Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 142, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 October 1934 — Page 13

It Seems to Me HEYWOOD item ‘ love comes to California.” Upon this issue * and others equally authentic and intelligent Frank M. Merriam Ls battling to save his state from the threat of Upton Sinclair. No wonder lonely women shiver at night even in the mild Los Angeles climate. Nothing stands between them and the dishonor save the stalwart figure of Frank Merriam. However, at the eleventh hour Hollywood rides to the rescue. The motion picture magnates are ready to march shoulder to shoulder with the statesman who contends that it is Upton's intention to end puntv in California. The hearth, the home and Hollywood have joined hands to repel the invader. It would be very funny, but for the fact that Democratic government is under fire and can not stand many more Merriams.

Within the last few days the word has gone about, "Sinclair is stopped. His chance has gone.” Now let us see just what factors and forces have stopped Sinclair, if indeed he has been stopped. First of all there is every indication of the vast use of money much of which has not come directly from citizens of California. Mr. Skoiskv, the accurate Hollywood commentator of the Daily News, says boldly in his column that the motion picture companies have asked every actor to contribute one day’s pay to beat Sinclair. No uch flagrant forced levy

Ilcywood Broun

has been known in this country since the days when Mark Hanna bought the presidency of the United States for William McKinley. And that particular episode didn’t do democratic government much good. a a a Full of Fraud, He Says r T~'HOSE who urge that change should come only • •*- through the orderly process of the ballot and legislative action should be in honor botlnd to fight Merriam. It is his candidacy and not that of Sinclair which endangers American tradition. If it is possible for a minority of rich men to thwart the will of the commonwealth by corruption and misrepresentation. then it will be very difficult to answer adequately the radical who says that he believes in revolution and direct action since the masses never can get a fair deal at the polls. Many American campaigns have been distinguished by dirty tactics, but I can think of none in which wilful fraud has been practiced so brazenly. I have before me a collection of leaflets issued by Merriam s supporters. One purports to be an appeal from the Young People’s Communist League for the election of Upton Sinclair. It bears a red flag with a hammer and a sickle. The secretary of the organization is given as Vladimir KoslofT and there is an address on Chicago street, Los Angeles. But. according to my correspondent, there is no such address in Los Angeles, and nobody has been able to locate the mythical Vladimir. That hardly is surprising, for anybody who knows anything at all about the American Communist party is aware of the fact that Sinclair is regarded by the Communists as a reactionary misleader. He continually is being caricatured and attacked in the Daily Worker. The leaflet is palpably a forgery. I have another which calls Sinclair “a Communist official.” It makes this charge on the authority of a book called "The Red Network,” by Elizabeth Dilling. This is the volume which included La Guardia and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt as dangerous reds. Asa matter of fact, I got mentioned in the book myself—in a foot note. a a a Merriam and Hitler IN further proof that Upton Sinclair is a Communist the leaflet cites, "In 1923. connected with the American Civil Liberties Union—an organization to provide funds to provide for and finance the defense of Communist agitators charged with crime.” Os course Roger Baldwin's organization is devoted to the protection of free speech and it has defended men of all shades of opinion in this right. It seems to me that it is not fantastic to say that Frank M. Merriam, if elected, will be the first out and out Fascist governor the United States has known. The tactics which he is pursuing in his campaign follow very closely the formulae used by Hitler in smashing the German republic. I insist again that it would be preposterous to assert that government by the people will perish from the face of the earth if government by boodle conquers in California. But the issue is sufficiently vital to enlist the support of all those who feel that democracy is not a dead and gone theory. The Communists, of course, will fight Sinclair tooth and nail. The’r position, I suppose. Is logical enough. Sinclair Is not a Communist, he is not a Socialist. His EPIC plan is a modification of the capitalist system. It is designed to meet the rising tide of unemployment and the inevitable bitterness of the jobless. Decidedly the scheme is experimental. If a majority of Californians wish to string along with a proven reactionary that is their privilege, but to me it seems ironical and monstrous that a state should be given over to Fascism under the lying plea that Frank M. Merriam is a man devoted to traditional American democratic liberties, when he Is so palpably trampling them under foot. (Copyright. 1334. bv The Tlmost

