The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 12

THE SUN, BALTIMORE, TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 20. 1012 12 On The Lid For The Duration SUN THE Down The Spillway one year since 1914, most corporations report that they have more individual stockholders than ever before. That is, there is wide dispersion of stock ownership among a great many small holders who buy as investors, rather than among large stockholders who buy as speculators. The exchange's interest in knowing more about the general public's wishes is the extent of that public's interest is the surprise. it has announced the point-rationing plan in advance of its going into effect because it wants the public to become thoroughly familiar with a somewhat complex system before having to use it.

The OPA is looking, that is, to the public for a considerable amount of spontaneous cooperation in the new program. There is, however, in such early announcements the danger that greedy people will be given the opportunity to hoard before the rationing takes effect. There has been hoarding in gasoline and in sugar. Here, then, is an opportunity for Americans to prove their patriotism in very practical terms. Let them resist the temptation to hoard; and let them master the mechanics of the point system as well as their young men are mastering the more difficult techniques of mechanized war, and as devotedly.

Published Every Wee Day By THE A. S. A BELL COMPANY Paul Patterson. President r.tered at tlie PosiofTice at Baltimore as second c.ass tnaU mauer. Subscription Rates of the Sanpapers Morning Evening Sunday 1 month 65c 65c 45c 6 months S3.50 $3.50 $2.60 1 year $6.00 $6.00 $5.20 Editorial Offices Baltimore Sun Square Washington National Press Building London 40 Fleet Street Circulation of Sunpapers in November -1942 Horning 163.183 151.220 Gain 11.968 Evening 177.051 166,553 Gain 10,498 Sunday 259,565 233.019 Gain 26,546 Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use lor republication 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 cf special dispatches herein are also reserved. BALTIMORE. TUESDAY. DECEMBER 29. 1942 Connecticut Sets An Example Of Cooperation With The OPA At the close of last week Governor Hurley of Connecticut officially declared a fuel-oil emergency in his State.

Tomorrow evening he and Governor-elect Baldwin are to issue a joint proclamation establishing a State program for the conservation, distribution and use of fuel-oil supplies. What gives particular interest to this development on the rationing front is that Connecticut is apparently acting entirely on its own initiative. Governor Hurley declaration followed a specific i request by the Selectmen from fifty of the State's larger towns. The new pro- gram is being drafted by the State's own fuel administrator. Connecticut, of course, is already subject to the OPA's oil-rationing rules.

The State officials are in effect protesting against OPA control not because it is too drastic but because it is not drastic enough. They are telling the OPA that their people are ready to accept much more restrictive measures than have yet been imposed, and that they will impose additional restrictions under their own authority. In brief, Connecticut is not simply sitting back to criticize the way in which the OPA is handling the problem; it is moving ahead to help in the search for a solution. That example should have pertinent value not merely for other States but for the OPA itself. The deepening difficulty of the attempt to administer a rising number of rationing schedules from Washington would be considerably eased if the direct and active aid of State and local governments were enlisted in the effort.

But to await voluntary action by local authorities is to lose a real opportunity. The OPA-might well adopt an affirmative policy of deliberately seeking similar cooperation throughout the country. Letters to the Editor The Port After One Year Of War Lively Encouragement For Legislative Efficiency From Senator Arthur H. Brice and Delegate Thomas E. Conlon comes the welcome intimation that, in the probable event of their reelection next week as President of the Maryland Senate and Speaker of the Maryland House, they will be ready to appoint committees within twenty-four hours.

In past sessions there have been many factors contributing to weeks of floundering and idleness by the Legislature, but one of the most dismal and least excusable has been the delay in the naming of committees. Until the committees are ready to function the Legislature as a whole can have almost nothing to do, and all the other speedup methods achieve little. As it is, the Legislative Council, operating for the second time in its short existence, has prepared and printed 137 bills for consideration by the Legislature that is, by the committees as soon as they are organized. This compares with 110 bills so prepared in advance of the 1941 session, and while the bills' mere number is a poor standard, as compared with their quality, the surface indication is certainly not less favorable than that of two years ago. Hope is an unreliable guide in private and public affairs aUke.

Our realistic legislative correspondents remind us that on a comparative basis the 1941 session got away to a better start than had its immediate predecessor, and for several weeks the optimistic record of bills introduced and assigned and debated suggested a marked betterment. Despite that happy start, the 1941 session wound up in the usual hurricane. January First's splendid resolutions met April First's disillusionment. Yet hope still springs eternal. And in certain important respects the 1943 session actually has better promise than had that of 1941.

