davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Chicago'S Gun Evil.

| Stirred at last to action by the
latest gang murder, the Chicago police
are going after the pistol carriers in
that city, with a view to ridding the
! town of the armed thugs who have
been making life cheap and precarious.
Certain facts have come to light in
the course OF the inquiries into the
situation stimulated by these sue
Cessive homicides. Permits to carry
pistols have been issued by the thou
sands, apparently without the least
discrimination. Justices of the peace
have granted great numbers of them
Memberships have been taken in
various organizations with semi
police character. Two Of these un-
official groups, II is stated, number no
less than $500 members, all of whom
are qualified to carry pistols and to
wear badges.
Regulation of the pistol evil cannot
be effectively undertaken by a single
city or a single State. Pistol vending
is interstate commerce. Until both the
ehIAu NAiC SAPi SSo SCI WIG OIL o
closed to these goods, save for legiti-
mate sale, they will continue to -
distributed throughout the country,
be bought by any person, whatev.
may be the motive for personal ARM:
ment.
New York has an anti-pistol laf
which imposes a severe penalty upd5
the purchaser and carrier of a deadz,
weapon. But through special permits,
which are easy to obtain. and by gS-
ing across the State boundary in45
another jurisdiction, any crook csSl
get a gun without much difticults
The Sullivan law" as it is styled, Is
virtually a dead letter.
Concealed weapons laws, which
merely penalize the carrying Of gu1as
without permits, are not capable ff
enforcement effectively. The gun car
rier cannot be detected until he has
been arrested for some other offense,
or until he has used his Illicit weapon.
The only way to reach the root Of the
evil is to regulate the manufacture
and the distribution of these imple-
ments Of death.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
The Whipping Post.

The whipping post remains in Mary.
land, and from Frederick has come an
account of man stripped to the
waist, tied to an iron bar of a jail
door, and given ten lashes with a
blacksnake whip. There comes a de-
scription of the long red welts, the
pallor and faintness of the man, his
call for air when the flogging was
done and the administration of stimu-
lants to him by a physician present as
an official of the county. The man
whipped is said to have shaken hands
with the sheriff who flogged him and
to have said that he felt no i'll will to-
ward the official. The man was con-
victed of beating his wife and the ten
lashes were given him by sentence of
a court. 1t would seem that the form
of punishment has majority approval.
There are many persons in Mary
land and a great majority outside of
Maryland who feel that flogging is a
punishment that does not belong to
our country and this century. There
were many punishments approved in
earlier centuries which if inflicted now
would shock the people. They would
be classed as cruel and unnatural, and
in most parts of our country the
whipping post IS in that classification.
The crime of wife beating is odious,
but the time is not long passed when
a man had legal right to beat his wife.
That right was repeatedly vindicated
by courts Sentiment has changed
and the man who beats his wife has
no standing in public opinion or law.
Law in most parts of the country
makes it a cause for divorce.
There is a brutality in tying a man
to bar and beating him, sometimes
to insensibility and death, which Of
tends a common sense of decency. 1t
is felt that this form of punishment
does not deter wife-beaters, who uSu-
ally act under the impulse of natural
viciousness or drunkenness. 1t is not
believed that criminals are better con-
trolled in any part of the country
where the whipping post is retained
than in those parts of the country
where 1t has been abolished.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

ing. So it is proposed to push out
substitutes in the form of more two
dollar bills.
Prejudice against the two-dollar bill
runs through all branches of the great
spending family. 1t Is disliked be-
cause 1t gets mixed" with the dol.
lars, and also because 1t is regarded
with some degree of superstition. 1t
is popular only with a certain class
of people, who are prone to taking
chances with Dame Fortune.
The circulation life of the two-dollar
bills is comparatively short, because
they get back to the Treasury quick
ly. They are turned into the banks
for change and the banks turn them
back to the central fiscal headquarters
for transmutation into "ones.'
Probably the only remedy for. the
situation is for the Government to
print more one-dollar bills, to accumu-
late a stock and permit seasoning.
Certainly there is no likelihood of re-
lief being found through the issue of
silver dollars. That was tried, some
time ago. but the experiment failed.
The spending public simply would not
take them. The onedollar bill Is the
most popular form of currency with
the mass of the people and the Treas
ury might as well make provision for
supplying It in sufficient quantities to
SlInnlV the demand
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Gold From Mercury?

