The Outlook 1915-06-16
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The Outlook JUNE 16, 1915 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York THE AMERICAN CRISIS I—MR. BRYAN’S RESIGNATION AND AMERICAN UNITY Y the resignation of Mr. Bryan one B great danger to this country has been averted. The danger that threatened us was not rupture with Germany. There was danger greater than that. It was not the danger of involving this country in hostilities. There was danger even greater than war. The danger which has been averted was danger that our country should be false to its char- acter, to its traditions, to its iceals. It was the danger that America should put peace before law, freed>m, and righteousness. There were men in the colonies who wanted to compromise with George III, and who cared more for peace than they did for the liberties of the people. Many of them were good men; but it is not these, but Washington and the men who stood with him, whom we honor when we celebrate Inde- pendence Day. There were men in the United States in 1861 who wanted, at that time of irrepressible conflict, to compromise with the slave power, and who cared more for peace than they did for union based on human freedom. Many of these were very good men; but it is not these, but Lincoln and the men who stood with him, whom we honor when we celebrate Memorial Day. ‘To-day there is as great and as irreconcilable a con- flict as there was in 1776 and in 1861. It is the conflict between the spirit of law among nations and the necessity that knows no law. It is the old struggle for freedom in a new form. At this tremendous time, Mr. Bryan stands not for freedom first, but for peace ; not for the triumph of law first, but for peace ; not for righteousness first, but for peace. In his letter of resignation he frankly says that the cause which is nearest his heart is ‘‘ the prevention of war.’’ Like many of those who opposed Washington, and like many of those who opposed Lincoln, Mr. Bryan is a good man ; but he stands where they stood. In this time of irrepressible con- flict he stands for impossible compromise. In accepting Mr. Bryan’s_ resignation President Wilson has done the bravest thing in his career. There is no doubt of the sin- cerity of his expression of affectionate friend- ship with Mr. Bryan and his statement that up to this time he and Mr. Bryan have been in virtual agreement. ‘The fact that he has broken with such a supporter at this time is proof that President Wilson has taken irrevocably the stand against peace at any price and for putting above such peace con- siderations of humanity, justice, and freedom. On this issue there should be no division in American sentiment. Many Americans will differ from the President in their judgment as to methods and policies ; that is inevitable. But on this matter of principle the American people should be one with President Wilson. We believe that they will be. The President’s acceptance of Mr. Bryan’s resignation is an act of the first consequence. It means that there can be no question now as to the intent of the Nation to uphold its own rights and the rights of humanity. On this point Mr. Bryan’s presence in the Cabinet has been a severe handicap. His departure into private life enables the Administration to be free to represent America’s true character. II—THE LETTERS OF RESIGNATION AND ACCEPTANCE SECRETARY BRYAN TO THE PRESIDENT Washington, June 8, 1915. My dear Mr. President : It is with sincere regret that I have reached the conclusion that I should return to you the commission of Secretary of State, with whieh you honored me at the beginning of your Administration. Obedient to your sense of duty and actu- ated by the highest motives, you have pre- 341
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342 THE OUTLOOK 16 June pared for transmission to the German Government a note in which I cannot join without violating what I deem to be an obligation to my country, and the issue involved is of such moment that to remain a member of the Cabinet would be as un- fair to you as it would be to the cause which is nearest my heart, namely, the prevention of war. I therefore respectfully tender my resig- nation, to take effect when the note is sent, unless you prefer an earlier hour. Alike desirous of reaching a peaceful solu- tion of the problems arising out of the use of submarines against merchantmen, we find ourselves differing irreconcilably as to the methods which should be employed. It falls to your lot to speak officially for the Nation; I consider it to be none the less my duty to endeavor as a private citizen to promote the end which you have in view by means which you do not feel at liberty to use. In severing the intimate and pleasant re- lations which have existed between us during the past two years, permit me to acknowledge the profound satisfaction which it has given me to be associated with you in the impor- tant work which has come before the State Department, and to thank you for the cour- tesies extended. With the heartiest good wishes for your personal welfare and for the success of your Administration, I am, my dear Mr. President, Very truly yours, W. J. Bryan. THE PRESIDENT TO SECRETARY BRYAN Washington, June 8, 1915. My dear Mr. Bryan: I accept your resignation only because you insist upon its acceptance ; and I accept it with much more than deep regret, with a feeling of personal sorrow. Our two years of close association have been very delightful to me. Our judgments have accorded in practically every matter of official duty and of public policy until now ; your support of the work and purposes of the Administration has been generous and loyal beyond praise; your devotion to the duties of your great office and your eagerness to take advantage of every great opportunity for service it offered have been an example to the rest of us ; you have earned-our affec- tionate admiration and friendship. Even now we are not separated in the object we seek, but only in the method by which we seek it. It is for these reasons my feeling about your retirement from the Secretaryship of State goes so much deeper than regret. | sincerely deplore it. Our objects are the same and we ought to pursue them together. I yield to your de- sire only because I must, and wish to bid you Godspeed in the parting. We shall con- tinue to work for the same causes even when we do not work in the same way. With affectionate regard, Sincerely yours, Wooprow WILSON. To Hon. William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State. III—THE PRESIDENT’S POLICY AND HIS NOTE Y stating the reasons for his resigna- B tion Mr. Bryan divulged to some degree the nature of the second note, and made known what the President’s attitude toward Germany at this juncture was before the President had seen fit to make known that attitude himself. It will serve to make clear the situation if the sequence of events is recalled. On February 4 Germany announced a war zone where neutral vessels would, after February 18, sail at their peril. On February 10 the President told Germany that she would be held to “strict accountability ” for any injury to American citizens or American ships. This statement from the President went forth, of course, under the authority of the State Department, of which Mr. Bryan was the head. On May 7 a Ger- man submarine sank the Lusitania. On May 13 the President called upon Ger- many to abandon her submarine attacks on merchantmen without warning, saying that the United States would “ omit no word or act’ in protection of its rights. Germany’s reply to this note on May 31 was not re- sponsive. The delay in acting on_ this reply from Germany raised in the minds of some the doubt whether the President would hold to his demand or would re- cede. We have not believed that he would recede. Evidently, however, Mr. Bryan hoped that he would. Now by his resigna- tion Mr. Bryan has said that in signing the forthcoming note he could not act consist- ently with his dearest wish—the wish for the prevention of war. In a later state- ment, issued before the issuance of the lift tl cussi
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1915 note and outlined on page 347, he has explained his resignation at great length, giving his own views as inconsistent with the President’s views. He has thus announced that the President is not willing to avoid a rupture with Germary at all costs. There is nothing in this incident to indicate THE AMERICAN CRISIS 343 that Mr. Wilson does not earnestly desire to secure the blessings of peace for this coun: try, but it demonstrates that he thinks it is possible to pay too high a price for peace, that dearer to his heart than the prevention of war is the preservation of law, justice, and liberty. POSTSCRIPT The Outlook Office, Friday Morning, June II. \Ve stop the press to give our readers a summary of the American Government’s note to Germany which occasioned Mr. Bryan’s resignation, and which is published this morning. Though couched in language of extreme courtesy, the note reiterates the American position concerning German methods of submarine warfare that resulted in the sinking of the Lusitania. We believe that the American people will be somewhat disappointed at the tenor of the President’s note. It is so much milder than the previous note that we account for Mr. Bryan’s resignation only by supposing that he wishes to abandon entirely the protection of Americans on the ocean and concede everything to Germany. Taking advantage of his official and confidential knowledge of the text of the note, Mr. Bryan sent over the wires from Washington immediately after the note was despatched to American newspapers a reply to it and defense of himself. By this action he gives notice that he is going to enter the lists against the President’s championship of humanity and international law. He bases his defense of himself on the plea that firmness leads to carnage, and that force is always wicked. His statement is an unqualified affirmation of the doctrine that forcible resistance to wrong is always bad. In the name of the Prince of Peace he asserts a theory according to which he would condemn Him who drove the traders from the temple. The note of the American Government is signed by Mr. Robert Lansing, formerly Coun- selor to the State Department, and now, in succession to Mr. Bryan, Secretary of State ad interim. As in every such case, the communication is really that of the President. Before taking up the case of the Lusitania the President expresses*gratification at Ger- many’s recognition of “ the principle of the freedom of all parts of the open sea to neutral ships ;” promises further information concerning the Cushing; expresses surprise at Germany’s contention with reference to the Falaba, that the effort of a merchantman to escape alters the obligation of the officer of the attacking war-ship “in respect of the safety of the lives of those on board the merchantman,” though the merchantman had ceased her attempt to escape ; and insists that the circumstances of the case do not alter ‘‘ the principles of humanity.” As to the Lusitania, the President notes Germany’s allegation that this steamship was armed as a cruiser, transported troops, and carried explosives contrary to American law ; mildly suggests that these allegations imply neglect on the part of the United States in its duty to see that the Lusitania was not armed for offense, was not a transport, and did not carry an illegal cargo; asserts that the United States was vigilant; and calls on Germany for evidence that American officials were derelict in their duties.. These contentions, however, the President says, are “ irrelevant to the question of thg legality of the methods used by the German naval authorities in sinking the vessel.” These methods the President holds up to the light of those “ principles of humanity’ which, he declares, “throw into the background any special circumstances of detaii,’’ and lift the sinking of passenger vessels “‘ out of the class of ordinary subjects of diplomatic dis- cussion or of international controversy.” “Whatever be the other facts regarding the Lusitania,” says the President, “ the principal fact is that a great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance for passengers, and carrying more than a thousand souls who had no part or lot in the conduct of the war, was torpedoed and sunk without so much as a challenge or a warning, and that men, women, and children were sent to their death in cir¢umstances unparalleled in modern warfare. ‘The fact that more than one hundred American citizens were among those who perished made it the duty of the Government of the United States to speak of these things, and once more, with solemn emphasis, to call the attention of the !mperial German Government to the grave responsibility which the Government of the ,
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344 THE OUTLOOK 16 June United States conceives that it has incurred in this tragic occurrence, and to the indis- _ putable principle upon which that responsibility rests. The Government of the United States is contending for something much greater than mere rights of property or privileges of commerce. It is contending for nothing less high and sacred than the rights of humanity, which every government honors itself in respecting and which no gov- ernment is justified in resigning on behalf of those under its care and authority.” After offering anew (in response to an intimation from the German Government) Amer- ica’s good offices as a medium of communication between the belligerents and as a friend of all, and appealing to Germany’s sense of justice, the President declines to admit that Ger- many’s declaration of a “ war zone ”’ abbreviates “ the rights either of American shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant ships of belligerent nationality.” He concludes by asking the German Government to give assurances that it will adopt measures for observing the rights of non-combatants and the principles of civilized warfare in respect of the safeguarding of American lives and American ships. It is inconceivable that more than a minute minority of Americans will fail to uphold the President in his intention to protect those “rights of humanity” which, as he says, “no government is justified in resigning on behalf of those under its care and authority.’’ IV—PRESS OPINION MR. BRYAN’S PERSONALITY N Mr. Bryan’s home city, Lincoln, Ne- I braska, we find the ‘“ Nebraska State Journal” defining him as “a great advo- cate, a great preacher, rather than a great statesman. . . . It is characteristic of Mr. Bryan to shut his eyes to arguments and facts when he reaches the ecstasy of sentimental conviction.”’ For ingtance, ‘“‘ Mr. Bryan can see nothing but arbitration because he believes arbitration to be right.” Hence, while another organ of Western opinion, the well-known Kansas City “ Star,” concedes that “ Mr. Bryan is a sincere man,” it adds: ‘‘ He has not impressed the country as a practical man dealing with large affairs.” Turning to the South, we find the New Orleans “ Picayune ” saying of Mr. Bryan: His pacificist tendencies, hardened into men- tal habit and conviction by years of teaching and theorizing on the lecture platform, ill fitted him for dealing, “ in the world of men,” with the things that men might do. ‘ To these limitations, however, he added others. He apparently considered the post of Secretary of State a sinecure, for he accepted multifarious lecture engagements, most of which were out of keeping with the dignity of his office, as the New York “ Trib- une ” reminds us. But there was still another disqualification. Mr. Bryan, declares the “ Tribune,” “‘ entered the State Department with a sort of coarse contempt for its traditions and its work.” The paper continues : He undervalued the usefulness to the coun- try of trained, experienced diplomats. ... He treated appointments solely as party patron- age, and searched the department register high and low to find places—even places in Santo Domingo, the salaries attached to which were payable out of the Dominican customs—to bestow on “ deserving Democrats.” When such a man sought consolation from three defeats for the Presidency in an office which, as the “ Tribune ”’ justly says, “ other defeated Presidential aspirants have filled with distinction—Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Seward, and Blaine among them ”—he could experience only disappointment and disillusion. A DESERTER ? For a long time— indeed, from the moment of his acceptance of the Secretaryship—it has been anticipated that Mr. Bryan would, at what seemed to him the proper time, resign and become again the leader of the opposition in the Democratic party. Was the moment of resignation well chosen? No, says the New York ‘“ Sun.” In almost any other circumstances the coun try would have rejoiced to hear that Mr. Bryan had given up a place for which his fantastic unfitness has long been but too apparent. He has chosen to make: his leaving as unpleasant as his staying. He deserts the President ata moment of grave international complication. He deliberately does all that lies in his power to create a prejudice against the note to be sent to Germany to-day, a note whose contents are still unknown to the public. His remarkably tender sense of duty makes him forget that he owes a duty to the United States. ... Though Mr. Bryan’s resignation strengthens the Cabinet, it will be long before Americans 1915 forgi' hono! his p In and ( No and 1 above been Gove crisis and t ness might An At origin every After ceptec judgm verdic port t Germ disco. signed To his Ge rassmit extenu may | may b On York ‘ that hi tration him bl an em The ] Presid to jus’ York differ 1 admire that he clusion une ”’ receive deep-r of poli phia ‘ Noth Secreta it. Hi: ignatior the rea support
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1915 forgive the man who sulked and ran away when honor and patriotism should have kept him at his post. In the same spirit the Charleston ‘* News and Courier ”’ adds : No matter what Mr. Bryan may say, the bald and ugly fact will-remain that he apon whom above all others the President ought to have been able to lean has deserted his chief and his Government in the midst of an international crisis the gravity of which cannot be overstated, and that he has done this with full conscious- ness of the consequences which his action might precipitate. And the New York “ World :” At the Cabinet meeting which discussed the original draft of the Lusitania note of May 13 every eventuality was carefully considered. . . . After the discussion had ended Mr. Bryan ac- cepted the judgment of the President as his judgment and the verdict of the Cabinet as his verdict. If he could not conscientiously sup- port the Administration’s policy in respect to German submarine warfare, the time to have discovered it was then. The time to have re- signed was then. To wait until he had signed his name to the first note, to wait until Germany’s reply had been received and then resign, that is to subject his Government and his country to an embar- rassment for which there is neither excuse nor extenuation, however noble Mr. Bryan's ideals may be and however sensitive his conscience may be in respect to these ideals. On the other hand, the opinion of the New York ‘Times ”’ is as follows: “It may be said that he should not have deserted the Adminis- tration at such atime. The country will hold him blameless under that accusation. It was an eminently fitting moment for him to go.” The New York ‘“‘ American ”’ deems “the President’s note to Germany of a character to justify Mr. Bryan’s revolt,” and the New York “ Mail” says: ‘ However one may differ from Mr. Bryan, one cannot help but admire the man who decides upon the course that he believes in and follows it to its con- clusion resolutely.”” ‘The Minneapolis “ Trib- une” agrees that ‘“ Secretary Bryan must receive credit for his refusal to sacrifice his deep-rooted personal convictions on the altar of political expediency.” And the Philadel- phia “ Public Ledger ” admits : Nothing in Mr. Bryan’s tenure of the office of Secretary of State becomes him like the leaving it. His letter to the President offering his res- ignation is an honest and manly statement of the reasons for his action. He can no longer Support a policy contrary to his convictions. 4/,- es & THE AMERICAN CRISIS 345 The New York ‘ Evening Post” thus sums up the matter: In laying down his office he was influenced ... by what seemed to him the demands of principle or consistency. But with this... his grounds for anything like complacency come to anend.... Before the first Lusitania note was despatched over his signature, Mr. Bryan was confronted with the necessity of deciding whether he could or could not remain. .“~. He decided to remain; but now, when the inevita- ble next step is about to be taken, he prefers to take himself out of the case, placing the imme- diate clearing of his own skirts above the evi- dent requirements of the Government. THE GERMAN-AMERICAN PRESS Comment of the German newspapers in the cities where Teutons comprise a large portion of the population is specially interest- ing. The St. Louis “ Westliche Post” ascribes the resignation to the capricious determination of the President on a high- flying ultimatum toGermany. “ Mr. Wilson drew the bow too tense.’”’ ‘The Cincinnati ‘Freie Presse’ writes in similar vein and wonders whether Mr. Wilson will now “ sub- ordinate personal feelings.” ‘The Cleveland ‘‘ Wachter und Anzeiger ”’ says : The resignation of Mr. Bryan shows that the Secretary of State isa man of principles who is able to sacrifice office and political honors to that which he considers his duty. During his public career Mr. Bryan has worked for arbi- tration, and the arbitration treaties he ratified with foreign nations were to him a matter of pride. In the differences with Germany as to the employment of submarine boats against mer- chantmen he has also recommended arbitration. The President and other members of the Cab- inet disagreed with the Secretary of State. It is nothing but logical for Mr. Bryan to resign. The resignation hoaors the man. The Chicago ‘Illinois Staats-Zeitung’ asserts : We do not weep one tear for Mr. Bryan. Had Bryan paid more attention to his impor- tant office and had he uttered an energetic halt to English encroachments, the Government would never have been obliged to take on a threatening tone. Mr. Bryan’s development of energy came rather late and contributed to his downfall. e The New York “ Staats-Zeitung ”’ declares that in Mr. Bryan’s estimation “ the honor of the country could be protected without rat- tling the saber.” The Baltimore ‘‘ Correspondent ”’ indicates
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346 THE OUTLOOK 16 | that some Germans are counting on division in American public sentiment by saying: “Mr. Bryan’s resignation will prove to the world that President Wilson has not the united American Nation behind him.” EFFECT ON GERMANY The importance of Mr. Bryan’s political following and the consequent effect of his resignation in Germany are thus disposed of by the Sioux Falls “‘ Press ”—a well-known organ of public opinion in that part of the West in which Mr. Bryan has always been supposed to be particularly “ strong’ with the people : Germany, of course, knows that Bryan has a tremendous popular following. What Germany does not know is that Bryan does not carry with him his vast following, in the attitude he now assuines. Secretary Bryan’s resignation is about as untimely as anything could be. To the foreign world it will appear that we are divided on a question concerning which every effort has been made, even by the German Ambassador to Washington himself, to show that we are united. It is the crowning blunder of Mr. Bryan’s unfortunate career as Secretary of State. Another well-known organ near Mr. Bryan’s home, the Omaha “ Bee,” also agrees that his retirement may indicate to the for- eign Powers the “ instability of our position.”’ Turning to the southern part of Mr. Bryan’s political bailiwick, we find the St. Joseph, Missouri, “‘ Gazette’ affirming as follows : Bryan represents the peace sentiment of the Nation, Wilson the militant spirit. Freed from the undoubtedly palliating influence of his Secretary, the President may henceforth be ex- pected to give us what we have always been pleased to term “a more vigorous foreign policy.” What that policy will lead us to with respect to international affairs and what the effect upon Europe’s own warring concerns may be, doubtless will be, can soberly be imagined. What will be that effect? ‘ Mr. Bryan’s act will stiffen the neck of Germany ; it really aggravates the danger of violent rupture,” replies the Memphis ‘ Commercial-Appeal,” as does the Reno “ Nevada State Journal:” “‘ Secretary Bryan’s resignation at this critical time almost inevitably will cause a stiffening of Germany's policy to conduct the war with- out respect to the rights of the United States as defined by the President.’”’ The Denver “ Rocky Mountain News ” declares: There is the grave danger that Berlin may conclude that the Nation has not been united for the Wilson policies respecting Germany an that Berlin can afford to treat the Pres and his note with indifference or worse. The Wilkes-Barre ‘ Record ” remark In Germany the resignation will create a pro- found impression. It will be misconstrued as representing widespread disapproval of Presi- dent Wilson’s policy in the United States; ic will be surprising if it does not hasten the very complications which Mr. Bryan professes that he is anxious to avoid. And the New York “ Globe :” The late Secretary of State has adopted queer means to promote the cause nearest to his heart. His conduct bears similarity to that of James Buchanan before our Civil War, who was so averse to coercing the secessionists, and so advertised his aversion, that the Southern States became convinced they would be allowed to depart in peace. By creating a semblance of divided coun- sels in the Cabinet, where he has stood alone, comments the New York “ Sun,” Mr. Bryan gives aid and comfort to the opponents in Germany and here of the firm assertion of the rights of Americans upon the seas, ‘‘Germany, not knowing him as his coun- trymen do, may be encouraged in the illu- sion that a majority of Americans will not hold up the hands of Woodrow Wilson to every issue. Germany could make no greater error.” The Boisé, Idaho, ‘ Statesman ”’ reflects the opinion of the vast majority of papers everywhere in concluding that ultimately, if not immediately, Secretary Bryan’s resigna- tion ‘should carry added significance to the German authorities, for it results directly from executive disapproval of Mr. Bryan’s peace-at-any-price policy, with which the American people have been long nauseated.” EFFECT ON AMERICA There is one thing connected with Bryan’s resignation, says the Cheyeane, Wyoming, ‘‘ State Leader,” and that is that the Admin- istration will be relieved from “ the persistent and petty attacks of the standpat Republican press, inspired by partisan prejudice and by the money trust, against the great Commoner, who has fought his unpatriotic enemies with- out fear or favor.” On the other hand, nearly all Democratic papers call attention to a far larger, a prac tically universal, sentiment, as does the Rich- mond “ Times-Despatch,” for example : “ It is Wilson, not Bryan, who strikes to-day the upon Ang the can | aptni a re] sour¢ Or folloy quote WI union be git Cabir in W: picion being the P; to wh be. |] meetil set ja from t to this Paper late in Presid ““ Tl Mr. B it has Mr. been the Ca hear t many, reques' has hel into ef commu It h
