Evening star. [volume], September 26, 1947, Page A-8, Image 8

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

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With Sunday Morning Edition.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
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Tb« Evening Star Newspaper Company.
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A4 *_FRIDAY, September 26, 1947
A City Program Prerequisite
A comparison of the series of* local
budget requests with Engineer Commis
sioner Young's six-year civic improvement
plan shows that, by and large, depart
ment heads have followed closely the pri
ority program suggested in that broad
study. It is evident that the various
municipal departments are seeking to give
effect to the Young plan through routine
budgeting procedures. But the staggering
grand total of these spontaneous and un
co-ordinated requests makes it clear that
the program of urgent capital improve
ments laid down in the Young report can
never be realized in six or even sixteen
years through a normal pay-as-you-go
process.
Engineer Commissioner Young’s pro
gram, as a matter of fact, has not received
the approval of Congress and hence lacks
the authority of law. Congress has pro
vided no over-all means of implementing
the program by the necessary appropria
tions. It is, however, an up-to-date
catalogue of the more imperative needs of
postwar Washington and, as such, is a
valuable guide for the budget estimators.
To attempt, however, to adhere closely
to the priority schedule recommended in
the Young report is to dump into the lap
of the Board of Commissioners a collection
of estimates far beyond the ability of the
• already overtaxed local taxpayers to sup
port. The $144,196,000 total of the current
budget requests, as compared with the
$95,500,000 appropriated for this fiscal
year, indicates the unreality of such a
piecemeal approach to the Young plan.
The evidence is becoming plainer every
day that if the Young plan is ever to be
come a reality—and especially if it is to
become a reality within a reasonable span
of years—some special means of financing
It, apart from the annual balanced budget
,eystem, must be found. The alternative
to paying as you go is to borrow what is
urgently needed and pay off the debt In
budgeted installments. The District has
borrowed before and has paid off its obli
gations. The time has come to borrow
again, so that the improvements regarded
as immediately necessary to the public wel
fare can be started today. This is a
priority that overrides all other priorities
i of the municipal improvement program to
be presented to Congress.
Italy's Colonies
Issuance of invitations by the British
Foreign Office to a conference in London
on the future of the Italian colonies fo
cusses attention on another thorny prob
lem of the postwar settlement. The invited
poyers are the United States, France and
the Soviet Union. The first two have
prd-mptly accepted for the suggested date,
September 30. Although no reply has yet
been received from Moscow, the supposi
tion is that the Soviet government will not
find it in its own interest to absent itself
from the discussions.
This is not the first time the question of
the Italian colonies has been raised. The
first occasion was just a year ago, during
the first meeting of the Council of Foreign
Ministers in London. On that occasion,
Soviet Russia threw a diplomatic bomb
shell into the conference by demanding a
Soviet mandate for Tripolitania—some
thing absolutely unacceptable to the other
participants.
Since that preliminary impasse, the
question of the Italian colonies has been
laid on the shelf, with Britain remaining
in possession of all the colonies in Africa
' as a result of their wartime conquest by
British arms. However, the recently rati
fied peace treaty with Italy provides that
Italy's colonies should be definitely dis
posed of within a year of ratification,
which means on or before September 15,
1948. The British government appears to
be taking time by the forelock in starting
the discussions at an early moment.
Italy’s colonial empire was considerable.
Its first acquisitions occurred not long after
lie dlloinmAnl n# noHnnol nnll« in 1 Q*7fi
These were Eritrea, on the African side of
the Red Sea, and a belt of territory on the
African coast facing the Indian bcean,
known as Italian Somaliland. An attempt
was soon made to enlarge these bits into
an East African empire by the subjugation
of Abyssinia or Ethiopia, the ancient Chris
tian kingdom which lay between them.
However, this attempt ended disastrously,
and Italy tried no further empire building
until its war of frank aggression against
the decadent Ottoman Empire in 1911,
which resulted in Italy’s acquisition of the
enormous but barren Turkish dependency
of Tripoli (rechristened Lybia), lying be
tween Egypt and Tunis on Africa’s Med
iterranean coast, plus a group of highly
strategic islands off Asia Minor. Mussolini
carried Italy’s empire building to a pre
carious climax by his conquest of Ethiopia
in 1935 and his protectorate over Albania
on the eve of World War II. All this
imposing edifice soon crashed to ruin in
consequence of Mussolini's rash entry into
the war on Hitler’s side* after the latter’s
Conquest of France in June, (1940.
