The Washington times. [volume], March 21, 1931, Image 20

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

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EDITORIAL PAGE
OF THE
Hearst Papers Advocate
1. “Honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances
with none." —George Washington.
2. Proportional representation in the United States Senate, no
State to have less than two Senators. Legislation to enforce
prompt constitutional reapportionment in the House of
Representatives.
3. Separate departments of the Army, of the Navy, and of the
Air Forces, all united under a Secretary of National Defense.
4. Federal action to the limit of Federal powers to abolish
illiteracy under a Secretary of Education.
5. Installation of the President on the first of January follow
ing the November election.
6 Selective immigratiori to admit only those suited for Ameri
can citizenship and American needs.
7. Devortation of undesirable aliens and extension of citizen
ship period to 10 years.
8. Complete publicity for income taxes to prevent big tax
dodgers from escaping taxation.
9. Modification of the Volkead act to permit light wines and
beers under Federal regulation.
Saturday Half-Holiday Law
Fairly Interpreted
Uniform Annual and Sick Leave Law Now Needed
The Attorney General made a fair ruling in interpreting the
Saturday half-holiday law and that ruling must become law in
the various departments.
Saturday is to be counted as Jour hours rather than as a full
day in computing annual leave. The ruling that it will be
counted as a full day in sick leave is consistent with the prac
tices long prevailing in departments and bureaus.
The next most important step in leave privileges should be
an act standardizing annual and sick leave so that the rights of
employes may be secured beyond doubt. Such a law will be
persistently urged in the future.
The existing laws on that subject should be quite clear, but
they are not, and, in the matter of sick leave, there is gross
abuse on the part of some employes and downright unfairness
on the part of officials.
The right to 30 days’ annual leave is not mandatory, but cus
tom and practice virtually make it so. The same thing should
be true of sick leave. The law as to sick leave even directs the
heads of departments, in meritorious cases of illness, to grant as
many as 60 days’ leave in any one year.
Some departments and bureaus nullify that provision, how
ever, by limiting sick leave to a maximum as few as 10 days a
year. They make extensions of that time, in meritorious cases,
most grudgingly. These establishments, instead of finding out
for themselves whether an employe on sick leave is feigning or
is really ill, put all the responsibility of proving illness upon the
employe. In the cases of quite ill people, often seriously ill, this
is an inhuman attitude, causing worry and much trouble.
The records of all employes ought to indicate whether they
are honest, honorable and dependable with the Government. If
they are, and become ill, there should be no cheap quibbling
about the time allowed them. Good treatment on the part of
officials toward the ill would be an important factor in re
covery and, later, in efficiency.
When employes are known to abuse their sick leave privi
leges their chiefs should act rather than permit suspicions to
attach to those employes not guilty of abuses.
Headlong Rush of Big Busses
Menace to Public Safety
Speed of These* Huge Machines Should Be Reduced.
In the early hours of yesterday morning a huge freight
truck and a big passenger coach sideswiped each other on a
bridge on a Virginia road. Three people were killed, several
injured, and there was much property damage, with blocking
of traffic.
All the exact facts have not been brought out, but there is
no doubt that huge motor vehicles are getting to be a greater
menace to public safety than ever, due to the terrific speed
at which most of them travel. This applies in the District,
Maryland, Virginia and other places that have not set limits
at which they shall travel.
steam railroads. They are under no such control as railroads.
They do not have their own roadbeds to operate over. They
must operate over public highways, upon which thousands of
other vehicles must also operate. To make schedules they
must go fast and they do so.
Because of their tremendous bulk these large machines
practically control highways, all smaller machines having to
five way or take the consequences. Going at rapid speed,
they throw fear into others.
There is just one remedy to assure greater ease of mind
and safety to owners of other machines and pedestrians. That
is to reduce speed limits of busses.
The Marry-Go-Round
We Moderns
When a modern pair prom
ise to take each other for bet
ter or for worse they mean
only half of what they say—
the “better” half.
It sometimes seems, to an
attractive man. that the world
is full of nothing but “yes
women,” these days!
Now that men are recover
ing from the leg-fixation, which
made facial beauty almost
superfluous, they are gradually
beginning to get a thrill out
of looking into a woman’s
eyes, again.
Tx>ts of women can’t seem to
enjoy a lively conversation,
until somebody turns on the
radio.
