Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 290, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 April 1931 — Page 4

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The Rise of the Cities A nation-wide reform movement is on once more among American cities. On the surface the movement appears only as another of the periodic waves of moral indignation over what Lincoln Steffens called “the shame of the cities,” intensified this time by the prohibition-bred crimes of racketeers. Under the surface, however, the movement Is more fundamental. It Is an ecomonic attempt to cure what has been called “civitosis,” a disease of waste and extravagance that has brought many towns and cities close to bankruptcy. Hard times and high taxes have made this economic rebellion militant —and successful. The more spectacular eruptions have occurred in the larger cities. In Detroit, Mayor Frank Murphy, young Irish Judge, was elected following a recall of ex-Mayor Bowles and the sensational shooting of Jerry Buckley, radio preacher of civic righteousness. In Chicago, Big Bill Thompson, an institution for sixteen years, went down before the revolt. In New York, Tammany’s care-free mayor, Jimmy Walker, is on the rack of an inquisition that may end his colorful career. Seattle’s mayor, Frank Edwards, faces recall by an irate public ownership group for ousting J. D, Ross, creator of the great municipal power-light project. One of the fascinating stories of reform is being told of Reading, Pa., where a government of Socialist workingmen retains power on a record of efficiency and economy. Another is of San Diego, which last Tuesday swept into power a reform ticket and new charter. Another is of Atlanta, Ga. f which \is sentenced to jail three former aldermen and one e.:-councilman for giving and accepting bribes. The less spectacular, but more significant, revolts have been in cities where the voters were not satisfied to change mere personnel, but changed the structure' of their governments. Leading these cities were Dallas, which last October by a 2 to 1 vote, adopted the city manager plan, to go into effect this fall; Oakland, Cal., which last fall adopted the city manager plan and just has defeated a counter move by the politicians to substitute an old-form charter; San Francisco, which ended years of political mlsgovemment by voting itself a citymanager charter. Pittsburgh, too, is fighting for a citymanager form The council manager plan, born in 1906, has been spreading at an amazing rate, Until 1914, when Dayton adopted it, the growth was among smaller cities. Since Cleveland’s conversion, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Ft. Worth, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, Rochester, Lexington, Fall River, and many others have followed suit. In 1929, seventeen cities joined the city manager parade. Up to last June, 410 American cities had adopted the plan. Several also have adopted proportional representation. Only about half dozen cities or towns have reverted to the old form. No major scandal has been reported in a city manager city in sixteen years. Wage Cutting (From the Akron Times Press) Akron., with many other industrial -centers erf America, today finds itself facing the stark specter of wage cuts. k It is a grim prospect for those who sell their services, for those who sell their goods. The damnably vicious phase of this depression is that on all hands there are surpluses—surpluses of food, of coal, of manufactured goods. At the same time there are people, vast numbers, who hunger, shiver and want. Regardless of a Justifiable, lusty pride in our American system, cap any one fail to recognize an inherent weakness in this situation? You can’t justify the claim that we are victims of overproduction so long as there are many whose actual needs can not be realized because they have not the means to buy. Neither can you justify the contention that because, up to this time, wage rates have held firm, labor has not been deflated on a scale commensurate with the deflation in commodity prices. Labor has been deflated—horribly deflated—through the process of layoffs and reduced hours. , The rate of hourly pay may have held steady, but if the number of hours the working man permitted to work is reduced by half or even more, the fact that he can buy more, with his dollar doesn’t help his plight especially He just doesn’t have enough dollars, that's all It requires no great grasp of economics to recognize that consumption of goods must be predicated upon production of other goods. Production of goods simultaneously produces incomes with which other goods are purchased. It is a circle. We manufacture and produce. In doing so, we create consuming markets. The larger our pay rolls, the larger our markets. Conversely, shrinkage in pay rolls brings shrinkage in purchasing power, which ki turn calls for further shrinkage in production. Then the circle becomes vicious This editorial is pitched in general tones. We do not intend to criticise individual industrial policies individual Industries can not resist general trends But general trends can be guided if the comparatively small group of industrial bankers controlling our leading industries will make the necessary effort. Indeed the charge is now being made by labor leaders that industrial bankers, seeking to preserve interest rates on their industrial securities, are bringing pressure to reduce wages. If there is foundation for this charge, bankers must beware. You can't deflate wages and fail to deflate returns on capital. Business recovery does not lie at the end of the road of wage cutting. The w-ay out of this depression must follow social lines. Great accumulations of wealth on one hand and great masses of needy- on the other can not endure. If we have mechanized production to the point where there is more than enough to go around with the forty-eight-hour week as a basis, then we afie ready for the shorter week. The shorter week and any legitimate methods tending to equalize the distribution of wealth provide a more sound basis for business recovery than does the expedifnt of cutting the wages of men who work for a living Alfonso Steps Down King Alfonso XIII has lost his crown, but maybe he has saved his •dynasty. In Europe seme of the cleverer prime ministers have a habit of gracefully resigning rather than wait and being bcoted out of office. In tills way they save their precious prestige from being smirched by defeat and spare themselves the popular or political animosity so hard to live down Sooner or later, they know, the wheel may make another turn and back again to power they will come J- Alfonso long’ has had the reputation of being pne If the most astute politicians of the old Now

