other nations decreased to the extent of $111,064,960. This, with the increase of $642,559,118 in our imports, reduced our favorable trade balance from $1,040,452,789 for 1925 to $286,828,711 for 1926.

Secretary of Commerce Hoover attributes half of the increase in the cost of our imports to the higher price of rubber. He does not account for the other half. He thinks that the decrease in the value of our exports is due mainly to the low price of cotton and to a short crop of bread grains.

If changes should continue in the same direction for another year, the American balance in the world-trade account would be written in red ink. That probably will not occur. The present figures serve to remind us, however, that the United States still depends for its favorable trade balance very largely upon farm products, principally cotton and wheat. They would remind us, too, if we were in need of a reminder, that our dependent position with regard to rubber is far from desirable.

Science and the Weather's Secrets

A

NOTHER decisive step toward the

goal of long-range weather forecasting has just been made by Dr. Charles G. Abbot, of the Smithsonian Institution, who claims to have proved definitely that the intensity of heat given off by the sun outside the atmosphere-the socalled "solar constant"-varies from day to day and from year to year. Dr. Abbot's much-discussed method of weather prediction depends entirely on his original postulate that the sun is really what astronomers call a "variable star"-that is, a star whose radiation varies or pulsates from time to time instead of remaining steady. For some years, however, officials of the United States Weather Bureau have refused to accept Dr. Abbot's methods, asserting strongly that the evidence shows that the amount of radiation from the sun is almost absolutely constant, and that the fluctuations which Dr. Abbot appears to detect are unmistakably correlated with fluctuations in the transparency of the atmosphere, also with its water-vapor content and seasonal characteristics. The Bureau grants, however, that if the solar constant did actually fluctuate our weather would be influenced by it.

The essence of Dr. Abbot's new proof of fluctuation of the solar constant lies

in a comparison of measurements of solar radiation made at times when the atmosphere is practically identically the atmosphere is practically identically the same, says a bulletin from the Smithsonian Institution, of which Dr. Abbot is Acting Secretary. It is obvious, continues the bulletin, that if the atmosphere is the same and the instruments are correct, any changes must mean differences in the amount of heat given off by the sun.

The Weather Bureau
Is Skeptical

L

ONG-RANGE weather forecasting methods have filled the newspapers to utter confusion and with occasional inaccuracy. It is quite easy, for example, to confuse Dr. Abbot's method with that of Herbert Janvrin Browne, who predicted "The Year Without a Summer" for 1926-7. But Browne predicts years ahead, Abbot only a week, while the Weather Bureau ventures on but three days. Brown believes that changes in solar heat are reflected in slow changes in ocean temperatures, these affecting our land weather after a lag of several years, due to the slowness with which water accumulates and disperses heat. The Weather Bureau does not accept either method, but within recent months it has

taken increased notice of the Abbot method, publishing its claims in the "Monthly Weather Review," without sanctioning them. At present no one is in a position to judge the exactments of the three methods, including the Weather Bureau method, based on telegraphic reports of advancing continental weather conditions. Some feel that the Weather Bureau is unduly cautious and conservative; that Browne's method is somewhat over-ambitious; over-ambitious; but that something tangible is likely to result in time from the Abbot method.

If some scientific method can be dis covered for supplying us with a much better knowledge than we have of the as yet inexact, complicated, but admittedly youthful science of meteorology, so that we can safely predict next week's and next month's and next year's weather, then the definite, tangible money saved to the human race would amount literally to tens of billions of dollars every year. For example, the world's larder could be kept balanced; think what that would mean.

Predictions are notoriously easy to make, yet many scientists feel that by intensely continuing the remarkable researches on the effect of variations in the sun's radiation which are being con

ducted by the Smithsonian Institution we are likely to break a way through our present, comparative helplessness, learn to foretell the weather more than three days in advance, and thus fit our activities to nature's activities much. more closely than we can to-day.

Around the World in Twenty-four Hours

E

DWARD S. EVANS and Linton Wells

have completed their trip around the world. They did it in twentyeight days odd hours and minutes.

Evans and Wells are, of course, to be congratulated on having girdled the globe in less time than anybody else ever did, but there is nothing astonishing about the performance. Everybody knew, or as advocates in personal injury suits love to say-by the exercise of due diligence could have known, that these men would make the circuit more' quickly than Nellie Bly made it. It was not too much to expect that they would make it more quickly than John Henry Mears did in 1913. They had airplanes, and Mears did not. They did make it Fin less time-six days less-than Mears required. That proves-what everyibody already knew that the airplane, within certain limitations, is swifter than a railroad train.