It is generally conceded that the Aegean
Islands off Asia Minor shall go to Greece,
and of course the Albanians are free of
Italian dominance. The real problem is
' the disposition of Italy's African colonies.
Ithiopia has put in a strong bid for Eritrea
and Somaliland, which would give it ample
access to the sea and end its long isolation
from the outer world, although British in
terests must be. taken into account and
Egypt has expressed concern over Eritrea,
which abuts on the Sudan.
However, the biggest contention arises
over Lybia. The natives of that country,
all Arabs, were oppressed by the Italians
and have been given assurances by the
British that on no account would they be
handed back to Italian rule. What the
Lybian Arabs want is independence and
membership in the Arab League, which
strongly supports their claims. This how
ever, raises the strong opposition of France,
solicitous about pan-Arab agitation in its
North African dependencies. Britain
presumably would like to retain control
over Lybia. Both powers, plus the United
States, strongly oppose Russian claims to
a mandate, which might open up all
Africa to Communist penetration.
The Food Emergency
President Truman’s statement and the
report of his Cabinet Committee on World
Food Programs leave no room for doubt
that the problem of hunger abroad is even
worse now than last year. They make
clear, moreover, that the most important
single measure to be taken in meeting it is
that the American people resort to a vol
untary “conservation” campaign under
which all of us w'ould make a particular
point of being “more selective” in buying
key foodstuffs, especially meat. Stated in
simpler words, what is needed is that we
eat things like choice beef a bit less fre
quently.
Many an American, psychologically,
worn down by more than two years of post
war emergencies, may be prone to resist
such an idea. Yet the fact is that we are
at a point where self-restraint in our eat
ing habits during the weeks immediately
ahead will be synonymous with the self
interest of every one of us. Humanl
tarianism aside—and this Nation would be
violating one of its finest traditions if it
neglected that—economic and political sta
bility abroad has a direct bearing on our
own well being, but it cannot be built on a
foundation of widespread hunger. Ac
cordingly, to the extent that we act to
prevent such hunger, we shall be serving
ourselves. Over and above that, if we do
not act affirmatively, our currently in
flated food prices will almost certainly go
higher and higher!
The situation is bad today for several
reasons. First, storms, drought, early
frost and other harsh acts of nature have
hit overseas harvests so hard that the
food-deficit countries are substantially
worse off than they were a year ago.
Second, while the demand abroad thus has
grown greater, adverse crop developments
in North America have decreased supplies
in the surplus-producing countries—
notably our supply of corn. Third, our
wheat has not suffered, but with our corn
short and its price very high, farmers will
be strongly tempted to feed more wheat
to livestock, instead of making it available
to humans in dire need of it. And fourth,
unless we reduce our extraordinary con
sumption of choice beef and the like, the
farmers' temptation will be harder than
ever to resist, and the combined domestic
and foreign demand for grain will be so
great that the hunger menace will be in
adequately met, and there will be more
ninauon in our own country.
The problem, of course, calls for more
than self-rationing in relatively abundant
America. It calls for the full co-operation
of all nations, the needy and the surplus
producing ones alike. It may call, too, for
legislative action to limit the use of grain
by millers, brewers, etc.—a possibility the
President will discuss at his Monday emer
gency meeting with congressional leaders
to weigh the advisability of a special ses
sion of Congress on stop-gap aid to cope
with the over-all European situation,
which involves more than a critical food
shortage. But both he and his cabinet com
mittee have emphasized that the immedi
ate need is for a national conservation
program designed to satisfy minimum
foreign requirements and "at the same
time relieve the upward pressure of prices
at home.”
Since the revival of OPA seems admin
istratively and politically out of the ques
tion, any effort at conservation will have
to be carried out on a voluntary basis along
lines to be defined by the President’*
newly appointed Citizens’ Food Commit
tee. What is necessary, above all, is a
Nation-wide realization that the situation
abroad is urgent and that the individual
American has only to curb his appetite a
trifle to save lives and serve his own best
interests. The task of leadership now is
to drive that point home to every one.
