Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-14
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

Today the above heading should
read Background Of Vents" for it re-
fers to the belching chimneys of New
York City. which send forth daily 1900
tons of SCOT - unburned volatile fuel,
with more calories than an equal
weight of coal-which mingles with 700
more tons of ashes and bacteria. all to
besmirch the blue sky. That weight Of
smoke and dust hangs over the heads
of New Workers and adds to the JOY of
living for the laundrymen, dry clean
ers and doctors-notably throat special
lists.
The facts are particularly significant
because New York is only an average
metropolis In respect to dirty air Com
pare It with Pittsburgh or even Detroit
or Cincinnati, and 1t is of Sapolio
cleanliness, just as should be expected
of q city founded by the Dutch. II
food influences morals, as Mr.. Henry
Ford and medical men declare, Is it
surprising that New Yorks 1900 tons
of dirt in the air one breathes and the
sky one looks up to for sunshine should
bring hundreds Of murders for each
conviction? The very skies are lurid
with CRIME and crime.
What New York needs is home cook
ing and a renovated cerulean vault. So
long as the world there Is upside down
ana there is more loose dirt in the skies
than under foot, they must continue to
have Whalen time trying to keep
moral and spotless. The Saturday bath
Is a joke; they require seven baths a
day in place OF one in seven days. That
Is the logical inference from a report
just made by Prof. H. H. Sheldon of
New York University, who has been
weighing the contents Of New York
ctrt fnr q Pnfnn01ffAo
y 4
The deductions drawn from Prof.
Sheldon'S report include q statement
that the 800 tons of unburned volatile
fuel floating in the skies over the city
would run the electric plant Of the
municipality six hours out of every
twenty -four. 1t would therefore light
the city from to l o'clock every night
and operate all the factories six hours,
or three quarters of every day. 1t con-
sists largely OF the fumes of gasoline
and the motor oil from automobiles, but
includes also the SCOT from furnaces
whose firenen. are careless or Ignorant
Of how to fire.
Prof. Sheldon suggests that the effect
of the smoke ana gases Is similar to
that of chlorine poison" gas OF war
fame, but when that was told to an
officer of the chemical warfare OF the
Army, his rctort was We'll, what OF
lit might irritate the throat. but 1t
is a good antidote to tuberculosis!
New Workers have much asthma and
catarrh.
When the Army officer was informed
that over the heads Of New Workers
there float daily million pounds OF
bacteria, the same officer replied that
we could not live without certain BAG
teria-why worry? However, Prof..
Sheldon comforts us with a statement
that most of the floating germs are
dead, and, besides, the population OF
New York Is immune to most OF the
disease germs, for they have absorbed
the poison until their resistance has
been built up, but there are some germs
rare enough TO be dangerous, and to
cause many diseases from which even
New Workers are not fortified.
All over a New Workers. body are
those little pets which answer to the
names diplococci and strephylicocci-
for SHORTCUT they cause little harm
unless they become angry at the in
trusion of other germs-just as pet
dog is harmless unless strange dog
enters his yard. However, New Workers
need not take offense or rush to-that
sort of anti-cootie plant familiar to
soldiers in camp. for the same germs
York or Washington; the only question
Is whether they weigh a million pounds
here as they do in or over New York.
u
There are $4,000 pounds of ashes
floating over that Sodom and Gomor-
rah-aslles SO fine as to be invisible in
separate grains, without a microscope.
but wonderful under microscopic en-
largement for each grain is glass ball,
hollow and light, so that 1t floats like q
certain soap-the ashes floating in the
air.
1t Is not surprising that the scientist /
finds "appreciable" quantities of carbon
matter Of agriculture. 1t has been Mr.. !
Cars little divergences from the main |
line that have to me proved not only /
absorbing In themselves, but have served /
as well to present a most interested ind !
active mind working along the line of /
agriculture In It's relation TO the great |
industrial activities in this world, whose |
Drecpnt is clearly an economic f1resant