One, of course, is that the Baltimore city delegation is somewhat better than its predecessors, thanks to some of the superior fusion members named at the last election. Their number was much too limited, to be sure, but the city voters made a modest start toward sending better men to Annapolis, and for tnat start city and State alike remain grateful and hopeful. There is also the imponderable fact that this is wartime, and because all of us are more seriously concerned with duty and responsibility we can assume that the legislators will reflect national sobriety. Each of us has his work to do, as quickly and efficiently as we know how, and from no one is this sort of performance expected more justifiably than from our elected representatives at Annapolis. Now Messrs.

Brice and Conlon provide still further sustenance for a State-wide hope. If they do in fact get their committees named promptly, theirs will be a most important aid to legislative celerity and efficiency. From the December Bulletin of the Export and Import Bureau, Association of Commerce Port of Baltimore closes its first year of full wartime operation with a record of substantial contributions to the nation's war effort. The nature and extent of this help cannot be told. But it is violating no censorship to say that the men A Good Many People hereabout ar complaining bitterly about the inconvenience they will suffer with the abandonment, for the duration, of the Charles street busses.

I shall suffer some inconvenience myself and I am not going to pose as a superpatriot by proclaiming how much ecstasy I shall get out of making this necessary sacrifice. On the other hand, when I tot up the gains and losses by the change, I find that the balance is not all on the wrong sid. I have been forced many timet to drive up Charles street behind one of those laggard monsters and all but lost my reason on the way. And thli was not only on account of the delay but also, and more importantly, on account of the stench. No One Has Ever been able to tell me just why these busses and these busses only had the power of asphyxiation.

I have asked Mr. Raymond Tompkins, who knows everything else about the Baltimore Transit Company, but he always pleaded ignorance. Once I got up my nerve to pose the same question to Mr. J. Bancroft Hill, president of the company.

He promised to send me an engineer's report of the subject but it never arrived. The only logical reason for the thing I ever heard was that put forward by a taxi driver. He said that these busses were equipped with a device by which, after the motors were warmed up. a certain proportion of kerosene (coal oil?) was mixed with the fuel. The kerosene, he said, made the smell.

I had to admit, when he told me this, that the fumes were very much like those of a smoky kerosene lamp, but I still don't know whether the explanation was accurate. In any event, Charles street, for strolling and for driving, will be a pleasanter place without the smell. That is no small gain. Dear Mr. O'Ren I cherish you fondly; therefore I musi point out that "Good King Wenceslas" was not written by John Neal, of Massachusetts.

You are in the gall of bitterness! It was written by John Mason Neale. the great hymnologist and scholar of the Anglican church (1818-1866, I believe). John Mason Neale, a man of immense learning as well as piety, is credited with writing or translating thirty-three hymns listed in "The New Hymnal" of the Episcopal church; and they are not wishy-washy, feeble stuff. "Quit ye like men, be strong!" was Neale's timbre, both in character and hymns. For instance oh, well, you have probably had enough.

I will add, though, that his greatest work was founding the order of St. Margaret at Grinstead, England, an order with hundreds of sisters in all parts of the empire and in our own country. I like Massachusetts, but I couldn't let it get away with King Wenceslas. But what rankles even more is linking up Wenceslas with Carnegie and Rockefeller. A very dubious connotation, it seems to me.

"Blessing the poor," my eye! Yes, yes, I know the answers; but they are your answers, not mine. Letitia Stockett. That's What Comes of trusting an anthdlogist. My authority for attributing Wenceslas to Neal is Burton E. Stevenson, compiler of the "Home Book of Verse," but the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations gives it to Neale.

I am inclined to think the English book is right, because it cites the source; the poem, it says, appeared in "Carols for Christmas, by Helmore and Neale. But for linking Wenceslas' philosophy with that of the American millionaires, I make no apologies whatever. Doubtless our millionaires in many cases were robber barons; but there is nothing distinctive in that. So were some millionaires in every other country. Where ours differ is that so many of them eventually disgorged for the benefit of the poor.

Maybe they were trying to buy their way into Heaven, but that is a matter between them and St. Peter; all I know is that they blessed the poor." In The Evening Sun yesterday Miss Margaret Ellington had an appealing piece, prettily illustrated, on the decline of chivalry in Baltimore. Miss Ellington carried two heavy suitcases for a mile before she found a male who spontaneously offered to help her. Chivalry, she concluded, may not be dead hereabouts, but it is pretty sick. It occurred to me that the same story could be told in a somewhat different form, or with a different moral.

