davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Washington times., 1936-03-30
DIED

AWL, FRANCIS AsBURY-on Thuradav
March 20 1896, at Mount Alto Hospi:
tai FRANCIS AsBURY AwL. beloved hus-
band of Annie N Awl.
Remains resting at the ". ". Chambers
Company funeral home, 1400 Chaplin Stress
Northwest.
Funeral services in Fort Myer Chapel on
Monday, March 30, 1885. at p. N.
Relatives and friends invited.
Interment In Arlington National Gene
tery with full military honors.
BAYNEs, MARY M.-on Saturday. March
2S, 1885. MARY NJ. BAYNES, beloved
WlIe OIL George G.. Baynes.
Funeral from the late residence. 631k
Blair Road n. W.. on Tuesday. March 81.
Relatives and friends are invited.
Interment Rock Creek Cemetery.
Services by w. W. Chambers Co.
DAY. WILLIAM w., sR.-on Friday.
March % 1886. at Spring Grove Hoe:
DAY, sR;, father Of william W., jr., Min:
nie; Charles aLd Merrill Day. Mrs. Mamie
9: Perry. Mrs. Grace Heflin and Mrs. Mary
Slocumbe.
Remains resting at the W. W. Chambers
Company Southeast funeral home, b17
Eleventh Street Southeast.
Funeral services on Monday, March 30,
1885 at 2 D. m. from the W. W. Chan.s
bers Company Southeast funeral home,
6l7 Eleventh Street Southeast.
Relatives end friends invited.
lnterment in Congressional Cemetery.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
E'Fairly and JUSTLY"

Senator McKellar served notice in the
Senate last August that he proposed to
object to the leave bills until all en-
ployes of the Government shall be treat
ed fairly and justly and alike" Pre-
sumably the legislation now emerging
from the Senate Civil Service Commit
tee measures up to the standards set by
the Tennessean. That is gratifying.
While the reason for the cut in annual
leave is not apparent to the casual OBJ
server, undoubtedly Senator Mcclellan
understands its merit.
There is a difference in the bill as
passed by the House and that proposed
in the Senate, however, that not even
the Tennessee Senator himself can justi-
fy. That Is the contemplated reduction
in accumulated sick leave from 100 to go
days. This cumulative provision was put
in the bill for one reason only-to take
care of employees suffering prolonged ILL
nesses. Sick leave privilege has never
been abused, as the annual absence from
Evening star., 1936-02-14
Playground Surfacing.

A great many, If not most, of the city's
school Fairgrounds are surfaced with
cinders. Few Washington parents have
escaped the recurring ordeal of band
aging cut knees, hands and faces of
their young offspring in repairing the
damage from falls on the cinders. The
more serious results have shown them
selves in infections, which always bloom
along with the jonquils in Spring. For
the cinders are not only fiinty and sharp,
but dirty as well.
So the experiment to be undertaken
by the authorities in surfacing school
Fairgrounds with new cork compost
ton will be watched with every hope of
success. The new material may be more
expensive than cinders, but the added
cost will be justified If it saves some-
times serious and always annoying cas-
ualties. The ideal surface for a play
ground is turf. But it happens to be-.
in addition. physical impossibility to
make grass grow on school playground.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
Shooting Stars.
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON.

Luxury.
When homeward from his busy day the
toiler travels far
He'll simply push a button when he
wants to stop the car;
The man will pull lever and the door
will open wide
And gently jolt him down the step into
the street outside.
A button he will press to start the ele.
vator,s flight;
Another button floods the room with
soft electric light.
And then to cheer the WEAKNESS that
comes at close of day
He throws a switch and turns a knob
and lets the music play.
Oh, what's the good of hands and feet
and what's the good of brain
When with such little effort men such
ample service gain?
What call is there to strive and wait
and theorize and guess,
When all you need is to decide which
button you will press?
Evening star., 1936-02-14
When the Ice Breaks.

