Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 247, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 December 1935 — Page 9

It Seems to Me HEYWOD BROUN I'M p’anning to go away for Christmas for several reasons. One of them Is that I don't want to be around when that annual letter Is printed from the little girl to the newspaper editor asking about Santa Claus. I realize that the whimsical reply has become a classic. In years gone by I used to fly into a rage and write a violent column against the practice of lying to little children. B\.t the result was always the same. From six to .se''en letters came in denouncing me as a mean old man who wanted to take

all the joy out of the world's most glorious holiday. And so this year I will just slink of! quietly and avoid the brickbats. I still think that the letter is a phony piece of writing and I'm still against it. But I have begun to learn that there are certain set pieces by which man swears so solidly that it is almost a waste of time to engage in controversy. Nor do I pretend to assert that I am wholly without sentiment in regard to Christmas. Last year, I think it was, I stood on the deck of a steamer and sang carols as we

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Ileywood Broun

skirted the easterly end of Cuba. This year, if things go well, I hope to have a $2 mutuel ticket on the winner of the Christmas Handicap at a Southern race track, which shall be nameless as far as I’m concerned. I might even have two tickets, because I think that this is the season at which one should be more intent upon giving than receiving. a a a Hoyn Too Soon MY son gets a 16-day vacation from school, which confirms me in the belief that I was born some 36 or 40 years too soon. Our recess was no more than a week if I remember correctly, and, of course, columnists always labor, since few realize the strain under which they toil. Only last night a perfect stranger walked up to me in a public place and said, “I think your stuff is terrible.” What are you supposed to do in a case like that? It would be neither ethical nor possible to punch every honest and candid critic in the nose, and at the same time I am less than ready to go out and shoot myself. That's one of the reasons w'hy I am leaving New York for the Christmas holidays. The spirit of good will has never been sufficiently extensive to include all columnists. I want to get to some far off city where there are no friends to tell me what’s wrong with my work. Moreover, I have never been sold on the theory of a white, a damp or a chilly Christmas. The historical associations of the day seem to point to a much more friendly kind of weather. I am told that the city to which I plan to go celebrates the holiday season with firecrackers and roman candles. In so far as that touches on New Year's, I’m all for it. an a A Booming Time MY plan is to purchase four or five dozen cannon crackers and name them after my particular vices. Then it will be possible for me to stand on a little hill and cheer as Sloth explodes with a loud bang. It will lie on the grass torn into tiny tatters, and from that day forth I expect never to be afflicted with laziness again. And if I place Avariciousness under a tin can it ought to make a very considerable explosion. Perhaps that wouldn’t be safe. It might shake the entire town. And when I touch the match to the fuses of Gluttony and Self-Indulgence it will be expedient for me to run for my life and to warn all passersby that a* blast is coming. Temper may prove to be a dud, and, whatever anyt >dy else may think, I fear that Conceit will also prove a dud and merely splutter feebly. The powder may be dampened by contact with a most penetrating inferiority complex. New York is not the Christmas city for me because it brings back memories of my childhood and the days when I, too. believed in Santa Claus. Not that I would care to recapture that period for a second. It doesn’t arouse nostalgia but, on the contrary, deep resentment. The question which plagues me when I see the tiny tots looking in wonder and fear at Uncle Jack in false-face is, “Was I really such a sap as that when I had reached the ripe old age of ‘4 going on s’?” No, the reindeer are out. I’ve grown in wisdom. This year I'm going to bet on maiden 2-year-old selling platers. (Copyright. 1935)

