Isolated TMepaJ
Nepal Porter* Carry 150-Pound Loads.
Pr«pir<s1 by National Oeo*r»phlc Society,
Waahlngtun, D. C.—WNtJ Service.
KPAL, though Isolated in
the high mountains north
of the border of India, and
almost untouched by western civ
ilization, Is remarkable in a num
ber of ways. It can boast of un
rivaled natural scenery, of the high
est and most fascinating moun
tains; of unique architectural mon
uments; of an Immense army quite
out of proportion to the popula
tion; of an excellent and enlight
ened system of government which
brings peace and prosperity to the
little kingdom.
Even the chosen few who gain ac
cess to Nepal may not wander at
will. An Interesting way to ap
proach Nepal la through Itaxaul, on
the frontier of India.
The most agreeable way of reach
ing Raxaul Is by way of Patna, the
ancient capital of Asoku. From
here the pious Buddhist emperor
himself set out, In 250 B. C„ on
his religious pilgrimage to Nepal
and other sacred strongholds of his
faith. At Patna you board a paddle
boat and cruise five of six miles up
the Ganges—the distance varies ae
cording to the height of the river—
and get Into a waiting train on the
other side. Next morning you wake
up in Itaxaul.
On one side lie the unbroken
acres of the Bihar rice fields, yel
lowing beneath the sun; on the
other lie more rice Helds, In the
sequestered kingdom. You strain
your eyes towurd the eastern hori
zon and dimly perceive a dark green
belt.
This flat, low-lying tract of cul
tivation and jungle, lying between
the Himalayan foothills and the
border of Bihar, and stretching 200
miles from east to west, is known
as the Taral. From April to No
vember this part of the country Is
infested with a deadly malarial
fever. Thus the stray visitor to
Nepal wisely coniines his visit to
the winter.
Beyond the Taral again rise huge
shadowy forms, the Himalayas bid
lng In the morning mist.
Through the Jungles.
From Itaxaul, a little meter gauge
train sets off across the Taral. For
the first mile the railroad leads
through the main street of the city,
with shop and house fronts on
either side. Then It comes out Into
the open rice fields and so Into the
tiger and rhino-haunted Jungl»s be
yond. And what Jungles! Halfway
through them your train draws up,
all passengers get out, clamber
onto the backs of waiting elephants,
and pad silently off Into the mys
terious depths.
The jungles of the Nepal Taral
are sub-tropical and consist chiefly
of sal trees with long, thin black
trunks, and huge leaves starting
very near the base. Here nnd there
a giant teak, with Its beautiful
crocodile back, soars upward, state
ly and erect.
All this thriving growth Is In
terrupted In certain places by the
passage of wide river beds. These
have long been destitute of water,
and their barren white sands and
smooth round pebbles contrast
strangely with the luxuriant vege
tatlon on either side.
A tiger shoot In Nepal is con
ducted on novel lines: the tiger Is
attracted to a kill and Is then sur
rounded by a ring of elephants.
Slowly the ring closes In until the
angry beast, well aware of what Is
going on, charges.
On a shoot you may ride some
two miles from the train to the
kill, where you Join the ring of
90 elephants surrounding It.
Lurking somewhere within that
wide circle is the tiger.
. The huge animal upon which you
sit moves stealthily forward. Yon
look down the line of waving trunks
and swishing tails: there is not an
• other howdab elephant, carrying
rifles, for a hundred yards. Per
haps the wily creature sought would
break through the Intervening, un
armed ranks?
The Tiger Chargee.
But you have little time to con
sider this possibility. From a neigh
boring clump of banana palms
comes a series of snarls, and be
fore you quite realize what Is hap
pening a huge bristling muss of
bluck and yellow Is hurtling toward
you. It Is u wonderful thing, the
charge of an angry tiger—the
break from cover In a crash of
thunder, the mighty bounds toward
the foe, the gleaming teeth, the
flaming eyes, and roars of savage
hate.
A companion fires once, and the
elephunts turn with one accord, for
none will face a charge; twice, and
the tiger turns with a bitter snarl
which subsides Into a last gronn of
defeat as he rolls over nnd lies dead
at the bottom of a little gully.
After two dnys’ shooting In the
Tarul, you push on to the railway
terinltins, AmlekhganJ. From here
you continue the journey toward
Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, by
motor.
Some thirty miles of narrow but
excellent road lead through wooded
foothills to Bhimphedl, where the
ascent of the first mountain puss
begins.
Here ponies nnd dnndis take the
place of cars. There are two differ
ent types of dandl: one Is a wooden
chair with leather cushions, the
other a canvas hammock, slung on
long poles. In which you can lie full
length. Both are carried by teams
of six coolies In bright-blue cotton
uniforms.
Two miles from Bhimphedl lies
the little mountain village of Sisa
garhl, where travelers customarily
spend the night. The village Is
complete with Its garrison of Gurk
has—a foretaste of the tremendous
military power active within the
kingdom.
