Indianapolis Times, Volume 44, Number 290, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 April 1933 — Page 18

PAGE 18

The 1 11 and ianapolis Times <A SC RII'PN-HOH AHD .SKMsI’AI'EK ) " HOW A HI) I’re*i<l<>nt TALCOTT POWELL Editor KAKL I>. BAKER Bakine** Manager flume—Klle.v 5551

*'*'*J ON ' +A fitrfi f.ir/ht on and 'hr: People Will Find Their Oicn Wav

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___ ttliMV APRIL 14 1333 TOPI IE A VY 'T'HE administration's railroad bill is anticipated by progressives in and out of confess as the means for carrying into effect the intelligent program announced by President Roosevelt during the campaign at Salt Lake City. Mr. Roosevelt proposed a means for scaling down what he callrd the "topheavy” financial s ructure of the railroads. He recognized this as iunuamental; lo protect not only tne carriers but also savings 1 anks and insurance companies investing in their securities, and to make railroad obligations sure and safe, their fixed charges must be reduced. The administration's bill should contain some st-ch provision for scaling down these "topheavy” capital structures if it is to succeed. Perhaps the power to order these reductions by way of the new bankruptcy act should be lodged in the co-ordinator, whose appointment, the bill will authorize. Or, maybe it should be carried out by making further federal loans to carriers contingent upon their financial reorganization. Either, if the interstate commerce commission continues to exercise its present powers, would serve the purpose. In any event, the powers of the I. C. C. should not be abridged. The co-ordinator's o dors for elimination of wasteful services and practices should be reviewable by the commission; otherwise, the public will have no recourse to any public body. The bill also should protect the rights of labor. To throw more railroad workers out of work or reduce their pay would deepen the depression. FRANCE STILL SEEKS SECURITY 1 r the war-weary shade of old Georges Clemenceau stalks within earshot of troubled Europe these days, it must be entertr:n.ng seme curious reflections on the vanity of human endeavors. At the Versailles peace conference, Clemenepau had but one slogan—Security for France. Every;hing else was subordinated to this; by sheer force of his personality and skill at negotiation, Clemenceau wove this thesis deeply info the treaty. Wilson was there, trying to get a peace based on his fourteen points, a peace of justice and clemency; and Lloyd George, for all that he had jur-t campaigned across England on a "Hang the Kaiser!” platform, was ready to help hun. But Clemenceau triumphed. France was to be rendered forever safe from attack. Whate 'i happened, the old militaristic clique in Germany was to be made impotent. There would be no more threats from across the Ri'.’np. Will, Clemenceau had his way. The treaty was his, in its essentials. Germany was left crushed, France rose triumphant. And today, less than fifteen years after that treaty was put together, the menace from beyond the Rhine is on its feet again. The peace of Europe is once more threatened by the old Franco-German quarrel. The old militaristic crowd has been revived. France talks openly of her readiness to fight for what she has gained. Bayonets glisten along half a dozen frontiers. This, then, is the final fruits of the treaty which, if it did nothing else, was to remove Fiance forever from the danger of war with Germany. Idealist Wilson and Cynic Clemenceau met, and the cynic won; and the current of world history today seems to be bent on proving that the cynic was not as good a guide for practical affairs as the idealist, would have been. Some day. perhaps, we shall learn that of all men the hard-headed, disillusioned, and severely ••practical” man can be the least reliable of leaders. The scheme that the visionary Wilson outlined in 1918 probably was very impractical; but would it have resulted in a worse all-round mess than the one which now threatens the peace of the world?

A SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF INFLATION THERE is much talk about inflation at the present and little real understanding of what the process inplies. Economic conservatives approach the inflation problem much as primitive man does that of taboo. A spontaneous and irrational fear possesses the reactionary when inflation is mentioned. When, however, any reasonable plan of inflation is examined, it is more likely to be open to criticism on the ground of caution and inadequacy. For a scientific analysis by a distinguished economist, one may recommend the article on •'Sound Inflation - ’ by James Harvey Rogers in the Economic Forum for the spring of 1933. Professor Rogers correctly points out that in any scheme of inflation the increased purchasing power thereby brought about directly and certainly must find its way into the hands of spenders. During 1932 a large volume of bank credit was piled up, but no adequate demand for it appeared, because producers could see no prospect for the profitable marketing of their products. In the past, new security flotations usually have provided the capitalistic system with its most available, speedy, and direct method of producing recovery. But the experience of the last year has shown that at present it is wellnigh impossible to bridge the disastrous gap between lenders and spenders through flotation of any large volume of private securities. Supplementary efforts to bridge this gap have been made by the government through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, bi£ this organization has been too cautious and

