Evening star. [volume], June 30, 1948, Page A-12, Image 12

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

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With Sunday Morning Edition.
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A—12 « WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1»4<
'Realistic' Local Budgeting
The District closes its books on the fiscal
year 1948 at midnight. Money for the fiscal
year 1949, which begins tomorrow, has been
appropriated. By using its invested re
serves the District will have the funds to
pay for those appropriations. Within two
weeks or so the department heads will
begin submitting preliminary estimates for
the fiscal year 1950, which begins a year
hence.
It is that fiscal year, 1950, which presents
unusual problems for the budget officers.
If the District budget presented to Con
gress next January is kept to the level of
appropriations for 1949, we shall be about
19,000,000 shy of making both ends meet.
If Congress decides in January to grant the
cost-of-living Increases to District employes
authorized for the Federal employes on the
elosing day of the past session, this deficit
will be Increased. And if Congress does
what equity demands, and the local pay
Increases are made retroactive to July 1
of this year, there will be a deficit not
only for 1950 but one for the fiscal year
1949.
That Is the background against which
the Commissioners have requested the de
partment heads to be “realistic” in the
estimates they will submit in July and
August. Budgeting custom in the past has
not been altogether realistic. Last year,
for example, the department heads re
quested items totaling about $140,000,000.
The Commissioners cut these to $101,000,
000, recommending a sales tax to make up
a $6,000,000 deficit. When the sales tax was
blocked, further reductions were necessary
and invested savings were thrown into the
pot, to balance the budget.
We are still without the sales tax. The
Invested reserves are all committed. An
other unbalanced budget, calling for more
money than we are raising by taxation,
will be submitted,tp Congress in January.
That means a postponement of all im
provements, reduction, wherever it is pos
sible, in operating expenses and a policy
of asking for no new positions. That sort
of realism will cause no immediate harm.
It could produce helpful results In elimi
nating non-essentials.
But we can have no realistic budgeting
for the District that fails to take note of
needed school construction and the mod
ernizing of our health and welfare institu
tions. The forthcoming budget estimates
probably will be unrealistic in that sense.
A sales tax. to be enacted as soon as
possible in the new session of Congress
and a program of Government construction
loans, repayable in annual installments,
are two essential parts of any realistic
local budgeting.
The Greek Kidnapings
Another Communist violation of what
our own State Department calls ‘ the
accepted standards of International con
duct” appears to be incontrovertibly
established. This is the wholesale kidnap
ing of Greek children by the Communist
insurgents in that country and their
removal to other Communist-dominated
lands as far away as Hungary and pos
sibly to Poland, where they are being in
doctrinated and trained as future agents
of the Red revolution in their homeland.
For nearly a year, the Greek Govern
ment has been protesting against this
odious practice, notably to the United
Nations, which charged its Special Com
mittee on the Balkans to make a thorough
investigation. The Committee’s report,
handed in a month ago, supports the
Greek charges and implicates the Soviet
satellite regimes in abetting the practice
and maintaining camps for these juvenile
unfortunates, who are estimated to num
ber at least 10,000. Convinced of the
reliability of this report, the State Depart
ment has issued a circular note to the
offending satellite regimes, expressing its
“grave concern” and calling upon them
to discontinue the practice and to return
those children already within their terri
tories. The British Government has taken
parallel action, voicing its condemnation.
The responses to these diplomatic efforts
are not encouraging. Poland has denied
harboring any Greek children. Hungary
has replied evasively and unsatisfactorily.
The other satellites — Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia—have thus
far ignored our communication, as they
have previous protests from the Greek
Government. Meanwhile, the press in
these satellite countries has endorsed the
blistering reply of General Markos
Vaflades. leader of the Greek Communist
insurgents. He flatly denies the kidnaping
charge, asserting that these children were
sent abroad either at the request of their
parents to save them from the “Monarcho
Fascists” or because they were orphans
exposed to the same fate. As for the U. N.