Your Health —BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

\ I THEN one of your joints is subjected to severe * ’ and sudden strain, the ligaments and muscles associated with the joint give way. Usually the muscle tissue will tear first and the ligament afterward, since the ligaments are stronger. The amount of tearing of the ligament may vary from the splitting of a few of its fibers to a complete pulling away of the ligament from the bone, part of the bone also coming with it. Usually the most important step to take under such circumstances is to make certain that there has not been a fracture or breaking of the bone. The X-ray picture, particularly several pictures taken from different angles, will reveal whether the bone has been broken. Sometimes, for comparison, you should have an X-ray picture of the corresponding joint on the opposite side of the body. After it has been determined that the bone has not been broken, it is usually customary to apply a bandage to make certain that the joint will be protected and properly supported. a a a SOMETIMES healing can be hastened by bathing the affected joint in hot water or by applying heat in some similar manner. Sometimes also it is helpful to have light massage, at first gradual, increasing the manipulation as the joint improves. In bandaging sprained ankles, it is important that the bandage come around the heel a sufficient number of times to give full support. Some persons suffer from what might be called a chronic spraining of a joint. With them the accident ccurs so frequently and the repair takes place so slowly that the joint is constantly in a condition of swelling, inflammation and irritation. Under such circumstances, adhesions may form in the join: and it becomes for a specialist in orthopedic surgery to manipulate the joint, breaking up these adhesions and obtaining healing with proper looseness of movement. nun WHEN adhesions form, they cause limitation of movement. They also give a feeling of unsteadiness and some pam, because the pull is in the wrong direction. In most cases a competent surgeon will see to it that the patient is under an anesthetic during such manipulations as a relief for the pain associated with them. Remember that the term sprain is not an accurate diagnosis. This depends on a study of the joint involved. with a determination of just what structures have been injured. New types of bandages have been developed which are elastic and adhesive and which aid to hold the tissues In place, at the same tune permitting the person concerned to use the joint involved. , 4

Full T>aspd Wire Service of the t.'nited Preng Association

WALL STREET and the DEPRESSION

Flynn Tells Inside Story of How Great U. S. Inquiry Developed

John T. Flynn, in the first two of his six lucid, understanding articles on "Wall Street and the Depression”, has re slewed the collapse of the boom and resealed its causes. Today he tells the remarkable inside story of the origin of the senate investigation of America's high finance and high financiers. BY JOHN T. FLYNN (Copyright, 1934. SEA Service. Inc.) NEW YORK, Oct. 24—Through 1931 as the depression deepened, men got to turning more and more angry glances at the New York Stock Exchange. That mood culminated in the now famous investigation conducted by Ferdinand Pecora. I have followed, I think, most of the great inquiries of the senate through almost their whole history, and this was beyond a doubt the greatest and most potent of them all in its consequences. There is a popular notion that this investigation was one of the activities of the New Deal and that it was launched against Wall Street by President Roosevelt. This, of course, is far from the truth, as we shall now see from this little inside story of how the great probe came about. For far more than a century the New York Stock Exchange has done business without let or hindrance. It began in the early days of the republic when a few gentlemen met daily to trade in the securities of the government and of a few banks. From that it grew to be the most powerful single business Institution in the world. Its long history is a story of turbulence, of feverish gambling, of men and stratagems in pursuit of easy riches. But in the end it wound its tentacles around banks, investment companies, corporations and even the government of the United States. Various attempts have been made to tame it. Once when the present Chief Justice Hughes was Governor of New York he named a commission to study it. But it turned out to be a white-washing com-

mission. Then under Wilson the famous money trust investigation by the Pujo committee and conducted by Samuel Untermyer went into the performances of the exchange. Later a bill was introduced to curb it But the war ended that fight as it ended so many other forward-looking movements then under way. a a a THEN as this depression became more bewildering and people got to crying for a visual devil, a clamor went up for the blood of the "money changers” in Wall Street. It was a strange cry. The wrath was not directed so much at the sins of the exchange in the old bull period, but at the part it was now supposed to play in depressing prices and prolonging the depression. Business men in New York declared that bear raiders—short sellers who were unloading shares —were demoralizing the market and infecting the whole nation with new infusions of gloom. Finally on July 10, 1931, President Hoover launched a bolt at the raiders.” He charged that the manipulators were driving the markets down and that if these gentlemen had a sense of patriotism they would close out their manipulations at once. As Christmas, 1931, dawned the gloom was pretty thick. The Austrian Credit Anstalt had failed in September. Hoover had granted the German moratorium, England had gone off the gold standard and the nation was swept by a tidal wave of bank failures —a thousand in three months. Still the bears kept up their raids. I never believed these raids were forcing stocks down. The whole business structure was falling apart. Nobody wanted to buy

