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gening With Sunday Morning Edition WASHINGTON. D. C. Published by The Evening Star Newspaper Company. SAMUEL H. KAUFFMANN, President. B. M. McKELWAY, Editor._ MAIN OFFICE) 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NEW YORK OFFICE: 110 Eait 42d St. CHICAGO OFFICE: 43i North Mlchleon A»o. Delivered by Carrier Metropolitan Area. Dally and Sunday Oaily Only Sunday Only Monthly .1.20* Monthly 90c 10c per copy Weekly .. 30c Weekly 20c 10c per copy •10c additional when 5 Sunday* are in a month. Also 10c additional for Night Final Edition In those sections where delivery Is made. Rates by Mail—Payable in Advance. Anywhere in United States. Evening and Sunday Evening Sunday _ 1 month ..1.50 I month 90c 1 month 60c 6 months.. 7.50 6 months .. 5.00 6 months 3.00 1 year _15.00 1 year ...10.00 1 year 6.00 Telephone STerling 5000. Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-cias* moil matter. Member el the Associated Pres*. The Associated Prose is entitled exclusively to the use Ear republication of all the local newt printed in this pewtpoper os well as all A. P. news dispatches. A_10 FRIDAY, September 30, T949 Senseless Medical Feuding The threatened all-out feud between the District of Columbia and Virginia over the issue of medical practice reciprocity is senseless and should be called off before it reaches a more serious stage. The public interest requires the fullest possible degree of co-operation between health agencies and practicing physicians of all com munities in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The trend should be toward further co-ordination of the medical facilities of the area, rather than toward the raising of barriers. The dispute between the District and Virginia over medical reciprocity has been brought to a head by an exchange of correspondence between District Health Officer Ruhland and the Virginia Board of Medical Examiners in Richmond. Vir ginia long has had on its statute books— but has not enforced in the nearby coun ties—a law requiring out-of-State physi cians to pay a fifty dollar fee and to meet certain standards of competency before they are permitted to practice in the State. The District law, on the other hand, per mits the conditional issuance of “border line certificates” at only one dollar each to physicians of Virginia and Maryland, giving them full practice privileges in Washington without further red tape. The condition is that the two States must grant similar privileges to District doctors. Maryland has granted this reciprocity, but the existence of the Virginia law has been a constant threat to District physi cians. Virginia in the past has blinked at technical violations and, reciprocally, the District has continued to extend the special borderline privileges to doctors in Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria and other nearby Virginia places. Health Officer Ruhland 'now says he has received from the Virginia Board of Medical Examiners a definite opinion that It has no authority to enter into any reci procity arrangement with the District. If this ruling is enforced in the Washington area, the chief sufferers will be Virginians —not only doctors across the river, but all their patients who desire to use the many and varied hospital and clinic lacilities in Washington. Both the Arlington and Alexandria Medical Societies are On record in favor of reciprocity with the District, and State Senator Fenwick plans to seek amendment of the State law so as to sanction full reciprocal privileges between doctors of both jurisdictions. The law in question certainly should be amended at the next session of the General Assembly, beginning in January. In the meantime, State legal authorities would be well ad vised to review the examining board’s ruling, with a view to continuing, if legally possible, the loose reciprocity understand ing which long has prevailed. It is hard to understand why it suddenly has become necessary to abandon an arrangement that has been working satisfactorily in the past. China Accuses Moscow The complaint against Soviet Russia filed in the General Assembly of the United Nations by the Chinese Nationalist government may be evaluated from three angles—the legal, the equitable and the practical. In the first place, there can be no doubt that Nationalist China is competent to bring the complaint; because, despite its precarious situation in China itself, its Communist opponent has as yet no diplo matic status, whereas the Nationalist gov ernment is still internationally recognized and is a U. N. member in good standing, having just paid up its dues to forestall any countermaneuver on that score. The charges against Moscow are serious. While not as yet implemented by docu mentary proofs, which will be submitted at the hearing, they accuse Soviet Russia of threatening