SEEN and HEARD ardund the NATIONAL CAPITAL fiy Carter Field\ Washington.—It seems probable at the moment that title of the fed eral housing act—the section which provides for government guarantee of loans for repairs—will be allowed to die when it expires by limitation on April 1. There may be a sharp fight over it, and undoubtedly there will be a lot of outcry if this should come to pass, but the cold fact is the fed eral housing commission does not want it, though professing to be neutral. The further cold fact is that the house banking and curren cy committee, which will handle the legislation, docs not want it. In the house it is very difficult for members to work up enough steam and enough votes to override a com mittee. It is very different in the senate, where n few outraged solons can force a vote on almost any thing, no matter what the commit tee may have reported. But in the house a committee can smother a bill with comparative safety, unless there is very strong sentiment for it and a clear ma jority of the house members want the measure passed. Which is a rather difficult situation to bring about, especially when the govern ment bureau or agency involved is against that particular thing, as in this case. Even when a committee reports a bill, it is very difficult for mem bers wishing to amend it to bring about a test. A senator can pro pose any amendment he wishes to any pending legislation, and force a vote. He may not be able to force a roll-call vote, but at least he can force a voice vote, and, if there is doubt about the rejoinders, and he can muster a fair number to raise their hands, he can force a roll call. But in the house the committee in charge, acting with the rules com mittee, can pick and choose among the amendments on which they wiil< permit votes. The Logic of It The logic at the federal housing administration, in desiring to allow this function of insuring repair loans to die, is rather interesting, espe cially as it is slightly contradictory. One reason is that the housing ad ministration believes there has been such an improvement in building construction that there is an actual shortage of skilled workers in many places. To put undue emphasis on repairs therefore, it holds, would endanger the supply of skilled work ers for more important construc tion, and actually retard business recovery. The other reason is that the banks have learned by experience now that these repair loans are safe and sound, and that therefore it is no longer necessary for the govern ment to guarantee them. In short, it contends on one hand that the insuring of these repair loans is not necessary—that just as many will be made by the banks If they are not insured by the gov ernment—and on the other hand that these loans, if encouraged by the government, will lead to so much repair work that there will not be skilled workers enough for the big construction jobs! You pay your money and take your choice, but attaches of the housing administration argue val iantly for both points. Meanwhile many concerns inter ested in providing repair materials, and there are lots of them, are very much interested in having the power extended. They seem to think that this government insurance, if continued, would result in more re pair jobs than would the idea that banks would make just as many repair loani if government insur ance were withdrawn. All of which would result in con siderably more conversation on Cap itol Hill if President Roosevelt’s Su preme court proposal were not over shadowing everything else. Get Weird Queries Some of the weirdest queries that Washington newspaper correspond ents get from their papers result from Wall Street tips. New York’s downtown financial district cer tainly is tops in a lot of things. Shrewd Washington observers know it is seldom indeed that a real news development is not known in some sections of Wall street before it is known to half the officials concerned here. There is money to be made in Wall Street, with the proper in formation, if it can be obtained just a little in advance of the other fellow. And very frequently it is! * When a lot of money can be made out of a thing, i* becomes too hot to handle as a rule, as was evi denced by the attempts to enforce prohibition, and as is evidenced by the difficulty of suppressing pool rooms, and as is evidenced by rac ing generally. Racing and Wall Street add to the “hot money” an gle the love of most humans for gambling. All of which results in Wall Street so frequently being in the position of having bought and paid for advance inside information. But it also In evitably leads to something else. There are plenty of people in Wall Street who ore not declared in on these news sources—but who like tc pretend to be. Also there are gen try who have very poor or very prejudiced sources of Washington information. It is these last two classes thal produce so much misinformation— whose flat predictions and alleged quotations of what “the Fresidenl said to Mr. Blank” cause so much grief when the poor Washington cor respondent gets a telegram relayed from his paper’s Wall Street cor respondent through the telegraph news desk. Causes Big Laugh All of which is apropos of the “inside” information in Wall Street a few days back that the real reason the steel industry came to terms with John L. Lewis: that certain big interests were said now to be certain that Lewis had been "suf ficiently