Somebody is always taking
the joy out of life for a mod
em girl, by assuring her that
By Helen Rowland
♦ she is no worse than her
mother w’as at her age.
The type of man who will
tenderly wipe away a woman’s
tears, when she is peeling
onions, can keep her peeling
onions for him, all the days
of her life.
No matter how poor an as
sortnient of “consolation prizes”
a woman may have drawn in
the marriage lottery, she al
ways prays that her daughter
won't draw a blank.
“The fool who rocks the
boat,” after the honeymoon, is
the one who tells the first lie,
starts the first philandering or
displays the first jealous sus
picion.
At this time of year, home
is just the place, where a man
stops in, now and then, to get
his golf clubs.
(Copyright. 1931. King Feature*
Syndicate, Inc.)
WASHINGJONTIMES
The Good Old Days By T. E. Powers
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Letters to the Editor From Readers of The Times
Rescue Flight to
Viking Survivors
Editor, Times:
Reading reports from New
foundland, saying that govern
ment rescue ships had reached
Horse Island with supplies and
medical aid for the marooned
survivors of the ship Viking,
and experienced seaman were
scouring the ice fields for those
missing, it was surprising when
an American air pilot, “startles
the world,” by saying that he
“is flying to Newfoundland with
supplies for the starving sur
vivors.”
I understand that already
most of the “starving survivors”
have been taken on board gov
ernment ships. This experi
enced pilot of the air will not
find it so easy to “fly to New
foundland.”
The extreme high winds,
dense fog and sometimes blind
ing snowstorms, he will en
counter, which an airplane can
not withstand as well as an
ice-breaking sealing ship, like
the old Viking, that have for
centuries, before airplanes were
heard of, weathered the storms
and ice on that coast, rarely
with disaster.
The government of Newfound
land is doing all in its power
to find these missing men, with
ships and experienced seamen,
WISE MEN ~
Gaming is the child of
avarice, the brother of iniquity,
and the father of mischief.
—Washington.
Inwardness, mild ness and
self-renouncement do make for
man’s happiness. —Arnold.
Writers, especially when they
act in a body and with one
direction, have great influence
on the public mind. —Burke.
There is no character which
a low-minded man so much
mistrusts as that of a gentle
man. —Thackeray.
There can never be a deep
peace between two spirits, never
mutual respect, until, in their
dialogue, each istands for the
whole world. —Emerson.
What's the earth, with all its
art, verse, music, worth, com
pared with love, found, gained
and kept? —Browning.
True love is like the appari
tion of spirits—everyone speaks
of it, but few have seen it.
—La Rochefoucauld.
The mere apprehension of a
coming evil has put many into
a situation of the utmost dan
ger. —Lucan.
A picture is a poem without
words. —Horace.
Self-defense is nature’s oldest
law. —Dryden.
No one ever became thor
oughly bad all at once.
—Juvenal. x
and do not need the assistance
of any other country, doctors
and nurses having already ar
rived on the scene two days
ago. The Newfoundland gov
ernment has airplanes, operated
by men experienced with the
weather and the coast, and if
this was the better way, they
would use them. With all due
deference to this American air
pilot, he had better take food
supplies to Arkansas and other
western American States, where
Listen, World!
Fear is a fog. It comes be
tween us and the light. It
rolls up out of the depths of
our being and sets us shivering
and fumbling.
This wouldn’t be so bad if
we’d treat fear as we treat
fog.
HoW do we treat fog? What
happens if we are going over a
strange and dangerous trail
and a fog sets in?
Do we become panic-stricken
at the touch of the clammy
darkness? Do we feel that we
lost simply because we
can’t, for a time, see ahead?
No, of course we don’t.
We say—“lt’s foggy so I’ll
have to go slow. It’s a nuis
ance. but I feel my way care
fully I’ll be safe enough. I don’t
HAVE to fall off a cliff just be
cause a mist has set in,”
That’s what we do when the
fog covers our trail. But that
isn’t what we do when the fog
of fear falls on us. We forget
that it is only a fog.
Horrors Are Imagined
We forget that nothing really
dangerous has happened as yet,
And we give ourselves up to
the horrors of darkness and
despair.
For example, there’s Jim who
is afraid of losing his job.
