The Outlook 1916-01-05
The text was read from the page scans by machine (OCR), so it has mistakes and its columns may run together. See the pages · About this title · At the Internet Archive
Page 1
The Outlook JANUARY 5, 1916 Offices, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York THE STORY OF THE WAR: THE BURNING QUESTION IN ENGLAND At the close of the week under considera- tion (December 22—29) the political and Cabi- -net situation in England appeared to Have reached a settlement which may not involve . the retirement of Mr. Asquith as Prime Min- ister, or a radical reconstruction of the Cabinet. Early in the week serious danger of just this result was feared, for the Cabinet was reported to be nearly evenly divided for and against the immediate application of the - principle of compulsory military service. It had become evident that while Lord Derby’s plan of voluntary enlistment has added largely to the rolls of men available for service, it has not succeeded in the very point on which emphasis is laid by every one acquainted with the question. ‘The chief complaint in England is that un- married, able-bodied young men are not enlisting in adequate numbers, and _ that from the beginning the burden of military service has fallen unfairly upon the younger married men. One reason for this, especially at the beginning of the war, undoubtedly was that there was a large number of married men with small families out of employment, or earning very slender wages, and that the ‘liberal provision made for the families of vol- unteers was a great inducement to this class. Apart from this, however, there seems to have been a vastly larger patriotic impulse on the part of the married men and aregretta- ble scarceness of patriotic interest on the part of the unmarried men. Nearly two months ago the Prime Minister pledged the Govern- ment to the adoption of some form of com- pulsory service if the young men, under the stress of national duty, did not come forward voluntarily. This pledge, it is evident, must now be fulfilled; even those in the Cabi- net who are, on principle, opposed to con- scription admit it. The actual decision of the Cabinet, probably reached on December 28, has not, as we write, been made public ; but it is believed that it includes the intro- duction into the House of Commons, at the éarliest possible opportunity after Parliament meets on January .4, of a law applying con- scription to the younger unmarried men. The Labor party has urgently opposed this, and conscription at large has been opposed also by those who think it un-English, and who point with pride to the fact that England in this war has placed some four million men under her flag without conscription. Neither of these grounds of opposition is sound. Great Britain’s difficulty in this war, and her failures in certain directions, have been due to the lack of preparedness, such as Lord Roberts long urged before the war began, and to slowness in getting adequate forces under adequate training. There may be some resignations from the Cabinet. That of Arthur Henderson, Presi- dent of the Board of Education and the leader of the ‘ Laborites,” is considered most probable ; but the present indications are that Mr. Asquith, Mr. Balfour, Sir Edward Grey, Reginald McKenna, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other able men who have been regarded as opposed to the principle of conscription will remain. David Lloyd George, formerly sneered at by the Tories and anti-Progressives in Eng- land as ‘that little attorney from Wailes,’’ remains, after all this political turmoil, the great figure in England. The effect of his “too late” address, reported last week, has been extraordinary. It was followed by a bold and outspoken speech before three thousand trade-unionists in Glasgow. In this the workingmen were told, with irresistible clearness and force, that they must set aside, where necessary, their union rules, so that munitions should be manufactured at a rate commensurate with the needs of the British army. The alternative, said Lloyd George, was “ to tell the Kaiser frankly that we can- not go on,” pay an indemnity, give up a British colony or two, surrender the com- mand of the sea, and, in brief, put Great 1
Page 2
2 THE OUTLOOK Britain at the mercy of Prussian despotism as Belgium is to-day. A typical passage of Lloyd George’s plain speaking was this : I have often feared that the British people think of this war as only a passing shower. I have wondered if they realize the tremendous issues involved. This is a cyclone, an earth- quake. You cannot haggle with an earthquake. . The skilled workmen as well as others must realize that it is really opening before them the greatest opportunity ever presented to their class, and there will emerge after this war that future hope which the great leaders of democ- racy of all ages have pictured in their dreams. And when a workman shouted in reply to Lloyd George’s demand for eighty thousand skilled workmen, ‘‘ You won’t get them,” the Minister of Munitions crushed him by say- ing, ‘‘ I have come here to face three thousand Glasgow trades union men; will that gentle- man venture to go to Flanders and face three thousand British soldiers in the trenches ?” This is the kind of thing to carry conviction with the British workingman. Lloyd George is a leader whom Englishmen can follow with confidence. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN GREECE? The situation at Salonika now appears more favorable to the Allies than had been rumored. No one knows how many troops the French and British have behind their trenches and in fortified positions in the region reaching in a semicircle twenty miles from Salonika; German reports say not much more than 200,000; other reports say 400,000, which might be an adequate force for almost any attack. An interesting account of the situation at Salonika has been given by General Thomas S. Hutchinson, who fought as an officer in the Greek army in the Balkan wars, and who has lately returned to this country. He says that the fortifications at Salonika are practically impregnable, and he believes that, instead of awaiting an attack by the Teutonic and Bulgarian forces, the Allies, in time (and that probably means in the spring), will start a big drive “ straight across to Adrianople, and thus cut off Tur- key.” Supplies, men, and munitions, Gen- eral Hutchinson states, are pouring in every day at Salonika, and the belief there when he left was that the Greek hatred of the Bul- garians would certainly bring Greece into the war if the Bulgarians should cross the border. An interview granted lately by King Con- 5 January Stantine to General de Castelnau, the French Chief of Staff, is also reassuring as indicating that the King honestly means to remain neutral if he can, and to give the Allies a fair opportunity to carry on their operations. There was during the week no serious military alteration in the situation on the border between Greece and Servia, and some experts seem confident that the Teuton-Bui- garian plan is to intrench behind the Greek border for the winter. The general optimism among the Allies as to the present situation in Salonika makes it seem probable that the Indian troops (an entire army corps, forty thousand men, it is said) which were Yast week taken away from the line in France are destined, not to Salonika, but either to support the situation in Egypt, or quite possibly that in Mesopotamia. If the former, this is a meas ure of protection in view of the continued reports that Germany and Turkey mean to cut the line of the Suez Canal; if the latter, it is to render much-needed support to General Townshend, whose little army of thirty thousand men, after bravely fighting in its advance upon Bagdad, was driven back after the battle of Ctesiphon, where it lost over 4,500 men, to*a defensive position on the River Tigris at a place called Kut-el-Amara. One of the crassest errors of British military policy was this attack against a superior force in an impregnable position — an astounding instance, as we have already pointed out, of a lack of primary information which should precede such a campaign. Reports from General Townshend’s forces indicate that they have repelled a serious attack and are holding their own, while Turk- ish reports declare that the British position is desperate and precarious. An important announcement is that the advance guard of the Italian troops which recently disembarked at Avlona, Albania, have reached the northern frontier of Epirus (Greece). Thus, with Italian troops in south- ern Albania, and with the 75,000 Servian troops reported to be at Elbasan in central, and at Skutari in northern, Albania, that country bids fair again to become such a center of interest as it was during the Balkan war of 1912. SUBMARINE MURDER CONTINUES While American, German, and Austrian diplomats are apparently enjoying themselves 191¢ thoi and tinu sens Jap: 160 tech any Full rep¢ that exis' torp an / rath shou citize matt and and of th savel T the the 1 Here and 1 betw —no pass¢ but v intim: accep What her 7 officer our G ing tl not a ] and / Sailors we h; people conce! happe
Page 3
1916 thoroughly in verbal fencing, the atrocious and lawless attacks on merchant vessels con- tinue. The Yasaka Maru, a Japanese pas- senger ship on her way from London to Japan, with 120 passengers and a crew of 160, was sunk by a submarine (presumably technically an Austrian submarine), without any warning whatever, on December 21. Full details are even now lacking, but all reports which have reached this country agree that the first evidence the vessel had of the existence of a submarine was the firing of its torpedo. One of the passengers is said to be an American ; but our State Department has rather gone out of its way to declare that it should require absolute proof of this man’s citizenship before making any inquiry into the matter. Only by the extraordinary ability and promptness of the officers of the ship, and the almost marvelous skill and discipline of the crew, were the lives of the passengers saved, Two or three days later came reports of the sinking of a French passenger ship, the Ville de la Ciotat, in the Mediterranean. Here, too, there was no warning whatever, and the meager reports indicate that perhaps between seventy and eighty persons perished —no Americans were on board. Still another passenger ship, torpedoed without warning but without loss of life, was the Italian liner Porto Said. Our Government has over and over again declared that this kind of submarine warfare was contrary to humanity and international law, and that where American citizens were concerned it would not tolerate even their being put in jeopardy of their lives. And still the interchange of notes continues while repeated violations of these primary laws and principles of humanity continue. - Unfortu- nately, more than once, and especially in its first Ancona note, our State Department has intimated that it considers that Germany has accepted the principles we have laid down. What Germany has done has been to modify her practice by instructing her submarine officers not to torpedo passenger ships. Does our Government wish to go on record as say- ing that if a-non-combatant merchant ship, not a passenger vessel, is wrongfully destroyed, and American citizens who happen to be sailors on board are lawlessly slaughtered, we have nothing to say; that only when people on board liners are injured is it any concern of ours? If such a case should happen to-morrow, Germany would have a THE WEEK re. perfect right, in view of Mr. Lansing’s state- ment in our first Ancona note, to assume that this, and this only, is the principle for which we are contending. IS THIS STORY TRUE? One sometimes thinks that a little censor- ship of the American press by the American papers would tend to help the cause of truth and justice. Over and over again during this war stories have been printed which come from special correspondents by mail, or are personal interviews, which have made extraordinary assertions never confirmed. A little discretion in confirming stories of horror before their publication might be wise. Here, for instance, we find what has on its face the appearance of a truthful story, because it is vouched for by an observer over his own name. Yet it is so strange and so horrible that one hesitates to accept it. If it is true, it places a stigma of eternal dis- grace, first, on a Servian regiment which is named, and, secondly, on the German forces in Servia; yet it has hardly excited a ripple of interest in this country, and we have noted practically no comment by the press upon it. If it is true, it is immensely important ; if it is false, it should be exposed and denied. We find this story in the columns of the New York “ Tribune” in the form of an interview with Mr. Douglass M. Dold under the shriek- ing headline, “‘ Blind, He Paints Nish Teuton Hell.” Mr. Dold, this article tells us, has just come back to the United States after six months’ work in Servia among the hospitals. He saw the fall of Nish, and shortly after was stricken blind. Mr. Dold is reported as saying, in effect, that when the Bulgarians broke through the Servian defenses Nish was panic- stricken, and he adds: “It wasterrible. The 20th Puhk (regiment) killed its colonel and, as it retreated, looted the city and violated the women.” The story proceeds to say that when the Bulgarians approached, a group of young women bearing great garlands of flowers as a peace offering went out to meet them, not out of friendliness, but to deprecate vio- lence ; that the Bishop of Nish and Mr. Dold (as a neutral) were placed in chairs at the en- trance to the city, 4nd addressed the Bulgarian commanders, urging that Nish be spared; that the Bulgarians behaved “splendidly,” and that there was no disorder until the Germans arrived. What then followed, according to
Page 4
4 THE OUTLOOK the ‘“‘ Tribune’s ” account of Mr. Dold’s state- ment, was this: Then hell broke loose. It was terrible. They looted, they burned houses, they violated and whipped women, they did every sort of awful and unmentionable thing imaginable. The cathedral was used for a stable, and all of the sources of water supply they did not need for themselves were ruined for others by throwing in rubbish and garbage. The filth that accu- mulated filled the city with an awful stench. Hundreds of women came to us begging for protection, asking us to take them away or to marry them, to do anything that they imagined would save them from the Germans. The guards over the hospital supplies were knocked down and kicked. I don’t know what happened to the supplies. It was at that time that I be- came blind. We quote this story, not to deny it nor to affirm it, but to say that it is a thing that ought not to be passed over without confir mation or disapproval. TYPHUS IN MEXICO A few months ago the relief expedition of the American Red Cross in Mexico, which had been engaged in combating starvation and typhus fever there, was withdrawn because General Carranza said that its services were no longer needed. Now the Red Cross reports that there are 30,000 cases of typhus in Mexico City alone. General Carranza himself is reported as admitting the presence of 19,000 cases, and a Mexican business man who has just come to New York from Mexico City naively remarks to The Outlook that ‘the typhus situation in Mexico is not serious. There are only 15,000 cases in the capital of the country, and they are mainly confined to the uncleanly poor in the slums.” Evidently the situation is very serious. The American Red Cross is ready to lend Mexico a hand, but will probably make its offer of assistance warily, in view of the past dis- couragement it has received from Carranza. The Rockefeller Foundation, which gave $75,000 toward the campaign against typhus in Servia, is also reported to be investigating the Mexican epidemic, with a view to offering its aid. ‘The State Department has already offered to have a medical commission sent to Mexico City to assist in checking the epidemic, but the Mexican First Chief has declined this assistance. It is easy to understand Mexican dread of American intervention of any kind, and offers of assistance from the United States should be couched as tactfully 5 January as possible, emphasizing the point that if American doctors and nurses were sent to Mexico they would go to co-operate with the Mexican health authorities, not to supersede them. But if it be true, as reported by the newspapers, that the epidemic of typhus has crossed the American border from Mexico, for our own self-protection it may become necessary for us to strike the epidemic at its source, even at the risk of injuring the pride of Venustiano Carranza. SUGGESTIONS FROM THE ANTI-MILITARISM COMMITTEE A voluntary body known as the Anti- Militarism Committee has begun a campaign against what it calls “the cult of prepared- ness.” Its headquarters are in Washington. Among its members are Miss Lillian D. Wald, of the Nurses’ Settlement in New York City; Paul U. Kellogg, Editor of the “ Survey ;” Mrs. Florence Kelley, of the National Con- sumers’ League ; and Professor Kirchwey, of Columbia University. Its Executive Sec- retary is Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict. It does not confine itself merely to opposing increased expenditure for military and naval purposes, but advocates “a true democratic federation of the twenty-one American re- publics in the interests of peace and republican ideals ;” and urges “the appointment of an expert commission, representing America, Japan, and China,”’ to study the questions at issue between America and the Orient and to make recommendations. Its specific fight, however, is against military and naval pre- paredness, and its programme in this respect is as follows: Our immediate purpose is to prevent, if pos- sible, any unusual expenditure for armament during the present session of Congress. Before any increased defense appropriations are made we demand public investigation of our present huge war budget, so that every dollar now spent for the army and navy may bring one hundred per cent of efficiency. We stand for a Congressional investigation of the sources of the demand for a large increase in the army and navy appropriations. We stand for taking private profit out of arm- ament manufacture. We hold that the expense of National defense should be met by income and inheritance taxes and not by taxes which place the burden on the poor. Those who believe that preparedness is a National duty should consider without preju-
Page 5
1916 THE dice what this Committee proposes. This is what the wise statesman always does, for he is willing to take from his opponent every- thing that is valuable in his opponents’ pro- posals, as Disraeli did, often more shrewdly than honestly, and as Lincoln did, honestly as well as shrewdly. The Outlook’s views about this Committee’s proposals may be thus sum- marized : 1. To prevent all unusual expenditure for armament during the present session of Congress is all wrong. 2. The demand for the public investiga- gation of our present war budget is right. We cannot begin the preparations for defense too soon nor press them too vigorously ; but that is no reason why we should not simulta- neously press the cutting off of every sort of graft and of every form of extravagance. 3. We see no basis for a Congressional investigation of the sources of demand for increased military appropriations. But if there were such an investigation, it should include an investigation of the sources of the opposition to such appropriations, and it should be carried out by men of judicial temper, not partisans inspired by suspicions of the honesty and patriotism of their fellow- citizens. 4. The question whether the Nation should manufacture its own munitions is one worthy of consideration; but it is not worth while to discuss the question of mak- ing the manufacture of munitions a govern- mental monopoly. Government arsenals sufficient for the production of all munitions needed in time of war would have to be either idle in peace times or be devoted to the manufacture of non-military goods in competition with private concerns. This would be such a step toward State Socialism as not to be worth while considering. More- over, governmental monopoly of munition manufacture would introduce a new form of *‘ pork barrel ” into Congress. 5. What The Outlook thinks about the principles on which war taxes should be levied it has already stated very fully in an editorial in the issue of December 8, en- titled ‘‘ Balancing the Federal Budget.” 6. The closer affiliation of the republics of North and South America, for the double purpose of securing peace on these two conti- nents and protecting both continents from aggression from abroad, The Outlook has long advocated. 7. The usefulness of a commission to study WEEK 5 the questions at issue between America and the Orient would depend on that commis- sion’s personnel. A partisan or doctrinaire commission would aggravate present difficul- ties, but a non-partisan commission might render valuable service. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND NATIONAL DEFENSE A high school teacher in a city of the Middle West writes to us as follows: You have consistently advocated the proposi- tion of National defense. Have you formed any opinion as to the desirability of making military training a part of the regular work of boys in our secondary schools, taking into con- sideration the moral, mental, and physical effects of such training, as well as its value as a pre- liminary to a state of National preparedness? If you have reached a conclusion in this matter, may I ask you to furnish me with it? We believe that a certain kind of military training should be made a part of the regular work of boys in our secondary schools. One of the great defects of American life to-day is slouchiness—slouchiness of physique, slouchiness in the appearance of our towns and villages, slouchiness in the application of mind and body to the tasks of the day, and slouchiness in discipline and responsiveness to orders in co-operative efforts of all kinds. A fundamental purpose of military training is to eradicate this looseness of bodily and mental action. The soldier is taught to be neat and orderly in person, alert in his mental and physical attitude, steady in his application to a given task, and prompt in his obedience to orders. This phase of military training could be introduced into all our secon- dary schools with great mental, moral, and physical benefit to the pupils. Students of school age do not need to be taught the science of war, the elements of strategy, or the complicated tactics of military evolution, but they can be given physical training in a military fashion. They can be taught to walk, march, and carry themselves like soldiers, and they can be taught to obey the word of command promptly and intelli- gently. The use of these principles of edu- cation is what has made the Boy Scouts a National success. The Swiss people are not warlike, but they have military training from boyhood up. They are taught that it is the duty of every able-bodied man to serve his country at command. We are convinced that if military training