Ih e - DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen

WASHINGTON, Oet. 24—As members of the American Bankers Association gather to hear the President here tonight the chief questions uppermost in their minds are: 1. Is there to be inflation this winter? 2. Is there to be a central bank? The two are interdependent. If there is a central bank there is sure to be inflation. Probably without a central bank there will be no inflation. And whether or not the President attempts to reply to their questions, the real fact Ls that the bankers themselves—far better than

Roosevelt—can give the answers. For the key to the future fiscal policy of the Roosevelt administration lies in the future policy of the bankers. In the past that policy was considered by those around the White House as anything but friendly. The bankers were listed as out to wreck the New Deal. And as the last summer wore on, and young Henry Morgenthau faced the problem of refinancing $1,250,000.000 of Liberty bonds this month, the atmosphere became tense and acrimonious. tt tt tt BEYOND any question of doubt, the big bankers were on strike. "You think your credit is limitless,” one frank Boston banker informed a New Dealer. "But it isn't. You're going to find that you've reached the end of your rope.” More or less the same view was expressed to young Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, undersecretary of the treasury, when he talked the bankers into exchanging his Liberty bonds for two-year notes at 2 1 - per cent or ten to twelve-year bonds at 3 1 ; per cent. They didn't like the trade. And in the end they served a virtual ultimatum that although they would play bail on this piece of refinancing, it would be the last. Their vaults, they said, already bulged with government securities. They comprised 70 per cent of bank holdings. And what the bankers particularly emphasized was the fear that these gilt-edged government securities, purchased at 100 and 101. might be knocked into a cocked hat by inflation. If they dropped, say to 95 or 93. the banks would be left with only just as much to pay on their deposits. BBS SO the government, warned the bankers, would have to stop “borrowing and spending. And to punctuate this warning and show that they meant business. raids were started on government bonds. Home Owners’ Loan bonds were raided: then Farm Credit bonds, and so on. down the line. They were all taken over the jumps. The big bankers' drive was not aimed solely at government securities. It was also supported by big business determination to force a showdown with the New Deal regarding the regulation of business. And the government’s antipathy for the bankers, in turn, was not motivated solely by the letters'

The Indianapolis Times

stocks. And the bears were taking advantage of this to clean up by means of short selling. Os course, they certainly weren’t doing the market any good. a a a EARLY in 1932 reports reached the ears of Herbert Hoover that among the bear raiders were certain prominent Democrats—among them Bernard Baruch and John J. Raskob, then chairman of the Democratic committee. There was, of course, no truth whatever in the rumors connecting Baruch and Raskob with the raids. But it is easy to see what a capital stroke it would have been to have pilloried these gentlemen. Through March a series of shocks shook the market. Rumors of pools, bears, conspiracies, filled the air. In the early days of April, therefore, the President, through Senator Walcott of Connecticut, who had once been a stock broker, introduced a resolution to investigate the practices of buying and selling and borrowing and lending of listed securities and the effect upon the business and banking of the country. The plan was to hold a few hurried meetings, bring a few of the big traders, including Baruch and Raskob, to Washington, put them on the grill, expose them to the execration of the multitudes and then adjourn. a a a BUT Fate decreed otherwise. The plan was well timed during the absence of Senator Peter Norbeck, insurgent Republican and chairman of the banking committee. Norbeck read of the resolution, rushed back to Washington and thrust Walcott out of control of the hearings. Norbeck announced that he would investigate the bears, but

drive against government securities. Treasury officials and the White House were also sore at the way the banks had curtailed credit to private industry. With a little loosening of credit, they argued, business could really get back on its feet, there would be a modest, but steadily increasing boom. The result was some secret research by Dr. Jacob Viner and the treasury brain trust. From this grew the idea of the cer cral bank. SS St St IN other words, the bankers themselves were chiefly responsible for nurturing the idea

SIDE GLANCES

“You know all their expensive furniture. 1 understand that is all that’s keeping:.them..together-*

INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1934

■

The shadow of Pecora falls over “The Street.”

