Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 105, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 September 1931 — Page 6

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Words, Words, Words On the front page of this newspaper today is printed the reaction of a great student of economics, a great leader in other fields than politics, a humanitarian who devotes his life to the salvaging of human beings, to the telegram sent by Governor Leslie to President Hoover. Because he comes from a neighboring state, he asks that his name be not printed. What he wrote is not in a spirit of criticism of a Governor who does not know and who never will know, but in spontaneous protest against inactivity on the part of those in power at a time when leadership is strongly demanded. The kindest comment on that telegram from the Governor to the President is that it is words, as idle as “the dream of an idiot,” as futile as the promise of a beggar. The Governor pledges himself that no federal aid will be needed in this state to care for jobless men and that its citizens, conscious of their responsibility to the unemployed, will meet their needs with generosity. The need of these men who are out of work is not charity—but a job. The only generosity that can be shown is a social attitude that will bring back work to those who demand work, not a basket from a township trustee nor a soup ticket from a Community Fund. It is pathetically tragic that at this time the leadership in Indiana is in the trusteeship of those who are so blind to the signs of the times, so deaf to the raucous roar of the underprivileged that they can not lead, but only offer empty promises when needs are great. Thus far the state is diverting $750,000 from manufacturers of trucks to the building of roads that are so unimportant as not to be accepted hitherto into the state road system. It is proposed to parcel this out to between 3,000 and 5,000 men for work that might be done with machines, demanding from them unnecessary work in order that they may live on the border line of poverty. Thus far not a millionaire in this state, the rich men who had plenty of money last winter to defeat an income tax measure, has pledged himself to give a dime to any fund. Thus far not a provision has been made to prevent wholesale evictions from humble homes, to heat the hovels of the poor when the cold blasts shrivel with their rigors, to do anything except advise them not to be dismayed, but to hope for the prosperity around that undesignated comer. It is true that in the city of South Bend generous citizens have reverted to primitive methods of meeting needs by canning fruits in public schools. It is also true that while 5,000 men may get temporary work in the carefully selected districts to which the state road fund is directed, there are 36,000 men in Indianapolis who will receive no benefit whatever. The men and women of this state want neither charity nor a dole. There is no difference between the tax, paid maintenance of the needy through unemployment insurance and the grudging gifts of a welfare society whose employes look upon every family as a “case” with a number, instead of human beings. The former may be less degrading. Let it be suggested that the telegram of the Governor may not really represent public opinion in this state. Were the majority opinion consulted, composed of those already out of work and those who fear loss of their jobs, that telegram would have demanded an immediate session of congress to provide for great public projects, for the lifting of unjust tariff burdens, for the aid that government might give to the restoration of industry. Just what is the difference between a dole and the private charity which the Governor pledges will appear! More Guns—More Taxes If the public does not want to pay much heavier taxes, the public will have to force down federal armament expenses. Already there is a deficit of more than a billion dollars. By next July the estimated operating deficit will be upward of three billion dollars—maybe more. Some federal appropriations must be increased. No major cuts are possible except in the army-navy cost. Therefore, any talk of federal economies which does not center on armament reduction is political moonshine. Every year for a decade the public has been misled by that moonshine. That did not matter so much in prosperous times. It matters now. With the government plunging down the financial slide, and with hunger and job riots starting even before the severe winter ahead, our armament extravagance is suicidal. Lay aside all the moral costs. Forget our “war to end war." Forget our Kellogg pact with the rest of the world to outlaw war as instrument of national policy. Forget the score of official declarations in which our government has committed itself to speedy arms reduction. Forget that the disarmament conference of next February—holding European peace in balance —is Jeopardized by an armament race for which we are guilty in part. Forget that this armament bflrden^jg r

