Evening star., 1923-06-04
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

.f President Harding wants, to cali
another international arms confer
ence and put limit on naval air
craft, according to reports from the
White House. -- ~ 3.
1t has been supposed that "the
sky's the limit" so far as airplanes
are concerned, What's the "ante?"
x y X
Lawyers tell us that it is a more
serious crime for two or more to
conspire to- violate law than for one
person, without accomplices, to vio-
late it. The law against conspiracy
is to be applied to rum sellers and
violators of the narcotic laws in
Washington hereafter whenever two
or more persons join. in an act of
violation. Conspirators may get two
years in a federal penitentiary.
x x*
Thrifty householders. who have
been worried over the necessity to
lay in a lifetime supply of fuel be-
cause the sun had been reported as
losing it's radiance. may take courage,
as DIR. Abbot of the Smithsonian In
stitution, the expert measurer of the
suns heat, assures waiting world
that, in his opinion, the sun has been
shining. about as it does. now, for
hundreds of millions of years, and, so
far as science can tell, 1t is likely
to go on shining for as much long
er. The little fuctuation of three
per cent, noticed in the last year, Is
mot extraordinary, he says, and viii
be made. up in few years, or less.
x x
Secretary Herbert Hoover of the
Department of Commerce has formal
ly indorsed the American Construc-
ton Council. which is viewing the
general conditions Of building
throughout the country. The chair
man of the council, y. +. Hoggson,
issues a statement that, unless build
ing conditions are put on a more set.
tied basis before next fall, there viii
be wide espread unemployment in the
building trades all winter.
The numerous strikes and unprece-
dented demands for Increased wages,
he says, make certain that building
cannot go on without better adjust
ment. conference between Secre-
tary Hoover and the executive com
mittee of the council has been held
with a view to seeking means for
stabflizing conditions, in the hope of
fairer prices for both material and
labor. The council will publish in
formation from time to time concern
ing building conditions throughout
the country.
Have modern schools become too
mechanical in their methods of push
ing the pupils along a beaten path?
This might be inferred from a speech
made to graduation class at the
Knights of Columbus Evening School
by Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford
of the District Supreme Court.
''The meager district school pro-
duced some of Americas greatest
sons, superior to the youth of today"
said the justice. THE youth of today
does not have the divine curiosity for
education"
That dictum of the justice may not
correspond to the appraisal of the
youth of today, in their own estima-
tion. There are boys who have be-
come enamored over wireless tele-
phony, and by their divine curiosity"
are able to lay an Atlantic cable" of
wireless communication, wherewith
they may not merely tick the Morse
ether above the clouds, they hear
European music in their home or talk
across the continent. Science has
become the pIaYthing of the boy, the
wonder-worker of the age.
X y X
Where MacGregor sits. there is the
head OF the table," The Pullman
car. in which President Harding will
travel to the Pacific coast, en- route
to Alaska, will be equipped with a
radio receiving and broadcasting out
fit, SO that. at all times he. will be
in touch with the whole country, and
his speeches, at whatever stop they
are made, will be audible through
out the country. The Constitution