davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Our Thanks

Let US give thanks because in our broad
land
No swift destruction sears the haSy skies,
To close forever young and fear-wide
eyes,
When shattered homes smoke eharred,
Ike burned-out brand.
Let Us give thanks because no stern
command
Dictates our lives TN each sense bruti-
fles;
Thanks that no corn, no blackened wheat
fleld lies
A fire-strewn hell-sxploding waste Of
sand.
Deep, heartfelt thanks because our
fathers blood
Bought peace and freedom on q fruitful
soil;
Where childrens children have been
clothed and fed.
Where springs bright bloom unfolds its
tight-furled bud,
And seed and harvest follow earnest toll:
Where through the years Man walks
with lifted head.
IVY L1NDeLEY.
Evening star., 1939-11-23

OF oil and petrol and poison from depth
charges in the North Sea would murder
most of the fishes, anyhow I have got
all my coal in. The man has been very
good in filling up before the ration day.
have paid over 40 pounds for it and
it must last year. I shall probably put
down the car in January when I have to
take out fresh license costing 20
pounds. have petrol for only 80 miles
week, which makes one shopping expe-
dltlon to W and to church on Sun
day. The buses are very much reduced
and run only two days a week.
I'VE are very busy with Red Cross
work parties in the hall "a memorial
gift from her to the village, and I have
given bed and bedding, ETC., and fitted
up a dressing room as casualty ward
and group of girls attend there to learn
practical f1rst-aid and nursing. We can
have no entertainment after 10 pm,
and then we have to pay a man to stand
outside the hall to listen to afraid
sirens or other signals of distress. We
Kept the halls birthday on the 2lst
The party consisted of children, all free
and adults, Cd, and games and dane
ing for all and magnificent" refresh
ments, including birthday cake which
1 had to cut. It had two candles this
time. The party was from to 10 pm.
There is dance in aid of the Red
cross tomorrow, got up by young man
who runs the local band. It is called
Black Out Dance and the notices are
black with white lettering and red
crosses, and say that gas masks are to
be brought and refreshments are given
on ration cards and French buffet of hot
rolls and coffee, with girls dressed as
mademoiselles dispensing them, and an
English bar where cheese sandwiches
and cider cup are to be had; the girls
wearing white with tri-color sash for
the French and Union Jack for the
British.
There is to be gas mask dance. pre-
ceded by contest with prize for get
ting into it first. Oh! we make Jokes
over everything. even at the birthday
party, when they sang the new war song.
the 'Siegfried Line (Which our tommies
say they will hang their washing on
soon. I gave prize for singing it best,
consisting of bona fide clothes line
labeled 'Siegfried.' I also gave . poker
to attack A. r. p. wardens when they
called in the night and saw cracks of
light shining through the blinds.
I'VE are all very busy knitting for
soldiers, sailors and airmen; and also
hospital supplies are being made at our
Red Cross parties" v.M.
November 81,
Evening star., 1939-11-23

and Paris newspapers carried Dutch
datelines. Many, of these stories since
have been abundantly confirmed.
The Dutch capital would seem to be
rather illogical place for British
plotting headquarters when one con-
siders the immensely superior advan-
tages of Amsterdam or Rotterdam.
All this adds tremendously to the
difficulties of the Dutch government,
leaning backward to avoid an Incl
dent. It has the recourse of closing
It's borders, which would mean still
greater distress to the already dis
tressed business of the country and
which might be interpreted by the
Reich as an unfriendly act.
Evening star., 1939-11-23