too restricted in its loans to produce an adequate transfer of purchasing power to ready spenders. Further, the treasury deficit, which has resulted from the work of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and similar efforts, has implied future extensive flotations of government securities, thus discouraging the flotation of private securities. When one speaks of inflation, he usually refers to currency inflation, but Professor Rogers does not believe that this would be the desirable method of procedure. Suppose we issued one billion dollars in greenbacks. In the first place, we would have to put these in the hands of spenders, to obtain any effective results. This w'ould require a dole, soldiers' bonus, or a gift to some other class or group. Such procedure would give rise to dangerous economic, and political precedents and controversies. Professor Rogers believes that the best mode of procedure is to float government securities supported by purchases by the Federal Reserve banks. Taking as his basis the situation which existed in the prosperous years of 1926 to 1929 and during the first year of America's entry into the World war (April to December. 191 7) he ’believes that the desirable results could be brought about through purchav of governmint securities by the Federal Reserve banks to the amount of twenty-five million dollars a week. This would produce a member bank expansion of approximately seven to ten times this amount. But the money secured thereby would have to be put directly into circulation through government expenditures. Here is where Professor Rogers goes beyond the Hoover-Mills program. In 1917 we bought munitions of war. Today we should buy munitions of war —but munitions for the war against depression and misery. "Why not say to the unemployed, 'We will give no doles, no bonuses; but we will give a job to every one willing to work. Wages will be at a minimum. All the government offers is a sanitary, healthful, active living, until a private job reappears.’ "For this purpose, the young might be gathered into army camps. The 'forgotten boy’ could leave the highways. Instead, however, of giving him training in the arts of war, he could be set to planting trees, to building parks, to removing railway crossings, to clearing out slums, or to doing anything else found desirable by a group of patriotic citizens charged with the duty of finding in each community the most fruitful projects. "The older men would be employed similarly, but allowed to live at heme with their families. who would be provided with ample clothing, food, and shelter! "As money flowed into the hands of spenders, private industry could be stimulated and the flotation of private securities could resume. Just to this degiee, the issue of further government securities then could be restricted. "In this way, not only would the irony of starvation amidst plenty be promptly and safely eliminated, but the stupendous loss of idle labor and machines would be ended,” he says.

COX ON RIGHT TRACK nnHE thanks of every bank depositor in the city should be accorded to Circuit Judge Earl Cox for his courageous course in clearing up affairs of certain closed Indianapolis banks. With depositors in at least three of these institutions suffering total less of their money the law should go to the bottom in its investigation of every case. Judge Cox apparently is determined to do this. If misuse of the people’s money is proved, every bank official guilty of violating the confidence placed in him should be punished. There is no occasion for maudlin sympathy to work against justice, no ground for the plea that bank officers already have suffered enough for their faulty judgment, overoptimism, or whatever other term could be used to gloss over their actions. They have not suffered one-tenth as much as have the poor day laborer and the woman with the shawl, who have been deprived of the pittance that stood between them and the loss of their homes, between them and the wreck of the cherished dream to educate their children, between them and actual want. NEVERTHELESS, HE DID IT 117 HEN Franklin D. Roosevelt announced ’ ™ during the campaign that if elected he would cut 25 per cent from the government's operating budget, he was greeted by a loud chorus of derision. Long articles were written to prove that the job was simply impossible. His foes laughed at him: his friends uneasily wished that he would think before he spoke. To date Mr. Roosevelt has been President a little more than a month; and the 25 per cent reduction that he promised has been made, with a little margin to spare. To make it. of course, he had to tread heavily on some very sensitive toes and beat down influential opposition in his own party. But he didn't seem to mind doing it. Today his couhtrymen are confronted by the novel and agreeable sight of a President who believes that a campaign promise means just exactly what it says. REVENUE FROM BEER XT THEN the beer bill was being put through ’ * congress, it was estimated that the taxes accruing from the sale of the beverage would bring the federal treasury approximately $150,000.000 a year. It begins to look now as if this estimate were far too low. To yield that much revenue, the beer industry would have to sell 30.000.000 barrels a year—an average of slightly more than barrels a day. During the first twenty-four hours of legal beer, reliable estimates put the total sales at between 1.000.000 and 1.500.000 barrels. To be sure, sales will not continue in anything like that volume. But even if Ihey go on only at a tenth of that rate—which surely is a conservative estimate—the tax revenue will be far greater than $150,000,000 a year. It looks as if the beer tax will be a far more important revenue producer than any had dared to hope. •

