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gening plat* 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 East 42d St. CHICAGO OFFICE: 435 North Michigan Ave. Delivered by Carrier—Metropolitan Area. Dally and Sunday Daily Only Sunday Only Monthly ..1.20* Monthly ... 90c 10c per copy Weekly ...30c Weekly ... 20« 10c per copy *10c additional when 5 Sundays are in a month. Also 10c additional for Night Final Edition in those sections where delivery it made. Rates by Mail—Payable in Advance. Anywhere In United States. Evening and Sunday Evening Sunday 1 month_i .50 1 month ... 90c 1 month 60c 6 months_7 JO 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-class mail matter. Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed In this newspaper, as well as all A. P. news dispatches. A_8 * WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1949 \ For a Modern Traffic Code j The Traffic Advisory Board has made a sensible suggestion in proposing that Con gress delegate to the District Commis sioners the task of bringing the District’s hodge-podge of traffic laws into line with the National Uniform Traffic Code. The best way of doing this is to substitute for present patchwork laws a complete new statute authorizing the Commissioners to draw up and enforce a truly modern code of the type recommended by the Presi dent’s Highway Safety Conference, the National Safety Council and numerous other traffic organizations and experts. . ! The present traffic law originally was Intended to give the Commissioners wide powers in controlling automobile traffic, but this original purpose has been de feated to a considerable extent by amend ments restricting local discretion. Thus, because Congress has laid down the law governing requirements for permits, the Commissioners have no authority to issue special requirements for chauffeurs’ per mits, as is done in most other jurisdictions. Nor can District officials, without passage of specific legislation, bring local regula tions in harmony with the standard defini tions of reckless driving, speeding and other traffic offenses set forth in the standard code. Even the local definition of vehicles by classes differs from that recommended for adoption in all parts of the Nation. And, under the Corporation Counsel’s interpretation of existing laws, the traffic director may not put up or re move a stop sign, or change a signal light, without obtaining formal approval of the District Commissioners—a time-consuming bit of red tape that the Commissioners should be glad to get rid of. If the plan of the Traffic Advisory-Board were adopted, Congress could pave the way for complete modernization of local traffic laws by enacting a simple act repealing old statutes in favor of a new code prepared by«£he Commissioners. The Traffic.Ad-, visory Board’s Law and Legislation Com mittee stands ready to assist in drafting a neg.*gfc.4>Uaw&rwith. the unifQrffl^fl^ code as a model. This reform woula put Washington In step'Wlth other jurisdictions which have adopted the standard code in the interest of public safety. The District can ill afford to lag in this important field of traffic administration. Military Hospital Bargain Rate High-level civilian officials of the Gov ernment have no cause for complaint over the Budget Bureau’s action in raising by a modest 12 per cent the rates which they pay for treatment in Army and Navy hos pitals. Even with the higher bills for service these privileged officials will be getting a bargain rate considerably below the cost of such care. Up to now Cabinet officers, Senators, Representatives, foreign service officers and certain other top officials have been paying only $10.50 a day to Walter Reed Army Hospital, Bethesda Naval Hospital and other military hospitals. This covers not only private rooms, meals and the usual hospitalization services, but surgery. X-rays, medicines and everything else. The Budget Bureau has ordered this fee boosted to $11.75 beginning January 1. Yet Army and Navy medical authorities say it costs about $13 a day Just to supply a room. The Hoover Commission studied the question of reducing the non-military patient load at military hospitals, but did not criticize the practice of hospitalizing civilians at such institutions. The com mission pointed out that this practice ap parently has the approval of Congress, otherwise appropriations needed to provide the extra services would not have been provided, year after year. But the com mission recommended that the whole sub ject be given special study by Congress, with a view to making certain that the privileges are not abused. The suggestion Is a wise one, not to be lost sight of in the consideration of the many other phases of the Hoover report. Reprieve for British Steel The British Labor government has done a wise thing in agreeing to put off the effective date of