Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 226, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 1932 — Page 4

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S C* t t>P J - H OH' AMZ>

The Rackets Come Kidnaping of a prominent citizen of South Bend calls attention to the fact that styles of rackets are changing with the depression and that the complacence of the people to the easy money boys during prosperity now has its dangers for the comfortable. The gangs grew with the coming of prohibition. They prospered because people were ready to patronize the vendors in liquor and pay huge tribute to those who took chances with the law. Because of the illegal nature of a business that had great patronage, killing became an essential part of that business. Competitors were suppressed with bullets. Big cities educated men in the art of killing and also educated them in the habits of having plenty of money. When depression came, the profits of bootlegging shrank with that of legitimate business. The difference comes in the fact that legitimate business men took their losses and .pared down their personal expenditures to fit their incomes. The bootleg gangs took depression less complacently. They turned to more profitable ways of getting money and insisted on getting the same huge incomes. Cities which tolerated the gangs of bootleggers and took no steps to stamp them out as long as they confined themselves to the illegal traffic in liquor and murders between themselves now pay the tribute of fear to the new tricks of the same old trade. Kidnaping is the easy development of gang business. Kidnaping thirty years ago was a rare event. Only one organized gang, operating near Detroit, attained nation-wide attention. The kidnaping of a packer’s son became a tradition. Now it comes to Indiana, the most unlikely state in the Union for such crimes. The significant factor in the situation is that society is satisfied with the return, unharmed, of the victim. There is no indignant demand for the punishment of the criminals, no determined effort to catch the kidnapers. That may be due to the belief that gangsters have become too powerful and too numerous. The rackets are here. What is to be done about it? A United Defense Drastic economy requirements of the federal government should insure sympathetic consideration for the Democratic proposal to unite the war and navy portfolios under anew department of national defense and provide for three assistant secretaries for army, navy and aviation. It has the added advantage of increased defense efficiency. . To wipe out the three billion dollar deficit, and balance the budget, every possible legitimate saving must be made in federal government costs. The 1933 budget for both defense services totals $643,000,000, not counting the navy department’s bill for $616,000,000 worth of new war ships. “The world is staggering under the load of armaments,” says Representative Byrns of Tennessee. “Approximately three-fourths of the ordinary expenditures of our federal government are to pay for past wars and the maintenance of a national defense. This huge burden upon our people should be reduced, wherever possible.” There are in the present war and navy departments endless duplications > that should be removed. Each department maintains an air service. Each has a service of purchase and supplies, often bidding against each other for identical items. Each operates big establishments for storage, transportation, repair, training, education, hospitalization and other services. There are rivalries between the two arms of defense which could be eliminated or at least checked by a unified service. These rivalries often, as in the Spanish-American war, assume proportions serious enough to hamper the prosecution of war. At best they are wasteful and destructive. Another good reason for the unification reform is that it would give equal status to the important air service. Hitherto jealous and fogey admirals and generals have been able in many cases to clip the wings of aviation. Many millions would be saved under such a unifying measure. “We must have insistent and determined reduction in government expenses,” President Hoover says. If he means it, he will support the bill for a less expensive and more efficient defense service.

Puddler Jim Puddler Jim Davis has his critics, like the rest of us. There are people unkind enough to think—and to say rather bluntly—that he was a weak secretary of labor, and no better as a United States senator from Pennsylvania. But even Jim’s worst enemies admit that he has a flair for politics that amounts to genius. He gets on with the folks. He keeps his ear to the ground. And Jim’s ear Is so sensitive that he knows when a public movement is afoot. All of which is a somewhat roundabout way of stating the obvious. When Jim Davis, the political dry, flops and becomes a political wet, it will be significant. Jim wants to stay in the senate. If he is going to have a chance for success, he has discovered that he must ride the rising wet wave. So he apparently intends to join with Mr. Vare, who more or less runs Philadelphia and way points, and is a wet of the first water. Perhaps some of Senator Davis’ critics will blame him if he undergoes this sudden conversion. But, at least, he no longer will be open to the criticism which fits so many of his senatorial colleagues who evade the issue. Respect is due the politician who is willing to come into the open on a national issue and allow the electorate to decide —equal respect is due the dry or wet of that type. But not much can be said for the politician who conspires to prevent the country from voting on a vital issue. That is the undemocratic position of those drys today who are trying to block a prohibition referendum. It Fays Here and there in public office are men who still believe with Representative Tom Blanton that “idleness is the devil's workshop’’ and that short working hours are an abomination and a menace; so here and there conditions exist like that the New York City affairs committee just has uncovered—hospital guards working seven days a week and ten, twelve and thirteen hours a day. But, for the most part, officials and private employers alike have awakened to the fact that 75 per cent of the workers in this country can produce more goods than they can consume or buy; that we must divide the available work, or a fourth of us will be permanently unemployed and forced to steal or starve. There can be no doubt that total, permanent idleness for this many men would be a “deviD? workshop,” not only for those concerned, but iL all of

