Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 164, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 November 1932 — Page 6

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Keep the Schools Open The tax rate for the maintenance of schools has been cut to the point where the school year must be shortened, reducing teachers’ salaries, or raising the sinking fund for the payment of bonds be postponed. The board has taken the position that the law demands that the sinking fund be collected and that the schools must be deflated. The state tax board holds a different view, and takes the attitude that this fund can legally be avoided during the depression. Whatever the law, the sinking fund should not be raised at the expense of education for children or salaries for teachers. Asa matter of fact the debts of the schools were Incurred when money was cheap and labor and materials were high priced. To set aside very costly dollars In a time when labor is almost worthless and building materials at their lowest levels is not good business. Debts should be deflated along with labor and commodities, if substantial honesty in business is to be preserved. The belief that a dollar is always a dollar has been proved to be fiction. The dollar today is worth at least $1.60 on former price levels. Good business would seem to dictate that saving money for future payments be postponed until prices are again inflated and labor is again employed. The salaries of teachers have already been slashed. To further reduce them by shortening the school year is rank injustice. But the most serious aspect is the fact that the , school children of today, denied the full opportunities for education, can never catch up on lost time. If the law be mandatory, as the school board insists and as some legal decisions suggest, the legislature should change the law. Certainly lawyers will find some legal way to Eave the schools and place any burden involved upon the creditors. A New Slant on France By coincidence, on the day that France asked for cancellation of her debt to the United States, there appeared from the presses of Ray Long and Richard Smith a book entitled “Our Genial Enemy, France.” It is written by Edwin S. Schoonmaker, economist and historian. Those who have cherished a sentimental love for the French republic will be angered at its argument. Those who have been wondering about what is happening to this world, will be in the historical indictment of French policies and of her present activities. It endeavors to explain, for example, how France has been able to drain the gold supplies of othes nations in the past six years, when during those years the trade balance against her was in excess of SBOO,000,000. The amount of gold which she has withdrawn from other nations in that period amounted to two billions, three hundred millions. Gold is the ruler of the world, says this remarkable book. By it, nations can be prostrated. Lack of it brings misery to countless millions. Is there a connection between the collapse of industry In this country and the withdrawal of gold from the United States, made possible by an adventure in high finance perpetrated by a nation? This author believes that there is a very definite Connection. To those who are interested in new views upon the world In which we live, the book should be provocative of thought. will undoubtedly make it the subject of many discussions. More Myths Many politicians are opposed to a foreign debt moratorium and conditional reduction • because they believe that public opinion is opposed. To play safe politically they always follow, rather than lead, public opinion. But the difficulty is that this type of politician follows public opinion so far behind he usually is wrong. The same politicians who now are afraid of public disapproval of an Intelligent debt policy were until recently just as positive that Russian recognition would be politically inexpedient. And until the election they \yere certain that wet sentiment in the country had not reached majority proportions. The same lag between the politician and public opinion was apparent in woman suffrage, the lame duck amendment, and many other Issues. They build up a myth of popular hostility which either never existed or has ceased to exist. Then for a long while that self-created myth continues to paralyze their action. To the politicians in Washington still stumbling under the delusion that the country is opposed to a conditional reduction of foreign debts in exchange for arms reduction or trade preferences, as a better alternative than default and resulting financial chaos, we commend a study of the enthusiastic public reception given the Borah and A1 Smith proposals. Or they might read the statement just made by the master of the Rational Grange, Louis J. Taber. He urges extension of the foreign debt moratorium and “a credit of from 10 to 20 per cent reduction on all purchases of agricultural products in the United States.” There would be nothing significant about Taber's statement except for the fact that the farmers of the country are supposed to be 100 per cent irreconcilable on any foreign debt adjustment. Thus is another political myth exploded. Labor's Opportunity When the American Federation of Labor meets next week in Cincinnati, its officials and delegates should realize that never before has their opportunity for leadership been so great. It is theirs by default. To become effective leaders in such a day as this, the workers must widen their horizon, lift their sights. They want jobs at good wages, and peace, security, and happiness for their families. But none of these blessings can be found merely by grubbing in our own back yard. There are 30,000,000 idle men here and abroad. All suffer from economic disorders common to the civilized world. No nation can insulate itself and remain secure. Hence, American workers should interest themselves In world disarmament, in an intelligent settlement of war debts, in abandoning trade-destroying tariffs, in Russian trade and recognition, in world economic planning. At home the problems call for the same sort of vision. Here we want what H. G. Wells calls the “big voices” speaking out with logic and courage for a planned and ordered industrial system. We want a labor movement that really moves toward such reforms as industrial co-operation and planning; an honest and just tax system that tends