With foot of ice in the Potomac and
with considerable snow on the hills of
the watershed above Washington, there
is reason to be somewhat concerned lest
q sudden thaw may cause a flood at the
Capital. Should there be heavy rain,
with temperatures above the freezing
point, this mass of ice, especially with a
wind from the southern quarter, might
break and jam, backing UP the waters
over the lower sections of the city. This
has happened before, but fortunately the
conditions that led to inundation have
been considerably corrected and the dan
ger from this source is less than in
former years.
When the old Long Bridge" was in
service it was perennial menace to the
city on this score. A low-hung structure,
resting upon piers that had been REIN
forced for many seasons with rip-rap
abutments which lessened the space for
the flow of the river and offered obstruc-
tions to the passage of broken Ice and
debris brought down by freshets, this
bridge was potential dam, to impound
the food waters and send them spread
ing over the then unreclaimed fats and
into the streets. A consequence Of this
condition was that on several occasions
Evening star., 1936-02-14

the waters. backing up through the
sewers which discharged into the river
above the bridge, and flowing over the
lowlands, reached and covered Pennsyl-
vania Avenue so that traffic upon 1t was
impossible and it was necessary to use
small boats for crossing. When the Long
Bridge was replaced by modern struc-
ture, with higher clearance below the
lowest members and the newly built
piers cleared of obstructive materials, the
flow of the stream was adequate to pre-
vent inundation, save when the ice was
so heavy as to jam.
The chief element of danger in such
situation is the sudden breaking up
of the ice body and its massing in large
foes at one of the three bridges below
the Georgetown bend in the stream.
Should a jam occur at Chain Bridge,
where the channel is narrow and the
river is comparatively shallow, flood
would not be as destructive as though
it occurred in the lower stretch. The
replacement of the Aqueduct Bridge
with Key Bridge has removed q factor
of danger at that point.
Should the ice mass break first be-
low the city and move out rapidly enough
the possibility of flood would be much
lessened. There would then be mainly
the peril of a sudden movement from
above the city to bring down to the
bridges at Potomac Park too great a
quantity of ice to clear the piers Of
these structures. Precautions have been
taken to meet such a condition with
emergency breastworks to hold back
flood waters rising above the rivers
edge. Whether these would suffice for
this purpose can be determined only in
actual test, which it is to be hoped will
not occur. But. there is comfort in the
reflection that the newer bridges are
not, as was the old span of several
decades ago, ever-potential causes of
inundation.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
China's Custom of Pacific
Defense an Ancient Policy

To the Editor OF The Star:
Your admirable editorial of February
8, entitled China Defends Herself" in
terested me greatly. 1t is evidently the
work of a writer who sympathizeS with
China and who desires the extension of
trade and friendship between the United
States and China, but who, unfortun-
ately, believes that China's problems can
be solved by the same means as en-
ployed by Western nations. I cannot
help but question this; the Chinese
milieu is SO completely different from
ours that, in understanding Chinese
politics, we must remember that China's
peculiar individuality conditions every
aspect of her national life.
My twenty-eight years Of intimacy
with Chinese politics convince me that
China's only real defense today is that
same defense which has kept Chinese
culture intact for more than four mil
lennia-the power of good business and
ScrupulouS regard for the rights of for
eigners in their own territories. These
great pacific instruments of defense
cannot be replaced by munitions and
predatory attacks China will continue
defending herself in the age-old manner.
With her population, one-fourth that
of all humanity, made up of the most
industrious and law-abiding members
of the human race, she will survive
when all the other nations Of the earth
have perished
Pacific defense is a defense that
builds and does not destroy.
The other nations of the world could
come close to a brotherhood of man
if they were to emulate China and fol-
low the peaceful and benevolent doc
trines of Sun Yat-Sen. the great leader
of the Chinese revolution, with whom
I had the honor of being associated for
eighteen years. PAUL LINEBARGER.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
An Agreeable AnaniaS,

Bill Bivvins doesn't tell the truth; &,
At least, not all the time.
And yet we welcome him, in sooth,
With an affection prime.
He tells the ladies they are all
The fairest of their race;
Likewise he says their children small
Have wondrous wit and grace.
He tells each statesman that his speech
Ranks as a classic rare.
Whate'er the goal you fain would reach,
He strives to boost you there.
With friendly talk since early youth
Good cheer he's tried to bring.
Bill Bivvins doesn't tell the truth,
But he is comforting!
Evening star., 1936-02-14
Rain and Oil.

