Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 259, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 March 1933 — Page 4

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The Indianapolis Times . <A SCRIPTS-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) ROT W. fIOWAHI) President I TALCOTT POvVF.LL Editor KARL I>. RAKER ........ Business Manager Thone—RUcr 6.VJI Member of United I’resg. Ecrlppg- "" ’ =r ~ Howard Newspaper Alliance. Newe- . ‘l” . paper Enterprise Association. News--61 paper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Owned and published dally (except r~i3 ~ srti Sunday) t>y The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos.. 2U-220 West Maryland street. Indianapolis. Ind. I’rlce • ln Marlon county. 2 cents a copy: elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by carCirg JAnht and the Her. 12 cents a week. Mall aubscripJ’rnplt Will Ftnd tlon ratea In Indiana. $3 a vear: Their Orm Way outside of Indiana. 6.1 cents a month.

THURSDAY. MARCH 9. 1933

GIVE ROOSEVELT POWER President Roosevelt desires extraordinary power to fight the depression, especially on the banking front. Congress and the country are ready to grant that sweeping authority. The public’s attitude springs from an understanding of the seriousness of the situation and confidence that President Roosevelt can be trusted with such power. The President probably will find it necessary to increase the currency and extend the ban on gold payments. Some citizens who have worshiped gold as a mystic symbol of safety and national prosperity, and who have supposed that the ban on gold decreed last Sunday night would be lifted within a few days, may be shocked. They should not be. The same reasons—and good reasons--which took us off the absolute gold standard are operating to keep us off for the duration of the emergency, and to expand the federal reserve currency. Our banking system is discredited. Wholesale bank failures, followed by general state banking moratoria, undermired the public faith upon which all financial operations must rest. The run on gold resulted—drained abroad and drained inio hiding at home. An ordinary run could have been stopped by the government, as in the past. But this run could not be stopped by pouring in and paying out all the gold in the world—because the public had lost confidence in the banking system itself. There was only one way to stop the run: Close all the banks and stop the flow of gold. That was the situation created by the President's proclamation. But the banks can not be allowed to remain closed. Communities can not exist without a medium of exchange, and an interdependent modern nation can not exist without a national medium of exchange. So the banks must be opened again. This requires an adequate, but sound, currency, What is to prevent new and worse runs on gold when the banks reopen? Restoration of confidence in the banks. That can be attempted only in two general ways. One is to put a government guarantee behind all present banks and their deposits, good and bad. That would break the government. The other way is to rebuild the banking system In such way that it will operate with absolute safety, and thus merit and win public confidence. Obviously, thi atter way is the only way out. But Roosevelt can not rebuild the banking system in one day or one week, and he can not keep the banks closed until he perfects anew system. He is forced to reopen the banks soon, but at the same time conserve the gold supply, ■which is to continue the ban on gold payments, until the banking system can be reformed. That essential reform and unification of the banking system is the test of the Roosevelt program, not the gold policy. The gold policy is precisely that which any American government would have been forced to assume under the circumstances. Once the banking system is reformed, the gold policy will almost take care of itself. To build a unified banking system, and to protect the public's money In the process, it is necessary for the federal government to retain control until the job is done, until the safety of the regulated banking method is its own automatic and adequate guarantee. That is why President Roosevelt is asking for extraordinary power. That is why he will be granted such power, gladly and hopefully. BUSINESS SENSE Investment of a million dollars to save anywhere from 25 to 50 millions seems like good business any way you look at it. That is why economy in the federal trade commission appropriation for 1934 is the most foolish proposal yet made regarding the public money. No considerations of humanity or sentiment enter Into this situation, nothing but hard-headed affection for one’s own income. The taxpayer who prefers’to have a smaller tax bill, but to pay more next year for everything he buys, approves of the 65 per cent trade commission cut voted by the house of representatives. The taxpayer able to count the cost tomorrow instead of today is opposed to it. The trade commission investigated fraudulent claims that certain underwear was all wool. It saved buyers $200,000 a year. It investigated statements by which a baking powder company was frightening the public into buying its high-priced product, and saved consumers $500,000 a year. Exposing the true effect of radium '’.iters, it saved buyers $1,000,000 a year, as well as saving some lives. Coffee buyers were saved $250,000. Bigger savings impassible to estimate accurately were made ln cases involving packers, grain marketing, lumber, paper, railroad equipment. The big steel case—Pittsburgh plus—is saving middle western farmers alone $30,000,000 a year, it Is estimated. The utilities investigation has brought about voluntary rate reductions, reduction of service and management fees which mean more rate reductions where state commissions so order, and elimination of a large annual propaganda expenditure. The modest two million dollars it has cost—a striking contrast, by the way, with the $45,000,000 spent valuing the railroads—has been repaid to consumers many times over, and the benefits of the investigation are just only beginning to be felt. One hundred eighty-five complaints charging corporations and individuals with violation of various trade laws are pending before the commission. The utility investigation is not finished. The commission proposes an investigation of corporate practices that will mean millions of dollars to investors as well as to purchasers of everything salable. This is work that can't be dispensed with, not if we have any concern for our pocketbooks. PAYING FOR THE WAR One of the least important news items of the day, probably, was the one from Berlin which reported that smart dress shops in the German capital are having trouble finding enough mannequins to model their new gowns. And yet, when you look into it, this little dispatch is rather significant. It is a grim Reminder

