The Outlook 1915-03-17
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The Outlook MARCH 17, 1915 HAMILTON W. MABIE, Associate Editor R. D. TOWNSEND, Managing Editor LYMAN ABBOTT, Editor-in-Chief A series of articles of unusual timeliness and significance has been prepared for The Outlook by Mr. Frederick M. Davenport. It is the result of a study of economic, social, and political conditions in eleven States of the Middle and Far West. Mr. Davenport for this purpose journeyed through these. States, talked with men of influence and knowledge, and sought answers to such questions as: What is the West doing and thinking ? What are the facts as to progress or reaction? The scope of the series ts indtcated by a few of the titles of individual articles, as: “ Political Overstrain in Wisconsin,” “Light Ahead in Colorado,” “ The Pioneer Temper in the Northwest—the State of Washington,” “ California— the -Farthest Outpost of Advancing Democracy.’ Other States will be treated in a similar way—that is, with reference to new movements and new lines of develop- ment. Mr. Davenport, as a student and professor of political science, and as a Sormer State Senator in New York, ts exceptionally well equipped for the task here undertaken, and his tour of observation brought out many enlightening and some- times amusing experiences. His articles will interpret the West to the rest of the country and each of the States to the others, and throw light om the National advance in democracy.— THE EDITORS. THE WEEK AMERICANS IN DANGER IN MEXICO The reports of last week from Mexico City, added to the fact that the President has thought it necessary to send to General Carranza a message of remonstrance and has also thought it desirable to send to Vera Cruz two American war-ships, indicate a new crisis in the relations of this country to Mexico. The residents of Mexico City, foreigners as well as natives, have suffered from lack of water, lack of provisions, lack of recognized money with which to do business, and lack of police control. General Obregon, who has been in command at the capital as Carranza’s representative, threatened to withdraw mili- tary protection from the city because of the refusal or delay of the citizens to meet his demands for taxes—or, more properly speak- ing, forced contributions. Reports printed as we write say that the situation is so bad that Secretary Bryan has warned Americans to leave Mexico City ; that General Obregon has withdrawn his army from Mexico City, leaving little police protection ;_ and that it is believed that Zapata, the guerrilla commander, will again take over control of the city. As to the last report, it may at least be said that when Zapata had control the condition of things was better than it has been under Obregon’s rule. Whether the troops under General Obregon have been withdrawn be- cause of doubt as to their being able to withstand Villa, or whether, as seems more probable, Obregon has moved them north- ward in order to fight Villa, is uncertain. What is clear among all the conflicting re- ports from the two factions which are fight- ing one another in Mexico is that the dan- ger to American life and property, instead of being less than it was when Huerta and the Constitutionalist forces were at war, is distinctly greater and is constantly increasing. That our Government will be able to ignore the situation much longer seems impossible. Unless the policy of doing nothing, of allowing American interests and American 599
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600 THE OUTLOOK citizens to go undefended and unregarded, is continued, there seem to be only two courses. One is to assert our positive intention to de- fend American life and property and to en- force our demands, if necessary; the other is to attempt to form an agreement with the three large and strong South American coun- tries—Argentina, Brazil, and Chile—which should result in a common demand upon Mex- ico for the settlement of its internal quarrels in the interest of peace and freedom; to en- force this proposal, if necessary, by combined intervention ; and to make it clear that what is done is free from any purpose of conquest or aggrandizement, and is solely for Mexico’s own welfare. This last course is one that has been often suggested, and we believe that, if it is not too late to act upon it, it contains possibilities of great promise. Mr. Wilson is said to have remarked last week that the suggestion that our Government should unite with South America for inter- vention had never reached him. It appears to have reached him now, and we hope that it will receive his careful and thoughtful con- sideration. COLONEL GOETHALS AND PROMOTION Those who remember Mr. Dooley’s dis- sertation on the gratitude of republics, and his account of how Colonel Goethals for his work on the Isthmus had been promoted to Governor of the Zone at a “ rejooced salary,” doubtless felt grateful at the news that the army engineer who has made so much history for the United States had been promoted to the rank of Major-General. Apparently this emotion, however, has not been shared by Colonel Goethals himself, for at a recent din- ner in Panama he is reported as saying that he deeply regretted his promotion to the rank of Major-General, and the promotion of other officers for their work on the Canal, because it was unfair to the great army of civilian employees. Colonel, now Major-General, Goethals has all along regarded his work on the Isthmus, not as a feat demanding extraordinary recognition, but as a regular part of his work as an engineer in the United States army. It was this quality of mind, enabling him to accept as part of his day’s work the greatest engineering project of our time, that helped him to overcome civilian prejudice against the military discipline he was expected to introduce, and which won for him the loy- — 17 March alty and devotion of all his co-laborers on the Isthmus. ’ At the same dinner at which General Goethals voiced his regret at his promotion he also announced that he had asked the War Department to relieve him of his work on the Isthmus in order that it may be turned over to a younger man. He ex- pected to be relieved within a year. The extension of his period of governorship for one year from to-day would more than enable him to complete the organization and final adjustment to commercial conditions of the great work to which he has contributed so much of his life. A PROPOSAL FOR WORLD PEACE The New York Peace Society has pro- posed for the consideration, not only of its members, but of the public, a plan of action which seems to us to have much to commend it. It does not propose at present any efforts to bring about the ending of the war. The psychological moment for such action has not arrived. But neutral communities may well consider what should be the condi- tions of a permanent peace when the present armed struggle is halted. ‘A peace which should come by the complete subjugating of either party in the war might be lasting, but it would cost some nation its essential liberty. One resulting from an impasse might leave the contending nations still powerful and both able and willing later to renew the strife.” Neither of these condi- tions would give a good basis for perma- nent peace. That can be brought about only by a common reduction of military forces. But such a basis might be afforded by the organization of an International League or Protective Alliance, ‘‘so constituted as to afford to each nation the security for which it now looks to its army and navy. No one nation will make itself helpless while others remain armed to the teeth and able to attack it if they so desjre’’—a sentence which we commend to the consideration of those who desire to see this country disarm, or at least content itself with an inefficient army and navy which would render it helpless if attacked. Three methods of national self-protec- tion are suggested by the Peace Society as possible besides that of maintaining an army and navy equal to any that could be employed against the country. We may depend on treaties and on the conscience of
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1915 THE mankind for their enforcement.. This de- pendence the pitiful condition of the Belgians demonstrates to be wholly insufficient in the present stage of moral development. We may depend on an international army to be supported by all the civilized nations of the earth and employed in enforcing the decrees of an international tribunal—the plan which Dr. Crane recently proposed in our pages. It is very doubtful whether any nation ought under present conditions to abandon its function of preserving its citizens from hostile attack and trust for protection to an international police which at present exists only in imagination, and it is reason- ably certain that none of the great nations would consent to do so. The third plan is the one which the New York Peace Society proposes and which seems to us well worthy of serious consideration: “A treaty not only might arrange the boundaries of the States and their colonies, but might guarantee the territories so established against attack either from within or from without the League. Under such a treaty a country whose terri- tory should be attacked by one or more Powers would have a right to call on all remaining members of the League to assist in defending it. This would remove the need of any force under complete inter- national control, and it would also remove the need within the several states of any large armaments. Only troops enough would then be needed in each state to enable it to do its part in enforcing a common guaranty of the sovereignty and the terri- tory of the other states in the Alliance.” We may add that such an Alliance would not necessarily require a combination of all the civilized nations. It would only require the combination of a number sufficient in their combined military strength to afford reason- able assurance that no attack would be attempted against any member of the Alli- ance by any outside nation. FULL CREW LAWS In several States during the past few years legislation has been enacted defining the exact number of men to be employed in the manning of freight and passenger trains. These laws, strongly seconded by some rail- way unions, were designed for the alleviation of grave abuses. It was charged that rail- ways ran freight and passenger trains of such length that with the number of men custom- WEEK 601 arily employed the safety of the public was in danger. Apparently the public was con- vinced that the only remedy for these ills lay in the enactment of ‘ full crew laws.”” The passage of these measures was certainly ex- pedited by the general distrust of the railways and by the feeling that the public service commissions, where they existed, had failed .of their highest usefulness. The pendulum has now swung the other way. Movements are on foot, for instance, in New Jersey and New York looking towards the repeal of these full crew laws. The public has come to realize that the proper tool for the regulation of such abuses, where they exist, lies not in legislative enactment, but in a strong and wise Public Service Com- mission. The determination of the number of men needed to insure the safety of the pas- sengers in a railway train is an administrative function that can be better exercised by a small body of experts than by a large, inex- pert legislature. The realization of this fact has been accom- panied by a better understanding by the public of the function of our railways and by a better understanding on the part of our railways of the justice and function of public control. The campaign against these bills has been marked, not by the oldlobbying methods, which brought the railways into disrepute, but by an educational campaign of very great significance. Advertisements in the newspapers setting forth in clear and concise form the railways’ side of the case have certainly had a powerful and legitimate effect on public opinion. One class of citizens traditionally hostile to railway encroachment has in New York State been particularly active in working for the repeal of the Full Crew Law. The farmers of New York, represented by the State Grange, for three years have asked the Legislature for its repeal. Ata recent hearing the secre- tary of this influential organization said, ‘‘ We represent 113,000 farmers, and our plea to you is that the matter of train crews should be left to the Public Service Commission to regulate.” It is the changed attitude of the railways that made this change in public opinion possible. THE, SEAMAN’S BILL There is a strong resemblance between the ‘full crew laws” for railways and the Seaman’s Law, signed by the President after
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602 some hesitation, as reported last week in The Outlook. Both undertake to exercise the kind of control that properly belongs, not to a ‘legislative body, but to an administrative body. Both are meant to help organized labor to secure employment in larger num- bers; both are strongly supported by the unions—in the one case the Seamen’s Union, in the other the Trainmen’s Union. It is also true that both measures are largely actu- ated by humane ideas. Yet it is as wrong in principle that Congress should attempt to prescribe in minute detail what the treatment of the sailor or the safety requirements of a passenger ship should be as that a State legislature should say just how many brake- men a freight train should carry. In the one case the Department of Commerce, in the other the State Public Service Commission, should be empowered ‘to carry out the general purpose intended through specific regulations subject to change as needed. -Congress and the State legislature are, and must be, igno- rant of scores of practical matters ; and rigid, petty provisions in a law are almost sure to prove unworkable, so that in time the result is a dead law. “One fault of the Seaman’s Bill, then, is that it has an immense number of requirements and prohibitions, which in Great Britain would be left to the Board of Trade with authority to regulate in accord- ance with the large purpose intended. Whether tests of pontoons shall be made with iron weights or bags of sand, or whether the sailor shall have four quarts of water a day or five, or whether Labor Day shall be a holiday or not, and a hundred minutiz of this sort, are not matters for the average Con- gressman to settle by vote for all time] Another question raised-is whether it is possible for American ship-owners to comply with the provisions and continue in business. One or more companies have already an- nounced their intention to go under a foreign flag. Others say that in ordinary times ship freight rates would have to go up under the new law, and competition with foreign ships would be even harder than before. The difficulty of enforcing some of the rules which apply to foreign seamen in our ports is obvious. The treaty question isa serious one. The President is ‘‘ requested and directed ”’ to give notice to all Governments with which we have treaties in conflict with any provision of the Act that all conflicting parts of such treaties will terminate as soon as the periods THE OUTLOOK 17 March of notice required by the treaties expire. Provisionsas toarrest of deserters, forinstance, now exist in about twenty of our treaties with foreign countries, which, as between themselves, will continue the old practice. Probably the abrogation of existing treaty rights will provoke commercial retaliation, certainly it will cause endless trouble and negotiation. Ex-Senator Burton says: ‘‘:No one can suppose for a moment that such a demand can be made without retaliation, or at least a demand for very substantial con- cessions in return.”’ ; There is a great deal of good in the Sea- man’s Bill, but the indications are that there ~ is also in it the presage of complications and vexations. . / “PORK BARREL PENSIONS” Some four years ago the “‘ World’s Work ”’ published a series of articles on the pension system of the United States which were the result.of long and careful investigation and a patriotic impulse which could not have been dictated by any selfish considerations. In that series the evils of our pension system were brought-out so clearly that every impar- tial reader must have expected at least some evidence of Governmental reform. If so, the expectation has not been fulfilled. Since the publication of this series the Republican party has gone out of power and its place has been taken by the party traditionally opposed to the granting of lavish pensions. Apparently >the only result, so'far as pen- sion legislation is concerned, has been the adoption by the recent-Democratic Congress of that Republican policy which Democrats as a party have heartily condemned. It makes a very great difference into whose hands is given the distribution of Governmental pat- ronage. The “* World’s Work” has now begun a second series‘of articles on “Our Pork Barrel Pensions ” by Burton J. Hendrick, which shows promise .of being as convincingly discouraging to the believers in democracy as was the former series published in the ** World’s Work.”’ In publishing these arti- cles the “ World’s Work” disclaims any hostility to the veterans of our wars who fought and suffered in the Nation’s service. It says, ‘‘ Pensions granted to such men honor the Government that grants them.” It is, indeed, for the sake of such men that an at- tack upon.our present pension system should
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1915 THE be most vigorously made. -The pension roll should bea roll of honor. It has been de- graded by political expediency and lax legisla- tive standards into perhaps the most crying evil in our Government. On this roll, says the ‘‘ World’s Work,” are “ thousands of men who never saw war service, who never smelled powder, never, as one Grand Army witness recently said before the Senate Com- mittee, got their collars dirty or their shoes soiled. It embraces ‘ bounty jumpers’ [the natural result of a pernicious. military practice which has existed in this country since Revolutionary times], deserters, ‘spring pullet widows,’ and men dishonorably discharged.” How such “ veterans ” secured a place upon the Governmental pension list, which last year cost us $172,000,000 (more than we spent upon the maintenance of our entire navy. or of our entire army), is graphically told by Mr. Hendrick in the March number of the ** World’s Work.” * For forty years,” Mr. Hendrick says, “Congress has practically abdicated: its con- trol over pension legislation. The Grand Army of the Republic in_ its National organization has a Pension Com- mittee of seven members. That Pension Committee is the House of Representa- tives, the Senate, and the President com- bined so far as pension legislation is con- cerned.” Mr. Hendrick recounts further how the demands of this Pension Committee have grown. He shows the “ progress ”’ from the legitimate disability pensions which came at the close of the Civil War to the present system which tolerates the support at Gov- ernment expense of men whose claim to.a pension is actually based on such shadowy disability as having “‘ a sallow skin,” “ a nor- mal heart,” “a tremulous tongue,” “ crepi- tation of the shoulders and elbows,” or “a slight numbness of the right leg.”’. Medical testimony to such peculiar physical handicaps will be readily accepted as evidence of the existence of a large class of professional men who have profited by fraudulent pension legislation. Pension doctors and pension law- yers without scruples have been the natural result of the loose pension system permitted by our Congress. Is it any wonder that such men should gather for the feast when a Con- gressman can be found to introduce a meas- ure for the pensioning of a man who not only deserted from the Federal army but thereafter fought with the Confederate forces against the Union? WEEK 603 ‘The :new- Commissioner of Pensions, Mr. Saltzgaber, has declared for the complete publicity of pension expenditures. He advo- cates a policy so obviously correct that it can hardly be believed that any Government could have departed from it—he advocates publish- ing the names of all pensioners. Surely, if the pension roll is ever to be made what it should be—“ a roll of honor ”—such a pro- cedure is imperative. NATIONAL DBFENSE An adequate system of National defense will never be realized until the business men of ‘this country are fully awake to its neces- sity. In.the past the average man of affairs both small and large has too often regarded the army and navy as a useless expenditure of Government money. He has pooh-poohed the gold-braided soldier, apparently unaware of the fact that the modern American officer is a harder worker and less susceptible to the lure of decoration than the average civilian. One exception to this statement must, how- ever, be made. Business men have been interested in the army and navy wherever they have come in contact with local garri- sons or ship-yards which have supplied them with an opportunity for business profit. The pressure for the maintenance of useless navy-yards and obsolete army posts has been largely financial. The destruction of this selfish interest in the disorganization of our army and navy will be accomplished only when the business men of the country learn to appreciate the value of our military organiza- tions as vital elements of our National effi- ciency and National welfare. While there are not many signs that this happy day is imminent, indications do point to a real improvement in public opinion. In this advance. the Merchants’ Association of New York City has taken a noteworthy part. Several months ago the Association adopted a resolution-looking ‘to this encouragement of organized militia. It advocated the granting by employers of time for ordinary militia service with full pay and without deduction of the time thus spent from the regular vacation period of employees. It advocated the adoption of this policy not only by pri- vate concerns but by the city government as well. In this connection it also advocated the creation of a State constabulary to relieve the militia to a large extent from police work. Now the Merchants’ Association of New
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604 York City has furthet defined its attitude towards the military policy of the Govern- ment by adopting a resolution which in part reads : Resolved, That the Merchants’ Association of New York strongly urges the adoption of a complete programme for National defense, such programme to cover: 1. Adequate armament and equipment on land and sea. 2. Enlistment in the regular service and militia sufficient for the necessary first line of defense. 3. Creation and maintenance of a fully equipped and regularly trained reserve. 4. Reasonable compensation to the members of the National Guard and Naval Militia and National Reserves for attendance at drills. THE AMBRICAN LEGION AGAIN Vitally connected with this question of National defense has been the progress made by the American Legion since its organiza- tion on February 26. The response that has been made to the appeal for the names of men available for military service, an appeal which The Outlook reported in last week’s issue, has been more than gratifying. estimated that by June some two hundred and fifty thousand men will have been en- rolled. Mr. Richard Barry has described in the New York “ Times ” the method by which the applications that are received at the head- quarters of the Legion in the Maritime Build- ing, New York City, are being sorted and classified. An officer of the army and one from the navy are voluntarily giving their time to help in this work. Of the labor of Captain Johnston, of the army, in disposing of the great quantity of applications that pass before him, and of the kind of men who are applying for membership, Mr. Barry has this to say : Captain Johnston, who has seen varied serv- ice in all parts of the world, has found a great stimulus in the widespread response that has poured in on the officers of the Legion. Hehas had offered to him the services of clergymen, novelists, playwrights, bankers, editors, business men, clerks, and poets. “It is too bad that a lot of these fellows will have to be refused,” said the Captain, plunging into a sea of letters that had been sent to him, and barely able to hold his chin above the sur- face, “ but a millionaire doesn’t look as good to me as a telephone lineman, and this novelist, who you say earns $30,000 a year, wiii have to step aside for a waiter who can speak Spanish. Here’s a boy with a motor cycle, and he looks THE OUTLOOK It is: 17 March better to me than the president of a bank. Here’s a fellow who will qualify.” He handed me a post-card and I read on the back: “ Please let me in. I am cook, 40, fit as a fidel.” AN UNFORTUNATE CRITICISM The aitempt of patriotic citizens to list in this manner the military resources of the country has, of course, been subject to criti- cism and attack. The fact that the American Legion was not in any sense a military organization apparently escaped the attention of many who made haste to register a pro- test against its organization. As Mr. Barry says, ‘the men of the Legion will never see each other until war comes. They never meet, they never march. They have no organization and no officers. None of them has taken a single day from his work, and spends neither time nor money.” The Ameri- can Legion is not much more warlike than the card index in a public library. In case of war it will do for the Government the same service which the card index does for the citizen who wants to borrow a book. One of the most prominent critics of the American Legion was Bishop Greer, who, together with other well-known men (on behalf of the League to Limit Armaments), sent a telegram to the President protesting against the part played by General Wood in the organization of the American Legion. This telegram and a letter which followed were based on anewspaper account of the forma- tion of the American ‘Legion. In his letter to the President Bishop Greer said in part : I write to ask by what authority this plan has the indorsement of officers of the United States army and navy, and by what right offices in the Army Building should be used by a private corporation. From the previous attitude of the President and the Cabinet, I cannot believe that this project has the indorsement or sanction of the present Administration: -If it has not, the act of the army and navy officials connected with this scheme seems to me to be a gross breach of etiquette or worse. This grave charge against General Wood in- vestigation failed wholly to substantiate. Gen- eral Wood states that army property was in no way utilized in the organization of the Legion, and that his sole connection with the matter layin the fact that he had given as his unofficial opinion a statement ‘“ that the plan seemed a good one and one which would ultimately be
