davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1934-02-23

OF the commission to obtain from
those present specific and not merely
general expressions regarding the
manner in which the consolidated
lines are carrying the people. The
time schedules maintained should be
definitely stated. the degree of regu-
larity with which the cars and buses
are operated should be made plain,
the approximate percentage Of stand
ing passengers to those who have
seats should be demonstrated.
1t is obviously not practicable to
provide every passenger with a seat
at the rush hours, but the packing Of
the cars with two or three times the
number of persons for whom seats are
available should not be tolerated. The
primary consideration of the average
car rider, especially in the morn
ing and evening, is to be carried
speedily to destination. This means
the employment OF enough vehicles
to meet the demand without block
ing the lines. Accidents will hap
pen from time to time to check the
flow Of trafac, but these need not be
multiplied to the point of constant
stretching the average
period of transit to many minutes
beyond the regular schedule.
To hold the increased patronage
which has been gained through more
liberal transfer privileges, and espe-
cially by the adoption Of the weekly
pass system, the transit company
must provide adequate accommoda-
tions. The Public Utilities Commits
sion is evidently determined that this
shall be done.
Evening star., 1934-02-23

Tribune. The Cleveland News is OF
the opinion that this is the time for
the League of Nations to step in" but
the Roanoke Times puts more faith
in the power of Mussolini.
The Buffalo News says Dollfuss "is
now. more than ever. at the mercy
of the Heimwehr," while the Troy IN.
" Record predicts that the Social
lists will be driven into the ranks
of Fascism"
IA least the Dollfuss government
could have taken a more humane
means of Suppressing the Socialists"
asserts the Baltimore Sun, and the
Asbury Park Evening Press pictures
Dollfuss as employing "Hitlerism to
fight off Hitler" The Rockford Reg
ister-Republic regrets that "a thou
sand lives have been sacrificed, thou
sands sent to prison and tens of
thousands made homeless and the de-
fensive strength Of a nation weakened
by senseless conflict" while the Hart
ford Daily Times says: Much of his
toric nature can happen from the
horror at the Karl Marx apartment
building. The meaning of that bar
barism leaps across boundaries"
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette con-
cludes: Perhaps, in estimating the
Austrian situation, it would be a little
strained to apply the saying that he
who takes to the sword shall perish
by the sword, yet there is reason to
feel that Dollfuss is essentially re-
sponsible for the resort to methods
that led to the revolutionary outburst,
and that in the ultimate event he
will be found to have contributed to
the defeat of his own purpose, to
maintain the independence of his
country"
Evening star., 1934-02-23
The Demand for Rapid Transit.

Giving the Capital Transit Co.
until March to improve its serv-
ice to meet the complaints that
have been expressed against the man.
ner in which it is rendering accom-
modations for the riding public, the
Public Utilities Commission notes
that measures have already been in
stituted to provide more adequately
for the demand for real rapid transit.
The service is being speeded up, cars
are being cleaned and kept clean,
heating devices that have failed to
heat are being repaired. More men
are being employed and ten new
busses have been ordered and will be
in operation in about ten days.
Nevertheless more must be done. The
bad weather has hampered the serv-
ice, but by March S, the date on
which the public is to be heard on
the question of transfers and also,
under a broadening of the scope of
the hearing. on other matters per-
tanning to the accommodations rem
dered, the company will have had
ample opportunity to adjust itself to
the new conditions.
Doubtless there will be a large at
tendance at the hearing on March S,
Just as there was at the public dis
cussion of the matter of street rail-
way and bus services recently at the
Capitol. It should be the endeavor
Evening star., 1934-02-23
Patience Necessary in
The C.. w. A. Situation