Chinese independence, en dangering the peace of the Far East and violating the Charter of the United Nations. Although it can be assumed that Moscow and its satellites in the U. N. will strenu ously oppose laying the complaint before^ the Assembly, it is almost certain that China will be accorded the right to present its case. The allegations certainly fall within the scope of the Charter provisions governing submission of charges, while " previous cases like that of Iran furnish precedents to strengthen the validity of China’s demand for a hearing. It thus seems almost a foregone conclusion that the issue will be thoroughly aired before the Assembly, the one uncertainty being its place on the agenda of the current ses sion. That might have a certain practical bearing, because the situation in China itself may alter radically within the near future. Aside from the legal force of the evi dence which China will disclose, there is much in equity to bolster its complaint. There can be little doubt that Moscow has violated, in spirit if not in the letter, the terms of the Sino-Soviet treaty of friend ship and alliance of August 14, 1945, especially in regard to Manchuria. There can also be no reasonable doubt that Moscow has aided the Chinese Communists in various ways, such as conniving at their obtainment of Japanese arms and equip ment in Manchuria after Japan’s capit ulation. Just how specifically China can legally establish Soviet aid to the Chinese Communists on this and other matters depends on the documentary evidence which it will submit. The practical aspect is less determinable. Even though the Nationalist government proves its case and gets a favorable reso lution from the Assembly, nothing tangible would necessarily follow, because the Assembly is not empowered to take action, that prerogative being left to the Security Council, where Moscow holds an absolute veto. This, of course, is realized by the Nationalists, as indicated by the statement made by their official complainant, Dr. Tsiang, who told a news conference that his government was looking for a “moral and political judgment” from the Assembly on China’s case. Yet such a judgment would have considerable practical value. It would strengthen the Nationalist gov ernment in lav/ and equity, while a proven exposure of Moscow’s misconduct and bad faith would further mobilize the sympathy of the free world on China’s side and against Soviet practices in the Far East. Not Yet Good Enough In the wake of the Russian atomic report, there have been several American news stories to the effect that a special aerial defense system—including radar, ground watchers and interceptor planes—has been operating for some time past in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and our North At lantic area. Although unofficial and speculative, the stories are undoubtedly correct up to a point, but it would be a mistake to conclude from them that the system is an adequate one. Actually, of bourse, even if the world were in a splendidly peaceful state, our military establishment—for routine train ing purposes, if for nothing' else—would have to maintain some form of aerial watch. As for the one now in operation, present international conditions obviously make it a bit more than an ordinary Enter prise, though there is no good reason to suppose that it reflects a particularly alarming situation. What it really reflects is simple, common-sense prudence in an age in which our national security demands that we be on guard at all times*—especially in the air. Some of the recent news stories have suggested that our present watchfulness in that sense is very good, with radar, ground observers and interceptors func tioning day and night, on a twenty-four hour basis, to keep a sharp lookout on our Northwest and North Atlantic sky ap proaches. Just how good the system is, however, is open to serious question, and although our military establishmenfr with security factors in mind—will not evaluate it publicly, there is reason to believe that it falls short of what is needed. Thus, early this year, Congress heard expert testimony about the inadequacy of our radar coverage and the need for a $161,000,000 program to correct the short comings. Since then enabling legislation has been passed authorizing $154,000,000 for new construction and the acquisition of additional detecting equipment. Up to now, however, the funds have not been appropriated. Accordingly, despite the contrary impression created by some un official reports, and although the Air Force is close-mouthed on the subject, it seems safe to assume that our aerial defense is still inadequate. This is a matter that calls for action without delay. Although it appears un likely ia* the extreme that Ve are going to be attacked by bombers in the near* future—if* ever—we are living in a period that makes it