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1915 note to which the hearts of the American people respond, and with which it beats in general sympathy. The Nation is with him. If here and there are dissenting voices, they are drowned in the great surging chorus of National approval.” What of the future? The first feeling is that the Administration is strengthened. President Wilson is to be congratulated upon this breach in his Cabinet, says the Los Angeles “ Times.” ‘“ Secretary Bryan was the weakest point in his line, and now he can strengthen it. The inefficiency and in- aptness of the Secretary of State has been a reproach to the country and no doubt a source of mortification to the President.” One way to strengthen the Cabinet is to follow the lead of France and England. ‘To quote the Pittsburgh “ Dispatch :” What more convincing demonstration of the union of Americans behind the President could be given than for Mr. Wilson to reorganize his Cabinet, as European nations have done, on a V—HOW THE WHAT LED TO THE RESIGNATION HE delay in the transmission of the second note on the Lusitania to Germany gave rise to many rumors in Washington. However, the correct sus- picion steadily grew that the document was being held up because of differences between the President and the Secretary of State as to what the character of the note ought to be. Mr. Bryan’s late arrival at the Cabinet meeting on the morning of June 8, and his set jaw and stubborn eye when he emerged from the conference, gave additional credence to this report. At length the importunate news- paper men could be put off no longer, and late in the afternoon Joseph P. Tumulty, the President’s secretary, made this statement: “The President authorizes me to say that Mr. Bryan has tendered his resignation and it has been accepted.” Mr. Bryan’s intention of resigning had been communicated to the President before the Cabinet conference which was called to hear the final reading of the note to Ger- many, and in accordance with Mr. Bryan’s request his abdication of the office which he has held for two years and three months went into effect upon the transmission of this communication. It has been rumored that the friction THE AMERICAN CRISIS 347 coalition basis, selecting his advisers. from the experienced and best qualified statesmen in the country, regardless of party ? The Wilmington, Delaware, ‘“ Morning News ” adds: ‘ It is to be hoped that in the present crisis the very best material that can be obtained will succeed Mr. Bryan, regard- less of politics. A man like former Senator Elihu Root is certainly needed at this hour.”’ If, says the Cincinnati “‘ Commercial Trib- une,’’ Mr. Bryan had possessed the vision of a real statesman, or even the foresight of a cunning politician, the United States would have taken the lead in a coalition of great neutral Powers which would have said at the beginning of the war to each belligerent, “ Thus far mayest thou go.”” The Cincinnati paper adds : Then there would have been no Lusitania in- cident. There could have been no discussion of whether or not the solemnly adopted rules of the Hague Convention were to be carried out. No nation would have dared to ignore them. BREACH GREW between Mr. Bryan and the President was of long standing, and that the Secretary of State had twice before offered to resign because of disagreement with the President on political issues. Mr. Bryan, however, denied this in a statement given out to the newspaper men at his home soon after the announcement of his withdrawal from the Cabinet. After de- claring that he had no political quarrel with the President, Mr. Bryan said: “The differences between the President and myself on the question of these notes have existed since the Falaba case. We have had many talks about the questions in- volved, and the difference in our line of talk has gradually grown wider. Finally we agreed to disagree. ‘‘T want to emphasize,”’ Mr. Bryan went on, ‘‘that our relations are still extremely cordial. We believe alike on political ques- tions. We both regret sincerely and deeply that this break should have come, but no way to avoid it could have been found. The President could not have done otherwise, believing as he did, and I could not have taken any other course.” MR. BRYAN’S EXPLANATION In a statement given out upon the day following the announcement of his resigna-
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348 THE OUTLOOK 3. tion Mr. Bryan made clearer his position, and specified the following two main points upon which he differed with the President : “First, as to the suggestion of investiga- tion by an international commission ”’ of the questions in dispute between Germany and the United States. ** Second, as to warning Americans against traveling on belligerent vessels or with cargoes of ammunition.” The United States, Mr. Bryan pointed out, has made treaties with thirty nations to the effect that, ‘no matter what disputes may arise between us and these treaty nations, we agree that there shall be no declaration and no commencement of hostilities until the matters in dispute have been investigated by an international commission, and a year’s time is allowed for investigation and report.” While no treaty was made with Germany, she accepted the principle, Mr. Bryan declares, and, in his opinion, we ought to offer her the opportunity to submit the dispute between her and us to investigation by an international commission. As to the second point of difference, Mr. Bryan explains that, while an American citizen has a right to travel on a belligerent ship, that is not the question; ‘“‘ the question is whether he ought not, out of consideration for his country, if not for his own safety, to avoid danger when avoidance is possible.” “It is a very one-sided citizenship,” says the ex-Secretary, ‘“ that compels a govern- ment to go to war over a citizen’s rights and yet relieves a citizen of all obligations to con- sider his nation’s welfare.”’ Not only should the Government “ ear- nestly advise” Americans not to travel on the ships of belligerent nations, according to Mr. Bryan, but “ American passenger ships should be prohibited from carrying ammuni- tion.” Such action by our Government would not preclude it from continuing efforts to bring about a cessation of the warfare of submarines on merchant vessels. ' “ The use of one remedy does not exclude the use of the other.’””’ When a riot breaks out in a city, ‘it is the duty of the Mayor to suppress the mob and to prevent violence, but he does not hesitate to warn citizens to keep off the streets during the riots.” In conclusion, Mr. Bryan declared that as a private citizen he would feel free ‘“ to urge both of these propositions and to call public attention to these remedies in the hope of securing such an expression of public senti- ment as will support the President in em; ing these remedies, if, in the future, he find it consistent with his sense of duty to f them.” WHAT MR. BRYAN’S EXPLANATION MEA\S Mr. Bryan’s statement concerning our treaties with Great Britain, France, Russia, and other countries, that there shall be no declaration of war and no commencement of hostilities until the matters in dispute have been investigated by an international com- mission, and that a year’s time shal! be allowed for such investigation, has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the present issue. No one in responsible position has proposed to make any declaration of war against Germany, no one has proposed to commence any hostilities, and we have not agreed—and it is inconceivable that America would agree—to make no declaration and take no action for the maintenance of jus- tice, liberty, and law without a year of diplo- macy preceding. Moreover, weeks ago the President issued a note telling Germany that in case her method of warfare on the seas resulted in the loss of American lives we should hold her to “strict accountability.” That note has been reaffirmed over Mr. Bryan’s signature. To refuse to take action now would be to repudiate our own demands made under Mr. Bryan’s own authority. Mr. Bryan’s second proposition, that the President should, if possible, prevent Ameri- cans from traveling on belligerent ships, is a proposal that we surrender all that Germany asks of us. In the time of Grotius certain nations claimed the right to control the seas. That claim has long since been disallowed by the common consent of civilized nations. Mr. Bryan proposes that we shall acquiesce in that claim now that Germany renews it. We do not believe that this country, which in its infancy fought Great Britain to maintain the freedom of the seas, will, in its maturity, abandon that freedom and turn over the ocean or any part of it to be sacredly reserved as a field of war, upon which neutrals and non-combatants must not travel, and do so by yielding to the deliberate policy of terrorism and “ frightfulness.” NO TIME FOR DIVIDED COUNSELS Mr. Bryan’s resignation may emphasize and perhaps help to create a division in American public sentiment. ; American history records such instances ol 1915 divi: shot the ion ing the Pres of t can tion thou coun dent Eng] Ame a fo whet like Ame prob! to al divid allow quest Mi Natio try tc law, \ Th stand: in lay this cl Sor to the laws ¢ is not! cient 1 The well e define Armec under duties. does ] times | commi laws o The comm« establi:
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1915 division at times of great public peril which should serve as a warning to us to-day. At the time of the Revolution there was divis- jon in the Continental Congress concern- ing Washington and Arnold; at the time of the Civil War there was division even in President Lincoln’s own Cabinet. At each of these crises a large part of the Ameri- can people lost sight of the main ques- tion because their minds were diverted to thoughts of a political conflict within the country itself. Seward laid before Presi- dent Lincoln a plan to make war with England in order to turn the minds of Americans from their internal problem to a foreign peril. Mr. Bryan’s resignation, whether intentionally or not, may have a like effect by turning the minds of many Americans from a foreign peril to an internal problem. The American people ought not to allow themselves to be turned aside or divided by any such event. They should not allow themselves to lose sight of the main question. Mr. Bryan’s resignation is not a great National issue. The attitude of this coun- try toward Germany and toward the ques- THE AMERICAN CRISIS 349 tion which Germany has raised of inter- national law and international right is a National issue of the very first importance. In the face of this great issue there should be no standing-ground for those who would substitute a domestic political question for a pressing and vital foreign issue. If the doctrines of militarism prevail and rights of neutrals and non-combatants based on international law are not vindicated, there will be no domestic questions for America to decide in the future because there will be no free America to decide them. Extreme believers in peace at any price will promote division in this country for senti- mental reasons; the defenders of Germany as against the United States will attempt to promote division for practical purposes. Under these circumstances, it is all the more necessary for the country to unite in support of the President in-the great crisis. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” It is somewhat of a question whether by Mr. Bryan’s resignation public opinion will be solidified or divided. It is the business of every patriotic American to see that public opinion is solidified. VI—THE FUTURE: DEEDS, NOT WORDS OW that the issue is joined, and the N President has taken his stand irrev- ocably for justice, humanity, and law, what should the country do? The issue is perfectly clear. America stands for law. America does not acquiesce in lawlessness. How shall America make this clear to Germany and to the world? Some not very well informed letter-writers to the daily press assume that there are no laws of war, that war is lawless, and an army is nothing better than an organized and effi- cient mob. They are wrong. The laws of war are as well established and some of them as well defined as the laws of peaceful communities. Armed forces have their recognized rights under these laws, but also their recognized duties. Though some things which an army does lawfully would be accounted crime in times of peace, none the less an army may commit crime; that is, it may violate the laws of war. These laws of war are established as the common law of England and America is established—by custom long recognized, and in many cases interpreted by courts of law of the nations that have been engaged in warfare. One of these well-established laws of war is the principle that war is not made upon non-combatants. By its recognized defini- tion, war is a conflict between armed forces. Unarmed citizens may suffer in this conflict, but war is not made upon unarmed citizens. One application of this principle is that no merchant vessel, whether belonging to a neutral or a belligerent nation, may be ‘sunk at sea without first providing for the safety of the passengers and crew who are non- combatants. Germany disregards this law and wishes the assent, or at least the acqui- escence, of the United States to this lawless act, an act made criminal by the law of nations. To this demand that the United States acquiesce in this lawlessness the President of the United States, speaking for the people of the United States, has uttered an explicit and emphatic No. America does not and will not acquiesce in the viola- tion of the laws of war and the disregard of the rights of humanity by any of the belliger-
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350 THE OUTLOOK ent Powers. ‘This for us Americans is abso- lutely settled. It is not open to debate. ‘Fhe President at this writing appears to hope that Germany may ‘abandon her claim to disregard the laws of war and her practice of making war upon unarmed non-combatants on the high seas. We do not share the Presi- dent’s hope. The leaders of the military party in Germany announced before the war that they would pursue this policy of sub- marine attack upon merchant vessels. The German Government has _ sanctioned this purpose and has carried on the war in accord- ance therewith. It has defended the sub- marine warfare conducted in accordance with this purpose, and its official and semi-official organs have exulted in the wholesale assassi- nation which has resulted from this criminal violation of the laws of war. It has been accu- rately said that the sinking of the Lusitania was not an act of war—it was an act of piracy. In our judgment, the time has come when the United States, not merely by words, but by deeds which speak louder than words, should utter its protest against these acts of lawlessness, this making war upon unarmed non-combatants upon the high seas in viola- tion of the long-established and _ well-recog- nized laws of war. How? There are at least three ways in which the United States could fulfill its pledge to call Germany to “a strict accountability ’’ for its lawless course : America could declare non-intercourse with Germany. It could, by act of Congress if not by Executive act, forbid all trade with the offending nation. It could refuse to sell goods to her or buy goods from her. It could refuse to issue passports to Americans to travel in her country or to recognize pass- ports issued by Germany. It could invite other*neutral Powers to unite with it in this policy of non-intercourse. Such a policy of non-intercourse pursued by the United States alone might not be materially effective, but if other neutral Powers joined with the United States in such a policy it would not be wholly ineffective, and at all events it would have a moral effect greater than any words unac- companied by action. The United States might go further. It might refuse all political intercourse with Germany. It might call its Ambassador home. It might give to the German Ambassador his passport, and it might thus say in the most emphatic manner possible, We will have 16 June nothing more to do with a lawless natico, until it discontinues its lawless acts. It might go even further than this. might say to Germany, You refuse to us 1 rights of a neutral.. You have torpedocd our ships and you have put to death scorcs of our citizens.who were unarmed and com- mitting no offense against you. So long as thus you refuse to recognize our rights as neutrals, you have no right to expect us io perform the duties of neutrals. You have estopped yourself from all right to claim neutrality of us. America might put guards upon the German ships in our ports as a means of notifying Germany that they were held subject to such claim as we might make hereafter for damages. It might open its ports to the fleets of the Allies and furnish their war-ships with provisions and munitions of war. It might send freely to the Allies goods, whether contraband or not, with the sanction and support of the Government, and it might,say to Germany, We will not resume the obligations of neutrality until you recog- nize our rights as neutrals. The United States could thus discontinue commercial intercourse, discontinue political intercourse, cease to assume the obligations of neutrality, without declaring war against Germany, though if, as a result of either of these courses, Germany declared war against the United States, the United States would have to prepare itself to meet the crisis. We do not urge any one of these policies upon our Government. We do not even offer them as a complete and comprehensive statement of policies which could be pursued. We simply attempt to show to our readers that the United States is not helpless, that it is not compelled to acquiesce in the law- less course of Germany simply because it is not prepared to make war upon Germany. There are other remedies at its hand, and if verbal protests fail to secure the justice which our Government has rightly demanded, there are ways by which it can give expression to that protest by deeds as well as words. ‘Ihe note which the President sent last week to Germany should be the last argument of- fered in words; any further argument which he may offer should be expressed in Na- tional action. The press of other countries has made it clear that Germany’s violation, not only of the laws of war, but of the essential spirit of humanity, has aroused among all neutral nations a deep indignation. Of all neutral nations appe Cour of gr Fede sey, broug State the notab ciples Outlo and, ; table proof says, of bu: the S accom restrai The larges' While at the its bus that cz petitor been n agains! Tubaci moved have b nizes t the inf much-t contrar doned instane out con violate poratiol in its Wrong Structec of the §
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1915 THE the United States is the largest, the richest, the most influential, if not the most power- ful. The United States cannot with honor confine itself to safeguarding the lives and THE THE STEEL CORPORATION DECISION It is not often that a decision by a United States Circuit Court, subject, of course, to appeal and final decision by the Supreme Court, is so widely and instantly accepted as of great importance as that rendered by the Federal Circuit Court at Trenton, New Jer- sey, last week, in the Government’s suit. brought five years ago, to dissolve the United States Steel Corporation. Whether or not the decision is sustained on appeal, it is a notably clear statement of fundamental prin- ciples. Elsewhere in this issue of The Outlook we speak editorially of the positive and, as The Outlook has long held, indispu- table declaration that big business is not a proof of bad business, or, as the decision says, ‘‘ The normal and necessary expansion of business to any size is not forbidden by the Sherman Law unless such expansion is accompanied or accomplished by an undue restraint or obstruction of trade.” The United States Steel Corporation is the largest industrial corporation in the world. While many hold that it was over-capitalized at the start, it is probably quite as true that its business has caught up, so to speak, with that capitalization. As to its conduct to com- petitors and customers, no claim has ever been made of such offenses as were charged against the Standard Oil or the American Tubacco Company when the Government moved for their dissolution. Faults there have been, doubtless, and this decision recog- nizes that there were such faults—such as the informal accord on selling prices at the much-talked-about Gary dinners, a process contrary to law, the Court thinks, but aban- doned before this bill was filed. In some instances the Corporation has corrected with- out compulsion matters that might technically violate the law. But, in the main, the Cor- poration has behaved fairly, has been humane in its relation to employees, and has not wrongfully restricted competition or ob- structed trade under the reasonable meaning of the Sherman Law. This the Court holds ; WEEK 351 property of its own citizens. It should make itself, by its courageous action, the leader of all neutral nations in safeguarding the rights of all non-combatants. WEEK and it holds also that the purchase by the Corporation of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company at the time of the panic and with President Roosevelt’s tacit approval was justified and legal. A hint is given that some of the questions as to proper procedure and methods may in such cases now be controlled by the new Federal. Trade Commission. The question involved is different from that in the Northern Securities decision ten years ago or more, for monopoly in railway combination has quite different possibilities from attempted monopoly in general indus- tries, and the Supreme Court has _ itself pointed out that there was a great difference between a combination of connecting railways and a combination of parallel, competing railways. Applying the various definitions of separate Supreme Court decisions as to unlawful restraints and monopolies, the Circuit Court asks and answers in the negative such ques- tions as whether the Steel Corporation has prejudiced the public interests by undue re- striction or obstruction of trade; whether it is guilty of unfair business competition, such as unfairly to force competitors out of the business; whether it has exacted . unfair prices or has bought up competing plants to dismantle them, or has unfairly reduced wages or has furnished the public with inferior goods. Such acts, the Court says, were found to exist in the great cases like that of the Tobacco Company and others named. where dissolution was ordered. They do not exist here, and the claim for dissolution is disallowed, and for that reason. As a matter of fact, itis well known that from the very beginning of the operation of the Sher- man Law the Steel Corporation has volun- tarily opened its books and accounts for the widest possible investigation, and has sent to Washington of its own accord immense quan- tities of records. Instead of destroying its competitors, the Court finds that in 1911. when this bill was filed, the competitors were making and marketing nearly sixty per cent of all the steel and iron of the country. If
