Newspaper Page Text
—
News Review of Current
Events the World Over
Eoonomic and Monetary Conference Opens in London
Illinois and Indiana for Prohibition Repeal—
Varied Doings in Congress.
By EDWARD W. PICKARD
^ QIXTY-SIX nations were represented
by some of tbeir best financial
and economic authorities when King
George formally opened the world
R. W. Morrison
their deliberations rests on the mu¬
tual concessions that may be made,
for no one nation or group of nations
can expect to obtain only advantages.
Most vital of the problems to be
tackled is admittedly the stabilization
of currencies, which involves the re¬
turn of all nations to the gold stand¬
ard or at least to a metallic stand¬
ard ; and this return must be a syn¬
chronous movement so that all coun¬
tries will be on the same level at all
times. In the debate on this question
leading parts will be taken by Senator
Key Pittman of Nevada and Ralph W.
Morrison, retired banker of Texas, the
members of the American delegation
to whom the monetary problem was
especially given for formulation of
the policy of the United States.
Senator Pittman before the confer¬
ence opened told something of a plan
he had devised by which the nations
could use silver as a certain percent¬
age of their currency reserves, there¬
by economizing on gold and stabilizing
the price of silver. He insisted this
would not constitute bimetallism as
gold would still be the standard. The
nations appear to be In agreement,
Mr. Pittman said, that the currency
reserve of gold should be lowered be¬
low the 40 per cent now required In
the United States. Twenty-five per
cent gold coverage was mentioned for
purposes of illustration by the sen¬
ator, who said that one-fifth of this
reserve should be silver.
When the price of silver was low
the governments would buy and main¬
tain reserves of the metal, which they
could sell when >■' nric->ir>
senator said.’ <- '
The other major aims of the con¬
ference are the raising of the world
price level, and the lowering of inter¬
national trade barriers. Of course the
three afe inextricably intertwined, and
they affect all other problems that
will come up. Back of it all Is the
matter of the ten billions odd owed
by European nations to the United
States. War debts were excluded
from the agenda by Washington, but
they will be continually in the minds
of many of the delegates and eventu¬
ally something must be done about
them.
"ILLINOIS I and Indiana by popular
vote added themselves to the list
of states that assure their ratifica¬
tion of the amendment repealing pro
nibition. In the former state the vote
was about 4 to 1 in favor of the wets,
and the Hoosiers voted for repeal by
approximately 2 to 1. There had been
no doubt as to the result in Illinois,
but Indiana, long one of the driest of
states and the very center of the Anti
Saloon league’s power, was counted on
oy the prohibitionists to stand against
ratification. One of their leaders, L.
E. York, explained their defeat by
saying:
‘‘The repealists had ample funds
supplied by the breweries and distil¬
lers and the state organization had
paid workers at the polls.”
OENATOR PAT HARRISON’S plan
^ for financing the public works
industry control measure was adopted
by the senate finance committee,
which then reported
out the bill for de¬
bate. The backbone
of the Harrison pro¬
gram, which is cal¬
culated to raise $227,
000,000, is a capital
stock tax of one-tenth
of 1 per cent on the
net worth of corpora¬
tions. This tax is ex¬
pected to raise $80,
000,000. Corporations
are to be allowed to
own valuation, and as
check on this provision a penalty tax
is provided of 5 per cent on surplus
profits of more than 12% per cent.
Second feature of the Harrison pro¬
gram is the imposition, in lieu of nor¬
mal tax rates levied on the individual
as the house bill contemplated, of a 5
per cent tax on corporation dividends
to be levied at tbe source. This is ex¬
pected to bring in $73,000,000.
Third is an additional one-half cent
tax on gasoline, calculated to raise
$62,000,000, instead of the three
fourths of a cent tax proposed by the
Jiouse.