that this was going to be an investigation of Wall Street from stem to stern. And that announcement sent a tremor of terror throught every stock exchange and every shaky bank in the United States. From April to June, 1932, and then from January, 1933, right up to the inauguration of President Roosevelt the committee hammered away. There had been a succession of counsel. But finally Senator Norbeck, Republican chairman of the committee, engaged Ferdinand Pecora, a New York lawyer, to conduct the investigation. This was a stroke of good fortune for the nation and from the moment of Pecora’s assumption of control things began to happen. By the time President Roose-

which they, more than anything else, hate. The idea behind the central bank—still supposedly secret—is relatively simple. It has as its chief motive the fact that the government needs money, Therefore it calls in the $2,800,000,000 gold profit, now on deposit with the federal reserve banks, brings these federal reserve banks into the new central bank. Using this $2,800,000,000 as a base, the central bank issues new currency. If, instead, the treasury issued this new currency it could issue only up to $2,800,000.000. For treasury notes must have a backing of 100 per cent. And that is the big motive behind the central bank. It would not need a 100 per cent coverage. Coverage for federal reserve notes is only 40 per cent. So with the central bank taking over the federal reserve, the gold nest egg of $2,800,000,000 becomes $7,000.000.000 in paper money. Thus government bills are paid. It sounds like financial legerdemain, and to a certain extent it is. That is one reason young Henry Morgenthau—despite his experts—shies away from it. So also does the President. Both would rather stick to the good old-fashioned method of raising money by borrowing from the bankers.

By George Clark

velt was inaugurated, Pecora had already amazed the country with the exposure of Charles Mitchell, president of the National City bank in New York, one of the great banks of the world. He drove Mitchell from the headship of the bank. He shook the conscience of the people with the astounding story of the manner in which a few big financiers and promoters had used the resources of a great bank to feather their own nests. When the New Deal was launched Mitchell’s head was already in Mr. Pecora’s basket and Pecora’s investigators were swarming into Wall Street. ana THAT spring the news wont around that accountants were in the offices of J. P. Morgan &

THE NATIONAL ROUNDUP 9 a a a a a By Ruth Finney

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24.—Electric power plays an unusually large part in this year’s elections. President Roosevelt made it an issue in half a dozen senatorial races when he announced he would continue his fight for ratification of the St. Lawrence treaty.

His plan for a survey of water resources in Pennsylvania, looking toward construction of navigation, flood control and power dams, has added anew twist to the Democratic fight for election of a senator and Governor in that normally Republican state. Power is an issue in the battle of Governor Lehman of New York for re-election and in Phil LaFollette’s bid for the governorship of Wisconsin. Memphis is voting Nov. 6 on buying power from TV A for municipal distribution. Columbus decides whether to let the Columbus Railway, Power and Light Company have anew franchise, w’ith reduced electric rates, instead of building a municipal plant to compete with it. St. Paul votes on much the same propositon. Sacramento, Cal., votes on constructon of a hydro-elec-tric generating plant just a few days after its neighbor, San Francisco, celebrates completion of its hetch Hetchy project. In the state of Washington the Bone bill, permitting public utility districts to sell power outside their own boundaries, is before the people on referendum. a st tt MEANWHILE the National Popular Government League is asking federal investigation of the political activities of private power companies. "If the federal trade commission investigation of their propaganda and financial jugglery has been so justified by results, what profits in the way of clean, efficient government might not come from a political probe?” said Judson King, secretary of the league, today. He suggested at the same time that the next congress amend the federal trade commission act so that investigation of utilities may be undertaken at any time. The league believes power companies and their business allies have under way an organized attempt “to delay the execution of the Roosevelt utility program in the hope the political tide will turn.” It cites the activities of the National Coal Association in opposition to construction of government power plants, of the American Security Owners’ Association of New York, and the American Federation of Utility Investors of Chicago. It points out that fifteen suits now are pending in the courts seeking to hold up expenditures of PWA funds allotted to municipal power projects of various sorts. Public works administration’s announcement that funds for building municipal power plants

