Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 188, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 December 1930 — Page 4

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* The Best Way Out While financiers, lawyers and officials are debating the Insull proposal to take over the street car lines and put a few million dollars into new tracks and cars, the real need is a law which will permit the people to operate their own transportation system. The plan of busses suggested by George Marott, veteran merchant, has the merit of vision. Invention will make the present street car system obsolete. The day has passed when banking groups successfully can frighten populations with the threat that money for public projects will be withheld. They no longer can control progress for private profit. The plain truth is that private ownership and operation has been so bad that investors find the assets of the street car company reduced to the point where minor secuiities have little or no value, unless the people consent to mortgage future generations to pay nterest on values which no longer exist. The eternal franchise is an effort to put several millions of value into bonds and ferred stock after the real value has been dissipated and destroyed. Every city must have a transportation system of some kind. This city wants the best. The city of the future is not likely forever to maintain surface lines that clog the streets. No utility organization, no matter how large, has a monopoly on operating genius or honesty. It is idle to believe that the lines will stop if this proposal is turned down. The public can employ as good, if not better, talent than has been furnished in the past, for the evidence is quite clear that private management has brought bankruptcy. The one way is for the city to take over these lines at their real value, operate them as long as necessary, and substitute moie modern methods as invention furnishes them. The people pay the bills. They are paying now for all the high finance and mismanagement of the past. If they are forced to pay for such things, the mismanagement and high finance should be of their own making. The Indianapolis delegation to the legislature should be a unit for a measure which will give the city legal power to own and operate its own transportation system. Industrial Emancipation The Democrats are charged with impeding administration efforts to rehabilitate our economic prosperity. The main issue is: Does the administration have a solution? We commend to the attention of the. “great engineer” in the White House Stuart Chase's succinct summary of the minimum essentials of a scheme of industrial co-ordination in Harpers magazine. Here it is: “For America, industrial co-ordination probably must take the form of drastic revision of the antitrust laws; an alliance of industry, trade association and government to control investment and plant cajpacity on the one hand, and to guard against unwarranted monopoly prices on the other; a universal system of minimum wages and guaranteed hours of labor to frighten off fly-by-night entrepreneurs and to stimulate purchasing power; and, finally, and perhaps most important of all, the setting up of a national industrial planning board as a fact-gatherer and in turn an adviSer to congress, President, industry, trade union, banker, state government, on every major economic undertaking in accordance with a master blueprint.” Here is something for Mr. Hoover to chew on along with his Christmas turkey. But he should not have had to wait for Stuart Chase to set it under his nose in 1930. The same implications were as plain as day in the report on ‘waste industry,” which he sponsored a decade ago.

Gangsters and Government Federal officials are doing a lot of talking about gangsters and racketeers. It is a popular topic, but thundering on popular topics is not the way to run the government. President Hoover and Chairman Snell of the house rules committee have warned that the f crier a! government can do little about racketeering. That is true. But it seems to have been forgotten by Attorney-General Mitchell and Secretary of Labor Doak, whose statements indicate possible federal interference. Dealing with racketeers and gangsters is the primary job of the local police, the local prosecuting attorneys, the local judges. Attempts to use the federal government for such work would be a “reflection on the sovereignty and stamina of state government," as the President pointed out. The second danger of loose talk by federal officials is that they may find themselves enmeshed in illegal practices of local officials. Long experience has taught that lawless enforcement of law is no way to combat crime. Chicago has been a recent center for such practices, and there federal officials have been placed in equivocal positions. When employment demonstrations were being treated by some police organizations as Communist propaganda, and anti-Communist raids were being used to obscure the issue of grave unemployment, Chicago was one city in which federal agents were drawn into such legal lawlessness There'were reports that United States department of justice agents had taken part, and also agents of the immigration bureau of the United States labor department. It now appears that the federal government is being drawn into a questionable situation by the Chicago crime commission. Mitchell and Doak let it be understood they were looking ipto the activities of the men branded as “public enemies” by the Chicago commission. That body has issued a circular saying the “federal officials'soon were energized into action." and claiming it had become the “adviser” of the federal authorities. Heads of federal departments themselves may retreat from ill-advised programs.-but their worte en-cr-urage subordinates to do careless things long after-

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKIPRS-HOWAKD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis. Ind. Price in Marion County, 2 centa a copy: elsewhere. 3 cents—delirered by carrier. 12 cen>.a a week. BOYD GURLEY. BOY W. lIOWAKD. FRANK O. MORRISON. Editor President Business Managpr PHONE—KI ley KSSI TUESDAY. DEC. 16. 1930. Member of United Press. Scilppa-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People-Will Find Their Own Way.”