nationalization of the Iron and steel industry until after the general election. v Britain is going through what is some times spoken of as an experiment in socialism. But it is an experiment, so far as the nationalizing of basic industries is concerned, which is apt to be a final, irrevocable decision. Nationalization in any given case may turn out to be a dismal failure. Once the government takes over an industry, however, it is all but impossible to restore it to private ownership. It is this fact which lends wisdom to the agreement to postpone the “vesting day” for the statute which would take the iron and steel industry out of private hands and put It under government opera tion. Britain’s coal and transportation in dustries were in such bad shape finan cially and so outmoded in their operation that the government probably would have to take them over in any event. But the case with the iron and steel industry is different. It is a thriving enterprise. Pro duction is high and labor relations are good. Among the people, there is little demand and less interest in iron and steel nationalization. And the Conservatives have said that if they win next year’s election the industry will be left as it is. So, from this distance, it appears that the Laborites have made a sound decision, even though it may have been dictated by expedient considerations. If they should win the election, they can go ahead with the program of nationaliza tion. No harm can be done to Britain’s economy by a delay of a few months in the case of iron and steel. On the other hand, if Labor should lose, the delay may prevent irreparable injury to Britain’s most successful industry. Mr. Byrnes Sees the Light When Paul was on his way to Damascus he saw at midday “a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.” And from that time on, he told Agrippa, “I continue unto this day, wit nessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come . . .” James F. Byrnes, who is preaching an eloquent and compelling gospel on the trends as he sees them now, does not say precisely when or how he saw the light. But, as in the case of Paul, his audience is larger, and listens with more respectful attention, because of the speaker’s back ground. It may be one of the significant developments of the times that Mr. Byrnes, who served the New Deal with distinction in all three branches of our Government, has joined his voice with the lonely voice of Senator Byrd of Virginia, crying in the wilderness a warning against things to come. What is he saying? Big government is growing bigger. Big government is more dangerous than big busi ness. Little government can regulate big business and the United States can punish those who violate the laws against monopoly, but it is difficult to regulate big government. Our real trouble is debt and taxes. We cannot cure it by more debt and more taxes. We should devote to cutting expenditures some of the thought we are devoting to taxes and borrowing. But cutting expenditures is not seriously considered in the executive department, and new taxes will not be seriously considered in Congress. So deficit spending will con tinue. Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than of death. We are threatened in Washington with the concentration of local powers of government, including police powers, and with the impo sition of creeping, but ever-advancing social istic programs. The excise taxes are so well hidden that their burden is not appreciated by the aver age taxpayer. Not realizing that they are paying the bill, they are easily misled into clamoring for more Federal laws and more Federal aids. Direct government payments are being made to seventeen million persons—one out of every nine of the total population. In every department and agency of gov ernment (there is) a dangerous group of selfish men who love the power to spend the money of other peqple. At this point oneTalmdst expects to hear an interruption, from the vicinity of the White House, jg words not unlike those 'fised''bf"F*es&s'TO $Feak into the testimony of Pauf~r,Saul, thou are beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.” But Mr. Byrnes could reply as Paul re plied—“I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, before whom I also speak freely: For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.” One who has long mingled with them says apes do not care for what they wanted, after they have it awhile. Could it be that the species is reverting to man? Let the Court Proceed The shades of Charlie Michelson, whose facility in coining words for others to utter paved the way for the first coming of the New Deal, must have squirmed in silent protest as Justice Jackson, delivering a dissenting opinion, lashed the art of ghost writing. “Ghost-writing,” said the justice, "has debased the intellectual currency in cir