Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 184, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 December 1931 — Page 10

PAGE 10

*(* IPP J-M OW AMD

The Utility Conference The conference next week between city officials, a committee of citizens from the south side civic clubs and representatives of the local light and power company will determine much more than the rates to be paid for electricity. The attitude of the utility magnates end the public service commissioner, who suggested rates by agreement, will demonstrate to the people whether they are dealing with those who want to be fair or must adopt drastic methods to obtain justice. The idea of peaceful settlement comes from a public official whose duty it is to protect the public. It brings some doubt as to the value of the office he holds, inasmuch as the conference is for the avowed purpose of eliminating delays and costly appraisals of plants. ;,That may mean that the present system of control must be abandoned for some other method, if the public service commission is so hampered in its mechanics as to offer no relief to people oppressed by utility greeds. The suggestion that there will be long delays and great cost implies that this situation has been reached. Os course, the utilities can charge this if they demonstrate a willingness to deal fairly. The business methods of the holding companies should be abandoned. If coal, for instance, were purchased at prices paid by other industries, a saving of several hundreds of thousands of dollars a year could be made and passed along to the consumers. If the utilities fail to make an offer of a decent and considerable cut in schedules for both domestic and power users, there is but one course to follow. Justice demands a decrease, and an immediate decrease. Public sentiment must force quick action. Delays are not necessary if public officials do not permit delays. Unless the utilities want the present conditions of utility control completely exposed to public view, they should take steps to grant concessions at the present time that will satisfy the public of their willingness to be at least half-fair. The people are in no mood to listen to quibbles of political lawyers and lobbyists sent to confuse issues and furnish alibis for public officials.

Dig Up the Mooney Report Buried in the vaults of the White House is an unpublished report on the Mooney-Billings trials in California. It was prepared at considerable time and expense by a subcommittee of the late Wickersham commission on “lawlessness in law enforcement.” It is an essential part of the work of the commission’s experts, Dr. Zechariah Chafee, Walter H. Poliak and Carl S. Stern. It was suppressed by the Wickersham commission and President Hoover. Congress now should demand that report. We do not know whether this suppressed report favors the pardon of Tom Mooney and Warren Billings or not. In either case, the people should know the truth. The commission spoke of the “impropriety in discussion of the case.” It did express outraged feelings over the California law that forbids its courts to reopen a case, even alter perjured testimony is discovered. These comments are beside the point. The commission’s experts, working in the belief that these trials represent the nation’s outstanding examples of legal anarchy, investigated and recorded the facts of the trials. Congress has a right to know these facts. Not only technically, but morale, this report belongs to the public. The integrity of the law has been challenged. California is charged with holding two men in prison on the lies of self-confessed perjurers. Justice has been dragged for fifteen years through the dust of passion and prejudice. Men like President Wilson's commissioners, Justice Langdon of the California supreme court; Judge Griffin, Mooney’s trial judge; all the living Mooney jurors; the present San Francisco district attorney and its chief of detectives, mayors, governors, senators, labor leaders, ministers, lawyers, teachers, editors, thousands of plain people from all over the country, have challenged this injustice. Congress should demand this report of the official government investigators.

Checking: the Farm Board The senate should lose no time in approving Senator George W. Norris’ resolution calling for an investigation of the federal farm board. It is important, as the Nebraska senator suggests, to get more facts of the board's extremely expensive and extremely futile price pegging operations. But more important, in our estimation, is Norris’ plan to determine whether the efforts of the farm board have damaged the co-operative movement. If, as we believe, true co-operative structures have not been erected and fostered by the board, it will liave been worth a part of the millions lost by the board to prove this, providing the trend thereafter is changed immediately. The senate, also, will do farmers a service if it will consider the justice of paying the managers of the farm board co-operatives and other agencies immense salaries while many of the producers themselves are unable to earn enough to keep them from starving. The Value of Securities Intelligent action has been taken by the national convention of state insurance commissioners on the important question of valuation of securities carried as assets by insurance companies. They have voted, with proper reservations, to use an average valuation instead of the market rate on Dec. 31, 1931. The idea was to find a fairer valuation than that represented by the present abnormal market depressed by forced sales. There is nothing new or dangerous about this principle, which has been adopted in similar abnormal periods by the convention of commissioners. It is the same principle which moves banks and ipsurance companies to carry real estate mortgages at fair valuation, instead of at a temporary market discount. As far back as 1907 the attorney-general of New York ruled that the law regulating valuation by the state insurance department did not require evaluation based on market prices of any given date, but rather a fair market value ascertained, if necessary, by averaging the range over a period not too remote. Following this method, the convention of insurance commissioners, meeting in New York city this week, passed the resolution proposed by George S.

