Indianapolis Times, Volume 42, Number 296, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 April 1931 — Page 4

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tCHI ppj-HOWAJtO

The Breakdown of Charity There has been persistent opposition to federal and state aid to the unemployed and starving. It has been insisted that private charity will be wholly adequate to tide the poor over to the time when they can begin to earn their own living again. Unfortunately, this optimism seems groundless. There is no evidence that there are fewer persons unemployed today than in April, 1930, while the funds for relief are pretty generally exhausted, or close to exhaustion. Labor’s News runs the following Federated Press dispatch indicating the status of voluntary relief today: “Charity agencies planned last winter to carry the jobless only to April 1 in many cities across the country. Now funds are exhausted, employment has not improved, and possibly the worst period of the business panic faces the workers in the immediate future, a survey by Federated Press shows. “In New York, $3,000,000 was pledged to the Prosser committee to provide work for 24,000 heads of families, three days a week at $5 a day. One million was not paid, and the fund is to be exhausted April 8. Already thousands of the least needy have been fired. Other thousands must go. “The city has'asked legislative approval of a bond issue of $10,000,000, and may hire some of the jobless on city work. New York City workers are losing $80,000,000 a month in wages. Not even the Socialist demands for $25,000,000 would touch the loss. “The papers carry a story of a baby starving to death in a family, leaving six brothers and sisters, all hungry. Reports from potters' field say many caskets are marked ‘starved.' Little has been done; that little is being stopped. “In St. Louis 5,000 families have been living on a city appropriation of $400,000. It's gone. A committee is asking $300,000 from individuals, estimating 85,000 men without work. “In Pittsburgh there is a plan—bosses and workers each to give one day’s pay roll, $3,000,000 to be raised. A fourth has been raised, pitifully inadequate. Steel employment is down, coal is slipping fast. Miners talk revolt; trade unions demand job funds; Mellon rules and holds on to his billion effectively. “In Baltimore the rich gave so stingily that the poor had to throw in their dimes and dollars to raise the SIOO,OOO, again totally inadequate. “In Chicago even the flophouses are to be closed, the Jobless driven out to sleep under beautiful Michigan boulevard. Employment continues downward. “In San Francisco the jobless apple sellers are to be driven from the street. Little business men face bankruptcy and the peddlers’ business may make the difference in survival. “In Lima, 0., girls’ wages have been cut to $3.75 a week as the pressure has become harder and harder, “In West Virginia coal miners’ families are starving; 90 per cent are in debt to the companies; children have no clothes, are sick, probably always will be, as a result of malnutrition in youth. “The same is true everywhere in America. Job fund bills are being defeated and government is refusing to help. Charity has been exhausted. Employment is not increasing. Economists predict another year of hard times.” It is becoming more and more difficult to stave off the day when our federal and state agencies will have to take some systematic action to provide for unemployment insurance. Perhaps the very breakdown of private charity will render a valuable service to public education on this point. U. S. Employment Agencies We want to cheer the announcement of anew federal employment service For some years there has been such service, but it never did anything effective. Now the President proposes to put it to work and to open at least one bureau in every state. That, of course, is what many citziens have been urging for several years. Hoover himself proposed it back in 1921. And virtually every unemployment investigating commission since that time has recommended such system. For three years the liberals tried to put this reform through congress. Finally they succeeded, when the Wagner employment exchange bill was passed. But Hoover had a change of heart and vetoed the Wagner bill Ever since he has been pounded by the criticism of social service organizations, women’s clubs, economists and most of the press. Now he has had another change of heart and is doing by executive action what he refused to let congress do. We can not get wildly excited over the charges that Hoover, in vetoing the Wagner bill and now in setting up a Wagner system of his own without the political embarrassment of that Democratic name, has been acting from partisan motives. What difference does it make whether Wagner or Hoover, Democrats or Republicans, one or both, both or neither, get the credit for this reform? The only important consideration is that the system get under way as quickly as possible and that it operate with full efficiency. Its efficiency will depend, in the main, on three factors; First, willingness to co-operate closely with similar state agencies and ability to supplement those bureaus in handling the transfer of the unemployed of one state to possible jobs in another state. Second, experienced and able personnel to operate the system. Third, adequate funds to meet the present emergney. Taking at its face value the announcement of Secretary of Labor Doak, the administration realizes the necessity of co-operating with and co-ordinating the state systems. The personnel factor is not so promising. The list of appointments given out by Doak may satisfy the politicians and in some cases labor union leaders, but it is mediocre, judged by the standards of employment experts. Certainly the general floundering of public officials and business men in mishandling the unemployment problem during the last eighteen months Is sufficient proof that experts are needed. At best, little can be achieved with the small appropriation at Hoover's disposal. By vetoing the Wagner bill, he rejected a $13,500,090 fund—sl,soo,ooo for this year, and $4,000,000 for each of the three following years. As it is, he has a special $500,000 appropriation and $285,000 from an earlier fund. Obviously, he can do nothing more than get started with $785,000 when 6.000,000 men need jobs and almpst an equal number is on part time. But the very limited federal employment system proposed is better than none. With this beginning, the President should be ready to extend it into an adequate system next winter. Congress already has shown its desir? to appropriate the larger fund neeescarv.