Your Health —BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN—

I KNOW a man 80 years old, who has eaten oatmeal or whole wheat for breakfast every clay of his life, since babyhood! There was nothing out of the ordinary in that kind of breakfast, day after day, years ago. Oatmeal, whole wheat, and farina were about all that was known for breakfast food then. But in the last 20 years the American breakfast has changed. Now there are 190 different cereals, which have gradually invaded the field formerly held almost wholly by oatmeal, whole wheat, and farina served hot. All of them are sources of carbohydrates. The list includes five barley preparations. 29 corn products, 27 oat products, 14 rice products, 68 wheat preparations, 11 wheat-bran combinations, and 36 miscellaneous substances. The cats, like rice, have been modified by being virtually shot out of a “cannon.” Wheat may be shredded or mixed with a variety of substances, and some of the cereals are improved by addition of ultraviolet. a a a OF course, all this is for people who want their carbohydrates first thing in the morning, to start the day off right. But nowadays many women and girls have reduced their breakfasts to nothing more than fruit juice and coffee, and those who are reducing strenuously may even eliminate the fruit juice. For those who aren't afraid of the carbohydrates, however, cereals are the food. But you should remember that they should be finely ground, and prepared properly. Finely ground cereals leave the stomach rapidly, and well-prepared food is more easily digested. Furthermore, the manner in which oatmeal, for example, is cooked may greatly modify its appeal to the appetite. It may come out as a watery mixture, which can be drunk as a liquid. It may form a thin gluey dish which sticks to the teeth, or it may come out in lumps, which have to be chewed and are hard to digest. If properly cooked in a double boiler, the individual grains of the oatmeal are visible, and the cereal can be chewed and digested easily.

Today s Science BY DAVID DIETZ

NO HOME library is complete without an atlas. To follow the progress of Arctic and Antartic explorers, the adventures of aviators, and the development of news from the realm of science to the realm of war and diplomacy, maps are required. A particularly fine atlas has just been published by C. S. Hammond & Cos. under the title of ‘‘Our Planet.” The title page carries the subtitle of ‘The Blue Book of Maps.” The book begins with a series of most interesting tables, including the elements of the solar system and the dimensions of the earth. Here, for example, are the areas of the various continents and oceans. th volume of the earth, the weight of the earth, etc. a a a OTHER tables give numerical data concerning the oceans and seas of the world, the lakes and inland seas, the largest ri\ers and canals of the world, famous waterfalls, principal islands, highest mountains. notable aerial flights, voyages of discovery and exploration, outstanding railway achievements, the largest ocean liners, notable bridges and tallest structures. Thl* is followed by an illustrated gazeteer of the world. Next comes 150 pages of maps in color. These begin with historical maps of the ancient world, the empire of the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the ancient empire of the east, the Persian empire, the Roman empire, etc.

Full I/'aeed Wire Service of the United Press Association.

YOU AND U. S. SOCIAL SECURITY

Fund of Billions for Old-Age Aid Planned in Huge Program

What the mvernment-ytate Social Security plan means—how the mammoth program will operate, who will be benefited, how the money will be appropriated, etc. —is told by Rodiey Dutcher. in a series of three articles, of which this is the second. BY RODNEY DUTCHER (Copyright. 1935. NEA Service. Inc.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 24. —The Social Security program undertakes to do two things about tlie problems of old age and the destitution which so often accompanies it: 1. To encourage and financially aid the states immediately in establishing old-age pensions for persons already aged and needy. That phase of the program is officially known as “old-age assistance.” 2. To develop a Federal old-age insurance system under which employers and employes will be taxed for an eventually huge fund from which annuities will be paid to employes on retirement at the age of 65. This phase is officially known as “Federal old-age benefits.” Old-age benefits are the most controversial part of the whole program. The scheme is attacked because it means an eventual 6 per cent tax on pay rolls, which, coupled with the Federal unemployment insurance tax, will total 9 per cent by 1949 and a total tax “drain” of perhaps $2,700,000,000 a year. The estimated $32,000,000,000 reserve fund which it will have created by 1970 will exceed the present national debt. The law’s stipulation that this must be invested in government securities probably means an end to private ownership of these government securities. Its huge cost will be borne by younger workers, first in the tax on their incomes and second in the tax on their employers, which theoretically will be passed on to them as consumers. This is the first time a nation has established a contributory oldage insurance scheme without charging some of its cost up to the state, with its sources of revenue from the wealthy. tt tt tt SINCE old-age Phase No. 1 will pay off next year, let’s analyze old-age assistance first. The aim is to allow old people to spend their last years in something like dignity and comfort, outside the poorhouse, by stimulating the states into a Federal aid scheme to provide an income for their needy over the age of 65 or near that figure. The Social Security Board is authorized to pay out about $50,000,OCO this year in matching dollar for dollar such money as states provide for old-age pensions. Other appropriations are planned for ensuing years. To receive Federal money, a state must have an old-age pension law which meets certain minimum standards required by the Security Act and is approved by SSB. The board will match state allotments for these pensions up to sls a month, which means that any old-age pension above S3O will include more state than Federal money. The state may limit pensions to persons of 70 years or more until 1940, when the limit in all state setups must come down to 65. State residence requirements may not exceed one year of im-