The Indianapolis Times (A SCBIPPft-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published dailr (excapt Sunday) by The Indianapolis Tlmea Publishing Cos., 214-220 Wca Maryland Street, Indianapolis, lnd. Price in Marlon County 2 centa 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 GURLEY. ROY W HOWARD. EARL D. BAKER. ______ Editor President Business Manager PHONE—RUey 5551. FRIDAY. BOV, is. 1933. Member of United Press, Scrlpps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

to equalize wealth and increase buying power among the masses; social insurance for security of the aged, the sick, the injured and the Jobless; shorter work j week and day to absorb the technologically unemployed; adult education to absorb the new leisure; absolute freedom of speech, press and assemblage, to permit peaceful and orderly change. None of these can come without a dynamic, fearless and statesmanlike labor movement. Such a movement will find no time for chasing aliens and "reds,” for Jurisdictional disputes, for alliances with reactionary political rings. If the A. F. of L. measures up to its opportunities, it will shake loose those men and those policies which so long have been a drag upon the progress of labor and of the nation. Germany Maneuvers Germany’s cabinet maneuvers are not important. Von Papen and his monocle cabinet, who seem to have resigned and been reappointed in the space of a few hours, are puppets. General Von Schleicher, the man closest to the aged President Von Hindenburg and ruler of the army, will remain the power of Germany. For many months one of Von Schleicher’s problems has been to rub out Hitler, his competitor in reactionary leadership of German discontent. That can be achieved either by defeating Hitler’s Fascist troops if and when he is foolish enough to risk armed rebellion, or by absorbing the Fascist chief into the cabinet, where he will have a big name and responsiy bility, but little actual power. This week’s cabinet developments simply reflect the currents revealed at the, recent election—that Hitler has passed his peak and that the only real challenge -to the existing counter-revolutionary dictatorship of the Von Schleicher type is the slow-growing Communist movement. Republican liberal Germany is submerged, thanks largely to the continuing Versailles policies of the allies, which have crippled Germany’s economic life and driven her hungry people to desperate extremes. A Transportation Study A1 Smith recognizes that the railroads’ chief difficulties are caused by the depression. The committee of which he and Calvin Coolidge are members has retained experts to help it study problems of steam carriers and propose remedies, new methods, and changes in regulatory laws, to protect not only railroads, but investors and shippers as well. President-Elect Roosevelt has traced the outlines of a program he hopes to see enacted to provide benefits for these same groups; and congress soon, through its committees, will undertake railroad inquiries. The interstate commerce commission forever is concerned with the problems of the railroads and ways to meet them. All these things are helpful ( and some good will result from them. But what is more necessary and important now is an intelligent, far-seeing study, not of railroads, or bus lines, or pipe lines or airplane lines alone, but of transportation as a whole. Unfortunately, few even among the experts are able, because of other duties and other interests, to devote their time to the whole field of transportation. Even the interstate commerce commission is overburdened with innumerable individual cases, large and small. The railroads are, of course, the backbone of our transportation system; but there are other parts equally important in their fields. Out of the Coolidge-Smith committee might come a program for fitting these conflicting parts into a single, efficient whole. December 15 Just one of those odd coincidences—— On Dec. 15 all foreign nations which owe us money are supposed to make payments in gold into our treasury. Strong hints have been given that this money will not be paid to the United States on that date. On the evening of* Dec. 15, President and Mrs Hoover hold their last, diplomatic reception—ore of those swanky, gold-braid affairs, with medals and decorations much in evidence. French, British, Italian ambassadors will all be there, in all the colors of the rainbow. And nobody’s face will be red. The head of the Bank of England sa£s he approaches the problems of the depression “not only in ignorance, but in humilility.” Some of our own statesmen would be in the same boat if they had the humility. A scientist says that talking to oneself is no sign of insanity. It has become a common practice the last few years. Styles change. The thugs who used to blow safes are turning their attention now to safety deposit boxes.

Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

THE election is over, but our job is far from finished. For this country never will see the sunshiny uplands of prosperity through the efforts of any President alone, or any set of lawmakers. It will take the combined efforts of all citizens. Now that we have survived the campaign, why not consider the stupidity of doling out alms toAhe unfortunate? The greatest of virtues may be charity, but we fast are making it a national vice, since with it we continue to cover multitudes of economic sins. Some way, somehow, in the future, work must be substituted for community doles. People must be aided to help themselves. For this is the only true charity. And the housewife need never feel that she can not have a part in such a program of reconstruction. She, too, is in a position to give* jobs, although they be only minor, ones. The single girl, the widow, and the middle-aged spinster have in many localities been overlooked completely by social agencies and relief organizations. Today thousands of these women face despair. ana IT is up to the home women to help them. Many of us, I realize, have not the money nor the room to do so. But on the other hand, thousands are able to contribute a little to the work of rehabilitating this portion of society. Find some girl or woman—and you need not hunt long or far to do so —to whom, in return for work, you can give food, shelter, and perhaps carfare, so that she may continue her vocational training or her education. These are days when we dare not be unkind. To answer the door to a peddler, to give a smile if w 6 can not buy, can we guess how much this may mean to some soul who confronts Gethsemane! It may be impossible to give aid to all who ask. But it is not beyond our power to give pleasant words. And the spirits of the crushed need these almost as much as their bodies need bread, t*

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy Says:

Discoyery of Girls Skeleton, 20,000 Yearß Old, in Minnesota, Starts Long # Train of Conjecture. NEW YORK, Nov. 18.—The finding of R girl’s skeleton beneath eleven feet of silt in the bed of a dried-up Minnesota lake is just one more episode in the unsolved riddle of human ancestry. According to science, the young lady met her death some 20,000 years ago and while a large pirt of North America still was covered with ice. There are indications that she was killed by some fellow being who employed a spear, or an arrow, but that hardly proves that she was murdered in the common meaning of the word. / She appears to have been attacked from in front, and she may have’ been engaged in the gentle art of war. At all events, a dagger, with the point broken, was found nearby. \ , Fancy could weave a hundred tales around this fragmentary bit of evidence from the long dead past, with a good probability that none of them would be very close to the truth. a a a 20,000 Years Ago THIS 17-year-old maiden may have been a flirt and fallen prey to some jealous suitor; a wayward wife, overtaken by her angry spouse, or a Joan of Arc, cut off before her time. * But that is not the most interesting part of her story for us. She lived on this continent long before written history began, long before there was an Egypt, or a Babylon. How did she get here, and who were her people? Did she represent a race or civilization that was dying out, or anew and higher order? There are those who believe that men not only inhabited the earth before the last ice age, but that they had attained a considerable degree of enlightenment. Such a thing is not beyond the realm of possibility, although it makes one shiver. n a a Mystery Shrouds Past SAVE for the brief period covered by written records, we know little about the past. The beginning of the human race remains about as complete a mystery as its end. There may be something in the story of the flood. We merely may be rebuilding what was' destroyed when the sea rose and ice covered the land in the northern hemisphere. What we call our original j progenitors may have been the stunted left-overs of a crushed world, a virtually exterminated species. As Shakespeare says, there are tides in the affairs of men, and many of them take more than six hours to ebb and flow. We assume that our race has moved steadily forward and upward since it made its appearance, that the processes by which it has been evolved worked in only, one direction, and that no great recession, or sweeping disaster interrupted the parade after it began. U U tt A Deep Problem THAT, too, is within the realm of possibility, but it hardly harmonizes with the spiral curve and wave motion which seem to dominate everything, the continuous repetition of phenomena which, though varying a little, are near enough alike to appear similar. There have been several ice ages, and we now are living in the interval between two—that is, if another occurs. Shall we assume that another is not going to occur, or that 1 there were no men on earth in the preceding interval? Shall we take it for granted that we stand at the end of an old road, or the beginning of anew one, that our existence marks the peak of planetary life? Deep water—much deeper than the war debt problem, prohibition, or the tariff, any one of which is more than enough to tax our poor little brains.

Questions and Answers

What provisions did the Adamson act make in reference to working hours for railroad employes? Beginning Jan. 1, 1917, the act provided that eight hours should be deemed the standard or measure of a day’s work, for the purpose of reckoning the compensation of employes engaged in the operation of trains, except independently owned and operated railroads less than 100 miles in length, and electric, street and interurban railroads. On which bank of the Ohio river is the boundary between Ohio and West Virginia? The north bank of the Ohio river forms the boundary of the state of Ohio. According to an old colonial treaty, Virginia had jurisdiction up to the northern bank of the Ohio river and when the states of Kentucky and West Virginia were formed this bqundary continued. .... • What is the origin of the maxim, “God helps those who help themselves?” This old proverb is found in many languages. Algernon Sidney used it in “Discourse Concerning Government,” and it also was used by Cervantes and others. Did President Wilson veto the Volstead act? It was passed over his veto by both houses of congress. Can the residents of Washington, D. C., vote in elections? No. Should all the words of a motto be capitalized? Yes.