The Indianapolis Times (A §CBIPP*-HOWABD NEWSPAPER) ° WM< L^ ,, .!L p V, l ? l, * h ‘;? **. Uy - , *-* c * pt *7. The ladUnipolt* Time* Publishing Cos.. 214-230 Wat Maryland Street. Indianapoli*. ind. Price in Marion County. 2 centa a copy; elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. BOY RJ?. UBLEY BOY F HOWARD. PRANK O. MORRISON. Edltor 1 resident Business Mansger PHONE— Riley BMI _ TUESDAY. APRIL 31. 1931. Member of United Press Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Berrice and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way."

France and Peace

Friends of peace will get little comfort from Stephen Lauzanne's frank article in the New York Times, describing the colossal fortifications which France is building to protect herself against Germany. It shows how little real faith she puts in disarmament, peace, and Locarno, where Germany agreed never to seek the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine. The only sensible interpretation is that France is determined to take all risks incident to perpetual enforcement of the peace treaties. These eastern fortifications are a pretty heavy load on the back of the French people in order to perpetuate the Polish corridor. ‘Justice in Disrepute” Negroes are denied justice so often in American courts that it is encouraging to find the United States supreme court blocking that barbaric practice. The high court Monday granted anew trial to Alfred Scott Aldridge, a District of Columbia Negro, convicted of murdering a policeman, because the trial judge had refused to permit the defense to question prospective Jurors as to racial prejudice. Only one justice was to be found on the supreme court to uphold the lower court. That was Mcßeynolds. In his dissent he went out of his way to sneer “racial prejudice (whatever that may be),” was the way Mcßeynolds described it. Fortunately, the rest of the supreme court had heard of racial preujdice. Chief Justice Hughes, m his decision for the court majority, stated the issue: “The argument is advanced by the government that it would be detrimental to the administration of the law in the courts of the United States to allow questions to jurors as ta racial or religious prejudice. “We think it would be far more injurious to permit it to be thought that persons entertaining a disqualifying prejudice were allowed to serve as jurors and that Inquiries designed to elicit the fact of disqualification were barred. “No surer way could be devised to bring the processes of justice into disrepute.” “Just as Good, Madam! Evidently the ladies of the League of Women Voters, out shopping for reform laws in congress, are not to be fooled a second time by administration salesmen. When, last winter, they wanted the Jones mater-nity-infancy bill, they were told that the administration had in the Cooper act something “just as good.” They accepted the substitute, only to find that the administration could not or did not, deliver. Now that they want “an adequate” law to co-ordi-nate free federal and state employment offices, they have been told again that the administration substitute is “just as good” as the vetoed Wagner bill But this time they are more wary. The general council of the league, meeting in Washington, said nothing about the administration’s reorganization of the federal employment agencies. Instead, they passed a resolution for “an effectively co-ordinated system of federal and state employment offices, in which system there is due regard for the interests of women.” It is interesting that the vetoed Wagner bill was just, that, including in its original form a provision for women’s departments. The league’s program in the next congress now includes five measures, all of which are sound, liberal and fundamental reforms—some such measure as the vetoed Wagner bill, maternity-infancy aid, world court ratification, Norris “lame duck’’ amendment and the Norris Muscle Shoals bill. “Just-as-good” bills doubtless will be offered for most of these, but it seems safe to forecast that nothing purious will be sold again to this group of intelligent women. The extent of calisthenics for the average American, it would seem, is between hands up and thumbs down. | If he has lots of friends, a bibliophile and his books are soon parted. It takes more mental equipment than a sense of direction, says the office sage, to get anywhere.