Regeneration of Worn-Out Land Is Important Part of Broad Social Aspect of TVA Program, Ernie Says, Explaining How Work Is Done

(Editor’s Note—This is another of a series of articles about TVA.) BY ERNIE PYLE Knoxville, Tenn., Dec. 24. Part of the broad social aspect of TVA's program is the regeneration of the land. They are going about it very systematically. You might call it ‘'managed farming,” although that sounds pretty stiff. But that's what it really is. Many TVA men think it's the most important part of their program. even if it isn't so spectacular. Here is how it works: They arrange with a farmer to j use his land as a ’’demonstration | farm.” They don't pay him anything; in fact, ha bears most of the expense. First, they'll take one of his gullied hillsides, one that won't grow j anything any more. a u tt IF it's very badly gullied, they build little rock dams every 1000 feet or so up and down each gullev. These catch the silt when it washes down after the next rain, and in a few months the gullies are filled up. Then, after the hillside is fairly smooth again, they bring in a tractor and grade terraces. A sloping field a quarter of a mile wide would have three or four terraces. following the contour of the slope. Then they get the farmer to agree to follow certain rules on this piece of land for five years. He has to plant it in clover, or some legume crop. He must not plow it. He has to fence it in. He also has to contribute to a fund to buy the tractors and machinery to do the terracing work. 1 In exchange for all this, TVA / gives him free phosphate Muscle Shoals. Phosphate is what#' the soil needs most, and it ir, scarce. Since TVA took over the nitrate plant at Muscle Shoals, they have been experimenting with phosphates. They have something pretty powerful already. They make it by treating phosphorous rock with electricity. BBS THEY' give this phosphate to the farmer. His legume^crop

The Indianapolis Times

Wv h il.

Frank B. Bane Executive Director of the Social Security Board

mediately previous residence or more than five years’ residence in the nine years preceding application for pension. No state may impose any citizenship requirement which excludes any American citizen from pensions. u u FEWER than half the states are expected to be immediately eligible for old-age pension money when Congress .appropriates it, probably In January. The American Association for Old-Age Security says the only states which now meet Federal requirements are Alabama, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Eleven states have no old-age pension laws at all —Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Missippippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia. Os those, only Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Virginia have meetings of their Legislatures next year. Florida, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Kentucky, and West Virginia haven't set dates for their laws to take effect. Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, Utah, and West Virginia have laws optional with counties, whereas the Federal act says they i must be state-wide and manda- ; tory. Eleven states require from 10 teit 20 years of citizenship, which mus t be changed under the Federal ac';. Sixteen others call for residence within the state for from 10 to 35 years. a tt tt IF all the states got promptly into line, somewhere around 1,000,000 needy persons probably would qualify for old-age pensions. About 180,000 are now renewing some kind of pension under oldage laws of 28 states, av enaging $14.69 a month. It has been estimated officially that about 7.000.000 Americans are over 65, that nearly half of them are dependent, that at least a million of them are on public/charity, and that in normal years ionly half to two-thirds of us are rmle to lay aside enough money support

(clover) adds nitrogen to the land. Those are the two (things it needs most. And the cljbver roots, plus the terracing, ho’fci the soil from washing away. The result shorfid be that, after five years, the frtrmer has a field of very valuable** land, where before it support goats. Muscle Shoajs has furnished 10,000 tons of this super-triple-threat phosphate to the Tennessee Valley farmer/s. An acre needs only 20 pounds a year. In the Te nnessee Valley there are 2717 demonstration farms for erosion control. Not all of them are hooked up with the phosphate demonstrations, but a lot of them are. Neighboring farmers come and see what terracing and proper farming vyill do, and they go home and do likewise, as fast as they