A story is printed that a japanese
physicist, who seems to be nick
named the Japanese Einstein," has
transmitted mercury to gold. The pub
nshed accounts show that the man
of Japan is in the front rank of sci
entists. 1t is said that "he has sue
ceeded in producing artificial gold by
disintegrating atoms of quicksilver in
an electrical field of several million
volts per centimeter." That is a trifle
strong for the comprehension Of lay
men or non-scientists. DIR. Nagaoka,
this Japanese scientist, has ex-
planned that he made his discovery
while trying ito accelerate the radio.
activity of uranium and to speed up
ifA decay into radium.' The expert
ihent failed. but he concentrated un
Evening star., 1925-07-16
SHOOTING STARS.
BY pHILANDER JOHNSON.
A Gentle Defiance

A Gentle Defiance.
The world is playing rather rough
And there is now a rumor
That politicians, as they bluff,
Have lost their sense of humor.
They say, instead of shouting for the
brave and for the free,
You can't make any monkey out
of me-
They fear no one who thorns might
toss
Upon the brow of Labor;
Nor one who has a golden cross
And draws it on his neighbor.
The only little protest that they ven.
ture seems to be
You can't make any monkey out
of me-"
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Defense Day Observance
Arouses No Enthusiasm

events Of Defense day. The cittzeue
Of this land need no annual test ut
their patriotism.
The underlying purpose Of Defense
day. however, is auUrGwel hE MANY
papers, which believe. with Tie an-
pleton Post Crescent. that "tLe ma
tional defense act of Congress IS the
best measure of preugrearess ever
undertaken by the United States f
and emphasize the necessity for 'a
citizen reserve. partly trained and
definitely available To make mp tho
lack of a large standing army. jim
this connection, the Bakersfield
Morning Echo holds that the great.
est preventive of war is q well pre-
pared country. \ visLbIy strong ma
ton promises durable peace
y =
Asking that Defense day be 4 little
more practical the Biaghamtou
Press suggests that enrolment
ought to have some practical relation
to the Arny's scheme for general
mobilization The Springfield. Mass
Union comedies that America IS mill
tary ana civilian strength has been
actually tested on these last two
Defense days cannot he truthrullv
stated, and the Tampa Times remarks
thar Defense day is an unusually
poor tail for the kite of any other
day"
However, the Indianapolis News he
lieVeS the muster days serve q good
purpose because they bring the
people and their armed forces much
closer together and that is productive
of benefits fully as important as those
measured in muster rolls"
Evening star., 1925-07-16

precedented electrical activity in a
small field, and he thought that with
severe artificial electrical storm he
could wreck atoms and change their
nature. In this way he obtained gold
from mercury.
There has been a report that a Ger
man chemist or physicist, DIR. A.
Miethe of Berlin. has obtained gold
from mercury. 1t is not uncommon
to get gold from mercury, but the
usual way is to expose gold to mer-
curry, form amalgam of gold and
mercury, and then destroy the mer-
curry to get the gold. There have
been reports from remote times that
men have changed quicksilver, copper
and zinc to gold. and a great many
some time, in the reports. Yet the
world still depends on gold that was
made by Nature in it's old, mysterious
way. The alchemist spoke in words
so learned that his humble hearers
were confounded and dumfounded; yet
in spite of all the difficult and obscure
language manufactured gold has not
come to the mints. We hear of syn
thetic this and that, but not OF
synthetic gold. So many things have
come to be known as coal tar prod
ucts' that if d scientist would report
the discovery of coal tar gold he would
have a large audience
In times when Egypt was young
and growing country and Greece was
the worlds leader in progress alche-
mists were busy trying to get gold
without digging it or selling gold mine
stock. Many practical people of old
Rome believed in the making of gold.
Caligula tried to make gold from
orpiment or yellow arsenic. Diocletian
had little faith in manufactured gold
and ordered all books to be burned
that professed to teach ways of max
ing gold. If the Japanese physicist
has made gold cheaper than it can
be mined, the world will greet him
as a wonder-man.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Island Possessions.

