Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 April 1937 — Page 17

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/ At just as it arrives. ly, through the great round rollers.

‘becomes longer.

“he was unfailingly kind and sympathetic.

. coverers Will

Fear

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FROM INDIANA

ERNIE PYLE

PITTSBURGH, April 23.—I am going to . try to tell what a rolling mill is like. This 1s Where they take the hot steel ingots and With great machines roll them down into ):>ams and girders and rails.

A rolling mill is a very long building. Along its entire length runs a thing that from a distance resembles a low railroad trestle, but which up close becomes a wide platform whose floor consists of hundreds of steel rollers. These rollers are turned forward or backward by electricity. Their purpose is merely to carry the steel ingot from one machine to the next. About every hundred yards along this long line is a gigantic stack of machinery. And back : a against the wall, slightly above the B- ¢. machine, is a little room where 3 21 two men sit pulling levers. ; ££. ak E This place is called the “pulpit.” ~~ The men in it are called “pulpit operators.” They manipulate the machinery that flattens and rolls

Mr. Pyle

the hot steel. It is night jn the rolling mill. A few dim electric lights in the great hangar-like structure just take the edge off the darkness, You look down toward the end, and here comes a glowing golden-hot rectangle of steel, scooting along over the rollers. This is an ingot. It's about 5 feet long and 2 feet square. It weighs two .tons, but ihe Saghinery handles it as though it were a baby’s We stand behind the “pulpit operators.” The golden block races along to their machine. They stop Then they start it again, slow-

; There's one roller above, and one below, like a clothes wringer. You can’t conceive of how im-

‘mense the are.

The space between these two big rollers isn’t as great as the thickness of the ingot. In other words, when the ingot goes through, it has to give. So it

s # 2

Roll Ingot Back

AS soon as the ingot is through the rollers the operators stop it, flop it over, and bring it through the same rollerey hy Each timé, the rolling machine automatically sets itself for a finer bite. The ingot goes through each machine about three times, and then races on to the next. As it leaves each machine it’s |about twice as long as when 4it went in. * . Of the two’big thrills of the rolling mill, one was to stand in the “pulpit” and see how easily and deftly the two men, with just a touch on a switch handle, manipulated a two-ton hunk| of steel. And how swiftly. They could toss it around, or stop it, or send it back the other way, in a fraction of a second. And the other thrill was to stand on down beyond the las: machine and see the long finished I-beam come racing down the line toward the cooling yards. It comes for at least a hundred yards, traveling fa.: and traveling all alone, apparently by| magic—40 feet long and red hot—a snaky golden strip in the halfdarkness of the mill. un E-4 2

Final Step Exciting

HE final operation is fast and exciting. Suddenly the beam stops dead, just like that. Simultaneously with its halting, steel arms raised up and pushed it sidewise over other rollers, to the far side of the strip, Then it raced forward again. final machine. A dense shower of sparks heaved up for 50 feet around. And there was a terrific shriek.

The jagged end of the beam dropped off. The |

I-beam moved on a few feet. The machine moved it over again.| Sparks flew. That awful noise tore through the great building. The red-hot bar had been sawed Into two I-beams. :They raced on a few feet farther. flopped them on their sides. Other | rollers carried them back onto flat racks. They lay there at last, immobile, cooling slowly into cold blue-gray steel. NEXT—What visitors don’t see.

Mrs.Rooseveli's Day

By ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

TASHINGTON, Thursday.—As we grow older it is inevitable that our elders will pass off the stage. But when those we feel to be our own contemporaries go before us, we begin to have la sense of loneliness. In Forbes Morgan's death we have not only lost a relative by marriage, but a good and/true friend. My friendship with him goes back over many years, for I first met him when I was 18. In all those years We went thrcugh pleasant times and some very sad times together but never a cloud crossed our friendship. It

Steel arms

‘was a good way to go, when he was still actively en-

gaged in work. We, who remain, can be grateful for the friendship we have had and the memory we will keep. When our time comes, may we all be as worthy to pass on to the “happy hunting ground.” Forbes’ son and I met Mrs. David Gray who came up from Sarasota, Fla., on the morning train. Then I went to the Congressional Club's annual- breakfast at the Raleigh Hotel. They had a delightful musical program sung by Charlotte Simmons of the Metropolitan Opera Association, with Milne Charnley as her accompanist at the piano. She has a charming voice and everyone enjoyed her singing. ] These official parties, like the one| yesterday and this one today, are scheduled so long ih advance that it always seems to me unfair to break the engagement unless it is absolutely necessary. In some ways it is a curious thing to divide one’s life into personal and official compartments, to ten:porarily put the personal side into its little hidden compartment to be taken out

_ again when one's official duties are at an end.