The Indianapolis Times (A SCKIPFB-HOWAKD NfcWSPAPEB) 0-rad and pnbliahed dally (except Sunday) by Tbe Indtanapolia Times PubllaWn* Qe, 214-220 West Maryland Street. Indianapolis. Ind. Price In Marion County. 2 cents a copy: elsewhere. 3 cent*—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. BOYD GURLEY. BOY W. HOWARD. FRANK G. MORRISON. Editor Fresldent * Business Manager PHONE—Riley .*£sl WEDNESDAY. APRIL 15. 1981. Member of United Press Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, N’ewapaper Enterprise Association Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

he has proved it by taking a leaf out of the book of this school of premiers Sunday’s elections turned into a republican landslide. Seeing which way the cat was about to jump, he cleverly beat the cat to It. Instead of waiting until the inevitable happened and the explosion came which would have blasted him and his dynasty from Spain forever, he gracefully stepped down. “My dear people,’* he said in effect, “I bow to your desires. With love in my heart and' a God bless you on my lips, I leave you to work out your destiny in whatever way suits you.” And so the always debonair sovereign, still widely personally popular, makes his exit. Spain, left alone, becomes a republic. Great things lie just ahead Peace and prosperity seem just around the corner. But are they? The mighty Spain which once owned the greater part of the known world, has been on the decline for more than a century. A herculean task confronts the new crowd to make a largely illiterate, politically chaotic kingdom into a modern, prosperous, happy republic. There is nothing magic in the mere name of “republic.” Yet many seem to believe there is. Spaniards there are, no doubt, who expect to wake up in the morning and look upon a land flowing with milk and honey. Their disappointment will make enemies for the new regirrfe. Spain, to put it baldly, is in a bad way. No mere change of names is going to set things right. Leadership now becomes more vital than ever. The lack of it which so handicapped her kings, now also may handicap her presidents. Without It, further trouble is inevitable, attended, no doubt, by further overturns. Meantime, Alfonso’s absence may be expected to make some warm Spanish hearts grow fonder. What was suffered under the monarchy, soon may be forgotten" unless the republic quickly can abolish the national ills. So Alfonso or his heir yet may hear on his door the rap of a delegation come to bid him home again from exile. He would not be living up to his reputation for brains if he failed to sense this now, and act upon it. May Spain, however, find the leaders which she requires so urgently. Success of the republic will depend chiefly on its ability to break the power which was behind the monarchy, the three-fold alliance and dictatorship of land owners, church, and army. Unless economic change accompanies political change, there will be little or no more real democracy under a republic than under the departing Alfonso. The king of Siam has employed a press agent for his American visit. If it’s publicity he wants, he might consider traveling about with the conjointed twins who have made his country famous. Rudy Vallee says that when he broadcasts he feels like a surgeon beginning to operate. He’s often had us in stitches. The only ones who seem to take an interest in the “early to rise” maxim, opines the office sage, are the breadmakers. “Most Americans,” says an English critic, "are not sufficiently civilized to be intrusted with strong drink.” It goes to their heads. Then there’s the egotistic anagram player who regards himself as a man of letters. No pilot, says the office sage, wants to show what . his plane's cracked up to be. A man who bolts his meals, says the dietitian, usually is a nut. It takes an alert pedestrian to tell what a. motorist is driving at. What this country needs more than a good 5-cent cigar is a fountain pen that’s good to. the last drop. It makes a difference to an actor whether he ranks or is regarded as rank No, Dorothy, a hoax is not a garden tool used for chopping purposes.

