Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 285, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 March 1928 — Page 4

PAGE 4

SC R l ppj - H OWA RO

Rockefeller’s Coal Plan It is possible to be a little disgusted by John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s failure to make a first hand investigation of the grave charge that a West Virginia coal company, whicn he is capable of controlling, repudiated. a solemn wage contract with the miners’ union, and then used strong-arm methods to beat down the union men when they struck in protest. It seems that, as an apostle of righteousness in industry, he should have done as much. That, however, docs not make it possible to brush aside lightly his outline of a possible method of procedure to straighten out the disgraceful industrial mess in the soft coal fields, to which his company has contributed. Rockefeller told the Senate soft coal investigating committee that ne would first have it summon the operators, and see if a plan could be worked out to cut down the present overproduction of coal, at the same time protecting the public against the danger of unreasonable price increases. If this accomplished anything, he said, he would suggest the committee call those engaged in distribu-tion-railroads and large retailers—to see if they would agree to plans to cut production, and provide for better handling of soft coal. And finally, if some tentative basis of agreement could be reached between Government representatives and these groups, he said he would then summon the leaders cf the miners and tackle the “fourth, and most difficult and important part of the problem—wages and labor.'’ This is by far the most intelligent line of, procedure which has been outlined during the present investigation, ana just about the only one that gives premise cf checking the human and business demoralization in the soft coal fields. It will be objected, of course, that Rockefeller's plan of procedure makes the human element in coal mining a fourth rather than a first consideration. Let’s talye a look at that objection. Unless production of son coal is cut down to eliminate cutthroat competition, it is going to continue to be impossible for coal miners to make a decent living, regardless of the soundr.as of their claims or the public sympathy with tneir plight. The miners ao not control the production of soft coal. They take the work that is available, and right now coal mining jobs are almost universally wretched, because too nruen coal is produced. That forces down prices, and hence wages ; The firsts and absolutely essential step to permanent relief of the miners is to cut down production. Any possibility oi controlling that depends upon negotiations with the operators. Consequently, it i3 an eminently sensible suggestion that the first step toward a solution should be Government efforts to induce or ccmpel the operators to check tne ergy of production. Until that is done, everything else is relatively futile. It may comfort the miners to have it reported to the Senate that great coal companies have junked ethical considerations and repudiated wage contracts, and that outrageous injunctions have been issued against the striking miners. That, however, will not get them back decent jobs. Decent jobs will be available only when the industry is put on a paying basis. And it is not going to be put on a paying basis as long as the main drive is to prove that the leaders of one side or the other in the soft coal industry are a set of rogues. To that extent, at least, the testimony of Rockefeller before tne Senate committee was clear and to the point. These S-4 Rumors It. is to be hoped, that someone—the Navy Department, Congress or some other responsible bodywill get to the bottom of the S-4 rescue story and make all the facts public. Ugly rumors are floating around the Boston Navy Yard. It is hinted that the submarine rested so lightly on the bottom that only a slight pull would have brought it to the surface. It is reported that “if the divers could talk” there would be anew story to tell; that bungling and inefficiency might be revealed. For the good of the Navy these rumors must be traced down. If they are true, let's know it and kick the bunglers out; if they aren’t, let’s clear the Navy of some serious charges and end the whispering. At all events, let's have the whole story. The Jazz Mutiny It is to be hoped that the ghosts of the tarryhanded old British sailors of Nelson’s day have not heard about the recent "mutiny,” or whatever it was, on the British warship Royal Oak. This affair developed, according to dispatches, •when the captain refused to allow a jazz band to play atjoard ship. British naval vessels saw mutinies occasionally in the old days—but never over anything like that. The old-timers could put up with weevily bread, semirotten salt beef and vinegar-like lime juice for month after month; they could endure things that modern Jack never imagines; and when they mutinied, it was a real mutiny. But a mutiny over a jazz band! The old-timers could pull down Davy Jones’ locker in sheer disgust. A Magnificent Gift John D. Rockefeller has given away a tremendous amount of money during the last two decades; just how much, nobody but Rockefeller and his secretaries, probably, knows. But few of his many gifts were any better than the $5,000,000 contribution which will help make the Great Smoky Mountain National Park a reality. This vast stretch of wilderness in Tennessee and North Carolina comprises one of the real beauty spots of America. In addition, it is close to the thickly populated eastern sections of the country. Residents of the east who are prevented, by the expense, from visiting the Rockies can see this new park easily. Now that the village of Detour has been located in Michigan by being snowbound, a lot of the motorists will quit hunting for it. A headline in a tabloid newspaper says “Chorus Girl Bares Soul.” Something new, anyway. Spring's here. If you see a car parked in the park, you can almost tell without hearing the engine run that there’s a miss in the motor.

