Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 42

THE HARTFOKD UAILT cOUKANi: aursuai, huuuoi wet. Mans Best Chance To Search For Life On Mars Battery of Telescopes Trained on Red Planet in Effort to Solve Mystery of Heavens 4 OBSERVERS SCAN PLANET ped hia pen and wrote fluently of the wonders in the iky, not forgetting to disparage those who doubted the possibility of Intelligent life on other planets: THROUGH 24-INCH GLASS that he not only saw those canals vhlch had excited the Interest of Schaparelll, but charted a total of 5S5 canals which the Milanese had altogether missed? This was proving his thesis with a vengeance. Seriously convinced that the canals were there, and that they were artificial from their regular nature there was nothing let for' him to discovered by the Italian star-gazer soon took on the appearance of definitely cut lines on the surface of Mars. The astronomical world of that day was then by news thnt canals on Mars had been discovered. Other astronomers hastened to train their telescopes upon Mars, but thev saw nothing which thev had Martians, If They Do Exist, May Be 100,000 Years Ahead of Us In Civi-i lization Yale Scientist Doubts the Canal Theory.

ment was an advantage, since our larger glass gathered too much light "He sent us a photograph of Mars which, he thought showed the canals. He wanted to have it enlarged, and our facilities for that kind of work were better than his. The disk of Mars on the plate was about an of sn inch In diameter, and no one at Yerkes could see any lines on It Our conclusion was that Lowell was using his imagination." Thirty million miles from the earth, the red planet, named by ancient Greeks and known by Babylonian and Pyramid-builder alike, gleams in the southern sky more brightly than it Jim for two centuries: the celestial Sphinx, the riddle of the skies. Revolving about the sun, Mars has swung into a position ideal for the mundane observer who would solve its mystery. While the great photographic telescopes at Flagstaff, Arizona, and Mount Wilson, California, are trained upon this planet of the earth's own family, while a giant heliograph high in the Swiss Alps flashes light signals across the void and a French army officer literally broadcasts radio waves intended for Martian listeners, people the world over are asking, "Is Mars inhabited?" I A FRENCH VIEW 1 "If, advancing with th velocity of light, we could traverse from century to century this unlimited number of suns and spheres without ever meeting any limit to this prodigious Immensity where God brings forth worlds and beings; looking behind, but no longer knowing In what part of the Infinite to find this grain of dust called the earth, we should stop fascinated and confounded by such a spectacle and say 'Almighty God How senseless we were to believe that there was nothing beyond the earth, anil that our abode alone pos sessed the privilege of reflecting Thy This passage Illustrates the fervency with which your enthusiast pur sues his end.

Astronomy bids men lift their eyes unto the Infinite distances of space, In which the earth, the sun and all the solar system becomes insignificant as a grain of sand at the foot of Everest. Yet he who looks afar must keep his feet firmly on the ground, or he will fall Intellectually. His dreams will be marvellously beautiful, but they will not be true dreams, and the first shaft of truth will puncture them. Are there beings upon Mars? The answer speculative, at best should be made after the evidence has been sifted. The passage in which Flam-marlon exalts the vastness of tho infinite and emphasizes the obscurity of the earth, was quoted by an author who believes, after Lowell, that Intelligent beings live upon Mars.

Yet to argue that intelligent beings undoubtedly live on other planets than our own. is not to argu that they live on Mars. No one would be so Mara la a smaller planet than Is the Astronomers all over the world are seizing the opportunity of observing Mars while it is at a minimum distance from the earth, and those of the Lowell Observatory are not the least waitchful They are standing upon the same spot upon the earth from which Fercival Lowell charted hundreds of new canals following the original discoveries of Schiaparelli. The telescope pictured above wc the one which revealed to Lowell the possibility of intelligent life upon the distant planet. "CANALI" ON RED PLANET WON FAME FOR OBSERVERS This question fires the imagi- nation of the man in the street, the scholar in his study and tho astronomer in his observatory.