Balkan Committee, Vaflades terms it an
“agency of calumnies and support for the
bloody actions of the Monarcho-Fascists,”
while the U. N. itself has “not justified
the hopes of the peoples.”
The indications are, therefore, that
nothing effective will be done, even though
the matter may be laid before the Eco
nomic and Social Council of U. N. Yet
surely this new violation of traditional
canons of international morality should
not escape the collective censure of civi
lized humanity. It is another blot on the
Communist escutcheon, already stained by
so many Inhuman practices.
Britain's Labor Crisis
Britain’s Labor Government has just
emerged successfully from an ordeal re
quiring the use of every ounce of its legal
authority. The successful outcome should
not obscure the grave Implication behind
what has happened. There is an obvious
irony in the fact that a Labor Govern
ment felt impelled to proclaim a nation
wide "state of emergency” to cope with
an unauthorized strike that menaced the
very life of the British people. This is,
of course, the "wildcat” walkout of dock
workers, beginning in the port of London
and spreading by sympathy to other major
ports of the United Kingdom. Since
Britain is vitally dependent on imported
food, the tie-up of hundreds of ships
loaded with foodstuffs, much of them
perishable, threatened to choke the pipe
line through which the British people
are fed.
If ever a strike was unjustified, it was
this one. It started with the disciplining
of less than a dozen London dockers who
had refused to unload a certain type of
cargo without extra pay. The case was at
once considered by the National Dock
Board, on which unions and employers are
alike represented, and both elements
agreed that there was no merit in the
men’s claim for extra compensation.
Nevertheless, the London dockers walked
out almost unanimously in defiance of
their own leaders. When, after waiting
nearly a fortnight, the Government used
a limited number of troops to unload the
most perishable cargoes, sympathetic
strikes broke out in other major port
areas.
The British dock workers are proverb
ially a turbulent lot, long permeated by
Communist tendencies. In part, this may
be a legacy of former days, when pay was
low, working conditions were hard, and
unemployment was chronic. Today, how
ever, no such situation exists. The dock
workers now enjoy guaranteed minimum
weekly wages, full employment and other
social benefits. In the absence of legiti
mate grievances, the Government is
undoubtedly right in ascribing this wild
cat strike, called on a frivolous pretext,
as due to agitators "who have been in
structed for political reasons to take
advantage of every little disturbance to
cause disruption of British economy
and tr^de, to undermine the Government
and to destroy Britain’s position.”
Those are the words of Prime Minister
Clement Attlee in a nation-wide broadcast
wherein he stated in a supreme appeal to
the strikers: "This is not a strike against
capitalists or employers. It is a strike
against your mates; a strike against the
housewife; a strike against the ordinary
common people who have difficulties
enough." Although Mr. Attlee named no
names, his implication of a Communist
plot is clear.
Spurred by trenchant criticism from
the Conservative Opposition and by the
rising tide of indignation among the gen
eral public, the Labor Government reluc
tantly set about taking the drastic steps
which the situation demanded. Invoking
the broad authority of the Emergency
Powers Act, a law passed in 1920 to cope
with the similar revolutionary labor fer
ment in Britain after World War I, the
Government assigned ample troops for
unloading the struck ships and moving
the freight. Since the Act empowered the
Government to take even more drastic
measures, the wildcatters collapsed
within a few hours and the strike was
over.
Nevertheless, though the crisis is sur
mounted, two lessons are obvious. One is
the latent danger of Communist pene
tration into labor unions; even when this
has not involved the leadership. The
second lesson is the damage which can be
inflicted upon the life of a nation by a
strike of any union that occupies a
strategic position in our closely meshed
and interdependent modern economy.
That is equally true whether the economy
be capitalist or socialist. In either case,
some method would seem imperative to
protect society from crippling walkouts,
no matter what caused them.
A 'Barest Minimum' Army
Army Secretary Royall’s announcement
of plans for a draft-bolstered “new Army”
of twelve regular divisions is reassuring
to those who have seen our ground forces
disintegrate into what defense experts
have called a "hollow shell.” There are
good prospects now that by the end of
next year today’s “paper” Army will have
become a striking force in being.
