Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 125, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 October 1932 — Page 4
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tca/ e* s - H otv AJtH
The Watson Appeal Senator James Ell Watson is apparently placing hi 1 ; hope of ra-election upon his claim that he was the chief sponsor of th 6 home loan bank bill and that this measure will save the homes of those who are In debt and enable the homeless to obtain shelter. His opponents charge that the measure wall be of little value to the homeless and that if it should be of any value, Watson was a belated convert to the measure, had delayed its passage for months and finally secured its passage through parliamentary strategy only after convinced that it would be “good for 20,000 votes." That raises an issue of veracity and of the record. The first open challenge to Watson came from Ward Hiner, candidate for Governor on the National ticket, in two radio addresses, in which he charged that Watson was delaying action on the bill. Hiner gives as his authority the president of one of the largest building and loan associations of the state. The next charge that Watson had been opposed to the measure came from the floor of the senate when Senator James Couzens of Michigan, a Republican, charged that Watson was a “double-crosser.” He amplified his charge with the statement that Watson had repeatedly told his colleagues that he did not approve of the measure, but that he was compelled to vote for it by the hope that it would “be good for 20,000 votes in Indiana." Against this testimony is the word of the senator. He now asserts that the measure is his own child, an Inspiration that will make foreclosures few and create new’ homes. As yet no one has stated just when this law will make it passible for citizens such as now live in the district called “Hooverville" to obtain something more than a shack for shelter during the coming winter. Except for the possibility that the quarrel may once more emphasize the long record of Watson as an opportunist, giving more basis for the characterization given him by Senator Couzens, the issue is not important. The measure is now a law. No one knows what its effect will be. It is not yet in operation. How far it will help the home owner remains to be seen. How much it will cost the taxpayer is problematical. Senator Watson had only one safe ground for his Campaign but it is significant that he abandoned it for a side show of his own creation. Had the senator emphasized his vote against the bonus, he might have appealed to those who believe that its immediate payment will bring the most vicious results. His opponent has taken a stand for the bonus. That Issue was clear cut. But the record of the campaign shows that Senator Watson did not choose this battle ground, even attempting to minimize his own record on this matter and endeavoring to placate those who demand the bonus with a weasel promise that the money will b* paid. On the bonus matter Senator Watson had a real record. On his home loan bank, the sands seem perilously shallow.
A Good Investment Forty million dollars loaned by the federal government to build an aqueduct in southern California will provide jobs for 4,500 men for approximately two years. It is a sound and necessary project. But if $52,000,000 were to be spent in improving public forests, 70,000 men could be put to work for a year, the American Tree Association announces, after surveying the need for expenditures of this sort in the different states. Forest improvement has received far too little attention in government planning for relief of unemployment, in spite of its superiority over most other forms of public work. Dollars spent on forestry provide more work than an equal amount spent on other projects. The diversified character of forest work makes it suitable for many kinds of men, whether they have been skilled in any trade or not. The work does not, ! most cases, require great physical prowess, but is health-giving for those who have been weakened by privation. Most important of all, In some ways, are the dividends which forest expenditures pay. No other sort of public work is needed so badly in this country’ today, unless it is slum clearance. Money spent preserving forests, safeguarding them from fire, from insect pests and plant disease, from soil erosion, is money spent to save for America her water supplies, to guard against floods and droughts, to preserve fertile farm lands from destruction either by debris washed from above or removal of topsoil, to keep tons of silt from washing down into our river beds, spoiling drinking water and millions of dollars’ worth of industrial machinery. And forests are vanishing with more dangerous rapidity than the average person realizes. Once there were 800.000.000 acres of virgin forest in the United States. Now only 100,000.000 acres are left. Each year millions of dollars’ worth of timber is destroyed by fire, and with it goes inestimable public wealth. A number of states recently have started spending their own relief funds on forest work. If the Reconstruction Finance Corporation will permit money borrowed from the government to be used in this way, as congress intended, much more can be done. Problem in Arithmetic The Republican campaign committee conducted ft poll of men listed in “Who's Who.’’ Result: Hoover, 1,646; Roosevelt 514. The Toledo News-Bee took a poll of jobless men waiting to be served soup in a welfare kitchen. Result: Roosevelt, 163; Hoover, 18. The problem now is whether “Who’s Who’’ or eoup kitchen voters are in the majority. Hocus-Pocus More hocus-pocus is delaying publication of the second monthly report of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Now the corporation appeals to the clerk of the house of representatives to keep its August report secret, on the ground that harm will be done so borrowers by publicity. It files an impressive brief, accompanied by a letter, setting forth, in many words, that it wants its activities cloaked from the public. It appears willing to have known how much it has loaned in total, but to get down to names and addresses and individual amounts seems to shock the corporation. The clerk, who had a brief prepared to support his
The Indianapolis Times (A BCRIPPS-HOWABD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dally (except Sunday) by Tbe Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 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. $3 a year: outside of Indiana. 65 cents a month. BOYD OURLEY. ROY W. HOWARD. EARb D. BAKER Editor President Business Manager PHONE— Riley ftSSI TUESDAyT OCT. 4, 1933. Member of United Press. Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newgpaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”
contention of about a month ago that he was duty bound to give out the first report for publication, now is “studying” the R. F. C. brief. The clerk covered the whole ground In his original brief, and if he is consistent he will, of course, let the public know again what is being done with the millions the R. F. C. is handling. The corporation apparently would now have it believed that publicity of the July report cut down the number of borrowers in August. But we have the word of an R. F. C. director, in a magazine article, that the decrease in borrowers is due to the approach of good times. And we have the word of another R. F. C. director that “actual bank runs have been stopped by the widest publicity of the fact that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation had come to the rescue of the bank." If the R. F. C. can prove that publicity has Injured a borrower, the country might acquiesce In its demand for secrecy.. But our belief is {hat publicity never hurt any good thing; and lacking the proof we speak of, it appears that the clerk of the house can do but one thing: Give the R. F. C. report to the public as the authors of this publicity clause clearly Intended. Example Counts In Canada, Judge L. S. Stubbs is being investigated by the supreme court of that country because it is charged that he does not hold to the strict letter of the law in sentencing prisoners who come before him, but expresses indignation at light punishments which have been given rich men and inclines to sympathize with the poor. In this country, lawlessness among law enforcement officials takes another form, exhibiting itself in police brutalities and the third degree, and no official displeasure similar to that directed against Judge Stubbs is visible. False arrests, police kidnaping, third degree and espionage are commonplace in this country, and the fact that this is so is something to be ashamed of. Feeling that it is true ,a group of New Yorkers just have organized themselves into a committee to try to bring home to the average citizen the dangers involved in disregard of law by those sworn to uphold it. Work of this sort is needed badly. Convictions secured and punishments imposed through violence, trickery, other actions forbidden by the codes of law and of common decency do not lessen crime, Sut increase It. Unless law Is son. ,hlng revered and obeyed first of ail by those who give their lives to its service, it never will be observed by others more remote. Example is and always has been a teacher far more powerful and persuasive than the rod.
Professor Arthur Compton, University of Chicago scientist, reports his experiments in the Arctic prove that cosmic rays show no Irregularity and indicate that they are electrons rather than extremely shortlength magnetic vibrations, somewhat of the nature of X-rays. Now that that’s clear, let’s bring back prosperity. Chicago stockyards report an increase in purchases of meat. Perhaps prosperity is just around the cowshed. Four horses entered by the Aga Khan, Indian potentate, in a recent British racing classic, finished first, second, fourth and fifth. British race horse owners probably are beginning to feel that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. It is about time for somebody to offer us a poem, mentioning something about “melancholy days,” “sere and yellow leaves” and “the twilight of the year.” Not that we’re asking for it, however. Fliers face a fine of SIBO for landing in Greenland without a permit. Maybe that explains the success of trans-Atlantic flights. New York’s new Mayor McKee cut his own salary from $40,000 to $25,000. So the mayor of New York really gets a salary, after all! It Is revealed that New York’s new mayor, Joseph Vincent McKee, has only taken one long trip in his life—to Havana. How the railroads will miss Jimmie Walker! Germany isn’t satisfied with the Versailles treaty. Apparently that peaceful document is turning out to be just another “scrap of paper.”