With prospective enactment of Ameri-
can neutrality legislation whereby there
will be no embargo on shipment of oil
to belligerents, League plans to impose
oil sanctions on Italy are about to be
abandoned. The Geneva experts COM
mittee which has had these additional
penalties under consideration ruled that
unless the United States joined in meas
ureS to deprive MusSolini's war machine
of oil such project was doomed in ad-
vance to futility. 1t is indicated that
little or nothing will be heard of it
henceforth. Thus impending congress
sional action at Washington, withholding
from the President the right to restrict
shipment of materials of war" other
than armaments, has had prompt and
decisive repercuSsions in Geneva, with
correspondingly important influence on
Italian operations in Ethiopia.
Undoubtedly the ignominious collapse
of oil sanctions is diplomatic victory
of the first magnitude for the FasciSts.
II Duce from the outset threatened that
if the League powers resorted to the ex-
treme of starving Italy of supplies for
her motorized forces he would consider
such action tantamount to an act of war
and govern himself accordingly. 1t was
the fear of an attack on her fleet in
the execution of such reprisals that i'm
PEELED Great Britain recently to organize
an alliance of Mediterranean powers for
common defense against an Italian Of
fensive.
MuSSolini is rid of the peril of a
shortage of oil, but is face to face with
the danger of surplus of water. His
armies in Africa, after five months of
inconcluSive campaigning, now confront
the annual "big" rainy season, which
for six months will make effective mill
tary activities in Ethiopia utterly i'm
possible. Despite recent local successes
on both the northern and the southern
fronts, Rome admits that the foe still
has 350,000 men under arms, scattered
so widely and at such far-flung stra-
tegic points that military subjugation
of Halle Selassie is still afar off. Even
the elimination of an estimated 10000
Ethiopian warriors since the inception
of the war has not materially enhanced
Italy's prospects of achieving a decisive
victory.
Realization that the invader is about
to encounter the insuperable forces of
nature in the form of torrential rains
of long duration probably causes the
Geneva powers to view without undue
remorse the breakdown of the program
to curb Italy through oil sanctions. The
specter of a general European war is
banished and the possibility becomes
greater that Mussolini sooner or later
will be brought to understand that
prolonged inconclusive campaign in
Africa is more costly than Italy can
afford. Existing economic sanctions are
notoriously aggravating conditions at
home and progressively crippling Italian
trade abroad. Thus, water pouring from
the Ethiopian skies may come to play
as determining a role in checking II
Duce's war of conquest as oil withheld
from him might have done.
Evening star., 1936-02-14

There is Just so much resistance in
plant tissue, put into 1t by the original
strain, plus the amount Of vigor kept
prime by food.
Plant food, for the amateur, is q
nebulous subject.
He has nothing to go on. except the
reaction Of his plants, and he cannot
be sure how much of that is due to
food and food alone.
There are other factors-the weather,
sunshine, moisture, care-which cannot
be measured with any exactitude, espe-
cially in comparison with the food
factor.
Then, too, there is the natural vigor
of the individual plant, as distinct from
that of other specimens.
The health index Of the plant is not
to be determined by rampant growth
alone. This is but one phase. Often
1t results in great quantities of leaves
and nothing else.
Such plant may be no sturdier than
lesser specimens which do not seem, to
the eye, to be so f1ourishing.
It is impossible, then, to know which
plants will pull through severe Winter
and which will not.
Proper mulching will have helped, but
even then there is no telling, mostly on
account of that unknown quantity in
every living thing, its essential vitality,
beyond which it cannot 60 and without
which it will not last.
The essential vitality of human being
may be very low, yet the individual
endure long time, provided conditions
are good, and the individual uses his
common sense to know what he can
and what he cannot do.
A famous doctor once said that the
way to live long time was to acquire
some chronic disease and take good care
of it.
This simply meant that such person
would be forced, by the very nature
of his case, to refuse to take chances
which people in better state of health
would accept without thought.
1t is common observation that many
Ill persons live very long time, de-
spite their illnesses, or maybe because
of them.
They do SO by many sacrifices and by
living in a way which healthy people
profess never to understand.
Perhaps there is no way of under
SCanQlng except 10 go CIlrOugn Ine same
experience. For instance, it is nothing
for sick person to retire at pm.
often misunderstood and called lazy by
others. 1t is commonplace for many
less healthy individuals to give up all
evening affairs, including that great
American tidbit, the movies, simply in
order to have enough energy the next
day to go to their work. They must
be willing, however, to be misunder-
stood. and often abused, for their lido
syncrasy."
They can laugh up their sleeves, how
ever, for they know they have something
others do not have-knowledge even in
little.
1t is not for nothing the sensible world
has praised knowledge.
The joke, however is that knowledge
is not just something in a book, but
many something's, which may come on
a bed of pain as well as zestfully in the
glow of public applause.
The birds know something. Is it that
Winter is not going to last much longer?
The waiting world can hope they
! know that.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
Back Stair Procedure for
Civil Service Appointees
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor of The Star:
The political appointees in the New
Deal agencies, particularly those out
lawed by Supreme Court decisions, are
still trying to slip into the competitive
civil service by back-stairway procedure.
Their latest scheme is to acquire COM
petitive civil service status by what they
call CLOSED competitive examinations
for discharged emergency workers, CIV
ing them priority over the civil service
eligible list but not over the civil serv-
ice unemployment register"
Giving priority civil service status to
political appointees, by an examination
to which nobody but political appointees
could be admitted, certainly would not
be an extension of the merit system
or anything else under the sun but a
wholesale extension Of the spoils system
all through the Federal service.
T. j. MEAD.
Evening star., 1936-02-14