The Indianapolis Times <A hCKII’I'O-iIOHI Hit NKHSHAPEHI Owned *ud published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis I'ltnea 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. Mail subscription rates in Indiana. S3 n ear: outside of Indiana. 65 cents a month. BOTH UiJKLEt. RO\ W HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. Editor President Business Manager PHONK—R ey fififtl FRIDAY. JAN. 29. 1931 Member ot United Press < rlppr-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Association Newspaper information Service and Audit Bureau of Orenlations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. ,:

us, threatening our peace and security as nothing else could. This week the house of representatives, with scarcely a dissenting voice, took steps toward a sixhour day for railroad employes. In New York a few days earlier, Francis Perkins, state industrial commissioner, convinced a group of leading employers that a five-day working week is not only inevitable, but desirable. These are only two of many indications that comprehension of our economic situation slowly is becoming general. Whether Industry or government takes the lead, the shorter work week and the shorter work day are just ahead of us. If we are wise, we will apply it more quickly than the eight-hour principle was applied. When full comprehension dawns as to its meaning in terms of mass purchasing power, nothing will be able to check this reform. Too Many Receivers (I'rom the Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial) In the state of Arkansas there are some 190 small banks closed, and in the process of liquidation. The greatest amount of good to the greatest number of people in this tragic instance could be achieved by eliminating unnecessary waste and extravagance in the liquidation of these small banks. When these banks began popping, potential “receivers” began circling like buzzards on the trail of a fallen prey. Instead of organizing our banking department to meet the emergency, by creating a central receiver to handle all of them, they were handed out one and two at a time, and the cost of liquidation will consume a large part of the deposits. It is not too late now to bring about a few reforms in the liquidation of these small banks, by zoning the state and consolidating the receiverships. J. E, Williams, receiver for the Merchants and Planters bank here, who has shown a good record, informs us that he could have liquidated a dozen small banks from headquarters in Pine Bluff at the same time. The banks of Altheimer and Wabbaseka are good illustrations of what the depositors of the small banks can expect. Although they have been closed for more than a year, no dividend has been paid. And the same is true of other small banks in the state. We don't say the cost of liquidating these banks Is too high. But we do say the depositors of these banks are entitled to something and would have’ received a fair dividend had the banks been grouped under one receivership, along with others in this section of the state. If the. cost of liquidating banks continues to eat up the assets, then it would be better to abandon any further attempts at liquidation. If what is due the depositors is going to be paid receivers and special attorneys, then it would be better to wipe the slate clean. Does Roosevelt Qualify? Franklin Roosevelt, Governor of New York, has told the Democrats of North Dakota and, so, the people of the United States, that he is prepared to be the candidate of the Democratic party for President. It is proper enough, then, to discuss briefly one of the qualifications for the place to which he, quite reasonably, aspires. We say his aspiration is reasonable. When one has been Governor of New York it is usual for one to think of the White House and, for that matter, for the voters of his party to think of him in that connection. If one has been, on the whole, a pretty good Governor of New York, he is almost certain to be suggested for the country’s highest executive post. His achievement of that post, of course, doesn’t always follow. A1 Smith was a good Governor of New York. The one qualification that rises first to mind in the case of Franklin Roosevelt is that of courage. Does he have it? It is important that he have it. These are times when the country is demanding that its leaders shall stand up and be counted. The country has had enough of evasion. The present administration has supplied it on every conceivable occasion. Now something better is desired. Roosevelt may or may not know it, but the thoughtful people of the United States have been weighing this question ever since he took office at Albany, his emergence as a candidate for the presidency having been foreseen since that day. To put the matter baldly, he has not answered the question yet. He has not shown decisively whether he has the courage to deal with the kind of issues that make or break a man. The issue that now lies between the people of New York and Tammany is such an issue and, thus far, Governor Roosevelt has seemed to direct his course chiefly to avoiding any action that would break him—as a candidate.