The immense possibilities which would be opened to mankind by communication with Mars are beyond conception. Civilization would be revolutionized by the knowledge hich WOUld inevita-1 hly come to us could we talk with people of another world, who liar advanced to the point of intelligence of "homo sapiens" the thinking man along entirely different lines. The mere thought that such communication possible is mentally intoxicating, for there no 'bounds to which we might not go, no strides which our scientific civilization might not make if we could exchange ideas with 'the "people" of Mars. Electricity is one form of energy which man has "discovered" and employed to do his work. Yet this "controlled lightning" has been the servant of man for but a short time.

Faraday discovered that by mov-ing a magnet through a coil of wire he could induce electricity. Simple? Yes, but twentieth century civilization from the material viewpoint is founded noon that discovery. Faraday was the modern Prometheus. made electricity the servant of man. Consider the part electricity plnyJ In jour life, and then think what it would mean If were able to harness another form 01 energy, capable of doing work.

Martians might easily point out to us the form of energy which they had learned to use. The result would be revolutionary. Is that going too far into the realm of imagination? We think not. Professor Michael Pu- 'pin, the man who made long telephony possible, recently told the writer that he looked for the discovery by our own scientists of aueh new forms of energy. If man can make such a discovery, as he did in the case of electricity.

It Is probable that an equally Intelligent being on planet In some ways similar to our own could do so. THE AGE OF MARS Whit reason have we to believe that if "intelligent beings" actually did live on the planet which lpl 'I1- 1 -I 1 i ii mmim, pw! wl x4f mmM lai SCHIAPARELLI bellevei but that they were created by intelligent beings. THE STUMBLING BLOCK There is the stumbling block unce you acce pt the theory that the canals could not have been made by nature, you must believe that they were built by Martians. And It would take very Intelligent peo pie Indeed, to build canals running parallel for a thousand miles, util izing a water supply seasonal In character. The Importance of the canal ques tlon is evident when we remembeo that Lowell asked but two questions in considering whether a planet was inhabited: Are physical conditions such as to make it habitable? Are there signs of its actual habitation? Physical conditions are hardly favorable from our viewpoint They may be impossible.

Yet evolution has shown that life can adapt itself to the most difficult environment, and it Is not Impossible that the Msr tians could not have been so formed as to be able to live upon that planet. Lowell has one question yet to be answered, therefore: are there slsns of its actual habitation? Pointing to the canals which he charted with such precision, Lowell said, "Vcs. The canals prove thut there must be Mnrtinns, Other scientists do not agree, by and large. The bulk of the evidence goes to show that while there are markings on the LOWELL planet, there are no such geometrical net-work of canals as Schlaparelll, Lowell and others have seen. The honesty of Lowell Is never doubted.

Yet to see Is to believe, and inasmuch as most of the astronomers do not see these canals, they do nc believe. rrofegsir Frank Jordan of the University of Pittsburgh has ben quoted by the New York "Times" as saying. "When I was a fellow at the Yerkes Observatory, I looked nt Mars through a 40-inch refractory telescope, and I must say I never saw any canals. At that time Lowell was observing through a 24-ineh leru, hut he said that the smaller Instru- Mr. Xllner tm tall, skinny, him limine brunette who looks nut unlike lit writer only he has more hair.

pounds and they put It In the tub itnd then weighed the total which weigh-' 97 pounds so Mr. Mamaux claimed that clinched his argument because In the first place tha'ciup was dead and, In tho second fliice he only In- i riftHfwl tlm Unlfrhf nf th tllh tWO' pounds whereas the fish man admit-! ted that his weight before being limppcii Into the tub was three pounds. "Thai shows how lipht I am," s'a'l3 1 Mr. MaiuauJU 1 not seen before. On year passed, another and another: only Sdapa- relll could see the canals.

Those who had been credulous became skeptical. The Italian was an eminent scientist. His word was to be trusted and yet TVrhaps he was the victim of an hallucination. What were those "canal!" which could only be seen from the Milan observatory? The canals were nothing more nor less than lines crossing the surface of the planet, drawn with geometrical precision, following the arcs of great circles, running parallel for a distance of 2.000 miles and then converging at a common point. "The canall have the distinctness of an engraving on steel, with the magical beauty of a colored Schlaparelll told his fellow-astronomer.