Just Every Day Sense By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
THE political outlook for women is dark indeed. In spite of glamorous promises, we realize at last that we have not won much. Political regards especially have been slim for us. Women have been called upon to save the country several times, but somehow, when the fruits of victory are distributed, the men still seem to have all the juiciest plums. But perhaps that does not matter. For there is a higher work for today's woman than striving after political prizes. There is the task of making herself into a decent citizen. I! our America, the country we love, isto survive, with all her noble traditions, a ne wpatriotism must be bom. Not that flimsy thing we have known as such, that embodies service to sentiment, flag saluting and an unthinking loyalty to creeds, but some flaming determination to put the good of all above the privileges for the few. tt n tt AND this new patriotism must be inspired, if not supplied, by women. It is hopeless for us to expect men to abandon the old gods entirely. For a while longer they will linger at the feet of the golden calf they have set up to worship. Tehy will part reluctanty from their idols. The worn-out symboys, meaningless long ago, are still to most of them sacred causes. Enmeshed in the tangled political w T ebs they have woven, they will find it hard to break away from slogans and party traditions. But American women are. or should be, free. We have not yet bowed our necks to the yoke of Republican or Democratic rule. We still stand erect, committed to no organization, affiliated with no clan. American lihert yis preserved within us, who are political novices. And for this reason it is every woman's duty to vote in the coming elections. And before we vote, let us pray. Such crisis as we face calls for prayer and thought. It exists for one reason only: Because men have not taken an intelligent interest in their government. If, therefore, we remain no longer inert under our tax burdens, if we look calmly at reckless extravagance ih public places, i fwe permit our resources to be looted and our rights to be taken away, then we shall deserve the fate that will be ours.
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
M. E. Tracy Says:
Voters of America Are Not Analyzing Promises or Plans; They Are Influenced by What Has Happened to the Dinner Pail. NEW YORK, Oct. 4.—Midwestern polls show a decide drift to Roosevelt. Since many of them are being conducted by Republican papefs, they hardly can be dismissed as manufactured propaganda. Ray Tucker of the New York World-Telegram reports optimistic Republicans as looking for President Hoover to change things with an eleventh-hour offensive. President Hoover’s liking for elev-enth-hour offensives is. well know, but thus far a tardy beginning has been their most noteworthy feature. Five weeks is a short time in which to alter public opinion in this country, especially after what voters have been through. The voters are not analyzing speeches, promises, or plans. They are influenced largely by what has happened to the dinner pail, which is good old Republican doctrine. As cynics put it, they are expressing a grouch, but their attitude is not so unintelligent as that sounds. a a a Issues Go Far Back CONSIDERABLE has been said about the paramount issue in this campaign. Some have preferred to think of it as prohibition, others as farm relief, others as power, others as the tariff, and still others as foreign policy. In my judgment, it goes deeper than any of these, while including them all. This campaign is the HamiltonJefferson fight over again, the clash of fundamental theories as to whom the government is for, or by. Herbert Clark Hoover is the best example, of the Federalist theory we have had in fifty years. Though paying lip tribute to the cause of individualism and individual rights, he has done a better job in placing this country under the control of organized speculation than Alexander Hamilton did. His conception of relief is one of stark paternalism. a a a Soured on Hoover Method THE people do not doubt President Hoover’s sincerity, or good intentions. They simply have soured on his methods. The people are sick of system and efficiency which fail to produce results. They find 'little consolation in reading about moratoriums for European nations while being evicted from their own homes. They discover no solace in all the grand schemes for relief and recovery as long as they are out of work. They translate the advantages of democratic government in terms of bread and meat, and rightly so, because it can hold no other advantage for the great majority. a a u Opinions Long Formed r \ ''HE people have not been swayed by platforms, or spellbinding. That is just a fancy of politicians. The opinion that now is manifesting itself was formed last winter or last fall, if not earlier. The people are not voting for Roosevelt as opposed to Hoover, or for the Democratic party as opposed to the Republican. What they are voting on is the last four years, the failure to bring relief, to institute remedies that have touched those in real distress. The people are voting on the obvious inability of an administration to know that the eighteenth amendment had broken down, to realize that the budget Was unbalanced, to appreciate the chaos of foreign relations and the loss of foreign trade, until the situation became so alarming that a 10-year-old child could not misunderstand it. They are sufficiently familiar with eleventh-hour offensives not to be impressed. They know too well what tardy moves cost and what they mean.