Page 6
6 THE OUTLOOK were introduced into our public schools, not in a war spirit but in a spirit of civic service, it would be a great aid in the development of American citizenship. TWO INDICTMENTS On the same day last week two important indictments were found in’ New York State. One of these indictments was found by the Federal Grand Jury in New York City, ac- cusing eight men—Frank Buchanan, a Rep- resentative in the United States Congress ; H. Robert Fowler, a former Representative ; Jacob C. Taylor, President of Labor’s Na- tional Peace Council; David Lamar, who gained some notoriety some time ago as im- personating a Congressman in order to obtain money, and known as the “ Wolf of Wall Street ;” Frank Rintelen, a. German naval officer who is now a prisoner of war in Eng- land; and two men, Martin and Schulteis, active in Labor’s National Peace Council and connected with the so-called Anti-Trust League. The charges against them are that, for the purpose of laying an embargo, which would be in the interest of Germany, on the shipment of war supplies, these men conspired to restrain foreign trade -by in- stigating strikes, intimidating employees, bribing and distributing money among offi- cers of labor organizations, and by other means. The other indictment was found by the Westchester County Grand Jury against an eminent public man who now is Warden of Sing Sing, Thomas Mott Osborne. This in- dictment charges Mr. Osborne with failure to attend the prison regularly, with mismanage- ment, with allowing assaults and felonies within the prison to occur, with lack of disci- pline, with admitting convicts to the death house, with immorality based on assertions of convicts. In commenting upon the _indict- ment Mr. Osborne ascribes it to the fact that he has made himself hated by the corrupt polit- ical elements that have utilized the prison for their own foul purposes, and because he has interfered with the special privileges of a few prisoners. Superintendent Riley is quoted as saying that he would dismiss Warden Osborne immediately. Governor Whitman is quoted as expressing astonishment at the action of the Grand Jury. In the case of the alleged conspiracy against the commerce of the United States the in- dictment is, of course, not a conviction, but it is not mere newspaper gossip. The record of some of the men is such that the presump- tion of innocence is not as strong as it other- wise would be. This action of the Grand Jury—and it is the Federal Grand Jury— gives added basis to support the general sus- picion that there has been in the United States a widespread conspiracy against the peace and order of the American people in the interest of a foreign country. In the case of the indictmeni of Mr. Os- borne, as in the other case, it is to be remem- bered that an indictment is not conviction, and that the accused, unless convicted, must be presumed to be innocent. But in the case of Mr. Osborne his whole record as a de- voted public servant, an efficient Mayor of Auburn, a student of. social conditions, a wealthy man who has devoted his means and his time to the welfare of his fellow-men, is such as greatly to strengthen the presumption of innocence. In an article in this issue of The Outlook Mr. Frank Marshall White re- cords what Mr. Osborne has done for Sing Sing during the past year. In the face of such a record an indictment of Mr. Osborne tends not to cast suspicion on Mr. Osborne, but on those forces which have been active in bringing that indictment about. THE YEAR’S LABOR LEGISLATION According to the annual Review of Labor Legislation issued by the American Associa- tion for Labor Legislation, the year 1915 figures largely in important laws in the direc- tion of humaner provisions for labor. Neither a world war nor the supposed reactionary tendency of the times has prevented great progress. The most notable labor act passed by Congress was the Seamen’s Law. In addi- tion to regulating the number and qualifica- tions of seamen, hours of work, wages, quar- ters, and life-saving apparatus, it abolishes arrest and imprisonment for desertion and directs the President to terminate treaties providing therefor. In the State legislatures we are glad to note that child labor was the subject of legisla- tion passed in half the States, the trend being towards higher age limits, shorter hours, and prohibition of night work. Closely allied with this were the enactments by Kansas and Arkansas of minimum wage laws for women and children. ‘This makes eleven States now having such laws. During the year Maine, Arkansas, and
Page 7
| CARTOONS OF THE WEEK From Der Wahre Jacob (Stuttgart) peak Cinies. “The English Minister of War announces that no newspapers are to be forwarded to neutral European countries. This order to be strictly enforced.” [Some of the methods of enforcement are shown below.] | {Neg | Warde , The children mustn’t sail paper boats, for the Air-ships are deputed to recover newspapers that newspapers of which they are made might blow the wind has carried off. away to the neutrals. if) eA A \ 4 Zou Newspapérs must be read only in darkened rooms Newspapers are to be intrusted only to the because of the danger of spies. most reliable persons for mailing, ae . Meee A GERMAN CARICATURE OF THE LONDON “TIMES” RIDICULING ENGLAND’S CENSORSHIP OF HER NEWSPAPERS
Page 8
CARTOONS OF THE WEEK From the New York Evening Telegram Cesare in the New York Sun mas ONE OR THE OTHER WHO SAID SICK? AT THE TURN OF THE ROAD THE TURK, THE “SICK MAN” OF EUROPE, REJUVENATED From Punch (London) wal s Inquisitive Lady: “ And what do you do with the submarines when you catch them ?” Naval Officer: “ Depends on their size. We a/ways throw back the little ones® THE PISCATORIAL NAVAL MAN
Page 9
| SR T 1 ee KL eA’ | AL EN! THE WEEK — 9 Texas established a nine-hour day for women, and Wyoming a ten-hour day. The stress of unemployment a year ago led to provision for investigation of the sub- ject in ten States, while California and Ne- vada; declaring that the problem transcended State lines, called for a Federal inquiry. Idaho recognized ‘the right to work” by providing sixty days’ public employment a year for all citizens. Ten States created public employment exchanges and made stricter the regulations for private bureaus, Idaho follow- ing Washington in abolishing private employ- ment offices operated for profit. Another group of ten States joined the ranks of those providing for workmen’s com- pensation. There are now thirty-three in all. “Especially striking,” writes Dr. John B. Andrews, the efficient secretary of the Asso- ciation for Labor Legislation, “is the spread of the industrial commission plan for the joint administration of factory inspection and workmen’s compensation ’”’—a plan adopted in New York, Indiana, Colorado, Montana, and Nevada. Still another group of ten States made up-to- date provision for the reporting of industrial accidents. A dozen States extended safety statutes for mines, railways, and urban lines. Illinois made illegal the use beneath the surface of the ground of processes generating poison- ous fumes or dusts. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Colorado passed measures for the better sanitation of labor camps. Thus the year 1915 contributed its share of force to the present momentum of legisla- tion for the protection of labor. HUMAN AGRICULTURE Eleven million pounds of pork would feed a great many people. That is the amount of cured pork raised in 1914 in eleven coun- ties of Georgia where there are pig clubs. The pig clubs have been organized not only in that part of Georgia but throughout the United States. They are composed of boys and girls. The membership now amounts to about nine thousand. The organization and encouragement of these pig clubs is part of the work of the Department of Agricul- ture. In this respect, as in many other respects, the Department of Agriculture is a sort of department of education. It is train- ing American boys and girls to understand the country in which they live, and to take part in its development. There are four thousand members of poultry clubs. The United States Government is taking a long look ahead when it thus reaches out to make American boys and girls fit for country life and successful in rural business. Altogether in the Southern States there were 110,000 boys and girls enrolled during the year in the various kinds of agricultural clubs. Of the sixty thousand boys, says Mr. Hous- ton, Secretary of Agriculture, in his recently issued report, “many were interested in growing winter legumes for soil improvement. Four-crop clubs were formed in some of the States, with rotation on three acres of ground, to show the financial advantage of improving soil fertility.” There are a good many city people who have no idea what legumes are, and have even less idea of the significance of a four-crop club. And yet such matters are familiar to these boys and girls. The fifty thousand girls who are enrolled in the canning clubs are “taught to make home gardens and to preserve for home use the garden products as well as the waste fruits and vege- tables of the entire farm.” This work of educating country boys and girls is not merely the work of the Federal Department of Agriculture, but is the joint work of that Department and various State agencies, including agricultural colleges and county agents. In addition to these 110,000 boys and girls in the South, there are over 150,000 boys and girls enrolled in the Northern and Western States. Some of the members of these clubs are buying land, and in this way acquiring, as Secretary Houston says, ‘“ the habit of thrift and the sense of the dignity of land-owner- ship.” It is not, however, only the boys and girls that the Department of Agriculture and the various States are educating, but also the older people. The farmers are being taught how to be better farmers. Farmers’ wives are being taught how they can make their work more efficient-and more labor-saving. Under the Department there has been organ- ized, as the result of legislation by the last session of Congress, the ‘‘ States Relations Service.” This brings into co-operation the agricultural educational activities of the various State institutions and the Federal Agricultural Department. There is provided in this way ‘a Nation-wide system of instruction for the farming popuiation.” During this first year, of course, it has been necessary to work out the general lines of the system. The Depart- ment urges the importance of establishing in
Page 10
10 , THE OUTLOOK every county an agent with permanent head- quarters, who can “ serve as the joint repre- sentative of the local community, the agri- cultural college, and the Department.” There are now in the United States more than a thousand counties with such agents, and in these there are several hundred women em- ployed. ‘These agents give farm demonstra- tions. In the fifteen Southern States there were, for example, three thousand silos built under the direct instruction of agents. (A silo, by the way, is a structure in which corn is pre- served for fodder.) More than seventy-five thousand hillsides were terraced to prevent ero- sion, home gardens were planted, thousands of acres were drained, co-operative enterprises were established for the breeding of live stock, handling seed, marketing crops, etc. The women agents visited homes and gave helpful suggestions about such matters’ as the eradication of flies and mosquitoes, the care of poultry, the provision of home con- veniences, and the like. The county agent system is newer in the North than in the South, but even in the North there were thirty-five thousand demonstrations, and thou- sands upon thousands of acres were planted with such crops as corn, oats, potatoes, and alfalfa. Farmers were instructed in the mix- ing of fertilizers, in the use of lime, and in the keeping of farm accounts. This is just a beginning. It is impossible to forecast what the developments of such work under the joint supervision of the Federal Govern- ment and the various States will be. THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT AS DOCTOR AND FINANCIER It is not only, however, as an educational department that the Department of Agri- culture is acting. It may also be called a de- partment of medicine. Of course its activi- ties in this respect are confined to veterinary medicine, but in this it is doing an important work in the line of medical science. Asa result, for example, of the use of prepared serum, the reduction in the death of hogs from hog cholera has been remarkable. Per- haps the most widely known result of the work of the Department of Agriculture as a medical department has been in the direction of eradicating outbreaks of the foot-and- mouth disease. This is a disease that attacks cloven-footed animals, such as cattle and hogs. Sometimes, as in a recent epizootic (which is the same as an epidemic, except 5 January that it affects not people but animals), it i: difficult to diagnose. The story of the way in which this disease first got a foothol and began spreading from one State to an other and was finally overcome by the actio: of the Federal Government, through th Department of Agriculture, is one whic! shows how the States and the Federal Gov- ernment may efficiently co-operate. Th first signs of this infection were noticed in August, 1914, but because it was mild and did not display the usual symptoms it was not correctly diagnosed. It was not until October that the Department at Washington learned that there were indications of foot- and-mouth disease, and immediately inspectors were despatched to the infected localities, and in nine days a quarantine order was issued. Because of power over inter-State commerce, the Federal Government was enabled to issue orders that the States could not have issued. And in the following June the last herd then known to be infected had been slaugh- tered and buried, and the premises disinfected, and now, except for instances in certain parts of Illinois, the disease has been generally eradicated. The Department is also concerned with the testing of serum for use in the treatment of animal diseases, and Secretary Houston suggests that a laboratory station for testing such serums for the entire output of com- mercial serum in the United States would probably not exceed $150,000 annually. But Uncle Sam as a farmer is not merely an educator and a medical scientist, but also a financier and business man. Through the Department of Agriculture he has interested himself in the prices of agricultural products. Secretary Houston points out that the ordi- nary manufacturer knows what his product is and what it costs, and knows it better than the buyer ; but that in agriculture the reverse is true, and the farmer does not know what his product is or at what price it may be sold as well as the buyer does. So the Depart- ment has been trying out various plans. It has tested a method of distributing market news so that the growers and shippers of fruits and vegetables might learn the latest news of crop movements and prices. The Department has also prepared a set of stand- ards for cotton, and these standards have been voluntarily accepted in the more impor- tant spot markets. Moreover, it has desig- nated certain of these spot markets as bona fide, and most of these furnish the Depart 19) me De qu on it j on cel So cot fro cor pre bez one the as of | to are rur. the: is n the mu con MA: \ Ma of F Tus the else chal he | was thor of t istic by a tows as ¢ thro song stitu Uni audi and is ad erall tutio not for | Was the (
Page 11
1916 THE ment with daily quotations by wire. The Department also has interested itself in the question of rural credits. So out of this report of Secretary Houston one may go far afield. One may learn how it is proposed to mow kelp in the ocean as one mows hay on a field, for the sake of cetting at a source of potash for fertilizer. So one may learn how the war has affected cotton by cutting down its price for a time from 12.4 cents per pound to 6.3 cents, with consequent hardship to white and Negro producers. So one may learn how the fur- bearing animals in Alaska are protected. So one may learn about the various activities of the Forest Service, which is a story by itself— a story of planting and raising trees as a crop, of providing grazing lands, of enabling men to develop water power, of providing great areas for recreation in the National forests. The future of the United States rests in its rural communities. The roots of the city take theirnourishmentfrom the country. And there is nothing which concerns the life, the growth, the prosperity, the activities, of the rural com- munities of the United States which does not concern the Department of Agriculture. MAJOR MOTON We have already noted the selection of Major Robert R. Moton to be the successor of Booker T. Washington as the Principal of Tuskegee Institute. As will be seen from the portrait of Major Moton which appears elsewhere in this issue, he has the facial characteristics of a full-blooded Negro, and he is proud of the fact. Dr. Washington was a mulatto in color; Major Moton is a thorough black. That he possesses a sense of the kindly humor which is so character- istic of the black race is happily indicated by a story which is told of his own attitude towards his color. The Hampton singers, as our readers know, make frequent tours through the country singing the plantation songs and hymns which have made such in- stitutions as Hampton, ‘Tuskegee, and Fiske University famous. When the interest of the audience is aroused by the picturesque figures and stirring music of the singers, the meeting is addressed by some official of Hampton, gen- erally Dr. Frissell, the Principal of the insti- tution. Dr. Frissell, let us say in passing, is not only as distinguished among white men for his leadership in Negro education as Dr. Washington was distinguished among men of the colored race, but is generally regarded WEEK 11 as one of the great educational leaders in the United States. On one occasion, we think in the Adiron- dack Mountains, Dr. Frissell was unable to be present, and Major Moton made the ad- dress on behalf of Hampton. A lady in the audience who was unfamiliar with the per- sonnel of Hampton Institute, but who knew that the head of the institution was Dr. Frissell, went up at the close of the meeting and, addressing Major Moton, said: “ I can- not tell you, Dr. Frissell, how much I have been interested in your account of the work at Hampton.” With his contagious smile, Major Moton replied: “I am very glad, madam, that you are interested, but I am not Dr. Frissell. He is a blond, while, as you see, I am a brunette.” Major Moton is not only a man of fine character and marked ability, but he also possesses a splendid physique. ‘This is for- tunate, for the demands upon him in his new position will be endless and exhausting. His selection as the head of one of the really great institutions of the South is giving great satisfaction to Southern people, both white and black. Mr. George Gordon Battle, a well-known Democratic lawyer of the city of New York and at one time an Assistant District Attorney, writes to the New York “ Evening Post” a letter from which we quote the following paragraph : As a man of Southern birth who is deeply in- terested in the future of the Negro inthe South, I am much gratified at the selection of Major Robert R. Moton to take charge of the Tuske- gee Institution as the successor of the lamented Booker T. Washington. . . . Booker Washing- ton was nowhere more highly esteemed and respected than among the white people of his community. Undoubtedly he has done more than any man of either race to inspire hope of an ultimate and happy solution of this great problem [the Negro problem]. Major Moton’s views are formed along the lines of his great preceptor, and I hope and believe that he will be equal to the task of carrying forward the work which has béen so nobly begun, and that Tuskegee Institute, Hampton Institute, the Manassas Industrial School, and other like in- stitutions throughout the South will continue to be not only centers of education and improve- ment for the colored race, but also growing and continuing sources of that mutual good will and respect which will enable the two races to pur- sue their separate but friendly and honorable destinies. This utterance is, we believe, typical of the best sentiments of the South, and recalls