PEONAGE ON THE LEVEES QENATOR ROBERT F. WAGONER of New York is about to begin the long-sought congressional investigation of alleged peonage conditions along the Mississippi flood control project. It is probably fortunate that the Hoover investigating committee, appointed just before the last general election, never gdt into action. It also is fortunate that the new senatorial inquiry starts just as the Roosevelt administration is about to launch its public works program. 3enator Wagner, whose friendship for labor is undoubted, will be expected by the workers and the country to get at the bottom of the complaints made by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and others that virtual slavery exists in some of the contractors’ camps along the levees. The air should be cleared of these complaints before congress authorizes-the expenditure of more money on this great project. YOUTH SPEAKS UP XT'OR ages old men have made wars, young -*• men have fought them. Now appears a sign of a day when youth will refuse to offer itself as glorified cannon fodder. In England. 750 students of the Oxford Union issue a manifesto declaring that under no circumstances will they fight for king and country. In Providence, R. I„ the student daily of conservative Brown university announces a campaign to align the students of 145 colleges and universities in a pledge not to bear arms except in case of invasion. The men of Brown students lead off with a declaration that civilization will not bear the shock of another war, and, hence, it is up to youth to serve notice of non-co-operation with war-makers. In New York a poll of 920 Columbia students reveals that only eighty-one are willing to fight for country, right or wrong, while 485 will fight only to repel an invading foe. Nearly 300 say they will fight under no conditions. In Palo Alto, on the Stanford campus, an intercollegiate conference representing seven California colleges and universities voted this resolution: “This group, believing it unnecessary and absurd to settle political and economic disputes between nations by violence, will refuse to be conscripted into any war service whatsoever.” With all of science's deadly inventions, nations can not fight without young men for soldiers. PRETZELS AND PROSPERITY IF beer be here, can pretzels be far behind? Hardly. One plant in St. Joseph. Mo., reports a 100 per cent increase in business, a pay roll increment of sixty-eight new pretzelbenders, a daily turnout of 4,000,000 pretzels. Pennsylvania, which boasts the greatest works in the world, announces that one factory is turning out 5,000,000 daily. A dizzy pretzel boom seems to be on. One enterprising statistician estimates that America now is consuming at the rate of twenty billion small glasses of beer a year. If only every tenth beer-drinker is a pretzeleater and if each beer-drinking, pretzel-eating American takes four pretzels for every glass, then we should be consuming 8.000,000,000 pretzels annually. If these were uncUrled and straightened out, they would reach around the world ten times. But who wants an uncurled and straightenedout pretzel? A boom in one industry might start us back to good times, they say. Well, maybe the beer-and-pretzel boom will do it, yes?

M.E.TracySays:

UNCLE SAM wants your gold, all of it, and by the first of May. He has said so through his duly anointed spokesman, the President. Furthermore, he has said that he will do things if you fail to come across. Now don’t waste any time talking about the Constitution, because it won't do you any good. Like 99 out of every 10Q, you merely have made a big mistake regarding your rights in gold. You can't uphold the gold standard and insist that a gold reserve is essential to the national credit without making gold public property. You may think that whatever gold you can lay your hands on belongs to you forever and a day. You may argue that it is just as inviolate as any other kind of property. You may believe that no pow'er on earth can force you to give it up. You may assert that any one and every one is entitled to grab it and hoard it in case of an emergency. But suppose every one were to do that, what would become of the reserve? You just can’t have your cake and eat it. If a gold reserve is so all-important, then the government has a right to take such measures as are necessary to safeguard it. a a a GOLD as a common commodity is one thing, but gold as the evidence of a sound currency and public credit is quite another. Many people have boosted the gold standard because of the delusion that if anything happened they could tuck a little of the precious metal away in the old sock and be safe. They have imagined that because certain nicely engraved pieces of paper promised to pay so much in gold of a gi v en weight and fineness, nothing could stop them from doing this. In other words, they have thought solely of their own welfare in connection with gold, and have taken it for granted that if their own welfare involved national bankruptcy, nobody would do more than sit around and complain. It's curious how illogically we can think, how complacently we can dismiss public interest, though we helped to create it, and how easily we can convince ourselves that other people are not quite so clever, especially those who hold divergent views. We are learning something about gold and about the government's power to deal with it, and the chances are that we shall learn more. ana UNLESS I am very much mistaken, this statute that President Roosevelt has dug up will be a marker in the history of gold. It empowers the government to call for gold and impound it, not only without going off the gold standard, but in such a way as makes the | standard stronger. But where does the individual or the corporation get off? We can take our bonds, certificates, and securities and collect the gold they promise as usual, but we can not keep it except by permission of the government. Gold has become public property because of the gold standard, and it will remain public property as long as that standard survives. Our very faith in gold has destroyed our private rights in it. Our very insistence that it be made the basis of national credit has created a situation that justifies the government in forcing us to give it up for the sake of public interest if and when an emergency arises.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