Questions and Answers
How many Marx brothers are there? Only four appear in motion pictures, but there is a fifth brother, Gummo (Milton), who formerly was in vaudeville. Where did the Lusitania sink? About ten miles off the Old Head of southeast tip of Ireland. How do the populations of Florida, New Hampshire and North Carolina compare per square mile? Florida has 26.8; New Hampshire has 51.5, and North Carolina has 65. What is the official spelling for Porto Rico? Puerto Rico. When was Harvard university founded? In 1636. How many lawyers, justices and judges are there in the United States? The 1930 census enumerates 160,605.
m today m S/' IS THE- Vs 'WORLD WAR \ ANNIVERSARY
YANKS SCORE GAINS Oct. 4
ON Oct. 4. 1918, American troops resumed their offensive west of the Meuse, advancing their lines from one to three miles and attaining all their objectives. They to/c Hill 240 and the villages of Gesnes, Fleville, Chehery and La Forges. Americans joined the French in the Champagne. Germans continued to retreat on the Lens-Armen-tieres front. In the Balkans. Greek troops entered Seres and occupied the De-mir-Hassar pass. The allied governments decided formally to recognize the belligerent status of Arab forces fighting with the allies against the Turks in Palestine and Syria. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria abdicated in favor of Crown Prince Boris.
* n.&Htil . i \ I V'W--
DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Eyes Strained by Bad Illumination
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. THERE are few people who can see well in the dark. Indeed, there is plenty of evidence that light and vision are related closely from many points of view. In a recent consideration of the symptoms relating to the eyes that occur with faulty illumination, Dr. Walter B. Lancaster considered as definite examples of bad illumination: 1, Insufficient light. 2, Exposed light sources in the field of vision which cause glare. 3, Glare from reflection, such as shiny paper. 4, Indirect illumination with the source of the light placed out of sight, but at the same time too concentrated. Every one realizes that flickering light, light of objectionable colors,
IT SEEMS TO ME BY H BROUN D
IF there were any semblance ot sense and logic in New York politics, the most recent move of John F. Curry would make it impossible for James J. Walker to run for vindication. After all, Walker’s plea to the voters must be based on the argument that he was the victim of a conspiracy led by friends in human form. But Tammany has indorsed for the New York supreme court Samuel H. Hofstadter, who was chairman of the legislative committee which investigated the city government. In other words, the Democratic organization semes to be saying that this villainy was so palpable that there is nothing to do with Hofstadter but put him on the bench. tt tt tt Disturbance Among Daisies I WAS among those who cast casual w’reaths upon the political grave of James J. Walker and who wept not very bitter tears at his apparent disappearance from the political arena. Now it looks as if he might come back for one more whirl with the electorate. It is even possible that in a mad scramble among the ballots of the not so bright citizens of this community he might receive a license to begin where he left off. In that case it will be less a case of vindication for James J. Walker than the flunking of an intelligence test by the adults of New York. But I can not pretend honestly to be aghast and mournful at the prospect cf the return from Elba. Walker has been, in my opinion, a most inadequate official," but, after all, in addition to being a citizen of this metropolis, I am also a Communist. From the point of view of newspaper man, I hardly can do anything but rejoice at the fact that the well-dressed man is to barge pnce again into headline land. He was, as I have intimated, a bad official, but he provided lovely copy. In the course of a year I doubt that Joe V. McKee would be worth more than a paragraph or so, but with James Pericles Walker once more in the lists, writing a
/ Some You Never Heard of Do you know how many political parties are running candidates for President and Vice-President this election? Unless you are particularly well-informed andhave followed the news closely, there are probably parties in this campaign you never heard of. Can you name the Socialist Party candidates; those of the Communist Party; and can yon name the candidates of the Socialist-Labor Party, the Farmer-Labor Party, the Liberty Party, the Prohibition Party? Our Washington Bureau has ready a bulletin on THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES, that gives interesting facts about the lives and careers of all these men on all these party tickets—men running for office when they know they have no chance of election. Do you want to know who they are and all about them? Fill out the coupon below and mail as directed: CLIP COUPON HERE Dept.l99, Washington Bureau, The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York Avenue, Washington, D. C. I want a copy of the bulletin on THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES, and enclose herewith five cents in coin, or uncancelled, U. S. postage stamps, to cover return postage and handling costs. ( NAMp, STREET & NUMBER CITY STATE lam a reader of The Indianapolis Times - (Code No.)