LEARN TO HANDLE TRUMP PROPERLY

Tod iy’s Contract Problem South is playing the contract at four hearts. What sacrifice play must East make to‘defeat the contract? 498 4 2 4 6 2 ♦ 832 4 A Q 10 7 3 w, r 4 J 10 9 4 4 Void w b 3 4 10 975 S ♦Qb *4 9S 4 2 Dealer 4KJ 65 3 4A 7 5 „ , 4 AKQ 8 7 5 4AK J 4 4 Void None vul. Opener— 4 K. Solution in next issue. 17 Solution to Previous Contract Problem BY W. E. M'KENNEY* American Bridge League YOU may have heard a player remark during the course of a bridge game. ‘‘l wish I cculd get an ace or a king once in a while.” Quite often this same player, who

INDIANAPOLIS, T UESDAY, DECEMBER 24,1935

□ age mSF fed. ■ no age \ 6 states have set no dates u \ vAAA. for to take effect w \ □ 16 st?/tes have laws which do npt meet federal re- * quirements

ourselves whert we become old and unable to wovtk. Just as ol d-age assistance is designed to help people now aging or close to old age, Phase No. 2 old-age ben(*fits is designed to assure younger employed persons with a definite income when they retire and fto gradually do away with old-agjs pensions under Phase No. 1. One rea/son for that is to prepare for the day when those 65 and over > will amount to 10 per cent of the population (estimated by 1970) /instead of 6 per cent, as now. a a EFFIaCTIVE in January. 1937, th'v government will begin collecting/ currently a tax from an estimated 26,000,000 workers and their employers—in equal percentages sos wages earned and paid—whiefe will be paid into a Federal Old-Age Reserve Fund in the Treasury. This tax applies only to theffirst S3OOO of the employe’s income or to the entire income if it isfaio greater than that. 'it will be at the rate of 1 per c ent for both employer and employe in 1937 and gradually will vase to 3 per cent in 1949 and thereafter. The Bureau of Internal Revenue .■Lasn’t yet figured out the best way , to collect it. (The law permits the Postmaster General to issue certain stamps which may be purchased from postoffices and used to pay the tax.) Beginning in 1942, the Treasury will begin to pay out, monthly benefit checks to all those affected by the plan who have reached the age of 65, and have received S2OOO or more in total wages since 1936 —provided wages were received on at least one day in each year. tt tt tt MINIMUM monthly benefit which can be paid is $lO and maximum SBS. Examples of the way it works out: A man who has averaged SSO a month salary since 1936 will receive monthly checks of $17.50 if he becomes 65 in 1947, $22.50 if he becomes 65 in 1957, $27.50 in 1967, and $32.50 in 1977 after 40 years of employment and taxpaying under the plan. Or if his average salary is the taxing top of S3OOO a year, he will receive $37.50 after 10 years of employment, $56.25 after 20 years,

can afford it. There are very few so backwoodsy, the TVA men say, that they aren’t willing to try. In fact, the thing spreads like ripples on a pond. The CCC boys have helped with the work, it is organized under the direction of the county agents. Ninety-five of the Valley's 100 counties have voluntary terracing clubs, where the farmers help each other. 808 THE farmers find they can do their terracing for from $1.20 to $2.80 an acre. So far, 36,000 acres have been terraced, and altogether 182.500 acres have some sort of erosion control, such as tree-planting legume crops, dams in gullies and so on. And that is only a drop in the bucket, for in Tennessee alone two million acres have already been destroyed.

complains about his card holdings, won't know how to handle the aces and the kings when he gets them. I give you today’s hand for one purpose, just to impress on your mind how easy it is to ’ose your contract through sheer carelessness. When West cashes his three club tricks and shifts to the king of hearts, which is won by der clarer with the ace, declarer knows that he must win the rest of the tricks to make his contract. It is true that he has the good nine of clubs; there is no use in leading it, because the opponents will trump it and prevent the discarding of a heart. There is only one hope, a long diamond must be established, for a discard. Therefore a small diamond is led and won with the ace. The three of diamonds is returned and trumped with the ace of spades, not a small one. Then the deuce of spades is led and won in dummy with the nine spot. A small diamond is returned and trumped with the king of spades. Another small spade is led and won in dummy with the ten.