Miss Ellington might have written it in this form: "Girls who are thinking about coming to Baltimore need not fear that they won't be safe here. Despite the fact that the town is jammed with soldiers, sailors and defense workers, a girl is safe alone on the streets, even if by appealing glances and other feminine wiles she practically invites them to speak to her." My own feeling, of course, is that both conclusions are based on loo few facts. The Gross Tonnage of the entire United States merchant fleet in 1939 was 11,470,000 tons. The largest fleet we ever had was a little over 17,000,000 tons, in 1921. We have built this year 8,200.000 tons of shipping, which is to say, we have reproduced seventy-one per cent, of the entire merchant fleet of 1939.

These figures fill me with pride and enthusiasm, and yet one nagging thought intrudes. A machine so tremendous cannot be stopped instantly. It is bound to continue pouring out ships for some time after the fighting stops. I remember how scores and hundreds of ships were tied in this vicinity after the last war; ar 1 when I consider how enormously bigger this one is I begin to wonder whether, a couple of years after the armistice, the Norfolk boat will be able to get up the Bay at all, through the countless ships there. John O'Ren.

Behind The Ration Plan For Fruits And Vegetables There is a set of rather simple facts behind Mr. Wickard's plan to ration available supplies of fruits and vegetables now, and of meats later, in order to meet our own civilian and military needs and the lease-lend needs of our allies. Basically, we must remember that the agriculture of our allies, to an infinitely greater extent than our own, has been disrupted by the general mobilization of manpower for the armed services. Next, we must remember that Russia, one of the largest agricultural producers on our side of the war, has lost the Ukraine, its major agricultural region. Finally, we must recall that even before the war England was far from self-sufficient in food, as was the continent of Europe.

Before the war England raised about forty per cent, of the food which she needed to feed her population. She is now raising only some sixty -five per cent, of the food which she requires. The Russians, heavy producers before the war and able to export cereals, are now depending on us for many food supplies. Continental Europe, whose people we must feed as soon as we can get near enough to them to make such feeding possible, was only about ninety per cent, self-sufficient in food even before tne war. That percentage ranged downward with respect to some of the countries most damaged by the German occupation for instance, to forty-three per cent, for Norway and fifty-one per cent, for Belgium.

Again, the war not only has drained the farming regions throughout the allied world of farm labor, it has added to the consumption needs of the very men it has taken into army and navy. Our own soldiers, as civilians, ate about the average civilian allotment of food, which runs to some four pounds a day. But as soldiers, under the rigors of the military life, their needs have increased by twenty-five per and they now average some five pounds a day. The food needs of the soldiers of our allies have similarly increased over their demands as civilians. To meet the needs of our own soldiers and of the soliders and the civilian populations of our allies, we have already rationed such basic commodities as sugar and coffee.

The new system for the fruits and vegetables, however, will be unlike the simple unit system used in the earlier rationing plans. It is called the point system, and it is borrowed rather directly from England, where "it was instituted in May of 1941. The unit system is good enough for a single staple commodity where it is possible to allot coupons for every unit of the commodity. But in the field of the fruits and the vegetables, there is no staple commodity. There is, on the contrary, great variation in product, in flavor, in brand, in size of containers, etc.

In this field wide variation of consumer tastes also exists. The point-rationing system is designed to meet these peculiar needs. The point system amounts, in effect, to a secondary currency which, in food purchases, modifies the value of ordinary money as legal tender. Goods must still be purchased with money; in addition, a certain amount of "points" within a fixed allotment of points must be "spent" for each item. If the item is scarce, the rationing authorities will ask a greater number of points for it.

If the item is abundant, its cost in points will decline. In this way, much on the model of the free market, the housewife will be able to pick and choose to a certain degree even under wartime restrictions. For the amount of some foods will indeed be restricted, as Mr. Wickard says. The restrictions, however, will not be so great as to threaten the national diet.

Indeed, the British have found that rationing has raised the general level of dietary efficiency and of health above what it was in pre-war times. Mr. Wickard states that there may be some slight shortages in such essentials as calcium, riboflavin and niacin, or nicotinic acid. All these are related to the vital complex of vitamins and are found in animal products, in milk, In meats, in cheese, etc. The dairy shortage is one of the most serious which we face, and rationing of butter has already been announced for the near future.

But food chemists are loath to speculate as to the result of such slight shortages as Mr. Wickard speaks of. Certainly there is, on the one hand, no reason to expect any very serious consequences to ourselves from the new plan; while our generosity to our allies in supplying them with the basic munition, food, promises very serious consequences indeed to the enemy. One more thing: The OPA says that and facilities of this harbor meas 4 Protest Against Streetcar Schedules For Sunday To the Editor of The Sun Sir; This morning I waited at Harford road and Evergreen avenue for a streetcar. After ten minutes it came loaded to the gills.