REASON

A LFONSO’S refusal to renounce the throne of * Spain, saying that it was a deposit, accumulating through the centuries, for which he must make accounting, reflects the old idea of royalty that different countries belonged to different families because they had ruled them for a long time. nun At war with idea is the theory of popular government that no office holder owns any country and that the majority have the right at any time to give their rulers their walking papers and tell them to beat it. Os course, Alfonso can not be expected to see the merits of this theory. u u u HE should feel that he is in luck, however, because the people of Spain permitted him and his family to leave in safety. He should recall that Louis of France sought to make his escape when the revolution broke upon Paris and that he was detected, turned back and later executed, along with his queen. nun Alfonso's government had condemned to death several gentlemen for trying to upset his regime and they were looking through the bars meditating on the flight of time when the republican uprising set them free. The king is in luck that he was not placed in the cell to which he had consigned his enemies. a it n THE killing of this gangster chieftain in New York City doesn't arouse much indignation on the part of law-abiding people, for he had been charged with a long list of crimes, but which the stupidity and clumsiness of our criminal procedure, the courts had been unable to touch him. nun If our gangstrs did not wipe one another off the map, we would soon have to give them a deed to the entire place, for we can not handle them in our courthouses. • So it is that the average man regards these gang wars as very laudable enterprises. nun THE papers say that 500 women who were dressed fashionably called on President Hoover and handed him a petition for the repeal of the eighteenth amendment. It's likely the President would have been more impressed if the women had been the wives of day laborers and not so fashionably attired. nun The swift conviction of former Congressman Rowbottom is another tribute to the neatness and dispatch with which federal courts do business when they care to do so. Had Rcwbottom been brought into a state court, he would have had a fair chance of dying of old age before final judgment.

Ry FREDERICK LANDIS

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES .

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

The Basic Weakness of Our Latin - American Policy Goes Back to the Absurd, Supposition That We Can Make Other People Over to Suit Our Own Ideas. NEW YORK, April 21.—1f Honduran revolutionists were encouraged to take the field by our “new” Nicaraguan policy they made a mistake. It was banditry, not revolution, that our state department decided to ignore. Latin-Americans should be careful how they read the various pronouncements. The reasoning is not only close, but the action rapid. Each situation, it seems, is "different.” The Nicaraguan situation is not the same as it was five years ago, and the situation in Honduras is not the same as that in Nicaragua. Men who justly can claim the title of “general” or “colonel” are leading the Honduran revolt. That, of course, places it in a different category from the show staged by Sandino. It is a fine distinction, perhaps, but Latin-Americans should be able to get it with the proper amount of time and study. Briefly, Uncle Sam appears to have advised that he will not get excited over murder, pillage or arson, unless committed by an organization of a military character. Though humiliating, the alternative is very simple. All that is required to make a tost-up pleasing In your good old uncle’s eye is to keep brass buttons and gold lace In the background. To be sure, the average liberator rather would be known as a general than a bandit, but, if honest and sincere, he should be willing to make the temporary sacrifice, since he can call himself w r hat he pleases after the show.