Daily Thought

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them—Jeremiah 18:2. The highest order that ever was instituted on earth is the order of faith.—Henry Ward Beecher..

There’ll Be No Rest Till It’s Fixed!

DAILY HEALTH SERVICE : Movies Are Not Dangerous to Eyes

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. THE question constantly is raised as to whether motion pictures are bad for the eyes. Parents wonder how often children should be permitted to attend, whetherthey should sit in the front or rear in the house, whether it is dangerous to view the pictures from the side, and how much, if at all, eyes may be harmed by attending motion picture performances. In 1930, the bureau of the League of Nations made public a report developed by a special committee in Italy on this subject. The report was based on a questionnaire sent to almost 15,000 children and young people in Italy. About one-fourth of these stated that the eyes tired after watching films. About twice as many said that their eyes did not feel tired or strained in the least, and the others seemed to be doubtful. According to a statement issued by one of the leading authorities of the Society for the Prevention of Blindness in this country, motion pictures do not cause as much strain to the eye as reading a book. Dr. Park Lewis has said:

IT SEEMS TO ME

AN English astronomer who prefers, for fairly obvious reasons to remain nameless has been bombarding the London newspapers with a suggestion as to anew method of signaling to Mars. We all have heard of the canals of that planet, and there is a theory (if" there isn’t, it is being started right now) that those strange markings merely represent an effort on the part of the Martians to spell out, for our benefit, “What hath God wrought!” or, maybe, “Block that kick!” If you believe this, there is every reason to lend support to the project of sending back a friendly nod. Earth in its present somewhat sour state hardly can afford to be high hat with any member of the solar system. a a a Space and Spinach AS I understand the professor’s scheme, he suggests that we organize to grow some million-acre tract with a dark vegetable, such as spinach. These patches of green easily can be detected by the Martians if their telescopes are as good as those which we have. And the spinach is to be grown in such a way that it will form a gigantic geometric figure—a fivepointed star or a right-angle triangle or the outline of Mickey Mouse. I think that if we are going to go to all that trouble, we might as well be a great deal more articulate. With a million acres and enough spinach, we readily could be much more explicit. Suppose we begin with a right-angle triangle and Mars comes back with a square. Does that get us any place? We would have to waste an entire summer, a lot of labor and a great

Flowers Indoors * Have you been successful with growing plants indoors in the' fall and winter months? Does your neighbor’s indoor window box always have blooming plants, while yours wither and die? Do you know the secrets of care and attention to house plants in the cold months? Our Washington Bureau has ready for you a comprehensive bulletin on how to grow plants indoors. It tell you what, why and how. Fill the coupon below and send for it. CLIP COUPON HERE Dept. 207, Washington Bureau Indianapolis Times, 1322 New YOik avenue, Washington, D. C. I want a copy of the bulletin HOUSE PLANTS, and inclose herewith 5 cents in coin, or loose, uncanceled United States postage stamps, cover return postage and handling costs: NAME STREET AND NO CITY % STATE X am a reader of The Indianapolis Times. (Code No.) A

“Under normal physiological conditions, moving pictures do not cause serious eye fatigue. Since viewing moving pictures is distant vision, it does not demand so great an ocular effort as near vision—such as reading for a corresponding length of time. .“When eye strain is caused *by moving pictures it is due to one or another preventable condition, such as too prolonged fixing of the attention on a single point, or defective visual function, to a bad position of the observer in relation to the screen, to poor films, improper manipulation of the apparatus, to faulty projection or to improper illumination. “With these reservations there is no more harm to the eyes in viewing the moving pictures with modern improved methods than there is in any other normal use of the eyes.” Apparently, therefore, it may be said that the motion pictures, as such, do not have a harmful influence on the sight of normal, healthy people. Neither should they be injurious to the nervous system of normal, healthy people.

