davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1935-05-14

a trip to Washington at a time of
year when most farmers are pretty
busy at home. or to give the interest
ing details of how the farmers per-
fected in such . short time their ex-
cellent organization, extending from
Georgia to Minnesota, which brought
them all here at the same time. 1t is
only healthy curiosity to want to know
and the farmers should tell.
But perhaps the most interesting
commentary on the times that this
unusual farmers march has written
is the fact that general surprise and
interest is created by q demonstration
Of faith in and good will toward the
Observation-Disclosures OF how care
fully staged that demonstration might
be. Washington is used to bonus
marches, hunger marches, other farm
ers' marches and various marches OF
the discontented, come to town to
air their grievances against the Gov
ernment. But q delegation Of citi-
zens who journey to their Capital
to say that everything Is lovely and
the goose hangs high - well, can
you blame the average American for
regarding it with suspicion2
Evening star., 1935-05-14
Chain-Letter Craze Stirs
Satire and Condemnation

yer has been all but wrecked by the
influx of chain letters" To the Nash
vile Banner, the fad "iS another evi-
dence that getting rich quick con-
tinues to be the crowning ambition
of a large element of the American
public" and the Texarkana Gazette
sees in it "a parallel to the frenZed
prosperity of the boom years"
To the Tulsa (Okla) Tribune, how
ever. it merely proves that the Amer
lean people like "fadding about for a
while" The Indianapolis Star calls
the dime venture a nuisance" and
the Danville Qll) Commercial-News
thinks the Stiffness of the chain letter
evil has seldom been exceeded"
The Tulsa (Okla) World takes
serious view of the matter, and as
serts that "the whole crain-letteI
craze, now tied to current political
delusions, seems to indicate decided
moral and mental breakdown" To
the Pueblo Star journal, the most
intriguing phase of it is the half joe
ular claim that the exchange Of let
ters will usher in prosperity"
The Birmingham (Ala.J Age-Herald
contends that the chance Of running
afoul the law would seem to be at
least as great as the chance of getting
anything out Of it." The Bay City
(Mich.) Daily Times and the South
Bend tInd) Tribune also emphasize
the fact that the post Office has de-
clared the chain letters to be illegal,
and the Richmond Und) Palladium
urges that "the warning Of the post
Office be Needed" even though, as the
Uniontown (Pa.) Morning Herald
points out. "to indict all those now
advancing the scheme is obviously i'm
practicable"
Evening star., 1935-05-14
Japan and Siam.

Since the menace of HitleriSm has
engroSsed the attention of the world,
especially in the realm of European
affairs, relatively little thought has
been bestowed upon developments in
the Far East. In that circumstance
may lie the explanation of news that
Japanese influence is spreading in
Siam at so alarming a rate that the
representatives of Western powers at
Bangkok are calling upon the govern
ment to throw light on certain dis
quieting developments.
Japan embarked upon its great
Manchurian adventure in the Fall of
1881 at moment when Toxic reck-
oned that Europe and America were
80 preoccupied with their own trou-
bles, mainly the depression, that the
militarists' program in North China
might be launched with little or no
risk of obstruction. Those calculations
proved to be well founded. The estab-
lishment of the Empire of Manchu-
kuo" is proof that the gamble, from
Nippon's standpoint, turned out to be
completely successful.
The Bangkok authorities deny that
Siam is being swung Intentionally
into Tokios orbit, but there are many
indications that the populous little
kingdom lately ruled by Prajadhipok
is coming more and more to look
upon neighboring and powerful Japan
as the most favored nation" Gov
eminent officials, Notwithstanding un-
mistakable signs of japanese influ-
ence, insist that the two countries
are "close" friends only geographical
ly. Foreign ministers at Bangkok
are assured that Siam is just as
eager as outside powers to keep the
nation independent, but there seems
to be no gainsaying that commercial
ly, politically and culturally ties with
Japan are being notably strengthened.
There are insistent reports that some
sort of Siamese-Japanese special
treaty has been signed.
Great Britain especially looks with
dixfayor upon the possibility OF Slams
Evening star., 1935-05-14

becoming japanese outpost in South
eastern Asia. II its 100000 square
miles and 100000 of population
were TO 60 the way Of Formosa, Ko-
rea and Manchuria, Japanese terri
tory and power would be extended to
the border of British India, in Burma,
and to French Indo-China. That is
prospect that fills the British in
particular with mixed emotions. II
ever realized, 1t might require impor-
tant revisions of imperial policy.
Japan has profited before when the
Western powers had other fish to
fry far remote from Asia. 1t Is just
possible that the Toxic imperialists
are flirting with the idea of peaceful
penetration in Siam at what they
deem to be another psychological
moment.
Evening star., 1935-05-14
American People Are
Not Insurance Minded