No one has told him he will
lose his job, but he knows that
he hasn’t been hanging up a
very good record and that the
boss is dissatisfied. The sensi
ble and necessary thing for
Jim tu do is to pitch in and
make good as fast as possible.
But that isn’t what Jim is
doing.
TIMES KNOWLEDGE TEST
Match correctly:
1. gander
elevate
2. encomium
a male goose
3. uplift
exercising Vicarious au
thority
4. craven
eulogy
5. regent
cowardly
Do you know:
6. Who is Chief of Staff,
U. S. A.?
7. In what book is Caleb
Plummer a character?
8. What were the dates of Mc-
Kinley’s administration?
the residents have been living
on “dried beans” all winter.
Through all the privations
and unemployment in the
United States, the little coun
try of Newfoundland has re
mained prosperous.
The old ship Viking had
weathered the storms and ice
for 50 years, but it took three
Americans to bring her to dis-
A FORMER RESIDENT OF
THE FROZEN NORTH.
By Elsie Robinson
Jim is spending all his time
being afraid. He’s thinking of
what will happen if he loses
his job. How’s he going to
pay the rent and the doctor’s
bill and the installment on the
machine?
What will the wife say? What
will her folks say? Where’ll
he get another job? Probably
he won’t get another. Prob
ably he’ll go broke and lose
the machine and the baby will
get sick.
Wasting His Strength
He can’t sleep at night be
cause he is so afraid. He
wakes up with a headache and
drags through his work all day,
jumping every time the boss
looks at him.
Instead of saving and using
his strength, he is wasting it
every second.
Yet, nothing has really hap
pened. He is simply afraid of
Fear. And in his terror he is
bringing the thing to pass
which he dreads.
There’s an example of what
we do when the fog of fear falls
on us. We don’t wait for trou
ble to really happen. We don’t
wait until Bobby really comes
down with the mumps, or Ella
really falls in love with the
lounge lizard or some other ca
lamity actually comes off. No,
the minute fear fogs the pic
ture, we go to pieces. We stop
fighting and begin to run in
circles. WE MAKE FEAR
REAL AND GIVE IT POWER
OVER US.
(Copyright. 1931, by King Features,
Syndicate. Inc.)
9. What does carbolic acid
come from?
10. For what product is Pater
son, N. J., famous?
11. Theodore Drieser wrote
“An Tragedy.”
12. A siesta is a taken
during the warm hours
of the day.
1%. Germany began her inva
sion of Belg iu m and
France in the year
14. Thomas is Solicitor
General of the United
States.
15. John Willys Is Ambassa
dor to
(Answers on Magazine Page>
Long Working Hours
For Employes
Editor, Times:
I read with much interest
letters to you concerning long
hours in industry. It is un
believable some employers so
utterly disregard the little bit
of happiness their employes are
entitled to.
I sympathize with “Garage
Man,” and especially with gar
age mechanics, who work from
10 to 18 hours per day 7 days
per week, and the weekly wage
is just about enough to keep
himself “in suspense.” Then
they ask why married women
go out to work.
But the one thing I would
like to call to the attention of
the citizens of Washington is
the grocery and meat clerks.
Why on earth do we have to
do our shopping after 6 o’clock
on Saturday night, keeping
these poor tired boys from 7:30
a. m. until 10 p. m.? Do they
feel like getting up to go to
church or anywhere else on
Sunday? I should say not!
They just have time to take
a short breath and start work
again Monday morning. How
inhuman! Let me hear from
someone. Can we do anything
for these boys? I leave work at
12 on Saturday, get my gro
ceries in and spend Saturday
evening resting or whatever I
enjoy.
THINK OF THE OTHER
FELLOW.
ONCE-OVERS
Do You Cheat at Cards?
Are you so anxious to win in
a friendly card game that you
arrange signals with your ac
cepted partner?
Then you are a pretty poor
sport, and in away dishonest.
It would be unwise to trust
you in matters by which greater
dishonesty might bring you more
important rewards.
There are players who try to
get sight of their opponents’
cards.
In fact, they will resort to al
most any despicable little trick
to turn the tide their way if
they can avoid being detected.
There is no real pleasure de
rived from play with a dishonest
person.
There is bound to be the
thought that such a man or
woman will bear watching in
any deal.
It is a shock to discover such
a trait in one who has been
liked and respected previously
to the little card game.
There is something wrong
with the one who wishes to win
dishonestly.
