The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 8

8 NATIONAL WHIRLIGIG BROOKLYN EAGLE. SATURDAY, NOV. 30, 1940 i IJ i. fife iwySN 'J e. 1 Good News for Brooklyn From Board of Estimate WilM m'fFL -if i a When it is considered that $5,000,000 has already been spent, the failure of the city to provide the essential remaining funds to make it available for the use of the public is little short of a scandal.

This latest action of the board should assure the opening of the building in the near future. The second Brooklyn victory was in connection with the improvement at Coney Island. Park Commissioner Moses had originally asked about $1,000,000 but that had been slashed to $340,000 in the tentative budget. Mr. Moses contended that this would be entirely inadequate and Borough President Cashmore backed him up warmly, finally winning over the board to increase the appropriation to $500,000.

This should at least be enough to carry through some of the most vital projects in the improvement plan. It will rest with Commissioner Moses as to what should be given preference. The extension of the boardwalk over to Manhattan Beach is quite likely to be included. This beach and waterfront improvement will not only serve great throngs of Brooklynites but people from all over the city. Two important Brooklyn improvements which have been simmering on the Are for some time finally came to a boil at the meeting of the Board of Estimate this week, largely due to the persistence and dexterous handling of Borough President Cashmere.

First is the matter of the partially completed new Central Library. In October the City Planning Commission Included in the 1940-41 capital outlay budget the sum of $500,000 for the completion of the imposing building facing Grand Army Plaza! But Budget Director Kenneth Dayton had cut it down by $300,000. Mr. Cashmere realized that $200,000 would entirely inadequate to meet the needs and finally succeeded in persuading the board to write back $150,000 so that $350,000 is now avail-Bble. This will be sufficient to take care cf new equipment and $50,000 is earmarked for new books.

It will not, however, be possible to do some remaining construction, notably installing escalators. Although the supervising staff has been working in the building since farly last Winter, the structure has not yet been opened to the public. v. Projected Fleet of Navy Bombing Planes Will Give New Security to East Coast i i i i i -in i ii i r- THE BREAKING LETTERS TO THE EAGLE Letteri must bear tht tignatures ond addretsei of (he writers bul pen name will be permitted at the diicretion of the editor. Contribution! should be kept as short os possible but the editor reserves the right to cut them down to meet requirements of spoce.

RAY TUCKER'S LETTER FROM WASHINGTON The World War witch-hunt tendencies have broken out at Washington in high places in recent days the Dies Committee and Bob Jackson's Department of Justice, to mention a few minor instances. But the latest and most surprising exhibition of Jitters has been staged by the State Department itself. The State Department Library is located tn a mansard cupola atop the ugly building across from the White House. It is a mall, sunny room where aged professors, magazine writers and researchers love to browse among old and yellow document. Hardly 1,000 people at the capital know of its existence or location.

The most important and the most modern documents on its shelves pertain to the Civil War-Alabama claims. A bomb tossed into this academic center would raise more dust than the Dust Bowl ever saw. There are no secrets buried here which everybody doesn't know. But Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long has recently issued an order barring this Innocent and sunshiny room to anybody except duly authorized employes of tht State Department. He forget, or perhaps does not know, that the Carnegie Endow-ment Library across the street or the Congressional Library on Capitol Hill have more complete data on foreign affairs than the State Department Library.

And so far these centers of information have not seen fit to any form of censorship. Harold L. Ickes has been panned rather severely for submitting his resignation from the Cabinet only a few days after President Roosevelt's re-election. It was branded as a typical grandstand play by the prima donna of the Cabinet possibly as a Roosevelt-Ickes scheme to force resignations from Ma Perkins and Pa Stlmson. Historical research by Mr.

Ickes' aides and ethers discloses that he alone of the Cabinet members adhered to custom. It is generally believed that Cabinet members should not submit their walking papers until a few weeks before a re-elected President's relnauguratlon in the present Instance, about January 8, 1941. Because of this erroneous belief Mr. Ickes' Cabinet associates tittered at his gesture. They, too, thought that he was sticking to his role as the official prima donna.