imperative for us to develop the best possible self-protection. To that end, nothing should be left undone now for want of congressional appropriations. Certainly, it is an elementary fact of national security that the stronger we make ourselves in the air—defensively as well as offensively—the less chance there will be of our suffering devastation from the skies on our own home grounds. And how does the reorganized Supreme Court stand on fall housecleaning, in a year in which there already has been spring housecleaning? Double jeopardy, isn’t it? A “ball of fire” seen over Republican Maine should arouse great curiosity among G. O. P. scouts. Long on the trail of such a phenomenon, they may wish to know more. In boldly defying the great Petrillo, an actor’s union falls back on a first fact of life as seen in any schoolyard: If he’s a bully, he can be bulldozed. Lost Mozart Relics Some American GI unwittingly may have in his possession the gold watch and the gold ring presented to Mozart by the Empress Maria Theresa. These precious relics of the great composer disappeared from a safe hidden in a salt mine near Salzburg during the liberation period of 1945. They may have been taken by a soldier from the United States who even now does not know what they are. In the hope that worldwide publicity will bring the lost articles to light, Dr. Carlton Smith, director of the National Arts Foundation of New York, has issued a general appeal to veterans. The watch/ and the ring, he says, had been placed in a strongbox which once had belonged on a ship, and th§ box had been placed In the mine to avoid possible destruction in the bombing of Austrian cities which then was in progress. Other Mozart items which have disap peared Include the original manuscript of “The Magic Flute,” last seen in the Prus sian State Library in Berlin in association with the “Ninth Symphony,” by Beethoven; colored drawings for the costumes of the characters in the opera; the composer’s letters to his father and his wife; certain silhouettes and a number of niiscellaneous papers. These examples of Mozartiana probably would be Identified immediately by anybody with musical Intelligence enough to pick them up. If they still exist, it is conceivable that they are in the hands of a person who appreciates them and therefore will guard them against further harm and eventually send them back. The watch and the ring, however, might not be connected with Mozart. A veteran could have them without knowing defi nitely what they are. It is Ipr. Smith’s belief that any American who has them will be glad to return them, once he is informed of their character aa relics of one of the noblest careers In the history of music. He is prepared to buy the articles for restoration to the Mozarteum at Salz burg. All the possessor then need do is to communicate with him. Mozart, gentlest of the supreme trinity of composers, deserved well of the world. It would be a proper recognition of his merit if the gifts which he received from the Empress at Schoenbrunn were regarded as a trust by humanity at large. War of Nerves If countless citizens are tense these days as they eagerly read the newspapers or listen to the radio, it is not because they are panicky over the big explosion in Russia. There is some evidence of panic* in widely scattered places—Boston and Saint Louis, to be specific—but it is over what happened to their pennant-contend ing ball teams here and in Pittsburgh. At Griffith Stadium it was a guided-missile barrage delivered by Ray Scarborough that jolted the Red Sox out of first place and into a tie with the New York Yankees for the American League championship, while yesterday a Pirate bombardment in Pittsburgh knocked the Cardinals out of the lead in the equally tight National League race. With Brooklyn winning a double-header from the Boston Braves, the Cards found themselves half a game behind the Dodgers. This is the kind of thing that keeps the nerves of sports fans on edge and splashes baseball headlines across the sports pages when football is vying foj attention. The fact that our lowly Senators are playing a fateful role in the American League decision adds to the local interest. Ap parently Joe Kuhel’s boys save their efforts until the last few days of the season, when they like to assume the role of giant killers. It was behind Scarborough, re member, that they knocked the Red Sox out of last year’s race, and they looked Wednesday night as if they were bent on repeating. Ordinarily Joe McCarthy would be glad to get away from here after today’s final game with the Nats, but he cannot go home. He hasv to go right into the camp of the enemy for a decisive two-game series at Yankee Stadium tomorrow and Sunday. No wonder Joe looked so downcast in that dugout picture yesterday. Fortunately for ■ the Sox, the Yankees are badly crippled, with even Joe Di