$68.75 after 30 years, and $81.25 after 40 years—assuming he is 65 by the end of such periods. Those figures, you w r ill observe, mean that young men and women affected by the plan for a long time will receive much less in proportion to their total contributions than workers now within shooting distance of 65. This comes about through a provision which says monthly benefits shall be paid on total wages received after 1936 and prior to age 65, at the rate of onehalf of 1 per cent for the first S3OOO (sls a month), one-twelfth of 1 per cent for the next $42,000 and one-twenty-fourth of 1 per cent for all over $45,000. tt a a TT WAS felt by somebody, with the approval of President Roosevelt, that it would be cheaper for taxpayers and better for older workers who could come under the plan for relatively brief periods before reaching 65 if younger workers, contributing for 30 years or more, were made to bear a large part of the burden of retiring their elders on annuities as well as carrying expense of providing for their own old age. Some bitter complaints have been made against this policy. Contrary to most impressions, “ Fee- i Old-Age Reserve Fund will be paying off by the end of 1937. Not in annuities, but in small lump sums which the law provides for those who have contributed and have reached 65 or died before they have worked five years under the plan and become eligible for benefits. In case of death before 65, the individual’s estate will receive an amount equal to 3U per cent of total wages received after 1936 and in case of death after 65 his estate will receive a like percentage less the sum of benefits paid to him during his lifetime. Probably 300,000 small lump sum payments will be made in 1937 because of death or arrival at 65 and others in each year thereafter. a a OTHER things to remember about old-age benefits are that no employe or employer contributions are made by or for any one after he or she reaches 65 and that no one will receive any

Throughout the United States a hundred million acres have gone up the spout. This is the modern way science goes about keeping America from turning into a Sahara desert. You could call it a five-year plan, except the red-baiters would probably get excited. Recently a group of Western scientists and agriculturists visited the valley. They wrote back that the program on the Tennessee would some day be the program on every important river in the United States. They said “the experimental work on phosphate rock is not just for the Tennessee Valley. It is solving a problem for the entire nation.” The natives of the valley, within a few years should have better land, be raising better crops, and be making enough money to pay

4 J 10 9 4 J 9 4A9 7 6 3 4J 6 3 4873 I A 5 4KQIO w n r 487 54 3 ♦QJB2 w fc 2 4 A K Q S ♦ KlO 4 Dealer 410 8 7 4AKQ 6 4 2 4 A 6 ♦ 5 495 4 2 Rubber —E. & W. vul. South West North East 1 4 Double Pass 2 4 24 3 4 3 4 Pass 4 4 Pass Pas3 Pass Opening lead— 4 K. 17 The fourth diamond is returned and, of course, declarer trumps with the six of spades. At this point, the good nine of clubs is led and. if West trumps, dummy overtrumps. If West discards a heart, so does dummy. By properly handling the trumps, declarer makes his contract. (Copyright. 1935. NEA Service, Inc.)

benefit money from the fund at 65 or over until he or she stops working. No benefits are subject to assignment or other legal process. The SSB will keep the accounts for everybody and tell the Treasury just who is due to get checks. In contrast to the 26,000.000 probably affected by the plan, it is estimated that about 23,000.000 other wage earners will be outside its scope. Those exempted by law include farm workers, domestic servants, casual employes, employes of Federal, state and lesser governments, employes of non-profit religious, charitable, scientific, literary and educational institutions, railroad workers, ship officers and crews and those in business for themselves. Otherwise, every employe comes under this compulsory scheme, regardless of the number of men his employer may be employing. Private company old-age plans, now covering about a million persons, will be liquidated. a a tr THE most breath-taking part of this great scheme is in the huge proportions to which the Federal Old-Age Reserve Fund will grow within a few decades. Various estimates place it at $lO,000,000,000 by 1948, $15,000,000,000 by 1950. $32,000,000,000 by 1970 and $50,000,000 by 1980. Even some of the most active crusaders for old-age security declare that the freezing of so much purchasing power will be very dangerous, that partial inflation might wipe out some of the fund and cause havoc, that politicians shouldn’t be intrusted with care of such a fund, and that it will be impossible to invest it. The law calls for investment in government or government-guar-anteed securities, which seems to mean the government will take over its own debt. By some this is regarded as a cure for the tax-exempt security evil, but others say that it's a dangerous thing to let a government get where it doesn’t have to worry about a market for its bonds —or about its credit. NEXT—Unemployment Compensation, Social Security, and the Courts.

