people of this sort have been discouraged from visiting Tia Juana by a voluntary organization which has stopped cars en route and urged the young people to turn back to their homes. The problem for those who live on the border is an acute one, particularly when there are growing children. As one man in a border town far from Tia Juana said, "No self-respecting parents will undertake to raise a family in this town." Yet, unfortunately, some self-respecting parents feel obliged to remain. In some cases, of course, vice conditions are but adjuncts of a very important and very wholesome trade relationship with Mexico. Large sums of Mexican money are spert daily in the United States for the ordinary necessities of life, in addition to about a million dollars' worth of imports which go into Mexico each day. It is evident that there are ways in which this disagreeable situation can be controlled when governments arrive at the point where they wish to control it. The closing of the border at Tia Juana after 6 P.M. probably is a move in the right direction, although it is in some respects unfortunate that moral conditions are such as to make the closing necessary. The new closing order grew out of the Peteet tragedy, which was enacted there a few months ago and which was so widely heralded in the newspapers. Naturally, those who remain later than six o'clock can stay overnight and return the following day. The closing of the border from 6 P.M. to 8 A.M. has greatly reduced the number of evening visitors. At the same time it has seriously limited legitimate travel across the line. The situation is far from satisfactory. Some day a way will be found and "Aunt Jane" will once more stand for all that is clean and wholesome rather than the contrary. In the meantime might it not be well to insist that some one be looking for that way? The discouraging factor is the acquiescence of so many of the more respectable members of American communities in the conditions which exist "across the line." It is easy to look upon present conditions as "inevitable" and to apply to them all of the old arguments which were applied to our restricted vice sections, and doubly so when floods of pleasure-seeking visitors have money to spend in legitimate as well as questionable channels. On the border, as elsewhere, we tend to get what we really want, and there, as in too many other places, the almighty dollar still warps men's social judgments. Shenandoah National Park Half a Million Blue Ridge Acres Soon to Be Made Public Property enlisted State aid and raised something like a million and a quarter dollars toward the purchase of the needed property, the total cost of which will be about $4,000,000. A Washington committee, with Colonel Robert N. Harper as Chairman, is ably assisting. The Blue Ridge is within a daylight ride from New York, and less than four hours from Washington by the "Virginia Creeper," as the local train is sometimes described. Richmond is almost as near. The Blue Ridge begins at Front Royal and tapers south. Much of it is still covered by virgin forest, in which, however, the chestnut blight has wrought great havoc. Rock oak is the main timber, long a resource for tan-bark, which has led to much destruction, now happily checked. The highest peaks lift themselves more than four thousand feet above sea-level, while the region is one full of history and romance. The Valley of Virginia, as it is often called, is one of the most beautiful expanses in the world. Lying between the West Virginia mountains and the Massanutten Range, it is a land of green fields and abundant orchards, with vistas everywhere that delight the eye. Α battlefield in the Civil War, it looms Placid Waters of the Shenandoah large in American annals, while from its vicinage have come many men of parts. Indeed, the Blue Ridge Mountains look Indeed, the Blue Ridge Mountains look down upon the birthplaces of eight Presidents. Some of Abraham Lincoln's forebears are buried under their shad OWS. In its population are found the usual sharp differences between the Valley and the plain. The people of the latter are prosperous and placid; those of the mountains poor, proud, suspicious, and difficult by nature. They are improving on the edges, and no greater uplift could be devised than the opening of this new National Park. It will start a flow of money through the mountains, provide employment, and, what is equally important, develop contacts with the outer world. Already a great current of travel has set in over the Lee Highway and the Lee-Jackson Road that runs from Winchester to New Market. It has had the usual effect. Houses are being furbished up, stores are putting on new faces, and the ubiquitous service stations of the oil companies are springing up everywhere, companies are springing up everywhere, each bringing cash to the community. Cash is something that has been rather scarce in the valley. Besides glorious mountains, green for ests, and blue grass the region contains some of the most famous caverns in the world-Luray, Endless, Shenandoah, and the Grottoes, as Weyer's is now known. Probably many miles of caverns remain to be discovered. The region of wonders runs to the Natural Bridge, a hundred miles away. The Shenandoah's two branches, North and South, which unite