Testimony .by General Bradley and
others before Congress disclosed that our
once-great wartime Army had shrunken
since V-J Day to a skeletonized organiza
tion consisting mostly of cadres of units
hoped for in the future. Drained of man
power by our occupation tasks in Europe
and Asia, the striking force available in
this country had dwindled to less than
two divisions. Actually, the only domestic
division in the United States at approxi
mately full strength is the 82nd Airborne,
at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. All other
units are sadly undermanned and some
consist only of a handful of record-keep
ing officers and men. ,
The Army hopes, by voluntary means,
supplemented by selective service as
needed, to create a new airborne division
and a new infantry division and to build
up to effective strength other “paper”
; Infantry and armored divisions. By-the
end of this year the total strength of the
Army is expected to be around 900,000.
In addition, the “new Army” program calls
' for six full-strength National Guard and
Organized Reserve divisions, to bring the
total mobile striking force on this con
tinent to eighteen divisions.
It is well to remember, however, that
this goal of twelve regular and six Guard
and Reserve divisions has been described
by Chief of Staff Bradley as the “barest
of minimums” necessary to give a reason
able degree of security in these troubled
j times. The National Guard is just as new
as the Army will be, with most of its men
in need of training and experience. It
will take many months of drilling and
field maneuvers to provide the individual
training and the organisational teamwork
needed to build an effective force. Con
trast the picture of our Army, even when
it has attained the “barest minimum’’ of
divisional strength, with the situation in
Russia, where an estimated 170 trained
divisions are ready for action at any time,
anywhere. It is said that Russia could
expand her Army to 300 divisions within
two months.
The comparison makes it obvious that
our struggle to reach the "barest of mini
mums’’ in military strength bears no
resemblance whatever to "war mongering”
tactics. The only pertinent question is
whether we have set our goals high enough
to afford adequate protection in today’s
continuing emergency. The question is
; hard to answer, because there are so many
intangibles Involved. It is safe to assume
that the problem will be a very live one
before the next Congress—as it was to the
one recently adjourped.
He Could Not Afford to Stay
Dr. John W. Studebaker’s resignation
as commissioner of education directs at
tention anew to the serious problem of
obtaining and retaining top-ranking
administrative and technical men for the
Government. Dr. Studebaker, after four
teen years of outstanding service, wrote
President Truman that “along with too
many other men, the time has now come
when I can afford no longer to remain in
the Federal Government.” Mr. Truman,
who has repeatedly asked for a lifting of
the ten-thousand-dollar celling on civil
service salaries, replied that he could
“fully understand” Dr. Studebaker's
decision.
Dr. Studebaker has been receiving the
ten-thousand limit. Under the new salary
bill he would have received an increase
of $330 a year. If a proposal urged on
Congress by the Civil Service Commission
had been adopted, the ceiling would have
been lifted to $13,570. The commission
considered this a "moderate” raise, in view
of salaries paid for comparable positions
in private industry. But this proposal was
rejected. It was only in the final days of
the session that Senate and House con
ferees agreed to make the $330 general
increase applicable to celling salaries, too.
But even this small Increase was not
extended to heads of departments and
independent agencies, or to members of
independent boards and commissions. The
result in some instances , will be that sub
ordinates of these executives and commis
sioners will be receiving more pay than
their bosses, for the subordinates will
benefit from the increase.
This whole disjointed salary situation
should be given intensive study by the
new Congress. The only real solution,
according to the Civil Service Commission,
is to overhaul the classification system so
as to eliminate the inequities which have
grown up through years of haphazard
salary adjustment. As long as these
inequities continue, the Government may
expect to lose additional numbers of
valuable public servants.
Neurologists are far from knowing every
thing about the human species, which
stands up with such admirable aplomb
through dreadful wars, while peace makes
it nervous.