The fact is that globe-girdling by the old method is out of date-as much out of date as corsets, as world fairs, as poor Emen in the United States Senate. All three of those things are still seen- or evidences of them noted-but the world has ceased to be interested in them. It has just as completely ceased to be interested in globe-girdling. It will not be in the least excited over the man, certain to appear, who can chop five or six days off the twenty-eight-day record.

But if there is a man. who can go about the thing in a new way and accomplish the obvious ultimate ambition of circling the globe in twenty-four hours, approximately, that man will have the interested attention of the world. The way to do it is simple. All that is necessary is to develop a machine that, with a man in it, can get up above the earth's atmosphere and stand stationary in space until the world whirls around beneath him, then drop back to earth at. the spot from which he started.

We have no disposition to insist that all of this be accomplished at once, or even that it be accomplished at all, but we think it not at all unreasonable to

insist that, if men must go globe-girdling, they give us something new.

A Living Link with the Past

E

brought prices in the market that can be conservatively called colossal.

Some months ago, in the settlement of the late Victor F. Lawson's large estate, the Chicago "Daily News" was sold for $13,671,704.30, and the other day the Kansas City "Star" property, which included a morning edition, the "Times," was taken over after strong bidding by men in its management at $11,000,000. Both Mr. Lawson and William R.

ZRA MEEKER, pioneer, followed the old Oregon Trail-seventy-four years ago in a trek with his young bride from Ohio to Washington Territory. Two years ago he flew east in an airplane from the State of Washington to Ohio. To-day, in his ninety-sixth year, he is on his way to traverse once more the Oregon Nelson, the maker of the "Star," were Trail, this time in a motor camping outfit and with the purpose of selling memorial coins for a fund to mark the

(C) Keystone

Ezra Meeker

Trail with suitable monuments and tablets.

Over this route, two thousand miles long, in whole or part, passed in the old days Indians and trappers, Lewis and Clark, Bonneville, Sublette (who led the first wagon train over it), Marcus Whitman, and others who stand for American enterprise and dauntlessness.

A wonderful old man! Gentle but indomitable, Ezra Meeker is a living memory of the old days of courage, persistence, and endeavor. Covered wagon, airplane, motor car-the old and the new

through them, as has been truly said, he has lived and is living his own epic.

old-fashioned in their notions and sold news instead of monkey-shines. The use to be made of the money from these several sales varies. Mr. Lawson's fortune went in the main to the Congregational Church; Mr. Nelson's will cultivate the arts and graces of Kansas City. A large crop of painters and prima donnas is expected where once the Texas longhorn shed his blood.

The Radio War

THE

HE traffic policeman of the ether lanes is off duty, and more than six hundred broadcasting stations are free to use any wave-length they desire, or to increase their power outputs, giving greater strength to their Hertzian waves. The failure of Congress to enact new radio laws, followed by a ruling handed down by the Department of Justice that the Department of Commerce has no authority to make restrictions as to wave-lengths, power, and time, has given broadcasting stations an opportunity to "ride" through the ether lanes as they see fit, disregai ding all established traffic rules.

Up to the present time six broadcasters in the metropolitan area have altered their waves without the sanction of Arthur Batcheller, Supervisor of Radio in New York.

"If we had authority to act, we would not allow these wave-length changes or increases in power," said Mr. Batcheller. "The ether is saturated, and the changes are likely to cause serious interference. However, we can do nothing to stop the stations from jumping wave-lengths until legislation is passed."

The majority of stations which have changed waves were formerly operating on channels below 300 meters in the wave band which has been most congested. Many of the stations had applied to Secretary Hoover for permission to climb to higher waves, but because of the saturation point no action was taken on the applications. The Attor

ney-General's ruling left the ether "free for all," and the stations in the lower wave band jumped to higher waves, so that to-day in New York there is very little pleasure in listening-in below the 450-meter wave. Howls caused by the interaction of waves and by broad and interfering carrier waves have driven listeners from the lower wave bands to the realm of WNYC, WEAF, and WJZ, the dominating trio above 450 meters. The average receiver finds it difficult to eliminate interference below that wavelength.

