davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1951-04-08
A Spire Of the Spirit

On an April afternoon the President
of the United States stood beneath
church spire lifted 169 feet above the
cornerstone he had come to lay. On
the outdoor platform around the Chief
Executive were church leaders, black
gowned. their crimson hoods giving a
brilliant touch of color to the significant
occasion. A great throng sat and stood
in reverential interest. Cameras mount
ed on a nearby platform were ready to
carry the stirring scene across the
Nation and around the world.
For historic church it was an hour
combining romantic past, creative
present and bright and beckoning
future. The whole scene was vocal of a
daring leap of faith-faith in the in
vincibility of the church against which
the very gates of hell cannot prevail;
faith in the perpetuity of the democ-
>racy of which that particular church
has been strong spiritual pillar since
the early days of the Republic; faith
in the enlarged ministry of church
which greets the clouded future with
cheer. For here is Household Of
Faith which. sensing the crying needs
where cross the crowded ways, spurned
the temptation to sell the old site for
a fabulous price and retreat to the
salubrious suburbs, lure to which
many other downtown churches have
yielded Here is one instance where
the tyranny of traffic and the busy
marts of commercialism heard solemn
voice declaring: Where our fathers
worshiped we propose to stay. at the
very center of this world city. the Ma
tion's Capital. continuing our witness
to the things unseen and eternal" So
this cornerstone represents no new en-
terprise revered edifice is now sue
ceeded by rising new temple. greater
than the former but maintaining the
same architectural similitude dear to
all who know and love Washington.
X X
At the very moment that the Presi-
dent, with trowel in hand, was trimming
the mortar from the newlaid stone, a
mile away the Congress was in tense
session. It seemed a winged word to
the Nation and to the torn and tortured
world seeking for certainty in vol
canic era Of change, as the voice OF
the minister of the church rang out
from that dedicated ground: Except
the Lord build the house they labor
in vain that build it. Except the Lord
keep the city the watchmen waketh in
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Fifty Years Ago in The Star 6.

dental ruler to the limit Of its authority.
Up to this time, while generally recog-
nized as President of Venezuela. he has
in reality been simply dictator Of the
republic" The political leader referred
to was Cipriano Castro Q855-1924), a
Liberal farmer and cattle raiser, who
turned soldier and rebelled against the
Crespo- -Andrade regime and finally con-
quered it in a series of battles in 1899
and 1900. He achieved the chief power
in the nation by election February 20,
1902. and remained in control practically
without interruption until 1908. Some
writer's call him "high-handed, unprin-
cipled and cruel" but others insist that
the Venezuelan people prospered under
his management of their affairs.
On April g., 1901, The Star publicized
a statement to the effect that on the
Cunard steamer
6oInsborough Etruria, which left
Picture Found New York last Sat-
urday and is due in
Liverpool today, is a painting said to be
the famous Gainsborough portrait of the
Duchess of Devonshire. which was stolen
from the gallery of the owners. the
Messrs. Agnew of London, May Is, 1876,
and the whereabouts of which has not
been known since that time" Among
the passengers on the ship were Mr.. and
Mrs. c. Morland Agnew. and they were
understood to have the "lost" picture
with them. There was suggestion that
it had been retrieved in Chicago. The
subject was "The Electioneering Ouch
ess," wife Of william, fifth Duke of
Devonshire. She died In 1906.
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Peace, and the Sword

Theresa L. Robinson, Civil Liberties
Directress of the Elks, who wrote to The
Star of the good points she found in
Russia and further stated her opposition
to war or violence of any kind. deserves
an answer.
In following the love of peace,
what explanation does this segment Of
American opinion offer for what has be-
fallen the South Koreans. who also love
peace? Do the miles that separate
America from Korea make the bullets
less death dealing? What do they think
would be the prevalent political order in
South Korea today had there been no
intervention? What about the long list
of broken treaties that make up most
of the Soviet record since 1915? The
blossom expected of the seed of negotia-
ton is signed accord-a mutual agree
ment. What suggestion do they have for
successfully negotiating with a power
whose signature on an agreement stands
for perfdy?
Have we so soon forgotten the Treaty
of Munich? Chamberlain. England and
Evening star., 1951-04-08

