Evening star., 1923-02-28
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

are in demand. Unframed woman
clerks, oreuntrained men. need. the
opportunity to increase their useful
of q law that operates as often to bar
them from employment at any price
~ 1t does to enhance their pay.
Thata6 the afgurnent which opposes
the The wass fcr scale ss sna
before the Supreme Court March 5.
The great naturalist Agassiz wSs
offered rich contract for a course Of
lectures and replied: "I haven't time
to, make money" Senator John Sharp
Williams, who will retire from Con-
gress next week after serving un-
interruptedly since the F4fty-third
Congress. is said to have been offered
100000 a year for a series of weekly
newspaper articles on public life and
current issues, and he has given the
Agassiz answer. He is going home
of his Fse rsad and Happy to aend the the
whose avocations are more to him
than a 100000 vocation.
X a*
I Figures won't lie. but Some ex-
pert accountant tells a thirsty world
that, II President Harding's predic-
ton is true that it will take twenty
five years before the Volstead law Is
fully enforced, the total cost will be
$50 thousand billion dollars. q omit
the exact change-these are round
| figures. but it is a square sum- The
calculation is based on the notion
! that the present rate of violation will
! be kept up clear to the end of the
| twenty-five years and then on New
Year. 1948, all America will sud-
denly swear of and shoot the boot
| leggers
What President Harding meant was
! that the violation would gradually
! taper Off to a thin edge until at the
end of twenty-five years the whole
| business would be dead. From that
! standpoint the way. to figure would
be to strike an average between the
present cost and zero, which would
split the sum, 80 that only 80 thou
| sand billion dollars would be the cost.
/ Why bother about bagatelles? Ism,
| 1t worth that much?
| \ y x
| Congress has given the Department
of Commerce $500,000 with which to
experiment and investigate as to the
possibilities of rubber production in
the Philippine Islands. The modern
demand for rubber has grown out Of
,all bounds and there is danger that
Great Britain may monopolize it's pro-
duction.
Rubber is of vegetable growth, and
| naturally all science of raising crops
4 belongs to the Department of Agri-
| culture. Just why this experiment
in rubber Is taken out of the Depart
ment of Agriculture and given to
! the Department of Commerce has not
I been explained. In the meanwhile
the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr..
Wallace, tells the public that rubber
will grow In our southern states
: Whether it can be made profitable
! in the south is a question of wages
| of the laborers required to handle the
gum as 1t comes from the trees. That
| appears to be the present problem.
But 1t does not follow that because
| much cheaper manual labor is required
| under South American methods Ameri-
| can genius might not find labor-saving
methods which would replace that
manual labor.
| 1t is certain that the object of the
experiment is most vital to American
commercial Independence. At present
J75 per cent of the rubber of the world
is produced in British territory.
More than rs per cent Of automobile
tires are made in the United States.
and new uses are being developed
leach year. increasing the demand
For example, in Boston the prac-
tticability of paving the business
streets with ruhber"is under discus
sion. The argument in its favor Is
it's deade ring Of the hubbub of traffic.
II such an experiment proves sue
cessful In Boston the demand for other
cities would be incalculaby great.
Copyright. 1923. by P. V. ColinsD