davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1950-05-01
Trees With Names

Senator Saltonstalls suggestion that the
trees on the Capitol grounds be labeled is worthy
of son of the Hub of the Universe, where the en-
joyment of nature has always gone hand in hand
with conscious desire to improve the mind. In
Boston, the inhabitants like to absorb culture
with their sunshine, and picnickers on the Com
mon munich their peanut butter sandwiches under
a shady tree, secure in the knowledge that it is
an ulmus procera English elm.) The presence of
these bi-lingual signs helps to maintain the tone
of that historic patch of earth where Ralph
Waldo Emerson once tended cows and where
now orators in soup-stained suits prophesy the
end of the world (every day more confidently, to
be sure) and little urchins from the tenement
district wriggle into their. clothes after a hard
day in the miniature surf of the Frog Pond.
1t is hard to know just how much support
the Senator's proposal will receive from tourists
from other parts of the country, where trees are
more taken for granted. 1t is possible that any
move to label them in two languages, even if the
second one is dead would lead to mutterings in
isoationist circles which might see in it just an
other foreign commitment.
Evening star., 1950-05-01
This and That

Do you remember your "Henty bookS?"
Thousands of boys in the '90s swore
by them. Even girls read them.
Sometimes mothers swore at them.
Mothers had way. in those days. of not
being very discriminating! They thought
that any book which held boys interest
might be bad for him.
Actually, Henty wrote fine boys books,
which lived and are read to this day.
Often there has been dispute about the
authenticity of his history. In recent
years the belief has been expressed that
his history was better than some critics
thought 1t was. But he always has
critics.
G. w. E. of Mckinley street, for in
stance. He writes:
your articles always interest me, but
sometimes they rile me.
"A recent one discussed Mr.. G.. A.
Henty. stating chat he was a prolific
writer of boys books, and also that he
was better historian than many
thought.
MY disagreement with the latter.
statement is emphatic, not to say violent
I'll tell you why.
About so odd years ago bought two
Of his books for Christmas presents for
my younger brothers.
Before presented them. read them,
and while do not consider my histori-
cal knowledge either then or now ade-
quate to criticise one Of the stories, the
Evening star., 1950-05-01

would rush to the platform and tn,
microphone denouncing in anguished
and ringing tones the folly and i'm
morality Of rent control. But in Con-
stitutional republic such as ours, justice
should not depend on numbers.
Prof. Milton Friedman Of the Uni
versity of Chicago in "A Positive Program
for Conservatives" states: "The only
justification for rent control Is either
to tax landlords or to subsidize tenants.
If we want to do that. there is nothing
to prevent our doing it directly. Why
must we do it in such a way as to Gre
ate housing shortage?"
France to this day has never felin-
quished the rent controls adopted in
1914. Frenchmen are progressively being
housed in poorer and poorer structures
Each year we are told that rent con-
troll must be renewed for another year.
The Controlists are the real enemies of
adequate housing and are in the un-
tenable moral position Of penalizing
those people who might provide more
housing.
John II. Williams.
Evening star., 1950-05-01
BY Charles E. TroceweN
Robert Eminet Burke.

wrote with little except rapid reporting to
draw from. He wrote only a compare
lively short time after the war, and
tried, one may believe. to give the spirit
OF battles, rather than make any claim
to exactitude.
This should not excuse him, Of course,
from being as accurate as he could be,
under the circumstances.
It must be kept in mind. however, that
he was writing books for youngsters.
Even boys like their facts correct, 1t is
true, but surely no reader, not even q
boy, could expect these books and SINH
lar works to show all the accuracy Of
DR.. Freeman.
After all. in books for boys. it is the
spirit that counts. II story gives q not
unfair total effect and manages to stick
with the reader all his life, it may be
very good story. as such things 60.
and one not to be criticized too severely
because the figures are wrong.
Figures In battles. after all, are mat
ters Of dispute. It is probable that nobody
will ever know the true numbers that
took part in the famous battle Of
Stalingrad.
One SHOULD not we believe, put too
much stress on such matters. What we
may calf the total effect" Is what
counts.an Henty wanted to point up the
bravery of Lee. that Is all right with
US. Wesdo not believe many Of Henty's
boy readers In the old days suffered
much from such transformation"
Evening star., 1950-05-01
The Kids Catch On