The railroad reorganization bill and
the $2,000,000,000 home mortgage meas¬
ure were among the important bills in
conference. The latter was passed by
the senate without a record vote.
economic and mone¬
tary conference In
London. It was a
momentous occasion,
for on the results ob¬
tained from the con¬
ference depends In
great measure the
welfare of the world,
at least in the Immedi¬
ate future. The dele¬
gates will be in ses¬
sion for many weeks,
and the success of
Sen. Harrison
r~\ EMOCRaTIC revolt against some
of President Roosevelt’s meas¬
ures created discord in both the
house and the senate and the ad¬
ministration's program for national
recovery was not having a smooth
road. The first npset had been tbe
senate’s action In voting a 25 per cent
limitation on reductions In compensa¬
tion payments to war veterans, which
added about $170,000,000 to the inde¬
pendent offices appropriation bill be¬
fore it was sent to conference. Mr.
Roosevelt, accepting his first defeat,
sought peace by compromise. At his
direction new regulations were pre¬
pared governing the payments to dis¬
abled war veterans and to the de¬
pendents of deceased soldiers, under
which the veterans would receive an
additional $50,000,000 or $60,000,000
over that which was contemplated in
the President’s original orders.
The reduction in payments under
the new orders would be about $400,
000,000 Instead of the $450,000,000
originally contemplated. The vet¬
erans’ bloc in congress was not at all
enthusiastic over this compromise.
pYRUS V-* phia, one H. K. of CURTIS the oldest of and Philadel- best
known of American newspaper and
magazine publishers, died at his home
at the age of eighty-three years. He
had been ill since May of last year
when he was stricken with heart dis¬
ease white on his yacht near New
York. The Ladies Home Journal, the
Saturday Evening Post and the Coun¬
try Gentleman were Mr. Curtis’ maga¬
zines, and he was also president of
the Curtis-Martin Newspapers, Inc.,
publishing the Philadelphia Inquirer,
the Public Ledger, and the Evening
Public Ledger in Philadelphia, and the
New York Evening Post. His gifts to
charitable and educational institutions
totaled many millions.
yiTHY W paid the Richard government should have
B. BeVier $1.40
apiece for 200,000 toilet kits for men
in the conservation corps—a that
Louis Howe
corps, but Mr. Howe told the commit¬
tee he never directly or Indirectly at¬
tempted to Influence any decision as
to the purchase. He said he trans¬
ferred the whole matter to F. W. Low¬
ery, assistant to Budget Director
Douglas. Then Mr. Lowery took the
stand and declared he never had any
responsibility in the matter, simply
making a recommendation to Mr.
Fechner. This Mr. Fechner testified
he construed as an order.
There was no least intimation of
improper motives on the part of any
of the gentlemen involved, but the
senators seemed agreed that Mr. Be¬
Vier was a “supersalesman.”
When Mr. Howe was on the stand
Senator Dickinson of Iowa asked him
why he did not turn the matter over
to the War department instead of
“starting up all this new purchasing
machinery.”
"Well,” Mr. Howe replied, “this
seemed to be a complaint against the
War department Itself. I was told
the War department was about to
make a purchase that would be dis¬
advantageous to the government.”
"Who said it would be disadvan¬
tageous?” asked Senator Robert D.
Carey of Wyoming.
“Mr. BeVier,” responded Howe,
/CREDIT ^ must be given the council
of the League of Nations for in¬
ducing the Hitler government of Ger¬
many to abandon part of its warfare
od the Jews. The council, acting on
the petition of a resident of upper
Silesia, unanimously adopted a report
declaring that the boycott of Jewish
shops in that territory and some reg¬
ulations affecting doctors, lawyers and
notaries were in conflict with the Pol¬
ish-German minorities convention.
Thereupon Friedrich von Kellar,
spokesman for the reich. told the
council the German government would
restore Jews in German upper Silesia
to positions they had lost since the be¬
ginning of the Nazi regime.
VI W THEN Princeton’s scholastic year
opens in the fall the old univer¬
sity will have a new president, its
fifteenth. He is Dr. Harold Willis
Dodds, who has been professor of poli¬
tics in the university and chairman
of the administrative board of the
school of public and international af¬
fairs.
