Father Neptune Opens West Coast Bathing Season
When the weuther seemed propitious and the water warm enough at Santa Cruz, Calif., Father Neptune
came ashore to open the bathing season for that region, including San Francisco, and was greeted by a bevy of
lovely swimming girls.
Frog Farming Not
Paying “Industry”
Bureau of Fisheries Skepti
cal About Success.
Washington.—One of the earliest
harbingers of spring Is the clack
and rattle of tiny frog voices from
wayside brooks nnd marshes. Stu
dents of nature-study classes go
forth to skliu Jelly-like frogs’ eggs
from woodland ponds and bring
them hack to the school aquarium.
Then someone always suggests:
“Frog legs bring good prices at
restaurants, and the skins are used
In making book covers and fine
glue. Why not start a frog farm?”
“Frog farming has been tried
In both Louisiana and Wisconsin,
but it is not yet a paying ‘indus
try,’ " says the National Geographic
society. "Recently the New York
state department of conservation
warned investors to he on their
guard following the publication of
commercial circulars urging people
to go into the business of rais
ing frogs for the market. The
United States bureau of fisheries
likewise Is skeptical, declaring‘suc
cess In artificial propagation on a
commercial Bcnle still awaits real
ization.’ It should be kept in mind
also that It requires from four to
five years for a frog, whose legs
are edible, to reach adult size.
Frogs' Eggs Absorb Water.
“A female frog may lay as many
ss 240 eggs." Buys a communica
tion to the National Geographic
society from Doris M. Cochran.
“The eggs are deposited in small
masses on water plants or on sticks
or leaves lying In shallow water.
An egg consists of the yolk—the
round Mack center—and the vital
line envelope — the surrounding
transparent membrane—which be
gins to absorb water ab soon as
the egg is laid, and thus Imme
diately swells to several times Its
original size.
“Under favorable conditions, the
tadpole hatches on the fourth day.
At first It is a minute, flattened,
yellowish object, with conspicuous
branching filaments, Its gills, at one
end and a coarse, rudderlike ap
pendage, the tall, at the other.
"The little creature at this stage
PETIT POINT BAG
b» ciikrik Ninaius
We hear so much about taffeta.
How is this for a beautiful com
bination? The full skirt is of white
mousseline de sole, with which mi
lady wears a bodice of black taf
feta topped with the lovely full
sleeved Jacket with empress collar,
its sprightly fullness achieving the
new neckline silhouette. Looks like
a feminine season. And since It Is.
fancy turns to dainty exquisite ac
cessories to wear with evening
clothes. Which accounts for the
revival of the vogue for the be
loved petit point bag which ladies
of quality ever admire and covet
to possess. The ensemble in the
picture Is completed with a very
choice petit point bag from Vienna,
which gives just the right touch of
color to the costume.
can barely wriggle away from Its
cast-olT envelope, to squirm up
ward to the surface of the water,
where It Instinctively seeks the
shelter of foliage and of the shal
low water; for at this age It easily
becomes the prey of small fish and
other ever-hungry enemies,
"Its powers of locomotion are
very limited, and It is unable to
dart and dodge In the game of life
and death, as It will have to do
when It Is a little older. It grows
rupldly, at first living upon the
nutriment of the original yolk-sac
now stored In Its own abdomen.
"In a few days, when Its mouth
parts have begun to develop, It
nibbles the 'scum' of green algae
which forms a dense mat over
every submerged stone or pebble In
the stagnant pond.
8prouta Lags.
"Itefore the tadpole la many
weeks old a pair of budlike growths
sprout near the base of the tail,
and shortly these elongate Into a
pair of hind legs equipped with
live toes, which closely resemble
those of the adult.
"Some days after the legs appear,
the right arm comes out. Now the
little tadpole stays near the top of
the water nearly all the time and
seems very uncomfortable, and no
wonder. His left nrm Is develop
ing Just where the breathing pore
Is located. As soon as It bursts
through, his troubles are lessened,
for now he can hop out on the bank
In true frog fashion and breathe
the air freely; for, as we have seen,
his nostrils have been functioning
for some time as air-breathing or
gans.
"At the approach of the sharp
autumn weather he is about half an
inch In length and half-grown.