Tension Over Trieste
There appears to be a connection, as
indubitable as it is nminmis Hptwper*
Nikola Petkov’s execution and the fresh
provocations against our troops and au
thority in Trieste. The Communist-domi
nated regimes in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia
seem to be vying with each other in
arrogant defiance of the United States.
There can be no reasonable doubt that
this parallel conduct is not accidental but
forms part of a pattern inspired by Mos
cow.
The current kidnaping of an American
patrol along the border of the newly
created Free State of Trieste by Yugoslav
troops is merely the latest of similar
outrages committed against American and
British soldiers. Although the victims have
ultimately been released after protests by
the Allied authorities, the Yugoslav gov
ernment has in no case offered a satisfac
tory explanation or adequate apology.
While these kidnaping incidents may be
classified as “pinpricks,” they are com
pounded by mounting Incidents of a
potentially graver character within Trieste
itself. The workability of the Free State
arrangement set up by the United Nations
is being sabotaged by Soviet Russia’s
refusal to agree to any candidate for
governor whom America and Britain could
approve. The result of that obstruction
is that the Anglo-American occupational
authority has been extended informally,
with attendant perpetuation of uncer
tainty and unrest. That unrest, in turn,
is being deliberately aggravated by the
local Communist element, which has called
a series of labor walkouts culminating in
a “general strike.” The dual aim of these
tactics is clearly to paralyze Trieste's eco
nomic life and flout the authority of the
* ).
occupation:.' minorities at one and the
same time. Furthermore, this tension over
Trieste concurs with similar Yugoslav
provocations along the adjacent new
border with Italy.
All this logically raises the question how
much longer we can maintain technically
amicable diplomatic relations with regimes
so obviously bent on flouting us and dis
crediting us in the eyes of their own people
and of other European nations. Unless
this provocative trend is reversed, the
moment must surely come when more posi
tive action will have to be taken than
protests “for the record.” The State De
partment has just suggested as much in
a new protest warning the Tito regime
that its “irresponsible actions” are “ex
ceedingly dangerous” and likely to lead
to “most serious consequences” unless
stopped.
A War Reminder
The Japanese mines washed ashore near
Fort Pierce, Florida, by the hurricane are
a grim reminder of the dark days when
enemy submarines roamed the Atlantic
Ocean, sinking ships and strewing mines
in stealthy forays in American waters.
And they confirm predictions of naval
authorities that antishipping mines,
strewn by Allied and Axis submarines,
surface ships and planes in mahy seas
during World War II, will remain a menace
to shipping for years to come.
The finding of Japanese mines in the
Atlantic may be accounted for by the fact
that some Japanese submarines are known
' to have ventured into those waters. Two
such vessels were destroyed in the Atlantic
by United States antisubmarine forces in
the spring of 1944. They were the RO-501,
sunk by a destroyer on May 13 of that
year, and the 1-52, a large experimental
fleet submarine, sunk by carrier planes
on June 24. Either might have been used
for mine-laying purposes.
Ever since the close of the war mines
have been tossed ashore in various parts
of the world by storms and tides, despite
the far-ranging mine-sweeping operations
which have been going on steadily in the
Atlantic and Pacific areas. The mine
clearance work is being done under the
general supervision of the International
Mine Clearance Authority in London. Each
nation has the responsibility for sweeping
its own waters, although the bulk of the
job in the Pacific has been done by the
United States Navy. All principal ports
and channels now have been swept,
although an occasional overlooked mine,
broken loose from its moorings, appears
in shipping lanes. The hunt for mines
continues especially in European and
Mediterranean waters, where mine war
fare reached its apex.
To locate and destroy every one of the
hundreds of thousands of mines laid dur
ing the war is an impossibility. Drifters
and hidden mines will imperil ships prob
ably for another decade. By that time
most of the mines should have deteriorated
until they no longer are dangerous. Until
then, however, mariners will remain wary
of strange objects seen afloat at sea.
The urban population is aghast to learn
that unfavorable weather leads to a scar
city of groceries. Always, the true city
denizen has felt that food is found, not
raised.
This and That
By Charles E. Tracewell
"CHEVY CHASE, Md.
"Dear Sir:
"I recently witnessed a dramatic three-way
battle in my back yard. The participants were
a golden garden spider, some yellow jackets
and a redbird.