Over the Pass to the Valley.
After rising early at Sisagarhl
you climb the few remaining feet
which lead to the top of the first
pass, approximately 8,000 feet high.
Directly below you lies a smiling
valley, while beyond It n turbulent
mountain ocean rises and fnlls In
colossal waves of sunlight and
shadow; far out to “sea" the waves
are capped by the glistening white
horses of the eternal snows.
Then the descent begins. The
path Is no longer smooth; It is ex
ceedingly steep and incredibly
rough. It consists principally of
solid rock and along Its Jagged sur
face large loose bowlders are
strewn at random.
For the next six miles you ride
through flourishing fields of brown
headed buckwheat, golden mustard,
and ripening rice. The snows are
no longer visible ntid the sun shines
brightly overhead.
The path eventually leaves the
fields to rise nnd fall over rolling
grassy downturn!. Then you come
to the foot of the Chnndragirl pass.
From below, the road before you re
sembles the sheer wall of n preci
pice; but your ponies muke light
of It.
The view from the top of the
Chandraglrt pass is so amazing
that you cannot afterwards believe
It exists. Below lies the circu
lar rice-clad valley of Katmandu,
bathed In the orange glow of the
evening sun. Itlsing out of It,
away to the right. In a medley of
miniature pagodas, palaces, and
towers. Is the magnificent capital
city. Surrounding It. in a black
and purple wall, are the mighty
mountain guardians.
At first you are disappointed be
cause the snows seem hidden. Vain
ly do you try to penetrate the misty
white banks which cluster around
the rocky heights. Sadly you aban
don hope and look up Into the sky
to see if the* moon has risen. It is
difficult to believe what you Bee.
There, in all their glittering splen
dor, are the Himalayan giants, leap
ing to fantastic heights above the
clouds.
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
^ Carter Field
Washington.—The best the Amer
ican merchant marine can hope for
from the present congress Is a
restoration of the $22,1)00,000 cut out
of the post office appropriation bill.
The Item approved originally was
$20,500,000 for ocean mall carrying,
but the senate cut this to $4,500,000.
No one contends that carrying the
mails by American ships Is worth
any such sum as $26,500,000. If It
were a question solely of getting the
malls carried, there Is little doubt
that foreign ship owners would bid
a lower price than that. And be
glad to get It.
The larger sum Is pnld actually
because of the accepted theory that
the government must encourage an
American merchant marine, and on
two theories. The first theory, of
course, Is national defense. In the
event of war, both the army and
navy would need a very large num
ber of auxiliary vessels—boats to
carry supplies, oil, food, munitions,
etc. In the World war the whole
hope of the Germans to win was
based on the possible success of
their submarine campaign to break
this line of supply.
The other reason Is the one so
frequently stated by President Wil
son. He liked the Illustration that
If one department store used the de
livery service of a competitor to
send out Its merchandise. It would
not be long before the one depend
ing on the other for trucks or
wagons would be forced out of busi
ness, even If It saved money by util
izing the service during the first few
months or years.
Mr. Wilson was very forcibly im
pressed with the advantages that
Germany and Britain had gained In
the period prior to the war by hav
ing their own trade routes to South
America where he was anxious, ns
has been every subsequent Presi
dent, to build up American trade.
There’* the Question
If these two reasons for having
an American merchant mnrine are
accepted, the question then comes
of how to make It possible. There
has been such violent objection to
the word subsidy that the straight
forward course of encouraging the
construction and operation of ships
under the American flag has never
been possible. Even with the huge
Republican majority that resulted
from the 1030 election. It was never
possible to get such a measure
through congress. The Inte Senator
Jacob H. Galllnger of New Hamp
shire again nnd again deplored the
fact that despite an almost universal
desire to build up an American mer
chant mnrine congress was never
willing to aid It except by subter
fuge.
This subterfuge, of course, has al
ways been the mall subvention—
paying ship owners a grent deal
more for carrying the mall than the
service Is worth.
But, due to the regulations and
requirements of the shipping board
(originally set up by President Wil
son for no other purpose than to
foster an American merchant ma
rine), much of the money spent to
aid American shipping has been
pure waste. With the best inten
tions In the world, millions were
wasted in aiding the financing of
vessels, or the purchasing of ships
taken over by the government after
the war, nnd then forcing the opera
tion of those ships In an uneconomic
way.
The famous Leviathan Is a classic
example. The federal treasury
would be ahead something In excess
of $15,000,000, at a minimum, if that
glnnt vessel hnd been towed out to
sen nnd sunk ns soon as the Inst
soldier was brought home from
Frnnce.
Instead the government spent $10,
000,000 In reconditioning her, turn
ing her Into an oil burner, etc., and
then, after leasing her to private
ownerships, lost money on her every
yenr since. Moreover, the private
Interests that leased her also lost
money on every trip she made.
Which would seem to indicate that
perhaps there are some fundamental
things to be cleared up, such as ar
tificial operating expenses forced by
law nnd governmental regulations,
before very much hope can be had
for an adequate American merchant
mnrine.
