The Omaha Bee mornin g—e v e n I n g—s unday THE BEE PUBLISHING CO . Publithn N. B. UPDIKE. Pr»«idmt BALI.ARD DUNN. Editor in Chief. JOY M HACKLE*. Businas* Manager. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press, of which Ths Bee is a member, la exclusively entitled to «he use for publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper, and also the local news published herein. All rights of republication of our special dispatches are also reserved. , .. _ # The Omaha Dee ia a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, th« recognized authority on circulation audits, and The Omaha Bee's circulation is regularly audited by their organizations. Entered as second-class matter May 28, 1908, at Omaha postoffice under act of March 3, 1871. BEE TELEPHONES Private Branch Exchange. Ask for it l-nSjC 1000 the Depsrtment or Person Wanted. _ OFFICES Main Office—17th and Farnam Co. Bluffs—15 Scott St. New York—World Bldg. Chicago—Tribune Bldg. St. Louis—Syn. Trust Bldg. San Fran.—H oil rook Bldg. So. Side. N. W Cr. 24th N. Detroit—Ford Bldg. Kansu City—Bryant Bldg. I.oa Angeler—Higgina Bldg. A;lanta—Atlanta Truat Bldg. _J A DO NOTHING CONGRESS. As the weeks drift by and we approach the day for adjournment of congress the question comes insistently, is no constructive work to be done? The senate seems to have turned itself wholly into a grand jury, investigating everything its publicity hunters can think of. Only the president is keeping his mind on the real job in hand. So im portant is the legislation before congress and so wholly without reason is its present neglect that President Coolidge has been called upon to summon conferences of senate and house leaders to remind them of the purpose of their election to office. Con gress has played fast and loose with the problem of the farmers of the country. * * * While the senate particularly has been running amuck the president has done what he can to relieve the farm situation. He has secured the co-operation of large financial resources in the organization of a special loan corporation to help the bank situation in the north west. He has advanced the tariff on wheat, the advance to go into effect April 12. Free traders who have shouted with glee at the temporary set back in wheat prices have overlooked the fact that the value of this action is in the long pull of the year round market, not upon temporary flurries. He has sought to relieve the one crop situation in the northwest through the passage of the Norberk bill, but congress was so set upon partisanship that it refused to grant the relief which the passage of this bill would have afforded. • • • At this time it is well to recall the urgings of President Coolidge in his message to congress last December. It has been nearly four months now sine# he urged: "No complicated scheme of relief, no plan for government fixing of prices, no resort to public treasury, will he of any permanent value in estab lishing agriculture. Simple and direct methods put Into operation by the farmer himself are the only real sources for restoration.” He argued that the farmer must be immediately helped by a reduction in national and local taxation. Also that a reorganization of the freight rate struc ture was necessary, to lighten the burden of trans portation costs. Then he went on in another para graph : "Divers flcatlon Is necessary. Those farmer* who raise tneir living on their land are not greatly in distress. Sm-h loans as are wisely needed to assist in buying stock and other materials to start in this direction should be financed through a government agenc y as a temporary and emergency expedient." Congress has paid little if any heed to the president’s appeal for the farmer. Instead of fol lowing the suggestions made, and trying to do some thing in a practical way for the relief of agriculture, time has been given almost exclusively to the manu facture of political medicine. Wide and general search has been made for scandal to unloose, for sensations to explode, for mud to throw. Hour after hour, day after day, the senate halls have rever berated as the anti-administration orators have ver bally assailed all within their reach with invective and abuse. Farmers have been forgotten, agriculture, industry in general, is over-shadowed by the needs of politics. Never in American history has such an exhibi tion been given. Fraud should he exposed. Cor ruption should be denounced. Incompetency and dis honesty should be exposed. The pursuit and un covering of evil is always in order. But it should not be made the entire order of business. The public applauds the condemnation of the oil and other scandals, but a much