davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1950-02-12

the community must pay for IL. The task of
raising the required funds in Metropolitan Wash
ington is in the hands of the District of Columbia
Society for Crippled Children Incorporated an
autonomous local organization whose principal
officers are Thomas J. Groom president; Will
liam H. Press and Donald M. Bernard vice
presidents; Thomas Grant, junior, secretary, and
James H. Flanagan, treasurer
Under this leadership, a cerebral palsy clinic,
camping program, nursery school and kinder
garten are operated. Money for these activities
comes from the sale of attractive Easter seals
distributed during the lenten season. The 1850
edition, featuring little boy ioyiuly discard1ng
his crutcheS, is being mailed to known and pros
pective friends of the work, who are asked to
buy them at penny EACH Contributions should
be sent to the societys office, 1857 Massachusetts,
avenue NV. The Star believes this cam
paign should be supported to the end that the
crippled children of Washington and vicinity
may have "a fighting chance to get better"
indeed chance to recover completely from
their Affections.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
The Lonely Lincoln

All of his biographers speak of how lonely
Lincoln was Gamaliel Bradford says: He lived
in solitude which neither man nor woman
ever perfectly penetrated. :. He ruled over
millions of men and women who loved him;
yet he was enormously alone" The words here
quoted were written Is years ago. They confirm
the declaration of R. H. Dana in March, 1868:
"He has no admirers, no enthusiastic supporters
none to bet on his head" The multitudes who
cared about him were far from him, distant as
the poleS inarticulate, perhaps dsmayed by their
instructive apprehension, of the tragedy they
senSed coming.
Doubtless it generally is so. Shakespeare's
divinity that doth hedge a king" extends to
presidents. The elevation of man to leadership
removes him from the people. Lincoln felt that;
Thought of it, as Mr. Bradford remarks, "all
the time" The melancholy of "the uncommon
commoner" traced back to his isolation, and he
mourned the fact. Yet nothing could be done
about it. Lincoln above, beyond human
fellowship. There are many theories intended
to explain this, but they not adequate; they
remain mere guesses as the years go by.
What matters most, however is that Lincoln
still is magnetic, still dynamic. He is one of
the half dozen great world figures of the nine
teenth century who continue to possess power
to stir mems thoughts to influence their actions.
If he be the symbol of America as Whitman,
Vachel Lindsay, James Oppenheim and other
poets have believed, then he represents all of
us in the experiences, the ordeals of our lives
Our ways are cast in bitter times as his way
was. We, too are lonely. Moving in millions,
closer in terms of improved facilities of COM
munication than our fathers ever were we yet
are like Lincoln in our insuarity, one from
another
But it would be error to fail to note the
automatic, inescapable bonds by which humanity
is identified with its best exemplars Their
destiny is that of the least of their fellows in
the shifting kaleidoscope of history. If we are
affected by the enemies of mankind, we just as
truly are advantaged by those who are our
friends. Lenin in his mausoleum in the Red
Square at Moscow is dead despite the Soviets,
while Lincoln-even though he still is lonely in
his shrine by the quiet Potomac-never has
died. The difference is an affair of the enlight-
ened spirit. Read again the familiar lines from
the second inaugural, cut on the wall of his
temple: with malice toward none; with charity
for all; with firmneSs in the right, as God gives
us to see the right, let us :. . do all which may
achieve and cherish just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations"
These words remain compelling affirma-
ton. America is noblest in the ratio of its
approach to the ideal which they represent. The
same observation applies to the world at large.
Evening star., 1950-02-12

day of one which this fear-haunted day
of our needs especially to ponder
Liberty under God" There is no lib
erty anywhere else. All history shouts
that. What availed all the fair. slogans
of liberty, equality and fraternity, as
the streets of Paris ran red with blood
and the guillotine rolled its ghastly
heads, if lewd woman is lifted up as
the goddess of Reason in Notre Danes
temple to the Most High? The promis-
ing streams of freedom but disappear
in the sands of futility when there is
nothing higher than the state. With
deified state, in realm that is goddess
and a church which is subservent, the
serfS of Russia are but led to harder
fate than they endured under the czars.
The broken strands of fair rainbows
which arched the sky of those who i'm
agined themselves pioneers of a new
freedom become the fetters of a worse
thraldom If the alleged emancipators
are blasphemers.
1t is not just an empty gesture that
Evening star., 1950-02-12