A net-work of lines sharply engraved across the surface of a planet, with a geometrical symmetry which nature seldom employs In her workmanship: this was indeed startling, and astronomers bent over their work with greater real. Kight years after the Italian had discovered the canals on Mars, his observations were verified by n-other astronomer and his assistant, studying the heavens at Nice, France. The theory began to "hold water," so It seemed. Other scientists looked long and patiently at the surface of the planet. Presently they too observed these strange markings which SchiMparelli called csnals.

The drams of Mars was now under way. and speculation as to their meaning he-gun. If nature had not made the canals, who had? TELESCOPE'S TARGET i. If Mars had been slighted during the preceding five or six thousnnl years di'rlng which human beings had studied its actions, It now re-ceived Its full share of attention. Observers noted those who could re cognize marK'ntrs cuiials thai the channels which appeared ss graven lines st a distance of over 3rt.000.000 miles, must he at least thirty miles In width.

They noted i whole network of thess lines. At certain points the lines met I- still darker spots which Lowell wis to ca'l The so-called canals were soon believed to be strips of vegetation nn the planet, given life by narrower streams of water Invisible tt mm. Mars was a "dry planet," they knew, with a minimum of moisture. Unless that minimum were hoarded ud and used In the most efficient manner possible, vegetation could not thrive throughout a part of the year. This Kiinwinrge was coupled with the sym metry and strnightness of the lines with the idea resu'tlng that the lines were not mads by nature, but by In telligent beings, in short Mnrtiatis Was this possible? Could npiiiRs actually live on Mars.

Tne question was asked then, as now. flie major barrier to life on the planet was the fact that air and wi-er essentials to life as we know-it were conspicuous by their absence. At least the physicist told the astronomer that the atmosphere on Mars must be twice as rare is en the summit of Mount Everest. I'n'ess nn Inhabitant of the earth were equipped with oxygen tanks, his first moment oft Mars would be his last: he would strangle In short orde-. Hnee the Martian must have evolved a unique breathing apparatus.

A "dry How could helnfrs find nourishment on a plant whose rainfall was Insufficient to urg vegetation into growth? By Irrigation and by irrigation alone. If they were to survive they mut hoard up their water supply and use It to the best advantage. Surely the canals explained the Martian solution to the matter In a most reasonable way. Tho "canal" Idea grew. A particular observation furthered this thought: Mars, like the earth, has its North Pole and its South Pole, each hurled under Ice and snow, each with Its Ice-cap covering.

At certain seasons of the year these Ice-caps shrank to a small area, and st the same time the canal network Indicating the areas of vegetation sprang into life. t'fiOARDINO THE WATER This was Interpreted as meaning that the polar Ice-caps, frozen In winter, melted with the coining of early summer, for these snow blankets at the poles were observed to shrink an nually with the coming of warmer weather upon the planet, and with perfect regularity. If the ice-caps melted end the vegetation areas became alive st the same time, what could be more natural than to con clude that the water from the Ice caps furnished water for the canals. In turn -furnishing life for the vegetation. At the same time, the astronomers believed that these "canali" were laid out with a regularity which' nature would not have employed: hence the conclusion that Intelligent beings uti'lzd the seHSonal melting of the Ice-csps in order that they might survive.

At the end of summer fas can be observed this year) the canals were seen to fade from view, and the Ice caps which had shrunk Into Inslgnl ficanre, develop once more to their original size. Winter had come. Presumably the Martians had harvested their crops. Those who believe in the existence of the Martians thereby killed two birds with one stone: they explained the canals and presented a theoretical means whereby the Msrtlans could live on a "dry world." Just ss the vegetation of Indln receives Its water supply from the melting Him-llsynn snows, ss that of Kgypt received its nourishment from the snow on the mountains of Abyssinia, so the Martian vegetation along the cnnal-netwnrk, receives Its life-force from the snows of the "Arctic" end "Antarctic" regions. The region about the csnals appeared to be of a bluish-green color It was said.