culation here and is a type of counter feiting which invites no defense. Perhaps this court renders a public service in treat ing phantom authors and ghost-writers as legal frauds and disguised authorship as a deception. But has any man . . . ever ,been disciplined or reprimanded for it? And will any be hereafter?” There may be something in Justice Jackson’s own past that turned him against ghost-writers. In his youthful days he may have written a sparkling passage or two for the President to use—and found it discarded in favor of something by Ray mond Moley or Judge Rosenman. That would be the sort of thing to embitter a man of Justice Jackson’s own talent in turning a phrase. But surely a man of his experience—as meticulous as he is in personal independence from ghost-writers —realizes that if President Truman, for example, depended upon himself alone in the phraseology of the literary gems to which he gives expression, he would have time for nothing else. George Washing ton’s farewell address has been credited to Alexander Hamilton. Ghost-writing is ancient, if not honorable. What The Star would like to see ex pressed by the Supreme Court, with no dissents but with numerous opinions con curring and amplifying, is a dictum directed not to ghost-writers but to the speakers who use them—and often use them without having read in advance what the ghost wrote. The sins committed in the name of public speaking by men in high places who fumble and mumble through pages composed by some obscure ghost-writer should not go unpunished. Our Supreme Court should require that Government speakers at least read, before delivering, the words of wisdom written for them by somebody else. Better still, they should be enjoined from speaking at all. Some liberals might contend that this interferes with free speech. Nonsense! Such speech is not free. It is costly to the time and the patience of audiences, costly to the taxpayers who unwittingly hire the ghost-writers and costly to the newspapers which, under a misguided in tent to report the news, publish the stuff. There can be no justice as long as the Supreme Court dodges the issue, thus per mitting the continuance of a public nuisance. Mosquitoes, Flies and Humans When DDT first came on the market, mosquitoes and flies faced what seemed to be a decidedly bleak future. A whiff of the new chemical—applied at far less than full strength—had such a lethal effect on so many of their friends, relatives and playmates that they all had good reason to fear the coming of the day when they would be absolutely extinct, with not one of them left anywhere to infuriate human being, cows, horses and other of their innumerable victims. Needless to say, this prospect depressed and saddened them very much; but still, despite their great unhappiness and the terrible dark ness of their outlook, they apparently made up their minds to cling to hope and put up a stiff fight for existence. As a result, we now hear from the Agri culture Department that down in Florida, where their forebears had been wiped out by the chemical not many months ago, there has come into being a new genera tion of mosquitoes too tough to be ex terminated by it. This development follows in the wake of earlier reports in dicating that much the same thing has happened among flies. In other words, it appears that these insects, through some cunning evolutionary process, have made a special point of reproducing offspring strong enough to take a spray of full strength DDT, shake it off contemptuously, and carry on with their mischievous busi ness. Thus, although they looked like extremely poor insurance risks just a short while back, they seem to have overcome the menace of extinction in such a way as to guarantee that they will keep on living for a long, long time. There is a moral here somewhere. Wholly apart from what science may have to say about evolving life-forms protecting them selves against new environmental threats, these mosquitoes and flies—detestable though they are—certainly have shown a kind of grit, and they are therefore en titled to some measure of admiration. When things looked darkest for them, they refused to give up; they did not surrender to the DDT “wave of the future”; they declined to let fear of a chemical paralyze them into accepting total an nihilation as their “inevitable” lot; instead, determined to live and enjoy themselves in their own peculiar fashion, they took steps, apparently with great success, to insure their survival. In this doom dreading atomic age, their example does not seem to be altogether without meaning for us humans. This and That By Charles E. Trace well "LANDOVER HILLS, Md. ‘‘Dear Sir: “I was pleased with your comments on the feeding habits of wild rabbits. If It would be of interest, I have observed a few rabbit characteristics that tend to bear out your observations. ‘‘Such