ODD who went to hear Mr.. Hofmann
play, with certain sort of hero-worship
in their hearts, must certainly have been
disappointed. Mr.. Hofmann's personality
is not one of encouragement to the
matinee girl or the kid-glove matron who
leads the applause just at the wrong
moment He looks like farm hand.
He has no mannerisms. He almost
affronts the piano with his business
like air-and during his entire perform
ance he has no apparent pleasure in
his work or in the appreciation that is
waited up to him after one of his per-
functory exhibitions. -. The enthusiasm
which might have developed into an
ovation was at the end Of each number
promptly subdued by the stolidity and
GOODNESS with which the pianist received
applause" Perhaps the farm hand"
might have been less cold at Is if it had
not been for the experience he had when
his artistic career was halted by ar
bitrary interference at IL.
On April /, 1901, The Star reported:
"Mr. Pulido, the Venezuelan Charge
d'Affaires, has received cablegram from
his government stating
Costro on Top that the constituyente
in Venezuela has appointed President
Castro to be Provi-
sional President of Venezuela. The con-
stituyente is framing constitution for
this South American republic. When
the presidency changed hands not long
ago Castro proclaimed himself President,
and the action of the constituyente In
vests him with the full POWERS Of a presi-
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Our North Stor
By Bruce Borton

In my earliest schooldays we used to
start every morning by raising our hands
and repeating: II pledge allegiance to
my Flag and to the Republic for which
it stands; one Nation indivisible. with
liberty and justice for ALL
Now we have a Nationwide rumpus
over whether public ofhceholders and
college teachers should be asked to do
what was once considered such a splen-
did thing for every one to do-say that
they are and will be loyal to their
country.
This current tumult is important only
as one more example of the fuzziness of
thought and purpose that paralyzes
American action and influence both at
home and abroad. We have turned our
backs on history; we have violated the
Biblical injunction. Remove not the
ancient landmarks; we have lost our
North Star. We have deliberately
changed the meaning of words. Debt
used to be debt and every one agreed
that it was bad. Now debt is national
income" Strangling taxation has be-
come an expanding economy" More
and more bureaucracy, tighter and
tighter controls are freedom" and "de-
mocracy." Lying to the people becomes
conditioning the public mind" To be.
for America first is to be an undesirable
citizen and Social outcast.
The shrewd and often cynical young
and middle -aged men who constitute so
much of our real government-the per-
manent civil service-are actually the
kindergarten come of age They began
their schooling when the big new idea
in education was to abolish old rules.
teach no authority, no precedent; en-
courage each individual boy and girl to
the fullest "Self-eXpression."
We see the result in Washington. Pol
icies that have been tried historically
and discarded over and over again pop
up as something wholly and wonderfully
new. Crises abroad, that any student of
history normally would anticipate. hit
the State Department and the Pentagon
as complete surprises. Day after day
must be spent in committee, in confer
ence, seeking some formula of equivoca-
ton and double talk, because there are
no fixed stars of principle by which the
course of the ship of state is set.
The few of us old-timers who are for
the United States first, who believe in
making only such commitments as we
reasonably can hope to fulfill. are not
popular. And maybe our day is done.
But at least we know what we think.
Washington, on the contrary, is full
Of people who are in the same mental
fix as a certain pretty woman. How do
know what I think" she exclaimed.
"untA I hear what say?"
Evening star., 1951-04-08