The Indianapolis Times (A SCRIPFS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-22 U West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price In Marion County, 2 cents a copy; elsewhere, 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. Mall subscription rates in Indiana. S3 a year: outaide of Indiana, 65 cents a month. BOYD GURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. Editor President Business Manager PHONE—Riley 6561. THURSDAY. SEPT. 10. 1831. Member of United Press. Scrlppa-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

a chief cause of European bankruptcy and world trade stagnation, prolonging our own depression. Any one of these is sufficient reason for cutting the American military budget. But forget them all, and the necessity of large tax increases in the midst of depression is enough by itself to force an arms cut if our politicians have any sanity. Fortunately, politicians such as Chairman Will Wood of the house appropriations committee and Chairman French of the house naval appropriations subcommittee have been shocked by the overpowering deficit. They promise to prune the navy money demands. That there is room for pruning the following figures will show: The navy department and big navy senators demand new armament costing an additional $1,004,000,000. The state department has informed the League of Nations that our military-naval expenditures for the year just ended—the year of the billion-dollar deficit—amounted to $726,000,000. President Hoover’s official figures reveal that our military-naval cost jumped from only $266,000,000 prewar to an estimated annual average in the Hoover administration of almost $780,000,000. Mr. Hoover, in his last budget message, stated that 17 cents In every dollar goes for new war preparation. Public debt charges—chiefly war costs—take 26 cents. And 21 cents is taken by pensions and veterans’ relief. Thus, about two-thirds of the huge federal budget is eaten up by war charges. These are official figures; they can not be ignored as propaganda. There Is no chance of cutting the present and continuing cost of past wars. Only the armament cost which is provoking another war can be cut. If the taxpayers object to a three billion dollar deficit, it is time lor public pressure on the President and congress. Job Riots Doubtless many lessons will be drawn from Cleveland’s unemployment riot. Some will use it as rather vivid proof of the fact —which apparently has not been conveyed by dull statistics—that the unemployment problem really is serious. Others will use it as evidence that the jobless are led by radicals bent on violence—a distortion of the Cleveland episode, but nevertheless one that suits the purpose of propagandists who would answer pleas for work with tear gas bombs, night sticks and, if necessary, machine guns. Still others will point out that the rioting of 13,000 men over 2,500 emergency highway jobs demonstrates the need for many more emergency highway and construction jobs than now are being provided by city, state and federal governments. But the most impressive part of the incident to us is the fact that the unemployed want work. That should be rather obvious. Unfortunately, it is not obvious to many well-fed leaders of opinion in the country. ' Persons like Henry Ford are saying that the explanation of unemployment is that the jobless do not want work, that they are trying to escape work. Just how cruel and malicious that libel is can be seen in the frenzied rush of 13,000 hungry men for Cleveland’s 2,500 jobs. It is terrible enough for our economic system to deny to 6,000,000 men the primal right to work, without compounding our crime against them by the lie that they are only lazy bums who will not work anyway. The Baby Dies Michael McNulty was 7 months old. His father had been out of work in Chicago for a year. His mother had been without sufficient food to nurse him properly. Two days after the family had been evicted, his father got a job. But before the first week's pay envelope came, the baby “took sick.” In a few days the ptfysician wrote on his death certificate: “Starvation and malnutrition.” President Hoover has said that “no one must starve in America.” How many Michael McNultys, one wonders, will there be among the nation’s 2,000,000 babies who must go through the coming winter? In a nation whose coffers and granaries are bursting with gold and wheat, one starved baby is too many. Maybe some of the secrets of the success of those Empress Eugenie hats is the salesman’s remark, “Not every one can wear one becomingly.” There ought to be some kind of law providing a man with a nice long rest after his vacation.

Just. Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

AFTER a surfeit of “fine writing” and eerie plots* what a relief it is to find a book like Willa Cather's “Shadows on the Rock!” Simple, direct, plain, beautiful, it relates the story of simple, direct and honest individuals. All is set down in clear, short Anglo-Saxon words and the result is as impressive and as lasting as the great rock of Quebec itself. Perhaps we enjoy stories like this so much because we have gone through a hectic period in literature. Books have been lurid, sexy, dramatic, powerful, thrilling, but seldom simple. The novelists have sought to lay bare for their readers the secret recesses of the human heart, and very often when you peeped into it, there was not much worth seeing. Illicit love has held sway so long that we have almost forgotten that fidelity still exists. The psychoanalysts have led us into tangled mazes of inhibitions, obsessions and neuroses. We are, as a consequence, left gasping for a good breath of fresh clean air. a a AND a writer like Miss Cather always can be depended upon to supply us with that. Pure air for the mind is just as necessary for decent living as pure air for the lungs, perhaps more so. To be sure, life is not such a simple thing now as it was for those characters who live again for us in the city on the rock. We have cluttered up our existence with a good many useless and worrisome trifles. And sometimes it takes a lot of concentration for us to see that most of our agitations are uncalled for, and our activities that so wear us out are not essential at all for our happiness. When the last word has been set down about men and women, we shall find that the old things are the only things that are real; and that simple pleasures give the purest joy. The time-worn truths are the substantial truths. The reactions of individuals to life are immemorial and practically unchanging. The lurid may hold us for a time, but in the end we shall come back to the sane and solid loveliness of living, just as we return, with a contented sigh, from jazz novels to the kind of atones that Miss Cather tells. *