The Indianapolis Times ' (A MCKIPHB-HOW AKIt NEWSI’AFCK) Owned and published dally (except Souday) by The Indianapolis Tlmea Publishing Cos.. 214-220 West Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price In Marlon County, 2 cents a copy: elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week. Mali subscription ratea In Indiana. $3 a year: outside of Indiana. 65 cents a month. BOYD GURLEY BOY W. EARL D. BAKES Editor President Business Manager PHONE—Riley 8651 FRIDAY. DEC. 11, 1831. Member of United Preaa. Kcripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

Van Schaick, the New York superintendent of insurance. This resolution rejects current market quotations as unfair for valuation purposes, and substitutes as a fairer standard the average market price of securities over the last five quarterly periods. It finds that average to be approximately the same as the market price of June 30, 1931, and therefore simplifies the average-range-method by accepting the June 30 price for purposes of Dec. 31 valuations. Exceptions are made of defaulted bonds and of securities of companies in receivership since June 30, and of companies forced to sell securities at present prices to liquidate, as In all such cases the market price would be accepted for valuation. Although the convention action, of course, is not binding on the states, most of the state insurance commissioners will be guided by the general principle of the resolution In their evaluation of securities. Any contrary method, which would weaken fundamentally sound insurance companies by forcing liquidation at a sacrifice, would strike at the policy holders. A Warning to Japan Secretary Stimson’s statement on the Manchurian crisis is the strongest he has made since Japan violated the treaties on Sept. 18. In putting the United States behind the league council’s resolution of Thursday, he says, in effect, that this government will hold Japan responsible for any further war move and will refuse to recognize any settlement forced on China by military might. We wish Stimson had spelled out for the benefit of the Japanese militarists what the Japanese diplomats will read between the lines of his statement. He implies that American patience will end if the Japanese army moves any closer to the great wall of China. The Japanese should understand by this time that the state department policy is subject to American public opinion, which has no partisan interest in the Manchuria quarrel as such, but which has a challenging interest in preservation of the two violated American treaties. Under no circumstances will American public opinion overlook continued violation of the Kellogg and nine-power treaties. Mere cessation of hostilities, which leaves Japanese troops or disguised Japanese governments in control of Manchuria, will not meet the requirements of the treaties. If Japan is misled by the past inaction of the United States into believing that she can break her withdrawal pledge made Thursday to the league—as she has broken earlier pledges to retreat within the treaty area—she will make a grave mistake. For American and world opinion is much more Impatient now than when the state department last month withheld its support of the league’s time ultimatum. It is true that the league’s resolution of Thursday is weak. It fixed no demilitarized zone. It left a loophole for so-called chasing by Japan. Under pressure, the council robbed the neutral commission of all powers except mere observation—despite Stimson’s mistaken interpretation that it has powers of conciliation. The league thus has gone out of its way to save Japan's face. But if Japan takes an unfair advantage of this she will provoke a world protest that will force immediate and effective joint intervention by the league and the United States. A Suggestion for Visiting Diplomats We have been fortunate and honored In the visits of eminent foreign statesmen and diplomats In recent months. All ostensibly have been eager to convince us of their earnest devotion to the cause of world peace and good will among nations. Almost without exception, they have visited the tomb of the Unknown Soldier to lay a wreath. This visit uniformly has been given prominent place in the rotogravure sections of the Sunday papers. It certainly is commendable for these eminent foreign visitors to do this. But they would do more to convince us of their consecration to the cause of peace if they were to do similar honor to those Americans who have given all or part of their lives to promoting pacific relations among men. So it may be suggested that our distinguished foreign visitors go to the tombs of William Ladd, Elihu Burrett, Edwin Ginn and Andrew Carnegie, deposit a wreath, and stand at reverent attention for a few seconds. Or let them make a pilgrimage to Lake Mohonk. The same advice may be extended to official American visitors abroad. When they go to France, for example, after they have stood *t attention before the tomb of Napoleon, let them seek out the resting places of the Abbe de St. Pierre, Voltaire, and Jean Jaures.