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pop inane ARES 1915 THE of great service in building up a reserve in case one should be established on workable lines.” With these facts in mind, General Wood naturally registered a vigorous protest against the circulation of uninvestigated and unwarranted reports concerning his action. In a letter to Bishop Greer he said : That a man in your position should Have the temerity to sign a telegram to the President and the Secretary of War reflecting seriously upon an officer in my position without even the pre- tense of an investigation passes my understand- ing... . You attempted to justify your action by stating that I had not denied the press re- ports, etc. Why did you not call me up? You had the fullest opportunity. In the concluding letter of the series, Bishop Greer says : When .. . you definitely tell me that you did not issue a propaganda from headquarters con- cerning the organization known as the American Legion, I, of course, accept without question your statement as that of a man of honor and believe implicitly what you say. But I must place myself on record as deploring the neces- sity for making these fine distinctions between personal and official approval. General Wood has let the matter rest with the publication of this correspondence. A WISE PROPOSAL Mayor ‘Mitchel has proposed a plan for dealing ‘with the excise question in New York City which The Outlook proposed some years ago, and which it heartily approves. This is, in brief, to lay out the city in dis- tricts, and allow the people of each district to vote on the liquor policy to be maintained within its boundaries. A special system of districting is necessary because the Assem- bly districts would not necessarily be geo- graphically identical with what would be ap- propriate excise districts. The Mayor is also reported to think that in districts where saloons are allowed they should be permitted to open at one o’clock on Sunday afternoon, after church services, and should be kept rigidly closed after midnight. We have never been able to see any rea- son why local option, which is allowed in the country, should not also be allowed in the municipalities. In a city so large as New York, covering so great a territory, possess- ing so great a number of citizens of very differ- ent nationalities, and, to a considerable ex- tent, locally divided according to nationalities, there is very good reason why locai option WEEK 605 should be exercised, not for the whole city by a general municipal vote, but for different sections of the city by district votes. There are some objections, doubt- less, to conditions which allow the saloon in one locality and forbid it in another; but these objections have been proved, if we mis- take not, by the experience of some Western cities, not to be conclusive. Of course there are some _ so-called reformers who would rather have an un- enforced law forbid all liquor-selling through- out the city and liquor-selling go on through- out the city in spite of the law, and there are other so-called reformers who would rather have an anti-saloon law en- forced for a year or two, and then an administration brought in by a_ political reaction which would allow a_ wide-open town, than vote for a law on the statute- book which would have the effect to make the saloon in one section legal and effectually close the saloon in other sections. We differ from them. We should like to see the people of New York City allowed to determine for themselves whether they want any saloon, how many saloons, and where situated ; and we believe the effect of such a law would be to shut out the saloon alto- gether from a gradually increasing number of districts, and put a stop to the corruption which inevitably follows the enactment of a law impracticable to enforce in localities where the population are in overwhelming numbers opposed to it. JUDGE LINDSEY AND THE JUVENILE COURT There have been few men in public life who have been so constantly under fire as Judge Lindsey, of Denver, Colorado. Per- haps the best-known figure in the movement for improving the relations between the law and the child offender, Judge Lindsey’s work has attracted attention not only in this coun- try but in Europe as well. The fact that his labors on behalf of the children of Denver have brought him in close and not harmoni- ous contact with the selfish political interests of his State has been the general cause of the bitter attacks that have been made time and again upon his character and his work as Judge. ‘That he has always been returned to his office after each periodic and unsuc- cessful “‘ investigation ”’ does not seem to have discouraged his enemies. The latest attempt to “get” Judge Lindsey is aimed at him
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606 THE OUTLOOK through the Juvenile Courtitself. It is a legis- lative attempt to abolish his Court and to transfer its functions to the District Court of Denver. The measure for the abolition of this Court has already passed the Colorado House of Representatives. It is expected that if it passes the Senate it will receive the veto of Governor Carlson. The attitude of Denver towards its Juve- nile Court and Judge Lindsey has been well described in a recent issue of the Denver “Post.” It hardly seems possible that under such conditions the efforts of Judge Lindsey’s political enemies will be successful. The ‘* Post” says: The Juvenile Court of Denver is a local and not a State institution. It is a separate court specializing in the cor- rection and protection of the youth of the State’s largest city. The people of Denver and not the State of Colorado pay for this Court. It cost the city last year approximately $20,000. It dealt with the troubles and needs of more than a thousand women and children. The District Court, in the same time, dealing with not over two thousand cases, mostly concerning property, cost the State and city an aggregate of nearly $200,000. The people of Denver are perfectly satisfied with its separate Juvenile Court as an institution. Most of them are satisfied-with its Judge. He has just begun the second year of the present term, for which he was elected by the people of Denver by thirty-five thousand majority—the largest ever given any candidate for a local office. . . / Whatever the Judge has done, and however much some people have differed about his views on public questions, the people have never shown the same unanimity on any subject as they have in keeping him as the head and direc- tor of the Juvenile Court. Then why this sud- den demand that the work be transferred to the District Court, where it will cost more than it costs now, and where it is impossible to expect the same efficiency that comes from one head and one authority with fifteen years of experi- ence back of it?... The Legislature had better drop this Lindsey business. Let the Juvenile Court alone. Leave it to the people of Denver. They are not complaining. Most of them are proud of Judge Lindsey, his Court, and his work. They are heartily ashamed, sick, and tired of this everlasting effort-of petty, envious, spiteful, jealous souls to “get” him. They can’t do it. It’s been tried too often. It is to be sincerely hoped that the expec- tations of the Denver “ Post ” will be ful- filled. 17 March A MISTAKEN BILL A bill has been introduced into the New York State Legislature providing for the reading of the Bible in the public schools of the State. It would be a decided advantage to the children and to the community to have school opened with a reading from the Bible, a sacred hymn, and a brief prayer— probably best of all, the Lord’s Prayer— provided the exercise is reverently conducted and has the support of the parents of the pupils. But the perfunctory performance of a devotional exercise under compulsion, or the introduction of such an exercise against the wishes of any considerable number of the parents, would be disastrous. It would make a religious service an object of hostility to many of the children, and not improbably an object of acrimonious controversy in the community. This is not, therefore, a question to be determined for all communities by a blanket act of the Legislature either requiring or pro- hibiting the reading of the Bible in the schools. In communities where it is generally called for and there is little or no objection such reading is desirable. In communities where there is any considerable objection, whether from churchmen who think that all religious services should be conducted by priests, or from agnostics who think they should not be conducted at all, a Bible reading enforced by legislative act would be distinctly disastrous to the religious life of the school district. This question should be left by the law to the decision of the school trustees, subject to a general provision that wherever there is Bible reading in the school any pupil must be excused from attendance on the written request of his parent or guardian. It is not easy to conceive of anything more irreligious than a so-called religious service conducted under legal compulsion by a con- gregation hostile to it. MR. DAVIES AND THE TRADE COMMISSION Now that the President has appointed the members of the newly established Federal Trade Commission, what can business reason- ably expect of it? Mr. Joseph E. Davies, who has been President Wilson’s Commis- sioner of Corporations, is head of the new Commission. His conception »f the func- tions of that Commission will have a great deal to do with determining how that Commission will act. It is true that he is pave Saetihaade
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mad ramet RUG 1915 THE only one of five, and the other members of the Commission are comparatively un- known to the country at large, however well known they may be within certain cir- cles; and the Commission as a whole is charged with the duties enumerated in the law which created it, and not any one man. Nevertheless, Mr. Davies has a peculiar re- sponsibility, just as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has in the determination of the general tendency of the interpretation of the Constitution by that Court. It is appro- priate, therefore, that special heed should be _ paid to what Mr. Davies has to say about the Commission and the law which he is to administer. Not many days before his appointment as chairman Mr. Davies made a speech before the Merchants’ Association of New York. The Outlook gave some account of the speech at the time; but, in view of Mr. Davies’s appointment, it is worth while to revert to it. In the first place, Mr. Davies gives his assent to the commission idea in the regula- tion of corporations. ‘This is significant in view of the fact that the party which created the Commission and drafted the law which it was to administer distinctly opposed the com- mission idea in the very campaign through which it came into power. The old idea was that the law should prohibit certain wrong things, and then that it be left to the courts through suits at law to enforce the prohibi- tions. Under this conception we have had a series of suits that have resulted in dissolu- tion proceedings and the like. In contrast with this, note the following from Mr. Davies’s speech concerning the functions of the new Trade Commission : Briefly, its purpose is to supply a tribunal, if you please, that is guvasz judicial and guasé ad- ministrative in effect, which is designed to re- duce the inconveniences of the law’s delay con- sistent with Constitutional limitation and which will seek to brush aside red tape, which may bind industrial and commercial enterprise and opportunity, and afford more ready and conveni- ent accommodation for business tothe require- ments of the Government, and as well afford a mass of co-ordinated information as to the industry of the country, and a body of disinter- ested business experts ever watchful of the public interest, for the service of all of the people of the United States. In the second place, there has been great uncertainty in the past concerning what the law required. Usually this has been ascer- WEEK 607 tainable only after a long-drawn-out suit at law, and only after the commission of some deed on the part of a corporation which the Government regarded as unlawful. In other words, corporations had to run the risk of violating the law before they could find out what the law was. In contrast with this old and stupid practice, note the following from Mr. Davies’s speech: There has grown up a practice of what is known as the entry of consent decrees in trust cases. That is, .. . counsel for the defendants come in and say, “To be sure your facts are correct, but we are not intentional malefactors, . and if you will prescribe what can be done we will accommodate ourselves to what you require for the public good.” In that situation the Department of Justice, on occasions, has entered into an agreement with the attorney or attorneys that they should go into court, and should enter their consent to the entry of con- sent decree. ... think it is entirely a fair statement that this Federal Trade Ccmmission in its capacity as advisers to the Department of Justice, in the entry of the consent decrees, affords an agency that may make more easy and facile the accommodation of industrial and other enterprises to the requirements of the law. In these statements Mr. Davies exhibits a broad-minded understanding of the duties of the new Commission. In them he expresses a constructive temper that is welcome. The country must not expect too much at the beginning. It should remember that the Inter-State Commerce Commission, which is © a very powerful and beneficent body to-day, was at the start feeble and almost insignifi- cant. It is conceivable that the new Com- mission may be much better than it promised to be when the law creating it was passed. RELEASE OF THE KOREAN PRISONERS Readers of The Outlook will recall the circumstances which led up to the arrest of a hundred and twenty-three Koreans charged with conspiring to kill the Japanese Governor- General of Korea. In 1908 Mr. Stevens, the American Adviser on Foreign Affairs of the Japanese in Korea, was shot by a Korean; in October, 1909, Prince Ito, the Japanese Viceroy in Korea, a man of great ability, and of a very friendly attitude towards the Koreans, was assassinated by a Korean ; and in the following month an attempt was made to kill the Prime Minister of Japan, who was on a visit to Korea. As a result of these
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rar et = =? ance 608 THE OUTLOOK incidents the suspicions of the Japanese police were aroused, and later a large num- ber of Koreans were arrested on a charge of conspiracy against the life of the Governor- General, Terauchi, and a hundred and twenty- three were finally brought to trial. These were all found guilty; on appeal judgment was confirmed in the case of six; in the cases of the others the charges were dis- missed. The first trial was conducted at Seoul, and the attention of the world was attracted to it by reason of the fact that nearly all the accused were Christians and that charges of torture were made; and the impression went abroad that the Japanese were making an attack on Christianity. This impression was without foundation; but the trials were conducted in such a way as to elicit a great deal of sharp criticism. The most prominent man among the six Koreans whose sentences were reaffirmed was Baron Yun Chi-ho, a man of great prominence among Korean Christians, and with many friends in this country. The feel- ing of the Christian world generally, that the majority of the accused were arrested on very inadequate evidence, and that the first trial was not fairly conducted, was shared by a great many Japanese, both in Korea and in Japan. The conduct of the first trial alienated many friends of Japan in this country and in England. One of the most prominent actors in this affair was General Akashi, commander of the gendarmerie, the military police in Korea, whom some of the Japanese did not hesitate to call a man-hunter. Last June The Outlook reported the transfer of this overzealous and narrow-minded official from Korea to Japan ; and now comes the news that the Japanese Government has released the six Koreans who were sentenced by the Court of Appeals to imprisonment. ‘This amnesty has been welcomed, both in Korea and in Japan, as an evidence of the spirit of the Government. Whether or not the evidence justified the conviction of the six men who. have been in prison, their release is a happy solution of a complicated and difficult situation. Those who are well informed were confi- dent from the first that there was no attempt in Korea to persecute Christians. It has been explained many times that the Korean Christians are the active men in a passive race, and that they were naturally, there- fore, objects of suspicion to an overzealous police. 17 March WHEN. OUR SHIP COMES IN Six million tons of shipping owned by bel- ligerent nations have been destroyed, in- terned, or otherwise removed from trade since the beginning of the war—thirteen per cent of the world’s supply of ships. Ameri- cans, with as much tonnage as the other neu- tral nations combined, have been quick to fill the breach—or as much of it as they can —and reap the rightful reward of being neutral. We have 8,000,000 tons of merchant ship- ping. In late years less than one-eighth of it has engaged in deep-sea trade. Hundreds of fine coastwise craft are resolving them- selves into efficient deep-sea tonnage. An endless procession. of them is now criss- crossing the Atlantic. All available tonnage is being taken up. at unheard-of prices. There is the greatest activity in ship-yards for many years. Since December there have been twenty orders for large ocean-going ships, and in February it was announced that every firm on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts had more orders than it could fill. Freight rates on all commodities oversea have increased from fifty per cent to three hundred per cent since the outbreak of the war; insurance rates are halved for neutral ships. The combination, to the stockholder, seems too good to be true; but it is true, nevertheless. For ship-owners the bugle of the warring hosts in Europe is a veritable horn of plenty. To instance a few cases, the steel steamer Kanawha, of 1,906 tons, built thirteen years ago on the Lakes, was recently pur- chased for $105,000 by Mr. C. L. Dimon, of New York, who immediately chartered her to load cotton at Galveston for Bremen for $100,000. The.former German steamer Dacia, she of the international wrangle, was another ship whose freight on her one $885,000 .load of cotton practically equaled her purchase price. The little steamer Caro- lyn, whose owner, Mr. William H. Johnson, of Boston, bought her three years ago for $600 when she was a wreck on the Maine coast, is earning $20,000 a month carrying cotton from Savannah to Bremen. And the list might be continued indefinitely. Eight years ago, when the United States Navy Department advertised for bids for the carriage of Eastern coal to its Pacific coast naval stations, it declined to accept the tenders of.sailing vessels on the ground that the few survivors did not inspire confidence in their
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a 1915 THE ability to deliver the goods. Rather than admit them to competition the Government resorted to the mortifying expedient of char- tering foreign steamers to carry the coal, in disregard of the law which forbids any but American bottoms to transport cargoes between United States ports. But now scores of American sailing vessels are winging their way to all parts of the globe—and incidentally making money. The full-rigged ships Vincent and Pass of Bal- maha, of Boston, bought in England recently for $30,000 each, sold the other day to New York owners for $75,000 apiece, and pro- ceeded promptly for Bremen with cotton car- goes whose carriage will at one swoop pay their new owners for the outlay. The Ameri- can steel four-mast ships Dirigo and John Ena are carrying refined petroleum from Philadelphia to Japan at a rate which will earn over $50,000 apiece for the owners. These are only a few instances out of many. This happy state of affairs may be but temporary. ‘The merchant marine may be still hampered by senseless legislation after the war and unable to maintain the strategic position it now holds. The fact remains that it is now experiencing such a boom as has not been known since the halcyon days when merchants retired on the profits of a single spicy cargo brought in some snowy-pinioned clipper from the Orient. WOMEN’S HOURS OF WORK Seven years have elapsed since the late Justice Brewer handed down a decision from the Supreme Court sustaining the constitu- tionality of the Oregon law prohibiting women engaged in industrial pursuits from working more than ten hours a day. ‘This was the first time the highest court of appeal in America had spoken in the defense of woman in this respect—justifying “legislation to protect her from the greed as well as the passion of man.” It established the prin- ciple which had been established in England sixty years ago—namely, that it rightfully falls within the police power of the state to protect the weaker half of the human race from overwork which is harmful, not to- her- self alone, but to posterity. It was seven years ail but twenty-four hours later when, on February 23, Mr. Jus- tice Hughes handed down a similar decision in the case of the California Eight-Hour Law. Two appeals had been taken against this WEEK 609 law: the first by a woman pharmacist in a hospital ; the second by a hotel proprietor who urged that the Act ‘was repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment, as an arbitrary invasion of liberty of contract and as unrea- sonably discriminatory.” The grounds on which the Court’s decisions were made are themselves interesting. In the case of the woman pharmacist the decision reads: ‘‘ In view of the nature of their work and the extreme importance to the public that it should not be performed by those who are suffering from over-fatigue, there can be no doubt as to the legislative power reason- ably to limit the hours of labor in that occu- pation. This the appellants expressly con- cede. . . . The mere question whether in such a case a practical exigency exists, that is, whether such a requirement is expedient, must be regarded as a matter for legislative, not judicial, consideration.” And from the decision in the hotel case these paragraphs are taken : ** As the liberty of contract guaranteed by the Constitution is freedom from arbitrary restraint—not immunity from reasonable regulation to safeguard the public interest— the question is whether the restrictions of the statute have reasonable relation to a proper purpose... . “It is manifestly impossible to say that the mere fact that ‘the statute of California provides for an eight-hour day, or a maximum of forty-eight hours a week, instead of ten hours a day or fifty-four hours a week, takes the case out of the domain of legislative dis- cretion. This is not to imply that a limita- tion of the hours of labor of women might not be pushed to a wholly indefensible ex- treme, but there is no ground for the conclu- sion here that the limit of the reasonable exertion’ of protective authority has been overstepped.” This latter decision is particularly interest- ing in view of the fact that in one occupation at least in which women are largely employed, that of telphone operation, it has been con- clusively demonstrated by physicians that even eight hours of work a day is ruinous to health. It is possible now perhaps to look forward to a time when the hours of labor in each industry shall be limited according to the strain of that industry. It was once more the combined work of Mr. Louis Brandeis and Miss Josephine Gold- mark, of the National Consumers’ League,