What Happened and
May Happen

HE ruling of the Department of Jus

THE

tice makes it mandatory for Secretary Hoover to grant licenses outside of the 600 to 1,600 meter wave band, which is set aside for Government use. Since the ruling several new stations were licensed, but these transmitters had been built and were ready for action.

It was felt that all broadcasters on the air would be true to the colors and stay on their assigned wave in order to avert chaos in the ether. But some have deemed it advisable to shift while opportunity knocked at the door. One New York impresario explained the action of his station in changing to a higher wave, on the grounds that one of the advertisers sponsoring a program over the station threatened to withdraw from broadcasting unless the station seized another wave free of the low wave band congestion.

The silver lining to the situation lies in the fact that there are not likely to be many new stations erected between now and the time Congress meets in December, when radio legislation is practically assured. Under present conditions it is doubtful if many would venture to invest from $25,000 to $250,000 in a broadcasting station which would not operate without interference and also stir up ill will among the listening public. According to reports from the Department of Commerce, there are no more than ten stations unlicensed but ready to go on the air. Most of the 650 applications for licenses on file at the Department of Commerce are for stations. not yet erected, but simply serve as notices of intention to broadcast if a license could be secured.

The question is being asked in the radio industry why Secretary Hoover so suddenly called for the Attorney-Gen

eral's opinion. By quickly reversing his policy at a critical time a stabilizing influence was removed from radio, jeopardizing the industry and the service to 20,000,000 listeners.

Reports from Washington indicate that Mr. Hoover's action was prompted by a desire to show Congress how by a desire to show Congress how

Harding in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

THE

HE cartoon which we reproduce herewith seems to us of We an epoch-making character. have searched our memory carefully, and we believe that this drawing of Nelson Harding's deserves that much-abused adjective, unique.

Can any of our readers recall seeing any other cartoon in which flying projectiles were drawn without showing their cartridge cases firmly attached to their sterns? Most cartoonists appear to use 22caliber ammunition as models of all projectiles up to at least sixteen inches in diameter. With like unanimity, they always include the shell with the bullet. Didn't any of them serve in the late war?

necessary it was to have new laws to replace the inadequate laws of 1912.

Representative Scott, of the House Committee on Merchant Marine, has announced that the radio bill will be informally considered by the Senate and House conferees during the recess of Congress, and that there will be a meeting about the middle of November to develop a compromise measure to be submitted to Congress as soon as it meets in December.

Two radio control bills have been presented to Congress. The White Bill,

which places the control of radio in the hands of the Department of Commerce and provides the right to appeal to a regional advisory commission operating on a part-time basis, has passed the House.

The Dill Bill, approved by the Senate, would take the control of radio away from Secretary Hoover and give it to an independent commission of five members, appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate.

Secretary Hoover has expressed the opinion that National radio conferences are at an end until Congress passes legislation.

In the meantime if stations continue to "pirate" wave-lengths broadcasting will stir the ether as in the days of 1911, when amateurs selected any wave they desired, but such a condition will be bad for the radio industry because a great deal more is involved.

T least one Federal Court does not wholly agree with the opinion of the Attorney-General of the United States that the Secretary of Commerce has no power to regulate radio broadcasting. Judge Albert L. Reeves, of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, has declared, in granting an injunction to the Reorganized Church of Latter-Day Saints of St. Joseph against the Missouri Marketing Bureau of Jefferson City, that a radio station which has accepted a license from the Federal Government is bound to observe the terms of the license as to wave-length and hours of broadcasting. He bases this decision on the ground that the station, when it accepted the license, entered into a contract with other stations, and that to change wave-length or hours is to violate terms of agreement. The Secretary of Commerce may be without other powers, the Court held, but "he will undoubtedly have the right to grant his license with such restrictions as the parties interested may agree upon."

The Missouri Marketing Bureau station did substantially what several New York stations have done by using wavelengths not authorized.

The effect of Judge Reeves's decision on the general situation remains to be seen. His is the decree of a court, while Attorney-General Sargent's is merely the opinion of an official, even if it is that

ernment.

John Drew Retires

H

AVING passed threescore and thirteen, John Drew announces his permanent retirement from the stage. He has so long been our first walking gentleman as to preclude the notion that he could be considered old. His career was one of inheritance. His mother, Mrs. John Drew, was the best Mrs. Malaprop ever known, and his sister, Georgia Drew Barrymore, is held in loving memory, while her children continue to give distinction to the boards.