Pack plenty of soap, etc., 'tn junior’s
baggage for summer camp—and it will
return after many days, often In the
original wrapper.
This and That
By Charles E. Tracewell
“SECOND STREET N.E.
“Dear Sir:
“One week in spring a flock of cedar wax
wings visited Capitol Park where they remained
for about a week.
"They thoroughly cleaned from some large
Sophora trees last year's unsightly seed pods
and even cleared from the ground and walks
the seeds that fell.
“Among these birds were a few that re
mained quietly in the trees and did not move
around much, apparently guardians of the
flock.
"They had red spots on the wings. By far
the larger number were a trifle smaller and
these all had white or pale yellow spots on the
wings where the red ‘wax’ should be.
“It seems unlikely that these were all fe
males or that they should be young birds so
early in the year.
“Is the female waxwing smaller than the
male, and does she have the red wing spots?
I would like to know at what age do these
birds acquire the red ’wax.’
* * * *
“About the first of May dozens of small
thrushlike birds arrived in Capitol Park.
“Scattered among the flock were a few fa
miliar wood thrushes.
"The smaller birds moved on in a day or
two, but the thrushes remained.
“The smaller birds had bright brown backs
like the ftood thrushes, and spotted breasts,
but the breast spots were smaller and less pro
nounced than those of the wood thrush.
“They moved over the ground with a de
cided hop, not at all as the wood thrush moves.
“From this Incomplete description, can you
recognize this thrush?
“Sincerely yours, E. A. S.”
The waxwings were in imperfect plumage.
This, of course, is similar to the perfect
plumage, but without the waxlike appendages
to secondaries, with yellow band across tip of
tail narrower and paler yellow.
An authority states that some of the birds
lack the red tips and have other variations
from the normal coloration.
He quotes the famous Dr. Ridgway as say
ing: “I am at a loss for a satisfactory name
for this plumage, or an explanation of its true
meaning.
! "It is obviously quite independent of sex.
and that it has nothing to do with the age of
the specimen, or at. least is not evidence of im
mature age, is almost equally certain.”
The oven bird is a walker, and so does not
get over the ground in any way resembling
that of a wood thrush.
But our correspondent's other bird might
have been a willow thrush, or veery: or perhaps
a gray-checked thrush or an olive-backed
thrush.
None of these is as common here as the
familiar wood thrush, which has been adopted
as the “official” bird of the District -of Co
lumbia.
There is, after all, no better bird.
If a friend of birds had to pick just one,
wouldn’t it be the wood thrush?
It would with us, and no doubt with a million
more, though there undoubtedly would be
thousands of persons holding out for the red
bird, the mocker, the catbird, and so on.
It is much to the credit of each one that it
is perfect, in its own fashion.
What better bird, in a way of speaking, than
the blue jay?
The little song sparrow is fine, and. by rela
tionship, the common English sparrow’, and
even the wise old starling will have its ad
mirers.
But the wood thrush, after all, is perfection
itself.
He is calm, sedate, beautiful, wise, clean,
healthy, sane.
What more could one ask for. in a world
where at times one may be forgiven for think
ing that no living thing is any of these.
American Xouth Fights Forest Fires
Nation’s Boys and Girls Set Example for Elders
In Campaign to Save Timber Reserves
By George A. MacDonald
forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
Girls in Camp Toccoa, Ga„ fighting Jorest fire under Forest Rangers’ instruction.
—U. 8. Poreit Service Photo.
American boys and girls are engaging in the
country's perennial war on forest fires on a
scale never before recorded, and before the
year’s end millions of them will have done their
bit one way or another toward the prevention
and suppression of these scourges which now
destroy annually upward of $30,000,000 worth
of timber and physical property, do untold
damage to wildlife, scenic beauty and soil fer
tility, contribute materially to such disastrous
floods as recently raged in the Pacific North
; west.
j So far as the writer knows, the story of this
boy-and-girl service never has been told all in
one piece, nor have the youngsters been given
the full credit they deserve. But here they are,
a large widely scattered arjny ranging in age
from 7 to 18 whlqh is doing a monumen
tal yet little sung Job of backing up the organ
ized forest fire fighting forces of their elders.