(Tinas readers are inrited to express their riiics in I! esc columns. Make pour Idlers short, so all cm hare a chance. Limit them to '.30 words or less.) By Interested. It seems a shame that science can find no way of saving that little eastern child v.TTrout removing her left eye. And it is seen more of a shame that her parents have not been educated in child care. Had they taken proper care to have their baby examined more often, the tumor might not have come to such proportions as to menace her life. The nation's newspapers should put more stress on the proper education of American parents than on the “tremendous growth of crime.” By Eugene Martin. It has been announced by the newspapers and over the radio that I, as the joint representative of Al\en and Whitley counties, have applied for and received a beer license for Allen county. I wish to advise the people that this is not true. I have not applied for a beer license nor received a permit and I will not, while I am a member of the legislature, apply for a beer license or accept a permit. While I vigorously opposed the centralization of power bill that centered in the Governor such farreaching dictatorial powers and authority as was conferred on him, I did support the present beer bill. While not in sympathy with the method set up for its operation, or the fact that it failed to permit draught beer, the necessity for some restrictions against the return of the open saloon, at the present time, had to be provided for and this was the only compromise measure upon which the beer bill could be passed But I do want to make this plain; I was not voting for a measure to furnish myself a job and I always have felt that no member of the legislature should accept, personally and for himself, the benefits of the laws passed by the legislature of which he is a member, because the legislators should enact laws for the welfare of the people of Indiana and it would be a bad precedent to set for men who have been elected

: : The Message Center : :

Cider Persons Need to Live Moderately BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

THE principal meal of the old or senile patient should be taken near the middle of the day and may include soup, a small portion of meat, chicken, or fish, two wellsieved or broken-up green vegetables and a little stewed fruit with some small amount of coffee. If a person tends to be overweight, he will do well to avoid excessive amounts of carbohydrate foods such as cereals, potatoes, and macaroni. The older person should avoid excessively hot or cold baths. His vacation may be spent at the seashore or at medium altitudes, but he should avoid very hot and very dry places.

: : A Woman’s Viewpoint : :

A NUMBER of people, I find, disagree with me about roads. They still are under the spell of a delusion that in the United States good things never can come to an end. “Asphalt,’’ writes one gentleman, "has lifted us out of the mire in more ways than one. We never understood progress until we began to build motor roads. You, it seems, wotnrt have us return to the good old oxcart days.” Tut. tut, sir! When all I said was that wt should use a bit more money for education and a "bit less for highways. It seems to me that unless we can adjust our ideas to the standards of common sense, we may as well consider our economic condition helpless. For even a woman is not dumb enough to think that we can go on expanding in all directions indefinitely. You remember the foolish frog in the fable which kept on blowing himself up iiutil he burst. Well, we’ve burst, in a manner of speak-

Justice Takes a Holiday

Beer and Bier By C. F. Howard Asa constant reader of The Times, I wish to say that in every township in the U. S. A., let the young people put on a program of "A Testimony Meeting” in songs, essays, talks, speeches, declamations, dialogs, prayer, Bible readings, music, etc., with their parents telling what they saw and heard and experienced in the saloon days, of woe, sorrow, misery, poverty, distress and horrors, and victory for the dry cause is certain. There is not a wet on earth who would pray to God for his cause. He would be afraid that God would strike him dead. After a month or so of beetdrinking which does not satisfy, the beer drinker will hunt for the whisky bootlegger. As the Literary Digest says. “A harvest for the whisky bootlegger.” Beer will bring the bier! to the legislature to create for themselves jobs or to sacrifice the will of their constituents for personal political patronage. The beer industry should be carried on as a legitimate trade or business, in which politics should play on part, and in the granting of the.se permits politicians and perpetual job seekers’ should be ignored; as it was intended, by this bill, to legalize, under restrictions, the sale of beer in line with the laws of the federal government and not for the purpose of creating political patronage. By Just-A-Boy-Yet. Big brick ball parks may be all right, but it does look as if Norman Perry could provide a few brickless gaps for the knotholers. Day upon day I’ve passed the Indianapolis ball park only to see small boys chasing fouls to get into the game, trying to snatch peeps at the game under doors, and doing the best they could to clamber over the wall with a barbed-wire fence between them and a view of the game. Here's for bigger anld better knotholes or a section of the bleachers for the Peeping Toms to sit in during the sunshiny summer days. That’d be real philanthropy for

Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hvaeia. the Health Magazine. It is particularly important to watch the mental attitude of the elderly. All too many people when they become aware of the fact that they are growing old become pessimistic, feel that life is passing them by and begin to neglect their personal appearance, their tidiness and social duties. Such an attitude hastens the ageing process. On the other hand, there may be some who feel age creeping upon them and, in a desire to avoid it, go to the other extreme of abusing their bodies seriously through overactivity. These people speed up their lives

ing. and largely because we didn't have any more sense than the frog. So why go on deluding ourselves into thinking that we face the same profitable expansion in all lines that we faced In 1910 or 1920? i— Questions and Answers Q —What is the altitude of Tucson, Ariz.? A—lt is 2,376 feet above sea level. Q —Where and to whom should one apply for a loan from the home loan bank? A—The home loan bank, 123 East Market street, Indianapolis. Q-What was the appropriation for maintenance of the Governor's mansion for Governor Leslie his first year in office? A—slo,ooo.

youngsters whose fathers haven’t laid a brick, even cn the Perry stadium, in a couple of years of Sundays. By An Olfl-Tim^r. Didn’t I see something the other day about how much better this 3.2 beer is for us home-brew drinkers? Phooey 1 I tried eight bottles the other day and all I got was a tummy-ache. On two bottles of good home brew I would have been yodeling “Sweet A.d~line.” You can have my share of three-two. You’re welcome to it. Bv Non-Working Wife. I rather resent the “stagnation” charge tossed at stay-at-home wives by the learned ladies who trot around to civic club meetings. I have not worked since I have been married and I do not think my mental faculties have become “stagnant.” If anything. I think that the civic club ladies’ brains have been torpid for some years. They seem to know nothing about less than any one I’ve ever heard of.

So They Say

If this downward trend of living standards is not checked, we will face economic disaster and chaos.— Sidney Hillman, labor leader. The people have learned a lot in the last two years.—Senator Elmer Thomas of Oklahoma. If women feel free to consume liquor in private. I can think of no logical reason why the should not consume legalized whisky in public. —Fred A. Simonsen, president, National Restaurant Association. I believe that English writing is going down while American writing is going up. There are many new American writers with real talent.— James Truslow Adams, historian. The medical profession can not be Fordized until human beings become robots.—Dr. Edward H. Carey, president American Medical Association.

faster even than do the young, rushing to night clubs and dancing and in other ways betraying an absolute lust for pleasure. The older person who is wise, savs Dr. Barker, frankly will recognize that there are unpleasant features of age that can not be abrogated. Physicians come to appreciate the fact that the mere extension of life is not a blessing. If the older person cultivates a hobby, participates in the enjoyment of music, art, literature, and science, and meets with courage and common sense the restrictions that his age imposes upon him, he will end his years with better satisfaction and with less stress for himself and those about him.

TO keep up the roads we already have is not going to be an easy j task in most states. To be sure. Iwe must have all that the traffic | warrants. But how much do you j think the traffic warrants right now? Answer honestly, please. We speak of paved highways as improvements and evidences of progress, which, of course, they are. They have been vastly profitable for large cities, which are central trading points. But so far as I have been able to see, they have not put any money into the pocket of the small town merchant or the farmer And excellent as they may be. I, for one, am more concerned about the improvement in human bungs in human welfare, in happiness. We may have a land, honeycombed with fine highways, but if we rear illiteri ate, careless, uncultured individuals to go bowling over them, we shall not, I fear, live to boast this policy Progress does not consist altogether in building more and fetter machines or tracks to run them on.