this cause for the hundreds Of thousands
of workers amounts only to an average
of six or seven days a year.
Every one realizes the necessity for
a steady income in sickness. A victim
able to return to duty after so days would
be only too glad to do it. So the restric-
ton is unnecessary. Further, the Gov
ernment will not benefit, for it is gener-
ally the custom for an office force simply
to shoulder increased duties when one
Of their number is forced out.
The House provision should be re-
tanned.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Not long ago a popular Washington
hostess, who was born in the capital of
New York State, was identified at a
social function as an Albanian" Soon
afterward she was approached by
New Deal newcomer who bubbled that
she had met Bulgarians and SerbianS,
but never before had seen an Albanian.
So she was glad to widen her acquaint-
ance among the Balkan" races, she
explained, by meeting the lady from
the banks of the Hudson.
II +
Washington having no x street, it's
been suggested by denizen of S street
northwest that it wouldn't be inappro-
pirate to rechristen it K street. as the
thoroughfare contains the one-time
homes Of Woodrow Wilson and Herbert
Hoover and the present residences of
former United States Senator David
A. Reed of Pennsylvania, former Fed
eral Reserve Board Governor Adolph c.
Miller and former Undersecretary of
State William r. Castle, jr.-all of them
"exeS."
Boris E. Skvirsky, counselor of the
Soviet Embassy at Washington, who
has been promoted to be Russian Min
lister to AfghaniStan, has served in the
United States continuously since 1921.
He had one of the most difficult rows
to hoe that ever fell to the lot of a
foreign envoy here, due to the refusal
of four successive administrations to
enter into relations with his govern
ment. Because of his tact and helpful
ness in RuSso-American affairs, par
ticularly commercial relations, no one
did more to pave the way for the Roose-
velt-Litvinoff negotiations that finally
led to recognition in 1888.
With retirement of Frank j. Wide
man of Florida as an Assistant Attorney
General, the Department of Justice
chalks up it's sixth change in key OH
cials during the past year, thus rivaling
the numerous shifts that have taken
place in New Deal Treasury Department
personnel. Members of Attorney Gen.
eral Cummings staff who resigned in
1885 included Solicitor General James
C. Biggs, Assistant Solicitor General
Angus D. MacLean, Assistant to the
Attorney General william Stanley, As
sistant Attorney General. Harold M.
Stephens and Parole Board Member DR..
Amy N. Stannard. Mr.. Stephens left
to become justice Of the United States
Court of Appeals for the District of Co
lurnbia The others returned to private
professional activities.
X y
Speaking in Baltimore the other day,
Assistant Secretary Of State Sumner
Welles disclosed that not all the money
spent by Americans for imported manu-
featured goods goes abroad. He cited
a study which shows that of every
import dollar only 20 to 40 cents are
remitted overseas. Sixty to 80 cents
remain here for tariff duty, dock labor,
trucking, rail transport, importing or
eanization, wholesaler, advertising, re-
taller. statesmen, etc. MIR. Welles pointed
out that it's not been suficiently en-
phasized, in connection with reciprocal
tariff agreements, that imports are often
considered to furnish as much employ
ment as exports.
Copyright, 1850
Evening star., 1936-02-14