The Communists may or may not have had
hand in the disorderly demonstrations that
have been staged by high school students in
New York City during the past four days Some
people say yes; others say no. The Communist
Daily Worker has been whooping it up and
egging the youngsters on. But that is routine
procedure for The Worker in any situation of
this kind. 1t proves nothing one way or the
other.
The fact remains however that some $4,000
high school boys and girls-better than 10 per
cent of the citys total enrollment-have been
making diSgraceful spectacle of themselves.
Ostensibly, they are demonstrating for higher
pay for their teachers. But If one can Judge
from the stories and pictures in the New York
papers, the demonstrations actually have been
nothing better than mass displays of hoodlumism.
What is the real explanation? Perhaps there
are several. One can look with somewhat
jaundiced eye on the comment of the president
of an outfit which calls itself the United Parents
Association. He objected because the police drove
back some 10000 rioters who were trying to
break into City Hall That, he said, twas not the
American way-it certainly was not satisfactory
eivics lesson" One gathers that this gentleman
Evening star., 1950-05-01

other one, With Lee in Virginia. was
and am. well qualified to Judge.
1T was shot full throughout with un-
demanded and inaccurate propaganda,
and was in its statements of supposed
facts distorted to an amazing degree
"A fair sample Of this was his de-
scription of the Gettysburg campaign,
where he made out that Lee, with
$4,000, defeated Meade with, as I recall
VT. 100000 men, though, for some strange
reason he retreated after his astound-
ing victory.
"A man so ignorant as to be unaware
OF this abSurdity, or so Indifferent as
to ignore it. or so biased as deliberately
to resort to such stuff to make good
yarn. isn't good author for children
to read
"of course. he is dead-fortunately,
his books, Also
The Encyclopedia Americana states
with reference to the Gettysburg cam
paign:
Prom first to last the Union forces
on the field numbered about 81, 900 ef-
fective men; the Confederate forces on
the field numbered about $4,000 men.
"As officially reported, the Union loss
was 3,072 killed: 14.497 wounded, and
5,434 missing; aggregate Of 23.003.
"The Confederate loss was 1852 killed:
12.709 wounded. and $3.50 missing; an
aggregate of 20,451."
It must be remembered that Henty
Evening star., 1950-05-01
The Truth in Russia

The latest example of how truth is mutilated
oehlnd the Iron Curtain is furnished by Pravda's
presentation to the Russian people of Secretary
AchesonS recent address to the American Society
OF Newspaper Editors. Never has the Soviet
propaganda machine done more thorough lob
OF making words mean the exact opposite of their
real meaning. The distortions involved, the
absolute butchery of fact the deliberate trans
formation of white into black, and vice versa,
can only be described as an almost perfect
application of the totaltarian technique of telling
lies so big, bold and dazzling that the masses
are mentally nunbed and blinded into believing
them. .%
Thus, in substance, Mr.. Acheson's speech
amounted merely to the outline of peace policy
calling for six lines of action: Cd That the
American people keep alive militant faith in
freedom for themselves and the world; (2) that
they join with like-minded peoples in letting
mankind know what this faith is and what it
has accomplished and can still accomplish for
human betterment; 90 that the United States
be strong and adequately prepared to preserve
liberty wherever 1t now exists; a. that present
and future aid programs be used to improve the
economic lot of free humanity; (5) that the nom
Soviet, Independent nations organize politically
for common action through existing international
machinery, and (6) that the idea of aggression
be eliminated between these nations and Russia.
But how has Pravda-which, ironically enough,
means "Truth"-reported and interpreted all
this to the people of Russia? Under the name
OF M. Marinin, one of its high-powered inter-
national commentators it has summarized Mr..
Acheson's program as follows: D "A further
armament race a greater orgy of militarism and
an extension of the cold war;" (2) action to bring
about the economic enslavement of Western
Europe by the forcible creation of single West
ern European market under complete domination
of American monopolies"; 60 placing all de-
pendent and colonial countries under the mastery
of the United States, and a. enlargement of
the Atlantic Pact bloc into "a kind of super
state of Wall Street"
Taken simply by itself, this complete misrepre-
sentation of Mr.. Acheson's address might be a
source of amusement to people interested in the
absurdties of totalitarian editorializing. But
there is nothing really funny about it. 1t is
tragic, poisonous, dangerous. 1t is all of these
things because the Russian masses-sealed of as
they are from the outside world-have access
only to Moscows version of the facts, the 'Voice
of America" being pretty much jammed out. In
time, unless this condition can be corrected, the
falsehoods they are hearing will become gospel
truth to them, and the outlook for peace and
understanding between their world and ours
will be bleaker than ever.
Evening star., 1950-05-01