and end in the Potomac at Harper's Ferry, wriggle their way to junction between the hills, with many creeks and brooks as tributaries. Old Stony Man, chief of the Blue Ridge, rises as high above Page Valley as ElCapitan towers above the Yosemite. Near its crest, 3,600 feet aloft, is Skyland, a summer community, salubriously situated, and where many visitors now go to drink the "wine of the mountain air." Moonshine can be found farther back. Good roads reach the Park country even now. Besides the Lee and LeeJackson Roads, the Jefferson Highway touches it, via Rockfish Gap, between Staunton and Charlottesville, where Monticello and the University of Virginia are attractions. Though oldest of our settled country, Virginia covers much land that is wild, in compact and picturesque plottage. The Shenandoah section is at once the fairest and the roughest. Bears still prowl in the mountains, wildcats are found, and some people believe that wolves hide in fastnesses. Good trout fishing can be had and the mountain trails are fascinating paths for the horseback rider. Indeed, despite the auto flood on the "hard" highways, the horse still rules in the Valley, climbing hills with catlike agility and being man's most intimate associate; also that of the bright-eyed young ladies who ride with grace where most men would rather crawl on hands and knees. The mountain roads will be improved as the Park develops, but in such a way as to not disturb their charm, but rather opening up new attractions. The Park will be of equal value to the public in summer, spring, and fall. New Yorkers and other city dwellers will be making pilgrimages to view the rhododendrons and autumn foliage, as the Japanese congregate to admire cherry blossoms and the frost-tinted maples of Nippon. All this will be within easy reach of 40,000,000 people who dwell east of the Alleghanies. In selecting the park the Work Committee remarks: Nature calls us all, and the response of the American people has been expressed in the creation, so far, of nineteen National Parks. All but one are west of the Mississippi River. The two-thirds of our population living east of the Mississippi has contented itself with a few State parks, not knowing that in the Southern Appalachian ranges there are several areas which fill the definition of a National Park, because of beauty and grandeur of scenery, presence of a wonderful variety of trees and plant life, and possibilities of harboring and developing the animal life common in the precolonial days but now nearly extinct. As noted, Virginia has done nobly for her part, and will do more. The capital and the metropolis will be appealed to for further aid. They will no doubt respond. The park system will not end with the Blue Ridge. The development of the Appalachian forests includes the acquisition of farther limits which will be turned into a public playground, with vast benefits to the South and the Nation. The latent hillsides will become alert with the arrival of pilgrims to view the wonders now too difficult of access. The enormous motor travel to Florida is a factor in the certainty that the park system will be completed as planned by T HE Negro home is suffering from the "outs." Too many Negro mothers "work out," and too many trifling Negroes "hang out." In a physical and moral sense it can be truthfully said of two-thirds of our places of abode that "there is nobody home." For various reasons, and often without any good reason at all, Negro mothers are away from their children all day and a part of the night. As a result, the race is teeming with Topsies. To two-thirds of the race their homes are not homes; they are places in which to eat, sleep, and store furniture. Why are we out when we should be in? First, because of economic circumstances. Colored men are given those occupations in which the pay is the lowest. Their income is not sufficient to support their families. Second, we are a wasteful people, and we sacrifice essentials for frills. When our women learn to waste less and put essentials first, they will not have so many bills to help meet and can stay at home and rear their children properly. The third reason is that the masses have sight without sense. They work around white people, see how they live around white people, see how they live and act, and they try to ape them without ever stopping to think. They do not realize that the white race laid its economic foundation securely before it began to joy ride or play golf, and that every door of opportunity is open to white people. In the language of Booker T. Washington's old colored lady, "the white race has been whar it's gwine." We are just starting. The Negro sees the white man during his hours of relaxation and play. He likes the way he "carries on," and he decides to try the same stunts. He forgets that the majority of those whom he serves during their hours of relaxation have worked hard and long, and have established themselves and their homes, and can afford to forget their business for a few hours or a few months. The idle class of white people that give all of their time to pleasure are not worth aping. The Negro does not stop to think. He has splendid sight, but not enough com mon sense. The Negro home is being demoralized because we have staged a perpetual per |