The suggestion of Hamilton Fish
that the United States buy more is
lands in the Caribbean Sea from the
European powers by canceling part
of their war debts to the United
States is not visionary as 1t may seem.
It must be remembered that we have
already acquired the Virgin Islands
from Denmark by purchase. Mr..
F''~'- sets out the fact that the pur-
chase of other of the Caribbean is
lands owned by foreign powers would
act as a protection for the Panama
Canal.
"What we of these United States
should do at this time" Mr.. Fish
says. 'is to buy all the islands ~vvned
by European nations in the Caribbean
Sea. 1t is very easy to do, requiring
only the cancellation Of nortions of
the war debts due us from other
powers. 1t is necessary to persuade
European nations to leave us the
whole hemisphere, otherwise there will
always be the dagger at our throats
in the exposed ~osition Of the Panama
Canal"
There is no question that the United
States would feel more secure for the
canal if Barbados and other Euro
pean-owned islands were under our
protectorate instead of as at present.
1t is never wise to give snap judg-
ment on anything as important as
territorial acquisition, but Mr.. F'ish's
proposal will bear careful investiga-
tion.-Asbury Park Press.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
A Queer French Proposal.

An unusual, not to say astonishing,
suggestion is contained in a cable
gram to the New York World from its
Paris correspondent, and which was
reprinted yesterday in The Star, with
credit 10 that newspaper. In brief,
the correspondent writes that the
French government is prepared to sug.
gest that a commission be appointed
consisting of five Americans, one Eng
lshman, one FrenChman and one
Italian, to inquire into the matter of
French ornaments and to report
whether, under the circumstances in
Europe, France is excessively armed.
The intimation is conveyed that
France would expect such a commits
sion to be created after the manner of
the Dawes commission of experts on
German reparations and to function
along the same lines. The Washing
ton Government would not be asked
actually TO appoint the American
members, but the names of candidates
would be submitted for informal ap-
proval or disapproval, and Washing
ton thus would assume direct, if in
tangible, responsibility for the out
come of the undertaking.
The proposal, of course, is hooked
UP with the matter of the French
debt to America and prospective early
negotiations for its funding. The
French government, according to the
report, anticipates being told at Wash
ington that if France would reduce it's
armaments it would not be under
necessity of asking for such liberality
in terms of debt payment, and the
proposal for a commission of inquiry
would be in way of justifying the con-
tention that present French arma-
nents are necessary to the peace of
Europe.
1t is difficult to believe the American
Government would permit itself to be
maneuvered into any such position
In the first place, there is no com
parison between the questions of Ger
man reparations and French arma-
n1ents. The first question is one of
economics and finance. The second is
political, pure and simple. The Dawes
commission had to deal with only
facts, ascertainable and demonstrable
A commission on French armaments
would have to deal with the secret in
tentions of other governments toward
France and Frances allies. with the
fears and hatreds and misunderstand-
ings of an entire continent. If the
commission reported that France
could safely reduce ornaments be-
cause Germany had no warlike inten-
tions, and this Government gave the
same stamp Of approval to the report
that 1t gave to the report of the
Dawes commission, America would
become, in the eyes of the world. the
Suarantor of Germany's good faith,
and if Germany broke faith France
and the world would look to this coun-
try to apply disciplinary measures. If
any scheme could be devised better
calculated to involve the United States
IN the political squabbling of Europe
1t would have to be, in the language
of the small boy, some scheme.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
The Dollar Bill.

Conferences are being held at the
Treasury on the subject of how to
make the dollar bill last longer. They
are not unique. Conferences are
being held daily in many American
homes on the same question. The
life of a dollar bill is a topic of peren.
NAL domestic discussion. 1t has been
debated by millions of experts in
currency longevity.
The Treasury experts are talking
about the physical dollar bill, which
now lasts about seven months. The
domestic experts are talking about the
fiscal unit, which lasts about as many
hours. The same dollar bill provides
matter for numerous family confer.
ences as it passes to and fro. Every
family group that considers the en-
durance of the bill adds to its frailty.
A dollar bill that lasts seven months
serves thousands of people, goes
through many hands. 1t pays for
groceries, for coal, for clothing and
footwear, for entertainment, for lux.
'-4ASS' III iiISNiS4iiCo' IOi II ilppeIleS anu
for house rent. No matter how de.
crepit it may become, it is still a
dollar, just as it was when, crisp and
fresh, it came from the Engraving
Bureau.
One proposed means of making the
dollar last longer physically is to
give it little more time for curing
after being printed. So large is the
consumption of these bills, which cost
on an average l 40 cents each, thai
the Government cannot accumulate z
, sufficient stock - permit this season
Evening star., 1925-07-16