Friday, April 23, is the 85th birthday of the poet, Edwin Markham. There will be plenty of people to remember him and to pay tribute to his work and so, in this column I simply want to wish him a happy birthday. I had expected to leave for New York this afternoon, but that is changed on account of Forbes Morgan’s funeral here tomorrow morning. Certain members of my family will be gathered here tonight. Since I mentioned the fact that I might be going out tc see my daughter, invitations have been pouring in on me fast and furiously. People are so very kind, but this trip will be entirely unofficial. | I will have only a few days out there and therefore I am making only one official engagement and that is in Seattle.

New Books PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS—

N Arctic explorer writés a trifle acrimoniously about the strange ideas most people have concerning Polar regions in ADVENTURES IN ERROR, by Vilhjalmur Stefansson (McBride). If it gets around to fiction writers that wolves do not run in packs, Mr. Stefansson is in for a good bit of trouble! To the question, {Are explorers to join the dodo?” he gives the “heartening conclusion: The tribe of Great Disnot become extinct until the Age of

Advertising he passed.”

However, not all the book is about the Arctic. Americans who do nat know of the bathtub hoax perpetrated by H. L. Mencken will be amused by the. account ‘of in the last chapter, “History of the i imerica.” Bathtub n I ile in HE perfect hostess may have a thousand plans or T she may have but one, but unquestionably wellplanned fun determines the life of her party. A new aid for her is HAVING A PARTY, by Louise Price Bell (Revell); : : No matter the kind of party—whether anniversary, shower, holiday or seasonal, or just a get-together— here are workable plans and novel suggestions. Suggestions include games and unusual decorations, attractive menus for luncheons, dinners, or “refreshments” and clever forms for invitations. The book will be useful for all types of groups—clubs, both large and small, churches, schools and family parties. Each party plan, if carried out as suggested, is a practical guarantee for perfect satisfaction in entertaining,

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Second Section

FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1937 .

at Postoffice, Indianapolis,

9 Matt : Entered as. Second-Class alier 5 PAGE 17 3

SAVING LAND TO SAVE PEOPLE

Many Tenants Can Be F itted for Ownership, Committee Claims

This is the fourth section of the report of President Roosevelt’s.

Farm Tenancy Committee, ’ # #2

BR # 2

POLICIES to convert tenants into landowners may prove futile if existing farm owners are permitted to lose their farms and becoine tenants or even migratory labor-

ers.

In recent years the Farm Credit Administration has

been lenient in its policy of foreclosure, and through its refunding programs, has been of great assistance to farm owners. The debt conciliation policy of the Resettlement Administration has helped thousands of farmers, particularly those whose farms are mortgaged to private agencies. Many small farm owners have never enjoyed the “benefit of loans from the land banks and are still burdened with onerous conditions of private systems of credit. It seems desirable to encourage such small owners to obtain the benefits of refunding with a land bank loan. There are many other small farm owners who cannot refund their indebtedness by a land bank loan because the ratio of indebtedness to value of the security is above the maximum of 75 per cent permissable under the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act of 1933. Consequently they

must continue to struggle under the handicap of high

rates of interest.

It is recommended that where only a few hundred dollars are required and where suitable debt revision has been effected, the Farm Security Administration be authorized to advance thé amount necessary to enable the farm owner to refund the remainder of his indebtedness through the FCA.

Refunding should be undertaken only if the Administration finds the potential farm income sufficient to meet the expense of debt service. In cases where the acceptance by the farmer of a certain amount of technical guidance would insure the safety of the loan, such advances should be made under the rehabilitation policy hereafter recommended. In many cases, however, the farmer probably would make more progress by taking advantage. of the provisions outlined earlier in this report, retiring all of his indebtedness due .agencies other than the Farm Security Corporation, ; 8 ” ”