aviators mistook the creeper for one of
the hummers.
X
The bird sports the scientific name OF
Certhia familiaris americana.
In addition to the favorite name, brown
creeper, which Identifies it to most
watchers, in different parts of the land
it becomes in conversation the common
creeper, American creeper, American
brown creeper, tree creeper, little brown
creeper.
You see, everybody concentrates on
that idea of creeping, and this is fully
justified by the birds consistent action
in hugging the bark as close as it can
get.
This appearance of closeness to the
bark is partly accounted for by the tail,
which is notched, and held down firmly
for good hold.
The bill of the creeper is long and
curved, but not very strong, so that the
bird must be careful how it uses it in
finding hibernating insects and spiders
and their eggs.
Creepers do fine service in keeping
down these forms, SO that they deserve
all the protection they get. There will
never be many creepers in a yard, but
one or two can account for many thous-
ands of inimical forms of life in a winter.
y 4
The upper parts of the brown creeper,
as its popular name would denote, are
brown, streaked with gray white; the
under parts, dull white. The total ef-
feet of the bird is light, as we'll as brown.
Its frlendliness is attested by anec-
dotes of persons who have gone up to a
tree and placed hat over specimen,
which did not much mind the experience.
The bill is sharp and slender, and
comparatively long, with a downward
curve which helps get the insects.
There are four other creepers in the
United States, named the Mexican,
Rocky Mountain, Sierra and California
creeper, respectively.
The common brown form is the only
one which comes to the District of Co.
lumbia and nearby Maryland and vir-
ginia.
1t is quite enough. The bird is born
acrobat, thinking nothing at all of walk
ing around trunks and branches.
To see it on a cold morning, circling
some horizontal bough, is as much fun
as a trip to the circus-that is, if you
like birds
One thing, however, it cannot do, as
its cousin, the white-b breasted nuthatch
can, walk down tree trunk head down
This popularity is the trade mark of the
nuthatch, an unmistakable Identification.
BY their action you shall know them,
as well as by their appearance.
The hammering of the woodpecker
the devil-down-head attitude of the
nuthatch, the close creeping of the chub-
by creeper-these are trends to the wind
ward which no observer, no matter how
inexperienced, can overlook
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Thanksgiving

Whether the American people OBJ
serve Thanksgiving today or a week
from today does not matter very
much. Their gratitude is not con-
strained to any calendar. Free, at
peace and reasonably prosperous,
they are conscious of their blessings
during every thoughtful moment of
their lives. 1t is proper, of course,
that they should unite in formal
acknowledgment to the Deity, yet
the instinct of gratitude is so
active in their hearts as to require
little stimulation. Such critics as
may pretend to believe that the
citizens of the United States are
unappreciative of their good fortune
need only to travel over the country
to find correction for a pessimism
altogether unjustified.
Even in the depths of a great de-
preston there was no despair among
Americans. They knew without
being told that poverty in the Euro
pean and the Asiatic connotations
of the word is unknown under the
Stars and Stripes. Economic dis
location might create panic in the
larger cities, unemployment long con-
tlnued might bring conditions of
famine to metropolitan neighbor-
hoods, drought or flood might i'm
poverlSh thousands of families of
farmers; but these Affections, the
people understood, were temporary
ills. Prodigal nature, rich beyond
the dream of any poet, would make
good the loss. Faith in the mex
haustible wealth of the Nation, not
excluding its human capital, contra
dicted the occasional skeptics who
loudly preached disaster.
But there never has been anything
selfish or pharisaical about the Amer
lean reaction to events abroad. The
troubles of the Old World have not
left American sympathies untouched.
Help has gone out from the United
States to every quarter of the globe.
No call of distress has been neglected
Nor is there any danger of a change
of attitude toward suffering any
where. Sorrow for the strife in the
Orient and in Europe is a phe-
nomenon which is discernible in every
American home. No American man
or woman is capable of wanting wal
under any sky. Hope for the ter
mination of each prevailing struggle
is part of the prayer of every Amer
lean soul.
And it is this aspiration for hu-
manity at liberty from contention
that must be stressed at this hour
in the experience of the race. Graft
tude to God cannot be limited. It is
the solemn petition of America to
the Almighty Father of all mankind
that soon the blessings of tranquility
may be shared by every community
on earth. Perhaps never before have
Americans so reverently joined in
Thanksgiving.
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Plots in Holland