But, for once. Mr. Ickes was right. Resignations should be submitted Immediately after re-election, and not a few weeks before re-inauguration, Under the Ickes system for which there is historical precedent dating from the time of Alexander Hamilton a President is given plenty of time to overhaul his official family and to plan policies which he knows it will uphold. Philadelphia Lawyer Earl G.

Harrison, director of Allen Registration, believes that he has uncovered the most conscientious "drunk" in modern history. Registering aliens must list all crimes they have committed (with the exception of minor traffic violations), and so the following letter from an alien in Taunton, is self-explanatory: "Please pardon my intrusion on your valuable time. My object in writing you personally being to ask your official opinion on the following personal matter. Before coming to the United States in 181 I was I regret to say arrested for 'intoxication' in England. In consequence I paid a fine.

This happened when I was 21 years of age, or 49 years ago. "Therefore, being sensitive of this indiscretion and anxious to properly fill out my Alien Registration Form, do I have to record this unfortunate happening in answer to Question No. 14? Or does the fact of its being a minor offense so long ago not warrant it? I shall be governed by your answer." Navy Secretary Frank Knox has finally decided to make no more inflammatory speeches. It was a difficult decision for a publisher turned politician, but official and unofficial friends have persuaded him to "pipe down." Frank has recently had several bitter oratorical experiences. His ghost writers prepared two innocuous speeches for him for delivery at Boston and Columbia, S.

but he tossed them out the window of the train. He spoke extemporaneously, and although he did not lash out against Hitler and Mussolini and Stalin a la Ickes, he expressed himself rather volcanlcally for a Secretary of the Navy. On his return he was mildly scolded, and begged "not to put himself in the same class with Harold Ickes." Mr. Knox to his credits-takes advice. He listened to friendly subordinates' analysis and criticism of his Boston and Columbia addresses.

And then, although he enjoys the spotlight, he said: "All right, Hereafter I will talk only Navy problems and damn few of those." Refuts On Fc CoWniM's Protest re to Repudiate P. R. To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: In Mr. Hcffpinati's Nov. 22 column, protesting against the people's verdict in upholding proportional representation, he starts cut by saying that P.

R. is a system of election which every informed student of public affairs has condemned." Would he call Clarence A Dykstra, president of the University of Wisconsin, former city manager of Cincinnati and now head of the Federal selective service machinery, an Informed student of public affairs? And how would he classify Charles P. Taft, son of the late President and member of the Cincinnati City Council; Mons. John A. Ryan of the Catholic University, Washington, and Harold W.

Dorids, president of University? Turning to New York City, what would he think of the competence as students of public affairs of Samuel Sea bury and former Solicitors General Thomas D. Thacher and Charles E. Hughes The fact is that the two students of public affairs whom Mr. Hcffernan mentions. Dr.

Hermens of Nctre Dame University and Dr. Gideonse of Brooklyn College, are almost alone among the well-known academic students of government in this country in their opposition to P. R. Most such students have long accepted P. R.

as a useful instrument of democracy, particularly important tn cities like New York where without it nearly all servatively estimated at more than that per week. Yet the time is not long past when the suggestion that the Nazis had a fleet of 25,000 planes was a shocker for us. The Navy's force, ranging far at sea, will give us a security we do not now have (300 are now in service), but this production schedule does not do much for the thousands of pilots the Army Air Force plans to train each year. These face a shortage of training planes, which come almost entirely from one factory. In this factory production was stopped for twelve days by a strike which the Attorney General says was Communist inspired and nursed along.

And the Communists in America are but a branch of the Soviet Foreign Office, which government has made its bed in the Nazi stables. Just a thought for the day. and a reason for wishing to see those giant Navy bombers in the air. The Christmas Seals In few fields is the progress of modern medicine and hygiene more apparent than in the treatment of tuberculosis. Much of the credit for that progress must go to such organizations as the Brooklyn Tuberculosis and Health Association, which is now conducting its annual Christmas seal sale.