REASON

THOSE who live away down south escape a lot of bad winter weather that we folks have to endure, but they miss the indefinable thrill that comes along with April's thirty resurrection days. The law of compensation applies to weather as well as other things. a a It's wonderful to get out and work in the earth, just coming back to life; it's wonderful to plant things and watch them grow; it’s wonderful to go into parnership with nature. Give him the degree of prosperity to which he is entitled and the farmer has the rest of us beaten a mile, so fa ras life is concerned tt n a AND it’s a great idea to get the kids interested in planting a little garden—all their own. You just try it—give them a little patch of ground, some seeds and a spading fork and tell them to go to it. It will not only give you something fresh for the table, it will also keep them out of mischief tt tt e Give the kids a garden to work and then stand back and notice how each one insists on working his patch all by himself. He doesn't want' anybody to help him. He wants to do it all alone, run the risks and take the credit, whatever it be. a a a And right there in the garden of your kid you will find a very large economic fact, and it is that socialism never will work, for every normal person in this world wants to hoe his own row, overcome bstacles and pocket the gain, whatever it may happen to be. a tt a OUR kids have taken to the gardening business witr as much zeal as they ever put into a game of marbles. For some reason they are concentrating on onions, and if half their crop comes up we’ll be able to perfume our whole end of town. Probably it’s the artistic side of it that inclined them to onions a a a And they guard those onions as if they were Great Mogul diamonds; they fence off the planted crop and they carry the unplatted one arcund with them or put them where no strange hads may touch them. ♦ In other words, they not only know the! roniens; they are utterly devoted to them. tt a a The other night, after midnight, we strolled into their bedroom to give them the once over and we met an aroma that nearly knocked us cold. They had put three quarts of onion sets under the covers between them.