Professor Dodds, who is not quite
forty-four years old, is the youngest
man to be chosen for the presidency
of Princeton in 175 years. He is rec¬
ognized as an international expert on
electoral methods, and is regarded as
an authority on municipal government
the War department
said was 55 cents too
high—was a question
that the senate mili¬
tary committee found
hard to answer. Louis
McHenry Howe, sec¬
retary to the Presi¬
dent, talked with Be¬
Vier 15 minutes be¬
fore the signing of
the contract by Rob¬
ert Fechner, director
of the conservation
p (INVENTIONS by the dozens and
VJ scores are being held in Chicago
this year, numerous especially because
of the World’s fair. Most of them are
commercial or professional, but among
them was one. Just held, that exhaled
a delightful perfume. It was the an¬
nual meeting of the Garden Clubs of
America, held In the Drake hotel
which overlooks Grant park and the
lake front. The organization is a fed¬
eration of local garden clubs whose
members are for the most part women
of position and means in their various
communities. Their Interests are es¬
pecially In the conservation of wild
flowers, the preservation of the red¬
woods of California and the elimina¬
tion of the billboard along highways.
Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley of New York
city was re-elected national president.
Mrs. Oakley Thorne of Milbrook, N.
Y„ Is the honorary vice president. The
hostess clubs were the organizations
In Lake Forest, Kenilworth and
Evanston.
A feature of the convention was a
supper held In the Shedd aquarium,
where the ladies gave evidence that
their interest In gardening Included an
Interest in the culture of gold fish in
rock garden pools.
C'ERDINAND PECORA, counsel for
a 1 the senate committee that has been
investigating the doings of J. P. Mor¬
gan Co., undertook to bring to light
the details of the op¬
erations by which the
Van Sweringen broth¬
ers of Cleveland
financed their exten¬
sive railroad expan¬
sion. He said he in¬
tended to show that
those men, with asso¬
ciates, "purchase rail¬
roads with money paid
by the public, but al¬
ways they sit In the
saddle.” O. P. Van
Sweringen was the
chief witness, and he was the “forget
tingest’’ witness yet to appear before
the committee. To almost all Mr. Pe
cora’s questions he replied, “I don’t
recall,” or “I don’t remember,” until
he drew a sharp rebuke from Senator
Barkley, who was presiding.
“It seems incredible that a man of
as large affairs as yours could have
so little information about them,” the
Kentucky senator said sharply.
"I don’t want to depend on guess¬
work.” Van Sweringen replied.
About ail he remembered was that
he and his associates received from
the Morgan firm two loans totaling
almost $40,000,000 on October 21,1930.
Persistently, however, Mr. Pecora
drove at two matters—first, to show
that the Van Sweringens had built up
their railroad holdings, not through
investment of their own money, but
through borrowings, the pyramiding
of holding companies, and the sale of
holding company securities to the pub¬
lic; second, to show the rise of*he
Morgan interest In the Van S&w
ingen holdings, beginning with equip¬
ment loans which were used in sev¬
eral Instances to buy from companies
doing business with the Morgans, and
ending, as future evidence is meant to
show, by Morgan & Co. acquiring con¬
trol over the Van Sweringen interests.
ITOCIFEROUSLY and loudly Sena
» tor Arthur R. Robinson of Indiana,
Republican, demanded in the senate
that Secretary of the Treasury Wood
in be impeached and that Norman
Davis, “ambassador at large,” be re¬
called, because their names were on
the lists of “preferred" investors of
the house of Morgan. And he included
In his denunciation Robert Worth
Bingham, ambassador to Great Bri¬
tain.
“I say you have a secretary of the
treasury that ought to be removed Im¬
mediately because the American peo¬
ple have no confidence in him,"
shouted Senator Robinson. “Time
after time he accepted gratuities from
the house of Morgan. Is he beholden
to Morgan? Of course he Is, or else
he is an ingrate. If the President does
not remove him, the senate should
impeach him.”