better feeling would exist if something else were being done in a substantial way to lighten burdens and improve conditions. • • * When congress met in December, it was pre sented with a definite program for the revision of the levenue bill that taxes might be lowered. The presi dent and the secretary of treasury recommended that action be taken in time to relieve the payment on the 1923 lax. From December until March, the house delayed action, and then finally passed a bill for which a veto was anticipated, because it did not meet the government requirements. A deficit was assured if the measure became a law. Then the wise ' and sapient senators on the democratic side accused the president of playing politics, because he did not earlier plead for the reduction in the tax rate. The bill still hangs fire in the senate. The president's recommendations for relief from transportation costs remain unheeded. His request for help to the farmer has produced only bills that are doomed in advance, because they will not meet the needs of agriculture, and contemplate only those things the president said ought to be avoided. Sure ly congress so far is condemned by its own sets. • • • Now the president has called the leaders into conference and has in private urged upon them the neeesaity for getting busy. It is not so much a ques tion of whether the legislation can be put, into shnpc that an adjournment may be taken in June before the convention. It is how to take up the lost mo tion and regain the ground lost. Time wasted in speechifying and shotgun inquiries into clothes line, back fence gossip, can not lie replaced. So far the man in the White House is the only one who has shown any real concern about the farmer. It is high time the others at the Capitol got busy and did some thing hesides talk big. Senator Borah’s recent warning seems to have fallen upon deaf ears. His warning, however, was full of meaning the people will in the end judge eongreas by what it has accomplished as tha national legislature, not by what it has done as a grand jury. FARMERS ARE NOT RADICALS An epithet that is commonly applied to voter* nowaday*, and especially to the farmer*, who do not accept "standpat” policies i* "radical." Nothin* could he farther from the fact. Farmers, and par ticularly those of the middlewest. are null bravely facing a serious situation. They have been threatened with utter ruin, and have been told that only through their own efforts can they win the way back to a solid footing. These men are considering their own problem*, and earnestly striving to avert disaster. If they do not accept the dictum that conies from the east, es pecially from the editorial sanctums of Manhattan, they should not be condemned. They realize that their state is due to a maladjustment of economic conditions, and they seek to remedy it by such rea sonable means as are within their reach. Eastern editors should keep in mind that the disparity between what the farmer has to sell and what he has to buy is such as in time may pauperize the entire agricultural industry. Just now it ap pears temporary, Hut it will become permanent if it be not chnnged. Farmers have seen aid given the railroads, the manufacturers and exporters. Now that the farmer comes forward and asks for a little attention, he is dubbed a "radical," and by those to whose relief he has made the most liberal contribu tions. The western farmer is busy with his own trpu 'bles, and they are quite enough to occupy him. If he does not cast his vote according to a program prepared along the Atlantic seaboard, it is because he is not satisfied that is the road to take. It is a mistake, however, to regard him as wanting to smash things, for he knows as well as anyone that his own future is wrapped up with that of the whole land. He knows that he will prosper only when all pros per, and he is sane enough to want to share in the prosperity that others are now enjoying. Willing to work, anxious to pay his own debts, determined to win out, the farmer righteously resents being called a “radical.” BUSINESS IS BETTER, THANK YOU. While the congressional inquisitors are putting on the rack almost everybody they can lay their hands on, making a political holiday for those who want to hurrah, business as usual is the slogan. From the Department of Labor comes a report of greater activity in industry. A survey made in February, just reported on, covered 52 selected industries, and these show an increase of 6.7 per cent increase in pay roll, 5.4 per cent increase in capital earnings; and 1.2 per cent increase in number, of persons em ployed. More men and women are at work. Their wages are greater. Their