Front-page space in The Star of March
%, 1901, was used to give report OF
ceremony at the State
Poyinq Tor the Department in which
philippines the Spanish Ambassa-
dor, the Duke de ARGOS,
and the Secretary of State, John Hay,
exchanged acknowledgements concerning
a whole archipelago. BY this proceed
ing the United States acquired posses
sion of "any and all islands of the
Philippines" lying outside of line speci-
fled in the treaty of peace between
Spain and the United States dated De-
cember 10, 1898 The Spanish Minister
received Treasury warrant for $780,
900 for relinquishing the islands of
Cazayan- -Sulu and Sibitu. Thus the
United States, having won the Philip
pines by conquest, actually paid for
them as if by ordinary purchase. The
incident was one of long list of such
events for which the American people
are entitled to credit as acts of gener-
osity and benevolence.
"No longer the boy phepomenon, but
a -fledged pianist. asking odds of no
one, Josef Hofmann ap-
Josef Holman peared yesterday after
In Town noon at the National
Theater," said The Star
of March Is, 1901 "The audience in
cluded sprinkiings of the smart people
who adopt music as fad and the real
musicianly clientele, who worship or
waste maledictions on the newcomer who
as vet has not proved his own excuse
dor being The young women (asM the
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Forgotten Ones

Why is so little thought being given by
our lawmakers to problems of the aged?
Billions of the taxpayers dollars are
quandered-more billions given to for
eign countries. Yet when comprehen-
sive program for the deserving aged is
proposed the answer is: I'VE can't afford
it."
Those fortunate enough to come under
social security have been provided for.
Recently, more were included. Sadly
enough, the self employed, and many
others now well past 10, who in the
past would have contributed gladly to a
social security or pension plan were not
then included
Long past the age of employment.
their savings depleted, they face the pit
iful fate of becoming objects of charity,
either dependent on relatives or public
relief.
During their productive years thou
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Corcoron Biennial, 1851

The twenty-second biennial exhibition of
contemporary American oil paintings at the Cor
coran Gallery is truly contemporary. In rejecting
the philosophic and esthetic attitudes of painters
now living and working in the United States 1t
is predominantly moderniStic and radical as dis
tinct from, and opposed to, classic and conserVa-
tive The best word to describe it is the word
"esoteric"-meaning understood by the initiated
only" An average visitor to the show will be
puzzled by what he sees but it does not follow
that he will be disappointed. The emphasis is on
decoration. Most of the pictures are intended to
dominate Some of them clash with each other,
and yet they are enough within the manner OF
he moment to belong to single fashion-the
ashton of abstractionism.
Few of the artists have any patience with
what a camera might do They are not interested
in painting realistic subjects in realistic way.
A photographer could make pictures that really
look like the objects specified, and none of them
wants to be photographer. Instead, they are
poets They deal with their material magma
tiyely If their imaginationS run trlfe Wild
they are not disturbed by the fact The result
may be a compelling decoration, and that is what
they are seeking-creaton that will be assertive
aggressive even dictatorial. Each of the painters
has himself to affirm, his own conceptions to
demonstrate. The more original they are the
happier they are.
But, or course, tney 90 cnng Iogetner, tIley
do initiate one another. If one modernistic artist
dramatizes the skeleton of fish, flock Of other
modernistic artists will dramatize fish skeletons,
or dog skeletons, or horse skeletons AS soon as
the visitor to the gallery catches on to the game,
he begins to be less esoteric, less bewildered.
What contemporary painters are doing in 1851
may not be ineligible to everybody. 1t may not
signify anything to majority of people. How
ever, their productions definitely are worth see
ing, worth studying. They have the merit of
being historic. If they are confused, so are the
times that have brought them forth. They are
symptomatic Of current developments in the
world at large, and those developments are not
exclusively unworthy of supposedly civilized
communities.
It is a phase of modern America that is
represented in the Corcoran Gallery just now
AS such It should be regarded, and If it is SO re-
garded it will reward any average visitor. Those
who wish TO see examples of the art ofsthe past
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Fowler Proposals