DUSSELL T. SHERWOOD, that
elusive gentleman who was reput¬
edly the financial and business agent
of Jimmy Walker while the latter was
,.;..r.j':g§f?‘j'ji"j:" 5535233"'u.‘«“§"Z-.-.':IZ-:-'EI:;'I:+ ”I;
;:;:-:= MW;‘5;.§:§:3:1:Z;§;1:§:3‘.¢:3:E35:-. 51:12:55;;:;:;z;:52:a}:;:¢:isti:i:1:1:5:3:-:«’5
.‘1‘:3I;';:::;I;:;I;i:{.1->554:fi‘flfifififififii , _
nfl‘é 3‘ 3E:533.5539333335:E35:2iE251515:33215231321ritiii?“
vi: 1;fississz'éi1395223552332?1+““> 553:52;:g-5:333:555E:E53:3:E:3:3:E-E:E-’-=E:E:E::<=:‘££>§
>§§ 1;, :13§§335131:.3§3§5§§"-If'3':':~:::E=§E§3£’:§" 33152123352323}:
2:2..22222332W- %*§ z::-::E3§533155é3§§§:5§£33x
EV‘Q‘wé :3 :32 3% W '. ~ 59:31:: E3303
:tEtiiEétiziiii: :zsgsséz;::5;s':ézs'sz;;“‘ _ 1fi:‘;:3:§:';:‘;::,<:'-:'»:1 J
5:=;;;:;:5¢::;:;:;:;' :g:;;s:53‘u:gz:::r;r
R. T. Sherwood
Michael F. Dee, was in an anteroom
but Sherwood did not call on him for
advice, which was taken as an Indi¬
cation that he answered fully and free¬
ly all questions put to him. When dis¬
missed Sherwood hurried to his tempo¬
rary residence in New Jersey so that
he would not be arrested on the state
charges pending since he fled during
the Seabury inquiry. At that time
he was fined $50,000 for contempt,
and, as Attorney Dee said, he did not
wish to be Jailed for default in pay¬
ment of the fine.
PRESIDENT Unated South Trimble, ROOSEVELT Jr., of nomi- Ken¬
tucky to be solicitor for the Depart¬
ment of Commerce.
He also sent to the senate the fol¬
lowing nominations of United States
attorneys: John A. Garver for Idaho,
William C. J. Barker for New Mexico,'
Carl Donaugh for Oregon, and Wil¬
liam McClanahan for western Ten¬
nessee.
©. 1933 . Western Newspaper Union.
CLEVELAND COURIER
P \ Van
Swerin S en
mayor of New York,
and who disappeared
when he was wanted
as a witness during
the Seabury Inquiry
Into Walker’s affairs,
came back from hid¬
ing and was promptly
called before a federal
grand jury in New
York that was Investi¬
gating the former
mayor’s income tax
returns. His
GETTYSBURG IS
PILGRIMS’ GOAL
Field of Most Famous Battle in
United States.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.—WNU Service.
■pi VERY summer thousands of
Ih I Americans make the pilgrimage
to Gettysburg, famous American
battle field and locale of one of
the most famous speeches ever deliv¬
ered—Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg
address.
At Gettysburg, during the first three
days of July, 1863, the course of Amer¬
ican history, if not indeed the trend of
world destiny, trembled In the bal¬
ance. Here American courage and
valor reached a high-water mark; here
the hopes of the Confederacy attained
their flood stage and began the ebb
that ended at Appomattox.
As one motors along the avenues
that mark the battle lines, now paus¬
ing in reverence before this and that
monument erected on the field; now
visiting the earthworks of a famous
corps, division, or brigade; now climb¬
ing one or another of the five steel
observation towers for a broader sweep
of the terrain, he understands why
this is the most widely known of all
the battle fields of America, attracting
more than 800,000 visitors annually.
Never did any commander face his
problem under greater difficulty than
did Gen. George Gordon Meade. At
three o’clock on the morning of Juno
28, less than 80 hours before the great
battle opened, he was awakened in
his tent at the headquarters of tbe
Fifth corps, which he had been com¬
manding. An officer from Washing¬
ton announced that he had come bring¬
ing trouble. Later, in a letter to his
wife, Meade confessed that be thought
the officer had come to relieve him of
his command or to arrest him; but his
conscience was clear.
