1
around the
NATIONAL
CAPITAL
Carter Field ^
WASHINGTON. — There is no
concealing the disappointment over
President Roosevelt’s .rip to Buenos
Aires, and about the conference it
self, so far as the real objectives
were concerned.
This does not mean that any real
harm was done by the conference.
On the contrary, all such Pan-Amer
ican gatherings, and this one in
particular, have decidedly beneficial
effects. The rows that come to light
and make the newspaper headlines
do not originate, save in rare in
stances, at the conferences They
were there before, and were poten
tial sources for real tiouble. Fan
ning them up by a few agitators
seeking to cause embarrassment to
this or that country actually contrib
utes to the cause of peace, and
assuredly tends toward better un
derstanding.
It is all of a piece with the British
idea about Hyde park, where agi
tators can argue for almost any
thing they please. It serves to blow
off steam. In the case of this and
other Pan-Amer can conferences it
forces open consideration of issues,
which were tending to become fes
tering sores. It forces presentation
of the other side of any particular
controversy. It brings about a dif
ferent public reaction—putting the
observer more or less in the position
of a judge—where there might have
been danger that he would become
a crusading fanatic.
In fact, it is a good thing for
everybody involved — even the
would-be revolutionary—if his cause
has sufficient merit.
But the underlying hopes for this
particular conference had much
broader scope. The recent confer
ence was not inspired by any mere
desire to preserve peace in Amer
ica. There was not much danger of
any nation in the Western hemi
sphere being dragged into the Eu
ropean mess, anyhow. The hopes
were two, both aimed at Europe.
Would Set Example
One was by example. It was
thought that If the peoples of Eu
rope observed this conference—how
all the aims and aspirations of rival
nations could be settled around a
council board—and how the twenty
one nations over here bound them
selves not to get in any war—there
would be an irresistible impulse in
Europe to go and do likewise. It
was thought this would prove a
powerful deterrent to war across
the sea.
Now it is true that some enthu
siasts will trace the offer to return
some of the German colonies to
this example, but the plain fact
seems to be, if one may pay any
attention to the news from Europe,
that the Pan-American conference
at Buenos Aires was simply dis
regarded in all the European capi
tals. It was overshadowed in news
interest by the Edward-Mrs. Simp
son affair, but it did not even play
second role to that, with all sorts
of European gestures occupying
what attention could be diverted
from this problem of British
royalty.
The other objective of the Buenos
Aires conference was to get the
nations of America to agree upon
a neutrality policy, with a dim
hope that they might even agree to
stop trading with any nation that
went to war.
Diplomats of all the countries in
volved have been telling their
friends privately, since the objec
tive became clear, that this was
absolutely hopeless. Furthermore,
that it would not amount to any
thing if obtained, as the first nation
to see a chance to make a dollar
by violating it would do so.
The fact remains that this was
the hope, and that it, like the hope
for the good example, has been
dashed.
Some Not Happy
Two comparatively small groups
of New Dealers are not so happy
as their colleagues over develop
ments. It is no secret in inside
Washington circles that two of this
minority are no other than Justice
Louis D. Brandeis and Professor
Felix Frankfuter.
Both agree in wanting to help
the under dog, and in being against
bigness—not only in corporations,
but in certain other things, includ
ing even labor unions. Then there
is concern on the part of some of
the worried group over the con
sumer.
There are two distinct viewpoints
here — one concerning itself about
what might be called unorganized
labor, and the other about the con
sumer.
As far as the consumer is con
cerned the difficulty is very clear.
All these wage boosts and hour
decreases in industry mean that the
consumer will be paying more for
everything he buys. None of it,
worth mentioning, is coming out of
the pockets of the "economic royal
ists."
In most cases, prices will be ad
vanced. In some others, prices will
not be advanced because of cheap
ening production, but the wage
boosts and hour decreases have the
same effect on the buyer, for they|
prevent what would otherwise have
been price reductions.
Now the view of a minority in
the New Deal is that it would be
much better for all the people if,
instead of wages advances, the
corporations granting them should
make price reductions. Naturally,
if the price of a great many things
is reduced, that is an increase in
real wages. The same amount of j
dollars would buy more.
Price Reductions
So far, some of this minority have j
pointed out to the writer, it would
seem as though it did not make;
much difference which method were {
applied. But it does. It makes every i
difference in the world as far as
‘‘passing prosperity around” is con- j
cerned.