consumptive power is enhanced. Another very significant factor is that in February imports amounted to a total of $335,000,000, and J exports mounted to $367,000,000, a trade balance in our favor for the month of $32,000,000. Followed through for a year, this produces an export total of $4,404,000,000 and a total of imports amounting to $4,020,000,000, with a favorable trade balance of $384,000,000. Tttese figures ought to reassure thoxe who are now demanding that foreign markets be opened to Americans. We seem to be enjoying about all that could v be offered, short of an absolute monopoly. Marginal speculation in stocks, grains and simi lar commodities is at a low ebb. Demand for ma terial, especially the metals, is on the increase, an other sign of reviving activity due to increased con sumption. Nowhere is there a sign that warrants the pessismism usually accompanying a presidential year. The divorce between business and politics may not be complete, but the separation is wider than a great many imagine. NEW AMERICAN CARDINALS. Elevation at the same consistorial meeting of two American prelates to the high office of cardinal is a noteworthy event in the annals of even so important an institution as the Roman Catholic church. By this act the church has increased the number of its princes in the United States to four. Cardinal O’Con nell of Boston, who was elevated in 1911; Cardinal Daugherty of Philadelphia, elevated in 1921, and Cardinals Hayes and Mundelein, just now given the red hat. This recognition by the pope and his coun sellors of the -increasing importance of the United States cap not help but be gratifying to the church men. Pius XI, in his allocution at the consistory, paid a glowing tribute to the generosity of the people of the United States, as exhibited in the various efforts to relieve distress and suffering throughout the world. It was in his remarks that Providence has placed some brothers in a position where they can help others, and his expression of gratitude that the works of charity are carried on, that the pope said: "We feel, however, that somethin* would be wanting in thla expression of gratitude if special mention were not made of the poaltion end part which the t'nited States of America took and main tained in this concourse of charity." Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, as seats of the four cardinals, will take on new sig nificance in the government of the church on this continent. Cardinal Begin of Quebec and Cardinal Calvacanti of Rio de Janeiro are the other princes of the church in the western world. It is not strange that democratic candidates are building their hopes of success on investigations, rumors and scandals. Democracy always chirks up when doubt and disaster are rife. It was born in the caves of Adullam. Mr. Rohrcr’s chief trouble did not lay in enforc ing the prohibitory law. It lay in the inability of any red-blooded man to get along peaceably with the suspicious and nagging elements within the ultra reform ranks. r-— > Homespun Verse —By Omaha’s Own Poet— Robert Worthington Davie ___' BE PATIENT. Tf you have a good position and a modeat little rot. Don't go aaeklng- aomethlng better, and lota everything you’ve got. Thare are nlway* finer places In our dreama than whara we dwell, But It'* true that going to them leave* * «o1emn tala to te||. We Imagine there are eplendld opportunities within The Remote, if \vo have murage to go thencevvard and begin; Hut our hope are often futile, and our plan* nr** often vein, \nd our I".«m Im vastly gir.iter Hum out lurid dream of gain. If we’re patient and Insistent, keep our courage and our pep,— We will profit by our effort* and go forward atep by •tep. Kvtn though we do not avviftly to the hunted tenlth climb, W* will reach our deatlnatlon In th« wayward courae | of Tima 4 nr ehwin o. pinkham. Why the Federal Powers Have Grown and Those of the States Declined A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government; a feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution: and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be in practice, a bad government.