m tt tt Why Keep on Kidding? Seriously, wouldn’t it be a good idea to quit kidding ourselves as well as Latin-America? After all, what do we want but a reasonable degree of protection for those of our citizens who conduct themselves decently, keep out of politics, and obey the laws? And to whom can we look for such protection except to the government actually in power, whether it came into being by a bloodless revolution or by a bloody election, and whether it is twenty-four hours or twenty-four years old? How can we expect to get anywhere with the development of responsible government in LatinAmerica unless we recognize its responsibilities? tt tt * It Gets Tiresome EIGHT Latin-American countries have had twenty-six presidents since Herbert Hoover was elected. We have meddled in three to no avail, and kept out of five without doing our citizens or our interests any harm. Most Americans are really in accord with the general principles laid down by Secretary Stimeon in his statement regarding Nicaragua, but they are not in accord with the reasons assigned for it, or the room for uncertainty which those reasons leave. The idea of a “new policy” every time somebody pulls a gun in Latin America is not only tiresome, but dangerous. Admitting that every upheaval has its peculiarities, shouldn’t the United States be able to map out a course for its own conduct that will last fifteen or twenty years? It is possible that the greatest nation on earth has become so fuddled that it can’t tell what to do when a rumpus occurs in Latin America, without first classifying the leaders' as bandits or generals? u n n We Remain Blind AS far as our citizens and our interests are concerned, what difference does it make whether they are threatened by men in gold braid or men in overalls? As far as correcting the situation is concerned, if we do not intend to furnish adequate protection, regardless of who holds the gun, or how much it costs, what sensible course is there except to hold each and every de facto government accountable? The basic weakness of our LatinAmerican policy goes back to the absurd supposition that we can make other people over to suit our own ideas. We still are afflicted with the notion that our social and political order is good anywhere. Most of our efforts, whether in the form of counsel, charity or armed intervention, have had for their object the development of constitutions, laws and methods mod T eled after our own. It seems as though that 100 years of failure and disappointment were enough to show us the folly of such attitude, and that we should have learned by this time to realize the wisdom of taking the rights and characteristics of Latin-Americans into account.

Questions and

Answers

How much does it cost the United States government to educate midshipmen at the Annapolis Naval academy? Between SII,OOO and $12,000. What is the value of a United States silver ‘ “peace dollar” dated 1922? It is catalogued at its face value only. On what date will Thanks Tiring day fall in 1933? Nov. 30. . What star is nearest to the earth? Alpha Centaur! is the nearest star. What kind of wood is most used for making bows and arrows? Hickory and yew are used for bows and ash and oak fer arrows. What is the value of a United States one dollar gold piece dated 1851? It is cataloged at $1.50 to $2.50. What author had the pen name Wilford? Alexander Wilford Hall, bom in 1819.

How Long Can They Hold Out?

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IT SEEMS TO ME

“T ABSOLUTELY agree with you," X writes Joan Peters, “that too much is made over football players. In fact, I believe that handsome athletes are a menace to education. “I myself would have been a much more learned person had there been no football captains when I went to school. I fell terribly in love with the captain of the football team (they called him the Greek god, because he was supposed to resemble one), and I spent all my time in study hall gazing at him instead of learning French verbs. “My life has never really been the same since. Once a girl starts hero worshipping, she never get over it. You see, I started with a football captain, and then there w r as a dramatic critic, and now I—well, now I -write letters to a columnist. “So I agree with you that football players shouldn’t be idolized, because you never know where a young girl will end up once she starts hero worshipping.” a tt u As It Seems to Steffens IN his autobiography Lincoln Steffens discusses reformers at great length. He was a police reporter at the time of the Lexow investigation. When Theodore Roosevelt acted as police commissioner, Steffens and Ritis were the commissioner’s chief confidants. Looking back on it all, Mr. Steffens has no very great enthusiasm about reform. He admits a warm personal feeling for Richard Croker and explains that he “never said anything to me that was not true, unless it was a statement for publication, and then if it was a lie he had a way of letting you know it. He had morality. He was true to his professional ethics.” And to Mr. Steffens it now seems that the ethics of political machines and business machinery are not very different. Indeed, he reports that a number of the so-called respectables supported Tammany even at a time when it was admittedly corrupt. The explanation for this was simple. Certain business men preferred to deal with a city government and a police force from which they could buy favors, particularly if the price of those favors was standardized definitely. It seems to me that things are not so very different today. It is obvious that a number of witnesses who testified at the Seabury hearing in