deflated!” This suggestion was received in Washington with whoops of merri ment. Even labor news experts who have a personal affection for Wil liam Green and who personally dis like John L. Lewis—and others who believe strongly in the craft union and hate the C. I. O. idea—all agree that Lewis won an amazing victory in his conflict with General Motors, and has made amazing progress since. There is scarcely a disinterested observer here who does not believe that the C. I. O. now has its head well under two big tents, entrance to which was highly dubious just a few months ago—steel and motors. General Electric was not much of a surprise. It has been printed in these dispatches several times in th-' last few years that General Electric was very much in favor of what has since become the C. I. O. plan—that what it feared was jurisdictional disputes between va rious craft unions, which would tie up its plants regardless of its own labor policy. And there are few in Washington who do not believe that it is only a question of time until both those industries are closed shops. It may take two years—it may take five years—Henry Ford maynever come in—but few here doubt that such movement as there is from now on will be in that direction. And the answer to it all is very simple. Most of the business execu tives want to make money—now. Few of them are interested in fight ing for a principle if such fighting will cost them a lot of money, and provide a motive for both govern ment and labor sharpshooting at every detail of their business and private affairs. Especially if they can be sure of passing any addi tional cost, with a bit of extra profit, along to the consumer. Big Surprise One of the biggest surprises of the session of congress to date was the ease with which the neutrality bill was slipped through the senate. Everyone had expected that there would be a long drawn out debate. There were present all the elements to make for this. There were at least three clearly defined lines of opinion. There was the group following Senators Gerald P. Nye and Bennet C. Clark, who wanted to go very much further than the bill as it was finally approved by the senate did go. There was a group typified by Senators William E. Borah and Hiram W. Johnson who did not want to surrender the old "freedom of the seas” doctrine, (one of the few points on which these two gentle men agree with Woodrow Wilson). There was even a small group which was and is convinced that all this neutrality precaution is bad in the long run, then tending to sur render the munition-making busi ness to other nations and thereby to leave our own country compara tively unprepared when war does break out, while at the same time increasing the preparedness of some possible enemy. There was a group not quite as extreme, which feared that such restrictions as are embodied in the Pittman bill, which passed the sen ate, would tend to n.ake nations now buying cotton and other com modities heavily from the United States uneasy—would tend to make them look elsewhere for sources of these commodities. The Cotton Question The cotton illustration is particu larly pertinent tecause Brazil has been rapidly building up her pro duction of cotton ever since the United States government began holding the world price of cotton up, so that Brazil could be sure of a good price for this staple. There were some in the senate who believe that cotton is abso lutely an essential war supply, not only because of its use for explo sives but for other reasons. At the time Runciman wai in Washington some of this group favored absolute ly banning exports of cotton to bel ligerents. As the bill passed the senate, the President is given discretion as to putting cotton, or any other com modity, on such an embargoed list. He is not given discretion to em bargo products to one belligerent and not the other. As the senate bill stands, how ever, the President can very easily aid one belligerent and hinder the other by his selection of the com modities to be embargoed. This may rise to plague some future President © BeU Syndicate.—WNU Sarvlna IN NORMA m .. A Norman Family Takes a Stroll in Cherbourg. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D, C.—WNU Service □ILLIAM THE CONQUER OR, cider, omelets, Mont St. Michel—these are fea tures of Normandy that I come to mind with the name of that old province of France. You 1 accent, thus unconsciously, history, j art, and refreshment. Cherbourg, the port where Nor mandy seems to thrust its nose im pudently upward—what does it mean to the ocean traveler? So much weariness of the flesh in con nection with embarking and de barking that one is glad to be off. But things are to be seen there, and Cherbourg is a gentle introduc tion to the heady sights farther on. It is here that one becomes aware of the value of the fishing industries as a social center. The chatter, both shrill and thunderous, that goes with the business is by no means the least of the interest. It is not perfunctory, this fish sell ing by the men of the boats and their wives. Emotion turns the card in many a sale, for if Jean, the sell er, takes offense at the low offer of a retailer, he growls a refusal to trade; and if Ginette displays her wares with enticing good na ture, she laughingly reaps a big handful of coins for the deep pocket concealed in her ample wool skirt. And of course there is the ex change of local gossip. Where a few