davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1939-01-20

pointed to that location as the logical
site. In substantially the same form,
it has been put before each Congress
since the Tennessee Valley Authority
was set up. This in spite of the fact
the whole project has been con-
demned on numerous occasions.
Power experts hold it unjustified
technically and economically; con-
ServationistS see useless destruc-
ton of scenic beauty and wild life;
President Roosevelt three years ago
opposed it, declaring the Potomac
Valley is not large enough to justify
a separate power authority.
Some day, many years in the
future, perhaps the demand for
electric power will be such as to
warrant dotting the watersheds of
the Nation with Government
hydroelectric projects. Now, other
things still remain undone. Until
the need is more apparent, Great
Falls and the rest of the Potomac
Valley should remain as they are.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
THIS AND THAT
BIZ Charles E. TraceUell.

Tahitans have ther own. America has
its folk tunes, mainly Irish, Scotch and
English, plus the marvellous music OF
the colored race.
All this is fundamental music, and the
real beauty of it is that all people love
it for what it is, If they have any sense
in such matters.
Unfortunately, some listeners dc not
seem to have much brains, when 1t comes
to the essential music of the world.
They pretend to despise anything less
than the elaborate, built up music, or
derived music, as we call it.
While any real musician knows his
debt to folk tunes, there are many anna
teur listeners who say they fairly dote
on music appreciation, as they call it
who refuse to listen to popular music,
even when some of the melodies would
do credit to Beethoven or Mozart.
v
Such people usually clamor to under
stand" music, as If listening to 1t were
not enough.
They want to make something fairly
esoteric out Of it. In this way they hope
to exclude the common herd, and keep
their music as sort of cult, or rite.
Beethoven would laugh at them.
No master loved the fundamental folk
tunes more than he, nor built such elab-
crate derived music from it.
His tastes in music were simple. This
is shown in his extant notebooks. where
his themes were written down as they
came to him. They are basic in thei,
simplicity. What he did with them
later, was another matter. He used the
same basic patterns many times, but sc
great was his genius that he transformed
them every time he used them.
He did not ask any one to understand
his music, but just to listen to ii
and love it.
This is the sort of understanding
which is best done with the ears.
Those faithful organs have intelli-
gence, too.
Not every one who has ears is good
listener, evidently because not every sci
OF ears has ear-intelligence.
| II music lovers will but listen honestly
to what they hear, they will find beauty
in the most unexpected places. They
will discover that the real test of music
is not what the listener does to it, OF
about it, but what it does to him.
This attitude gives music a validity
and appeal which it can never have fol
listener who insists ION drawing ur
artificial lines, and sneering at all or
the other side of the fence.
Music is unitary. What is music, i
music, no matter how large or how small
| Once listener realizes this, and put!
it into operation in his own musical life
he is forever freed from the necessity
for understanding" he can lister
and love.
Evening star., 1939-01-20

steps by disclosure that a large per-
centage of Federal criminal and civil
cases have been dragging along for
two, three, four and five years or
more. A chart prepared for his in
spection showed that as many as
thirty-five per cent of the pending
cases In some Federal judicial dis
tricts are five years old or older,
These instances, it may be said with
a feeling of local satisfaction and
pride, are in marked contrast to the
condition of the local United States
attorneys office, where inquiry dis
closes that only fourteen criminal
cases are more than a year old, ex-
cepting, of course, those in which
indicted defendants have never been
apprehended. Since last April, Incl
dentally, nearly seventy per cent of
all local criminal cases have gone to
trial within three weeks of their entry
on the docket.
MIR. Murphy's plan for a regular
inventory and report of docket con-
ditions every three months should
do much to keep prosecutors on
their toes. There has never been a
systematic, periodic checkup of this
kind by the Department of Justice.
AS Mr.. Murphy expressed it, nobody
seems to have felt responsible for
closely co-ordinating the work of the
district attorneys and for impressing
upon them the necessity for exerting
every possible effort to bring dockets
up to date. On behalf Of the prose-
cutors it must be pointed out that
many delays are beyond their con-
troll. Difficulties of this kind. and
sundry other problems, no doubt
will be discussed thoroughly and
frankly at the forthcoming confer
ence. The exchange of views should
be highly beneficial to the cause of
law enforcement.
Evening star., 1939-01-20