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

France Has Used the Peace Movement as a Smoke Screen for Building Up a Tremendous Military and Financial Poiver. NEW YORK, Sept. 10—Why all the stewing over that world court decision? Judges are human like the rest of us. When a prejudice is strong enough, they react to it. As for legal expertness, what does it prove, but an ability to make the law mean anything? Those who are trying to psychoanalyze the world court through its seven-to-eight verdict miss the real point. A distinctly pro-French sentiment and a distinctly antiFrench sentiment have come to be the dominating forces of internatioal politics. tt 9 tt Play Clever Game IN one sense of the word, this is a great compliment to French genius. The Quay D’Orsay has played a masterful game since 1918; first, by capitalizing sympathy; afterward, by using the peace movement as a smoke screen for building up a tremendous military and financial power. The French army, French gold reserve and French influence at half a dozen Eui opean capitals leave no doubt as to what a certain school of French statesmen think France deserves as a reward of victory. U tt tt Trace It to France GERMANY’S situation is traceable largely to the clever manipulation of credit by French financiers and the equally clever aggressiveness of French politicians. Ground is not lacking for ascribing much of England’s trouble to the same source. One might go even-farther and find reason to believe that some of our own difficulties in LatinAmerica are due to pro-French feeling, developed through the judicious exercise of influence and the judicious manipulation of funds, all by private, though patriotic, citizens. 9 9 9 Singleness of Purpose NO one can help admiring the singleness of purpose with which France has charted and steered her course through all the ups and downs. Whether at Versailles, or Sedan, she has clung to the same ambition and the same faith. Whether struggling alone, or rescued by a great coalition, she has believed in her destiny, has visualized herself as the rightfully dominant nation in European affairs. No animosity is required to recognize the French attitude as a factor which must be reckoned with, not as a passing wave of emotionalism brought on by recent perils and sufferings, but as a tradtional state of mind. France has not changed. She is the same, old, brilliant, ambitious country she has been for a thousand years. 9 9 9 We Don’t Understand THE French are right when they say that we-Americans do not understand them, do not appreciate the problems they face, or the precautions they must take. Asa matter of fact, we Americans do not understand any phase of European politics very well. We lack the background. We have no knowledge of what it means to wdell beside formidable neighbors. We have not engaged in a dozen wars, half of whi’h burned against us. We have no old grudges to square or old wounds to heal. We have been uniformly victorious, and have acquired enough territory through easy conquest, or purchase, to make us feel safe and self-sufficient. 9 9 9 Robbed of Experience WE Americans are in a position to laugh at imperialism, to reject a policy of colonization, to get along without a big standing army. We are not overcrowded, or threatened with bristling frontiers. We are differently circumstanced than France, or any other firstclass country. While such a situation enables us to develop anew and broader perspective on internationl affairs, it robs us of those practical experiences which have played such a part in fashioning the European attitude and which can not be discounted too lightly. 9 9 9 Let’s Concede Point ADMITTING that “splendid isolation” is out of the question, that international politics has come to stay, that we must take interest in world affairs whether we like it or not, shouldn’t we make some allowance for those peculiarities which are produced by environment and which are inescapable byproducts of the past? We know that Europe couldn’t make us over in a generation. Why not concede that we can’t make Europe over, or that, even if we could we might do a bad job? To the same extent that certain European customs and traditions are irksome to us, isn’t it fair to assume that ours are irksome to Europe?