To the Editor Of The Star:
For q Nation as insurance minded
as we are supposed to be, are We mo-
singularly lacking in any adequate
comprehension Of the main funda-
mental?
This is peculiarly evident in our
present dominating interest in social
security, which, of whatever type. is
quite obviously q matter Of mutual
insurance.
Irrespective Of the technique, no
insurance can be any better than
the store Of the tangible goods to
which in theory 1t lays claim.
Pensions, life insurance. annuitieS,
all forms Of insurance against con-
tingencies are, by themselves. mere
claims. This Is all that they can be-
since in the last analysis wealth it
self can be boarded only to limited
degree.
The saving of the mere claims Is.
after all, relatively easy. The riddle
of the ages Is how to store wealth
for future security.
We seek to store wealth as money
Vi lhtL NoAuC oAAA bllio
then ceases to perform its primary
function. If we store the wealth as
money which has and should have
no intrinsic value, the same holds
true, with this added delinquency
that If the paper, however issued,
ceases to bear a rational relation to
productive capacity, it ceases to serve
as a medium of exchange and is
worthless.
If we seek to accumulate the tangi-
bles themselves, their inadequacies
become apparent. Wealth rots or be-
comes obsolescent. There is the cost
of maintainance.
We see this dimly, and to evsde
responsibility we increasingly prefer
to be owed rather than to own. The
edifice we erect is one of debt, which
remains and grows. even If the wealth
vanishes. So we imagine. And truly
so it does, but we now discover that
our claim is no better than the
debtors ability to pay interest.
II any category of us has a valid
claim on wealth, to live on and en-
Joy, we must recognize that in the
last analysis there is but one pos
sible storehouse for savings, namely,
the collective social capacity to pro-
duce and distribute, functioning as
such. We live, in truth, on current
production. Far from having saved
for our needs that are to be, our
future satisfactions have as yet not
even been created.
1t is the maintenance of this func-
tioning entity that is vital. For
where else can our claims finally
rest? Our true security must lie
in our success for assuring capacity
for producing and consuming. This
assures the insurance, which must be
no less than the adequate spread
and the sharing of the inevitable
risk. II the ratio Of claims to ca
pacity exceeds a certain maximum,
insurance obviously fails.
And the insurance of a part by the
whole involves q mutual responsible
ity. There must have been previous
service. p. r. WHITMAN.
Evening star., 1935-05-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

This Is a pleasant feeling, known
not only to gardeners, but to all who
try to do something. There always
will be knockers. and worse, those who
spend some of their valuable time
trying to run down" those whose
offense, in their eyes, simply Is that
they are attempting to do something.
The number of ways in which these
persons attempt to discredit them is
astounding. Some do 1t directly, some
openly, some by subterfuge, some by
petty persistence. Some do 1t with
smile, others with o snarl, but do 1t.
Hence, in regard to gardening, is
it eminently pleasant to feel, on GER
| tain days, that the amount of time,
labor, intelligence and money put into
it are getting results, in one way or
another. Then the petty sneerers
may be overlooked. It is not always
So Sometimes, depending upon the
sensitivity of the patient, the sneerers
do wreak their unnecessary vengeance
perhaps more than they shall ever
know.
Hours when the garden seems at its
best may or may not be spent in work.
This will depend upon which aspect
Of gardening one SpecializeS in.
The actual work of gardening Is one
thing, and certainly the most essen
tial. Therefore, he or she who really
makes the garden, who does the work,
who sows, digs, transplants, carefully
watches over seedlings, La the real
gardener, and no one shall say nay.
But there is another side to it, Of
course. else wealthy owners Of great
estates would be strangers in their
own grounds, and the award OF prizes
to them at flower shows would be
mockery.
This is the side of direction; and
there is another side, which has mostly
to do with understanding and admira-
ton.
He or she who honestly loves the
results OF gardening, who Is able to
understand what is being done, and
to rejoice when rejoicing Is due, may
be thought to be as much q gardener,
in a sense, as any. though he or she
never handle a trowel.
This will mean that the American
sport Of garden wranging, often heard,
must come to an end.
Some families seem to keep gardens
merely to fuss and fume over them.
Everything that one party does, the
other party deplores.
One side specializes in pruning, the
other in deprecating pruning, however
necessary.
often this mock-quarreling comes
about because both sides to the peren-
NAL disputation desire to pose as real
dirt gardeners.
Usually there Is Just one dirt far
mer, and the other might as well keep
out OF 1t. and enjoy the results.
This brings peace and harmony
where before reigned q sort OF semi
dispute as unpleasant as 1t was weak.
Sometimes strong doses OF q thing are
not as unpleasant as repeated weak
ones.
Wherefore, 1t comes about. that gar
den harmony is to be sought in more
places than flowers.
When harmony reigns. as 1t ought,
every opportunity exists for all to dis
cover the sheerly beautiful days when
everything is more beautiful, when
the light Is just right, when even the
untrimmed grass edges are forgotten.
and every one remarks, How fine the
garden looks today" These are
precious hours, all the more so because
they do not come often. When they
arrive, make the most OF them.
Evening star., 1935-05-14
Rate by Mail-Payable in Advance.
MARYLAND and Virginia,
All Other States and Canada.
Member of the Associated Press.
Well Timed, Deserved Criticism.