PPROXIMATELY onef/and a third million tenant and cropper families and members of other groups of disadvantaged farm workers urgently require some form of financial assistance other than that obtained from either the FCA or private lending agencies. a From the standpoint of the nature of their needs they fail into several classes. First, there is the wreckage of the prolonged agricultural depression or of extraordinary calamities in the forin of droughts. Approximately 420,000 farm families who were already near the bare subsistence level, have been forced so far below the level as to require relief grants to avoid destitution. There are also 500,000 or 600,000 families, normally well above the subsistence level, who have suffered such a paralyzing series of misfortunes—largely as a result of drought — that they have exhausted their resources of capital and credit. They require financial aid in the form of feed and seed loans if they are to continue their farm operations. These people under normal circumstances have the capacity to conduct a farm successfully. They are the victims of calamity. These two groups present acute problems both of immediate relief and rehabilitation. There is another large. class of farm families, mostly tenants or croppers who are either severely lacking in adequate operating capital or obtain it at rates that would break the back of any business. Probably the great majority of the 1,831,000 tenant and cropper families of the South and numerous small farmers in other sections not included in the groups mentioned above belong in this category. In general, they are unable to meet the requirements of strictly banking credit.

2” 8 a

IF the South a large proportion of farm families must go into debt for the means of sustenance, as well as for fertilizers and other requirements while making a crop. For these advances they rely on loans from merchants or landlords, for which they pay a combination of interest and “time” prices frequently equivalent to 30 per cent or more on the face of the loan. The system has perpetuated it--self in part because the insistence of lenders on the production of cash crops has prevented the farmer from raising his food; and In part because the experience of the farmer himself and the nature of his equipment limit him largely to cash-crop production. From the standpoint of the merchant or landlord the high charges for credit frequently appear fully justified by the heavy

risk and the relatively high cost

of making and collecting such small loans. To this class of farmers we recommend that the proposed Farm Security Administration offer "a system of rehabilitation loans associated with technical guidance. ‘This form of assistance has already been extended to some 300,000 fainilies by the RA. Such loans should be confined to those who cannot qualify for production credit loans. They should be made for the purchase of machinery and other equipment, livestock, feed, seed, fertilizer and other seasonal operating requirements, as well as for refunding existing ‘ short-term ' indebtedness. The program should be broadened by - abolishing the present restriction to persons on relief. Its primary purpose should be to aid faniilies capable of hard work to

reach a stage where they will be able to qualify for strictly banking credit. First essentials in extending this type of credit are that the entire farm enterprise be considered as a unit; that the credit granted fit into a specific farm management program; and that the farmer and his family be given technical guidance. The farmer’s assets and liabilities should be carefully reviewed, and when necessary the services of the county farm debt -adjustment committee enlisted to bring his debts within his capacity to pay. ” ” ” LANS to assure effective expenditure of funds should be worked out with liberal use of the assistance of local advisory committees. The portion of the loan that is necessary to feed, clothe and heuse the farmer and his family should be determined, with due consideration for producing on the farm a maximum of family requirements. Farm and home plans contribute materially to the ultimate rehabilitation of the family and its ability to repay indebtedness. In employing the system of rehabilitation loans a primary objective should be to stimulate the development of better lease contracts. In fact, this is not only a desirable aim in itself, but also es ‘al to the success of the r m. 112 one-year lease with no assurance of. renewal affords too short and uncertain a period to

permit the working out of a farm

plan, and greatly increases the loan hazard. . Many landlords will sign written leases including provisions for a larger degree of security, if assured that they will be relieved of the necessity of providing credit, and some of the burden of supervision. As the farmers acquire more resources and experience, they should be encouraged to form cooperative credit unions, as well as other types of co-operatives. These and other means will bring some families to the point of qualifying for Production Credit Loans. The best of these farm families can be built up to the stage where they can undertake the purchase of g farm. A study by the RA of 122,000 rehabilitation clients indicates that 11 per cent are now capable of assuming the full responsibilities of farm ownership and another 31 per cent of undertaking the purchase of a small holding provided technical guidance is continued for a time. An additional 33 per cent appear ready to graduate into farm ownership after further guidance and education for a period, not exceeding five years. About one-fourth are so incapacitated by age, ill health, or

—RA Photo.

“This old couple’s land in Brown County has been optioned by the Government.

lack of ability or interest that the outlook ‘for ultimate attainment of ownership appears slight. The potential social saving of such a program is chbvious from these figures and justifies the charging of some of its costs to education of the families benefited and their neighbors, avoidance of relief expenditures and development of healthier and more stable conditions of rural life.

