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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1936)
SEENand HEARD around t/fe y NATIONAL CAPITAL! By Carter Field [ "EAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT Washington. —Talk about abolish ing the electoral college will in all human probability come to naught. There are too many reasons for keeping it. but one of them is sel dom mentioned. The Founding Fath ers either thought of an amazing lot of things which might develop in the future, or they had remarkable luck. One of the samples of this in justi fying the electoral college is that it prevents a type of sectional feeling which might easily lead to civil var. Assume, for example, a very close election—in fact, the favorite example of those who would like to abolish the electoral college— where all the states except New York and Pennsylvania add up even, both as to popular and electoral votes. In this often used illustra tion the idea was that New York would go Democratic by 500, or some such trifling majority, ^ut that Pennsylvania should go Republican by a million. Nevertheless, despito this tre mendously greater strength of the Republican candidate, the Demo crat would be elected. Pennsylvania having less electoral votes than New York. It is perfectly true, of course, that this could happen. It Is also true that it has almost happened in our history. For instance, in Cleve land's time For instance, in the case of California in 1916. But in neither case did it pro voke the citizenry of some of the states, which had gone for the los ing candidate by big majorities, to think in terms of a mob marching into the offending commonwealth to burn and harrow There have been bitter words. In fact, in 1916, one of the great papers on the losing side referred to California as "the boob state." But even that paper did not propose the raising of an army to invade California and pun ish her, or to march on Washington and seat the candidate defeated by California's close vote. Hayes-Tilden Case In contrast, in 1876, a great Dem ocratic editor, Marse Henry Wat* tcrson, actually appealed for 75.000 volunteers who should march t o Washington and seat Samuel J. Til den as President. And that propos al was not so futile as most folks are apt to think today. As a matter of fact, it was very potent. The Democrats of the country were thoroughly aroused. The danger of civil war was much greater than most histories reveal. It was avoid ed only by the promise of the suc cessful candidate. Rutherford B. Hayes, to withdraw all federal troops from the South. The point is that most Democrats of that time, and for that matter many historians since, believed firmly that the seating of Hayes after the election was a gross fraud, which is very different from being defeated by the mere fact that a big state with a small majority happens to have more electoral votes than a smaller state which may have a big majority the other way. But suppose that the electoral col lege were abolished, and popular voting substituted. Consider what would happen if the entire country outside of the city of Chicago should be decisive. And suppose that the people of the country thought of Chicago politics what they do now. or what they think of the Pender gast machine in Kansas City, or what they thought of the Vare ma chine in Philadelphia in the old days. And then suppose Chicago, on the face of the returns, should roll up a million majority for one of the candidates, with practically every body In the entire country absolute ly convinced that the machine had sold out! That would not be like California in 1916—or New York in Cleveland's time. That would be like 1876, with no guarantee that there would be any such happy solution! G. O. P. Minus Leaders It is literally amazing that a par ty which polled nearly 17.000.000 votes should be so utterly starved for available leadership as the Re publicans are today. The word "available” is highly important, in this connection, for there are would be leaders and saviors and resusci tators galore. It was the formula of those who ran the campaign for Governor Alf M. Landon that none of the old G. O. P. leaders should be promi nent in the picture. It seemed good strategy then. The mere fact that they were overwhelmingly beaten does not prove now that it was bad strategy. It is per^ctly true that the Republican campaign was run by amateurs, but on the other hand the few remaining old guard lead ers have never proved their polit ical ability in any striking way. Quite the contrary. In fact, with the illness during this campaign of J. Henry Rora back, the last of the practical old guardsmen passed from the stage. Charles Dewey Hilles and D. E. Pomeroy of New Jersey art cited, but when these names are men tioned few others still living and potent occur to one’s mind. And the truth is that Pomeroy has not been in vigorous health, even in this campaign, while Hilies was al ways noted not for practical or ganization or the running of a ma chine, but for other qualifications. He is thought by his admirers— though this is bitterly contested by many critics—to have great polit ical sagacity. This was scarcely demonstrated when he was secretary to President Taft, so far as sensing popular trends or avoiding political errors is concerned. Hilies did have the confidence of many political leaders, and also of many o* what President Roosevelt calls the ‘‘economic roy alists.’’ In short, he had a great facility for dealing with leaders who did control political organizations, such as Boies Penrose of Pennsyl vania, Murray Crane of Massachu setts, Dave Mulvanc of Kansas, etc. And he was able, once a plan was mapped and candidates were agreed upon with these gentlemen, to con vince the "economic royalists” that it was necessary for them to furn ish the wherewithal to make the fight. This time the scene shifted amaz ingly. Whatever may be said of Hilies, there is no doubt whatever that the gentlemen who provided the contact Letween the big con tributors and the practical political organization ej the Landon cam paign did not have anything re motely approaching Hides' political sagacity—even with a very low ap praisal of that sagacity. On the contrary, it was this sub stitute for Hilies in his normal role which played havoc with the direc tion of the Landon campaign. Election Aftermath It is not unusual after a landslide for politicians and observers to pre dict that the party buried is dead forever—that new party line-ups are coming. But this time there seems to be more logic in the prediction than at any time since the (Jivil war. The Republican party and the Democratic party have both suf fered terrific defeats. In 1912 Presi dent William II. Taft won only the same number of states, two, and the same number of electoral votes, that Governor Alf M. Landon re ceived this year. In many ways it might have been better if the Re publican party had died then. Had it called itself the Progressive party the story might have been different in subsequent campaigns. But now the Republican party has nothing to compare with what the party had in 1912 after Taft’s de feat. In the first place, every one knew that the so-called Progressive leaders were really anxious to get back into the Republican party pro viding they could climb on the driver’s scat. In the second place, there was a speedy reaction against the Wilson administration, a reac tion which would undoubtedly have swept it out of power four years later had it not been for the "kept us out of war” issue. This time there arc no such el ements in plain sight. Practically speaking, the tariff issue, which caused the reaction against Wood row Wilson up to 1910, or at least was one of the important factors, does not exist today. Obviously this election decided, for some time to come, that the tariff policy of this country is the reciprocal treaty plan, including the “most favored nation” clause which is one of its most important features. Republican orators during the campaign reported that the farm ers of the Mid West were incensed at exhibits of imported farm prod ucts. The statement that it would require 30,000,000 acres of good farm land to raise the farm products im ported was believed by the Repub licans working on that issue in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Minneso ta to be making votes for Landon by the thousand. Farmers for Roosevelt But the farmers votel heavily for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Now some will claim that the farmers voted for Roosevelt despite his tariff policy because of AAA checks That may or may not be so. It is very difficult to be sure about such things. But it is very doubt ful indeed if any major party would dare go into a campaign on that assumption. Hence the reasonable probability is that the present policy will continue to be the policy of the country, not just the policy of the Democratic party, for some years to come. Some of the friends of John D. M. Hamilton, Republican chairman, thought that maybe Landon would be defeated, but that the personal ity and magnetism of Hamilton would make him the plumed knight for four years hence. That prospect seems rather remote at the mo ment. In fact, the only Republican to make an outstanding race in the entire country is thirty-four-year-old Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., of Massa chusetts. So there is at least some basis for the argument that what this country needs is a new party, with a new name, new leaders, and no an tipathy in the South, to oppose the dominant party. t) Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. I Happy Tonga Isles* MMMB* Ml South Sea Islander Paling His Canoe. Prcparwl by National Geographic Society. Wnxhlnatan. D. C.