davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1947-04-23

those who think they believe in the
political principles Of the patron
saint of the Democratic Party, yet
they need not concern US too greatly.
For each age has Its own problems
and must deal with them in its own
time-even though the essentials of
our problems may not be so greatly
different from those of century
and half ago. And it matters
little whether we are reminded Of
Jefferson by bronze statue passing
the White House, or whether we
prefer to think of him as the man
who wanted TO be buried in simple
grave at Monticello and who hoped
to be remembered, not as the holder
of high Office, but as the architect
of the Declaration OF independence,
the Virginia statute for religious
freedom and the University at Char
lottesville. The important thing, as
we face the problems Of our time, is
not to forget that Jefferson, what
ever his failures or triumphs, never
strayed far from the simple faith
that that which is good for most of
us is best for all of us.
Evening star., 1947-04-23
The Rioht Choice

The bipartisan vote by which the
Senate, after the fullest debate, has
approved the program for resisting
Communist political aggression is
an impressive one. Thirty-flve Re-
publicans we're joined by thirty-two
Democrats to return almost a 3-to-1
majority in favor of President
Truman's plan to spend $400 ,000, 900
to keep the Communists from domi-
mating Greece and Turkey.
The significance of such vote
will not be lost upon foreign capitals,
for it destroys any illusion that this
country is not united in It's deter
mination to meet and check this
new form of aggression which aims
at the destruction of western civil
ization. At the same time 1t is
evident, and it is proper, that most
of the Senators who supported the
program arrived at their decision
reluctantly. For they know, and all
of us should understand, that 1t is
an unhappy choice of a lesser evil.
Senator Williams, Republican, OF
Delaware summed up the rational
opposition viewpoint when he said
that the Presidents program is one
which involves new American
political doctrine for the world, the
cost of which could reach untofd
billions and the deployment of
American manhood in the front line
trenches of the global ramparts."
This language is slightly on the
purple side, but there is no reason
to challenge its essential thesis.
The program upon which we have
embarked could lead to the things
feared by Senator Williams. But
his is position which ignores the
barrenness of the alternatives.
Should we pursue the hopeless
course Of an appeal to an impotent
United Nations? Or should we sit
back and do nothing?
This latter is the course that so
many fear-stricken nations followed
in 1888 and 1889, when the shadow
of Nazi aggression was spreading
across Europe They paid terrible
price for their timidity and their
failure to take timely action. Yes
terday's vote in the Senate means
that we are not going to follow that
sorry example, that we are going to
do what we can to stop the new
aggressor before it is too late.
AS Senator Vandenberg told the
Senate, the outcome OF the venture
is a guess. We do not know whether
it will succeed or fail. But we do
know that the path of history is
strewn with the wreckage of nations
which would not or could not act
in the face of threatening danger.
They waited until it was too late,
but in the end they were engulfed
by the storm and swept away. We
do not propose to follow that course.
Evening star., 1947-04-23
A New John Bull

Even DR.. John Arbuthnot, who
gave to the world in 1927 the pop
ular conception of sturdy, roast
beef -fattened John Bull, might be
expected to approve of the 1947
model of his famous character, just
unveiled by the British government.
For the new simmer, muscle -fexing,
jaw-set version of Mr.. Bull is sug-
gestive of the Britain which DR..
Arbuthnot preferred but which he
despaired of seeing in his turbulent
times.
The John Bull described in DIR.
Arbuthnot's History of John Bull" I"
comprising a series of "tracts" in
corporated in his "Miscellanies in
Prose and Verse;" was the antithesis
of his descendant of today. The
original John Bull was a corpulent
and rather SNUG person and DR..
Arbuthnot did not intend him to
be admired. The Scotch wit wrote
of him in satiric vein at time when
Britain was expending her energies
and resources in the Continental
War. 1t is said he directed the satire
chiefly at the Duke of Marlborough.
Whatever the authors intent, the
blustery, well-fed character of the
Arbuthnot writings caught the fancy
of the British people.
There is no gainsaying the fact
that the traditional John Bull would
have looked somewhat out of place
on the propaganda posters which the
Labor government is spreading
throughout the belt-tightening Eng
land of today. These posters, bear
ing the legends, Were up against
it, and 'We work or want" depict a
younger, sturdier John Bull, with
rolled-up sleeves and clenched fists,
ready to tackle his latest enemies
postwar depression, unemployment
and food, fuel and other shortages.
This is the sort OF determined,
rugged John Bull which DR.. Arbuth-
not hoped for-and which England
needs in her latest trial of strength.
Evening star., 1947-04-23
Celestial Wonders