Justice Hitz accompanies his bis
tering and well-timed indictment of
irresponsible automobile drivers in
Washington with two concrete sug-
gestions for remedy, one of which lies
within the power Of the courts to &C
cept and apply, the other resting with
Congress. How long will it be before
the defenseless citizen, whose life and
whose property are daily endangered
through the very lack of such rene
dies, receives the benefits OF reforms
which he is powerless to bring about
himself?
1t is an intolerable condition which
permits fatal or incapacitating injuries
to citizens without hope of recovering
partially compensating damages from
the person responsible for such in
juries. Yet that condition in WASH
ington is aggravated by the circum-
stances which are picturesquely and
accurately described by Justice Hitz
as follows:
Hundreds of these taXicabs flying
the false colors of an incorporated re-
sponsibility which they assume but do
not possess, and which disappears at
every attempt to enforce it, daily are
daShing about our streets in the hands
of youthful drivers, irresponsible. un-
insured and driving on speculation.
The sole objection to an adequate
compulsory liability law for taxicab
owners and operators lies in the sug-
gestion that such a law might put
some of them out of business. But
what about the case of the fireman,
in which Justice Hitz gave this dis
senting opinion. who has been injured
for life while in the performance of
his duty, and who, through an un-
convincing technicality of the law, is
unable to recover damages from the
person responsible for his injury?
And the fireman is by no means the
single victim Of such conditions.
There have been many others, and
there will continue to be others until
adequate legislative remedy is pro-
vided.
The safety-responsibility law, re-
Gently enacted, represented a step in
the right direction. But it was only
a step. 1t requires a showing of fnan-
cial responsibility on the part of GER
tain careless or reckless drivers after
an accident-but not before. 1t should
be followed by a law requiring, as JUS
tice Hitz suggests, "a system of COM
pulsory insurance preliminary to
license of either cab or driver, such as
prevails in some of our States, but
which can be created here only by act
OF Congress"
Evening star., 1935-05-14
Majestic Course of the Law.

A man who has the money to retain
skilled counsel may, in the exercise of
his rights as q citizen under the Con-
stitution, keep the courts busy for a
considerable length of time in de-
Tending himself against the efforts of
the Government to send him to Jail.
As witness the case of Sam Beard:
October 5, 1934-Arrested in q raid
on the Mather Building.
December 14-Indicted on a gam
bling charge.
December 21-Enters plea of not
guilty and posts bond.
December 28-Plea of not guilty
withdrawn and plea in abatement
filed.
January 2, 935-Government filed
demurrer to plea in abatement.
January Memorandum of points
and authorities in opposition to de-
murrer filed by defense.
January 18-Government's demur-
rer argued and sustained
January 23-Demurrer to and mo-
ton to quash indictment filed by
defense.
February 12-Government filed
points and authorities in opposition
to the demurrer and motion to quash.
March 5-Demurrer and motion to
Quash argued and submitted to Judge.
March 6-Demurrer and motion
overruled.
March 11-Plea of not guilty filed.
March 12-Stipulation filed as to
two defendants.
March l5-Defense filed motion for
bill of particulars; argued and
granted in part.
March ls-Bill of particulars filed
by Government.
April 29-Trial started.
May 6-Verdict of guilty returned
Notice Of appeal filed and defendant
released on bond.
May 10-Affidavits charging coer-
cion filed by defense. New trial asked.
May 14-Hearing to be held on
afhdavits.
Evening star., 1935-05-14

