Evening star., 1932-12-23
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

trict Of Columbia bar, tilts vigorous
ly at the modern penchant of Con-
gress to tap the Federal Treasury any
time anybody. in the guise of po-
ltically powerful group. presses the
button. THE development Of the term
general welfare, from its original mean
ing" writes Mr.. Warren, 80 as now to
include appropriations for any specially
favored class. section or interest, which
can secure a sufficient number Of votes
In Congress, by appeals to philanthro-
py, by sectional bargainings, or by in
Sistence on class privileges, is becoming
one OF the chief causes OF the rapid
increase Of expenditure by the Nation
al Government. Appropriations may be
made by sympathy and sectionalism,
but payment must be made by taxes.
Citizens may well ponder over this
effect Of Congressional Interpretation
OF clause of the Constitution"
Beer Is seen by the Christian Gen.
tury, leading undenominational religious
journal, as "a tax dodge for wealthy
interests" In q recent issue it said:
Behind the agitation for the passage
OF beer bill is the sinister hand of
the monied interests. With 2 per cent
Of our population controlling 80 per
cent OF the wealth Of the country, this
class now stands in fear Of % heavy
taxation and (2) social reform, which
might bring about greater distribution
OF the wealth Of the country. In beer
they see q panacea for both of these
threatened ills. Beer taxes will make
up the tax deficit, they hope, and beer
Will keep men from realizing the bitter
truth as to the tragedy that has be-
fallen them"
Washington next month will enter
tain q distinguished EngliShwoman,
Edith Ayrton Zangwill, widow of Israel
Zangwill. Unlike her late husband
brilliant novelist, playwright and Jew
and Is herself a writer of note. She
has published half dozen novels dur
Ing the past 80 years. Mrs. Zangwill
Is coming to the United States for the
Annual Conference on the Cause and
Cure OF War, the peace movement in
which Mrs. Carrie Chapman Gait Is
prominent.
Mercersburg Academy, the famous
prep school nesting in the foothills Of
the Blue Ridge Mountains In PennSyl-
vania, looks forward to continuing its
link with the White House under the
Roosevelt administration. The Presi-
dent-elect's son-in-law and husband of
Princess Anna," Curtis B. Dali, was
graduated from Mercersburg in 1916,
going on to Princeton, as so many
Mercersburg boys do. President Wilson
broke ground for the "Eighty-Eight"
dormitory at Mercersburg. The two
Coolidge boys were both enrolled there,
and Mrs. Hoover's nephew. Delano
Large, attended the academy two years
ago.
When are rabbit skins not rabbit
skins? Well, from the standpoint Of
the United States Customs Service, the
answer is: when they are Swiss
watches" Recently there was foiled at
New York an attempt to smuggle into
the country from Antwerp 20 bales Of
Belgian rabbit skins, which proved on
examination to contain in the center
of several Of them zinc boxes filled with
Swiss watches and certain gloves manu-
fsctured in Belgium. The gloves were
Of a peculiar style and the manufac-
turer was easily traced. Indictments
have been returned against four persons
implicated in the transaction. Three
of them are said already to have done
what might be called Swiss time at At
lanta for concealing In imports Of
candy watches made In the Alpine coun-
try.
(CopyriRht. 1887