8 " #

HE great majority of farm laborers, as we have noted, are only intermittently employed; their incomes are extremely low and uncertain, their places of residence continually changing, and their contacts with schools, churches and other elements of community life variable and uncertain. Relatively little economic and social data concerning them have been collected, and in the short time available the committee has not been able to secure the information necessary to an adequate consideration of farm labor problems. A far greater degree of national attention should be focused on them. Especially serious farfn labor problems are encountered in those areas where gangs of migratory laborers, a large proportion of whom migrate as families, are required for the arduous work of cultivating and harvesting such crops as sugar beets, berries, and market vegetables. These migrants should at least be provided with decent places to live during their short stays and preferably should be supplied with more permanent habitations during the periods when they are not working in fields or orchards. It is therefore recommended that, where adequate temporary facilities are not already provided by local agencies, the FCA or the Department ‘of Labor continue experimentally the policy begun by the RA in the construction, operation and maintenance of sanitary camps for migratory farm laborers. These camps need not be elaborate physical plants, but they should be so constructed as to afford healthful conditions, where migrants may live inexpensively and wholesomely. This would appear in line with the general obJjectives of better housing. Gradually, it is hoped, the new farm purchase policy and the rehabilitation policy outlined above

MARIGOLD LOSES BAD ODOR

year?

—Science Service Photo.

Are you going to plant any marigolds in your flowe i r garden this Perhaps not; many persons find the odor of AD, stems

and leaves disagreeable. Now a new hybrid variety has been originated

that has no foilage scent at all.

Its flowers are sweet —thei odor is said to resemble that of a honeysuckle. Seented~ their

“One of the parent spe-

cies was an odorless dwarf marigold found by a missionary in Tibet. A mere pinch of its seeds cost $25. Crossed with the re and showier

marigolds already in cultivation, it yielded a fine big-flow id without the objectionable marigold foliage odor. Seed hyond

Shown above, David

Burpee, plant breeder, tests the disagreeable scent. of a flower-heads in the bottle with an instrument known as an Pande of Air passing through the bottle and up the two tubes to his nostrils carries full strength any odor present.

v

will serve to re-establish many migrant families on the land as tenants or small owner-operators and prevent others from becoming migrants. Such -permanent attachment to the soil is desirable, particularly for many of those laborers whose employment is largely within a given community and does not require long-distance migration; even those laborers who cover long distances would be better off if definitely attached to the soil.

” ” 2

ROVISION of small -subsist- > ence farms is recommended on either an ownership or a leasehold -basis for some members of both classes of farm laborers. Such homesteads would materially increase the sense of security and

‘stability of these families.

In general, farm laborers have not shared in the benefits of either Federal or State legislation providing for collective bargaining unemployment, accident, old-age insurance; and requirements for assuring safe and sanitary conditions of employment. These types of legislation might well be applicable to the larger employers of farm labor—those who systematically employ 1laborers in large numbers, as distinguished from the operators of family farms. It is is recommended that in the formulation of various types of labor and social security legislation the farm laborer be given careful attention by Congress and the State Legislatures. It has been noted that included among the classes of disadvantaged farmers are some 500,000 families living on land too poor to provide an adequate livelihood. They occupy holdings estimated in the aggregate at 95,000,000 to 100,000,000 acres. Their land is subject to further deterioration under existing methods of utilization, and their lot is continually growing worse. The operators of this submarginal land are both owners and tenants. It has already been recommended that both be eligible for the farm-purchase program and the rehabilitation loans. It would require many years to aid all of these families in moving to good land or to other locations affording better opportunities. But in a large proportion of cases such an undertaking is a necessary objective. Merely to assume that the problem will ultimately cure itself when these families leave, unable longer to endure their deprivations, is a short-sighted and ultimately a costly attitude. When some families leave, others take their place—and the problem continues. The long-run costs of such a policy include lowered vitality, ignorance and crime engendered by excessively low living standards among a class of our population characterized by high birth rates. In fact, in many such areas direct social costs for relief and various other subsidies amount in a comparatively short time to the entire price of the land.

# » »

yy me such families are farm owners, removal to more favorable locations can be accomplished only by disposition of their present holdings. Even where they are tenants or owners willing to abandon their present holdings, some socially’ desirable uses need to be arranged for the land they leave behind. The land program of the present Administration under which some 9,300,000 acres of sub-stand-ard farm land are being purchased and developed as forests, recra-

. tional area and wild life refuges

is affording temporary relief employment, and for some of the families permanent employment with continued residence. Great Plains region low-standard arable farms have been converted into units sufficiently large to make possible a grazing economy

or grazing combined with crops.

