The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-06-20
NOW
The Remedy for
Worlds ILLS
SHIP PROBERS
Rx HELEN ESSARY

DIV uDA1N ASNEAAsA
The trouble with the world to-
day-the explanation of its wav-
ering meals and jumbled stand
ards-is-no, not dear old hui
man nature, that everlasting
alibi, but the lack of McGuffey's
Readers in the school room.
Miss Maude Blair feels this
way. Miss Blair has the largest
collection of the famous old
textbooks of any bibliophile.
Seven hundred volumes-from
the first to the sixth grade. Rare
first editions. Later editions.
Some ragged, dog-eared, chewed
by the teeth of the restless chill
dren. Some neatly preserved.
AL Of them pointing the IA
nous McGuffey moral that vir-
tue and industry triumph. Beau
tiful stories about great men
and women (expurgated edi-
tions) were the textbook models
by which McGuffey taught
young minds to read and spell.
Miss Blair, who is the direc-
tor of the Free Textbook and
Library Department of the De-
troit Board of Education, has
been in Washington, helping
Mr.. V. Volta Parma, curator of
rare books at the Congressional
Library, select some of the val
liable old textbooks from their
public shelves for safe-keeping
in the rare-book section.
Miss Blair realized seven years
ago while she was looking after
Detroit's two and half million
books that the McGuffey Read
ers were being lost and de-
stroyed. So she began her col
lection. Miss Blair also directs
successfully the largest women's
FERA project. Under her super
vision, one thousand women
have repaired over two and one
half million books and returned
them to circulation.
Ewing Mitchell, who is saying
things out loud about the Ship
ping Board, is probably sincere
and means well, and all that
sort of thing, but he lacks
charm. Which is probably just
as well. Charm is very fatigu.
ing to senatorial investigating
committees-particularly in sum-
mer time.
Mr.. Mitchell is so or so.
Rather squarish, with a thin,
tight upper lip. A jaw like a
bulldog, and a curly gray
pompadour.
It's amusing to watch the diff
ferent approach of the admins
trative and antiadministratiVe
members of a congressional In
Vestigation committee to the
same witness. Senator Vanden-
berg, for instance, at the Ewing
Mitchell hearing, neatly turned
his questions into possible en-
barrassment for the AdminiStra-
ton. The rock-ribbed regulars
among the Democrats, Senators
Copeland and Fletcher, Joe
Bailey and Joe Guffey (Mr. CUT
fey didn't say very much at
any time but kept a New Deal
ear cocked asked questions
meant to reveal the purity and
blamelessness of the Commerce
Department.
Shearer, the munitions lobby
list, was an interested spectator.
Mrs. Bennett Clark came in for
q few minutes. The crowd in the
room was mostly composed of
those strange, unidentifiable
people who go to trials and in
Vestigations to watch their more
dramatic brethren Squirm.
! Katherine Dayton, who is
writing a play, "First Lady" in
collaboration with George Kauff-
man, got an ovation at the Grass
Roots Convention, so returned
travellers say.
Miss Dayton, who was form
erly a newspaper woman in
Washington and has dozens of
friends here, was sitting quietly
in the Press Section when some
body called the attention of the
convention to the fact that so
distinguished a woman was in
the audience.
The chairman promptly asked
Miss Dayton to stand. Miss
Dayton did stand, but she
couldn't be seen above the
heads of the Grass Rooters.
So three nimble gentlemen
lifted her to a chair. Then the
crowd looked at her pretty, Smil-
ing face, and Internationally.
Why, dear Heaven. does the
Government of the United State
have to be conducted with so
much talk?
AS an amateur observer wan.
dering about the Capitol, we've
often been depressed by the SUR
plus in talk and the shortage in
deeds.
This speech-making habit is
probably not the fault of any
particular member of Congress.
But to an outsider looking down
from the House and Senate gal
lery, pleasure in the sound of
their own voices seems the par
tlcular passion of most gentle
men Of the Congress.
NIinfk Il L