Sky and Telescope Magazine for
March contains an article on "The
Seven Wonders of the Universe"
which should be read by a much
larger public than is likely to see
1t in journal published primarily
for professional astronomers. The
author is Robert r. Coles, member
of the staff of the Hayden Plane
tarium in New York. His list of
marvellous things begins with the
solar system as people living on the
earth know 1.-THE one star to
which our wagon is hitched" and
the various bodies moving around it;
our sun and its attendant planets.
AS the second wonder in his cata-
log, Mr.. Coles designates the faint
dwarf star which is the companion
of Sirius, brightest gem of the night
sky. This newcomer was foretold
by Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel at
Konigsberg, discovered by Alvan
Graham Clark with the lens now
In the Dearborn Observatory at
Evanston, Illinois, and estimated by
DR.. Walter S. Adams of Mount
Wilson to have more than two thou
sand times the density of platinum.
Its study is a "must" among con-
temporary searcherS of the heavens.
So, too, is the supergiant star Betel-
geuse favored object of .investiga-
ton. The colossal sun in
the shoulder of Orion it is thought
to be four hundred and sixty million
miles wide. But "it is composed of
such tenuous matter that it would
be rated as an almost perfect
vacuum in our laboratories.
Mr.. Coles gives fourth position to
"the novae that have f1ared forth
from time to time" and gradually
faded into nothingness. Mystery
characterlzeS them; they may be
nuge cosmic bombs" of a sort or
they may be just the opposite
fragments of the cosmos in process
of destruction from without them
selves. The Cepheid variables are a
similar problem. 1t is possible that
their changes are due to chemical"
causes, or they may be eclipsed
periodically by planets of their own
system. Sixth in the roster of celes-
tial attractions is the great nebula
in Andromeda-"a tremendous gal
axy thattis roughly comparable to
our own Milky Way" And last of
the seven comes "the red shift as
observed in the spectra of the distant
extragasactic <nebulae," some of
which are seen as much as five
hundred million light-years away.
Each Of Mr.. Coles wonders is ages
old yet ever new. Meanwhile, the
best that mortal man has been able
to create has been picayune and
Evening star., 1947-04-23
Reckless WALKING

There can be no doubt that Wash
ington's persistent efforts to reduce
traffic accidents are paying divi-
dends in lives saved and property
spared from destruction. National
recognition is being given to the
concerted campaign being waged
here by police, traffic officials, high
way engineers, automobile organiza-
tions and others interested in max
ing the streets and highways safer
On the heels of the recent grand
award to the District by the National
Safety Council for doing the most
that could be done practically for
traffic safety" in 1916 has come
second place honors in the Amer
lean Automobile Associations Ma
tional Pedestrian Protection Contest
for the same year.
Washington's pedestrian safety
record was second last year only
to that of Detroit among cities of
100000 or more population. Such
awards are gratifying, especially
If they serve to stimulate interest
in what Traffic Director George
Keneipp aptly describes as the prob
lem of the reckless walker" Traffic
accident studies here for 1946 show
that majority of the traffic fatali-
ties in Washington are the result of
reckless walking rather than reckless
driving. Of seventy-two persons
killed by automobiles here last year,
fifty-seven were pedestrians. Twen-
ty-one of these were crossing the
street elsewhere than in a cross
walk. twenty-five were sixty-flve
years old or older and eleven were
under fourteen. Four were in
toxicated.
Here, then, is a fertile field for
intensified life-saving efforts on the
streets of Washington. If the "reck-
less walker" can only be made to
understand the dangers which lie in
wait for him when he darts between
parked automobiles to catch a cab
or bus or streetcar; if he can be
induced to cross the street only at
intersections, where he has the guild
ance and protection of an officer or
lights, the pedestrian casualty list
is bound to be reduced. Certainly
Washington will not be content to
rest with second-place honors when
human lives are at stake in the
street-Safety crusade.
Evening star., 1947-04-23
Mission to. Jopun and Korea