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPPS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Ind. Price in Marion County. 2 cents—lo cents a week; elsewhere. 3 cents—l 2 cents a week. BOYD GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE—MAIN 3500. MONDAY. MARCH 26. 1928. Member of United Press. Scrip ps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”— Dante.

West Indian Isles for War Debts Turning the French and British possessions in the West Indies over to the United States in exchange for a receipted bill for their war debts again is being mooted in the capitals of Europe. In reviving this issue, which most folks thoi>— had died before it even was born, anew and starthing theory is advanced. Writing in L'lllustration, conservative and influential French review, Ludovic Naudeau declares that Uncle Sam's gold would be preferable to his bullets. Napoleon Bonaparte, Naudeau argues, had much the same thought back in 1803, when he sold Louisiana to the young American republic, this territory —stretching all the way from the Mississippi delta to the Canadian border, and from which some thirteen of our largest States were carved—was certainly worth holding. But, says the writer, Napoleon realized that the United States would grow, and that France would not be able to defend possessions so far away. So he disregarded sentiment, became a hard-boiled business man and swapped a liability for $15,000,000 in cash. A century ago, the Frenchman continues, Martinique, Guadaloupe, the Bahamas, Jamaica, French Guiana, British Honduras and the other European possessions of the new world, might have served a strategic purpose in a war against North, Central or South America. But what good are they now? The Monroe Doctrine, at first ridiculed in Europe as a bumptious gesture on the part cf a puny republic, today stands a monumental fact, unassailable as Gibraltar. The Caribbean has become an American lake and not only is the territory in that region useless as a base from which to launch an attack against the mighty United States, but that country never would tolerate even a foreign war befng fought in those waters. They are too close to its shore and too close to its canals, built and contemplated, in Panama and Nicaragua. Before the end of this century, the writer concludes, the United States will represent unparalleled power. And while its citizens of today are inclined to respect European territory in this hemisphere, circumstances may alter in the future, when it would be foolish for Europe to resist. If Napoleon preferred American gold to American bullets 125 years ago, why shouldn't European statesmen do so now? The Frenchman dees not attempt to answer the question. In fact, he makes it plain that he merely is reporting something he believes to be in the air, particularly the American air. And he wants it understood that he is not suggesting that France take the initiative—though he does suggest that Britain might. As for us, charming as some of the islands are, we know a wholp slew cf Washington officials who would have to be outrun, hamstrung and hog-tied before they'd accept them as a gift. Their view is we’ve trouble enough of that kind on hands as it is. France’s New Insurance France has, supposedly, a “conservative” government. So far as we know, no one has ever accused Premier Poincare of any form of radicalism. But the French have just adopted one of the most radical schemes of governmental insurance ever heard of. A fund of $200,000,000 will >e raised annually through the collection, from all workers and employers, of 10 per cent of each worker’s wage. This will go to build up a $4,000,000,000 fund, from which old age pensions, death benefits, disability payments and medical care will be paid a full half of the French population. And this was adopted by a government often’ called reactionary! Imagine v.hat would happen if that were even proposed over here. Apparently what is radical on one side of the Atlantic is something else on the other side. ,

Dietz on Science - . . A Strange Relationship No. 7

ONE of the great steps which led to our modern understanding of the atom and the marvelous progress which the science of chemistry has made in recent years, was taken by a Russian chemist in 1869. It was in that year that Dmitri Mendeleeff published his famous periodic table. Mendeleeff showed that if the chemical elements were arranged in a series with the one whose atom

wm '■” -i * " ' —— mmii ii* 1

For example, the third element in such a series is lithium. If you count eight from lithium, you come to sodium. Count eight more and you come to potassium. Now these three elements are all very similar in color, hardness and chemical properties. Many similar groups come to light iq the Mendeleeff periodic table, for example, one containing the gases fluorine, chlorine and bromine. MendeleeiT’s table had two interesting results. Certain elements did not fit into the table. He at once said that this was because their atomic weights, that is, the weight of their atoms, had been wrongly determined. Further experiments proved he was right. Next, there were certain gaps in Mendeleeff’s table where elements should have fitted in but for which no element was known. Mendeleeff boldly predicted that such elements would be subsequently found and that they would have the physical and chemical properties which his table called for. A number of these elements were later discovered. And the great Russian chemist was vindicated, for they possessed the characteristics which he had predicted. But perhaps the greatest usefulness of his table was that it stimulated research. The existence of these periodic relationships was a fascinating one. What was its underlying cause? The explanation, as we shall see, was found when the structure of the atom was once understood.