Christian religions by connection with
any religious matter.
At the education conference the late
President Sun Vat Sen of China pro-
posed the founding in Honolulu of an
international university for teaching
the practical arts of road building.
agriculture and construction.
Plans are formulating to establish at
Honolulu permanent Institute for
Scientific Research, and to hold inter.
national conferences there every two
years. These conferences will cover
all possible interests. A pan-Pacific
bar conference, a Red Cross confer
ence, a pan-Pacific women's confer
ence and several others are being pro-
vided for, to be held in the next two
or three years.
The high representative interna-
tional character Of the union is dem.
onstrated by the list of honorary
presidents, all of whom have desig-
mated approval: Calvin Coolidge, Presi.
dent of the United States; S. NJ. Bruce.
prime minister of Australia; the late
w. F.. Massey, prime minister of New
Zealand; Tsao Kun, President Of
China; w. L. Mackenzie King, prime
minister of Canada; Prince I. Toku-
gawa, president House of Peers, Toxic;
His Majesty, Rama VI, King of Siam
Director, Alexander Hume Ford.
(Copyrsht, ls25, by Raul Y. Collins.l
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Befogged W ords.

One wonders where LANGUAGE will
bring up one OF these days Every
new dictionary is thicker than the
last. Is it that there are too many
new words, or is &c that people are
using words in so many various wavs
that note has to be taken OF all Of
them,
There are a few newspapers that
are still sticklers for the use of words.
One of them, for instance. viii NOT
permit any of its writer's to use the
word secure" for obtain" e" The news
paper is right and vet it seems to be
dipping back the sea with teaspoon
as against the food of use. More
people, more newspapers appear to be
using secure where they mean cob
tain" than otherwise. The lexicon
makers have surrendered TO use and
they have listed secure" as meaning
obtain" So it goes, many more
words are being used in their fgura-
tive sense until the usage becomes
matter of fact.
So one may ask, where is our
language tendency to finally bring
up? The final effect may be that we
shall cultivate the use of so MANY
words and cultivate some of them 50
far from their original meaning that
obscurity rather than Charity will re-
sult.-LanslnG StatA Journal.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Is There an
Arctic Continent!

(Note.-The recent periLous ddUen-
lures Of Anundsen, Eisloorth and
their heroic com mpdnions IN the first
polar cap, has once more stirred pub
lie curiosity in the old geographical
riddle at the top of our globe. Mr..
StefdnSson. 10hoSe first trip into the
frozen Far North dates back to 1904,
Is himself an explorer Of note and
speaks in this article 1Cith unqueS-
ttondble authority. He has added con-
Stderdbly to the map Of the North
American continent, including q riUer
oUer 500 miles long, and once HUed q
t0hote year lcith Esktntos 1Oho had
neUer seen 1chite man and t0hoSe
dnceStOrs neUer hddl
Evening star., 1925-07-16

Public opinion harmonizeS with the
acknowledgment by the Army gem
eral staff that the results of mobili-
zation on the Fourth of July We're
not up to expectations.
Put as good a face on it as we
may it must be acknowledged that
July is not a good day for national
registration observes the Harris
burg, Pa, Telegraph. The test was
more a test of the day as suitable
one for the purpose aimed at by the
War Department than of national de-
tense plans, and the result leaves no
doubt that sentiment is overWhelm-
ingly against July as Defense day"
is the conclusion arrived at by the
WiIliamsport Sun.
Heading its editorial, Defense Day
Failure" the Springfield, Ohio. News
says: Whatever the cause, Defense
day. as a show of defense strength
of the Nation, was a failure. II may
appear that July was a poor date
to select for Defense day. Labor
day might be as bad Armistice day,
first suggested by Army officials, is
unthinkable. The particular day,
however, has no meaning. The thing
that counts is what the people think
x X X
Speaking regretfully of the vague
ness of public thought, the Casper
Tribune, Wyoming, asserts: 1T is a
painful truth that anything not con-
nected with the immediate present
concerns the generality but little.
The past is of but little moment be-
cause it is gone. And the future,
aside from the hope 1t may hold, is
of but little greater moment because
it is not yet here"
10 y>ff ha na
country is ready for peace, and since
it sees no wars on the horizon which
cannot be- Tended off with a little
common sense in Washington, it isn't
particularly worried"
Editorial writers generally agree
that this sense of security is based
on an innate patriotism rather than
on any lack of this virtue AS the
Daily Oklahoman expresses 1t, the
American people, Knowing that
American strength is always equal to
American needs, have little interest
in military spectacles staged in days
of peace to show what could be done
in days of war" This lack of interest
is partly due, according to the Pitts
burgh Sun, to the fact that it 'is
the ingrained tradition of the aver
age American that this country
rattles the saber only when 1T means
business"
X
"There are lot of people who still
misunderstood the purpose of Defense
day." regrets the Canton News, be-
cause "its inception branded it with
militarism, though every one knows
it is not militaristic to be ready to
defend"
WAR will be neither hastened nor
prevented the Omaha World Herald
states, nor is~ the loyalty of any
man proved or disproyed by the
Evening star., 1925-07-16