From the st. Louis Post-Dispatch
Gen. Macarthur has done something
which adds to his stature as an occupa-
tion chief. He has invited Roger N.
Baldwin, director of the American Civil
Liberties Union, to Japan and Korea to
survey and make recommendations con-
corning civil rights, in cooperation with
United States military authorities.
This is wise recognition on the part
OF our Far Eastern commander that
human rights are basic in democracy
and that only as democracy succeeds will
communism lose its appeal for depressed,
cropping peoples.
Mr.. Baldwin exhibits some wisdom
also. For he has arranged to 60 In an
unofficial capacity, with necessary War
Department cooperation. This status
will enable him TO be just as helpful to
Gen. MacArthur's headquarters, at the
same time preserving most desirable
independence of the military and its
pressures and controls.
Evening star., 1947-04-23

The late Henry q. Shirley, national
.ly-known highway planner and engineer,
was "enticed" away from the sister State
of Maryland in 1922, when the Free
State was In the forefront as q good
highway State. He served as Virginia s
highway commissioner until his death
in July, 1941. It is in his memory that
new, limited-access, super-highway
leading into Washington from the south
has been named.
Planning In Virginia.
The Virginia Department Of High
ways has come far in its Al years. In
1908 the General Assembly appropriated
$4,000 for two years for salaries and
expenses for a commissioner, and as
sistant commissioner, clerk, stem
ographer and craftsman.
The departments first highway COM
missioner, the late p. st. Julian Wilson,
left in 1915 to become the chief engineer
Of the Federal Bureau of Public Roads.
BY 1916 1t became apparent that many
miles of improved roads were being
wasted because many had no connec-
tion with other sections.
1t was in 1916 that the General AS
sembly appointed a commission to lay
out system Of State highways COM
prising main arteries between centers
of population. That year, incidentally,
also saw the first Federal aid to the
State.
Two years later the Legislature
brought the State highway system un-
der exclusive State control and the fol-
lowing year the first five-member COM
mission was authorized. I'm 1912 the
commission was increased to nine men,
bers-the commissioner and one repre-
sentative from each of the eight con-
struction districts)
The Maryland State Roads Commits
sion had its beginning in 1908 and its
first project was 1-mile strip of ma
cadam starting at the Eastern Shore
Town of fredericksburg in Caroline
County and leading toward the Dor
chester County line.
From 1909 to 1924 the State financed
its road progress almost entirely by
bond issues. (Shortly after World War
I the question of going into debt for
its roads was submitted to Virginia
voters and they turned it DOWN. In
1924 the Maryland Legislature enacted
a 1-cent gasoline tax, the proceeds to
be used for road construction. The
rate gradually was increased until it
totalled cents by 1927. OF this, 2
cents went for road construction and
ia y cent went for elimination of grade
crossings. OF the remaining IL cents,
> 10 per cent went to the counties and
80 per cent to Baltimore City.
Evening star., 1947-04-23

Virginia and Maryland highway sys-
TENS today occupy relative status
exactly opposite to that Of 20 or so years
ago.
The Free State, once leader In the
condition of its roads, now suffers from
an out-moded network Of highways n
nanced by large bonded debt.
Virginia now is among the highway
leaders. 1t could have had many of It's
present high-type traffic arteries several
years earlier if it had embarked on a
spending spree of borrowed money. In
stead, the Old Dominion has stuck to
traditional policy Of pay-as-you-go.
Since its inception, the Virginia Depart
ment of Highways has never incurred q
bonded debt.
On the other hand, Maryland, "coast-
ing along" on leadership reputation
of a few decades ago, now Is burdened
with large highway debt and archaic
highways.
Maryland Lags Behind.
Gov. Lane of Maryland told the Cen
eral Assembly last month:
There was time when Maryland
boasted one of the best highway sys-
TENS in the country. That was about
80 years ago. - = We are compelled to
admit that Maryland has failed to meet
present-day highway requirements. -
From having one of the best highway
systems we have fallen back until We
have, regret to say, one OF the most
inadequate highway systems"
What caused this amazing drop?
The reason is simple, according to
Chief Engineer Wilson T. Ballard of the
Maryland State Roads Commission. The
State failed to anticipate and meet con-
ditions caused by the rapid growth of the
automobile industry.
1--WE were interested" he explained,
Sin getting roads built as fast as pos
sible. We couldn't foresee that the tre-
mendous advances in automotive design
and production would place such bur-
den on our roads that they would
become obsolete"
Other States profited by Maryland's
mistake, he commented ruefully. State
finances became unable to bear the load
of a large-scale reconstruction program.
Impetus to construction and improve
ments came this year when the General
Assembly enacted law authorizing ex-
penditure of $139,000,00o over the next
five years. This includes a 100000
900 bond issue.
What has caused Virginias less spec
tacular rise?
Probably the most obvious answer is
advanced planning during most of the
time Department of Highways has ex-
listed
Evening star., 1947-04-23
This and That
By Charles E. Tracewell.