Page 12
12 THE OUTLOOK what Booker Washington often said himself, that the best friend of the Negro is the en- lightened and broad-minded Southerner. THE PAN-AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS The Outlook has already commented upon the wide significance of the word “ scientific ”’ in connection with the Pan-American Scientific Congress now in session at Washington. Its significance is even wider than that already indicated, if we may judge from the opening sessions of the Congress. After the Hon. John Barrett, Director-General of the Pan- American Union, had introduced the Ambas- sador of Chile as President of the Congress, Vice-President Marshall, in the President’s absence, welcomed the visitors. In these ad- dresses, in those by the heads of the various delegations, and especially in that of Mr. Robert Lansing, Secretary of State, there was evi- dent a sentiment looking towards the solidar- ity of the Western Hemisphere which has, we believe, been so strongly shown in no other place and at no other time. In developing this theme an interesting and pertinent distinction was drawn between the Monroe Doctrine and what has come to be known as the Pan-American Doctrine— the latter being, in the words of Mr. Wilson’s recent Message to Congress, an assertion that the countries of the New World “ mean always to make a common cause of national independence.”” ‘The Chilean Ambassador declared that so long as the Monroe Doctrine was understood as a threat it was viewed with distrust by South and Central America, but that, defined as a derivation of Pan-Ameri- canism, it had become a “tie of union, a guaranty, a bulwark, for our democracies.” Other speakers so emphasized this idea that it seemed as if the Monroe Doctrine might be destined to be absorbed in the Pan-Ameri- can Doctrine. Mr. Lansing, however, said: If I have correctly interpreted Pan-American- ism from the standpoint of the. relations of our Governments with those beyond the seas, it is in entire harmony with the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine is a National policy of the United States; Pan-Americanism is an international policy of the Americas. The mo- tives are to an extent different, the ends sought the same. Both can exist without impairing the force of either. And both do exist and, I trust, will ever exist in all their vigor. The Monroe Doctrine is no threat by us to any Latin-American republic, for it is sim- § January ply the doctrine that the destiny of the North and South American continents is to be directed by the inhabitants of those continents. The Monroe Doctrine is still necessary, especially since the Latin-American republics have not developed military strength enough to defend by themselves the Western Hemisphere against aggression, whether Euro- pean or Asiatic. The Monroe Doctrine, in short, means that we as a Nation, having the power, must carry with it a corresponding responsibility. At the same time the doctrine of a concert of the American Powers, known as Pan- Americanism, should receive continually new and enthusiastic support. ‘To that end the present Pan-American Congress will prove, we do not doubt, a chief means. THE COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS TREE Christmas, 1915, witnessed a great develop- ment of the community Christmas tree idea. Hundreds of communities, large and small, lent themselves to the movement. It is a movement that has rapidly won popu- larity. It is only three or four years old. People had long been saying that Christmas ought to have public as well as private significance, that there were plenty of people who had no homes of their own, who could not have any proper Christmas and yet who ought to have it brought to them in some way. As long as it is impossible to penetrate to the myriad places where Christmas is not, why not have some public place in the open where a public Christmas shall be made? Thus thought many generous-minded folk. And the result was that in certain cities—New York, Boston, and Hartford, for instance—a public pro- gramme of song was prepared and a Christ- mas tree brought from Maine and decorated, the outward sign of the inward grace in those who had been possessed of the kindly thought. The next year Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wash- ington, Cincinnati, and Chicago adopted the plan. In 1914 the list was still further in- creased, and 1915 saw the greatest extension of all. ‘This is a cheering result. It not only has the immortal, ineradicable Christmas signifi- cance, but it also means a deeper and wel- come social responsibility. It makes little difference whether the tree is bought by the community or by a com- mittee of citizens; whether the community erects a tent or stand to shelter those closest
Page 13
1916 THE to the tree (as in New York City) or not; whether the singers about the tree are col- lected from the Sunday-schools or from the near-by educational institutions or from the streets—the spirit of brotherhood and Christ- mas cheer is engendered in any case. In some instances there has also been the giv- ing of small cornucopias of candy to the children, or some such very simple Christ- mas presents, from the tree. But this is not at all essential. In some cases it may even be deprecated. ‘The real thing is the spon- taneity in the singing of the carols.on Christ- mas Eve and in the journeys to those resi- dences and hospitals which are, in anticipation, illuminated by candles or otherwise, so that the childish trebles may reach some sick-bed with “ Noél, Noél,” or “ Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.” The community Christmas tree has come to stay, we hope. No one can tell how many poor, ill, lonely, tempted people it has already blessed. A NOTABLE CHRISTMAS GIFT Years ago in Pittsburgh a school savings fund was started to induce children to save some of their pennies. Through an agree- ment with the Board of Education bank collec- tors visited the city’s 132 schools every week. A fortnight ago, so the newspaper des- patches announce, the State Department of Banking closed the Pittsburgh Bank for Sav- ings. In that bank, we learn, there were about 41,000 children depositors. Mr. Henry Clay Frick, the well-known coke, iron, and steel manufacturer, now of New York City, is an old Pittsburgher. When he was informed that thousands of children were depositors, he determined that they should not lose a cent. He submitted a plan to the receiver of the closed bank, who then got the approval of the Banking Commissioner and of the Attorney-General of the State. The plan is this: As soon as the State banking officials can complete their canvass of the books of the clesed institution, Mr. Frick will pay to the children the amounts now on deposit. No wonder that joy prevailed in the hearts of the Pittsburgh school children on Christ- nas Eve. TROUBLE FOR THE NEW CHINESE MONARCHY A monarchy has been proclaimed in China and a consequent revolution has begun in 13 the south in the province of Yunnan. Fifty thousand soldiers have been sent to quell the movement. One despatch indicates that some of the Government troops are disaffected, but the Chinese Legation at Washington denies that any have actually mutinied. All despatches from China, we would add, are to be received with caution, especially those coming by way of San Francisco. A private letter from Peking to The Outlook reports the great influence which the titles of nobility to be conferred by the new Emperor is having on certain Chinese in changing them from republicans to monarchists. Under the Manchu emperors there were nine ranks of nobility ; there will now be six ranks, it appears. It was originally announced that titles to be created were not to be perpetual ; it is now reported that they will be hereditary. All this is of much less importance, we WEEK think, than the announcement that the Gov- ernment will retain the right to cancel titles if their holders conduct themselves in a manner regarded as improper by the Emperor. CHINA AND JAPAN Japan’s ambition, it is alleged, is to domi- nate China under any circumstances. This was recently indicated in the Japanese — Government’s demand that China should employ Japanese political, military, and financial advisers—as much as to say that Japan’s military and economic interests in China are paramount. Writing in the New York ‘“ Times,’”’ Dr. George Trumbull Ladd, an authority on the Far East, says that the Japanese unnecessarily complicated this de- mand “ and made an unfortunate and pre- mature display of a disposition to use force.” But, as he adds, in Japan’s opinion, the Chinese Republic has been so weak that it might be overturned at any time; in this case, Japan would have to bear the greater part of the burden of attempting to restore order. Dr. Ladd holds that only a long period of fair treatment from others, mingled with firm- ness and backed up by the fear of force, will bring China into the comity of civilized nations. He quotes as follows from a friend who has spent more than thirty years of his life in the Far East : I have made it my habit to ask gentlemen versed in Chinese affairs if they could give me a single instance of any great organization un- dertaken by Chinese on their own initiative and successfully carried through to an efficient con- dition—efficient, that is, under Chinese control
Page 14
14 THE OUTLOOK and management. I have yet to learn ofa case of such successful organization. Japan, from all we can see, is the only Ori- ental nation that has shown a capacity for organization. If Mexico’s disordered condition threatened the peace of all North and South America—provided that Mexico were large and important enough to do so—is it supposable that more highly organized nations would re- main inactive? Yet such is exactly the situation in the Far East, and Japan’s self-restrained efforts at organization should receive the en- couragement of the whole civilized world. The recent request from Japan, in con- junction with her allies, that China should postpone the installation of the monarchy, has been interpreted by some, first, as the un- necessary intervention of a foreign Power in another nation’s affairs; secondly, as indi- cating the desire of the Japanese to keep the Chinese under a weak government; and, thirdly, as a mark of Japan’s hostile feeling toward Yuan Shi-kai personally. To these interpretations Dr. Iyenaga, director of the East and West Bureau, replies in the New York “ Times:” ‘The Japanese Gov- ernment has averred in definite words that the advice in question was inspired by no thought whatever of intruding upon the domestic affairs of China. Nor has Japan any right to raise objection to the form of government China may adopt, whether it be a monarchy, repubiic, or autocracy, provided the Chinese Government thus formed does not threaten the interests of Japan. And we may take it for granted that Japan, being her- self a monarchy, would welcome the adoption of the same form of government in her neighbor state.” Finally, Japan deems Yuan Shi-kai the ablest and strongest statesman in China—“ the man who alone can guide the Ship of State safely in the troubled waters.” THE PRESENT CONDITION OF CHINA It is true that, in general, China lament- ably lacks Japanese efficiency. But in one important department there has been a vast improvement, if we may believe the latest issue to reach us of that well-edited weekly the Shanghai “ National Review.” It re- counts editorially a discussion with a well- informed Chinese as to whether the public service in China to-day is better admin- istered than it was five years ago. He affirmed that it was. Buta third person asked, ‘* How much did the new Commissioner pay to get his present position ?”’ ‘“‘ Not a cash,” was * 5 January the immediate answer ; ‘“ the post is not worth buying.” ‘The editor of the ‘ Review ” asked for explanation. It was as follows: The present Commissioner, like his prede- cessor, receives a definite fixed salary and out of that has to meet certain expenditures. The remainder amounts to probably not more than Tls. [taels; a tael is worth about sixty cents] 500 to Tls. 650, which he has as his net salary. This is vastly different from what obtained in times past. In the days of the Manchus the Shanghai taotaiship [commission- ership] was worth Tls. 200,000 per annum. All funds payable to the Government were paid to the Taotai, and he kept them in his hands as long as he could, lending them out from month to month at enormous interest. In addition, the Taotai had a good many other perquisites. To-day Government funds are mostly controlled by a separate official, and must be deposited in a stated bank within forty-eight hours of being received. Thus the Government is able to use these funds at once and, if it thinks fit, to set them to interest-bearing uses. In any case, it gets its money long before it used to do in the old days, and thereby at least gets the Tls. 200,000 that formerly went into the private pocket of the Taotai. This sort of change has taken place at every treaty port, and similar changes are taking place throughout the Government service. This, we trust, really reflects the altered condition of China as regards the public service. MOBILIZATION FOR SNOW REMOVAL The heavy snow-storm which so thoroughly disorganized traffic in southern New England and northern New York the early part of the week of December 12 demonstrated in New York City how fully unskilled and semi- skilled labor is employed. A year ago Com- missioner J. T. Fetherston, of the Street Cleaning Department of New York City, after long study of the problem, introduced a new method of removing snow. He called his plan snow-fighting. Instead of waiting for the storm to cease or for a heavy blan- ket to cover the streets before beginning operations, he concluded that the least costly way was to attempt to keep the surfaces of the important streets clean while the snow was falling. Investigation had shown that sewers could be utilized to transport snow. A sewer as a means of transportation had two advantages over the carts of the contractors. It prac- tically eliminated the cost of moving the snow, QO © 6 eo m= ae eA AR = ba mm = oF =
Page 15
1916 and it would carry it away more rapidly. In order to put his plan into effect, Commis- sioner Fetherston invited men who were willing to work eight hours a day at wages varying from $2.40 to $3.20, according to the amount of. work done, to register for service in his army. ‘The intention was to have them called out by the police as soon as it was decided that the storm would continue long enough to warrant spending any money on it. The number of men who registered in’ November, 1914, was approximately 40,000. The result was that last winter 4,318,481 cubic yards were removed in the course of sixteen days at a cost of only $523,892. Nearly nine-tenths of this work was done within fifteen hours after the storm ceased. In the course of the previous winter, when the total snowfall was 38.2 inches, and 20,000,000 cubic yards fell on the seven hundred miles of streets which were cleaned by contract, the contractor, after working forty-three days, re- moved 5,180,825 yards of the packed mass— more than twice as much as had ever before been moved in trucks in any winter in the history of removal. But it cost the city $2,473,343 to do the work, a sum big enough to run many municipalities. This season, however, Commissioner Feth- erston was less successful in organizing his volunteer army. The number of men who registered was only 14,000. ‘Three times that number were needed. Only seventy-five per cent of those registered responded to the call. Offers of wages of from $2.40 to $3.20 made through the columns of the press did not materially add to the number. Scores of thousands of cards inviting men to “ enlist for the war in the battle against snow ”’ were distributed through every channel which would reach workers. A thousand lantern slides were provided for use in the moving-picture theaters. The foremen and assistant fore- men of the Department visited factories where there was likely to be a shut-down in case of storm, and made known the fact that the city could use men at such a time. ‘The con- tractors were unable to secure men to man the carts. All efforts were of no avail. The snow-fighting therefore lagged. The difficulty of securing sufficient labor- ers for the work of snow removal furnishes a striking commentary upon the changes in the ‘labor market ”’ during the last year. It means that the ranks of the army of the unemployed have thinned very perceptibly. THE WEEK 15 A NATIONAL MISSIONARY MOVEMENT The Outlook of August 4, 1915, reported the extensive preparations in progress for the second National campaign of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement—a series of seventy- five conventions throughout the country from October to April. Its purpose is “to bring the laymen of all churches to- gether on a common platform to consider the whole problem of Chrisuanity in the world and plan for its solution.” Eleven dif- ferent denominations have been co-operating in the United States and Canada. The December issue of ‘‘Men and Missions,” published monthly at 1 Madison Avenue, New York, reports the progress of the cam- paign in October and up to November 19, during which sixteen conventions were held from Maine to Colorado, with remarkable results. The total of registered delegates in attend- ance was 25,634, a gain of fifty-seven per cent over that of the conventions of 1906 in most of the same cities. ‘That so many paid $2 each for their registration in a missionary convention is highly significant. At Allen- town, Pennsylvania, were delegates from thir- teen States; at Clarksburg, West Virginia, from fourteen counties ; at Topeka, Kansas, from sixty-four towns; at Cincinnati, 3,065 delegates were registered—in 1906, 631. Much preparatory work had been done by denominational conferences, by teams of lay- men in surveys of the convention districts, in rallies of the churches, by advance agents in the convention cities, and also by a group of commissions on the prob- lem of local church efficiency. The cam- paign has already been influential in shap- ing the life and the policies of an entire denomination. Deeper seriousness than in 1906 has been manifest ; ‘the more chal- lenging the message, the readier and more decisive has been the response.” ‘The two or three conventions simultaneously held in different cities have employed several teams of speakers, the ablest representatives of home and foreign missionary work and of effective church activity. In many cities the daily press has strongly seconded the Move- ment with expressions of faith in its work and approval of its campaign. The permanence of the impressions made is provided for by the organization of com- mittees for ‘“ follow-up work ” in every con- vention area. Businesslike methods char-
Page 16