—WNU Service. THE sovereign of Tonga is lands in the South Pacific is Queen Salote (Charlotte), who, from her capital Nukua lofa, on part of the archipelago, gov erns the islands under a British pro tectorate. The currency used is Eng lish money. In language and cus toms, the Tongans are like the Ma oris of New Zealand and the Sa moans. Being Polynesians, they dif fer decidedly from the Fijians, who are mostly Melanesians. Tongan so ciety is distinct, with hereditary lines of chiefs, and Niuafoo has its own peculiarities of culture. The people are entirely civilized and Christian; they are strictly gov erned by a high chief, a magistrate, and police service. There are usu ally seven or eight Europeans at Angaha. Wesleyan churches with native ministers and elders are conspicu ous in all the villages. On Sunday, services start before daylight, with crowded congregations singing chor al music in parts without any or gan. The rhythmic and harmonious blending of the deep bass voices of tiie men and the soprano of the wom en is pleasing. The music has a quality quite unlike Hawaiian mu sic, and the Sunday services are fascinating. There is no need for a pipe organ. One evening service in the dimly lamp-lit church at Angaha consists of a musical competition between the choirs from several villages. The choirs, each usually composed of eight persons, men and girls, rise in turn in their places and sing. When a song is finished a rev erent chorus of bravos, or the equivalent in Tongan, goes up from the congregation. The dusky faces in the lamplight, many of them beautiful; the splen did figures of the men draped in spotlessly clean valas, which sug gest a Roman toga; the minister exhorting his flock, and elderly pa triarchs nnd matriarchs rising at in tervals to make confessions of faith, make the scene one never to be forgotten. IIow the People Live. The Tongan race is dominantly agricultural, with copra as the lead ing product. At Niuafoo intervals between shipments of copra are long, for the bad anchorage and landings make visits by even tramp steamers rare. The four villages immediately around Angaha represent half the : population of the island. Each fam ily lives in an elliptical, thatched house, w'ith woven matting for the walls, but these curtains do not lift up as in the Samoan houses. There are doors in the ends and sides. Wealth consists of land, planta tions, mats, and tapas The owner of many and fine mats is respected for his prosperity and thrift. Numer ous silver shillings circulate from j the traders in return for copra and i back to the traders’ stores for : shirts, cloth, and chewing gum. Of native markets there is no sign. Each adult male has his own eight and a quarter acres of planta tion lands assigned to him by the government. He is required to cul tivate this ground and plant a cer tain number of coconut trees. Men and women work hard, sub ject to the orders of the government, on the roads and cisterns and other structures required for the progress of the community. Pigs and chick ens are abundant, but there are few cattle. Each householder has his truck garden in the hills. To this he goes, leading an old pack horse, and gathers what is needed of yams, taro roots, sweet potatoes, oranges, breadfruit, or the like. The girls think nothing of trudging miles to wash the family clothing at the lake. All are free, happy, and smil ing, and all are fine specimens of muscular humanity, leading a nat ural life of cultivation of the soil. Like other Polynesians, these peo ple have a fine dignity. Their own customs are regulated by the dic tates of a host of ancestral tradi tions which center about the guilds of the craftsmen, the requirements of the family, and the orders of the chieftainship. Method of Fishing. The fishermen use canoes of hewn and pegged timbers and also a log device of the light wood of the fau (same as the Hawaiian hau, a spe cies of hibiscus), to which a splinter rod is lashed tightly lengthwise, with one end free for the purpose of stringing fish by the gills. Hooks are made from pieces of bone at tached to short shanks of wood. The fishline is a sennit (a braided coconut fiber), fastened to the log. Wearing water spectacles, two plain glass windows in wooden cups held by string around the head, the fisherman swims out with his arm across the log, his face plunged beneath the water, so that he may watch fish come to his hook. After a capture, he removes the fish from the hook and strings it on the splinter rod. He then swims away slowly with the floating log. Two or more baits may be operated at the same