Three of us were able to get aboard, while crowds between that point and North avenue were left standing shouting appropriate imprecations to wait another ten minutes for another disappointment. The motorman explained that the car lines were operating on Sunday schedule. Sunday schedule here in Baltimore, the second busiest city on the Atlantic seaboard, in wartime! Men and women holding the home front against. Schickclgruber and Tojo, many of them voluntarily leaving their cars in their garages and walking a mile or more to the car line for what? Only to have their efforts nullified and their enthusiasm crushed by this outfit which is licensed as a public carrier. Darkness veiled the disappointed crowds this morning, but on the morning of Labor Day, in good visibility, when the same thing, occurred, I counted 164 would-be passengers left stranded between the same two points, most of them wearing war-work badges and many of them elevating fists and voices in vigorous protest.

Let all war workers of this vast section join this protest and see if we cannot obtain not a Sunday but a wartime schedule! William B. Swindells, Foreman Woodworking Division, U. S. A. Signal Corps Repair Shop.

Baltimore, Dec. 26. A New Lexington Market A Project Awaiting Final Judgment Construction of a new Lexington Market to take the place of the present structure, parts of it 110 years old, is urged by the Commission on City Plan as one of the projects for an after-the-war building program. That we should prepare such a program to ease our transition to a peace economy goes without saying. That a rebuilt Lexington Market has its own merit is equally obvious; it has been urged for years.

Early this year the commission's advisory engineers recommended a new market with adequate customer parking space, proper facilities for rapid incineration of waste and trash, comfort stations and, of course, a full modern setup for the actual market section. Thus far there is no room for public dissent to the undertaking. But what of the financial plans? Here details are not yet available. It is for this reason that Mayor Jackson has with- a held support from the commission's plans, although he is on record as favoring in principle the construction of a new market. It is hoped that the suggestions for financing will merit Mr.

Jackson's support and the public's. With that assured, the market proposal will be a welcome addition to the list of post-war building projects. orders as well as those who give them. I realize the difficulty of Britons and Americans being compelled to probe the depths of brutality practiced by our enemies, yet it has been amply demonstrated that there is no other method open to us. C.

H. H. Rumbold. Baltimore, Dec. 26.

Our Correspondent Is Invited To Read The Warnings of The Municipal Water Engineers To the Editor of The Sun Sir: From one who is both an admirer and critic of Howard Jackson comes the thought that now so soon after we, the people, have expressed our objection to a $32,000,000 water loan is a bad time indeed for any executive to show us that our sacred right of free ballot might be meaningless. Let all public servants take due notice that the fathers and mothers of the boys who have gone overseas are more awake than ever to the importance of guarding at home the privileges for which the youngsters have gone away to fight. If there is an emergency existing that makes it necessary to override the so-recently expressed majority, then give us conclusive proof before taking action. Be advised. Stanley Brown.

Baltimore, Dec. 28. Want a Recent Speech by Captain Rickenbacker Repeated in Every Defense Plant in the Country To the Editor of The Sun Sir; When I heard Mr. Rickenbacker talk on the radio I felt that if the Government would have that record repeated in every plant in the country there would be no more strikes. If, after hearing it.

any men wished to strike it would seem to me they could not be loyal Americans and should be considered saboteurs. I have faith in the average man and feel that the workers will agree. Perhaps you can persuade the Government to order this and Mr. Rickenbacker can feel he has helped our cause again in a wonderful way. Anne H.

Savage. Baltimore, Dec. 22. A Debt We Owe From the Manchester Guardian XJOTHING can express the debt owed to Malta by Britain, the empire, and 1 lie free world, but no hotter time than the present could have been chosen for the gift of 10,000,000 from this nation for the island's rebuilding. While the great Allied movement across North Africa has encouraged us all, it has brought to the peopleof Malta a promise that the painful sufferings of over two years will soon end.

Malta was H00 miles away from our outposts at Kl Alamcin; Gibraltar was nearly 1,000 miles distant ured up fully to many sudden demands and pressures and made notable accomplishments in the building, repair and manning of ships and the expeditious handling or vessels and cargoes. While the port thus upheld its tradition, and responded quickly and effectively to war assignments, actually it was used far below its capacity for practical service. Periods of comparative idleness made it difficult to maintain essential labor and other operating factors which had to be ready at all times for emergency functions. But these strains were weathered and at no time did the harbor fail to meet its operating responsibilities. At the year end a more systematic Federal usage of the port seems to be developing, as well as greater recognition of the part which it is capable of playing in the vital transportation and marine phases of the war With its record of effective performance whenever it lias been called upon, Baltimore's harbor is ready to assist in the gigantic maritime job which confronts America in 1943 and in conformance with war needs and planning hopes for opportunity to share more fully in that job.