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352 THE OUTLOOK the Steel Corporation’s business grew rapidly, so did its competitors—nine of them gained by a much larger percentage than the Corpo- ration in the ten years after the Corporation was formed. ‘This does not look like stran- gling competition. ‘The field of business enterprise in the steel business is as open to and being as fully filled by the competitors of the Steel Corporation as it is by that company.” Its rivals are to-day offering strong present and prospective competition, and the test of monopoly, says the Court, ‘is not the size of that which is acquired, but the trade power of that which is not acquired.”” Tair, genuine, and unrestricted competition for ten years was testified to by buyers and competitors. So, too, with the foreign trade in steel. So, too, with the publicity of the business. So, too, with the methods of selling and distributing. So, finally, with the relations between the Corpo- ration and its subsidiary branches. In short, minor faults aside, the Court sees nothing in the Steel Corporation business inconsistent with such success and magnitude of that business as are the rewards of fair and honorable endeavor, nothing which corre- sponds with those evils to destroy which was the intention of the Sherman Law. PESTERING PASSENGERS Annoyance, discomfort, confusion, and delay were experienced by countless railway passengers on June 1, when a new law as to valuation of baggage was suddenly put in force by the railways. Until that day the general. public seems to have known nothing of the law or its application to baggage. If it were debated before its passage by Con- gress, no attention was paid to the matter publicly. Indeed, it seemed at first that the application of it in this way was purely inferen- tial, for the law itself, which is before us as we write, does not mention railway baggage, and Senator Cummins, who introduced it, is reported as saying that ‘Congress never intended that baggage should be included within the purview of the Act,’ and that the railways, being opposed to the general pur- pose of the Act, were “ attempting to make all the trouble they can ” for the passengers. This, however, is clearly an incorrect view to some extent, as the Inter-State Commerce Commission, in a special report dealing with the Cummins amendment, says directly that its terms do apply to the transportation of baggage because that is part of the contract 16 June for the transportation of the passenger. ‘| exact manner in which the law is bei applied by the railways to baggage is, ho. ever, inferential, especially as regards extra charges for values over one hundred dollars and the form of the declaration of val made by the passenger. The main purpose of the Cummins ameiid ment to the law of 1906, which regulates commerce and enlarges the powers of th Inter-State Commerce Commission, has do with freight shipments, with freight sched- ules, to be made public under the law a: with the liability of common carriers for loss or damage. At one time it was the practice of railways and express companies to attempt to limit their liability by one-sided contracts printed, usually in very fine type, on bills of lading and receipts, usually not read or under- stood by the shipper. A law was passed forbidding this and making the companies fully liable, regardless of such alleged limit- ing contracts, and this law was altered by the law of 1906, which also distinctly forbade the practice, but was found to have flaws. Of late, through the use of so-called stand- ard contracts and by roundabout methods aiming to avoid the 1906 legislation, common carriers have in certain classes of freight shipments, and especially with _live-stock shipments in the West, managed (so at least Senator Cummins and others allege) to limit the damages they would pay before the ship- ment, and to make stipulation for a small proportion of the true value of the property. It is to do away with this evil that the new amendment was passed. Already disputes have arisen as to the exact meaning of the amendment, apart from the baggage situa- tion, and, although it is not long, it certainly seems complex to the layman not used to dealing with the legislation and rules now applying to inter-State transportation. The provision of the law which is applied to baggage orders that if goods are hidden from view by wrapping, boxing, or other means (as in a trunk) the carrier may require the shipper to state specifically in writing the value of the goods ; that the carrier then 1s not liable beyond the amount so stated, and that special rates may be established for the transportation by the Inter-State Commerce Commission on the value of the property as stated. As applied to baggage by the railway companies, the passenger is obliged to state the value of his property ; if it is under one 1915 hundr over é for ea tion tl bagga amoul amour the va As seems seeing Passer the las must belong matter in suck to give it is c wrong! into tr¢ It ce proper shipme and pe beginni A JUST Last armed | at the | were r Outlook ment of in the ¢ men, w Thos slaughte sion, ve in view had bee which it the gua armed. it is me were le State o1 was eng - T drive ay slightest As we Private | deal witl employe currently ing, and
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1915 THE hundred dollars, no payment is exacted ; if over a hundred dollars, ten cents is charged for each additional hundred dollars or frac. tion thereof. In any case, the owner of the baggage cannot recover for more than the amount stated, and in any case also the amount stated is not conclusive evidence of the value. As with the Income Tax Law, Congress seems to have been negligent in not fore- seeing the exact effect of its enactment. Passengers have been made to feel that at the last minute of starting on a journey they must give an exact valuation of personal belongings very difficult to value. As a matter of fact, common sense must prevail in such matters, and no one need feel afraid to give an honest, but not exact, valuation ; it is only in an attempt to collect upon a wrongful valuation that a passenger will get into trouble. It certainly ought to be possible to make proper regulations for the valuation of freight shipments by business men without annoying and pestering railway passengers at the beginning of their journey. A JUST VERDICT Last January the facts about the attack by armed private guards upon striking workmen at the little town of Roosevelt, New Jersey, were reported with some fullness in The Outlook. Now we may record an enforce- ment of law and justice against the offenders in the conviction, by a jury, of nine of these men, while fifteen others are to be tried. Those convicted were found guilty of man- slaughter. ‘This seems a moderate conclu- sion, very likely a compromise conclusion, in view of all the circumstances. There had been no action by the striking workmen which in the least justified the shooting by the guards; in fact, the strikers were un- armed. The so-called deputy sheriffs——for it is more than questionable whether they were legally such—were not paid by the State or the city, but by a company which was engaged in an industrial war with strik- ers. ‘The use of firearms to subjugate and drive away these unarmed men had not the slightest color of law or reason behind it. As we pointed out at the time, to allow private individuals to hire armed guards to deal with strikers outside the premises of the employers is to insure private war. It was currently reported at the time of the shoot- ing, and has not, so far as we know, been WEEK 353 contradicted, that these hired gunmen or temporary deputy sheriffs were not for the most part citizens of New Jersey, but were hired by the employers from a New York detective agency. Some of these at least were continued in the pay of the employ- ers after the murderous assault upon the strikers. It seems evident that something more than the conviction of a few of these men is needed in New Jersey. When the public was excited over the matter, immediately after the crime was committed, it was stated that a legislative investigation would be made of all the cir- cumstances, and if it appeared that it was lawful for one of the parties engaged in a labor dispute to hire armed men from outside, not only to protect the premises of employers, but to march through the streets and assume to do police duty without any proper authority, then changes in the law should be recommended and pushed through the Legislature. What, if anything, has been accomplished we do not know. Most assuredly, both in New Jersey and wherever any such condition of affairs may exist, strin- gent action should be taken to make such a crime as the killing of these strikers as impossible legally as it is atrocious morally. THE WEEK’S WAR NEWS The importance to an army of adequate equipment, and especially of a plentiful sup- ply of ammunition, was illustrated and empha- sized in most of the important war despatches of the past week. The failure of the long- heralded spring drive of Kitchener’s armies to materialize has been due to a lack of ammunition, the Minister of Munitions, Mr. Lloyd George, told the recalcitrant workmen of Great Britain. The initial successes of the Italian armies have been largely due to their splendid equipment. Finally, the loss of Przemysl and the defeat of the Russians in Galicia have been brought about mainly by the tremendous superiority of the Germans in ammunition and sinews of war in general. The Italians, in their double campaign aimed at Trent and Trieste, continued to make progress during the week, but the defense of the Austrians stiffened as the invaders advanced, and apparently the Italians will soon be put to the test that will come when they meet the full strength of the Teutons. Italian columns have been advancing on
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354 THE OUTLOOK Trent from three sides. There is a chance that the force which has come through the Tonale Pass in the Rhztian Alps will cut off Trent from Bozen, which is the point of concentration for the Austrians in the Tren- tino ; and if the report be true of the capture by the Latins of Rovereto, about fifteen miles south of Trent, that coveted city may already have felt the shock of shells from the big guns of King Victor Emmanuel. The Italians who have been assigned the task of recovering Trieste made rather less progress during the week than their brothers in the Trentino. All along the Isonzo River from Caporetto to the sea, some fifty miles, the men of the peninsula have been attacking with a reckless ferocity, but have, however, made little impression on the lines of the stubbornly fighting Austrians. The town of Monfalcone, which may almost be called the key to Trieste, was attacked several times simultaneously by sea and by land, but has not fallen as this issue of The Outlook goes to press. The belligerency of tiny San Marino, the twelfth nation to be counted into the war, is not to be treated flippantly, as many news- paper paragraphers have treated it, despite the fact that San Marino’s diminutive size makes her participation in the war on the side of the Allies seem ludicrous. Situated on a high plateau nine miles from Rimini, on the Adriatic, San Marino has been described as “a piece of land entirely surrounded by Italy.”’ The little Republic has an area of 38 square miles, a population of 12,000, and an army of 38 officers and 950 men. But the fact that she is at war with Austria will make it possible for the Italians to make strategic use of the midget nation’s territory, which dominates the surrounding country and the Adriatic. PRZEMYSL RECAPTURED The recapture of Przemsyl by the Austro- Germans, with the exception of the entrance of Italy into the great conflict, was the most dramatic single event of the war since the Polish city was taken by the Russians on March 22. Realizing that the citadel could not be held with the meager supply of am- munition at their command, the Russians saw to it that only a small garrison was in the battered town to be captured when the Teu- tons entered. The victors wasted no time celebrating their success, but at once began 16 June to follow up the Slavs in their retreat to Lemberg. As this is written it is reporte: that this city, the capital of Galicia, is bein, encircled as Przemysl was encircled, and {) fall of Lemberg seems likely. If the Teuton allies capture Lemberg, they will hold practi cally all of Galicia in their sway, and in ; probability it will then be their plan to s large reinforcements to the Italian frontier At any rate, whether Lemberg falls or no: will probably be a matter of weeks before the Russians can resume any serious offen- sive in Galicia, although now that the ice has melted in Archangel Harbor the Czar will find it easier to get the arms and ammunition of which his men are sadly in want. It is reported that some of the Russian troops captured in Przemysl were without rifles and bayonets, being armed only with steel rods and sharpened crowbars. LLOYD GEORGE AND SLUMBERING ENGLAND The same paucity of “ powder and shot” which has handicapped the Russians has been hindering the Allies in the west. Their gains were small during the week, and such as they were they were mainly made by the French. With the exception of the fall of Przemysl, the most significant piece of news relating to the war during the week was the report of the appeal of the new British Minister of Munitions, to which we have already re- ferred, for the unanimous co-operation of the British workingmen in the effort to equip adequately the forces under Sir John French. This co-operation the Government has not had since the first day of the war. Ina speech at Manchester, one of the great industrial centers of England, after declaring that ‘‘it depends more upon the masters and men occupied in running workshops than upon any part of the community whether Great Britain will emerge from this colossal struggle beaten, humiliated, stripped of power, honor, and influence, and a mere bond-slave of cruel military tyranny, or whether it will come out triumphant, free, and more power- ful than ever for good in the affairs of men,” the Minister of Munitions said that the German victory in the east had been due solely to a superiority in equipment; such that, for instance, on one occasion the Rus- sian line in a single hour had been sprayed with 200,000 shells. ‘‘ Had we been in a position to apply the same process to the Germans on our front,” 1915 conti woul drive of F1 of th ment that, Gern Mi men ment he w: becat there mean there neces indus Mr Engli clear] crisis day a lic act suppr Africz which it has time. Britis] can al APROI LUSIT. As the G that ¢ suppo has pr Stahl, main woode other treatec explici Port ( attenti appeal in the Eve have n the rig affecte onal shadow goods with ul
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1915 continued Mr. Lloyd George, *‘ the Germans would have been turned out of France and driven half-way across the devastated plain of Flanders. ‘They would have been well out of the country they had tortured and _ tor- mented with dastardly cruelty; more than that, we should have actually penetrated into Germany.” Mr. Lloyd George went on to say that men were enlisting much faster than equip- ment was being turned out for their use, and he warned the workers and shop-owners that cause they believed that for the time being ‘was no prospect of conscription as a eans of levying armies “they ought not to assume that compulsion is un- necessary in enabling us to mobilize the industrial strength of the country.” Mr. Lloyd George is one of the few Englishmen who since August 4, 1914, has clearly understood the seriousness of the crisis confronting Great Britain. Even to- day a considerable portion of the British pub- lic act as if they believed that England were suppressing some rebellion in India or South Africa instead of grappling with a nation which threatens England’s very existence as it has not been threatened since Napoleon’s time. But there are signs that at last the British people are waking up. If any one can arouse them, Lloyd George can. thereby APROPOS OF THE LUSITANIA CASE As an excuse for sinking the Lusitania, the German Government has asserted that that great merchant vessel was armed. In support of its assertion the German Embassy has presented an affidavit by a man named Stahl, in which he says that on the stern main deck he saw two guns mounted on wooden blocks, and on the foredeck two other guns. This story has been rightly treated as preposterous. As against the explicit statement of the Collector of the Port of New York it was not worthy of attention. Stahl himself has apparently dis- appeared, and there has been some interest in the task of ferreting him out. Even if Stahl’s story were true, it would have no significance. A merchant vessel has the right to carry such an armament as he affected to describe. ‘he presence of guns on a merchant vessel does not offer the shadow of an excuse for seizing neutral goods on board, much less for sinking her without notice and drowning the women and THE WEEK 355 children on board. ‘This has been accepted without question for years by the United States Government, even to its own detri- ment. In 1813, during the war with Great Britain, an American privateer captured a British merchant vessel mounting ten guns and manned by sixteen men. ‘This vessel had been chartered by a Spaniard, who was, of course, a neutral. Before the capture this vessel, the Nereide, attempted resist- ance; but she surrendered after an action lasting fifteen minutes. ‘The matter coming before the Supreme Court of the United States, Chief Justice Marshall, who delivered the opinion of the majority of the Court, de- clared that a neutral might lawfully place his goods on a belligerent ship, whether the ship was unarmed or armed. Even a vessel so heavily armed as the Nereide did not lose her peaceful character as a merchant vessel, nor did the fact of her bearing arms. entitle the United States to seize the goods of a neutral owner which happened to be on board. This case is described at some length in Moore’s *‘ Digest,” Volume VII, pages 489— 91. It is an important case because it is seldom that the case of a belligerent mer- chant vessel comes before a court. Of course, if the American privateer could not seize the goods on board such vessel, that privateer could not think of sinking the mer- chant vessel without taking goods off and pro- viding for the passengers. ‘he United States, having held for over a century that no Amer- ican vessel could capture neutral goods on a belligerent merchant vessel, though armed, cannot afford to allow any other Power to assume that American citizens when travel- ing on the high seas, even in an armed mer- chant vessel of a belligerent, are subject to the risk of death like that to which Ameri- cans on board the Lusitania were subjected. COLLEGE HONORS FOR WOMEN There are many politicians much talked about by the newspapers who are of ex- tremely minor importance in the life of the Nation; while there is an army of men and women whose names have very little journal- istic currency who are doing the real work of civilization in the country. Among these is Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler, upon whom Columbia University recently conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws. It is rarely
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356 THE OUTLOOK even in America that a woman receives this distinction. Miss Schuyler refutes the pop- ular fallacy that there are no New Yorkers in New York. She is a member of the old New York community which the great mod- ern city has overshadowed so far as pub- licity is concerned, but which counts largely in all the movements for the betterment of city life. Miss Schuyler. comes of the most distin- guished American Colonial ancestry. She is the great-granddaughter of John Schuyler, one of the noblest men of the Revolutionary period, and of Alexander Hamilton, its most brilliant and fascinating personality. Miss Schuyler was one of the most active and useful members of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. At its close she interested herself in the condition of the inmates of the poorhouses and _ hospi- tals supported by the State; and as the result of her familiarity with the conditions in these institutions she founded the State Charities Aid Association, a pioneer among organizations of its kind. She also led the movement which culminated in the removal of the dependent insane from county poor- houses; she was very influential in organizing the first training school for nurses in this coun- try; and in 1907 she became one of the original trustees of the Russell Sage Founda- tion. Sucha record puts Miss Schuyler in the front rank of Americans. In conferring the degree of Doctor of Letters on Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart and Miss Grace King, Tulane University in New Orleans has recognized two women who have made contributions of high value to American literature. It was the good fortune of both these writers to deal freshly with original material. Miss Grace King’s ‘“ Balcony Stories’ preserve in very artistic form the habit of life and temperament of a vanishing society. She has also written the story of New Orleans with such sensitive skill that the pages of the historical record are suffused by the atmosphere of a city in which the Latin temperament harmonizes with the southern climate. Mrs. Stuart’s delightful humor and knowledge of the Negro as well as of his rural white neighbor have given us a series of stories which belong to the folk-lore of American fiction. ‘ Sonny” is one of the distinctive figures in American fiction. The conferring of the Doctorate of Letters on these two ladies in the presence of a great audience in the French Opera-House was 16 June made the occasion of an enthusiastic popula: approval of the action of Tulane Universi* SOME GUIDES FOR FEMININE ENERGY Dr. Virginia C. Gildersleeve, Dean of Barnard College, which recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, delivered the |’hi Beta Kappa oration before the Columbia Chapter on “Some Guides for Feminine Energy.” She is one of the first women to give the Phi Beta Kappa address. his address, it will be remembered, has always been regarded as an academic opportunity of a high order. Several of Emerson’s most notable contributions to the thought of his time were first presented at meetings of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Dean Gildersleeve commented on the rapid economic and social changes of the last fifty years, which have been storing up a great reservoir of unused feminine energy. In some places this energy, she said, ‘“* has grown stagnant or fermented into morbid fads and nervous prostration ; at other points it has overflowed the shores and dikes and burst into strange channels, most disconcerting for the peaceful valleys of the country round about.” Much of the labor of the home, she re- minded her auditors, has been lightened by being taken out of the home, and a great amount of energy has been released. An even more important factor in releasing femi- nine energy has been the decrease in the birth and death rate, and the tendency to marry later in life. Under present condi- tions, she said, both husbands and wives are economically and socially far less necessary to one another. These various changes, which have come about quite irrespective of the efforts of women, have shut out from household occupations an immense amount of energy, which must be spent by women through some other activity; and the prob- lem is to find fitting occupation for the honest desire of women to be of service to society. Among those occupations Dean Gildersleeve enumerated teaching, social work, preventive medicine, public health work, nursing, law, fine arts, and scholar- ship. The fact that part of the time and thoughts of so many women will continue to be occupied by domestic affairs makes it necessary to provide many “part-time ” occupations to use these surplus hours of married women, and many kinds of work 191: to | the hon q att ple soci amc mar this Gild poli HEN FO | T mor both who Prol doin thes The insta chief varie no { invel youn to p year the « sour¢ vacat chick them patio. sourc probl she « made begin ness | she is privat give j them accou Th hensir raising capab result
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1915 THE to which married women may return after the years devoted to children and the home. There is much significance in these words at this time; for there are a great many peo- ple who do not realize that economic and social changes have released an immense amount of feminine energy. There are many who imagine that the only channel for this released energy is political life. Dean Gildersleeve has indicated an immense non- political field. HENS SEND A GIRL TO COLLEGE There are no college students who are more earnest students nor more promising both as students and as citizens than those who are working their way through college. Probably every institution in the country is doing something to provide for the needs of these students by securing work for them. The students at Columbia University, for instance, earn a very large sum of money, chiefly, of course, because a great city affords varied opportunities of work, and there is no field in which American energy and inventiveness take on so many forms. A young girl in Denver has earned the money to pay all the expenses of her freshman year at the Colorado Agricultural College by the combination of forty hens and a vacant city lot. This young woman was eager to go to college, but at the critical moment her father’s health failed and the financial re- sources of the family failed with him. Ona vacant city lot near her home the family kept chickens, and for two years she had cared for them. In looking about for available occu- pation and taking account of possible re- sources the lot and the chickens solved the problem. With forty hens as her capital she embarked in the enterprise which has made it possible for her to make at least a beginning in her college career. Her busi- ness sagacity is expressed in the advice which she is reported to have given: ‘“ Sell only to private families; have regular customers ; give your chickens the best of care; supply them with wholesome food ; keep accurate accounts.” There could hardly be a more compre- hensive and condensed philosophy of chicken- raising than that which this energetic and capable young woman has formulated as the result of her experience. WEEK 357 THE OPEN FORUM One of the most potent influences on indi- vidual and community life in this country to-day is the open forum, according to reports heard at the Open Forum Council recently held in Boston. More than than two hundred open forums have sprung up all over the country in the past few years, and the number is still increasing. These forums differ in organiza- tion and management. Some have been established by churches and are supported by them. Some are definite community activities and are supported by voluntary contributions. A great many are the out- come of the recognition of the need on the part of a group of individuals and are sup- ported by private contributions. School centers, Young Men’s Christian Associations, and numerous similar institutions have organ- ized open forums. The chief feature of every forum is an address on a topic of vital contemporary interest—economic, sociological, or ethical— usually followed by questions from the audi- ence and open discussion. Such eminent speakers as Edward A. Steiner, Charles Zueblin, Meyer London, Walter Rauschen- busch, and Stephen ». Wise are frequently heard on open forum platforms. A great many forums have a half-hour of music before the talk to lighten the evening. At some meetings hymns and prayer sound an appropriate religious note, for they are held on Sundays. The fact that hundreds of people are regularly turned away from a meeting be- cause of lack of accommodations is ample proof of the vital place the forum is filling in the life of the community. Not only do ambitious young men and women throng these assemblies, but older men and women are also there. It is an interesting fact that some of the most successful forums are attended almost exclusively by eager aliens. There is doubtless no greater democratiz- ing influence in America to-day than the open forum. Its educational value cannot be overestimated ; it is higher education for the masses of the people. It is the impres- sion of some that the forum is the resort of discontented laboring people, of radicals ; but employers and the “smug aristocracy ” are also known to attend in large numbers. The result is that each has come to see the other’s point of view ; the open forum has made for open-mindedness and understand-