that bodies as well as pocketbooks still are paying for the World war; that not all the human misery created by that conflict was assuaged when the armistice was signed. For a Berlin paper explains the shortage of mannequins as follows: ‘ There are more applicants for mannequins’ jobs than ever, but their chests are too narrow, their shoulder blaoes protrude too far, or their carriage is poor, owing to weak physique. Hardships during childhood and during the war years are responsible.” This, of course, can be traced to the allied blockade, which doomed thousands upon thousands of German children to pass through the formative years of childhood with insufficient nourishment. And that, in turn, is apt to make us wonder if this blockade really was as much less savage than Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare as we used to think. The submarine war sent many ships to the bottom without warning and drowned many noncombatants; the blockade deprived children of.the food they needed, and the evidence is to be found tpday in the flat chests, shrunken bodies, and curved shoulders of Germany's young men and women. From this distance, the matter of savagery, inhumanity, and so on seems to be about six of one and half a dozen of the other. And that, to go a step farther, indicates once more that the complaint of the pacifists is pretty largely true; that war is a horrible, brutal, and cruel business, no matter how it is waged, and that there is precious little sense ln trying to decide which side was the more cruel. Germany • sank our ships and w r e helped starve Germany’s children. It would be somewhat presumptuous to say that our way of making war was the more humane. SIGNING WITHOUT LOOKING The Texas newspaper reporter who found it an easy job to get 400 reputable fellow citizens to sign a petition urging President Roasevelt to appoint his would be assassin, Gieuseppe Zangara, to a job in the cabinet, seems to have proved once more that the ordinary man doesn’t bother to read things very closely before he signs his name to them. This petition began with a harmless paragraph urging government economy, and that, apparently, was enough for the hasty 400. Innocently enough, they signed on the dotted line; and the ease with which their signatures were obtained casts anew light on the way in which public petitions get circulated, signed and delivered. There still is a good deal to be said for the canny old Yankee custom of refusing to sign anything until every word has been scrutinized with devout care. MAN’S HOME HIS FORTRESS One of the ways in which we can tell you that life and property in the dim days of the very distant past is by the fact that each dwellirig, in those days, was built like a miniature fortress. It lacked windows opening on the street, and was built so that its occupants could withstand a miniature siege from pillaging bands of freebooters. This fact, somehow, is brought to mind by the news that model houses now being planned in some German cities contain gas-proof cellars, in which the occupant can seek safety in case of gas attacks by hostile lirplanes in time of war. Will not such houses speak to future generations as plainly a: the fortress-like houses of the Dark Ages speak to us today? New York columnist reports Statue of Liberty still draws the crowds in New York. Maybe it’s because people figure that’s the only place left where they can find Liberty. Prisoners from New York state’s Dannemora prison at Clinton have sent an exhibit of paintings to New York City. Mostly still life, we presume. Sid Franklin, American bull-fighter, sails for Spain to take on a few of the Spanish variety. Guess our American kind was too much for him. Liquor sales in Ontario declined $10,000,000 last year. Some other people in declining spirits these days, it seems. Emma Goldman, anarchist, who sent shivers down grandpa’s spine when she was anarchising here, refused to drink a toast to the king at a literary dinner in London. King should worry, he can drink his own toasts over there. Man broke his leg in Litchfield, 111., in a wolf hunt. Presumption is that he succeeded in chasing the wolf away from his door, anyway. The fellow who starts things on a shoestring can't complain if he has to take a lacing.