The Right Rev. Henry Yates Satterlee,
first Bishop of Washington, according to
The Star of February 5,
Sotneofo' 1900, was preparing to
Compoion speak in all the principal
cities of the United States
in behalf of plan to build national
cathedral in Or near the District of
Columbia. Such sacred edifice, he
argued. will constitute tremendous
moral and spiritual power. The Cathedral
preachers. from the pulpit of a free
church in free state, can boldly rebuke
vice and political corruption and hold up
the mirrors of Christs pure gospel to
those who neglect the responsibility their
country has laid upon them. or upon
those who forget that public office is
public trust" Bishop Satterlee did not
live to see any portion of the Cathedral
completed, but the Dictionary of Amer
ican Biography declares that every de-
velopment of 1t, material and spiritual
alike. has been in line with his far
seeing plans"
Fifty years ago there was an active
camera club at Eastern High School, and
The Star for February 6,
Somero 1iuD 1900, chronicled meet
Meetino ing of it at the residence
of Miss c. A. Van Doran
SAT East Capitol street. DR.. Anderson
gave talk on Practical Photography"
Among members and guests present were:
Matilda A. Chester Hope G. Durfee,
Claudia A. Ellsworth, Blanche L. Fawcett,
Virginia W. Fitzhugh. Laura r. Clancy.
Margaret L. johnson, Josephine Nor
rison, Frances j. Miller, Pearle E. Petit
grew, A. M. Buck, jr.; Donald A. Craig,
Raymond E. Devendorf, William E. Ely,
Frank B. Fitch, Walter B. Guy. H. M.
Hepburn, H. v. Honn, Raymond Pull
man and George W. Vinal. The last
named of these camera enthusiasts now
is the DR.. Vinal of the section of elec-
trical chemistry at the Bureau of Stand
ards. Ray Pullman became superintend-
ent OF police, Don Craig was reporter
on The Star, Walter Guy is lawyer
and Blanche Fawcett is q retired school
principal.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
Spires Of the Spirit
Spires Of the Spirit
Freedom Under God . .

THE year 1909 is notable for the
Il names found in its birth columns.
At the time it seemed that battles were
of more Importance than babies. Every
one was eager for news of Napoleon and
his campaigns. But, really it was the
babies, not the battles, which mattered
most. What incalculable contributions
to human veal were made by those
whose biographies begin-Born in 1909.
Here are few of them: William E.
Gladstone, Alfred Tennyson. Felix Men
delssohn. Charles Darwin. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, Edgar Allan Poe and Abra-
ham Lincoln.
This is the birthday of one who be-
longs forever to America, to the world
and to the ages. The towering stature of
Lincoln is the irrefutable apologetic of
democracy. On frosty February
morning, in the country store, as the
hardy pioneers gossiped around the
glowing stove, is heard the casual report,
Nancy Hanks has baby-a boy!"
Who could have prophesied that that
infant. new to earth and sky" reared
amid primitive log cabin surroundings,
would one day frame such classic phrases
that they would be hung in Oxford Uni
versity as an example of purest English?
Who could foresee that a little more
than a century later a Prime Minister
of England, Lloyd George, while In
America. would travel hundreds of miles
to put wreath of laurel at the grave
of that Kentucky babe of 1909, as he
exclaimed with the deepest feeling:
There lies the greatest soul ever born
of English-speaking peoples, man to
stand like a mountain peak through all
our dark nights of trouble, in all the
ages. I have read every word that Lin
coin ever wrote. When have been
pressed by the problems of war I
have gone to Abraham Lincoln-to his
spirit and to his strategy-for guidance,
comfort and wisdom"
Lincoln's pronouncements from the
day he left Springfield, never to return.
to the tragic end were saturated with
the Bible and with sense of the Divine
Presence and help. Out of all the death
less phrases with which his speeches are
gemmed, we are thinking on his BIRTH
Evening star., 1950-02-12
Says Our English Language Expert
Doesn't Know His ParIez- Vous
tn the Editor of The Star.
Fifty Years Ago in The Star