Cos. This was almost unbelievable. Up to now the House of Morgan was a kind of sanctuary in Wall Street, The presence of investigators on the books of J. P. Morgan & Cos. gave Wall Street a sinking feeling. In the midst of this the fateful day of the inauguration arrived and with it, as the closing chapter of Herbert Hoover’s ultimate regime, every bank in America had to be closed. But the investigation which had been launched to besmirch a few Wall Street politicians had developed into the greatest probe of our financial world in history. The credit for this must be given to a man whose name is seldom mentioned in stories of the investigation—Senator Peter Norbeck of South Dakota. This alone is what saved it from suppression. Some day Senator Norbeck may choose to tell the pressure that was applied to him to bring the hearings to an end. And some of that pressure was applied right inside the committee. It is one of the strange facts of this whole story that the investigation was made by the senate banking committee which was overwhelmingly hostile to the investigation, It would have killed it off early in the game. But after Pecora’s sensational exposure of Mitchell and the National City Bank and later of the Morgans and their escape from income taxes for three years, suppression was impossible. a a a BUT the efforts never ceased. Pecora himself was continually subjected to them. Wall Street always used one powerful weapon. I call it the "terror.” It is often easy to frighten man in positions of great responsibility away from a course if enough people in whom they have confidence will keep pointing out to them that they are inviting a national disaster. I have seen more than one good man draw back in the face of this technique. The big bankers, the exchange, great politicians of both parties turned this terror on Senator Fletcher and the committee, just as they are now applying it to the securities exchange commission to scarce them away from drastic control of the Stock Exchange. When the Democrats cook control of the Senate, Senator Duncan U. Fletcher of Florida became chairman and assumed direction of the probe. This was a lucky circumstance, for through the remaining year he stood like a rock behind Ferdinand Pecora and did not, so far as I was able to see, give an inch in the face of the most powerful forces. Tomorrow—Wall Street Under the Microscope.

will be withheld when private companies offer lower rates than those proposed for the public projects has brought anew crop of rate reductions in spite of the fact that other commodity prices are rising. St B SS "D ATES have been lowered recently in Bangor, Me.; in North Carolina; Oberlin, O.; Cedar, Utah; South Carolina; Virginia; Illinois; Boston, Mass., and Dayton, O. Almost as many reductions in gas rates have been offered. Another factor thought to be influencing the downward trend in electric rates is the survey being made by the federal power commission to list in comparable terms the rates being paid in each city and town in the country. This information has not been available previously. The next congress will vote on a number of important matters affecting electric utilities. The plan of the natural resources board for government participation in development of the country's watersheds will be laid before it, possibly with recommendations from President Roosevelt for Deginning work in some sections of the country. Legislation for regulation of holding companies is almost certain to be voted on during the next year. Appropriation bills will raise the question of continuing support for projects already under way, and when the new' program for public works is submitted a decision will have to be made on renewing provisions in the present PWA act which permitted financing of municipal power projects. FELLOWSHIP GROUP TO HONOR PASTOR’S WIFE Vernon Parker, Y. M. C. A. Boys’ Secretary, to Speak. Principal speaker at the Fellowship dinner in Fellowship hall of the Nortbwood Christian church at 6:30 tomorrow will be Vernon D. Parker, Y. M. C. A. boys’ work secretary. His topic will be 'Mothers and Sons of the World.” Guest of honor will be Mrs. R. Melvyn Thompson, wife of the church pastor, who has been elected national president of the Council of Ministers’ Wives of the Disciples of Christ Church. The mother having the most sons present will be given recognition. Wives of ministers of other Disciples of Christ churches in the city have been in-

Second Section

Ectorsd Second-Clsa* Master at Postoffie*. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER /'■'•HEYENNE, Wyo, Oct. 24.—When the revolution has been won and the New Deal consolidated, the.citizens of the perfect state should not forget to remember one of the noblest individual actions in ■ defense of human rights in the entire, bitter campaign. That would be the suit by the department of justice to protect the helpless wolf pack of the radio industry from the blood-thirsty lambs who produce the words and nusic of popular songs. Your correspondent has been reading up on this

case and has been thrilled to hear the hoofbeats of the attorney-gen-eral's horse as he rides to the rescue of the wolves. The lambs are not beaten off yet, but they have withdrawn somewhat, their evil fangs dropping with the innocent gore of the radio industry. They know that no lamb may attack the wolf pack with impunity any more. The defendant in the suit is the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. This organization is composed largely of predatory, one-finger pianists and money-mad poets who control the