"One day there appeared in a shady corner
of our garden a vertical, orb-shaped spider's
web. At the center of it was the female spider,
her yellow back markings contrasting with her
brown legs, waiting head down for visitors.
"One Sunday afternoon I noticed a number
of yellow jackets buzzing angrily around the
yard in the vicinity of the web. As I ap
proached I could see that the wreb was the
center of the disturbance.
"Before long one of the yellow jackets flew
close to the spider, flitted away, flew through
the web once, and then returned, becoming
momentarily entangled. Before he could free
himself, the spider had scuttled over and cov
ered him with a network of heavy, white
threads. The yellow jacket, completely en
meshed, ceased his struggles as the spider
clamped her jaws on him, and a moment later
the spider returned to the center of the web,
leaving her victim still and lifeless, suspended
cocoon-llke In his white shroud.
"This process was repeated time and time
again, and when a shower dispelled the
swarms of insects, 10 of their number had
been caught.
"The next morning I looked to see if the
battle had been resumed—but now a female
cardinal was flitting about the wtb, and I
was just In time to see her fly directly at the
spider and take it in her bill.
"The bird hopped about in the bushes for a
minute, and I could hear the crunch of the
spider’s shell as the cardinal’s meal was com
pleted.
"As she flew away across the yard the re
mains of the spider’s web trailed after, and
ensnared in it were a few twigs and leaves, as
well as the bodies of the 10 nisects which had
perished. "Sincerely yours. H. M. B., jr.”
, * * * *
"So pass the glories of this world away."
Man has been killing other living things for
lciiilu iea, mm jiow, not sausnea, ne is getting
ready to do a bit of mass killing on himself!
Unless he comes to his senses, he will find
himself no better ofT, in the end, than the
cruel garden spider, and the equally cruel
cardinal, and the buzzing yellow jackets.
Somehow, in the foregoing tale, the poor
yellow jackets are our heroes, if any heroes can
emerge from such stark tragedy.
Let us turn to the contemplation of the yel
low garden spider.
We had the pleasure of seeing one of these
the other day, perched between the leaves of a
marigold plant in a pot.
That pot and all it contained was the spider's
little world, which could be transported from
neighbor to neighbor, as was done.
The spider, a perfect match for the flowers,
did not mind in the least, just as long as the
web was not touched.
The body was almost round, and made such
a match for the flower petals that newcomers,
looking at the group, were unable at first to
spot the spider.
When they saw it. finally, there was always a
slight gasp of surprise.
* * * *
“ALEXANDRIA, Va.
“Dear Sir:
“Your interesting writings on birds and small
animals are most enjoyable. We moved lip
from Atlanta last November and I have been
so happy to find many wildbirds here that I
knew only through pictures in my native North
Georgia. Maybe I just didn’t look in the right
places there, or at the right time.
"You must possess a wonderfully kind
nature, for you always look for the good traits
in even the lowliest Insect. You make the
wild creatures of all kinds sound almost
human, and I feel sure they are more like us
than we suspect.
“Thanks for championing the common spar
row. street, urchin that he is, his personality
is unsurpassed. "Sincerely, R. T. B."
Letters to The Star
wny v^rime i^eveiops
Ts tht Editor of The Star:
I wonder If the fact that Washington is one
of the worst crime spots in the country could
have anything to do with its lack of recrea
tional ^facilities and wholesome outlet for peo
ple's energies? Also, could it be because when
many people are forced to live in crowded,
unwholesome, abnormal conditions they nat
urally become unwholesome and abnormal?
When are legislators going to have the simple
common sense to spend less money on million
dollar marble memorials and buildings and
more on bettering human living? As for sex
criminals, the only thing to marvel at is there
aren't more! Everywhere we look our senses
are deluged with sex-stimulating pictures and
literature. Why don’t our lawmakers do some
preventive work by making these illegal? Why
don’t our educators (both formal and informal)
present the beautiful and normal approach to
sex, as an antidote for the abnormal one?
J. M.
Franklin Park Forum
To the Editor of The SUi:
The social ingredients that flavor a metrop
olis range from the fashionable to the squalid.