delicacies as clover and cabbage will stand a chance of acceptance if placed near their runways Without the human ‘taint. I have dropped carrots and apples from a tree, taking every possible precaution to prevent Contact with the food. - ~‘Under such conditions, cottontails will eat preferred items. We throw grain to the binds daily, just in front of the house, and cotton tails come up among the blue Jays, cardinals and doves, just before dark. “I have observed that both cottontails and jack rabbits in recent years have become much less likely to stop in the highway and fall victims to automobiles. This is particularly true of jack rabbits in the Western States. Instinct has been developed in the present generations, warning them not to stop and investigate the bright lights, so that today it is unusual to run over a rabbit. ‘‘Rabbits will do strange things, in extreme fright. I saw a young jack rabbit run up a mowing machine into the lap of the driver, when all but a small patch of the hay Held had been cut. Fleeing from prairie fires, jack rabbits have been known to seek shelter in farm buildings which they would never approach under ordinary conditions. ‘‘As a small boy I was able to tame jack rabbits caught a few days after their eyes were open. Cottontails were less inclined to become tame. Young rabbits will respond more favorably to a child’s overtures than those of an adult. With domestic rabbits it is different. I owned a fine Flemish giant which showed unusual attachment, and would come upstairs to my room, reach up and lick the back of my hand to awaken me in the morning. “The question of rabbit intelligence is dif ficult. Sometimes their overpowering curi osity smothers that utterly remarkable gen eral adherence to nature’s promptings. But in that they are often not unlike humans. “Sincerely, R. H. B.” * * * * The attraction of lights for animals, es pecially for insects, must go back to the very beginnings of the world. Every one is familiar with the "bugs” that collect in an outdoor porch light. Once a year, or oftener, the glass globe must be taken down and emptied of the hundreds of dead insects, whose lives would have been .longer if they had not succumbed to the fatal lure of the bright light. The moth and the flame meet to the ex tinction of the former. It is a story as old as the hills, and always with the same sad ending. The observer over the centuries has won dered ceaselessly, over the spectacle. He has spun fine theories, always calling into play the irresistible lure of light. We all respond to it. Even birds. Hundreds of migrating species, especially the warblers, are killed each year at lighthouses and other places where bright lights tend to swerve them off their direct paths. * * * * Rabbits have a special appeal to some natures. Perhaps the same people would like lambs, but the latter are not as sensible as rabbits, nor as easily handled. The rabbit, in its various forms, offers a fine playmate. The sanitation is not easy, but is mostly a case of daily care. It is odd that so many persons want animal pets but do not seem to realize that these pets can not get along without ceaseless sanitary measures. The wild rabbits that come to suburban home gardens are usually good enough speci mens, and offer much to the watcher. In most cases the less they are interfered with the better. Perhaps, instead of fussing over a few flowers and other plants they eat, it would be better to let thenj have their share than attempt to put out food for them. They are essentially wild, and grow best on wild foods, such as petunias, rose cane bark, tree bark, carrots, lettuce, etc. If the borne gardener can think of these things as foods, as well as his own plants, then he will not begrudge a hungry creature what It needs In the cold. Letters to The Star Would Remove Tax on Rail Travel To Save Roads and Avoid Federal Subsidy To the Editor oi The St»r: There seems to be serious doubt about the wisdom of the Eastern railroads’ raising their fares 12 Vi per cent. It is contended the added revenue they anxiously seek will be more than offset by "pricing people out of the railroad travel market.” Yet there is a way to reduce -he cost of transportation the railroad traveler pays. No magic is in volved, no curtailed services, no wage reduc tions, no layoffs. Simply eliminate the 15 per cent Federal tax on train tickets. That would have the effect of reducing most fares 15 per cent. The 12s/2 per cent Eastern fare increase going into effect next week would become, instead, a 2 Va per cent decrease. Another solution threatens: If railroad fares scare passengers away, give the lines a subsidy to make up the loss. Why this in direct financial rigmarole? It is not fares alone that would goad the public into a railroad "buyers’ strike.” It is the combina tion, fares plus tax. The tax was imposed