No cameras are permitted on small boats, ferries, ships and other vessels operating in the Port of Baltimore. This ruling was recently placed in effect by the office of the Captain of the Port, following the approval on November 23 of an executive order prescribing additional regulations governing persons and vessels in defensive sea areas. The order states: 1. No person shall have in his possession within the limits of any defensive sea area any camera or other device for taking pictures, or any film, plate or other device upon or out of which a photographic imprint, negative or positive, can be made, except in the performance of official duty or employment in connection with the national defense, or when authorized pursuant to the provision of the act approved June 25, 1942. 2.

It shall be the duty of the master or officer in charge of any vessel to take custody of and safeguard all cameras or other devices for taking pictures, or film, plate or other device upon or out of which a photographic imprint, positive or negative, can be made, the possession of which is prohibited by this order, from any person, prior to the time "The Only World We Have" To the EDiron of The Sun Sir: I write to commend you and Edmund Duffy and congratulate The Sun for publishing that timely cartoon and natural illustration of the world's ills which appeared December 22. "Well It's The Only World We Have." This poor old war-torn world is giving Santa Claus the job of his life as a repairman. While Santa Claus may be trying to put the world back on its feet with good will and best wishes, there is only one repairman who can do the job. That is Uncle Sam. with the soldiers, sailors, marines and Coast Guardsmen.

Thomas J. Whitehead. Baltimore, Dec. 26. Movie Critics Vs.

Movie Box Office The gap between the student of the cinema and the multitudinous film fan is never more apparent than at the year's end, when the ten-best verdicts are published. The critics cat up their accounts and emerge with lists of films which tackle serious topics, one or more of the genuinely well-designed comedies, and occasionally a lone musical, chosen perhaps to prove the catholicity of the critics' taste. The exhibitors consult their box-office books and emerge with a list of the most popular stars, which is an index to quite another set of films. Serene on top of all the players in Motion Picture Herald's exhibitors' poll sit Abbott and Costello. You will look at length through all the ten-best lists and never find a mention of them.

The customers either fail to know this or, knowing, do not care. There, too, among the leaders is Gene Autry, who is a horse-opera tenor and, therefore, beneath critical consideration. Betty Grable and Dotty Lamour are ahead of Greer Garson by many of the plain voters. Mickey Rooney, even after "A Yank at Eton," is still strong in the running. Before such findings the swooning critics console themselves with the thought that while other pictures make the most money, their choices make the artistic advances which pioneer in motion-picture progress.

Market Quotations Interest Many Readers A scientific test made in behalf of the New York Stock Exchange, with Lancaster, as the test laboratory, indicates the surprising fact that of that laboratory's newspaper readers forty-nine per cent, examine the local financial pages, one-third of them daily and the other two-thirds several times during the month. Of the other readers who showed no personal interest in these quotations, the survey adds, three-quarters thought it desirable to print the daily quotations as a readily available iusciestion of business trends. i report is interesting not only as a correction of the old idea that few people lead the market news, but as a hint of the lordly Stock Exchange's own present concern with the small, nonprofessional securityholder whose name has become legion. The curious fact is that although the volume of stock sales in 1942 is lower than it has been in any Urging That We Promise Punishment To The Nazii Tor Their Treatment Of The Jews To the Editor of The Sun Sir: There seems to be a united opinion that some action should be taken to stop the extermination of the Jews by the Huns. The only thing that can convince the Huns is a touch of their own beastliness.

It would seem that the only possible action to be taken now would be a joint note, from Britain, Russia and ourselves, promising (not threatening) certain retributive action when such is possible. The three countries could promise the destruction of certain sections, or even whole cities, and the execution of those who carry out the on the other side. That is the measure of the isolation from which she is now being delivered. The trials of the lonely island, only sixty miles from Sicily, really began in early 1941 when the damaged Illustrious sought refuge there and the Germans were meaning to protect the supply routes of the army they were sending to Libya. At that time they would send 300 machines to bomb one airdrome a mile square.

any vessel enters any defensive sea area or upon the boarding by any person of any vessel while within a defensive sea area, and to retain custody thereof until such vessel is outside the defensive sea area or the person is about to disembark..