Novelists have had some great ideas
which turn up in practical life. Jules
Verne was such a writer. H. Rider Hag-
gard when he wrote "She" gave a sug-
gestion of what eugenics might accom-
plish in producing supermen. Only a
supply of supermen could administer the
colossal projects now indicated by in
itials. The ability to take intelligent
command will need propagation as well
as propaganda.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Can 1t be that the wild birds know
there is to be an early Spring2
That the songs they have been singing
the last few mornings are in response
to the immemorial urge?
Snow and ice, many inches thick, and
in repeated layers, cover the ground as
far as the eye can see but the Knockers
and the cardinals and the song SPAR
rows are singing.
Their songs are tentative, 1t is true,
but singing, nevertheless.
These are no ordinary chirps, such
as the English sparrows set up, as, clus-
, tered thick in the shrubs, they cause
pasSersby to stop in amazement, as II
they could not believe their ears.
No, these are real songs, as yet in
complete, but definitely unlike any other
sounds which the birds have made so
far this year.
Is it possible that the birds, so close
to Nature, know that Spring is much
closer than it looks?
If we can believe them, this is the
fact, although it is hard to believe as
one looks around at the snowy scene
everywhere.
1t may be, of course, that the songs
which come yelling from their throats
are in response to the good food of
which they have been partaking so
happily for almost three months
AS much seed and grain as they could
eat. every day from approximately 7
o'clock to 5 o'clock, has made them
pretty chesty.
* **
Perhaps their morning songs these
days are no more than the urge every
living creature feels when it's stomach
is full of good food.
Yet these creatures are so very close
to the heart of Nature. so perfectly
her children. untrammeled by minds, as
man is, that the listener is enheartened
to believe they know something he
does not.
They may know, better than ground
hog, just how close real Spring is to us.
Our hope is that they would not so
sing this early unless they felt some
thing in the air which spelled true
Spring
This might not mean that balmy
weather was close at hand, but only
SurceaSe in the extremely cold tenn
peratures we have had.
1t can be imagined that. to a bird,
an increase of 10 degrees, for instance,
would mean great deal
1t would mean something to human
ity, too, in such Winter.
1t is interesting to speculate on the
possible harm the extremely cold wealth
er may have done to the garden.
This will be the third straight Winter
in a row which has been around zero
at times and below freezing for days.
The first such shock was too much for
many plants hereabouts, notably privet
hedges and certain rose bushes.
Last Winter further damage was done
What this present season will do re-
mains to be seen, but we are hoping that
such things as managed to pull through
the past two Winters will be enabled to
survive this one. mostly as result of
a certain amount of hardness built up
during those Winters.
Can such hardness be built?
1t is probably true that such hardness
as plants are able to build is simply the
result of proper feeding.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
Abundant Occupation.

Don't you think the Government
ought to regulate corporations?"
"I don't know" replied Senator Sor-
ghum; sometimes I think a Govern
ment official has enough to do to get
elected to a job and hold on to it with
out assuming any more responsibility.
Evening star., 1936-02-14

History has not disclosed much hope
of keeping politics out of large enter
prises, including Government itself. A
large element of civilizations problem is
that of cultivating the right kind of
politics.
Evening star., 1936-02-14

The U. S. Supreme Court thinks well of
the freedom Of the press. 1t is a recip-
rocal sentiment Had it not been for
the writing warriors of early American
history, there might have been no Su-
preme Court.
Evening star., 1936-02-14

Perhaps it was unlucky to name a
handsome Great Dane Hamlet. The
Hamlet of classic drama was a beauti-
full character. but fearfully misunder-
stood.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
The Counter Irritant.

From the Battle Creek Enauirer-News.
New York has been making consid-
erable progress toward choking OF the
artichoke racket, but Mayor La GuardiaS
han on hand organ music is meeting
imposition from folk who don't like to
listen to the neighbor's radio.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
Louisiana's Claim to the
Right of Title Accession

To the Editor of The Star:
Recently in England they said, "The
King is dead; long live the King" I
suppose they are saying in Louisiana
at this time, "The Kingfish is dead; long
live the Queenfish." w. w. COOK.
Evening star., 1936-02-14
A PrOyerb Question.

Remember that politeness costs Moth
ing" said the readymade philosopher.
1--WE heard that told" replied Mr..
Cumrox, but never yet saw any gratis
politeness from a head waiter"