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610 which won this latest signal victory for the workingwomen of America. MUCH-NEEDED LEGAL REFORMS The Law Reform Committee of the Bar Association of New York City in a report last December recommended certain reforms in criminal law which we hope to see adopted by the present Legislature. One of these reforms, which would permit joining several charges in one indictment in certain cases, we leave to the judgment of lawyers, who alone are competent to understand its effect and pass judgment upon its wisdom. The others are all of a kind which the laity are competent to understand. ‘They are as follows: I. If the defendant fails to take the stand on his own behalf, the jury may take into consideration this failure. ‘This is now the English practice, and has been approved by the Supreme Court of the United States. In fact, probably most juries do take account of such failure, although the present New York code forbids them to do so. II. Proof may be given that the defendant has been guilty of other wrongful acts if such proof tends to show the motive or intent of the defendant in the specific criminal act charged against him. As the law now stands, “on a trial for arson proof of a conspiracy to make nine other fires as part of a fire- making business was not admitted.’”’. This instance cited by the Committee illustrates at once the nature and the necessity of the re- form proposed. It ought not to take the same amount of evidence to convict of arson a man who has been engaged in arson asa business as it would take to convict a man who had theretofore maintained an unblem- ished reputation. III. At present whenever an application is made for a writ of habeas corpus to any judge it must be granted. A failure to grant it subjects the judge to a penalty of $1,000, which may be recovered from him by the petitioner. Asaresult of this law, Mr. Thaw has been able to apply to one judge after another for a writ of habeas corpus, and there is nothing to prevent his demanding as many trials as there are judges in the State. The proposed amendment requires the peti- tion for a habeas corpus to state whether any prior application has. been made; if so, the judge to whom the’ new application is made may in his discretion refuse to grant. the writ. ‘The law already makes proceedings THE: OUTLOOK 17 March in a habeas corpus case conclusive as to all the facts determined by the court as against ~ inmates in any State hospital for the insane, and the Committee well say that “there is no reason why well-to-do -malefactors and paranoiacs who are inmates of prisons or penitentiaries rather than:of State hospi- tals for the insane should, merely because of their being in prison, have the privilege of an unlimited number of writs.’ IV. Under the common-law rule as exist- ing in England, the Federal Courts, and Mas- sachusetts, whenever a newspaper or other publication interferes with a fair trial, the truth of the publications. is nc answer to a prosecution for contempt of court. Other- wise, as the English courts say, it would *‘ substitute in this country trial by newspaper for trial by jury.” The Committee proposes the abolition of trial by newspaper, at least to the extent of forbidding any. threat or recklessly or intentionally false or misleading statement which tends or is intended to affect the result of any pending action or proceed- ing. ‘This, it will be noticed, leaves unim- paired the present right of newspapers to publish a true, full, and fair report of any trial, argument, decision, etc. The abuse to which this recommendation proposes to put an end has assumed dangerous proportions. In recent cases both the prosecuting attorney and the defendant’s counsel have. issued statements for the purpose of creating public opinion against or for the accused. ‘The case of Leo Frank, in Georgia, affords a striking and dramatic illustration of this attempt by the parties interested to secure prejudgment of the case through the press. WHY NOT ADD MR. TAFT’S PROPOSAL? To these recommendations of the Bar Association The Outlook would add the rec- ommendation made by Mr. William H. Taft in his address before the Yale Law School in July, 1905. We can best indicate this reform by quoting the following paragraph from that address: “If anything has happened and it is important to discover who is the author of it, the first impulse of the human. mind is to inquire of the person suspected whether he did it, and to cross-examine him as to the circumstances. Certainly this is the domestic rule by which your wife or your mother proceeds to find out who it is that broke the window, who it is that stole the jam from the pantry, or why it is that the sweeping has not
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1915 THE been done by the person charged with that duty. She goes to the suspected culprit and asks the questions natural under such cir- cumstances to see whether her suspicion of guilt is well founded.” The Outlook would like to see American criminal law accept Mr. Taft’s suggestion and adopt in a modified form the French practice. We would like to see the criminal -brought before a judge by whom he should be ex- amined in’a_ privately~ conducted. inquiry to which only his counsel or a friend should be admitted. In this examination he should be given an opportunity to tell his story subject to cross-examination and subject to the rule that his refusal to tell his story or to answer the questions put to him by the judge might be considered by the jury in coming to a de- cision concerning his guilt or innocence. Such a provision, as Mr. Taft pointed out in his admirable address, could do the accused no harm, would be dreaded only by the guilty, would facilitate a fair and impartial investi- gation, and, we may add, would put an end to the police inquisitions which are often conducted in violation alike of law, justice, and humanity. SUGAR The Administration’s tariff policy regard- ing sugar has had, among others, two spe- cially notable results. One is the increasing discontent and discouragement in Louisiana, where, as is reported, the removal of the sugar duty is ruining the prospects.of the great industry of that State, and bids fair to make Louisiana a minus quantity for the Democratic party. Republicans and Pro- gressives are taking notice! The second result concerns Porto Rico. By far the most commanding place in the island’s industrial life is held by the sugar industry. What must be the effect on the minds of the islanders as they now realize that, because of our new tariff, we have forced them to lessen their produc- tion of sugar from 382,000 tons, according to last year’s report, to 320,000, according to this year’s ; 62,000 is certainly an impress- ive quantity of loss in the chief commodity ofian island of such limited resources as is Porto Rico. But this is not all. There has been a decline in value of the total export of sugar from $26,619,000 to $20,240,000— that is to say, from an average price per ton of $69.55 to $63.12. Concerning this we have the interesting WEEK 611 testimony of a Democratic nominee, Mr. Arthur Yager, the Governor of Porto Rico, to a Democrat, his chief, concerning a Demo- cratic policy :.“‘ The total external trade for the year was $79,509,549, a+ decrease of $6,500,000 from that of the year before. This decrease is confined almost wholly to the side of exports, and is represented fairly accurately by the single item of sugar. . Internal business, while slowly adjusting itself to the changes made necessary in the sugar industry, has naturally assumed a conservative and waiting aspect which has prevented the inauguration of new enterprises. The dread of the possible result of the free sugar pro- vision . . . has tended to check progress.” TELEPHONE RATES IN NEW YORK It is now practically settled that a substan- tial reduction in telephone rates will go into effect in New York before many months. Whiie the amount involved is small as regards the individual message and the individual service, it is in the aggregate enormous. Indeed, the question which is still in disagree- ment as we write is whether the provision proposed would in point of fact reduce the income of the telephone company by $2,700,- 000, or $2,300,000. In view of the stubborn resistance made by many public service corporations to any change whatever in the public inter- est in rates or income, the New York Telephone Company is entitled to credit for its open offer to meet the demands made by the Public Service Commission and by the Foley legislative investigating com- mittee. It voluntarily proposed to make the rate five cents for ordinary telephone calls from Manhattan to Brooklyn and to almost all of Staten Island, and from Brooklyn to almost all of Queens. Various other reduc- tions were offered for special service and special wires. Concessions like these are the more welcome when made, as these evidently are, not so much through pressure from out- side as from a genuine desire to act fairly and generously. The general comment by the New York press recognizes this fact and the further fact that the company has con- stantly been governed by enlightened self- interest on the one hand and a fair spirit to the public on the other. On the other hand, objections which have been raised to the proposals made should be carefully considered, especially as
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612 they come from such an acknowledged expert as Professor E. W. Bemis, who has made an elaborate investigation of the financial-condi- tion of the company in behalf of the Public Service Commission. His contention is that the Commission has called for a cut of $3,000,000 in the company’s annual revenues, basing this on what it considers a fair return on the actual value of:the company’s prop- erty, and that the concessions fall short of the Commission’s demand. The company’s experts and Professor Bemis differ as to this valuation. It is difficultfor any non-expert who has not made a careful study of the financial matters involved to say which party is in the right, but there is evidently here room for a compromise and for a fair adjustment of the matter in dispute. THE CHILDREN’S MOVIES The Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, a unique institution of Boston, has a department known as the Children’s Players, made up of some enterprising and up-to-date young women. They organized, about four years ago, to supply a long-felt want of enter- tainment strictly for children ; and have been producing plays, semi-annually, at one of Boston’s leading theaters, with great success. Just before Christmas a new project was launched—* Children’s Movies,” at Saturday matinées in Tremont Temple, at 10, 15, 25 cents, according to location. No one could doubt that it was just what the children wanted, if one had been present at this first entertainment and heard the applause which greeted the opening “ reel,” ‘‘ The Children’s Hour.” Since that time the Saturday matinées have been given every week, so that the chil- dren are anticipating them and requesting some of their favorite stories in “ films.” One of the patrons of the first week was so delighted at the opportunity to take her grandchildren to see moving pictures which, to say the least, were not objectionable that she left a fund with the “ Children’s Players’’ to be used for the poor children who might not otherwise be able to enjoy these novel entertainments. It has been used (needless to say) to the great delight of many young- sters, who have been gathered in from vari- ous “ highways and byways” by some of the college girls of the “‘ Children’s Players ” who are connected with college settlements. These same girls come to the entertainments every Saturday, looking very dignified in THE OUTLOOK 17 March their collegiate caps and gowns, to take charge personally of any child or group of children left by parents too busy to attend. One or two clubs around: Boston have purchased seats in blocks of a hundred or more, as the prices are “ popular,” and pre- sented them to children of employees, or others in whom they have an interest and to whom they wish to give a good time. Although at first the “ Children’s Players ” provided a vaudeville feature at each enter- tainment, such as a rag-doll dance, a magi- cian, or other thing dear to the hearts of children a decade ago, they found the modern “movie fans’ need and want nothing but films that depict the stories dear to all genera- tions—* Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “ Sleeping Beauty,’’ and countless others. So the vaude- ville feature was omitted, but prizes ($5 in gold) have twice been offered for the best letter written by a child under-fifteen on the *‘ Film I Liked Best, and Why.” THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS In the record of the Congress whose work just ended is reviewed elsewhere in this issue one fact stands out above all others: from first to last, this National Legislature has been led—one might almost say commanded— by the President. As it is common usage to say that Hindenburg has won a victory or suffered a defeat, that Joffre has advanced or retired, so it might with almost equal accu- racy be said that President Wilson has put through this law or has failed to put through that. He has been the general in command; or, to use his own analogy; has been the captain of the team. What Congress has done or has failed to do, it would not be unjust to say that President Wilson has done or has failed to do. To him belongs the credit of such a measure as the Currency Act. This does not mean that others do not share the credit with him, any more than it means that - subordinate officers of Hindenburg and Joffre are not entitled to honor and glory for what- ever their armies win ; but it means that the final responsibility, and therefore the chief praise and the chief blame, rest upon the man in command. It is because President Wilson is willing to take command, assume the responsibility, and make the critical decisions that Congress
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1915" THE PRESIDENT enacted the momentous laws which have given us our present currency system, our present tariff, our present ‘income tax, our present trust laws, and other statutes of significance. And it is for exactly the same reason—para- doxically, as it may seem—that important measures which the country wished and which the President himself. urged, Congress has refused to enact. Ordinarily, when Con- gress fails to pass the measures which the President has urged, it is a sign of the loss of the President’s influence over Congress. In this case exactly the contrary is true. The failure of Congress to pass the bills urged by the President is as truly the meas- ure of the President’s influence over Con- gress as was the passage of the: bills in the earlier sessions.’ Not once during the whole life of the Sixty-third Congress did President Wilson’s influence over Congress show real diminution. It is true that there were some members of Congress in the House, and par- ticularly in the Senate, who were restive under discipline; but Congress as a whole was as definitely under the command of President Wilson at the end as at the begin- ning; and because it was under the Presi- dent’s command it failed to do what the President wanted. President Wilson wanted Congress to pass Secretary Lane’s conservation measures; he wanted Congress to provide for an adequate system of rural credits; he wanted Congress to establish Presidential primaries ; he wanted Congress to provide for a fuller measure of self-government in the Philippines; with a distinct promise of ultimate independence. And why did it not do these things ? Because it obeyed the President. For, above all, President Wilson urged upon Congress to set aside everything else and devote itself to the consideration of the Ship Purchase Bill. ‘The commander gave his forces an impregnable fortress to storm, and they obeyed. They went against the fiercest kind of opposition, they held. their ground, they did not retreat, they kept up the attack until’ the command went forth to retire ; and, in the meantime, the other posi- tions which the commander had originally undertaken to capture had been lost. There was no loss of discipline in the army. On the contrary, just because the discipline was so good and so complete the commander’s will was obeyed, and his purpose failed of achievement. The general in command had set an impossible task for his army. The 613 AND CONGRESS failure is not the army’s failure, it is the gen- eral’s. This growing power of the Executive is something which we believe the American people welcomes. And there is every reason why the American people should welcome it. It isin the interest of democracy, of re- sponsive and responsible government. ‘The ordinary American has no way of directly holding Congress responsible for its acts. All he can do as a voter is to register his approval or his disapproval of the Congress- man who represents his district and the Sen- ator who represents the State in which ‘he resides. If Congress does what the voter disapproves and his Representative or Sen- ator does what he approves, there is no way by which he can directly register. his disap- proval of the policy of Congress. . And, on the other hand, if his Senator or Representa- tive does ill in his eyes while Congress does well, he must votg¢ against his Senator or Representative without being able to vote for the Congress that he approves. The only person whom he can reach by his vote is the President. Therefore, the more that the President has to do with legislation, the more that the President assumes responsibility for National policies, the more accountable will the National Government be to the ordinary American voter. If, then, Congress does ill while the particular Congressman does well, the voter can vote against the President, but for his Congressman; and, vice versa, he can vote against his Congressman if he does ill and for the President if Congress as a whole does well. President Wilson has therefore by his command of Congress promoted the movement for responsible representative self- government in America. If the country does not approve on the ‘whole of what Congress has done or has failed to do, the country can register its disapproval when it comes to pass judgment upon deciding who is to occupy the Presidential office. If, on the other hand, it approves of what Congress has done, the country as a whole can register its approval by its Presidential vote. Most fortunately, the record of these two years of Democratic control at Washing- ton is such as ought to allay the fears of those who have seen in the growth of the Executive power a menace to popular liberty. With all his influence, with all his power, displayed not only through the enactment of important measures, but through the obedient action of Congress in putting. aside secondary
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Vee art. irae = Lag a et at er measures which he had recommended, Presi- dent Wilson was unable to secure the pas- sage of the Ship Purchase Bill. And the reason was simple: he did not have the country with him. What he had been able to do in securing the Underwood tariff against great pressure of many interests and against opposition within his own party, what he had been able to do in levying a compli- cated and strongly opposed income tax, in establishing a currency system in spite of the criticism of bankers, and in concentrating the attention of Congress upon a single bill, he was unable to do when the country with- drew its support. After this experience the American people will see more clearly than ever before that the Executive is in a peculiar sense their representative ; that without them he can do little or nothing, but with them he can do what they will. JUSTICE Some of our readers cannot understand why we are not prepared to join with them in calling on the combatants in Europe at once to lay down their arms. The reason is furnished in the following extract from a letter from Paul Sabatier, the author of the notable life of Francis of Assisi, to an Italian friend who had sent him a resolution in favor of peace : When a quarrel is for money, or for a strip of territory, one can make peace without moral loss. To make peace when an ideal is at stake is an abdication; even to think of it is to be false to the voice which tells us that man is born for other things than to enjoy the moral and material heritage of his fathers. It is the honor of Belgium, France, and their allies to have seen at once the spiritual nature of this war. No doubt we are fighting for our- selves, but we are fighting, too, for all peoples. The idea of stopping before the goal is reached cannot occur to us—and we find some difficulty in understanding how it can occur to lookers- on. Weare grateful to them for the excellence of their intentions, but we are somewhat em- barrassed by the thought that they are more careful of our physical than of our moral life. Our soldiers are martyrs; they bear witness to a new truth. Their defeat would mean the triumph in Europe of brute force, supported by the two spiritual forces which it has mobilized— science and religion. Before permitting that, it is our duty to fight, without even thinking of what may befall. And if our soldiers go down to the last man, everybody who has not yet taken up 614 THE OUTLOOK arms will fight to the last cartridge, to the last stone of our mountains that we can hurl against a “ Kultur” which is naught save worship of the sword and of the golden calf. The France of to-day is fighting religiously. Catholics, Protestants, men of free thought, we all feel that our sorrows renew, continue, and fulfill those of the innocent victim of Cal- vary. But they are birth-pangs; we may die of them, but we have not the right not to bless the present hour and to take up with rejoicing the task before us. Edward Everett Hale was among the first— we believe he was the very first—in America to urge the establishment of a supreme court of the nations to which all international ques- tions could be referred for decision, and we are quite sure that he was the first one to interpret and emphasize the. difference be- tween arbitration and judicial procedure. The Lake Mohonk Conference was the first organization to take up for discussion this plan of a world federation, with a world parliament and a world supreme court— the first one to urge the substitute of the appeal to reason for the appeal to force as a means of settling controversies between the nations. And Edward Everett Hale, in an article published in The Outlook in May, 1907, stated in a sentence a principle which The Outlook has repeatedly embodied in its editorial utterances and which was repeatedly affirmed by Mr. Smiley in the Lake Mohonk Conferences. Dr. Hale’s sentence is this: If we can simply remember that the business of the Hague Conference is to establish justice between nations—that we need not even talk of peace, for that peace will follow justice—that peace will be a great thing. In this sentence Edward Everett Hale ex- plains the reason why the modern movement for world peace has won a hearing which previous peace movements never could win. They were movements for peace; this is a movement for justice. And the need of the world is not peace but justice, and the tragedy of the world is not war but injustice. War is a tragedy because it is a fruit of injustice ; peace would be a greater tragedy if it were a peace made by giving to injustice a world scepter. We do not wish peace, we wish war, with the Anarchists who have just now carried bombs into the Roman Catholic Cathe- dral in New York and attempted to explode them at a time when the Cathedral was full of worshipers. We do not wish peace, we wish war, with the men who adulterate drugs and foods and make their money by poison- 17 March ss has 3a aE a MOOT ie oF DUNNE Re eS
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1915 THE RIGHTS OF OUR ing their customers. We do not wish peace, we wish war, with the men who are destroy- ing wifehood and motherhood and childhood by carrying on industries in violation of the fundamental physical laws of health and the moral laws of social well-being. We do not wish to see Germany destroyed, mutilated, or needlessly humiliated, but we wish to see Belgium redeemed from those who have overrun her, and recompensed, so far as money can recompense her, for the injuries which have been inflicted on her ; we wish to see individual liberty preserved and promoted in Europe, justice secured between man and man and between nation and nation; and the doctrine of the divine power of the sword overthrown for all time. We agree with Edward Everett Hale: We need not talk of peace, for peace will follow justice. We agree with Paul Sabatier; “ To make peace when an ideal is at stake is an abdication ; even to think of it is to be false to the voice which tells us that man is born for other things. than to enjoy the moral and material heritage of his fathers.”’ THE RIGHTS OF OUR CITI- ZENS IN TURKEY The position of American citizens in Tur- key has suddenly become of vital moment to our Government as well as to themselves. When, in 1453, the Turks conquered Con- stantinople, they found that the Genoese community in that city had obtained from the Greek Emperor certain concessions which recognized their right to be governed by Genoese law and to be judged by judges of their own selection. The conquering Sultan continued these rights to the Genoese. The French subsequently obtained similar conces- sions. In their turn, other nations asked and received similar rights. In 1830 our treaty with Turkey extended the same privileges to our citizens. It was agreed that they should not be treated in any way contrary to estab- lished usage, and that, in case of criminal charges, they should be tried by their own Minister or Consul. In 1862 we made a treaty with Turkey which extended to our citizens the rights of citizens of the most- favored nation. The Treaty of 1874, after referring to the law which had given the foreigners the right to hold real estate, pro- vides that ‘‘ the law granting foreigners the right of holding real estate does not interfere CITIZENS IN TURKEY 615 with the immunities specified by the treaties, and which will continue to protect the per- sons and the property of foreigners who may become owners of real estate ;’’ and it de- clares that the residence of American citizens residing in Turkey is inviolable, and not to be entered by the agents of the public force without the assistance of an American con- sul, unless distant by nine hours’ travel or more from the residence of the consular -agent. Thus the Turks have no more right to ex- pel the professors and students from Robert College at Constantinople than the city of New York would have to expel the clerks from the Post-Office Building. The ground on which the Post-Office was built was sold by the city to the United States, just as the ground on which Robert College stands was sold to that institution. The treaties and usages referred to rest on the agreement of nations. They make this college and the Americans and their pupils and servants who live in it subject to American law and to be judged by American judges. It is just as much the duty of the American Government to protect them as it is to protect the traders in Alaska, parts of which are as far from New York as is Constantinople. American citizens in Turkey, exclusive of those employed in trade, live upon and use property which is conservatively valued at $9,000,000. Their homes in Turkey ought to be as sacred as their homes in America. They have gone to Turkey with the Turkish Government’s full consent. They have en- gaged in enterprises most beneficial to large numbers of Turkish subjects. The question now before us is whether our Government shall maintain and vindicate the rights thus acquired. The Turks have undertaken to abolish the capitulations by which our citizens and other foreigners enjoy the privileges above described. But one party to a contract can- not lawfully abrogate it without the other’s consent. There is no small danger of further violations of our treaty rights unless our Government takes prompt action. The Turkish Government’s attitude toward the American Government must not, if we can prevent it, be a repetition of what it was during the Armenian massacres of 1894 and 1895, when, in violation of treaty provisions, our citizens were arrested, deprived of their liberty, attacked by mobs, driven from their homes, and their lives. put in peril.
