davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-13
AGENCY SHARK,
SHOT BY WORKER,
A SCAB HERDER
Employment Gyp Help
ed Break R.R. Strike
(Bu a Worker CorrespOndentl

by a Worker Correspondent
Workers will remember that julius
Koffler, shot and killed by an I'M
employed worker at the employ
ment agency at Thirteenth and Arch
ST., was scab herder for the Nor
folk and Western Railroad in 1929,
who at the time was anxious to fill
the places of striking shopmen.
Koffler at that time had scouts COW
ering the entire city and attempted
to furnish the largest amount of
scabs furnished that road. He was
notorious among the workers as be-
ing labor shark of the worst type.
w. A. K.
EDITORS NOTE: Koffler was
shot and killed on March 5th by
Harry j. Mccall, an unemployed
worker, who had been swindled by
the employment agency. Mccall,
world war veteran, said that the
government had neglected him,
and added:
Il went to the employment
agency and gave koffler IS for a
job as dishwasher to which he had
sent me. | went there right away
and found that the job was filled.
Koffler refused to return my
money, which l needed badly, so
l shot him."
Swindling of jobless workers by
employment agencies is common
practice. Many workers send work.
er correspondence to the Daily
Worker, telling of their treatment
at the hands of employment
sharks.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
Royalty's Autograph.

A few days ago the Prince of Wales
visited high school in an English city
and when he greeted the students OF
one Of the classes lad of fifteen asked
him for his autograph. The prince
patted the boy on his back and said
II am very sorry, old man, can't do
it, because If I do shall have to do it
for the rest Of the school," Now this
boy, who is scholarship student of
high standing, has been suspended from
the school for what the headmaster
characterizes as "a gross breach of
discipline and grave improperly to
his royal highness." The boy says that
he had been dared by his classmates
to ask for the autograph. His father
has written to the Prince of Wales, ask
ing him to inform the headmaster
whether or not he was annoyed by the
incident.
In all likelihood Albert Edward was
not annoyed and will so state to the
headmaster of the school and will re-
quest the reinstatement of the boy in
his classes. He probably does not look
upon the respectful request Of the lad
as a grave improperly" And it is
impossible for us on this side of the
Atlantic to see anything wrong in the
act of this young Briton. An American
schoolboy would assuredly not be dis
ciplined for asking the President OF the
United States for his autograph. In
deed, autograph hunting is one of the
chief American pastimes, especially
among the young.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
WARS, Past and Future. "

With characteristic desire to enable
the average man and woman to grasp
the intricacies Of government, President
Hoover has Just issued a vest pocket
edition Of the 1e30-31 budget. In four
graphic groups" are set down all the
essential figures the taxpayer needs to
know to permit easy comprehension of
the manner in which the Government
spends its money.
Once upon a time Speaker Gear
Reed drawled his famous epigram that
"this is a billion-dollar country" The
occasion was a Representatives COM
plant about the size of the budget
President HooYer's first budget shows
that we are now nearly billion
dollar country, for the Federal expense
account is only s17O,0000OO short Of
that figure. During the current fisca
year it is only s24, 100000 below $4,000,
100000.
Obviously, because Of the Presidents
hope for retrenchment in expenditure
on national defense and because it Il
far and away the heaviest item in the
budget, he brackets it alongside thu
public debt in Group of his digest
Mr.. Hoover does not himself make thu
analysis, but others have been quicI
to figure out that "seventy-two per cent
of Federal expenditure in 1930-31 vii
be spent for wars, past and future.
This percentage is represented b.
S759, 799, 1895 payable TO veterans of for
mer wars and s719,Os9, 1888 allocated t
present military and naval needs, ant
by the principal and interest of the pub
lie debt, which totals 81 ,254, 900.
The heavy percentage of the bulge
annually devoted to the purposes JUS
named is periodically pounced upon b
professional enemies of preparedness:
They eagerly exploit it for their ow7
purposes, which aim at progressiv
weakening of the Nations defense es
adjustment afeld, afloat and alof
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