If the former is more publicized it is not always
because it is more significant or colorful. The
preference, we
suspect, is gov
emeu Dy a
squeamish re
gard for con
vention. For
tunately, ob
servers of dis
tinction have
not seldom ig
nored the well
dressed bar
barians of the boulevards to concentrate atten
tion upon the life of the purlieus. A recent
example is provided by the scholarly critic,
Edmund Wilson, in his memoirs of "A Roman
Summer,” which appear in the current num
ber of Horizon. The forlorn grandeur of the
Eternal City is only a minor lament in his
moving 'description of the ubiquitous black
market and brothels which animate its ghastly
decay.
Similarly, albeit on a more wholesome scale,
London is not less interesting for its Hyde
Park, nor New York for its Union Square, nor
Chicago for its Newberry, or Bughouse Square.
But a tomblike obscurity envelops Washing
ton’s recent achievement of parallel stature
with the hectic flowering of free speech in
Franklin Park.. Our refrigerated mausoleums
of art, our frightfully austere auditoriums al
ways command a good press; a press almost
unctuous in its deference to these monuments
Letters for publication must bear
the signature and address of the
writer, although it is permissible for a
writer known to The Star to use a
nom de plume. Please be brief.
our country now stands, so weak in concerted
efforts that we cannot cope effectively with
thjs hideous menace? Honorable behavior as
regards patriotism is quite as important in
every citizen as in the Federal employe.
The Taft-Hartley Act does not go far enough.
It should require that no union be permitted
to exist unless none of its officers and mem
bers are Communists—a condition to which all
individuals concerned should be made to swear.
Such oaths of course would mean nothing to
the malefactors but would offer a basis upon
which to rest action for perjury. Are we sure
that even now there does not exist a clan
destine communistic army in this country as
in France and Italy, with appointed mobiliza
tion centers and caches of arms? Must we
look to Turkey which was reported to have
rooted out this scourge, to show us how to
oust these traitorous elements from our com
monwealth? Must we suffer a red militia
to run riot in this country as in Italy? How,
for instance, would Russia handle such a
situation? How long do you think anything
contrary to the Moscow ideology would last
there? We want no police state but our only
salvation is going to depend upon a severe
policing of the Communists here. We are,
in fact, already in an undeclared war with an
implacable foe whose avowed intention is to
extirpate us from the face of the earth, and
yet we remain supine in the face of this
momentous danger.
Possibly we before long w'ill awaken to find
that the dollars we now so freely pour into
Europe—contrary, I believe, to constitutional
authority—have .deprived us of the power to
prepare adequate stockpiles of war materials
or sufficient armament to protect ourselves in
the coming Armageddon. If such results of
our generosity occur, will we not then con
clude that we have condemned all the world
to misery, including ourselves, through our
shortsightedness? GEORGE H. MORSE.
so caviare to the general. But who knows, or
cares, about such a poor relation as Franklin
Park? The zestful meeting of minds that goes
on there, from midday until way past midnight
on Sunday, is a refreshing relief from the boiled
shirt oracles who dispense culture with a cap
ital C under more exclusive auspices.
The transient visitor will be entertained, if
not instructed, by the park's advocates of faith,
hope and rhetoric. He will hear. In accents
redolent of John Bunyan, of the coming of the
Kingdom of God on earth, and that life here is
but the tedious delay of an expected felicity.
From others, the sheltered and complacent will
learn that there are problems not yet solved by
democratic societies; or that our own social
structure is, strange to say, still less than
perfect.
Like some journalists, Franklin Park's cham
pions of religion, science and heathenism oc
casionally disdain to curb their imaginations
for the sake of mere accuracy. Others discourse
with a learning and judgment nostalgic of
those calm heights where the intellect sits en
throned. Unwary philosophers, boasting ex
pensive academic pedigrees, have been known
to pause for a brief encounter only to retreat
in confusion and dismay. William Green,
president of the A. F. of L., who lives nearby,
is not a rare spectator. Some of us wonder if
he isn’t sampling the latest ideological novel
ties among the proletariat, conformist and
dissident?
Nor is the level of oratory in our park always
lush or vulgar. Frequently it is inspired with a
cadence worthy of a less ephemeral recording.