Just Plain Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

T AST week I drove through what used to be a wealthy farming community, a land of vast wheat fields. Several times during the journey we were detoured, and huge trucks, filled with sand and gravel, rumbled and thundered toward a dust cloud that marked that spot_ where another stretch of pavement was being laid. A smooth splendid highway—cutting through a country that is stricken with poverty. Unpainted houses, like slattern women, stare bleakly at the glittering road. Barns sag emptily. At the comer is the schoolhouse, its doors barred shut. The wind sways the idle swing ropes; rain already had obliterated the children's footprints in the dust before the threshold. Yet the road building goes on. The number of people who can afford to drive over the highways daily is diminishing. The cars grow fewer. Presently the unemployed hitch-hikers may have this costly improvement all to themselves, and the passenger trucks can lord it alone down the magnificent United States highway systems. b n a npHE argument goes that all the road building de- -*• partments, that annually spend millions, give employment to many people. True, but when the taxpayers are broke, it is high time to put our money into things that are necessary. To the man from Massachusetts who wishes to make a quick automobile trip to California, the fine roads may be all important, but to the farmer whose children are out of school they will not appear so vital, perhaps. A nation that closes its schools and builds roads is not blessed with any overabundance of foresight. For, after all, the day always will come when there are enough fine highways, enough macadam, enough facilities for accommodating car owners, even in the great United States. And it seems to me that that day is here. The motor machine has gulped down enough of our gold. Before it is too iate, let's invest what little we have left in the children.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

It Seems to Me .... by Heywood Broun

I HAVE been fond of saying in written columns and in speeches that we members of the human race should recognize the fact that we are all in the same boat. Os course, it was a figure of speech, and it might have been developed further by adding that it was a boat with first-class, second, and steerage. But that figure has become more actual and the distinctions among the passengers less clearly marked. It would be preposterous to say that during a bank holiday we all stand equal, as at the throne of God. When the great gates shut on Saturday with a clang I was possessed of $7.95 because of an extraordinary run of luck in contract bridge the night before. Others are not sitting so pretty. And some are better off. But if anybody comes to me to say, ‘‘l was no sap—l went down to the bank on Saturday and drew out my entire account in newly minted gold,” I am going to punch that wise guy in the nose. Or, if he looks dangerously big or fit, I’ll curl my lip at him.

===== Every Day Religion BY DR. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON .

IN the diary of the late Arnold Bennett one finds this entry: “The friendships between American men seem more charming than between Englishmen. They call each other by their Christian names, and are softer to each other. ‘A very dear friend of mine’ is a frequently heard phrase. They are more caressing with their voices.” It is a gracious entry, but it is unjust to the Englishman, whose royal shyness is much misunderstood. To Americans emotions were given to express; to Englishmen, to suppress. An Englishman feels as deeply as an American, but he is less glib in saying so. One learns to value the gruff and even clumsy attitude of the Englishman, for still waters run deep. Nor is that all—familiarity is not always friendship; not by a long shot. One remembers the story told by President Wilson in his speech at Manchester, during his visit to England in 1918. It was about an American who slapped a man on the back as if he had been a long lost brother. To which the man replied: ‘‘Really, I do not know your name, but your manners are familiar.” A back-slapper may not be a friend at all. tt tt B IF BENNETT had used the word fellowship instead of friendship. it would have been nearer the truth. To call a man by his Christian name is a token of pleasant, intimate companionship, in which we Americans do excel our English friends. But in friendship, no. Some of us can bear witness to the beautiful loyal, long-lasting friendship of English people, whose names are a rosary of memory and gratitude in our hearts. All human fellowships depend for their validity and beauty upon a rhythm of intimacy and aloofness. To forget that fact is to trample upon the holiest things of life.

- Sympathy Aids Vocation Guidance ■ -- BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN ...

This is the first o l two articles by Dr. Fishbein on the development of vocational guidance. SOCIAL service is finding that it is more valuable to aid a disabled person in securing work suitable to his disability than to attempt to carry him along on charity. For this reason, many investigative bodies, commissions, and agencies finally have developed a technic known as vocational guidance. Guidance in this type of social work demands the same type of sympathetic humane understanding that prevails in medical work. People who are handicapped are extremely sensitive and react badly to condescension and too much sympathy. If the person who is training

What's in a Name?

