsmanship, wrestling
and other contests of strength. After
wards free men fought in the arena
and so popular did the exhibition of skill
and strength become that persona of
senatorial rank, and even women, en
rolled In the gladiator class. At one
show given by the Emperor Trajan,
5.000 gladiators were employed at one (
time.
Q. What was the name of the famous
newspaper editor who after being seiv
tenced to prison edited the prison
paper?—W. M.
A. The late Charles E. Chapin of the
New York Evening World while an In*
mate at Sing Sing edited the instltu*
tion's paper. The Star of Hope.
Q. What is the world’s largest inland
cotton market?—C. R. . t
A. Memphis, Tenn. ,
Q. Was Proebel a young man. when
he started the first kindergarten
school?—K. M.
A. Froebel was 5.1 years of age when
he opened his first kindergarten la
Blankenburg, Germany, in 1U7. ,
A Rhyme at Twilight
By
Gertrude Brooke Hamilton.
_ » •> -
The Sun Gone Down.
The day its banner of light has furled.
Shadows engulf the town.
And I whisper softly, “Quiet, World;1
Your great sun has gone down;
It Is time for your noisy marts to dose
And all of your children to know repose.
“Our daytime teaks we've met wish' d
smile. ' * " .
Our problems learned to rout.
Now in your dusk let us rest awhile
And watch your stars come out
Oh.^Fnrld, In this your quiescent Tpjfcd X
CHve ua the pause of a closing dbinr!" "
_____