Gestapo charges that the Munich
beer cellar bomb explosion was
plotted by British secret agents at
The Hague is one of those fantastic
claims which are easy to make and
impossible to prove or disprove. The
hospitality of Holland, kept up for
both political and commercial rea-
sons, easily can be abused by either
the allies or the Germans. Hitherto
the bulk of suspicion has been di-
rected at Nazi agents.
The Netherlands has kept open its
German frontier. There are places
where entry from one country to an
other is merely matter of walking
across an unguarded pasture. In it's
extreme anxiety to avoid an incident
Holland has scrupulously avoided
placing sentry line actually on the
border. Consequently it is as easy to
get out of the Reich into the Low
Countries without being challenged
as, for example, to get into Canada
from the United States.
The consequence is that the Dutch
cities are crowded with Germans,
some with properly visaed passports
and some with no passports at ALL
A month ago the Amsterdam police
estimated that there were more than
10000 in that city and it's immediate
environs. For the most part, they
believed, these were bona fide refu-
gees. But there was no way of dis
tinguishing the actual from the pre-
tending victim of Nazi persecution.
In addition, of course, there are a
good many Germans who pass back
and forth with perfectly good pass
ports and on perfectly legitimate
business. Such are the commercial
travellers. Holland is Germany's door
to the west. That some of these Ger
mans are. engaged in sinister plots
has been taken for granted by Eng
lish newspaper correspondents in
the Dutch cities. One hotel in Am
sterdam has been mentioned often
specifically as center of Reich spy
activities, although nobody seemed
to have any convincing evidence for
the charges.
That both the British and the
French also have secret agents in
Holland is highly probable. The
Netherlands is safe listening post.
Earlier in the war, before the present
strange leniency in German censor
ship, information on conditions in
Germany appearing In both London
Evening star., 1939-11-23
RESISTING japan

Since last June the japanese have
blockaded British and French con-
cessionS in Tientsin.
Limited supplies of food and other
essentials have been permitted to pass
the barriers, but only after exasper-
ating delays occasioned by the ex-
haustive thoroughness with which
the japanese inspect every article
entering the concessions.
Most pressing at the present mo-
ment is the shortage of fuel caused
by the japanese restrictions on ship
ments, even from the other side of
the river at Tientsin. While snow
blankets the city, Americans are in
extreme discomfort through their
inability to get COAL
This situation was the subject of
some pointed remarks from Acting
Secretary of State Sumner Welles,
remarks which ought to give the
Toxic government pause if, as it
repeatedly has asserted, it hopes to
obtain a new commercial treaty with
the United States.
Passing on the reports from Consul
General Caldwell at Tientsin, Mr..
Welles declared emphatically that
the American Government feels that
Americans have full right to carry
on trade from the foreign conces-
sions. The japanese government has
been so informed again and again.
With the expiration on January 26
of the 1911 commercial treaty draw
ing near, it is incumbent upon the
japanese to moderate their attitude
toward Americans, which is the only
basis on which new treaty reason
ably can be negotiated
While Great Britain and France are
forced to give increasing attention
to the war in Europe, the United
States is left as the main champion
of the open door in China and as
the spearhead of resistance to the
fulfillment of Japan's purpose to
dominate China's economic relations
with the rest of the world.
Evening star., 1939-11-23
THIS AND THAT
By Charles E. Trdce1Deu.

Natures hitch-hiker is the brown
creeper, little bird which got in the
news recently by being mistaken for =
hummingbird.
This particular specimen was brought
from Detroit to Washington, when its
identity was discovered. The payoff
came when the tiny creature. instead Of
being released here, was taken back to
Detroit!
That specimen would have been right
at home in suburban Washington.
Only yesterday we were greeted by a
brown creeper hitching up the tree by
the front door just as we emerged.
And it really was hiking.
This friendly, fat little bird is not
afraid of man, but goes about its busi-
ness of finding the minute insects and
their eggs missed by other and larger
songsters.
The creeper, like so many birds, Is a
songbird by courtesy only, although its
four slight notes, which are seldom
heard, are not unmusical, perhaps.
1t is fairly common winter visitant
here.
If you have trees in your yard, you
are very likely to have one, although
you will have to look sharp. Some peo-
pie mistake them for wrens. This fall
we have heard of an unusual number of
Carolina wrens hereabouts.
1t is probable that a small feeding
station, nailed to the trunk of a tree
and kept stocked with meal worms, would
attract that particular bird, as well as
the wren.
Next to the air, tree is its favorite
place.
1t finds its favorite food in the crevices
Of any fairly uneven bark The locust
is particularly suited, and here creepers
will be found not in numbers, for that
is not the way they come, but one by
one.
Some observers do not find it an in
tereSting bird, but what do they want?
Surely 1t Is not spectacular, it does not
boast glittering coat, nor does it have
any peculiar antics, but in the main it
may be called intriguing.
&&+
Trees also serve the bird for nesting
but not in the way of average songsters
It's nest it prefers to place behind
some segment of bark which has be-
come loose.
For this it chooses a balsam fir, if
1t can find one. To make up for its
small eggs, it lays S to of them.
A young brown creeper is as large as
its parents, which is not very large, the
adults seldom measuring a quarter OF
an inch beyond 5A inches. This places
1t as among the smallest of our birds
Even hummingbird is not much smaller
from end of bill to end of tail, the way
the Official" lengths are taken by
| ornithologists. No wonder the kind
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Court Procedure Urged
To Prevent War,
To the Editor of The Star