ward. There are rumors of raids by labor department officials in New York and other large cities. Certain officials in the department of justice talk of organizing a national police service—without legislation by congress to authorize it. These are ominous symptoms. They call for corrective action by department heads. Secretary of Labor Doak is in a particularly bad position, which is not of his own making. His department has a bad record of lawlessness. Chairman Wickersham of Hoover's crime commission told the American Bar Association that one of the principal offenders in lawless enforcement of the law is the immigration bureau of the labor department. The conciliation bureau of that department is not much better, with activities fomenting industrial discord instead of bringing about industrial peace. A senate committee considering a long list of decisions by federal judges calling attention to lawless work by labor department agents—lawlessness directed in some instances even against native-born American citizens. Secretary of Labor Doak and Attorney-General Mitchell have plenty of housecleaning to do at home without usurping the functions of local authorities in coping with local gang wars. If Doak has any spare time, he might remember that the labor department had a fair sized unemployment problem on its hands. Insurance Against Breadlines For the third time in fifteen years breadlines now are tragic proof that the solution of the unemployment problem in the richest country in the world can not be left safely to the initiative of private industry alone. Only a few individual employers have tackled the task of staggering production to prevent unemployment, and provided insurance for their workers thrown out of jobs. And those progressive employers are handicapped in competition with the great majority of employers who recognize no such responsibility toward labor. The utter inadequacy of present American provisions for handling the unemployment problem is stressed in the first of a series of surveys just issued by the industrial relations counselors’ organization, whose trustees include Owen D. Young, Raymond B. Fosdick, Cyrus McCormick Jr. and John D. Rockefeller Jr. Commenting on the fact that only about onehalf of 1 per ceht of the 23,000,000 wage-earners of the country are protected by unemployment insurance plans of unions, or corporations, or both, this organization states: “Both as regards the relief of unemployed workers’ distress, and counteracting the inevitable reiction of unemployment upon business, the need for more adequate protection against the hazard of unemployment can not be gainsaid, the long-time planning of public works being as yet mainly in the realm of public discussion and all legislative attempts in the direction of unemployment insurance in. the past having been unsuccessful.” Fortunately, the fight for compulsory unemployment insurance will be waged in at least twenty state legislatures this year, with a model bill drawn by the American Association for Labor Legislation committee. This bill avoids mistakes made in European systems and builds upon American plans such as those of General Electric, Dennison and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. These state bills will be supplemented by a national bill for federal aid to administrative funds of states operating satisfactory unemployment insurance systems. The npise abatement committee just appointed in Philadelphia probably will find the city considerably quieter when the world's championship changes hands. The Notre Dame boys may nos know a thing about the fashions, but they’re certainly famous for their old-fashioned Irish lacing. In the steep climb to success, says the office sage, a little “pull” often counts as much as considerable push. Then there’s the Scotch wife who refers to her husband as her sparing partner. “You get the drift,” as the Eskimo said to his snowbound neighbor. Suits for slander, says the office sage, often prove to be nothing more than vanity cases.

REASON > r KK‘ s CK

PRESIDENT HOOVER'S visa ruling, designed to keep out of this country aliens w T ho are likely to become public charges, has helped the unemployment situation to the extent of 135,000. This in itself is a real contribution to the domestic situation. nan Before long fish will be sent by airplane from the far north to Chicago, and as fish are supposed to be brain food, we suggest that they be fed to these Chicago judges who, with the exception of Judge Lyle, have not been able to figure out a w T ay to handle crime. Marine L. Herbert, recently elected justice of the peace in Johnson county, Indiana, spent only one chew r of tobacco in his triumphant campaign. But unless the office of justice pays more in Johnson county than elsewhere, he'll have a hard time getting back his outlay. \ a an THE navy has decided to name one of our new aircraft carriers The Ranger, in honor of the old boat of revolutionary days. This is a good idea, but here's one in place of it. a a e The Ranger was a fighting ship which carried eighteen guns, and it would be the proper caper to give this name to a real-for-sure fighting cruiser. We name battle ships after states, but we can name a cruiser after anything. BUB ThU navy department should honor the names of the famous fighters of years gone by; call these new cruisers the Ranger. Bon Homme Richard, Constitution, Chesapeake, Hartford, etc. Aside from the propriety, there's a certain inspiration about it. b a FOREIGN countries perpetuate the names of famous regiments by handing them down through the centuries, and there's a sentiment about it we like. But we must not go too far withjthis, lest we bring clown upon cur head the wrath oTThose nonresistants who are opposed to “glorifying” war. BUB We're not for war any more than anybody else, but until all the lions turn to lambs we must be in shape to protect ourselves and while doing this it’s a good idea to toss a compliment to the ships that have done their duty for liberty and gone the way of yesterday. Name these cruisers after their illustrious ancestors. *