Maggio ailing. So there is no telling what the outcome will be—and that goes for both leagues. It is possible that, for the first time in history, both pennant races will end in ties. That would require a “sudden death” playoff game in the American League and a three-game “little world series” in the National. The boys in the Kremlin picked a bad time for their explosion. They might just as well have yelled "Boo!" In view of the uncertainty as to whether Chiang got away with $138,000,000 or some other sum, wouldn’t it help just to ascer tain what it is 5 per cent of? This and That By Charles E. Tracewell Wheelbarrow chorus In your yard these days? " It must be the grackles, long, sleek fel lows In purple and black, with mean yellow eyes. The odd noise they make in chorus, as 25 to 100 swoop down on the lawn, is one of nature’s little jokes. The blackbirds, of course, do not realise that they are making/a noise to imitatton of an instrument or semivehible of mankind. * They are just calling to each other. “Come, brother, here is food!” * * * * The rush of the grackle wings, the odd cries, the sight of them, combine to make a pleasant early autumn picture. Some of them will stay around, but their absence would be no loss, for they cannot be called desirable. Usually they get along well enough with other species at a bird-feeding place. It is in spring that they cause so much disaster by killing fledgling birds in the nests. These big fellows, with their mean eyes, are just as ruthless as they look. They think nothing at all of biting off the head of a baby cardinal, or tearing the legs off its brothers and sisters. Yet the grackle must be accepted in the picture along with the rest. It is an interesting bird, and a capable one, but lacks most of the humor and clumsy good will of the starling. In the home yard there is little evidence ; of the ill will toward it by other birds of which we are told so much in the books. T*he books solemnly state that robins, thrushes, bluebirds and sparrows may often be seen “mobbing him with utmost fury.” It would be, indeed, a picture, to see a wood thrush "mobbing” any other bird, even with the aid of robins. The intelligent, gentle thrush does not go in for “mobbing” of any sort. It minds its business, and lets other birds mind theirs, One of the books also states that the grackle’s “cold and cruel yellow eye strongly suggests the birds’ arch enemy, the cat.” There you have about as many misstate ments as can be packed into so few words. The grackle eye is far colder and meaner than the eye of any cat that ever lived. This comes about because it is nearer to the reptile, of course. And then the cat cannot be said to be the arch enemy of birds, except in an academic sense. Actually, many cats pay little or no attention to birds. Cat haters like to say that each cat catches so many birds a year, but that is Just so much hokum. /Some cats seldom if ever catch birds. Who was it who killed off—and ate ell the mil lions and millions of passenger pigeons? Well, it wasn’t the cats, but a two-legged animal known as man. Grackles belong to the bird family called Icteridae. In the group are such different birds as the bobolink, cowbird, meadowlark, orchard oriole, Baltimore oriole and the grackles. Most of* them are walkers. Of the whole group, the Baltimore oriole is most people’s favorite. The Western meadowlark, with its sweet warbling song, belongs, too, One of the most Interesting of all is the cowbird. It comes often to nearby Maryland and Virginia gardens, and gets along well with the other birds. The males are rather pretty. The fact that the female lays her egg in the nest of other birds scarce can mitigate against the male, the only bird with black body and brown head. He is sleek, unassum ing, and must do a great deal of good in the world as an Insect catcher. He does not, as legend has it, eat Insects off the cows, but simply those the cow hoofs kick up. The cowbird eats grasshoppers, boll weevils and cutworms. It does no harm to cultivated fruits. It will eat weed seeds, and occasion ally some grain, but does little harm, since most of what it eats is waste grain. All in all, the male cowbird is an asset. The female would be, too, since her eating habits are the same if it were not for her one bad habit of compelling other bird mothers to bring up her young. Letters to The Star Believes Too Many Ex-Officers Slow Up Veterans’ Administration Work To the Editor of the Star. May I add my criticism to that of many others regarding the manner in which busi ness is conducted in the Veterans’ Admin istration? I attend summer school in another city. During the past four years the Washington regional office of the VA has only once been able to transfer my records to the city in which the university I attended is located in less than six weeks. Last year it was January 1 before I re