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358 THE OUTLOOK ing, for a certain sense of brotherhood and fellowship. Where the forum has been used for free discussion of community problems it has brought about a unity of spirit and action and the establishment of needed civic reforms. The educational possibilities of the open forum have been enlarged in many places by forming study sections among the members. There is in Boston a committee, known as the Ford Hall Foundation, always ready to help to institute and guide open forums and also to assist in providing suitable speakers. Under the able directorship of George W. Coleman, the man who made the famous Ford Hall Forum what it is, this group of people is doing, and we trust will continue to do, a most important piece of work, that of furthering this great movement in educa- tion, tolerance, and democracy. BIGNESS NOT BADNESS It is said by Washington correspondents that the Department of Justice is surprised and dismayed by the unanimous decision of the United States Circuit Court in the Third Circuit, sitting at Trerton, New Jersey, in refusing to dissolve the United States Steel Corporation on the ground that it is a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The readers of ‘The Outlook will be neither dismayed nor surprised. Tor over a quarter of a century we have contended that business is not bad merely because it is big ; that great industrial organizations are a benefit, not an injury, to the community if they are honestly conducted ; that an organization is a monopoly if it is created and conducted for the purpose and with the effect of stifling competition, and not otherwise; and since the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Stand- ard Oil Case we have steadfastly maintained that this is the law of the land as well as the rule of justice and of common sense. This is now affirmed anew to be common sense, justice, and law by the unanimous de- cision of the Federal Circuit Court. The application of these principles to the case of the United States Steel Corporation will be found concisely stated in a brief history of the case given on another page. The prin- ciples themselves are thus stated authorita- tively by the Court : “Only such contracts and combinations are within the [Sherman Anti-Trust] Act as by reason of intent or the inherent nature of the contemplated acts prejudice public interest by unduly restricting co petition or unduly obstructing the course of trade.”’ “ The real test of monopoly is not the size of that which is acquired, but the trade power of that which is not acquired.” ‘The question before us is not how much business was done or how large the companies that did it; the vital question is, how was the business, whether big or little, done? . The question is one of undue restriction of trade, and not of undue volume of trade.’ These extracts present in its simplest terms the whole question of what is monopoly. OUR SHARE It has been said that when the sun went down on the 31st of July last it set for the last time on the world that was familiar ; on the first day of August it rose on a new world. The changes wrought by war are already incalculable, and they have only begun. Whatever forms they may take—-political, social, industrial—they are certain to be fundamental, perhaps revolutionary. ‘he readjustments, when they come, will not be mere diplomatic compromises ; they will be vital, radical, and far-reaching. Society will not count its losses, gird up its loins, and go on again in the old way. It is passing through one of the deepest, perhaps the deepest, expe- rience in its history, and it will come out of that experience not only greatly impover- ished but changed in spirit. The iron is entering into its soul. Such experiences never leave nations as they find them ; nor do they leave individuals as they find them; some deep-going change always registers such vast catastrophic events in history. So far the field of military opera- tions has been on the far side of one or other of the friendly oceans which separate us from Europe and Asia, but the tragic experience is part of the life of every thoughtful man and woman in America. We do not hear the thunder of cannon, but the flash of the guns below the horizon reflected in the sky above us makes us aware that a great tem- pest is sweeping over the earth and that possessions that belong to the whole world are in peril, if not already destroyed. It this stupendous experience does not touch us, it is because we are mentally unsensitive 16 June 1915 or wou wer plag men shar Scio} are but SOrTt are swet up t univ arou i chief the s nity Nati of et hand that the ; in oO fortu blind of ou great terpr from heart Natic hatef To sacrif is the but t ing p be to set fo not, v shaki as it noble: tested field. if his the is: own first a Shall 1 luxury or sha tion « are as Nation
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1915 or spiritually dead. There are those who would take refuge in the cabaret if the bells were tolling continuously for the dead in a plague-smitten city; but the vast majority of men and women live with their fellows and share their fortunes. Whether. we con- sciously share them or not, those fortunes are our fortunes; we may shut our eyes, but we cannot shut our souls to the pain, sorrow, and tremendous disturbances which are agitating the world as a storm that sweeps from continent to continent breaks up the fountains of the deep and sends the universal ocean foaming and thundering half around the globe. Those Americans are to be pitied whose chief anxiety is that we may be kept out of the struggle and find in it a golden opportu- nity to push forward the prosperity of the Nation. ‘That we may be spared the duty of entering the field of war with arms in our hands is the prayer of the whole Nation, but that we should be spared participation in the sorrow and loss of our fellow-nations in order that we may profit by their mis- fortunes would be the prayer of a base and blind selfishness. The intense preoccupation of our neighbors beyond the sea may give a great impulse to American industry and en- terprise, but we can safely accept prosperity from the misfortunes of others only when our hearts are clean of every desire to shape our National policy to an end so selfish and so hateful to the spirit of democracy. To be able to keep out of the war without sacrificing the higher interests of humanity is the eager desire of many anxious people, but to escape the sorrow, pain, and renovat- ing power of a great human experience would be to miss one of the greatest lessons ever set for men to learn. Whether we will or not, we are sharing the fortunes of this world- shaking conflict, and it will not leave us as it found us; at the end we shall be a nobler or a meaner Nation. We are being tested as truly as if our armies were in the field. Every man is being tested as truly as if his individual fortunes were involved in the issue. Shall we think primarily of our own safety and comfort, or shall we think first and always of the interests of humanity ? Shall we cling to prosperity and the ease and luxury that come with it as the ends of life, or shall we learn from the appalling destruc- tion of material values that these things are as dust in the scales when the soul of a Nation or of an individual is being weighed ? THE HUNTING-GROUND OF THE QUACK 359 THE HUNTING-GROUND OF THE QUACK This is a big country and a very generous one. There are many signs of its approach- ing maturity; but there are also indications that it is still too young to be called a great country. The adjective ‘“ great,’’ generally reserved now for use by political orators, means, if it means anything, constraint, re- serve, poise, and general intelligence. ‘This country is on the way to these things; but can it be said to have acquired them? Isa country really great which spends fifty million dollars a year for chewing-gum and seven- teen millions for foreign missions? Does that fact indicate breadth of view, maturity of judgment, a sane outlook on life? Isa country great which devours the comic sup- plements of the Sunday newspapers and thinks them humorous? Judged by that standard, what shall one say either of the humor or the art sense of the American peo- ple? And what shall be said of their intel- ligence and their sense of reality when one reads the reports of the sales of certain kinds of fiction? Is a country really great in which a vast population not only reads ‘“‘ The Eyes of the World,” but enjoys it and takes it seriously and utterly fails to discover what manner of novel it is ? Mr. Owen Wister is a very outspoken per- son. Several years ago, when Philadelphia was under the rule of the most audacious and in many respects the most unscrupulous political ring in America, he said some things about that city which only an old Philadel- phian of irreproachable descent would have ventured to say; and a few years later he said some other things equally frank about original scholarship in America which only a man of his education and intellectual stand- ing would have ventured to say. ‘These things were said, not in sarcasm, but as an intensely patriotic American criticises his country in order that it may see itself as it is and disregard childish things. Maarten Maartens prefaced his strong story ‘‘ God’s Fool” with a little group of parables. In one of them several men are standing about the coffin of a dead man who has said sharp things of his own generation. ‘ He used the world as if it were a football,” said one of the men in the group; and the dead man opened his eyes and answered, ‘ Yes, he kicked it towards its goal.” In * Quack Novels and Democracy,” which
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360 appears in the current number of the “ At- lantic Monthly,” Mr. Wister has some very keen remarks to make about the willingness of the American people to be humbugged ; their capacity for quackery in all its forms ; and he has this to say about “ The Eyes of the World :” “« The Eyes of the World’ gathers into its four hundred and sixty-four pages all the elements, I think, of the quack novel; one element appearing rather more conspicuously than in any of Mr. Wright’s preceding stories. This is the sensuous suggestion, the carnal preoccupation, the somewhat frequent (but scrupulously pious) reference to illicit sexual relations. The plot concerns eight or nine principal characters, and these are all (except one) taken, without a change in so much as a hair of their heads, from the closet where melodrama keeps its most battered and shop- worn puppets.”’ It would be interesting if some statistician would give us a trustworthy report of the THE OUTLOOK 16 Ju: sales of quack medicines in this country— remedies which are genuine, frank, and u ful, but those “ cure-alls ”” which make prom- ises that every intelligent person knows at glance cannot be kept; that are made u; harmless ingredients of no possible benefi' tc any person in any physical condition. — It wa: Mr. Barnum’s maxim that people loved to be humbugged. Whether the American peo- ple are too innocent of the world to know the difference between the genuine and the false, or whether they are naturally gullible, like Moses when he bought the specta- cles at the Fair, the fact remains that this broad continent is fertile ground for quacks of all kinds in religion, politics, business, and fiction. As the latest newcomer among the big nations it is perhaps natural that it should be the most gullible; but would it not be wise to put the adjective “ great” back in its place in the dictionary and leave it there until there is a little closer relation between the word and the country ? HOW WASHINGTON VIEWS THE CRISIS WITH GERMANY EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE S I was about to begin this article A newsboys in the street came crying extras announcing the resignation of Secretary Bryan—a piece of news con- firming the principal conclusion which several days of investigation in Washington had forced upon me—namely, that in regard to the conduct of our foreign policy in general and in regard to our attitude toward the bel- ligerents in the European war in particular, for several months President Wilson’s Cab- inet has been a house divided against itself. Ever since the policy of watchful waiting was devised for Mexico there has been an element in the Cabinet which has not been pleased with the /aésser-faire attitude toward the southern republic which was most clearly outlined in the President’s famous Indianap- olis speech last winter. It is well known, on the other hand, that these views of the President. had the support of Secretary Bryan and his following in the Cabinet. The same general cleavage in the Cabinet became apparent as the European war pro- gressed. While all of Mr. Wilson’s official family approved of his determination to maintain the neutrality of the United States if it could honorably be done, his advisers have not been agreed as to what constitutes honorable neutrality. Led by one of the ablest men in the Administration, one group held it to be this country’s duty, as the most powerful neutral and as the leader of the nations of the New World, to referee the great conflict with strict impartiality, uphold- ing the principles of humanity and of inter- national usage against all violators whomso- ever. These men would have _had_ this Government place itself on record as con- demning Germany’s disregard of fundamental justice in her violation of Belgium as well as England’s disregard of the rules of warfare in planting mines in the North Sea and in attempting to starve the civilian population of Germany by a kind of remote “ blockade ” hardly recognized by international law. ‘he other group was made up of men who be- lieved it to be the Government’s first duty to the people to hold this Nation at peace at all costs, shirking what the first group consid-
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. 1915 ered our international duty, in order to avoid all complications that might drag us into the war. The recent pronounced change in the President’s policy toward Mexico and his stand for the cessation of German submarine warfare on merchant vessels, with the resig- nation of Mr. Bryan, the recognized leader of the peace-at-almost-any-price party in the Cabinet, indicates that Mr. Wilson has been gradually swinging toward ‘the view-point of the bolder faction in his Ministry. The attitude of this part of the Adminis- tration toward these problems and something of its opinion of the views held by the paci- fist faction were refected in an interview I had with a prominent representative of this bolder faction, whose name, unfortunately, cannot be disclosed. ** There are men,” said this official, “‘ who profess to believe that the highest duty of aman is to follow his individual happiness. They say, ‘Never mind if England is stretching international law to the breaking point and infringing upon American rights by the estab- lishment of an alleged blockade which is a discredit to the reputed breadthand fairness of Mr. Asquith ; never mind if Germany is cast- ing to the winds all the primitive justice fundamental in international relations by her attacks on non-combatants; what does it matter,’ say these men, ‘ so long as we have peace in America, peace and sunshine and an opportunity to raise our crops and chil- dren ?’ ‘* That is their attitude, and, I’ll tell you, it is a dangerous one, for it is founded on the doctrine that the highest aim for the individual is the pursuit of his own pleasure. The acceptance of that doctrine was the beginning of the end for Persia, for Greece, and for Rome.” I asked this man if he considered it prac- ticable for America to act as a mediator between England and Germany, suggesting that each one relinquish the methods of fighting which my informant had been criti- cising. It had been intimated to me from a high German source in Washington that the adoption of sucha course by America would be a step toward the restoration of the prestige and effectiveness which diplomacy has been steadily losing since the war began, and that such a triumph for diplomacy might easily lead to the immediate settlement of the war by arbitration. ‘No, I do not think that we should take the position of a mediator,” said this member HOW WASHINGTON VIEWS THE CRISIS WITH GERMANY 361 of the Administration ; “our position ought to be, not that of a judge, but that of a lawyer determined to get reparation for each infraction of international usage, dealing directly and alone with each nation that injures us.” This man, it may readily be seen, is of the temper of those whom the pacifists would call the jingoes in the Government. Presi- dent Wilson has followed the advice of neither the jingoes nor the pacifists, but is pursuing a middle course between them, never hesitating to adopt a suggestion from either group if it impresses him as worth while. Something of the President’s posi- tion in regard to infractions of international law by any belligerent, and particularly in regard to the complications that have arisen between this country and Germany out of the sinking of the Lusitania, may be gathered from the following statement by one of the few men who have shared the President’s confidence in the preparation of the recent correspondence with the Kaiser’s Govern- ment. ‘The proposal of an international police force to punish infractions of international law is an impossible project,’”’ said this man. ‘* What nation would ever permit others to exercise such a police function in what it considers its own private affairs ? ‘* The force of neutrals is all that can hold up the law. But to-day the United States would only get itself into trouble if it tried to punish all infractors of the rules of war, for the other neutrals would not follow us in such a course. ‘They are too weak to under- take to act as policemen. ‘“* However, disputes involving property loss alone can usually be adjudicated. It was the loss of life in the Lusitania case that made it imperative that we demand an immediate reparation for our injury and recognition of our rights in the future.” So much for the various shades of opinion of those who are intrusted with piloting our National bark through the perilous seas that now beset her. What of the future? Wil the storm that darkens the horizon fall upon us, or will it be avoided ? I found it the almost unanimous opinion of the army and navy officers with whom I talked that the storm cannot be avoided. ‘“‘The drift into war is slow, but sure and irresistible,” said a grizzled naval officer who won his spurs under Farragut, ‘‘ and the word drift particularly applies to the process by ‘
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362 which we are approaching the shoals just as it aptly describes the method by which we came to war in 1861 and in 1898. To ex- pect Germany to give up the submarine war- fare which is her one effective way of strik- ing at England is to expect too much of human nature. So one irritation will be piled upon another until the tempers of even the pacifists among us will snap.” But military men were almost the only ones I could find in Washington who could see war ahead. Among Cabinet officers, foreign diplomats, newspaper correspondents, and townsmen the geheral impression prevailed that somehow or other, perhaps by some new Wilsonian invention, like watchful waiting and “ SIEGFRIED ” THE OUTLOOK 16 June A BC mediation, the ship of state would scrape past the jutting rocks of war. A poll of the newspaper correspondents revealed a remarkable change in their attitude toward the President. A few months ago the majority of them, irrespective of the political affiliations of their newspapers, in private made no bones of admitting their contempt for what one called the President’s policy of ‘mysterious vacillation.” But to-day, although. their criticism of some otf Mr. Wilson’s advisers is frank and free, the majority of the mén who are paid to watch his every mood have found a new confidence in the ultimate dependability of the President. GREGORY MASON. IN THE STADIUM EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE BOUT twenty thousand people gath- ered on the evening of June 4 in the Harvard Stadium to see—and hear—Wagner’s music-drama “ Siegfried.” Twenty thousand is nearly two-thirds of the number of men in the available mobile army of the United States. No such number of people had ever before, it is probably safe to say, seen at one time a dramatic performance in America. It would be impossible for any such crowd to witness a dramatic perform- ance in any structure in America except one of those coliseums that have been built in recent years to hold the crowds that gather for athletic contests at some of the larger universities. Outdoor dramatic performances have been given for several years at the University of California; but it is only since the erection of such great structures as the Harvard Stadium and the Yale Bowl that the ancient Greek custom of giving plays in the open air on a large scale has taken root in Amer- ica. It was natural that the first dramas to be chosen for such performance should be those written for the purpose in ancient Greece. So audiences have recently seen’ the “*(Edipus ’’ of Sophocles, and the “ Trojan Women” and the “ Iphigenia ” of Euripides under conditions that resembled those under which they were originally given. These Greek dramas were in a very real sense music-dramas. ‘They were the proto- type of the music-dramas of Richard Wagner. It may thus be said that there is no form of drama so old as that which we sometimes call opera. It was natural, therefore, that some one should think of giving a Wagnerian music-drama in a stadium like that used fo: the music-dramas of the ancient Greeks. In this case the plan was proposed by Mr. S. Kronberg ; and the necessary aid for putting the plan into operation was supplied by Mr. Alexander Steinert. Though Greek in ancestry, Wagner's music-dramas in substance and spirit are intensely, not to say aggressively, German. And none of them is more German than those which comprise the Nibelungen Ring. ‘ Sieg- fried” is the second of the trilogy, and the hero, from whom it takes its name, is a Teuton of the Teutons. When I arrived in Boston, | found that this project of giving “‘ Siegfried ” had gotten mixed up in people’s minds with the war. There had been a rumor that the proceeds were to go tothe Germans. There had also been the rumor that after the sink ing of the Lusitania the sale of tickets for the performance had fallen off. What basis there may have been for these rumors I do not know; but they did not have any ap preciable effect on the attendance. ‘The crowd that flowed from the Cambridge side of the Charles, where the subway emitted its multitudes, across the bridge to Soldiers’ Field, where the Stadium stands, in Boston territory, was as dense as any I have seen
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1915 ‘*SIEGFRIED ”’ thronging to a football match. And when, after climbing the stairs in the under side of the Stadium, I emerged on the upper side and looked about that immense aad stately amphitheater, black with people, I could not see where there could be found seats for the crowds that were still coming. The sight of that enormous audience in the fading light was alone worth coming to see. It was as if we were on the side of a circling hill. Down in the valley in front of the bend was a great stretch of green turf. Between the ends of the horseshoe-like structure was what looked like a child’s toy theater. It was palpably flimsy—a thing of wood and canvas. It did not nearly fill the intervening space; and yet the proscenium arch alone measured, it is reported, eighty feet—nearly twice as wide as that of the Metropolitan Opera-House in New York. And beyond each side stretched the wings. But the stage looked small and fragile, and rather out of place. In front was what ordinarily might be called a large orchestra ; but it was little in comparison with the sur- roundings. In front of the orchestra was a big platform divided by wooden railings into scores of boxes. Before the performance had far progressed these were fairly well filled. On the stage was the dwarf Mimi at an anvil trying to fashion a sword. His voice sounded well above the orchestra, and even above the rustle of the still unsettled audi- ence. ‘The scenery was supposed to repre- sent a cave in a forest. In an opera-house there might have been some illusion about that scene; but there in the real outdoors it was not woody, but wooden. The Greeks were right. Stage scenery in such a place is as offensive as wood and tar-paper shacks would be in an Oxford quadrangle. The only thing that gave one’s eyes relief was the lighting. As the dusk grew deeper the stage glowed with a growing red, as in the second act it changed to a shining green blue in the midst of the night. But no one needed to tire his eyes by looking at play magic on this flimsy toy theater, for there was more entice- ment in the distant lights of Cambridge beyond the stretch of Soldiers’ Field, and more magic in the flashing lights of the motor cars that twisted and turned on a winding Cambridge street like sprites with eyes of fire in the darkness. And, whether one looked at the stage or not, there was the music. Of course it was IN THE STADIUM 363 not as one hears it in an opera-house. It was distant, and partly lost in space; but it did not altogether lose effectiveness on that account. On the contrary, the voices of the singers were heard to somewhat better advan- tage because the orchestra was not penetrat- ing. The broad outlines of the music were the clearer for the open air, less obscured by obtrusive details. Those hearers who were familiar with all the leading .motives in the musical score and wanted to follow them as they commented upon the action—or inaction —of the drama lost what they counted valu- able ; but they constitute the small minority who take Wagner as seriously as he took himself. The rest of us found that loss somewhat of an artistic gain. For the purposes of such a performance the story of “ Siegfried” is primitive and simple enough to serve as the basis of a drama. Mimi, the dwarf, covets the wealth guarded by the giant Fafnir. He hopes that the boy he has brought up in the forest will conquer the giant and get him the wealth. The boy, Siegfried» is a big blond young savage, and begins the drama by frightening his foster-father with a wild bear he has caught. He hears from Mimi the story of his father, who had done great things with a wonderful sword, now broken ; and, to Mimi’s awe, repairs the sword at the forge, sings in praise of his own skill as maker of arms, and goes forth to cut cowards in pieces. Mean- time Wotan, chief of the gods, frightens Mimi by virtually telling him that he is doomed to be killed by Siegfried. Mimi decides that his only salvation lies in teaching Siegfried fear, and attempts to do so by bringing him to the giant Fafnir, who has assumed the dreadful mien of a dragon. Thereupon Mimi has a quarrel with his brother Alberich, who wants the guarded wealth also. Siegfriéd, who is not in the slightest degree disturbed at the sight of the dragon, kills the dragon with the sword and gains possession of a magic helmet and a magic ring. By tasting the dragon’s blood he is enabled to understand a wood bird that tells him Mimi is plotting his death. Full of contempt for his dwarfish foster-father, Siegfried kills him and throws his body into the dragon’s cave; then, under instructions from the bird, starts to find the war maiden Brunhilde, who, he is told, waits behind a circle of fire to be wakened and wed by one who is brave enough to break through the fiery barrier. By possession of the ring he is