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

Most of Us Can Be Sold a Gold Brick if It Is Wrapped in the Right Kind of Publicity. Birmingham, Ala., Dec. 16. Those “beautiful castles in Spain” appear to be crumbling, but Paris, Tenn., wants a bull fight just the) same, with Sidney Franklin in person. Not for love of the blood, you understand, but for faith in advertising. Look at what Dayton got out of the Scopes case, and whose supposes a bull fight would bring less? Most of us took the Scopes case rather seriously, which shows how easily most of us can be sold a gold brick, provided it is wrapped in the right kind of publicity. Those who claim to be on the inside will tell you, though not until they have glanced behind the door or under the bed to see whether some neighbor is eavesdropping, that the Scopes case was staged by some local geniuses who were vastly more interested in booming the old home town than in saving the first chapter of Genesis. an tt Just Don't Worry THE stock market continues to sag, receiverships are coming so thick and fast in Tennessee that a Philadelphia lawyer couldn’t keep track of them, and everybody is wondering what, if anything, will be left next spring, but a calm old gentleman down in Georgia celebrates his lOlSt birthday by proclaiming that if you would live long, “work hard and don’t worry.” Millions of people gladly would take his advice if they could only get the work. Maybe, if he hadn’t had that thirty-five-acre cotton patch to chop this summer he would have found it necessary to do a lot more worrying. Lack of opportunity, more than anything else, is what ails this country, which was founded on the idea of giving every one a better opportunity. The fact that millions of people are out of work is of less consequence than is the fact that they are helpless to do anything for themselves. ' tt a a Climax to Crazy* Era WE face the alternative of more system, or less. The notion that things can go on as they are is absurd. Either centralized industry must take care of its workers, cr break up and give them a better chance to take care of themselves. . The existing mechanism is producing nothing in such quantities as mob psychology—mob psychology which leaves those at the bottom virtually paralyzed when it comes to sane, independent thinking, while it enables those at the top to do all kinds of tricks. Nineteen thirty merely was the inevitable result of 1929 and 1929 was neither more nor less than the climax to an era of crazy speculation. No confidence man, or group of confidence men, ever bunked this country to such extent as it was bunked by the stock-trading crew just before the crash, and no boob ever was taken in more completely than some of our best bankers.

Wake Up at Last A SENATE sub-committee will study the banking system, with Senator Glass as its chairman and H. Parker Willis as technical adviser. With two such men on the job, we ought to get somewhere, and Heaven knows we need to. Why someone hasn’t thought of studying the banking system long ere this is one of those mysteries which must be put down to public apathy. Like Captain Smith of the Titanic, we seem to have fallen for the delusion that we had constructed an unsinkable ship by virtue of the federal reserve act. For fourteen years we told one another that we at last had devised a system which not only would weather, but prevent, depressions. Now we know better. Now we know that, in spite of all its strength, that system could be used to divert legitimate commercial credit into the channels of speculation. As co-author of the federal act and a former secretary of the treasury, Senator Glass is well qualified to take charge of an investigation, the object of which is to find out what ails our banking system and how it best can be corrected, while as one of the few experts who saw the crash corning and tried to warn us, H. Parker Willis has proved his peculiar fitness to render expert assistance. Chalk up one big mark to the senate’s credit.

Questions and Answers

Has the United States treasury department ever published statistics showing the number of persons killed in enforcement of the eighteenth amendment since it became effective in 1920? On June 30, 1930, the statement was issued by the prohibition unit of the treasury department, that since the eighteenth amendment became effective in 1920, 219 persons had been killed in the enforcement of the laws. Os these. 154 were citizens killed by prohibition agents and -ixty-five were prohibition agents who met death in the line of duty. Do synchronous electric clocks have a fast-slow adjustment? They operate only on alternating current which the power companies maintain at a steady rate, usually sixty cycles, per second. The synchronous motor in the clock operates in unison w r ith the cycles of the current, so that for every sixty cycles the clock will register a second. Who were the leading actors in “Embarrassing Moments?” Reginald Denny and Mema Kennedy.