Tuberculosis of Larynx Is Curbed

BY DR. MORRIS FISIIBEIN Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hraeia. the Health Magazine. Tuberculosis of the larynx has been considered, until recent years, of the most dangerous forms of the disease, leading usually to fatality. All sorts of remedies have been tried, in an endeavor to control the condition, but without exceedingly good results. As far back as 1898, attempts were made to treat tuberculosis of the larynx with sunlight, but, due to lack of proper apparatus, the results were not as good as they might have been. With the discovery of the ap-

Astras: Mi i v)acs#f

FRANCE’S “AMERICA DAY” April 21 ON April 21, 1917, Paris celebrated “United States day” in honor of our country’s entrance into the war. Through the celebration was begun April 20, the activities on tills day included a reception to Ambassador Sharp, a procession to Lafayett’s statue and exercises in the city hall. The Stars and Stripes were unfurled from Eiffel Tower, the city hall and other municipal buildings. Alexandre Miilerand, president of the French Maritime League which organized the celebration, made an address in which he said: “Yes, history will assign to Mr. Wilson a place among the great statesmen of all time, for he has been able, in a memorable document, to make .clear the ideal reasons why honor condemned neutrality and commanded war to assure to humanity the definitive blessing of p~jce."

regard to fish market rasketeering talked most unwillingly. Some of the employers contended that the payments they made w r ere not corrupt, but a reasonable charge on business. If they had been a little franker they might have said, “It is cheaper to buy a walking delegate than to shorten hours and raise wages for an entire industry.” a a a Not Merely Reform AND so I think it is well to point out that any movement for better government in New York must take upon itself the responsibility of bringing out changes far more revolutionary than those which generally are included in the word “reform.” The city charter itself is archaic. In addition to getting certain personalities and certain conditions out of municipal government, we must put very definite things in. We need more than good men. We need a good governmental system and a radically different economic point of view. I was in a speakeasy the other afternoon, looking for a friend, when the proprietor said to the bartender; “Be very careful tonight. The new squad will be on the job.” Then he turned to me and said: “We knew just where we stood with the old crowd. But these new fellows may want to raise the rate.” This I introduce as a parable. True reform never has and never will consist of ousting Tweedledum to make place for Tweedledee. a a tt In Praise of ‘Precedent’ “>T~'HROUGH the kindness of my X employer,” writes Beatrice Norton, “who, unfortunately, had to leave town, I inherited a pair of tickets for the opening Tuesday evening of ‘Precedent,’ the new play by I. J. Golden at the Provincetown theater. “I corralled, after some little persuasion, a trusty playmate, and we started bravely on our trek to the Village. Neither one of us was particularly keen about the theatrical fare offered. “Gosh,” I said to Rosie, “a good hot revue would be just right for me tonight instead of cne of these propaganda plays. I feel in the dumps as it is.’ “Me, too,” was the wistful re-

-DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

paratus which yielded ultraviolet rays, in the form of the carbon arc and the quartz mercury vapor lamps, it became possible to apply concentrated sun’s rays directly to the larynx. To get the rays directly to the laryngeal cords, various systems of mirrors have been devised and also quartz stems along which the ultraviolet rays pass. It has been found that people who are very frail, those with advanced tuberculosis of the lung, and those who have very severe lesions in the throat are treated better by means of the mirror reflection than by other methods. A steel mirror will reflect about