JuSt Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

f I 'HE most brilliant thinkers of the age are agreed X that the probable salvation of America lies in women’s hands. Profound students of the question contend that we can improve conditions, not by imitating men, but by developing new opportunities and setting up new ideals. It is evident that if we only track after men, we some day shall arrive at the same sort of cul-de-sac m which we now are imprisoned—unless, to be sure, the men change their course. Sometimes the home woman feels left out of these plans for improvement. There is, however, one task that she, and perhaps she alone, can do. She can enhance the dignity of domestic labor. For she knows, or should know, how important in the nation’s life are home-making, dietetics and child rearing. And she also should realize that heretofore she has been largely responsible for the present low status of domestic work in the working woman’s world. tt tt a WE long have thought it unnecessary to give the kitchen maid an education. We proceeded upon the theory that once she got some book learning, she would not stay there. The present state of industry, however, now makes that false reasoning. * The woman in the home has fostered this injustice because she has regarded the girl in her kitchen as her inferior. This attitude of mind never has been explained satisfactorily. And it is not based upon good sense. The business man does not scorn his secretary or stenographer, whether they be men or women. The landlord does not feel superior as a man to his renter, nor the merchant to his clerk. And when these employes show special aptitude or talet they generally are given a hand up by their employers. The housewife, however, who gets a splendid woman in her kitchen sometimes will use base methods to keep her there. If we believe, as we say, that the home is the foundation of the nation, then surely the women who work in our homes should be well paid and well treated, and should be made to that theirs is a dignified and honorable calling.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy Says: If We Are Willing to Shed Blood for the Integrity of China, That’s One Thing. If We’re Not, It’s Quite Another. NEW YORK, Jan. 29.—We profess to be shocked at the seizure of Shanghai—shocked and bewildered, just as though something queer had happened, something that no one could foresee, something that we should not have been prepared for these thirty years and more. Think back, if you please, to the Sino-Japanese war, the Russo-Jap-anese war, the acquisition of Korea, those “twenty-one demands,” and see whether such incidents and a dozen more like them do not suggest a well thought-out program? u b tt Dream of Dominance EVER since Japan discovered how easily China could be cowed, or conquered, she has dreamed of dominating the Orient, of becoming another England, of setting her mast in the midst of Asia. She deliberately has pursued a policy of opportunism, but always with regard to .details. Her apparent hesitancy in taking this, or that minor step was for purpose of deception. She willfully has created the impression that she was afraid, because it was the best way to find out just how far she could go. But even a casual review of Japan’s course is enough to show how swiftly and forecfully she could strike, once she had made up her mind. tt tt tt Sham —Then Violence IN making all preliminary moves, her sham of hesitation and, above all else, her speed and violence when the time came to act, are traits which have been revealed too many times in the past for any one to be deceived, or caught off guard. We should have known exactly the kind of tactics she would pursue—the shadow boxing with which she would begin, the mask of timidity with which she would attempt to conceal her real intent, and then the left hook to the jaw, the very first moment there was an opening. We should have realized what her basic objective was, how definitely committed to it she is, and formulated our plans accordingly. We should have understood that, Kellogg pact, or no Kellogg pact, ninepower treaty, or no nine-power treaty, Japan regards herself as the child of fate, predestined to rule the Orient' and that ultimately, she can be stopped from doing so only by war. tt u tt How Far Shall We Go? BEFORE we get any deeper into this mess, we should decide whether we are willing to make war over such an issue. Indeed, we should have made up our minds on that point long ago. If we are willing to shed blood for the integrity of China and the limitation of Japan, that’s one thing. If we are not, it’s quite another. Furthermore, we should be taking some pains to find out how other nations feel about it, particularly Great Britain and France. It makes a lot of difference whether they would be willing to help, or are merely passing us another buck. tt tt / League Challenged IT is to be admitted that the existing situation represents a challenge to the League of Nations and other agencies of peace machinery, that they are likely to go haywire if something isn’t done about it, and that, as believers in the peace movement, we should lend a helping hand. But are we sufficiently sold on these agencies, as now arranged, to risk a major conflict in which we might find ourselves lugging the whole load, or at least the biggest part of it? We must not only think this problem through before going much farther with it, but we must think of the worst possibilities that can arise. In that way alone can we formulate a policy with which we are willing tb abide under all circumstances, and no other kind is worth formulating.