BRIDGE ME ANOTHER (Copyright. 1928, bv The Ready Reference Publishing Company! BY W. W. WENTWORTH

(Abbreviations: A—ace: K—kine; Q—oueen; J—jack: X—any card lower than in.) 1. When you hold A Q J X in hand and dummy holds X X X X, how many possible tricks may be made? 2. Should partner of informatory double ever make a pre-emptive bid? 3. When you hold: spades—X X; hearts—Q J X X X; diamonds— XXX; clubs—X XX. what should you bid in answer to partner’s informatory double of opponent's oneheart bid? The Answers 1. Four. 2. Hardly ever. 3. One no-trump.

Mr. Fixit Street Lif/hts Ordered Installed on Winthrop Are.

Let Mr. Fixit. The Times’ representative at citv hall, present vour troubles to cl tv officials. Write Mr. Fixit at The Times. Names and addresses which must be Riven will not be published. City Engineer A. H. Moore todav ordered installation of street lights on Winthrop Ave., between FiftyFourth and Fifty-Sixth Sts., on request of Mr. Fixit, following his receipt of the following letter: Dear Mr. Fixit: I am writing this to ask for your assistance in the installation of three lights on Winthrop Ave., at Fifty-Fourth, FiftyFifth and Fifty-Sixth Sts. This district has no lights whatsoever and being practically 100 per cent built up. there are only a very few vacant lots, and all property holders, except two or three, we all feel there is no excuse whatsoever in withholding installation of lights. It is extremely dark, and even from a safety standpoint we should have them. Within the lest two or three years the city has been petitioned to install lights, but no favorable action has ever been taken. Just recently I have obtained anew petition with more than SO per cent of resident property owners, and this petition was handed to the Board of Works today. P. W. B. Dear Mr. Fixit: In Indianapolis, how close to a division line between two lots may a building be legally placed? CONSTANT READER. The city building code provides business structures can come up to the line blit residential structures must be four feet back.

Questions and Answers

You can set an answer to any answerable question oi tact or Information by writing (o Frederick M. Kerby. Question Editor, The Indianapolis Times, Washington Bureau. 1322 New York Ave , Washington. D. C.. enclosing two cents In stamps tor reply. Medical and legal advice cannot be given, nor can extended research be made. All other Questions will receive a personal reply. Unsigned requests cannot be answered All leters are confidential. You are cordially Invited to make use of this free service as often as vou please EDITOR. Is dirigible an adjective or a noun? The first use of the word in aeronautics was an adjective, a "dirigible balloon.’ The word balloon was dropped as unnecessary, and now it Is correct to use the word “dirigible” as a noun, referring to that type of balloon. Ho- tall was the famous “Jumbo,” and how much did he weigh? He was 11 feet 6 inches tall, and weighed about six tons or 12,000 pounds. What is a “carillonneur?” One who plays a cannon, a set of stationary bells or chimes, played upon by hand or mechanical hammers. What weight gloves were used at (he Rempsey-Tunney fight in Chicago? Six ounces. What is the seating capacity of the Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York? Yankee Stadium, 62,000; Polo Grounds, 55,000. Arc the parents of Jackie Coogan living? Yes. How old is Irving Berlin? He was born May 11, 1838. Hew old is Rin-Tin-Tin, the movie dog? Nine years. x

weighed t he least at one end of the table and the one whose atom weighed the most at the other end, that a surprising relationship then existed between the elements. This relationship was a periodic recurrence of similar physical and chemical properties in the elements in the table.

PIAIS |S F ia| inr

The Rules 1. The idea of letter golf is to change one word to another and do it in par, or a given number of strokes. Thus, to change COW to HEN in three strokes, COW, HOW, HEW, HEN. 2. You can change only one letter at a time. 3. You must have a complete word of common usage for each jump. Slang words and abbreviations don’t count. 4. The order of letters can not be changed.