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364 THE OUTLOOK rendered invincible. Encountering the oppo- sition of Wotan, he contemptuously cuts in two Wotan’s staff, braves the fire, and by a long kiss awakens the mail-clad Brunhilde. In this story as Wagner tells it commenta- tors have tried to find an allegory. Some say it is the triumph of Socialism over Capi- talism. That is the thesis of Bernard Shaw’s “ Perfect Wagnerite.” I suggest another allegory which any one who wishes may work out in detail. Siegfried is the heroic ideal of Germany as conceived by the Prus- sian war party. Brunhilde, destined to be Siegfried’s bride, is the deification of War as Bernhardi conceives it. The guarded treas- ure is World Dominion. Mimi and Alberich are the dwarfish and contemptible figures of Germany’s plotting enemies. Fafnir is the Slavic peril. Wotan is conscientious scruple about international law and humanity asso- ciated with Pharisaism, as the Prussian war party believes, which can never prevail against military necessity. Siegfried must not be allowed to know fear; on the contrary, he must follow a policy of “ frightfulness.” He is alternately sentimental and cruel. He is fired with ambition as soon as he hears the bird (is that Bernhardi or the Kaiser ?) say: “ Were he the Ring too to ravish *Twould give him the ward of the world.” He has prepared himself to conquer by forg- ing his sword at the anvil (the Krupp Works), and, praising his own skill and efficiency, he vanquishes the Slavic dragon, defeats the machinations of the quarreling dwarfish Allies, defies the scruples of Wotan, the religious adviser, and becomes the spouse and com- panion of the War maiden. In fairness to Wagner, it should be noted that Siegfried’s career is, in the succeeding drama, brought to tragic ruin. By having recourse ‘to allegory you might find a measure of satisfaction in the story of Siegfried, whether you are pro-German, anti- German, or Socialist. Most of the audience, however, found enjoyment in the performance at the Stadium chiefly in unsophisticated pleasure in the spectacle and the music. The people on the row of seats immediately behind where I sat added to that the enjoyment of a bag of pea- nuts. The greatest enjoyment was provided, not by any of the regular performers, but by an unknown in the audience. When Sieg- fried awakens Brunhilde with a kiss he is a leng time about it. After a minute or two of it, some one unidentified emitted a slightly prolonged whistle. Of the twenty thousand assembled, fully eighteen thousand laughed. Such irreverence is a virtue. And “ Siegfried ”’ provokesit. A great deal of it halts and drags. It is dramatically inept. Wotan is tempera mentally long-winded, but there is no dramati: necessity for permitting him to be long-winded as many times as he is. Mr. Whitehill, who sang the part, deserves great credit for in- vesting him with dignity. There are stretches when nothing happens and the characters do nothing but declaim. There is no virtue in being reverent about this sort of dullness. Wagner was not a dramatist. His musical genius has borne on its back a load of artistic defects—too heavy a load for it to bear. And those defects are magnified by such a production as that at the Stadium. It wasa fair test to put Wagner to; and the wonder is that, in spite of the obvious blemishes, some of them inherent in the drama itself and some in the attempt to preserve the operatic stage in an environment to which it is not suited, the defects were not more glaring, and the total effect was, on the whole, impressive. To Mr. Hertz, for fifteen years the leader of the Wagner operas at the Metropolitan Opera-House in New York, who conducted this music-drama under such novel and trying conditions, great credit is due for the success- ful performance of the music; and for the singers from the Metropolitan Opera-House forces who met the exacting test of singing Wagnerian me/os so as to reach twenty thou- sand people in the open air no praise is too high. Madame Gadski (Brunhilde), Madame Gluck (the wood bird), and Madame Schu- mann-Heink (Erde) were the women of the caste. The other singers were Sembach (Siegfried), Reiss (Mimi), Whitehill (Wotan), Goritz (Alberich), and Ruysdael (Fafnir). The next time such a music-drama is attempted outdoors and under these condi- tions it would be wise for the management to abandon the idea of an ordinary operatic stage entirely, and with it all idea of repro- ducing the effect of ordinary stage scenery. Such artifices do not help, they rather hinder. the imagination in the presence of real out- doors. Next time I hope that the manage- ment will be bold enough to allow the hearers’ imagination full sway. ERNEST HAMLIN ABBOTT. ro tic th th: po un ag 7 Sci Ne has reli It i ma libe for sen. con is s mor lanc I by t
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ON THE TRAIL OF PROGRESS AND REACTION BY FREDERICK IN THE WEST M. DAVENPORT SEVENTH ARTICLE THE PERSISTENCE OF THE PIONEER CONSCIENCE ' \ Y ITH all our gibes at the New Eng- land conscience, which was the original pioneer conscience on this hemisphere, we like to think that at least in a more tolerant form it is still the matrix of the democratic movement in the United States. I believe that itis, and that if it ever entirely loses its germinal power in our popu- lation, that will be the end of the democratic movement on this continent. The democratic movement is an ethical movement, or it is nothing at all. The last half-century has witnessed an ethical dilution in the eastern part of the United States, due to the draining off of the old New England stock into the Middle and Far West, and of recent years an influx into the East of alien blood from the mentally and morally backward races. But we are still able to trace the quickening of the old New England moral conviction in Ohio, in Illinois, in Iowa, in Kansas, on the whole Pacific coast. And while in a State like Colorado, which I have recently visited, the flame of the social conscience at first appears to be reduced to cold ashes amid the sur- roundings-of pioneer struggle and exploita- tion, itis never so. It flashes up anew at the first opportunity. I am inclined to think that you could write the whole social and political history of the West in terms of the unceasing struggle of the pioneer conscience against its foes. The Western variety of the pioneer con- science is of its own sort, and the original New Englander might not recognize it, but it has in it several of the original traits. It is religious, and somewhat narrow theologically. It is against tyrants, whether made abroad or made at home, and is tenacious of popular liberty. This makes the West bad picking for political machines. It has a keen social sense of right, and is willing to use collective control to the limit for individual welfare. It is strong for equality. And withal it has a more generous moral feeling than New Eng- land had in the old days. I can illustrate some of these declarations by the State of Washington. Washington is a big, husky commonwealth which it takes all day or all night to cross by rail. The two ends of the State are so big and so different that they are always professing a desire to be separated, but they never will be. East and West Montana, North and South Idaho, and North and South California profess the same feeling and for similar reasons. But they never will be divided into separate States— Congress would not stand for it—and down at the bottom I do not believe they really wish to be separated. But it makes talk, and the threat of it helps each end of the State to bring the other end to terms when the two ends fall out, as they frequently do. Aftera flurry and a new debate over division, they all feel better. Eastern Washington is connected closely with the Coeur d’Alene mining district in northern Idaho. And there are now living in Spokane three millionaires who were in the “ bull-pen” under martial law at the time of the disorders and the Steunenberg assassination in Idaho. Eastern Washington is mainly agricultural, very progressive, and a center of the insurgent movements of the last decade. Although there is* a large Scandinavian element in the State, the peo- ple are mainly of the American pioneer type. The great city of Seattle, in western Wash- ington, has long been the seat of an adven- turous and floating population, but the changes in the direction of stability and sobriety in ten years are very marked. Seattle has for Mayor one Hiram C. Gill, who achieved National notoriety in the heated debate over the wisdom of the method of the recall as applied to public officials. Gill was Mayor of Seattle in 1911, and, not having watched the development of a public con- science in his home city, he administered the government in accordance with the ideas of the worse element of the citizenship of Seattle, supposed still to make up the major- ity of the voters. Much to the chagrin of hitnself and his friends and to the edification of the whole country, Seattle recalled him in 365
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IW Ss LN. DA K | — N \ CXEEE ‘ \ 1S wis J \ \ \ = ma Qk: LA’ IN. C \ *! \\S | CLE WC | fa =a" = SS '$ Ss THE PROGRESS OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE ’ White States are “‘ pro,”’ black States ‘‘anti,’ shaded States have limited suffrage, Illinois allows women to vote for all except State constitutional officers 1911, and he was retired to private life. Much exaltation on the part of the friends _ of the recall, much depression on the part of its foes! It was held to be a great moral victory. But the year 1914 came around, and on the 3d of March of that year Gill was te-elected Mayor by a majority of four- teen thousand. Moral victory to the rear, exaltation and depression exchanging domi- ciles! This interpretation, widely held in the East, seems not to be the correct one at all. It appears that the growth in civic con- science in Seattle is a very real and perma- nent thing. But there is nothing narrow about it. It is generous. It appears that Gill is a very useful leader of the complex elements of the population, and that he knows his job. What he especially needed was an accurate hint as to the direction in which things were headed. ‘That is true of a good many politicians of the older type, who, if they could get the tip in time and would take it, would be very useful to the communities in which they reside. It ap- pears that Gill gave assurance to the moral forces of the community that things would be different—and they are different enough so that the “better element” seems to be pretty well satisfied. Instead of a weak and vacillating temper, this seems to be an illus- 360 tration of a practical and generous outflash ing of the pioneer conscience. We have been passing through a period of upheaval when about everybody in public life has been pictured as bearing the lineaments of either a crook or a saint. As a matter of fact, I suppose there are relatively a con siderable number of the first sort and very few of the second sort. But most men in public life in the present generation are neither the one nor the other. A very useful public servant may come from the old order of able politician who is steered toward the right. He has the making of a better polit- ical pragmatist than the reformer. He knows the intricacies of politics, and how to har- monize warring elements in an electorate. Unless all signs fail, we seem to have another example of this in Mayor Curley, of Boston, whose career is not of the reforming variety, but who appears to be rising self-respectingly to the occasion, and whose administration of his office thus far comes surprisingly nearer to gratifying the reformers than anybody would have supposed. Former Secretary of the Interior Ballinger lives in Seattle. I think it is much easier to understand the famous Ballinger-Pinchot con- troversy which rocked the country politically from center to circumference after you get
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THE ADVANCE OF STATE-WIDE PROHIBITION White States are “‘ dry,”’ shaded States ‘“‘ wet’ the atmosphere of the Secretary’s home town. Seattle is industrially and geographically con- nected with Alaska. A good many persons have honestly lived there for a generation with the point of view of getting rich off the Alaskas. Inthe main they were not corrupt, but they were imbued with the pioneer spirit of exploiting the country. And the reason for the sudden change of tactics on the part of the Federal Government it was hard for them to understand. Seattle cannot see it now, although eastern Washington can. Seat- tle cannot understand how what was right in 1902, 1906, and 1907 should be a crime now. Seattle is stunned by the new gospel of the Pinchots and the Garfields, calling a halt on exploitation—and the country backing them up in it. And Secretary Ballinger repre- sented the point of view that the Pinchots nd the Garfields had gone too far with the ‘onservation programme under Roosevelt. I am not defending Seattle or Secretary Bal- inger. Iam trying to interpret them. What mean is that it does not necessarily follow, »w that the smoke of battle has cleared away, that Ballinger is altogether a crook and that Pinchot is altogether a saint. It was a struggle of ideas and ideals. And the higher is slowly winning over the lower. The State of Washington got most of its advanced legislation in its progressive Repub- lican days. In 1907 came the direct pri- mary and the Public Service Commission Act ; in 1909, woman suffrage; in 1911, a Workman’s Compensation Act, and the initia- tive, referendum, and recall. Since the smash- up of 1912 a mothers’ pension measure and an eight-hour law for women alone have worked through. The action of the Republican National Convention at Chicago aroused fierce resent- ment in the State of Washington, which has not yet cooled. With no particular incen- tive to it, eighty-seven thousand voted the Progressive party ticket for United States Senator last fall, against about ninety-two thousand Democrats and some one hundred and twelve thousand Republicans. And if there were a ghost of a chance of achieving anything more by continuing to vote that way, something like a hundred thousand in the State would keep at it until—to amend Billy Sunday with a classical paraphrase—the Styx freezes over. The case of the stolen Washington delegates was probably the most clear and flagrant of all to the Republicans of the country. And whether it was clear to the country or not, it was clear to Washing- ton, and it remains clear. In spite of the manner in which the shingle industry of the 367
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368 State has been hampered by the Underwood tariff, and in spite of the spirit of pioneering exploitation which is still strong in the blood of western Washington, I warn the stand- patters against trying to put anything over on the Northwest in 1916. Beware of the persistence of the pioneer conscience! Since 1912 Washington has been seeing red—a condition of mental ferment not con- ducive to rational progress. The present Executive is a fine young progressive Demo- crat named Ernest Lister, whose annual Message disclosed a profound and, as it turned out, well-grounded lack of confidence in the prospective good will or good intention or capacity of the Republican Legislature, and alarm at the increased cost and complex- ity of government. In the session of 1913 the standpatters and the Democratic minor- ity together secured control. This year the Republican standpatters were in control, the voting last fall for the Legislature evidencing a somewhat muddle-headed purpose to ‘“ beat the Democrats.” The result, as in Kansas under similar circumstances, is an incompe- ‘ tent as well as ultra-conservative body, which has produced upon’ the public mind of the State the most profound sense of legislative incapacity in the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. There seems to be no _intelli- gence or moral force left in the Republican leadership of the State. In eastern Wash- ington at least, and probably elsewhere, it would not be difficult for the progressive wing of the Republican party to re-establish itself if the Progressive party men should return to their old allegiance. The hopelessness and confusion of the present situation are leading the minds of Progressive United States Senator Poindexter and other leading Progressives in Washington towards the “ oo-back-and-lick-’em-again” policy. Which means, of course, that the Northwest is going to have the peace of righteousness if it has to fight some more for it, and that it has sense enough to be studying the strategy of the struggle in advance. Washington has woman suffrage and State- wide prohibition—more evidence of the pioneer spirit and conscience. A glance at the mapson pages 366 and 367 will show that the West is white with woman suffrage and that prohibi- tion has already swept nine Western (including Iowa, which will soon be ir line) and nine other Southern and Eastern States. First about woman suffrage. I have been at work in other fields and have never been an active THE OUTLOOK 16 June protagonist of woman suffrage, although I confess I have instinctively contemplated with complacency the sweep of the movement across the country. The point of view of the West with respect to the part woman should play in the affairs of politics came to me, therefore, with a fresh and genuine surprise. In the East we are accustomed to long and somewhat dreary discussions on both sides of the question as to the right of women to vote, as to whether women really wish to vote, as to whether the entrance of women would make political life in the country better or worse, as to whether it would dull the beauti- ful sensibilities of the gentler sex, as to whether it would bring on a deluge of femi- nism—and a half-score other matters of like import. The West would regard all this as a sort of mental exercise on a par with the debates of the old schoolmen as to how many angels could stand on the point of a needle. With the West woman suffrage is one more concrete outcropping of the simple old spirit of democratic equality. I take it that the evolution of the relation of woman to man has passed through two stages and is now in the third. In the earliest times woman was a strong factor in the com- munity, but the circumstance that the men were always at war left the drudgery of work for the women in and around the home. In the later Middle Ages woman came to be looked upon as the weaker, the more spiritu- alized sex, needing constant protection, “ half angel and half idiot,’’ to whom an affectionate though often rather superficial devotion was paid in the so-called spirit of chivalry. In the modern pioneer days in various countries— Australia, South Africa, but notably in our own great West—woman has come to be looked upon as neither a drudge nor a doll. The women of the West have from the be- ginning taken part as comrades in the hard, rough work on the border as well as in the civilization of the border. In the early pio- neer days, when as yet there were no teachers, the mothers who were specially competent organized and instructed the community groups of children. They were called upon to protect their little ones against Indians and against other forms of harm. On horseback they rounded up the herds of cattle. There was no feebler species about it, no subjection, no aristocracy of sex. It was natural equality, an equality of comradeship, an equality of intelligent endeavor and hardship and suffer- ing and sacrifice, which always deepens the
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1915 ON THE TRAIL OF PROGRESS finer sensibility of a woman and refines the coarser sensibility of a man. The men of the West—the men of Wyoming, of Arizona, of Montana, of Washington, of California— make little of these nice and subtle and more or less artificial distinctions between the woman in politics and the man in politics. They instinctively feel that their women are as competent to vote as to do other and stranger and more difficult things to which they have put their wills and hands. Com- rades in one, comrades in all. I am not sure that this pioneer view of the rights and privi- leges and duties of women does not repre- sent a higher standard of social evolution. I am inclined to think that it does. ‘The West certainly fails to see in it the conjured horrors of advanced feminism ! The West expects to get out of woman suffrage, as soon as the women get their balance, a higher standard of moral efficiency in public officials and a broader use of the collective power of the State for human service. Government is enlarging its func- tions in the common interest, and the very matters to which government, municipal and State, is more and more giving attention are such as are connected with pure milk, pure water, clean streets, wholesome recreation, living wages, social insurance, workmen’s compensation, child labor, every one of which vitally concerns the home, and in every one of which the woman has a primary interest. Notorious Nevada last fall agreed to suffrage for women, and this winter the Legislature, for ‘‘ business ”’ reasons, hurried through the old hasty divorce act requiring only six months’ residence before obtaining a decree. ‘The Governor shamefacedly signed the bill, at the same time issuing a statement which carries the inference that it can do no particular harm because the women of the State will soon take care of that flagrantly vicious policy now that they have become prospective voters. And unquestionably they will. A similar ‘“ six months’ ”’ bill was intro- duced this winter into the Legislature of the State of Wyoming, which has had woman suf- frage ever since it was admitted to the Union. The women of the State drew up a monster petition and sent it to their one woman Rep- resentative on the floor of the Legislature. She presented it in a strong speech, and the bill was killed by unanimous vote. Every man voted against it! (here is nothing spectacular or remark- able, however, about the general course of AND REACTION IN THE WEST 369 policy in the Western country as the result of the vote of women. Women seem to be against Socialism in Montana and California, they have helped to put some very fine child and familylegislation upon the statute-books of Colorado, they are strong supporters of the prohibition movement, they come out to the polls in larger and larger percentages of the total, in the Republican primary and in the general election in the city of Chicago last spring they showed great practical sense under rather trying circumstances, they are generally more eager to find out the reason for the choice they propose to register than the men are, and if they do not find it they do not vote—a great many men under the same circumstances vote ‘no,’ or take a ‘hunch ” from higher up—but there seem to be no revolutionary changes and no injury to the warp and woof of our political fabric as the result of woman suffrage in the West. And as to prohibition the pioneer con- science in the West has become intensely practical. The movement did not wait for Russia or France or England or the European war. It was in full swing before the war began. Strangely enough, it is no longer primarily moral or sentimental. It is a busi- ness and labor issue now. Mining camps went dry in Colorado at the last election which were predicted by everybody to be irrevocably wet. Large numbers of men for the first time decided that their wages would do more good if used for the wife and chil- dren than if squandered over the bar and in gambling on Saturday nights. en years ago the saloon in the West was looked upon as a social institution that men could not get along without. Now it is looked upon as too dan- gerous to the family institution and tothe State to be tolerated. When Judge Anderson was passing sentence recently upon the men who were convicted in the Terre Haute election cases of fraud’ so gross as to attract the at- tention of the whole country, he is reported to have said. in considering certain robust and healthy-looking saloon-keepers who pleaded guilty: ‘‘God Almighty meant them to work with their hands. My notion is that the saloon will have to go. The evidence in this trial shows that the saloons were the center of nearly all the corruption in the elections.” Montana tried an illuminating experiment in September, 1914. My information comes from an official of the State Government and from the accident records of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. The city of Butte
