Evening star. [volume], November 23, 1949, Page A-8, Image 8

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

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With Sunday Morning Edition.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Published by
The Evening Star Newspaper Company.
SAMUEL H. KAUFFMANN, President.
B. M. McKELWAY, Editor.
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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.