Price reductions, they point out, i
cheapen the cost of living for ev
ery one. They benefit the unorgan
ized laborers as much as the or
ganized, or almost as much. They
tend to equalize conditions, and to
bring everybody up tovether. Furth-1
ermore, they tend to boost exports
and increase international trade, j
h ghly esteemed by still another i
part of this dissatisfied group as
tending toward the prevention of j
war, as well as for general prosperi
ty.
Obviously, under the trend of
wage advances and hour curtail
ments now going forward so rapid
ly, what really amounts to a small
fraction of American labor benefits
out of all proportion to the rest.
In fact, the living condition of the
remainder is slightly reduced there
by, due to the higher prices its
members have to pay for every
thing they buy.
A glance over any list of pay-roll
boosts as printed in the newspapers,
members of this minority complain
to the writer, shows that people
being most benefited are those
which need it least of all the groups
of workers.
There is no such feeling on the
part of this minority with respect
to hour cuts, though they admit
that the general effect here is the
same. But, they contend, reductions
in working hours have a tremen
dously beneficial effect in the long
pull that boosts in wages do not
have. They tend to reduce the num
ber of hours all employees work,
and this improvement tends toward
permanence. In fact, there is sel
dom a backward step on this road.
Also, they provide more employ
ment in the industries affected.
Whereas wages are important only
in buying power, not in the num
ber of dollars involved.
Army Officers Worry
High army officers are tremen
dously concerned over the prospect
that congress may provide that all
munitions shall be manufactured
from now on by the government.
They fear two phases of legislation
—one that would prohibit the ex
port of arms and munitions at any
time, and the other that the govern
ment make all its own.
The immediate result, they point
out when they dare speak above a
whisper, would simply be to close
down munitions works now operat
ing in this country since the private
ly-owned plants would then have no
possible markets
The army tried last summer to
make its case—for there is very
little disagreement among high
ranking officers of either service.
But both the army and navy re
alize that the public is not much
interested in their recommenda
tions. They realize also, as demon
strated by a nation-wide poll last
spring, that the country is very
heavily in favor of the govern
ment’s making all its own muni
tions. The explanation is very sim
ple—the public has been educated
for years now to believe that
many wars are encouraged by mu
nition makers anxious for business.
Hence to “take the profit out of
war’’—in the public’s mind—might
b* the most satisfactory and effec
tive method ever devised of pre
venting wars.
Army and navy officers are the
first to admit that munition makers
like to sell munitions, and that
they like to make a profit on them.
But they are much more concerned
about some of the possibilities on
the other side of the picture—pos
sibilities which the public does not
consider at all, practically, but
which may mean a great deal to
the national defense of this country
should it be forced into a war.
A# They See It
The officers would change the pre
ceding sentence to read, “when this
country is forced into a war,” for
they have no doubt whatever that
sooner or later this country, re
gardless of any pacifist legisla
tion which may be passed mean
time, will engage in another war.
To them it is just a question of
time.
In fact, most officers in the serv
ices think that proposed steps taken
with a view to maintaining peace
are more calculated to get the Unit
ed States into a war—at some time
in the future, than to keep us out.
Here is their theory in a nutshell.
If there are to private munitions
makers in the United States, the
demand for arms from other parts
in the world will remit in huge
munitions plants being set up some
where else, quite likely—especially
in the navy view—in Japan. From
that day on the country in which
the munitions plants are located
will be better equipped for war than
before, in that it will have these
plants which can instantly be com
mandeered if that country should
become involved in a war.
© Bell Syndicate.— WNU Servic*.
n mm
Sheep Get Right ef Way In Belfast.
Prepared by National Cteoflrraphlc Society,
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
THE industrial and cultural
center of Northern Ireland is
indisputably Belfast, so ap
propriately nicknamed "Lin
enopolis.” "A very young city,”
you are told by those English resi
dents who reckon a settlement’s age
in centuries instead of years. They
remind visitors that during the Mid
dle ages Belfast was a minor castle
on the outskirts of important Car
rickfergus.
Situated near the head of a loush,
or inlet, a dozen miles from the
sea, where a little tributary joined
the River Lagan at a ford, Belfast
derived its name from its position.
Bel or beal meant an entrance, a
mouth, while fearsad was a sand
bank.
In those early days Belfast some
times was referred to by another
name, and a whopper it was, too—
Ballycoonegalgie!
So shallow and twisty was the
mouth of the River Lagan that even
the smallest craft could not reach
the town except at high water. Nev
ertheless, it once was an important
military position for maneuvering
armies of the continually warring
factions.