While he has no voice as yet, the
mating call of his elders may oc
casionally be heard In the pool as
late ns September, for frogs are
active over a long period of the
year and the breeding season may
be said to lost from April to Sep
tember, reaching a peak at several
different times, as warm weather
and heavy rainfall favor It.
“At the onset of winter every
thing is silent, but with sleep, not
death. Near the borders of the
pond, burled under logs and stones
In the mud, the little frogs have be
gun hibernation for the winter. A
wise provision of nature slows
down their life processes to suit
them to this complete Inactivity
and apparent Inanimation.
"In their summer activity, more
than a few moments’ enforced sub
mergence in water would have
drowned them. Now, In hiberna
tion, they can pass a whole win
ter beneath the mud because they
are not breathing."
Lost Graves Yield
Bones of Soldiers
Arras, France.—Once bloody
battlefields, now flourishing
farms and busy factory sites,
still are yielding the bones of
soldiers from unmarked graves
of 20 years.
Many of them are Identified to
be sent home to rest lu the vil
lage churchyard. Often a pen
cil, a watch or a ring is the
means of naming them again
after two decades on the “Lost
In Action" lists. Unidentified
bones are placed In a common
charnel house with a last brief
absolution by the village priest.
A corps of searchers, divided
Into teams of three. Is pacing off
nearly every foot of earth where
battle was known.
Poison Aids Fight
on Heart Disease
- - - — <•
Thevetin, Made From the
Asiatic Nut, Praised.
New York.—Medical science has
turned another deadly poison to Its
own purpose and discovered a new
drug which promises to become
mankind's most potent weapon
ugalnst his greatest scourge, heart
disease.
Ancient Chinese healing lore was
combined with modern chemistry
to wrest from the be-stlll or yellow
oleander nut a drug called thevetin,
several times more powerful than
digitalis, after experimental tests,
which already have been authorita
tively termed “extremely satisfac
tory," writes Edward E. Gottlieb In
the Chicago Itecord-Herald.
Dr. K. K. Chen, noted Chinese
searcher and director of pharma
cological research in the Lilly lab
oratories, announced the Isolation
of the substance recently before
the New York Cardlologlcnl society.
Doctor Ohen suspected the poison
might have a medicinal value three
years ago when a fellow physician
reported the deaths of mnny hu
man beings, particularly children,
following a woodland picnic. It Is
unknown In this country.
Two Nuts Fatal Dose.
Two or three be-stlll nuts eaten
at the snifie time is a fatal dose.
“One nut," lie explained, “con
tains enough poison to make ap
proximately ten cubic centimeters
of the new drug. This Is about five
American Indian Is
Not Vanishing Race
Berkeley, Calif.—The Ameri
can Indian Is far from being a
vanishing race—there ure 26,
000,000 full-blooded American
Indians now living. The United
States, however, has but 322,000
of them, or approximately 1 per
cent. More than 96 per cent of
the number live south of the
Mexican border, according to E.
W. Gifford, University of Cali
fornia extension division lec
turer.
Centers ot highest culture of
the race, he added, were not
In the United States, but In
Mexico, Central America and
South America
times the quantity used for a single
injection on human beings.
"The be-Btlll nut is quite hard
nnd bitter. The latter quality Is re
sponsible for the fact that there
have not been more deaths in Un
well and in Indln, where it abounds,
from thoughtless eating of these
nuts. Our drug, which we have
named thevetin, is derived from the
kernel, not the shell, of the nut.”
Since last September the medi
cine ban withstood rigorous ex
perimental tests under the supervi
sion of Dr. Albert S. Hyman, in
charge of the Wltkln Foundation
at the Beth David hospital in
Brooklyn.
Results Remarkable.
Doctor Hyman, an eminent heart
specie'ist, Is quick In singing praise
to the new drug. He agreed theve
tin thus far has shown "remark
able results" and predicted It might
become widely used for pntlents so
ill with heart disease that the or
gan barely beats. He said:
"In such cases digitalis has been
practically useless. But thevetin,
because of its greater power, might
be strong enough to make the differ
ence between life nnd death.”
Thevetin looks like water and
may be injected hypodermically into
the body. Upon reaching the heart
it immediately stimulates its ac
tion. Doctor Hyman with this drug
has successfully treated 35 men
and women suffering from heart
disease.