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616 The ‘Turkish Government refused to grant the usual exequatur to consuls who had been duly accredited by the American Govern- ment, thus not only depriving us of the administration of justice promised by treaty, but evading the observation and consequent exposure which would have followed from the presence of our officials. The wrongs thus perpetrated were aggravated by the subsequent indifference of the Turkish Government, even though, finally, we did‘ obtain some pecuniary compensation for our citizens. But the Turkish Government in- flicted no punishment upon those who had committed the crimes ; indeed, in many cases they were promoted to higher public office, and thus encouraged to commit worse offenses in the future. The attack of the Allies at the Dardanelles means probably that the Turkish Empire is to be broken in pieces. During this period of confusion and disorder it is apprehended by some that the excesses of 1894 and 1895 will be renewed. Under these circumstances it is clearly the duty of our Government to afford, as far as lies within its power, pro- tection to American citizens residing in Turkey. It is certain that Mr. Morgenthau, our Ambassador to Turkey, will do all that an Ambassador can do to furnish such pro- tection. But unless he is vigorously sup- ported by the Administration it is difficult to see what security he can obtain, by merely diplomatic representation, from a disorganized Turkish Government, probably in flight from its historic capital. Has our Government done anything, is it doing anything, to furnish real protection either by our own navy or by the forces of the French or English Governments? The country would like to be assured on this subject. IN LENT THE DENIAL OF LIFE It has often been said that the supreme issue in life is the existence of God. The real battle is the battle between faith and atheism. No man escapes this struggle; no man evades this issue. At bottom it is not a matter of confessions and creeds; it is a matter of the whole bent and drift of a man’s life. ‘There are atheists who affirm their faith in words, ‘and there are believ- ers who deny in words and believe pro- foundly in spirit and deed. The possibility THE OUTLOOK 17 March of sin is involved in all moral life; wherever character is possible sin is also possible ; wherever there is freedom every man must choose between atheism and faith. ‘The chance to sin is wrapped up in the very fact that we are men. We could not have the lofty hopes of heaven without having, too, the haunting fear of hell,” said Phillips Brooks in a notable sermon. And here, he added, ‘‘is the only real light we get upon the problem of evil. It is not conceivable that man should have the chance of being good without the other chance of being evil.” No man can escape the possibility of sinning until he escapes from life itself. But this possibility is not the evidence of the cor- ruption of his nature; it is the price he pays for being a man and not an automaton, a mechanism without volition, imagination, the sublime capacity for faith, love, sacrifice. Life is a great adventure of the spirit, and there can be no adventure without danger ; ‘“‘ our sins are born deep in the bosom of our chances.” Here we: come face to face with the most terrible aspect of sin; all imagery of the spirit of evil is external and crude in the presence of the truth that it is the denial of God, the betrayal of the soul. Asa father suffers with the son who has committed a crime and shares in spirit his shame and punishment, so God suffers for the sins of the world. The supreme agony of the cross was not pain of body but anguish of soul that men should strike down the hands that held out to them purity, freedom, love, and peace, and choose hatred, corruption, and strife in their place. The boy who breaks the law of the school thinks he is asserting his freedom and de- feating arbitrary authority, and does not know that he is cheating himself. The discipline which he tries to evade was not devised for the school; it embodies the larger experience of older men eager to fit him for tasks and opportunities which he neither foresees nor understands. Sin-is always denial, not only of God, but of our divinest possibilities ; in disobedience of the laws.of God we bury our freedom instead of asserting it, narrow life instead of broadening it, and cheat ourselves instead of evading God. For sin is not so much a defiance of God as a denial of our own souls; it isnot so much a violation of law as it is a betrayal of ourselves. Every newspaper confirms the truth of the awful doom, “‘ The soul that sins, it shall die ;” but it is not death by a process of law: it is
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1915 THE STORY OF THE. WAR 617 suicide. That death is often so gradual that those to whom it is coming are unaware of it. Every denial of life, which is part of every denial of God, involves a lowering of the standards, a blurring of the lines between right and wrong, a coarsening of the nature, a deadening of the finer sensibilities, a blighting of that purity of heart which is the possession of those who see God. It is one of the trag- edies of an age of publicity that the viola- tors of the higher standards, who defend themselves and others like them in the news- papers, do not realize how strikingly they con- firm the sanctity of the broken law by their unconscious revelation of the havoc already wrought in their own natures. THE STORY OF THE WAR BY GREGORY MASON AND GEORGE KENNAN I—A REVIEW OF THE WEEK BY GREGORY MASON ULL indeed is he who does not thrill 1D at the despatches that tell how his- tory is being made at the Dardanelles to-day, the point where Europe and Asia strike hands. No region on the face of the earth is more celebrated in ancient legend and the more credible annals of modern times than the Hellespont, and the Propontis—now the Sea of Marmora. The roar of French and Brit- ish guns are now awaking echoes of the past against the promontory once trod by soft-heeled Achilles, Hector, son of Priam, Xerxes, and. Macedonian Alexander. The prows of French and British pinnaces now bite the beaches once packed by the sandaled feet of Agamemnon’s spearmen and later marred by the armed heels of Genoese pirates and the stragglers of the Fourth Crusade, while the marines. and bluejackets of the Allies, scouring the neighborhood of the antique castles of dead Sultans, roam per- haps “far on the ringing plains of windy Troy ” to the very site of the fabled city. Meanwhile the allied fleet, in weight and gun-power the greatest ever brought together, though in numbers less than the armada that Helen’s beauty launched against “ the topless towers of Ilium,” is making but slow progress through the neck of water so often churned by the warlike galleys of Byzantine and Saracen. Judging by the reports of the fleet’s opera- tions during the week March 3 to March 10, the first accounts of the successes of the allied war-ships were overdrawn. For the latest word has it that the ships have been bombarding the forts at Suan Dere and Dardanos, the latter famous as the city where Sulla and Mithra- dates made peace in 84 B.c., whereas more than a week ago we were told of the destruc- tion of the batteries at Kilid Bahr and Fort Sultanieh, several miles towards Constanti- nople from Suan Dere and Dardanos. In fact, the cabled reports of this attempt to drive the Turk from Europe are about as unreliable as the despatches from Mexico. About all that we. can be sure of is what the Porte has admitted, namely, that the forts at the very entrance to the straits have been destroyed. All these reports of the “* silencing ” of forts mean little. A fort may become “ silent” because its guns have been damaged—in which case after a few repairs it may become active again ; or its guns may be hushed through the desire of its com- mander to save ammunition or to deceive the enemy. A warrior “ playing ’possum ” is to be feared. The Allies face a harder task than Farragut accomplished when he ran the Confederate forts on Mobile Bay, for the necessity of keeping their communications open behind them to avoid rear attacks obliges them to be sure that each fort bombarded is thor- oughly pulverized before they pass on to the next. They have yet to pass the narrow elbow of the strait where we know are the strongest forts of the Dardanelles, many of them armed with fourteen-inch guns, weap- ons larger than are possessed by any of the attacking fleet except the Queen Elizabeth and one or two of her sisters that are possibly with her. Moreover, it is probable that the Turks and Germans have erected many addi- tional batteries during the past few weeks,
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618 THE OUTLOOK including, it is said, earth banks masking the eleven-inch rifles of the dismantled Goeben. THE ALLIES ARE DETERMINED Still, in the face of all this, I would not care to wager against the fall of Constantino- ple. The Allies have evidently made up their minds to have the Golden Horn, cost what it may. Daily their forces are strength- ened by the addition of French and British war-ships released from patrol in the far cor- ners of the seven seas. ‘The unity of the attacking forces, which Germany hoped to disrupt by rousing Russian suspicions of Brit- ish designs on Constantinople, is now welded by the arrival at the Dardanelles of the Rus- sian cruiser Askold. And at the other side of the capital, which, with the - possible exception of Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem, has exercised more influence upon human affairs than any other city in the world, the Czar’s Black Sea fleet is said to be coasting toward the Bosphorus, anxious to be in at the death of the Turk in Europe. The siege of Constantinople lasted fifty- three days in 1453. But once the sea dogs of France and England pass the Dardanelles, the city can hardly hope to hold out for that length of time again, irrespective of the success or failure of overland expeditions of the Allies. In 1453 the Christian artillery was out- matched by the guns of Mohammed II, who is said to have had one monster cannon that threw a stone ball two and a half feet in diameter. Unless the forces in the Turkish capital havereceived big guns by the water route from Austria, which is doubtful, it is unlikely that they have anything to equal the long-range weapons of the Queen Eliza- beth, which recently bombarded the fort of Hamidieh in Asia, across both the Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula, from+a position 21,000 yards away in the Aigean bea. CONSTANTINOPLE A POLITICAL KEYSTONE The fall of Constantinople might have tremendous political consequences. It would mean the final emancipation of the Balkans from the fear of Osmanli domination. Bul- garia would hardly join the Kaiser after the collapse of his Eastern ally, and the tempta- tion of Greece and Rumania to join the Allies and get their share in the division of the ‘* Sick Man’s ” European estates might well be irresistible. The advance of $4,000,000 made, or to be made, to Greece by Russia, France, and Great Britain, and the resigna- tion of the leader of the Greek war party, Premier Venizelos, who was irked by the Teutonic sympathies of King Constantine, are ominous signs, and with Greece helping herself to the A©gean Isles, which would be her natural share in the Ottoman pie, Italy would suddenly find that the neutrality thus far so fruitful to her was becoming cold and barren. The conflicting lusts of Russia and Austria for- Turkish territory in the Balkans con- stituted one of the underlying causes of the present war. Would it be very im- probable, would it not at least be poetic justice, if the elimination of the Turk and the division of his property formed the basis for a compromise .upon which the war could end? At any rate, we are alive. in an interesting. age. ‘The fall of Constantinople would make 1915 one of the great dates of history, a date to be remembered with 490 B.c., and a.p. 1066, 1453, 1588, and 1789. GERMAN SUBMARINES AGAIN HEARD FROM Germany’s submarine blockade of the British Isles, which started, quite auspiciously from the Teutonic point of view, with the torpedoing of seven vessels during the first six days that it was in operation and then apparently petered out, has come to life again. According to the official statement of the British Admiralty, from February 25 to March 3, 805 vessels arrived at British ports and 669 cleared from them without the report of a single vessel “‘ submarined.” From March 3 to March 9 the submarines.were quiet also, while in the meantime the German Unter seeboten U-8 and U-20 have been sunk. Now, as this article goes to press, comes word of the torpedoing of three British steamers in one day. Still, the sinking of ten ships while thousands are coming and going to her ports cannot seriously hamper Great Britain. Nevertheless, for the first time in a hundred years the British Admiralty will publish no Royal Navy List, despite the ruling of the last Hague Conference that the names of merchant ships converted to war-vessels should be published in the official navy list of the nation owning them. In ignoring this rule to-day, and thus suppressing infor- mation that would be valuable to the enemy, England is merely following Germany’s example. The last time that England suspended the publication of the list was
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620 THE OUTLOOK during the War of 1812 with the United States. The sinking of the American sailing ship William P. Frye by the German auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich in the South Atlantic on January 27, which is reported as this issue of The Outlook is going to press, is not an event of the sort to cause seri- ous international complications, if newspaper accounts of the affair are accurate. Accord- ing to them, the sailing vessel was carrying contraband of war, and it is said that her crew were all taken off before she was sent to the bottom. International law permits a war-ship to sink a merchantman under these circumstances, if military necessity prevents her from convoying the latter to port. On this point Article XLVIII of the Declara- tion of London says: “A neutral vessel which has been captured may not be de- stroyed by the captor; she must be taken into such port as is proper for the determi- nation there of all' questions concerning the validity of the prize.” But Article XLIX declares that “as an exception, a neutral vessel which has been captured by a belliger- ent war-ship, and which would be liable to condemnation, may be destroyed if the ob- servance of Article XLVIII would involve danger to the safety of the war-ship or to the success of the operations in which she is en- gaged at the time.” REPAIRING THE RUIN It is a pleasure to be able to turn from the narration of man’s efforts to destroy man toa recital of what several hundred thousand good Samaritans are doing to relieve the dis- tress that war has brought upon their fellow- creatures. Belgium is now only a geographical ex- pression. Whether it will ever be more than that again is one of the main issues for which this war continues to be waged. But the Belgian nation cannot be rebuilt unless there are Belgian citizens available as_ timber. Hence it is important that every one who has resented the violation of King Albert’s coun- try and who wants to see a new and stronger Belgium rise from the ashes of the old should strain his generosity for the benefit of the several million non-combatant Belgians locked in the ruins of their former kingdom, who would have starved long ago for all that their conquerors have done for them. According to the last report of the Belgian Relief Fund, up to February 15 that organi- zation had delivered in Belgium food sup- plies worth $1,553,000, donated by 150,000 Americans co-operating in perhaps the greatest work for human redemption the world has ever seen. The 25,000 letters of sympathy from some of these 150,000 donors will become part of the permanent historical documents of the Belgian Government if that Government exists after this war. Not all of the work of the Belgian Relief Fund has been done in Europe, however. An im- portant feature of its activity has been the assistance of Belgian fugitives to this country, who have found homes and positions through the Fund. According to the report of the investiga- tors sent abroad by the Rockefeller Founda- tion, by the first of April Belgiums entire non-combatant population, numbering ap- proximately seven millions, mainly helpless women and children, will be entirely depend- ent for existence upon continued charity. It is no time to stop giving. We must redouble our gifts. Warcorrespondents in the smitten kingdom report that Belgian women with babies in their arms go grubbing in rubbish heaps for empty condensed-milk cans, thrown aside by soldiers, in the hope that a few drops of the precious fluid may remain. - “It’s the only way to get milk for their babies,” said a German officer. “I have seen them run their fingers around the inside of a can which looked as bright as a new coin, and hold them in the babies’ mouths to suck.” AN EASTER GIFT FOR BELGIUM Hundreds of tons of food must be sent to these destitute mothers and their emaciated babies if they are to live to see the verdure of summer mercifully springing up to hide the ruins of their homes. On behalf of the 1,500,000 homeless and hungry children of desolated Belgium the Belgian Relief Fund now appeals to the boys and girls of America to fill up a ship with food and clothing, which is to sail as soon as possible, as an Easter gift to Princess Marie José, the nine-year-old daughter of King Albert and Queen Eliza- beth. “Tt is quite like a fairy story,” reads the appeal of the Fund, “ for all you American boys and girls, as well as all the young folks between the ages of sixteen and sixty .. . to save from starvation and death the boys and girls across the sea, who only a few months ago were, like you, happy in their homes and schools, at their work and play.” 17 March > = es 2 ne Cue CU
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1915 The cargo of this “ Ship of Life and Love” is to be devoted particularly to the sustenance of the more than thirty thousand war babies in Belgium—babies, that is, who have been born since August 4, 1914, in barren fields, ruined cottages, or wherever their unfortunate mothers found temporary shelter from the advancing tide of carnage and violence. Whoever contributes twenty-five cents or more toward the equipment of this Easter argosy will have the privilege of sending an Easter message, not to exceed twenty words, to the little Belgian Princess, and will receive in turn a Princess Marie José picture souve- nir card of thanks. Contributions should be sent to the Belgian Relief Fund, 10 Bridge Street, New York City, and marked for the * Belgian Easter Argosy.” DIVIDED POLAND Poland’s misfortune has been perhaps less dramatic than Belgium’s, but no less acute. A divided people, the Poles fight each other under the eagle of Germany and the double eagle of Russia. Over the terrain that was the ancient Kingdom of Poland the Czar’s Poles and the Kaiser’s Poles, whether they will or no, must destroy each other and each other’s homes. By the accounts of depend- able eye-witnesses, Russian Poland, where Hindenburg and the Grand Duke Nicholas have been grappling these seven months, is now in as sorry a state of waste and ruin as Belgium. Americans and Polish-Americans have not forgotten far-off Poland even in the enthu- siasm of ministering to the Belgians. ‘The American Polish Relief Committee, of 14 East Forty-severftth Street, New York City, headed by Madame Marcella Sembrich, has raised already thirty thousand dollars for the distin- guished prima donna’s suffering countrymen, while a like amount has been gathered to- gether by a similar organization in Boston under the leadership of the famous Polish pianist Madame Antoinette Szumowska-Ada- mowska. A NEW SPIRIT AND A NEW HERO There are yet no signs of an early peace, nor any considerable indications of weakening in either hostile camp, if the apparent crum- bling of Turkey is excepted. However, the old Prussian tone of bombast seems to have left the German leaders, and among them as among the people the spirit of Hindenburg’s THE STORY OF THE WAR 621 grim motto, ‘ Durchhalten”’ (** Hold out”’), is everywhere. Pertinacious old Hindenburg and,all that his dogged character stands for have caught the German imagination to-day. He is the Cincirratus of the German Empire. Says a correspondent of the London “ Times,” just returned from Germany, after declaring that the Fatherland is still pervaded by a stubborn confidence : Yet one hears little talk of victory. There is little boasting of the prowess of German arms. Stranger still to foreigners, the Emperor’s name rarely, if ever, figures in conversation. In point of popularity with the people he ranks about fifth. Field Marshal von Hindenburg is the national hero, although among well-informed people his Chief of Staff, General von Luden- dorf, is given credit for his victories. The war on the eastern frontier is to the Berliner of far more interest and importance than the campaign in the west. And, trying to account for this same strange, last-ditch kind of assurance which Germans profess to feel to-day, the Berlin correspondent of the New York “ Times” Says : The answer is Hindenburg—not only the man himself, but all that he stands for, the personifi- cation of the German war spirit, the greatest moral asset of the Empire to-day. He is idolized, not only by the soldiers, but by the populace as well; not only by the Prussians, but by the Bavarians and even the Austrians. You cannot realize what a tremendous factor he has become until you discover personally the Carlylean hero- worship of which he is the object. FRANCE UNDISMAYED France, of all the Allies, has most cause to desire peace except Belgium, Servia, and Montenegro. Yetthe French papers reflect an almost unanimous resolve of the people to see the war through its sanguinary course, cost what it may. This spirit of tenacity is reflected in a letter I have just received from a young French soldier. “The French public,” he says, “‘ has made uB its mind and has quietly accepted the idea that the war is going to last long. I hear from home that this abnormal war life has become in a way normal. Nobody expects the end before the last months of this year at the soonest. In the army, the men, how- ever severe the strain, aie ready to go on to the bitter end. Among the reservists, mostly married men, the idea that their children must not see this again is the backbone of their ‘morale.’ I do not mean to say that
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622 the men who live with the water up to their ankles—in dry weather—do not long to see the end of this, but they would laugh at any- body who would talk of peace now. This strength of will is all the more noteworthy because one might well have expected that French ‘ nerves’ would have broken down in a long, tedious, unsportsmanlike war like this.” ‘“FOR ’IM AND ’ER AND IT” The italics in the preceding paragraph are mine. “ The idea that their children must not see this again ” was also the backbone of the morale of the fathers with Miltiades at Mara- thon, with Harold at Hastings, with Cromwell at Marston Moor, with Washington at Valley THE OUTLOOK 17 March Forge, and with Wellington at Waterloo. Itis also no doubt largely responsible for the phleg- matic bravery of the reservists with Hinden- burgin East Prussia. In fact, it has always been the very essence of the courage of the cit- izen soldier with a family behind him, fighting, as Kipling says, “ for ’im and ’er and it.” But the fact that, throughout history, war has succeeded war and generation after gen- eration of fathers has died for the same dim hope that each war would be the last, does not prevent us from sympathizing with the French in the same noble aspiration that “their children must not see this again,” and adding fervently, “Yea, and their children’s children.” New York City, March 10, 1915. II—HOW RUSSIAN SOLDIERS WERE ENLIGHTENED IN JAPAN | BY GEORGE KENNAN “ War Relief in Russia” (The Outlook of September 24, 1915) I referred to the fact that in the course of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904—5 a large number of Russian soldiers received a liberal political education and studied, for the first time, an unexpurgated history of their own country in the prison camps of Japan. I have never before had occasion to tell the story of this revolutionary propaganda; but inasmuch as Americans were directly con- cerned in it, and Russian prisoners seem likely to be enlightened in a similar way in another and greater war, it may be worth while to tell it now. Soon after my arrival in Japan in the early summer of 1904 I was invited by the Japa- nese Government to make an excursion in one of its auxiliary cruisers to the Liaotung peninsula, by way of Yokohama, Kobe, Sasebo, and the western coast of Korea. Im the course of this voyage we stopped fora day or two at Matsuyama, a town on the eastern coast of the Inland Sea, and there had an opportunity to visit several hundred Russian prisoners captured at the Battle of the Yalu, who had been brought to Matsu- yama and there confined in two or three old, disused Buddhist temples (see ‘The Outlook of September 10, 1904). Among the officers and soldiers with whom I talked were a num- ig a recent article on ber of educated and intelligent men; and when I asked them whether they were well treated or not, and whether anything could be done to increase their comfort, they all said : ‘*We have nothing to complain of so far as treatment is concerned, but we are ur- gently in, need of occupation. We sit here from morning to night, day after day, with nothing to do but hold our hands. Can’t you get us something to read? A few Rus- sian books or papers would give us the great- est possible comfort.” “ T have a little Russian literature of my own,” I said, ‘“ which I brought with me from America; but I’m afraid you wouldn’t like it.” “Why not like it?” exclaimed one of them. ‘ We’d likeanything. I’m ready to read even cook books and arithmetics, if they’re only in Russian.” ** My books are not of that kind,” I re- plied. ‘‘ They’re interesting enough, but they’re written from the liberal or revolu- tionary point of view, and are more or less hostile to your Government.” * That’s nothing,” said another. ‘“ We’re not children in arms, neither are we feeble- minded ; we’ll take them for what they’re worth, good or bad.” “All right,” I said. “I’ve got a nearly
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1915 complete file of Peter Struve’s ‘ Osvobozh- denie ;’ would you like to have that ?”’ ‘Of course we’d like it! If you can spare it, for Heaven’s sake send it to us!” ‘** You shall have it,” I replied. ‘ As soon as-I get back to Tokyo, I’ll send you that, and whatever else I can find that seems suit- able.” I took the names of several of the officers and men, and six weeks later, when I re- turned to Japan from the Liaotung peninsula, I mailed to Matsuyama a selection from my small Russian library, including several books which, from the Russian censor’s point of view, were ‘‘ extremely pernicious.” Whether they were received or not, and, if received, what impression they made, I never. knew. As the war progressed, the number of Russian prisoners in Japan steadily increased until, after the surrender of Port Arthur and the defeat of General Kuropatkin at Mukden in 1905, it amounted approximately to seventy thousand. I visited a number of the newly established prison camps, including a very large one at Kokoro on the Inland Sea, and everywhere I heard from officers and soldiers the same appeal : thing to read ?” * Can’t you get us some- The idea then occurred to me that the concentration in Japan of large numbers of book-hungry soldiers would afford an excel- lent opportunity for a campaign of education and enlightenment in the Russian army. These men, at home, had never had a chance to read liberal literature, on account of the strict civil and military censorship ; and thou- sands of them knew nothing whatever even of the causes of the war in which they had been fighting. To enlighten them, it seemed to me, was a moral duty, because, if the army could be won over to the liberal cause, there might be a chance of success for the Russian people in their struggle for liberal reforms. In order to carry through successfully such a campaign of enlightenment as I had in mind it was necessary to obtain the permis- sion, if not the sympathetic co-operation, of the Japanese military authorities; and I therefore arranged for a personal interview with the Minister of War. General Terauchi, whom I had already met, was a Samurai of the ancient type— strong, resourceful, inflexible, and extraordi- “ Liberation ””—a monthly magazine edited by Peter St uve and published, for several years Fe to the me in Stuttgart. It was not strictly a revolutionary period. ical, but it was very liberal in its views, and was prohib- ited in Russia.—G. K. THE STORY OF THE WAR 623 narily able. He would have been a great war minister in any age or any country; but he was as silent, reserved, and impenetrable as the Sphinx of the great Pyramid. * Your Excellency,’ I said, ‘‘ I have ven- tured to seek an interview with you for the purpose of asking permission to distribute Russian literature among the prisoners in the detention camps. I have recently visited them in a number of places, and have found both officers and men hungry for something to read. I want to supply them with litera- ture that will enlighten them as to the nature of their Government and the reasons for the present war. I am interested, as you know, in the cause of Russian freedom, and I hope to promote it by educating a part, at least, of the Russian army, so that it will co-operate with the people in their great struggle for freer institutions. Japan, also, should be in- terested in that struggle, for the reason that Russian aggression in eastern Asia is the work of the autocracy, not of the people. If. the people ever get control of their own des- tinies, they will devote themselves, not to con- quest, but to universal education and the full development of the territory they already have. ‘There will be no more ‘ Manchurian adventures,’ and Japan can rest secure. I ask permission, your Excellency, to help both Russia and Japan by inducing the officers and soldiers of the Czar to co-operate with the people in securing for Russia a representative form of government.” I said much more than this, but I cannot now remember all my arguments. They were intended to convince the Minister that in permitting me to distribute literature of a liberal, or even revolutionary, nature in the prison camps, he would be helping the Rus- sian people and at the same time securing the future safety of Japan. General Terauchi listened attentively, with his eyes fixed on mine, but did not give me the least encouragement or show the slight- est sign of interest. He asked no questions, made no remarks, and his face was as devoid of expression as the obverse side of a tomb- stone. To a Westerner this impenetrable reserve of a Japanese Samurai is very dis- concerting; but I managed to get through my argument in a confused, halting way, and finally stopped. The Minister rose and merely said: ‘I will communicate with you on the subject in the near future.” I bowed profoundly and withdrew, wondering whether 1 had made any impression upon him at all.