rncoAy'jß THefJAPS TO HELP RUSSIA Sept. 10

ON Sept. 10, 1917, Viscount Ishii, in the name of the mikado, pledged Japan’s support to Russia. On the same day of this pronouncement, Russian troops were taking the offensive in the region of Segevold, and forcing the Germans back in a southerly direction. Turkish reinforcements ' were thrown into the campaign along the Isonzo front. The steamer Vanadis, formerly a private yacht and purchased by the Russian government for patrol duty, was sunk in mid-ocean by an internal explosion. Meantime, Komiloff’s revolt against the provisional government of Russia was being crystallized into actiosu \

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Life Span Depends on Heredity

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medic >1 Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. SIR HUMPHREY ROLLESTON is convinced, as are also practically all who have made a scientific study of the subject, that heredity is the most important factor in determining the span of life. Among 184 persons whose parents both lived more than eighty years, the average age at death was 52.7

The People’s Voice Schools Really Aid the Needy 9 9 9 9 9 9 Every Help in Power Given to Poor; Spirit of Writer Praised by Superintendent.

Editor Times—A letter to the “People’s Voice,” headed “Work, Not Charity, Is Wanted,” signed by “Mrs. H. H.,” is extremely interesting, not only because it is unusually well written, but because it sounds a fine note of courage, of self-sacrifice and of independence. We must admit frankly that the schools can not solve the fundamental problem raised by Mrs. H. H. in her letter, namely, the securing of employment for her husband so that he may properly feed, clothe and house his family and send his children to school. It is a truism so say that there is no class of public officials more closely in touch with and keenly aware of the suffering which our financial depression is causing than are the school teachers. Every day in the thousands of classrooms all over the city principals and teachers come in daily contact with the problem of children who are hungry and parents who are worried because they can not properly feed and clothe their children. Although it is obvious the schools could not and can not act as an employment agency, there are certain steps which the school authorities did take to aid parents to keep their children in school. Last winter, under direction of our social service department, free milk in the elementary schools was furnished daily for a period of five months to more than 3,000 boys and girls. We are planning to do the same thing this coming winter. The same department furnished books and clothing to more than 7,000 children between the ages of 7 and 16 years. These Children either would not have come to school or having come would have accomplished little. About 350 scholarships from funds given by the Indianapolis Foundation, the Indianapolis Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations, and private sources were awarded to high school pupils by the social service department. These pupils could not have had a high school education. In each of the high schools the principals arranged work in the cafeterias and in other ways for hundreds of children who badly needed the money they could earn. In addition to this, scores of teachers, whose names never will be known, gave a large amount of money from their private funds to children under their care and of course all of them contributed to various charitable movements through gifts to the Community Fund, through * their lodges, churches, etc. Our funds for these purposes are limited, but we do want to assure Mrs. H. H. and the thousands of other mothers whom she represents that we are very sympathetic with their problem, that we are proud of the splendid spirit in which they are meeting the present situation, and that we shall do all that it is humanly possible, with our limited facilities, to help them educate their children. PAUL C. STETSON, Superintendent of Schools. Editor Times—No wonder the Reds are gaining such headway in this country when all over the United States there are thousands and thousands of hard-working people without jobs, who are unable to raise one penny by way of first mortgage of any kind on their property. At the same time these people see the United States government and the big banks loaning millions of dollars to European countries while they must sit and starve or sacri--1 fice their property to the unscrupulous financiers organized all over

The Price Adjuster

years, whereas among 128 persons whose parents died before 60 years of age the average life was 32.8 years. Only recently have scientific biologists begun to apply the experimental method in an endeavor to learn the factors that actually control the duration of life. Many of the most important studies have been made in the department of biometry and vital statistics of the school of hygiene and