The Evening Star has clearly stated
the necessity for immediate public hear
ings on the Fowler proposals for in
ternal reorganization of the District.
Most Of the investigations of the past
20 years have failed to receive the nee
esSary congressional approval. The
Schmeckbier, Donovan-Douglas, Citi-
zens' Efficiency and Griffenhagen re-
ports, to say nothing of the hearings
IN the 69th, 10th. 10th, 18th, 10th, 80th
and 81st Congresses, are today princi-
pally historical background rather than
municipal fact.
These documents from the past offer
moot testimony as to why the Commis-
sioners cannot afford to neglect these
new proposals, in spite of the pending
Taft-Kefauver and Case bills. The Or
ganic Act of 1878 gives the Commits
sioners authority to consolidate and
abolish departments. This act is di-
rect challenge to the Commissioners
to take the initiative in leading the
District to improved government. 1t is
true that much of the present organi-
zation is embodied in congressional
mandate. but Congress can hardly be
expected to reassign functions without
the recommendations and aggressive
backing of the Commissioners
Perhaps much of the inertia during
past years has been directly due to
the present state Of disorganization
which requires the Commissioners to
give endless hours Of their time to the
day-by-day supervision of departmental
operations. The proposed Executive
Officer would free them of much of this
routine so that they can devote them
selves to overall government problems
of improvement and development.
The Commissioners now constitute
the government of the District Of Co.
lumbia. AS such they run $132 million
worth Of services. Mr.. Fowler has in
dicated that this is not being done
with maximum effectiveness. The Com
missioners' responsibility to the people
and themselves requires that they use
their present powers to the fullest de-
gree and that they take the leadership
Immediately in securing the additional
powers which are needed.
Jay Meyer.
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Top Level Contempt

Seeing may be believing, but even so it is
hard to believe what one reads of the contempt
citations which have been issued against Sec
retary of Commerce Sawyer and other top-level
Government officials.
The citations have been issued by an angry
panel of judges of the United States Court of
Appeals. Those named, in addition to Mr..
Sawyer, include Deputy Attorney General Peyton
Ford, Solicitor General Philip Perlman Under
secretary of Commerce Philip Fleming and
George L. Killion, former treasurer of the Dem
ocratic National Committee and now head of
the American President Lines
The contempt action which will be tried on
Thursday grows out of protracted court fight
between the Government and the Dollar Line
interests for control of the $68 million American
President Steamship Line. The details of the
litigation cannot be reviewed here. The published
facts indicate however that the accused officials,
or some of them have willfully refused to obey
an appellate court order, affirmed by the Supreme
Court, which required them to give effective
possession of the stock in question to the Dollar
Line interests. The published facts also indicate
that the Government officials not only disobeyed
the appellate courts order, but, at the direction
of the President actually filed suit in lower
Federal court in San Francisco for an injunction
nullifying the order of the Court of Appeals.
We live in a topsy-turvy time of strange
doings. But there has been nothing stranger,
or more astonishing, than this. If men at the
cabinet level in Government will not obey the
courts, who will? This contempt proceeding
should and undoubtedly will be pressed to a
conclusion, and if the accused men are found
guilty no considerations of official station should
save them from appropriate punishment.
Evening star., 1951-04-08
Army Bond First
Mrs. v. F. B.

The Star on March 20 carried photo
graphs of the parade welcoming the
President of France TO Washington.
One Of these pictures. showing the
leading units of the parade as they
came by the reviewing stand, was in
correctly captioned
The first band in line was the United
States Army Band. Army units always
lead any parade in which the Army is
represented: as the official musical
organization of the United States Army,
the Army Band, therefore, is tradition
ally the leader in the line of march.
Keith Wright.
Evening star., 1951-04-08
How ComeIy 1t Is :.