To the Editor Of The Star:
-Four million willing workers will
educate the ofi1cials Of our Nation
as to how to develop success where
chaos supposedly reigns. A solution
must and will be found in this, our
land OF plenty. No man, woman or
child shall suffer want and privation
once the sources of intelligence are
tapped. properly administered and
given freedom of natural development
under capable direction and NAM
agement. I
The men and women breadwin-
The majority are queen bees" laying
honey wherever the opportunity arises.
Persons With imaginary or real
grievances undoubtedly are irritating
our President, and he, being only one
of us, q human with impulses, is
swayed as any one of us would be by
insistent complaints and embarrass-
ments from many angles.
Here comes q delegation from Geor-
gia complaining against special privi-
leges granted Rhode Island, next a
0CtCSdtlOAl 4iO4AA tAAho, tAldb dllA CSCAy
other hamlet pointing to what the
other fellow is getting as against his
own i'll fortune. all to the displeasure
of the person or persons whose intent
was to help along the most sane and
sensible paths consistent with the
elements, the region, the kind and
quantity as well as quality of assist
ance most feasible to grant.
Patience is of prime importance
in the present C. w. A. situation.
and it is but a question of time when
conditions will shape themselves and
create a nucleus for an everlasting
remedy to our economic chaotic re-
covery rather than take and gamble
with little hands and little feet and
mouths who are not one iota aware
of what it Is all about, only to see
daddy come trudging home with a
long-drawn, pallid look, an empty
pocket and not one piece Of candy
for the ones so dear to him.
On the other hand, mother waiting
at the gate patiently for daddy to
come home with his pay check to
pay the doctors bill and a little left
for other necessities Of life. Daddy,
discharged from his job, conceives of
an idea to provide for his home and
little ones. You can imagine what
his ideas can be!
MORRIS I. POLANSKY,
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Evening star., 1934-02-23
THIS AND THAT.
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

so dear to the heart OF theatergoers
| Of the era.
The threadbare hero, swinging out
on long rope between two buildings,
rescued the fair maiden Just In the
nick of time.
Then there was the famous play,
name now forgot. which contained q
! city street scene, snow falling, little
church at the corner.
How dear to the heart were the
snow scenes!
And how real they looked, too, even
II the snow" was nothing more nor
less than torn-up paper.
There was the corner, the little
church, the iron rail, the snow falling
gently. The less vigorously it fell,
the fewer bags the property man
had to handle.
* ~
II haven't seen Nellie in 10 years"
said one man, standing there, to
another.
He looked quickly down the street.
But here she comes now" he re-
marked, casual like.
rags, her fair hair hanging down her
back, her poor feet almost touching
the snow through worn shoes.
Did people really get a kick" out
of such scenes. in those days?
They really did.
Those Of this day must keep in
mind that there were not SO many
amusement forms then. The radio
was totally unknown, the motion
| picture in its infancy, or at best
competitor Of the stage. "Talkies"
were but dreams.
Every amusement factor is added
to the old ones, SO that the longer
civilization lasts the more amuse-
ments it has. At the same time. old
er forms tend to drop out, then to
revive. Thus, in Charles Dickens day
the readings from his novels went
over big" whereas today no novelist
even attempts to do it. Once upon
time Ralph Waldo Emerson was
the" intellectual entertainment of
these United States. This came about
partly because he was man in
every sense, above all an original
man, but he made q success Of his
lectures mainly because they were, at
that time, q true novelty-and also
almost alone in the public amuse-
ment field.
Those who remember Mary Miles
Minter, as q child actress will always
question whether she was not then at
the zenith of her histronic abilities,
and whether she would not have made
q greater name for herself as an ac-
tress on the boards.
Her work in THE Littlest Rebel"
one Of the last of the regular plays to
appear at the old Academy Of Music,
was a triumph.
One may forget the plot Of the
play, but scarcely the beautiful child,
in her white dress. as she played the
part with the ability which belongs
only to the born actress.
On visit to the messy little dress
ing room of the star" after beard
ing ferocious doorman, one found
Mary playing with paper dolls.
She was applying makeup with her
right hand, asserting the dolls with
her left.
childlike that one found it difficult
to realize that this same precocious
girl shortly would be on the stage,
the same but not the same, a char
acter in a play and not the little girl
there playing with dolls. In her the
motion mixtures wrecked a real artreSS
Evening star., 1934-02-23
SHOOTING STARS.
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON

~Yes!"
A monosyllable I strike
In pleasure or distress
Which I especially dislike,
1t Is the small word yes"
know that when have my say
It's Eyes" that will hear
From those who do not wish to stay
While make matters clear.
And when these same folks meet a man
Who contradicts my word
They follow up the same old plan.
And yes" is what is heard.
It's "yes" that orators will say
To peasant or to king.
If that poor word keeps on this way
1t will not mean q thing.
Evening star., 1934-02-23
Ruthless Cancellation
OF Airmail Contracts
% the Editor OF The Star:

To the Editor OF The star:
What would you think II the Post
master General had all the civilian
workers dismissed and employed the
Army to run all the trains? Or let
the Army run the newspapers or all
the stores-at the same time discharg-
ing all the civilian workers?
Would that be any worse than hav-
ing soldiers take the jobs Of the COM
mercial airline pilots, hostesses, clerks,
mechanics, ETC.?
Col. Lindbergh saw what q tragic
injustice 1t was to ruthlessly cancel
the airmail contracts and did not
hesitate to protest. He was accused
Of trying to get publicity! II the
administration could have found q
more ludicrous excuse can't imagine
what it could have been. Accusing
Mr.. Lindbergh of trying to get pub
licityl Every one knows Lindbergh Is
the idol Of the people-especially the
younger people. If after what he has
accomplished he needs to try to get
publicity by q mere public statement,
then should be in st. Elizabeths.
Black and Farley wouldn't dare
treat the railroad workers as they
are doing the airmail workers. There
would be a revolution. Just because
the airline workers are not so numer-
Gus it seems pity to take advantage
of them.
Those who disapprove Of having
honest, hard working people sacrificed
by dirty politics should condemn the
ruthless cancellation Of airmail con-
tracts. 1t means throwing thousands
out of work and destroying the finest
commercial air system the world has
ever seen. And the graft, II any, can
not be compared with the big graft
elsewhere. Sincerely,
GEORGE B. McREYNoLDS.
Evening star., 1934-02-23
Discrimination in
Collection of Taxes

To the Editor of The Star:
Several years ago agents Of the
Internal Revenue Department were
informed of a number Of Congress-
men who had been, for several years,
pocketing secretarial pay and not list
ing such extra income on their income
tax returns.
We are becoming convinced that
this particular Government depart
ment is not as eager to swell the
Government Golfers as they would
lead us to believe, otherwise such nice
juicy plums would not be 50 per-
sistently overlooked.
But here is different story: Num-
bers of poorly paid Government clerks,
receiving less than 81 300 per year
and with dependents to support, are
receiving notices from the Revenue
Department asking for detailed in
formation regarding 5000 exemptions
claimed for support of dependents.
Thousands of good American citizens
are wondering why the valuable time
of the collectors Is not spent in direct
ing their first efforts toward collecting
the large sums due from the country's
prosperous, grating politicians. Can
it be that they are mortally afraid
to tackle the man with money and
political influence? Do they think
we don't notice when they clamp
down on the poor and overlook those
amply able to pay? Well, we most
certainly do notice. In fact, We are
watching with all our eyes and listen
ing with all our ears to discover just
what loopholes are now being allowed
certain grafters, whom We see. day by
day, enjoying the luxuries Of life.
The tactics of the Revenue Depart
ment thus far, in trying to squeeze
blood out of a turnip. in the case Of
the struggling Government clerks.
while it steadfastly refuses to prose-
cute many of our high-salaried OIL
cials. whose guilt can be SO easily
proved, most certainly does not tend
to bring about q harmonious CO.
operation between Government tax
assessors and those of us taxed. We
can not be expected to maintain our
sweet dispositions much longer under
such examples Of favoritism.
HARRIET BONNER.
Evening star., 1934-02-23
The Stock Exchange Proposal.