To the Editor Of The Star:
We have scientists who aim to save
and preserve human lives Heaven
should be reserved for them as a re-
ward; for the scientist who aims to de-
stroy, hell can be his only reward. Why
all the propaganda and agitation to
encourage wars, when ne more effort
would be required to encourage the per-
manent organization of a successful
League of Nations? It can and should
be done. Antiquated political leaders in
many countries are still teaching COM
ing generations that it is more blessed
to kill and destroy than it is to CO.
operate through court for the defense
of the masses. Even such q ridiculous
and impossible" feat as world disarma-
ment could eventually materialize, with
more safe and sane political leaders.
When the majority of citizens desire
peace, they should not be goaded into
wars by war proflteers and vampires.
November 20. r. KAY.
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Frozen Assets

For flfty-five years F. E. Gimlett,
self-styled hermit of Arbor Villa,
Colo, was hampered every winter in
his mining operations by a gigantic
snow bank covering most of his prop
erty. Then, just the other day, he
learned of legal decision to the
effect that all forms of moisture
draining into an irrigation canal be-
low him belonged to the canal. Be-
coming tired of working his mine, he
decided to work the Highline Canal
Company instead, and qualified as an
irrigation expert by sending them a
bill for $2,750, representing fifty
five years storage on one snow bank"
on his land.
When the lawyers get their teeth
into this case they will have plenty
on which to chew. The Highline Canal
Company, says the hermit, is like
any other business, in that it must
have supply of raw material to
keep going, and that in the case of
a canal said raw material is water,
without which it would not be SOL
vent. A canal without water, he
claims, would be as unthinkable as
Sears without Roebuck or Aber-
crombie without Fitch Water being
thus established as an essential COM
modify must be subject to storage
charges. Winter after winter, he
said, he had kept their goods in cold
storage in a well-ventilated ware
house, and spring after spring de-
livered 1t in good condition to the
canal on an automatic release order
when the temperature rose. Lawyers
for the canal company will counter
with an awe-inspiring mass of legal
Latin words, which may be roughly
translated for the layman as "horse
feathers" and will remind the hon.
orable court that the property in
dispute has no value, being merely
a frozen asset tied up tight in bank.
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Letters to the Editor
Employment Seen as Weapon
Against Communism.