oy Sftuf tCo 6s 4fNNCUCt.
Templeton Jones' education continues
Not long ago bee got in his car, and
he slapped at it.
While he was killing the bee, although
it didn't take long, the car ran into
another car.
Wham!
When Jones came out of 1.-THE car
he had two teeth out, cut lip requiring
four stitches, bruise on his chest.
His car was wrecked.
He had to get taxi to go to his
doctor
The owner of the other car fortu-
nately could drive away under his own
power.
Jones arrived at his office under Ger
tain stresses and strains.
Not every one has contact with
wandering bee SO early in the season,
but it had happened to him.
The moral, of course, is not to swat
bee en- route, but to stop the car and
then swat
Or not swat at all, which is better,
since the bee is more confused than a
driver
his beautiful secretary in what is popu-
larly called dither.
Guess what is in the wastepaper
basket?" she asked.
Jones was not in the mood for guess
work
II don't know he said.
The secretary giggled.
"A mousei" she exclaimed.
why don't you kill it?" Jones asked
succinctly enough.
Ordinarily, it is only fair to say, he
would not be so ruthless, being friend
of animals, birds and-er, bees.
Templeton Jones looked at the rodent,
trying its best to scale the impossible
heights of the inside of the metal
basket.
'I'll kill it, he said.
His secretary, who was kind girl, had
to think hard to figure out-but quickly
the way to stop him, for Jones is a
ruthless man when aroused The
kinder, the more ruthless they are when
they get started.
"I don't want you to kill it, I just want
you to look at it."
Jones frowned.
Il don't want to look at it. I will just
step on it,"
And he would have done so, without
doubt, if his secretary had not had a
bright thought
Let me see," she declared, figura-
lively standing guard over the mouse in
its basket, you killed a bee, and
then"
There was long pause.
Jones frown redoubled, but so did his
thinking.
And then,' he took up, things hap
pened."
$50 if you kill a mouse, then"
mo telling what would happen, If
killed mouse"
Templeton Jones was back to his old
self.
He didn't say so, but he might have
carried the thing bit farther, and said
that maybe killing things brings bad
fortune
And If that were so, perhaps the uni
versal killings by mankind over the
centuries. redoubled in fury during the
past quarter of century, have led to
universal woe and disaster For a Sec
ond he seemed to see, as If through a
clearing in fog. a great light of truth
and happiness Then the fog came over
his thinking, as it always does when
man thinks.
He stopped down to the wastebasket,
and turned 1t over on Its side. The
mouse scampered out and behind the
bookcase. Templeton Jones smiled.
Evening star., 1947-04-23
Statue of Jefferson

"A pIlOIOSTdpIl SHOWING Llle UTOIlZ6
figure OF Thomas Jefferson on a
truck rolling past the White House
appeared in one edition of yester-
days Star. 1t was a scene which
somehow seems to be deserving of
little more attention.
The occasion was one of tribute to
the third President, for the statue
was on it's way to the Jefferson
Memorial in Potomac Park, where
it will replace the plaster copy which
has stood there since the dedication
of the memorial four years ago.
That this sort of thing is necessary
when a Nation honors one of its
greatest men need not be doubted.
But still the nagging question per-
sists: What would Jefferson have
thought of it all?
The recumbent figure with its
classic profile was tied around the
neck to the truck, which had nothing
to recommend it except that it
obviously was adequate to the task
of supporting the 10,00O-pound
statue. But the background was
thoroughly Jeffersonian. There was
the beautiful mansion which, in
his time, was a boxlike, still incom-
pletely plastered structure. Foun-
tains played on the broad lawn and
the new leaves were showing on the
trees. Here, one felt, was a place of
beauty which would have appealed
to Jefferson, which would have oc-
cupied place in his heart second
only to that reserved for his beloved
Monticello.
But what of the men and the
events of this later time, how would
they have seemed to the enigmatical
man who did not hesitate to chastise
the Barbary pirates yet who whole
heartedly supported policy of po-
litical isolation for his country, who
thought of the functions of the Fed
eral Government as being essentially
negative yet who trespassed upon his
own constitutional convictions to
push through the Louisiana pur-
chase which did so much to make
this great Nation? T.
In 1907, as a measure of protest
against the high-handed tactics of
the British during their war with
France, Jefferson persuaded Con-
gress to enact an embargo suspend
ing foreign commerce for an indef-
mite period. Some regard this as
Jeffersons most daring act in the
field of international relations, yet
eventually it proved to be his greatr
est practical failure and it sent him
back to Monticello in 1909 dis
credited and disillusioned man. Had
he been in the White House, what
would he have thought of the vote
taken by the Senate yesterday on
proposal which projects the power
and the prestige of the United
States into the Eastern Mediterra-
mean? And if the man himself,
instead of bronze figure of the
man. had come back to Washington,
would he have been Mortified at the
gigantic central governmental struc-
ture which he feared and fought so
bitterly?
These are disturbing questions for
Evening star., 1947-04-23
In Memory of d Closed
Season

