Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 89, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 August 1932 — Page 4
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MCH I PPJ -MO** AMD
Learn to Play There Is room in every community this year for a leader —not a political leader, nor a financial genius, but someone who knows how to play and can get other people to play. In all probability, there will be many families whose budgets for amusement will be in red ink instead of black this winter. Asa nation, we have never learned to find amusement in groups except by the spending of money. We have bought our laughs and our smiles. We have bought relaxation and escape from worries. The old day of the church social has gone and the old spelling bee of the little red school house has been replaced by magnificent moving pictures, prize fights or concerts. We have not learned to amuse ourselves in idle hours. Perhaps out of the Repression may come a better social era if we find time to get together and find our pleasures in just being friendly folks. Perhaps we can turn the school houses into real social centers this winter—not for serious gatherings with lectures and stilted manners, but as play places for families who will have no money to spend for the usual relaxations from the realities. Asa people, we have not learned to work together or we would not be faced with many of our present problems. Perhaps we can learn to play together, innocently, and find our resources for mental occupation within ourselves. And if the people ever learn that trick, they will learn the others that are necessary for social progress in a mechanized age. When Watson Comes The legislature having adjourned, the state is presumably safe territory for the return of Senator James Eli Watson to again plead his cause before the people. The senator announced that he would not come while the law makers were in session as someone might grab his coattails and ask for an opinion on how to get out of the tax difficulties or prohibition tangles or some other governmental problem. But the legislature has gone, the senator is not on record, he contributed nothing to either the success or failure of the session, unless he pulled wires from a distance. Undoubtedly his first campaign speech will be devoted to the praise of his record in the matter of worthless notes for worthless stock. The people remember—even if he forgets—that he accepted stock in a company that was interested in sugar tariffs at a time he was a powerful factor in fixing schedules. He gave his note for the stock. Undoubtedly he believed and the seeker of privilege believed that the tariff activities of Watson would increase the selling price of the Stock and there would be a profit. But something slipped. The stock went down. The senator, so the people remember, justified the deal on the ground that the stock became worthless and that his note was worthless. That is the kind of stuff the people want to hear—how to trade off worthless notes for something that may increase in value. They need a prescription for the old army game of "heads I win and tails you lose.’' Os course the fact that the people would pay more for sugar if the scheme had gone through will probably not be mentioned—by the senator. More Trade War America will suffer more trade lasses from the agreements of the British imperial economic conference just ended at Ottawa. Our agricultural products will be blocked in the British market to the advantage of Canadian products entering free, while Canada will give British steel and many manufactured articles preference over the products of our mills and factories. Estimates of American losses run into hundreds of millions of dollars annually. But we have no right to curse the British, the Canadians and the other dominions entering their agreements. They merely are taking a page out of our book, trying to protect themselves in the w'orld trade and tariff war largely started by us. Though we can not take a holier-than-thou attitude toward these neighbors of ouis, we can question their wisdom. It is just as silly for them to attempt to interfere with the natural flow of world trade as it is stupid for us to do the same. Canada and the United States have natural trade relations. We largely complement each other. Large trade between these two countries is mutually advantageous. * In the long run. those natural channels of world trade will re-establish themselves. But, meanwhile, the man-made trade barriers prolong the world depression, which they did so much to create. We started the trouble. We shall have to start the reform. President Hoover, in his acceptance speech, defended the monstrous tariff rates of the Hawley-Smoot act, and even intimated that some of them might be raised. So apparently there is no hop* to be expected from the Republicans. Logically, we might turn to the Democrats as the traditional low-tariff party. But the Democrats helped to pass the Hawley-Smoot bill. Now they make great ado about the iniquities of that alleged Republican measure, but they are evry careful not to commit themselves to any definite downward revision. The Democratic platform, admirably frank in many ways, evaded this issue. Candidate Roosevelt is equally evasive when it comes to making lower tariff pledges. If this means that the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic, intends to continue this economic world war. the result can only be more disaster. These British empire agreements are only the beginning of a large foreign drive against American trade—unless America has sense enough to call a halt. Superspecialism ( Like business, the professions are finding time these dull days to do a bit of soul-searching and stocktaking. .. ... In this process one doctor, at least, has discovered a malady in. his own calling. He calls it "superspecialisni." a tendency among physicians to shunt much of their work on to hospitals and specialists, thereby adding greatly to the cost, without always increasing the efficiency of medical care. . "In recent years, the practice of medicine, not unlike finance and industry, became a bit frenzied," writes Dr. Abraham J. Rongy of New YOrlt in The
