Evening star., 1924-11-02
National Affairs


The American citizen who is
blessed with a normal amount of the
element which killed the cat, salts
fed his Unborn curiosity concerning
the worldly wealth of this next-door
neighbor last week when he found
on the front pages of his newspaper
lists of names followed by the
amount of income tax they paid for
last year to the Federal Government.
At the same time there developed
one of the most interesting situations
in years over the Interpretation of
a law passed by Congress. The orig
inal income. tax law declared it
felony, punishable by fine and i'm
,prisonment. to publish anything con-
corning a mans income obtained
from confidential Government files
But in the last session of Congress
the law was amended to provide that
the income tax lists should be thrown
open to the public. The newspapers
which published the lists contended
the later law nullified the first, while
the Government is not at all sure
that it does. The only way to deter
mine the question is to test both laws
in the courts, and the Attorney Cen
eral' is now preparing to institute
and find out just what the law does
mean. The curiosity stricken public.
which has had its appetite for gossip
whetted by reading the lists, now
awaits with interest the outcome of
the fight.
In pursuance of Senate resolu-
ton. adopted in the last session of
Congress, a senatorial investigating
cOnnfniffpa han lot,
inject a little extra excitement in an
otherwise rather dull campaign by
nnding out how, when and how much
money has been raised by the three
political parties to help them carry
on their fights. The Investigation
mas been interesting, but devoid of
the scandal which many seemed to
think would be forthcoming. One
thing has been impressed again upon
the nublic-that it takes a lot of
money to carry on d political cam
paign
For the convenience of the wit
nesses, the investigating committee
divided its activities during the week
Senator Borah, chairman of the
committee. and Senator Shipstead go
ing to Chicago, while Senators Cara
way and Bayard were left here to
prosecute the inquiry from this end.
House committee continued to in
VestGate the charges of Charles r
Brewer formerly of the Department
Of Justice, to the effect that there
was serious duplication of Govern
ment bonds at the Bureau of Engray-
ing and Printing, while there have
been renewal of sensational
charges a decided lack of excitement
toward them is evident on the part of
the public
Led by observances in Washington
the whole Nation joined Monday in
commemorating the birthday anniyer-
Sary Of Theodore Roosevelt, a date
which has come to be designated as
Navy day. because Of the great ma
he took in undermining the American
Navy Appropriate exercises were held
IN nearly every city of the United
States
The United States is a dangerou.
country to live in, if one may judge
from the Red Cross report of its bust.
est year. which was made public last
week. From disaster alone. 735 peo-
pie were killed. 1000 injured, ~ 900
rendered. homeless and property dam
aged to the extent of $45,000,O0O. OF
the serious disasters, there were Is
hres, z cyclones and IA tornadoes. A
large per cent of the disasters oc-
Cured east of the Mississippi.
The city-manager form of govern
ment, which has come to be widely
adopted by many cities in the United
States, was upheld as constitutional,
SO far as Cleveland. Ohio, is con-
cerned, in case decided last Monday
by the United States Supreme Court.
The court dismissed for want of
S6j
payer who contended the city-man-
ager form of government was con-
trary to State laws as we'll as the
United States Constitution. The
United States Supreme Court decided
that as the Supreme Court of Ohio
had upheld the city-manager form of
government, there was no question
left open for it to pass upon.
A strange new mTady. which
caused horrible death to- five men dur
ing the week and ser:tusIy affected
% others. was discovered in the Bay
view, N. j., laboratories of the Stand
ard Oil Co. Of New Jersey. It afflict-
ed men engaged in the manufacture
of tetraethyl, lead compound, which,
mixed with ordinary commercial gaso-
line. gives a motor more powe and
eliminates so-called carbon knocks"
Those who died suffered from violent
insanity during the short illness
which preceded death. New York City
became SO alarmed that the sale of
gasoline containing tetraethyl was
forbidden. But the Bureau of Mines,
which has been investigating the
compound, announced that there was
virtually no danger in the CONNER
cial use of gasoline containing the
chemical because of the small proper
tion of it's mixture with the automo-
hi1a fne1