T?y FREDERICK LANDIS

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

The Amazing Part Is Not That Alphonso Should Lose His Throne , But That He Should Have Lasted Sc Long . NEW YORK, April 15.—According to the old rules of kingcraft, Alphonso should have gone down fighting. Has royalty lost its courage or acquired sense? One could turn wisecracker and say that this last of the Bourbons laid down the crown to save his head, but why not be charitable and give him credit for thinking of other heads, or at least realizing the inevitable? The fate of his tribe was sealed, not when Primo de Rivera became dictator of Spain, as many seem to think, or even when the kaiser kicked the lid off hell, but back at Runnymede, when the barons of England wrenched the Great Charter from King John. Not only that, but it was foreshadowed in Athens more than 2,000 years ago. a tt s The Kings Fade Out HAPSBURG, Hohenzollern, Romanoff, Bourbon—they virtually have trod on one another’s heels in doing the most stupendous fade-out in history. It is .the climax of a drama which has been going on for nearly seven centuries and which owes its ocnception to dawn-time. We have gone far since the pope undertook to divide the world between the kings of Portugal and Spain, and yet we were on our way at that time. Plato wrote his “republic” fifty generations before any Bourbon was heard of, and Moore dreamed his Utopia into being ere the Spanish empire had attained its greatest glory. The amazing part of it is not that Alphonso should lose his throne, but that he should have lasted so long, a , tt a The Revolt Is On ONE era merges into another. For a hundred years or more we have had kings and republics dwelling side by side. Now we have republics and communism, not to mention Mussolini. Civilization is beginning to revolt against industrial aristocracy just as it once revolted against the aristocracy of birth. No one but a fanatic can suppose that this latest revolt has taken definite shape, but it’s with us, to provide another drama in the evolution of human affairs. No one but a fanatic can suppose that the preposterous tyranny of Moscow, or the equally preposterous rule of fascism, represents the idealistic or practical solution of the riddle. The only thing sensible people can be sure of is that the riddle has been recognized and that the search for its answer has been begun. From an economic standpoint, we are about in the same position that the world was when it sought relief from monarchy through such efforts as that made by Wat Tyler, or through such organizations as the Vehm. a a ..Money Now Is King THE doctrine of the divine right of kings has been smashed, but only to make room for the doctrine of the divine right of money. Once again, humanity faces the task of liberating itself from a system to which its ingenuity gave birth. Once again the handicap of our social order has been removed, only to make room for another. Once again we discover that the very agencies employed to overthrow one type of arbitrary rule have produced another. The same old puzzle, vividly illustrated by England’s record—people massing behind the king to escape the barons and then behind parliament to escape the king. A board of directors occupies the throne room and the billion-dollar combine sets up anew kind' of feudalism. No. one. with sense will deny that the new order represents great improvement.

tt tt Injustice in Saddle PHYSICAL cruelty no longer plays the part it once did, but the ugly thread of injustice and unequal opportunity still mars the wall. No one with common sense will argue that the ruthlessness of a Soviet represents an acceptable substitute for conditions which prevailed in the so-called capitalistic countries, but it does represent a feeling of dissatisfaction with those conditions which can not be ignored, There is one reassuring side to the Spanish upheaval. Apparently, we have come to a point where not only the people, but kings, can see the wisdom of changing a form of government; even in the most fundamental way, without war or bloodshed. Let us hope that we have come to a point where other problems can be met and solved with similar good sense.

Questions and Answers

Where was the premiere showing of “Check and Double Check,” featuring Amos and Andy? The world premiere of “Check and Double Check” was at Shea’s Century theater, Buffalo, N. Y Buffalo is the home of Irene Rich, who supported the famous comedians. What is the average cost of producing a bushel of wheat, oats and corn? The average production cost of wheat in 1928 was $1.24 per bushel; oats, 50 cents, and corn, 73 cents. Who discovered the principle of the thermos bottle? Sir James Dewar of the Royal institute, London. Are the movie dogs Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart still alive? Rin Tin Tin is still alive, but Strongheart died in June, 1929. How are sea shells polished? Rub the shells with the finest emery powder, on a piece of damp flannel,* and then polish with oxide of tin or putty powder, and finally with whiting, applied by the ball of the thumb without a cloth. To polish many shells a weak solution of hydrochloric acid has to be used to remove the rough skin. The polishing then proceeds ts above.

The Next Thing on the Program!

IT SEEMS TO ME

COMMENTING the otljer day on w r hat seemed to me a lack of true popular and journalistic perspective, I wroti: “If the reply comes that on the gridiron young men learn the very essence of citizenship and patriotism and of co-operation, I must answer that this is putting too heavy a load upon the sport and that I don’t believe it/’ Well, the reply has come from many. Nevertheless, I still don’t believe it. Here, for instance, is a typical letter from Bert W. Hendrickson. He writes: “If you have never played the glorious game of football under an inspiring leader, you are more to be pitied than scorned in your statement, ‘I don’t believe it.’ “You also say, ‘But I must say frankly that it is a curious world in which the teaching of a game looms up larger in the popular imagination than instruction in the very principles of life itself.’ “This, in my opinion, is the idle vaporing of one to whom the spirit of athletic competition is a matter of theory only. “Thousands of men can tell you, without any reservation, that football under proper guidance teaches one the love of clean and fair play, sacrifice, co-operation, team play and not individualism, sterling lessons learned in both victory and defeat, respect for the rules of the game and your opponents, and, above all, the game is the greatest builder of character in the whole run of sports. “ ‘Principles of life’—that is a loose and relative expression. If by it you mean some of the things you advocate now and then in your column I say to you with a fervent ‘Thank God!’ football does not teach them.”