The Bible and the works of Shake
speare are regarded by English
speaking people as the two great in
fluences on the human mind The
Baconian theory is possibly due to de-
liver the next intellectual jolt.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
---Nse 49,

American aviators in Paris are
willing to fight the Riffs on behalf
Of France There is no particular rea-
son for American hostility toward the
Riffs, but the impulse to go to the
assistance of France has been rem
dered strong among many individuals
by recent historic experiences.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
.Ne ~

Numerous surveys of the European
situation have been made with view
to relieving the situation, but none
of them has been able to suggest
any improvement on the operations
of the Dawes plan.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

England fears a tariff alteration be-
cause a duty on silk stockings might
cause feminine resentment of a neces-
s1ty Of wearing cotton. No fear. The
girls in this untrammeled age can
settle the difficulty Immediately by
deciding to wear no stockings at all.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
. - ~D~

The modern intellectual impulse is
struggling for release. Darwin did an
unexpected service in providing some
thing more serious than the solution
Of a crossword puzzle or the dis
covery of a limerick's terminal line.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

The attention showered on them is
liable to delude the contending orators
in the Scopes trial into the idea that
in popular consideration they are as
important as Walter Johnson himself
Evening star., 1925-07-16

Europe is amazed at the sudden
seriousness with which America ap-
pears To take the subject of evolution.
America takes everything seriously
for little while at a time
Evening star., 1925-07-16

Clarence Darrow is almost In
mood to think that almost everybody
concerned in the prosecution of the
Scopes case ought to be psyche
anaIyzed.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Small towns are frequently mad

Small towns are frequently made
suddenly famous by some event Of
which they accidentally become the
scene. 1t depends on the local bust
ness boosters whether the advantage
is limited to temporary boom in
sausages and near beer.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

The ways of fame are devious and
surprising. Director of traffic" is a
modest enough title, yet in the Dis
trict Of Columbia at present it is the
center of attention.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

In an automobile race the confer
ence in the hotel bedroom has to be
considered as well as the decision at
the judges stand.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

Polar expeditions by airplane would
be even more interesting if they con-
templated the establishment of an ice
route from an ineXhaustible supply.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Rate by Mail-Payable in Advance,
r MARYLAND and Virginia.
All Other States.
Member of the Associated Press.

The Associated Press is exclusively entitled
to the use for republication of all news dis
patches credited to il or not otherwise cred
tied in this paper and also the local news
published herein. All rights of publication
of special dispatches herein are also reserved.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

The monkey has always been hailed
by the lettering crowd as a comedian.
But he is often very mischievous.
Evening star., 1925-07-16
Theory and Practice.

'I can hire all the brains I need
for S25 a week." boasted Mr.. Dustin
Stax.
"If that's the case" rejoined Miss
Cayenne, why don't your
Evening star., 1925-07-16
The Worlds Hope Laugh.

The man who takes in serious mood
Each serious thought that may intrude
In mind is ever tempest tossed;
And he who cannot laugh is lost.
Evening star., 1925-07-16

DE Bible" said Uncle Eben. "holds
encouragement foh ever strugglin
sinner; even foh de man dat insisses
on gittin' up in public an tslkin'
foolish