Evening star., 1925-11-01

n Editor as he dipped his
wv shears into the paste
pot and paused for en-
phasis, ARE we head
ing?"
Receiving no answer, but encourag-
ed by the question in the eyes of his
listeners. he stirred the paste care
fully with his shears, withdrew the
shears and cleaned them on his trou-
sers, locked both paste and shears into
the drawer Of his desk and proceeded.
I'VE are headed" he said slowly,
scraping the paste from his trousers
with wad of copy paper. for the
dogs. Not exactly the dogs, either.
for there is nothing wrong in a good
dog. But each day seems to bring us
nearer to what evidently Is the ulti-
mate goal of the Government depart
ments in this city. Now there was a
time, and l can remember II distinctly,
when folks used to talk about Gov
ernment of the people, by the people
and for the people. Such a statement
today, as you well know, is generally
regarded as sort of an heirloom. hand
ed down from generation to genera
ton and cherished for its sentimental
value. But it Is to be doubted seri-
ously If it has any more intrinsic
value than the average run of heir
looms, such as the brass buttons that
grandfather wore when he was town
constable, the lock of hair presented
to Aunt Jane by her first beau and
the rusty saber found by Uncle Obe-
diah after the Battle Of Gettysburg
The Hand-Out Is King.
"The reason for this is that the
Government of the people, by the peo-
pie and for the people has been sup
planted by Government Of the hand
out, by the hand-out and for the hand
out. Everybody, of course, knows
what a hand-out is. A hand-out is
what we newspaper people call any
announcement to the press, and in
the case at hand, any announcement
to the press from any Government
department. When the Department
of Agriculture, for instance. finds out
that farmer down in South Georgia
volunteered to have his cattle dip
ped to rid them of ticks, 1t gets out
a hand-out on the subject. If the
Interior Department discovers that a
farmer out West did not so into bank
ruptcy, although owning a farm on
Government reclaimed land, it pro-
duces hand-out. If the Navy Depart
ment, well, | don't believe the Navy
Department is getting out so many
hand outs these days. but you under
stand what l mean when l refer to
hand-out.
Now there is nothing radically
wrong with the hand-out as such.
1t has its proper place. and has had
for years. l read the other day where
some explorers came across a lot of
hieroGlyphics in the tomb of some
ancient mummy. l imagine the mum
my was once a government y press
agent, and the hieroglyphics, on tab
lets Of stone, were his collection of
handouts. l can imagine that when
the Pharaoh reached his decision about
allowing the children of Israel to i'm.
migrate. his secretary told the wait.
ing newspaper men that Phara oh would
soon get out a hand-out on that Moses
controversy, and after couriers had
been dispatched to the city editors
notifying them of this fact the report.
ers gathered around and played stud
poker until the man with the chisel
got through the hand-out. Such a
hand-out is necessary, for on any big
issue the newspapers want TO have the
handouts To protect themselves
against the charges that they mis-
quoted somebody. But there are lin.
its to everything, and the hand,out
| is no eypepfioD