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Climate Not a Cure for Disease

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor, Journal cf the American Medical Association and of Hvzeia. tbe Health Magazine. THE question repeatedly is asked as to what climate is suited best to people with infections of the nose and throat or with chronic infection of the sinuses. , In general, it is advised that a warm, dry climate is p ref era ole to one that is damp and cold. On the other hand, it must be recognized that climate itself cures nothing, and is merely an adjunct to other specific methods of treatment. As emphasized by Dr. J. F. Barnhill, the belief so tenaciously held by people in general that the southwestern and southern portions of the United States possess more health giving and health restoring virtues than the more rigorous regions of the north has been controverted lately. Dr. Barnhill cites the investigation of W. H. Barrows of Stanford university, who studied the relative frequency of colds among students

Times Readers Voice Their Views

Editor Times—Having been a reader and subscriber for several years, I believe I am qualified to utter an honest opinion. We have thousands of unemployed walking the streets searching for work, with no chance of success. The government spends millions of dollars yearly in the vain and futile attempt to enforce the dry laws. It’s impossible. Besides spending so much of the people’s money, the government loses the revenue of taxed liquors. There are millions of bushels of surplus grain with no one knowing what to do with it, and the government has created a farm board, to gamble the people’s money for grain stocks, and the grain stocks they have spent the people’s money for are just plain paper. Some of the grain the government has spent the people’s money for has not been put in the ground yet. They’ll buy all they can, then “the government of the people, by the people, and for the people” will sell it to the people at prices the people can not pay. Let’s have a public referendum on the dry laws and see what people want. Repeal of the dry laws will curtail and relioie unemployment, solve the grain p tolam, save and earn

Set the Style EVER since the duke of Wellington asserted that Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton and Harrow there has been a disposition to make organized athletics assume an importance beyond thenreasonable worth. The duke himself overlooked the fact that as far as military prowess went Napoleon put on a pretty good show without benefit or cricket or soccer. And when I hear the oft-repeated assertion that collage football is the greatest character builder in the world I am moved to ask for proof and for the names of those who have figured gloriously in American life because of what they learned on the gridiron. It is quite true, of course, that football has produced some superb football coaches. But that is hardly enough. That is merely carrying on the circle of the sport itself. Yet even if it w-ere argued that those served merely as exceptions to prove the rule, I still am doubtful of the existence of much positive testimony on the other side. Let’s pause for sixty seconds. You rack your brains, and I will endeavor to do the same. What great name comes to your mind? Is there a single individual in the forefront of political, economic, artistic or social leadership who ranks with the front page names of football in his day? Naturally, I have no doubt that among us are many estimable citizens who were on their college teams. Some of them may have been conspicuously good. And yet I hold that no palpable relationship between football prowess and leadership of other kinds ever has been proved.

in widely separated universities and under different conditions of climate. At Stanford university, where the climate is mmild and soft, about the same number of men i neach hundred had common colds under every circumstances as to ways of living as had coryza in Harvard, where the climate is much colder and indeed rigorous. Women students at Stanford and women students at Wellesley, representing similar contrasting conditions, also had about the same number of infections of the nose and throat. This point of view also was reached by Ellsworth Huntington, who has given special attention to the relationships of climate and disease and discussed them in a book on the subject. Thus there is in contrast the point of view of the scientific investigator who carefully compares two groups and the empirical opinion which represents the establishe belief cf centuries. The physicians in the so-oalled