Real men, worthy of the trust
and confidence —the friendship
of their fellows—have a finer
sense of sportsmanship than to
cheat at cards.
Think it over.
If you are dishonest in a little
game, you know that you nave
been tempted to be dishonest m
other ways.
(CopvrlKht. 1951. International
Service, Inc.)
How Men Have Worked
Let These Walls and Terraces Tell You.
7.77
KQom
TERRACED RICE FIELDS BUILT BY HEAD HUNTERS.
On the Island of Luzon, in the Philippines, there is a great
range of mountains called the Ifugao. And on this mountain
original Filipinos that hunt the heads of other human beings
for excitement and raise rice for a living have built terraced
rice fields, held in place by FOURTEEN THOUSAND MILES
OF STONE WALLS.
Rice requires a great deal of water, must be flooded at a
certain time of the year.
On the narrow terraces, held up by the stone walls, the
water is released from above and the necessary wetness is
secured, also the necessary rice supply.
These terraces, and the fourteen thousand miles of stone
walls to hold up narrow strips of ground, show that the
human race, savage and civilized, is capable of work almost
unbelievable.
Not in the Philippines alone, but all over the world, espe
cially in China, in South America and in tropical countries
generally, you find gigantic stretches of terraces by the agri
culturists of centuries ago.
The rice could be grown more easily on LEVEL land, where
water is more accessible. But it must be remembered that
these hunters of human heads and growers of rice built these
terraces BEFORE THEY POSSESSED STEEL INSTRU
MENTS.
On the level land in a hot country the jungle growth is so
rapid, nature so powerful, that man is overwhelmed. Savage
or barbarous natives might clear the land and plant their
crops one day and two days afterwards all the land would be
covered and their struggling crops invisible, destroyed by
sudden growth forced by tropical heat.
For hundreds of centuries men have gone to the hills where
nature was less prolific in her growth. They have terraced
the hillsides to obtain flat surfaces and have planted on their
terraces their grains and other food supplies.
But civilized men possess sharp instruments of steel, plows
that cut through roots and soil and harvesting machinery.
They are able to conquer nature, and the jungle that con
quered our ancestors of ages ago must give way when the
modern engineer, with his machinery and sharp steel, ap
nroaches.
In the jungles of Liberia an American, Mr. Firestone, is
clearing millions of acres of land to plant rubber, making the
other jungle growths vanish. .
And in the tropics of Brazil Henry Ford has acquired many
millions of acres also for rubber planting.
The farmer of today, with all his troubles, looking at this
picture, may consider himself fairly well off.
What would he say if he had to build a stone wall to gam
a few square feet of level ground?
Money Breeds Money
$2,115 Becomes Trillion
C. J. Starkey, a mathematically minded gentleman out in
Ashtabula, Ohio, has figured that Queen Isabella made a mis
take by pledging her jewels to help Columbus discover America.
She should have put the money in the bank—or whatever cor
responded to it in those days—at 5 per cent interest. If she
had, her estate would now be worth four and one-half TRIL
LION dollars. ,
“That is eleven and a half times the value of the United
States and all its foreign possessions,” says Mr. Starkey. “The
interest alone would be 112 billions, and it would be due every
six months.” .
Mr. Starkey takes $2,115 as the value of the queen s jewels.
It seems a modest sum to grow in a few centuries to four and a
half trillions, but money breeds money.
Experts, by the way, have disposed of the myth that the
Dutch cheated the Indians when they bought Manhattan Island
from them for twenty-four dollars and a barrel of rum. The,
dollars alone, at interest, would have multiplied until it was far
greater than the value of Manhattan and all its skyscrapers.
And, as for the rum, there are not enough figures in mathe
matics to indicate what it would be worth now.
Forty-Three Million Profit
Advertising Did It.
Big business men and little business men are interested in
the financial statement of the American Tobacco Company for
1930—“ the year of depression.”
The company’s net income was $43,345,370.
In 1929, it was thirty millions.
Gain for 1930, about 50 per cent over 1929.
President George Washington Hill, of the company, explains
that the miracle “has been made possible by the power of news
paper advertising.”
American Tobacco spent more on advertising last year than
ever before.
This year it will spend far more than last.
Watch its net income NEXT year.
WASHINGTON, D. C.,
MARCH 21, 1931