The New York Stock Exchange,
through its president, Richard Whitney,
is asking Congress to scrap the
Fletcher -Rayburn bill for the regula-
ton of exchanges and to enact in its
place a measure which it suggests. The
Fletcher -Rayburn bill was drafted in
the light of the investigation of the
Stock Exchange by. the Senate Com
mittee on Banking and Currency It
was introduced on the heels of a mes
sage from President Roosevelt recon-
mending the enactment Of legislation
for the regulation Of the exchanges.
The substitute proposal offered by
Evening star., 1934-02-23
A WOman's Solution of
The Startling Problem

10 tne koitor OF The btar:
To some people . mere woman's
opinion on most any subject Is just
that--a mere woman's opinion. But
more men than women have offered
q solution for the starting problem,
which still distracts our public, and
so may I have space In your fair
paper to add my suggestion?
The starlings are here to stay. We
know that. They are going to be as
difncult of ASSIMILATION" as certain
other foreign material with which We
find ourselves confronted from time
to time, and certainly we can find
way to educate these starlings to a
homogeneous order. BY nature the
starting is sociable, living in large
colonies, and building its home in old
houses and towers. No doubt the
District starlings found familiar and
congenial abiding places IN those
rookeries along certain blocks on
Pennsylvania avenue. but they proved
their aptness to learn to better them
selves when they moved into more
aristocratic quarters on Capitol Hill.
So. putting two and two together
(Which Is the way mere woman
adds, you know my suggestion is that
we establish ''roosts" In convenient
places in parks, providing shelter and
room for nests, perches, etc. The
architect could design artistic "tow-
ers." which would not detract from
the beauties Of the park. and place
many such starting apartments"
throughout the sections of Washing
ton now so annoyed by their roosting
presence. 1t would not take long to
accustom the birds to occupy such
shelters. They assemble at their
roosting places before dark. During
the daytime who Is annoyed by the
starlings? A shelter that they could
be enticed into by feeding a number
Of their own kind Gagged therein would
soon take in its sign Rooms to Rent"
Once established as shelters, it is
hardly probable that the birds would
choose to continue occupying the old
roosting places. These towers would
afford them shelter In such weather
as we have had this Winter. and they
would be happier and healthier, and
not a menace.
There need be no hue and cry of
the expense the Government would be
put to in building these towers
Enough money and effort has already
been spent in experimenting upon
their extinction. We have them. They
are here to stay and multiply. and We
just can't get around that. 1t is only
history repeating itself-we've had
foreign complications to adjust before
this and we will continue to have
similar worries. Planting climbing
roses, clematis, ivy or other evergreen
vines would beautify the towers" and
help screen the untidy starlings. We
must remember that the starlings
came to us from a land Of towers" E"
"belfries" and "cupolas," so let's give
them penthouse apartment or some
thing.
ELIZABETH GETZENDANNER.
Evening star., 1934-02-23