With youthful ardor they distribute posters,.
placards and other fire-prevention pleas for
the Federal and State forestry services co-op
erating in the annual Forest Fire Prevention
Campaign, the sixth of which is now under
way. Organized into crews, high schdfel lads
in many localities fight forest fires shoulder to
shoulder with mature men. In many families
these youngsters make vacation-happy Pa and
Ma forest fire conscious. And no doubt many
a woods-golng dad has been, as one such re
cently told me he was, shame-facedly estopped
from forgetfully tossing his cigarette in the
tinder-dry forest litter by the bright zealous
eyes of his teen-age daughter.
In about one-fourth of the States, and most
notably perhaps in Virginia, California, Indi
ana, Mississippi and Texas, use is being made
of organized crews of high school boys on the
forest fire line. In Virginia, for example, in
the school year just closing, 665 "Keep Virginia
Green” crews, as they are called, were active in
385 schools. Mostly 16 or over, with a few stal
warts of 15. the membership totaled in all
6,970. Enrolled with the consent of parents and
school principals, the crews were taught the
importance of fire prevention in the classroom,
and then given outdoor instruction in fire
fighting techniques and the use of common
hand tools. A KVG button, badge or shoulder
patch is the organization’s insignia. Under
direction of the local forest warden and with
trucks ready and waiting, when a fire call comes
in, the boys drop their books and are off. On
fires, the boys are paid the same rate as men.
Valiant Work in Virginia.
These KVG boys of the Old Dominion
fought scores of forest fires this, school year;
and, according to S. G. Hobart of the Vir
ginia Forest Service, “the timely arrival of one
of these crews often spelled the difference be
tween holding the fire line already bu£t or
building* and losing it.” But the enthusiasm of
the young fire warriors did not flag when the
excitement of actual combat was over. In
stances where they detected small fires and ex
tinguished them "entirely on their own” were
numerous. Equally important, in the opinion of
the State foresters, was their help in spotting
and eliminating bad forest fire hazards, and in
“talking fire prevention and forestry at home,
in school, camp and elsewhere.”
Though seldom if ever organized as are the
high school crews in some of the States, many
thousands of local Boy Scout troops and 4-H
Clubs also take part in the forest fire war
each year. Boy Scouts learn about fire fighting
in their meetings and camps from Scout lead
ers and from Uncle Sam's forest rangers, ever
ready with talks, motion picture films and
demonstrations. Similar fire prevention pro
grams also are an important part of the De
partment of Agriculture Extension Service
work with the 4-H boys and girls. During
World War II and the man-power shortage,
boys of both organizations were a life saver on
the forest fire lines of the war-thinned Forest
Service forces in National Forests, but with the
return of older and more experienced fire fight
ers use of these boys’ organizations in actual
combat has all but passed from the picture.
However, in numerous other ways the boys
are still in there pitching, as the saying is. Of
the 21,000,000 posters, placards and other mate
, rial distributed this year in the co-operative
Federal-State fire prevention campaign, prob
ably more than a quarter were actually placed
by Scouts and 4-H boys. In periods of high fire
danger this summer you’ll find many a Scout
watching in the woods, reporting cigarette
“flippers.” stopping automobilists at the en
trances to the forests and issuing fire preven
tion stickers and warnings, patrolling and fire
proofing camps and recreation grounds, or even
serving as messengers or radio helpers behind
th* fire lines. Many older Scouts, high school
boys and 4-H-ers will spend their vacations in
National Forest stand-by camps on caK for
fires, and California is pioneering In assigning
Juvenile delinquents, put on their honor not* to
try to escape, to similar State camp6.