ity Council and the Atomic Energy
Commission stand still. stymied by Rus
sia'S intranSigeance.
There may be other reasons for this
duality of the Russian attitude, but the
obvious one is that in the collective
security field Russia Is not defeated
because she is In the minority. On these
big questions having to do with world
peace. Russia can stand as pat as she
pleases. blocking any moves of which
she disapproves. For 1t is in this field
that the veto applies.
Which brings us back to Mr.. Hoover's
proposal. Filling in between the lines,
what the ex-President says, in effect, is
this: Russia has already disassociated
herself from those activities in which
the U. N. actually is accomplishing
something. She should also be disas-
sociated from the other important
activities, where her only contribution
has been to see to it that nothing Is
accomplished.
There is substance to this point of
view. If the United Nations cannot
establish collective security system
which includes Russia, it is asked, why
should they allow Russia to prevent
them from using U. N. machinery to
establish collective security system
without her?
In making his proposal, Mr.. Hoover
recognized that reorganization of the
U. N. might be impractical 1t
might be necessary to set up some other
organization to achieve what he had in
mind. Here are some of the practical
considerations cited by u N. officials who
think 1t would be unwise to oust Russia:
l. The U. NJ, conceptually. is a world
organization. II one power would rather
Evening star., 1950-05-01
Atmospheric Pressure

In tales OF Jolly Robin Hood
The elements lDere altDoys good;
Perpetual sun the forest checkered ...
OF rainy spells tOe hare no record.
DeDotd OF tepee. tent or lodge
And being eper on the dodge,
What kept the -outlaU band from
blenchtng
When storms the greenwood Dlades trere
drenchfn0?
What happened tDhen there tUGs no sum-
Won't Lincoln green, tDhen Sopping. rum
Were hose and doublet snugly fitting
Guaranteed proof against all splitting?
Were clothyard shafts Nth oray-oooss
UQneS
Imperpious TO soaking rdins7
And ioere the strings OF longboDs yewy
Effective tchen the days tDere de,cy?
Al, there i0ere years in boyhood tchen
yedrned to join the Merry Men;
But rainy tCedther. I Gper, tDould
Forever dyosOn my dreams OF Sherwoodl
HAROLD WILLARD GLEASON.
Evening star., 1950-05-01
Letters to The Star

to remove to Virginia or Maryland and
commute to business in the District of
Columbia? Certainly it is not believed
to be the law that one might live in the
District Of Columbia and work and
vote In one Of the nearby States. It
would interest large numbers of resi-
dents of the District If there is mail
order residence" to be had in any State,
however distant. in which they might
exercise the right of suffrage.
However. your correspondent appears
not to understand the motives of these
District residents who are endeavoring
to obtain suffrage by Constitutional
amendment. They are principally con-
cerned with obtaining the right. to
elect voting member or members repre-
senting the District of Columbia in one
or both houses Of Congress, and the
right to vote for the appropriate number
Of presidential electors.
Long experience and observation of
the treatment the District receives from
Congress have convinced them that is
the only way for nearly three quarters
OF million people, now voiceless in
Congress, to be accorded that consider
alton which inhabitants of the forty
eight States receive as matter Of right.
For individuals to vote in a distant or
nearby State, even If the District voters
actually physically, and in good faith, live
there. is no help for the Districts prob
lens.
Edward StraffOrd.
Evening star., 1950-05-01
Municipal COLLEGE,
John H. Williams.