And trouble it was that the officer
brought, though of a vastly different
kind. He delivered an order from the
War department directing General
Meade to take command of the Army
of the Potomac, concentrate its scat¬
tered forces, break the hold of the
Army of Northern Virginia on the Sus¬
quehanna, protect Baltimore and Wasb
They Fought at Gettysburg.
ington, bring the invaders to battle,
and cause them to retreat to their own
soil.
General Lee, too, was in straits.
Stuart’s dash around Hooker’s army
had deprived the Southern leader of
the only eyes an army could have be¬
fore dirigibles and airplanes came into
being.
In those three last days of June
both commanders were at a disad¬
vantage—Meade because he had had
thrust upon him a Herculean task and
must get his hands on the reins, and
Lee because his cavalry was beyond
his reach.
Two Great Battles.
Few visitors who go to Gettysburg
realize that there were two battle
fields in that historic struggle. The
battle of the first day was fought to
the north and west of the town. Not
a single federal soldier was left on
that field when the fight ended In mid¬
afternoon. How complete was the
Confederate victory on that day was
disclosed after the war by General
Meade, who said that if General Lee
had followed and placed his batteries
on Culp’s hill that evening the federal
army would have been forced to with¬
draw.
One need only climb the observation
tower near the site of General Meade's
headquarters and from that vantage
point view the second battle field to
appreciate the tremendous price the
Confederates were destined to pay on
the second and the third for their vic¬
tory of the first. For here Nature had
provided General Meade with a verit¬
able citadel ready for fortification, in
which to await an attack, and events
had given the Army of the Potomac
time to occupy this position and en¬
trench itself.
Here the legions of Lee endeavored
to overpower their gallant foes of
many a Virginia battle field. Here
they waded through blood at the Peach
Orchard and the Wheatfield; here they
faced the most withering blasts that
war at Its bitterest could bring upon
them, as they struggled for possession
of Devil’s Den and the rocky heights
of Little Round Top, where the Issue
hung on the quick eye of General
Warren and the matter of a few min¬
utes.
Thrice victory eluded the grasp of
Lee in the fighting of the second day.
Night closed down upon the frightful
scene of carnage with the flower
of Stonewall Jackson’s old corps In
Meade’s trenches, on the southern
slope of Culp’s Hill, within 150 feet of
Meade's line of retreat and close to his
reserve parked artillery. There they
slept on their arms, little dreaming
bow close they were to victory, as
they settled down to a fitful slumber.
Could they hold their gains on the
morrow and drive through the hun¬
dred paces to triumph? At four
o’clock the next morning guns boom
out their demand for an answer. The
battle is on. Artillery fire blasts their
front and rakes their flanks. Musket
fire throws a deadly leaden hail Into
them from almost every angle. Their
position becomes an inferno. They
charge Into a blinding sheet of all-arms
fire; they reel back, reform, charge,
and are hurled back again. Again they
reform and charge once more. At last,
almost literally blasted from the field,
the bugles sound the mournful notes of
the retreat and General Meade holds
the ground unchallenged.
Pickett’s Famous Charge.
Pickett’g charge will ever live In
the minds of men as the climatic epi¬
sode of Gettysburg; but military men
agree that In the menace it held, In the
fierceness of the assaults that were
made, in the carnage that was wrought,
the attack made by the men whom
Stonewall Jackson had led at Bull
Run, Antletam, Fredericksburg, and
Chancellorsville deserves an equal
place in the annals of war. That at¬
tack lasted for six hours. Pickett’s
charge moved out at three o'clock,
reached High Water Mark at 3:20, be¬
gan its retreat at 3:40, and was off
the field a little after four o’clock.
As a military spectacle, that con¬
cluding act has never been excelled.