The Indianapolis Times (A 6CRIPPB-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-22*1 Weat Maryland Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marlon County, 2 cent* a copy; elsewhere, 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cents a week Mail aubacriDHon mtea In Indiana. S3 a year; outside of Indiana, 66 cents a month. B°TD GURLEI. KOI W. HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER, Editor 1 resident Business Manager PHONE—Riley SMI, TUESDAY, AUQ. 33. 1932. Member of United Press Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”
Health Examiner. "The family doctor, too, lost his equilibrium, "Consciously or unconsciously, he pursued methods in his practice which reacted unfavorably on his medical position as well as on his reputation. The family doctor, instead of being the master in the sick chamber and assuming full responsibility for the case, has permitted himself to be relegated to an inferior position.” The family doctor, we read, is to blame for "the tremendous and very often unnecessary hospitalization of patients throughout the country.” Many more patients could be treated in the home, a course that not only would save money, but "re-establish the old relationship between doctor and patient.” Today this once-potent being, the family doctor, practically has become “a referring agent for the specialists.” "Specialism, properly linked to the general practice of medicine, is beneficial both to patient and doctor,’’ writes Dr. Rongy. "Superspecialism is a canker sore engrafted, a monstrosity created by and with the help of the family doctor, to the detriment of the public and the medical profession. This sounds like sense. Specialized treatment has accomplished miracles since the old days of the bar-ber-surgeon. But, like every virtue that Is carried too far, it may become a vice. We have invested $5,000,000,000 in hospitals and send through their portals 600,000 out of ’bur 2,000.000 sick each year. Yet we have lost something, of real value in the friendly care, both spiritual and physical, of the old family physician, who knew our insides and those of our family as no expert could. We hope that the committee on the costs of medical care will help to reinstate the family doctor to his old place of dignity and service. An O. Henry Story Years ago, O. Henry wrote a story about the temptations of a shop girl earning next to nothing a week and pursued by a predatory floorwalker who offered to buy her food. It played its part in wakening the country to comprehension of the social as well as the humane necessity of adequate wages. So far, the story of New Orleans waitresses being paid 6 cents an hour, or $3.24 a week, has not been written by any one except the Louisiana department of labor and industrial statistics. This department reports that "out of this pittance the employers deduct 5 cents a day for socalled maid service, 25 cents weekly for a cap or head band, and 25 cents for the use of uniforms, two or more being used each week. If the waitress is forced to pay car. fare both ways, she would have a net balance of $1.35 at the end of a week's work.” Os course, waitresses get tips which enable them to live precariously from week to week. They may be as well off as those women in other states who are finding that all they can earn as domestic maids-of-all-work is $5 a month, with board. And they would agree that the most meager kind of livelihood is better than none at all. Sometimes wages are dictated by strict business necessity and sometimes they take into account only the necessity of tho.se who must have work at any price. Another O. Henry might be able to make us see that even in times like these the living standards of the poorest of us are the direct concern of all. The R. F. C. Report There has been a lot of hokus-pokus in high places to prevent publication of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation reports. South Trimble, clerk of the house, called in legal experts, and even prepared a printed brief, to support his decision to permit publication of the reports. It was the only decision possible under intelligent administration of the law, terms of which never were obscure. Intent of congress never was in doubt. Attempts of standpat Republicans and Democrats to foil the majority of congress thus have failed. Publicity never hurt any public business. In this instance it should help the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in the administration of its difficult task. We doubt whether Hot Springs will ever be able to catch Reno in the matter of divorces. Besides being a late starter, the Arkansas city has the added disadvantage of being a greater distance from Hollywood. We know a far better way to have a path beaten Cos your door than to invent anew mouse trap. Just nave your name included on three or four lists of ‘sustaining" members of worthy charities.