I am glad to know the District is at
last considering sponsoring a college. I
hope that 1t offers large number of
liberal arts courses and will be open to
all residents of the District as well as
those Of college age. even If a small fee
is charged.
Wanting to become o better mother
and more effective citizen. inquired
at the local colleges about taking
some courses and was told that the fee
was $36 for each subject just to "sit in
on the lecture" am sure city-spon-
sored college will help to make WASH
ington an educational center I think
an overwhelming majority of taxpayers
will favor it, as 1t is service that bene-
fits practically every family.
Jane F0rhan..
Evening star., 1950-05-01
The u. S. r. and the United Nations
By Newbold Noyes. il.

uERBERT HoOvER'S proposal that
the United Nations should be re-
organized. leaving out Russia and her
Communist satellites, comes at an inter-
esting moment. For persons close to de-
velopments at Lake Success have been
wondering increasingly in recent weeks
whether Russia, to all extentS and pur-
poses, is not already out Of the q. N.
The way things have been going at
the world organization headquarters, 1t
seems the proposed divorce might well
turn out to be one Of those mutual con-
sent affairs.
The fact is many q. N. officials. watch
ing Russia's progressive boycott of the
various activities at Lake Success, have
concluded that this is no temporary at
Of Kremlin pique. but rather what
amounts to q permanent withdrawal.
The immediate issue which has led to
the series Of Russian walkouts. Of course,
has to do with the seating of delegates
from Red China. But the trouble. from
the Kremlin's point Of view, goes deeper
than that.
What Russia apparently cannot take Is
the simple fact that her side is the min
ority in the u. N. Every time O dis
pute arises. the pattern is the same
There is no give and take in the q. MS
parliamentary operation-such as en-
ables our Congress, for instance, to ar
rive at compromise solutions to trouble
some problems. For Russia, there is
practically no such thing as compromise
There is, almost invariably, o stubborn
insistence on bulling the issue through
to lineup vote.
iya ha vaRa D,,ee;o ;v.,o ~SnAY,,
loses. The odd thing Is that, having
precipitated this result by her stand-pat
tactics, Russia apparently remains Sensi-
tive to the thought that her prestige has
been damaged in the eyes of the satel-
lite states.
Russia. in other words, has been like
a man who repeatedly butts his head
against the wall, blushing the while to
think that he is disgracing himself in
the eyes Of his watching family.
Despite all the walkouts, there is one
type Of U. N. activity in which Russia
may well remain interested. This is the
field which has to do with collective
security-atom control, for instance, and
the question of establishing a world
armed force. Russia has been no less
obstructionist in this field than in the
social. economic and general political
spheres. Only last Thursday, she quit
the arms commission. But this is not the
field in which she seems permanently
to have given up. Her real withdrawal
has been from the commissions on such
problems as human rights and child well
fare = which have been accomplishing
something. while groups like the Secur-
Evening star., 1950-05-01
Unknown Architect

Senator Tydings has marshaled an impress
sive array of witnesses to refute Senator NC
Carthy's charge that owen baltimore has been
the principal architect of our Far Eastern
policy"
General Marshall says the statement is COM
pletely without basis in fact" and he adds that 50
far as he can remember he has never met Mr..
baltimore. Cordell Hull says that Mr.. baltimore
was "in no sense" the principal architect of our
Far Eastern policy during his long service as
Secretary of State. He does not remember having
consulted with MIR. baltimore on that subject or
on any other subject.
James F. Byrnes, who preceded General Mar
shall as head of the State Department. says he
does not know Mr.. baltimore, and that he never
heard of any discussion Mr.. baltimore may have
had with other State Department officials about
Far Eastern affairs. Dean Acheson states cate
gorically that so far as he is aware Mr. baltimore
has had no influence in the determination of our
Far Eastern policy And he adds that he has never
met Mr.. baltimore.
This testimony from the four living men who
have served as Secretary of State since 1888 cd
ward R. stettinius. who succeeded Mr.. Hull is
dead) should demolish Senator McCarthy's charge
on this point. There is another point, however,
made by General Marshall, which deserves men,
ton. He said that accusations such as those
Senator Mccarthy has been making-"charges
or insinuations broadcast with so little regard for
truth undoubtedly confuse our friends abroad,
undermine and weaken our position before the
world and actually lend assistance to the powers
that would destroy u.s."
Senator Mccarthy may say-as he has said
before-that General Marshall is an incompetent
in the field of diplomacy. But there are other
people, great many of them in this newspapers
opinion-who do not believe that General Mar
shall has been an incompetent, either as mill
tary commander or as a Secretary of State. Per-
haps these people, or some of them have been
inclined to the view that while Senator Mccarthy
may have been wrong in one detail or another,
the overall effect of what he has been doing is
helpful. If that is so-if there are some people
who believe that and who also do not believe
that General Marshall is a nitwit-they should
give little thought to what he has had to say
as to the real effect of the Mccarthy charges.
Evening star., 1950-05-01
A-Weopons-PIuroI and Varied