S 1 A|F IE. s!alt_e 11X1 SI T S hi i rfTs~

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

BYZANTINE DAYS OUR story has taken so far west and north that wc have forgotten that in the distant east a fragment of the Roman Empire still survived, and that for a thousand years after the “fall of Rome a long succession of emperors had reigned in the picturesque city which Constantine built on the shores of the Bosphorus. It is strange and not strange that this Byzantine Empire should find so little favor with historians; strange, since for eleven centuries its kings ruled an ordered state at the door between the eastern and flic western world; not strange, since in that long millenium this half oriental monoarchy produced no great literature, no worthy science, and in art only an architectural style that won its fairest triumphs in other lands. Let every nation that would be remembered and honored consider how time has dealt with princes, potentates and powers, crowding their names into dynasties and covering treir violence with oblivion, while it cherishes the memory of poets and philosophers, artists, scientists and saints. The Eastern Empire owed its wealth and power to the commerce and impregnability of its capitol. Os all medieval cities none could rival the trade of Constantinople: from that strategic pert ships sailed tc (every land of Europe, and brought their goods through the Black Sea to reach by caravan the farthest markets of the orient. The emperors, dipping their fingers into this wealth, became for a while conquerors, and then relaxed in the lap of luxury, while their people fell into factions, their religion into schisms, and their real into decay. In the sixth century Justinian for a passing period extended the power of the Eastern Empire over Rome; but soon that power passed, leaving the frontiers so frail that in the seventh century the Slavs invaded Greece outbred the descendants of the Periclean days and subjected what was left of Hellenic culture to their barbaric codes and ways. u n n THE inhabitants of Constantinople, shorn of all share in the Government of the State, expressed the natural sectarianism of mankind by ranging themselves in hostile religious heresies. We need not burden our tale with the quarrels of Gnostics, Manicheans, Monophvsites, Monothelites, iNestorians. and the rest; they partook diversely, and with approximate equality, in the madness of their time; it is enough to know that after the council of Chalccdon (451), the Catholics of the East refused to acknowledge the Christian sovereignty of the pope of Rome, and set up their own “Greek Catholic Church,” with the patriarch of Constantinople at their head, and with all superstitions carefully preserved. The worship of images was first rejected, and then restored; man cannot worship without imagination, and it is difficult to be philosophically religious. The great achievement of this civilization—which history calls Bvzantine from the old Greek name of its capital—was its art. In 532 the Emperor Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus to design a cathedral in memory of St. Sophia; a generation of labor was required for its completion; and its final fate was to fall into the hands of the Turks and be transformed into a Mohammedan mosque. Its great glory is its dome, which w’as in its time the largest in the world; the architects were Greek, but their cities and their traditions were already Oriental. The Turks did not need to make essential changes; they liked the dome and the spacious interior, and they atoned for denuding the church of ikons by gracing the exterior with slender minarets. n n n TODAY, as you enter it, you remove your shoes and spend most of the ensuing hours in recapturing the slippers which Turkish attendants, for a consideration not to be overlooked, try to fit upon your feet

Washington Style Note: ‘Party Skirts* Are Higher

r ; 1

A a Is Achievement of Civilization

THE STORY OF CIVILIZATION

Written for The Times bp Will Durant -

from models too gigantic for our stunted intellectual tribe. You are lost in the interior and are confused by these many apses, these little churches opening on the central nave; here, doubtless, sixteen holy men might preach sixteen sermons at one time, without disturbance to one another, or to mankind. The vast edifice seems bare, and yet the wall is covered or broken with floral capitals, stone carving as fine as lace, and mosaics supreme in their kind. It was out of such mosaic art that modern painting grew. In the Greek churches (of which more anon in Russia) the ornamentation was more elaborate. Ikons, in the form of statues and pictures, were finally allowed, but (as a medieval writer tells us) the Greeks of this age represented the human figure only to the waist, so that all occasion for vain thought might be removed. Some of the ikons were richly bcjeweled and Byzantine taste did not object to covering even the cross with precious stones. The Byzantine style of complex decoration and spacious domes spread with Byzantine power and trade; first to Ravenna, where the Eastern emporers during the fifth and sixth centuries: and then to Venice, which for a long time con-