deal of spinach in order to flash back the inevitable query, “So what?” Then if Mars came back with a circle that would just gum up everything and we would have to start all over with a rectangle and build from the ground up. Why not begin with something of cosmic importance, such as spelling out, in spinach, “Do you think Jimmy Walker ever will run for anything again?” Or, “How about that new count for grand slam?” tt tt tt Remember the Risks BUT to me the whole fascinating business of exchanging ideas with Mars carries with it a lot oi incidental danger. It may be that our civilization is far more advanced than theirs. '■ For all we know, they still are living in the Dark Ages, and believing that it is seven years’ bad luck to break a mirror and that you shouldn’t take three lights from a match. If they are dumb as that, we will have wasted a lot of energy to get nothing more than a possible “Oh, yeah!” or “So’s your old man!” Think of the tragedy of spending years of research work to perfect communication and then having flashed through the ether back at us, “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” And there are even more tragic possibilities. Mars, if I remember my astronomy (which I could easily put in my left eye), is quite a bit smaller than the earth. Being more compact, it may well be better organized and far ahead of us in intellect. Suppose it readily grasps our first timid proffer of a spinach message .and replies, “Oh, run along and get a reputation..” A planet as far away as that might be enormously snobbish and

HOWEVER, people who are inclined to have trouble with vision and those easily disturbed emotionally may suffer some ill effects from attendance on motion pictures, for several reasons. In the first place, there are startling changes of light that tire the eyes; in the second place, the films sometimes are jerky, because the apparatus lor projection is weak or the speed is not regulated properly. The investigators have worked out a sort of motion picture hygiene which is useful. They say that it is desirable in the case of children and young people to have daylight or subdued light screens. Programs should be arranged so that longer or shorter scenes are alternated. Projection of any part of a film should not be longer than ten or fifteen minutes, followed by intervals of from two to three minutes, and then the light may be brought on gradually. Os course, a film of fifteen-minute length probably is best suited to educational purposes. However, it is difficult to say how the ordinary drama could be condensed into fifteen-minute length.

RV HEYWOOD 151 BROUN

with a very mean sense of humor. I can fancy a Martian Mussolini, with an evil gleam in his eye, saying to his secretary, “Please take a letter, Miss Cohen. ‘Dear Earth—Your note cf even date received. If you expect me to pay any attention, please write it all over again in broccoli.’ ” , Moreover, there is the possibility of a difference in language. It may be that Mars speaks neither English, French nor Yiddish. In our messages, by means of crop conformation, we can send only one slogan at a time. Spinach is not bilingual. And so our “How is everything up there?” might be immediately answered with, “Ub gub salinka, yourself,” which would send all the professors, cross-word puzzle fans and cryptogram experts hurrying home to hard labor. a a a Let Them Speak First AND observing us closely, as Martians may, it is within the realm of possibility that they might mistake our intention of spreading cosmic intelligence and the exchange of ideas. They would have good reason to assume that this was still no more than one more advertising scheme and reply curtly in canal designs: Our own toothpastes are entirely satisfactory to us, and when w*e want a bale of goods, we’ll let you know. Don’t slip on the Milky Way as you go out.” And. worst of all, it is possible that Mars may have developed the transmission of sound. It would be jut a little embarrassing to wake the morning after our missive was called to their attention and get no reply but a razzberry hurtling out of tM infinite spaces. I’d rather wait and not speak to Mars until we’re spoken to. (Copyright, 1932. by The Time.' >

People’s Voice

Editor Times—As a unit, these various tax reduction leagues are getting to the point where they may be classed as ranking public enemy No. 1. They are attempting to have a Roman holiday at the expense of police, firemen and teachers. Their latest achievement is the crippling of the school system, one of the most necessary functions in any large city. They also are attempting to give an air of benevolence to their work by inveigling the average worker and homeowner into their midst by telling them, no doubt, that the wages paid to the aforementioned classes drive the harassed taxpayers into bankruptcy. This is far from the truth. The tax ills of Indianapolis date back to the era of super-government that controlled the city and state a few years back. It is on record that one year’s expenditures of the school board at that time would have been

Ideals and opinions expressed in this column are tbose oi one of America’* most interesting writers and are presented without regard to their agreement or disagreement with the editortal attitude of this paper.—The Er'itor.