Must Sleep in Jail 90
Nights; Free in Daytime
Cleveland, Ohio. — John Garthe,
thirty, has to sleep in Jail for 90
nights, though he has his freedom
In the daytime. Police Judge Stan
ton Addams imposed the strange de
cree when Garthe was convicted of
driving while intoxicated. Promptly
at 11 p. m, daily, Garthe must re
port at the Jail to be locked up un
til 6 a. m. A fine of $200 nnd
costs also was assessed. The un
usual sentence was decreed to per
mit Garthe to hold his job during
the day nnd continue his studies in
art and advertising in the evening.
Girl, 14, It Minister
Little Bock. Ark.—Kugenla Hii
! ion, fourteen years old, is an or
dained minister of the Mazarena
| church here.
[
SEEN--' HEARD
around the
National
——as By CARTER FIELD—sa—
Washington.—Now it can he told
—who started the depression and
why!
It was Australia, many months
before our stock market crash, and
the why is that a change in fash
ions played hob with Australia’s ex
ports of wool, for the simple rea
son that women stopped wearing so
many woolen garments and men be
gan wearing lighter clothes.
Whereupon, nearly every one in
Australia being "poor,” and the
balance of trade against Australia
reaching frightening proportions,
Australia clamped on drastic re
strictions against imports, espe
cially leveled against automobiles
and trucks.
Which, added to the fact that up
to then Australia had been the larg
est single purchaser of Ameri
can-made automobiles and trucks,
knocked over the first card of a
distressingly long pile, and each
successive falling card knocked
over the next one.
All of which, of course, is not
really intended to convince anyone
that Australia really started the de
pression, or that the present im
passe on world trade would not
have resulted if there had been no
Australia, but is a highly Illu
minating telescopic view of the
world situation reduced to an easily
understood formula.
It is particularly appropriate at
the moment In view of the hubbub
up over the alleged statement of
President Roosevelt that foreign
trade is a thing of the past, to which
Senator A. H. Vandenberg paid so
much attention in the senate.
It is also appropriate with Italy
and Poland just having restricted
Imports of American automobiles,
machinery and many other prod
ucts to one-fourth of the 1934 fig
ures.
Look at the Record
Without attempting to place Aus
tralia In the prisoner’s dock, there
fore, let’s look at the record. The
big commonwealth “down under"
made these restrictions well in ad
vance of the beginning of the de
pression here. The date of this
beginning In America is hotly dis
puted, but most economists agree
that the stock market crash of Oc
tober, 1933, was merely the re
sult of a collapse in business, which
was already well under way before
most business men—even those en
gaged In the Industries hardest
hit—appreciated it. Nearly every
one thought it was Just a tempo
rary dip In the production curve.
They had heard cries of “Wolf!
Wolf!" a dozen times before dur
ing the Coolldge administration, but
had seen business march on to high
er levels later, with stock market
prices continually climbing as a re
sult.
But when Australia stopped buy
ing American motors and trucks
the avalanche started, though no
one thought for the time that It
was more than a pebble rolling
downhill. For the drying up of mo
tor manufacturing, with its cutting
down of buying from steel plants,
tire factories, battery makers, up
holstery weavers, etc., was well un
der way by July, 1929. three months
before the stock market dive.
What brings all this up for con
sideration in Washington at the
moment is that several very im
portant persons, some from Europe
and some from other parts of the
world, Including Australia, have
been In our midst for the last few
days, and have been trying to fig
ure out how to end the present in
ternational trade stalemate.
Nearly every one agrees that if
some nation would Just start the
upward push, as some think Aus
tralia started the downward drive,
the world could work out of the
present doldrums. But how to get
started? Naturally the visitors with
one accord say that the United
States is the nation to start it. The
British say that we should reduce
our tariff on textiles, whereupon
they would buy more of our cotton,
etc. That gets a loud laugh, though
with no mirth, in New England, not
to mention North Carolina. But it
illustrates the difficulty of i.oplying
a self starter.
Old Problem Up Again
The old long and short haul rail
road rate controversy Is due for
another airing. This time the sub
ject will be brought up in an effort
to help the struggling railroads.