Questions and Answers

What are the chief imports -,nd exports of Brazil? The chief imports are wheat, machinery, utensils and tools, gasoline arid motor cars. Coffee exceeds all other exports. How many counties are there in Texas? Two hundred and fifty-four. Please write the numbers nine million, nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine. $9,009,999. Are the originals of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence in existence? Both, are displayed in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. Are more prunes raised in California than in Oregon? In 1930 Oregon raised 50,300 tons of prunes and California raised 225,000 tons. How many feature photoplays have been produced in the last fifteen years? The Film Daily Year Books list 11,950 titles released between January, 1915, and December, 1930. Must a son have the full name of his father to be a junior? Yes.

Daily Thought

Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice.—Joshu 22:26. Man always worships something; always he sees the infinite shadowed forth in something finite.— Carlyle.

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Obstruction of Bile Causes Jaundice

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. JAUNDICE} merely refers to the yellow color of the skin and the other tissues of the body due to abnormal content in the blood of material derived from bile. Bile is the material which is found in the gallbladder, but which is developed in the liver. The liver is the largest organ in the body In the liver the brokendown material from red blood cells is converted and sent to the gallbladder through the bile channels. When the bile is not eliminated properly, the person develops a sallow complexion with slight yellowness of the whites of the eyes, the undersurface of the tongue, and occassionally of the palms of

IT SEEMS TO ME

THE Harkness Hoot is an undergraduate magazine at New Haven which tries to keep Yale pure and undefiled by the cleansing process of satirical comment. The Hoot just has discovered and made public the fact that the university is merely a first rate country club. But this is a familiar accusation. I doubt its pertinence in this instance. According to my way of thinking, Yale is nothing like as good as that. It will have to fight for ranking honors with Princeton, which has long been identified as an ideal suburban lounge. Nor am I at all sure that the country club charge is the barbed indictment which it may seem at first thought. Why shouldn’t a college take over the business of inculcating a genial fellowship? tt tt tt When I Was but a Lad LOOKING back across the misty years it seems to me that the most important gift a university can confer upon its students is the privilege of sharing in conversation. I almost wrote “stimulating conversation,” but caught myself in time. Such a phrase would indicate a self-conscious desire for improvement, and futility lies at the end of that road. Anybody at all may object that it is quite possible to talk without going to college. It is possible, but the difficulties are greater than we realize. The formative years of the non-collegiate are generally spent in a place called the home. This is by m means the ideal place in which the young may strut their stuff. The home is largely occupied by people called “your elders.” The general rule is that you should not interrupt while they are talking and that all opinions advanced by them are to be received with due reverence and a high degree of approval. I forget now whether it is the father or the mother who is a boy’s best friend, but in either case I do not think that a relative is the ideal debating opponent so an inquiring mind. Naturally I am not scoffing at the wisdom of the elders. I am an elder myself—a father, in fact—and in regard to many matters I rate myself as shrewder than my son. Even so, there is no point in his wearing hand-me-downs, whether they are tossed from the top of an Einstein tower or come from the roof of that squat brick building better known as Heywood Broun. In the case of intellectual concepts, each man or boy should be his own bootlegger. u tt Why Not a Country Club? AND so I would retain and foster a country club atmosphere in all centers of learning. But I'm not for country club snobbishness. I want the society big enough to include all who care to join. There would have to be nooks more comfortable than any lecture room or library, where two or thaae might gather together and exchange opinions with becoming violence and intensity. It has been said that ,in these college confabs the boys talk only about football. I doubt the accuracy of the accusation. Certainly this can hardly be the case at j Princeton. Youth is not as bitter : and cynical as all that. In ray | day at Harvard we talked much [more about sex than about the