16 THE OUTLOOK acterize the campaign. Of the many conventions to follow those thus far reported, fourteen are to be in Southern cities, the last two in New York and Brooklyn. Unlike most other great movements that have distinguished the history of the American churches, it carries no germ of reaction. ITALIAN FINANCE Last week a royal decree authorized the issue of a new Italian loan. ‘Ihe despatches do not say whether it is to be, like the French loan, unlimited so far as the amount goes. An appeal was made to the French people asking them to subscribe to that loan any amount they choose up to September 15. The result has been unprecedented. Perhaps a proportionate success will attend the Italian loan. ‘The subscription lists are to be opened to February 10 in Italy and to March 31 in the colonies and abroad. “The bonds will be free from all taxes, present and future. Like the French loan, the interest is to be at five per cent, and the issue price insures a greater net return. This adds interest to the article by ex- Premier Luzzatti in a late number of the Milan “ Corriere della Sera.”” ‘Taken in con- nection with the Government’s decree of November 19, which reduces the number of governmental officials and economizes in their stipends, this summary shows the economic condition of Italy to be more satisfactory than had been supposed. Signor Luzzatti (who, by the way, is a Jew, and the first in recent vears to hold such a post in the government of any European Power) proudly points to the increases in the returns from nearly every department of taxation. First of all are the taxes on busi- ness. In Italy a man starting in business or in a profession is allowed one year free from taxes. After that the agente delle tasse takes hold of him with vigor ! Then there are the inheritance taxes, and these have also very greatly increased. ‘The justness of this sort of tax is widely recog- nized, though sometimes working hardship. The Italian inheritance tax is of course higher in cases where the deceased and the heir are not related ; an adopted child lately paid the Government fourteen per cent of the value of the patrimony left by the adoptive parent. Then come the taxes on alcohol, sugar, and tobacco, éach of which shows a great increase. With regard to alcohol, the Prime Minister points out that the law against alcoholism 5 January limits the consumption. On the other hand, there has been a greater efficacy in the ad- ministration of taxation. And, speaking of this, we may note that there is surprisingly little graft in Italy. ‘Though the pressure of taxation is very great, the burden is judiciously distributed and the sums received are, in gen- eral, carefully and economically spent. _ Some of the Italian taxes are curious. If one applies for a Government position, for instance, or wants a copy of some diploma or other document, Government paper must be used, originally costing one, two, three, or even four lire a sheet; that is to say, from twenty to eighty cents. When one of the recent wars came, every sheet was stamped “T). D.” (doppio decimo) and was two-tenths, or twenty per cent, higher in price.. Then the Messina earthquake added one per cent. and something else has now happened to add more percentage. Aside from the taxes levied by the central Government there are taxes levied by the different cities. ‘Those upon motor cars, bicycles, and motor cycles are very high. The highest tax of all, however, is that of a somewhat ghastly character, namely, five hundred lire (about one hundred dollars) for every dead body brought into Italy from abroad to be buried in some family tomb. There is also a similar tax in the case of any one who dies in Italy and whose remains are transported out of the country. Italians evidently hold that such transportation is an unnecessary luxury, therefore let the living profit by the luxuries indulged in by the dead ! AN UNEQUALED INCREASE IN SHIP TONNAGE According to the annua! report of the Commissioner of Navigation, there has been during the first year of the war an unparal- leled increase in American merchant ship- ping. No less than 26,700 vessels of over 8,300,000 gross tons were documented under the American flag, as compared with, say, 26,900 vessels of some 7,900,000 gross tons one year earlier. ‘The year’s absolute in- crease in tonnage, 460,741 gross tons,” says the report, ‘‘ has never been equaled in our history.” Is this exactly an argument for a Government-owned merchant marine—this increase brought about by private capital ? This decline in the number of vessels to- gether with an increase in the total tonnage is a normal result of the development of our water transportation, the report asserts, for the
Page 17
1916 size of vessels has been steadily increasing since steel and steam came into general use. Nor is this all. In tonnage and value the merchant shipping under the American flag is now surpassed only by that under the British flag, the report adds, and in tonnage it equals that under any other two foreign flags com- bined except the British. With regard to our foreign trade the in- crease is three times as great as the increase in registered tonnage during any previous year in our history. Under the Ship Registry Act of August 18, 1914, 148 vessels of 523,361 gross tons, valued at $33,392,756, and manned by 6,149 men, were transferred during the year from foreign flags to the American flag and register. It is interesting to remember how the process of transfer to the American flag was reversed at the time of our Civil War. Then a half million tons of shipping was transferred to the protection of the flags of countries not at war. It will be equally in- teresting to see whether, after the present war, as after the Civil War, a law will be passed forbidding the transfer back ! A HAPPY NEW YEAR The Outlook wishes the world a Happy New Year. And our wishes are hopes. We hope that by next Christmas the men will be out of the trenches, and busy hands will have begun to repair the ravages which busy hands have made. We hope that before the end of 1916 the Allies will have accomplished for Germany and Austria-Hungary what Kossuth and the Revolution of 1848 attempted in vain to accomplish for Hungary ; what Carl Schurz, the most eminent and eloquent of German representatives in America, and that revolu- tion attempted in vain to accomplish for Ger- many. It took atleast half a century for the Puritans to overthrow the divine right of kings for England; nearly a score of years for Napoleon to overthrow the divine right of kings for western Europe; we hope that it will not take more than two years to overthrow the divine right of the sword which the Prussian war party is attempting to establish in place of the divine right of kings. France owes Germany a debt; for Germany overthrew the corrupt and ineffi- cient imperialism of Napoleon III and made A HAPPY NEW YEAR 17 the Republic of France possible. We hope that 1916 will see that debt paid to Germany by the overthrow of the capable and efficient imperialism of the German Kaiser. We hope for France that the furnace of” war will have burned out the ecclesiastical barriers which have separated Frenchmen— barriers inherited from long before the days of Voltaire; that the Catholic will have learned to be more Catholic and the humanitarian more human ; that, fighting side by side, the devout Romanist and the undevout agnostic will have learned that they are united by a faith in truth, in goodness, and in their fellow- men which the shallow crevasses of conflict- ing creeds cannot destroy, and also will have learned that there is in the world a directing power which neither democracies nor priest- hoods create. And we hope that Frenchmen of all creeds, sobered and inspired by this awful but splendid tragedy, may unite in re- building their Republic to be an object-lesson of liberty, equality, and fraternity to all the world. We hope that Russia will have learned from the failure of Germany that a bureaucratic government is ill fitted for the twentieth century ; we hope that the political power of the Duma will be increased, that the radicalism of Russian revolutionists will be tempered by the new birth of a Russian patriotism, and that real and permanent progress will be made in that land toward constitutional gov- ernment. Russian literature, Russian music, Russian art, and Russian courage and per- sistency have indicated what a great destiny awaits the too-long-repressed Russian people if they can secure an opportunity for self- development. We hope that the Dardanelles will become as free to the world’s commerce as the Suez Canal or the Straits of Gibraltar, and that Russia, becoming a commercial na- tion, will receive that impulse to a larger and more generous life which isolation denies and commerce imparts. We hope that the Turkish Government, which has never attempted to assimilate its subject populations or to adjust itself to European ideas and ideals, may be driven from Europe forever. Banished to its true home inAsia Minor, we hope that its people may share in the benefit of the European emanci- pation, and that schools, colleges, churches, and a free press may continue under better auspices and in a freer atmosphere their work of education and uplifting. We do not hope, we do not wish, that those who are respon-
Page 18
18 THE OUTLOOK sible for the wholesale massacre of defenseless Armenians shall escape divine punishment; but we hold that the Turkish Government and their German leaders, not the Turkish peo- ple, are responsible for that unparalleled deed of cruelty. i We hope that in the readjusted map of Europe which must follow this war, and will be one of the conditions of peace, national boundaries will be human rather than geo- graphical ; that those boundary lines will be selected which inclose homogeneous peoples rather than those which appear to military engineers fitted for military defense; that the right of small nations to exist will be rec- ognized and forever secured—the right which in America made Rhode Island no less a sovereign State than Texas ; that the destiny of these smaller states will be determined wholly by the interests and largely by the in- clinations of the people who inhabit them ; that the Balkan States will abandon the notion that one of them must dominate the rest and substitute for domination co-operation, if not confederation ; that the rights and liberties of the people of Poland, Alsace and Lorraine, Luxemburg, and Schleswig-Holstein may be recognized by international agreement and safeguarded by international action. And we not only hope, we believe, that never again will any power which claims to be civilized cynically regard a treaty as a “scrap of paper.” Wenot only hope, we believe, that this war has secured for all time the serious- ness and sacredness of international treaties. We hope for England that when the war is over her people will find that the invisible but impervious walls of caste have crumbled ; that the nation will no longer pursue its journey through history in first, second, and third class compartments ; that the fraternity of which Lloyd George is a political expo- nent and Galsworthy a literary exponent will become the English ideal ; that England will have learned that a nation divided against itself is weak and will find a way to unite employer and employed in a true partner- ship, to equalize both wealth and oppor- tunity, to provide adequate and free edu- cation for all her people, and to abate, not by royal edict, but by a democratic method in harmony with the genius of her people, the twofold burden which she is now carrying on her bent back—drunkenness and pauperism. We hope for America that her people will awake from their dream ; will no longer im- 5 January agine that she is not concerned with world problems and world policies, or that the ocean is a barrier, not a highway, or that this high- way, available for peaceful commerce, is not equally available for navies and transports. We hope before the end of 1916 to see America well on its way toward an equip ment in arms and in courageous resolution adequate to enable it to fulfill its duty, shame- fully neglected during the last two years, to protect every American citizen at home and abroad, on land and on sea; and also to en- able it to take its share with other civilized nations in preserving liberty and law, justice and peace, throughout the globe. We hope to see it take the lead in organizing a Pan- American League, the objects of which shall be to make the Monroe Doctrine not merely national but continental, and which shall be the prophet and precursor of an International League of Peace eventually uniting all civil- ized nations in a league to preserve the peace and promote the welfare of all. For we hope that the nations, taught by this terrible tragedy, will agree to substitute law for war as a means of settling international contro- versies, and will unite their armaments to protect from the criminal assault of any warlike nations all peaceable nations. We hope that Japan will learn the lesson that her European and American neighbors will have learned: that no nation can perma- nently and peacefully dominate other nations, and no nation ought to make the attempt ; that influence is better than power ; that to befriend China is the only highway to lead- ership, and that coercion always leads to a precipice. We hope that America and Japan will frankly accept a Monroe Doctrine for the Eastern as well as for the Western Hemi- sphere, but that both Japan and America will recognize that this doctrine means pro- tection, not exploitation, of the weak by the strong. Dr. Mulford in his well-known volume has substitutéd the phrase Republic of God for Kingdom of God. ‘The two phrases are synonymous, since the rule of God over men is a rule in men, and God’s government is self-government. The new phrase fits the spirit and understanding of our time. We wish and we hope for the new year that the dimly perceived influences in 1915, described in our obituary of the departing year last week, will bring forth an unexpected fruitage of larger liberty in the nations, and a better understanding among them, and so will ce © = @ wtt 83 8 i A ”n
Page 19
1916 make the year 1916 one of unexampled progress toward the Republic of God. PREPAREDNESS AND POLICY Preparedness means more than the making of guns and the building of battle-ships. _Pre- paredness means more than the efficient organization of our resources in men and money. “Preparedness means, first of all, a definition of our National aims, ambitions, and ideals. For what future shall we prepare? Are we to throw overboard the Monroe Doctrine, the Philippines, and Porto Rico? Are we to jettison our responsibility for Cuba and Haiti? Are we to cut away from the Ship of State the top-hamper of our obligations to The Hague, to our citizens in foreign lands, to the rights of humanity upon the seven seas, and to the hope of a world governed by recognized law? If this is our plan and expectation, let us say so and then measure our military preparedness by the purpose we have in mind. Are we to demand for American su/tur a place in the sun, limited only by the range of our guns and the capacity of our egotism ? Do we want to turn Mexico City into a .way- station on an American railway to Panama and South America, or ask from Canada political control of a “summer port” in Hudson’s Bay? If this is our plan and expectation, let us say so at once and then frankly devote our energies towards making of our Nation an armed camp and towards the construction of a navy unquestionably supreme. We believe that practically every American will admit, without discussion, the absurdity of the two propositions which we have here outlined. The extreme pacifist and the ex- treme militarist are not typical figures in our democracy. There are many, however, who, while repudiating the doctrines of the ex- treme pacifist and the extreme militarist, have failed to recognize the need of co-ordi- nating our National policies and our military establishment. First, what is the National creed to which the great majority of our citizens give at least lip loyalty ? We believe in the right of the independent nations of our hemisphere to work out their own salvation without interference from the nations of Europe. PREPAREDNESS AND POLICY 19 We believe in upholding our pledged faith to Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. We believe in the open door of commercial opportunity in China and in the preservation of the ‘“‘ administrative entity ” of that ancient land. We believe that the possession and security of the Panama Canal are essential to our National welfare. We believe that the very existence of inter- national law involves our National responsi- bility for its enforcement and support. To this end we entered upon the conventions at The Hague. For this cause we have pleaded among the nations. The growing sentiment behind this final paragraph of our National creed has been admirably defined by two men who have the right to speak with the authority of experience concerning our National and _ international policies. In a recent address ex-Senator Elihu Root has voiced his firm belief that wrongs against international law must be treated as we now treat wrongs against the private citizens of an individual State. Such wrongs we regard as offenses not merely against the individual, but against the body politic. The application of .this principle to international relations, whereby an offense to one nation becomes an offense to all, neces- sarily involves our assuming direct responsi- bility for the preservation of international law. Still more positively has this feeling been expressed by Dr. David Jayne Hill in a recent speech before the Economic Club of New York City. He said: Apart from all dangers of foreign attack, it is our duty to bea positive and effective influence in the world. We cannot decently, as a great Power, throw the whole burden of defending neutral rights and the rights of humanity upon the little nations ; and, inan age when influence is measured by force, we must be strong or we shall prove delinquent. . . . We should be able to say to the rest of mankind: “ We in America have stood for the dominion of law, for a world tribunal, for the sanctity of treaties, for the rights of neutrals, and for the inviolability of innocent persons. We have discouraged arma- ment and sought to accomplish its Jimitation both by precept and example. Now we say to you, if you are going on with it, if you are in- tending to overpower helpless peoples, and to dominate the world by brute force, you at least shall not dominate over us.” The adoption of the creed which we have outlined here as a summary of Ameri-
Page 20
20 THE OUTLOOK can policy lies wholly within the function of the civil government. It may voice or it may not voice the opinion of the individual officers of our army and navy. In its formu- lation they have played no part, but for its maintenance we have thrust upon them in a large measure the responsibility. We believe that for all time our country has settled the question of the superiority of the civil government to its military arm. We have by no means settled, however, the relation between our civil government and its trained experts in the army and navy. There are those who profess to believe that in the solution of our military problems our trained experts are disqualified to voice an opinion from the mere fact that they are trained experts. On the other hand, there are those who would at once turn over the purse of the Nation to the General Staff of the army and the General Board of the navy. The man who regards the experts of the army and navy as hired men, and the man who regards these same experts as statesmen with whom the absolute definition of our policy of defense must be left, are, in the view of The Outlook, both wide of the mark. Military experts should bear the same relation to the Nation that the architect bears to his client. The client determines where his house is to be built. He consults with his architect. He expects to learn from his architect the conditions of climate which must be met in the locality which he has selected for a house, and the kind of building materials which are cheapest and best suited to his purpose and purse. The decision as to whether his roof shall be supported by oak beams 8x4 or pine beams 6x5, and the composition of the cement in his basement walls, he leaves, or should leave, to his tech- nical adviser. Our civil government and our people have the right to learn from our military advisers the size and distribution of the forces of for- eign powers which, in view of our civil poli- cies, may be brought against us. Our mili- tary authorities should, in large measure, have the right of determining the manner in which the appropriations, granted by the civil gov- ernment for the purpose of defending our National integrity and our civil policy, should be used. The great bulk of the criticism leveled against Secretary Daniels for his re- cent recommendations to Congress is based on the fact that he apparently ignored both the information given him by our naval experts as to the size of the forces which might be brought to question our National policies, and their technical recommendations concerning the type and distribution of the ships which even he himself considered requisite for our safety. What seems to The Outlook the best method of utilizing the advice of our military experts while maintaining the supremacy of our civil government will be discussed in a later issue: THE NATIONS AT WAR I—THE DOUBLE WAR OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE BY GREGORY MASON Y the chances of weather the fortunes B of this world war may be decided. Napoleon, who boasted that, with a thick fog, and with wind to blow him down on England, he would change the course of his- tory, wanted that wind and fog no more than William II wants a winter of deep snow and bitter cold in Russia. In the chance of such a winter lies the Kaiser’s greatest immediate hope of the Russian revolution which Germans have not ceased to predict and pray for since August, 1914. And in the chance of such a revolution lies one of the Kaiser’s greatest hopes of victory over the Allies. Russia is seething with conflicting emo- tions. In this critical hour she is torn by the many divergent reactions of her people to do different things or to do the same thing dif- ferently. Always a country of contradic- tions, the contradictions have never been so marked as now. Always a prey to politics and intrigue, in this trial hour of her history her system is weakened by the unabated 5 January 2 Or a. Mek ee ie ee ee oe eS
Page 21