the people millions of dollars yearly, greatly reduce crime, and death as a result of bootleg whisky. If people are of age, they should be allowed to buy whisky if they choose. Those who do not care to drink would not be compelled to do so. There is plenty of whisky, such as it is. and 80 per cent of the population know how to make liquor in one way or another. A public vote should be allowed to let the people decide in their own way if they want prohibition, after eleven years of crime, comedy, death, joy, political corruption, and no voice by the common people. INDEPENDENT DEMOCRAT. Editor Times—As a reader of The Times, I read a few days ago of the ex-service man who thinks all soldiers should have the bonus. Let me ask that ex-service man why they are entitled to so much more than any one else. They talk as If there is no no one hard up but soldiers. Let met say that there are just as many who weren’t in the army that are in need as there were who were in it. We stayed in the U. S. A. and worked and they went across. They got their pay, th etf clothes and

HEYWOOD BY BROUN

As an instance contributing, I think to neither side of the argument, I might say that I did play football and that I was coached by several men who seemed to me to have an inspirational quality as far as the sport was concerned. I never liked the game, and I didn’t play it well. But I made the high school team in my senior year. tt tt tt On Being a Sport CONSIDER, for instance, the fundamental preachment of amateur athletics. It is, as I understand it, that we should all be good sports. If we battle against somebody across the net or around the golf course, we are supposed, when the final shot has been made, to rush forward with a merry smile upon the face and a hearty handshake. But what a destructive principle that would be if applied to some of the more important phases of life? Let us.assume, for instance, that a citizen of New York undertook to fight against Tammany corruption. Should he extend the hand of good fellowship and a comradely smile upon the instant his cause went down to defeat in an election? I don’t think so. It seems to me that any leader worth his salt would say: “I still think your organization is corrupt. I am going to keep up the fight until I beat you. This is not a game, but something far more serious and sincere.” And I hold that the lesson taught in college football generally is unsound training for both the player and the rooter. Surely this could be a better land if we lived without benefit of cheer leaders. (Copyright. 1931. by The Times)

health regions assert that the infections are many in such areas because most people with infections go there and the opportunity for infection is greater. Os course, some consideration must be acorded to this argument. Dr. Barnhill is convinced that much depends on the kind of patient who is involved. The class of patient most benefited by a change to warm, dry climate is one whose resistance is low, who takes cold easily and who suffers more or less constantly from some inflammation of the nose, throat and sinuses from the first frost in the autumn to the last frost in spring. However, he feels that it is not always justifiable or expedient to send a large percentage of patients away from home. A change of climate is in most instances still a rich man’s experiment, and a patient should not be sent away from home who has not ample resources or who is not fully assued beforehand of having some way of making a living whan he goes to the new climate.

food furnished, and we paid dear for what we got. They fared just as well as we did, as we ate the slop that Hoover didn’t want himself. I think soldiers depend on the government too much. If they are disabled, let them have a pension, and if they are able-bodied and able to work, let them work until they get disabled, as they are no better than our old soldiers were. Politics will do anything, and of course you understand that the bonus bill was one more excuse for the Republican party to get into power. Looks to me as if some of the people of the United States would get their eyes open and would get tired of living on promises. O. E. GARRETT.

Daily Thought

Thy red and thy staff they comfort me.—Psalm 23:4. The chief secret of comfort lies in not suffering trifles to vex us, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones are let on long leases. —Aughey, X.

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those of one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented without retard to their atreement or disarreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