The association's goal this year is $75,000, a modest sum for so valuable a work. Everyone of us owes the association a debt. The purchase of seals helps to pay off that obligation. GRIN AND BEAR IT By Lichty The Navy's plans for a fleet of 2.000 bombing planes, with a range of 4,000 miles, to patrol both coasts of this and, we ippose, the South American continent, is the kind of news that brings us all to our feet cheering. That these huge flying boats will be ready for service by the middle of 1941 six, seven, eight months from now Is even more important news.

It indicates confidence on the part of the Navy high command that the bottle-recks which have been holding up our Rircraft production will yield in the very near future. So far American aircraft production has been disappointing, for a variety of reasons, one being the fact that a f-ense of the grim emergency has not yet been realized by the country at large. Our military production of aircraft is still under 1,000 a month. The Vxis capacity, including captured production capacity, is very con Senator Nunan's Appointment The nomination by President Roosevelt of State Senator Joseph D. Nunan Jr.

of Douglaston, Queens, to be Collector of Internal Revenue in this district, succeeding the late Almon G. Rasquin, comes as no surprise. He had been regarded as a leading candidate for some time. The chief significance of his choice lies in the transference of this post from Suffolk to Queens. Suffolk is such a rock-ribbed Republican county that the Democrats apparently felt it more important to turn new patronage to Queens where they are normally strong but this month lost the county to Willkie.

Senator Nunan was born in Flatbush hut has lived in Queens for seventeen years. He has had a good record in Albany, serving there from 1931 until his defeat this year. A lawyer, he is well equipped to manage the important office of collector. 25 YEARS AGO IN BROOKLYN Knvrmbrr .30, 1015 A in Municipal efficiency: The for the new Central Library builcmc a' Prospect Park Plaza was finished in Dp-ember of 1913 a cost of more than Jl 70 0.00 The city withheld further appropna-t rtrj. In May of last year Controller Prenricr-fast promised (u.tis for the building.

Noth-Ins has been done Now the foundation is cr.Kkert srera! piares and the money spent Is probchls Wl'inm K.r crnriua'e of Erasmus fUU His'i r.r' president of the student orcanir.itl'ir. York Ur.ivfr.sitv. has been b. Henrv fvrd to represent the unl-VeriM li.s on Mr Fords prae to F. whim a.

ins 'to the bny cut of trmrhes by Christmas." Wrong Sense Frrni c- I.op Ant'l item savs jurv is to senn Chicago vote Or did it mean nllf DAM A FACT A DAY ABOUT BROOKLYN The Second Reformed Church of Flatbush at Bedford Ave. and Mar-tense St. has a record of 66 years cf service to the community. Originally it stood at Bedford and Church on a site which was sold for $75,000, uhen the church was moved to its present site in 1929. The church was founded as a mission of the Flatbush Reformed Church, but it grew so rapidly that it became the Second Reformed Church.

When first established, it stood in a section gwen over to large farms, and for years it has been known as the "Quaint Church of Flatbush." The interior and exterior of the old church have been modernized since removal to the new site, but the original character of the church has been retained. The frame construction has been remodeled with a brick facing, but. the church remains a sturdy, com' fortable looking building, with the low sloping roof common to early Flatbush architecture. WHAT DO THEY SAY? By EDGAR A. Gt'EST Wh3t do they say when they've gone their way? What do they think when the name they hear? "Talked with a smile for a little while!" Or "drove us away with a bitter sneer?" Could we or couldn't we lend them aid? How did we answer the spoken plea? How did we say to them aye or nay? What of us now will their Judgment be? Matters it not what they think or say.