Seeing Belfast now, it is difficult
to realize it was given as a present
to Sir Arthur Chichester when he
was made governor of Carrickfer
gus by Essex in 1G04. Rightly
enough, he is considered the
founder of the city and today motor
cars speed over the creosote-block
surface of an important street bear
ing his name. Then the town could
boast but five muddy lanes and
about 500 inhabitants.
A quarter of a century later, Lord
Deputy Wentworth gave the trade
of the "port” its first major stimu
lus when he purchased from the
corporation of Carrickfergus the
"right of importing certain com
modities at one-third of the duties
payable at other places.” During
the linen industry boom of the 1780s,
work was started on dredging a
winding, shallow channel through
three miles of mudbanks to the
lough proper. The result was mag
ical.
Growth of Textile Industry.
In less than a generation the linen
export figures increased 300 per
cent! Also the manufacture of cot
ton goods developed, and in 1800 it
was estimated 27,000 people were
employed in that industry within a
ten-mile radius of Belfast.
Although shipbuilding had been
carried on in a small way since
early times, the completion of the
waterway project by the middle of
the century naturally stimulated
this industry, too. Belfast reached
its majority when it was created a
city in 1888 and today it boasts a
population comparable to that of
Kansas City, Missouri.
Stormont, where the resplendent
new Parliament building stands, is
about four miles from Belfast. On
your way there you cross one of the
four bridges which span the Lagan
and enter the section which is in
County Down; the main part of the
city is in County Antrim.
Rows and rows of workers’
houses line the side streets. Made
of brick and all of one type, they
are only about twelve feet wide.
The door opens onto a narrow
staircase, to the left of which is the
living room with a fireplace.
To see the different styles you
look down each cross street. Some
rows are perfectly plain, of yellow
brick; many are of red; some have
little porches, others simply a pro
truding entranceway. But all are
in groups, like quintuplets or oc
I tuplets; never one with a design all
Us own.
These are for the greater part
the abodes of shipbuilders and rope
makers, for this is a city of indus
trial workers. Their homes spread
fanlike in all directions, encroach
ing upon and, in many instances,
even completely engulfing the pre
tentious mansions of captains of in
dustry. From Cave hill on the
northwestern outskirts of the city,
the panorama of roofs and chim
neys, punctuated only by the nar
rowing arms of Belfast lough with
its shipyards, unfold like the fan of
some giantess.
No Tenements or Slums.
In Belfast you see no tenements
or large buildings housing several
families. Each family has its in
dividual home. You see no “slum”
sections, in the strict sense of the
word. In this respect the city is
exceptional, considering its size
and preponderance of wageworkers.
Farther from the river, as you
near the 'outskirts, the houses are
larger and more detached. Many
have little gardens and hedges. Be
fore reaching Stormont, you notice
several conspicuously beautiful
places with spacious lawns.
On a sloping hillside in the
center of a large park stands the
imposing white limestone Parlia
ment building, a present to North
ern Ireland from the British govern
ment. For those who object to the
four-mile trip to and from the city,
attractive new homes have been
erected nearby.
Back in Belfast, one finds the
city’s magnetic appeal lies in its
industries. Linen and shipbuilding
are undeniably paramount, but
rope-making, cigarette and flour
manufacture, and distilling also are
important.
The ropeworks has its lure, and
you are conducted over the most in
teresting portions of the many acres
of plant.
Your eyes travel over bale upon
bale of a dirty brown fiber im
ported from India, Russia, Italy,
and Belgium. They stand ready to
be transformed into cordage, rang
ing from the heaviest anchor rope
to binder twine and ordinary string.
You pass on into other acre-area
departments where men sort, clean,
spin, braid, and twist hemp, flax,
and cotton. Long lines of noisy
machines suggest vast armies drill
ing—drilling to double-quick time.
Making Trawl Nets.
You are glad to reach that quiet
section devoted to the making of
trawl nets used by “drifters” the
world over, especially in the North
Atlantic food fish regions. Each
individual fisherman has his par
ticular idea as to sizes and shapes,
and these vary widely in different
localities. This variety, and the
gradual change, from top to bot
tom, in the size of the mesh, make
it necessary to manufacture these
nets entirely by hand.
It is surprising how quickly girls
are able to turn out one of these
unwieldy fish catchers which may
measure 100 feet from its "wings”
to its tip. The nets are finally thor
oughly immersed in a tar bath for
protection from the action of (salt
water.