Daily Thought

Say unto wisdom, thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman.—Proverbs 7:4. Wisdom is seldom gained without suffering.—Sir Arthur Helps.

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DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Rheumatic Ills Shown on Increase

BY DR. MORRIS FISIIBEIN Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association and of Ilyceia, the Health Magazine. CHRONIC inflammation of the joints has. been found in the skeletons of reptiles that lived long before the days of man. The tissue of the cave bear and saber-toothed tiger show the marks of this infection. It was as prevalent in the prehistoric dwellers of upper Egypt as among the first inhabitants of Great Britain. It represents today one of the most serious of the complaints that attack human beings and which science is as yet resisting with but indifferent success. The number of deaths attributed to rheumatic diseases and their complications rises steadily. Gout, for a while an apparently declining disease, begins to show an increased rate in recent years. In a review of the subject for the ministry of health in Great Britain, Dr- J. Allison Glover emphasizes the importance of the condition in London hospitals, pointing out that as many as 40 per cent of patients

IT SEEMS TO ME by

TT IS known that Professor Ein- -*■ stein dreaded his encounter with the ship news reporters, and it is more than possible that the reporters were just a little nervous about what sort of questions to ask a man who may answer them in terms of relativity. In an effort to help both parties in the conflict I am privileged to make an announcement concerning Professor Einstein’s views upon one of our domestic problems. Alfred Lief has supplied me with a hitherto unpublished note which Dr. Einstein wrote this year when he was asked to express an opinion concerning the pacifism of Rosika Schwimmer. Our supreme court has passed on this issue, but it Is interesting to hear what a great scientist has to say on the same subject. u a tt Einstein’s Opinion PROFESSOR EINSTEIN wrote: “I consider Mme. Schwimmer’s stand of great value and deserving the support of all true humanitarians. “Government represents the people, and the people are still under the spell of obsolete traditions of military duty. World peace, a crying necessity, is not to be achieved unless spiritually progressive forces refuse to yield to public authorities, controlled by factions which should be defeated. “Those convinced of this necessity should consider it their duty publicly to uphold this conviction; thereby they bring upon themselves a conflict with public authority. A result can be obtained only if a large number of influential personalities have the moral courage for such an attitude. “Such an attitude is revolutionary. But only through acts of rebellion can the fettered individual break chains which, though founded in laws, have grown into unendurable bondage. In this situation, too, such a recourse is unavoidable. “Credit is due Mme. Schwimmer for having realized this and having acted courageously in accordance with her convictions.”

High and Mighty IT is reasonable enough that President Hoover should call into question some of -the plans for unemployment relief suggested by congress, but his attitude toward those sponsoring measures which he does not approve is much too high and mighty. The President seems to be under the delusion that he is the original unemployment relief man and that the men in the house or senate who have other ideas are upstarts, unworthy of attention. Mr. Hoover should think back a few months and recollect just what he did when the depression began. Undoubtedly he was sincere in his apparent notion that it might be possible to end the slump by a series of cheerful proclamations. There was no disposition on the part of the White House in those days to suggeii specific remedies to relieve unemproyment. Indeed, there

Speaking of Harmony!

seen in watering resorts are sufferers from this chronic form of disorder. In a great American clinic, seven per cent of the patients treated are sufferers from chronic arthritis, as were also 7 per cent of the patients in a municipal hospital in Berlin. Eleven per cent of the patients reported by Boston hospitals as suffering from chronic and incurable diseases were the victims of chronic arthritis, whereas 19 per cent had heart disease, which is not infrequently a related condition. In the attempt to reach the cause of the chronic rheumatic complaints it has been found that they tend to attack families and there seems to be some evidence that the constitution of the human being is related to his susceptibility to this disorder. Several investigators have found that 58 per cent of the patients are members of rheumatic families. Women seem to be much more susceptible to the disease than do men, the various authorities finding the incidence in women some three to six times that in men. In addition to the family influ-

seemed to be actual disinclination to have the matter officially mentioned. tt It tt He Meant Well A ND while President Hoover’s intentions were of the best, his judgment was unsound. Cheerful proclamations did more harm than good. Asa recent convert to this cause of unemployment relief, President Hoover should be a shade more humble. The executive’s accusation that his opponents are “playing politics at the expense of human misery” is neither fair nor graceful. Certainly it is not a charge which should come from a national leader who took almost no definite steps in regard to the problem until the eve of a national election. And if President Hoover is going to take the stand that overappropriation may do more harm than good by increasing taxation and 'discouraging business recovery, then he should carry this theory through to a logical conclusion. He has not been quoted yet as having a concern about the addi-

