Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 279, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 April 1934 — Page 9

Second Section

It Seems to Me By Joe Williams WHEN Mr. Big Jim Farley told those school children the other day all about the glories and wonders of politics as a career I imagine he was speaking with great sincerity. Even so, 1 think he should have been more forthright in his estimate and more detailed in his presentation of the picture. He dealt so largely in impressive generalities that I fear some of the little boys and girls may have come away from the classroom overawed.

If Big Jim Farley really wished to make new converts to the cause of public service he should have explained just how simple the rules of the game are and just how little is required in the way of infinite wisdom to become a successful statesman. “Really, my children, it is a very soft racket,” he might have said. “All you have to do is kid the dear old public.” This kidding has been known to take on many and varied forms. Perhaps the most reliable formula prescribed in the Statesmen's Manual consists of performing a conspicuous public service for an organized minority at the expense of everybody else.

If M

Joe Williams

To be completely effective it always is advisable to perform such a service during a presidential campaign year. There may be some skeptics who w T ill attempt to read into the matter motives more selfish than saintly, but that is to be expected of the evilminded and mean at heart. Mr. Big Jim Farley should have told the eagereyed youngsters that the greatness of most statesmen depends on the number of jobs they control. It wouldn't have been necessary to point the moral. Even a 12-year-old knows it is necessary to keep on controlling the jobs if the statesman is to retain his greatness. tt tt n The Words of a Sage IF some particularly inquisitive pupil should have demanded to be told what political jobs had to do with the principles of public service, Mr. Big Jim Farley could have dismissed the question on the ground of immaturity and naivete. Asa laughgetter he could have added: ‘ You'll learn when you get a little older, sonny.” As an aged student of the political sciences with fully twenty-four hours of Albany service behind me, I think I can understand why the boys in Washington decided to override the President's veto on the soldiers’ benefits and the federal employes’ pay cuts. It makes life sweeter all around. The federal workers get most of their dough back. The soldiers get, back on the pension rolls. The old wheelhorses of both parties, nearing another election, strengthen their position at the polls. Senator Fishcake now may return to his home town and point with pride to what he did in the name of patriotism, humanity and common justice for the brave young men who went over there to strafe the Hun and make the world safe for fan dancers. And you can be sure that when the Steam Fitters’ Union holds its annual Fourth of July picnic in Mullins’ grove, the senator, wearing his fireman’s mustache and black Windsor tie, will be there to talk about the flag, the heroic dead and the fields of Flanders. Just as a gentle reminder at the close, after the senator has kissed all the babies and smacked his lips lustily over the lemon ice cream prepared by the mayor’s wife, he will remind the good people that it is their duty to send him, their dutiful and humble servant, back to Washington. And the chances are the good people will. What if the senator has been a party to saddling a begging country with an additional $228,000,000 appropriation? These are just so many figures to the good people. And, besides, hasn't the government got all the money in the world, anyhow? There is a theory that the good people risk the travail and pain that accompanies the milder forms of thinking only when they are compelled to pay higher taxes, but this would not seem to be wholly true. There have been Senator Fishcakes in Washington since the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. tt tt a The Pork Barrel Lure STILL I fail to see where any one can justly criticise the statesmen for making good their jobs, the soldiers for using their unique power or the federal workers for fighting for the restoration of their pay cuts. It is the human instinct to do as well for yourself as you can. If it so happens that these favored groups have at their command machinery peculiarly suitable to their aims, it is a certainty most of them are going to use it. They'll do it every time. Admittedly that doesn’t make it right. There can be no way to justify the support by taxpayers of 30,000 soldiers whose disabilities are merely ‘ presumed.” And no soldier worthy of the name would accept such support. (Hear! Hear!) But when governmental pork barrels are rolled out appetites take on anew keenness and strict dietitians become gourmands. It's an old American custom. Well, if you don't like this country why don't you go back where you came from? Strangely, it would be very easy to make this a perfect country. At no time has America, except in cases of extreme disillusionment, had a worse government than it bar- , gained for. All the taxpayer has to do is to vote “No” when Senator Fishcake comes up for re-election. This is not an entirely original thought on my part, but I think it should be mentioned here because it seems to be one of several things Mr. Big Jim Farley • neglected to tell those school children. And I think that was a diplomatic error on his part because school children, especially if they are very immature, are likely to have a much more acute understanding of political bilge than their pappies or mammies. Certainly this is so if you go by the records. (Copyright. 1934. by The Times*