ceived my subsistence for a summer term ending the second week in August. It is now September 26 and I have not yet received subsistence for a school term which ended August 12. I am afraid, too many ex-officers in the Armed Forces were given jobs in the Veter ans’ Administration. My experience in the Navy was that most officers depended on enlisted personnel to get all the work done. Perhaps they have not been able to readjust to a situation in which they must do the work themselves. DISGUSTED VETERAN. Repeats Complaints Against Attitude Of Franco-Spain Toward Non-Catholics. To tho Editor of the Star: As much as Senator Taft may be admired for his fearlessness, I am not quite so sure that I agree with the Senator’s desire to have "new ties with Spain to boost defense against Reds." I’ll grant that it is perfectly logical to have another partner in the North Atlantic defenses against any eventuality, but not until Spain does a right-about-face on some other vital questions. Secretary of State Acheson’s decision not to resume diplomatic relations with Spain is a type of inaction which I applaud heartily. Spain off and on during the course of many decades has been liberal in her treat ment of minority faiths. But since this land and her rulers were forced by her majority religious counselors' to deprive her citizens of certain fundamental rights in the exer cise of civil and religious privileges, Franco’s victory has been in fact a victory of Vatican City state diplomacy. Minorities in Spain are subservient; in the exercise of their dissident religious faiths they have had to go underground. They baptize their faithful in remote mountain streams, with lookouts on guard to warn of approaching gendarmes. Protestant Bibles may not be sold in bookstores. Young peo ple cannot have meetings of their own in the faith they profess. Ministers may not conduct public meetings or evangelistic ef forts to secure adherents to any faith, other than the Roman Catholic religion. In this case civil government is run by,the church. Plainly, there is a union of church and state of such a strict nature in Spain that there hardly is any other country in the world noted for its comparable lack of liberality toward its minority citizens. If a Protestant wants to be married in Spain, he faces almost unsurmountable difficulties, because the Catholic Church regulates the rite. If a person has the misfortune of dying a Protestant in Spain, he cannot be buried with rites of his faith in the regular ceme teries under church supervision. His friends have to resort to a bootleg funeral service in the dead of night. Now Spain is capitalizing on the new fears in the Western World over the knowledge that Russia has the atomic bomb. But since the political angle does not Interest this correspondent, rather what Spain’s attitude will be toward respecting the rights and privileges of her minorities, I register this strong protest against our Government fall ing into this clever maneuver on the part of Spain to bargain away the souls of men for a few isotropes of uranium. CHARLES ALLEN RENTFRO. Politicians Bracketed With Kidnapers In Opposition to Federal Aid for Schools To the Editor of the Star: On the morning of the Fourth of July, 75 years ago, Charley Ross, aged 6 years, was walking along the street in Germantown, Pa. Two men with a horse and buggy stopped and told Charley to get in and they would buy him some firecrackers. Charley got into the buggy and never was seen again. The kidnapers are still here; ttiey pose as statesmen; they are offering Federal funds to school teachers and school boards. Ex ceedingly generous of them! The school teachers and school boards see only the money and they are very willing to get into the Federal buggy. We cannot blame Charley Ross for being gullible. The public school people are older and ought to know better, but do they? They should know that this would be the end of our cherished home rule, in the mat ter of public schools. Of course, the politi cians say they would not interfere with local control. Experience has shown that the predictions of politicians are not always reliable. Keep the Federal Government out of our schools. They have taken our money, but they shall not take our children. JAMES EMERY BROOKS. Glen Ridge, N. J. Says Freedom Is Not Expanded By Encouraging Drones To tbe editor of the Star: President Truman is quoted as saying: “Government expands freedom when it aims at security for every individual.” But to aim to give the same security to those who refuse to work as to those who do work is merely to insure the breeding of a large class of worthless drones. MONITOR. Soliloquy and Salute For Capt. Crommelin - To the Editor of the Star: The subject of this letter is not the controversy raging around Capt. John Crommelin—for surely ‘‘only fools rush fh where angels fear to tread”—and, as