Embarrassing Moments
such as red or blue, and excessive light also are to be included in faulty illumination. Among some of the ways in which the eye responds to faulty illumination are such symptoms as smarting, burning and itching sensations which are due to injection of the eye with blood; also fatigue and blurring of vision with occasionally pain or aching of the eyeball and around the eyes; and third, such symptoms as headache, tiredness and sleepy sensations. It is hard to see, when light is dim. Under such circumstances, therefore, reading material is held closer to the eye, which brings about a greater effort of accommodation and, as a result, fatigue and engorgement of the eye with blood. There also is no doubt that symptoms may arise from excessive illumination or exposed light, due to
column again may become as easy as splitting a Democratic ticket. Not until he went into the silences did I remember just how much he meant to me. After a hard night in research or other cultural endeavor, I frequently awoke with a blank and aching head. And even when I dragged myself to the typewriter, like a spent arrow, I could not think of anything upon which to rear a tower of matchless prose. All too often I darted up some by-way and swapped epithets with Communists and coneys and other feeble folk. And in the mail of the next few days would come letters complaining, with some reason, “Why do you pick on those who are weak and pitiful and in no position to strike back?” u tt u Something to Write About MR. WALKER may solve no municipal problems, but as an official, or a candidate for office, he is the type for whom all paragraphers must pray in the moments of reverence. He is as open to attack as a preliminary boxer in a heavyweight tournament. For years he has led with little but his chin. And yet the lad has led a charmed life in a topsy-turvy land, and there is no lack of sportsmanship in taking a sock at him. James J. Walker is a bird about whom the huntsman need have no misgivings. He is always on the wing. I am tired of shooting at decoys and tame ducks. Hurry home, James, and let us celebrate your return by firing both barrels. tt u t> Among tfie Ancient Ruins IT did not please me much to hear that Walker was spending his afternoons in gazing intently upon the ruins of Pompeii. Though I admire him very little, I could not calmly contemplate the fact jthat this vivid personality was to become anthropological and no more than the great lava of the Greater City. I suppose that Nostalgia reached its peak shortly before the last major fistic entertainment, when things had reached such a pass that
conflict in the nervous system of the individual, represented by" a desire to look at the object of Interest and a reflex impulse to look away from it at the light. Dr. Lancaster is convinced that the explanation is quite simple. Faulty illumination makes it harder to see, and hence there is eyestrain. The chief reason why some people are so much more sensitive to bad illumination than others is the fact that their eyes are not as good as those of people who have less difficulty. An error of refraction that ought to be corrected by glasses, or any disturbance of binocular vision, which is the ability to blend the image in both eyes into a single image, is likely to be associated with much more difficulty under circumstances of faulty illumination than would occur to a normal eye.
Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are those ol 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.
any mention of Walker was construed to mean Mickey, the middleweight, rather than Jimmy, the bantam. And so I am minded to cup my hands and shout out cross the broad Atlantic, “Come back with your shield or without it!” James J. Walker, as I see it, deserves no vindication or anything resembling it. He wcruld be the most preposterous of selections for office. But if he wants to put the gloves on once again, I feel that the entire newspaper profession will be delighted. Bing! Bong! There goes the bell. Now, let’s see, kid, if you can take it. (Copyright. 1932, by The Times)
People’s Voice
Editor Times—Please permit me space in your “readers’ view” column to reply to the letter written by a self-styled “better class citizen,’’ in which he denounced the Spanish-American and World war veterans because of their pensions and bonus demands, which appeared in your Sept. 24 issue. Now I am only guessing, but I wil l wager that I am right when I assert that, if the truth were known, he is one of those shyster patriots who hid behind a woman's petticoat to evade the draft, and that, after the war was over, improvised a couple of eyeholes in it as a costume and proceeded to parade with folded arms under the banner of 100 per cent Americanism, until their very notable general found himself incarcerated behind the gilded bars of a steel cage for the blackest of crimes. He also very likely contributed liberally to the fund that provided the patriotical oratorical slush, the red fire, the sumptuous food and the snappy music when the boys were being sent away to present their blood and bodies at the altar of the god of greed and gold, by a bunch of blatant, bunting-waving jingoes, whose sole aim it was to loot our country’s wealth, enslave Its people, debauch its servants and make a swine sty of its government institutions and industries, and with precious promises ringing in their ears (which were not to be remembered) among those being “nothing shall be too good for you,” and under the banner of “make the world safe for democracy.” He . says, “I served my country in a civilian capacity that was just as important in winning the war as those in the military service.” Probably in a steam-heated office with a good fat pay check. It is altogether a different kind of patriotism that is nurtured behind the walls of a steam-heated office with big pay, contrasted with that which develops in muddy trenches infested with rats, sleeping in fireless shacks on musty bunks in freezing weather, fighting cooties and subsisting on hard tack, corn willie and goldfish, not knowing what minute a bursting shell might spell your end, and all for a $1.25 a day, minus your fee for in- j surance. Nobody was holding “Better Citizen”; he could have enjoyed the j latter instead of suffering (?) from! the former. His patriotism is so; silly it reflects his own ignorance and stpdity. I did not serve in the World war, but I am an enlisted veteran of the Spanish-American war and the Filipino rebellion, and we also suffered intolerable conditions for which we