originally to keep people off war-burdened transportation, including the railroads. Now that the tax tips the scales against peace time travel, there is amazement and dismay. So far, the railroads have spumed pro posed subsidy grants from the tax-supported Federal Treasury, even fought them off. Not so, other types of transportation. United States airlines and ship lines can’t live with out subsidies. At least, that is what the American people have been taught to believe. Even interstate buses are accused of not paying their full share for use of tax-built public highways. For the Government to insist on collecting a tax from railroad passengers, keeping travel costs high, and then arrange to pay railroads a subsidy from tax funds is a most peculiar business. If lower fares can “save the railroads”— and some experts say that is the most promising prospect—it would seem the proper approach would be to cut the over all price to the consumer 15 per cent by removing the Federal tax. The railroads then would get the full benefit Oi the travel er’s dollar and the Government would be spared paying a subsidy. A TAXED TRAVELER. Charges Capt. Crommelin With “Self-Glorification” To the Editor of The Star: Like many other non-partisan bystanders, I could not help but feel sympathy and ad miration for Captain Crommelin’s spunk when he first injected himself into the De partment of Defense controversy as a willing martyr to the Navy’s cause. There was some thing admirably heroic about it—or so it ap peared at the time. Later, howpver, after Captain Crommelin was reprimanded without court martial, friends of his passed the word around that the captain was bitterly disappointed be cause, under court martial, he would have been permitted to call witnesses in his own behalf which would result in the launching of a new broadside of mudslinging. That left a bad taste in my mouth. Captain Crommelin’s latest attempt to force his reasoning on the American people by requesting that the reprimand he earned be expunged from his official record or that he be court martialed is the tip-off to me— and I believe many others—that the cap tain’s self-righteous patriotism is tainted not only with the brush of the martyr, but with the halo of self-glorification. Why not kick the captain out of the Navy and elect him to Congress where he can bellyache all he chooses without necessarily disturbing the digestion of the American people? HAROLD G. STAQQ. - Tells Why She Dreads Renting To Parents With Destructive Children To the Editor of TheStar; ~•-* I would like to answer the letter by Mrs. P. A. in your page of the paper for November 12. She wonders why she can’t find a home for four children. It is no crime to have four children or more if you can support them. But our experience with tenants with large families is that they take an apartment and agree to pay what is asked and also pay for any damage the children might do. Then, as soon as they are settled, they run to the rent board and try to beat down the price and get the place for less. The first family we had had two boys who broke a window and kicked half the railings out of the front porch. They would not pay for it. The next family had one boy and one girl. They knocked all the lattices out from the front porch to play in the dirt under the porch. We had to buy more lattice. The next family had one boy. He tore down one curtain com pletely and tore a hole in another. The next family had one boy. He knocked two big holes in the plaster in the bedroom and hall, and they merely patched one up with Scotch tape. So you see why we are fearful of renting to people with boys between the ages of 2 and 12. LANDLADY. Sees Share-the-Wealth Idea Denied to Armed Services Personnel To the Editor of The Star: Years hence historians will ask the ques tion: "How did the New Deal-Pair Deal machine get away with two decades of political swindling? They spent the country into bankruptcy; they never promised less than the impossible; and they never delivered more than low-interest rates on the small bond they forfeited after each election.” The answer is quite simple. Like most successful confidence men, they never used their right name. They used an alias that made suckers line up at the polls and vote the straight ticket of tax-spend-and-elect. As the suckers got wise they coined another alias. This time their gold brick is called the Welfare State. Piously chanting the Pream ble of our Constitution, voters are hyp notized once more into voting the straight ticket of tax-spend-and-elect. They laughed at Huey Long with his "every-man-a-king.” But Mr. Truman’s Welfare State is only Huey’s share-the-wealth theme played to Andrew Jackson’s “to-the-victor-belong the-spoils” music. Mr. Truman is a much better pianist than most people think. There is no end to the delightful parodies you can sing to his "share-the-wealth” tune. And who would suspect a pianist as a super salesman of political gold bricks? A little heckling is bound to come from skeptics in the audience. When you have been swindling the electorate for two dec ades, there are bound to be a few disil lusioned. One of the gold bricks Mr. Truman currently is pushing is sharing-the-wealth through compulsory health. The Truman sales talk promotes his com pulsory health scheme as the perfect answer to our health needs. It is tops among his blue chip offerings. If it is so good as a cure-all for our civilian economy, why not apply it to the urgent needs of our armed services? They would be an ideal guinea pig for share - the - wealth through compulsory health. Recruiting officers promised our soldiers the same medical care for their dependents that the soldiers themselves re ceived. It looks like that promise is just another gold brick for trusting suckers. Only these suckers have no way of punishing the swindler. The confidence man who sold them the gold brick and the judge who hears their gripes is the same person. It is the Truman administration in one of its sales man guises that promised our boys medical ^ s 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. care for their dependents. Now that the suckers have signed on the dotted line, our boys in the service are told they didn’t read the line print. Budget Director Frank Pace, after looking the economy field over, con cludes that Mr. Truman’s share-the-wealth was not intended for soldiers. They already are in the welfare state and can’t get out. There is nothing they can do if their rations are short or they are short-changed. Mr. Truman is their Commander-in-Chief and squawks can be insubordination. So a little unification might be in order. It is sheer waste of ingenuity for part of the Truman administration to insist upon employer contributions to subsidize employe social insurance in private industry and not apply the same equitable principle to our armed services. If share-the-wealth through compulsory health can solve the health security needs of the whole Nation, why not sell the idea to the Secretary of Defense? THOMAS E. MATTINGLY, M. D. Readers Disagree With D. C. Teacher Who Favors Segregation in Schools To the Editor ot The Star: The letters of D. C. Teacher and of the president of a local P.-T.A. in Saturday’s Star excite wonder in me. Not wonder at the sentiments they conveyed and implied; at least two of our community institutions, church and school, have helped mightily to convince the writers of those letters of the sanctity of racial segregation. I shall never cease to wonder that there should be white people—some from the very citadels of prejudice—to champion the cause of black people. Down through American history they have arisen, forsaking the smug security of their heritage, risking their social standing, striving to help black citizens live normal lives, too. It may be that persons like these are affiicted with too much conscience and too much God. There is no doubt that the feelings of D. C. Teacher and the P.-T.A. president are strong. They are unwilling to extend their social horizon to see that in some places individuals, differing in race but identical in humanity, mingle in a happy, mutually en riching manner. I fear we must leave them to their own conservative selfishness or to ‘‘the pruning knife of time.” J. W. HAYWOOD. To tho Editor of The St*r: “Too often the man who should be criti cizing institutions expends his energy in criticizing those who would reform them. What he really objects to is any disturbance of his own vested securities, comforts and privileged power,” says John Dewey in “Human Nature and Conduct,” page 168. As another experienced teacher in the public school system here and as a lifelong resident of the Nation’s Capital, 1 can empirically state that segregation is a malo dorous practice that is a definite liability, not an asset, to our school system, our city, our Nation and the world. Hardly any one now needs to be told that the inequalities exisiting in the dual school system are a direct result of segregation. Perhaps it is not as widely realized that both white and Negro pupils are being limited in their education by artificially being kept apart and deprived of knowledge concerning each other despite the tremendous need in our society for understanding and interaction among races. ‘ * OnlyJ by • the most perverted type of rationalization can any ohe deny that segregation based upon race or skin color is contrary to the spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment; of. our. Constitution. Segrega tion creates a feeling of inferiority in Negro pupils and superiority in white pupils, whether we admit it or not. Segregation in our public schools is used as justification for the extension of segregation in commu nity