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; : : " “ i ! a) X 624 THE OUTLOOK 17 March — A week passed—two weeks—without bringing any communication from the War Office, and I had almost given up my pro- posed campaign of enlightenment as hope- less, when I received a friendly call one afternoon from Baron Sannomiya, Master of Ceremonies at the Imperial Court. The Baron was a Japanese of a wholly different type. He, too, was a man of ability and strong character; but years of friendly inter- course with Europeans and long companion- ship with an English wife had modified his Japanese traits and given him the sympa- thetic responsiveness which so many cultured Orientals seem to lack. When I laid before him my plan for a campaign of enlightenment in the prison camps and he mentally grasped the possibili- ties of such a work, he exclaimed enthusiasti- cally: ‘* That’s a splendid idea! Perfectly splendid !” ‘General Terauchi doesn’t seem to think it’s so splendid,” I replied. ‘I proposed it to him two weeks ago, and he promised to communicate with me; but I haven’t heard from him, and I don’t dare to ask for an- other interview.” “No,” he assented, ‘“‘you couldn’t do that; but I’ll speak to him.” What Baron Sannomiya ‘said or did I never knew; but I have always believed that he laid the matter before the Emperor, whom he saw, of course, almost every day. Whether he did or not, he brought about in some way the desired result; and only two days later I received a note from General Terauchi saying that if I would send my literature to the War Department he would see that it was distributed among the Russian soldiers in the prison camps. I had not much left that was available, but I made up a package of what I had and sent it by a messenger to the War Office. At the same time I wrote urgent letters to Peter Struve in Stuttgart, and to the Friends of Russian Freedom in the United States, explaining the situation and begging them to send me, at the earliest possible moment, all the Russian literature they had or could get, and especially books, magazines, and brochures that would enlighten soldiers as to the causes of the war, and show them the desirability of a change in the form of the Russian government. All that I could do then was to wait patiently for the material. Two or three months later, when the great revolutionary struggle in Russia had already begun, a well-dressed, courteous gentleman of prepossessing appearance, whose speech seemed to indicate that he was an American, called upon me at my house in Tokyo and introduced himself as Dr. Nicholas Russel, of Mountain View, Hawaii. He had been sent to Japan, he said, by the American Friends of Russian Freedom, to bring the Russian literature that I had asked for, and to co-operate with me in the enlightenment of Russian soldiers in the’ prison camps. My work for The Outlook, he explained, must necessarily occupy most of my time, while he was a gentleman of leisure, able to devote himself wholly to the revolutionary propaganda that I had suggested and begun. Dr. Russel at that time was a gray-haired, gray-bearded gentleman, fifty-five or sixty years of age. I saw at a glance that he was a man of character, cultivation, and cosmo- politan experience; but I could not quite understand why an American physician of his age and evident ability should be willing to leave his home and cross the Pacific for the purpose of trying what, after all, was only an experiment. WhenI ventured to ques- tion him about this, and to ask how he had become so much interested in the Russian revolutionary movement, he replied, simply : “ But I am a Russian.” Nothing could have surprised me more. He looked like an American, he had an American name, and his English was as per- fect as mine. How could he possibly be a Russian ? Dr. Russel then explained to me that, although he was a naturalized American citi- zen, he was a Russian by birth, a revolu- tionist from conviction, and an_ expatri- ated political refugee. When life in Russia became too hazardous for a man of his opinions, he migrated to the Balkans, where, in the Slavonic population of the penin- sula, he continued to practice his profession. Some years later, but exactly when and in what circumstances I do not know, he decided to emigrate to the United States. Perhaps he did not feel wholly safe in a region where, at that time, political offenders were occa- sionally kidnapped and taken back to Russia, or possibly he merely wished to get into a country that was absolutely free. In the United States he lived so long that his Eng- lish speech and pronunciation became wholly American, and then, taking out naturalization papers, he became an American citizen. In middle life he drifted to California, and from
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1915 THE STORY OF THE WAR 625 there to the Sandwich Islands,'where he ac- quired popularity and influence, was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, and eventually, if I remember rightly, became its presiding officer. Through all of his wander- ings he had retained his interest in the Rus- sian revolutionary movement, and when the Friends of Russian Freedom in New York asked him to join me in Japan and help me enlighten the Russian prisoners he con- sented, not only willingly, but with patriotic enthusiasm. When Dr. Russel presented himself to me in Tokyo, early in June, 1905, I was just on the point of starting for Korea. I had no time to introduce him to the Japanese au- thorities or to give him any personal help, so, after furnishing him with letters to Gen- eral Terauchi and Minister Griscom, I lett him to his own resources. I greatly feared that he would not succeed, because the Japa- nese do not give their confidence quickly to strangers ;_ they had had no opportunity to try him out, and they might, naturally enough, withhold from him a privilege that they had accorded me only after a year of fairly inti- mate acquaintance. But if I had known Dr. Russel better I should not have felt apprehensive. In sagacity, tact, social adap- tability, and savoir faire he was not only far in advance of me, but was almost ideally fitted for the work in hand. During my stay in Korea I heard nothing from my Russian colleague, and when I returned to Tokyo, four or five weeks later, I more than half expected that he would say to me: “I’m very sorry, but I haven’t been able to accomplish much. The Japanese authorities were very suspicious; I was a stranger to them, and they did not seem inclined to co-operate.” His demeanor, how- ever, when I met him, was not at all that of an apologist for ill success. On the con- trary, he seemed to be confident, satisfied, and happy. * Well,” I said, ‘‘ how goes it ?” “ Fine!” he replied, quietly. “I have distributed a mass of educational literature ; I’ve been holding meetings and making speeches to the prisoners, and I’ve already organized three or four revolutionary socie- ties.” “You don’t mean to say,” I exclaimed, “that General Terauchi let you hold meet- ings and deliver revolutionary addresses in the camps !” “ Certainly,” he replied, coolly. ‘ We’ve had a number of enthusiastic camp meetings, with processions, flags, speeches, and the singing of revolutionary songs.” This unexpected news gave me a great shock of surprise, because I had never even thought of addressing mass-meetings of pris- oners personally. ** How did you ever manage it ?” I asked. ‘Tt was not difficult,’ he replied. ‘‘ Gen- eral Terauchi allowed me to try the experi- ment of a meeting once, and after that it was all right.” He then gave me briefly the story of his first revolutionary speech in a prison camp. Many of the Russian officers were monarch- ists or reactionists, and before he had been speaking ten minutes they began to question him or heckle him, and from that they pro- ceeded to denunciation and insult. It was then that he needed all his tact, coolness, and self-possession. Most speakers, in such a situation, would have become “ rattled,” or angry ; but, so far as I could judge from his modest recital, he took the heckling patiently, met denunciation with argument, returned courtesy for insult, and finally so won the hearts of an overwhelming majority of his auditors that the heckling was drowned in a storm of applause. Two or three Japanese officers who under- stood Russian were present—perhaps by order of General Terauchi—and, although they maintained a strictly neutral attitude, they were evidently pleased with the speech and the speaker. Nothing makes a stronger appeal to a Japanese Samurai than courtesy, dignity, mental alertness, and unruffled self- control under provocation. What report they made to the Minister of War Dr. Russel did not know; but it was evidently a favorable one, because he was allowed thenceforth to do in the prison camps almost anything that he wished. For two or three weeks thereafter Dr. Russel conducted the educational campaign alone; but late in July, 1905, he received help from a wholly unexpected source. When the Japanese captured the island of Saghalien, early in that month, they found among the hard-labor convicts a number of educated men who had been condemned to penal servitude for political offenses. It would have been manifestly unfair to treat these men as prisoners of war; and Dr. Russel suggested to the military authorities that they be turned over to us. The War Department hardly knew, at first, how to
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626 treat this suggestion or what to do -with captured criminals of this class; but when we offered to become responsible for their maintenance and good behavior the Gov- ernment ordered their release, and as soon as they reached Japan Dr. Russel took charge of them. Most of them had no money and no suitable clothes, but, thanks to the power- ful and wealthy friend in New York who was financing our enterprise, we were able to supply them with everything that they needed. They were all strangers to me personally, and yet there was among them one man whose history I knew well, and whose pho- tographic portrait had been in my possession for more than twenty years. This man was Trigoni, a Russian revolutionist who in 1881 had been condemned to twenty years of solitary confinement in the fortress of Schlus- selburg. He had lived through that: extraor- dinary trial of fortitude and strength, and then, at the age of fifty-five, had been sent to the island of Saghalien, where, after altogether a quarter of a century of imprisonment, he had finally been set at liberty by the Japanese. Few things in my Far Eastern experience were more interesting than my meeting in Yokohama with this intelligent, cultivated, and still energetic man. ‘Thirty years earlier his revolutionary associates in St. Petersburg had nicknamed him “ Milord,” on account of his fancied resemblance to the patrician type of Englishmd& ; but in the released convict from Saghalien, with his ascetic face, high, partly bald forehead, and thinning hair there was little to suggest the Englishman or the ardent young revolutionist of my photograph. His spirit was still unbroken ; but twenty years of solitary confinement had given to his face the peculiar immobility that one notices in the faces of the blind. I saw him afterward only once or twice. In Sep- tember, 1905, he returned to St. Petersburg, and must have reached there about the time of the Freedom Manifesto and the Black Hundred fogroms. Whether he survived the turmoil of 1906 or perished in the fighting, or again became a fortress prisoner, I do not know. From the released Saghalien convicts Dr. Russel selected a * stat.” of eager and com- petent assistants, and with their aid carried on the revolutionary propaganda with ever- increasing success. When, after a short ab- sence, I returned to Tokyo in the late sum- THE OUTLOOK mer, he had established a weekly Russian magazine for distribution in the prison camps, and was editing it himself with as much judg- ment and skill as -if he had been a trained journalist all his life. By this time, however, his activity and its results had attracted the attention of the Russian Government. In every revolution- ary movement there are a few men. who stand by the ruling authorities; and among the Russian officers in the prison camps there were some who denounced Dr. Rus- sel’s “ seditious”” propaganda and reported it to their superiors in St. Petersburg. The Russian Government thereupon made a pro- test to the Government of Japan, in which it declared that such “corruption” of sol- diers was uncivilized and unfair even in time of war, and was wholly inadmissible after the conclusion of peace. Recogniz- ing the force and reasonableness of this con- tention, the Ministry of War at once excluded Dr. Russel and his assistants from the prison camps. ‘This measure, however, did not put a stop to the revolutionary propaganda ; because hundreds of the prisoners were allowed to go outside every day on parole and to get and carry back as much literature as they liked. Then, too, Dr. Russel’s weekly magazine, ‘‘ Russia and Japan,’”’ was the only Far Eastern periodical that the Rus- sian soldiers could read, and, as it contained news from all the camps, as well as the latest telegrams ‘from Russia, it soon gained a very large circulation. Even the “loyal ” officers read it, because it was judiciously edited and was moderate and reasonable in tone. I have not space for a more detailed account of this educational experiment; but it is only. necessary perhaps to add that it was completely successful, and that of the seventy thousand prisoners in Japan at least fifty thousand went back to Russia with new ideas of government and a clearer under- standing of the causes of the war. All of them had become liberals and three-fourths of them revolutionists. After the last ship-load of Russian prisoners had gone and after the released Saghalien convicts had been given a new start in life Dr. Russel emigrated to Mindanao, where he has since been practicing his profession and writing articles for the local papers, advocating American principles of govern- ment for the Far East and defending Ameri- can administration in the Philippines.
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o~wwewae & TWO YEARS OF DEMOCRATIC CONTROL A REVIEW AND A POLL OF THE PRESS [os Congress which came to an end this month is said to have enacted more legislation than any other Con- gress that ever sat at Washington. It cer- tainly had the opportunity of doing so, for it was in session from April 7, 1913, until March 4, 1915, with only a brief respite from October 2, 1914, to December 7. During the two years in which it was in ex- istence it was in session about eleven-twelfths of the time. Left alone with the Treasury for that length of time, the Sixty-third Congress, in spite of probably sincere resolutions of economy, made the biggest total appropria- tion on record—nearly two and one-quarter billion dollars. When it adjourned, Presi- dent Wilson pronounced it ‘a great Con- gress,” but in his comment supplied, perhaps unintentionally, a touch of humor by declar- ing that with the adjournment of Congress “business has now a time of calm and thoughtful adjustment before it, disturbed only by the European war.” The greatest legislative activity of the Sixty-third Congress occurred in the earlier stages of its existence. It was during the extraordinary session and the regular session that immediately followed it that Congress enacted the measures for which it will be chiefly remembered. ‘These measures The Outlook reviewed a year ago in an editorial survey of the first year of the Wilson Admin- istration. First of all in importance among these measures stands the Currency Law, under which was established the Federal Reserve system administered by the Federal Reserve Board. Scarcely less noteworthy was the Underwood Tariff Law, which carried with it the levying of an income tax. In the same rank with these two important measures stand the measures for the further regulation of corporations, including the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission and the measure for the Federal construction, owner- ship, and operation of railways in Alaska. Because of its effect upon our relations with Great Britain there was a special significance in the repeal of that provision of the Panama Canal Act which. was to permit vessels en- gaged in American coastwise trade to pass through the Canal without paying tolls. Other measures adopted by Congress in its practically continuous session made up of the extraordinary session and the first regular session were the Hetch-Hetchy Bill, the Alaska coal-leasing law, the law levying a war tax, the war risk insurance law establish- ing a bureau to insure American ships against the hazards of the war, the registry law pro- viding for the transfer of foreign owned or built ships to American registry, the renewal and ratification of arbitration treaties, and laws passed in the interest of homesteaders. In contrast to the record of activity of Congress up to last fall stands the record of comparative inactivity of Congress in its short session. This is the more noteworthy be- cause frequently it has happened that laws which have been long debated in the earlier sessions of Congress have been rushed into enactment at its close. There is therefore to the credit of this short session of Congress but two or three measures of great conse- quence. Apart from the Immigration Bill which was vetoed by the President, the most noteworthy measure passed at the short session was the so-called Seaman’s Act, which exacts from steamship companies, for- eign as well as American, compliance with very stringent regulations in the interest of seamen—so stringent that over a score of treaties will be set aside or modified in con- sequence. One other measure has gained some notoriety—the resolution which gives the President power to prevent a belligerent nation from using any part of this country as a naval base, and to prevent vessels leaving American ports with supplies for belligerent war-ships at sea. Two other measures de- serve mention—the law to stop the sale of habit-forming drugs except for medicinal pur- poses, and the law combining the revenue cutter and the life-saving services into the Coast Guard. The principal accomplishments of the final session of Congress were, to use a bull, the things which it did not do. It did not pass the Ship Purchase Bill. This was a notable achievement! It did not promise the Philip- pines independence. It did not approve the proposed Constitutional amendment estab- lishing National woman suffrage and Na- tional prohibition. It did not ratify the treaty providing for the payment of twenty-five million dollars to Colombia. It did not pass two important appropriation bills, but con- 627
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628 tinued the present appropriations for another year by resolution. It did not ratify the Nicaraguan Treaty. It did not prohibit inter-State commerce in convict-made goods and in goods produced by child labor. It did not pass the Administration’s conservation bills. It did not establish rural credits. It THE OUTLOOK 17 March did not. provide for the regulation of the issuance of inter-State railway securities. It did nothing for the needed general reorganiza- tion of the army and little for the better organization of the navy. It did not estab- lish the Presidential primaries urged by the President. COMMENT BY THE PRESS Both houses of Congress were Democratic; the House of Representatives was over- whelmingly so, and the Senate by a narrow margin. It was expected that Congress would thus be in political harmony with the President. But no one expected to witness a Congress ready to follow so absolutely the President. He and the party caucuses have shaped most of the important legislation adopted. THE ADMINISTRATION SUPPORTERS Hence, according to Democratic papers, such, for instance, as the Rochester ‘‘ Union and Advertiser,” the President must be given much of the credit for the work of Congress. “He has suffered but few defeats, and none of these have been conclusive, for he lives to fight and to lead another day. Like Congress, he has made but few mistakes, and has gained the affections of most of the people and the respect of all. His course during the first two years of his Administration has placed him among the greatest of our Presidents, and it is the opinion of unprejudiced observers that this will be his rank for alltime. In his relations with Congress and the country at large he has displayed a high quality of Statesmanship, and this has not been less mm his relations with foreign countries.” The Richmond, Missouri, ‘‘ Conservator ”’ adds : There has not been a similar two years since the founding of this Government where more history has been made in time of peace than in the two just closed. Our Chief Executive has labored for the interests of all faithfully.... The Sixty-third Congress, which came to an end to-day, has set a high-water mark that will re- main long as the greatest Congress ever in ses- sion at Washington. More discriminatingly the Columbia “ State ” affirms : ; Congress . . . has passed half a dozen laws that it ought not to have passed, and that it knew it ought not to pass. It has failed to do some things, and done other things that it ought not to have done, much in the same spirit as a busy man forced with the necessity of cleaning his desk before departure makes the best of what he thinks in his own conscience a bad job. The Washington correspondent of the New York “ Evening Post ”’ points out one feature often overlooked : Congress is grateful to the President for the steps he personally took to rid that body from lobby influences. Furthermore, it is admitted that the stand of the President against lobby- ing influences has created a new moral atmos- phere in Washington, the effect of which is reflected, not only upon the work of Congress, but in all branches of the Administration. Similarly the Brooklyn “ Citizen :” While it is perhaps to be expected that the opposition will find grounds enough for criti- cism, it is undeniable that from first to last the moral tone of the two houses has reflected honor on our institutions. There have been no scandals, and, what is perhaps even more significant, there has been no attempt to convey the impression that any action taken or omitted has been due to improper motives. THE ADMINISTRATION’S OPPONENTS Republican, Progressive, and Independent papers unite with the Hartford ‘“‘ Courant ” (Rep.) in declaring that “the Sixty-third Congress will be known in history as the Congress that obeyed its master.” The New York “Journal of Commerce” (Ind.) also calls attention to the extent to which the action of Congress has been inspired, guided, or coerced by the Executive Department of the Government, and adds: It is not desirable to have that experience repeated. The Administration and the party responsible for it have lost more than they have gained by this whip and spur policy, and next winter they will have a new National campaign to look forward to. As to the legislation, the Missoula ‘“ Mis- soulian ” (Prog.) declares : Since the fatal split in the National Demo- cratic Convention at Charleston in 1860 the pag ean a pianaee =~ SS See ee ES ree
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1915 National Democratic party has never shown any genius for constructive legislation. Made up, as it is, of discordant elements with no definite plan of procedure, whenever it has been confronted with actual responsibility it has failed to make good. The New York “ Tribune ” (Rep.) thinks that— Measured in legislative output the session of Congress just ending has been unusually barren. It has been remarkably fruitful, however, in political results. The breakdown of the Presi- dent’s legislative programme, emphasizing the decline of his prestige as a party leader, has been the big outstanding development of the short session. It is the biggest fact in politics to-day. In similar tone the Albany “ Knickerbocker Press ” (Ind.) comments as follows : The short session showed a disposition to heed the anti-Administration verdict given by the voters at the polls last November. Most important and significant politically was the fact that, although the Democrats possessed an overwhelming majority, Congress failed to enact the one measure upon which great stress was laid by President Wilson—the Ship Purchase Bill. On the same subject the Chicago “ Post ”’ (Prog.) says : President Wilson .. . called it “agreat Con- gress.” . Measured by legislation actually passed, this estimate is fair. Nevertheless, the President himself seems vastly relieved that this “great? Congress has quit. . . . The last ses- sion brought a complete failure for tke Presi- dent’s programme. He was quite unable to keep up to the “delivery” point the forced pressure under which he drove Senate and House a year ago. It may be that human nature rebelled or it may be that Congress felt the reaction of the people. ‘President Wilson shows a_ charitable spirit in praising the Sixty-third Congress for its work,” declares the Syracuse “ Post- Standard ” (Rep.), and adds, in rehearsing the failure of the Administration bills : The conservation bills deserved a better fate. Secretary Lane gave to the preparation of them intelligence and understanding. The working out of a sound conservation policy, begun under Roosevelt, continued under Taft, calls for further Congressional action, and Mr. Lane appears to have proceeded along generally right lines. Most adverse critics of the Administration agree in this conclusion of the Boulder, Colo- rado, “‘ Herald” (Rep.): ‘“ With the adjourn- ment of Congress yesterday, the Wilson Ad- TWO YEARS OF DEMOCRATIC CONTROL 629 ministration passed its zenith and began its long descent.” THE PERSONNEL OF CONGRESS In the House of Representatives the most important changes due to the close of the Sixty-third Congress are the loss of its major- ity leader, Mr. Underwood, and his rival for the Senatorial nomination, Mr. Hobson; of Mr. Palmer of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Calder of New York. Mr. Clark has been selected by his party as nominee for a third term as Speaker, and Mr. Claude Kitchin, of North Carolina, has been promoted to the majority leadership. Says the Washington “ Post” (Ind.) : Tributes paid by opponents to Speaker Clark, Majority Leader Underwood, and Minority Leader Mann in the closing hour of the Sixty- third Congress were well deserved, and directed attention to the good feeling which still exists in the House inspite of the arbitrary leadership which characterized the entire session. The Administration has had no more loyal supporters than Speaker Clark and Mr, Under- wood. ... If the advice of these two men... had always been followed, there would be less fear in the ranks of their party with regard to the future. The provision for free sugar would never have been written into the tariff law if Mr. Under- wood’s suggestion had been followed, and the party would not now be facing a loss of $45,000,000 in revenue and the defection of the State of Louisiana. In the Senate the following Senators retire : Alabama—Francis S. White (Dem.). California—George C. Perkins (Rep.). Kansas—Joseph L. Bristow (Rep.). Kentucky—Johnson N. Camden (Dem.). Louisiana—John Randolph Thornton (Dem.). New York—Elihu Root (Rep.). Ohio—Theodore E. Burton (Rep.). South Dakota—Coe I. Crawford (Rep.). Wisconsin—Isaac Stephenson (Rep.). The following succeed : Alabama—Oscar W. Underwood (Dem.). California—James D. Phelan (Dem.). Kansas—Charles Curtis (Rep.). Kentucky—J. C. W. Beckham (Dem.). Louisiana—Robert F. Broussard (Dem.). New York—James W. Wadsworth, Jr. (Rep.). Ohio—Warren G. Harding (Rep.). South Dakota—E. S. Johnson (Dem.). Wisconsin—Paul O. Husting (Dem.). ‘With the retirement from the Senate of Elihu Root and Theodore Burton the Nation will lose the services of two of its ablest and most useful statesmen,” chronicles the Mil-
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630 waukee ‘“ Free Press” (Ind. Rep.), to which another Milwaukee paper, the “ Sentinel ” (Rep.), replies : Our morning neighbor intimates with regret that Messrs. Root and Burton are lost to the National service. Not absolutely, perhaps. Mr. Root can always be relied upon to serve his country in an advisory capacity at least, and Mr. Burton will be heard of as a man to be considered in 1916. Democratic papers also join in the general chorus of regret; for instance, the New York ‘¢ World :” Of the United States Senators . . . two canill be spared— Root, of New York, and Burton, of Ohio. Both are Republicans, both might be called reactionary Republicans; but, in spite of their limited service, both rank among the ablest men who have’ sat in the’ United States Sen- Ae We have been in opposition to most of their policies and most of their principles, but popu- lar government always needs men of their abil- ity and talents. It always needs men of their conservatism to help maintain the balance of forces. FOREIGN POLICIES As to the Administration’s foreign policies, the Brooklyn “ Citizen” expresses the extreme Democratic eulogy in speaking of “ the unsur- passed: soundness of judgment exhibited in dealing with Mexico on the one hand, and Eu- rope on the other.’’ Concerning Mexico, how- ever, even such an Administration supporter as the New York “ Times ” admits that “ the situation cannot be vieWed with light-hearted composure. It is exasperating and it. is terrible.” Another supporter, the New York «“ American,” adds: ‘Is the dismal story of our impotence in Mexico in 1914 to be written again this year?” The Louisvillle ‘“‘ Courier-Journal,” a much more ardently Democratic sheet, thus particularizes : Mr. Wilson missed a great opportunity when he failed to order Funston to the City of Mexico the moment Huerta stepped’ down and out. Funston could have got there without firing a shot out of a gun. Then, from that vantage, we could have read the riot act to Carranza, Villa, Zapata, and company, saying to them: “We come as the friends, not the enemies, of Mexico. We mean not to despoil you. But brigandage must cease, order must reign, and we shall not let go untilthe seasgo dry and the cows come home.” The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ‘‘ Gazette ”’ (Ind.) comments on the foregoing : We agree with Mr. Watterson that President Wilson overlooked an opportunity, but it is not too late. . It is about time President Wilson THE OUTLOOK read the riot act to the factionists and if they do not set upa stable government to step in and set it up for them and maintain it until such time as the Mexicans demonstrate they are able to take care of themselves. Concerning the war in Europe a general opinion is expressed by three journals, one on the Pacific, the ‘others’ on the Atlantic slope. The Aberdeen, Washington, ‘‘ World ”’ (Rep.) notes: ‘“ President Wilson makes it clear that he is not to be jingoed into diffi- culties or moved from the path of peace. For which he is entitled to all praise and credit.” The Boston “Transcript” (Ind. Rep.) says: ‘‘ Americans should all stand behind the Administration in solid support and in hopeful expectation that its firmness will not evaporate as it did in Mexico.” At the same time there is ‘an increasing opinion that, as the Montreal.‘ Star” sug- gests, the Administration’s course would come with better grace had it protested against the violation of Belgian neutrality. BUSINESS - The Administration’s attitude towards busi- ness, as revealed by its Attorney-General, in perhaps the most famous recent instance, is thus summarized by its otherwise supporter, the New York “ Times :” The Government very wisely abandoned the ruthless methods which it at first adopted toward the New Haven Railroad. Certainly there is less of the meat-ax process in the official state- ment of the “agreement” than there was to the forecasts of a peremptory dissolution, forthwith, at any cost to the unfortunate owners. . . . This was not what was promised when the campaign against the railways was begun as blithely as that against the trusts. It was not what was intended. Itis what is being realized under the operation of laws which cannot be repealed be- cause they are not written. General opinion is reflected by two news- papers. The Philadelphia ‘“ Telegraph ” (Rep.) says : It hascome to be realized that the Democratic policy which paralyzes business is not a blow alone at the manufacturer, the employer, but hits with even greater severity the man who works and depends upon his daily wage for a living. And the Buffalo “‘ News ”’ (Rep.) : Many are again discouraged over the outlook. Nothing has been doneé~by the party in power to relieve the situation, but, on the contrary, the quarrel with business has continued. It is inevitable that under such circumstances an Administration should lose favor and see its prestige steadily fading.