1916 gnawing of these twin diseases in her vitals. With many conflicting perceptions clamoring to be registered on his brain, a foreigner, who goes to Russia to-day seeking impressions, during the first few days after his arrival feels that a photograph. of his mind would look like a cubist painting of a lunatic’s night- mare. But gradually two notions become clearly fixed on his mental retina. First, the Russian people in the mass are utterly de- voted to the prosecution of the war with Germany ; and, second, a large part of the Russian people, probably a large majority of them, are dissatisfied with their Government and the way it is conducting this war. This war is their own war—a war of democ- racy against autocracy—the people feel as they have never felt of any war before. Their confidence in the outcome is not a jubilant confidence, but a confidence born of dogged determination, of a grim, almost unanimous ‘resolution to “‘ see it through.” There is no peace talk anywhere among the masses of real Russians—despite the treachery and inclination to quit among a certain, mostly mongrel, element of the population which I described in The Outlook last week. A mother who has lost three sons sends her fourth and last to the front with pathetic devotion. The people love the army and the army loves the people, for the old pro- fessional army has been largely killed off, and this army is an army of the people, understood by them and trusted. I saw twenty passen- gers in a street car get off and stand in the rain to make way for a dozen one-legged soldiers to hobble off. On another occasion a crowded street car in Petrograd on which I was riding was about to start when a ragged, bent old woman with the thick, rough-hewn figure of a peasant forced her way onto: the front platform carrying a brown paper parcel which a huge soldier had left behind on the curb. In spite of the conduc- tor’s efforts to enforce the rule against enter- ing by the front door, she shouldered her way into the car, holding up the bundle and shouting hoarsely, ‘“‘ The big soldier must have his property ! the big soldier must have his property !”’ The crowd in the aisle leaned aside for her to pass and roared their approval as she plumped the package into the arms of the heavy, grinning muzhik and jumped from the rear platform as the car shot ahead. Two years ago such illustrations of popular affec- tion for the soldiery would have been rare. Now they are common. THE NATIONS AT WAR 2i The nearer one goes to the front, the more optimistic one finds the inhabitants in regard to the outcome of the war with Germany. Only in Petrograd, permeated with the at- mosphere of intrigue and the cynicism of the professional politician, is there much pessi- mism. And even there the majority laugh at the fears of the minority. I saw a playlet, called “The Folly of Being Timid,” at a Petrograd theater which offered a picture of St. Petersburg when Napoleon was ap- proaching Moscow, and which by ostensibly ridiculing the fears of the people in those times subtly induced the audience to laugh at their own fears in a similar situation to-day. In their gay scorn of danger the Russians are like the French, and they are like them to- day in the growing confidence that the worst is over, that the tide of battle has reached the limit of its ebb and is beginning to turn to the flood. But Russia to-day is unlike France in the dissatisfaction of Russia’s people with their Government. United in their determination to carry on the war with the invaders the Rus- sians are, but they are not satisfied with the Government’s leadership, and many of them say frankly that before they can overthrow the external enemy they must reconstruct their own political machine. Others, how- ever, say that to attempt such a reconstruc- tion now would mean an internal struggle that would give Germany an easy opening to victory, and they counsel putting up with the present Government till the war storm has blown over. As one of the liberal leaders put it, the Russian people are in the position of a man passing along the edge of a precipice in an automobile who sees that his chauffeur has suddenly gone insane. What shall he do? If he does nothing, the demented chauffeur may drive the car over the cliff; but, on the other hand, if he attempts to take the wheel from the irresponsible driver, in the struggle that will doubtless ensue the momentarily unpiloted car may plunge to destruction. “ It is best for the time being to do nothing and trust to luck,” this politician said, ‘‘ keeping a close eye on the chauffeur, with the resolve to attempt to throw him overboard if he veers the car toward the precipice.” This advice the majority of the Russians to-day seem disposed to follow, but any day they may decide to grapple with their chauf- feur if the danger from him increases. The causes of their disatisfaction are too many
Page 22
22 THE OUTLOOK and too deep-seated to be explained in full here, but partly their discontent is due to inefficiency and corruption in the Government, which has been responsible for the inadequate equipping of the army, and particularly for the shortage in guns and ammunition, which has caused Russia’s heaviest defeats. Am- munition gave out, it is alleged, because the officials charged with ordering it abroad with- held the orders while they haggled with the manufacturers for their personal commissions. In the meantime Russian soldiers were going into the trenches without rifles and the army was falling back from the Carpathians through Lemberg, Warsaw, and Vilna with empty artillery. The popular discontent is due in part to the removal of the Grand Duke Nicholas from his former position as Com- mander-in-Chief of the Russian forces—a step which the people are convinced was brought about by jealousy, treachery, and other sinister influences at Court. But it is due much more and mainly to the people’s resentment that they are denied their right to a share of the control in the conduct of a war which concerns their most vital interests and to which they are giving their lives and property without reserve. Specifically and particularly their indigna- tion was fanned by the Czar’s peremptory adjournment of the Duma, that body whose existence provides the principal trace of cen- tral constitutional government in Russia. When I left Russia in the latter part of November, it was plain that the failure of the Czar to reconvene the Duma within the promised time (before December 13 by our cal- endar) would be a flagrant excitation of the peo- ple’s already tense feelings, a very dangerous step for the Government. The Duma has not been convened, and by this time the feelings of the people are probably near the boiling point. It is significant that within the past week there have been several reports of riots in Russia. Newspaper despatches on condi- tions in Russia must be read with much reserve as a rule, but there is a strong supposition for believing these reports to be true. Another thorn that rankles in the flesh of the masses is the unnecessary shortage of sugar, flour, and coal. ‘This shortage exists because of inefficiency in the transportation service, which prevents the flow of these commodities from certain provinces where there is much of them to the big cities. Early in the fall the quantity of sugar which householders were permitted to buy at one 5 January time was restricted to about two pounds, and as a result the “ sugar lines”” began. When I left Petrograd and Moscow, before every shop that dealt in sugar all day long one could find a single file of citizens stretching off for a block or two from the door of the sugar shop, each person in line standing for an hour or more before reaching the counter. These people were there through rains and blizzards, and as the thermometer fell their tempers rose. FEarly fall this year in Petro- grad and Moscow was unusually warm and dry, but later the expected cold rain, sleet, and snow of a Russian autumn began, and it is not pleasant to stand for an hour at a time on an uncovered sidewalk in such weather. Unless radical steps have been taken to increase the flour supply in the big cities since I left Russia, by this time the bread lines must be equaling the sugar lines, a supposition strengthened by newspaper reports. A bread or sugar line is a splendid plate to talk politics, and a fertile field for the efforts of agitators. The million war refugees in Petrograd, the million in Moscow, and the hundreds of thousands in other cities and towns, like the discontented householders, also feel bitterly toward the Government which deliberately wiped out their homes as the army fell back, refusing to permit the people to remain and live behind the ad- vancing German lines. Such people provide eager audiences for the advocates of violent reform. — Living for the most part in railway stations, warehouses, stables, hen houses, and ‘¢yopli. oogoli (warm corners) here and there, fed insufficiently and spasmodically by charity,’ suffering from cold and disease, these refugees from the occupied provinces, whose number is variously estimated at from five to ten millions, form the gravest imme- diate problem in Russia to-day. Thousands of them have died already, hundreds of thou- sands more will die before spring unless the resources of the. Empire are concentrated at once to their relief: This winter, which has already begun in all its Russian bitterness, promises to be crowded with more suffering than any in Russian history, and the Germans hope that it will be so, for starving refugees, and angry householders who are forced to stand in the snow for their sugar and flour, are the material of which revolutions are made. When you have stood on numbed feet for hours at a time several days in the month because your influence is insufficient to get in bulk the commodities which it is common
Page 23
1916 knowledge your neighbors with “pull” are so getting, you begin to want to throw things. The nerves of the Russian masses are on edge, their tempers are worn fine, and an extra bliz- zard or two might bring the irritation of enough of them to the exploding point to produce a detonation which would shatter the existing political order, and incidentally give the Ger- mans the opportunity to gain such an irretriev- able advantage that Russia would have tomake peace. So by the chances of weather might the fortunes of war be determined. Some sort of forceful public protest seems inevitable if the inefficiency and corruption that have hampered Russia’s army are not elimi- nated and if the demand of the people for a representative ministry and a share in the management of the war is not granted. This protest may take the form of an organized revolution or it may take the form of a series of isolated riots. Evidences of popular unrest are every- where. In Moscow, where the Russian na- tional pulse beats nearest on the surface, the people are at such a tension that every time a cart is upset they jump at the clatter and come running from all directions to learn if a bomb has been thrown. Everywhere the en- grossing subject is politics. Whenever people come together for any purpose whatsoever, the conversation inevitably comes around to the internal situation. Every meeting for war relief, for the organization of the national re- sources, for the discussion of art, agriculture, poetry, or what not, becomes a political meet- ing. In the restaurants, on the street cars, in their homes, the people talk politics, and in the hospitals similar discussions are kept up from cot to cot by wounded soldiers. For- eigners who return to Russia to-day after ten or even five years’ absence voice their aston- ishment at the change in the people. Public discussion rages. Newspapers are read as never before. Last summer the trains running through the interior of Russia were met at every little country station by peasants who begged newspapers from travelers through the car windows. ‘Those who could read the papers read them aloud to those who could not. In a store or hall in every little village one can find knots of peasants getting the news from one of their number who is blessed with literacy. Moreover, the eighty per cent illiteracy of the Russian people, to which writers about Russia so often refer as proof of the imputed ignorance of THE NATIONS AT WAR 23 the Russian masses, is rapidly diminishing. Awakened by the great spiritual currents that this war has set in motion, the Russian mushik has caught a vision that is moving him even under the dead weight of centu- ries of submission and dumb acceptance of the s/atus guo in society which has pinned him down. Idle for weeks at a time in hos- pitals, thousands of peasants are learning to read. Nurses in the American Hospital in Petrograd say that instead of the eighty per cent of illiteracy which they were taught to expect among the common soldiers they have found less than forty per cent. This war has meant travel, opportunity to meet and exchange view-points with strangers, and a general widening of the horizon of millions of low-class Russians. It has been the dawn of a new day of mental and spiritual promise to millions of muzhiks who but for it would have spent all their lives near the scenes of their nativity, mentally rotting in the acceptance of the philosophy of Vichevo—never mind. All Russia is thrilling with a new liberal- ism. Everyone has caught it except a few whose interests are inextricably tangled in the old order of things. Baron Rosen, former Ambassador to the United States, always reputed a reactionary until a few months ago, has come out in favor of the rights of Jews, Poles, and the other races who have hereto- fore been the under-dogs in Russia. _ Liberal- ism won much at the recent fall elections, and now the Progressive Bloc has some adherents even among the representatives of nobility in the Council of the Empire. The United Nobility, which has been one of the most reactionary organizations in Russia. the purpose of which has been to preserve intact the ancient privileges of the nobility at any ex- pense, is now in danger of dissolution. With- out any authorization from the body, one of its members asked Premier Goremykin to dis- solve the Duma. This presumptuous act was resented by the majority of the United Nobility, and the offending member’s name was stricken from the list of the organ- ization. The quarrel that ensued seems to have disrupted the United Nobility perma- nently. The cleavage that is marked through all classes of Russian society is visible in the Ministry. It is well known that some of the Ministers were displeased by the high-handed manner in which that wheel-horse of the old guard, Goremykin, brought about the ad- journment of the Duma. Sazonoff, the Min- ister of Foreign Affairs, and Krivosheyn, the
Page 24
24 THE OUTLOOK Minister of Agriculture, have several times been rumored to be on the point of resign- ing, because, it is commonly believed, they have angered the Premier by urging acquies- cence with some of the demands of the people. Things that people dared not think ten years ago they are saying openly now. Ten years ago only the ¢vfe/ligentsia were aware of the peril embodied in the presence of the degenerate Rasputin in power atcourt. To- day every janitor, cab-driver, and cook in Petrograd feels that he has a personal griev- ance against the unprincipled and profligate hypnotist,.and Rasputin skulks behind the Czar at Field Headquarters, behind the Em- press at Tsarkoe Selo, or in his well-guarded apartment on the Gorochovaya, not daring to show his face on the Nevsky Prospect. The height of free speech, so far as I know, was reached at a meeting held in the yellow-towered Petrograd town-hall by the newly formed Society for the Promotion of Mutual Friendly Relations between Russia and America. It was announced. that the pro- ceeds of the meeting would be devoted to the wants of Russian prisoners of war in Germany. A number of celebrated political speakers were advertised, including Paul Milyukov, the leader of the Cadet party, Professor Kovalev- sky, a progressive independent in politics, and Rodichev, one of the shrewdest members of the Cadets, a tall, calm, smiling man who, his enemies say, ‘‘ looks like the cat that swal- lowed the canary.” The long hall was crowded with all sorts of Russians—plump, prosperous merchants, officers in tan service uniforms, professors from the University of Petrograd and their long-haired, emaciated students, whose faces burned with a strange enthusiasm in the close, smoky atmosphere. Every seat was filled half an hour before the meeting was opened, and men and women stood three deep against the wall and on the platform be- hind the speakers. The people told each other quite frankly why they were there. ‘We are not here because of our interest in America, although that is great,” they said, “nor because of our desire to help our prison- ers in Germany, which is even stronger ; but we are here to hear Milyukov and the others talk politics.” They were not disappointed. With the representatives of the police and the censorship sitting directly below the speakers’ platform, Rodichev told the audience that the Amer- ican people cannot understand how a people of the intelligence of the Russians can tol- erate a form of government so outworn as theirs. But the climax was reached when Milyukov warmed up to his subject. - He had been describing the German propaganda in the United States and comparing it with the similar campaign of underhandedness from which Russia has suffered to a larger extent. Then he mentioned interests and traits which Russians and Americans have in common. “The American people sympathize with the Russian people and have much in com- mon with them,” said Milyukov, in the crisp, firm manner of speaking characteristic of him, ‘“‘ but the. Russian Government is a wall between the two peoples which prevents the expression of this sympathy, which pre- vents either people acquiring a full under- standing of the other. ‘Therefore the first endeavor of those who wish to bring these two: peoples closer together should be to tear down this wall.” : The agents of the police blinked a little like men whose faces have been tickled in their sleep ; Baron Rosen, the President of the Society, who was presiding, moved uneasily in his seat and turned pale; while the audi- ence to an individual stood up and roared its approval of these sentiments. That was all, except that all reference to this part of Milyukov’s speech was omitted from the newspapers the next day by permission of the censor. With all this discontent, open and smolder- ing, some of whichis voiced with unprecedented frankness, the chances are that if there is a revolution in Russia it will be deferred until the end of the war with Germany. This is because the wiser element in the population realizes that to revolt now would be to play Germany’s game for her, and is resolved to bear almost any amount of irritation from the Government rather than to help Germany. The liberal leaders—the men who areidentified with the fortunes of the Progressive Bloc, which represents all but the extreme wing of liberalism—are going among the people, speaking at their meetings, talking to them in the markets, in the weary wet lines wait- ing for sugar, exhorting them to keep the peace now and stand together till Germany has been vanquished. ‘The Russian people have two wars on their hands,” say these men—* an outside war and an inside war. We must vanquish (Continued on page following illustrations)
Page 25
Current Events Pictorially Treated | | ) l F & ww eo ~ ' P ‘ ‘ : ve ¥ at Ly i , im a + Sa ee. ee y PHOTOGRAPH FROM UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD THE HEAVY HAND OF WAR } Of all the countries that have suffered from the war, perhaps Servia is most to be pitied. First decimated by pestilence, her people have now been ravaged by fire and sword, her armies have been scattered or taken captive,and her government has been destroyed. The picture shows a pathetic group of Servian prisoners of war on their way to an Austrian prison camp
Page 26
BUIN}SOD 19}ULM 1194} Ul SULLZdUa}UOW| jo sed4} sMoys ainjzoid sy, “1ap10q ay} Ssosd 0} SOMMIE URIAIAS 94} paljedwos savy OYM suBUIIA®) 94} Aq A1]UNOD AIaYy JO Syed BIqISSODIeUL BIOW BY} OUI PAMOT[OJ 9q 0} A[AYI[ JOU de ‘ADURISUI BY ‘sULLZaUEUOW! AL, “UOISBAUL paivay DALY YOIYM S97ze}S 1d[[PUS 9Y} JO S9DL0J BY} 07 UOT}D930I1d sBuLiq osye 3 yng ‘adoiny jo syed: Aueul ut sdoos} ay} 07 Suuajyns sButiq 10,UTA, SAUSSAUNLSVA NIVINOOW WIAHL NI SNIVDANALNOW Tn Le ~
Page 27
Speap SNOHOWeUI Joy Bury aya Aq payesodap usaq ysnf aavy a1nqoId ay} ur Ud—as synoz */ 4 jo advuoiyed ay} Aq umoys st uredg ut pray stat Yor ul soAey YyS1y L ‘“paeu [esiaarun & JaauI 07 Burwmiaas ‘A Ls: JUAWIBAOUI YNOIG fog NAANO ANV AHL au a aka
Page 28
satin {ul Sujvo0] Jo poyjaU JYTWUALNS 4Sa}e] 9Y} JO aSejUBApeE 9} JUSWZIEd~ap SIY} Ul DATBDOI JUST} EAI} ATVUIPO OYJeq FEY} SJUAPIOOe YIIM Jou JAvY OYM saadojdiusy LIOULAG NI AYOLOVA ATWAOWOLAV LNANINOUd V AO ‘IVLIdSOH AHL NI WOOU AVU-X AHL
Page 29
MNUYOM AUVATAM TVIULSNGNI NVOIMANV A19UB PAIBAVS & WOIJ POOT JO MOY y} Surddojs yo poyyout s9doid ay} 0} sv UOTONAYSUT SazeAysNyL aanzold ayy, “painful ay} 10J a1ed 07 Moy saaojdwa A1ojovy pur udut AeMiles SUNINAYSUL JO YOM SPI UL SITIU ONO'S P2feAvs} OALY O} ples st ‘AjJaIN0G SsOID, poy [eUOHEN 943 Jo ‘spparys “f “W ‘AC Jo aBreyo ay sapun st yor “avd sTyT, UVO NOILVULSNOWAC AVATIVU ,, CIV LSUId,, SSOUD GaUu V
Page 30
DAVID MOYLAN: RAILWAY SWITCHMAN, LAWYER, COUNCILMAN, JUDGE Eighteen years ago David Moylan, of Cleveland, Ohio, lost his right arm while working as a railway switchman. Seven years lateranother accident deprived him of his left arm. He then learned to write by hold- ing a pen between his teeth, studied law, practiced, was elected to the County Council four years ago, and recently was elected a municipal court judge
Page 31
PHOTOGRAPH BY AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION TUSKEGEE’S NEW HEAD as reported in The Outlook last week, succeeding the late Booker W Major Robert R. Moton, whose portrait appears above, has been appointed Principal of Tuskegee Institute, of Flampton Institute. ashington. Major Moton isa graduate Unlike Dr. Washington, he is a full-blooded Negro. He was born in Virginia in 1867 ?