their electric bills when they get cheap TVA current. They should be building new homes, cheaply, like those in the town of Norris; many of them should be working in the small factories that are planned, and farming a little at home, too. It is a grand dream, and when you drive around here, it looks like a dream that has solid stuff in it. Tomorrow’ Regenerating Mother Earth. CAROLS TO BE PART OF ST. PAUL’S SERVICE EpsicoPal Christmas Mass to Be Read at 11:30 Tonight. Holy Communion service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 11:30 tonight is to include a 20-minute program of carols by the choir. Soloists in the service are to be Mrs. Juliet Shaw, soprano, Mrs. Irene Jarrard, contralto. James Gilbreath, tenor, and Edward Martin. baritone. Clarence H. Carson is organist and choirmaster, and the Rev. William Burrows is rector. PAGEANT TO BE GIVEN AT SERVICE TONIGHT Meridian Hills Observance Also to Include Carols by Choir. Christmas Eve is to be observed at the Meridian Heifhts Presbyterian Church with a candlelight service at 11 tonight. Chief item on the program is to be a pageant, “The Spirit of Christian Progress,” directed by Fred L. Palmer, and performed by a cast of 20. George E. Potts is to lead the choir in a group of Christmas carols and anthems. Milk Concern Gives Turkeys Each of the 70 employes of the Weber Milk Cos., 1125 Cruft-st, is to be presented with a turkey by the company as a Christmas gift.

Second Section

Eitrred a* Secf>nd-Cl*' Matter at I’nstrtfficp. Indianapolis. Ind.

Fair Enough HIM HER ROME. Dec. 24—An old woman climbed slowly up the steps of an open-air scaffold, where Mussolini stood surrounded by Blackshirts, priests and altar boys, in a brand-new village built on reclaimed swamp land about 50 miles from Rome. She unfastened a pin of medals which hung over her heart and offered it to the Duce. He extended his hand in a black kid glove to receive it, but the old woman drew back the medal for an instant and kissed it farewell. Then she handed over the medal

awarded to her son. who was killed in the big war. Mussolini he’d it in his palm, shaking his head gravely, then slowly and with tender solemnity dropped it into a big hamper among a bushel or more other medals, wedding rings, lockets, watches and chains collected from the people of the district for the gold that was in them. The act was going over big One of the priests had passed over his gold cross and chain to be dropped into the basket. Another in surplice and cassock had opened the ceremonies with a religious oration in which he offered