The desire of so many listeners to "un-
derstand" music is great handicap
to them.
They carry this so far that they resent
songs in foreign languages.
Il hope you like 1t" they will say, "but
I can't understand It,"
This desire to understand things would
be pathetic, in many cases, II it did not
also have its noble side.
The great trouble with wanting to
understand" music is that it is so un-
necessary. Wanting to understand the
words of song is slightly different, but
also unnecessary; it is natural desire,
perhaps, but really has nothing, or at
least very little, to do with the music.
4
Music is not comprehended with the
brain, first of all, but with the ears.
If listener finally gets this idea,
little by little he will come to the point
and what great point it is-when he
will have no desire whatever to know
what any composition means"
Understanding and meaning - these
have so obsessed mankind, that even the
musician and his listeners at times tend
to think that the intelligence of music
far exceeds all its other features.
There is intelligence in music, plenty
OF 1t, but If 1t shows on the surface, If it
fairly throws itself at the hearer, it is not
great music, but initiative music.
~
There are, broadly speaking, two kinds
of music.
There is fundamental, or essential
music, and derivative music.
The listener doesn't have to under
stand fundamental music
He just listens to it, and is satisfied.
BY fundamental or essential music,
we mean the folk tunes of the world.
BY derivative music, we mean all the
symphonies, cantatas, overtures, operas,
the music commonly called great music,
or serious music.
All Of today's music is firmly grounded
in the great basic beat of folk tunes.
Folk music is the spontaneous, joyous
outpouring of the human mind and
heart in sounds.
Every nation and people has such
music, all of it as truly composed as the
greatest symphony, but whose creators
have been forgotten.
Some day such song as Kerns
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" will be
simply folk tune. 1t may take hun
dreds of years, but the time will come
when its creator will be forgotten.
Then that beautiful melody will be
merely tune, composer unknown, and
will be called folk song.
Every European nation has its folk
music.
The African tribes have their folk
music, the Hawaiians have theirs and the
Evening star., 1939-01-20
A Generation Passes

Peck's Bad Boy is dead The man
who, as a practical joking messenger
in his early teens, inspired the stories
which first appeared in Peck's Weekly
a few years after the Civil War died
few days ago at the age of seventy
seven.
Each generation of youth finds in
the forms of popular entertainment
its standard makers of behavior.
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
Finn Influenced imaginative boyhood
through the living pictures of their
life in the settled, ominous days just
before the Civil War; Peck's bad
Boy far less artistic, but nonethe-
less graphic, with it's vivid pictures
of the roaring empire building era
of the seventies took it's toll of a
later generation.
Those who are fathers today can
remember being paced in their
standards for exuberant fun by the
infant comic strips, in which some
OF their outstanding heroes were
Buster Brown, Foxy Grandpa and
his slightly less mischievous scions,
Flip and Memo, and the exaggerated
Katzenjammers. This was the gen.
Grafton which switched over rather
suddenly to initiating the walk of
Charlie Chaplin and looking as
befuddled as Ben Turpin.
Elders of the modern day, having
lived through one or more of these
phases, may, with charity and humil-
ity, hold hope for the present youth,
who, with the greatly enlarged
horizons of more media, find their
inspiration in the actions of i'm
plausible cowboys, grim and bloody
crime busters and spy chasers, and
exotic interplanetary adventures.
"Thus the whirligig of time brings
in his revenges"
Evening star., 1939-01-20
AIkuIosis

Dr. William j. Kerr of the Univer-
slty OF California Department of
Medicine, has discovered what is
wrong with unhappy lovers, those
who worry about the stock market,
and those who are trying to pay bills.
Curiously enough, the heavy sighs
associated with these classes are a
cause, not an effect, as they drain
carbonic acid from the blood stream,
which results in alkalosis. They pal
pitate, tremble, grow dizzy, and have
spasms and pains-until they get new
girls, sell their stocks, or pay their
bills, as the case may be.
Under present conditions, the third
form of alkalosis is so inescapable
that it might as we'll be accepted as
normal. Although the antidote is
known, it is too expensive. In its
mllder form alkalosis goes through a
weekly cycle, beginning to be felt the
day after one pay day and reaching
a maximum the day before another.
Some debtors are able to cultivate
that big broad flexible outlook of the
Government, pretending that it
doesn't matter, life will 60 on pretty
much as usual if debts are never
paid. These people are relatively
immune, but their creditors suffer
either from alkalosis or something
else that pinch hits for it fairly we'll.
The disease is universal, but not
fatal. If it ever becomes mortal,
evolution will have to start all over
again from scratch, or nearly there.
A non-Worrying, non-sighing organ
ism such as the oyster might do to
begin with.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Says Monetary Evils
Deter Business Boom
Urges Prompt Repeal Of Laws
Enabling President to
Regulate Currency
TO the Editor OF The Star:

TO the Editor Of The Star:
Now that Congress is assembled, let
us citizens collect some data on the state
of the Union for our own information.
There were 9953,000 classified as I'M
employed and $685. 900 on the Govern
ment emergency labor force in Novem-
ber, 1885, as estimated by the National
Industrial Conference Board, ie, 1,118,-
900 less than at the peak of unemploy-
ment in March, 1888.
This when the public debt on Decem-
ber 80, 1888, was 1874 billions and the
accumulated deficit 81 billions.
In 1888 industrial production averaged
about Sc per cent of the 1923-1925 level
The New York Suns survey of in
dustry and commerce as of December
3d. 1885, showed that many consumer
goods industries were running stronger
and employing more than in 1929, and
that upward of 10 per cent of unem-
ployment was in the capital goods in
dustries. A similar condition is shown
by the survey of the National Bureau of
Economic Research summarized in the
Saturday Evening Post of December 81,
1888, in "One-Legged Nation" 1t was
found there was an investment lag Of
about 10 billions annually in the capital
goods industries.
In seeking the underlying causes we
must consider that there is no standard
unit of exchange, i.e., of value because
the President has power to change the
weight of the dollar. A lender cannot
know how much he will be repaid; a
borrower cannot know how much he
must repay. Long-term loans are
thereby deferred; but capital goods in
dustries are dependent on long term
loans. This is sufficient to cause most of
the lag and unemployment above recited.
Secondly our money and bonds Gov
ernment, municipal and private) are fiat,
not collectible in gold they are like
bank checks on which payment has been
stopped.
In my opinion, the currency mot
prices is inflated, i.e., the amount in
circulation is determined to a great de-
gree by the amount of deficits and debt
rather than by the needs of industry
and commerce. Deficits are incurred for
which obligations are issued; the obliga-
tions are bases for currency, and so debt,
obligations and currency go zooming
upward!
The cure for the above causes is for
the Congress to repeal the laws making
such fiscal policies possible. They are
some of the monkey wrenches thrown
into our industrial and commercial
machinery.
Let us instruct the members of the
Congress to repeal such acts; the Con-
| gresSmen are our servants.
EDWARD HENRY NEARY.
Port Washington, N. Y.
January l6.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Discusses Tolerance
And Education.

To the Editor Of The Star:
Arguments presented by representa-
tVes Of religious groups engaged in ad-
vocating religious tolerance fail to make
an appreciable impression on an intelli-
gent and discerning public.
When religious group is few in num-
bers and satisfied with its own teach
ings and is devoid of the desire for
dominance, it is not to be feared and
is harmless. Another group, however,
being numerous and aggressive, can
scarcely be trusted to be tolerant when
having unlimited power. This is par
tlcularly true where sect using politi-
cal influence, seeks to gain an advan-
tage over all other religious bodies: in
other words, aims to secure union
OF church and state. This evil should
be guarded against in a country like
ours where hierarchical dominance can
be used over millions of the electorate.
The great soothing influence in the
matter of religious tolerance lies not
IN appeals on religious grounds, but on
free. non-sectarian system of educa-
ton, where children of all religious
faiths can meet on common ground,
unhampered by religious prejudices. AS
long as children are under ecclesiastical
influence only, their minds. cannot ex-
pand sufficiently to enable them to be
tolerant in later years. Tolerance does
not proceed from dogmas and "exclu-
sive" creeds, but from an untrammeled
and an1iphtanoS co,cnioroa
January II. AMERICAN.
Evening star., 1939-01-20