Page 32
SUBaY YSIpyd Zurysn4j Jo spuesnoy3 Oj 120y49 poos pur ssoutddey Sursunq sny} ut paSeSue siadjay 199}UN[OA SMOYS 310} Lay sasvo AULUL UI PO1OARapUS PU 19}}9] YORS PalaMsUe YOIYM SUOTBIOSsSY SNeIC) BURG 19}}19’T pea ey} 0} pepremioy aq pinom Aay} Ajueulpsig , » OL ALINM NAUATIHD LVHL SYALLAT SYAMSNV NOLLVIDOSSV LNATOAANAA V “YIM patdwiod s}sanbas ay} aavy 0} 24} 0} BoYJo-jsod Y1O A MON 94} Aq 1940 pauin} 219M Avy Uosvas sty3 ING “e=9WO (SNe BUG ,, 0} A[dulIs passeippe seUnysty +) Alda Spreut 9y} YBn01Y} WAS dv $19}}9] JO SpursNoYyy Aueyy
Page 33
THE NATIONS AT WAR 33 the external enemy before we turn on the foe within. Otherwise we will lose both fights. Beat Germany first.” The problem for these liberals is complex. They are sure that the people are strong enough to win a revolution now. But are the people strong enough to postpone the revolution, to prosecute the war to a suc- cessful issue in spite of the bungling of some Officials and the downright treachery of others, and then, despite the new prestige which the Government would secure by such a victory, to begin their second war, the internal one, and win it ? If the revolution were to come now, the army would be with it, or at least not against it, the members of the liberal parties believe ; for their own sons and brothers constitute a large part of the rank and file and fill many high positions also. But after peace has been signed with Germany it will be easy for the bureaucracy to disband that part of the army which is liberal in its sympathies, keep- ing in harness the professional remnant which will be loyal to the autocracy. Then will not the very success of the war against Germany militate against the success of the people’s internal war, followed, as such a victory might well be, by a wave of reaction? Perhaps so, but it is better to run that risk than to take the larger one of assuring German victory in the east by launching a revolution now. Such is the view-point of the majority of that substantial body of Russians who form the membership of the parties allied in the Progressive Bloc, a liberal coalition that con- trols a majority of the delegates in the Duma. A minority counsels radical meas- ures now, believing that the people are strong enough to assert themselves instantly and get anew government overnight, not disturbing the alignment of the regiments at the front and by the very speed of the maneuver giving the Germans no opening to strike. ‘‘Who knew that France was ready for a revolution in 1789 or England in 1648 ?” ask these men. ‘ We are more prepared than they were then, and would make quicker work of it.” This is not true at all. The truth is that there is next to no preliminary organization for a revolution, and if one comes it will be spontaneous and will have to rely on its own momentum to carry it along, like the revolu- tion of 1905 which failed. Wherefore the majority of the liberal element is wise in following the guidance of men like Milyukov, who counsel unity till the end of the war. Milyukov is hampered by his academic past, as Mr. H. W. Williams says in his ‘‘ Russia of the Russians.”” Milyukov’s mistakes “ are those that academic men do make when they overreach themselves in trying to be practi- cal.” But, on the whole, he is the wisest and steadiest leader that Russian liberalism has to-day; there is more of the Joan of Arc and more of the Lincoln in him than any other liberal in political life. He has vision. The position of the Government is hard to analyze. It seems alternately compromis- ing, as when the Duma was convened last August with many promises of power to it by Premier Goremykin, and sternly repress- ive, as when the Duma was adjourned. When one sees the provocation of workmen by Gov- ernmentagents such as is going on in N.oscow, one believes that the Government wants a rev- olution, perhaps on the theory that it would be more easily handled now than later. When one sees that Milyukov and his colleagues are allowed much latitude so long as they counsel present unity, one believes what is most natural to believe, namely, that the Government does not want a revolution. The truth is that the Government is not a unit, and its agents are divided in their feeling in regard to the war and important internal questions ; but in the last analysis the Govern- ment’s policy seems to be to give just as little to the people as can safely be done, relying on * the knowledge that the bulk of the people are bent on keeping a united front against Ger- many, and will not disturb order within Russia until Germany has been disposed of unless they are goaded beyond human en- durance. Only a few groups represented on the ex- treme left of the Duma are advocating revo- lution now. The Social Democrats are divided into two camps—the more conservative in- clined to satisfy themselves with criticism, the more radical urging the people to enforce their demands with violence. There is little good to be expected from either of these groups. The first is still concerned mainly with lament- ing the failure of internationalism; the mem- bers of the second admit that the prospect of German victory is horrible to them, yet they are urging the people on a course that would be to Germany’s greatest advantage. All these followers of the political philosophy repre- sented on the extreme left of the Duma are raising the old cry about the inability of the bourgeoisie to represent the interests of the
Page 34
34 THE OUTLOOK 5 January masses ; they are trying to set the working- men and peasants against the middle classes and the énéelligentsia. But Russia’s hope to-day is from its mid- dle classes and from its inte/ligentsia, whose members are rapidly increasing their own number by carrying education and inspiration to the masses. It is difficult to estimate the probabilities of a revolution in Russia. ‘There may be one before spring if the war goes awry, or if Russia is betrayed into a separate peace with Ger- many by false leaders. In the latter case there would be an excellent chance that the army would go right on fighting, and, supported by the people and by men in the upper classes who are unalterably opposed to Ger- man dominance in Russia, such as the Grand Duke Nicholas, and Sergius Sazonoff, Minister of Foreign Affairs, would frustrate the hopes of the Germanophile Camarilla. Certainly there will be riots induced by the inevitable misery that this winter will bring to Russia, but unless they are protracted and co-ordinated, neutrals must not be deceived when the Ger- mans herald these outbreaks as “ the revo- lution.”’ But soon after the close of this war we can expect that the Russian people who have given their whole energy to the conflict with Germany will demand their reward from their Government in the shape of a broad expansion of the programme of. constitution- alism in Russia. Then they will devote them- selves to their second struggle, the internal one, with all the zeal that they have shown in the external conflict, and with the esprit de corps, the knowledge of their own power, and the organization that they have gained in the war with Germany. Then there will be a clash if the Government is still ruled by the spirit of uncompromising reaction in men like Goremykin. But if the Government yields something, a revolution may be avoided. And why may we not hope that it will yield? The whole world to-day is moved by an instinct toward democ- racy. China has felt it, Portugal has felt it, the Allies are fighting for it. The people of Russia are fighting for it above anything else ; that is why they are committed to the prose- cution of this war to the bitter end. And there is too much energy in them to be downed. ‘They may have their setbacks, but they cannot be downed, for they are growing stronger all the time and wiser in their strength. One who has been among them, who has felt their splendid unanimity in this war, who has felt the irresistible strength of their unity which they themselves are just beginning to learn, must believe in them and their future. And, after all, “you cannot measure Russia with a common measure ; you can only believe in her.” II—HOLLAND AND THE WAR The Outlook has received from a responsible source this comment upon public opinion in Holland. It represents observations extending over more than a year of the war—THeE EDITORS. OLLAND’S relation to the war is H peculiar. During the first weeks the Dutch expected an invasion by the Germans and threw their troops into Dutch Limburg and along the eastern fron- tier. Wild stories of actual invasion filled the newspapers while Liege was besieged, and I remember meeting on the ship on which I sailed from New York to Rotterdam a group of Dutch reservists from Canada who had hurried to New York and were crossing in order to clear the soil of Holland of the Ger- mans. There had been a battle at Tilburg, in Holland, according to the Canadian papers, in which the Dutch had beaten off a prelimi- nary German attack. ‘The whole international situation has now changed so much that England, and not Ger- many, is regarded by Holland as the possible invader. . The Dutch have long memories. They remember with peculiar bitterness the events which led to the downfall of their schemes for world power in the seventeenth century, and then, as now, it was England that ruled the seas. But this fear of Eng- land is speculative rather than real. The every-day problem for Holland is to get as much as possible through the British block- ade, and to trade as much as possible with Germany and Belgium, on the one hand, and the allied countries on the other. From time to time, as a means of self-protection, the Dutch Government prohibits the export of certain foodstuffs, such as flour, maize, and —— os of o8e ot O6SlU lk
Page 35
1916 Potatoes, too, have come under the ban. But practically the entire produc- tion of cheese in North Holland finds a market in Germany, and a great part of the daily catch of fish goes from Ymuiden to Hanover. Historically the Dutch are a nation of smugglers. They resent the restrictions placed on them by the British command of the seas and evade these restrictions all they can. For philanthropic as well as for com- mercial reasons, their Government permits the sale of a large quantity of white bread to the Belgian communes lying near the Dutch frontier, but other things besides bread go through the lanes of barbed wire which line Holland to the east and to the south. The obstruction to direct trade with the Central Powers is a novel organization called the Overseas Trust. Great Britain early forced the Dutch steamship companies to pool their interests and responsibility in the creation of a trust company which could guarantee that nothing imported into Holland through the naval blockade should go thence into Ger- many. This Overseas Trust has the right to examine the books of every merchant or manufacturer who receives imported goods. It has a large staff of examiners. It works hand in glove with the Government, and solely by the reputation for trustworthiness which it has gained for itself since the war began has it secured for Holland the right to bring things in through the naval lines of the Allies. That does not prevent the sale to Ger- many of anything which the Dutchman may have already, or anything which his country can produce. Hence the sales of fish, cheese, and other agricultural products, and hence also the growing dearth of certain supplies, such as automobile tires and auto- mobile supplies in general. Tires have be- come so expensive that the taxicab companies have in some cases cut the number of their available vehicles almost in half. The Dutch Government has controlled its press admirably. Both German money and Allied money has undoubtedly been used in an attempt to influence the newspapers of the country. ‘Two newspapers, the “ Rotter- damsche Courant’’ and the ‘“* Nieuwe Cou- rant,’’ are permitted by the Germans to be sold in German Belgium. Several of the prominent newspapers seem to lean towards the Ger- mans, but the news is never garbled, and the Dutch admiration for German efficiency meats. THE NATIONS AT WAR | 35 accounts for this leaning rather than any admiration for the German war policy. The Dutch army was one of the first in Europe to mobilize, and it is still under arms. The soldiers are desperately tired and bored. There is nothing for them to do except the petty routine of marching and trench-making and a dull round of royal inspections. The Queen of Holland takes her army seriously. The Prince Consort, who is a German duke, is looked on as a doubtful asset in the present circumstances, and is kept out of military affairs as much as possible. He is, however, the head of the Dutch Red Cross. An amusing story was whispered about Holland regarding the Prince. Some time last spring he made some very indiscreet remarks at a dinner of army officers. His pro-German sentiments were regarded as dangerously unneutral, and the commander of the Dutch forces, General Snyder, put the Prince under arrest. He was sentenced to be confined to the Royal Palace for the period of one month, and he had to serve this rather ignominious sentence in spite of his position. The story goes on that the Queen told General Snyder to shoot the Prince if he attempted to evade the order, and all Holland laughed behind its hand and enjoyed the joke on the Prince. Others besides the Prince, however, are pro-German. The country is filled with German spies, and last summer all the resorts were crowded with families from Germany. The presence of a good many Belgian refu- gees added to Holland’s problem. Belgian artists and literary men filled the shops with drawings, cartoons, and books. bitterly anti- German i character, and, naturaily, the Germ; tourist or business man does not relish these. But the majority of the Dutch have ceased to take the war seriously. Indis- creet amateur photographers are occasionally arrested by the military authorities. Care- less automobile drivers find themselves con- fronted by sentries with bayonets presented. Almost within earshot of the battlefields in Belgium life goes prosperously on in cafés, hotels, and shops. The thing which helped to relieve the Dutch mind was the successful stop which the water defenses of Dixmude and Nieuport offered to the onslaught of the Germans. ‘Thev speak often of the historic defense of Leyden, when the dikes were broken and the invaders were beaten off by water instead of by cannon balls. They do not even take seriously the viola-
Page 36
36 THE OUTLOOK tions of their neutrality by the Zeppelins. Rather often these dreadnoughts of the air sail over Dutch territory.on their raids, and the Dutch content themselves with the harm- less firing of guns and a still more harmless splutter of protest in the morning papers. All the Dutch soldiers used to sing and whistle “‘ Tipperary ’”’ when they marched, but sharp orders have now prohibited this. If the Allies ever decide to get at Germany through Holland, they will possess a power- ful hostage for Holland’s attitude in her 5 January colonies. Holland’s colonial empire is too rich and too exposed to attack from the allied fleets for Holland to oppose any effective resistance to the Allies. Dutchmen used frequently to point out to me the danger of attack on Sumatra, Borneo, and the Celebes by Japan, and they got much comfort from the geographical barrier of the Philippine Islands. The Dutch have studied history to some purpose, and the day may come when the destiny of their colonial empire and our own will be inextricably linked. ZION ISM The pathetic and terrible sufferings of thousands upon thousands of Jews in the belligerent countries of Europe have directed public attention again to the question of Zionism. discuss this question in the following articles. We have asked two distinguished Americans of the Jewish faith to Our own views are expressed as a conclusion to the discussion. —THE EDITORS. I—PALESTINE AND THE JEWISH DEMOCRACY BY LOUIS D. BRANDEIS CHAIRMAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR GENERAL ZIONIST AFFAIRS HREE centuries ago Elder Brewster, reviewing the first year after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, said: “It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage or small dis- contents make them wish themselves home again.”’ Small discantents! Out of the hun- dred who came in the Mayflower fifty-one had died before the close of the y.1r, and at times out of the forty-nine survivors only seven were fit to work. Yet the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers did not falter. To that spirit we owe in large part the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and that which we prize most in American life. With a like spirit the Jewish Pilgrim Fathers turned a generation ago to Palestine, and began to establish those settlements called colonies, through which Zionism is becoming a reality. To avoid misunderstanding, let me say at the outset what Zionism is, and particularly what it is not. First, it is nota movement to transport all the Jews in the world to Palestine. That, indeed, would be impossible, for Palestine is only about the size of Massachusetts. There are 14,000,000 Jews in the world, and Pales- tine could not accommodate more than one- fifth of the number. Second, it is not a movement to trans- port compulsorily a single Jew to Palestine. For Zionism is pre-eminently a movement of freedom, to give the Jews more liberty, not less—the liberty which practically every other people in the world enjoys—the liberty to live in the land of their birth or adoption or to go to the land of their fathers. Third, neither is it a movement to wrest the sovereignty of Palestine from the Turkish Government. Zionism is a movement to give the Jews a home in the land of their fathers where the Jewish life may be lived normally and naturally, and where the Jews may in time hope to constitute a majority of the population and look forward to what we have come to call home rule. For nearly two thousand years, since the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple, the Jews have longed for a return to Palestine. They have been buoyed up by this hope. The prayer of the devout has ~
Page 37
1916 been, ‘‘ Next year in Jerusalem.” For more than eighteen centuries that prayer has been repeated in all parts of the world; and now Zionism has come to make that dream a real- ity in the same way that other dreams of the world have been made realities—through the intelligent devotion and self-sacrifice of those who were true to their ideal. It was thus that the dream of Italian unity and independ- ence became a reality. Garibaldi at the side of Victor Emmanuel entered Rome, the capital of a free and united Italy, half a century after the charcoal-burners of the Abruzzi dreamed their dream of freedom and Mazzini framed the plan of a united nation. And we all know well the dream of Irish Home Rule, which has recently come true. THE JEWISH PILGRIM FATHERS - The Jewish Pilgrim Fathers a generation ago took the first active steps to convert the dream of Zion into a reality. They were a small body of Russian and Rumanian Jews. Instead of following their brethren toAmerica, where a hospitable welcome would have awaited them, they turned to the East, to the land of their fathers. They came from coun- tries where they had been persecuted and oppressed, but it was not only persecution and oppression that led them to Palestine. They would have found freedom from that in America. ‘They were deeply devout, but it was not the desire to practice their religion untrammeled that led them to Palestine. They would have been free to practice it elsewhere. What led them to Palestine was largely this: They felt that the longing that had animated the Jews during the many centuries of exile was a longing of deep sig- nificance which represented the struggle for life of an ancient and gifted people, the struggle of a people who could again do for the world things as great and glorious as they had done in the past, when they gave to the world its great religions and largely its system of morals. They felt that, particu- larly at this time, the Jews might make a contribution greater than ever before, because the world, or at least America, had set for its aim democracy and social justice—ideals for which the Jew had been striving, under the name of brotherhood and righteousness, for twenty-five hundred years. And those Jewish Pilgrim Fathers were filled with a deep sense of nationality, a strong desire for self-govern- ment, a desire for natural, normal develop- ment, as well as a longing to live in the land ZIONISM 37 of their fathers, where there was the inspira- tion of their noble traditions to work out again a -great contribution to the world’s civilization. And for this work they had been particularly fitted by those hardships and persecutions which only men of stout heart and strong faith are able to survive. So these small bands set out from Russia and Rumania for Palestine. The worldly- wise among the Jews shook their heads. They spoke of Palestine gloomily. Palestine the abused, the misgoverned, where neither life nor property was safe; Palestine, be- lieved by them to be sterile, offering nothing comparable with the riches held out by the New World which beckoned a welcome to the Jews. The worldly-wise had much to support their forebodings, because the Jews who went, went to a land they knew not, toa land. long suffering from all the evils of a long-continued misgovernment; but they went prepared for whatever sacrifices might be demanded by their great cause. They had been separated from the land for many centuries, for by law in Russia and Ru- mania Jews were forbidden to own land. They knew nothing of the soil which they were to till. They did not know the lan- guage of the people among whom they were to live. They knew nothing save that this was the country for which their fathers and their fathers’ fathers had longed, the country which they hoped and believed would solve the Tewish problem and enable their people to make other great contributions to the civ- ilization of the world. The first years of these Jewish settlers resembled the first years of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth. They had tn, fight death and disease. Misgovernment of the country had brought malaria into it. The land appeared to be exhausted, and they knew not how to enrich and till it. Many died, and those who survived lived only to be confronted by obstacle after obstacle. Failure followed failure; but they were de- termined, and every failure meant new effort ; every mistake was a teacher. Plowing as they did in the field of faith and reaping experience, these men and those who joined them succeeded at the end of twenty-five years in establishing the two great proposi- tions upon which practical Zionism rests: (1) that Palestine is fit for the modern Jew, and (2) that the modern Jew is fit for Pales- tine. Malaria The settlers was conquered.