Pity the Blind

the hands and the soles of the feet. In some cases the entire body may be quite yellow. Jaundice therefore, may result from an excessive formation of the bile material, from damage to the liver so that the liver cells do not pour out the bile, but let it get back into the blood, and finally from obstruction to the excretion of bile through the bile tract. In case of obstruction due to stones in the gallbladder or to other conditions which block the bile passages, the method of treatment is obviously an attempt to unblock the passages by surgical or by other means. In certain infectious diseases the amount of bile formed may be so excessive as to throw undue burden on the liver and bile passages. The toxic type of case in which

eleven. None of us expected to be tapped for the team. Nor is it true that a lounging life leads to intellectual stagnation. A country club existence may well inspire the adolescence to read with avidity. In the last twenty years I imagine I’ve read at least a dozen books all the way through, but in college I got away with that many in a week. x All the required reading I neglected shamefully. And it was just as well, for I would have crammed myself with textbooks upholding economic theories which have since been blown sky high. In particular I remember that I loafed throughout the course given by Professor Carver. I cut it many times. But he has since turned out to be a prohibitionist, and so I j couldn’t have missed much of importance. tt tt Reading Not Required INSTEAD of textbooks, I devoured Shaw and Thomas Hardy. Balzac’s “Droll Tales” were thrown in free with the Hardy set. Fiction and drama outlast most books of facts, because the novelist sets down more fundamental and enduring

People’s Voice

Editor Times—The laboring people are not prejudiced against millionaires and corporations having enough money for operating industries, railroads, etc., but the thousands and millions of dollars that they pile up for their own use do not belong to them. They did not earn it and they have no right to it. Os course they have it, yes, they got it by enormous profits and enormous salaries, two things that have ruined the country more than anything else. If the men we sleet to run this country can not distribute this money, then it is time ior the peonle to take a hand. Moneyed men should be warned that, unless they volunteer, they are -roir - to be forced to, not by the so-called rulers, but by the people. It has been th> custom heretofore to call out the enlisted men in times of uprisings, but haven’t the soldiers got families, friends, loved ones at home suffering, tro? It may be a different story this time. People, are you going to continue I to let the cayitalists rule this J country? J. E. T. Editor Times—You can call it depression or whatever you like, but in reality it is only the padlocked pockets of the rich people. There is one, and only one, way of putting the world back to a place where every man is to have a job at a living wage, and have no more unemployment or starvation, and that is for the rich to put money back into circulation that flowed to them in unerring channels when the working man, with the aid of the payment plan, spent all he made ; and sometimes more. The working class brought this ! so-called depression on, and now it jis up to the rich, the ones who I benefited, to break it up. MILO. ! Editor Times Your Stephenson j editorial recently was very unj timely. Though he was a political | sacrifice, *tis sure he is an infamous criminal. Dissenting judges might . do well to think of their prestige. | ' i CITIZEN.

there has been damage to the liver demands the most careful study as to the cause of the damage and to the elimination of such causes if the condition is to be cured. The cause may be an infection, it may be the result of poisoning with various metallic poisonings or with the by-products of bile formation. In any instance the toxic substances must be eliminated. For instance, in jaundice due to intoxication by arsenic, it is customary first to stop the administration of the arsenic, and second to give a preparation which counteracts the arsenic. In case of infection, treatment must be directed toward building the body's resistance to the infection. when the infection is overcome the jaundice disappears.

RV HEYWOOD BROUN

stuff than the economist or the historian can ever muster. History leaves out the head and the foot of the parade and tries to pare it all down to its aspect in passing the reviewing stand or some other given point. I used to lull myself to sleep at night by counting presidents crawling under a fence. I would not deny cards and round games to the inmates of the Yale Country Club, but its essential function is best preserved when Ter. tius, minor, says to Primus, third, along about 4 in the morning, “Well, you see, according to my experience, it seems to me that life is”— I can’t remember now what life did seem to me when I was 19, and it was a few million centuries more j ancient. I never did really solve that problem until I passed 40, and I doubt that I would have succeeded in working out the riddle even then, but for the fact that I got an early start. (Copyright. 1932. by The Times) M TODAY 'l IS THE- Vt> ; WORLD WAR \ ANMVERSARV LONDON AIR RAID January 29 ON Jan. 29, 1918, London was bombed from the air for the second successive night, killing 68 and wounding 183 in two nights. On the night of Jan. 28 the most freightful raid was made. A total of 58 persons were killed and 173 wounded. Hardly had the confusion of his raid abated when the enemy returned again, killing 10 more and wounding another 10. The supreme war council of Tie allies convened at Versailles and it was decided to continue the vigorous prosecution of the war. The Italians broke through the Teuton lines at several points east of Asiago plateau and dispersed reinforcements. which were rushed through the Nos and Campo Mulo valleys.