clans, precisely for the reason that his
services have been professionally salts
factory. He does himself scant justice
when he implies the contrary.
Patients wait in large numbers in the
outer Offices of good private practitioners
of medicine. The doctors never know
when their day is done. Has DR.. Price
forgotten this? 1t would in any case
seem more appropriate for adverse crit
icism to come from the patients. Ger
tainly I have no adverse criticism to
make and l have been a member of
the group for some time.
That patients in need of elective opera
tons have suffered delay is undoubt-
edly true. This, however, is merely be-
cause Group Health has been denied
full use of the facilities of Washing
ton hospitals.
We need physicians so conditioned
psychologically that they can do group
teamwork without rancor and annoy
ance. 1t is just as important that Group
Health Association patients also learn
that their monthly payment does not
entitle them to have miracles performed.
Unnecessary house calls and visits to the
clinic need to be discouraged more than
they are. Group members should also
learn to take the doctors and the ap-
pointments assigned them, understand
ing that all the physicians on the staff
are competent, and that there must be
rigidly kept appointment system or
complete disorder.
The estate of the group is by no means
hopeless. A little re-education of both
patients and doctors will easily save it
from it's own sins.
T. SWAMI HARDING.
January H.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
A Working Burrister

Attorney General Murphy, with
characteristic energy, has lost no
time in putting into practice his
announced theory that the head of
the Department of Justice should be
a working barrister rather than Just
a departmental executive. One of
his first acts after confirmation by
the Senate was the PRONUNCIATION of
an unprecedented order requiring
all United States attorneys to show
to what extent-and why-their
criminal and civil dockets are in ar
rears, and he has followed this up
with notice that all Federal prosecu-
tors and other Federal law enforce
ment officials under his Jurisdiction
will confer with him here in April
to study the whole problem of speed
ing up justice.
He was prompted to take these
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Protests Cruelties
Inflicted by Hunters.
AMERICAN.

To the Editor Of The Star:
One OF the cruelest accounts of hunt
Ing I have ever read is that appearing
in the January issue of the National
Humane Review. In Pennsylvania
trusting, friendly does, and fawns so
young they had no antlers, were ruth
lessly hunted by boys and amateurs who
missed their aim, wounding the ami
mails with their shot, but not killing
them, leaving hundreds manned bleed
ing, crippled to die slow deaths from
pain, starvation, thirst, cold and fright.
With the woods full of those slaught-
cred, bleeding gentle animals, picture
the doe coming at night to her suffer-
ing babe that she is helpless to save.
A deer is so gentle an animal that it
may be MIXED by man. How can man
call it sport to cause physical and mental
anguish to these beautiful creatures.
Why teach boys that it is brave to injure
and kill? Rather, is it not cowardly?
January 18. MRS. H. D. ALBIN.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Lack Of Respect to
Anthem Depl0red.

To the Editor Of The Star:
This evening I attended performance
at one of Washington's local movie
houses. At the end of the show the
American flag was flashed on the screen
and at the same time recording played
the Star Spangled Banner. There were
probably 200 people present and not
more than per cent of them rose to
their feet and stood during the playing
of their national anthem. Many of the
others present seemed to think it rather
funny that any one was foolish enough
to stand.
A friend who was with me has spent
a great deal of time in England. There,
it seems, that all of the movie-goers are
foolish, as every one present Immediately
and gladly gets to his feet She was
both shocked and angry when she saw
how many people failed to join us when
We stood.
Now perhaps I do not understand the
difference between the English and the
Americans but I am afraid that this
shows one difference which I have no
desire to understand
Personally I am so glad, so thankful,
and so proud that live in the country
and under the Government for which
the stars and stripes is a symbol that I
do not intend to miss any opportunity,
no matter how small, to express my
appreciation.
The incident within itself may not
mean much, but it seems to me that it is
significant as an indication of the
peoples perspective. They sit over here,
safe and sound, and smugly accept 1t
as their due, never even feeling called
upon to say thank you" in a small way
to the Government which has saved
them from being forced to get to their
feet when the national anthem is played.
January II. GERTRUDE ROGERS.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Urges Uniffcation
OF Democracies.