—Alexander Hamilton, “The Federalist," No. LXX. XLV. HE leaders of tlie early feder alist party were men of high patriotism, exceptional ability, and pure characters, but It has been said of them that they were terribly afraid lest the country should not he sufficiently governed. This question of how much govern ernnient Is enough pever has been set tled to the satisfaction of everybody. It still Is debated and probably al ways will be. We have seen what •Jeffersonian republicans held on tills point and where the Hamiltonian fed eralists stood. We now have to trace the results of the successive com promises to which their respective theories have been subjected, and to see where they have led us in prac tice. The first thing that must lie plain to us on the slightest examination of our political history Is that the fed eral power has steadily grown, while that of the states has greatly declined. If the federal as opposed to the na tional theory had retained its orlgnal force, this condition would be regard ed as a great evil. It is doubtless true that local government. In theory, is more likely to be under the control of the governed than that which gov erns them from a distance. But It has been a steadily revealed weakness of the original theory of the state gov ernments that they neglect or refuse to exercise their powers. We know that If a man does not use or exercise his arm it will In time lose its muscu lar power and become useless to him. It Is so with the functions of govern ment. Broadly, the reason why power has passed from the states, and beeen assumed by the federal govern ment, is because the states have failed to exercise it, and the people have been forced to turn more'and more to the government at Washington. Now, under our a\ stem it is appar ent that laws in the states ought to lie as nearly as possible uniform, es pecially laws relating to business and industry. This was recognized in the constitutional convention, and it was provided that congress should have power to enact national bankruptcy laws If the states were equally alert to the necessities of ths puhlie wel fare and should pass laws uniform In character, it would not be necessary to have so much national legislation. But their governments sre not equal In this respect. Some may provide necessary legislation while others re fuse to do so, and this makes for in equality and injustice in an age when the powers of industry no longer are confined to the states where they originate, but are transported to markets in nil the states. yet us take an example of an in equality of law resulting from con flicting slate legislation. It Is clearly within tlie competency of states to make laws regulating child labor. The necessity for such regulation is recog nized. it is demanded by, the public welfare. Some of the state have made such regulations, but others have refused to do so, with the result that citizens engaged in tlie manufae ture of articles of Interstate com merce (n those states that have adopted such regulations are put upon an unfair competition with man ufacturers in the states that have re fused to enact such laws. In effect, the states that enact remedial legis lation penalize themselves. When such conditions arise, and they have been of constant recurrence In the great commercial and indus trial development of the present gen eratlon. the people have had to seek the relief of national legislation Every stteh extension of the national power necessarily expands the fed eral machinery of government, and gives occasion for the cry that Its functions and cost are becoming bur densome and vexatious. But If that Is true, It Is so only because local government in tlie United Staten lias failed In Its responsibilities. If the Increasing power of the federal gov eminent is an evil. If centralization of government in Washington is a dan ger, then the people of the states have invited them b.v allowing their local governments to fall into their present condition. The state legislatures in America have abdicated their functions. With some notable exceptions they no longer enjoy public confidence or prestige. Their members are ill paid, unrepresentative of the best in ability or character in their states and iby reason of the influences through which they are chosen are unrespon sive to the publics needs. Legisla tive sessions in the states are too like ly to he the battles of the private in terests that control votes through lob bies and the political brokers whom we call bosses. Public measures re ceive little consideration. In most state legislatures, for example, the militia is shamefully neglected. Kdu cation is neglected. Unequal tax laws are passed by reason of the political advantage enjoyed by the representa tives of special interests. The prin ciple of representation carried to ex cess and capitalized by political forces produces types of legislators easily controlled by interests that specialize in that business. These interests, un concerned for the public welfare, labor only for their ow n ends, and it is those that labor with state legisla tures that get what they want from them. These are the causes, we will And. that have brought about the central