10V. 18,1932

SCIENCE —BY DAVID DIETZ

Astronomers Find Novae, or, New Stars, Subjects of In* terest in Their Observa* tories. ABOUT once a year, some ' extremely dim star suddenly flares up with new brilliance. The star which turns the trick is christened a “new star” or nova.” (Nova” is the Latin for new”). Occasionally a nova becomes sufficiently blight to be visible to the unaided eye, but such occurrences are rare. The behavior of all novae is similar in one respect. They flare to their new brilliance with great suddenness. Then they begin to fade, returning to their old state of brightness in about a year. Studying the heavens with his telescope, the astronomer notes millions upon millions of stars. But here and there, he sees something else, great luminous masses of cloudy stuff. These are called nebulae. ("Nebulae” is the Latin for cloud.) Often a group of stars seems intertwined with a great nebulous mass. This is the case, for example, with the constellation of the Pleiades. But, in addition, the astronomer also finds about 150 very unusual objects. These have been named planetary nebulae, perhaps an unfortunate name, since they have no connection with the planets. Each consists of a central star surrounded by a ring of nebulous material iike a great smoke-ring. a o a Like an Explosion EACH planetary nebula looks like the result of an explosion, as ‘ though the great smoke ring had been blown out of the central star. Many astronomers today are of the opinion that such is the case and that the planetary nebulae represent old novae. Each time a nova, or ‘new star” flashes into the sky, they think it is another planetary nebula in process of formation. Planetary nebulae still are the subject of intensive study upon the part of the astronomers of the world. There are still many mysteries connected with them. But astronomers have also succeeded in finding out a great deal about them. This knowledge is summarized by Dr. Donald H. Menzel of Harvard observatory in a bulletin of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The best known planetary nebula is the so-called ring nebula in the constellation of Lyra.* Dr. Menzel points out it is difficult to see the central star in this nebula through the telescope, but very easy to photograph it. This is because the central star is exceptionally rich in ultra-violet light. This light, of course, is invisible to the eye, but affects the photographic plate. The star is extremely hot, having a surface temperature of aobut 120,000 degrees, Fahrenheit, a temperature about twelve times that of the surface temperature of the sun. Dr. Mensel says that it is generally believed that every planetary nebula contains one of these extraordinarily hot stars. The star in each case seems to be extremely small, what the astronomer calls a white dwarf. an tt £xtremely Large DR. MENZEL says that recent measurements of the diameter of the Ring Nebula in Lyra show it to be about 40,000 times the distance,, from the earth to the sun. (That distance is 93 million miles.) The diameter of the nebula is about forty trillion miles. This is about 1,000 times the distance from the sun to Pluto, the outermost plane of the solar system, a distance of four billion miles. Other planetary nebulae are similarly large. The tiny central stars are perhaps no larger than the planet Jupiter, which is about 86,000 miles in diameter. They are, to quote Dr. Menzel's phrase, "as lost in the vast-sea of surrounding nebulosity as a football * would be if adrift in the middle of the Pacific ocean.” Because the great majority of planetary nebula appear ring-like, astronomers feel pretty certain that in reality they are not. This may sound like a paradox. But a moment's thought will show that if they were really ring-like, we ought to see some edgewise and others at various angles. Since they all appear ring-like, probability is that the central star really is surrounded with a great spherical shell of thin gaseous material. This gaseous material, Dr. Menzel tells us, is extremely thin. This is • obvious from the fact that despite its great? size, the central star is still visible. As he reminds us, a puff of cigaret smoke casts a substantial shadow. He says that the density of the nebulous shell is about what would result if we took a cubic centimeter of ordinary air and expanded it to fill a cubic mile. sufficient to meet the regular school city levy for two years. The enormous amount squandered by this same board during its regime necessitated a sinking fund levy almost double the amount that ordinarily would have been called for, to retire bonds which had been contracted for during those halcyon days. There was not much effort made at that time to curb xependitures for, no doubt, the brothers who are making such a howl {or tax reduction now* gave their whole-hearted support to that same clique. The main trouble with the public is that want all the up-to-date police and fire protection, together with parks, playgrounds and swimming pools, but they do not want to pay for them. If they can man* age to get all this work done on the basket-a-week made-work plan, no doubt they will be satisfied. Police and firemen already have received what amounts to a 14 per cent cut. This, coupled with all the extra equipment which they have 1 to purchase, together with charity donations, etc., leaves them far from a living wage. The tax boards also are fuming because they have been unable to have the mandatory levies which Include the police, fire and teachers’ pensions, abolished. They may have another chance this coming legislative session, for I see where the party leaders are taking the matter under consideration. It will be up to the parti e* concerned to have their interest* in capable hands. WILLIAM MURPHY. 1901 .Koehne street. dsJawji.. A- . •