Saving Their Own Skins After all, the man who boasts, “I got mine, and 1 don’t care what happens to anybody else,” is own cousin to the fellow who might say, ‘And when we hit the reef I was the first one into the lifeboats.” Nobody would go around proclaiming the fact that he elbowed women and children out of the way when it seemed advisable to transfer to another ship. And people who were too intent and too eager to protect themselves in the present storm must bear part of the blame for the existence of the crisis. During the war I don’t remember that people went around saying with great pride that they had a lot of sugar stored in the cellar or that they went out and burned up plenty of fuel on a gasolineless Sunday. I am not a prophet. It is not within my intention or my knowledge to predict the precise financial state of this country tomorrow morning or the day after. But I do think it is reasonable to assert that there is both selfish-

Between friend and friend, between father and son, between husband and wife, there is this rhythm of familiarity and formality, and many a lovely tie is broken by ignoring it. It is so between God and man, and religion is injured if not ruined when we forget that truth. God is with us, within us, “closer than breathing;” but He is also aloft and aloof, and we must needs seek Him afar. (Copyright. 1933. bv United Features Syndicate, Inc.)

So They Say

The United States can for a specific purpose and a limited time associate itself with other powers, but when that purpose has been served, the Unted States inevitably must return to its former impartiality.—Walter E. Edge, retiring United States ambassador to France. Here we had this giant industrial era, rushing through the country to land like a tiger in a ditch. But what is there in fiction to show for it?—Theodore Dreiser, author. No administration can do for us what we don't do for ourselves.— Dr. Virgil Jordan, president of tne National Industrial Conference Board.. The credit structure of the United States is a disgraceful failure; our entire banking system does credit to a collection of imbeciles.—Senator William G, McAdoo of California. Before prohibition young girls would not associate with a man who had a bottle of liquor. Today unles you have a bottle they will not tolerate you.—Representative Vincent Falmisano of Maryland.

Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hvreia. the Health Magazine.

the handicapped is, on the other hand, domineering, overenergetic, or excitable, the effects are equally bad. It must be borne in mind that the crippled person, whether hard of hearing, blind, lame or suffering from tuberculosis or a weakened heart, is likely to be suspicious, prejudiced, ard doubtful, particularly when he has been concerned with officials from his employer, the government, insurance companies, and others who have tried to get out of their responsibilities, as sometimes happens, with the least payment possible. Moreover, many of these disabled suffer not only with the handicap gs their physical disabil-

ness and stupidity in behaving on the “Anyhow, I got mine” principle. People who have been too eager and too avid for their own protection not only have injured others gravely, but in the long run are likely to find that they have not greatly benefited themselves. There was a somewhat grasping gentleman in days of old who met his death by having molten gold poured down his throat. I think it may be possible that we will go off the gold standard, but that would be a much smaller disaster than going off the standard of decent neighborliness and co-operation. # a Fools of Two Sorts ONCE upon a time I stood on the deck of a steamer which was being attacked by a submarine. There were two fools on board, and I'm not pointing. I was the tall, thin man, with a white face, who looked scared to death. And who, as a matter of fact, was scared to death. But I kept my mouth closed by the simple expedient of chewing on a particularly sticky chocolate caramel. One of the two men to whom I referred kept parroting over and over again: “There is no danger! There is no danger!” The other ran up and down the deck shouting, “Isn't this awful?” I would like to have the unduly cheerful and the cohfirmed pessimists paired off like absent senators. I think the remark, “This could be a lot worse,” is undoubtedly true. So is the answer, “And it could be better.” In fact, that can be made even stronger if it is revised to read, “And it will be better just as soon as people reach the state of mind of realizing that nothing will work if we proceed on the basis of every man for himself.” BUB The Bells Ring Out I AM not overlooking the actual hardships occasioned by the bank holiday, but I must confess that I find even a sort of heady excitement in these days. We are at the turn. We are dealing not only with malleable material things, but with a nation finally stirred to the realization that a “new deal” no longer is just a phrase in a poItical speech, but a very necessary part of present political and economic action. A bank holiday is a great leveller. I have talked with people who took the gloomiest point of view possible about the affairs of the nation. I have heard it said, “I can see no hope.” But what these people mean is that there is no hope of moving straight back into the boom times of 1929. That was a world of terrific profits and enormous losses. It was a world of mushroom millionaires and overnight beggars. It was a world in which some held within their hands the wealth of the world and others had nothing. Why should we weep if there never again is going to be that same old world? I'm not weeping. Ring in the new. A child is born. The world is doing as well as could be expected. (Convrieht. 1933. bv The Times)