Its prelude was played by 300 guns,
as battery answered battery across the
gently rolling fields over which the
historic charge was to sweep. “Every
position seems to have broken out with
guns everywhere, and from Round
Top to Cemetery Hill is like a blazing
volcano,” reported one officer. “The
grand roar of nearly the whole ar¬
tillery of both armies burst in on the
silence, almost as suddenly as the fnll
notes of an organ would fill a
church," wrote another.
In an hour and a half the Federals
slackened their fire, so that their guns
might cool, wrecked batteries be re¬
placed, and the atmosphere allowed to
clear.
Forty-two Confederate regiments
move out. Pickett leads them, with
his own division in the center. The
charge begins with the precision of
dress parade. A murmur of admira¬
tion sweeps the Union line. And then
its artillery opens again with every
ounce of its reinforced power. Pres¬
ently, torn by shot and shell, the
charging host comes within rifle range.
They press on. They are within 150
yards of their goal, facing death in a
thousand forms.
End of the Bloody Fight.
Pickett’s men melt like snow on a
hot day. but a second and a third wave
sweeps on. They face double canister
at 10 paces, but they silence the guns
that fire them. Into Webb’s rifle pits
they leap and over the barricades.
Armistead and his men vault over the
stone wall. He falls mortally wound¬
ed. The momentum of the charge
wanes and dies.
Raked with fire and cross-fire, there
is nothing to do but fall back. But
they return across the sanguinary field
in such fashion that the repulse does
not become a rout. Out of the 4,800
men of Pickett’s division, not more
than 1,000 return. Of the 15 field offi¬
cers and four generals, only Pickett
and one lieutenant colonel escape un¬
scathed.
The Battle of Gettysburg is ended.
As one walks over the scene and tries
to measure the courage of the men
who fought here, he comes to under¬
stand why there is pride in every
American heart that this battle field
is now a military park, and that it
was dedicated in immortal words by
Abraham Lincoln.
The fine generosity of the federal
government, that knows no North and
no South in the. marking of those hal¬
lowed acres, cements In the firmest
bonds of history the sons and daugh¬
ters of those whose bravery and cour¬
age made the field the sacred spot it is.
First established by the Gettysburg
Battle Field Memorial association in
1864, taken over by the government
in 1895, more adequately marked by
the Gettysburg National Park com¬
mission, the park now consists of
2,530 acres of government-owned land.
It has 22% miles of avenues, in addi¬
tion to the state and county highways
that traverse it. In It there are 83
statues, in addition to nearly 800 other
monuments. There are also 1,410
bronze and iron tablets and 323 gran¬
ite markers on pedestals, while 419
mounted cannon, caissons and limbers
show the artillery position of the field.
As a recent army report declares:
“It has been well said that Gettys¬
burg was in a measure the American
soldier’s battle, a battle of the ranks,
a struggle of American prowess and
courage, of discipline and tenacity, of
unswerving fidelity and unselfish de¬
votion, a contest of American man¬
hood.”
Monkeys and Flea*
“Some persons imagine,” observed
a curator, as he tilted back his chair
in his office at the Bronx zoo, “that all
monkeys swing by their tails and that
they are always picking fleas off one
another. Nothing Is further from the
truth. The fact is that only the mon¬
keys of the New world have prehen¬
sile tails, and all of them—those in
the cages, anyway—are practically
free from parasites in captivity. That’s
because of the dry air and because our
keepers groom them every day.
Scratching each other is purely a so¬
cial. courtesy. Or, I might say, the
willingness to offer a helping hand.
The custom of plucking Imaginary fleas
dates back a good many years, I sus¬
pect, but it strikes me as a very pleas¬
ant one.”—New York World-Telegram
OUR-
CHILDREN
&
By ANGELO PATRJ
SAY NO
pOR some time now a mistaken no
r tlon of family control has afflicted
the world, especially that part of it
which these United States eover. We
have always wanted to give children
everything possible to make them suc¬
cessful. No children have ever been
given the freedom that ours have en¬
joyed.