born in India of American parents. He's
an Amherst man.
y y \
Mrs. Hoover COVE a graphic illustra-
ton of her democratic and unassuming
ways at public function in Washing
ton this week. The occasion was the
opening matinee Of Mrs. Lawrence
Townsend's musical season. A box was
reserved for the First Lady of the Land
but she arrived at the concert just be-
fore 1t began, took a modest place with
woman companion in almost the rear
most row of the large hall, and insisted
on remaining there until the end. Then
Mrs. Hoover slipped away quietly. There
was no more simply clad woman in the
whole audience Of the Capitals femi-
nine and fashionable elite. Both Mrs
Hoover and the President are cultured
music lovers.
Ambassador Dwight Morrow's 1890
campaign for the Republican senatorial
nomination in New Jersey promises tc
introduce q brand-new note into the
primary politics of the Mosquito State
His distinction and popularity in Jersey
are such, his friends say, that he can
afford the innovation of a wholly mex
pensive conteSt-espectally If Son-in-law
"Lindy" flies him to his meetings
Cheap" campaigns are something OF
novelty in New Jersey. Ordinarily
dollars roll generously when one Of Its
Republicans bankers for a senatorial
toga. Last years primary scrap among
trio of Jersey millionaires-Kear1
FrelinghuySen and Stokes-was far from
being a piker's affair. At one time II
interested the Senate campaign funds
investigating committee. If former SEN
ator Joe" Frelinghuysen, who will &C
to the mat with Morrow, cares to say
it with dollars he can go the limit OF
the law-and then some, for the ruddy-
faced giant of distinguished Dutch
American ancestry is said to be worth
upward of $10O00,00O.
\ - y
Senator Arthur Capper. Republican,
of Kansas has become current events
broadcaster. He now takes the air
regularly Tuesday forenoons from sta
ton WMAL at washington, the Ma
tional Capital link of the Columbia
Broadcasting System, to discuss matters
Of the moment. Capper owns big
broadcasting station of his own at To-
peka. He has mastered the art of being
himself before the microphone and
gets across" to the radio audience by
refraining from any attempts at SPELL
binding. Timely Topics" is the title
of the Kansas statesmans Tuesday
tintinnabulations.
Copyright, 1927
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
South Carolina Wants
To See E'Cheap Money!

From the Charleston, g. c., Evening Post.
Southern States stood in no need of
President Hoover's suggestion to speed
up public works in an effort to keep
the wheels of business turning. Most
of them have in the past few years
entered upon highway programs ex-
ceeding anything in their previous his
tory. Besides road building there Is
not much they can do to comply with
the presidential request, but the road
building program in itself should be
sufficient to satisfy any expectations Mr..
Hoover has of this group of States.
Alabama is spending $50,000,0OO on
highways, Arkansas $15,000,00 Ken
lucky $28,000,0 900, Tennessee $25, 0O0,-
900, Louisiana 100000, Virginia 3d.
100000, South Carolina SOS, 900 ,000-a
total of 1901 100000 for the seven States
named. Twenty years ago a prediction
spending two hundred millions on high
ways now would have been called alb
surd, with the prize for extravagant
imagination given to the man who said
South Carolina would be leading all the
States with SOS, 100000.
In the midst of all the satisfaction
over the showing, however, it will be
we'll to inquire whether the assurances
Of official and unofficial wise men that
this is the time of times for construc-
ton work because much cheap money
is available for it are borne out by the
facts. If they are, South Carolina will
be duly grateful. AS matters now
stand, the prospects are that this State
will not get cheap money for its high
way work. The prospects are, moreover,
that the issuance of great quantities of
highway bonds by this State will unduly
depress the price of its outstanding
bonds, to the heavy loss of the great
number OF South Carolina individuals
and institutions that have invested In
their States obligations.
II there is to be cheap money for
construction work, the States should
trade for 1t and get their roadbuilding
FUNDS at the lowest possible rates. The
average man thinks little of the rate his
government has to pay for money, but
he Is the one who loses by high rates.
ii south Carolina issues bonds to the
amount of $4,000, 900, the difference
between 4 per cent and 5 per cent is
S6oU,OOO year in interest. If, moreover,
the state has to pay as high as per
cent Tor Its road money, or even Az
per cent, 1t will probably mean that the
outstanding bonds will sell to yield SINH
larry hlgn rates, which in turn will
mean sharp drop in the price of the
olo state issues, held to a very large
extent In South Carolina. South Caro-
INA Is complying handsomely with the
appeal OF big business for large spend
ing; II is to be hoped big business will
reclprocate with the cheap money it
says Is available in such vast quantities.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06