In the same wsy, our own Western pra-rles would look green to sn observer on Mars. So far so good admitting the actual existence of the canals ss described by Schlaparelll and his followers. Wide Interest was awakened In the posslhllltiea Involved. Flammerlon, the sminsot Fisova aJlrvuomer, dip IMAGINATION? The Pittsburgh professor concluded then, that Lowell did not actually observe the canals, but that he Imagined he saw them. The general opinion among astronomers Is that an optical illusion Is quite possible in such sn Instance.

Experiments have 'shown that when the human eye views a number of points at a distance, it often connects them unconsciously Into lmes. This would afford one explanation for the canals as existing on the retina of the astronomer, rather than od the surface of Mars. Surely one follower of Lowell makes a strong demand when he says that in order to actually see the canals, one should have "a special faculty, an Inborn capacity, a de light In the exercise of exceptional acuteness of eyesight and natural dexterity, coupled with a gift of Imagination as to the true meaning of what thejr observe." The bulk of astronomers have not this unusual eyesight and this gift of Imagination, apparently. Antoniadl, an Italian like Schlapg-relli, working with a 32.75-lnch re fractor could not see the canals. Did he lack the eyesight or the Imagination? Nor could the Lick observers with a 36-Inch telescope, nor Barnard with the 40-inch Yerkes telescope, nor Hale with the 60-lnch reflector of the Solar Observatory on Mount Wilson.

These are all eminent astron omers, working with the finest telescopes science could perfect. Their observations tend to confute those of Lowell, and It Is upon the evidence of observations that must come to our decision. A new angle to the case was given the writer by Professor Frank Schle-slnger. director of the Yale Observatory, Interviewed on the question, "Do you believe' there are intelligent beings on Mars?" "The general belief Is that the markings on the surface of the planet are natural," he difficulties in the way of considering them artificial are too great." DR. SCHLESINGER'S VIEWS "It Is entirely a matter of Individual speculation.

There is nothing we can see through a telescope to lead tis to believe that Mars is Inhabited, and I rather think the chances are against its being inhabited at the present time. Only three or four astronomers in the world believe that Mars is inhabited by intelligent beings. "It would be something of a co-Incidence If we should catch Mars in the act, so to speak. There has been Intelligence on this earth for a few thousand years out of the billion years which make up the earth's history. Furthermore it appears likely to me that intelligent life on the earth will fall to exist after the lapse of a somewhat longer period.

Gradual change of climate, or perhaps a malignant microbe or another Ice age one thing or another will bring about extinction of the race. "Hence the life of man in the history of the planet occupies relatively only sn Instant of time, the merest fraction of the whole age of the planet. What a coincidence it would be If at the very moment in the earth's history that man had reached his present position In the scale of evolution, that life on Mars should have reached a similar point!" The law of probabilities would certainly not favor such a coincidence. The case would be similar to that of two men. who aeree to rtimh to the tops of two neighboring moun-j tains, each armed with an electric searchlight for the purpose of signaling to the other across the gulf separating the peaks.

According to tho agreement each man of the men would flash his signal light once during the night, the moment to be fixed, not by their intelligence, but "No it, don't," retorted Mr. Kleran, "All It pinves Is tint nobody with any brains should ought to buy fish from this market Well i'i lends, the reason I feel cabled upon to horn Into this argument Is that sll my life I have been making a study of weights and displacements snd etc. and I will give you a few facts to prove that It Is a very tricky subject snd person should not ought to Ket Into no srgument in regards same unless they have msstered It. If you will g0 into a restaurant and order a large glass of mllk.end weigh it before you touch cup 'to Up you will fir.d that the total weight is about one ounce. Then if you wait a few minutes tin a ny drops into the glass and welKh It again, why If Ihe fly Is just a common fly and still sllvo y(m will ffnd that the weight of the entire project ain't Increased even ono fly weight hut if the fly was dead when It dropped In.