I am utterly dependent upon the wisdom and guidance of those in charge of our safekeeping, my prayers surround them every day and therein lies my hope. Unfortunately, -however—having a con science not unlike Capt. Crommelin’s con science—I am forced to give it clearance. Let’s call this “My Soliloquy concerning John Crommelin the man”: “When John Crommelin speaks it is weil to listen”—for these reasons: His integrity is unimpeachable. His war record is untar nished. I imagine he is weary, and would like to accept rest and pqace with his family and I have no doubt they feel it is their just due after his long, harrowing experiences. The consummation of a long naval career with its just reward is very near completion, because John Crommelin could not accept the easy way out and lull his peculiar kind of conscience. He has catapulted himself and family into a seething cauldron. His choice is that of an honorable man. May God give him strength to survive the ordeal. A salute to Capt. John Crommelin. MARGUERITE M. HAMILTON. 8oviet Union Bigger and Stronger Than We Are, He Suggests To tbe Editor of the Star: Why all this yapping about the atom bomb here and the atom-bomb there? At the end of World War L the Germans de veloped poison gas and used it effectively against the Allies. Between World War I and World War H it was outlawed. During World War n poison gas was only used in 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. concentration camps in German dominated areas, but not in actual warfare. America is not the only country with physicists developing atomic energy. When I was in high school in Vienna (1930-1934), I studied the theoretical part on the split ting of the atom and its scientific use. Now that the world knows that the USSR also has developed the A-bomb, some nations propagandize the fact that they can pro duce it on a larger scale. These same na tions likewise insist that their planes are superior in number and power and endur ance to those of the Russians. But what actually do we know of Russian air power? Not any more than the Russians want us to know about it! In and during the Russo-Bessarabian war (Northeastern Romania) in the mid-30s the Russians used what the German and Aus trian newspapers called “fliegende festun gen” (flying castles or fortresses), with which the Russian forces dropped y2-ton tanks by parachute. These planes had very strong armor and were found to be impreg nable by the shells of Romanian anti-air craft. What factual knowledge do we possess that the Russians today do not have more and larger planes than the United States has at this time? It is easy to talk about what we ought to have and what we may have. But doesn’t it seem unwise just now to try to bluff another nation more than twice our area and witlra' population 33 per cent higher than ours? If we stop stressing our manufacture of planes and atomic energy for use in war, I am sure that the other nations will do like wise. Only through emphasizing peace and peaceful relations can peace be preserved in this world. WILLIAM OSTEN. " Sounds Something Like “Gulliver’s Travels,” This Description of Clearing Assembly Hall To the Editor ol the 8t«r: Listen, my children, and you shall hear of Operations Assembly in a school so over crowded the children attend in relays. At the assembly period, however, all shifts are present and accounted for. Now in the average school, circa 1949, where overcrowding is no more than 10 or 20 per cent and all the eager youth who would drink of the Pierian spring can be jammed into the classrooms, the auditorium is used only for assemblies. So when an as sembly is called, the students assemble, and that's that. Not so in School Relay. In School Relay, it goes like this: The cadet instructor wants an assembly of boys. He asks the assembly chairman for a date. She gives him a date, and then her troubles begin. She must clear the assembly hall. Six sections take refuge there during the home room period. She cannot send them to vacant rooms. If there were any such speci men at School Relay, the poor little assembly hall sections would not have been assembly hall sections in the first place. And no rooms will be vacated by this assembly because only boys go, and no section is composed entirely of boys, the sun of con temporary pedagogical philosophy beaming warmly on co-education for the nonce! And she cannot send the dispossessed sections to the gym because the gym, too, is a home room for four or five sections, nor to the Library because—yes. you guessed it—that also shelters hQmeroqm sections. So the assembly sections must be split up so that the girls are sent to various sections in the same numbers as boys are taken from these sections. Each homeroom teacher of an assembly section must be notified where her girls are to go. Each homeroom teacher Who is Ju receive girls must likewise