People’s Voice

Editor Times—l have read your paper every day for years, and I must say it is the best in the state. You print the truth, regardless of whom it hurts. I have been asked many times by ex-soldiers from other states if our state paid a bonus? The answer is, no. Indiana's sister states paid a bonus, but this state denied the ex-soldiers one, and now the World War Memorial Plaza is being built with the money the soldiers should have received. He is financing this work. During the war he almost was compelled to buy Liberty bonds to finance the war he fought, and then to think that so many people here in Indiana were opposed to the government giving the ex-soldier a chance in such times as we are having now, to borrow’ some more of his own money, when he really should have the entire amount. It’s the ex-soldier who pays and pays, even interest on his own money, or loses aIL BEN TURK, West St. Clair street.

HEYWOOD BY BROUN

joinder. “But, what t’hell! We’ll find some tricky little dive where we can have dinner and watch the Villagers cavort. That’ll be amusing—maybe.” “We were among the first to reach the theater. Did you know, Mr. Broun, that those impossible benches are now upholstered in nice soft red, and they're really rather comfortable? “As the audience dribbled In, we recognized Norman Thomas, Louis Waldman and many others whose faces were vaguely familiar from the' old days when I was a bona fide member of the S. P. a a Last Act Is Winner “npHE curtain rose. And it conXtinued to rise and fall on a series of short scenes, giving just an introductory glimpse of the several characters concerned. “We were still unimpressed until the very last scene of the first act —the trial of Thomas De.'aney, who, I gathered, was a composite of Billings and Mooney. That was breathtaking in its effectiveness—short, lightning flashes of the different witnesses and bits of testimony. It was very much like the tying up of facts and evidence in a good mystery story, only better, because it was true. “For the balance of the evening we sat—as did the rest of the audience (even a well-known and' often satirical dramatic critic)— without moving, enthralled at the story unfolding itself before us and at the restraint and finesse displayed in the telling of that story. “Really, Mr. Broun, you simply must go down and see ‘Precedent.’ I'm sure it has many flaws as far as playwriting, directing and acting are concerned. But you’ll overlook 1 them, or maybe you won’t even seej them. , “The important thing is that it’s' exciting and—it's true. It should be on Broadway, so that the whole world could see it and get properly hot and bothered about the greatest injustice extant in our so-called civilized world. “Pardon me if I seem to rave. But this play brought to life that old ! crusading spirit which I thought I had done with. “Somthing should be done! Some- j thing must be done, damn it! You I see the play. And then tell us, as! only you can, what we must do.” * Copyright. 1931. by The Times)

44 per cent of the valuable rays into the larynx, according to Dr. Joseph W. Miller, whereas ordinary glass mirrrors absorb these rays and reflect only about 9 per cent. It has been found that practically all patients treated by direct sunlight to the cords tend to heal. Dr. Miller reports fifty-nine out of sev-enty-two patients who showed complete healing of the tuberculosis lesions in the larynx. The symptoms improved in the other patients, even though healing was partial. In many of these cases, because it was impossible for the patient to stay in a sanatorium, it became necessary for the patient to treat himself. The apparatus has been developed so thai the patient actually can see his larynx and treat himself by means of the reflecting mirrors.

Freshen Up How about that little job of painting around the home that you have been promising to do all winter “when spring comes?” Don’t put it off any longer. Our Washington Bureau has readv for you a bulletin on PAINTING AROUND THE HOME that gives proper directions and valuable suggestions for simple methods for painting both outside and inside the house and outbuildings. It tells about paint, about preparing wood surfaces for painting, about finishing floors, how to apply wall paint, use of water paints, staining shingles, painting metal surfaces, removing old paint, how to care for paint brushes. Fill out the coupon below and send for it. CLIP COUPON HERE Department 122, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C. I want a copy of the bulletin, PAINTING AROUND THE HOME and inclose herewith 5 cents in coin or loose, uncanceled United States postage stamps to cover return postage and handling costs. Name > Street and No Cit y * State I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times. (Code No.).