Page 38
38 THE OUTLOOK learned to till the soil and saw the possibility of a land again flowing with milk and honey. ‘They went about the task not only of settle- ment but of building a new Jewish civilization. HEBREW MADE A LIVING LANGUAGE First came the revival of the Hebrew lan- guage. We have long thought of Hebrew as a dead language, like the Greek and Latin, but it has come to life. A great part of the Jews in Palestine speak it to-day as their ordinary language of intercourse. Those who have come from many different lands, speaking as many different tongues as those spoken at the Tower of Babel, have joined in learning and speaking the Hebrew tongue— not Yiddish, but the Hebrew language of old. They have developed this language of the Old ‘Testament so that all conceptions of modern philosophy, economics, politics, sci- ence, may be expressed in Hebrew. It has become the language of the instruction in the schools, the language of the press, and of the platform. Education has ever been treasured by the Jewish people. Civilization without education is inconceivable to them. And so they have established a school system almost complete. But for this war it would have been capped with the establishment of the first department of the University of Jerusalem—the medical department. ‘The war interrupted that for- ward step, and also the opening of the Insti- tute of Technology at Haifa. But before the war there had been established high schools in which were fitted, not only Jews of Pales- tine, but hundreds who came from Russia and Rumania, so thoroughly that they could enter— or etal terms with the European , of the great universities of Austria, Germany, and France. But it is wot only in things material and intellectual that the Zionists undertook to develop civilization in Palestine. They sought otherwise to carry forward the work of the Jewish spirit. Car- lyle has said: ‘‘ Two men he honors and no third. The toilworn craftsman who conquers the earth ; and him who is seen striving for the spiritually indispensable.” Had Carlyle lived he would have sent greetings to those Jewish settlers of Palestine ; for they have both tilled the soil and have sought to estab- lish the principles of democracy and social justice for which we of America are now striving. In their self-governing colonies, over forty in number, ranging in population from a few families to some two thousand, 5 January they have pure democracy, and, since those self-governing colonies were establishing a true democracy, they gave women equal rights with men, without so much as a doubt on the part of any settler. And women contributed, like the men, not only in the toil of that which is narrowly called the home, but in the solu- tion of broader difficult problems. One of these problems was law and order. For the Jewish settlers in Palestine had in some respects problems similar to those of our own early settlers—the Bedouins taking the place of the Indians. Their farms and settlements needed protection. The Turkish Government does not, among its functions, assume that of policing. The Jews therefore hired Arabs to guard their colonies, and mounted Arabs protected their land. But after a number of years a woman—one of the women voters— said: ‘*‘ We must protect ourselves. We must establish our own mounted police.” And the Jewish young men, largely sons of the orig- inal immigrants, responded ; and out of the suggestion of a woman came the great Pales- tine institution, a Guild of Honor among the Jewish youth of the land. HOW THEY COPED WITH UNEMPLOYMENT The Jews carried out otherwise principles of democracy. Among the problems which they undertook to solve is one with which we have been particularly concerned this last year—the problem of unemployment. The prosperity of the Palestine colonies had de- pended largely upon its export trade. The orange crop, grapes, the olives, the almonds, are the crops from which money had been brought into Palestine. Even wheat has been exported in considerable quantities, and sold principally to Italy, because it is well suited to the manufacture of macaroni. When the war came, their trade practically ceased, because the export markets were closed to them. It ceased wholly later be- cause, when Turkey entered the war, it pro- hibited all exports. This stoppage of trade naturally brought on unemployment. The industries dependent on the export business closeddown. Moreover, there had been almost a boom in building in Palestine just before the war, because the immigration had increased largely, the last year before the war being the most prosperous the colonies had ever had. But when the war began the Zionists found themselves confronted with this situation : Builders, planters, and manufacturers, em- ploying comparatively large numbers of Jew- cs =O. © th em me em da
Page 39
Ay lly re 2e- rO- ide ‘he ess ost the sed the ind on: em- 1916 ZIONISM 39 ish workmen, were forced to close or curtail operations and the workmen were thrown out of employment. The Zionists recognized that the burdens consequent on this common dis- aster ought not to fall on that part of the Jewish population alone, but should be borne by the entire Jewish people. They undertook to find employment for those who had lost their jobs. In part they did this by going on courageously with public works, with road- building and drainage work, with the construc- tion of a public hospital, and similar under- takings. That helped some. They suggested that the farmers look ahead and do upon their farms work that would add ultimately to the value of these farms. ‘That took care of a large part of the workmen in the country dis- tricts. But there were many unemployed Jewish workmen in the cities, which had been growing incident to the growth of the colo- nies. What could be done there? ‘The Zion- ists studied the problem, and found that the reason many of the industries closed down was not that the owners wished to do so, but that they were unable to get the money to continue to carry on their business. ‘They therefore undertook to the extent of their available funds to lend money to those indus- tries which were relatively large employers of labor, to the end that those for whom they held themselves responsible should not be put in the position of takers of charity. To this end those who had steady jobs suffered their salaries to be cut one-fourth, one-third, and in some cases even more, and those who had not steady jobs were enabled to work at least part of the time under a fair distribution of that work which it was possible to provide for them. ‘Thus did this people, struggling against the nardships of the war, without the ability to call upon a government to aid them, dependent largely only upon themselves for help, undertake to do what social justice de- mands. And what they did in this emergency they have long been doing, or attempting to do, through their institutions in various fields of public activity. Notable among the Zionist institutions is the Jewish National Fund, formed to pur- chase land as the inalienable property of the Jewish people in Palestine. A large part of the settlers own individual property, but the Zionist organization determined that the land it acquired should be the property of -the Jewish people, remaining national domain and leased to the settlers at a rent which would not allow of unearned increment. That Jewish National Fund, besides being used for acquiring land, has been devoted to afforestation and to securing proper housing conditions for Jewish working people. Funds have thus been lent for the purpose of erect- ing proper workingmen’s dwellings in the colonies and cities. JEWS PAWN THEIR COATS TO HELP THE MOVEMENT This Jewish National Fund, used thus for the Jewish people, is, in the most exact sense, a fund of the people. Hundreds of thou- sands of persons have contributed to that fund. ‘They have contributed also to an- other fund-——the Jewish Colonial Trust, of which the Anglo-Palestine Company is the leading bank of Palestine. ‘lo purchase the shares of that bank hundreds of thousands of people have contributed. I have been told that in Russia and Galicia, where for centuries poverty has been so deep, there are people who pawned their coats to raise money to buy a share in the Jewish Colonial Trust, in order to help carry out the national ideal. The bank, founded on strictly business princi- ples, is managed also on strictly humanitarian and social principles. Through that bank the Jewish colonists have been aided in many ways. It has enabled them to establish co- operative societies dealing with almost every activity of Jewish life. It has enabled com- munities to avoid the heavy burdens of tax farming. It has enabled villages to establish a system of irrigation and water supply. And, while thus serving the public welfare, it became the leading bank of deposits and financial institution of Palestine. In other fields likewise Zionists have under- taken functions which governments should assume, but generally do not. Among their institutions is the Palestine Office, so called, an exalted information bureau and _intelli- gence office for the prospective settler, which helps to place him in his new home with the minimum of self-sacrifice and suffering on his part, and which acts in many ways as friend and adviser of the Jewish inhabitants in the land of their fathers. In the glorious times of the past only a small fraction of the Jews actually lived in Palestine, and it is’ expected that only a small fraction of them will live there even after the longed-for “‘ home ”’ shall have been re-established. But from Palestine came then the spirit which inspired the Jews throughout the Mediterranean countries in
Page 40
40 : THE OUTLOOK Asia Minor, along the Black Sea, in the Euphrates Valley, scattered all over the then known world as they are scattered over the world now. And we may hope that the spirit of that land will touch us here as it did the scattered Jews of old and inspire us with the spirit of nobleness which is in these settlers. I was talking not long ago with one of the men who went as a pioneer to Palestine. He referred in discussion to another Palestinian, and, as a word of severest censure, he said : 5 January “Yes, he is a Zionist, but he thinks of his own interests first. That is all right in other countries, but in Palestine it is all wrong.”’ And as he spoke he made me think of the words which Mazzini. uttered when entering Rome in 1849: “In Rome we may not be moral mediocrities.” That is the feeling of the Palestinian Pilgrim Fathers. That should be the feeling of their brethren throughout the world when they think of their great in- heritance, of their glorious past—the mirror of the future. II—WHY AMERICAN JEWS CONSIDER ZIONISM UNDESIRABLE BY DR. SAMUEL SCHULMAN RABBI OF TEMPLE BETH-EL, NEW YORK CITY df IONISM is officially defined as a movement to procure a publicly and legally assured home for the Jewtsh people in Palestine. This is the body, the practical activity. The soul that animates it is Nationalism—the claim that all the Jews to-day make a homeless nation, that their individuality cannot be perpetuated without a national center, and that wherever the Jews are they must cultivate a national conscious- ness. We object to this because, logically carried out, it is destructive to Judaism as a religion. We are also opposed to it because we do not desire the creation of a new nationality within the American people. America is a democracy that deals directly with the individual, irre- spective of his racial descent or religious pro- fession. America is not organized on the basis of race, but on great moral ideas. Therefore American nationality has no room within itself for the cultivation of an alien na- tional consciousness on the part of any group. To understand this question we must envisage it as a philosophy of life for all Jews. Those who oppose Zionism or Nationalism lack not sympathy with the oppressed co- religionists in other lands. They refuse not to contribute to the amelioration of their con- dition. They have not even refused to contrib- ute to the work on behalf of some Jews who have gone from lands of oppression to Pales- tine. But Zionism, by its definition, seeks to commit all Israel to the doctrine that it is a nation, that its only real home is in Palestine. Nationalism says, Jews are a nation like others, and are not to be regarded merely as a re ligious community, willing to enter the life of the countries in which they dwell, provided freedom and civil rights be given them. This neo-Nationalism grants the European anti-Semite’s contention that the Jews are, and must always remain, an alien and foreign element in the national body politic of the countries of their birth or adoption. It is a perversion of the spirit of Jewish history. Even in ancient classic times Israel was never a nation in the sense of a modern nation to-day. It never existed for itself. Israel always existed for God. Writers have described the ancient Jewish polity as a the- ocracy. In the course of the development of Israel’s thought the religious idea grew ever more dominating, until at last Israel was transformed and outgrew every trace of nationality and became that which it is at last designated in rabbinical literature, a ‘Keneseth Yisrael’”—a Congregation of Israel. And when history put an end to the Jewish center in Palestine this Congregation of Israel was fully equipped to live the life of the synagogue, a witness unto God among the nations. Thus it has lived for the last two thousand years. The fourteen million Jews in the world to-day, despite geographical distribution, de- spite differences of nationality and subjection to various rulers, despite differences in lan- guage, culture, customs—aye, even physical appearance—are united by that only which the child learns as soon as it learns to speak, the words: “ Hear, O Israel, the Lord vic iou nol tiv as anc self ma wit! not He ting ope The The mak It is For relig this Jewi ism Euro And cratic of th
Page 41
1916 our God, the Lord is One ’’—by religion. Into this religious body a Jew, it is true, is born, because Israel’s religion is one of family tradition. And the most indifferent Jew is numbered, potentially, a Jew. Only if he adopts another church for himself does he cease to be a Jew, according to Jewish canon law, and loses the rights and privi- leges of a Jew. But, conversely, any non- Jew who, in good faith, desires to accept the Jewish religion is admitted to the household of Israel with all the rights and privileges of a Jew, including the right to marry one of Jewish faith. This has been the law for two thousand years. Before Christianity arose many Romans and Greeks joined the Jewish household. Later the Church at times had to forbid by councils a conversion of Chris- tians to the Jewish religion, which shows that there were those in Christendom who were attracted by Judaism. ‘To-day Judaism ac- cepts those who wish to adopt it. There- fore, as a matter of history, it is an estab- lished fact that the Jews form a religious body to-day and nothing else. Judaism is a religion to be classed with Catholicism and Protestantism, and is not the expression of a national aspiration. Zionism or Nationalism wishes to undo this whole history. It says that the Jews area nation and not a religious community. Indi- vidual Zionists or Nationalists may be relig- ious, but the movement itself is essentially non-religious, and in some of its representa- tives irreligious. It seeks to dethrone God as the central idea in Jewish consciousness and to put in his place the idol of Jewish self-sufficiency. It is very significant. that many leaders of Zionism have no affiliation with the synagogue. Jewish religion does not appeal to them. Many of the neo- Hebrew writers speak of a Hebraism as dis- tinguished from Judaism. Some of them openly deplore our whole past development. They regard the Thorah as a misfortune. They spurn religious values. They would make the Jews a nation like other nations. It is entirely a new and secular movement. For the first time in Jewish experience the religious idea is eliminated entirely. As such, this movement proves itself to be a thing un- Jewish. It is only an adoption of the racial- ism and nationalism that have dominated European thought for the last forty years. And that itself is a reaction against the demo- cratic, humanitarian, and cosmopolitan ideals of the first half of the nineteenth century. ZIONISM 41 Such a Nationalism every Jew who knows wherein the Jewish soul consists must reject. Such a Nationalism belies the claims of Jews in Western lands for the last one hundred years. The Jews have claimed and have ob- tained recognition as members of the national life of many countries. They feel themselves to be whole-souled Germans, Frenchmen, Englishmen, as the case may be, while they are Jews in religion. And they are proving their nationality by their readiness to lay down their lives in the present terrible war. From the point of view of America, Zion- ism or Nationalism as an ideal for the Jew is undesirable. Till now there has been no hyphen between Judaism and Americanism. In matters of nationality we felt ourselves to be completely Americans. In matters of religion we were completely Jews. This new movement does not appeal to the Jew on grounds of Jewish faith, on grounds of Jew- ish religious ideals to be translated into life, but exclusively on grounds of race and nationality. \ And it deliberately says that we should foster as a group Jewish national feeling. To accept it would make us a hyphenated group within the American peo- ple. The practical evil of this movement is a twofold one. It will retard the Americani- zation of the immigrant. ‘The natural atti- tude of the immigrant before Zionism arose was to adapt himself as quickly as possible to the new environment. He preserved his religion, his Judaism. He felt immediately his Americanism. No immigrants become so quickly American in spirit as immigrants of the Jewish faith. ‘To-day Zionism artificially arrests this process of adaptation by waving before the immigrant the blue and white flag of Zionisin, by telling him that he belongs to another nation, that he has a flag besides the American flag which shelters and protects him. Furthermore, if Jews are not to find in religion the specific difference which alone spiritually distinguishes them from other ele- ments in American life, and yet, as the Zion- istic leader in this country asks of us, we are to maintain a vivid group-consciousness, then Jewry in this country will become a political entity, based on the shadowy remains of a great religious community and upon a racialism deliberately emphasized, fostered, and intensified. This is certainly an unde- sirable thing in American life. To sum up, we oppose Nationalism as a philosophy of the Jew in the world because we believe that Judaism is a religion and not
Page 42
42 THE OUTLOOK the expression of a national life. As a re- ligion Jews can profess it everywhere, and at the same time share in and contribute to national culture everywhere. We oppose temporary institutional religions. But it is and should be a spiritual and not a racial or political religion. Dr. Schulman makes this plain in a very clear and simple statement : If he [the Jew] adopts another church for himself, he ceases to be a Jew according to canon law, and loses the rights and privileges of a Jew. But, conversely, any non-Jew who in good faith desires to accept the Jewish religion is admitted to the household of Israel with all J UDAISM is probably the oldest of con- THE TRUE “ HAT is the real cause of the muddle at Sing Sing?” a re- porter expectantly inquired of Warden Thomas Mott Osborne during a period last fall when a composite of the verbal pictures in the New York newspapers repre- sented some of the inmates of the institution fighting with knives and bludgeons in the workshops, while others strolled the streets of Ossining ogling the women of the village, and officials of the Prison Department of the State wrangled with those of the prison over orders issued by the Superintendent of Prisons, Gov- ernor Whitman meantime trying to make up his mind whether to remove the Warden or the Superintendent. “You are laboring under a misapprehen- sion,” said the Warden to the reporter. “There is no muddle at Sing Sing; the muddle is in the newspaper offices.” As a matter of fact, ever since Warden Osborne took charge of Sing Sing, on Decem- ber 1, 1914, his theories of prison govern- 1 This article was written before the indictment which Mr. Osborne and his friends believe to be the culmination of the political conspiracy against him. We discuss this indictment on another page.—THE EDITORs. 5 January Zionism as Americans, because, while we belong to the “ Keneseth Yisrael,”’ we are whole-souledly, and with no divided allegiance, members of the American Nation. III—THE OUTLOOK’S OPINION the rights and privileges of a Jew, including the right to marry one of Jewish faith. This has been the law for two thousand years. Accepting this as an accurate historical statement, we are in entire sympathy with Dr. Schulman’s opposition to Zionism. For we see no more reason why a political organism or nation should be based on Judaism than on Mohammedanism, Russo- Grecian Catholicism, Presbyterianism, Epis- copalianism, or Congregationalism.—THE EDITORS. SING SING' ONE YEAR’S RECORD UNDER WARDEN OSBORNE BY FRANK MARSHALL WHITE ment have been proving themselves with cumulative force; there has been uninter- rupted progress along the lines that make for moral, mental, and material betterment of the men under his charge, and economic conditions have never been more satisfactory. These facts are attested, not only by penologists of the highest scientific standing, and in the persons of many of the men themselves, but by actual figures to be understood where public opinion begins—with the men in the street. Incidentally the Governor has not once had the Warden’s removal under consideration. What are the outward indications of efficiency in prison management ? (This article is not ad- dressed to that decreasing number interested in the proper study of mankind who believe in punishment by retribution.) First, the ex- tent of moral rehabilitation among the prison- ers. After that discipline may be considered, as shown in the relations of the men with one another and with the prison officials and the state of the prison industries. The frequency of escapes and attempts to escape and the comparative number of men who become insane and are removed to hospitals also to a | ( I s I t E h h
Page 43
EAN Rn 1916 THE TRUE SING SING certain extent reflect efficiency or its lack in prison government. The degree of comfort enjoyed by the prisoners as regards food, clothing, and sleeping accommodations is also to be taken into consideration. Unfortu- nately, the antiquated cell block renders com- fort at night out of the question to all save a very few of the inmates of Sing Sing. Measured by any of these tests, Warden Osborne’s administration of Sing Sing has been far and away the most successful in all the history of the prison, if not the most suc- cessful administration in all prison history. It is as yet impossible to compile statistics relative to the comparative number of men sent from Sing Sing during the last year who have been made into permanently useful mem- bers of society, for it is too soon to count possible backsliders. Indications thus far, however, warrant the belief that results in re- habilitated manhood will be the most amazing feature of the new régime. Evidence on this point is coming to Mr. Osborne in letters by the hundreds from former prisoners and their relatives and friends, as well as from other sources. One of these letters, which came unsigned and was dated only ‘“‘ New York, November 4, 1915,”’ was read by Mr. Osborne at a mass-meeting called to uphold his conduct of Sing Sing at Cooper Union ‘ last month, at the time the Westchester poli- ticians were attempting to discredit it by charging members of the Mutual Welfare League, the self-governing © arganization within the prison, with felonies. The letter ran thus : My dear Mr. Osborne: I have watched with a great deal of interest your reform work, and now why shouldn’t I think you are sent from God when I tell you that you have made two good men in your prison who belong to me? My own son and stepson have not lived a guod life. They have been in prison more than once, and every time they came out they came out thinking they would get even with the warden and everybody in general. And how could it be different in the old dreadful way of keeping prisoners locked up with nothing to think about but their sins and what they would do to get a living—anything but good thoughts. You have taught them to think right, and to know that God is no respecter of persons, and that he came to save those who thought they were lost. Keep on, Mr. Osborne, and teach your men and women under you to think right, and they will do right. You are teaching them more love for all. I think that you are a good, brave man, and no reform ever came without hard blows, 43 criticising, and misunderstanding. No one was ever made better by ruling them with an iron rule, and these poor unfortunate people—lots of them—would do better if they knew how. I know that my boys love you and are working and living an honest, straight life and bringing me money instead of spending it for drink and badness. If there were more unselfish men, the world would be better. I had an education once. I am worn out and nervous now over my boys and knowing that I did not do right by them—I didn’t know how—but my boys through your teaching are helping me. God bless you. We are a happy family. Said the Warden of Sing Sing jubiliantly to his audience, on concluding the reading of this unsought communication : “ Why should I care about the petty nagging of a West- chester County district attorney and grand jury, when I am getting letters like that ?” Not only as a personal gratification to Warden Osborne is that letter valuable. In itself it more than offsets all the hostile critj- cism of the new methods at Sing Sing that have been written since those methods were inaugurated. In almost any respectable district attorney’s office they would have told you solemnly, and believed it, that these two men, who had been in prison “ more than once ’’—which interpreted with the context means many times—were irreclaimable ; the old-time penologists would have written them down as hopeless recidivists. The fact that this son and stepson, after long careers of evil, have under kindly influences chosen the good, redemonstrates the proposition that an incorrigible criminal is the product of a brutal punitive system alone. Another Sing Sing prisoner who concluded his term during the Osborne uimunistration would have afforded induwitable proof to the old school of penelogy of an inherent criminal taint. Here was a man twenty-six years of age who had spent more than fifteen of those years off and on in institutions and prisons, be- ginning with a truant school, which he left to enter an asylum for juvenile delinquents. Liberated at the age of fifteen, he was soon committed to the House of Refuge until he should reach his majority. Before he was twenty-two he had been sentenced to the Elmira Reformatory, and, being duly gradu- ated thence, had immediately qualified for Sing Sing. According to the accepted rules of the average prosecutor of criminals and the old penologists, this man should have con- tinued on the road to the devil with acceler-