life; viz., employment, public facilities, etc. Segregation in the Capital of the Nation is a shocking denial to the Nation and to the world of the brotherhood of man and respect for the individual. If segregation were to be abolished in our public schools, problems of an inter cultural nature most assuredly would arise in many schools. But a true teacher can meet these problems without fear and trembling if she sees each of her pupils as a sacred individual personality and not as a person having a certain skin color. Would any one deny that the opportunity to make democracy a living reality in the classroom is one that a real teacher would shirk or find distasteful? Can a good doctor shun the opportunity to bring scientific medical care to an enlightened people? Democratic education helps the individual to develop his potentialities for his own benefit and for the good of society. It per petuates the highest ideals of society and encourages the Individual to improve so ciety’s deficiencies. Does segregation pro mote this kind of education?. Let us practice the brotherhood we preach and cease laboring under the delusion that new, racially separate buildings and equip ment can heal the wounds in the human spirit that segregation inflicts. D. C. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER. To the Editor of The Star: For the benefit of D. C. Teacher whose letter you printed on November 19, I would like to call attention to the following ex cerpt from an article by Lem Graves, Negro writer, published recently in a Negro news paper: “One of the main reasons why de mocracy is not winning the world popularity contest is that its main showcase—Wash ington, D. C.—continues to get smeared with the ugly paint of Jim Crow. These marks tend to obscure the commodity on display in the window and to make it less attractive to prospective customers. ...” It is time we Washingtonians began to recognize the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, for we are about to come to grips with atheistic, antidemocratic communism in a fight to the death with all the democratic Ideals at stake. D. C. Teacher and others of her ilk, unwittingly or purposely, are aiding the cause of communism in its ideological battle with democracy. If we in Washington are in charge of democracy’s main showcase, it is our responsibility to display it in its most attractive form. It is alarming to realize D. C. Teacher is in a position to corrupt and confuse the minds of our young people who will be called upon in the crises to come to defend the cause of democracy both morally and physically. Her defense of segregation on a “common-sense” basis demonstrates her mother-taught narrowmindedness and her utter ignorance of the world situation today. LIFELONG RESIDENT. Praises Mr. Berryman as Cartoonist And Expresses Hope for His Recovery To the Editor of The Star: The serious illness of Clifford K. Berryman —one of America's outstanding cartoonists— has, I am sure, left thousands of your readers with a feeling of sadness, a sense of daily loss. We sincerely hope for his recovery, so that he may enjoy more years of life; and his hand and humor may again, so expressively, portray history—with a smile. Most oj. us know Mr. Berryman only through his work; but a talent such as his is a far-reaching, precious and influential thing. L. L HUTCHINSON. Cosmic Ray Tests Made By Carnegie Institution Apparatus Set Up on Maryland Farm Takes Continuous Record of Flares By Thomas R. Henry The world’s largest cosmic ray counter has been set up by the Terrestrial Magnetism De partment of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. It is a chamber filled with the inert gas argon and shielded with 15 tons of lead. The purpose of this new apparatus just coming into use on a Maryland farm near Washington is to get a continuous record of fluctuations in this most potent of all radia tion from outer space. Just before the war Carnegie cosmic ray recorders near Washington, and in Australia, Peru and Greenland, showed enormous in creases lasting about an hour. Three of these were recorded in 12 years. The in crease was in the “softest” of the cosmic rays propelled by a force of about a billion electron volts. An intensive study showed that this increase was coincident with enormous flares from the surface of the sun, reaching a million miles or more into space. Mystery in Findings. This essentially established the sun as the source of some of the cosmic radiation which bombarded the earth. Most of it, including all the most penetrating particles, unques tionably come from outer space, possibly from exploding stars. The mystery in the Carnegie findings was that many solar flares, some very prominent as measured at astro nomical observatories, did not appear to bring any cosmic ray increase. Smaller bursts of flame constantly are arising from