time; and two fisher men may work from a single log. The fish are small and not abun dant, and many of the species found in these seas are said to be in edible. With the canoes large sharks are occasionally taken. Recently, the Tonga natives cele brated the completion of the govern ment radio telegraph station. The command went forth that native dances or laka-lakas, would be in progress for a day. On the ap pointed feast day each village was to furnish a certain quota of bas kets of food, and in the evening there would be a European dance. During the morning the clans be gan to gather, young and old, dressed in the costumes of their forefathers, with garlands of shells; beads, beans, and flowers; head dresses of many kinds; and skirts. Some of these last were tapas cov ered with scarlet berries cemented in place in elaborate designs with native gum; others were very old and fine mesh mats, prized as rel ics of antiquity. At the appointed hour, the high chief emerged surrounded by func tionaries, and seated himself on the veranda of the radio building. Clan after clan came forward, each rep resenting a village, the headman and warriors flourishing spears for war dances. The women and girls formed an other line, bringing forward the bas kets of food, placing them on the ground in a straight line, and sing ing and dancing with the stately steps and graceful motions of the arms that told a story of bygone days. Some of the dances are en tirely hand and body gestures of girls seated cross-legged. Drums Always Beating. The beating of the drums is one of the characteristic noises of the country. At all hours of the day the sound can be heard by one wander ing in the jungle. The beating means something with reference to village timekeeping, or signifies spe cial orders to the people. The is landers guide their lives by the sound of the drum, on the one hand, and the clangor of the church bell on the other. Niuafoo, alias Tin Can island, is one of the Tonga islands. Like a vast angel cake in shape, Tin Can island was formed when a volcanic peak, protruding from the blue wa ters of the Pacific, violently blew off its head and left only a hollow outer shelL On the shores of a peaceful tropic lake which now re places the molten lava and suffocat ing gasses of its crater, a wise bird, the malau, lays large eggs in Nature's incubator, the hot volcan ic sand. No springs or streams are found on the isle, so the natives must de pend on rainwater for their drink ing supply. Neither are there har bors, for foam-flecked lava cliffs, rising abruptly from the ocean, sur round the island with hardly a break. A tin can, bobbing in the water offshore, pushed by a swim ming native, to be picked up by a passing steamer, is the islanders’ mail bag. Homemaker By HORACE McLEAN C McClure Newspaper Syndicate. WNU Service. JAMES EVERETT looked at the slim, dark girl before him. "You seem rather young, Miss Sanders,” he said. “Are you sure you can handle this big house? Of 1 course I do little entertaining . . .” Janet Sanders smiled. “Before I became secretary to Mr. Morton I kept house for my mother. She was an invalid for five years be fore — she died. But she loved crowds and we did much enter taining — quiet entertaining, of course. And,” she must get this position — “I am really quite efficient.” Mr. Everett handed her a check. “Here you are, then. Suppose we try it out for a couple of weeks. Allowance enough to run the house?” “Very much so.” And the con versation between employer and employee was at an end. What lay back in Mr. Everett’s life she did not know, but she could guess. In her daily work in his room she saw the photograph on his book table—the picture of a dark-eyed, dark-haired girl of dis tinctive beauty. Somewhere in his life there was a broken romance. Jane shook herself. “I must stop this. I am his housekeeper, nothing more—and I must remember it.” Then the evening came when he asked her to stroll around the ground with him. "I need your advice,” he said smiling at her. ‘‘I’ve always wanted to beautify these grounds, but some how I’ve been too busy. Suppose you give me some of your ideas on how to go at it. You seem to have a knack for getting the best out of everything.” It was a new, a sweet sensation to walk beside him down the paths, pausing here and there to talk over possible settings. She forgot that he was a distinguished lawyer, famed for his reticence and cold ness. “I have a notion to do a wild thing,” he said, “to share these grounds with others. Then I’d like people to see what a delightful home you have made for me. I’ll do it— throw a party!” She laughed. “I know people would like to se.e the grounds.” “We’ll make out a list of the folks we want!” In the house he turned the list over to her after it seemed com plete. She