Last Sunday we were delighted by the soulburst
of one who declaimed: ‘‘In this war-wounded
and tormented world, a world in which even the
nightingale must sing with a throb of pain, we
all of us at times feel desolate and dreadfully
alone. From the agony of such circumstances
• • *” Alas, the discussions are not always so
mellifluous, mounting at times*to an apoplectic
pitch. Wasn’t it the wise Plato who, reflecting
on his own open air discourses, observed that
political arguments are a sure way to shorten
life?
For better or for worse, Mr. Editor, our age is
committed to the social climate of the masses.
So give a plug for the boys and girls of
Franklin! „
JULIUS DAVIDSON.
Test for Christian Nations
To the Editor of The Star: ,
The hopes and prayers of war-exhausted
mankind are focused on the General Assembly
Deplores Brutal Sports
To the Editor of The Star:
I want to express my entire agreement with
every word of Miriam S. Lampton's letter in
your Issue of September 11, under the heading ;
“Her Sympathies Are With the Bull.” In
reading the ac
count of Man
uel Rodriguez’s
death, my
mental com
ment was that
he got a dose
of his own
medicine,
which served
him right. We
read of heroic
toreadors bravely defending themselves against
being gored by infuriated bulls, but honestly
now wouldn’t you feel like goring a tormenter
who was sticking knives into your quivering
flesh for no reason except his own amusement?
And I also agree most heartily with Carl W.
Rednam’s suggestion, in his letter of Septem
ber 18, that the writer in question should turn
her attention also to some of our own cruel
sports, including prize* rings “where a couple
of guys undertake to beat each other into in
sensibility for the enjoyment of the assembled
and hysterical multitude.” Brutal sports in
our Nation and in other countries should be
discouraged by every means possible, and in
this, many readers would like to see our Star
take the lead.
GERTRUDE E. MACKENZIE.
Prophecies and Their Interpretation
To the Editor of The Star:
I wish that every thinking person in this
world would read your editorial, “At the End
of Our Tether?”
The words of Jesus Christ grow mightier by
the day in this atomic age. Let us again peruse
them. In Chapter 24, 15th verse of St. Matthew:
“When ye therefore *fcall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let
him understand).”
T f Iho otnmln hnmh hopfovinlAn-ionl ii'o vfnvn
oi tne united Nations. Here the healing teach
ings of Jesus confront cynical atheists of
communism men who openly mock God and
persecute truth and human freedom and
Christianity’s derisive aggressors. Terror,
treachery, slavery are their ruthless weapons.
Opposing these berserk outlaws is a trusted
soldier and statesman who champions the
Christian community of nations’ sincere as
pirations for peace. He braves their calculated
bullying and rowdyism without the police pow
ers lawless gangsters most fear. We alone truly
have disarmed and renounced military might
as the final arbiter of right.
Yet it is within our power to arm Secretary
Marshall with a weapon that will defeat the
devilish purpose of these evil men who mock
God. That weapon is food for the starving
and dependable ways and means to produce
and distribute it more abundantly.
Twenty centuries after the sacrificial death
of Jesus a hate-torn world sees the practical
wisdom of His formula for peace. It is “feed
the hungry.” We realize this when we recall
God's indictment against men and nations in
the last judgment. The damned are those who
fail to feed the hungry, clothe the naked or
to minister to those sick or in prison. Sharing
our food with the hungry is the first moral
law of practical Christianity. It is the only
realistic method w’hereby we can beat swords
into ploughshares.
The victorious sword repeatedly has failed
us. Either we feed the hungry or the cynical
atheists of communism will declare we are a
Christian nation In name only. Let our col
lective ingenuity contrive to feed the hungry
so that we will be on God’s right side on that
solemn day of final judgment.
THOMAS E. MATTINGLY, M. D.
Wants Sterner Resistance to Reds
To ;tte Editor nt The Star:
I ask you, in the name of all that is rational,
since we must now screen out the Communists
from our Federal service, by what logic do we
continue to permit them to execute here orders
originating in Moscow, engage in subversive
propaganda under our very noses, run schools,
print and distribute literature, operate movies
and engage in radio broadcasting, all with
the basic intent of disrupting our constitu
tional way of life? Are we so naive, so lacking
in comprehension of the jeopardy in which
r t
t
and the other modern arts and devices of hell
do not constitute "the abomination of desola
tion,” then the meaning of that phrase is too
profound for humanity’s understanding. (Sher
man didn’t see anything.)