The Star of February 2, 1900, reported
that bill had been introduced in the
Senate to incorporate the
National Society of the
Of 1872 United States Daughters of
-. 1912. Among the objectives
OF the proposed organization was the
erection OF "a house or home where the
descendants of the Jealous and brave
patriots who achieved American inde-
pendence, who have need of such home,
may be sheltered from the storms of
life" The incorporatorS were: Mrs
Flora Adams Darling, Mrs. William
Garry Slade, Mrs Edward Roby, Mrs.
M. A. Ludin, Mrs. Leroy Sunderland
Smith. Mrs. Alfred Russell, Mrs. Will
liam Lee. Mrs. William Tod Helmuth,
Mrs. Nelson v. Titus and Miss Helen G.
Bailey. An earlier society had been
started January s, 1892. It also was
founded by Mrs. Darling.
A profile of Henry Cabot Lodge ap-
peared in The Star on February 8, 1900.
"He is one of the most
Seho'o' interesting figures in Con-
In Politics gress," the article said.
ut is true that he is a
scholar and that he is, in politics; but
he doesn't confound the two.
Lodge is practical. He has his ideals,
as every man in public life ought to
have; but he appreciates the limitations
of human nature and knows instinctively
when those ideals are Immediately cap
able of realization and when they are
not. He understands the political wis
dom of biding his time and making use
of instruments at his hand for the
accomplishment of that which he knows
can be DONE, His name has been known
nationally for nearly a quarter of CEN
tury. and yet he is young man.
II he had come from another walk of
life and had entered the prize ring he
would have been the champion" Sena-
tor, Lodge served in the upper house of
Congress from 1893 until his death on
November 9, 1924. It. probably is as .
historian and biographer. however, that
he Is best remembered.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
Letters to The Star
PseudonynnS are permissible only
1DIaef letters contain correct name
and address OF 1Uriter. Please be brief

France. Others also have confounded
these very different accents on occasion.
He ends his dissertation with the
statement that he will continue to tell
your readers that French has an accent
that is invariably found on the last
syllable of every word in the language
Mr.. Colby's memory seems to be de-
ceiving him. He says: "In all the years
1 have been writing this column, no
native Frenchman has ever criticized
me =" Yet, about two years ago he
did receive and answer criticism made
by Parisian- born French person, which
was included in the criticism of another.
properly identified.
I nave access to eight French die
tionaries. In none do find justification
Of Mr.. Colby's system of French pro-
nunciation. CHARLES COULTER.
Agrees With Star Editorial
On Habit-Forming Rent Control
To the Editor Of The Star:
Your recent editorial, Rent Control
Is Habit Forming" impresses one as a
comprehensive and logical argument
concerning rent control in the District,
and perhaps throughout the country.
Senator Sparkmans conjecture that
rent control in the larger cities may al
ways be necessary is a departure from
the unequivocal statement he made in
press interview following the passage
OF the present rent control law He was
quoted: Il cannot believe, in the pres
ence OF a presently unforeseen national
emergency, that Congress will consent
to further extension of rent control be-
yond June 30.'
The habit-forming characteristic of
rent control is we'll illustrated in the
acts themselves. The original Emerg-
ency Price Control Act of 1912 provided
for rent control in IAN area where de-
tense activities resulted or threatened to
result in an increase in rents for hous-
ing%
Each new rent control law beginning
with that of 1916 has contained decla-
ration of policy against rent control,
using only national emergency as justi-
fcation for it "The Congress hereby af-
firms that unnecessary and unduly pro-
longed controls over rents would be in
consistent with the return to a peace
time economy and would tend to prevent
the attainment of the goals declared in
Evening star., 1950-02-12