Beggar or salesman or stranger lone? Matters it not at the meeting spot Whether our best or our worst was shown? Eythe light of the eye and the smile or frown, By the very tone of the words we say, Who comes to the door will forevermore Remember us when they've gone their way. In Appreciation To the Editor of the Brooklyn Eagle: My hearty thanks on behalf of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities for your editorial of Nov. 8. The Eagle's commendation carries weight with many thousand of Brooklynites whom this society particularly needs to reach. And may I express also our gratitude for the Eagles generous policy with regard to Brooklyn Bureau news.

This support is the more valued since your newspaper is the borough's unique news outlet. MARY C. DRAPER, President. Brooklyn, Nov, OF THE representation would fall into the hands of a finale political machine. After this unfortunate start, Mr.

Heffernan turns to foreign affairs and gives further misleading statements. He says that "In Germany Nazi and Communist members of the Reich were elected by minorities smaller than that which voted for Earl Browder for Congress some years ago, here in New York." The inference is that these were small minorities, but that the party list form of P. R. used in the German Republic quite different, incidentally, from the form of P. R.

used in New-York exaggerated their importance. Actually they were large minorities in Germany, as they are not here, and, like other parties, they elected to the Reichstag one member for every 60.000 votes. If it had not been for the helpful influence of even the defective form of P. R. used in Germany and the assured representation it gave to the moderate middle parties, it seems quite likely that some time before Hitler actually seized power there would have been a development similar to the development under a majority system in Spain, under which the voters would have lined up in a "popular front" containing the Communist party on the left and an "anti-popular front" group dominated by the Nazis on the right, with a majority choosing the latter as the lesser cf two evils.

Of course there are ample explanations which have nothing to do with the method of election for the breakdown of democracy Germany and in Italy, where it never really got started. The fact that P. R. cannot be charged with any general disruptive tendency Is amply proven by the fact that a majority of the most successful democracies have long used some form of P. R.

for their parliamentary elections. Among these are Eire, successor tr the Irish Free State, which under the best form of P. R. has one party in Bn absolute majority; Switzerland, Sweden end Finland. Mr.

Heffernan and Dr. Hermens go on the false assumption that people in general cannot be trusted to choose wisely if they are allowed to get the sort of representation they really want, that they must be forced by the election system into choosing compromise candidates. The superiority of both of our City Councils over, any recent Board of Aldermen and the fact that Cincinnati, Toledo. Hamilton lOhio), Wheeling and Boulder all of which have city manager governments con-trolld entirely by P. R.

councils, are among the 'l est governed cities In the country, indicate that when the American people are allowed to what really want they choose something very much better than the "compromise" politicians of the old scheme. Taxation without representation is tyranny whether it is a particular locality that is unrepresented or a large body of opinion scattered over many localities. When P. R. was first u-sed in this city It gave representation to half a million more people than had ever he able to elect aldermen for whom they Voted under the old plan, To deprive thMe people of their new-found representation would not make for the unity which Mr.

Heffernan and Dr. Hermens consider Important, but would make for the dissatisfaction and cynicism on which fifth columns are built. GEORGE H. HALLETT Secretary, Citizens Union. Manhattan, Nov.

28. i DROOKIWJ EAGLE (Trida Mirk Eil Registered) (Founded by laate Van Andtn In 1S41 THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAQLE FRANK D. BCHnOTH, Pruldent nd Publlihtt W. F. CROWELL Secretary nd Trenurer Intle Building, Johnson and Adtma Street! Brooklyn, New York TELEPHONE MAIn 4-6200 Butacrlpllon rate by mall for the Brooklyn Eagle In the United Btatea, one year, 111.00 Entered at the Brooklyn Pnatnftlca a Second Clasi Mall Matter MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Ansoriited Pre eiluitvely entitled to e' ue tor republication ol ell news diispatrhei credited to It or not otherwiee credited In thu pepr and alao the local new of spontaneous origin published herein.

AH tight of republication of all othet matter herein tt alao resetted. "What if he does come just to play football! It's better for Junior to have an athletic education than no education at oil!".