The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-12-10
W iide
w Orld
by Herbert Kaufman-

INCLE SAM wants 20 KNOW
" what's hiding in the Arctic
Circle.
More good news for map
manufacturers and geography
publishers. Ever since 1914
circumstances have conspired to
promote their markets. Each
boundary shift and frontier
change means another issue OF
globes and textbooks; and,
now revision Of Arctic charts
is forecast by Lieut.. Comdr.
Fitzhugh Green, one Of the
naval experts chosen by Secre-
tary DENLY to make an inven-
tory Of the worlds ice-bound
attic.
No one has the slightest con-
ception of the wealth contained
in q million square miles lying
between Alaska and the Pole.
Having purchased from Russia
fifty billion dollars worth OF
gold and coal fnot to mention
timber reserves, oil deposits
and reindeer tundras) at q
trivial outlay Of seven millions,
the Federal Government con-
siders It shrewd business to
survey region which may add
far vaster stores to our re-
sources.
Few Of as realized that there
remained on earth q free-to-all
domain, comparable in area to
the stretch OF country west of
the Mississippi. Or that the
Borea1 climate six months in
the year isn't q bit colder than
the extreme temperature Of
upper Michigan. Or that an
atmospheric Gulf stream, bear
ing warm air currents from the
Equator, probably insures coy
airship journeys to Aurora
land.
History as a Second Hand
Dealer.
THERE'S still plenty to learn;
i as earthworm specialists
win agree, after devoting a
whole century to quizzing fish
bait. And at that, some 700
species haven't yet confessed to
science their habits and pur-
poses. Sophomores, please take
notice.
Readers, surprised when Ed
ward 81. Doheny predicted linn
itless reclamation from oil
soaked dirt and shale, will be
interested to hear that much
of the havoc wrought by the
great Chicago fire was credited
to petroleum building stone"
used IN constructing the city's
commercial district.
History says there aren't
many new ideas. If Athenians
had listened to Pythagoras the
Greeks might have colonized
America ever so long ago.
CLuudius and Trojan Send
Wnrn;ae
YESTERDAY wasn't nearly
= the numbskuII Henry Ford
would have rs think. Most
contemporary problems also
creased ancient brows.
Bolshevism's plan to elm
mate the employer class from
production is paralleled by q
plebian attempt to rid labor of
capitals services.
The alien question, likewise,
presents no original phases.
Unchecked immigration and neg
lectful naturalization laws de-
livered Rome to ruin.
The harm had already been
done when Emperor Claudius,
receiving a deputation from
Asia Minor, found that none of
the delegates, could speak a
word of Latin. His prede.
cessors should have decreed
that che is not Roman who is
ignorant of the language of
Rome"
Trajan, in turn, vainIy tried to
shore the collapsing empire by
requiring aspirants for public
office to invest a third of their
fortunes in Italian property, Gin
order" said Pliny the Younger,
that those who sought national
dignities should regard Rome,
not as an inn to put up at in
travel, but as their home"
Not Rooted in Our Soil.
CECRETARY DAVIS will find
~ his strongest briefs for semi
exclusion in the experience of
vanished civilizations. With al
most seventy per cent of foreign
born inhabitants unsworn to the
Republic, and ten million litter
ates (mainly of European birth
or extraction) these United
States must indefinitely restrain
the elements fouling the melting
pot.
President Coolidge, proposing
racial quotas based upon assimi-
iation percentages, adopts the
suggestion repeatedly offered by
the writer, whose research while
special assistant to the Secre-
tary Of the Interior, in charge
OF Americanization, indicated
that no family tree is really
fixed in our soil until it begins
to send out tap roots.
Federal statistics show how
those who come here without
their women-the he lots of in
dustry attracted to Americs
solely by its high wages-ar'
nhnnninnIl,r -nn:nA..A 81. Il.