Goshen Daily News-Times Before Republicans of Indiana become too deeply immersed in the ploitical campaign now getting under way it might be well to consider the statement of Senator James E. Watson, made at the Republican Editorial Association meeting last week, that during his thirty-five years of political activity he had consistently refrained from personal attacks upon his party adversaries. The Republicans of Indiana are not only confronted with the task of choosing State, county and township candidates but also must indicate a preferential choice between two outstanding party leaders for president of the United States. The fact that Senator Watson is a native son has already caused some of his more ardent supporters to heap unjustified criticism upon Herbert Hoover whose name has been entered as a contestant for the Indiana delegation to the national convention. This is not in keeping with the courtesy due Mr. Hoover; neither is it in keeping with good political judgment. If either Senator Watson or Secretary Hoover should be nominated for president at the Kansas City convention the loyal support of the other would be both desirable and essential in the ensuing campaign against the opposition party. Both Mr. Hoover and Mr. Watson appreciate this fact and can be depended upon to conduct themselves accordingly. Their supporters should be able to do likewise. Except for a now and then observed rule that a “favorite son” shall not have outside opposition in his home State there can be no criticism of Mr. Hoover's friends for filing his name as a candidate for Indiana's preferential vote. The choice of a president being national in scope, it is natural that even some residents of Indiana should look beyond the borders of their own State for a candidate who best appeals to them as a suitable person to preside as the nation’s chief executive. This is a privilege which no one can fairly be denied. Being a native son and well known citizen of Indiana, familiar with its people and its politics, Senator Watson should be able to win a preferential vote over Mr. Hoover. Inability to do this would disprove his favorite son claim and his chances of support from other sections of the country. This is the immediate issue that the Watson supporters must face in Indiana, aJUi to win victory for their favorite Without subjecting him to the ill will of those who

trolled the commerce of Europe with the Orient. St. Mark’s, at Venice, is the supreme monument of Byzantine architecture in the west; here, in this great Greek cross, with domes at every end. and in the center a deme dominating all, is cne of the world's architectural treasures, whose flowery facade and dove strewn piazza seem never to tire the soul that is not too old for romance. Yes, it is true that the excess of ornament gives the cathedral a meretricious aspect, as some of the painted women submerged in decoration; it is true that the endless variety of detail detracts from the unity of the whole, as episodes may weaken a drama's central theme; it is true that one does not feel here the noble strength and placid stability of a Greek temple, lifted up with powerful pillars to some firm entablature; very well, there are many avatars of beauty, and this is cne. Beauty and sublimity do not often go together, being divided much as the sexes are; when either comes let us bow in gratitude. And now enter the sombre interior, and read Ruskin’s Byzantinely ornamented page (“The Stones of Venice,” Everyman edition, ii, 65.> (Copyright, 1928. by Will Durant) To Be Continued)

With Other Editors

hold a different point of view will require a higher order of political intelligence than is being shown in some quarters. The next Republican candidate for president will be chosen for his ability in constitutive statesmanship, not because his followers have here and there been able to annihilale his opponents by force of superior organization or unfair personal attacks. A candidate is also judged by the company he keeps. This should impel a high grade of deportment on the part of those who are sponsoring Indiana’s native son. Washington Democrat The public was not greatly surprised when Arthur Robinson, Indiana's weak brother in the United States Senate, made a political attack upon Governor Smith with the unsupported charge that Sinclair, the oil man, had contributed to Smith’s campaign fund when he was a candidate for Governor of New York, in 1920, and that as a reward, Governor Smith had appointed Sinclair to the State’s racing commission. Governor A1 Smith characterized Robinson's statement as “demagogic slander” and said: “A careful search of the official records made at my request today confirmed my recollection that Mr. Sinclair never contributed to my campaign fund either in 1920 or at afiy other time that I ever ran for office. “In fact. I failed of election as Governor in 1920, and Mr. Sinclair had been appointed to commission months prior to that election, some four years before there was any thought of the oil scandal.” Search of tile New York State records disclosed, however, that in 1922 —the year that Nathan L. Miller opposed and was defeated by Governor Smith Mr. Sinclair contributed $5,000 to the Republican State committee. The payment was made, the records show to Anson C. Goodyear, treasurer of the Republican State committee. Asa result of this little tilt between Senator Robinson and Governor Smith, in which Robinson appears to have gotten decidedly the worst of it, Indiana’s representative in the United States Senate is being held up as an example of what happens to a male scandal monger. Robinson’s foolish attack without facts to back up his statements occasioned no surprise in Indiana, where the people now have his measure. Is it illegal to use a pseudonym or pen name? No.

inn?