Against Communism.
To the Editor OF The STAR
just now we are much concerned over
the spread of Communism in the United
States. Communism can gain little foot
hold among people who are contented
and have the means of supplying their
needs. We are alarmed at the prevalence
of crime. Crimes are rarely committed
by people who find themselves too busy
to plot and perpetrate them. Our best
minds are puzzling themselves over the
solution of all kinds of problems, real
and imaginary. We have but one major
problem in this country, and all others
are involved in this one, and when it is
solved all others automatically disappear.
Our one problem is to put every able
bodied person to work. When that is
accomplished the allurements of Com
munism will not appeal to them, and
they will have no time to plot and perpe-
trate crime. We are asked how we are
going to put everybody to work Para
phraslng the observation of one of our
former statesmen, We have found that
the best way to do thing is simply to
do 1t. This may involve some of the
spirit of daring which characterized our
early pioneers and patriots, but perhaps
one of our weaknesses is that, as a peo-
pie, we are too cautious and calculating
and Keep our eyes too constantly on the
cash dividends to accrue from every
venture, and are afraid to initiate the
"plunging' by which this Nation was
made the richest and strongest on earth.
We are met with the argument that if
everybody were at work We would soon
have a surplus of production. Why
worry about surplus when we have
thousands who are starving and freez-
ing? Why not so amend our system of
distribution that those who need that
surplus could get it? That surplus would
soon disappear If all had jobs that en-
abled them to buy all they need. In
addition, this would build up an indie
pendence and self-reliance that would
add strength and glory to our citizen
ship. This condition would also relieve
our people of an immense burden of di-
rect relief, and ere long it would be a
case of the people supporting the Gov
ernment instead of the Government sup
porting the people, just as it should be.
Were we still worried by a surplus,
why not, about once year, have a ma
tional surplus bargain day" and auc-
ton OIL our surplus to the highest bid
der, making it especially convenient for
foreign bidders to be in the bidding?
Were no more realized from these auc-
tions than the mere cost of production
it would be helping us solve our main
problem of keeping everybody at work.
November 20. DAVID A. TAYLOR,
Evening star., 1939-11-23
Executive "ConciIiution"

Judging from published reports,
1t was strange form of concilia-
ton that John M. Carmody, Federal
Works administrator, practiced dur
ing the closing hours of the recent
labor crisis which confronted the
cafeterias in twenty-seven Govern
ment buildings. An article in yeSter-
days Star throws new light on the
settlement reached last week be-
tween the United Cafeteria Workers
Union, an affiliate of the Congress of
Industrial Organizations, and the
Welfare and Recreational Associa-
ton, Government-sponsor semi
official organization which operates
the cafeterias in Federal depart
ments.
There are approximately seven
hundred cafeteria employees of the
association, and nearly six hundred
of them who were members of the
union were threatening to strike for
higher wages and for other conces-
sions when Mr.. Carmody intervened
as conciliator Agreement finally
was recorded on all points except a
demand of the union for continuance
of a check-off system that had
proved unfair to non-union employees
and obnoxious to the welfare aSso-
citation. This unconScionable form of
ho
of one dollar per month from the
pay of each employe-union or non
union. In the case of union en-
ployes the deduction goes to the
union for fees and dues; in the case
of nonunion employees it becomes a
compulsory contribution to charity.
In effect, the levy is a penalty on
non-union employees. Apparently it
is designed to make it as expensive
for them to stay out of the union as
to join.
The trustees of the Welfare and
Recreational ASsociation-all of them
prominent Government officials
vigorously objected to this unusual
check-of plan because of its mani
fest injustice to non-union employees.
A deadlock on the issue ensued, and
the threatened walkout became i'm
minent. Then, according to reliable
reports, Mr.. Carmody informed the
trustees of the welfare association
that President Roosevelt was insist
Ing that there should be no strike.
Mr.. Carmody was told that the sole
issue remaining was the check-off,
and he is said to have replied that
the association should take whatever
action was needed to prevent a
strike. A majority of the trustees
reluctantly acceded. They reversed
themselves on the check-of and
signed an agreement that quite un-
derstandably was hailed by the union
as "a great victory"
During the conference with Mr..
Carmody the trustees asked specifi-
cally whether the President wanted
the association to capitulate on the
CllcCh-Ol1 QQCSIAOIl 41llo NuSSGiOll
did not receive direct reply, but the
trustees presumably were given the
impression he did. Under the circum-
stances, it is difficult to believe that
Mr. Roosevelt was fully aware of the
real issue at stake in the final
negotiations-an issue that involved
placing the stamp of executive ap-
proval on an inequitable and indie
fensible type of check-off to be con-
Quoted by quasigovernmental
agency. In fairness to all concerned,
the full story of the roles played by
all parties to this "conciliation" "a
conciliation that appears to have
taken the form of official pressure on
one side only should be made avail
able to the public.
Evening star., 1939-11-23

No matter on what day you eat
your Thanksgiving turkey, one hun
dred per cent Americans still insist
that dressing" is put on food and
what goes inside it is "stuff1ng." After
all, the latter word is as euphonious
as the former. and deal more accu-
rate.