The hand that loped supple rod
Cdressed staIDnrt hoe.
The eye that longed for shodo1ped pools
Watched carrots, rotc on roaD.
The tip that bdttled Daliant trout
Supported bean and pea;
The boots that brdped the surgfn1 stream
: Made scrap for ptctory.
The creel that harbored fnng prey,
Scrubbed clean OF piscine blood,
Wds used to bear from garden plots
The tame but useful spnd.
Thus anglers patient stood the ga6
And, bdnishing regret,
Unnur1aurirg contrtued to bring
The Aris fish to nett
HAROLD WILLARD GLEASON.
Evening star., 1947-04-23
On the Record
By Dorothy Thompson

familyis to become social outcast. 1t
their children to orphanages because
with the best will in the World-they
aren't allowed to care for them, some
thing is very wrong.
We know the arguments: Children are
hard on apartments, and disturb other
tenants. But where is the much-talked-
about private, or for that matter, pub
lic enterprise?
Enterprise consists in observing need
and fulfilling it. There is need in every
city for housing for exceptional fami
lies. Why aren't houses erected and re-
served for exactly that purpose?
The life insurance companies are In
the housing field And their best GUS
toners are men with families. Then
there is the state, which subsidies hous-
ing for the ''underprivileged' We,
. however, suggest priorities for parents
overprivileged with children.
Where are the churches, who correctly
emphasize the family as the basic social
unit of society? How about more homes
and fewer new churches and cathedrals,
in memory of the child born in man
ger?
Children have to be supported in or
phanages. Would 1t not be as cheap
End more reasonable to aid their parents
to support them?
To penalize the parents of families
is to stand the social order on Its
head. Population decline Is always
symptom of decay. Why subsidize the
decay? When it occurs in country as
vast and rich as ours, it should concern
our statesmen and industrial leaders at
least as much as-for instance-the
Austrian peace treaty.
(Released by The Bell Syndicate, Inc.)
Evening star., 1947-04-23

suppose there has been more "impor-
tant" news during the past week than
a five-inch item carried by the Asso-
ciated Press from Buffalo and printed in
the back pages of the papers. But I
wonder. Certainly that bit Of news is a
sad comment on the democracy we
abroad And it is not isolated, nor
unique. From time to time have read
similar news from all over the country.
In Buffalo, Mr.. and Mrs. Robert T.
O'Connor have had to place their eight
children in two orphan asylums because
no house owner would rent dwelling to
so large family We've tried all over"
said Mrs. O'Connor, "but the minute you
mention eight children, they laugh In
your face"
Now, there is housing shortage. But
Mr.. and Mrs. O'Connor did not say they
could find nothing. They could only find
nothing for family of 10. The place
they had occupied was sold-to war
veteran with wife and one child-and
it was when they were evicted that
people began ito laugh in their faces" 3"
1t is odd what people can find funny!
X
There is most important social ,ques-
tion involved. Educators and child psy-
biologists say that large families, unless
beset by grinding poverty, produce the
best adjusted persons. The demogra-
pliers bemoan that we are rapidly be-
coming an "old' Nation, and that soon
the population will be static-after which
it will decline Canada is giving grants
to mothers, the sum rising with the
third fourth, fifth child, etc. The Soviet
Union decorates mothers of large fami-
lies and treats them with special con-
sideration.
But here, in our cities to have large