TRAC Y SAYS: “Ready to Admit That Our Economic Prof/rcss Is Due to Change and, Innovation, We Persist in Denying Them a Place in Politics

CHATTANOOGA, Tcnn., March 26. — Looking out on the haze-soft-tened hills that surround this city, with their picturesque slopes threaded by concrete highways and adorned by comfortable homes, it is difficult to believe that 100,000 men once made them hideous with the red mantle of war, or that this fact is remembered more generally than any other in connection with Chattanooga. There is a town of about 3,000 people on top of Lookout Mountain, with a mayor, electric lights and running water. What would old Joe Hooker think of that? it a a Homes on Battlefield Missionary Ridge, which Thomas stormed in an hour, though at the price of a crimson hillside, has now become a residential suburb. Along its crest stretches a scenic drive, with tablets dotting lawns and cannon in the midst of jonquil beds — the exact records of war preserved for generations that knew it not. The record seems unreal. You simply can not picture men fighting and falling in the midst of such contentment. Os course, it was differcnl then. No terraced lawns, no protective hedges, no bungalows with steam heat and gas stoves, when Thomas stormed the ridge. And that, too, seems unreal. One reads the legend of battle amidst the monuments of peace only to ask which stands for the larger achievement. n it tt When to Shake Hands Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge—what a historic panorama they present. For more than half a century an awed nation has bowed in reverence of their memory, and the unborn children cf centuries yet to come will cherish it as an incentive to heroism. The best symbol of it all is the monument erected by the State of New' York on Lookout Mountain, which is surmounted by the figure of two soldiers shaking hands. That is the end of every battle. The task for future generations is to teach them the wisdom of shaking hands before, instead of afterward. Dead Rule World? Reviewing the Civil War and all it cost, cne cannot help wondering if cheap politics did not play a mighty part in its making. Fanatics at the north and fanatics at the south; party leaders demanding an issue at any price, and not pausing to consider what this issue might include; everybody preaching that the Constitution was sacred beyond change, but disagreeing as to what it meant, and then the crash which always comes when men put stubbornness above intelligence. Thomas Jefferson said that one generation had no right to bind the next, the world should not be ruled by its dead, and that the Constitution ought to be reaffirmed, if not rewritten, every twenty years or so. What a pity it is that the country was, and still is, deaf to his advice.

Political Intolerance The queerest feature of our civilization is that though we have become economically tolerant, we remain politically intolerant. We are willing for dreamers, philosophers. inventors and discoverers to revolutionize life in every respect, except Government. We actually hate the Russian people because they are following a theory of Government in which we do not believe. We hate Mussolini for precisely the same reason. But if they want to experiment and are willing to pay the price, why should we worry, much less get mad? Ready to admit that our economic progress is due to change and innovation. we persist in denying them a place in politics. The Eighteenth amendment will stay in the Constitution not because it has found lasting lodgment in the hearts of the people, but because their tradtions are still deep upon them. No constitutional amendment w r as ever repealed, and that, more than anything else, guarantees the life of this one. a a a Bigotry in Government Like the steamboat, telephone, or moving picture machine, government was thought out by man. It is a purely artificial institution—the product of dream, experiment and deduction. It is the one thing, however, that, we can not seem to change in a fundamental way without war. The world was willing to throw away its candles for electric lights, in spite of all the commercial havoc, and would be willing to throw away the latter for something better, but when it comes to what we call the principles of government, they are sustained by a stubbornness which is little short of bigotry. a a a Merit of Open Minds We have not reached that degree of intelligence where we can tolerate opinions which disagree with what we have ben taught to regard as immutable principles of government. One might argue that degree of On emight argue that the wheel is an immutable principle of land transportation, but that does not prove that the wheelbarrow Is the last word in its application. I am not arguing that a better government than ours has been produced, but it stands to reason that, like every other human creation, government can be improved and we ought to keep our minds open. Nothing is so dangerous in any walk of life as an attitude of complete satisfaction, a belief that improvement is impossible.