Mr.. Whitney. at . hearing before
the House Interstate Commerce Com
mittee, would place authority in the
hands of Q commission to regulate
activities Of the stock exchanges and
formulate rules and would give the
stock exchanges representation on the
commission. The Fletcher-Rayburn
bill undertakes to ban outright Ger
tein practices and to impose heavy
penalties for them, such as wash sslles,
pools, etc. It would also fix . mini
mum Of sixty per cent for margin
trading In stock, with certain varia-
tions permitted. AL of these mat
ters and many others Mr.. Whitney
would have placed under the control
Of q commission, consisting of two
members appointed by the President,
two members of the cabinet, one ap-
pointed by the Open Market Com
mittee of the Federal Reserve Board,
one named by the New York Stock
Exchange and one designated by the
independent stock exchanges.
II the practices at which the Fletch-
er-Rayburn bill strikes are evil there
seems no good reason why they should
not be declared illegal. To give a
commission authority to deal with
these practices would be merely to
temporize with the evils. A COM
mission might or might not deal with
them effectively. Mr.. Whitney de-
clared that under the Fletcher-Ray-
burn bill the fixing of high mini
mum for marginal trading would
virtually kill all speculative trading
under certain circumstances. Mar
ginal trading, however, as 1t has too
long been conducted, has made pos
sible a tremendous amount of stock
gambling, with disastrous results to
industry and labor which had no ac-
tual part in the gambling at all.
Mr.. Whitney complains that the
Stock Exchange has been unable to
check certain practices because it has
not had the power in the past. Yet
the exchange has had its governing
body and its committees on rules and
practices. If these practices have not
been checked there has apparently
been a reason for it. No business
likes to be regulated by government
and no business ought to be so regu-
lated unless such regulation becomes
necessary in the public interest. The
country has suffered for many years
from the conscienceless manipulation
Of the Stock Exchange. II the law
now proposed to be enacted appears
stringent, the members of the ex-
change largely have themselves to
thank for 1t.
The president of the New York
Stock Exchange told the House COM
mittee: I'VE want no more 1929 booms
and the depressions following them"
1t seems that the declaration comes a
trifle late. There fingers in the mem
ory that old saw, THE devil was sick,
the devil q monk would be-"
Evening star., 1934-02-23

It has seen better days, the old
building at Ninth and D streets, which
Washingtonians always will remem-
ber as the Academy Of Music, where
appeared among others. THE Queen
Of Chinatown" and THE Littlest
Rebel"
If you 60 down that way now you
will find rather flaming movie litho-
graphs where those for Hanlon's
"Superba" once were; you will notice
a lack of glitter about the windows
and the evidences Of pigeons having
been upon the steps.
This once was the home of melo-
drama at its best, the home of panto-
mine, the home of such straight dra-
matte efforts as The Littlest Rebel,
in which Mary Miles Minter starred
when she was IL years old.
Until this building Is torn down, It
will call up memories to old-timers,
every time they pass that way.
In its heyday 1t represented q
phase Of dramatic endeavor long
passed away. except In such revivals
as New York City has seen from time
to time.
Such things as instanced above are
totally unknown to the present and
younger generations. Somebody with
a flair for the dramatic yesterday
might take over the old building and
put on revivals here, who knows?
1.-THE Queen of Chinatown" was q
rip-snorter. as one theatergoer Of yes
teryear remembers 1t.
Even the youngsters in that age
were sophisticated enough to take
these often lurid productions with
their tongue in their cheek. But at
the end of every act, the grand climax
brought every spectator up standing.
Theatric to a degree, but always
good-good still, when put on with
plenty OF pep and gusto.
In the Chinatown" production
were mixed opium dens, yellow men in
wide pantaloons, plenty Of trap doors
and secret panels, and, above all,
several white women.
There was a detective. whose duty
1t was to appear suddenly at the most
unexpected moments, defying the
assembled band just as the curtain
started to fall down.
The hero was the detective, unless
our memory fails, and was always on
deck at the right moment, usually
with a .45-caliber dealing smoke,
noise and destruction from each hand.
There Is, or at least there was,
nothing that will bring an audience
up quicker than a good bit Of shoot
ing.
An audience is divided into two
parts. composed Of those who deign to
Jump and those who cannot help
themselves.
Whether this shows any particular
possession of nerve control on the
one hand, or lack of it on the other,
must be left to those who claim to
know.
The writer here always has been
among the skittish ones.
Even when he knows a shot is pre-
meditated. he jumps quite as smartly
as when the thing is a complete sur
prise.
Even shots by the trick member
OF the orchestra, as part Of the musi.
cal score, are enough to make most
theatergoers jump out of their seats,
If not exactly out of their skins.
"A Ragged Hero" appeared almost
Q hundred years ago at the Academy,
II seems in retrospect. at least
1t had one of those great scenes