Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-07-02
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS

or smoked out. Birds help US drive
ohem away. All, the brave little
allies!
But birds are powerless against this
pest which would wipe out more than
an acre of forest--a great beauty
spot OF a sunken garden. right here
in the center of the residence section
of Washington. There is nothing SO
dangerous to nature as this pestifer-
Gus bird-defying invasion. The sunk
en- garden is directly in front of a
newly built row of residences, all
occupied by nature lovers. Rock
Creek Park surrounds the residences
on three sides, and drew these lovers
or trees as magnet draws steel
But now the tragedy!
The pest has arrived. Can it be
stayed?
I don't know the true biological
name Of the pest. l have seen and
heard 1t at work. One morning, this
spring, 1 was taken by surprise when
two-foot oak, close to my break
fast table, suddenly tottered. and, like
a stricken hero in battle, fell / had
not noted the crunching of the pest.
IKE wild beaver gnawing at it's
base. 1t fell PROSTATE. Neighbors
| came running-almost weeping. The
tragedy was beyond prevention, but
violence was In the air.
* ***
The sunken garden encroaches on
the right of way of q much Travelled
| street, we'll paved, with a terraced
| sidewalk on the opposite side, and
because the gulley comes within three
or four feet of the paved roadway
i there Is no sidewalk (nor residence)
on the side next to the gulley. But
there is blueprint which maps a
sidewalk where now are priceless
trees To let the blueprint rule. a
strip of forest eighteen feet wide, the
whole length. must be sacrificed, and
the sunken garden be filled In upon
that whole side, eighteen feet deep.
All trees In half the sunken garden
would thus be killed. Other blue
print Improvements" widening a
gemi-priyate driveway would wipe out
the opposite side. and so the whole
sunken garden would be improved"
hlled up, an acre of original forest
destroyed and the beauties of the
gulley annihilated. That Is the pest
which even birds cannot fight. IL
may be called blueprint improve
mentitis." All neighbors, on both
sides or the forest, are panic stricken.
What can be sprayed to Kill blue
print improyementitis?
Il r. X y
Optometrists in conference assem-
Tied warn blue-eyed girls to relieve
their eyes by frequently looking up
from their work and gazing mourn
fully or invitingly at green things.
They often do. Ditto brown-eyed
lassies.
When President Harding's recon-
mendation that the government
should foster and support corpora
tive purchasing organizations of con-
sumers. to cut down the high cost of
living, shall be more fully understood,
it is possible that it will be found to
have been like Mark Twains death"
somewhat exaggerated" Who are
| consumers" Are merchants con
sumers"? Aren't all clerks Con
sumers"? Aren't the clerks in shoe
stores Consumers OF dry goods and
groceries and of farm products? Also,
are not farmers consumers" of manu-
features and all employees in manu-
| factories consumers" of food and
clothing? Are we not all consumers
| of everything We each and separately
do not produce? Some Of our mer-
chants are asking:
When everybody joins cooperative
buying societies. covering everything
they do not make. who will do the
actual work of distributing, and how
will they be paid?
'If the present mercantile system
should be wholly superseded. they
suggest by so-called cooperative So
cieties, will the societies be managed
by experienced. skilled merchants or
! by inexperienced theorists? Limited
cooperation by both buying and SELL
| ing, by special communities, has
! proved economical. but that does not
mean a wholesale substitution which
would destroy all merchandising by
private enterprise"
Copyright, 1923. by P V. Collins)