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370 THE OUTLOOK was the seat of civil war in the summer and fall of last year. It was not a conflict between capital and labor or between employer and employee, but between two divisions of the Western Federation of Miners, one of which believed that its chief representatives were grafters and had betrayed the workers, while the other upheld the old leadets. Th:2re were violence and bloodshed, and the militia were called in. From September 1 to Sep- tember 14 all saloons in Butte were closed tight under martial law. From September 14 to September 24 they were open only from eight in the morning to seven in the evening, and for the rest of the month were open from seven in the morning to ten in the evening. The curve of the number of accidents, and of the number of men who did not turn up at shift, in the first two weeks fell from the usual high average to almost the base line. A mini- mum percentage of men failed to turn up at shifts, and the number of accidents was very small. During the next four weeks the curve rose steadily with the number of hours during which the saloons were open. I have the records of the Anaconda Copper Mining Corporation before me. During the month of August which preceded the closing of the saloons the number of accidents per ten thousand shifts was eleven and twenty-five hundredths. During September, when for only half a month every saloon was closed tight, the number of accidents fell to four and twenty-one hundredths per ten thousand | shifts. Among the rules appearing on the bulletin boards at the mines is the following : ‘“« Never go to work after drinking liquor, and, if you must drink, stay at home. Experience has proven that a great many accidents are caused from drinking intoxicating liquors.” it is a matter of business efficiency and common sense. Neither employers nor soci- ety will stand long for workmen’s compensa- tion acts unless liquor is eliminated from the dietary of men at least in every form of haz- ardous occupation. And between the hazard to the family, and the hazard in the occupation, and the hazard to law and order, the collective power of the State has determined to close in fast on the liquor business in the West. I saw in Minnesota a most unbiased and significant and bona-fide letter from a brewer in Oregon. Oregon has just gonedry. The brewer in Oregon was writing to a large brewing corporation in Minnesota requesting them to buy his surplus hops. In the most straightforward and open manner he related 16 June the woes of the business in the West. He labored under no illusion. He realized tl: the end had come in that section of the Unit« | States. As to his machinery, he had be offered hardly ten cents on thedollar.. But thought he ought to sell his hops at a fiir figure. And as a warning, and as insice information to the brewers of Minnesota w likewise are facing extinction in their own State, he appended a chart of the rocks : Oregon upon which the brewing business had been wrecked. And these were 1 dangers against which he warned the brewers of Minnesota: woman suffrage, the initiati\ and referendum (by which the people start trouble themselves without intervention of the Legislature), lack of organized co-operation in their business, whisky (by which he meant that the liquor men should have been wise enough to let the strong stimulants go, and should have sought to retain the beer and light wines), and, finally, the low character of the saloon-keepers who had been their selling agents! Even California, which because of its great grape-growing and vinous interests will hardly go dry for some time yet, polled three hundred and sixty-five thousand votes at the last election for a most drastic law which would have put the saloons completely out of business overnight, without allowing time, as most of the other States have done, for the industry to adjust itself to its enforced liqui- dation. About five hundred and twenty-four thousand votes were cast in opposition. The West is impatient with us in the East over our slowness in dealing with the liquor traffic. ‘They do not realize fully how much more difficult a task it is with the heterogene- ous population of the East, and with the large alien element which is at first intensely hostile to just this particular type of reform. There is a good deal of danger in States like New York that the liquor issue may be used by powerful influences as a red herring across the trail to mix up in bitterness elements of the population which on some other even more fundamental issues would naturally act together. It is no answer to say that the liquor question is the most fundamental of all and must be settled first. Until the people of certain States wrest themselves free from the shackles of tyrannous and corrupt polit- ical machines they can get very little done in the way of progress in any direction. ‘The people of the West were canny enough. | notice, to fight for their freedom first and get it. Now they have centered intensely upon V . Man wea tions timi: T table agor by ar plant anim onisn of li enem thous races, and r The r yet ce four-h have ] consta years, sive w Sades, hundre The third ¢
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1915 tre effort to put over prohibition. During the whole period, however, there has been a large group of faithful men and women who, on the principle of division of labor, have taken as their task the development of senti- ment against the traffic in liquor. But as a dominating movement in the West, State-wide prohibition has waited until the machine shackles were broken. The impatience of the South and the West on this issue may go so far within the next ten years as to drive the East into a double-quick under the lash of a National law. THE DURATION OF THE WORLD WAR 371 It is more than a coincidence that the entirely detached phase of the movement towards enforced sobriety in the South and West in the United States happens to fall in with a similar movement of the nations of western Europe under the stress of a great war. Back of it, in both Europe and the United States, is the instinct of national self- preservation. Prohibition contributes power- fully towards national sobriety and self-con- trol. Therefore prohibition is a necessity, especially in democracies. Certainly thus runs the argument of the West. THE DURATION OF THE WORLD WAR BY HARRINGTON EMERSON HE strange delusion has overtaken the civilized world that wars are short. We recoil with such horror from the hu- man carnage and the destruction of material wealth, from the stoppage of usual avoca- tions, that the wish for peace makes us op- timistic as to its attainment. The oldest feud of all, that between vege- table and animal existence, has, as to larger aggregations of life, gradually been supplanted by an interdependent helpfulness, in which the plant serves the individual animal and the animal serves the plant race. The old antag- onism still prevails between microscopic forms of life. Vegetable bacteria are the worst enemies of animal life ; animal microbes are the worst enemies of vegetable life. There are feuds among animals, as_be- tween foxes and rabbits, wolves and deer, owls and mice, that have lasted hundreds of thousands of years. The antagonism between races, between white and yellow or black and red, has lasted for thousands of years. The ravaging of Africa for slaves has scarcely yet ceased; the American Indian waged a four-hundred-year fight. ‘The Montenegrins have held their own against the Albanians by constant fighting for well-nigh fifteen hundred years. The Norsemen were ina state of aggres- sive war for a full thousand years. The Cru- sades, with intermission, lasted nearly three hundred and fifty years—Europe against Asia. The Great Wall of China was built in the third century B.c. to keep out the Tartars, and has been of almost constant service ever since. How many centuries did border warfare exist between English and Scot, or between English and Irish ? For what periods were the gates of Janus closed in Rome? How many years of the lives of Czesar, of Constantine, of Charlemagne, of Genghis Khan, of Timour, were spent in peace ? Was there not a Hundred Years’ War be- tween France and England in the fourteenth century ; a Thirty Years’ War in Germany in the seventeenth century ; a Seven Years’ War in Europe in the eighteenth century? Did not our own war of the Revolution last from 1776 to 1783? Did not the wars of the French Republic and Empire last almost continuously from 1789 to 1815, or twenty-six years? Have not Mexico and Central America and the northern states of South America been torn with civil war almost continuously from 1823 to the present time ? Was not the almost forty- year reign of Diaz the wonderful exception, not the rule? Is there much prospect that there will ever be peace again in Mexico? Was there not civil war in Spain and- Por- tugal for ten years from 1830 to 1840 ? Was there not war between France and Algeria lasting seventeen years from 1830 to 1847? Our Civil War lasted four years. The war between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay lasted seven years.
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372 Later came the Prussians, under Bismarck and von Moltke, and set new standards. Bismarck looked after the diplomacy and von Moltke after the scientific management. Bismarck had three aims, and was hesitating to formulate the fourth. His three aims were: To give Prussia a North Sea frontage. To substitute Prussia for Austria as the predominant German power. To substitute Germany for France as the dominant Continental European power. The aim he did not formulate was to make Teutonism the dominant influence in the whole world. Three wars realized for Prussia three -of these aims. The Germans expect this fourth war to realize the fourth aim. Bismarck always chose the occasion, the place, and the time, generally against duped and wholly unprepared antagonists. Poor little Denmark was attacked by the combined forces of Prussia and Austria. This combi- nation prevented Austria from attacking Prussia, and also made Russia and France and England hesitate about interfering. The whole rape was over in a few days. Two years later, Italy having been induced to join an alliance against Austria, Prussia fell upon Austria on a day’s notice in splen- did midsummer weather, and Austria was put out of the running in about three weeks’ time. Bismarck had just before gone to Biarritz, in southern France, and duped Napoleon III. In any case, the end came so rapidly that neither France nor England had any time to intervene or even to make remonstrances. Both nations were, in fact, quite resigned to see the two great German Powers weaken each other. Later they found they could do nothing to prevent the forma- tion of a triumphant German Confederation. France was nevertheless restive, and four years later allowed herself to be again duped by Bismarck into the great Franco-German War, the occasion and the time being selected by Bismarck, the locality being -selected by von Moltke. ‘ Bismarck had seen to it that there was no real reason for intervention by either Russia or England. With the latter he entered into a new treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium. Russia was still sore over the Crimean War, in which France had carried off the chief honors, going out of her way to interfere in Balkan State turmoils. It was THE OUTLOOK always Bismarck’s aim to keep on friend terms with Russia. In 1870 Napoleon III disappeared fro: the scene seven weeks after war was declare: and there was very little fighting after tha England did not like the defeat of Franc but, as Germany was scrupulous to give n offense as to Belgium or Luxemburg or Holland, the possible succession of a Hohen- zollern prince to the Spanish throne could not be made the excuse for a British war. So the Prussian skill in the war: game, both diplomatically and belligerently, came t be looked on as the permanent modern method of opening and ending a war. Japan adopted and adapted Prussian methods, and they worked against China. The Chinese-Japanese War lasted from the spring of 1894 to April, 1895. Our Spanish War was the one-sided affair of avery rich and powerful state with a large navy attacking the distant colonies of a poor and weak state. But there were evidences that all modern wars were not to be so short. The Boer War taxed severely the resources of Great Britain, and it dragged along for two years and a half. The Russo-Japanese War was on a tremen- dous scale, and after sixteen months resulted in a deadlock. It was impossible for the Russians to reach Japan, equally impossible for the Japanese to occupy and conquer any part of Russia, so President Roosevelt per- suaded the contending parties to convert a truce into a peace, ‘‘ with honors easy.” Russia had taken Manchuria from Japan by intrigue; Japan got it back, and bothsides quit. The Balkan wars among impoverished states were no summer campaignsWand are, in fact, in the fourth year scarcely ended. Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Herzegovini- ans, Albanians, and Turks are still fighting. What about the present world war ? Will it be ended in a year, in three years, in ten years, or in thirty years ? The Germans, after their first magnificent summer dash, failed to reach Paris. ‘The machine of von Moltke was more perfect than ever before, but the brain of Bismarck was dead. Germany could no doubt have galloped through France or have concen- trated against England or have held the Russians back ; she could have made it very unpleasant for Japan, both on sea and land : but she suddenly found herself at war with (Continued on page following illustrations)
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‘Current Events Pictorially Treated Ene OS ae ITOGRAPH FROM PAUL THOMPSON GENERAL VON MACKENSEN, COMMANDER OF THE AUSTRO-GERMAN ARMIES THAT RECAPTURED PRZEMYSL he recapture of Przemysl was part of the great advance in which General von Mackensen’s forces drove the Russians not only out of the Carpathians but across a large part of Galicia in a vast military movement which has been described as Napoleonic
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COPYRIGHT BY AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION THE START OF THE ONE-MILE RACE a THE FINISH OF THE 100-YARD DASH A STUDY IN ATHLETIC PHYSIOGNOMY—A START AND A FINISH These pictures both represent scenes at the recent Intercollegiate contest at Philadelphia, held on the Franklin Field of the University of Pennsylvania. The mile run was won by,Mackenzie of Princeton (seventh man from the left in the upper picture). The 100-yard dash was won by H. L. Smith of Michigan (at extreme right of picture). Tishner of Harvard (H), next to the left, was second, Ingersoll of Cornell (C), next to Tishner, was third, Treadway of Yale (Y) fourth, and Folby of Harvard (H), at the extreme left, fifth
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PATS: OO Rib Da Ba Bs &. « PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL THOMPSON JOHN W. ALEXANDER In the death of Mr. Alexander America has lost one of its foremost artists. An appreciation of Mr. Alexander’s work was published in The Outlook for June 9
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THE DURATION four of the six great Powers of the world, each one feeling that her particular century- long aim was the special object of Germany’s antagonism ; and in addition all the individu- alists in the world, whether personal or for the small state, suddenly saw the conven- tions of basic morality between man and man, between state and state, set aside by Germany. England dreaded above everything else the Germans in possession of Belgium, just across the Channel. Even eighty years ago the idea was obnoxious, but in these days of submarines and Zeppelins, of floating mines, and of guns with a range of thirty miles, it was intolerable. It had taken England four hundred years to establish peaceful relations with Scotland ; she had not yet suc- ceeded as to Ireland; a struggle of eight hundred years had scarcely yet resulted in a friendly understanding with France, still not cordial or trusting enough to justify a tunnel. Of course the invasion of Belgium brought England into action, and Great Britain can- not cease fighting until Germany is perma- nently out of Belgium and not able to begin war against any one. Of course France resented the stain of the loss of Alsace and Lorraine and could never forgive it. Of course France resented Ger- many’s interference in Africa, just as Ameri- cans resented Germany’s impudenceat Manila. Poland, after one hundred and forty years, is not reconciled to dismemberment. Of course Russia resented Austro-German designs on Turkish possessions in Europe and Asia. Russia had dreamed for two hundred years of a Slavic Constantinople, of free access to the sea, and since 1812 had squandered over a million lives and two billion three hundred million dollars in treas- ure in pursuit of this ideal. Bottled in the Baltic by Germany and her Kiel Canal, bottled in the Black Sea by Turkey, driven out of the China Sea by Japan, Russia could not give up her salt-water dream. Japan, virile representative of the great yellow half of mankind, a yellow half now politically restricted: to. the central portion of eastern Asia, could ill brook the presence of another European Power in the China Sea, especially when that Power had most insult- ingly ordered her out of Manchuria. Germany declared war on Russia while Russia and Austria, the two principals, were negotiating. The excuse for haste.was that haste alone would enable Germany to con- OF THE WORLD WAR 381 quer, to repeat the rapid summer campaigns of 1864, 1866, 1870. At the end of ten months the end is not as near as it seemed. at the beginning. All the Powers are in the war to stay until the century-old national questions of race instinct are settled either by the exhaustion of one side or the intervention of the neutrals. The Germans cannot acquiesce in any peace whose minimum terms would be satis- factory to the Allies. The evacuation of Belgium, which they have conquered! The payment of an indem- nity to Belgium! The return to France of Alsace and Lorraine, which they have not lost! The loss of Posen! The loss of Galicia, of Herzegovina, of Bosnia, of the Trentino by Austria! The loss of all German colonies, the islands in the Pacific, and the continental stretches in Africa! Permanent disarmament ! If Germany and Austria have to choose between these humiliating sacrifices and a stubborn holding on, who can doubt what proud, arrogant Germany’s decision will be ? Germany still feels that she may win, that the God of Battles whom she has so long and devoutly worshiped will not, cannot, abandon her. There is a dignified and intense unity in Germany, and even if the God of Battles betrays her, does not help her to conquer, the alternative is not a humiliating peace. With- out hope of victory she can still hold out against conquest. But what prospect is there of victory for either side? The Germans cannot reach Paris or London or Petrograd or even War- saw, and even if they reached all four the war would only be begun. The Allies have not yet succeeded in put- ting and keeping a single soldier, except as prisoner, into Germany. They cannot even drive the Germans out of Belgium, out of France, out of Poland, out of Servia. To date all the honors of a wonderful offensive campaign against overwhelming odds are with the Germans. Yet even the Germans have failed to advance after the first dash. It isimpossible! Concentration cannot be effective because of aeroplane scout- ing and telephone counter-concentration. In trench fighting those who press forward lose more than those who defend. If Ger- many is outnumbered and is ultimately driven out of Belgium, out of Alsace, out of Lor- raine, out of Poland, even across the Rhine, with every backward step, like compressed
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382 air, she becomes more resistant. The Rhine is a natural barrier; she has ample time to prepare, not only first and second and third line trenches, but hundreds of lines of trenches and underground tunnels equipped with electrically driven trains for rapid move- ment of troops. Berlin is 400 miles from the French fron- tier, 200 miles from the Polish frontier. At the rate of 100 yards continuous advance a day, it would take seventeen days to advance one mile. ; But the Germans will be killed off! Will they ? Germany was growing at the rate of a million a year. This means at least 500,000 fresh soldiers coming into manhood annually. This number could be killed every year, yet the war go on with undiminished vigor for twenty years. But no such number is killed. About one-third of those disabled are killed, the others are taken prisoners or are wounded, and.of the wounded the greater number re- cover. It is unthinkable that 500,000 Germans should be killed each year; but even this un- thinkable catastrophe the Germans could meet. In the supreme interest of the Fatherland the Germans might make the rearing of many chil- dren the one great duty of Germany’s woman- hood, thus doubling the normal increase. But Germany will be starved out! Vain thought! Germany was an exporting nation and very wealthy. Much of her effort was in the production of home-consumed luxuries. Now, instead of producing luxuries for for- eign export and home consumption, she will produce only the necessities, whether for war or for food. In Germany women have always worked in the fields and at other hard manual labor. I have seen them weeding the sugar-beet fields at four o’clock in the morning. Children above twelve or fourteen can do an immense amount of work. ‘The maimed and the crip- pled returning from the front can do half, three-quarters, seven-eighths of a man’s work. There is much that old men from sixty up can do. Let us not forget that among warlike races the world over the women have done a// the work, and the men have done a// the fight- ing. The hours hitherto given to pleasure can be diverted to work. There are in addition tens of thousands of war prisoners who will be made to work. Germany can continue forever to be fru- gally self-supporting. What about war supplies, especially gaso- THE OUTLOOK 16 June line and copper? Alcohol can be made to take the place of gasoline, and all the copper now in Germany can be used for militaryneeds. Even if nocoppercould becon- signed to neutral countries except on guar- antee that it would be consumed in the neu- tral country, the already manufactured stores of copper have been passing from neutral Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzer- land, and even perhaps from Italy, into Ger- many. Moreover, substitutes can be found. Germany has taken an exact inventory of her resources, and on this score is prepared to hold out indefinitely. I therefore look forward to only two pos- sible solutions : The encysting of Germany, even as bees encyst with wax the insects obnoxious to their hives but too big to be removed. Along Germany’s eastern border, Ger- many’s western border, there may be an armed and vigilant but quiescent force, an armed modus vivendi, both sides preferring inertia to the frightful slaughter of offensive attack, Germany shut up and in Coventry until she has learned again those fundamentals of morality that Moses generalized three thousand four hundred years ago, that David sang in the Psalms: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not remove the boundary stone, blessed is the man that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. Russia, England, France, Servia, will divide among them Turkish possessions and tribu- taries in Europe, Asia, and Africa ; German colonies will pass and stay under the admin- istration of Japan, of Great Britain, of France; German foreign trade will become only a memory. Perhaps thirty years hence new genera- tions will have grown up who can forget and forgive. After Napoleon’s downfall it took forty years before England and France could clasp each other’s hands. It took nearly that long for our North and South to forget thei: quarrel. This, therefore, is one prospect. A genera- tion, perhaps two generations, of long desul- tory war violently defensive and intermittently offensive on both sides. Neither side is yet ready for the other pos- sibility. When both sides realize definitely that conquest of the other is impossible, or to be attained only at a price too costly in life and-treasure, both may agree to submit
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1915 all the questions involved toa world congress in which the neutrals will predominate. During the conference both sides may agree to a suspension of hostilities, like the pause in a football game or the rest between the rounds of a prize-fight. Each belligerent must, and will, reserve the right to begin again if he does not like the terms ultimately laid down; but he will not begin again if he has stopped, and each bellig- erent can yield to an international eongress what it could not, would not, unconquered, yield to an adversary. It will be a peace arranged for by the neu- trals and by the representatives of the hostile states, not in the interests of domineering, aggressive, bellicose states, but in their own interests and those of their inhabitants. Aill might welcome partial, even universal, dis- armament on land and sea ; indemnities might be paid to those regions which have been dev- astated—personal, not national, indemnities. Germany, Russia, France, are sparking high-tension dynamos liable to short-circuit at any minute. Heavier insulation is needed. - The guaranty of the big Powers has not proved sufficient to protect Belgium or Luxemburg. If Belgium had been five times as strong, Germany might have hesitated, not only to invade, but to precipitate any war that would have involved Belgium. Since they can’t trust Germany as a big neighbor, why shall not the little states confederate? A confederation consisting of Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Alsace, Lor- JONATHAN AND GRISELDA 383 raine, Switzerland, to which might be added the left bank of the Rhine, the Palatinate, and Rhenish Prussia, would form a strong buffer state (with the Rhine as a natural boundary) extending from the North Sea to the south- ern Alps, friendly to both neighbors, too strong to be attacked by either, especially if allied defensively but not offensively to both. A confederation of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway to the north is already forming. On Germany’s eastern frontier, Poland, possibly including Bohemia, should perhaps be re-established as a buffer state. To the southwest a great Balkan confed- eration can be formed, to include Rumania, Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Greece, and perhaps Albania. Shall German Austria gravitate to Ger- many ? Italian Austria to Italy ? Shall Hungary be an independent King- dom or shall it be confederated with Austro- Germany ? France, Russia, England, Servia, may take their compensation at the expense of the suicide Turkey. Japan finds her compensation in the Far Fast. Germany, protected by border confedera- tions with which she has made defensive alliances, aggrandized by the reunion with Austria, can again take her great place as an intelligent and industrious nation, conquering the world not by howitzers evolved by an autocratic General Staff, but by great and worthy peaceful virtues. JONATHAN AND GRISELDA BY ELISABETH A F course you don’t know what her () name is,” I said, as we stood exam- ining the sleek little black mare Jonathan had just brought up from the city. “No. Forgot to ask. Don’t believe they’d have known, anyway—one of a hun- dred or so.” ‘** Well, we’ll name her again. Dear me— she’s rather plain! Probably she’s use- ful.” “ Hope so,” said Jonathan ; then, step- ping back a little, in a slightly grieved tone : ‘ But I don’t call her plain. Wait till she’s groomed up.” WOODBRIDGE “It’s that droop of her neck—sort of patient ; and the way she drops one of her hips—if they are hips.” ‘* But we want a horse to be patient.” “Yes. I don’t know that I care about having her /oo& so terribly much so as this. I think I'll call her Griselda.” ** Now why Griselda ?” **Why, don’t you know? She was that patient creature with the horrid husband, who had to keep trying to see just how patient she was. It’s a hateful story—enough to turn any one who brooded on it into a mili- tant suffragette.”