Your Health Rv DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN—'T'HE volume of your pulse is determined by the finger of the doctor, who presses on the wall of the artery in the wrist and feels the tension that exists in the blood vessels. At the same time he can detect changes in the wall of the blood vessel. If the pulse is bounding, he anticipates a pressure that is high; if the pulse is feeble and the artery soft, he anticipates a pressure that is low. Your doctor need no longer attempt merely to guess at the blood pressure, because he now> has available accurate methods for determining it. a a a THE first person to measure blood pressure was an English clergyman, Stephen Hales. In 1708, he conceived the idea by noticing the pressure exerted by the rise of sap in trees. He then decided to measure the blood pressure in a hor^e. Hales merely measured the rise of tlw blood in a brass pipe and a glass tube nine feet long, inserted into an artery in the horse s neck. A young Frenchman in 1828 difl the same type of measurement by putting a coluifm of mercury in the tube and measuring the rise in the column of mercury. Then, in 1856. another Frenchman calculated the pressure in the blood vessels as equivalent to raising 120 milimeters of mercury in a‘tube of standard gauge. From that time on, the machinery has been improved until today the blood pressure is measured by the method familiar to almost every, one.

Full Leased Wire Service of the United Press Association

THE MONUMENTS OF LITERATURE Admirers Look on Hemingway With Fanatical Devotion

This is the eleventh and Anal artiel e of a series written exclusively for Times readers on literature from Greek drama to the present. This article discusses contemporary American authors. tt tt tt BY TRISTRAM COFFIN Times Staff Writer OUT of the nervous frenzy, the wild confusion and hasty destruction of the World war was born a book that is destined to live through the ages—“A Farewell to Arms,” by Ernest Hemingway. The book represents the restless mood of a civilization hurled into turmoil and throwing off values as casually as a tree sheds its leaves in a high wind. Yet this book towers above Hemingway's other productions for sheer strength and beauty, because out of the muck of war two characters discover a value—love. Authors have wept, brooded, sneered and sung over the subject of love. But it took Hemingway to give modern love a code of ethics. The romance in “A Farewell to Arms” is one of power and sweetness. Rarely has any author written so sincere an expression of purely romantic love.

There is a masculine flavor to the book like the smell of burning pine and good whisky. Hemingway reduces life to its simplest principles, eating, drinking, fighting and loving. Each sentence is so clear and simple that it might be compared to a statue chiseled briskly out of hard stone. Sherwood Anderson has said in a recent article that Hemingway is the only man today who can w'rite a sentence. Ford Madox Ford, noted critic, says of this book, “A Farewell to Arms” is a book that united the critic to the simple. You could, read it and be thrilled if you had never read a book—or if you had read and measured all the good books in the world.” The story is that of the American, “I,” enlisted in the Italian ambulance corps leading a soldier's hearty, careless life until he meets Catherine, a nurse. They have a beautiful affair, clenched with poetic, but very real pain, which ends in the death of Catherine and her stillborn baby. The plot is quite simple and would be a bromide in the hands of almost any other author. But by plain understatement it becomes a profound and stirring romance. A fatalistic fear of life’s mad pranks lingers in the minds of the two characters. “I” says, “That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.” The war w r as a searing, blasting experience for all of the characters—throwing lives together in a haphazard mess. They witnessed and they felt the pain of w'ounds. The reckless, tumultuous emotional freedom was a reaction against the tenseness that comes with facing death. This is w r ar debunked—the gaudy pl&y of pompous brass hats instigated and played for the selfish delight of nonparticipants. u a a HEMINGWAY is a queer person to write about. You either think he is a splendid W’riter, or you don’t think about him at all. And when you like him, you admire him with a sort of fanatical devotion. If you like “A Farewell to Arms,” you think it is a greater truer tragedy than almost any other book written in the last fifty years. Hemingway looks with contemptuous amusement at • the sorry spectacle of mankind. He writes with vigor about strong

‘ Scandals’ Prove George White Has Great Deal to Learn from His Hollywood Associates About Staging a Talking Picture — BY WALTER D. HICKMAN

p EORGE WHITE as a movie director has a lot to learn from his Hollywood associates when it comes to transferring a stage revue to the talking screen. His “Scandals” in movie form to me was a disappointment because of the cheap comedy, poor lyrics such as those found in a song by the name of "Your Dog