Considerable speculation has been stirred UP
by the fact that Defense Secretary johnson, in
MS sem1-annual report, has made the cryptic
statement that "Atomic weapons are no longer
small number Of bombs of single type and
size to be used only strategically on carefully
selected target" Although it does not specifically
say so, this sentence at least implies that we
now have nuclear ornaments of various types
and sizes and that we can use them for tactical
purposes-to mine harbors, for example, or to
destroy deep underground installations or to
annihilate or immobilize advancing armies =
Such possibilities of course, should surprise
nobody. Ever since Hiroshima there has been
reason to wonder about them. Thus, as far back
as l945, the celebrated Smyth report on our war
time atomic project revealed the fact that
chain-reacting nuclear pile gives of radioactive
by-products that could be used as "a particularly
vicious form of poison gas" small quantities of
which might be sufficient to make large area
un1nhabitable"-a weapon that conceivably
could be employed either to attack troops directly
or to slow them down by lethally communicating
the ground over which they are supposed to
march. In addition, among lot of other plau-
sibly imagined things, there has been recurrent
speculation to the effect that this particularly
vicious form of poison gas" might be put to work
in the form of a giant killer-cloud-a silent
destroyer that would be difficult to detect or
counter before it foated down over its target and
embraced it in an invisible mist of death
Moreover, even though some of this specula-
ton may be lurid and exaggerated in the ex-
treme, it is significant that ever since Hiroshima
nearly all our official atomic announcements
have spoken of A-tUeapons. The plural form has
been used, not the singular. The bomb itself
which incidentally has grown substantially in
destructive force-is one thing, not two things.
If it were all we had in our nuclear arsenal,
there would be no sense in putting the little IS"
at the end of the word weapon" The little IS"
has long been kind of hint that that arsenal
has a variety of supremely deadly items in it.
Mr.. Johnson's guarded sentence confirms the
point
Evening star., 1950-05-01

sulk than cooperate. 1t Is In effect re-
belling openly against the world. The
moral strength Of the organization,
which derives from this situation is lost
when the q. N. ceases actually to be q
world organization.
2. Assuming the breach between
Russia and the West is irreparable, 1t
might be unwise for the West to assume
that nothing can ever be done about
the satellites. The case Of Tito's Yugo-
pletely closing the door on them at this
point. Some Of them are still taking part
in U. N. work from which Russia has
withdrawn.
3. What about borderline states in
positions Of strategic importance?-
India, for instance. and Indonesia; the
Middle East countries and. perhaps some
day, Germany. We can work with them
in the present U. N. Can we be sure
they will come into an organization
which Is an out-and-out anti Russian
coalition? Mr.. Hoover suggested that re-
organization of the u N. would show us
whom we could count on-Separate the
sheep from the goats. so to speak But
should we deliberately separate our,
selves from states which are not quite
sure now whether they are sheep or
goats-which still are hoping to get by
without having to declare themselves as
either.
These. then, are the broad lines Of the
debate Mr. Hoover has opened up. And
there still remains the possibility, If
things go on at Lake Success the way
they have been going lately that Russia
will solve our problem for us-by back
ing all the way out of the U. N. before
We can kick her all the way out.
Evening star., 1950-05-01
What's the Difference?

When something is known to be eft
ted to T." it is regarded as being in
good order. This seems to extend to
many things. including tax Well. when
the T is not fitted to Tax, it is then
an ax-something which can be sorely
felt-just as the Tax is. leaving a most
painful and seemingly permanent scar.
When the T isn't fitted TO Tire, it
then leaves ire. So what's the differ
ence?
Robert Emmet Burke.