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384 THE OUTLOOK «« But you can’t call a horse Griselda—not for common stable use, you know.” “Call her Griz for short. It does very well.” Jonathan jeered a little, but in the family the name held. Our man Hiram said noth- ing, but I think in private he called her Fan or Beauty or Lady, or some such regulation stable name. Called by any name she pleased us, and she was patient. She trotted peacefully up hill and down, she did her best at plowing and haymaking, and all the odd jobs that the farm supplied. She stood when we left her with that same demure, almost overdone droop of the neck that I had first noticed. When I met Jonathan at the station, she stood with her nose against a snorting train, looking as if nothing could rouse her. “Good little horse you got there,” re- marked the station agent. ‘‘Where’d you find her ?” “Oh, I picked her out of a bunch down in the city,” said Jonathan, casually. ‘‘ I didn’t think I knew much about horses, but I guess I was in luck this time.”’ ‘Guess you know more about horses than you’re sayin’,” and Jonathan, thus pressed, admitted with suitable reluctance that he had now and then been able to detect a good horse by his own observation. On the way home he openly congratulated himself on his find. “I really wasn’t sure I knew how to pick out a horse,” he re- marked, in a glow of retrospective modesty, “but I certainly got a treasure this time.” Griz had been with us about two weeks, and all went well. Then another horse was needed for farm work, and a new one was sent up—one Kit by name—a big, pleasant, rather stupid bay mare. ‘‘ They do say two mares don’t git on so well together as a mare ’n’ a horse,” remarked Hiram. ‘‘ But these are both such quiet creatures,”’ I protested; to which Hiram made no answer. Hiram seldom made an answer unless fairly cornered into it. For two or three days after the new arri- val nothing happened, so far as we knew, except that Griz always laid her ears back and looked queer about her under lip when- ever Kit was led in or out of the stall next her, white Kit always huddled up close to her manger whenever Griz was led past her heels. Once or twice Griz slipped her halter in the stall, and Hiram said Kit looked as if she had been kicked, but when we scrutinized Griz, neck a-droop and: eyes a-blink, we found it hard to think ill of her. Besides, Jonathan was now fairly committed to the opinion that he had “got a treasure this time.” “Kit may have hurt herself lyinv down,” he suggested, and again Hiram made no answer. Then one night, some time during the ver, small, very dark, and very sleepy hours, we were awakened by awful sounds. ‘ What is it? What is it?” I gasped. Crash! Bang! Boom! The trampling of hoofs ; heavy, hollow pounding; the tearing and splintering of wood—all coming from the barn, though loud enough, indeed, to have come from the next room. Jonathan was up in an instant, muttering : “Where are my rubber boots? and my coat ?” “Jonathan ! What a combination !” But he was gone, and I heard the snap of the lantern and the slam of the back door almost before the rocking-chair in the sitting- room that he had hit and talked to had stopped rocking. Then I heard him calling outside Hiram’s window, and then he ran past our window out to the barn. I wished he had waited for Hiram, but I had an under- current of pleasure in hearing him run. Tonathan’s theory is that there is never any hurry, and now and then I like to have this notion jolted up a little. Meanwhile the awful sounds had ceased. There was the rumble of the stable door, a pause, and Jonathan’s voice in conversational tones. Next came the flashing of Hiram’s lantern, and the tromp, tromp, tromp, in much quicker tempo than usual, of Hiram’s heavy boots. Hiram’s theory was a good deal like Jonathan’s, so this also gave me pleasure. Finally there came the flash of another lantern, and I recognized the quick, short step of Mrs. Hiram. I smiled to my- self, picturing the meeting between her and Jonathan, for I knew just how Jonathan was costumed. In two minutes I heard her steps tepassing, and in five minutes Jonathan re- turned. He was chuckling quietly. “T guess Griz got all she needed—didn't know either of ’em had so much spunk in em.” ‘* What happened ?” ‘“‘ Don’t know exactly ; but when I opened that door there was Griz, just inside, no halter on, head down, meek as Moses, as far away from Kit’s heels as she could get ; 16 June TI it! hig Ki mo ma eve hor eno hor dro on tion thar into arou hitcl sudc up, | high rebe loop: outfi decis nothi back gentl mem be, |
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i915 JONATHAN she’s got the mark of them on her leg and her flank.” “Ts she hurt? or Kit?” ‘‘No, not so far as wecan see; not to amount. to anything—except maybe Griz’s feelings.” ‘*¢ And what about Mrs. Hiram’s feelings ?” Jonathan laughed aloud. ‘I was inside with Kit, and she called out to know if she could help.” ‘“‘ And what did you say ?” “T said, ‘ Not on your life!’ ” “So that was why she came back? Did you really say, ‘ Not on your life!’ or did you only.imply it in your tone, while you actually said, .‘ No, thank you very much’ ?” “T really said it. Atleast, I don’t remem- ber conversations the way you do, but I didn’t feel a bit like thanking anybody, and I don’t believe I did.” ‘* Well, I wish I’d heard you, a good deal—” “You can see the stable to-morrow. That’ll keep. They must have had a time of it! The walls are marked and splintered as high as ‘I can reach. And I don’t believe Kit’ll cringe when Griz passes her any more. ~ One misses ‘Of course you remember Hiram said two mares didn’t usually get on very well, and even when they’re chosen by a good judge of horses like—”’ After that the two did get along peaceably enough, and Jonathan assured me that all horses had these little affairs. One day we drove over to the main street of the village, on an errand. “ Will she stand?” I ques- tioned. “ Better hitch her, perhaps,’ said Jona- than, getting out the rope. He snapped it into her bit-ring, then threw the other end around the post, and started to make a half- hitch. But as he drew up the rope it was suddenly jerked out of his hand. He looked up, and saw Griselda’s patient head waving high above him on the end of an erect and rebellious neck, the hitch-rope waggling in loops and spirals in the air, and the whole outfit backing away from him with speed and decision. He was so astonished that he did nothing, and in a moment Griz had stopped backing ard stood still, her head sagging gently, the rope dangling. ‘Well—I’ll—be—”_I didn’t try to re- member just what Jonathan said he would be, because it doesn’t really matter. We 9 AND GRISELDA 385 both stared at Griz as if we had never seen her before. Griz looked at nothing in par- ticular ; she blinked long lashes over drowsy dark eyes and sagged one hip. ‘“‘ She’s trying to make believe she didn’t do it, but she did,” I said. ‘¢ Something must have startled her,’’ said Jonathan, peering up and down the deserted street. Two roosters were crowing antiph- onally in near-by yards, and a dog was barking somewhere afar off. ** What ?”’ I said. ‘You never can tell with a horse.” “No, apparently not,”’ I said, smiling to myself ; and I added hastily, as I saw Jona- than go forward to her head: “ Don’t try it again, please! I’ll stay by her while you go in. lease!’ - For I had detected on Jona- than’s face a look that I very well knew. It was the same expression he had worn that Sunday he led the calf to pasture. He made no answer, but stood examining the hitch-rope. ‘** No use,” he said, quietly releasing it and tossing its coil into the carriage. ‘It’s too rotten. If it snapped, she’d be ruined.”’ I breathed freer. I privately hoped that all the hitch-ropes at the farm were rot- ten. ‘“‘ Griz stands perfectly well without hitch- ing,” I said, as we drove home. ‘“ Why do you force an issue ?” **T didn’t. She did. She’s beaten me. If I don’t hitch her now, she’ll know she’s master.” ‘‘Qh, dear!” I- sighed. master! Where’s the harm? vanity.” ** Perhaps so,” said Jonathan. When he agrees with me like that, I know it’s hope- less. The next night he wheeled in at the big gate bearing about his shoulders a coil of heavy rope. ‘It looks like a ship’s cable,” I said. * Yes,” he responded, leaning his bicycle against his side and swinging the coil over his head. ‘I want it for mooring purposes. Think it’ll moor Griz ?” * Jonathan !” I exclaimed. ‘“ You won’t !” “Watch me,” said Jonathan, and he pro- ceeded to explain to me the working of the tackle. One end had a ring in it, and, as nearly as I remember, the plan was to put the rope around her body, under what would be her armpits if she had armpits—a horse’s joints are never called what one would expect, “Let her de It’s just your
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386 of course——run the end through the ring, then forward between her legs and through the bit-ring. ‘Then, when she sets back, it cuts her in two,” he concluded, cheerfully. “ But you don’t want her in two,” I pro- tested. ‘* She won’t set back,” he responded; * at least, not more than once. -To-morrow’s Sunday ; I’ll have to hitch her at church.” I hoped it would rain, so we needn’t go; but we were having a drought, and the morn- ing dawned cloudless. We reached the church just on the last stroke of the bell. The women were all within; the men and boys lounging in the vestibule were turning reluc- tant feet to follow them. “ You go right in,” said Jonathan ; “ I’ll be in soon.’”’? I turned to protest, but he was already driving round to the side, and a hush had fallen over the congregation within that made it embarrassing to call. Besides, one of the deacons stood holding open the door for me. I slipped into a pew near the back, with the apologetic feeling one often has in an old country church—a feeling that one is making the ghosts move along a little. They did move, of course—probably ghosts are always polite when one really meets them—and I sat down. Indeed, I was thinking very little of ghosts that day, or of the minister either. My ears were cocked to catch and interpret all the noises that came in through the open windows on my left. My eyes wandered in that direction, too, though the clear panes revealed nothing more exciting than flicker- ing maple leaves and a sky filmed over by veils of cloud. The moralists tell us that what we get out of any experience depends upon what we bring to it. What I brought to it that morn- ing was a mind agog, attuned to receive these expected outside sounds. To all such sounds the service within was merely a back- ground—a background which didn’t know its place, since it kept pushing itself more or less importunately into the foreground. I sat there, of course, with perfect propriety of demeanor, but my reactions were some- thing like this : “** Hymn 912’... Seven stanzas! horrors! Oh !—omit the third, fifth, and sixth—vwell, I should hope so! . . . I can’t hear a thing while this is going on! He hasn’t comeinyet! ‘ Scripture reading for to-day—’ Why can’t he give us the passage and let us read it for ourselves? Well, his voice is THE OUTLOOK 16 June rather high and uneven. I think I could make out Jonathan’s through the loopholes in it... . There! What was that, I wonder? Sounded like shouting—oh, why can’t he talk softly! ‘ Zet us unite in prayer” Ah! now we'll have a long quiet time, anyway ! . . . If only he wouldn’t pray quite so loud! Why pray aloud at all, anyway? I like the Quaker way best: a good long strip of silence, where your thoughts can wash around in any fashion that— There! No— yes—no—it’s just people going by on the road. . . . Maybe he’s in the back of the church now, waiting for the close of the prayer. Seem’s as if I had to look... . Well, he isn’t... . ‘For thy name’s sake. Amen.” And then the collection, with an organ voluntary the while—now, why an organ vol- untary ? Why not leave people to their thoughts some of the time ? And at last, the sermon: ‘“ Zhe text to which I wish to call your attention this morning—” My attention, forsooth! My attention was otherwise occupied. Ah! A puff of warm, sweet air from behind me and the soft, padding noise of the swinging doors apprised me of an incomer. A cau- tious tread in the aislke—I moved along a little to make room. In a city church probably I should have thrown propriety to the winds and had the gist of the story out of him at once; but in a country church there are always such listen- ing spaces, the very pew-backs and cushions seem attentive, the hymnals creak in their racks, and the little stools cry out nervously when one barely touches them. It was too much for me. I was coerced into an outer semblance of decorum. However, I snatched a hasty glance at Jonathan’s face. It was quite red and hot-looking, but calm, very calm. I judged it to be the calm, not of defeat nor yet of settled militancy, but of triumph. I thought I detected the flicker of a grin—the mere atmospheric suggestion of a grin, as if he felt the urgent if furtive appeal in my glance. At any rate, Jonathan was all right; that was clear. And as to Griz—whether she was still one mare or two half-mares—it didn’t so much matter. And now for the sermon! I gathered myself together to attend. As we stood up for the last hymn, | whispered, “‘ How did it go?” *“ All right. She’s hitched,” answer. was the
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1915 JONATHAN After church there was the usual stir of sociability, and when I emerged into the glare of the church steps I saw Jonathan driving slowly around from the rear. Griz walked meekly; her head sagged, her eyes blinked. ‘“‘ Good quiet little horse you’ve got there,” said a deacon over my shoulder ; “ don’t get restless standing, the way some horses do.”’ “Yes, she’s very quiet,” I said. I got in, and at last, as we drove off, the flood-gates of my impatience broke. “Well ?” I said. ‘ Well ?” “ Well—”’ said Jonathan. “ Well? Tell me about it.” “ T’ve told you. I hitched her.” “How did you hitch her ?” “Just the way I said I would.” * Didn’t she mind ?” “ Don’t know.” ** Did she make a fuss ?” * Not much.” ‘What do you mean by much?” ‘‘ Oh, she set back a little.” “ Do any harm ?” “i” “ Hurt herself ?” ** Guess not.” ‘Jonathan, you drive me distracted ! have no more sense for a story—” “ But there was nothing in particular—” ‘“* Now, Jonathan, if there was nothing in particular, zw/y didn’t you get into church till the sermon was begun, and why were you so red and hot ?” Jonathan smiled indulgently. ‘ Why, of course she didn’t care about being hitched. I thought you knew that. But it was per- fectly easy.” And that was about all I could extract by the most artful questions. I took my revenge by telling Jonathan the deacon’s compliment to Griz. ‘ He said she didn’t get restless standing, the way so many horses did. I thought of mentioning that you were a rather good judge of horses, in an amateur way, but You AND GRISELDA 387 then I thought it might seem like boasting, so I didn’t.” After that, of course, I didn’t really deserve to hear the whole story, but the next night I happened to be in the hammock while Jona- than was talking to a neighbor at the front gate, and he was relating the incident with detail enough to have satisfied tne most ex- acting gossip. Only thus did I learn that Bill Howard, who had wound the rope twice round the post to give himself a little leeway, was drawn right up to the post when she set back ; that they had been afraid the headstall would tear off; that they had been rather nervous about the post, and other such little points, which I had not been clever enough to elicit by my questions. Now why? Probably a man likes to tella story when he likes to tell it. I find myself wondering how much Odysseus told Penel- ope about his adventures when she got him to herself for a good talk. Is it significant that his really long story was told to the King of the Phzeacians ? As to Griz, it would perhaps not be worth while to recount her subsequent history. It was. a curious one, consisting in long stretches of. continuous and ostentatious meekness, broken by sudden flare-ups which, after their occurrence, always seemed incredible. She never again ‘‘ set back ’”’ when Jonathan was the one to hitch her, but this was a conces- sion made to him personally, and had no effect on her general habits. We talked of changing her name, but could never manage it. We thought of selling her, but she was too valuable—most of the time. And when we finally parted from her our relief was deeply tinged with regret. I have sometimes wondered whether such flare-ups were not the natural and necessary means of recuperation from such depths of meekness. I have even wondered whether the original Griselda may not have—but this is not a dissertation on early Italian poetry, nor on the nature of women.