ization of government in Washington and its decripitude in the states. The loss of vigorous and efficient local government to the people must be de plored, but if the trend is in that di rection, if government is hemming more and more centralized In Wash ington. then the safeguard must be to watch the government at Washing ton and hold It strictly responsible. The fpnr of centralization that haunted Jefferson was based on its threat to local government. Local government he thought of ns the pro tector of the people’s liberties. But in lha evolution of our system it is the federal power .that has become the people's protector while their local government, by its breakdown and in efficiency, has become the danger to their liberties. Whatever els* a gov ernment may be it must be responsi ble. if the federal power has as sumed responsibility where the states have declined it, the people know at least what power to hold to account. (Copyright. Karma City Star) Just So. “Paw.” asked little Clarence Cal lipers, ’ what is a monopoly?” “It is others doing to you as you would do ,to them if you bad a chance.'' answered Mr. Callipers, who is very wise.—Kansas City Star. Astronomy, a Spwiilitlv^ Srirnrr. j Gibbon, Neb.—To the Editor of The j < inialia llee: In last Sunday* Pee It j la slated that the students at Crelgh-1 ton college have discontinued the study of astronomy. Also that the plnnt-t Man, (being nearly 60 0(16.000 miles further from the sun than we are), receives only about half the amount of sunlight and heat that we receive. Were that the case and Hie planet* received their heat by radia tion. tlien tile four planets outside of .Mats' orbit, i. e, .Jupiter, Saturn. I’ranus and Neptune, from 100 to 1,200 time* larger than our planet, would be locked in eternal frigidity and. of course, uninhabitable. The two itiner planets, between us and the Run, would be uninhabitable on account of the intense heat. So in our Sun's family of eight major plan ets, our little earth would lie the only one that would be suitable for animal or vegetable life. So alt those vast orbs would have no office in nature's economy except to shed a faint, twink ling light for tlie sole benefit of the inhahliants of our little world, put let ua look at a few facts. The surface of Mars shows regular marking*, supposed to be canals and vegetation bordering such canals, and the white caps at the poles undoubt edly snow ami Ice, which increases to some 25 degrees when winter condt-1 lions prevail at either pole, and near-' ly, or quite disappear during the sum-1 mer solstice, would Indicate that the | climate on Mars is about the same as ; prevails on our earth. Now it would be absolutely Irnposai-. ble for the sun (no matter how) to: transmit heat by radiation to us through 9.1,000,000 miles of Inter- * planetary apace and get it to us in ! a heated condition while the tern-j perature of space is 271 degree* lie low zero. The writer's home receives light, heat and power from an electric pow er plant 15 miles away, sent by a , cold dynamo over a cold wire, and we receive approximately the samel degree of heat, etc., as homes near the power plant. To prove that the sun's heat comes to us electrically, and not by radiation: Take any con vex lens, (a four-inch reading glass will do) and throw a focus from the sun on any light combustible and it will he set on fire at once. Now try your lens by throwing a focus from an electric arc light, as used in movie picture shows and you get the same results as with the sun. Now try your lens with a fire or lamp light pro duced by combustion, no matter how hot. and your focus vvill be cold. Proving that -the rays from the sun are transmitted electrically and are converted into light on reaching our atmosphere, and he.it, when it meets the resistance of the earth: so that each planet probably receives ap proximately about the same degree of light, heat and power that we do. Teach the students demonstrable facts and they will doufltlcss he glad to study this very interesting branch of science. To get light ard heat to our planet by radiation would require that every cubic foot of a cube in space around the «un of 1S6.000.000 miles in diameter must be kept con tinually up to the same degree of light and heal that we receive. 3nd all] rsting to waste except the Infinitesimal amount that Mercury. Venus, our earth and our moon could make use of. Aviators tell u* that both light and heat decrease very rapidly as they rise above the earth's surface. ELLIOTT LOOMIS. Praises Coolidge Stand. Auburn, Neb.