Just Every Day Sense BX MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

THIS column is taken severely to task by Mary G. Hawks, president of the National Council of Catholic Women, for its words of commendation to a group of mothers who declared against early religious training for their children. As is often the case, she assumes that one cannot be either sincere or religious without subscribing to what is called “the accumulated wisdom and experience of the ages." With this idea I must disagree, since I believe that, to live at all, religion must change and grow. And religion, or that consciousness of the divine within ourselves, is something so supremely personal that it cannot be transcribed in theological terms and transcends the rules of every creed. To me it means the kind of love that lived in the heart of the Nazarene who died because He dared depart from the doctrine of the church fathers. And have not all great moral leaders departed likewise from their earliest training? St. Paul, St. Francis, Luther, Buddha, Mahomet, as well as Jesus. a a a COURAGE is admirable, wherever it be found, and therefore it seems to me that an honest opinion may be a form of spiritual flowering that might be pleasing, too, in the sight of God, who surely must love the valiant. Nor can we, in the face of past events, depend entirely upon the old-fashioned Sunday school training to instill morality and loving kindness into the young. For we know that men and women by millions marched out of the Christian churches all over the world and engaged in the cruelest and most futile of wars. They did this, not because they lacked religion, but because they did not have the courage—or the understanding—to live up to its best meaning. And I do not see how the Christian creeds which preach, “Thou shalt not kill,” can evade some of the responsibility for the catastrophe. To the orthodox mother who is sincere I give, therefore, my highest respect, but that does not deter me from making my bow also to the unorthodox who is brave enough to stand by her opinions.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS:

You Can Think What You Like About it Morally, but as an Economic Factor Prohibition Is the Obstacle to Relief in the United States. NEW YORK, Dec. 11.—European governments are Enjoying the benefit of a year’s moratorium with regard to international debt. It was proposed by President Hoover last June and made effective in July. It has something more than six months to run. A conference is in session at Basle, Switzerland, trying to devise anew plan of German reparation payments. It is taken for granted that the plan will involve a material cut. Allied countries claim that they can not stand a cut in German reparation payments, unless it is offset by a cut in their debts to the United States, and President Hoover warns congress to be prepared for such a contingency. nun The Trouble Mounts FOREIGN bonds held by American investors have shrunk bynine billion dollars in value since they were purchased, two-thirds of it during the last year. The British government has not only suspended gold payments, but is formulating plans to reduce its annual budget by half a billion dollars. Germany is reducing prices, rents and wages by arbitrary decree, while Italy and some other countries already have done so. Added to this, most governments are adopting drastic measures to restrict imports and reduce the cost of exports. f # P Waiting for Miracles OUR own government had a deficit of nearly one billion dollars last year and faces one of twice that much next year. It promises to be in the hole by more than four billion before any considerable headway can be made in pulling it out. No one expects the Mellon tax plan, which President Hoover has just put before congress, to produce more than one billion dollars annually if, indeed, it reaches that amount. Obviously, we still are waiting for miracles. # * * Prohibition the Obstacle j IT goes without saying that the federal deficit must be taken care of, but is there no other way of doing so, except through a burdensome increase of taxes at this time—an increase which the American people are in no position to endure and that might prove a retardent to business recovery? Assuming that treasury officials are correct in estimating that the j deficit will reach four bililon dollars i before the tide turns, why not issue : twenty-five-year bonds to that • amount, and then divert the, enormous revenue bootleggers now are getting into the public treasury j and let it provide the interest and sinking fund. You can think what you like about it morally, but, as an economic factor, prohibition is the one great obstacle which stands between the American people and relief. n n m A Better Purpose IF successful, the “noble experiment” might be worth it. If we had stopped drinking, one would hesitate reopening the spigot. If gangsters and racketeers were not garnering millions from the illicit trade, the idea of legalizing it to produce revenue for the government might be shocking. The question is not whether we should ask a little more of the taxpayers in order to prevent crime, but whether we should switch the enormous current of money now flowing into dives, dens and speakeasies for a better purpose. What the racketeers of this country are making and misusing would go a long way toward matching the Mellon tax plan. It certainly would provide interest and sinking funds for a billion-dollar bond issue. * Rotting the Structure THE absurdity of sending gangsters to jail for failure to pay their income taxes, when their in- ; comes were derived from beer and rum, should be enough to make us j realize the economic farce. The tragedy of the crime wave j which has rolled over us as a result of organized viciousness which finds its chief support in bootlegging en- j terprises should make us realize j the moral seriousness of a situa- i tion that is rotting our social and! political structure.