APRIL 14, 1933

It Seems to Me * BY HEYYVOOD BROUN ~

T GOT quite a scare in Haiti The steward on the Conte Grande w me suddenly at 11 in the momir . and said. The police are waiting to see you in the dining sa!o;> "I'll go quietly.” i told him and proceeded to dress as quickly as p . - sible. but in three minutes he was back and reporting with evident satisfaction. "The police have sent tor you again.” My pas- swam rapidly before my eyes. It wasn't murder. Os that I was fairly certain. Indeed, any crime of passion must be pretty weil outlawed at my age through the statute of limitations. Obtaining money under false pretenses seemed the most likely offense, but I never had suppo: ed t hey could indict a newspeper columnist for that. And when I ar med breathless and c’c.iart before the authorities. I ■ o'und that it, was jusl a . v ud who ad sent a launch to carry me into Tort au Prince. + * D Five Hours of Haiti HAITI is hospitable and to my way of thinking the mast interesting of the islands round about. But before I went on a vacation i promised not to come back with travelogs or to pose as an authority on any internal problems on the Vest indies. After all, we had only five hours ashore. Still, I learned something during he three hours that I lunched with Captain Baker. He told me of Cliristophe and of the stringent law he passed that whoever ate a mango must plant the mango seed. The penalty, as I remember, was death. At first I was flippant and replied, “Yes. we have a saying in our presidential years which runs something like this—As mangoes, so goes the Haitian.” Later I took it more to heart. It seemed to me that the black Napoleon had hit upon a very simple application of a profound economic* law. It is another way of saying that what a man consumes that he must produce. Recent events seem to prove that during the years cf the great folly too many of us in America were merely mango esters. And during all the voyage home I pondered and in rough weather suffered from remorse. The thing that lay on my mind was the vast amount of planting which I would have to do when I got back to New York. Even under the roughest sort of calculation I figured that I must sow fifty-six rum cocktails, fortynine gin rickeys, ten punters’ punches, and one pousse case. As for the daiquiris, I despair of having them thrive in this climate. This is an art form which no American has yet mastered. In many oi the side streets along the wh oerI ing Fifties of New York high talent flourishes, but since the coming of prohibition I have yet to encour.ied sheer genius behind any American bar. The mixing of Jiouor and the compounding of literature Imre suffer from the same unholy haste. The publisher must have his manuscript by the first of May and the customer his cocktail in five minutes. Wc don't spend enough time shaving the ice. * ts tt Second Turn to Left I stood in the Florida bar in Havana with a 15-year-old teetotaler v.ho is a relative of mine and watched him writhe while the elaborate rites of composing a daiquiri were carried on with proper sloth and reverence. But the end result can not fail to satisfy the consumer for what he gets is half beverage and half seductive sherbet. I do not think that I ever shall look upon its like again. The more serious things of life are to concern me from now on. But still I'm glad I had that cocktail. Even after I get the hair shirt down below my ears, one lovely taste will remain. And perhaps I should not say one. There was nothing wrong with the sixth or seventh. To the left of me stood a typical American tourist. She was on a cruise—“eighteen ports in thirteen days”—and could not afford to linger. “If you can’t get that ready in two minutes, I don't want it,” she cried. “My boat sails in half an hour.” The bartender regarded her coldly and went on shaving ice. He was not going to let his art become contaminated because some perturbed stranger was in a fidget to get from cne place to another. nan What’B Your Hurry? Fortunately the spirit of the tropics is stanch, but we tourists have done much to break it down. Into many lands where people manage to make Father Tirnr sit for company with the wclf outside the door, we have carried our schedules and announcements that, "the last tender will leave the dock at 4:15 precisely.” I sometimes wonder whether getting from one place to another is really so frightfully important. I stood at the Gatun Lock down in Panama and watched the steamer S. T. C. Dodd climbing the steps from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and abreast of her was the Atlanta City going east. It’s a nice trick by which they lift the boats up and let them down again. They tell me that it is one of the greatest engineering feats in the world. And a lot of labor and planning and sickness and death and land grabbing went into the enterprise. But suppose there were no canal and the S. T. C. Dodd had to stay in the Atlantic and the Atlanta City remain in the Pacificf So what? (Copyright. 19J3 bv The Timsst

Temptation

BY JOHN THOMPSON Suppose that I should hurl headlong Through hissing space. And catch the earth in such embrace. That from my mind it would erase All worldly cares. Oh, would it not be worth the leap, Worth the hour Before . . . the power. To crush a blooming flower. With sudden death?