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those of one of America's most interesting- writers and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this oaner.—The Editor.

APRIL 21. 1931

SCIENCE

BY DAVID DIETZ Automobiles of Future May Be Operated With Coal , Turned Into Gasoline. COAL will operate the automobiles of the future. The petroleum supply may give out in a few decades. There is enough coal beneath the surface of the United States to last 2,000 years at the present rata of consumption. The chemist's answer to the problem of a dwindling petroleum supply is that he will substitute coal for it. There is no need, however, to visualize coal yards taking the place of the corner gas station and to wonder whether a coal bucket and shovel will constitute standard equipment for the auto of the future. For the chemist believes that the auto owner will shift from a dependupon P etr °leum to one on coal without much realization that anything has happened. What the chemist proposes to do is to substitute coal for petroleum in the manufacture of gasoline. The autos of the nation will still run on gasoline, but anew raw material will supply it. Gasolines are the lighter hydro* carbons which are driven off in the distillation of petroleum, and which are also manufactured by “cracking ’ the residue of heavier hydrocaroons to split them up into lighter components. The lighter hydrocarbons which I constitute gasoline and similar products which can be substituted for gasoline, can be manufactured from coal. m a a •The Bergius Process THE most promising process so far developed for conversion of coal into motor fuel is the so-called Bergius process, developed by Professor Friedrich Bergius of Heidelberg, Germany. Dr. Bergius began his experiments in 1912. His work is a beautiful illustration of methods of modem research and of the results which reasonably can be expected from studies carried on with ample facilities and over long enough periods of time. In this connection, it is well tc remember that research is based upon the careful and often slow accumulation of facts. It is not a magical hocus-pocus which can produce startling results overnight. Dr. - Bergius believed that bituminous coal could be converted into a suitable fuel for automobiles. And so he set to work. The first task he set for himself was to learn what was in coal. He obtained samples of coal by the thousands from all parts of the world, and subjected them to chemical analysis. At the end of two years he was probably the world’s foremost authority upon the chemistry of coal. Next, he tried his hand at produring coal-like substances. He suceeded in turning sawdust into substances resembling a large number of grades of coal. Then, feeling that he had arrived at a pretty good understanding of what coal was, he turned to the problem of converting coal into oil. n tt Hydrocarbon Ratio SIXTEEN to one once was a famous rallying cry in politics in the days of William Jennings Bryan. Sixteen to one also had an important signi>jance for Professor Bergius. His work showed him that bituminous coal contained carbon and hydrogen in the ratio of 16 to 1. In petroleum, the average ratio of carbon to hydrogen is 8 to 1. The problem of converting coal into oil, therefore, resolved itself into the problem of doubling its hydrogen content. It is for this reason that the Bergius process frequently is spoken of as the hydrogenation of coal. In his first experiments, Dr. Bergius tried passing hydrogen under high pressure into coal which was heated to a high temperature in great steel drums. The great heat, however, changed the coal into coke and the experiment failed. After further research, he hit upon a process which worked. In it the coal is ground to a powder and mixed with a small amount of heavy oil. Special pumps pump this mixture and hydrogen into great steel drums with a pressure of 3,000 pounds to the square inch. Dr. Bergius found that the temperature control was extremely important. The reaction between the ccal and hydrogen began at a temperature of 300 degrees, Centigrade, and ended at one of 450 degrees. Not only difi the hydrogen go into combination with the coal, but heavier hydracarhons were cracked into lighter ones during the process. A ton of coal produced forty-five gallons of gasoline, in addition to a still larger amount of heavy fuel oil suitable for Diesel engines, still heavier fuel and lubricating oils, and some ammonia and carbolic acid.

Daily Thought

Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish.—Proverbs 31:6. All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort.—William Penn.