Questions and Answers

Who was Princess Blanchefleur? Heroine of an old French metrical romance, “Flore et Blanchefleur,” which was used by Boccaccio as the basis of his prose romance, “11 Filocopo.” The old story tells of a young Christian prince who fell in love with the Saracen slave girl with whom he had been brought up. They were parted, but after many adventures he rescued her unharmed from the harem of the Emir of Babylon. The story has appeared in many forms and has been used by many writers. Is the gold supply of the United States much greater than that of France? Sept. 30, 1931, the gold holdings of the United States was estimated at $4,362,000,000, and of France at $2,326,000,000. The figures are constantly fluctuating, but the United States has had from 45 to 50 per cent of the world gold supply for several years. What is the common name for xylonite? It is the same substance as celluloid. What is the Oberlaender trust? A trust fund founded by Gustav Oberlaender with a =;ift of $1,000,000 to establish an endowment for the promotion of good-will between the people of the United States and Germany. The money will be distributed over a period of twenty-

When Do I Get Out From Under This?

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Amoebic Dysentery Serious Disease

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hrsteia, the Health Magazine. AMOEBIC dysentery, one of the most serious diseases that afflicts mankind, is the infestatioii of the human body with the organism called the entamoeba histolytica. The disease is common in the United States, but there are records which indicate that it can occur in every state, and it does occur more frequently in the country districts of the far southern states. Not long ago there were several cases in one hotel due to the fact that an individual who was infected was put in charge of fixing the salads for the dining room, and through contamination of the food several other people became infected with this disease.

IT SEEMS TO ME

■‘■'T'HERE’S so much unhappiness Ain the world,” says Aunt Clara (Uncle Joe’s wife), “that I don’t see why we should spend money to see shows and read books that remind us about it.” “The man worth while,” she says, “is the man who can smile when everything 1 goes dead wrong.” Maybe it would be just as well to leave Aunt Clara out of the discussion and go on to explain why the so-called gloomy modem novel is really more stimulating to the ego than the aggressively cheerful modem play. Most of us admit that a novel or a play or any form of art is an escape from reality. To be sure, a good many plays this season were hardly calculated to give anybody much of a start on the bloodhounds. tt tt tt Living Life Vicariously CONSIDER the most humdrum person of your acquaintance and you probably will be able to tag him as an inveterate patron of the movies, loud or silent. Lacking in real life, he gets it by watching Greta Garbo in the moonlight and seeing Douglas Fairbanks jump over gates. Your friend never will be in the moonlight to any serious extent himself, and he never would think of vaulting fences. The scren has satisfied amply his romantic cravings. The man in the theater or the man who reads a book identifies himself with one of the characters —hero or villain, as the case may be While the spell is on, he lives the life of that fictional character. Next morning he can punch the time clock with no regrets. An interesting thesis might be wirtten as to the exact relationship between the eyebrows of John Gilbert and the declining rate of marriage in the United States. Assuming, then, that art—and for

five years among mature persons who are interested in international affairs and qualified to interpret the results of their studies to the American people. How is the word “Muskogee” pronounced? It is pronounced “mus-ko’-gee.” The “g” is hard as in goat and the accent is on the second syllable. Who is president of the General Motors Corporation? A. P. Jr. Which states lead in the production of apples? In order of their production they are Washington, New York, California and Pennsylvania. Which are the three great missionary religions? The religions that are making most converts and increasing in size and area of propaganda are Christianity, Buddhism and Mohammedanism. Does a person lose his American citizenship on account of failure to vote? No. Does the song “Cornin’ Thru the Rye” refer to grain or a river? The Rye is a small river in England. and the song refers to the custom of lovers exacting a kiss as they passed each other on the stepping stone in the shallow stream.

The organism is spread through the bowel discharges of infected people or through handling of food by infected people who have not properly taken care of their hands. Flies have been incriminated for spreading the disease, but that is not the common method of spread. When a person becomes infected it is the bowels that chiefly are attacked. The patient suffers with bloody discharges, intermittent pain in the abdomen, gradual wasting and sometimes intoxication from the infectious products. Once the disease gets into the body, it is eliminated with considerably difficulty and chronic cases are not rare. Not more than 10 per cent of those who are infected die of the disease, if the case is diagnosed