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Current Events Pictorially Treated PHOTOGRAPH BY G. V. BUCK JOSEPH E. DAVIES THE CHAIRMAN OF THE NEW FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION Mr. Davies is in his thirty-ninth year, having been born in Wisconsin in 1876; he is a lawyer_by profession ; has been Secretary of the Democratic National Committee ; and has been Commissioner of Corporations since May, 1913. His home is in Madison, Wisconsin. For comment on the President’s appointments to the Federal Trade Commission see editorial pages
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PHOTOGRAPH BY G. V. BUCK CHAMPION CORN-GROWERS PHOTOGRAPH BY G. V. BUCK CHAMPION BREAD-MAKERS BOYS AND GIRLS RECEIVE NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR PRACTICAL EFFICIENCY Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Vrooman has presented certificates to the boys and girls whose pictures appear above, tor their achievements in scientific corn-growing and bread-making. The champion bread-makers are (from left to right): Margaret Lofgren and Helen Fiergolla, of Minnesota, and Ruth E. Fleek, of lowa. The a corn-growers : (top row) John Devine, Massachusetts ; Earl Zeller, lowa; Le Roy Schulz, Pennsylvania ower row) Vyrle > ¢ Crowell, Nebraska ; Robert Mack, New Jersey ; Vernon Hartnett, Massachusetts ; Row Halverson, Minnesota
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aad 4H PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWIN LEVICK THE PICTURESQUE The demand for frei SQUARE-RIGGER AGAIN SPREADS ITS SAILS omy ye caused _b ri mented upon elsewhere in this issue; it has brought some of the old square-rigged craft again into the transatlantic service. the abnormal conditions resulting from the war is com- This ship, loaded with cotton for Bremen and sailing. under American registry, is seen in the picture as she appeared when passing Sandy Hook
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PHOTOGRAPH BY-UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD LEARNING A NEW TRADE IN A-MILITARY HOSPITAL In the military hospital at St. Elmo, France, it is stated, soldiers who may not be able to resume their old callings are taught new trades; the photograph shows such a soldier who is Jearning to do fretwork with a foot-lathe
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PHOTOGRAPH BY PIRIE MACDONALD WILLIAM CRARY BROWNELL This distinguished American critic and author, an appreciation of whose work by Hamilton W. Mabie appears on another page in this issue, was born in New York City in 1851; was graduated from Amherst College in 1871; for a time he was on the editorial staff of “* The Nation ;” and for a quarter of a century he has been literary adviser to the firm of Charles Scribner’s Sons. He isa member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1910 the degree of Litt. D. was conferred upon him by Columbia University
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A SERVIAN BATTLE AT NIGHT AN “w IKE ghosts, our men emerge from the trenches, noiselessly, watchfully. My company was descending a gentle slope into the “‘ Kara Smail ” creek, and developing into attack formation. The night was opaque and the field without a single visible point, therefore the men went close together. Ahead, we only guessed where our patrols might be. Stealthily, like wildcats, they had penetrated the’ darkness. We heard splashings of boots in water-pools, and the careful signals of the patrol leaders in the depths of the dark were like the whispers of spirits. “Hush! Look sharp! the enemy’s out- posts!” . . . We have forgotten our fatigue, our sleepless nights, our aching legs, the pain in our chests, and our frostbitten hands. ‘The men press their rifles nervously against their sides and with trembling fingers feel the razor- edged bayonets to make sure of their firmness on the gun-barrels. A primitive instinct tells each and every one of us that a raging storm is about to grasp and hurl us to the earth like slender pines, scattering us—the dead mingled with the living ; and in' that moment our hopes, our dreams, our expectations, are like chaff before the wind. , We advance more warily. No! It was only our own outposts—dark and colorless groups of men who were expecting us. We could not distinguish their features, but it was our own First Regiment, and as we has- tened past we spoke the names of comrades, relatives, and neighbors from the home vil- lage, exchanged silent pressures of the hand, murmured a warm wish for success, em- braced some dear friend—the last salute, it might be—a parting before death. Just beyond our long lines halt; water- flasks are slipped into bags to keep them from rattling; the bottoms of coats are tucked under belts, caps pulled down over éars, and* the laces of boots and sandals tightened. ‘The only sound was the snap- ping of breech-locks being opened and the sharp click of the cartridge clips. An orderly came running up to me, ex- ACCOUNT BY A SERVIAN OFFICER WRITTEN FROM THE FIELD TRANSLATED BY PRINCESS LAZAROVICH-HREBELIANOVICH cited and breathless. ‘*‘ Are you in command of the Fourth Company ?”’ he asked. ‘“ The Commander orders you to go ahead.” His face was not visible ; I could only perceive a dark human form and hearhis sharp whisper. We moved forward—coming within about four hundred yards of the enemy’s posts. We could see nothing over there, but could hear the clatter of bayonets. Flat on our bellies onthe wet ground we worked our way onward like panthers, dragging and support- ing ourselves with the left hand. Then evi- dently we pass onto a dry field ; we feel thorns tearing our hands, and something warm drips down our fingers. We try not to let a breath escape, we suppress our cough in our lungs, and continue to drag ourselves along the earth so as not to tread over the thorny ground, which is covered with dry plants that would crackle under our feet and betray our presence. “Stop! Fall flat!’ Three sharp re- ports—but not from a rifle—and upwards shoots a streak of red light from skyrockets. They have discovered us ; they have felt our presence! The enemy’s outposts were sig- naling our coming. Suddenly, like a great sun, searchlights streamed into our faces, their . powerful rays blinding and confusing us. Lying there on the field, with our bellies firm against the ground, we stretched’ out our hands with rifles ready. Just then some- thing gigantic bellowed, bursting through the air like lightning, and struck, followed by showers.of stones, sand, and earth, which buried us. Over our heads whizzed pieces of projectiles with a hissing noise that froze the blood in our veins. After the first shrap- nel, another burst, with its avalanche of stones and metal fragments. ‘How can they know the distance so exactly ?” ** Forward !” rings down the line. ward! Forward!’ ; Then one narrow but seemingly endless flame lit up the space in front of us as if from the earth itself. Their infantry was opening rapid fire. To the right, where our Danubian division lay, the artillery fire raged fiercely. 639 6é For-
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640 THE OUTLOOK Around us the earth was being ripped up and torn out by countless projectiles and shrapnels. In the fitful glare of the search- lights we could see the wounded soldiers dressing their own wounds and gritting their teeth. The air was filled with that strange odor of human blood and torn flesh—a sour and sickening smell. The word was : “ No fire—to the bayonet ! Forward—in groups !” With insane swiftness, created by the near- ness of death and the sense of self-preserva- tion, we hurled ourselves into the enemy’s trenches. I saw nothing ahead of me; I feverishly gripped my revolver and rushed on among my men. “Forward! Forward! Forward !” All around were howlings as of wild ani- mals, shouts, and terrible oaths, the sound of bayonets ripping and slashing the human flesh and digging in between ribs and shoulder-blades with that peculiar grind and crunch, and the crushing of skulls with the butts of rifles—which no- man could ever forget. Again came an explosion, shattering to nerves and brain, charging the air with suffocating fumes of sulphur. The shock threw me to the ground. .. . 17 March When I opened my eyes, it was already dawn. Far away yonder towards the east a white milky band of light was visible at the horizon. ‘“ They have retreated, Lieutenant—they have retreated! But they’re digging trenches over there!” It was the voice of one of my men. “You were only struck by flying earth, thank God. Here is some brandy ;” and his warm, rough hand held the reviving liquor to my lips. Like last lingering echoes of the night’s work, some lone rifle or cannon could be heard sending death from its long barrel to groups of the enemy which still resisted stubbornly only a few thousand yards away from us. Some one in my neighborhood was slitting up the breeches of Yanko, the bugler, so as to dress his shivered leg. “Tt will soon be all right !” said the am- bulance-man, encouragingly. “Well, well!’? answered Yanko. ‘ As long as the head is whole, to the devil with the leg! By the way, have you got any tobacco ?”’ and he ground his teeth to stifle the cry which he was wrestling to keep in his breast, while the deadly pallor of his young face became more ghastly. AN AMERICAN CRITIC BY HAMILTON W. MABIE T the joint session of the American A Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters held three years ago in the Cen- tury Theater in New York Mr. William Crary Brownell read a paper on “ Criti- cism’’! which gave the occasion precisely the note of authority which is sorely needed in the period of confusion of standards, laxity of methods, and adventurous experimenta- tion through which we are passing. It isa matter of slight consequence that the Vic- torian writers have become objects of patron- age and that the New England poets are per- emptorily dismissed as imitators of English models. This easy way of clearing the 1Criticism. By W. C. Brownell. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 75 cents. A portrait of Mr. Brownell will be found on page ground for new growths is a familiar inci- dent in literary history, and by no means to be feared or regretted. The older writers will gain in the end by a reappraisal ; what they lose will be well lost, for no man’s work is ex- empt from the revision of time. There is, how- ever, no need of anxiety about Shakespeare in the resounding times of Mr. Shaw ; nor need the lovers of ‘* Ulysses ” and “In Memoriam ” fear that the shades have swallowed up the poet whom the other day all men acclaimed. Many storms have raged around the Olym- pians and obscured them, but when the tempest has passed they have reappeared, awaiting with smiles and crowns the one or two newcomers who have arrived under cover of the tumult. In a period of revolt, however, the man on the barricades shouting himself hoarse is win ndeborsuadcadliad
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a tsk tae 1915 AN AMERICAN CRITIC 641 easily mistaken for the real leader, who is often a quiet person with no thesis to defend, no method to impose on his fellow-craftsmen ; who is so absorbed in the view of life from a new angle and the joy of making his vision a common possession that he is hardly aware of the hubbub going on about him. In such a time the critic of clear sight, who knows the traditions but is not enslaved by them, who lives in his own day but is not confused by its agitation and precipitous activities, is not only a dispassionate judge but a leader. It falls to his lot, not only to separate the method of the moment from the practice of the masters, but to reinspire the creative spirit by lifting the veil from its vital processes. This gift of prophecy has made the little group of great critics both liberators and leaders. In point of competency for the office of the critic and of concentrated devotion to his work Mr. William Crary Brownell holds a place by himself. It is not too much to say of him that, while he is not the best writer among American critics, he is the foremost critic among American writers. As a prac- titioner of the art of criticism for its own sake Mr. Brownell is the most important figure in our literature. If criticism were understood and valued in this country as it isin France, it would be wiser to put the matter less bluntly ; to a man of such crystalline intel- lectual rectitude as the author of “ Victorian Prose Masters” this bluntness may even seem offensive ; but when the quality of a man’s work obscures its value among readers at large, it not only is permissible but mandatory to speak frankly. It is a small matter to a sincere man that he is not widely recognized by his generation, but it is a serious loss to the generation. It is true that he who runs may not read this slender volume on “Criticism.” Mr. Brownell exacts and rewards thought. Some- times, by using the vocabulary of philosophy instead of that of literature, he demands more than many readers can give. The vogue of Arnold was due in no small measure to the lucidity of his style; and it may be sus- pected that among Lowell’s readers there were many whose interest was sustained not so much by what he said as by the way in which he said it. Arnold’s method is obvious enough, but he so completely concealed the processes of his thought that one arrives at the goal with such ease that he is hardly aware of the road which has. brought him there, and he is so helped by the repetition of happy phrases that he is relieved almost entirely of the discipline of thinking. Not even Sainte-Beuve has more adroitly concealed the mechanics of criticism by literature than has Arnold, who sometimes diverts us from the occasional thinness of his thought by the charm of his manner. Lowell’s tone of academic authority is so skillfully modulated that it disarms our suspi- cion of its finality, and even when he takes us into the laboratory of scholarship he enlivens the pedagogue’s dryness with digressions that often rival the charm of the literature he is discussing. Mr. Brownell would probably take excep- tion to the use of such words as “ insight”’ or “ divination,” though his own work shows the possession of qualities which, employing the methods of reasoning, achieve the direct- ness and clearness of vision that seem to many largely intuitive. Sainte-Beuve shows very clearly the sources upon which he draws in reaching his conclusions ; and Taine, whom Mr. Brownell holds in high regard, offers us more documents than we care to examine. On the other hand, Goethe, whose original endowments were reinforced by scientific habits of mind, speaks as one “ having au- thority, and not as the scribes.” He has the air of a seer, and seers never give reasons; but even when he gives us such a sense of original and basic wisdom that he seems to have had access to an unpublished revelation of fundamental principles and truths, it may be suspected that his insight was immensely reinforced by the philosophic habit of his mind. His criticism was distilled from his immense knowledge of life. No other critic has combined such depth of insight with such breadth of vision. Save in his purely lyrical moods Goethe was always a critic of life, and often a critic of art. It is true that his famous interpretation of ‘‘ Hamlet’’ belongs to literature quite as definitely as to criticism ; but, as a rule, his critical opinions have the air of oditer dicta ; they are not imbedded in literature. And this is true also of Coleridge, a critic whose work in this field can hardly be re- garded as literature, but whose influence on literary criticism as well as on _ philosophical thinking was both stimulating and profound. One gets from Coleridge, as from Burke, a sense of intellectual spaciousness which is sometimes more liberating than definite thought.
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642 Mr. Brownell’s slender volume on * Criti- cism” is an admirable exposition of his method as a critic, as well as a very clearly reasoned analysis of the function and art of criticism. In his studies of English and American writers and in his “French Traits” and “French Art” Mr. Brownell reveals a mind of exceptional vigor, a quality of intelligence which enables him to under- stand the French spirit and point of view as few foreigners have understood them, and a method at once thorough and flexible. In intellectual quality no American critic has quite reached his achievement. His power of penetration is supplemented by precision and acuteness of analysis. One may dissent from his conclusions, but his transparent in- tellectual integrity, his powerful grasp of the material with which he is dealing, and the force of his analysis give one an uncomfort- able feeling that his conclusions cannot be escaped. No Meredithian can follow the clear, keen logic of the analysis of the author of “ Harry Richmond ” without a shuddering sense that he is hearing the judgment of pos- terity ; and the dispassionate estimate of Mr. James’s work, so cordial in its recognition of its distinction and so convincingly frank in noting its shortcomings, is a fine example of intellectual integrity unaffected by per- sonal relations. ‘To secure this independ- ence of judgment Sainte-Beuve sacrificed his friendships ; he had not arrived at the wis- dom of Emerson’s noble definition: ‘ Our friends are those who make us do what we can.” To tell a man the truth about his work is to pay the highest tribute to his intelligence and character. To state the concrete in terms of the ab- stract—to quote Mr. Brownell’s definition of criticism—treverses Goethe’s definition of art and demands for its successful practice an equipment of knowledge which must include history, zesthetics, and philosophy. At the very start the reviewer and the critic part company ; their functions are often assumed to be identical, but they run parallel only so far as dealing with the details of the work in hand are concerned; its larger relations and its vital significance put in terms of personal- ity lie almost wholly within the province of the critic. His point of view may be impressionistic and temperamental, like that of Anatole France, for instance: an expression of a sen- sitive and delicately trained taste. It may be academic, like that of Brunetitre: a resolute THE OUTLOOK 17 March insistence on the classical canons as having the authority of law—a ‘practice of criticism which has behind it a robust and invigorating discipline, but fails to make room for the free play and growth of an art vitally related to the work and methods that express new experi- ences and fresh outlooks on life. Or it may be, as Mr. Brownell thinks it must be, the product of a mental process inclusive of all these elements, balanced and held in poise by that faculty in the possession of which Shakespeare was willing to character- ize men as “noble.” Criticism cannot, in a word, rest in assertion of personal taste or of historic authority; it must give a reason both for its faith and practice. Mr. Brownell illustrates his own point of view by his brief but illuminating discussion of ‘“realism,’”? a method which, in its most rigid application, often lands us in fantastic unreality. ‘* Every detail is real, but the im- plication of the whole is fantastic. Why? Because the ideal is excluded. The antithesis of reality is not the ideal, but the fantastic.” A similar mistake is often made with regard to fiction, the antithesis to which is not truth, but fact. What could be more inclusive and fundamental than Mr. Brownell’s definition of the highest service of criticism as the endeavor “to secure that the true and the beautiful, and not the ugly and the false, may in wider and wider circles of appreciation be esteemed to be the good”? The value of criticism of this intelligence and breadth of view at a time when new methods are derided as chaotic and revolutionary, or hailed as the first fruits of an art before which all earlier art must retreat into mu- seums with the savage bow and the medizval armor, cannot be overestimated. The air is full of the cries of men on the barricades in red sashes, waving the flags of revolt and pro- claiming themselves the prophets of the new age. ‘There is a new age, and its prophets are here; but there is great need of a criti- cism that shall help us to be deaf to mere noise and alert to truth and beauty in new forms. Mr. Brownell’s incorruptible intelligence sometimes seems so devoid of sympathy as to be almost disintegrating ; but underlying the dispassionate play of this intelligence there is deep feeling, not only for truth and beauty, but for personality. The popular use of the word rational often assumes its antithesis to sentiment and imagination, to the inspira- tional side of life ; but season must make as
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1915 AN much room for these tremendously influential elements as life makes. When Matthew Arnold, disregarding the patriotic emphasis on Emerson’s intellectual greatness, placed him among ‘the friends of the spirit,” it seemed to many in this country like a blow in the face; but it becomes more and more clear that Emerson’s authority rests on his rectitude ‘and star-like philosophy of living rather than on his contribution to abstract truth. Mr. Brownell’s attitude toward Emerson is not less critical, but it is tempered by a fine reverence. The analysis of his work does not falter, nor is there any evasion of critical duty ; but no one has more clearly seen or more eloquently celebrated the crystalline purity of a man who justified in his own nature the most daring claims for American civilization : “ His life, his character, his personality— quite apart I mean from the validity of his precepts—have the potency belonging to the founders of religions who have left no written words. All the inconsistencies, the contra- dictions, the paradoxes, the inconsequences, even the commonplaces of his writings, are absorbed and transfigured by his personal rectitude and singleness. . . . He has limita- tions but no infirmities. . . . Nor was his blamelessness in the least alloyed by weak- ness. His energy was as marked as his rectitude. . . . To ‘mark the perfect man’ has been left to America and to American literature.’? And these, it must be remem- bered, are not the words of an impressionistic critic ; they are part of a searching analysis. Many lovers of Thackeray are of the opinion that appreciation of the author of “Henry Esmond ” is a test of literary taste ; this may be going too far, but no one will challenge the statement that the great-hearted creator of Colonel Newcome can be under- stood only by the critic who possesses not only intelligence but those qualities of senti- ment, affection, spiritual idealism which peo- ple have in mind when they use the word ‘“‘heart.’’ ‘To the purely technical, analytical, or academic critic Thackeray is a cynic, with AMERICAN CRITIC 643 a superficial view of life and a liking for a very simple type of woman. When this test is applied to Mr. Brownell, he meets it with the most clear-sighted and affectionate interpre- tation of the foremost English novelist that has appeared ; a study which lays bare the secret of the genius of a writer whose prose is one of the great achievements of our liter- ature. Of that prose Mr. Brownell says: * Like his art and like the world of his imagi- nation, it is an outgrowth of the most inter- esting personality, perhaps, that has expressed itself in prose.”” Commenting on the oft- repeated criticism that the author of ‘“ Vanity Fair ” obtrudes his personality in his stories, he says of that expression of personal force that ‘it has as much charm as power, and is infinitely gracious and winning. It provides an atmosphere of its own in which his char- acters live and move, and to which they owe no small portion of their attractiveness—in virtue of which, indeed, they constitute an organic community by themselves. . . . The spectacle gains immensely from his associa- tion with the company.” The keenest analysis is, after all, only a method ; its achievement is due to the intel- ligence of brain and heart behind it. Such an interpretation of a nation as Mr. Brown- ell’s “French Traits” is the product of knowledge made luminous by sympathy, and such a discussion as the chapter on * Democracy ” in that notable book reveals a deep and tranquil faith in humanity which makes the professional protestation of devo- tion to the cause of the “ people ”’ seem like idle beatings of the air. Mr. Brownell agrees with Rod in empha- sizing the importance of the element of character in Scherer’s criticism. In reading Mr. Brownell one is constantly aware of the force of character which gives his work un- compromising intellectual integrity, sustained vigor of method, resolute pursuit of truth; qualities which, aside from its intelligence and intellectual energy, impart to his work a tonic element of incalculable value in American literature and life.