Views of Times Readers

Editor Times —Your editorial, “Insull Poiftts the Way,” Is timely, terse, and, above all, good sense. As yoff say, if this city can guarantee a profit to Insull, by running the street car system for him, this city can make that profit for itself. And now is. the time to take it over and not after it has again been “milked dry” by utility brig-, ands. The city of Indianapolis does not need the Terminal building and Mr. Insull should be allowed to keep that without protest. This city does need the rails and cars and, as they are at this time without much value due to a state of almost complete decay, the city should take over the property now, when the present owners, as well as Insull, admit it is of small value. It is to be hoped that this deal will not be sneaked over on the people of this city like the electric light and power deal was slipped through by this same Insull. That was the rawest deal any city ever got, and this street car proposition has all the earmarks of the same kind of steal. Those in authority, from Mayor Sullivan down, should be held accountable if this deal is put through. The people are in no mood for another Insull "sleight of hand” trick on this street"car question. W. E. DOLK. 2462 North Harding street. Editor Times—ln regard to the statement of Mr. McArdle of the public service commission about railroads cutting their rates, I consider him all wet. If the railroads had only to pay taxes and salaries in proportion to what the busses do, they could lower freight rates so that no bus line could exist. Did they depend on the busses to haul soldiers and dicing the late war? Who was called upon

ence, there is the associated effect on occupation. Thus one investigator has pointed out that the occupatioa indicates the joints that will be involved. Women doing sewing and knitting are affected in the fingers. Painters and workers with lead seem to be particularly susceptible to the disease, and chill and exposure are associated with the frequency of its occurrence among painters, metal workers, and the personnel of railway locomotives. Dr. Glover is inclined to emphasize particularly the importance of prevention of dampness in dwellings and the importance of free circulation of air and of sunlight in the prevention of arthritis. Much has been said of the importance of removing foci of infection in the teeth and tonsils, as well as elsewhere about the body in the attack on arthritis. Treatment without such removal does not in any way control the condition, for the simple reason that the focus continues to feed the infectious material to the blood and by the blood to the joints, so that new infections are set up.

Ideals and ooinions expressed in this column are those of one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented without recard to their acreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

tional millions which are to be tossed down the sinkhole of prohibition enforcement. An administration eager to support snoopers and agents in the luxury to which they have been accustomed must seem a little niggardly when it begins to whittle away at appropriations for the relief of the unemployed. I doubt that this is just the time for penny pinching. If relief is to be sought through public works, it might as well be an extensive prografh. There is no point in tackling a forest fire with a tumbler. But granted a wide field of honest disagreement as to method and expenditure, there can be no possible doubt that fast and effective action never will be expedited by calling names. While the executive and congress bicker, the nights grow longer and the days grow colder along the corners where the breadlines stand. It seems to me that the nation has a right to say to all members of the government who are wasting time in recrimination, “Gentlemen, put up or shut up!” (Copyright. 1930. by The Times)

during floods; droughts, and the like, when the government and the people needed help? The railroads build their own tracks to operate on and buy their rights of way and pay big taxes to states and counties while the people ride the busses with one man operating them. The cost of repairing an engine every five years would buy a fleet of busses, and pays living wages to the men repairing them, who have spent years learning the business. The railroad freight rates are based on the living salaries .of the men who support the merchants of the town in which they work. Let the people of the country wake up and support the industries that support them, and quit paying for a roadbed for the busses to operate on and get rich and throw thousands of men out of work. The railroads pay good w'ages. Do the bus lines? In all fairness, support the thing that supports you. GEORGE D. REESE 1119 Olive street. Editor Times—Being a taxpayer and citizen of this No Mean City, I have a great interest in its well being, and I would like to say, Whoop it up for the Marott plan of transportation. Let’s go forward and not backward. We build and maintain our street?. We turn them over to all who may want to use them, street cars, blisses, trucks, etc. * Why not put them to use to some extent for ourselves? The trend of the times surely is pointing in the direction of less utility operation and more public. We are changing the channel of the river, let's change the channel of these large utility incomes fjrom their pockets to those of the pefeple. A. J. SNIDER.