Equally heartening to veteran Federal and
State foresters is the forest fire prevention
work of other youth organizations such as the
Girl Scouts, the Campfire Girls, and the Jun
ior Red Cross. With its 19,000,000 or more
members, from kindergarten through high
school, the latter organization does a whale of
a job to make anti-forest fire crusaders of (rid
and young. Through the year the tocsin for
fire prevention is sounded repeatedly in chap
ter bulletins, school papers, council meetings
and school assemblies; so far this year the
members have issued 2,625,000 anti-forest fire
book covers and stickers and placed 194,000
fire prevention posters.
Ob the Front in Maine.
Dramatically, this crusading bore fruit in the
Maine holocaust of last October when Junior
Red Cross members performed yeoman serv
ice with intelligence and skill. For Instance,
girl members from a Bar Harbor high school
manned a canteen for fire fighters at vHull’s
Cove until the raging fire drove them back. At
Portland and Brownfield, Me., and Conway,
N. H„ boy and girl members served long hours
in many behind-the-line capacities, from serv
ing food to fire fighters to washing dishes, de
livering supplies, running messages, and man
ning telephone switchboards.
Every year thousands of girls are indoctrin
ated with the need for preventing forest fires
through the Girl Scout and Campfire Girl or
ganizations. Hot only are their members
taught how safely to build and extinguish their
own campfires in the woods, but how to be
prepared against wildfire and how to fight it.
They, too, often with evangelical zeal, help in
the placing and distribution of fire prevention,
posters and reminders. Where their summer
camps are in or near national forests they co
operate with Forest Service personnel in giving
out fire warnings and the like to forest visitors.
Last year, the Girl Scouts had 93,488
campers in their 589 established camps, and it
is safe to say that these girls—sanging from 7
to 18—came out of the woods with clear con
viction on why and how forest fires must be
prevented, and that most of theiX are and will
be staunch conservationists from here out.
Now and again, the girls are called upon actu
ally to fight fires.
In the past eight or nine years, the average
annual number of forest fires in this country
has been reduced from around 200,000 to
around 170,000. No doubt the convictions of
this army of youngsters has contributed ma
terially to this happy achievement. In fact,
that they will carry their knowledge and con
victions into maturity and thus increase the
number of conservation-minded citizens is the
best hope for sound use and preservation of
the timber reserves which America has.
Letters to The Star
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.
Individuals ‘Too Demanding’
To th* Idltor of The Star:
Segregation or nonsegregation in military
service ought to be left to military leaders, not
to A. Phillip Randolph, president of the Broth
erhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Mr. Randolph is said to be organizing a sit
down strike against the draft unless Mr. Tru
man bows to his wishes. But what Mr.
Randolph and other noisy leaders seem to
forget is that there were no so-called Jim
Crow laws in transportation until the recon
struction period following the Civil War. These
laws were necessary because of rowdyism on
the part of whites and blacks. Segregation
was merely a device to reduce rowdyism to a
minimum. But even so, it might never have
been needed if scalawags and carpet-baggers
from the North had kept out of it, ‘
One reason I always have admired the
Chinese people is because they seem to prefer
the society of their own kind. A Chinese
person may get table service in, say, a Greek
restaurant. But if there is a Chinese res
taurant in the block, the Chinese will not
dine at the Greek’s place. So with an Amer
ican Indian, even more clannish. Neither will
go to any trouble to be around whites. You
have to seek them if you wish to be around
them. The American Negro, according to their
noisy leaders, are the only people in the world
clamoring for admittance to white theaters,
hotels and cafes.
As long as a man pays license to operate
an establishment of this type and does not
get a subsidy from the United States Govern
ment, but is dependent on a fair profit for
survival, he should be permitted to select his
own clientele.
The great curse of our age is that nations,
governments, and even individuals are too
demanding. X. Y. Z.
A Healthy Swat at Bureaucrats
To the Editor of The Star: i
Bureaucrats have controlled the United
States Government for many years, regardless
of any political party supposed to be in power.
They care little for party politics so long as
they are permitted to remain in control of
Government machinery for advancement of
their friends in the Government service.
The New Deal brought enough employes into
the Goverment service to make bureaucratic
control conspicuous.