Just Every Day Sense By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
'T'KE world’s champion typist, we read, now is a mother. Which when you come to think of it, is nothing at all unusual. The day never will come when a baby is a casual event to the woman who gives it birth. But it is to be hoped that we may live t<* see the time when we shall not assume that becatiie a woman has a child she must give up all other laurels. More sheer bunk has been written on the subject of mothers than on any topic under the sun. It has been preached by sentimentalists that maternity removes from a woman most other ambitions, takes away her tendency to sin, diminishes her faults, and transforms her instantly into a creature but slightly less virtuous than the angels. This, alas, is merely a pretty whimsy. For motherhood will accentuate our weaknesses, if anything, and enhance our faults, instead of renewing our virtues. m n n 'T'HE selfish woman will be doubly selfish for her children. The foolish will go to further extremes of folly. The vain one will indulge her vanity through them and the mean woman will grow meaner. It is only the loyal, devoted, splendid persons whom motherhood improves. For it seems to bring to the surface latent qualities in our natures. Whether these qualities be admirable or evil depends entirely upon the kind of person the mother always has been. I for one. think we shall be better mothers when we stop fooling ourselves with these sentimental fancies. let us regard our qualification and our shortcomings honestly and without absurd exaggerations. There is only one way to be a good mother—that is to work at the job without assuming that nature has given you any kind of special ability because you have borne a child. w w -v - 4 ‘ ‘ ■
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES '.
M: E: Tracy Says:
The Average Always Is Below the Desired Standard; the Caveman Was Aware of That and Sought His Mate With the Idea of Getting Away From It. NEW YORK. Aug. 23—By taking the measurements of 100.000 World war veterans, scientists have produced a plaster model of what they will call the composite, or average, American male of this generation. The thing is on display at the New York Museum of Natural History, its immediate purpose being to entertain, enlighten, or horrify delegates to the third International Congress of Eugenics. Outside of the information it may afford tailors, haberdashers, car designers and others who make or sell things which must be accommodated to the human body, it means very little. Neither tape nor caliper is needed to prove that the average always is below the desired standard. The caveman was aware of that and sought his mate with the idea of getting away from it. n n n Average Not Good Enough THE average is not only being studied too much, but is being allowed to play too prominent a part in all our activities. Mass production, whether as applied to art or overalls, is bent on finding the average. Our schools have suffered from the same complex. On every hand, we are lowering standards to accommodate the average. That is one reason why the average remains so low. The average is particularly out of tune with the theories of eugenics. Indeed, there would be little excuse for eugenics if the average were acceptable. No one wants to be an average pferson, whether with respect to length of life, bodily strength, or mental ability; no one believes there is any hope for humanity in standards, achievements, or ideals which satisfy an average. n n n Greeks Shunned 'Average' THIS plaster model which pretends to denote the average American male is a most discouraging commentary, with its thin shoulders, big stomach, and obviously weak body. At that, it prebaby is as good as the average of any other land. As one critic remarks, the average American male, as portrayed by this model, does not compare favorably with the heroic sculpture of Greece, or even the statues of modern leaders. Why should it? Greek artists did not pick ideals from the average, nor can the leaders of any age, whether modern or not, be classified as average. Athletic records are not made by average runners, jumpers or shotputters. Art is not the product of average talent, nor scientific progress of average brains. More important than all that, there is no such thing as the average, or composite man. nun We Need Something Better ALL the thousands of veterans who were examined, calipered and taped to produce that plaster model, you could not find one that is like it in every detail. With all the study and research, science has yet to discover two human beings exactly alike. It has not even found two sets of fingerprints alike. What we all want is something above and beyond the average. Just now there is considerable faith in mass production and mass thinking as means of getting it, but science knows better. Science knows that no strain of fast trotters ever was produced by breeding average horses. Science knows that no race of men ever was improved by clinging to average standards. Science knows that the only way is to select the best and afford it every opportunity, to preserve the dominating strain which promises most. As far as principal goes, science knows nothing that the jungle savage didn’t know when he went forth to find a strong, healthy wife. In practice, it has discovered some clever tricks.
M TODAY 4$ IS THE- Vs ' WORLD WAR \ ANNIVERSARY
ALLIED VICTORIES Aug. 23 ON Aug. 23, 1918. Byng’s English troops stormed nine villages north of Albert, advancing more than two miles on a seven-mile front. Fighting in this area was bitter to the extreme and losses were tre- j mendous. The French Third army Crossed the Divette river near Evripourt and Mangin's troops crossed the Oise near Manicamp, advancing several miles on a wide front. Americans in Fismes, which they had taken several days before, repulsed three savage attacks by fresh German divisions. The German army on the western front was under heavy pressure all along the line, and was giving ground constantly in most places. Allied planes bombed Karlsruhe, killing nine persons and damaging many industrial plants. When were the first wells drilled for oil? It is a historic fact that petroleum was used on the walls of Babylon and Nineveh about 2,000 B. C. For ages seepages of crude oil have been drawn on and used by the people of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China, and for many centuries they had dug wells, and pits were used for collection of petroleum. The modem method of drilling is believed to have originated with the Chinese several centuries ago, and those wells yielded small quantities of oil, gas and brine. Commerce in oil is known to have existed in the Baku district of Russia as early as the tenth century, but the modern industry really bej gan when the Drake well was drilled i near Titusville, Pa., in August, 1839. Is St. Moritz in Switzerland?