This program is an essential part of an adequate policy of land reform; continuance is therefore recommended on a scale which will retire from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 acres a year at an average price of slightly more than $4 an acre. Like most of the policies recommended in this report, land retirement should be carried out on the basis of a systematic program of rural land use planning, and in

fication,

In the

consultation with the states. For those sub-standard lands, where land retirement cannot be effected for some years—particularly in areas characterized by a type of farming predominantly self-suf-ficing—the rehabilitation program and an adequate supplementary program of general education for more intelligent utilization of available human and natural resources should be developed. Loan policies, however, ought to avoid perpetuating an economy that in many areas should be essentially temporary. The program for acquiring and developing submarginal land should be closely correlated with the ownership and rehabilitation policies recommended in this report, and therefore should be carried out by the Farm Security Administration with such funds as Congress may make available for the purpose. Lands not suitable for the program of the Farm Security Administration, however, should be transferred for administration to the appropriate agency.

2 8 2

T has been pointed out that speculation has been one of the most potent forces retarding the ownership of land by farmers. The capital value of land tends to outrun upward trends in farm income. At times this condition has been aggravated by purchase of land by non-farmers primarily for speculative purposes. Measures to avoid excessive overcapitalization and associated abnormal indebtedness resulting from widespread speculation are a necessary part of any fundamental attack on the evils of farm land tenure. The position of the nation in this regard is in some respects safer than it was in 1918-20, for instance, by reason of the greater ability of the Federal Government to exert a restraining influence through the FCA and the Federal Reserve System. These agencies are well aware of the dangers, and are in a strong position to insist that appraisals and loan policies: be kept well below advances in price levels and current farm incomes until the degree of permanence - in such advances can be determined. In the light of past lessons, it is probable that other important agencies lending on the security of farm land will also lean in the direction of greater caution. The influence of such agencies should be strengthened by an educational program among farmers as to the dangers of an unduly rapid increase of farm land values. Encouragement of extra payments on principal by farm pur‘chasers in good years (similar to what was recommended above for farms sold by the Federal Government), by leveling off the net income received by farm owners, would reduce fluctuations in land values caused by demand on their part for land. As a further means of controlling speculation, it is recommended that the Federal Government at an early date insert a provision in .the Federal income tax law imposing a specific tax on capital gains from sales of land made within three years from the date of purchase. Due allowance should be made for improvements, including soil enrichment, beautireforestation, or other enhancement of value brought about by the owner. A capital gains tax, taking a large percentage of the unearned net increment, would materially discourage buying land mergly for ‘the purpose of earpy resale and would tend to keep land values on a level where farmers could better afford ownership. Special safeguards would prevent evasion, and through fictitious forms of ownership, and also prevent the tax working severe hardships in cases of unavoidable resale. 2 In order to discourage speculation and absentee-ownership, it is also recommended that the Federal Farm Loan Act and the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act be amended so as to limit loans for the purchase of lan ns who are at the time, or shortly to become, personally engaged in the operation of the farm to be mortgaged.

NEXT—What the states can do in co-operation with the Federal program.

"with tuberculosis germs.

Qur Town

AST year just about this time I led devotees of this column to believe that polychromatic plumbing was headed for oblivion. I was rather gleeful about it, I remember. Well, it was a false alarm, and

nobody knows it better than I, because I've just returned from the Home Show. To tell the truth, polychromatic plumbing is stage ing a comeback. Even Dick Bishop's delightful’House 0’ Dreams is loaded down with it, and I guess there's nothing more for me to do but grin and bear it. Last year, too, I remember. wondering * when, if ever, our architects would make up their minds about where to eat in the American home—whether, for instance, it is to be in the dining room, the kitchen or some other place not yet thought of. Well, it’s my painful duty to report that the architects haven't made any Mr. Seherrer progress in that direction, either. ; Mr. Bishop, for instance, provides his dream house with a well-developed dining room which is good enough for anybody to eat in, and then turns right around and repeats the whole performance with a kitchen alcove and a garden terrace which are also good enough for the purpose. It ends up, of course, with our eating in the kitchen. - I don’t know whether this sort of thing is good for our table manners or not, and to tell the truth I don’t care any more. I don't mind hazy-minded people as a rule—indeed, I confess to a fondness for them—but, for some reason, I'm not big or broad enough to include architects. ” x ” Disappointed in Living Room 1 disappointed, too, that our architects don’t do something about the living room, because the way things stand now, the living room just doesn’t work any more. I know whereof I speak because I was in on the birth of the American living room, and I ree member how hopeful everybolly was about its future, I might as well tell you about it. About 40 years ago a group of cloistered architects conceived the idea of housing all the physical, cultural and spiritual activities of the American home in one big room. They called it a “living room.” To get a living room they confiscated all other rooms which up to that time had done their part in promoting the welfare - of the family. They confiscated the parlor, sitting room, the library, the den and the boudoir to get what seemed to them a poetic idea. Shucks, it wasn’t anything of the sort. Instead, it was a lot of piffie because it failed to come to grips with the realities