Again, these are His words: "But of that day
and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels
of Heaven, but My Father only.” However, we
can know when events are buildnig up to that
day of God Almighty, for, consider these words:
"Now, learn a parable of the fig tree; when his
branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves,
ye know that summer is nigh.”
The atomic bomb is referred to also in Reve
lations, chapter 13: "And He doeth great won- j
ders so that He maketh fire come down from \
Heaven on the earth in the sight of men.”
This is the second beast, servant unto the first
beast, which is war, violence, human conflict.
In the last years, when the human race is
using the last of the rope given to it by the
Creator, science will become degraded in the
hands of an atheistic nation, with “the feet
of a bear.” Science has always seemed benign,
"like a lamb.” But in those days, not too far
off, it will "speak as a dragon.” The first beast
rises up out of the sea. The sea (waters in
Chapter 17) are "people and multitudes and
nations and tongues.” The second beast comes
up out of the earth, the source of uranium,
plutonium, steel, petroleum and all the muscles
and sinews of war. A degraded science is the
"second beast.”
« L. S.
Terrorism Is No Solution
To the Editor of The Star:
Miss Dorothy Thompson's column regarding
the Stern gang and the questions she asks are
both penetrating and thought-provoking. I
recommend it to those who have not read it.
I am a naturalized citizen of the United
States. When I took the path of citizenship, I
forcolro 1 mro 1 ftr to otVior or onrl
my ancestral groups. I pledged myself to abide
by the laws of the United States. Rabbi Baruch
KorfT, accused of plotting to bomb London, took
the same oath of citizenship to forsake loyalty
to others and to abide by the laws of the United
States which, among other things, stipulate that
decisions regarding military action against a
foreign government are the exclusive function
of the United States Congress.
It is not the duty of a United States citizen
to go abroad to engage in plots against other
nations, thus creating discord between .others
and ourselves. Such conduct becomes more
reprehensible when we realize that Rabbi KorfT
and his "Political Action Committee” represent
an organization which the vast majority of the
Jews themselves regard as terrorists. When
Rabbi KorfT took the oath of American citizen
ship, he should have realized what principles
that citizenship involved. Terrorism and Amer
icanism simply do not go together.
If naturalized and native-born citizens of
the United States should Jollow_Rabbi Korfl's
example and take the law into their own hands
to support their racial, religious or ancestral
groups in other countries, we would get into
trouble with every nation in the world. Ours
would then be an anarchy and the United
States Government, as we know it, would cease
to exist. WORLD WAR II VETERAN.
/
Sea's 'False Bottom' Due
To Jet-Propelled Squid
Findings of Antarctic Expedition
Support Scientists’ Hypothesis
By 7 homas R. Henry
The seas “phantom bottom," which rises
at sunset and sinks at sunrise, probably is
due to great hosts of Jet-propelled squid ex
tremely sensitive to light.
This hypothesis is supported by findings of
the Navy’s Antarctic Expedition last winter
v<hich took thousands of sonic depth measure
ments in the far southern ocean where, It Is
known, there is a very large squid population
forming a large item in the diet of sperm
whales.
The ocean’s false bottom, which has led to
numerous mistakes on navigational chart® In
the past, was discovered by Navy scientists
during the war but the finding Immediately
became a top secret because it involved im
portant underwater sound experiments. When
the sonic depth finder, which determined sea
depths by the time taken for the return of
echoes, is used a bottom often is found at
night at depths of about 2,000 feet in water
supposedly about 10.000 feet deep. Such bot
toms have been recorded as “shoals." tops of
undersea mountains, etc. The curious fact
was that they always were recorded after sun
set, never in full daylight.
Records Now Under Study.
Thus, it was assumed, they must be due to
some enormous mass of solid material which
rose and sank with variations in light. In
the Navy expedition soundings the false bot
tom phenomenon disappeared completely when
the ships entered the region of perpetual day
early last January. The records now are being
studied at the Navy Hydrographic Office.
In Antarctic seas, it is explained, there are
two super-abundant forms of life which are
well-known and which make these waters the
earths richest pastures for marine life. One
of these life-swarms is composed of diatoms
almost invisibly minute, glass-shelled, one-’
celled plants which exist in countless quadril
lions. They, in turn, form the chief food of
tiny red crustaceans, the krill, which occur in
vast fields, coloring many square miles of wa
ter blood-red. These are the chief food of
sperm whales.