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SOME RECENT FICTION The novels of the past few months do not furnish material for those interesting and often misleading generalizations in which critics are tempted to indulge. In this crisis in the affairs of the world many stories are pervaded by a very serious spirit; many others, however, are simply entertaining. The old moralities are defined afresh by more than one novelist of ability, and absolute ignorance and disregard of the old moralities is taken for granted in stories from another group. It is wiser, therefore, to let each novel stand or fall by its own merits and to refrain from either prediction or general characterization. For, after all, novels are like nations ; they are not all of one kind; they are as individual as the writers ; and to speak of them as a whole is as misleading as to say that all Americans are open-minded, all Frenchmen frivolous, and all Italians lovers of beauty. Hugh Paret' is the son of an eminent lawyer of austere probity and rigid orthodoxy in religious faith and professional conduct. Between him and his imaginative son there is mutual respect, but very little mutual under- standing. The boy goes to Harvard, becomes interested in literature through his associa- tion with an unconventional but stimulating teacher whose personality suggests a well- known name, is fairly industrious, is held back from dissipation more by good taste and home teaching than by moral convic- tions, studies law, and ent=rs the office of an able and attractive lawyer in a city which is in the near future to breed millionaires by the score and to furnish a free field for the ex- ploitation of lawless business and of that interlocking of this kind of business and that kind of politics which is called practical to distinguish it from service of the public. Hugh is capable, flexible, agreeable ; under favoring circumstances he would have re- mained honorable, but conditions are not favorable, and he lacked the clear-sightedness and moral vigor which would have enabled him to resist the powerful and insidious tend- ency to sacrifice integrity to success. He becomes the servant of men who manipulate legislation in the interest of vast business enterprises, and who justify their methods on 1A Far Country, By Winston Churchill. The Mac- millan Company, vw York. $1.50 8388 THE NEW BOOKS the ground that the character of politicians makes bribery necessary, that prosperity means the good of the nation, and that able men have a right to manage affairs to fit their own ends because nature and capacity for work have put affairs in their hands. The methods of combination, exclusion, and silence which were possible ten years ago and the ways of persuading legislators and judges are described in great detail; at times in too great detail for the rapid move- ment of the story. ~ Hugh does not set out for the far country, nor does he go there at once; he makes the journey slowly and does not see clearly whither he is going. He remains a conven- tionally respectable lawyer, rapidly making a brilliant career and a great fortune; he builds a great house, he is on his way to the United States Senate; but he is paying the price and the far country has become the near country. His wife, who has striven in vain to clear his vision, and his children are entirely outside his real interests ; religion has gone, the capacity for enjoyment has been atro- phied; he is on the point of the last and gravest moral disaster, when he awakens and finds himself living on husks, a stranger to himself in a far country. The story is told without hysteria, as quietly as if it were a narrative of fact. It is, of course, fiction, but it is the history of thousands of so-called successful men. Its art lies in the clearness with which the gradual descent is traced, and in the relent- less working out of the moral problem in the deterioration of the man’s whole nature. The price he paid is calculated to the last dollar, and no man who goes Hugh’s way to success ever escapes full payment of that price—he pays as he goes. ‘ The Far Coun- try ” graphically shows the peril to the soul from which this country has escaped, and is a luminous explanation of the popular uprising of the last ten years. It is by no means a faultless story. The characters are less clearly drawn than in ‘“ Coniston,” and are, in a way, submerged in the movement of the story. But, with something of the quality of Balzac’s ‘‘ César Birotteau,” “A Far Country” is a vivid and highly vitalized study ofa critical period in American politics and business. Mr. Hewlett’s “‘ Lovers’ Tale ’’? is a suc- 1A Lovers’ Tale. By Maurice Hewlett. Charles Scrib ner’s Sons, New York. $1.25. .
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THE NEW BOOKS 389 cessful venture in literature ; it has no rela- tion to the life of to-day; it expounds no point of view and enforces no moral; itis a Norse saga humanized and made coherent and intelligible by a novelist of imagination, experience, and artistic feeling. There is plenty of the primitive Norse daring and force in it; there are hot blood and stern fighting in it; but it is more than a mere recital of incident, it is a striking study of tem- perament. Cormac, the lover, has the direct- ness of his race and age; he goes to his goal with primitive singleness of aim; for the moment there is no one in the world for him but Stangerd, Thorkel’s daughter, a big, fair woman of sluggish blood but not unrespon- sive to a lover who is a poet and boldly cele- brates her in the ears of the world. For Cormac is a poet as well as a Viking, and therein lies the tragedy. He is arrested by an inward impulse at the very moment when his love is on the point of passing out of the region of idealization into an every-day rela- tionship. He can neither take Stangerd wholly to himself nor can he suffer another to take her ; he changes unaccountably from the radiant mood in which the whole world sings in his ardent improvisations to the dark, sullen mood which sends him lonely and baffled into solitude. The problem is an old one and has often been stated in terms of sophistication and with the subtlety of the psychologist; Mr. Hewlett presents it in terms of almost savage simplicity. It isa very plain tale told with beautiful skill. Monsignor- Benson was a cultivated and devout man; a son of Archbishop Benson and a brother of Mr. Edward \F. Benson, the author of “ Dodo,” and of Mr. Arthur C. Benson, of Magdalen College, Cambridge, whose thoughtful essays have found many readers in this country. Father Benson’s conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1903 is described in a frank and tender biography by his brother (“‘ Hugh: Memoirs of a Brother,” by A. C. Benson, Dodd, Mead & Co.). He was a man of great purity of nature and energy of temperament, a tireless worker and a¥stout and at times aggressive defender of his con- victions. He was an earnest and popular preacher and was heard many times in this country. His literary work was incidental to his active duties as a priest, but it was done with care, skill, and a fine idealism. In aim and quality it stands in high contrast with much of the fiction of the day. It is stamped by refinement, breeding, restraint ; the character studies are full of delicate strokes; the style has a kind of distinction very grateful in an age of careless writing. Although Father Benson’s novels were the work of a busy man, they carry the sense of ripe culture and of a leisure enriched by association with life and literature. His semi- historical novels, of which “‘ Odds-Fish ” is a good example, were written in a minute rather than a broad style. ‘Loneliness ”! tells the story of a woman of brilliant promise as a singer who, on the eve of marriage with a Protestant, suddenly loses her voice. Like * Initiation,” it is a story of renunciation as a preparation for return to the Roman communion. Father Benson’s novels were not written as contributions to fiction or litera- ture; they were frankly expositions of the Roman faith and as definitely dogmatic in intention as were his sermons. ‘This purpose diminishes their importance and blurs their beauty as works of art. Unlike most con- verts of his breeding, Father Benson was often bitter in his comments on the faith and associations from which he had separated himself. His prejudices impaired his insight. “It is not unjust,” writes his brother, ‘“ to resent the appearance of the cultivated and sensitive Anglican, highly bred and graceful, who is sure to turn out hard and _hollow- hearted, or the shabby, trotting, tobacco- scented Roman Catholic priest, who is going to emerge ata crisis as a man of inspired dignity and solemnity.”” There is no reason why a novel should not end in the Roman Catholic Church, or in any other church, but it must be as the inevitable development of a character and not as a calculated means of preaching church doctrines. A group of young English novelists are awakening a good deal of interest and are re- ceiving an unusually prompt recognition from the critics and the reading public. This group in point of time comes just behind Messrs. Wells, Bennett, Galsworthy, and Locke, and registers, on the whole, a radical advance in the direction of minute realism. A _ recent volume from a member of this group which has appeared in this country is “‘ The Invisi- ble Event,’ ? a study of a man and a woman made with great minuteness and presenting two diverse types of character in sharp if not in bold contrast. Jacob Stahl, the hero, if he can be called “Loneliness. By Robert Hugh Benson. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $1.25. 2 The Invisible Event. By J.D. oo The George H. Doran Company, New York.
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390 THE OUTLOOK a hero, has already been presented in two earlier books, “‘ The Early History of Jacob Stahl ” and “A Candidate for Truth.”? “The Invisible Event” brings him to marriage, success as an author, with a suggestion that his spiritual life may be taken up later. To call this group of books a trilogy would be, perhaps, to over-emphasize, not its serious- ness, but its importance ; but just now the trilogy habit seems to have invaded English fiction. Mr. Bennett has given us “ Clay- hanger,” ‘ Hilda Lessways,” and has indi- cated his intention to add a third volume ; Mr. Onions has launched a trilogy on the world ; while ‘ Jean Christophe,” in France, is a masterpiece of elaborate detail presented in the form of fiction. Mr. Beresford“is the son of an English rector. He passed through a public school into an architect’s office. In 1903 he made acurious exchange of professions, from archi- tecture to life insurance; and he finally be- came a branch manager for the New York Life Insurance Company, a position which he held for a very short time. He has beena book reviewer for the “ Literary World ” and the “‘ Academy,” and his career in fic- tion began when he secured a position on the ‘‘ Westminster Gazette,” which gave him more leisure. Jacob Stahl persuades an unsophisticated and hard-working young woman, the daughter of an English rector, who is trying to sup- port herself, to leave her work as a partner in a boarding-house in London and become his partner in a little house down in Devon- shire. Incidentally, Jacob’s wife is still living and there has been no divorce. ‘The story of the mental struggle through which the young woman passes is told with great minuteness. Jacob has no scruples; he is entirely emancipated. He is in many ways an extremely shabby creature ; but the young woman loves him and builds him up until he attains a certain dignity of character. When the story ends, he has married her and become the father of a child and feels that life is really beginning. The analysis of character in this story is penetrating, searching, and extremely well done ; but the reader often feels that it is overdone and that the book is an example of extraordinarily minute artistic work ex- pended on very thin material. -There is no question about the ability of the book; there is considerable question about the interest of certain parts of it; there is no question 16 June about Jacob Stahl’s sex morality ; he has none. The story quietly assumes that the seventh commandment has been outgrown ; and this slurring of the moral element robs the work of some of the younger novelists of one great element of tragedy. The author of “‘ The Beloved,”’? a story of a young girl of the gutter and the cabaret, must not be confused with the author of “The Double Traitor.” Mr. E. Phillips Oppenheim understands the trick of making a readable book. He has the mechanism of the interesting story at his fingers’ ends, and his aim seems to be to entertain people. Mr. James Oppenheim, on the other hand, strikes the reader as being in earnest and treats his art as a very serious matter. “The Beloved ” tells the history in very plain terms of a young girl picked up in a cabaret by a young man who is seeking adventures in New York. There is in her the essential principle of goodness which has been blurred but not lost in her irresponsible, wayward life. There grows between them a pure love like a lily out of the muck. The man is an idealist; the girl is a very fallible human woman in process of development, but she responds to the stimulus of affection and is lifted above herself by her devotion and by the faith of a man who sees the best that is in her and appeals to it. This is not a story for children ; a good deal of it is rhapsodical ; but it is apparently a sincere study of character made for a worthy purpose. “The Beloved” is an illustration of the fact that romance does not depend upon sur- roundings: Nothing could be more sordid and, in a way, more offensive than the cir- cumstances which surround the central figure in “The Beloved;”’ but the story of her redemption is a romance pure and simple. So also in an entirely different way and in an entirely different atmosphere is Mr. Locke’s “ Jaffery.”? There is a vein of tragedy run- ning through this story, but it does not obscure its high-hearted courage and _ the spirited idealism of affection, friendship, and good fellowship which are never absent from the romantic tales of this delightful novelist. The plot is essentially novel; at least it is very unfamiliar in fiction; and the unreality of one of the characters which furnishes the tragic element is thrown in striking contrast “1 The Beloved. By James Oppenheim. B. W. Huebsch, New York. $1.25. ; 2Jaffery. By William J. Locke. ‘The John Lane Com pany, New York. $1.35. lis] Fa: T fam sto1 Mr. Sup} lar \ and inte read that day, to tl the ¢ armi that Battl Cresa recou conce prese: inady " The Little,
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1915 THE NEW BOOKS 391 by the dramatic vitality of Jaffery, a ber- serker kind of man who as a newspaper re- porter in Albania meets a berserker kind of woman. As a amatter of friendship, he brings this woman, who is thrown upon his hands by the death of her husband, to Eng- land; and her willful and semi-savage un- conventionality are very effectively brought out against an English background. It would be unfair to tell the story, which is full of delightful turns of thought and of phrase. The author of “ The Double Traitor”! is a journalist in fiction and uses the motive of the German spy very effectively ; he not only piques curiosity in a well-worked-out plot, but also gains whatever adventitious interest the events of the day lend to his story. Like most stories that are contrived, the plot dovetails too neatly ; things happen as if the world existed for the express purpose of sup- plying stories of adventure with xciting and dramatically complete sénouements. But it is safe to say that few people who begin this story will lay it down until they finish it; and for the purposes of such a tale and to meet the need of the readers who rejoice in fiction of this kind the ending is precisely what it ought tobe. The story, in a word, is an ex- tremely skillful piece of mechanical fiction. Mr. Marshall has constituted himself a kind of informal reporter of life in the Eng- lish country house ; and no life in England is pleasanter, nor has any form of English life been more significant of English character. What Trollope has been to the cathedral, the deanery, and the rectory, Mr. Marshall has been to the country house. In his work, as in Trollope’s, the chief qualities have been careful and painstaking studies of character, happy transcriptions of social habits, and the diffusions of atmosphere. In a word, Mr. Marshall has shown talent rather than genius; but his work has not therefore been any less valuable. In his new story, “The House of Merri- lees,”?? Mr. Marshall has undertaken some- thing for which neither his experience nor his peculiar gifts qualify him. He has written a story of mystery, a kind of detective tale. He has written it with all the elaboration and painstaking handling of detail which has characterized his earlier novels. But the novel of mystery must be written along broad lines, or it must be concentrated in tone and atmosphere (as in Poe’s short stories), or it must move rapidly. Now “The House of Merrilees ” does none of these. The plot is elaborate and complicated in the last degree ; it is very slowly unfolded; a great deal of space is given to close characterization and description. It is, in fact, the application of the method of one kindof writing to material which demands another kind ; and the result is an unsuccessful story. Famous Days and Deeds in Holland and Bel- gium. By Charles Morris. The J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. $1.25. The name of Charles Morris has long been familiar to those who like to read “history stories” to themselves or to their children. Mr. Morris’s “ Historical Tales” has exactly supplied that need. He now publishes a simi- lar volume which has to do only with Holland and Belgium, and is, of course, of particular interest at the present time. In it the ordinary reader will learn many things—as, for instance, that the old Batavians, the Hollanders of our day, after their conquest by the Romans, gave to the Roman armies a splendid exhibition of the daring which had steadily resisted those armies in the invasion of the Low Countries, so that it was due to Batavian hardihood at the Battle of Pharsalia that the tide turned in Cesar’s favor. Added to the chapters which recount picturesque events of the countries concerned, we come to their description at the present time, in which there seem to be certain inadvertences. The population of Liége, for ‘The Double Traitor. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Little, Brown, & Co., Boston. $1.35 instance, is indicated as thirty thousand, and the Emperor William is reported to have called the Belgian Treaty “a scrap of paper.” Per- haps he did, but the saying is that of the Ger- man Chancellor in his now celebrated interview with the British Ambassador on the night pre- ceding the rupture of relations between Eng- land and Germany. New International Year Book (The), 1914. Edited by Frank Moore Colby, M.A. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York. $5. The volume of “ The New International Year Book” for 1914 has now made its appearance. It follows the same excellent lines as have its predecessors. Of course the particular interest which will always attach to the present volume is its recounting of the beginning of the great war, and this involves a fuller treatment than usual of the history of foreign nations. There are also supplementary articles, such as those on military progress, naval progress, aeronautics, battle-ships, submarines, etc., which will be found of much value. The House of Merrilees. By Archibald Marshall. Dodd. Mead & Co., New York. I 5 35.
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BY THE WAY Ten years ago, says the Panama “ Star and Herald,” the small boys of the Canal Zone played at bull-fighting. Now they have'lost their ambition to become slayers of bulls, and want to become great baseball players. The National game has followed the flag, conquering the brutal sport that preceded it. The Panamanian boy has even translated baseball ‘slang into Spanish, according to the “ Herald.” At a recent gaime, it says, “ we heard a Panamanian boy say in Spanish, ‘ Bunt, man, bunt, now is the time to bunt.’ The boy was right and the batter did it. No boy ever got more joy and excitement out of the death of a bull than that boy did out of that bunt.” The United States Public Health Service states that the expectation of life after the age of forty is less now than it was thirty years ago, owing largely to the increased prevalence of diseases of degeneration. It recommends, as a remedy for this state of things: “ Take exer- cise. Have a hobby that gets you out of doors. Walk to your business, to your dressmaker’s, keep chickens, make a garden, play goif or any other game, but take two hours’ exercise every day.” “ War-time housekeeping in Paris,” says a writer in “ American Cookery,” “with a food supply bossed by a Board of Provisioners and a Food Censor, results in less cheating and more nearly ideal conditions than I have ever experi- enced before.” Previous to the municipal regu- lation of the supply and sale of food there was chaos, but afterward there was secured “a rea- sonable and steady food supply for the city and a profitable market for the farmer.” What seems to be recklessness on the part of American house owners and builders in regard to the prevention of fire is brought out in the statement that within sixteen months at least eight fine country houses have been destroyed on Long Island. Two of these cost over $500,000 each. The experienced letter-opener can detect the imitation personal letter at the first glance at the printed typewriting; to forestall the usual fate of such a letter a Philadelphia firm frankly begins its imitation letter thus: “ This is not a typewritten letter, but far better, be- cause it has taken hours of experience of ex- pensive talent to write the information it con- tains, impossible in any letter dictated on the spur of the moment.” Edward Lasker, we are informed, who figured in the recent chess contest in New York City, is not, it is believed, related in any way to the celebrated Dr. Emanuel Lasker, “still con- sidered rightfully as the greatest living chess player.” Dr. Lasker is a resident of Berlin, 392 and as such is not taking part in any inter- tional chess tournaments at present. A corre- spondent further informs us that neither Capa. blanca nor Marshall lost a game in this contest ; the first-named player drew two games, and the latter four, but neither met defeat. “The largest check ever written in this city,” says the New York “Sun,” “was drawn on the National City Bank yesterday by Kuhn, Loeb & Co. It was for between $62,000,000 and $63,000,000, and was payable to the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company.” In 1784, when the Bank of New York was chartered, its entire capital and that of the other two banks in the country would not have paid a thirtieth part of this check. The “ Old Trails Road ” across the continent has been put in condition for use, about two million dollars having been spent on its improve- ment last year, according to Mr. A. L. West- gard, Director of Transcontinental Highways, National Highways Association. . The road now takes a first place among transcontinental highways as regards surface condition, scenery, historic interest, and hotels. . It follows the old National Pike, the Boone Lick Trail, and the Santa Fé Trail. Recent improvements, it is declared, have made even the bad stretches of road on this route to the Pacific Coast “at least comfortable ” for motoring, On the Ist of April, the Geneva “ Tribune” says, speaking of the lighter side of war, a French aviator flying over a German camp let fall what appeared to be an immense bomb. His aim was good, and the German soldiers hastily scattered in all directions. There was no ex- plosion, however, and when, after considerable time had elapsed, some soldiers gingerly ap- proached the supposed bomb, it was discovered to be a large football, with a tag tied to it that read—* April Fool !” A feature of Memorial Day in Boston’s cele- bration was a parade of horses under the aus- pices of the Boston Work-Horse Relief Asso- ciation. About two thousand horses were in line, and many were decorated with blue rib- bons by the judges. One of these was “ Black Jack,” forty-two years old; another old horse, “ Babe,” twenty-eight years old, received a gold medal. In The Outlook of May 26 pictures of two fine new collegiate buildings, the Academic Building of Johns Hopkins University and Taylor Hall at Vassar College, were printed. The architects of the new Johns Hopkins building were Messrs. Parker, Thomas & Rice, of Baltimore; Taylor Hall was designed by Messrs. Allen & Collens, of Boston, and the photograph of the latter edifice was taken by Professor George B. Shattuck, of Vassar. plo day and I rem brev was effo1 aco day and able May arbit strik: sing] the r of Cl Be day 1 ordin ment Kohl: of Ay the C Com] Unite ship, able ” Strike. cago | and D whenc The compa pired, expres