JAPRIi; 15, 1931

SCIENCE -BY DAVID DIETZ

Fame and Fortune Await Scientist Who Can Sohe Problem of Synthetic Rubj her. IN laboratories scattered throughout the world chemists are at work upon the problem of synthetic rubber. Fame and fortune awaits the scientist who solves it. During the World war, Germany, spurred on by the impossibility of obtaining natural rubber, succeeded in producing several varieties of artificial rubber. However, these were only wartime makeshifts and could not compete. either in price or quality, with the natural article. It has been known by chemists for years that the fundamental compound in rubber is a hydrocarbon known as isoprene. It is possible to manufacture isoprene frem turpentine, petroleum, starch, and coal tar The synthesis of rubber can also be started with methyl-isoprene, a compound related to isoprene. Methyl-isoprene can be built up from acetone. Acetone, in torn, can be manufactured from coal. It also can be obtained as a by-product from the fermentation of the crude starch of cereals. There are difficulties to be faced, however, in all these processes. The supply of turpentine is limited. So is the supply of petroleum. Some experts think that the world’s supply of petroleum will give out in less than twenty years. And, finally, ail the processes are too expensive to compete with the natural rubber at the present time. a a During the War ATTEMPTS to develop synthetic rubber are not new. Synthetic rubbers were developed in Germany as early at 1909, and in England a few years later. In 1912 when the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry was held in New York, Carl Duisberg of Germany exhibited a set of auto tires made of synthetic rubber which had run 4,000 miles. Duisberg was very optimistic and after admitting the high cost cf the j synthetic product and the diffieul- ! ties of manufacturing it, went on to j say, “But such difficulties do not inj timidate the chemist and manufacturer; on the contrary, they spur them on to further efforts. The stone is rolling and we will see to it that it reaches its destination.” But Duisberg’s prophecy proved a bit hasty and the stone did not roll along as rapidly as he predicted. The World war, however, made it necessary for German chemists to act. British warships controlled the high seas and Germany no longer could depend upon the tropics for raw materials. Germany could not use the fermentation of starches as a first step in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, because the nation wras already facing a shortage of foodstuffs. Accordingly, the German chemists turned to coal as the start- : ing point. Coal, when heated with lime, yields calcium carbide. This, with w’ater, produces acetylene gas. Acetylene gas can be changed into acetalyehyde. which in turn can be transformed intro ‘ffCetic acid, and finally into acetone. Acetone then can be used as the foundation for the manufacture of methyl-isoprene. which in its turn can be transformed into artificial rubber. a a a About the Future' THE manufacture of synthetic rubber from methyl-isoprene is known technically as polymerization. It is a chemical reaction, in which the molecules of the methylisoprene are made to combine into the much larger molecules which are characteristic of rubber. After this is accomplished, vulcanization must be carried out to obtain the artificial rubber. It is estimated that during the World war Germany succeeded in producing 2,350 tons. This is a small quantity compared with the amount of naturel rubber used by the world.

Its manufacture would not have been worth while had not the war cut off Germany’s natural supply. Many chemists, however, are hopeful of the future. They feel positive that less expensive methods can be developed. It is pointed out that in the crack of petroleum, certain hydrocarbons very similar to isoprene are obtained. Professor Roger Adams of the University of Illinois has estimated that if these could be made into synthetic rubber without loss, it, would be possible to produce four billion pounds of rubber from 52,000,000 million barrels of petroleum. But the difficulty to be faced here Is the fact that the petrolelim supply itself is beginning to run low There also is another line of'attack. Some chemists say that it is a mistake to attempt to duplicate natural rubber. They say that the thing to do is to develop products of a different sort which will be superior to rubber. In this connection, they point out that rubber is used fer many products in spite of obvious drawbacks, merely because nothing better has been devised. Their idea is not to duplicate rubber, but to produce something better.

”©n*fer ' JJhL

CAPTURE OF LENS April 15 ON April 15, 1917, at between 4 ■ and 5 in the morning, - the first British troops entered Lens, their objective. The offensive began April 9 along a front of forty-five miles, having for its immediate objective Lens at one end and St. Quentin at the other. This is the struggle which has become known as the Battle of Arras, although at the end of seven days’ fighting the scene shifted considerably to the east of the city, which has given its name to the battle The occupation of Lens marked the recovery for France of the country’s most valuable coal fields. At the other end of the forty-five miles the British practically had won their way into the suburbs of St. Quentin, with the Germans making a stubborn last stand In the city itself.