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DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Sir Walter Scott Crippled As Babe
This is the first of two articles by Dr. Fishbein on the medical history of Sir Walter Scott, the British author. BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. IN honor of the centenary of Sir Walter Scott, the Edinburgh Medical Journal has made a special study of the medical history of this remarkable man. He was one of twelve children, the first six of whom all died in infancy. In the period in which he lived, deaths among babies were frequent. Indeed, the infant mortality rate was in many places as high as 400 to 1,000, which means that two of every five infants that were born died before they were 1 year of age. Today the rates vary from 50 to 100 to the thousand. In fact, Scott himself almost succumbed because his parents employed for him a nurse who was tubercular and who concealed this fact. Fortunately, the famous professor
IT SEEMS TO ME
PRESIDENT HOOVER’S bland announcement that no Republican need take the prohibition plank in the party platform very seriously has come home to roost. It has inspired Vice-President Charles Curtis to declare that he, for one, is just as dry as he ever was. Some may applaud the courage of the vice-presidential candidate if they are so disposed, but it does make things a little confusing. Seemingly the right hand of the Republican party does not know what the left hand is doing, and much rather would not be told. When the venerable statesman out in Topeka, Kan., was hooked up for sound, the campaign managers were very careful not to let him be heard in either New York or Chicago. Paul Gascoigne, who attends to such matters for the G. O. P., explained that the omission must have been an “inadvertence.” To put it bluntly, that is a little hard to take. After all, Mr. Curtis was routed into Ft. Wayne, Bay City, Eau Claire and Orlando, and in making out such a list it seems strange that nobody remembered the existence of a small settlement clustering around some mud huts on Manhattan island. I think it is even strange that Chicago was forgotten, although from my point of view that would be a consummation devoutly to be wished. n n Keeping Him in Wigwam INDEED, it is my idea that in putting Mr. Curtis out over the ether the reverse of usual consideration prevailed. The managers of the party in power undoubtedly sat down and tried to think not of those metropolitan areas in which his ideas would do the most good, but of the hamlets in which his message could do the least harm. On the whole, it would have been smarter just to cut the wires and let him talk into a dead mike. That would have afforded a reasonably good time for him and disturbed none of the voters. I am not of the impression that many thousands of the invisible audience rushed to turn on their radios, crying: “Goody! Goody! Charlie Curtis is going to make an address.” A speech by the Vice-President of the United States is always likely to yield precedence to a good welterweight bout, a jazz orchestra or some quartet singing “Sweet Adeline.” But, though the office does not stand in high repute, the performance was a little worse than anybody could have expected. After all, only a heartbeat stands between the vice-presidency and the highest office in the gift of the American people. It is monstrous that this responsibility should be intrusted to genj tlemen who could not possibly get a j job as sixth vice-president of a skating rink. When Ghosts Rush In THE country has steeled, itself to the * fact that some of our
“That Ought to Fool ’Em”
of chemistry, Dr. Black, discovered it and notified the parents, who then dismissed the nurse. Even at that time the risk to the child of being nursed by a tubercular woman was understood. When Sir Walter Scott was 18 months old, his first serious illness overtook him. Apparently he suffered with the cutting of teeth and a fever. On the fourth day thereafter he was found to have lost the power of his right leg. His parents consulted every possible type of medical practitioner, both scientific and unscientific, and, all of this being without success, he was finally sent to the country to recuperate. This was, of course, an attack of infantile paralysis, not sufficient to cause death, but sufficient to produce permanent crippling, for Sir Walter Scott was lame for the rest of his life. It probably was excellent advice to send the young boy to the country to recuperate. As Scott himself said, ‘‘the impa-
about words of more than two syllables. McKinley, Harding and Hoover —to pick a few names at random were not men highly skilled in the use of the English language. I know that Herbert Hoover has been under a terrific strain, but that hardly excuses him from pronouncing “fallaciously” as “feliciously,” which he palpably did in his acceptance spee’ch. Os course, the secret of such slips lies in the fact that most of our Presidents do not write their own state documents. There is excellent precedent for this: Woodrow Wilson, who functioned without benefit of ghosts, once got himself into a great deal of political trouble by remarking that George Washington did not write his own Farewell Address. Few questioned the historical accuracy of this, but there was a feeling that it was not quite cricket to betray White House secrets. I am not in a position to know what stylist sat at the elbow of Herbert Clark Hoover when his ac-
Daily Thoughts
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.—Ecclesiastes 3:1. A deep meaning often lies in old customs.—Schiller.