Bridge Parties Everybody and his grandmother are playing bridge—auction or contract. And there is no form of entertainment that a hostess can select that so easily solves the problem of a number of guests as a bridge party. It lends itself to the simplest or the most elaborate functions, and may be a feature of a luncheon, tea, afternoon or evening party. Our Washington bureau has ready for you its new bulleting on Bridge Partier that contains suggestions that any hostess will appreciate. It suggests score cards, refreshments prizes tells how to run a progressive bridge party, auction or contract; covers the etiquette of bridge parties, benefit affairs, teas luncheons and club affairs. Fill out the coupon below ana mail as directed. CLIP COUPON HERE-. Dept. 166, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York avenue, Washington, D. S.: I want a copy of the bulletin Bridge Parties, and inclose herewith 5 cents in coin, or loose, uncanceled United States postage stamps to cover return postage and handling costs. Name St. and No City state jpg* 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 nrcsenled without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

JAN. 29, 1932-

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ

Physicist Flouts Ether Theory as “a Medium Invented by Man for Propagating His Misconceptions From One Place to Another.” THE ether constitutes one of the chief stumbling blocks facing modern scientists in their attempts to make a picture of the universe. - For that reason many scientists would abolish it. The layman, who wonders how scientists can abolish the ether, must remember that it was the scientists of the past century who invented it. The ether is what is known as “a hypothetical medium. ’’ Nobody ever has seen the ether, weighed or otherwise identified it. The word ether comes from the Greek. The Greeks imagined the atmosphere divided into two layers. There was the lower layer, which touched the earth and which men breathed. Our word air comes from the Greek word for this layer. The upper layer, which was thought to be purer and more fiery, was called by a word from which we get our word, ether. After the Greeks, the ether practically was forgotten until the nineteenth century when physicists revived it. In the nineteenth century the wave theory of light was established firmly. If the light consisted of waves, it was thought that these waves must travel on something. Later radio waves were discovered. It also was necessary to provide a medium upon which these waves might travel. And so, the physicists decided that all space must be filled with a medium, which otherwise could not be identified or detected, but which would serve the purpose of providing a medium—a fluid, so to speakin which these waves could travel. They called it ether. tt tt tt Confusing Theories DR. W. F. G. SWANN, famous physicist, and director of the Bartol Research Foundation, is among the scientists who believe that it is high time to abolish the notion of the ether. He states his views in a report prepared for the Engineering Fo-.n-dation of New York, titled, “What has become of the ether?” Dr. Swann defines the ether as “a medium invented by man for the purpose of propagating his misconceptions from one place to another.” Attempts by scientists, philosophers, and laymen to picture the ether have led to all sorts of confusing theories, according to Dr. Swann. “One would have liked to think of the ether as like water; but that would not do, because the kind of waves which water would transmit were quite different from those required for light,” he says. “A solid would have been better for the purpose of light, but how would it be possible for the earth and all the other plants to glide so smoothly through a solid? “Now, it was perfectly possible to express mathematically the laws according to which light and allied phenomena behaved in all the experiments in which they played a part; but the equations looked and lifeless. “It was indeed possible to define the properties of a medium which in the form of waves would transmit effects which were the counterpart of the observed effects; but the properties necessary to attribute to the medium were such that there was nothing else anything like it.” tt tt tt 'Picture Making' AND so, as Dr. Swann points out, both laymen and scientists, not satisfied to stop with the mathematical equations, undertook to make pictures of the ether. Then the trouble began. “When the layman contemplates such an abstract concept as + he ether, he usually adds to the properties relevant for the performance of its functions certain irrelevant ones, possibly color or freezing point,” he continued. “Even though he would be horrified to admit that he was thinking specifically of such things, they occupy a sort of hazy status in his mind, and these irrelevant parts frequently constitute what he calls ‘reality.’ “One irrelevant concept which the materialistic physicist wished to think of in relation to the ether was its state of motion. He wanted to be able to speak of the velocity of the earth in relation to it, or of its velocity in relation to the earth. “He wanted to picture the drag which it would exert on the earth as it passed through it, and so on. The irritating thing about this cantakerous ether was that while it behaved with perfect consistency in its legitimate job, it gave all sorts of inconsistencies for things which were not part of its job. “Persons said, “All! If it has a velocity relative to the earth, then such and such an experiment should give such and such an effect.’ The experiment was tried, and no effect was observed. ‘Very well, then, it has no velocity with regard to the earth; it is dragged along.’ “Then somebody else said: ‘lf it is stationary with regard to the earth, if it is dragged along, then such and such another experiment should work in a certain way.’ It did not work in that way either.”