ity, but also are limited in the type of work in which they can engage by their age, sometimes by their race or color, and sometimes by their lack of education, either general or special. It is necessary to know these limitations before work can be found suitable to disability of the person concerned. Scientific observation has shown that there are tremendous variations in the abilities of various persons with the same type of injury. One man may lose portions of his hand and still be able to do almost complete work with the remainder; another man. losing the same portions, is incapacitated completely. Next—Factors in Rehabilitation.

M. E. Tracy Says:

DEBT IS OUR BIG PROBLEM

“ \ SHOT IN THE ARM" is the way Alfred E. 1 V Smith refers to inflation. Well, what is a bond Issues for public work, the R. F. C., the farm allotment plan or other artificial remedies by which we are trying to revive the patient? Debt is our big problem in this country, not as contracted for value received, but as increased by the rise of money. Measured in wages and goods, the American people are being asked to pay much more than they owe, and that, too, when a fourth of them

are out of work and all of them find it peculiarly difficult to meet operating expenses. Now you can call the medicine by any name you like, but the only kind that will get us out of this mess is the kind that will change the existing relation between money value and work value. The American people have got to get more for their labor and their goods, not in exchange, but in dollars, if they are going to meet their obligations. The only alternative to writing off a stupendous proportion of our domestic debt, both public and private, is a sharp rise in prices and wages. 808 Penny-Pitching Is Xot Right Move IF this can be brought about without inflation, so much the better, but it must be brought about. Penny-pitching holds little hope, save for temporary relief, while adding to the debt by issuing bonds only makes the situation a little worse. Time was when we might have stopped the downward plunge by a Judicious expenditure of public funds, but it now is a question whether that time lias not passed. We have permitted the process of demoralization to continue until our capital investment, as represented by land, buildings, equipment and man power, has shrunk to alarmingly small proportions, while lack of confidence prevents the most effective use of what is left. We can go on until we are driven to dangerously radical measures, like some countries, or admit the realities and act with forward-looking courage, like some others. The thought that we can end the depression by forcing forty governments back to the gold standard Is prepasterous. If that were possible, we could have stopped the depression before it ever started. b m n Other Governments Try Another Plan OTHER governments deliberately have depressed their currencies because of debt pressure. They are getting along just as well at home and increasing their trade abroad at our expense. We can keep their goods out of our own country by boosting the tariff, but not out of other countries. We can declare a moratorium on war debts, but how will that help us to meet their competition in foreign markets? The fact that international trade is conducted in gold leaves something to be explained. Because of the depressed value of the franc, for instance, a French manufacturer can produce and sell more of some given commodity for an ounce of gold than can an American manufacturer. The same is true of a British manufacturer, or exporter, because of the depressed pound. The dollar is at a premium even’where, which sounds fine as a matter of national pride, but which only makes it hard for the American people to pay their debts and compete with other people ln foreign markets.