the sun’s surface. In the three instances noted the cosmic ray increase was as much as 20 per cent. With the new apparatus it is expected to detect much smaller increases which can be correlated with solar phenomena and per haps with other events observable by astronomers. * * * * The sulfa drugs, miracles of a decade ago but which largely were displaced in medicine by such antibiotics as penicillin and strepto mycin, are coming back in combinations which seem to offset most of their bad effects. This was reported to the Association of Military Surgeons by Dr. David Lehr of the Flower Hospital, New York. Following the sensational advent of sul fonilamide in England in 1935, opening up a new age in medicine, about twenty similar drugs, each supposedly good for a specific purpose, were developed in rapid succession. It soon was found, however, that the high promise was somewhat illusory. There were bad allergic reactions. Some of the best of the new preparations tended to cause irrep arable damage to the kidneys. Worked With Mixture. The so-called “biotics” had none of these disadvantages. Still some of the sulfas re mained more potent in such maladies as pneumonia and meningitis. Most potent of the drugs against pneumonia, however, was sulfathiozol which recently has been re moved from the list of official remedies be cause of the kidney damage it did. Dr. Lehr has worked with a mixture of sulfadyazine, also a potent pneumonia rem edy; sulfamerazine, which is very similar to it in composition, and sulfacetimide, an old drug built up on a somewhat different chem ical formula. Large doses of this mixture can be given, he said, without any kidney damage and with an actual decrease in allergic reactions. Questions and Answers A reader can Ret the answer to any question el fart by w.-itlnf The Evening Stnr Information Bureau, 316 Eve st. n.e.. Washington 2, D. C. Please Inclose three (3) cents for return postage. By THE HA&KIX SERVICE. - Q. Since gasoline trucks no longer are required to carry drag chains in order to eliminate static, what other methods are ustjd?—Yf. H.'H. . jnivi<5»«n •* A. rhe Interstate Commerce Commission requires that all parts of the vehicle be joined by a metallic connection and that before loading and unloading a ground be made between the vehicle and the container and that this ground be maintained during the process. Q. What was the estimated daily cost of the coal strike, both to the mine owners and miners?—L. W. C. A. The National Coal Association stated on September 21, 1949, that the strike would cost mine owners about $lVi million a day in income and strikers about $6 million a day in wages. Q. What was the highest speed attained by aircraft in each of the following years; 1920, 1932, 1939 and 1948?—G. W. L. A. The speed records for the given years were as follows: 1920, Sadi Lecointe, France, 171.04 miles per hour; 1932, J. H. Doolittle. U. S. A., 294.38 miles per hour; 1939, Fritz Wendell, Germany, 469.220 miles per hour; 1948, Maj. R. L. Johnson, U. S. Air Force, 670.981 miles per hour. Q. How much warmer is the water of the Gulf of Mexico than the water of the At lantic Ocean?—L. L. U. A. Because of the presence of the Gulf Stream, the temperature of the water of the Gulf of Mexico is about eight or nine degrees higher than that of the Atlantic Ocean. Q. Is information available on the number of casualties suffered by women members of the armed forces in World War n?—J. F. A. The Department of Defense says that there were no killed or wounded among WAVES or Navy Nurses but that 11 of the latter were prisoners of war. A WAVE died in an air crash but this was not due to enemy action. Among the WAC, 13 enlisted women were wounded. Figures for the Army Nurses are: Killed in action, 15; died of wounds, 4; declared dead, 2; wounded, 32; prisoners of war or interned, 75; missing in action, 14. Q. What river besides the Nile rises at the Equator and flows into the Temperate Zone? ——E. M. A. The Nile River of Egypt is the only one in the world that flows northwards from a source near the Equator. If this great river were placed upon a map of the New World it would reach from Central America, across the United States to Canada. He Who Perceives Earth speaks in varied languages that he Who lives close to her heart can understand— Her voice is in the wind, the hum of bee And wheat from which the chaff is lately fanned. Earth speaks in meadows widely flung and green, And in the whippoorwill’s nostalgic flute, And in a tree where rounded moons are seen, Suspended like dome strange, enchanted fruit. In corn rows singing in the summer rain And thistle blossoms drifting ghostly white, And in south-turning wings that stretch and strain Across the skyways of a frosty night. He who perceives earth’s vibrant overtone, Though none walks with him ... he it not alone. . . . INEZ CLARK THORSON.