Then the voters elected a Republican major
ity to both branches of Congress, expecting a
correction of bureaucratic control of govern
ment. But they were disappointed.
Now Gov. Dewey has been nominated for the
presidency and he has promised to clean house
in Washington. Can he do it?
SLOCUM GILSON.
„ Inspiration From the Psalms
To the Xdltor of The Star:
In the letter of George White, relative to
the McCollum case, he speaks as though only
the Old Testament were read in the public
schools. It surely is read, but many parts
of the New Testament also are read.
If Mr. White would read the 100th Psalm,
and the 23d, perhaps he would feel an eleva
tion of mind and heart. And perhaps if
people would strive to live up to the principles
of the 15th Psalm, they would reach a high
moral level:
“Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle,
or who shall rest in Thy holy hill?
"Even he that leadeth an uncorrupt life
and doeth the thing that is right and speaketh
the truth from his heart.
"He that hath used no deceit in his tongue
nor done evil unto his neighbor and hath not
slandered his neighbor.
"He that setteth not by himself, but is
lowly in his own eyes and maketh much of
them that fear the Lord.
“He that sweareth unto his neighbor and
disappointeth him not, though it were to his
own hindrance.
“He that hath not given his money uporf
usury, nor taken reward against the innocent.
•'Whoso doeth these things shall never fall.”
Read some of the psalms for help and in
spiration.
A TEACHER IN A D. C. SCHOOL.
Thanks for Mr. Young
To the Editor of The Star:
We recently subscribed to your paper, mainly
because of your columnist, Joe Young, who
writes the column regarding Federal employes.
We have followed his column each day and I
desire to say that his column has been the
moat correct we have been able to And.
I desire on behalf of the employes of the St.
Louis Post Office and myself to thank you and
extend our thanks to Mr. Young.
HARRY E. FINCH.
President, National Association of Post Office ]
and Railway Mall Handler*
0
Stars, Men and Atoms
Doctors Almost Baffled
By High Blood Pressure
Laboratory Studies Fail to Solve
No. 1 Death Cause in Nation
By Thomas R. Henry
CHICAGO, June SO.—Medical science is
almost completely baffled by the chief cause of
death in the United States—high blood pres
sure with its fatal terminations in heart and
kidney failure and brain hemorrhage.
One after another, doctors have seen the
failure of some of the brightest prospects com
ing from scientific laboratories.
Today, nobody knows the cause or what to
do about it, Dr. George E. Wakelln, professor
of physiology at the University of Illinois,
told physicians meeting here.
Disease ef Middle Life.
HtglTblood pressure is essentially a disease
of middle life, usually starting with the con
traction of some of the smaller blood vessels.
This requires more work by the heart to push
blood through them. The higher pressure is
manifested most frequently by the breaking
of one of the exceptionally thin-walled blood
vessels of the brain, sometimes causing instant
death. Almost always it results in partial pa
ralysis as the motor centers in the brain are
affected.
The sanest view at present. Dr. Wakelin
said, is that this "essential hypertension"—the
name given all cases of high blood pressure
the cause of which is not known—is a group
of diseases due to a wide variety of reasons
and the best hope is laboriously to isolate
these maladies, one after another. Already half
a dozen have been taken out of the general
category as causes. These, however, account
for only a small part of the whole.
Victims, Dr. Wakelin said, are most likely to
be stocky and slightly overweight. They are
apt to have personalities varying from states
of aggression to passiveness. In fact, it has
been widely proclaimed that there is a psychic
factor involved. Actually, Dr. Wakelin de
clared, pressure can be reduced in some
persons by putting them under a general
anesthetic, thus presumably blocking off most
Impulses from the higher centers of the brain.
Temporary Improvement is brought about—
still in a few cases—by use of a new drug,
tetraethyl ammonium, which blocks the sym
pathetic nervous system.
Sympathetic Disorder.