Mr. Drew himself, though never a great actor, was always a good one, and dated his honorable career from a place in the glorious company maintained by Augustin Daly, of which he himself, Otis Skinner, Kitty Cheatham, and Maxine Elliott still survive. That no manager has arisen who could give New York and the Nation what Mr. Daly did in the matter of theatrical production is a lamentable loss to culture and entertainment. His well-drilled actors made Daly's Theater an institution. "Little" theaters alone ape what he succeeded in doing. The "great" managers are out to serve the ticket speculators and a visiting public, and our only "institution" appears to be "Abie's Irish Rose."

Revise the Criminal Codes

IT

T is gratifying to find that practical measures are being taken to make things harder for the professional criminal and safer for life and property. We have already noted the excellent law passed in New York State. Now comes a report from a Committee of the National Crime Commission which outlines twenty changes in criminal codes, recommended for adoption everywhere.

In addition to improvements included in the Baumes Law of New York State it is recommended in the report of exGovernor Hadley, speaking for the National Crime Commission, that in all felony cases except murder or crimes for which life imprisonment is the penalty a verdict of guilty should be accepted if five-sixths of the jury (that is, ten out of twelve) should vote for conviction. Another proposal, novel but one that would certainly be of great practical value, is that where insanity is to be the plea the court must be notified in advance of the trial so that an impartial commission should be appointed by the trial judge to take up questions as to whether the ac

alleged crime or is insane at the time of the trial. Still a third recommendation is that in criminal cases an error in trial should not result in retrial unless it is of importance enough to have brought

about a miscarriage of justice. principle is in effect now in civil cases, and the report of the National Crime Commission asserts that its exclusion as regards criminal cases exists only in this country, and, in the opinion of thoughtful lawyers, this exclusion is "the most disastrous doctrine that has developed in the criminal jurisprudence of America."

These are only the most outstanding suggestions made by this Committee. It seems to be everywhere agreed that the criminal codes of the States to-day have extended a perfectly proper principle of English law which aimed to make it impossible that any innocent person should be convicted so that it now stands as a barrier to prevent justice being done against crime and criminals.

British Law and
American Prohibition

THE impressive array of British offi

cials who have been in conference with General Lincoln C. Andrews, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in charge of prohibition enforcement, since his arrival in London would appear to indicate that something is to be accomplished toward controlling rum smuggling at the source. Participating in the first general conference were representatives of the Foreign Office, the Admiralty, the Board of Trade, the Customs Department, and the Colonial Department.

Later, each of these officials went into the details of his particular phase of the problem with General Andrews and his associates.

The nature of what is to be undertaken has been at least outlined. It appears that General Andrews went to London at the invitation of the British Government, and that the subject under discussion, generally speaking, is enforcement of existing British law in such way as to curb as much as possible the shipment of intoxicants to the United States. Among the definite proposals are that vessels engaged in liquor smuggling be removed from British registry if it can be shown that they are owned or controlled by Americans; that regulations with regard to false declarations of destination be more rigidly enforced; that United States revenue cutters be permitted to enter British territorial waters, where necessary, without strict compliance with Admiralty regulations; and that provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act be applied wherever possible to make smuggling difficult. There appears to be no thought of making new laws or of changing Anglo-American treaties. The effort will be to make rum-running unprofitable.

No outspoken opposition has appeared, though press reports indicate that the British distilling and possibly other interests are expected to make objections. These are expected to take the form of representations that British prestige on the seas should not be menaced by any agreements with other nations. Jealousy for British maritime prestige, apparently, is to be used somewhat as devotion to "personal liberty" has been used in the United States.

NDER the above title a cold-blooded chemist, employed by the Connecticut Agricultural Station at New Haven, disposes of the wet plea that bootleg stimulants are "poison" and remarks unsympathetically that, so far as he can find out by analysis, the "stuff" is just as good as the article furnished by distillers in the good old times previous to Volstead, observing further that "factitious whiskies, made largely or in part from mixtures of grain alcohol, caramel, beading oil, and artificial flavor, were widely sold as, and for, whisky long before prohibition became operative."

This will jar those who have been tearfully pleading for the "health" of drinkers, presumably imperiled by poi sonous liquors surreptitiously sold. Alco