white-capped women gather the talk runs highest, for the wom an who retains the bonnet of her ancestors is usually one who prefers word-of-mouth to newsprint or ra dio. It is a pity the caps are pass ing. The faces, ruddy and perhaps too irregular, look better when topped with picturesqueness than when frankly unadorned. In Cherbourg, too, one comes up on the sight of women washing at a public fountain. That is a matter that always interests. How can they work in cold water? What a boon it would be to these hard-working women if a little hot water were supplied! If you have ever watched them at work you have seen grim courage. In Apple Blossom Time. In the very first miles out of Cher- ] bourg the charm of Normandy be gins to assert itself. Suppose it be May, what is the enchantment? The apple trees. They are every where, like the maids dressed in sprigged muslins. The country is full of 'ittle hills, so that each farm has its slopes and its brooks, among which stand the blooming trees. And all this loveliness produces the cider which is the wine of the Norman country and one of its big products. The farmhouses themselves are approached by these saucy trees which flaunt sprays of pink against the old gray stones. You get an impression that all farmhouses are near cousins Of old castles. Their size is often prodigious to American eyes, accustomed as we are to the wooden farmhouse. The wide sweep of well-cut gray stone walls has a dignity of other days. A round tower, which seems to be set on some part of the build ing, rises from the ground, a sep arate entity, yet an indispensable part of the whole. It may be in tensely agrarian in its intent, in its interior uses, but it vividly suggests the old story of the castle tower in which a fair damsel was confined in cautious protection, a protection naughtily defeated by the maiden’s letting down her hair as a ladder to a waiting lover. Even the livestock of the Norman country is conspicuously different from the accustomed. The gait of the immense Percherons sets a pace for the work of the farmer, who is ever shouting to them a strange sound, “Hue!” delivered with reproach or scorn. Magnifi cent animals they are, but never to be hurried, whether at the plow or along the roads. As a farmer can go no faster than his horse, his life is regulated by the Percheron. Will he some day exchange this placid power for a ( hurrying Ford or Citroen? A light horse built for speed, per j haps live miles an hour, is used for the high-wheeled hooded carts which take folks to market on a market day. Sometimes real beau ty hides in these excluding hoods. At Honfleur one sees it often. Buckwheat. But No Cakes. The Norman f.elds are red and white with buckwheat. It is an im portant crop, but raised for local sustenance. To Americans, the word “buckwheat” means just one thing—griddlecakcs, light and brown, eaten with a bit of savory sausage or drenched with melting butter and sweetened with that di vine essence of the woods, maple sirup. But in Normandy -the buckwheat cake is unknown. Some mission- i ary from the North -Woods should teach its mixture, or make a pile of “stacked griddles" such as old Adirondack guides can cook. The way buckwheat is used in Norman dy is to make of it a sort of bread, soggy, putty-colored. The call of Mont St. Michel is a call to the heart. You may go hither and yon through France, see ing castles and monuments, flow ered lanes and bewitching rivers, but always is felt the tug toward Mont St. Michel, often called, less formally, “the Mount" or “the Rock." Unresisting, you at last And your self straight down the coast from Cherbourg at the little town of Av ranches, from which the happy pil grim gets his first glimpse of the Mount. Avranches is set on a sudden hill, and to reach its gems of interest the road sweep" upward on the steeps. In so doing it passes a library. That seems prosaic un til into one’s mind flashes the remembrance that it is here that great treasures of the Mount have found safe harbor afjer disturbing conflicts. Here are parchments writ ten in the twelve hundreds. Here, too, is the work of the monk, Abelard, whose love for Heloise is even better remembered than his treatise, “Sic et Non”—such is the delight one takes in romance. Up the hill is the Plate-forme, a name which sounds dull enough un til, as one stops to survey it, its history comes back from some pigeonhole of the mind. What an astounding chapter of history it commemorates, this simple stone platform ringed about with chains! It is all that is left of the great cathedral which was taken down in 1799 as it began to collapse. This spot, the Plate-forme, was just before the cathedral door, and it was here in 1172 that the King of England, Henry II, knelt before the prelates and emissaries of the pope to atone for the murder of Thcrnas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The king, having been excommunicated, was not allowed to prostrate himself before the gor geous company from the Vatican within the building, but had to re main outside until their absolution was given him; and on his royal knees, which ached miserably. The Sands of Mont St. Michel. The time to see Mont St. Michel is at any time when you find your self near. If a chance to see it is given, even if it be midnight or winter, the sight should not be missed. But if a choice of times can be made, then the time of high tides is that time. And if there is a