NICARAGUA, STILL HANGING ON

The latest development of the Marines-in-Nicaragua racket which is still filling the public press and beginning to bore the populace, is a new squabble between Postmaster John J. Kiely and a protest organization which calls itself in the best athletic manner the All-American Anti-Imperialist League. The League wants to put stamps bearing the inscription. "Protest Against Marine Rule in Nicaragua" on the backs of envelopes. The Postmaster has decided, however, that the Marines can not be classed in the same boat with the "White Death", especially out of the Christmas season. He has forbidden the stamps passage in the mall under the section of the U. S. Penal Code relating to the sending through the mails of libelous, scurrilous, defamatory and threatening matter.

The feelings of the average fed-up layman are approximately the same as his attitude toward Sandino and Diaz and their little quarrel. He rather hopes it will be a "dog eat dog" fight. There is no good reason why one should not decorate his billet doux and otherwise to his heart's content providing the posters bear no improper sentiments. And of course there is no good reason why he should, especially if the Postal authorities object. However, much as one may dislike propaganda of any sort plastered over his private correspondence, the line here seems to be rather arbitrarily drawn.

Interesting observations on the shifting attitude of the public toward the U. S. policy in Nicaragua can be made in those great American meeting halls of thought and opinion, the movie palaces. A month ago, the news reel of Marines embarking, if accompanied by martial music and a flash of the Stars and Stripes was good for a creditable demonstration, hand clapping and whistling trailing off into original and gratuitous noises. A similar picture at Boston's largest theatre this week was received with a cold and stony silence. Not so at the Harvard's own University Theatre. Here the picture was greeted with hisses, hoots, and sneezes on the part of the enlightened members of the audience. All of which would seem to indicate that Nicaragua is becoming poor "copy" for popular consumption, and so constantly irritating as to introduce a strange demonstrative among tired Mid-years sufferers in search of relaxation.