Boost Excise Taxes
The proposed excise taxes, which.
Ye vied on 33 commodities, were cal
culated to raise $221,000,000 a year,
are not dead. They are just pushed
under the pile for a few days. In
fact, the hest judgment on Capitol
hill and in the Treasury depart
ment Is that they will not only be
revived, but will be Increased.
Trensury experts have been work
ing on this whole problem for
months. They know very accurate
ly what can and what cannot be
tlone in the way of raising revenue.
The point Is that they know con
gress will never enact It without so
many exemptions and loopholes that
It would not produce anything like
tlhe revenue required.
Moreover, the President did no»
contemplate enactment of the tax
plan without the excise taxes. So
that, in addition to writing In all
kinds of exemptions, the proposal
of the Bill subcommittee would
strike $221,000,000 of annual revenue
from the bill.
There Is a further element which
puts the whole house subcommittee
progrnm Into red Ink, the treasury
experts privately point out. "Hils
is that the committee counts on
$100,000,000 from the “windfall" tax.
No one in the treasury has ever
really taken that tax seriously. As
a matter of fact, treasury experts
do not think the President had fig
ured on It seriously as a revenue
raiser. Its purpose was far more
propaganda than as a money pro
ducer.
It was Intended to hold up before
the country the Interests that profit
ed from the Supreme court deci
sion Invalidating the AAA and out
lawing the processing taxes.
Difficulties in Way
Constitutional difficulties of actu
ally collecting the tax are some
thing else again, and so the treas
ury experts who figured out the tax
schedules just put thnt to one side,
as far as any reliance on revenue
was concerned.
Meanwhile the hearings sehed
uled by the house committee, and
those which will follow when the
measure gets before the senate
finance committee, will riddle the
whole idea that a change in the
corporation taxes will produce the
needed revenue without thnt very
substantial part of the whole tax
scheme which the President himself
Included, the excise taxes.
It has been no secret from the
first that the senate would rewrite
the whole bill. Members of the
house admit that freely. Adminis
tration leaders in the senate like
Pat Harrisor., chairman of the
finance commtPee, will do their best
to follow the President’s ideas as
closely as possible.
Expectation has been ail along
that, in order to make sure of
enoungh money, they would be
forced to retain the present cor
poration levies in whole or In part—
the tax on all net earnings of cor
porations, now 15 per cent on all
corporations of any size, the cap
ital stock tax, and the excess profits
tax. In fact, there has been a strong
tendency to save all these taxes,
intact, and add on enough of the
tax on undistributed earnings as
proposed by the President to make
up the additional amount needed.
This additional amount, by the
way, Is roughly $792,000,000 a year,
less whatever is raised by proc
essing taxes and the windfall taxes,
Government Ownership
Flood disasters 4it>ell a tremen
dous boom in government owner
ship of electric power plants. Con
gress is in a liberal mood with re
spect to flood relief, but It Is also
ready to go further in the direc
tion President Roosevelt has always
desired in bringing about publicly
owned power systems.
Even in the direct relief, which
will of course be followed by vast
works aimed at lessening the pro
portions of such disasters, there
is a notable advantage to “publicly
owned’’ utilities. For Instance, con
slder two electric plants, one pub
licly owned, one privately owned, at
nearby towns on the same river. It
could be the Merrimac, or the Con
necticut, or the Allegheny of any
river hit in the recent floods.
Money already allocated by the
President is available for "replace
ment” of the publicly owned plant.
The stockholders of the privately
owned plant must take their loss,
unless they have flood Insurance.
It is for the future that the de
velopment is really important, how
ever. There will be a wave of dam
building, aimed at holding back
future flood waters, and utilizing
the water meantime for the gen
eration of electricity In publicly
owned power plants. These nat
urnlly must sell their electricity
somewhere—the Supreme court up
held that in the TVA case even if
it did not specifically mention flood
control. But it did sny with great
clarity that the government had the
right to sell surplus power devel
oped incidentally to some constitu
tional project.
So thnt actually all the 60 odd
injunctions by the private utilities
against PWA loans for power plants
seem a great deal less important
than they appeared to be a few
weeks back.
Flood Control
The amount of money which will
be spent on these flood control proj
ects will stagger the Imagination,
when added up, as for instance In
a general flood control bill. Sena
tor Francis G. Newlands, 25 years
ago, was regarded as a nuisance
because be talked about spending a
couple of hundred million dollars
for both flood control and reclama
tion.
Congress at this very session will
seriously be considering spending
several billion dollars for flood con
trol alone, and without covering the
entire country at that.
One bill. Introduced by Senator
Joseph F. Guffey of Pennsylvania,
and providing for flood control
works In the Ohio basin about
Pittsburgh, would appropriate more
than fifty-five million dollars. This
would cover the Allegheny, Wonon
gahela, Juniata and one or two
smaller streams.
Copyright.—WJfO Sorrm
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