of life, ” 2 =

Left Family Without Retreat

O tell the truth, the living room left the family without a retreat. The vital units of the family had to hang around the living room. or go into the street. Families saw toc much of each other—or too little. By the time the daughter was ready to receive her company, the old living room stood in the way, ready to gum up everything. The family injected itself into the daughter's courtship. It ended, of course, with father and mother going to the movies," or it took the alternative of daughter and her beau starting out in the Ford, than which I can imagine ‘nothing more unsatisfactory. Something had to crack, of. course. And anyway, the modern living room is much too big for a first-class courtship. It calls for a snug little room with one dodr and a fireplace just big enough

' to conjure up dreams.

A Woman's View By MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

N the: C. & O. lounge car between Columbus and ‘Toledo the porter is a man of character. A trim, dapper person, faintly reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin, with the same elfin quality and the same wistfulness, One would not have been surprised to see him pirouette down the aisle for the sheer joy of being alive. And what satisfaction he gets out of his job! Thirty-eight years he has been looking after that car and its passengers! His voice was proud as he related that surprising fact, and it seemed almost. impossible to believe, since the man himself looked not much more than 38. He was infinitely -solicitous for our comfort. He chirruped over us, brushed us clean and soothed our little fears. “Don’t worry,” he said. “There's a taxi strike on in Tcledo but there’ll be busses to take care of everyone. Xeep cheerful. There’s nothing to be alarmed about.” Like a mother getting a brood of fretful children off to school he saw that we were tidy, that our luggage was well strapped and our shoes nicely dusted, It's a wonder the peevish men did not feel ashamed as he bothered to make them more comfortable. A few were shamefully grouchy, They wore expensive topcoats and were no doubt yery important person ages, and yet there wasn’t. a smile in the carload. It was the Negro man whol gave. brightness to the day and tone to the occasion. When we departed he showed us his warmest smile, begging us to ride with him again some time.. The rest of us moved off stifIly like bodies tied up with ropes, unresponsive as oysters, embarrassed perhaps to find a human being who was uninhibited enough to be himself and not ashamed to find joy in service to others. 3 It was pride in his job that gave the porter his personality. And among all the throngs of individuals who pass up and down before our eyes in a lifetime, of how few can it be said, “I shall remember him.” Because we remember people, not for what they say or do, but for what they are. And when they have character, when they are different from the common run, they leave their impression upon us whether they are personages or porters.

Your Health

By DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

Editor American Medical Assn. Journal

rf tae now are available certain tests which show whether a child is or has been infected It has become customary to apply these tests to large groups of children to determine the extent of infection. The X-ray, for instance, promptly shows changes that occur in the lung, and tuberculin tests reveal presence of the disease. Many people have their family doctors use the tuberculin test on children at regular intervals to find out whether or not the youngsters are in danger. In this test a small amount of material called tuberculin is applied to the skin or, in some cases, injected between the layers of the skin. If the skin reacts positively to this material, this signifies that the tissues have been sensitized to the material of the tuberculosis germ. A positive tuberculin test thus means that the tubercle germs have entered the body and that somewhere in the body there is infection. There may, of course, be cases in which the reace tions are doubtful, and other instances in which no other evidence of tuberculosis can be revealed by any of the accepted methods. In most instances, however, this should indicate either the necessity for further testing or for continued watchfulness and study to determine the point at which the infection is localized. Not always will a person who shows a positive reaction become severely sick with tuberculosis, There is evidence that approximately 20 per cent of those who react positively do present manifestations of the disease at some subsequent time. We do not, however, have any certain way of knowing which of those who react positively will be among the 80 per cent who are going to be safe, and which among the 20 per cent destined to be severely infected.

‘