The ropewalks where three
strands are twisted into rope are
most interesting, though nowadays
they are being replaced by im
proved patented machinery which
takes up less room and requires
fewer operators.
When sailing ships ruled the
waves, almost every seacoast town
had its own rope walk, some a quar
ter of a mile long. In Belfast there
were about a dozen, but by 1880
most of this business was handled
by a single company closely affili
ated with the shipbuilding indus
try. Most of the smaller works dis
appeared and gradually the rope
demand lessened as steamships
supplanted the sailing vessels.
The advent of the reaping ma
chine literally saved the day for
rope-makers and now their largest
volume of business is with Canada,
the United States and South Ameri
ca, to whom they supply twine for
binding grain sheaves.
Shipbuilding now is a very vital
factor in the city’s life. Such liners
as the Titanic, the Olympic, and the
Britannic were constructed in Bel
fast, and during the World war the
plants proved of inestimable value
to the Allies. The two giant ship
building concerns have prospered
under the very unusual circum
stance of having to import not only
their raw materials but their coal.
The people of North Ireland seem
to consume more tea than the Chi
nese! Tea upon first awakening, tea
for breakfast, tea at eleven (al
though, of late, coffee drinking has
become popular at that hour), tea
at luncheon, tea at five, tea at ten,
and it is often served at midnight!
Often, in midsummer, one returns
from a dinner party or even from
the theater by daylight, as the sun
does not set until very late because
of the city’s northern location. Bel
fast is about on a line with the
northern Aleutian islands and is
nearer the North Pole than the
northernmost tip of Newfoundland.
The “lighting-up time” for auto
mobile lamps in July is about 11
p. m. After 6 o'clock, which is the
closing hour for the majority of the
factories, many streets during the
summer months seethe with hu
manity till past midnight, making
the operation of a motor vehicle
literally impossible.
_
-
cfUr.Q&mtJ.&ttffon.
TAILEB ADOCH?
Overweight and Heart Failure
PHYSICIAN treating a
case of high blood pres
sure and beginning or early
heart failure is naturally anx
ious not to have too much
work put on the blood vessels
and the heart muscle. And
one of the discouraging
things he has to face in many
patients is overweight.
Overweight in itself is not
believed to be the cause of
high blood pressure and be
ginning heart failure but it
adds to the burden of the al
ready overburdened blood
vessels and heart muscle.
Naturally it is desirable to rid
the body of this excess fat, and to
Dr. Barton
do so as quickly as
possible so as to
lighten the burden.
However the first
thought in every ail
ment now is to try
to maintain or in
crease the strength
of the patient and as
this is best done by
the proper diet, re
ducing weight must
be done slowly from
the standpoint of
safety.
The withdrawal of body building
foods and trying to give the patient
a “full” feeling by the use of cab
bage, cauliflower, lettuce, celery,
may leave him weak and faint. And
the use of foods such as onions, tur
nips, cabbage and beans may cause
gas formation and digestive dis
turbances that embarrass heart ac
tion.
Dr. Thomas Lewis, physician in
charge of the department of clinical
research, University college, Lon
don, tells us in his book “Diseases
of the Heart”; “Overweight (in
heart ailments) should be treated
by withdrawing first of all any ex
cess of starch foods — potatoes,
bread, sugar, pastry—or fats—but
ter, cream, fat meats, nuts, egg
yolks—from the ordinary diet, and
later by a general reduction in the
amount of food to about half the
amount required by a normal
healthy adult. Rigid dieting is not
often well withstood by the patient
as it causes undue weakness. Sud
den reductions in weight should not
be attempted. Regular exercise
tends to reduce weight; so does
massage. Turkish baths are not ad
vised.”
Heart Must Be Spared
You can readily understand that
if the food intake is to be reduced
to one-half or perhaps a little more
than one half of the amount pre
viously eaten, the reduction should
not be too sudden or great at first,
and the food that is eaten must be
the most carefully selected.
In fact there are what are known
as cardiac (heart) diets, just as
there are stomach or intestinal
ulcer (peptic) diets. Their pur
pose is to give the body the nec
essary food or nourishment with
out putting too much work upon the
heart. The diet is what physicians
give their patients when they have
come safely through an illness and
are on their way to recovery. Eggs,
milk, dry toast, strained fruit (seeds
may irritate), jelly.
In these cases of high blood pres
sure and early heart failure it is
believed that, generally speaking,
stimulants, tea, coflee, and tobacco
should be used in but small
amounts. Beer in excessive quan
tities or fluids of any kind should
not be drunk.