why there will be a Increased weight of 10 and no hundreds minims a specially If the fly was a horse fly. Prof. Sump ef Keiere On tho o'her hand If you tsUe ii prill of water or beer and drop a livo rat Into same, the weight of the pall will Increase by exactly as much as the rat weighed In the first place snd If you make It two rats, the weight will Increase pro rata. But If one or or the rats, happen to get diowtnd, they will come to the Mirface looking like drowned rats snd at the siinin time proving thnt tiiey didn't or they would of sunk. It Is tho kind of 'dan-tfe-rnus to make this lest In a pall of beer as the rats goes right to It The lives of Giovanni Schapnrelli.

a Milanese, and Fercival Lowell, a Bostonian, were linked for all time by the former's discovery of what appeared a beautiful network of lines on the planet Mars, which he called "canali," or canals. Lowell was just finishing1 Harvard at the time. His imagination kindled by the possibilities of the canals, he verified the observations of the Italian and beeanie the leading exponent of the theory that intelligent beings exist on Mars. earth. Both planets were once heated to a temperature which cannot be produced upon the earth today.

The smaller planet cooled the more rapidly, and thus arrived earlier at the degree of temperature which would permit lire. For these and other reasons those who believe that Mars Is Inhabited, ate immensely enthusiastic. They wien Columbus "opened up a new wprld to men of the old. Not unreasonably, they dream of the urge which would unquestionably follow, If we could discover a new world of human beings In the skies. The whole matter must be settled however, by actual astronomical observations of Mars, and not by an unkln-died Imagination; by common sense and not by unreasoning romance.

SPECULATIVE There Is room for considerable mental gymnastics In any biased consideration of the question, "la there Intelligent life on Mars" for the outstanding fact Is that no man can make any proof-positive statement as to whether there Is life there or no. Science can reveal many Interesting facts about Mara to us, such as Its mass, the Inclination of his axis, and the amount of heat it receives from the sun, It can tell ui how much Mars weighs to an ounce, but it cannot tell us with any degree of certainty whether Intelligent beings live upon the brick-red planet. This must be understood at the outset, and the reader should heavily discount the statement of any would-be scientist who argues that Intelligent beings do certainly live upon Mars. The matter Is speculative. One scientist says, another "No! Hence the reader of this newspaper, although he may never have explored ithe heavens through the marvellous Instrument which Galileo gave mankind, can weigh the various opinions offered by men of note, and decide for himself what the answer may be.

Again, we must add that the of scientific opinion Is against the belief in certain circles that intelli gent life exists upon Mars. Before quoting the opinion of a Connecticut astronomer, internationally known at an expert In the lore of the heavens, we will state the proposition as It exists. The movements of Mars were known to the ancients, we have said nor can the ancients' appreciation of astronomy be doubted. The science of mathematics received Its first impet us from astronomy, father of all sciences, before the mists of antiquity were cleared away. Phoenicians guided the course of their primitive vessels by the stars in earliest times, Just as the Wise Men directed thel" course to Bethlehem by the sacred star, just as sea-coptalns today determine their position.

Throughout historic time. Mara has been noted by men. Yet the mystery which Is Mart today was not horn until within memory of our own generation. taw. Knr centuries men had wondered whether the Almighty had not dig nified other planets iwith the presence of human beings, when Giovanni Schlaparclll made his astounding observations of Mars In Italy less thaa fifty years ago.

Kchlaparelll "discovered" the canals on Mars. I THE CANALS i 1 fccannlng the heavens with an 8-Inch glass (that of the telescope on Mount Wilson today Is 60 inches), Schlapaielli fixed his attention on Mars as it swerved towards the earth In its snlnr Journey, and observed what first, appeared to be daik greenish streaks across the red surface of ihe planet, The scene was In an ol.sei vstory in Milan, Italy, In 1RT7 and forthwith rang up on the rurtnln on the drama which has not jet b'len ronduded. The streaks rash as to argue that there are not oher planets Inhabited by Intelligent God-created creatures, yet a man might very well hold that Mars, the dying planet, is not so endowed with life. Lowell stood first among those ho believed in the Martians, and he Is widely quoted on thnt subject. His own observations contributed largely to the belief.