Page 44
44 : THE OUTLOOK ated speed on leaving prison last fall. He then had not seen a member of his family for more than ten years, and he told Mr. Osborne that he was quite sure that it would be useless for him to appeal to his father for assistance in making an honest living, since that parent had read him out of his life ten years before. The Warden advised the young man to attempt a reconciliation with his family, but gave him an address where he might find work in the event that his father was obdurate. The odds in a district attorney’s office that this particular ex-convict would be back in a prison within a year would have been about one hundred toone. Here isa letter to “Tom Brown ’’—as Mr. Osborne is affection- ately known,to the members of the Mutual Welfare League by reason of his having as- sumed that name when he served his self- imposed term in Auburn Prison— which the presumbly hardened criminal wrote a few weeks ago: Dear Friend Tom Brown: Say, Old Timer, I didn’t go to the party you sent me to up in Bronxville after all. I went down first to my people, and they gave me a chance. A chance, Tom! At present I am working with my father and getting seven dol- lars a week. That’s better than nine cents a week. I promised you I will make good, and I am going to show my friends I left behind that I wz// make good. Also I am still an hon- orable member of the good old Mutual Welfare League. There is nothing sweeter in this world than freedom. Now I don’t fear the law any more, because I’m straight. It will take the whole Police Headquarters and all the trains on the New York Central to bring me back to prison again. How is the League run- ning? How is Fat , that bum who is buck- ing the League? If I had my way, I would send him to the Million-Dol!xr House. Good- ‘oy. Long live Tom Brex lucida- tion. ‘* Old Timer” is a complimentary apostrophe to Mr. Osborne, in view of his having served a term in prison; ‘ better than nine cents a week ”’ refers to the benevo- lent practice of the State in paying one and a half cents per working day to the denizens of her State prisons; the “ Million-Dollar House ” is the insane asylum at Dannemora, so called by reason of the fact that the delu- sion of great wealth is common among its inmates.) Try and put yourself in the place of a man who had been working for nine cents a week so long that he considers decent wages (This letter may require a t."fle . 5 January “* graft,’’ as does the author of this note to the Warden of Sing Sing : Dear Mr. Osborne: I wrote to you a few days ago that your letter of recommendation enabled me to get a job from Mr. ——. Now I am going to tell you how I feel after squaring it for three weeks. It’s great! It’s the greatest graft in the world; there’s nothing can beat it, or even compare with it, and I’m getting to like it better and better every day. I’m satisfied with the job, the pay, and with everybody—even myself. Now that’s saying a whole lot, for I never was satisfied with myself before. I hear you are going to speak at Madison Square Garden next Sunday. You may be sure that I will be there early, and I'll have my Bella there to root for you. I hope some day to grasp you by the hand and tell you how much I owe to you for my happiness. An extract from another typical letter to Mr. Osborne is as follows: Mr. Osborne, I will always remember you, and for your sake, so help me God, more than anybody else’s, I will prove myself worthy of the trust you had in me while I was an inmate and your kindness toward an unfortunate devil even after I left your jurisdiction. I can only say that my prayers, whenever I do pray, will include you, for I will always think of you. Now, sir, I am working at the as a laborer, and, only that I am afraid of vour disapproval, I would have given it up the first day because the work is awfully hard and dirty. Trusting that everything is as you are expecting it to be with regard to your charges at Sing Sing and hoping that the desires of your heart are being fulfilled, I will now close with my everlasting hope that God will help you in your humani- tarian endeavors. In considering Mr. Osborne’s work as a character-builder in the prisons, the inmates who have come under his influence in Auburn should be included with those of Sing Sing. The most widely known of them all is Canada Blackie, who died in the Warden’s house at Sing Sing last March, just after being par- doned, and sketches of whose life have been written by Anne P. L. Field and Donald Lowrie. Canada Blackie’s usefulness did not end when he became too feeble to leave his bed. It so happened that the warden of a reformatory in Connecticut had been a keeper in Joliet Prison in Illinois while Canada Blackie was serving a term there, and had more than once assisted in hopeless efforts to force him to conform to discipline. In Feb- ruary the directors of the reformatory de- cided to introduce the honor system, but the
Page 45
1916 THE TRUE warden, a veteran of forty-three years’ expe- rince in penal institutions, who held the new penology in contempt, would have none of it. He was lured to Sing Sing on a pretense by one of the directors, whose real purpose was to put him in touch with Canada Blackie. An hour’s talk with the man he had known before as a terror of the prisons, the despair of wardens and keepers, sent the warden of the Connecticut reformatory home a convert to the honor system—which has been intro- duced in his institution. Frequent and often protracted conversa-’’ tions with inmates of Auburn and Sing Sing give the writer the impression that the lead- ers of the Mutual Welfare League possess a higher spiritual sense than exists generally among men outside of prison. Otherwise these prisoners are the most consummate lot of actors ever brought together, for not other- wise could they continuously produce the effect of a sincerity they do not feel. The trend of thought among these leaders seems to be entirely altruistic. Who shall deny true nobility of soul to Jack Murphy, serving a long sentence for homicide, who conceived the idea of the Mutual Welfare League that has been developed by his “partner”? of a week in Auburn, “Tom Brown’? Mr. Osborne has more than once suggested an application for a pardon to his friend, who almost lost his temper the last time the sub- ject was broached. “Don’t ever talk to me about a pardon again,” said Murphy. ‘ Don’t you see that if I were to be pardoned the boys couldn’t help suspecting that I have been working you for that all along, and that my interest in their welfare was only a pretense in order that I might ingratiate myself with you? And don’t you see that every other man who has been active in the League would think that he ought to have a pardon too, and that that would mean a selfish motive underlying all the work? No, Mr. Osborne, my place is right here in Auburn, where I can influence the men already here, who know me person- ally, and those to come, who know me by reputation, and show them that it doesn’t pay to be a crook in or out of prison.” One of the leaders of the League in Sing Sing is a long-sentence man about thirty years of age who previous to his acquaintance with Mr. Osborne had planned a career for himself. It was to escape from prison at any cost, including the taking of human life if necessary ; to go to New York to get his 45 little daughter, whose mother was dead, and take her to friends in the Middle West; then to return to New York and kill two men whose treachery had brought about his con- viction of the crime for which he was serving his sentence—and commit suicide. To-day he is one of the most potent influences for good in the prison, and Mr. Osborne predicts that he will be a more than ordinarily useful member of society when he goes forth into the world. One of the officers of the League at Auburn, a man of reputation in the under- world serving a long sentence, told me that it had been the practice of the more influen- tial crooks like himself in the prison to give letters of introduction to promising young convicts who had served their terms, making them acquainted with other influential crooks outside, with a view to helping them on in criminal careers. “Since the organization of the League,” said this man, ‘“‘ not an inmate of Auburn has even asked for such a letter. I am sending a letter to-day, however, to a man who was once a high-class crook, and who served a term here, asking him to get a job for a young fellow who is leaving here soon and who wants to go straight. The man I am sending the letter to refused to join the League when it was first organized, for the reason that he would not give his word to lead an honest life on leaving prison unless he intended to keep it. He finally did join the League. When he finished his term here, he was met at the railway station on his release by his old gang, who had $3,500 with them and were going West on a professional tour. They thought that he would, of course, be only too glad to go with them. However, he told them that he was through with crooked business, and he is now working cH barely living wages in Troy.” The. > is material for pages of stories of this nature among the inmates of Auburn and Sing Sing. The moral rehabilitation of a prison’s in- mates, the transformation of men who prey upon society into useful members of society, the changing of human liabilities into human assets, being the chief end of the new penol- ogy, what Mr. Osborne has accomplished in Sing Sing during the period of his warden- ship would be an invaluable service even if it had been effected at an expense to the State. In reality, the new Warden has brought about these results with economic gain to the State. When, on that day mo- SING SING
Page 46
46 THE OUTLOOK mentous in prison annals, the first Sunday in December, 1914, Mr. Osborne revolutionized Sing Sing’s system of government and gave the men privileges hitherto unheard of in penal institutions, he warned them that they held ‘their fate largely in their own hands. ‘What the average man outside of prison will have in mind when the time comes to consider whether our experiment is a suc- cess,’”’ he said, in effect, *‘ will not be whether you have been benefited, but whether he has. Therefore the best argument I can advance to the Legislature when I ask for a new prison and additional privileges for you will be that under the new system you have done more and better work. Let me impress upon every one of you that the work you accomplish will be the measure of the suc- cess of our experiment in the public mind.” That the men realized that the Warden spoke the truth is indicated by a comparison of the statement of the prison’s industries for the fiscal year of 1913-14, under the old conditions, with that of 1914-15, under the new. The gross sales of the products of Sing Sing in 1913-14 amounted to $318,733.59, and in 1914-15 to $354,327.89, showing an increase under the Osborne régime of $35,594.30, or about eleven per cent. The value of the goods manufactured at Sing Sing in 1913-14 was $282,093.83, and in 1914-15 $342,816.39, showing an_ in- crease under the Osborne régime of $60,722.56, or about twenty-one per cent. The profit from Sing Sing industries in 1913- 14 was $40,833.69, and in 1914-15 $82,084.21, showing an increase under the Osborne régime of about one hundred per cent. The percentage of profit on the pro- duction of 1913-14 was fourteen per cent; ander tuc Osborne régime in 1914-15 it was twenty-four per cem. ‘““he per capita cost of officers’ salaries at Sing Sine for the last fiscal year was far less than ai any of the other three State prisons. At Great Meadow, with an average daily population of 712, the per capita cost of officers’ salaries was $94.14; at Clinton, with an average daily population of 1,447, it was $88.35; and at Auburn, with an average daily population of 1,429, it was $88.53. At Sing Sing, with an average daily population of 1,616, the per capita cost of officers’ salaries was only $80.85. One of the most striking results of the operation of the machinery of the Mutual Welfare League in Sing Sing has been its 5 January beneficial effect upon prison discipline. In previous years fights among prisoners and attacks by prisoners upon their keepers were ‘of so frequent occurrence that no record was kept of them, save in the event that a wound was severe enough to be treated in the hos- pital. Measuring the prevalence of fighting by the number of wounds treated by the prison physicians, the discipline under Warden Osborne has been better by sixty-four per cent than during the two fiscal years previous to his administration, which in their turn were the best two years in this respect in the his- tory of Sing Sing. During 1912-13, with an average of 1,442 inmates, there were 383 wounds treated, and in 1913-14, with an average of 1,466 inmates, 363 wounds—an average for the entire period of 1,454 inmates and 373 wounds. During the fiscal year 1914-15. under the Osborne régime, the number of inmates of Sing Sing averaged 1,616, and to keep pace with the two previous years the number of wounds should have been 414. The actual number was 155! This comparison is scarcely fair to the Osborne administration either, for under the old sys- tem the men often concealed their injuries rather than be punished for fighting, which the surveillance of the Mutual Welfare League renders impossible under the new régime. Previous to the existence of the League many of the wounds received by prisoners were the result of assaults upon the keepers. During the Osborne régime there has been but one assault by a prisoner upon a keeper, and in this instance the keeper refused to make a complaint because he believed the prisoner to have been deranged. The general betterment of conditions at Sing Sing under Mr. Osborne’s rule, as indi- cated by the comparative number of men driven insane by prison environment during the last four years, is also remarkable. In 1912, with a prison population of 1,488, it was necessary to transfer 32 yprisoners who had become insane to the Dannemora State Hospital; in 1913, with a prison population of 1,442, 48 men were sent to Dannemora ; and in 1914, with the prison population 1,466, the number of men removed to Dan- nemora was 27. Last year, with the biggest prison population in the history of Sing Sing, it has been necessary to transfer only 19 men to the State Hospital. Whether the escape of a prisoner reflects upon the discipline of a-penal institution is a matter of question, perhaps. It often occurs
Page 47
1916 that, given an unexpected opportunity, an in- mate of a prison will take French leave when it is against all his interests to do so, purely from the innate and abstract love of liberty. There have been three escapes from Sing Sing under the Osborne régime up to the present writing. There were four the year before.. There were ten escapes in 1913, six in 1912, four again in 1911, seventeen in 1910, and nineteen in 1909. In 1908 there were only six. The degree of Warden Osborne’s control over the men in his con- fidence is demonstrated by the fact that on the night of one of the escapes during his admin- istration he sent fifteen prisoners out into the darkness to search for the fugitive, all of whom returned to the prison of their own accord, six of them being away most of the next day. One of the Warden’s most daring experiments tending to prove a sense of honor among the men of the prisons occurred last spring. When the delegates of the Mutual Welfare League had held an election in the prison court-room, the count was not finished until after one o’clock in the morning. ‘The Warden then invited the fifty-four delegates into his house, sent for his cook and butler, both also convicts, and served sandwiches and coffee. ‘The Warden’s house, which has no bars on windows or doors, is outside the prison walls; there was no guard within a hundred feet of it. The New York Cen- tral Railroad tracks are just under the win- dows on one side, and the public highway on the other. Several of the men went to the door and looked up into the sky, and one of them remarked, plaintively: ‘ Gee, but it’s a fine night!” After their repast the fifty-six prisoners, whose sentences ranged from a few years to life, went quietly to their cells. The most extraordinary feature of this annus mirabilis in prison history is that Mr. Osborne’s reforms have been effected in spite of the most determined opposition on the part of the prison ring. Unscrupulous politicians have spared no effort to impede a movement that, while marking an era in human progress, deprives them of the opportunity to loot. They have fomented discord, not only in Sing Sing itself, but in the prison department of which Sing Sing is a part. Mr. Osborne THE TRUE SING SING 47 has had to fight foes in ambush as well as in the open, in and out of the prison. His own appointees in the service have been corrupted, ahd the vilest means have been employed to discredit him personally. Even the newspa- pers, with scarcely an exception, wittingly or unwittingly, have lent themselves to the em- barrassment of Mr. Osborne in the carrying out of his noble experiment; for while the editorial heads of every publication in the country, with negligible exceptions, have up- held him, the “‘ muddle ”’ he has referred to in the news departments of the dailies has been a constant source of irritation and annoyance. Ever since Mr. Osborne assumed the warden- ship of Sing Sing the newspapers have been publishing baseless rumors of his impending dismissal, although he did not accept the po- sition under Governor Glynn until Governor- elect Whitman, with a full comprehension of his purpose, had promised him a free hand to the end. Knowing how he stood with the Governor, it has not been on his own account that Mr. Osborne has been annoyed by the publication of these rumors, but because of the effect on the mass of the inmates of Sing Sing, who have never been quite sure that the forced retirement of their Warden might not at any time bring them back under an antiquated and brutal prison system. Exaggerated reports of slight disturbances and other unimportant incidents in Sing Sing and undue weight placed upon the utterances of interested and unprincipled enemies of the new system have constituted another dis- service on the part of the newspapers, while some of those of lesser responsibility. have not hesitated to manufacture alleged discred- itable occurrences in the prison out of whole cloth. The battle for the control of.Sine Sing is not yet over, though there is little doubt as to the outcome. Not only is. Warden Osborne himself equipped for the fight, but he is backed by the best elements of the thinking commu- nity. There is a possibility that his enemies, as a last desperate resort, may ask his removal on despicable charges made against him by despicable men. Such a course can only create an overwhelming public sentiment in his favor.
Page 48
BY THE WAY The “ Ladies’ Home Journal,” in descanting on the lapses of young folks as guests, finds that their faults are. honestly come by, in the carelessness of their elders. It quotes a stew- ardess on a sleeping car as saying that “the women who ‘clean up after themselves,’ after their use of the washstand, can be counted daily on the fingers of one hand with ‘three fingers to spare.’” Men also are frequently indifferent to the comfort of those who follow them in the morning’s rejuvenation. “ Let George do it,” whether referring to the patient porter or the successor at the wash-bowl, is unfortunately too often the motto of the travel- ing American, whether man or woman. The steamer Carolyn four years ago ran on the rocks and was abandoned by the insurance men as a “constructive total loss.” A specu- lator bought the wreck for $1,500 and succeeded in floating it and making it seaworthy again. He has now, according to “ Shipping Illustrated,” sold the vessel for $197,000. Such is the result of the unprecedented present demand for ocean freight-carriers. The familiar cry of “Ham and” is no more to be heard in the people’s restaurants, if a plan described in “ Popular Mechanics” as being tried in Plainfield, New Jersey, receives general approval. Each guest has a telephone at his table and sends his order directly to the kitchen. - The items on the menu are numbered to insure accuracy, and the waitresses’ activities are con- fined to serving the food. The plan would seem to have its difficulties. Ifa patron orders, say, “Seven,” meaning “Fried fish,” and the chef hears “ Eleven,” meaning “ Stewed tripe,” there may be trouble when the waitress arrives. A printing plant managed and worked by colored people in Washington, D. C., celebrated its seventeenth anniversary Christmas Day. It had its beginnings in a Christmas gift of a five- dollar owtS+ t> the founder. The concern is notable for the fact that it has always stood for fine workmanship, adopting for its motto the words, “ Printers for the Particular.” The manufacture of automobiles in England for private use has entirely ceased, according to an English periodical, “ Autocar,” all the energies of the car-makers being devoted to the production of munitions of war in one form or another. There is apparently still a large mar- ket for private cars, however, for “ Autocar ” carries eighty pages of advertising addressed to car owners or buyers, many of the announce- ments being from American firms. Among the twenty-six pages of small-type “classified” advertising in “Autocar” are many cards from owners who wish to dispose of their cars “owing to the war;” but the cars 48 are by no means, as a general thing, offered a “ sacrifice ” prices ; at least two of these second hand cars are priced by the advertisers a £1,185 and £1,250 ($5,925 and $6,250)! Even Christian Science readers will probabl; relish this joke from “ Life:” “ Christia: Science father (taking his boy across his knee): ‘ Now, Willie dear, remember that this doesn’t hurt me any more than it doesn’t hurt you.’ ” Bagdad, which at present seems likely to remain in the hands of its Oriental masters, is interestingly described in “ Travel” for January One of the most picturesque of its older build- ings is the chief mosque—with “a graceful! Persian dome, rich blue in color, and beside it a beautifully patterned minaret. . . . No infidel may penetrate the sacred precincts.” The singular color of the mosque is said to have a most effective background in “the general khaki color of the city.” Mrs. Edward Payson Terhune, known to readers all over the country as “ Marion Har- land,” recently celebrated her eighty-fifth birth- day. “I’ve worked hard all my life,” she said in answer to a question as to how she had kept so young, “but I loved the work; that was the secret. Every woman should have some work she loves, to keep her in touch with things.” “I see before me people sitting in fatness, people who want for nothing.” This was part of one speaker's appeal at Carnegie Hall, New York, for money to help Jewish war victims. The first response, says a newspaper report, came from one who could not be so described. “ A little woman in a faded hat walked to the speaker’s feet, laid down a dollar bill, and fled.” This was followed by contributions amounting in all to $700,000. The greatest applause was aroused by a man who gave $3.50, half his week’s salary. Another man gave $25,000; he was matched at the other end of the scale by a man who contributed a nickel, his car-fare home —all he had. An ingenious maker of riddles has worked out an alleged Biblical criticism of the Kaiser. The word Kaiser has six letters. Begin with the letter K ; it is the eleventh in the alphabet; put the 11 before 6116; so with the other letters; thus, KAISER: ig 96 196 56 186 666 Then read the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, which prophesies concerning the allegorical character bearing the number 666. legiti seizir gaine warf; Gern realiz the n We mark attac What eratic body subm in thi