Loves My Dog. - ’ and the use of little children for the purpose of uttering the line, "You nasty man." As far as I am concerned. Mr. White went haywire in an all e mpt to bring his “Scandals" to the talking screen. When a director and producer has to

rely upon such a bad song as ‘ Your Dog Loves My Dog," it is ample proof that he is povertystricken for ideas. I rebelled when a chorus of little children (around the ages of 5 and 6) were used to expand the repetition of “Nasty Man.” I hit the ceiling when a little girl (looks like a 5-year-old) did a Sally Rand fan number. As you know I do not care for Jimmy Durante and I care less for him after seeing him in the Scandals. In all fairness, this man works desperately to put over the material in this review that he has to use. The picture has two outstanding things in its favor. First the work" of Cliff Edwards, especially when he becomes musically minded. His burlesque on “Henry VIII” is splendid and done in the best revue manner. The girls in the chorus and the female principals are beautiful j and do much to strengthen weak and often bad tasting material. - Rudy Vallee is not a sensation as an actor. He sings in his own style. And that is that. The ending certainly does not measure up to the standard that Mr. White set for himself on the stage. This movie ending is just a repetition of some of the bad

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full tilt lives that brush aside the conventionalities. In “A Farewell to Arms” he expresses the belief that love is pure and romantic only when it is broken off by some tragedy. Otherwise it drivels into a rather futile attempt at enforced affection. His characters are all highly individual persons, who resent any attempt at wingclipping. Hemingway has a flair for giving the public twinges of rage. He glorifies bullfighting, the anathema of sobbing humanitarians, as the only remaining esthetic sport in “Death in the Afternoon.” Like a boxer jabbing in and out of his opponent's guard, Hemingway punches smartly at the pet ideas of conventional civilization. In “The Sun Also Rises” he upsets the stately carriage of traditional morality by giving a sympathetic interpretation of a restless sensation-seek-ing woman. He is of the opinion that life redeems itself in the presence of some terrific experience that calls out every quiverirff emotion. Due to the simplicity of his style there is a feeling of throttled emotion hurtling along in his works. He never details any excited passion, but he implies it. a a \ THOUSAND years from now some very young and very earnest critic will wearily scratch his head over twentieth century waiters. Then, he will say: “The World war (the war before the great social war) bred in the United States a restless and poetic group of romanticists. They were cynics and debunkers because they were primarily idealists who had been disillusioned by the social anarchy then existent. They had seen a ghastly war fought for no apparent purpose. They revolting, attacking every convention that bound the world. These men were Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and William Faulkner. Immediately preceding them was the poet, Sherwood Anderson, a brave and intelligent man describing tragedies caused by a selfish social order.” John Dos Passos is regarded abroad as America’s greatest writer. Author of “Manhattan Transfer,” “The 42nd Parallel,” “Three Soldiers” and “1919,” he writes with a harsh disturbing brutal realism. One of his characters says of life, “It’s all a joke, a smutty joke.” The world to Dos Passos is a cock-eyed jumble of persons led by their lubidos and selfish desires. More than any other author he recreates the idiom of the people, the exact manner of their speech and action. It is decidedly uncomfortable. He admires such char-

and good things which have preceded it. Now at the Apollo. a a tt Looking Over Double Bill TNTEREST on the double bill at the Indiana centers upon the debut of Francis Lederer, a splendidly trained and experienced stage actor, as a movie star. He makes his debut in “Man of Two Worlds.” The other movie on the double bill is “This Man Is Mine,” which has the

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services of Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, Sidney Blackmer. Constance Cummings and Kay Johnson. Mr. Lederer is cast as a fine Eskimo hunter and trapper who is lured to lead a white man's life in a white man’s world—London. There he loses all of his dreams and fine

Jimmy Durante

ideals and discovers the sad fact that a beautiful woman may be shallow, false and fickle, not even worth being dreamed about. I had the feeling that most of the “northern" shots were done in Hollywood and were very much Hollywood. This in no way detracts from the splendid action of Mr. Lederer, who gives an individual performance of a confused man who leaves his primitive icehouse to exist in a steamheated house in modern civilized society. Here is a performance that has charm and sincerity. This actor’s job was a difficult one because this Eskimo could be made to look awfully foolish in modern society but the actor gives the character many fine human qualities. I will look forward with pleasure with another meeting with Mr. Lederer in another movie. Elissa Landi is chief in his support. The theme of “This Man Is Mine’’ is that a married man being chased by a woman and a silly, fickle one at that. The man (Ralph Bellamy, and he is a miscast) is fool enough to fall for the siren. After an hour of battle,