to the Fascist regime and the Italian army the approval and active support of Jesus Christ in the war in Abyssinia oniy a week before the birthday of the Prince of Peace. The good and reverend father announced this commitment with all the assurance of a state chairman delivering his delegation to the candidate having the greatest collection of postmasterships and deputy marshals just before the stampede in a national political convention at home. God had climbed aboard the band wagon and Mussolini had accepted him into the party with dignified condescension. For almost an' hour after this important announcement, the women of the community filed up the steps of the scaffold, most of them old, weatherbeaten women in shawls, with the mud of the farm on their shoes and medals on their dresses, won by their sons or husbands in the war which was to end war. Every second or third one carried an inverted tin hat containing a collection of rings and old jewelry. a a a A T o Fake About This MUSSOLINI greeted them with that special reverence which politicians reserve for public occasions when they honor the old folks of the humble classes, thousands cheer and the men from the news reels mount the roofs of their sound trucks and turn the cranks. Mussolini accepted the tin hats from leathery old hands and dumped the contents into the collection. This was no fake: There was no need to fake it. If you had seen the children and the young boys of the district throwing up their right arms in the Fascist salute and had heard these young ones shouting “Doo-chay, Doo-chay” like the cheering section at an American football game and singing the Fascist song of youth, you would have been compelled to admit, however cynical you may be, that it was Useless to hope this was fake. The old women had been through one war and many of them had received those dreadful, impersonal thousand-at-a-batch postcards with the printed facsimile of the king's signature informing them that they had had the honor of sacrificing a son or husband on the field of battle pro patria. There was an old woman who had lost four sons in the war to end war and had received four postcards. Soldiers say that when men are dying on the barbed wire at night they do not cry for their wives or children, but vhimper “mother,” "mama" or “mutter,” as the case may be. After the wars are over some mothers derive a strange joy and importance from their sacrifice and tend to make other mothers envious. One mother says, “My son lost an eye on the Prave” and another says, in lofty tones, “Yes? Well, my oldest was killed by a shell and my third had a leg blown off.” And when the next war comes along, a certain proportion of the mothers of the dead and wounded are among the most enthusiastic recruiting agents. a a a And the People Are Proud THIS is a rebuke to the hopes of those who look to the day when mothers will band together in a beautiful bond of motherhood and forbid war. But we are dealing with realities, not sentiment. Ah, that Mussolini, there is a man! Such scorn, such bravery and strength he has and such tenderness, too, with now and again just a flicker of humor as bright and cold as sunshine on the snow. The old newspaper reporter in his shiny black stovepipe hat spreads his feet and throws back his head until he almost topples over and pours it on the Italians. Sentimental, emotional, spiritual and proud they are and ignorant, too, and forbidden to think any thoughts but those which Mussolini prescribes. “Doo-chay, Doo-chay,” children shout and sing. Little boys from 8 to 12 brandish their junior muskets with little needle bayonets and those of high school age put their hats on their bayonets and wave them on high The village was proud of an achievement, although any boomtime Florida promoter would guarantee to slap together a better one in 30 days, and this was a great day for Fascism on the Pontine marshes. “Doo-chay, Doo-chay,” the old reporter beamed on the assembly, with especial warmth on the young ones, so valiant now, who 20 years hence will be writing books crying that they are the generation which lost its soul.

Times Books

A REPORTER who writes well, reports ably and passionately, and has the energy to battle for her lovalties is Mary Heaton Vorse, whose reminiscences, “A Footnote to Folly,” have just been published by Farrar & Rinehart. Thus is an enthralling book, but there is nothing ‘precious” about it. It is an open-eyed reportorial job. She felt deeply and fought, but'she wrote the story as a skilled craftsman, and from closeup observation, of tragedies of our generation. Her story is of the decade 1912-22, and the tragedies, in which she acted, were the glorious and futile labor struggles in this country, and the World War as it affected the hundreds of millions of civilians over the world. There is a restrained but colorful thread of her own eventful experiences in a crowded life of raising a family after being twice widowed, writing novels, articles, propaganda, organizing and serving the lowly to the extent of her energy. Through all this simple, excellent writing runs a feeling for humanity, a sympathy for the exploited and the oppressed of tne earth, which Mary herself discovers only in her final chapter: BBS MY book is the record of a woman, who in early life got angry’ because children died needlessly. Yet the rough draft of this book was almost finished before I realized that while I thought I was writing about the labor movement, about imperialism. or of war, all the time I was in reality writing about children.” Just to catalog her experiences gives no idea of the depth of her comment and understanding of the great currents of life she swam in, but in American labor she gives a closeup of the Lawrence textile strike of 1912. the unemployed movements of 1914. the Mesabi Range strike, the 1919 steel strike, the Palmer red raids, the Amalgamated lockout. From her pre-war, war, and two past-war trips abroad she reports one of the most revolting of all the reports of the war—how it starved and killed the women and children and the old It should, but probably won't, be a valuable source book for future World War histories. (By Herbert Little.)

Westbrook Pcglcr