Views of Times Readers
Editor Times—" The cure for unemployment is employment!” This, quoted frdm the statements made by Walter Gifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, immediately after his appointment as head of the committee for unemployment relief. Haw! Haw! Whatta lass! Seeing as how the newspapers have printed no news concerning the recent and numerous layoffs conducted by aforesaid A. T. <fc T.— here’s news! This greatest of all corporations in the world has seen fit to layoff men in such great numbers that those who are left, both high and low in capacity, are quaking in their boots for fear something will occur that will impair their highly-touted service, or ruin the meaning of their motto—" The Message Must Go Through!” Why, even a little storm break puts them in a ridiculous situation ow, because there are so few linemen left that can "shoot the trouble.” Quite a bit of news for the public, which naturally would be led !to believe that with a man the j caliber of W. S. Gifford, head of unI employment relief, at the head of : so great a corporation, unemployment would be unknown. All this sets one wondering why a company writh assets exceeding $3,200,000,000.00, that has 665,000 stockholders, (a gain of 195,000 since the boom), and has millions upon millions in reserve for just such lean i times as these, should resort to layofli te ite above water.”
tience of a child soon inclined me to struggle with my infirmity, and I began by degrees to stand, to walk, and to run. Although the limb affected was much shrunk and contracted, my general health, which was of more importance, was much strengthened by being frequently in the open air, and, in a word, I who in a city probably had been condemned to hopeless and helpless decrepitude, now was a healthy, high-spirited, and, my lameness apart, a sturdy child. It will be recalled that Governor Franklin Roosevelt of New York, who in advanced years developed infantile paralysis, recovered largely from his difficulties by the use of exercise in the swimming pool and in the open air. However, it is realized nowadays that such exercise never must be attempted until the acute inflammation has subsided. Next: Diseases which attacked Sir Walter.
DV HEYWOOD BROUN
ceptance speech was prepared, but if the bulk of the phrasing was not the work of Ogden Mills I dutifully will eat the script in any shop window which may be selected. n n n Improvement of Style NOT for the world would I have the practice of Blue Room ghosts discouraged. I have no morbid desire to read the McKinley, Hoover and Harding originals. Richard Washburn Child knew a lot of nice words which poor Mr. Harding could not even spell. It would disorganize established government if the man in the street were not convinced that most of our Presidents are semi-literate. In fact, I am not arguing for few ghosts, but a great army of wraiths. The Democrats, for instance, have been shrewd enough to select Charles S. Hand, an excellent newspaper man, to serve as the voice of Garner. The Republicans should go a little further and surreptitiously announce that if Mr. Curtis is returned to office, his responsibilities will be confined to taking Mrs. Gann in to dinner. Some wiser head will be intrusted with the detail of the job. I have no idea what person the party has in mind to stand in lieu of Mr. Curtis, but if the post is open still, I think a great improvement in vice-presidential documents will be noticed from the moment that the task of writing them is intrusted to little Billy Block. (Copyright. 1932. bv The Time*)
I’ll tell you why in two words— HUGE STOCKHOLDERS! If that precious dividend of $9 a share were lowered, where would they be? Poor things, they probably would have to let go of two or three RollsRoyces and Packards and that would be bad. Always nick the little boy first—that’s the smart thing to do. Get him out of the way—regardless of his struggles to be a good American citizen by buying a home, car, radio, etc., from home-owned concerns as suggested in high-pow-ered advertisements. And who are some of these big stockholders? 11l tell you one of the biggest ones—The Sun Life Insurance Company of Canada. Hah! So that’s the way the land lays! The great A. T. & T. rather would aid this one great Canadian stockholder than the many thousands of employee-stockholders in our own “land of opportunity." Maybe, it should be called "The Canadian Sun Life Insurance Tel. and Tel. Company.” It would fit the present situation a lot better. Think of all the employes who could be retained on the payroll by either lowering the dividend to say $5 ($4 multiplied by 665,000 wouldn’t be bad), or else using the aforementioned huge reserve which the company deems unwise. The company also deemed it unwise to accept the employes’ suggestion to take a blanket pay-slash to AlisU an a, ab 4 tb&eiag
Ideal* and opinion* expressed in this column are those of one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.