INDIANAPOLIS, MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1934

'W,\. ■ - 'Y>-. ? . * V." * ■

“A Farewell to Arms,” by Ernest Hemingway, is an immortal story of romantic love against the stormy background of war. It ranks as one of the greatest books of the century.

acters as newspaper man Jimmy Hers, a disgruntled dreamer; labor agitators, and simple obscene men like sailor Joe Williams. He, as Hemingway, would snatch the painted face from society and bring it back to a more fundamental state. Hemingway, Dos Passos and Anderson are leaders in the revolt against the intellect, William Faulkner is an iconoclast offending the proprieties. He writes with intense poetic spasms. “Sanctuary,” glorifying a distorted man who committed a rather perverted rape, drew shouts of horror. “Light in August,” his best book, is a story of the . decadent South, stinking of musty traditions turned lewd and ugly. His most heroic character is a half-Negro hoodlum. A World war veteran, a sadistic brute, is an object of Faulkner’s attack. Preacher Hightower, filled with the departed glory of hard-rid-ing cavalry days* and crucified by bigotry, is a brilliant picture. No one except Shakespeare could have handled such an array of characters in- so impressive manner as Faulkner. a u SHERWOOD ANDERSON deserves a niche for himself, apart from all literary movements. He is the prose Walt Whitman. In his writing is the quality one

his wife, played nicely by Irene Dunne, is able to make her weakling husband see himself as he really is. Constance Cummings is the vamp who learns what a black eye created by a male fist actually means. The dialogue is often stilted and there often is too much talk and not enough action. The acting with the exception of Mr. Bellamy's is all right. Now at the Indiana. tt tt tt Miss Cornell's Record KATHARINE CORNELL left English's Saturday night after a three-day engagements which established anew box office record. The three performances of “The Barretts of Wimp ole” street played to entire capacity. The only difference was the number of people

who stood. It is estimated that about 1,200 people were refusec tickets because the theater was not large enough to accommodate them for “Barretts." In face of that on Saturday night the star presented Shaw's “Candida” which played to about

Ralph Bellamy

a two-thirds house. And that is remarkable. Miss Cornell’s Candida differs greatly from that of Miss Peggy Wood. Miss Wood made her Candida a woman full of life and even longing for adventure. Her Candida was full of energy. Miss Cornell’s Candida was always the w T oman and the mother of fine mental and spiritual attainments who met life calmly but firmly. A splendid performance and one that was not overplayed. The fact is that Orson Welles as Eugene Marchbanks, the neurotic poet and dreamer, nearly stole the show. His was an odd but tremendously effective performance of a misfit. Basil Rath bone as the James Mavor Morell was excellent. The production was a masterpiece.

sees in the now swift, now placid current of a river—the bright rolling surface and the park undertones beneath. Anderson expresses the secret yearnings, the hidden beauties of life as much as Dos Passos reflects the bare ugliness. Anderson has a glowing love of life, the breathing freedom of a Walt Whitman. The fault is not in life but in the way men have chosen to live it, he believes. There are some men who feel the eternal poetry of life. Men who thrill at the glory of a spreading sunset or the swift muscular movement of a racing horse. Yet they can not express their feelings and it lies muffled and intense within them. It is this type of whom Anderson writes. They are not the intelligent men necessarily; but the farseeing, stilled poets and artists. Anderson believes that the man who toils with his hands has the greatest feeling for unexpressed beauty because of the simple rhythm of his work. “Dark Laughter” is Anderson’s greatest book. It is a book which ranks with “A Farewell to Arms.” The two books vie in the reader’s mind for greatness. Both are immortal. The dark laughter is the hidden amusement of the main character, a Chicago newspaperman, against the gross superfi-

Lots of Speed at Lyric SPEED is the word this week at the Lyric. Both the stage and the screen presentations are vehicles of speed. The picture, “Dark Hazard,” and the stage show, “Broadway Merry-Go-Round,” make up in rapidity and uniqueness that they lack in

talent and production. Medley and Du Pree form the comedy team which headlines the st ag e attraction. They have plenty of slapstick and hokum and their manner of presenting it is new enough to be effective. They seem to be having a ~ „ ,i . i ~

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good time among themselves and that little spark of spontaneity is the life of their act. The girl really sings nicely, but there is so much other noise going on in the “loud and funny act" that it becomes rather difficult to distinguish between the various types cf sound which are forthcoming. But the whole thing is genuine, wholesome and spontaneously good hokum. Johnny Woods puts on a solo act of impersonating radio stars that will rank with the best. In a short time he gets in bits of mimicry concerning such folks as Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Ted LewiS, Norman Brokenshire, Jack Benny, Morton Downey, Ben Bernie and Tony Wons. This great variety of voices which Woods mimics, makes it all the more difficult to do, and all the more praisworthy sos the way in which he does it. Florence Hedges sings the solos for the dance routines and also several songs on her own. She has one of those peculiarly high voices, more of a whistle than a voice, which attracts more perhaps for its unusualness than for its artistry. Le Paul does some interesting tricks with cards which seem to fall rather flat, more because of his lack of dramatic setting for them than for their lack of merit.