moon, and one can spend the night on the Rock, then sightsee ing has reached its ultimate. From Avranches the view re solves itself into a map of the Bay of Mont St. Michel and that great space of sand from which the tide recedes. For 22 miles, from Av ranches to Cancale on the Brittany side, extend these tidal sands; and ir. the middle of all this flatness, as if floating in the sky like a mi rage, rises the granite rock of Mont St. Michel. Two hundred and fifty feet it towers, and man-made struc tures have increased its height to 498 feet. The curious and seeking observ er can also note from afar tl.e three distinct tiers on the Rock. First above the waters are the ramparts, splendid in their medieval strength; next, the band of clustered houses, "clinging like limpets to a rock;” and then the buttressed Merveille and the crown of towers and tur rets resting on that marvel of ma sonry. And just as the Rock has three tiers of architectural interest, the three tiers represent three purposes —fortress, prison, and abbey. Pontorson, lying on the little river •Couesnon, is the place of departure for the Mount. There one would take to the sea, were it not for the causeway of approach, built across sand and water. In olden times—it can be done now if the traveler likes risk of wetting—the only way to reach the Rock was to walk or ride across the exposed wet sand. Even kings and bishops came that way. risking tides and quicksands. Fancy Louis XI snatching up his long gray robes and picking his way among the salt puddles! After centuries of wet feet and floundering horses, energy was ex pended to bank high a causeway qnd on this to run a little train from Pontorson. And now motor cars by hundreds and even air planes alight like butterflies on the sands by the ramparts. It's a Party Sure Enough! A ND the girl holding the ** curtains back, just looking on, might be join ing the fun except for her misconception that ‘party” clothes are hard to sew. She made the neat sweet house model she’s wearing with no trouble at all- -but— And Here’s the Story. “Marge, did you really make your pretty dress all yourself? It looks so elab orate; I’d be afraid to cut into chiffon like that for fear I d ruin it.” ‘‘Be yourself, Rose. It doesn’t take a bit more skill to make my dress than yours. The pattern ex plains everything. You can’t go wrong. I get a double kick out of making a party frock—I feel im portant sewing it and elegant wear ing it. I couldn’t begin to have so many party clothes if I didn’t belong to The-Sew-Your-Own!” Mother Made Daughter’s Dress. ‘‘Joanie, dear, aren’t you begin ning this party business pretty young?” “No, Auntie Rose, of course not. I’ve another one just like it that Grandma made for me. It’s red and it has blue bands around it. I’m going to wear it to school tomorrow. “Well, I see where I’ve got to get some silks and crepe, pluck up my nerve, and have clothes like other people. I wanted to join the Jolly Twelve but I just felt I didn’t have anything to wear. Now I’ve decided to join The Sewing Circle and make a real fashion debut, come Spring!” Pattern 1237 is for sizes 34 to 46. Size 36 requires 4% yards of 35 inch material plus five-eighths of a yard contrasting. f Pattern 1241 is cut in sizes 14 to 20 (32 to 44 bust). Size 16 re quires 4% yards of 39 inch ma terial, and \Vz yards of ribbon for the belt together with 3 yards of machine made trimming. Pattern 1852 comes in sizes 2 to 8 years. Size 4 requires 2Va yards of 35 or 39 inch material. To trim as pictured 6 yards of ribbon are required. New Pattern Book. Send for the Barbara Bell I Spring and Summer Pattern Book. Make yourself attractive, practical and becoming clothes, selecting designs from the Bar bara Bell well-planned easy-to make patterns. Interesting and exclusive fashions foi little chil dren and the difficult junior age; slenderizing, well-cut patterns for the mature figure; afternoon dresses for the most particular young women and matrons and other patterns for special occa sions are all to be found in the Barbara Bell Pattern Book. Send 15 cents (in coins) today for your copy. Send your order to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020, 211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, 111. Patterns 15 cents (in coins) each. © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. Law is Action Remember you have not a sinew whose law of strength is not ac tion; not a faculty of body, mind, or soul, whose law of improve ment is not energy.—E. B. Hall. Apply O-Cedar wax, let it dry— and your work is done! You’ll have bright, sparkling floors in 20 min utes. O-Cedar self-polishing wax < ^BUCK' ^ONES-i GRAPE-NUTS FLAKES PRESENTS BUCK JONES — FIGHTING | COWBOY OF TWE WEST — IN A SERIES OF THRILLING ADVENTURES WHO'S Y50N of ONeYSLAD YOU'RE THE J OF BUCK'S/ HERE, BILLY- I'M PUNY f BEST A BUCK TONES. HOP \ KID?J FRIENDS. V OFF, WE'LL LOAD YOUR ^-yjAHIS PAW V STUFF ON THE _. f[ SENT HIM OUT \ BUCKBOARD AMD FT f TO SPEND A A START FORTHeT, \ YEAR WITH BUCK I RAMCH. AND SET /<=5«~y-TW^PO \beefeo up jf Irt^Tfi* ' HERE WE ARE;BU-LYjp You WERE i AND X DON'T MIND ^ SWELL, BUCK. ; TELLIN' YOU WE HAD L YOU SURE. ^ MORE EXCITEMENT P STOPPED *s GETTIN' HOME THAN | THOSE HORSES I FIGURED ON LIKE NOBODYS ^ BUSINESS Jf — - '“ THERE'S THE RANCH HOUSE — Vi HEY -OUR BRAKES GORE/ M TAKE THESE REINS, BiLLY->| QUICK/ IF WE GO OVER THE h CLIEF WE'RE j SOMERS"/ f ^ CAW YOU STOP | SURE,