But both these forms of life are essentially
without means of self propulsion. They float
passively with the" currents and seem to occur
in equal abundance night and day. They seem
to have no particular aversion to sunlight.
Adapted To Twilight.
Fish, while plentiful, do not occur in large
schools such as would constitute solid masses
capable of returning sound echoes over a con
siderable area. But, Hydrographic Office sci
entists point out, the squid and closely related
smaller octopuses, fit nicely into the pipture.
It is known that whales, seals and penguin feed
on them. They are creatures adapted through
millions of generations to life in the darkness
or perpetual twilight of abysmal depths and It
is quite likely that even mild light is painful
to them.
Besides they have a mechanism for moving
up and down very rapidly. Their ancestors,
about 400,000,000 years ago were the original
inventors of jet propulsion and this has been
improved by the squid family ever since. They
could descend a mile or so In a very few min
utes. Also, they are known to exist in large
schools. Perhaps the flight from light is a
means of escape from animals which hunt in
t.hp riavtfma
Actually very little is known of the gquld
population of the Antarctic since few scientific
specimens have been recovered. But this would
have been expected if they spend all daylight
hours at great depths.
The “phantom bottom’’ now has been re
ported over most of the world, and squid art
distributed through all the oceans.
Questions and Answers
Please inclose 3 cent* for return postage.'
By THE HASKIN SERVICE.
Q; Is there any record of the first baptism
performed by the English in this country?—
D. C.
A. According to American Guide Series Book
for North Carolina, the first baptism performed
by English-speaking people in the New World
took place on Roanoke Island on August 13,
1587. The convert was the Indian Manteo. and
his baptism was followed a W'eek later by that
of the infant Virginia Dare. L
Q. Does the sugar beet differ from the ordi
nary beet used as a vegetable?—B. P. O.
A. Sugar beets resemble giant, silverv white
parsnips, quite unlike the dark red beets used
as a table vegetable.
Q. Were most of the colonial homes painted
white?—L. L.
A. House paint was an innovation of the 18th
century. White was probably not much used In’
this country before 1800. The outer walks, when
painted at all, were red, yellow or gray. An 18th
century house was colorful and cheerful.
Q. Who is the youngest man ever to be ap
pointed Chief of Staff?—G. R. A.
A. Gen. Douglas MacArthur. He was ap
pointed Chief of Staff in 1930 at the age of 50.
Q. Can telephone conversation be carried
over electric power wires ?-*-C. T. R.
A. Seven experimental power-line carrier
systems for telephone communication have
been installed in various sections of the coun
try. Operation of these will be studied for some
time before large-scale installations are made.
Q. Is the use of aluminum for cooking uten
sils prohibited in European countries?—D. R. H.
A. The Department of Commerce says that
the sale or use of aluminum for cooking pur
rvirOC ic r r\t In Fiivnnnnn ..
Q. What happened to a resolution once In
troduced in Congress to impeach Andrew Mel
lon. then Secretary of the Treasury?— N. S. N.
A. Representative Patman introduced a
resolution to impeach Andrew Mellon on Jan
uary 7, 1932. It was charged that he used
official influence to negotiate a concession for
the Colombian Petroleum Co. The House
Judiciary Committee studied the charges, but
the inquiry was dropped about February 11. In
the meantime, Mr. Mellon had been appointed
Ambasador to Great Britain, and the appoint
ment had been confirmed
Q. Is Campobello Island in the United State* /
or in Canada?—P. L. E. 1
A. Campobello Island is an island of New
Brunswick, Canada, near Eastport, Me.
A House Is Building
A house is building straight across from
mine.
' They put the shingles on the roof today.
I sighed to watch them cut the gray scrub
pine
And long, green grasses salt winds used
to sway.
That field it was afforded me my view
Across the valley and far out to sea—
But now, I thought, in this inglorious way,
An ugly house would shut it off from me.
Such were my fears before I’d seen the
pair—
(Soon to be three!) who’ll be my neigh
bors when
That little house is finished over there.
I’d not be wanting just a field again.
My only problem, these days, is to think
Whether to make a crib robe blue—or
pink. VIOLET ALLEYN STOREY.
1
I