looked at it: “Any others you would like to invite?” she asked, remembering the dark-eyed girl’s picture. His face clouded. "There is one —but I doubt if she would come,” he said briefly. She sent the invitations the next day, and at the last moment, moved by some desire that would not be denied, she added the name of the girl of the photograph. The moment the invitations were in the mail, she regretted her act. The girl might be married — many things might have happened, but she was the one, Janet was certain, he wanted to see, and she might come. On the evening of the party he was gay. She watched him with tender eyes and aching heart even as her heart whispered to her: “You love him yourself—you know you do!” He caught her arm as she passed, and putting her hand under his arm led her through the rooms. His voice was happy, but there was a deeper undertone in it. “I’m counting upon you, you know, to engineer things!” When the guests began to arrive, she found she had things to “en gineer,” and she forgot entirely about the dark girl until she hap pened to see him staring at a slim, tall girl who smiled as she came up to him. A guest took Janet’s attention, and the rest of the scene was lost to her. The evening went gayly and hap pily, and Janet knew that his guests were enjoying themselves. One re mark she overheard. The dark girl was speaking: “Jimmie, after this, darn you, ac cept our invitations, too!” Janet was desperately tired, but when the last guest had gone, she began to rearrange the rooms. She heard his step and looked up. He stood near her—and the look upon his face made her tremble. “Janet, you must never leave me now!” It was the cry of one who has been desperately lonely and has suddenly found companionship. There was no mistaking it. It was natural, it seemed, for her to step into his arms. “But, James, what about the girl upstairs whom I—I invited without asking you?" He smiled. ”1 clean forgot about asking her—and to be honest I for got the picture upstairs was there. The one I wanted to come was a little old lady who was good to me years ago—and I knew she couldn’t come. You see, I love you — and only you. Won’t you stay with me— always be my little homemaker?” She kissed him by way of answer, The Goose Step The goose step, or “Gansemar son,” is peculiar to the German ; army and is used on ceremonial | parades. It is a slow march in which the leg is extended at right angles to the body and the foot stamped flat on the ground. History of the William IV period mentions •t. Lovely and Inexpensive 1981 A MONG other things to be thankful for in this land of peace and plenty, think how pleasant it is to be able to procure such lovely patterns so conven iently and so inexpensive ly. No longer is style the perquisite of wealth alone; every woman can look and be at her best in any com pany, thanks to Sewing Circle patterns. Pattern 1981, a youthful loung ing or sleeping pajama, features a nobby, cutaway peplum and comfortably cut trousers. There is an easy yoke, a cleverly cut collar, and a choice of long or short sleeves. A grand Christmas present for an intimate friend as well as a perfect addition to your own wardrobe, why not make them twice in alternate mate rials? The sizes range, 14, 16, 18, 20, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42. Size 16 (34 bust) requires 5 yards of 39 inch material. Pattern 1852 fashions into an adorable little frock which will make small eyes dance and sparkle. Just eight pieces to the pattern, including the band and facings, you can run it up in a jiffy and have a perfect gift for your baby daughter or favorite niece. As simple as can be, it is nevertheless pert and engaging, truly a prize. Send for it in size 2, 4, 6, or 8 years. Material se lection—dimity or swiss or voile or crepe or gingham. Size 4 re quires just 2 1-8 yds. of 35 or 39 inch. Pattern 1970 is a comely and graceful morning or daytime frock for matron sizes, the sort that goes on in a hurry and wears well without a lot of fuss and both er. The jabot is softly feminine and the panelled skirt is cut along lines every larger woman appre ciates. The collar and cuffs are in contrast, if you wish, and the selection of materials is practical ly unlimited. This lovely pattern is available in all of the following Foreign Words ^ and Phrases Alis volat propriis. (L.) She flies with her own wings. (Motto of Oregon.) Beaux yeux. (F.) Pretty eyes; feminine charms. Coram populo. (L.) Publicly. Deus ex machina. (L.) The God from the machine; the person who unexpectedly saves the situation. En famille. (F.) Within the fam ily circle; without ceremony. Flagrante bello. (L.) During hostilities. Hoch soil er leben! (Ger.) Long life to him! L’etat, c’est moi. (F.) 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