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FAIRY TALES BY LAURA BENET A half-starved flock of little city strays, They sit expectant in the warm school-room, Lighting with their wan smiles its ordered gloom And breaking the smooth current of its ways With eager shuffle. He in rags displays Bare feet all dusty from the weaving-loom, And she the stamp of early, tragic doom, In sunken cheeks and fervent, hollow gaze. But now they hear blue waters beating free Upon the prows of Jason’s gliding ships ; Now, shadowed by the dragon’s brazen wings, They pluck the golden apples from his tree, And, draining this sweet cup with thirsty lips, Soar in a land of rainbow-tinted things. RESURRECTION BY ELOISE ROBINSON Beauty they thought was dead, was dead, that day: They sealed the Master in his new-wrought tomb, And wondered that along the dusty way White lilies of delight were all in bloom. Dear Christ! So long ago, so long ago! And men have dreamed again that gladness dies, Chanted her requiem and laid her low, And turned to meet the smiling of her eyes. I WONDER BY HERMANN HAGEDORN “When stars go out, I wonder where they go? I wonder where the flowers get their smell? I wonder what the talking squirrels tell, And what the quiet, shiny fishes know ?” From dawn to eve, but most when lights are low And sunset ray and vapor weave their spell— “ IT wonder how the small birds fly so well, And why the winds that blow the birds won't blow Me, too, up through the far, green tops of trees?” All day “ 7 wonder’’—faintly as a prayer— “ T wonder,’ and her deep eyes, unresigned, Study the flight of swallows on the breeze, As lips, half open, murmur to the air The tremulous “ 7 wonder” of mankind
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CREDIT VERSUS CHARITY THE MORRIS PLAN BY LYMAN BEECHER STOWE N the last day of last year there was opened in New York City a company to lend money at a legal rate of interest, with character and earn- ing capacity as collateral, and to pay five per cent interest on deposits. This organiza- tion is known as the Morris Plan Company of New York. It is neither a charity nor a swindle. It is officered by men of such cast- iron respectability as Henry R. Towne, Presi- dent of the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company (the lock-makers) ; Clark Williams, former Superintendent of Banking and former Comptroller of the State of New York; Charles H. Sabin, President of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York ; Wallace D. McLean, formerly Assistant to the President of the United States Express Company; and Her- bert L. Satterlee, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, énd son-in-law of the late J. Pierpont Morgan. In fact, the only star- tling feature of this venture is that it offers to the non-propertied people of the banking center of America their first and only oppor- tunity to borrow money on non-usurious and non-charitable terms, and to invest it without risk at a higher interest rate than the savings banks pay. In other words, this company is extending to the non-propertied classes an opportunity to borrow and save money cor- responding to that which the _ propertied classes have always enjoyed. Up to the year 1910 there was not a place in the entire country, with the possible exception of some few co-operative loan associations, in which a non-propertied man, no matter how high his character or how good his earning capacity, could turn for a loan to meet a legitimate need unless he paid usurious interest to a loan shark, made a non-business arrange- ment with a friend, or sacrificed his self- respect by appealing to a semi-philanthropic loan association. Likewise there was no safe place in which he could put his savings where they would yield him more interest than the three to four per cent of the savings banks. In other words, there was no way by which he could capitalize his only assets— his character and his earning capacity. In that year Arthur J. Morris, a lawyer of Norfolk, Virginia, who had devoted years of study to the devising of a plan which should supply this strange lack in America’s finan- cial facilities, opened a small company in his native city to do exactly what the New York company isnow undertaking. ‘These Morris Plan companies have since spread until there are to-day, besides the original one in Norfolk and this latest one in New York, similar com- panies in Atlanta, Georgia; Washington, District of Columbia; Baltimore, Maryland ; St. Louis, Missouri; Philadelphia, Pennsy]l- vania; Denver, Colorado; Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina; Lynchburg, Portsmouth, and Richmond, Virginia ; Mem- phis, Tennessee ; Springfield, Massachusetts ; New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut ; Nashville, Tennessee ; and South Bend, Indi- ana. Up to October 31, 1914, these com panies—apart from those of New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, South Bend, Indi- ana, and New York, which were not then in existence—had made 49,500 loans aggregat- ing $6,100,000, the average loan amounting to $123. The great demand for these companies and their rapid spread led naturally to the formation of a National organization, known as the Industrial Finance Corporation, which is charged with the promotion, organization, and supervision of Morris Plan companies throughout the country. Of this company Clark Williams is the President; Arthur J. Morris, Vice-President and General Counsel ; Charles H. Sabin, Treasurer; Joseph B. Gilder, Secretary; and Herbert L. Satterlee, Chairman of the Legal Advisory Board. On the directorate are leading men in the financial circles of the twelve States in which Morris Plan companies are already in existence. To return to the recently opened New York company, it should be said that, because of its small capital (only $100,000) and its small force and quarters, it can hardly be called more than a demonstration unit. For this reason it was deemed wise by the man- agement not to advertise its opening or even to announce it in the press. On the opening day, in spite of all efforts to keep the matter dark, eighty-three customers appeared, or twice as many as could be comfortably accom- 645
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646 modated ; the second day there were over one hundred, the third day two hundred, the fourth day between three hundred and fifty and four hundred, and so on until on the 11th of January the place was besieged by a thou- sand or more persons, and became so con- gested that the officers had to suspend busi- ness for the day and prevail upon some friendly policemen who happened to be in the surging line of customers to help them clear out the crowd of eager and anxious would-be borrowers and savers. ‘The offi- cers then hurriedly hunted up additional quar- ters and clerks, not so that they might handle the business, but so that they might more nearly handle it. Somehow a two-column news article found its way into the “ Jewish Morning Journal ” the third day of the company’s business, and that accounted for the influx of three hun- dred East Side Jews the next day. Eagerly, earnestly, excitedly, this motley throng of new Americans came with their little flat hats pulled down upon protruding ears; with their gesticulations and bows and pungent smell of garlic. Many of them in their eagerness pushed into the elegant and dignified offices of the floor below, belonging to their racial kinsmen of the opposite social pole—Kuhn, Loeb & Co. When they finally found their way upstairs to the Morris Company, they were given application blanks by the dis- tracted officers, and told to fill them out and come back next week. ‘That advice was what accounted for the appearance of the crowd of over one thousand on Monday morning. Each applicant had not only filled out his blank, but had brought with him one to four friends and relatives to share in the new opportunity to borrow or to save a little money. A little East Side peddler, as he stood in this jostling crowd, exclaimed, with the characteristic extending of the palms of the hand, “Oh, mein Gott, what a beez-nis dis was !”’ Let it not be supposed that this type of customers are the only applicants. A day or two after this inroad a random mention of the company appeared in the ‘“‘ Army and Navy Journal,” with the result that a group of army and navy officers were among the appli- cants the following day. ‘There were from the first day a large number of Government employees of all grades—city, State, and Federal. On the very day of the congestion of East Side Jews one of the applicants was a young railway official. He said to the THE OUTLOOK 17 March manager, “ I’m not exactly in the same social circles with most of the other applicants, but I dare say I need money as badly as any one of them.’”’ He explained that he had to meet a $500 note within a fortnight and did not have the money—that with a wife and three children to support he was barely able to make both ends meet on his salary of $4,000, and had been able to save nothing with which to meet emergencies. He wanted to borrow $600. While he could not save in large amounts he could very easily repay the loan at the rate of $12, or 2 per cent, a week, as required under the Morris Plan. He could get his brother, who was the president of the road, to go on his note, and could get besides one or more equally strong indorsers. In every case there must be under the Morris Plan at least two responsible indorsers. He was of course a gilt-edged risk and undoubt- edly received his money. The modus op- erandi is as follows: This young man would first be required to fill out an application blank calling for answers to a list of perti- nent questions, such as amount of salary, wages, or income, by whom employed and how long, debts and to whom owed ; and, finally and of great importance, comes the question, ‘‘ State fully for what purposes. you want this loan.” The two co-makers must answer a similar list of questions. If the applicant and his co-makers furnishsatisfactory statements, which on being checked up as far as possible prove to be true, the applicant is required to sign a note which must be imdorsed by his co-makers. And then -he receives his money—in this case $600 less 4 year’s interest at 6 per cent, or $564 net. By the terms of this note he agrees to buy investment certificates hereafter described, paying for same at the rate of 2 per cent, or in this case $12, a week. ‘These investment certificates of $50 each are handed him to the amount of his loan.. These certificates he hypothecates as. security for his note and as protection for his co-makers. By the terms of these certificates, known as Class C savings or investment certificates, he agrees to pay to the company each week: one dollar on each certificate, or in this case of $600, having received twelve certificates, he would agree to pay upon them $12 aweek. His co-makers are of course liable in case he fails to pay, and they have the benefit of such payments as he has made at such time, and simply in his stead continue the weekly payments until the debt is liquidated.
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1915 ‘If the payments are made according to the terms of these Class C certificates, at the end of fifty weeks these certificates will have a cash value of $600 in the case under con- sideration. Two weeks later the note is due ; in this instance, for $600. . The borrower may then terminate the transaction by cashing in his C certificates and paying his note therewith ; or, if he cares to, he may convert the C cer- tificates into fully paid Class B certificates of the par value of $600, bearing interest at 5 per cent, on which he may make a new loan for $600 identically as he did before, but this time without indorsers or co-makers ; and by following the same process the second year he would own the B certificates and have his debt paid besides. Thus he would start with ‘a’ liability and end with an asset. On these B certificates he would receive 5 per cent interest from the date of their con- version and during all the time he owned them. Likewise, when the B certificates were fully paid, any amount up to their full value could be borrowed on them at any time with- out indorsers or any other collateral, and they could be cashed in at their face value with interest on thirty days’ notice. It will be observed that in negotiating this loan of $600 the borrower receives his money less 6 per cent discount deducted in advance, in the same manner as a loan nego- tiated at any commercial bank. However, instead of being required; as in the case of a commercial bank, to keep funds on deposit without interest, the Morris Plan companies, under authority granted them by statute, re- quire the borrower to pay each week on the hypothecated collateral (Class C certificates) one-fiftieth, or 2 per cent, of their face value, so that in borrowing from these companies, just as in the case of loans from a commer- cial bank, the net cost to the borrower for the actual use of the money borrowed amounts to more than 6 per cent. In other words, the borrower’s loss of interest on the payments as made weekly, computed at the savings bank rate of 4 per cent, would result in a loss on such payments of approximately 2 per cent, or, computed at a6 per cent rate, approximately 3 per cent. Therefore the cost to the borrower is the initial discount of 6 per cent plus the loss of 2 per cent in the one case or 3 per cent in the other. When a borrower has completed his pay- ments, he is always encouraged to continue as a saver, and thus a large proportion of the CREDIT VERSUS CHARITY 647 patrons of the Morris Plan companies who start their weekly payments through the necessity of meeting their debts continue them through habit and to accumulate sav- ings. In fact, the conversion of borrowers into savers is one of the most important social results of these companies. The writer personally heard the following applicants, among many others, examined: A woman clerical worker, with two children, who had been thrown out of work owing to the hard times, applied for $100 to meet her rent and. carry her until ¢he could find em- ployment. Mr. Morris himself interviewed’ her. It appeared that she was living apart from #her husband, although there had been no legal separation. ‘The husband was con- tributing to the support of the children, but not to hers. She seemed. perfectly honest and respectable, and ‘stated, in answer to a question, that if she were willing to appeal to her relatives ‘ with a hard-luck story she could get all the money she needed, but that she was not willing to become a charge upon their charity.”” Mr. Morris finally told her that if she could secure her landlord and one other responsible person to indorse her note, the Loan Committee (which is composed of directors of the company) would undoubt- edly grant her request. ‘This she believed she could do. As she was leaving, Mr. Morris said, ‘‘ Why not make one more effort at reconciliation with your husband for the sake of the children?” ‘To this she replied, ‘‘Tt’s no use; he’s a German, and you can’t talk to him.” Next came a young Austrian who wanted $100 to buy some household necessities and meet the expense of a childbirth which his wife expected in four months. His wages were only $22 a week and there was already one child. Mr. Morris advised him to apply for $50 at once for the household needs and postpone his application for the second $50 until the time of the childbirth. This advice the young man accepted. In parting with him Mr. Morris said, ‘“‘ Remember that you can’t afford any more children on $22 a week.” Then came a callow youth who wanted $50 “to buy a present for his girl.’”” He was turned down without further parley. Morris Plan companies do not lend money except for urgent expenses, no matter how good the security offered. The next applicant was a man who wanted $150 for new stock for his little “‘ gents’ fur-
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648 nishing store.” It appeared that he had a bank account, and when Morris asked him why he did not borrow the money from his bank, he replied, ‘‘ Because they would only give it to me on sixty or ninety days, and I don’t know if I could pay it then, but I do know I could easy pay you $3 a week.” He certainly wanted the money for a legitimate purpose, and presumably succeeded in getting it. Next came a pale and anxious little book- keeper, who in his efforts to maintain a wife and two children on his pitiful salary of $17 a week had fallen into the toils of a loan shark, who was threatening to garnishee his wages unless his victim made an impossible payment. When the difficulty of payin® $2 a week out of wages of only $17, with a wife and two children to support, was pointed out to this anzemic youth, he replied, “I know that, sir, but if my wages are garnisheed [’ll lose $3.40 a week, with the danger of losing my job as well.” A garnishment of wages consists of an order of court served upon an employer obliging him to pay all or a part of an employee’s wages direct to his creditor or creditors. In many large business houses there is a rule that any employee upon whose wages a garnishee order is served is to be at once discharged, and in most houses such an unfortunate employee is liable to discharge because of the bother and expense entailed upon the firm in fulfilling the order. This is perhaps the most frequent device used by loan sharks in terrorizing their victims into submission to their exactions. This young man, like all loan shark victims, was turned over to the legal department. It will very likely be found on investigation that he has already paid the loan shark much more than he is legally entitled to, in which case the shark will be ordered to give him a receipt in full or submit to prosecution for usury. will in all probability gladly release his victim rather than run the risk of a prosecution. Victims thus released are naturally very apt to become satisfactory customers of the Mor- ris Company. The business of the Morris Plan Company of New York is itself legally authorized by a special enabling Act of the New York Legislature. And so theapplicants came inanever-ending procession, each with his or her small great need and homely but human story. There was a telephone operator who drew $100 to pay for her mother’s funeral expenses; a porter who had been in the hospital for ten THE OUTLOOK If such is the case, the loan shark 17 March weeks and might be loaned the $50 he needed if the investigator was faverably im- pressed with his wife’s ability to help him on to his feet again; and finally came a refined- looking woman who, when her money was actually handed to her, said, with a gasp of relief, ‘‘ Thank God, I came down here instead of turning on the gas. I was desperate— the sharks had been grinding me for months. If you had turned me down, I should have ended it all.” Some years ago a ragged, one-legged man appeared in the office of Mr. Cotten, a law partner of Mr. Morris, in Norfolk, Virginia. Mr. Cotten and his father were alone in the office, and when they asked the man what he wanted he blurted out, “I never begged for a cent in my life, but I’m desperate, and I must have $25 or my wife and children will starve to death.” When they asked him why $25, he replied that that was the least with which he could stock his booth, upon which he must depend for his living; and then disjointedly his whole story came out. He had been a motorman on the city trolley line and had lost his leg in an accident. The company had paid his hospital bill and offered him a booth, rent free, at a terminal where he could make his living by selling cigarettes, cigars, and candies to the passengers, but they would give him no money with which to buy his stock and he had no credit. Mr. Cotten called up the manager of the company and found the man’s story was true, and, further, that his record had always been good. ‘The Morris Plan Company of Norfolk had recently opened, and Mr. Cotten and his _«father decided to make of this one-legged sup- pliant a test case. After explaining the plan to him, and finding that he really needed $50, they offered to go on his note as co- makers for that amount. After the necessary formalities had been completed the company granted the loan, and the ex-motorman hob- bled off jubilantly with $47 in his pocket with which to stock his little shop. For a year Mr. Cotten saw or heard noth- ing of him. ‘Then one day he met him on the street, well dressed and looking prosperous. He explained that he had a thriving little busi- ness and all the credit he needed with the supply houses. He had paid up his $50 loan and purchased an investment certificate for a like amount, which was now also paid up, so that he was receiving on his B certificate 6 per cent interest. . (In Norfolk, as in some other places, 6 per cent interest instead of
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1915 CREDIT VERSUS CHARITY 649 5 per cent is paid on the B certificates.) He had even begun his weekly payments on a second $50 investment certificate. In a year’s time this man had been transformed from a desperate beggar into a hopeful capi- talist, and this transformation had not cost his patrons one cent. A bank president even has obtained money through the Morris Plan. This particular bank president was not a man of property, and had a salary of only $5,000, upon which, with his social position to maintain and a family to support, he could save little or nothing. He was worn out and needed $1,000 with which to go abroad for a rest. He did not care to borrow from his own bank, and perhaps could not borrow from any other for lack of collateral. He bor- rowed the money from a Morris company, and easily repaid it on the usual installment basis. Imagine this man, or the young rail- way official, or the army and navy officers, or even the woman who would not ask aid of her relatives, applying to one of the charitable or semi-charitable loan agencies ! Instead of being charitable or semi-char- itable institutions, the Morris companies are business enterprises and pay at least 6 per cent on their capital stock. The net profits on the capital employed by all the Morris Plan companies operating during 1914 were at the rate of 7.8 per cent. For the eight companies whose figures are avail- able the losses from bad credits during the same period were less than one-tenth of 1 per cent. From these facts two con- clusions would appear to be obvious: first, no one who uses a Morris Plan company need feel under the slightest obligation, or in the smallest degree compromise his self-respect ; second, to use a slang expres- sion, the propertied classes appear ‘“ to have nothing on” the unpropertied classes in point of the honorable discharge of finan- cial obligations. Besides helping the worthy poor to help themselves, the Morris Plan reaches a class of people who have always been between the upper and the nether millstones—the numerically great and individually desirable class of people whose social position and proper pride will not permit them to take advantage of charitable or even semi-chari- table opportunities, while their pocketbooks will not permit them to take advantage of the opportunities of the rich and well-to-do. It is a curious historical anomaly that England and America, the two nations in which political liberty has reached its highest development, have signally failed to develop economic liberty in so far as financial facili- ties for the non-propertied classes are con- cerned. ‘The man without property in Eng- land or America, no matter how high his character or how good his earning capacity, has no credit in a business sense. Whatever credit is extended to him is given as a per- sonal favor. He may freely cast his ballot, but he may not borrow a pound in the one country or a dollar in the other without pay- ing the loan shark’s ruinous rate of interest, unless, at the sacrifice of self-respect, he applies to a charitable agency. On the Continent of Europe this is not the case, and has not been for sixty-five years. A United States Commission found some few years ago in Germany alone 17,000 banks doing a total business of $5,000,000,000 a year almost exclusively among the class of people who in this country and England are without banking facilities. In Italy in 1908 690 institutions known as People’s Banks had outstanding loans amounting to $170,- 091,946. The Bank of France makes each year an immense number of small loans. Out of loans to the amount of $9,056,424 made by the Bank of Paris in 1913, over half were for sums less than $20, while nearly one-third were for amounts less than $10. The Morris Plan is an adaptation to Amer- ican conditions of these European systems without their co-operative principles and fea- tures. Should the Morris Plan companies become as common in this country as are “savings banks, it can readily be seen that the economic and social effects would be practi- cally immeasurable. Millions of otherwise wasted dollars would be turned into produc- tive channels. Those human vultures, the loan sharks, who fatten on the misfortunes of those of their fellow-men who fall into their clutches by squeezing out of them 40 to 700 per cent interest yearly, would very largely, if not completely, be driven out of business for lack of sufficient victims. Cer- tainly no one would continue to pay usurious rates to a disreputable concern when he could get money at legal rates from a reputable concern. It has been estimated by those who have studied the subject that there are about $2,000,000 invested in the loan shark business in New York City alone at the present time, and that the gross receipts on this investment approximate $20,000,000