be so notified To effect all this notification, the assembly chairman must take her pen In hand to frame notes to 22 of her co-workers. Twenty-two notes must be written just to clear the hall so that an assembly can be held! THE CHAIRMAN. Would Stimulate Good English ’S With “Involved Treatments” To the Editor of the Stax: I don’t know of anything that is more badly needed than precise and concise English. Almost everything we read, from directions on a box of cereal to scientific treatises, is such a conglomeration of unco ordinated, unnecessary words and ideas, that people are forced to waste a great deal of time getting the information needed. Gov ernment directives and newspapers are especially bad. Instead of spending so much time in English classes on the dear, dead classics of the past, it would be much more practical to teach students more efficient use of English for quick and easy assimilation, geared to our stepped-up living. Especially involved treatments of various subjects should be given to students to test their cleverness in bringing this about. It would be an excellent thing if schools and PTA groups sponsored a campaign toward this end. * _ I- M. Helping Other Nations to Develop Seems to Result in Trouble To the Bditor of the 8t*r: President Truman recently stated that the road to peace was for us to jump in and help the backward nations of the world to develop themselves. However, the results of two of our major experiments along that line in the past do not support the Presi dent’s opinion. One of our first major experiments in helping backward nations to develop them selves was with Japan. In 1852 we virtu ally forced our way into backward, isola tionist Vapan and started her on the road to self-development. Well, our reward for this noble bit of work was the almost com plete destruction of our Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Another of our major experiments was with Russia. In either the late 1920s or early 1930s we sent all kinds of engineers and technical experts to Russia to show the poor, downtrodden Bolsheviks how to develop themselves. Well, the situation that now exists between Russia and ourselves does not exactly look as though it will culminate in a love feast. J. J* SPERRY. Agrees With Contention That Green Light Means Danger To the gditor of The St»r: There is a short article in the October Reader’s Digest headed: “Green Lights Mean Danger.” It says that: “The danger ratio at light-controlled crossings, in terms of deaths, was 8.65 times higher than at unmarked and unguarded crossings in the city.” (Wilmington, Del.) I submit that the present traffic control signals an senseless. For instance, drivers make left hand turns in the face of on coming traffic. Could any traffic man ager think of a more brainless rule than that? A red light would stop traffic, and one could make a left hand {turn in safety. Now when we make a left hand turn in front of a green light we have to go di rectly toward a red light, which should always be wrong. The former trafflo man ager of the District, Mr. Van Duzer, told me he agreed with me exactly upon this point. H. B. BRADFORD. 100-Acre Test Planned With Irradiated Peanuts Seed Plants for North Carolina Farm Made Radioactive at Oak Ridge By Thomas R. Henry OAK RIDGE, Tenn.—Nearly 100 acres of Irradiated peanuts will be grown next year by the North Carolina State Agricultural College. This will be the biggest experiment yet tried to determine the genetic effects of ex ploding isotopes on future generations. The seed peanuts, which will be planted on the coastal plain experimental farm near Rocky Mount under the direction of Dr. Walton C. Gregory under an Atomic Energy Commis sion contract, already have been made radio active by Oak Ridge scientists. It is all part of a large-scale peanut breeding project which Dr. Gregory has carried on for several years. The peanut plant is subject to a devastat ing disease called leaf spot. It causes the leaves to fall from the vines, ruins their value as fodder and seriously cuts down the peanut crop itself. It long has been hoped that this would be overcome by a “mutation,” the appearance of a new hereditary line of peanuts which would be resistant to the fungus. Way New Species Arise. Mutations appear constantly among all living things. That is how new species arise in the world. For the most part, however, they are bad. They usually fail to survive because the changes usually are in the line of defects which render the plant or animal less able to carry on the struggle for existence. Dr. Gregory’s idea is to increase the num ber of these mutations among his peanuts many fold. It is well known that irradiation of germ plasm—in the case of plants the seeds—greatly increases the mutation rate and the number of freaks. But the more of such changes there are the greater the like lihood that