It Is this freedom that I want to talk
about Nobody born on this earth is,
or can be, free. Everyone of us is
born tied hand and foot to other peo¬
ple, to circumstances and under laws
that bind us securely. Nobody, no
power on earth can free us of duties
and obligations and burdens. Many
mistaken parents and teachers have
tried to free children of these obliga¬
tions of life The result is hard on
the children. It Is far kinder to teach
a child how to carry a responsibility
than It Is to teach him to deny it and
then have him come face to face with
it It is like sending him out to slay
lions without even a sling shot and a
handful of pebbles.
The only freedom we can hope to
give a child is freedom from ignorance.
The first step he takes toward that
freedom Is when he learns to carry
the first responsibility. Children must
be taught to endure cheerfully and
bravely whatever pain comes their
way.
The unmannered child is too com¬
mon to need emphasis. It is he who
rides roughshod over all who come in
his way. He is loud, disrespectful,
selfish and utterly disliked. Somebody
thought it a pity to curb his self-ex¬
pression and so he lost his way. The
spoiled boy who insists upon Avivlng
the family car and staying out all
hours of the night needs no introduc¬
tion. We are all well acquainted with
him. The young girl who entertains
boys in the evenings, smokes cigarettes
end to end, and insists that she has
her school work well in band, is a
common thorn. All these children are
the victims of this mistaken freedom.
If children could rear themselves
there would be no need for father or
mothers to live longer than the few
years necessary to bring the children
into being. Nature would attend to
that. As a matter of hard fact the
infancy of the human offspring is the
most prolonged in nature. That means
that parents are needed.
It would be a very good thing for
the children of this generation to learn
that there Is a larger freedom to be
won than that so easily gained by do¬
ing nothing worthwhila They will
discover this when we learn when
and how to say no.
» * *
“APOLOGIZE AT ONCE”
««T AM having trouble with Ralph.
•I He has become a disciplinary
case almost overnight.”
“Ralph? Impossible. What’s the
matter?”
"You know, Bennie? You know
what an odd child he is. He never
says a slang word. He never forgets
his manners. He behaves like an old
man. And you know Ralph. He is
a good boy but he isn’t as good as
Bennie. Not nearly. His mother and
I have been friends since we were lit¬
tle girls.
“Yesterday Ralph punched Bennie
in the nose. It was dreadful. I asked
him why he did such a thing and he
said, ‘Because he makes me sick.' 1
told him he must apologize to Bennie.
I insisted upon It. He went to Bennie
and said, ‘My mother says I must apol¬
ogize to you, so I apologized. Just the
same, you make me sick.’
“ ‘My mother says that hereafter it
will be better for me not to know you,’
said Bennie. ‘And your mother gives
me a pain in the neck,' said Ralph.
“He came home and told me all
about it and you cannot know how I
felt. Instead of making things better
he had made them worse. 1 told him
he was to apologize to Bennie’s mother
and he said, ‘I will if you want me to,
but 1’think she is Just the same. Apol¬
ogizing won’t do any good as long as
she is so snooty to us and makes such
a sissy out of Bennie.’
“It’s the first real difficulty we- have
had with Ralph and we don’t know
what to do. What shall we do with
him?”
Let him alone. This boy is fifteen
years old. He is Intelligent, helpful,
well mannered, gay. What more can
you want? If he thinks that way
about a boy or his mother, the best
thing to do is to let them stay apart.
I would never ask a child to apolo¬
gize to anybody. I would wait until
the heat of his anger had died down
and then I would try to put his be¬
havior before him in truthful, re¬
strained terms. If then he offered to
make up with the person he offended,
I would try to show him a tactful way
out, if I could.
Sometimes troublesome situations
arise because somebody’s dignity was
hurt and demanded an apology from
an equally indignant child who refused
to give it
Apologies that are not voluntary
never do any good. It was not the
child's words and actions that mat¬
tered. It was his thinking. Change
that and you do something worthwhile.
Try to force the change and you only
double your trouble. Never mind the
apologiea Keep an eye to the think¬
ing.
©. Bel) l?l rrl .(UWNXJ Service.