Miss Cornell

ciality of society and particularly his wife. He escapes from his wife and lounges in New Orleans where he hears the soft laughter of darkies and the calm, unlabored life of the southern riverfront. Then he drifts into a town, supposed to be New Albany. Ind., where he becomes a laborer. Working in the shops beside an old man, he absorbs some of his simple philosophy. The old workman, who periodically goes on a fishing trip with his wife to drink whisky and lie in simple natural rapture, is typical of Anderson’s character portrayal. The main character is drown toward the wife of a stuffy small town merchant and elopes with her. The most striking scene of the book is the woman’s memories of the Beaux-Arts ball in Paris. This scene shows the degraded view of society as opposed to the simple one. Any age is known by its art and ideas. Less than 100 years from now the world will realize that contemporary writers have written with a feeling and depth that rivals that of the classics. In present day authors there is a culmination and consummation of all the tendencies . from Greek drama and through the ages. THE END.

The man is clever and has some new tricks, but he lacks showmanship in his presentations. Dinky Ozment is the solo dancer for the show and does some extremely nice interpretations in the various routines of the production. The Four Franks are speed personified. They do almost everything and they get it done in a very short time. Dancing, singing, instrumenttaion, and comedy are in their program. One of the high points of the show is when the two youngsters of the Frank family put on a burlesque of a scene depicting John Barrymore and Greta Garbo in a passionate love scene. A great deal of praise should go to the chorus, the American Rockets by name, who are as nice a chorus as we have seen in recent years. Their routine numbers are cleverly sprinkled with comedy, beauty and originality and “hold up” the show well. The picture on view this week, “Dark Hazard,” involves the action of a born gambler (Edward G. Robinson), who marries a “stay-at-home” wife (Genevieve Tobin), but who finally winds up by going back to his racing and betting, and the love of his old girl friend (Glenda Farrell). Robinson gives another of his splendid characterizations and Miss Farrell is her usual good self in her portrayal of the everfaithful, worldly girl friend who sticks through thick and thin. The picture is a bit disconnected. but has Its very fine moments. Now at the Lyric.—(By the Observer.) u tt a At Other Theaters Today LOEWS PALACE today is presenting Norma Shearer in “Riptide.” The Circle is offering A1 Jolson in ‘‘Wonder Bar.” Both movies have been reviewed in this department. Other theaters today offer: “Miss Fayne’s Baby Is Stolen” and “Carolina” at the Fountain Square: “Hips, Hips, Hooray” and “Let’s Fall in Love ” at the Granada, and burlesque at the Mutual.

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Mr. Robinson

Second Section

Entered as Second Class Matter at Pciatoffice. Indianapolis

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler WELL, so here it is spring again and the citizens ’vill be piling into their automobiles and going for drives in the country and a lot of little bandit towns, straddling the highways, will set their traps to rob them or toss them into dirty jails on petty traffic charges, most of them false. This sort of municipal brigandage seems to be distributed pretty widely, for the holdup which I mention is familiar in almost every section where through traffic rolls along the big roads. I believe, however, that the practice of

robbing the wayfarer in the local court on the perjured word of a town loafer done up in a mailorder uniform is especillv popular and profitable in communities close to the major cities where the desire to sock the city cousin coincides with a glorious opportunity. .One such town that I have knowledge of is Westport, Conn., where a trap was set last year with the acknowledged purpose of blackjacking money out of strangers passing through to ease the burden of taxes on the local citizens. I sat in the court at Westport one day last fall and heard policemen lie about un-