_AUG. 23, 1932'
SCIENCE
BY DAVID DIETZ
Modern Astronomers Maki Use of Knowledge Handed Down b y Ancient Chaldeans. Astronomies have calculated the time for the solar eclipse of Aug. 31 to a fraction of a second. They can make calculations with almost as great accuracy for an eclipse to occur five centuries from now. This ability to make such precise predictions is one of the marvels of modern astronomy. Yet the ability to predict an eclipse is very old in the world. In fact, modern astronomers in figuring eclipses, make use of a term used by ancient Chaldeans in prehistoric times. The ancient Chaldeans, of course, did not understand the read motions o fthe solar system. They, like the people of the earth for centuries after them, thought that the sun as well as the moon was in motion around the earth. Although a number of Greek astronomers suggested that the earth moved around the sun, it was not until after time of Copernicus—1543—that this belief generally was accepted.) But the astronomer-priests of the ancient Chaldeans studied the apparent motions of the sun and moon, that is, the paths in which they semed to move across the sky and the rates at which they ap- | peared to move. They also made careful studies of the eclipses that occurred and from their studies they made the discovery that eclipses occur in cycles. This cycle they named the "Saros,” a term which astronomers still use. nan Eighteen-Year Period THE Saros is 18 years, 11)4 days in length. If, for example, an eclipse of the sun should take place today, another would occur approximately eighteen years and eleven days from today. The track, of the eclipse at the end of the next Saros, however, would not be the same as the track of the first eclipse. The usual number of tolar eclipses in a Saros is seventy-one, though it may be two or three more’ one way or the other. Mention of eclipses is found in Assyrian literature. There also are passages in the Bible which are taken to refer t oeclipses. In Amos VIII, 9, it says: "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in tho clear day.” A reference in the Assyrian eponym canon, a passage which refers to a year in the Assyrian chronology which has been identified as 763 B. C., says, "Insurrection in the city of Assur. In the month Sivan the sun was eclipsed.” Both this passage and the one from Amos are believed to refer to an eclipse of the sun which occurred on June 15, 763 B. C. From 747 B. C. on, a canon of astronomical observations was kept in Babylon. All eclipses were recorded in it. Nabonassar was king in 747. It was this canon, Dr. J. K. Fotheringham of Oxford, famous authority on ancient stronomy, believes, which led to the discovery of the Saros. n n n Ancient Calculations IN a Babylonian tablet which dates back to 568 B. C., mention is made of the failure to observe an eclipse of the moon which was to have occurred on a certain date. Calculations show that an eclipse really did take place, but was not visible in Babylon. This would indicate that at Hhat time predictions of eclipses based on the Saros were being made. Tables of eclipse predictions based on the Saros date from the fourth century, B. C. From theeir studies of eclipses, the Chaldean astron-omer-priests made a number of intersting discoveries. Among them was the discovery of the west ward motion of the 1 moon’s nods as the two points where the orbit of the moon cuts the orbit of the earth are called. Naburiannu, one of the most famous of early Chaldean astronomers, arrived at surprisingly accurate values for the apparent motions of the sun and soon in 500 B. C., while still better values were calculated by Kidinnu in 383 B. C. We usually think of accurate astronomical observation as beginning with the Greeks, but as Dr. Foteringham points out, the Greeks owed a great debt to Naburiannu and Kiddiinnu. The Greek aseronomer, Hipparchus, is believed to have made use of Kiddiinnu’s calculations of the motions of the sun and moon.
Questions and Answers
Where is the oldest working coal mine in the world? Probably it is a mine in Manchuria, said to have been worked 3,000 years ago. Where and when were the first watches made? Watch making began early in the sixteenth centry, and Peter Heie, a clock maker of Nuremburg, Germany, generally is credited with the invention. 0 What was the population of New York City In 1880? 1,911,698. save the need for discharging any one. The A. T. & T. will not countenance any form of telephone workers’ union whatsoever, but it does set up “The Association of Employes” which has about as much authority as has any organization bossed by the management. Until the employes, the holders of most of the stock, do wake up, the stockholders with their big blocks of stock will continue to crack the whip. What the A. T. & T. employestockholders should do is to elect an ordinary employe as their representative at all sessions of the board of directors, with all employe proxies in his poweer to swing as he sees fit for the best interests of his fellow employes. Then watch the big blockholders sit up and take notice. Then, and only then, will the A. T. <fe T. employes have that boasted "voice in the his company” and true “unemployment relief.” ▲ FORMER A. T. & T. SMBUBTM,