the country to take advantage of the helpless in these days of depression. Our President is busy appointing commissions that do nothing. The basic wealth of America is in the real estate owned by the average American citizens all over the United States. It is a poor caliber of statesmanship that can not see the proper thing to do is to safeguard the interests of this average citizen if they expect loyalty and patriotism in the days to come. I am not a “Red,” but I can see that the stupidity of our American statesmen is giving the “Red” much food to fatten on. CONSTANT READER. Editor Times —In recent weeks I have noticed in your paper, both in your editorials and in your People’s Voice column, a great deal about our last legislature being a little moist, if not absolutely wet. I do not put much credence in any story about our legislators being drunk, but let them come out and give the names of those who were drunk. Any man who would do such a thing is both a physical and mental coward. Well, why not? Is it more incumbent on a public officer to keep sober than for a private citizen? We as a party are supposed to send some of the brainiest men to our legislature and congress. While we sit back and criticise their every effort, their work is wholly mental, or brain work. You know that all mental work wearies the brain, therefore it needs a stimulant, which will act directly on the brain. At some time our legislature passed a law endowing our Governor with power to handle a fund called the Governor’s contingent fund, which he could spend to suit himself. He used about SIO,OOO to decorate and refurnish his mansion, also some $64,000 to clean the walls of the statehouse. It seems to me that it would take a powerful stimulant for a body of 150 men to pass such a law, giving any man the sole right to use the people’s money, when many families are suffering from lack of food. I am in favor of the legislature convening this fall for the purpose of having some of our laws changed. Do away with the appointing power of our Governor and mayor and have all officers elected. Also, there is going to be a need of a large contingent fund this winter, when we are faced, in all probability, with 200,000 jobless men and women, to say nothing about hungry children. Should it be incumbent on the Governor to call such a meeting of our law makers, before a hungry mob takes the thing in their own hands? Think it over, Governor. BERT F. MOSLEDGE. 537 Pearl street, Columbus, Ind. Editof Times—ln this city, of wealth, this No Mean City, why did the wealthy turn down an offer like Ward Hiner made? There could not be much graft in that. Couldn’t the Chamber of Grafters, Vacation Leslie and Brothers Arthur and Jim and *the Gold Dust twins and some others see some aid in an gßer like Hiner made? ™ The Grafters of People (G. O. P.) will have to do some fast figuring to do any good in 1932. In this state existing conditions are uncalled for. Men working for charity get whatever is put on them. No relief yet. What is the matter? Would like to hear from other readers while we are waiting. We will study about a golden ch&ncV such as the old age bill. W. M.

public health of Johns Hopkins university. The life cycle of the ordinary fruit fly is a short one. The average age of a generation is nine to eleven days. After years of study on the life of this fly the investigators were able to develop experiments which showed the factors governing the duration of life. It was found for instance that the rate of mortality was profoundly influenced by the density of the population. When a certain number of the flies together occupied a limited space such as was represented by the bottle in which they were grown, the volume of air, the volume of food and the area of! food surface being constant, the crowding definitely influenced the rate at which the flies died. Whenever the optimal density was exceeded, the death rate increased. In an endeavor to determine what it is that is inherited that makes one family live longer than another, Professor Raymond Pearl of Johns Hopkins university concluded that the thing might be characterized as “inherent vitality.” The human being is conceived as an aggregation of matter that has the property of automatically changing food or energy into heat work, component matter of itself or waste. Obviously human beings are differently organized and vary in the manner in which they utilize the products of the earth in sustaining life. The*- inherent vitality is the total potential capacity of the organism to perform actions necessary to life. Os course, the more rapidly the person uses up his inherent vitality the more likely he is to die soon. This conclusion is of the utmost importance in considering a plan of life because it points definitely to the fact that the length of life depends inversely on the rate of living. With this fundamental premise in mind it is possible to formulate certain factors that influence longevity. Sir William Osier said that much depends “on the quality of arterial tissue (vital rubber) which the individual has inherited.” Another way of saying the same thing was the famous proverb, “Man is as old as his arteries.” Today the main causes of death are related to the blood and its circulation. Heart trouble causes one out of every seven deaths. Diseases of the kidney are responsible for 148 deaths of each 100,000 persons between the ages of 45 and 64 years, and high blood pressure is given credit for 140 deaths in this group. The conditions mentioned are detectable and controllable to some extent in their early stages. Their onset is insidious. They can not be detected except by the scientific tests that are known to any welltrained physician. What is St. Elmo’s fire? It occurs chiefly in thundery weather and is a brush discharge of electricity in the shape of small jets and flames coming chiefly from pointed objects such as lightning rods, the masts and spars of vessels, the angles of roofs, fence posts, etc. The discharge often is accompanied by a hissing and crackling sound. Its luminosity is comparatively feeble, hence the phenomenon is observed more often by night than by day, frequently occurring during snow storms.