The First Congregational Church. !"
SAID The Star of February 8. 1900. was
Walter oomroseh 1u higny iaSs isar inte1lsent gsrh
In Town audience to listen to
a. lecture on the Nib
elungen triology of Wagner by Walter
Damrosch, given under the auspices of
the Washington Choral Society. !.
Perhaps there is no one better fitted to
interpret and explain the works of
Richard Wagner than Mr. Damrosch.
He has had an extended acquaintance
with Wagnerian operas, has produced
and conducted them successfully and
has been close student of the tone
poems of the great composer. : +" When
the battle between the Wagnerites and
the ti-Wagnerites was waging so
iercely in Germany, the elder Damrosch
was strong supporter of Wagner, and
the son last night told story that when
his father played The Ride of the VAL
kyries' at a concert in Breslau, the work
was greeted with hisses, whistling and
catcalls, whereupon Damrosch immedi-
ately repeated the composition"
On February 9. 1900, The Star an
nounced the death of Hercules, believed
peoth St gernard ard doc sl,e "a, i, s1ss ths
Of Hercules world" The noble ami
NAL" it was suggested,
had been poisoned. "He was found life
less at the home of his owner. Edward
D.. Easton. formerly of this city and
president of the Columbia Phonograph
Co., at Arcola, N. j. The dog was S
years old, stood about IS inches high,
weighed over 200 pounds. HE received
great deal of newspaper notice. This.
however, did not spoil him, for he re-
manned until the end gentle, considerate
and great favorite with the whole
countryside The wife of his owner
wrote widely published" musical COM
position for him, "The Hercules March" I"
Whether or not it was played at his
funeral was not stated. but the big dog
did have a formal interment on the
grounds Of the Easton residence.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
Safety Education Pays

Grim though the Nations annual traffic toll
continues to be- there is cause for encouragement
in the disclosure that the 1949 highway death
rate was the lowest on record. The National
Safety Council reports that the death rate per
hundred million miles in 1949 was only IA Yet
even at this relatively low rate, automobile acci-
dents killed 31,50O men, women and children
last year That is 759 fewer fatalities than were
recorded in 1s48, which is something to be
thankful for.
But the death figures do not tell the whole
sad story of traffic accidents. During the year
approximately 100000 persons were crippled or
otherwise injured on urban and rural highways.
Traffic accidents in 1949 injured nearly five times
as many Americans as bullets did during all of
World War II. There is nothing to be complacent
about in such statistics.
Locally, the traffic toll followed International
trend. The 1949 total of 1899 traffic accidents
was lower than that for 1948 which was year
that brought Washington several national awards
for safety. However, the local death total last
year was four above that for 1948 which had the
lowest number of fatalities in recent traffic
history. Even So the death total last year was
the second lowest in Washington traffic annals.
The National Safety Council attributes the
decline in traffic casualties to increased emphasis
on safety by highway engineers traffic author
tiles, police and trade and civic organizations
Roads are being made safer, cars are being SUBJ
jected to more rigid inspection in many localities
drivers and pedestrians are being educated on
the need for more care in using the public high
ways. The traffic statistics show that this Joint
crusade for safety is worth all of the time and
money and energy being devoted to it here and
elsewhere.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
By Frederick Brown Harris

both houses of our supreme legislative
bodies of this Republic before each ses-
sion bow in reverence to acknowledge
the God who hath made and preserved
us Nation. Above the Stars and Stripes
on every ship of the far-flung United
States Navy, during divine services there
floats the flag of religion. That act of
devotion is a symbol of freedom under
God.
In this dread day the faces of scien-
fists and national leaders who know the
stark facts are blanched with the posi-
bilities of this tragic hour. For man
has achieved liberty to produce a star
as hot as the sun. He has snatched the
power to start fire that can incinerate
the planet, blotting out all living things.
We are suddenly aghast at the dire
possibilities of stupendous power in the
hands of men who have no God in their
hearts. The final freedom controlled by
atheists may devastate the earth
William Penn once expressed a peril
nent principle when he declared, Man
will either choose to be governed by God
or condemn himself to be ruled by
tyrants' The Quaker was saying, long
before Lincoln, that the only freedom
there is is under God.
Dorothy Thompson, the columnist, who
in parsonage home was brought up
under the spires of the spirit, cries out to
this baff1ed day of ours: Woe unto the
nation that destroys its affairs! For new
altars will surely be built to idols with
terrible faces and bloody hands carrying
whips and swords. Such" she adds, "is
the Judgment of history, ancient and
modern"
With his sad eyes upon our generation
as We gaze fearfully at potential foes in
some other part of the world, Lincoln
warns: Shall we fear that some trans
Atlantic giant shall overreach the ocean
and crush us with blow? No, never!
This Nation will live on forever as a
Nation of free men or else die by suicide"
Who can doubt that Lincoln's formula
for today's crisis would be This Nation
UNDER GOD must have a new birth of
FREEDOM? Any so-called freedom. if it
is not under God, is under sentence of
death.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
Prince Georges Moves Ahead