the sake of the argument motion pictures and mystery plays will be included under the heading—takes the place of life for a great many people, what do we find about the pernicious effect of happy novels and plays upon the community in general? Simply that the man who is addicted to seeing plays and reading books in which everybody performs prodigies of valor and virtue never is going to the trouble of doing so much as one good deed a day upon his own account. a a a Heart and Eyes Wrung Dry SEVERAL seasons ago I went with a friend to see a play about a kindly man of middle age who adopted an o-phan. My friend glowed with as complete a spirit of self-sacrifice as I have ever seen. This mood continued through three acts. He projected himself into the story and felt that he actually was patting ingenues on the head and adopting them and trimming Christmas trees. On the way uptown he let me pay for the taxicab and also buy the newspapers. He was curt and short. All his kindly impulses had been drained off during the performance. He was fit company for no one throughout the entire week. Being rather more regular in theater going than my friend, I failed to make any complete identification with anybody on the stage in this particular piece, but I also was depressed somewhat. The saintly old lady in the play had spoken of “the tinkling laughter of tiny tots,” and this made me reflect on the imperfections of life. It did not seem to me at the time as if any of the children in the flat next door truly could be said to tinkle. I felt dissatisfied with things as they are. One week later I watched “Hamlet,” and the effect was precisely the opposite. After they carried the corpses of the dead and the dying into the wings I went into the warm evening walking upon my toes. This was much more like it. Everything in the play tended to make life seem more cheerful In many respects the young prince was ever so much worse off than I was. And he, too, mentioned his need of getting rid of excess flesh. After observing the rotten state of affairs in Denmark my penthouse apartment in Fiftyeighth street seemed entirely satisfactory. a a a Keep Happy With Ibsen I HOPE next year will provide us with an ample quantity of Ibsen, for he’s an author even more inspiring to the distressed than William Shakespeare. It is no accident that the Scandinavian drama is generally gloomy. Ibsen understood the psychology of his countrymen. He lived in a land of long, cold winters and poor steam heat. If he had written joyfully and light-heartedly, thousands—well, say hundreds —of Norwegians would have gone home to die or at least to harbor such a wish. Instead he gave them folk like Oswald, and all the Norse playgoers went into the night skipping and laughing. And for some reason which I can’t explain, tragedy whets the appetitie for food. “Ghosts” goes better with ham and eggs than any play I know. In fact, at times when Oswald has dallied a bit in dissolution I’ve found my mind wandering away from the tragic solution

early and proper treatment promptly administered. Control of amoebic dysentery is a relatively simple matter where there is capable health administration. Every civilized community must provide for sanitary disposal of human excretions and for protection and purification of water supplies. Food handlers in public places certainly should he supervised properly and thorough washing of the hands with soap and water at frequent intervals should be demanded. If all foods eaten raw, particularly the leafy vegetables, are given proper supervision, which means inspection before purchase and thorough washing and cleansfection with amoebic dysentery will ing before serving the chance of inbe relatively slight.

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those of one of America's most interestin* writers and are presented without regard to their J ? 1- , disagreement with the editorial attitude of this Paper.—The Editor

RV HEYWOOD bY BROUN

nrl w specu ation as t 0 whether a wonM h 37 l rder of Pancakes hour and b to ° heaVy at SUCh a late r W wi& L H VRadiator j WISH the Broadway dramatists A of today were half as shrewd as Ibsen. Then we should have plays m which the heroine's mother faded to raise the mortgage and lost the old homestead in the very last scene. J , s Lf. tottered out to starvation in a blinding snowstorm, I might be minded to forget how perfectly abominable all my luck has been in poker in these last three months. I might appreciate even our janitor if only the old lady would wring her hands just before the final curtain and exclaim, “How bitter is the wind tonight!” (CopvriEht. 1931. bv The Ti’mesi

M today ms 7 WORLD WAR t anniversary

HEAVY GERMAN SHELLING Dec. 11 ON Dec. 11, 1917, Germans, using every gun available, started a heavy shelling along the British and French fronts in Flanders. The kaiser, according to reports to London and Paris, placed every available gun, including those captured in Italy and those released from the Russian front—for a great artillery battle in the west before the American forces became really active. The Italians launched an air raid over the German lines. On a narrow sector over the Asiago more than 150 airplanes participated. The Austrian battleship Wien was reported torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean sea. The constituent assembly attempted to meet in Petrograd, but the few delegates who appeared were threatened or arrested by the Bolshevik!. Itlalians repulsed the Teutons’ attempt to retake the Agnezia and Zuliani positions in the Capo Sile region of the lower Piave.