ing to that little body Of deathless lit
erature which bursts the bonds Of
language and becomes one Of the price,
less possessions Of all tongues and ali
nations. 1t suffered in translation. II
was Enthusiastically German.
Then came war and defeat, with its
strange stirring Of the springs of in
spiration. The German mind turned
inwards to find refuge in its own inmost
depths, and in doing 50 explored those
cavernous paths in the German soul
which led them to the soul Of humanity.
From this interpretive process Mann
emerged with THE Magic Mountain, "
surely one of the outstanding produc-
tons of modern literature-the embodi-
ment of one of those rare fundamental
ideas in literature each of which con-
stitutes the nucleus of great masses of
literature.
In a sense THE Magic Mountain"
hardly is a novel at all, but q work Of
philosophy. The framework is as sim
pie as could be imagined. A young
German contracts tuberculosis and Is
sent to a sanitarium in the Alps, where
he takes part in the conversations,
amusements, hopes and despairs Of
fellow victims of this dreaded disease
from all creeds, classes and walks Of
life. For seven years he lives in an
atmosphere Of physical and mental
deterioration. Then he RECEIVERS and
goes to war. The novel gets under way
slowly. The very bulk of 1t sometimes
proves discouraging to the reader.
But once caught in that torrential
stream of science and philosophy which
sweeps across the cloud-washed noun
tain top, once acclimated to that
strange relatively Of time where years
and moments become indistinguishable,
there is no laying down the book until
the end. One walks through haunted
depths Of the souls Of men, beyond
illusion, beyond space and beyond time.
Far along the path Einstein has
moved In science, Mann has gone In
art and philosophy. These two names
may well be paired as the great intel
lectual giants of postwar Germany.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

The Order Of Screen Slammers has
adjourned for the Winter.
Most Of the screen doors have come
down, to be brushed free from dirt
and dust and placed away in basement
or attic.
Enough of them remain, however, to
cause the sound of their slamming to
be heard in the city.
The order of Screen Slammers has
no handclasp, as have other groups of
dear brothers in the various and assort-
ed bonds of fellowship.
Nor has 1t any jeweled pins.
No whistle has 1t, nor flower, nor
banner with mystic letters written
large thereon.
All it has is sound, but what a
soundl
Is there any noise more excruciat-
ing than the lusty whanging of back
door screen in the hands Of a deter
mined man, woman or small boy2
It is not so much the noise thereof
as the inevitableness of it.
Some whole families make a speciality
of slamming the screen door.
There even are children who run
persistently from front to rear doors.
manfully Slamming the screens lust
for fun" and then gallop back In re-
verse order, giving the door a push
each time and each way.
Most people who belong to this Order.
however, slam screens because 1t is
part of their inner nature to do so.
The mystic end of the matter we
leave to the experts. There are many
persons who somehow get more truth
out of thought when they have a
funny-looking hat on than when they
merely read 1t in book in their own
study. These folk are able to explain
the mystic.
We deal with facts, and, so dealing,
assert and declare that members OF the
Order of Screen Slammers merrily slam
screens all Spring and Summer long
because it is a part of their vital por-
ton to do so.
Nothing so sets them up for any task
they have to do as the whang- bang OF
against the door framing.
1t Is impossible for these people to
ease door to, so that 1t comes softly
to rest. Ease" and softly" are not
only not in their vocabularies, but not
even thought Of.
If a person knew about quiet ways,
he might sometime come to make some
use of them, but If they are utterly out
side the scope of his brain he will do
nothing but slam things.
Thus we see people crashing auto
mobile doors, honking horns, turning
on radio sets so that the loud speakers
rattle and blare, yelling and whooping
at all hours, even talking so loudly that
all the families in the neighborhood
know what they are going to have for
dinner, and why that last pair of shoes
was size too small, and how the clerk
was told they were too small, but would
not listen.
There are Just three degrees in the
Order Of Screen Slammers, but the trio
is enough. If there we're any more the
police would come In. These three de-
grees are the Ordinary, the Happy and
the Angry.
Slamming in Ordinary is what john
ny does. Johnny is merely q neophyte,
or whatever one is when he is initiated.
Johnny belongs" because he slams
with a right good will on each and
every occasion.
John wins membership because he
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06