a few will prove beneficial and that one or more will have a hereditary resistance to leaf spot. The peanut, uax Kiage geneticists point out, is a particularly difficult plant with which to work since it has four sets of chromosomes, the carriers of heredity, instead of the two sets which are common to most living things, including man. It is expected that the first generation at Rocky Mount will prove little. Dr. Gregory will save all the seedlings, many of which may appear worthless, and breed and cross breed them. Some of those with the worst appearance may have the essential anti disease heredity and they can be used to breed it into better-producing stock. Breeding experiments have been in prog ress for the past 10 years, but without the aid of radioactivity to smash up the bonds of heredity. In the course of this work some of the wild ancestors of the peanut have been secured from South America where, it now .seems certain, the crop origi nated. These ancestors still grow wild in the Chaco jungles. Plant Carried Over World. The plant was introduced northward by the Indians long before the arrival of the first white men. It was picked up early by Portuguese mariners and carried over the world. Wild ancestors have failed to impart disease resistance when bred with cultivated varieties. Naturally, the North Carolina experiment is looked on by Atomic Energy Commission scientists as being of much more significance than simply for its possible effects on pea nuts, per se. The peanut crop is of growing value, but the results may show the way to extending the mass mutation work to all major crops. There is a constant struggle between cultivated plants of all kinds and disease. It may be possible to induce thou sands of mutations in such crops as wheat and corn in the hope that a few of them will show high resistance to specific diseases. Several years will be required before much information of value can be expected from the North Carolina experiments. Questions and Answers A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Evening Star Information Bureau. 316 Eye st. n.e., Washington 2, D. C. Please inclose 3 cents for return postage. By THE HASKIN SERVICE. Q. Is there any scientific basis in the belief that violent storms are likely to occur at the September equinox?—E. J. M. A. The Weather Bureau says that the notion is erroneous. It is uncertain how and when the idea started, but it goes back at least to 1748. Rainy weather occurs at the equinoxes, just as it does at any time of the year, depending on the atmospheric condi tions; but no physical reason exists why the sun’s crossing the equator should be asso ciated with storms. The reason for a belief in an equinoctial storm is probably the fact that about this time of year the first storms of the winter type, with steadily falling pre cipitation, make their appearance. They stand in sharp contrast to the summer type with the sultry weather and thundershowers. Storms of the winter type can occur, how ever, during any month of the summer. Q. Why is it that a spider can freely walk and run over its own web when practically all other insects are immediately helplessly entangled the instant they touch it?—• W. C. L. A. The Bureau of Entomology and Plaxft Quarantine says that a spider web consists of two different types of strands. One type is composed of a viscid or sticky substance or at least has droplets of a sticky secretion on it. The other is composed of a nonelastic and nonadhesive silk. In moving about the web the spider customarily avoids the sticky strands and in running across the web touches the strands of nonadhesive silk. Q. What is the color of the majority of metals?—M. M. A. Most metals are of a grayish color, varying from blue gray to the white color of silver. Exceptions are gold and copper. Q. What President said that the Govern ment should not support the people?—R. R. A. In vetoing the Texas Seed Bill. Febru ary 16, 1887, Grover Cleveland said. “Though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people.” Q. What is the origin of the saying “forty winks”?—I. J. C. A. “.Tom and Jerry," Chapter 3, by Pierce Egan, is the source of the phrase “forty winks.” The book was published in 1828. Q. Where is Ernie Pyle buried?—M. J. S. A. Correspondent Ernie Pyle is buried in the newly dedicated National Cemetery of the Pacific, near Honolulu, Hawaii. Ap proximately 12,000 men who served in the Pacific area in World War n are buried there. _ Autumnal Now dogwood sheds bright drops of blood Where died its chalices of snow. Summer’s green tide has passed its flood And turns to go. Faded as night-stars Jade when day Resumes his station in the sky, \ Dead asters lean in disarray Of dreams gone by. Between the mountains, blue and vast, Rude winds invade a little glen Where blossomed joy that, having passed, Comes not again. INEZ BARCLAY KIRBY.