—To the Editor of The Omaha Mee: Tour editorial, ‘Trawl ing Things in W ashington." Is very fine and opportune. Whenever the "worth while" people of these United Slates will listen to the gossip and in sinuations of such people as Gaston K. Means and Roxie Stinson who brazenly acknowledge their taking part irv.all these nefarious doings and who ha\» "no pood” character and consequently no shame, I think it is time to call a halt. They would say of our Savior. "We got Him. We found Him down by a well talking to a woman of the under world." Can we afford to encourage thw eossiper and blackmailer who seek to iraduoe all people of good character and high standing’ Never! Deliver us from the scandal monger. One of the first things .Jesus said so his dis ciples was. "Judge not lest ye be also judged, for with what measur# T* meff, it shall be measured to you again." I am a Roosevelt republican but voted for Wilson the iaat time he ran. I greatly admire Coolidge. I believe the sensible, right minded peo ple realize that he is firm and depend sble and will honestly stand as a rock for the enforcement of law and order, and practical help for the farmer, and that will help all of us. Keep up the good work for clean politics. T. R. LACKET. Abe Martin I S. ■ — -d 'IW Th' saloons have hern pone a lonp time, so if prohibition has pot anythinp as nifty as th' ole time bartender, it’s time he wuz showip’ up. Rome folks even run in debt t’ pay ther respects. (t^opyrluhf. 1 *24 > N ET AVERAGE PAID CIRCULATION for February, 1924, of THE OMAHA BEE ■ Daily .75,135 Sunday .80,282 [)nM not Includ# ralmni, loft - overt, #ampl*a oi papria spoiled in pi inline ami incit'd** Ru tp*cl»l • al*a oi fiea circulation of any kind V. A. BRIDGF., Cir. Mgr. 3tibai»iliad and aworn to heloit mm thia 4th day of March, 1924. W. H. QUIVKY. (3*al) Notary 1’ublic f “ ' N Letters brom Our Readers All letter* mu»| be »linol. but f»«me will be *4itli hr hi up«n r«iiir»t. t «»• muiih atloii* of ZM wnl* «nd will be *i»en prtffrturf. J L _ TheJPretty Sisters 1 The magnificent ships Carmania and Caronia, known as “The Pretty Sisters of the Cunard Fleet" are now on the Quebec Bclfast-Liverpool service. These oil burning, cabin class steamers, largest of the type on the St. Lawrence Route, enable the traveller to enjoy to the fullest degree all the pleasures of luxurious comfort at mod erate rates. The trip from Quebec, down the mighty St. Lawrence to the Gulf. !• full of hiltorical Interest and icrntc beauty. See ths Cunn'it Agent in your town for particulars of sailings, rates, stc. or ante la The Cunard Steam Ship Co. I SAY “BAYER” when you buy -genuine Unless you see the ‘‘Bayer Cross” on tablets you are not getting the genuine Bayer Aspirin proved safe by millions and prescribed by physicians 23 years for Colds Pain Headache Toothache Neuralgia Neuritis Lumbago Rheumatism /y , J /jyjAccept onlv “Payer" package * hich contains proven directions. Hand? "Raver" birtn la lie tra4a mart uf Bay.r Manufacture ot Moaotaeticacl4*atei ot (allc/UeacI* t Sunn Side Up Juke Comfort,nor forget Mat'Sunrise neJerfailed us yet - fUmUr __ PERFECTLY SATISFACTORY When Lime, get. upon th. job enforcing It is piesumed mat he will have a 'no.t ideal condition^ Km Klmer say. h. know, the way In .lam the floodI o Ami will refuse attempt, of all with officer* ,f*
  • aw Passed. No, Imogen,: the Torn Kxchange National 1, not a place where you deliver your corn In a gack and take It back home in a Jug. _ "A Good Place to Eat" Is a sign that does not intrigue us. W* know a lot of good place, to fish where there aie no flah. It is barelv possible that we will hsv# to enact a law to compel Ihe managers of theatrical attractions to gne the peo ple what they want. We are unacquainted with the new game of Mah Jong, but we are salisfied In our own mind that It holds no such satisfac tion as filling an abdominal slrsight at the psychological moment. Mother—"Why did you and Harold stand In the hall so long last nigbU" Daughter—“It was so awfully dark that w# just could n't find Harold's hat." WILL M. MAT-TIN. 2 When in Omaha Hotel Conant BRIN4 STOPS I jlds Pain* I laches. ’ Xebrin is safer and mone effec* j tive than Aspirin or remedies containing the heart-depressing, habit-forming drug, acetanilide. c .and let the world laf with you Don’t keep that funr.y itory to yeurself. If it makes you laf, it will tickla others—and may win for you one of the Ca»h Prise* fer “Local Laf*” which will be awarded by T^e Omaha Bee. Think np a fun ny story, and see how you may not only win a prise, but fet your name in the moTies — Send your laf to the Local Laf Editor, The Omaha Bee. Orient Splendidly equipped trams leave Chicago every morning and evening. Portland Limited Lv. Omaha 1155 A.M. At. Portland 6.15 P. M.