never once fails. The true slammer
never fails to slam. BY that slam you
shall know him. If but once q year
he were to think, This may annoy
some one" he would be bounced from
| the Order.
John is merely youngster, after all
so he must wait to grow up" before
he can be put through the second and
third degrees.
The Happy Degree Is Just what It's
name indicates. Only those cross the
hot desert to the imperial throne who
man or woman, can slam screen doors
| as happily as children.
That is how 1t gets its name.
If Brother j. Huntington MittS In
variably permits the screen door to close
with crash, he is sought out and in.
vited to partake in the mysteries Of the
"2nd."
If Sister Olympia MittS never fails
to do the same with the screen at the
back door, every time she carries out
the garbage, or goes to the garage
how strange that only one small 3D.
makes the difference!-she becomes one
of the elect.
1t is only in the third, or Angry De-
gree, that the full virtues of the Order
shine forth, however.
Then, If ever, come mighty slams.
To receive this crown, one must not
only slam with will, as Johnny does
and with persistence, as do Mr.. and
Mrs. Mitts, but the candidate must
show that he means business.
He must be mad, in other words.
Nothing so conduceS to good screen
door slamming as anger. If house.
wife can work up good grudge against
| her husband, or her neighbors, she can
put real feeling into the most inert
screen.
The acme Of slamming comes when
couple will not speak. This once was
common phenomenon In the small
towns of America. There wasn't a
town of 1900 population that did not
have at least two or three households
each other at all.
One might cook the meals for the
other, but neither spoke. They ate in
silence, slept In silence, lived in silence.
They slammed well.
* k* \
Today life has taken on merrier
aspects. People, more sophisticated, do
not go to such extremes. But still men
and women become angry, and when
they do the screen doors rejoice.
Slamming must be the Paradise of
screens. Any we'll built door would
rather be slammed to than carefully
permitted to come to stop. A good
hardwood screen would rather make a
noise in the world, one may be sure.
Listen to them rattle back and forth
for few times, as If reluctant to
cease.
Although most doors are down for
the Winter, many are left up by the
wise. These are the scorners Of the
order of Screen Slammers. They "do
not belong" Members say they are
jealous.
The outsiders declare that they leave
them up to keep out canvassers, and
that to be effective O screen door in
Winter must be kept locked or hooked.
Then when the agent grabs the handle
and starts to step In, q blank look
comes over his face. No doubt he is
annoyed, because he Is Screen
Slammer at home.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
Traffic Rules Not Fully
Enforced in Washington