Chairman Rayburn, of the house in
terstate and foreign commerce com
mittee. proposes to try to remove
one of the restrictions In the pres
ent law which has irked the rail
roads considerably.
This is the provision that if a
through rate Is made, which hap
pens to lie less than the rate for
part of the same distance, the cheap
er through rate must be compensa
tory. Or in short that the rail
road must make a profit at the low
er rate.
At first blush it would seem that
the railroads would have no ob
jection to such a provision. But
they have—plenty. Their chief ob
jection is that the Interstate Com
merce commission, worrying about
this injunction, has been very slow
about approving any cheap through
rates. It was said, time and again,
to some railroad seeking to put one
In, that obviously there could be no
profit In such a rate, so there was
no use considering It
Whereas, the railroad company
involved might be perfectly sure
that there would be more dollars
in its treasury at the end of any
given period if it were allowed to
make that rate, whether it could
prove that the particular rate
would yield a profit on the particu
lar shipments made under It or not.
The point is that It is next to
impossible for a railroad to figure
whether it makes the profit on any
particular shipment. It knows
where it stands, within reason, on
its entire business. But it is very
difficult to break the tiling down the
way mathematicians would like.
For it is not a question of subtract
ing the cost of an item from the
selling price, deducting handling
charges, and figuring the profit, as
it would be in a retail store.
How It Works
In fact, railroading is almost at
the other extreme from a retail
store when it comes to figuring what
should be charged the customers.
To consider a specific case of how
this long and short haul thing
works, take the three cities of Pitts
burgh, Youngstown and Chicago.
The Baltimore and Ohio might con
sider it good business to make a
rate from Chicago througli to Pitts
burgh cheaper than from Chicago to
Youngstown, though its trains from
Chicago to Pittsburgh pass through
Youngstown.
If by this low-er rate to Pittsburgh
a large number of cars loaded with
freight should be added to each
train, there would be no doubt about
it. For it costs very little more to
haul a train of 100 freight ears
than a train of 80 cars. Or to haul
a train of 50 cars than a train of
40 cars. Even the fuel cost of the
trip is not raised anything like pro
portionately by the additional cars.
Whereas, the labor cost is rarely
advanced an amount worth consid
ering.
But the law does not take cogni
zance of this factor. It says that
the lower rate must be compensa
tory. And the I. C. C. has been
holding that this means there must
be a profit, which can be demon
strated, at the low rate. And this
Is a hurdle which the railroads have
not been able to take.
New Trade Treaties
Trade treaties with Sweden, the
Netherlands, Switzerland, and Spain
are almost ready. This Is the an
swer to the erroneous statement
that the publication of the sensation
al George N. Peek report proved
President Roosevelt was now sid
ing with him in his row with Secre
tary of State Cordell Hull.
As a matter of fact, on the very
date on which the Peek report was
made public the President passed on
some details with respect to the pro
posed treaty with Sweden, indicat
ing his general approval of the Hull
policy.
Whereas, when asked for com
ment by newspaper men a few days
before the Peek report—in their
hands for release later—was print
ed, the President smiled it off, say
ing that not even the author could
vouch for all the figures!
American match interests have
been terribly concerned over this
Swedish treaty. Again Japan, the
chief target of the protesting tex
tile Interests, figures. True, it is the
general impression that Japanese
matches, like Japanese light bulbs,
are not ns good as those made in
this country, but cut prices spell
trouble for better goods, many a
time, as every merchant knows.
Now Japan would like nothing
better than for the United States
and Sweden, in their negotiations
for the reciprocal trade treaty, to
agree to reduce the American duty
on matches. For under the “most
favored nation" clause Japanese
matches at once would get just as
much benefit ns Swedish matches.
America is the promised land of
match manufacturers all over the
world. It is virtually the only coun
try where matches are not either a
government monopoly or taxed out
of all reason.
Match Market Limited
So rich In revenue is the match
in most foreign countries that there
is a tax on lighters. In fact it is
sometimes said that the only public
lighter In all France is the one in
the lobby of the chamber of dep
uties 1
Obviously the match market of the
world is very sharply limited by
these artificial restrictions. Just as
the cigarette market is restricted by
governments anxious for a big rev
enue.