A sample diet outlined by Kather
ine Mitchell Thoma in her book,
“Food in Health and Disease” as
used at the Michael Reese hospital,
Chicago, for high blood pressure in
overweight individuals is as follows:
Breakfast: Orange juice, bran
flakes, four ounces or half glass of
milk, sugar, boiled egg, one slice
toast, coffee.
Noon: Lamb chop (fat removed),
small baked potato, peas, lettuce
salad (use mineral oil dressing),
baked apple.
Supper: Poached egg on toast,
stewed tomato, fruit salad (use min
eral oil dressing), one glass of milk.
Sleepiness and Infection
It is indeed fortunate that when
infection attacks the body, one of
the first symptoms is a feeling of
weariness and tiredness- The pa
tient is usually ready and willing
to rest. Thus it is found that an in
dividual with infection in the teeth
feels about as tired when he wake3
i as when he went to bed.
Sleep or complete rest often be
comes necessary during infection
because the fighting forces of the
body are using up their energy in
fighting the infection and there is
little strength left for the work of
j the day.
Thus any tendency to sleepiness
in an individual who is usually alert
should make the individual or the
examining physician suspicious of
infection.
A Weitcro XewiDiou Urues
On Judging Characters—
Some Views to Hold in the
Reading of Modern Books
| T1 HE desire to belittle the char
acters of those who have been
held in high esteem for years,
even for generations, is only ex
celled in these times by the de
termination to make heroes of
those whose reputations have been
! unsavory. There is, of course, in
, all things a happy medium. No
j one is all good. No one is all bad.
But it is the predominance of
j virtue or vice which sets its
stamp on persons’ characters, and
j causes them to be estimated good
! or bad accordingly.
Writers of biography are seldom
readers. One of the greatest diffi
culties is in really getting at the
truth about persons whether they
bt dead or alive. Biographers,
living in the same period as those
of whom they write, are unable
to make delineations free from
personal ideas or estimations, es
pecially if the person about whom
they are writing is known to them.
Sometimes this accent is delib
erately derogatory, sometimes it
is fulsome in praise.
It is for readers to make their
own discoveries. They have this
The Past
IT IS because so much of the
* past still exists ir our lives
that it is so dear to us . . .
These are compensations for the
loss of youth and fresh impres
sions; and one learns little by
little that a thing is not over
because it is not happening
with noise and shape or out
ward sign; its roots are in our
hearts; and every now and then
they send forth a shoot which
blossoms and bears fruits still.
—Anne Ritchie.
Great minds erect their nev
er-failing trophies on the firm
base of mercy.—Massinger.
privilege and they should take it.
Get acquainted with the /acts as
much as possible through perusing
more than one biography. Get
more than one other person’s point
ol view. There are great men.
There are little ones. To learn
a few derogatory things about 1
the former does not make them
ur.worthy natures. The balance re
mains still for virtue. To find out
good qualities in poor characters
is delightful, but so long as fla
grant misdeeds can merely be
mollified and not erased, the per
son has to stand the brunt of his
own deeds. Unless the good out
weighs the bad, he fails to
ascend to the higher plane.
Well Tempered Judgment.
In reading biographies and in
studying human nature it is well
always to bear in mind that ex
tenuating circumstances are pres
ent. Rarely are they absent total
ly. There are certain situations
which exist, and complications
which arise to influence action.
Knowing these we become less
harsh in adverse judgments, or
more laudatory in favorable esti
mations according to how the
character acts. We learn to detect
the difference between the desire
to undermine a fine character or
to establish a poor one as good,
whether in the spoken work or
the written.
© Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
Foreign Words _
and Phrases ®
A propos de rien. (F.) Apropos
of nothing; without relevancy.
Crux criticorum. (L.) The puz
zle of critics.
En rapport. (F.) In touch; well
versed in a subject.
Fuit Ilium. (L.) Troy once
stood; i. e., Troy is no more.
Inter nos. (L.) Between our
selves.
Lustspiel. (Ger.) Comedy.
....even-textured
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Self-Help
If mankind, as the totality of
self-conscious creatures, does not
help itself, no one helps it. If we
will not help our brothers, no one
will. Neither the gods nor time
will help them.—G. von Gizyck.
¥
Thinking Ahead
A careful thought at the right
time saves a hundred sorrowful
thoughts when thinking is too late.
Looking ahead in money matters
is wise, but there is no better sav
ings bank than thinking ahead.
I \
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