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650 THE OUTLOOK annually. ‘This great parasitic business, with its yearly toll of wrecked homes, ruined lives, and suicides, would certainly be dealt a stag- gering blow. Should such. facilities for borrowing and saving be open to all, the social unrest of the non-propertied classes would be lessened by the simple expedient of enabling them to enter in a small way the propertied class. It would steady the electorate by giving hun- 17 March dreds of thousands of now relatively irre- sponsible voters a material stake in the com- munity. _Last, but not least, it would tend to reduce the curse of charity in the direction of almsgiving to its least proportions by leaving only the irreducible minimum to be sup- ported by public or private charity. In sub- stituting credit for charity these Morris Plan companies are making their greatest contri- bution to economic and social progress. THE NEW BOOKS King Albert’s Book. Hearst’s International Library, New York. $1.50. This handsome quarto is described in a sub- title as “A Tribute to the Belgian King and People from Representative Men and Women Throughout the World;” and its publication has been effected by three British newspapers— the “Daily Telegraph,” the “ Daily Sketch,” and the Glasgow “ Herald’—the immediate object being to give formal expression to the admiration of the world for Belgium, and its recognition of the heroism of a gallant little nation that has opposed itself to an overwhelm- ing power during the past months, disregarding loss and sorrow. The Introduction, written by Mr. Hall Caine, tells us that Belgium has been fighting the bat- tle of France, of Great Britain, and of freedom. She has paid a terrible penalty; her country has been wasted, her harvests have been trodden into the earth, her villages given up to flames and her cities to slaughter and destruction, her monuments razed to the ground, her people killed—the whole people are destitute, home- less, and on the roads. It is proposed, there- fore, by the co-operation of the authorities of four countries, to recognize this magnificent example of national heroism and this inspiring service in behalf of liberty. The contributors are, for the most part, men of wide reputation, including the Prime Minister of England, Cardi- nal Gibbons, Admiral Beresford, Henri Berg- son, Sarah Bernhardt, Mr. Choate, Mr. Car- negie, M. Bourget, Viscount Bryce, Mr. Gals- worthy, Mr. Hardy, Mr. Howells, Lord Roberts, M. Rostand, Mr. Taft, and a host of men and women of distinction. The volume, which is a handsomely printed quarto, contains many illus- trations, some of them of striking vigor and interest, reproductions of paintings by distin- guished artists, or studies especially made for this volume, and illustrations in color and in black and white, with a photograph of King Albert and a portrait reproduced in colors of Queen Mary of England. The entire proceeds of the sale of the book go to the Belgian Fund administered by the “ Daily Telegraph.” Advertising—Selling the Consumer. By John Lee Mahin. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $2. New Business (The). By Harry Tipper. Double- day, Page & Co., New York. $2. There are many of us who view all too lightly the development of a new spiritin business; yet it isjust this that is making for a real industrial democracy in this country. For this new spirit in business is as much concerned with idealism as it is with constructive commercial upbuild- ing. Such books as Mr. Mahin’s are welcome, because they teach a great number of readers the real bigness of American business methods and to appreciate the sincere efforts that are being made to humanize commerce and make business render society more than a mere com- mercial service. Mr. Mahin has a Jaconic manner of expres- sion. While his premise adheres to the func- tions of advertising, there are few threads of the commercial fabric that are not woven into the striking pattern he has assembled. The author sets out to elucidate the sound, construct- ive principles of advertising and to prove the importance of intelligent publicity as an educa- tive and trade-building factor. Of particular interest is that chapter wherein are described the public service of advertising, the benefits of commercial publicity to consumers and produ- cers, and the channels of trade, highly beneficial to the public, that have been developed through advertising. Mr. Mahin notes with apparent satisfaction that advertising each year is being made to serve the interests of readers. He shows that the day of “mystery ” and fake ad- vertising has passed and a new advertising, possessing fine economic values, has come into being. This advertising, besides having the eased Le
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1915 THE NEW BOOKS 651 background of a text-book, creates desires that benefit the consumer. Mr. Mahin takes issue with the Nietzsche and Le Bon schools of phi- losophy in discussing the methods of influencing the opinions of groups of people. Each of the chapters in this volume was orig- inally a lecture or class-room talk on advertising by Mr. Mahin before Northwestern University and the Universities of Chicago, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, and Washington. With the wisdom of a keen advertiser, he has given each paragraph a marginal caption, which will be helpful to readers, especially those unfa- miliar with the profession of advertising. Another recent contribution to the business literature of the time, and one written in the same spirit that characterizes Mr. Mahin’s work and with the same glowing conception of the mission of advertising, is “ The New Business,” by Harry Tipper, President of the Advertising Men’s League of New York, and lecturer on advertising at New York University. Mr. Tipper, while approaching his subject in much the same way, has more to say than Mr. Mahin about those channels of trade activity outside of advertising, but which are directly affected by advertising. Here again is emphasized that fine spirit in business which in time is bound to go far toward eradicating the industrial unrest. Mr. Tipper’s descriptions of modern business conditions are illuminating; his chapters on selling, specializing, good will, competition, con- sumption, organization conditions, and the transitional stage of business reveal a vast amount of study and investigation, and are the kind of reading that make for a larger apprecia- tion of business as a part of the life of the Nation. Modern Religious Movements in India. By . N. Farquhar. The Macmillan Company, New ork. $2.50. As Lamson Lecturer for 1912 the already dis- tinguished author found a most attractive oppor- tunity to do something which had not yet been attempted. The result is seen in this admirable volume. He has brought together, for the first time, the history of many and diverse movements, alike, however, in certain characteristics which are clearly indicated as the purpose of the work is unfolded. ‘*‘The Crown of Hinduism,” from the same dispassionate pen, published perhaps two years ago, served to provide an intelligent public for this latest effort. Honest critics there will be of this, as there were of that, yet no one can speak slightingly of the thorough- ness of research or of the sympathetic and at the same time the historical attitude of the writer. With a knowledge at once wide and detailed, Mr. Farquhar depicts the great awak- ening that has come to India “since its effective interpretation by the West,” which began about 1800. He traces the inception and growth of the larger movements, as the Somajes, the reforms among Parsees and Mohammed- ans, the efforts at social reform, the develop- ment of a national sense, and also the many smaller stirrings in different castes and in local communities, treating each with wisdom and justly. Portraits of many of the distin- guished leaders add interest to the vivid pen pictures. Invaluable as the book must be to the student of things Indian, its charm is suff- cient to attract even the general reader. Insum- ming up the significance of the many move- ments, it is made clear that the recrudescence of the historic faiths of this amazing land of countless religions has been accompanied by continuous and steadily increasing inner decay. The conclusion seems irresistible that Chris- tianity has ruled the development throughout, as shown, in one way among others, by the fact that in almost every case distinctively mission meth- ods have been adopted. Perhaps no better illus- tration of the truth of the parable of the leaven is to be found than in the conditions in India to-day. A distinguished leader of one of the theistic Somajes has recently said: “ The ideas that lie at the heart of the Gospel of Christ are slowly but surely permeating every part of Hindu society and modifying every phase of Hindu thought.” On Sunset Highways. By Thomas D. Murphy. The Page Company, Boston. $3. This will be pleasing and useful to California tourists—the more so because it avoids the cut- and-dried form of the ordinary handbook, yet incidentally contains practical information as well as description. The color illustrations are from paintings by California artists and are sup- plemented by “ duogravures ” of photographs. Pepper. By Holworthy Hall. The Century Company, New York. $l. Lively stories of undergraduate life at Har- vard by the author of “Henry of Navarre, Ohio.” “Pep” McHenry is amazingly resource- ful; he stirs up the slack and the unresourceful to their own benefit, and has a joyous time doing it. “Pep” is slangy, adventurous, and pleasingly far from being a model young man, but he is real and amusing.
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IDEAS AND MACHINE GUNS In Mr. Kennan’s article in The Outlook of January 13 I read of the lack. of relenting. on the part of the Russian Government. I can understand the unreadiness of the Government to trust known enemies to its policies, The course of the Government is a unit and con- sistent. My question is, How can such a course be sustained? The majority of people of influence must be with the Government. If this is not the case, then it is because from the diverse peoples the Government can call to its evil service soldiers who will support the Gov- ernment against the people, ¢. g., the Cossacks. How is the Russian Government sustained against the Russian people ? a ee Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Mr. Kennan, at our request, replies as follows: In the attempted revolution of 1905-8 a part of the influential people—mostly officials and great landed proprietors—supported the Government. The rest were terrorized and intimidated by more than a hundred Jogroms, in the course of which about ten thousand men and women were killed, maimed, or half beaten to death by the Biack Hundreds in a single week (the week after the promulgation of the Czar’s Freedom Manifesto). These Black Hun- dreds were organized by the Government for the purpose of intimidation, and were supported by the police and by part of the loyal troops. Then the liberal class were further terrorized by punitive expeditions and field courts martial. In the years that immediately followed the popular uprising more than three thousand men were shot or hanged, and tens of thousands were imprisoned or sent to Siberia. An unarmed population, no matter how nv- merous it may be, has little chance for success against magazine rifles, machine guns, and armed mobs. If the people had been generally supported by the army, the revolution might have succeeded; but enough troops stood by the Government to give it the upper hand. It was a fight between the officials, most of the landed proprietors, the monarchists, all of the police, and a part of the troops, on one side, and the liberals, the social revolutionists, most of the professional class, and most of the peas- ants, on the other. The revolutionary part of the population had numerical superiority, but it was unorganized, unarmed, and badly led, and it was defeated by the better organized, better equipped, and better disciplined minority. At the present time the whole nation supports the Government, not because it loves the Gov- ernment, but because it regards the interna- 652 THE READER’S VIEW tional situation as more important and more dangerous than the domestic situation. G. K. SALT LAKE SMOKE I am a citizen of Salt Lake City, and a mem- ber of the Smoke Abatement League which is working to better the conditions now prevailing here. My attention was attracted by the article written by Lewis E. Theiss on “ The High Cost of Smoke,” in The Outlook for February 24, 1915. The conditions in Salt Lake City are the same as prevail in all cities situated in the soft coal region. Many seek to divert attention from the smoke issuing from their own chimneys by blaming the smelters, which were, in reality, in full operation long before Salt Lake was known as a smoky city. Persons going out of the city either west or south must notice that they pass into clear air and sunshine as soon as they leave the city limits. I came to Salt Lake City about eleven years ago. The air at that time was fresh, pure, and clean, for Salt Lake was then a beautiful city in winter as well asinsummer. I had lived insmoky Cincinnati, where life had been well-nigh unbear- able, and so was charmed with the clear air and sunshine here. There has been a decided growth of the city in the past ten years; although there are no large factories here, numerous apartment- houses, hotels, office buildings, and residences have been erected. Every chimney and every locomotive contributes its volume of coal soot (smelter smoke carries no soot, by the way), and, in consequence, Salt Lake has become a fit rival of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis as a smoke-plagued city. The annual cleaning and redecorating in itself imposes a tremendous tax upon the finances of every household, as well as a strain upon the nerves of every housewife. Throat troubles and other diseases which are aggravated by coal smoke have greatly increased, and a dense pall hangs over the city during the winter months. With the coming of spring we will have once more the clear air and beautiful blue skies of which we are so justly proud. No, it is not the smelter smoke that is the cause of our discomfort and annoyance, for it is a fact that more furnaces are in commission at each smelt- ing plant in summer than in winter because of the larger output and supply of ore from the mines. Weneed justsuch articlesas that contributed by Mr. Theiss to rouse people from their lethargy. The majority of the citizens of Salt Lake cer- tainly contribute their part to the unfortunate conditions prevailing in the winter season, ae tle cde tiene rs.
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es > ne v THE READER’S VIEW 653 seemingly oblivious of the fact that “smoke costs money,” and that they are imposing an intolerable burden upon their neighbors. Never until people are roused to individual responsibility in the matter will black smoke cease to belch forth from every chimney. Then, and not until then, will conditions really improve and Salt Lake become once more what nature intended it to be, an ideal city for health- ful residence and the enjoyment of life. Salt Lake City, Utah. SUBSCRIBER. THE FINE THINGS IN THE WAR Through the past months I have had a corre- spondence with Professor Conrad Matschoss, of the Royal Technical High School at Char- lottenburg, who is well known to hundreds of American engineers. He is a man of splendid mind, whose special field has been the history of engineering and the technics. He is almost as well informed on engineering education and developments in America and England as in his own country: Few men have had a keener or more discriminating appreciation of England’s great contributions to the mechanical develop- ments of the nineteenth century. In discussing the present war his view-point is, of course, that of a loyal German, but it is given with a breadth of sympathy and a temper- ateness of expression which might well charac- terize more of those who discuss it. In his last letter he makes a suggestion which I would like to bring to your notice. I had referred to the certainty of returning peace and the possibility of genuine friendship between Germany and England. Whether de- layed for months or years, peace between these two countries, on some basis, is absolutely sure tocome. With peace, though not immediately, may come that genuine friendship which the world needs between the two great nations which have its richest traditions and greatest capacity for leadership. In the hatreds of the hour such a friendship seems unthinkable, or at best a dream. But history shows repeatedly that men who have fought hard and long may, under right conditions, become friends. I re- minded him that we Americans had fought, within the memory of those stiil living, one of the greatest wars in history. And yet the seem- ingly impossible task of Lincoln, Grant, and the reconstruction leaders, that of reuniting the Na- tion “with malice toward none and charity toward all,” has, despite setbacks and mistakes, been accomplished. To-day the great wound is healed, and the Nation is as one in heart and life as it is in name. Referring to this, Professor Matschoss says, “It is possible to love one’s people and still respect one’s enemies.” “I agree with you that in the future ways and means must ultimately be found for a renewed co-operation, although at the present time we are not able to look so far ahead.” He then makes a suggestion of something which the Americans can do to fur- ther this end, as follows: The daily newspapers of the warring nations assume a terrible responsibility when they persist in publishing only those news items which seem suited to increase hatred against the enemy. Would it not be an act of mercy for neutral nations to spread in a systematic manner such news as would allay this terrible hatred? Some of the impor- tant German newspapers have already begun such a cam- paign. On one occasion, for example, the German public was acquainted with the fact that Frenchwomen had deco- rated the graves of German soldiers with flowers as well as French graves. On another occasion they reprinted the protest of an English paper against the persecution of Germans in England. German military authorities exam- ine carefully every report about acts of cruelty perpetrated by our enemies and contradict in all the newspapers every untruth and exaggeration. If all the fine things which can be told about the different warring nations could be gathered and systematically placed before the public, how much good might be accomplished for that ultimate understanding which, after all, cannot indefinitely be deferred! Such a wonderful service ought, in my opin- ion, to be the great American mission. Suppose some agency, such as The Outlook, which has the attention of the world, with access to the news of all the warring nations, and free from the hatreds of actual strife, should, as Professor Matschoss suggests, systematically collect and present the decent, fine, generous things which are being said and done in all the countries at war, could it fail of being a help? Such incidents as Winston Churchill’s notifica- tion through Ambassador Page to Admiral von Tirpitz that his son was safe and well, and the English treatment of the commander and crew of the Emden, when captured, reflect credit on all concerned. I have heard Vance Thompson tell of how he watched a French sergeant and his soldiers give their meager breakfast to the wounded and half-famished German prisoners in a passing train, and go without themselves. Such incidents are like a breath of fresh air in the poisonous atmosphere of hatred. Collected together and presented systematically with the other news, they will have cumulative force, and will inevitably find their way where they will do the most good. Professor Matschoss’s suggestion is not milk- and-water sentimentality. It is sound sense and one of the most effective services which friendly neutrality could render. Its only effect can be to allay hatred, rekindle respect, hasten peace, and help lay the foundation for future friendship. JosEPH W. Roe. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
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BY THE WAY Viscount Bryce, writing in the “ North Ameri- can Review” of the growth in America of what he cals “solid literature,” says that there may be two hundred, perhaps three hundred, pro- fessors of history in American universities— three or four times as many as those who pursue the study in the universities of Great Britain. “| doubt,” he says, “ if Germany itself turns out every year so large a mass of printed matter devoted.to historical investigation or specula- tion” as is issued in the United States. Golf, according to “ Collier’s,” “ has suddenly developed from a rich man’s game into the National play of the so-called middle classes, which stands as the test of the game’s wonder- ful appeal.” In the past year, it is stated, over one hundred courses and fifty thousand new players have been added to the golfing roster in the United States. “T knew the elder Quaritch well,” says A. Edward Newton in describing the “Amenities of Book-Colleciing ” in the “ Atlantic,” “ and over a cup of tea one winter afternoon years ago... he confided to me his fears for his son:... ‘He has no interest in books, he is not willing to work hard as he will have to to maintain the standing I have secured as the greatest book- seller in the world.” Yet this son, when the time came, adds Mr. Newton, “ probably sur- prised himself, as he surprised the world, by adding luster to the name of Bernard Quaritch.”’ “Swinging on ” freight trains after they have been set in motion, a practice in which some railway men take a foolish pride, is discouraged by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in a cir- cular recently issued totrainmen. The circular points out that by getting on board a train before it starts the trainman not only avoids the danger of bodily injury but helps the engine- man, who is thus enabled to give his undivided attention to getting up speed. Describing a recent motor trip in New Mex- ico, a writer in the “Christian Register” dis- abuses his readers of the idea that the climate of that State is sub-tropical. The cold, he says, is often intense. “ After we left Albuquerque we found sheets of snow. The mesas, frosted and glaciated, gleamed like an Arctic land- scape. . . . The thermometer dropped the night before to 13 degrees below zero.” Neverthe- less, the writer adds, “a wild beauty invested everything. New Mexico turns a pleasant face upon the tourist even in midwinter.” And still the wonder grows as regards the “movies.” A new motion-picture play, “ The Birth of a Nation,” has, it is reported, required the services in one capacity or another of 18,000 persons and 3,000 horses to produce the vast spec- tacular effects desired. This outdoes even the 654 circus that-used to thrill the billboard-gazer with its announcement of “1000 Performers 1000.” In a Boston corporation in which most of the employees are said to be stockholders, the “shop rules” contain some interesting sugges- tions for the considerate treatment of employees. Here are two of them: “It is good policy to assume that an employee is trying to do his best until the contrary is evident.” “ It is bad policy to ‘call down’ an employee in the presence of a third person. He will either fight back and thus embarrass the executive and possibly lose his job, or-he will stow away the sting under his skin, where it will germinate disloyalty and inefficiency.” The war is not without its humorous side—in England at least and among the recruits. In telling of the mistakes of the new levies the Manchester “ Guardian” says: “To young re- cruits the sergeant is much more awful than the colonel. A sergeant in one of the new regi- ments came along twice to inquire if any one had seen the colonel. Presently the colonel ar- rived, and on his way reprimanded a raw recruit for not saluting. ‘Do you know I am the colonel ?? he said. ‘Oh, you'll cop it,’ said the recruit. ‘The sergeant has been here twice looking for you,’ ” In Norway, according to “Shipping Ilus- trated,” the insurance of vessels is effected by the various owners themselves, who club to- gether and cover the risks of navigation at lower rates than are charged by underwriters. “It is interesting to notice,” says the authority quoted, “that in this country the shipping on the Great Lakes has in recent years adopted this form of insurance.” The newspapers have a daily puzzle before them in trying to put the conflicting reports about battles together without making the head- lines appear to contradict one another. An unsuccessful attempt in a New York paper re- cently brought these captions in adjoining columns: “French Still Gain in the Cham- pagne ;” “Germans Gain on Both Fronts.” The smallest homestead in the United States is said to be one for which a deed was recently issued by the Land Office to Miss Serena Blue at Turtle Lake in Minnesota. The tract is eight-hundredths of an acre in extent; on it the owner built a log house in which she lived for seventeen months; she then paid the Govern- ment the price fixed for commuting the entry to cash, the sum of ten cents, and in consideration of this amount she will not be required to com- plete the three years of residence on the land that would otherwise have been required. The homestead consists of a triangular point of land jutting into the lake.