To the Editor Of The Star:
An article In Mondays Star attributes
Washington's relatively low street and
highway fatality rate in large measure
to enforcement of the trafic regulations.
How long is The Star going to be a
party to the fiction that our traffic
regulations are well enforced? Every
body familiar with conditions here and
reasonably familiar with our regulations
knows that there is scarcely any en-
forcement whatever Of large part Of
the CODE
Yes, the police bear down hard on
the intoxicated driver and the hit-and-
run man, who have few friends. They
make abortive attempts to enforce an
unenforceable and unreasonable abso-
lutte speed limit that is contrary to all
modern thought in speed restrictions.
They fit about putting chalk marks
on car wheels, and some of the knights
OF the chalk have so little conception of
the purpose OF parking rules that they
have been seen chalking cars parked on
croSswalks and cars parked directly I'M
der signs indicating that any parking at
that spot and moment Is unlawful.
But how many persons are convicted
in year, or brought to trial even, for
double parking, parking on crosswalks,
in bus stops, near MIGRANTS or in other
forbidden places, for running through
safety zones, for making right turns
against stop signals, for failing to grant
the right OF way to pedestrians on cross
walks, for continuing after the red
light comes on and starting before 1t
goes off-"iumping the lightS"2 Yet
all Of these things are going on con-
Stantly, often under the very noses of
officers. And because operators are
able to get away with such obvious vio-
lations, they indulge in numerous less
easily detected but dangerous violations,
such as overtaking on the right, crowd
ing out other operators oyertaken, fall
ing to give hand signals-in short, max
ing it gamble whether the law-abid-
ing citizen awheel or afoot will reach
his destination alive.
Last Summer for two months we he d
some real enforcement, with oYerem-
phasis on speed, and motoring WASH
ington developed the closest approx
nation to respect for the law that has
been in evidence for years. They have
long since seen that this drive was a
flash in the pan and have torn UP their
copies of the traffic regulations,
WashtngtOn'S relatively low death rate
can probably be ascribed mainly to two
things-wide streets with open view and
the comparative absence of industrial
trucking. The record is really nothing
to brag about, since every one of the
20 or 80 fatalities per year, and of the
thousands of serious injuries not men,
toned in your article, was probably
preventable. Such as the record Is,
venture the belief that 1t could be cut
in half with real enforcement.
CHARLES w. STARK.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06
Give the Squirrels
Something to Eat
no the Editor of The STAR.

To the Editor of The Star:
Now that the starting is receiving
rough treatment from the citizens OF
the District of Columbia, may make a
plea for the squirrels of the city.
We have all stopped at one time or
another to give a peanut or other bits
Of food to these small rodents, and adj
mire their grace and beauty. There is
not an animal Of the District so well
known and admired by these bushy-
tailed creatures. But do we stop tC
think of the struggle they put forth to
obtain living?
Nature has not been kind to the
squirrels this season, as there are few
acorns, or other nuts upon which they
may feed. The passerby in park may
give an occasional nut to a squirrel, but
this ration is irregular This situation
is alarming to the citizens, as we'll a:
to our small animal friends. They may
migrate to the tall timber, and find the
same conditions, and probably perish.
Cannot something be done in the fooo
line for these little fellows? Will II
not be possible for groups, associations
and individuals to scatter at regular
intervals q goodly food supply through
out our many beautiful parks?
We do not want to lose them, and q
MALCOLM DAVIS.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-06

They utilize the figures to show tina
peace-loving old Uncle Sam is. In fact
an addict to war-that he has squan
dered his substance on past wars" ant
Is continuing to waste it in gettinl
/ ready for future wars" Nothing coulc
be more unjust or misleading than sucl
an Interpretation.
To begin with, q Sis, 08g, 1888 budge'
for existing national defense works ou
at roundly six dollars per capita Of thu
Republics 100000 men, women anc
children. National defense is often
and quite appropriately, called nationa
life insurance. It will hardly be con.
tended that six dollars q head is ar
inordinate premium for the country t
pay for insurance against damage Of
destruction by potential foes-eithel
from within or from without.
There Is another side to the "pasi
and future wars" medal. All respon.
sible American military authorities nov
alive, from Gen. Pershing down, ano
historians Of the past as well. agree
that the United States has been
plunged into all of its wars, from the
Revolution to the World War, hideously
unprepared. 1t is the joint judgment
Of all these authorities that our wars
were unnecessarily prolonged and CORE.
spondingly costlier in both life and
treasure, because the Government was
unable to wage them more effectively.
The $759, T99.8e5 earmarked in Pres
ident Hoover's budget digest for wet
Grams of former wars" tells its own
tragic story, just as it depicts our graft
tude to the men who perpetuated the
Union and their progeny who kept 1t
safe for democracy" eleven years ago.
The way to guard against the future
steady increase in pensions to veterans
Of former wars" is to see that never
again will American soldiers and sailors
be called upon to fight In q state of
organized unreadinesS.
The people sympathize cordially with
President Hoover's recommendation
that Congress consider earnestly how
by prudent action" the defense bud
get can be curtailed. Action which re-
suited in imprudent curtailment can
have but one result. 1t will mean that
some day our budget for wars, past
and future" may run not to seventy
two but to q still higher per cent Of
our annual disbursements.