Prince Georges County, like other counties
around Washington, has undergone phenomenal
growth in recent years. especially since World
War H. Yet, of the three counties adjoining the
District of Columbia, only Prince Georges has
failed to modernize it's governmental machinery
to meet new burdens and responsibilities. 1t is
good to know, therefore that the county is
taking steps to reorganize along more business
like lines.
Under bill introduced in the State Legisla-
ture by State Senator Sothoron of Prince Georges
the rapidly developing Maryland county would
strengthen it's time -honored commissioner system
by increasing it's powers and fexibility. The
chairman Of the Board of Commissioners would
be made fulltime official with duties resembling
those of a county manager. The board would
be authorized to set up appropriate county de-
partments and to appoint or remove heads of
the departments or any other county official
whose appointment or election is not otherwise
provided for. Numerous minor regulatory powers
would be conferred on the commissioners
While this is not 'home rule" of the sort
exemplified in the County Council of adjacent
Montgomery County, the Sothoron plan would
go long way toward bringing the outmoded
Prince Georges government into line with the
march of progress. Since no revolutionary re-
forms would be involved, no referendum of the
citizens would be required. The reorganization
proposal may not be the answer to all of Prince
Georges problems, but it undoubtedly would be
vast improvement over the existing setup
Evening star., 1950-02-12
Mark of q Statesman
BY Bruce Barton

In 1887, Fiorello La Guardia, Senator
Copeland and Judge Mahoney were can
didates in the primaries for Mayor Of
New York r.
There was hardly any talk about local
issues. That might have been danger
Gus; it might have lost votes.
Senator Copeland's theme song was:
vote for me. I am brave. denounced
Hitler in the Senate
Judge Mahoney boasted: "I made Hit
Ter mad by keeping our American boys
away from the Olympic Games in Ber-
lin"
q La Guardia screamed st called Hitler
so-and-so.'
Mr.. Mahoney beat Copeland, and Mr..
La Guardia beat Mr.. Mahoney.
Most of our political campaigns are
like that. Most politicians are like the
one in Sam Kiser's poem, who practiced
his speeches before the mirror Shak-
ing his fist. he would shout that:
White is white and black is black
And he swore that even torture would
not make him take it back"
Lincoln had different kind of cour-
age. In the closing days of the Civil
War delegation visited him in the
White House-men so powerful that they
could swing the votes of Illinois: and
Illinois could swing the national election,
They demanded reduction in the draft
quota of Illinois: Her fathers and moth
ers, they said, had suffered enough
Joseph Medill. owrser of the most feared
newspaper in the Middle West, was their
spokesman. Quoting his own words, Ida
M. Tarbell tells the story.
at cI,on cot Nv
"how he Uincoln) suddenly lifted his
head and turned on us black and
frowning face.
Gentleman he said. in voice full
OF bitterness, you called for war until
we had it. Now you come here begging
to be let off from the call for men which
have made to carry on the war you.
demanded. You ought to be ashamed
Of yourselves. have right to expect
better things of you. And you. Medlll,
you are acting like coward. You can
influence great masses, and yet you cry
to be spared at the moment when your
cause is suffering. Go home, and send
us those men
II couldn't say anything" Mr.. Medill,
continued ut was the first time ever
was whipped. We all got up and went
out and when the door closed, one OF
my colleagues said:
Well, gentlemen. the old man Is
right. We ought to be ashamed of our
selves. Let us go home and raise
the men, :.
Lincoln had won his point, but he had
risked powerful support to do so. That
was real political courage-the hallmark
OF statesman.
Evening star., 1950-02-12
For Crippled Children

Cerebral. palsy is mysterious and defiant
condition 1t results from injury to the brain
during or perhaps before BIRTH and it has the
effect of creating deafness, blindness, nervous
and muscular disabilities, speech impediments
and emotional disabilities in youngsters who
otherwise would be normal boys and girls. The
handicaps thus inflicted upon the children by
accident become burdens which they carry
throughout life-unless they are corrected and
cured by physical and psychological treatment.
Such treatment is more expensive than the
average family can afford. If 1t is to be had,