.OCT. 4, 1932
SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ
Progress Made by Astronomers in Penetrating Secrets of Universe Told in Dr. Baker’s Book. THE most fascinating phase of astronomy and the most recently developed Is that which concerns itself with the structure of the universe. It is one or the great triumphs of present-day astronomy that sufficient observational data is on hand or being accumulated to tackle this problem of the universe itself. At one observatory, a group of astronomers can be found making a map of the Milky Way, much as geographers might map the coastline of Greenland. The experts of aftother observatory are concerned with the motions of the Milky Way—not with the motions of individual stars, but with the motion of the entire Milky Way as one unit. At still other observatories, we find astronomers focusing their telescopes beyond the Milky Way and studying the distant spiral nebulae, seeking the boundaries of superorganizations in which our great Milky Way or galaxy is just one unit. This fascinating story of how astronomers have penetrated the secrets of the universe is clearly and simply told by Dr. Robert H. Baker in “The Universe Unfolding," a little book of 140 pages which sells for sl. It is one of a number of $1 books published by Williams & Wilkins in the “Century of Progress Series" to commemorate the Chicago world's fair, which opens in 1933. Dr. Baker is professor of astronomy in the University of Illinois. a a a The Apparent Universe DR. BAKER tells how the ancient Greeks developed a notion about the structure of the universe, which, as he says, “is the universe of today for every one who can view the earth around him with a perfectly open mind." This universe of the Greeks he calls “the universe of appearances." In it the earth is a stationary sphere surrounded by a much greater sphere, the sphere of the heavens. This heavenly sphere is studded with the fixed stars and revolves about the earth, accounting for rising and setting of the stars. A few of the astronomers of ancient Greece were dissatisfied with this “universe of appearances" and sought to go behind it, but it held the world’s allegiance until the days of Copernicus. However, even after Copernicus, attention was centered chiefly upon the study of the planets, and not upon the stars. As Dr. Baker observes, “The stars set the stage. But the planets, and the sun and moon seemed to deserve special consideration. They were the actor* in the* celestial drama, whose movements must be followed attentively." Moreover, as he observes, “the study of the stars could not make appreciable progress until the'invention of the telescope, the spectroscope, the photographic plate, and other products of modern ingenuity.” The Chicago fair, as Baker remarks, commemorates a century of progress. In 1833 astronomers had not succeeded in measuring the distance of a single star from the earth. In 1900 the distances of less than sixty stars were known. Today, the astronomers have accurate measurements of 2,000 stars and approximate calculations of the distances of thousands of others.
A'Fine Book THU average intelligent reader will find Dr. Baker’s book exceedingly interesting. It supposes no specialized training on the part of the reader and is written in simple and entertaining style. The first two chapters are historical, recounting the unfolding of the universe from the days of ancient Greece to the present. Chapter 111 deals with the distances of the stars. It tells, first of all, the methods by which astronomers measure the distances of the nearer stars by the so-called parallax method. It also tells how the distances of the farther stars are estimated. Something is also said about the different spectral classes or staro. Chapter IV deals with the star clusters. As Dr. Baker says, “The preference of stars to flock together is as marked as the gregoriousness of people, or of birds.” Dr. Baker describes the two types of clusters, the so-called open clusters and the globular clusters. The next two chapters deal with the structure and organization of our own Milky Way or galaxy. The final chapter, dealing with the spiral nebulae, Ls titled “Beyond the Milky Way.” This chapter includes a brief discussion of the measurements made at Mt. Wilson of the motions of the very distant spiral nebulae, measurements that show that these nebulae all appear to be moving away from our galaxy at tremendous velocities. \ The book is illustrated with some very helpful diagrams and some interesting photographs. The photos include a number of star clouds in the Milky Way and a number of the more picturesque spiral nebulae.
Daily Thoughts
The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. —Psalms 18:2. How strange and awful is the synthesis of life and death in the gusty winds and falling leaves of an autumnal day!—Coleridge. Who wrote the song, “Maryland, My Maryland”? The words by James Ryder Randall, were set to an old German tune entitled "BurchenUed.” received the pay of just 42 cents a day. I receive a pension to which I feel I am justly due, and I resent being called a “treasury leech,” “gold brick dole receiver” and a windbag by any one, even though he calls himself a “better class citizen.” H. P. VICKERS. Jasonville, Ind.