raw material of radio entertainment. They are an arrogant lot who spend much of their time thinking out little melodies and rhyming "home” and "own,” while lolling on luxurious park benches in New York. a a a There's Contrast Here TN their leisure hours, which are many, they may be seen lounging on sumptuous kitchen chairs in the romantic half-light of the anterooms to the music publisher’s office along glamorous Tin Pan alley in the Forties. Sometimes they lounge sumptuously for days on end in the romantic half-light of these anterooms, waiting to interview the publisher. In the evenings they may be seen living at a mad pace in the one-arm lunch rooms, gorging themselves on hamburger sandwiches or egg-on-rye while the starving executives of the great broadcasting and radio manufacturing companies nibble at caviar canapes and plebeian pheasant in the barren banquet halls of the big hotels. The depredations of the lambs have become bolder and more cruel in the last few years. Time was when they were content to turn over their songs in return for the generous advertisement which they received in the station announcements. But the sinister specter of greed raised its ugly head and they formed a union. They demanded a cash return for their compositions. The radio industry tried to reason with them, pointed out that they were receiving wonderful publicity free of charge. But the lambs began to gnash their teeth at the wolf pack. a a a The Lamas Collect T AST year out of $66,600,000, which the broadcasting stations collected from their advertising clients for program composed largely of popular music, the society exacted a royalty of $1,800,000, or almost 3 per cent. This greed has been called to the attention of the department of justice and there appears to be considerable indignation in behalf of the imperiled industry. With the highest patriotic motives, the industry is horrified at the thought of being a party to the development of the sordid profit motive in this branch of American art. The ravenous lambs of Tin Pan alley have had a taste of cash money, however, and they even have gone so far as to claim the right of collective bargaining. It seems to be their contention that if they are compelled to disband their society and take their pay in blurbs, then a sewer contractor might compel a ditch digger to toil away for no more substantial reward than a sign reading, “This ditch being dug by the distinguished pick-and-shovel virtuoso, Salvatore Antipasto, who will be remembered for his exquisite spade technique on the Eighth avenue subway.” But the department of justice is not deceived. This attempt to invoke the fine principle of the New Deal to justify a savage raid on a noble industry, which has contributed its facilities liberally to the spokesmen of the administration, has been recognized for the evil sham which it is. The radio magnates are much cheered by the brave intervention of the department of justice. Your correspondent recently met one of the magnates in New York and he was singing, “Who’s afraid of the big. bad lamb?” (Copyright. 1934. bv United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Today's Science BY DAVID DIETZ

'T'HE year 1934 will go down in astronomical history as the one in which stargazers decided once again to do a little looking around in their own back yard. At one time astronomers concerned themselves chiefly w r ith the solar system. But as bigger and bigger telescopes were built, practically all interest went to the distant stars. However, the recent work of Dr. Walter S. Adams and his associates at Mt. Wilson observatory has served to focus attention once more upon the planets. Attaching new and powerful types of spectroscopes to the world’s biggest telescope, Dr. Adams and his associates have made the most notable contributions in astronomical history to our understanding of planetary atmospheres. Some planets, of course, have no atmosphere at all. Mercury, like our own moon, has no atmosphere because it is so small a planet. Its gravitational pull is insufficient to hang onto the vibrating molecules which compose an atmosphere. st st a TAETECTING the nature of a planetary atmosphere is not an easy task. Deductions, akin to those of a Sherlock Holmes, must be used to interpret the observations of the spectroscope. The planets shine by reflected sunlight. Consequently, the spectrum of a planet is the spectrum of reflected sunlight plus such changes or alterations as may have been caused by passage of the sunlight into and out of the atmosphere of the planet. The problem is further complicated by the fact that all light from the heavens has to pass through the earth's .atmosphere to reach us. The earth’s atmosphere is, therefore, something of a complication. But it is also a clew. As Dr. Adams points out, we can show in the laboratory that when light passes through oxygen a series dark bands form in the resulting spectrum due the absorption of certain wavelengths of light by the oxygen. These lines are found in the sun's spectrum. If we observe the sun at noon and again at sunset, the lines are stronger at sunset. This is because the path of sunlight through the atmosphere is longer at sunset and therefore the earth's oxygen absorbs more energy. st tt tt "TTENUS is covered with a heavy layer of clouds. * Consequently, the observations of Venus refer only to the part of the atmosphere above the cloud level. Dr. Adams finds no appreciable amount of oxygen or water vapor in that part of the atmosphere, but that a large quantity of carbon dioxide is present. "Although we can not observe conditions at the actual surface of Venus.” he says, “the average temperature of the surface is probably somewhat warmer than that of the earth, but direct sunlight is lacking because of the clouds. Biology tells us that under such conditions it is extremely doubtful whether even plant life could ever have secured a foothold on the planet. The oxygen given out by plants and squired for the existence of usual forms of animal ’ - simply does not seem to be present.”

. *

Westbrook Pegler