To the Editor of The Star:
That we are living in world gone wild
is becoming trite statement by persons
in every walk of life.
We have today nations under their
dictators, dreaming as did Babylon,
Persia, Greece and the Roman Empire
of world domination. With ruthless
measures they are destroying their own
people who dare to oppose them in any
way, and the minorities of other races
who are so unfortunate as to live among
them.
What is to be done under present day
conditions? The first step it would
seem is to unity those nations that have
many things in common in cooper
ative movement to stay this avalanche
of subversive propaganda against good
and just government administered for
the masses on the same equitable basis
as for the classes. This should be done
for all the people, regardless of creed,
race, birth or rank.
There should be a more equitable dis
tribution OF wealth so as to harmonize
capital and labor and bring about a
spirit of fellowship and good will
One question of paramount Importance
is the permanent employment of the
masses. A person mentally and physical
ly capable of caring for himself and de-
pendents must have work.
It is impossible to have a contented,
happy, self-respecting and loyal citi-
zenry dependent upon the dole" for
maintenance. Abraham Lincoln said:
"A nation cannot survive half slave and
half free" A country cannot prosper
with third Of its population half fed,
in threadbare clothing and poorly
housed.
January 13. w. ]. HUBBARD.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Defends Activities of
Group Health.

To the Editor OF The Star:
have been rejecting upon your rather
Jubilant editorial the other day anent
the resignation of DR.. Price from Group
Health Association, Inc A point that
you perhaps overlooked, for it is often
lost sight of, is that today neither doctors
nor patients are conditioned psychology
ically in such a way as to make group
health ventures easy successes.
Doctors have been used to working
without supervision and on their own
initiative. It is difficult for them to
adopt offhand the higher scientific team
work group practice demands in order to
get the most out of each specially.
Patients expect miracles Of group med
icine, miracles they would never expect
of private practitioners. Group medical
practice cannot produce miracles. Pa
tients must be educated to understand
that it can only produce better article
of medical service at a lower price, and
it can do this only when the doctors
enable it to do so.
DR.. Prices objections to Group Health
Associations operations are rather curl
Gus. In some instances he lists as weak
nesses what are actually it's strong points.
Since its physicians are all at definite
level of competence, it does not matter
whether the doctor who saw the patient
in the clinic makes the house call or not.
Provided the doctor who makes the cali
is competent, and is informed about the
patients history, this is an advantage;
the patient thus achieves medical con-
sultation at low rate of payment.
DR.. Prices assumption that patients
are herded through Group Health clinic
misrepresents himself. One would Judge
from this that he has been giving care
less and incompetent service. Actually.
this is not the case. DR.. Price has been
one Of the groups most popular phyd-
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Shooting Stars
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON.
On the Hill.

On the Hill.
Hear dem speakers shoutin'
Bout dis glorious land;
Almost loud enough to drown
De music of a band;
Talkin' bout reformin'
Mos everything you see.
I doesn't understand it, but
1t sure sounds good to me.
Language dat comes f1owin'
Like liquid fun a flask,
To know jes what it's all about
OATS mos too much to ask.
has to jine the chorus
A-singin' on de key;
I doesn't understand it, but
1t sure sounds good to me.
Evening star., 1939-01-20

Hitler has issued more new regu-
latlons concerning the tempo and
other aspects of the Reich's national
anthem. One rule forbids Whistling
1t as "derogatory to dignity" Imagine
what would happen to some urchin
caught playing it on jews-harp.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Easily RecOgnized.

This creature" said the naturalist,
pointing to the picture of the cuttlefish,
'ejects ink as it travels in such quantities
as to bewilder its pursuer."
Wonderful" said the man with the
stained fingers. "It might be called the
fountain pen of the sea-
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Plea for Desks for
Left-Handed.


To the Editor Of The Star:
I am a student of Hyattsville High
School and left-handed.
have looked in schools in this coun-
try and abroad for left-handed desk,
but to date have been unsuccessful.
After watching companions so afflicted,
and myself feeling the pangs of tor
tured spine, I'm appealing for aid!
Will some kind-hearted school super
intendent or school trustee collaborate
with a humane carpenter and make
things easier for us 'lefties?"
BEVERLY ANN FICKAS.
January 16.
Evening star., 1939-01-20
Cautious.

"Are you what they call a practical
politician?"
Il hope" answered Senator Sorghum,
that I am not what they call practical
politician when they don't like him"