Can You Save It? That beautiful party dress that got a drop of ink on it? That tablecloth on which Bobby spilled the preserves? Those silk undies on which you dropped a spot of iodine? Dad’s vest that his fountain pin spoiled? That napkin with the peach stains? Are they ruined? Or can the spots and stains be removed? Our Washington bureau has ready for you one of its authoritative bulletins on the “Removal of Stains From Textile Materials.” it tells exactly what to try for each kind of spot or stain. It may save you a lot of money. Fill out the coupon below and send for it CLIP COUPON HERE ‘ Dept. 144, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York avenue, Washington, D. C. 1 1 want a copy of the bulletin "Stain Removal,” and inclose herewith 5 cents in coin, or loose, uncanceled United States stamps to cover return postage and handling costs: Name Street and No City state I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times. (Code No.) l . . :

SEPT. 10,1931

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ—

Stars Are Not Countiese, but Really Can Be Determined by Experts of the Firmament. THE great majority of stars visible to the unaided eye lie within a definite zone within our galaxy. Strange as it may seem to the layman, they are not the stars which are closest to the earth. The great majority of stars which are closest to our earth, or to our sun, are small or dwarf stars visible only in powerful telescopes. The Harvard observatory, which has embarked upon a survey of the universe, designates these two regions or zones by names. The volume of space around the solar system which contains the dwarf stars has been named the “solar neighborhood.” The zone which contains the naked-eye stars has been named “the region of the brighter stars.” Each of these regions will be the subject of special studies in the Harvard survey. The survey, under the leadership of Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of the observatory, will employ the services of thirty astronomers. The great majority of naked-eye stars, according to Dr. Shapley, lie between the distance limits of fifty and 500 light-years. A light-year is 6,000,000,000,000 miles. This does not mean that there are no stars visible to the unaided eye which are more distant than 500 light-years. It only means that the great majority lie within this limit. 9 9 9 Counting Stars WHILE the number of stars visible to the naked eye on a clear moonless night may seem as countless as the poet has called them, as a matter of fact they are nothing of the sort. Astronomers have counted and cataloged them for many years. About 6,000 stars are visible to the unaided eye in both the northern and southern hemisphere. From any one station, about 2,000 stars are to be seen with the unaided eye. The “region of the brighter stars.” however, contains many stars in addition to those visible to the unaided eye. Dr. Shapley says that there are about 500,000 stars in this region which are revealed by powerful telescopes. A large part of the problem involved in both the study of the solar neighborhood and of the region of the brighter stars is to ascertain the exact distances of individual stars. These are needed to determine the general distribution of the Stars in space, information which in turn is needed to shed light upon the general structure at the universe. Since the stars move with speeds which are within certain narrow limits, the stars which show the greatest apparent velocities across the line of sight, or as the astronomer puts it, the “largest proper motions,” are known to belong to the solar neighborhood. The exact distance of these stars from the earth then can be obtained by parallax measurements. This consists in measuring the angle through which the star seems to shift in two observations mads six months apart. Since the earth is revolving around the sun, this angle is the apex of a triangle which has the diameter of the earth’s orbit for a base. Once the angle is measured, the star’s distance can be calculated by trigonometry. 9 9 9 Another Method IN the region of the brighter stars, a different method will be employed to find the distances of the stars, Dr. Shapley announces. This method is known as that of spectroscopic parallax. When the light of a star is passed through a prism of spectroscope, it forms a little rainbow which is known as the spectrum. Some years ago it was shown by Dr. Walter S. Adams of the Mt. Wilson observatory that there was a definite correlation between certain features of the spectrum, notably the strength of certain lines in it, and the absolute or real brightness of a star. Consequently, it is possible to determine a star’s real brightness from its spectrum. Observation of a star gives its apparent brightness. From these two it is possible to compute the star’s distance from the earth. The Harvard observatory has done considerable work in the past in the region of the brighter stars. “Our own explorations of this territory are based largely on spectroscopic paralaxes,” Dr. Shapley says. “For several years at both the southern and the northern stations we have systematically accumulated spectrograms suitable for the work; methods of using the various classes of spectra are under study at Harvard and elsewhere and it appears probable that good criteria of absolute magnitudes will soon be available for many of the spectral classes. “We can use in this survey not only the plates specially collected for the purpose, but also the tens of thousands of short dispersion spectrum plates in the Harvard photographic collection.” DAILY THOUGHTS Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom:—Proverbs 13:10. 4 Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most like it least.— Johnson.