Inflamed by S'hiapar-elli's account of the canals he proceeded to Flagstaff, Arizona, where the air is unusually clear, for the express purpose, not of observing In order to draw his own conclusions, but to prove a point he had already made In advance Is It Ktranffe FLAGSTAFF OBSERVATORY AN ASTRONOMER'S IDEAL tropics. Year after year, heat from the sun drives them back. During the Interval, the Martians are supposed to earn their living for the rest of the year, and the Martian year lasts for 23 months. A day on the red planet lasts about as long as a day on earth. ONE COMPENSATION But there Is one compensation for the Martian, If he exists.

The same physicists who tell us the weight of Mars to sn ounce, assure us thtt nature has provided him with a marvellous labor-saving device. That device Is the mass of the planet Itself, which being comparatlvelysrrfa.il, allows a small gravitational force. A Martian, smaller than a Japanese could easily pick up a weight which would terrify one of our "strong men." If the Martian should have the muscular power of a man on earth, he could do far more work with much less effort. There is a fly in the ointment, however: Nature does not give men more muscular power than they need. Otherwise wo should be a race of Hercules.

We repeat: why stop with Marsf Surely there are other planets in space whose life-conditions would be more like those which gave rise ti life on our own globe. The naked eye alone can see 5,000 distant suns or stars, as we call them. For all we know to the contrary, hundreds or thousands of these suns are accompanied in their passage througtl space by planets as is our own sun. Among these planets might not ther be upon which intelligent life has developed? At this point, the passage of Flammarion would be to the point. If the Almighty, embodying the Supreme Physical as well as Spiritual Force, has placed beings upon this earth, why not on othersT ThOTe very elements which make up our own earth, our own bodies, are found in the sun.

Harmony reigns throughout the universe. How strange It would be If life were not found on another planet. Among the thousand of planets which we may consider possible homes of Intelligent life, may there not be one on which thechanc element Is eliminated, as far as tims is concerned. Where the naked eye1 of msn can see but 5,000 stars on a clear night, the telescope brings into range hundreds of millions! Here are more possibilities! Here again apply th quoted passage from Flammarion' pen! "Other men, other worlds! Why stop with Mars?" of 10 and bo hundreds minims a spe. than the foregoing.

He weighed all passengers that was going on a trl from New York to Cherbourg and then weighed them all again when the ship got to Cherbourg. They didn't weigh nowheres near as much, Trof. Sump was much impressed. (Copyright, 1924. By The Bell SyndN cate, Inc.) Tern now has a building boom.

In the neighborhood of 40.000 pat ents are Issued annually by the l'n' ted States government Hydro-electric undertsklnga callln for tpn million horsepower are under, wsy or licensed In the United State. "We have met the classified oppor tunltles and they are oure," is wnai successful people say, entirely by chance beyond their con trol. What possibility would there be that each would pick the same second during the night In which to flash his light? Assuming that there were eight hours during the period, the chances would be exactly 28,500 to 1 against such a coincidence. Granting that sometime In the plan etary history of Mars, intelligent be ings might be evolved, the chances of their signaling to us at this time would be far less than that. RADIO SIGNALS Yet there are enthusiasts who not only believe that radio communication with Mars is possible, a 1000 to I shot for instance, but entirely probable! They assume that the Martian with his advanced Intelligence has also developed that very same invention of radio as have mundane workers! Having "talked" from New York to Taris, they now propose to "talk from New Y'ork or Paris to Mars, some 30.000.000 miles at the present time.