. —r.^.SCIENCE ■ ■■■-■= Link Rays With Stars — BY DAVID DIETZ ; --

STAR spots—spots on stars like the well-known sun spots—may be the origin of casmic rays. That is the theory put forward by Dr. W. F. G. Swann, director of the Bartol Research Foundation of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Dr. Swann, one of the worlds foremost authorities on cosmic rays, was chairman of the historic meeting last December at Atlantic City at which Dr. R. A. Millikan and Dr. A. H. Compton debated the nature of the rays. His newly announced theory fits in with the views of Dr. Compton, but not with those of Dr. Millikan. Dr. Millikan contended that the cosmic rays were light rays or Times Readers Voice Views ... Editor Times—l noticed the article in The Times about the school principal who sent a little boy home because he wore suspenders. It is very evident that this woman who calls herself a principal—one to guide children —has no spark of human feeling in her makeup. Where is the boy who isn’t proud of his first long trousers and suspenders? And what has our public school system come to when it allows a narrow-minded and old-fashioned individual to dictate to the pupils even in the matter of dress, thereby depriving them of every bit of individuality, which should be guided rather than entirely suppressed, especially at that age where so many ideas and opinions are taking shape? It is surprising that the mothers would allow such a thing. Has the taxpayer no right to say anything, when it is his money paying that woman's salary? Certainly she is not fitted to be the principal of a grade schoolbetter the matron of a prison, where she could deal with those old enough to fight back, instead of having to meekly obey her outrageous commands. I have had occasion to visit several of the grade schools recently, and I find that the spirit of the principal is reflected throughout the school. Just last week I visited a school where the parents certainly are not supposed to be wealthy, but the discipline and atmosphere of the whole school far surpassed that of many of the schools where they do not have to stand for such a thing as a little boy wearing suspenders. The principal and the teachers of that school were all human beings. The' reasoned with, rather than dictated to, the pupils, and may I say that I never have seen such a well-behaved and happy group of grade school students. And I dare say one could find several pairs of suspenders in that group. The high school and college boys wear them. Surely if the grown men are allowed to follow this fashion, there is no harm in a boy not yet in his teens indulging in it. There are thousands of young and progressive women in the state of Indiana with college degrees, many of them with master’s degrees, who would be glad to have a chance to guide young people, yet a thing like this is p< rmitted. What is this strange power that some people have which gives them the right to hold a job for which they so obviously are unfitted? And why is such a thing permitted in what is supposed to oe a free country? Can you give the answer? I am not the only one who would like to know. I am not afraid to sign ray name, but hesitate to do so tiecause of the treatment of a younger member of the family still in the public schools might receive as a result. PUZZLED. Cc

"MARCH 9, 1933

mifii

TRACY

photons, little bundles of energy such as compose X-rays. Dr. Compton held that they were electrons, the fundamental particles of matter, moving at extremely high speeds. Dr. Swann's theory is that the cosmic rays are electrons shot out of spots on the stars. It now is accepted generally by scientists that the aurora borealis or northern lights are caused by electrons shot out of the sun spots. Entering the earth's atmosphere, these swift electrons collide with the atoms of air and produce an electrical condition known as ionization. This brings about the electrical discharge which constitutes the aurora. nan Cause of Aurora SOME years ago Dr. George Ellery Hale of Mt. Wilson observatory showed that sun spots were great whirlpools in the surface of the sun, which, because of their motion, generated powerful magnetic fields. It was shown next that electrons in such magnetic fields would acquire tremendous electrical potentials and would be hurled out of the sun at high speed as a result of the repulsion between these electrons and the magnetic field which gave them their energy. Dr. Carl Stormer of the University of Oslo, Norway, completed the theory when he showed that such electrons leaving the sun and entering the earth’s atmosphere would be deflected by the earth’s magnetic field so that practically none would enter the earth's equatorial one and the greatest concentrations would take place in the polar zones. This* fits the fact, since the aurora is common in the polar regions and rare in the temperate regions. ana Stars Bigger, Hotter ELECTRONS causing the aurora may have energies equivalent to a billion volts. Cosmic ray energies are at least ten times greater than that. Dr. Swann does not believe that cosmic rays could arise in sun spots. Moreover, if they did, it should be easy to detect experimental evidence of the fact and no such evidence ever has been found. It is known, however, that there are many stars larger and hotter than our own sun. Spots on such stars might have much greater magnetic fields, hurling out electrons with the energies exhibited by cosmic rays. In support of his theory, Dr. Swann calls attention to the experiments of Dr. Compton and others which indicate that cosmic rays are more intense in the polar regions than in the equatorial zone. This, he says, shows that cosmic rays are affected by the earth’s magnetic field in the same way as the electrons from sun spots which cause the aurora. Questions and Answers Q—Are all bats blind? A—Of the many varieties of bats there are none that can not see, although, being nocturnal animals, their eyes are much better fitted .for seeing after dark than in bright light. Q—Name some appropriate bon voyage gifts. A—Books, candy, fruit, or flowers. Q —What is the origin of the word wedding? A—Wed meant money, horses, cattle, anything that was used to buy a wife. From wed the idea of pledging or wedding the bride was evolved.