The hounds of spring are loping through the
Capital The voice of the turtle is getting louder
with each passing moment. Under the warming
sun and the softening Winds gloom and grim
ness waver and melt. We hear of wars and
runors of wars; we hear dire threats in the
Congress-; they must compete with birdsong.
We know to our sorrow that spring has become
time for military offensves. Here nature puts
on her own offensive, with such battalions of
blossoms and such banners of green, that it is
hard to think of any other In the words of
Milton, How comely it is, and how reviving."
To encourage this mood Of unreasoning hope
and wtless JOY half the Capital in recent weeks
focked to see "The Lady's Not for Burning" by
that poet of Easter Christopher Fry They came
away with their ears ringing with messages of
love in triumph and resurrection in the human
heart.
To seal it all is the miracle that has once
again unfolded on the shores of the Tidal Basin
To walk through the cherry trees, to look up
through the blossoms to the sky is almost to be
persuaded-in the teeth of all the contrary
evidence that an overwilling world can muster
that Goods in His Heaven and all's right with
the world"
Naturally, today, the cherry blossoms, like
anything worthwhile, require effort There are
the tourists the teachers, the honeymooners to
be threaded through there are the family pic
lures to be stepped out of. Yet every one there
is in tune with A. E. Housman, who celebrated
the cherry trees in an Incompatible lyric which
we happily quote:
LoveheSt of trees, the cherry no1D
Is hung Nth bloom along the bough,
And stands about the Woodland ride
Wearing tD1tite for EaStertide.
NoD of mn threescore gears and ten
T,Denty tptH not come again
And take from, seventy springs score
1t only leapes me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom,
Fifty springs are little room
About the tooodlq1ds 1Din go
TO see the cherry hung ,Dith snoic
Evening star., 1951-04-08
By Frederick Brown Harris
Minister, Foundry Methodist Church:
Chaplain, United States Senate.

The members of this storied church
and host from many churches who
sensed the solemnity of the occasion
gathered beneath the leaping spire,
heard the President with deep feeling
utter words which well might be written
on the doorsteps of every American
home, on the bulletin boards of every
church and on the pillars of our legis-
lative halls:
I'VE look to the churches to teach
us the highest moral standards. We
rely on the churches to instill into our
young people those moral ideals which
are the basis of our free institutions.
"Selfishness and greed can tear this
Nation apart. Our only defense against
them is to follow those moral principles
which are enshrined in our churches.
1t is our religious faith which gives us
the answer to the false beliefs of COM
munism. We must follow that faith
with the same devotion and determina-
ton the Communists give to their god
less creed. Only living allegiance to
our faith can carry this country through
the trials which are ahead"
X
AS the present occupant of the White
House broadcast this burning message
to the world 1t seemed but the inspiring
echo of the words of the Great Emanci-
pator, when the Nation was in the midst
of another fiery trial. For the tall, un-
seen presence of Abraham Lincoln
seemed strangely near and real-Lin-
coin, who with sad face and lined, came
often on the Sabbath Day to his pew in
this same church; Lincoln, who on
week night. quietly slipping away from
the terrible burdens of the White House,
left on the newly fallen snow his foot
prints leading to chapel within a few
feet of where President Truman stood.
To this shrine he came to listen, un-
observed, to the prayers Of the saints at
the weekly meeting for petition, and to
join his silent supplication to those
prayers.
After his successor had concluded. it
was to Lincoln's voice that we were lis
tening as the new stone was laid for his
old church. And who can doubt he was
uttering the same words which he had
so fervently spoken to church leaders
who called at the White House to grasp
his hand in the darkest days OF the '60s
God bless all the churches. And blessed
be the Lord God who, In our great trial,
giveth us the churches?"
Evening star., 1951-04-08

will find it beautifully set forth in supplement
tary exhibition in memory of c. Powell Mimi
gerode, director Of the gallery from 1915 to 1947.
His successor, Hermann w. williams, has as
sembled around his portrait on the main floor
about 80 pictures of earlier epochs, number of
them prize winners in former biennials-some Of
which, parentheticaly, also were considered ESQ
teric when they were new!
Evening star., 1951-04-08
In the Middle
C.. F. r.

see in The Star that Capital Transit
has offered its employees 13-cent-an-
hour increase, which would cost the
company SIS million. The company
stated the increase would mean an
other fare increase. The poor old pub
lie is caught in the middle again!
Indignant.
Evening star., 1951-04-08

Pen-pames may be used If letters carry
Writers' correct names and addresses.
All letters subject to condensation.
Evening star., 1951-04-08

sands of these oldsters paid well in taxes
to the support of their Government. They
have now become the forgotten members
of our society.