:DEC. 16, 1930

SCIENCE —BY DAVID DIETZ—

Glacial Age of Past MaiJ Have Been Caused by Great Film in Space. A COSMIC cloud, a great film of nebulous material in space, may have caused the glacial ages of the past. This theory is set forward by Dr. Harlan True Stetson, director of Perkins observatory, Ohio Wesleyan university. Dr. Stetson discusses the subject in one chapter of nis new book, “Man and the Stars.” (Whittlesey House publishes it at $2.50. This writer recommends it as an excellent summary of modem astronomical views, written so that the layman can understand it.) Stetson tells how when Herschel first examined certain parts of the Milky Way and noticed blank spots, he thought they were holes in the galaxy, tunnels, as it were, extending through the Milky Way into the depths of space. Barnard, however, about a decade ago. proved by his work at the Yerkes observatory, that these dark spots really were clouds of obscuring material. “Today the existence of large obscuring masses in the Milky Way, and the existence of dark matter bordering many diffuse luminous nebulae scarcely is doubted,” he writes. "Other galaxies, such as the great nebula in Andromeda, reveal vast stretches of dark matter entangled in tbfir spiral whirls, engulfing stars and obscuring them.” o st a Edge of Cloud IS it possible that in our own stellar universe, our sun now may be in the midst of some such cloud, or can we be assured that, while many other suns may be imbedded in such murkiness, our own is quite immune and we look skyward from our earth with the confidence that we see the stars through uncluttered space?” Dr. Stetson asks. Dr. Stetson points out that the sun could not be in the midst of a cloud as heavy as some of those which are to be seen in the heavens, since in that case we would not see any stars at all. These clouds, or nebulae as they are called technically, however, consist of extremely thin material, some containing material of far less density than our own atmosphere. Dr. Stetson suggests that our solar system now may be just on the edge of such a cloud and that in past ages it may have traveled through thicker portions of it, or that it might have traveled through other thicker clouds in the past. This would have cut down the amount of heat reaching the earth from the sun and so have ushered in an ice age. “It seems more than plausible that at the times of the great ice ages several thousands of years ago the sun may have been in the region of space where existed a cosmic cloud of considerable dimensions,” he writes. “The wide variations in temperature which the earth has undergone for considerable periods in geologic time seem to be more satisfactorily accounted for on such basis than on the supposition that the sun itself experienced any onsiderable variation in its output in the last 100,000,000 years.”

Just Emerging LOOKING to the future, Dr. Stetson writes, “geologists tell us that the earth at present appears to be emerging from the last glacial epoch and that balmier climates are in store. “We might interpret this astronomically by supposing that we are now emerging from the last encounter with any cosmic cloud of appreciable density and perhaps just are clearing the outer reaches of an attenuated region. “What lies ahead and how soon the sun again may engulf us in an introspacial fog only imagination can venture to speculate.” Dr. Stetson assembles evidence to prove his contention that the solar system now is probably on the outskirts of a cosmic cloud or diffuse nebula. “If the solar system were in the edge of such a cloud, however tenuous, we should expect to see some of it illuminated in the immediate vicinity of the sun whenever the direct sunlight was obscured, as in the case of a solar eclipse,” he writes. “It seems reasonable to suppose that this may account for a large part of the coronal illumination, especially as regards the outer corona. “In place of the structural details of the corona being produced by the particular way in which matter is thrown out of the sun, we should have on this hypothesis the material particles already existing about the sun and their visibility brought about by the streaming of electrons along paths more or less definitely defined by the sun's electric and magnetic fields.”

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BEETHOVEN’S BIRTH December 16

ON Dec. 16, 1770, Ludwig von Beethoven, a German composer, called the “unsurpassed master of instrumental music,” was bom in Bonn, Prussia, the son of a church singer. In his fourth year he was compelled by a father whose desire was to exhibit his son as a musical prodigy, to practice daily on the harpsichord. When 11, Beethoven appeared in Holland as a piano virtuoso and then went to Vienna to study with Mozart. There he was received in the best of society, had excellent patrons and made rapid progress in the study of musical form under Mozart and Haydn. By the time he was 30 he had written twenty sonatas, numerous trios and quartets, and his first and second symphonies. About this time he was troubled with a defect in hearing, causing his subsequent compositions to be tinged with a passionate melancholy. “In the symphony,” as one critic wrote, “music finds its highest intellectual dignity; in Beethoven, the symphony found its loftiest master.”