fortunates from elsewhere who would saved themselves time and trouble if they had just laid down their bail money when they were first held up and proceeded on their way. There was one driver, however, whose dumb, stubborn courage, though it made him a victim of some pretty cruel treatment, commanded the admiration of all the other defendants in the room. a a a He Was Caught DRIVING a truck and trailer past a difficult intersection he had been caught with the fore end of his truck across the line when the traffic light turned against him. But, instead of reversing, which would have been difficult and dangerous with his unwieldy craft, he went ahead and was caught and charged with passing the light. Being a man of independent spirit and also broke he tried to talk his way out and found, on his arrival at the police station, that the policeman had. in the language of the cops, thrown the whole book at him. He was down for passing the light, reckless driving, and, I believe, for some petty and strictly malicious charge having to do with a dead bulb in his tail light, although this happened in the light of day. He then was taunted by a mocking captor until his independence of spirit led him into the important sin of insolence to an officer and he was thrown into a cell for three days. He reported that for twelve hours he was given no food and that he now was in urgent need of delousing. The court was lenient to him when he explained that he was a combat veteran of the war, that he had a wife and three children in New Jersey whom he had been working hard to support all through the years of the panic by driving his own tmek, and that he had lost the earnings of half a week already. The court just assessed him the costs which were excessive, naturally, in pursuance of the local policy of shifting the tax burden to people passing through. The court charged him no more than just enough to bring his loss up to a whole week's earnings and let him go back to his family in debt for borrowing money. Many Pag Off nPHE best business which these towns pick up is that of the persons with money on them who realize that they are being held up and pay off without a struggle, never to return for trial. The bail in such cases equals the maximum fine for the charges, which usually are multiple, plus the court costs. It is futile to come back and denounce the cop as a perjurer for that is one of his qualifications for his job and the majority of the victims therefore save their time. I mentioned such traps to Homer Cummings, the attorney-general during an interview in Washington a week ago. I do not know whether it is permissible to quote the attorney-general on these interviews, but he didn’t say anything worth quoting anyhow, even though the Westport trap operates within a few miles of his home in Stamford. Conn. All Mr. Cummings said was that, yes, he was familiar with this sort of brigandage on the highways ana that such towns reminded him of the robber barons who used to take toll of all the traffic along the Rhine. But he was very peevish not long ago at the city of St. Paul because of the kidnapings there. I suppose he had a right to be, at that, but these kidnapings were not done by the city officials in the name of the municipality of St. Paul. I asked Mr. Cummings, then, if such robber barons were not subject to some kind of action under the federal laws and he said, yes, he supposed they might be if they interfered with interstate commerce. I gathered Mr. Cummings was nowhere near as much annoyed at Westport as he was at St. Paul, Minn., although the good man did seem very much put out about the general disrespect for law in his beloved country. (Copyright. 1934. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Today's Science BY DAVID DIETZ AN age-old dream, the recovery of gold, silver and other valuablt metals and chemicals from the ocean, is nearing re- lization. This is the opinion of some of America's leading chemists who attended the annua] meeting of the American Chemical Society at S;. Petersburg, Fla. These chemists believe that the way to the conquest of the ocean is to be found in the success of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation in recovering bromine from sea wtter at a plant of the Ethyl-Dow Chemical Company at Kure beach, twenty miles south of Wilmington, N. C. Almost three-fourths of the earth’s surface Is covered by the oceans. Rivers, flowing across the continents, carry all sorts of mineral material into the ocean. The process has been going on for something like a billion years. That is why the ocean is salt. The rivers dissolved the salt out of the rocks and carried it do-wn to the oceans. But the rivers have carried more than ordinary table salt into the ocean. A great variety of salts and many precious metals are known to be in sea water. But while the amount of these materials in the ocean as a whole is immense, the amount in a gallon of sea water is very little indeed. Hence, scientists while realizing the value of the materials in the sea, despaired of the invention of processes which would make their removal sufficiently easy and cheap to justify it. There is no point to removing gold from sea water if the process is more costly than the value of the gold recovered. aaa THE amount of bromine present in sea water is very little, about seventy parts in a million. The plant built jointly by the Dow Chemical Company and the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation, has succeeded, however, in making the removal of this bromine a paying venture. About 15,000 pounds of bromine is removed daily from sea water. The amount of gold in sea water is far less than that of bromine. It is estimated at only a few parts in a billion. ‘ But now that the recovery of bromine has been successfully executed, it does not seem beyond reason to expect the chemist of the next decade to extract gold from sea water commercially,” William H. Dow, president of the Dow Chemical Company, said. The amount of gold in the sea water passing through the bromine plant daily is estimated at about SI,OOO worth. In other words, if only the process to be used were known, the plant would yield SI,OOO worth of gold daily in addition to the 15,000 pounds of bromine which it produces.

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Westbrook Pegler