This Is the basis, Dr. Wakelin explained,
for the radical operation known as sym
pathectomy in which this part of the nervous
system, controlling many of the body’s un
conscious activities, is cut loose from its blood
vessel connections. The operation appears
to do some good in about 20 per cent of the
cases. In others it proves of no value. The
best conclusion, Dr. Wakelin indicated, is that
one of ihe complex of hypertension diseases
may be due to a sympathetic disorder.
One of the most popular recent theories
has been that hypertension is due to the
overaecretlon of a blood-pressure Increasing
substance fijom the kidneys. The condition has
been produced experimentally in dogs by
blocking off the kidneys. Still there is
no evidence that the same holds true for
man. The condition can be produced in rats
by Injection of one of the hormones secreted
by the pituitary gland buried in the brain.
The thesis has been advanced that thers
may be some as-yet-unknown hormone re
sponsible for hypertension in man. Blood
pressure also can be raised by the injection of
one of the hormones of the adrenal glands
from which adrenalin also is secreted.
However, even if any of these causes could
be established, Dr. Wakelin concluded, they
would apply only to a limited number of
cases and the general picture, so far as the
death rate is concerned, steadily grows worse.
Answers to Questions
A reader c*n set the aniwer to ant oueetlon af
fact br wrltlna The Eventn* Star Information
Bureau, 31S Ere atreet N.E.. Waahintton 2. D. C.
Please Inclose three (3) cents (or return postals.
By THE HASKINS SERVICE.
Q. To what family of fishes does the shad
belong? How large does it grow?—S. C. D.
A. The shad is the largest American member
of the herring family. Its usual length is 18
to 24 inches. Shad live in sea water but go up
fresh-water rivers to spawn.
Q. When the master clocks at the Naval Ob
servatory are wrong, how are they set to show
correct time?—V. M. G.
A. When these master clocks are once started
they are never reset, for to do so would merely
increase the error. The astronomers always
know exactly how slow or fast these clocks
are and make allowances for these errors in
sending out the time signals.
- V
Q. Are there any collectors of paper money?
—G. U. B.
, A. Collecting paper money has gained in
interest during recent years. The value of the
paper money depends on its new, crisp con
dition,’ rarity and fine engraving.
Q. In what language was the Nuernberg
trial conducted?—? W. G.
A. The trial was conducted in four languages
simultaneously without the necessity for
'breaks for translation. Each lawyer or wit
ness spoke into a microphone and what he
said was made audible to every person in the
courtroom over a wired headphone system. A
group of interpreters, as the words came to
them in their headphones, repeated them in
other languages into microphones. These trans
lated versions were conveyed to every person
in the courtroom with the result that each
could listen to the proceeding in English, Rus
sian, French or German.
q. What locality is known as the “roof of
North America”?—R. H.
A. Glacier National Park, or more par
ticularly Triple Divide Mountain 18,001 feet),
has been called “the roof of North America." •
because from its mountain heights the waters
divide and flow into the Gulf of Mexico, into
Hudson Bay, and into the Pacific Ocean.
Q When did a Vice President take the oath
of office while outside the territorial limits of
the United States?—E. J. T.
A. William R. King became seriously ill after
his election in November, 1852, and sailed for
Cuba On March 1 an act was passed allowing
him to take oath in Cuba and accordingly the
oath was administered to him by the American
Consul General at a plantation near Matansas.
Old School Teacher
There was a time when walking in the
rain.
Smelling the salt in winds that blew her
hair
Wakened expectance and a wild sweet
strain
Of wonder, almost more than she could
bear.
But now she grumbles by her windowsill
At rain and sea winds that she once
extolled:
Puts on an extra scarf and takes a pill
And stays indoors for fear she might
take cold.
She scarce recalls nor cares what scope or
form
Her dreams of wonder once were jasn
ioned in;
Hoic wonder is a fire to keep her warm,
A cup'of tea; tight doors to hush the
Of wind and rain that seem to cry-their
Like snuUl lost children wailing in the
ni°H ETHEL BARNETT DB VITO.
W . •