Radio waves have already been broadcast in our direction from red planet, they assume. "Have we begun to catch them?" writes a naval officer in a popular radio magazine discussing astronomical wireless. "It is high'y probable that we have. Tut on your telephones any quiet night about 3 a. m.

and you will hear faint whispers sifting out of the great black pit above you. Many of these whspers cannot be explained by even our most ingenious delvers into the mysteries of wireless. So It Is not at all absuid to contemp'ate the possibility of their orlginatng on Mars?" Is this an appeal to reason, or to the Imagination? If these whisperings from the "great, black pit" do really come from outside, why stop with Mars! There are so many difficulties In the way of believing that intelligent beings can exist on the red planet. What a cold place It wou'd be for the development of life! The mean temperaturethroughout the year, from pole to pole has been estimated at being 33 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit That of the earth is 60 degrees above zero, Fahrenheit But then, the earth Is nearer the sun and receives more than twice as much sunlight What cold, cheerless places must bt the cruel, red deserts of Mars, deserts annually threatened by glacial Invasion. Year after year the great ice caps creep down toward the They will be Increased weight clnlly If the fly Is horsefly.

and are libel to reach the singing stage. The moat conclusive test I ever made along these lines was one time when I took a night boat from N. to Albany on the Hudson river. Urst It was necessary to weigh the river snd then the boat whan It was empty and afterwards when the Pn-Itcrs got aboard. Then I made all the passengers come Into the weighing room and get weighed one by one.

When the boat got to Albany the next mnrnlnsr the river looked Just like It did the Inst time I was up tlicie. Rump of Severe Vnlverslly. New ones made a experiment which perhaps proves more Lardner's Physics Class Discusses Displacement TC. 'I pre; Wife. The Lowell Observatory nt Flagstaff, Arizona, was built especially for a study of the surface features of Mars, and there was developed the theory that intelligent life exists upon that planet.

Its location is idfal from the astronomer's viewpoint; at an altitude of 7,000 feet upon a mesa in the northern part of the stale. Clarity of the ai" makes for the. best possible observations. To the Editor of The Current: It seems like as If It was up to nie to settle a big argument which occurred between Al Mamatix and Jack Klecan. It must be explained that Mr.

Kleran is one of the baseill writers on the New York Iter I-Tribune and a prominent golf player. Mr. Mamaux is somewhat of a veteran big league baseball pitcher, now with the Yankees and formerly with Pittsburgh and Brooklyn and easily the best singer in the big leagues. The argument was reported by Mr. Harry S.ilslnger of the Ie.

trolt News. Mr. Salslnger is a tall skinny handsome bruneue who looks not unlike the writer only he hus more hair. Well it seems like Mr. Mamaux and Mr.

Kleran got Into a fishing argu ment namely, Mr. Mntnaux tainted that If you took a bucket of witter and weighed It and then dmpped a live fish Into the bucket, the bucket would weigh Just the s.ime like ns If no fish had been dropped Into it. What It Proves "A live fish can't possibly Increase the weight of water," said Mr. Mum-aux. "A dead fish, that Is a different matter, because that would Im dead eight." Well they went a liiboi iilory In Detroit where this hitter argument started and asked the professor of fish which was right and who whs wrong, so the ild he would mnke a test hut didn't linv live fish on hand 'bat and Mr.

Mnmaiix would not stand for no test being made with dead fish, Finely they went to a fish market and they had a tub full nt ''u v. Ing Sfi pounds and they found a fish rsmed Carp who weighed. thr Is nothing but another "earth," ttwy i S'ould be as intelligent or mure than we ourselves? The answer Is lmple: Martians must have had at leist 100,000 years more time In vhlch to step upwards through (volution from germ to super-man than Ve have had. That is a lung time, liany limes longer tlmn toe period fequlred for the transformation of a 1 lava-man Into a modem num. Hence If mankind has ii ichid Its present level in a given time, tnt "men of Mara" must have reached is high a level In ten times that imount of time, or higher.

Hut how would th Martians hne hud a longer time than men rf our own earth, when Mnrs Ilself Is perhaps no older than the earth? No older In actual years, It has developed farther In the same way that a fi-year fid dog Is more mature for a dig a i-ycsr-old child Is ViX a in.m.