Volts, Amperes, Watts Do you know what they are—what they mean? Magnets, generators, motors, induction, incandescence, fuses, meters—they affect every moment cf your life, awake or asleep, in this age of electricity and machinery. Exerybody in this modem age has occasion to use elementary knowledge of electricity and electrical construction. Our Washington Bureau has ready for you a bulletin, written in a popular way on ELECTRICITY, containing the elementary sects about this all-pervading stuff of which all matter in the universe is probably a manifestation. You will find it fascinating reading and full of valuable information. Fill out the coupon below and send for it. CLIP COUPON HERE Dept. 160, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C. I want a copy of the bulletin ELECTRICITY, and inclose 5 cents in coin, or Icose, uncanceled United States postage stamps to cover return postage and handling costs. Name Street and No ty state I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times. (Code No.)

T)EC. 11, 1931

SCIENCE _ BY DAVID DIETZ __

C. G. Darwin, Grandsoyi of the Famous Evolutionist, Writes a Neiv and Excellent Book on the Atom. SCIENTIFIC brilliance has run in the Darwin family. Every one has heard of Darwin and his theory of evolution, but perhaps fewer people realize that Charles Darwin was only one illustrious member of that family. Modem studies of the problem of evolution found their beginning in part in the writings of Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin. Charles’ son was George Darwin, who distinguished himself by his studies of the tides and the motions of the moon. George’s son. living today, is one of the world’s most brilliant mathematical physicists. He is C. G. Darwin, fellow of the Royal Society and Tait professor of natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. He just has written a book which undertakes to explain the latest atomic theories for the layman. Its title Is “The New- Conceptions of Matter.” (The MacMillan Company, published it at $3.) It will make an excellent Christmas gift for a friend interested in the newer scientific theories. The book should be read by every reader who wishes to keep abreast the latest developments in the world of physics. u u n Concentration Needed DARWIN has a clear and simple style. But the subject with which he is dealing is extremely complex. He doesn’t dodge the complexities, but instead sails right into them. The result is a book which can not be read as easily as a novel. It requires concentration, but no more concentration than one with an interest in the subject should be willing to give it. Darwin supposes no technical knowledge upon the part of his reader and avoids the use of mathematical equations. The book might prove too difficult as a starter for one who has no acquaintance at all with atomic theory, but any one who has followed current reports In newspapers and magazines and read one or two books like Russell’s “The ABC of Atoms,” should have no trouble with “The New Conceptions of Matter.” The reading of Darwin’s book will more than pay for itself. For much has happened in the world of physics since Russell wrote his “ABC.” Although Dr. Neils Bohr is still one of the foremost experimenters in the field of atomic physics—Darwin dedicates his book to Bohr—the old Bohr theory of the atom is ancient history in many of its aspects. New developments of the quantum theory, the work of De Broglie and Schroedinger with the consequent rise of wave mechanics, have introduced anew point of view. a n ts Describes Battle DARWIN opens a book with a chapter in which he introduces the principal actors upon the scene —the atom and its constituent parts, the electron and the proton; the light quantum or photon as it is sometimes called; the ether, whose existence still is debated. The second chapter is devoted to a discussion of the general behavior of waves. Without the use of mathematics, he explains the meaning of harmonic waves, standing waves, etc., and describes the classic experiments of Young upon the interference of waves. Darwin then goes on to describe the battle raging today over the nature of both matter and energy. The situation is indeed a complex one. Certain experiments indicate that light consists of waves. More recent ones, however, support the view that light consists of distinct particles or quanta. With regard to the atom, the situation is reversed. Wave mechanics bring forth the possibility that the atom itself is composed of waves. In certain experiments, the electron, the fundamental particle of matter, exhibits the characteristics of a wave. Darwin discusses these experiments and such new elements in the picture of the physical world as the Heisenberg principle of uncertainty. Some of the chapter divisions are “Contrast of Wave and Particle,” “Uncertainty of Speed and Position,” “Normal Modes of Vibration,” “Spinning Electrons,” “Polarization of Free Electron,” etc.

Daily Thought

But behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.—Luke 22:21. Remember the divine saying. He that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his life.—Sir Walter Raleigh. How many bank failure have there been in the United States in the last nine months, and what states have had the greatest number? From Jan. 1, 1931, to Sept. 30, 1931, there were 1,234 bank failures. The states having the largest number were: Illinois, 143; lowa, 125; Michigan, 74; Ohio, 70; Minnesota, 65; Pennsylvania, 64; Indiana, 58; Missouri, 58, and South Dakota, 53.