The current send dime" chain
letter craze is as absurd as it is illegal,
in the opinion of the press. Most
editors feel that the popularity of
the scheme demonstrates not only the
overwhelming desire of some people to
get something for nothing, but their
gullibility in forgetting that most of
the participants will be left holding
the bag.
Under the 'send-a- dime project"
the Boise Idaho Statesman explains,
IAN individual receives a list of six
names in a letter asking him to send
10 cents to the top name on the list.
He is then to remove that name, add
his own name to the bottom of the list,
and send copies of the letter and the
new list to five others. BY the time
his name will have reached the top
of the list it will be in the hands of
1885 persons, if there is no break in
the chain. If each of these sends him
a dime. he will receive over $500
from this one link in the chain before
his name goes of the list"
Theoretically, there is no exact
limit to the distance the thing could
be carried" says the Ashland (Ky0
Daily Independent. "All that is neces-
sary is that on any given date the
number of new suckers being tapped
is greater than the number of dimes
ix> ha Vnttronctnu-r1 rTpln.
gram contributes the observation,
however, that "a newspaper man who
never won mathematics examination
in his life, but has learned bit about
people from people, has figured that
some six repetitionS of this process
puts the letter in the hands OF the TWO
billion persons on earth"
In the words of the New York Herald
Tribune, 1T is another of those affairs
where to be in on the ground floor is
vital. But Denver appears to have
crowded and overcrowded the ground
floor. 1t will, therefore. be New York's
lot to supply the requisite suckers for
the upper stories of the structure.
1T is an interesting game, and many
in search of fun will take part in it,
lust to see what will happen, without
caring particularly whether they get
their dimes back or not" remarks the
Youngstown Indicator, but the Bir-
mingham (Ala) News is OF the opin-
ion that, IF it is dishonest propo-
sition-which it is-then honest people
will want no part in it."
In these early days of the schemes
operation, it offers food for thought
by those Share-the- wealth advocates
who, admittedly, are not getting along
so well with their pet proposals"
facetiously suggests the Montana Rec
ord d-Herald, while the Ann Arbor
Daily News observes that it Is "in-
evitable that chain letters would be
introduced as means of solving pres
ent economic problems and sharing
the wealth" The Knoxville (Tenn)
journal thinks that "if one must do
something foolish or silly or sinful to
ease the tension of all the debts and
duststorms, doubts and dangers that
in these dubious days bedevil and
bedog us, why not try out the dime
letter chain by way of daring fate
TO give US break?"
Though less mysterious than the
philosophers stone and not so pic
turesque as the divining rod, this lure
to quick riches seems to have caused
no little STIR" says the Atlanta Jour-
nal Indeed. the Chattanooga Times
sSerts that the postal service In Den
Evening star., 1935-05-14
SHOOTING STARS.
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON.
Think Promoter.

Think Promoter.
My Radio! My radiol
You bring good cheer to me.
Though oft opinions you will show
With which I can't agree.
Sometimes your mood is sunny,
Sometimes it's rather sad:
The world Is either funny
Or else it's just too bad.
My radio! My radio!
You often make me think
OF words really should not know,
Caught from perdition's brink.
You make me think, must admit,
And that should help q lot
Though what about, I must admit,
Should mostly be forgot.
Evening star., 1935-05-14

Why is 1t that a garden looks SO
much better some days than others?
1t is a fact.
Usually 1t has nothing at all to dc
with a well moved and trimmed
lawn, as one might at first suppose
Even stranger, 1t seems to depend
very little upon the flowers. whether
or not they are in bloom at the par
ticular time.
Every home gardener has known
such a time, when the entire yard
appeared at its best, for variety OF
reasons scarcely to be ascertained.
One always hopes that friends will
| call at such times, but they seldom
do, usually waiting for things to look
at their poorest.
One may come to feel that the
sheer state Of the atmosphere has q
great deal to do with 1t.
On certain days, even at certain
hours, there must be just the right
amount Of water vapor in the air to
transform an otherwise dull spot into
a picture.
Perhaps on days before rains this
effect is most noticeable.
Sometimes, just few hours before
rain, although at the time the sun
is shining, everything will appear at
its garden best.
Fortunate is the beauty-loving
mind and heart able to realize that
this is the perfect moment.
y 4 4
Gardens exist for these times.
All the rest Of their existence Is
but working up to this.
During these perfect moments they
fairly shine.
The curious-minded home owner
will wonder II the casual eye could
note 1t.
Perhaps the closest acquaintance
is necessary, In order that the frac-
ton Of a difference may be noticed.
1t is not large 1t will never knock
your eye out" or call especial atten-
tion to itself.
There is no ballyhoo or propaganda
about 1t. This small difference de-
mands something else, and neither
compels the beholder to notice 1t nor
threatens him if he should not.
Compulsion, in regard to it. is nom
existent. Perhaps this is the real rea-
son of reasons why it is eminently
beautiful 1t is doubtful whether the
best things In life can be gained by
commands
Though the greatest dictator of all
stands in our way, and with clenched
fists and frowning brows commands us
to admire something, we do 1t or not,
in mind and soul. only when We please
Admiration by words is not the same
thing.
Often enough It is possible to dis
miss the polite command by words to
the effect that "Oh, yes,s 1t is very
pretty" when all the time one thinks
the effect atrocious.
1t is the same with Government
buildings. with gardens, with pic
lures. No one really can command
us. after all. The tighter the dictator
ship. the more lip-service, that is all
Fortunately the home owner, in re-
gard to his own yard, Is not faced by
dilemmas.
He may admire his own, or not,
just as his disposition goes, and the
day.
What others think is something to
him, but most what he thinks him
self
Hence the happiness Of these days
when he feels that thought and labor
have not been in vain. that, though
the yard may take no prizes, still it
has much to commend 1t.