Experts say that American ciga
rette manufacturers would drive all
others in the world out of business
if artificial barriers were removed.
But also that the Swedes and the
Japs, the first on quality (though
they are not as good as American
matches) and the second on price,
would capture the match market If
artificial barriers were eliminated.
Sweden is hanging up a bit of
tempting bait to American negotia
tors, however. She promises that
she will reduce duties and restric
tions, which would result in the
Swedes consuming vastly larger
quantities of American fruit and
other farm products. Now the agri
cultural vote that would be inter
ested in this new market is very
large. Whereas the vote interested
in match production is rather small.
All of which indicates that the con
cessions Sweden wants will be made.
Copyright—WNU Service.
I _
Great Lakes lour
Power From Niagara Turns the Wheels of Industry.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.—WNU Service.
□Y CAR or by steamer, a trip
around the Great Lakes Is u
tour of American commerce
and industry. If they only lay
there, basking in the sun or raging
with storms, our Inland seas would
be impressive. But they have served
America as no inland sea has
served another land. At every cor
ner of the Great Lakes, and because
of them, busy cities have risen. On
the banks of a hundred tiny creeks
commerce has planted its loading
piers or elevators.
Our bridges crossed our lakes as
ore before they crossed a river.
Scarcely a skyscraper whose frame
work has not wallowed in the swell
of our ‘‘Big Sea Water” before
combing our urban skies. The story
of our Great Lakes is one of unbe
lievably cheap freight rates, of mar
velously active freighters, of fur
and lumber, iron and grain.
In the days when the principal
crop of America was cold-bred fur,
the St. Lawrence was the gateway
to our Midwest. Fur was the in
centive of Nicolet, .Toilet, Marquette
and La Salle, to whom the water
shed between the Great Lakes and
the wide Mississippi basin was fa
miliar while the British were still
settling the seacoast.
In 1803 most of this land became
ours through the Louisiana Pur
chase, and the vast territory which
fur trade and Indian alliances had
won for France gave trans-Appala
chian colonization new impetus. For
a little less than four cents an acre
the young American Republic ac
quired rich agricultural lands
stretching to the headwaters of the
Missouri and the Yellowstone.
Around the lakes, fur ceded its
primary place to grain or lum
ber. Hiawatha’s “forest primeval”
crashed before Paul Bunyan’s saw
and ax.
Then came iron!
At the northern end of the lakes
whole rust-red mountains of ore
stood ready for the steam shovels.
Coal moved north and iron south, a
combination providing profitable re
turn cargoes. Wherever a creek
reached the south shore of Lake
Erie, coal and ore were tossed back
and forth by car tipple and “clam
shell.”
Buffalo a Busy Port.
Buffalo is a busy gateway to the
Great Lakes region. Protected
from early traffic competition by
the Niagara falls, which were later
to furnish Its light and power, this
rich inland port stands at the east
end of the upper lakes and the
west end of the only convenient
break in the Appalachians. Had an
Indian interpreter not made a mis
take It would have been called
“Beaver,” a startling but suitable
name for this busy creek-side port.
On June 22, 1933, at Chicago, salt
water from the Gulf of Mexico was
blended with Lake Michigan water
when a flotilla of Mississippi river
barges, bearing spices, coffee, and
sugar, arrived at Lake Michigan.
The nine-foot channel does today
what river and glacier did more
than once In the past—links the
Great Lakes with the gulf. It took
2130 years for Joliet’s dream of a
lakes-to-gulf waterway to come
true.
Four routes to tidewater now ex
ist: the Illinois waterway, with a
nine-foot channel; the New York
State Barge canal and its branch to
Oswego, both with a depth of 12
feet: and the St. Lawrence canals,
in which there are 14 feet of water.
The deepest artificial link is the
new Welland canal, which not only
has 30 feet of water on the sills of
its spectacular locks, hut also ac
complishes the steepest lift—32G»4
feet in 25 miles. While retaining
its pre-eminence in the transfer of
grain, Buffalo has since become our
milling metropolis.
In October, 1839, when the brig
Osceola brought 1.G78 bushels of
wheat from Chicago to Buffalo, It
took several days to unload the
cargo. Buffalo's 29 elevators could
now unload that much wheat in less
than nine seconds. Yet, were they
empty, it would take eight eight
hour days to fill them to their ca
pacity of 50.000.000 bushels.
Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Flats.
Bulk wheat rides from the head
of Lake Superior to the foot of
Lake Erie for about three cents a
bushel. But flour can’t be handled
in bulk like so much ore or lime
stone, and, as a consequence, mill
ing has moved east to a center
within 500 miles of which lives SO
per cent of our population.
Like Buffalo, Cleveland owed its
early greatness to a creek. Chic
secretaries, high up in the 700-foot
tower of Cleveland Union station,
look down in spirit as in truth on
Cuyahoga “Flats.”
From a tower owned by railways
they can easily Identify the site of
a canal bed buried under a railroad
right of way. In the most striking
unit of Cleveland’s ambitious “City
Within a City’’ they survey the ugly
valley which interrupts the plateau
along which the city sprawls.
The Cuyahoga is but one of many
crooked, slow, slimy, smelly little
rivers, iridescent with oil, edged
with rust, and crossed by dull
black bridges, which obsequiously
enter the Great Lakes.
But back of these homely little
creeks, reflecting prosaic chimneys
and veiled in smoke, are heart-stir
ring symbols on ticker tape, ex
clusive homes on many a Lake
Shore drive, bridges on the Eu
phrates and the Irrawaddy, pipe
lines across the Syrian desert, and
chemical works as efficient and
odorous as those of the Ruhr.
Theoretically, the best place to
study lake shipping would be from
a viewing stand off Alpena, with *
most of the 2,500 Great Lakes ves
sels, aggregating 3,000,000 tons ca
pacity, weaving a fabric of traflic
up and down the lakes.
But the actual grandstand, if one
likes open-water perspectives better
than the "Soo” locks, is the lawn of
Detroit’s exclusive Old club, in St.
Clair flats. In 1929, figuring on an
eight-month season, 300 tons of
traffic passed the Old club every r
minute of the day and night—more
than five times that carried through
the Suez canal during the same
period.
What city has influenced modern
mankind more than Detroit? Its
businesslike stoves and oil-burning
furnaces have supplanted the ro
mantic hearth. Its drugs have aid
ed healing around the globe. Its
electric refrigerators have helped
banish the iceman. Most revolu
tionary of all, it put horse power
under the feet of man.
Where Automobiles Are Made.
Most of America’s automobile fac
tories are adjacent to the Great
Lakes. With 50,000,000 tons a year
of iron ore and coal being borne
south and north along the Detroit
water front, and mlllious of tons of
limestone from Calcite and Alpena
passing its wharves, Detroit seems
the natural center for automobile
production. But the motor mag
nates emphasize the human side.
In King, Olds, Leland and Ford, the
city had a group of ingenious, rest
less brains whose value was im
measurable.
North of Detroit, there Is lime
stone and salt, and enough fish to
fill solid cars, which are rushed
through to Chicago and New York.
There are even at times special
whitefish planes which fly the food
to distant cities. But with such ex
ceptions as Port Huron, Bay City.
Alpena, Calcite, Muskegon, and
Gary, the lake shore in summer Is
largely a playground.
Thanks to the tempting influence
of Green Bay, over whose portage
Father Marquette and .Toliet first
reached the Mississippi, Door coun
ty is Wisconsin’s cherryland.
In the canning factory at Stur
geon Bay neatly aproned operatives
wait for the red cascade of cherries
to come pouring down into their
machines. What between cherries
and summer resorts, Door county is
a busy place, and from the observa
tion towers of Peninsula and Poto- 1
watomi State parks one looks down •
on a wonderland of forest and wa
ter, tourists’ resorts, and cherry or
chards decorated with signs read
ing, “Pick your own, one cent a
pound."
It is a long jump westward from
Cherryland to Duluth-Superior, the
huskiest twins on the lakes. Their
rivalry keeps alive local spirit, but
their combined strength is of world
wide importance.
Two sand pits enclose the most
picturesque and remarkable harbor
of all those around our inland seas,
with 49 miles of frontage nnd IT
miles of dredged channels. To the
northwest a bluff rises so steeply
from the water that those who ap
proach over the two main highways
suddenly look over the edge of the
plateau upou this expanse of city
and harbor
